An increasing number of investment consultants that traditionally operated solely in the institutional space are investing resources in retail wealth management, Patrick Newcomb, senior analyst at Cerulli Associates, states. This trend became more prominent over the past decade, as investment consultants began targeting banks, broker/dealers, and large independent registered investment advisors (RIAs).Patrick Newcomb explains that retail wealth management firms have a number of options to choose from for outsourcing the investment piece of their fee-based platform, including selecting a third-party vendor, partnering with a firm for investment research, and choosing an investment consultant to build a product lineup. Investment consultants typically offer investment outsourcing, operational due diligence, and liability-driven investment services, and most of these services can be applied to broker/dealers and their advisors.According to Cerulli, the foray of investment consultants in the managed accounts space creates both an opportunity and a challenge for asset managers. Investment consultants represent an additional avenue for managers to deliver their products to broker/dealers, banks, and RIAs, but also require highly specialized expertise in order to adequately address.
Nordea is in the process of building a range for special clients (or family offices) within its private banking unit, the website Realtid.se is able to reveal. The firm will compete with SEB, Handelsbanken and Swedbank, which are already present in this segment.For this project, two people have been recruited: Jacob Brögger and Johanna Pettersson.
The private equity fund Trenne Capital Partenaires, whose assets under management total over EUR450m, is continuing to develop its health care unit, with the arival of Julie Rachline as chief investment officer. Julie Rachline has nearly ten years of experience in health care in various and complementary professions. She was most recently at L3S Partnership, an executive search agency dedicated to the recruitment of directors in the area of health care (major groups, SMEs, startups, medications, medical equipment and sevices) or scientific direcftors at instituitons, including ANSM (formerly AFSSAPS).
Assets at Henderson Global Investors on the French market continued to increase in 2013. As of the end of June, assets under management totalled about EUR1.6bn, after being solidly beneath EUR1bn in 2012. As of the end of August, inflows were positive to the tune of about EUR200m, and the trend remains positively oriented, Patricia Kaveh, director of development for Henderson GI in France, Monaco and Geneva told Newsmanagers on 20 Spetember at an investors’ conference. Kaveh also states that development in this market, recently cited by the CEO of Henderson GI, Andrew Formica (see Newsmanagers of 09/09/2013), is expected by the end of the year to bring the opening of an office in Geneva. A planned joint venture in real estate with the pension fund TIAA-CREF, announced at the end of June 2013 (see Newsmanagers of 06/25/2013) is expected to be completed in early March 2014.
US money market funds have returned to France this year, but banks are still seeking to wean themselves off this source of financing after being caught out by its sudden withdrawal during the euro zone crisis, the Financial Times observes. Last year, exposure to French banks has risen 255%, according to Fitch.
The active sustainable management specialist Cedrus AM on 20 September announced the arrival of Emanuelle Hsu on the sales and marketing team as head of sales development. With this recruitment, Cedrus AM hopes to accelerate its presence serving institutional distribution personnel. Hsu previously worked at GFS as head of development for France and internationally serving multi-management and institutional investor clients. Cedrus AM, founded in 2012, has over EUR350m in assets managed and advised, including EUR52m in assets under management and EUR320m in assets advised.
Christian Oyarbide, who was appointed as interim CEO of the French pension fund UMR earlier this year, will see his term extended until next year, IPE reports. Oyarbide was appointed in May to replace Charles Vaquier, and had been expected to stay until August 2013. He will now be staying one extra year, IPE reports.
A decision by the US Federal Reserve to maintain its exceptional support for the economy, which was more or less anticipated by institutional investors, drove the S&P 500 to new peaks, favouring unprecedented inflows to equity funds.The week ending 18 September saw equity funds take in a net USD25.94bn, eclipsing the old record set in late third quarter 2007, according to statistics from EPFR Global.US equity funds in particular attracted a net total of nearly USD17bn, Actively-managed funds posted modest subscriptions to small and midcaps funds, while large caps funds stood out with a significant turnover from growth towardsa value funds. Inflows to ETFs, which are responsible for most subscriptions for the week, mostly went to large and midcap funds. Bond funds posted outflows for the eighth consecutive week, while money market funds have posted modest inflows, and subscriptions to Japanese and European funds have largely offset redemptions from US money market funds.
Chelsea Financial Services and Albemarle Street Partners are planning to launch a fund ratings service in early 2014, aimed at retail investors and investment advisers, Investment Week reports. The joint venture which will be responsible for the activity, FundCalibre, will be based on the fund screening tool from Albemarle, whose results will be crossed with qualitative analysis from Chelsea. The ratings process will create an annual list of fund ratings, which will be reviewed on a monthly basis.
The asset management firm Fidelity Worldwide Investment is warning 400 businesses in which it invests that they need to reform their compensation policy, the Financial Times reports. If they do not do it, businesses will be required to face a vote against their pay scales at general shareholders’ meetings. In particular, Fidelity would like businesses to increase the period for which executives hold shares in the firm from three years to five years before they are allowed to sell them. This is intended to encourage them to work for the long term.
A joint venture of Santander and Intesa Sanpaolo, Allfunds Bank, in May received a sales license for Switzerland from the Swiss regulator Finma for Allfunds International Switzerland Ltd, Funds People reports. The affiliate is led by Stig Harby, who joined Allfunds three years ago.The opening of an office in Zurich marks a new step in the expansion of Allfunds in Europe, after Madrid, Milan, London and Luxembourg.The volume of assets intermediated by Allfunds totals EUR100bn. The platform serves 380 institutional clients in 25 countries, and offers 35,000 funds from 450 asset management firms.
The Swiss firm Dynapartners has recruited Kaisa Paavilanen as an addition to its Investment Management & Client Advisory team, Finews reports. Paavilainen had previously worked in London at Barclays, and at UBS as a controller.
From the beginning of the year to the end of August, 2013, iShares has posted net inflows in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region of EUR11.6bn, according to Leen Meijaard, head of sales at iShares for the region at BlackRock. These inflows are higher than in the corresponding period of last year, and come with the objetive of increasing assets by 15% per year. To continue its development, iShares is working to increase the use of ETFs by new clients, markets and segments throughout Europe.
A survey of 152 investment advisers, funds of hedge funds, family offices, charities and retirement savings plans carried out by Advent Software has determined a fairly precise cartography of the elements that investors expect from hedge fund managers as part of a “pitch.”It finds largely that two thirds of investors and consultants decide within the first half hour whether they are going to continue to study the case, and one quarter of these decide in the first ten minutes.The consensus finds that presentations should ideally consist of 10 to 20 slides, while fewer than 20 are preferable.More than half of the executives surveyed find that hedge fund managers are not sufficiently transparent about their investment policy. The most widespread error, according to three quarters of respondents, is that hedge funds managers are unable to specify what it is that sets their strategy apart, or to communicate on the real effectiveness of their fund.
The London-based hedge fund management firm Clive Capital, a macro commodity specialist, has announced that it will be closing its doors at the end of the moth, and that it will be reimbursing USD1bn to its shareholders, since “the market now offers only a limited number of adequate opportunities to profit on supply and demand,” the Wall Street Journal reports.At its peak, assets at Clive Capital (founded in 2007) reached USD5bn. But performance has deteriorated: after gains of 19.75% in 2010, the fund lost 9.92% in 2011, 8.81% in 2012, and 4.8% since the beginning of this year.
TwentyFour Asset Management has been selected to manage a new bond mandate for the multi-mangement team at Aviva Investors, Investment Week reports. The management team at the firm consists of eight people, including founding partners Rob Ford, Ben Hayward, Gary Kirk and Eoin Walsh.
Aviva Investors has appointed Hassan Johaadien and Bruno Derdoura to co-manage the Diversified Asset fund and the Diversified Asset strategy, following the departure of Mirko Cadinale to Russell Investments, Financial News reports. Johaadien is responsible for tactical asset allocation research at Aviva. Sedoura is reponsible for strategic asset allocation for multi-asset class portfolios.
Skandia International, the offshore activity of Old Mutual Wealth, has reported spectacular growth of 430% snce 2006 in the percentage of bonds in its offshore trust portfolios. Skandia claims that investment adivsers, who have identified the advantages related to trusts, will continue to increase their use of this vehicle. In 2006, Skandia says, only 8.2% of bond portfolios from Skandia International were placed in trusts. In the wake of significant modifications in 2006 to the fiscal treatment of inheritance in trusts, the use of trusts has picked up in 2012, as bond portfolios from Skandia International were 43.2% used in trusts.
After GBP21m in 2011, Neptune Investment Management on Friday declared pre-tax profits of GBP12.8m, while assets as of the end of December totalled GBP5.8bn, compared with GBP6.3bn one year earlier, Fundweb reports.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published before the week-end its Trends, Risks, Vulnerabilities (TRV) Report and a Risk Dashboard for the second quarter of 2013.In collective investments, the report observes that asset managers benefited from improved market conditions, mainly driven by bond, equity or alternative funds whereas money market fund assets decreased. Overall, leverage remained moderate but capital inflows were volatile reflecting a decline in investor sentiment.
Le fonds Pictet-EUR Short Term High Yield a collecté en net 649,09 millions d’euros depuis le début de l’année a indiqué vendredi à Paris Roman Gaiser, head of high yield fixed income chez Pictet Asset Management. Le compartiment affiche à présent un encours de 1.785 millions d’euros. Le fonds comprend actuellement des titres de 98 émetteurs et un total de 158 lignes, avec un taux de rotation de l’ordre de 40 %. C’est donc un produit «buy and hold», sachant que l’une des particularités par rapport aux fonds concurrents consiste à investir en papiers à échéance ferme de 0-4 ans, ce qui permet une gestion de la duration aux alentours de 1,2 an.Le gérant reste confiant pour la classe d’actifs, parce que le portage reste intéressant, parce que la qualité des émissions s’est améliorée et parce que le marché intègre -et donc paie- un taux de défaut de 25 % sur les cinq prochaines années, alors qu’en réalité il est de l’ordre de 2 % par an.
Les nouveaux ETF Source Man GLG Continental Europe Plus et l’ETF Source Man GLG Asia Plus, qui seront cotés sur le London Stock Exchange à partir de ce 23 Septembre 2013, bénéficient d’une gestion active dont la stratégie est supervisée par GLG Partners LP.Selon Ted Hood, CEO de Source, ces produits long-only de droit irlandais (voir la pièce jointe) qui mettent en œuvre des stratégies de «beta plus» utilisent la même approche que le Man GLG Europe Plus (700 millions d’euros) et visent à capturer la surperformance liée aux recommandations d’investissement des meilleurs courtiers actions, fournies spécifiquement pour GLG.Ces idées d’investissement sont ensuite utilisées pour créer des portefeuilles actions liquides et diversifiés. Ces stratégies visent à améliorer les rendements des contributeurs en utilisant plusieurs algorithmes qui détectent les tendances dans les idées reçues.
Le gestionnaire américain Thornburg Investment Management envisage d’ajouter un fonds à sa gamme de produits Ucits dans les prochains mois, rapporte Citywire Global.La stratégie, le Thornburg Multisector Opportunistic Strategy bond fund, sera gérée par Jason Brady qui pilote la version américaine de ce mutual fund lancé en janvier 2008.
Entre janvier et fin août 2013, iShares a enregistré dans la zone Europe, Moyen-Orient et Afrique des souscriptions nettes de 11,6 milliards d’euros, indique Leen Meijaard, responsable des ventes iShares pour cette région chez BlackRock. Une collecte supérieure à celle de l’an dernier à la période correspondante et qui s’inscrit dans l’objectif de croître les encours de 15 % par an. Pour poursuivre son développement, iShares s’efforce de développer l’utilisation d’ETF auprès de nouveaux clients, marchés et segments en Europe.
Nordea est en train de bâtir une offre pour les clients spéciaux (ou family office) au sein de son pôle banque privée, est en mesure de dévoiler le site Internet suédois Realtid.se. L’établissement va ainsi concurrencer SEB, Handelsbanken et Swedbank, déjà présents sur ce segment.Pour ce projet, deux personnes ont été recrutées : Jacob Brögger et Johanna Pettersson.
Aviva Investors a nommé Hassan Johaadien et Bruno Serdoura pour co-gérer le fonds Diversified Asset et la stratégie Diversified Asset, après le départ de Mirko Cadinale chez Russell Investments, rapporte Financial News. Hassan Johaadien est responsable de la recherché allocation d’actifs tactique au sein d’Aviva. Bruno Serdoura est responsable de l’allocation d’actifs stratégique pour les portefeuilles multi-classes d’actifs.
Chelsea Financial Services et Albemarle Street Partners envisagent de lancer début 2014 un service de notation des fonds à destination des particuliers et des conseillers en investissement, rapporte Investment Week.La co-entreprise qui va loger cette activité, FundCalibre, prendra pour base l’outil de screening des fonds d’Albemarle, dont les résultats seront croisés avec l’analyse qualitative de Chelsea.Ce processus de notation donnera lieu à une liste annuelle de notations de fonds, qui seront revues sur une base mensuelle.
Après 21 millions de livres en 2011, Neptune Investment Management a déclaré vendredi un bénéfice avant impôt de 12,8 millions de livres tandis que l’encours à fin décembre ressortait à 5,8 milliards de livres contre 6,3 milliards un an plus tôt, rapporte Fundweb.
Le gestionnaire alternatif londonien Clive Capital, spécialiste macro des matières premières, a annoncé qu’il fermera ses portes à la fin du mois et remboursera ainsi 1 milliard de dollars aux porteurs, parce que «le marché n’offre plus qu’un nombre limité d’opportunités adéquates permettant de profiter de paris sur l’offre et la demande», rapporte The Wall Street Journal.Au plus haut, l’encours de Clive Capital (fondé en 2007) avait atteint les 5 milliards de dollars. Mais la performance s’est détériorée : après un gain de 19,75 % en 2010, le fonds a perdu 9,92 % en 2011, 8,81 % en 2012 et 4,8 % depuis le début de l’année.
SPDR ETF, la plateforme de trackers de State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) a annoncé le 20 septembre le lancement sur Deutsche Börse, Xetra d’un nouvel ETF obligataire. Le fonds SPDR Barclays 0-5 Year US High Yield Bond UCITS (symbole : SYBK (EUR) offre l’accès, en une seule transaction, aux obligations américaines à court terme et à haut rendement, sur des titres d’une maturité inférieure à cinq ans.«Comme les entreprises ont amélioré leur bilan depuis la crise financière mondiale, les fondamentaux sous-jacents des marchés du crédit demeurent robustes, ce qui se traduit par une anticipation de la baisse des taux de défaut en-deçà de leur niveau historique de 4,9 %», selon Olivier Paquet, directeur de SPDR ETF pour la France.52 SPDR ETF sont désormais disponibles pour les investisseurs en Europe. Ce lancement fait suite à la récente introduction sur Deutsche Börse et à la Bourse de Londres de trois nouveaux ETF sur les obligations à court terme.Le nouvel ETF remonte à 1.010 le nombre total des ETF cotés sur le segment XTF de la plate-forme de négociation électronique Xetra.