Les chiffres de l'emploi compliquent l'attentisme de la Fed
Les statistiques de juin, décevantes, ne seraient cependant pas assez mauvaises pour justifier dès maintenant un QE3
Les actionnaires de la Bourse d’Osaka en veulent davantage
La publication des résultats trimestriels de l’Osaka Securities Exchange (OSE) attendus fin juillet pourrait permettre à ses actionnaires de prétendre à une prix plus élevé pour leurs titres que les 480.000 yens pour l’instant promis par la Bourse de Tokyo, le Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). L’offre amicale, première étape de la fusion des Bourses, doit être prochainement lancée.
Facebook bouscule les stratégies de gestion
Le quotidien américain cite une étude réalisée pour son compte par MorningStar sur la base d’éléments de portefeuille publiés par les fonds ouverts aux Etats-Unis en juin et en juillet mettant en lumière la frénésie entourant l’introduction en Bourse du site de réseau social. Au moins 160 mutual funds ou fonds indiciels cotés (ETF) auraient acquis des titres Facebook en mai. Surtout, certains ne sont pas des «investisseurs naturels» dans une société de croissance technologique, comme ces fonds identifiés destinés à investir dans des titres offrant un bon dividende ou spécialisés dans les valeurs sous-évaluées. Des éléments qui soulignent «la grand liberté accordée aux gérants».
Le Qatar et Abu Dhabi visent les hôtels anglais
Les fonds souverains du Qatar et d’Abu Dhabi seraient en négociations pour racheter quelque 42 hôtels de la chaîne Marriott International installés sur le territoire anglais, selon le journal qui ne cite pas ses sources. Une opération, orchestrée par Royal Bank of Scotland, dont le montant total pourrait avoisiner les 700 millions de livres, l'équivalent de 880 millions d’euros.
Mauvais temps pour l'emploi britannique
Le marché de l’emploi britannique pourrait connaître la plus importante chute dans les intentions d’embauche depuis trois ans, selon une enquête menée par KPMG et la confédération de l’emploi britannique auprès de 400 agences de recrutement. Le nombre de chômeurs pourrait ainsi rapidement atteindre 3 millions, contre 2,61 millions actuellement, selon Bernard Brown, directeur des services chez KPMG cité par le journal.
L'Eurogroupe planche sur l'aide à l'Espagne
Les ministres des Finances ont rendez-vous à Bruxelles à partir de 17 heures. Le sauvetage des banques espagnoles sera au cœur des discussions mais l’Allemagne a d’ores et déjà prévenu que cet Eurogroupe ne serait pas conclusif, alors que les rendements espagnols remontent.
La BCE s’inquiète de la lenteur de la mise en œuvre de l’union bancaire
Benoît Coeuré, membre du directoire, a insisté sur l’urgence de passer aux actes à l’occasion des Rencontres économiques d’Aix-en-Provence
CAC 40 : la reprise entamée à 2.920 points est sans doute terminée
La zone de résistance établie à 3.300-3.400 points devrait forcer l’indice à viser la région des 2.700 points
«Des baisses de notes pourraient compliquer le financement de certains émetteurs»
Dimitri Andraos, responsable de la gestion de taux et crédit de Swiss Life AM (France)
09/07/2012
SWIP adds to pension fund sales team
Peter Marsland has left Insight Investment, where he had been responsible for key accounts, largely British pension fund mandates. He has joined Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) as client director in the global client management team. He will be based in Edinburgh, and will report to Peter Dorward, head of global client management.The new recruit will be responsible for monitoring pension fund clients to whom SWIP will provide de-risking solutions to their portfolios.
09/07/2012
Micky Morrissey leaves Liontrust
Liontrust has confirmed, with no additional comments, that Micky Morrisey, who had been at the business since May 2002, has resigned from his position as director of distribution, and has left the company.
09/07/2012
Old Mutual Wealth recruits former Thames River COO
Jeremy Charles, who had been COO of Thames River, on 9 July joined Old Mutual Wealth Management in the same role. He will be responsible for bringing all operational functions and technological resources “into line,” at all asset and wealth management activities at Skandia UK, Skandia International, Skandia Investment Group and Old Mutual Asset Managers.
09/07/2012
Criminal investigation into Libor rate-fixing opened
The British Serious Fraud Office (SFO) on 6 July announced its competence to open a criminal investigation into the scandal surrounding manipulation of the inter-bank lending rate, which has led to the resignation of three top directors at Barclays bank.“David Green, director of the SFO, Friday formally decided to agree to launch an investigation into the Libor scandal,” the SFO announced in a very brief statement.Barclays on 27 June announced that it would be paying a total equivalent of GP290m, or about EUR360m, to settle investigations by the British and US regulatory authorities into manipulations of the British Libor and European Euribor inter-bank lending rates between 2005 and 2009.
09/07/2012
UBS closes an absolute return bond fund
The Swiss UBS group has closes its Absolute Return Bond fund, whose assets under management had fallen to GBP15m, Investment Week reports. Since its launch in April 2005, the fund had seen losses as of 4 July of 32.12%, compared with gains of nearly 62% over the same period for the corresponding sector according to the British Investment Management Association (IMA).
09/07/2012
Goldman Sachs AM closes target-date funds
Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) has announced that it has decided to close a series of six target-date funds which had not posted sufficient gains, and had not posted convincing returns, MutualFundWire reports.The closure of GSAM funds will be effective from 27 July. Two other firms, Columbia Funds and Oppenheimer Funds, have already taken similar decisions.Goldman Sachs emphasizes its commitment to retirement solutions, which represent over USD53bn in assets under management.
09/07/2012
Pension fund coverage rates rebound in June
The average coverage rate for liabilities of US corporate pension funds in June increased 1.8 percentage points to 71.6%, following significant declines in April and May, according to estimates from BNY Mellon. This improvement is due to the good performance of the US equity markets, which gained 3.9% in June, and stock markets elsewhere in the world, which have posted gains of 7%. Assets in pension funds have thus increased by 2.7% in June, while in the same period liabilities increased by only 0.1%, and the discount rate for business rated Aa remains unchanged at 3.98%.
09/07/2012
Fund managers seduced by Facebook
At least 160 mutual funds and ETFs domiciled in the United States in May invested in shares in the social network Facebook, including products from Fidelity, Morgan Stanley, and Oppenheimer Funds, according to the findings of a compilation of monthly filings for June and July, collected by Morningstar and the Wall Street Journal.Some funds would not ordinarily have been permitted to invest in shares in Facebook, which is a high growth tech company. For example, demand came from funds which focused on companies which pay a dividend, such as the Fidelity Dividend Growth, or which may be considered undervalued, or value, such as the Principal LargeCap Value fund or the JPMorgan Intrepid Value fund, even though Facebook does not fall into either of these categories.About 55% of funds which hold shares in Facebook are invested in by defined contribution savings plans, such as 401(k) plans, the analyst BrightScope reports.This demonstrates the latitude which fund managers may have, and should serve as a reminder to investors that managers are not free of gregarious instincts, analysts point out.
09/07/2012
Investors remain expectant
In the first few days of July, those holding out hopes for European government bonds and of interest rate cuts in Europe and China were awash in profit warnings and mediocre economic outlooks.Bond funds finished the week ending on 4 July with inflows over five months and the largest weekly inflows since the beginning of the year, according to estimates from EPFR Global. High yield bond funds attracted over USD1.5bn, and emerging market bond funds also finished the week with strong inflows.Equity funds posted net inflows of nearly USD9bn, but this was largely due to inflows to US ETFs.Money market funds underwent redemptions totalling USD21.54bn, largely under the effect of outflows from European money market funds.
09/07/2012
JPMAM freezes subscriptions to five money market funds due to prime rate cut
The Luxembourg-based firm JPMorgan Asset Management (Europe) SARL has advised shareholders in five of its funds:JPMorgan Liquidity Funds – Euro Liquidity FundJPMorgan Liquidity Funds – Euro Government Liquidity FundJPMorgan Funds – Euro Money Market FundJPMorgan Investment Funds – Euro Liquid Market Fundand JPMorgan Series II Funds – EURthat “in their interest,” the firm will no longer be accepting subscriptions or switch in these products. The decision follows a decision by the European Central Bank (ECB) to lower its prime rates, which may result in negative returns for the money market funds concerned.However, JPMAM is imposing no restriction on redemptions or switch out to other funds.
09/07/2012
ESMA publishes final recommendations to improve investor protection
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) on 6 July published two sets of recommendations related to the deployment of the MiFID directive, with the objective of improving investor protection.The recommendations laid out by ESMA, which cover advising and compliance functions, will promote convergence of interpretations surrounding these issues, on the part of users and supervisory authorities.
09/07/2012
US funds get a new watchdog
Eileen Rominger is retiring, and is replaced from 9 July by Norm Champ as director of the investment management division of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Since June 2010, Champ has been deputy director of the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE). A lawyer by training, he joined the SEC in early 2010, after serving as a member of the executive board and a partner at Chilton Investment Company.
09/07/2012
db x-trackers, ComStage and Lyxor were global losers in ETFs for H1
As of the end of June, 3,309 ETF funds, listed 7,353 times worldwide, posted assets of USD1.503trn, an increase of 4.4% in one month (USD1.445trn as of the end of May), and of 11% in first half (USD1.353trn as of the end of December), according to statistics from the consulting firm ETFGI, led by Deborah Fuhr. This increase in assets of USD150bn is due to net subscriptions of USD99.8bn in the first six months of the year.Vanguard was the leader for net inflows, alone accounting for USD29.92bn, putting it ahead of iShares (USD24.93bn) and SPDR (State Street) with USD10.11bn.On the other hand, db x-trackers has seen the heaviest net outflows, with nearly USD1.43bn, followed by ComStage (Commerzbank) with USD875m, and Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale) with USD857m.
09/07/2012
ETPs growing less quickly than straight ETFs
Combining ETFs, ETCs and ETNs in the single category of exchange-traded products (ETP), the consulting firm ETFGI, led by Deborah Fuhr, has counted 4,684 products listed 9,443 times worldwide as of the end of June, of which 3,309 and 7,353, respectively, are ETFs. Overall, there are 202 issuers of ETPs on 54 stock markets, including 171 issuers of ETFs on 50 stock markets.Assets in ETPs increased 10.2% in first half, to USD1.682trn, while assets in ETFs alone increased 11.1%, to USD1.503rn. Net subscriptions totalled USD106.94bn, of which EUR99.8bn were in ETFs.
09/07/2012
Fidelity reshuffles German-language communication
Ellen Posch in early July began in her role as head of continental European marketing at Fidelity Worldwide Investment in Luxembourg. She had previously been a member of the executive committee, in charge of marketing for Fidelity Germany. In her new role, she will report directly to Jon Skillman, managing director, continental Europe.Posch’s transfer to Luxembourg is accompanied by a reshuffle at Fidelity in Germany, where the firm has added a new product strategy & product marketing unit, which will be led by Daniel Reitz, previously head of investment & product focus.Meanwhile, internal communications, press relations, brand development and client relationships in Germany and Austria, for Fidelity and its affiliate FFB (fund platform) will be incorporated into a new corporate & marketing communications unit, which will be led by Marion Dreßler, head of communications in Germany and Austria since 2009.Daniel Reitz and Dreßler will report directly to Christian Wrede, CEO of Fidelity Worldwide Investment for Germany and Austria.
09/07/2012
Allianz and Union alone show serious inflows in Germany
In the first five months of the year, open-ended securities funds attracted a total of EUR2.5664bn in net subscriptions, Only two firms had posted truly significant inflows: Allianz Asset Management, which (counting Pimco) singlehandedly attracted EUR7.8963bn, and Union Investment (co-operative banks), whose funds attracted EUR1.7816bn: These two players have posted net subscriptions nearly four times higher than the industry as a whole.However, BlackRock, with its iShares ETFs, has posted net outflows of EUR1.5826bn, while ComStage (Commerzbank ETFs) redeemed a net total of UR396.7m. At Deka (savings banks), net outflows ran to EUR2.6092bn, while at Deutsche Bank, they totalled EUR2.1481m, of which EUR1.2751m for db x-trackers brand ETPs.However, ETFlab (Deka ETFs) have attracted EUR204.6m.
09/07/2012
January-May: Inflows to German funds have doubled
In May, German funds posted net subscriptions of EUR3.63bn, compared with GBP496.8m in April, and a net outflow of EUR418.1m in the corresponding month of the previous year. This brings the total in the first five months of the year to over EUR24.53bn, compared with EUR12.78bn in January-May 2011.The German BVI association of asset management firms notes that the iShares DAX ETF, which in April underwent net outflows of EUR3.8bn, in May saw a reallocation of EUR3.6bn, which explans the fact that in May, equity funds showed net subscriptions of EUR1.21bn, while without that inflow, they would have seen outflows of EUR2.4bn.In January-May, open-ended funds attracted a net EUR4.04bn, compared with net redemptions of EUR3.55bn in the corresponding period of last year, while institutional funds showed inflows of EUR19.87bn, compared with EUR13.02bn; institutional mandates took on EUR638.3m in net, compared with EUR3.31bn, but they saw net outflows of EUR2.68bn in May, compared with net inflows of EUR2.84bn in April.
JPMAM gèle les souscriptions de cinq fonds monétaires
Le luxembourgeois JPMorgan Asset Management (Europe) Sarl a avisé les porteurs de cinq fonds monétaires (*) qu’il n’accepte plus, «dans leur intérêt», de souscriptions ou d’arbitrages pour ces produits. Cela fait suite à la décision de la Banque centrale européenne (BCE) d’abaisser ses taux directeurs, ce qui pourrait se traduire par des rendements négatifs pour les fonds monétaires concernés. En revanche, JPMAM n’impose aucune restriction sur les rachats ou sur les arbitrages vers d’autres fonds.(*) JPMorgan Liquidity Funds – Euro Liquidity FundJPMorgan Liquidity Funds – Euro Government Liquidity FundJPMorgan Funds – Euro Money Market FundJPMorgan Investment Funds – Euro Liquid Market FundJPMorgan Series II Funds – EUR
09/07/2012
Fidelity réorganise sa communication germanophone
Ellen Posch vient de prendre, début juillet, les fonctions de head of continental European marketing chez Fidelity Worldwide Investment à Luxembourg. Elle était auparavant membre de la direction générale chargée du marketing chez Fidelity Allemagne. Dans ses nouvelles fonctions, elle est directement subordonnée à Jon Skillman, managing director, continental Europe.Le transfert d’Ellen Posch à Luxembourg s’est accompagné d’une réorganisation en Allemagne où Fidelity s’est doté d’un nouveau pôle product strategy & product marketing qui sera dirigé par Daniel Reitz, jusqu’à présent head of investment & product focus.D’autre part, la communication interne, les relations presse, le développement de la marque et les relations avec la clientèle en Allemagne et en Autriche tant pour Fidelity que pour sa filiale FFB (plate-forme de fonds) sont incorporés dans un nouveau pôle corporate & marketing communications, qui est dirigé par Marion Dreßler, responsable depuis 2009 de la communication en Allemagne et en Autriche. Daniel Reitz et Marion Dreßler sont directement subordonnés à Christian Wrede, le directeur général de Fidelity Worldwide Investment pour l’Allemagne et l’Autriche.
KKR prend la majorité chez WMF
Au travers du holding Finedining Capital GmbH qu’il contrôle, le capital-investisseur KKR a acquis 52 % des actions ordinaires et 5 % des actions préférentielles de WMF Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik AG (WMF) auprès de Crystal Capital GmbH, société contrôlée par fonds de private equity suisse Capvis Equity II.La transaction annoncée le 6 juillet s’effectue sur la base de 47 euros en numéraire par action ordinaire, ce qui représente une prime de 24 % sur le cours bousier du 5 juillet. C’est également le prix de l’OPA volontaire que KKR lance sur le reliquat du capital. Aux porteurs d’actions préférentielles, KKR propose un montant en numéraire qui correspondra à la moyenne du cours boursier de ces titres sur les trois derniers mois calculée par la BaFin et qui ne sera en aucun cas inférieur à 31,70 euros par titre.La valeur de la participation de Capvis se situe dans ces conditions aux alentours de 600 millions d’euros.WMF est une des plus grandes entreprises mondiales dans le domaine des machines à café automatiques pour professionnels ainsi que dans celui des arts de la table. Son chiffre d’affaires, réalisé par 6.000 salariés, représente 1 milliard d’euros.
UBS ferme un fonds obligataire de performance absolue
Le groupe suisse UBS a fermé son fonds obligataire de performance absolue (Absolute Return Bond) dont les actifs sous gestion ont fondu à 15 millions de livres, rapporte Investment Week.Depuis son lancement en avril 2005, le fonds accusait au 4 juillet une perte de 32,12%, à comparer sur la même période à un gain de près de 62% du secteur correspondant dans la classification de l’Association britannique de la gestion financière (IMA).