Asset management affiliates of European and Asian banks are nervously waiting to find out whether the US Volcker rules will impose severe restrictions on their ability to manage funds, Financial Times fund management reports. Early versions of the legislation treated European UCITS funds, Canadian funds and Japanese trusts as hedge funds.
Hedge funds began fourth quarter well with gains of 1.5% in October for the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index, according to the most recent figures published by Hedge Fund Research (HFR). In the first 10 months of the year, the index is up 7.2%, its best performance since 2009, when it had gained 20%. In the month under review, all strategies had contributed to gains for the index, particularly Equity Hedge strategies, with monthly gains of 1.8%, bringing the gains since the beginning of the year to 11.3%.
Amundi is planning to strengthen its presence in Asia and is seeking acquisitions in the region, Citywire can reveal. Speaking to Citywire Asia, Pascal Blanqué, chief investment officer at the French asset management firm, announced that they are presently in the process of studying the best way of moving forward. “We are keeping an eye on targeted acquisitions in South-East Asia, particularly external acquisitions to strengthen our bond unit,” he says.
Asia Research & Capital Management (ARCM), one of the largest hedge funds in the Asia-Pacific region, has raised USD1.1bn for its new hedge funds, the news agency Reuters reports. ARCM, founded by Alp Ercil, former head of Perry Capital for Asia, is one of the largest hedge funds in the region, since launching a USD940m hedge fund last year. Assets under management at ARCM now total over USD2bn, which puts it in the very restricted circle of fewer than 30 hedge funds of this size in Asia, according to figures from Eurekahedge. Unlike the first three-year fund, the most recent fund is a five-year fund, which makes it more similar to a private equity vehicle.
Skandia has brought the management of its Swedish bond funds in-house, Fondbranschen reports. These represent assets of SEK10bn, which had previously been managed by DNB. The bond team at Skandia already manages SEK100bn.
Threadneedle Investments (Threadneedle) on 9 December announced the appointment of Noël Luchena as director of sales in charge of institutional clients on the Swiss team. Before joining Threadneedle on 2 December this year, Luchena was responsible for instituitonal clients at Credit Suisse, where he held a variety of responsibilities beginning in 2000, most recently as vice president in charge of institutional accounts, whose mandates under management total CHF9bn. In 2011, Luchena took an assignment at Credit Suisse Asset Management in New York, during which he specialised in alternative investments (hedge funds, commodities).
Fundweb reports that Bank of America Merrill Lynch has been tasked by Lloyds Banking Group with placing the remaining 21% stake that the bank still holds in St James’s Place (SJP), an investment which is expected to generate capital gains of about GBP95m, with institutional investors.The announcement follows the expiry of the 180-day unwaivable lock-up period during which Lloyds could not dispose of further stakes in SJP
Teoman Kaplan, head of the management team at Nomura Bank for fiscal affairs, liability-driven investment and risk management at Nomura Bank, has been recruited by Allianz Global Investors (AGI) for its insurer assistance team in the area of liability-driven investment (LDI), Das Investment reports.
Deutsche Bank on 9 December announced the recruitment of Thomas Poppensieker as head of internal controls. Poppensieker will be responsible for the implementation and reinforcement of internal controls for all divisions and infrastructure. He will begin in the role on 1 January 2014, and will report to the co-chairman of the board, Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain. Poppensieker previously worked at McKinsey as head fo the risk management practice in Germany.
Assets under management at the US asset mangement firm Hennesy Advisors have increased from USD919m at the beginning of the 2012/2013 fiscal year, in September 2012, to USD4.03bn as of the end of September 2013, according to a statement released by the firm. The growth in assets was driven by the acquisition of USD2.2bn at FBR funds in October 2012, a steep rise in the market of about USD648m, and a net inflow of about USD243m. This very strong growth in assets has allowed the firm to earn record net profits of USD4.8m.
The US asset management firm Calamos Investments has announced that it is planning to revise its structures following the departure of Nick Calamos, who had initially (August 2012) stepped back from day-to-day management of the firm, and then abandoned the firm and his membership on the board of directors, Citywire reports. He has been replaced by Gary Black, who joined Calamos in summer 2012. Before his departure, Calamos sold his entire stake in Calamos Family Partners to the founder and CEO of the firm, John Calamos Senior.
Asset management firms are seeking a foothold on the ETF market, by creating their own version of these products, actively-managed ETFs, the Financial Times observes. So far, 68 ETFs of this type exists, representing over USD14bn in assets. Many think that the assets will grow and reach more than USD100bn.
The Lyxor hedge fund index in November has posted returns of 0.94%, meaning that cumulative gains since the beginning of the year come to 5.79%.The three best-performing strategies last month were CTA long term (+4.2%), long/short equity market neutral (+1.7%), and CTA short-term (+1.6%). However, global macro and fixed income arbitrage have seen respective losses of 0.74% and 0.69%.In the first eleven months of the year, only two strategies out of eleven show losses. They are fixed income arbitrage (-0.45%) and CTA short-term (-3.86%). However, long/short equity long bias has posted gains of 14.56%, and special situations are up by 11.32%.
In the first nine months of this year, investments in German real estate funds and real estate properties totalled EUR1.1bn, which represents an increase of 75% compared with the corresponding period of last year, according to statistics from CBRE relayed by the Berlin-based agency Scope.In terms of open-ended real estate funds in particular, the proportion of hotel properties in the 15 funds monitored by Scope was 5.4% in 2011, and increased to 5.7% last year, from 2.2% in 2007. As of the end of 2012, that presented EUR3.4bn.In 2012, German open-ended real estate funds invested EUR188m in hotel properties. The four funds with the highest proportions of investment in hotels as of the end of 2012 were UniImmo Deutschland (12.1%), WestInvest InterSelect (11.5%), UniInstutional European Real Estate (9.5%) and WestInvest ImmoValue (6.1%).
According to the Spanish association Inverco of asset management firms, Spanish funds have posted net subscriptions in January-October of EUR17.5bn, and average assets per fund are up by 47%, to EUR72.4m as of the end of October, compared with EUR49.2m as of the end of December 2012, Funds People reports. This is partly due to the fact that the number of funds has fallen from 1,450 to 1,381 in the period under review (-5%).Bestinver stands out with an average volume of EUR550.3m for each of its nine funds, followed by Santander, with EUR199.3m for each of its 85 non-guaranteed funds. BBVA takes third place, with an average of EUR130.4m for its 92 non-guranteed funds.
Edward Bonham Carter will on 17 March be leaving his position as CEO of Jupiter, after 14 years at the head of the British asset management firm. He will also leave the executive board, but will remain on the board of directors, and becomes vice-chairman. Bonham Carter will be repaced as CEO by Maarten Slendebroek, who had previously been director of distribution and strategy. The Swedish-Dutchman joined Jupiter in September 2012 from BlackRock, where he had been head of the international retail activity, and was before that head of BlackRock Solutions for the European region.
A decade ago, the perception of sovereign wealth funds in the public sphere was negative. After the financial crisis in 2008, this negative connotation become a bit more accentuated. “The possibility that sovereign wealth funds could control British companies and infrastructures led to initial hesitation and fears about undesired foreign influence … These initial fears have dissipated and are no longer effective in 2013, as the increased efforts of the British government to court sovereign funds reveals,” economist Nicholas Garrott, an adviser to the mayor of London, writes in an article to be published in the quarterly publication Sovereign Wealth Quarterly (January 2014).
According to the most recent quarterly report from the Spanish regulator, CNMV, Spanish asset management firms in the first six months of the year paid out EUR458m in sales commissions on their funds, out of EUR678m which they made in the form of commissions, which represents a percentage of 67.5%, Funds People reports. The nine largest firms by assets pay kickbacks of over 48%, while Bestinver (Acciona group) pays out only a little over 5%. Santander AM and BBVA AM pay out 84% and 83%, respectively, of their commissions, compared with 74% at Bankia Fondoa and 48% at IberCaja Gestión.
Kames Capital has aded to its bond team, with the appointment of derivatives specialist Nick Chatters, Citywire reports. In his new role, Chatters will be responsible for the implementation of derivative trading for his main clients. Chatters previously worked at Citibank, where he was responsible for the development of derivative valuation activities.
Kames Capital has aded to its bond team, with the appointment of derivatives specialist Nick Chattas, Citywire reports. In his new role, Chatters will be responsible for the implementation of derivative trading for his main clients. Chatter previously worked at Citibank, where he was responsible for the development of derivative valuation activities.
The Italian asset management firm Azimut finished the month of November with net inflows of EUR228m (including more than EUR190m for the sub-funds of the Luxembourg-registered funds AZ Fund 1 and AZ Fund Multi-Asset), Bluerating reports. Since the beginning of the year, Azimut has posted total net inflows of EUR2.95bn, of which EUR2.94bn have been for asset management products. Total assets under administration come to over EUR23.5bn, of which EUR21.1bn are under management, in increase of 20.6% since the beginning of the year. Pietro Guiliani, chairman and CEO of Azimut, says these results are expected to allow Azimut to finish the year with total profits of EUR130m to EUR160m.
The Italian council of ministers has approved a draft decree which transposes the AIFM directive, Assogestioni, the Italian association of asset management professionals, reports. The text, which must now be studied by the parliamentary Commissions, accepts several proposals by the AIFMD task force of Assogetioni, including recognition for a temporary regime to allow asset management firms which are “promoted” to adapt to the new framework. There are also plans to retain the national model for harmonized UCITS funds, which allows asset management firms to contract with the depository to undertake calculation of net asset value; to introduce a new investment vehicle known as the SICAF; to provide an extended definition of the “Italian FIA reserve,” which included not only professional investors in the sense of MIFID, but also other categories of investors, who will be identified by the MEF. Asset management firms which managed Italian FIAs before 22 July will be allowed one year to adopt all necessary measures to comply with the terms of the AIFM directive.
Zurich UK group has selected BlackRock for the passive management of a portion of its unit-linked accounts, Money Marketing reports. BlackRock succeeds Threadneedle, which retains the management of the active portion of its funds.
Le Schroder UK Property Fund (SPF), anciennement Schroder Exempt Property Unit Trust (SEPUT), a acheté pour 61 millions de livres deux actifs commerciaux auprès de Corbo Properties.Le premier, acquis pour 40 millions de livres, est le centre commercial Lemon Quay (165.619 pieds carrés) situé à Truro en Cornouailles et le second est le Holland Market and Winfrey Avenue (94.714 pieds carrés) de Spalding dans le Lincolnshire.Par ailleurs, Immobilien Europa Direkt un groupe d’investissement de la Fondation Zurich Investment qui est géré et co-distribué par Schroder Property Investment Management, a investi 25,3 millions d’euros dans un immeuble de bureaux de 10.000 mètres carrés situé Elsenheimerstraße à Munich. L’Immobilien Europa Direkt est spécifiquement destiné aux caisses de pension suisses.Au 30 septembre, Schroders gérait des actifs immobiliers de l’ordre de 10,6 milliards de livres ou 12,7 milliards d’euros.
Le conseil d’administration de Nordea a décidé le soft close du fonds Nordea 1 - Nordic Equity Small Cap Fund, pour cause de taille devenue trop importante. La stratégie rassemble 1,3 milliard d’euros d’encours sous gestion, selon Fondsweb. Sont concernées les parts de fonds suivantes : Nordea 1 - Nordic Equity Small Cap Fund AP-EUR (LU0878594877) Nordea 1 - Nordic Equity Small Cap Fund BC-EUR (LU0841550477) Nordea 1 - Nordic Equity Small Cap Fund BC-GBP (LU0841549628) Nordea 1 - Nordic Equity Small Cap Fund BI-EUR (LU0351546048) Nordea 1 - Nordic Equity Small Cap Fund BP-EUR (LU0278527428) Nordea 1 - Nordic Equity Small Cap Fund BP-NOK (LU0278528152) Nordea 1 - Nordic Equity Small Cap Fund BP-SEK (LU0278528665) Nordea 1 - Nordic Equity Small Cap Fund E-EUR (LU0278528822) Nordea 1 - Nordic Equity Small Cap Fund E-PLN (LU0533599659)
Viveris Management a annoncé le 9 décembre sa participation à un investissement de 4 millions d’euros dans EndoControl, une start-up conceptrice de robots d’assistance chirurgicale de nouvelle génération.Les capitaux apportés par les partenaires historiques d’EndoControl – les fonds français CM-CIC Capital Innovation et Seventure Partners – et par le nouvel investisseur, Viveris Management – vont permettre à la société grenobloise d’imposer ses deux robots – ViKY et JAiMY – dont le caractère innovant et les performances sont déjà reconnus dans le monde entier.
Le gestionnaire d’actifs américain Calamos Investments a indiqué qu’il envisageait de revoir ses structures à la suite du départ de Nick Calamos, qui a dans un premier temps (août 2012) arrêté la gestion au jour le jour et qui a désormais abandonné la société et son appartenance au conseil d’administration, rapporte Citywire.Il a été remplacé par Gary Black, qui a rejoint Calamos à l'été 2012. Avant son départ, Nick Calamos a cédé la totalité de ses intérêts dans Calamos Family Partners au fondateur et CEO de la société, John Calamos Senior.
Amundi prévoit de renforcer sa présence en Asie et cherche des acquisitions dans la région, est en mesure de révéler Citywire. S’exprimant au cours de de Citywire Asia, Pascal Blanqué, le directeur des investissements de la société de gestion française, a déclaré qu’ils étaient actuellement en train d’étudier la meilleure façon de procéder. « Nous gardons un œil sur des acquisitions ciblées en Asie du Sud-Est, notamment des acquisitions externes pour renforcer notre pôle obligataire », a-t-il déclaré.
Les sociétés de gestion cherchent à se faire une place sur le marché des ETF en créant leur propre version de ces produits, les ETF gérés activement, observe le Financial Times. A ce jour, 68 ETF de ce genre existent, représentant plus de 14 milliards de dollars d’actifs. Beaucoup pensent que ce marché pourrait dépasser les 100 milliards de dollars d’encours sur les cinq prochaines années. « Le secteur de la gestion d’actifs traditionnelle ne peut se permettre de rater la prochaine vague du marché des ETF », estime Stuart Thomas, principal chez Predician Investments.
Lancé le 20 août dernier, le plan d’actionnariat salarié d’Axa, baptisé «Shareplan 2013», a été souscrit par près de 22.000 collaborateurs issus de 38 pays, soit plus de 19 % de l’effectif global de l’assureur. Cette augmentation de capital réservée aux salariés du groupe a permis d’engranger environ 293 millions d’euros, équivalent à l’émission de 19 millions d’actions nouvelles souscrites au prix de 14,38 euros pour l’offre classique et de 15,64 euros pour l’offre à effet de levier. A l’issue de cette opération, les collaborateurs d’Axa détiennent désormais près de 7,11 % du capital du groupe et 8,37 % des droits de vote.