Willi Oberbeck, a fund selector at DZ PRIVATBANK, tells why he already started using alternative Ucits funds more than six years ago, long before demand for absolute returns started to really heat up.
ESG funds are fast becoming a staple that caters for the appetite of Northern European investors. But in the centre of Europe’s automotive industry, Bavaria, investors are not quite as bothered with sustainability.
Here you can see a selection of photos taken at Expert Investor Deutschland in Munich on 25th October 2016.
Six in 10 institutional investors in the northern half of Europe believe they will fail to generate their target return over the next three years, according to a poll by Union Investment. Unlike their peers elsewhere, German investors put the blame squarely on the low-yield environment.
Even though they continue to have issues with absolute return funds, fund selectors in Munich feel forced to move back into the asset class.
A tradition which has its origins in the time of the medieval Hanseatic League still forms the basis of the investment strategy of investors in the north German city of Hamburg, argues Johannes Sahmland-Bowling.
Nowhere in Europe are US equities as popular as in Germany. More than half of local fund buyers plan to increase their allocation in the next 12 months. But it would be a terrible idea to do so, fund managers speaking at Expert Investor Deutschland warned.
Here you can see a selection of photos taken at Expert Investor Germany, held in Frankfurt on 28 April 2016.
Germans are known for their rather conservative attitude to investing. In defiance of this stereotype, the country’s fund buyers are now more bullish than the average European investor on all equity asset classes. At the same time, they are unwinding their fixed income positions.
Thomas Romig, formerly head of one of the largest multi-asset businesses in Germany at Union Investment, recently launched a multi-asset fund at his new employer Assenagon AM. Even though his new fund is focused on capital preservation, he included the Legg Mason Clearbridge US Aggressive Growth Fund in his portfolio.
Institutional investors in Germany forego return opportunities because of their short-termist attitudes to investing. That’s the conclusion of an analysis by Union Investment of €22bn worth of investment mandates. The analysis also found that the risk appetite of these (mainly German) investors has grown considerably since 2002.
German gatekeepers concentrate on performance rather than the investment philosophy of a fund to determine whether it is eligible for their white list, according to research by investment consultancy NMG.
