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06/03/2012

Allianz closes asset management boutiques

Although its asset management operations in 2011 posted record operating profits, with a very low cost/income ratio, Allianz is now planning to completely overhaul the unit, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. The group is laying the concept of boutiques to rest, as it has admitted that the increasing complexity of products requires that distribution be closer to each product, and no commercial organisation is able to place the full range of disparate investment styles credibly and completely.
06/03/2012

Pioneer adds to institutional team in Germany

Stefan Tölg, a member of the board at Wave Management AG (VHV group) in charge of portfolio management, research and product development, has been recruited from 1 March as chief representative (Generalbevollmächtigter) at Pioneer Investments Germany.He will be head of the institutional client management and solutions unit, and will be in charge of developing the client base of complementary retirement funds and insurers, says CEO Evi Vogl.
06/03/2012

DWS launches an economic research institute

DWS Investments, the asset management firm of the Deutsche Bank group, has created the DWS Global Financial Institute (DGFI), an economic research institute, which published its first working document on Monday. The mission for the new structure is to “bring together independent points of view in the mid- to long-term from two different worlds: finance, and academia.” The structure will be led by Dr. Henning Stein. Lord John Eatwell, chairman of Queens’ College, Cambridge, will be chairman of the DGFI Foundation. The contributors to DGFI will include Asoka Wöhrmann, chief investment officer at DWS, economist in chief Johannes Müller, head of research Petra Pflaum, and renowned professors from throughout the world. The publications will cover a wide range of research, from macroeconomics and finance to psychology and sociology. The first working document is entitled “Real Interest Rates Worldwide: A story of Two Regimes,” by Jagjit Chadha, professor of economics at the University of Kent, and a partner at the centre for international macroeconomic and financial research at the University of Cambridge. It details the real implications of a general decline in interest rates, why they are beneficial for the current global economy, and why we can expect a gradual rise in interest rates when the global economy returns to growth.
06/03/2012

OECD in favour of massive investment in infrastructure

Governments need to act now in order to ensure that transportation infrastructure and public works which the world will need between 2020 and 2030 will be ready on time, according to a report published recently by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), “Transcontinental Infrastructure Needs for 2030.” The OECD claims that passenger air traffic could double, while merchandise air traffic will triple, and the volume of maritime containers in ports will quadruple worldwide by 2030. The report notes that most of the current infrastructure at access points and corridors will be unable to absorb the traffic, even if there is only a 50% increase in demand. The OECD values the investment required to meet the demand for the next decades at USD53trn, the equivalent of 2.5% of annual global GDP. Of this total, more than USD11trn will be needed for ports, airport and major rail junctions alone. The private sector will necessarily have to increase its investment in strategic transport infrastructure, the report finds. Pension funds will certainly play a more active role in providing financing, but before engaging much money, they will need more transparency and regulatory certainty.
06/03/2012

Allianz Real Estate invested nearly EUR2bn in 2011

In 2011, Allianz Real Estate announced that it had invested a total of about EUR2bn in equity and debt. Direct investments total about EUR1bn, a statement says. Among its direct investments, there are major transactions such as the acquisition of an 80% stake in the Skyline Plaza shopping centre in Frankfurt, and the acquisition of the Forum Seine office property in Issy-les-Moulineaux, in the suburbs of Paris.
06/03/2012

M&A in renewable energies increased by 40% in value in 2011

Annual studies by PwC of transactions in the energy and renewable energy sectors (“Power Deals” and “Renewable Deals”) have found a strong increase in the value of mergers and acquisitions in the two sectors, of 15% and 40%, respectively. Total transactions in 2011 in the electricity and gas sectors totalled USD174bn. In Europe, the total value of mergers and acquisitions fell to USD40bn in 2011, down 43% in value compared with the previous year. North American utilities made all-time record deals in 2011. The value of these deals has more than doubled year on year, to USD108bn. The main reason for this very high activity is consolidation between the sectors in the United States. Mega-deals have been a highly active sector, with seven operations out of the ten largest in the world, and the largest deal in 2011: the acquisition of the natural gas transporter El Paso Corp by the energy storage and transport giant Kinder Morgan, for a total of USD37.9bn.
06/03/2012

New CEO for GTJA Allianz

On 29 February, the Chinese regulator (CSRC) issued a license for the appointment of Shao Jiejun as managing director of GTJA Allianz Funds, which had not had a head for seven months. Jiejun began in his new role on 3 March, Z-Ben Advisors reports.
06/03/2012

Assets and profits down at GAM Holding

Assets under management at GAM Holding AG as of the end of 2011 totalled CHF107bn, down 9% compared with the end of December 2010, the group announced in a statement on 6 March.This decline of nearly CHF11bn in assets is largely due to negative market effects of CHF6bn, and net outflows of CHF3.8bn, despite net subscriptions to Swiss & Global AM, and institutional activities at GAM.Net profits are down 18% to CHF165.7m.
06/03/2012

Bradesco AM plans to grow in Asia

The Brazilian asset management firm Bradesco Asset Management is planning to increase its activities in Asia, with the appointment of a head of sales for Hong Kong, Asian Investor reports. The position will probably be filled during second half 2012, at Bradesco Securities in Hong Kong, an entity which opened in February. IN Asia, Bradesco AM already has an office in Tokyo, and a partnership with Mitsubishi UFJ for distribution. Assets under management in both equities and bonds total USD1.5bn. Assets under management at Bradesco AM total USD125bn.
06/03/2012

Noticeable rise in assets in ETF funds in the US in February

As of 29 February, the US ETF sector had assets of USD1.0583trn, in 1,140 products from 30 issuers on three stock markets. The number of ETF launches was 61, and net subscriptions totalled USD9.3bn, ETF Global Insight, the firm founded by Deborah Fuhr, reports.The three actors who attracted the largest net inflows last month were Vanguard (USD5.6bn), iShares (USD2.7bn) and PowerShares (USD1.3bn). The largest net redemptions were from State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), at USD1.5bn.
06/03/2012

François Gazier joins Haussmann Patrimoine

François Gazier, former head of the product range from Banque Robeco, has joined Haussmann Patrimoine, an independent wealth management advising firm in France, as a wealth manager in the financial department. Gazier spent 20 years at Robeco, first as head of client relationships, and then as head of middle office for banking clients, before becoming head of the product in 1999. Since 2010, he had been a third party marketer. The activities of Haussmann Patrimoine include financial investment advising, direct selling in the banking sector, life insurance and retirement planning brokerage, real estate transactions, banking operation intermediation, locating financing and services as an Independent Financial Adviser and Wealth Manager.
06/03/2012

Axa Real Estate makes more than EUR6bn in deals in 2011

Axa Real Estate Investment Managers has announced total transaction volumes of EUR6.2 billion in 2011 (completed and signed). The firm managed EUR42bn in assets as of the end of December 2011. Acquisitions totalled a net EUR2.6bn. France represented 42% of the total value of acquisitions, while the UK accounted for 26%, Switzerlanfd 17%, and Germany 10%. Sales totalled EUR2.1bn, of which 67% were in France. Axa REIM announced that it had approximately EUR2bn of acquisitions already in the pipeline for 2012.
06/03/2012

Karim Hajjaji promoted to COO at GIMS (SocGen)

Société Générale on 5 March announced the appointment of Karim Hajjaji as chief operating officer (COO) of GIMS, the private banking, asset management and investor services unit of the Société Générale group.In this role, he joins the board of the GIMS unit. Hajjajji will also retain his position as CFO of the unit. Hajjaji reports to Jacques Ripoll, director of the GIMS unit, and is a member of the Executive Board at GIMS.Hajjaji joined the Société Générale group in 1999 as Head of the financial controlling deparment at the finance and investment bank. From 2005 to 2009, he became CFO of SG Americas, and supervised all financial activities of Société Générale in the United States, Canada, Brazil and Latin America. In July 2009, he was appointed CFO of GIMS at the Société Générale group, and became a member of the Executive Board at GIMS, under Jacques Ripoll, director of the GIMS unit.
06/03/2012

Amundi Immobilier acquires an environmentally-friendly property in Paris

As a part of its active management of Opcimmo, its retail OPCI fund, Amundi Immobilier has acquired an office property with 7,620 square metres of area located at 142 Avenue Paul Vailliant Couturier in Paris (14th district), off-plan (Purchase of property not yet complete, or VEFA). The property, entitled CAP 14, is located facing the ring road, and will have a High Quality Environmental (HQE) certification. The environmental aspect of the building will be based on controlling the impact of the exterior and creating a clean and comfortable interior. The property will have 135 underground parking spaces, and will be completed in June 2014. The building is already wholly leased to Kaufman and Broad with a firm 9-year lease.
06/03/2012

BNY Mellon launches an emerging markets corporate debt fund

BNY Mellon has announced the launch of the BNY Mellon Emerging Markets Corporate Debt Fund. This is the second fund in its range to be managed by Insight Investment Management (Global) Limited, part of BNY Mellon Asset Management. A UCITS fund offering daily pricing liquidity, the fund will be a sub-fund of the Dublin-domiciled BNY Mellon Global Funds, plc range.The fund, which launched on 31 January 2012, is managed by Insight Investment’s Emerging Market Debt team, headed by Colm McDonagh.It will aim to generate a total return comprised of income and capital growth by investing primarily in corporate debt and related financial derivative instruments issued by emerging market issuers worldwide. The fund will consist of a globally diversified ‘best ideas’ portfolio.The BNY Mellon Emerging Markets Corporate Debt Fund is currently available for distribution in the UK and Republic of Ireland. BNY Mellon Asset Management, subject to regulatory approvals, is aiming to have the Fund registered for distribution across Europe.
06/03/2012

Asset management firm WHEB AM recruits former SRI team from Henderson

The team specialist in socially responsible investment at Hendreson is joining WHEB Asset Management, the asset management unit of the WHEB group, the group announced in a statement on 5 March. The team, which includes George Latham, Seb Beloe, Tim Dieppe and Hyewon Kong, left Henderson in late 2011. The Henderson veterans will join the existing team at WHEB AM, led by Clare Brooke. From 1 April, Dieppe will be the manager of the Wheb Sustainability fund (GBP30m in assets), launched in May 2009, whose returns have hitherto fallen short of expectations. Latham will be the chief investment officer for the unit, while Brooke, who created the activity at the group, will take charge of development. The WHEB group is an investment firm which aims primarily at sustainable development and investment in private equity, renewable energies, and publicly traded securities.
06/03/2012

LV= joins AIFA

The British asset management firm LV= (London & Victoria) has joined the Association of Independent Financial Advisers (AIFA) as an associate member. Several asset management firms have joined the association in the past twelve months, including M&G, Royal Bank of Scotland and BlackRock.
06/03/2012

Jupiter Distribution fund in the hands of new managers

Anthony Nutt and John Hamilton will be handing over co-management of the Jupiter Distribution fund, whose assets under management total GBP250m, to Alastrair Gunn and Rhys Petheram, Investment Week reports. Gunn joined Jupiter in 2007, after serving as head of equity research at Arbuthnot Securities. Petheram, who joined Jupiter in 2006, had previously been a credit analyst at Moody’s. Nutt will continue to manage the income trust, whose assets under management total over GBP2bn, the High Income fund, with GBP529m (with Ariel Bezalel) and the Dividend & Growth trust, with GBP66m. Hamilton will remain in charge of the Corporate Bond fund (GBP212m).
06/03/2012

Banque Pasche is bringing bad publicity for Liechtenstein

At a time when Klaus Tschütscher, Liechtenstein’s prime minister, says that the principality is planning to become a global centre for investment funds, the local affiliate of the Geneva-based asset management firm Banque Pasche is causing it trouble in precisely this area, Handelsblatt reports. The Liechtenstein-based asset management firm VTM (EUR1bn in assets) had invested in the British MF Global fund via Banque Pasche as depository. And the latter bank, in contravention of international regulations, did not cordon off (segregate) the EUR20m in assets in question. The scandal has been referred by the Vaduz prosecutor’s office to the Liechtenstein Financial Market Authority (FMA). But the new head of the FMA, Urs Philipp Roth-Cuony, has not so far stood out for the dynamism of his initiatives, Handelsblatt remarks.
06/03/2012

Les députés suisses approuvent l'accord fiscal avec les Etats-Unis

La chambre basse du parlement suisse a donné lundi son feu vert à une adaptation de la convention de double imposition avec les Etats-Unis, ce qui permettra les demandes d’entraide groupées. Le Conseil des Etats, la chambre haute du parlement, avait déjà donné son aval. Le texte ne sera toutefois pas mis en œuvre tant qu’un accord n’aura pas été trouvé avec Washington sur les onze banques suisses soupçonnées par la justice américaine d’avoir facilité de l’évasion fiscale.
06/03/2012

KKR cède 4,8% de Legrand

Le groupe américain de capital investissement a cédé hier 12,7 millions d’actions Legrand, soit environ 4,8% du capital, via la constitution accélérée d’un livre d’ordres auprès d’investisseurs institutionnels. Goldman Sachs a été en charge de l’opération, réalisée au prix de 27 euros par action, soit un montant total de 342,9 millions d’euros. KKR conserve une participation d’environ 1%.
06/03/2012

Rebond de la croissance des services américains

L’indice d’activité de l’Institute for Supply Management (ISM) pour le secteur des services est monté à 57,3 en février, au plus haut depuis un an, après 56,8 en janvier. En revanche, les commandes de biens manufacturés ont régressé de 1,0% en janvier, soit leur plus forte baisse depuis octobre 2010.
06/03/2012

La BCE boude les titres souverains pour la troisième semaine d’affilée

La Banque centrale européenne a annoncé lundi n’avoir racheté aucune obligation d’Etat au cours de la semaine au 2 mars. Elle n’avait pas non plus racheté de titres souverains lors des deux semaines précédentes. Elle précise que le montant total de ses rachats d’obligations souveraines reste stable à 219,5 milliards d’euros.
06/03/2012

L'OCDE en faveur des investissements en infrastructures

Les Etats doivent agir dès maintenant pour faire en sorte que les infrastructures de transport et de travaux publics dont la planète aura besoin entre 2020 et 2030 soient opérationnelles, a prévenu hier l’OCDE. L'étude évalue à quelque 53.000 milliards de dollars les besoins d’investissement d’ici à 2030.
06/03/2012

La RBA maintient le statu quo

La banque centrale australienne a décidé ce matin de laisser son taux directeur inchangé à 4,25%, s’appuyant à la fois sur les perspectives toujours «assez robustes» des économies américaine et chinoise et sur l’allègement considérable des pressions financières pesant sur les banques européennes. «Les informations récentes suggèrent que l’économie va croître en-dessous de sa tendance cette année, mais ne suggèrent pas de crise profonde en cours» indique le communiqué. Le gouverneur de la Reserve Bank of Australia, Glenn Stevens, a en outre précisé s’attendre à ce que l’inflation reste dans la fourchette cible de 2% à 3%. Si la politique monétaire est «appropriée pour le moment», la RBA conserve une marge de manœuvre en cas d’affaiblissement de la demande. Le dollar australien accentuait son recul à 0,7% contre le billet vert suite à l’annonce de la banque centrale, à 1,0621.
06/03/2012

S&P n'a pas épargné les notes souveraines en 2011

L’étude annuelle sur les défauts souverains montre que l’agence a davantage abaissé que relevé les notes souveraines (respectivement 20,3% des pays notés contre 14,8%). S&P précise que les abaissements de notes se sont concentrés sur les souverains notés en catégorie investissement et s’attend à ce que les conditions de crédit pour les souverains continuent à s’aggraver en 2012.
06/03/2012

La BoJ envisage de prolonger son soutien au crédit

La Banque du Japon pourrait décider lors de sa réunion des 12 et 13 mars de prolonger d’un an une mesure destinée à encourager les banques, par le biais de taux extrêmement bas, à financer des projets cibles de poches de croissance pour l’économie japonaise, selon le journal qui ne cite pas ses sources. Cette mesure doit jusqu'à présent expirer fin mars.
06/03/2012

L'immobilier parisien garde la cote

La foncière Eurosic vient de céder pour 508 millions d’euros le siège de BPCE et le 52 avenue Hoche à un fonds de JPMorgan AM, à des rendements avoisinant 5%.

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