The latest news in investment offerings, financial products and other services relative to wealth advisors and their clients.

Private Markets Alpha
Private Markets Alpha, a London-based digital marketplace giving wealth managers, advisors and distributors access to private markets, has launched its first regulated product – Global Distressed & Special Situations.

The offering mixes underlying strategies from Apollo and Oaktree that seek to tap global dislocations caused by deleveraging, distress and financing needs of companies in Europe and North America.

As the global economy continues to be buffeted by rising interest rates, geopolitical pressures such as the Russia/Ukraine war, protectionism and supply chain changes post-Covid, new financing needs for firms have been created. Some businesses are under pressure over their debt giving rise to nimble investment organisations trying to exploit opportunities arising from these forces. 

The strategy from PM Alpha, which targets high-yielding senior secured and asset-backed equity positions, seeks to allocate equally across three PM Alpha-selected strategies from Apollo and Oaktree.

“Our Global Distressed & Special Situations product offers an exclusive entry point for private investors into three underlying strategies that are generally limited to institutional investors, whilst ensuring attractive terms that are on par with institutional terms,” PM Alpha CEO Tom Douie said.

“We are delighted to be able to offer this product specifically designed for our wealth and asset management partners’ underlying private clients, with enhanced diversification, downside protection, and access from a minimum investment amount of €125,000 ($136,721) for their professional and non-professional qualified investors.”

Pictet Asset Management
Pictet Asset Management has just launched Pictet-China Environmental Opportunities, a concentrated active equity fund investing in leading Chinese environmental solutions providers.

While China is the largest contributor to global economic growth, it also realises that it needs to reduce its carbon emissions. In response, China is seeking to become one of the world’s leading markets for environmental solutions’ technologies in order to help achieve its carbon neutrality goal by 2060 and improve the environment in China and the rest of the world.

Pictet-China Environmental Opportunities seeks capital growth by investing in Chinese companies operating in five environmental segments: renewable energy; green transport; industrial decarbonisation; resource efficiency; and environmental protection.

Classified as Article 9 (SFDR), the fund is the latest addition to Pictet AM’s $67 billion thematic franchise. It has evolved from, and leverages, the expertise of the investment team behind the Pictet-Global Environmental Opportunities (GEO). GEO is a global allocation equity strategy, which implements the Planetary Boundaries scientific framework into its environmental investment approach to identify the companies which operate within a demarcated safe operating space. This framework, which provides an international and long-term context for national policy setting, is also applied in the investment process of Pictet-China Environmental Opportunities.

The strategy is led by Yi Du, senior investment manager, Thematic Equities at Pictet Asset Management and member of the GEO team, based in Geneva. He is supported by Thematic Equities research analysts based in Shanghai who conduct on-site due diligence and maintain continuous contact with companies.

“As the country with the largest manufacturing capability of environmental solutions with many of the world’s leading technologies, China acts as a vital production and export hub for solving global environmental challenges,” Yi Du said. “We believe these factors combined with supportive policy tailwinds within China and worldwide make Chinese companies that address global environmental challenges well-positioned to outperform the market.”

Pictet-China Environmental Opportunities is currently offered as a Luxembourg-domiciled UCITS fund. It is registered for sale in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore (accredited investors only), Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.