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Ce mémoire présente dans un premier temps le marché des voitures de collection. Il compare ensuite celles-ci à différents indices de marché afin d'analyser son profil de risque ainsi que ses rendements. Enfin, ce travail finit par l'élaboration des portefeuilles optimaux d'investissement dans un but de minimisation du risque ou de maximisation du ratio rendement-risque.

classic cars --- alternative investments --- collectibles --- diversification --- portfolio optimization --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Finance

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Over the recent years, traditional asset classes have shown poor financial performance. This led to an increased interest in alternative investments such as hedge funds, gold, real estate and collectibles. This study explores the possibility of extending the definition of alternative assets to professional athletes and especially professional golf players. The study starts with an in-depth literature review, conducted with two separate objectives that are to be met. The first objective is to determine whether athletes and professional golf players could be considered as an alternative asset from a theoretical perspective and from a quantitative perspective. For this reason, the literature review also aims at determining whether any existing valuation models exist for professional athletes. The second objective of this thesis is to study the impact of the Blockchain technology in such process. 

The analysis of the literature highlights that no limitation exists to the inclusion of new asset classes to the field of alternative assets. However, some authors argue that it is essential to establish a valuation model that allows the financialization of golfers. An Index-based valuation model is developed in this thesis in order to allow a relative valuation of professional golfers. The model focuses on the statistical performance of players who played on the European Tour during the 2018 season. Nevertheless, the literature review shows that investing directly in athletes leads to ethical and legal issues. That is the reason why a specific focus is put on the Blockchain technology. Nowadays, Blockchain is changing the way conventional industries are organized. Thanks to the concept of Smart Contracts, using this technology in such models could help solving some ethical issues such as Money Laundering. Therefore, this study aims at highlighting the ins and outs of using Blockchain while taking into account the conditions related to the use of golf players in a tokenization process. 

As a conclusion, this thesis suggests that from a literary point of view, golfers can be considered as a tool for financial diversification. On the other hand, the model developed enables investors to compare professional golfers in terms of their performance. This allows the financialization of golfers and could ease their trade. The fact that these athletes can, in principle, be considered as alternative assets means that they can also be used in a tokenization process.

Alternative investments --- Financialization --- Professional golfers’ valuation --- European Tour --- Blockchain --- Tokenization --- Smart Contracts --- AML --- KYC --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Finance

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The global financial crisis of 2008, the collapse of Lehman Brothers and Ponzi scheme scandals such as the Madoff case have led to the implementation of new financial regulations worldwide. In Europe, the management of alternative investment funds has often been questioned and held responsible for the severity of the crisis. For this reason, a new regulation named the Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) Directive entered into force on 21st July 2011. This Directive, which has given rise to much controversy, regulates the activity of Alternative Investment Fund Managers, funds that are not harmonized under the UCITS Directive. The objective of the AIFMD is to improve the transparency and control of these funds by creating harmonization within the European Union. 

This new regulation brings many changes for managers of PE funds, which until now were not subject to any regulation at the supranational level. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the impact of the AIFMD on the Private Equity sector in Europe. More specifically, the idea is to determine whether the AIFMD has brought additional costs or opportunities for PE funds. Through the study, the specificities of the PE sector and the main elements of the Directive are discussed. Then, the viewpoint of the literature, mainly dating from 2012 to 2014, is highlighted. It appears that at the time, the authors' views on the impact of the AIFMD were relatively negative and pessimistic. Finally, a more current qualitative study is conducted with 11 professionals from the PE sector having a good knowledge of the AIFMD. Here, the professionals interviewed draw a rather positive conclusion overall.

The results of our research demonstrates that it is difficult to generalize the impact of the AIFM Directive to the entire PE industry, but a positive trend is emerging overall from the various opinions gathered from professionals interviewed. Indeed, some requirements of the Directive are perceived as more restrictive for smaller AIFMs as opposed to larger players who have the necessary infrastructure. However, the PE industry as a whole was able to adapt to the new modus operandi. 

For future academic research, it would be wise to divide the PE industry into small and large AIFMs to study the impact of the AIFMD on each sub-category. Finally, this work focuses on a qualitative study but a quantitative dimension, via a difference-in-differences method, could be brought in to support the results of this thesis.

AIFM --- AIFMD --- Alternative investments --- Private Equity --- Directive --- Europe --- GFIA --- Investissements alternatifs --- Capital-investissement --- Directive --- Europe --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Finance

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Although considered as opaque and mysterious, nowadays the illiquid assets represent an investment opportunity increasingly talked about by the various different institutional investors. Indeed, it turns out that all of the assets, either financial or real, are somewhat illiquid, but what varies is their degree of illiquidity, portrayed as their liquid event occurrences. This degree of illiquidity results in a premium for the investors, making up for the higher risks taken while investing in such particular assets. Besides this concept of illiquidity and the appealing related premium, these assets are also extremely attractive because they provide, among other, higher risk-adjusted returns than the traditional assets, a reduction of the systematic-risk of a portfolio through diversification and a key noncyclical characteristic.
Naturally, investing in these assets represents a massive risk and a challenge considering the fact that there is massive lack of information and the market is decentralized, without any public quotations. Therefore, the investors, mostly institutional, are active and constantly developing their knowledge of the field to take advantage of the few available information.
In this context, Pure Capital S.A., an independent asset manager established in Luxembourg, desires to develop its activities and to take advantage of the illiquid assets through the development of its Management Company service. 
Therefore, through this project, Pure Capital S.A. will be provided with a genuine toolbox. The latter is composed of a literature and theoretical background concerning the illiquid assets, making up for the frame of the actual tools. These are, more particularly, on one hand, the Decision Tree, derived into identity sheets for each of the studied illiquid assets, gathering the major useful features for the determination of the specific illiquid asset sub-category. On the other hand, the Valuation Matrix gives, within seconds, the corresponding and recommended valuation approaches to conduct, for each of the illiquid asset sub-categories which are at stake for Pure Capital S.A. in this project. 
The different implemented valuation methodologies are aimed to be generical and user-friendly, to encompass as many cases as possible and enabling Pure Capital S.A. to perform effortless counter valuations. They are developed qualitatively and some, quantitatively.

Alternative investments --- Illiquidity --- Private Equity --- Private Debt --- Real Estate --- Infrastructure --- Corporate Finance --- Valuation --- Income Approach --- Market Approach --- Cost Approach. --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Finance