Aliénor Capital is preparing a global macro fund “We would like to move to a hedge fund product range, with a global macro product investing in equities, fixed income and currencies,” Arnaud Raimon, chairman of the French asset management firm, announced at a press conference. The product would be made available in two versions, one with high and one with low volatility. The firm has not yet set at timetable for the launch, which is still in the planning phases.Aliénor Capital has EUR250m under management in five funds and several mandates.
The CEO of Man Group, Peter Clarke, has received pay of USD7m for 2011, even though the firm suffered net redemptions and its share price fell over the period, the Financial Times reports. Although this amount makes Clarke one of the best-paid directors in the FTSE index, his pay is below that of other hedge fund directors in London, the City newspaper adds.
The British Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) on 20 March announced the intended sale by Coutts, its Wealth Management Division, of its Latin American, Caribbean and African private banking business to Royal Bank of Canada (RBC Wealth Management). The business manages approximately GBP1.5 billion of assets (or about EUR1.8bn) on behalf of clients located across the three regions, RBS says in a statement. The total price of the sale has not been disclosed. The activities will be integrated into RBC Wealth Management, the specialised affiliate of the Canadian bank. The operation will be completed towards the end of second quarter 2012. This intended sale is in line with Coutts’ strategy to focus its growth on key geographies which include the UK, Switzerland, Russia/CIS, the Middle East and selected markets in Asia. For the Canadian group, the acquisition will be an opportunity to strengthen its activities in the regions concerned serving ultra-high net worth clients.
Henderson Global Investors on Tuesday saw its share price leap in a falling market, for the second consecutive day, after rumours of an acquisition, Investment Week reports. According to the rumours, an international financial services giant is said to be in the process of building a stake in the British asset management firm, with the intention of launching a cash offer of over GBP2 per share.
The AllianceBernstein group has announced the recruitment of Sun Hao, previously of Amundi, as managing director and head of institutional sales for Asia, Asian Investor reports. He will be based in Hong Kong. Last month, AllianceBernstein recruited six people for its institutional unit, in order to compensate for the departure in August 2011 of June Wong. The firm may announce a further recruitment in Hong Kong. AllianceBernstein has also recruited for its Asian team dedicated to fixed income, with the recruitment in the past few months of four people, bringing total staff to 14. Bonds represent about 80% of Asian assets under management outside Japan, totalling USD31bn ( with USD225bn in fixed income assets in total). The region has also gained value and growth teams in first half, with the emphasis on the value strategy, with 13 value specialists and only 3 growth experts, following the recent departure of two people.
On 20 March, Deutsche Bank published its annual report on corporate social responsibility on the website www.db.com/csr, in which it credits itself for significant progress in sustainable development, particularly in the areas of energy and climate change policy.For example, as of the end of 2011, the asset management unit managed about EUR2.5bn, invested in line with environmental, social and governance (ESG) crtieria, including funds focused on climate change.Deutsche Bank has also been awarded mandates from the public sector for investment products designed to improve the quality of life in developing and emerging countries, and to combat climate change. These mandates are for the European Energy Efficiency Fund, the Clobal Climate Energy Fund and the Africa Agriculture and Trade Investment Fund.Lastly, in order to respond to the increasing importance of sustainable development to retail clients, the private & business clients business unit has created its own sustainability board, which aims to promote the development of sustainable investment products.
The supervisory board at WestInvest Gessellschaft für Investmentfonds mbH has appointed Benjamin Klisa as a member of the board of directors from 1 April 2012. He will be in charge of the management team coordination, fund management controlling and personnel. Klisa has already worked at the real estate management group for the savings banks (EUR23bn in assets) since 2002, and was most recently director of Deka Immobilien, the other asset management firm of the group, in charge of the general management secretariat and business management and fund controlling as well as risk control.The other three members of the board are Torsten Knapmeyer, Burkhard Dallosch and Mark Wolter.
The Frankfurt-based firm Universal-Investment has announced that as of the end of February, it had over EUR104m in assets in institutional funds (“Spezialfonds”), a gain of 9.5% over twelve months.Net inflows to the white label funds specialist in 2011 totalled EUR6.7bn, CEO Bernd Vorbeck says.Assets under administration currently total about EUR138bn, in over 1,000 mandates.
In 2011, net profits at LGT Group fell 52%, to CHF70.3m, or EUR58m, after the sale in May of the German activities of ABN Amro, in an operation which resulted in a one-time charge of CHF50m, Handelsblatt reports.However, net subscriptions increased to CHF8.6bn, from CHF3.1bn in 2010, and assets as of the end of December totalled CHF86.9bn.
With seed capital of EUR46.4m, the new open-ended fund SOP NonEuroQualitätsanleihen from Oppenheim KAG, an affiliate of Sal. Oppenheim, focuses on bonds in solid currencies, based on the financial solidity index from its parent company, which is updated at least twice per year. Currently, the eligible universe index includes Canadian, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Swiss, Singapore, Australian and New Zealand bonds. The management team is permitted to improve the performance by adopting tactical positions on the rate curve and on currencies, updated once per month. In order to cushion interest rate risks, the duration of the portfolio may be reduced through the use of futures and swaps. The weighting of currencies is also planned to be managed through trades on currency futures independently of the bond portfolio.CharacteristicsName: SOP NonEuroQualitätsanleihenISIN codes:DE000A1JBZ85 (I shares)DE000A1JBZ77 (R shares)Front-end fee: 3%Management commission:I shares: 0.35%R shares: 0.90%Minimal subscription: EUr100,000 (I shares)
The listings on the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic platform (Deutsche Börse) now include 944 products, with the arrival of two funds from db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank group). These include two government bond ETFs, covering Germany and the euro zone, both Luxembourg-registered products which charge 0.15%.CharacteristicsName: db x-trackers II iBoxx € Germany 3-5 TRI ETFISIN code: LU0613540854Benchmark index: iBoxx € Germany 3-5 IndexTER: 0.15%Name: db x-trackers II iBoxx € Sovereigns Eurozone AAA 1-3 TRI ETFISIN code: LU0613540938Benchmark index: iBoxx € Sovereigns Eurozone AAA 1-3 IndexTER: 0.15%
As Newsmanagers announced on 16 March, the Ossiam ETF Emerging Markets Minimum Variance NR (EUR share class, LU0705291903) and the Ossiam ETF Emerging Markets Minimum Variance NR (USD share class, LU0705291812) were admitted to trading on the XTF segment of Xetra (Deutsche Börse) on 19 March. The Luxembourg-registered equity products charge 0.75%.
The index provider Dow Jones Indexes on 20 March announced the launch the same day of the Dow Jones Russia GDR Index, an index which currently covers 77% of the larger Russian TSM index, and which proposes to measure the performance of the major Russian global depository receipts (GDR) listed on the London Stock Exchange. At the same time, Dow Jones Indexes announced that Lyxor has acquired an operating license for the new index, which will be used as the basis for the Lyxor ETF Russia (Dow Jones Russia GDR Index). The euro-denominated version fo the ETF is listed on NYSE Euronext, Deutsche Börse, Borsa Italiana and Bolsa de Madrid. The US dollar-denominated versions are listed on the Swiss SIX exchange and in Singapore. The Lyxor ETF Russia (Dow Jones Russia GDR) is the largest vehicle of its type listed exclusively in Europe concentrated on Russian securities, with assets under managenent as of 14 March representing about EUR1.1bn. The ETF had previously used the Dow Jones RusIndex Titans 10 index as its underlying. The weightings of companies in the index may not exceed 20% at the time of quarterly revisions (March, June, September and December). As of 29 February, the ten largest components of the index were as follows: Firm Adjusted weight Gazprom OAO AD 19.67% Lukoil Holdings ADS 14.33% Surgutneftegaz JSC ADS 14.21% Sberbank Rossia ADS 11.03% Norilsk Nickel Mining & Metallurgical Co. ADS 7.41% Novatek GDR 7.02% Rosneft GDR 4.74% Uralkali GDR 4.25% Tatneft GDR 3.49% Magnit GDR 2.66%
In February, the hedge fund indices calculated by the Edhec-Risk Institute virtually all finished the month in positive territory, as in January, with the exception of the short-selling strateegy, which lost 5.59%, after losses of 6,85% in January.The best-performing strategy was emerging markets, with gains of 3.33% in February and 7.4% since the beginning of the year.There were good returns for long/short equity, which gained 2.63% in February and 6% in the first two months of the year, distressed securities, with gains of 1.95% and 5.2%, respectively, and event driven, with gains of 1.76% and 4.7%.Convertibles arbitrage, which profited from its exposure to bonds, gained 2.03% for the month, and 4.4% since the beginning of the year.Funds of funds earned returns of 1.46% in February, and 3% since the beginning of the year.
Le Fonds de pension Eurocontrol vient d’investir 20 millions d’euros dans un fonds d’infrastructures européennes, qui est géré par Amundi Asset Management. D’après Pierre Depireux, le gérant du Fonds de pension qui gère au total 700 millions d’euros d’actifs, cet investissement en infrastructures était programmé depuis juin 2011, et il s’agit de la dernière strate dans la stratégie de diversification d’Eurocontrol. Il n’y aura plus de changement en termes d’allocation stratégique d’actifs durant les deux-trois prochaines années. Pour rappel, le portefeuille d’Eurocontrol est structuré de la manière suivante: 45-50% d’obligations, 45-50% d’actions et 10% d’immobilier. Le Fonds de pension est conseillé par Towers Watson en Belgique (Bruxelles) Vanguard gère les obligations d’Etat en Europe, les obligations corporate IG, les actions eurozone et actions internationales. Capital International est le gérant délégataire sur les actions émergentes (gestion active). KBC AM est en charge de la gestion active sur les obligations indexées à l’inflation, l’immobilier est géré par UBS Global AM, Aviva/LaSalle et Petercam. Le Fonds est également investit en obligations émergentes (gestion active) via des fonds gérés par BlueBay AM et UBS Global AM. Enfin, sur les infrastructures, Eurocontrol avait déjà investi plus tôt sur des fonds de Macquarie Bank et AXA IM.
Le courtier américain a dégagé au titre du premier trimestre, clos le 29 février, un bénéfice net de 77 millions de dollars contre 87 millions le trimestre précédent. Le chiffre d’affaires net a atteint 780 millions de dollars, avec une hausse de 20% des revenus de banque d’investissement. Dans les produits de taux, les revenus se sont élevés à 339 millions de dollars.
Le chancelier de l’Echiquier George Osborne présente aujourd’hui son budget pour 2012-2013, après que Moody’s et Fitch ont abaissé leurs perspectives sur la note du Royaume-Uni. Il n’aura donc pas de marge de manœuvre malgré un déficit sur 2011-2012 plus bas que prévu.
George Osborne doit annoncer aujourd'hui un objectif de déficit en baisse par rapport aux prévisions d'automne, sous l'effet de la réduction des dépenses
Citant des données de l’association régionale de private equity et de venture capital, le quotidien souligne que les levées de fonds dans ces secteurs ont atteint l’an passé en Amérique Latine un record de 10,3 milliards de dollars. Un montant en hausse de 27%, avec notamment le voyage et la technologie en vedette. Le Brésil se taille la part du lion, avec des fonds dédiés pour 8,1 milliards.
Le quotidien indique que la responsable de la réglementation au sein du Chicago Board Options Exchange, Linda Gerdes, a quitté le groupe, à l’initiative de ce dernier, après 5 années passées à ce poste. Il s’agit souligne le quotidien du second départ dans le domaine de la compliance au sein du CBOE sur fond d’enquête du gendarme américain des marchés, la SEC.
Le nombre des mises en chantier a reculé en février, mais celui des permis de construire a bondi à son plus haut niveau depuis octobre 2008, a annoncé mardi le département du Commerce, signe que le marché de l’immobilier poursuit sa reprise. Le nombre de permis de construire a grimpé de 5,1% à 717.000 unités le mois dernier, dépassant les attentes des analystes.
Athènes a reçu une première tranche de 7,5 milliards d’euros d’aide financière dans le cadre du nouveau plan de l’Union européenne et du FMI, une enveloppe dont la majeure partie servira à rembourser des obligations détenues par les banques centrales de la zone euro. «Nous avons reçu 5,9 milliards d’euros de la zone euro et 1,6 milliard d’euros du FMI», a déclaré à Reuters un responsable du ministère grec des Finances.
Ni la France ni l’Allemagne n’ont l’intention de se joindre à une éventuelle initiative anglo-américaine de libérer des réserves pétrolières d’urgence afin d'éviter que la cherté du carburant n’entrave la reprise économique, ont rapporté mardi des sources officielles des deux côtés du Rhin citées par Reuters. Barack Obama et David Cameron ont évoqué la semaine dernière la possibilité de puiser dans les stocks stratégiques.
Les syndicats et le patronat français ont décidé mardi de revaloriser de 2,3% les retraites complémentaires des salariés du privé et des cadres (Arrco et Agirc), rattrapant un décalage dans l’appréciation de l’inflation. La mesure prendra effet le 1er avril. Le «salaire de référence», qui permet de transformer les cotisations en points de retraite, sera augmenté de 2,25%, une mesure qui touche 18 millions de salariés, selon la CFTC.
Le Fonds européen de stabilité financière (FESF) a mandaté Citigroup, Nomura et UniCredit en tant que co-chefs de file pour son émission obligataire de 4 milliards d’euros à cinq ans qui doit être lancée sous peu, en fonction des conditions de marché. Les trois établissements ont étéretenus parmi les cinquante qui composent le «FESF Market Group».