Azimut Group has become the first asset management company in Luxembourg to obtain authorization from the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier to manage virtual asset investment strategies.
Through the Azimut Investments platform, the company plans to launch the AZ RAIF Digital Assets fund that will invest in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin or Ether, in DeFi tokens or in equity of fintech companies and those working in the blockchain space.
The authorization allows Azimut Investments to extend its AIFM licence to more efficiently manage alternative investment funds (AIFs) that will give exposure to these new asset classes in an active, diversified way and within precise risk management frameworks.
AZ RAIF Digital Asset is the second largest crypto asset management fund in Europe, but will be managed from the Group’s investment hub in Singapore, considered the world’s leading digital finance country.
Commenting on this important opportunity, Giorgio Medda, Global Head of Asset Management at the Group, said:
“The product initiative is aimed at long-term investment objectives, on broader diversification horizons for our customers’ portfolios in an extremely dynamic market environment.”
Azimut and crypto
Azimut, founded in Italy in 1989, is one of the largest independent asset managers in Europe and the first in the country.
It operates on all world markets, integrating asset management and distribution in order to identify and create the best market opportunities for every type of investor.
The parent company Azimut Holding was listed on the Italian Stock Exchange on 7 July 2004 (AZM.MI) and, among others, is a member of the main Italian index FTSE MIB. Azimut currently has a market cap of €3 billion and a share price of €21.25.
In recent months, Azimut Group has increasingly entered the virtual asset market: in April it issued Azim Token, in collaboration with Sygnum, the world’s first digital asset bank, which digitally represents a portfolio of €5 million in loans to Italian small and medium-sized enterprises.
Azim is the first security token in the world promoted by an asset management company which, according to group founder Pietro Giuliani, will open a new frontier in real economy investments and offer new scenarios for asset management where, through the tokenization process, even investments that usually cannot be liquidated in the short term, such as those in private markets, can become liquid and immediately transferable thanks to blockchain technology.
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