The latest issue of Businesslife, exploring the future of the funds sector, is now available.
The global funds sector continues to adapt and grow – providing investors and wealth managers with much-needed stability amid growing global economic uncertainty.
That’s the message delivered by the latest edition of Channel Islands-based business and lifestyle magazine Businesslife, which explores current and future trends in the sector.
Jon Watkins, Editor-in-Chief of Businesslife, said: “As investors and wealth managers seek stability amid the well documented market and economic pressures, we wanted to explore in detail how the funds sector is responding.
“Our dedicated Funds Edition finds some notable trends – not least the global appetite for access to alternative assets, which continues at pace.
"In the Channel Islands, there has been a huge increase in the net asset value of funds focused on private equity and venture capital in the past five years.
"Figures recently published by Jersey Finance show that in Jersey alone there has been a 249% increase. Guernsey is seeing growing interest, too.”
SPACs downturn
The Funds Edition of Businesslife features several articles exploring trends in the sector.
A clear shift from 12 months ago is the popularity of SPACs – special-purpose acquisition companies. In last year’s Funds Edition, we heard that SPACs had become “all the rage", representing about 60% of all IPOs in 2020.
This year, that picture has changed considerably. The SPAC boom was fuelled by an extended period of low interest rates, which drove investors to riskier areas of the market to seek higher returns. As the economic landscape has altered, SPACs have suffered a massive uphill battle on recent valuations.
Private growth
The issue also explores the thriving popularity of Jersey and Guernsey private funds – demand for which experts tell us will double in the next two years.
According to figures from Jersey Finance, the number of registered Jersey Private Funds jumped 70% between March 2020 and March 2022.
Guernsey, which set up a Private Investment Funds (PIFs) regime in 2016 and restructured it last year to attract more investors, has also seen a rise in interest. According to a recent Guernsey Finance article, PIFs have “increased in popularity each year and at the end of [2021] more than £14bn was invested in Guernsey PIFs”.
Our article finds investors are being drawn to private funds by their flexibility and cost-effectiveness and the chance to chase greater returns in volatile times.
Elsewhere in this issue…
We also look at:
• The latest trends in investing in tech
• How investors are measuring the sustainability of the buildings they invest in
• The future of funds and the move towards alternative investments
• Board diversity
• The value of investing in vintage handbags
Click here to view our Funds Edition online.
The physical version of the magazine will be available from its usual distribution points shortly.