La BCE devrait baisser son taux à 0,75%
Le Panel Taux attend un assouplissement dès la réunion de jeudi. La réaction positive au sommet européen éloigne la perspective d’une baisse de 0,5 point.
Le FESF et le MES pourraient intervenir sur le marché primaire de la dette
Le Conseil européen insiste sur les conditions que les Etats devront respecter pour que la BCE, qui jouera le rôle d'agent, intervienne
Le Panel Actions s’attend à une légère éclaircie à court terme
Les gestions ont sensiblement relevé leurs anticipations à 6 mois mais restent très prudentes à plus long terme
Un vrai succès
La cause d’une solidarité européenne plus forte et plus équilibrée a connu un vrai succès vendredi. Les concessions allemandes ouvrant la possibilité pour le MES d’intervenir directement dans le capital des banques sont importantes car elles tendent à rompre le lien entre crise bancaire et crise des souverains. L’Espagne est déjà assurée d’en bénéficier, avec en prime l’assurance que l’aide de ses partenaires n’aura pas un rang de séniorité. La porte est ouverte aussi pour l’Irlande et, probablement, pour la Grèce. Mais Angela Merkel a pris deux précautions clés : ce nouveau droit ne pourra entrer en vigueur avant la mise en place d’une surveillance bancaire unique sous l’égide de la BCE ; et il ne pourra être effectif qu’après un vote à l’unanimité. Le chèque allemand n’est donc pas en blanc. Pour le reste, selon la tradition, les conclusions du sommet demeurent floues et annoncent une longue et rude «bataille des détails». C’est le cas s’agissant de la possibilité pour les fonds d’urgence d’intervenir sur le marché de la dette souveraine d’Etats en difficulté mais remplissant leurs obligations budgétaires. Mario Monti veut croire qu’il a obtenu un feu vert de principe. Mais le «memorandum of understanding» imposé par Berlin pour en bénéficier laisse prévoir tant de contraintes que le recours à ce nouveau «bazooka» sera plus qu’étroitement encadré. N’importe : à l’image des marchés vendredi, les citoyens de l’euro peuvent aujourd’hui respirer mieux.
Tokyo se tourne vers les marchés émergents
A l’issue d’une procédure entamée en octobre 2010, le plus important fonds de pension public au monde, celui du gouvernement japonais avec 1.350 milliards de dollars d’actifs, a annoncé avoir sélectionné six prestataires pour la gestion d’actions des marchés émergents. Sont concernés Invesco, Nomura AM, Nomura Funds Research and Technologies, Mizuho AM, Sumitomo Mitsui AM et Lazard AM.
Pékin détient 10% de Veolia Water UK
La State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), chargée de gérer les réserves de change chinoises, fait partie d’un consortium d’investisseurs ayant acquis la semaine dernière l’activité d’eau régulée en Grande-Bretagne de Veolia. Une opération s’élevant à 1,24 milliard de livres. Selon le Sunday Times, le gouvernement chinois détient désormais 10% de Veolia Water UK.
Paris et Shanghai veulent renforcer leur coopération
Paris Europlace et la municipalité de Shanghai ont annoncé la mise en place d’un comité de pilotage visant à avancer dans deux directions: faciliter et développer les opérations commerciales et les transactions financières en yuans grâce à la hausse du financement export, et développer les opportunités d’investissement dans des actifs libellés en yuans, notamment via l’émission d’obligations Dim Sum par des entreprises françaises.
Louis Dreyfus prépare l’IPO de sa filiale brésilienne
La filiale brésilienne du négociant en matières premières va scinder ses activités de sucre et d’éthanol, intégrées à la division Biosev, dans le cadre d’une introduction en Bourse qui pourrait générer jusqu’à 548 millions de dollars. Ces fonds serviront à financer des projets de développement. La société a mandaté Banco Votorantim, Banco do Brasil, Itaú Unibanco, JPMorgan, Santander et Banco Bradesco pour mener l’opération.
Montagu Private Equity va croquer St Hubert
La société de capital-investissement a conclu un accord préalable avec Dairy Crest Group en vue d’acquérir, en partenariat avec ses dirigeants, St Hubert pour un montant total de 430 millions d’euros. St Hubert est l’un des leaders français et Italien de la fabrication de margarine, avec un chiffre d’affaires 2011/2012 de plus de 130 millions. Lazard est intervenu en tant que conseil financier exclusif de Montagu sur l’opération.
02/07/2012
Kneip appoints a chief strategist
Kneip, a provider of services to the fund industry, has appointed Mario Mantrisi, an executive member of the board of director and former head of product management and innovation, to the position of chief strategist and research officer, Investment Europe reports.
02/07/2012
“We are thinking of developing our range of real assets, for their diversifying virtues and their profitability”
UFF, the top wealth advising bank in France, is planning to take advantage of the times of crisis. By recruiting more and better advisers, launching opportunistic funds with partner asset management firms, and lastly, as Thierry Guérillot explains, by taking advantage of exaggerated downsides on equity markets, and the current potential which private equity and real assets have in terms of diversification and profitability. The UFF product range will be moving in this direction from this autumn.
02/07/2012
Wave of QFII quotas in June
In June, the Chinese State Office of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) issued Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) quotas totalling USD1.35bn, Z-Ben Advisors reports. Among the beneficiaries who did not have quotas previously are BlackRock Trust, Northern Trust, Mercuries Life Insurance, American International Insurance, Capital Research and Management, City of London Investment and Okasan Asset Management.
02/07/2012
Few winning strategies in second quarter
Facing a debt crisis in the euro zone, slowing growth in China, a potential new round of quantitative easing in the United States and a continuation of the Arab Spring, investors have recently had a limited appetite for risk, and have reduced their exposure to Europe and to Asian emerging markets. In the last week of June, equity funds saw redemptions totalling EUR7.7bn, while bond funds posted net inflows of USD4.7bn, according to estimates from EPFR Global. Over the past quarter overall, only US and global bond funds have managed to attract more tan USD10bn in assets. Japanese equity funds finished the quarter with inflows of USD5.6bn, and USd5.49bn in first quarter, compared with inflows of less than USD2bn in the first six months of 2011. However, European equity funds have seen their heaviest quarterly outflows since third quarter 2008. After a very good start, emerging market equity funds have seen redemptions totalling USD10.5bn for second quarter as a whole, with over USD8bn to contribute to Asia ex Japan equity funds. Inflows to high yield bond funds slowed in mid-May, and dividend equity funds underwent redemptions in June for the first time in over two years. Money market funds finished the quarter with outflows of USD19.67bn, which is due to redemptions from US money market funds of USD28.39bn. In Europe, money market funds posted inflows of USD6.5bn in second quarter. In the past six months, inflows to money markets total USD115.35bn, compared with slightly over USD49bn in first half 2011.
02/07/2012
Notenstein recruits for board of directors
The board of directors at the private management bank Notenstein, an affiliate of Raiffeisen Switzerland, will be taking on four new members, according to a statement published on 29 June. The candidates in the mid-August election will include Günter Haag, a member of the board at KPMG Switzerland, Heinz Karrer, CEO of Axpo Holding SA< Maya Salzmann, vice president of Bright Entertainment and former managing director of Private Banking at Credit Suisse, and Thomas C. Weissmann, chairman of the board of directors at ALSO-Actebis Holding. In addition to chairman Pierin Vincenz, CEO of the Raiffeisen Switzerland group, and Patrik Gisel, his replacement at Raiffeisen, are already members of the board at the former Wegelin bank. Notenstein has 700 employees, and its assets under management total about CHF21bn.
02/07/2012
Barclays chairman resigns
Barclays has today (Monday, July 2nd) announced the resignation of its chairman, Marcus Agius. The search for a new successor both from within the existing board members and from outside will be led by Sir John Sunderland and will commence today. Mr Agius will remain in post until an orderlu succession is assured and Sir Michael Rake has been appointed deputy chairman Commenting, Marcus Agius said, “It has been my privilege to serve as Barclays Chairman for the past six years. This has been a period of unprecedented stress and turmoil for the banking industry in particular and for the wider world economy in general. Barclays has been well served by an excellent executive team - led, first by John Varley, and now by Bob Diamond – which has worked constructively with a strong and supportive Board of directors. Barclays has remained resilient throughout the crisis, and has worked hard to ensure that today it is a strong, well capitalised and profitable business. But last week’s events – evidencing as they do unacceptable standards of behaviour within the bank – have dealt a devastating blow to Barclays reputation. As Chairman, I am the ultimate guardian of the bank’s reputation. Accordingly, the buck stops with me and I must acknowledge responsibility by standing aside».The Board has also agreed to launch an audit of its business practices.
02/07/2012
Strasbourg management school and CCR AM create a chair in behavioural finance
The School of Management at the University of Strasbourg (EM Strasbourg) and CCR Asset Management have announced that they are teaming up to create a chair in behavioural finance. The chair will be funded for three years, and will be led by three researcher-teachers in the LaRGE finance speicalist research laboratory: Marie-Hélène Broihanne, Patrick Roger, and Maxime Merli, who will direct the effort. Research in behavioural finance questions the rationality of investors, behavioural biases in financial decision-making and the impact of these biases on financial markets. “This financing will allow us to develop relationships with colleagues in North America working in these areas, to have access to original databases, which are currently indispensable for the analysis of investor behaviour,” explains Merli in a statement. CCR Asset Management feels that supporting academic research is “a necessary complement to traditional analysis (micro, macro, fundamental, technical, etc), in order to allow us to better understand our clients and better comprehend the markets,” says Lorenzo Ballester, chairman and CEO of CCR AM. The collaboration between researchers at EM Strasbourg and CCR Asset Mangaement has already resulted in two studies. The first, undertaken in partnership with Morningstar in June 2011, found that finance professionals have too much confidence, a bias which influences their financial risk-taking. The second study focuses on investor sentiment and its impact on financial markets. It was presented at the annual conference held by CCR Asset Management in Paris on 28 June 2012, which was attended by nearly 250 professionals.
02/07/2012
Sébastien Le Louarn joins Reyl France
Sébastien Le Louarn, who most recently had been a senior private banker in the major private investor team at the Indosuez Banque Privée, has joined the management team at Reyl & Cie France “recently,” as director and senior portfolio manager.In his new role. Le Louarn will be in charge of developing and leading the investment advising range for private companies and advising to entrepreneurs. Le Louan, an equestrian jumping competitor, will also be hoping to develop a range more specifically aimed at the equestrian community at Reyl & Cie (France). The arrival of Le Louarn comes soon after that of Virginie Robert (see Newsmanagers of 11 June), who joined from Raymond James Asset Management.
02/07/2012
Eric Boutchnei leaves Métropole Gestion
According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, Eric Boutchnei has quit his job. The co-founder of Métropole Gestion with François-Marie Wojcik and Isabel Levy, deputy CEO oand director of strategy at the firm, is said to have quit on Friday last week. Divergences in point of view at the asset management firm specialised in value style management is reportedly the cause of the departure of Boutchnei, who two years ago gave up his role as head of development to François Carlotti. The co-founder of Métropole Gestion then took over responsibility for the firm’s strategy, and became involved in issues at the asset management firm related to new regulatory constraints on institutional investors (Solvency, etc.). The departure of Carlotti from the asset management firm one year after his recruitment, with more mixed results in terms of development, will not have an effect. Boutchnei leaves a firm which he created with his partners following their departure from CCR in 2002, and which now has EUR2bn in assets. Boutchnei, a member of the SFAF, a graduate of the Centre d’Etudes Supérieures de Banque (1985),and of the Institut Technique Bancaire (1981), Boutchnei began his career as a financial analyst at BNP. Between 1985 and 2000, he was also deputy CEO of BNP Paribas Equities, and then CEO of Julius Baer France, before participating in the creation of Métropole Gestion and serving as a director there
02/07/2012
State Street develops partnership with Mitsui Fudosan
The financial services provider State Street Corporation on 29 June announced that it is extending its partnership with Mitsui Fudosan, a Japanese real estate firm, to offer administration and trustee services for two new real estate funds, Moorgate Property Unit Trust and Mark Lane Property Unit Trust. State Street had originally been retained by Mitsui Fudosan, one of the largest Japanese real estate asset management firms, in 2008, to assist it in its development on the real estate market in the United Kingdom, providing administration services for the 5 Hanover Square Unit Trust. The decision by Mitsui Fudosan to extend its range of Jersey Property Unit Trusts (JPUTS) reflects a rising interest on the part of investors in the real estate market in the United Kingdom.
02/07/2012
TCW hires a former diplomat
The TCW Group has recruited David Loevinger, a former senior coordinator for Chinese affairs at the Treasury. He will join the emerging markets division of the firm as management director and analyst for sovereign debt. TCW has more than USD9bn in assets under management in emerging markets, a statement says.
02/07/2012
BNP Paribas SS wins a mandate from Convictions AM
Convictions Asset Management has awarded an execution mandate for fixed income transactions to BNP Paribas Securities Services. Convictions AM, whose assets under management currently total about EUR630m, would like its portfolio managers to concentrate on analysis, research and allocation of investments, in order to adapt to difficult market conditions. The asset management firm has chosen BNP Paribas SS, which already held a five-year outsourcing mandate for middle and back office functions. The outsourcing of front office functions is a new trend in the asset management sector, with Convictions AM one of the first exemplars.
02/07/2012
Crédit Agricole hopes to sell CA Cheucreux this summer
The future of CA Cheuvreux will soon be a story written outside Crédit Agricole, Agefi reports. The bank has initiated a sales process for its equity broker, which it hopes to complete by mid-July, or failing that, to relaunch the process this autumn. Among the two or three potential buyers are the French firm Kepler Capital Markets. Last year, Cheuvreux lost its parent company EUR70m, according to the CA CIB annual report, on net banking proceeds of EUR164m. The cost of a social plan, and the form it will take, as buyer or acquirer, represents a key element in negotiations, the newspaper adds.
02/07/2012
US money market funds are not all steering clear of euro zone
The Wall Street Journal reports that at a time when many US money market funds are pulling out of Europe, others, seeking higher returns, are going in deeper.Eight of 20 US money market funds with the highest exposure to Europe in terms of assets as of the end of May have increased their allocation to the euro zone between 31 Augsut 2011 and 31 May this year, among them BlackRock and Goldman Sachs.As an example, the exposure of the Goldman Sachs Financial Square Government Fud has increased to USD12.7bn from USD7.7bn. For the BlackRock Cash Fund Institutional and Prime funds, allocations have been increased to USD13.1bn from USD9.1bn and USD4.9bn from USD3.4bn, respectively.
02/07/2012
LSE tops 1,000 ETPs thanks to UBS
Since the end of last week, the listings of the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) include 1,006 products in the area of ETPs. The 1,000 product threshold was passed with the addition of 64 ETPs from UBS Global Asset Management, which is the largest number of products added in a single day since the launch of the segment in 2000. These ETFs in one fell swoop bring the number of ETFs from UBS Global AM listed in London from 2 to 66. They replicate numerous indices and providers, such as FTSE, MSCI, S&P, Markit iBoxx and Euro Stoxx, for European, American, Asian and emerging markets, as well as bonds and commodities.Since the beginning of 2012, the LSE has added 74 ETFs and 14 ETCs.
02/07/2012
Two new QDII ETFs
On 29 June, the Chinese securities commission (CSRC) issued a sales license for two ETFs launched by companies with status as Qualified Domestic Institutional Investors (QDII). They are the Hang Seng Index ETC from China AMC and the Hang Seng China Enterprise fund from E-Fund. The license also covers feeder funds for these two products. Subscriptions are expected to begin in early July, with official launch in early August.
02/07/2012
GLG Financials Alternative Fund licensed in Germany
BaFin and the FMA have issued sales licenses for Germany and Austria, respectively, to two share classes in the GLG Financials Alternative Fund, an Irish-registered product which deploys the GLG financials long/short strategy launched in 2002. The portfolio of the UCITS product is composed of 30 to 60 positions; it is managed by David Sanders and Stephen Holliday.Minimum subscription is set at EUR1,000 for the retail share class (IE00B73DP106) and EUR100,000 for the institutional share class (IE00B771GJ57).
02/07/2012
Swiss & Global debuts on Xetra with four ETFs
Swiss & Global Asset Management on 29 June listed four actively-managed ETFs for trading on the Active ETF segment of the Xetra electronic platform from Deutsche Börse. These include the primary listings of Luxembourg-registered funds which are part of the Julius Bär Smart Equity product range, replicating MSCI indices. TER for the products range from 0.60% to 0.70%.
02/07/2012
Bernd Franke becomes CEO of Dealis
As of the end of June, Roman G. Trageiser, formerly of Allianz Global Investors (AGI), left the operational management of the fund administration platform Dealis Fund Operations, founded in late 2008 by Deka and AGI (see Newsmanagers of 19 December 2008), and of the Luxembourg affiliate of Dealis. Since the beginning of May, he has been replaced as CEO of the German firm by Bernd Franke.
02/07/2012
Union Investment appoints a head for portfolio management
Following the resignation of Anja Mikus, who will be leaving the asset management firm on 31 July, Union Investment has recruited Björn Jeach, director of global investment solutions for Germany and a member of the board of directors in the private wealth management unit at Deutsche Bank, as director of portfoio management. He will be responsible for a fund management team of 240 people, and assets of about EUR140bn.
02/07/2012
Barings plans to add to its range of Asian bond funds
Sean Chang, who has recently been recruited from HSBC Global Asset Management (see Newsmanagers of 3 May), has announced as head of Asian debt that Baring Asset Management in Hong Kong that the British asset management firm is planning to launch new Asian bond funds, and to more widely promote existing funds in new distribution channels, Asian Investor reports. The Asian Debt Fund, a UCITS fund domiciled in Ireland, for which Chang is the lead manager, has recently received a sales license from the Hong Kong authorities. Chang has also announced that Barings is studying the possibility of also launching bond/country funds.