Recherche
S'abonner
Connexion
Asset Management
Accueil Asset Management Actualités
09/01/2014

Pictet AM recruits emerging market bond specialist from Schroders

Pictet Asset Management (AM) has hired Luke Chua as senior investment manager, as an addition to its London-based team dedicated to emerging market corporate bonds, the Swiss group announced on 8 January. Chua will work alongside Alain Defise, who joined Pictet from JP Morgan as head of emerging corporate bonds in October 2012. Chua had previously served at Schroders Investment Management as head and manager of the Emerging Markets Corporate Bond fund in Singapore. He began his career in 1996 as a credit analyst at Axa Investment Managers.
09/01/2014

Philip Poole appointed as Director of Research at Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (DeAWM) on 8 January announced the appointment of Philip Poole as Director of Research. In this newly-created role, Poole will direct research activities over the entire global investment platform of DeAWM. Concerning macro research, he will be a main contributor to the vision of the firm generated by the management direction. He will also orient micro research, to allow portfolio managers investmnt ideas in all asset classes. Additionally, Poole will have a role in the presentation of areas of investment to clients and the media. Poole, based in London, is Managing Director, and will report to co-Chief Investment Officers Randy Brown and Asoka Wöhrmann. Poole had most recently served as Global Head of Macro & Investment strategy at HSBC Global Asset Management.
09/01/2014

Allfunds Bank recruits a head of Fund Groups for the United Kingdom

Allfunds Bank has recruited Danny Wynn as head of Fund Groups for the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Middle East, Investment Europe reports. Wynn has spent his career at Legal & General. At Allfunds, Wynn will belong to a new team which is being built by Stephen Mohan, who was recruited earlier this year to manage the expansion of Allfunds in the United Kingdom and Ireland. He will be responsible for local relationships with fund groups. Allfunds Bank has assets under administration of EUR110bn.
09/01/2014

Schroders appoints a head of risk for wealth management

Schroders has recruited Andrew Schiels, who had previously worked as a risk consultant at Lloyds, as head of risk for the private bank and wealth management on a consultant basis, Financial News reports, citing sources familiar with the matter.
09/01/2014

Stable outlooks for global bond funds

Outlooks for the global bond sector in 2014 have been called “stable” by the financial ratings agency Moody’s in a report published on 8 January (“ 2014 Outlook – Bond Funds”). Several factors are expected to contribute to the stability of the sector, including default rates, which are expected to remain at low levels, refinancing risk, which is falling, and businesses which have robust liquidity profiles. The stable outlook also applies to bond funds in Latin America, where funds are becoming more attractive to investors due to the discipline brought to management of monetary and budgetary policies in many countries in the region which are increasing their capital markets. However, the agency says that the outlooks for the closed US municipal bond fund sector are now moving from stable to negative due to an increase in leverage, a decline in the quality of credit, and rising interest rates.
09/01/2014

Pictet overweights emerging market equities

Pictet Asset Management is not really in line with the consensus: it estimates that emerging market equities will be likely to interest investors more. According to Frédéric Rollin, who yesterday presented the main investment convictions for 2014, emerging market equities are relatively inexpensive compared to their historic valuations. From his point of view, they are undervalued by about 20%. Inflows are expected to return to emerging markets in a context in which growth in profits at emerging market businesses, which have been flagging since 2011, are expected to regain their colours in the next few months, thanks to a recovery of global growth. Pictet is also overweighting equities from developed markets, but with outlooks that may be less attractive than for emerging markets, however, with special mension for Japan, where reforms engaged will favour a sustainable return of growth, which, although it remains modest, is finally appearing. On the bond side, Pictet is overweighting high yield on both sides of the Atlantic, perhaps with a small preference for European high yield, which is more resistant to rising interest rates.
09/01/2014

Söderberg acquires JRS Asset Management

The Swedish asset management firm JRS Asset Management has been sold to the new holding company Viktor och Peter Söderberg Förvaltning, the Swedish website Realtid.se reports, citing an article in the newspaper Dagens Industri. The Söderberg brothers have signed an agreement with Mats Ekström and Peter Nygren to acquire JRS AM for SEK70m. The asset management firm has assets of SEK9bn, according to DI.
09/01/2014

Coutts recruits in Indonesia

The British wealth management firm Coutts, an affiliate of the Royal Bank of Scotland, has recruited Yee Chin Lit as head of the Indonesian market. Yee, who joined from Credit Suisse, will be based in Singapore, Asian Investor reports. New recruitments as additions to the new team dedicated to this market will follow, the newspaper notes. Yee will aim to strengthen Coutts’ presence in Indonesia, and to boost the development of its client base.
09/01/2014

Allianz GI recruits for its Italian institutional team

Allianz Global Investors has recruited Filippo Battistini as head of institutionals and fund selectors in Italy, Bluerating reports. Battistini joins from State Street Global Advisors, where he was head of business development for institutional clients. Battistini’s arrival comes after that of Alberto D’Avenia as head of development for Southern Europe and country head for Italy.
09/01/2014

Lyxor hedge fund index up 1.15% in December

The Lyxor hedge fund index gained 1.15% in the month of December, bringing performance in the sector for the year as a whole to 7.01%, according to the Lyxor barometer of the alternative management industry, published on 8 January. Long/short strategies did particularly well in December and throughout the year. The Lyxor L/S Equity Long Bias index in particular gained 1.94% in December, and 16.79% for the year as a whole. It has also been noted that the Lyxor Special Situations index gained 2.66% in December, to finish the year with gains of 14.28%, whle the Lyxor CTA Long Term index posted gains of 2.47% in December, but has finished the year with gains of only 4.25%.
09/01/2014

Risk budget: balanced funds have trouble with new allocation techniques

Multi-asset class funds which use new risk budget allocation techniques, such as approaches which integrate risk dynamic or risk parity, had some difficulty in second half, according to a study recently published by Fitch Ratings (“European Multi-Asset Funds Dashboard Dec 2013.”) Inversely, funds which have adopted a more static approach, with a limited exposure to duration and a high exposure to equities and high yield, did much better. Multi-asset class funds are continuing to encounter difficulty, with dynamic allocation during periods of falling trends, such as in May/June 2013, and in the following months. The problems related to timing and the size of the risk reduction and the subsequence increase in exposure to risk have an impact on cumulative performance. The calibration of risk budget adjustment techniques remains a work in progress, largely due to the measurement of risk, which, as in the case of VIX, depends on less solid indicators, the study reveals.
09/01/2014

Markus Kaiser from StarCapital to manage two funds of funds at RWS

The German asset management firm StarCapital on 8 January announced that Markus Kaiser would provide management of the two funds of funds RWS-Ertrag and RWS-Dynamik from the asset management firm RWS Vermögensplanung. Kaiser, who joined StarCapital in July last year as a member of the management board, was already managing the two products when he was at Critas Investment, as RWS made him manager of the funds at the time.
09/01/2014

Investors prefer equities and abandon emerging market debt

The most recent statistics on inflows to funds received by Morningstar reveal that investors pulled out of emerging market debt funds in November, withdrawing EUR3.1bn from the category. In the bond universe, outflows totalled EUR2.1bn for the month. At the other extreme, private bond funds in US dollars posted their fifth month of inflows, with EUR1.3bn in November. Equity funds have posted inflows of EUR8.4bn in November and EUR74.80bn since the beginning of the year. In total, long-term funds have posted EUR13.9bn in inflows in November, while money market funds have posted a net outflow in the same period of EUR8.2bn. Allocation funds, with EUR6.4bn, have posted their 23rd consecutive month of inflows, bringing net subscriptions since the beginnig of the year to EUR88.99bn. Hedge funds have posted EUR1.7bn in inflows in November. Funds investing in European stock market large caps (all styles) and Japanese large caps (all styles) took in EUR1.7bn and EUR1.6bn, respectively.
09/01/2014

TCW teams up with Emerging Global Advisors in ETFs

TCW and Emerging Global Advisors (EGA), the asset manager to the EGShares exchange-traded fund (ETF) offering, on Wednesday announced their partnership to launch a suite of emerging market fixed income ETFs. The EGShares TCW EM Short Term Investment Grade Bond ETF (Ticker: SEMF), the EGShares TCW EM Intermediate Term Investment Grade Bond ETF (Ticker: IEMF) and the EGShares TCW EM Long Term Investment Grade Bond ETF (Ticker: LEMF) are the industry’s first suite of EM fixed income ETFs to provide duration-defined exposure to USD-denominated, investment grade emerging market sovereign and corporate bonds. All three funds are advised by EGA, sub-advised by TCW and track custom indices created and monitored by J.P. Morgan. The funds will be managed by Penelope D. Foley and David I. Robbins, group managing directors of emerging markets strategies at TCW.
09/01/2014

Northwestern Mutual explores sale of Russell Investments

The US insurer Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance is studying a sale of its asset management affiliate Russell Investments, according to Reuters, citing four anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Northwestern Mutual acquires Russell Investments, which was then known as Franck Russell Company, in 1999, for USD1.2bn, but the US group now no longer considers this activity a part of its strategic and core activities. At this stage, it has not yet been decided whether the affiliate will be sole entirely or in parts, Reuters reports. Russell Investments, which is known for its indices, currently has USD247bn in assets under management.
09/01/2014

SwissLife Banque Privée acquires 100% of Prigest

SwissLife Banque Privée announced that it has acquired 100% of capital in Priget SA, in line with the initial calendar. The firm acquired an initial stake of 25% in June 2011. With nearly EUR500m in assets from private clients at Prigest, SwissLife Banque Privée now has EUR4bn in assets under managemetn for private clients (in addition to which there are EUR24bn in assets under custody). The firm is also extending its fund range with the Prigest range for European, US and Asia-Pacific equity markets. For its part, Prigest will continue its development, as SwissLife Banque Privée will open sales channels for it to IFAs, brokers and networks of the group as well as a sales force via its private bankers, a statement says.
09/01/2014

BlackRock agrees to stop analyst surveys

The BlackRock group has agreed to stop global surveys of analysts under an agreement signed on 8 January with the New York courts, the news agency Reuters reports. The amiable settlement ends an investigation called by the New york attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, over the release of monthly or quarterly surveys of analyst sentiment which may influence the markets. BlackRock has agreed to pay USD400,000 to cover costs related to the investigation, but has not been fined, and says it is prepared to co-operate with authorities. Schneiderman has welcomed the news that BlackRock admits “the need for reforms in the area of dissemination of information that may influence the markets.” The programme of surveys in question, the “Analyst Survey Program,” sought the opinions of the most high-profile analysts in the world on companies they monitored. This information could have been used by BlackRock to intervene on the market before the publication of the analyst studies.
09/01/2014

Invesco offers a low volatility mutual fund dedicated to emerging markets

Invesco is adding to its range of low-volatility products, with the launch of the Invesco Low Volatility Emerging Markets fund. The strategy, managed by Inveco Quantitative Strategies (IQS), will aim to outperform the MSCI Emerging Markets index over the long term, with a less marked risk profile. Assets under management at IQS, which is largely aimed at institutional investor clients, total about USD24bn.
09/01/2014

UBS GAM launches a series of ETFs based in MSCI indices

UBS Global Asset Management (UBS) has licensed 27 MSCI Hedged Indices for a new series of ETFs launched yesterday, according to MSCI. Thomas Merz, head of UBS ETF Europe, commented, “By basing our physically replicated ETFs on a range of MSCI Hedged Indices, we are able to offer our clients a way to reduce currency risk and optimize portfolio returns in a transparent and cost-efficient way.”
09/01/2014

Credit Suisse real estate funds buy more than CHF530m worth of properties

Three real estate investment funds from Credit Suisse have added to their real estate portfolios, making purchases totalling CHF533m, the Swiss group announced on 8 January. The investment fund CSF Real Estate Switzerland (CSF RES) has acquired seven properties, in French-speaking Switzerland and the canton of Bern, for a total of over CHF293m. The real estate fund Credit Suisse Real Estate Interswiss (CS REF) and the investment fund CSF RES Commercial have acquired commercial properties totalling over CHF240m.
09/01/2014

FSB and IOSCO consult on systemic establishments outside banking and insurance

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) on 8 January published a consultation document on evalutation methodologies to identify systemic financial establishments outside the banking and insurance sectors. These evaluation methodologies come as additions to the methodologies which currently cover banks and insurers. The document proposes specific methodologies to identify companies, but does not give immediate examples, nor does it propose the measures which will be applied to these entities. The consulltation will remain open until 7 April, a statement says.
09/01/2014

Former head of marketing at F&C joins RLAM

The former head of marketing at F&C, Tracy Fennell, has joined Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) to serve in the same role, Investment Week reports. She left F&C last summer during a reorganization of the business.
09/01/2014

France beats Luxembourg and Ireland on AIFM

France has received 30 Alternative Investment Fund Managers licenses, more than the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and Ireland put together, Funds Europe reports, citing figures from Paris Fund Industry. Paul-Henri de La Porte du Theil, chairman of the French asset management association, predicts that a total of 200 asset management firms will be licensed in France by the end of the year. The Luxembourg fund management association says that 10 asset management firms have been licensed, while the Irish fund association counts four, and the Financial Conduct Authority has not released a figure.
09/01/2014

Legg Mason recruits for sales team in Frankfurt

Christian Humlach has been appointed as director of development in the German sales team at Legg Mason in Frankfurt, Fondsprofessionell reports. Humlach had previously been head of institutional products at Convertinvest. He will report to Klaus Dahmann, head of sales for Germany and Austria at Legg Mason.
09/01/2014

Legg Mason étoffe son équipe commerciale à Francfort

Christian Humlach a été nommé directeur du développement au sein de l'équipe commerciale allemande de Legg Mason à Francfort, rapporte Fondsprofessionnell. L’intéressé était auparavant spécialiste produits institutionnels chez Convertinvest. Il travaillera sous la direction de Klaus Dahmann, head of sales Allemagne et Autriche de Legg Mason.
09/01/2014
Fonds

Markus Kaiser de StarCapital va gérer deux fonds de fonds de RWS

Le gestionnaire allemand StarCapital a annoncé le 8 janvier que Markus Kaiser allait assurer la gestion des deux fonds de fonds RWS-Ertrag et RWS-Dynamik de la société der RWS Vermögensplanung. L’intéressé, qui a rejoint StarCapital en juillet dernier comme membre du comité de direction, a déjà géré ces deux produits lorsqu’il était en poste chez Veritas Investment, à qui RWS avait à l'époque confié le pilotage des fonds.
Fonds
09/01/2014

VZ propose la nomination du CFO de LGT au conseil d'administration

Le gestionnaire de fortune zurichois VZ proposera lors de sa prochaine assemblée générale la nomination d’Olivier de Perregaux au poste d’administrateur. Celui-ci occupe actuellement le poste de directeur financier (CFO) auprès de LGT group.Le groupe VZ évoque dans un communiqué la longue expérience d’Olivier de Perregaux, tant en Suisse qu'à l'étranger, dans les domaines de la banque et de l’assurance.En cas d'élection, Olivier de Perregaux deviendrait le cinquième membre de l’organe de surveillance du groupe VZ.
09/01/2014

EFG International nomme le CFO Giorgio Pradelli adjoint du CEO

La banque EFG International a nommé avec effet immédiat son directeur financier Giorgio Pradelli adjoint du directeur général, selon un communiqué publié le 8 janvier. Giorgio Pradelli, qui conserve ses fonctions de CFO, se chargera en outre de la plateforme opérationnelle et de gestion des risques de la banque.Une nouvelle configuration qui permettra au directeur général John Williamson de consacrer plus de temps au développement des cinq segments régionaux de la banque privée et des solutions de placement et de gestion de fortune, précise EFG International.Giorgio Pradelli travaille au sein d’EFG International depuis juin 2012.
09/01/2014
Fonds

Source lance un ETF sur la Chine

Source, la filiale spécialisée sur les ETF de cinq grandes banques d’affaires (Nomura, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan et Morgan Stanley), lance aujourd’hui un ETF sur les actions chinoises de type A en yuans, révèle Les Echos. Source s’est associée à CSOP Asset Management, une société de Hong-Kong qui a la licence pour acheter des actions de type A. Le nouvel ETF de Source sera indexé sur l’indice FTE China A50 qui regroupe les 50 plus grandes valeurs chinoises.
Fonds
09/01/2014
Fonds

Bonne performance annuelle des caisses de pension

Les caisses de pension suisses ont connu un second semestre 2013 satisfaisant en matière de placements de capitaux, ce qui laisse présager d’une bonne performance annuelle, malgré un ralentissement en fin d’année, rapporte L’Agefi suisse sur la base des données de l’Association suisse des institutions de prévoyance (ASIP). Au second semestre 2013, la performance des 62 caisses de pension prises en considération, totalisant des actifs de 188 milliards, a atteint +3,2%, précise-t-on. Pour l’ensemble de l’année, la société de conseil Tower Watson prévoit 6,2%, soit la troisième meilleure performance depuis la crise de 2008, note l’ASIP. En 2012, le rendement s’est établi à +7,9% après avoir été nul en 2011.
Fonds

Sujets d'actualité

Tous les sujets