Vinculum, la nouvelle société de gestion créée par l’ex-cofondateur de Liontrust, Nigel Legge, envisage de lancer un fonds dédié aux actions américaines dans le courant de 2012, rapporte Investment Week.La société a récemment annoncé le lancement début janvier d’un fonds d’actions internationales. Le nouveau fonds, tout comme le fonds d’actions internationales, sera géré en partenariat avec la société de gestion StockRate Asset Management, qui a mis au point un processus maison d’identification, d'évaluation et de sélection des sociétés.
Le nombre de sociétés ayant fermé leurs plans de retraite à l’ensemble de leurs collaborateurs a augmenté d’un tiers entre 2010 et 2011, passant de 17% à 23% cette année, selon l’enquête annuelle publiée le 15 décembre par l’Association nationale des fonds de pension britanniques (NAPF). Le pourcentage était de seulement 3% en 2008.L’enquête indique que l’évolution vers l’adoption de régimes à contributions définies va se poursuivre. Parmi les sociétés ayant des plans de retraite fermés aux nouveaux collaborateurs mais encore ouverts aux anciens, 30% d’entre elles envisagent de fermer les programmes dans les cinq prochaines années. Une société sur dix maintient son plan à prestations définies mais en diminuant lesdites prestations, par exemple en prenant pour référence non pas les rémunérations de fin de carrière mais une moyenne. Seulement 19% des plans de retraite du secteur privé sont désormais ouverts aux nouveaux collaborateurs contre 88% il y a dix ans…
First State Investments vient de recruter Tal Lomnitzer en tant que gérant de portefeuilles dans son équipe ressources mondiales (global resources) à Londres. L’intéressé, qui a pris ses fonctions en début de semaine, vient de Merchant Global Resources Fund, qu’il a fondé et géré. Précédemment, il était associé et gérant de NewSmith Capital et ORN Capital.L’équipe global resources de First State gère notamment le fonds First State Global Resources, d’un encours de 767 millions de livres au 30 novembre.
Le chief investment officer du britannique Octopus Investments, Lothar Mentel, quitte ses fonctions pour s’engager dans d’autres activités, a annoncé la société le 15 décembre dans un communiqué. Il ne sera pas remplacé, précise le communiqué d’Octopus.Lothar Mentel avait rejoint Octopus il y a trois ans en qualité de CIO et responsable de l’équipe de multigestion du groupe. L’offre de multigestion d’Octopus, qu’il a contribué à développer, compte désormais six produits.
Plus de 90 % des porteurs ont accepté lors d’une assemblée générale extraordinaire la transformation de l’OEIC Managed Fund de Standard Life Investments (SLI) en Global Equity Income Fund. La transformation prendra effet le 16 janvier.L’objectif du fonds géré par Kevin Troup sera de générer un revenu avec un potentiel de plus-values sur le long terme au lieu de se focaliser comme auparavant sur la croissance du capital. Pour y parvenir, le gérant constituera un portefeuille diversifié d’actions internationales synthétisant les meilleures idées des analystes et gérants actions de SLI.Le portefeuille de 70-80 lignes utilisera comme référence l'évolution du secteur global income equity de l’IMA
Henderson anticipe un bénéfice sous-jacent compris entre 155 millions et 159 millions de livres pour l’année 2011, soit une hausse par rapport aux 100,7 millions de livres de 2010. Les résultats définitifs seront annoncés le 29 février prochain. La société de gestion britannique précise que ses commissions de performance devraient représenter 11 millions de livres au second semestre.
Le gestionnaire allemand Gamax Asset Management (439 millions d’euros d’encours) a annoncé la conclusion d’un accord de coopération avec Legal & General International (Ireland) Limited, ce qui permet aux clients et aux conseillers financiers indépendants britanniques d’inclure des fonds d’investissement de Gamax dans leur polices d’assurance vie.Les fonds Gamax sont gérés par le gestionnaire de fortune munichois DJE Kapital.
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. a décidé de revoir à la hausse le budget marketing et commercial de sa filiale dédiée aux mutual funds, annonce Mutual Fund Wire. L’objectif est d’attirer de nouveaux investisseurs en leur présentant les produits et thèmes d’investissement «avec des termes simples», précise le site.
Invesco vient de lancer son Invesco Premium Income Fund, rapporte Mutual Fund Wire. D’un encours qui atteint d’ores et déjà 100 millions d’euros, le produit est composé de deux portefeuilles : un qui se concentre sur les valeurs à haut revenu, l’autre investi dans des obligations gouvernementales. Le fonds est géré par Scott Wolle, CIO d’Invesco Global Asset Allocation, aidé de Peter Ehret, responsable du high yield, Claudia Calich, responsable de la dette marchés émergents et Peter Hubbard de l'équipe preferred equity.
Saxo Bank, le spécialiste de l’investissement et du trading en ligne, a annoncé le 15 décembre que le fonds d’investissement TPG Capital a acquis le même jour 30% des parts du groupe. L’Autorité danoise de supervision des marchés financiers, d’autres autorités internationales ainsi que la Commission européenne, ont approuvé l’entrée de TPG Capital au capital de Saxo Bank. La transaction a été clôturée le 15 décembre et le transfert de parts finalisé. TPG Capital a acquis 30% des parts du capital de Saxo Bank auprès d’investisseurs existants, parmi lesquels General Atlantic, un fonds d’investissement international, et Banco Espirito Santo, l’une des principales banques portugaises. General Atlantic et Banco Espirito Santo ont respectivement investi dans le groupe Saxo Bank en 2005 et 2008. Banco Espirito Santo et Saxo Bank vont poursuivre leur coopération commerciale. Comme annoncé précédemment, les fondateurs Kim Fournais et Lars Seier Christensen conserveront l’actionnariat majoritaire et continueront à assurer la co-présidence du groupe. Fournais Holding A/S et Lars Seier Christensen Holding A/S détiennent chacun 29,95% de la banque. Suite à la restructuration de l’actionnariat, le conseil d’administration de Saxo Bank comprend désormais son président Kurt K. Larsen, Dennis Malamatinas, le professeur Thomas Plenborg, ainsi que de nouveaux membres: Asiff S. Hirji, partenaire de TPG Capital, Karl I. Peterson, partenaire de TPG Capital, et Jacob Polny (suppléant), Vice-Président de TPG Capital.
Les professionnels de la gestion d’actifs en quête d’un meilleur salaire doivent cibler les marchés émergents – c’est-à-dire soit s’y installer physiquement ou bien gérer des actifs dans ces pays. C’est le message de la dernière étude sur les rémunérations de Russell Reynolds Associates citée par le Financial Times Fund Management. La guerre des talents est déclarée dans ces pays, ce qui alimente des rémunérations excessives et un manque de loyauté des employés, indique le rapport.
Au mois de novembre, l’indice Lyxor Hedge Fund Index affiche une baisse de 0,44 %. Depuis le début de l’année, la perte atteint 6,26 %, selon un communiqué. Sur le mois, les stratégies alternatives s'étant le mieux comportées sont le Lyxor L/S Equity Market Neutral Index (+0,77%), le Lyxor CTA Long Term Index (+0,66%) et le Lyxor CTA Short Term Index (+0,47%).
Vinculum, the new asset management firm founded by the former co-founder of Liontrust, Nigel Legge, is planning to launch a fund dedicated to US equities in 2012, Investment Week reports. The firm recently announced that in early January it is planning to launch an international equities fund. The new fund, like the international equities fund, will be managed in partnership with the asset management firm StockRate Asset Management, which has created a process to identify, evaluate and select businesses for investment.
Deutsche Bank has priced its asset management business, which it has put up for sale, at EUR2bn, according to the Financial Times. The first bids are expected in spring. 50 firms are reported to be interested, including Wells Fargo, Royal Bank of Canada and Ameriprise Financial, according to sources familiar with the matter cited by the newspaper.
On 1 January 2012, as planned, James Dilworth, CEO of Allianz Global Investors Germany, will begin in a new position as CEO for Europe, replacing Elizabeth Corley, who becomes global CEO. Dilworth will retain responsibility for distribution in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. As CEO Europe, he will be a member of the global executive committee.Thomas Wiesemann, chief market officer Europe, will on 1 January 2012 become head of the global solutions division, which includes strategic investment advising, risk management, the pension investments departments, and fiduciary management, as well as alternative beta indexing. The range of services offered by the unit is aimed at institutional investors with long-term investment objectives.The global executive committee will now include Corley (global CEO), Dilworth (CEO Europe), Andreas Utermann (CIO et Thomas Wiesemann (global solutions) and five more members : Wolfgang Pütz (Chief Financial Officer), Brian Gaffney (North America), Douglas Eu (Asia), George McKay (Chief Operating Officer) and John Maney (Chief Operating Officer USA).
Saxo Bank, an online trading specialist, on 15 December announced that the investment fund TPG Capital that day acquired a 30% stake in the group. The Danish financial market surveillance authority, and other international authorities including the European Commission, have approved TPG Capital’s investment in Saxo Bank. The transaction was completed on 15 December, and the transfer of shares has been completed. TPG Capital acquired 30% of capital in Saxo Bank from existing shareholders, including General Atlantic, an international investment fund, and Banco Espirito Santo, one of the largest Portuguese banks. General Atlantic and Banco Espirito Santo invested in Saxo Bank in 2005 and 2008, respectively. Banco Espirito Santo and Saxo Bank will continue their commercial cooperation. As previously announced, the founders, Kim Fournais and Lars Seier Christensen, will retain a majority stake in the firm, and will continue to serve as co-chairs of the group, Fournais Holding A/S and Lars Seier Christensen Holding A/S, each of which holds 29.95% of the bank. Following the change in shareholder structure, the board of directors at Saxo Bank now includes chairman Kurt K. Larsen, Dennis Malamatinas, professor Thomas Plenborg, and some new members: Asiff S. Hirji, a partner at TPG Capital, Karl I. Peterson, a partner at TPG Capital, and Jacob Polny (substitute), vice-president of TPG Capital.
Asset management professionals seeking better pay should look to emerging markets, either with a mind to moving there physically, or to managing assets in these countries, according to the most recent study of pay scales by Reynolds Associates, cites by Financial Times Fund Management. Competition for talent is rife in these countries, which feeds a cycle of excessively high pay scales and a lack of employee loyalty, the report finds.
Philippe Gougenheim is leaving Unigestion, where he had been managing director head of hedge funds since 1 May 2010. Gougenheim had been based in Geneva, and directed the development of the funds of hedge funds team at the Swiss asset management firm. He had previously worked at Man Investments. Gougenheim has announced that he has decided to start his own asset management firm, in order to launch a single hedge fund.Philippe Gougenheim will be replaced by Nicolas Rousselet, who will become managing director, head of hedge funds on January 1st 2012, Unigestion has told Newsmanagers. He will also be a member of the executive committee. Nicolas Rousselet has been working at Unigestion since 2008 and is a strategy manager in charge of arbitrage, credit and equity hedge. He is also a member of the hedge fund investment committee. He had started his career at Fortis Investment Management.
The Swiss Stock Exchange SIX on 15 December announced the arrival of a new provider in the Exchange Traded Funds segment, Raiffeisen, which becomes the third major banking group and the first Swiss retail bank to offer ETFs on the exchange. With the four new ETFs from Raifeissen, which are backed by physical gold, the ETF segment of the SIX Swiss Exchange now includes 757 ETFs, of which 108 are listed in an alternative currency. Raiffeisen is the market maker for the new ETFs.
Due to continuing uncertainty, CPR Asset Management (EUR18bn in assets) has opted for a highly prudent asset allocation policy. That applies to the two flagship funds from the unit, with a total of EUR2.7bn in assets: the Réflexe Cible 100 fund currently has a 0% exposure to equities, while the Croissance Réactive, which may invest 20% to 80% of its assets in equities, currently has 50% exposure, Arnaud Faller, chief investment officer, explained on 15 December.More generally, the French asset management firm is underweight in equities, with a preference in this asset class for US over European equities. In bonds, Faller prefers investment grade corporate bonds, securitised financial sector shares and high yield due to the profitability of carry trades.
Vincent Cornet has joined La Banque Postale Asset Management (LBPAM) has director of management, from 16 January 2012, the asset management affiliate of La Banque Postale announced on Thursday, 15 December. In this role, Cornet will also become a member of the board at the asset management firm, where he joins chairman Jean-Luc Enguéhard and secretary general Pierre-Manuel Sroczynski. Cornet, 52, who since 2009 had been director of investments at the Malakoff Médéric group and chairman of the board at Fédéris Gestion d’Actifs, succeeds Bernard Descreux, who after 11 years as director of management at La Banque Postale Asset Management has decided to take his professional career in a new direction. Descreux, who could not be reached yesterday, now appears on his LinkedIn profile as director of the asset management division of EDF, Agefi reported on Thursday.
Crédit Agricole S.A. and Coller Capital have just announced an agreement for Crédit Agricole S.A.’s sale to Coller Capital of 100% of Crédit Agricole Private Equity (CAPE) and substantially all of the funds managed by CAPE and owned by Crédit Agricole Capital Investment Finance (CACIF), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Crédit Agricole S.A. The sale is subject to authorisation from the competent authorities, which should be obtained in the first quarter of 2012. «Crédit Agricole S.A.’s decision to sell CAPE forms part of a plan to optimise capital allocation and refocus the bank’s private equity activities on local business. The sale will reduce Crédit Agricole S.A.’s risk-weighted assets by about EUR900 million. Crédit Agricole S.A. will continue to provide financing for SMEs through the private equity vehicles owned by the Crédit Agricole Regional Banks, as well as through IDIA, a Crédit Agricole Group partner that provides equity and quasi equity financing to agrifood companies and agribusinesses», says a press release.
In order to refine its fund categorisation process in asset allocation, the research team at S&P Capital IQ has introduced new classes of funds, within a category which had previously been considered defensive. It has created two new subgroups: “defensive” and “neutral.”S&P Capital IQ will retain its two-stage classification system: in the first stage, specialists take into account the percentage allocated to the primary asset class, and in the second, they look at all high-risk investments, including volatility, downside deviation, and statistics on the maximal losses for the fund. The combination of these two types of analysis are then used to place the fund in a given category.The new ranges for the two stages are: for the first stage, defensive 0-40%, neutral 35-60%, balanced 60-85%, and dynamic > 85% for the second stage, defensive 0-45%, neutral 45-700%, balanced 71-95%, and dynamic > 95%For forex investments, the new categories will be as follows: for the first stage, defensive 0-35%, neutral 35-60%, and dynamic > 60% for the second stage, defensive 0.45%, neutral 45-70%, and dynamic > 70% For all currencies, the defensive and neutral categories are the same as for the pound Sterling. The balanced category does not exist, since deposits are too limited for funds outside the UK.
Xavier Lattaignant in November joined Scor Global Investments in Paris, the asset management firm of the French insurance group Scor, to head a new unit dedicated to alternative multi-management. In this role, he is appointed as head of alternative multi-management. In December he was joined by Frédéric Delleaux, as deputy head of alternative multi-management. The two investment professionals previously worked at the BNP Paribas group. Lattaignant is the former head of alternative investments at Harewood, which then became Theam after its merger with a team from BNP Paribas Asset Management. Delleaux had been an alternative investment manager at Harewood. The new desk at Scor GI will be dedicated to alternative multi-management. As of 30 June 2010, the asset management firm had nearly EUR13.6bn in assets under management, the group’s website states. The firm has been in operation since 2009, and handles the management of investment portfolios for all entities of the Scor group. It has also been accepting assets from third parties for some time.
The Californian pension fund CalPERS on 15 December announced that it has acquired a sake in the undersea cabling project Neptune Regional Transmission System from the Arclight Capital company, for an undisclosed amount. This is CalPERS’ second direct investment in infrastructure, following the acquisition of a stake in Gatwick airport in 2010. In the next three years, CalPERS is planning to invest up to USD5bn in infrastructure projects, of which USD4bn will go to the United States, and USD800m to California.
Rocio Equiraun, CEO of Bankia Fondos, has told Funds People that the asset management firm, born of the merger of Gesmadrid, Bancaja Fondos and Ges Layetana, now has only 51 funds (excluding guaranteed products), compared with 197 before the merger. She says that assets total EUR6.4bn, and that Bankia Fondos has 315,000 clients.
In the month of November, the Lyxor Hedge Fund Index has lost 0.44%. Since the beginning of the year, losses have totalled 6.26%, a statement says. For the month, the alternative strategies which performed best were the Lyxor L/S Equity Market Neutral Index (+0.7%), the Lyxor CTA Long Term Index (0.66%), and the Lyxor CTA Short Term Index (0.47%).
With the AFA Global Werte Stabilisierungs – Fonds, launched on 12 December, Warburg Invest claims to have become the first German asset management firm (KAG) to launch a Luxembourg-registered master-feeder sub-fund (Warburg Value Fund) which complies with the UCITS IV directive. The 5% of assets which are not placed in the Luxembourg-registered international equities fund will be invested in a risk management overlay to protect against cyclical downward phases on the equity markets.The strategy has been developed based on macroeconomic research from the Hamburg private bank M.M. Warburg & Co.CharacteristicsName: AFA Global Werte Stabilisierungs -FondsISIN code: DE000A0HGL63Front-end fee: 6.10%Management commission: 1.75%Depository banking commission: 0.05%
According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, the Petercam L Bonds Government Sustainable fund from Petercam, which is based on an SRI analysis of sovereign debt, has increased from EUR80m to EUR240m in assets in three months, largely due to subscriptions from French institutional investors.Currently, the Belgian asset management firm has about EUR500m in assets under management in SRI, of which EUR300m are in two funds, the Government Sustainable and the Equities Europe Sustainable, which has about EUR50m in assets.Petercam is also planning to extend its range next year, and is considering a foray into emerging market debt in local currency.
Old Mutual will sell Skandia AB, which includes long-term savings and banking activities in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, to Skandia Liv, for GBP2.1bn (EUR2.5bn). Skandia Liv is a Swedish insurer which retains ties to Old Mutual (as it is an affiliate of Skandia AB, which in turn is an affiliate of Old Mutual), but which will no longer have ties to the firm after the transaction. Old Mutual will retain ownership of, and will continue to use the Skandia brand in markets outside Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Skandia Liv will use the brand in these three countries.