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02/03/2011

First net subscriptions to Spanish funds in 16 months

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In February, Spanish securities funds posted gross subscriptions of EUR5.12bn, and net subscriptions of EUR74m, the first net subscriptions after a 16-month spell of net redemptions, according to statistics from the Inverco association of asset management firms.Total assets as of 28 February totalled nearly EUR138.89bn, which represents an increase of EUR717m, or 0.5%, compared with the end of January, making February the second consecutive month of increase in assets under management.In January-February, the two top management firms in the country, Santander Asset Management and BBVA Asset Management, saw declines in their assets of EUR364.6m and EUR69.3m, respectively, while assets under management at Incercaixa Gestión (La Caixa) increased by EUR804.24m.In the month of February alone, Santander AM saw net outflows of EUR386.9m, while BBVA AM saw net redemptions of EUR146.18m. Of the top 10 Spanish management firms, six saw net redemptions in February, including Ahorro Corporación Gestión, with net outflows of EUR112.43m.However, Invercaixa Gestión stands out with net subscriptions of EUR769.22m in February. The other two major beneficiaries of net inflows are Bestinver Gestión (Acciona), with EUR50.09m, and Mutuactivos (Mutua Madrileña).
02/03/2011

Doughty Hanson acquires two shopping centres in Spain

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The private equity investor Doughty Hanson & Co real Estate has acquired the shopping centres El Rosal (51,000 square metres) in the province of León, and Plaza Eboli (31,000 square metres) in the province of Madrid, fron Sonae Sierra, for EUR120m, Cotizalia reports.
02/03/2011

Madoff trustee seeks USD2bn from Tremont

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee for the business of Bernard Madoff, is seeking USD2.1bn from the management firm Tremont Group Holdings and its affiliates, which would be used to reimburse victims of the fraud, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to a lawsuit filed in December and amended this week, the management firm and a group of funds which it managed are claimed to have ignored warning signs on several occasions which suggested that Madoff’s activities might be fraudulent. Tremont and its affiliates are accused of having allowed more than USD4bn in assets to be transferred to Madoff over a 15-year period.
02/03/2011

Former UBS banker charged

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } US prosecutors are accusing a former UBS banker, Christos Bagios, of helping 150 high net worth US citizens to avoid paying taxes on their income, according to a penal case published on Tuesday. The banker, who now works for Credit Suisse Group, was arrested last month in New York, the Wall Street Journal reports.
02/03/2011

Former Goldman Sachs director indicted for insider trading

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } La Tribune reports that the US regulatory authority, the Securities & Exchange Commission, announced on Tuesday, 1 March that it is filing charges against a former member of the board of directors of Goldman Sachs, Rajat Gupta, for insider trading in relation to the Galleon hedge fund scandal.
02/03/2011

Goldman Sachs launches Next-11 Equity Fund

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Goldman Sachs Asset Management has announced, in a filing submitted to the SEC on 16 February, the forthcoming launch of the N-11 Equity Fund, with four share classes. The promoter emphasizes that the product is “non-diversified” under the terms of the Investment Company Act of 1940.Under normal circumstances, the portfolio will invest at least 80% in equities from “next eleven” countries, or N-11, or other businesses which are active in N-11 countries (Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Turkey, and Vietnam). The fund will not invest in issuers domiciled in Iran, in light of US economic sanctions against the country.The TER for A class shares (GSYAX) is set at 1.90%, while the rate is 2.65% for C class shares (GSYCX). For Institutional shares (GSYIX), the fees are 1.50%, for IR shares (GSYRX), the rate is 1.65%.
02/03/2011

Only one third of absolute return funds outperform the risk-free rate over three years

In 2010, 71% of absolute return funds with a sales license for Germany posted a positive result, averaging 1.96%; over three years, 61.3% of funds did so, with an average of 0.53% (compared with an average loss of 0.31% for the 36 months to the end of June 2010).In addition, according to a study by the Frankfurt asset management firm Lupus alpha on the basis of Lipper data, there was a significant distorsion in results. In 2010, the best performance was 35.99%, while the largest loss was 23.97%.On one year and three years, the proportion of absolute return funds with a positive Sharpe ratio, and thus higher gains than the risk-free rate, were two thirds and one third, respectively.As of the end of December, there were 327 absolute return funds in Geramny, compared with 266 three years earlier. Total assets as of this date toalled EUR58.4bn, putting them above the pre-crisis level (EUR58.3bn at the end of 2007) for the first time.
02/03/2011

Top 10 hedge funds made USD28bn in second half

The top 10 hedge funds made USD28bn for clients in the second half of 2010, according to the Financial Times which cites data calculated by LCH Investments, an investor in hedge funds run by Edmond de Rothschild Group. This is USD2bn more than the net profits of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Barclays and HSBC combined, underlines the newspaper. The 10 funds have earned a total of USD182bn for investors since they were created, with George Soros making USD35bn for clients – after all fees – since he set up his Quantum Fund in 1973.
02/03/2011

Dow Jones and Brookfield AM launch an infrastructure index of emerging markets

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Dow Jones Indexes, the global index provider, and the management firm Brookfield Asset Management, a specialist in real estate, energy, and infrastructure assets, on Tuesday, 1 March announced the launch of the Dow Jones Brookfield Emerging Markets Infrastructure index. The index represents businesses in emerging markets which own and operate infrastructure. The index will form the basis for two mutual funds, and may be used as an underlying for ETFs.
02/03/2011

Europa Feldberg adds to its management team

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Frankfurt-based real estate fund management firm EuropaFeldberg, a 50/50 joint venture of Europa Capital and Feldberg Capital (EUR7bn in assets), on 1 March announced the recruitment of Stephan Schaal as investment director. He will be in charge firstly of the launch of the Core-Büroimmobilienfonds, which will be specialised in western Europe, soon to be launched by EuropaFeldberg. The management team now has five members.Schaal joins from Curzon/AEW, where he was director in London, after working at Henderson Global from 2005 to 2007.
02/03/2011

IFAs see potential for fund sales

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } A survey conducted in January by YouGov Psychonomics AG on behalf of Frankfurter Fondsbank (FFB, EUR16.6bn in assets under administration), an affiliate of Fidelity, covering 1,199 independent financial advisers (IFAs), finds that 66% of professionals see the most potential for sales of traditional investment funds to their clients until the end of this year. Other products are considerably less popular with IFAs: 47% favour Riester retirement savings products, 42% vote for current accounts, 30% for unit-linked life insurance, 28% for ETFs, and 22% for savings accounts. In terms of asset classes, IFAs clearly prefer equities, and recommend Asian equities (70%), followed by European equities (65%), while African equities are more popular even than American shares, at 27% and 18%.
02/03/2011

quirin bank turns a profit in 2010

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In its fourth fiscal year in 2010, quirin bank, founded by Karl Matthäus Schmidt, has posted its first profits, of EUR0.5m, compared with losses of EUR7.4m in 2009, and EUR12.9m in 2008. The first bank to operate exclusively on a fee basis now has 7,500 clients, and in 2010 posted net inflows of EUR553m. Assets as of the end of December totalled over EUR2bn, compared with about EUR1.6bn twelve months earlier.The number of employees at the bank was down to 227 at the end of 2010, from 236 at the end of 2009.The owners’ equity ratio stands at 10.3%, compared with 10.9%.
02/03/2011

comdirect offers a bounty on incoming transfers from rival banks

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Investors who transfer shares in investment funds from another bank or management firm to comdirect bank by 31 March will receive a 1% bonus on the amount transferred, up to a limit of EUR250. The bonus will not be applied to transfers from Commerzbank or ebase.The Commerzbank affiliate also announced on 1 March that clients opening a new share account will receive free account maintenance for three years. The offer will be extended if the shareholder makes at least two orders per quarter, uses the free comdirect current account, or makes payments to a securities savings plan.comdirect will also charge only 50% of the commission on orders for all German stock markets, excluding Eurex, and for all off-market transactions.Lastly, clients who buy or transfer fund shares totalling at least EUR5,000 in the three months after opening an account will receive a EUR50 bonus.
02/03/2011

VZ Holdings expands in Germany

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The financial services provider VZ Holding has opened a branch office in Düsseldorf, the firm announced on 1 March in a statement. The success of the VZ branches in Munich, Frankfurt and Nuremberg show that geographical proximity to the client is a major advantage in exploiting the potential of the market, the firm says. The new branch will be led by Michael Huber, director of VZ Frankfurt, and Oz Güven, a partner at VZ Munich.
02/03/2011

Deka invests in Bergheim

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The real estate fund management firm Deka Immobilien (German savings banks) on 1 March announced that it has acquired the TK Maxx logistical centre in Bergheim from an institutional investor for about EUR20m. The property, with 30,000 square metres of area near Cologne and the Dutch border, is primarily used by the discount retailer TK Maxx as a distribution and transloading centre. It will be added to the portfolio of an institutional real estate fund.
02/03/2011

Ole Søeberg joins Skagen Funds

Ole Søeberg is joining Skagen Funds as a portfolio manager to further strengthen the global and Norwegian equity fund SkagenVekst. He will be responsible for analysing existing and potential investments alongside a team comprising 9 fund managers. Søeberg has extensive experience in both global and Danish capital markets. He joins Skagen from his position as managing director of the insurance company Tryg where he was responsible for investor relations since 2006. For the past four years Søeberg has been a member of the board of directors of Skagen AS. He has stepped down from the Board to assume his new position. Ole Søeberg will take up his new role at Skagen in the first half of 2011.
02/03/2011

German real estate funds likely to pull out of Spain

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Expansión reports that it is likely that German real estate funds will seek to liquidate most of their assets in Spain before the entry into force of a new double taxation agreement, which was concluded on 3 February between Spain and Germany, and would probably come into force on 1 January 2012. One of the terms of the agreement would make sales of properties subject to taxes in the country where the property is located, which in these cases would mean Spain. These sales would be subject to a 19% tax, without the exemption from article 14 of the Spanish last on taxation of non-residents, which applies only to dividends and not to capital gains on assets.
02/03/2011

Management firms in better health than in 2007

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Asset management firms are completing their recovery. In fourth quarter 2010, operating margins in the asset management industry improved in the United States, according to a study by the New York consulting firm kasina, cited by Mutual Fund Wire. They now stand at 31.4%, compared with 27.5% in fourth quarter 2009. Net margins for 17 management firms analysed are also up, at 23.4%, compared with 21.2% one year previously. These figures signify that asset managers are now in better shape than they were in 2007 and 2008, kasina states. Among the best performers in terms of margins, Franklin Templeton and BlackRock had the best satisfactory figures among the major players. Among the smaller firms, Pzena Investment Management and Calamos Investments came out on top.
02/03/2011

Schroders recruits for distribution

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Leonardo Fernández, client director, has been appointed as head of sales, in charge of intermediaries at Schroders España, Funds People reports. He will report to Carla Bergareche, CEO for Spain.The British asset management firm currently employs 11 people in Spain, where its assets totalled about EUR2.9bn as of the end of 2010.
02/03/2011

Ignis AM launches an absolute return government bond fund

Ignis Asset Management is to launch the Ignis Absolute Return Government Bond Fund at the end of March. The fund will target net returns of 2% to 3% per annum in excess of cash2 by actively trading a portfolio of global government bonds and currencies.The fund will be managed by head of rates, Russ Oxley, and chief economist, Stuart Thomson, and will be the first retail proposition from Ignis’s rates team, which manages in excess of GBP28 billion on behalf of institutional investors.The fund, a Luxembourg-domiciled UCITS III SICAV, will invest primarily in government bonds, but will also take long and short positions in money market instruments and derivatives. Foreign currency exposure will be limited to 25%.
02/03/2011

New CEO for UBI Pramerica

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Andrea Pennacchia has been appointed CEO of UBI Pramerica SGR, the Italian management firm co-owned by UBI Banca and Prudential, from 1 March. He replaces Diego Cavrioli, who has left UBI Pramerica to take over as head of finance at UBI Banca. Since 2009, Pennacchia has been head of the Gruppo UBI Banca organisation.
02/03/2011

Aviva Investors is a shareholder in Azimut

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Since 24 February, Aviva Investors Global Services Limited has been controlling 2.01% of publicly-traded capital in the Italian management firm Azimut Holding spa, Bluerating reports, citing Consob.
02/03/2011

Swiss Life doubles profits in 2010, partly due to AWD

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In 2010, net profits at Swiss Life more than doubled, from CHF277m to CHF560m. Swiss Life says in a statement published on 2 March that the Investment Management sector took in CHF4.6bn in net returns on owners’ equity for its insurance portfolio. This corresponds to a net return on investment of 4.1% (compared with 3.9% the previous year). With earnings up 34% compared with the previous year, the Investment Management sector contributed CHF103m to the group’s profits. The successful reorientation of AWD, whose earnings were up 4% last year to EUR547m, has had impressive results: an operating profit of EUR49m (compared with -EUR41m the previous year), and an increase in the margin on earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to 9% (from -8% the previous year).
02/03/2011

Assets under management up by over 14% at Cantonal Bank of Basel

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Assets under management at the Cantonal Bank of Basel as of the end of 2010 totalled CHF33bn, compared with CHF28.9bn the previous year, the bank has announced in a statement. Net profits at the group totalled CHF254.3m, down 12.1% compared with the record results of the previous year, which were boosted by exceptional factors.
02/03/2011

GAM posts net inflow of CHF8bn in 2010

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } For its first complete fiscal year, the Zurich-based asset management group GAM, which has been listed on the stock exchange since October 2009, posted an increase in its assets under management of 4%, to nearly CHF118bn, Agefi Switzerland reports. Net inflows totalled CHF8bn (CHF400m one year earlier) despite a downturn in second half. Net profits were up 35% to over CHF202m.
02/03/2011

Assets under management up 1.1% at BCGE

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Assets under management and administration at the Cantonal Bank of Geneva (BCGE) as of the end of 2010 totalled CHF18.2bn, largely due to the arrival of new clients, compared with CHF18.05bn one year earlier, the bank announced on 1 March. Net profits were down 21.2% to CHF56.4m, due to one-time charges (ongoing project to transfer IT infrastructure, for CHF10m, and provisioning for business risks and trade finance for EUR30m).
02/03/2011

Sparinvest takes over asset management activities of Atrium Partners

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Danish asset management firm Sparinvest announced on 1 March that it has acquired Atrium Asset Management, the portfolio management affiliate of Atrium Partners, for an undisclosed amount. The firm manages two European small caps funds with total assets of EUR55m, entitled Atrium Value Partners SICAV - European Small Cap (domiciled in Luxembourg) and Atrium Value Partners – Europa Small Cap (domiciled in Denmark).The two managers of Atrium Asset Management, Karsten Løngaard and Lisbeth Søgaard Nielsen, will join the value equities team at Sparinvest, led by Jens Moestrup Rasmussen, which currently manages EUR3.4bn.
02/03/2011

Neuberger Berman appoints a managing director

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The US management firm Neuberger Berman has announced the arrival of David Kupperman as managing director of NB Alternatives Investment Management, the fund of hedge fund activity of the group. He was previously a partner and member of the investment committee at Alternative Investment Management, a fund of hedge funds.
02/03/2011

Acropole AM to add to alternative management unit

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Acropole Asset Management, a French asset management boutique dedicated to convertible bonds, is planning to develop its alternative management activities, one of its three units, alongside traditional convertibles and credit management. So far, these activities are focused on long/short (with the Acropole LS Convexité fund) and convertibles arbitrage (with the Acropole Convertibles Arbitrage). “We are going to add a third area: volatility,” Jacques Joakimides, the CEO of the firm said. To do this, the asset manager will be recruiting for its teams. Acropole AM, with slightly over EUR700m in assets under management and 17 employees, is also in the process of recruiting a head for external distribution, to replace Marc Auchabie.

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