In his latest JPMorgan shareholder letter, CEO Jamie Dimon warned that risks in private credit are likely being underestimated. In recent months, he has repeatedly referred to defaults in private credit as “cockroaches”: there is never just one, and their appearance often signals deeper, hidden problems.  The sharp rise in interest rates since 2022 has tightened lending condit ...

Despite outperforming the market over the long term, a lot of investors will have noticed that more recently, holding companies have underperformed the broader market. That feeling is correct as holding companies have returned 8,1% per annum between 2020 and 2025 whereas the MSCI World did more than 12%. Even though the returns of holding companies have not been terrible, they ...

Good Friday! This week, the first estimates of European inflation for March were published, and we looked for indicators of a resurrection in inflation (although it wasn't declared death yet). Rising energy prices, driven by the conflict in the Gulf region, are beginning to feed through into consumer price levels.European inflation increased from 1.9% in February to 2.5% in Mar ...

The Magnificent 7 (Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Tesla) have dominated US and global equity returns in recent years, with a massive impact on broad indices. In some years, this group delivered more than half of the S&P 500’s gains while rising to over 30% of index weight by mid‑2025, illustrating unprecedented concentration in a benchmark designed to be ...

After a very busy week, including what was hopefully an interesting webinar for our clients on Wednesday, I offer you a small but interesting thought on the oil price to put the recent rise into perspective for Europeans. For Europeans, the price of one barrel of oil is now similar to the pre-financial crisis peak and to the prices seen from 2010 to 2015, but it is still well b ...

The cable industry is a fast-growing sector, supported by four secular tailwinds: the accelerating transition to renewable energy, rising electricity consumption, power grid modernization, and digital transformation. Demand for electricity cables is being driven by the rapid shift toward renewable energy. By 2050, electricity demand is expected to double, while the share of ren ...

It was a big week for central banks. On Wednesday and Thursday, monetary policy decisions were made by the Bank of Canada, Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan, Bank of England and the European Central Bank. We were particularly focused on their forward guidance against the backdrop of escalating tensions in Iran, given the implications for energy prices and the inflation outlook. Al ...

As a technology investor, I regularly visit companies. Factory tours, CFO meetings, R&D presentations, it all comes with the job. The two-day KBCS Frontier Technology Tour on March 9 and 10 was one such experience. Together with my colleague, Matisse Cappon, and a select group of institutional investors, we travelled from a Belgian data center to the cleanest cleanroom in E ...

Almost two weeks after the escalation of the Iran conflict, European consumers may be starting to feel the impact in their wallets. Europe entered this shock with headline inflation in the euro area at 1,9% in February 2026, while the energy component was still -3,2% year-on-year. This starting point matters: an oil price spike can quickly turn energy from a drag on inflation i ...

This week, instead of a chart, we include a simple map from the International Energy Agency (IEA) illustrating the Gulf’s oil exports that transit through the Strait of Hormuz. Considering last weekend’s sharp escalation in Iran and the wider Gulf region, we highlight the macro-economic importance of this narrow passage between Iran and Oman for global energy flows…and economic ...