Sebastián Larraza, head of alternative management, will be responsible for the new fund of fund range AC Gestión Global launched by Ahorro Corporación Gestión, which will consist of four products, two absolute return funds and two directional funds, Funds People reports.The two absolute return funds of funds will be the AC Gestión Global Conservador VAR 3 and AC Gestión Global Moderado VAR 7, which are the existing VaR funds with new names.For the directional funds, Ahorro Corporación is launching the AC Gestión Global Renta Fija, a UCITS-compliant fund of 25 funds, which may include all fixed income segments with an ex ante volatility of less than 5%, and total performance on record of 4-6% per year. The product charges fees of 1%, with a performance commission of 9%.A similar product will soon be launched in an equity universe.

Since the beginning of November, Javiera Ragnhartz has become the new CEO of SHB Fonder, the asset management firm from the Swedish bank Handelsbanken, Realtid.se reports. She succeeds Katja Bergquist. Ragnhartz had most recently been head of institutional management at SEB.

DWS Investments has recently obtained a sales license for its DWS Invest Euro Corporate Bonds fund in France. The product, managed by Karsten Rosenkilde, invests at least 90% in investment grade rated corporate bonds. The manager may invest up to 10% in high yield bonds. The entire portfolio is invested in euros. Although up to 30% of the fund may be invested in bonds denominated in currencies other than the euro, hedging assures protection against currency risks. The fund, which was founded in 2007, now has EUR530m in assets. “Assets in the DWS Invest Euro Corporate Bonds fund have increased strongly this year, due to market effects, of course, as well as to net inflows of EUR300m,” says Torsten Harig, a product specialist at DWS Investments. The asset management firm has EUR30bn under management in investment grade bonds. Characteristics ISIN code: LU0300357638 (capitalisation) Subscription fees: 1.50% Management fees: 1.20% ISIN code: LU0441433728 (distribution) Subscription fees: 3% Management fees: 0.90%

The US firm Van Eck Global has submitted a license application to the SEC to launch a forthcoming ETF of the Market Vectors range which would be based on high yield corporate bonds, replicating an exclusive index covering US and international high yield securities denominated in US dollars, Index Universe reports. The Markets Vector High Yield/Treasury Bond ETF fund would be authorised to short-sell bonds and Treasury notes in order to protect itself against interest rate changes.

Tracker and hedge funds are expected to continue to post higher growth than traditional products, Agefi Switzerland reports. They also remain the primary vectors of growth in asset management, said Christian Soguel, a partner at Ernst & Young responsible for asset management, at a conference of the Swiss Funds Association (SFA) held Wednesday in Zurich. Although the sector remains highly fragmented, it does not appear to be suffering from excessive downward pressures on prices or margins due to the intensity of competition.

A significant increase in corporate debt issues since the beginning of the year is providing bond investors with better diversification opportunities in terms of issuers and sectors, according to a study published recently by Moody’s.Since the beginning of this year, bond issues in the industrial sector, utilities and the financial sector have topped USD2.8trn, up by more than 22% compared with the corresponding period of 2011. The number of corporate issuers has also increased by nearly 20% in the same period.

The Italian team from M&G Investments has recruited Delia Pelosi as investment sales advisor, Bluerating reports. She previously worked at Pioneer as sales and distribution data manager, and at Intesa Sanpaolo Life as head of client communications. At M&G, Pelose joins a team of eight people, led by Matteo Astolfi, head of M&G Investments in Italy. So far, the British asset management firm has assets in Italy of EUR3.5bn, and has posted net inflows of EUR1.2bn since the beginning of the year.

The consulting firm Towers Watson has appointed Alessandra Pasquoni as head of the Investment sector in Italy, Bluerating reports. She had previously been head of the securities investment division of the Cassa Nazionale di Previdenza e Assistenza Dottori Commercialisti, the retirement planning scheme for accountants. She spent five years at Pioneer in Dublin as an asset allocation specialist.

Lyxor will Friday launch the Lyxor ETF Euro Stoxx Daily Short fund on the Milan stock exchange, an ETF which exposes the investor to the inverse performance of the Euro Stoxx 50, Bluerating reports. Its total expense ratio is 0.40%. Lyxor already offers seven other short ETF funds on the Milan stock exchange.

Man Group has transferred EUR1.5bn from its flagship quantitative fund AHL to a new experimental portfolio, in order to boost performance, the Financial Times reports. The new vehicle, internally known as “evolution,” has earned 18% since the beginning of the year, and 16% in 2011, according to a source familiar with the matter. Evolution was specifically designed to help AHL, which has assets under management of USD16.3bn, to overcome the impact of quantitative easing and the euro zone crisis, which caused a lot of problems for momentum quantitative funds. Since the beginning of QE measures, AHL has lost 12%.

Investec AM is hoping to discourage investors from subscribing to its UK Smaller Companies small caps fund, managed by Phil Rodrigs. The management firm is aiming to protect the performance of the product, which has assets of GBP460m, up from GBP408m at the end of August, Investment Week states. The fund has not been closed to subscriptions, but the asset management firm has ceased to actively promote it.

The financial database Cfinancials is working on a risk measurement expressed as a simple percentage, applicable to all asset classes, and based on market data, not data from product issuers, Agefi Switzerland reports. The ratings activities are expected to become a strong area, and to make it possible to compare the risk of total loss for all financial products, regardless of their type. The basic principle is simply that at the time of listing, in the absence of market data, shares are valued at 50%. As a promotion, measurements of the members of the Euro Stoxx 50 will soon be listed freely, while the others will be available with a subscription to the service.

The ratings agency Fitch Ratings on 21 November announced that it has lowered its confederation rating for the Spanish savings banks (Ceca) by one notch to BBB-, just above speculative grade, and will now cease evaluations, and will instead monitor the banking structure CecaBank, which has received the same rating. The downgrade reflects the opinion of the agency that the volume of activities at the Spanish savings banks may fall further, with a concentration movement underway in the sector, a statement from Fitch explains. Fitch has also announced that it will no longer issue ratings for Ceca, due to a reorganisation of the entity, which on 12 November transferred the majority (89%) of its banking activities to a new structure entitled CecaBank. The latter firm has received the same rating of BBB-, one notch above speculative grade, with a negative outlook, meaning that Fitch may downgrade it in the mid-term.

BlackRock is planning to launch a fund platform domiciled in Hong Kong early next year, AsianInvestor reveals. The US asset management group had no comment on the reports. The initiative follows one by Franklin Templeton, which has launched a range of local products. Another house group, whose name was not obtained by AsianInvestor, is planning to do the same. Kong Kong has 2,000 licensed funds, of which only 150 are locally registered. Last year, 70% of all licensed funds were UCITS-compliant products.

Das Investment cites an article in the Wall Street Journal which reports that the takeover of the German financial services provider AWD by Swiss Life has failed. There will need to be absorption, which will cost hundreds of millions of Swiss francs in asset depreciation. Swiss Life is then said to be planning to cut costs at AWD, with up to 500 back-office jobs cut.

The head of Old Mutual Global Investors, Julian Ide, is planning to launch an Old Mutual fund of funds, Fundweb reports. “We already have a good track record in asset management of this type internally, and we are considering ways to sell this range with the wealth management team from Old Mutual,” Ide explains.

F&C on Wednesday announced the appointment of Ross Duncton as head of Direct to Consumer. He joins from Acromas Financial Services where he held the position of head of Product & Marketing.Ross Duncton will be based in F&C’s London office, reporting directly to Richard Wilson and will work closely with Mandy Mannix, head of client management and Tracy Fennell, head of marketing. Richard Wilson commented, “We believe the ‘direct to consumer’ channel has the potential to make a real contribution to future sales growth (…).”In its strategic review earlier this year F&C announced that the overall “strategy for Wholesale and Consumer businesses is to pursue profitable growth, responding to customer needs in the intermediary and self-directed channels and building on F&C’s strength in multi-manager products, direct marketing and its consumer brand awareness.” Integral to this commitment was a stated ambition to enhance F&C’s direct marketing infrastructure and capabilities – a move designed to ensure that, as a business, it is well placed to leverage its already extensive client base and is ideally positioned in a post Retail Distribution Review (RDR) environment.

BlackRock and AllianceBernstein have asked Consob, the Italian financial market authority, to exempt them from the requirement to disclose stakes of 2% to 5% in the capital of businesses in their portfolios, Bluerating reports. The exemption is granted for asset management activities under the European Transparency directive.

Humanis figure parmi les tout premiers groupes de protection sociale, en retraite complémentaire, prévoyance, santé et épargne. Paritaire et mutualiste, Humanis est profondément ancré dans les valeurs de l'économie sociale. Le Groupe s’engage ainsi à apporter à ses clients (entreprises et particuliers) des solutions et services de qualité, en privilégiant la proximité, le conseil et l'écoute. Humanis met également à disposition de ses clients ses savoir-faire spécifiques à l’international (expatriés - impatriés - TOM) et en gestion pour compte de tiers. Engagé dans une démarche d’investisseur responsable depuis 2006, et profondément animé par le principe de responsabilité fiduciaire vis-à-vis de l’ensemble de ses parties prenantes (administrateurs, clients et partenaires), le Groupe Humanis a la volonté de pérenniser ses performances financières à long terme. Cette démarche s’est traduite en 2012, par des initiatives concrètes en matière d’investissement responsable parmi lesquelles : la signature des Principes de l’Investissement Responsable (PRI) de l’ONU, le renforcement de la politique de vote et du dialogue actionnarial dans les sociétés dont le Groupe Humanis détient des participations, la définition d’une charte financière fondée sur les valeurs d’engagement, de partage et d’ambition, des initiatives de financement de l'économie réelle, notamment dans des PME non côtées, la refonte et l’extension de la norme interne d’investissement responsable. En décernant ce prix, Amadeis et Natixis Asset Management affirment leurs convictions et leur engagement en matière d’investissement responsable sur un marché français qui reste en forte expansion avec plus de 69% de hausse des encours en un an estimés à 115,3 milliards d’euros à fin décembre 20112. Pour plus d’informations, consultez le site : http://www.leprixinvestisseurresponsable.com/

L’activité dans le secteur manufacturier aux Etats-Unis a augmenté en novembre à son rythme le plus élevé depuis cinq mois, portée par une hausse de la demande intérieure, selon les résultats préliminaires de l’enquête mensuelle de Markit. L’indice PMI flash a rebondi à 52,4 en novembre après avoir touché un plus bas de trois ans de 51 en octobre.

Mirova, c’est le nom que Natixis Asset Management a donné à son nouveau pôle d’expertise en investissement responsable, deux mois après le lancement de Seeyond, sa business unit dédiée à la gestion de volatilité et de produits structurés. Mirova comprend huit thématiques d’investissement à dominante développement durable : énergie, mobilité, bâtiments et villes, ressources, consommation, santé, technologies de l’information et de la communication, et enfin finance. La marque emploie une quarantaine d’experts en gestion thématique, des ingénieurs, des analystes financiers et ESG, des spécialistes de la finance solidaire et du financement de projets. Son offre comprend les actions cotées, les infrastructures, l’impact investing et le conseil aux investisseurs institutionnels sur le vote et l’engagement.

Les inscriptions hebdomadaires au chômage ont diminué aux Etats-Unis lors de la semaine au 17 novembre, à 410.000 contre 451.000 (révisé) la semaine précédente, a indiqué le département du Travail. La moyenne mobile sur quatre semaines s'établit à 396.250 contre 386.750 la semaine précédente.

L’indice des indicateurs avancés américains a légèrement augmenté en octobre, suggérant une petite accélération de la croissance à court terme. Ce baromètre de l'évolution future de l’activité économique aux Etats-Unis, calculé par le Conference Board, a progressé de 0,2% à 96,0 après une hausse de 0,5% (révisée de +0,6%) en septembre, conformément aux attentes.

Les incertitudes autour de la situation fiscale et budgétaire ont entamé le sentiment des consommateurs américains dans la deuxième partie de novembre, montre l’indice Thomson Reuters/Université du Michigan. Dans sa version définitive, l’indice est ressorti à 82,7, à peine mieux qu’en octobre (82,6), alors qu’il avait été annoncé à 84,9 en version préliminaire le 9 novembre.

Lisbonne a placé 2 milliards d’euros de bons du Trésor à 3, 6 et 18 mois à des conditions moins avantageuses que lors d’opérations précédentes. 1,2 milliard d’euros de titres à 18 mois ont été placés pour un rendement de moyen de 2,99%, contre 2,96% en septembre. 500 millions d’euros de bons à six mois ont été émis à 2,16%, contre 1,83% mi-octobre. La tendance a été similaire pour les 300 millions d’euros de bons à trois mois.

Les responsables monétaires britanniques sont divisés quant à l’impact précis de leurs achats d’obligations d’Etat et sur les arguments à retenir en faveur d’une poursuite de cette politique d’assouplissement quantitatif, note le compte-rendu de leur dernière réunion des 7 et 8 novembre. Si la décision de la Banque d’Angleterre de ne pas modifier le niveau de ses rachats d’actifs a été prise à 8 contre 1, «les points de vue divergent en ce qui concerne l’impact exact des achats d’actifs du Comité de politique monétaire (...). Il y aurait des arguments en faveur d’un nouvel assouplissement monétaire», selon les minutes de la réunion, qui évoquent également le fait que la production pourrait être soutenue sans alimenter l’inflation.

L’agence de notation Fitch examinera en 2013 la note souveraine de la France, a confirmé son président Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière. Fitch est la dernière des grandes agences à noter la dette long terme de la France triple A après la dégradation lundi par Moody’s à Aa1, qui a fait suite à celle au AA+ attribué dès janvier par Standard & Poor’s.

Le bancassureur belge a annoncé le lancement d’un programme d’émissions obligataires sécurisées de 10 milliards d’euros. KBC a indiqué avoir obtenu les autorisations nécessaires de la Banque nationale de Belgique et espère lancer sa première émission ce trimestre ou cours du premier trimestre 2013. Le groupe souhaite placer entre 2 et 3 milliards de covered bonds par an dans les prochaines années.

Le président de la Fed a prévenu que la reprise de l'économie américaine risquait d'être remise en cause par les désaccords au Congrès sur la gestion du fiscal cliff. «De telles incertitudes ne pourront être qu’aggravées par les désaccords et les délais», a-t-il souligné hier. «A l’inverse (...) un plan pour résoudre les problèmes budgétaires à long terme sans affecter la reprise pourrait permettre à la nouvelle année d'être très bonne pour l'économie américaine».

Dans un rapport publié aujourd’hui, Moody’s estime que les nouveaux dirigeants chinois qui prendront le pouvoir en mars 2013 devront relever le défi d’une transition dans le modèle de croissance de son économie qui structure sa note Aa3. L’agence cite le ralentissement de la croissance, le rééquilibrage de l’économie, la réforme des marchés et de la concurrence, la libéralisation du secteur financier tout en maintenant la stabilité du modèle social.