Parmi les six fonds enregistrés le 2 mars par la CNMV figure le Ahorro Corporación Garantizado Selección, un produit garanti par Banco Mare Nostrum (BMN) dont le rendement complémentaire peut évoluer entre 0 % dans le pire des cas et 5,09 % à échéance (7 mai 2015) en fonction de l'évolution des actions Telefónica, ENI, France Telecom, Inditex et TotalFina.CaractéristiquesDénomination : Ahorro Corporación Garantizado Selección, FICode Isin : ES0107438006Droit d’entrée : 5 %Frais de gestion : environ 1,08 %Pénalité de sortie : 5 %

Filiale de Natixis Global Asset Management qui commercialise activement ses dix fonds coordonnés, Loomis Sayles a inauguré le 7 mars son bureau de Londres, sous l’enseigne Loomis Sayles Investments. Cette nouvelle implantation sera dirigée par Christine Kenny et Jeffrey Seaver comme managing directors et co-heads. Loomis Sayles gère environ 20 milliards de dollars d’actifs pour les investisseurs institutionnels en Europe et dans la région Moyen-Orient/Afrique du Nord (MOAN).Christine Kenny,qui était en dernier lieu head of investment grade trading, devient chief compliance officer et senior fixed income strategist. Elle sera chargée du développement et de la gestion des relations avec le «sell-side» britannique et européen.Jeff Seaver, qui faisait partie de l'équipe ventes institutionnelles aux Etats-Unis, sera pour sa part chargé du développement et du suivi de la clientèle institutionnelle au Royaume-Uni, en Europe continentale et dans la région MOAN.Deux analystes obligataires, Chris Keller et Heather Kearney, ont été mutés à Londres, où l'équipe devrait compter sept personnes à temps plein, dont un responsable des relations avec les principaux consultants qui sera recruté sur place.Par ailleurs, Loomis Sayles a ouvert un bureau à Singapour, sous la direction de Paul Ong, qui était lead portfolio manager, external fund management de l’Autorité monétaire de Singapour. Il a rejoint la société en octobre 2011. Loomis Sayles gère environ 20 milliards de dollars pour des clients basés en Asie.

L’ancien chief investment officer de Huatai Asset Management, Yang Yang, s’est associé avec un spécialiste des dérivés, Yiming Liang, pour lancer le Goldstream Absolute Return Fund, un hedge fund macro asiatique, notamment dédié à la grande Chine, rapporte Asian Investor.Le fonds, qui vise un rendement annualisé de 15% à 20%, devrait disposer de plus de 50 millions de dollars lors de son lancement en avril. Les capitaux ont été levés auprès de family offices, de clients fortunés et de fonds de fonds.

Depuis le 1er mars, l'équipe de distribution externe de Pioneer Investments Allemagne a reçu l’appoint de deux nouveaux sales directors. Il s’agit de Ronny Alsleben (ex gérant de portefeuille chez Top Vermögen) et de Reinhold Dirschl (ex MEAG Munich Ergo KAG).Le premier sera plus particulièrement chargé de la clientèle de gestionnaires de fortune, de certaines banques et des family offices tandis que le second se focalisera sur les caisses d'épargne et les banques populaires.

Les actifs sous gestion de la banque privée du groupe allemand DZ, DZ Privatbank, s’inscrivaient fin 2011 à 12,7 milliards d’euros, en progression de 2,2 milliards d’euros d’une année sur l’autre.Outre la progression des actifs liée à la fusion avec WGZ Bank (0,7 milliard d’euros) et l’acquisition d’une part significative d’UniCredit Luxembourg (2,1 milliards d’euros), la collecte nette en Allemagne s’est élevée à plus de 1 milliard d’euros. Ce qui a permis de largement compenser l’impact négatif du marché.

Pour un de ses fonds immobiliers institutionnels, Deka Immobilien a acheté le Suite Novotel de Hambourg auprès du gestionnaire allemand iii-investments pour un montant non divulgué. Cet actif de 8.700 mètres carrés comporte 186 chambres.

Le pourvoyeur d’indices FTSE Group a annoncé le 7 mars qu'à compter de l’ouverture du marché le 19 mars, le gestionnaire d’actifs Aberdeen Asset Management, qui aura quitté le FTSE 250, fera son entrée dans la composition du FTSE 100.

Le britannique Jupiter Asset Management a fait état pour l’exercice 2011 d’une collecte nette de quelque 750 millions de livres, après 2,3 milliards de livres en 2010. Principaux contributeurs, les mutual funds qui ont drainé en net 500 millions de livres (contre 1,9 milliard de livres l’année précédente. Les actifs sous gestion s'établissaient en fin d’année à 22,8 milliards de livres contre 24,1 milliards de livres fin 2010, les mutual funds représentant un encours de 17,2 milliards de livres contre 18,4 milliards de livres fin 2010.Le résultat imposable a progressé à 70,3 millions de livres contre 42,4 millions de livres pour 2010.Le patron de Jupiter, Edward Bonham Carter, souligne la volonté de la société de développer ses capacités de distribution, notamment en Suisse tant francophone que germanophone. Dans cette perspective, Jupiter a ainsi annoncé l’ouverture d’un bureau de représentation à Zurich. Evelyn Lederle, précédemment chez Clariden Leu, sera en charge du développement des activités en Suisse germanophone en qualité de senior sales manager.

Skandia Investment Group vient de nommer MIR Investment Management pour gérer le Skandia Greater China Equity Fund, son fonds actions chinoises de 363 millions de dollars, dont s’occupait précédemment First State Investments. Le changement est effectif depuis le 5 mars."First State a été un excellent partenaire, mais nous sommes d’accord sur le fait qu’une croissance supplémentaire des actifs pourrait constituer une contrainte future pour maintenir la performance. (…)», explique James Millard, directeur des investissements de Skandia Investment Group.MIR IM est une société de gestion avec des équipes basées à Singapour, en Australie, à Hong Kong et en Chine.

Daniel Tubbs, gérant du BGF Emerging Markets fund, dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à 1,1 milliard de dollars, a quitté le groupe, rapporte Investment Week.Daniel Tubbs était co-responsable d’une équipe dédiée aux marchés émergents dans le monde qui comprend également Dhiren Shah et Sam Vecht. Les fonds marchés émergents tant offshore que onshore seront désormais pilotés par Dhiren Shah et Luiz Soares qui vient de rejoindre le groupe en provenance d’Axiom International Investors.

BNP Paribas a annoncé ce jeudi 8 mars la signature d’un accord avec la société d’immobilier commercial américaine Simon Property Group pour la cession d’un bloc de 54 430 000 actions représentant 28,7% du capital de Klépierre, au prix unitaire de 28 euros par action. «Cette opération s’inscrit dans le plan d’adaptation du bilan de BNP Paribas qui vise à augmenter le ratio common equity Tier 1 de 100 pb pour atteindre 9% «fully-loaded Bâle 3" dès le 1er janvier 2013. La cession de 28,7% du capital de Klépierre permettra au groupe de dégager une plus-value d’environ 1,5 milliards d’euros et contribuera pour 32 points de base à cet objectif», précise un communiqué.Après l’opération, BNP Paribas détiendra 22,2% du capital et a vocation à rester un actionnaire significatif de la société. Le groupe s’est d’ailleurs engagé à conserver l’intégralité de cette participation au moins un an.

Selon le Monde, la société de gestion CFCI s’apprête à lancer une sicav basée sur les principes de la finance islamique. Dirigée par Anouar Hassoune, ancien vice-président de Moody’s, elle sera la première de ce type à être commercialisée en France auprès des particuliers. Son responsable table sur une collecte de 30 à 40 millions d’euros au cours des 18 premiers mois.

Quelques mois après que son employeur, FrontPoint Partners, ait fermé boutique, Stephen Czech cherche à lever 1,5 milliard de dollars pour un nouveau hedge fund, relate le Wall Street Journal. Appelée Czech Asset Management, sa nouvelle société a comme spécialité d’accorder des prêts aux sociétés de taille moyenne (généralement entre 20 millions de dollars et 100 millions de dollars).

Le Financial Times relève que, selon les proches du dossier, le remaniement de l'état-major de la Deutsche Bank annoncé mercredi, va faire du banquier d’investissement Michele Faissola le patron d’un nouveau pôle à part entière consacré à gestion d’actifs et de fortune. [ndlr : ce métier existe déjà, mais au sein d’un pôle plus large, PCAM ou private client & asset management].

The European association of investors in private real estate (INREV) on 7 March announced that Patrick Kanters, managing director Global Real Estate at the Netherlands-based APG Asset Management, will succeed Michael Morgenroth as its president on 24 April.Kanters was unanimously elected by the board at INREV, and his predecessor has to leave his position because he has recently been appointed to the board at the Austrian real estate fund management firm Signa Group (see Newsmanagers of 1 December 2011).

The Swiss wealth management firm Semper has announced the recruitment of Jean-Evrard Dominicé as chief investment officer of the structure. He has also been appointed as a partner at the firm. Dominicé will aim to enlarge the range of investment products and services on offer to high net worth clients of Semper. Dominicé remains a managing partner at Dominicé & Co, an asset management firm founded by his cousin Michael Dominicé, which he joined in 2004. He will also continue to sit on the board of directors at Anaconda, another Geneva-based alternative management firm.

Alexander Gebauer is the new CEO of Allianz Suisse Immobilien AG. He succeeds Stefan Brendgen, who is switching to the company’s Supervisory Board. Alexander Gebauer has been COO of the Allianz Real Estate Group since 2009 and will continue to perform this role. In his new role, Gebauer will continue to expand the company’s operations while focusing on quality in terms of both investment and asset management. The real estate portfolio of Allianz Suisse Immobilien is valued at about CHF3.5bn. It currently comprises about 60% residential and 40% commercial property, chiefly in Zurich, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne and Basel.

The European Commission proposed on March 7 to set up a European common regulatory framework for the institutions responsible for securities settlement, called Central Securities Depositories (CSDs). The proposal will bring more safety and efficiency to securities settlement in Europe. It also seeks to shorten the time it takes for securities settlement and to minimise settlement fails. The proposal now passes to the European Parliament and the Council (Member States) for negotiation and adoption.

A few months after his employer, FrontPoint Partners, closed down its boutique, Stphan Czech is seeking to raise USD1.5bn for a new hedge fund, the Wall Street Journal reports. The new firm will be known as Czech Asset Management, and will specialise in lending to mid-sized businesses (generally with USD20m to USD100m).

Among the six funds registered on 2 March by the CNMV was the Ahorro Corporación Garantizado Selección, a product guaranteed by Banco Mare Nostrum (BMN), whose complementary returns may vary from 0% at the worst to 5.09% at best at maturity (7 May 2015), depending on the evolution of the share prices of Telefónica, ENI, France Telecom, Inditex and TotalFina.CharacteristicsName: Ahorro Corporación Garantizado Selección, FIISIN code: ES0107438006Front-end fee: 5%Management fee: about 1.08%Withdrawal penalty: 5%

The US asset management firm Index IQ on 6 February submitted a form S-1 to the SEC to apply for a license to launch the first ETF investing in physical diamonds (which will be stored in Anvers), the IQ Physical Diamond Trust. The underlying assets will be industry-standard, 1-carater diamonds and diamonds parcels in various sub-categories. Index IQ is planning to use unly diamonds certified by the Geological Institute of America (GIA) after 1 January 2006.

Lazard Frères Gestion on 7 March announced that its SRI equities Sicav fund, Objectif Ethique Socialement Responsable, is changing its legal name, to become Objectif Investissement Responsable (ISIN codes: C shares: FR0000003998; D shares: FR0010990606).Objectif Investissement Responsable invests in euro zone large caps and adheres strictly to extra-financial criteria to construct a concentrated portfolio of 40 to 50 positions.“Objectif Investissement Responsable has a 10-year track record covering several phases of the economic cycle, from the Internet bubble to the recent crisis, including periods of market growth. Over this period, our management has outperformed the Eurostoxx index by 6%, with good regularity and low volatility. We select primarily profitable businesses, so as not to sacrifice economic performance,” says Axel Laroza, manager of the Sicav fund since its creation.

The US firm Oaktree Capital Management has raised a EUR3bn fund which will focus on European distressed businesses, the news agency Bloomberg reports. The vehicle, the European Principal Fund III, has raised 20% more than its initial objective of EUR2.5bn. According to Henessee Group, investment funds investing in distressed assets worldwide earned returns of 3.2% in January, compared with 2.1% one year earlier.

Mirae Asset Global Investments, the US affiliate of the Korean asset management firm, is now offering US investors its Global Dynamic Bond Fund. The product is the first bond fund from the firm to be offered in the United States. Mirae manages over USD50bn worldwide.

The alternative management firm The Gargoyle Group, specialised in equity options strategies, has launched a market neutral fund with a continuous hedging mechanism based on index options, FINalternatives reports. The fund uses a number of proprietary elements for the vehicle, which have contributed to the success of the flagship fund from Gargoyle, the Gargoyle Hedged Value Fund. The fund seeks to earn alpha from stock-picking and the addition of premiums from the sale of overvalued call options.

On 20 March, Pictet Asset Management (PAM) will officially launch its Luxembourg-registered Pictet-Global Flexible Allocation fund, which is the first transposition to the world of open-ended UCITS funds of its asset allocation expertise, which has been operating internally or on behalf of Swiss pension funds since 1967, and which already has assets of EUR6.2bn.The fund, which was registered in France on 17 February, reflects a completely discretionary management defined by a committee on the last Wednesday of each month, based on the opinions of 23 investment professionals in the PAM Strategy Unit, with flexibility of about one quarter for tactical overlay. The management team, led by Olivier Guinguené, CIO for asset allocation and quantitative management, and including Eric Rosset, head of the balanced management team and manager of the pension fund for Pictet employees, and Steve Donzé, macroeconomist, may invest without constraint in all asst classes allowed under the UCITS directive, largely via indices, but also via derivative instruments, and as a last resort, live shares (when there are no appropriate liquid instruments). In order to avoid being classified as a fund of funds, the Flexible Allocation fund will not invest in other funds or ETFs for more than 10% of its assets.In theory, the fund is managed with an absolute return objective of at least 10% returns if the stock markets are rising by more than 20%, with a minimum of % in normal markets, with protection for assets if markets fall by a proportion of less than 10%. The anticipated average volatility is 8%.CharacteristicsName: Pictet-Global Flexible AllocationISIN codes:LU0726358681 (I shares)LU0726358764 (P shares)LU0726358921 (Pdy shares)LU0726359069 (R shares)LU0726360075 (HI USD shares)LU0726360158 (HP USD shares)Management fees:0.45% (I and HI USD shares)0.90% (P, Pdy and HP USD shares)1.80% (R shares)Estimated TER:0.75% (I shares)0.80% (HI USD shares)1.20% (P and Pdy shares)1.25% (HP USD shares)2.10% (R shares)Performance commission: 10% with high watermarkHurdle rate: Citigroup 3 month in euros

BNP Paribas on March, 8th announced it will sell 28.7% or 54.43m shares of Klépierre to Simon Property Group for EUR28 per share.This deal is part of BNP Paribas’ adaptation plan to increase its common equity Tier 1 ratio by 100bp to reach 9% on a fully-loaded Basel 3 basis by 1 January 2013. The disposal of 28.7% of Klépierre’s share capital will generate a capital gain of approximately EUR1.5bn for the group and will contribute 32bp to this target.BNP Paribas will retain 22.2% of Klépierre’s share capital. and plans to remain a «significant shareholder» in the company. Therefore, BNP Paribas has committed to keeping this entire stake for at least one year.

Societe Generale has appointed Jean-François Mazaud as head of Societe Generale Private Banking. He replaces Daniel Truchi, «who has decided to pursue new opportunities in the financial sector outside Societe Generale group», according to a press release. Jean-François Mazaud joins the executive committee of the Private Banking, Asset Management & Securities Services division and reports to Jacques Ripoll, Head of the division. He also becomes a member of the General Management Committee of Societe Generale group. Meanwhile, Patrick Folléa has been appointed deputy head of Societe Generale Private Banking. He retains his existing functions as CEO of Societe Generale Private Banking France and supervisor of the private bank’s activities in Belgium. Yves Thieffry, currently deputy head of Societe Generale Private Banking, will be taking up another position within the private bank. In the meantime, he and Patrick Folléa will work closely together during the hand-over period. These appointments will take effect on 10 March 2012. Jean-Francois Mazaud became deputy head of Global Finance for Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking in 2008 and a member of Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking’s executive committee in 2009. Yves Thieffry has been Deputy CEO of Societe Generale Private Banking since 2007. In 2011, he became a member of the private bank’s executive committee, with responsibility for supervising Luxembourg, Switzerland, Monaco and the Middle East.

Kathleen C. Joaquin, director of operations and distribution, has been promoted to chief industry operations officer at the Investment Company Institute (ICI), replacing Donald Boteler, who retired at the beginning of March.In her new role, Joaquin will be the director of operational personnel at the ICI, with responsibility for numerous tasks related to transfer agencies, shareholder services, clearing and settlement, custody, fund accounting, reporting, and technological questions. Joaquin will report directly to Paul Schott Stevena, chairman and CEO of the ICI.

Although German investors have a reputation for being sensitive to environmental and social issues, savings investors pay virtually no attention to these aspects when they make their investment decisions. According to a recent study by Faktenkontor, only 4% of Germans choose their financial products on the basis of ethical criteria (ecological, social, governance, etc). Security remains the dominant criterion, with 49% of respondents prefering less volatile products. Performance tops the list of concerns for 21% of German investors.