AMWatch

Nordic investors were early movers in private credit. Now they seek to diversify into more sophisticated asset-based finance and real estate loans, PIMCO president Christian Stracke tells AMWatch. At the start of 2024, the global credit market totaled approximately USD 1.5trn, up from USD 1trn in 2020, according to Morgan Stanley, which also says the market is estimated to grow to USD 2.8bn by 2028. Despite some Nordic investors having allocated up to one-third of their AUM to private market assets, investors are still prepared to allocate to private credit, says Stracke. #pimco #assetmanager #assetmanagement #privatecredit #nordic #credit #privatemarkets #realestateloans #institutionalinvestors #institutionalinvestment #portfoliomanagement #diversification

Investors are looking to pivot away from developed markets and large-caps, Mats Eltoft, head of Nordic business development and client relationships at US asset manager William Blair, tells AMWatch, in the latest article our International Managers Summer Series. “Many of the investors we engage with believe there could be a pivot soon and are actively looking at various ways to diversify their portfolios. This pivot might be driven by high valuations in developed markets and large-cap stocks, prompting investors to diversify into emerging markets and small-cap stocks as the discrepancy widens,” Eltoft says. #assetmanagement #assetmanager #financialmarkets #bankingindustry #investments #stockmarket #emergingmarkets #pensionfunds #Nordic

Finland’s OP has won “multiple mandate victories” in the second quarter, says Hanna Porkka, head of OP Financial Group's wealth management business area. Long-term bond funds were pulling in the biggest new inflows in the quarter. In Q2, OP Group’s total AUM reached EUR 109.32bn, up from EUR 106.9bn at the end of the first quarter. “Obviously, the strong market was one of the three components of our growth, but then we also had positive inflows and our fund range has had quite a good performance recently,” Porkka says. #finland #nordic #assetmanagement #mutualfunds #op #investmentfunds #bonds #equityfunds #institutionainvestor #institutionalinvestments #portfoliomanagement #assetmanager #mandate #wealthmanagement

Nordic asset managers should be grateful for their retail and private banking customers. As risk appetite and fund markets grow, it looks like good business to pay attention to personal customers, AMWatch analyst Flemming Højbo writes. “Though it may look fancier to acquire a new institutional client in London or Toronto, the value of the household customers and private banking clients in the home markets should not be underestimated,” Højbo notes in his latest analysis. #assetmanagement #assetmanager #investments #Nordic #financialmarkets #bankingindustry #privatebanking

Leading European asset manager Amundi has boosted its Nordic team and plans to offer ”some very interesting” alternative strategies, Head of Nordics Tove Bangstad tells AMWatch in the sixth article of our 2024 Summer Series featuring international asset managers. “We are growing in all Nordics countries and the Baltics, and in all business segments,” she says. “Clients are primarily interested in passive investments, both index funds and ETFs, as well as more niche strategies like impact, thematics and alternative investments.” #assetmanagement #assetmanager #wealthmanagement #Nordic #bankingindustry #financialmarkets #investments

Higher returns on bonds than stocks over the next 10 years is not an unrealistic scenario. It could have major implications for the whole finance industry, Frank Hvid Petersen writes in this column for AMWatch. While it may seem strange to discuss this issue at a time of soaring stock prices, it is relevant to raise the question, the columnist argues, as the price we pay for assets relative to the cash flow they can generate – valuation – is the key driver of long term returns. #assetmanagement #assetmanager #financialmarkets #equities #bonds #bankingindustry #investments

Danish asset manager Maj Invest is starting to climb its way back up after being hit particularly hard by the global turmoil of 2022. The active manager's assets under management are finally growing again this year, CEO Jeppe Christiansen tells AMWatch in an interview. “We’re on a clear mission to grow, and we fully believe that the areas that we are in are growth areas. So, in that sense we’re very confident about the future,” Christiansen says. In the interview, he also shares the trends that he sees shaping Maj Invest as an active manager with a deep focus on equities over the past couple of years. #fundmanager #fundmanagement #assetmanager #assetmanagement #Nordics #Denmark

Despite dropping market shares in the Swedish mutual fund market, Handelsbanken saw ”good” inflows to its index and Paris-aligned benchmark funds, says Magdalena Wahlqvist Alveskog, CEO of Handelsbanken Fonder . “Most of it is explained by a reallocation from our discretionary management within the fund company which has created outflows from some of our funds to external funds. And that’s because the asset allocation team has reallocated to some investment strategies that we don’t have in Handelsbanken Fonder,” she tells AMWatch. #nordic #sweden #handelsbanken #fundmanagement #mutualfunds #esgfunds #esginvesting #assetmanagement #assetmanager 

Sweden's largest fund manager, Swedbank Robur, has just had one of its strongest first half-years ever, CIO Pia Haak tells AMWatch. The asset manager continues to lead its large Nordic peers in growing its assets under management by an impressive 14.4.% in the first half of the year to reach record highs. That is partly thanks to having some of Sweden's best performing equity funds. “I think it’s a good time for active managers to really do the right stock picking and for knowing your companies and engaging with the companies as well,” Haak says, commenting on why Swedbank Robur continues to defy the trend of assets moving out of actively managed funds and into passive index funds. #fundmanager #fundmanagement #assetmanagement #equities #Sweden #Nordics

CEO of Finland’s Evli Maunu Lehtimäki discusses the company’s Q2 and the most attractive asset classes – while the market waits for a rotation from large caps to small caps. In Q2, the fund products that attracted the least net flows in were its short duration bond funds, which Lehtimäki himself expects to have an attractive performance for the rest of 2024. “This is my personal view now, and it is that I’m still rather bullish on short bonds. Return levels there are tempting, and short duration corporate loans, but also longer high yield corporate loans are particularly interesting,” Lehtimäki says. #assetmanagement #assetmanager #finland #nordic #portfoliomanager #portfoliomanagement #institutionalinvestor #institutionalinvestment #bonds #equityfunds #corporateloans #smallcaps #largecaps #growthstocks