Gartmore prépare le lancement d’un fonds paneuropéen long/short, selon Money Marketing, qui sera confié à l’ex-équipe de GAM qui a rejoint Gartmore au début du mois : outre John Bennett, les analystes Asim Rahman et Christian Billiger, et la gérante Eleanor Cameron.Le nouveau produit, qui devrait être lancé en mai, sera géré selon une stratégie toutes capitalisations qui cherchera des opportunités d’investissement dans les entreprises et les industries en mutation.John Bennett serait plutôt court actuellement sur les utilities et les cycliques, et peut-être les mines, et long sur la pharmacie et les technologies. Il prévoit un mini-boom sur le secteur des technologies, notamment sur les logiciels, la tendance apparue aux Etats-Unis devant normalement toucher l’Europe dans un deuxième temps.

Credit Suisse va réduire les bonus de ses salariés britanniques seniors, devenant ainsi la première banque à répercuter sur les banquiers la supertaxe sur les primes décidée par le Royaume-Uni, annonce le Financial Times. Dans le détail, la banque a annoncé à ses 400 managing directors du Royaume-Uni qu’ils auraient un bonus inférieur de 30 % à ce qui était prévu. Le montant global réservé aux bonus sera aussi réduit de 5 %.

Russell Investments a annoncé le 19 janvier la nomination de Stephen Metcalfe en tant que consultant au sein de l’équipe Consulting and Advisory Services de Russell.Stephen était précédemment chez Friends Provident et faisait partie de l’équipe Gestion Actif-Passif, en tant que consultant. Il était auparavant analyste titrisation chez Royal Bank of Scotland et a également travaillé chez GE Insurance Solutions et QED Actuaries & Consultants.La nomination de Stephen prend effet immédiatement. Il sera basé chez Russell à Londres et rapportera à Sorca Kelly-Scholte.

Schroders vient de nommer Marina Bottero en tant que responsable de la gestion de fonds immobiliers en Italie. Elle s’occupera à ce titre de l’activité immobilière italienne de la société de gestion britannique et de son expansion. Précédemment, Marina Bottero dirigeait l'équipe d’investissement de Hines en Italie. Dans le même temps, Cristina Ferrari Bravo a été nommée responsable de la gestion d’actifs immobiliers en Italie. Elle travaille chez Schroders depuis 2003 et était jusqu’ici en charge de la gestion du portefeuille de centres commerciaux. L’activité immobilière de Schroders représente 7,5 milliards de livres (8,2 milliards d’euros) au 30 septembre.

Selon les calculs de Thomson/Reuters Lipper, les fonds éthiques et développement durable ont affiché pour 2009 une performance moyenne de 29,52 % alors que le MSCI World ne gagnait «que» 26,35 %, rapporte le Handelsblatt. Dans la catégorie développement durable, un produit First State, trois fonds SAM et un fonds climat de Swisscanto ont enregistré des gains compris entre 36 et 52 %. Et, parmi les fonds éthiques, les meilleurs produits d’UBS, Swisscanto, Danske Invest et Hunter Hall ont généré des performances situées entre 73 % et près de 90 %.

Partenaire de BNP Paribas dédié à la gestion de fonds d’infrastructure mais doté d’une gouvernance indépendante, Antin Infrastructure Partners a annoncé mardi 19 janvier avoir procédé à un deuxième «closing». Ce tour de table réalisé le 18 décembre et qui s'élève à 215 millions d’euros – portant à 515 millions le total des engagements du fonds – a été souscrit par des fonds de pension scandinaves et allemands ainsi que par des investisseurs français. Le fonds– dont la nature juridique est celle du fonds commun de placement à risques, avantageuse fiscalement pour les investisseurs français et «neutre» pour les investisseurs étrangers – a déjà investi dans quatre sociétés, pour un montant total de 240 millions d’euros. Le nom de la quatrième entreprise a été également dévoilé mardi : il s’agit de Pisto SAS, une société du secteur aval pétrolier en France. D’un point de vue financier, le fonds assure un rendement annuel de 5 % avec un taux de rendement interne de 15 %. Pour cela, Antin IP n’investit qu’en Europe continentale où la gestion privilégie des dossiers de grande qualité et où la concurrence est moindre comparé à ce qui se passe en Grande-Bretagne. Bien évidemment, la qualité a un prix a noté en substance Alain Rauscher, CEO et fondateur de la société de gestion. De fait, le fonds n’est investi qu’en Europe de l’ouest à l’exception d’un investissement dans Bina Istra, la société autoroutière en Croatie. Mais elle profite, il est vrai, de la garantie de l’Etat. «Même si de très beaux dossiers existent notamment dans des pays comme la Pologne, a expliqué le responsable de la société, nous ne donnons pas suite en raison du risque de change qu’un investisseur subit dans ce pays.» A ce titre, la règle pour le fonds est qu’au moins 80 % des investissements soient réalisés en euro. En outre, compte tenu de ses exigences en matière de rendement, le fonds n’a pas vocation à participer à la réalisation de nouvelles infrastructures – typiquement une nouvelle liaison TGV par exemple – mais plutôt à accompagner leur exploitation ou leur développement. Compte tenu de l’intérêt marqué par d’autres investisseurs , Antin IP anticipe un troisième closing au cours du premier trimestre 2010, la taille cible du fonds ayant été fixée à un milliard d’euros. Alain Rausher a également laissé entendre qu’une version à destination des particuliers - actuellement le ticket d’entrée est de 10 millions d’euros - pourrait à terme voir le jour, via la gestion privée.

Selon L’Agefi suisse, Wegelin a inauguré hier sa première présentation à Genève et dans toute la Suisse «par des femmes pour des femmes». A cette occasion, Céline Kuhn, gestionnaire au sein de la banque, a présenté le concept de gestion semi-institutionnelle pour des clients privés, développé ces derniers mois par la banque saint-galloise. C’est la première fois que l’établissement propose des rencontres ouvertes exclusivement aux femmes dans le cadre de la gestion de fortune.

En France, les acteurs de place travaillent sur ce concept afin de présenter les titrisations sur des critères de sécurité, de transparence et de liquidité

Alors que la Chine a allégé son portefeuille de Treasuries, le Royaume-Uni, le Japon et les pays exportateurs de pétrole en ont massivement acheté

Emmanuelle Court, previously director of sales of Société Générale Asset Management (SGAM), has joined CPR Asset Management as director of sales. Meanwhile, Bertrand Paul, who was previously head of development for the Harewood Asset Management product range at BNP Paribas, has been hired as head of marketing and communication at the asset management firm. These two positions were previously occupied by Etienne Clément, deputy CEO of CPR AM, who has left the firm to join Amundi. In addition to these new arrivals, CPR AM has announced two promotions within its ranks, one of which has involved the creation of a new position for a chief investment officer. Arnaud Faller becomes CIO at CPR AM. Faller joined the firm in 1993, and since 1999 has been head of balanced management, a position which will now be taken over by Malik Haddouk, who has been at CPR AM since 1994. He previously served as head of the global equities management unit; this position will now be taken over by Cyrille Collet, head of equities.

The alternative asset management firm Brevan Howard, founded in 2002 and based in London, currently has assets of USD27bn, half of which is managed for institutional investors, and the other half for funds of funds. The proportion was previously 20% and 80%. At the end of last year, the British asset manager signed a partnership with OFI Asset Management, intended to give the firm an opportunity to develop its presence in the French market. The French management firm will distribute two UCITS III sub-funds: the Brevan Howard Macro FX Fund and the Brevan Howard Absolute Return Bond Plus Fund. Philippe Lespinard, a partner at Brevan Howard, says the British firm is also planning to open offices in Geneva, but that the move has nothing to do with plans to “flee” London; rather, it is part of a development strategy. Currently, the firm is present in New York, Hong Kong, Jersey, Washington and Dublin, in addition to London, with 329 employees. OFI AM also gives the firm a start in France.

The management firm Pimco has single-handedly amassed assets rivalling those of all the ETFs in the world put together (USD1.032trn as of the end of December, according to BlackRock): the affiliate of Allianz Global Investors declares assets under management as of 31 December 2010 of USD1.0001trn. Of this total, the Pimco Total Return Fund represents about USD202.3bn. Pimco has 1,247 employees, of whom 425 are investment professionals.

The global hedge fund industry will have USD1.86trn of assets at the end of December 2010, according to a report on 2010 hedge fund themes by Lipper cited by Hedge Week. Global hedge fund assets were estimated at USD1.55trn at the end of September 2009. Lipper believes the global hedge fund industry will be at about USD1.86trn at the end of December 2010, under the assumption of an average ten per cent annual performance in 2010 and USD100bn net inflows.

Gains for the Credit Suisse/Tremony hedge fund index in December totalled 0.88% (putting the index at 416.28), while provisional estimates had put it at 0.39% (see Newsmanagers of 14 January). Gains had totalled 2.11% in November. For the year as a whole, average performance totalled 18.57%, the best results in ten years. For the year, only two strategies out of 13 show losses in 2009: dedicated short bias, with losses of 25.03%, and managed futures, which are down 6.57%. As for other hedge fund indexes, the two strategies which show the best results are convertibles arbitrage (+47.35%), and emerging markets (+30.03%).

The hedge fund management firm Vega, whose assets have fallen to USD500m, after peaking at USD12bn in 2004, has posted performance in 2009 of 93.85% for the Vega Select Opportunities fund (but 70.6% for subscribers who pay commissions), and 62.34% for the Vega Global fund, Cotizalia reports. The good results for Vega Global are largely attributable to positions taken by the manager, Ravi Mehra, on currencies.

As announced in February 2009, Banco Sabadell has absorbed redemption and subscription demands for its real estate fund Sabadell BS Inmobiliario, Expansión reports. The result has been an investment of EUR279m, 29% of assets in the fund. Though 1,400 investors have left the fund, about 13,000 investors remain. Sabadell has done similarly to BBVA, which spent EUR1.6bn to keep its BBVA Propriedad fund afloat.

On Tuesday, E-Fund announced that it had concluded a round of findraising with USD600-650m for its first QDII product, an Asia ex Japan fund which will be distributed by ICBC, Z-Ben Advisors reports. E-Fund generally ignores retail investors when it launches its products, preferring to concentrate on institutional investors and those who are likely to remain invested for a longer term. The management firm may turn to the retail market in three to six months, once a track record has been established for the product.

Invesco Perpetual will on 1 February launch a tactical bond fund, which may invest in the full range of bond products, Money Marketing reports. The managers of the fund, Paul Causer and Paul Read, co-heads of fixed income, may make short-term allocations, which may theoretically include positions of up to 100% cash. The risk profile of the fund may change very rapidly. At its launch at the beginning of February, the fund will be primarily invested in high yield, and will have limited positions on government bonds. Invesco Perpetual, which is not concerned that investors’ current limited appetite for bond products may limit the fund’s appeal, says the launch of the fund is not a short-term project. The subscription period will run from 25 January to 1 February. Front-end fees have been set at 55, and management commission is 1.25% per year.

On the third anniversary of its launch, Baring Asset Management has announced that its multi-asset class institutional fund Dynamic Asset Allocation (DAA) now has over GBP1.7bn in assets (more than GBP1.74bn as of 13 January), and that the number of mandates now exceeds 50, with 26 new mandates and GBP536m assigned to the firm in 2009. Assets under management totalled GBP1.03bn as of the end of 2008, and GBP360m as of the end of 2007. Since launch, cumulative performance totals 23.76%, compared with losses of 3.89% for the FTSE All Share index.

Graham Birch has decided not to rejoin BlackRock at the end of his sabbatical, which will conclude at the end of March. Evy Hambro, co-manager, will remain as manager of the BlackRock Gold & General fund (GB0005852396, GBP2.14bn as of the end of November). The direction of the equities/natural resources team at BlackRock will be shared between Hambro and Robin Batchelor, who had already held the position since the departure of Graham Birch. Hambro will be responsible for gold and mines, while Batchelor will be in charge of energy and new energies.

Henderson will re-open the New Star International Property Fund for dealing on Friday 12 February 2010 following a successful asset disposal programme. Dealing in the fund was suspended on 25 November 2008 following unusually heavy redemptions. Since suspension, a programme of asset disposals has been undertaken, with the objective of ensuring that the fund could re-open for dealing as soon as reasonably practicable, while still maintaining a diverse and well-balanced portfolio of assets. The Financial Services Authority has approved the introduction of a restricted redemption share class for investors whose holding is worth more than GBP7.5 million. Should these investors wish to sell shares they will need to give one month’s written notice or pay a redemption charge of 10% of the value of the redemption. These stricter redemption procedures for large investors should allow the fund manager greater control over liquidity. The mid to long term target liquidity for the fund will be in the region of 15 to 20%. However, immediately upon re-opening, the fund will hold more than this to ensure we meet existing redemption requests.

Thames River Capital has launched a UCITS III absolute return fund of funds with GBP47m already raised. The Thames River Absolute Return Fund will be managed by alternatives specialist Ken Kinsey-Quick and assistant fund manager, James Rous, supported by the Multi-Alternative team. The fund will invest on a global basis, across multiple asset classes with a bias towards more liquid asset classes and the developed world. Initially the portfolio will be biased toward market neutral equity and macro funds reflecting the team’s outlook for equities which, they believe, will struggle to break their 2007 highs, and that volatile financial markets will suit macro managers. The Thames River Absolute Return Fund has a target return of 5-10% with a 5% volatility target and weekly liquidity. The fund will aim to outperform global bonds as measured by the Barclays Aggregate Bond Index and will invest in a diversified portfolio of 20-40 absolute return funds.

In November, European long-only funds saw a decline in net subscriptions of about EUR10bn compared with October, bringing them to EUR23.32bn, according to Lipper Feri. However, the total for the first eleven months of the year comes out to EUR200bn, compared with net redemptions of EUR305bn in January-November 2008, while net inflows for 2009 as a whole will probably total EUR220bn-EUR230bn, compared with net redemptions of EUR300.4bn the previous year.

As of the end of 2009, db x-trackers, the ETF platform from Deutsche Bank, had assets of EUR27bn, in 125 products; this is EUR6.6bn more than 12 months previously. Of this total, 85% come from institutional investors, Thorsten Michalik, head of db x-trackers, tells Newsmanagers. In 2010, the objective of db x-trackers is to become the number two ETF provider in Europe, overtaking Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale). The firm is planning to launch about 50 ETFs based on numerous asset classes. Meanwhile, db x-trackers will this year start up an activity in the area of exchange traded commodities (ETC). A first line of products based on individual commodities and on baskets of commodities as well as “short” ETC products, will be launched by Deutsche Bank in spring, for which the bank will also serve as market-maker, as it does for its ETFs. All ETCs will be backed by gold. There are plans to list the products in Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, and in Asia.

Invesco on 18 January announced the launch of the Invesco Global Investment Grade Corporate Bond fund. The investment universe will include the three largest corporate debt markets, including issues in US dollars, Euros and pounds Sterling. The OPCVM will aim to outperform the Barclays Global Aggregate Corporate fund. To achieve this, it will invest at least 70% of its assets in investment grade corporate bonds. The remainder of assets (up to a maximum of 30%) may be invested in cash. Interest rate and currency risks will largely be managed in line with the benchmark. The manager may, however, to some extent modulate the portfolio’s exposure to these two risks, in order to generate alpha. The duration of the portfolio will be actively managed, and will represent a secondary source of performance. Characteristics ISIN codes:(A distribution) LU0432616141 /(A capit., hedged in €) LU0432616570/ (C distribution) LU0432616224/(C capit., hedged in €) LU0432616653/(E capitalisation) LU0432616497Maximum front-end fees: (A and C) 5.25%; (E) 3.0928%Annual management fees (TTC): (A) 1%; (C) 0.65%; (E) 1.25%Minimum investment: (A) USD1,500; (C) USD250,000; (E) EUR500 or equivalent in other currenciesBase currency: USD

Dexia Asset Management has launched a UCITS III fund, Dexia Long Short Emerging Debt, which invests in arbitrage strategies on emerging market debt and currencies. The fund will aim to earn absolute returns higher than the EONIA, with average volatility of 10%, on an investment horizon of over 3 years.

Charles Schwab, which launched its first four ETFs on 3 November, followed by two more on 11 December, on Thursday listed the Schwab Emerging Markets Equity ETF (SCHE) and the Schwab International Small-Cap Equity ETF (SCHC), both of which charge fees of 0.35%. the former replicates the FTSE All-Emerging Index, while the latter is based on the FTSE Developed Small Cap ex US Liquid Index. As of 12 January, ETF assets at Charles Schwab totalled USD419m.

Lyxor AM, an affiliate of the Société Générale group, is launching its first ETFs based on publicly-traded real estate on NYSE Euronext in Paris. The four products will replicate MSCI Real Estate indices. These indices offer exposure to global publicly-traded real estate and to 4 regions (World, Europe, the United States, and Asia ex Japan).

Ignis Asset Management has announced the appointment of Tim Roberts as Chief Operating Officer. He will be joining Ignis on 18 January from McKinsey & Company, where he has worked since 1993 and has been a partner since 1999. Tim Roberts will report to Chris Samuel, Chief Executive, and will sit on both the group’s asset management executive committee and the Ignis board. He will work closely with Chris Samuel on strategy and will be dividing his time between Ignis’ London and Glasgow offices.

According to a document sent by the EU president to other member states on 11 January, the Spanish government is planning to carry on “the fantastic work” of the Swedish presidency in developing the draft AIFM directive and reconciling the points of view of the United Kingdom on one side, and France and Germany on the other. But, Expansión observes, a majority of specialists predict that the bill will only be passed at the end of 2010, after the term of Spanish presidency.