P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Although many banks have made substantial progress in reducing the size of hteir balance sheets, they still have some way to go to meet the requirements of regulators and investors. At a time when an economic recovery is emerging in the United Kingdom and continental Europe, parallel or shadow banking is continuing to grow both in terms of volume and offerings. The agency Standard & Poor’s estimates, however, that the growth of shadow banking in western Europe could be slowed by some factors despite clear signs of a growing need for financing alternatives.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Stanislas Grenet, in charge of the credit arbitrage activity at Ofi Asset Management, is joining the convertible bond team at the asset management firm Ofi AM, led by Nancy Scribot–Blanchet et Olivier Ravey. Grenet will continue his credit arbitrage management activity. He reinforces the new team for the creation and management of synthetic convertibles. Grenet joined ADI Alternative Investments in 2006 as a manager-analyst for convertibles, and was later taken over by the Ofi group.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Despite its significant exposure to emerging markets, Barings in France has managed to finish the year 203 with net inflows of EUR80m, Benoît du Mesnil du Buisson, chairman of Baring Asset Management France, tells Newsmanagers. Assets under management as of the end of December 2013 totalled slightly over EUR1bn, compared with EUR900m as of the end of 2012. Groupwide, assets under management remained stable at about EUR44bn.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As Argentine is facing a seond default in 13 years, two US hedge funds are playing a central role but on opposing sides in effort to help the country through its current crisis, the Wall Street Journal relates. The two firms, Gramercy Funds Management and Elliott Management, have hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. But they have adopted contrary tactics in their attempts to get their money back. Gramercy, which has USD3.9bnin assets, is advising Argentine behind the curtain on how to restore their reputation with the international community and regain access to the markets. Gamercy is facing off against Elliott, which has been fighting Argentina for years.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The asset management firm Algebris Investments wants to continue to grow through new sales agreements, Alessandro Alsagna, COO of the structure, which has EUR1.5bn in assets, explains to Bluerating. “In partnership with a fund with only one strategy, we have in the past few years reached the point of managing various managed accounts and six funds, three of which are in UCITS format,” the director says. To sell this range, “We have in all eight agreements with distribution networks.”
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Italian asset management firm Kairos Partners, in which Julius Baer owns a stake, has recruitd Amir Kuhdari as head of sales. Kuhdari has worked for the past seven years at Franklin Templeton Italia, where he was sales manager and head of retail.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Pimco has signed a joint venture with GWM, a financial company controlled by the Italian Diaz Pallavicini and Rovati families, in order to invest in shopping centres and sales points in Italy and Europe, Plus24, the money supplement of Il Sole – 24 Ore, reports. The partnership will have about EUR1bn, due to a contribution of EUR500m from the two partners (70% Pimco and 30% GWM), while the rest will come from financing. GWM will manage the investments. The first investment has already been made for EUR130m: the Da Vinci shopping centre located in the vicinity of one of the Rome airports. It is the largest shopping cente in Italy, with an area of 56,000 square metres.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Neil Woodford, the star manager who left Invesco to join an entrepreneurial project at Oakley Capital, will manage assets under his own name, Fundweb reveals. Woodford Investment Management was founded on 15 January. The firm is located in offices in Oakley, which Woodford will join on 1 May.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British private bank Coutts has announced the recruitment of Arne Hassel as its new chief investment officer from April 2014, Money Marketing reports. Hassel, who previously worked ass co-head of multi-asset class allocation for the Universities Superannuation Scheme in London, succeeds Gayle Schumacher, who has been appointed as managing director in charge of development projects, alongside the head of products, services and marketing, Ian Ewart.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Fidelity Worldwide Investments wants to add to tis range of passively-managed funds aimed at independent financial advisers, with the launch in March this year of strategies based on Europe ex UK, Japan, emerging markets and the Pacific ex Japan region. The Us group already offers passeive strategies for the US, the world and the United States. The funds will be available to independent advisers and a few wealth managers on the Fidelity FundsNetwork platform. The funds charge 0.16% for Europe ex-UK, 0.27% for emerging markets, 0.15% for Japan and 0.2% for the Pacific ex-Japan region. The tracker funds are managed by Geode Capital Management, an institutional asset managemnent firm created by Fidelity Investments.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The international organisation of securities commissions (IOSCO) on 10 February published a consultation document on the foundations of a code of conduct for ratings agencies, which proposes significant changes to the current code from the organisation. The code was revised in 2008, after the bursting of the financial bubble, to introduce terms to improve the quality of information as well as reflections on the resolution of conflicts of interest related to the role of ratings agencies with issuers in the creation of structured products.
The asset management industry may be looking at a bright future. According to a study released by PwC, assets under management worldwide, which now total about USD63.9trn, may see stratospheric growth, to a total of USD101.7trn by 2020, an annual growth rate of nearly 6%.In other words, asset management firms are increasingly expected to occupy the foreground, as European banks alone are expected to see a deficit in owners’ equity of USD380bn in the next five years, PwC estimates.Global AUM growth will be driven by pension funds, HNWIs and sovereign wealth funds, according to PwC. In 2012, the AM industry managed 36.5% of assets held by pension funds, sovereign wealth funds (SWF), insurance companies, mass affluent and high-net-worth individuals (HNWI). PwC predicts that by 2020 the AM industry will manage USD101.7 trillion of clients’ assets, implicitly assuming the penetration rate to remain constant. However, given the AM industry is successful in penetrating these clients assets further, PwC believe that the AM industry would be able to increase their share of managed assets by 10% to a level of 46.5%, which would in turn represent a USD130 trillion in global AUM. Also, assets under management in the South America, Asia, Africa, Middle East economies are set to grow faster than in the developed world in the years leading up to 2020, creating new pools of assets that can potentially be tapped by the AM industry. However, the majority of assets will still be concentrated in the US and Europe.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swiss equity specialist Urs Beck has joined EFG Asset Management to oversee the launch of a fund dedicated to the Swiss market, Citywire reports. Urs Beck previously worked at the Cantonal Bank of Zurich, where he was responsible for Swiss equities in institutional and retail mandates.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British firm Schroders has launched a fund dedicated to emerging market equities and particuarly to small caps, Citywire reports. The Schroder ISF Global Emerging Markets Smaller Companies fund, domiciled in Luxembourg, is currently in incubation and is aimed at institutional investors as a top priority.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Aviva Investors will liquidate its Property Investment fund with GBP78.9m in assets, due to its size, which makes it economically unviable, FT Adviser states. The fund had reached GBP200m in early 2011. Weak performance and redemptions had led to the fall in assets.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In 2013, Italian funds posted net inflows of EUR18.7bn, their best year since 1999. This return to grace has been favoured by banks, which thanks to a radical change in sales policy, have started offering funds again, especially coupon funds. According to a study carried out by Plus24, out of EUR48.7bn which were attracted to funds, about EUR30bn went to coupon funds, or 61% of the total. The newspaper stated that this is a low estimate, as asset management firms did not all disclose their data. Among the most active companies in coupon funds are Eurizon (EUR10bn in inflows to coupon funds in 2013), Pioneer Investments (EUR5.5bn), Aletti Gestielle (EUR4.7bn), Anima (EUR4.1bn), and Arca (EUR1.5bn). Plus24 claims that the commercial success of coupon funds is largely due to the attractive returns that sales networks can immediately earn.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The London-based hedge funds Fenician Capital has recruited Andrew Crane of Investcorp as its CEO, Financial News reports. Crane had previously worked for VHC Partners and Fielity Investments.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The ETP provider Source has recruited Dominic Clabby as director of intermediaries in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Fund Web reports. He will cover platforms, intermediaries and independent financial advisers. Clabby was previously at Axa Elecate.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Duke Street, a British private equity firm majority owned by the French asset management boutique Tikehau, has announced that it has signed an agreement to sell its stake in Marlin Financial Group, one of the leaders in debt repurchasing in the United Kingdom, to Cabot Credit Management Limited. The transaction values Marlin at about GBP295m, a statement says.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management and Harvest Global Investments are launching a physical replication ETF on the Milan stock exchange based on the CSI300 index, composed of Chinese A-class equities. The db x-trackers CSI00 Index UCITS ETF (DR) is, according to its promoter, the first ETF compliant with UCITS in Italy to offer investors direct access to the Chinese equity market.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Gottex Fund Management has launched the Swedish multi-asset class UCITS fund Gottex Balanserad Fund, on the Swedish life insurance platform Folksam, Hedge Week reports. The fund is invested in nine asset classes, including global and Swedish equities, emerging markets, real estate, commodities and hedge funds. The Swiss firm has at the same time opened an office in Stockholm (see Newsmanagers of 5 February).
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In the next few days, the Italian minister of the economy and finance will approve a measure which will allow asset management firms to make one-time extensions to the maturity dates for publicy-traded real estate funds, Plus24 reports. The rule will allow subscribers in the fund to share their opinions. The measure is meant to allow asset management firms to breathe, especialy those whose funds will soon be maturing, and whose portfolios are still full of real estate properties. According to the draft document obtained by Plus24, asset management firms will have to modify the rules for their funds by 30 June 2014, to insert a way to make a one-time extension to the duration of the fund for a maximal period of two years, for the purposes of completing sales of investments.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The financial ratings agency Moody’s on 11 February published a guide, the first of its kind, to issuers based in China, including ratings. The document includes the main financial data as well as a summary of the risk profile for each issuer rated by the agency. The first edition includes 139 issuers, 116 Corporate and product & Infrastructure, 22 financial institutions, and China as a sovereign issuer.
Simon Warner has been appointed as head of fixed income for AMP Capital, effective immediately. He replaces Mark Beardow, who was announced as chief investment officer of specialist investment teams in December 2013.Simon Warner has held the role of AMP Capital’s Head of Macro Markets within the fixed income team for the past seven years, Prior to joining AMP Capital in March 2007, he held a range of investment roles with JPMorgan Chase in London, Sydney and Singapore. The fixed income team has 30 dedicated investment professionals based in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Chicago.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Korean sovereign fund, Korea Investment Corporation (KIC), will create a research centre with 20 people to assist with its macro and microeconomic analysis process, Asian Investor reports. The new head of the pension fund, Ahn Hank Hong-Chul, says he take inspiration from major sovereign funds such as NBIM in Norway and GIC in Singapore, which have put research at the core of their investment processes. Assets under management at KIC total about USD72bn.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Finnish pension fund Etera Mutual Pension Insurance Company (Etera) has awarded a mandate to State Street to provide a range of solutions for pension funds. The mandate for services from State Street on more than EUR5.6bn in assets under management will include securities custody, fund accounting, securities lending, derivative product compensation, collateral management, routing of UCITS orders, and dailyrisk monitoring services. “Institutional investors need access to data in real time to optimise their investment decisions. That helps to explain why nearly 90% of them are planning to invest in order management and execution systems in the next three years”, says Paola Bergamaschi, head of solutions dedicated to pension funds for the EMEA region at State Street.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CAD175bn in assets) is launching an in-house hedge fund at its London office, Financial News reports. To do that, the Canadian pension fund has recruited Dureka Carrasquille from Tranberg Capital. Alain Carrier, head of Europe at CPPIB, says that the fund wants to recruit a team of five professionals to construct a long/short portfolio to target Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Le fonds de pension finlandais Etera Mutual Pension Insurance Company (Etera) a attribué un mandat à State Street pour lui fournir une gamme de solutions pour fonds de pension. Portant sur plus de 5,6 milliards d’euros d’actifs sous gestion, les prestations de State Street comprendront des services de conservation de titres, de comptabilité de fonds, de prêt-emprunt de titres, de compensation de produits dérivés, de gestion de collatéral, de routage d’ordres OPCVM, et de services de suivi quotidien du risque."Les investisseurs institutionnels ont besoin d’accéder aux données en temps réel pour optimiser leurs décisions d’investissement. Cela contribue à expliquer pourquoi presque 90 % d’entre eux prévoient d’investir dans des systèmes de gestion et d’exécution des ordres au cours des trois prochaines années», commente Paola Bergamaschi, responsable EMEA des solutions dédiées aux fonds de pension chez State Street.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The investment unit of the Church of England, Church Commissioners, is increasing its allocation of assets to alternative investments to 33%, Financial News reports. One quarter of the portfolio of GBP4bn is now invested in alternatives.
Duke Street, société de private equity britannique détenue à majorité par la boutique de gestion française Tikehau, annonce avoir signé un accord pour la cession de sa participation dans Marlin Financial Group, l’un des leaders du rachat de créances au Royaume-Uni, à Cabot Credit Management Limited. La transaction valorise Marlin à environ 295 millions de livres, précise un communiqué.