Goldman Sachs serait en négociations pour céder l’un de ses portefeuilles les plus connus, Petershill, dont les investissements dans les hedge funds n’ont pas toujours été couronnés de succès, rapporte le New York Times.Asset Management Finance, qui prend des participations dans des gestionnaires de fonds, pourrait racheter Petershill Fund qui a démarré ses activités en 2007 avec 1 milliard de dollars et qui a pris de grosses participations dans des sociétés de gestion alternative connues comme Winton Capital Management ou Capula Investment Management qui n’ont pas connu de problèmes particuliers pendant la crise financière. Mais Petershill a aussi investi dans des sociétés qui ont dû mettre la clef sous la porte comme Level Global Investors ou Shumway Capital Partners.

Le pôle Global Wealth and Investment Management de Bank of America a dégagé au premier trimestre un résultat net de 547 millions de dollars, le deuxième plus haut résultat du groupe depuis l’acquisition de Merrill Lynch.Les actifs sous gestion ont progressé de 28 milliards de dollars au premier trimestre par rapport aux trois premiers mois de 2011 pour atteindre à fin mars 693 milliards de dollars. Les actifs de long terme ont notamment augmenté de 7,8 milliards de dollars durant la période sous revue.Le groupe a par ailleurs fait état d’un bénéfice net part du groupe de 328 millions de dollars au titre du premier trimestre, divisé par cinq sur un an en raison d’une charge de 4,8 milliards de dollars d’ajustement de portefeuille à la valeur de marché.

Le pôle gestion de fortune de Morgan Stanley (Global Wealth Management Group) a dégagé au premier trimestre un bénéfice imposable de 387 millions de dollars contre 238 millions de dollars au quatrième trimestre 2011 et 344 millions au premier trimestre 2011.Les actifs sous gestion s'établissaient fin mars à 1.744 milliards de dollars, contre 1.637 milliards de dollars fin décembre 2011 et 1.706 milliards de dollars un an plus tôt. Le pôle gestion d’actifs a enregistré un bénéfice imposable de 128 millions de dollars contre 78 millions un trimestre plus tôt et 125 millions de dollars au premier trimestre 2011.Les actifs sous gestion s'établissaient fin mars à 304 milliards de dollars contre 287 milliards de dollars à fin décembre 2011 et 276 milliards de dollars un an plus tôt.Cela étant, le groupe a publié une perte de 78 millions de dollars (ou 0,05 dollar par action) pour le premier trimestre, à comparer à un bénéfice de 984 millions de dollars (0,51 dollar par action) pour le premier trimestre 2011.

Groupama Asset Management et Acofi vont lancer Predirec Immo 2019, qui aura, sous réserve de l’accord de l’AMF, la forme juridique d’un Fonds Commun de Titrisation (FCT) et sera dédié à l’immobilier commercial en France. Les deux sociétés seront les copromoteurs du FCT, un gérant doit encore être sélectionné. Les actifs du produit, qui vise une collecte de 400 millions d’euros, seront prioritairement alloués vers le marché primaire (90 %), 70 % des investissements se concentrant sur l’Ile-de-France et 30 % en province. La période de commercialisation s'étendra jusqu’à la fin du premier semestre. La période d’investissement du fonds est de 18 mois et les parts du FCT seront libérées en 3 fois : 20 % à l’ouverture du FCT, 40 % 6 mois après, puis 40 % un an après. La maturité des prêts à l’origination n’excédera pas 7 ans et la totalité des commissions de structuration issues de l’origination sont acquises au FCT. Le rendement cible de Predirec Immo 2019 est l’Euribor 3 mois + 150 pb sur la durée du FCT.Groupama AM voit les FTC comme «une nouvelle classe d’actifs à destination des investisseurs institutionnels», souligne Jean-Marie Catala, directeur du développement chez Groupama Asset Management. Ce type de produits offre selon la société de gestion des rendements stables, un taux de défaut très faible, une volatilité réduite et une moindre corrélation aux autres actifs qu’ils détiennent en portefeuille.D’autres projets de FTC sont en cours. «Dans un premier temps, nous envisageons de développer ces prêts de manière sélective pour financer les opérations d’acquisition dans le secteur de l’immobilier d’entreprise en France (bureaux, centres commerciaux...)», explique Jean-Marie Catala. Par la suite, il envisage «probablement d’étendre ces prêts à d’autres opérations (financement des collectivités, LBO,…)».

Rebaptisé le 23 décembre Nordea 1- European Low CDS Government Bond Fund, l’ancien compartiment Euro Government Bond Fund de la sicav luxembourgeoise Nordea 1 est désormais commercialisé en France. Il s’agit d’un fonds coordonné d’obligations souveraines européennes réputées «les plus sûres», puisque les placements s’orientent en fonction de l’appréciation du risque de crédit par les marchés telle qu’elle ressort des primes de CDS (CDS spreads). Pour Nordea, cette approche est plus réaliste que celle qui se fonde sur l’évaluation par les agences de notation, même si cette dernière formule est ultra-dominante actuellement.La commission de gestion a été diminuée de 30 points de base pour les parts retail et de 15 points de base pour les parts institutionnelles, par rapport au fonds initial.Le portefeuille est investi en titres sélectionnés sur la base de la moyenne mobile à 3 mois de leurs primes de CDS à 5 ans, cotées sur le CMA (Credit Market Analysis). Le fonds est géré par Martti Forsberg, le spécialiste des produits en obligations souveraines européennes au sein de l’équipe obligations internationales.CaractéristiquesDénomination : Nordea 1 - European Low CDS Government Bond FundCodes Isin :LU0634509953 (parts BP, retail)LU0637308585 (parts BI, institutionnelles)Droit d’entrée : 5 % Frais de gestion : 0,50 % (parts BP)0,25 % (parts BI)Souscription minimale50 euros (parts BP)75.000 euros (parts BI)

Le montant des cotisations collectées par les sociétés d’assurances pour l’assurance vie au cours du premier trimestre 2012 est de 31,4 milliards d’euros, contre 26,7 milliards sur le trimestre précédent (36,2 milliards d’euros pour le premier trimestre 2011), selon les derniers chiffres de l’Association Française de l’Assurance. Les rachats nets (cotisations-prestations) s’établissent à 2 milliards d’euros pour le premier trimestre 2012, avec une décollecte de 1,2 milliard d’euros pour le mois de mars.Les prestations versées par les sociétés d’assurances au cours du premier trimestre 2012 s’élèvent à 33,4 milliards d’euros, contre 35,1 milliards d’euros sur le trimestre précédent (26,6 milliards d’euros pour le premier trimestre 2011).A la fin du premier trimestre, l’encours des contrats d’assurance vie (provisions mathématiques + provisions pour participation aux bénéfices) s’élève à 1 379,1 milliards d’euros.

iShares (BlackRock) has released two versions of an emerging markets corporate bond ETF, the iShares Emerging Markets Corporate Bond Fund, simultaneously on the US platform BATS and on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Its acronym on BATS is CEMB. The fund(s) provide(s) access to securities denominated in US dollars issued by investment grade or high yield businesses based in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. A clone of the ETF registered in Ireland has been listed on the LSE.The two funds replicate the Morningstar Emerging Markets Corporate Bond Index. The US fund charges 0.60%, while the Irish fund (IE00B6TLBW47) has a TER of 0.50%.

The global hedge fund industry has seen a rise in assets to a new record of USD2.130trn, the Financial Times reports, citing statistics from Hedge Fund Research. The industry has grown by over USD700bn since the crisis in 2008, largely due to good performance.

Allianz Global Investors is planning to launch a range of risk-rated multi-asset class funds, to meet growing demand from investors for solutions that take into account their level of appetite for risk. The funds, which will be launched in the coming months, will be actively managed. AGI will unveil the workings of the new range of funds next month.

A survey undertaken in March 2012 by the GfK institute on behalf of JPMorgan Asset Management, and covering 2,000 Germans, has found that 60.8% of respondents to not even know the term “emerging markets,” while 23.7% “have heard” of them, and only 15.5% say they know the concept well.More severe, says Jean-Guido Servais, head of marketing at JPMAM for the German-speaking countries, is the fact that only 2.5% of respondents say they have invested in emerging market products, mostly equity funds. Only 3.1% of respondents are planning to invest in emerging markets in the next six months.

The wealth management unit of Morgan Stanley (Global Wealth Management Group) in first quarter earned pre-tax profits of USD387m, compared with USd238m in fourth quarter 2011, and USD344m in first quarter 2011. Assets under management as of the end of March totalled USd1.744trn, compared with USd1.637trn at the end of December 2011, and USd1.706bn one year previously. The asset management unit has posted pre-tax profits of USd128m, compared with USD78m one quarter previously, and USD125m in first quarter 2011. Assets under management as of the end of March totalled USD304bn, compared with USD287bn as of the end of December 2011, and USD276bn one year previously. The group nonetheless has published a loss of USD78m, or USD0.05 per share, for first quarter, compared with a profit of USD984m (USD0.51 per share) for first quarter 2011.

The Global Wealth and Investment Management unit at Bank of America in first quarter earned net profits of USD547m, the second-best results for the group since the acquisition of Merrill Lynch. Assets under management increased by USD28bn in first quarter compared with the first three months of 2011, to a total of USD693bn as of the end of March. Long-term assets in particular increased by USD7.8bn in the period under review. The group has also reported net profits attributable to Bank of America of USD328m in first quarter, one fifth of the results from first quarter last year due to a one-time charge of USD4.8bn to adjust the portfolio to market values.

Guggenheim Investments, which is currently negotiating to take over the US asset management unit of Deutsche Bank, including DWS Investments, has lost all three of its directors, MutualFundWire reports. The chief operating officer, Rich Goldman, and the heads of distribution and marketing, Marc Zeituoun and Keith Fletcher, are all leaving the firm. Meanwhile, Guggenheim has announced the appointment of Doug Mangini as head of products and distribution, and of Chris Parisi for intermediated distribution.

Assets under management at the private bank Lombard Odier as of the end of 2011 totalled CHF142bn, compared with CHF140bn as of mid-2011, and CHF143bn as of the beginning of 2011, finews reports. Net inflows last year totalled CHF7.2bn, but the growth of assets was impacted by a negative market effect.

Standard Life Investments va monter une équipe obligations marchés émergents qui sera placée sous la responsabilité de Richard House, l’ancien responsable de la dette émergente de Threadneedle, selon les informations de Citywire. L’intéressé arrive chez SLI avec deux autres personnes de Threadneedle : Mark Baker et Nicholas Jaquier.

The British asset management firm Jupiter Fund Management finished first quarter with an increase in its assets under management to GBP24.17bn as of 31 March, compared with GBP22.80bn as of the end of December 2011, Jupiter announced on 19 April in its interim report for first quarter 2012.This development is largely due to a positive market effect of GBP1.48bn. Jupiter has also undergone net redemptions totalling GBP113m. Mutual funds, whose assets under management have increased from GBP17.21bn as of the end of 2011 to GBP18.35bn as of the end of March 2012, have posted inflows of GBP55m, but dedicated mandates finished the quarter with outflows of GBP102m.

Standard Life Investments has recruited three former employees of Threadneedle Asset Management, including the former head of emerging market debt, Richard House, to create an emerging markets bond team. House will head the new team, which will also include Mark Baker and Nicolas Jacquier, who are appointed as investment directors, global emerging market bonds.

Eric Greenhut has joined Ramius, the alternative management unit of Cowen Group, as managing director and head of quantitative trading, Hedgeweek reports. In this newly-created position, Greenhut, who has previously worked for BNP Paribas/Cooper Neff, will be responsible for the management and development of quantitative trading, including the recruitment of traders, researchers and programmers.

Alain Dromer will be leaving Aviva Investors, where he had been CEO since September 2007, according to a statement from the Aviva group released on Thursday, announcing a reorganisation. Pat Regan, the group’s CFO, will take over at Aviva Investors, while retaining his current responsibilities. A successor to Dromer will be recruited, Aviva adds. This replacement will report to Regan, and will be responsible for “leading the next step in the development of Aviva Investors.” The reorganisation announced by Aviva will aim to “simplify” the business. As a part of that reorganisation, two other people have left the group (Igal Mayer and Richard Hoskins), while the CEOs of the three major entities of the group have been invited to join the executive committee of the group ; They are David Barral (CEO UK&Life Insurance), David McMillan (CEO UK&General Insurance) and Philippe Maso (CEO France).

The former head of strategic partnerships at Neptune, John Lester, and his team, will join the British asset management firm Argonaut, Money Marketing reports. In early April, Neptune announced that Lester and two of his partners would be leaving the asset management firm to found their own boutique. Assets under management at Argonaut, which is 60% owned by Argonaut Capital Partners and 40% by Ignis Capital Management, total GBP1.1bn.

The Financial Times reports that the alternative asset management firm Pershing Square Capital (USD11bn), led by Bill Ackman, is planning to offer the hedge fund Pershing Square Holdings, a USD4bn vehicle, on the stock market in January 2013. The listing reportedly may be on the London Stock Exchange, but Pershing has not yet ruled out the possibility of NYSE Euronext Amsterdam.

The developer Parabola Land Ltd has sold the Kings Place office property in London (31,500 square metres) to the German asset management firm Deka Immobilien for EUR285m.The property, the headquarters of the Guardian Media group, will be added to the portfolio of the open-ended real estate fund WestInvest InterSelect, which left the London market six years ago. The proportion of the United Kingdom in the portfolio of the fund increases with the acquisition from 0 to 5%.The objective for the management team of the InterSelect fund is to diversify the portfolio and reduce the proportion dedicated to Germany, and to add youger properties to the holdings..

Pictet Asset Management has launched the Kronos Fund, a global long/short traiding product which combines a long/short equity strategy with an option trading overlay, to construct convex positions which aim to protect the portfolio against major market movements, and to profit from these, Hedge Week reports.The fund, registered in the Cayman Islands, is available with a minimal subscription of USD100,000. It is managed in Geneva by a team led by Julien Stouff.

According to a survey of a representative sample of the German population by the GfK institute, commissioned by Gothaer Asset Management (GoAM, EUR23bn in assets), only 9% of Germans invest in shares in investment funds. However, says Christof Kessler, chairman of the board at GoAM, funds are the most attractive vehicle to construct an asset portfolio.

Invesco is one of the front-runners to acquire the Asian asset management division of ING, according to Investment Week, citing Bloomberg and Reuters. ING has made a short list including Invesco and the Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. The Australian Macquarie Group and the Japanese Nikko Asset Management are also reported to have been approached.

On 19 April, the US firm Global X, (USD1.3bn in assets) unveiled its new ETF, the Global X MLP ETF (acronym MPLA), which charges fees of 0.45%. The product recplicates the Solactive MLP Composite Index, which covers the major master limited partnerships (MLPs) in the areas of energy and resources. As of 17 April, the index includes 30 MLPs, with its three largest exposures being to Energy Transfer Partners LP, Enterprise Products Partners and Plains All American Pipeline LP.The fund will distribute dividends on a quarterly basis.

The former Euro Government Bond Fund sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav Nordea 1, renamed on 23 December as Nordea 1- European Low CDS Government Bond Fund, is now on sale in France. It is a UCITS-compliant fund of European government bonds considered the “safest,” as investments are allocated depending on the rising credit risks for markets as observed in CDS spreads. Nordea claims this approach is more realistic than the one based on evaluation by ratings agencies, although this latter formula is currently by far the dominant one.Management commission has been reduced by 30 basis points for the retail share class,a dn 15 basis points for the institutional share class, compared with the initial fund.The portfolio is invested in securities selected on the basis of a rolling 3-month average of their 5-year CDS spreads, as listed on Credit Market Analysis (CMA). The fund is managed by Martti Forsberg, the European government specialist on the international bonds team.CharacteristicsName: Nordea 1- European Low CDS Government Bond FundISIN codes:LU0634509953 (BP share class, retail)LU0637308585 (BI share class, institutional)Front-end fee: 5%Management fees:0.50% (BP share class)0.25% (BI share class)Minimal subscriptionEUR50 (BP share class)EUR75,000 (BI share class)

Goldman Sachs is reportedly in talks to sell one of its best-known portfolios, Petershill, whose investments in hedge funds have still not been successful, the New York times reports. Asset Management Finance, which buys up stakes in fund managers, may acquire the Petershill Fund, which commenced its activities in 2007 with USD1bn, and which has bought largest stakes in well-known asset management firms such as Winton Capital Management and Capula Investment Management, which have not had problems during the financial crisis. But Petershill has also invested in firms which were obliged to close, such as Level Global Investors and Shumway Capital Partners.

BNY Mellon AM is launching the BNY Mellon Emerging Markets Corporate Debt Fund in France. It is the second fund of its range managed by Insight Investment Management (Global) Limited, an asset management affiliate of BNY Mellon Asset Management since its acquisition in 2009. The fund, which offers daily liquidity, is a sub-fund of the BNY Mellon Global Funds Plc SICAV, which is domiciled in Dublin and compliant with UCITS. It is managed by the team in charge of emerging market debt at Insight Investment, led by Colm McDonagh.

Assets in commodity ETPs worldwide increased by USD19bn in first quarter, to total a record USD189bn, according to statistics from ETF Securities. Several factors have contributed to this rebound in commodities ETPs, including a rebound in US growth and a restructuring of Greek debt, which gave investors some appetite for risk.