Selon les estimations de la CNMV, l’impact de la faillite de Lehman Brothers pour quelque 11.000 investisseurs espagnols s’est monté à presque 1,5 milliard d’euros et les entités qui ont commercialisé les produits ont enregistré 733 réclamations entre septembre et décembre 2008, rapporte Expansión. Les principaux établissements concernés sont Banif (la banque privée du Santander), Citibank, Bankinter, Barclays et Deutsche Bank. Au total, environ 20 maisons ont commercialisé des produits liés à Lehman. 87 clients ont été sinistrés de plus de 3 millions d’euros chacun. Le Santander et Fibanc ont choisi de rembourser leurs clients.Aux 1,15 milliard de pertes subies par les clients des banques s’ajoutent les 300 millions d’euros perdus par environ 450 fonds d’investissement.
La CNMV estime que les fonds espagnols détenaient au 30 novembre environ 15,5 milliards d’euros d’actions ou de titres non cotés qui pouvaient présenter des risques de liquidité, rapporte Expansión. Cela représentait 8,6 % de l’encours total. C’est le cas entre autres pour le Parvest Dynamic ABS de BNP Paribas ou du Credit Suisse Monetario.D’autre part, la CNMV souligne que les principales victimes de la chute des encours en 2008 ont été les gestionnaires étrangers, dont les actifs sous gestion ont fondu de 51,4 % à 18 milliards d’euros, essentiellement à cause des sociétés de gestion espagnoles qui étaient auparavant leurs meilleures clientes. Les principales plates-formes de fonds étrangers à fin 2008 étaient Banif (Santander), devant Allfunds (Santander et Sanpaolo Intesa) et JPMorgan.
Selon Funds People, l’Accurate Global Assets de Próxima Alfa, un hedge fund quantitatif systématique, est le meilleur hedge fund de droit espagnol, avec une performance de 9,33 % du 1er janvier au 20 mai et une volatilité de 7,57 %, ce qui équivaut à un ratio de Sharpe supérieur à 2,5.Ce produit à liquidité journalière, géré par Igor Alonso, Juan Pablo Calle et Narciso Vega, peut investir dans 72 sous-jacents différents, sur des marchés liquides et décorrélés. Pourtant, le BBVA a décidé en février de liquider la plate-forme Próxima Alfa, et les gérants recherchent un partenaire afin de poursuivre l’aventure. Ils envisagent, le cas échéant, de lancer une gamme de fonds sous la marque Accurate.
Les souscripteurs du fonds Heart of Africa recevront mercredi de New Star le produit de la cession de ce fonds au gestionnaire alternatif Duet Group, qui serait de 14,5 millions de livres, rapporte Investment Week. Cela équivaudrait à 17,66 pence par part, soit une décote de 21 % sur la valeur liquidative de février. Le nouveau Duet Africa Opportunities ne sera pas accessible aux particuliers.
Les investisseurs institutionnels et gérants de fortune européens sont 47 % à demander le développement d'ETF actions marchés émergents, selon l'Edhec. Ils sont 28 % à vouloir des produits sur les hedge funds.
Selon L’Agefi suisse, l’annonce il y a quelques jours par Julius Baer d’une scission de sa gestion d’actifs en une société cotée séparée, GAM Holding, amène les professionnels de l’asset management à revoir leurs scénarios. Car une consolidation est attendue par les experts, jugée même «inévitable » par certains. Fusion ou rachat, un rapprochement devient en effet le dernier moyen pour nombre de sociétés de gestion d’actifs de retrouver la taille critique requise pour être rentable dans ce métier. A côté de Barclays, qui envisage de céder son pôle gestion d’actifs pour quelque 10 milliards de livres, l’intérêt de la banque allemande de gestion privée Sal. Oppenheim pour la gestion d’actifs en Suisse suscite des interrogations.
En France, Franklin Templeton (420 milliards de dollars d’encours) était jusqu'à présent connu essentiellement pour ses fonds Mutual Series et Templeton, avec des biais value, voire deep value. A présent, le gestionnaire américain va s’attacher à faire connaître une autre facette de ses talents, la marque Franklin et Franklin Global Advisors (80,02 milliards de dollars, 60 professionnels de l’investissement) qui était surtout focalisée sur les Etats-Unis.Le CIO en est Edward Jamieson à San Mateo (Californie), assisté de deux directors pour la gestion portefeuille et d’un patron de la recherche mondiale sur les actions. L'état-major comprend également Coleen Barbeau, également directrice pour la gestion de portefeuille, basée à New York et, depuis juin 2007, Uwe Zoellner, qui vient de la partie Templeton (Edimbourg) et que director pour la gestion de portefeuille. La recherche sur les actions européennes emploie actuellement trois personnes, dont deux à Londres, et l’on peut s’attendre que cette équipe atteigne sept personnes d’ici à la fin de cette année, si la situation s’y prête.
Selon Michael John Lytle, directeur du marketing de Source, interrogé par Le Temps, deux problèmes freinent le développement des ETF en Europe : une grande fragmentation de la liquidité sur les produits, due à la multiplication des ETF sur un même indice, et le risque de contrepartie. Les banques cumulent en effet selon Hector McNeil, managing partner chez ETF Securities, le rôle d'émetteur, de promoteur et de contrepartie. «Mais si elles viennent à rencontrer un problème, le tracker va lui aussi souffrir», souligne-t-il.
Selon L’Agefi suisse, les tentatives de se passer des gérants pour faire de la gestion privée restent limitées et peu concluantes. La banque en ligne belge Keytrade a ainsi développé un logiciel d’aide à la décision qui permet de construire un portefeuille en fonction du profil de risque. De son côté, Swissquote a choisi un modèle de type analytique, qui fait intervenir des algorithmes mathématiques sur des séries de données historiques. Les autres acteurs du trading en ligne se montrent plutôt dubitatifs face à ces logiciels d’aide à la décision et préfèrent laisser aux clients le soin de choisir où investir.
Deutsche Börse announced on Tuesday that it has admitted five new German-registered iShares ETF products to trading on the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic platform. This brings the number of ETF products listed on Xetra to 450. The five funds have been listed since March on the London Stock Exchange. The new funds include four bond products and one equities ETF. The first of the bond funds, the iShares Barclays Euro Aggregate Bond ETF, carries a management commission of 0.25%. The other three, which charge management commissions of 0.20%, are the iShares Barclays Euro Corporate Bond ETF, the iShares Barclays Euro Treasury Bond 0-1 ETF, and the iShares Citigroup Global Government Bond ETF. The equities fund is the iShares MSCI GCC Countries Ex-Saudi Arabia ETF, which is an addition to the range of emerging markets products, and invests in countries belonging to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), excepting Saudi Arabia, with a marked preference for the financial sector. Management commission is set at 0.80%.
On 1st September, Roderick Munsters, who has been a member of the executive board and chief investment officer (CIO) for the APG fund (an affiliate of the pension fund ABP) since 1 March 2005, will succeed George Möller as CEO of Robeco Groep (Rabobank group).
According to estimates by the Spanish market regulator, CNMV, the impact of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy on approximately 11,000 Spanish investors totalled nearly EUR1.5bn, and the firms which offered Lehman products for sale registered 733 claims between September and December 2008, Expansión reports. The companies which have been the most affected are Banif (the private bank of the Santander group), Citibank, Bankinter, Barclays and Deutsche Bank. In total, about 20 firms offered products with ties to Lehman. 87 clients lost more than EUR3m each. Santander and Fibanc have chosen to reimburse their clients for Lehman-related losses. In addition to EUR1.15bn in losses for banking clients, EUR300m were lost by about 450 investment funds.
Overlay Asset Management (OAM) has announced the appointment of Philip Bond as head of research; he will report to Hélie d’Hautefort, managing director and CIO. Bond, who joined the firm on 26 May, will be chairman of the research committee at OAM and a member of the investment and executive committees. In his 18-year career, Bond has worked for Credit Suisse and JP Morgan as an arbitrage trader, developed quantitative trading strategies at Brevan Howard, and managed a systematic trading platform at Peloton Partners. At the end of December 2008, OAM (BNP Paribas Investment Partners group) had USD14.3bn in assets.
Santander has reached an agreement with Irving H. Picard, the court-appointed receiver to liquidate the assets of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, totalling USD235m, or EUR169m, to settle all legal proceedings filed in the United States against the Spanish bank, Cinco Días reports. The agreement will now be sent to the bankruptcy court for approval. Picard has admitted that the conduct of Santander in the Madoff affair was not fraudulent, and that there are not grounds to sue the bank or its Optimal funds for damages.
The tide has turned in first quarter 2009. According to statistics from the European asset management association EFAMA, UCITS funds have had net inflows of EUR22bn in first quarter, after six consecutive quarters of net outflows, since the first outbreak of the financial crisis in summer 2007. Net outflows from equities and bond funds have slowed considerably in January-March, while money market funds saw strong net inflows. Turbulence in February and March destabilized investors once again, but net outflows remained small. Assets in UCITS funds were down 1.4% in first quarter to EUR4.494trn. Assets in UCITS and non-UCITS funds were also down 1.4%, to EUR6.022trn.
Selon Michael John Lytle, directeur du marketing de Source, interrogé par Le Temps, deux problèmes freinent le développement des ETF en Europe : une grande fragmentation de la liquidité sur les produits, due à la multiplication des ETF sur un même indice, et le risque de contrepartie. Les banques cumulent en effet selon Hector McNeil, managing partner chez ETF Securities, le rôle d'émetteur, de promoteur et de contrepartie. «Mais si elles viennent à rencontrer un problème, le tracker va lui aussi souffrir», souligne-t-il.
According to Investment Week, New Star today will pay 17.66p per share to holders of the Heart of Africa fund, which has been sold to alternative fund manager Duet Group. This is a 21% mark-down on the fund’s NAV in February.
According to Janvier Santiso, an economist who is in charge at the OECD Development Centre in Paris, sovereign wealth funds presently tend to shun developed countries an to focus on emerging economies, Le Temps repots. Presently, according to OECD figures, somme 69% of their AUM are invested in North America and Europe. SWFs now invest between 7 and 10% of their assets on equity markets in emerging countries..
In France, Franklin Templeton (USD420bn in assets) was previously known largely for its Mutual Series and Templeton funds, with a value or deep value management style. Now, the US-based manager is planning to highlight another facet of its talent, under the Franklin Global Advisors brand (USD80.02bn, 60 investment professionals), which was previously largely oriented to the United States. The CIO of Franklin is Edward Jamieson, based in San Mateo, California, assisted by two directors for portfolio management, and a head of global equities research. The team also includes Coleen Barbeau, director for portfolio management, who is based in New York, and, since June 2007, Uwe Zoellner, who joins from the Templeton (Edinburgh) part of the company, and who is also director for portfolio management. European equities research currently employs three people, two of whom are in London, and the team may grow to seven by the end of the year, if the situation calls for it.
The German real estate management firm DEGI (EUR6bn in assets), an affiliate of Aberdeen Property Advisors since 27 March 2008, on Tuesday announced a cooperation agreement with EPM Assetis, one of the leading property management providers in Germany, which will take over the commercial and technical administration of all properties located in Germany in DEGI’s real estate portfolios. This will allow DEGI to focus on launching and managing real estate funds, says Bärbel Schomberg, chairman of the board of directors at DEGI. EPM Assetis, which belongs to Bilfinger Berger Facility Services, is no stranger to DEGI, as the two firms are already tied by a service agreement covering commercial, technical and “infrastructure” management of some DEGI properties. DEGI employees who were previously responsible for the duties now contracted to EPM Assetis will be transferred to the latter firm.
In a letter to its 3,900 employees, DekaBank, the central asset management provider for the German savings banks, has announced that it is planning to reduce its costs by EUR186m by 2011, a cut of about 20% from its 2008 expenses, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. This will involve the elimination of 175 currently vacant positions, reduced use of part-time employees, and non-renewal of fixed-term work contracts, but, so far, no unilateral layoffs of full-time personnel.
At the bank’s AGM on Tuesday, Josef Ackermann, chairman of the managing board, announced that following pre-tax profits of EUR1.8bn in first quarter, Deutsche Bank has made robust progress in April and May, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Fund management, which had previously operated at a loss, will be profitable in the second half. By 2012, the chairman added, the bank is planning to open 400 new branches and to recruit 2,500 new advisors.
At yesterday’s Deutsche Bank AGM, Josef Ackermann, chairman of the managing board, announced that the launch process for new funds will be scaled back, and that settlement costs will be reduced, Handelsblatt reports. He stated that institutional management and open-ended fund activities will continue to be an integral part of the asset management division of the group, putting an end to speculation that DWS could be sold off or spun off. Back office procedures will be further streamlined, and Deutsche Bank will reduce the number of new funds, particularly in the area of thematic products.
SEB Asset Management has launched SEB Real Estate Portfolio, a Luxembourg-registered real estate fund of funds (part II) which has recently been licensed for sale in Sweden. The fund is an innovation on the local market, where open-ended real estate funds did not exist, says Barbara Knoflach, chairman of the board at SEB Asset Management Deutschland, the unit responsible for developing the fund, which manages EUR10bn in real estate assets. The new product, managed by Thorsten Schilling, formerly of Feri Rating & Research, who joined SEB AM in October 2006 as global real estate strategist and fund manager, will follow a defensive strategy. It will invest 60% to 90% of its assets in open-ended real estate funds, up to 20% in shares in real estate companies, and up to 20% in cash. In terms of sector allocation, the SEB Real Estate Portfolio will focus principally on office properties, over commercial and logistical/other properties.
Accoring to the Spanish market regulator, CNMV, Spanish funds had about EUR15.5bn in shares or non-publicly traded participations as of 30 November which could present risks due to insufficient liquidity, Expansión reports. This represents 8.6% of total assets. Among others, products at risk include the Parvest Dynamic ABS from BNP Paribas and the Credit Suisse Monetario fund. The CNMV also says the major victims of the decline in assets in 2008 were foreign asset management firms, whose assets under management fell 51.4% to EUR18bn, largely due to redemptions by Spanish asset management firms that had previously been their best clients. The largest fund platforms at the end of 2008 were Banif (Santander), followed by Allfunds (Santander and Sanpaolo Intesa) and JPMorgan.
Funds People reports that the Accurate Global Assets from Próxima Alfa, a systematic quant hedge fund manager, is the best Spanish-registered hedge fund, with performance of 9.33% from 1 January to 20 May, and a volatility of 7.57%, which is equivalent to a Sharpe ratio of over 2.5. The product has daily liquidity, is managed by Igor Alonso, Juan Pablo Calle and Narciso Vega, and may invest in 72 different underlying assets, in liquid and uncorrelated markets. The BBVA decided in February to liquidate the Próxima Alfa platform, and managers are seeking a partner to continue the adventure. They are planning to launch a range of funds under the Accurate brand if possible.
The institutional investor confidence index calculated by State Street Global Markets came in at 106.3 points in May, compared with 103.2 in April and 95.2 in March. Though appetite for risk has declined in Asia, with a fall of 4.9 points to 93, risk appetite has risen strongly in Europe (to 84.3 from 76.8) and in North America (to 104.9 from 95.3). The index has been recalibrated, as announced last month (see Newsmanagers of 22 April), so that all values for the index above a “neutral” level of 100 indicate that institutional investors are increasing their allocations to high-risk assets, while all values below 100 indicate a reduction of those allocations. By the old units of measurement, the index would stand at 79.6 for April, compared with 70.2 in March.
Jean-Louis Nakamura, chairman of the managing board at Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch Gestion in Paris, says one of the centers of excellence chosen by the Swiss bank as an area of focus is emerging markets. Lombard Odier has not hesitated to put its resources into realizing its ambitions with the formation of an eight-member team, led by Chris Butler, who joined the firm last autumn, and who recruited most of his partners. The team includes two portfolio managers: one for Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) and Latin America, and the other for Asia ex Japan. Following reclassifications and closures of funds, the range now includes four conviction-style products, one Global Emerging Markets fund (USD87m as of 12 May, 50-60 positions), a Pacific Rim fund (USD170m, 40-50 positions), a Greater China fund (USD75m), and an EMEA fund (USD24m); the last two of these products have 30-40 positions each. According to Curtis Butler, the new unit could eventually manage assets of up to USD5bn, the volume he previously managed at Batterymarch (Legg Mason). The universe includes about 2,000 equities.
Union Investment Real Estate has invested about EUR104.3m in the West-Park office property in Zurich, measuring 26,900 square metres. The property, which is 94% occupied, will be added to the portfolio of the open-ended real estate fune UniImmo: Global. The building is home to the offices of the Swiss post office, Barry Callebaut and BearingPoint. The portfolio of the fund currently represents about EUR2.4bn, invested in properties located in fourteen countries of Europe, the Americas, and Asia.
Cinco Días reports that the Economic committee of the Spanish Congress has decided to send a bill to reform the rules governing disclosure of “significant participations” in banks and asset management firms operating on the Spanish market to the Senate for a vote. The bill includes modifications which would include fund managers, and which would double the threshold at which “significant participations” are subject to obligatory disclosure to the CNMV to 20%. Subsequent thresholds come at 30% and 50%.