Le président de l’Eurogroupe Jeroen Dijsselbloem a fait savoir mardi que la Grèce avait pris les mesures requises pour obtenir ce versement en modernisant son secteur public, en réorganisant son système judiciaire et en préparant le terrain à des privatisations. Un accord sur d’autres sujets, notamment le marché du travail, ne devrait pas être conclu avant janvier pour débloquer 4,9 milliards d’euros supplémentaires au titre de 2013.

Les recettes fiscales ont poursuivi leur rebond l’an passé dans la majorité des pays de l’OCDE après le creux enregistré en 2008/2009 au plus fort de la crise, grâce au retour de la croissance chez certains et aux hausses d’impôts décidées par d’autres pour redresser leurs comptes publics. Le ratio moyen recettes fiscales/PIB s’est élevé ainsi à 34,6% en 2012 dans les pays membres de l’Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, contre 34,1% en 2011 et 33,8% en 2010, selon des statistiques publiées mardi. Il avait chuté à 33,6% en 2009. L’an passé, ce ratio a augmenté dans 21 des 30 pays pour lesquels des données sont disponibles et a diminué dans les neuf autres. Les hausses les plus marquées ont été observées en Hongrie (+1,8 point) et en Grèce (+1,6 point), puis en Italie et Nouvelle-Zélande (+1,4 point). La Belgique, la France et l’Islande (+1,2 point) suivent juste derrière.

La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, qui tire de l’arrière par rapport à ses rivaux canadiens pour ce qui est des investissements dans les infrastructures, vise un portefeuille de plus de 10 milliards de dollars dans ce secteur d’ici 2 ou 3 ans. « C’est une catégorie d’actifs particulièrement attrayante parce qu’elle est à long terme et qu’elle offre par conséquent un appariement naturel avec les obligations des déposants (Régie des rentes, etc.) », affirme à La Presse Affaires Macky Tall, vice-président principal aux infrastructures à la Caisse. Aéroports, autoroutes à péage, pipelines, entreprises de transport, sociétés de services publics et même hôpitaux: les infrastructures sont des actifs diversifiés et très prisés. La Caisse vient de marquer un grand coup en investissant 1 milliard pour acquérir d’une firme américaine une participation de 26,7% dans le port de Brisbane, en Australie. Troisième port de conteneurs du pays, c’est celui qui est situé le plus près de l’Asie. Chaque année, 50 milliards de dollars de marchandises internationales y transitent. « L’Australie est une grande île, alors un port revêt un caractère stratégique encore plus important qu’en Amérique du Nord ou en Europe, souligne M. Tall. C’est le premier investissement de la Caisse dans ce secteur. ??a faisait plusieurs années que nous regardions des opportunités portuaires à travers le monde. » Les investisseurs institutionnels s’intéressent aux ports parce que leurs sources de revenus sont complémentaires: l’une est constituée des loyers facturés aux entreprises maritimes qui y louent des espaces, et l’autre provient des tarifs d’amarrage imposés aux armateurs. La première est stable, alors que la seconde fluctue en fonction de l'économie. Populaire, l’Australie Les investisseurs du monde entier se ruent actuellement sur l’Australie, qui s’est montrée résiliente pendant la récession. Borealis, le fonds d’infrastructures du Régime de retraite des employés municipaux de l’Ontario (OMERS), était en lice contre la Caisse pour le port de Brisbane. Plus tôt cette année, le Régime de retraite des enseignants de l’Ontario (Teachers’) a investi dans un groupe de télécommunications de Sydney, alors que l’Office d’investissement du Régime de pensions du Canada (OIRPC) multiplie les transactions immobilières dans le pays. Si 2012 avait été plutôt tranquille pour la Caisse dans le secteur des infrastructures, l’année qui se termine a été fort active. En plus du port de Brisbane, l’institution a porté à 200 millions ses investissements dans des projets en partenariat public-privé menés par la firme australienne Plenary Group. Elle a aussi investi 500 millions US dans des parcs d'éoliennes exploités par l’entreprise américaine Invenergy. « Depuis 2010, notre portefeuille d’infrastructures a plus que doublé, précise Macky Tall. Jusqu’où allons-nous nous rendre? ??a dépendra des opportunités. Notre portefeuille se chiffre actuellement à 6,5 milliards, alors on peut anticiper que d’ici 2 ou 3 ans, il pourrait dépasser les 10 milliards. » La Caisse a du rattrapage à faire: même si elle est le deuxième investisseur public en importance au pays, elle arrive au quatrième rang pour ce qui est des infrastructures, derrière OMERS, l’OIRPC et Teachers’. « Au cours des dernières années, nous n’avons pas, à la Caisse, investi autant en infrastructures que nous aurions souhaité le faire », confie M. Tall, 45 ans. Critères d’investissement « Nous regardons beaucoup de dossiers, mais nous en trouvons moins qu’auparavant qui respectent nos critères d’investissement, ajoute-t-il. Quand ils ne les respectent pas, on continue à chercher. Les bons actifs, on n’est pas les seuls sur la planète à vouloir les regarder. Nos pairs à Toronto, en Europe et en Australie les cherchent également. Pour les actifs de grande qualité, il y a donc de la concurrence. Nous devons faire preuve de discipline en nous assurant que le profil risque-rendement est intéressant et que le modèle économique est robuste et solide à long terme. » L’an dernier, la Caisse a ainsi vu deux transactions qui lui tenaient à coeur lui échapper: un investissement dans un exploitant australien de pipelines et un autre dans la société d’approvisionnement en eau de la région de Barcelone. Le portefeuille de la Caisse a aussi pâti de certains désinvestissements. Par exemple, elle a revendu ses participations dans les barrages ontariens de Produits forestiers Résolu et dans le pipeline américain Southern Star après quelques années seulement. Morale de l’histoire: même si les infrastructures sont des actifs à long terme, les investisseurs ne les conservent pas nécessairement dans leur portefeuille pour de longues périodes.

Le président russe Vladimir Poutine a indiqué lors d’une conférence de presse commune avec son homologe ukrainien Viktor Ianoukovitch que la Russie achèterait 15 milliards de dollars de dette ukrainienne. L’un des fonds souverains russes souscrira des eurobonds émis par l’Ukraine en 2013 et 2014. L’annonce a fait chuter de 370 points de base les rendements des obligations ukrainiennes en dollar de maturité 2014, à 11,5%. Kiev a par ailleurs obtenu une baisse du prix des livraisons de gaz russe.

L’office national des statistiques (ONS) britannique a présenté mardi un projet de réforme de ses calculs de la dette publique, pour tenir compte notamment de nouvelles règles d’Eurostat et du cas des banques nationalisées RBS et Lloyds. Ces modifications conduiraient à augmenter de 112 milliards de livres la dette publique nette sur l’exercice fiscal 2012/2013, qui atteignait 1.182 milliards de livres ou 74% du PIB. De nombreux analystes, ainsi que les agences de notation, retraitent déjà les statistiques de l’ONS. L’effet sur les besoins de financement du pays sera beaucoup plus limité, et aurait entraîné l’an dernier une réduction de 4 milliards par rapport à une base de 115 milliards, a précisé l’ONS.

L’Irlande a présenté mardi ses projets de budgets pour les sept années à venir afin de crédibiliser sa sortie, sans ligne de crédit de précaution, du programme de sauvetage accordé par le FMI et l’Union européenne. Le gouvernement maintien sa prévision de croissance du produit intérieur brut (PIB) à 0,2% cette année et à 2% en 2014. Il s’attend à une croissance supérieure à 3% entre 2017 et 2020 et espère ramener sa dette à 93% du PIB en 2020 après le pic de 124% atteint cette année. Le prochain budget, qui prévoit 2 milliards d’euros de hausse d’impôt et de baisse des dépenses, serait le dernier budget d’austérité.

In 2013, Swedish index-based equity funds represented more than SEK140bn (EUR15.5bn), or 11% of total equity funds on sale in Sweden, compared with less than SEK20bn in 2001 (EUR2.2bn), or 3%, a report by the Swedish fund management association of passive and active management has found. This gain in popularity for index-based management has been driven by strong inflows to these products. Since 2010, equity tracker funds have posted net inflows of SEK47bn (EUR5.2bn), while at the same time, actively-managed equity funds have seen outflows of SEK3bn (EUR0.3bn). The report by Fondbolagens Förening, available in Swedish on their website, describes the two types of management.

Hans Günther Bonk and his boutique Assenagon Asset Management are launching a fund which will aim to invest in subordinated debt and contingent convertibles (CoCos) issued by banks and insurers, Financial News reports.Assenagon Asset Management is expected to launch the new vehicle, the Assenagon Credit Subordinated Debt & Coco fund, in January.

Theam, the systematic, guaranteed and alternative index-based management specialist from BNP Paribas Investment Partners, has announced that it has adopted the first MSCI ex CW (MSCI ex Controversial Weapons) indices, which exclude companies which are involved in controversial weapon activities, as the benchmark indices for a range of open-ended funds (tracker Equities sub-funds of the Parworld SICAV).Theam, whose assets under management as of the end of September totalled nearly EUR40bn, in a statement claims to be the first actor in the industry to adopt indices which exclude controversial weapons for its open-ended funds.

La Financière Tiepolo, which as of the beginning of 2013 had about EUR900m in assets under management, will in January unveil a new common investment fund, Tiepolo PME, which is in the process of receiving an AMF license. The FCP, which will be eligible for the new PEA-PME savings regime, will be invested in French small and midcaps. It fits perfectly into the strategy and historical expertise of La Financière Tiepolo in investment, as 27% of overall assets under management at Tiepolo and 36% of assets in the FCP Tiepolo Valeurs are invested in securities which are eligible under PEA-PME criteria.

Bond fund manager Julien Chauveau left Acropole Asset Management in early December. The information released by Citywire has been confirmed by Financière de l’Echiquier, the French asset manager which took over Acropole AM earlier this year. Chauveau co-managed two convertible bond funds, Acropole Convertibles Monde and Acropole Convertibles Optimum 2015, and also participated in the management of Acropole Global High Yield.

At a time when it is about to merge with Macif Gestion and OFI Mandats, OFI AM has announced that it is aiming for EUR100bn in assets in five years’ ime, virtually double the EUR56.2bn it manages currently.To achieve that, the firm is planning to develop serving clients outside the group, particularly international distributors. This proportion of clients, which currently represents 20% of total assets, is expected to increase to 30% in five years, “or about EUR20bn more in assets than currently,” says Gérard Bourret, CEO of OFI AM. At the same time, assets under management for the group are expected to fall from 50% to 35%, while the remainder will come from “strategic partners.”In order to win over these new external clients, the asset management firm will rely on its funds, which now represent 32% of assets, but which pay better than mandates. In order to simplify and be as legible as possible, OFI AM will focus only a restricted range of about 18 funds. This range will include the best-performing and largest funds (in total, they represent about EUR8bn).Meanwhile, in 2013, OFI AM has posted net inflows of EUR680m to mandates and EUR600m to funds, for total inflows of EUR1.28bn.

Rothschild & Cie Gestion has appointed Delphine Laloum as bond manager, specialised in high yield bonds.Laloum, 25, began her career at ADI in 2002 as a credit analyst for convertible, high yield and crossover strategies, and then in 2005, became a debt analyst for convertible bond arbitrage funds. In 2006, she joined Natixis, first as a proprietary convertible bond trader at Natixis CIB, and then, from 2010, as market maker for all European high yield bonds, a statement says.

Old Mutual Global Investors is preparing an Irish version of its Old Mutual UK Alpha fund, aimed at international clients, Citywire reports. The original fund has grown from GBP150m to more than GBP1bn this year, as it has posted strong growth since the two managers, Richard Buxton and Errol Francis, returned to manage the product in June. They then joined Old Mutual Global Investors from Schroders. The launch of the Old Mutual UK Alpha Fund (IRL) is scheduled for 18 December.

The Californian pension fund CalPERS has invested USD100m in the alternative asset management firm Double Haven, specialised in Asian credit, news agency Reuters reports. After undergoing a net outflow of about USD4bn in 2012 the hedge fund sector in Asia has this year attracted more than USD10bn, according to statistics from Eurekahedge, due to average returs of about 15% as of the end of November.CalPERS is investing in the long/short credit strategy, which will bring assets under management at Double Haven to over USD710m, according to Reuters.

Asset management boutiques in Europe and the United Kingdom (with less than EUR10bn in assets under management) have posted net inflows of EUR65bn in the nine months to the end of September, compared with EUR30.1bn in 2012, and EUR10bn in 2011, Financial News reports, citing statistics from Lipper and MackayWilliams. Boutiques represented 31% of total sales in the industry since the beginning of the year, compared with 14% in 2012.

iShares has launched an ETF on the London stock exchange which offers passive exposure to European companies, excepting banks and insurers, Fundweb reports.The iShares Euro Stoxx 50 Ex-financials UCITS ETF gives investors broad and potentially less volatile access to the euro zone, according to BlackRock.The total expense ratio is 20 basis points.

Asset management firms which are active in Asia-Pacifci markets as of the end of September had assets under management of USD6.7tn originating from the region, according to data compiled by Asian Investor, which publishes annual rankings of the 100 fund managers which posted the strongest growth in Asia Pacific. These total assets were up by 11.2% in one year. The rankings are dominated this year by JP Morgan Asset Management, which was the firm to develop its assets in the region most strongly. It has USD133.6bn in assets under management for clients from this region, up by 162.8% year on year. Asian Investor notes that the US firm has this year modified its calculations of assets. It previously included only the assets of Asian clients invested in Asian funds. It now takes into account all products in its range. In second place is Deutsche Asset Management with USD50.7bn, up by 129% year on year. Adjustments were made there also in terms of the calculation of assets under management, which now include Harvest Funds Management, which is 30% controlled by the asset management firm. In third place, BNY Mellon Asset Management has posted a 90.84% increase in its assets, which total USD94.4bn.

JPMorgan Chase has put its Global Special Opportunities Group, an investment operation based in Asia, up for sale, for a total of over USD1bn, the Financial Times reports. The bank is in talks with several private equity and credit hedge funds. The potential buyers are the GSO unit of Blackstone, Carlyle and KKR.The operation put up for sale by JPMorgan, which represents over USD2bn in assets, finances special situations in Asia, and has a junior or mezzanine debt activities in the United States and Europe.

The European parliament has voted in favour of proposals which could lead major asset management firms to be considered “systemically important,” which would make them subject to stricter rules, and would impose higher costs on them, Financial Times fund management reports. Concretely, the European Commission will have to evaluate whether certain asset management firms present a systemic risk, taking into account their size, the extent of their activities, their business model, their risk profiles, credit rating and whether they trade on their own behalf.

The two alternative asset management firms Gottex Fund Management and EIM Group on 16 December announced that they will be merging their operations. The new entity will be headquartered in Switzerland, and will have offices in London, Boston, New York, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Its assets under management are expected to total about USD10bn in first half 2014, Gottex says in a statement.At the completion of the transation, which has yet to receive the approval of the regulatory authorities, the new entity will be about 70% controlled by Gottex shareholders, and 30% by EIM shareholders.

The British consulting firm Redington has won a mandate from the wealth management firm St James’s Place, Financial News reports. The initiative appears to be a response to investor concerns about the prospects of inflation.

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (DeAWM) and Harvest Global Investment, a firm based in Hong Kong in which DeAWM controls 30% will in January in London launch the first offshore ETF under renminbi qualified foreign institutional investor (RQFII) mandates, Asian Investor reports. The first UCITS formet ETF to replicate the CSI 300 index, recently launched in New York, may be made available from 16 January next year, according to Asian Investor.

For the first time since their creation in 2003, ETPs dedicated to gold have been abandoned by investors, at a time when the price of the metal has fallen at its most steeply for 32 years, the news agency Bloomberg reports.The assets of the 14 largest ETPs have fallen by 31% since the beginning of the year 2013, to a total of 1,813.3 metric tons, for their steepest annual fall since the launch of these vehicles ten years ago, acording to statistics from Bloomberg. These redemptions have led to a loss in net asset value of USD69.9bn, In 2014, about 311 additional tons are expected to be withdrawn from the market, according to estimates from Bloomberg analysts.Precious metals specialist Robin Bhar at Société Générale estimates that favourable factors which have driven gold to rise in the past 12 years are in the process of reversing. Gold had been trading at USD1,232 per ounce on 16 December in Singapore, down 36% from a peak of USD1,921 per ounce in September 2011.

The asset management giant BlackRock on 16 December announced that it has increased its stake in Telecom Italia, in which it now controls 7.789% of voting rights. In a statement, the US group says that it holds EUR183m in convertible bonds in addition, which correspond to a stake of 1.639%.Documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Wall Street market watchdog, reveal that BlackRock’s stake has increased from 5.1% as of the end of October to 10.1% as of the end of November. On Sunday, Consob, the Italian stock market regulator, announced that it may fine BlackRock for failing to report, as regulations in Italy would have required it to report investments above a 10% threshold. BlackRock explains that it did not inform Consob or Telecom Italia since its voting rights were below 10%.

The Vistra group, dedicated to corporate services, on Monday, 13 December announced that it has acquired HVK, an independent consulting firm in the areas of taxation, tax structuring, legal and notary services, and financial advisory and services. The family office, founded in 2011 by a group of former PwC professionals, will allow the Vistra group to strengthen its own family office services division, which has recently been launched.

There are reportedly 8 candidates for the presidency of Assogesioni, the Italian association of asset managers, to succeed Domenico Siniscalco, according to reports in Bluerating. The position is prestigious, and well-paid: EUR200,000 per year. The top candidate is Vittorio Grilli, former director general of the Italian ministry of the economy and finance. He is followed by Roberto Poli, who is close to Silvio Berlusconi. The other candidates are the economists Marco Onado (who was chairman of Pioneer) and Carlo Maria Pinari, Angelo Tantazzi (chairman of Prometeia and former chairman of the Milan stock exchange), Attilio Lentati, Andrea Beltratti (Eurizon Capital) and Giuseppe Zadra (chairman of Asset Management Holding).

Cyber criminals are breaking into the computer systems of wealth management firms increasingly often, to steal money from custodian banks, which are better protected, Financial Times fund management reports, citing Kroll. At least six wealth management firms have been used to facilitate Internet “break-ins” worth millions of pounds in the United Kingdom in the past four months, says EJ Hilbert, head of cyber investigation at Kroll. Criminals gain access to the systems of wealth management firms by creating bogus Wi-Fi networks in airports and hotels which travelling employees use without knowing it.

Les boutiques de gestion d’actifs en Europe et au Royaume-Uni (gérant moins de 10 milliards d’euros) ont enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 65 milliards d’euros sur les neuf mois à fin septembre, contre 30,1 milliards d’euros pour l’ensemble de 2012 et 10 milliards d’euros pour 2011, rapporte Financial News, citant des données de Lipper et MackayWilliams. Les boutiques ont ainsi représenté 31 % des ventes totales du secteur depuis le début de l’année, contre 14 % en 2012.

iShares vient de lancer un ETF à la Bourse de Londres qui offre une exposition passive aux sociétés européennes, à l’exception des banques et des compagnies d’assurances, rapporte Fundweb.Le iShares Euro Stoxx 50 Ex-financials Ucits ETF donne aux investisseurs un accès large et potentiellement moins volatil à la zone euro, selon BlackRock.Le total des frais sur encours s'élève à 20 points de base.