Les actifs des fonds de pension des entreprises du S&P 500 couvrent désormais seulement 74 % des engagements estimés, soit un déficit d’environ 450 milliards de dollars, selon le Financial Times, qui cite des chiffres de Credit Suisse. Au début de l’année, le déficit était estimé à 250 milliards de dollars. En 2007, les fonds de pension affichaient un léger excédent.
A travers les fonds Aerofund, la société de gestion de portefeuille ACE Management vient de mener deux opérations d’envergure dans le domaine de la sous-traitance aéronautique, avec le rachat du toulousain Mecahers par Mecachrome, réalisé via une augmentation de capital de 17 millions d’euros, et un investissement de 7 millions d’euros au capital de la société Le Piston Français pour soutenir sa croissance notamment par acquisitions. En pratique, l’acquisition de Mecahers a été souscrite par chacun des trois actionnaires du holding de tête Meca Dev: les fonds Aerofund et Aerofund II, gérés par ACE Management (35% du capital), le Fonds de solidarité FTQ (35%) et le Fonds Stratégique d’Investissement (30%). Pour sa part, l’investissement au capital de la société Le Piston Français a été réalisée via le fonds Aerofund II. Dans un contexte marqué par la montée des cadences de production de l’industrie aéronautique, «ces deux opérations reflètent la stratégie conduite depuis 7 ans par les fonds Aerofund, axée sur le développement et la consolidation des entreprises de la filière aéronautique, en vue du renforcement de la supply chain des grands groupes (Airbus, Safran…)», souligne la société dans un communiqué publié le 2 janvier. Pour être en mesure de poursuivre cette action, ACE Management travaille d’ores et déjà sur la création d’un nouveau fonds (Aerofund III) dédié au secteur aéronautique. Ace Management a déjà réalisé 15 investissements dans ce domaine, représentant un chiffre d’affaires de 1,3 milliard d’euros et un effectif global de plus de 12.000 personnes, et 5 opérations supplémentaires sont en phase de finalisation d’ici à l’été 2012.
Après les avoir ignorés pendant des années, Fidelity Investments semble préparer une offensive dans les ETF, selon les informations du Wall Street Journal. Le groupe a récemment déposé une candidature auprès de la Securities and Exchange Commission en vue d’offrir une large gamme de ces fonds indiciels cotés. Si son dossier est approuvé, Fidelity pourra proposer presque tous les types d’ETF disponibles, dont des fonds internationaux et des ETF long/short.
La branche française du fonds européen 21 Partners, 21 Centrale Partners, entend réaliser entre trois et quatre investissements cette année selon Gérard Pluvinet, le président du directoire de 21 Centrale Partner. La société d’investissement continuera par ailleurs «à renforcer les participations de son portefeuille et devrait procéder à quatre ou cinq opérations de build-up, pour la plupart déjà identifiées. Le climat macroéconomique actuel pesant sur les valorisations, l’année 2012 devrait plus être marquée par les investissements que par les cessions, note le quotidien.
KGAL GmbH & Co. KG ne vend plus de parts de son fonds immobilier «PropertyClass Frankreich 1", spécialisé dans l’immobilier de bureau français. Le fonds, qui est principalement distribué au sein du réseau Commerzbank, a été lancé il y a 10 mois. Il n’a jusqu'à présent pas donné satisfaction en termes de performance. Le fonds devrait être relancé au premier trimestre 2012. Il proposera alors un nouveau concept de gestion, et sera moins compliqué d’un point de vue fiscal, indique KGAL.
Le fonds immobiliers institutionnel UII Shopping Nr1 de l’allemand Union Investment indique avoir acquis auprès de Natixis Capital Partners le centre commercial Förde Park (46.861 mètres carrés) situé à Flensburg et qui figurait jusqu'à présent dans le portefeuille du fonds Captiva Capital Partners III ELP. L’exploitation de cet actif entièrement loué est confiée à Metro Group Asset Management Services. Le montant de la transaction n’a pas été dévoilé.Le fonds UII Shopping Nr1 a été créé en juin 2011 et se focalise sur des centres commerciaux d’une superficie supérieure à 25.000 mètres carrés et nécessitant un investissement d’au minimum 90 millions d’euros.
Au 31 décembre, Manfred Nuske a pris sa retraite. Il était membre du comité directeur de Deka Investment GmbH (société de gestion des caisses d'épargne allemandes) chargé de l’activité fonds institutionnels et ne sera pas remplacé : ses diverses attributions seront réparties entre les sept membres restants du comité présidé par Thomas Neiße et qui se compose également de Frank Hagenstein, Thomas Ketter, Andreas Lau, Victor Moftakhar, Ulrich Neugebauer ainsi que d’Udo Schmidt-Mohr.
Commerzbank renforce son offre d’ETN (exchange traded notes) de 20 nouveaux produits. Ces ETN sont accessibles depuis le 30 décembre 2011 sur la plate-forme électronique Xetra (Deutsche Börse). Certains suivent la performance en long et short des futures sur indice MDAX et TecDAX avec un levier de trois ou de quatre. D’autres suivent l'évolution des contrats sur futures des bons du Trésor libellés en euros, avec un levier de cinq, dix ou quinze. Francfort cote ainsi désormais 111 ETN.
Censés tirer leur épingle du jeu même dans les périodes de baisse des marchés, les fonds de performance absolue n’ont pas été l’an dernier à la hauteur des attentes des investisseurs. Plus de la moitié de ces fonds ont perdu de l’argent en 2011, rapporte le Telegraph.Parmi les plus mauvais élèves du secteur figurent notamment le fonds UK Absolut Alpha de BlackRock qui a perdu 7% de sa valeur au cours des douze derniers mois. Le fonds UK Absolute Return de Polar Capital a même perdu 15% sur un an. Le Liontrust European Absolute Return fund est l’un des rares à avoir terminé l’année dans le vert, avec une performance de 8% sur douze mois. Le gérant de ce fonds, James Inglis-Jones, estime que la plupart des gérants spécialisés dans la performance absolue sont trop corrélés avec le marché boursier pour faire mieux que lui.
Funds People reports that the French asset management firm Lazard Frères Gestion has registered the entirety of its “Objectif” range of investment funds for sale in Spain. Nine of the funds have had a sales licence in Spain since late October.
With the Bankinter Renta Fija 2 Garantizado, FI, Bankinter has launched a bond fund which guarantees both 100% of net asset value as of 24 January 2012 on 1 February 2014, and also a coupon of 7.85% at maturity, which represents an overall return of 3.80% per year, Cinco Días reports.Subscriptions will be open until 23 January 2012, but may be closed sooner if target asset levels are reached.The portfolio will be invested in bonds issued or guaranteed by public borrowers, and in corporate bonds with a maturity similar to that of the fund.Minimal subscription is set at EUR600, and management commission is 0.20% (up to the beginning of the guarantee period), while depository banking commission will be 0.10%.
Absolute return funds, which are intended to perform well in falling as well as rising markets, did not manage to measure up to investors’ expectations last year. More than half of these funds lost money in 2011, the Telegraph reports.Among the worst performers in the sector are the UK Absolut Alpha fund from BlackRock, which lost 7% of its value in the past twelve months. The UK Absolute Return fund from Polar Capital lost as much as 15% in one year.The Liontrust European Absolute Return fund is one of the rare funds to have finished the year with gains, returning 8% over the twelve-month period. The manager of the fund, James Inglis-Jones, claims the most managers specialised in absolute returns are too closely correlated to the stock markets to be able to perform better than him.
EFG International on 2 January announced that it has agreed to sell EFG Bank Denmark to SEB Wealth Management, effective from 1 January 2012. The terms have not being disclosed. The transaction is part of a business review at EFG International.
Hansjörg Herzog, director of sales for Europe, Latin America and the Middle East at Vontobel, has been recruited as director of international marketing and sales at Fisch Asset Management (CHF4.9bn in assets as of the end of September), Das Investment reports. Herzog will concentrate on developing sales in Germany and Austria in particular.
In 2011, seven players in Spain signed the United Nations Principles for Responsible Invesment (UN-PRI), of which the most recent was the pension fund affiliate of Ibercaja, Funds People reports.The new additions bring the number of UN-PRI signatories in the country to 20, of which eight are asset management firms (Arcano Group, Caser Pensiones Entidad Gestora de Pensiones, S.A., Gestión de Previsión y Pensiones E.G.F.P, Ibercaja Pensión E.G.F.P., S.A., MCH Private Equity Investments SGECR SAU, Mercapital, N +1 Capital Privado S.G.E.C.R., S.A.U. and Santander Pensiones, Entidad Gestora de Fondos de Pensiones, S.A.), nine are asset owners ( BanSabadell 25 F.P, BBVA Fondo de Empleo, Fondo de Pensiones Cajasol Empleados, Futurcaval, F.P., Midat Cyclops FP, Pensions Caixa 30 FP, Plan de Pensiones Iberdrola, Santander Empleados Pensiones, F.P. and VidaCaixa), and three are service providers (Consultora de Pensiones y Previsión Social, sociedad de Asesores, SL, Novaster and Oquendo Capital).Funds People reports that the international consultant Sustainalytics, which has signed the Principles worldwide, also operates in Spain, where it provides SRI advisory and services.
Borsa Italiana is removing six ETFs from J.P. Morgan Structured Fund Management from its listings: JP Morgan etf gbi local Us, JP Morgan etf gbi emu, JP Morgan etf gbi emu 1-3y, JP Morgan etf gbi emu 3-5y, JP Morgan etf gbi emu 5-7y, and JP Morgan etf gbi emu 7-10y. The liquidation of the funds will be effective on 3 January. The six ETFs were launched in 2008 by JPMorgan, which now has a platform for ETFs entitled Source. The firm has now decided not to transfer these ETFs to Source, as the platform considers the investment strategy of these products to be too difficult to sell in the light of the sovereign debt crisis.
In December 2011, asset management firms registered in Spain saw net redemptions of EUR1.05bn, compared with EUR1.25bn in November, the Inverco association for the sector reports.Of the 14 largest asset management firms by asset volume, only Ibercaja Gestión (EUR4.38bn in assets under management as of the end of the month) posted net subscriptions, and these totalled only EUR10m.The heaviest outflows were from Santander Asset Management (EUR21.22bn in assets), with EUR249.78m, BBVA Asset Management (EUR19.42bn) with EUR131.72m, and Ahorro Corporación Gestión (EUR5.03bn) with EUR130.44m.For their part, InverCaixa Gestión (EUR15.5bn in assets) and CatalunyaCaixa Inversió (EUR2.58bn) saw respective net redemptions of EUR105.63m and EUR106.16m, respectively.
Afer, which has been the subject of a fraud scandal involving the period from Deember 1986 to July 1997, which has been mandated by 55,000 of its members to recuperate EUR24m in assets confiscated by the courts, last Thursday submitted a restitution request before the Paris court of appeals, Les Echos reports, relaying a report by AFP on 2 January. In December 2009, the two founding directors of Afer, Gérard Athias and André Le Saux, were sentenced by the Court of Cassation to two years in prison, with suspended sentence, and a fine of EUR200,000 for abuse of trust. The Paris court of appeals found them guilty of having skimmed nearly EUR128m from Afer members, via a hidden remuneration agreement with the insurer Abeille Vie (which later became Aviva), the provider of retirement savings policies to members of the association.
Allianz Real Estate has acquired an office property in Levallois-Perret on behalf of French companies of the Allianz group. The property, with about 20,000 square metres in area, is leased for a fixed 10-year term, a statement says. The sale price is about EUR115m.
Via the Aerofund, the portfolio management firm ACE Management has undertaken two large operations in the aviation subcontracting industry, acquiring the Toulouse-based company Mecahers from Mecachrome, via a capital increase of EUR17m, and an investment of EUR5m in the capital of the company Le Piston Français, to support its growth, partly via acquisitions. In the context of an increasing pace of production in the aviation industry, “these two operations reflect the strategy conducted for the past seven years by the Aerofund, focused on development and consolidation of businesses in the aviation industry, in order to strengthen the supply chain for major groups (Airbus, Safran, etc.)” the firm says in a statement released on 2 January. In order to be in a position to undertake the action, ACE Management is already at work on creating a new fund (Aerofund III), dedicated to the aviation sector. Ace Management has already made 15 investments in this area, representing earnings of EUR1.3bn and over 12,000 employees worldwide, and 5 more operations are in the process of being finalised by summer 2012.
After ignoring them for years, Fidelity Investments now appears to be preparing a push on the ETF market, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal. The group has recently submitted an application to the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer a wide range of the exchange-traded funds. If the file is approved, Fidelity may offer nearly every type of ETFs available, including international and long/short ETFs.
The new head of distribution for the United States at RBC Global Asset Management, Matthew Appelstein, is now recruiting five to seven people to strengthen his team, which already includes 15 people, MutualFundWire reports. Appelstein joined RBC GAM in September last year, to take up the newly-created position of head of distribution for the United States. He previously worked at Old Mutual Asset Management. Appelstein has told MutualFundWire that he would like to develop relationships with consultants in particular.
After leaving SAC Capital Advisors to found the boutique Sursum Capital Management, a specialist in long/short management, Paul Orwicz will now be rejoining his former employer, Absolute Return reports. Results at Sursum were disappointing, and Orwicz has decided to close the fund, sources familiar with the matter say.
The activist alternative asset management firm Trian Partners, based in New York, last year took on USD1.3bn in inflows to its hedge fund and long-only equity funds.
According to Hedge Fund Research, hedge funds lost an average of 5% last year, while the S&P 500 index, for example, gained 2.1% TR (total return). The Wall Street Journal reports that 2011 was the third consecutive year in which hedge funds did worse than the stock markets.These disappointing results are largely due to huge fluctuations on the markets. Confronted with the falling markets in August and September, many managers reduced their exposure, which was the right thing to do from a risk management point of view, but meant that they missed out on the rally in October, one of the best months for the asset class in decades.
KGAL GmbH & Co. KG is no longer selling shares in its real estate fund “PropertyClass Frankreich 1,” specialised in office properties in France. The fund, which is primarily available via the Commerzbank network, was launched 10 months ago. It had not been delivering satisfactory performance. The fund will be relaunched in first quarter 2012, and will then be based around a new management concept, and will be less complicated from a fiscal standpoint, KGAL says.
Commerzbank is adding to its range of ETNs (exchange-traded notes) with 20 new products. These ETNs have been available since 30 December 2011 on the Xetra electronic trading platform (Deutsche Börse). Some of the products track the long and short performance of futures on the MDax and TecDax indices, with leverage of three or four. Others track the evolution of futures contracts on government bonds denominated in euros, with leverage of five, ten or fifteen. The Frankfurt exchange now lists 111 ETNs.
The institutional real estate fund UII Shopping Nr1 from the German asset management firm Union Investment has announced that it has acquired the Förde Park shopping centre (46,861 square metres) in Flensburg, which had previously been in the portfolio of the Captiva Capital Partners III ELP fund, from Natixis Capital Partners. The management of the wholly-leased property will be contracted to Metro Group Asset Management Services. The acquisition price has not been disclosed.The UII Shopping Nr1 fund was founded in June 2011, and focuses on shopping centres with an area of over 25,000 square metres, and valued at over EUR90m.
As of 31 December, Manfred Nuske has retired from his position as a member of the executive committee at Deka Investment GmbH (the asset management firm for the German savings banks), in charge of institutional fund activities. He will not be replaced, and his various responsibilities will be redistributed among the seven remaining members of the committee, chaired by Thomas Neiße, and also including Frank Hagenstein, Thomas Ketter, Andreas Lau, Victor Moftakhar, Ulrich Neugebauer and Udo Schmidt-Mohr.
In the future, advisers at Deutsche Postbank will only be allowed to recommend funds launched by the group to their clients, including products from Postbank and Deutsche Bank, its new parent company since late 2010, the Financial Times Deutschland reports. The rule forbidding the sale of third-party products is a hard blow to independent providers and/or providers who do not have their own distribution network (such as Credit Suisse, for its real estate fund CS Euroreal). Postbank has 1,100 branches and provides access to about 14 million savings investors, which will be a boon to DWS (EUR95bn in assets), the asset management firm also owned by Deutsche Bank.