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.
In Hong Kong, Citi on 8 January announced that Franklin Templeton Investments (Asia) Limited has selected it to provide trustee, custody and transfer agency services to the Templeton China Opportunities Fund, the first unit trust of Chinese A-class QFII equities from Franklin Templeton.The contract extends the service mandates which links Citi to the MPF funds from Franklin Temlpeton, says David Russell, regional head, Asia Pacific, securities & fund services at Citi.
Funds on sale in Sweden in 2012 recorded net inflows of SEK74.5bn (EUR8.6bn), according to statistics from the Swedish investment fund association Fondbolagens förening. That is far higher than the SEK16bn (about EUR1.8bn) posted in 2011. Inflows were driven by balanced funds (SEK34.6bn) and equity funds (SEK30.8bn), while bond funds also did well (SEK20.8bn). However, money market funds saw outflows of SEK5.3bn, while hedge funds had net redemptions of SEK6.2bn. At the end of 2012, assets in Swedish funds totalled SEK2.049trn, or about EUR237bn, of which about 53% were in equity funds. That represents an increase of SEK230bn year on year.
On 27 November, Global X applied to the SEC for a license for the Global X Junior MLP ETF, whose acronym on NYSE Arca will be MLPJ, and whose management commission and thus TER will be 0.75%. The product, which focuses on master limited partnerships (MLP) with USD200m-USD2.5bn, will replicate the Solactive Junior MLP Index from the Frankfurt-based Structured Solutions AG.According to Index Universe, the fund will be admitted to trading on 15 January.
Following the example set by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, BlackRock and JPMorgan Asset Management, Fidelity Investments on Sunday announced that it will publish net asset values on a daily basis with a one-day delay, from 16 January, for shares in money market funds which it manages (USD430bn in assets). This will have no impact on the principle of the constant net asset value of USD1 which will continue to apply to all transactions by investors on fund shares, says Nancy Prior, president of money markets.
UCITS registered net inflows of EUR 36 billion in November compared to EUR 41 billion recorded in October, according to the latest European Fund and Asset Management Association’s investment sales and asset data. Long-term UCITS (excluding money market funds) net sales rose in November to EUR 36 billion, from EUR 34 billion in October. Net sales of equity funds amounted to EUR 13 billion, up from EUR 3 billion the previous month, while net inflows into bond funds amounted to EUR 19 billion, compared to EUR 25 billion in October. Balanced funds registered a reduction in net sales month on month of EUR 3 billion versus EUR 5 billion.“Net inflows into bond funds remained the largest contributor to total net sales of UCITS in November. The substantial volume of net sales of equity funds was largely due to the transfer of some insurance company assets into UCITS,” said Bernard Delbecque, director of Economics and Research at EFAMA.Net sales of money market funds broke even in November after recording net inflows of EUR 6 billion in October.Net sales of non-UCITS totalled EUR 8 billion, down from EUR 13 billion in October. Special funds (funds reserved to institutional investors) reduced sharply in November to EUR 3 billion, compared to EUR 10 billion in the previous month.Finally, total net assets of UCITS increased 1.1% in November to EUR 6,316 billion, whilst non-UCITS net assets increased 0.9% to stand at EUR 2,502 billion.
On 11 January, Gottex Fund Management sent a letter to shareholders in the Gottex Absolute Return fund, stating that a lack of sufficient assets has required it to close the absolute return fund, Funds Europe reports. Assets under management had fallen to EUR4.11m as of 2 January, from EUR12.6m as of the end of June. The last net asset value from the single sub-fund of the Gottex Luxembourg-registered Sicav will be calculated on 15 February.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Au 31 décembre, l’encours du gestionnaire obligataire allemand Bantleon affichait un gonflement de 50,3 % sur un an, à 7,94 milliards d’euros ; sans compter l’effet de marché, la hausse a encore été de 45,8 %.Les souscriptions nettes ont doublé à 2,42 milliards d’euros en 2012, contre 1,2 milliard l’année précédente, dont 410 millions provenant de particuliers. Les rentrées nettes avaient porté sur 846 millions en 2010 et 1,2 milliard en 2009.Sur le total, les actifs des fonds offerts au public se situaient à 3,88 milliards en fin d’année dernière pendant que l’encours des fonds institutionnels représentait 4,06 milliards ; les souscriptions nettes ont porté sur 1,48 milliard d’euros pour les fonds offerts au public et sur 940 millions pour les «Spezialfonds».Jörg Bantleon, président du conseil d’administration, a précisé que la stratégie patrimoniale Bantleon Opportunities a collecté à elle seule 2,18 milliards d’euros l’an dernier, dont 1,16 milliard pour les deux fonds offerts au public Bantleon Opportunities S et L (dont l’encours atteignait fin décembre 1,9 milliard) tandis que 940 millions d’euros allaient à des fonds institutionnels utilisant la même approche.
David Palmer, de Generali, a rejoint Ashcourt Rowan en tant que directeur de la branche gestion d’actifs de la société de gestion de fortune, rapporte Investment Week. Il sera placé sous la responsabilité du CEO Jonathan Polin (un ancien d’Ignis AM). David Palmer avait fondé la division gestion de portefeuilles de Generali.
Paul O’Connor va rejoindre Henderson à la fin du mois en qualité de director au sein de l'équipe multi-actifs de la société, rapporte Investment Week.Paul O’Connor travaillait précédemment chez Mercer en tant qu’associé et responsable de de l’allocation d’actifs pour le pôle Investment Management de Mercer en Europe, au Moyen-Orient et en Afrique (EMOA). Dans ses nouvelles fonctions, il sera notamment responsable de la gestion d’une stratégie institutionnelle «Diversified Growth».
A Hong-Kong, Citi a annoncé le 8 janvier que Franklin Templeton Investments (Asia) Limited l’a sélectionné pour fournir des services de fiducie, de conservation et d’agent de transfert au Templeton China Opportunities Fund, le premier unit trust QFII d’actions chinoises A de Franklin Templeton.Ce contrat élargit le mandat de services qui lie Citi aux fonds MPF de Franlin Templeton, a précisé David Russell, regional head, Asia Pacific, securities & fund services de Citi.
L’espagnol Inversis Banco vient de renforcer son équipe de sélectionneurs de fonds après le départ de Carlos Fernández, l’ancien responsable de la recherche sur les fonds, rapporte Citywire Global. Juan Hernando lui succède. Il travaille chez Inversis depuis 4 ans, jusqu’ici en tant que gérant et analyste de fonds. La société espagnole a aussi recruté Carlos Moreno Espinosa chez Allianz Popular, en tant qu’analyste de fonds.
Les fonds commercialisés en Suède ont enregistré en 2012 des souscriptions nettes de 74,5 milliards de couronnes suédoises (8,6 milliards d’euros), selon les statistiques de l’association suédoise des fonds d’investissement Fondbolagens förening. Cela est bien supérieur aux 16 milliards de couronnes (1,8 milliard d’euros alors) engrangés en 2011.La collecte a été portée par les fonds diversifiés (34,6 milliards de couronnes) et les fonds actions (30,8 milliards de couronnes), tandis que les fonds obligataires avaient aussi le vent en poupe (20,8 milliards de couronnes).En revanche, les fonds monétaires ont vu sortir 5,3 milliards de couronnes, tandis que les hedge funds accusaient des rachats nets de 6,2 milliards de couronnes.Fin 2012, les encours des fonds suédois ressortaient à 2.049 milliards de couronnes, soit 237 milliards d’euros environ, dont 53 % environ dans des fonds actions. Cela représente une hausse de 230 milliards de couronnes sur un an.
Viveris REIM a annoncé lundi 14 janvier avoir finalisé fin 2012 la vente d’un actif d’habitation à Charenton le Pont, dans le Val de Marne (94) pour le compte de l’OPCI grand public, Swiss Life Dynapierre. Après l’acquisition d’un immeuble de bureaux situé à Paris en juin 2012 et avec cette deuxième cession d’un actif d’habitation, Swiss Life Dynapierre vise un repositionnement vers l’immobilier tertiaire, indique un communiqué.
BNP Paribas Immobilier Promotion Immobilier d’Entreprise annonce l’arrivée de Carole de Matharel au poste de directrice générale adjointe en charge du développement. Elle sera sera rattachée à Bruno Pinard, directeur général, en charge de l’activité de Promotion en Immobilier d’Entreprise. L’intéressée était auparavant directrice des acquisitions de Nexity REIM.