Recherche
S'abonner
Connexion
Asset Management
Accueil Asset Management Actualités
13/02/2012

Net increase in profits at Prudential Financial

Net profits for financial services at Prudential Financial in 2011 totalled USD3.53bn, compared with USD2.71bn then previous year, while adjusted operating profits for the asset management unit were up to USD659m, compared with USD587m. As of the end of the year, total assets under management were USD900.7bn, compared with USD784bn one year previously, of which USD619.1bn, compared with USD537.3bn were for the asset management unit. Prudential Financial states that net inflows (excluding money market funds) for institutional management totalled USD16.7bn, compared with USD28.6bn, while net subscriptions for retail (also excluding money market funds) fell to USD3.5bn from USD6.4bn.
13/02/2012

Assets and profits up at Gamco

As of 31 December, Gamco Investors Inc had assets of USD34.1bn, which represents an 8.8% increased over their levels on 30 September (USD31.3bn) and a 4.8% increased over USD32.5bn in assets as of the end of 2010. Although the asset management firm has seen net outflows o fUSD50bn in fourth quarter, it has posted net subscriptions of USD2.74bn for the year as a whole. Mutual funds of the Gabelli range finished the year with USD12.27bn in assets, compared with USD11.47bn as of the end of September, and USD11.25bn as of 31 December 2010. Net profits for the 2011 fiscal year totalled USD69.68m, up 1.3% compared with USD68.79bn the previous year.
13/02/2012

Profits and assets down at The Hartford

For the year 2011 as a whole, net profits at The Hartford have fallen 61% to USD662m, of which USD127m (-79%) were in fourth quarter. The insurance group does not provide annual data for wealth management profits, but says that net profits for the unit were USD112m for October-December, compared with USD340m for the corresponding period of last year.Total wealth management assets as of the end of December totalled USD193.8bn, compared with USD216.9bn one year previously, which represents an 11% contraction. This decline reflects bot net outflows and negative market effects, which brought a 16% decline in individual annuity assets and 14% in non-proprietary mutual funds. The Hartford has recently signed a sub-advisory agreement with Wellington Management Company (see Newsmanagers of 12 December). Wellington is now the sole sub-advisor for non-proprietary mutual funds at The Hartford, which amount to 45 products out of 77 in The Hardford’s range.
13/02/2012

Mixed results for Putnam in 2011

According to results published by its parent company, Great-West Lifeco, Putnam Investments has posted an increase in its earnings to USD28.1bn, compared with USD24.1bn the previous year, but its assets as of the end of the year totalled USD116.7bn, compared with USD121.2bn as of the end of 2010, although they bottomed out at USD113.9bn at the end of September.Putnam did not earn any significant performance commissions in third and fourth quarters, and its management commissions were down to USD126m in October-December, compared with USD1.33m in third quarter 2011 and fourth quarter 2010. They totalled USD141m in April-June 2011, compared with USD136m in January-March.Putnam’s ROE for the year totalls 0.9%.However, net profits for the Great-West Lifeco group last year rose 25% to USD2.02bn.
13/02/2012

Tokyo plans to create a sovereign fund to combat strong yen

The Japanese government has announced plans to create a sovereign fund, one of whose missions would be to contain the growth of the Japanese national currency by investing in assets in foreign currencies. Prime minister Yoshihiko Noda has stated before Parliament that he is prepared to approve the plans. The prime minister would not like to see the current national pension fund requisitioned in an effort to combat a strong yen. The Government Pension Investment Fund, which with EUR1.2trn represents the largest pension fund in the world, currently invests very prudently, with two thirds of its assets in Japanese government bonds.
13/02/2012

Warburg Invest launches a German smidcap fund

Christoph Gebert has been appointed to manage the new Warburg -D – Fonds Small & Midcaps Deutschland fund, which will specialise in German small and midcaps, an asset class which has earned average returns of 8% in each of the past ten years, compared with 1% for large caps. In addition, the universe is considerably larger than for large caps, with 95% of German equities falling into the smidcaps category.The portfolio is composed entirely through bottom-up stock-picking, from equally-weighted equities in all sectors. The benchmark index is composite: 50% MDax, 50% TecDax.CharacteristicsName: Warburg – D – Fonds Small & Midcaps DeutschlandISIN codes:DE000A0RHE28 (R share class)DE000A0LGSG1 (I share class)Front-end fee: 5%Management commission:1.40% (R share class)0.60% (I share class)
13/02/2012

80% of absolute return funds have kept their promises

In the three years to the end of December 2011, more than 80% of the 214 absolute return funds in the Lipper database analysed by the Frankfurt-based firm Lupus alpha have posted gains, and the average returns are 2.63%. 60% of funds have a positive Sharpe ratio, but with a rather wide range, from +1.76 to -2.36, a sign of rising divergences between the quality of the various absolute return strategies, according to Ralf Lochmüller, CEO of Lupus alpha.However, 2011 was a difficult year for absolute return funds, which lost an average of 3.02%, with a maximal dispersion ranging from +20.07% to -49.06%. About 30% of products have managed to generate positive results.Lupus alpha emphasizes that absolute return funds have performed better than equity markets in Germany and Europe, as the Dax and Euro Stoxx 50 lost 14.69% and 14.54%, respectively, last year. Hedge funds have lost nearly 9%, according to the HFRX index.In addition, 99.42% of absolute return funds have seen a maximum draw down of an average of 7.35%, compared with 33.26% for European equities, 33.62% for German equities, and 10.59% for hedge funds.Lupus alpha says that there are now 375 absolute return funds in Germany, with assets of EUR63.8bn.
13/02/2012

Reyl AM launches two long/short funds

Reyl Asset Management in December launched two long/short funds complying with UCITS IV standards: the Reyl Long/Short European Equities fund of European equities, and the Reyl Long/Short Emerging Markets equities fund of emerging markets equities. The two products, co-managed by Thomas de Saint-Seine, Maxime Botti and Emmanuel Hauptmann, have recently been licensed for sale in France. They aim for returns of 8% to 12% per year, with long-term volatility of 6% to 8%. The Reyl Long/Short European Equities fund replicates the Reyl Absolute Return fund based in the Cayman Islands.
13/02/2012

Coverage rates continue to rise for pension funds

Rising equity markets in the United States and the rest of the world in January contributed 1.7 percentage points to rising coverage rates for US pension funds, BNY Mellon Asset Management reports. Coverage rates now stand at 74.1% as of January, compared with a corrected level of only 70.1% in September 2011.
13/02/2012

Europe threatens survival of British pension funds

In a joint letter sent on Monday to top European Commissioners, the directors of the National Association of Pension Funds, the CBI and TUC say that European plans in the area of pensions may have disastrous consequences for businesses and employees, the Financial Times reports. If passed, the proposals to strengthen the financial condition of corporate retirement plans (with the adaptation of Solvency II requirements) would be a death sentence for defined-benefit plans, and may lead to the bankruptcy of many businesses.
13/02/2012

Wealth management profits up at Barclays

The wealth management unit of the British Barclays group has earned pre-tax profits of GBP207m in the 2011 fiscal year, compared with GBP163m the previous year. The Investment Management unit, for its part, has earned adjusted profits of GBP96m, compared with GBP67m, largely reflecting a dividend of GBP123m (GBP100m in 2010) on the group’s 19.7% stake in BlackRock. Assets under management in the wealth management unit totalled GBP164.2bn as of the end of December 2011, compared with GBP163.9bn one year earlier. Significant growth in net inflows were largely offset by negative market and currency effects. Pre-tax profits for the group totalled GBP5.9bn, down 3% compared with the previous fiscal year. For the group as a whole, bonuses were down 26% year on year. In the investment bank (Barclays Capital), the decline is as much as 35%.
13/02/2012

Asset management suffers from major competitiveness deficit

In his column in Monday’s Cinco Días, Juan Manuel Vicente Casadevall, former director of analysis at Lipper Thomson Reuters in Spain, says that the asset management sector is one of the least competitive in the Spanish economy, largely because it had no competition for years. It was long dominated by bank networks, meaning that it has always had a hermetic rather than open architecture. In addition, Spanish legislation did not favour opening it up. The results have been devastating. Based on Lipper data, in the past ten years, Spanish funds (pension funds and traditional funds) have seen an average performance lag in all categories of 1.5 to 3 percentage points per year compared with foreign funds.
13/02/2012

Fidelity calls for revision of terms for Glencore-Xstrata merger

Fidelity Worldwide Investments has joined a growing chorus of Xstrata shareholders calling for a change to the terms proposed by Glencore for a merger of the two firms, the Financial Times reports. Fidelity is one of the ten largest shareholdres in Xstrata, with 1.5% of capital, and owns 2.3% of Glencore. “We support the deal in principle, but we think that the terms need to be revisited,” Fidelity says.
13/02/2012

Good results for BlackRock and Franklin Templeton in 2011

In 2011, BlackRock has been the firm to post the largest net inflows in Europe, with EUR14.3bn in assets excluding money market funds, Lipper reports. But excluding ETFs, Frankling Templeton takes the top spot, with EUR12.6bn, most of it in bond funds. The two groups stand out at a time when the European fund sector has seen net redemptions of EUR69.3bn last year. This is the second negative result in 10 years, as the last negative bottom line was in 2008, when outflows totalled EUR298bn. Only 12 markets of the 33 monitored by Lipper posted net inflows. Among them are the United Kingdom (+EUR13.1bn) and Switzerland (+EUR9.8bn). Norway and Sweden are also among the countries that stood out in 2011. However, France is deep in the red, as is Italy. In terms of investment universes, global funds were the most popular in 2011, both for global bond funds (+EUR16.4bn) and global equity funds (+EUR6.3bn). This theme also extended to balanced funds, as flexible funds able to invest in the full spectrum took on EUR12bn.
13/02/2012

Strong increase in inflows at Cantonal Bank of Zurich

The Cantonal bank of Zurich has finished the 2011 fiscal year with net profits of CHF769m, up 5.6% compared with 2010. Net inflows totalled CHF12.3bn, compared with CHF12bn the previous year. The proportion of institutional clients as a part of inflows was CHF9.5bn, while retail accounted for CHF2.8bn, Assets under management rose by CHF11.5bn, to CHF176.6bn.
13/02/2012

AllianceBernstein posts losses for 2011

For the fiscal year ending on 31 December 2011, the listed company AllianceBernstein Holding LP on 10 February announced losses of USD93.26m, comapred with net profits of USD134.16m in 2010. The operating partnership AllianceBernstein LP has posted a net loss of UUSD174.14m, compared with net profits of USD442.42m the previous year.As of 31 December, capital in AllianceBernstein was 37.9% controlled by AllianceBernstein Holding, while Axa held a economic interest representing about 64.4% of the firm.As of the end of last year, AUM totalled USD405.9bn, and were up 1% in one quarter, and down 15.1% on one year.
13/02/2012

Assets up in January for four major asset managers

Overall, assets under management by Franklin Templeton Investments, Invesco, AllianceBernstein and Legg Mason as of the end of January were up by USD76.3bn compared with their levels on 31 December 2011. This increase is not due to equity funds, although that asset class was the one whose assets increased the most at the four asset management firms.At Franklin Templeton Investments, the increase totalled USD34bn in one month, to USD704.3bn. Invesco had USD648.3bn as of the end of January, USD23bn more than at the end of December, while Alliance Bernstein posted an increase of USD15bn to USD421bn. Legg Mason had USD631.3bn as of the end of January, which represents an increase of USD4.3bn compared with their level one month previously.
13/02/2012

Philippe Zaouati to work in SRI at Efama

Philippe Zaouati, deputy CEO of Natixis AM, was appointed on 1 December as head of the working group for socially responsible investment at Efama, the European association of management professionals, the Essentiel de l’ISR periodical from Novethic reports.
13/02/2012

Amundi drives growth of French SRI assets

In 2011, socially responsible investment mutual funds on sale in France have seen an increase in their assets of nearly 35% or EUR16.6bn, to EUR64.245bn, according to the most recent statistics from Novethic. This growth is due solely to fund conversions, which totalled EUR20bn, of which EUR18bn are for Amundi alone. The French asset management giant is planning to reach EUR50bn in assets under management in SRI eventually. It now has over EUR25bn in this area, making it the leader, far ahead of Natixis AM in second place, with less than EUR10bn. Fund conversions were largely in money markets, totalling nearly EUR15bn. Once again, Amundi led the way with its Amundi Tréso Eonia ISR fund weighing in at EUR13.4bn. Equity funds also benefited from conversions totalling EUR5.3bn. Investors, however, were not as convinced by SRI in 2011, as the sector saw net outflows of EUR1.3bn. Those were largely from equity and money market funds, with net outflows of EUR885m and EUR722m, respectively. However, bond and balanced funds continued to see inflows, with net subscriptions of EUR209m and EUR125m, respectively. Though it is artificial, this growth in SRI in rough markets has allowed the sector to exceed 5% of total assets in French-registered funds for the first time ever. Money market funds, once again, have the most spectacular weight in SRI, with over 10% of assets.
13/02/2012

French institutional RFPs down 55% in 2011

The estimated total volume of requests for proposals to select managers initiated by French institutional investors last year totalled EUR13.5bn, down 55% compared with 2010, according to an annual bfinance survey of 20 asset management firms representing about 80% of institutional delegated assets under management.As of the end of December 2011, long-term assets outsourced by French institutionals to asset management firms, excluding money markets, totalled EUR383bn, This is 4% less than assets which were reassigned last year in the form of requests for proposals, compared with nearly 7% in 2010.The study of requests for proposals also identifies a net change in the distribution of operation volumes by asset class, as 2011 has marked a return of diversified management. One of the most representative investors in this trend is Novalis-Taitbout with a total of EUR3bn. Overall, diversified management represents 33% of total volumes in requests for propsals in 2011, compared with 5% in 2010 and 3% in 2009. However, the percentage of fixed income products in requests issued in 2011 fell to 20%, compared with 76% in 2010.In parallel with this diversified management, equities have made a strong return as a part of requests for proposals (24% by volume, compared with 6% last year), largely thanks to the FRR, which handed out a large part of its European equity portfolio, for a total of EUR3bn overall.Interest in real estate has also increased. The Caisse des dépôts initiated a request for proposals on behalf of Ircantec for an OPCI manager (EUR300m). ERAFP made its first real estate investment with AEW Europe (EUR40m).
13/02/2012

Swedish investors go for equity funds in January

In January, funds on sale in Sweden recorded net inflows of SEK13.9bn (about EUR1.6bn), according to the most recent statistics from the Swedish investment fund association. This is the only fund category to show positive inflows in January. Bond funds saw net outflows of SEK3.7bn, while money market funds had outflows of SEK7.6bn. Hedge funds also saw outflows of SEK1.1bn, Overall, the Swedish fund sector has posted net subscriptions of SEK1.6bn. Of these total inflows to equity funds, SEK5.818bn went to index-based funds. In geographical terms, the funds which benefited most from these inflows were Swedish equity funds (SEK3.064bn), equity funds investing in “other markets” (SEK3.023bn), North American equity funds (SEK1.747bn) and Asian equity funds (SEK1.455bn). As of the end of January 2012, Swedish funds had assets of SEK1.896trn, of which SEK1.020trn were in equity products. For the year 2011 as a whole, equity funds saw outflows of SEK53bn.
13/02/2012

MF Global: bill rises to USD1.6bn

According to the New York court-appointed trustee James Giddens, the total amount of missing funds that need to be refunded to clients of MF Global is now estimated at USD1.6bn, the Wall Street Journal reports. A total of USD700m located in the United Kingdom have been added to the USD900m in commodities trading in the United States. These USD700m may be at the centre of legal battles with KPMG, which is in charge of overseeing the unwinding of MF Global’s division in the United Kingdom.
13/02/2012

Hedge fund manager accused of insider trading

Doug Whitman, a hedge fund manager at the Californian asset management firm Whitman Capital, was accused by the FBI on Friday, as part of the Galleon investigation, of making USD900,000 in illegal gains on shares in Google and Polycom between 2006 and 2007 through the use of insider information obtained from Roomy Khan and Karl Motey, who both pled guilty of insider trading in the Galleon case. The Wall Street Journal reports that Whitman was released on bail of USD1.5m, and that the SEC is also filing a civil suit against him.
13/02/2012

SEC launches an investigation of private equity

The enforcement division of the SEC at the beginning of December wrote to several private equity firms as part of an informal investigation, asking them, among other things, how they value their investments, the Wall Street Journal reports. The message did state that the regulator does not necessarily suspect that the recipients are guilty of any infractions of securities regulations.
13/02/2012

French asset managers required to disclose SRI information

From 31 January, French asset management firms are required to disclose information about the way in which they integrate environmental, social and governance criteria into their investment policies, L’Essentiel de l’ISR publication from Novethic explains. Whether or not they are involved in SRI, asset management firms must describe their general policies for the integration of ESG criteria on their website by 31 Juy at the latest, and in their 2013 annual reports. This information requirement does not carry sanctions, the monthly periodical states.
13/02/2012

“A manager who does sectoral arbitrage to beat an index is taking a huge risk”

CM-CIC AM is an asset management firm which is not often talked about. And it is developing a highly personal type of equity management, especially for an affiliate of a network establishment. With good results the main goal, Christophe Besson, director of management, regrets that despite its simplicity, its transparency and the work it requires, it is not being adequately recognised by investors.
13/02/2012

Feri rankings: Threadneedle sweeps the top spots

As on 30 September, Threadneedle has made a clean sweep of the rankings of managers with the largest proportion of funds rated A and B (the top ratings) as of 31 December 2011 from Feri EuroRatings Services (see attached). The British asset management firm places top in five of the seven countries covered by the German ratings agency, and finished third in Switzerland and 4th among “small” asset management firms (with 8 to 24 funds) in Sweden.Among the larger firms, BlackRock takes two second and two third places, while Fidelity finishes second in Italy, and third in France and Austria. The rankings are far more widely dispersed as of the end of December than at the end of September (see Newsmanagers of 8 November 2011). Among the smaller firms, Carmignac ranks second in Italy (75%), third in France (70%), and tenth in Switzerland (50%).
13/02/2012

Three top players account for all ETP inflows in January

Net subscriptions to ETPs (1,244 ETFs, 544 ETC and ETN products) in Europe totalled USD3.3bn in January, according to BlackRock.This total is exactly equivalent to the inflows to the top three players, as iShares (BlackRock) attracted USD1.7bn, db x-trackers/db ETC (Deutsche Bank) took on USD1.1bn, and Lyxor Asset Mangement (Société Générale) posted inflows of USD0.5bn.Assets at these three major actors were USD113.4bn, USD47.2bn and USD40.7bn, respectively, at the end of last month.
13/02/2012

Fonte de l'encours des fonds "développement durable"

A fin décembre, les fonds classés «développement durable» en Allemagne par Ecoreporter affichaient des actifs de 28,1 milliards d’euros, ce qui représente une contraction de 12 % par rapport à fin 2010, rapporte la Börsen-Zeitung. Le nombre de ces fonds a d’ailleurs diminué à 289 contre 306 douze mois plus tôt.
13/02/2012

LCH.Clearnet toujours très convoitée

Le patron de Nyse Euronext, Duncan Niederauer, a souligné vendredi qu’il comptait investir dans la technologie et la compensation, notamment en déployant sa chambre américaine et en développant un service de compensation en Grande-Bretagne pour les dérivés listés et OTC. Après l’échec de la fusion avec Deutsche Börse, il s’est dit intéressé par l’avenir de LCH.Clearnet, toujours en négociations exclusives avec le London Stock Exchange.

Sujets d'actualité

Tous les sujets