P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Legal & General Assurance Society has acquired the British annuities specialist firm Lucida from LCM Holdings, for a total of GBP151m, Investment Week reports. The transaction, which is expected to be completed in third quarter, comes as part of a desire on the part of the British group to accelerate its growth.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Intermediaries remain confident in the British economy. Intermediaries in the United Kingdom are less concerned about the dangers of inflation and more confident in the outlooks for the British economy in the next few months, according to the most recent quarterly survey as part of the Baring Asset Management Investment Barometer.They are showing renewed optimism about British equities, with 87% of opinions favourable or highly favourable to the asset class, compared with 86% one quarter previously.According to intermediaries, the greatest macroeconomic risk in the next six months is a slowdown in Chinese growth, cited by 47%, compared with 21% one quarter previously. A corollary of these growing concerns is that favourable opinions of Asian equities have fallen to 84% from 97% previously.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The former head of communication at Hauck & Aufhäuser, Felix Höpfner, has since early June been serving as director of marketing at BHF-Bank (Deutsche Bank group). It is a newly-created position, Das Investment reports.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } The former head of retail distribution at BlackRock for Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe until October 2012, Andrej Brodnik, has been recruited by Jupiter Asset Management as director of distribution for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Das Investment reports.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Following the recent departures in February of Christian Wrede, managing director, and then of Klaus Mühlbauer, director of distribution, in June, Fidelity Germany has confirmed to fondsprofessionell that Marion Dreßler is leaving the position of head of corporate & marketing communications Germany & Austria.Until a permanent successor can be found, Dreßler will be replaced by Ellen Posch, head of Continental Europe Marketing in Luxembourg since 1 July 2012 (see Newsmanagers of 9 July and 16 October 2012).So far, Fidelity Germany does not appear to have found a successor for the positions of CEO and director of distribution.On Wednesday afternoon, Das Investment has reported for its part that Stephan Volkmann, director of private wealth and private banking, also left the business, effective immediately.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } Six experts in the ETF sector are seeking to popularise the investment vehicle on the Swiss market through an organisation of “ETF Ambassadors” who seek to familiarise investors with the ETF universe and improve their knowledge of the subject with a website (etfambassadors.ch) and monthly seminars. Among the experts behind the initiative are Christian Gast, head of iShares for Switzerland, Frank Mohr, head of ETF-Sales Trading at Commerzbank, Alain Picard, head of Product Management at SIX Swiss Exchange, and Marcel Wagner, head of Index Selection at Credit Suisse. Only 3.7% of assets in European funds are invested in passive investment products.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Spanish Arcano group has appointed José Luis der Río as deputy director of its asset management unit. He will be responsible for developing the launch and management of investment products aimed at Spanish and foreign institutional investors, Funds People reports. He will co-operate closely with the four partners at Arcano who are specialised in asset management, Ignacio Sarría, Manuel Mendivil, Pedro Hamparzoumian and Yuliya Kaspler.Luis del Río was a founder of N+1. He is leaving the positions of chairman of N+1 gestión and N+1 Patrimónios.Arcano Asset Management has EUR2.5bn in assets under advisory and management in private equity.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } The annual general meeting of the Spanish Inverco association of asset management firms on Wednesday elected Javier Palomar (Ibercaja Gestión) as chairman of the group of investment funds, replacing Lázaro de Lázaro (Santander AM), Funds People reports. It has also elected Miguel Colombás (Allianz Popular Pensiones) as president of the group of pension funds. He succeeds Rocio Eguiran (Bankia Pensiones).
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } The French pension fund, Fonds de réserve pour les retraites (FRR), has launched a request for proposals to select one to three providers of financial management for active management mandates invested in Japanese equities. For this bidding process, the public market procedure selected is that of a restricted request for proposals. The request for proposals concerns the active management of one to three mandates, which will implement exposure to Japanese equities of all cap sizes. For purely indicative purposes, the FRR estimates that the total amount of funds placed for management may be set at EUR400m. Each mandate in the present round of bidding is signed for a period of four years from notification, with a possible one-year extension. Interested asset management firms have until 24 July 2013, at 12:00 Paris time, to respond to the FRR within the conditions specified by the consultation rules.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } The Californian pension fund CalPERS on 26 June announced that it has engaged USD50m in Clearlake Cpaital, a California-based private equity investor. The investment is one of ten made by CalPERS last year as part of its private equity investment programme. Clearlake has already been a part of a CalPERS investment programme dedicated to new managers with exposure through a fund of funds. The new engagement is invested directly in the Clearlake Capital Partners III fund, which focuses primarily on distressed SMEs. CalPERS invested USD36.7bn in private equity firms betweeen 2006 and 2008, approving more than 130 funds. Since then, the pension fund has invested USD5.2bn in 23 funds.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The investment boutique Rainier Investments, located in Seattle, has recruited the former UBS equity manager Sam Console, as an addition to the large caps unit, Citywire reports. Console, who left the asset management unit of UBS in April this year, joined Rainier in early May as a manager in the team dedicated to US equities, with a senior portfolio management function. Assets under management at Rainier Investments total about USD12.5bn.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Paul Hawtin, the founder of the Twitter hedge fund, which uses algorithms to detect investor moods on social networks and to invest as a result, is launching a new investment company which appears to be aiming to exploit the same vein, COOConnect reports. The Twitter hedge fund, entitled Derwen Absolute Return Fund, launched in 2011, was closed in February 2013 due to a lack of interest on the part of investors. The new strategy, Cayman Atlantic, launched last year, aims to detect investment opportunities on the basis of data collected from social networks in real time. It has gained 13.76% since its launch in July 2012.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } More than 60% of actively-managed funds in the Swedish defined-contribution pension system are “more expensive than hedge funds,” with commissions that exceed returns over a three-year period, according to a study by an analyst for the Swedish pension fund AP7, the website IPE reports. The AP7 analyst, Hakan Tobiasson, compared the costs anre turns of about 500 actively-managed funds with the costs of an average hedge fund with equivalent performance, on the basis of a management fee of 1% and a performance commission of 15%. One third of funds reviewed showed an alpha higher than the management fees for the period, but were nonetheless more expensive than a hedge fund. For all funds analysed, only 5% could be categorised as “good performance with reasonable commission” with all the characteristics of positive alpha over the past 36 months.
L’association britannique des gestionnaires d’actifs (IMA) envisage de mettre en place une déclaration de principes qui gouvernera les activités de ses membres tout en servant de référence pour le développement du secteur.Le directeur général de l’association professionnelle, Daniel Godfrey, a publié sur son blog une série de propositions qui s’inscrivent dans la volonté de l’association de restaurer la confiance des investisseurs, «sérieusement écornée» au cours des cinq dernières années.Outre la déclaration de principes, l’IMA souhaite publier un document de recommandations sur internet qui identifie «les dossiers critiques que doivent traiter les gestionnaires d’actifs là où la nécessité de gérer les conflits d’intérêts est la plus forte».L’IMA souhaite donc recueillir l’avis de ses membres sur ses problématiques tout en travaillant parallèlement à la rédaction du document avec le CFA Institute et le Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } After the acquisition of Salvepar a few months ago, the young private equity and asset management specialist firm Tikehau is expected to announce this morning that it hs acquiring a 35% stake in the British firm Duke Street, Les Echos reports. The price of the acquisition, through a capital increase, has not been revealed. An option on a majority stake in capital in the long term is being offered.Duke Street has been active in France for 10 years, and has seen investments from Marie Bizard (from 2000 to 2006) and B&B hotels (from 2003 to 2005). With about EUR3bn in assets under management, Duke Street still plans to grow, the newspaper adds.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Barclays Capital is planning to close the Barclays Capital Radar fund, launched four years ago, due to the limited interest shown by investors in the strategy, Fundweb reports. Assets under management in the fund total barely USD9.8bn, and its performance has manifestly not been up to the level of investor expectations.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } The Luxembourg-based firm Alceda Fund Management (EUR5.4bn in assets under administration) on 26 June announced that it has signed a cooperation agreement with the Australian firm APN Property Group which will soon result in the release of a Special Investment Fund (SIF) which will be the re-domiciled UCITS-compliant version of the Asian REIT Fund.APN (USD2.1bn in assets) is a specialist in high yielding securities from the Asia-Pacific region, with a particular emphasis on REITs and equities in companies of the undervalued infrastructure and public services sectors, and offering long-term visibility.
L’Italie a vu ses coûts de financement augmenter à l’occasion d’une émission de papier à cinq et dix ans dont les rendements ont atteint leur plus haut niveau depuis trois mois, conséquence du projet de la Réserve fédérale de revenir sur son programme de stimulation de l'économie. Les investisseurs ont acquis pour 2,5 milliards d’euros d’obligations à 10 ans, à un rendement de 4,55% contre 4,14% reçus un mois auparavant pour le même type de titres. C’est le rendement le plus élevé depuis mars. Les investisseurs ont également acheté pour 2,5 milliards d’euros de papier à cinq ans, à un rendement de 3,47% contre 3%.
La société française d’investissement Tikehau a annoncé l’acquisition d’une participation de 35% dans le capital de son homologue britannique Duke Street à l’occasion d’une augmentation de capital, et s’est engagée à abonder le prochain fonds levé par son nouveau partenaire. Elles entendent « s’appuyer sur leurs forces respectives pour lancer un nouveau modèle dans l’industrie du Private Equity », indique le communiqué.
LBO France et Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management annoncent ce jour la cession du portefeuille Selec à Powerhouse France, une société gérée par TwentyTwo Real Estate. Selec compte aujourd’hui près de 7 600 logements. En mars 2013, en préalable à la cession, LBO France et Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management ont procédé à un refinancement hypothécaire de 620 millions d’euros.
La forte réaction des marchés mondiaux à l’annonce de sortie progressive du QE américain a surpris. Depuis, la Fed, la BCE et la Banque de Chine s’évertuent à les calmer au moyen d’interventions verbales répétées. Mais jusqu’où les banques centrales doivent-elles se plier aux réactions des marchés ?