On Wednesday, Deutsche Bank announced that due to controversy and public outcry provoked by an article in Der Spiegel, it will soon be offering subscribers to the db Kompass Life 3 fund a means to rapidly redeem their shares, without dividends earned since investment. The synthetic product, launched in 2007, which had risen to a peak of EUR700m in assets according to Der Spiegel, pays returns depending on the life expectancy of a sample of 500 Americans aged 72 to 85. Due to its hypothetical structure, the fund has no relation with real life insurance policies, the bank says (see Newsmanagers of 6 February).

The Luxembourg-registered, UCITS-compliant Pictet-Global Bonds Fundamental fund, managed by Mickael Benhaim, co-head of global & regional bonds, was launched on 31 January by Pictet Asset Management. The product invests in government bonds worldwide, based on a fundamental analysis to determine if the issuer has the ability and the desire to honour its commitments. This provides a way to diversify currencies and to bet on more rapid economic growth in emerging countries.No distinction will be drawn between sovereign borrowers in developed and emerging markets, which will allow subscribers to reduce their risks and increase their returns. This arrangement has the advantage of presenting none of the classic structural flaws of bond indices, which weight issuers depending on their capitalisation, which thus assigns more weight to governments which issue the most debt, whether or not these debt levels are sustainable.In other words, Pictet is adopting a strategy similar to the one applied by the team led by Stéphane Monier (Lombard Odier Investment Managers) for the LO-Funds-Global Government Bond fund.The Pictet fund is now registered for sale in Germany, Austria, Finland, France (as of 17 February), Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Sweden. It is available in eight share classes, one of which is a retail share class in euros.CharacteristicsName: Pictet Global Bonds fundamental R EURISIN code: LU0725946494Front-end fee: 5%Management commission: 1%

Natixis, which published its annual accounts on Thursday morning, has announced for asset management assets under management of EUR544bn as of December 31, 2011, vs EUR538bn as of December 31, 2010. Net inflows amounted to EUR3.7 billion, «driven by the strong performance of the NGAM global distribution platform in the United States and Asia. The change in assets under management was the balance of a currency effect (+EUR6.6bn), a market effect (-EUR9.4bn) and change in the scope of consolidation (+EUR5.1bn)». Volumes in Asset Management amounted to EUR54bn as of December 31, 2011, vs EUR538bnn as of December 31, 2010. In Europe, assets under management amounted to EUR306.4bn, down 3.9% year on year. Over the full year 2011, outflows totaled EUR9.5 billion (-EUR5.2bn excluding money-market funds). In the United States, assets under management were up 3.8% year-on-year at USD302.8bn. They totaled EUR4.2bn in Asia. Inflows in these two markets amounted to USD17.2bn in 2011. Asset Management revenues held up well over the full year in 2011, with an increase of 2% vs 2010 (+5% at constant dollars).

Amundi saw net outflows in 2011 of EUR36.4bn (including management activities at BFT), according to a statement of financial results from Crédit Agricole released this Thursday. In 2010, the asset management firm, a joint venture of Crédit Agricole and Société Générale, posted net inflows of EUR1.2bn.These outflows “in France and on money-market products originated by the branch networks, as well as on large corporates owing to shift into on-balance sheet products,” Crédit Agricole says.These net outflows, alongside negative market and currency impact, have resulted in a decline in assets of 7% in 2011, to EUR658.6bn.Despite that, Amundi has delivered a net income up 1.8% to EUR413m compared with 2010. Revenues are down by 8.2% due to fall in performance-based commissions and to a flat net financial margin.Operating expenses were reduced by 5.8% in 2011 compared with 2010 (excluding restructuring costs in 2010), which “reflects the full-year effect of synergies and continued efforts to improve productivity,” the statement says.Overall, the cost/income ratio for 2011 was 55.9%, “at the best level in Europe,” the bank says.

Assets under management at Dexia Asset Management as of the end of December totalled EUR78bn, down by slightly under 10% (or EUR8.4bn) compared with the end of 2010. The considerable decline on the markets has had an impact of -EUR2.4bn, which amplified the effect of net outflows, which totalled EUR6bn. “These outflows concern primarily retail bond funds, which, in an uncertain environment, are generally the hardest hit by retail clients moving to savings accounts and high quality bond issues,” Dexia says in a statement.Pre-tax profits for the unit totalled EUR54m in 2011, a decline of 13% compared with 2010. This development is the result of a decline in revenues in a difficult market environment, though costs remain under control.Groupwide, net losses total EUR11.639bn, after a low net profit of EUR723m in 2010.

Kaspar Villiger, CEO of UBS, and Kobi Feigenbaum, CEO of UBS Wealth Management Israel, on 22 February announced the launch of UBS Wealth Management Investment House in Tel Aviv, which will be the first affiliate of a foreign bank in Israel to offer investment management services in shekels, with a team that speaks Hebrew, and investment management abroad, all of it in fully open architecture.The choice of Israel as a strategic market comes in the wake of an in-depth study which found that the country is one of the three top markets, along with Brazil and Russia, in terms of growth in the assets of retail investors, and opportunities to develop wealth management activities. In the rankings, Israel comes ahead of Mexico, Turkey and one of the largest Gulf countries, a statement says.

Alfonso del Moral and Jaime Gortázar have founded the brokerage firm Dicania Investment Partners, which aims to sell investment funds from a restricted number of top-calibre international managers in Spain, Funds People reports. The first client for the new trade portfolio manager is Capital International, and a second will sign up by the end of 2012. Funds from Capital International are already registered with the CNMV and available from Allfunds Bank.

Janus Capital International Limited, the international arm of Janus Capital Group, has announced the opening of a new Janus Capital International office in The Hague in The Netherlands. It will be directed by Sander Van Der Ent who has just been recruited as head of the Neterlands business. Prior to joining Janus he was managing director at Highbury Finance, AXA Insurance and business development at AXA Investment Managers. In his new role he will be responsible for developing business among pension funds, insurance companies and (private) banks. He will report directly to Howard Nowell, head of sales, EMEA. Commenting on the appointment, Augustus Cheh, president of Janus Capital International said: “This marks an important step in our growth as this fulfils one of our strategic initiatives for the business, to add depth to our sales effort in the UK and Continental Europe.”

David Seutens, chief risk officer at ING Investment Management, will be leaving his job at the end of April, IPE.com reports. Michel van Mazijk, who had been head of development for the Dutch institutional market, has also recently left the firm. But Karl Hanuska, spokesman for ING, tells IPE.com that the timing of the departures is a pure coincidence, and that they have nothing to do with plans to restructure the firm.

Dedicated funds last year remained a preferred type of vehicle for pension funds, insurers and other instutional investors. Net inflows to dedicated funds last year totalled EUR101bn, compared with EUR145bn in 2010, according to annual statistics by the European financial and asset management association (EFAMA). Assets in non-UCITS funds increased 6.8% over the year as a whole, to EUR2.286trn. However, UCITS funds underwent a net outflow of EUR88bn, while assets in UCITS funds finished the year down 6.2%, at EUR5.634trn. Overall, the sector has seen a decrease in its assets of 2.8% to EUR7.920trn. Long-term UCITS-compliant funds, meaning all funds excluding money markets, in second half were penalised by ratings downgrades for the United States and the euro zone, and finished the year with outflows of EUR55bn, compared with net inflows of EUR290bn in 2010. Competition from the banking sector affected demand for money market funds, whose inflows totalled EUR33bn, compared with EUR122bn in 2010. In fourth quarter, long-term UCITS funds underwent outflows of EUR61bn, compared with EUR78bn in third quarter. Money market funds, for their port, posted a net inflows of EUR11bn, after outflows of EUR5bn in the previous quarter.

A British law forbidding kickback commissions to independent financial advisers planned to come into effect in 2013 with the passage of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) is now boosting sales of ETFs, according to BlackRock, Investment Europe reports. Assets in iShares funds subscribed over ETF platforms rose 34% in 2011, to a total of GBP746m. Since first quarter 2010, the increase totals 175%. “With the law against commissions to independent financial advisers, ETFs are treated in the same way as other investment products. This development, coupled with the the low cost of ETFs and their easy availability on many markets, is a sign that the use of ETFs by independent financial advisers and discretionary managers will be likely to continue to increase,” the head of iShares UK, Davis Bower, says.

La Française AM has released a fund which the asset management firm is presenting as “an alternative solution to funds in euros.” The LFP Rendement 4x4 fund, which is eligible for investment from life insurance policies, is largely invested in fixed-income instruments. The objective is to outperform April 2016 OATs, over a renewable period of four years, through dynamic management of a diversified portfolio of bonds (with maturities simplar to the investment period, until April 2016). Characteristics: ISIN code: FR0011111137 Front-end fees: Maximum 3% including taxes, not paid into the fund Exit fees: none Management fee: 0.6% including taxes Minimal initial subscription: none Management objective: outperform April 2016 OATs Smallest unit: thousandths of one share

In an SEC filing obtained by ETF Daily News, State Street has announced the forthcoming launch of a crossover ETF fund which will use sampling to replicate the BofA Merrill Lynch US Diversified Crossover Corporate Index.The SPDR BofA Merrill Lynch Crossover Corporate Bond ETF, whose acronym on NYSE Arca will be XOVR, will invest in corporate bonds from US businesses denominated in US dollars, and rated an average of BBB1 to BB3 by Moody’s S&P and Fitch.Management commission levels have not yet been announced.

Since Monday, 12 new ETNs from Commerzbank, all of them registered in Germany with fees of 0.50%, have been added to trading on the Xetra electronic platform from Deutsche Börse, bringing the number of these instruments listed in Frankfurt to 123.The ETNs replicate the evolution of DJIA Index Futures, NASDAQ-100 Futures and S&P 500 Futures incides, either long or short, with triple or quadruple leverage.

The ratings agency Fitch on 22 February announced that it is lowering its long-term credit rating for Greece by two notches, to C, from CCC previously, following a European agreement to release a new round of bailout funding to the country and avoid a default in March. After a marathon meeting, the euro zone approved an unprecedented bailout plan in the night from Monday to Tuesday this week, which provides EUR130bn and wipes out EUR100bn in debt held by private lenders (banks, insurers, investment funds).

Skandia Investment Group has hired Warren Tonkinson as head of sales for the United Kingdom, Money Marketing reports. Tonkinson replaced Andrew Blair, who left the firm in September last year to join Mirabaud Investment Management, as co-head of sales and marketing. Tonkinson had previously worked at UBS, where he was head of strategic partnerships.

Merchant Capital has launched Merchant Wealth, its new private management affiliate. The entity will be led by Tom Evans, and will serve as a distribution channel for structured products and house funds from Merchant Capital, Investment Week reports.

The wealth management firm St James’s Place has reported pre-tax profits of GBP109.7bn, compared with GBP84.2bn the previous year. Net inflows totalled GBP3.3bn, up 10% compared with the previous year. Assets under mangement in 2011 totalled GBP28.5bn, compared with GBP27bn as of the end of December 2010. As of the end of January, assets under management totalled GBP29.5bn, St James’s Place says in a statement.

With the Smart Holdings model from StarMine, Thomson Reuters has put a product online which can predict what shares fund managers will be likely to add to their portfolios, and what shares they will be likely to sell. Based on the behaviour of institutional investors, Smart Holdings can identify shares which will gain or lose attractiveness for these managers in the following quarter. The model relies on various Thomson Reuters content dealing with shareholder structure, financial results at businesses, and an exclusive predictive system to measure revisions of analysts’ outlooks, entitled SmartEstimates. Smart Holdings is based on the premise that fund managers will tend to buy shares in businesses which have certain fundamental characteristics (price/earnings ratio, revisions to outlooks, price momentum). The model selected from among 25 widely-tracked factors are the ones which are most important for a given investor, which allows for the creation of a buyer profile for each fund, and this profile is then applied to about 40,000 equities worldwide. Backtesting over 15 years has shown that Smart Holdings produces stable results over the long term.

In 2011, “the Sarasin group has taken a pause in its growth,” the opening line of the press release from the Basel-based bank, which has recently become an affiliate of Safra, says. Adjusted net profits are down 10% to CHF111.7m, while net subscriptions fell for various reasons to CHF1.5bn, compared with CHF13.4bn, and assets under management fell to CHF96.4bn, compared with CHF103.4bn. The operating ratio has deteriorated to 80% from 77.6% in 2010.However, operating profits have fallen only marginally to CHF686.2m from CHF690.6m in 2010. The overall number of advisers at all Sarasin locations has increased by 3% to 446.

As part of the forthcoming closure of its Sion branch, EFG Bank has approached the Banque Cantaonale du Valais (BCVs) to propose a partnership agreement, BCVs has said in a statement released on 23 February. Under the arrangement, EFG Bank will recommend that its clients join BCVs. For BCVs, the cooperation agreement comes as a part of a strategy to strengthen wealth management activities targeting clients primarily domiciled in Switzerland, particularly in Valais. Wealth management is one of the three core professions at BCVs, along with business and retail banking.

Credit Suisse Asset Management is planning to launch a passively-managed government bond fund, based on the fiscal strength of the country and not the volume of debt issued, Investment Europe reports. In other words, the management team will focus on variables such as the ratio of debt to GDP, deficit to GDP and current balance to GDP. Initially, the product will be a Swiss-registered institutional fund, which will soon be followed by a UCITS-compliant, Luxembourg-registered product. The product will use fiscal strength indices from Barclays Cap as benchmarks.

The US asset management firm Eaton Vance Asset Management International has announced that its affiliate Eaton Vance Management International Asia, based in Singapore, has received a license from the local financial regulator. It will offer institutional clients a range of funds and wealth management products. The entity is led by Robert White, and will serve in the future as a beachhead for development for the management firm in other Asian markets.

With SCM Private, which will determine the allocation on at least a monthly basis, db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) has launched the ETF fund db x-trackers SCM Multi Asset ETF fund, which will rely on a total return strategy and may invest in most ETF or ETC funds from db x-trackers, Fundweb reports. The product will charge fees of 0.89%.

Comme nous l’annoncions, Groupama AM vient de sélectionner un nouveau dépositaire, à l’issue d’un appel d’offres portant sur 12 milliards d’euros de fonds ouverts et 100 milliards d’euros de mandats. En final face à BPSS, CACEIS a remporté le marché. Cette société de gestion confiait déjà à CACEIS Bank Luxembourg, pour sa SICAV de droit luxembourgeois à compartiments, G Fund, les fonctions de banque dépositaire, d’administration centrale et d’agent de transfert.

Le montant total des dépréciations passées par le Groupe au titre de 2011 est de 332 M€. L’exposition à la dette souveraine grecque est maintenant dépréciée à hauteur de 70 % de sa valeur nominale, ce qui représente une perte nette pour les actionnaires de 60 M€ au titre de 2011. Le portefeuille de titres d’Etat français détenu par CNP Assurances a bondi de près de 12 milliards d’euros en un semestre, selon des documents publiés mercredi, signe d’un recentrage très net de l’assureur sur la dette de son pays d’origine. Entre fin juin et fin décembre 2011, le portefeuille est passé de 47,1 milliards à 59,0 milliards, mesuré par l’exposition brute à la juste valeur (indicateur de référence). Aujourd’hui, en matière de souverain, « nous investissons essentiellement dans des titres d’Etat français », a confirmé le directeur financier, Antoine Lissowski, en marge de la conférence de presse de présentation des résultats. Ce choix s’est opéré au détriment des titres d’Etats dits périphériques, mais aussi des pays jugés les plus sûrs de la zone euro. Le groupe a procédé à des cessions de dette souveraine de pays périphériques au cours de la période, a indiqué le directeur général, Gilles Benoist, des ventes génératrices de moins-values dont l’effet a été compensé par des cessions d’obligations souveraines de pays les mieux notés de la zone euro, porteurs eux de plus-values. Gilles Benoist, directeur général de CNP Assurances: Par prudence, nous avons baissé de 44% notre exposition sur les PIGS depuis les derniers mois. Les évolutions les plus marquantes concernent l’Espagne, dont CNP ne détenait plus, fin 2011, que 5,7 milliards contre 9,8 fin juin, la Finlande (430 millions contre 1,8 milliard) et les Pays-Bas (793 millions contre 3,3 milliards). Interrogé quant à son positionnement sur les émissions actuelles de dette par les pays considérés comme les plus sûrs de la zone euro, hors France, M. Lissowski a confirmé que CNP n’y était plus aussi assidu que par le passé. « Il faut avoir beaucoup d’appétit pour investir dans de la dette à 1% », a-t-il expliqué. « Ce n’est pas tellement qu’on n’aime pas ces risques-là, c’est qu’ils ne sont pas rémunérateurs », a-t-il ajouté. Au-delà de la seule problématique des rendements, CNP cherche à « être de plus en plus adossé (sur le plan des placements financiers) aux pays dans lequel sont souscrits les contrats », a indiqué M. Benoist. « Nos clients italiens, s’il y a des difficultés sur la dette italienne, ne nous en voudrons pas d’avoir acheté de la dette italienne; même chose pour la France », a justifié le directeur général. « Cela explique nos achats relativement intenses de dette française », a-t-il ajouté.

Le président a annoncé hier une baisse de l’impôt sur les sociétés de 35% à 28%, compensée par un grand coup de rabot sur l'ensemble des niches fiscales

Elles ont aussi fortement allégé leur exposition à la dette grecque. Toutefois, un événement de crédit pourrait avoir des conséquences inattendues

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