Source, Credit Suisse et BlackRock ont fait école : db x-trackers, la branche ETF de la Deutsche Bank, a annoncé le 6 décembre qu’elle offre à présent sans sollicitation une transparence plus complète sur les portefeuilles à réplication synthétique de ses produits.L'évolution des indices que répliquent les ETF est générée sur le site internet de la Deutsche Bank, le partenaire (pour l’instant unique) des swaps. Pour chacun des ETF de la gamme, db x-trackers publie désormais le pourcentage net du swap par rapport à la valeur liquidative et la composition du collatéral par type de valeur mobilière, par pays, par monnaie et le cas échéant par secteur, plus la notation pour les obligations.Ces données étaient jusqu'à présent disponibles sur demande, mais db x-trackers prend désormais l’initiative de les publier sans y être invitée.Le gestionnaire créé en janvier 2007 affiche déjà plus de 35 milliards d’euros d’encours , les souscriptions nettes du 1er janvier au 15 novembre étant ressorties pour leur part à plus de 7 milliards d’euros.

La Swiss Funds Association (SFA) a annoncé que son Comité a coopté en séance le 25 novembre Petra Reinhard Keller comme nouveau membre. managing director et head fund solutions & clients services ainsi que deputy CEO de Credit Suisse Asset Management Funds, elle remplace dans l’instance dirigeante de la SFA Raoul-Philip Bachmann, qui a quitté le Credit Suisse et se retire ainsi du Comité de la SFA.

La banque privée bâloise Bank Sarasin & Cie AG a décidé d’abandonner les affaires de placement direct sur des actions américaines. Elle suit en cela l’exemple de Wegelin, indiquait le 6 décembre le site internet «Cash», citant une lettre aux clients datée de fin novembre.Ce retrait est dû à la densité croissante de la réglementation en la matière aux Etats-Unis et à la modification de la législation fiscale, a précisé Sarasin qui a confirmé la décision au portail internet. Les mandats de gestion de fortune ne sont pas concernés pour les clients qui ont donné pour instruction de détenir des placements directs aux Etats-Unis.

Jamie Allsop, l’ancien gérant du fonds Heart of Africa chez New Star, obligé de fermer en 2008 pour des problèmes de liquidités, lance un nouveau fonds Afrique avec Insparo Asset Management, spécialiste des marchés frontières, rapporte le Financial Times Fund Management. Son fonds, Insparo African Equity Fund, sera destiné aux investisseurs institutionnels et aura une liquidité mensuelle.

Le 6 décembre, Source a annoncé le lancement de trois ETF de droit irlandais répliquant les indices pays MSCI Brazil, China et India, à dividendes réinvestis (total return), qui viennent compléter celui de MSCI sur les marchés émergents et sur le RDX russe. Ces nouveaux produits, Ces fonds négociables, en dollars, sur le London Stock Exchange,. portent à 83 la gamme des ETF et ETC Source dédiés aux indices actions et matières premières.Caractéristiques :Dénomination : ETF MSCI Brazil Source Code Isin : IE00B4MYWN47Commission de gestion : 0,65 %Dénomination : ETF MSCI China SourceCode Isin : IE00B4LXWX21Commission de gestion : 0,65 %Dénomination : ETF MSCI India SourceCode Isin : IE00B4Z17P98Commission de gestion: 0,85 %

Les 8 et 9 décembre se tiennent à Monaco les «Institutional Days 2010", une manifestation organisée par l’Edhec-Risk Institute où les organisateurs tablent sur la présence de 600 participants qui devraient participer à différentes conférences et échanger avec 24 sponsors «corporate» officiels. Ce chiffre qui n'évolue pas par rapport à l’an dernier s’explique par la volonté de l’Edhec Risk Institute de limiter le nombre de partenaires. Interrogé par Newsmanagers qui sera «media partner» de l'évènement, Noël Amenc, directeur de la recherche et du développement confirme : «l’EDHEC Risk Institute est un pôle de recherche en finance et non un organisateur de conférences ! Or, il faut bien reconnaitre que la volonté de nouer des partenariats de recherche avec l'établissement est forte aujourd’hui, la crise financière ayant mis en évidence un besoin de connaissance et de recherche en matière de risk management.» Parmi les sujets abordés lors de ces deux jours, il sera sans surprise question des risques liés à la détention de titres de dettes souveraines mais aussi d’obligations indexées sur l’inflation et de gestion ALM. Sur ce dernier point, Noël Amenc insiste : «la question de l’efficacité et du coût de la couverture des risques d’inflation est de première importance pour les investisseurs institutionnels internationaux. A ce titre, l’Edhec-Risk a lancé deux initiatives de recherche sur le sujet. Une avec Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan sur les innovations en matière de couverture contre le risque d’inflation, et une autre soutenue par Rothschild et Cie sur l’utilisation tant par les émetteurs que par les investisseurs d’une nouvelle forme de dette obligataire corporate indexée sur l’inflation.» Bien évidemment, en se nourrissant de la crise de la dette souveraine, de nature à reposer la question de la composition des portefeuilles de couverture de passifs au profit d’une dette corporate de qualité, le sujet n’en prend que plus de poids.Par ailleurs, au cours de ces «Institutional Days», certaines classes d’actifs feront l’objet d'études particulières. Notamment les actifs réels qui, selon Noël Amenc, peuvent participer d’une bonne diversification du portefeuille de performance. Ils peuvent aussi avoir leur place dans le portefeuille de couverture du passif notamment du fait de leur qualité de couverture à l’horizon de formes particulières d’inflation. La diversité des sujets qui seront abordés à Monaco résume l’importance des défis auxquels est confronté l’univers de la gestion d’actifs institutionnelle. Mais si l’Edhec Risk Institute compte apporter sa pierre à l'édifice, elle tient à ne pas mélanger les genres : " la gestion des risques ne doit pas être confondue avec la mesure des risques souligne le responsable de la société. Il s’agit de clarifier les objectifs en matière de gestion des risques des trois grands apports conceptuels et techniques au cours de ces 50 dernières années en matière de recherche financière. A savoir la diversification, l’assurance de portefeuille et la théorie du cycle de vie des actifs», conclut Noël Amenc.

Janus Capital International Limited, la division internationale de Janus Capital Group, vient de lancer le Janus Emerging Markets Fund, un compartiment de sa Sicav Janus Capital Funds basée à Dublin. Le fond est investi dans des actions de marchés émergents à l’échelle mondiale selon une approche «bottom-up». Il sera géré par Wahid Chammas et Matt Hochstetler, deux gérants de portefeuille qui travailleront étroitement avec la division gestion de risques de Janus afin de contrôler activement les risques macroéconomiques tels que le pays, le secteur ou les positions en devises.Le portefeuille détient entre 80 et 140 titres diversifiés tant sur le plan sectoriel que géographique et son indice de référence est le MSCI Emerging Markets.

La société de private equity Candover Partners Limited (CPL), cherchait des acquéreurs potentiels dans le but de se restructurer et de rembourser ses investisseurs, rapporte l’Agefi. Et c’est finalement la société Arle Capital Partners, récemment formée par certains cadres dirigeants de Candover Partners, qui serait preneuse «pour une livre symbolique». Parallèlement, le groupe prévoit de lever environ 60 millions de livres grâce à la cession de 29,1% de son portefeuille d’investissements au même Arle Capital Partners ainsi qu'à Pantheon, afin de réduire sa dette nette et ses engagements. Soit une décote de 14% par rapport à la valeur comptable des actifs cédés. Le directeur de Candover, Malcolm Fallen, a expliqué que la vente d’une partie du portefeuille était préférable pour les investisseurs à toute autre stratégie qui impliquerait une dilution du capital dans le but de préserver la valeur de long terme du groupe, note le quotidien.

F&C Investments lance une activité «Investment Solutions», issue du regroupement de ses équipes de gestion actif-passif, d’investissement multi-classes d’actifs, de conseil en assurance, de gestion fiduciaire, de gestion de dérivés et de sélection de gérants institutionnels. Ce nouveau pôle sera chargé de proposer des stratégies d’investissement multi-classes d’actifs aux investisseurs institutionnels sensibles à leurs engagements et aux obligations réglementaires futurs. Cette activité sera dirigée par Richard Watts, promu responsable des solutions d’investissement. Il avait rejoint F&C en 2005 après avoir passé huit ans comme spécialiste dérivés chez JPMorgan. Trois personnes ont également été recrutées pour ce pôle. Ernst Hagen, responsable de la gestion d’actifs du fonds de pension néerlandais Pensioenfonds Horeca & Catering, dirigera le desk investissement fiduciaire à compter du 4 janvier. De plus, Peter Hill-King, de P-Solve Asset Solutions, est nommé responsable de la sélection de gérants, tandis que David White, un ancien d’Aon, devient directeur de la sélection de gérants.

La plus grosse transaction immobilière depuis l'éclatement de la crise vient d'être réalisée à New York, rapporte la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Google paie environ 1,8 milliard de dollars pour l’immeuble de bureaux 111 Eigth Avenue (270.000 mètres carrés) à Chelsea, dont il loue déjà un cinquième de la surface.Le vendeur est un consortium composé de la société immobilière local Taconic, d’un fonds de pension de l’Etat de New York et du gestionnaire germano-américain Jamestown. A l'époque où Jamestown est entré dans l’affaire, en 2004, l’immeuble valait 800 millions de dollars.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The board of directors of the Luxembourg Sicav BlackRock Global Funds (BGF) has announced that, in light of the closure of the London stock exchange, the net asset value of the BGF United Kingdom Fund will not be calculated and shares in the fund will not be traded on 27 and 28 December. The same decision has been taken for the 30 and 31 December as well as the 3 January for the BGF Japan Small & Mid Caps Opportunities Fund and BGF Japan Value Fund.

Asia’s fund managers are convinced the setting up of an Asia funds passport is critical for the industry’s growth, according to a report by PwC commissioned by Australia’s Financial Services Council. Currently, if Australian investment managers want to launch their products into the Asian markets they have to set up an office in Europe and export Ucits from there, the Financial Times Fund Management wrote.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Between the beginning of September 2009 and the end of October 2010, Italian fund managers oddly increased their exposure to Irish, Spanish, and Portuguese bonds (the first two by over 50% and the last one by nearly 20%), unlike their counterparts in other countries, according to the surprising findings of a Morningstar study undertaken for Plus24, the money supplement of Il Sole – 24 Ore. The newspaper finds that the difference between what is happening in Italy and other countries may be due to the fact that banks, which control most asset management firms in Italy, massively sold their bonds from PIGS countries (Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain). Plus24 suggests that it cannot therefore be ruled out that these bonds may have been transferred from the portfolios of banks to those of funds from their asset management firms.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) on 6 December published its first annual report on ratings agencies, as required by the new European Commission regulations which came into force one year ago (7 December). The Committee observes that at the time of the publication of the document, only one ratings agency has been registered, though 23 others are still under evaluation. In other words, the CESR is not in a position to comment in detail on the deployment of the various measures set forth by the regulations, and in its first report limits itself to a more general description.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Aprionis group announced at the end of last week at the Novethic conference (see Newsmanagers of 6 December) that it has strengthened its commitment to socially responsible investment by becoming the first joint social economy and solidarity partner in France to sign the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). The signature of the Principles illustrates a genuine broader social reflection which has been undertaken for the past 10 years by the Aprionis group. For example, it was, via its financial management firm Expansion, the first to create regional solidaristic funds, local savings funds which finance jobs in the region. In 2008, Inter Expansion becomes one of the pioneering actors in the Water Disclosure project, through its study fo the role of investors in water shortage. Inter Expansion has also signed up to the Carbon Disclosure Project, a collective investor initiative to incite businesses to develop strategies to reduce their carbon emissions.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, the asset management firm Olympia Capital Management, in which Sagard, the US private equity fund, controls 45% of capital, says its recently-announced sale (cf. Newsmanagers of 03/11/2010) interests several firms, including one “high calibre” player. The name of Natixis AM was mentioned. In an interview with Newsmanagers, the asset management firm in question had no comment, but did not deny the information. Another name has also been mentioned: the hedge fund management firm Nexar Capital Group SCA, founded last year by former SGAM AI employees, including Arié Assayag, CEO, and Eric Attias, CIO. Nexar Capital Group SCA on 13 September distinguished itself with the announcement of its acquisition of Allianz Alternative Asset Management (AAAm) from Allianz France, its majority shareholder, and Allianz Global Investors Europe.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The largest real estate deal since the outbreak of the crisis has been completed in New York, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Google is paying about USD1.8bn for an office building at 111 Eighth Avenue (27,000 square metres) in Chelsea, in which it already rents one fifth of the total area.The vendor is a consortium composed of the local real estate firm Taconic, a New York state pension fund, and the German-American investment management firm Jamestown. At the time when Jamestown got involved in the investment, in 2004, the building was valued at USD800m.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Oddo is planning to develop its activities in Switzerland, Agefi Switzerland reports. According to the international head of sales for the group, Bertrand Levavasseur, the French group is planning to send a salesperson, who will potentially create a unit in Geneva or Zurich in the next 18 months. The French group, which is already present in French-speaking Switzerland via cooperation agreements with several private banks in the region, is now aiming to develop its activities in the remainder of Switzerland.. “We are primarily aiming at private banks, wealth managers, and institutional clients,” says Levavasseur.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } DBS Bank, Sumitomo Trust & Banking and Nikko Asset Management on 6 December announced in a joint statement that they have signed an agreement to unite the activities of DBS Asset Management with those of Nikko AM. The firm born of the operation will manage over USD150bn in assets, making it one of the largest management firms in the Asia-Pacific region. Nikko AM has recently announced its acquisition of the Australian Tyndall Investments (USD25bn in assets under management). By the terms of the agreement, Nikko AM will acquire DBS AM, and take over all of its employees, for a total of USD104m, while DBS will take a strategic minority stake of 7.25% in Nikko AM. The agreement also includes a non-exclusive distribution agreement which will allow DBS to offer its clients investment products from Nikko AM. In detail, DBS brings Nikko AM its asset management affiliate in Singapore, its 30% stake in the Malaysian independent management firm HwangDBS Investment Management Berhad, its 51% stake in Asian Islamic Investment Management Sdn Bhd (in which the remaining 49% is controlled by HwangDBS IM), and its Hong Kong-based asset management affiliate. Assets under management at these entities together as of the end of September 2010 totalled USD7bn. The 33% stake in the Chinese firm Changsheng Fund Management controlled by DBS AM is not part of the transaction, and will be held directly by DBS Group. DBS will be represented on the board of directors of Nikko AM and the Singapore affilaite of Nikko AM.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The hedge fund company GLG Partners has received a license in Hong Kong that it will use to trade, Asian Investor reports. Pierre Lagrange, managing director of GLG, based in London, says Hong Kong will be the regional centre for the asset management firm. GLG will transfer traders and analysts to Hong Kong, and is also planning to make local recruitments.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 2 December, the CNMV issued a license for the Spanish-registered fund Bestvalue FI from Bestinver, which reproduces the management style of the Bestinver Bestvalue Sicav.The fund will be at least 75% invested in equities, and the remainder will be invested in government or corporate bonds. The portfolio will be at least 60% exposed to equities issued by entities domiciled in the Euro zone, and exposure to currency risks may not exceed 30%.Characteristics Name: Bestvalue FI ISIN code: ES0114579008 Management commission: 1.25% Withdrawal penalty: 3% (for redemptions within one year) Benchmark index: IBGM (30%) + MSCI World (70%) Minimal subscription: EUR200,000

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Janus Capital International Limited, the international division of Janus Capital Group, has launched the Janus Emerging Markets Fund, a sub-fund of the Janus Capital Funds Sicav, based in Dublin. The fund is invested in global emerging markets equities with a bottom-up approach. It will be managed by Wahid Chammas and Matt Hochstetler, two portfolio managers who will work in close collaboration with the risk management division of Janus to actively control macroeconomic risks such as country, sector and currency positions. The portfolio will invest in 80 to 140 positions which will be diversified sectorally and geographically, and its benchmark index is the MSCI Emerging Markets.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Fund Strategy reports that Schroders is planning to limit access to its US midcap stratgies in the next 12 months. Assets under management in these strategies, the onshore Schroder US Mid Cap and offshore ISF US Small and Mid Cap Equity funds, total about USD4bn, and may rapidly increase to their optimal levels of about USD4.5bn, above which performance objectives may be more difficult to achieve. Therefore, a provisional closure of the two funds to new investments is expected in the near future. Investors interested in these funds will be redirected to another strategy, the ISF US All Cap Equity, launched in 2006, one third of whose assets are managed with the same approach as the midcap funds.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Ameriprise Financial has announced the launch of ETF and high yield portfolios to provide access for retail investors to investment processes which are often reserved for institutional clients. The Active Opportunity ETF Portfolios include a series of twelve portfolios designed to provide high returns in all market environments. The Active Diversified Yield Portfolios are a group of four portfolios which correspond to various return objectives.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking and its affiliate, Lyxor Asset Management, on Monday announced the appointment of the new management team for Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) in Europe, following the announcement of the departure at the end of this year of Isabelle Bourcier, global head of ETFs. Simon Klein is appointed as head of ETFs for Europe, from 1 January. He joins from Deutsche Bank, where he was head of ETF and ETC sales for continental Europe. He will continue to be based in Frankfurt, and will report to David Escoffier, head of Global Equity Flow at Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking, and Laurent Seyer, CEO of Lyxor Asset Management. Nizan Hamid, former head of the ETF strategy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at BlackRock/BGI, also joined Lyxor AM on 22 November, as head of ETF strategy and deputy head of ETFs for Europe. He will be based in London, and will report to Klein.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Four good months after its first rumours of a cooperation between Deutsche Bank and Paulson & Co, the DB Platinum platform is launching a UCITS-compliant hedge fund managed by Paulson, Fondsprofessionell reports.The open-ended fund is entitled DB Platinum IV Paulson Global Fund, and replicates the Advantage Fund from Paulson. Minimal subscription is EUR10,000. Management commission is set at 2.79%, and DB Platinum will also charge a performance commission, Financial Times Deutschland reports.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Source, Credit Suisse and BlackRock wera the first ones. db x-trackers, the ETF arm of Deutsche Bank, followed suit on 6 December and announced that it is now offering more complete transparency for synthetic replication portfolios of its products.The evolution of the indices which ETFs replicate is generated on the Deutsche Bank website, which is (so far) the only partner for swaps. For each ETF in the range, db x-trackers now publishes the net percentage of swap compared with the net asset value and the composition of the collateral by type of security, by country, by currency and where applicable by sector, in addition to the rating for bonds.These data were previously available on request, but db x-trackers is now taking the initiative to publish them without being asked to do so.The asset management firm, created in January 2007, already has over EUR35bn in assets, while net subscriptions from 1 January to 15 November totalled over EUR7bn.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 6 December, Deutsche Börse announced that it had admitted a 757th ETF to trading on the XTF segment of its Xetra electronic platform. It is the Luxembourg equities fund db x-trackers MSCI Indonesia TRN Index ETF, which as its name indicates, replicates the MSCI country-index for Indonesia, which covers about 85% of the capitalisation of the local market, on the base of total float.CharacteristicsName: db x-trackers MSCI Indonesia TRN Index ETF ISIN code: LU0476289623 TER: 0.65%

F&C Investments has created an integrated Investment Solutions business focused on providing multi-asset investment strategies to institutional investors that are sensitive to their future liabilities and regulatory obligations. The new Investment Solutions business comprises F&C’s asset-liability management, multi-asset investment, insurance advisory, fiduciary management, derivative fund management and institutional manager selection teams.Richard Watts has been appointed as head of investment solutions to lead the business. He joined F&C in 2005 after eight years as a derivatives specialist at JP Morgan. Also, F&C has hired Ernst Hagen, currently head of asset management at Pensioenfonds Horeca & Catering, one of the largest Dutch industry pension schemes, to head its Fiduciary Investment desk. Ernst will join F&C on 4 January and will be based in the Amsterdam office. Peter Hill-King joins as head of manager selection from P-Solve Asset Solutions and David White, who previously worked at Aon, will join as director, manager selection.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Hansainvest Hanseatische Investment GmbH, an affiliate of the insurance group Signal-Iduna, on 6 December announced that it has become the first German management firm to obtain a universal operating license from the Federal financial services supervision office (BaFin). According to Jörg W. Stotz, CEO, this means that, on the one hand, Hansainvest is authorised to launch all varieties of funds which are already covered by the InvG regulations in force, with immediate effect, and on the other hand, that the manager is now permitted to launch all varieties of funds which have recently been authorised in Germany, without needing to apply for a specific license. The general license does not apply only to the construction of funds, but also to investments (categories of assets) by funds. Management firms which do not have a universal operating license, meanwhile, are required to obtain licenses for each new funds and each new category of assets. Hansainvest reports that it was already the only German management firm allowed to launch and manage securities funds, real estate funds, funds of funds, money market funds, institutional funds and hedge funds. Its range includes more than 90 retail funds and over 30 institutional funds.