Au deuxième trimestre 2012, le total des actifs financiers des sociétés d’assurance et des fonds de pension de la zone euro a atteint 7 247 milliards d’euros, contre 7 193 milliards au trimestre précédent, selon des statistiques publiées par la Banque centrale européenne. Sur la même période, les provisions techniques d’assurance, principale rubrique du passif des sociétés d’assurance et des fonds de pension, ont augmenté, passant de 6 301 milliards d’euros à 6 241 milliards. Cette hausse est due, à parts presque égales, à des transactions positives et à des effets de valorisation.S’agissant de la ventilation de l’actif du bilan agrégé des sociétés d’assurance et des fonds de pension de la zone euro, les avoirs en titres autres que des actions représentaient, à fin juin 2012, 39% du total des actifs financiers de ce secteur. Les parts d’OPCVM constituaient le deuxième poste le plus important, soit 23% du total des actifs financiers. Enfin, les actions et autres participations représentaient 11% du total.En ce qui concerne les transactions sur les principales rubriques des provisions techniques d’assurance, les droits nets des ménages sur les provisions techniques d’assurance-vie ont augmenté de 10 milliards d’euros au deuxième trimestre 2012. Les droits nets des ménages sur les fonds de pension se sont inscrits en hausse de 17 milliards d’euros sur la même période, tandis que les provisions pour primes non acquises et les provisions pour sinistres ont enregistré une progression de 5 milliards.S’agissant des contributions des deux sous-secteurs, les actifs financiers des sociétés d’assurance se sont élevés à 5 695 milliards d’euros au total en juin 2012, soit 79% du bilan agrégé du secteur des sociétés d’assurance et des fonds de pension, tandis que les actifs financiers des fonds de pension ont représenté 1 552 milliards au total.

Avec le compartiment Emerging Markets Corporate High Yield Bond de sa sicav luxembourgeoise Pioneer Funds, Pioneer commence à concrétiser ses projets en matière de fonds émergents (lire Newsmanagers du 5 septembre). Il s’agit d’un produit d’obligations à haut rendement d’entreprises des pays émergents confié à Greg Saichin, qui est également head of ermerging market & high yield portfolio management de Pioneer.Le portefeuille sera réparti de façon équilibrée entre les pays émergents d’Europe, d’Asie et d’Amérique latine, avec une gestion active de la duration et une couverture au moyen d’options sur actions et de contrats à terme sur les devises. Le gérant pourra également investir en obligations d’Etat pour donner une orientation plus défensive au fonds en fonction de la situation de marché.CaractéristiquesDénomination : Pioneer Funds – Emerging Markets Corporate High Yield BondCodes Isin :LU0765561054/A1J0EX (capitalisation)LU0765560916/A1J0EZ (distribution)Droit d’entrée : 2,50 %Commission de gestion : 1,55 %Commission de performance : 15 % de la surperformance par rapport à l’indice de référence, avec high watermark

Directeur à Francfort de la distribution en Allemagne pour les produits retail et wholesale chez BNP Paribas Investment Partners après avoir travaillé notamment pour Fortis Investments et Schroder Investment Management, Martin Theisinger rejoint la direction générale de la société de gestion Oppenheim Kapitalanlagegesellschaft de Cologne (filiale de Sal. Oppenheim, groupe Deutsche Bank). Il sera plus particulièrement chargé de la clientèle institutionnelle dans l’espace germanophone, notamment en ce qui concenre les compagnies d’assurances, les caisses de retraite et les consultants.

Le suisse Pictet se dote d’une équipe de spécialistes des obligations d’entreprises des marchés émergents pour laquelle il a recruté Alain Nsiona Defise, qui était auparavant responsable de la dette émergente d’entreprises chez J.P. Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM) qu’il avait rejoint en provenance de Fortis Investments. Chez JPMAM il était responsable d’un pôle de 2 milliards de dollars d’encours.Alain Nsiona Defise, basé à Londres, sera à la tête d’une équipe de trois analystes spécialistes de la dette émergente d’entreprise, Vincent Ferraton, Rosemary Fu et Teck Hoon Low. «A eux quatre, ils possèdent une expérience moyenne de plus de quinze ans dans les domaines de l’analyse obligataire et des investissements en obligations d’entreprises de pays émergents», précise Pictet.Funds People rapporte de son côté que Pictet a recruté en Espagne Juan Carlos Martíin Aparicio comme banquier privé senior, qui traavaillait chez Barclays Wealth à Madrid.

Plusieurs gérants star de la City de Londres se sont regroupés pour lancer le Battle Against Cancer Investment Trust (Bacit), un trust qui a déjà attiré 500 millions de livres. 1 % des encours totaux seront d’ores et déjà versé à des organisations de recherche contre le cancer. Aucun frais de gestion ne sera facturé aux investisseurs. Le produit, coté à Londres, lèvera des fonds pour soutenir des actions en faveur de la lutte contre la maladie, précise le Daily Mail.

Fournisseur de données et d’analyses multi-classes d’actifs aux investisseurs institutionnels, aux conseillers en investissement et aux gestionnaires de fortune, S&P Capital IQ a annoncé le recrutement à Londres de Roger Hirst comme vice president & director European equity research operations ainsi que des analystes actions William Mack et Roderick Wallace. A New York, la société a embauché deux analystes actions, Barbara Coffey et David Lewis.

Pour un montant non divulgué, BNY Mellon a acheté à Portigon AG (lex-WestLB) la participation de 50 % que cette dernière détenait dans leur coentreprise WestLB Mellon Asset Management (170 salariés et 25 milliards d’euros d’encours). Cette joint venture avait été créée en 2006.Le nouveau porte-parole (président) du comité exécutif de WestLB Mellon Asset Management sera Werner Taiber, qui était jusqu'à présent membre du directoire de Portigon, sous réserve évidemment d’un agrément de la BaFin.Werner Taiber sera subordonné à Mitchell Harris, président de BNY Mellon Investment Management, et à Curtis Arledge, le CEO de cette même société.

Le spécialiste des marchés émergents Mike Godfrey, qui a quitté il y a seulement quelques jours M&G, va rejoindre Marathon Asset Management, une boutique de gestion basée à Londres qui travaille essentiellement avec une clientèle institutionnelle, rapporte Investment Week.Mike Godfrey, qui gérait notamment le fonds GEM de M&G dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à plus de 680 millions de livres, devrait prendre ses fonctions en décembre. Il sera chargé de piloter les stratégies dédiées aux marchés émergents et à l’Asie hors Japon.

As of 31 August 2012, the global net wealth of collective investment organisms and specialised investment funds totalled EUR2.295399trn, compared with EUR2.296717trn as of 31 July 2012, a decline of 0.06% in one month, according to statistics from the Financial sector surveillance commission (CSSF). Over the past twelve months, net asset volume is up 10.04%.The Luxembourg OPC industry has posted a negative variation in August totalling EUR1.318bn. This decline represents the balance of positive net issues of EUR10.515bn (+0.46%) and unfavourable evolution of the financial markets totalling EUR11.833bn (-0.52%).

Dominique Basdevant, secrétaire général de la Carpa exprime son inquiétude : « Dans le contexte actuel, on est de plus en plus inquiet sur la situation des taux bas durables. Pour le moment, la Carpa de Paris se maintient autour des 3% de rendements. Nous gérons 10 milliards d’euros, avec une poche monétaire de 150 millions d’euros. Le reste étant placé en obligations d’Etats et financières n’excédant pas une maturité de 5 ans. On hésite à aller vers les grands noms corporate comme Air liquide, plutôt que de continuer à acheter du BMTN. Cependant, nous avons toujours la contrainte de capital garanti. C’est même une obligation légale. Nous serions intéressés pour investir dans l’immobilier, cependant tout ce que l’on nous propose est trop peu liquide. Mais cela pourrait être une opportunité pour nous de compenser l’inflation. Enfin, on ne garde que des émetteurs investment grade, on suit quotidiennement les notations des acteurs dans lesquels nous sommes investis. Par exemple, l’an dernier Groupama ayant été dégradé, nous avons liquidé toutes nos positions. »

Selon nos informations, à l’issue d’un appel d’offres lancé fin mai 2012, la Mutuelle de la Société Générale a retenu AXA IM pour gérer un mandat de gestion assurantielle sur les obligations euro pour un montant de 80 millions d’euros. Fixage a aidé la mutuelle à opérer ce choix.

Mi-décembre 2010, la Consob, l’autorité italienne des marchés financiers, avait adressé une note d’information concernant Carmignac Gestion à sa cousine française, l’AMF (Autorité des marchés financiers), révèle Plus, le supplément hebdomadaire d’Il Sole – 24 Ore. Cette note se focalisait notamment sur l’utilisation de dérivés OTC (de gré à gré). Cette révélation intervient alors que Carmignac Gestion a transigé avec l’AMF et versé 500.000 euros pour des manquements en matière de transparence sur l’utilisation de dérivés.

The British asset management firm Schroders has launched three funds specialised in emerging market debt in France. The first, Schroder Emerging Market Sovereign Bond, invests in government bonds, with the JPM CEMBI Broad Diversified index as its benchmark. The fund is managed by Jim Barrineau, head of bonds for Latin America, with the support of Alexander Moseley, Fernando Grisales and Chris Tackney. The second new fund is the Schroder Emerging Market Corporate Bond, focused on corporate bonds. The fund ia managed by Rajeev de Mello, head of Asian bond management, and will also have the JPM CEMBI Broad Diversified index as its benchmark. The third fund to have received a license is a mixed product which combined government and corporate bonds, which will invest both in issues denominated in local and in strong currencies, entitled Schroder Emerging Market Bond. The fund will be managed by the team based in New York, but will rely on de Mello’s team for Asia. The benchmark index is a combination of JPM indices, reflecting the hybrid character of the fund. The emerging market debt team at Schroders, led by Barrineau and de Mello, includes nine managers.

Irene Tse, who joined JP Morgan less than two years ago as chief investment officer for North America, is leaving the firm to launch her own hedge fund next year, Bloomberg reports.Before joining JP Morgan, Tse worked at a hedge fund, Dusquesne Capital Management, where she was a portfolio manager. She previously spend 14 years at Goldman Sachs, where she was co-head of US fixed income trading.

Bruno Vanier and Michel Audeban, a former manager at EDRAM And a former director of sales and distribution at Fidelity France, respectively, are preparing to officially unveil their new asset management firm in the second half of October. Gemway Assets, with Vanier as chairman and Audeban as CEO, received a license from the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) on 18 September.Gemway Assets, partly owned by Financière de l’Echiquier, with 34% of capital, is specialised in emerging markets. A Gemequity fund was launched in mid-June, and was managed by Vanier, at the offices of Financière de l’Echiquier, before being taken over by the asset management firm on 1 October. The OPCVM fund, which was “seeded” by the asset management firm of Didier le Menestrel and 10 investors, has assets of EUR10m, and has investmtent commitments of a total of a further EUR50m, Audeban tells Newsmanagers.The fund, which is already listed on several platforms for independent financial advisers (Cardif, Selection 1818, etc.), is expected to continue to be listed on other platforms in coming weeks.ISIN code: FR0011268705

Standish Mellon Asset Management Company, the Boston-based fixed income specialist for BNY Mellon, has hired Raman Srivastava as co-deputy chief investment officer and managing director of global fixed income, with responsibility for overseeing all global and non-U.S. fixed income strategies.In this newly created position, Srivastava will report to David Leduc, Standish’s chief investment officer. Srivastava, Leduc and David Horsfall, co-deputy chief investment officer will be responsible for managing Standish’s multi-sector and absolute return fixed income strategies. Brendan Murphy, director of global fixed income, and Rebecca Braeu, head of global sovereign research, will report to Srivastava.Srivastava has spent his entire investment career focused on fixed income. He most recently was a senior investment professional and portfolio manager for Putnam’s core plus, global fixed income and absolute returns teams.

The US asset management firm Vanguard (USD1.95trn in assets as of the end of September) has announced that it will be migrating its international equity tracker funds to indices from the British provider FTSE, while 16 of its US and diversified equity tracker funds will adopt new underlying indices developed by the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) at the Booth School of Business of the University of Chicago.Vanguard says that it had previously been using MSCI indices, but will realise “considerable savings” for shareholders in these funds, over time. Gus Sauter, CIO, says long-term licensing agreements which have been negotiated will allow for management fees for the tracker funds and ETFs concerned to be reduced over time.

Investors have once again steered clear of European equity funds in August, while investing an impressive net inflows of EUR16.95bn in bond funds, according to statistics from Morningstar. The situation is similar in the United States, where net inflows to bonds have topped USD30bn. Although inflows in Europe remain above the record posted in July of EUR22.9bn, the rush in bonds has only marginally slowed, compared with inflows to European bond products in previous months. Equity funds have posted an outflow of EUR7.02bn; the Morningstar United States mixed large caps category has been hardest-hit, with net redemptions of EUR810m. A few isolated categories of equity funds have seen positive inflows in August: US equities hedged for currency risks have seen the most sustained demand from investors, with net inflows of USD324m. Hedge funds have made a comeback, with net inflows of EUR713m. Allocation funds have posted net inflows of EUR587m; the Euro Prudent Allocation category continues to lead with positive inflows of EUR356m. The rankings of promoters with the largest inflows are topped by Pimco, with EUR3.1bn, excluding money market funds, followed by BlackRock (EUR2.07bn), KLP (EUR913m), Natixis (EUR872m), AXA (EUR842m) and Carmignac (EUR779m).

In the past few months, several funds, especially small ones, have had to close down in Sweden, the Swedish economic daily newspaper Dagens Industri reports on its website. On Monday, the liquidation of the hedge fund Concepio, managed by Ragnhild Wiborg, was announced. Brummer & Partner and Swedbank Robur have also closed funds. Morningstar reports that in the past ten years, more than 300 funds registered in Sweden have been liquidated. There now remain 741 funds. This trend is due to toughening regulations, which make the operation of funds more costly.

Société Générale on 2 October announced that Giovanni Ortolani is appointed Senior Banker for Societe Generale’s Private Investment Banking activity in Geneva, Switzerland effective October 1st 2012. In this newly created position, Giovanni Ortolani is responsible for launching the Private Investment Banking activity by developing the offer with large family holding companies and family offices in Switzerland. In addition, Renaud Billard is appointed Relationship Manager in the United Kingdom for the Private Investment Banking offer. Giovanni Ortolani and Renaud Billard report functionally to Galeazzo Pecori Giraldi, Head of Private Investment Banking. Giovanni Ortolani was previously Chief Country Officer for Italy since 2007. He joined Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking as Senior Banker and Head of public sector coverage in Italy in 2005. Billard joined Société Générale Private Banking in 1999 as a private banker serving French clients. In 2004, he joined the French team at Société Générale Private Banking Hambros in London, as Senior Private Banker, to develop the product range aimed at French and French-speaking residents of the United Kingdom, and has been Head of the France team since 2009.

On Wall Street, traders, analysts, strategists and staff of the back office are leaving banks to join asset management firms or other financial institutions where they can work free of the regulatory constraints they had been subject to previously, the Financial Times observes. This trend follows a toughening of regulations following the financial crisis. The FT cites the examples of traders Jerry and Michael Cudzi, who have recently joined TCW and Pimco, respectively.

From 27 November, Mutual Fund Wire reports, the BlackRock Prepared Portfolios will disappear, to be replaced by LifePath Active Portfolios, which will include a larger exposure to alternative investments. In a SEC filing, the asset management firm says that its target-date mutual funds will include more exposure to real estate. The iShares Cohen & Steers Realty Major Index Fund, iShares FTSE EPRA?NAREIT Developed Real Estate ex-U.S. Index Fund, as well as the BlackRock Commodity Strategies Fund will now be eligible for use in the portfolios, whose performance will be measured with the inclusion of additional indices such as the MSCI ACWI ex US IMI Index and FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed Real Estate Index.When the shareholder retires, porfolios will include 38% equities and 62% fixed income.

In Mid-December 2010, Consob, the Italian financial market authority, sent an informational letter concerning Carmignac Gestion to its French counterpart, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), Plus, the weekly supplement of Il Sole – 24 Ore reveals. The note focused particularly on the firm’s use of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives. The revelation comes at a time when Carmignac Gestion has reached a compromise with the AMF, in which it will pay EUR500,000 for shortfalls in transparency in the use of derivatives.

The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) on 2 October published its first report on the global insurance market (Gimar, or Global Insurance Market Report).The report points out that the sector has resisted the financial crisis, and lays out the major developments in the global insurance market.In the period from 2007 to 2011, the investment portfolios of insurers underwent a strong reduction in their sensitivity to risk. The proportion of bonds in these portfolios went from 56% in 2007 to 61% in 2011, due largely to an increase in the proportion of available for sale securities (AFS) to 50% from 44% previously.Meanwhile, the percentage of equities in portfolios fell to 7% from 11% in 2007.The profitability of investments by insurers varied in the period between a minimum of 2.47% (2010) and a maximum of 2.80%) (2011).

Cinco Días reports that the British asset management firm Schroders has registered a new sub-fund of its Luxembourg UCITS-compliant platform GAIA, the Global Macro Fund (see Newsmanagers of 4 September), with the CNMV. The product aims for outperformance of 800 basis points over Libor.

The emerging market specialist Mike Godfrey, who left M&G Only a few days ago, will be joining Marathon Asset Management, an asset management boutique based in London which works primarily with institutional clients, Investment Week reports.Godfrey, who had been manager of the GEM Fund from M&G, whose assets under management total over GBP680m, will begin in the role in December. He will be responsible for directing strategies dedicated to emerging markets and Asia ex Japan.

The new head of distribution for Europe, Middle East and Africa at ETF Securities is Matt Johnson, who had been co-head of derivative sales for the same region at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Fundweb reports. Johnson will report directly to Graham Tuckwell, chairman and CEO.

Several star managers in the City in London have joined forces to launch the Battle Against Cancer Investment Trust (BACIT), a trust which has already attracted GBP500m. 1% of total assets have already been paid to cancer research organisations. No management fees will be charged to investors. The product, listed in London, will raise funds to support actions to promote the fight against cancer, the Daily Mail reports.

Legal & General Investment Management, one of the largest shareholders in the United Kingdom, with 4% of the British stockmarket, has voted against 18 chairmen of remuneration committees on boards of directors since the beginning of this year, the Financial Times reports. This is the first time that an L&G asset management firm has voted against those in charge of setting pay scales for management. Some of the opposition votes were at WPP, Barclays and Trinity Mirror.

Swiss-based Pictet has created an emerging market corporate bond specialist team, for which it has recruited Alain Nsiona Defise, who had previously been head of emerging market corporate debt at J.P. Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM), which he joined from Fortis Investments. At JPMAM, he was responsible for a unit with USD2bn in assets.Defise, based in London, will be responsible for a team of three analysts specialised in emerging market corporate debt, including Vencent Feraton, Rosemary Fu and Teck Hoon Low. “These four have an average experience of more than 15 years in the areas of bond analysis and investment in emerging market corporate bonds,” says Pictet.Funds People reports, for its part, the Pictet has recruited Juan Carlos Martín Aparicio in Spain as a senior private banker. He had previously worked at Barclays Wealth in Madrid.