Wendel a réalisé avec succès la cession de la totalité des 14,4 millions actions qu’elle détenait encore dans Legrand S.A., soit 5,4% du capital, au prix de 36 euros par action, selon un communiqué publié le 11 juin. Avec un produit de cession d’environ 520 millions d’euros, cette opération permet à Wendel d’enregistrer une plus value d’environ 370 millions d’euros. La réalisation de cette cession constitue la dernière étape du désengagement progressif du capital de Legrand par Wendel, qui, en 2002, avait mené l’acquisition avec Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR). Au total, l’investissement dans Legrand par Wendel a généré un TRI global de 19% et un multiple de 3,9x sur 11 ans. «Les ressources dégagées par cette opération permettront à Wendel de poursuivre sa stratégie visant à renouveler son portefeuille et augmenter son exposition aux investissements « non-cotés »", souligne le communiqué.

Le supermarché italien de fonds Fundstore vient de signer trois nouveaux accords de distribution, rapporte Bluerating. Les sociétés concernées sont Ethenea Independent Investors, Method Investments & Advisory et Morgan Stanley.

Les 40 compartiments de la Sicav de Goldman Sachs Asset Management vont être distribués sur la plate-forme Internet italienne Online Sim, rapporte Bluerating. L’offre d’Online Sim se compose désormais de 3.500 fonds de 130 sociétés de gestion.

Nomura a cédé 1,75 million d’actions de sa filiale immobilière Nomura Real Estate Master Fund, ce qui lui a permis de lever 175,1 milliards de yens, soit 1,4 milliard d’euros, rapporte L’Agefi. Le cours de Nomura Real Estate Master Fund a chuté cette nuit de 4,8% pour son premier jour de cotation à la Bourse de Tokyo, précise le quotidien.

L’intérêt des investisseurs nationaux et internationaux dans le private equity japonais est en train de revenir et pratiquement tous les fonds qui ont survécu à la crise de 2008 chercher à collecter des fonds, rapporte Asian Investor.Parmi les sociétés envisageant de lever de nouveaux fonds figurent notamment Unison Capital Bain & Co Japan, Advantage Partners, Polaris Capital Group et Carlyle Group Japan, tandis que J-Star Co vient de boucler un fonds de 200 millions de dollars visant les moyennes capitalisations.

En mai, les fonds commercialisés en Suède ont enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 9,1 milliards de couronnes suédoises, soit un peu plus de 1 milliard d’euros, portant le total de la collecte depuis le début de l’année à 46,3 milliards de couronnes (5,3 milliards d’euros), selon les dernières statistiques de l’association suédoise des fonds Fondbolagens Förening. En avril, ils avaient recueilli 10,7 milliards de couronnes (1,2 milliard d’euros).Toutes les catégories de fonds affichent un solde positif, mais ce sont principalement les fonds diversifiés qui ont obtenu les faveurs des investisseurs, avec 6,2 milliards de couronnes en mai (0,7 milliard d’euros) et 26,7 milliards de couronnes depuis le début de l’année (3 milliards d’euros).Les fonds actions arrivent ensuite, avec 1,2 milliard de couronnes (0,1 milliard d’euros) et 21,5 milliards de couronnes depuis le début de l’année (2,46 milliards d’euros). Les fonds obligataires et monétaires enregistrent chacun des souscriptions nettes de 0,7 milliard et les hedge funds, de 0,4 milliard.A la fin mai, les encours des fonds commercialisés en Suède ressortaient à 2.289 milliards de couronnes (262 milliards d’euros), dont environ 55 % dans des fonds actions.

Le britannique Schroders a annoncé le 11 juin le recrutement de Bogdan Popovici en tant que gérant de portefeuille pour l’obligataire global. Bogdan Popovici travaillait précédemment chez le gestionnaire américain Wellington Management en tant que gérant de portefeuille macro au sein de l'équipe «global rates and foreign exchange». Avant de rejoindre Wellington en 2011, Bogdan Popovici avait travaillé chez BlackRock Investment Management au sein du pôle des stratégies alpha.

Le managing director de Vanguard, Thomas Rampulla, et le responsable d’Axa IM UK Irshaad Ahmad, ont rejoint le conseil d’administration de l’IMA, l’association britannique de la gestion d’actifs, portant le nombre total de membres à 18, rapporte Investment Week.Ce conseil d’administration se compose déjà de Will Nott, responsable de l’activité retail de M&G, du CEO de Threadneedle Campbell Fleming, du CEO d’Henderson Andrew Formica et de l’ancien CIO de Schroders Alan Brown.

Les actifs sous gestion et sous administration du britannique Charles Stanley s’inscrivaient à 17,7 milliards de livres au terme de l’exercice clos le 31 mars dernier, en progression de 14,9% par rapport à mars 2012, selon les chiffres communiqués le 11 juin par la société.Les seuls actifs discrétionnaires sous gestion affichent un bond de 28% durant l’exercice à 6,4 milliards de livres. Le résultat avant impôts s’inscrit à 9,1 millions de livres, en hausse de 7% d’une année sur l’autre.

Le gestionnaire de fortune Sal. Oppenheim, acquis par la Deutsche Bank en 2009 pour 1 milliard d’euros, devrait renouer avec les bénéfices en 2015, selon son CEO, Wolfgang Leoni, rapporte l’agence Reuters. L’activité serait déficitaire depuis 2011.Wolfgang Leoni estime que les seules réductions de coûts annoncées récemment (Newsmanagers du 29 mai 2013) devraient permettre à Sal. Oppenheim de redevenir bénéficiaire. Cela dit, les souscriptions des cinq premiers mois de l’année est qualifiée de «satisfaisante» par Wolfgang Leoni. La collecte nette sur l’ensemble de l’année 2012 s'était élevée à 3,6 milliards d’euros.

Membre du comité de direction de DWS Investment, Holger Naumann a été élu à l’unanimité au poste de président du directoire de l’association allemande BVI de la gestion d’actifs. Il était déjà membre du directoire depuis 2011 et remplacera au 1er juillet Thomas Neiße, président du comité de direction de Deka Investment, qui restera membre du directeur du BVI. Thomas Neiße était président du directoire du BVI depuis 2010.Le directoire du BVI se compose de Georg Allendorf (RREEF Investment), Barbara Knoflach (SEB AM), Holger Naumann (DWS Investment), Thomas Neiße (Deka Investment), Tobias C. Pross (Allianz Global Investors Europa), Alexander Schindler (Union AM Holding) Karl Stäcker (Franfkurt Trust) et Bernd Vorbeck (Universal-Investment).

La société de service RBC Investor & Treasury Services, qui appartient au groupe canadien Royal bank of Canada, a annoncé le 11 juin avoir été nommé conservateur global par le gestionnaire de fonds Polaris Investment SA. RBC va ainsi fournir des services de conservation globale, de comptabilité, d’agent de transfert, de prêts de titres, de gestion de trésorerie, et de gestion du collatéral et du risque.Polaris est la plus importante plateforme italienne domiciliée au Luxembourg. Ses actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à plus de 6 milliards d’euros, émanant d’investisseurs institutionnels. Polaris détient par ailleurs 100% de la société de gestion quantitative basée à Milan, Quaestio Capital Management.

Thornburg Investment Management se lance en Europe. Selon les informations de Citywire, le gestionnaire américain, qui totalise 87 milliards de dollars d’encours sous gestion, a ouvert un bureau à Londres. La société cible une clientèle d’investisseurs institutionnels et professionnels. Ce premier bureau doit aider Thornburg Investment Management à répondre aux appels d’offres pour des mandats de gestion publiés par des clients européens. L’antenne londonienne sera pilotée conjointement par Chris Elsmark et Karim Elfar, qui ont récemment rejoint la société.

Pioneer Investments vient de recruter deux analystes actions senior, Martin Dolan et Michael Morris, qui vont renforcer l'équipe dédiée aux actions européennes, rapporte Citywire.Martin Dolan sera en charge du secteur des biens de consommation. Il travaillait précédemment à la banque portugaise Espirito Santo où il couvrait notamment l’agro-alimentaire et les boissons. Michael Morris sera responsable du secteur des matériaux. Il occupait précédemment le poste de responsable d’une équipe de 12 analystes chez JP Morgan Cazenove, spécialisés dans la construction et les matériaux de construction.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } OFI AM on Tuesday, 11 June announced the appointment of three directors. Xavier Micel is promoted to director of corporate strategy and director of group projects. Stéphane Ciccardini becomes legal director, and Charles Soullard director of sales. Soullard and Michel will be members of the executive board at the group, a statement says. Michel worked in business banking at Deutsche Bank from 1996 to 2009, and for one year, in 2010, at the office of the president of the National Federal of French Mutuals (FNMF) before joining the office of the legal director at OFI in 2011. Soullard began his career at BNP Paribas in 1999, and then at CDC Ixis AM in 2011 before joining the OFI group in 2005. Ciccardini began his career in 2001 in Morocco in the Tax & Legal departments of major consulting firms (Ernst & Young and Deloitte & Touche) before joining the office of the legal director at the OFI group in 2003.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Since the beginning of the year, Comgest has posted inflows especially in Europe, with subscriptions of about EUR600m, says Vincent Strauss, chairman of Comgest and head of management, at a press conference on 11 June. Comgest has also posted subscriptions to the Global/US unit. The Europe unit now has about EUR4bn in assets, compared with EUR3.2bn as of the end of 2012, and the Global/US unit has EUR1.5bn, compared with EUR1.2bn. This is a welcome development, says Strauss, as it helps to rebalance geographical regions. Meanwhile, the emerging markets unit, which continued to post inflows earlier in the year, has since seen significant redemptions. As a result, since the beginning of the year, Comgest shows outflows of about EUR150m, while assets under management remain stable at about EUR15.5bn. Citing the Global Equity strategy of Comgest, Strauss says that the growth in profits at Japanese firms is not yet a reality. Japan has strong GDP growth outlooks for 2013 and 2014 (48.3% and 19.3% according to Citigroup/Nomura), in comparison with emerging markets (14.5% and 11.3%) and the United States (7.4% and 11.3%), while the portfolios of major investors are often underweight on Japan.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Holger Naumann, a member of the executive committee at DWS Investment, has been unanimously elected to the position of chairman of the managing board at the German BVI asset management association. He had already been a member of this board since 2011, and from 1 July will replace Thomas Neiße, chairman of the executive committee at Deka Investment, who will remain as a board member at BVI. Neiße had been chairman of the managing board at BVI since 2010. The managing board at BVI includes Georg Allendorf (RREEF Investment), Barbara Knoflach (SEB AM), Holger Naumann (DWS Investment), Thomas Neiße (Deka Investment), Tobias C. Pross (Allianz Global Investors Europa), Alexander Schindler (Union AM Holding), Karl Stäcker (Franfkurt Trust) and Bernd Vorbeck (Universal-Investment).

After encountering some difficulties in selling off its institutional management unit, Deutsche Bank, with its new management team in place (June 2012), has decided to regroup as a single platform, Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (DeAWM), with no less than 23 different entities or “silos,” to build a platform including asset management, wealth management (including Sal. Oppenheim), and corporate banking & securities operations, including ETFs from db x-trackers. According to the head of the division, Michele Faissola, this represents “a EUR1trn startup.” DeAWM is composed of six business lines: lending & deposits, wealth products, active management, passive management, alternatives/real assets and alternative/fund solutions. The main thrust will be on insurance companies, alternative investmenets,, high net worth and ultra-high net worth retail clients worldwide, and tracker products.The objective is to generate pre-tax profits by 2015 of EUR1.7bn, compared with EUR700m in 2012, and to improve the cost/income ratio from 80% last year to 65% in 2015.The reshuffle began in September 2012 has already resulted in staff cuts of 12%, to slightly over 6,000 people worldwide (this Malthusian process has already been completed) and to cost savings investment programs for EUR400m in the period from September 2012-September 2015. As of 31 March 2013, these programmes wera ahieved to the tunes of EUR100m and EUR150m, respectively.In January-March 2013, the new division posted its first net subscriptions since 2011 (EUR6bn), which contributed to an increase in assets of EUR29bn, to EUR973bn, while the remainder of the increase is due to market and forex effects.After three highly discrete years, the Deutsche Bank group has concluded that the restructuring is sufficiently well along to provide some information about the volumes of management activities.As of 31 December 2012, active management had EUR529bn in assets (52% of which was in bonds, 16% in equities, 10% in multi-assets and 22% in money markets) with 400 investment professionals. It attracted a net EUR5bn in first quarter 2013, its head, Wolfgang Matis, told Newsmanagers.Passive management (50 investment professionals) had EUR98.5bn, and its head, Reinhard Bellet, is expecting EUR150bn by 2015, “without external growth.”The alternatives/fund solutions business, with 215 specialists led by Stéphane Farouze, has EUR44bn in assets (and USD1.5bn in net inflows in the first five months of 2013), while alternatives/real assets, led by Pierre Cherki, has EUR51.8bn, with 500 investment professionals. Wealth management, for its part, has EUR297bn.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In May, funds on sale in Sweden recorded net inflows of SEK9.1bn, or slightly over EUR1bn, bringing total inflows since the beginning of the year to SEK46.3bn (EUR5.3bn), according to statistics from the Swedish fund association, Fondbolagens Förening. In April, they posted inflows of SEK10.7bn (EUR1.2bn). All fund categories were in positive territory but it was primarily balanced funds which were favoured by investors, with SEK6.2bn in May (EUR0.7bn), and SEK26.7bn since the beginning of the year (EUR3bn). Equity funds are next, with SEK1.2bn (EUR0.1bn), and SEK 21.5bn since the beginning of the year (EUR2.46bn). Bond and money market funds each show net inflows of EUR0.7bn, and hedge funds of EUR0.4bn. As of the end of May, assets in funds on sale in Sweden totalled SEK2.289trn (EUR262bn), about 55% of it in equity funds.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The 40 sub-funds of the Sicav from Goldman Sachs Asset Management will be released on the Italian internet platform Online Sim, Bluerating reports. The range from Online Sim now includes 3,500 funds from 130 asset management firms.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British firm Schroders has recruited Bogdan Popovici as a portfolio manager for global bonds. Popovici had previously worked at the US asset management firm Wellington Management, as a macro portfolio manager in the global rates and foreign exchange team. Before joining Wellington in 2011, Popovici worked at BlackRock Investment Management in the alpha strategies unit.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The managing director of Vanguard, Thomas Rampulla, and the head of Axa IM UK, Irshaad Ahmad, have joined the board of directors at the IMA, the UK investment management association, bringing the total number of board members to 18, Investment Week reports. The board of directors already includes Will Nott, head of retail activities at M&G, the CEO of Threadneedle, Campbell Fleming, the CEO of Henderson, Andrew Formica, and the former CIO of Schroders, Alan Brown.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Assets under management and administration by the British firm Charles Stanley totalled GBP17.7bn at the end of the fiscal year ending on 31 March, up 14.9% compared with March 2012, according to statistics released by the firm on 11 June. Discretionary assets under management alone rose 28% to GBP6.4bn in the period. Pre-tax profits totalled EUR9.1bn, up 7% year on year.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published guidelines on remuneration policies and practices which apply to relevant staff of investment firms, credit institutions and fund management companies when providing investment services, and to national securities regulators enforcing those rules. The guidelines strengthen investor protection by improving the implementation of the conflicts of interest and conduct of business provisions set out in the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) in the area of remuneration. “A root problem behind the selling of unsuitable financial products is the presence of financial incentive schemes, including target setting or performance management, that do not take into account the clients’ best interests. ESMA’s remuneration guidelines reinforce the MiFID provisions in this regard, and if correctly put in place by investment firms, avoid misleading incentives from the start,” Steven Maijoor, ESMA chair, said in a statement.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British market authority, the FCA, has fined an asset management firm, Xcap Securities, GBP120,900 for failure to protect the assets of its clients. Between June 2010 and August 2011, the incriminated firm did not correctly separate the assets of clients from its own assets, and did not ensure exact accounting of the movements on client accounts.The total fine is calculated according to the average assets of clients and assets during the period of the regulation violation, at rates of 2% and 0.2%, respectively.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As announced by Newsmanagers in mid-May, La Financière Tiepolo this week announced the release for sale of the Tiepolo Europe Rendement fund. The fund, managed by Dominique Dequidt, invests in equities from countries of the European Community and other European countries (Switzerland, Norway, and others). It focuses on research into companies which have offered shareholders the best regular dividends and growth in past years. The fund will have a low turnover rate and will be composed of a maximum of 40 positions. Characteristics: ISIN code: FR0011465681 Management fees: net 2% Eligible for investment from PEA and life insurance policies

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to sources familiar with the matter cited by the Wall Street Journal, Carlyle Group is planning to set up a USD4bn fund to invest in real estate in the United States. It will be its seventh fund of this type.The private equity investor is seeking to profit from positive publicity surrounding its recent sales, with capital gains of about USD500m for the resale of 650 Madison Avenue, and of USD350m on 666 Fifth Avenue.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Pioneer Investments has recruited two senior equity analysts, Martin Dolan and Michael Morris, as additions to the team dedicated to European equities, Citywire reports. Dolan will be responsible for the consumer staples sector. He previously worked at the Portuguese bank Espirito Santo, where he covered agribusiness and beverages in particular. Morris will be responsible for the materials sector. He previously served as head of a team of 12 analysts at JP Morgan Cazenove, specialised in construction and construction materials.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The services firm RBC Investor & Treasury Services, which belongs to the Canadian Royal Bank of Canada group, on 11 June announced that it has been appointed as global custodian for the fund management firm Polaris Investment SA. RBC will provide global custory, accounting, transfer agency, securities lending, treasury management, and collateral and risk management services. Polaris is the largest Italian platform domiciled in Luxembourg. Its assets under management total over EUR6bn, from institutional investors. Polaris also controls 100% of the Milan-based quantitative asset management firm Quaestio Capital Management.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Retail alternative products, meaning investment strategies traditionally used by hedge funds or private equity firms, which are restructured for retail clients, mot often in UCITS format, represent a new and fast-growing market segment, according to a study published by SEI. Assets in mutual hedge funds in the United States have more than doubled since 2008, and now represent over USD550bn in 883 portfolios. Alternative UCITS funds have followed a similar trajectory. The study also finds that nearly three out of four financial advisers uses alternative strategies, an an equivalent percentage of advisers says that they have increased their use of these strategies in the past 12 months. Well-known private equity groups, such as AQR, Morgan Stanley Alternatives Investment Partners, Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, Apollo Global Management and Visum Asset Management, have already launched or have submitted applications for licenses to launch such products. Analysts of the sector, including McKinsey, estimate that the number of alternative strategies in the US mutual fund segment may double between 2010 and 2015. Alternative strategies may then represent nearly one quarter of all retail revenues by the end of that period.