The Wall Street Journal rapporte que vendredi, le Reserve Primary Fund, le premier fonds monétaire américain à valeur liquidative constante à «avoir cassé le dollar» (break the buck), est parvenu à un accord à l’amiable avec le Third Avenue Institutional International Value Fund et les autres plaignants d’une action de concert.Il accepte de verser les quelque 75 millions de dollars restant dans le fonds, dont 10 millions en numéraire seront versés aux trois co-gérants Bruce Bent Senior et ses fils Bruce Bent II et Arthur Bent III. De la sorte, les porteurs du Reserve Primay Fund auront recouvré le reste de leur argent, puisqu’ils en avaient jusqu’à présent récupéré 99 %.

Selon nos informations, OFI Asset Management devrait annoncer prochainement l’acquisition d’une participation dans le tierce partie marketeur parisien (TPM) Aloha Finance, OFI AM ayant l’intention d’accélérer son développement en France et à l’internationalL’objectif principal pour OFI serait le repositionnement de la gamme gérée en interne et de son offre externe. Cette nouvelle acquisition devrait permettre à OFI AM de concilier et améliorer les deux offres, et de consolider sa plate-forme luxembourgeoise afin d’accélérer son développement à l’international.L’acquisition d’Aloha Finance serait aussi l’occasion pour OFI AM de renforcer son équipe de direction. En effet, Sandrine Toulouse, fondatrice d’Aloha Finance et ancienne responsable du bureau parisien de BlackRock, deviendrait directeur du développement auprès de Gérard Bourret, directeur général, et de Jean-Marie Mercadal, directeur général délégué en charge des gestions. Autre nomination, Gilbert Nguyen, son associé chez Aloha Finance, serait nommé directeur de la distribution d’OFI AM pour la France et l’étranger.

Bill Gross, gérant du fonds Total Return (251,1 milliards de dollars) chez Pimco a subi des rachats de 7,7 milliards de dollars le mois dernier, soit le quatrième mois consécutif de décollecte, selon Morningstar. Sur la même période, le fonds DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund de Jeffrey Gundlach (36,7 milliards de dollars) a vu sortir 1,1 milliard de dollars en août, soit le troisième mois de suite de décollecte. Bill Gross et Jeffrey Gundlach ont un statut de «rock-star» dans l’univers obligataire grâce à la performance solide de leurs fonds sur le long terme.

Alienor Capital propose jusqu’au 31 décembre 2013 InvestCore 2019. Ce fonds à échéance ciblant le rendement élevé d’obligations d’émetteurs privés des pays « core » de l’Union européenne, sélectionnés pour leurs fondamentaux et dont la qualité de crédit est jugée sous évaluée par l'équipe de gestion. «En agrégeant ces situations spéciales et en profitant des légères tensions obligataires récentes, Investcore 2019 vise un rendement actuariel net de frais de gestion supérieur à 5% au lancement et donc à échéance 2019", souligne Alienor Capital. Le portefeuille restera à l’écart des titres issus des pays périphériques (Italie, Espagne, Portugal, Irlande et Grèce) en raison des «tensions récurrentes sur leur dette et du risque politique», note le communiqué. Caractéristiques Code ISIN Part C (Capitalisation) : FR0011554294, Part D (Distribution) : FR0011558329 Date de l’agrément : 29 août 2013 Période de souscription : jusqu’au 31 décembre 2013 Indice de référence OAT à échéance 2019 / 3,75% Durée de placement recommandée : jusqu’au 31/12/2019 Décimalisation En millième de part Frais de souscription 4% TTC max de l’actif net non acquis à l’OPCVM Frais de gestion maximum 0,9% TTC par an de l’actif net/ Commission de rachat 1% pendant la période de souscription 0% après la période de souscription Commission de surperformance Néant Périodicité de la VL Quotidienne Montant minimum de souscription initiale Parts C & D : une part (100 €)

Le taux de couverture moyen des engagements des fonds de pension d’entreprise américains a reculé au mois d’août de 0,1 point de pourcentage pour s'établir à 88,1%, selon BNY Mellon Investment Strategy & Solutions Group. Depuis le début de l’année, le taux de couverture affiche un gain de 11 points de pourcentage.Durant le mois sous revue, les actifs des fonds ont diminué de 1,6%. Les engagements ont diminué de 1,5%, le taux d’actualisation augmentant de 13 points de base à 4,78% pour les entreprises notées Aa.

La société de gestion alternative Pine River Capital Management devrait lancer un fonds dédié à la Chine en octobre avec un capital de départ de 150 millions de dollars, selon un document obtenu par Bloomberg.L’an dernier, le Pine River Fixed Income Fund a dégagé une performance de 35%, grâce notamment à une exposition aux obligations hypothécaires. Depuis le 1er août 2011, les actifs sous gestion de Pine River ont plus que doublé pour s'établir à 13,6 milliards de dollars.

La Suisse fait partie des pays européens où le groupe de gestion Henderson Global Investors souhaite se développer. Après avoir ouvert une antenne à Zurich, Henderson GI envisage de s’installer à Genève, indique Andrew Formica, CEO de Henderson GI à l’agence finews.Le patron australien de Henderson ajoute qu’il souhaiterait également se développer en Allemagne et en Italie, par le biais de conseillers financiers indépendants, comme la société le fait déjà au Royaume-Uni.

Bryan Collings a indiqué avoir démissionné de ses fonctions de managing partner de la boutique de gestion britannique Hexam afin de se concentrer sur le pilotage de la gamme de fonds onshore et offshore du groupe, rapporte Investment Week.Associé fondateur de la boutique, Bryan Collings gérait le fonds Global Emerging Markets, dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à 13 millions de livres, et qui affiche une perte de plus de 33% sur les trois dernières années, contre un gain moyen de 1,2% sur la même période pour l’indice de référence.Hexam, qui est contrôlée à 35% par Ignis Asset Management, n’a pas encore trouvé un successeur à Bryan Collings.

Hopewell Wood, CEO, a indiqué que le gestionnaire alternatif «macro» londonien Comac Capital a licencié en août 18 salariés, soit le tiers de son effectif, rapporte The Wall Street Journal. Cela fait suite à deux ans de moins-values qui se sont traduites aussi par des remboursements nets. L’encours est tombé à environ 2,2 milliards de dollars contre 4,8 milliards fin septembre 2012 et plus de 5 milliards fin 2010. Colm O’Shea, ancien trader pour compte propre de Citigroup qui a créé Comac en 2005, a expliqué que les contre-performances ont été dues à de mauvais paris, d’abord contre l’euro en 2012 et sur les taux au début de 2013. Toutefois, le fonds a gagné de l’argent en pariant contre certaines monnaies émergentes.

Vice president, Greater China chez JPMorgan Asset Management Asia après avoir été relationship manager chez Allianz Global Investors à Hong-Kong, Mark Chan a été recruté par Threadneedle Investments comme director, institutional, North Asia. Il sera basé à Hong-Kong et fera partie de l'équipe Asie-Pacifique dirigée par Raymundo Yu.Mark Chan travaillera en étroite coopération avec June Wong, vice-chairman of Asia-Pacific et CEO Hong Kong dans le cadre de l'élaboration du plan stratégique de Threadneedle pour la région. Il aura pour mission en particulier de développer les relations avec les investisseurs institutionnels en Chine continentale, à Hong-Kong, à Taïwan et en Corée du Sud.

La société de gestion italienne Azimut va acquérir, via AZ International Holdings, 50 % de Legan Administração de Recursos, une boutique brésilienne qui gérait l’équivalent de 141 millions d’euros au 31 août.Cela permet à l’italien, déjà présent dans de nombreux pays, de prendre pied au Brésil. Une joint-venture sera établie.Concrètement, AZ International Holdings prendra 50 % de la holding qui détient l’intégralité du capital de Legan, par le biais de l’acquisition d’actions auprès des associés fondateurs pour 3 millions d’euros et par la souscription à une augmentation de capital pour 2,5 millions d’euros.Fondée en 2008 par 5 associés, Legan compte aujourd’hui 14 personnes. Elle gère notamment le fonds Legan Low Vol, un fonds d’arbitrage faible volatilité investi dans différents instruments financiers dont les taux, les dérivés et les titres d’Etat avec un objectif supérieur au CDI, le taux d’intérêt brésilien, et le Legan Special, un fonds d’arbitrage investi dans différents instruments financiers et qui suit une stratégie directionnelle long/short actions.

Pioneer Investments has launched a UCITS-compliant version of its US fund Dynamic Credit, Citywire Global reports. The new fund, which is domiciled in Luxembourg, replicates the USD366bn fund launched for US investors in April 2011. The co-managers of the fund are Andew Feltus, Michael Temple and Chin Liu.

Pioneer Investments a lancé une version coordonnée de son fonds américain Dynamic Credit, a dévoilé Citywire Global. Le nouveau fonds, domicilié au Luxembourg, réplique le fonds de 366 millions de dollars lancé pour les investisseurs américains en avril 2011. Les co-gérants du fonds sont Andrew Feltus, Michael Temple et Chin Liu.

Pressure exerted by disappointed investors has obliged hedge fund managers to reduce the commissions they charge, which places the traditional 2%/20% structure (2% management commissions, 20% performance commissions) on the list of threatened species, the Wall Street Journal reports. The average now stands at 1.6% for management commissions, and about 18% for performance commissions.

HSBC has offered USD250m to shareholders in the Thema fund to settle a lawsuit filed on 30 April this year in Dublin, Agefi Switzerland reports. The fund, which had been sold in Switzerland by Geneva-based staff at Genevalor, was seeking USD1.5bn from its depository bank, which it had accused of negligence in the surveillance of assets.The first settlement of a Madoff-related lawsuit corresponds to 43% of capital lost by the fund according to the shareholder register, HSBC states. It may represent a precedent for the next cases of this type.

No new ETFs have been admitted to trading in August on the European markets of NYSE Euronext, the daily average trading volume has fallen 15.7% compared with July, to EUR183.3m. That also represents a decline of 4% compared with the corresponding month of last year. On-book trading volumes totalled EUR4bn, or 19.4% less than in the previous moth, and 8.6% less than in August 2012.Block trading in August was EUR377.9m, 3.7% more than in July, and 27.5% less than in the corresponding month of last year.The average spread, for its part, totalled 27.3 basis points.

According to the BlackRock Institute, European ETPs have posted net subscriptions of USD0.7bn for August, but four out of the ten major issuers have seen net outflows, starting with the market leader, iShares, whose redemptions totalled USD0.2bn, as at UBS. For their part, ETF Securities and the Cantonal Bank of Zurich (ZKB) have posted net outflows of USD0.1bn, while state Street has seen inflows of USD1.4bn, and DeAWM USD0.3bn, as at Source, while Lyxor has seen inflows of USD0.1bn.In January-August, European ETPs posted net inflows of USD7.8bn, while iShares alone took in USD11.6bn, and State Street posted inflows of USD2.7bn.For their part, DeAWM and Lyxor have experienced net ouflows of USD0.3bn and USD2.3bn, respectively, while the highest net redemptinos were for ETF Securities, with USD3.3bn.

The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), the global hedge fund industry association, published on September 5 an enhanced statement of policy principles. The paper builds on the AIMA Policy Platform, the landmark 2009 document in which AIMA offered its support for improved transparency, unified global standards, manager authorisation and supervision, aggregated short position disclosure to regulators and new policies to reduce settlement failure. “Capital markets are crucial in the financing of the economy and the hedge fund industry plays an ever increasing role in the entire chain of investing and financial intermediation, contributing to market depth, sophistication, transparency and thus its ability to support growth. AIMA therefore wishes to participate actively in the elaboration of policies in the areas of asset management and financial markets regulation with the aim of improving investor protection, market transparency and financial stability overall,” Kathleen Casey, chair, AIMA, said.

The Wall Street Journal rapporte que vendredi, le Reserve Primary Fund, le premier fonds monétaire américain à valeur liquidative constante à «avoir cassé le dollar» (break the buck), est parvenu à un accord à l’amiable avec le Third Avenue Institutional International Value Fund et les autres plaignants d’une action de concert.Il accepte de verser les quelque 75 millions de dollars restant dans le fonds, dont 10 millions en numéraire seront versés aux trois co-gérants Bruce Bent Senior et ses fiols Bruce bent II et Arthur Bent III. De la sorte, les porteurs du Reserve Primay Fund auront recouvré le reste de leur argent, puisqu’ils en avaient jusqu’à présent récupéré 99 %.

Switzerland is one of the European countries in which the asset management group Henderson Global Investors is planning to develop. After opening a branch office in Zurich, Henderson GI is planning to set up shop in Geneva, Andrew Formica, CEO of Henderson GI, tells the news agency finews. The Australian head of Henderson adds that he would also like to develop in Germany and Italy, through independent financial advisers, as the firm has already done in the United Kingdom.

Bryan Collings has announced that he has resigned from his position as managing partner of the British asset management boutique Hexam, in order to concentrate on managing the range of onshore and offshore funds from the group, Investment Week reports. Collings, a founding partner of the group, had managed the Global Emerging Markets fund, whose assets under management totalled GBP13m, and which has lost more than 33% in the past three years, compared with average gains of 1.2% in the same period for the benchmark index. Hexam, which is 35% controlled by Ignis Asset Management, has not yet found a successor for Collings.

Christophe Gloser, who became head of Fidelity in France in 2011, has succeeded to change the image of the asset management firm, which was too much equities and not enough bonds. This has given him the means to add to sales teams and to highlight the good results from asset management in France. This is a characteristic which Fidelity in London is able to appreciate.

UK-based ETF Securities on Monday announced the launch of Canvas, a new service which will allow asset managers worldwide, both passive and active, to create and sell ETFs under their own brands in Europe in a totally open architecture context.The white-label product factory offers multiple opportunities, including the possibility of issuing ETFs using all infrastructure from ETF Securities, the option of creating an advanced ETF platform, and of converting UCITS funds into ETFs, or to create an ETF share class in a UCITS fund.As Matt Johnson, head of distribution for Europe, the Middle East and Africa explains, Canvas supports all possible configurations, from the simple development of ETFs to total responsibility for management, with the primary objective of rapidly releasing products on the market in the context of efficiency in the use of capital and resources. The system allows for ETFs to be offered with both physical replication and synthetic replciation. For its part, ETF Securities will continue to offer its own range of UCITS-compliant ETFs to investors, with the service provided by the Canvas team.The creation of Canvas represents a smart diversification for ETF Secutities, which needs to reduce its dependency on gold ETPs, which represent about 75% of its assets of USD23bn, after a peak of USD31bn, when gold was valued at USD1,800 per ounce.Massimo Siano, director of sales for Switzerland, Italy and France, has told Newsmanagers that Canvas will primarily be aimed at entrepreneurial asset management firms (like ETF Securities itself), which are not competitors since they do not have commodity products. The formula selected “provides a means to share costs, competence, and profits.”Meanwhile, ETF Securities is planning to add to its range in new segments such as smart beta and variable rate high yield, but these plans are still in the development stages.

Bill Gross, manager of the Total Return fund (USD251.1bn) at Pimco, suffered redemptions of USD7.7bn last month, the fourth consecutive month of outflows, according to Morningstar. In the same period, the DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund by Gundlach (USD36.7bn) has seen outflows of USD1.1bn in August, the third consecutive month of outflows. Gross and Gundlach have rock-star status in the bond universe, due to the solid performance of their funds over the long term.

The alternative asset management firm Pine River Capital Management is expected to launch a fund dedicated to China in October, with initial capital of USD150bn, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg.Last year, the Pine River Fixed Income Fund earned returns of 35%, largely due to exposure to MBS. Since 1 August 2011, assets under management by Pine River have more than doubled, to a total of USD13.6bn.

One woman out of every two employed in asset management has been subjected to regular harassment or sexist behaviour at the office, according to the initial results of a survey carried out by FTfm, which surveyed 100 men and women employed in the sector. 54% of women say that they have faced “inappropriate” conduct in the workplace, while 28% say they have been sexually harrassed. One respondent explains that the asset management sector is highly masculine.

The British firm ETF Securities on Monday announced the launch of Canvas, a new service which will allow asset managers worldwide, both passive and active, to crate and sell ETFs under their own brands in Europe in a totally open architecture context.The white-label product factory offers multiple opportunities, including the possibility of issuing ETFs using all infrastructure from ETF Securities, the option of creating an advanced ETF platform, and of converting UCITS funds into ETFs, or to create an ETF share class in a UCITS fund.As Matt Johnson, head of distribution for Europe, the Middle East and Africa explains, Canvas supports all possible configurations, from the simple development of ETFs to total responsibility for management, with the primary objective of rapidly releasing products on the market in the context of efficiency in the use of capital and resources. The sustem allows for ETFs to be offered with both physical replication and synthetic replciation. For its part, ETF Securities will continue to offer its own range of UCITS-compliant ETFs to investors, with the service provided by the Canvas team.The creation of Canvas represents a smart diversification for ETF Secutities, which needs to reduce its dependency on gold ETPs, which represent about 75% of its assets of USD23bn, after a peak of USD31bn, when gold was valued at USD1,800 per ounce.Massimo Siano, director of sales for Italy, France and Monaco, has told Newsmanagers that Canvas will be aimed at the asset management firms industry acorss a variety of asset classes. The formula selected “provides a means to share costs, competence, and profits.”Meanwhile, ETF Securities is planning to add to its range in new segments such as intelligent beta and variable rate high yield, but these plas are still in the development stages.

Hopewell Wood, CEO, has announced that the London-based macro alternative management firm Comac Capital laid off 18 employees in August, equivalent to one third of its personnel, the Wall Street Journal reports. The move follows two years of losses, which also resulted in net redemptions. Assets have fallen to about USD2.2bn, compared with USD4.8bn as of September 2012, and more than USD5bn as of the end of 2010.Colm O’Shea, former proprietary trader at Citigroup, who founded Comac in 2005, has explained that the negative returns were due to bad bets, first against the euro in 2012, and then on interest rates in early 2013. However, the fund has made money by betting against some emerging maket currencies.

Six of the largest insurers in the world will invest in a new USD400m private equity fund created to support businesses which sell financial services to individuals in developing countries, the Financial Times reports. MetLife, Prudential Financial and Swiss Re are among the companies who assist the fund launched by the microfinance specialist Leapfrog Investments.

Syria’s civil war, as well as questions about the China’s economy and US policy have led investors to wait and see in early September.Overall, investors pulled over USD9 billion out of US equity funds during the week ending September 4 and nearly USD6 billion out of emerging markets equity and bond funds. Despite a regain of interest in Europe, equity funds recorded outflows of USD11.4 billion, according to statistics released by EPFR Global.Bond funds posted net outflows of USD284 million as they extended a six week outflow streak. Money market funds saw USD7.43 billion flow out.