Selon des proches du dossier, le capital-investisseur Blackstone aurait payé au total environ 220 millions d’euros pour acheter les 6.800 logements sociaux et les 73 magasins du groupe immobilier Level One en faillite, rapporte la Börsen-Zeitung. La plupart de ces actifs sont situés à Berlin. Blackstone apporte bien moins que la moitié de la somme en fonds propres, l’opération étant principalement financée par Corealcredit Bank et SEB.

Net inflows to open-ended funds and dedicated funds in July totalled EUR6.6bn, according to statistics from the German financial management association (BVI).In open-ended funds, which attracted a net total of EUR3.9bn, investors concentrated on traditional asset classes. Equity funds posted a net inflow of EUR4.1bn. Bond funds attracted EUR1.1bn, while open-ended real estate funds posted subscriptions totalling EUR200m. However, diversified funds saw an outflow of EUR200m.BVI observes in a statement that the new classification of money market funds which came into use on 1 July has brought more than two thirds of the funds previously classified as money market funds into the bond fund category. As of the end of July, assets in money market funds totalled EUR11.9bn, compared with EUR39bn the previous month, while assets in bond funds rose to EUR183.6bn, from EUR154.1bn previously.As of the end of July, assets in open-ended funds totalled over EUR697bn, of which EUR235bn were in equity funds, and EUR184bn in bond funds. Diversified funds represent 17% (EUR119bn) of the total, while open-ended real estate funds represent 12%, with about EUR85bn.Assets in dedicated, institutional, funds totalled EUR848bn as of the end of July.

Fidelity China, the investment vehicle managed by Anthony Bolton, bought back its shares for the first time on Thursday, from shareholders pulling out of the firm due to its weak performance, the Financial Times reports. The investment trust spent more than GBP380,000 to raise its own stake in two separate share repurchases during the day, at a discount of 5% to the firm’s underlying value.

BNY Mellon Asset Management has announced that it is repositioning its range of UK equity funds managed by Newton, one of the asset management affiliates of the group. The objective is to make the product range more visible and comprehensible for investors, a statement says. The Newton UK Equity and Newton Growth Fund will merge, to create a product to be known as the Newton Income Fund, which will have GBP1.3bn in assets. It will be managed by Richard Wilmot and Ben Russon.

Ignis Advisors, a multi-manager business unit established in November 2010 by Ignis AM, has recruited Aoifinn Devitt, principal and founder of Clontarf Capital, as head of client strategies. She was previouslya specialist consultant at Cambridge Associates in London and Boston, and at Goldman Sachs. Aoifinn Devitt will be joined by two of her associates at Clontarf Capital, Javier Herranz and Cian O’Sullivan,who will further strengthen the investment team. She will be working closely with Claude Chene, Ignis Asset Management’s recently appointed global head of distribution, to bring Ignis Advisors’ capabilities to a wider client base.Ignis Advisors has also hired a chief operating officer. Mark Long, who held roles as senior vice president operational due diligence, European general counsel and head of corporate development at FRM, has joined with responsibility for operational due diligence, product development and operations. Andreas Schroeder, formerly of ABP, has joined as head of quant analytics, responsible for risk modelling and quantitative asset allocation.

La banque helvétique Credit Suisse étudierait, selon La Tribune, qui cite la presse suisse, la possibilité de retirer son activité de banque privée des États-Unis. Elle doit en effet y faire face à la pression des autorités américaines, décidées à lutter contre l'évasion fiscale.

Bloomberg reports that the wealth management division of UBS in Zurich has recruited seven specialists from Turkey, including four advisers and three assistants, who previously worked at Credit Suisse. They will report to Beat Frey, head of the Turkey team.

Hedge funds have been affected by a move by the Swiss National Bank (BNS) to fix the value of the franc against the euro, Agefi Switzerland reports. Global markets and quantitative funds have been among the largest victims of the exceptional measure taken on Tuesday. By introducing a limit of CHF1.30 to EUR1, the BNS cost operators who bet on the Swiss franc as a safe heaven asset.

The US banking group Wells Fargo has announced its acquisition of the administration services provider Lacrosse Global Fund Services from Cargill. The operation will bring the group and its specialised affiliate Wells Fargo Corporate Trust Services (CTS) a complete range of hedge fund administration services.

Qosmos (www.qosmos.com), a leader in intelligent network technologies, on 8 September announced that it has raised EUR19.8m from a group of investors including the European venture capital firm DFJ Esprit, the Fonds Stratégique d’Investissement (FSI) and Alven Capital. The operation will increase owners’ equity at Qosmos, via a capital increase and an issue of convertible bonds, and also includes the repurchase of shares from the former investor Sofinnova by the three firms cited above. Krishna Viavanathan, a partner at DFJ Esprit, and a representative of the FSI will join the supervisory board at Qosmos. The round of fundraising will provide financing for expansion at Qosmos in North America and Asia-Pacific, and to support the development of new products, international marketing activities, and potential acquisitions. Qosmos, which has been profitable since 2009, in 2010 posted earnings up 40%.

Although the firm showed a net outflow in first half 2011, in phase with a market trend for OPCVMs, inflows to La Banque Postale Asset Management (LBPAM) from retail investors and entities turned positive again in July and August 2011, the firm announced on 8 September at a presentation of its quarterly results. As of 30 June 2011, LBPAM had nearly EUR126bn in assets under management, which puts it in fifth place among asset managers in France. Global earnings from retirement planning (individual and collective) managed by La Banque Postale Prévoyance, a joint venture owned 50/50 by La Banque Postale and CNP Assurances which provides the retirement planning product range from La Banque Postale, totalled Eur209bn as of the end of 2011 (+0.8% compared with 2010).

Sycomore Asset Management is beginning to offer its funds in Germany and Switzerland, Laurent Deltour, the firm’s president, announced on the occasion of the asset manager’s 10th birthday. In order to offer its products in Germany, the French boutique is working with an independent partner, Kerstin Fischer, managing director of Fischer Financial.Deltour also points out that Sycomore has recently added to its management team with the recruitments of Olivier Mollé, in charge of the Sycomore L/S Market Neutral fund, and Arnaud d’Aligny, an analyst and manager for European equities. In addition, the firm has recently launched an emerging markets fund and an SRI fund.

Fitch Ratings on 8 September announced that it is maintaining its asset manager rating of M2- for Sycomore Asset Management. In general, firms rated M2 are thought to be less vulnerable to operational and management errors.The ratings agency’s comments are full of praise, and highlight the stability of teams at Sycomore, which have recently been strengthened with the recruitment of four managers to assist in the development of new products.Fitch also emphasizes that the primary challenge for Sycomore remains international development and development of long/short and diversified fund management, and adapting processes and decision-making tools to a more extensive product range and to new market conditions. The “company and teams” and “investment administration” ratings have been improved slightly, to 2.75 from 3, and 2.25 from 2.50.

Citi Global Transaction Services (GTS) has won a mandate from the fund of fund specialist Sandalwood Securities, to provide administration and custody services.

In an article on BlackRock, the Economist observes that the size of the world’s largest asset manager may already be a problem. According to analysts, the firm has seen about USD149bn in outflows since 2010, many pension funds feeling that they have too much money invested with BlackRock. Due to its size, the firm may be declared a “systemically important financial institution” by the US government in the next few months. Another source of concern is how BlackRock will grow. One of the answers is to develop more on the retail market. But the hardest challenge for the management giant, in these volatile markets, will be to maintain its performance.

Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) on 8 September announced the appointment of Paloma Pedrola as international head for custody and depository services. Pedrola will be based in Paris and will report to Etienne Denau, and will be in charge of coordination of existing custody and depository services in Western Europe (Germany, Ireland, Spain, the United Kingdom), central and eastern Europe (Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Slovenia) and Africa (Egypt, Morocco and South Africa). She will also be responsible for development of services in new countries, particularly Tunisia, Ivory Coast and Bulgaria. Pedrola was appointed head of SGSS for Spain in 2006. Nathan Derhy has been appointed country head of Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) for Ireland. He is responsible for development of the main activities of SGSS in the country, particularly for custody and depository services, fund administration and distribution services. Derhy, reviously head of SGSS in India, replaces Christian de Beaufort. He will report to Bruno Prigent, who will become Director of SGSS from 1 October. De Beaufort has been appointed as head of investor services for SGSS in Spain. He will report to Etienne Denau, Director of custody and depository services. De Beaufort is in charge of developing the services of SGSS in that country. Murali Narasimhan has been appointed as the new country head and head for SGSS in India. He will report to Philippe Huerre, deputy director of emerging markets at SGSS. He also becomes deputy CEO at SBI-SG Global Securities Services Pvt Ltd, a joint venture of SGSS and State Bank of India, the largest public sector bank in the country; the joint venture provides custody services to local and foreign investors in India.

Une taxe européenne sur les transactions financières est en cours de finalisation et sera présentée début octobre au plus tard, a expliqué le commissaire européen à la Fiscalité, Aldirgas Semeta. Ses équipes ont planché cet été sur une formule permettant d'éviter une délocalisation des transactions dans d’autres centres financiers. Le commissaire rejette l’argument voulant que les banques ne sont pas en situation de s’acquitter d’une telle taxe.

Le conseil d’administration a décidé de révoquer Jean-Michel Bonnichon de son mandat de directeur général en raison d’un conflit l’opposant à ABC participation et gestion, administrateur et actionnaire de référence d’ABC arbitrage. Il a nommé Dominique Ceolin, président directeur général de la société ABC arbitrage.

L'institution a changé hier de rhétorique, évoquant les risques pour la croissance en zone euro

Elle pourrait abaisser rapidement son taux directeur. Mais une intervention sur le marché des changes ne peut pas être exclue

Les effets de la crise boursière de cet été n'ont pas pu être intégrés aux prévisions de l'institution

Barack Obama a annoncé un programme de relance de 447 milliards de dollars, aidé par la Fed qui envisage des mesures d’assouplissement monétaire

L'institution a changé hier de rhétorique, évoquant les risques pour la croissance en zone euro

Le conseil des ministres des Finances renâcle à réguler de peur de subir la défiance des investisseurs

Le quotidien assure que le courtier actions britannique Evolution Group pourrait annoncer dès aujourd’hui son rachat par l’anglo-sud –africain Investec, pour plus de 230 millions de livres (264 millions d’euros), à raison d’une livre par titre. L’acquéreur pourrait vouloir scinder l’activité de gestion de fortune.

Nasdaq OMX a selon le quotidien intensifié son opposition à l’union entre Nyse Euronext et Deutsche Börse. Un tel mariage pourrait «détruire irrévocablement» la concurrence au sein du marché européen des dérivés. C’est ce qu’a indiqué le Nasdaq à la Commission européenne en réponse à une demande d’information sur l’impact de l’opération. La décision finale de Bruxelles sur la transaction, attendue mi-décembre, devrait apporter la touche finale à la fusion.

Le groupe immobilier, actif à Singapour et en Malaisie, entend concrétiser d’ici douze à dix-huit mois la cotation d’actifs immobiliers en Bourse de Singapour. C’est ce qu’a confié au quotidien le directeur général de RB Capital, Kishin RK, qui évoque une valorisation des actifs concernés comprise entre 1,5 et 2 milliards de dollars.

La Maison blanche va mettre 447 milliards de dollars sur la table pour éviter la récession. La Fed étudie les options pour de nouvelles mesures de soutien à l’activité.

Les dix-sept communautés autonomes accusent déjà un déficit budgétaire cumulé de 1,2 % du PIB, alors que l'objectif a été fixé à 1,3 % pour 2011

86 % des conseillers portent un regard confiant sur la profession, avec un montant moyen de collecte brute qui retrouve son niveau de 2008