Deutsche Bank is now actively offering the DB Dynamic ETF Selector Funds 2, 6 and 8 funds for sale in the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain. The products are UCITS III-compliant Luxembourg-registered absolute return funds, which invest in predetermined baskets of «in-house» ETF products, including both long and short funds, for which the weightings are adjusted on a monthly basis. The performance objectives for the funds, respectively, are the Eonia plus 1 percentage point, with 3% volatility, the Eonia plus 2 points, with 6% volatility, and the Eonia plus 2.5 points, with 8% volatility. The Selector 8 is authorised to invest exclusively in long-only funds. To protect subscribers against sudden falls on the market, the funds have a volatility trigger which automatically shifts all assets into money market ETF funds until the next rebalancing, whenever volatility attains 10%, 15% or 18% in three out of five consecutive trading days.
In the monthly rankings from Feri EuroRating Services on 31 May, only four asset management firms with at least 25 products on sale in Germany (which is the case for State Street, SGAM and Legg Mason) had A or B ratings for over 50% of their products. The firms which achieved this were Threadneedle, with 17 funds rated A or B out of 28, or 60.71%; BNY Mellon AM (28/63 or 52.83%); State Street (13/25 or 52 %), and Union Investment, the first German firm in the rankings (43/83 or 51.61%). The other major German asset management firms trail behind, with 44.34% for DWS (5th), 31.68% for Deka (11th), and 29.09% for Allianz Global Investors (12th). Perfect scores for Vitrivius, Carmignac and DJE In the category of asset management firms with at least eight funds on sale in Germany, 19 firms out of 76 have more than 50% of their products rated A or B by Feri. Three of them stand out: Vitruvius (9/9), Carmignac Gestion (8/8), and DJE (9/9), with 100% of their funds well-rated. In fourth place, StarCapital gets 87.60% (7/8), followed by M&G Securities with 71.43% (10/14).
Banque Sarasin & Cie SA on 26 June opened a branch in Bern. With the new location, Bern becomes the bank’s fifth Swiss city, after Basel, Geneva, Lugano, and Zurich.
The largest retail fund in the United Kingdom investing in parks, Hercules Unit Trust (GBP1.5bn), managed by British Land and Schroders, has obtained financial support from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, to help pay off its bondholders in a restructuring of a GBP800m debt facility. The North American fund will inject GBP100m in exchange for convertible bonds.
Das Investment reports that DWS Investments (Deutsche Bank) is said to be planning to close or merge 100 open-ended funds in Germany. If the reports are confirmed, the move would represent a serious cutback to the product range from the management firm, which currently includes 400 to 500 products. The rationalisation of the product range would apparently not be limited to exotic or trendy products, and would reportedly also affect the DWS Geldmarktfonds (EUR390m), which would be merged into the DWS Geldmarkt Plus. Lips were tight at DWS in Frankfurt on Friday, except for a statement that closures of funds which have limited potential are ultimately healthy and ongoing occurrences. It doesn’t make economic sense to indefinitely prolong the life of “redundant” funds merely because they were launched by asset management firms which have since been acquired by the Deutsche Bank group.
Gartmore has recruited Luke Newman as a portfolio manager. Newman, who previously worked on long only and long/short funds at Deutsche Asset Management, Foreign & Colonial and Altima Partners, will start work this Monday alongside Ben Wallace on the Gartmore UK Absolute Return and AlphaGen Octanis funds.
The Financial Times reports, citing the National Archives, that Nathan Mayer Rothschild, patriarch of the eponymous family, and James William Freshfield, founder of Freshfields, financially profited from slavery in British colonies, although the two City figures have often been portrayed as opponents of slavery.
Investment Week reports that Derek Fulton has joined the investment boutique Newscape Capital as CIO and board director, and will be in charge of asset allocation, strategy, and portfolio construction and management. Fulton was previously head of closed international bond portfolios at Aberdeen Asset Management.
Capital Market Risk Advisors and Risk Fundamentals have created a joint venture, which combines CMRA’s risk management consulting services with Risk Fundamental’s risk transparency software. The joint venture will allow the firms to offer integrated quantitative and qualitative risk management services to institutional investors, hedge funds, and funds of funds.
From the end of July, the DWS Invest Global Commodity will be withdrawn from sale, while the DWS Iberia fund will be liquidated in October, Das Investment reports. The DWS Zürich Invest Aktien Deutschland (EUR120m) will be absorbed into the DWS Deutschland fund on 11 December, while the DWS Zürich Invest Aktien Europa will be merged into the DWS Eurovesta in October. The CO2-Opportunities fund, launched with Aquila Capital in 2008, will be closed, as will the DWS Euro-Geldmarktfonds and the DWS Skandinavien. The DWS Geldmarktfonds will be absorbed by the DWS Geldmarkt Plus fund.
La Tribune reports that the United States public prosecutor is seeking a 150-year prison sentence for Bernard Madoff for his massive fraud, estimated at USD65m. This is the maximal sentence the law would allow, the newspaper reports. Prosecutor Lev Dassin says that “a long sentence would ensure that Madoff will remain in prison for life and strongly dissuade” others from following in his footsteps. The businessman seduced potential investors with investments that promised exceptional and constant, but fictive, returns. In reality, he financed returns paid to investors with money invested by new clients. Madoff conducted his fraud behind a veil of legal market-making and compensation activities, or the purchasing and selling of shares, La Tribune adds. The fall of the asset management firm was triggered last winter, when one of the funds of funds most exposed to the fraud, Fairfield Greenwich, with USD7.5bn invested with Madoff, sought to recuperate its capital.
Les Echos reports that the European Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes, announced on Friday that the European Commission may require British banks “to sell off some of their activities, in exchange for massive government assistance which they have received. … We will work with the British government to require banks in the United Kingdom to reimburse the government aid they have received as soon as possible, and to adopt business models which will force them to concentrate on what they do best,” she said.
The British regulator on Friday announced that it is indefinitely extending reporting requirements imposed on short-selling of financial sector shares, which would have expired on 30 June, La Tribune reports.
The Financial Times reports that Makit will Monday announce plans to launch four CDS indexes. They will be the first tradeable indices to focus on countries at risk of default. One index will cover the 15 countries of western Europe; another will track credit risks in 15 countries of central and eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
The 25-member Liechtenstein parliament (Landtag) has unanimously ratified an information-sharing agreement with the United States for taxation information, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. The agreement comes into effect on 1 January 2010, and will apply to the fiscal year 2009.
Selon la Tribune, le parquet de Paris a requis hier le renvoi en correctionnelle de l’ex-trader de la Société Générale Jérome Kerviel, notamment pour « faux, usage de faux et abus de confiance ». Le renvoi devant le tribunal est aussi demandé pour son ex-assistant Thomas Mougard.
En acquérant une partie des activités de Credit Suisse, Aberdeen Asset Management a élargi d’un coup son maillage géographique. C’est notamment le cas en France, où la société de gestion britannique n’était que faiblement représentée. Pour Martin Gilbert, CEO d’Aberdeen Asset Management, cette incursion dans l’Hexagone est un vrai motif de satisfaction. Lors du Fund Forum International à Monaco, il a précisé qu’environ 4 milliards d’euros seraient transférés en France de Credit Suisse à Aberdeen, sachant que la société de gestion britannique gère au total 103,9 milliards d’euros. Il ajoute que Philippe Troesch sera nommé CEO d’Aberdeen Asset Management France. La transaction sera bouclée le 1er juillet.
Après une réouverture des souscriptions entre les 2 et 16 juin, Credit Suisse Fondation de placement Real Estate Switzerland (CSF RES) a drainé largement plus que les 250 millions de francs suisses d’argent frais qui avaient été visés, puisque la collecte a porté sur 1,65 milliard de francs.
Sur la base de résultats préliminaires pour avril et mai ainsi que d’une estimation des résultats de juin, UBS prévoit d’accuser une perte nette au titre du deuxième trimestre 2009. La perte attendue est en grande partie imputable à des moins-values sur ses engagements ainsi qu'à des charges de restructuration déjà annoncées. En revanche, a indiqué jeudi soir le groupe helvétique, le résultat d’exploitation d’avril-juin devrait représenter une amélioration par rapport au premier trimestre de 2009 due pour l’essentiel à des conditions de marché plus favorables pour la banque d’investissement et à une réduction des pertes et dépréciations sur les positions à risque héritées du passé. Au deuxième trimestre, les trois divisions de gestion de fortune et de gestion d’actifs ont jusqu'à présent accusé des sorties nettes.Par ailleurs la banque a annoncé qu’elle propose 293.258.050 actions nouvelles à un nombre restreint d’investisseurs institutionnels au prix de 13 francs suisses par action. Cela devrait permettre de lever en termes nettes à près de 3,8 milliards de francs.
Quatre gestionnaires d’actifs, Erste Sparinvest (Erste Bank et caisses d'épargne), Schelhammer & Schattera, Kepler et RCM (groupe Raiffeisen) ont créé le Forum autrichien de l’investissement durable ou Forum Nachhaltige Geldanlagen Österreich (FNG), qui sera la branche autrichienne du FNG germanophone recouvrant l’Allemagne, l’Autriche et la Suisse et qui compte désormais 95 membres.Wolfgang Pinner, qui dirige l’activité investissement durable chez Erste Sparinvest, a indiqué à Newsmanagers que l’encours «core SRI» en Autriche représente environ 1 milliard d’euros actuellement, dont environ 80 % pour les quatre initiateurs du FNG Österreich. L’objectif est de doubler ces actifs sous gestion en l’espace de cinq ans, ce qui permettrait alors à l’Autriche de rattraper une partie de son retard par rapport aux pays leaders en Europe.
D’après VDOS Stochastics, rapporte Cinco Días, on a enregistré depuis le début de l’année le lancement en Espagne de 146 fonds, 98 étrangers et 48 espagnols. C’est plus du double du total enregistré pour la période correspondante de l’an dernier. Les gestionnaires les plus actifs dans ce domaine ont été le BBVA avec 7 fonds et le Santander ainsi qu’Invercaixa avec 5 fonds chacun.
L’aventure d’Altitude Investments, fruit d’un accord entre le BBVA et Schroders, est arrivée à sa fin. Le BBVA a notifié jeudi à la CNMV qu'à compter du 11 juin il a été mis fin à l’accord de délégation de gestion de fonds conclu entre BBVA et Altitude. Le BBVA a entamé la liquidation de ses deux fonds enregistrés en Espagne sous la marque Altitude, le Teide et le Veleta, indique Expansión. Le troisième produit, de droit luxembourgeois, a été liquidé début février. Le Teide et le Veleta affichaient au total 15 millions d’euros d’encours et avaient 111 souscripteurs. Au pic, ils avaient atteint 500 millions d’euros d’actifs sous gestion.
Depuis que la CNMV a rappelé que les établissements avec une notation inférieure à A6 (S&P et Fitch) ou A3 (Moody’s) ne sont pas autorisées à garantir des fonds d’investissement, le nombre des banques et caisses d'épargne enregistrées en Espagne (respectivement 75 et 45) susceptibles de fournir cette garantie a sensiblement fondu, rapporte Funds People. Cela est d’autant plus important que 56 % des fonds nouvellement lancés sur le marché espagnol sont des fonds garantis. A présent, on ne compte plus que que 13 banques et 10 caisses d'épargne «éligibles».parce que leur notation est supérieure au minimum requis. Sept établissements, dont quatre caisses d'épargne et une banque populaire, se qualifient de justesse. Dans cette dernière catégorie figurent des noms aussi connus que Bankinter et Banco Pastor.