FERI expects demand for alternative investments such as private markets (private equity, infrastructure, real estate) and hedge fund investments to continue rising strongly in the coming years. FERI currently manages alternative investments exceeding 18 billion euros, making it one of the largest providers in Germany.
For more than 20 years, we have been offering our clients individually tailored risk management solutions. Market risks are actively managed according to risk and return parameters jointly defined in advance.
In institutional asset management, FERI offers a broad range of asset management services for institutional investors. Our investment specialists have many years of experience in all asset classes and follow a multi-asset approach ranging from the development and implementation of individual investment strategies to quantitative risk management and control.
FERI expects demand for alternative investments such as private markets (private equity, infrastructure, real estate) and hedge fund investments to continue rising strongly in the coming years. FERI currently manages alternative investments exceeding 18 billion euros, making it one of the largest providers in Germany.
For more than 20 years, we have been offering our clients individually tailored risk management solutions. Market risks are actively managed according to risk and return parameters jointly defined in advance.
FERI is a byword for comprehensive, individual, transparent and sustainable advice and support for private clients. With over 30 years of experience, we offer private investors a wide range of asset management services.
For us, your requirements and needs are the basis for planning and optimising your asset structure. We always keep an eye on all legal and tax aspects and try to bring about improvements for you. As we work strategically on a long-term basis, we place a strong focus on comprehensive future and succession planning. Foundation consulting is also part of our strategic asset structuring.
The FERI family office is the strategy advisor for your assets. We offer services ranging from strategic asset planning, implementation consulting and results monitoring and controls, through risk management and asset protection strategies to sustainability consulting.
With the help of an asset liability management study, FERI can show you whether a financing system in its current form is sustainable and whether sufficient risk carriers are available or whether a modification of the system is advisable.
During the transition to a sustainable future, FERI guides and supports you in the implementation of a sustainability concept and in the implementation and further development of existing solutions.
FERI’s comprehensive support ranges from optimal asset allocation and investment planning to appointing managers, reporting, monitoring and controls. Clear structures always ensure well-documented decisions and transparent investments.
FERI carries out a cost check in three steps and determines the costs for mandates, depositaries and investment management. In times of persistently low interest rates, these are a key factor in the performance of any portfolio.
FERI uses the three-step manager check to assess the quality and performance of asset managers.
FERI evaluates current portfolios in terms of expected returns and risk and checks whether the allocation still meets the requirements regarding yield and available risk budget. In addition, FERI presents you with alternative portfolios that promise higher returns with the same risk or offer similar opportunities for returns with reduced risk.
To ensure the success of the investment, FERI provides guidance on risk management processes. These range from the preparation of a risk manual and risk inventory to regular reporting and commentary.
In order to identify the risk sources and their distribution in the portfolio of an investment, FERI prepares a risk sheet, which makes this information transparent and clear. It clearly shows what share of the overall risk is attributable to the individual investment funds, segments and asset classes.
FERI offers its clients the entire process of investment consulting and has continuously developed it since the 1990s. Thanks to our extensive experience, self-developed research and analysing tools and the access to around 250 employees in all areas of the investment process, we create significant added value for our clients through our range of consulting services.
Asset allocation – an overview of the latest market developments. FERI offers optimal, quantitative and qualitative support for decision-making, both in terms of strategic and tactical asset allocation.
FERI’s economic expertise is used in high-profile companies for operational planning and market research and in numerous banks for risk management from an industry perspective. We offer our clients the following services: worldwide economic data; global macro research; global economic, interest rate and currency forecasts; country and sector outlooks; FERI sector rating.
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Economics Update August 2025 - The apparent weakness of the EU offers opportunities

Bad Homburg, 8/5/2025
by Axel D. Angermann
  • A trade deal that is exclusively beneficial to the US once again highlights the EU's self-inflicted weakness
  • Necessary productivity gains to defend competitiveness are feasible
  • Political action is necessary – this insight must be followed by much faster and more consistent implementation

Let's start with a look back at history: for decades, the economic strength of the Federal Republic of Germany, and its industry in particular, was based on high productivity growth. The pressure to achieve ever greater productivity gains resulted, among other things, from the latent strength of the German mark, which in turn was the result of the Bundesbank's strictly stability-oriented monetary policy. For export-oriented companies, this led to a more or less continuous deterioration in their price competitiveness. They could only counteract this through continued productivity gains and innovation. Most companies took up this challenge and successfully mastered it. The fact that policymakers generally ensured adequate framework conditions was a necessary condition for overall economic success.

The deal on future tariffs in trade between the US and the European Union (EU) unilaterally disadvantages companies in the EU. While their US competitors will be able to import their products into the EU duty-free in future, exports from the EU to the US will become more expensive, generally by 15 percent. It is probably true that the EU Commission had no way of reaching a better agreement. Companies will therefore have to come to terms with this. Some of them will increase their production capacities in the US, but in many cases this will not be a viable option. Defending market share in the important US market therefore requires productivity gains that compensate as much as possible for the price disadvantage resulting from the tariff deal.

Europe has positive location factors

As described at the outset, this is by no means a hopeless endeavor. In terms of the overall conditions, Europe as a location also has a number of positive factors to offer: These include the high level of training of skilled workers and a high overall level of education—anyone who focuses more on building up production capacities in the US itself will be able to report on this. Infrastructure is also a plus point for Europe in many areas. In addition, political stability, reliable framework conditions, and legal certainty could become a greater competitive advantage for Europe than could have been imagined just a few years ago, given the erratic politics in the US.

What is clearly missing: politicians must focus on the essentials and act quickly and consistently. What needs to be done is on the table – for example, in the form of the Draghi report. In fact, since the new Commission took office, there has been a fundamentally correct shift in priorities towards improving competitiveness. What matters now, however, is speed of implementation. A current example: It is right for the European Commission to make appropriate proposals for the next EU budget. However, it would have been truly appropriate to say, in Trumpian fashion: We are not going to change our priorities in 2028, but right now – let's reach an agreement on this in the fall of this year and put the new budget into effect in January 2026. That would have been a clear statement that not only has the sign of the times been recognized, but that there is also the will and ability to act accordingly. If the deal that forced the EU to submit to Trump results in a change of approach here, the EU could benefit from it in the long term.


About Axel D. Angermann

As Chief Economist of the FERI Group, Axel D. Angermann analyzes the economic, monetary policy and structural developments of all markets that are important for asset allocation. His analyses form the basis for the strategic orientation of FERI's multi-asset strategy, for which the CIO of the FERI Group, Dr. Marcel V. Lähn, is responsible. Angermann himself has been responsible for FERI's analyses and forecasts for the overall economy and the international financial markets since 2008. He joined the company in 2002 as a macro analyst. His professional career began at the Max Planck Institute for Economics and the German Chemical Industry Association. Angermann studied economics in Berlin and Bayreuth.

About FERI

The FERI Group, headquartered in Bad Homburg, Germany, was founded in 1987 and has developed into one of the leading multi-asset investment houses in the German-speaking region. FERI offers tailor-made solutions for institutional investors, family assets and foundations in the business areas:

Founded in 2016, the FERI Cognitive Finance Institute acts as a strategic research center and creative think tank within the FERI Group, with a clear focus on innovative analyses and method development for long-term aspects of economic and capital market research.

Together with MLP, FERI currently manages assets of EUR 63 billion, including around EUR 18 billion in alternative investments. In addition to its headquarters in Bad Homburg, the FERI Group also has offices in Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hanover, Munich, Luxembourg, Vienna and Zurich.



Media relations contact

Marcel Renné

Chairman of the Board & CEO

Rathausplatz 8-10

D-61348 Bad Homburg

Axel Angermann