The Japanese public retirement fund, GPIF, has announced that its asset portfolio between April and June generated JPY2.069trn in losses (EUR21bn), Les Echos reports. The public pension fund has reopened a debate in Japan over investment strategies. The fund, which controls a total of EUR1.09trn in assets, is considering new investment opportunities to increase its gains, and is seeking to confront an increasingly rapidly ageing Japanese population.Between April and June, foreign assets, which represent 11.14% of the fund’s investment portfolio, showed losses of 7.55%, while Japanese equities, which also account for 11.14% of the portfolio, lost 9.93%. Foreign bonds, which were punished by the European crisis, are equivalent to 8.86% of total investments, and lost 3.46%. However, Japanese government bonds, which represent 64.92% of the investments of the GPIF, gained 1.04%, and brought a total loss for the fund of only 1.85%.

Net inflows to Citi in the Asia-Pacific region have totalled over USD3bn in the past twelve months, an increase of nearly 80% year on year, Asian Investor reports. Assets under management in the regino now total over USD200bn. Paul Hodes, head of wealth management for Asia-Pacific at Citi, says that unlike many distributors, his group has not reduced the number of providers it works with, which currently total about 100, not counting ETF providers. However, Citi has reoriented its asset allocation to an approach less focused on the United States.

SEB Asset Management on 3 September announced that it has sold four properties located in Düsseldorf, Berlin and Luxembourg for EUR51.8m from the portfolio of the open-ended real estate fund SEB ImmoInvest. The product must be liquidated by 30 April 2017 (see Newsmanagers of 9 May). The four properties were sold “on average” at their most recent expert valuation price.

Rogier Westhuis, head of distribution at ING Investment Management, has been recruited as director of distribution for the Netherlands and Nordics at Pioneer Investments, Westhuis will be based in Amsterdam, and will work with Michel van Mazijk, head of institutional clients, and will report directly to Fabien Madar, head for North and West Europe.

Investment Europe is reporting that Henderson has removed the possibility of limiting redemptions (known as a “gate”) for its AlphaGen Rhocas fund. The fund is part of the AlphaGen range taken over by Henderson with the acquisition of Gartmore. Paul Graham, global head of hedge funds, has announced that “gating” rules will be removed from all hedge funds except the AlphaGen Volantis, a fund specialised in British small caps. Gates have been removed for the Rhocas fund for more than a week; they will be removed from other funds gradually, at meetings of their respective boards of trustees.The manager says most hedge funds of the brand operate on deep enough markets to be encashed within three days if need be. Graham also says that some hedge funds currently in the process of being launched will allow investors a choice between share classes with or without a gate (which generally limits redemptions to 25%).

Anja Balfour, previously manager of the Aa Framlington Japan fund, has joined Martin Currie Pacific Trust, as non-executive director, Investment Week reports. The Martin Currie Pacific Trust, whose assets under management total GBP248m, is managed by Andrew Graham.

BlackRock Investment Management has launched the North American Income Trust, which will offer an annual dividend of 4%, Money Marketing reports. The trust, which will focus on US large caps, will be listed on the London Stock Exchange, and will seek to outperform the Russell 1000 Value Index.

The Inverco association of Spanish asset management firms has announced that assets in security funds as of the end of August totalled EUR123.288bn, EUR1.980bn more than at the end of July, Cinco Días reports.This increase is due to market effects, while funds underwent net redemptions of EUR360m, half of the amount recorded in August 2011, and the lowest total since February this year.

The British firm GLG, an affiliate of Man Group, is launching the UCITS-compliant long/short hedge fund GLG Financials Alternative on the Spanish market. The portfolio of the market neutral absolute return product includes 30 to 60 holdings, of financial sector equities, Funds People reports.Kyril of Saxe-Coburg, CEO of Man GLG for Spain and Portugal, says that in the past ten years the fund has earned annual returns of 9.70%, with volatility of 9.30%.

Stefano Calvi has left Vontobel, where he was executive director in charge of private banking for Italy, according to reports in Bluerating. His new destination will be announced in early October.

Invesco has launched four funds for the Italian retail market, Bluerating reports. They include the Invesco US High Yield Bond Fund, Invesco Renminbi Fixed Income Fund, Invesco Asian Focus Equity Fund and Invesco US Equity Fund.

In July, the three largest Italian asset management firms by the volume of assets under management in the country posted the largest redemptions. The largest group, Intesa Sanpaolo, with EUR215bn in assets under management, has seen net outflows of slightly over EUR1bn. In second place, Generali (EUR139bn) has seen net outflows of EUR507m, Lastly, in third place, Pioneer Investments (EUR99bn) has posted net redemptions of EUR507m.At the other end of the spectrum, Ubi Banca has posted net subscriptions of EUR644m. The firm has assets under management of EUR29bn. Banco Popolare has taken on EUR529m (EUR18bn in assets).Among French groups, Amundi has seen outflows of EUR135m, and BNP Paribas has seen outflows of EUR191.4m, while Axa shows inflows of EUR19m.

The French pension fund, the Fonds de réserve pour les retraites (FRR), has announced overall returns in first half of 3.9%, resulting from a rebound of the equities markets during the first quarter and continued falls in interest rates in the majority of the bonds portfolio.As at 30th June 2012, the FRR’s net assets totalled 34.4 billion euros. «This figure has to be considered in light of the value of its net assets at 31st December 2011 (35.1 billion euros) and the annual payment of 2.1 billion euros made to CADES on 25th April», the FRR says in a statement. The gearing ratio1 is at 139% (136.5% at 31st December, 2011). As of 30th June, the hedging component accounted for 58% of total assets and the performance component, 42%. Against this background, annualised performance of the FRR’s management since 2004 (+2.65% measured as at 31 December 2011) has now increased to +3%.

The Swiss private banking unit of the HSBC group has reported profits for fits half of CHF188m, down 4.1% compared with the first six months of 2011, the news agency Bloomberg reports. The news agency points out that this development is due to redemptions from clients, but also to the various factors which are affecting HSBC in Switzerland, including the resignation of its CEO, Alexander Zeller, and theft of data, as well as, at group level, suspected tax fraud in the United States.

Ignis
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Simon 
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will 
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within 
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 and 
will 
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Austin 
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Prior 
to 
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Simon 
was 
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Manager 
at 
Old 
Mutual 
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where
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after 
multimanager, 
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After two years, Russell has discontinued its passively-managed ETF activity, which is symptomatic of a phenomenon now affecting the entire industry, with assets rising (+13% YTD, to USD1.7trn), but profits falling, as competition drags down prices, the Financial Times reports.Many small ETF providers are suffering losses on funds which have not been successful, and are being obliged to close down. However, large players will retain their funds which lose money, if that lets them win over clients for other products.Some asset management firms are seeking to diversify, by offering bond or commodity ETFs, while others are offering ETFs specialised on Asian markets. Lastly, some providers are turning to actively-managed ETFs, which are harder to copy, and which bring in higher commissions. However, with the exception of actively-managed ETFs from Pimco, average assets in actively-managed ETFs listed in the United States are only USD76m, according to estimates by XTF, a data-provider.

In a highly competitive fund distribution market, the weight of a product makes all the difference, Fitch Ratings claims. With at least EUR1bn in assets, flagship funds are what European firms are missing to compete with their Anglo-American rivals, the ratings agency says in a recent study.On the cross-border fund distribution market (excluding money market funds), UK and US asset management firms lead the pack. Among the firms with the strongest concentration of flagship funds, Robeco is the only non-Anglo-American firm. M&G takes first place, with 34% and 11 flagship funds out of 30, followed by Pimco (29%), Vanguard (21%), BlackRock (19%) and Franklin Templeton, with 17% of funds on sale being of flagship size.At the other end of the extreme, Fitch says, European asset management firms have overly wide product ranges, with few or no flagship funds. Of the ten firms with the fewest funds weighing in at over EUR1bn, all are of continental European in origin, except HSBC. Paribas has 469 funds, but only 8 have over EUR1bn in assets.Only in the specialist asset management firm segment do we find flagship funds, on sale from European Firms such as Skagen, Carmignac Gestion, DNCA and Comgest.Having large funds has several advantages, says Fitch. Flagship funds allow for larger operational efficiency in the area of administration and reporting, for example. Managers who manage fewer funds also have less addministrative burden and can concentrate more on management and generating new ideas. Flagship funds are more visible in rankings and advertising, and are more easy to sell via promoters, Fitch notes. Front-end fees for investors may be higher, however. The complete study is available as an attachment.

The Schroder UCITS-compliant platform GAIA (Global Alternative Investor Access, GBP1.42bn in assets as of the end of June) will in October add a new Schroders product which had previously been managed internally, the Schroder GAIA Global Macro Bond fund, which does not yet have a sales license for France. The product aims for gross annual outperformance of 800 basis points over Libor, using strategies on forex, government bonds and corporate bonds.The fund will be managed by the multi-sector fixed income team at Schroders (10 investment professionals and 7 European credit portfolio managers), led by Bob Jolly, who joined the British asset management firm in September 2011 as head of global macro.

Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) has recruited Marion Stommel as head of the global credit division, Money Marketing reports. Stommel previously worked at WestLB Mellon Asset Management, where she was head of the credit team and international development of activities.

The British fund management firm MAM Funds, listed on the AIM exchange, has recruited Nick Ford, previously of Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP), Fund Web reports. Ford will be joining MAM Funds as a manager of the asset class he has long been specialised in: US equities.

Matthew Joyce (ex Occam Asset Management) and Jingjing Cui (ex JPMorgan Asset Management) have been recruited as senior analysts in the multi-asset class team at Schroder Investment Management (Schroders), which has 90 members. They will report to Nicolaas Marais, head of multi-asset investments & portfolio solutions.

Nine senior partners have left the asset management activity of State Street Global Advisors in London, Financial News reports. They include Ben Clissord, who had been liability manager, Moira Gorman, head of relations with local authorities, and Vin Battacharjee, head of European intermediated activities.

The British firm Man Group has signed a partnership agreement with Nomura to launch a bond hedge fund, Citywire reports.The Nomura Man Systematic Fixed Income fund is based on a strategy managed by the Systematic Strategies unit at Man, which tries to identify directional opportunities on swap, future and emerging and developed forex markets.

Guillaume Chatelet, directeur financier, technique et des risques de MutRé dans un article paru dans Option Finance numéro 1186 : Nous allons augmenter dans un futur proche notre exposition à l’immobilier au détriment des convertibles et des obligations. Nous souhaitons encore diversifier ce portefeuille en termes géographique ou sectoriel. Notre objectif est encore d’accroître nos investissements en immobilier sans excéder une exposition supérieure à 15% de nos fonds propres. La part d’actions n’a quant à elle pas vocation à évoluer en exposition mais, au vu de la petite taille de la poche, nous passons d’une logique de titre détenus en direct vers une logique de fonds et de trackers afin d’obtenir un niveau de diversification optimal. Au sein de la poche obligations, nous réfléchissons à l’avenir de notre important portefeuille d’emprunts d'États de haute qualité, actuellement fortement en plus-value. Nous réfléchissons à nous diversifier par exemple vers d’autres formes de risque obligataire sur lesquelles nous sommes actuellement pas ou peu exposés, comme le high yield ou la dette émergente. Pour rappel, MutRé gère 250 millions d’euros d’actifs financiers dont 120 millions au titre de nos fonds propres. A la fin juillet 2012, l’allocation d’actifs se répartissait entre 69% d’obligations, 11% de convertibles, 7% d’actions, 4% d’immobilier et 9% de cash. Les investissements en actions et en obligations sont confiés à OFI Mandat. Par contre, MutRé gère en interne les investissements en immobilier et les opérations de trésorerie.

Société Générale annonce la nomination de Laurent Wecxsteen au poste de responsable des financements de Société Générale Mid Caps Investment Banking, à partir du 3 septembre 2012. Il remplace Anne Bucheli, qui a été nommée directrice du Marché de la Clientèle Entreprise au sein de la Direction Commerciale et Marketing de la Banque de détail.

Le capital-investisseur 3i France a annoncé le 3 septembre la nomination de Guillaume Basquin en qualité de directeur des participations.Guillaume Basquin, 33 ans, a rejoint 3i en 2006. Il s’est impliqué avec succès dans plusieurs investissements, tant en Capital Développement qu’en Buyout : Empruntis, courtier en ligne cédé à Covea en 2008, Cerenicimo, plateforme spécialisée dans l’investissement immobilier, Labco, réseau européen de laboratoires d’analyses médicales, ou plus récemment, WFCI, leader mondial des GSSA (General Sales and Service Agents). Il est administrateur de Labco et WFCI.

Axa Real Estate Investment Managers, qui gère plus de 42 milliards d’euros d’actifs immobiliers au 30 juin 2012, vient de recruter Dietrich Heidtmann en tant que global head of investor relations and capital markets, suite à la décision d’Antoine Jozan, actuel head of investor relations and marketing, de faire valoir ses droits à la retraite à fin décembre 2012, après 12 années de service.Avant de rejoindre Axa Real Estate, Dietrich Heidtmann était managing director - capital markets chez Grosvenor, où il était en charge des activités de levées de fonds et des relations investisseurs pour les régions Europe, Moyen Orient, Afrique et Panasiatique. Chez Axa Real Estate, qu’il a rejoint lundi, il est responsable des relations investisseurs en Europe, Asie et Amérique du Nord. Il reporte directement à Deborah Shire, global head of business development. Il sera par ailleurs membre du comité exécutif d’Axa Real Estate et sera basé à Paris. Dietrich Heidtmann et Antoine Jozan travailleront de concert jusqu’à la fin de l’année afin d’assurer une transition ordonnée. Ensuite Antoine Jozan continuera à travailler à temps partiel, conservant sa responsabilité pour les relations investisseurs au Canada et au Moyen-Orient.

Dans son rapport financier semestriel publié 31 aout dernier, La Banque Postale a fait état pour ses activités de gestion d‘actifs d’un repli du produit net bancaire (PNB) du secteur de près de 12 % à 60 millions d’euros - contre 68 millions un an plus tôt. Le PNB de La Banque Postale Asset Management a diminué de 2,8 % à 45 millions d’euros. «Les encours actions de LBPAM ont pâti de la baisse des marchés actions au cours du deuxième trimestre tandis que les OPCVM monétaires se sont bien tenus, note La Banque Postale. La collecte réalisée sur ce segment auprès de la clientèle institutionnelle permet aux encours gérés d’atteindre 128 milliards d’euros à fin juin 2012". Par ailleurs, les encours et la collecte de Tocqueville Finance sont inférieurs aux niveaux attendus, ce qui se traduit par un recul de 4 millions d’euros à 9 millions d’euros du PNB de Tocqueville par rapport à juin 2011, précise le document qui rappelle que les résultats de Tocqueville sont désormais intégrés pour 90% à La Banque Postale après le départ de l’ancien directeur Marc Tournier qui détenait 15 % du capital de la société . Pour leur part, les activités de mandats de gestion sont en recul, entrainant une baisse du produit net bancaire de La Banque Postale Gestion Privée de 2 millions d’euros à 8 millions d’euros. Dans un avenir proche, ce pôle d’activité pourrait cependant voir son périmètre modifié. Selon le journal «Les Echos» du 25 juillet, dernier, la Banque Postale négociait cet été avec le Crédit Mutuel Arkéa le rachat de sa banque privée BPE dédiée à des clients fortunés. Enfin, toujours dans son rapport financier semestriel, la Banque Postale relève une bonne maitrise des charges (-7 millions d’euros) qui permet au secteur de la gestion d’actifs d’afficher un résultat net part du groupe stable à 17 millions d’euros par rapport au premier semestre 2011.

Matthew Joyce (ex Occam Asset Management) et Jingjing Cui (ex JPMorgan Asset Management) ont été recrutés comme analystes senior dans l'équipe multi-classes d’actifs de Schroder Investment Management (Schroders) qui compte 90 personnes. Ils seront subordonnés à Nicolas Marais, head of multi-asset investments & portfolio solutions.

BlackRock Investment Management vient de lancer le North American Income Trust qui proposera un dividende annuel de 4%, rapporte Money Marketing.Le trust, qui se concentrera sur les grandes capitalisations américaines, sera coté sur le London Stock Exchange et tentera de surperformer le Russell 1000 Value Index.