Steven Maijoor, le président de l’Autorité européenne des marchés financiers (Esma), détaille pour « L'Agefi » les priorités de son mandat

Benjamin Le Roux, coresponsable de la gestion taux chez Lazard Frères Gestion

«Nous nous penchons sur le trading à haute fréquence»

Le président de l'Autorité européenne, Steven Maijoor, explique à « L'Agefi » ses priorités

Les chiffres publiés vendredi envoient des signaux opposés. Mais la tendance générale est positive d’après les économistes

Lors du colloque de l'AMF et de la CRE vendredi, acteurs de marché et régulateurs ont évoqué les défis à surmonter face à la financiarisation de la classe d'actifs

Après une brève phase de consolidation, l’indice devrait revenir à 3.075 points puis viser les 3.500 points

Le quotidien avance que le plus important fonds alternatif au monde dédié aux matières premières a subi la semaine dernière des pertes de quelque 400 millions de dollars du fait de la décrue des prix pétroliers. L’actif total du hedge fund londonien est proche de 5 milliards. Le quotidien cite une lettre envoyée aux clients vendredi soulignant la volatilité inhabituelle des prix.

Le Premier ministre grec a évoqué ce week-end l'éventualité d'un recours au Fonds européen de stabilité financière à compter de 2012

Le déficit commercial de la France s’est légèrement réduit en mars grâce à la baisse des achats de produits pétroliers mais il affiche un bond de 60% sur les trois premiers mois de l’année, à l’opposé de l’Allemagne. La balance commerciale se solde en mars par un déficit de 5,746 milliards d’euros, après 6,374 milliards (révisé) en février, selon les données CVS/CJO publiées par les Douanes.

La banque centrale australienne a prévenu qu’une nouvelle hausse des taux d’intérêt serait nécessaire à l’avenir pour contenir la hausse des prix, après avoir relevé sa prévision d’inflation d’ici fin 2013. La Reserve Bank of Australia prévoit désormais que l’inflation sous-jacente atteindra 3% d’ici la fin de cette année, puis 3,25% d’ici fin 2013, soit au-delà de son objectif à moyen terme, compris entre 2 et 3% en rythme annuel.

The first US protected capital mutual fund with daily liquidity and no set maturity date was launched on 4 May; it is the Janus Pretected Series-Growth, from Janus Capital Group. The US asset management firm has formed a partnership with BNP Paribas, by the terms of which the French group will provide capital protection for the new fund.The objective for the Janus Protected Series-Growth fund is to ensure a net asset value for subscribers which will under no curcumstances be less than 80% of the highest net asset value observed at any single time for any share class. In order to balance capital increase and protection, the fund will largely invest in US large caps, money markets, US Treasury bonds, short futures on indices, and other instruments, in order to reduce risk.

BNP Paribas Investment Partners on 5 May announced the launch of one of the first horizon (target date) funds of emerging market corporate debt, which will be available to private investors: BNPP Obli Nouveaux Marchés 2016. The French-registered fund will aim to fully participate in the growth dynamic in emerging markets, by investing primarily in corporate bonds, with limited counterparty risk. “With this new vehicle, designed specifically for the French market, we offer a transparent and simple solution: a fund denominated in euros, and hedged against USD currency risks. It allows invetors to fully profit from attractive returns on bonds held up until their maturity, while limiting portfolio risks, through high levels of diversification,” Mario Petrachi, director of external distribution for France, announced at a press conference.

With its new Senior Floating Rate Fund, launched on 4 May (acronym PSRIX for the institutional share class), Pimco (Allianz Global Investors group) has launched a product which will aim to provide investors with access to the attractive returns and portfolio diversification offered by the senior secured banking debt market. The fund is managed by Elizabeth MacLean.

The most recent statistics available indicate that inflows to hedge funds totalled USD10.1bn in first quarter, Hedgeweek reports. If this pace keeps up, the inflows in question may double compared with their levels last year. Major hedge funds attracted over USD12bn, while more modest hedge funds underwent net redemptions. Global macro strategies posted the strongest inflows (USD3.3bn), followed by fixed income arbitrage (USD2.9bn) and managed futures (USD2.8bn). Overall, assets under management in the sector as of 31 March totalled USD1.8trn, compared with USD1.7trn as of 31 December 2010. The Dow Jones Credit Suisse index, which measures the performance of hedge funds, has posted a 2.2% increase in first quarter 2011.

The Wall Street Journal reports that US prosecutors have begun investigating transactions undertaken from an equities portfolio of about USD3bn at SAC Capital, known as the “Cohen Account,” or internally, as the “Big Book.” Prosecutors are focusing on transactions which were suggested to Steven Cohen for the portfolio by Noah Freeman and Donald Longueil, two former portfolio managers who have recently pleaded guilty to insider trading.The newspaper points out, however, that no accusations have been made against the head of the alternative management firm, or against SAC Capital. In addition, investigators don’t say that the transactions suggested by Freeman and Longueil were based on insider information, nor that Cohen knew what reasons were leading the two men to make the recommendations.

The European fund and asset management association (EFAMA) on 5 May published its annual report on automatisation and standardisation of order processing, in partnership with Swift. In fourth quarter 2010, the percentage of orders which were processed automatically continued to increase, for a total of 75.4%, compared with 73.6% in fourth quarter 2009, according to a survey covering 21 transfer agencies based in Luxembourg and 10 in Ireland. The adoption of ISO standards has also increased, from a percentage of 33.7% in fourth quarter 2009 to 36.5% as of fourth quarter 2010. The level of automatisation is higher in Ireland than in Luxembourg (75.7%, compared with 71.4% in fourth quarter 2010), while the reverse is the case for use of ISO standards (49.1% in Luxembourg, compared with 8.7% in Ireland).

On 8 April, the CNMV issued a sales license for Spain to the Luxembourg-registered fund Mirabaud Multi-Manager, whose assets already total over EUR130m. It is a multi-strategy, UCITS compliant product, launched in December 2009, which currently invests in 14 equally weighted hedge funds (up to a maximum of 15), with varying management styles (alternative or absolute returns), in various asset classes. The objective will be to earn absolute returns and liquidity on a monthly basis; as Mirabaud states, the product “has a very high capital preservation objective,” with a maximum draw-down of 4%. In 2010, performance totalled 4.05%, with volatility of 3.3%.The advisor of the fund is Prosper Professional Services (in which Mirabaud controls about 30%), and the product, which will be managed by Anne-Catherine Frogg at Mirabaud, is itself a sub-fund of the Prosper Funds Sicav. It is available in three A-class shares and 1 I-class shares, in Swiss francs, euros and US dollars; the shares of reference are the euro-denominated shares, while the other two currencies are hedged for currency risks. The fund will be available from Mirabaud Finanzas.Assets at Mirabaud as of the end of December totalled about CHF25bn.

JP Morgan Asset Management has announced the recruitment of Joe Valente as head of research and strategy for its European real estate unit. Valente had been head of investment strategy for Allianz Real Estate since 2007. He will be based in London, where his mission will be to analyse European real estate markets, and identify investment opportunities.

MiFID II, UCITS IV, PRIP, ICSD... The European asset management sector is facing a massive wave of new regulations. In its last VISION report, entitled “The Changing Shape of Asset Management,” State Street examines the impact of regulatory changes on the asset management sector in Europe, and its consequences for competition and the performance of investments. “The challenge for asset managers, regardless of their size, will be to remain concentrated on their main activity; in other words, to construct high-performance investment portfolios. They will be easily distracted from this objective by the high volume of regulations to come,” says Marty Dobbins, CEO of State Street in Luxembourg. The report also examines how regulations may influence the future development of products. “product development teams will work in close collaboration with their counterparts in risk and compliance services, to ensure that new products comply with standards, are exploitable, and are ready for launch on the market,” says Mike Karpik, senior CEO and chief investment officer at State Street Global Advisors for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.” The study may be found at : http://www.statestreet.com/wps/portal/internet/corporate/home/thoughtle…

The strategic partnership announced on 5 May by CB Equity Partners (CBE) and Topland Group of Companies (TLG) will aim to invest up to EUR2bn in German real estate. It will aim to take majority stakes in long-term projects, particularly sale & leaseback operations. As the two partners have done in the past, CBE will identify the transactions, and TLG will provide the capital, asset management and real estate expertise.

With only 0.30% management commission, the SKAG Balanced fund may appear to be an ETF fund, but it fact it is a diversified fund which has earned annual returns of 8% since its launch in 2006, Financial Times Deutschland reports. SKAG is the asset management affiliate of Siemens, which has launched seven funds to date, solely for the use of personnel. Since last year, SKAG has introduced a front-end fee, a sign that it is planning to offer the fund more widely outside the firm.The same is true at BMW-Bank, which manages five small funds, and which is now hoping to release them to multi-managers; over three years, the funds have earned average annual returns of over 4%.However, at Mercedes-Benz Bank, there is little desire to offer the diversified funds and three in-house funds of funds to the outside world. Those funds are available only to clients of the bank.

Société Générale on Thursday, 5 May published its quarterly accounts, which show a net profit for the part of the group of EUR916m in first quarter 2011, down 13.8% compared with first quarter 2010. The private banking, asset management and investor services unit, which includes private banking (Société Générale Private Banking), asset management (Amundi, TCW), investor services (Société Générale Securities & Services) and brokerage (Newedge), has seen an increase in its profits, with EUR84.2bn in assets under management in private banking (compared with EUR79.1bn in March 2010), and in asset management, following a year of restructuring, and positive inflows for the second consecutive quarter for the US management firm TCW. The investor services profession has seen its level of assets under custody increase by 4.7% in one year. At EUR580m, quarterly revenues for the unit are up 13.3% compared with 31 March 2010. Private banking has posted a net inflow of EUR1.7bn, At EUR220m, net banking income for the professional area grew significantly, by 30.2% compared with first quarter 2010, driven largely by the increase in treasury revenues, structured product activities, and lower contributions from one-time elements. As of the end of March 2011, net inflows at TCW were positive, at EUR1.3bn. Net banking income for the professional area totalled EUR89m, up 6% compared with the end of first quarter 2010. The contribution from Amundi of EUR32m brings net profits for the part of the unit to EUR40m, compared with EUR19m in first quarter 2010. Lastly, investor services activities as of 31 March totalled assets under custody of EUR3.397trn, up 4.7% year on year. Assets under administration, for their part, remained stable, at EUR452bn at the end of first quarter 2011, compared with 31 March 2010. The volatility of the markets has allowed Newedge to post an increase in trading volumes of 11%. Investor services activities at Newedge posted net banking income up 4.6% compared with the same period one year previously, at EUR271m.

Philippe Lecomte, CEO of Schroders for France, and Frédéric Bôl, founder and chairman of the board at Viveris REIM (EUR2.5bn in assets) on 5 May annunced that their firms will join forces to launch the first pan-European retail OPCI fund on 8 July, with the goal of assets of EUR400m, with 30% leverage.The announcement marks the beginning of a strategic cooperation in which Schroders, which manages about EUR11bn in real estate (of a total of EUR230bn), and which had no platform of this type in France, will entrust the management of the French allocation from its future European real estate funds to its partner. Through Viveris REIM, the British firm is now present in a ninth market for real estate.The new product, which will be managed by Frédéric Lombardo (CIO of Viveris REIM), will allow Schroders to provide its clients with a diversification product, which will be subject to French regulations and will be managed by a credible local team. The internal return objective for the fund will be 7% after fees, with a dividend objective of 5% after fees.The life of the OPCI product is expected to be about eight years, followed by two years for the liquidation of the portfolio. The manager’s variable remuneration will be limited to 8.5%, as a sign that the partners privilege prudent management. The new fund will focus on the Scandinavian countries and eastern Europe, and will avoid exposure to the Spanish, Portuguese and central and eastern European markets, which currently offer little hope of returns.

Assets under management at the US group Prudential Financial totalled USD858.5bn as of 31 March 2011, compared with USD784bn as of the end of December 2010, and USD693.3bn one year earlier. Net inflows from institutional clients (excluding money markets) in first quarter totalled USD5.9bn, compared with USD2bn in first quarter 2010. Assets under administration as of the end of March totalled USD86.6bn. Net profits from the group’s financial services activities totalled USD589m in first quarter, compared with USD536m one year previously.

The Swedish management firm East Capital has announced that Jean-Marie Laporte is leaving his job as director at the Paris office on 1 June, to become a senior advisor to the East Capital group. In his new role, he will sit on the boards of directors of various Sicavs of the group, and will lend his expertise to sales teams. Laporte will be replaced as head of the French office by Olle Olsson, who joined the Paris team in January 2009, as head of commercial development, after serving as head of external sales in Stockholm, and head of sales teams in Russia. Olsson will not be replaced in his former position, Laporte has told Newsmanagers. In his new role as director of the Paris office, the new director will continue to oversee sales teams. France, where East Capital fist set up in 2005, is now a centre for investor services and relations for southern and continental Europe. The Paris office currently has 9 employees, and its assets total about EUR600m, about 10% of the management firm’s total assets.

Since the beginning of 2011, the French affiliate of the British management firm Schroder Investment Management has posted net subscriptions of about EUR700m, and its assets total about EUR4bn. A good part of these fresh inflows came from a reallocation by the French national pension fund, the Fonds de réserve pour les retraites (FRR), of a US credit mandate to Schroders.

Crédit Agricole (Switzerland) on 5 May announced a stable consolidated net profit of CHF141.8m for the 2010 fiscal year, as well as a net inflow of CHF3bn to private management. Assets under management at the bank are down slightly, by 2.2% for the past fiscal year, to CHF48bn as of the end of 2010, compared with CHF49.1bn one year previously, due to a decline for the major global currencies, particularly the euro and US dollar, against the Swiss franc. The bank is continuing its deployment in growth areas (Asia, the Middle East and Latin America). In Asia, the bank has set itself the objective of doubling its personnel and assets under management in Hong Kong and Singapore between 2010 and 2013.

The British management firm Schroders has reported pre-tax profits for first quarter 2011 of GBP103.8m, compared with GBP93.2m for the first three months of the previous year. Net inflows totalled GBP3.1bn, while assets under management totalled GBP201.4bn, compared with GBP196.7bn as of 31 December. Pre-tax profits for the asset management unit totalled GBP97.3m, compared with GBP88.9m one year previously. Net inflows totalled GBP3bn, of which GBP2.8bn were from institutional sources. As of the end of March, assets under management totalled GBP185bn, compared with GBP180.5bn as of 31 December 2010. Private banking activities earned pre-tax profits of GBP6.7m, compared with GBP1.3m in first quarter 2010. Net inflows totalled GBP100m, bringing total assets under management to GBP16.4bn, compared with GBP16.2bn as of the end of 2010.

The British Man Group on 5 May announced the appointment of Emmanuel Roman, chief operating officer since October 2010, as executive director on the group’s board. Matthew Lester, CFO at the Royal Mail Group, has been appointed as a non-executive director, also effective immediately.