Alors que de nombreuses études et recherches universitaires se sont penchées sur la performance des fonds gérés activement, Lyxor Asset Management constate que les études mesurant la performance des fonds indiciels comme les ETF sont inexistants. Le promoteur d’ETF constate que les outils utilisés majoritairement pour mesurer les performances des fonds actifs ne sont pas adaptés aux fonds passifs, ce qui a entraîné l’utilisation généralisée des ratios d’information pour les fonds indiciels. Ces ratios ne sont pas pertinents pour comparer la performance des ETF, souligne Lyxor dans une étude (en pièce jointe). Rédigée par Marlène Hassine et Thierry Roncalli de Lyxor AM, l'étude propose une autre mesure de performance basée cette fois sur la value at risk, «parfaitement adaptée à la gestion passive et aux ETF», selon les auteurs. Basée sur les trois paramètres que sont la différence de performance entre le fonds et l’indice, la volatilité du tracking error et le spread de liquidité, «cette mesure peut aider les investisseurs à choisir plus facilement entre différents produits», explique Lyxor. L'étude revient également sur l’importance du spread de liquidité pour mesurer l’efficacité d’un ETF, particulièrement pour les investisseurs institutionnels, qui investissent des montants importants sur les ETF.

Amundi va fermer trois de ses ETF matières premières dans les semaines qui viennent, rapporte le site Internet du Financial Times, citant Ignites Europe. Les fonds Amundi ETF Commodities S&P GSCI Agriculture, Amundi ETF All Commodities S&P GSCI Light Energy et Amundi S&P GCSI Non Energy ETF représentent un encours total de 18,7 millions d’euros. La filiale de Crédit Agricole affirme que la décision a été prise il y a plusieurs mois et qu’il ne s’agit pas d’une réaction au récent rapport d’Oxfam France reprochant aux sociétés de gestion françaises de spéculer sur la faim avec de tels produits.

Après une très bonne année 2012, le groupe suisse Mirabaud envisage très sérieusement de renforcer ses effectifs à Paris. Riche d’une trentaine de collaborateurs, l’antenne parisienne pourrait notamment étoffer son pôle convertibles piloté depuis un peu plus d’un an par Renaud Martin. Il faut dire aussi que la stratégie de convertibles gérée par Renaud Martin affiche des résultats plutôt flatteurs. Le fonds Mirabaud Convertible Bonds Europe A Cap (Eur), lancé en octobre 2011, a dégagé l’an dernier une performance de 16,6% contre 15,7% pour l’indice de référence Exane Europe Convertible Bond Index. Ses actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à quelque 175 millions d’euros.Autre axe de développement le high yield, mais à Londres où Mirabaud devrait annoncer prochainement le recrutement d’une personne, a indiqué le 22 février à Newsmanagers Lionel Aeschlimann, associé chez Mirabaud, à l’occasion d’une présentation à Paris. Andrew Lake, qui gère le fonds Mirabaud-Global High Yields Bonds (130 millions de dollars d’actifs sous gestion), a estimé lors de cette manifestation que le segment du high yield ne retrouvera pas en 2013 les niveaux exceptionnels de l’an dernier. Il pourrait néanmoins dégager un rendement de 6% à 7% dans un environnement où la volatilité pourrait demeurer élevée et où les fondamentaux techniques du segment restent très bons.L'évolution de l’activité de Mirabaud à Paris n’est bien évidemment pas étrangère aux projets de recrutement qui pourraient aussi concerner les équipes de ventes. L’an dernier les encours du marché français ont atteint 1,4 milliard d’euros. Dans la banque privée, les actifs ont progressé d’environ 9% à près de 1 milliard d’euros, la hausse provenant à 50% du marché et à 50% de la collecte. Côté institutionnel, les actifs se sont accrus d’environ 25% à 400 millions d’euros, une évolution due aux deux tiers à la collecte.A côté de ces deux pôles historiques, Mirabaud envisage de se développer également sur le marché des CGPI. Depuis deux ans et demi , la société de gestion a déjà pu apprécier les acteurs de ce segment au travers de la plateforme Finaveo. «Nous souhaitons intensifier nos relations avec les partenaires dédiés aux CGPI et notamment aux plateformes assurentielles», a précisé à Newsmanagers Raphaël Spahr, directeur général de Mirabaud France.

Avec Ownership Capital, le fonds de pension néerlandais PGGM s’est équipé le mois dernier d’une société de gestion ISR spécialiste des actions, qui est la seule entité dépendant du groupe à investir de manière active. La société appartient à ses associés, notamment Antoinette van Lier et l’ancien CEO de 3M, sir George Buckley, indique Fondsnieuws.Le CIO est Alex van der Velden, et le portefeuille construit à partir de critères financiers et ESG comporte une vingtaine de lignes, des entreprises nord-américaines ou européennes dont le chiffre d’affaires doit être supérieur à 1 milliard d’euros. Alex van der Velden, qui avait rejoint PGGM en février 2008, estime que l’investissement durable offre à la fois un meilleur rendement et un risque moins élevé. Antoinette van Lier se charge d’analyser des données immatérielles comme la culture sociale d’entreprise ainsi que la qualité et la fiabilité du management.

Le fonds BlackRock World Resources Income change de nom pour devenir BlackRock Natural Resources Growth & Income, afin de mieux refléter sa philosophie d’investissement, rapporte Fund Web. Les objectifs d’investissement du fonds sont aussi mis à jour afin de clarifier sa gestion. Les changements prendront effet le 5 avril.

Le pôle de gestion d’actifs du groupe britannique HSBC a décidé de ferme un hedge fund dédié à l’Inde en raison d’une décollecte trop importante, rapporte l’agence Reuters.Le fonds long/short Equity India Alpha, lancé en 2007, a pourtant dégagé une performance de 26% l’an dernier, à comparer à une moyenne de 10,3% pour les hedge funds dédiés aux marchés émergents, selon Hedge Fund Research. Les actifs du fonds, qui ont culminé à 300 millions de dollars en 2008, s’inscrivaient fin décembre 2012 à 85 millions de dollars.

Le fonds de fonds Skandia UK Best Ideas, dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à 118 millions de livres, devrait être intégré dans le fonds Old Mutual UK Select Equity qui pèse 80 millions de livres, selon Investment Week.L’opération pourrait intervenir le mois prochain, précise Old Mutual Global Investors (OMGI) qui estime que ces deux fonds constituent «une zone de redondance» dans la gamme après la fusion des sociétés Old Mutual Asset Managers et Skandia Investment Group, à l’origine de la nouvelle entité OMGI.

Threadneedle Investments signe un accord de distribution avec DBS Bank de Singapour, rapporte Citywire Global. Ainsi, les clients de la banque vont avoir accès au fonds Threadneedle (Lux) Emerging Market Short-Term Bonds de la société de gestion.

Depuis l'irruption de ses ETF sur le marché européen et le début de la guerre des prix sur ces produits aux Etats-Unis en 2012, les Européens s'interrogent sur les intentions du géant Vanguard (2.000 milliards de dollars d'encours), qui pourrait souhaiter se diversifier sur l'Europe ainsi que sur l'Asie-Pacifique, régions dans lesquelles il entretient déjà des centres de gestion, à Londres et Sydney. Newsmanagers a interrogé le patron de l'activité institutionnelle pour l'Europe.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } Agefi reports that the SEC has approved the launch of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) by the collective management giant BlackRock dedicated to copper, which would be listed on the NYSE Arca platform. The market authority in December licensed the sale of a comparable product managed by JPMorgan. Some copper industrials have expressed concerns that the market will be disturbed by the launch of these ETF funds.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Threadneedle Investments is signing a distribution agreement with DBS Bank of Singapore, Citywire Global reports. Clients of the bank will have access to the Threadneedle (Lux) Emerging Market Short-Term Bonds fund from the asset management firm.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The US financial services group Catella is adding to its range of consulting services for German real estate, with the inclusion of debt consulting services, Investment Europe reports. The team will be led by Simone Schmidt, a specialist in structured finance, who previously worked for EAA, the real estate liquidation entity of West LB. Catella, which has about 440 employees in 12 European countries, has two major activity units: asset management and corporate finance. Real estate advising includes three major divisions, “Sales and Acquisitions,” debt and Equity,” and “Research and Valuation.”

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } The third week of February saw nearly every major EPFR global-tracked fund group post inflows as cash pulled from US money market funds at the fastest clip since mid-3Q11 looked for new investment ideas. Overall, money market funds saw USD32.1bn pulled out during the week ending February 20 – with USD25.8bn of that coming from US funds. Meanwhile, equity funds absorbed a net USD8.58bn, bond funds USD3.47bn, balanced funds USD1.11bn and alternative funds USD710m.Year-to-date flows into EPFR Global-tracked Emerging Markets Equity Funds pushed past the USD33bn mark in late February as they extended their current inflow streak to 23 weeks. Once again the diversified Global Emerging Markets (GEM) Equity Funds took in the lion’s share of the new money with Asia ex-Japan Equity Funds a distant second while EMEA Equity Funds posted outflows for the fourth time in the past five weeks.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } Citywire reports that the Emerging Market Equity sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav Vontobel Funds is now closed to new investors. Existing clients may continue to invest in the fund, managed by Rajiv Jain, which has USD4.8bn in assets. For about one year, the Swiss asset management firm has been making efforts to slow subscriptions to the fund.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } At a time when many acedemic studies have considered the question of the performance of actively-managed funds, Lyxor Asset Management has found that studies measuring the performance of tracker funds such as ETFs do not exist. The tools used are primarily for measuring the performance of actively-managed funds, and are not adapted to passive funds, which require the use of information ratios to measure tracker funds. These ratios are only pertinent to compare the performance of ETFs, Lyxor says in a study (attached).The study, by Marlène Hassine and Thierry Roncalli of Lyxor AM, proposes another performance measure based on value at risk, which is “perfectly appropriate for passive management and ETFs,” the authors say. On the basis of three parameters, the difference in performance between the fund and the index, the volatility of tracking error and the liquidity spread, “measurement can help investors to more easily choose between different products,” Lyxor explains.The study also discusses the importance of the liquidity spread to measure the effectiveness of an ETF, particularly for institutional investors, who invest larger amounts in ETFs.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } Amundi will be closing three of its commodity ETFs in the coming weeks, the Financial Times website reports, citing Ignites Europe. The Amundi ETF Commodities S&P GSCI Agriculture, Amundi ETF All Commodities S&P GSCI Light Energy and Amundi S&P GSCI Non Energy ETF represent total assets of EUR18.7m. The Crédit Agricole affiliate says that the decision was taken several months ago, and that it is not a reaction to a recent report by Oxfam France, which accused French asset management firms of speculating on hunger with such products.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As announced more than two months ago, State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) on 21 February finally officially launched two SPDR-branded ETF funds reproducing Russell low volatility indices which had been used as underlying for ETFs closed by Russell (see Newsmanagers of 21 August and 7 December 2012), Index Universe reports.They are the SPDR Russell 1000 Low Volatility ETF (acronym LGLV on NYSE Arca), which will charge 0.20%, and the SPDR Russell 2000 Low Volatility ETF (SMLV), whose ter is 0.25%.

Since the irruption of ETFs into the European market and the beginning of the price war for these products in the United States in 2012, Europeans have been asking about the intentions of the giant Vanguard (USD2trn in assets). Newsmanagers speaks to its head of institutional activity for Europe.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } The asset management unit of the British HSBC group has decided to close a hedge fund dedicated to India due to excessive outflows, the news agency Reuters reports. The long/short equity fund India Alpha, launched in 2007, posted returns of 26% last year, compared with an average of 10.3% for hedge funds dedicated to emerging markets, according to Hedge Fund Research. Assets in the fund, which peaked at USD300m in 2008, as of the end of December 2012 totalled USD85m.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } The BlackRock World Resources Income fund is changing names to become the BlackRock Natural Resources Growth & Income fund, in order to better reflect its investment philosophy, Fund Web reports. The investment objectives for the fund have also been updated in order to clarify its management. The changes will take effect from 5 April.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The fund of funds Skandia UK Best Ideas, whose assets under management total GBP118m, will be integrated into the Old Mutual UK Select Equity fund, which has GBP80m in assets, Investment Week reports. The operation may take place next month, Old Mutual Global Investors (OMGI) says, claiming that the two funds represent a “redundancy zone” in the range, following the merger of the two firms Old Mutual Asset Managers and Skandia Investment Group to create the new entity OMGI.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } Bank am Bellevue on 22 February announced the recruitment of the Swiss equity specialist Michael Heider as head of equity research. Heider began on 1 February this year. He is responsible for a research team of 12 analysts. Heider, who has often won awards for his Swiss equity research, previously worked at Helvea, where he most recently served as co-head of equity research.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } The Boston-based asset management firm Affiliated Managers Group Inc (AMG, USD432bn in assets as of the end of December) on 21 February announced the opening of a sales office in Zurich, and the recruitment of Patrick Sege, head of sales & business development Switzerland at Liongate Capital Management, as director, head of distribution Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein. He will be based in Zurich.AMG has also recruited a director of sales & relationships, institutional clients, Germany, from Fidelity Investment Management. He will also be based in Zurich.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } The Swiss stock exchange SIX has fined the Swiss group Weatherford International CHF200,000, SIX Exchange Regulation has announced in a statement released on 22 February. The group, active in oil exploitation services, was found guilty of violating a requirement to disclose management transactions, violating event notification rules, and violating rules concerning listing procedures.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } After a very good year in 2012, the Swiss group Mirabaud is very seriously planning to recruit personnel in Paris. With 30 employees, the Paris office may add to its convertibles unit, which for slightly over one year has been led by Renaud Martin.The convertible strategy led by Martin also has delivered flattering results. The Mirabaud Convertible Bonds Europe A Cap (Eur) fund, launched in October 2011, last year earned returns of 16.6%, compared with 15.7% for the benchmark index, Exane Europe Convertible Bond Index. Its assets under management total about EUR175m.Another area for development is high yield, but in London, where Mirabaud will soon announce the recruitment of a person, Lionel Aeschlimann, a partner at Mirabaud, told Newsmanagers at a presentation in Paris. Andrew Lake, who manages the Mirabaud-Global High Yield Bonds fund (USD130m in assets under management) said at the presentation that the high yield segment will not return in 2013 to its exceptional levels of last year. However, it may earn returns of 6% to 7% in an environment in which volatility may remain high, and technical fundamentals for the segment remain very good.The evolution of Mirabaud’s activities in Paris are evidently not incompatible with recruitment plans, which may also affect sales teams. Last year assets in the French market totalled EUR1.4bn. In private banking, assets rose by about 9% to nearly EUR1bn, with 50% of the rise coming from the market and 50% from inflows. In institutional management, assets increased by about 25%, to EUR400m, two thirds of it due to inflows.For its two historic units, Mirabaud has for the past two and a half years been developing activities with IFAs via the Finaveo platform. “We are planning to intensify our relationships with our partners dedicated to IFAs and insurance platforms,” Raphaël Spahr, CEO of Mirabaud France, tells Newsmanagers.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } La Financière Tiepolo on 18 February announced the arrival of Dominique Dequidt as deputy director of collective management and portfolio manager.At the French entrepreneurial asset management firm, he will be responsible for developing a European securities management unit, and will be responsible for managing a new FCP which will invest in European securities. The FCP range from La Financière Tiepolo currently includes two equity funds.Before joining La Financière Tiepolo, Dequidt had been a portfolio and mutual fund manager at KBL Richelieu Gestion. From 2007 to 2011 he served as co-director of the European Small & Mid Cpas Equities unit at Robeco Asset Management in Paris.He began his career in 1987, at the Portzamparc stock market company in Nantes, as a portfolio and mutual fund manager, until 1996. He then joined Crédit Mutuel in Brest, Brittany, as heat of the European equity management team, and then joined BNP Paribas Asset Management in 2001, to take charge of various mutual funds, investing in European small and midcaps as well as Europe Dividende mutual funds.La Financière Tiepolo currently has 16 employees and EUR500m in assets under management.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } With Ownership Capital, the Netherlands-based pension fund PGGM last month partnered with an SRI asset management firm specialised in equities, which is the only dependent entity of the group to invest actively. The firm is owned by its partners, including Antoinette van Lier and former 3m CEO Sir George Buckley, Fondsnieuws reports.The CIO of the firm is Alex van der Velden, and the portfolio is constructed on the basis of financial and ESG criteria, with only 20 positions on European or North American businesses whose revenues are over EUR1bn. Van der Velden, who joined PGGM in February 2008, claims that sustainable investment offers both better returns and reduced risks. Van Lier is responsible for analysing «soft» data such as corporate culture and the quality and reliability of management.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } The financial ratings agency Moody’s on 22 February announced that it is cutting its credit rating for the United Kingdom by one notch, from AAA to AA1, due to “continued weak mid-term outlooks” for the country. The agency says that it expects muted economic activity in the country “to extend into the second half of the decade.” Several factors have contributed to this development, including a process of reducing debt in private and public sectors, which probably bit into growth. Moody’s says, however, that the British economy is solid, has “extremely high” solvency, and the outlook for the country has been increased from “negative” to “stable.” The United Kingdom took a first step towards another recession, with a contraction in its gross domestic product of 0.3% in fourth quarter 2012. If this morose economy continues in the first three months of 2013, the UK would be in its third recessionary dip since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008-2009.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } Since Thursday, db x-trackers and db x-markets have been announcing on their websites that they belong to the asset & wealth management (AWM) unit of Deutsche Bank, which is a visible representation of an announcement that active (asset management) and passive (investment banking) management activities had been united in a single structure, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports Reinhard Bellet, who heads the passive management unit from London, says that passively-managed assets at Deutsche Bank total EUR98bn, of which 40% are in db x-trackers ETFs, 26% in options and certificates from db x-markets, and 9% in DB Platinum funds.Currently, Deutsche Bank is the fourth-largest provider of passively-managed products in Europe, after iShares (BlackRock), with EUR425bn, Legal & General with EUR300bn, and State Street with EUR203bn. Vanguard remains relatively modest in Europe, with EUR51bn. For ETFs, db x-trackers is second, after iShares.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } Rafaelle Costa, a former partner at GLG who is known as “Captain Magic,” will this week unveil the first fund from his new firm Tyndaris, the Financial Times reports. Tyndaris will begin to offer a commercial real estate fund managed by the former head of European CRE at Deutsche Bank, Heath Forusz, and former bankers from JP Morgan and Citigroup. The firm will also launch a Middle East fund focused on infrastructure, and may create a European hedge fund.