The US asset management firm Legg Mason has reported assets under management of USD648.9bn for the third quarter of its 2012-2013 fiscal year, ending on 31 December, compared with USD650.7bn as of the end of September, according to statistics released on 1 February. Outflows in the quarter totalled USD7.5bn, and were only partially offset by a positive market effect of USD5.7bn, while assets under management have nonetheless risen 3% compared with their levels at the end of December 2011. Legg Mason has announced that outflows from equities totalled USD8.3bn, while outflows from bonds totalled USD6.8bn. Money market funds, however, attracted USD7.6bn in fourth quarter. As of 31 December, assets under management consisted 57% of bonds, compared with 22% for equities. 60% of clients are American. Legg Mason finished the quarter to the end of December with a net loss of USD453.9m, or USD3.45 per share, compared with net profits of USD80.8m, or USD0.60 per share in the quarter to the end of September, and USD28.1m, or USD0.20 per share in fourth quarter 2011. Losses in the quarter under review are due to charges for depreciation of intangible assets totalling USD734m.
As of 31 December, Franklin Resources, which is known as Franklin Templeton Investments, had assets under management of USD781.8bn (see Newsmanagers of 14 January), which represented an increase of USD31.9bn, or 4%, in the first three months of fiscal 2013, due to market effectss of USD24.8bn, and USD8.7bn due to the acquisition of K2Advisors (see Newsmanagers of 6 November 2012).Compared with October-December 2011, assets have increased by USD111.5bn, or 17%, largely due to USD94bn in market effects and USD13.6bn in net subscriptions.Net profits for the California-based asset management firm in the first quarter of its fiscal year ending on 30 September 2013 totalled USD516.1m, compared with USD492.1m in July-September, and USD480.8m in the corresponding period of 2011.
After eight years at Prigest, Cécile Imbert left the firm ten days ago. The fund manager, who had worked alongside Matthieu Rollin on the Prigest Europe and Prigest US funds for three years, will not be replaced, Christian Cambier, CEO of the asset management firm, has told Newsmanagers. However, the departure of the manager will result in a reorganisation. “Rollin and I will now work as a pair,” the manager explains, while unlike in the case of Imbert, “there will not be a two-headed management structure, but instead management with a head.” In practice, Rollin will have control of Prigest Europe and Prigest USA, while ValFrance and Prigest Pacifique will be led by Cambier. The departure of Imbert comes at a time when Prigest has seen a reduction in assets in its equity funds. Alongside Valfrance, the flagship fund from the asset management firm, which has net assets of only EUR170m, the US fund has only EUR27m, and the Europe fund has only EUR38m in assets under management, while the Pacific fund has EUR52m. As part of the changes, the question of merging the France fund and the European fund has been raised. “That would depend on the major shareholder, SwissLife Banque Privée,” Cambier says, suggesting that the merger between the asset management firm and its shareholder may come more rapidly than expected, justifying the choice not to replace the manager. In June 2011, SLBP announced that it had acquired a 25% stake in the capital of Prigest, stating that its “engagement” would eventually result in a wedding. The big step has been set for “two years from now,” but SLBP could increase its stake to 51% within a shortened time.
Pre-tax operating profits for the asset management unit of the US group Ameriprise Financial totalled USD141m in fourth quarter, up 11% compared with third quarter 2011, according to statistics released by the group. Assets under management at Columbia Management and Threadneedle as of the end of 2012 totalled USD455bn, up 5% compared with the end of December 2011. Assets under management at Threadneedle have incerased 12% to USD128bn, while Columbia assets have risen by a more limited 1%. The asset management unit finished the year with outflows of USD3.9bn, largely due to net redemptions totalling USD3.6bn to institutional clients.
Les actifs sous gestion de Julius Baer ont progressé l’an dernier de 11%, soit 19 milliards de francs suisses, à 189 milliards de francs suisses, slon un communiqué publié le 4 février. La progression des actifs sous gestion résulte d’un impact positif de la performance du marché de près de 11 milliards de francs suisses grâce à des améliorations substantielles dans plusieurs catégories d’investissement, notamment les actions, d’une collecte nette de de 9,7 milliards de francs et enfin d’incidences de change négatives de 1 milliard de francs, dues principalement au recul de la valeur du dollar vers la fin de l’année. Comme les années précédentes, si toutes les régions ont produit une contribution positive, la majorité de la collecte provient des marchés de croissance - Asie, Amérique latine, Moyen-Orient, Russie et Europe centrale et de l’Est.
Assets under management at Julius Baer increased by 11%, or CHF 19 billion, to CHF 189 billion in 2012. The increase in AuM was the result of a positive market performance of almost CHF 11 billion on the back of significant improvements across many investment categories, especially equities, net new money of CHF 9.7 billion and a negative currency impact of CHF 1 billion, mainly due to the decline in the value of the US dollar towards the end of the year. As in previous years, while all market regions contributed positively, the majority of inflows originated from the growth markets – Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, Russia and Central & Eastern Europe. Separately, in January 2013, Julius Baer strengthened its presence in the Japanese private wealth market through a 60% equity participation in TFM Asset Management Ltd. (TFM), a Swiss-registered independent asset management company. TFM was founded in 1996 and has offices in Tokyo and Zurich. The company holds investment advisory and investment management licences granted by the Japanese FSA and concentrates predominantly on serving Japanese high net worth private clients. TFM manages a few hundred million CHF of client assets. Julius Baer will have the right to take full ownership three years after the closing planned for April 2013. Both parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price.
Credit Suisse bank on 1 February published revised results, adapted to the new structure of the group. In the Private Banking & Wealth Management (BP&WM) division, asset management profits are now declared as a separate unit, as are resuls for Wealth Management Clients and Corporate & Institutional Clients. Securities trading in Switzerland has been largely transferred from the business bank to the PB&WM division, Credit Suisse says in a statement. These changes will have an effect on results for the three units of the PB&WM division, and on the business bank. The changes, and the transfer of securities trading, will have no effect on consolidated profits or net profits for Credit Suisse, however, which will adapt its figures retroactively to 2008. Credit Suisse in November 2012 announced a reorganisation of its organisation and its management, and plans to transfer private banking and asset management units to the PB&WM division.
Les actifs sous gestion de Julius Baer ont progressé l’an dernier de 11%, soit 19 milliards de francs suisses, à 189 milliards de francs suisses, selon un communiqué publié le 4 février. La progression des actifs sous gestion résulte d’un impact positif de la performance du marché de près de 11 milliards de francs suisses, d’une collecte nette de de 9,7 milliards de francs et d’incidences de change négatives de 1 milliard de francs, dues principalement au recul de la valeur du dollar vers la fin de l’année. Comme les années précédentes, si toutes les régions ont produit une contribution positive, la majorité de la collecte provient des marchés de croissance - Asie, Amérique latine, Moyen-Orient, Russie et Europe centrale et de l’Est.Par ailleurs, Julius Baer indique avoir le mois dernier renforcé sa présence sur le marché japonais de la gestion de fortune, en prenant une participation de 60% dans TFM Asset Management Ltd. (TFM), société de gestion d’actifs indépendante enregistrée en Suisse. Fondée en 1996, TFM a des bureaux à Tokyo et Zurich. La société détient des licences de conseil en placements et de gestion d’investissements délivrées par la FSA japonaise et se concentre essentiellement sur le service aux clients privés japonais à haut potentiel financier. TFM gère quelques centaines de millions de francs suisses d’actifs de clients. Julius Baer aura un droit de propriété intégrale trois ans après l’opération de bouclage prévue pour avril 2013. Les deux parties sont convenues de ne pas divulguer le prix d’achat.
Rob Heins, a former manager at PGGM, Robeco and Rabobank Netherlands, is joining the institutional sales team for the Netherlands at ING Investment Management, led by Michael Jasper, which now has five members, Fondnieuws reports.ING IM has about EUR316bn in assets under management for institutional and retail clients.
The integration of Banif into Santander will result in an increase in the minimal level of financial savings required by the group for access to private banking services, from EUR500,000 currently, to EUR1m, within six months, Funds People reports.The absorption of Banif is expected to generate synergies in the third year of EUR520m, of which EUR420m are savings, and EUR00m are additional revenues.
Bruce Berkowitz, the founder of the asset management firm Fairholem Funds, has announced that he has decided to close three mutual funds to new investors, at the end of the trading day on 28 February this year. Current shareholders will be permitted to continue to invest in the various funds. Fairholme explains in a statement that the decision comes largely as a result of the risk of diluting the current shareholders and the currently good positioning of the various funds for financing operations and realising new investments. Among the three funds which have been closed to new investors is the Fairholme Fund, whose assets under management total about USD7.5bn.
French boutique Tocqueville Finance on Thursday announced at its annual convention that it is overhauling its fund product range. Funds investing solely in France will have their investment universe extended to cover all of Europe and all capitalisation sizes. This includes Ulysse, the flagship fund from the firm, which was managed by the star fund manager Marc Tournier until his departure about one year ago, which becomes a euro zone fund for all cap sizes. It is now managed by Daniel Fighiera, CIO since May 2012, with the assistance of Nelly Davies, co-manager. Tocqueville Dividende and Odyssée also open to Europe. Tocqueville Finance also announced the transformation of Ithaque, a value fund, into a megatrend fund. The new fund will be managed by Nelly Davies with Thibault Moureu as analyst. Tocqueville Finance had assets under management of EUR1.2bn as of Decembre 31, 2012, against EUR2bn as of June 2011. But the new CEO, Hervé Guiriec still targets AUM of EUR4bn in 2015.
“China, one of the largest markets for UBS, will continue to be a central part of our strategy,” the chairman of the board of directors at UBS, Axel Weber, has announced on his first visit to China in the position he has held since last year, China Daily reports. With this in mind, UBS will continue to develop its wealth management activities in China, where the group is hoping to become one of the largest wealth management firms. Worldwide, wealth management represents about 50% of the UBS portfolio. This percentage is clearly much smaller in China, where investable assets last year showed double-digit growth.
Preferring to emphasize sales of savings accounts rather than investment funds, BBVA in 2012 saw a decline of 2.5% in assets in its funds in Spain, to EUR19.116bn as of the end of December, Funds People reports.In the rest of the world, assets under management in investment funds rose 13%, to EUR22.255trn, while assets in pension funds increased by 16.3% to EUR71.743bn, and the volume of portfolio management mandates for clients increased 6.95 to EUR13.652bn.Last year, the BBVA group saw a 45.3% decline in its net profits, to EUR1.676bn.
AXA Real Estate Investment Managers has announced that its Italian regulated subsidiary AXA REIM SGR has raised EUR209 million at the close of the Caesar Fund. This exceeds the target equity set out when Caesar was officially launched with a first close of EUR118 million in March 2012 and gives a total potential fund size of around EUR420 million once fully invested.AXA Real Estate, supported by the full capabilities of its parent company AXA IM in Italy, raised the money from 13 Italian institutional investors that have committed to invest alongside AXA Insurance companies, which represent around 20% of the total commitment. Caesar is a regulated closed ended fund for institutional investors and will target investments in well let “CORE” office buildings. The Fund aims to provide an annual average net dividend distribution of over 5.5%2 on capital invested, once the investment phase is completed, and a 9%2 IRR net of fees.The Fund will seek investments in eurozone countries and the United Kingdom and will have a particular focus on investments on France, Germany and United Kingdom for the first 12 months, while maintaining a watching brief on opportunities in Benelux. No single investment will exceed 15% of the Fund’s target portfolio value. AXA Real Estate plans to complete the investment phase of the Fund in the next 24 months, at which time, under the Italian law for regulated funds, it will have the option to reopen the Caesar for further subscriptions. The Caesar Fund will be managed by AXA REIM SGR in Italy and will benefit from the expertise and resources of AXA Real Estate’s European real estate investment and asset management platform.
The Global Emerging Markets and Macro (GEMM) hedge fund has announced to investors that it will no longer accept new capital, and that it has already refused about EUR500m in assets since the beginning of the year, the news agency Reuters reports. Since its inception in 2009, assets in the fund have increased strongly, and now total about EUR5bn. The head of asset managemnt at BTG, Steve Jacobs, says that reopening the fund has not been ruled out, but that it will remain closed “indefinitely». Last year, GEMM earned returns of 28% which makes it one of the best-performing funds in the world.
Barclays yesterday announced that its chief financial officer, Chris Lucas, and its legal director, Mark Harding, will be resigning voluntarily, Agefi reports. The two men will remain in place until their successors are appointed, the bank added in a statement. It states that a search for these replacements is underway.
The CEO of the British bank Barclays, Antony Jenkins, who was appointed last year following the departure of Bob Diamond due to the Libor scandal, on 1 February announced that he would not be claiming a bonus for the year 2012. “Last year was clearly very hard for Barclays and its shareholders,” and “I have concluded that it would be inappropriate on my part to receive a bonus for 2012 under these circumstances,” he explained in a statement. The widely-practised form of remuneration in the City is regularly subject to indignation on the part of the British public, due to the sometimes exceptionally large amounts paid to some financiers. The various scandals which have recently affected British banks have made bonuses even more unpopular in times of austerity.
The asset management firm Troy Asset Management has announced that it will limit access to the Troy Income Fund, due to the continuing rise of its assets under management, Money Marketing reports. The manager of the fund, Francis Brooke, is spending an increasing amount of time in meetings with clients. These meetings are legitimate, but are gradually increasing the time needed to manage the fund. From 1 May, minimal investment in the fund will be increased from GBP1,000 to GBP250,000, while front-end fees will now be set at 5%. This is the second time that Troy has decided to limit access to the fund, whose assets under management total GBP930m.
BNY Mellon has announced that it has been selected by the British firm Coutts as administrator for its new Irish-registered, UCITS-compliant Coutts multi-asset funds.Services include settlement for derivatives, the production of KIIDs, daily reporting on performance, and hedging of share classes.
The Scottish asset management firm Baillie Gifford has announced the appointment of three new partners as of 1 May: Spencer Adair, investment manager in the Global Alpha team, Kathrin Hamilton, director of the Clients Department in charge of North American clients, and Graham Laybourn, director of Legal and Regulatory Risk.With the retirement of Angus McLeod, director of the Clients Department for Asia and the Middle East, the number of partners as of 1 May will total 39.Baillie Gifford has also announced that its assets as of the end of December totalled GBP85bn, and that the firm has 752 employees.
Pour succéder à Frank Richter, qui a quitté l’entreprise, Axa Investment Managers a recruté au 1er février Jörg Schomburg comme directeur des ventes institutionnelles pour l’Allemagne. L’intéressé était depuis 1999 chez Allianz Global Investors (AGI) où il dirigeait depuis 2007 l’équipe des ventes institutionnelles.
Ayant préféré mettre l’accent sur la commercialisation de dépôts plutôt que des fonds d’investissement, le BBVA a subi en 2012 une baisse de 2,5 % de l’encours de ses fonds en Espagne, à 19.116 millions d’euros fin décembre, rapporte Funds People.Dans le reste du monde, les actifs gérés dans des fonds d’investissement ont augmenté de 13 % à 22.255 millions d’euros tandis que l’encours des fonds de pension gonflait de 16,3 % à 71.473 millions et que le volume des mandats de gestion de portefeuilles pour les clients s’accroissait de 6,9 % à 13.652 millions d’euros. Pour l’an dernier, le groupe BBVA a subi une chute de 45,3 % de son bénéfice net, à 1.676 millions d’euros.
Le fonds de pension des fonctionnaires néerlandais ABP, avec 2,8 millions d’affiliés, a confirmé le 1er février que la réduction de 0,5 % des prestations envisagée pour cette année sera effectivement appliquée à compter du 1er avril 2013 parce que la longévité accrue des Néerlandais a comprimé à 96 % le taux de couverture à fin 2012 (contre 97 % fin septembre) au lieu des 104,3 % prescrits par le législateur.Henk Brouwer, le président, a même annoncé que si le taux de couverture ne s’améliore pas, les prestations pourraient être réduites d’environ 1,6 % supplémentaire en 2014.De fait, les encours se sont accrus de 35 milliards d’euros en 2012 à 281 milliards d’euros, grâce à une performance de 13,7 % représentant 34 milliards d’euros. Mais les engagements ont été revus à la hausse de 29 milliards d’euros sur un an, à 292 milliards. A taux d’intérêt pratiquement inchangés, cette révision est imputable presque exclusivement aux dernières projections de l’Office néerlandais des statistiques (CBS) sur la longévité accrue de la population. Cela signifie donc qu’ABP devra servir des pensions sur une durée plus longue et, concrètement, les engagements augmentent de ce simple fait de 1,8 point de pourcentage.
L’intégration de Banif dans le Santander se traduira par un relèvement sous six mois à 1 million d’euros contre 500.000 euros actuellement du montant d'épargne financière minimum exigé par le groupe pour l’accès à ses services de banque privée, rapporte Funds People.L’absorption de Banif devrait générer la troisième année des synergies de 520 millions d’euros, dont 420 millions d'économies et 100 millions de recettes supplémentaires.
Ancien gérant chez PGGM, Robeco et Rabobank nederland, Rob Heins rejoint l'équipe de ventes institutionnelles Pays-Bas d’ING Investment Management dirigée par Michael Jasper et désormais forte de cinq personnes, rapporte Fondsnieuws.ING IM gère environ 316 milliards d’euros pour ses clients institutionnels et particuliers.
Matthias Reimer, qui était directeur de la gestion de portefeuille pour les fonds garantis et des stratégies multi-classes d’actifs dans le pôle gestion de fortune chez DWS (groupe Deutsche Bank), rejoint Warburg Invest (14,8 milliards d’euros d’encours), rapporte Das Investment.Chez son nouvel employeur, Matthias Reimer dirigera l’équipe d’ingénierie de portefeuille, ce qui recouvre les stratégies multi-classes d’actifs et l’élaboration de stratégies d’investissement sur mesure pour la clientèle privée.
Die Welt rapporte que les 57,5 % de la société immobilière allemande LEG ont été finalement proposés au milieu de de la fourchette de 41-47 euros, soit à 44 euros l’unité et que la demande a porté sur 4,5 milliards d’euros pour 1,3 milliard. Le demande est provenue principalement de fonds de pension et d’assureurs ainsi que de sociétés de gestion surtout britanniques et américaines. Les investisseurs allemands se sont partagé 10 % du placement, les particuliers n’obtenant que 0,6 %.L’opération a surtout été bénéfique pour les vendeurs, les fonds Whitehall de Goldman Sachs et le capital-investisseur Perry Capital, qui réalisent une confortable plus-value et pourront mettre sur le marché le restant de leurs titres à partir de la fin de «l’embargo» de six mois.
La société de gestion Troy Asset Management a annoncé qu’elle limitait l’accès au Troy Income Fund en raison de la progression continue de ses actifs, rapporte Money Marketing. Le gérant du fonds, Francis Brooke, passait de plus en plus de temps à des rencontres avec la clientèle. Des rencontres légitimes mais qui grignotaient progressivement le temps nécessaire à la gestion du fonds.A compter du 1er mai, l’investissement minimum dans le fonds passe de 1.000 livres à 250.000 livres, les frais d’entrée étant désormais fixés à 5%. C’est la deuxième fois que Troy décide de limiter l’accès à ce fonds dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à 930 millions de livres.
Barclays a annoncé hier que son directeur financier Chris Lucas et son directeur juridique Mark Harding démissionneraient de leur propre volonté, rapporte L’Agefi. Les deux hommes resteront en place jusqu'à nomination de leurs successeurs, a ajouté la banque dans un communiqué. Elle précise que la recherche de ces derniers est en cours.