Recherche
S'abonner
Connexion
Asset Management
Accueil Asset Management Actualités
23/11/2009

Blackstone acquiert Birds Eye

Par l’intermédiaire de sa filiale Pinnacle Foods Group, le capital-investisseur Blackstone achète le fabricant de produits alimentaires Birds Eye Foods à Vestar Capital Partners, Pro-Fac Cooperative et au management de Birds Eye pour un montant de 1,3 milliard de dollars. La transaction sera financée en partie par Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse, BofA Merrill Lynch, HSBC et Macquarie Capital.
23/11/2009

Van Eck to launches Egypt and Kuwait ETFs

Van Eck Associates is planning to launch two ETFs covering Egypt and Kuwait, the Wall Street Journal reports. Market Vectors Egypt Index and Market Vectors Kuwait Index will track Egypt and Kuwait market indexes which include 25 shares each.
23/11/2009

Gartmore announces IPO

The UK asset management firm Gartmore on Friday morning announced plans for an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in mid-December. According to the British press, the fund manager is expecting to raise up to GBP300m from an offering of 30% to 50% of its capital on the market, which would value the firm at about GBP1bn. The firm had planned a an offering two years ago for GBP1.5bn, but the deal was cancelled due to the crisis. Gartmore, which managed about GBP22bn in assets as of the end of September, is 52% owned by the US private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, the Guardian notes.
23/11/2009

Terms of hedge fund directive rendered less strict

La Tribune reports that European MP Jean-Paul Gauzès, reporter for the planned AIFM alternative management directive, will release his report on Wednesday, with some alterations. The newspaper notes that the directive will apply to all asset management firms, with less strict requirements for smaller firms. The European passport for asset managers will be issued only to firms registered in the European Union (EU). For fund managers outside the EU, member states will remain free to authorise or disallow sales of offshore products. The proportion of investments for funds of funds aimed at retail investors in unregulated funds will be limited to 30%. Leverage will not be limited, but ex ante limits on leverage for each fund managed may be set out.
23/11/2009

Bill Gross recommends buying utilities and telecom sector equities

As we are in a low-growth market environment, investors would be well-advised to take advantage of the high dividend yield offered by shares in the utilities and telecom sectors, Bill Gross, head of Pimco, says in a recent statement. He estimates that these yields may range from 5% to 6%, which is far more attractive than the returns on bonds. In addition, their share prices are currently midway between their 2007 highs and their low point in 2008.
23/11/2009

Serious degradation in financial situation for pension funds

Largely due to a heavy fall in the discount rate to 5.29%, compared with 6.40% in second quarter, and a net increase of 12 basis points in long-term inflation outlooks to 2.43% in July-September, German pension funds’ liabilities increased by 18.9% in third quarter, while performance was limited to 6.6%, the consulting firm Rauser Towers Perrin (RTP) estimates in the most recent edition of its “German capital market update.” The funding ratio for pension funds of Dax companies has fallen to 58.2% (compared with 65.7% in second quarter), while the ratio for MDax companies has contracted by 5.2 points to 43.3%. RTP estimates that, since the beginning of the year, the performance of European equities in the portfolios of pension funds has totalled 22.8%, compared with 17.8% for international equities, 6.5% for bonds, 1.7% for real estate, and 1.4% for money market funds.
23/11/2009

Real estate funds squabble over blame for closures

In asset management circles, the freeze of the DEGI International fund to redemptions has been widely blamed on Commerzbank, Die Welt reports. Dresdner Bank and Allianz are the main distribution partners for DEGI funds. Since Dresdner Bank has been acquired by Commerzbank, it has been insistent in advising that its investors get out of DEGI funds in favour of real estate funds from Commerz Real. A spokesperson for the latter firm calls these claims mere speculation.
23/11/2009

More than 300 funds have been launched since the beginning of the year

VDOS Stochastics reports that 312 funds have been launched or relaucnhed (in the case of guaranteed funds) in Spain since the beginning of the year, Funds People reports. BBVA Asset Management was the most active management firm, with 11 new products focused on Spain, ahead of Santander Asset Management (7 funds), Invercaixa Gestión, and Caixa Manresa Inversió (6 funds each). For international funds, JPMorgan tops the list with 41 new products, ahead of MFS International.
23/11/2009

Aviva Investors parts with Iberian chief after nine months

Alfonso del Moral, who joined Aviva Investors as CEO of its Madrid office and head of Spanish and Portuguese markets, has been dismissed from this position as the group is changing its international operational models, Funds People reports. This follows the recruitment in July of a new global head of development. Erich Gerth, who made the decision to eliminate the position of the country managers. Del Moral will not be replaced, and other departures from the European network at Aviva Investors cannot be ruled out.
23/11/2009

Appointments at Merrill Lynch GWM

Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management has promoted Stephen Corry to the position of CIO for Asia, based in Hong Kong. He was previously a strategist, and in his new position replaces Tony Stanton, who has left the firm, AsianInvestor reports. Meanwhile, Wilson So has been appointed as chairman of the wealth management board for North Asia, succeeding Oh Eng Lock.
23/11/2009

Spanish government signs agreements with offshore tax havens

Spain has already signed tax information-sharing agreements with six of the 45 countries on the blacklist of tax havens established in 1991, including Luxembourg last week and now Andorra, Cinco Días reports. The other four are Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba, Barbados, and the Dutch Antilles. Spanish investors are urging the government to sign agreements with Hong Kong and Singapore in the near future, while industrials are eager to see an agreement signed with Panama.
23/11/2009

Douglas: Sarasin refutes accusations on "Focus"

On Monday morning, Banque Sarasin issued a statement refuting allegations in the German magazine Focus that the Swiss firm surreptitiously bought shares in Douglas Holding on behalf of the billionaire Erwin Müller. The bank points out that on 22 July 2009, it notified BaFin and Douglas that it had acquired 10.80% of capital in the retail group on its own behalf.
23/11/2009

AIG asset management adopts a new name

American International Group (AIG) is giving a new name to its asset management activities, which it is in the process of spinning off. The asset management arm, which manages over USD88bn in assets (as of 30 June), is now known as PineBridge Investments. It specialises in equities, fixed income, hedge funds and private equity, and employs about 900 professionals in 32 countries. Its headquarters are in New York.
23/11/2009

Bank of America to keep Columbia money market fund management

Columbia Management has announced that Bank of America (BofA) has decided not to sell its global wealth & investment management division along with the rest of its asset management activities to Ameriprise, the parent company of Threadneedle (see Newsmanagers of 1 October). Money market funds from Columbia will thus continue to be managed by Paul Quistberg, who will report directly to Colin Moore, CIO of Columbia, though at the closing of the sale, in Spring 2010, they will undergo a name change.
23/11/2009

M&G to offer its funds through Fundstore.it

M&G Investments has signed a distribution agreement with the Italian firm Banca Ifigest, according to which 24 funds from the British asset management firm will be available on the Fundstore.it platform, the Italian website Bluerating reports. The platform is the largest online fund distributor in Italy, offering more than 2,000 mutual funds from more than 60 management firms through current accounts, the online news site reports.
23/11/2009

Investors have confidence in equities, according to iShares

According to a survey of more than 300 professional investors by iShares in Germany and Austria, three quarters of respondents are convinced that equities will perform as well or better than bonds in 2010, and 74% feel that emerging markets will be in a better position than developed markets at the end of the recession. More than two thirds of those surveyed feel that 2010 will be a year of inflation, compared with only one third who predict deflation. Nearly 60% of managers surveyed predict that the Fed will be the first to raise its prime rates, followed by the ECB and the Bank of England. Dirk Klee, CEO of iShares for Germany, says these results corroborate the popularity on the markets of ETFs covering certain asset classes. 64% of the EUR41bn which have gone into ETFs in the past twelve months went to equities products. ETFs focused on certain emerging markets attracted EUR2.2bn, while funds focused on developed markets attracted a net total of EUR1.8bn. In the past six months, meanwhile, ETFs specialised in inflation-linked bonds saw net subscriptions of EUR1.1bn.
23/11/2009

John Hirst had previously served 30 months in prison

The financier John Hirst, who has closed his fund, Gilher Inc, and who is suspected of defrauding about 150 British expats in Majorca of GBP20m, had previously been imprisoned for two and a half years in the 1990s for a similar fraud, the Sunday Times reports. In 1992, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison for selling fake Allied Dunbar investment policies for personal gain. Hirst’s lawyer says that his client has recently been released from several weeks of psychiatric treatment at a hospital, and that he is completely willing to assist authorities.
23/11/2009

Government Pension Fund - Global liquidates its shares in Norilsk

On the recommendation of the Council on Ethics of the Government Pension Fund - Global, the Norwegian finance ministry has decided to remove Norilsk Nickel from the portfolio of the pension fund, and in the two months to the end of October has sold off its shares, representing a value of EUR37m. The Russian group is the 31st company to be excluded from the pension fund on ethical grounds. The Ethical Council found that Norilsk’s pollution of the Taymyr peninsula in Siberia was extremely severe, particularly in the form of SO2, nickel and heavy metals, which endanger 200,000 residents near production sites. The Council has not yet evaluated Norilsk’s installations on the Kola peninsula.
20/11/2009

Bipiemme Gestioni acquiert Etruria Fund Management

Nouvelle fusion dans la gestion d’actifs italienne... Bipiemme Gestioni SGR, la société de gestion du groupe Banca Popolare di Milano, vient de signer un accord pour l’acquisition de 99,98 % d’Etruria Fund Management CO, filiale luxembourgeoise de Banca Etruria gérant 326,3 millions d’euros. Et ce pour un prix d’environ 5,5 millions d’euros. Il s’agit d’une opération «familiale», Banca Etruria étant actionnaire de Bipiemme Gestioni.
20/11/2009
Fonds

Salus Alpha lance un fonds d'arbitrage sur matières premières

Le gestionnaire alternatif Salus Alpha a ouvert du 17 au 30 novembre la souscription pour son hedge fund de droit autrichien Salus Alpha Commodity Arbitrage, qui utilise une stratégie ayant généré 129,19 % (au 17 novembre) depuis son lancement en 2003, précise la fiche produit (factsheet). L’idée consiste notamment à effectuer des arbitrages entre les indices S&P GSCI Total Return et S&P GSCI Spot. Il s’agit d’arbitrages entre différentes matières premières ou entre différents contrats sur une même matière première pour exploiter les inefficiences liées à la saison, aux pénuries, au déport et au report (contango et backwardation). D’après Salus Alpha, il s’agit d’un tracker indiciel dynamique (enhanced index tracker) qui investi dans le CAX Commodity Arbitrage Index, un indice «single manager» coté sur la Bourse de Vienne et développé par Alternative-Index, une filiale de Salus Alpha.
Fonds
20/11/2009
Fonds

Salus Alpha lance un fonds d'arbitrage sur matières premières

Le gestionnaire alternatif Salus Alpha a ouvert du 17 au 30 novembre la souscription pour son hedge-fund de droit autrichien Salus Alpha Commodity Arbitrage qui utilise une stratégie ayant généré 129,19 % (au 17 novembre) depuis son lancement en 2003, précise la fiche-produit. L’idée consiste notamment à effectuer des arbitrages entre les indices S&P GSCI Total Return et S&P GSCI Spot. Il s’agit d’arbitrages entre différentes matières premières ou entre différents contrats sur une même matière première pour exploiter les inefficiences liées à la saison, aux pénuries, au déport et au report. D’après Salus Alpha, il s’agit d’un tracker indiciel dynamique qui investit dans le CAX Commodity Arbitrage Index, un indice «single manager» coté sur la Bourse de Vienne et développé par Alternative-Index, une filiale de Salus Alpha.
Fonds
20/11/2009
Fonds

Les clients des fonds alternatifs veulent mieux assurer leurs avoirs

La crise financière a aidé les comptes ségrégués (ou «managed accounts») à s’imposer dans la gestion alternative, selon Le Temps. «Sur les quelque 1.300 milliards de dollars actuellement gérés par les hedge funds dans le monde, quelque 100 milliards le sont par des comptes ségrégués», a expliqué Nathanaël Benzaken, responsable de cette activité chez Lyxor. Cette part de 7,7 % s’affiche en nette progression ; avant la crise elle n’était que de 2 à 3 %. Cette proportion «devrait s’élever à 15 ou 20 % dans trois ans», a poursuivi Nathanaël Benzaken.
Fonds
20/11/2009

Les courtiers des hedge funds s’arrachent un marché renaissant

A la fin 2008, Goldman Sachs et Morgan Stanley occupaient ensemble 50% du marché du «prime brokerage». Selon Le Temps, une année plus tard, neuf acteurs se partagent cette activité, permettant aux hedge funds de profiter d’une guerre sur les prix. Aux deux géants historiques se sont joints trois grandes banques d’affaires: Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank et JP Morgan Chase. Elles ont chacune entre 10 et 15% du marché.

Sujets d'actualité

Tous les sujets