On March 4, 2021, Refinitiv Lipper unveiled the results of the Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards for Switzerland in conjunction with our long-term media partner Fundplat. Unlike previous years, physical in-person events won’t be held globally due to Covid-19 pandemic restrictions. This announcement marks the annual kick-off for Lipper’s global awards program. Since 2020 was a challenging year for the global fund industry, the Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards will get a lot of attention from the asset management industry, as these awards showcase the ability of a fund to deliver high risk-adjusted returns. Different methodologies lead to different results Contrary to

“What’s priced in?” is a question being asked a lot these days. How much of this current and future bad news is now fully reflected in stock prices? Is it time to start bargain shopping? It would be a fool’s errand to answer these questions now with so much uncertainty facing markets. However, we can share with you a tool that can help look at current growth rates now priced in. To do this, we turn to the StarMine Intrinsic Valuation model. Used conventionally, this is a three-stage Dividend Discount Model that uses sell-side estimates for individual equities, adjusts those

It was another positive month for the European ETF industry as European ETF promoters enjoyed above average inflows in January. These led, in combination with the positive performance of the underlying markets, to an increase in assets under management from €869.8 bn as of December 31, 2019, to a new record high of €883.1 bn at the end of January. The increase of €13.3 bn for January was driven by net inflows (+€12.1 bn), while the performance of the underlying markets contributed €1.2 bn to the increase in assets. It was not surprising equity funds (€604.6 bn) held the majority

With the announcement that BlackRock will make sustainability its new standard for investing, the debate about ESG integration has reached a new level. Even as there has been a lot of talk about the integration of ESG criteria before, the self-declaration of the largest asset manager in the world to integrate ESG in all its active portfolios and advisory strategy by the end of 2020 might be a game changer, as this has a lighthouse effect and may force other large asset managers to do the same. In addition to its commitment on the integration of ESG criteria, BlackRock will

On July 3, 2019, Refinitiv hosted the fifth Annual Lipper Fund Selector Forum at Canary Wharf. The final panel of the morning was “ESG and the Fund Distribution Value Chain.” The panel considered the influence of ESG throughout the mutual fund value chain from product manufacturer, gatekeeper, and fund distributor. It outlined how ESG criteria are able to add value for end investors without compromising potential returns. The panelists were: Mona Shah, Director – Investment Strategy & Research, Stonehage Fleming Chris Welsford – Managing Director, Ayres Punchard Investment Management Craig Bonthron – Equities Investment Manager, Kames Capital In this video of the session,

The European fund industry faced estimated net outflows of €58.3 bn in Q1 2019. These outflows came after the first year with estimated net outflows since 2012. The flows were mainly driven by the discussions about a possible trade war between the U.S. and China, a possible return of the Euro crisis caused by developments in Italy and France, an environment of rising interest rates in the U.S., and a general economic slowdown with decreasing earnings at the company level. Nevertheless, since the equity markets showed a rebound over the course of Q1 2019, one would have expected to see

The Lipper Fund Awards from Refinitiv in Frankfurt held on March 13 was once again an industry landmark event. The awards ceremony in Germany was the last event in the German-speaking markets (Austria, Germany, and Switzerland) and was visited by 174 participants from the German and international fund industry. The celebration of the eighteenth Lipper Fund Awards for Germany took place in the Steigenberger Frankfurter Hof, which is one of the most prominent hotels in Frankfurt, located directly in the center of the city. Sustainable Investing was the Theme of the Event Carl-Johan von Uexkull, Market Head Germany & Switzerland

The 29th annual U.K. Lipper Fund Awards event (and the first under the Refinitiv banner) took place at London’s elegant Banking Hall on March 14, 2019. A full house of 150 participants from the U.K. and international fund management industries created an exciting buzz ahead of the premier night of recognizing excellence in fund management. Lipper Awards now powered by Refinitiv Leon Saunders-Calvert, Head of Sustainable Investing & Fund Ratings at Refinitiv, introduced the company and affirmed its commitment to the prestigious Lipper Awards, stating: “We’re committed to delivering more content, more fund product offerings, more innovative delivery systems, and more

The negative trend with regard to fund flows in Europe continued in January, even as the securities markets showed a rebound. As a consequence, January was the ninth month in a row long-term mutual funds posted net outflows after 16 consecutive months of net inflows. It was surprising that bond funds (+€12.7 bn) were the best-selling asset type in the segment of long-term mutual funds, followed by real estate funds (+€1.0 bn). All other asset types faced outflows: alternative UCITS funds (-€7.7 bn), equity funds (-€7.4 bn), mixed-asset funds (-€3.5 bn), commodity funds (-€1.1 bn), and “other” funds (-€1.0 bn).

The year 2018 was a tough year for the European fund industry. Despite headwinds from the markets and outflows from their actively managed peers, the promoters of ETFs in Europe enjoyed net inflows in every single month of the year 2018. These inflows, however, were not able to offset the negative impact from the underlying markets. As a result, the assets under management in the European ETF industry decreased from €656.8 bn as of December 31, 2017, to €633.1 bn at the end of December 2018. As mentioned above, the decrease of €23.7 bn for 2018 was driven by the

The U.K. treasury has introduced a safety net for mutual funds and alternative investment sub-funds under the UCITs regulations in case of a “no-deal” Brexit. Contrary to its previous plans, the U.K. treasury will also extend temporary permissions to funds which are to be launched after March 29, 2019. This is as long as at least one of the sub-funds of the respective umbrella was registered for sale in the U.K. prior to that date. This step has been taken by the U.K. treasury to ensure that investors will have access to a wide range of investment opportunities in the

With net inflows of 35.5 billion euros and with not one month of net outflows over the course of 2018 so far (as of September 30), it seems the environment for ETF promoters in Europe is still positive. Meanwhile, their active counterparts face struggles from the uncertainty in the securities markets. Some market observers would say that ETFs are also having a bad year, since the net inflows for 2018 are far below the net inflows of 2017. Even though that is correct, one needs to remember that not every year can be a record year. It is worthwhile bearing