En réponse aux craintes du FSB, l’association met en avant le cadre réglementaire strict auquel sont soumis ces fonds coordonnés

Pimco lance un fonds dédié à ce nouveau compartiment de la dette bancaire, appelé par les régulateurs à jouer un rôle important

L'agence a abaissé de «stable» à «négative» la perspective du souverain. Elle souligne la persistance de la crise politique outre-Quiévrain

Le gouvernement a présenté de nouvelles mesures d’austérité budgétaire visant à garder le soutien de l’UE et du FMI qui conditionne son aide

Cinq mois après Standard & Poor’s, Fitch a placé la note «AA+» de la dette souveraine belge sous surveillance négative. L’agence de notation s’inquiète de la persistance de la crise institutionnelle outre-Quiévrain qui risque de compromettre les objectifs budgétaires fixés.

Le gouvernement espagnol devrait annoncer dès aujourd’hui les trois conseillers (banques d’investissement, société d’avocat et cabinet de conseil) sélectionnés pour l’aider dans le processus de cession de parts dans la société de loterie nationale, Sociedad Estatal de Loterías y Apuestas del Estado, selon le quotidien qui ne cite pas ses sources. Le premier ministre, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, estime que la cession de 30% de ses parts pourrait rapporter entre 6,5 et 7,5 milliards d’euros à l’Etat, soit l’une des plus grosses opérations réalisées en Europe. Les sommes perçues serviront à réduire le déficit budgétaire à 6% d’ici la fin de l’année.

Leurs performances, quoique supérieures à celles des indices boursiers des pays développés, demeurent loin de celle des indices émergents

L'indice PMI composite a atteint un plus bas de sept mois sous les effets conjugués de la crise nippone et des mesures d'austérité en Europe

Ils s’inquiètent de la capacité politique des deux pays à mener à bien leurs programmes d’austérité. Rome va envoyer un signal au marché

Le quotidien indique que l’autorité américaine des marchés mène l’enquête auprès des deux mastodontes de la conservation d’actifs que sont State Street et Bank of New York Mellon au sujet de leurs opérations de change. Plus précisément, la SEC souhaite savoir si la réalité des transactions a bien été expliquée à des clients fonds de pension. Les changes représentent une manne financière pour les banques.

Le Gouverneur de la Banque centrale polonaise, Marek Belka, a confié au quotidien allemand dans un entretien que son pays resterait en dehors de la zone euro pour un certain temps. Cela demeure bien un objectif à long terme, et une amélioration de la situation économique dans la zone pourrait accélérer sa réalisation. Il assure qu’aujourd’hui «la Grèce reste une plaie ouverte» pour l’union monétaire.

L’Archipel a selon le quotidien enregistré un déficit commercial de 700 milliards de yens (6 milliards d’euros) en avril, soit le plus important déficit jamais observé depuis la crise financière. Il s’agit du déficit médian selon les estimations de 206 à 1.000 milliards de yens selon l’enquête réalisée par le quotidien. Chute des exportations et hausse des importations se sont conjuguées dans un contexte de hausse des prix de l’or noir.

Le gouvernement italien va dévoiler le mois prochain des mesures de réduction des déficits représentant de 35 à 40 milliards d’euros, soit plus tôt que prévu, rapporte l’agence Reuters. La date de présentation de ces mesures, destinées à équilibrer le budget, a été avancée, pour donner un «signal aux marchés» après la décision de l’agence Standard & Poor’s, samedi, d’abaisser de «stable» à «négative» sa perspective pour l’Italie, évoquant de faibles possibilités de croissance et des chances réduites de réduire la dette du pays. Toutefois dans la matinée, les autres agences de notation ont calmé le jeu. Ainsi Moody’s a confirmé que la perspective attachée à la note de crédit Aa2 attribuée à l’Italie était stable. Fitch de son côté ne prévoit pas pour le moment de changement de la note de crédit attribuée à l’Italie ou de la perspective attachée à cette note.

Pimco s’apprête à lancer un fonds qui investira dans des CoCos, ces obligations bancaires qui se convertissent automatiquement en actions dès lors que la solvabilité de l’émetteur passe sous un seuil défini à l’avance. Le gérant de fortune Fleming Family & Partners a consenti la mise de départ.

La croissance du secteur des services dans la zone euro, qui représente quelque deux tiers de l’activité, a été moins forte que prévu en mai tandis que les industriels ont dû freiner le rythme de leur production au vu d’une baisse de nouvelles commandes, selon les résultats préliminaires de l’enquête Markit. L’indice composite «flash» de la zone euro s’est établi à 55,4 en mai contre 56,7 en avril et une estimation des analystes de 56,5. Cs données semblent suggérer que la croissance au deuxième trimestre sera moins soutenue que celle du premier dans la zone euro, toujours marquée par le fossé qui sépare les deux locomotives que sont l’Allemagne et la France et les pays en difficulté du bloc des 17. Toutefois le secteur privé en Allemagne a enregistré en mai son rythme de croissance le plus faible depuis octobre 2010. L’indice PMI composite, qui regroupe industrie et services, est ressorti à 56,4 en version «flash» contre 59,2 en avril. La croissance de l’activité dans le secteur privé en France s’est également légèrement ralentie en mai, en raison notamment d’une décélération de l’industrie manufacturière. L’indice PMI composite est revenu à 60,5 en version «flash» contre 62,4 en avril. Ce dernier chiffre marquait son plus haut niveau depuis septembre 2000.

L’Agence France Trésor annonce qu’elle a servi, lundi, 1,284 milliard d’euros de soumissions non compétitives à l’issue de son adjudication de BTAN du 19 mai. Le montant total des BTAN émis dans le cadre de cette opération s'élève à 9,768 milliards d’euros. Ce volume se répartit en 4,552 milliards d’euros du nouveau BTAN 2,0% 2013, 3,546 milliards d’euros d’OAT 3,0% à 2015 et 1,67 milliard d’euros d’OAT 3,25% 2016.

The hedge fund services provider BNY Mellon Alternative Investment Services (AIS) has announced that its assets under administration have topped USD400bn, making it one of the top actors in the sector. Since 2008, BNY Mellon AIS has doubled its assets under administration, largely due to the acquisition of the Global Investment Servicing unit in July 2010. In addition to its assets under administration, assets under custody at the firm total over USD120bn.

Appetite for risk has continued to diminish over the week to 18 May, as investors were confronted with not particularly encouraging macroeconomic data, a rise in speculation about a potential restructuring of Greek debt, and the forthcoming end to the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing programme. According to the most recent statistics from EPFR Global, equities funds have seen a net outflow of USD7.07bn in the third week of May, while outflows from emerging markets equities funds totalled USD1.64bn. However, bond funds posted a net inflows of USD4.59bn Since the beginning of the year, inflows to bond funds invested in emerging markets posted a net inflow of USD7.9bn. Inflows to US bond funds have totalled USD28.4bn since the beginning of the year, while international bond funds have taken on USD24.5bn, and funds dedicated to high yield bonds have seen inflows of USD22.1bn. However, US municipal bond funds have seen outflows of more than USD25bn since the beginning of the year, and European bond funds have seen outflows of nearly USD13bn.

Barclays Capital and HFR Asset Management have announced that they are creating a partnership in the managed accounts segment. The cooperation will bring together the managed accounts platform at HFR, on which more than 1,000 hedge fund strategies are available, and the expertise of Barclays Capital, particularly in structuring and distribution.

Due to redemption demands following an accusation of insider trading by one of its portfolio managers, Joseph F. “Chip” Skowron III, and poor returns, FrontPoint Partners will be liquidating some of its hedge funds, the Wall Street Journal reports. However, the management firm did not disclose the scale of the redemption demands, or indicate which funds would be closed.According to sources familiar with the matter, FrontPoint may retain a recent USD1bn fund specialised in lending to mid-sized businesses, a quant-macro fund, and a strategic credit fund.

NYSE Euronext has announced that Amundi has added the Amundi ETF MSCI EM Asia B (code Isin : FR0011018316) and Amundi ETF MSCI EM Latin America B (FR0011018324) ETF funds, both of which charge fees of 0.45%, to trading on its Paris ETF platform. They replicate the MSCI Emerging Marekets ASIA And MSCI Emerging Markets Latam indices.With these new French-registered products, NYSE Euronext now lists 557 ETFs 649 times in Europe. Since the beginning of the year, the European platforms of the market business have registered 108 listings, corresponding to 82 ETFs.

The French investment management association (AFG) has responded to comments by the financial stability board (FSB) about ETFs and the risks that they could pose to financial stability. In response to the uncertainties expressed by the FSB about potential systemic risks inherent in these products, the professional association points out that these products are developing in a robust regulatory environment in Europe. On the one hand, ETFs are UCITS format funds, which therefore have a very solid regulatory framework; on the other, ETFs, unlike other UCITS-compliant funds, are also required to respect a series of requirements related to their listing on stock exchanges, such as disclosure of their indicative asset value and intra-day net asset value. The AFG also claims that ETFs are simple products, regardless of the method of replication used, either synthetic or physical. More sophisticated products, such as inverse ETFs and leveraged ETFs, represent only a very small part of the market, and these are also UCITS-compliant funds, meaning, for example, that leverage may not exceed 100% of net assets. However, the professional association points out that there is currently a “very high” risk of confusion for the final investor between ETFs and products whose legal status is completely different, and which do not offer anything like the same guarantees, such as exchange-traded products (ETP) exchange-traded vehicles (ETV), exchange-traded commodities (ETC), and exchange-traded notes (ETN).

The alternative management firm SAC Capital Advisors is planning to launch a new quantitative hedge fund in the next few months, probably in third quarter, Bloomberg reports. Quantitative strategies represent about 15% of total assets under management at SAC Capital Management, which weigh in a USD35bn overall.

In the month of April, in a context of rising equities and commodities markets coupled with strong gains for the US dollar, all hedge find strategies posted gains, according to statistics from the Edhec Risk Institute. The best results were for CTA Global strategies, which gained 3.82%. However, convertibles arbitrage strategies saw some difficulties, despite good results for convertible bonds (2.68%), and finished the month with modest gains of 0.12%. Equity Market Neutral strategies earned returns of 0.97%, while all equities strategies posted good results, such as event-driven, with +1.19%, and long/.short equity, with +1.35%.

On 18 May, the Hamburg stock exchange has announced that a freeze on subscriptions and redemptions for the open-ended real estate fund of funds DB ImmoFlex, announced by DWS Investment, has led to shares in the product being admitted to trading on its platform. The stock market business, which operates the Hamburg and Hanover stock markets, adds that all German open-ended real estate funds and funds of funds which are currently subject to freezes are admitted to trading on its markets.

Fidelity International is now offering those German investors who tend to be more prudent and conservative the Fidelity Global Strategic Bond Fund, which covers all bond segments (investment grade corporate bonds, high yield bonds, government bonds, inflation-linked bonds, and emerging markets bonds). The fund, denominated in euros and registered in Luxembourg, has received a German sales license from BaFin.Fidelity Germany on 20 May also announced that it has released the Fidelity Asian Bond Fund (in USD), which is aimed at clients who are less hesitant to take risks, and who are seeking to participate in Asian growth.Assets in Asia-Pacific (ex Japan) managed by Fidelity as of the end of December totalled USD55.7bn.CharacteristicsName: Fidelity Global Strategic Bond FundISIN codes: Distribution share class: LU0594301060Capitalisation share class: LU0594300682Manager: Andy WeirBenchmark index: Barlcaus Capital Global Aggregate Bond IndexFront-end fee: 3.5%Management commission: 1.15%Name: Fidelity Asian Bond FundISIN code: capitalisation share class: LU0605512275Manager: Bryan CollinsBenchmark index: BofA/Merrill Lynch Asian Dollar Investment Grade Index (ADIG)Front-end fee: 3.5%Management commission: 0.75%

Ibercaja Gestión on 24 March launched a “expected performance” bond fund, which is described as an intermediate solutions between a guaranteed fund and a savings deposit. The product, Ibercaja Renta Fija 2014 – 2, matures on 29 December 2014. It aims for annualised performance of 3.25% to 3.50%.The portfolio will be invested in bonds rated at least A- by S&P or the equivalent, but may be up to 40% invested in BBB+/BBB- rated shares, and may allocate a maximum of 3% of its assets to bonds with a rating of less than BBB-, or which are not rated. The average duration for the portfolio will initially be less than 3.5 years. All securities will be retained until maturity.The fund will be available until 30 July with no front-end fee.CharacteristicsName: Ibercaja Renta Fija 2014 – 2ISIN code: ES0147049003Front-end fee: 0.5%, from 30 July 2011Management commission: 0.95%Depository banking commission: 0.1%Early withdrawal penalty: 1.5%, from 30 July 2011

The “Offene Immobilienfonds Rating 2011” rankings from the Berlin-based agency Scope Analysis covers only 24 open-ended real estate funds, compared with 29 in 2010 (see Newsmanagers of 12 May 2010). Only three products saw increases to their ratings: the Deka-ImmobilienGlobal (up to A+ from A), the grundbesitz europa fund from RREEF Investment (Deutsche Bank), which is promoted to AA from AA-, and the WestInvest InterSelect, reserved for institutional investors, which has moved into the AA+ category from A+, putting it at the top of the rankings. In total, 10 funds get A ratings or higher, compared with 12 in 2010, and 18 in 2009.Scope has also maintained its ratings for ten funds unchanged, and has further lowered its ratings for 11 funds (compared with 23 in 2010). At the bottom of the rankings, the only funds in the “D” class are two funds from DEGI (Aberdeen group), the Global Business fund (which was already rated D in 2010), and the International fund (which was rated BB in 2010). The DEGI International fund, meanwhile, is the fund which has seen the heaviest losses in one year (15%); it is also second for highest levels of leverage (41.6%), after the TMW Immobilien Weoltfonds (48%).The dispersion of performances for the various funds is very wide, from +5.2% and -15% in one year. According to calculations by the BVI, average one-year performance as of the end of March totalled 0.9%, due to the fact that the German association of asset management firms does not take into account real estate funds whose liquidation has been announced since the beginning of the year, which had seen double-digit losses. According to estimates as of the end of December, however, open-ended real estate funds had lost an average of 1.3%.The best retail products in the rankings are the grundbesitz europa, followed by the Deka-ImmobilienGlobal, SEB ImmoPortfolio Target Return Fund (high net worth private clients and institutionals), which receive A+ ratings, and then the Deka ImmobilienEuropa, hausInvest (Commerz Real) and UniImmo: Deutschland, which receive A ratings.

In an echo of the 2011 rankings of open-ended real estate funds by Scope (see article in today’s Newsmanagers), Die Welt reports that the ratings agency finds that the UniImmo: Global fund from Union Investment has a good chance of being able to reopen to redemptions, because it did not close to redemptions in March due to liquidity problems, but rather due to the disaster in Japan.Scope also estimates that the CS Euroreal fund (Credit Suisse Asset Management) and the KanAm grundinvest fund, which have high quality portfolios, could reopen to redemptions in the relatively near future. However, the SEB ImmoInvest fund is facing a handicap due to the fact that one fifth of its portfolio is invested in properties on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, which presents a cluster risk. In addition, SEB Asset Management lacks a reliable distribution partner, who could prevent redemptions from being too high if the fund is reopened.Lastly, four funds will have difficulty reopening, either because they are too small, or because they have seen losses, or because the value of their portfolios could be revised heavily downwards: these funds are the TMW Immobilien Weltfonds, Axa Immoselect, and the DEGI International and Global Business funds.

Investors worldwide are acquiring a growing interest in emerging markets and alternative asset classes, according to an annual survey of institutional investors by Mercer (“2010 Global Manager Search Trends report”). From a diversification standpoint, investors are interested in real estate, largely due to the relatively attractive prices in this asset class. There is also a growing interest in commodities, infrastructure, and multi-strategy hedge funds. Research into emerging markets, both in equities and bonds, has also increased strongly. Andy Barber, global director of Manager Research at Mercer, says that “interest in non-traditional asset classes is continuing to increase, as investors seek to diversify their investments and participate in opportunities to generate alpha and beta.” Interest in traditional investments is falling, due to the crisis, but it will continue, Berber predicts, adding that mandates for traditional equities and bond management will continue to dominate research activities in the short term. In Europe, research activities have been significantly reduced in the United Kingdom in 2010, but had increased strongly the previous year, while it has risen more than 50% in Germany, with strong demand for emerging markets strategies (equities and bonds). Activities have also increased in Switzerland and Sweden, while they have fallen in France, Ireland, and the Netherlands.