Passé sous la barre des 4% en 2010, il est attendu par S&P en hausse à 5,5%-7,5% fin 2012 à cause du défi du refinancement de certains LBO

Le Mexique, la Russie et la Thailande ont acheté plus de 121 tonnes d'or en février et en mars. Un stock estimé à 6 milliards de dollars

L’ancien propriétaire d’une écurie de Formule 1 Eddie Jordan a confié que News Corp et Exor devraient sans doute consentir à verser quelque 7 milliards de livres, l’équivalent de 7,8 milliards d’euros, afin de mettre la main sur l’organisation de course automobile. Son propriétaire actuel, CVC Capital Partners, a indiqué avoir été approché par ces deux prétendants, de façon amicale et très préliminaire.

Le plan d'aide plongerait le pays en récession jusqu'en 2012. Des mesures structurelles sont espérées

Le plan d'aide plongerait le pays en récession jusqu'en 2012. Des mesures structurelles sont espérées

Selon les statistiques publiées par Eurostat, les ventes au détail dans la zone euro ont reculé de 1,0% en mars d’un mois sur l’autre, soit leur plus fort repli mensuel depuis novembre 2009. Sur un an, elles ressortent en baisse de 1,7%.

La croissance des services de la zone euro a ralenti en avril mais la solide performance du secteur industriel suggère que l'économie des 17 pays ayant adopté la monnaie unique a bien débuté le deuxième trimestre. L’indice Markit des services a reculé à 56,7 (contre 56,9 en estimation flash) après son plus haut de près de quatre ans touché en mars à 57,2.

Les modalités du plan de sauvetage de 78 milliards d’euros consenti au Portugal laisse craindre que le pays plonge dans une profonde récession en 2011 et 2012 estiment certains analystes. Par ailleurs, selon Reuters, le plan de sauvetage comprendrait 12 milliards d’euros pour une recapitalisation du secteur bancaire. L’accord prévoit que les banques portugaises devront porter leur ratio de fonds propres «durs» (core Tier 1) à 9% fin 2011 et à 10% fin 2012. Des responsables de l’UE et du FMI devaient rencontrer dans la journée des membres du principal parti d’opposition pour obtenir leur accord sur les modalités du plan, alors que des élections législatives anticipées sont prévues le 5 juin. L’annonce de l’accord a provoqué une certaine détente pour le papier portugais, dont les rendements ont reculé pour la première fois depuis plusieurs semaines. Le taux de l’emprunt à 10 ans, qui a touché mardi un plus haut historique depuis l’introduction de l’euro à 10,32%, reculait autour de 10% mercredi. Le spread avec le Bund allemand de même échéance a lui baissé à 677 points de base (pdb), contre un pic à 707 pdb mardi. Lisbonne a emprunté mercredi environ 1,12 milliard d’euros à trois mois, soit un peu plus que prévu, à des rendements en hausse par rapport à fin avril.

Soutenue par l’afflux de nouveaux contrats, la croissance de l’activité dans le secteur des services en France a atteint en avril son rythme le plus élevé depuis septembre 2000, montrent mercredi les résultats définitifs de l’enquête mensuelle Markit auprès des directeurs d’achats. L’indice PMI est monté à 62,9 contre 60,4 en mars.

Intech Investment Management, an asset manager belonging to the Janus Group, has announced the launch of its Alpha Capture Index strategy, a passive alternative to capitalization-weighted indexing. Intech’s research demonstrates that over the long term its Alpha Capture Index has the potential to provide a performance advantage when compared to a market-capitalization-weighted index, and is more stable than an equal-weighted portfolio. This passive alternative essentially combines an equal-weighted index and a cap-weighted index using a patented investment process and incorporating proprietary trading innovations. The result is a portfolio combination that is more efficient than either index independently. The Intech Alpha Capture Index strategy seeks to generate approximately 50-to-60 basis points of excess return annualized over the cap-weighted index gross of fees, to have low portfolio turnover (approximately 8% per year over the long term), to have low implementation costs and fees, and a tracking error of approximately 1.5% to 2.0% per year gross of fees over the long term to the capitalization-weighted alternative. Currently, the strategy can be managed against three benchmarks: the S&P 500 Index, Russell 1000 Index, and MSCI World Index.

The French hedge fund Nexar Capital, founded by former partners and directors at SGAM AI, has announced the acquisition of the alternative management firm Ermitage Group, for an undisclosed amount, Les Echos reports. It is a new acquisition, which comes only six months after the acquisition of Allianz Alternative Asset Management (AAAm). Nexar, which since its creation in September 2009 has been teamed up with the US specialised venture capital firm Aquiline, is aiming for about EUR10bn in assets by 2015, through a combination of organic growth and opportunity-driven acquisitions.

S&P Indices has launched the S&P CIVETS 60, a tradable index comprised of second-generation emerging markets - Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa.The S&P CIVETS 60 is comprised of ten liquid stocks trading on each relevant domestic exchange within the 6 CIVETS countries. It is likely to serve as the basis for ETFs in Europe and Asia.As of March 31, 2011, South Africa represented 31.61% of the Index, followed by Indonesia (28.14%), Turkey (21.01%), Columbia (12.49%), Egypt (5.68%) and Vietnam (1.07%).

The Munich-based asset management firm KanAm has announced that it is extending its redemption freeze for the open-ended real estate fund KanAm grundinvest, with EUR3.94bn in assets, until 6 May 2012.KanAm will also be conducting a survey of subscribers to the fund, from this month until August, to determine what their plans are in terms of redemptions. The responses of subscribers will determine the future of the fund.KanAm states that the occupancy rate for properties in the fund as of 31 December totalled 99.2%.

A license application has been submitted to the CNMV by Abante Asesores for a new fund of funds, entitled SmartISH Fondo de Gestores, which will invest in talented managers whose asset levels are still low. The product, whose capacity will be limited to EUR20m, will be managed by Ángel Olea, CIO and partner at Abante, Funds People reports. The portfolio will be invested in 15 promising funds, from a universe of 50 managers.The fund will aim to generate returns higher than those of the equities markets, but will have no tracking error constraints. The management team will avoid Spanish hedge funds as far as possible, due to liquidity considerations.

European pension funds are increasingly worried by the potential impact of inflationary pressure on their portfolios, in a context of highly unstable markets, according to the 2011 Mercer survey of asset allocation in Europe, which covered 1,100 pension funds with total assets of over EUR550bn.The survey finds that 38% of funds with concerns about inflation are planning to take immediate measures to protect themselves against potential shocks. Slightly less than half of them are planning to increase their allocations to inflation-linked bonds, while 12% are using discretionary management, or are introducing ‘airbag’ mechanisms which would increase allocation to inflation-linked bonds or to swaps.Meanwhile, 23% of continental European funds, and 35% of British funds, are planning to reduce their exposure to local equities in the next 12 months, while about 20% of all funds are planning to increase their exposure to government bonds, and/or to non-traditional asset classes.22% of European funds are also planning to increase their allocation to emerging market debt, while 6% are planning to diversify into distressed debt.

As Michaela Salzmann has left the firm, responsibility for sales in Austria and Germany at Oddo & Cie will be taken over by Bertrand Levavasseur, head of international sales, for the interim period until a replacement is recruited at the French firm.So far, Oddo has registered only three equities funds in Germany, but three more products, focused on convertibles, are in the process of receiving licenses from BaFin.

Simon Klein, head of ETF operations at Lyxor Asset Management since the beginning of this year, has announced that the affiliate of Société Générale is hoping to claw back some market share in Germany with an action to increase transparency and roll out new services, the Börsen-Zeitung reports.The French asset management firm will publish the swap percentage and swap counterparties for its ETFs on its website. It will also be possible to view and hedge the value of the swaps. Lyxor will also intensify ETF lending and use of ETF options.

Schroders has re-named Schroder AS Gold & Metals Fund to Schroder AS Gold and Precious Metals Fund and changed the investment approach and objective in order to offer investors an actively managed fund focused on gold.The fund will be actively managed by Paula Bujia, a senior fund manager on the commodities team, which manages USD12.5billion in commodity funds. It will invest in a range of investment instruments including futures, swaps, physically-backed exchange traded funds (ETFs) and equities. It will be measured against a benchmark comprising 75% gold spot price and 25% gold equities (NYSE Gold Bugs Index). The fund aims to be 50-100% invested in gold, but can hold 0-50% in gold equities. It can also invest up to 33% in other precious metals, such as silver and platinum, if the fund manager believes that they will outperform gold. Finally, the fund can hold up to 33% in cash.

The British alternative asset management firm Man Group (USD69bn) on 3 May announced that it has raised USD1.5bn for the Nomura Global Trend fund, the first onshore Japanese fund from its division AHL. The product will be available in Japan from Nomura. The fund, which is open-ended and computer-managed will invest in several asset classes via three baskets of currencies, one of which uses the Chinese yuan.

The Paris office of Pioneer Investments has recruited Mickaël Houri as Regional Marketing Coordinator. Houri, 25, is a graduate of the Ecole Supérieure de Gestion (ESG), and holds a European Master of Business Administration. He replaces Jonathan Talent, who has left the firm. The team at Pioneer Investments, with EUR1.5bn in assets under management in France, includes 10 employees, of whom 6 are in sales.

Two years after its merger with La Française des Placements, the UFG-LFP group continues to have strong positive momentum from the operation, and is in line to meet its objectives. Following the establishment in 2010 of a new set of operations, with the development of strategic partnerships and the first steps in an international deployment, the group is planning to make 2011-2012 years for concretising the business model, centred on private and international management, the chairman of the board at UFG-LFP, Xavier Lépine, has said at a press conference. UFG-LFP, where long-term net inflows (excluding EUR800m in redemptions from money markets) were high last year, at nearly EUR2bn, on assets of over EUR35bn, is hoping to become a European leader among multi-specialist asset managers.That development would involve a concentration on certain client segments and areas of expertise. These would include the firm’s historic areas of expertise, in fixed income (EUR18bn in assets) and diversified management (EUR5.7bn), as well as stepping up the group’s expertise in equities (EUR1.6bn) and absolute returns (EUR300m). In real estate, where assets now total EUR5.8bn, the group is planning to concentrate on asset management for third parties, and is planning to outsource property management activities to a partnership, in which UFG-LFP would be a minority partner.Internationally, the firm’s plans to develop from its administrative platform in Luxembourg will continue at full throttle in the coming months, with several recruitments and a planned distribution partnership in Germany with Klimek Advisors. International personnel, who currently number 19, will be increased to at least 22 (12 sales and 10 support staff) by the end of the year. International assets may represent 5% of total assets under management in the next two to three years, compared with EUR800m currently.The group is planning to further refine its image, and is seriously considering a name change.

BNP Paribas on 4 May announced net profits for the part of the group of EUR2.61bn, an increase of 14.6% compared with first quarter 2010. The annualised profitability of tier 1 equity totalled 15.1%, compared with 14.4% in first quarter 2010. Net profits per share totalled EUR2.12, up 13.6% compared with first quarter 2010. Net inflows for the Investment Solutions unit at BNP Paribas in first quarter totalled EUR8.3bn. The contribution of all professional areas was positive: +EUR4.7bn for private banking (for an annualised inflow rate of 7.3%), illustrating the effectiveness of the partnership model set up with the group’s networks, and good performance in Asia; +EUR2.3bn for insurance; +EUR0.9bn in asset management, thanks to new mandates for diversified and bond funds, and lower levels of outflows from money market funds; and lastly, +EUR0.4bn at Personal Investors. Despite a favourable currency effect related to a rising euro, these inflows have allowed assets under management to increase by 3.5% compared with 31 March 2010, to a total of EUR904bn.

The Wall Street Journal reports that some hedge funds specialised in arbitrage have been hosted as many as three times in a row in the past few weeks by the CEO of Nasdaq, Robert Greifeld. Nasdaq, which has launched a hostile takeover bid for NYSE, is trying to convince hedge funds to buy shares in NYSE in order to subsequently vote against plans to merge the company with Deutsche Börse on 7 July. The deadline to hold shares in order to be eligible to vote on the proposition is today, 4 May.

In the six months to 31 March 2011, Aberdeen Asset Management has posted underlying pre-tax profits of GBP142.8m, an increase of 54% compared with the end of March 2010, on earnings of GBP385.9m.Assets totalled GBP181.2bn, an increase compared with a total of GBP170.9bn as of March 2010.In the first half of its fiscal year, Aberdeen AM has undergone net redemptions of GBP700m, where it had posted net subscriptions of GBP100m in the corresponding period of 2010.The firm has seen net redemptions from all asset classes, except equities, where it took on inflows of a net GBP5.5bn.

In the first three months of 2011, F&C Asset Management possted net subscriptions of GBP195m (excluding insurance). Assets increased to GBP106.1bn, compared with GBP105.8bn as of 31 December. The British management firm has also confirmed in a statement that its board of directors is reviewing its strategy. Several launches of absolute return UCITS III-compliant funds are in progress, including a global high yield bond fund.

Simon Edelsten and Alex Illingworth are joining Artemis Investment Management in order to set up a new equities stock-picking team worldwide for retail and institutional clients, Money Marketing reports. Edelsten previously worked for Taube Hodson Stonex, and Illingworth for Insight Investment.

Le gestionnaire britannique Man Group (69 milliards de dollars) a annoncé le 3 mai avoir levé 1,5 milliard de dollars pour le Nomura Global Trend, le premier fonds japonais «onshore» de sa division AHL. Ce produit sera distribué au Japon par Nomura. Le fonds, ouvert et à gestion pilotée par ordinateur, investira dans plusieurs catégories d’actifs au travers de trois paniers de devises, dont un comprenant le yuan chinois.

Intech Investment Management, société de gestion du groupe américain Janus Capital, vient de lancer la stratégie «Alpha Capture Index» associant pour 75 % des portefeuilles basés sur des indices pondérés par la capitalisation boursière et pour 25 % des portefeuilles equi-pondérés. «La recherche d’Intech démontre mathématiquement que les stratégies basées uniquement sur les indices de capitalisation boursière n’offrent pas une performance optimale et que les portefeuilles équipondérés ont, eux, des ‘tracking errors’ importantes. Intech a donc décidé de développer une troisième voie dans le domaine des stratégies passives en associant les deux types d’approches afin de pouvoir surperformer un indice pondéré par la capitalisation boursière tout un ayant un portefeuille avec une ‘tracking error’ faible et des coûts opérationnels bas», indique un communiqué. Les objectifs sont ceux de générer (hors frais) un alpha de 50-60 points de base au dessus de l’indice de capitalisation choisi, une ‘tracking error’ de 1,5% à 2% par an, une rotation de portefeuille d’environ 8% sur le long terme ainsi que des frais opérationnels faibles. A ce stade, la stratégie, qui est brevetée par la société, peut être mise en place avec trois indices : le S&P 500, le Russell 1000 et le MSCI Monde. «Il n’est pas impossible que la stratégie soit étendue à d’autres indices, mais pour l’instant Intech considère que ceux choisis sont les plus représentatifs et les plus utilisés par les investisseurs», indique Sylvain Agar, responsable du développement de l’Europe francophone du Groupe Janus, à Newsmanagers. «Pour l’instant, cette stratégie sera disponible, y compris en France, sous forme de mandats pour les investisseurs institutionnels qui souhaitent rester dans les stratégies passives mais doper la génération de l’alpha de leurs investissements. Si la stratégie suscite un appétit grandissant de la part d’autres investisseurs professionnels (fonds de fonds, banques privées etc.), nous pourrons envisager de structurer un fonds qui s’inspire de cette stratégie, mais il est encore un peu prématuré pour le dire… Ce serait une étape de développement supplémentaire», poursuit Sylvain Agar.Ce dernier conclut en précisant que le lancement de cette stratégie ne reflète nullement un changement de philosophie chez Intech, avec un passage de la gestion active à la gestion passive. «Cette nouvelle offre vient simplement compléter la gamme actuelle de stratégie de gestion active des actions américaines à grandes capitalisations, des actions mondiales et internationales, des long/short equity ainsi que la plate-forme sur mesure de solutions adaptées aux besoins des investisseurs institutionnels».

Le gestionnaire munichois KanAm a annoncé qu’il prolonge d’un an, jusqu’au 6 mai 2012, le gel des remboursements de son fonds immobilier offert au public KanAm grundinvest 3,94 milliards d’euros.Parallèlement, le gestionnaire munichois va procéder ce mois-ci et jusqu’en août à un sondage auprès des souscripteurs de ce fonds pour déterminer quelles sont leurs intentions en matière de rachats. Leurs réponses détemineront l’avenir du fonds.A titre indicatif, KanAm précise que le taux d’occupation des actifs du fonds au 31 décembre se situait à 99,2 %.

Après le départ de Michaela Salzmann, la responsabilité des ventes d’Oddo & Cie pour l’Allemagne et l’Autriche est reprise dans la société française par Bertrand Levavasseur, head of international sales. La partante doit être cependant remplacée à bref délai.Pour l’instant, Oddo n’a fait enregistrer que trois fonds actions en Allemagne, mais trois autres produits, axés sur les convertibles, sont en cours d’homologation auprès de la BaFin.