Last year, German open-ended real estate funds which are not in liquidation invested EUR4.3bn, in 37 deals, including EUR1.1bn in Germany, EUR725m in Eastern Europe (almost entirely in Poland), EUR740m in the United Kingdom, EUR625m in France, and EUR400m in the United States.According to the Berlin-based rating agency Scope, the largest investments were made by the UniImmo: Deutschland fund from Union Investment (EUR1.3bn), the Deka-ImmobilienEuropa fund (EUR750m), the WestInvest InterSelect fund (also from Deka) and the UniImmo: Europa (EUR500m each).In terms of net subscriptions, Union Investment Real Estate has posted inflows of EUR1.9bn in January-October, putting it ahead of Deka (about EUR1bn) and RREEF (Deutsche Bank) with EUR618m). However, Commerz Real Investment has undergone net redemptions, with outflows of EUR566m from the hausInvest fund.
Holger Fahrinkrug, who had been chief economist at Portigon, formerly WestLB, will in February join Meriten Investment Management, formerly WestLB-Mellon Asset management (EUR23.6bn in assets), a joint venture in which BNY Mellon recently bought up the remaining stake held by Portigon.At his new firm, Fahrinkrug will again serve as chief economist, and will report to Werner Taiber, CEO. He succeeds Holger Sandte, who has left the firm.
The Hamburg-based asset management firm Union Investment Real Estate (UIRE) has recruited Martin Brühl, who resigned in August from his position as director of Cushman & Wakefield for Germany, as head of his international department, the Immobilien Zeitung reports. He will begin in the newly-created position on 1 May 2013, and will be responsble for the United Kingdom, the Americas and Asia.The appointment comes as part of a reorganisation of investment management at UIRE, which includes three other departments (Europe, shopping centres and hotels). The investment management unit is led by Frank Billand, one of the MDs.
Shortly after Heinz-Peter Clodius retired as MD of Generali Investments Deutschland KAG on 31 December, the German asset management firm Generali Investments Germany has appointed Ulrich Kauffmann as MD, alongside chairman Heinz Gawlak, Fonds Professionell reports.The new recruit had previously served as CEO of UBS Global Asset Management in Frankfurt. He will take over two roles from Clodius, in administration and operational management.Gawlak will take over Clodius’ other two roles, as director of both marketing and sales.
Among the top ten Spanish asset management firms by assets, only the Basque Kutxabank posted net inflows last year, with a total of EUR53.66m. The strongest net subscriptions last year were for Aviva Gestión (EUR392.96m), March (EUR269.46m) and Caja Laboral Gestión (EUR206.32m), according to statistics from VDOS Stochastics.However, the top three firms in terms of assets under management posted net redemptions in 2012. Santander Asset Management saw net outflows of EUR3.8376bn, BBVA Asset Management had net redemptions of EUR1.586m, and the champion for net subscriptions in previous years, Invercaixa, has seen outflows of EUR1.2784trn. Ahorro Corporación Gestión, for its part, has posted net redemptions of EUR1.4256bn.In the top 10 by assets in Spanish-registered funds, only two companies managed to increase their AUM. They were Allianz Gestión (+EUR56.6m) and Kutxa Gestión (+EUR30m). But Santander Asset Management has seen a decline in its assets year on year of EUR3.0634bn, to EUR21.1745bn, while assets at BBVA AM were down by EUR727.12m, to EUR19.1392bn. Assets at InverCaixa, for their part, were down by EUR425.6m to EUR17.1741bn.Overall, assets in Spanish-registered funds were down 4.49% in the twelve months to the end of December, at EUR126.83912bn, while net redemptions totalled EUR11.86847bn for the year 2012 as a whole.
The Spanish Inversis Banco has added to its team of fund-pickers, following the departure of Carlos Fernández, former head of fund research, Citywire global reports. Juan Hernando will replace him. He has been working at Inversis for 4 years, previously as a manager and fund analyst. The Spanish firm has also recruited Carlos Moreno Espinoza from Allianz Popular, as a fund analyst.
The Californian pension fund CalPERS has earned returns of 13.3% for the twelve months to 31 December 2012, according to a statement released on 14 January. For the first six months of the 2012-2013 fiscal year, to the end of December 2012, CalPERS has posted returns of 7.1%, the statement says. The pension fund has recently announced that its performance in the 2011-2012 fiscal year to the end of June was only 0.1%. Results for the twelve months to the end of December were driven by international equities, which gained 17.2%, and real estate, which posted returns of 12.8%. All other asset classes show gains, including private equity (12.2%) and bonds (7.6%). CalPERS has also announced that it has unanimously re-elected Rob Feckner as chairman of its board of directors, and George Diehr as its vice-chairman.
At the end of March, IPE reports, Charles Vaquier will be leaving his position as CEO of UMR (EUR10.2bn) to become a part-time managing partner at an actuarial consulting firm in Paris. According to Vaquier, the board of directors is seeking an external successor, and may be prepared to recruit an interim CEO until his “final” successor arrives.
JP Morgan has launched an electronic multi-asset class platform which is able to unite post-market reporting and reporting on settlement and clearance operations on a single platform, Asian Investor reports. The new platform, JP Morgan Markets, allows banks and asset management firms to manage data on OTC transactions in a standard format, which may be sent directly to depositaries.
Pioneer Investments has appointed Jon Bailie as head of Western Europe and Latin America. He will join the firm in April and will report to Sandro Pierri, chief executive officer. He will also be a member of Pioneer Investments’ Management Committee and will be based in London.Jon Bailie takes the role from Sandro Pierri, who continued to hold this position ad interim following his appointment as chief executive in July 2012.Jon Bailie joins from AXA Investment Managers, where he was global head of distribution and member of AXA IM ‘s executive committee. Previously he spent 16 years at Russell Investments, where he held several senior roles.
Robeco Group has annouced the rebranding of its subsidiary SAM, the investment specialist focused exclusively on sustainability investing in RobecoSAM. As well as the rebranding, Robeco’s engagement and voting services will become part of RobecoSAM’s range of investment solutions and services. This step will enable Robeco to align its group wide efforts in the field of sustainability investment more closely.
Carmignac Gestion further strengthens its fixed income expertise with the hiring of Pierre Verlé as credit analyst, bringing the fixed income team headed by Rose Ouahba to 6 fully dedicated members. He will take up this role on January 21 and will work under the responsibility of Keith Ney, head of credit. Verlé will be involved in the management of Carmignac’s four fixed income funds Carmignac Global Bond and Carmignac Sécurité, Carmignac Capital Plus and Carmignac Court Terme as well as the fixed income portfolio of flexible funds Carmignac Patrimoine and Carmignac Emerging Patrimoine. Before joining Carmignac Gestion, Pierre Verlé, 33, was co-manager of the distressed debt fund at Butler Investment Managers in London and an analyst covering special situations principal investments at Morgan Stanley. He focused on high yield bonds, bank loans and successfully negotiated numerous debt reorganizations. The asset management firm has also announced the arrival on 4 February of Edward Cole on the emerging market equity team as an analyst responsible for the markets of Eastern Europe the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). He will report to Simon Pickard, and will contribute to the management of the Carmignac Emergentes and Carmignac Emerging Discovery funds, as well as the flexible fund Carmignac Emerging Patrimoine, where he will contribute to the development of a theme for improving living conditions in emerging countries. Cole, 37, was co-manager of emerging market funds for six years, first at Ashmore Group, and then and Finisterre Capital. He previously served as an equity strategist for six year, in charge of the EMEA region at JP Morgan Securities.
Aberdeen Asset Management has recruited Dimme Lucassen, a manager specialised in real estate, who for ten years had worked in the real estate unit at Schroders, where he had been manager of a real estate fund of funds, Citywire reports. In his new role, Lucassen will concentrate on a euro zone fund of funds, previously managed by Karin Koks, who has recently been appointed as head of international markets at Aberdeen AM.
Konrad Hummler and Otto Bruderer, who heads of the former Wegelin bank, are suing Christophe Darbellay. The chairman of the Christian Dmocratic party (PDC) called them “traitors” for announcing that Wegelin’s fraudulent practices in the United States represented the norm among Swiss banks. Darbellay still maintains his position. “The statements of Mr. Hummler and Mr. Bruderer constitute a defamation of the Swiss financial market before the entire world. As a Swiss sitizen and politician and a representative of the Swiss economic centre, I feel that such an attitude is treason,” the member of Swiss parliament says, cited by Béatrice Wertli.
The Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) has issued new quotas for a total of USD1.4bn to eight asset managers which have been licensed as Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII), including USD500m for the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), and CNY18bn for holders of RQFII licenses (Hong Kong yuan-denominated funds), Asian Investor reports. As of 31 December, SAFE had awarded QFII quotas totalling USD37.4b to 169 asset management firms, and CNY67bn to 24 RQFII managers.The other five recipients of QFII quotas are Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, BOC Group Life Assurance Company (USD200m each), KB Asset Management (USD100m), the Church Pension Fund, and Duke University (USD50m each).For RQFII quotas, SAFE has increased by CNY5.8bn the quotas for China Asset Management and E Fund, and CSOP for a further CNY5bn, while ICBC Credit Suisse, China International Fund Management and GF Fund Management have received their first quotas for CNY800m each.
Consultinvest Asset Management, the asset management firm created as a joint venture between the Consultinvest and Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna groups, has launched three flexible funds of funds, Bluerating reports. They are Consultinvest and Multimanager Low Volatility, Consultinvest Multimanager Medium Volatility, and Consultinvest Multimanager Opportunities.
UBS Global Asset Management has announced the launch of 61 ETFs on the Milan stock exchange, replicating 41 equity, bond and alternative indices, Bluerating reports. This is the largest single simultaneous listing of ETFs in the history of the Italian stock exchange.
Jonas Granholm, who left the Swedish pension fund Skanska on 11 January, and Gustav Lundeborg, who will be leaving his job on 18 January, are teaming up with the former CFO of the pension fund, Hans Biörck, to launch a hedge fund, the website IPE reports. Granholm will be CEO of the new firm, while Biörck will be its chairman. The hedge fund may be launched in October.
finews.ch reports that J. P. Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM) has appointed Philipp Pfenninger, who had previously served as head of distribution to banks, as country head for Switzerland, replacing Roland Vogel, who has left the business.JPMAM has also recruited an investment consultant from Bank Vontobel, Marc Schumacher, who will join the team to assist clients at the cantonal and regional banks.The news website also reports that Claudia Nägeli (formerly of RBS) joined JPMAM in October 2012 as senior sales executive, global liquidity. She will be particularly responsible for assisting corporate and institutional clients.
Switzeland’s asset manager GAM will acquire a minority stake of approximately 30% in QFS Asset Management, a US-based alternative asset management boutique that specialises in currency, global macro and fixed income strategies.The partnership will also see GAM and QFS work very closely together, with GAM being responsible for the global distribution and marketing of existing and new strategies managed by QFS.Moreover, following the formal closure of the agreement, GAM plans to introduce a UCITS product based on QFS’s flagship currency strategy in the coming months. Launched in March 1993 and trading in highly liquid instruments, the strategy has delivered net returns to clients of 10.75% per annum (as at 31 December 2012). GAM has USD48 billion in assets under management, while QFS has over USD1 bn of assets under management.
As of 31 December, assets at the German bond management firm Bantleon were up 50.3% year on year, to EUR7.94bn; not counting market appreciation, the increase was still 45.8%.Net subscriptions doubled to EUR2.42bn in 2012, compared with EUR1.2bn the previous year, of which EUR410m were from retail clients. Net inflows totalled EUR846m in 2010, and EUR1.2bn in 2009.Of the total AUM, assets in open-ended funds totalled EUR3.88bn at the end of last year, while assets in institutional funds totalled EUR4.06bn; net subscriptions totalled EUR1.48bn for open-ended funds, and EUR940m for “Spezialfonds.”Jörg Bantleon, chairman of the board of directors, has stated that the wealth management strategy of Bantleon Opportunities singlehandedly brought in inflows of EUR2.18bn last year, of which EUR1.16bn were for the two open-ended funds Bantleon Opportunities S and L (whose assets as of the end of December totalled USD1.9bn), while EUR940m went to institutional funds using the same approach.
David Palmer from Generali has joined Ashcourt Rowan as director of the asset management arm of the wealth management firm, Investment Week reports. He will report to CEO Jonathan Polin (formerly of Ignis AM). Palmer had previously worked at Generali, where he founded the portfolio management division of the firm.
Sally Mcdonald has joined the British asset management firm Marlborough Fund Managers, in the newly-created position of head of Asian equities, Investment Week reports. Mcdonald, who will begin in her new role on 1 February, previously worked at City of London Investment Management. With this recruitment, Marlborough hopes to increase its range of Asian equities in the region. Currently, the firm has only one product available, the Far East Growth Fund, whose assets under management total GBP24m.
Paul O’Connor will join Henderson at the end of this month as director of the multi-asset team at the firm, Investment Week reports. O’Connor previously worked at Mercer as a partner and head of asset allocation for the Investment Management unit at Mercer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). In his new role, he will be responsible for the management of a “Diversified Growth” institutional strategy.
The Singapore sovereign fund Temasek has recruited Jonathan Popper, managing director, in charge of merger/acquisition activities at Morgan Stanley for South-East Asia, Finance Asia reports. Popper will join Temasek in the next few months. Morgan Stanley has confirmed the departure of Popper, without stating his destination. Assets under management at Temased at the end of March 2012 totalled SGD198bn, or about USD160bn.
En 2012, l’activité allemande a nettement ralenti, la croissance annuelle du PIB était de seulement 0,9%, après 3,1% en 2011. Le PIB s’est donc contracté de 0,3% au quatrième trimestre, chiffres corrigés des variations saisonnières. Ces premières estimations officielles publiées mardi, montrent que la crise de la dette de la zone euro a rattrapé le pays. L’activité devrait se stabiliser en début d’année pour redémarrer progressivement à partir du printemps, estime toutefois les analystes de BNP Paribas. «L'économie allemande n’est peut-être plus le paradis qu’elle a été dernièrement mais elle reste néanmoins un îlot de croissance dans l’océan de récession qui a submergé la zone euro», rapporte de son côté, Carsten Brzeski, économiste chez ING, cité par Reuters. L’année qui vient de commencer pourrait se solder par une croissance modeste. Un responsable du ministère de l’Economie a dit à Reuters que Berlin tablait sur une croissance de 0,4% cette année puis sur un PIB en hausse de 1,6% en 2014.
La Caisse d’amortissement de la dette sociale (Cades) émettra 30 milliards d’euros de dette en 2013, soit 10 milliards d’euros de moins qu’en 2012, a annoncé mardi son président Patrice Ract Madoux. Il a précisé que sur les 30 milliards d’euros que la Caisse prévoit d'émettre, 20 milliards d’euros porteront sur des obligations de moyen et long terme. En 2012, la Cades a émis 30,2 milliards d’euros de dette à moyen et long terme sur un total de 40 milliards.
Le Trésor espagnol a placé mardi pour 5,75 milliards d’euros de bons à 12 et à 18 mois, un montant supérieur à ses prévisions. Pour le papier à 12 mois, Madrid a émis 3,25 milliards d’euros, le ratio de couverture ressortant à 2,2 contre 2,5 lors d’une précédente adjudication et le rendement passant de 2,556% à 1,472%. Le Trésor espagnol a également émis pour 2,51 milliards d’euros de bons à 18 mois, avec un ratio de couverture de 2,7, inchangé par rapport à la précédente adjudication et un rendement de 1,687% contre 2,778%.
Le taux de rémunération du livret A et du livret de développement durable passera de 2,25% à 1,75% le 1er février, a annoncé mardi le ministre de l’Economie, Pierre Moscovici, soulignant qu’il restait très supérieur à celui de l’inflation. Le gouverneur de la Banque de France, Christian Noyer, a proposé cette baisse de 0,5 point lundi, mais il souhaitait à l’origine un taux à 1,50%, a confirmé Pierre Moscovici sur RTL. «J’en ai discuté avec lui et nous sommes tombés d’accord sur le fait qu’il y avait quand même un souci des Français par rapport à leur pouvoir d’achat (...) donc nous avons ajouté un coup de pouce de 0,25», a poursuivi le ministre de l’Economie.
L’Italie commence à recueillir des marques d’intérêt pour sa nouvelle obligation à 15 ans, à un rendement moyen semblant s'établir à 35 points points de base au-dessus de celui attaché à du papier à échéance mars 2026, rapporte Reuters. Le Trésor italien va placer du papier de cette maturité pour la première fois depuis plus de deux ans.