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15/06/2009

Spanish high net worth families in cautious mood

The survey “Nuevo horizonte, nuevos hábitos de inversión,” by Barclays Wealth and The Economist Intelligence Unit, finds that caution and aversion to risk are still the dominant theme in the behaviour of most Spanish high net worth investors, Cinco Días reports. Only 13% of these investors are planning to increase the risk levels in their portfolios in the next twelve months. Despite this, most of them think that the crisis has created opportunities on the market.
15/06/2009

Asset sales boost profits at BHF-Bank

For 2008, BHF-Bank (Sal. Oppenheim group) has posted pre-tax profits of EUR308m, compared with EUR91m, and net profits of EUR198m, compared with EUR70m, largely due to the sale of the firm’s custodial activities to a holding company controlled by the families that own Sal. Oppenheim. Cost-income ratio totalled 52.3%, compared with 78.7% in 2007.Asset management activities have seen a loss of EUR12m, compared with profits of EUR13m the previous year, while the private bank shows profits of EUR20m, compared with EUR43m.Assets for the asset management affiliates Frankfurt Trust and Frankfurt Trust Invest Luxembourg at the end of December totalled EUR15.9bn, which represents a contraction of only 10%, of which EUR6.3bn were in retail funds, and EUR9.6bn in institutional funds and mandates. However, Frankfurt Trust has posted net subscriptions of EUR1.5bn. The private bank, for its part, has brought in net inflows of EUR4bn.BHF-Bank has announced that it is planning to reduce its costs this year, and has not ruled out the possibility of layoffs.
15/06/2009

BlackRock-BGI will be a major player on the German market

The acquisition of Barclays Global Investors (BGI) by BlackRock will create an asset management firm of respectable size on the German market, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. The two asset management firms currently manage about USD50bn for German clients, of which USD10bn are in institutional portfolios, USD10bn in retail funds, and about USD30bn in iShares ETF products.
15/06/2009

Citigroup preparing to sell Nikko AM

Les Echos reports, citing Dow Jones Newswire, that Citigroup is preparing to sell Nikko Asset Management, its Japanese asset management affiliate. Dow Jones Newswire says the US bank will not be likely to get the USD1.2bn it had initially hoped for. Among the potential buyers are several Japanese financial institutions, including the insurer T&D Holdings, the brokerage firm Nomura, and Sumitomo Trust & Banking.
15/06/2009

Switzerland at centre of international expansion plans for Morgan Stanley

L’Agefi Switzerland reports that Switzerland will play a major role in the international development of Morgan Stanley, particularly through acquisitions. On the domestic Swiss market, Morgan Stanley will develop its activities outside wealth management, which has previously been its only area of activity in Switzerland. Making use of its new status as a licensed bank, which the group was required to adopt to receive US government aid through the TARP program, the group is planning to extend the range of banking services it offers in Switzerland, which are expected to include traditional financial intermediary services in the near future.
15/06/2009

Theo Paphitis resigns from board at La Senza

According to reports in the Sunday Times, Theo Paphitis has resigned from the board of directors at the lingerie chain La Senza, due to differences of opinion about strategy with other directors, and particularly with the private equity investor Lion Capital, to whom he sold the company in 2006 for GBP100m. He returned to the helm at the firm following the ousting of Rose Foster, CEO, in February. Two months later, he entered negotiations with Lion Capital to buy back a majority stake in La Senza; it appears that these negotiations were unsuccessful.
15/06/2009

Commodities interest wealth managers in Geneva

Commodities are attracting the interest of wealth managers based in Geneva, Le Temps reports. An allocation of 5% to 10% is typical nowadays, though they were only 1% to 3% two years ago, according to Patrick Witteveen, of ETF Securities, a British firm specialised in ETF products based on commodities and companies active in the commodities sector.
15/06/2009

Barclays recruits, moves towards investment banking

La Tribune reports that Barclays will hire 800 people to complete its acquisition of Lehman Brothers. The bank, which has just sold all of its asset management activities to BlackRock, is planning to focus on investment banking. After acquiting the US activities of Lehman Brothers and earning GBP1bn in pre-tax profits in first quarter, the bank is planning to add to its personnel in Europe. In addition to 350 people recruited in London for market trading activities, Barclays is planning to hire a further 350 for sales and research for its equities markets activities. Then, Barclays will concentrate on putting its business banking activities in order, beginning with “primary actions” - rights issues and IPOs, among others - for which the bank will hire several dozen people, La Tribune reports. The bank will then add to its staff in mergers and acquisitions, where European teams will grow to include 65 bankers, of whom 10 will be based in France, at the conclusion of the recruitment phase. This represents a rebalancing of the activities for the British bank, the newspaper observes. It was already present in credit and fixed income markets, as well as in bond issues, but it had no activities in investment banking related to equities markets.
15/06/2009

Paul Myners faces off with Brussels over hedge funds

UK City minister Paul Myners has declared that he will fight “tooth and nail” against a European Commission draft directive which would set limits on the amount of debt hedge funds are permitted to take on, the Sunday Times reports. The British politician is planning to meet with the Swedish deputy finance minister in ten days’ time, in an effort to get the draft changed, as Sweden takes over the EU presidency on 1 July. The largest London hedge funds are planning to launch a lobbying campaign against the planned European directive.
15/06/2009

Unigest offers reward to defectors from competitors

To all clients who transfer in an investment of at least EUR20,000 in its Unifond VIII from another fund management firm between 16 June and 15 September, Unigest is offering subscribers either a Tom Tom GPS navigator (value: EUR98) or a Sony digital camera (EUR102), Funds People reports. The Unifond VIII is a guaranteed fund which will be renewing its guarantee on 15 June, and which will become known as the Unifond 2012-V, according to a notice from the CNMV.
15/06/2009

Reyl AM reorients strategy of Reyl Asian Equities

The Reyl Asian Equities fund, which has recently moved to internal management within the firm, is changing its investment strategy. Reyl Asset Management has developed internal expertise in Asian equities, and is reorienting the fund to Asia ex-Japan; it was previously geographically exposed to all of Asia. With its new management strategy, the fund will gradually be more exposed to emerging markets, says Reyl Asset Management.
15/06/2009

SLI launches a recovery fund

Standard Life Investments (SLI) has announced the launch of an OEIC, UK Equity Recovery Fund, which will invest in UK equities with potential for mid to long-term recovery. The fund will be managed by David Cumming, head of UK equities. Front-end fee and management commission are 4% and 1.6%, respectively, while the TER for the fund is 1.8% and minimal subscription for retail shares is GBP500. The sub-fund of the SLIC II Umbrella fund uses the FTSE All Share Index as its benchmark.
15/06/2009

Curtain of banking confidentiality between France and Switzerland falls

France and Switzerland on Friday, 12 June signed signed the Franco-Swiss fiscal convention, which ends banking confidentiality and provides for exchanges of information between the tax authorities of the two countries. According to a statement from the French government, discussions between France and Switzerland “resulted in a new draft penned by the administrations of the two states, including an article which complies with the most recent OECD standards, by the terms of which Swiss legislation can no longer present obstacles to the transmission of banking information.” the French tax authorities will thus be able to obtain information, including details of bank accounts, from the Swiss authorities without restriction from 1 January 2010.
15/06/2009

French funds on the mend

Les Echos reports that the recovery phase began in May for French fund managers, in a context of a more positive market environment. After months of bad news, inflows returned to meaningful levels for funds invested in equities and diversified products, with respective monthly subscriptions of EUR1.63bn and EUR1.81bn, according to statistics from Europreformance-SIX Telekurs. Since the beginning of the year, products invested in equities have posted total gains of between 4% (funds invested in North American equities) and 12% (Asia-Pacific funds).
15/06/2009

Mutual funds outperform the S&P 500

In 2008, US equities funds lost an average of 38.9%, while the S&P 500 fell by 37%. Six of the largest ten actively-managed funds lost more than the S&P 500, The Wall Street Journal reports. YTD the average US equities fund as of 10 June shows performance of 9.9%, compared with 5.3% for the index, and eight of the ten largest funds are also outperforming the index. The Growth Fund of America from American Funds (USD131bn) is up 15%, and the Magellan fund from Fidelity has gained 19.7%.These results don’t mean fund managers have become more savvy; it is merely due to a preference for growth shares, which have gained nearly 11% since the beginning of the year, compared with 1% for value shares.The Journal points out that these good results have not immunised funds against redemptions: all of the ten largest actively-managed equities funds have seen net redemptions, according to Lipper.
12/06/2009
Fonds

Le private equity a bien résisté en 2008

En 2008, les investissements de private equity en Europe se sont contractés de 28 % à 54 milliards d’euros dans 5.400 entreprises, mais ils sont revenus au niveau de 2005, selon le rapport annuel de l’European Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (EVCA). La chute a été plus forte (- 40 %) pour les grandes et méga-opérations, aussi bien en montants qu’en nombre de transactions, tandis que les opérations de petite et de moyenne taille diminuaient de 30 % en valeur et de 15 en nombre.Cependant, malgré la crise, les capital-investisseurs ont réussi à drainer 79 milliards d’euros contre 81 milliards pour 2007. Les deuxième et troisième trimestres ont été particulièrement vigoureux, mais les rentrées ont chuté au quatrième.
Fonds
12/06/2009
Fonds

Jupiter va lancer un fonds de smidcaps japonaises

Le Jupiter Japan Select Fund sera lancé début juillet par Jupiter Asset Management. Ce nouveau produit de 40-55 lignes géré par Simon Somerville (par ailleurs gérant du Japan Income Fund) investira principalement dans les petites et moyennes capitalisations nippones mais pourra placer jusqu'à 20 % en actions hong-kongaises, sud-coréennes, taiwanaises, singapouriennes ou malaises ainsi qu’en emprunts d’Etat. Ce fonds, qui aura le Topix comme benchmark, sera l’un des huit compartiments de la Sicav luxembourgeoise Jupiter Global Fund.Le droit d’entrée et la commission de gestion se situeront à respectivement 5 % et 1,5 %. La souscription minimale sera de 1.000 dollars, euros ou livres sterling. Jupiter a prévu de commercialiser ce produits en Allemagne, Autriche, Finlande, France et Suède, au fur et à mesure qu’il obtiendra les agréments correspondants.
Fonds
12/06/2009

Nouveau comité exécutif chez Aviva France

Dans le cadre de sa stratégie mondiale «One Aviva, Twice the Value», en France et en Europe, Aviva France vient d’annoncer que sa réorganisation a pris effet le 2 juin. Avec cette nouvelle organisation, un nouveau comité exécutif a été nommé. Aux cotés de Jean-Pierre Menanteau, président directeur général, et de Philippe Sorret, directeur général délégué, il sera composé notamment de :- Jean-Luc François, directeur général délégué (Finance et risques)- Sylvain Rivet (en charge du partenariat avec l’Afer)- Nicolas Schimel (en charge de l’ensemble des réseaux de distribution en plus de ses responsabilités de directeur général d’UFF)- Eric Duval de la Guierce et Jean-François Boulier (respectivement directeur général et président du directoire d’Aviva Investors France).
12/06/2009

Colliers UFG PM acquiert EXA France

Filiale d’UFG Real Estate Managers (UFG REM), Colliers UFG PM a annoncé jeudi l’acquisition de la société de conseil en immobilier d’entreprise EXA France, une entreprise de 6,1 millions d’euros de CA créée en 2005 et présidée par Jean-Michel Andrieu.Depuis 2007, Colliers UFG PM, présidé par Jean-Louis Scudier, constitue un pôle autonome de property management et de transactions de dimension internationale. Il gère 4,2 millions de mètres carrés. Titulaire de la master license pour la France de Colliers international, la société dispose d’un réseau d’affiliés de 225 professionnels dans les principales métropoles. Elle compte 154 collaborateurs à Paris, Lyon et Montpellier et réalise un CA de 24 millions d’euros, tandis qu’EXA France emploie une quarantaine de personnes.Cette transaction permet à Colliers UFG PM de «s’associer les compétences de professionnels expérimentés et d’accélérer le développement de la partie conseil en immobilier d’entreprise». Le nouvel ensemble sous la marque Colliers UFG PM «se positionnera ainsi comme un leader des services immobiliers en France», précise le communiqué du groupe UFG.
12/06/2009

GLG Partners s'ouvre aux particuliers

GLG Partners veut être à l’avant garde de la convergence entre investissements alternatifs et traditionnels, indique le Financial Times Fund Management, qui a interviewé Pierre Lagrange, l’un des fondateurs de la société de gestion. Cette dernière a hérité d’une gamme de fonds «long only» avec le rachat de SGAM UK, renommés GLG, et prévoit de lancer certains de ses fonds offshore dans des enveloppes Ucits III pour le marché retail au Royaume-Uni.
12/06/2009

Le bénéfice de Rensburg chute de plus d'un quart

A fin 2008, l’encours de Rensburg Fund Management ressortait à 1,08 milliard de livres contre 1,47 milliard douze mois plus tôt, celui des «unit trusts» pongeant à 770 millions contre 1,08 milliard. Les sorties ont représenté 380 millions de livres, mais la contraction des actifs sous gestion est surtout imputable aux moins-values sur les marchés : les souscriptions se sont montées pour leur part à 470 millions de livres.D’après Investment Week, le bénéfice avant impôt a chuté l’an dernier de 26,5 % à 4,3 millions de livres. Le dividende final reste inchangé à 17 pence, de même que le dividende total, à 25,5 pence.
12/06/2009

L'équipe private equity d'Aberdeen se met à son compte

Bill Nixon, directeur de l’investissement de l'équipe de private equity chez Aberdeen Asset Management, a monté un MBO avec cinq senior executives de cette équipe, Andrew Craig, Jock Gardiner, Stella Panu, Bill Kennedy et Andrew Ferguson, rapporte MoneyMarketing. Leur nouvelle société, Maven Capital Partners, continuera de gérer les venture capital trusts d’Aberdeen (54 millions de livres) et le fonds Capital for Enterprise (30 millions de livres) pour le compte de Capital for Enterprise Managers. L'équipe de back-office en soutien des spécialistes du private equity rejoint aussi Maven.
12/06/2009

Axa dégraisse en Grande-Bretagne

Axa dégraisse en Grande-BretagneSelon la Tribune, Axa Insurance, filiale britannique de l’assureur français, a annoncé hier la suppression d’environ 560 postes au Royaume-Uni dans les prochains mois. « Nous devons arrêter les lignes de produits qui n’ont pas de succès et ne sont pas rentables », a expliqué le patron de la filiale Philippe Maso cité par le quotidien. Moins de la moitié des suppressions devrait se traduire par des licenciements.

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