The latest news in investments and funds from across Europe.

Swiss Life Asset Managers
The group has launched the Swiss Life Asset Managers’ European Thematic Income & Growth Fund (TIGR) to benefit from opportunities in the rapidly evolving real estate market. It will be based in Luxembourg, with the Swiss Life Asset Managers' team based at Mayfair Capital in London providing investment advice.

The firm said it has committed significant long-term capital to the fund which will "provide stability, scale and close alignment with third-party co-investors." The fund will primarily focus on macro allocation and micro asset selection concentrated in Europe’s most liquid markets in Germany, France and the UK. its initial target is to allocate 60 per cent to the large and liquid German and French markets, with a further 10 per cent initially allocated to the UK, and the remainder across strong markets in other European economies. Within individual sub sectors, the fund will target an allocation of around 40 per cent to offices, 25 per cent to industrial, 10 per cent to retail and 25 per cent to residential and other maturing segments, it said.

QUAERO CAPITAL
QUAERO CAPITAL, the Geneva-based firm, has launched a new US equities fund. It is called the Cullen ESG US Value fund, a sub-fund of the Quaero Capital Funds (Lux) Luxembourg SICAV. 

The fund aims to invest in equities of US companies trading at attractive valuations and having favourable environmental, social and governance characteristics.

Cullen, with $20.9 billion in assets under management, has managed exclusively “value” equity portfolios since its inception in 1983 and is strongly committed to ESG investment principles. The fund is managed by a team of three fund managers with longstanding experience in the US equity market and supported by a team of 10 analysts.

MFS Investment Management
MFS Investment Management, asset management house, has launched MFS Meridian Funds® – Contrarian Value Fund. A new unconstrained global equity fund can engage in controversial areas of the market” to spot businesses going through operating problems or being buffeted by a tough transition.

The firm defined “controversy” as being anything from a conflict over cyclical versus structural pressures to a temporary impairment of the business model. The fund seeks to buy businesses trading at a discount to their intrinsic value and where a margin of safety exists on the price paid and a strong balance sheet provides enough time for the thesis to play out.

(Margin of safety is the difference between the intrinsic value of the stock and its market price. Buying with a margin of safety means buying the stock well below what you think it’s actually worth, i.e. its intrinsic value.)

The fund is concentrated, generally holding fewer than 50 securities. It is run by portfolio manager Anne-Christine Farstad. The fund is domiciled and regulated in Luxembourg and structured as a SICAV.  It is registered in 14 countries across Europe.