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10/12/2013

Asset management firms anxious about Volcker rule

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.
10/12/2013

Good month of October for 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%.
10/12/2013

Amundi seeks acquisitions in Asia

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.
10/12/2013

ARCM raises USD1.1bn for its new hedge fund

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.
10/12/2013

Skandia brings management of Swedish equities in-house

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.
10/12/2013

Appointment at Threadneedle in Switzerland

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).
10/12/2013

Lloyds Banking Group to liquidate its stake in SJP

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
10/12/2013

Allianz GI hires LDI specialist

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.
10/12/2013

Deutsche Bank scales up internal controls

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.
10/12/2013

Very good year for Hennessy Advisors

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.
10/12/2013

Calamos Investments revises its structures

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.
10/12/2013

Asset management firms want a foothold in the ETF market

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.
10/12/2013

Hedge funds made nearly 1% in November, according to Lyxor

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%.
10/12/2013

Real estate funds increasingly invest in hotels

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%).
10/12/2013

Number of Spanish funds down by 5% in ten months

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.
10/12/2013

Jupiter's CEO to step down

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.
10/12/2013

Sovereign wealth funds have become respectable

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).
10/12/2013

Spanish asset management firms pass on 68% of their commissions

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.
10/12/2013

Kames Capital adds to its bond team

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.
10/12/2013

Kames Capital adds to its bond team

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.
10/12/2013

Azimut posts inflows of nearly EUR3bn since January

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.
10/12/2013

Italian ministers approve law to transpose AIFM directive

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.
10/12/2013

Zurich selects BlackRock for passive management mandates

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.
10/12/2013

La Turquie enregistre un rebond de sa croissance

Le produit intérieur brut (PIB) turc a augmenté de 4,4% sur la période juillet-septembre par rapport au troisième trimestre 2012 alors que les économistes interrogés par Reuters avaient anticipé une progression de 4,05%. Ajusté des variations saisonnières, le PIB du troisième trimestre 2013 est en hausse de 0,9% par rapport aux trois mois précédents. La croissance du deuxième trimestre par rapport à la même période de 2012 a été relevée à 4,5% contre une estimation initiale de 4,4%.
10/12/2013

Macif Gestion nomme un nouveau directeur général

Franck Dussoge, 53 ans, prend la direction générale de Macif Gestion, en plus de ses responsabilités de président du directoire d’OFI Mandats, selon un communiqué paru ce matin. Macif Gestion, filiale du groupe OFI dédiée notamment à la gestion des mandats des sociétés d’assurance de la Macif, compte 22 collaborateurs et gère plus de 28 milliards d’euros au 31 octobre 2013. Franck Dussoge remplace Hugues Fournier.
10/12/2013

Catella s'attaque au marché immobilier français

La société de services financiers Catella va lancer au printemps 2014 des activités de gestion d’actifs immobiliers en France. C’est François Brisset, ancien managing director et co-fondateur deDTZ Asset Management, qui en prendra la direction. « Pour faire face à une demande croissante pour des investissements sûrs et sur-mesure, nous avons l’intention de structurer, d’accueillir et de gérer des véhicules d’investissement pour le compte de tiers. Nous serons actifs dans l’immobilier commercial et résidentiel », indique François Brisset dans un communiqué du groupe. Catella gère en Europe 5 milliards d’euros d’encours, dont 2 milliards dans l’immobilier.
10/12/2013

L'économie italienne cesse de se contracter

L'économie italienne a stagné au troisième trimestre, après deux années de contraction, selon l’estimation définitive de l’institut national de statistiques, publiée mardi. L’Istat a relevé, de -0,1% à inchangé, son estimation de variation de produit intérieur brut (PIB) pour la période juillet-septembre. Un porte-parole a cependant déclaré que «techniquement, cette donnée n’est pas suffisante pour dire que la récession est finie». En variation annuelle, le PIB italien a baissé de 1,8%, alors que la première estimation était à -1,9%. La contraction de l'économie pour le deuxième trimestre a été confirmée à -0,3% sur un mois et de -2,2% sur un an. Au troisième trimestre, l'économie italienne a été soutenue par l’accumulation de stocks, tandis que la balance commerciale a pesé sur la croissance, avec une progression des importations nettement plus rapide que les exportations.
Photo: Alessia Pierdomenico/Bloomberg
10/12/2013

Plusieurs banques suisses annoncent leur participation au programme fiscal américain

Valiant Holding, la Banque cantonale bernoise (BCBE) et Zurich Vontobel ont rendu public leur décision ce matin de participer au programme fiscal américain. Le département de justice américain avait fixé quatre catégories d’établissements, selon la probabilité avec laquelle ils auraient géré des avoirs américains non déclarés. Votonbel, qui exerce ses activités avec ses clients américains via une filiale agréée aux Etats-Unis, participe au programme dans la troisième catégorie, peu exposée. Etant donné la difficulté à justifier un classement dans cette catégorie, Valiant et la BCBE ont préférer choisir la catégorie 2 – moins contraignante mais qui implique le paiement d’amendes. Toutefois, les deux banques minimisent le poids de leur activité avec la clientèle américaine.
10/12/2013

L'Erafp attribue trois mandats actions

L’Etablissement de retraite additionnelle de la fonction publique (Erafp) vient d’attribuer 2 mandats actifs et 1 mandat stand-by de gestion de portefeuille d’actions américaines. A l’issue de la procédure de sélection, les mandats actifs ont été attribués à Natixis AM et Robeco Institutional Asset Management. La gestion financière sera respectivement déléguée à Loomis Sayles et Robeco Boston Partners. Le mandat stand-by a été attribué à Morgan Stanley IM. «A titre indicatif, les montants investis à un horizon de trois ans pourraient être de l’ordre de 300 millions d’euros», indique le comuniqué de l’Erafp.
10/12/2013

L'Eurogroupe approuve une nouvelle tranche d'aide à Chypre

Les ministres des Finances de la zone euro, rassemblés en Eurogroupe, ont approuvé hier le versement d’une nouvelle tranche d’aide à Chypre, après avoir jugé en bonne voie les réformes économiques engagées par le pays. D’ici la fin de l’année, 100 millions d’euros seront versés via le MES, tandis que le FMI versera 86 millions d’euros.

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