The New York-based hedge fund management firm Apex Capital has closed two of its strategies, Market Neutral Greater China and North Asia long/short equity, whose cumulative assets recently totalled USD16m, Asian Investor reports.

The London-based asset management firm Javelin Capital has launched a UCITS-compliant version of its market neutral equity hedge fund on the Sicav platform from Goldman Sachs International, Hedge Week reports. The Javelin Capital Emerging Markets Alpha Fund will seek to replicate the market neutral fund Javelin Capital Global Equity Strategies, whose assets under management total USD32m.

Société Générale Private Banking has recruited for its management in Switzerland, the firm announced in Geneva on 30 January. An executive board has been created to “support the dynamic of growth and accelerate development in Switzerland and abroad.” The board of four members will be led by Guillaume Lejoindre, CEO of Société Générale Private Banking (Switzerland) since January 2009. The board also includes Alberto Valenzuela, deputy CEO, in charge of banking activities in the Bahamas, Latin America, and serving independent financial advisers; Mathieu Vedrenne, who is appointed as deputy CEO and secretary of the board of directors, and Olivier Aubenas, who is appointed as director of sales. “The objective for this new organisation is to improve the reactiveness of the bank, to strengthen the quality of its services, and to foster synergies with the Société Générale Group,” a statement says. “Société Générale Private Banking (Switzerland) also provides clear illustration of its ability to adapt to the needs of its high net worth clients worldwide in an economic, financial and regulatory environment in a state of rapid mutation,” the firm adds.

Caceis and EFG International on 30 January announced that on 17 January they reached an agreement by which the activities of SIF Swiss Investment Funds S.A. (SIF), the fund administration affiliate of EFG International in Switzerland, will be taken over by CACEIS (Switzerland) S.A., the Swiss affiliate of CACEIS. The terms of the deal, which has yet to receive approval from Finma and clients of SIF, have not been disclosed.SIF is among the largest administrators of funds for third parties in French-speaking Switzerland, and manages Swiss investment funds for its clients. The agreement covers 20 funds, which represent more than CHF800m in assets. EFG International states that it has decided to withdraw from the activities of SIF after a detailed study, in order to refocus on its core profession of private banking.

As part of a cooperation agreement with the independent investment platform IST Anlagestiftung, which serves Swiss pension funds, Lombard Odier Investment Managers (LOIM) is launching the IST Governo Welt Fundamental, a global government bond fund managed with fundamental weight driven (FWD) principles, Investment Europe reports.LOIM already manages about CHF1.4bn in assets for IST.

For the fiscal year ending on 31 December, the US asset management firm T. Rowe Price has announced net profits of USD773.2m, USD101m or 15% more than in 2010. Operating profits have risen to USD1.2269bn, up from USD190.4m, an increase of 18.4%.The firm finished the year with liquidity of about USD1.7bn. In 2011, it dedicated a total of USD479.7m to the acquisition of 8.7 million ordinary shares, and invested USD82.3m in technologies and facilities. In 2012, T. Rowe Price is planning to place USD100m in self-financing into real estate and equipment.Assets as of the end of December totalled USD489.6bn, compared with USD453.5bn as of the end of September, and USD482bn one year previously. Of total assets under management, USD289.4bn correspond to mutual funds distributed in the United States.Net subscriptions of USD14.1bn for last year as a whole (of which USd8bn were for target-date funds) were partially offset by negative market effects of USD6.6bn.

Kai Volkmann (formerly of BlackRock Germany), head of development for Germany and Austria since the beginning of 2012, will become director of the Frankfurt office of Carmignac Gestion (see Newsmanagers of 24 January and 27 October). The offices are located at Junghofstraße 24 in Frankfurt.The German sales team for the French asset management firm has three client relationship representatives. They will report to Davide Fregonese, global director of sales and marketing, who will aim to develop the German and Austrian markets. Staff will be increased over the course of the year. “This local presence will allow us to develop Carmignac Gestion’s relationships with financial distributors and institutional investors, through a regular custom approach,” according to a press release. Eric Helderlé, CEO, says that Germany is one of the three largest markets for Carmignac Gestion, and that the opening of a Frankfurt office represents a new step in the development of long-term strategy. All funds of the range are available to German clients.Carmignac Gestion is present in eleven European countries, and now has two affiliates in Luxembourg and Frankfurt, and two offices in Milan and Madrid.

The South Korean asset management firm Mirae Asset has launched seven ETF funds in Hong Kong, making it the third-largest provider of products of this type on the market, after db x-trackers and iShares, Asian Investor reports. The new ETF funds replicate Standard & Poor’s indices, offering exposure to seven sectors/themes (international consumer spending and six sectors ex Japan: consumer goods, financial, tech, industrials, energies, and materials).

The consultancy firm Mercer has acquired Pensjon & Finans, a Norwegian consultant specialised in investment advising to pension funds. Following the acquisition, Espen Kløw, CEO of Pensjon & Finans, will become head of Mercer’s activities in Norway.

Since the US Federal Reserve has announced that it will be maintaining interest rates at their current low levels for another three years, inflows to emerging market equity and bond funds have reached levels not seen since second quarter 2011. According to statistics released by EPFR Global, equity funds have attracted a net total of USD8.62bn in the week to 25 January, nearly half of which went to emerging market equity funds. Since the beginning of the year, inflows to emerging market equity funds are approaching USd6bn. Bonds, for their part, have posted inflows of slightly over USD6bn, an amount not seen since the beginning of third quarter 2010, Since the beginning of the year, bond funds have seen net inflows of USD20.3bn, compared with USD17.4bn in the corresponding period of 2010. The regain in appetite for risk has also resulted in net inflows of over USD2.5bn for high yield bond funds. Net redemptions from equity funds have fallen to their lowest levels in more than six months. Money market funds finished the week on 25 January with outflows of USD7bn.

The SEC has recruited a former lawyer at ProFunds Advisors as adviser for ETF funds. Barry Perschkow joined the board at the US regulatory authority in January, following a stint at the law firm Morgan, Lewis and Bockius, Mutual Fund Wire reports.

Scott O’Malia, a member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), is planning to call this Tuesday for the creation of a sub-committee within the Technology Advisory Committee, the Wall Street Journal reports. The sub-committee would be focused on high-frequency trading, and would be chaired by the CFTC chief economist Andrei Kirilenko. The objective for the regulator is to determine how electronic trading affects commodity markets and participants on those markets.

The Department of Labor had been planning to release new regulations for 401(k) plans on this 31 January, but the regulations will be released “in a few weeks” the Wall Street Journal reports. The rules change will allow millions of employees to make significant savings.The Department of Labor will require plan administrators and asset management firms to disclose the costs of 401(k) plans, which will lead firms to reduce commissions and offer other investing choices. The new transparency regulations will allow businesses to negotiate better conditions, and will allow employees to seek the most cost-effective plans.

The British Man group on 30 January announced that it has signed the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). There are now 988 signatories to the PRI, of which 126 are in the United Kingdom. “The decision is an illustration of Man’s ongoing engagement with responsible investment. As one of the largest alternative management firms, we how that the signing of the PRI encourages other members of the sector to follow our example,” Man’s CEO, Peter Clarke, says in a statement.

The administration of Jersey has added to its range of funds, with the introduction of a private investment fund, Hedge Week reports. Private investment funds are closed funds, available to a limited number of qualified, professional or institutional investors. The funds may be subject to a fast-track approval process, generally a maximum of three working days.

Legislation and fear of more restrictive standards to come are obstructing the creation of European pension funds, according to a study undertaken by Aon Hewitt in December 2011, covering 60 major businesses operating in Europe, with over 2 million employees. In response to a question about the pertinence of cross-border pension funds, 76% of businesses participating in the study say that they support entities of this type. However, the three major factors which are preventing employers from putting in place cross-border pension funds are perceived cmolpexity of legislation (66%), a lack of clarity about the way in which European legislation is enacted and regulated nationally (48%) and the perceived weight of national regulatory requirements (40%). Another one third of respondents were hesitant to use the Single Brand framework to create additional costs which future regulatory changes may give rise to. The consulting firm, which has recently responded to the second consultation by EIOPA (the European authority for professional insurance and complementary retirement) on revisions to the European IORP directive, opposed the legislative changes, which may increase costs for employers rather than increasing adoption of complementary professional retirement schemes. Kevin Wesbroom, director of the Retirement Risk Mangement department at Aon Hewitt, says that “given the material implications of potential changes described in the EIOPA consultation document, we are concerned at this stage about the lack of a profound cost/benefit analysis of the impact of the changes. The blindfolded transposition of the Solvency II regime planned for the insurance industry will damage availability of professional complementary retirement, and will complicate their management.” René van Leggelo, an expert in international mobility and European pension funds at Aon Hewitt France, concludes that “for the past 18 months, I have seen a growing interest in the French market for optimisation of complementary retirement plans. Some CAC 40 businesses are currently in a feasibility study phase considering potential combinations of their European plans in a single vehicle such as a IORP.”

The European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) on 30 January launched a highly-awaited consultation on regulations for UCITS-compliant ETF funds. The ESMA proposals cover both synthetic and physical ETFs, and lay out the requirements under consideration for these UCITS ETFs, index-based UCITS funds, efficient portfolio management techniques, total return swaps, and strategy indices for UCITS funds. In other words, ESMA’s recommendations are not limited to ETF funds, and also cover total return swaps, for which ESMA is planning additional requirements in relation to collateral, and UCITS funds investing in strategy indices, for which the eligibility requirements have been made stricter. According to the ESMA president, Steven Maijoor, “the objective with these recommendations is to improve investor protection and limit risks related to some practices by strengthening the applicable standards for collateral received, for example, in the context of securities lending activities. The recommendations also aim to improve the quality of information provided to investors, in order to allow them to take informed investment decisions. For UCITS-compliant ETF funds, ESMA is proposing the required use of an identifier for all funds, which would be included in the definition of UCITS-compliant products. Investors would be required to obtain additional information when a UCITS-compliant ETF fund is actively managed and does not replicate an index. The consultation also extends to the contents of the regime to be put in place for investors in the secondary market, including ways to sell these shares. In the chapter on securities lending, ESMA proposes that the collateral used to reduce counterparty risks should comply with the criteria put in place by the CESR, and recommends that haircut and diversification criteria also be strengthened. ESMA also insists on the need to improve regulation of complex products on sale to retail clients. “The recommendations make it possible to treat problems related to an increase in the number of complex products on sale to retail investors, and will contribute to regulatory convergence for these products,” says Maijoor. The consultation is open until 30 March. The final text of the recommendations will be completed by mid-2012.

The British Treasury is putting pressure on the US administration to make changes to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) for limited liability companies, Investment Week reports. Under FATCA legislation, non-American financial establishments from 2012 will be required to sign agreements with the US tax authorities, to disclose all pertinent information about financial accounts of clients identified as US clients. Any institution which refused to sign such an agreement with the US tax authorities would face a 30% withholding of their US revenues. As a subsequent draft of the legislation is awaited from the US administration, British sources say that the passage of the law would cause considerable problems. US authorities are reportedly not opposed to a “country-by-country” solution.

Investment Europe relays reports in the Economic Times that Fidelity Investments is in talks with potential buyers of its mutual fund activities in India, which represent INR10bn of a total of INR90bn in assets for the US asset management firm in the country. Goldman Sachs Asset Management is said to be one of the candidates for the acquisition.

Lucy O’Carroll, senior economist at Lloyds Banking Groujp, has been recruited as chief economist at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP), replacing Richard Dingwall-Smith, who has been in the position since 1998, and will remain at SWIP as senior economic adviser, Investment Europe reports.O’Carroll will be based in Edinburgh, and will report to Ken Adams, head of global strategy.

L’Agefi rapporte que la Bourse de Londres (LSE) reste en discussion avec LCH.Clearnet et ses actionnaires pour racheter la chambre de compensation franco-britannique. Dans ce mouvement vers la compensation, LCH.Clearnet intéresse notamment pour son service de compensation des dérivés de taux, SwapClear, qui traiterait 50% de ce segment. Encore faut-il convaincre ses actionnaires, précise le quotidien, car elle est détenue à 83% par ses utilisateurs, c’est-à-dire les courtiers et les banques et à 17% par les Bourses, dont Nyse Euronext qui possède 9% du capital.

Lucy O’Carroll, senior economist chez Lloyds Banking Group, a été recrutée comme chef économiste de Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) en remplacement de Richard Dingwall-Smith, en poste depuis 1998 et qui reste chez SWIP comme senior economic adviser, rapporte Investment Europe.Basée à Edimbourg, la nouvelle arrivante sera subordonnée à Ken Adams, head of global strategy.

D’après l’Economic Times cité par Investment Europe, Fidelity Investment serait en négociations avec des repreneurs pour son activité de mutual funds en Inde, qui représente 10 milliards de roupies, sur les 90 milliards d’encours totaux du gestionnaire américain dans le pays. Parmi les candidats figurerait Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

Dans le cadre d’une coopération avec la plate-forme d’investissement indépendante IST Anlagestiftung, qui dessert les fonds de pension suisses, Lombard Odier Investment Managers (LOIM) lance le IST Governo Welt Fundamental, un fonds d’obligations d’Etat du monde entier géré selon le principe des indices à pondération fondamentale (fundamental weight driven ou FWD), rapporte Investment Europe.LOIM gère déjà environ 1,4 milliard de francs suisses d’encours pour IST.

Le consultant Mercer vient de faire l’acquisition de Pensjon & Finans, consultant norvégien spécialisé dans le conseil en investissements à destination des fonds de pension. Suite à ce rachat, Espen Kløw, CEO dePensjon & Finans, deviendra responsable des activités de Mercer en Norvège.

«Afin de renforcer son avantage concurrentiel», Aviva Investors a decidé de concentrer son activité de production sur l’obligataire, l’immobilier et les solutions multiclasses d’actifs, ce qui déterminera un redimensionnement de la gestion active actions de Londres avec une focalisation sur le cœur de marché dans chacune des quatre régions géographiques du groupe et la suppression des doublons avec la fermeture des bureaux actions européennes, pays émergents, mondiales et ISR de Londres. Cela se traduira par une réduction de l’effectif de 12 % ou de 160 personnes échelonnée sur l’année 2012, un dégraissage qui touchera principalement Londres. Selon Funds People, ce processus entrainera la fermeture de bureaux de représentation dans plusieurs pays européens, dont l’Espagne. Les médias britanniques insistent sur le fait qu’Aviva Investors prend du recul par rapport au marché retail.Aviva Investors compte conserver ses capacités importantes dans les domaines des produits indexés et quantitatifs et disposer d’une capacité de gestion active de portefeuille sur chacun des principaux marchés et garder tous les savoir-faire nécessaires pour les solutions multiclasses d’actifs.Comme la majorité de ses activités est liée aux clients institutionnels, Aviva Investors a l’intention de focaliser ses efforts de vente et de marketing sur les principaux marchés institutionnels, ce qui va se traduire par une diminution de la taille des activités concernant les institutions financières, sauf là où il s’avère possible de développer et de préserver des relations de type institutionnel.Par ailleurs le gestionnaire a l’intention de réorienter ses activités de suivi des investissements ESG (environnementaux, sociaux et de gouvernance) en créant une équipe mondiale pour l’investissement responsable couvrant la totalité des encours sous gestion. La réduction d’effectifs dans la gestion active actions va se traduire aussi par un dégraissage des ressources spécifiquement dédiées au gouvernement d’entreprise.

Société Générale Private Banking renforce sa direction en Suisse, a indiqué l'établissement le 30 janvier à Genève. Un comité exécutif est créé pour «soutenir sa dynamique de croissance et accélérer son développement en Suisse et à l'étranger».Ce comité de quatre membres est placé sous la direction de Guillaume Lejoindre, directeur général de Société Générale Private Banking (Suisse) depuis janvier 2009. Il est également composé d’Alberto Valenzuela, directeur général délégué, en charge des activités de la banque aux Bahamas, en Amérique latine et auprès des gérants de fortune indépendants; Mathieu Vedrenne, nommé directeur général adjoint et secrétaire du Conseil d’administration; et d’Olivier Aubenas, nommé directeur commercial. «L’objectif de cette nouvelle organisation est d’accroître la réactivité de la banque, de renforcer la qualité de ses services et de favoriser les synergies avec le Groupe Société Générale», précise un communiqué. «Société Générale Private Banking (Suisse) témoigne ainsi de sa capacité d’adaptation aux besoins de sa clientèle fortunée à travers le monde dans un environnement économique, financier et réglementaire en forte mutation», a ajouté l'établissement.

Les trois compartiments EMEA (31,1 millions de dollars au 6 décembre), Pacific Rim (44,3 millions) et Greater China (29,9 millions) de la sicav luxembourgeoise LO Funds vont être fusionnés sous l’ombrelle du LO Funds - Global Emerging Markets, rebaptisé pour l’occasion LO Funds - Emerging Equity Risk Parity (38,76 millions d’euros fin novembre).Cette opération a été décidée par le conseil d’administration de Lombard Odier Funds parce que l’encours des trois fonds repris par le Emerging Equity Risk Parity est tombé sous le plancher statutaire des 50 millions de dollars et parce que les objectifs de gestion, la politique d’investissement et les univers de placements sont, finalement, similaires. La fusion permettra de réaliser des économies d'échelle et de rationaliser la gamme de produits de Lombard Odier.Le fonds Emerging Equity Risk Parity investit au moins les deux tiers de son portefeuille dans les actions de sociétés dont le siège est situé dans un pays émergent et qui y réalisent l’essentiel de leur activité, conformément aux critères du MSCI Emergent Market Index. Le tiers restant peut être placé dans les actions de sociétés ne remplissant pas ces critères et l’allocation aux obligations convertibles ne doit pas dépasser 10 %.

Le groupe genevois Notz, Stucki & Cie annonce l’ouverture d’un bureau de représentation à Bahreïn. Spécialisée dans la gestion alternative, l'établissement qui gère plus de 7 milliards de francs suisses est déjà implantée au Luxembourg, à Singapour, à Londres et aux Bermudes. Maria Sofia Kourti est nommée à la tête de ce nouveau bureau de représentation en qualité de general manager, head of Middle East, précise un communiqué. Avant de rejoindre Notz Stucki en 2011, elle occupait le poste de director of asset management de Tadhamon Capital. L’impétrante a plus de dix ans d’expérience dans la gestion d’actifs et la recherche buy‐side en Europe et Moyen‐Orient.

Caceis et EFG International ont annoncé le 30 janvier avoir conclu le 17 janvier un accord par lequel les activités de SIF Swiss Investment Funds S.A. (SIF), la filiale d’administration de fonds d’EFG International en Suisse, seront reprises par CACEIS (Switzerland) S.A., la filiale suisse de CACEIS. Les modalités de la transaction, qui doit encore obtenir le feu vert de la Finma et des clients de SIF, n’ont pas été divulguées.SIF figure parmi les six principaux administrateurs de fonds pour compte de tiers en Suisse romande et gère des fonds d’investissement suisses pour le compte de ses clients. L’accord couvre une vingtaine de fonds, qui représentent plus de 800 millions de francs suisses d’encours. EFG International précise avoir décidé d’abandonner les activités de SIF après une analyse approfondie, dans le but de se recentrer sur son coeur de métier, la banque privée.