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06/07/2011

Stoxx launches a basket of indices covering major global markets

Stoxx Limited on 5 July announced the launch of the iStoxx World Select index, a basket of indices which includes the Euro Stoxx 50, Stoxx USA 50, and Stoxx Japan 50, and which provides access to the world’s major markets in a single index. Within the basket of indices, exposure is distributed between the three underlying indices, which makes it possible to reduce the generally excessive influence of US companies in the weighted global indices by market capitalisation. The index is rebalanced on a quarterly basis, in March, June, September and December.
06/07/2011

Strong increase in IPOs in Europe, thanks to Glencore

In second quarter 2011, the number of initial public offerings worldwide rose 29% compared with the previous quarter, to 378 offerings, according to the quarterly barometer published by Ernst & Young. Capital raised has also increased 39% quarter on quarter, to USD64.6bn, a level not seen since second quarter 2007 (USD94.6bn). In the first six months of the year, there were 672 offerings, which raised USD111.1bn, an increase of 10% compared with first quarter 2010. On European markets, capital raised between April and the end of June 2011 were up 534% compared with the previous quarter, to USD17.7bn, largely, it is true, fur to the initial public offering of Glencore in London (USD10bn). The number of operations has also increased, though more modestly, by 76% quarter on quarter, to 95. The US stock markets in second quarter raised USD13.8bn, in 46 offerings. There were 28 operations on the NYSE, totalling USD9.9bn, an increase of 177% compared with second quarter 2010. But emerging markets continued to drive the market in second quarter, with 67% of total transactions, and 55% of total capital raised. BRIC markets registered 125 offerings, totalling USD24.8bn, 34.8% of the total raised in second quarter. Asian issuers, for their part, raised USD25.3bn, 39% of the total, in 173 operations. 79% of initial public offerings worldwide in second quarter were within their initial price range, compared with an average over ten years of 74.3%. Only 13% of IPOs went ahead below their initial price range, and 8% above. In other words, nearly 9 out of 10 offerings took place within or above their initial price range.
06/07/2011

BlackRock now has a director of sales for South America

Alvaro Setién will be leaving the Spanish team at BlackRock, led by Armando Senra, to become director of institutional and retail sales for South America excluding Brazil, as the latter country is covered by the office based in Santiago, Chile. Setién will report both to Armando Senra as global head of Hispanic markets, and to Axel Christensen, CEO for Chile, Funds People reports.Ricardo Comín, who joined BlackRock Iberia two months ago, will succeed Setién as head of sales.Currently, BlackRock has assets of EUR5.1bn in Spain and Portugal. The group’s total assets in Iberia and Latin America total USD42bn, compared with USD35bn as of the end of 2010, while Mexico alone represents USD16bn.
06/07/2011

BNP Paribas SS rated AA- by Fitch

The ratings agency Fitch has awarded a rating of AA- to BNP Paribas Securities Services. The rating reflects a high probability that BNP Paribas will receive support if required, given the integration of BNP Paribas Securities Services into the group, and the strategic importance of the unit to BNP Paribas. The rating has a stable outlook.
06/07/2011

Rothschild & Cie: asset management earnings up 9.3% in 2010

According to the 2010 annual report from Rothschild & Cie, which has not been rendered public, the firm as a whole earned net earnings for the part of the group in fiscal year 2010 of EUR85m, up more than 21% year on year, Les Echos reports. Earnings also increased 21% to EUR301m. These figures include all consolidated activities in France, particularly advising, which belongs to Rothschild & Cie, management, and private banking, at Rothschild & Cie Gestion, and the group’s other participations. Asset management activities generated earnings up 9.3%, to about EUR105m for 2010. In a complex market environment, “our company has also succeeded in earning positive inflows for products overall,” the bank writes. Average assets under management have thus “returned to all-time highs, at nearly EUR19bn.”
06/07/2011

Rothschild & Cie: asset management earnings up 9.3% in 2010

According to the 2010 annual report from Rothschild & Cie, which has not been rendered public, the firm as a whole earned net earnings for the part of the group in fiscal year 2010 of EUR85m, up more than 21% year on year, Les Echos reports. Earnings also increased 21% to EUR301m. These figures include all consolidated activities in France, particularly advising, which belongs to Rothschild & Cie, management, and private banking, at Rothschild & Cie Gestion, and the group’s other participations. Asset management activities generated earnings up 9.3%, to about EUR105m for 2010. In a complex market environment, “our company has also succeeded in earning positive inflows for products overall,” the bank writes. Average assets under management have thus “returned to all-time highs, at nearly EUR19bn.”
06/07/2011

Berkshire Hathaway eyes CitiFinancial

According to sources familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reports, Warren Buffett’s firm Berkshire Hathaway has joined a consortium put together by Centerbridge Partners and Leucadia National Corp to acquire CitiFinanial (consumer credit) from Citigroup. The transaction may total over USD8bn.
06/07/2011

BNY Mellon concludes acquisition of wealth management activities at Talon AM

In keeping with an agreement signed two months ago, BNY Mellon has closed its acquisition of the wealth management activities of Talon Asset Management (see Newsmanagers of 2 May), and has appointed Michael DiMedia as regional president of its new location in Chicago.The transaction, whose financial details have not been disclosed, adds more than USD800m to assets at BNY Wealth Management, which now total USD171bn.The former Talon partners Terry Diamond, Alan Wilson and Edwin Ruthman are joining BNY Mellon Wealth Management in Chicago. They will be accompanied by Steven Appell, newly appointed as senior director, representing family offices in the region.
06/07/2011

Norwegian sovereign fund makes its first acquisition in France

The Norwegian sovereign fund (Government Pension Fund - Global) on 5 July announced its first acquisition in France, with the acquisition from the Axa group of a 50% stake in seven large real estate properties in Paris and the inner suburbs, for a total of EUR702.5m.The seven properties, which had previously been 100% owned by Axa, and most of which are office properties, represent a total of 156,000 square metres, located at prestigious addresses near the Champs-Elysées, the major boulevards, and the business district at La Défense, the public fund says in a statement.It is the second investment in real estate for the fund, and its first in France, the Norwegian central bank says in a statement. The first real estate investment for the Norwegian fund was made in London in April, with the acquisition of 25% of the Crown Estate Regent Street portfolio.Assets in the Norwegian fund as of the end of March totalled NOK3.102trn, about EUR396bn, their highest level ever.
06/07/2011

Cass Business School becomes academic partner to CAIA Association

Cass Business School has announced that it has become the first British academic establishment to become an academic partner of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Association. The partnership means that students at Cass will receive a training precisely in line with the professional criteria and practices of the alternative management sector (hedge funds, private equity, real estate, commodities, and structured products). This means a competitive advantage for Cass students aiming to make a career in this sector. Cass Business School, already a partner of the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) Institute, has added another key to its chain with the partnership. The school awards an MSc (Master of Science) in Investment Management, including training in professional investment practices. “As an internationally recognised independent qualification, the CAIA designation is a safe bet in the area of alternative investments,” says Susan Roth, director of MSc programs at Cass.
06/07/2011

New IAS 19 standard may encourage pension systems to reallocate their assets

The new IAS 19 standards published last month, which seek to clarify the financial conditions of companies with regards to their overall costs and risks related to pension regimes, may lead companies to revise their asset allocation strategies covering social engagements, and investors may be led to revise their estimates of the impact of risks related to pension regimes for the companies in question, according to Mercer. Mercer is pleased to observe that the emphasis is on questions of risk management, and points out that the new rules, which will come into force from 2013, may encourage companies to adjust the way in which they invest billions of dollars in coverage assets in their social engagements. Eric Morin, a senior consultant in the international activity at Mercer, says that “investments of coverage assets from pension schemes in equities will not mechanically lead to a rise in profits for companies, although the equities will generate higher returns over the long term, according to the consensus of analysts.” Mercer estimates that the phenomenon will accelerate a trend at many companies which are asking if taking risks with pension schemes creates value for shareholders. An asset allocation which depends less on equities and more on bonds tends to increase the stability of key performance indicators. “Overall, the accounting changes may encourage companies to adopt better risk management for their pension liabilities,” Morin continues.
06/07/2011

CalSTRS makes a good sale in Manhattan

The California pension fund CalSTRS has been through a difficult period on the Manhattan real estate market. But it has just made a comfortable gain from a sale of its 65% stake in the Equitable Building (120 Broadway) for UDS341m to UBS Realty Investors, the Wall Street Journal reports. The stake was bought for USD240m in 2004.
06/07/2011

John Paulson's fund recuperates USD550m from Lehman

John Paulson’s fund will get back more than half a billion US dollars under a new agreement under the Lehman Brothers liquidation plan, the Financial Times reports. The settlement, which was approved by 30 financial groups, will allow Paulson & Co. to recuperate USD550m due to its acquisition of bonds at a steep discount (about 7.3 cents on the dollar) at the time the bank went bankrupt. According to the final agreement, holders of Lehman bonds will receive 21.1 cents for each dollar in face value, compared with an initial offer of 17.1 cents. This is a welcome gain for Paulson’s fund (USD38bn in assets under management), which has seen several setbacks in recent months.
06/07/2011

Robeco recruits a big name from Neuberger Berman

Following the departure of Frances Chang, who had been CEO for Greater China and South-East Asia, on 30 June, Robeco has appointed Tony Edwards as CEO of Robeco Asia-Pacific, from 1 September. He will be based in Hong Kong. Since October 2009, Edwards had been CEO of Neuberger Berman for Asia-Pacific ex Japan. His appointment at Robeco is pending permission from the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).
06/07/2011

Asian equities attracted USD100bn in investment in 2010

According to the New York-based research agency Strategic Insight, North American and European investment funds last year invested about USD100bn in Asian equities, Asian Investor reports. Strategic Insight points out, however, that Asian mutual funds have made very limited investments in equities in the region, which is an illustration of the problems in the asset management sector in the region. In 2011, Strategic Insight adds, redemptions from emerging markets resulted in a zero level of inflows. Flows were 90% down on last year. However, the New York firm estimates that about USD1trn will be invested in Asian markets (including bonds) in the next ten years. It remains to be seen whether Western management firms will continue to dominate these markets, and if funds based in Asia will continue to avoid them. Asian represents only about 7% of about USD30trn in assets under management worldwide, while it accounts for 25% of global GNP, and 30% of global market capitalisation.
06/07/2011

hausInvest acquires a property in Milan

The German firm Commerz Real has announced, without disclosing the purchase price, that it has acquired the third building in the Edison Park Center (12,000 square metres), located in the Sesto San Giovanni office district of Milan, from Nexity. The property will be added to the portfolio of the open-ended real estate fund hausInvest, 6% of whose assets are invested in Italy.Commerz Real states that it has already concluded in the past transactions with Nexity in Madrid, Brussels and Milan.
06/07/2011

Lombard Odier has ambitions in Japan

The Swiss group Lombard Odier is seeking to sign new partnerships with financial intermediaries in Japan, to double its assets under management in the country in five years to JPY200bn (CHF2bn), the news agency Bloomberg reports. The Geneva bank is already cooperating with four Japanese organisations, including Shizuoka Bank Ltd. and Yamaguchi Financial Group Inc, and has signed similar agreements with five other banks, Norbert Joue, chairman of the Tokyo office of Lombard Odier, explains.
06/07/2011

Deka buys “Vienne Rocher” real estate property under construction in Paris for EUR330m, and invests in Hamburg

The German asset management firm Deka Immobilien on 5 July announced that it has acquired the “Vienne Rocher” construction project in Paris for a maximal price of EUR330m. The completion of construction of the 31,800 square metre structure in the 8th district of Paris is slated for the end of 2013, and two thirds of its area have already been leased to “a well-known French business.” The developer of the complex, which carries a Haute Qualité Environnementale (HQE) label, is Nexity. An LEED certification will also be applied for.The property will be added to the portfolio of the open-ended real estate fund Deka-ImmobilienEuropa.Meanwhile, Hochtief Projektenwicklung has sold the office property Lindely Carree (23,000 square metres in Hamburg) to Deka Immobilien for an undisclosed amount. The property will be added to the portfolio of the WestInvest ImmoValue fund, an open-ended real estate fund aimed exclusively at institutional investors.
06/07/2011

NewAlpha AM to be first recipient of Emergence seed capital

As planned (see Newsmanagers of 1 July) the Finance Innovation competitiveness group on 5 July unveiled the first seed money fund for the Paris market, entitled Emergence. The incubation fund will bring together the top managers in the Paris market, to contribute seed money to young asset management firms based in France, or which are hoping to set up offices there, in order to accelerate their development in the first years of existence.Emergence will provide EUR25m to EUR50m to each management firm selected over a three year period; the partnership will last 7 to 10 years.The objective for Emergence is to offer investors a way to participate in the performance of incubated funds (without buying a stake in the capital of the firms), and a participation in future revenues from the asset management firms.Emergence will take the form of a contractual SICAV with sub-funds, which will allow for various investment themes (absolute return, long-only, SRI, corporate bonds, etc.), with appropriate managers contracted to manage them, one per sub-fund, says Alain Leclair, a member of the board of directors at Finance Innovation and honorary president of the French asset management association AFG.The first sub-fund of Emergence will be an absolute return product launched in September (while the second one is expected be launched in early 2012), with NewAlpha AM (an affiliate of OFI) as its contracted manager, due to its recognised experience in this area (incubation for third parties, profit sharing with funds, and OPCVM mutual fund products). About 30 initial incubation targets have been identified. At this stage, the level of capital aimed at for the first sub-fund is EUR150m to EUR250m. According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, commitments already total EUR150m.
06/07/2011

DWS releases a covered bond fund

On 21 June, the CNMV issued a sales license for Spain to DWS Investments (Spain) for the German-registered fund DWS Covered Bond (DE0008476532, EUR503.8m in assets as of the end of May), formerly known as DWS Select-Rent. The fund invests at least 70% of its assets in European covered mortgage bonds. The fund may also adopt an exposure of up to 30% to government or corporate bonds, while asset-backed securities (ABS) may represent up to 10%, and emerging markets bonds up to 15%. The team actively managed duration within a range from 0 to 6.5 years for a portfolio of 50-70 mortage bonds, Pfandbriefe and cédulas hipotecarias. Currently, duration comes to about 3 years, compared with a benchmark which stands at 4.2 years.
06/07/2011

Wegelin drops US clients

The Swiss private bank Wegelin on 5 July confirmed that it is going to part with its US clients as a result of new tax regulations in preparation in the United States, which it estimates will make it unprofitable to serve these clients, AGEFI Switzerland reports. “With the entry into force of the new rules, known as FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act), in 2013, the question must be asked as to whether it is profitable to have US clients due to the considerable regulatory work involved,” Albena Björck, a board member at the firm, has told AFP. “If we can no longer conduct activities in a manner which is acceptable in terms of costs and revenues, we will need to part with them,” she adds, confirming reports that had appeared in the daily newspaper Tages-Anzeiger.
06/07/2011

Pension funds abandon FrontPoint

A year ago, the hedge fund management firm FrontPoint Partners had USD10bn in assets. Now, its assets have fallen to USD1.5bn, the Wall Street Journal reports. In the meanwhile, in November, there was an insider trading scandal related to a French doctor. The drop in assets shows that although FrontPoint was not itself charged with wrongdoing in the case, pension funds have absolutely no tolerance for insider trading. The flagship fund and nine other smaller funds have had to be liquidated.
06/07/2011

Manager sues former employer Fred Alger

In one of the first cases filed under the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, which forbids companies from engaging in retaliations against whistleblowers, the Wall Street Journal reports, Roseanne Ott, former manager of the Alger Health Sciences fund, has filed a lawsuit in New York against Fred Alger Management for authorising CEO Daniel Chung and other directors to make profits on their own behalf, in advance, on the same trades that the fund she managed was about to make (front-running). The directors had required that the manager declare her plans ahead of time, and passed them by other portfolio managers for approval before she was allowed to make the trades for the fund. The private trades damaged the performance of the fund, and profited the other portfolio managers, the case claims.
06/07/2011

Forte collecte pour Tikehau IM sur le premier semestre

La société de gestion a clôturé le premier semestre avec plus de 600 millions d’euros d’actifs sous gestion, grâce à plus de 300 millions d’euros de collecte. Sur le seul segment des FCP, Tikehau IM a plus que doublé ses actifs, en collectant plus de 130 millions d’euros.
06/07/2011

La Place de Paris lance les opérations de pension livrée tripartites

Le groupe «infrastructure de Place» a officialisé hier la mise en place d’un service de gestion tripartite des pensions livrées en euro où les transactions, exécutées sur des paniers de titres standardisés, sont dénouées de façon totalement automatisée par un agent tripartite. Ce service développé et opéré par Euroclear France sera ouvert à la compensation par LCH.Clearnet et aux opérations de refinancement de l’Eurosystème via la Banque de France.
06/07/2011

Eurex assurera la compensation de l’ensemble « Nyse-Deutsche Börse »

Dominique Cerutti, directeur général adjoint de Nyse Euronext, a confirmé que la compensation des produits dérivés de la future Bourse issue de la fusion avec Deutsche Börse se ferait sur Eurex, filiale de la Bourse allemande. Il a également confirmé que si les discussions en cours entre le fournisseur de données Markit et la chambre de compensation LCH.Clearnet aboutissaient, Nyse Euronext accroîtrait sa participation minoritaire dans LCH.Clearnet qui assurerait alors la compensation des marchés au comptant du nouveau marché.
06/07/2011

La transparence, clé de voûte de la régulation des marchés de matières premières

Afin de lutter contre une volatilité excessive sur les marchés de matières premières, notamment agricoles, «la priorité devrait être donnée à la collecte et à la dissémination des informations», a plaidé hier l’ancien président de l’AMF, Michel Prada, lors d’une table ronde organisée par Paris Europlace. «Les participants devraient être identifiés et supervisés de manière proportionnée», a-t-il ajouté. Le dernier G20 Agriculture a fait un pas dans cette direction en confiant à la FAO le soin d’exploiter un système d’information sur les marchés agricoles (AMIS).
06/07/2011

Les régulations des dérivés et ventes à découvert différées

Faute d’un accord entre Etats membres de l’UE et eurodéputés, les nouvelles règles européennes d’encadrement des produits dérivés et des ventes à découvert n’entreront pas en vigueur avant l’automne. Le Parlement européen a campé hier sur ses positions en votant en première lecture en session plénière des versions de ces deux textes qui s’inscrivent en porte-à -faux avec les positions défendues par les Vingt-Sept. Sur les ventes à découvert, les eurodéputés se sont prononcés pour interdire les CDS à nu sur dette souveraine. Sur les dérivés, le dossier est plus complexe encore car les Etats membres ne parviennent pas à se mettre d’accord entre eux et la version votée par le Parlement se rapproche de celle défendue par une minorité de pays, dont l’Allemagne. Les eurodéputés se sont prononcés pour que seuls les échanges de dérivés de gré à gré soient concernés par une obligation d’enregistrement dans des registres centralisés.

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