Investissement

Rising interest rates and the demise of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse have led to a paradigm shift in private equity and venture capital. Reji Vettasseri, lead portfolio manager at Swiss private finance group Decalia, believes investors now need to to be innovative with emerging strategies, carefully selecting ‘small cap’ firms to invest in instead of fleeing to the safety of larger ventures.

The traditional private equity world has realised only in the past two years that creating products specifically for wealth and retail channels is going to be a huge area of growth over the next 10 to 15 years. Europe, said Tarun Nagpal, founder of S64 Capital Innovation, will be the “next frontier” in mainstreaming private equity for retail investors.

Tensions in the banking sector increase the likelihood of a recession during the year, according to chief investment officer Guy Wagner at asset manager BLI - Banque de Luxembourg Investments.

Nevertheless, prior to the onset of the banking turmoil, the resilience of the global economy was still in evidence, with service activities continuing to benefit from robust household demand due to continued full employment in most countries, Wagner and his team said in their latest monthly market report.

Although there’s consensus on clouds hanging over private real estate markets while some investors here still face a rough ride, instability in the market for Real Estate Investment Funds, known as REIFs, - unlike the European Central Bank - is not seen as an immediate systemic threat to the real economy, according real estate specialists in Luxembourg and London.

Downgraded green credentials for hundreds of investment funds and an increasingly polarised political US debate on ESG investments are shaping the current industry debate on sustainable finance. Joachim Nahem, sustainability expert and chief executive at Oslo-based Position Green, notes the emergence of a new concept that has taken over from greenwashing: green hushing. 

This week, the European Central Bank published its ‘Monetary developments in the euro area’ report. And with that, we finally got information on bank deposits in the euro area.

European deposits look a lot better on an aggregate level than in America. Unlike in the United States, where bank deposits are down 3 per cent from a year ago, Eurozone deposits are still growing. That means the risks of traditional bank runs are lower here.

The global market for Exchange Traded Funds, better known as ETFs, is projected to more than triple in the next ten years to reach 30 trillion dollars, says Brown Brothers Harriman in a new study it releases today. Developments in this market are closely watched in Luxembourg, Europe’s second-biggest hub for ETFs. ETFs are increasingly finding their way into institutional portfolios, concludes BBH in its annual survey of 325 institutional investors, financial advisors and fund managers from the US, Europe and China.

Europe’s fund and asset management organisation Efama, active in the development of the updated European long-term investment fund, expressed  strong optimism this week about the updated vehicle’s interest to both professional and retail investors and its ability to fulfill its Capital Market Union aspirations. Despite early questioning of its ability to provide sufficient liquidity to attract retail investors, Efama’s expert detailed how the legislation provides several tools that afford liquidity solutions.

European private equity investors have become more cautious during recent weeks following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse. Appetite for alternative investments however remains strong while some investors embrace the ‘dislocation’ in the market as an opportunity. “If you’re selective, you can even do better than expected.”

Panic over banks and falling treasury yields have gold prices flirting with an all-time high again. In the short term, a quicker turn by the Federal Reserve may be the deciding factor, but the precious metal’s real success lies deeper. “Gold deserves a structural role in the portfolio.”

Gold prices briefly climbed past the 2,006 dollar per troy ounce level last week. With that, the August 2020 all-time high of 2,075 per troy ounce is getting closer.