The provider of services to fund managers Kneip on 9 February announced that it has completed the production and distribution of Key Investor Information Documents (KIID) and the submission of regulatory documents for Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB Publ (SEB). Kneip’s services apply to all mutual funds from SEB on the Swedish market and the international product hub, based in Luxembourg. SEB’s KIID documents have been translated and producted by Kneip in 12 languages (German, English, Danish, Spanish, Estonian, French, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish). Kneip then simultaneously released all the KIIDs over the SEB distribution network, which is present in 19 countries in the group’s target markets.

The Australian Macquarie group is planning to cease its structured product activities in Europe due to unfavourable market conditions, Investment Europe reports. The decision follows the departure of Todd Steinberg, global head of the structured products unit, who left the firm in September last year. The structured products unit, Macquarie Securities Group, has about 1,500 employees worldwide, with the European activities based largely in Frankfurt. Pending a final decision, Macquarie had last week already ceased to issue structured products in Europe.

JP Morgan reports, cited by l’Agefi, that US money market funds increased their banking assets in the euro zone in January, for the first time since April 2011. They took on USD27bn in euro zone banking sector debt for their portfolios last month, of which USD23bn were from French banks alone.

In 2011 the Asset Management unit at Credit Suisse Group had CHF 0.9 billion net asset outflows. In the fourth quarter of 2011, net outflows stood at CHF 9.6 billion in Asset Management.Asset Management reported income before taxes of CHF 87 million in 4Q11, down 52% compared to 4Q10 and 5% compared to 3Q11. Net revenues of CHF 455 million were down 26% from 4Q10 and 3% from 3Q11. Fee-based revenues were CHF 464 million, down 13% compared to 4Q10, and down 5% compared with 3Q11, reflecting lower asset management fees, lower performance fees and carried interest, partially offset by higher placement, transaction and other fees. Investment-related gains were CHF 6 million compared to gains of CHF 101 million in 4Q10 and losses of CHF 17 million in 3Q11. In 4Q11, realized and unrealized gains included revenues in the industrial and transportation sectors, partially offset by unrealized losses in the energy and commodities sector.Total operating expenses of CHF 368 million were down 16% compared to 4Q10 and 3% compared to 3Q11, reflecting lower compensation and benefits and lower general and administrative expenses.

UBS may integrate its proprietary equity trading activities into its asset management unit, the CFO at the Swiss group, Tom Narabil, has told Bloomberg. The plans may be put into action in the coming few quarters, and would affect about 50 employees.

The Avenir Finance group in 2011 earned revenues of EUR34.2m, a strong increase compared with 2010 (+27%). The Asset Management unit, for its part, had earnings of EUR20.6m, up strongly (+41%) compared with 2010. Despite falling financial markets, the Private Management unit had earnings of EUR13.6m, up 11% compared with 2010.

By US-GAAP accounting standards, the private equity investor KKR & Co in 2011 earned net profits of USD1.9m, compared with USD33.2m, while economic net income (ENI) totalled USD750.9m compared with USD2.1398bn.Assets under management as of 31 December totalled USD59bn, compared with USD58.72bn as of the end of September and USD61bn one year previously. Fee-paying assets under management totalled USD46.4bn as of the end of 2011, compared with USD46.2bn three months earlier, and USD46bn as of the end of December 2010.

La Française AM on 9 February announced that it has acquired a 20% stake in the capital of OpenMind Asset Management, a new asset management firm specialised in absolute returns. Via its affiliate Nouvelles Expertise et Talents (NexT), La Française AM is continuing its policy of minority partnerships in firms founded by entrepreneurs hoping to develop new product ideas, approaches and distribution. So far, 20 participations totalling EUR7bn in assets under management have been created. The new asset management firm, which received a license in December from the AMF, was founded by Tristan Abet and Xavier Trilling. Abet was previously macro-strategist in charge of quantitative research at CA Cheuvreux, while Trilling was in sales of equities to institutionals, also at CA Cheuvreux. They have been joined by Fabien Georges, who had previously been a flexible diversified fund maanger at Avenir Finance.The management of OpenMind Asset Management is in line with the company’s name: its creators say that it has a truly open spirit. “The starting idea is simple: that open spirit has to be retained in order to earn returns. In our case, we want to understand what makes markets move, what they are playing at, and to help them in that direction in order to perform,” explains Trillint at a presentation.A first fund – OpenMind Alpha Sector (UCITS IV) – has already been launched, and its objective is to generate absolute returns by capturing sectoral trends in Europe. These trends, the result of sustained leadership of certain sectors compared with others, are, says Abet, a characteristic of European equity markets. The expertise of managers at OpenMind Asset Management is in identifying sectoral cycles, largely on the basis of valuation cycles.The OpenMind Alpha Sector fund has seed capital of EUR20m, of which EUR15m come from the incubation fund NexT Invest (Nouvelles Expertise et Talents), managed by La Française des Placements. The directors of OpenMind, who had already been closely involved in advising Europeaan investors, are planning to double the assets in OpenMind Alpha Sector in the next few months. Their inflow objective is EUR120m in the first fiscal year.Major characteristics of the fundISIN code: FR0011175660 (I share class) FR0011175678 (P share class)Front-end fee: 2%Management fee: 1.25% and 15% commission on performance exceeding the Eonia (I)2% and 15% commission on performance exceeding the Eonia (P)Minimal investment: EUR100,000

Assets under management by the Canadian Manuvie group (SFM, for Société Financière Manuvie) increased by USD1.7bn in 2011, to a total of USD178.1bn, the firm announced in a statement on 9 February. Taking into account assets under management in the general fund from Manuvie, assets are up by USD2.3bn to USD211.4bn. In the United States, subscriptions to mutual funds from John Hancock (“Fonds JH”) totalled USD12.5bn in the 2011 fiscal year, up 29% compared with USD9.7bn in 2010. Assets under management in Fonds JH totalled USD35.5bn as of 31 December 2011, up 4% compared with the end of December 2010. The retirement planning sector at John Hancock has retained its leading position on the market, with a market share of 21% in the segment for retirement regimes with under 500 members as of 30 September 2011, down 3 points compared with the corresponding period of the previous year. Assets under management in this sector totalled USD62.8bn as of 31 December 2011, down 1% compared with 31 Dcember 2010, with positive net subscriptions more than offset by unfavourable performance of investments in 2011. The group finished the fiscal year with net profits of USD129m, an improvement of USD1.8bn compared with 2010.

As of 31 January, the liquidity of the open-ended real estate fund CS Euroreal (ISIN code: DE0009805002) from the German firm Credit Suisse Asset Management Immobilien totalled EUR1.6bn, or 28.8% of assets, which means that, since redemptions were frozen on 19 May 2010, assets have increased by EUR1.25bn due to the sale of 14 properties. All sales were made at market value or above. Other properties valued at EUR850m are currently up for sale. As of 9 December, liquidity was 25%, at EUR1.25bn (see Newsmanagers of 13 December 2011).This should allow the fund to increase its liquidity to a level compatible with a reopening of redemptions, since assets have fallen meanwhile (to EUR5.99bn as of the end of 2011). However, CSAM Immobilien states that it is planning to undertake a survey in April at the latest to evaluate potential exits. The decision to reopen the fund to redemptions will be taken only if the asset management firm is convinced that the market situation and the liquidity of the fund will allow it to keep redemptions open for the long term. The deadline for a decision is 18 May 2012.

After a RFP, Perial Asset Management has acquired the office property Etoile Pleyel (10,000 suqre metres) in Saint-Denis from the German asset management firm Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investment, for EUR27m, plus an additional EUR1m if the performance of the property recovers. This price is EUR31.5m below its most recent expert valuation. The value of the property had already been revised downward by 25% more than 18 months ago (see Newsmanagers of 23 July 2010).Meanwhile, expertise have revised their estimate of the Zoetermeyer property in the Netherlands down by 16%, to EUR38.5m. These two factors have provoked a downward revision of the net asset value of shares in the open-ended real estate fund Morgan Stanley P2 Value (DE000A0F6G89) by EUR0.57 per share as of 8 February.

Via max.xs financial services, the Frankfurt-based asset management boutique First Private (born of the former Salomon Brothers KAG) is now offering to German retail investors the First Private Aktien Emerging Markets fund (DE000A0KFRW4, retail share class, and DE000A0KFRX, institutional share class), which brings together active selection of equities from emerging markets with risk management which has allowed the management team to reduce volatility by more than 25% compared with the benchmark index over the past three years. Since launch, the fund’s performance has been over 90%, with volatility far lower than the benchmark, max.xs reports.From a universe of about 1,500 emerging markets equities, the asset management team selects 40 to 80 of the most attractive shares after a fundamental analysis.

The New York-based firm Global X Funds (USD1.4bn in assets) on 8 February announced the launch of the Global X Permanent ETF (acronym on NYSE Arca: PERM), an all-weather diversified ETF investing in various asset classes, which aims to generate returns in environments of economic growth, falling GDP, and accelerating or slowing inflation. It is a market agnostic product, whose target allocations are 25% to equities, 25% to short-term bonds, 20% to gold, 5% to silver (in the form of ETF or ETC funds for the two precious metals), and 25% for long-term bonds. PERM will replicate the Solactive Permanent index, and will charge fees of 0.49%.

Cortal Consors has introduced a “job rating,” which evaluates the creation or destruction of jobs at companies present in 475 European equity funds. The funds are rated from 1 to 5, with a 5 rating for those which invest in companies which generate 175 jobs per year for every EUR1bn in market capitalisation. At DNCA Finance, for example, the Centifolia Europe and Europeana funds get ratings of 5. At the other extreme, a fund with a rating of 1 is composed of businesses which have reduced their employee numbers by more than 175 for every EUR1bn of market capitalisation. “We find that the best-rated funds delivered higher returns. Taking into account green and social criteria does not dent performance,” says Benoît Gommard, CEO of Cortal Consors France. He cites the fund Allianz Actions Euro Midcap, which has an overall “green and jobs” rating of 10 (out of 10) and has earned returns of 52.66% in the 3-year period to 31 January 2012.

The alternative management firm Moore Capital Management has invested USD800m in a hedge fund launched last year by two of its equity traders, Bloomberg reports. Jens-Peter Stein and Kornelius Klobucar, founders of Stone Milliner Asset Management AG, started up their hedge fund with assets of over USD1bn. Assets at Moore are in a managed account, Bloomberg states. Moore Capital, whose assets under management total about USD15bn, has often bet on traders who left the firm to found their own vehicle. Stone Milliner is a macro hedge fund which invests in interest rates, currencies, bonds and equities on the basis of macroeconomic trends.

The British investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown has reported record profits for the second half of 2011 of GBP72m, up 28% compared with the half to the end of December 2010. Net inflows in the half totalled GBP1.16bn, Assets under administration as of the end of December totalled GBP23.4bn, compared with GBP24.6bn as of 30 June 2011.

As part of a cost reduction plan, Jason Hollands, head of corporate affairs at F&C, will be leaving the firm, Money Marketing reports. The other members of the communications team have also been informed that their positions are endangered. A consultation with employees is underway.

Last month, ETPs worldwide posted net subscriptions of USD34.1bn, compared with USD15.8bn in December, and USD13.9bn in the corresponding period of last year, BlackRock reports.This has contributed to a month-on-month increase of USD126bn in total assets as of the end of January, to USD1.651trn, compared with USD1.525trn as of the end of December. Compared with 31 January 2010, assets under management increeased by USD152bn.Taking into account ETFs alone, volume increased in one month by USD109.5bn, to USD1.4604trn. The provider which showed the largest inflows in January was iShares (BlackRock), with a net total of USD11bn, putting it ahead of Vanguard (USD6.9bn) and State Streeet Global Advisors (SSgA, USD5.1bn). PowerShares/Deutsche Bank attracted USD3.8bn, db x-trackers/db ETC (Deutsche Bank) have posted inflows of USD1.1bn, and Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale) has posted inflows of USD0.5bn.By asset volumes, iShares remains the runaway leader, with assets as of the end of January of USd644.2bn, followed by SSgA (USD291.6bn), and Vanguard (USD187.8bn). These are followed by PowerShares/Deutsche Bank with USD66.8bn, db x-trackers/db ETC with USD48.3bn, and Lyxor with USD41.1bn.

Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, two former hedge fund managers from Bear Stearns, have agreed to an out-of-court settlement of civil suits filed against them in 2008 by the SEC. They have not admitted any wrongdoing, but will pay a fine whose amount had not yet been set at the time The Wall Street Journal went to press.The regulator had accused the managers of knowingly misleading investors with overly optimistic claims about the outlooks for their funds at the time that the sub-prime market collapsed.The two men were the only Wall Street execs to have faced criminal charges in cases of this type, but they were acquitted in 2009, in a severe defeat for Federal prosecutors.

Selon des sources concordantes, l’autorité chinoise du Marché à terme aurait demandé à dix établissements de se préparer au lancement d’un projet pilote visant à réintroduire, après 17 ans d’interdiction, un marché secondaire des obligations d’Etat. Le marché obligataire chinois pèse 21.270 milliards de yuans (2.540 milliards d’euros), le cinquième au monde.

Selon une étude de Citigroup, les actions sur les marchés émergents devraient poursuivre leur rally en 2012, soutenues par les conditions de liquidité. Citigroup s’attend à ce que les gains soient surtout enregistrés en début d’année grâce à une inflation plus faible et à des taux d’intérêt en baisse sur les marchés émergents.

L’Autorité monétaire de Hong Kong (HKMA) a décidé d’assouplir ses règles afin que les banques puissent détenir davantage d’actifs libellés en yuan, lesquels rentrent dans le calcul d’un ratio de liquidité global. Pour justifier cette décision, HKMA souligne que le marché offshore en yuan est devenu plus mature après des années de développement.

Selon JPMorgan, les fonds monétaires américains ont augmenté leurs actifs bancaires de la zone euro en janvier et ce pour la première fois depuis avril 2011, ce qui suggère que les craintes de voir la crise de la dette échapper à tout contrôle se sont apaisées. Ils ont ajouté 27 milliards de dollars de dette bancaire de la zone euro, dont 23 milliards pour les seules banques françaises, à leurs portefeuilles le mois dernier.

Le résultat économique net du groupe de private equity a baissé de 68% au quatrième trimestre, à 225,5 millions de dollars (33 cents par action). Les analystes du panel Bloomberg tablaient en moyenne sur un résultat de 75 cents. Les fonds n’ont crû que de 4% l’an dernier contre 33% en 2010.

Le rebond de l’excédent de la balance commerciale à 27,3 milliards de dollars en janvier, son niveau le plus élevé depuis six mois, a été permis par une première baisse depuis plus de deux ans des exportations de 0,5% sur un an, ainsi que par une chute de 15,3% des importations en glissement annuel. Le ministre du commerce, Chen Deming, avait alerté hier que le niveau des exportations en janvier n’était pas «de nature à nous rendre optimiste», alors que le FMI estimait qu’une récession plus forte que prévue en Europe pouvait faire tomber la croissance chinoise à 4,5% cette année. «La crise de la dette européenne va freiner les exportations chinoises qui pourrait ralentir à un rythme de croissance à un chiffre cette année» estime la Société Générale. D’autant que le rebond de l’inflation à 4,5% en janvier pourrait limiter les marges de manœuvre de la Banque Populaire de Chine pour assouplir sa politique monétaire.

Selon un avocat des actionnaires de l’opérateur de pipelines El Paso, Goldman Sachs vient d’être pris en flagrant délit de conflit d’intérêt, ce qui doit remettre en cause le projet de rachat de 21 milliards de dollars d’El Paso par son concurrent Kinder Morgan. La banque travaille en effet en tant que conseil de la cible alors qu’elle détient une part de 19% au capital du prédateur.

Avant le 15 février, Bruxelles va renforcer ses contrôles sur la mise en œuvre des réformes

Avant le 15 février, Bruxelles va renforcer ses contrôles sur la mise en œuvre des réformes

L’accord scellé hier après-midi autour du règlement Emir va permettre de transposer dès cette année les engagements du G20 sur les contrats dérivés

Les nouvelles règles européennes laissent irrésolus certains aspects transatlantiques, estime Pierre-Dominique Renard, directeur exécutif de LCH.Clearnet SA