Sur la période 2011-2010, les hedge funds dont l’encours était inférieur à 100 millions de dollars ont affiché une performance annuelle de 10,1 % contre 8,3 % pour ceux avec des actifs compris entre 100 millions et 500 millions et 8 % pour les plus de 500 millions, d’après une récente étude de Barclays Bank relayée par fonds professionell.L'écart est encore plus important si l’on se focalise sur le premier quartile de chacune des catégories, avec des gains moyens de 99 % par an dans le premier cas, de 71 % dans le deuxième et de 60 % dans le troisième.Cependant si les «moins de 100 millions» comptent dans leurs rangs les fonds de très loin les plus rentables, ils ont aussi les plus mauvais.

Le pôle gestion d’actifs de la société Rathbone Brothers a fait état pour l’exercice 2011 d’une progression de 30% de son résultat avant impôts à 39,2 millions de livres.Les actifs sous gestion s’inscrivaient au 31 décembre à 15,85 milliards de livres, en hausse de 1,4% par rapport à fin 2010.

Axa Wealth se propose de lancer une plateforme d’investissement en direct avec un groupe de sociétés de conseillers financiers indépendants au cours des six prochains mois, rapporte Fund Web. La plateforme, dont le lancement répond à une demande des conseillers financiers, proposera environ 130 fonds sélectionnés par Architas (groupe AXA).

Mark Lyttleton va abandonner la gestion du BlackRock UK fund qui sera désormais assurée par le co-gérant du fonds, Nick Little, rapporte Money Marketing.Nick Little, qui co-gérait ce fonds depuis septembre 2011, prendra ses nouvelles fonctions à compter du 1er mars. Mark Lyttleton gérait ce fonds de 447 millions de livres depuis septembre 2001. Mark Lyttleton continuera de gérer le fonds absolute alpha (1,2 milliard de livres d’actifs sous gestion) et le fonds dynamique (872 millions de livres).

La police de la ville de Londres enquête sur une tentative de fraude présumée de 150 millions de dollars de la part d’un ancien trader de Threadneedle, selon le Financial Times. La société de gestion a confirmé mardi que la police et les autres autorités avaient été informées après que des contrôles internes aient été déclenchés et que l’exécution d’un ordre suspicieux ait été stoppée en août dernier. Threadneedle, qui gère environ 60 milliards de livres, souligne ne pas avoir perdu d’argent.

Petercam travaille à l’élaboration d’une stratégie obligataire à haut rendement qui serait investie dans des obligations souveraines en devises locales de pays émergents qui répondraient à un certain nombre de critères investissement socialement responsable (ISR).Elle complèterait la gamme high yield de la société de gestion belge qui se compose déjà de deux fonds : le Petercam L bonds Eur High Yield Short Term et le Petercam L Fund - Petercam L Bonds Higher Yield. L’introduction d’un filtre ISR vise à répondre à une demande de la clientèle, selon Thierry Larose, gérant senior de Petercam. Actuellement en cours de réalisation, il devrait conduire à l’exclusion de certains pays, comme la Chine ou la Russie.La nouvelle stratégie, qui est attendue pour le second semestre, sera gérée par l’équipe des stratégies obligataires à haut rendement, dirigée par Bernard Lalière.

La notation des financements structurés en Europe s’est encore améliorée l’an dernier, selon l'étude annuelle sur le secteur que vient de publier Standard & Poor’s. Le taux d’abaissement de notes s’est ainsi inscrit à 22,3% en 2011 contre 25,4% l’année précédente. Cette évolution reflète à la fois les tendances macro-économiques en Europe et les modifications apportées à la méthodologie de notation, souligne l’agence dans un communiqué.Standard & Poor’s relève toutefois que le nombre d’abaissements de notes représente 2,5 fois celui des relèvements de notes.

«La directive OPCVM IV est plutôt une bonne nouvelle, non pas qu’elle permette d’accélérer les fusions transfrontalières de fonds, car toutes les questions fiscales n’ont pas été réglées, mais parce qu’elle crée la structure de fonds maître-nourricier européen» a expliqué Christophe Coquema, COO, lors de la présentation des résultats d’Axa Investment Managers, mardi à Paris. Axa IM est intéressé par cette formule qui permet d’avoir un fonds maître géré activement et plusieurs fonds nationaux avec des objectifs similaires comme nourriciers. En fait, le gestionnaire français a récemment mis en place une initiative dédiée visant à réduire le nombre de fonds, ce qui réduirait les charges et améliorerait aussi la rentabilité, parce que les fonds de grande taille affichent généralement un profil de rendement/risque supérieur à ceux qui son plus petits.Axa IM vise à terme une réduction de 15 à 20 % de l’univers de ses fonds, a indiqué Christophe Coquema. Bien évidemment, il n’est pas possible d’appliquer le même régime minceur au catalogue de fonds dédiés, compte tenu de cahiers des charges spécifiques, qu'à celui des fonds ouverts, dont le nombre de situe en Europe entre 400 et 500 unités.L’offre actuelle s’est constituée sur un socle historique de produits nationaux (France, Royaume-Uni, Allemagne, Suisse) qui s’est complété d’une gamme harmonisée luxembourgeoise et irlandaise vendue dans toute l’Europe et qui est bien apprécisée en Asie également.

Les actifs sous gestion des fonds de placement suisses s’inscrivaient fin janvier à 648,9 milliards de francs suisses, en progression de 18,2 milliards de francs par rapport au mois précédent, selon les statistiques communiquées par Swiss Fund Data et Lipper. Toutes les catégories de fonds ont enregistré des souscriptions nettes à l’exception des fonds stratégiques de placement.La collecte nette s’est élevée en janvier à 2,4 milliards de francs suisses contre 923,3 millons de francs suisses le mois précédent. Les fonds actions ont attiré 1,2 milliard de francs, les fonds obligataires ayant drainé 956 millions de francs. Les souscriptions les plus importantes ont été enregistrées par les fonds en actions de la catégorie Emerging Markets Global, les fonds obligataires en franc suisses ainsi que les fonds du marché monétaire en francs suisses. Les fonds nippons en actions ainsi que les fonds du marché monétaire libellés en dollars ont en revanche subi des rachats.

Société Générale Securities Services vient de nommer Dirk Werthmann en tant que responsable des relations clients pour l’Allemagne. Il travaillait précédemment au sein du groupe BNY Mellon. En 2010, il était devenu responsable des ventes aux institutions non financières de BNY Mellon Asset Servicing GmbH, puis depuis 2011, il assurait les mêmes fonctions pour BNY Mellon SA/NV à Francfort.Au sein de SGSS, où il est rattaché à Jochen Meyers, directeur commercial et des relations clients en Allemagne et en Autriche, Dirk Werthmann sera chargé de développer les relations avec les principaux clients de SGSS Deutschland en Allemagne et en Autriche, et assistera les grands clients institutionnels internationaux (sociétés de gestion, compagnies d’assurances, corporates et investisseurs institutionnels).SGSS en Allemagne compte plus de 250 collaborateurs sur ses 3 implantations de Munich, Francfort et Hambourg.

Avec le Microbank Fondo Ético Garantizado enregistré auprès de la CNMV le 17 février, InverCaixa lancera le 27 avril un fonds à la fois garanti et éthique dont l'échéance est fixée au 2 mai 2016. A cette dernière date, les souscripteurs percevront 100 % de la première valeur liquidative plus 55 % de la performance d’un panier équipondéré composé des actions de cinq sociétés de l’indice FTSE4Good Europe sélectionnées en fonction de critères d’investissement responsable. Il s’agit de l’espagnole Inditex, des allemandes Allianz, Bayer et Deutsche Bank ainsi que de la néerlandaise KPN. Le rendement pourra évoluer entre 0 % dans le pire des cas, à 7,4 % annuels dans le cas le plus favorable.CaractéristiquesDénomination : Microbank Fondo Ético Garantizado, FICode Isin ES0171732003Droit d’entrée 4 %Commission de gestion 1,64 %Pénalité de sortie anticipée : 4 %

Plus d’une centaine de fonds de pension néerlandais seront contraints de réduire leurs droits et/ou leurs prestations si leur situation financière ne s’améliore pas dans des proportions suffisantes dans les prochains mois, rapporte le site IPE.Les réductions envisagées pourraient se situer autour de 2,3% en moyenne, mais 34 plans de retraite seront probablement dans l’impossibilité d'éviter une réduction des prestations d’un peu moins de 7%, selon les estimations de la Banque centrale néerlandaise (DNB).

More than 100 pension funds in the Netherlands will have to reduce their rights and/or benefits if their financial situation does not improve adequately in the next few months, the website IPE reports. Reductions under consideration could total an average of about 2.3%, but 34 pension plans are probably in a position of not being able to avoid a reduction in benefits of slightly under 7%, according to estimates by the Netherlands Central Bank (DNB).

The hedge fund from John Paulson is being sued by a former investors who claims that the firm failed to undertake appropriate due diligence on Sino Forest, a Chinese forestry firm which cost the Paulson & Co funds about USD460m when its share price collapsed, the Financial Times reports. The investor in question is Hugh Culverhouse, a former Federal prosecutor. The lawsuit may be a class action suit.

On Tuesday evening, a US federal judge dismissed a case filed by Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee for the business interests of Bernard Madoff, against UniCredit and three of its affiliates, including Pioneer Global Asset Management, the Wall Street Journal reports. Judge Rakoff found that there were not sufficent grounds to invoke the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act against the defendants, particularly as that legislation does not apply to securities fraud.

“The UCITS IV directive is good news, not because it provides a way to accelerate cross-border mergers of funds, as the tax questions have not all been resolved, but because it creates a European master-feeder fund structure,” Christophe Coquema, COO, explained at a presentation of results for Axa Investment Managers on Tuesday in Paris. Axa IM is interested in the formula, which would allow for an actively-managed master fund to have several national funds with similar objectives as feeder funds. The French asset management firm has recently set up a dedicated initiative to reduce the number of funds, which would also reduce costs and improve profitability. Axa IM is eventually aiming for a 15% to 20% reduction in its fund universe, Coquema says. Clearly, it is not possible to apply the same fine-toothed approach to the catalogue of dedicated funds as to open-ended funds, which number 400 to 500 in Europe.

Ratings of structured financing in Europe improved further last year, according to an annual study of the sector recently published by Standard & Poor’s. The percentage of ratings which were lowered in 2011 came to 22.3%, compared with 25.4% the previous year. This development reflects both macroeconomic trends in Europe and modifications to ratings methodologies, the agency says in a statement. Standard & Poor’s points out, however, that the number of ratings lowered represents 2.5 times the number of ratings that were raised.

With the Microbank Fondo Ético Garantizado, registered by the CNMV on 17 February, InverCaixa will launch a fund on 27 April which is both guaranteed and ethical, and which will mature on 2 May 2016. On that date, subscribers will receive 100% of their initial net asset value, plus 55% fo the returns on an equally-weighted basked of equities composed of shares in five companies of the FTSE4Good Europe index, selected on the basis of responsible investment criteria. The firms are the Spanish Inditex, the German firms Allianz ,Bayer and Deutsche Bank, and the Dutch KPN. Returns may vary from 0% at the worst to 7.4% per year at the best.CharacteristicsName: Microbank Fondo Ético Garantizado, FIISIN code: ES0171732003Front-end fee: 4%Management commission: 1.64%Early withdrawal penalty: 4%

Private equity investor BC Partners has attracted investment commitments in 18 months of EUR6.5bn for its new European Capital IX buyout funds, the largest in Europe since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. But, the Börsen-Zeitung reports, the managing partner for Germany at BC Partners, Stefan Zuschke, has admitted that the company had to make concessions to investors in the form of reduced commissions. The circle of investors has been enlarged compared with the previous fund, with the arrival of Asian investors. Zuschke claims that it is still possible to make deals totalling as much as EUR1bn or EUR2bn in Germany, even though banks have become more cautious.

Petercam is working to develop a high yield bond strategy that would invest in government bonds denominated in local currencies from emerging markets, which would meet socially responsible investment (SRI) criteria. The fund would be an addition to the high yield range from the Belgian asset management firm, which already includes two funds: the Petercam L bonds Eur High Yield Short Term and the Petercam L Fund – Petercam L Bonds Higher Yield. The introduction of an SRI filter aims to meet demand from clients, says Thierry Larose, senior manager at Petercam. The fund, currently in production, would exclude certain countries, such as China and Russia. The new strategy, which is expected in second half, will be managed by the high yield bond strategies team, led by Bernard Lalière.

Mark Lyttleton will be ceasing his participation in the management of the BlackRock UK Fund, which will now be managed by the fund’s co-manager, Nick Little, Money Marketing reports. Little, who had been co-manager of the fund since Septemebr 2011, will begin in his new position on 1 March. Lyttleton will continue to manage the absolute alpha fund (GBP1.2bn in assets under management) and the dynamic fund (GBP872m).

According to the most recent TNS Infratest survey, undertaken in September 2011, covering a sample of 1,000 people, 59% of German investors are invested primarily in equity funds, with 41% (up from 34% in 2011) holding shares in bond funds, and 27% (compared with 18%) invested in shares in money market funds. One German in five is invested in commodity funds, compared with one in six at the time of the previous survey, published last year, Axa Investment Managers (Axa IM), which commissioned the survey, reports.For equity funds, the percentage placed by investors in European equity products has increased to 86% (from 71%), while 24% hold shares in funds of equities from industrialised countries, and 8% hold shares in emerging markets equity funds.These data should, however, be regarded in relative terms, as only 17% of Germans hold shares in investment funds, as in the two previous years.

Société Générale Securities Services has appointed Dirk Werthmann as head of client relations for Germany. He had previously worked at the BNY Mellon group. In 2010, he become head of sales to non-financial instutitons at BNY Mellon Asset Servicing GmbH, and since 2011 has served in the same role at BNY Mellon SA/NV in Frankfurt. At SGSS, where he reports to Jochen Meyers, head of sales and client relations for Germany and Austria, Werthmann will be in charge of developing relations with major clients of SGSS Deutschland in Germany and Austria, and will assist major international institutional clients (asset management firms, insurers, corporates and institutional investors).

The financial market data provider Interactive Data Corporation has formed a partnership with the Swiss firm RepRisk, a specialist in business intelligence in environmental, social and governance (ESG) areas, in order to extend the range of content available via Prime Terminal Solution, the custom offering from Interactive Data for desktop computers.Quantitative data from RepRisk on reputation risk indicators for various businesses and sectors, with current and historical data, will be available via PrimeTerminal. The solution will allow finance professionals (fund managers, advisors at private banks) to follow the ESG performance of companies worldwide, and to select the ones for their portfolios which perform best, and which demonstrate that they effectively comply with the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN-PRI). Users will also have access to critical reviews published by a wise range of diverse stakeholders (media, NGOs, government agencies, community groups, universities, think tanks and social media).

In the years from 2001-2010, hedge funds with assets of under USD100m have earned annual returns of 10.1%, compared with 8.3% for funds which total assets of USD100m-USD500m, and 8% for funds with over USD500m, according to a recent study by Barclays Bank, relayed by Fonds Professionell.The difference is even larger if the top quartile of each category is considered, with average gains of 99% per year for the first group, 71% for the second, and 60% for the third.Although the funds with less than USD100m include funds which are by far the most lucrative, it also includes some of the worst.

Hedgeanalytics, a spinoff of the High School for management and law in Zurich, has published its first ratings for funds of hedge funds, Agefi Switzerland reports. The ratings are based on a Total Risk Rating system for rating systemic risks, whose primary emphasis is on operational risks, and then on market, credit and liquidity risks taken into account by the evaluation. The ratings are based on due diligence based on the most recent scientific findings, which will help to create a basis for comparison of hedge funds.

From 29 February 2012, the LBPAM Obli Crédit fund, managed by La Banque Postale AM (LBPAM), will undergo several modifications in orde rto “regularise the fund and bring it into compliance with UCITS IV regulations (directive 2009/CE of 13 July 2009).” All investments in shares in mutual funds or other funds which do not comply with these regulations, including alternative strategies, will be removed, as will risks related to investments in alternative strategy investment funds. The modifications will be noted in the prospectus of the FCP fund, whciwh ill be updated on 29 February 2012. The other characteristics of the FCP fund will remain unchanged, the asset management firm states on its website.

The asset management affiliate of the Banque Neuflize OBC on 21 February 21 announced the launch of the NOBC Convertibles 2012 fund, a horizon fund of funds which will allow investors to benefit from convertibles based on equities, issuer credit risk premiums, and from the valuations specific to this asset class. The fund will initially be invested primarily in convertible bonds (more than 97%), with maturities prior to or very near January 2016, with high average returns and adequate diversification. The fund will have a high internal rate of return, and when the dynamics of the market permit it, active management to provide profit-taking and reinvestments based on a simple principle: securities whose rate of return have fallen significantly will be sold off and replaced by securities with higher returns and at least equal credit risk. The attraction for the investor is to benefit partially from the three qualities of convertible bonds described above, and to have a means to benefit from trades executed by managers. In order to maximally profit from the opportunities that arise, the fund is initially 70% invested in high yield bonds, and slightly under 50% invested in small and midcaps. As of Friday, 10 February, the average annual gross percentage rate for securities in the portfolio was 6.1%, and the average sensitivity to equities was 30%. NOBC Convertibles 2016 may be considered a defensive convertibles fund, in that the delta is initially moderate (30%), and will gradually be reduced as the fund appraches maturity. Investors will also not be subject to rising interest rates if they remain invested until maturity. The average sensitivity of the fund (to credit, valuation and interest rates) will also decrease over time. Another significant opportunity is that in a period in which the returns for funds in euros for insurance policies is about 3% per year, the fund provides a way to take a position on a horizon fund that invested in convertible bonds and allows for diversification of investments. NOBC Convertibles 2016 is also eligible for investment from life insurance policies from Neuflize Vie, a high-end life insurance firm from Banque Neuflize OBC. The Convertibles team manages about EUR900m in assets, of which EUR500m are via two open-ended funds: NOBC Europe Convertibles and NOBC Monde Convertibles.

Wasatch has closed its Emerging Markets Small Cap Fund, which has over USD1bn in assets, to new investors. The US asset management firm has decided that it will not penlise the small and midcaps strategy of the product, and is therefore limiting its asset volume.

The Financial association on 21 February released its practical guide to solidaristic employee savings, which aims to inspire employees to subscribe to a solidaristic employee savings fund. Savings in solidaristic FCPE funds, which are partly invested in businesses with socially responsible policies, provide a way to create jobs for the long-term unemployed, construct social housing and to foster international solidaristic activities that respect the environment. In 2010, solidaristic FCPE funds certified by Finansol delivered total financial returns ranging from 2.6% to 9.75%.