On 23 October, First Trust Advisors (USD76bn) will launch the First Trust Global Tactical Commodity Strategy Fund Fund (ticker: FTGC) on Nasdaq, an actively-managed ETF which will provide exposure to commodities while aiming for a relatively stable risk profile, by investing a maximum of 25% of its assets in futures contracts on commodities and publicly-traded commodity-based instruments via a wholly-owned subsidiary. The remaining assets will primarily be invested in short-term investment grade bonds, money market instruments, ETFs and other funds, as well as in cash. The fund will be managed on a day-to-day bases by Rob Guttschow, senior portfolio manager, and John Gambla, who will report to an investment committee with six members.
Mirabaud at the beginning of this month launched a flexible and global bond fund, the Global Strategic Bond Fund, which assets of over USD100m. The product is an absolute return fund “which aims to seize all opportunities in the bond universe during various economic cycles, including the current phase of quantitative easing,” a statement explains. It is managed by Andrew Lake, head of high yield and a fixed income specialist, and Fatima Luis, senior portfolio manager, who recently joined the asset management firm. Alexander Lushnikov will reinforce this team based in London. “The primary driver of performance for the new fund will be active management of duration and exposure to credit over economic cycles,” says Lake, who already managed a similar bond fund at Aviva Investors before joining Mirabaud a year ago. Characteristics Management fees: 1.2% (A class) ISIN A cap. USD LU0963986202 AH cap. EUR LU0963986467 AH cap. GBP LU0963986624 AH cap. CHF LU0963986970
The International Organization of Securities Commissions has published the Report on the Second IOSCO Hedge Fund Survey, which describes the comprehensive and global effort by relevant regulators to better understand the hedge fund industry and its salient features.The aim of the IOSCO survey is to gather data from hedge fund managers and advisers about the markets in which they operate, their trading activities, leverage, funding and counterparty information. It forms part of IOSCO’s efforts to support the G 20 initiative to mitigate risk associated with hedge fund trading and traditional opacity.The hedge survey gathered data on 1,044 qualifying funds. The United States and the United Kingdom are the two predominant regions where hedge fund managers/advisers are located. The funds captured in the survey represented USD1.94 trillion in total net assets under management.These funds are usually domiciled in offshore jurisdictions in order to benefit from more favorable tax and regulatory regimes. The Cayman Islands have been the predominant domicile for these funds.The report indicates that the single most represented strategy among active funds is equity oriented. Macro-oriented and multi-strategy funds are also significant.Finally, the survey indicated that under current market conditions few funds actually need to restrict investor liquidity.
Jupiter has recruited Robert Siddles from F&C to manage US small cap portfolios, Investment Week reports. He previously worked at F&C, and brings his US Small Cap trust fund, with GBP150m.
The case has made the financial universe hold its breath, and especially rivals of JPMorgan, who may face a precedent in negotiations to come from the agreement now being finalised between the firm and the US authorities. Accoding to Agefi, Reuters reported on Tuesday that, far from being an exemplary showpiece, the agreement may ultimately cost the US bank USD4bn less, or USD9bn, due to tax decuctibility of a large part of the sums due. JPMorgan says that as of the end of September, it has built up USD23bn in provisions for legal risks, of which USD7.2bn were writted down in the past quarter.
L’activité britannique de Lazard Asset Management a vu son bénéfice chuter de 75 % à 2,3 millions de livres en 2012, après une augmentation des rachats et un bond en avant des coûts, rapporte Investment Week. Les rachats se sont montés à 900 millions de livres et les encours sous gestion sont ressortis à 12,6 milliards de livres.
Tokio Marine Asset Management has appointed Hiroyasu Sato as the new lead manager of the Japanese Equity Focus fund, replacing Akira Sato, Citywire Global reports. Sato will remain at the Japanese group in a position in which he will supervise the investment team.
The Italian pension fund Fonchim has awarded Natixis Management a contract to manage a EUR330m mandate as part of its “stability” sub-fund, Bluerating reports. The active mandate covers short-term government bonds with a BofA Merrill Lynch Pan Europe Governments Total Return Index 1-4 year hedged in euros as its benchmark. It will be managed by Olivier De Larouzière, head of the fixed income team at Natixis AM.
The Nordic countries are expected to lead the boom in European exchange-traded fund (ETF) sales, as they are coming from a low base, with a growth of 40% forecast over the next three to five years, according to Cerulli. Capitalizing on the trend, Nordea and Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management have lately launched a series of ETFs targeting the Nordic bloc.According to reports in Veckans Affärer earlier this year, the Swedish ETF market, and the Scandinavian market more broadly, is dominated by the local player Xact, controlled by Handelsbanken. 85% of assets under management in ETFs in Scandinavian countries is at Xact. Xact has about SEK20bn under management in 25 ETFs.In Europe, 5-7% of assets under management are invested in ETFs, compared with only 1% in Scandinavian countries, Veckans Affärer notes.
The European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) has appointed Sophie Vuarlot-Dignac to head its legal, cooperation and convergence unit, one of its largest divisions, Financial News reveals. Vuarlot-Dignac, who began at ESMA last week, has served in various roles at the French prudential and resolution control authority.
The future development of an Asia-wide fund passporting solution is considered as a threat to Ucits for 90.4% of the 59 managers surveyed by Cerulli in July. In addition, the China-Hong Kong mutual recognition is viewed as a threat by 78.7% of managers.Regulators in Asia are considering ways of facilitating cross-border distribution in the region, either by creating a regional alternative to UCITS (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) or via bilateral agreements between countries. As Asia is currently the main importer of UCITS outside of Europe, industry practitioners are understandably concerned that these initiatives will one day become a reality. An immediate concern is negotiations between China and Hong Kong for the mutual recognition of mutual funds and unit trusts in each other’s jurisdiction. However, bilateral agreements might not necessarily work against UCITS. «There is nothing to stop China extending its offer to other domiciles such as Taiwan, Singapore, and even countries beyond Asia, such as Luxembourg,» noted Angelos Gousios, senior analyst at Cerulli Associates. «Chinese managers are keen to expand their presence in Europe. For that to happen, regulators in Europe would have to insist that UCITS is part of the deal and that providers be allowed access to China.» Barbara Wall, a Cerulli director, added, «Managers should not lose sight of the fact that Europe is still by far the largest market for UCITS, representing three-quarters of total cross-border UCITS assets. Asia-Pacific is the second-largest market but the region had only 15% marketshare at the end of 2012, a modest two percentage point increase since 2009."*The Cerulli Edge - European Monthly Product Trends Edition, October 2013 Issue.
The Swiss banking group SYZ & CO is attacking the Latin American institutilnal markets, with the registration in Chile of the Oyster European Opportunities fund, according to a statement released on 22 October. The target clients are primarily local pension funds, a rapidly-growing category of investors in the Andean region. In the past foue years, the major South American countries have constructed private pension funds through capitalisation, which allow retail investors to save for their retirement and complement public distribution systems. Assets in these pension funds are growing strongly, and are expected to reach USD800bn by the end of 2013, with potential for uSd250bn for international investments. In order to provide distribution of Oyster funds to pension fund administrators, SYZ & CO has signed an agreemnt with HMC, a Chilean specialist in institutional distribution in the Andean markets.
In third quarter 2013, State Street has seen an increase in its assets under management of 4.4%, to USD2.241trn. Compared with the previous year, assets are up 8.5%. Asstes under custody, for their part, totalled USD26.033trn, up 1.1% for the quarter and 11.1% for one year.
GAM will be cutting back its offices in London and Zurich, after announcing that its assets are stagnating, due to the falling US dollar, Investment Week reports. The asset management firm will be abandoning its offices at 12 St James’s Place, as well as another office in Zurich.
The hedge fund firm SAC Capital will close its London office, with 50 employees, by the end of this year, the Financial Times reports, citing statements to employees. The closure reveals that the legal issues dogging the company in the United States are requiring founder Steve Cohen to reduce spending. An internal memo to employees also reveals that six managers in the United States were laid off earlier this week. SAC Capital is currently negotiating a settlement of over USD1bn over accusations of insider trading.
La Française on Tuesday, 22 October announced the recruitment of Philippe Peirs as head of international real estate development. Peirs worked for 20 years at Société Générale, where his most recent position was managing director and head of the Private Equity Fundraising department. He will be based in London, and will “seek opportunities in the pan-European and Asian regions, as well as the Middle East, and will work in close collaboration with Forum Partners, the global partner of La Française specialised in the management of real estate investments,” a statement says. The appointment of Peirs comes shortly after the acquisition of a stake of nearly 25% in Forum Partners by La Française (see Newsmanagers of 12/09/2013).
Le gouvernement allemand a confirmé mercredi sa prévision d’une croissance de 0,5% en 2013, tout en relevant légèrement celle de 2014, suivant les nouvelles projections du ministère de l’Economie publiées mercredi. Berlin prévoit donéravant 1,7% de croissance l’an prochain contre 1,6% anticipé en avril.
L'économie espagnole a enregistré une croissance de 0,1% au troisième trimestre par rapport au précédent, selon les estimations de la Banque d’Espagne. Sur un an, la contraction du PIB atteint 1,2% à fin septembre. Le retour à la croissance est dû à la contribution des exportations, précise la Banque d’Espagne dans son bulletin mensuel. Madrid doit dévoiler le 31 octobre son estimation préliminaire du PIB du troisième trimestre.
Le climat général des affaires en France s’est stabilisé en octobre en France après cinq mois consécutifs de hausse, selon les données publiées mercredi par l’Insee. Il stagne à 95 et reste sous sa moyenne de longue période, qui s'établit à 100. Celui de la seule industrie manufacturière a progressé d’un point, à 98, soit le niveau anticipé en moyenne par les économistes interrogés par Reuters, mais celui des services s’est replié d’un point à 93.
La Facilité européenne de stabilité financière, qui continue à financer les programmes d’aide existants à l’Irlande, à la Grèce et au Portugal, a émis hier un emprunt benchmark de 6 milliards d ‘euros à 7 ans. Le pare-feu européen a trouvé une marge de 20 points de base au-dessus des mid-swaps. Le livre d’ordres a dépassé 10,5 milliards. BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse et Morgan Stanley ont dirigé la transaction.
Le gestionnaire alternatif américain dirigé par Steven Cohen, sous le coup d’une enquête outre-Atlantique pour délit d’initiés, va fermer son bureau londonien d’ici la fin de l’année, selon une note interne.
Le département du Bas-Rhin a levé auprès d’investisseurs institutionnels 10 millions d’euros. L’opération réalisée sur une maturité de 10 ans bénéficie d’un coupon d’Euribor 3 mois + 82 points de base. Elle constitue la première émission du Bas-Rhin dans le cadre de son programme EMTN («euro medium term notes») de 750 millions d’euros. La Société Générale était chef de file.
Le fonds alternatif activiste TCI (The Children’s Investment Fund) est selon des documents réglementaires entré à hauteur de 5% au capital de l’opérateur postal britannique, devenant le plus important actionnaire en dehors du gouvernement local. Le fonds n’a pas souhaité commenter cette prise de participation, qui pourrait ne pas donner lieu à un comportement activiste.
Mary Jo White, la présidente du gendarme des marchés américains, a indiqué hier qu’un récent passage au crible de quelque 400 millions de transactions grâce à des systèmes renforcés avait permis de mettre au jour «une grande variété» d’abus de la part des professionnels des marchés, passant par des contrôles inadaptés, de mauvais conseils ou des incitations au trading afin de dynamiser les commissions.
Raoul Weil, ancien patron des activités mondiales de gestion de fortune d’UBS, recherché par les Etats-Unis pour complicité présumée d'évasion fiscale, a été présenté à un tribunal hier en Italie, première étape vers une possible extradition. La justice américaine avait diffusé en 2009 un avis de recherche visant le banquier, qu’elle accuse d’avoir aidé quelque 17.000 Américains à dissimuler sur des comptes ouverts en Suisse des avoirs d’un montant total de 20 milliards de dollars.