News & Knowledge

2020, 13 October

Dividend Update: How uncertainty has led to an unprecedented opportunity for investors

Most investors have heard of America’s famed “FAANG” stocks – Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google. Replace Netflix with Microsoft and we have by far the five biggest stocks in the S&P 500. In fact, they make up over 20% of that index – well above the 18% that the then-five-biggest stocks accounted for at the peak of the dot-com bubble back in 2000.
But what’s less well known is that Europe has its own version of the FAANG stocks – what Goldman Sachs has labelled the GRANOLAS, and are the 11 biggest stocks in Europe. They’re made up of Glaxosmithkline, Roche, ASML, Nestlé, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, L’Oréal, LVMH, AstraZeneca, SAP and Sanofi.

2020, 13 October

Dividend Update: How uncertainty has led to an unprecedented opportunity for investors

2020, 13 October

Kempen Real Estate Update: What determines if your shopping centre will survive?

The barter economy features very early on in the annals of human history – the exchange of goods and services has shaped human society throughout the ages and that trend is no different today. The modern retail property owner spends much of their time looking at what makes a great retail environment work, and yet we find that little attention has been given to the factors that drive the rents in those properties. With our big data approach, back-tested with data published by public real estate companies, and with the help of several listed companies and non-listed funds, we have decided to add to the existing knowledge and perform our own investigation on the factors that influence retail footfall and rents.

2020, 09 October

Global Impact Pool Quarterly

We are pleased to report on the second quarter of 2020 for Kempen’s Global Impact Pool, in which we continued to deploy capital towards the Global Impact Pool’s mission, which is to make investments that positively contribute to solving global problems around the food, water and climate nexus and five Sustainable Development Goals.

2020, 07 October

Kempen restructures Euro Credit team

Kempen Capital Management has decided to restructure its Euro Credit team, following the resignations of six of the eight members of the team. Attempts to retain them were not successful; they will continue their careers elsewhere. Kempen can rely on a very experienced workforce and is therefore able to appoint four additional people from its own ranks who will continue the strategy according to the same approach. Alain van der Heijden, Head of the team, and Harold van Acht, Senior Portfolio Manager, will remain at Kempen and retain their current responsibilities. Alain and Harold are the founding fathers of the strategy and the only seniors who have been in the team since inception in 2008.

2020, 01 October

The Dividend Letter

With the September launch of a sustainable version of our Global Dividend strategy, there is rarely a better moment to discuss how we treat ESG as part of our investment philosophy. The fact that we chose to launch a ‘green’ version of our fund doesn’t mean we ignored sustainability before. It is an important factor to consider in our high dividend universe, given that the space tends to be geared towards more ‘dirty’ industries compared to the broader market. It is our belief that a company cannot add value over the long term if its business model is unsustainable, be it because it is harmful to its environment or by being overtaken by cleaner technology. To put our beliefs into practice, our ESG approach has three pillars: Exclude, Integrate and Engage, with each more progressive than the one before. Exclude the violators from our universe, integrate sustainability into the investment process and engage with the companies where we can drive positive change.

2020, 01 October

White paper: Chinese equities

China is the world’s second biggest economy in GDP terms (and already the largest in purchasing power parity terms). China is expected to achieve absolute GDP parity with the US, depending on growth rates, within the next 10-20 years. This seems to be a forgone conclusion; it has the world’s largest population (at more than three times the size of the US population), a growing middle class and large rural population that provides a pool for future growth.

2020, 30 September

Time for investors to show up in the race to net-zero emissions

In this quarterly newsletter, we take a closer look at the world of responsible and sustainable investment. At Kempen Capital Management, Environmental Social Governance (ESG) factors are fully integrated throughout our investment process, and for us responsible investment means being good stewards of the companies that we invest in. We encourage positive change through engagement with the management of our investee companies and through actively using our shareholder voting rights.

2020, 22 September

Investing in utilities

At Kempen, integrating ESG criteria is an integral part of all our investment processes. This can manifest itself in what are on the face of it some surprising ways. Our high-dividend equity strategies, for example, have significant exposure to high-dividend payers in the utilities sector, which have long been major polluters.

2020, 14 September

Asset Allocation Outlook September

August is traditionally a month in which little happens on the financial markets. According to market wisdom there’s no point in coming back until September, but this year was an exception to the rule. The MSCI global equity index posted a gain of 6.0%. Japanese equities rose in price by as much as 8.2%, followed by US equities at 7.0%, with European equities and emerging market equities lagging far behind with pluses of 3.4% and 2.1%. The positive climate for risky assets led to tighter spreads on Southern European government bonds, Investment Grade and High Yield credits and emerging market debt.

2020, 11 September

Monthly Commentary

Following the Jackson hole meeting of Central bankers at the end of August there has been some talk about the mandates of Central banks, why they matter and what the impact of changing them can be.

2020, 10 September

White paper: The rise, role, risks and rewards of the sole trustees

The number of schemes using a professional trustee continues to gain momentum; and in this paper we explore the rapid growth in the sole trustee market. Whilst today the appointment of a sole trustee is biased towards smaller schemes, there is evidence that larger schemes are also adopting the sole trustee model.

2020, 07 September

Van Lanschot Kempen appoints Jeroen Berns Head of Kempen Merchant Banking

Van Lanschot Kempen announces today that Jeroen Berns will be appointed as Head of Kempen Merchant Banking per 14 September. The activities of Merchant Banking include Corporate Finance, Equity Capital Markets and Securities.

2020, 10 November

Kempen has won Fiduciary Manager of the Year for the second year in a row

Kempen has won Fiduciary Manager of the Year for the second year in a row at Financial News’ European Asset Management Awards 2020

2020, 05 November

Kempen wins ICGN Global Stewardship Award

Kempen Capital Management (Kempen) is the winner of the ICGN Global Stewardship Disclosure Awards in the Asset Managers <$ 60bn AuM category.

2020, 04 November

Febelfin sustainability label for Kempen funds

As of today, five Kempen funds are entitled to carry the Febelfin sustainability label. It has been a year since the Belgian organization Febelfin, in consultation with its stakeholders, has developed a quality standard for sustainable financial products, including investment funds. Products that comply with the requirements for this standard are awarded the sustainability label. In the first round of last year, Kempen received the label for 4 funds, to which a fifth fund was added in this round. Kempen is pleased with this recognition of the ESG approach. The label guarantees that the funds invest in a sustainable and socially-responsible manner.

2020, 29 October

Van Lanschot Kempen: trading update third quarter 2020

Van Lanschot Kempen today released its trading update for the third quarter of 2020.