Recherche
S'abonner
Connexion
Asset Management
Accueil Asset Management Actualités
05/10/2009

BNY Mellon concludes merger of Dutch affiliate into its Belgian bank

Having now received permission from regulators, BNY Mellon on 1 October proceeded with the absorption of its Netherlands affiliate BNY Mellon Asset Servicing BV into its Belgian bank, founded in May. The Belgian bank will take over all activities of the Dutch affiliate in London, Amsterdam, Breda, Luxembourg and Frankfurt. Staff will total about 1,400, of whom 500 are from the Dutch affiliate. The Belgian bank was founded in order to become the leading platform for the group in Europe for asset servicing. It has about EUR36bn in assets.
05/10/2009

Deutsche Bank wants at least 75% of Sal. Oppenheim

According to reports in Die Welt am Sonntag, Deutsche Bank will not settle for 45%, but is aiming to acquire a stake of at least 75% in Sal. Oppehmeim. The problem of the Oppenheim-Esch funds is reported to already be sorted out, with a fiduciary account to which the owning families will have access only when the funds are liquidated. The situation is reported to have caused significant losses at Sal. Oppenheim in first half, and the financial statement of the private bank has still not been released.
05/10/2009

Landesbanken want out of Deka

Heinrich Haasis, president of the federation of German savings banks (DSGV) has stated that several of the Landesbanken would like to sell their stake in the management firm Deka to the German savings banks, in order to free up owners’ equity, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Currently, Deka is half-owned by the savings banks, while the other half belongs to the Landesbanken, and the two camps have been divided for months over the strategic orientation of the asset management firm.
05/10/2009

Pictet bets on growth large caps

Agefi Switzerland reports that Pictet estimates that hopes of a V-shaped economic recovery are in vain, and that a W-shaped recovery from the current economic downturn is to be expected. “We are on the upturn, but with contrary forces set to influence this in the future, such as the withdrawal of stimulus packages and the end of quantitative easing, which will lead to a slowing of growth,” Daniel Becker, manager of the Pictet US Equity Growth Selection fund at Waddell & Reed, explained on Friday. The fund is focused on the best-positioned growth large caps, which, from the manager’s point of view, will be likely to benefit from a recovery in growth in developed countries. This advantage is all the more appreciable when these firms may also benefit from a possible recovery of the weak US dollar. They will also be capable of maintaining strong organic growth, the manager claims, and these growth shares have not been valued accordingly - particularly tech stocks, which have suffered from a bear market for nine years, he says.
05/10/2009

Inflows to French money market funds off the European scales

In the first six months of the year, European co-ordinated funds have attracted EUR51.7bn in inflows, according to the sector association Efama. France leads with net inflows of EUR33.8bn, followed by the United Kingdom with EUR15.59bn. The performance of French funds is due to EUR34bn in net subscriptions to money market funds, despite outflwos of EUR7.3bn in second quarter. The poorly performing markets were Spain and Italy, with net outflows of EUR9.16bn and EUR8.68bn in first half.
05/10/2009

Silk Invest launches frontier markets bond fund

Specialist boutique Silk Invest has launched a new fixed income fund focusing on frontier markets across Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, said Citywire. The Luxembourg-domiciled Silk Road Income fund will be run by former Renaissance Capital man John Bates.
05/10/2009

UBS SDIC launches a leveraged tracker fund

The Singaporian Marc Tan has been appointed as CIO of UBS SDIC, a joint venture in which UBS controls 49% and the Chinese State Development and Investment Corp (SDIC) controls the remaining 51%, Asian Investor reports. UBS SDIC is also launching a tracker fund which will be traded on the Shenzhen stock exchange. It will replicate the CSI300 index (the most actively-traded shares in Shenzhen and Shanghai) for 95%, while the remaining 5% will replicate the local inter-bank interest rate. The product, whose net asset value will be calculated once per year, will employ 1.6 times leverage.
05/10/2009

The new Switzerland is in Asia

The North of Singapore contains one of the highest-security prisons in Asia, where those convicted of violating banking secrecy of high net worth clients are imprisoned. The offence carries a penalty of up to three years in prison, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. The city-state of Singapore is following the example of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The government promotes financial services as one of the three key sectors for the country in the future, along with education and biotechnology.Singapore already manages about SGD800bn in assets for foreign clients, most of whom come from Asia, but capital from German and Swiss clients is increasing. There is little likelihood that Singapore will back down under pressure from European countries, as it would then have to institute a tax on all foreign capital, which would provoke an exodus of Chinese and Indonesian clients, which Singapore fears like the devil itself.
05/10/2009

Sovereign fund to lobby

Anne Kvam, global head of corporate governance at NBIM, the affiliate of the Bank of Norway that manages the Government Pension Fund - Global (GPFG), has announced that the pension fund will kick off a campaign to demand that the US firms Harris Corporation, Clorox Company, Parker Hannifin and General Health separate the positions of president and CEO, Responsible Investor reports. The sovereign fund will also join initiatives to require directors of UK companies to be subject to re-election every year. GPFG owns British publicly-traded shares worth GBP32bn.
05/10/2009

Switzerland: Signature of tax convention with Singapore postponed

Agefi Switzerland reports that a double taxation convention slated to be signed by Switzerland and Singapore in August is not to the liking of the cantons. At a consultation, the conference of cantonal finance directors were critical of the fact that the city-state of Singapore receives more than the cantons do in administrative exchange. Singapore has not agreed to make this assistance reciprocal. This means that Switzerland would be required to deliver up certain information which Singapore, for its part, refuses to disclose. This is the reason why Switzerland is undertaking negotiations with Singapore, a spokesperson for the federal taxation administration, Thomas Brückner, declared. Further talks will take place by the end of the year. Any agreement could only be signed after this has taken place.
05/10/2009

Lehman creditors have a chance to get their money back

Lehman Brothers Holdings’ hedge-fund creditors in London, with as much as USD16 billion tied up in the securities firm’s bankruptcy, will be asked on Monday to join in an unusual effort to break a yearlong logjam, says the Wall Street Journal. The administrator for Lehman’s operations in London plans to seek permission to remove the claims from U.K. courts and dole out assets directly to creditors, if enough hedge funds are willing to go along with the move.
05/10/2009

A new acquisition for Manulife in Canada

Following Markland Street AM (see Newsmanagers of 21 September), Elliot & Page, an affiliate of Manulife Financial Corporation (MFC), has made a further acquisition in Canada. It is taking over the Canadian retail funds of AIC Ltd, while Portland Investment Counsel (formerly AIC Investment Services) will remain as sub-advisor to several AIC funds, alongside Third Avenue Management and Brookfield Redding. The deal allows Elliot & Page to increase its assets under management for Canadian investors by 38%, to CAD13.9bn.
05/10/2009

Impax AM posts one-year increase in assets

The management firm Impax Asset Management, an environmental specialist listed on the AIM, has published preliminary results for its fiscal year from October 2008 to 30 September 2009. Final results will be published in the week of 7 December. On one year, the British management firm has seen an increase to its assets under management from GBP1.09bn to GBP1.25bn as of the end of September. As of 31 March, assets totalled under GBP889m. However, the statement says, Impax has recently obtained a mandate from a European institutional investor in partnership with BNP Paribas Investment Partners which may total up to EUR150m.
05/10/2009

New shareholders in Gala Coral

Intermediate Capital and ParkSquare will exchange GBP540m in loans to Gala Coral for a 50% stake in the operator of bingo halls and bookmakers, which is currently owned by the private equity investors Candover, Cinven and Permira, the Sunday Times reports. Negotiations will be concluded by the end of the month, and will allow Gala Coral to obtain loans from Intermediate Capital and ParkSquare that will allow it to pay down its debts of GBP2.6bn, without current shareholders having to inject fresh capital.
05/10/2009

Promotions at Liontrust

As Rob Page will join Ignis in November, Liontrust has appointed Simon Hildrey, recruited in July 2008, to replace him as director of marketing and communication from 1 November; he was previously director of communication. Nick Pilkington, who has ten years of experience at Liontrust, has been appointed director of marketing. He was previously marketing manager and will now report to Hildrey.
05/10/2009

T. Rowe Price buys into UTI

The American management firm T. Rowe Price will pay USD125m-USD135m to acquire a 26% stake in the oldest management firm in India, UTI Asset Management, Mutual Fund Wire reports.
05/10/2009

Madoff family sued by trustee

Bernard Madoff’s two sons, brother and niece were on Friday sued for nearly USD200m by Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee, says the Financial Times. All of them held positions at Madoff’s firm. According to the trustee, if family members had been doing their jobs the Madoff Ponzi scheme might never have succeeded, or continued for so long. He also alleged that they have profited for years from Mr Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
05/10/2009

Green properties are still too scarce

The first exclusively “green” German real estate investment fund aimed at institutional investors was launched in July by iii-Investments, an affiliate of HypoVereinsbank, with the objective of investing EUR400m in two to three years, Handelsblatt reports. In April, Credit Suisse Real Estate Asset Management launched its first sustainable real estate fund in Switzerland, and is planning to raise CHF300m; so far, it has found CHF220m in investments. In this market segment the Netherlands management firm Bowfonds AM, Kenmore (Sustento), Palmer (Palmer Climage Change Capital) and Aberdeen (UK Sustainable Property Investment Fund) are also present. But in Germany, chances for development are limited, as the proportion of certified properties is less than 1%. This is the reason why DEGI (Aberdeen) and Union Investment Real Estate are not currently planning to launch any German or international real estate funds in this niche, though they are focusing on the sustainability characteristics of properties in their portfolios.
05/10/2009

Santander beefs up distribution of Luxembourg funds

Dolores Ybarra, CEO of Santander Asset Management, has told Expansión that the firm’s goal is to offer Latin American equities and bond funds for sale in Luxembourg, which is complicated as institutional investors require that these products have high volumes of assets before investing. The affiliate of the Spanish bank has had a Luxmbourg Sicav since 1993; it now has 23 sub-funds and assets of only EUR750m. Santander has now decided to boost sales of shares via its Spanish network in order to boost volumes to a high enough level for institutional investors to be interested. Net subscriptions since the beginning of the year have totalled EUR180m. Meanwhile, Santander Asset Management has registered its funds in the United Kingdom and has begun the process of doing so in two Asian countries as well.
05/10/2009

Microfinance funds to be exempt from subscription tax

The Luxembourg investment fund association (ALFI) late last week welcomed a proposal by the Luxembourg government to exempt microfinance investment funds from subscription tax. The proposal, which is a part of the 2010 budget, follows a recommendation by ALFI “which has long held that an exemption from subscription tax will encourage the development of this type of fund in Luxembourg.” The Grand duchy’s ambition is to “become a leading place of domicile for Microfinance Investment Vehicles.” 45% of assets in known microfinance investment vehicles worldwide are based in Luxembourg.
02/10/2009
Fonds

Un fonds infrastructures de Henderson perd 2/3 de sa valeur

Selon Financial News Online, Henderson Group négocie avec des investisseurs et des banques en vue de refinancer le fonds infrastructures, Henderson PFI Secondary Fund II, qui a perdu 66 % de sa valeur, entre sa levée en 2006 et la fin juin. Cette chute est attribuable à un investissement réalisé il y a trois ans dans John Laing, précise Financial News, qui a lu ces informations dans un rapport envoyé aux investisseurs.
Fonds
02/10/2009
Fonds

Un fonds d’investissement porte plainte contre Cadbury

Le Steward International Enhanced Value Index Fund, qui est investi selon des principes bibliques et chrétiens, a porté plainte aux Etats-Unis contre Cadbury, dont il détient 6.720 actions, rapporte le Financial Times. Le fonds américain avance que le conseil d’administration du groupe britannique a enfreint ses devoirs fiduciaires en rejetant l’offre de 10,2 milliards de livres de Kraft.
Fonds

Sujets d'actualité

Tous les sujets