According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, the French affiliate of Russell Investments has submitted an application for a license to open a local asset management office in Paris. The firm is clearly hoping to receive clearance in the relatively near future, probably in order to launch funds of mandates, a formula which is one of the group’s main strengths.The license would allow the firm to occupy a position in the French market which fits better with the global size of Russell (about USD148bn in assets). In November, Michael Sfez, deputy CEO of the Paris office, announced plans to Newsmanagers to recruit a partner for multi-strategy multi-assets (see Newsmanagers of 25 November), to assist Alain Zeitouni, who was recruited one month earlier as head of multi-strategy management. And the regulator requires at least two managers for a fund...
AllianceBernstein, Franklin Templeton, Invesco and Legg Mason in February posted further increases in their assets under management, for a total of USD52.1bn, after USD76.3bn in January.At AllianceBernstein, the growth was limited to USD3bn for the month, to a total of USD434bn as of 29 February, compared with USD406bn as of the end of December. Increases in February were mostly (USD2bn) to “other” products.At Franklin Templeton Investments (USD727.4bn, compared with USD704.3bn as of the end of January), the growth is USD13.5bn due to equity products, and USD7.3bn to bond products. As of the end of 2011, the asset management firm had assets of USD670.3bn.At Invesco (USD667.6bn, compared with USD648.3bn), a large part of the increase (USD13.3bn) went to equity products. As of 31 December, assets totalled USD625.3bn.At Legg Mason, the increase in assets totalled only USD6.7bn, of which USD2bn were for equities, and USD4bn for money markets. Assets as of the end of February totalled USD638bn, compared with USD631.3bn one month previously, and USD627bn at the end of 2011.
Béatrice Belorgey has been appointed deputy head of Private Banking, France. In her new post she will serve as number two to Sofia Merlo, head of Private Banking, France, who also holds the position of co-CEO Wealth Management.Béatrice Belorgey was head of investor relations and financial information for the BNP Paribas Group. She will be replaced in the role by Stéphane de Marnhac.
Societe Generale on 12 March announced that it is launching a new integrated service offering, Private Investment Banking, aimed at ultra high net worth entrepreneurs who have a holding company or a family office. This exclusive service will allow these clients to benefit from access to all the expertise within the Group, particularly in terms of wealth management and investment banking, for the management of their private wealth and their business. The solutions offered will be based on the expertise and knowledge of entrepreneurial clients at Societe Generale Private Banking and Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking. This service includes: comprehensive solutions for tailor-made financial engineering; dedicated portfolio management teams, best-in-class investment products and solutions; financing solutions, merger & acquisitions advisory, capital increases and initial public offerings; direct access to all capital markets. The development of this activity will be headed by Galeazzo Pecori Giraldi, who has been appointed Head of Societe Generale’s Private Investment Banking offering. He will be responsible for a team of senior bankers and account managers in Europe and the Middle East. The Private Investment banking structure will also be supported by the Group’s international network.
Assets under administration by European open archtecture platforms total about EUR740bn, according to a study by The Platforum (“The European Platform Guide,”) which claims to be the first of its type.As of third quarter 2011, assets under administration on the five major markets taken into account in the study by the Platforum, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, totalled EUR561bn.The largest market in terms of assets under administration is the United Kingdom, followed by Italy. The largest open architecture platforms in Europe include Allfunds Bank, Cofunds, Fidelity, Fund Channel and Skandia, all of which have over EUR35bn in third-party assets.Fidelity is the dominant platform for Northern Europe, with total British and German assets of EUR56bn. For Southern Europe, Allfunds Bank is the largest player, with EUR55bn in assets under administration.The study also finds that the pricing models are mostly based in rebate systems. The UK is still developing a model in which new entrants explicitly receive administration fees.
Legg Mason will launch a UCITS version of its global high yield fund, Brandywine Global High Yield, managed by its US affiliate Brandywine Global, Citywire Global reveals. The fund will be managed by Gerhardt Herbert, Brian Kloss and Regina Borromeo.
According to the Belgian association of asset managers (BEAMA), net assets in funds on sale in Belgium totalled EUR104.39bn as of the end of 2011, compared with EUR121.90bn at the end of 2010, a decline of EUR17.51bn (-14.4%). Fourth quarter 2011 brought significant net redemptions estimated at EUR12bn. EUR9.03bn of this decline is due to equity funds. However, these net redemptions have been largely offset by positive market effects of EUR8bn to EUR9bn.
Following the resignation of Rainer Decker, who has left the business with goodwill on both sides, Talanx Asset Management has appointed Dirk Erdmann as a member of its board from 1 April 2012. Erdmann had previously been in charge of investment controlling.Like his predecessor, Erdmann will be responsible for the investment accounting department for primary insurers and reinsurers. He will also take charge of investment controlling and IT coordination, which had previously been the responsibility of Harry Ploemacher, chairman of the board of directors.Meanwhile, responsibility for client relationship management (CRM) for primary insurers and reinsurers, which had been the responsibility of Decker, will be transferred to Ploemacher.
Frankfurt Trust, the asset management firm affiliate of BHF-Bank, on Monday announced that it has concluded a strategic partnership with Aegon Global Pensions to offer businesses cross-border asset pooling to manage their retirement funds more centrally, for example via funds of funds available from the Aegon group.Larger firms may have access to the asset pooling platform, which allows a way to pool and transfer shares in funds already held in various countries.Frankfurt Trust has assets of over EUR15bn, of which EUR8bn are for institutional investors.
Cathay Conning Asset Management, a joint venture developed by the Taiwan-based insurance group Cathay Life and the US asset management firm Conning, has obtained permission from the Hong Kong regulator to practice as an asset manager. Assets under management at Cathay Life total USD70.9bn, while Conning has USD77bn.
Only a few days after registering three ETFs based on Russell indices in Spain (see Newsmanagers of 5 March), Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale group) has listed four more ETFs for trading on the Spanish market, this time based on sub-indices of the S&P 500.The CNMV on 9 March issued licenses to the Lyxor ETF S&P 500 Capped Industrials Sector, Capped Materials Sector, Capped Technology Sector and Capped Utilities Sector funds, which have been available in Paris since last month.
Under the Bankia Banca Privada brand name, Bankia Fondos is planning to launch its first fund on 20 April, the Tipo Fijo Garantizado 2, which will mature on 16 February 2017. The fund was registered by the CNMV on 9 March. The bond product, investing primarily in government and corporate bonds from OECCD countries rated at least A-, is designed to deliver annual returns of 4%, in addition to initial capital, with an initial payment of 8.33% on 14 May 2014.CharacteristicsName: Bankia Banca Privada Tipo Fijo Garantizado 2, FIISIN code: ES0113932000Front-end fee: 5%Management commission: 1.2%Penalty for early withdrawal: 4%
In February, the Chinese regulator, the CSRC, issued Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) licenses to five asset management firms, which may now conduct operations on internal Chinese markets, Z-Ben Advisors reports. The recipients of the licenses are TransGlobe Life Insurance Inc., Public Mutual Berhad, Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Company Ltd., Cathay Life Insurance Co., Ltd. and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
Pictet Asset Management is launching its Global Bonds Fundamental fund, a new fund investing in government bonds worldwide, in Italy, Bluerating reports. The product will be offered to retail clients. It was issued a license in Italy on 20 February 2012.
Axa Investment Management on 29 February decided to close its Axa UK Tracker fund in order to concentrate on active management, Fundweb reports. The product, which had assets under management of GBP65bn, had been outsourced to Barclays Global Investors (since acquired by BlackRock) in 1999.
Threadneedle has appointed Matthew Cobon as co-manager of the absolute return bond fund from Threadneedle, FundWeb reports.Cobon will work with Quentin Fitzsimmons on the fund, whose assets under management total GBP485.5m.Cobon joined Threadneedle in January 2011 as a bond manager, from Aberdeen, where he was global head of currency management.
The Swiss firm Julius Baer on Monday officially inaugurated its representative office on Rothschild boulevard in Tel Aviv. The new location is directed by Ran Heistein as chief representative, while Dan Sagui, Israel market head, will be in charge of all banking activities in the country, but will continue to be based in Zurich.UBS has recently opened a wealth management unit in Israel, also in Tel Aviv (see Newsmanagers of 23 February).
Darren Cannon, head of derivatives & data services at Schroders since 2006, will on 19 March join the Scottish asset management firm Martin Currie as COO, under the direct authority of CEO Willie Watt. He will be a member of the executive board, and will be in charge of IT, client reporting, investment activities, transitions, and the projects team.Martin Currie is still seeking a non-executive director to chair its independent risk committee.
Threadneedle will soon be launching a pilot of an online platform dedicated to order execution, entitled myThreadnneedle.com. The site has been under development by the group since May 2011, FundWeb reports.The platform will offer existing clients access to house funds, probably in summer, after the conclusion of the pilot project.Threadneedle has developed the tool in partnership with the Cofunds platform, in which Threadneedle holds a 20% stake.
Unlike December and January 2011, when they underwent respective net outflows of EUR4.06bn and EUR73bn, German open-ended funds in January 2012 have seen net subscriptions of EUR1.42bn, while institutional funds attracted EUR2.12bn, compared with EUR11.8bn the previous month, and EUR5.7bn one year previously, according to statistics from the German BVI association of asset management firms.Net inflows to open-ended security funds totalled EUR824.7m. Although the Allianz Asset Management group and the DWS/DB Advisors/Deutsche Bank family have posted net subscriptions of EUR1.21bn and EUR828m, respectively, Deka (savings banks) and Union Investment (co-operative banks) have seen net redemptions of EUR880m and EUR294m, respectively.BlackRock has posted the first net outflow from its ETFs in many months, totalling EUR294.5m, as as ComStage, with EUR204m. However, ETFlab (Deka) has seen net inflows of EUR20.8m, and db x-trackers has posted net subscriptions of EUR510.1m.
Les élus locaux n’ont pas été entendus par le gouvernement sur leur projet d’agence de financement, censée couvrir un quart des besoins des collectivités territoriales. Dans un entretien au Figaro d’hier, le ministre Philippe Richert, explique que «la mise en place de cette agence, telle qu’elle est aujourd’hui conçue, soulève des difficultés». Les services de Bercy doutent notamment que l’agence puisse obtenir un AAA et puisse émettre de manière autonome sans garantie de l’Etat. Hier soir, l’Association pour l’agence de financement des collectivités locales n’avait toujours pas reçu la version définitive du rapport que le gouvernement devait rendre au parlement sur ce sujet. Elle ne souhaitait pas réagir. Mais lors de la réunion de son comité stratégique la semaine dernière, ses membres se sont dits décidés à faire avancer le projet avec ou sans l’aval du gouvernement actuel. Ils comptent sur le prochain exécutif pour déposer le projet de loi qui devrait créer l’agence.
La Banque du Japon n’a pas décidé d’étendre son programme de rachat d’actifs à l’issue de sa réunion mensuelle qui s’achevait ce matin. Si la nouvelle était attendue, elle a entrainé un rebond du yen de 0,3% à 82,10 contre dollar.
Bloomberg avance de sources proches que le gouvernement allemand entend lancer dès le mois prochain la vente de la société immobilière publique TLG Immobilien, dans l’espoir de récolter plus de 1,8 milliard d’euros.
Le fonds de LBO a indiqué que son plus gros investissement, le fabricant allemand de produits chimiques Evonik, pourrait être introduit en Bourse d’ici la fin juin. L’opération valoriserait l’activité à plus de 10 milliards d’euros. La cession d’une participation de plus d’un milliard d’euros est attendue.
Après les banques, une dizaine d'émetteurs européens seraient susceptibles de lancer des opérations pour allonger la maturité de leur dette et réduire leurs frais
Les mouvements de rapprochement devraient animer le secteur au second semestre, portés par les contraintes réglementaires des banquiers et assureurs et la baisse des valorisations, selon Deloitte. Les acquisitions devraient principalement concerner les acteurs de taille intermédiaire.