“For strategic reasons,” Skandia (Old Mutual group) will gradually reduce the number of independent financial advisors it employs in Spain, which the market is interpreting as a sign that the business will be making an orderly exit from its private banking activities, despite the denials of José Ramón Morso, head of Skandia for Europe, Expansión reports. Skandia employs between 20 and 30 advisors. Skandia Global Funds and Skandia Seguros de Vida will not be affected by the group’s withdrawal from wealth management.

According to the most recent edition of the Fund Barometer by Lipper, the major Spanish asset management firms reduced their allocation to the risk-free asset, cash, to an average of 18.92% of their portfolios in January, compared with 20.19% in December, Cinco Días reports. This is the lowest level since June 2008, three months before the Lehman bankruptcy. Professionals increased their exposure to equities (to 41.6% from 41.1%), and to bonds (to 36.39%, up from 35.6%). 92.3% of managers surveyed say that their management firm will launch new products in the next six months, while 71.4% estimate that most new funds launched this year will be guaranteed funds.

Abby Cohen, spokesperson for TIAA-CREF, has confirmed that the pension fund is planning to move some of its back-office processes to India. The move will affect fewer than 100 jobs in the United States, Mutual Fund Wire reports. An outsourcing contract has been signed with Tata Consultancy.

French banks are seeking to develop their activities in markets dedicated to commodities, La Tribune observes, adding that these markets represent a global total of about USD15bn, much of it from businesses seeking to protect themselves against fluctuations in the price of oil, gold, and other commodities. The three largest French banks are aiming to eventually earn up to one third of their revenues from institutional investors and fund managers, while currently, 75% is earned from businesses at Société Générale, and 90% at BNP Paribas, the newspaper states. To accompany this development, French banks will hire traders in 2010, many of them in the United States and Asia. Some firms will recruit a few talented managers, while the more ambitious will hire dozens.

Spain, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, wants foreign hedge funds and private-equity funds that market their services in the European Union to make their annual report available to investors and regulators as well as be subject to close scrutiny by a regulator that shares information with EU authorities, says the Wall Street Journal, citing a legislation drafted by the Spanish government. The foreign-funds clause has been one of the more contentious aspects of the EU’s controversial Alternative Investment Fund Managers legistlation, adds the newspaper.

ETF Securities has announced that its platform dedicated to equities ETFs, ETF Exchange (ETFX), on 20 January passed USD350m in trading volume. ETFX was launched last year (see Newsmanagers of 7 April 2009).

The quarterly rankings by Feri EuroRating Services released on 31 December 2009 give top honours to Union Investment as the best management firm in the period, though it finished in fourth place in the rankings released at the end of 2008: the proportion of funds rated A and B at Union (German co-operative banks) was 62% (50 out of 80), compared with about 48% twelve months earlier. The improvement was largely in bond management, where 64% of funds were well-rated, compared with 31%. Feri EuroRating Services states that Threadneedle is in second placve, with 52%, followed by State Street (48%). Deka Investment (German savings banks), with 45/103 and 43%, and BlackRock, in fifth place with 49%, also managed to make the top 10 for last year. Fidelity takes fourth place, with 46.5%. Among the “small” management firms (between 8 and 24 funds rated), Vitruvius remains the number one, with 88.9% of its funds well-rated, followed by StarCapital, with 87.5%, and Baring AM, with 71.4%.

Klaus Nieding, a lawyer at the Protect Invest Alliance, has told Handelsblatt that he is preparing lawsuits against Barclays and HSBC on behalf of investors who have lost as much as EUR30m due to the fraud perpetrated by Helmut Kiener, the German “mini-Madoff.” Kiener has been in custody since late October. Kiener’s hedge funds K1 Invest and K1 Global attracted more than EUR500m in investments, and the Wurzburg prosecutor’s office accuses Kiener of defrauding Barclays and BNP Paribas of EUR280m. Barclays issued a certificate based on the performance of the K1 Global Fund, while HSBC Geneva was the commissioner for one of Kiener’s companies.

ING Investment Management manages EUR414bn, of which EUR137bn are in Europe, and EUR1bn in Germany, Handelsblatt reports. Since mid-2009, the manager has reprofiled itself as an independent boutique, similar to BNY Mellon Asset Management, and according to the firm’s head of European strategy, Jan Straatment, performance is beginning to improve. But according to rankings by Feri EuroRatings, ING IM is far down in the rankings of major fund managers. Only two of the 36 funds ING offers in Germany have a higher-than-average rating, the worst result for any manager in its class.

The Pimco manager Andrew Balls will be put in charge of the management of five more European bond funds, Fondsprofessionell reports. The funds are the following: Allianz Pimco Euro Rentenfonds, Allianz Pimco Europazins, Allianz Pimco Europa Renten T, Adirenta, and Adiropa. Total assets in these funds add up to EUR1.5bn.

BlackRock predicts that Asian equities will benefit in 2010 from a rebound in US investors’ appetite for Asian exports, from improving results for Asian businesses, and the relative health of Asian consumer spending. “In 2010, Asian equities will continue to be positively oriented, but their performance will probably be lower than last year, and will depend more centrally on the health of corporate profits than on valuations,” the management firm predicts in a recent statement. China will continue to dominate the region. “We remain optimistic about Chinese equities in 2010. Results at Chinese businesses will continue to increase, as exports improve, consumer spending rises and new measures on the part of the authorities are announce to stimulate the economy. We prefer shares of the discretionary consumer sector, but stock-picking will play a vital role this year,” says Jing Ning, manager of the BlackRock Global Funds (BGF) China Fund.

The management firm Neuberger Berman announced on 2 February that it has appointed Jason Henchman as chief operating officer, and Chris Gunns as head of consultant relations for the Asian region. Both will be based in Hong Kong in their new positions. Henchman was previously head of legal affairs and compliance at Legg Mason. Gunns was regional manager for institutional distribution and development of activities at ING Investment Management Asia Pacific. As of 31 December 2009, assets under management at Neuberger Berman totalled over USD173bn.

The US asset management company State Street is being sued by Dutch pension fund Stichting Pensioenfonds Medewerkers Apotheken (PMA) after a strategy allegedly cost the fund a reported USD76m, says Citywire. The figure had been invested through the firm’s Europe Edge Fund, a 120/20 European equities fund that sought to outperform the MSCI Europe Index. The Dutch pension fund accuses State Street of mismanagement and deceit, claiming the asset manager transferred ownership of all the fund’s securities to Lehman Brothers without their knowledge.

After spending 16 months at Man Investments, Philippe Gougenheim is leaving the firm, where he held the position of senior portfolio manager. He contributed to the idea of the AHL + Gold product, which was launched at the beginning of February. His replacement has not been named.

Sander van Eijkern is stepping down as member of the management board of Robeco as of February 1st, 2010 as a consequence of a difference of opinion with respect to the future strategy of Robeco, says a press release. The responsibilities of Van Eijkern as a member of the management board of Robeco will be taken over by its other five members. Van Eijkern will remain a member of the supervisory board of Robeco’s subsidiary Transtrend.At the same time Sander van Eijkern will step down as CEO of SAM. Stephanie Feigt and Michael Baldinger, currently CIO and head global clients & marketing at SAM respectively, will jointly pick up the responsibility of CEO of SAM during the process of appointing a successor. Leni Boeren will become responsible for SAM on the management board of Robeco.

The German and Austrian authorities have granted sales licenses for the Templeton Euro Money Market Fund, a sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav FTIF, which was launched on 23 October, and which had assets as of the end of December of EUR23.4m. The fund, managed by John Beck, has the lowest risk levels of any bond product from Franklin Templeton. The management firm has also announced that the strategy of the Templeton Euroland Bond Fund has been modified, and that the new name of the sub-fund is Templeton Euro Government Bond. The majority of the portfolio will now be invested in Euro zone government bonds. The reorientation is accompanied by a 0.15 percentage point cut to management commissions, to 0.50%, effective from 30 November.

The asset management firm for the German savings banks, DekaBank, has announced the launch of a new German-registered horizon fund (maturing on 23 December 2014), which will invest in bonds from 30 governments and businesses of emerging countries, entitled Deka-RentSpezial EM 12/2014. The fund is managed by Oliver Kastner. Investments in local currencies are hedged for forex risks. Characteristics Name: Deka-RentSpezial EM 12/2014 ISIN: DE000DK1CMK0 Front-end fee: 1.75% Management commission: 0.5% Other fees: 0.2%

Barings announced on Wednesday that its thematic equities fund focused on soft commodities, the Baring Global Agricuture Fund (GBP139m as of 12 January), has been granted a sales license in France (see Newsmanagers of 14 January). The fund is managed by Jonathan Blake, like the Baring Global Resources fund (EUR735m in assets as of the end of 2009). the Global Agriculture Fund was launched on 15 January 2009, and showed returns of 43.7% as of 31 December.

Mercredi, la Financial Services Authority (FSA) a annoncé avoir retiré son agrément à Simon Treacher, un gérant de fonds senior au sein de l'équipe marchés émergents du gestionnaire alternatif BlueBay Asset Management. L’intéressé -au nom prédestiné- a falsifié des données émanant de courtiers entre août et octobre 2008, provoquant un sinistre pour les investisseurs de l’ordre de 650.000 dollars. Cette somme a été entièrement remboursée aux souscripteurs par Blue Bay.En plus de son interdiction professionnelle, Simon Treacher, qui a entre-temps été licencié par BlueBay, a été condamné à 140.000 livres d’amende. Il a bénéficié d’un abattement de 30 % sur le mondant la pénalité pour avoir accepté une transaction au stade initial de la procédure.

According to a survey by BDO of British managers, the planned AIFM directive does not appear to be a central concern of actors in the hedge fund industry. When asked to identify major risks in 2010, only 3% of managers mentioned the directive now being debated by the European parliament. In the opinion of managers, the foremost risk in 2010 is a potential lack of investors, mentioned by 42% of respondents, while market volatility takes second place. Another major risk, mentioned by 10% of respondents, is the danger of a talent drain in the industry.

La Tribune reports, on the basis of information form sources close to the matter cited by Reuters, that the Australian wealth management firm AMP will not seek to extend its exclusive agreement with Axa as part of a joint offer to acquire the Australian affiliate of the French firm, Axa Asia Pacific, for USD11.4bn. The move will allow the National Australia Bank to renew its USD11.8bn bid for the business, the newspaper notes.

GLG Partners, the asset manager, has announced the appointment of Raffaele Costa as the co-head of marketing. He will work alongside Emmanuel Roman, the firm’s co-CEO, to develop and execute GLG’s global product and distribution strategy.

Royal London Asset Management has seen a 20% fall in net subscriptions, to GBP589m in the 12 months up to 31 December last year, Investment Week reports.

Paul Hatfield, currently CIO and head of US operations of Alcentra, is to become global CIO, based in London. Hatfield joined Alcentra in 2003 as a portfolio manager for Alcentra’s European CLOfunds. He will start this new role in April 2010. Julian Colville (head of business development) and Ron Grobeck (senior US portfolio manager) have been appointed co-heads of the US business. In Europe, Simon Perry is promoted to head of business development EMEA ex-Japan. Alcentra’s asset management and investment activities are focused on the sub-investment grade debt markets, with offices in London and New York. The group has 52 professionals and almost USD18 billion assets under management globally across 43 investment funds.

Barclays has admitted that it did not inform clients when it increased the risk category of some funds, Money Marketing reports. In mid-2007, the bank introduced a new system to evaluate clients’ risk appetite, and reevaluated all products which it distributed according to the new system.

La faible volatilité implicite offre des opportunités d'achat de protection sur les maturités longues

Les investissements ont crû de 26 % à 20,6 milliards d’euros au quatrième trimestre. Pour DTZ, un rebond de 80 % du marché est possible en 2010

Dans un entretien accordé au premier numéro 2010 de L’Essentiel de l’ISR, publié par Novethic, Michèle Jardin, directeur général d’IDEAM, fait le point sur la stratégie ISR d’Amundi Asset Management. Elle annonce de nouvelles transformations de fonds non ISR en fonds ISR, et notamment d’un fonds actions US et d’un fonds actions France. Enfin, de nouveau produits «engagés» seront lancés.

Living Planet Fund Management Company, filiale du WWF International, l’organisation mondiale de protection de la nature, vient de s’associer à Macif Gestion (groupe Macif), pour lancer Le Living Planet Fund – Bonds, un fonds d’investissement socialement responsable (ISR) de droit français, investi en obligations émises dans la zone OCDE. En matière de gestion, le fonds d’investissement socialement responsable exclut des investissements dans certains secteurs tels que l’armement, le tabac, les organismes génétiquement modifiés, etc. Simultanément, les émetteurs publics ou privés sélectionnés répondent à des critères financiers spécifiques. Ils doivent notamment afficher des notations financières de très bonne qualité (A2 minimum sur le court terme et BBB+ minimum sur le long terme), respecter des ratios de solvabilité à court et long terme, et favoriser des émissions dont le volume assure la liquidité des placements… Enfin, les émetteurs en portefeuille du fonds doivent respecter différentes catégories d’indicateurs, notamment sociaux et environnementaux (respect des traités et conventions internationaux, prise en compte des bonnes pratiques de gouvernance, politiques environnementales et maîtrise des impacts écologiques, positionnement sociétal, etc). Qu’il s’agisse d’un Etat ou d’entreprises appartenant à la zone OCDE, tous bénéficient d’une notation extra-financière selon les trois piliers : Environnement, Social et Gouvernance. Caractéristiques :Code Isin : Parts " R " :Parts de capitalisation : FR0000975575 Parts distribution : FR0000975583 Parts " I " : Parts de capitalisation : FR0010816603 Commission de souscription : 2 % maximumFrais de gestion annuels : 0,90 % maximum (parts R/parts I) Montant minimum de la souscription initiale : Parts « R » : 150 euros.Parts « I » : 10 000 euros. Part « R » : Valeur liquidative d’origine : 152,45 euros Part « I » : Valeur liquidative d’origine : 10 000 euros