Les statistiques annuelles de l’Investment Management Association (IMA) publiées le 13 février font apparaître que l’encours des fonds de fonds a atteint à la fin de l’an dernier sa part la plus élevée des actifs gérés par les fonds britanniques, avec 10,5 % et 60,2 milliards de livres contre 9,6 % et 56,4 milliards un an plus tôt. Les fonds de fonds ont drainé en net 5.210 millions de livres en 2011 après 6.485 millions en 2010.Quant aux fonds indiciels, ils ont enregistré en 2011 des souscriptions nettes record de 1.924 millions de livres contre 1.744 millions l’année précédente, leur encours au 31 décembre ressortant à 39 milliards de livres contre 38,3 milliards.Enfin, l’IMA constate une diminution à 201 millions de livres contre 297 millions des rentrées nettes des fonds éthiques, dont les actifs sous gestion ont baissé à 6,7 milliards de livres contre 6,9 milliards.
Même si Henderson ne cherche pas à réaliser «quelque chose de grand» sur le front des acquisitions cette année, de petites opérations sont possibles, indique David Jacob, CIO et managing director d’Henderson Investment Management, interviewé par le Financial Times Fund Management. En particulier, il aimerait bâtir un pôle de gestion d’actifs aux Etats-Unis où le groupe n’a que des équipes d’immobilier et de distribution. Une alliance pour améliorer la distribution en Asie fait aussi partie de sa liste de vœux, ainsi que l’Australie. Grâce aux acquisitions successives de New Star Asset Management et Gartmore, Henderson a maintenant une clientèle retail qui représente 43 % de ses 65,4 milliards de livres d’encours sous gestion, contre 18 % avant ces opérations.
Fidelity Worldwide Investment annonce le lancement du compartiment Fidelity Funds Global Dividend Fund, dont le portefeuille est investi dans des sociétés mondiales qui versent régulièrement des dividendes à leurs actionnaires. L’objectif initial du produit est de verser un dividende annuel net de 3,6 % sur une base mensuelle ou trimestrielle, selon le souhait de l’investisseur, précise un communiqué. «Le fonds se concentre sur les sociétés offrant une croissance durable des dividendes et sur la «marge de sécurité» offerte par un bilan sain et des multiples de valorisation favorables», précise le gérant du fonds, Daniel Roberts. Le fonds privilégie les grandes entreprises, la capitalisation boursière moyenne de ses positions boursières étant de 29,2 milliards de dollars. Caractéristiques Forme juridique : compartiment de Fidelity Funds, sicav de droit luxembourgeoisCodes ISIN : Part de capitalisation (en Euro hedgé) : LU0605515377/Part de distribution mensuelle (en Euro) : LU0731782404/ Part de distribution trimestrielle (en Euro) : LU0731782826Frais de souscription : 5,25% maxFrais de gestion annuels : 1,50%Indicateur de comparaison : MSCI All Country World IndexDevise du fonds : eurosNombre de lignes en portefeuille : environ 50
Le fonds de pension californien a annoncé une nouvelle structuration de ses comités, ramenés à six contre sept précédemment. Le conseil d’administration doit dans les prochains jours étudier la suppression d’un comité sur les retraites qui ramènera le nombre de comités à cinq.La modification la plus importante concerne la fusion programmée des comités «Benefits and Program Adminisrtration " et «Health Benefits» dans un un seul et même comité, le «Pension and Health Benefits Committee». Deux nouveaux comités sont constitués, l’un dédié aux questions financières et administratives, l’autre aux problématiques d’audit et de risque (compliance).
Le 2 février, iShares (BlackRock) a notifié à la SEC son intention de lancer le iShares Morningstar Multi-Asset High Income Index Fund, un ETF d’ETF qui cherchera à répliquer un indice multi-classes d’actifs de Morningstar couvrant des ETF iShares tant pour les actions, les obligations et les classes alternatives (actions préférentielles et REIT).Le montant de la commission n’a pas encore été dévoilé. L’indice se compose à 20 % d’ETF actions, à 60 % d’ETF obligataires et à 20 % d’ETF de préférentielles et de REIT. Les sommes qui ne seraient pas investies dans les ETF de l’indice le seraient dans des Cash Funds de BlackRock.
JP Morgan Worldwide Securities Services (WSS) vient de lancer le Fund Reporting and Media Exchange Site (FRaMES) qui propose à sa clientèle un accès sécurisé et collaboratif pour des activités d’administration de fonds.Dans un premier temps, le nouveau portail sera disponible pour la clientèle américaine (services réglementaires et responsables de la compliance).
La société d’administration de fonds à la marque du distributeur HSBC Trinkaus Investment Managers a désormais dépassé pour la première fois les 10 milliards d’euros d’actifs sous gestion ou administration, rapporte Fondsprofessionell. Cette filiale de l’allemand HSBC INKA (150 milliards d’euros d’encours) administre actuellement 57 fonds.
In a survey published on Monday, Credit Suisse claims that the environment in which the European ETF sector is developing remains difficult due to economic uncertainties worldwide and the European debt crisis, Handelsblatt reports.However, the Swiss group, which claims a place as the fourth-largest ETF promoter in Europe, estimates that this year regulators will cause fewer difficulties for actors in this area. Proposals unveiled late in January by ESMA are considerably less strict than many experts had expected, which will partly dispel investors’ concerns.
As of the end of January, the Geneva-based firm Alix Capital counted about 750 UCITS-compliant funds with assets of about EUR118bn, and the UCITS Alternative Index Global has posted returns of 1.37% in Janyary, after gains of 0.35% in December. For 2011 as a whole, the index lost 3.64%. The UCITS Alternative Index Fund of Funds in January showed gains of 0.18%, compared with losses of 0.05% in December, and losses of 5.25% for last year as a whole.
The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) on 13 February announced the appointment of David Wright as secretary general of the international organisation. Wright will begin in his new role in March 2012. Wright worked for over 30 years at the European Commission. He was senior advisor to the Commission during the financial crisis. He has very recently been a member of the Commission’s working group on Greece.
The California pension fund CalPERS has announced a new structure for its committees, which are reduced in number to six from seven previously. The board of trustees will be studying the dissolution of a retirement committee in the next few days, which would reduce the number of committees to five. The most significant change concerns the planned merger of the Benefits and Programs Administration and Health Benefits committees, to form a single Pension and Health Benefits Committee. Two new committees are being created, one dedicated to financial and administrative questions, and one to auditing and compliance issues.
The Wall Street Journal reports that 70% of stock-pickers outperformed the S&P 500 index in January, while less than a quarter of them did so for 2011 as a whole. A few weeks are not enough to identify a sustainable trend, but the markets have been more stable, and equities are less correlated, which works to the advantage of asset managers who focus on fundamentals at businesses rather than on market momentum or consensus.If these asset managers continue to outperform, which would justify the higher commissions they charge, many financial advisers are in danger of finding themselves on a back foot, having recommended tracker funds or ETFs to their clients. And most of these advisers recommend caution, as they suspect that the high returns will not last.
The two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin will ultimately pay a total of USD1.05m to settle civils suits against them, the Wall Street Journal reports (see Newsmanagers of 10 February).The two men, who are also accused of lying about the health of their funds at the outbreak of the subprime crisis, will also be barred from professional practice in the securities industry for three and two years, respectively.The implosion of the funds cost investors USD1.6bn.
A rule forbidding all net short positions or increases of such positions in the capital of a set list of French financial sector companies ended on Saturday, 11 February 2012, the French financial regulator, the Autorité de marchés financiers (AMF), announced on 13 February.As a result, a ban on short-selling shares in the capital of, or providing access to the capital of the following credit and insurance sector businesses is lifted: April Group, Axa, BNP Paribas, CIC, CNP Assurances, Crédit Agricole, Euler Hermès, Natixis, Scor and Société Générale.The AMF points out that since February 2011, there has been a requirement in place that net short positions on equities be declared, and that, in line with French regulations, all investors must be in a position to deliver a J+3 declaration on the shares sold.
Several hedge funds have made money on the rally in the European banking sector in the past few weeks, and are betting that the trend will continue, due to the cash by central banks, the Financial Times reports. On average, long/short hedge funds have posted returns of 3.8% in January, and have made 1.6% in February, Hedge Fund Research reports. Among the big winners are Toscafund, the European fund from Crispin Odey, and the British flagship fund from Lansdowne Partners.
The proposed Volcker rule, in its current form, represents an inadapted extra-territorial application of US legislation, the European financial and asset management association (EFAMA) claims in response to a consultation launched by the US authorities for this newly-proposed legislation.The legislation proposed would significantly exacerbate the negative impact of the Volcker rules on the asset management sector in Europe, without tangibly advancing the objectives of the legislation, EFAMA explains in a statement published on 13 February.The primary concern of EFAMA is related to the highly varied treatment of US mutual funds, on the one hand, and UCITS and other regulated investment funds available to European investors, on the other.“Our members are particularly concerned by the extra-territorial impact of the Volcker legislation on the structure of the asset management sector in Europe. If these problems are not resolved, the rules may lead to a costly and large-scale restructuring of the sector, which has nothing to do with the objectives of the Volcker Rule. It is simply not permissible that the Volcker rule should have a more marked impact in Europe than in the United States,” the director general of EFAMA, Peter de Proft, states.
In his study “Solvency II : A unique opportunity for hedge fund strategies,” published in January, Mathieu Vaissié, research associate at the Edhec-Rick Institute and a senior portfolio manager at Lyxor Asset Management, claims on the basis of a sample of 14 Lyxor hedge fund strategy indices, that it would have been enough to cover 21.86% of investment risks with tier 1 equity over a period of 5 1/2 years (from the beginning of 2006 to mid-2011). That is 55% lower than the 49% ratio that Solvency II regulations require insurers to maintain for investments in hedge funds, and even a lower ratio than the 39% required for investments in equities.Edhec is now of the opinion that a regulatory rate of 25% for investments in hedge funds would be adequate.
On 6 and 10 February, Banca Civica and BBVA Asset Management registered two guaranteed bond funds with the CNMV. The first of these, Banca Cívica Premium Rendimiento VII, will mature on 15 September 2014, while the second, BBVA Solidez XV BP, will mature on 28 December 2015. The two funds will pay annual returns of 3%.CharacteristicsName: Banca Cívica Premium Rendimiento VIIISIN code: ES0165546039Front-end fee: 3%Management commission: 0.7%Withdrawal penalty (from 15 March 2012 to 14 September 2014): 3%Name: BBVA Solidez XV BP, FIISIN code: ES0110016005Front-end fee: 5%Management commission: 0.87%Withdrawal penalty: 1%
Despite record savings rates, the level of financial savings expressed as a percentage of household disposable income was lower than 8% in 2011, well below the long-term average of 10% and 12% in the good years from 2005-2007, according to the Cahiers de l’Epargne-PAIR Conseil. The rate is expected to remain below 8% in 2012, as households continue to dip into their financial savings to pay off debts and to increase contributions to real estate transactions. Caught between limited inflows of new investments and falling valuations of financial assets in the wake of the financial crisis, the value of the financial assets of households is estimated to have lost value in 2011 (-0.9%), to a total of EUR3.892trn. At the same time, the non-financial wealth (the vast majority of which is real estate) has gained value (+6.8%), driven by the ongoing rise of values for older real estate properties. Overall, household wealth has seen its growth slow in 2011 to +4.2%, compared with +8.8% in 2010. It now totals EUR11.806trn as of the end of 2011, according to the Cahiers de l’Epargne.
US investors have made profits in investing in inflation-linked bonds (or ‘linkers’) such as Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), which have gained 111% over 10 years, compared with 73% for normal bonds, and 33% for equities (S&P 500), the Börsen-Zeitung reports. Some ETFs based on linkers have also benefited from fears of a rise in inflation. For example, the German-registered fund iShares Barclays Capital Dollar TIPS has posted average annualised gains since its launch in December 2006 of 7.5%. Since inception in June 2007, the db x-trackers iBoxx Global Inflation Linked Index Hedged has gained 40%.
Total assets under management in Irish-registered funds as of the end of December totalled EUR1.008trn, a record. Since the end of 2009, these assets have increased by 40%, Hedgeween notes. At the end of 2009, they totalled EUR711bn.
Bernard Kraus, who since 2008 has been a managing board member at Union Investment Institutional GmbH, has also been appointed from 1 February, as a member of the managing board at Union Investment Institutional Property GmbH, another affiliate of the Union Investment group (German co-operative banks). He will be responsible for securities transactions as a part of complex real estate solutions.In a statement, Union also announces that its affiliate Institutional Property released three new products in 2011 which have attracted about EUR900m in investment commitments. Currently, the firm has begun placement of three other institutional real estate funds, which are expected to total EUR700m.
At EUR56.1m, profits at Hamburg’s Berenberg Bank last year fell 8.9% compared with the EUR61.5m of 2010. However, due to the financial environment, the management of the firm has said it is satisfied with the result, as personnel also increased 14% to 1,100.ROE was down to 40.1% compared with 45.3%, and the cost-income ratio deteriorated slightly to 76$ from 74%.Assets under management as of the end of December totalled EUR26bn, EUR0.5bn more than at the end of 2010.
As of 31 December 2011, assets at Fidelity in Germany were down by EUR5.4bn, or 18.7%, from their levels at the end of 2010, at EUR23.5bn, of which EUR11bn, compared with EUR12.3bn, were in asset management (and EUR2.6bn, compared with EUR2.5bn, in institutional assets), and EUR12.5bn, compared with EUR16.6bn, under administration for the fund platform Frankfurter Fondsbank (FFB).The group has posted net outflows in 2011 of EUR23m, compared with net subscriptions of EUR527m in 2010, proof that falling assets are nearly exclusively due to market effects. However, assets under management have fallen by EUR132m, compared with net subscriptions of EUR162m the previous year, while net inflows to FFB were down to EUR109m, compared with EUR465m.Fidelity Germany states that it has posted net subscriptions in the past four years of EUR435m for its Asia and emerging markets funds, while in Germany this category of products has seen net outflows of EUR4.3bn. The market share for Fidelity in this niche increased last year by 9 percentage points to 39.4%.
Effective from 1 January, for an undisclosed amount, the Frankfurt-based firm Universal-Investment has acquired the German activities of SEB Master KAG, an affiliate of SEB Asset Management specialised in the launch and management of hedge funds. The transaction will initially increase assets at Universal by EUR110m, while other mandates are also expected in the coming weeks.The acquisition allows Universal to add an asset class to its range, as in September it received a license from BaFin to launch and manage hedge funds.Universal is already active in the area of hedge funds in Luxembourg, where it manages nearly EUR2bn in alternative strategies.
From 15 February, Fidelity Germany is launching a new portfolio management solution, Strategische Anlage Mondellierung (SAM), initially for employees at a major Dax company, and then for IFAs and finally for retail clients. It is a systematic portfolio allocation system, with regular quality controls. SAM offers a three-stage analysis of client needs and construction of profiled portfolios corresponding to the risk profile, age, and objectives of the subscriber. The portfolio is then managed over the long term, with ongoing adjustment of risk levels.
In a working paper, the European Central Bank has analysed the impact of rebroadcasts of World Cup (FIFA) soccer matches from South Africa on market activity in 15 countries. When the matches involve the national teams of the countries concerned, the number of stock market transactions falls by 45%, and trading volumes fall by 55%. In the event of a goal being scored, the number of trades falls a further 5%. During the match, newsflow has 20% lower importance than between matches.
JP Morgan Worldwide Securities Services (WSS) has launched the Fund Reporting and Media Exchange Site (FRaMES), which offers clients secure and collaborative access to fund administration activities. Initially, the new website will be available to US clients (regulatory departments and heads of compliance).
The alternative asset management firm ProShares (USD23bn in assets as of the end of December) has announced the launch of what it claims are the first ETFs to replicate the spread between the rates on Treasuries (TSY) and TIPS (inflation-linked bonds), or breakeven inflation (BEI), in long and short format, with a leverage of 3.The funds are the ProShares UltraPro 10 Year TIPS/TSY Spread (acronym UINF) and the ProShares UltraPro Short 10 Year TIPS/TSY Spread (SINF). The products, which have been available since 9 February on the NYSE Arca platform, seek to replicate the Dow Jones Credit Suisse 10-Year Inflation Breakeven Index, before fees.Both new ETFs charge fees of 0.75%.
On 2 February, iShares (BlackRock) notified the SEC of its plans to launch the iShares Morningstar Multi-Asset High Income Index Fund, an ETF of ETFs which will seek to replicate a multi-asset class index from Morningstar covering iShares ETFs of equities, bonds and alternative asset classes (preferred stocks and REITs).The commission level for the product has not yet been disclosed. The index will be 20% composed of equity ETFs, 60% of bond ETFs, and 20% of preferential equity and REIT ETFs. Funds not invested in ETFs from the index will be placed in Cash Funds from BlackRock.