Ahead of the introduction of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) regime in the United Kingdom, which will require prime brokers to provide more meaningful support to IFAs, BNY Mellon has decided to scale up its distribution with the recruitment of three people.They are Adrian Gough, head of investment management at RSM Tenon, who will be joining the firm in Sptember, Russell Bignall (ex Standard Life), who will become head of national network & bank distribution, and will begin by the end of the month, and Anita Rennie (ex Schroders), who becomes head of the advisory telephone sales team.The three recruits will report to Scott Goodsir, head of UK wholesale.
Ross Anderson, RDR implementation manager since January 2011, will be leaving Aviva on 7 September to join Legal & General as head of strategy & change delivery on 22 October, Money Marketing reports.
In its Property Report, the Wall Street Journal reports that pension funds and other major institutional investors are not taking the risk of subscribing to shares in high-risk real estate funds, but that asset managers have found another source of financing: high net worth private investors.Starwood Capital Group has raised about USD800m out of USD2bn for its real estate, distressed debt and new construction fund.Carlyle Group received about 10% of its USD2.3bn fund from high net worth investors (HNWI), while Lone Star Group attracted more than USD1bn from HNWIs for its USD5.5bn fund closed last year.Even Blackstone Group, which had no trouble in attracting institutional money for its current real estate fund, has turned to private investors to diversify its investor base, and is expected to attract over USD1bn from this source for its USD13bn fund.
M&G Investments has hired two people for its distribution team in the Nordic market, according to reports in the British press. Robert Heany was recruited in July, after seven years at RBS in Stockholm, where he had been working in the Nordic Equity Capital Markets team. He will focus on developing M&G’s activities serving institutional investors in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Billyana Kuncheva has also joined M&G. She will be based in Helsinki, and will deal with Finnish institutional investors and Danish retirement groups, corporate pension funds and local authorities. She previously worked at Aktia Invest, where she had been responsible for fixed income and selection of alternative managers.
In two SEC filings dated 16 August, Columbia Management Investment Advisors, an affiliate of Ameriprise Financial, has applied for a license from the regulator to launch a total of 17 actively-managed ETFs, which may be admitted to trading on the NYSE Arca platform.The funds are:Columbia Emerging Markets Bond ETF,Columbia European Equity ETF,Columbia International Equity ETF,Columbia Limited Duration Credit ETF,Columbia Short Term Bond ETF,Columbia Small/Mid Cap Value ETF,Columbia U.S. Government Mortgage ETF,Columbia Dividend Income ETF,Columbia Emerging Markets ETF,Columbia Pacific/Asia ETF,Columbia SMID Growth ETFColumbia Tax-Exempt ETFand the Columbia Muni Target 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 ETFs.
While Guotai and Bosera are in the process of preparing bond ETFs, China Securities Index has announced plans to launch the new SSE 5-Year China Treasury Note (Futures Deliverables) Index, SSE Convertible Bond Index, and CSI Convertible Bond Index.As the Chinese authorities will now allow only one ETF per bond index while the regulator (CSRC) would like to promote more depth on the Chinese bond market, the launch of the new indices should allow asset management firms to extend their product ranges, Z-Ben Advisors stresses.
The Axa group on 21 August announced that it is launching its annual employee shareholder operation, which gives employees of the group a way to subscribe to a reserved capital increase. The 2012 operation, entitled “Shareplan 2012,” will be held in 40 countries,a nd will involve more than 110,000 employees, who will be offered, in most countries, a “classic” and “leveraged” option. The maximal number of shares that may be issued as part of the operation is 58,951,965 shares, corresponding to a capital increase of a nominal total of nearly EUR135m.
State Street Corporation on 21 August announced the publication of its complete report on corporate social responsibility in 2011. The report, published each year since 2004, details the performance of the business in environmental, social and governance areas over the previous year, and lays out its objectives for the future. The report finds that State Street has reduced its carbon emissions by 24,500 tonnes through the use of cloud computing. State Street’s donations to charitable organisations have increased 15%, from USD17.8m in 2010 to USD20.5m in 2011. The group points out that State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the asset management activity of State Street, in 2011 launched a new High Quality Green Bond strategy, which offers invetors a way to orient their investments in fixed income to climate solutions, via a portfolio of green bonds managed by SSgA. At the end of 2011, SSgA had USd108bn in assets under management in ways that take environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into account. The report is available in the “Making Life Better” section of the State Street website (statestreet.com/better), an intercative website launched in 2011, which presents State Street’s engagement to social responsibility.
Axa will next month officially sign off on the sale of a majority stake in its private equity affiliate Axa Private Equity, Agefi reports, citing Dow Jones. The sale will be to a group of investors which includes the Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec, the news agency reports. However, Dow Jones reports, the Singapore sovereign fund GIC may not be participating in the operation. The management of the firm will be acquring a majority stake, while Axa will retain a minority stake. The firm will retain its name for a further two years.
Eric Rosen, co-head of fixed income, currencies and commodities at UBS in the United States, will be leaving the firm next month to found a hedge fund, Bloomberg reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. Matthew Zola, who had worked with Rosen, will take over sole management of the activity from September. Rosen is planning to launch a credit hedge fund.
The Berlin-based rating agency Scope has issued its first ratings of 78 wealth management funds on sale in Germany. Only theBL Global 75 B Cap receives the near-perfect rating of AA+, while overall Scope rated 11.5% of funds “AA” and 25.6% as “A.” The last fund on the list is PRIMA-Konzept, rated CC. Overall, 64% of the sample receive an “investment grade” rating (AA to BBB). The rankings are based on quantitative data on risk management performance, as well as positioning in the peer group.Scope, which is subsequently hoping to rate all “pertinent” wealth management funds available on the German market, has also included some qualitative aspects in its report.The only French-registered fund on the list from the German agency is the Carmignac Patrimoine A, which receives a rating of A. Only 7 products receive a better rating.
BaFin has issued a sales license for Germany to the Luxembourg-registered bond fund Asian Bond, a sub-fund of the Generali Investment Sicav (see Newsmanagers of 21 May 2012), managed by the Hong Kong affiliate of Generali. In light of the growing popularity of these investments with institutional investors, the asset management firm has released this product, which invests in government and corporate bonds from South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, China and Hong Kong, denominated in local currencies. The objective is to generate outperformance of 100 basis points per year over the HSBC Local Bond Index.CharacteristicsName: Generali Investments SICAV – Asian BondISIN code: LU0577419962Management commission: 0.40%
The chief investment officer at FRM, John Beech, left the fund of fund management firm in May, shortly after its acquisition by Man Group, according to reports in Financial News. His responsibilities have been taken over by Keith Haydon.
The financial ratings agency Moody’s on 21 August announced that it has downgraded the senior debt of Man Group from Baa2 to Baa3, with a negative outlook.Moody’s explains in a statement that the agency’s decision is due to several factors which threaten the alternative group’s core activities: persistent declines in assets under management, performance below benchmark indices, rising commissions, and highly modest profit outlooks.
Jeremy Charles, manager of the Scottish Widows UK Growth Fund, whose assets under management total GBP1.3bn, has left the firm, Investment Week reports. Charles had previously worked at Aviva Investors as a senior portfolio manager. The departure follows a decision on the part of SWIP, announced in April, to set up quantitative equity management strategies, which have GBP54m in assets under management. SWIP announced at the time that this development would lead to 23 layoffs.
With the New York hedge funds Avencue Capital and Golden Tree Asset Management, Goldman Sachs has invested GBP75m to take control of the low-cost hotel chain Travelodge, which had been owned by Dubai International Capital, as part of a debt-for-equity swap, the Telegraph reports. Lenders have agreed to cancel GBP720m in debt.
Le cimentier a d’ores et déjà obtenu un taux d’acceptation de plus de 90% à son offre d’échange obligataire, visant à prolonger jusqu’en 2017 les maturités de 7,25 milliards de dollars de titres. Par ailleurs, des créanciers représentant 1,5% de la dette se sont engagés à souscrire à l’offre qui doit s’achever le 7 septembre. Le groupe a décidé de ramener le taux d’acceptation nécessaire à la finalisation de la transaction de 95% à 91%.
D’après les statistiques publiées hier par la fédération industrielle Worldsteel, la production mondiale d’acier brut a augmenté de 2% par rapport à juillet 2011 pour atteindre 130 millions de tonnes, l’essentiel de cette progression étant à inscrire au crédit de la Chine, dont les tonnages produits s’affichent en hausse de 4,2% sur un an, à 61,7 millions de tonnes. Cette hausse fait suite à une légère baisse le mois précédent.
La collecte du Livret A s’est élevée à 2,12 milliards d’euros en juillet, portant la collecte nette sur ce livret d'épargne à 13,29 milliards sur les sept premiers mois de l’année, a indiqué hier la Caisse des dépôts (CDC). L’encours global du Livret A se monte désormais à 230,2 milliards d’euros contre 216,9 milliards fin 2011. Le sujet du relèvement du plafond de ce produit d’épargne doit être débattu aujourd’hui au Conseil des ministres.
Le fonds souverain de Singapour, Temasek, a vendu à Heineken sa participation d’environ 1,4% dans Asia Pacific Breweries (APB), dépositaire de la marque Tiger Beer, a rapporté hier Reuters de plusieurs sources, ce qui pourrait assurer le succès de l’offre de rachat formulée par le groupe néerlandais, contestée par un concurrent thaïlandais. Une porte-parole de Temasek a confirmé la vente de la participation du fonds dans APB mais a refusé de préciser l’identité de l’acquéreur.
Buenos Aires va déposer une plainte contre les Etats-Unis devant l’Organisation mondiale du Commerce (OMC) sur les importations américaines de citron et de bœuf, a annoncé hier le ministère argentin des Affaires étrangères. Cette décision intervient peu de temps après des plaintes déposées contre l’Argentine par le Japon et les Etats-Unis qui reprochent au pays d’Amérique latine sa politique en matière d’octroi de licences d’importations qu’ils jugent discriminante.
Athènes va devoir économiser deux milliards d’euros de plus au cours des deux prochaines années afin de se conformer aux objectifs fixés dans le cadre du plan d’aide consenti par l’Union européenne et le Fonds monétaire international, a confié hier à Reuters un haut responsable du ministère des Finances. Pour arriver à une baisse nette des dépenses de 11,5 milliards d’euros, le gouvernement estime qu’il devra prendre des mesures budgétaires représentant une valeur nominale de 13,5 milliards d’euros.
Le plan d’austérité britannique afin de redresser les finances publiques peine à convaincre de son efficacité. Le gouvernement a emprunté en juillet près de 0,6 milliard de livres. Un déficit inattendu qui met en danger les objectifs annuels.
Les finances publiques britanniques ont enregistré un déficit de 706 millions d'euros en juillet, conséquence de la récession où s'enfonce l'économie du pays sur fond de politique d’austérité gouvernementale.
Le Board of Trustees de Russell Exchange Traded Funds Trust a autorisé la liquidation de la gamme de 25 ETF américains gérés passivement d’ici au 24 octobre de cette année, la souscription n'étant ouverte que jusqu’au 9 octobre 2012. Ces fonds affichaient au 31 juillet un encours total de 310 millions de dollars. Les fonds cesseront d'être cotés à la clôture du 16 octobre sur les plates-formes NYSE Arca et Nasdaq, les positions commençant à être liquidées à partir du 16 octobre. Tous les porteurs restant à cette date percevront un montant en numéraire correspondant à la valeur liquidative de leurs parts sans frais de transaction de la part de leur broker-dealer. Ils ne supporteront pas non plus de frais éventuels liés à la liquidation des fonds.En revanche, le gestionnaire américain poursuivra l’exploitation de l’ETF actif Russell Equity ETF (ONEF), qui suit le Russell Developed Large Cap Index.La liste des ETF qui seront liquidés est disponible en annexe.
Fidelity Worldwide Investment a nommé Raymond Ma en tant que gérant principal de son fonds Greater China (406 millions de dollars) après le départ de Joseph Tse, rapporte Citywire. Raymond Ma gère déjà le Fidelity Funds China Consumer Fund.