Bank of America (BoA) a annoncé le recrutement d’Andrew M. Sieg, qui dirige le segment emerging affluent clients de Citigroup, comme managing director et head of retirement and philanthropic services de la division global wealth and investment management (GWIM). Basé à New York, il sera subordonné à Sallie Krawcheck, présidente de GWIM.Le groupe qu’Andy Sieg va diriger est chargé de fournir des solutions personnalisées en matière de retraite ainsi que des services d’administration, de comptabilité, de conservation, de conseil et d’exécution à des entreprises et organisations, à leurs salariés et leurs adhérents, dans le cadre de quelque 40.000 plans d'épargne d’entreprise.

Pour environ 1 milliard de dollars, sous réserve de certains ajustements (soit entre 900 millions et 1,2 milliard), Bank of America (BoA) vend l’activité de gestion d’actifs à long terme de Columbia Management à Ameriprise Financial, la maison-mère du britannique Threadneedle. Les actifs ainsi cédés (fonds d’actions et obligataires) représentaient environ 165 milliards de dollars fin juin. La transaction devrait être bouclée au printemps 2010.Bank of America a indiqué mercredi qu’elle n’a pas encore décidé du sort qui sera réservé aux activités de gestion d’actifs court terme de Columbia.Par ailleurs, Ken Lewis, le directeur général de BofA a annoncé son départ de la banque en décembre prochain.

Le fournisseur d’ETF Source a indiqué que ses actifs sous gestion s'élevaient désormais à 2,2 milliards de dollars, soit quelque 1,5 milliard d’euros, selon Hedge Week.En l’espace de deux mois, les nouveaux produits de Source, bien accueillis par les institutionnels, notamment par les hedge funds, ont recueilli près de 950 millions de dollars, soit environ 650 millions d’euros

A compter du 1er octobre, la délégation de la gestion de fonds de KBC Asset Management S.A. passe de KBC Asset Management Ltd à Dublin à Eperon Asset Management, une filiale à 100% de KBC asset Management NV Brüssel. La mesure concerne 21 compartiments de fonds. La gestion du risque stricto sensu reste inchangée, de même que les stratégies d’investissement, le processus de traitement des ordres ou encore les frais de gestion.

Jusqu’ici responsable de la banque privée, Mary Callahan Erdoes va prendre la direction des activités de gestion d’actifs chez JP Morgan, a indiqué la banque dans un communiqué. Mary Callahan Erdoes, qui prend la succession de Jes Staley, nommé CEO des activités de banque d’investissement, rejoint parallèlement l’Operating committee de JP Morgan Chase.Mary Callahan Erdoes avait rejoint la banque privée de JP Morgan en 1996 pour diriger le département «Fixed Income» à destination de la clientèle fortunée (les HNWI) et des fondations. Après avoir occupé différents autres postes de responsabilité, elle avait été nommée CEO de la banque privée en 2005 et rejoint l’Executive committee du groupe.

Dreyfus Corporation, filiale de BNY Mellon Asset Management, a annoncé le lancement de deux fonds de fonds.Le Dreyfus Satellite Alpha Fund sera investi dans des mutual funds conseillés par Dreyfus qui investissent eux-mêmes dans des classes d’actifs «non traditionnelles» comme les matières premières, les devises et l’immobilier.Pour sa part, le Dreyfus Diversified Global Fund investira dans des mutual funds d’actions américaines et étrangères conseillés par Dreyfus.

Thames River and Jupiter are launching new offshore products on the British and European markets, according to Investment Week. Thames River will offer two long/short funds in the first half of 2010, directed by Joel Amsellem and Gaurav Bamania. The two UCITS III vehicles will be domiciled in Dublin. Jupiter, for its part, has launched a new vehicle entitled Global Opportunities, as a sub-fund of its Global fund, domiciled in Luxembourg. The fund is dedicated to institutional clients, but the minimal investment is set at GBP1,000. The fund is primarily invested in international equities, and is benchmarked against the MSCI World, and will be managed by Malcolm Millar, manager of European Income unit trusts, and Ben Surtees, manager of Asian unit trusts and Asia Pacific Sicav funds.

SAC Capital, the USD16bn hedge fund group, has invested in a new London-based fund managed by one of its former traders, says the Financial Times. RWC Partners’ new US Absolute Alpha fund, run by Mike Corcell (ex-Threadneedle), is expected to launch on Thursday, according to people familiar with the situation. The fund has raised USD350m and should get a further USD200m.

Assets under management in the United Kingdom contracted by 12% last year, to a total of GBP3.7trn, International Financial Services London (IFSL), a body that promotes British financial services worldwide, reports. This contraction follows five consecutive years of increases, averaging 8%. Poor returns, falling subscriptions and redemptions to investors were to blame for this contraction. Initial indicators for 2009 show that the sector has begun to recover, with a 14% increase in January-July in assets in retail funds domiciled in the United Kingdom. IFSL reports that two thirds of assets in 2008 were held by institutionals, while 16% were represented by retail funds, and 9% were in hedge funds, while the remainder corresponded to private clients. Profit margins for fund managers fell to 23%, from 32% in 2007.

The fund management firm for Mutua Madrileña, Mutuactivos, last week launched the Mutuafondo Bonos Financieros fund. The product invests in bonds from European banks and insurers, which is a more conservative way of betting on the financial sector than through investment in equities, Expansión reports. The fund, which has already attracted EUR100m, is managed by Joaquín Álvarez-Borrás; securities in the portfolio will be rated at least BBB-, one notch above junk bonds, but the manager will focus on the leaders in each country. Until 15 October, subscriptions will carry no front-end fee. After that date, Mutuactivos will charge a 3% entry fee at subscription or in case of redemption after less than three years.

Société Générale Asset Management is launching SGAM Invest Inflation Duration Free, a product which, according to a statement from SGAM, offers investors “a simple and efficient means to profit, starting immediately, from an expected rise in inflation, without being penalised by the risk of a rise in general interest rate levels, which may follow in its wake.” The product is particularly well-suited to economic environments which have “inflationary” characteristics, related to strong growth in overall liquidity, a rising orientation in commodity prices, and increasing needs for financing. This type of environment is also likely to emerge at times when there is tension over interest rate levels. Inflation-indexes bonds may be subject to both the positive consequences of rising projections for inflation and the negative impact of rising interest rates. SGAM Invest Inflation Duration Free, a French-registered FCP, is primarily invested in inflation-indexed bonds issued by Euro-zone countries and denominated in Euros. Its benchmark index is the Barclays Capital Instep, specially created by Barclays for this fund. The SGAM Invest Inflation Duration Free also sets itself the goal of reducing the target sensitivity of the portfolio to zero, in order to protect itself against rising interest rates. To achieve this, the managers will use futures, options and swaps. The fund will be available for a minimal investment of EUR1,000 for AC class shares, and will also benefit from SGAM’s expertise in active management of exposure to observed and anticipated inflation, choice of investment supports (countries, type of indexation, swap or direct bond), and immunisation against sensitivity to movements in interest rates. The fund is, however, exposed to inflation indexation risks in case of deflation, as well as to interest rate risks and engagement risks, and does not guarantee that investors will recuperate their initial investment, SGAM warns.

Jonathan R. Levin, who joined Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) in 2004, and who has since been in charge of several strategic projects, has been appointed to the newly-created position of treasurer and head of investor relations. The appointment comes at a time when, on 1 October, the absorption by KKR of KKR Private Equity Investors (KPE), traded in Amsterdam, takes effect (see Newsmanagers of 21 July).

Bank of America (BoA) has announced the recruitment of Andrew M. Sieg, who is director of the emerging affluent clients segment at Citigroup, as managing director and head of retirement and philanthropic services at the global wealth and investment management (GWIM) division. He will be based in New York, and will report to Sallie Krawcheck, president of GWIM. The group that Sieg will direct provides custom retirement solutions as well as administration, accounting, custody, advising and processing services to businesses and organisations, their employees and members, in approximately 40,000 collective retirement savings plans.

In New York, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) is expected to be added to trading on the NYSE from this Thursday. The transfer from Amsterdam to Wall Street comes much sooner than expected, as it had initially been slated for late 2010 at the latest, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports.

The ETF provider Source has announced that its assets under management now total USD2.2bn, or about EUR1.5bn, according to Hedge Week. In the space of two months, new products from Source, which have been well-received by institutional investors, particularly hedge funds, have seen nearly USD950m, or about EUR650m, in inflows.

Bank of America agreed to sell Columbia’s long-term asset management business to Ameriprise Financial, the parent company of the UK firm Threadneedle, for about USD1bn. The sale (equities and bond funds) covers assets under management of about USD165bn as of June 30. The transaction will be concluded in spring 2010. Bank of America also said on Wednesday that it has not yet decided what to do with Columbia’s short-term asset management business.

From 1 October, the independent management firm GAM Holding Ltd has separated from Julius Baer Group, and its shares are now listed on the Swiss stock market SIX, under the acronym GAM. GAM Holding controls GAM Group AG and Swiss & Global Asset Management AG.

Asian Investor reports that Barclays Global Investors has opened a branch office in China, and that iShares now has a Chinese equivalent, whose name consists of two Chinese characters meaning “firm foundation” and “prosperity.” BGI would naturally like to develop its presence on the Chinese market, but many obstacles have yet to be overcome. The Chinese government and the Shanghai stock exchange have declared a desire to introduce international ETF funds to the local market in the near future. But Chinese regulators have made suggestions that they would give priority to Chinese businesses and their products before letting foreign competitors in on the market.

On Wednesday, Martin Currie announced the appointment of Dominik Issler as country head for Switzerland; he will join the firm on 4 January 2010. He will report to Eric Bateman, director, head of European sales. He was previously CEO of Fortis Investments/ABN Amro Asset Management for Switzerland.

In August, according to statistics from the German association BVI, the asset management industry overall saw net redemptions of EUR1.05bn, following net inflows of EUR3.13bn in July and EUR3.61bn in the corresponding month of last year. This result is primarily imputable to open-ended money market funds, which saw net outflows of EUR3.04bn, after EUR5.86bn in outflows already in July, and, to a lesser extent, to bond funds, from which net redemptions totalled EUR765m, compared with net inflows of EUR979m the previous month. In the first eight months of the year, institutional funds have seen inflows of EUR6.3bn, compared with EUR11.63bn in January-August 2008, while open-ended securities funds saw net outflows of EUR3.64bn, compared with net subscriptions of USD17.65bn. Open-ended equities funds attracted USD8.86bn in January-August 2009 (compared with USD538m), while money market funds saw outflows of USD19.96bn (compared with net subscriptions of USD4.4bn). Bond funds have notably seen outflows of USD1.51bn (compared with USD3.11bn), while real estate funds attracted USD3.04bn, compared with USD5.78bn.

ETFs have been by far the largest area of growth in inflows for funds on sale in Germany since the beginning of the year: between them, Barclays Global Investors (with its iShares brand), Commerz Derivatives Funds (ComStage), Deutsche Bank (with db x-trackers) and Deka (with ETFlab) have attracted a total of EUR5.13bn in January-August, while open-ended securities funds as a whole saw net outflows of EUR3.64bn. db x-trackers stands out with inflows of EUR2.96bn, ahead of ETFlab, with EUR1.35bn, while ComStage and iShares products have attracted EUR573.2m and EUR248.3m, respectively. Thanks to db x-trackers, the DB/DWS group is the only one of the major actors to post net subscriptions (of EUR1.44bn), while Deka (savings banks) has seen outflows of EUR5.42bn. Allianz Global Investors has seen net redemptions of EUR2bn, while Pioneer (UniCredit) and Union Investment (co-operative banks) show outflows of EUR964.7m and EUR815m. Only two actors show assets of over EUR100bn as of 31 August: DB?DWS, with EUR132.03bn, and Deka, with EUR105.56bn.

In the first eight months of the year, US bond funds attracted a net USD209.1bn, while net subscriptions to equities funds were limited to USD15.2bn, according to statistics from Morningstar, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Nine out of the ten funds which have seen the strongest net inflows are bond products.

Lyxor Asset Management announced on 29 September that it now has nine hedge funds on its managed account platform. Since January 2009, Lyxor has regularly increased the diversification of its investment universe, adding a new hedge fund in April, one in June, one in July, and four in August. Since the beginning of the year, assets under management on the platform have increased by USD3bn. The most recent fund, launched in September, is the Apollo Distressed Fund, which deploys an event-driven and risk arbitrage strategy.

GLG Partners has launched a new fund which is primarily aimed at British and European distressed firms, Hedge Week reports. The fund favours tradeable and liquid shares in firms engaged in long and difficult restructuring processes, which are generally prized by distressed activists. The fund, which has about USD300m in assets, had been managed internally since July 2008. But returns of 84% since January have motivated GLG to launch a special product for external investors.

The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) has warned the European Commission about possible tax obstacles to cross-border fund mergers once the future Ucits IV directive is implemented, says Ignites Europe. Asset management companies may be deterred from using cross-border mergers.

Agefi Switzerland reports that a migration of Brevan Howard to the shores of Lake Geneva, where it has planned to move 250 of its staff, though its operational activities will remain in London, is anything but a surprise. 18 months ago, in an informal meeting with the FSA (Financial Services Authority), the directors of Brevan Howard put pressure on the British government with the announcement that they were studying a departure from the United Kingdom if their fears about a large increase in taxes were confirmed. For the moment, Brevan Howard has limited itself to a succinct and evasive statement: “The parent company of the Brevan Howard group regularly studies commercial opportunities, and is preparing to move into offices in several jurisdictions, including Switzerland.” Brevan already has offices in New York, Washington, Hong Kong, Dublin, and Tel Aviv.

Georges Pauget, CEO of Crédit Agricole, announced on Wednesday that the bank would be withdrawing from tax havens in 2010, La Tribune reports. The bank will close its units in the Bahamas and Panama.

Mary Callahan Erdoes, previously head of private banking, will take over as director of asset management activities at JP Morgan, the bank has announced in a statement. Erdoes, who succeeds Jes Stanley, who has been appointed CEO of investment banking activities, will also join the Operating Committee at JP Morgan Chase. Erdoes joined the JP Morgan private bank in 1996, to direct the Fixed Income department for high net worth investors (HNWI) and charities. After serving in other positions of responsibility, she was appointed CEO of the private bank in 2005, and joined the Executive Committee of the group.

The German conglomerate MAN SE announced on Wednesday in a regulated statement that the American management firm Invesco had notified it that it had passed the 3%, 5% and 10% thresholds in its capital, and on that date controlled 10.42% of voting rights in the business.

Unione di Banche Italiane (UBI Banca) has sold its depository banking activities, serving more than EUR19bn in assets, primarily held on behalf of UBI Pramerica, the third-largest Italian asset management firm, to RBC Dexia Investor Services (RBC Dexia). The agreement includes several commitments from the corresponding bank, including one to provide payment agency services in Italy for Luxembourg Sicavs and UCITS funds in Dublin, if clients agree to the transfer. The transaction affects EUR93m in assets, and UBI Banca will earn a net capital gain of EUR80m, and a 10 basis point increase to its core tier 1 ratio. The operation, which will be concluded in the first half of 2010, is wholly financed with internal funds from RBC Dexia.