Barclays Private Equity (BPE) sort officiellement du giron de la banque britannique Barclays et devient Equistone Partners Europe après son rachat par son équipe dirigeante, rapporte L’Agefi. L’ancienne direction à trois têtes du groupe fait place à un management board de quatre sièges à la tête duquel un managing partner - le Français Guillaume Jacqueau - occupe la fonction exécutive. Le britannique Owen Clarke devient chief investment officer - un poste nouveau en l’occurrence - et l’ancien codirecteur de BPE, Gonzague de Blignières, reste membre du conseil de surveillance et du comité d’investissement. Le capital d’Equistone est désormais détenu à 100% par ses 36 associés européens, précise le quotidien.

Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) vient d’annoncer le recrutement de Georgina Marshall en qualité de responsable de la recherche européenne. Georgina Marshall est actuellement responsable régionale du gouvernement d’entreprise chez Aviva Investors. Elle prendra ses nouvelles fonctions en janvier 2012 à Londres.Georgina Marshall pilotera les équipes de recherche d’ISS basées à Londres, Bruxelles et Paris couvrant le Royaume-Uni et l’Europe continentale.

Les luxembourgeois veNova SA et Axxion SA (3 milliards d’euros) ont lancé le compartiment Globalyze Fund – Globalyze QuantValue* qui investit dans les actions des 25 meilleures sociétés identifiées par le programme informatique Globalyze Top Value d’analyse fondamentale mis au point par Norbert Lohrke.La sélection s’effectue en fonction du potentiel de hausse du cours et la vente d’un titre lorsque le cours-cible est atteint.* Code Isin : LU0690028625

Le britannique Legal & General aurait approché la plate-forme Cofunds avec l’objectif de racheter l’activité dans laquelle il détient déjà une participation de 25%, rapporte le Sunday Telegraph daté du 13 novembre.La société de capital investissement Bridgepoint aurait également manifesté son intérêt avant même l’initiative prise par Legal & General. Outre Legal & General, l’actionnariat de Cofunds comprend le fournisseur de technologies IFDS (24%), l’investisseur américain Newhouse Capital (18%), les britanniques Threadneedle et Jupiter (respectivement 20% et 10%) et Prudential (3%). Lundi après-midi, Cofunds a démenti vouloir céder son activité.

Henderson Global Investors s’est associé à Sesame Bankhall Group pour lancer une société d’investissement appelée Optimum Investment Management Limited, selon Investment Week. Cette coentreprise offrira aux conseillers un accès à une solution d’investissement gérée par l’équipe de multigestion d’Henderson.

Pour environ 45 millions de dollars en numéraire, l’américain Evercore Partners Inc prend une participation de 45 % dans ABS Investment Management LLC (24 salariés, 3,5 milliards de dollars d’encours). La transaction sera bouclée avant la fin de l’année.Les fondateurs et les salariés conserveront les 55 % restants de la société. Alain De Coster, Laurence Russian et Guilherme Ribeiro do Valle, les fondateurs, resteront à la tête d’ABS IM et signeront des contrats de travail de long terme. Ils investiront une grande partie du produit de la cession dans des produits gérés par ABS.

Le premier ETF répliquant la performance des entreprises de médias sociaux va être lancé ce mardi aux Etats-Unis, rapporte le Wall Street Journal. Ce Global X Social Media ETF, de la société Global X Funds, suivra 25 valeurs. Il sera fortement exposé aux sociétés Internet chinoises.

Le fonds de pension californien CalPERS a annoncé le 14 novembre la nomination de Carol Baldwin Moody en qualité de gérante de portefeuille senior responsable de la conformité des investissements et du risque opérationnel.Dans le cadre de ces fonctions nouvellement créées, elle sera chargée du développement, de la mise en œuvre et de l’encadrement de procédures de conformité et de programmes d’encadrement du risque opérationnel. Carol Baldwin Moody travaillait précédemment chez Wilmington Trust où elle était chief risk officer.

A la fin du mois dernier, les actifs gérés par Legg Mason ressortaient à 628,7 milliards de dollars contre 611,8 milliards au 30 septembre. Ils restent néanmoins très inférieurs aux 662,5 milliards de dollars de fin juin et aux 671,8 milliards du 31 décembre 2010.Parmi les actifs de long terme, la poche actions a gonflé à 159,4 milliards de dollars fin octobre contre 144,9 milliards fin septembre (elle se situait à 184,2 milliards en fin d’année dernière) , tandis que les produits obligataires totalisaient 359 milliards au 31 octobre, contre 355,5 milliards un mois auparavant et 355,8 milliards au 31 décembre 2010.L’encours des fonds monétaires a baissé à 110 milliards en un mois contre 111,4 milliards au 30 septembre. A fin 2010, il se situait à 131,8 milliards de dollars.

Van Eck Global a annoncé qu’il adressera une offre d'échange aux porteurs de parts de six fonds Merrill Lynch de la gamme HOLDRS: Oil Service (OIH), Semiconductor (SMH), Pharmaceutical (PPH), Biotech (BBH), Retail (RTH), et Regional Bank (RKH). Van Eck offrira en échange des parts dans ses ETF de la gamme Market Vectors.

Le conseil de la Securities and Financial Markets Association (Sifma), association basée aux Etats-Unis et représentant des banques, courtiers et gestionnaires d’actifs, a annoncé avoir élu Chet Helck, COO de Raymond James au poste de président. Il prendra ses fonctions en 2012.

Overall, open-ended funds in Germany, excluding real estate funds, have seen net outflows of EUR8.43bn in January-September, the German BVI association of asset management firms reports.Aside from Allianz Global Investors, which has taken on EUR1.49bn due to net subscriptions of EUR5.73bn at its affiliate Pimco Europe, all the major asset management firms have seen net outflows in the first three quarters of the year: redemptions have totalled EUR7.53bn for Deka (savings banks), EUR3.54bn for the DWS/DB Advisors/DB family (Deutsche Bank), and EUR1.52bn for Union Investment (co-operative banks).ETF promoters, excepting ETFlab (Deka), which has seen net outflows of EUR1.09bn, have posted net subscriptions, including BlackRock (for its iShares products), which have attracted over UER7.55bn, db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank), with EUR1.3bn, and ComStage (Commerzbank) with EUR279m.Open-ended funds overall saw net outflows of EUR2.77bn, which brings net outflows to EUR3.94bn in third quarter, and EUR7.55bn in the first nine months of the year. In the first three quarters of 2010, these funds attracted a further EUR18.91bn.German asset management overall has seen net subscriptions of EUR10.75bn in January-September, thanks to EUR20.08bn in inflows to institutional funds. These last two figures compare with EUR83.41bn and EUR42.93bn, respectively.Mandates managed outside funds, which represented EUR278.18bn as of the end of September, posted net inflows in the first nine months of the year of EUR1.79bn, despite net inflows of EUR1.85bn in September.

The Luxembourg-based veNova SA and Axxion SA (EUR3bn) have jointly launched the sub-fund Globalyze Fund – Globalyze QuantValue (ISIN code: LU0690028625), which invests in equities in the 25 best companies identified by the fundamental analysis IT program Globalyze Top Value, and then put into effect by Norbert Lohrke.Selection is based on the potential for share prices to rise, and the sale of shares when the target share price is achieved.

Pimco on 14 November announced the launch of the Pimco GIS Credit Absolute Return fund, aimed at investors seeking a diversified strategy focused on absolute returns with no benchmark. The fund has an “all-terrain” investment style, has considerable freedom in terms of the financial instruments to be integrated into its portfolio, and is managed by Mark Kiesel, Managing Director and Head of corporate debt portfolios. The fund combines long-term strategic investments and more short-term tactical opportunities in order to offer positive returns regardless of the market environment. It is designed to allow investors to diversify their bond portfolio without exposing themselves to risks that Pimco estimates are inherent to indices. The fund will be based on the expertise of Pimco in the area of credit, its proven investment process, research capacity and risk management techniques, in order to offer a strategy focused on absolute returns to investors seeking alternatives to long-only traditional funds. “The Pimco investment process orients our macroeconomic scenario, and allows us to identify risk factors in various bond markets,” says Kiesel. “We complement this top-down approach with a rigorous bottom-up analysis which aims to obtain the best long and short positions in each segment of the bond market: investment grade credit, high yield bonds, emerging market credit, bank loans, and municipal and convertible bonds.” The fund comes as an addition to the Global Investor Series (GIS) from Pimco, which complies with UCITS regulations. The range, registered in Dublin, now has 45 sub-funds, representing EUR57bn in asstes under management as of 30 June 2011. In addition to daily liquidity, the funds offer investors a way to expose their portfolios to a wide range of asset classes, ranging from global and regional traditional bond funds, to credit portfolios, to alternative and asset allocation solutions. The funds are available in several share classes denominated in several currencies, depending on the needs of the client. Institutional share classes in the funds will be available for sale under the ticker code PIMCIUA.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc, the portfolio company for Warren Buffett, on 14 November announced that it has acquired 5.4% of International Business Machines Corp (IBM), for a total of USD10.7bn, the Wall Street Journal reports.The investment at current market prices represents USD12bn, thus Berkshire Hathaway has already made gains of 12%. After State Street, Berkshire Hathaway was the second-largest shareholder in IBM as of 30 September. The buyer had begun to amass shares since March, twice receiving confidential treatment from the SEC.Since the beginning of this year, the share price for IBM has increased by 28%, while the S&P 500 index was flat. With an investment in IBM, Buffett breaks with his longstanding aversion to the technology sector.

Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global, and Axa Real Estate Investment Managers, acting on behalf of Axa France Insurance Companies, has announced that their Paris office joint venture partnership has exchanged contracts to acquire by the end of the year a portfolio of prime Paris offices for EUR290 million (excluding transfer taxes), reflecting a passing cap rate of 6.0%. This second acquisition by the JV has been negotiated off market and comprises three office properties, with some retail units on ground floors: two in Paris and one in Boulogne-Billancourt, in the Western Business District of Paris. The details of the assets are as follows: 28 – 32 Victor Hugo – Paris 16 – A prime office asset located in the heart of the Paris central business district in the immediate vicinity of Place de l’Etoile. It has a total GLA of approximately 9,500 sqm, of which 900 sqm of retail, arranged over five basement levels, a ground floor and seven upper levels. The property is fully let. 99 Avenue de France – Paris 13 – Located in the Rive Gauche business area in the 13th district of Paris, the asset has a total GLA of approximately 14,300 sqm, of which 4,600 sqm of retail, arranged over two basement levels, a ground floor and eight upper levels. It is fully let. Le Prélude – Boulogne-Billancourt – A headquarter office building located within Boulogne-Billancourt, in the established Western Business District of Paris. It has a total GLA of approximately 8,200 sqm arranged over three basement levels, a ground floor and six upper levels. It is fully let to a single strong covenant tenant. The JV between Norges Bank and Axa Real Estate was launched in August 2011 to target co-investment opportunities in the Paris office market.

NewAlpha Asset Management, an affiliate of IFO AM specialised in the incubation of management firms in the inception phase, has signed its seventeenth incubation partnership with the Heieck Siebrecht Capital Advisors company, via an investment of USD40m in the asset manager’s flagship fund. HSCA AG, based in Zurich, is an independent company founded in 2009 by Frank Siebrecht and Stefan Heieck. Siebrecht and Heieck had a total of over 26 years of experience in German and European equities. Siebrecht was an equities analyst at Deutsche Bank for 9 years, before spending three years at Absolute Capital Management, where he was co-manager of the Absolute Capital Germany fund. Heieck was in equity sales at DG Financial Markets, and then at ManFirst Capital, before joining Absolute Capital Management to co-manage Absolute Capital Germany. Heieck Siebrecht Capital Advisors uses an absolute return strategy on European equities with a particular focus on German, Swiss and Austrian large and midcaps. HSCA also includes in its investment universe European rivals to their German counterparts.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has announced the appointment of Carol Baldwin Moody as senior portfolio manager for investment compliance and operational risk. As the head of CalPERS new Investment Compliance function, she will be responsible for developing, implementing and monitoring investment management compliance and operational risk programs and policies. Moody comes to CalPERS from Wilmington Trust, where she was senior vice president and chief risk officer.

The US investment firm Evercore Partners Inc has bought a 45% stake in Evercore Investment Management LLC (24 employtees, USD3.5bn in assets) for about USD45m in cash. The transaction will be closed by the end of the year.The founders and employees of the firm will retain the remaining 55%. Alain De Coster, Laurence Russian and Guilherme Ribeiro do Valle, the founders, will remain as heads of ABS IM, and will sign long-term employment contracts. They will invest a large part of the proceeds of the sale in products managed by ABS.

The French entrepreneurial asset management firm IT Asset Management (about EUR150m in assets) has recruited Ines Thibault as head of sales for France. She had previously been head of sales at Algofi.Pierre Nicolle, an intern sales assistant, has been recruited as a salesperson for France. He joined the asset management firm in December 2009, after being responsible for development of major accounts at a finance specialist IT services company. He will be in charge of monitoring and distribution of funds in France to institutional clients and independent financial advisers.IT Asset Management is also adding to its sales drive in Europe, with the registration of the IT Funds Info Tech fund in Spain, and a new sales partner in the United Kingdom, Gemini Investment Management.

At the end of last month, assets under management by Legg Mason totalled USD628.7bn, compared with USD611.8bn as of 30 September. This level remains well below USD662.5bn at the end of June, and USD671.8bn as of 31 December 2010.Among its long-term assets, the equity allocation increased to USD159.4bn as of the end of October, from USD144.9bn at the end of September (it totalled USD184.2bn as of the end of last year), while bond products totalled USD359bn as of 31 October, compared with USD355.5bn one month previously, and USd355.8bn as of 31 December 2010.Assets in money market funds were down to USD110bn, from USD111.4bn as of 30 September. As of the end of 2010, these asstes totalled USD131.8bn.

The board of directors at UBS has appointed Sergio P. Ermotti as CEO of the group, effective immediately. He has held the position for the interim since 24 September 2011. The decision of the board to award the position of group CEO of Ermotti was taken following an extensive evaluation process, the bank said on 15 November in a statement. The chairman of the board of directors, Kaspar Villiger, has decided to step up changes to the board at UBS, and not to stand as a candidate for his own seat at the general assembly on 3 May 2012. After his election to the board of directors at the next general shareholders’ meeting, Axel Weber, who is expected to be appointed as vice-chairman of the board, will succeed Villiger as chairman of the board of directors. The board of directors and the executive board at UBS have finalised their plans to reposition the bank and the board of directors has defined a strategy for UBS. In his new role, Ermotti will be in charge of deploying the new strategy, which “concentrates on our leading wealth management activities and our position as the largest universal bank in Switzerland,” says Ermotti, cited in the statement. The details of the new strategy will be unveiled on UBS Investor Day, which will be held on 17 November 2011 in New York.

Credit Suisse is planning to fully integrate Clariden Leu into its organisation by the end of 2012, the bank announced in a statement on 15 November. The move will result in recurring annual cost savings of about CHF200m, and an increase in private banking profits of CHF800m by 2014. CS is expecting the integration to strengthen its position and to increase the profitability and efficiency of private banking operations. The currently clients of Clariden Leu will be transferred to Credit Suisse. Hans-Ulrich Meister, Chief Executive Officer Private Banking at Credit Suisse, has been elected as chairman of the board at Clariden Leu, while Hanspeter Kurzmeyer is appointed as its new CEO.

A growing number of UCITS funds are bypassing regulations that forbid investment in some assets such as commodities futures, with the use of total return swaps based on an offshore hedge fund which holds the positions, Financial Times Fund Management reports. The perfectly legal tactic opens the way to potentially high levels of leverage, the newspaper points out. That could threaten the success of the UCITS brand.

The Swiss banking group Syz & Co on 14 November announced the launch of the Global high Yield sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav Oyster, with eight share classes (in US dollars and hedged for currency risks in euros, Swiss francs and Singapore dollars).The management of the global high yield bond product, which is currently reserved for institutional clients, will be outsourced to the US management boutique Seix Investment Advisors. The fund will soon be registered for sale to retail clients in several European and Asian countries, Syz states.The Oyster Global High Yield fund reproduces the strategy and investment philosophy of the unconstratined high yield strategy from Seix, which Syz says generated about twice as much returns as its peer group over five years. Concentrating on liquid bonds and limiting risks by avoiding bankruptcies, the portfolio of the Global High Yield fund is composed of a portfolio of 80 to 100 positions.ISIN codes:OYSTER Global High Yield USD LU0688633410OYSTER Global High Yield EUR-hedged LU0688633683OYSTER Global High Yield CHF-hedged LU0688633501OYSTER Global High Yield SGD-hedged LU0688633766OYSTER Global High Yield I USD LU0688633840OYSTER Global High Yield I EUR-hedged LU0688634061OYSTER Global High Yield I CHF-hedged LU0688633923OYSTER Global High Yield I SGD-hedged LU0688634228

At the conclusion of a four-year investment period for its Asia Opportunity Fund III (USD3bn), LaSalle Investment Management (USD45bn) has decided to redeem the USD600m which could not be invested to clients, Asian Investor reports. The asset management firm invested USD1bn before the 2008 crisis, and USD1.4bn more recently.

Asian institutional investors (outside Japan) are tending to increase the proportion of their assets which they outsource to third-party management firms. According to Cerulli, about EUR1.07trn will be available to these third-party managers by the end of 2011, which represents 11.4% of total investible assets in the region. A previous estimate by Cerulli finds only 10% of assets in this category.Investible assets are expected to increase to USD13.6trn by 2015 (from USD8.6trn at the end of 2010). Of this total, 12.7% will be outsourced in 2015. «The scale of the outsourcing varies between various types of institution. For example, the proportion of assets outsourced by Asian pension funds has increased faster than average, with an increase of 18.7% in 2010, compared with 10.8% in 2006,” says Ken Yap, head of Asia-Pacific research at Cerulli. However, businesses, commercial banks and insurers still prefer to manage most of their capital internally. The Cerulli study finds, however, that central banks and quasi-governmental organisations are now tending to replace pension funds as the main source of institutional assets. Deepening competition for pension fund mandates may be a partial explanation for this development, the study funds. In geographical terms, outsourcing opportunities will continue to be concetrated on Northern Asia, particularly China, with an increase in investible assets to USD767bn by 2015, from USD452.8bn as of the end of 2010. Hong Kong and Korea have the highest proportions, with percentages of assets outsourced of 35.6% and 15.4%, respectively. In 2015, these percentages are expected to reach 38.3% and 17.3%, respectively. In Singapore, however, the outsourcing rate is expected to fall further, as sovereign entities, such as the sovereign funds Temasek and CIC, increasingly make use of their in-house expertise to manage nearly all of their investments.

The British asset management firm Legal & General has approached the Cofunds platform with an offer to acquire the activity, in which it already holds a 25% stake, the Sunday Telegraph reports in its 13 November issue. The private equity firm Bridgepoint is also reported to have expressed an interest even before Legal & General made its bid. In addition to Legal & General, the Cofunds shareholders include the IT provider IFDS (24%) th US investment firm Newhouse Capital (18%), the British firms Threadneedle and Jupiter (20% and 10%, respectively), and Prudential (3%). On Monday afternoon, Cofunds denied that it planned to sell the activity.

Henderson Global Investors has teamed up with Sesame Bankhall Group to launch an investment company entitled Optimum Investment Management Limited, Investment Week reports. The joint venture will offer advisers access to an investment solution managed by the multi-management team at Henderson.

The German asset management firm Deka Immobilien has announced that it has resold the logistics property Myren 6 & 8 (15,000 square metres), located in Huddinge near Stockholm, “at a profit.” The property is wholly leased to Posten Sverige AB and was purchased for about EUR35m by the British asset management firm Rockspring Property Investment Managers.Myren 6 & 8 were acquired in 2004 for an institutional real estate fund from Deka.