Amundi prévoit de renforcer sa présence en Asie et cherche des acquisitions dans la région, est en mesure de révéler Citywire. S’exprimant au cours de de Citywire Asia, Pascal Blanqué, le directeur des investissements de la société de gestion française, a déclaré qu’ils étaient actuellement en train d’étudier la meilleure façon de procéder. « Nous gardons un œil sur des acquisitions ciblées en Asie du Sud-Est, notamment des acquisitions externes pour renforcer notre pôle obligataire », a-t-il déclaré.
Threadneedle Investments a annoncé le 9 décembre la nomination de Noël Luchena au rôle de directeur commercial clientèle institutionnelle au sein de l’équipe suisse. Avant de rejoindre Threadneedle le 2 décembre dernier, Noël Luchena était chargé de la clientèle institutionnelle au Crédit Suisse, au sein duquel il avait exercé diverses responsabilités depuis 2000, plus récemment en tant que vice-président responsable de comptes institutionnels dont les mandats sous gestion s’élevaient à 9 milliards de francs suisses. En 2011, Noël Luchena avait participé à une affectation auprès de Crédit Suisse Asset Management à New York durant laquelle il était spécialisé sur les investissements alternatifs (hedge funds, matières premières).
BNP Paribas (Suisse), filiale helvétique du groupe bancaire français, a nommé Geoffroy Bazin au poste de président de la direction générale. Ce dernier succède à Pascal Boris qui a rejoint le conseil d’administration, a annoncé la banque le 9 décembre.Geoffroy Bazin, âgé de 50 ans, a débuté sa carrière en 1988 à BNP Paribas à Paris, en tant que responsable de l’activité transactions de marché. En 2003, il a pris la direction de BNP Paribas Securities Services au Luxembourg, avant d'être nommé directeur financier et membre du conseil d’Investment Solutions à Paris.BNP Paribas (Suisse) compte quelque 1.700 collaborateurs dans ses filiales de Genève, Zurich, Bâle et Lugano.
The US firm MFS has launched two low-volatility equity funds, the MFS Low Volatility Equity Fund and the MFS Low Volatility Global Equity Fund. The two strategies aim for capital appreciation with decuded volatility compared with their respective benchmark indices, the Standard & Poor’s 500 in the former case, and the MSCI All Country World in the latter. Each fund will invest in attractive shares both from the fundamental and quantitative point of view. These funds will be mnaged by members of the MFS team dedicated to quantitative solutions, James Fallon and Matthew Krummel in the former case, and Fallon and Jonathan Sage in the latter.
Threadneedle Investments (Threadneedle) on 9 December announced the appointment of Noël Luchena as director of sales in charge of institutional clients on the Swiss team. Before joining Threadneedle on 2 December this year, Luchena was responsible for instituitonal clients at Credit Suisse, where he held a variety of responsibilities beginning in 2000, most recently as vice president in charge of institutional accounts, whose mandates under management total CHF9bn. In 2011, Luchena took an assignment at Credit Suisse Asset Management in New York, during which he specialised in alternative investments (hedge funds, commodities).
The Italian council of ministers has approved a draft decree which transposes the AIFM directive, Assogestioni, the Italian association of asset management professionals, reports. The text, which must now be studied by the parliamentary Commissions, accepts several proposals by the AIFMD task force of Assogetioni, including recognition for a temporary regime to allow asset management firms which are “promoted” to adapt to the new framework. There are also plans to retain the national model for harmonized UCITS funds, which allows asset management firms to contract with the depository to undertake calculation of net asset value; to introduce a new investment vehicle known as the SICAF; to provide an extended definition of the “Italian FIA reserve,” which included not only professional investors in the sense of MIFID, but also other categories of investors, who will be identified by the MEF. Asset management firms which managed Italian FIAs before 22 July will be allowed one year to adopt all necessary measures to comply with the terms of the AIFM directive.
Amundi is planning to strengthen its presence in Asia and is seeking acquisitions in the region, Citywire can reveal. Speaking to Citywire Asia, Pascal Blanqué, chief investment officer at the French asset management firm, announced that they are presently in the process of studying the best way of moving forward. “We are keeping an eye on targeted acquisitions in South-East Asia, particularly external acquisitions to strengthen our bond unit,” he says.
Asia Research & Capital Management (ARCM), one of the largest hedge funds in the Asia-Pacific region, has raised USD1.1bn for its new hedge funds, the news agency Reuters reports. ARCM, founded by Alp Ercil, former head of Perry Capital for Asia, is one of the largest hedge funds in the region, since launching a USD940m hedge fund last year. Assets under management at ARCM now total over USD2bn, which puts it in the very restricted circle of fewer than 30 hedge funds of this size in Asia, according to figures from Eurekahedge. Unlike the first three-year fund, the most recent fund is a five-year fund, which makes it more similar to a private equity vehicle.
Skandia has brought the management of its Swedish bond funds in-house, Fondbranschen reports. These represent assets of SEK10bn, which had previously been managed by DNB. The bond team at Skandia already manages SEK100bn.
The Italian asset management firm Azimut finished the month of November with net inflows of EUR228m (including more than EUR190m for the sub-funds of the Luxembourg-registered funds AZ Fund 1 and AZ Fund Multi-Asset), Bluerating reports. Since the beginning of the year, Azimut has posted total net inflows of EUR2.95bn, of which EUR2.94bn have been for asset management products. Total assets under administration come to over EUR23.5bn, of which EUR21.1bn are under management, in increase of 20.6% since the beginning of the year. Pietro Guiliani, chairman and CEO of Azimut, says these results are expected to allow Azimut to finish the year with total profits of EUR130m to EUR160m.
Asset management firms are seeking a foothold on the ETF market, by creating their own version of these products, actively-managed ETFs, the Financial Times observes. So far, 68 ETFs of this type exists, representing over USD14bn in assets. Many think that the assets will grow and reach more than USD100bn.
The Lyxor hedge fund index in November has posted returns of 0.94%, meaning that cumulative gains since the beginning of the year come to 5.79%.The three best-performing strategies last month were CTA long term (+4.2%), long/short equity market neutral (+1.7%), and CTA short-term (+1.6%). However, global macro and fixed income arbitrage have seen respective losses of 0.74% and 0.69%.In the first eleven months of the year, only two strategies out of eleven show losses. They are fixed income arbitrage (-0.45%) and CTA short-term (-3.86%). However, long/short equity long bias has posted gains of 14.56%, and special situations are up by 11.32%.
Paris EUROPLACE announced yesterday the launch of the Paris financial market Factbook, openly available through the Paris Europlace website: www.paris-europlace.com . Following recommendations from the Haut Comité de Place (Paris Financial Services High-Level Committee), the «EUROPLACE Factbook» aims to make available to both European and international professionals – issuers, investors, banks, financial intermediaries, market authorities, etc. – key data concerning the activities of both the Paris financial market and other major European markets. It will thus provide a follow up tool of the Paris marketplace’s competitiveness serving the real economy in Europe. This statistical tool was put together with the support of Banque de France and the contribution of the leading professional associations of the Paris marketplace, AFG (French Asset Management Association), FBF (French Banking Federation), AFIC (French Association of Investors in Growth), FFSA (French Federation of Insurance Companies). The «EUROPLACE Factbook» will be monitored by a Steering Committee, which will regularly update the main new trends of the Paris Financial marketplace and its environment.
In the first nine months of this year, investments in German real estate funds and real estate properties totalled EUR1.1bn, which represents an increase of 75% compared with the corresponding period of last year, according to statistics from CBRE relayed by the Berlin-based agency Scope.In terms of open-ended real estate funds in particular, the proportion of hotel properties in the 15 funds monitored by Scope was 5.4% in 2011, and increased to 5.7% last year, from 2.2% in 2007. As of the end of 2012, that presented EUR3.4bn.In 2012, German open-ended real estate funds invested EUR188m in hotel properties. The four funds with the highest proportions of investment in hotels as of the end of 2012 were UniImmo Deutschland (12.1%), WestInvest InterSelect (11.5%), UniInstutional European Real Estate (9.5%) and WestInvest ImmoValue (6.1%).
Teoman Kaplan, head of the management team at Nomura Bank for fiscal affairs, liability-driven investment and risk management at Nomura Bank, has been recruited by Allianz Global Investors (AGI) for its insurer assistance team in the area of liability-driven investment (LDI), Das Investment reports.
Deutsche Bank on 9 December announced the recruitment of Thomas Poppensieker as head of internal controls. Poppensieker will be responsible for the implementation and reinforcement of internal controls for all divisions and infrastructure. He will begin in the role on 1 January 2014, and will report to the co-chairman of the board, Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain. Poppensieker previously worked at McKinsey as head fo the risk management practice in Germany.
Assets under management at the US asset mangement firm Hennesy Advisors have increased from USD919m at the beginning of the 2012/2013 fiscal year, in September 2012, to USD4.03bn as of the end of September 2013, according to a statement released by the firm. The growth in assets was driven by the acquisition of USD2.2bn at FBR funds in October 2012, a steep rise in the market of about USD648m, and a net inflow of about USD243m. This very strong growth in assets has allowed the firm to earn record net profits of USD4.8m.
The US asset management firm Calamos Investments has announced that it is planning to revise its structures following the departure of Nick Calamos, who had initially (August 2012) stepped back from day-to-day management of the firm, and then abandoned the firm and his membership on the board of directors, Citywire reports. He has been replaced by Gary Black, who joined Calamos in summer 2012. Before his departure, Calamos sold his entire stake in Calamos Family Partners to the founder and CEO of the firm, John Calamos Senior.
Fundweb reports that Bank of America Merrill Lynch has been tasked by Lloyds Banking Group with placing the remaining 21% stake that the bank still holds in St James’s Place (SJP), an investment which is expected to generate capital gains of about GBP95m, with institutional investors.The announcement follows the expiry of the 180-day unwaivable lock-up period during which Lloyds could not dispose of further stakes in SJP
The Schroder UK Property Fund (SPF), formerly the Schroder Exempt Property Unit Trust (SEPUT), has acquired two commercial properties from Corbo Properties.The first, purchased for GBP40m, is the shopping centre Lemon Quay (165,619 square feet), located in Truro, Cornwall, and the second is Holland Market and Winfreuy Avenue (84,714 square feet) in Spalding, Linconlnshire.Immobilien Europa Direkt, an investment group from the Zurich Investment foundation, which is managed and co-distributed by Schroder Property Investment Management, has invested EUR25.3m in a 10,000 square-metre office property located in Elsenheimerstraße in Munich. Immobilien Europa Direkt is aimed specifically at Swiss pension funds.As of 30 September, Schroders had real estate properties under management of about GBP10.6bn, or EUR12.7bn.
The board of directors at Nordea has decided to soft close the Nordea 1 – Nordia Equity Small Cap Fund, due to its large volume. The stategy has EUR1.3bn in assets under management, according to Fondsweb. Shares in the following funds are affected: Nordea 1 - Nordic Equity Small Cap Fund AP-EUR (LU0878594877) Nordea 1 - Nordic Equity Small Cap Fund BC-EUR (LU0841550477) Nordea 1 - Nordic Equity Small Cap Fund BC-GBP (LU0841549628) Nordea 1 - Nordic Equity Small Cap Fund BI-EUR (LU0351546048) Nordea 1 - Nordic Equity Small Cap Fund BP-EUR (LU0278527428) Nordea 1 - Nordic Equity Small Cap Fund BP-NOK (LU0278528152) Nordea 1 - Nordic Equity Small Cap Fund BP-SEK (LU0278528665) Nordea 1 - Nordic Equity Small Cap Fund E-EUR (LU0278528822) Nordea 1 - Nordic Equity Small Cap Fund E-PLN (LU0533599659)
Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (DeAWM) is expanding its direct replication platform. A total of 18 db X-trackers equity ETFs will switch replication method from indirect to direct replication. This is expected to take total assets under management in direct replication db X-trackers ETFs to approximately EUR9.5 billion, «making DeAWM the second largest provider of physical ETFs in Europe», according to a press statement. “Our direct replication platform is now well established and is delivering the same high standards of transparency and operational efficiency investors traditionally associate with db X-trackers ETFs. This, together with the fact that in some areas investors have shown a clear preference for direct replication offerings, gives us the confidence to fully realise our physical replication capability,” commented Reinhard Bellet, DeAWM’s Head of Passive Asset Management. A list of db X-trackers ETFs due to switch to a direct replication methodology is provided below. db x-trackers CAC 40 UCITS ETF db x-trackers DAX UCITS ETF db x-trackers Euro Stoxx 50 UCITS ETF db x-trackers Euro Stoxx Select Dividend 30 UCITS ETF db x-trackers FTSE 100 UCITS ETF db x-trackers FTSE 250 UCITS ETF db x-trackers FTSE All-Share UCITS ETF db x-trackers FTSE MIB UCITS ETF db x-trackers IBEX 35 UCITS ETF db x-trackers MSCI Europe Index UCITS ETF db x-trackers MSCI Europe Mid Cap Index UCITS ETF db x-trackers MSCI Europe Small Cap Index UCITS ETF db x-trackers MSCI Mexico Index UCITS ETF db x-trackers MSCI Pan-Euro Index UCITS ETF db x-trackers SMI UCITS ETF db x-trackers Stoxx Europe 600 UCITS ETF db x-trackers FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed Europe Europe Real Estate Real Estate UCITS ETF Equity db x-trackers ATX UCITS ETF Equity, Austria
Edward Bonham Carter will on 17 March be leaving his position as CEO of Jupiter, after 14 years at the head of the British asset management firm. He will also leave the executive board, but will remain on the board of directors, and becomes vice-chairman. Bonham Carter will be repaced as CEO by Maarten Slendebroek, who had previously been director of distribution and strategy. The Swedish-Dutchman joined Jupiter in September 2012 from BlackRock, where he had been head of the international retail activity, and was before that head of BlackRock Solutions for the European region.
A decade ago, the perception of sovereign wealth funds in the public sphere was negative. After the financial crisis in 2008, this negative connotation become a bit more accentuated. “The possibility that sovereign wealth funds could control British companies and infrastructures led to initial hesitation and fears about undesired foreign influence … These initial fears have dissipated and are no longer effective in 2013, as the increased efforts of the British government to court sovereign funds reveals,” economist Nicholas Garrott, an adviser to the mayor of London, writes in an article to be published in the quarterly publication Sovereign Wealth Quarterly (January 2014).
Kames Capital has aded to its bond team, with the appointment of derivatives specialist Nick Chatters, Citywire reports. In his new role, Chatters will be responsible for the implementation of derivative trading for his main clients. Chatters previously worked at Citibank, where he was responsible for the development of derivative valuation activities.
Kames Capital has aded to its bond team, with the appointment of derivatives specialist Nick Chattas, Citywire reports. In his new role, Chatters will be responsible for the implementation of derivative trading for his main clients. Chatter previously worked at Citibank, where he was responsible for the development of derivative valuation activities.
According to the most recent quarterly report from the Spanish regulator, CNMV, Spanish asset management firms in the first six months of the year paid out EUR458m in sales commissions on their funds, out of EUR678m which they made in the form of commissions, which represents a percentage of 67.5%, Funds People reports. The nine largest firms by assets pay kickbacks of over 48%, while Bestinver (Acciona group) pays out only a little over 5%. Santander AM and BBVA AM pay out 84% and 83%, respectively, of their commissions, compared with 74% at Bankia Fondoa and 48% at IberCaja Gestión.
Swedish financial group Catella will establish property asset management activities in France from spring 2014. This will take place under the leadership of François Brisset, previous managing director and co-founder of DTZ Asset Management.The new entity will focus on investment management, asset management and property management on behalf of French and foreign investors, according to a press relase.“To meet a growing demand from investors for secure and tailor-made investments, it is our intention to structure, host and manage investment vehicles on behalf of third-party investors. We will be active within commercial real estate and residential,” says François Brisset, head of property asset management in France.Catella has an asset management operation in Europe with EUR 5 billion under management, of which EUR 2 billion is within property. The property asset management mainly consists of regulated property funds managed from Munich. The French operation will complement the group’s offer within property services in Europe. The asset management platform will be independent of Catella’s property advisory services in France, with a separate office in Paris.
Hedge funds began fourth quarter well with gains of 1.5% in October for the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index, according to the most recent figures published by Hedge Fund Research (HFR). In the first 10 months of the year, the index is up 7.2%, its best performance since 2009, when it had gained 20%. In the month under review, all strategies had contributed to gains for the index, particularly Equity Hedge strategies, with monthly gains of 1.8%, bringing the gains since the beginning of the year to 11.3%.
Asset management affiliates of European and Asian banks are nervously waiting to find out whether the US Volcker rules will impose severe restrictions on their ability to manage funds, Financial Times fund management reports. Early versions of the legislation treated European UCITS funds, Canadian funds and Japanese trusts as hedge funds.