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28/10/2010

King of Spain holds audience with Larry Fink

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Cotizalia reports that King Juan-Carlos of Spain on 27 October received Laurence Fink, president & CEO of BlackRock, for a private audience. The meeting was justified by the Palace by the significant investments the American investor has made in Spanish businesses, with sizeable stakes in groups such as Telefónica, Santander, BBVA, Repsol, Iberdrola, Sabadell, Abengoa, Técnicas Reunidas and Gamesa.
28/10/2010

FSB in effort to reduce dependence on ratings agencies

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The financial stability board (FSB) on 27 October published a series of “Principles for Reducing Reliance on Credit Rating Agency Ratings.” The objective of the principles laid out by the board is to reduce mechanical dependency on ratings, and to promote improvements in independent valuation of credit risk and means to undertake due diligence. The board emphasizes that the principles call for a significant modification to existing practices in five major areas: prudential supervision by banks, institutional investor policies, interventions by central banks, margin requirements for the private sector, and information requirements for securities issuers. The board admits, however, that the desires changes will not happen “from one day to the next.” It is desirable to maintain a transitional period, so that interested parties may put their own risk management capacities in place in the mid-term, and limit the influence of ratings agencies. The FSB proposes to issue an interim report on the progress made for the G20 during 2011.
28/10/2010

AMF publishes a guide to sukuks

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Following discussions with various market actors, in an effort to produce a pedagogical document for professionals, the French financial market authority, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) announced on 27 October that it has published a frequently-asked questions document representing the AMF’s position of 2 July 2008 on the admission to trading of Islamic bonds on a regulated French market, including precision on the practical details of obtaining a product visa.The guide to the composition of sukuk prospectuses and the practical details of obtaining a visa to admit the products to trading on a regulated market is available on the AMF website, under Publications > Guides > Professional Guides.
28/10/2010

AG2R La Mondiale soon to launch first multi-manager SRI bond fund

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Via Agicam, AG2R La Mondiale (about EUR1bn in best-in-class assets) is planning to launch a multi-manager SRI bond fund “in close collaboration with Mercer,” pending approval from the AMF. The fund will have initial assets of EUR175m.The product will be organised around three mandates: one government bonds mandate, granted to BNP Paribas Asset Management, one corporate bond mandate managed by Standard Life Investments (SLI), and one mixed government bond and corporate bond mandate, which will be handled by Groupama Asset Management. In this context, Agicam will manage allocation to the three mandates, and more generally global risk for the fund, which will comply with regulations defined by the Agirc-Arrco Federations and will thus be eligible for subscriptions from complementary retirement institutions.The three managers of the mandates were selected after a request for proposals by Mercer. More than 20 European management firms known for their expertise were invited to offer their expertise in the area of SRI bond management.Philippe Dutertre, chairman of the board at Agicam, has told Newsmanagers that the SRI unit has attracted about EUR100m in investment since the beginning of the year, and now has about EUR1bn in assets, including an equities multi-management fund with EUR200m and two directly-managed funds, AG2R Actions ISR (EUR300m) and AG2R Obligations (about EUR500m).Exclusion is contrary to the values of Agicam and AG2R, says Dutertre, who argues that the best formula is to use a best-in-class approach in dialogue with issuers.
28/10/2010

Record assets at Nordea

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Net profits at Nordea in third quarter were up 32% to EUR711m, compareed with EUR539m in April-June; they were 14% up on EUR626m observed in the corresponding period of 2009. In the first nine months of the year, net profit totalled EUR1.89bn, compared with EUR1.87bn. As of the end of September, total assets under management were a record EUR180.2bn, compared with EUR169.8bn at the end of June, and EUR149.2bn twelve months previously. An increase of EUR10.4bn since 30 June is due to market effects and net subscriptions of EUR3.3bn. Assets in the asset management division, for their part, totalled EUR116bn as of the end of September, compared with EUR110bn three months previously, and EUR96bn as of 30 September 2009. Operating profits for the division totalled EUR97m, compared with EUR92m in second quarter and EUR72m in the corresponding period of last year.
28/10/2010

Earnings up 6.2% for Axa asset management in nine months

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Axa on 28 October announced that in the first nine months of the year, earnings for life insurance, savings and retirement totalled EUR43.97bn, an increase of 0.9%. new business was down 0.5% to EUR4.63bn, with a decline in activities in the United States, France and Japan, partly offset by good performance largely in Central and Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, South-East Asia and China, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. New business (APE) in high growth markets was up 28%. Net inflows totalled EUR7.8bn (an increase of EUR0.6bn compared with the first nine months of 2009), largely a result of an increase in gross inflows. Value of new business was up 13% to EUR911m, largely due to an improvement in the activities mix, due to new products launched in the United States and Japan. Earnings for asset management at the Axa group, for their part, increased 6.2% in the first nine months of the year to EUR2.46bn, largely due to higher average assets under management (+6%). Assets under management total EUR877bn, up by EUR32bn compared with 31 December 2009, due to market evolution and favourable currency effects, partially offset by net outflows, largely to the institutional client segment. Assets under management at Alliance Bernstein as of 30 September totalled EUR355bn, compared with EUR346bn as of the end of 2009, with net outflows of EUR23bn compensated by market effects of EUR14bn and currency effects of EUR18bn. Assets under management at Axa IM, for their part, totalled EUR522bn as of 30 September, compared with EUR499bn as of the end of 2009, with outflows of EUR19bn but market effects of EUR31bn and currency effects of EUR12bn. Outflows at Axa Rosenberg totalled EUR26bn.
28/10/2010

Profits down at Morningstar

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } For third quarter 2010, Morningstar has reported a 16.4% increase in consolidated earnings to USD139.8m, compared with USD120.1m in the corresponding period of last year. Excluding acquisitions and currency effects, earnings were up 6.6%. However, operating profits and net profits were down to USD30.2m and USD20.8m, respectively, compared with USD33.7m and USD22.5m. In January-September, earnings increased 13.4% compared with the first nine months of 2009, at USD404.2m, of which USD34.4m were from acquisitions, and USD4.2m from currency effects. Net profits fell to USD59m from USD68m.
28/10/2010

Morningstar in share buyback

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The board of directors at Morningstar Inc on 27 October approved the payment of a quarterly dividend of 5 cents per action in cash from 14 January 2011 for shareholders registered by 31 December 2010. Meanwhile, directors approved an equities buyback program to buy back ordinary shares for up to USD100m.
28/10/2010

CalPERS strengthens transparency policies

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Californian pension fund CalPERS on 27 October announced that it has decided to strengthen its transparency policy, and has published several key documents on its website, including transportation costs for members of the board of directors and top executives. The moves comes as part of new measures initiated 18 months ago by the Californian fund to win back investor confidence. Assets under management by the fund now total about USD218bn.
28/10/2010

Very good quarterly results for asset management at Lazard

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Assets under management at Lazard totalled USD143.6bn as of 30 September, up 16% from 30 June and 19% compared with their levels one year ago.Lazard says in a statement released on 27 October that net inflows totalled USD1.1bn in third quarter, and USD6.2bn in the first nine months of the year.Revenues for the asset management unit were up 32% in third quarter, at USD208m. In the first nine months of the year, revenues increased 48% to a record USD578.9m.The group has announced net profits up 18% year on year, at USD62.1m.
28/10/2010

Major increase in profits at AMG

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Affiliated Managers Group (AMG), which controls 27 investment boutiques, has announced net profits for third quarter of USD34m, compared with USD17.8m in the corresponding period of last year, bringing the total for the first nine months of 2010 to USD76.6m, compared with USD34.9m. Assets as of 30 September totalled about USD294bn, and net subscriptions in third quarter represented USD5.5bn, of which USD4.2bn were for institutional clients, USD1.1bn for mutual funds, and USD0.2bn for high net worth retail clients. Meanwhile, AMG has announced that as of 1 January 2011, Sean M. Healey, president & CEO, will succeed the founder, William J. Nutt as chairman. Bill Nutt, who had been chairman since 1993, will remain on the board as an independent director.
28/10/2010

BNY Mellon launches a Latin American infrastructure fund

BNY Mellon has launched an infrastructure fund to capture investment opportunities created by the upgrading of Latin America’s transport networks, says CItywire. The fund, seeded with USD200 million, will be run locally by Bruno Garcia, who is also one of the managers on the BNY Mellon Brazil Equity fund.
28/10/2010

Lyxor registers an ETF in Spain

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 25 October, the CNMV registered the Luxembourg fund Lyxor ETF S&P 500 (LU04967865740), for which the distributor is the local affiliate of Société Générale, for sale in Spain. Management commission is 0.25% and assets in the fund already total EUR70m. The fund is the 36th Lyxor ETF to be listed in Spain, and the first in SICAV format since the liberalisation of the sector.
28/10/2010

T. Bailey becomes first multi-manager to integrate GARS funds

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Investment week reports that T. Bailey has become the first multi-manager to adopt a position on the global absolute return strategies (GARS) from Standard Life, whose assets under management total about GBP5.6bn. Standard Life modified the prospectus for GARS funds last September, introducing a limit of 10% for investments in other funds, and allowing multi-managers to invest in them.
28/10/2010

Man planning severe staff cutbacks

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to a source familiar with the matter cited by the Wall Street Journal, the London-based hedge fund manager Man Group is planning to lay off 200 people in the next six months, which is several times worse than expected at the time of its acquisition of GLG Partners in May. Currently, the new Man-GLG ensemble has about 1,800 employees.
28/10/2010

Professionals predict strong growth in private banking market

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to a survey by bbw-marketing of 117 German providers of financial services, 48% of professionals estimate that the private banking market, which has continued to grow at 5% per year despite the crisis, may expand by 5% to 7% per year in the next five years, while 22% of respondents predict a total growth rate of 7% to 10% per year.In Germany there are 1.2 million retail investors with liquid savings of EUR250,000 or more, while the number of wealth management clients (EUR1m or more) totals about EUR350,000.This market, the largest in the European onshore markets, is attracting foreign operators, as pressure on offshore markets will be likely to provoke a return of capital from Luxembourg and Switzerland. Competition will increase for savings and co-operative banks, which in 2009 already began to pick up shares of this lucrative market.bbw-Marketing insists that the over-50 age group is an increasingly important target for private banking: more than half of clients with EUR1m to EUR10m are over 60 years old. Clients with EUR1m to EUR10m account for 37% of assets under management or administration by private banking services.
28/10/2010

ETFs make hedge funds' job more difficult

Growing use of ETFs has contributed to an increase in correlations between equities, creating problems for long-short equity hedge funds, according to Hennessee Group, cited by the Financial Times.The consultant said their rising share of overall trading volumes was leading to the stock market being driven more by sentiment about broad economic issues rather than company fundamentals.
28/10/2010

Investor confidence index down in October

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In October, the global investor confidence index from State Street fell 1.9 points to 86.2 compared with a corrected level of 88.1 for September. In North America, the confidence of institutional investors fell 3.2 points to 84.9, compared with a corrected level of 88.1 the previous month. Confidence in Europe remains stable, as the index has fallen from 97.0 to 96.4, a slight decline of 0.6 points. In Asia, the confidence of investors remains positive, at 103.3 points, despite a fall of 4.4 points compared with the level in September. “The underlying data indicate that institutionals are turning away from developed markets and allocating assets to emerging markets, but the net total of the two flows was negative. This is in line with a trend observed in early August, which suggested that institutional investors are satisfied to play the role of providers of liquidity, rather than takers of liquidity, in the current market environment,” State Street commented in a statement.
28/10/2010

Blue Crest and Merrill Lynch close a Newcits fund

USD600 million is to be returned to investors in the BlueTrend Ucits fund, after hedge fund Blue Crest Capital and Merrill Lynch decided to close the fund over fears its tracking error with the original offshore strategy is set to increase, Citywire can reveal.The Newcits fund was launched in April 2009 and was part of Merrill Lynch’s Luxembourg Sicav. It will close on November 30.The BlueTrend Ucits fund was supposed to provide Ucits investors with access to BlueCrest Capital’s USD7 billion trend-following CTA strategy, Citywire says.
28/10/2010

Encours record pour Nordea

Le bénéfice net enregistré par Nordea au troisième trimestre s’est inscrit en hausse de 32 % à 711 millions d’euros contre 539 millions pour avril-juin ; il a augmenté de 14 % sur les 626 millions de la période correspondante de 2009. Pour les neuf premiers mois de l’année, il ressort à 1,89 milliard d’euros contre 1,87 milliard.A fin septembre, le total des actifs sous gestion a atteint un record de 180,2 milliards d’euros, contre 169,8 milliards fin juin et 149,2 milliards douze mois plus tôt. L’accroissement de 10,4 milliards d’euros par rapport au 30 juin est attribuable à l’effet de marché ainsi qu'à des souscriptions nettes de 3,3 milliards d’euros.L’encours de la division gestion d’actifs s’est situé pour sa part fin septembre à 116 milliards d’euros contre 110 milliards trois mois auparavant et 96 milliards au 30 septembre 2009. Quant au bénéfice d’exploitation de cette division, il est ressorti à 97 millions d’euros contre 92 millions au deuxième trimestre et 72 millions pour la période correspondante de l’an dernier.
28/10/2010
Fonds

30 % des fonds affichent moins de 30 millions de livres d'encours

Selon la base de données de Morningstar, 733 des quelque 2.450 fonds britanniques correspondant aux catégories de l’Investment Management Association (IMA) gèrent moins de 30 millions de livres, ce qui est généralement considéré comme le plancher en dessous duquel l’exploitation d’un fonds n’est plus économiquement rentable, rapporte Fund Strategy.De plus, Morningstar suspecte que le nombre de petits fonds est en réalité encore supérieur parce que beaucoup d’entre eux ne communiquent pas le montant de leurs encours.
Fonds
28/10/2010

Man va tailler sévèrement dans son effectif

Selon un proche du dossier cité par The Wall Street Journal, le gestionnaire londonien de hedge funds Man Group a l’intention de licencier 200 personnes sur les six prochains mois, ce qui est de plusieurs fois plus sévère que prévu après l’acquisition de GLG Partners en mai. Actuellement, le nouvel ensemble Man-GLG emploie environ 1.800 personnes.
28/10/2010
Fonds

Redistribution de responsabilités pour les fonds de revenu de Schroders

En décembre, Sonja Schemmann prendra son congé de maternité. A cette occasion, elle cèdera définitivement la gestion des fonds Schroder ISF European Equity Yield et Schroder ISFEuropean Dividend Maximiser à Rory Bateman, head of European equities, et Ian Kelly, gérant de fonds d’actions européennes et internationales, rapporte Fund Strategy.Ces deux spécialistes prendront aussi en charge jusqu’au retour de Sonja Schemmann les fonds Schroder Global Equity Income, Schroder ISF Global Dividend Maximiser et Schroder ISF Global Equity Yield. Quant au Schroder Income Growth investment trust, il sera confié transitoirement à Sue Noffke.
Fonds
28/10/2010

T. Bailey premier multi-gérant à intégrer le fonds Gars

Selon Investment Week, T. Bailey est le premier multi-gérant à prendre position dans le fonds de stratégies internationales de performance absolue (Gars) de Standard Life, dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à quelque 5,6 milliards de livres.Standard Life a modifié le prospectus du fonds Gars en septembre dernier, en introduisant une limite de 10% pour les investissements dans d’autres fonds, avec une possibilité de participation pour les multi-gérants.
28/10/2010
Fonds

BNY Mellon lance un fonds infrastructures en Amérique latine

Selon Citywire, BNY Mellon a lancé un fonds infrastructures qui va chercher à capturer les opportunités d’investissements créées par l’amélioration des réseaux de transport en Amérique latine. Le fonds, lancé en août avec 200 millons de dollars, sera géré localement par Bruno Garcia, qui est l’un des gérants du BNY Mellon Brazil Equity fund.
Fonds
28/10/2010

Neuberger Berman veut se développer en Asie

Selon Asian Investor, Neuberger Berman envisage de prendre des participations dans des hedge funds asiatiques. «Compte tenu de Bâle III et de la loi Volcker, les banques feront probablement moins d’investissements dans les hedge funds, ce qui implique des opportunités supplémentaires pour les autres sociétés», a ainsi estimé Goerge Walker, CEO de Neuberger Berman.Les actifs sous gestion des fonds de fonds de Neuberger Berman s'élèvent à 3,7 milliards de dollars, dont environ 10% dans des fonds dédiés à l’Asie.
28/10/2010

Standard Life Investments veut se développer à l'est

Standard Life Investments a annoncé le 26 octobre sa volonté de développement sur les marchés asiatiques avec la nomination de Seiichi Fukuyama en qualité de chairman de la société pour la zone asiatique.Seiichi Fukuyama travaillait précédemment chez BlackRock dans la zone Asie-Pacifique.
28/10/2010

PGGM lance sa plate-forme de comptes gérés avec Lyxor

PGGM, qui gère environ 100 milliards d’euros d’actifs pour le compte de plus de 2,2 millions d’employés et de retraités aux Pays-Bas, lance sa propre plate-forme de comptes gérés (managed accounts) pour les investissements dans les hedge funds. Pour cela, le fonds de pension néerlandais a noué un partenariat avec Lyxor Asset Management, la filiale de la Société Générale, qui «facilitera les opérations, la technologie et l’infrastructure des managed accounts», indique un communiqué de presse. Cette plate-forme sera uniquement accessible aux clients de PGGM. «Cela permet à PGGM d’offrir à ses clients un accès aux stratégies de hedge funds dans un cadre responsable, transparent et liquide», précise le communiqué. «De plus, d’importantes réductions de coûts peuvent être réalisées en évitant la structure des fonds de fonds». Jan Soerensen, le responsable des hedge funds chez PGGM, indique : «ce développement s’inscrit dans le cadre de notre stratégie d’avoir un contrôle plus direct sur nos investissements en tant qu’investisseur responsable. Les hedge funds ont un ratio rendement/risque attrayant mais sont aussi peu transparents. Maintenant, nous pouvons bénéficier d’une transparence totale et investir dans les hedge funds en conformité avec notre politique d’investissements responsables».
28/10/2010
Fonds

Les fonds souverains repartent à l'offensive

Selon Les Echos, les fonds souverains ont nettement accru leurs investissements hors de leurs frontières au premier semestre. Le rapport de Monitor Group et de la Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei indique qu’ils ont pris durant cette période près d’une centaine de participations stratégiques pour un montant de 22 milliards de dollars. Leurs placements sont plus nombreux, plus diversifiés et de taille plus modeste.
Fonds
28/10/2010

Le roi reçoit Larry Fink

Selon Cotizalia, le roi Juan-Carlos d’Espagne a reçu le 27 octobre en audience privée Laurence Fink, president & CEO de BlackRock. Cette rencontre a été justifiée par la Zarzuela (le Palais) par les investissements importants du gestionnaire américain dans des entreprises espagnoles, avec des participations significatives dans des groupes comme Telefónica, le Santander, BBVA, Repsol, Iberdrola, le Sabadell, Abengoa, Técnicas Reunidas et Gamesa.

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