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03/04/2012

BlackRock appoints a head of sales from JPMAM

Luis Martín, who had belonged to the sales team at J.P. Morgan Asset Management in Spain, has joined BlackRock as director of retail and institutional sales for the Iberian market, Funds People reports.Martín will report to Armando Senra, CEO of BlackRock Iberia and Latin America, and Dominik Rohe, head of retail and institutional in the same regions.BlackRock manages about USD49bn in the Iberian peninsula and Latin America. The group has recently confirmed the appointment of Alex Hoctor-Duncan as head of retail for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, replacing Maarten Slendebroek, who has moved to Jupiter (see Newsmanagers of 2 April).
03/04/2012

Aviva Investors loses its global head of products

Jeremy Soulter, global head of products at Aviva Investors, has left the business following a restructuring, Investment Week reports. His duties will be taken over by the product strategy and product development teams.
03/04/2012

Aberdeen CEO sells GBP771,000 in shares

Martin Gilbert, CEO of Aberdeen Asset Mangement, has sold GBP771,000 worth of shares in the firm, with the proceeds of the sale to be reinvested in funds managed by Aberdeen, Investment Week reports. Assets at Aberdeen as of 29 February totalled GBP184.4bn, compared with GBP173.9bn as of the end of December 2011.
03/04/2012

Bond funds attracted more than EUR12bn in February

According to the most recent statistics from Morningstar, long-term funds domiciled in Europe in February posted net inflows of EUR15bn. Bond funds attracted the largest net subscriptions, with EUR12.54bn, the largest inflows for funds of this type since January 2010. Asset allocation and convertible bond funds also posted significant subscriptions, with EUR1.8bn and EUR68m, respectively. Equity funds have seen net redemptions of EUR189m, while money market funds had outflows of EUR13.36bn. Morningstar says investors are showing some pessimism about the markets, avoiding equity funds specialised on markets perceived as a risk (Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States), while the most popular equity funds are those focused on emerging markets and Asia. As of the end of February, BlackRock leads the rankings of the 10 largest asset management firms in terms of assets under long-term management, with EUR133bn, followed by UBS (EUR132bn) and Franklin Templeton (EUR109bn).
03/04/2012

ETFs have become inevitable for fund selectors

A survey of 354 fund buyers (186 global fund selectors in Europe and South Africa, and 168 wealth managers in the United Kingdom) by Market Intelligence Citywire on behalf of SPDR ETF (State Street Global Advisors) in November 2011 finds that 51.7% of respondents use ETFs to obtain tactical exposure to specific markets, while 21% use them as modular core/satellite allocation blocs, and 16.8% see them as core portfolio instruments. 17% of fund selectors have over 20% of their assets invested in ETFs, while only 16% are not invested in ETFs.
03/04/2012

SRI remains a niche

Socially responsible investment remains a niche, and is not yet becoming mainstream, Financial Times Fund Management claims in an article on the subject. “There is a gap between the walk and the talk,” says Raj Thamotheram, president of the Network for Sustainable Financial Markets. One of the telling signs is a lack of sell-side research that integrates environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. Will Oulton, European head of socially responsible investment at Mercer, says one of the major challenges asset management firms face is getting consistent high quality ESG data on companies or sectors that is useful for investment decisions.
03/04/2012

Appointment at EFG Private Bank

EFG Private Bank, the British affiliate of WFG International, has appointed Daniel Gerber as Managing Director and Head of Private Banking, effective from 2 July 2012. Gerber will chair the management committee and the board of directors at EFG Private Bank, according to a statement published on 2 April. Gerber will report to Anthony Cooke-Yarborough, CEO of the affiliate of EFG International for the United Kingdom and the Channel Islands, which includes EFG Private Bank, EFG Harris Allday and EFG Independent Financial Advisers. Gerber previuosly served as Chief Executive Officer at Julius Baer International in London.
03/04/2012

SLI sells its range of tracker funds to Vanguard

Investment Week reports that Standard Life Investments (SLI), seeking to focus on its range of actively-managed funds, has sold its range of six OEIC tracker funds to Vanguard Asset Management. In addition, SLI will be closing the Unit Linked UK Equity Tracker Fund from Standard Life Insurance. Assets in the fund transferred to Vanguard nearly all come from Standard Life.
03/04/2012

UCITS IV: half of member states lag behind on taxation

Nearly half of all European Union member states, 13 out of 27, have not yet adopted national legislation to comply with the tax dispositions of the UCITS IV directive, according to an updated version of a study published by KPMG in 2010 entitled “UCITS IV – Fill the glass to the brim: Have we broken through?” Hedge Week reports. Among the countries which would have been required to transpose the directive by 1 July 2011 are Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, and Portugal.
03/04/2012

AIFM directive: AIMA speaks out against Commission plan

The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), the global hedge fund trade association, in 2 April expressed concern about the European Commission’s new draft text for the implementation of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) (see Newsmanagers of 30 March). In response to the recommendations by the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA), the Commission has developed a text in the form of a regulation, which may be applied more quickly than a directive. The Commission has given member states and the Parliament two weeks to react to the new bill. According to the director general of the AIMA, Andrew Baker, the Commission’s bill appears to “to significantly and substantially diverge” from ESMA’s proposals on a number of key points, such as the responsibility of the depository, outsourcing, and outside countries. “We fully respect the Commission’s right not to follow ESMA advice when producing secondary legislation. However, there should be more transparency and better consultation if the Commission has decided to depart from the advice in such crucial areas for the global asset management industry.” The professional association invites the Commission to state its point of view on the terms concerning outside countries, where it does not appear to follow ESMA’s recommendations. According to the Commission, European and non-European regulators should sign legally binding bilateral cooperation agreements. This would be very problematic or impossible to put into practice if regulations stipulate that cooperation agreements require that regulators in outside countries apply European legislation in their respective territories.
03/04/2012

Deka recruits a head from Frankfurter Sparkasse

The board of directors at DekaBank (central asset management firm for the German savings banks) on 2 April appointed Georg Stocker as a board member. He will be responsible for distribution to savings banks and treasuries, and succeeds Hans-Jürgen Gutenberger, who is retiring. From 2004, Stocker had been a member of the board at the Frankfurter Sparkasse, and became its vice president in 2009.
03/04/2012

Promotion for Stefan Hartl at BNP Paribas Germany

On 2 April, BNP Paribas Germany announced that Stefan Hartl, head of external distribution at BNP Paribas Investment Partners in Germany, has been promoted to the position of managing director of the wealth management-key clients unit at BNP Paribas.Hartl, who had previously worked at Schroders, where he had been responsible for German institutional clients, replaces Pascal Gundrich, who is now in charge of assisting wealth management key accounts at BNP Paribas in Luxembourg.
03/04/2012

DekaBank head dismissed immediately

In a nine-line statement, the DSGV federation of German savings banks on 2 April announced that it is immediately relieving Franz S. Waas of his responsibilities as a member and chairman of the board at DekaBank, the second-largtest German asset management firm. The savings banks now control the entirety of capital in the firm, in which the Landesbanken had held half until last year. The decision, taken the day before a press conference at Deka to announce results, is officially motivated by the fact that “the necessary relationship of confidence no longer existed, due to a lawsuit over additional bonuses filed by the party in relation to his first term in the position, in 2008-2009.” The board of directors at DekaBank has appointed Oliver Behrens as interim chairman of the board.
03/04/2012

Schroders recruits an executive from Union

Florian Uleer, who had been head of banking and business clients for “A deposits” at Union Investment Institutional, has joined Schroders Germany as head of distribution for banks and funds of funds, replacing Alexander Prawitz.Prawitz has been transferred to the global financial solutions group Asia in Hong Kong, to assist international and local banking clients as well as strategic distribution partners.Uleer will report to Joachim Nareike, director of distribution at Schroders Investment Management GmbH.
03/04/2012

Henderson Property opens an office in Sweden

Henderson Global Investors on 2 April announced that it has opened an office dedicated to real estate in Sweden, with the recruitment of Johan Aström as head of real estate, based in Stockholm. The recruitment marks a desire on the part of Henderson Property to develop its activities in Scandinavian countries and to profit from the dynamic created by the recent acquisition of a shopping centre in Sweden. Aström had previously worked as a manager at Nordic Real Estate Partners.
03/04/2012

Laurent Gorgemans leaves Dexia AM

Laurent Gorgemans, head of multi-management at Dexia Asset Management in Luxembourg, is leaving the firm where he has spent six years. The reports in Citywire Global have been confirmed to Newsmanagers by a spokesperson for the asset management firm. “Laurent Gorgemans, who has had a fruitful collaboration with us for over 6 years, has chosen to leave Dexia Asset Management for personal reasons,” an official statement says. “The decisions of our multi-management strategists will not be affected by the departure. It remains in line with our principle of having dedicated and specialised teams which are responsible for decisions. The multi-management team, with 12 analyst/managers including 4 senior managers for fund selection and management of traditional funds of funds, continues to report to Fabrice Cuchet, global head of alternative investments,” the statement adds. Gorgemans arrived at Dexia AM in September 2005, according to his LinkedIn profile. He had previously been head of funds of funds at Fortis Investments. The departure from Dexia AM comes a few days after the announcement of the departure of Frédéric Buzaré, who since 2007 had served as global head of equities and then as equity strategist, before joining the Singapore sovereign fund GIC.
03/04/2012

UCITS IV will kill off one out of two asset management firms in Italy

PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory has sought to put a figure on the consequences of the UCITS IV directive on the six major Italian (or Italian-registered) groups, which manage a total of EUR231bn at 42 asset management firms affiliated to them, Plus24, the wealth supplement of Il Sole – 24 Ore reports. This represents 1,101 funds, of which 21% are Italian-registered, 54% are Italian but registered abroad, and 25% are foreign. PwC finds two potential outcomes. One is that six group will retain one asset management firm each in Italy or abroad. There would then be an 83% reduction in the number of asset management firms, from 42 to 7. In the second case, the six groups might merge asset management firms in countries of reference and specialist centres (Luxembourg and Ireland). Then, the reduction in the number of asset management firms would be 50%. This development would take place over three years, and PwC predicts that there would be a parallel reduction of 30% in the number of funds, from 1,010 to 731.
03/04/2012

ICAP rachète VIP Commodities

La société est sortie victorieuse de la bataille pour VIP Commodities, permettant la mise sur pied d’une équipe spécialisée sur le courtage du coton. «Nous pensons que c’est un bon assemblage», a déclaré Louis Barbera, l’un des trois courtiers de VIP Commodities. «Ils ont une base de clientèle élargie», a-t-il ajouté, soulignant que l’opération devrait permettre à la société de développer ses activités de dérivés, notamment OTC.
03/04/2012

Macquarie prépare un fonds nord-américain

Le numéro un mondial de la gestion d’infrastructures se prépare à lever 2 milliards de dollars cette année pour son troisième fonds dédié aux Etats-Unis et au Canada, a rapporté Reuters de sources proches du dossier. Son deuxième fonds dédié, de 1,6 milliard de dollars, est totalement investi. Fin septembre, le groupe disposait de 317 milliards de dollars d’actifs sous gestion.
03/04/2012

Markit met la main sur Data Explorers

La société de données financières a fait l’acquisition de Data Explorers Limited, qui fournit à une base de données de clients internationaux une évaluation quantitative quant à la rentabilité et aux risques du prêt-emprunt de titres. La transaction s’est effectuée auprès du fonds de private equity Bowmark Capital. Les modalités financières n’ont pas été précisées.
03/04/2012

La CFTC attaque RBC

Le régulateur américain des contrats à terme accuse Royal Bank of Canada d’avoir mis en œuvre au moins entre juin 2007 et mai 2010 un ensemble de transactions de plusieurs centaines de millions de dollars entre différentes filiales dans un but uniquement fiscal. RBC a «énergiquement» démenti les accusations de la CFTC, estimant notamment que les opérations concernées avaient été réalisées en toute transparence auprès des régulateurs.
03/04/2012

Jeffrey Gundlach transforme l’essai

Le principal fonds ouvert de DoubleLine, gestionnaire d’actifs fondé par l’ancien gérant vedette de TCW, affiche pour le premier trimestre 2012 une collecte nette de 6,4 milliards de dollars, selon les données préliminaires publiées par Morningstar. Le montant total des actifs sous gestion de la société passe en trois mois de 22 à 31 milliards.
03/04/2012

Les fraudes comptables des sociétés chinoises dans le viseur de Hong Kong

L’autorité de régulation comptable de Hong Kong mène une enquête sur plusieurs sociétés chinoises cotées sur la Bourse locale concernant des suspicions de fraudes, indique le South China Morning Post qui cite la présidente de l’autorité, Sophia Kao. La démission de certains auditeurs et le report de la publication des résultats de plusieurs sociétés chinoises auraient alerté les autorités.
03/04/2012

TPG change de cible en Chine

De source non identifiée, le South China Morning Post avance que la chute du leader politique local de Chongqing Bo Xilai aurait «bouleversé les règles du jeu». Le fonds texan serait ainsi disposé à transférer quelque 4 milliards de yuans, l’équivalent de près de 480 millions d’euros, récoltés en vue d’être investis à Chongqing vers Pékin et Shanghai.

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