p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In fourth quarter 2010, which was the first quarter of the new fiscal year for Raymond James Financial, net profits totalled EUR81.72bn, which represents an increase of 18% compared with the previous quarter, and an increase of 90% compared with October-December 2009. Assets as of the end of December (excluding money markets) totalled USD33.4bn, compared with USD30bn as of the end of September, and USD27.6bn one year previously, while assets under administration totalled USD262bn, compared with USD249bn three months earlier, and USD232bn at the end of December 2009.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Lazard Frères Gestion on Thursday, 20 January announced that it has teamed up with Esprits d’Entreprises, a club of entrepreneurs and directors who are shareholders in their companies which was founded in 2004 by Diaa Elyaacoubi and Bernard Ochs. The objective of the club is to allow its members who live business reality every day to exchange and present ideas in a laboratory environment, and to debate and learn, inform, explain, transfer and promote the business spirit, and to promote the ideas and proposals of its members, a statement says.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } “Now, tactically, we want to take our profits on equities from emerging markets, particularly Brazil, India and China,” says Emmanuel Bourdeix, head of equities, diversified and structured management at Natixis Asset Management. He points to risk and an overly rapid appreciation of currencies, as well as overly restrictive monetary policies in these countries. The equities specialist prefers developed markets, particularly Europe. In this region, he sees a “catch-up effect,” in a region which has suffered greatly from European debt problems. He predicts that European equities will gain 10% this year. More generally, 2011 “will be the year of equities,” says Bourdeix. For fixed income, Ibrahima Kobar, head of fixed income management at Natixis AM, says he is convinced that Portugal will seek financial assistance in 2011. He adds that the European Central Bank (ECB) is unlikely to raise its rates this year.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The French asset management firm Financière de l’Echiquier on Thursday, 20 January announced that it collected EUR700m in inflows in 2010. It now manages over EUR5bn, an increase of 44% for the year.One third of these inflows came form outside France, largely in Germany, Italy and Spain, countries which are growth areas for distribution of Arty funds, which include equities and bonds from European businesses, and Echiquier Global, which invests in global large cap equities.The asset management firm now manages EUR1.6bn for institutional investors, who represent nearly half of inflows.In terms of investment strategy, the management team estimates that 2011 will be as auspicious as 2010, but that the assets to bet on will be different. “For example, fiscal differences in European states will create opportunities in the sector of outsourcing of public services, and the fall of valuations in southern European countries will also make it possible to buy high-quality businesses at attractive prices,” a statement says.On the basis of these predictions and the stock-picking method practiced by the management firm, its chairman, Didier Le Menestrel, predicts assets of EUR15bn by 2015.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Darren Spencer has been recruited as director, alternative investments for the Americas institutional consulting group. Spencer, who worked for a fund of hedge fund boutique, and was global head of alternative investments at Aon Investment Consulting, comes as an addition to the network of directors to advise alternative investments, which already includes head for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Australasia and Japan and North-East Asia. Spencer will be based in New York, and will be in charge of directing the development and deployment of alternative investment strategies for consulting clients of Russell in North America.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Funds People reports that Vontobel Asset Management has entrusted its bond team, directed by Daniel Karnaus, with a new fund of emerging markets local currency bonds. The objective of the product, whose H share class in Swiss francs was launched on 18 January, with share classes in US dollars and Euros to be released on 24 January, is to outperform the JP Morgan GBI-EM Global Diversified index.The fund will invest in countries such as Brazil, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, Indonesia, Hungary, Russia and Colombia, among others.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Legg Mason Global Asset Management has announced that it has recently registered the Legg Mason Western Asset Global Credit Absolute Return Fund, which is managed by Western Asset Management, an affiliate of Legg Mason specialised in international bonds, with the CNMV.The product is an absolute return product which invests in a diversified portfolio of corporate and high yield bonds, Funds People reports. The objective is to generate returns of 8-10%, with similar volatility, over a three-year cycle.The UCITS-compliant fund, with daily liquidity, is domiciled in Dublin, and managed by Dipankar Shewram.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swedish investment firm Investor on 20 January announced a net year-on-year increase in the value of its portfolio in 2010, Agefi Switzerland reports. Net asset value, which means the value of investments, minus debt, increased 21% in one year, to SEK167bn (EUR18.7bn) as of 31 December 2010. This total, driven up by increases in the value of Swedish large caps, puts the value of the firm at SEK224 per share, compared with a value of SEK187 per share one year ago, and SEK200 at the end of third quarter. The board of directors has therefore proposed to increase the annual dividend to SEK5 per share, from SEK4 per share in 2009.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Pictet is presently still awaiting AMF approval to release a UCITS-compliant fund of hedge funds, managed by Cristina Bagnoli Mandic at Pictet Alternative Investments (PAI), in France. The product invests in CTA (futures), global macro and long/short equity markets, with a preference for liquid strategies, a major preoccupation of PAI (see Newsmanagers of 15 December 2010). The fund has weekly liquidity, and does not use swaps on offshore funds.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Rothschild & Cie Gestion has launched R Souverain EuroRecovery, a fund which invests in “high risk” government bonds of the Euro zone, including Greece, Spain and Ireland, Sébastien Barbe, director and head of fixed income management at the management firm, announced at its most recent quarterly strategy committee meeting. The French-registered FCP fund, created on 30 December, will aim to outperform the Euro MTS Global index.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Californian pension fund CalPERS on 20 January announced that it earned net returns of 12.5% on its investments last year. Assets under management as of the end of 2010 totalled USD225.7bn, an increase of over USD65bn compared with their low point in March 2009 (USD160bn).Among the various asset classes, private equity performed best, with gains of 21.5% more than 7 percentage points more than its benchmark index. Equities earned returns of 14.6%, with gains of 17.3% for US equities and 12.8% for international equities. Fixed income has finished the year with returns of 11.6%.The only negative result was for real estate, were losses were limited to 5%, the lowest since the onset of the financial crisis, CalPERS reports.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Indus Capital Partners will manage the fifth newcits from Morgan Stanley on the Irish platform FundLogic Alternatives. It is a long/short equity product with daily liquidity, which will focus on the Asia-Pacific region.CharacteristicsName: Indus PacifiChoice Asia FundManagement commission: 1.5%Performance commission: 20%

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In an article dedicated to the history of BlackRock, Handelsblatt says that the US management firm is the only investor to hold shares in all companies of the Dax index. It is the largest shareholder in German businesses overall, and via its active or passive funds, it controls from 5% to 9% of nine Dax companies: Adidas, Allianz, BASF, Bayer, Deutsche Bank, Heidelberg Cement, Infineon, Merck, and Munich Re. Such a situation has never before been observed in the history of the German stock market.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports that the German parliamentary CDU/CSU and FDP groups are planning to amend the proposed open-ended real estate fund legislation. They are planning to remove the required markdown on property valuations when properties are resold within 2 years (10%) or 3 years (5%), and to reduce the minimal period a property should be held from 2 years to 1 year, to allow retail investors to make withdrawals limited to EUR30,000 per year, and to lower the maximal leverage level for the funds from 50% to 30%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Assets under management at Man Group totalled USD68.6bn as of the end of its third quarter, on 31 December 2010, compared with USD65.9bn as of 30 September, of which USD40.5bn were at Man, and Usd25.4bn related to the acquisition of GLG.MAN says in a statement that hedge funds saw a net inflow of USD100bn in third quarter. Long-only funds saw an outflow of USD1.1bn in third quarter, due to a redemption of over USD1bn on a low-margin mandate, as the investor wanted to pull out of European equities.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Two managers from Spencer House Capital Management (SHCM), Charles Martyn-Hemphill and Will kenney, will join JO Hambro Investment Management (JOHIM) in February, Investment Week reports. The two managers, founding partners of SHCM, will also continue to manage the Spencer House Capital Management fund, as well as other dedicated mandates.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) on Thursday, 20 January announced that it has been selected by Lærernes Pension, the life insurance and pension fund for over 127,000 teachers in Denmark, to manage its portfolio of investment grade US corporate bonds. The size of the portfolio is USD271m. It will be invested according to a passive strategy, on the basis of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria, for the group’s EUR5.5bn fund. The SRI filter which SSgA will use was defined by Lærernes Pension.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Assets under management at St. James’s Place rose EUR5.6bn in 2010, to a record GBP27bn. Net inflows increased 30% last year, to GBP3bn, compared with GBP2.3bn in 2009.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Scottish asset management firm Baillie Gifford Investment Management on 20 January announced the appointment of three new partners, effective from 1 May 2011, bringing the number of members at the college of partners working full-time for the business to 37.The new partners include Malcolm MacColl, senior portfolio manager and one of the three decision-makers for the global alpha equities team, Bill Pacula, who will become the first international partner, and who is in charge of business development for the United States and Canada, and David Salter, client director in the institutional clients department.As of 30 April 2012, the partners Edward Hocknell, Nigel Morecroft and Leslie Robb will be retiring. From 1 May 2012, Andrew Telfer will become joint senior partner, in charge of directing the business. He will succeed Alex Callander, who will be retiring after a 30-year career at the firm. Telfer is currently head of the institutional clients department.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As of 31 December 2010, assets under management at the Scottish group Aberden totalled GBP183.3bn, up 2.6% compared with 30 September 2010. Fourth quarter 2010 ended with net outflows of GBP0.8bn, which were more than adequately offset by positive market effects of GBP5.4bn. Equities funds posted a net inflow of GBP3.4bn for the quarter, largely thanks to emerging markets, but all other asset classes finished the quarter in the red: -GBP900m for alternative strategies, -GBP900m for real estate, -GBP400m for money market funds, and -GBP2bn for fixed income. Under the double impact of net inflows and market effects (over GBP5bn), assets under management at equities funds totalled GBP80.8bn as of 31 December 2010, compared with GBP72.1bn one quarter earlier.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Il Sole – 24 Ore reports that Amundi is in pole position to take over Pioneer Investments from UniCredit, with an integration proposal which would give the Italian bank a place as a minority shareholder in the asset management firm controlled by Crédit Agricole and Société Générale. The candidates, who also include Natixis and Resolution, must submit their final bids in March. The Italian newspaper estimates that if the price is not high enough, UniCredit may decide to “freeze” the Pioneer deal. That would raise the possibility of a sale of the US activities of the asset management firm, and a merger of the Italian part of the business with Eurizon, the asset management unit of Intesa Sanpaolo.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British investment management association (IMA) is considering changes to the absolute return fund category, which would add two subsectors for one-year and three-year funds, Money Marketing reports. This distinction would allow funds whose strategies are more long-term to retain their status as absolute return funds. Money Marketing reported last week that the FSA considers the absolute return label inappropriate in its current form (see Newsmanagers of 14 January 2011).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British investment management association (IMA) on 20 January announced that the introduction of new clauses in the AIFM directive could be damaging to investors.The professional association is reacting to a call for comments by the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) last month.The association claims that the directive is already a highly detailed document. “As a result, we call on ESMA now to introduce useless new terms in the level 2 and 3 measures, and to use directives rather than regulations at this level,” says Julie Patterson of the IMA.

L’Agefi rapporte que par rapport au plan Ambition 2015 du groupe, La Banque Postale prévoyait en 2011 un résultat d’exploitation de 720 millions d’euros environ, équivalent à celui de l’an dernier. Mais le budget table sur un montant de l’ordre de 575 millions d’euros, soit 20% de moins. La faiblesse des taux qui pénalise la rentabilité de l'énorme portefeuille de placements de la Banque Postale, explique un tel écart. Le manque à gagner en produit net bancaire (PNB) a été évalué entre 160 et 170 millions pour 2011. A noter que La Banque Postale mise sur une hausse de près de 4% des encours d'épargne et de dépôts à vue.

Lazard Frères Gestion a annoncé, jeudi 20 janvier, s'être associé avec Esprits d’Entreprises, un club d’entrepreneurs et de dirigeants actionnaires de leur entreprise, fondé en 2003 par Diaa Elyaacoubi et Bernard Ochs. L’objectif de ce club est de permettre à ses membres qui vivent au quotidien les réalités de l’entreprise d'échanger et se présenter comme un laboratoire d’idées, en mesure de débattre et apprendre, informer, témoigner, transmettre et promouvoir l’esprit d’entreprise, agir pour les PME et promouvoir les idées et propositions de ses membres, précise un communiqué.

Pour l’instant, Pictet attend encore l’agrément de l’AMF pour la commercialisation en France d’un fonds coordonné de hedge funds qui est géré par Cristina Bagnoli Mandic chez Pictet Alternative Investments (PAI).Ce produit investit dans des fonds de CTA (marché à terme), global macro et long/short equity, privilégiant ainsi les stratégies liquides, préoccupation centrale de PAI (lire notre article du 15 décembre 2010).Le fonds a une liquidité hebdomadaire et ne recourt pas aux swaps sur les fonds offshore.

Axeria Vie annonce pour 2010 un taux de rendement de 4,51% net pour le fonds en euro de ses contrats phares, tels Arborescence Opportunités, Patrimoine Opportunités, Axéria Opportunités, Epargne Evolution, Clarity-vie et Mes-placements-liberté, après des taux à 5,25% en 2008 et 5,01% en 2009.

Jérôme Fauvel est chez UFG-LFP le gérant du FCP Mon PEA, un fonds éligible à la célèbre enveloppe fiscale que conseille la société LEGIGA Conseil, constituée par Jean-Pierre Gaillard (le GA), Patrick Leguil (le LE) et Jean-François Gilles (le GI). Ce produit lancé le 27 mai 2010, qui atteindra la semaine prochaine les 10 millions d’euros d’encours grâce à un apport de 6 millions de la part du Crédit Mutuel, reprend le processus de gestion de «simplicité, bon sens et clairvoyance» qui a caractérisé celle du portefeuille virtuel que les trois fondateurs de LEGIGA ont fait vivre de septembre 1996 à septembre 2008 dans le talk-show hebdomadaire «La Bourse et votre argent» sur LCI. Sa performance théorique avait représenté trois fois celle du CAC 40. Pour sa part, le fonds «réel» dans lequel les trois associés de LEGIGA ont investi personnellement 0,4 million d’euros et UFG-LFP 0,6 million d’amorçage, a gagné 15,90 % entre son lancement et la fin 2010. L’univers d’investissement de ce fonds de 25 lignes initialement équipondérées se compose principalement de grandes capitalisations de la zone euro (le portefeuille, au demeurant est disponible en intégralité) ; le produit n’a pas d’indice de référence et il sera exposé aux actions au minimum à 75 % et au maximum à 110 %. Le processus d’investissement comprend trois stades : l’analyse du cycle économique, l'étude du cycle boursier et la recherche des thèmes à privilégier au sein de ce cycle. L’investissement s’effectue si l'équipe LEGIGA et Jérôme Fauvel discernent pour un titre une potentiel de hausse d’au moins 20 %. Le titre est conservé tant que le potentiel dépasse les 10 %. Les lignes sont réactualisées mensuellement. Un reporting filmé est prévu tous les 15 jours. Sur le plan commercial, le FCP est déjà référencé sur les principales plates-formes (Cardif, CortalConsors, Sélection R) et auprès des banques (LCL, 1818, HSBC, Crédit Agricole, Banques populaires) ainsi que des assureurs-vie, comme Generali, La Mondiale et Swiss Life. Un grand pas en avant vient d'être franchi avec l’adoption du FCP Mon PEA parmi les trois produits d'épargne collective qui vont être mis en avant dans le réseau du Crédit Mutuel à la fin du premier trimestre. Ce fonds, qui est crédité d’un potentiel de 100 millions d’euros à l’horizon de deux ans, a affiché depuis son lancement un beta de 1,06, un écart de suivi supérieur à 9 % et une volatilité de 23,5 %, inférieure à celle du marché.CaractéristiquesDénomination: FCP Mon PEACode Isin : FR0010878124Droit d’entrée : 4 % maximumFrais de gestion : 2 %Souscription minimale : 1 part

Le groupe Siparex a annoncé jeudi les nominations depuis le 1er janvier 2011 de Florent Lauzet et de Marie-Clothilde Vial en tant que directeurs associés. Âgé de 37 ans, Florent Lauzet a rejoint Sigefi (groupe Siparex) en 2000 où il évoluait au sein de l’activité capital développement transmission. De son côté, âgée de 38 ans, Marie-Clothilde Vial, était directrice juridique chez Sigefi qu’elle a rejoint en 2009.

Rothschild & Cie Gestion vient de lancer R Souverain EuroRecovery, un fonds investi dans les emprunts d’Etat "à risque» de la zone euro, comme la Grèce, l’Espagne ou l’Irlande, a annoncé Sébastien Barbe, directeur-responsable de la gestion taux de la société de gestion d’actifs, lors du dernier comité stratégique trimestriel. Le FCP de droit français, créé le 30 décembre, se donne pour objectif de battre l’indice Euro MTS Global. Il est géré par Sébastien Barbe et Julien Boy.Caractéristiques : Codes Isin : FR0010981142 (part C) / FR0010981167 (part I) Commissions souscriptions/rachats : 2,50 % maximum (parts C et I) Frais de gestion maximum : 1 % (part C) / 0,50 % (part I) Valeur liquidative initiale : 1.000 euros (part C - tous souscripteurs), 100.000 euros (part I - investisseurs institutionnels)Minimum de souscription initiale : 1 part (part C), 50 parts (part I)