Les rentrées nettes des fonds fermés allemands se sont contractées de 23 % sur 2011 l’an dernier, à 4,50 milliards d’euros contre 5,85 milliards, estime l’association professionnelle du secteur, Verband Geschlossene Fonds (VGF). Les souscriptions nettes provenant des particuliers sont ressorties à 3,14 milliards d’euros (- 35 %), celles des investisseurs institutionnels représentant 1,36 milliard (+ 25 %).Les investissements du secteur se sont contractés de 25 % à 7,38 milliards d’euros contre 9,89 milliards.
L’espagnol Abante (1,2 milliard d’euros sous conseil) vient de faire enregistrer au Luxembourg la sicav Abante Global Funds qui comporte quatre compartiments ainsi aisément commercialisables hors d’Espagne, rapporte Funds People.La sicav comprend le fonds d’actions Spanish Opportunities géré par José Ramón Iturriaga comme ses fonds espagnols Okavango et Kalahari Alpha, un clone du Maral Macro géré par Juan Manuel Mazo, le fonds flexible Abante Pangea géré par Alberto Espelosín et enfin le fonds de fonds Global Selector, clone du Abante Bolsa Absoluta, géré par l’équipe d’Ángel Olea.
Peter Harrison retourne chez Schroders en tant que responsable global des actions, après le départ de Ken Lambden. Ce dernier a démissionné et quittera la société de gestion britannique le 15 mars après y avoir passé 15 ans, dont 9 à ce poste.Peter Harrison était jusqu’ici président et directeur général (CEO) de la société de gestion britannique RWC où il était arrivé en 2006. Avant, il a travaillé chez Deutsche Asset Management et chez J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Il avait commencé sa carrière chez Schroders en tant qu’analyste actions. Chez RWC, Dan Mannix, l’ancien responsable du développement, prendra la succession de Peter Harrison en tant que directeur général. Mais ce dernier reste président non-exécutif, selon la presse britannique.
La société de gestion CamGestion a indiqué sur son site qu'à compter du 12 février 2013, la rubrique « Parts ou actions d’OPCVM ou de fonds d’investissement » des compartiments CamGestion Génération 2011-15, CamGestion Génération 2016-20, CamGestion Génération 2021-25, CamGestion Génération 2026-30 et CamGestion Génération Avenir de la sicav CamGestion Génération sera modifiée. Concernant les quatre premiers compartiments, la sicav va pouvoir investir :- jusqu’à 100 % de l’actif net en parts ou actions d’OPCVM…/…- et dans la limite de 30% de l’actif net en parts ou actions d’OPCVM de droit français ou étrangers ou fonds d’investissement de droit étranger européens ou non répondant aux quatre critères fixés par l’article R214-13 du code monétaire et financier. »Concernant le compartiment CamGestion Génération Avenir, la sicav va pouvoir investir jusqu’à 100 % de l’actif net en parts ou actions d’OPCVM :- de droit français coordonnés des catégories suivantes : obligations et autres titres de créances libellés en euro et/ou internationaux, actions françaises, de pays de la zone Euro et actions internationales, monétaires, diversifiés, OPCVM indiciels cotés et pour 10 % de l’actif net en OPCVM ayant unegestion de type alternatif.- et/ou européens coordonnés.- et dans la limite de 30% de l’actif net en parts ou actions d’OPCVM de droit français ou étrangers ou fonds d’investissement de droit étranger européens ou non répondant aux quatre critères fixés par l’article R214-13 du code monétaire et financier. »
Le groupe financier Avenir Finance a publié un chiffre d’affaires pour l’année 2012 de 40 millions d’euros, en hausse de 17%. A 14,3 millions d’euros et 25,8 millions d’euros respectivement, la gestion et la gestion d’actifs marquent une progression de 14 % pour la première activité et de 18 % pour la seconde.Les encours gérés ou distribués par Avenir Finance Investment Managers progressent 43%, à 670 millions d’euros. La collecte nette, conjuguée à un effet marché favorable, est de 176 millions d’euros, contre une décollecte de 4 millions en 2011.Le groupe Avenir Finance affiche une croissance de 49% en deux ans. «Sans sacrifier les objectifs de volume, l’accent sera dorénavant mis sur les trois autres facteurs clés de la rentabilité : le mix produits, la qualité de l’exécution et la productivité commerciale», indique un communiqué du groupe.
KKR, la société de capital investissement, a affirmé hier n’avoir jamais généré autant de cash depuis sa cotation en 2009, rapporte L’Agefi. En ayant profité du rebond des marchés pour multiplier les cessions, les niveaux de son portefeuille de capital-investissement et de ses actifs se sont tous deux appréciés de 24% en 2012. Au dernier trimestre, le revenu net économique de KKR qui prend en compte la valeur de marché des actifs a progressé de 22% à 348 millions de dollars, et ses bénéfices distribuables ont été multipliés par 3,7 à 546 millions, note le quotidien.
La société de gestion suédoise East Capital a connu une excellente fin d’année et a repassé fin décembre la barre des 4 milliards d’euros d’actifs sous gestion, contre 3,4 milliards d’euros fin 2011 et un pic à 5,7 milliards d’euros juste avant la crise de 2008, selon les derniers chiffres disponibles. La collecte est très largement responsable de cette évolution même si l’effet marché a aussi contribué à ce résultat, a précisé le 7 février la société à l’occasion d’une conférence à Paris .Les premières semaines de l’année sont également très satisfaisantes en termes de collecte, les investisseurs s’intéressant plus particulièrement à la Turquie et aux Balkans. En ce début d’année, les portefeuilles d’East Capital sont surpondérés sur la Russie, presque à un niveau record. L’Europe centrale est largement sous-pondérée, la Turquie étant légèrement sous-pondérée. En revanche, les Balkans et les pays de la Baltique sont surpondérés. Plus généralement, East Capital souligne un intérêt très marqué pour les marchés frontières, avec toutefois des perspectives contrastées.
Fidelity a lancé son fonds Fidelity Funds – Global Strategic Bond Fund en Suède, rapporte Fondbranschen. Le fonds est investi en obligations d’Etat, obligations indexées, obligations d’entreprises, obligations à haut rendement et dette émergente, précise Petter Edwinson, responsable marketing et communications de Fidelity pour le Nord de l’Europe.
With the Schwab ETF OpenSource, Charles Schwab on 7 February released a platform which provides investors and US advisers what the firm claims is free access to the largest number of ETFs in the country.So far, Schwab clients can buy and sell shares in 105 ETFs with no trade commissions. This includes products from issuers such as State Street SPDR, Guggenheim Investment, Invesco PowerShares, ETF Securities, United States Commodity Funds, and of course, Charles Schwab.
In December, inflows to African equity funds totalled USD878.4m, the highest level in two years, and four times the previous month’s level, according to EPFR, cited by the Financial Times. This is a sign of demand on the part of investors seeking exposure to the region, the newspaper remarks.
The US asset management firm Rusell Investments has announced the release in Germany of the Russell Global Defensive Equity Fund (GDEF), aimed at investors interested in returns but also with reduced risks in a lower volatility evironment than other equity funds. The benchmark index is the Russell Global Defensive Index (GDI), but the portfolio is actively-managed, which allows for the use of several defensive strategies and the avoidance of over-invested sectors.
Groupama Asset Management on Thursday, 6 February announced the arrival of Christophe Morel as part of its economic analysis unit, in the position of Chief Economist. He will report to Marie-Pierre Peillon, head of Research.The unit aims to monitor and generate conjunctural and sturctural scenarios for the evolution of the macroeconomic and financial environment. It is also responsible for monitoring country risks, a statement says.From 2004 to 2006, Morel was head of the Strategic Allocation and Overlay Management departments at the French national pension fund, the Fonds de Réserve pour les Retraites. Then, from 2006 to 2008, he was director of Tactical Allocation management at Natixis Asset Management. In 2008, he joined Odier Investment Managers as Deputy CIO of the Asset Allocation group.
Investment specialist Marc Seidner has taken over control of the fledgling equity unit at Pimco for the interim, following the recent departure of Neel Kashkari, Citywire reports.Weidner will serve in the role until a successor to Kashkari can be appointed.
Assets under management by the Investment Management and Advisory Services unit of Prudential Financial as of the end of December 2012 totalled USD827bn, compared with USD717.8bn as of the end of December 2011, according to statistics released by the group. Institutional assets as of the end of December totalled USD313.7bn, compared with USD271.8bn as of the end of September 2012, as retail assets totalled USD138.7bn, compared with USD119.3bn. Net inflows in fourth quarter totalled USD8.4bn for institutionals, as inflows in the retail segment totalled USD3.4bn. For the year, institutional inflows totalled USD17.2bn, and retail inflows totalled USD12.8bn. The group has reported annual net profits fo USD2.96bn, compared with USD2.84bn in 2011.
Assets under management at the French-US business bank Lazard as of the end of 2012 totalled a record USD167bn, up 18% compared with the end of December 2011, and up 4% since 30 September 2012, according to a statement released on 7 February. For the year as a whole, Lazard has posted a net inflow of USD2.7bn, but fourth quarter brought net redemptions totalling USD47bn. Management commissions last year totalled USD806bn, down 1% compared with 2011, as performance commissions, for their part, rose 66% 6o USD44m, due to the returns earned on certain traditional and alternative strategies. Lazard has also reported net profits in 2012 of USD84.3m, compared with USD174.9m the previous year, due to a restructuring charge of USD103m.
Peter Harrison is returning to Schroders as global head of equities, following the departure of Ken Lambden. Lambden has decided to step down, and will leave the UK asset management firm on 15 March, after 15 years there and 9 yers in his current role.Harrison had previously been chairman and CEO of the British asset management firm RWC, which he joined in 2006. Before that, he worked at Deutsche Asset Management and J.P. Morgan Asset Management. He began his career at Schroders as an equities analyst.At RWC, Dan Mannix, former head of development, will succeed Harrison as CEO, but Harrison will remain as non-executive chairman, the British press reports.
The German asset management firm Eyb & Wallwitz has launched a new fund in its Phaidros range, the Luxembourg-registered IP Concept fund Fallen Angels, which invests primarily in investment grade corporate bonds whose rating has fallen to speculative grade. Characteristics Name: Phaidros Funds Fallen Angels A ISIN code:LU0872913917 Front-end fee: Maximum 4% Management commission: 1.43%
The German firm Stabilitas GmbH, a specialist in advising for commodity funds, has received a sales license for German from BaFin for its Luxembourg-registered fund Stabilitas Growth-Small Cap, which has only EUR1.8m in assets. The asset management firm is the Luxembourg-based IP Concept Fund Management. The fund invests primarily in equities of the gold and commodity sectors, combining production equities with high profits with junior shares and shares in exploration firms, in order to limit risks. The portfolio is complemented by shares in the silver, basic metal and energy sectors. Characteristics Name: Stabilitas Growth-Small Cap ISIN Codes: LU0280294629 (P shares)LU0261105992 (I shares) Front-end fee: Maximum 5% Management commission: Maximum 2.50% Performance commission: 15% of increases in net asset value, with high watermark
The AMF on 31 January 2013 received a sales notification for France for the Baring Euro Dynamic Asset Allocation fund, a sub-fund of the Irish Sicav Baring Investment Funds Plc. “This fund is a ‘continental European view’ of the British institutional fund Dynamic Asset Allocation (DAA), which now has GBP6.3bn in assets, and which had net inflows of about GBP1.7bn in 2012,” Percival Stanion, head, global multi asset group at Baring Asset Management, has told Newsmanagers.The fund is managed with absolute return objectives, aiming for the Euribor plus 300 basis points. “It is a conservative product, with a low-volatility approach, which is managed with asymmetrical risk tolerance; the fund is long-only, uses no leverage, and in this new version, our floor for exposure to the euro is 50-60%. We have also set a limit above 70% for the equity allocation,” Stanion says.Since the launch of the strategy ten years ago, performance has been higher than that of the equity markets, with volatility half what it is for that asset class. And since the launch of the main (UK) fund in 2007, annual returns have been 7%, with volatility 40% that of the equity markets.In addition to the DAA, Barings has GBP313m in the same strategy in a UK retail product, USD50m in the US version, and USD40m in the Asian version, as well as GBP230m in the emerging market fund. In addition to that there are mandates. In total, multi-asset strategies have about GBP8bn.Currently, the portfolio of DAA is 30% allocated to bond markets, 25% to British equities, 25% to international equities, 11% to alternative assets, and 9% to cash.
Deutsche Bank has announced a modification to the anmes of five currency hedged equity ETFs listed in the United States, in order to improve the profiles of the funds and highlight the db X-trackers brand name, which is less well-known in the United States. New names Db-X MSCI Japan Currency-Hedged Equity Fund (NYSEArca: DBJP) becomes db X-trackers MSCI Japan Hedged Equity Fund Db-X MSCI Emerging Markets Currency-Hedged Equity Fund (NYSEArca: DBEM) becomes db X-trackers MSCI Emerging Markets Equity Fund Db-X MSCI EAFE Currency-Hedged Equity Fund (NYSEArca: DBEF) becomes db X-trackers MSCI EAFE Hedged Equity Fund Db-X MSCI Brazil Currency-Hedged Equity Fund (NYSEArca: DBBR) becomes db X-trackers MSCI Brazil Hedged Equity Fund Db-X MSCI Canada Currency-Hedged Equity Fund (NYSEArca: DBCN) becomes db X-trackers MSCI Canada Hedged Equity Fund
Vanguard is planning to launch an ETF dedicated to international bonds by the end of second quarter, IndexUniverse reports. The Vanguard Total International Bond Index Fund will replicate the Barclays Global Aggregate ex-USD Float Adjusted RIC Capped Index. It covers a universe of 7,000 high-quality government and corporate bonds from 52 countries. The new product is expected to charge fees of 0.20%, less than the 0.30% rate initially envisaged. Vanguard has also called off plans to introduce a front-end fee of 0.25%.
Fidelity has launched its Fidelity Funds – Global Strategic Bond Fund in Sweden, Fondbranschen reports. The fund invests in government bonds, inflation-linked bonds, corporate bonds, high yield bonds and emerging market debt, says Petter Edwinson, head of marketing and communications for Northern Europe at Fidelity.
Six Financial Information on 7 February announced that it is adding to its valuation activities, with the installation of a new valuation team in Frankfurt. The creation of the team will allow Six Financial Information to better meet growing demand from specialised consultants present in all the major financial markets on the planet, who are responsible for evaluating OTC products and financial instruments in the fixed income and derivative segments.
Assets under management by the VP Bank group ((Banque Privée de Gérance) as of the end of December totalled about CHF28.5bn, compared with CHF27.4bn at the end of 2011, according to a statement released on 6 February. The bank is nonetheless predicting a decline in net inflows of about CHF65m. Net profits for the group are expected to total about CHF47m, compared with CHF5.3m for the 2011 fiscal year.
The real estate fund division of the Asset & Wealth Management (AWM) unit of Deutsche Bank, RREEF Real Estate, has announced that last year it made transactions totalling EUR2.2bn, compared with EUR1.9bn in 2011, an increase of 15%.Assets in open-ended real estate funds as of 31 December totalled EUR3.701bn for the grundbesitz europa, and EUR2.315bn for the grundbesitz global. One year previously, the asset management firm reported EUR3.2bn and EUR2.3bn, respectively, in assets under management by the two funds.RREEF also had a total of over EUR3.8bn in assets under management in over 70 institutional funds (Spezialfonds). One year previously, that amount stood at EUR3.3bn. Georg Allendorf, executive chairman of RREEF Real Estate Deutschland, states that the two open-ended funds last year acquired properties totalling a net EUR629m, and sold nine properties for EUR499m, in a process which earned significant capital gains. Closed-end funds invested EUR998m in 18 properties (at a time when sales were limited to 4 properties for EUR78m), due to significant net subscriptions from institutional investors.RREEF points out that in July 2012 it make its first mezzanine debt investment for an institutional real estate fund investment in a subordinate mortgage on a property located at 717 Fifth Avenue in New York City, for USD290m.
The Spanish firm Abante (EUR1.2bn in assets under advising) has registered the Abante Global Funds Sicav, which includes four vehicles that may easily be sold outside Spain in this form, in Luxembourg, Funds People reports. The Sicav includes the equity fund Spanish Opportunities, managed by José Ramón Iturriaga, as are the Spanish funds Okavango and Kalahari Alpha, a clone of the Maral Macro fund managed by Juan Manuel Mazo, the flexible fund Abante Pangea, managed by Alberto Espelosín, and lastly, the Global Sector fund, a clone of the Abante Bolsa Absoluta, managed by a team led by Angel Olea.
The Swedish asset management firm East Capital had an excellent end to the year, and as of the end of December, was back above the EUR4bn threshold for assets under management, up from EUR3.4bn at the end of 2011, and compared with a peak of EUR5.7bn just before the 2008 crisis, according to the most recent available statistics. Inflows were primarily responsible for this development, although market effects also contributed to the result, the firm stated at a press conference in Paris on 7 February.The first week of the year was also highly satisfactory in terms of inflows, as investors took a particular interest in Turkey and the Balkans.At the beginning of the year, portfolios at East Capital were overweight on Russia, at near record levels. Central Europe is considerably underweight, and Turkey is slightly underweight. However, the Balkans and the Baltic countries are overweight. More generally, East Capital says that there is a highly marked interest in frontier markets, with contrasted outlooks.
Despite the challenges presented by the current environment, Asian hedge fund managers should continue to invest capital and get involved in new strategies, according to BNY Mellon. Hedge fund management firms with a reputation in the market will attract moderate inflows from their traditional investors, as US insitutionals and newcomers turn to ultra-high net worth investors and family offices, says Aidan Houlihan, managing director of alternative investment services at BNY Mellon. Fund launches are expected to be fewer in the next few months, which would not prevent Asian hedge fund managers from exploring new strategies. Coe managers already offer highly sophisticated macro or credit strategies, as well as multi-strategy funds. Long/short funds still represent about 75% of assets in hedge funds, down from 90% a few years ago.
La Place de Paris appelle à une «action urgente» des politiques pour relancer le financement des entreprises et détaille ses propositions dans un rapport dévoilé aujourd’hui. Paris Europlace estime que les besoins des entreprises s’élevaient à 80 milliards d’euros à la fin du mois d’octobre. Alors que les sociétés vont devoir se tourner davantage vers les marchés, Europlace considère que l’épargne financière n’est pas suffisamment dirigée vers leur financement de long terme. L’association propose donc une refonte de la fiscalité pour y remédier.
Les dirigeants européens sont entrés vendredi dans la dernière ligne droite des négociations sur leur budget 2014-2020 et travaillent sur d’ultimes ajustements pour parvenir à un accord dans la journée, après une longue nuit de tractations. Le président du Conseil européen Herman Van Rompuy a remporté l’adhésion de principe des Vingt-Sept avec une enveloppe de 960 milliards d’euros de crédits d’engagement, hors Fonds européen de développement et instruments hors budget, soit 1,0% du revenu national brut (RNB, proche du PIB) de l’UE. La baisse serait de 3,4% par rapport au budget 2007-2013.