NEWSLETTER of July 17, 2026

The following content has been added at finexpert:

Roland Berger
FAMILY OFFICE STUDY: NEW ASSET ALLOCATION IN CHALLENGING TIMES
Family offices are operating as disciplined, long-term investors focused on capital preservation and measured risk-taking. They are taking on a more active role within those investments - moving beyond passive ownership toward direct involvement, most visibly in private equity, where hands-on engagement is becoming a defining characteristic. At the same time, geopolitical uncertainty, structural market shifts and accelerating technological change are pushing family offices across the DACH region to reassess their portfolios, their priorities and their internal structures. >more

BCG
STRONG MARKETS, HARD STRATEGIC CHOICES: THE 2026 VALUE CREATORS RANKINGS
BCG’s 2026 Value Creators ranking reveals that leadership in value creation has rotated. Asset-heavy industries such as mining, oil and gas, aerospace and defense, construction, and banking now hold top positions that technology-driven sectors occupied for much of the past decade. Within technology itself, hardware and electrical components continue to outperform, while software and IT services have fallen sharply—from fourth place in last year’s rankings to 31st in this year’s. >more

Bain & Company
THE FUTURE OF SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS: FOUR IMPERATIVES FOR THE NEXT DECADE
Over the past decade, sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) have become pillars of global capital markets. Fueled by strong portfolio returns and steady state capital injections, SWFs have expanded faster than any other institutional investors. That trajectory is expected to continue, with SWFs projected to reach $30 trillion in assets under management (AUM) by 2035. However, the roadmap for growth is changing. The conditions that enabled historical growth are shifting, unsettled by higher interest rates and increasing volatility in hydrocarbon revenues. The effects of geopolitical fragmentation, technological disruption, and the energy transition are also intensifying—and redefining where and how sovereign capital can create value. >more

KfW Research
KFW-IFO-KREDITHÜRDE Q2 2026
One record low after another is being set for the KfW-ifo credit barrier: in the second quarter of 2026, four in ten small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) seeking credit reported difficulties in securing loans – a new record high. Access to credit also became more difficult for large enterprises. The ongoing economic downturn is increasingly weighing on corporate balance sheets, which is heightening banks’ perception of risk. Triggered by the war in Iran and the resulting energy price shock, interest in borrowing has declined across all company sizes. However, there are no signs of increased liquidity requirements due to inflation-related additional costs. >more

CORPORATE GREEN PLEDGES
Michael Bauer, Daniel Huber, Eric Offner, and Ole Wilms
2026
We build a novel dataset of timestamped corporate decarbonization commitmentsgreen pledges-for U.S. public firms by classifying news articles with large language models and human validation. Firms announcing green pledges tend to be larger and browner than other firms, both within and across industries. Green pledges significantly raise stock prices, consistent with a reduction in the carbon premium, and predict sizable declines in future carbon emissions and emission intensities. These effects tend to be strongest for firms in brown industries. Green pledges thus appear credible, convey relevant new information to investors, and provide meaningful financial incentives to decarbonize. >more

MUTUAL FUND FLOWS AT LONG HORIZONS
Hendrik Bessembinder, Shuaiyu Chen, Michael J. Cooper, Jinming Xue, and Feng Zhang
2026
We show that positive flows to active mutual funds with high recent returns are partially reversed at longer horizons.  This outcome is robust across a broad range of alternative specifications.  The reversal is due to greater outflows associated with high prior returns, not reduced inflows.  We test theories with potential to explain the reversal: investment lifecycles, tax loss selling, and a behavioral “disappointment” hypothesis based on investors’ overreaction to positive returns.  While tax loss selling and short investor lifecycles can both contribute, the evidence supports a role for investor disappointment, whereby investors redeem when return performance fails to meet expectations. >more