Société Générale a annoncé le 2 octobre la nomination de Giovanni Ortolani en tant que Banquier Conseil pour l’activité Private Investment Banking de Société Générale en Suisse, à compter du 1er octobre 2012. A ce poste récemment créé, Giovanni Ortolani est chargé du lancement de l’activité Private Investment Banking auprès des grandes fortunes entrepreneuriales disposant d’une structure de type holding ou family office en Suisse. Par ailleurs, Renaud Billard a été nommé Chargé d’Affaires au Royaume-Uni pour Private Investment Banking. Giovanni Ortolani et Renaud Billard sont rattachés fonctionnellement à Galeazzo Pecori Giraldi, Directeur de Private Investment Banking.Giovanni Ortolani a été Responsable Pays pour l’Italie depuis 2007. Il a rejoint Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking en 2005 en tant que Banquier Conseil et Responsable du secteur public en Italie.Renaud Billard a rejoint Société Générale Private Banking en 1999 comme banquier privé sur la clientèle française. En 2004, il intègre l’équipe française de Société Générale Private Banking Hambros à Londres comme Senior Private Banker pour développer l’offre à destination des résidents français et francophones au Royaume-Uni et est Responsable de l’équipe France depuis 2009.

Cinco Días rapporte que le britannique Scrhoders a fait enregistrer par la CNMV le nouveau compartiment de sa plate-forme luxembourgeoise coordonnée GAIA, le Global Macro Fund (lire Newsmanagers du 4 septembre), qui vise une surperformance de 800 points de base par rapport au Libor.

Pour un montant non divulgué, BNY Mellon a acheté à Portigon AG (lex-WestLB) la participation de 50 % que cette dernière détenait dans leur coentreprise WestLB Mellon Asset Management (170 salariés et 25 milliards d’euros d’encours). Cette joint venture avait été créée en 2006.Le nouveau porte-parole (président) du comité exécutif de WestLB Mellon Asset Management sera Werner Taiber, qui était jusqu'à présent membre du directoire de Portigon, sous réserve évidemment d’un agrément de la BaFin.Werner Taiber sera subordonné à Mitchell Harris, président de BNY Mellon Investment Management, et à Curtis Arledge, le CEO de cette même société.

Le spécialiste des marchés émergents Mike Godfrey, qui a quitté il y a seulement quelques jours M&G, va rejoindre Marathon Asset Management, une boutique de gestion basée à Londres qui travaille essentiellement avec une clientèle institutionnelle, rapporte Investment Week.Mike Godfrey, qui gérait notamment le fonds GEM de M&G dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à plus de 680 millions de livres, devrait prendre ses fonctions en décembre. Il sera chargé de piloter les stratégies dédiées aux marchés émergents et à l’Asie hors Japon.

Mi-décembre 2010, la Consob, l’autorité italienne des marchés financiers, avait adressé une note d’information concernant Carmignac Gestion à sa cousine française, l’AMF (Autorité des marchés financiers), révèle Plus, le supplément hebdomadaire d’Il Sole – 24 Ore. Cette note se focalisait notamment sur l’utilisation de dérivés OTC (de gré à gré). Cette révélation intervient alors que Carmignac Gestion a transigé avec l’AMF et versé 500.000 euros pour des manquements en matière de transparence sur l’utilisation de dérivés.

Directeur à Francfort de la distribution en Allemagne pour les produits retail et wholesale chez BNP Paribas Investment Partners après avoir travaillé notamment pour Fortis Investments et Schroder Investment Management, Martin Theisinger rejoint la direction générale de la société de gestion Oppenheim Kapitalanlagegesellschaft de Cologne (filiale de Sal. Oppenheim, groupe Deutsche Bank). Il sera plus particulièrement chargé de la clientèle institutionnelle dans l’espace germanophone, notamment en ce qui concenre les compagnies d’assurances, les caisses de retraite et les consultants.

Au deuxième trimestre 2012, le total des actifs financiers des sociétés d’assurance et des fonds de pension de la zone euro a atteint 7 247 milliards d’euros, contre 7 193 milliards au trimestre précédent, selon des statistiques publiées par la Banque centrale européenne. Sur la même période, les provisions techniques d’assurance, principale rubrique du passif des sociétés d’assurance et des fonds de pension, ont augmenté, passant de 6 301 milliards d’euros à 6 241 milliards. Cette hausse est due, à parts presque égales, à des transactions positives et à des effets de valorisation.S’agissant de la ventilation de l’actif du bilan agrégé des sociétés d’assurance et des fonds de pension de la zone euro, les avoirs en titres autres que des actions représentaient, à fin juin 2012, 39% du total des actifs financiers de ce secteur. Les parts d’OPCVM constituaient le deuxième poste le plus important, soit 23% du total des actifs financiers. Enfin, les actions et autres participations représentaient 11% du total.En ce qui concerne les transactions sur les principales rubriques des provisions techniques d’assurance, les droits nets des ménages sur les provisions techniques d’assurance-vie ont augmenté de 10 milliards d’euros au deuxième trimestre 2012. Les droits nets des ménages sur les fonds de pension se sont inscrits en hausse de 17 milliards d’euros sur la même période, tandis que les provisions pour primes non acquises et les provisions pour sinistres ont enregistré une progression de 5 milliards.S’agissant des contributions des deux sous-secteurs, les actifs financiers des sociétés d’assurance se sont élevés à 5 695 milliards d’euros au total en juin 2012, soit 79% du bilan agrégé du secteur des sociétés d’assurance et des fonds de pension, tandis que les actifs financiers des fonds de pension ont représenté 1 552 milliards au total.

Avec le compartiment Emerging Markets Corporate High Yield Bond de sa sicav luxembourgeoise Pioneer Funds, Pioneer commence à concrétiser ses projets en matière de fonds émergents (lire Newsmanagers du 5 septembre). Il s’agit d’un produit d’obligations à haut rendement d’entreprises des pays émergents confié à Greg Saichin, qui est également head of ermerging market & high yield portfolio management de Pioneer.Le portefeuille sera réparti de façon équilibrée entre les pays émergents d’Europe, d’Asie et d’Amérique latine, avec une gestion active de la duration et une couverture au moyen d’options sur actions et de contrats à terme sur les devises. Le gérant pourra également investir en obligations d’Etat pour donner une orientation plus défensive au fonds en fonction de la situation de marché.CaractéristiquesDénomination : Pioneer Funds – Emerging Markets Corporate High Yield BondCodes Isin :LU0765561054/A1J0EX (capitalisation)LU0765560916/A1J0EZ (distribution)Droit d’entrée : 2,50 %Commission de gestion : 1,55 %Commission de performance : 15 % de la surperformance par rapport à l’indice de référence, avec high watermark

Ces derniers mois, plusieurs fonds, notamment de petite taille, ont dû fermer en Suède, rapporte le quotidien économique suédois Dagens Industri sur son site Internet. Lundi on apprenait la liquidation du hedge fund Concepio, géré par Ragnhild Wiborg. Brummer & Partner et Swedbank Robur ont aussi fermé des fonds. Morningstar indique que ces dix dernières années, plus de 300 fonds enregistrés en Suède ont été liquidés. Il en reste aujourd’hui 741. Cette tendance s’explique par le durcissement de la réglementation, qui rend plus coûteuse l’exploitation d’un fonds.

As of 31 August 2012, the global net wealth of collective investment organisms and specialised investment funds totalled EUR2.295399trn, compared with EUR2.296717trn as of 31 July 2012, a decline of 0.06% in one month, according to statistics from the Financial sector surveillance commission (CSSF). Over the past twelve months, net asset volume is up 10.04%.The Luxembourg OPC industry has posted a negative variation in August totalling EUR1.318bn. This decline represents the balance of positive net issues of EUR10.515bn (+0.46%) and unfavourable evolution of the financial markets totalling EUR11.833bn (-0.52%).

Investors have once again steered clear of European equity funds in August, while investing an impressive net inflows of EUR16.95bn in bond funds, according to statistics from Morningstar. The situation is similar in the United States, where net inflows to bonds have topped USD30bn. Although inflows in Europe remain above the record posted in July of EUR22.9bn, the rush in bonds has only marginally slowed, compared with inflows to European bond products in previous months. Equity funds have posted an outflow of EUR7.02bn; the Morningstar United States mixed large caps category has been hardest-hit, with net redemptions of EUR810m. A few isolated categories of equity funds have seen positive inflows in August: US equities hedged for currency risks have seen the most sustained demand from investors, with net inflows of USD324m. Hedge funds have made a comeback, with net inflows of EUR713m. Allocation funds have posted net inflows of EUR587m; the Euro Prudent Allocation category continues to lead with positive inflows of EUR356m. The rankings of promoters with the largest inflows are topped by Pimco, with EUR3.1bn, excluding money market funds, followed by BlackRock (EUR2.07bn), KLP (EUR913m), Natixis (EUR872m), AXA (EUR842m) and Carmignac (EUR779m).

Irene Tse, who joined JP Morgan less than two years ago as chief investment officer for North America, is leaving the firm to launch her own hedge fund next year, Bloomberg reports.Before joining JP Morgan, Tse worked at a hedge fund, Dusquesne Capital Management, where she was a portfolio manager. She previously spend 14 years at Goldman Sachs, where she was co-head of US fixed income trading.

Bruno Vanier and Michel Audeban, a former manager at EDRAM And a former director of sales and distribution at Fidelity France, respectively, are preparing to officially unveil their new asset management firm in the second half of October. Gemway Assets, with Vanier as chairman and Audeban as CEO, received a license from the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) on 18 September.Gemway Assets, partly owned by Financière de l’Echiquier, with 34% of capital, is specialised in emerging markets. A Gemequity fund was launched in mid-June, and was managed by Vanier, at the offices of Financière de l’Echiquier, before being taken over by the asset management firm on 1 October. The OPCVM fund, which was “seeded” by the asset management firm of Didier le Menestrel and 10 investors, has assets of EUR10m, and has investmtent commitments of a total of a further EUR50m, Audeban tells Newsmanagers.The fund, which is already listed on several platforms for independent financial advisers (Cardif, Selection 1818, etc.), is expected to continue to be listed on other platforms in coming weeks.ISIN code: FR0011268705

Standish Mellon Asset Management Company, the Boston-based fixed income specialist for BNY Mellon, has hired Raman Srivastava as co-deputy chief investment officer and managing director of global fixed income, with responsibility for overseeing all global and non-U.S. fixed income strategies.In this newly created position, Srivastava will report to David Leduc, Standish’s chief investment officer. Srivastava, Leduc and David Horsfall, co-deputy chief investment officer will be responsible for managing Standish’s multi-sector and absolute return fixed income strategies. Brendan Murphy, director of global fixed income, and Rebecca Braeu, head of global sovereign research, will report to Srivastava.Srivastava has spent his entire investment career focused on fixed income. He most recently was a senior investment professional and portfolio manager for Putnam’s core plus, global fixed income and absolute returns teams.

The US asset management firm Vanguard (USD1.95trn in assets as of the end of September) has announced that it will be migrating its international equity tracker funds to indices from the British provider FTSE, while 16 of its US and diversified equity tracker funds will adopt new underlying indices developed by the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) at the Booth School of Business of the University of Chicago.Vanguard says that it had previously been using MSCI indices, but will realise “considerable savings” for shareholders in these funds, over time. Gus Sauter, CIO, says long-term licensing agreements which have been negotiated will allow for management fees for the tracker funds and ETFs concerned to be reduced over time.

Martin Theisinger, head of distribution in Germany for retail and wholesale products at BNP Paribas Investment Partners in Frankfurt, and previously of Fortis Investments and Schroder Investment Management, is joining the executive committee of the asset management firm Oppenheim Kapitalanlagegesellschaft in Cologne (an affiliate of Sal. Oopenheim, Deutsche Bank group). He will be responsible for institutional clients in the German-speaking countries, particularly insurers, pension funds and consultants.

BNY Mellon has acquired a 50% stake in its joint venture with Portigon AG (formerly WestlB), WestLB Mellon Asset Management (170 employees and EUR25bn in assets), for an undisclosed amount. The joint venture was founded in 2006.The new spokesperson (chairman) for the managing board at WestLB Mellon Asset Management will be Werner Taiber, who had previously been a member of the board at Portigon, pending approval from BaFin.Taiber will report to Mitchell Harris, chairman of BNY Mellon Investment Management, and Curtis Arledge, CEO of that firm.

Legal & General Investment Management, one of the largest shareholders in the United Kingdom, with 4% of the British stockmarket, has voted against 18 chairmen of remuneration committees on boards of directors since the beginning of this year, the Financial Times reports. This is the first time that an L&G asset management firm has voted against those in charge of setting pay scales for management. Some of the opposition votes were at WPP, Barclays and Trinity Mirror.

Swiss-based Pictet has created an emerging market corporate bond specialist team, for which it has recruited Alain Nsiona Defise, who had previously been head of emerging market corporate debt at J.P. Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM), which he joined from Fortis Investments. At JPMAM, he was responsible for a unit with USD2bn in assets.Defise, based in London, will be responsible for a team of three analysts specialised in emerging market corporate debt, including Vencent Feraton, Rosemary Fu and Teck Hoon Low. “These four have an average experience of more than 15 years in the areas of bond analysis and investment in emerging market corporate bonds,” says Pictet.Funds People reports, for its part, the Pictet has recruited Juan Carlos Martín Aparicio in Spain as a senior private banker. He had previously worked at Barclays Wealth in Madrid.

S&P Capital IQ, a provider of multi-asset class data and research to institutional investors, independent financial advisers and wealth managers, has announced the recruitment of Roger Hirst in London as vice president and director of European equity research operations, and the analysts William Mack and Roderick Wallace. In New York, the firm has recruited two equity analysts, Barbara Coffey and David Lewis.

The emerging market specialist Mike Godfrey, who left M&G Only a few days ago, will be joining Marathon Asset Management, an asset management boutique based in London which works primarily with institutional clients, Investment Week reports.Godfrey, who had been manager of the GEM Fund from M&G, whose assets under management total over GBP680m, will begin in the role in December. He will be responsible for directing strategies dedicated to emerging markets and Asia ex Japan.

The new head of distribution for Europe, Middle East and Africa at ETF Securities is Matt Johnson, who had been co-head of derivative sales for the same region at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Fundweb reports. Johnson will report directly to Graham Tuckwell, chairman and CEO.

Several star managers in the City in London have joined forces to launch the Battle Against Cancer Investment Trust (BACIT), a trust which has already attracted GBP500m. 1% of total assets have already been paid to cancer research organisations. No management fees will be charged to investors. The product, listed in London, will raise funds to support actions to promote the fight against cancer, the Daily Mail reports.

The British Financial Services Authority (FSA) on 2 October presented new, stricter governance rules for businesses listed in London. The proposals follow a consultation launched in January, which covered the questions of traded capital, protection of minority shareholders, and governance. The FSA would like to see an agreement put in place to regulate relations between controlling shareholders and the business. The FSA would also like to give more influence to independent directors on boards of directors.

The British asset management firm Schroders has launched three funds specialised in emerging market debt in France. The first, Schroder Emerging Market Sovereign Bond, invests in government bonds, with the JPM CEMBI Broad Diversified index as its benchmark. The fund is managed by Jim Barrineau, head of bonds for Latin America, with the support of Alexander Moseley, Fernando Grisales and Chris Tackney. The second new fund is the Schroder Emerging Market Corporate Bond, focused on corporate bonds. The fund ia managed by Rajeev de Mello, head of Asian bond management, and will also have the JPM CEMBI Broad Diversified index as its benchmark. The third fund to have received a license is a mixed product which combined government and corporate bonds, which will invest both in issues denominated in local and in strong currencies, entitled Schroder Emerging Market Bond. The fund will be managed by the team based in New York, but will rely on de Mello’s team for Asia. The benchmark index is a combination of JPM indices, reflecting the hybrid character of the fund. The emerging market debt team at Schroders, led by Barrineau and de Mello, includes nine managers.

The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) on 2 October published its first report on the global insurance market (Gimar, or Global Insurance Market Report).The report points out that the sector has resisted the financial crisis, and lays out the major developments in the global insurance market.In the period from 2007 to 2011, the investment portfolios of insurers underwent a strong reduction in their sensitivity to risk. The proportion of bonds in these portfolios went from 56% in 2007 to 61% in 2011, due largely to an increase in the proportion of available for sale securities (AFS) to 50% from 44% previously.Meanwhile, the percentage of equities in portfolios fell to 7% from 11% in 2007.The profitability of investments by insurers varied in the period between a minimum of 2.47% (2010) and a maximum of 2.80%) (2011).

Last month, ETPs (ETF, ETC and ETN) posted net subscriptions worldwide of USD43.3bn, the highest level since USD51.3bn in December 2008. In August, they attracted USD11.6bn, according to statistics from the BlackRock Investment Institute.In the first nine months of the year, ETPs attracted a record total of USD182.6bn, while the previous record dates from January-September 2008, with USD164.8bn. These products have already seen higher net inflows than the USD173.4bn posted in all of 2011 (USD173.4bn).The BlackRock Investment Institute states that of USD43.3bn in net subscriptions in December, USD23.4bn went to US equity funds. Gold ETPs attracted USD3.8bn last months, which brings the total for January-September to a record USD7.4bn.Emerging market equity ETFs also attracted USD26.9bn in the first nine months of the year, compared with USD5.8bn in January-September 2011, and USD9.7bn in all of 2011.In January-September, net subscriptions to bond ETPs represented 30% of the total, with USD54.1bn, compared with USD35.2bn in the first nine months of last year, and USD49.9bn in all of 2011.

Global mergers and acquisitions are down 19.4% to USD1.4265trn in the first nine months of the year, compared to the same period last year, according to statistics from mergermarket. In third quarter, transactions resumed freefall after a brief spike in second quarter. Transactions in third quarter totalled USD433.5bn, down 20.2% from second quarter 2012. In Europe, deals were down 23.2% over the nine months, and posted their lowest third quarter since third quarter 2009. Transactions in second quarter totalled USD99.2bn, down 46.1% compared with the previous quarter. Germany remained the most active region in Europe, with 27.6% market share. The decline was much more moderate in other regions of the world. In Asia-Pacific, the decline over nine months was 14.8%. while third quarter ended with an increase of 20.8%, to UDS73.4bn. In the United States, deals fell by 3.4% in third quarter, to USD178.3bn, while the balance for the first nine months of the year comes out down 23.1% to USD483.6bn.

Valartis on 2 October announced the opening of a branch office in Lugano, and an optimisation of its organisational structure, with an eye to improving its corporate governance and controlling costs.The presence of the firm in Ticino is part of a larger development in the Swiss banking environment, which has also led the bank to build its personnel in Geneva n Zurich in recent months. The appointment of the new CEO of Valartis Switzerland, Vincenzo Di Pierri, a Swiss-Italian dual citizen, should be understood as a recognition of the growing importance of the Italian market for the bank, a statement says.Within the Valartis group, Executive Management will be reduced from five to four people from 1 November 2012. It will be composed of Gustav Stenbolt (Group CEO), George M. Isliker (Chief Financial Officer and Chief Risk Officer), Vincenzo Di Pierri (CEO of Valartis Bank SA, Switzerland), and Andreas Insam (CEO of Valartis Bank (Liechtenstein) SA).In order to better respond to regulatory requirements, Valartis has also revised its organisation, with the introduction of an organisational matrix for the entire group, for its Finance, Risk Management and Compliance activities, which will also allow it to better take advantage of potential synergies within the group.As a part of the new organisation, Ernst Traun, CEO of Valartis Bank (Austria) SA) for several years, will be resigning at the end of October from his position in Vienna and from the Executive Management Group, to concentrate on developing the client base and front-office activities. With important prerogatives, Traun is expected to provide new impetus to developing private management activities within the group.

With the acquisition of the activities of Merrill Lynch outside the United States, Julius Baer will gain control of the private banking activities in India of DSP Financial Consultants, finews reports. Overall, a staff of 125 people will join the Julius Baer affiliate in India. The transaction must still be approved by the Indian supervisory authorities, including the central bank and the financial market authority. This process may take up to 18 months.