The ETF management firm Wisdom Tree (47 ETFs, USD13.9bn in assets) on 3 february set the price of its public share offering of over 14.36 million shares at USD5.61 per share, for a total of USD80.6m. The offer includes 1 million shares offered by the firm, and 13.36 million shares owned by current shareholders, among them CEO Jonathan Steinberg and chairman Michael Steinhardt.A greenshoe option for over 2.15 million shares held by current shareholders has also been provided for a period of 30 days.
Brice Anger, director of development at M&G Investments in France, has told Investment Europe that assets at the British asset management firm in France total over EUR1.6bn (the same level as eight months ago; see Newsmanagers of 5 May 2011). The Paris team now has seven members, and M&G offers 26 funds in France.
Marie-Jeanne Missoffe is leaving SPGP. The Cap Grande Europe fund which she manages will be entrusted to Philippe Joly, who is already manager of the Sélection Action Rendement fund, which invests in European large caps. Missoffe’s fund, which was hit by its high exposure to the countries of Eastern Europe and now has only EUR3.3m in assets, will be absorbed into Joly’s fund, whose net assets under management are EUR25.5m.
The asset management firm Comgest, based in Paris, has recruited its first head of development for Asia, Robert James, Asian Investor reports.James, previously head of development for the institutional unit at First State, joined Comgest earlier this year as managing director and head of development for Australia. He will be based in Hong Kong, and will report to Philippe Lebeau, global head of development based in Paris.
Asset managers who do not hesitate to dedicate effort to educating in-house research teams at their broker-dealers are better positioned to attract and retain more assets, according to a research undertaken by Cerulli Associates. At least half of sales of mutual funds and mandates are supported by lists of recommendations by house teams at broker-dealers. In 2008, this percentage was only 31%. Hence the attraction for managers of continuing to supply research teams with appropriate documentation. “Cerulli esimates that holding personal meetings with analysts specialised in due diligence at broker-dealers represents an optimal use of managers’ time,” says Bing Walders, director at Cerulli Associates. This means that increased attention to education is crucial for managers. “A manager has no excuse if he is removed from a managed account platform because he is incapable of providing product information, or because a due diligence team is not correctly informed about his investment process, says Pat Newcomb, senior analyst at Cerulli.
The asset management firm Silk Road Management, specialised in Mongolia and other countries rich in natural resources, has launched two indices dedicated to Iraq, the Silk Road Iraq Index (Silkiq) and Silk Road Iraq Oil Index (Silkio), both of which include the largest companies involved in Iraq traded on the Iraq Stock Exchange (ISX), and the London, Toronto and Oslo stock exchanges. The Silk Road Iraq Index includes 26 companies with a market capitalisation of USD12.8bn (as of 1 January 2012). The other index, the Silk Road Iraq Oil Index, includes seven major oil and gas groups operating in Iraq, with a capitalisation as of the beginning of this year of USD9.6bn. The Silkio index has risen 24% in January, while the Silkiq gained 14% in the same period. Alisher Ali, managing partner at Silk Road Management, says Iraq and Mongolia are by far “two particularly attractive frontier markets currently and for the next few years.” In 2011, the Iraqi stock exchange gained 35%, he points out.
The mediator for the German banking association is asking courts to determine whether the db Kompass Life 3 fund from Deutsche Bank is compatible with the values German banks claim to defend, Der Spiegel reports. The fund does not buy second-hand individual life insurance policies, but does offer subscribers a way to speculate on the life expectancy of a sample of 500 US citizens aged 72 to 85. The product is based on a complex mathematical insurance algorithm, but the system is simple: the sooner the people in the sample group die off, the higher the profits for the investor.
Since the absorption of Gesduero by Caja España Fondos, the number of fund management firms in Spain has fallen by 114. Of this total, 15% are currently in the process of merging, Funds People reports. Most of these candidates for mergers are logically affiliates of savings banks (cajas de ahorro).Currently, 55% of asset management firms are owned by financial institutions (banks and savings banks), 38% are independent, and 7% are owned by insurance companies.
The French financial market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), on 3 February published an update to its list of unauthorised websites offering trading of binary options, for which no licensed investment services provider could be clearly identified. The AMF in May 2011 published a statement warning savings investors about aggressive publicity campaigns on the internet promoting binary options trading, and promising high returns in very short periods of time. Here is the new complete list which replaces the previous list of 11 May 2011: www.24option.com www.optionrange.com www.anyoption.com www.options365.com www.binaryoptions.asia/options/ www.optionsbravo.com www.binarywinner.com www.optionsclick.com www.binoa.com www.optionxp.com www.bocapital.com www.royaloption.com www.brokersfeed.com www.startoptions.com www.bulloption.com www.tradeopties.nl/options/ www.cititrader.com www.trader711.com/options/ www.ebinaires.com www.trader369.com2 www.euoptions.com www.tradereasy.com www.excitingmarkets.com www.traderxp.com www.eztrader.com www.tradesmarter.com www.finopex.com www.ufxbank.com www.ikkotrader.com2 www.vipbinary.com www.ioption.com www.winoptions.com www.leaderoption.com www.xpmarkets.com www.marketpunter.com www.option10.com www.optionbit.com www.optionfair.com www.optionfire.com www.optionrally.com www.optionet.com
Legg Mason Global Asset Management has launched a multi-stratgy bond fund of hedge funds, entitled Permal Hedge Strategies Fund, Hedge Week reports. The fund is managed by Javier Dyer, and will have 20 to 40 positions.The new product will use several bond strategies, with flexible asset allocation, and investments in emerging market debt, long/short bonds, event-driven strategies and global macro. The manager may use funds from both systematic and discretionary managers, in order to limit volatility.
The New York-based asset management firm Van Eck Global has notified the SEC of plans to launch seven new ETF funds, Mutual Fund Wire reports.The new products are the following:Emerging Markets US$ High Yield Bond ETF,Fallen Angel US$ Bond ETF,Global Fallen angel Bond ETF,Global High Yield Bond ETF,Global High Yield US$ Bond ETF,International High Yield Bond ETF andInternational US$ High Yield Bond ETF.
OppenheimerFunds has announced the launch of the Oppenheimer Global Multi Strategies fund. The multi-strategy fund is based on a quantitative and fundamental approach, in order to generate returns by isolating market performance (market neutral) which is uncorrelated to more traditional strategies. The product is managed by Caleb Wong.
Due to a depreciation of nearly 60% for an investment in LightSquared, the main hedge fund from Harbinger Capital Partners saw losses of 47% last year, the Wall Street Journal reports. This loss resulted in a decline in total assets at the management firm to USD4bn as of the end of 2011, compared with a peak of USD26bn at the end of 2008.
BlackRock has notified the SEC that it plans to launch two iShares ETF funds of emerging market bonds, one of them corporate bonds, the iShares Emerging Market Corporate Bond Fund, and the other high yield bonds, the iShares Emerging Markets High Yield Bond Fund, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. The two funds physically replicate Morningstar indices.
On 2 February, the NYSE-Arca platform admitted five more ETFs from iShares (BlackRock) to trading. They are equity products replicating MSCI indices covering producers of commodities worldwide. All of them charge 0.30%.The funds are as follows:- iShares MSCI Global Agriculture Producers Fund (acronyme NYSEArca: VEGI)- iShares MSCI Global Energy Producers Fund (FILL)- iShares MSCI Global Select Metals & Mining Producers Fund (PICK)- iShares MSCI Global Gold Miners Fund (RING) and- iShares MSCI Global Silver Miners Fund (SLVP)
RBC Dexia Asset Management on 2 February announced that it is launching four bond funds, sub-advised by BlueBay Asset Management. The products (one of which is based on emerging markets corporate debt, one on emerging markets bonds, one on convertibles, and one on high yield), will be available to institutional investors and high net worth private clients in the United States. The minimal investment is USD1m.
The use of backup assets, or liquid assets which could be used in case of need to weather a bankruptcy of the corporate sponsor or an insufficient coverage level, by British pension funds increased 20% in the year 2011-2012, and are now used by about 900 funds, up from 750 previously, according to statistics from the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).The PPF statistics also show that pension funds in the UK are tending to pull back from British equities somewhat in favour of international equities. The proportion of portfolios invested in UK equities now totals 52.7%, while exposure to international equities has risen by 7 percentage points since 2008 to 46.2%.Pension funds are clearly showing a growing interest in private equity; the percentage investing in private equity has risen from 0.7% two years ago to 1.2%.
John Minderides, who had been managing director and global head of transition management at JP Morgan, has joined State Street Global Markets as head of portfolio solutions for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He will be based in London, and will report to Nicholas Bonn, executive vice president, who for his part becomes global head of portfolio solutions, an activity which includes transition management and equity trading.
The Church of England has more than doubled its exposure to hedge funds in the past two years, according to reports in the Financial Times. About 10% of its GBP5.5bn portfolio is invested in hedge funds, compared with 4% at the beginning of 2009.
According to statistics from Deutsche Bank, European ETPs (ETFs, ETNs and ETCs) have taken on a net total of USD3.3bn, or EUR2.5bn in January 2012, the Börsen-Zeitung reports.Due to market effects, assets in these funds have increased in the space of one month to USD290.1bn (EUR219.1bn), compared with USD269.9bn. As of the end of the fourth week of January, assets in ETFs alone represented USD221.5bn, or EUR167.2bn. The two largest net inflows were for iShares, with USD1.2bn, and db x-trackers/db ETC with USD643m.
The asset management firm Silk Invest, founded in 2008, is specialised in investment in frontier markets. Currently, the structure managers about EUR100m, of which 55% are for institutionals, and 45% for private investors. Zin Bekkali, CEO and CIO of Silk Invest, explains to Newsmanagers what the attraction of investing in frontier markets is.
Several British media sources are reporting that Aberdeen Asset Management has asked IFAs to remove its offshore (GBP6bn) and onshore (GBP2.7bn) emerging markets funds from their lists of recommendations and to cease promoting these funds from 1 April. The asset management firm is also considering further measures, such as increasing commissions, or discontinuing subscriptions to some share classes.Net subscriptions are already frozen for segregated accounts, and the size of these accounts has been capped.Aberdeen says it is hoping to avoid to completely suspending subscriptions, but emphasizes that the objective is to protect performance and prevent the funds from confronting liquidity problems with some of their investments.
Arnaud Simon, gérant-sélectionneur de fonds à La Banque Postale, dans une table ronde organisée par amLeague et Newsmanagers, le 18 janvier 2012: Notre particularité est d’investir une partie des fonds propres de la Banque Postale sur des actifs de diversification. Nous investissons sur des actions, sur de la gestion alternative, des matières premières, du private equity et de l’immobilier. Et cela uniquement sous forme d’ETF ou d’OPCVM, dédiés pour la gestion alternative, mais pas pour les actions où nous sommes acheteurs de fonds ouverts. À la base, lorsqu’on a lancé notre projet de diversification, il y avait un débat entre ETF et gestion active. J’ai été recruté pour diversifier avec de la gestion active. 2011 est un peu la redite de 2008. De nouveau, on s’aperçoit que c’est bien de faire du stock picking mais pour nous, acheteurs de produits externes ou de produits de gestion active, on voit que le match est très difficile entre acheter des ETF et acheter des fonds. Il ne faut pas se tromper ! Mon sentiment d’investisseur, est que le bon seuil de tolérance, de résistance à la douleur sur un choix de gérant actif, est proche -10 % par rapport à son benchmark. Nous pouvons l’encaisser, mais cela devient limite. Tout ce qui va au-delà va nous faire réfléchir sur tel ou tel type de société de gestion. Nous pouvons le faire parce que nous sommes allocataire d’actifs. On ne fait pas du trading mais de l’investissement pour compte propre. Mais c’est vrai qu’on essaie d’optimiser nos investissements en ayant une vision un peu économique. En revanche, nous sommes persuadés que la gestion active apporte par rapport aux ETF. On en est persuadé. On est sûr aussi qu’il y a de la volatilité dans la génération d’alpha. 2011 illustre cela de manière criante.
En 2011, l’assureur Aréas qui gère près de 2 milliards d’euros d’actifs a remis à plat sa stratégie de gestion obligataire. Jusqu’alors, l’assureur gérait en direct l’ensemble de son portefeuille obligataire, soit 500 millions d’euros. Désormais, aidé par un consultant, Areas a fait le choix d’externaliser complétement cette gestion. Un appel d’offres a été lancé en 2011 aboutissant à la sélection de trois gestionnaires de mandats. Il s’agissait aussi de se conformer aux nouvelles exigences de Solvabilité II, dans le pilotage des contraintes de SCR, et gestion des risques. Areas continue de détenir des fonds dédiés sur des montants plus faibles, notamment sur les autres compartiments du portefeuille, à savoir les actions (33% de l’ensemble) et l’immobilier (33% également).
As of the end of December, assets in British-registered funds fell to GBP571bn, from GBP586.5bn twelve months previously. Retail net subscriptions last year fell to GBP18bn, comapred with GBP29.3bn in 2010. Subscriptions originating from Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs), for their part, have fallen to GBP2.9bn, compared with GBP4.2bn, the Investment Management Association (IMA) reports.Richard Saunders, CEO of the IMA, says that investors were highly prudent in second half, with outflows from equity funds and larger inflows to bond and diversified funds. Meanwhile, funds domiciled abroad in 2011 posted record net subscriptions, with GBP1.7bn for retail, compared with GBP1.4bn the previous year. As of the end of December, their assets totalled GBP32.3bn, compared with GBP27.5bn as of the end of 2010. Their market share represented 5.4%, though it was only 3.7% four years earlier.Institutional funds, for their part, have posted net subscriptions of over GBP1.78bn in 2011, compared with net outflows of GBP2.11bn the previous year.
EFG Bank, filiale d’EFG International en Asie, a nommé Kong Eng Huat au poste de chief executive officer des activités à Singapour et en Asie du Sud-Est. Basé à Singapour, il sera également membre du comité de direction d’EFG Bank en Asie.Kong Eng Huat a précédemment dirigé les activités de Wealth Management pour la région Asie du Sud et du Sud-Est de Merrill Lynch International Bank.
L’annonce de la mise en vente d’une partie de la gestion de Deutsche Bank, en décembre, a relancé les interrogations sur l’avenir de ce secteur au sein des groupes bancaires, selon Les Echos. Mais, ces deux dernières années, il y a eu peu de grandes opérations. Les professionnels sont d’ailleurs sceptiques sur les chances d’en voir beaucoup à l’avenir. Les groupes bancaires français ne semblent pas prêts à se défaire de leurs activités de gestion d’actifs, peu consommatrices en fonds propres réglementaires. Elles sont aussi «créatrices de capital et de liquidités. Pour la banque, c’est une source de diversification, d’autant plus qu’il s’agit d’un métier très internationalisé», avance Pierre Servant, directeur général de Natixis Global Asset Management.
Brice Anger, directeur du développement de M&G Investments en France, a indiqué à Investment Europe que l’encours du gestionnaire britannique en France dépasse 1,6 milliard d’euros (comme il y a huit mois, lire Newsmanagers du 5 mai 2011). L'équipe parisienne compte désormais 7 personnes et M&G distribue 26 fonds en France.
Le gestionnaire new-yorkais Van Eck Global a notifié à la SEC son intention de lancer sept ETF supplémentaires, rapporte Mutual Fund Wire.Ces nouveaux produits seront les suivants :Emerging Markets US$ High Yield Bond ETF,Fallen Angel US$ Bond ETF,Global Fallen angel Bond ETF,Global High Yield Bond ETF,Global High Yield US$ Bond ETF,International High Yield Bond ETF etInternational US$ High Yield Bond ETF
Le gestionnaire d’ETF Wisdom Tree (47 ETF, 13,9 milliards de dollars d’encours) a fixé le 3 février à 5,61 dollars par action le prix de son offre publique de vente portant sur plus de 14,36 millions de titres et 80,6 millions de dollars. Cette offre couvre 1 million d’actions proposées par la société et 13,36 millions de titres appartenant à des actionnaires actuels, parmi lesquels le CEO Jonathan Steinberg et le chairman Michael Steinhardt. Une option de surallocation portant sur plus de 2,15 millions de titres détenus par des actionnaires actuels a été prévue pour une période de 30 jours.