Seulement 15 % des fonds italiens ont battu leur indice de référence en 2011, selon une étude de Plus24, le supplément «argent» d’Il Sole-24 Ore. Les 85 % des fonds ayant sous-performé affichent en moyenne un retard de 3,5 points de pourcentage face à l’indice. Il s’agit du pire résultat jamais enregistré, hormis 2007, alimenté par les fonds diversifiés qui ont déçu avec seulement 8 % d’entre eux qui ont battu le benchmark.
L’année s’annonce chaude sur le front de la gestion financière des fonds de pension italiens, observe Plus, le supplément «argent» d’Il Sole-24 Ore. Ainsi, 65 mandats de gestion sur 141 arrivent à échéance pour un encours sous gestion de près de 10 milliards d’euros, sur 25 milliards pour la catégorie.
La société Vinculum, créée par l’ancien CEO de Liontrust AM, Nigel Legge, lance un fonds d’actions internationales conforme au format Ucits. Le fonds IM Vinculum Global Equity est un véhicule long only qui comprendra une cinquantaine de sociétés de qualité sélectionnées selon un processus original.La société envisage de lancer d’autres fonds long only au cours des prochains mois dédiés aux actions asiatiques hors Japon, aux actions japonaises, européennes et américaines.
Kevin Bull, le responsable des alliances stratégiques et de la distribution d’Old Mutual Asset Managers (OMAM), a quitté la société, rapporte Money Marketing. Kevin Bull avait rejoint Old Mutual en juin 2004.OMAM n’a pas souhaité commenter l’information.
La collecte nette des fonds d’investissement outre-Manche s’est élevée en novembre à 267 millions de livres, son plus bas niveau depuis octobre 2008, à comparer à une collecte de 1,8 milliard de livres en novembre 2010, selon les statistiques communiquées par l’association britannique de la gestion financière (IMA). Depuis le début de l’année, la collecte nette s’inscrit à 16,7 milliards de livres contre 25,6 milliards de livres sur les onze premiers mois de 2010.Les fonds actions ont subi une décollecte de 864 millions de livres en novembre, à comparer à une collecte moyenne de 506 millions de livres au cours des douze mois précédents. En revanche, les fonds obligataires ont enregistré des souscriptions pour un montant net de 443 millions de livres, au-dessus de la moyenne mensuelle de 332 millions de livres pour les douze mois précédents. Les fonds diversifiés ont drainé pour leur part 262 millions de livres, enregistrant ainsi leur plus faible montant depuis avril 2009. Les actifs sous gestion s'élevaient fin novembre à 560,3 milliards de livres, en recul de 3% par rapport à octobre.
Avec Financial Risk Management (FRM, 9 milliards de dollars d’encours), la Deutsche Bank a conclu un partenariat pour lancer la tout première plate-forme d’amorçage de comptes gérés de hedge funds, dbalternatives Discovery. Il s’agit en fait d’une extension aux hedge funds de la plate-forme de comptes gérés dbalternatives (12 milliards de dollars) qui a été lancée en 2002. L’objectif consiste à rassurer les investisseurs sur les problématiques de fraude, de transparence, de liquidité et de valorisation indépendante. L’amorçage vise à identifier de nouveaux gérants prometteurs et à investir dans leurs fonds, en fournissant une assistance stratégiques pour soutenir leur expansion. En contrepartie des capitaux qu’ils s’engagent à investir, les souscripteurs perçoivent les dividendes des fonds et une partie des revenu du gérant.Dans ce projet, FRM, par le biais de sa filiale d’amorçage de hedge funds, FRM Capital Advisors (FCA), sera chargée de sélection et de négocier les investissements stratégiques dans les gérants «émergents» et qui seront gérés au travers de comptes gérés sur la plate-forme dbalternatives Discovery.D’autre part, la Deutsche Bank se voit confier la tâche de lever du fonds d’amorçage qui investir dans des hedge funds «early stage» sélectionnés par FCA.
The year is going to be a busy one in the financial management of Italian pension funds, Plus24, the money supplement of Il Sole – 24 Ore observes. 65 management mandates out of 141 are maturing, with assets under management of nearly EUR10bn, out of a total of EUR25bn in the category.
Only 15% of Italian funds outperformed their benchmark indices in 2011, according to a study by Plus24, the money supplement of Il Sole – 24 Ore. The 85% of funds which underperformed the index did so by an average of 3.5 percentage points. This is the worst result ever recorded, except for 2007; it was largely due to balanced funds, which performed disappointingly, with only 8% of funds outperforming the benchmark.
Rainer Lenzin, head for wholesale clients in Switzerland at BNY Mellon Asset Management, has been appointed as head fo Switzerland at Pioneer Investments (UniCredit group), Investment Europe reports. He will report to Fabien Madar, head of Western and Northern Europe. Before joining BNY Mellon AM, Lenzin was director of institutional equity sales to Switzerland, Netherlands and Germany at Lehman Brothers in Zurich.
The Wegelin bank claims that it is not at risk of litigation in the wake of investigations of Swiss financial actors serving US clients, and charges against three of its employees, Agefi Switzerland reports. Wegelin & Co is not exposed to any danger if one of its employees is tried. The bank has responded to an article in the newspaper SonntagsZeitung, which claimed in its most redent issue that charges against an employee of the bank, Konrad Hummler, also endangered the bank. Wegelin claims that charges are not equivalent to a guilty verdict.
Philipp Hildebrand, chairman of the managing board at the Swiss National Bank (BNS), resigned on Monday, 9 January, having concluded that he was not in a position to provide irrefutable evidence that had no knowledge that his wife made the order for a currency trade on 15 August 2011.The board of directors at the BNS has issued a statement acknowledging receipt of the resignation, which it regrets. It also states that its monetary policy, focused on am exchange rate limit of EUR1.20 per Swiss franc, will remain unchanged, and “will be continued with all required determination.”The banking council at the BNS has accepted “the decision which Philipp Hildebrand has taken to protect the institution.” The vice chairman of the board of directors, Thomas Jordan, takes over and a definitive replacement will be installed as soon as possible” as chairman, a statement says.
Statistics from the German BVI association of asset management firms show that open-ended securities funds in January-November 2011 saw net redemptions of nearly EUR14.54bn.Two of the major firms have done well, however: Allianz Global Investors has posted net inflows of EUR1.465bn, due to net inflows of EUR5.58bn for its affiliate Pimco Europe. Meanwhile, BlackRock AM Deutschland claims a better result than the rest of the profession combined, with net subscriptions of nearly EUR8.05bn, for ETFs of the iShares brand.The other leaders are all in the red, with major net outflows, led by Deka (German savings banks) with net redemptions of EUR7.12bn, the Deutsche Bank family (DWS, DB Advisors and others) with net redemptions of EUR5.83bn, despite net inflows of EUR659m to db x-trackers ETFs, and Union Investment (German co-operative banks), with redemptions of more than EUR2.48bn.To round out the picture, ComStage, the ETF affiliate of Commerzbank, has posted an outflow of EUR36m in the first eleven months of the year, while net redemptions from ETFlab (Deka) totalled EUR1.35bn.
The US group Robeco Investment Management has launched two new mutual funds: the Robeco Boston Partners Global Equity Fund and Robeco Boston Partners International Fund. The two products will start up with USD10m in seed money each from the parent company, Robeco Group. The funds will be managed by Chris Hart; the institutional share class will charge fees of 130 basis points.
2011 has not proved a vintage year for Carmignac. Its flagship fund, Patrimoine, finished the year with losses (of 0.7%), for the first time since 2001, Expansión reports. The fund, which became one of the largest in Europe during the crisis, although its assets have since shrunken back to EUR25bn, was defensively positioned against the euro crisis throughout 2011, but that didn’t prevent the fund from seeing losses.
Kevin Bull, head of strategic and distribution partnerships at Old Mutual Asset Managers (OMAM), has left the firm, Money Marketing reports. Bull joined Old Mutual in June 2004. OMAM had no comment on the reports.
Deutsche Bank has signed a partnership with Financial Risk Management (FRM, USD9bn in assets) to launch the first managed account seeding platform for hedge funds, dbalternatives Discovery. The project is an extension of the managed accounts platform dbalternatives (USD12bn), launched in 2002. The objective is to provide investors with reassurance in questions of fraud, transparency, liquidity and independent valuation.The seeding platform aims to identify promising new managers and to invest in their funds, providing strrategic assistance to support their expansion. To reward the capital to be invested, subscribers will earn dividends on the fund and a share of the manager’s earnings.As part of the project, FRM, via its hedge fund seeding affiliate, FRM Capital Advisors (FCA), will select and negotiate strategic investments in emerging managers, who will be managed via managed accounts on the dbalternatives Discovery platform.Deutsche Bank will also be in charge of raising seed capital to invest in the early stage hedge funds selected by FCA.
Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) has been mandated by Repsol, the Spanish global energy company, to provide administration services for the International Executive Stock Plan and to act as the agent bank and settlement provider for the Employee Stock Plan. Both Plans were launched by the company in 2011. SGSS was first selected in May 2011, to provide a global administration solution for the Repsol Executive Stock Plan. In October 2011, SGSS was selected again by Repsol but in this case to provide agency and settlement services for Repsol Employee Stock Plan, a statement explains.
Axa Investment Managers has announced the renewal of its partnership with Edhec-Risk Institute for its research chair on «Regulation and Institutional Investment». The next study to be produced as part of the 3-year extension will examine Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution arrangements, including the adequacy of risk-sharing mechanisms, and the appeal of hybrid solutions given the regulatory, social and economic environment.The scope of the May 2012 study will address competing European retirement models, with the research extending to the Asia Pacific region during the course of the 3-year partnership.
Scepticism of stock markets has reached a peak, according to the 15th edition of a TNS Sofres survey undertaken for La Banque Postale and Les Echos. After a virtually uninterrupted slide in the value of indices since summer, on the back of concern about sovereign debt, retail investors are massively turning away from the markets. Only 9% of French respondents consider it a “good time” to place some of their savings in the stock markets, a level not seen since the survey began in 2004, while 93% consider stocks risky, and 82% have the same opinion of bonds, also an all-time high. But investors’ scepticism also extends to other financial products: life insurance is less and less popular with French investors, who are instead opting for savings accounts.
Net inflows to investment funds in the UK in November totalled GBP267m, their lowest level since October 2008, compared with inflows of GBP1.8bn in November 2010, according to statistics from the British investment management association (IMA). Since the beginning of the year, net inflows total GBP16.7bn, compared with GBP25.6bn in the first eleven months of 2010. Equity funds saw outflows of GBP864m in November, compared with an average inflow of GBP506m in the previous twelve months. However, bond funds have posted subscriptions totalling GBP443m, higher than the monthly average of GBP332m for the twelve previous months. Diversified funds, for their part, attracted GBP262m, their lowest level since April 2009. Assets under management as of the end of November totalled GBP560.3bn, down 3% compared with October.
The asset management firm Vinculum, founded by the former CEO of Liontrust AM, Nigel Legge, is launching an international equity fund which complies with UCITS regulations. The IM Vinculum Global Equity fund is a long-only vehicle which will invest in 50 high-quality firms selected with an original process. The firm is planning to launch other long-only funds in the next few months dedicated to Asia ex Japan equities, Japanese, European and US equities.
According to Morningstar, target funds with four years of remaining time to maturity last year lost an average of 0.4%, while the S&P 500 equity index gained 2%, and the Barclays Captial Aggregate Bond Index gained 8%, the Wall Street Journal reports. However, these target funds are now an integral part of 401(k) retirement savings plans, and they represent a total of USD368bn in assets, more than twice as much as in 2008.
In a macroeconomic environment that remains highly difficult in Europe, negative ratings are expected to increase in the non-financial corporate high yield sector throughout the EMEA region (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), according to an article by the ratings agency Moody’s (“EMEA High-Yield Non-Financial Corporates : 2011/12 Review and Outlook”). However, Moody’s adds, the default rate, which remained under 3% in 2011, is not expected to rise by “spectacular” proportions in 2012. New issues on the market slowed in second half due to concerns about sovereign debt, but for the year as a whole, due to strong activity in first half, the sector issued a record USD70bn, compared with a previous record of USD65bn in 2010. In 2012, it will still be a buyers’ market, Moody’s predicts. Due to reduced financing options, high yield issues may include more favourable terms for investors, including more attractive pricing, more conservative structures, and increased transparency.
As of 31 December, assets in iShares ETFs in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region were up 4% in one year to USD105.9bn, BlackRock states.This increase is due to a 43% rise in net subscriptions to USD18bn (compared with USD12.6bn in 2010). The asset management firm estimates that it alone attracted 70% of net inflows in the region.
The majority of investors are planning to increase their allocations to CTA, Market Neutral and Volatility strategies, according to the most recent quarterly survey by the Swiss group Alix Capital, provider of an UCITS alternative fund index. About 58% of investors are planning to increase their exposure to CTA strategy in first quarter, while 48% prefer Market Neutral and Volatility strategies. However, 29% of participants are planning to reduce their exposure to fixed income, which earned 4.15% in 2011. Another finding of the survey is that more than two thirds of respondents estimate that UCITS hedge fund assets will continue to increase in 2012. 40% of respondents predict that the introduction of the AIFM directive will have a positive impact on the development of UCITS hedge funds. Investors still say that alternative asset management firms need to continue to offer both UCITS and non-UCITS hedge funds, and some add that certain alternative strategies would never be transposable into UCITS format.
As previously announced (see Newsmanagers of 6 December 2011), Russell Investments has made a recruitment for its new office in Frankfurt: Andreas Mittler, who had previously been vice president at MSCI, joins the team as head of acquisition of new institutional clients in Germany.
Heiko Schlag, who for the past year has been director of the private banking unit, has been promoted as of 1 January to the position of chairman of the board at Julius Baer Europe, in Frankfurt.In order to underscore the importance of the German market to the Swiss group, the board at Julius Baer Europe has also been enlarged, with the addition of Alexander Jecht, who will be in charge of investment solutions activities, development and IT.The board at Julius Baer Europe now includes three people: Schlag, Gerhard Grebe, and Jecht.Julius Baer Europe has a full banking license in Germany. It is present in the country with branches in Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart, and with agencies in Kiel and Würzburg.
The Union Investment (co-operative banks) affiliate specialised in real estate, Union Investment Real Estate (UIRE), on 9 January announced that in June 2011 it received commitments from institutional investors for nearly EUR1bn to three new vehicles to be launched by Union Investment Institutional Property GmbH.The firm has attracted about EUR300m for a new institutional fund to specialise in commercial properties, UII Shopping Nr. 1, EUR250m for a fund focused on residential properties, Residential Value, and EUR350m for a dedicated fund launched on 15 December for a professional complementary retirement fund.Total assets at UIRE managed for institutional clients currently come to about EUR3.2bn.
RREEF Real Estate, an affiliate of Deutsche Bank specialised in real estate funds, has announced that in 2011 it made transactions totalling EUR1.925bn.For two open-ended funds, grundbesitz europa (EUR3.2bn) and grundbesitz global (EUR2.3bn), investments totalled EUR404m in five properties, while sales totalled EUR715m and six properties.For the range of nine institutional real estate funds (EUR3.3bn), RREEF invested EUR644m in 17 properties and one residential portfolio, while sales totalled EUR163m and three properties.In 2012, Georg Allendorf, CEO, says REEF is planning a similar volume of transactions to 2011 and new residential investments in Germany.He has also announced that returns for the grundbesitz europa and grundbesitz global funds in 2011 totalled 3.8% and 3.1%, respectively.
From about 50 potential buyers who until the middle of last week entered the fray with indicative bids for the asset management unit of Deutsche Bank, the vendor will now select no more than 10 to proceed to the second round, with a decision to come in mid-January, Handelsblatt reports.The sale will be led by Kevin Parker, head of asset management at the group, who sits on the executive committee at Deutsche Bank, Eric Eaton, head of financial institutions America, and William Nock, head of asset management America. According to Handelsblatt, the buyer will probably agree to keep Parker as head of the acquired activities, in order to prevent a brain drain.