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06/02/2012

“Frontier markets represent only 0.2% of investments in equity funds”

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.
06/02/2012

British pension funds increase emergency reserves by 20%

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%.
06/02/2012

State Street GM recruits a head for EMEA portfolio solutions

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.
06/02/2012

Church of England doubles investments in hedge funds

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.
06/02/2012

Aberdeen soft-closes two emerging markets funds

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.
06/02/2012

Net subscriptions to ETPs in January

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.
06/02/2012

Fund assets and subscriptions down in 2011

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.
06/02/2012

15% of asset management firms are in the process of merging

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.
06/02/2012

Profits down at Julius Baer in 2011

Adjusted net profits for the Julius Baer group contracted by 21% last year, to CHF401m, while underlying net profits, excluding a taxation agreement with Germany that resulted in a CHF65m charge, fell 10% to CHF452m. Net profits by IFRS accounting standards fell 27%, to CHF258m.The cost/income ratio has deteriorated to 68% from 65.4%, largely due to the appreciation of the Swiss franc. Assets under management as of the end of December totalled CHF170bn, generally the same level as twelve months previously. Julius Baer has posted net inflows of CHF10bn, but these subscriptions have been nearly entirely offset by negative market and currency effects.The Board of Directors will propose an unchanged ordinary dividend at the general shareholders’ meeting on 11 April 2012 of CHF0.60 per share, for a total of CHF118m. In addition, there will be a special dividend of CHF0.40 per share, totalling CHF79m, “in order to directly refund some excess shareholder capital and to take advantage of current Swiss tax legislation,” according to a press release.Julius Baer is also planning to announce a new share repurchase program totalling CHF500m, to be completed in the next two years.
06/02/2012

Head of small caps at Pictet leaves her job

Aylin Suntay, head of small caps at Pictet Asset Management, has left the firm where she spent 10 years, Citywire reports. Her former colleague Bill Barker has assumed her duties. Suntay had been one of the co-managers of the Pictet Small Cap Europe fund, and head of investments for Southern Europe. Alain Caffort, who recently left Groupama Asset Management to join Pictet, has taken over the management of the fund dedicated to small caps, alongside Oliver Knobloch and Barker.
06/02/2012

Education is the key to asset managers' success

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.
06/02/2012

Silk Road Management launches two Iraq indices

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.
06/02/2012
Gestion d'actifs

La Banque Postale pour compte propre reste persuadée que la gestion active apporte par rapport aux ETF

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.
Gestion d'actifs
06/02/2012
Gestion d'actifs

Areas a complétement restructuré sa poche obligataire en 2011

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).
Gestion d'actifs
06/02/2012

Deutsche Börse en quête d’alliances

Le patron de l’opérateur boursier allemand, Reto Francioni, estime dans un entretien accordé au Financial Times Deutschland qu’il ne pourra survivre à terme sans nouer des alliances, après l’échec du rapprochement avec Nyse Euronext. Le dirigeant n’a aucune intention de démissionner ou de renoncer à son bonus. Il songe à attaquer en justice la décision de la Commission européenne de bloquer la fusion, Bruxelles ayant en prétextant une position dominante dans les dérivés ignoré les montants énormes échangés de gré à gré entre les banques.
06/02/2012

Vinci bien placé pour le premier opérateur d'aéroports turc

Le groupe français ainsi qu’un partenariat entre le fonds Carlyle Group et le fonds souverain Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) font la course en tête pour prendre près de 40% de l’opérateur d’aéroports turc TAV Havalimanlari, ont déclaré vendredi à Reuters trois sources proches du dossier. TAV gère dix aéroports dont celui d’Istanbul Ataturk.
06/02/2012

L’acquéreur de Wegelin coupe les liens avec les Etats-Unis

La banque suisse Raiffeisen, qui a racheté sa rivale Wegelin, est en train de couper les ponts avec ses propres clients liés aux Etats-Unis sur fond de lutte contre l’évasion fiscale outre-Atlantique. « Notre activité n’a jamais été focalisée sur eux. Nous ne donnons également plus aucun relevé bancaire en anglais», a expliqué Pierin Vincenz, le directeur général de Raiffeisen, au SonntagsBlick.
06/02/2012

La Banque du Japon sous pression

Le yen continue à monter face aux principales devises, s’approchant face au dollar du niveau qui pourrait déclencher une nouvelle intervention de la BoJ.
06/02/2012

Négociations sur le devenir de Dexia

Le quotidien évoque des discussions ce week-end entre le gouvernement français, la CDC et la La Banque Postale afin de parvenir à la création d’un nouveau prêteur dédié aux collectivités locales. Mais les missions exactes et la valorisation de Dexma posent problème, tout comme le sort des salariés. L’Etat pourrait accorder une concession sur le prix en contrepartie de prêts aux hôpitaux ou dans le domaine de la distribution d’eau.

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