La procédure d’appel d’offres pour couvrir la complémentaire santé et la prévoyance des 1,9 million de fonctionnaires de l'Éducation nationale aura finalement lieu «fin mai ou début juin», a indiqué le ministère à La Tribune. Outre la Mutuelle générale de l'Éducation nationale (MGEN) qui en assure actuellement plus des trois quarts, l’assureur Axa et le groupe de retraite et prévoyance Aprionis auraient posé leur candidature.
Selon la Tribune, l"ISR n"est que faiblement représentée dans les produits de taux, en dépit de sa récente et forte progression dans l"univers de la gestion monétaire. Sa présence dans ce type d"offre fait effectivement débat dans certaines sociétés de gestion. Chez HSBC Global Asset Management par exemple, on s"interroge sur l"intérêt de marier l"ISR dont l"intérêt ne peut se juger que sur le long terme, avec une gestion dont l"horizon de placement est, par définition, de l"ordre de quelques mois.
La Fédération nationale de la Mutualité française (FNMF) a élu vendredi un nouveau bureau, indique La Tribune. Parmi les élus, le bureau comprend le président de la FNMF, Jean-Pierre Davant, dont le mandat court jusqu’en décembre 2010. Deux changements interviennent aux fonctions de secrétaire général avec l'élection de Jean-Philippe Huchet (par ailleurs vice-président de la Mutuelle générale de l'éducation nationale) et l'élection de Patrick Brothier comme trésorier général de la FNMF. Cette fédération regroupe la quasi-totalité des mutuelles santé qui comptent 18 millions d’adhérents et couvrent les frais de soins de 38 millions de personnes.
Selon La Tribune, Carrefour relance son projet de vendre auprès d’investisseurs institutionnels des parts du capital de Carrefour Property, la société détenant les murs de 1000 sites dans le monde. Le placement devrait être achevé d"ici septembre. Préalable à une introduction en Bourse, l’opératon devrait être annoncée aujourd"hui aux actionnaires de Carrefour réunis en assemblée générale.
Selon #profil#, Michael Berger, fondateur du hedge fund américain Manhattan Investment Fund, a été relâché après 21 mois de détention préventive à la prison de Vienne-Josefstadt, rapporte Fondsprofessionell. L’intéressé avait été condamné à 6 ans et demi de prison aux Etats-Unis en 2002 pour avoir escorqué 300 personnes de 400 millions de dollars.
La Tribune reports that SRI is not strongly represented in the fixed income product category, despite its recent and strong development in the money market management industry. Its presence in products of this type is the subject of some debate within some management firms. At HSBC Global Asset Management, for example, questions are being raised about whether it is worthwhile to combine SRI, whose effectiveness can only be judged over a long term, with a type of management which by definition is restricted to a horizon of only a few months.
Axel Hörger, head of Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) for Germany and continental Europe, is aiming for assets of EUR30-40bn in Germany in the long term. This is an ambitious goal, since, as Handelsblatt observes, the first step will be to regain a level of EUR18bn in assets, their peak before the crisis. Assets have now fallen below EUR10bn (institutional investors withdrew a net total of EUR2.2bn in 2008). GSAM has cut staff and closed its German-registered KAG format management firm. Hörger says there is now rising demand for simple and transparent products. GSAM is now planning to focus on funds for private clients via banks and insurance firms. This will mean some recruitments: soon, nearly one third of the firm’s 29 staff will be dedicated to this activity.
La Tribune reports that cash management has become a strategic financial profession, in a world where liquidity has become scarce. The profession is profitable, the newspaper observes, citing the example of Citigroup, which has seen 15% growth in its net profits for this activity to USD843m in first quarter.
Maximilian Tomei, managing partner and CEO of INOKS Capital in Geneva since 2004, has been appointed CEO of Reyl Asset Management (RAM). He will oversee and develop operations related to all funds managed by RAM. The Reyl Funds product range includes directional equities funds, decorrelated equities funds, bond funds, and hedge funds.
The responsibilities of Gilles Glicenstein, director and CEO of BNP Paribas Investment Partners, who died last week, will be assumed in the interim by Jacques d’Estais, head of the Investment Solutions unit at BNP Paribas. He will be assisted by Philippe Marchessaux and Pascal Biville, deputy CEOs of BNP Paribas Investment Partners.
Mediolanum has ambitions to become the third largest management firm in Italy, Ignites reports, citing Reuters. The firm is currently in sixth place, with assets of EUR12bn as of the end of March 2009.
The SEC has obtained a temporary freeze on the assets of the financier Danny Pang, and the companies Private Equity Management Group Inc. and Private Equity Management Group LLC. The regulator accuses Pang of defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of dollars, the Wall Street Journal reports. The PEM group claims to manage USD4bn in assets, but assets, mostly originating in Taiwan, appear to total under USD1bn.
EIM, a fund of hedge fund management firm based in Nyon, London, and New York, saw decline of 16% in its assets in 2008, to a total of USD10.9bn, Arpad Busson, executive director of the group, has stated in an interview with Le Temps. To come to terms with these difficulties, EIM has eliminated the distinction between traditional and alternative management. Personnel at EIM will be reduced by 70, or 30%, worldwide.
The Financial Times reports that Knut Kjaer, former head of the USD370bn Norwegian pension fund formerly known as the Oil Fund, will join RiskMetrics, a risk and governance management firm, as president.
The consulting firm bfinance, specialised in advising financial officers and institutional investors, has been acquired by its own management in an MBO deal which puts the chairman and CEO of the firm, David Vafai, and the management of the company in control of 100% of its capital. The operation, financed by BMS Finance, represents an exit for the current shareholders in the firm, Carlyle Group and Net Partners, whose stakes in the capital of bfinance date back to its inception in 1999. The firm, which has an Investment Consulting division dedicated to asset management and manager selection, is growing at a rate of more than 30% per year, and has operations in over 20 countries.
In January-March, BNY Mellon Asset Servicing reports that diversified funds have suffered average losses of 7.9%, compared with 3.4% in fourth quarter 2008. This represents the fifth consecutive quarterly loss, while the last positive result was a 1% gain in fourth quarter 2007. This prolonged period of losses has also affected results over one and three years, which come to -20.5% and -6.6%, respectively. Over five and ten years, performance works out to 3.2% and 1.4%.
Tom Kelly, managing director at KEMA Partners, a consulting and investment banking services firm specialised in serving young growth start-up businesses, has been appointed managing director of the corporate advisory group at the Blackstone Group. He will spearhead a new initiative to provide private fundraising services to businesses in the form of private investments and loans, for both publicly traded and privately owned client businesses.
Fondsprofessionell reports, citing Profil, that Michael Berger, founder of the US hedge fund Manhattan Investment Fund, has been released after 21 months of preventive detention at Josefstadt prison in Vienna. Berger was sentenced to six and a half years of prison in the United States in 2002 for a fraud which stripped 300 victims of USD400m.
Schroders Germany has recruited two assistants for its sales team. Gülcan Elmas joins the private cilents team, led by Clemens Bertram; she was previuosly at F&C Asset Management in London. From 1 May, Tobias Eppler will join the major accounts team in a support position for Joachim Mareike and Alexander Prawitz. He was previously in the structured products distribution service at BHF-Bank.
April was a good month for European convertible bonds: roughly USD3.21bn were raised, according to statistics from Dealogic reported in the Wall Street Journal. Bankers estimate that convertible issues will remain dynamic for the rest of the quarter, so long as equities markets remain stable.
The dominance of offshore asset management centres such as Luxembourg and Dublin may face a threat from the United Kingdom, following the passage of a series of tax relief measures, Financial Times Fund Management reports. The British government has introduced a system by which tax is paid only by investors, and not by funds. It has also created a list of financial instruments in which funds may invest without having their activities classed as ?trading,? which would make them subject to capital gains tax.
In an interview with Citywire, Borja Largo, CIO of Allfunds Bank, predicts that many institutions will move to outsource their fund analysis in the future. He estimates that the only fund selection entities which will prove viable in the long term will be those with more than EUR1bn to EUR1.5bn in assets.
Hedge funds may be obliged to outsource their administration in order to reassure clients, the Financial Times reports. In a sector which has recently confronted some difficulties due to the Madoff scandal and the Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers bankruptcies, investors are increasingly concerned about compensation risks, and are putting pressure on hedge funds to alter their practices.
Fortis Investments has appointed Wael Elkhouly as head of asset management for the Global Infrastructure Fund team, based in London. The team includes 19 members, under the responsibility of Hans Meissner. Elkhouly, a British-Egyptian dual citizen, previously worked five years at Citigroup, where he was a part of the infrastructure consulting group. Before Citigroup, Elkhouly spent ten years in the dedicated investment banking unit of the Bechtel group.
Invesco Ltd and its affiliate WL Ross on Monday announced that they are planning to invest up to EUR1bn in the Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP) to revive the mortgage market in the United States. Invesco will provide the expertise of its 120-member bond team, which manages USD159bn in assets, while WL Ross will contribute expertise in distressed investments. The firms will be supported by the Le Frak Organization, along with several property developers who will be co-investors. Assured Guaranty Ltd, a sub-prime debt servicing business, and American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc, a credit monoliner, two firms in which the group owns stakes, will contribute their expertise in particular aspects of this type of investment. In addition, strategic partnerships have been signed with the woman-owned securities firm Muriel Siebert and Co, with the investment advising firm Williams Capital Group, and with Jackson Securities, an affiliate of Atlanta Life Financial Group.
According to the most recent rankings by Feri Fund Rating, Carmignac, Vitruvius and Dr. Jens Erhardt Kapital all succeeded in having the entirety (100%) of their funds on sale in Germany (9, 8, and 9 funds, respectively) ranked in the top category, which includes only A and B-rated products. The rankings concern managers with fewer than 25 funds on sale in Germany. The next two firms in the rankings are Star Capital and State Street, with ratios of 87.5% and 70.8%.In the rankings of management firms with more than 25 funds on sale, the top three finishers are Threadneedle with 67.9% of its funds rated A or B (19 out of 28), followed by BNY Mellon Asset Management with 58.5% (31 funds out of 53) and Union Investment (co-operative banks) with 50% (44 out of 88).
For January-March 2009, the asset and wealth management (AWM) division of Deutsche Bank has posted pre-tax losses of EUR173m, compared with pre-tax profits of EUR188m in the corresponding period of last year. Invested assets for the division at the end of March totalled EUR627bn, close to their levels at the end of December. Positive currency effects compensated for net outflows of EUR3bn from asset management and EUR1bn from wealth management, as well as for depreciation of the value of portfolios due to falling markets. Earnings for the AWM division contracted by 49% to EUR515bn, due to falling revenues from brokerage and management due to falling markets and a slowdown in client transactions. Activities were also negatively affected by write-downs for RREEF activities.
Le président suisse Hans-Rudolf Merz a demandé au Secrétaire au Trésor américain Timothy Geithner d"abandonner une plainte impliquant des clients d"UBS en échange d"un nouvel accord fiscal que les deux pays sont en train de négocier, rapporte le Financial Times.
Lundi matin, l’UBS a annoncé la nomination avec effet immédiat d"Alex Wilmot-Sitwell et de Carsten Kengeter en tant que co-CEOs de son activité de banque d’investissement. Ils remplacent donc Jerker Johansson, qui a démissionné avec effet immédiat de ses fonctions de CEO d"Investment Bank (lire par ailleurs). Il avait rejoint UBS en mars 2008 et faisait partie du directoire du groupe UBS. Alex Wilmot-Sitwell, qui est entré chez UBS en 1996, est membre du directoire du groupe. Il occupait les fonctions de joint global head du département banque d’investissement depuis novembre 2005 et de chairman et CEO de UBS Group Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) depuis janvier 2008 tandis que Carsten Kengeter, entré chez UBS en septembre 2008, occupe les fonctions de joint global head du segment fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) au sein d"UBS Investment Bank. Dans ses nouvelles fonctions, il fera également partie du Directoire du Groupe.