p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The socially responsible investment specialist firm SAM on 8 December announced that it has appointed Michael Baldinger as CEO from 1 January 2011. Since last year, Baldinger had been head for Global Clients & Marketing and a member of the executive board at SAM. While serving in his new role, he will also continue with his previous responsibilities until a successor can be appointed.Baldinger succeeds Sander van Eijkern, who left the firm in February due to differences of opinion over strategy.The new CEO will be responsible for strategy and development of SAM’s activities, and will explore a potential deepening of the firm’s cooperation with its parent company, Robeco.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Groupe BCV (Swiss cantonal bank of Vaud) on 8 December announced that it has acquired the Banque Franck Galland & Cie S.A. for an undisclosed amount from the Groupe Johnson Financial, and merged it with the Banque Piguet & Cie S.A., an affiliate of the BCV group. The new entity, Banque Piguet Galland & Cie S.A., will be primarily oriented to the Swiss market, and will be among the largest actors in private banking in French-speaking Switzerland. With assets under management of about GHF8bn, the new Banque Piguet Galland & Cie S.A. will be among the foremost actors in wealth management in French-speaking Switzerland. It will offer proximity services to high net worth clients in French-speaking Switzerland, with the objective of significantly increasing its assets under management in the mid-term. The Banque Piguet Galland & Cie S.A. will be present in Geneva, Lausanne, Lugano, Neuchâtel, Nyon and Yverdon-les-Bains. Its administrative offices will be located in Geneva and Yverdon-les-Bains, where its headquarters will also be located. The clients of the two merged partners will retain their managers and benefit from extended services (increased competence in the area of financial and credit analysis).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Australian firm Macquarie will launch a fourth European fund with several billion euros in assets to invest in infrastructure in a few months, Reuters reports. According to a source cited by the agency, “The group will raise a first round of capital privately, and will announce the creation of the fund once this round is raised, most likely in spring.”

Amundi will in a few months launch ETFs in the United Kingdom, Olivier Paquier, ETF product specialist at Amundi, announced at the Edhec-Risk Instituional Days 2010 conference. The firm, which now has a range of about 100 ETFs, is thus far present in France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Benelux. Now, “we are looking at what other markets we might enter in order to go global,” says Paquier. The UK is a part of this strategy.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Hennessee hedge fund index has posted returns of 0.32% in November, compared with 2.01% in October and 3.71% in September. Since the beginning of the year, the index has gained 7.12%. The best results in the first eleven months of the year were for the event-driven strategy, at 13.24%, followed by distressed (10.32%), convertibles arbitrage (9.01%), and emerging markets (8.62%). In November, however, convertibles arbitrage and emerging markets have lost 0.93% and 1.43%. Event-driven strategies, for their part, lost 0.30%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The London Stock Exchange on 8 December announced that it has admitted the HSBC MSCI Turkey ETF fund, available in shares denominated in US dollars or pounds Sterling, to trading. The Irish-registered equities fund (IE00B5BRQB73), which relies on physical replication, charges 0.60%. It is the twelfth ETF from HSBC in Europe.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } A survey of about 400 German professional investors on their allocations to hedge funds finds that the usage rates vary widely among these vehicles, depending on the category of subscribers they serve. The 74-page study finds that among the 30 family offices surveyed by Man Investments and its distributor for Germany and Austria, apano GmbH, 53.3% already have hedge funds in their portfolios. For the 102 wholesale managers (funds of funds, wealth managers, private bankers and investment consultants), the percentage who use hedge funds falls to 26%. It comes to 21% for the 159 IFAs surveyed, and slightly under 11% for investments or securities advisers at banks. The authors of the study conclude that the major lesson of the survey is that the propensity of German institutional investors to invest depends on their degree of familiarity with and knowledge of hedge funds, as well as on the experience that they have had with products of this type. This explains the fact that the penetration rate is lowest among financial advisers at banks, who are considered insufficiently informed to be able to actively promote products of this type, and who are also the population for whom the risk involved in hedge funds appears to be highest. The fact that hedge funds are not more widely used in the portfolios of family offices and wholesalers, however, is attributed to product offerings which are still not sufficiently attractive. These two categories, however, invest considerably in UCITS III funds, while IFAs and bank advisers prefer funds of funds.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } After opening an office in Milan, the Swiss management firm Julius Baer has opened another in Rome, at via Ludovisi 35. The new investment advising and wealth management location is directed by Andrea Torlonia, who joins from Duemme SGR (Banca Esperia), where he was head of management for institutional clients. The announcement of the new opening was made on 9 December in Milan by Julius Baer SIM.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to a report by the consultant DTZ for third quarter, foreign investment funds have bought more than 56% of the real estate properties sold in Spain this year, Cotizalia reports. This percentage remains similar to that observed in 2008 and 2009. Many foreign institutional funds are planning to invest EUR100m each in Spain. At the end of third quarter 2010, the volume of sales on the Spanish tertiary market represented EUR1.18bn, compared with EUR489m in all of 2009.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Asian Investor reports that Northern Trust Global Investments, the asset management unit of the US group Northern Trust, has recruited Chen Ee-Fang as director of sales in Singapore, a newly-created position. Chen, who will concentrate her efforts on the development of activities in south-east Asia, previously worked at Martin Currie as director of development for Asia.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In a notification published in La Tribune on 8 December 2010, Financière Van Eyck has announced the appointment of Christophe Bonasse as deputy director. He was previously director of the team in charge of development of associations and charities at Quilvest Banque Privée.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to reports in Das Investment, Franklin Templeton has announced to its distribution partners that from 1 March 2011, Norman Boersma will become the manager of the Templeton Growth Fund, and its European clone, Templeton Growth (Euro). Boersma joined Templeton in 1991. Until recently, he was director of Templeton Global Equity Group. Cindy Sweeting, who in late 2007 succeeded Murdo Murchison as head of the Growth Fund, will remain as head of the portfolio management team, but will be based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; the move is the reason that she will be giving up management of the Growth Fund. Along with the new head of the global equity group, Gary Motyl, she will focus on the strategic orientation of portfolios and risk management processes.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The hedge fund sector has posted net inflows of USD16bn in the month of October, according to statistics published by Trim Tabs Investment Research and BarclayHedge. This is the fourth consecutive month of inflows, on a scale not seen since November 2009. Hedge funds have also posted inflows of 1.95% for October and 7.10% for the four months since the slide in May and June. Distressed securities funds, in particular, attracted USD3.8bn, or 3.3% of assets, in October, while funds dedicated to emerging markets attracted USD2.2bn.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Amundi ETF on 8 December announced an extension of its range of emerging markets tracker products, with the listing on Nyse Euronext Paris of Amundi ETF MSCI Emerging Markets and Amundi ETF Global Emerging Bond Markit Iboxx. “With this launch, we are adding to our range of emerging markets ETFs, which already includes China, India, Brazil, and Eastern Europe. In the Amundi ETF range, investors now have access to two essential elements for their portfolio allocation at very competitive prices,” says Valérie Baudson, director of Amundi ETF, cited in a statement. With these two new products, Amundi now has 93 ETFs. Amundi ETF MSCI Emerging Markets (ISIN: FR0010959676) offers exposure to the largest caps of emerging equities markets. Amundi ETF MSCI Emerging Markets, which is eligible for PEA, aims to replicate both upward and downward evolutions oof the MSCI Emerging Markets index. This index, a benchmark for many investors, allows exposure to the evolution of 20 emerging markets, and covers 85% of the market capitalisation of each country. Amundi ETF Global Emerging Bond Markit Iboxx (ISIN: FR0010959668), for its part, is designed to provide exposure to the foreign debt of emerging countries. This ETF aims to replicate both upward and downward evolutions of the Markit iBoxx USD Liquid Emerging Markets Sovereigns index. This index is composed of bond issues denominated in US dollars, from 20 emerging countries whose minimal rating is CCC (or equivalent at S&P, Moody’s and Fitch). The choice of this new index is largely based on its many advantages related to its strict construction regulations to ensure good diversification and liquidity of its underlyings, while remaining representative of the emerging market bond universe. The first of these ETFs charges 0.45%, while the second charges 0.30%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The European Commission on 8 December announced the launch of a consultation on revisions to the financial market instruments (MiFID) directive, as part of a strategy to create a more transparent and stable financial system. The directive, which has been in force since November 2007, increased competitiveness and integration on the financial markets of the EU, and considerably improved investor protection.However, rapid advances in technology, the complexity and volatility of financial markets, and the lessons of the financial crisis militate for “a profound revision” whenever insufficiencies are observed or improvements are deemed necessary, the Commission says in a statement.The objective of the consultation is to gather contributions from all parties concerned, to inform legislative proposals planned for spring 2011. The deadline has been set for 2 February 2011.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On Wednesday, Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee for Bernard L. Madoff Securities, filed a new round of lawsuits, seeking money from five grandchildren of Madoff, and seeking to recuperate USD1.4bn from seven banks, the Wall Street Journal reports. He accuses Citibank, Natixis, Fortis Prime Fund Solutions Bank (Ireland), ABN Amro Bank, BBVA, Nomura Bank International and Merrill Lynch International of failing to notice signs of fraud. He is also suing the administrators for Madoff in the United Kingdom for USD80m. Picard is under pressure to claw back money, as Federal law allows him to file lawsuits only until Saturday, the anniversary of Madoff’s arrest.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The fund accounting system SimCorp Dimension is now operational at Oberbank, whose headquarters are located in Linz (Upper Austria district), the Danish firm SimCorp announced on 8 December. Dimension is the strategic platform for investment management for savings banks, fund administration, AFRS and compliance. Use of the previous platform, Sungard V3, has been completely discontinued. Legal reporting has also been optimised. End-of-year reporting and solvency reports are generated directly by SimCorp Dimension. The necessary fund data for reporting to the Austrian central bank (ÖNB) are submitted to the Austrian banking control authority (OeKB) via the integrated FundsXML interface.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In November, assets in US pension funds fell less rapidly than liabilities, resulting in an average coverage rate of 80.5%, according to statistics from BNY Mellon Asset Management. This represents a slight improvement compared with October, when the coverage ratio averaged 80.3%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } “Our team of 17 people, including 7 analysts and 7 fund managers, in addition to 6 corporate governance specialists, manages funds and mandates worth about GBP4bn. This could give you an inaccurate idea of the weight that we might pull at Aviva Investors, which has GBP250bn in assets overall.” Steve Waygood, head of sustainable development and engagement, tells Newsmanagers that the influence of the SRI team is proportionately far higher than its assets under management: “for example, when we decide to vote against a resolution at a general shareholders’ meeting, I vote for all of Aviva Investors. But, of course, this never happens at the companies where our SRI funds invest, since those companies [where we have to vote against resolutions] are a priori excluded from our portfolios.”Aviva Investors, which publishes details of its votes at general shareholders’ meetings, but not the motivations for those votes, on 30 September adopted the Stewardship Code, which is the equivalent for British institutional investors of the governance code for publicly-traded businesses. The text, a “comply or explain” type document from the self-regulating body Financial Reporting Council (FRC), comes into force in 2011, and is on a strictly voluntary basis, with no legal obligation. “It is a very good initiative, whether or not we achieve the necessary critical mass among institutional investors and their management firms. But it has two major deficiencies, which are related. On the one hand, it has no single document which would allow comparisons, and on the other, it does not allow for formal feedback on the part of clients, who are confronted with a multitude of disparate documents at various operators.”

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Skandia Investment Group (SIG) has announced that it is cancelling a mandate for GBP8m to Ben Wallace at Gartmore, from the UK Strategic Best Ideas fund (GBP62m), due to disappointing performance. The mandate did outperform the FTSE All Share by 10% since its launch three years ago, but it has performed less well than those in the hands of other managers. The mandate will be distributed amongst the other managers for the fund, including Mark Lyttleton at BlackRock, Paul Casson at Henderson, Tim Steer at Artemis and Julius Lipner at Aviva Investors.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 8 December, Mirabaud announced the launch in Geneva of a brokerage platform aimed at international institutional clients, Mirabaud Securities LLP – Representative Office Switzerland. It will allow international institutional clients to make stock market transactions on European markets. The platform, which offers “privileged” access to equities, publicly-traded and non-publicly-traded derivatives markets outside Switzerland, depends directly on the London office, Mirabaud Securities LLP, a member of the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The Geneva-based structure has five employees, including Oliver Dufek and Laurent Angliviel de La Beaumelle, who will join the new firm in first quarter 2011. Mirabaud Securities LLP – Representative Office Switzerland will work in close collaboration with the London office, which will provide order execution for clients. The new entity, which will be overseen by the Swiss (FINMA) and British (FSA) authorities, will be located at 58, rue du Stand in Geneva. In the area of brokerage, Mirabaud assumes the role of agency broker, meaning that we act as an intermediary and advisor without ever investing on our own behalf. We do this in order to offer our clients the best possible execution and to avoid any conflict of interest,” says Antonio Palma, partner and CEO of Mirabaud. The statement also announces that Giles Morland will become a partner at Mirabaud from 1 January 2011. He is currently head of intermediation services for all of Mirabaud.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Irving Picard, the legally-appointed trustee for the businesses of Bernard Madoff, on 7 December filed another lawsuit against UBS, seeking USD555m. The Swiss group responded on 8 December in a statement, calling the trustee’s position incomprehensible and baseless. The trustee had already filed a first legal action against UBS and Access International Advisors LLC on 24 November (see Newsmanagers of 25 November 2010), seeking USD2bn for what he claims is their presumed implication in the Ponzi scheme operated by Madoff. UBS is accused of setting up feeder funds through which clients’ money was piped to the investment vehicle operated by the former Nasdaq president. The legally-appointed trustee has also filed suits against JPMorgan Chase & Co and HSBC, seeking USD6.4bn and USD9bn, respectively. The previous day, Picard filed suits against BNP Paribas, Legacy Capital and Khronos Capital Research, among others, according to documents submitted to the US courts.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Singapore sovereign fund GIC, China Investment Corporation (CIC) and the investment board of Abu Dhabi (ADIC) have participated in a capital increase operation at the Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual, Finance Asia reports. A consortium of international investors, including GIC, CIC, a Canadian pension fund, ADIC and the private equity investment group JC Flowers, made major contributions to the USD1.8bn capital increase, representing an 18.65% stake. BTG Pactual will use the proceeds from the operation to develop its core professions: investment banking, asset management and wealth management.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Irish government has several ideas to reduce aversion to its government debt, Agefi reports. Domestic private pension funds may become major buyers of newly-issued bonds due to a proposed reform in the 2011 budget unveiled last Tuesday. In exchange for buying government bonds with long maturities, pension funds would be allowed to value their liabilities on the basis of high Irish interest rates.

Amundi va lancer dans quelques mois des ETF au Royaume-Uni, a annoncé Olivier Paquier, spécialiste produits d’Amundi ETF, lors d’un atelier organisé dans le cadre des Edhec-Risk Institutional Days 2010.La société, qui dispose désormais d’une gamme d’environ 100 ETF, est pour le moment présente en France bien sûr, en Suisse, en Italie, en Allemagne et au Bénélux. Et aujourd’hui, «nous regardons sur quels autres marchés nous pouvons nous implanter, afin de devenir mondial», a indiqué Olivier Paquier. Le Royaume-Uni fait donc partie de cette stratégie…

Selon les informations de Das Investment, Franklin Templeton a annoncé à ses partenaires de distribution qu’au 1er mars 2011, Norman Boersma deviendra le gérant du Templeton Growth Fund et de son clone européen, Templeton Growth (Euro). L’intéressé a rejoint Templeton en 1991. Il était jusque récemment directeur du Templeton global equity group.Cindy Sweeting, qui avait succédé fin 2007 à Murdo Murchison à la tête du Growth Fund, reste à la tête de l'équipe de gestion de portefeuille, mais à Fort Lauderdale (Floride), ce qui explique qu’elle abandonne le Growth Fund. Elle se focalisera avec le Nouveau head du global equity Group, Gary Motyl, sur l’orientation stratégique des portefeuilles et les processus de gestion du risque.

Le groupe d’investissement dans le non coté Apax est entré en négociations exclusives pour acquérir le danois ISS, qui vend des services de nettoyage, de sécurité ou de restauration à des entreprises ou à des administrations, et qui emploie environ 500.000 personnes dans plus de 50 pays, rapporte Les Echos. Si ce LBO à environ 6,4milliards d’euros, selon la presse anglo-saxonne, était effectivement conclu, il serait le plus important depuis le début de la crise financière actuelle, qui a stoppé net ce type d’opérations reposant sur l’endettement.

En novembre, les actifs des fonds de pension américains ont baissé moins rapidement que les engagements, ce qui a pour résultat un taux de couverture moyen de 80,5 %, selon les chiffres mensuels de BNY Mellon Asset Management. C’est une légère amélioration par rapport au mois d’octobre, où le ratio de financement avait atteint en moyenne 80,3 %.

Le groupe de gestion alternative Carlyle a indiqué avoir pris une part de 55% dans le hedge fund Claren Road Asset Management pour un montant non divulgué. Claren Road Asset Management détient 4,5 milliards de dollars d’actifs sous gestion. La transaction comprend un paiement en cash, une participation dans Carlyle et des versements complémentaires basés sur la performance.

Le Groupe BCV (Banque cantonale vaudoise) a annoncé le 8 décembre le rachat pour un montant non divulgué de la Banque Franck Galland & Cie S.A. des mains du Groupe Johnson Financial et sa fusion avec la Banque Piguet & Cie S.A. filiale du Groupe BCV. La nouvelle entité – Banque Piguet Galland & Cie S.A. – sera principalement orientée vers le marché suisse et figurera parmi les principaux acteurs de la banque privée en Suisse romande. Pour le Groupe BCV, «cette opération s’inscrit dans le cadre des priorités de développement au sein de son portefeuille d’activités, notamment sa volonté stratégique de croissance dans la gestion de fortune onshore annoncée en novembre 2008", souligne un communiqué. Avec des actifs sous gestion d’environ 8 milliards de francs suisses, la nouvelle Banque Piguet Galland & Cie S.A. se situera parmi les principaux acteurs de la gestion de fortune en Suisse romande. Elle offrira un service de proximité et haut de gamme à la clientèle de Suisse romande avec l’objectif d’augmenter significativement sa masse sous gestion à moyen terme. La Banque Piguet Galland & Cie S.A. sera présente à Genève, Lausanne, Lugano, Neuchâtel, Nyon et Yverdon-les-Bains. Ses centres administratifs seront installés à Genève et à Yverdon-les-Bains où se trouvera également son siège social. Dans le cadre du développement de ses activités, la nouvelle Banque cherchera, à terme, à élargir son territoire géographique. Les clients des deux partenaires désormais réunis conserveront leur gestionnaire tout en bénéficiant d’un service élargi (compétences accrues dans les domaines de l’analyse financière et du crédit). L’opération devrait permettre de dégager des synergies évaluées à près de 5-6 millions de francs suisses par année. Le nouvel établissement devant compter à terme environ 160 collaborateurs, une réduction d’une trentaine de postes de travail est envisagée, principalement par le biais de départs naturels.