La Commerzbank a annoncé jeudi que ses ETF ComStage à réplication synthétique bénéficient désormais (depuis le 1er septembre) d’une sur-couverture à 130 % du risque de contrepartie au moyen, en utilisant entre autres des obligations d’Etat comme collatéral pour se prémunir contre la défaillance éventuelle du partenaire d’un swap. Conformément à la directive OPCVM III, la part des swaps ne peut pas dépasser les 10 % de la valeur liquidative du fonds, mais en pratique elle est nettement inférieure.

In the form of Mexican-registered Certificados Bursátiles Fiduciarios (CBUR), BBVA Bancomer has launched the Mextrac ETF, which tracks the evolution of the Dow Jones Mexico Titans 20 index, Funds People reports. The index is adjusted quarterly in free float, and the weight of the shares as a part of the index is limited to 10% per issuer.

According to sources familiar with the matter, Credit Suisse Group, which is seeking to increase its presence in the hedge fund sector, is in negotiations with Mesirow Financial to acquire Mesirow Advanced Strategy, whose assets total USD11bn. This would allow the Swiss group to nearly double its assets under management in hedge funds, which total USD14.5bn, the Wall Street Journal reports. Mesirow is also attractive to Credit Suisse since it has a strong presence with Asian hedge fund managers.

According to reports in Pensions & Investments, Lewis A. Sanders, who retired as CEO of AllianceBernstein Holdings and was replaced in the position by Peter Kraus, will found his own management firm in January. He will be joined by John Mahedy, currently CIO for US and North American value equities at Alliance Bernstein. Gerry Paul and David Yuen will become co-CIOs for US value large caps at AllianceBernstein, while the former will also be the sole CIO for North American value equities.

Barclays Capital has appointed Ashley Wilson as managing director, head of prime services (equities financing, bonds, futures, and multi-management brokerage), Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Wilson will be based in London and will report directly to Ajay Nagpal. Wilson was previously at Bank of America Merrill Lynch as managing director and head of global market financing and services for the EMEA region.

L’Agefi rapporte que Londres s’est finalement rallié à Paris et à Berlin sur la question des bonus dans un courrier adressé hier au président du Conseil européen. Quelques nuances apparaissent néanmoins dans le courrier. Ainsi, « les bonus garantis doivent être évités » mais pas interdits. En outre, d’autres concessions ont été faites, notamment sur la limitation globale des bonus distribués en pourcentage des revenus des banques » et sur « une limitation des bonus les plus élevés ». Il n’est plus question non plus dans le projet commun de taxation des bonus. Pour limiter les excès, les Européens joueront plutôt la carte de l’augmentation des exigences en fonds propres « comme le recommande déjà le comité de Bâle ». Reste désormais à convaincre les Américains, ce qui promet des débats tendus, notamment sur la question des exigences en fonds propres (plus faibles outre-Atlantique). Interrogé hier lors d’un point presse, le secrétaire au Trésor Timothy Geithner a refusé de commenter les propositions européennes.

L’Agefi reports that the British government has finally lent its support to the position of the French and German governments on the question of bonuses, in a letter sent yesterday to the president of the European council. A few details appear in the letter. Among these, “guaranteed bonuses should be avoided,” but not forbidden. In addition to this, other concessions have been made, in particular on an overall limitation on bonuses distributed as a percentage of revenues at banks,” and “a limit on the highest bonuses” allowed. There is no longer any mention of joint bonus taxation schemes. To limit excessive bonuses, European countries are apparently opting to increase owners’ equity requirements, “as the Basel committee has already recommended.” Now the United States remains to be convinced, which will certainly involve tense debates, particularly over the question of owners’ equity requirements (which are lower in the US). Speaking at a press conference yesterday, US Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner declined to comment on the European proposals.

The European management association (EFAMA) is seeking to create an optimal environment for managers, and with this in mind, will undertake a strategic examination of product distribution in Europe, the president of EFAMA, Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, states on 3 September at a presentation of the organisation’s strategy for the next two years. In recent years, flows of investment into UCITS funds have been characterised by high volatility, and some market data suggests that redemption rates are structurally much higher in Europe than in the United States, EFAMA remarks. “The industry is aware of the potential impact of such volatility on final investors, and for this reason it is planning to examine distribution of products, with particular attention to investors,” the association says in a statement. It also plans to consider questions related to the role and responsibility of the depository. Last but not least, the association would also like to play a leading role in highly controversial projects for an alternative management directive.

Representatives of the three largest professional associations, ISNA, SIFMA, and LIBA, on 3 September issued a warning to the European Commission over risks related to an overly sudden tightening of regulations. While welcoming the Commission’s interest in the derivatives market and citing the need for improved regualtory frameworks in this area, the three associations also point out that it could be counter-productive to seek to go too far, too fast in this area.“The real economy is facing a variety of risks, whose treatment will depend on publicly-traded derivatives markets. As the risks themselves are not standardized, custom financial instruments remain important,” says the executive director of ISDA (International Swaps and Derivatives Association). As a result, international cooperation is essential, and “we encourage the Commission to recognize that time is needed to set up robust market infrastructure and that solutions put in place too hastily, whether they be voluntary or imposed, may be counter-productive.”

L’Agefi Suisse reports that Julius Baer is planning to launch a new multi-management vehicle next year, which will initially be reserved for the British market, and then offered in other markets. The director of development for the UK, Rainer Gruenig, estimates that there is a trend towards products of this type, and that Julius Baer “clearly has the capacity to manage one.” This type of structure brings together the most specialised managers in a market in a fund of funds, with absolute returns, detached from the performance of the markets, and a goal to outperform inflation by 6%. the multi-management vehicle will be based on the institutional product range from Julius Baer, including the Institutional Flexible and JP MultiStrategy funds.

US district judge Shira Sheindlin has authorised the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and King County to file a class action lawsuit against Morgan Stanley, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, Reuters reports. The plaintiffs accuse the defendants of concealing the risks of investments in the Cheyne Structural Investment Vehicle (SIV), which went bankrupt in August 2007, due to its investments in subprime loans.

John Hancock Advisers, John Hancock Investment Management Services and MFC Global Investment Management, three affiliates of Manulife, have filed an application with the SEC for a license to launch a range of ETF funds based on US and foreign securities, Mutual Fund Wire reports. So far, it has not yet been stated what brand the ETF products will be offered under, nor what indexes they will replicate. Each of the three entities will manage at least one of the new fund products.

Commerzbank announced on Thursday that its synthetic replication ComStage ETFs will now (from 1 September) carry excess coverage of 130% against risks of default, using government bonds and other assets as collateral to protect themselves against the possible default of a partner on a swap. In compliance with the UCITS III directive, the proportion of swaps in the funds may not exceed 10% of the net asset value of the funds, though in practice they represent a far lower percentage.

Iñigo Calderón, who was previously second in command in private banking at Deutsche Bank for Spain, is joining Grupo Barclays as head of its private banking and wealth management division, replacing José María Gamazo, who is leaving the firm to pursue other professional projects. The new arrival will oversee 130 professionals in 12 offices in Spain. He will report to Emmanuel Fievet, head of private banking for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as Pedro Fernández de Santaella, who is deputy head of wholesale banking at Barclays for Spain and Portugal.

The EPRA (European Public Real Estate Association) has announced the appointment of Guillaume Poitrinal, chairman of the board, president and CEO of Unibail-Rodamco, as head of the association. He replaces Serge Fautré, and will serve a two-year term.

Russell Investments will release a climate change fund via its Dublin-based single manager platform OpenWorld, which will be managed by the global equities team of Paul Udall and Ronnie Lim at Cimate Change Capital (CCC), Hedge Week reports.

The Investment Company Institute (ICI) and Harrris Associates claim in court briefs filed with the Supreme Court that established norms are sufficiently strict to protect investors from excessive fees. The claims follow a lawsuit by Jerry N. Jones against Harris Associates, claiming that Oakmark Funds was charging excessive management commissions of its retail clients. The ICI and Harris claim that competitive pressure helps to maintain fees at a low level, and that it doesn’t make much sense to compare the commissions paid by institutionals with those charged to retail clients. In addition, the boards of mutual funds may be effective in limiting management fees.

Andrew (Columbia Business School), Stephen Schaefer (London Business School) and William N. Goetzmann (Yale School of Management) have been selected by the Norwegian finance minister to evaluate the active management of the Government Pension Fund - Global by the Bank of Norway. The national bank has been ordered to compile a detailed document on active management, with a description of the main strategies used to earn outperformance. Lastly, the consulting firm Mercer has been asked to create a report on the use of active management by other major funds worldwide.

The Norwegian finance minister has excluded the Israeli firm Elbit Systems from the portfolio of the Government Pension Fund - Global, following a recommendation from the Council on Ethics. An investment in Elbit (the fund held NOK35.4m in shares) was deemed to carry an unacceptable risk of serious violations of fundamental ethical criteria, as the business is entirely integrated in the construction of the separation wall between Israel and the Palestinian territories.On the other hand, the Norwegian finance minister has accepted the recommendation of the Council on Ethics to reintegrate shares in Thales SA and DRD Gold Ltd into the list of shares eligible for investment by the fund. The shares were removed in 2005 and 2007, respectively, and they have been granted the reintegration because the businesses are no longer involved in the activities which motivated their exclusion: manufacture of cluster bombs and significant environmental violations in Papua-New Guinea, respectively.

Baring Asset Management has found in a survey of the past four years that multi-asset class managers need to be authorised to enter and exit rapidly from various asset classes in order to adapt to changes in the market environment without the encumbrance of restrictions imposed by traditional asset allocation models. Thanks to a multiple asset-class portfolio, the use of tactical allocation can generate returns similar to those of equities, but with lower risk, says Andrew Cole, manager of the Baring Multi Asset Fund (a product which does not comply with UCITS III), launched in March 2009. The manager claims that, after major anomalies in the correlation between various asset classes, all of which were at times of market decline, performance gradually returned to their established normal levels. There may therefore be a wider distribution of returns on various asset classes and markets. In these conditions, the ordinary need to retain an exposure to all asset classes may be suspended, and the best solution is to make dynamic asset allocation decisions.

In cooperation with Markit, HSBC is launching five new purchasing managers’ indices (PMI), two for the manufacturing industry in South Korea, and three for the service sector in Brazil, China and India. These will allow overall PMIs to be calculated for the three countries.HSBC is planning to launch other products, beginning on 6 October, with the HSBC EMI (emerging markets index), which will be the first global emerging markets index calculated exclusively on the basis of PMIs.

Since August, Mark Beveridge, who since 2004 had been a managing partner, director of global equities at Goldman Sachs Asset Management in London, has joined the Axa Investment Managers (Axa IM) group as global head of Axa Framlington. He takes over as head of the integrated qualitative equities management unit, born of the combination of the dedicated teams in Paris and London. The appointment of Beveridge “indicates AXA IM’s desire to accelerate the development of its qualitative management franchise, as it did at AXA Rosenberg, its quantitative expertise centre,” says Axa IM. Beveridge will be based in London, and will report to Stéphane Prunet, global head of equities at Axa IM. At GSAM he was in charge of the management of about EUR20bn. The group has also announced the upcoming retirement at the end of this year of Robery Kyprianou, director of Axa Framlington London.

On Thursday, the Cosmen family and the private equity investor CVC Capital Partners increased their bid for the 84.1% stake in National Express which the Austrian family does not already own from 450 pence per share to 500 pence. The would-be investors say that the bid will not be raised any further. It values the business at about GBP765m, or EUR876m, and the total amount of the transaction, if successful, would be about EUR2.1bn, including debt.

The German management firm Deka Immobilien (savings banks) has announced the purchase of the first Design Hotel in Poland for one of its Spezialfonds. The 159-room, four-star hotel is located in Krakow; the purchase price has not been disclosed. The vendor is the Austrian firm Warimpex Finanz- und Beteiligungs AG, which is leasing the hotel for the first 15 years. Operation of the hotel will continue to be provided by Vienna International Hotelmanagement AG.

Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) on Thursday announced the launch of new sub-funds of its emerging markets Luxembourg Sicav. The Emerging Markets infrastructure fund will be managed by Divya Mathur, while the Emerging Markets Smaller Companies will be managed by Alastair Reynolds, and the Latin American fund will be managed by Jeff Casson. Kim Catechis, head of global emerging markets, says that although the universe of emerging markets equities will likely continue to experience some volatility in the short term, SWIP is of the opinion that there are overarching trends that offer attractive prospects for long-term investors.

«Se lancer sur le marché chinois avec des fonds purement obligataires n’a aucun sens, étant donné la volatilité extrême des souscriptions-rachats qui prévaut dans ce domaine», estime Peter L. Alexander, «principal» de l’agence Z-Ben Advisors. En fait, pour les promoteurs occidentaux qui voudraient aborder ce pays asiatique, le mieux est de proposer des fonds d’actions, qui sont souvent rentables pour les producteurs. D’où l’idée de se positionner auprès des gérants d’actifs locaux (fonds souverains, assureurs, courtiers banques, sociétés financières des groupes, notamment) en tant que sub-advisor pour les fonds dans le cadre du programme QDII.Cela posé, le patron de l’agence de conseil indépendante (5 ans d’existence, 17 salariés et quelque 70 clients) basée à Shanghai a averti les représentants des sociétés de gestion françaises réunis lundi à l’AFG : il faut avoir sur place quelqu’un qui prenne en charge les relations avec la clientèle, parce que les banques chinoises assurent la distribution, mais pas le service après vente. L’idéal est de trouver sur place un distributeur externe qui puisse prendre en charge cette fonction importante.D’une manière générale, poursuit Peter L. Alexander, «il ne faut pas compter réaliser en Chine de retour sur investissement avant trois ans» et il ne suffit certainement pas «d’avoir un gars sur place». La meilleure manière d’aborder le marché chinois, sauf si l’on a la volonté stratégique de mettre de gros moyens, consiste à prendre son temps pour développer d’abord le relationnel avec les autorités et les gestionnaires locaux. Dans cette optique, la formule à privilégier est celle de l’implantation d’un bureau de représentation à Shanghai ou à Pékin.En ce qui concerne le fonds souverain China Investment Corp (CIC), Peter Alexander estime d’ailleurs que sa priorité est moins d’investir directement ses volumineux encours, mais d’allouer les actifs et donc de trouver des gestionnaires correspondant à ses critères.

Intech Investment Management, filiale de Janus Capital Group, a annoncé le lancement de son premier fonds d’actions européennes destiné aux investisseurs institutionnels et libellé en euros. Il sera accessible en versions Europe et Europe hors Royaume-Uni ; il utilisera le MSCI Europe comme indice de référence et sera géré en appliquant le processus mathématique d’Intech qui vise à surperformer l’indice tout en gérant le risque relatif.Il s’agit du premier lancement régional effectué par le gestionnaire d’actifs, comme l’a souligné Robert A. Garvy, chairman et CEO, précisant que l’objectif de surperformance, brute de frais est de 2,75-3,25 points de pourcentage sur une période de 3-5 ans.

Se basant sur le constat que de nombreuses familles souhaitent céder leur entreprise, Rothschild & Cie lève actuellement un fonds de 500 millions d’euros en vue de prendre des parts minoritaires dans des sociétés valorisées entre 100 et 500 millions d’euros, rapporte l’Agefi. Le pôle de private equity n’est cependant pas appelé à devenir une activité stratégique pour Rothschild & Cie, dont la gestion de fortune et les fusions-acquisitions restent les pôle phare. Dans le cadre du lancement de cette activité secondaire, Alexandre de Rothschild, fils de David, dirigeant et créateur de la banque, a intégré le groupe il y a quelques mois.

Selon L’Agefi suisse, la banque de gestion haut de gamme Pâris Bertrand Sturdza SA (PBS), lancée il y a un peu plus de trois mois, est en passe de gagner son pari. Les associés affirment avoir atteint et dépassé leurs objectifs fixés pour les douze prochains mois. La banque aurait réalisé une performance "à deux chiffres et supérieure aux indices». La banque veut désormais recruter un ou des banquiers seniors de certaines régions clé, dans l’optique d’élargir à terme le cercle des associés gérants.

Selon L’Agefi suisse, le gestionnaire de fonds alternatifs Gottex Fund Management Holdings Ltd affiche pour le premier semestre 2009 un résultat brut en baisse de 51% à 46,1 millions de dollars. Le résultat opérationnel a chuté de 76% à 9,2 millions, tandis que le bénéfice attribuable aux actionnaires s’est réduit de 74% à 8 millions. Le groupe affiche un bilan solide, des réserves de cash de 27,8 millions et aucune dette.