According to the Financial Times, Franklin Templeton is starting legal action against the Romanian government after Romgaz, the natural gas producer controlled by the state, made a 400m lei (USD122m) donation to help reduce the country’s budget deficit. The fund manager says the move – agreed at a shareholder meeting – could damage investor confidence. Templeton manages Fondul Proprietatea which holds 15 per cent of Romgaz.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } La Tribune reports that the Oddo & Cie company is in exclusive negotiations to acquire Banque Robeco France. Only banking activities are said to be concerned, while asset management, represented by Robeco Gestions, is not included in the operation. The two parties are said to be nearing a deal, as executives at Oddo & Cie and Banque Robeco are planning to meet next on 2 December. Oddo & Cie would pick up over EUR1bn in assets under management or advised. For Banque Robeco, the price is said to be about EUR15m, representing a markdown of 25%. Though the Rabobank group is moving to end over 28 years of presence in France and its direct relations with retail investors, it will not be leaving France altogether, La Tribune reports. The group will retain Robeco Gestions, its asset management affiliate, and will focus more closely on institutional investors. On paper, the Robeco Group would like to see assets of EUR225bn by 2014, of which 60% would be in startups, compared with 50% currently.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Mutual Fund Wire reports that Marie Chandoha has been appointed as president and CEO of Charles Schwab Investment Management, replacing Randy Merk, who becomes head of a special project internal to the business.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } RBC Dexia Investor Services has announced the transfer of Diana Senanayake from Luxembourg to Singapore, to lead the firm’s growth in that region. Senanayake, who is promoted to managing director, will be in charge of developing RBC Dexia Investor Services’ activities in the Singapore market. She succeeds Dominique Draux, who will now be concentrating on activities in Kuala Lumpur, where staff will top 500 by the end of this year.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } BNP Paribas Real Estate Investment Management (REIM) in the first eleven months of the year posted overall trading volumes of EUR300m for managed funds. This volume activity is up 35% compared with activity in the first eleven months of 2009, BNP Paribas REIM says in a statement. Since 1 January 2010, BNP Paribas REIM has invested EUR266m for funds, compared with EUR159m between January and November 2009. In business real estate, 20 properties have been acquired, for a total of EUR237m, on behalf of managed SCPI and OCPI funds. In the residential sector, 118 apartments were acquired in 9 housing projects for the SCPI Scellier “Pierre Avenir,” for an overall total of EUR28.98m.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The US hedge fund management firm Apollo Global Management has appointed Marc Spiker as president, from 1 December. Spiker will take charge of operational management of the firm, and will be a member of its executive board. In addition to Spiker, the executive committee at Apollo includes Leon Black, president and CEO, Josh Harris, senior managing director, Marc Rowan, senior managing director, and Henry Silverman, vice chairman and chief operating officer. Spiker spent 20 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was co-head of the investment management unit. He left the group in May of this year.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Californian pension fund CalPERS on 1 December announced that transfer of its industrial real estate portfolio CalEast Global Logistics to GI Partners and RREEF (Deutsche Bank). More precisely, the North American assets of CalEast, valued at USD1.9bn, were transferred to GI Partners, while the European assets, totalling about USD60m, went to RREEF. CalEast was previously managed by LaSalle Investment Management.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The international company IPD, dedicated to measuring the performance of real estate investment and operation, has announced the appointment of Stéphanie Galiègue as CEO of IPD France & southern Europe. She will begin in her position on 17 January 2011. In collaboration with Laurent Ternisien, president of IPD France and CEO of the IPD group, Galiègue will aim to continue the improvement of the quality and pertinence of analysis and proposed restitutions, while maintaining attention to market evolutions and the expectations of business clients, a statement says. Development of IPD coverage will continue in all the supervised countries: Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, and Portugal. Galiègue joined IPD in 2005 as deputy CEO and administrator of the firm.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } AXA Investment Managers (Axa IM) on Wednesday, 1 December announced the appointment of Jeremy Baskin as CEO of AXA Rosenberg, from 1 January 2011. He will succeed Stéphane Prunet, who will serve as an advisor to the CEO of AXA IM and will report directly to the CEO of AXA IM, Dominique Carrel-Billiard. “With this appointment, we put the final touch on a restructuring which we began several months ago” the Axa IM head explains. Baskin was previously head of active equities management at the Northern Trust Company, where he spent 22 years, interrupted by a period from 1998 to 2000 at First Union Securities. He recently was in charge of all equities management and research at Northern Trust fundamental and quantitative management (USD24bn in assets).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } SEI Global Wealth Services on 30 November announced the launch of four new absolute return strategies, with the objective of providing added diversification and exposure to long-term growth in capital along with risk reduction. Alongside the available asset classes: equities, bonds, cash, and real estate, SEI offers long/short equity, equity market neutral, long/short credit and global macro strategies, all of which rely on UCITS III-format investment capacities.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Fundstrategy reports that the European equities specialist SAM Capital Partners is preparing to launch a new UCITS fund in early December, via the platform SEB Prime Solutions. The fund, which will be the second offered by SEB Prime Solutions, replicates the European large cap offshore fund SAM Capital Equity Opportunity.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to the Spanish Inverco association of asset management firms, assets in Spanish securities funds fell by nearly 3% in November compared with October, to a total of EUR140.29bn as of the end of November. The fall was largely due to further net outflows of EUR2.83bn in October, bringing the total for the first ten months of the year at over EUR20bn. Ahorro Corporación, for its part, calculates that net redemptions totalled EUR3.7bn in November, and that assets as of 30 November, at EUR145.7bn, were down by EUR5.5bn mom.

The San Francisco office of the Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking to crack down on illegal conduct by hedge funds and corporate bribery, according to The Wall Street Journal. On Wednesday, the office sued the manager of a small hedge fund in San Francisco, Neil Godbole, alleging that he temporarily hid more than USD12 million in trading losses. The manager, settled the suit.

Paris Europlace a annoncé le 1er décembre la signature d’un accord de principe avec le bureau des services financiers de Shanghai, en charge du développement et de la promotion de la place de Shanghai.L’accord de principe porte sur cinq grands domaines de coopération, notamment l’aide au développement de Shanghai en tant que place financière, le développement du dialogue et des échanges entre les deux centres financiers et le renforcement de la coopération de leurs marchés de capitaux respectifs. Les deux organismes vont également pousser les banques des deux pays, les sociétés de gestion et les compagnies d’assurances à s’installer dans leurs centres financiers respectifs et enfin encourager les projets de coopération entre les meilleurs universités et centres de recherche des deux pays.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The 2011 budget, passed on 26 November by the Portuguese parliament, stipulates that “jumbo” accounts will be subject to a flat tax of 30% (the maximal possible amount) if their owner refuses to sacrifice anonymity, Funds People reports. The execution of the withholding charge will be undertaken by the wealth managers with whom the accounts were opened.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Skandia Invesment Group does not manage assets directly on financial markets. The asset management firm of the Wealth Management division of the Old Mutual group has chosen to focus on selection of managers to whom it outsources funds, mandates and investment solutions. This model allows the firm to offer clients the best talent in all asset classes, says CEO Nils Bolmstrand. This year, SIG integrated Skandia Investment Management Ltd brand, the asset management firm based in the United Kingdom, Skandia Fonder, the Swedish entity, and Skandia Global Funds, dedicated to international activities. The merger created a structure with 120 employees and GBP53bn in assets under management. As a result of this merger, in France, Skandia Global Funds, which opened its doors there in 2008, becomes Skandia Investment Group. In addition to this change of name, Bogdan Popescu, head of the Paris office, will provide its clients with access to SIML products, which are more oriented to multi-management, and to Skandia Fonder products, designed to satisfy Scandinavian clients. Popescu’s major duties will be to sell the 25 sub-funds of the Skandia Global Funds Sicav, which represents EUR5bn in assets. Four or five other sub-funds will be launched in 2011, according to Bolmstrand. They will concern asset classes which are currently attracting investor demand, such as India, Latin America, and themes such as Asian consumer spending and growth in Scandinavian countries.

Mirabaud announced on 2 December that it is going to acquire a minority stake in Prosper Professional Services SA, a firm founded by Riccardo Barilla and Thierry Robin, former CEO and head of sales of the Oyster fund range (Banque Syz) respectively.Propser launched a UCITS-compliant fund containing 12 absolute return sub-funds, with a size of nearly EUR100m by the end of the year, and Mirabaud will be a a partner for the management of the product from 15 December.This new fund, for which approval is initially being sought on the Swiss, French and Spanish markets, is geared to professional and private clients.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) association, which includes certified alternative management professionals (venture capital, real estate, commodities, hedge funds, etc.), is launching CAIA France. “We have decided to open this new branch in order to respond to strong growth in the number of members in France, and demand for up-to-date training in alternative investment, networking opportunities, and improved visibility of the industry and its developments,” says E. Craig Asche, CEO og the CAIA association. Philippe Maupas, CAIA, a partner at Quantalys, and Grégory Molinaro, CAIA, a portfolio manager at CPR Asset Management, will be the two co-heads of the French branch, after actively contributing to its creation. Three other volunteer members of the CAIA association will also belong to the team in charge of operating the French entity: Olivier Bourgi, CAIA, methodology, procedures and IT systems (RSI), Nexar Capital Group – AAAM, and Olivier Jéséquel, CAIA, consultant, bfinance.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Julius Baer (CHF175bn in assets under management) on 1 December announced that Olivier Maystre, CEO East Mediterranean and Middle East and CEO of Julius Baer Advisory S.A.E in Cairo since September 2008, will be moving from Cairo to Geneva in first quarter 2011. After developing the Cairo office over the past two years, “he will lead, from the city of Calvin – the strategic centre of Julius Baer’s activities in the Middle East – the continued growth of the Group’s advising activities in this region.”To ensure a smooth transition, the Swiss institution says, Meystre handed over his functions as CEO of Julius Baer Advisory S.A.E. To Wael Hamroush on 1 October 2010. Hamroush has over 10 years of experience in private banking, and has represented several Swiss banks in the Egyptian capital.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to the financial sector watchdog (CSSF), net assets in Luxembourg in collective placement organisms and specialised investment funds as of 31 October 2010 totalled EUR2.10752trn, compared with EUR2.08374trn one month earlier, an increase of 1.14% in one month. In the twelve months under review, net asset volumes are up by a total of 18.57%. About EUR8.38bn of the increase of over EUR23.83bn observed in October came due to market effects, and EUR15.46bn from net subscriptions. The number of collective investment organisms (OPC) and specialised investment funds (SIFs) taken into consideration is 3,645, compared with 3,633 the previous month. 2.265 entities have adopted a multiple-sub-fund structure, which represents 11,434 sub-funds. With the addition of 1,380 traditional structures, a total of 12,814 entities are active on the Luxembourg financial marketplace.

Selon Fundstrategy, le spécialiste des actions européennes SAM Capital Partners prépare le lancement pour début décembre d’un nouveau fonds Ucits par l’intermédiaire de la plate-forme SEB Prime Solutions.Ce fonds, qui sera le deuxième proposé par SEB Prime Solutions, réplique le fonds offshore de grandes capitalisations eruopéennes, le SAM Capital Equity Opportunity fund.

Liquidnet Europe, le numéro un du courtage électronique des blocs de titres, a annoncé le 1er décembre avoir enregistré l’exécution de sa plus grosse transaction sur bloc depuis la création de la société en 2002.Deux membres de Liquidnet ont négocié des titres de Schneider SA le 24 novembre dernier pour un montant de 178,3 millions de dollars. Le précédent record remonte au 10 décembre 2007 et portait sur un principal négocié de 146,7 millions de dollars sur Unilever. La valeur moyenne d’une transaction sur un titre européen s’est élevée cette année à 1,39 million de dollars.

Société de gestion de la division Wealth Management du groupe Old Mutual, Skandia Investment Group ne gère pas directement d’actifs sur les marchés financiers. La structure a choisi en effet de se spécialiser dans la sélection de gérants, à qui elle délègue des fonds, des mandats ou des solutions d’investissements. Un modèle, selon son CEO Nils Bolmstrand, qui permet de proposer aux clients les meilleurs talents sur l’ensemble des classes d’actifs.Cette année, SIG a regroupé sous sa marque Skandia Investment Management Ltd, (SIML), la société de gestion basée au Royaume-Uni, Skandia Fonder, l’entité suédoise et Skandia Global Funds, dédiée à l’international. Cette fusion a donné naissance à une structure composée de 120 collaborateurs gérant 53 milliards de livres d’actifs. Conséquence de ce rapprochement, en France, Skandia Global Funds, qui s’était implantée en 2008, devient Skandia Investment Group. Outre ce changement de nom, Bogdan Popescu, qui dirige le bureau parisien, va pouvoir donner accès à ses clients aux produits de SIML, qui sont davantage tournés vers la multigestion, et à ceux de Skandia Fonder, conçus pour satisfaire des investisseurs nordiques. C’est déjà en partie le cas pour quelques clients professionnels. L’activité principale de Bogdan Popescu reste néanmoins de commercialiser les 25 compartiments de la Sicav Skandia Global Funds, qui représente 5 milliards d’euros. Conformément à la philosophie de Skandia, la gestion de chaque compartiment est confiée à un gérant différent, en fonction de sa spécialité. Par exemple, le Skandia Emerging Market Debt Fund, sur la dette émergente, est géré par la société de gestion Stone Harbor. Un autre est géré par le célèbre gérant Bill Gross, de Pimco. Quatre ou cinq autres compartiments supplémentaires devraient être lancés en 2011, selon Nils Bolmstrand. Ils concerneront des classes d’actifs suscitant actuellement l’appétit des investisseurs comme l’Inde, l’Amérique latine ou des thèmes comme la consommation asiatique ou la croissance des pays nordiques.A plus long terme, Skandia Investment Group pourrait introduire en France ses fonds Spectrum, créés pour une clientèle britannique. Ces produits ont la particularité d’avoir un objectif de volatilité. «Nous pensons que les investisseurs ne sont pas uniquement à la recherche de produits qui donnent des résultats. Ils veulent aussi être à l’aise avec les moyens utilisés pour y parvenir», explique Nils Bolmstrand. «Cela permet d’éviter par exemple que les investisseurs vendent tout lorsque les marchés chutent».

La société de gestion britannique JM Finn & Co vient de lancer un fonds dédié à l’Afrique, le JM Africa fund, qui se propose d’investir dans de grosses capitalisations opérant dans les secteurs des commodities et de l’agriculture. Le fonds prend également en compte la demande des consommateurs, en privilégiant les pays africains à forte densité démographique. «Notre stratégie est d’investir dans les principaux fournisseurs de matières premières très recherchées et dans des sociétés qui profitent de la croissance parallèle d’une classe moyenne», explique le gérant du fonds, Anthony Eaton.

BlackRock vient de lancer son premier fonds investi dans des titres immobiliers à destination du marché britannique retail, le BlackRock Global Property Securities Equity Tracker fund qui réplique l’indice FTSE Epra/Nareit Global Real Estate Series Developed.Le portefeuille est géré par Manus Stapleton. Il s’agit du dernier produit introduit dans le fonds coordonné parapluie de BlackRock, qui comprend onze portefeuilles différents. Plusieurs autres fonds indiciels, qui viennent de recevoir le feu vert de la FSA, devraient être prochainement lancés.

Selon Investment Week, deux des plus gros hedge funds européens, CQS et Brevan Howard, ont décidé de clore le 8 décembre prochain la période de souscription de hedge funds qui seront cotés à la Bourse de Londres.Il s’agit des fonds Brevan Howard Credit Catalysts Master et CQS Diversified.

GLG, qui fait désormais partie de Man Group, va fermer le fonds Alpha Select de John White aux nouvelles souscriptions vendredi, après avoir atteint son objectif d’encours de 550 millions de dollars, rapporte Investment Week. Lancé en février, ce fonds long/short réplique la stratégie market neutral actions britanniques de GLG. Il avait initialement été fermé en mai après avoir franchi la barre de 300 millions de dollars, puis rouvert pour faire face à la forte demande, rappelle le site Internet.

Axa Investment Managers a annoncé, mercredi 1er décembre, la nomination de Jeremy Baskin au poste de directeur général d’Axa Rosenberg, à compter du 1er janvier 2011.Il succèdera à Stéphane Prunet, qui occupera un rôle de conseiller auprès du directeur général d’Axa IM et rapportera directement au directeur général d’AXA IM, Dominique Carrel-Billiard. «Avec cette nomination, nous mettons la touche finale à la restructuration que nous avons engagée voici plusieurs mois. Elle scelle l’acquisition des 25% d’Axa Rosenberg qu’Axa IM ne détenait pas encore, ainsi que la réorganisation de la gouvernance, des processus de gestion des risques et des systèmes de l’entreprise», a expliqué le responsable d’Axa IM.Jeremy Baskin dirigeait jusqu’à présent la gestion actions active de The Northern Trust Company, pour qui il a travaillé 22 ans - interrompus, de 1998 à2000, par un passage chez First Union Securities. Récemment, il couvrait l’ensemble des gestions et recherche actions de Northern Trust – gestion fondamentale et quantitative (24 milliards de dollars d’actifs).

La société de gestion alternative américaine Apollo Global Management vient de nommer Marc Spiker en qualité de «president», à compter du 1er décembre. Marc Spiker prendra en charge la direction opérationnelle de la société et sera membre du comité exécutif.Outre Marc Spiker, le comité exécutif d’Apollo comprend Leon Black, président et CEO, Josh Harris, senior managing director, Marc Rowan, senior managing director, et Henry Silverman, vice chairman et chief operating officer.Marc Spiker a passé une vingtaine d’années chez Goldman Sachs où il était co-responsable du pôle «investment management». Il a quitté le groupe en mai dernier.

La société de gestion J.P. Morgan Asset Management a annoncé, mercredi 1er décembre, la nomination de Miklos Vidak au poste de COO et de responsable marketing pour la Suisse.Ses responsabilités porteront sur les aspects opérationnels des activités de J.P. Morgan Asset Management en Suisse et engloberont le marketing et la communication, souligne un communiqué. En pratique, Miklos Vidak rendra compte à Roland Vogel, managing director et country head pour la Suisse. Avant de rejoindre J.P. Morgan, Miklos Vidak a passé trois années au sein de SAM Sustainable Asset Management, où il a occupé diverses fonctions de direction en étant notamment head sales management, head institutional sales et dernièrement head corporate strategy & business development.