p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Mark Krombas, who in September left GLG Partners to join the management firm Charlemagne Capital, a specialist in emerging markets, is the manager of the new Magna MENA sub-fund of the UCITS-compliant Irish-registered Magna Umbrella Fund plc, whose portfolio of 40-50 positions will be invested about 90% in shares in companies of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, with an allocation of 50% to Saudi Arabia.Retail shares (R share class, IE00B33NMJY03) are available with a minimal subscription of EUR5,000, while institutional shares (N share class, IE00B33QPMN62) require a minimal initial investment of EUR1m.

Most classical hedge fund strategies are in large demand in a UCITS format, according to ML Capital Asset Management, the investment manager and promoter of the MontLake UCITS platform. The MLC Alternative UCITS Barometer, a tool that surveys active investors currently allocating to UCITS about their forthcoming strategy allocations, revealed that most of the primary “UCITS-able” hedge fund strategies are to see large inflows in the coming months.Global Macro Discretionary strategies are expected to experience the largest inflows of capital in the coming months, with 59 percent of respondents planning to increase their exposure to the asset class.Investors also see significant potential in the Event Driven sector with 56 percent of respondents planning to increase their Multi Strategy holdings, closely followed by Merger Arbitrage (53 percent) with expectations for rising M&A activity in 2011.Long/Short Equity funds also appear well positioned to experience inflows, with 97 percent of investors planning to either increase or maintain their US and Global Long/Short Equity allocations. The growing interest in and the existing undersupply of both strategies within the UCITS space is expected to lead to a number of new fund launches over the coming months. Quantitative strategies also appear to be an attractive option for investors with 44 percent looking to boost their allocations to CTAs and managed futures.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } NYSE Euronext on 22 February announced that it has admitted two new French-registered ETF funds from Amundi to trading on Euronext Paris. The funds are the Amundi ETF NFST UK Dividend Plus (FR0010988634) and the Amundi ETF MSCI Europe ex UK (FR0010988642), with a TER for both products of 0.30%. With the addition of the two new funds, NYSE Euronext now lists 543 ETFs, replicating over 350 indices, 623 times. Since the beginning of the year, 61 ETFs have been admitted to trading on European markets of NYSE Euronext.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Following its merger with Fortis Investments, BNP Paribas Investment Partners now has two major Luxembourg-registered UCITS-compliant Sicav funds containing sub-funds. They are Parvest, its historic Sicav, and BNP Paribas L1, the former Fortis L Fund vehicle from Fortis Investments. The two Sicavs, with 250 sub-funds and assets under management of about EUR50bn as of September 2010, will be rationalised, as BNP Paribas IP has decided to merge the sub-funds whose investment universes and investment strategies are identical. In March 2011, 18 sub-funds of BNP Paribas L1 will be merged into other sub-funds of BNP Paribas L1 (see below). “By the end of the year, some sub-funds of Parvest will also be merged into sub-funds of BNP Paribas L1,” BNP Paribas IP says. Sub-funds of BNP Paribas L1 to be absorbed BNP Paribas L1 Bond EuroBNP Paribas L1 Bond Euro CorporateBNP Paribas L1 Bond Euro GovernmentBNP Paribas L1 Bond Euro Inflation-LinkedBNP Paribas L1 Bond Euro Medium TermBNP Paribas L1 Bond Europe OpportunitiesBNP Paribas L1 Bond USD High YieldBNP Paribas L1 Equity Best Selection JapanBNP Paribas L1 Equity BrazilBNP Paribas L1 Equity Europe Small CapBNP Paribas L1 Equity High Dividend EuropeBNP Paribas L1 Equity JapanBNP Paribas L1 Equity Latin AmericaBNP Paribas L1 Sustainable Equity EuropeBNP Paribas L1 Short Term EuroBNP Paribas L1 Short Term USDBNP Paribas L1 V150BNP Paribas L1 World CurrencyBNP Paribas L1 Equity Asia ex JapanBNP Paribas L1 Opportunities EuropeBNP Paribas L1 Global Asset Opportunities Absorbing sub-funds of Barvest or BNP Paribas L1Parvest Bond EuroParvest Bond Euro CorporateParvest Bond Euro GovernmentParvest Bond Euro Inflation-LinkedParvest Bond Euro Short TermParvest Bond EuropeParvest Bond USA High YieldParvest Equity JapanParvest Equity BrazilParvest Equity Europe Small CapParvest Equity High Dividend EuropeParvest Equity JapanParvest Equity Latin AmericaParvest Sustainable Equity EuropeParvest Short Term EuroParvest Short Term USDParvest Enhanced Cash 6 MonthsParvest Absolute Return World Currency 10BNP Paribas L1 Equity Best Selection Asia ex-JapanBNP Paribas L1 Equity Best Selection EuropeBNP Paribas L1 Dynamic World

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As recently announced in Agefi Weekly, Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management has teamed up with Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management for management of its Japanese equities fund Selective Japan. According to a statement, the fund is invested in 50 to 60 businesses which have potential for growth in the Asia ex Japan region, including companies likely to extent their activities into Asia in the next three to five years. The favourite themes of the managers, Takahiro Uemura and Takashi Shimodaira, include increasing consumer spending, investments in infrastructure, and improvements in environmental protection.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } From the beginning of 2011, Martin Gut is the new head of institutional activities at BlackRock in Switzerland, Agefi Switzerland reports. In this position, Gut will report to Leen Meijaard, in charge of institutional activities in continental Europe. Gut will work in close collaboration with Heinz Rothacher, CEO of BlackRock for Switzerland, and Christian Gast, director of iShares Switerland. Until recently, Gut was CEO of Credit Suisse, where from 2007 to 2010 he was in charge of relations with major Swiss institutional clients.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Financial Times reports that JPMorgan and Fidelity are preparing to make bids for a trust company license in China. Trust status, which does not include depository activities, is subject to less strict regulations that banks, and is therefore more attractive to some operators.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Paul Robertson, head of retail sales, has announced that the US management firm Vanguard is planning to launch its first ETF funds in Europe this year, Fund Strategy reports. With the entry into force of the UCITS IV directive, these products would be eligible to be created as feeder funds, while in the United States, existing ETFs represent an increasingly large class of fund shares.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The sovereign fund Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) on 22 February announced a USD1.48bn offer to acquire the real estate assets of the Claremont Resort and Spa in Berkeley, California, and the Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa in Maui, Hawaii, which are under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and which one month ago have been bought by the hedge fund manager Paulson & Co and Winthrop Realty Trust. The Wall Street Journal reports that GIC has already come up with USD900m to finance the operation.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Emilio Botín O’Shea, son of Santander chariman Emilio Botín, is returning to hedge fund management, following a stint at Vega, the asset management firm of Ravi Mehra, Expansión reports. He has registered his first hedge fund in Spain, the RentaMarkets Arbitrage Fund, which he will manage via his joint venture Renta Markets, with Renta 4 (which holds 35%) and José Rodríguez Pérez, former CEO of Próxima Alfa, the management firm created by BBVA and Vega, which was driven to closure by the crisis.RentaMarkets, in which Botín O’Shea is the majority shareholder, and Juan Carlos Ureta is CEO, already has a EUR3m fund, the RentaMarkets Patrimonios. In addition, RentaMarkets holds a stake in the hedge fund management firm Accurate Advisors, which is controlled by Narciso Vega, Igor Alonso and Juan Pablo Calle, former fund managers from Próxima.

L'organisation est prête à fournir de l'or noir en cas de rupture de l’offre au Moyen-Orient

L’indice Case-Shiller se rapproche de son point bas du printemps 2009. Les saisies risquent de peser encore sur les prix

D’après les données de iShares pour « L’Agefi », les ETP européens ont engrangé 3,6 milliards d'euros le mois dernier

D'après la Banque centrale européenne, les « covered bonds » concurrencent les titres adossés à des prêts résidentiels (RMBS)

Catherine Ashton, haute représentante de la diplomatie européenne, a déclaré hier que des discussions étaient en cours pour fournir à l’Egypte un milliard d’euros d’aide supplémentaire grâce aux programmes de financement de la Banque européenne d’investissement.

L’indice du Conference Board mesurant la confiance du consommateur américain est ressorti en février à 70,4 contre 64,8 en janvier, soit un plus haut depuis trois ans. Les économistes interrogés par Reuters l’attendaient à 65.

La banque américaine a tenté de transmettre à d’autres banques une partie de son exposition au fonds d’investissement de Bernard Madoff quelques mois avant que la fraude massive sur laquelle il reposait ne soit révélée, accuse le liquidateur judiciaire Irving Picard. Des signaux négatifs concernant le fonds seraient apparus dès 2005 chez Citigroup. Irving Picard réclame à la banque 425 millions de dollars.

Le fonds de private equity a engagé des discussions exclusives avec Abénex Capital en vue de lui racheter le groupe Findis, leader de la distribution de produits électroménager, image et son, art de la cuisine. La société avait été reprise en juin 2007 auprès de la famille fondatrice. Findis réalise aujourd’hui un chiffre d’affaires de 180 millions d’euros.

NYSE Euronext a annoncé la finalisation de la transaction avec l’américain APX donnant naissance à NYSE Blue, plate-forme dédiée exclusivement aux marchés de l’environnement et de l’énergie durable. NYSE Euronext détient la majorité de l’entité en échange de l’apport de Blue Next.

Louis Dreyfus Commodity Alpha Fund, un fonds d’arbitrage du groupe de négoce, aurait cessé d’accepter des souscriptions de nouveaux clients en raison de son succès. Lancé en novembre 2008 avec 100 millions de dollars, ce fonds sur matière premières agricoles gèrerait 2 milliards, selon Bloomberg.

Les investisseurs asiatiques ont souscrit 29% des titres émis l’an passé, 9 points de plus qu’en 2009

L'organisation est prête à fournir de l'or noir en cas de rupture de l’offre au Moyen-Orient

Nasdaq OMX songe à présenter une offre pour le rachat de Nyse Euronext afin de contrer celle de Deutsche Börse. Le souci semble être de trouver un partenaire avec qui lutter face à l’opérateur allemand. S’il ne parvenait pas à emporter cette bataille, le marché boursier souhaite fondre sur une autre cible ou s’offrir lui-même à un autre concurrent. Cela afin d’«éviter la marginalisation».

Le quotidien indique de sources proches anonymes que l’ICE, marché américain de négoce de contrats à terme, et le Comité mondial du sucre envisagent de mettre en place des «coupe-circuits» afin de limiter la volatilité des prix du sucre. Un tel mécanisme permet de stopper les transactions lorsque les contrats franchissent certains seuils pré-définis.

Nout Wellink, membre du conseil des gouverneurs de la Banque centrale européenne (BCE), a déclaré qu’il envisagerait de succéder à Jean-Claude Trichet à la tête de la BCE s’il était invité à le faire.

L’agence de notation Moody’s a annoncé qu’elle abaissait la perspective de la note de la dette du Japon de «stable» à «négative» en évoquant ses inquiétudes sur la capacité de Tokyo à contenir l’augmentation de sa dette. La note souveraine actuelle du Japon est fixée à Aa2 mais l’abaissement de la perspective laisse entendre que l’agence américaine pourrait baisser la note très prochainement.

Le Portugal veut lever des fonds sur les marchés financiers, déclare mardi le ministre des Finances Fernando Teixeira dos Santos dans le quotidien japonais Nikkei, suggérant ainsi que Lisbonne ne pense pas avoir besoin d’une aide internationale. Le Portugal a déjà garanti les deux tiers des fonds nécessaires pour l’arrivée à échéance en avril et en juin de deux émissions obligataires, les investisseurs étrangers représentant 70% de ce total, a précisé Fernando Teixeira dos Santos.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Alberto Palomero, who has served in several positions at Thomson Reuters in Spain since 2003, including chief operations officer at Lipper, and director of sales to buy-side, investment banks and non-financial sector businesses in Italy, Spain and Portugal, has been recruited as director of sales at VDOS Stochastics, Funds People reports. Palomero will oversee development of new internet content and solutions for distributors, fund management firms, advisers, and pension fund managers. His responsibilities will also include developing existing operational intelligence tools so as to optimse communication with final clients and automate processes.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Neither Oaktree nor Nueva Rumasa would confirm reports in Expansión that the US fund specialised in restructuring is planning to acquire a stake in the Spanish holding company of the Ruiz-Mateos family, including ten affiliates which have been put up for provisional liquidation (including Clesa and Dhul).Oaktree would acquire a stake in the capital, or else acquire the debt of several companies owned by Nueva Rumasa, in order to restore the assets and their management to good financial health, and allow the group, with financial liabilities of over EUR700m, to overcome the difficulties it now finds itself in.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Responsible Investor reports that the Dutch pension fund PGGM (EUR103bn in assets under management) is planning to increase its capacities in the area of sustainable investment, with the recruitment of a senior adviser and an adviser.