Les panélistes, à une forte majorité, continuent de rester positifs sur les obligations d'entreprise en dépit des premiers signes de surchauffe

Jean Yves Ogier, directeur financier et des engagements de la caisse régionale Crédit Agricole Normandie à la rédaction de www.institinvest.com : Nous prêtons plus que nous recevons, nous sommes déficitaires en collecte crédit. Nous ne plaçons rien sur cette activité, a contrario, nous plaçons l’excédent de nos fonds propres. Nous avons pour contrainte la sécurité de nos placements ou au minimum la réduction du risque au maximum. Pour cette partie, nous replaçons chez CASA en taux fixe principalement. CASA fixe les taux garantis en fonction des maturités, cela détermine nos placements. Pour les autres types de placements, nous utilisons les filiales du groupe dans chacun des domaines d’expertises de chacun. Afin de satisfaire à Bâle III, nous devons augmenter notre ratio de liquidité, cela immobilise une partie de nos ressources et nous devons réduire les prêts accordés. On se tire une balle dans le pieds avec cette réglementation, qui devrait rentrer en application en 2015. Nous avons pour mission de financer l'économie régionale, par le biais de prêts aux entreprises mais aussi par la prise de participations dans des fonds, car ce n’est pas notre métier. Le secteur de l’agro-alimentaire nous concerne, ainsi que les projets coopératifs. Enfin, nous avons investis dans le fonds Normandie Capital investissement, ainsi que dans le fonds d’amorçage Grand Ouest. En effet, le Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, huit caisses du Crédit Agricole et la Caisse d’Epargne Normandie ont doté la structure de plus de 30 millions d’euros pour financer des sociétés technologiques et innovantes (numérique, biotechnologies, santé, etc.). Le fonds investira 300.000 euros à 400.000 euros au maximum lors d’un premier investissement en gardant la possibilité d’investir à nouveau, en plusieurs fois, jusqu'à 2,5 millions d’euros. La gestion de Go Capital Amorçage a été confiée à la société rennaise Go Capital.

Un rapport de l'Institut Montaigne, "Redonner sens et efficacité à la dépense publique", fustige la hausse "sans précédent" de ces dépenses en France et estime des économies possibles, mais douloureuses.

The British wealth management firm Neptune Investment Management has launched four new funds, Money Marketing reports. Since last month, Neptune has been offering a fund dedicated to special situations in Russia, the Russia Special Situations Fund, which will concentrate on mid- to large caps of the MSCI Russia 10-40 index. The fund is managed by William Rice. Neptune also offers two income strategies, and a fund dedicated to frontier markets. The income strategies are the Neptune Monthly Income, managed by Robin Geffer, which aims for capital growth on the basis of an actively managed portfolio largely of British equities, and the Global Income Fund, managed by George Boyd-Bowman. Lastly, the Frontier Emerging Market fund, managed by Ewan Thompson, will invest in frontier market equities or shares in companies which realise a large part of their activities in frontier markets.

According to a recent study by the German banking association (Deutscher Bankenverband), the investment behaviour of men and women differs largely in the area of risk-taking. 42% of women select less risky products, compared with 34% of men, according to the study. The latter more willingly choose equities, which are considered more risky, than female investors. Investments in gold, however, are proportionally equal between men and women, Fondsprofessionell reports.

Sustainable development problems, including social and environmental issues, are not among the top priorities of German insurers. Only 50% of directors of German insurance companies estimate that investment in sustainable development may improve their value creation processes, according to a survey by the consulting firm Steria Mummert Consulting, undertaken with the participation of the F.A.Z.-Institut. Insurers place low in the rankings of sectors reviewed by Steria Mummert, with an overall average of 74%, led by banks, 82% of whom plan to invest in sustainable development.

US investors are pulling out of funds managed by professional stock-pickers, and massively moving to low-cost funds, the Wall Street Journal reports. In November, they withdrew USD118.3bn from actively-managed US equity funds, the largest amount since 2008, according to the most recent statistics from Morningstar. In the same period, they invested USD30.4bn in US equity ETFs. Including bond ETFs, inflows total USD154bn.

ETFs listed in the United States have posted record inflows of USD188bn in 2012, beating the previous record of USD175bn set in 2008, according to statistics from IndexUniverse. The three largest players in ETF markets, iShares, State Street Global Advisors and Vanguard, have attracted USD151bn, 80% of total inflows. Bond ETFs also grew strongly in 2012, supported by the launch of the Pimco Total Return ETF from Bill Gross in March 2012, which finished the year with USD3.87bn in assets under management. Assets in ETFs overall finished the year at USD1.349bn up 27% compared with the previous year. Ventilation by asset class, in millions of US dollars Net inflows Assets under management % of assets under management US equities 68,960.66 607,025.77 11.36% International equities 5,116.46 332,453.77 15.68% US bonds 43,981.15 226,889.05 19.38% International bonds 11,780.12 25,882.47 45.51% Commodities 10,217.71 118,092.89 8.65% Currencies -1,476.16 2,690.28 -54.87% Leveraged -873.08 13,583.89 -6.43% Inverse -62.05 16,645.98 -0.37% Asset allocation 755.31 2,404.35 31.41% Alternative 2,962.97 3,246.85 91.26% Total: 188,363.08 1,348,915.30 13.96%

US money market funds in November increased their exposure to euro zone banks for the fifth consecutive month, according to the ratings agency Fitch Ratings. As of the end of November, allocations to euro zone banks represented 13.7% of total assets in US money market funds, up 8% since the end of October 2012. In the same period, exposure to German and French banks increased by 26% and 6%, respectively. Despite these constantly rising allocations over several months, exposure of US money market funds to the euro zone remains 60% below the levels observed in May 2011. A return to these levels is unlikely in the near future, according to Fitch Ratings, in light of efforts by European regulators to limit the use of short-term financing in US dollars by banks.

Wegelin will pay a total of USD57.8m in the United States to settle criminal charges filed against it a year ago, according to a statement published on 3 January. The Swiss private bank, now an empty shell, has decided to plead guilty. The total includes a fine of USD22m, Wegelin states. The remainder of the settlement consists of USD20m in reparations for missed tax revenues, and USD15.8m for gains earned by the banking establishment. In addition to this USD57.8m, USD16m were already confiscated in spring 2012 from an account in the United states. Thus, in total, Wegelin will have paid nearly USD74m. Wegelin has also pledged to retain banking data about its US clients, and to make this available if action should be required by Swiss authorities, a statement says. The firm had claimed throughout that it was seeking an out-of-court settlement.

The Cantonal Bank of Basel (Basler Kantonalbank, BKB) has decided to make a provision of CHF50m to cover potential criminal charges in relation to a lawsuit connected with the wealth management firm ASE Investment AG. In this case, about 500 clients lost money which was indirectly invested with BKB. The provision will be written down on the 2012 balance sheet, according to a statement released on 3 January by the cantonal bank. “Neither ASE Investment nor its organs will be in a position to cover these losses,” the cantonal bank says. “BKB will make an effort, within the means and responsibilities of each, to find solutions in this case.” A contribution of CHF50m will be made to reserves for general banking risks. This will have the effect of reducing operating profits by this amount, as well as interim profits for BKB’s parent company. Gross profits and consolidated annual profits will remain unaffected. A previous report states that losses for former clients of ASE Investment who had relationships with BKB total over CHF100m. The former CEO of BKB, Hans Rudolf Matter, resigned in October 2012, in the wake of the scandal.

Groupama has begun the process of withdrawing from its private equity affiliate, with the sale of two funds from Acto Capital, one of the organs of Groupama Private Equity. The investment company Luxempart has announced in a statement that it has acquired 82% of the risk common investment funds (FCPR) Acto and Acto Capital II, owned by Groupama, via its Sicav Luxempart Capital Partners, and Five Arroes Secondary Opportunities III, a fund from the Rothschild group. The remaining 18% are held by French institutional investors, Luxempart says. “These funds will be managed by a new entity which is in the process of being licensed by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), which will be autonomously directed by the team which is currently in place, based in Paris, and now operating within Groupama Private Equity,” Luxempart says. Luxempart will also sponsor the new fund which the management team is planning to launch in 2013.

Pioneer Investments has strengthened its global equities team with the appointment of David Glazer as portfolio manager effective December 31, 2012. In this newly created position based in Boston, he reports to Marco Pirondini, head of equities, U.S. Glazer most recently served as co-portfolio manager at Franklin Templeton Global Advisers in New York City, specialising in international small, global small/mid, and euro small/mid-capitalization strategies. He has over twelve years of experience as an equity professional, including analysing domestic and international equities.

Jason Beaird has joined Steel Vine Investment Fund, a hedge fund specialised in commodities, as a partner in charge of marketing. In his new role, Beaird, who had previously worked at Constellation Associates, will focus on developing the firm’s activities serving high net worth clients and institutional investors.

Joel Salomon, a former proprietary trader at Citigroup, is planning to launch a long/short equity hedge fund this month, the news agency Bloomberg reports. The hedge fund, SaLaurMor Capital LP, whose name is taken from the name of Salomon’s two daughters, Lauren and Morgan, will be based in New York, and will concentrate on financial sector smidcaps such as insurers, particularly European firms, and asset management firms, the founder says. Until early 2012 he had managed a portfolio of financial sector shares worth USD700m for Citigroup.

The TCW Group has announced the completion of its acquisition of the Special Situations Funds group (SSF) from Regiment Capital Advisors L.P. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Launched in 2000, the Special Situation Funds group is a lending business that targets middle-market companies and places a strong emphasis on risk management. SSF has approximately USD2.0 billion in assets and commitments under management and is overseen by Rick Miller along with six Boston- and New York-based veteran investment professionals, all of whom have joined TCW and continue to manage the funds. The SSF group reports to Jess Ravich, TCW Group managing director and head of alternative products.

The Italian bank Carige on 1 January launched Carige Obbligazioni Cedola, managed by Carige AM, Bluerating reports. It is a diversified fund investing in various bond asset classes denominated in euros, listed on regulated European markets, with absolute return objectives. In addition, every six months, Carige AM will distribute up to 100% of its revenues to subscribers.

In fourth quarter, 28 closed real estate investment funds held their final closing, raising a total of USD22.6bn, according to the most recent statistics from Preqin. This represents a signifiant increase over third quarter, when the total raised was USD10.7bn, and the best quarter since third quarter 2008. Preqin states that the closing of BlackRock Real Estate Partners VII, which raised USD13.3bn, contributed a lot of dynamism to fourth quarter. Funds investing primarily in the United States have raised the largest amounts.

The Liechtenstein-based wealth management firm Kaiser Partner has recruited Daniel Fasnacht as managing director market office, in charge of European, British, Russian and Eastern European markets, finews reports. Fasnacht had previously worked at Julius Baer, where he had been responsible for the development of wealth management activities in Latin America.

Agefi reports that the collective management giant Vanguard has announced the departure of Sandip Bhagat, head of an international equity management unit with about USD1trn in assets, to pursue “other opportunities.” Vanguard is replacing its chief investment officer this month, as Gus Sauter is retiring, to be replaced by Tim Buckley.

Insight Investment Management Limited has completed a transaction which sees currency risk management specialist, Pareto Investment Management Limited and certain of its affiliated entities (Pareto) become part of the Insight group. The newly combined group brings together Insight’s expertise in Liability Driven Investment (LDI), active fixed income, multi-asset and absolute return solutions with Pareto’s active and passive currency risk management business to form a global investment management company with assets totalling GBP212.3bn. The combined group will be known as “Insight Investment” in the UK and Europe. In North America and Australasia, Pareto Investment Management Limited will be marketed under the brand name of “Insight Pareto”. The group will remain a fully autonomous investment manager in BNY Mellon’s boutique asset management structure.

Nicola Hayes has joined Barings Asset Management as head of customer services and relationships development, Investment Week reports. Hayes previously spent eleven years at Invesco Perpetual, where she had most recently been associate director for international sales and management of relationships with clients outside the United Kingdom. She will be based in London, and will report to George Harvey, head of sales, development of activities and customer services at Barings AM.

The South African financial services group Sanlam Private Investments (SPI) has recruited Ian Porter to serve in the new role of head of wealth management, as the firm has decided to increase its presence on the British retail market, Investment Europe reports. Porter had previously worked at Alexander Forbes Wealth, where he served in a similar role. The appointment comes as part of a development strategy by Sanlam on the British market, where it has recently made several external growth operations.

Edward Bramson, the activist investor who is executive chairman of F&C Asset Management, is preparing to acquire another UK mid-sized company, the Financial Times reports. He has launched a second vehicle in Guernsey, supported by Soros Fund Management, alongside Sherborne Investors Guernsey A, the fund through which Bramson controls 22% of F&C. The fund, listed on AIM, raised GBP207m in late November.

Two of the major policies of the Dodd-Frank law were enacted this week. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has announced in a statement that real-time reporting of swap trades, and registration for major actors on swap markets and swap dealers began on 31 December 2012, as required by the legislation. BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole CIB and Natixis are among the 65 firms registered as swap dealers.

Matthew Martoma, a former portfolio manager at an affiliate of the hedge fund firm SAC Capital, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he traded shares in two pharmaceutical firms after learning of the confidential results of a clinical trial, the Financial Times reports. The Securities and Exchange Commission claims that SAC made USD276m on the information (USD82.8m in profits and USD194m in averted losses).

La société de gestion de fortune du Liechtenstein Kaiser Partner vient de recruter Daniel Fasnacht en tant que «managing director market office», responsable des marchés européens, britannique, russe et d’Europe de l’Est, rapporte finews.Daniel Fasnacht travaillait précédemment chez Julius Baer où il était responsable du développement des activités de gestion de fortune en Amérique latine.

Au quatrième trimestre, 28 fonds fermé investissant dans l’immobilier ont effectué leur closing final, levant au total 22,6 milliards de dollars, selon les derniers chiffres publiés par Preqin. Il s’agit d’une hausse significative en comparaison avec le troisième trimestre, où le total levé était de 10,7 milliards de dollars, et du meilleur trimestre depuis le troisième trimestre 2008. Preqin précise que le closing du BlackRock Real Estate Partners VII, qui a levé 13,3 milliards de dollars, a fortement dynamisé le dernier trimestre. Les fonds investissant principalement aux Etats-Unis ont enregistré les plus fortes levées de fonds.

Jason Beaird vient de rejoindre Steel Vine Investment Fund, un hegde fund spécialisé dans les matières premières, en qualité d’associé responsable du marketing. Dans ses nouvelles fonctions, Jason Beaird, qui travaillait précédemment pour Constellation Associates, aura notamment pour mission de développer les activités de la société auprès de la clientèle haut de gamme et des investisseurs institutionnels.

Joel Salomon, un ancien trader pour compte propre de Citigroup, envisage de lancer un hedge fund long/short equity dans le courant de ce mois, rapporte l’agence Bloomberg.Le hedge fund, SaLaurMor Capital LP, dont la dénomination s’inspire des prénoms de ses deux filles Lauren et Morgan, sera basé à New York et se concentrera sur les petites et moyennes valeurs financières telles que les compagnies d’assurance, notamment européennes, et les gestionnaires d’actifs, a précisé son créateur qui gérait jusqu’au début 2012 un portefeuille de valeurs financières de 700 millions de dollars pour le compte de Citigroup.