Following a 5% decline in January, to USD984bn, total assets in ETF funds worldwide, as calculated by BlackRock, increased to USD1.0015trn as of the end of February. Compared with the end of December, assets under management as of 28 February were still down 3.3%. As of the end of February, BlackRock counted 2,090 ETF funds listed 3,997 times, compared with 2,053 ETF funds listed 3,928 times as of the end fo January. Since the beginning of the year, the number of products increased by 7.3%, compared with 143 new product launches. There are currently plans to launch 840 more ETF products in the next few months. The top three providers of these funds remain unchanged: iShares (BlackRock) remains the largest, with 437 funds and USD471.9bn, corresponding to a market share of 47.1%. State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) is in second place, with 107 products and USD144.5bn, and a 14.4% market share. Vanguard ranks third with USD95.4bn in 47 funds, which represents a market share of 9.5%. The fourth and fifth-largest providers are Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale), with a market share of 4.5%, and db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) with a market share of 3.6%.

The Hennessee hedge fund index gained 0.96% in February, which brings performance in the first two months of the year to 0.42%, compared with a 0.95% decline for the S&P 500 index. “Hedge funds have outperformed equities since the beginning of the year. Despite lower returns in February, most hedge funds have been in positive territory since the beginning of the year, due to their capacity to limit losses during the selloff in January,” asid Lee Hennessee, managing principal of Hennessee Group.

Le board du Bramdean Alternatives investment trust (Bral) se propose de renommer le trust Aberdeen Private Equity, suite à l’acquisition de ce portefeuille par Aberdeen en novembre dernier, selon Fund Strategy.La modification reflètera le nouvel objectif d’investissement du trust, les fonds de private equity. Précédemment, le fonds de hedge funds investissait dans les actions, les hedge funds et les classes d’actifs spécialisées.

As of the end of February, European ETF funds had gained USD2.2bn compared with the end of January, to a total of USD220.1bn, which nonetheless remains 3% lower than the USD226.9bn in assets as of the end of December, according to statistics compiled by BlackRock. There were 901 ETF funds in Europe, compared with 807 in the United States, 72 more than at the end of last year, after 72 new product launches. Net subscriptions in the first two months of 2010 totalled USD8.7bn, of which USD2.1bn were for European equities funds, USD1.2bn for bond funds, and USD1.4bn for emerging markets equities ETFs. iShares (BlackRock) remains the largest provider by far, with 172 products and USD81.7bn, which corresponds to a market share of 37.1%. Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale) holds second place, with a market share of 20%, assets of USD44bn, and 127 ETF products. db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank), with 118 funds and USD35.9bn in assets, has a market share of 16.3%. The other actors share the remaining 26.7%. The next two asset management firms in the rankings are Credit Suisse with 4.6% of the market, and Zurick Kantonal Bank, with 3.2%. EasyETF and Amundi Investment are in seventh and eighth place, with 2.6% and 2.3% of the European market, respectively.

In January and February 2010, Allianz Global Investors (AGI) earned net subscriptions in Germany of over EUR7bn, of which EUR2.8bn were for open-ended funds, and EUR4.2bn for institutional products. However, in 2009, the asset management firm earned only EUR4.2bn in net subscriptions, only thanks to EUR6bn in inflows to institutional funds (compared with EUR8bn in 2008), while open-ended funds saw net outflows of EUR1.8bn, largely due to EUR4.4bn in net redemptions from money market funds (compared with EUR6bn in 2008). Equities funds saw net inflows of only EUR0.5bn, while bond funds attracted EUR1.6bn, says James Dilworth, CEO of the firm since October of last year. In 2008, AGI Deutschland saw net outflows of EUR0.5bn from equities funds, and net subscriptions to bond funds totalled EUR3.1bn. As of the end of December, AGI Germany had assets under management and administration of EUR328bn, compared with EUR259bn at the end of 2008, and EUR290bn at the end of 2007. Thomas Wiesemann, chief market officer at AGI Europe and co-CEO of AGI KAG, says the integration of cominvest is now nearly complete. As a part of this process, the combined product range has been reduced by 118 funds, and 100 other funds will be merged this year. The management firm says that about one third each of overall sales of AGI funds pass through the Allianz network, Commerzbank, and external distributors. Institutional assets represent two thirds of the total, but only one third of profits.

Franz Tudor, who was a trader at the alternative management firm Schottenfeld Group, and who has confessed to complicity in fraudulent trading of securities in the Galleon scandal, has admitted that last year he used registration material supplied by the prosecutor’s office and the FBI in an effort to entrap two of his friends and colleagues also implicated in the scandal, the Wall Street Journal reports. In the Galleon insider trading case, there are a total of 21 suspects, at least eight of whom have admitted guilt and are cooperating with the authorities against their co-defendants.

The German management firm Hauck & Aufhäuser has announced the release of the Luxembourg-registered fund (LU0470205575) Structured Solutions Lithium Index Strategie Fonds, which replicates the S-Box Lithium Performance Index from Structured Solutions. The index includes the 25 largest firms active int he production of Lithium. The fund, launched on 7 January 2010, is licensed for sale in Luxembourg, Germany and Austria. It carries a maximal front-end fee of 5%, and a management commission of up to 0.80%.

Amundi ETF, which is already present on two major European stock exchanges, NYSE Euronext Paris and Deutsche Borse, has announced its first listings on Borsa Italiana. 15 equities ETF products are now listed there, including 7 previously unreleased funds. In the next few months, several more waves of listings will add to the product range on offer from Amundi ETF. Among the 15 ETF funds available on Borsa Italiana, managed with a synthetic replication strategy, are: 6 ETFs which provide investors with exposure with a single transaction to equities from the major developed markets: the Euro zone, Europe, the United States, and Asia, including Amundi ETF MSCi Italy, a new product, which replicates the evolution of nearly 40 of the largest companies on the Italian market, on Borsa Italiana. 3 ETFs which provide exposure to emerging markets, including China, India, and Central Europe, including 2 new products on Borsa Italiana: Amundi ETF MSCI China, which replicated the evolution of the 50 largest publicly-traded Chinese companies traded in Hong Kong, and Amundi ETF Eastern Europe ex-Russia, which allows investors to profit from exposure to about 30 major companies of Central Europe excluding Russia. 6 leveraged and short ETF funds, including 4 new products on Borsa Italiana, some of which allow investors to double their positions, and some of which provide them with a means to hedge their positions on specific markets. In particular, 3 leveraged ETFs provide double exposure to the daily performance of their respective indices. The 3 short ETFs offer inverse daily exposure, both in rising and falling conditions, to the evolution of the DOW JONES EURO STOXX 50®, MSCI Europe Daily and MSCI USA Daily indices. As with the complete Amundi ETF range, these products are distributed by dedicated sales teams from CA Chevreux and Amundi. Investors may learn more about the characteristics of these funds on the website amundietf.com.

On Thursday, Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) announced that at the end of September it recruited Shawn McNinch, senior vice president, who has now been appointed as global ETF product & sales head. McNinch was previously senior principal in the product strategy group at iShares, before the ETF management firm was acquired by BlackRock. He will now be in charge of directing global product servicing, development, and advising on new products. BBH points out in a statement that it is the third-largest custodian in the United States, and that it works with eight ETF issuers worldwide, including three of the five largest ETF issuers in the United States. Total assets in custody at BBH totalled USD2.3trn as of 31 December.

F&C Asset Management has been granted permission to make an offer to acquire the Austrian firm C-Quadrat. On 12 February, ÜBK, the Austrian antitrust authority, suspended F&C, which failed to submit its bid within the required deadline. F&C may now continue its negotiations with C-Quadrat, which may result in a bid at EUR12.50 per share.

Lazard Frères Gestion (LFG), which has already been present in Brussels for three years, is planning to open an office in Switzerland this year, Agefi reports. Then, the French firm will move in on other markets it considers promising, starting with Spain, followed by Italy and Germany. Lazard Frères Gestion, which focuses primarily on private banking clients with more than EUR1m in assets, and on advising institutional clients who are off the beaten track of calls for tenders, is not concerned about overlapping with the US affiliate Lazard Asset Management (LAM), the newspaper reports. As of the end of 2009, the firm had EUR9.2bn in assets (+15%), and now already has over EUR10bn. Inflows were EUR972m last year, excluding mandates, and are expected to total EUR1.1bn this year, largely thanks to the IFA segment, which the firm entered one year ago.

Groupama Asset Management is this year preparing to create its first Luxembourg Sicav. The aim is to reach a client base of European distributors, including private banks and multi-management. With this in mind, the Sicav will include largely the French management firm’s “typical” strategies, especially those of the absolute return unit. “Our ambition is to have 3 to 4 sub-funds fairly quickly,” says Jean-Marie Catala, director of development. Previously, the international expansion of Groupama AM was undertaken via the French product range, often alongside growth for its parent company abroad. But Catala admits that, in order to go further, the Luxembourg Sicav is a necessary step. “The most effective administrative shell for European distribution is the Luxembourg structure, which is ten years ahead of its rivals,” he says. He adds that the creation of the fund is being undertaken in anticipation of the passage of the UCITS IV directive in 2012. “We will then have two years of track record,” he points out. Currently, EUR7bn, or 8% of Groupama AM’s assets (EUR88,8bn) are managed for foreign clients. The firm has a particularly strong presence in Italy, via its affiliate Groupama Sgr, since late 2006, and in Spain the firm has been present since 2008 via an affiliate created there.

A growing number of Spanish asset management firms are founding Luxembourg structures, not only to sell their funds in other countries, but also to distribute their products in Spain, particularly to institutional and high net worth private clients, since Luxembourg has no withholding tax, unlike Spain, Cotizalia points out. Santander Asset Management and BBVA Asset Management have already set up structures of this kind, and A&G (EFG group) is in the process of creating an ad-hoc structure in the Grand Duchy.

The Liechtenstein banking group Verwaltungs- und Privat-Bank AG (VP Bank) announced on 9 March that last year it earned net profits of CHF59.8m, following losses of CHF80.3m in 2008. But VP Bank still saw outflows from its funds last year. Total net outflows came to CHF1.1bn, following CHF1.3bn in 2008. Assets under management totalled CHF29.5bn as of the end of 2009, after CHF29.5bn as of the end of 2008. The board of directors will propose the AGM to pay a dividend of CHF3.50 per share, compared with CHF2.50, and CHF0.35 (CHF0.25) per nominative share.

UBS has announced that it has submitted an application to the FSA, the British market authority, to create an electronic trading platform for European equities markets (MTF), Agefi reports. The new platform is one in a series from financial establishments seeking to develop electronic trading platforms. For the moment, the newspaper notes, UBS will have to wait for the regulatory environment, and in particular for the MiFID directive to be overhauled. The creation of an MTF such as the planned UBS platform offers a higher level of available liquidity and improves most-market transparency, the newspaper adds. UBS also guarantees that it will provide added liquidity to its clients if necessary.

With his partner José Rodriguez, former head of trading at Bankers Trust, the youngest son of Emilio Botín (president of Santander), emilio Botín O’Shea, has created the investment boutique Renta Markets, which will specialise in money markets, derivatives, and capital markets, serving institutional investor clients, Cotizalia reports. The Spanish brokerage firm Renta 4 owns a 35% stake in the new venture, and will provide the IT platform and act as broker for the transactions of Renta Markets.

The Dutchman Pepijn Heins, who was previously executive director, institutional business development at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) in London, has been recruited by the American firm Eaton Vance Management International as business development director. He will be in charge of development and relationship management for major institutional clients in Northern Europe, and will report to Niall Quinn, managing director of Eaton Vance Management International.

Assets under management at Gartmore gained 19% last year, to GBP22.2bn, largely through net inflows of GBP485m to mutual funds. Net inflows totalled GBP252m, while the previous year saw net outflows of GBP4.87bn. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) totalled GBP54.8m, compared with GBP90.2m the previous year. Gartmore states that alternative management earned net returns of 19.1%, and that 72% of mutual funds outperformed their benchmarks over a three-year period.

The board at Bramdean Alternatives investment trust (BRAL) is considering renaming the trust as Aberdeen Private Equity, following the acquisition of the portfolio by Aberdeen last November, Fund Strategy reports. The modification will reflect the trust’s new investment target: private equity funds. Previously, the fund of hedge funds invested in equities, hedge funds, and specialty asset classes.

Aviva Investors has appointed Jiten Joshi as head of its bond analysis team, which now has six members. The new recruit will analyse investment grade and high yield rated bonds, and will work with his team to elaborate absolute return strategies. Joshi, who will be based in London, was previously director of special situations at Pali Capital.

Sa filiale britannique, Alliance & Leicester, a émis l'équivalent de 1,44 milliard de livres, sans avoir eu besoin d'inclure une clause de rachat

Notre indicateur de dispersion de performances est sorti par le haut après une consolidation à plat inédite depuis quinze ans

L’AFT pourrait syndiquer cette semaine 3 à 5 milliards d'euros de sa ligne 2060

Le placement de l’OAT 25 avril 2060 portera sur un montant de trois à cinq milliards d'euros et interviendra ces prochains jours

Une analyse des données de Feri/Lipper portant sur 1.200 fonds d’actions sur les dix dernières années montre que seuls près de 380 ont affiché un résultat positif, la moitié d’entre eux battant également le MSCI, constate le Handelsblatt. A peine 144 fonds ont produit une performance annuelle supérieure à 5 % : il s’agit le plus souvent de fonds spécialistes de l’Europe de l’Est, de l’Asie, de l’Australie ou des petites capitalisations en forte croissance.Cela posé, aucun fonds n’est parvenu à battre le MSCI sur chacune des dix dernières années, tandis que 40 y sont arrivés pour neuf des dix ans, surtout des fonds axés, là encore, sur l’Europe de l’Est, l’Asie ou l’Australie. Parmi les fonds spécialistes des marchés mondiaux, huit seulement ont battu l’indice neuf ans sur dix.

A fin 2009, les sociétés allemandes de capital-investissement géraient 36,5 milliards d’euros contre 35,1 milliards douze mois plus tôt, leur portefeuille représentant 33,3 milliards d’euros contre 32,3 milliards répartis sur 6.593 entreprises contre 6.471 un an plus tôt. Les investissements des sociétés ayant leur siège en Allemagne ont porté selon l’association BVK du secteur sur 2,2 milliards d’euros contre 7,1 milliards en 2008 ; ils sont allés à 1.324 sociétés contre 1.392 et les investissements en Allemagne ont totalisé 2,4 milliards d’euros contre 9,1 milliards. Sur ce total, 0,8 milliard ont été apportés par des sociétés de capital-investissement étrangères. Le BVK souligne aussi que les investissements en capital-risque ont chuté de 45 % à 611 millions d’euros.La collecte est tombée à 1,2 milliard d’euros contre 2,7 milliards et les désinvestissements ont diminué à 1,6 milliard contre 2,3 milliards.

Lundi, la Deutsche Bank a annoncé le démarrage sur la plate-forme électronique de négociation Xetra de la Deutsche Börse de sa propre plate-forme dédiée aux Exchange Traded Commodities (ETC), db ETC Index plc, qui est une société ad hoc sans actif propre enregistrée à Jersey.Les quatre premiers produits, tous de droit allemand et chargés à 0,45 %, sont les db ETC Brent Crude Oil Euro Hedged, industrial Metals Euro Hedged, Short Brent Crude Oil Euro Hedged et Monthly Short Gold Euro Hedged.Thorsten Michalik, qui dirige db x-trackers (ETF) et db ETC, a indiqué que db ETC sera commercialisée dans toute l’Europe d’ici à la fin de cette année et comportera des ETC répliquant l'évolution de l’or, de l’argent, du platine et du palladium. D’ici à juin, la Deutsche Bank compte émettre plus de 30 obligations de ce type. En outre, il est prévu de donner accès non seulement à des produits matières premières en euros couverts du risque de change et en dollars mais également à des support utilisant les indices intelligents de matières premières «Optimum Yield» développés par la Deutsche Bank qui son déjà utilisés pour les ETF de db x-trackers, ceux qui portent le suffixe «booster».Les nouveaux ETC Dénomination : db ETC Brent Crude Oil Euro HedgedCode Isin : DE000A1AQGX1Commission de gestion : 0.45% Dénomination : db ETC Industrial Metals Euro Hedged Code Isin : DE000A1AQGY9Commission de gestion 0,45 % Dénomination : db ETC Monthly Short Brent Crude Oil Euro Hedged Code Isin : DE000A1AQGW3Commission de gestion : 0,45 % Dénomination : db ETC Monthly Short Gold Euro Hedged Code Isin : DE000A1AQGZ6Commission de gestion : 0,45 %

Gamax Management lance Gamax Funds Junior, un fonds de droit luxembourgeois investi dans les marques les plus appréciées des jeunes consommateurs. «Les jeunes veulent bien dépenser plus pour des produits Apple, Sony ou Puma», note un communiqué de la société de gestion. Géré selon le principe de stock picking, le portefeuille se compose d’actions de sociétés de qualité. Parmi les lignes les plus importantes, on retrouve actuellement Apple, Philips et Microsoft.

Après celui de Hakan Türktasar en début d’année (lire notre dépêche du 8 janvier), Schroders Allemagne a annoncé lundi le recrutement de Martin Theis pour son activité client service. Il servira d’interface avec le Luxembourg en coordonnant l’administration de fonds, sous les ordres de Joachim Nareike, directeur de Schroder Investment GmbH pour l’Allemagne et l’Autriche.Par ailleurs, Nicol Texeira, qui avait quitté la tête du marketing en juin 2008 pour un congé maternité/parental, est revenue pour diriger le service event management. Le poste de responsable du marketing est conservé par Thomas Schalow.

Sous réserve des autorisations nécessaires de la part du régulateur, BNY Mellon achète pour 253 millions d’euros BHF Asset Servicing GmbH auprès de BHF-Bank et de Sal. Oppenheim. Cette transaction couvre également l’acquisition de la filiale d’administration de fonds de BHF Asset Servicing, Frankfurter Service Kapitalanlage-Gesellschaft mbH (FSKAG).BNY Mellon finance l’opération uniquement sur fonds propres et indique qu’avec un taux de rendement interne de 17 à 19 % elle contribuera d’emblée positivement au résultat par action aux normes GAAP.Ensemble, BHF Asset Servicing et FSKAG afficheront un volume sous conservation de 473 milliards d’euros, dont 33,1 milliards pour FSKAG, le volume de l’activité de banque dépositaire représentant 120 milliards d’euros.BNY Mellon Asset Servicing, qui reprend les deux entités, deviendra le numéro deux du secteur en volume sur le marché allemand, avec par ailleurs 340 salairés. La direction sera assurée par Michelle Grundmann de BNY Mellon, qui est managing director et branch head Frankfurt/Main, avec Jürgen P. Frank et Christopher V. Friedrich, qui viennent de BHF Asset Servicing. Ces trois personnes sont placées sous l’autorité de Nadine Chakar, head of Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) de BNY Mellon Asset Servicing.