Buy and Sell Side Join Forces in Support of STS Securitisation

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The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA), the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and Insurance Europe have issued a joint paper backing efforts by EU policymakers to develop a robust and successful framework for simple, transparent and standardised (STS) securitisation.

In line with the Commission’s flagship Capital Markets Union initiative, the associations believe that a new framework for securitisation could play a pivotal role between banks’ financing and capital markets, enabling much-needed non-bank funding alternatives and providing investors with high-quality fixed income securities and attractive yields.

In the joint paper, the organisations affirm that securitisation is an important element of well-functioning financial markets and call for securitisation to be treated on a level playing field with other forms of investment. They highlight their shared views on the key points for EU policymakers to consider in their development of the new framework.

Simon Lewis, Chief Executive of AFME, said: “The development of a high-quality securitisation market in Europe is an integral part of the Capital Markets Union and contributes to the Commission’s objectives to revive the real economy through increased financing and prudent risk transfer. For the European securitisation market to be safely and successfully rebuilt, the new framework must be attractive for both issuers and investors whilst operating under a strong but fair and rational regulatory regime. We are delighted to unite with investors and other market participants on this important policy initiative.”

Peter De Proft, Director General of EFAMA, commented: “EFAMA is acutely aware of the generational opportunity offered by the Capital Markets Union in restoring economic growth in Europe. The Commission’s securitisation package, as an essential component of a successful CMU, could potentially generate billions in additional funding for the economy and could act as a key driver in encouraging investor participation in European capital markets. This joint initiative of the buy-side and sell-side is testament to the sheer emphasis we believe should be placed on achieving a balanced securitisation framework which will work for our markets, our investors and Europe as a whole.”

Martin Scheck, Chief Executive of ICMA, said: “Securitisation represents a crucial asset class for investors and borrowers in Europe. As an association with both buy- and sell-side members we have strongly welcomed efforts to revive securitisation as a key element in financing the drive to restore jobs and growth in Europe. This joint paper underlines our commitment to supporting an appropriately designed framework to achieve this.”

Michaela Koller, Director General of Insurance Europe, said: “Insurers must have access to a wide range of assets in order to diversify their portfolios, and this includes a need for high quality securitisations. Steps to identify good securitisations have already been made under Solvency II and the Commission’s proposal is a continuation of this, with some important improvements. However, further improvements are needed, some of which this paper outlines. From an insurer’s perspective, we are calling for a much needed revision of the capital treatment of securitisations under Solvency II.”

What Wealthy Families in Latin America Need to Know About Compliance Rules

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“Compliance rules have dramatically changed in the last few years, and the next two ones will be even more complicated or challenging for most wealthy families,” says Martin Litwak, from law firm Litwak & Partners who discusses how the new compliance rules are impacting private wealth management in Latin America.

According to the Lawyer, «there is a lot of information online about FATCA and CRS coming from banks and financial providers, but some families are not getting the best advice, from independent lawyers, on what to do or not do, how to manage the risks and the practical impact of these changes. It is not about filling out a new questionnaire. Families must make sure that the set of structures in place are in compliant with the new scenario. It is not just one piece of law that has changed; the whole system is now different.»

Nowadays countries are cooperating for tax purposes, and the information on a family’s assets is available to authorities as well as to third parties. «Which is a bigger issue in a region like Latin America, where kidnappings take place and many governments are corrupt. The fact that information could exchange hands for very little money is very dangerous» he says.

In his opinion, families must have the right structures in place before all these new rules take effect. They also should report whatever they have or own. «If they do not like the consequences this reporting may have, they can move to a different country with a better tax system. If they are not prepared to do this, they may be able to save or differ some taxes and/or to reach some level of confidentiality at least vis a vis third parties other than governments by setting up trusts and/or private family funds.»

Jurisdictions traditionally considered as offshore international financial centers have stronger protections of secrecy and privacy. «With offshore assets, it is better to structure them offshore too. Our clients usually pursue three objectives: privacy, tax optimization and succession planning. If they value secrecy the most, regulated  investment funds (perhaps with their shares being publicly traded) are better than trusts. If succession planning is more important, a trust structure might be the best solution. We try to identify what matters to them the most, but they must also understand what can and cannot be achieved in this new transparent world.»

Litwak will be present at the marcus evans Latin Private Wealth Management Summit 2016 in Panama.

MiFID II y lecciones de Reino Unido para Europa

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MiFID II and Lessons from The UK
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrFoto: AedoPulltrone, Flickr, Creative Commons. MiFID II y lecciones de Reino Unido para Europa

Europa se ha dado un respiro con el retraso de un año en la aplicación de MiFID II, pero esto no es una excusa para quedarse quieto y no hacer nada. Como RDR fue el precursor de MiFID II, los distribuidores en la Europa continental vuelven la mirada a Reino Unido para entender cómo podría afectar la normativa al panorama de la distribución y qué lecciones se pueden obtener de su experiencia.

En primer lugar, es importante entender una de las diferencias fundamentales entre la RDR y MiFID. En el Reino Unido, hay que pagar por el asesoramiento tanto si es proporcionado por un asesor financiero independiente, como por un asesor vinculado o un asesor del banco. Todo el servicio de asesoramiento debe ser pagado. Este hecho tuvo el efecto no deseado de crear un gap de asesoramiento porque los inversores modestos ya no eran capaces de pagar. Además, los bancos se retiraron de la prestación del asesoramiento porque no podían ofrecer un servicio rentable y para evitar futuros escándalos.

En Europa, la situación es diferente. En virtud de MiFID II, sólo se ha de pagar por el asesoramiento independiente, lo que significa que los asesores vinculados a entidades pueden seguir beneficiándose de retrocesiones, siempre y cuando se le declaren y sean transparentes para el inversor. Esto no va a crear un ‘advice gap’ como ha hecho en el Reino Unido, pero es probable que lleve a los inversores hacia soluciones en las que no tengan que pagar por el asesoramiento (aunque en realidad van a pagar mucho más a lo largo de los años en retrocesiones). Para los países con industrias nacientes de asesoramiento, tal medida podría significar un problema, pero hay un montón de maneras de que los asesores independientes y gestores de patrimonios puedan luchar y garantizar que tengan un futuro a largo plazo en la industria de servicios financieros.

Primera lección: es importante recordar que se trata de una reforma de la oferta. Los inversores siempre necesitarán asesoramiento, pero la forma en que accedan a él va a cambiar. Las personas aún necesitarán asesoramiento sobre sus ahorros e inversiones y planes a largo plazo. La industria no se va a acabar sólo por la llegada de esta nueva legislación.

Lección dos: trabaje en estrecha colaboración con el regulador para asegurar que obtiene el máximo rendimiento de esta legislación en España. No proteste ni sea difícil, asegúrese de que su voz y sus opiniones sean escuchadas y tomadas en cuenta.

Lección tres: no espere hasta que sea demasiado tarde. Las empresas más exitosas de asesoramiento en el Reino Unido comenzaron a trabajar inmediatamente en su modelo post RDR. Se puede obtener una ventaja competitiva mediante la elaboración de su propuesta ahora. Revise sus costos, su base de clientes y entienda cómo se agrega valor. Hay que promover ese mensaje coherente.

Cuarta lección: no trate de hacer las cosas de la manera antigua. Es necesario adaptarse al nuevo entorno. Y utilizar la tecnología e Internet para ofrecer un servicio ágil y rentable. Haga su propuesta lo más atractiva posible a sus clientes.

Lección cinco: No espere al regulador o a la prensa para promover su negocio. Hágalo usted mismo y ahora. Empuje sus asociaciones comerciales para promover el valor de asesoramiento independiente y habilidades de inversión superiores. Sea proactivo. Anuncie. Coloque artículos en la prensa. Haga todo lo posible para convencer a los consumidores de que «atar» el asesoramiento no es la mejor opción.

Y si todo lo demás falla, hay una última cosa que puede hacer … defínase como no independiente!

Columna de opinión de Bella Caridade-Ferreira, CEO de Fundscape

Puede encontrar la presentación de Bella Caridade-Ferreira, realizada en el marco del último evento de banca privada de iIR, en este link.

Jérémie Fastnacht Joins Banque de Luxembourg as a Portfolio Manager

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Jérémie Fastnacht has joined BLI – Banque de Luxembourg Investments as a portfolio manager. His main responsibility in this role will be to support Guy Wagner in managing the BL-Equities Dividend fund.

The 30-year-old Frenchman comes from Banque de Luxembourg, where he served for one and a half years as an analyst and equity portfolio manager in the Private Banking Investments department.

“Quality research is even more important in today’s market environment. We are therefore staying on our chosen path and – as we have done successfully with our BL-Equities Europe and BL-Equities America funds – have provided our fund manager with a co-manager,” said Guy Wagner. “With Jérémie we have selected an in-house candidate, especially as he knows the Bank, our investment philosophy, and shares our values.”

Jérémie Fastnacht added: “I am pleased to take on this new role on the equity fund team of BLI – Banque de Luxembourg Investments. Alongside Guy I will share responsibility for the Bank’s flagship funds, which is highly motivating.” Jérémie holds a master’s degree in Finance from Université Paris-Dauphine and completed a post-graduate program in Financial markets from SKEMA Business School / North Carolina State University. Jérémie began his career as an equity fund manager at BCEE Asset Management in Luxembourg in August 2012.
 
 

Why We Think Mexico Is a Standout in Latin America

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I recently traveled to Latin America and had the opportunity to visit and collaborate with a number of our team members based in the region, including Rodolfo Ramos Cevallos, who works out of our office in Mexico City. Oil prices have certainly had an impact on Latin American economies—for better or for worse—but it was clear to us that Mexico has many potential growth drivers, with reform efforts playing a key part. I’ve invited Rodolfo to talk more about the economic prospects in his home country.

Over the last two decades, Mexico has taken decisive steps to integrate with the global economy through trade agreements, so it can be affected by external factors such as slowing global growth. While 2015 was a challenging environment for investors—including those in Mexico—we think Mexico stands out from many other countries in Latin America, and as well as other emerging markets, for a number of reasons. Mexico has developed into a high-value-added exporting powerhouse to the United States. It has passed structural reforms geared to encourage competition and attract investments at a time when most countries are shying away from private investment and liberalization, and it has stable fiscal and macroeconomic management. Because of this differentiation, Mexico’s equity market has been able to outperform broader Latin America as well as emerging markets overall (as measured by MSCI indexes) in the last one-, three- and five-year periods.

Currently, we are seeing opportunities in the export sector, which has benefited from a weakening in the Mexican peso versus the US dollar over the past couple of years. The automotive industry is a good example; Mexico is the seventh-largest automobile manufacturer in the world and largest supplier of automobile parts to the United States. Production of light vehicles has been on the rise, expected to grow from 3.2 million units annually in 2014 to more than 5 million units by 2020. We are also seeing bargains in the mining sector. While the mining sector has been out of favor in recent years, we have been able to find cost-competitive companies in Mexico with solid balance sheets that appear well-positioned to potentially benefit when the cycle turns.

Within Mexico, we are also finding opportunities in the banking and financial services sectors and believe banks are likely to continue to grow as younger generations get more comfortable using credit than perhaps their parents or grandparents were. Overall loan penetration in Mexico currently stands among the lowest in all of Latin America, and we believe financial services companies should do well as new industries (namely energy and oil) get listed and monetized in the equity market.

Monetary Policy and the Peso

The Mexican peso is one of the most liquid currencies in the world and the most liquid in emerging markets, which is why it is widely used by market participants to hedge emerging market risk. A large derivatives market also drives currency prices. The peso has historically been correlated with oil prices due to Mexico’s oil assets and the government’s dependence on them for tax revenues. These dynamics pushed the peso to an all-time low versus the US dollar at the beginning of the year. The peso’s dismal performance has been a major area of frustration and concern for global investors, especially considering Mexico’s stable macroeconomic outlook. Mexico’s central bank, Bank of Mexico (or Banxico), has historically taken a hands-off approach to foreign exchange markets. However, this extreme volatility prompted Banxico to announce a surprise interest rate hike in February and to directly sell US dollars to banks (instead of its routine US dollar auctions) to bolster the currency. The Mexican peso reacted positively to these actions, but it currently remains undervalued, according to our calculations.

Monetary policy is very much coordinated between the US Federal Reserve and its Mexican counterpart, which should limit any adverse impacts from a tightening cycle in US monetary conditions. However, we believe any US tightening will be a slow and gradual process due to stubbornly low inflation in the United States, expected at a mere 1.3% for 2016, based on the current Bloomberg consensus forecast. We do not foresee a material impact on Mexico’s economy from a gradual increase in interest rates in the United States.

The Impact of Oil, and Reforms

While oil is meaningful to the Mexican government in terms of revenues, Mexico’s reliance on oil is considerably less than is commonly believed, as oil represents only about 10% of its exports. With the decline in oil prices and an increase in economic activity, oil’s importance in Mexico has been significantly reduced in the last couple of years, with income tax and value-added tax (VAT) picking up the slack. Oil’s contribution to the federal budget has dropped by half in the last couple of years from about 40% in 2008 to about 20% in 2015. Unfortunately, consumers have generally not seen lower prices at the pump yet, but with the liberalization of the oil sector that could change in the coming years.

Throughout Latin America, governments can no longer rely on high commodity prices to help them finance key programs and projects, particularly related to infrastructure. So I think reforms are going to be very important. Energy reform in Mexico has opened up the oil sector to private investment through different participation schemes. Previously, the state-owned enterprise Pemex was the only firm that was allowed to capitalize on oil resources. Now, the newly established National Hydrocarbons Commission has the authority to auction fields to private parties. The commission has conducted three auctions so far, and each was more successful than the previous one, with the most recent auction securing a 100% assignment rate. The onshore fields already auctioned have low costs and have been profitable even at currently low oil prices. In addition to these auctions, Pemex will be able to partner with specialized oil players to develop its existing resources. The government is currently working on the rules governing the Mexican equivalent of a US master limited partnership (MLP) that will be used to list energy assets from Pemex and private parties. We believe all of these developments will likely lead to an increase in foreign direct investment.

Telecommunications has been another key area of reform, which has encouraged competition with the creation of an independent regulator, among other things. Telecommunications prices have dramatically declined since the reform’s implementation, translating into a direct saving to consumers. Last year, tumbling telecommunications prices played a major role in inflation falling to a record low of 2.13% in 2015.

In sum, the Mexican economy has been improving in a number of areas. Consumption has been very strong, and the government has been very proactive in announcing cuts as well as relying much more on private investment to finance a number of planned projects. Short-term market jitters aside, the US economy still looks strong, which should help Mexico going forward and make it an attractive place to invest.

Column by Mark Mobius and Rodolfo Ramos Cevallos
 

Reunión de directores de inversión de family offices en el 2016 FOX Spring Global Investment Forum

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Family Investment Principals Will Gather at the 2016 FOX Spring Global Investment Forum
Foto: Lima Pix . Reunión de directores de inversión de family offices en el 2016 FOX Spring Global Investment Forum

Family Office Exchange (FOX) celebrará, el próximo 6 de abril en el Harvard Club de Nueva York, su 2016 FOX Spring Global Investment Forum, el primer encuentro de los dos que organiza la asociación de family offices este año centrados en inversión.

Por y para los titulares del capital inversor y sus CIOs, el foro está diseñado desde la perspectiva de los socios de FOX para satisfacer las necesidades de los decisores y estrategas en los procesos de inversión de las familias que asistan.

En esta jornada, una mesa redonda con familias y asesores líderes discutirán sobre el reto de encontrar alpha en el mercado actual y compartirán su visión sobre cómo están respondiendo al reto.

El reconocido arquitecto, diseñador, pensador y autor William McDonough arrojará luz sobre los modelos de negocios que permiten a los profesionales conseguir más con menos –y observar cómo impacta esta filosofía en sus beneficios y su implicaciones de cara a la próxima revolución industrial.

Por otro lado, el presentador de Bloomberg TV y editor Erik Schatzker compartirá su visión sobre las empresas y otras historias que mueven a los mercados e identificará aspectos macro factibles y relevantes para los grandes patrimonios con preocupaciones multi generacionales.

Para más información sobre el evento o registrarse, puede utilizar este link.

 

 

Is the U.S. Growth Slowdown Trending into a Recession?

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While the US Federal Reserve starts its two-day meeting, in which no rate hike is expected, Monica Defend, Head of Global Asset Allocation Research at Pioneer Investments writes that her outlook for the US economy for 2016 is for decent growth, driven by Personal Consumption, Government Consumption (finally back to contributing positively to growth after years of retrenchment) and Investments (particularly strong performance of Residential Investments, while Non-Residential Investments will face a difficult first part of the year).

She believes that «the probability of a U.S. recession this year is still limited and the resilience of our base case is confirmed against further stress on selected financial indicators. In particular, we expect the US consumer to be resilient and sustain growth on the back of a healthy labor market, improvements on the compensation profile, and still moderate inflation, which should support real income growth.»

Amongst the key insights that can be found on her latest publication titled «A US Recession is not on the Horizon» are:

  • Leading indicators seem to point to a tentative stabilization and improvement in growth of the US and sectors hit by the strong dollar and weak oil price.
  • They currently expect inflation to move gradually towards the Fed Target of 2%. Should the oil and commodity prices trend higher than they currently assume in our scenario, we may witness a higher than expected increase in inflation, still not priced in by the market.
  • On monetary policy, they believe that Fed will be on hold in March, and will manage market expectations carefully. «A move in March would been an unwelcome surprise for financial markets, but we see this risk very limited.»

To read Monica’s entire Update, follow this link.

Estamos todos juntos en ésto

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We Are All in This Together
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrLa directora de FinCEN, Jennifer Shasky Calvery, con el CEO de FIBA, David Schwartz / Foto FIBA. Estamos todos juntos en ésto

FIBA congregó a más de 1.300 profesionales en su XVI conferencia anual Anti Money Laundering Compliance, celebrada entre los días 7 y 9 de marzo en Miami. Reguladores y líderes financieros de 42 países, representando a 330 instituciones financieras y corporaciones, compartieron experiencias y las nuevas tendencias en el panorama de AML, con la intención de reforzar la transparencia en el conjunto de las instituciones bancarias y no bancarias.

Entre los temas destacados que se trataron en la conferencia de este año, los recientes escándalos de corrupción que involucraron a FIFA, IAAF e ITF que, además de copar los titulares de medios de todo el mundo, han puesto en entredicho el nivel de valoración de riesgo que las instituciones financieras aplican a las federaciones deportivas o de ocio. Estos casos han hecho notoria la obvia relación entre deporte y finanzas, porque sin la financiación adecuada, las federaciones deportivas dejarían de existir, poniendo a ambas partes a riesgo y en busca de una solución práctica. El creciente número de escándalos garantiza que cada vez más los bancos necesitan “conocer al cliente de sus clientes” para asegurarse de estar al tanto de cualquier comportamiento potencialmente fraudulento entre ellos.

En otra sesión diferente, una conversación con la directora de FinCen, Jennifer Shasky Calvery, arrojó luz sobre la manera en que la organización trabaja y cuáles son sus objetivos. En realidad, no se trata de “encarcelar” a nadie sino de encontrar los mecanismos para recopilar información. La obligación de proteger al sistema financiero frente a delincuentes y terroristas no es sólo de la industria de servicios financieros, sino también de los reguladores y fuerzas coercitivas. “Estamos todos juntos en esto”, fue el mensaje.

Finalmente, otro tema directamente relacionado con Miami protagonizó una de las sesiones más populares. El 1 de marzo pasado entró en vigor el tercer y más reciente GTO de FinCEN sobre la ciudad. Emitida por FinCEN, una GTO u orden de focalización geográfica no es una solución regulatoria, sino una herramienta para entender la fuente del fraude, que es particularmente alta en esta región. Actualmente, el 22% de los compradores de real estate en Estados Unidos pagan las transacciones en efectivo. La GTO obliga temporalmente a ciertas compañías estadounidensesque aseguran títulos de compra-venta a identificar las personas físicas que están detrás de empresas utilizadas para pagar «en efectivo» propiedades inmobiliarias de alta gama, en un esfuerzo para prevenir el blanqueo de capitales de procedencia ilícita.

“Es una satisfacción poder sentar en la misma sala a reguladores y bancos para que mantengan un diálogo abierto que moverá nuestra industria”, declaró el CEO de FIBA, David Schwartz. “Es posible que varíe de región a región lo que los reguladores esperan y lo que los bancos ven factible en cuanto a la responsabilidad de cumplir con las normas y la regulación, sin embargo, el objetivo común es encontrar en la práctica una solución que proteja a los consumidores, instituciones y a todo el sistema. Este ha sido el evento con más éxito de los que hemos organizado hasta ahora y queremos dar las gracias a los patrocinadores, colaboradores y ponentes que lo han hecho posible”.

Low Visibility, High Opportunity

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Commentators speak about a “Something Must Be Done” approach to politics, where any action is deemed better than no action. Behavioral economists warn of a similar bias among investors, the need to tinker in ways that often end up eroding returns. In difficult environments like today’s, such biases can become irresistible.

From the standpoint of our Asset Allocation Committee, however, a dispassionate look at the global economy and markets leads to low levels of conviction. Large directional bets amongst broad asset classes, on a 6-18 month horizon, are mostly off the table for now. Global growth is uninspiring; central banks seem to have lost their ability to influence markets; political risks loom; and high levels of financial market volatility seem at odds with mostly benign fundamental economic data.

Positive results from policy moves now appear to have built-in limitations. Should the dollar rise too much, it will likely curtail U.S. corporate earnings and suppress the wider economy. Should corporate earnings and wages take off, Fed Chair Janet Yellen will likely raise rates and undermine confidence in market liquidity. There is somewhat of a guardrail around a neutral position that could limit the payoff for risk taking, and the time the market takes to second-guess these limitations gets shorter and shorter. The Bank of Japan’s move to negative rates was good news for 24 hours, but then sparked a big bout of market volatility. Last Thursday’s changes to ECB monetary policy pushed the euro down and risk markets up, before a few words in the press conference unleashed a quick reversal.

Against that background, on a 12-month horizon our Asset Allocation Committee is, not surprisingly, neutral on U.S. equity, neutral on emerging market equity, neutral on emerging market debt, neutral on inflation-protected Treasuries and neutral on commodities. Our only biases at the moment are slight overweights in non-U.S. developed market equities and high yield bonds and underweights in government and investment-grade bonds.

That’s good. The Committee is resisting the bias to action. But then again, there is a view that something should be done. And here’s the interesting thing: Underneath the disciplined neutrality at the asset class level there is a lot going on.

The S&P 500 Index ended 2015 almost exactly where it started. Today it is not far from that same level. Similarly, commodity prices and credit markets are back where they were at the start of 2016. It doesn’t feel that way, though. Recent months have witnessed some of the most vicious market rotations of the past five years.

In other words, while taking medium-term, high-conviction directional positions in asset classes has become very difficult for asset allocators, there are widespread opportunities for individual underlying investment category managers, adding value through shorter-term trading or relative-value positions (which also tend to be more tactical). In our view, positioning within asset classes may be more beneficial than positioning between them. There is also value in thinking about your portfolio as a collection of individual positions with different time horizons, as well as a collection of different asset classes.

Within fixed income, some opportunities are easier to identify: You can buy higher-yielding bonds and companies with decent credit positions and sell lower (or indeed negative) yielding sovereign debt. In currencies, everything is a relative value position by default, so this can be a robust source of added value in these environments. In equities, there are some extreme valuations out there if you look in the right places: The cumulative outperformance of momentum stocks over value stocks is higher than at any time since the dot-com bubble, for example, and we believe that relationship will eventually begin reverting to the mean.

Having said that, short-term volatility does still create opportunity at the asset class level. In this environment, you could well boost positions in risky assets more broadly when markets sell off, but perhaps on a hedged basis through long/short strategies, paying away some of the asset-class exposure in exchange for limited downside. Visibility may be low, but opportunity needn’t be.

From all of this, three principles stand out. Active management becomes crucial. Incorporating alternative sources of compensated risk—value versus momentum, liquidity and volatility plays, spread trades—becomes an important tool in the toolbox. And risk management is paramount when you include these more tactical sources of excess return potential in portfolios.

What would make us comfortable favoring more directional risk? A breakdown in the correlation between oil and stock markets; a bottom for commodity prices; stabilization for some of the fundamental data points coming out of China; improved U.S. corporate earnings; and less reliance on negative interest rate policy from central banks.

Given the current mixed signals from the global economy, markets and policymakers, the full toolbox in multi-asset investing is likely to be useful for a good while yet.

Neuberger Berman’s CIO insight

AXA IM Real Assets Launches a New Pan European Open Ended Real Estate Fund

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The open ended fund, AXA CoRE Europe has an initial investment capacity close to EUR 700 million and aims to build a highly diversified portfolio of Core European real estate assets, it has already raised over EUR 500 million from a range of European institutions.  

AXA CoRE Europe will seek to provide institutional investors with long-term stable income through the acquisition of Core real estate assets across Europe, capitalizing on individual market dynamics and timing. Over the long term AXA IM – Real Assets aims to grow AXA CoRE Europe steadily into a flagship European fund with a target size of EUR 3 billion to EUR 5 billion.

AXA CoRE Europe was one of the club of investors which AXA IM – Real Assets put together and have agreed to acquire the France’s tallest tower, Tour First in Paris La Défense. This project is in-line with the Fund’s strategy to focus investments on Europe’s largest and most established and transparent markets – UK, Germany and France – while maintaining the ability to invest across the entire continent from Spain to Benelux and the Nordics or Switzerland. AXA CoRE Europe will target mainstream asset classes, primarily offices and retail, and primarily seek investments into well-located assets which have high building technical and sustainability specifications and are let to strong tenants on medium or long term leases. The Fund will also consider selective investments where it can enhance returns by improving occupancy rates and/ or through repositioning works and will also retain a flexibility of allocation which provides for the ability to manage real estate cycles over the long term.

The fund will leverage on the established capabilities of AXA IM – Real Assets to source and actively manage European Core assets in all sectors and geographies by utilizing its unrivalled network of over 300 asset management, deal sourcing and transaction professionals, as well as fund management professionals who are locally based in 10 offices and operating in 13 countries across Europe.