p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The New York-based management firm Van Eck Global on 15 March announced the launch of a new ETF dedicated to Colombian equities, Market Vectors Colombia ETF, whose acronym on NYSE Arca is COLX. The objective is to replicate the performance, before commissions and fees, of the Market Vectors Colombia Index (MVCOLXTR), developed by 4AssetManagement. The index includes not only companies domiciled and listed in Colombia, but also foreign companies which earn a majority of their revenues or own a majority of their assets in Colombia. As of 10 March, 74% of businesses in the index were Colombian. Among the 27 companies of the index, 51% are large caps, 36% are midcaps, and 13% are small caps. The fund charges 0.75%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As of the end of December, assets in ETFs in Europe total EUR228bn, which represents an increase of EUR56bn in one year, half of which comes from net subscriptions, State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) reports in a study (see pdf below). Equities ETFs continue to dominate the market, with 70% of assets.In 2010, subscribers concentrated on emerging markets equities, commodities, US, German and Japanese equities, as well as European government bonds, and ETFs which provide exposure to variations on the VIX. However, euro zone equities saw net outflows of EUR1.1bn, and money market ETFs in euros saw net redemoptions of over EUR1.5bn.The products which attracted the largest inflows were the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF and the db x-trackers MSCI emerging market TRN ETF, with net subscriptions of EUR2.01bn and EUR1.28bn, respectively. The iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN attrracted over EUR1.6bn. For products based on the Dax, the iShares and db x-trackers products attracted EUR1.12bn and EUR800m, respectively. This tends to prove that investors prefer physical replication products, such as the iShares product, to synthetic replication products like the db x-trackers fund, SSgA says.For 2011, specialists at SSgA predict continued internationalisation of portfolios, with an increase in the proportion invested in uncorrelated asset classes such as equities and emerging markets bonds. In addition, as investors are frustrated with the low returns on bonds, this year may bring an increase in subscriptions to ETFs which focus on high dividend equities.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British-registered fund (OEIC) Global Listed Infrastructure from First State Investments, launched on 31 October 2007, has returned 21.1% per year since its launch (retail A shares, before taxes), compared with 1.7% for the benchmark index, which until 1 June 2008 was the S&P Global Infrastructure Index, and since then has been the UBS Global Infrastructure & Utilities 50-50 Index. “In 40 months of existence, we have seen net redemptions in only two months,” Andrew Greenup, co-manager of the fund with Peter Meany, tells Newsmanagers.The product, whose assets totalled GBP210m as of the end of January, invests in 40 purely infrastructure businesses worldwide (including 7 French businesses which account for 12% of the portfolio), in all cap sizes, with 60% midcaps (from USD2bn to USD10bn), and 30% large caps. Only 4% are emerging markets equities (with a limit of 20%), and the turnover rate for the portfolio is low, “between 30% and 35%.”“These are not glamorous companies. They operate installations, their stable revenues offer good visibility, and they provide good insurance against inflation. In addition, they benefit from structural growth. And we pick good companies which are unjustly underpriced,” says Greenup.The infrastructure equities team at First State, which has seven members, “picks only the companies out of the 135 that it monitors which are likely to outperform the infrastructure asset class, for which returns are 12%, with dividends reinvested,” the manager says.The shares are analysed on the basis of their current cash flows (DCF) compared with the beta for the asset class and the category of similar shares, as well as on the basis of 25 qualitative criteria, including the three variables known as environmental, social and governance (ESG), which are important from a reputational risk point of view.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The financial information specialist firm GFM on 15 March announced that it has launched a new data service to which access will be free of charge. Globalfunddata includes profiles of over 34,000 funds, hedge funds, ETFs and long-only funds which submit their results to Morningstar. Users will have several possible ways to search for funds, e.g. by name, domicile, and legal format. In the next few months, GFM is planning to improve the service, with the addition of graphs and portfolio tools.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In the wake of the recent explosion in oil prices, investors are showing some concern about the profitability of businesses and continued global growth, according to the latest survey by BofA Merrill Lynch, undertaken between 4 and 10 March, of a sample of 203 managers with slightly over USD600bn in assets under management.Only a net 32% of investors predict that corporate profits will increase, compared with 51% last month. 31% expect that the consensus on profits is too high. Though in January 10% predicted that margins would progress, now 24% of investors predict that margins will fall in the next twelve months.This low level of confidence also extends to macroeconomic outlooks. Only 31% of allocators predict that growth will accelerate in the next twelve months, compared with 51% last month. In the United States, the decline is even more marked, to 21% compared with 52% the previous month.The prospect of stagflation has risen again. In the space of two months, the proportion of managers who predict that growth will be below the trend and that inflation will be higher than the trend has doubled to 38%. Investors no longer believe that interest rates will be increased in the near future due to the rise in oil prices. Three quarters of respondents predict that rates will be raised in the next twelve months. But at the same time, the rate curve may flatten out, 35% of managers predict, compared with 14% in February. In Europe, no less than 72% of managers estimate that the ECB will raise its rates before July. In February, nobody predicted that this would be the case.However, the period of stagflation may be short if the price of oil falls back again. “There has not been a massive selloff. Investors are adopting a wait-and-see attitude,” says Bary Baker, head of European equities strategy at BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research.In this context, investors have increased their liquidity allocations: 18% say they are overweight in cash, while 3% of them were underweight the previous month. They have also reduced their allocation to equities and commodities. Only 45% are overweight in equities, compared with 67% in February. But this has not resulted in a regain of interest in bonds, as investors remain underweight in this asset class (59%).The erosion of confidence in emerging markets is also beginning to diminish. Only 15% of managers of funds which invest in this region predict that the Chinese economy will slow down, compared with 27% in February. Fears for the Chinese real estate market are also less marked than previously.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Financial Services Authority (FSA) on Tuesday, 15 March sentenced the currency trading firm ActivTrades Plc to pay a fine of GBP85,750, for failing to protect client assets.As client assets need to be separated from the business with “trust status,” in order to protect the capital of savings investors, the FSA found that between 14 April 2009 and 2 September 2010, ActivTrust did not ensure that the amounts in client funds, ranging from GBP3.4m to GBP23.6m, and averaging GBP12.2m, were properly isolated in case the firm were to go bankrupt.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As part of its move to refocus on the performance of equity and bond portfolios, Alliance Trust Plc has announced that over the next few months will gradually wind down its operations in the area of private equity.Alliance Trust Equity Partners has six employees, and manages GBP110m in assets, 3.8% of total assets at the group as of the end of February.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Among the 218 people, including 53 managers, in the real estate division of Aviva Investors, there are two people in charge of developing a potential new line of “real asset” products, along with the parent company, Aviva, and institutional clients.Laurence Monnier and Ian Berry, fund managers, are focusing on infrastructure in order to offer clients funds that provide long-term visibility combined with low risk, with the objective of identifying profitable niches for each risk level.Three strategies are under study. One strategy works with external partners to create a product which is not a fund of funds, but which specialises on structuring and analysis to make direct investments in the area of renewable energies, focusing on operators rather than producers or providers of equipment.Meanwhile, the team is also hoping to release a fund of debt from regulated utilities or gas or electricity transport companies, which are low risk activities. For this project, specialists at Aviva Investors are cooperating with Hadrian’s Wall Capital. The two partners have signed an agreement to create a GBP1bn vehicle to finance projects in the United Kingdom and continental Europe.The third project under study is a management fund with no passive constraints, which would aim to bring in regular returns (Return Enhanced Asset Liability Management or REALM; see Newsmanagers of 10 March).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The publication fo solvency ratios for the Spanish savings banks last week by the Bank of Spain did not help the situation: now vulture funds are demanding rebates of as much as 70%, or 0.3 times book value, to enter the capital of the banks, Cotizalia reports. Investors called in to help increase the owners’ equity ratios at the banks include Apollo, Blackstone, Cerberus, J.C. Flowers and Paulson.The demands of these investors are virtually unacceptable: they have told the central bank that they estimate the value of real estate assets held by the banks at zero.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The head of the external fund analysis services and hedge fund products at Banco Banif for the past four years, José María Martínez-Sanjuán, has been appointed as head of a team of six analysts in the third-party fund selection service at Santander Asset Management. Banif is the private bank of the Santander group.The appointment will allow Santander AM to standardise its manager and third-party fund selection rules across the group.

As reported in Newsmanagers in June 2010, Harewood Asset Management, founded in 2004 by the equities management teams from BNP Paribas CIB, has been merged with the Sigma team of BNP Paribas Asset Management. The new entity born of the merger, entitled Theam, now becomes a wholly-owned affiliate of BNP Paribas Investment Partners, Philippe Marchessaux, administrator and CEO of BNP Paribas IP, announced on Tuesday at a press conference. Assets under management now total nearly EUR50bn, with EUR44.3bn from Sigma and EUR4.7m from Harewood. Marchessaux hopes to double this total in the next five years, through client development in Asia and North America. Staff total 120 people, and the structure is led by Gilles Guérin, who joined on 1 July to oversee the merger from HDF Finance, where he was vice-chairman of the board.Theam’s activities are structured around four specialties. The largest in terms of assets (EUR25.1m) is management of its guaranteed and protected funds. This is followed by ETF and index-based management, including the EasyETF range, with EUR15.9bn. The third unit is alternative management, which represents EUR5.4bn. This will be undertaken directly, with discretionary quantitative strategies contained in UCITS III funds, or in open architecture, via alternative multi-management funds. Theam also has an active systematic management operation.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Fabienne Pasquet has joined UFG-LFP as head of relations with banks. She was previously at Rothschild & Cie Gestion, where she served as sub-director, in charge of distribution to private banks.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The French asset management firm Dorval Finance announced on Tuesday, 15 March, that it has added to its asset allocation management team, with the arrival of Gustavo Horenstein as manager of international flexible funds. In practice, with his double expertise in economy and allocation management, he will become co-manager of the flexible funds Dorval Flexible Monde and Dorval Flexible Emergents, and will oversee the asset allocation unit alongside Sophie Chauvellier, a statement says. Horenstein, 37, was previously an analyst and manager in the diversified management and multi-management unit at Oddo Asset Management, from 2006. He joined the firm in 2000 as an economist at Oddo Securities.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The California pension fund CalPERS announced on 15 March that an internal committee has decided to recommend that the fund maintain its annual rate of return at 7.75%. The board of trustees is expected to approve the recommendation on Wednesday, 16 March. In the past 20 years, CalPERS points out, the yield rate before fees and commissions averaged 7.9% per year. For the fiscal year to 30 June 2010, the yield rate was 13.3%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Norwegian finance minister on 15 March announced that the Norwegian public pension fund has divested from the Chinese group Shanghai Industrial Holdings, due to its decision to no longer invest in tobacco producers. The fund, which had about EUR356bn in assets as of third quarter 2010, will return the American firm L-3 Communications Holdings to the list of companies in which the fund may invest, as the group has ceased to produce components for land mines. Shanghai Industrial Holdings has been excluded from the investment universe of the fund due to its 100% control of the tobacco producer Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company, the finance minister says in a statement. In early 2010, Norway announced that its sovereign fund would be disengaging from tobacco producers, a decision which initially affected 17 major groups for whom this was their main activity. 50 multinational companies, including Boeing, Wal-Mart, EADS, Safran and BAE Systems, are on the Norwegian sovereign fund’s black list.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } KBC Goldstate, the Chinese management firm owned 51% by Goldstate Securities and 49% by KBC, has recruited Zhang Jiabin as general manager, replacing Yi Qiang, who left the firm on 24 February due to continued underperformance, Asian Investor reports. Last year, assets under management at the joint venture fell 60% to USD197m. Zhang, who began in his new role on 1 March, previously worked at Minsheng Royal FMC, which since March 2009 has launched six mutual funds (three equities funds, two fixed income funds and one balanced fund), with assets under management as of 11 March totalling about RMB3.7bn, or about USD563m.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } M&G Investments has signed an agreement with Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking, by which its funds will be offered for sale by the private banking network of the Italian banking group. The M&G Investments product range includes 25 funds registered in Italy. Among these are the M&G Global Basics Fund, a global equities fund managed by Graham French on the basis of major trends that might impact businesses, and the M&G Optimal Income Fund, a flexible bond fund managed by Richard Woolnough.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The index-linked bond funds Overseas Government Bond Tracker (GBP190m) and BlackRock Overseas Corporate Bond Trackerf (GBP160m) from BlackRock, which replicate the JP Morgan Global Government Bond ex UK index and the Barclays Capital Global Aggregate Corporate ex UK index, have now been added to the range of 12 British retail funds known as BlackRock Collective Investment Funds, in response to significant demand from investors. Management commission is limited to 0.52% for each product. The two funds invest physically in assets from the indices, but may also place a part of their portfolios in money market instruments or other funds. The managers may also use derivatives and futures transactions to more effectively manage the portfolio.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Vigeo announced on 15 March that the Aspi Committee, which undertakes the quarterly revision of the Aspi Eurozone® index, decided at its most recent session to remove Deutsche Postbank from the index. Deutsche Postbank was removed from the Euro Stoxx index on 1 February. The Spanish firm Criteria Caixacorp has been added to the Aspi index.The Aspi index includes the 120 best-rated publicly-traded businesses in the euro zone on the basis of Vigeo ratings. Changes affecting the composition and weight of shares in the index will take effect from the opening of trading on Monday, 21 March, Vigeo states.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Financial Sector Surveillance Commission (CSSF) on Tuesday, 15 March, announced that global net assets in collective investment organisms and specialised investment funds as of 31 January 2011 totalled EUR2.184027trn, compared with EUR2.188994trn as of 31 December 2010. This reduction of 0.68% in one month represents a decline of EUR14.967bn, bringing the increase in the volume of net assets in the past twelve months to 17.38%. In detail, the decline is due to unfavourable market effects totalling EUR29.179bn (-1.33%), while net inflows totalled EUR14.212bn (+0.65%). For bond funds, the scenario was considerably different. OPC funds invested in bonds denominated in euros had market effects of +0.47%, and outflows of 1.74%, while OPCs invested in bonds denominated in US dollars posted losses of 2.03% and 0.70%, respectively.

Le ministère des finances norvégien a annoncé le 15 mars que le fonds de pension public norvégien s'était désengagé du groupe chinois Shanghai Industrial Holdings conformément à sa décision de ne plus investir dans les producteurs de tabac.Le fonds, qui pesait quelque 356 milliards d’euros à la fin du troisième trimestre 2010, va en revanche réintégrer l’américain L-3 Communications Holdings dans la liste des sociétés bénéficiant de ses investissements, car le groupe a cessé de produire des composants de bombes à sous-munitions. Shanghai Industrial Holdings a été exclu de l’univers d’investissement du fonds en raison de son contrôle à 100% du producteur de tabac Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company, a précisé le ministère des finances dans un communiqué. Début 2010, la Norvège avait annoncé que son fonds souverain allait se désengager des producteurs de tabac, une décision qui avait concerné dans un premier temps 17 grands groupes dont c'était l’activité principale. Une cinquantaine de sociétés internationales, dont Boeing, Wal-Mart, EADS, Safran et BAE Systems, figurent sur la liste noire du fonds souverain norvégien.

La société spécialisée dans l’information financière GFM a annoncé le 15 mars le lancement d’un nouveau service de données en libre accès, Globalfunddata, qui décline les cartes d’identité de plus de 34.000 fonds, hedge funds, ETF ou encore fonds long only qui transmettent leurs résultats à Morningstar.Les utilisateurs auront plusieurs entrées possibles, nom, domicile, structure juridique, pour se renseigner sur un fonds. Au cours des prochains mois, GFM envisage d’améliorer le service en introduisant des graphiques et des outils de portefeuille.

Selon la Tribune, le fonds d’investissement américain KKR qui dispose de 61 milliards de dollars d’actifs sous gestion a déclaré, mardi 16 mars, avoir plus de 11 milliards de dollars (soit 7,9 milliards d’euros) à investir dans le monde.

Pour un montant non divulgué, mais qui serait de l’ordre de 340 millions d’euros, dette comprise, le capital investisseur Bridgepoint Capital acquiert la société hessoise de chimie fine Cabb auprès d’Axa Private Equity.Cabb, qui emploie environ 750 personnes sur quatre sites de production en Allemagne, en Suisse et au Royaume-Uni, a réalisé en 2010 un chiffre d’affaires de 311 millions d’euros. Le management de Cabb restera en place et conservera une participation "à deux chiffres en pourcentage» dans la société.

Le fournisseur de données et d’indices FTSE a indiqué qu’il avait remporté trois nouveaux mandats représentant un montant total de 3,3 milliards de dollars auprès de deux des plus importants fonds de pension de Taiwan, rapporte Asian Investor.Le Public Services Pension Fund a ainsi jeté son dévolu sur l’indice FTSE All-World comme référence pour son mandat de 600 millions de dollars sur les actions des pays développés. Par ailleurs, le Labour Pension Fund, qui utilise déjà l’indice FTSE All-World, a renforcé son partenariat en choisissant deux nouveaux indices de référence, l’indice FTSE RAFI All-World 3000 pour un mandat de 1,8 milliard de dollars, et l’indice FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Global Real Estate pour 900 millions de dollars.

KBC Goldstate, la société de gestion chinoise détenue à 51% par Goldstate Securities et 49% par KBC, vient de recruter Zhang Jiabin en tant que general manager en remplacement de Yi Qiang qui a quitté la société le 24 février dernier à la suite de contre-performances à répétition, rapporte Asian Investor. L’an dernier, les actifs sous gestion de la joint venture ont ainsi chuté de 60% à 197 millions de dollars.Zhang Jiabin, qui a pris ses fonctions le 1er mars dernier, travaillait précédemment chez Minsheng Royal FMC qui depuis mars 2009 a lancé six mutual funds (trois fonds actions, deux fixed income et un diversifié) et dont les actifs sous gestion s'élevaient au 11 mars à environ 3,7 milliards de RMB, soit quelque 563 millions de dollars.

Responsable du service d’analyse des fonds externes et des produits alternatifs chez Banco Banif ces quatre dernières années, José María Martínez-Sanjuán a été nommé à la tête des six analystes du service de sélection de fonds tiers de Santander Asset Management. Banif est la banque privée du Santander. Cette nomination doit permettre à Santander AM de standardiser à l'échelon de tout le groupe les règles de sélection de gestionnaires et de fonds tiers.

La publication de ratios de solvabilité des caisses d'épargne espagnoles la semaine dernière par la Banque d’Espagne n’a pas arrangé les choses : à présent les fonds-vautour exigent des ristournes allant jusqu'à 70 % ou 0,3 fois la valeur comptable, pour entrer au capital, rapporte Cotizalia. Les investisseurs appelés à l’aide pour recapitaliser les caisses sont notamment Apollo, Blackstone, Cerberus, J.C. Flowers et Paulson.Les exigences de ces investisseurs sont presque inacceptables : ils ont notamment indiqué à la Banque centrale qu’ils estiment le foncier à zéro.

Désormais, les fonds obligataires indiciels Overseas Government Bond Tracker (190 millions de livres d’actifs sous gestion) et BlackRock Overseas Corporate Bond Tracker (160 millions) de BlackRock qui répliquent respectivement les indices JP Morgan Global Government Bond Index ex UK index et Barclays Capital Global Aggregate Corporate ex UK index ont été ajoutés à la gamme de 12 fonds retail britanniques BlackRock Collective Investment Fund, suite à une demande importante des investisseurs. La commission de gestion se limite à 0,52 % pour chacun de ces produits.Ces deux fonds investissent physiquement dans les valeurs de l’indice mais peuvent également placer une partie du portefeuille en instruments monétaires ou dans d’autres fonds. Les gérants peuvent également utiliser des dérivés et des transactions à terme pour gérer plus efficacement le portefeuille.

Dans le cadre de son recentrage sur la performance des portefeuilles actions et obligataires, Alliance Trust Plc a annoncé qu’elle va cesser progressivement sur les prochains mois son activité dans le domaine du private equity.Alliance Trust Equity Partners emploie six personnes et gère 110 millions de livres, soit 3,8 % des encours totaux du groupe à fin février.