L’investisseur activiste Nelson Peltz, via son fonds Trian Fund Management, demande à State Street d’être plus rentable et d’envisager une cession de sa division de gestion d’actifs. C’est ce que dévoile le Wall Street Journal, citant une lettre envoyée au conseil d’administration du groupe dimanche soir. Une vente de State Street Global Advisors permettrait, selon Nelson Peltz, de dégager de la valeur.

BlackRock a lancé le 16 août l’ETF iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Small Cap Index Fund (acronyme sur NYSE/Arca : EEMS) dont l’encours au 13 octobre représente 60,89 millions de dollars.Ce produit chargé à 0,69 % réplique l’indice MSCI des petites capitalisations émergentes, qui est principalement utilisé par les investisseurs institutionnels. Il complète le iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF, sans aucun recoupement sur les lignes principales.

Selon les proches du dossier, l’objectif d’encours pour le WLKR Recovery Fund V de WL Ross & Co a été ramené à 2-2,5 milliards de dollars, au lieu des 4 milliards primitivement annoncés, rapporte The Wall Street Journal.En effet, à fin août les souscriptions n’atteignaient qu’un peu plus du dixième de l’objectif initial, signe que les sociétés de private equity ont beaucoup de mal à collecter quand les marchés évoluent en dents de scie.Certains investisseurs se sont également abstenus parce que la succession de Wilbur Ross Junior (73 ans) à la tête de l’entreprise (qui appartient à Invesco) les préoccupe.

Depuis le début de l’année et jusqu’au 13 octobre, six des mutual funds américains ayant affiché les plus mauvaises performances sont des «focused funds», des fonds concentrés dont le portefeuille compte moins de 50 titres et qui ont investi plus de la moitié de leur encours dans leurs 10 premières lignes, constate The Wall Street Journal. Ces fonds sont destinés à permettre aux gérants-stars de briller, insiste le journal.C’est ainsi le cas pour le fonds Legg Mason Capital Management Opportunity de Bill Miller, qui perd 34,7 %, pour le Fairholme Fund de Bruce Berkowitz (- 27,6 %) et du fonds CGM Focus de Ken Heebner, (- 22,2 %).

Les fonds de pension de la ville de New-York prévoient d’investir jusqu'à 4 milliards de dollars dans les hedge funds au cours des prochaines années, indique hedgefund.net. Le système de pension municipal, qui regroupe cinq fonds de pension (119,9 milliards de dollars sous gestion au total), possèdent actuellement 140 millions de dollars dans les fonds alternatifs.

Au mois d’août, les fonds Ucits ont enregistré une décollecte nette de 20 milliards d’euros, après 14 milliards de retraits en juillet, selon les dernières statistiques communiquées par l’Association européenne de la gestion financière (Efama), qui regroupe 23 associations professionnelles représentant plus de 97% des fonds coordonnées ou non. Les fonds Ucits de long terme (c’est-à-dire hors fonds monétaires) ont enregistré des sorties nettes de 53 milliards d’euros. Les fonds diversifiés ont ainsi enregistré des rachats de 11 milliards, les fonds obligataires de 13 milliards. Les fonds actions ont quant à eux terminé le mois d’août en décollecte de 26 milliards d’euros, contre des rachats de 1 milliards en juillet. Les fonds monétaires ont accusé une décollecte nette de 33 milliards d’euros en août, contre 25 milliards en juillet. Pour leur part, les fonds dédiés ont enregistré une collecte nette de 8 milliards d’euros en août. Les fonds Ucits terminent le mois d’août avec un encours total de 5.556 milliards d’euros, en baisse de 4,7 % depuis fin juillet.

Selon L’Agefi qui reprend la presse britannique de ce week-end, le véhicule d’investissement NBNK Investments a obtenu auprès de Northern Rock et de UK Financial Investments (UKFI), la structure qui gère les participations de l’Etat dans le secteur bancaire, l’autorisation de formuler une offre avant le 1er novembre. NBNK Investments chercherait à combiner Northern Rock avec les 632 agences Lloyds également mises en vente. On estime la proposition de ce challenger potentiel du secteur bancaire britannique autour de 1,5 milliard de livres, précise le quotidien.

Jupiter Fund Management a enregistré au troisième trimestre 2011 des souscriptions nettes de 295 millions de livres. La collecte s’est faite principalement (280 millions de livres) sur des mandats dédiés. Mais en raison d’un effet marché négatif, les encours de la société de gestion britannique ont reculé sur les trois mois au 30 septembre, de 24,8 milliards de livres à 22,3 milliards.

BlackRock on 16 August launched the ETF iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Small Cap Index Fund (acronym on NYSE/Arca: EEMS), with assets as of 13 October of USD60.89m. The product, which charges fees of 0.69%, replicates the MSCI emerging markets small cap index, which is largely used by institutional investors. It complements the iShares MSCRI Emerging Markets ETF, with no reduplication of the major positions.

Banca Leonardo is selling its research and intermediation business to Kepler Capital Markets, and acquiring a 5% stake in the financial services company, Il Sole – 24 Ore reports. The divestment, which comes following a sale of a part of DNCA, in which the firm retains a 10% stake, comes as the Italian bank refocuses its activities on its core businesses, investment and private banking. Leonardo is also planning to pay a large coupon to its shareholders, out of a significant capital gain from the sale of DNCA.

The Crèdit Andorrá group (EUR12.27bn in assets) has acquired 85% of the Madrid-based private bank Banco Alcalá, and will thus take control of the asset management firm Gesalcalá (EUR128m in 5 funds), Funds People reports.The total acquisition price has not been disclosed. Shareholders at Banco Alcalá will retain 15% of capital, and the chairman’s seat, which will be occupied by Diego Fernández de Henestrosa, currently CEO. The vice chairman will be Josep Peralba Duró, CEO of Crèdit Andorrá, while Jacobo Argüelles will remain as chairman of Gesalcalá.

In September, the 1,273 Spanish single pension funds posted an average loss of 3.70% year on year, 0.14% per year over three years, and 0.72% per year over the past five years, the Inverco association of asset management firms reports. Not until looking back 10 years do the funds show positive results, and then of only 0.86% per year. Over 15 and 20 years, the annualised returns come to 2.55% and 4.28%, respectively.Assets, for their part, totalled EUR49.48bn as of the end of September, in 8.51 million accounts. According to estimates from VDOS, however, total assets represent EUR48.89bn. In the first nine months of the year, assets had contracted by nearly EUR1.84bn, or 3.62%, of which EUR517m were due to net outflows, and nearly EUR1.32bn to negative market effects.

New York city pension funds are planning to invest up to USd4bn in hedge funds in the next few years, hedgefund.net reports. The municipal pension system, which includes five pension funds (USD119.5bn in total assets under management), currently has USD140m invested in hedge funds.

Eaton Vance has announced the birth of Navigate Fund Solutions, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the group, which will be dedicated to actively-managed ETFs. The group has appointed Stephen Clarke as chairman of the new firm; Clarke is a former vice chairman of Old Mutual Asset Management.

Edmond de Rothschild in France has sold 75% of its private equity fund of fund business, Private Equity Select, with EUR200m in assets, according to reports in the Financial Times. The buyer is David Seligman, founder of the firm, and his management team.

The Swiss alternative management firm Gottex Fund Management has announced the recruitment of Steven Lee Nyungwk as marketing director for the Asia-Pacific region. He will report to Max Gottschalk (co-founder and son of the chairman and CEO of Gottex), head of Asia-Pacific since June. Nyungwk will be based in Hong Kong. Since 2001, he had been at Wellington Management Company, where he focused on marketing, client assistance and development in Asia, including Korea, Hong Kong and China.

The activist investor Nelson Peltz, via his fund Trian Fund Management, has called on State Street to become more profitable and to consider selling off its asset management division, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal citing a letter sent to the board of directors of the group on Sunday evening. Peltz claims that a sale of State Street Global Advisors would free up value for the group.

Lyxor AM has responded to recent criticisms of synthetic replication ETFs. Its argument takes two forms. The first is to demonstrate that the asset management firm’s synthetic replication ETFs are “the most transparent in the world,” pointing out that for every ETF from the management firm, assets held are detailed daily on the firm’s website, along with counterparties and the swap used in the construction of the product.Security is also made a high priority, in response to investor concerns. At a recent Lyxor ETF Investor Day, the firm pointed out that all the swaps were managed “back to back” with the parent company, Société Générale, regardless of the ultimate counterparty. In other words, for all Lyxor ETFs, the counterparty risk related to swaps, which is limited by law to a maximum of 10% of the fund’s assets, is assumed by SocGen.Lyxor AM also insists that it undertakes a daily rebalancing of swaps to 0%, de facto cancelling out the risk of loss in case of bankruptcy of the counterparty bank. “And this is our constant modus operandi,” says Alain Dubois.The second arm of Lyxor AM’s argument is to claim that direct competition – physical replication funds – do not present equivalent transparency, though they have a better image with investors. “Some information about these ETFs is not published,” the Lyxor chairman claims, “particularly about establishments to whom the securities are lent, and on returns the manager mades from its ‘lending agent,’ which are not included in the total costs laid out in the Key Investor Information Document (KIID).” The counterparty risks for investors are identical for a synthetic replication ETF and a physical replication ETF which lends its securities. “It’s the same thing with different contracts,” Lyxor AM continues. “With one exception,” Dubois notes: “tracking error between the ETF fund and its benchmark index. Due to the workings of physical replication, the risk of tracking error is higher, and in this case, the risk is assumed by the investor.”

Jupiter Fund Management has posted net inflows in third quarter 2011 of GBP295m. Inflows came primarily from dedicated mandates (GBP280m).However, due to negative market effects, assets at the UK asset management firm were down in the three-month period ending on 30 September, from GBP24.8bn to GBP22.3bn.

Liontrust has set itself the goal of GBP10bn in assets under management by the end of 2016, via organic growth and acquisitions, following its acquisition of Occam Asset Management (see Newsmanagers of 6 October).With Occam, Liontrust can now extend its distribution to cover continental Europe, the United States and sovereign clients.John Ions is also planning to launch a product for each of the teams at Occam (global and Asian emerging markets), in the next two quarters. For emerging markets, the fund will be a long-only version of the absolute return fund.

Agefi reports, citing reports in the British press over the weekend, that the investment vehicle NBNK Investments has obtained permission from Northern Rock and UK Financial Investments (UKFI), the structure which manages the British government’s holdings in the banking sector, to prepare a buyout offer by 1 November.NBNK Investments is reportedly planning to merge Northern Rock with 632 branches of Lloyds, which are also up for sale. The bid, with about GBP1.5bn, would create a new potential challenger in the British banking sector, the newspaper reports.

According to sources familiar with the matter, the asset objectives for the WLR Recovery Fund V from WL Ross & Co have been lowered to USD2bn-USD2.5bn, down from a previously announced USD4bn, the Wall Street Journal reports.As of the end of August, subscriptions totalled only slightly more than one tenth of the initial objective, in a sign that private equity firms are having a lot of trouble bringing in money when the markets show chequered performance.Some investors have also held back out of uncertainty following the succession of Wilbur Ross Junior, 73, as head of the business, which is owned by Invesco.

From the beginning of the year to 13 October, six of the US mutual funds which have posted the worst returns are “focused funds,” which are concentrated in portfolios of less than 50 positions, and which invert more than half of their assets in the top 10 positions, the Wall Street Journal reports. These funds are intended to allow star managers to shine, the newspaper says.One such fund is the Legg Mason Capital Management Opportunity fund from Bill Miller, which has lost 34.7%, while the other two are the Fairholme Fund from Bruce Berkowitz (-27.6%), and the CGM Focus fund from Ken Heebner (-22.2%).

The chairman and CEO of Cogefi Gestion, Guillaume Jonchères, has not ruled out external growth, but still gives priority to performance and to winning over new clients, especially institutionals. Despite the market turbulence, the asset management firm has posted growth of 10% in its assets in 2011 up to the end of September, at about EUR550m.

Nicholas Cosmo, the owner of Agape World and Agape Merchant Advance, who was arrested in January 2009, was sentenced on 14 October to 25 years in prison for orchestrating a USD412m Ponzi scheme, the Wall Street Journal reports. Effective losses for the thousands of victims totalled about USD195m.

Out of 424 international equity funds licensed for sale in Germany surveyed by Das Investment, only 5 showed positive returns since the beginning of the year as of 10 October.Returns ranged from +7.9% for the Federated Strategic Value Equity (whose minimal subscription is set at EUR0.3m) and -42.3% for the Global Trend Equity OP from the wealth management firm Globalinvest, based in Ingoldstadt.The other four funds that show positive returns are the Morgan Stanley Global Brands (+5.4%), Investec Global Franchise (+3%), Nordea Global Stable Equity (+0.9%), and the Quants Multistrategy (+0.6%).

Paradoxically, only one out of three high net worth investors in Germany already practices sustainable investment, respecting environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria, even though three out of four are already considering sustainable development in the areas of electricity and heating, and 72% buy bio products. These are the findings of a survey published by Commerzbank.78% of respondents “would consider” investing “sustainably,” but the majority of respondents are only inclined to do so if the returns are at least equal to those of “normal” investments. 38% are prepared to accept a lower profit margin.Gustav Holtkemper, one of the heads of the wealth management unit at Commerzbank, says Germany lags far behind in the area of sustainable investment. In France, assets in financial assets with irreproachable economic, social and governance credentials total about USD2trn. In the United Kingdom, sustainable investments have about half this much, while in Germany they amount to less than USD100bn.

The CNMV on 29 September released the flexible Banesto Fondored Global Ambicioso fund, created by Santander Asset Maanagement on 26 August. This “ambitious” product, whose recommended holding period is three years, will invest at least 50% in other funds (of which up to 10% will be in absolute return funds), and will be benchmarked on the Euro Stoxx 50 and the Eonia. The average duration for the portfolio will be from -2 to +7 years.Exposure to bonds may vary between 30% and 100%, while exposure to equities will be limited to 60%. The prospectus states that at least 75% of the bond allocation will be composed of investment grade securities, while the equities allcoation will include a maximum of 15% emerging market shares. The fund may not exceed 30% investment in currencies other than the euro.CharacteristicsName: Banesto Fondored Global AmbiciosoISIN code: ES0113731006Direct management commission: 1.6%Indirect management commission: 2.15%Direct depository banking commission: 0.1%Indirect depository banking commission: 1%Minimal initial subscription: EUR10,000

Investment Week reports that Sridhar Chandrasekharan has been promoted to the position of chief executive officer at HSBC Global Asset Management, from 1 January 2012. He had previously been global head of wholesale at the firm. In his new role, Chandrasekharan replaces John Flint, who will now serve as chief of staff for the group.

In third quarter 2011, the number of single hedge funds that comply with the UCITS III directive increased by 40 funds, or 6%, to a total of 705, the Geneva-based firm Alix Capital has announced in its latest newsletter (see Newsmanagers of 10 October). Since the beginning of this year, the population of UCITS-compliant single hedge funds has increased by 21.9%.As of the end of September, there were 73 UCITS-compliant funds of hedge funds, which represents a 7% increase in July-September, and 28% growth in the first nine months of 2011.Total assets in the UCITS-compliant hedge fund and fund of hedge fund sector as of 30 September totalled EUR121bn, 7% more than at the end of June, and nearly 32% more than at the end of December.