Funds on sale in Sweden in 2012 recorded net inflows of SEK74.5bn (EUR8.6bn), according to statistics from the Swedish investment fund association Fondbolagens förening. That is far higher than the SEK16bn (about EUR1.8bn) posted in 2011. Inflows were driven by balanced funds (SEK34.6bn) and equity funds (SEK30.8bn), while bond funds also did well (SEK20.8bn). However, money market funds saw outflows of SEK5.3bn, while hedge funds had net redemptions of SEK6.2bn. At the end of 2012, assets in Swedish funds totalled SEK2.049trn, or about EUR237bn, of which about 53% were in equity funds. That represents an increase of SEK230bn year on year.
Consultinvest Asset Management, the asset management firm created as a joint venture between the Consultinvest and Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna groups, has launched three flexible funds of funds, Bluerating reports. They are Consultinvest and Multimanager Low Volatility, Consultinvest Multimanager Medium Volatility, and Consultinvest Multimanager Opportunities.
UBS Global Asset Management has announced the launch of 61 ETFs on the Milan stock exchange, replicating 41 equity, bond and alternative indices, Bluerating reports. This is the largest single simultaneous listing of ETFs in the history of the Italian stock exchange.
On 27 November, Global X applied to the SEC for a license for the Global X Junior MLP ETF, whose acronym on NYSE Arca will be MLPJ, and whose management commission and thus TER will be 0.75%. The product, which focuses on master limited partnerships (MLP) with USD200m-USD2.5bn, will replicate the Solactive Junior MLP Index from the Frankfurt-based Structured Solutions AG.According to Index Universe, the fund will be admitted to trading on 15 January.
Following the example set by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, BlackRock and JPMorgan Asset Management, Fidelity Investments on Sunday announced that it will publish net asset values on a daily basis with a one-day delay, from 16 January, for shares in money market funds which it manages (USD430bn in assets). This will have no impact on the principle of the constant net asset value of USD1 which will continue to apply to all transactions by investors on fund shares, says Nancy Prior, president of money markets.
David Palmer from Generali has joined Ashcourt Rowan as director of the asset management arm of the wealth management firm, Investment Week reports. He will report to CEO Jonathan Polin (formerly of Ignis AM). Palmer had previously worked at Generali, where he founded the portfolio management division of the firm.
Sally Mcdonald has joined the British asset management firm Marlborough Fund Managers, in the newly-created position of head of Asian equities, Investment Week reports. Mcdonald, who will begin in her new role on 1 February, previously worked at City of London Investment Management. With this recruitment, Marlborough hopes to increase its range of Asian equities in the region. Currently, the firm has only one product available, the Far East Growth Fund, whose assets under management total GBP24m.
Paul O’Connor will join Henderson at the end of this month as director of the multi-asset team at the firm, Investment Week reports. O’Connor previously worked at Mercer as a partner and head of asset allocation for the Investment Management unit at Mercer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). In his new role, he will be responsible for the management of a “Diversified Growth” institutional strategy.
Aberdeen Asset Management has recruited Dimme Lucassen, a manager specialised in real estate, who for ten years had worked in the real estate unit at Schroders, where he had been manager of a real estate fund of funds, Citywire reports. In his new role, Lucassen will concentrate on a euro zone fund of funds, previously managed by Karin Koks, who has recently been appointed as head of international markets at Aberdeen AM.
The Singapore sovereign fund Temasek has recruited Jonathan Popper, managing director, in charge of merger/acquisition activities at Morgan Stanley for South-East Asia, Finance Asia reports. Popper will join Temasek in the next few months. Morgan Stanley has confirmed the departure of Popper, without stating his destination. Assets under management at Temased at the end of March 2012 totalled SGD198bn, or about USD160bn.
BlackRock is expected this week to announce the recruitment of Wang Hsueh-ming, a former partner at Goldman Sachs, as chairman of its operations in China, the Financial Times predicts. “ If we are asked, we plan to help the Chinese think about turning Chinese savers into investors by making the financial markets more robust ,” Larry Fink, the founder and CEO of BlackRock, tells the FT.
The China Investment Coporation (CIC), the Chinese sovereign fund, whose assets under management total about USD482bn, last year earned returns of over 10%, according to statements from the head of the fund, Lou Jiwei, the website Opalesque reports. “We don’t have final figures … but we are confident that our returns will be higher than 10%,” the head has stated.
finews.ch reports that J. P. Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM) has appointed Philipp Pfenninger, who had previously served as head of distribution to banks, as country head for Switzerland, replacing Roland Vogel, who has left the business.JPMAM has also recruited an investment consultant from Bank Vontobel, Marc Schumacher, who will join the team to assist clients at the cantonal and regional banks.The news website also reports that Claudia Nägeli (formerly of RBS) joined JPMAM in October 2012 as senior sales executive, global liquidity. She will be particularly responsible for assisting corporate and institutional clients.
Switzeland’s asset manager GAM will acquire a minority stake of approximately 30% in QFS Asset Management, a US-based alternative asset management boutique that specialises in currency, global macro and fixed income strategies.The partnership will also see GAM and QFS work very closely together, with GAM being responsible for the global distribution and marketing of existing and new strategies managed by QFS.Moreover, following the formal closure of the agreement, GAM plans to introduce a UCITS product based on QFS’s flagship currency strategy in the coming months. Launched in March 1993 and trading in highly liquid instruments, the strategy has delivered net returns to clients of 10.75% per annum (as at 31 December 2012). GAM has USD48 billion in assets under management, while QFS has over USD1 bn of assets under management.
As of 31 December, assets at the German bond management firm Bantleon were up 50.3% year on year, to EUR7.94bn; not counting market appreciation, the increase was still 45.8%.Net subscriptions doubled to EUR2.42bn in 2012, compared with EUR1.2bn the previous year, of which EUR410m were from retail clients. Net inflows totalled EUR846m in 2010, and EUR1.2bn in 2009.Of the total AUM, assets in open-ended funds totalled EUR3.88bn at the end of last year, while assets in institutional funds totalled EUR4.06bn; net subscriptions totalled EUR1.48bn for open-ended funds, and EUR940m for “Spezialfonds.”Jörg Bantleon, chairman of the board of directors, has stated that the wealth management strategy of Bantleon Opportunities singlehandedly brought in inflows of EUR2.18bn last year, of which EUR1.16bn were for the two open-ended funds Bantleon Opportunities S and L (whose assets as of the end of December totalled USD1.9bn), while EUR940m went to institutional funds using the same approach.
Konrad Hummler and Otto Bruderer, who heads of the former Wegelin bank, are suing Christophe Darbellay. The chairman of the Christian Dmocratic party (PDC) called them “traitors” for announcing that Wegelin’s fraudulent practices in the United States represented the norm among Swiss banks. Darbellay still maintains his position. “The statements of Mr. Hummler and Mr. Bruderer constitute a defamation of the Swiss financial market before the entire world. As a Swiss sitizen and politician and a representative of the Swiss economic centre, I feel that such an attitude is treason,” the member of Swiss parliament says, cited by Béatrice Wertli.
The Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) has issued new quotas for a total of USD1.4bn to eight asset managers which have been licensed as Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII), including USD500m for the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), and CNY18bn for holders of RQFII licenses (Hong Kong yuan-denominated funds), Asian Investor reports. As of 31 December, SAFE had awarded QFII quotas totalling USD37.4b to 169 asset management firms, and CNY67bn to 24 RQFII managers.The other five recipients of QFII quotas are Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, BOC Group Life Assurance Company (USD200m each), KB Asset Management (USD100m), the Church Pension Fund, and Duke University (USD50m each).For RQFII quotas, SAFE has increased by CNY5.8bn the quotas for China Asset Management and E Fund, and CSOP for a further CNY5bn, while ICBC Credit Suisse, China International Fund Management and GF Fund Management have received their first quotas for CNY800m each.
Pioneer Investments has appointed Jon Bailie as head of Western Europe and Latin America. He will join the firm in April and will report to Sandro Pierri, chief executive officer. He will also be a member of Pioneer Investments’ Management Committee and will be based in London.Jon Bailie takes the role from Sandro Pierri, who continued to hold this position ad interim following his appointment as chief executive in July 2012.Jon Bailie joins from AXA Investment Managers, where he was global head of distribution and member of AXA IM ‘s executive committee. Previously he spent 16 years at Russell Investments, where he held several senior roles.
Robeco Group has annouced the rebranding of its subsidiary SAM, the investment specialist focused exclusively on sustainability investing in RobecoSAM. As well as the rebranding, Robeco’s engagement and voting services will become part of RobecoSAM’s range of investment solutions and services. This step will enable Robeco to align its group wide efforts in the field of sustainability investment more closely.
En 2012, l’activité allemande a nettement ralenti, la croissance annuelle du PIB était de seulement 0,9%, après 3,1% en 2011. Le PIB s’est donc contracté de 0,3% au quatrième trimestre, chiffres corrigés des variations saisonnières. Ces premières estimations officielles publiées mardi, montrent que la crise de la dette de la zone euro a rattrapé le pays. L’activité devrait se stabiliser en début d’année pour redémarrer progressivement à partir du printemps, estime toutefois les analystes de BNP Paribas. «L'économie allemande n’est peut-être plus le paradis qu’elle a été dernièrement mais elle reste néanmoins un îlot de croissance dans l’océan de récession qui a submergé la zone euro», rapporte de son côté, Carsten Brzeski, économiste chez ING, cité par Reuters. L’année qui vient de commencer pourrait se solder par une croissance modeste. Un responsable du ministère de l’Economie a dit à Reuters que Berlin tablait sur une croissance de 0,4% cette année puis sur un PIB en hausse de 1,6% en 2014.
La Caisse d’amortissement de la dette sociale (Cades) émettra 30 milliards d’euros de dette en 2013, soit 10 milliards d’euros de moins qu’en 2012, a annoncé mardi son président Patrice Ract Madoux. Il a précisé que sur les 30 milliards d’euros que la Caisse prévoit d'émettre, 20 milliards d’euros porteront sur des obligations de moyen et long terme. En 2012, la Cades a émis 30,2 milliards d’euros de dette à moyen et long terme sur un total de 40 milliards.
Le Trésor espagnol a placé mardi pour 5,75 milliards d’euros de bons à 12 et à 18 mois, un montant supérieur à ses prévisions. Pour le papier à 12 mois, Madrid a émis 3,25 milliards d’euros, le ratio de couverture ressortant à 2,2 contre 2,5 lors d’une précédente adjudication et le rendement passant de 2,556% à 1,472%. Le Trésor espagnol a également émis pour 2,51 milliards d’euros de bons à 18 mois, avec un ratio de couverture de 2,7, inchangé par rapport à la précédente adjudication et un rendement de 1,687% contre 2,778%.
Le taux de rémunération du livret A et du livret de développement durable passera de 2,25% à 1,75% le 1er février, a annoncé mardi le ministre de l’Economie, Pierre Moscovici, soulignant qu’il restait très supérieur à celui de l’inflation. Le gouverneur de la Banque de France, Christian Noyer, a proposé cette baisse de 0,5 point lundi, mais il souhaitait à l’origine un taux à 1,50%, a confirmé Pierre Moscovici sur RTL. «J’en ai discuté avec lui et nous sommes tombés d’accord sur le fait qu’il y avait quand même un souci des Français par rapport à leur pouvoir d’achat (...) donc nous avons ajouté un coup de pouce de 0,25», a poursuivi le ministre de l’Economie.
L’Italie commence à recueillir des marques d’intérêt pour sa nouvelle obligation à 15 ans, à un rendement moyen semblant s'établir à 35 points points de base au-dessus de celui attaché à du papier à échéance mars 2026, rapporte Reuters. Le Trésor italien va placer du papier de cette maturité pour la première fois depuis plus de deux ans.
Le quotidien souligne qu’au titre de 2012 «la rémunération de l’assurance-vie faiblit encore mais moins qu’attendu». Les rendements servis sur les contrats en euros «devraient passer sous la barre des 3%». Les taux devraient à nouveau baisser cette année, les assureurs ayant tout de même «reconstitué des marges de manœuvre». Le taux 2012 de l’Afer est attendu aujourd’hui.
La ville de Shanghai sera la première à démarrer le programme pilote, dit «QDII2», lancé par le gouvernement chinois qui permet aux particuliers du pays d’investir dans les marchés de capitaux internationaux, selon le China Business News. Actuellement, les particuliers ne peuvent investir à l’international qu’en passant par des fonds appartenant au programme QDII.
La Commission européenne a rendu un rapport qui établit que la Chine aurait fourni des subventions illégales à ses producteurs d’acier, un pas vers l’augmentation des taxes européennes à l’importation sur un spectre plus large de produits chinois, selon le journal. Pékin aurait permis aux producteurs du pays d’obtenir des prix de matériaux sous les prix de marché.
Le gestionnaire d’actifs américain devrait annoncer cette semaine selon le quotidien le recrutement de Wang Hsueh-ming en tant que présidente de ses activités en Chine. Elle sera chargée d’accroître le rôle de BlackRock au sein du marché actions local, que Pékin tente de rendre plus attrayant aux yeux des investisseurs internationaux, et suivra de près l’évolution du partenariat avec Bank of China.