UBS négocie avec le gouvernement municipal de Pékin au sujet de la création d’un fonds de private equity libellé en renminbi, rapporte le Financial Times. Les discussions sont à un stade «préliminaire» et aucune décision n’aurait été prise concernant la structure, la taille ou le personnel de ce fonds.

Vendredi, BNP Paribas a confirmé le recrutement d’une partie de l'équipe cash equity pan-asiatique de KBC Securities Japan, rapporte l’Agefi. L’opération sera effective le 1er avril et concerne une trentaine d’analystes, de commerciaux et de traders, basés à Tokyo. L’accord «parachève la mise en place d’une plate-forme actions et dérivés actions complète au Japon», indique la banque dans un communiqué. Jusqu'à cette opération, note le quotidien, la banque était majoritairement présente dans le pays dans le fixed income (produits de taux, change et matières premières). Si BNP Paribas Securities Japan ne récupère pas directement des encours ou des clients, l’opération devrait néanmoins faciliter l’accès de la banque française aux grands investisseurs institutionnels japonais et renforcer ainsi son pouvoir de placement.

Globalement, la crise économique et financière n’a pas influé négativement sur le sens de la responsabilité sociale des entreprises. Tel est le principal enseignement de l’enquête Corporate Responsibility Review 2010 effectuée par l’agence allemande oekom research. Les spécialistes munichois soulignent que 504 des quelque 3.000 sociétés analysées méritent le statut «prime» et remplissent ainsi les critères sectoriels minimum définis par l’agence en matière écologique et sociale.Parmi les valeurs du Dax 30, Henkel, Deutsche Telekom et Allianz se distinguent avec des scores respectifs de 64,7, 63,3 et 62,2 sur 100 points possibles. Au sein de l’EuoStoxx 50, sanofi-aventis et Renault se classent en tête, avec 68,2 et 67,6 points.Néanmoins, oekom research souligne que l’ancrage du thème de la responsabilité sociale est insuffisant, comme le montrent les résultats sectoriels. Le meilleur résultat est affiché par les fabricants d’article de ménage avec une note de seuelement 50,1, devant l’automobile (48,4) et les distributeurs d'énergie avec 46,7. En revanche, les assurances, les banques publiques et les sociétés immobilières arrivent en queue, avec des notes respectives de 32,1, 25,4 et 25,2.L’enquête 2010 fait ressortir que les droits de l’homme et le droit du travail ont continué d'être des points délicats dans certains secteurs en 2009. Ainsi, 57,1 % des sosciétés du secteur informatique et 50 % de celles du textile ne respectent pas les normes minimum en matière de droit du travail, notamment à l'échelon de la chaîne de leurs sous-traitants. Pour ce qui concerne les infractions aux droit de l’homme, les sociétés de minières ainsi que les producteurs de pétrole et de gaz sont particulièrement exposées, avec des scores de seulement 34,5 et 18,2.Toutefois, oekom research souligne que la crise n’a pas provoqué de détérioration du bilan en mat_çère de droits de l’homme, de droit du travail ou de corruption.Cependant, Matthias Bönning, directeur de la recherche de l’agence, constate que parmi les entreprises qui se rendent coupables d’infractions, plusieurs se sont pourtant engagées à respecter des normes de bonne conduite. Parmi les 45 sociétés du Stoxx 50 qui ont signé le Pacte mondial des Nations-Unies, par exemple, 26 n’ont pas respecté les principes de cette charte.

Domenico Siniscalco a été élu à la présidence de l’association italienne des professionnels de la gestion, Assogestioni, lors de l’assemblée générale du 19 mars. Il succède à Marcello Messori, qui n’a pas souhaité renouveler sa candidature.Domenico Siniscalco a notamment été ministre italien de l’Economie et des Finances. Il est actuellement vice-président de Morgan Stanley Europe et responsable de l’Italie. L’assemblée d’Assogestioni a aussi nommé ses trois vice-présidents : Pietro Giuliani, président et administrateur délégué d’Azimut (renouvellement), Giordano Lombardo, président de Pioneer Investment Management et Mauro Micillo, administrateur délégué et directeur général d’Eurizon Capital. Le président et les trois vice-présidents font partie du comité de direction et du comité exécutif d’Assogestioni.

At one time, Société Générale was considered the front-runner to acquire the private bank of the KBC group, La Tribune reports. But, in addition to the price - candidates on the short list to acquire the business were offering about EUR1.5bn - it also appears that the French bank’s withdrawal was related to the fact that French president Nicolas Sarkozy has called on banks in France to pull out of offshore tax havens, and against this background, an investment in Luxembourg would have been viewed in a negative light. The political light on the deal was a discouragement to the French bank, the newspaper claims.

Morningstar is acquiring Realpoint, a Nationally Recognized Statistical Ratings Organization (NRSRO) specialised in structured finance, for USD42m in cash and USD10m in restricted stock. In 2009, Realpoint’s earnings totalled about USD12m. Realpoint provides ratings of stocks, research, monitoring services and data which allows institutional investors to identify credit risks for commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS). The firm currently serves about 225 client businesses. After the conclusion of the acquisition, Realpoint will become a business unit of Morningstar, under the supervision of Catherine Odelbo, president of equity research at Morningstar. The firm will continue to be headquartered in Horsham, Pennsylvania, and Robert Dobilas will remain as CEO. Realpoint will eventually adopt the Morningstar brand name.

Since the beginning of 2010, OFI AM has seen nearly EUR900m in inflows, putting assets under management above EUR21bn, Thierry Callault, deputy CEO of the management firm, announced on Friday. These inflows have continued to be largely directed to money markets, continuing a trend observed in the past few months even though these markets are not highly lucrative at this time, as well as to convertible bonds. Jean-Marie Mercadal, deputy CEO in charge of management, also sees interest in short-term bonds and international bonds. However, investors are clearly not heading back to equities markets. “We have not even seen EUR50m in inflows for this asset class,” he says. In terms of product range, Mercadal says OFI AM is hoping to add an African dimension to its BRIC fund. But first, “we would like to collect more assets for emerging markets.”

On Thursday, the investment committee for the Yale University endowment (USD16bn) decided to reduce its allocation to US equities to 7.5% from 10%, while its allocation to international equities was reduced to 10% from 15%, and hedge funds are reduced to 15% from 21%. Exposure to private equity will be increased to 26% from 21%, while commodities and real estate will be increased to 37% from 29%. In the fiscal year to 30 June 2009, the Yale endowment lost 25%.

The Flemish banking and insurance conglomerate KBC, which was already sentenced early this week by the CBFA to pay a fine of EUR250,000, is now facing criminal charges and the French prosecutor’s office in the high court in Paris due to claims by a French capital management firm. L’Echo reports that in the first phase of the hearing, set to begin next week, a Belgian executive of KBC will face the financial brigade of the French police over charges of fraud in July 2008. The reports have been confirmed by Vivianne Huybrecht, spokeswoman for KBC. In the past decade, the French fund management firm bought up nearly EUR10m in CDOs, all of them issued, structured, and sold by KBC FP.

The asset management firm Avana Invest, which is specialised in active management based on ETFs and ETCs, has signed a cooperation agreement with the VDH association of advisers paid on a commission basis. As part of the partnership, Avana will create a special class of shares in all of its funds, which will be distributed exclusively by VDH members, without any front-end or distribution fees. Currently, Avana offers two strategies: one based on equities ETFs, and one based on bond ETFs. Two new products are in development, one based on commodities, and the other on emerging markets. They are expected to be released in late April.

Roberto Waack, president of the Forest Stewardship Council, made a stop on Friday in Frankfurt. He is seeking German investors for closed-end funds offered by the Hamburg-based investment firm Aquila Capital. The sustainable development funds will finance forestry projects in Brazil, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. The first concession will be near Manaus, and will total 100,000 hectares, while the second, near Jamari, near the Peruvian border, comes to 48,000 hectares. The third planned investment will be in a reforestation project near the Atlantic coast, on the estuary of the Amazon. The returns expected from reforestation are 12% to 16% per year, while for concessions of virgin forest, returns are expected to run to 20% to 40%, but with higher risk of fluctuations. Waack has invested USD5m in these projects, and is planning to raise USD120m from retail investors by the end of June.

Robert Hengster, CEO of Oppenheim Kapitalanlagegessellschaft (OKAG), is resigning, and will leave the Sal. Oppenheim group at the end of September, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. He will initially have no replacement in his position as head of the asset management firm.

BBVA Asset Management is offering a one-time liquidity window until 30 April to subscribers who still hold 3.3% of the real estate fund BBVA Propriedad, Cinco Días reports. The next opportunity for redemption would otherwise have been on 30 November 2010. Since BBVA already bought back all other remaining shares in the fund, in November 2008, for EUR1.6bn, the remaining minority shareholders hold shares valued at EUR43.53m. If BBVA this time obtains 100% of capital in its fund, it may change the status of the Propriedad fund, which would greatly simplify the process of “refreshing” the portfolio.

Asian Investor reports that the US-based management firm Russell Investments, which has appointed Nicole Connolly as its head of advising for alternative management in Australia, is seeking another head for alternative management in Japan, as well as analysts, consultants and strategists. The move comes at a time when Russell is in the process of revising its model portfolios. Connolly will begin in her new position on 6 April. She was previously at Telstra Super, where she managed a portfolio of alternative assets.

The compound annual growth rate of Ucits will be about 6.8 per cent for the next five years, predicts a report from Lipper FMI, commissioned by Alfi, the Luxembourg funds association. This represents a substantial slowdown when compared with the 12 per cent growth achieved since the early 1990s, commented the report. Even this lower growth rate will see Europe’s fund industry grow to EUR6,800bn from the end 2009 total of EUR4,817bn. Luxembourg is likely to get a bigger slice of the pie.

The United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN-PRI), whose signatories include institutional investors with USD20trn in assets, is planning to launch initiatives to influence regulation, in the direction of taking ESG criteria into account. Responsible Investor reports that a first project by the organization will be the construction of a lobbyist network, to be launched at a date to be disclosed later, to campaign to regulators and other political decision-makers. The UN-PRI has also announced that from 2011, it will require that all PRI signatories disclose a defined minimal level of information.

In the United States, ETF funds already represent more than 25% of daily trading volumes on stock markets, while in Europe, they account for 14%, but the percentage is rising, Handelsblatt reports. Interestingly, most equities have lower daily trading volumes than shares in ETFs based on indices in which those shares are represented. This means that investors view ETFs not only as a substitute for traditional funds, which they approach with a buy-and-hold strategy, but also as tools for daily trades, as a substitute for individual equities. In addition to this, transaction volumes on ETFs are already far larger than official stock market figures indicate, as only about 40% of trades on ETFs are made on stock markets. The remainder of trades take place directly, over the counter (OTC), between institutional investors and banks.

Domenico Siniscalco was elected chairman of the Italian association of asset managers, Assogestioni, at its general meeting on 19 March. Siniscalco succeeds Marcello Messori, who did not stand for a second term. Siniscalco has previously served as Italian minister of economy and finance. He is currently vice-president of Morgan Stanley Europe and head of the business for Italy. The general meeting of Assogestioni also appointed three vice-presidents: Pietro Giuliani, president and deputy director of Azimut (who is reappointed as vice-president); Giordano Lombardo, president of Pioneer Investment Management, and Mauro Micillo, deputy director and CEO of Eurizon Capital. The president and three vice-presidents will be members of the board of directors and executive board of Assogestioni.

During the good years, the level of wealth necessary to engage the services of a private banker gradually lowered. Now, the reverse is happening, Expansión reports. Some firms are requiring clients to have at least EUR300,000, while at others the minimal bar is set at several million. Some will still accept clients with only EUR100,000, says Luis Ojeda, CEO of Deutsche Bank Private Wealth. Banks are now undertaking a re-segmentation of their clients, because, in order to provide them with convenient service in a challenging regulatory environment, services must be personalised, which requires a lower number of clients per adviser Ana Figaredo, CEO at Lombard Odier for Spain, points out that it is very difficult to imagine a personalised portfolio for a client with less than EUR300,000-EUR400,000. At this level, a portfolio composed of funds, products which can be provided by a commercial bank, suffices - and these banks can additionally offer other services, she adds. At the other extreme, La Caixa has restructured to create a segment dedicated to those with wealth of over EUR10m. The move follows the firm’s acquisition of the private banking division of Morgan Stanley, which is aimed at clients of this type. By way of illustration, the Expansión article lists asset volumes at the major private banks in Spain as of the end of December: BBVA Patrimonios: EUR52.2bn Santander Banca Privada: EUR41.9bn La Caixa: EUR41bn Banif (Santander): EUR31bn Bankinter Banca Privada: EUR17.56bn Barclays Patrimonio: EUR16bn Sabadell Banca Privada: EUR11bn Banco Urquijo (Sabadell): EUR9bn UBS España: EUR8.94bn Deutsche Bank: EUR8.5bn

As of the end of January, assets in open-ended real estate funds totalled EUR88.3bn, compared with EUR83.4bn as of the end of 2007, and EUR84.3bn as of the end of 2008. This category of fund represents 13.6% of assets under management in open-ended investment funds, the agency Kommalpha reports. In this sector, which has been affected by redemption freezes and write-downs on assets, the big winners are funds from Union Investment Real Estate (UIRE), whose market share has increased by 225 basis points since January 2009, to 17.53%. The other two actors in the top three in the profession also gained market share: Deka Immobilien and Commerz Real Investmentgesselschaft (CRI), which have market shares of 14.74% and 13.93%, respectively.

Last year, the volume of acquisitions and sales of properties by German open-ended real estate funds fess to EUR7.5bn, from EUR13.1bn in 2008. The BVI association of asset management firms recorded an increase last year in the number of sales, to 91 properties, from 77 in 2008, and a decline in the number of properties purchased, to 58 from 202 the previous year. As of the end of December, assets in Germany represented only 28.5% of total assets, compared with 29.9% one year previously. France remains by far the top destination for investments outside Germany, with 19.3% of total investment, up from 19% as of the end of 2008. In total, the BVI counted 1,522 properties in portfolios, compared with 1,578 twelve months previously. Value of the assets totalled EUR91.13bn, compared with EUR89bn, and total floor area came to 26.02 million square metres, compared with 25.1 million. Other interesting facts: 46.4% of current leases will expire after 1 January 2015, and 20.9% after January 2019. In addition, 64.6% of properties in portfolios are less than ten years old, while 35.9% of all properties are under 5 years old.

UBS is in talks with the Beijing municipal government on setting up a renminbi-denominated private equity fund, says the Financial Times. The talks are at a “preliminary” stage, with no decisions made over structure, size or personnel.

CB Richard Ellis Investors has selected BNY Mellon Trust & Depositary (UK) as its depositary for the new real estate fund CB Richard Ellis Investors, which will be a new type of Property Authorised Investment Fund (PAIF). BNY Mellon Asset Servicing will serve as custodian for the fund. The British real estate fund is the first PAIF to offer daily liquidity to investors via a master-feeder fund structure.

Russell Investments has announced that its Russell 3000 index will gain 16 new entries, all of them firms which held initial public offerings in first quarter 2010. The firms, half of which belong to the financial services sector, will be added to the index after the close of trading on 31 March. Four of the businesses have a sufficient market capitalisation to join the Russell 1000 index of large caps: Cobalt International Energy, KAR Auction Services, Piedmont Office Realty Trust, and Symetra Financial.

On Friday, BNP Paribas confirmed the recruitment of a part of the pan-Asian cash equity team from KBC Securities Japan, Agefi reports. The operation will be completed on 1 April, when BNP Paribas will take on 30 analysts, sales staff and traders based in Tokyo. The agreement “achieves the establishment of a complete equities and equity derivatives platform in Japan,” the bank says in a statement. Before the recruitment, the newspaper notes, the bank was largely active in Japan in fixed income (interest, currencies and commodities products). Though BNP Paribas Securities Japan will not directly gain assets or clients, the operation will nonetheless facilitate the French bank’s access to major Japanese institutional investors, and will also strengthen its sales capacities.

Emmanuel Hurault, gérant de taux chez Groupama AM

Marjorie Sonigo et Florence Mosse-Colin, gestion privée de Credit Suisse France

Olivier Lazar, président du directoire d’Olympia Capital Gestion

Le probable franchissement de ce seuil libérera un potentiel supplémentaire de hausse jusqu’à 4.315 points au moins

Karsten Rosenkilde, gérant obligataire chez DWS Investments