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.
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.
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.
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.
The asset management affiliate of the Grupo Arcano, Arcano Capital, has announced that it has attracted USD700m for the Arcano Secondary Fund I, Funds People reports. The fund will specialise in the acquisition of portfolios of private equity funds on the secondary market. This brings assets at Arcano Capital to USD1.8bn.
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.
The Barclays Bank U.K. Retirement Fund, the pension fund from Barclays, is planning to sell a private equity portfolio for about GBP350m, the news agency Bloomberg reports. The pension fund has called in the consulting firm Cogent Partners to manage the sale of the portfolio, which includes engagements in LBO funds in Europe and the United States. Assets under management for the Barclays pension fund total about GBP21bn.
The British asset management firm Principal Investment Management has launched a bond income that pays monthly revenues. The Principal Monthly Income Investment Grad Bond fund aims for annual returns of a net total of over 5%. Front-end fees have been set at 3% and management fees at 1% per year.
Aberdeen Asset Management will be appointed investment adviser to two Credit Suisse funds - the USD94 million Credit Suisse Equity Fund (Lux) Brazil fund (as at 31 January 2012) and the USD153 million Credit Suisse Bond Fund (Lux) Brazil fund, effective 2 April 2012. The two funds will be merged into the Group’s Luxembourg-domiciled Aberdeen Global SICAV in June 2012 where they will appear as the Aberdeen Global – Brazil Equity Fund and Aberdeen Global – Brazil Bond Fund.The Brazil equity strategy will be managed by Aberdeen’s global emerging markets team, led by Devan Kaloo, Head of Global Emerging Markets. Aberdeen’s emerging markets debt team, led by Brett Diment, will manage the bond fund.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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%.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
L’Association des banquiers britanniques (BBA) aurait entamé hier une consultation concernant le calcul et la régulation des taux Libor suite aux accusations de manipulations de cours proférées ces dernières semaines et ayant conduit à une vaste enquête dans plusieurs pays, selon le quotidien britannique. «Dans le cadre du processus de revue normale du taux Libor, un certain nombre de banques contributrices se sont rencontrées aujourd’hui afin de s’entretenir des règles futures et des développements de marché, tels que les règles sur la liquidité, liées aux paramètres de mesure du Libor» rapporte un communiqué de la BBA cité par le journal.
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%.