NEWSLETTER of January 27, 2023

The following content has been added at finexpert:

BlackRock
PEAK INFLATION ARRIVES. NOW WHAT?
Throughout 2022, expectations for peak inflation have been continually disappointed. Now, signs are emerging that we’ve reached peak inflation. As we look ahead, the likelihood of bringing inflation down to the targeted 2% depends on whether policy is sufficiently restrictive. History suggests that this may take longer than markets expect. The level of policy rates required to conquer inflation will have great implications on market returns and the durability of the 60/40 portfolio. >more

DIW Berlin
MANAGERINNEN BAROMETER 2023
The proportion of women on the management and supervisory boards of large companies in Germany rose again last year. In late fall 2022, the 200 companies with the highest sales (top 200) in the country had an average of around 16 percent women on their management boards and around 31 percent women on their supervisory boards. Compared to the previous year, however, the increase was small at just under one and half a percentage point, respectively, and significantly lower on the boards than a year earlier. These are the findings of the Women Managers Barometer published by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin). >more

PwC
TRANSPORT & LOGISTICS BAROMETER: 2022 FULL-YEAR ANALYSIS
Digital transformation, new market players, changing business models: transportation and logistics are undergoing change. What impact are the deals having in the industry? How is digitalization changing the face of an entire industry? With our Transport & Logistics Barometer, we provide answers - and not just to these questions. The Barometer provides a 360-degree view of the entire industry and analyzes what impact social change and global megatrends are having on the industry. >more

KPMG
VENTURE PULSE Q4 2022
Global venture capital investment slumped significantly last year. A total of USD 493.6 billion was invested in startups in 2022 - down from USD 730.5 billion in 2021. This corresponds to a decline of 32%. This is shown by KPMG's new Venture Pulse, for which global venture capital investments are regularly evaluated. September to December 2022 represented the fourth consecutive quarter of decline. The combination of economic and geopolitical pressure, turbulent capital markets and low IPO activity has clearly taken its toll on venture capital investments. >more

DOES ESG INFORMATION IMPACT INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS’ PORTFOLIO CHOICES? – EVIDENCE FROM AN EXPERIMENT
Catharina Janz, Rainer Michael Rilke, and B. Burcin Yurtoglu
2023
We use a web-based asset market experiment to study whether ESG information affects the portfolio choices of retail investors. We find a significantly higher portfolio allocation to stocks with ESG information in the order of 11 percentage points compared to a control group where no ESG information is released. ESG information impacts retail investors regardless of its association with one of its components (Environment, Social or Governance) and degree of detail. We also find that less educated individuals, especially those with little investment experience and, on average, younger, invest more heavily in ESG-friendly stocks. We do not find meaningful differences across gender, financial literacy, and personality traits. >more

A SURVEY OF PRIVATE DEBT FUNDS
Jorn H. Block, Young Soo Jang, Steven N. Kaplan, and Anna Schulze
2023
Despite its large and increasing size in the U.S. and Europe, there is relatively little research on the private debt (PD) market, particularly compared to the bank and syndicated loan markets. Accordingly, in this paper, we survey U.S. and European investors with private debt assets under management (AuM) of over $300 billion. These investors are primarily direct lending funds. We ask the general partners (GPs) how they source, select, and evaluate deals, how they think of private debt relative to bank and syndicated loan financing, how they monitor their investments, how they interact with private equity (PE) sponsors and how they view the future of the market. The respondents provide primarily cash flow-based loans and believe that they finance companies and leverage levels that banks would not fund. The direct lending funds target unlevered returns that appear high relative to their risk. They use leverage in their funds, but appreciably less than banks and collateralized loan obligation funds (CLOs). They use and negotiate for both financial and incurrence covenants to monitor their investments. The presence of PE sponsors helps them lend more and craft more effective covenants. U.S. and European funds are similar on many dimensions, but the European funds rely less on PE sponsors and compete more with banks. Overall, the private debt market is both different from, but shares characteristics with the bank loan and syndicated loan markets. >more