Marco Zanuso: Generali Investments is a platform of 12 distinctive Asset Managers. Our active investment strategies and solutions span both public and private markets, liquid alternatives and are managed by specialist affiliated asset management companies.
Their investment autonomy helps ensure our clients benefit from independent, innovative thinking, combined with the stability of being part of Generali Investments. The platform set-up allows us to have “skin in the game” in a variety of areas because we are the majority shareholder of each of the affiliates that we own. We can also provide seed or acceleration capital to grow the business, thanks to our parent company, Generali Group, one of the world’s largest insurance and asset management players.
Among the nominated asset managers, Generali Asset Management is the largest of our affiliates. While historically it was the in-house manager for Generali Group, today it manages investments for various institutional clients across Europe, including pension funds, Generali Group mandates, and other insurance clients. Their core expertise is in fixed income, private assets, multi-asset, and equities.
The other nominated manager is Sosteneo Infrastructure Partners, which is dedicated to greenfield infrastructure equity investment across Europe. They are focused on energy transition and private equity infrastructure investments.
Finally, we have Conning, a world-leading specialist asset manager for insurance companies and institutional clients predominantly in North America, the UK, and APAC.
Marco: If we start with Generali Asset Management, one of their focuses is a new private credit secondary fund, launched together with Partners Group, who advise Generali on both origination and distribution. This is a relatively new investment proposition that leverages a very attractive nascent market. While there are several private equity secondary funds out there, this is one of the first private debt secondary funds, so it is attracting strong interest from a variety of investors. By investing in seasoned portfolios through secondary transactions, investors may gain enhanced visibility on underlying assets, shorter durations, and potentially faster capital deployment.
Staying with Generali Asset Management, and turning to fixed income, their flagship active European government bond strategies – as well as their European aggregate and investment grade credit strategies – continue to attract strong flows and investor demand, particularly as European fixed income investors seek to diversify their core portfolios and manage volatility.
At Conning, we continue to see strong demand for their award-winning management software platform. It is essentially a simulation tool for modelling investment risk tailored to the unique requirements of each insurance company. The tool is useful for creating a differential analysis and allows an insurance company to perform strategic asset allocation and allocation optimisation based on that scenario analysis.
"Sosteneo looks for differentiated infrastructure opportunities and therefore
includes greenfield investments in areas like battery storage."
Finally, Sosteneo has launched the second vintage of their flagship infrastructure equity fund, which is a unique portfolio of greenfield – but construction-ready – projects across Europe. Sosteneo looks for differentiated infrastructure opportunities and therefore includes greenfield investments in areas like battery storage, for example – a key area for growth as the need to manage and store renewable energy generation will only increase.
Marco: In broader terms, insurance companies are reshaping portfolio strategies. As yields have declined, clients are increasingly focused on enhancing carry by moving down both the liquidity (non-public) and complexity (securitised) curves. However, this pursuit of yield is tempered by heightened caution around credit risk and sovereign exposures. These shifts are prompting extensive reworking of Strategic Asset Allocations (SAAs), with a renewed emphasis on capital efficiency and diversified asset allocation.
Equities, meanwhile, are seeing limited interest, as many investors perceive them to be overvalued and capital-intensive. At the same time, lower yields have helped reduce unrealised losses—or even generate unrealised gains—freeing up portfolios for more active trading and tactical repositioning.
"The advantages of private assets are well-known – they enable access to the illiquidity premium and support the construction of more diversified portfolios."
Also, the dual needs of yield pickup and inflation mitigation are key for investors right now. We believe that private assets – such as private debt, infrastructure, and real estate investments – are increasingly necessary to diversify portfolios and mitigate against the volatility of listed markets.
The strategic advantages of private assets are well-known – they enable access to the illiquidity premium and support the construction of more stable, diversified portfolios that are less correlated to public markets. In addition, many private debt instruments – such as senior secured loans, which are seeing increased popularity – feature variable interest rates, providing a natural hedge against rate volatility.
Real estate debt is also rising in demand as European banks retreat from corporate lending due to stricter capital requirements, creating a structural opportunity for non-bank lenders. At the same time, institutional investors like insurers and pension funds are seeking higher-yielding, diversified credit in a maturing market ecosystem, making private real estate debt especially attractive.
Infrastructure debt is also an emerging trend in client portfolios, thanks to its ability to generate strong yields while providing a hedge against inflation. Powerful megatrends such as decarbonisation, digitalisation, and ageing demographics are driving long-term demand for the financing of new infrastructure projects, providing investors with stable cash flows, strong underlying collateral, and structured risk protections.
Marco: The global picture right now is complex, especially when comparing the US with Europe. On the one hand, valuations for risk assets like equities and credit are stretched – European credit spreads are close to the tightest we’ve seen since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
That said, the fundamentals are holding up. We see resilience in both equities and credit, and we’re moderately optimistic about the outlook. Interestingly, global investors who traditionally were heavily exposed to US dollar-denominated fixed income are now starting to diversify into European fixed income, which is driving fresh demand.
Marco: This is something we’ve been exploring at Generali Investments through our recent review of emerging risks. Three areas that stood out for us were: geopolitical instability, artificial intelligence (AI), and cybersecurity risks, especially those connected to AI.
"The ethics of AI need to be baked into internal procedures from the start.
At the same time, the growing use of AI raises cybersecurity risks."
Geopolitical instability, in particular, isn’t fully embedded into industry risk frameworks, but we see it as a primary concern. It directly shapes investment decisions and operational processes, so it can’t be ignored.
Then there’s AI. We’re actively integrating AI tools into our processes, but it’s critical to do this responsibly. The ethics of AI need to be baked into internal procedures from the start. At the same time, the growing use of AI inevitably raises cybersecurity risks. As a firm, we are focused on putting robust protections in place to manage those threats effectively.
