Le groupe britannique Man a annoncé le 30 janvier avoir signé les Principes pour l’investissement responsable (PRI) des Nations Unies. On compte actuellement 988 signataires des PRI, dont 126 au Royaume-Uni. «Cette décision est l’illustration de l’engagement continu de Man pour l’investissement responsable. En tant que l’un des plus importants gérants alternatifs, nous espérons que la signature des PRI encouragera d’autres membres du secteur à suivre notre exemple», déclare le directeur général de Man, Peter Clarke, cité dans un communiqué.

La société de gestion basée à Londres Javelin Capital vient de lancer une version Ucits de son hedge fund actions market neutral sur la plate-forme de sicav de Goldman Sachs International, rapporte Hedge Week.Le Javelin Capital emerging Markets Alpha Fund tentera de répliquer le fonds market neutral Javelin Capital Global Equity Strategies dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à 32 millions de dollars.

Pour l’exercice au 31 décembre, le gestionnaire américain a déclaré un bénéfice net de 773,2 millions de dollars, soit 101 millions ou 15 % de plus que pour 2010. Quant au bénéfice d’exploitation, à 1.226,9 millions de dollars, il a gonflé de 190,4 millions ou de 18,4 %.La société a terminé l’année avec des liquidités d’environ 1,7 milliard de dollars. Elle a consacré en 2011 un montant de 479,7 millions au rachat de 8,7 millions d’actions orrdinaires et investi 82,3 millions de dollars en technologies et en locaux. Pour 2012, T. Rowe Price a programmé 100 millions de dollars d’investissements autofinancés en immobilier et en équipements.L’encours à fin décembre se montait à 489,5 milliards de dollars contre 453,5 milliards fin septembre et 482 milliards un an auparavant. Sur le total des actifs gérés, 289,4 milliards de dollars correspondaient à des mutual funds distribuís aux Etats-Unis.Les souscriptions nettes de 14,1 milliards de dollars sur l’ensemble de l’année dernière (dont 8 milliards pour les fonds à horizon) ont été partiellement effacées par un effet de marché négatif de 6,6 milliards de dollars.

Le gérant de hedge funds basé à New York, Apex Capital, a fermé deux de ses stratégies, Market Neutral Greater China et North Asia long/short equity, dont les encours cumulés s'élevaient dernièrement à 16 millions de dollars, rapporte Asian Investor.

La SEC a recruté un ancien avocat de ProFunds Advisors en tant que conseiller sur les ETF. Barry Perschkow a rejoint le conseil du régulateur américain en janvier, après un passage au cabinet d’avocat Morgan, Lewis and Bockius, précise Mutual Fund Wire.

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.

Comme annoncé récemment (lire Newsmanagers du 25 janvier), le fonds luxembourgeois Ignis Absolute Return Government Bond*, compartiment d’Ignis Fund sicav, vient d’obtenir l’agrément de commercialisation en France. Son encours se situe à 131 millions d’euros.L’objectif consiste à réaliser des gains en intervenant de manière active sur l’ensemble des obligations d’Etat et devises dans le monde. Depuis la date de son lancement le 31 mars au 31 décembre 2011, la performance a été de 6 %.Ce fonds coordonné de performance absolue est géré par Russ Oxley, directeur de la gestion obligataire, et Stuart Thomson, chef économiste.L’encours d’Ignis dans le domaine obligataire se situe à 24,5 milliards d’euros, confiés à 12 professionnels.Le gestionnaire britannique précise que l’Absolute Return Government Bond est géré selon «la technique «ClearCurve» développée en interne pour traduire les prévisions macroéconomiques en paris sur les taux», précise Ignis AM. «ClearCurve» aide les gérants à décomposer la courbe des taux des obligations d’Etat en une série de taux futurs distincts. «Ce processus permet aux gérants d’Ignis d’avoir une qualité et un niveau d’information bien supérieurs à ceux d’un gérant obligataire classique. Ils peuvent ainsi identifier des objectifs de taux futurs et, de ce fait, exploiter de manière précise les anomalies de valorisation des actifs à travers des positions long /short».* LU0579398933

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.

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.

Odette Cesari, directeur des investissements d’Axa France dans un article paru dans l’Agefi Hebdo numéro 308: Les investissements en obligations restent principalement effectués en OAT, le poids du Portugal, de la Grèce et de l’Irlande représentant moins de 1 % des actifs. Cependant, il ne faut pas assimiler tous les pays PIIGS (Portugal, Irlande, Italie, Grèce et Espagne, NDLR) qui connaissent chacun des situations bien différentes. Cette année et les suivantes, la gestion actif/passif est plus que jamais au c??ur de nos préoccupations : la duration du portefeuille est gérée en adéquation avec celle du passif, actuellement de 7 ans.

Confiante au regard de sa gestion financière de l’année 2011, la Caisse Régionale du Crédit Agricole du Nord-Est souhaite garder la même ligne de conduite. Sa trésorière, Corinne Chilain, confirme : « Nous attendons toujours d'élargir notre horizon de placement pour adapter notre stratégie ». Au c??ur de ses préoccupations, la gestion de la liquidité et des risques des 700 millions d’encours de la caisse. Avec un portefeuille obligataire pour 80 % des actifs, la performance est peu importante et la direction financière préfère jouer la carte de la prudence avant de lancer de nouveaux investissements. « Nous réfléchissions à investir sur des OATs et des covered bonds, c’est toujours à l'étude » précise Corinne Chilain qui garde un ??il sur certaines classes d’actifs en attendant le bon moment pour remanier le portefeuille. Travaillant principalement avec Amundi, la trésorière n’exclue pas de faire appel à d’autres partenaires externes : « peut-être qu’au deuxième semestre, nous seront plus à même de lancer de nouveaux investissements », et confiera alors à nouveau une partie de la gestion à la Société Générale, BNP et Natixis, gérants avec lesquels la caisse travaille habituellement.

“In order to increase its competitive edge,” Aviva Investors has decided to concentrate its production activities on bonds, real estate and multiple asset class solutions, which will lead to a re-dimensioning of active equities management in London, to focus those activities on core markets in each of the four geographical regions of the group, the removal of duplicates, and the closure of European equities, emerging markets, global and SRI offices in London. This will result in a reduction of 12% to staff numbers, or 160 jobs over the course of 2012, with those reductions concentrated largely in London. Funds People reports that the process will result in the closure of representative offices in several European countries, including Spain. The British media claim that Aviva Investors is moving away from the retail market.Aviva Investors is planning to retain its significant capacities in the areas of quantitative and index-based products, has active portfolio management capacities in all of the major markets, and will retain all the necessary expertise for multi-asset class solutions.

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.

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 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).

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.

As recently announced (Newsmanagers of 25 January), the Luxembourg-registered fund Ignis Absolute Return Government Bond (LU0579398933), a sub-fund of the Ignis Fund Sicav, has been licensed for sale in France. It assets total EUR131m.The objective is to make gains through active interventions on all government bond and currency markets worldwide. From its launch on 31 March to 31 December 2011, the fund has earned 6%, compared with 0.7% for the Eonia.The absolute return UCITS fund is managed by Russ Oxley, director of bond management, and Stuart Thomson, economist in chief.Assets at Ignis in the area of bonds total EUR24.5bn, managed by 12 professionals.The British asset management firm says that the Absolute Return Government Bond Fund is managed “with the ‘ClearCurve’ technique developed internally to translate macroeconomic projections into bets on interest rates,” Ignis AM states. ‘ClearCurve’ helps managers to break down the government bond curve into a series of distinct future rates. “This process allows managers at Ignis to have a far higher quality and level of information than traditional bond managers. They can use this to identify future rate objectives, and in this way to precisely exploit asset valuation anomalies though long/short positions.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The three sub-funds of the Luxembourg Sicav LO Funds, EMEA (USD31.1m as of 6 December), Pacific Rim (USD44.3m) and Greater China (USD29.9m), will be merged into the single product LO Funds – Global Emerging Markets, which will be renamed at LO Funds – Emerging Equity Risk Parity (EUR38.76m as of the end of November).The deal was decided on by the board of directors at Lombard Odier Funds, as assets in the three funds taken over by the Emerging Equity Risk Parity funds have fallen below the legal minimum of USD50m in assets, and their management objectives, investment policies and investment universes are ultimately similar. The merger will bring economies of scale and a rationalisation of the product range from Lombard Odier.The Emerging Equity Risk Parity fund will invest at least two thirds of its portfolio in equities from companies headquartered in an emerging country or which realise the majority of their activities there, according to the criteria of the MSCI Emerging Market Index. The remaining one third of assets may be invested in shares in companies which do not satisfy these criteria, and allocation to convertible bonds may not exceed 10%.

According to the CSSF, assets in Luxembourg-registered collective investment organisms and specialised investment funds totalled EUR2.0965trn as of 31 December last year, an increase of 1.80% compared with the previous month. Positive variation totalled EUR37.093bn, due to market effects of EUR40.577bn (+1.97%), and net subscriptions totalling -EUR3.484bn (-0.17%). For the year, the total volume of assets in Luxembourg-registered funds fell by 4.66%.