La gestion de fortune globale de Morgan Stanley a dégagé au troisième trimestre un bénéfice avant impôts de 362 millions de dollars, contre 281 millions au troisième trimestre de 2010.Le pôle gestion d’actifs a pour sa part terminé le trimestre sur une perte avant impôts de 117 millions de dollars, à comparer à un bénéfice de 279 millions de dollars un an plus tôt.Le total des actifs des clients du pôle Global Wealth Management s’inscrivait à la fin du trimestre à 1.600 milliards de dollars, dont 465 milliards de dollars sur des comptes gérés qui ont enregistré une collecte nette de 10,1 milliards de dollars.Les actifs sous gestion ou supervision du pôle Asset Management s’inscrivaient au 30 septembre à 268 milliards de dollars contre 266 milliards de dollars un an plus tôt. Le trimestre s’est achevé sur une décollecte nette de 5,8 milliards de dollars, à comparer à une collecte nette de 2,9 milliards de dollars un an plus tôt.

Direxion Funds (Rafferty Asset Management) prépare selon AR le lancement en 2012 d’au moins trois nouvelles stratégies ressemblant à des hedge funds mais au sein d’une structure de mutual fund. Les nouveaux fonds seront investis dans des managed futures, des actions immobilières et des stratégies long-short.

Au titre du troisième trimestre, State Street Corporation a publié un bénéfice par action de 1,10 dollar, contre 1,08 dollar au troisième trimestre 2010. Comparé au trimestre précédent, la hausse s’affiche du bénéfice par action est de 10 %. Les actifs sous gestion de 1.877 milliards de dollars sont en baisse de 11,3 % par rapport au niveau des actifs à fin juin (2.166 milliards). Sur un an, la baisse s’affiche à 4,2 %, si l’on compare les encours à ceux du troisième trimestre 2010.

Au 30 septembre, les actifs gérés par BNY Mellon Corp ressortaient à 1.198 milliards de dollars, contre 1.274 milliards au 30 juin et 1.141 milliards un an plus tôt.Les actifs sous gestion et administration ressortaient à 25.900 milliards, soit 2 % de moins qu'à la fin du premier semestre et 6 % de plus qu’au 30 septembre 2010.La société précise que les rentrées nettes de long terme ont porté sur 4 milliards de dollars au troisième trimestreL’augmentation des encours en glissement annuel reflète les souscriptions nettes. En revanche, durant le troisième trimestre, les rentrées de long terme ont été surcompensées par l’effet de la baisse des marchés d’actions et des sorties sur les produits de court terme.Les recettes de commissions de gestion et de performance ont représenté 729 millions de dollars, soit 6 % de moins qu’au deuxième trimestre et 5 % de plus que pour la période correspondante de 2010.

BlackRock a fait état pour le troisième trimestre de son exercice d’un bénéfice net de 595 millions de dollars, en progression de 8% par rapport au troisième trimestre 2010 mais en recul de 4% par rapport au deuxième trimestre 2011, indique un communiqué publié le 19 octobre.Les actifs sous gestion s'élevaient à la fin du trimestre à 3.345 milliards de dollars, en recul de 3% d’une année sur l’autre et de 9% par rapport au terme du deuxième trimestre, sous l’effet principalement d’un effet marché négatif de 303,9 milliards de dollars réparti sur l’ensemble des produits. iShares a réalisé au troisième trimestre une collecte nette de 10,8 milliards de dollars, ce qui n’a pas empêché le groupe de subir malgré tout une décollecte nette de 10,2 milliards de dollars.Les encours sur les actions se sont inscrits à 1.441 milliards de dollars, en baisse de 18% ou 307,7 milliards de dollars, en raison pour l’essentiel d’un effet marché et devises négatif de 309,5 milliards de dollars. La collecte nette a contribué pour un montant de 1,8 milliard de dollars, reflétant des souscriptions nettes de 9,8 milliards de dollars sur les produits indiciels (iShares) en partie annulées par des rachats nets de 8 milliards de dollars sur la gestion active.Du côté obligataire, les actifs sous gestion ont atteint 1.205 milliards de dollars, en hausse de 2% ou 19,4 milliards de dollars sous l’effet positif des impacts marché et devises pour un montant net de 33,3 milliards de dollars. La décollecte nette de 14 milliards de dollars inclut un rachat de 9,1 milliards de dollars émanant d’un seul client soumis à des contraintes de court terme, précise BlackRock.Les actifs sous gestion multi-classes d’actifs se sont élevés à 215,2 milliards de dollars, en recul de 7% ou 16,1 milliards de dollars, la collecte nette de 2,9 milliards de dollars ayant été effacée par un effet marchés et devises de 19 milliards de dollars.

Les hedge funds ont accusé des rachats nets de 20,98 milliards de dollars en septembre, selon les dernières statistiques d’Eurekahedge. En tenant compte du fait qu’ils ont abandonné 2,69 % sur le mois, les hedge funds ont vu leurs encours se réduire au total de 37 milliards de dollars. Ils sont ainsi redescendus à 1.760 milliards de dollars, soit le plus faible niveau depuis mars 2011.

State Street Corporation annonce avoir été sélectionné par le fonds de pension néerlandais Stichting Pensioenfonds SABIC Innovative Plastics pour lui fournir des services d’investissement portant sur 700 millions d’euros d’actifs. State Street devra offrir des services de conservation de titres, de comptabilité, de mesures mensuelles de la performance et de services de stratégie « overlay » pour la couverture des risques de change.

La société de gestion italienne Azimut va lancer un fonds de capital risque en partenariat avec le spécialiste allemand Earlybird Venture Capital. Ce produit sera investi dans le secteur des technologies en Italie. Concrètement, Azimut va créer un fonds fermé au sein de sa plate-forme luxembourgeoise qui se destinera aux investisseurs qualifiés. Le produit sera conseillé par une société détenue à 60 % par les associés d’Earlybird Italia et à 40 % par Azimut Holding.

State Street Corporation vient de nommer Asser Makarem au poste de vice-président et directeur commercial pour l’activité Global Services dans la région Moyen-Orient et Afrique du Nord. Basé à Doha au Qatar, il rapportera à Rod Ringrow, vice-président senior responsable de la région Moyen-Orient et Afrique du Nord (MOAN).Avant de rejoindre State Street, Asser Makarem était responsable des ventes chez HSBC Bank Middle East, avec pour mission de développer la clientèle de la banque en renforçant ses relations avec les investisseurs institutionnels de la région.

State Street Corporation has appointed Asser Makarem as vice president and head of sales for its Global Services activity in the Middle East and North Africa. Makarem will be based in Doha, Qatar, and will report to Rod Ringrow, senior vice president in charge of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Before joining State Street, Makarem was head of sales at HSBC Bank Middle East, and worked to develop the bank’s client base by strengthening its relationships with institutional investors in the region.

On 15 November, Axxion SA will launch two Luxembourg-registered ETF funds, Ad-Vanemics ETF Dachfonds -V (LU0665449400) and Ad-Vanemics ETF Dachfonds-S (LU0665450838).The funds may invest in securities, money markets and equity, bond and diversified funds, and in certificates and options, but will invest primarily in ETFs.The Ad-Vanemics ETF Dachfonds-V will carry a front-end fee of 5% and a management commission of 0.50%, as well as a distribution commission of 0.4%. There will also be an advising commission of 0.50%.The S version of the fund will charge no front-end fee, and management and advising commissions will also be 0.50%. The distribution commission will be 0.60%.In both cases, Axxion will charge a 15% commission on performance exceeding the Euribor 3-month by more than 300 basis points.

Hedge funds have seen net redemptions of USD20.98bn in September, according to the most recent statistics from Eurekahedge. Due to the fact that they have lost 2.89% in the month, hedge funds saw a USD37bn fall in their total assets, to USD1.76trn, their lowest level since March 2011.

Markus Gerhardt, who has been head of high net worth clients at BHF-Bank, has joined the German affiliate of Schroders as institutional client executive, as of 1 October. Garhardt joins the institutional distribution team at Schroder Investment Management GmbH, led by Carlos Böhles, and will focus on business clients and pension funds. Schroders Germany, which has made several recruitsments in the past few months (see Newsmanagers of 5 and 8 July and 1 August), now has a sales team of 60 people in Germany, led by Achim Küssner.

After four years, the Chinese regulator, the CSRC, has issued a license to the 68th fund of fund management firm in the country, Sinolink & General FMC. The new entrant to the market is 49% owned by Sinolink Securities, 21% by China General Technology Group, and 15% each by China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Part and Baoxin Energy, Z-Ben Advisors reports.

European Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani has appointed International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN), Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and the European Federation of Financial Analyst Societies (EFFAS) to lead a new programme to build the capacity of investors to integrate social, environmental and governance (ESG) information in their investment decisions.Over a period of 18 months it will result in a comprehensive professional development programme as well as guidance on best practice in the integration of ESG information into investment decisions. The European Union will finance 50% of the total cost of programme, which is estimated at approximately €450.000. The other 50% will be financed by the main project partners. The EU funding is part of a broader programme to support the uptake of corporate social responsibility (CSR), financed under the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme.

Cornel Bruhin has left the Swiss boutique Clariden Leu, Citywire Global reports. He had been principal manager of the Clariden Leu Emerging Markets Bond fund. He will be replaced by Thomas Rutz and Dorothea Fröhlich.

Redemptions from the open-ended real estate fund Immoselect (DE0009846451) from Axa IM Deutschland, which have been frozen since 17 November 2009, will not be reopened. The asset management firm has decided to liquidate the product by 20 October 2014, and to sell the 66 properties remaining in the portfolio.The fund, with EUR2.48bn in assets, managed by AXA Real Estate Investment Managers (AXA Real Estate) has only EUR238.6m in liquidity, which is insufficient to meet up to redemption demands announced by investors and distributors. The fund would have needed a liquidity level of at least 30%, rather than its present level of under 10%.The proceeds from sales of the properties will be distributed to investors semiannually, probably beginning in April 2012.

The XTF segment of the Xetra electronic trading platform (Deutsche Börse) now lists 878 ETF funds. The two newest additions are the equities funds ComStage ETF F.A.Z. Index (LU0650624025, which charges 0.15%), and ComStage ETF MSCI Emerging Markets TRN (LU0635178014, TER of 0.50%) from ComStage (Commerzbank).These products were preceded on 17 October by two high dividend equities ETFs from State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), SPDR S&P US Dividend Aristocrats ETF (IE0B6YX5D40, with fees of 0.35%) and SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Dividend ETF (IE00B6YX5B26, with a TER of 0.65%). Deutsche Börse has also announced that 28 new long and short ETNs from Commerzbank (list here) have been added to trading on Xetra, bringing the number of ETN products available in Frankfurt to 218.

Assets under management in investment funds in Switzerland totalled about CHF615bn in September 2011, about CHF4bn more than the previous month, according to statistics from Swiss Fund Data SA and Lipper, published on 19 October. Capital outflows totalled barely CHF5bn, reflecting investors’ current disorientation. As of the end of September 2011, the total volume of funds totalled CHF614.7bn, of which about CHF221.2bn were for Swiss funds aimed at institutional investors. These funds have gained some ground recently, and represent more than one third of the market as a whole. Of this total, CHF163bn were for Swiss funds aimed at qualified investors, and barely CHF55bn for institutional asset classes of foreign investment funds licensed for sale in Switzerland. Compared with the previous month, redemptions continued in September, fed by concerns of a downturn in global conjuncture and an aggravation of the euro crisis. Monthly outflows were at their highest since October 2008, at CHF4.7bn. Despite that fact, assets under management valued in Swiss francs increased by about CHF3.6bn. The intervention of the Swiss national bank to tie the Swiss franc to the euro led to a revaluation of all funds denominated in foreign currencies, particularly on the money and bond markets. Of the total volume on the Swiss fund market. Only 48% of funds keep their books in Swiss francs, while the remaining 52% of funds do so in foreign currencies, with 26% keeping their books in euros, and 22% in US dollars.

Markus Gerhardt, who has been head of high net worth clients at BHF-Bank, has joined the German affiliate of Schroders as institutional client executive, as of 1 October. Gerhardt joins the institutional distribution team at Schroder Investment Management GmbH, led by Carlos Böhles, and will focus on business clients and pension funds. Schroders Germany, which has made several recruitments in the past few months (see Newsmanagers of 5 and 8 July and 1 August), now has a sales team of 60 people in Germany, led by Achim Küssner.

BaFin, the German financial services watchdog, on 19 October issued a license for the launch and administration of real estate funds to Universal-Investment, which had applied for the license to create an operation in the institutional fund segment.Bernd Vorbeck, chairman of the executive board at Universal, says that the first mandates have already been received, and that talks are underway with several institutional investors and asset management firms. The new real estate platform represents a logical extension of the fund accounting and administration (Master-KAG) range aimed at institutionals; it also allows asset management firms to locate a neutral platform for real estate fund projects for their clients.At the same time as the license for real estate funds, Universal-Investment has also been granted permission to launch and manage hedge funds, infrastructure funds, employee savings funds, and funds with a European passport.

Ilona Wachter, who had been managing director and head of Germany at Muzinich and Aviva Investors, has joined max.xs as institutional sales director. She will report to Oliver Roll, managing director of the Frankfurt-based independent (B2B) distribution specialist max.xs, which has also announced that it is still seeking one recruitment for senior institutional sales.This year, max.xs has taken on three major clients: Kleinwort Bension Investors Dublin, Rothschild & Cie Gestion and Wölbern Invest.

State Street Corporation has announced that it has been selected by the Netherlands pension fund Stichting Pensioenfonds SABIC Innovative Plastics to provide investment services on EUR700m in assets. State Street will offer securities custody, accounting, monthly performance measurement and overlay strategy services for currency risk hedging.

Investors appear to have come to terms with the likelihood of a Greek default on its debt, according to the most recent monthly survey by BofA Merrill Lynch of 286 firms representing USD739bn in assets under management, conducted between 7 and 13 October.More than nine out of ten respondents in the survey (92%) are convinced that Greece will not be able to avoid a default. Seven out of ten see that default happening by April 2012. Despite this impressive consensus, investors appear less concerned thatn a month ago about covereign debt risks, and less pessimistiv about global growth outlooks.The European sovereign debt crisis remains the major extreme risk in the minds of investors, but it concerns them less than the previous month, with 61% saying they are worried about it in October, compared with 68% in September.There has also been a stabilisation in growth outlooks, with fears of a global recession taking the back seat. The percentage of respondents who predict a global recession in the next twelve months has fallen to 25%, from 40% in September.“The survey shows that the investor consensus has integrated or hopes for an orderly default by Greece. But investors appear to be waiting for a green light both from Europe and emerging markets to engage their cash,” says Gary Baker, head of European equities strategy at BofA Merrill Lynch Research.Europe, which was plague-stricken last month, may not be a safe destination yet, but the negative sentiment about the region is slightly less marked. Only 7% of investors say that the euro zone is the region which they are planning to underweight most in the next twelve months, compared with 40% in September. Only 29% of allocators are underweight on euro zone equities, compared with 38% in September.Within Europe, however, investors say they are more concerned by the macroeconomic outlooks, with 37% of respondents in the regional survey predicting a recession in the next few months, compared with only 11% in September.

Raffaele Costa, a former director of GLG Partners, who subsequently became vice head of global sales and marketing at Man Group, will be leaving the firm at the end of the year, according to reports in Financial News. He will remain a senior adviser to the firm.

The Italian asset management firm Azimut will launch a venture capital fund in partnership with the German specialist Earlybird Venture Capital. The product will invest in the Italian IT sector. Azimut will create a closed fund on its Luxembourg platform, which will be aimed at qualified investors. The product will be advised by a firm that will be 60% owned by the partners at Earlybird Italia, and 40% by Azimut Holding.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched a civil investigation to determine whether the hedge fund management firm SAC Capital Advisors LP (USD14bn in assets) made inappropriate use of information from an expert network to make a large-scale investment in shares in Cougar Biotechnology ahead of the announcement of the firm’s acquisition by Johnson & Johnson on 21 May.So far, the SEC has not accused SAC Capital of wrongdoing.The Wall Street Journal reports that since June, SAC Capital has been under investigation for similar moves ahead of the acquisition of MedImmune for USD15bn in 2007.

For third quarter, State Street Corporation has announced profits of USD1.10 per share, up from USD1.08 per share in third quarter 2010. Compared with the previous quarter, the increase in profits per share is 10%. Assets under management of USD1.877trn represent an 11.3% decline from asset levels as of the end of June (USD2.166trn). Year on year, the decline is 4.2%, when assets are compared with levels as of second quarter 2010.

BlackRock has reported a net profit for the third quarter of its fiscal eyar of USD595m, up 8% compared with third quarter 2010, but down 4% compared with second quarter 2011, according to a statement released on 19 October. Assets under management as of the end of the quarter totalled USD3.345trn, down 3% year on year, and 9% compared with the end of second quarter, largely due to a negative market effect of USD303.9bn for all products taken together. Assets under management in equities totalled USD1.441bn, down 18%, or USD307.7bn, largely due to negative market and currency effects of USD309.5bn. Net inflows contributed USD1.8bn, reflecting net subscriptions of USD9.8bn for index-based products, which were partially offset by net redemptions of USD8bn from active management. In bonds, assets under management totalled USD1.205trn, up 2%, or USD19.4bn, due to positive market and currency effects totalling a net USD33.3bn. Net outflows of USD14bn include a redemption of USD9.1bn to a single client under short-term constraints, BlackRock states. Assets under management in multi-asset class products totalled USD215.2bn, down 7%, ro USd16.1bn, as net inflows of USD2.9bn were wiped out by currency and market effects of USD19bn.

As of 30 September, assets under management at BNY Mellon Corp totalled USd1.198trn, compared with USD1.274trn as of 30 June, and USD1.141trn one year earlier.Assets under management and administration totalled USd25.9trn, 2% less than at the end of first half, and 6% more than on 30 September 2010.The firm says that long-term net inflows totalled USD4bn in second quarter.An increase in assets under management year on year is the result of net subscriptions. However, in third quarter, long-term inflows were more than offset by the negative effects of equity marktes and outflows from short-term products.Management and performance commission revenues totalled USD729m, 6% less than in second quarter, and 5% more than in the corresponding period of 2010.