Au premier semestre 2009, les filiales de gestion de La Banque Postale ont fait des étincelles. L'établissement a bénéficié du «développement soutenu» de ses filiales, indique le groupe dans un communiqué. Ainsi, la collecte nette de La banque Postale Asset Management (LBPAM) affiche sur le semestre une collecte nette de 4,24 milliards d’euros.Au 30 juin 2009, LBPAM gérait 118,1 milliards d’euros, contre 109 milliards d’euros au 31 décembre 2008, soit une progression de 8,35%. Elle se situe ainsi au sixième rang des sociétés de gestion sur le marché français. Selon les données d’Europerformance-SIX Telekurs, la part de marché de La Banque Postale en OPCVM est en progression à 4,23% fin juin 2009, contre 3,93% fin 2008. La Banque Postale souligne qu’après une année record en termes de collecte nette sur les OPCVM en 2008 avec plus de 6,5 milliards d’euros, l’activité auprès des institutionnels a été particulièrement dynamique au premier semestre 2009. La collecte nette a dépassé les 4,6 milliards d’euros contre 1,4 milliard au premier semestre 2008.De son côté, La Banque Postale Gestion Privée, n’a pas été en reste, bien au contraire. A la faveur de sa deuxième année d’activité, la société dédiée à la gestion sous mandat et détenue à 51% par La Banque Postale et 49% par Oddo & Cie, a enregistré «un très bon premier semestre», a souligné hier le président du directoire de La Banque Postale, Patrick Werner. Pour sa deuxième année complète de distribution active, la filiale de gestion privée enregistre l’ouverture de près de 1 100 nouveaux mandats de gestion, pour une collecte brute de 94,2 millions d’euros, soit une croissance de 71% par rapport à fin juin 2008. Les encours sous gestion sont passés de 180 millions d’euros à fin 2008 à 330 millions à fin août 2009.La Banque Postale souligne aussi qu'à fin juin 2009, l’ensemble des profils de gestion à dominante actions proposés par La Banque Postale Gestion Privée ont réalisé une surperformance comprise entre 580 et 620 points de base par rapport à leurs indices de référence. Evoquant les discussions engagées pour racheter la majorité du capital de Tocqueville Finance, Patrick Werner a précisé que La Banque Postale serait dans tous les cas majoritaire et que les négociations devraient aboutir d’ici à la fin de l’année. Par ailleurs, Patrick Werner a confirmé son intérêt pour un rachat éventuel de la Banque Palatine, filiale du groupe BPCE (Banque Populaire-Caisse d’Epargne). «Ce dossier continue de nous intéresser», a indiqué Patrick Werner, soulignant qu’il fallait attendre les conclusions de la revue stratégique en cours engagée par le groupe BPCE.

Selon les informations de Mutual Fund Wire, Jefferies Asset Management, filiale de Jefferies Group, a sollicité de la SEC l’autorisation de commercialiser un ETF répliquant un indice d’actions américain, le Initial Equity Fund et un indice obligataire, l’Initial Fixed Income Fund.

Le suisse Julius Baer Holding a annoncé mercredi que sa filiale américaine Artio Global Investors Inc. (maison-mère d’Artio Global Management LLC) vient de lancer la commercialisation de 23,4 millions d’actions ordinaires de classe A en vue de l’introduction en Bourse, l’option de surallocation (greenshoe) portant sur 3,51 millions de titres.Le produit de ce placement sera destiné au rachat de 21 millions d’actions ordinaires de classe C correspondant à 50 % de la participation détenue par Julius Baer Holding ainsi qu'à celui de deux fois 1,2 million d’actions ordinaires détenues respectivement par Richard Pell et Rudolph-Riad Younes.Les nouveaux titres seront cotés sur le New York Stock Exchange (symbole ART).

A fin août, l’encours des fonds de valeurs mobilières commercialisés au Portugal représentait près de 15,56 milliards d’euros, soit 4,4 % de plus qu’un mois plus tôt ; la hausse ressort à 8,5 % sur les huit premiers mois de l’année (14,34 milliards fin décembre). Cependant, précise l’association APFIPP, ce montant est encore inférieur de 19,4 % à celui de fin août 2008 (19,29 milliards).Le secteur a enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 512 millions d’euros en août, ce qui porte le total depuis le début de l’année à 8768,5 millions d’euros. Sur un an, les fonds ont accusé des sorties nettes de 2,43 milliards d’euros.Les trois plus grandes sociétés de gestion par le volume des encours sont Caixagest, avec 3,63 milliards d’euros, Esaf, avec 3,18 milliards et Santander Asset Management avec 2,88 milliards. La filiale du groupe espagnol est d’ailleurs celle qui a enregistré la plus forte hausse significative de ses actifs sous gestion depuis le début de l’année, avec 25,2 %, grâce à des souscriptions nettes de 521,4 millions d’euros, devant Esaf (+ 15 % et 244,5 millions). Barclays Wealth Managers Portugal, qui affiche 461,6 millions d’euros d’encours, a enregistré un gonflement de 65,1 % en huit mois et des souscriptions nettes de 158 millions d’euros (dont 45,2 millions en août).

In the most recent edition of its publication “Global Perspective,” Standard Life Investments (SLI) estimates that investors would do well to diversify their portfolios further at this time, though equities have recently proven to bring in better returns than government bonds and cash. SLI experts estimate that wider diversification of portfolios to combine equities, commercial real estate, and government bonds, is likely to generate the best returns for investors in the decade to come. The difference in performance between asset classes is expected to decrease, reflecting the observation that the structural declines in inflation and interest rates, which were the determining elements in returns in the 1980s and 1990s, are now coming to an end. Now, outlooks for global economic growth and therefore of cash flows at businesses will be likely to remain less robust than they have been historically, which will influence the performance of equities. However, following a period of volatile and weak returns, equities will be likely to be the best-performing asset class in the coming decade, which will provide investors with good inflation-adjusted returns, says Richard Batty, global investment strategist at SLI.

L’Echo reports that investors have regained confidence in outlooks for the markets. “Investors feel that the global economic recovery, driven by stimulus measures, will last, and are betting on assets considered higher-risk, such as equities,” says Chris Lafakis, on the Moody’s research site, Economy.com. Analysts at Credit Suisse are recommending that investors prefer equities to bonds and money markets, and are predicting 12% gains for European equities by mid-2010, the newspaper adds.

Until 15 January 2010, Bankinter is offering subscribers to funds from other asset management firms a 1% supplement to the total amounts they transfer to funds it offers, Funds People reports. The offer is valid for transfers of at least EUR3,000, and is limited to a total supplement of EUR1,000 per client. In addition, participating investors must agree to keep their money in Bankinter funds until at least 15 January 2012.

The Swiss asset management firm Julius Baer Holding announced on Wednesday that its US affiliate Artio Global Investors Inc. (parent company of Artio Global Management LLC) has placed 23.4 million ordinary class A shares on sale ahead of a listing on the stock exchange, with a greenshoe option totalling 3.51 million shares. The proceeds of the placement will be used to buy 21 million ordinary class C shares, corresponding to 50% of the stake held by Julius Baer Holding, and the two lots of 1.2 million ordinary shares held by Richard Pell and Rudolph-Riad Younes, respectively. The new shares will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol ART).

Investors in PAI Partners will meet on Wednesday to discuss the fate of the private equity firm, as a battle for control rages. Some large investors told the FT that they would push for a reduction of 30-50% reduction in its new EUR5.4bn fund, raised last year.

In first half 2009, the asset management affiliates of La Banque Postale performed very well. The Banque Postale benefited from the “sustained development” of its affiliates, the group says in a statement. Net inflows to La Banque Postale Asset Management in the half show net inflows of EUR4.24bn. As of 30 June 2009, La Banque Postale Asset Management managed EUR118.1bn, compared with EUR109bn as of 31 December 2008, an increase of 8.35%. This puts it in sixth place among management firms on the French market. According to statistics from Europerformance, the OPCVM market share for La Banque Postale was up to 4.23% as of the end of June 2009, from 3.93% at the end of 2008. La Banque Postale states that, following a record year in terms of net inflows to OPCVM funds in 2008, with more than EUR6.5bn, activities serving institutional investors have been particularly dynamic in first half. Net inflows have exceeded EUR4.6bn, compared with EUR1.5bn in first half 2008.

La Tribune asks whether, with the arrival of Quote MTF in Hungary, the stock markets have entered the low-cost era. The alternative platform is not exempt from the financial market instruments directive (MiFID), but it does profit from a more attractively-priced labour market. But it is not quite so easy to operate in isolation from the financial community, the newspaper reports. Quote MTF has chosen to locate its IT resources in London. But to attract users of the platform more readily, the platform is offering lower prices than its competitors in London.

Under the headline “Fonds de frappe,” given in French in the German newspaper, Financial Times Deutschland reports that Carmignac first appeared in Germany only in 2005, at the Fondskongress in Mannheim. Since then, the French management firm has quadrupled its assets, and Germany is now its largest foreign market, and the performance of its flagship funds, Patrimoine and Investissement, have been satisfactory. Carmignac is not the only French management boutique which has been causing headaches for better-established management firms in Germany. Assets under management in Germany at Comgest have risen from EUR150m in early 2006 to EUR1.5bn currently, largely due to its emerging markets fund Magellan. Mandarine Gestion, which began offering its funds for sale in Germany in December 2008, has posted subscriptions for its lead product, Valeur, of more than EUR200m this year, more than doubling assets in the fund.

The BVI confirmed to Newsmanagers on Tuesday that the Carmignac group has decided to cease publication of statistics on subscriptions and redemptions in Germany. It has therefore quit the association, in which it had been an “information member.” This is a first for the BVI, which has declined to provide details of the reasons given by the French asset management firm. The last monthly publication by the BVI of subscriptions and assets at Carmignac was in January 2009. As of 31 January, assets in 15 funds covered by the statistics total EUR1.66bn, while net subscriptions in January totalled EUR41.22m. Professional circles in Frankfurt consider that the French manager, which has posted significant net subscriptions in Germany, does not want the publication of partial statistics to lead to dubious extrapolations about capital raised in other European countries.

On Tuesday, Nordea Funds Service GmbH announced the recruitment of Thomas Marner, effective September 1, as director of distribution. Marner was previously senior client relationship manager, specialised in institutional investors “at an asset management firm in Frankfurt.” Along with Christian Betzel, he will be in charge of development of institutional clients and large banks.

RBC Dexia Investor Services has been selected by Vontobel Asset Management, an affiliate of the Swiss firm Bank Vontobel, to provide depository banking, fund administration, transfer agency, and record-keeping services for its Swiss-registered funds.

Chen Deming, Chinese commerce minister, has announced that regulations governing foreign investment will be gradually liberalised, Die Welt reports. The Chinese government is seeking to encourage investors to place their capital in alternative energies as well as in less-developed provinces in the central and western regions of the country.

Since July, the management team in charge of the diversified fund Deka-Stiftungen Balance, led by Thorsten Rühl, has been working in cooperation with the agency imug, to determine a universe of ethically correct shares, from which the asset management firm for the German savings banks will then construct the portfolio of the product, aimed primarily at small and mid-sized charities, but which is also available to pension funds, to savings banks for investments on their own behalf, and to religious organisations. Initially, the investment universe will be limited by exclusionary criteria such as sales of services or products related to abortion or the production of land mines. Selection then takes into account a variety of characteristics, such as the attitude of target firms to human rights, corruption, and animal testing of cosmetics. imug does not limit its analysis to equities and corporate bonds. With the assistance of the British agency EIRIS, it also ranges covered bonds (Pfandbriefe), as well as government bonds. The allows for SRI analysis of the complete portfolio. The fund was launched on 28 April 2003.

The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has estimated that the total deficit for 7,400 defined-benefit (DB) pension funds as of the end of August was GBP173.2bn, compared with GBP158.1bn one month earlier, and GBP133.9bn one year previously. The total deficit for 6,304 funds which show less than 1005 coverage increased to GBP194.6bn, from GBP179bn one month previously, and GBP92.7bn as of the end of August 2008, while total surplus for funds which show a surplus rose to GBP21.4bn, from GBP20.9bn one month earlier, far below the total of GBP53.4bn measured one year previously.

Money Marketing reports that Garratt Property Group is launching a Luxembourg-registered real estate fund aimed at investors hoping to profit from a rebound in the British residential real estate market. The management firm is offering the product to qualified and institutional investors, with a minimal subscription of GBP20,000. Garratt is aiming for assets of GBP50-100m, and total performance of 70-100% over five years.

Invesco Real Estate has announced that it has invested EUR75m in two buildings, in France and the United Kingdom, on behalf of the iii-BVK Europa-Immobilien-Spezialfonds, a German-registered institutional fund which the management firm has managed since 2000 for the Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK). The properties include a building in Edinburgh, purchased for about EUR65m, and a extension to an existing logistical platform in Orléans, currently under construction, acquired for EUR10.5m.

According to the annual rankings from Watson Wyatt, assets in the world’s 300 largest funds in 2008 fell by USD1.5trn to a total of USD10.4trn, of which USD4.7trn is in North America, USD3trn in Asia, and USD2.5trn in Europe, the Wall Street Journal reports. Some European funds saw particularly severe contractions, such as the Netherlands fund ABP, whose assets fell to USD243bn from USD315bn, or the Norwegian state pension fund, which lost USD32bn. In the case of the latter fund, capital losses were significantly higher, but tax revenues compensated for part of the losses.

Overlay Asset Management (OAM, BNP Paribas Investment Partners group) has announced the launch of the SingleHedge Currency Options Fund and the SingleHedge Multi-Strategy Currency Fund, Irish-registered products aimed at institutional clients in the currency alpha category. The former of these funds aims for positive returns from active positions on currency volatility and on directional bets on spot rates. The product is managed by Xavier Lefevre, head of portfolio management and trading. The Multi-Strategy Currency Fund is a feeder fund which combines exposure to three programs managed by OAM: the Developed Markets diversified Program, the Emerging Markets Currency Program, and the aforementioned currencies strategy. Investments in the underlying strategies are made in share classes that carry no fees.

According to reports in Mutual Fund Wire, Jefferies Asset Management, an affiliate of Jefferies Group, has applied to the SEC for permission to release an ETF replicating a US equities index, the Initial Equity Fund, and a bond index, the Initial Fixed Income Fund.

CCR Asset Management, born of the merger of the asset management affiliates of the CCR Group with UBS Global Asset Management France (SA) on 30 June 2009, to create a wholly-owned affiliate of the UBS group, on 1 July transformed its Centrale Actions Europe fund into a sustainable development fund entitled CCR Actions Engagement Durable. The new fund invests in all market cap sizes within the Euro zone. Value-style financial management is coupled with an engagement policy which involves active dialogue with firms to move them towards governance practices which are more respectful of ESG (environmental, social and governance) issues, explains Axylia, the advisor to CCR AM in the creation of the product. The investment process also involves the exclusion of certain practices and sectors, and the inclusion in the investment management process of ESG dimensions.

Following the EasyETF iTraxx® Europe HiVol and EasyETF iTraxx® Crossover funds, launched in 2008, EasyETF is now offering a third tracker of European credit derivatives markets: EasyETF iTraxx® Europe Main. The fund is a Luxembourg-registered FCP, which charges a management commission of 0.15%. The benchmark index includes 125 equally weighted credit derivatives of investment grade European businesses, whose ratings are above BBB- (Standard & Poor’s) or Baa3 (Moody’s). the market-maker for the EasyETF iTraxx Europe Main is BNP Paribas.

As of the end of August, assets in securities funds on sale in Portugal represented nearly EUR15.56bn, 4.4% more than one year earlier; the increase comes to 8.5% for the first eight months of the year (EUR14.34bn as of the end of December). However, the APFIPP association says, this total is still 19.4% below levels at the end of August 2008 (EUR19.29bn). The sector registered net subscriptions of EUR512m in August, which brings the total since the beginning of the year to EUR8.7685bn. On one year, funds have seen net outflows of EUR2.43bn. The three largest asset management firms by asset volumes are Caixagest, with EUR3.63bn, Esaf, with EUR3.18bn, and Santander Asset Management, with EUR2.88bn. The affiliate of the Spanish group is also the firm which has posted the largest increase in its assets under management since the beginning of the year, with growth of 25.2%, thanks to net subscriptions of EUR521.4m, putting it ahead of Esaf (+15% and EUR244.5m). Barclays Wealth Managers Portugal, which has EUR461.6m in assets, has posted a 65.1% increase in eight months, and net subscriptions of EUR158m (of which EUR45.2m were in August).

Fairfield Greenwich Group, considered to be the largest feeder of investors to Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, agreed to pay USD8 million to settle civil fraud charges filed by Massachusetts Secretary of State Willial Galvin, says the Wall Street Journal. The sum will be shared among 15 investors who lost money in the scheme.

Les Echos reports that the price of gold on 8 September passed the psychologically significant barrier of USD1,000 per ounce, peaking at USD1,007.70 early in the trading day, and then falling back but still above the USD1,000 mark. This is the third time that the price of gold has topped USD1,000 since 13 March 2008, when it passed this threshold for the first time in its history. Some of the most reputable experts remain doubtful that gold will be able to remain above this limit for sustained periods of time.

On its website, La Tribune reports that consumer credit fell by 10.4% year-on-year in July in the United States, a record decline for a single month. Assets in consumer credit fell by USD21.5bn in July compared with June, while economists were predicting a fall of USD4bn.

Alors que Volkswagen prépare une émission d'ABS de crédits automobiles, les marchés attendent un dégel du marché des RMBS britanniques