L’agence a dégradé d’un cran, à AA-, la note à long terme, en raison des craintes portant sur le niveau d’endettement

L'Amafi, qui représente les professionnels des dérivés, met l'accent sur la transparence nécessaire des marchés physiques

La hausse des engagements dans les pays périphériques établie par la BRI s’explique surtout par l'appréciation de l’euro au troisième trimestre

Chaque émission réalisée par le Fonds européen viendra s'imputer, à hauteur de 21 %, à la dette publique de la France au sens de Maastricht

L’enquête de la BCE rend compte d’une stabilisation des conditions de prêt au quatrième trimestre 2010 malgré la crise irlandaise

Le Royaume-Uni devrait rester comme l’an dernier le principal pays cible dans la région, juge Hervé Mangin, gérant actions d’Axa Framlington

Les gouvernements européens devraient finalement s’orienter vers une hausse de la capacité de financement du fonds de soutien et le rendre plus flexible, indique le quotidien qui cite un entretien avec le commissaire européen aux affaires économiques, Olli Rehn. En revanche, la garantie de 440 milliards d’euros des Etats de la zone euro ne devrait pas être augmentée.

L’agence de notation Moody's a évoqué jeudi une éventuelle mise sous perspective négative de la note Aaa dans ce délai

Citigroup entend prendre le contrôle d’EMI plus rapidement prévu. Le groupe ne respectera pas ses objectifs à fin mars selon le quotidien, et Guy Hands, à la tête de Terra Firma, ne sera pas capable de lever les 200 millions de livres nécessaire pour satisfaire aux exigences de la banque. Cette dernière prendra alors la barre. Citigroup cherche déjà un repreneur. Surprise, Guy Hands lui-même figure parmi la liste des candidats potentiels, aux côtés d’un fonds de pension canadien, le CPP Investment Board. Blackstone ou les concurrents d’EMI, Sony Music, Universal Music ou Warner Music seraient également à l’affût.

La chaine britannique spécialisée dans les produits surgelés pourrait être mise en vente par son actionnaire majoritaire. La valorisation d’Iceland Foods pourrait atteindre selon le quotidien 1,5 milliard de livres, l’équivalent de 1,74 milliard d’euros. La société est détenue à 67% par le gestionnaire des actifs de la banque islandaise Landsbanki.

Le Fonds de restructuration du secteur bancaire espagnol émettra un emprunt de 3 milliards d’euros, dont la mise à prix se fera à 220 points de base au-dessus de la courbe des swaps, a déclaré jeudi un chef de file à Reuters. Le spread indicatif était de 200 à 225 points de base. La mise à prix doit intervenir dans le courant de la journée. Le livre d’ordres approchait des 3,5 milliards d’euros en milieu de matinée. Citigroup, HSBC, RBS, Santander et SG CIB dirigent le placement. Le Frob est noté Aa1/AA/AA+ respectivement par Moody’s, S&P et Fitch.

Eurostat, l’office statistique de l’Union européenne, publie jeudi une décision sur l’enregistrement des opérations de la Facilité européenne de stabilisation financière (EFSF). Les fonds levés par l’EFSF devront être enregistrés dans la dette publique brute (au sens de Maastricht) des Etats membres de la zone euro, au prorata de leur part en tant que garant dans chaque opération d’émission de dette. Cette part est d’environ 21% pour la France. Eurostat considère notamment que l’EFSF n’est pas une institution financière internationale.

L’agence de notation Standard & Poor’s a abaissé d’un cran la note de la dette à long terme du Japon, de AA à AA-. Elle est affectée d’une perspective stable. Il s’agit de la première dégradation de la note de l’Archipel depuis 2002. L’agence explique que le pays manque d’un plan cohérent pour gérer une dette en forte hausse. La note de S&P est un cran en dessous des notes attribuées par Fitch et Moody’s.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The global sales team at Alken Asset Management, led by Isabel Ortega, has been enlarged with the addition of a newly-created position for Jaime Mesía, who was previously director of sales at Gartmore Investment Management España, in charge of southern Europe, Funds People reports. At Alken, Mesía will assist Ortega in developing the markets of southern Europe, with the additional mission of sales for Alken funds in Latin America and Scandinavia.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The US asset management group Carlyle is to acquire the Dutch firm AlpInvest, which manages EUR32.3bn in assets for pension funds. The acquisition price has not been disclosed. “The transaction includes 100% of shares in the capital of AlpInvest,” which is currently owned by two Dutch pension funds, APG and PGGM, the two firms announced on 26 January in a joint statement. “AlpInvest will retain total control of all investment decisions,” Carlyle and AlpInvest added. The deal, which is still pending approval from the supervisory authorities, is slated for completion in March. APG and PGGM, which are also the largest clients of AlpInvest, have announced that they will contract the firm to manage a further EUR10bn in assets in the 2011-2015 period.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The distribution team at Legg Mason in Germany has been reinforced with the recruitment of two people. Özlem Erdogan (ex Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investment GmbH) becomes client relationship manager, while Claudia Müller, who has recently completed her studies, will become an assistant to the distribution team. The two women will be in charge of assistance to existing clients. They will report to Klaus Dahmann, head of sales Germany and Austria.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }a:link { } The German association of independent wealth managers Verband unabhängiger Vermögensverwalter Deutschland e.V. (VuV) announced on 26 January that information on members and their activities, updated daily, will now be available on the fondsweb.de website, at www.fondsweb.de/vuv. The VuV now has slightly over 200 members, with assets of EUR55bn.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The UK asset management firm M&G has appointed Manuel Pozzi as its business development manager in Italy. He will be based in Milan, and will report to Matteo Astolfi, sales director for M&G in Italy. He will be in charge of developing relations with retail distributors, private clients and promoters of M&G funds. Pozzi, 35, joins M&G after working as a senior portfolio manager at Banco di Desio e della Brianza. He was previously a bond portfolio manager at Banca Passadore.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The real estate asset management firm Fimit – Fondi Immobiliari Italiani is to merge with its rival First Atlantic Real Estate. The merger will give rise to “the largest independent real estate management firm in Italy,” entitled IDeA Fimit, which will manage over EUR8bn in assets, according to a press release. Fare will be merged into Fimit.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As of the end of December, assets at Legg Mason totalled USD671.8bn, compared with USD673.5bn as of the end of September, and USD681.6bn twelve months earlier. Of this total, equities funds represented USD184.2bn, compared with USD169.6bn three months earlier, and USD168.7bn as of the end of December 2009, while bond funds stood at USD355.8bn, compared with USD371.6bn and USD365.8bn. The remainder corresponds to money market funds, totalling USD131.8bn, compared with USD132.3bn and USD147.1bn.For 2010 as a whole, Legg Mason has seen net redemptions in all quarters, totalling USD96.1bn. Market effects were positive to the tune of USD53.6bn over this period.Legg Mason on 26 January also announced net profits of USD61.6bn for the third quarter of its fiscal year to 31 March, compared with USD75.3m in July-September, and USD44.9m in the corresponding period of 2009. For the first three quarters of the period now underway, net profits however increased to USD184.9m, compared with USD140.8m.

Laurent Minvielle and Christina Wilgress, the former managers of the Turquoise fund of hedge funds at Société Générale, have joined Edmond de Rothschild Investment Managers’ funds of hedge funds team, which has assets under management of EUR1.6n. Laurent Minvielle is appointed head of funds of hedge funds at Edmond de Rothschild Investment Managers. He will report to Olivier Neau, chief investment officer and vice-chairman of the asset manager’s executive committee.After graduating from ENSAE (Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Administration Economique), Laurent Minvielle worked as an economist, first for IPECODE from 1984 and then for Société Générale from 1988. From 1993, he held various positions of responsibility in Société Générale’s risk management division before moving to Lyxor AM to be in charge of hedge fund manager selection and risk monitoring. From 2003 to 2009, he managed funds of funds at Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking (SGCIB).Christina Wilgress will coordinate hedge fund selection and monitoring and will be in charge of risk and portfolio performance analysis. She holds a masters in Bank-Finance-Insurance from the University of Paris IX Dauphine and joined the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignation in 1991 as a credit analyst. In 1994, she moved to Société Générale where she held various posts in the risk management division. In 2001, she was appointed head of product development in the Equity department at SGCIB and subsequently headed up its fund of funds team from 2003 to 2009.Laurent Minvielle and Christina Wilgress both managed the Turquoise fund, a fund of hedge funds launched by Société Générale in July 2002 as a proprietary activity in its investment banking division. Assets under management in the Turquoise fund peaked at more than USD3bn.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } For the Scandinavian Nordea group, 2010 was a record year, with net inflows of EUR6.9bn for the first eleven months of the year. In other words, the firm, which is to announce its annual results on 2 February, may finish the year with inflows of over EUR7bn. At EUR6.9bn, Lipper has already ranked Nordea in the top 10 pan-European management firms by inflows.Inflows were significant in most European countries covered by Nordea, particularly germany, with EUR600m, Benelux, at EUR350m, and Italy, with EUR350m.In France, net inflows were slightly more modest than elsewhere in Europe, with a total of EUR150m. The French market was less dynamic than other European markets, as the most recent statistics from the AFG reveal (see Newsmanagers of 26 January).In 2011, Nordea, which is in the process of adding to its Luxembourg hub, will remain faithful to its multi-boutique approach, with two new partnerships, one of which will be announced in the next few weeks.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As of the end of December, assets in European ETFs totalled USD284bn, in 1,071 funds (see Newsmanagers of 13 January). Strong growth in assets under management (63.3% in 2006, 43.3% in 2007, 11.1% in 2008, 59% in 2009 and 25.2% in 2010) comes along with intense competition between the two major types of replication, physical and synthetic (via swaps).BlackRock statistics unveiled on 26 January in Paris by Deborah Fuhr, global head of ETF research & implementation strategy, reveals that although assets in physical replication funds have risen by USD41.3bn to USD155.1bn between 2005 and 2010, synthetic replication ETFs in the same time took on USD13.6bn, to total USD126.6bn. The numbers of products, which were 138 and 27, respectively, in 2005, as of the end of last year were 385 and 683.However, for the moment, hybrid replication ETFs account for a much smaller share, with only 3 funds and USD0.3bn in assets.

Aviva Investors has announced that it has received a Capital Markets Services Licence in Fund Management from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The licence allows Aviva Investors to provide fund management services in Singapore to both retail and institutional clients, across segregated mandates, closed-ended and open-ended funds. The licence means that Aviva Investors will no longer be limited to the number and type of investors it can work with. Since first opening its office in 2007, it will now be able to offer a greater number of products to a larger number of clients.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The director general of the Singapore monetary authority, Heng Swee Keat, and the French ambassador to Singapore, Olivier Caron, on Wednesday, 26 January inaugurated the Asian headquarters of the EDHEC-Risk Institute, a statement says.On this occasion, Noël Amenc, director of the EDHEC-Risk Institute, announced that “the growing influence of Asian markets and investors require that academic research oriented to the needs of the financial industry be undertaken from this region of the world. The EDHEC Risk Institute-Asia will adapt the six research programs of the EDHEC-Risk Institute to the specifically Asian context, will develop two new thematic programs dedicated to sovereign funds management and inflation, and will regularly study risk and investment management processes in the context of a new initiative, the Asian Centre for the Study and Promotion of Better Investment Practices.”Frédéric Ducoulombier, director of the EDHEC Risk Institute-Asia, took the occasion of the official launch of the campus to announce that new research partnerships have been signed. “Since the unveiling of our Asian project last April, a series of institutions have joined Deutsche Bank, our partner for the research chair in “active-passive management and management of sovereign funds.” The new partners are Amundi ETF, AXA Investment Managers, Société Générale Corporate and Investment Banking, and Eurex who are supporting research dedicated to tracker products and passive management, hybrid retirement systems, structured equities strategies, and the use of volatility products in portfolio management.”

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The China Construction Bank (CCB) has selected BNY Mellon Asset Servicing as international custodian for the QDII fund which it is to launch in China via Bank of China Investment Management Co., Ltd (BOCIM), a joint venture of Bank of China Co., Ltd and BlackRock, Inc. The fund, the BOC Global Strategic Fund (FOF), will be launched in March 2011.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The sixth hedge fund of the range from Armajaro Asset Management (USD1.8bn in assets) will be launched on 1 February, Hedge Week reports. The Armajaro Natural Resources Fund will be managed by Nick Glinsman, who has been the external advisor to Brevan Howard for natural resources for the past five years, and who will be joined by James Whitehead, ex Brevan Howard, as dedicated risk manager.The portfolio of the new fund will include metals, energy and agriculture, and will focus on macroeconomic trends, with positions on equities in firms related to these sectors, rather than direct investment in commodities or futures.

Le groupe de gestion d’actifs alternatifs américain Carlyle va racheter le néerlandais AlpInvest, qui gère 32,3 milliards d’euros d’actifs pour le compte de fonds de pension. Le montant de la transaction n’a pas été divulgué. «La transaction couvre 100% des parts du capital d’AlpInvest», propriété de deux fonds de pension néerlandais, APG et PGGM, ont indiqué le 26 janvier les deux sociétés dans un communiqué commun. «AlpInvest gardera un contrôle total sur toutes les décisions concernant les investissements», ont ajouté Carlyle et AlpInvest, selon lesquels la transaction, qui doit encore recevoir l’aval des autorités de tutelle, devrait être bouclée en mars. APG et PGGM, qui sont également les principaux clients d’AlpInvest, ont indiqué qu’ils confieront la gestion de 10 milliards d’euros d’actifs supplémentaires à AlpInvest sur la période 2011-2015.

La société Nortia a annoncé le rendement de ses fonds en euros «actifs» pour 2010. Ces fonds qui réallouent dynamiquement les investissements entre actifs diversifiés risqués et actifs non risqués afin d’assurer la protection du capital investi chaque année, ont progressé de 5 % pour EuroPatrimoine, 5,14 % pour EuroConviction et 5,02 % pour EuroSélection. Concernant 2011, les 3 fonds en euros actifs seront constitués de la même manière : 75% sur le fonds euro de la compagnie (Antin Epargne Pension, Axéria Vie ou La Mondiale) et 25% sur le Fonds “Épargne 365”, précise Nortia, qui note que le concept de ce nouveau fonds, créé par Haas gestion, est de gérer la poche diversifiée de manière plus dynamique. Ainsi, Épargne 365 regroupera plusieurs fonds, ce qui permettra une plus grande diversification, notamment au niveau géographique.

Edmond de Rothschild Investment Managers vient de recruter Laurent Minvielle et Christina Wilgress, les deux anciens gérants du fonds Turquoise de la Société Générale, dans son équipe de multigestion alternative qui représente 1,6 milliard d’euros et se compose de 8 personnes.Laurent Minvielle est nommé directeur de la multigestion alternative sous la responsabilité d’Olivier Neau, directeur des gestions et vice-président du comité exécutif d’Edrim. Diplômé de l’Ensae, l’intéressé avait rejoint le groupe Société Générale en 1988 en tant qu’économiste. Il était devenu en 2000 responsable de la sélection des gérants de hedge funds et du suivi des risques de Lyxor AM, avant d’exercer, de 2003 à 2009, la fonction de gérant de fonds de fonds au sein de SGCIB (Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking). Christina Wilgress, de son côté, va assurer la coordination de la sélection et du suivi des fonds alternatifs et prendre en charge l’analyse des risques et de la performance des portefeuilles chez Edrim. Elle avait rejoint le groupe Société Générale en 1994 à la Direction des risques, où travaillait également depuis 1993 Laurent Minvielle. En 2001, elle prend en charge le développement produits au sein du département Equity de SGCIB avant de prendre la responsabilité, de 2003 à 2009, de l’équipe de gestion de fonds de fonds au sein de cette même entité.Les deux personnalités se connaissent bien puisqu’elles ont géré ensemble le fonds Turquoise, un fonds de fonds alternatifs lancé par la Société Générale en juillet 2002 comme une activité propriétaire au sein de sa banque d’investissement.