Lazard Asset Management has launched a UCITS version of its Global Hexagon equity strategy, Fundweb reports. The long/short fund, Lazard Global Hexagon Equity, invests worldwide, including in emerging markets. The portfolio manager, Jean-Daniel Malan, will manage the fund.

A regain in interest in European equities has given an unexpected boost to a long neglected segment: 130/30 funds, Financial Times fund management reports. For example, the Europe Equity Plus fund from JPMorgan, launched in 2007, has seen its assets leap to USD1.25bn, although it had only USD24m in December 2012.

Funds People reports that Mutuactivos has notified the CNMV of its decision to open the liquidation period for its Mutuafondo Multimix fund of funds as of 7 November 2013. Due to the effects of redemptions and transfers to other funds from the group, assets in the product had fallen to EUR13.7m as of the end of June.As of the end of September, the Multimix posted returns of 4.25% since the beginning of the year. Its annualised performance over three and five years was 2.84% and 2.72%, respectively, according to calculations by the Inverco association of asset management firms.

According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, Gérard Moulin is leaving Delubac Asset Management this Wednesday. He is reportedly leaving to “manage much more” at another firm.It is thus not entirely by chance that Delubac AM on 12 November announced the arrival of Timothée Malphettes as head of equity management. Malphettes managed the Covea Equities Euro until his departure from Covea.The firm states that Malphettes will “aim to develop equity expertise at the structure, and will also manage the Delubac Pricing Power fund, alongside Séverine Alluin, co-manager of the fund since 2011.” The new recruit states that with Alluin, he will continue to “manage the Delubac Pricing Power fund with respect for the selection criteria of the companies that make its success.”

South Korea and Russia are expected to announce a joint fund of USD500m on Wednesday to stimulate trade and investment between the two countries, on the occasion of a visit to Seoul by Vladimir Putin, the Financial Times predicts. The fund, which will be financed and managed by the Russian Direct Investment Fund and the Korea Investment Corporation, comes as part of efforts to triple flows of direct investments between the two countries in the next two years.

The European private equity investor 3i on 11 November announced that it had completed its acquisition of the intrastructure operation of the British Barclays group, at Barclays Infrastructure Funds Management.The activity includes four private funds, which invest in British and European PPPs as well as in energy projects, and which have assets under management of GBP780m.The Barclays entity will be renamed as 3i BIFM, and will be integrated into the 3i infrastructure activity led by Cressida Hogg. The team dedicated to infrastructure will be based at the London and Paris offices of 3i.

Rob Geeraets, director of institutional sales at F&C, after working at Lombard Odier and Kas Bank, has been recruited as director for the newly-created position of head of distribution at Affiliated Managers Group (AMG) for Benelux, Fonds Nieuws reports. Geeraets will report to Jenny Segel, director of distribution for Europe at AMG.

The Lyxor Hedge Fund Index posted a positive performance of 1.58% in October (+4.80% YTD).Equity strategies generated strong performance. L/S Equity Long bias was up 1.6% in October (13% YTD).The CTA Long Term returned 4.03%), but is down 2.37% year to date.

The alternative investment management association (AIMA) has announced the appointment of Jack Inglis as head of the professional association, according to a statement released on 11 November.Inglis, who is expected to begin in his duties in early 2014, was previously head of distribution for prime services and a member of the global executive board for prime services at Barclays.Inglis will succeed Andrew Baker, who had been head of the association since the beginning of 2009.

Investors have regained confidence in the global economic outlook following resolution of the U.S. debt crisis, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey, carried out between 1 and 7 November, of a sample of panelists with USD599bn in assets under management. With political paralysis in Washington overcome, a net 67 percent of respondents now expect the world’s economy to strengthen over the next 12 months – up a notable 13 percentage points from October. In an important new question for the survey, investors were asked when the U.S. Federal Reserve will begin “tapering” its bond purchases – a signal that the central bank views economic conditions as robust enough to lessen its support. Forty-eight percent see this happening next March. Eighteen percent expect it in the second quarter of 2014.Investors increased their equity allocations slightly during the month to a net 52 percent overweight, while also upping their underweight in bonds. Their biggest shift was into global emerging markets equities, where they returned to a net overweight, while strong overweights in eurozone and Japanese stocks were moderated slightly. Strikingly, a small net majority of asset allocators now view equities as overvalued. This marked the first such reading on this measure since March 2004, but regionally, Europe is still considerably undervalued compared to the U.S. Over the month, fund managers also shifted their preferences strongly between global emerging markets. Reflecting the restoration of a potential hard landing in China as the greatest tail risk globally, emerging markets specialists scaled back their overweight in the country substantially to a net 11 percent, down 45 percentage points. China replaced Russia as their top pick among the BRIC markets on a 12-month basis, however.

finews reports that Crédit Agricole Switzerland has recruited Patrick Ramsey, who will be head of the new Swiss private banking division as well as for Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore, as its new head of the private clients division. He will report to Hervé Catala, CEO of Crédit Agricole Switzerland.Ramsey was CEO of Barclays Bank (Switzerland), head of wealth management Switzerland and country manager at Barclays Group for Switzerland. Before that, he was CEO of Merrill Lynch for Switzerland.Crédit Agricole Suisse has also recruited Hans Diederen as director of private banking for Asia, who will report to Ramsey, along with Youssef Dib, who has been appointed as head of ultra-high net worth investors (UHNWI). Diederen was previously at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, while for his part, Dib was global coordinator at BNP Paribas Private Banking.

The index provider Solactive AG on 12 November announced the appointment of Barbara Mahe as head of public relations (PR) and marketing, from 1 November 2013.Mahe, who will be based in London, previously worked for S&P Dow Jones Indices, as PR manager.

Ulrich Köhne has decided “for personal reasons” to resign from his position as a managing board member at Union Investment Asset Management Holding, effective from 30 November, the group announced on 12 November. Köhne was chief financial officer since 2003.In the interim until a successor can be appointed, the responsibilities of the outgoing man will be distributed among other managing board members.

BNY Mellon has been awarded a Capital Markets Services licence by the Monetary Authority of Singapore for its new dedicated Singapore-based subsidiary to provide fund management services in Singapore. The licence was approved on 11, November 2013.With the new licence, the Singapore subsidiary, BNY Mellon Investment Management Singapore Pte. Limited, will be able to conduct a full range of investment management activities, including research, portfolio management, marketing and sales of collective investment schemes. BNY Mellon Investment Management has been offering global investment solutions to institutional investors in the region through its investment boutiques.BNY Mellon employs over 450 people in the city.

The British firm F&C Investments on 11 November announced plans to launch a new fund for its multi-asset class targeted risk fund, which already includes four products. The F&C MM Lifestyle Foundation Fund will be the least risky of the range, with an allocation to cash/fixed income of 64.3%, a proportion of equities of 27.7%, and a proportion of real estate of 8%. Each fund invests in a basket of 35 to 40 funds or instruments, and the range currently weighs about GBP435m.

M&G Investments is planning to launch a new income fund as an addition to its multi-asset class range, Citywire reports. The fund, M&G Income Allocation fund, is still pending permission from the authorities. It will be managed by Steven Andrew.

Fund managers and analysts at SAC Capital Advisors are in talks with competing hedge fund firms, including Moore Capital Management, to join these companies as SAC prepares to close its London office, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. In addition to Moore, SAC employees have been in talks with Millennium Management, BlueCrest Capital Management and Balyazny Asset Management.

Schroders on 13 November announced its decision to bring its convertible bond management in-house, which since the beginning of 2008 has been outsourced to an external partner, the Swiss firm Fisch Asset Management.Peter Reinmuth, manager of the current “star” funds of the range, Schroder ISF Convertible Bond and Schroder ISF Asian Convertible Bond, will join the British asset management firm on 29 November 2013. he will be accompanied by two other experts from Fisch AM (including a member of the trading team), as well as an external manager, all of whom will join the British group by the end of Npvember to manage existing vehicles. The management team will be distributed between Zurich and Singapore, and will be placed under the responsibility of the Frenchman Philippe Lespinard, CIO Fixed Income at Schroders.Schroders has a volume of assets under management of nearly EUR1.5bn in convertible bonds, and as of 2013 has posted net inflows of over EUR500m to this asset class.

The asset management unit at UniCredit, housed at Pioneer, recorded net inflows of EUR7.7bn in the first nine months of the year. Captive and non-captive clients both contributed to inflows, the Italian bank says. As of the end of September, assets under management totalled USD168.9bn, up 7% since the beginning of the year (+EUR11bn), also due to positive currency effects (+EUR3.3bn).

Domenico Siniscalco has resigned from the chairmanship of Assogestioni, the Italian association of asset managers, Il Sole – 24 Ore reports. The decision was taken in order to avoid a “potential conflict of interests” between his position as chairman of the association of asset management firms, and his role as head of Morgan Stanley, at the time of the reorganization at Telecom Italia. Morgan Stanley is advising the telecommunications firm on its sales of assets, and for an issue of convertible bonds, but these operations are contested by minority shareholders in Telecom Italia.Domenico Siniscalco will be replaced by his vice chairman at Assogestioni, Giordano Lombardo, president of Pioneer, until the convocation of a general assembly.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a statement on practices governed by the Takeover Bid Directive (TBD), focused on shareholder cooperation issues relating to acting in concert and the appointment of board members. The statement contains a White List of activities that shareholders can cooperate on without the presumption of acting in concert.The statement is in response to a request by the European Commission for clarity on these issues.

Last month, the daily trading volume of on-book trades on ETFs on the European markets on NYSE Euronext fell to EUR192.4m in September, after an increase of 14.2% in August. Compared with October 2012, it has fallen by 13.5%.The median spread last month totalled 25.3 basis points, compared with 28.1 basis points in September 2013, and 29 basis points in October 2012.As of the end of October, the European markets of NYSE Euronext listed 557 ETFs 645 times. Three new funds were added to trading in October, two from Lyxor and one from EasyETF.

The British boutique James Hambro & Partners has recruited Christopher Macklin, a former portfolio manager from Schroders Private Bank, as business development manager, Fundweb reports.Macklin, whose primary mission will be to develop activities with clients, will report directly to Tim Broughton.Assets under management and advised by Hambro & Partners total GBP1.2bn.

Net inflows to equity funds are on track to reach their highest levels since 2000, according to the most recent edition of the Pridham Report. According to statistics from the British investment management association (IMA), net inflows to equity funs have already topped GBP8bn in the first nine months of the year. In third quarter, Standard Life Investments tops the rankings for sales with net inflows of GBP819.9m. It is followed by Schroders with GBP622.1m, Artemis (GBP498.5m), Henderson (GBP481.9m) and BlackRock (GBP471.8m).

Le regain d’intérêt pour les actions européennes a donné un coup de fouet inattendu à un segment longtemps délaissé : les fonds 130/30, rapporte le Financial Times fund management. Par exemple, le fonds Europe Equity Plus de JPMorgan, lancé en 2007, a vu ses encours bondir à 1,25 milliard de dollars, alors qu’il n’était qu’à 24 millions de dollars en décembre 2012.

Rob Geeraets, directeur des ventes institutionnelles chez F&C après avoir travaillé pour Lombard Odier et Kas Bank, a été recruté comme directeur au poste nouvellement créé de head of distribution d’Affiliated Managers Group (AMG) pour le Benelux, rapporte Fonds Nieuws.Le nouvel arrivant sera subordonné à Jenny Segel, directrice de la distribution d’AMG pour l’Europe.

Lazard Asset Management vient de lancer une version Ucits de sa stratégie actions Global Hexagon, rapporte Fundweb. Ce fonds long/short, Lazard Global Hexagon Equity, investit dans le monde entier, y compris les marchés émergents.Le gérant de portefeuille Jean-Daniel Malan pilotera le fonds.

Le capital-investisseur européen 3i a annoncé le 11 novembre qu’il avait bouclé l’acquisition auprès du groupe Barclays de l’activité infrastructures du groupe britannique logée dans Barclays Infrastructure Funds Management.Cette activité regroupe deux fonds non cotés qui investissent dans des PPP britanniques et européens ainsi que dans des projets énergétiques et qui ont des actifs sous gestion de 780 millions de livres.L’entité de Barclays sera renommée 3i BIFM et intégrée dans l’activité infrastructures de 3i pilotée par Cressida Hogg. L'équipe dédiée aux infrastructures sera basée dans les bureaux de 3i à Londres et- à Paris.

Cinquième acquisition en moins de deux ans dans le secteur de la comparaison de produits financiers sur Internet pour BlackFin Capital Partners. Le fonds de capital investissement vient d’annoncer l’acquisition d’HyperAssur, un site de comparaison en ligne de produits financiers de polices d’assurance (auto, moto, santé, habitation, vie, emprunteur, obsèques,…) au meilleur prix.L’acquisition d’HyperAssur permet notamment à Comparadise de renforcer significativement sa position sur le marché de l’assurance auto, promis à un fort développement du fait de la loi Hamon autorisant la résiliation à tout moment des contrats après la première année.L’objectif de BlackFin est de faire de Comparadise le premier comparateur en ligne de produits financiers dédiés aux particuliers et aux PME en France, indique un communiqué.

Comme annoncé récemment à Newsmanagers par George Muzinich, le gestionnaire new-yorkais Muzinich & Co (25 milliards de dollars d’encours) a lancé son Emerging Markets Short Duration Bond Fund qui, comme son nom l’indique investit dans un portefeuille diversifié d’obligations d’entreprises catégorie investissement et catégorie spéculaztive à duration courte, émises par des sociétés axées sur les marchés émergents.Géré par Warren Hyland et Christina Bastin qui privilégient les obligations en devises «dures», ce nouveau fonds de droit luxembourgeois dont pour l’instant seule la part S superinstitutionnelle (*) avec une souscription minimale de 100 millions de dollars a été lancée. Cette part est chargée à 0,5 % mais les parts A en dollars, euros et livres sont chargées à 0,8 %. L’encours se situe actuellement aux alentours de 60 millions de dollars.(*) IE00BCCW0T67