P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Following the sale by TA Associates of its 10.6% stake in the capital of Jupiter Fund Management on 5 March, Michael Wilson will be leaving the board of directors at the British asset management firm on 21 March, Citywire reveals. As it no longer has any capital relationship with Jupiter, TA Associates is no longer in a position to appoint a director to the board, even in a non-excutive capacity. The news comes as Maarten Slendebroek officially takes over as CEO of Jupiter, replacing Edward Bonham-Carter, who will retain a role as vice-chairman of the board at the asset management firm.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } After the launch of its new brand, the asset management firm Candriam (formerly Dexia AM) has announced that it will be renaming all of its funds. The process, which is expected to be completed by summer 2014, will initially involve the range of hedge funds. Dexia Index Arbitrage becomes Candriam Index Arbitrage, Dexia Long Short Credit becomes Candriam Long Short Credit and Dexia Diversified Futures is renamed as Candriam Diversified Futures. Funds based in France will now be entitled Candriam, as well as Belgian-registered funds based on traditional strategies. French-registered Sicavs will be renamed in late April 2014. Luxembourg-registered funds will see their names changed in a third phase during 2014, a statement says.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Italian asset management firm Azimut will via AZ International Holdings acquire a 70% stake in Notus Portfoy Yonetimi, an independent asset management firm based in Turkey with EUR55m in assets under management. The deal, announced on Monday, will include the acquisition of shares from the founders of the Turkish firm, totalling EUR1.5bn, and subscription to a capital increase for a total of EUR0.8bn, to finance the business plan. Agreements also include buy and sell options. Azimut already has a presence in Turkey, with the joint venture AZ Global Portföy, and offers a range of Turkish funds. With Notus, the Italian firm is acquiring a firm founded in 2011 by three partners, which manages 45 mandates for private and institutional clients, and two Turkish funds investing in local markets.

La Française announced on Monday the appointment of Guillaume Dhamelincourt as head of sales for Asia. His goal will be to expand business in Asia through third party institutional distribution networks and directly with institutional investors.Guillaume Dhamelincourt has extensive experience, through JK Capital Management Ltd., in which La Française owns a minority stake, in Asian value equities. His appointment is coming as La Française is registering funds for local distribution.Guillaume Dhamelincourt will be working out of JK Capital Management Ltd headquarters located on Connaught Road Central in Hong Kong. Before joining JK Capital Management in 2011, Guillaume Dhamelincourt was investment director at HSBC Specialist Investments in London (now InfraRed Capital Partners), the property and infrastructure private equity arm of HSBC.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As recently announced by Newsmanagers, Pictet Asset Mangement has recruited a head of sales for independent financial advisers in France (GCPI). Mohammed Amor will work to develop French clients such as banks, networks and independent wealth management advisers. He will report to Hervé Thiard, CEO responsible for asset management activities at Pictet in France. Amor had previously since 2012 worked as head of commercial development at Turgot Asset Management.

Wells Fargo Asset Management is opening a new office in Paris, the business’s first office in continental Europe, and has appointed Alexandre Dussaucy as sales director. The French office will bring the US asset management firm closer to customers based in France and will enable the company to build capacity to provide more services in the long term. Wells Fargo AM has already EUR2 billion of assets under management in France - out of USD487bn globally and USD30-35bn internationally. «As Europe’s largest market for investment funds, France has always been an important destination for Wells Fargo Asset Management,» notes Ludger Peters, managing director, international business development, at Wells Fargo Asset Management. «For almost 10 years we have successfully managed assets for global financial institutions based in France; in fact, our largest international client is a French business. We also registered our UCITS IV-compliant Luxembourg funds in France in January 2013, making our investment strategies available to retail investors in France."The registration of the funds in France coincided with the arrival of Alexandre Dussaucy at Wells Fargo AM in London to cover French speaking countries. He is now responsible for business development and sales throughout France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Monaco and French–speaking Switzerland and will focus on expanding the institutional and wholesale client base and creating sub-advisory opportunities.This French office is Wells Fargo AM’s first office in continental Europe, but it might not be the last. Asked about other offices openings, a spokesperson for the asset management company answered: «we believe it vital for our success in Europe to have an on-the-ground presence in all of the countries we serve.»

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) on March 17 announced that it will allocate an additional USD200 million to its emerging manager program in the Private Equity asset class. CalPERS will utilize a new fund-of-funds to deploy the capital, focusing on high-potential emerging manager funds. The new allocation will be deployed over four years and is in addition to a USD100 million commitment made in 2012. CalPERS has been investing with emerging managers directly and through fund-of-funds for more than 20 years. It has nearly USD12 billion invested with 395 emerging managers across all of its emerging manager programs.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } JP Morgan Asset Management (JP Morgan AM ) has launched a hedged share class in renminbi for its fund JP Morgan Asia Equity Dividend, the first share class in renminbi introduced by the US asset management firm in its fund range, The Asset.com report. The minimal investment for the new share class is RMB16,000 or USD2,589, and subscriptions may be made from any renminbi bank account.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Italian clients at BNY Mellon AM now represent assets of EUR4bn, according to Marco Pallacino, managing director of the firm in Italy, in a filmed interview with Bluerating. The firm is present in the fast-growing retail and the institutional segments.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } A few days before the general assembly of the Italian association of asset managers, Assogestioni, which will be electing a new president, it seems that an internal solution has been reached with the nomination of Giordano Lombardo, Bluerating reports. Lombardo, vice-chairman of Pioneer Investment Management (UniCredit group), is already serving as interim president of the Italian asset management association. The position of president of Asogestioni has been vacant since the departure of Domenico Siniscalco due to conflicts of interests.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The number of absolute return products in Europe fell last year, but funds with mediocre performance were mostly the ones to be closed, according to the most recent semiannual research by the German firm Lupus alpha. Last year, the number of funds fell from 619 to 505. The number of fund closures and mergers totalled 144, while the number of new vehicles is only 30. In 2012, closures (78) and creations of vehicles (77) were more or less balanced. Despite the decline observed last year, assets in absolute return funds rose 21% or EUR125.4bn, after a decline of 20% the previous year. The quality of returns over five years has also improved meanwhile, Nearly 99% of the 170 funds studied, which have a duration of five years or more, have posted a positive performance over 5 years of 3.67% per year. This is an improvement of about 25% over 2012, when the fund posted positive returns over five years of only 64.9%.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Franklin Templeton has increased its stake in the capital of Lar España Real Estate, the real estate affiliate of the Spanish Lar group, to 6.37%, via the acquisition of equities representing 1.62% of capital, and a value of EUR6.9m, Cotizalia reports. Franklin Templeton now has 2.55 million shares, bringing the value of its stake to EUR27m. Other international funds are invested in the capital of the Spanish real estate firm, such as Pimco, which controls a stake of 12.5%, Marshall Wace (4.4%), and Ameriprise Financial (3.74%). Bestinver, the Iberian asset management firm of the Acciona group, controls 4.18% of capital, and UBS holds 3.5% of capital.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to Le Temps. UBS “confirms that it is reviewing” its precious metals activities, as “several authorities are investigating possible price manipulations.” These few lines are buried on page 424 of the bank’s annual report, published on Friday. This time, the Siwss bank does not appear to be on the frontlines of a scandal which was set off in December by an investigation by the German financial watchdog, BaFin. Along with its British counterpart, the agency is investigating the price of gold in London at five firms: Barclays, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Société Générale and Bank of Nova Scotia.

Al Clark has been appointed by Nikko Asset Management (Nikko AM) to the newly created role of global head of multi-asset, the Japanese asset manager announced on Monday. Based in Sydney, he will be responsible for driving the growth of the multi-asset business globally.Al Clark has more than 21 years of experience in trading and portfolio management, and has worked for major asset management groups such as Macquarie Funds Management, BT Financial Group and Schroder Investment Management, in both Sydney and Singapore. He joins the Nikko AM Group from Schroder Investment Management (Singapore) Ltd, where he was responsible for growing the multi-asset business in Asia-Pacific.Al Clark will report to Yu-Ming Wang, based in Tokyo.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Levels of European financial and non-financial corporate debt rated by Standard & Poor’s and maturing between 2014 and 2018 are expected to total USD4.1trn, representing about 46% of the USD8.9trn in debt maturing worldwide, acording to a study released on 17 March by the agency («European Refinancing Study : Over $4 Trillion of Rated Corporate Debt Is Expected To Mature By 2018"). Out of this total of slightly over USD4trn, USD866bn will mature in 2014. In the following years, the expected maturities are USD909bn for next year, USD863bn in 2016, and then USD754bn in 2017 and USD678bn in 2018. Financial sector firms represent 60% of debt maturing in Europe, and 86% of this debt is rated investment grade (BBB- and above), which is expected to contribute to moderating total refinancing risks in the region. However, debt levels with the lowest ratings remain non-negligible. More than USD10bn in debt rated B- and below are maturing in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Standard & Poor’s also notes that there is a considerable amount of leveraged debt which is not in the agency’s database.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Hermes Fund Managers is adding to its teams. The asset management firm has recruited Jennifer Stillman in London as director responsible for consultant relationships, Investment Europe reports. Stillman, who has 16 years of experience in the asset management industry, was previously head of development at Nightscape Capital. She previously worked successively at Caliburn Capital, Man Investments, PanAgora Asset Management and Clay Finlay.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The court of Stuttgart, the city where Porsche’s headquarters are located, on 17 March rejected a lawsuit filed by hedge funds against the luxury auto maker. More than 20 funds, including Viking Global Invetsors, Glenhill Capital and Greenlight Capital, had been suing Porsche following its failed takeover of Volkswagen (VW) in 2008-2009, and were seeking EUR1.36bn in damages and interest. The plantiffs claim that throughout 2008, the Porsche holding company never mentioned its plans to acquire VW, and then quietly entered the capital of its target in order to gradually increase its stake. The announcement of a takeover bid for Volkswagen by Porsche boosted VW share prices, and this rise was accentuated by hedging of short positions. The judge delivering the verdict on Monday found that there was no proof Porsche had acted deliberately to damage the interests of the hedge funds.

Entre août et novembre 2013, EDHEC-Risk Institute a interrogé 109 investisseurs institutionnels européens - des régimes de retraite et des fonds de réserve, des assureurs et des institutions de prévoyance et leurs filiales de gestion d’actifs - afin de sonder leurs attentes et leurs exigences en matière de transparence des indices. L’objectif étant de faire de ces données les principales orientations du débat réglementaire en cours sur les benchmarks et les indices de référence, il est ressorti de l'étude (*) d’Edhec-Risk que : • Les investisseurs considèrent la transparence de l’indice à la fois logique et indispensable. Une grande majorité des répondants (85,2%) juge que la transparence est aussi le meilleur élément pour réduire les conflits d’intérêts. 12% seulement estiment que la bonne gouvernance de l’indice est suffisante pour faire face à ces conflits .• La transparence est actuellement insuffisante et perçue comme telle par les investisseurs. Seulement environ un tiers des répondants sont très (4,6%) ou assez satisfaits (30,3%) du niveau actuel de transparence des indices. Cette perception est compatible avec les observations de l’EDHEC-Risk. «A une exception près», indique l’institut : les fournisseurs d’indices analysés ne donnent pas accès aux constituants historiques des indices, et pour un nombre important d’indices bêta intelligents, les méthodologies décrites ne permettent pas aux indices d'être répliqués.• Le poids de plus en plus important des indices de stratégie rend la transparence encore plus importante (77,1% des réponses). Par ailleurs, l’opacité réduit fortement la crédibilité des track records des indices (80,8 % vs 17,4%), en particulier pour les nouvelles formes d’ indices .• La transparence ne nuit pas aux intérêts des fournisseurs d’indices, car il développe la confiance et accélère l’adoption de nouveaux indices. Il ne conduit pas à la multiplication de services gratuits et de problème de rentabilité. Il existe des outils juridiques et contractuels adaptés, ajoute l’institut pour défendre les fournisseurs d’indices contre une utilisation non autorisée de leurs méthodologies et données. A ce titre, l’Autorité européenne des marchés financiers a limité la transparence des acteurs et des pondérations pour les périodes précédant le dernier rééquilibrage dudit indice. • Les investisseurs apportent un soutien très fort (70,6 % vs 21,1%) à la proposition que les règles de transparence de l’AEMF devraient être étendues aux produits et aux mandats non coordonnés .“Index Transparency – A Survey of European Investors’ Perceptions, Needs and Expectations”

Elle avait rendu une décision initiale en 2012 qui avait permis au mécanisme européen de stabilité, l'organe de renflouement de la zone euro, d'entrer en action

L’Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR) a dévoilé sur son site internet des «lignes directrices relatives à la lutte contre le blanchiment des capitaux et le financement du terrorisme dans le domaine de la gestion de fortune». Elles constituent une révision des précédentes lignes directrices publiées en la matière en janvier 2010 par la Commission bancaire. Cette publication a été réalisée à la demande des établissements financiers. Elle fait suite aux missions de contrôle réalisées en 2010 et 2011 chez 21 établissements de crédit, qui avaient conduit l’Autorité à sanctionner certains d’entre eux, comme la Société Générale. Les nouvelles lignes précisent les attentes de l’ACPR relatives aux mesures de vigilance en matière de lutte contre le blanchiment des capitaux et le financement du terrorisme (LCB-FT) dans le domaine de la gestion de fortune pour les secteurs de la banque et de l’assurance.

Annoncée en première estimation à 0,8%, la croissance des prix en zone euro a été révisée en baisse à 0,7% pour le mois de février par Eurostat. L’inflation retombe ainsi au plus bas historique touché en octobre dernier et qui avait poussé la BCE à réduire ses taux par surprise lors de sa réunion de novembre.

Les marchés émergents cèdent le pas aux marchés développés dans les préférences des investisseurs individuels

Les économistes s'attendent à ce que la Réserve fédérale opte demain pour une politique d'orientation des anticipations (forward guidance) plus qualitative

La société de gestion va développer une plate-forme mondiale consacrée au fixed income pour mettre en commun recherche et idées d’investissement

Le transfert des activités à DBS, première banque de Singapour, illustre la difficulté pour de petits acteurs étrangers de percer sur ce marché

L'élargissement de la bande de fluctuation du yuan à 2% ne remet pas en cause la mainmise de la PBOC sur le sens de fixation quotidienne de sa parité

L'agence a relevé les notations de plusieurs obligations à la suite de l'accord européen trouvé en décembre qui les exclut du cadre du «bail-in»

Attendu, le transfert des activités de gestion de fortune de la Société Générale à Hong Kong et Singapour illustre la difficulté pour les acteurs étrangers de taille moyenne de percer sur ce marché. L’acquéreur, DBS, paie un multiple jugé favorable de 1,75% des encours sous gestion.

La banque suisse a modifié son organisation au service de ses clients fonds alternatifs, selon le quotidien qui cite une note interne signée du responsable mondial du prime brokerage, Reinhardt Olsen. Une nouvelle entité est créée, baptisée Capital and Consulting Services, fruit du rapprochement de deux équipes existantes afin de se trouver plus proche des besoins des clients.

La banque australienne cède selon l’Australian Financial Review son entité de capital-investissement Macquarie Investment Management Private Markets, au bénéfice du management de cette dernière dont les actifs s’élèvent à environ 5 milliards de dollars locaux (3,3 milliards d’euros). La société prendra le nom de ROC Equity Partners.