Investors’ interest in “sustainable” management firms is continuing to increase, Fondsprofessionell reports. On the basis of the EDA (or ethisch dynamischer Anteil) standards from the Austrian firm software-systems.at, which measures transparency, support for renewable energies, absence of atomic energy or land mine manufacturers in the portfolios of firms, and other criteria, the top 20 sustainable management firms as of November are: Allianz Invest, Baring, BlackRock, Carl Spängler KAG, CPB KAG, Credit Suisse, Erste Sparinvest, Fortis Investments, Henderson, Jul.Meinl Invest, Julius Bär, Kepler, ÖkoWorld Lux S.A., Pictet Funds S.A., Pioneer Inv. Austria, Raiffeisen KAG, Sarasin, Schelhammer & Schattera, Security KAG, and Volksbank Invest KAG.

Comgest, a management firm with high levels of expertise in “GARP” (Growth At Reasonable Price) management, has decided to throw more limelight on its personnel specialised in management on the European continent. These funds will continue to have an overall lead manager - Laurent Dobler for the Renaissance Europe and Comgest Europe funds, Arnaud Cosserat for Comgest Growth Europe, and Claire Rodrigue for Comgest Growth Mid-Caps Europe - but their names will now also be associated with those of their partners.

Berkshire Hathaway, the group controlled by Warren Buffett, on Friday announced net profits attributable to shareholders in July-September of nearly USD3.24bn, compared with nearly USD1.06bn in the corresponding period of last year, bringing the total for the first nine months of the year to USD5bn, compared with USD4.88bn in January-September 2008. Net operating profits, which exclude returns on investments and positions on derivatives, totalled USD2.06bn, compared with USD2.07bn, for the period under review, and USD5.54bn, compared with USD6.27bn, for the first nine months of the year.

According to a survey by Skandia Investment Group (SIG) of 60 management firms worldwide, with assets of over USD7trn, 64% of managers surveyed estimate that institutional managers are seeking to increase their retail distribution. In light of the fact that 65% of management firms contacted for the survey are uniquely institutional managers, this indicates what may be a major trend, says Rob Williams, chief sales & marketing officer at SIG in Hong Kong. Among the managers that SIG selected to survey about product distribution are Stone Harbor Investment Partners and Gabelli Asset Management in the United States, SVM in the United Kingdom, Acadian Asset Managers in South Africa, and First State in Australia.

Lombard Odier has signed distribution agreements in Italy with Gruppo Banca Sella and Allfunds Bank, the Italian website Bluerating reports. The agreement with Banca Sella will allow all banks in the group to sell the 45 sub-funds of the Sicav LODH Invest registered for sale in Italy to their retail clients. Allfunds, for its part, will make these products available to the 20 institutional clients using its platform.

Sumitomo Trust and Banking and Chuo Mitsui Trust Holdings announced on Friday, 6 November, that they have signed an agreement to merge their asset management businesses. The deal is subject to approval by shareholders and the relevant antitrust authorities. The integration would be carried out through an exchange of shares between Sumitomo Trust and Banking and Chuo Mitsui Trust Holdings, on 1 April 2011, and the creation at the same time of Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings, Inc., as the new holding company for the firm. The merger would be effective from 1 April 2012. The new bank would have JPY58trn (EUR430bn) in assets under management.

Universal Investment and the Munich-based management boutique Vescore Deutschland have opened their absolute return fund Glocap Vega, launched earlier this year, to retail investors in Germany and Austria. The product aims for total annual returns of 9% to 11%, while volatility is 9.5%, or half that of an equities portfolio for which the MSCI World index serves as benchmark. The German-registered fund has already attracted about EUR150m in investment. Most of the portfolio is invested in bonds which present virtually no credit risk. For the remainder, the management team may use short-term options on bond or equities indices, such as the S&P 500 or the Euro Stoxx 50. Backtesting shows that the Glocap strategy would have produced no negative annual results between January 1998 and December 2008. The model functioned correctly for two thirds of all the months in this period. Characteristics Name: GLOCAP VegaISIN: DE000A0RLFC4Advisor: Vescore Deutschland GmbHManagement commission: Currently 1.75%Front-end fee: 5% maximumMinimal subscription: EUR500/EUR50 per month for savings plans

On 4 November, Pioneer Investments launched the Pioneer Funds - Emerging Market Bond Local Currencies fund, a new sub-fund of the Luxembourg-registered Pioneer Funds Sicav, investing primarily in debt from emerging countries denominated in local currencies, the Italian website Bluerating reports. The manager of the fund will be Greg Saichin, head of emerging markets and high yield.

The Chinese National Social Security Fund (NSSF), one of the pension funds for the People’s Republic, may initiate a series of changes, as it approaches CNY1trn in assets, a level it expects to reach in the next two years, Asian Investor reports. One of the innovations may be the transformation of the professional status of those working in fund management, who have previously been state functionaries. The creation of a private management team may help the fund to attract new talent. The fund is also talking about a new allocation which would reduce its exposure to bonds and increase exposure to alternative assets.

Prudential on Thursday announced the launch of Prudential Al-Wara’ Asset Management, a management firm based in Malaysia, wholly dedicated to management according to the Islamic principles of Sharia, Asian Investor reports. Zulkifli Ishak, former director of Sharia investments at Prudential Fund Management, becomes CEO and CIO of the new structure, which will offer Malaysian institutional investors offshore and onshore mandates.

According to statistics from Ahorro Corporación, assets in Spanish guaranteed funds have contracted by 10.7%, or EUR5.78bn since the beginning of the year, to a total of EUR48.44bn, Cinco Días reports. This decline represents 87.3% of the contraction in assets for all funds in the period under review (EUR6.62bn). In September alone, net redemptions from guaranteed funds totalled EUR667m. Specialists predict that a good part of the EUR3.07bn which will mature in November and December (according to estimates from VDOS Stochastics) will be redirected to more lucrative asset classes such as direct investment in equities, or funds with higher-risk profiles. The average performance of guaranteed funds totals 3.4%, which is lower than those of diversified funds investing primarily in bonds (5.6%), or even mid/long term bond funds (4.5%). The two management firms whose assets in guaranteed funds have fallen most severely are BBVA (-EUR2.5bn), and Santander (-EUR1.8bn).

Les Echos reports that many traders and sales staff at Royal Bank of Scotland may be planning to leave the company. The exodus of talent is said to be the fault of the British government, which controls an 84% stake in the Scottish bank, following an announcement last week that the firm is undertaking a GBP25.5bn recapitalisation, and that no cash bonuses will be paid to employees who earn over GBP39,000 per year.

In a Treasury-sponsored report, 15 prominent figures in Britain’s investment industry say that the government must not impose a blanket rule that forces investment managers to push companies for better governance, according to the Financial Times. Legislation would certainly add to industry costs without any certainty of adding to investor returns. In addition, the working group urges the government to look at ways of ensuring the UK remains an attractive base for fund managers.

Since the beginning of the year, Asian hedge funds excluding Japan have earned returns of 25.92%, including gains of 9% in third quarter, according to Hedge Fund Research (HFR). Including Japan, gains are limited to 15.26%. However, the HFRX index for China shows gains of 6.1% for July-September, and 44.2% since the beginning of the year. HFR estimates that as of the end of September, assets in Asian hedge funds totalled USD73.7bn, of which USD800m came in net subscriptions in third quarter, the first net inflows since second quarter 2008.

US money-management firm Affiliated Managers Group acquired a 5% stake in Hong Kong-based Value Partners Group, an independent money manager with about USD4.6 billion in assets under management, for about USD36 million. It thus gains a toehold in the Chinese market.

IMS Health, which claims to be the global leader in market intelligence for the pharmaceutical and health industries, has announced that its board of directors has unanimously approved the sale of the firm for USD5.2bn, including debt, to a consortium of investment funds managed by TPG Capital (USD45bn in assets) and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP IB, USD116.6bn in assets, of which USD18.4bn are in private equity). Shareholders will receive USD22 per share in cash, which represents a premium of about 50% over their closing price on 16 October, the last day before rumours broke that IMS was studying variuos strategic options, and 31% over their closing price on Thursday. TPG and CPP IB will finance the transaction with equity and debt provided by affiliates of Goldman Sachs.

The publisher of the Daily Mirror and several regional newspapers, Trinity Mirror, is undertaking a two-month consultation with its personnel, after reaching the conclusion that it no longer has the financial means to support its four defined-benefit pension funds, whose deficit has increased over an eight-year period from GBP37m to GBP275m, despite a contribution of GBP259m from the business, the Sunday Times reports. This deficit represents 70% of the group’s debt. The 3,000 active members of the fund will be transferred to a defined-contribution fund. The four funds include the Mirror Group Fund, from which Robert Maxwell pillaged GBP500m.

Hedge Week reports that Jupiter has decided to open its Financials Hedge Fund to external ivnestors. The long/short fund specialised in financial sector equities of all countries, all sectors and all cap sizes was launched in May 2007 by Robert Mumby, and has assets of USD32m. It was created on the Jupiter hedge fund incubation platform, and has generated annualised returns of 16% since its launch, with annualised volatility of 8%. In 2008, the fund earned 6.21%, and its performance since the beginning of the year measures 24.17%.

In the six months to the end of September, the Airways Pension Scheme (APS), one of the pension funds for British Airways employees, saw a reduction in its surplus to GBP27m from GBP860m, while the other defined-benefit fund, the New Airways Pension Scheme (NAPS), experienced a deterioration in its deficit to GBP2.66bn, compared with nearly GBP1.17bn as of 31 March. Discount rates fell to 5.5% from 7.1% for the APS, and to 5.4% from 6.9% for the NAPS, with inflation rates raised to 3% from 2.7% for the APS, and maintained unchanged at 3.2% for the NAPS. The two funds are closed to new employee subscribers.

Ignacio Muñoz Alonso, formerly a head of retail banking for Europe and Asia, up until the end of March, has joined Addax Capital, the hedge fund management firm led by Alejandro Agag, which has been regulated by the British FSA since 2006, as a partner, Expansión reports. Alonso will be in charge of development for advising to sovereign funds. Addax already works with sovereign funds from Qatar, Libya and Angola.

The Spanish asset management affiliate of Banca Privada d’Andorra, BPA Global Funds AM, has registered the BPA Iberian Equities fund as a new sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav BPA International Selection Fund. The Spanish equities fund, aimed at international institutional clients, will be managed by the star manager Gonzalo Lardiés, Funds People reports. BPA is targeting the Chilean and Mexican markets, among others.

In September, funds in Luxembourg had net inflows of EUR10.467bn, according to the financial regulator (CSSF). With the positive impact of financial markets amounting to EUR23.95bn, assets in the industry have increased to EUR1.773834trn, an increase of 1.98% in one month. Compared with September 2008, assets are down 1.27%. The number of funds taken into consideration is 3,457, compared with 3,449 the previous month, the CSSF adds. 2,082 vehicles have adopted a multiple sub-fund structure, with a total of 10,832 sub-funds. With the addition of 1,375 vehicles with a classic structure, there is a total of 12,207 entities active on the financial market.

Pioneer Investments is rationalizing the Luxembourg-registered fund range from Pioneer Asset Management S.A. From 27 November, the number of sub-funds in the Pioneer CIM fund will be reduced from eight to two. Only the Pioneer CIM- Euro Fixed Income, which will absorb the Pioneer CIM - Euro Convertible Bond, and the Pioneer CIM - Global Equity, which will absorb the Pioneer CIM - US Quant Equity, Japanese Quant Equity, India Equity, Latin America Equity and Global Gold Mining sub-funds, will remain.

Au lieu de 3.000, ce sont finalement 750 postes qui seront supprimés chez BNP Paribas Fortis d’ici à 2012, sur un total de 18.000, rapporte la Tribune. Ces trois prochaines années, 2.000 départs naturels devraient être enregistrés et 1.250 personnes seront embauchées.

Selon la Tribune qui cite le «Wall Street Journal», le Trésor américain a bloqué une transaction de 3 milliards de dollars impliquant l’organisme de refinancement hypothécaire Fannie Mae, Goldman Sachs et Berkshire Hathaway. «Trop coûteuse pour les contribuables», a jugé le ministère.

Selon Les Echos, Geoffroy de Coatparquet, nommé président par intérim de la SFAF, vient de publier une lettre ouverte à l’attention de ses membres alors que Patrick Leguil a été récemment démis de ses fonctions. «Des divergences stratégiques majeures se multipliant dans les domaines de la gouvernance, de la formation et du recrutement, cette décision s’est imposée au conseil d’administration. » Un nouveau président sera élu, à l’issue de l’assemblée générale du 23 novembre. Sept candidats se sont fait connaître pour trois postes d’administrateur, précise le quotidien.

La Société Générale a remboursé la semaine dernière les 3,4 milliards d’euros que lui avait avancés la Société de Prise de Participation de l'État, annonce la Tribune.

Entre 2007 et 2008, l’encours des OPCVM solidaires est passé de 582 millions à 595 millions d’euros, dont 410 millions pour les fonds dits 90-10 (dont 5 à 10 % de l’encours est investi de façon solidaire) et 185 millions pour les fonds de partage, selon Finansol, une association qui a pour mission de développer la solidarité dans l'épargne et la finance. Cette relative stabilité s’explique par la création de nouveaux placements solidaires, qui a compensé la baisse des valeurs liquidatives. Finansol note aussi que, en 2008, le nombre de parts des fonds 90-10 a «fortement» progressé (+39,7 %). Au 1er septembre 2008, l’encours des fonds de partage et des fonds 90-10 a progressé de 13 % par rapport au niveau affiché en début d’année et se rapproche des 700 millions d’euros. La progression est plus notable pour les fonds 90-10 (+17 %) que pour les fonds de partage (+5 %). «Le succès commercial du FCP «Confiance solidaire» contribue au regain des fonds 90-10 puisqu’en moins d’un an son encours a quasiment doublé, passant de 30 millions à 55 millions d’euros», indique l’association. Côté fonds d'épargne salariale solidaire, l’encours a baissé pour la première fois depuis 2004, pour s'établir à 598 millions en 2008, contre 479 millions en 2007. Pour autant, François de Witt, président de Finansol, fonde de grands espoirs sur cette catégorie de fonds. En effet, à compter du 1er janvier 2010, toute entreprise mettant en place un plan d'épargne entreprise ou un plan d'épargne interentreprise sera dans l’obligation de proposer au moins un fonds commun de placement d’entreprise solidaire (FCPES), ce qui, selon François de Witt, devrait doper le secteur de la finance solidaire. En effet, d’ores et déjà, de grandes entreprises ont choisi de transformer leurs fonds d'épargne salariale dédiés en fonds solidaires. Au total, les OPCVM solidaires représentent 66 % de l’encours total des placements de partage et d’investissement solidaire, de 1,631 milliard d’euros, contre 72 % un an auparavant. En termes d’acteurs, en 2008, Natixis Asset Management est demeuré le principal gestionnaire d'épargne solidaire avec un encours géré de près de 500 millions d’euros. Il devance le Crédit Coopératif et Ecofi Investissements avec des encours de 249 millions et de 139 millions d’euros. Finansol note que la transformation du FCP BNP Paribas Obli Etheis en fonds solidaire a permis à BNP Paribas AM de se hisser à la septième place avec 71 millions d’euros.

Adepte de la gestion «Garp» (Growth At Reasonnable Price), Comgest a décidé de mettre plus en lumière la gestion collégiale qui est la sienne sur le vieux Continent. Ainsi, les fonds gérés garderont un pilote principal - Laurent Dobler pour Renaissance Europe et Comgest Europe, Arnaud Cosserat pour Comgest Growth Europe et Claire Rodrigue pour Comgest Growth Mid-Caps Europe. Cependant, à leur nom sera également associé celui de leurs collaborateurs.

La Financière de l’Echiquier s’est vu décerner le «Prix du Jury» par Axylia Conseil, cabinet indépendant spécialisé en investissement socialement responsable, «pour son action exemplaire en matière de philanthropie», à l’occasion de la troisième édition du Forum [profit for Non Profit] qui réunissait professionnels du secteur bancaire et financier et représentants des fondations et ONG françaises autour des enjeux de la Finance Solidaire et de Partage. «Elle est la première société de gestion de portefeuilles française à avoir créé un fonds de placement, dont la moitié des frais de gestion sont reversés à sa propre fondation de la Financière de l’Echiquier. Ce sont ainsi 2,5 millions d’euros qui ont été versés à la Fondation depuis 2005 pour financer des projets de prévention de l’exclusion à travers l’Education, la Formation et l’Entrepreneuriat Solidaire», explique Axylia Conseil.Dans la gestion d’actifs, dans la catégorie fonds de partage, le fonds Faim et Développement du Crédit Coopératif, a reçu un [profit for Non Profit] Awards 2009. Ce fonds propose à son souscripteur de partager une partie de ses gains annuels avec l’association de son choix parmi sept bénéficiaires possibles. Il a distribué l’an passé près de 670 000 euros de dons (1,2 millions d’euros l’année précédente, soit environ la moitié des sommes données par l’ensemble des fonds de partage français).