Selon les résultats publiés par sa maison-mère Great-West Lifeco, Putnam Investments a enregistré une augmentation de son chiffre d’affaires à 28,1 milliards de dollars pour contre 24,1 milliards l’année précédente, mais ses encours en fin d’année ressortaient à 116,7 milliards de dollars contre 121,2 milliards fin 2010, même s’ils sont passés par un plus bas de 113,9 milliards fin septembre.Putnam n’a encaissé aucune commission de performance aux troisième et quatrième trimestre et ses commissions de gestion ont diminué à 126 millions pour octobre-décembre contre 133 millions pour le troisième trimestre 2011 et le quatrième trimestre 2010. Elles avaient porté sur 141 millions en avril-juin 2011 contre 136 millions pour janvier-mars.Le retour sur fonds propres de Putnam pour l’ensemble de l’année se situe à 0,9 %.Cependant, le bénéfice net du groupe Great-West Lifeco a progressé l’an dernier de 25 % à 2,02 milliards de dollars.

Thierry Peugeot a été nommé président de l’Association Nationale des Sociétés par Actions (ANSA). Il remplace à ce poste Robert Baconnier qui exerçait ces fonctions depuis 2005 et part désormais à la retraite. L’Association Nationale des Sociétés par Actions regroupe des sociétés par actions cotées ou non cotées et des cabinets d’avocats. Son action s’inscrit depuis sa création en 1930 dans le même champ de compétences : le droit des sociétés, le fonctionnement des marchés boursiers, le régime des valeurs mobilières et la fiscalité de l’actionnaire et de haut de bilan, précise un communiqué. Agé de 55 ans, Thierry Peugeot a été nommé en décembre 2002 président du conseil de surveillance du groupe PSA Peugeot Citroën qu’il a rejoint en 1988.

Au 31 décembre, Gamco Investors Inc affichait un encours de 34,1 milliards de dollars, ce qui représente un gonflement de 8,8 % sur le niveau du 30 septembre (31,3 milliards) et une hausse de 4,8 % sur les 32,5 milliards de fin 2010. Si le gestionnaire a subi des sorties nettes de 50 millions de dollars au quatrième trimestre, il a enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 2,73 milliards sur l’ensemble de l’année. Les mutual funds de la gamme Gabelli ont terminé l’année à 12,27 milliards de dollars contre 11,47 milliards fin septembre et 11,25 milliards au 31 décembre 2010.Le bénéfice net de l’exercice 2011 sesst inscrit à 69,68 millions de dollars, en progression de 1,3 % sur les 68,79 millions de l’année précédente.

En 2011, les OPCVM d’investissement socialement responsable commercialisés en France ont vu leurs encours augmenter de près de 35 %, soit 16,6 milliards d’euros, à 64,245 milliards d’euros, selon les dernières statistiques de Novethic. Cette croissance s’explique uniquement par les conversions de fonds, qui ont porté sur 20 milliards d’euros, dont 18 milliards d’euros concernent uniquement… Amundi… Le géant français de la gestion d’actifs a pour objectif d’atteindre les 50 milliards d’euros d’ISR sous gestion. Il est aujourd’hui à plus de 25 milliards d’euros dans ce domaine, se classant en première position loin devant le deuxième, Natixis AM, qui est à moins de 10 milliards d’euros.Les conversions de fonds ont principalement concerné le monétaire, pour près de 15 milliards d’euros. Encore une fois, c’est Amundi qui a dopé le marché avec son fonds Amundi Tréso Eonia ISR pesant 13,4 milliards d’euros. Les fonds actions ont aussi profité de ce mouvement de conversion, à hauteur de 5,3 milliards d’euros. Les investisseurs n’ont en revanche pas été aussi convaincus par l’ISR en 2011, le secteur accusant des rachats nets de 1,3 milliard d’euros. Cela a principalement concerné les fonds actions et monétaires, avec des décollectes de 885 millions d’euros et de 722 millions d’euros. En revanche, les fonds obligataires et diversifiés ont continué de collecter puisqu’ils affichent respectivement des souscriptions nettes de 209 millions d’euros et 125 millions d’euros. Bien qu’artificielle, cette croissance de l’ISR dans un marché sinistré permet au secteur de dépasser la barre des 5 % des encours des fonds de droit français pour la première fois de son histoire. C’est encore une fois sur le monétaire que le poids de l’ISR est le plus spectaculaire puisqu’il dépasse 10 % des encours.

Pour l’exercice au 31 décembre 2011, la société cotée AllianceBernstein Holding LP a déclaré le 10 février une perte de 93,26 millions de dollars contre un bénéfice net de 134,16 millions pour 2010. Quant à la société d’exploitation AllianceBernstein LP, elle accuse une perte nette de 174,77 millions de dollars contre un bénéfice de 442,42 millions pour l’année précédente.Au 31 décembre le capital d’AllianceBernstein était détenu à 37,9 % par AllianceBernstein Holding tandis qu’Axa détenait un intérêt économique représentant environ 64,4 % dans la société.Toujours à la fin de l’an dernier, les encours se situaient à 405,9 milliards et affichaient une progression de 1 % en un trimestre et une chute de 15,1 % sur un an.

Au total, les actifs gérés par Franklin Templeton Investments, Invesco, AllianceBernstein et Legg Mason affichaient à fin janvier une hausse de 76,3 milliards de dollars par rapport au niveau du 31 décembre 2011. L’accroissement n’est pas attribuable aux fonds d’actions, même si cette classe d’actifs est celle dont l’encours a le plus nettement augmenté chez les quatre gestionnaires.Pour Franklin Templeton Investments, la hausse a représenté 34 milliards de dollars en un mois, à 704,3 milliards de dollars. Invesco affiche 648,3 milliards fin janvier, soit 23 milliards de plus que fin décembre tandis qu’AllianceBernstein enregistre une augmentation de 15 milliards à 421 milliards. Enfin Legg Mason pointe à 631,3 milliards de dollars fin janvier, ce qui représente une progression de 4,3 milliards sur le niveau atteint un mois auparavant.

En janvier, les fonds actions commercialisés en Suède ont enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 13,9 milliards de couronnes suédoises (1,6 milliard d’euros environ), selon les dernières statistiques de l’association suédoise des fonds d’investissement Fondbolagens Förening. Il s’agit de la seule catégorie de fonds à avoir enregistré un solde positif en janvier. Les fonds obligataires ont en effet vu sortir, en net, 3,7 milliards de couronnes, et les fonds monétaires, 7,6 milliards de couronnes. Les hedge funds ont eux aussi accusé des rachats, à 1,1 milliard de couronnes. Au total, le secteur suédois des fonds a enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 1,6 milliard de couronnes. Sur le total de la collecte des fonds actions, 5,818 milliards de couronnes se sont dirigés vers des fonds indiciels. En termes géographiques, les fonds ayant le plus profité de cette collecte sont les fonds actions suédoises (3,064 milliards de couronnes), les fonds actions «autres marchés» (3,023 milliards), les fonds actions Amérique du Nord (1,747 milliard) et les fonds actions asiatiques (1,455 milliard). A fin janvier 2012, les fonds suédois représentaient un encours de 1.896 milliards de couronnes, dont 1.020 milliards de produits actions. Sur l’ensemble de l’année 2011, les fonds actions avaient accusé des rachats nets de 53 milliards de couronnes.

Net profits for financial services at Prudential Financial in 2011 totalled USD3.53bn, compared with USD2.71bn then previous year, while adjusted operating profits for the asset management unit were up to USD659m, compared with USD587m. As of the end of the year, total assets under management were USD900.7bn, compared with USD784bn one year previously, of which USD619.1bn, compared with USD537.3bn were for the asset management unit. Prudential Financial states that net inflows (excluding money market funds) for institutional management totalled USD16.7bn, compared with USD28.6bn, while net subscriptions for retail (also excluding money market funds) fell to USD3.5bn from USD6.4bn.

As of 31 December, Gamco Investors Inc had assets of USD34.1bn, which represents an 8.8% increased over their levels on 30 September (USD31.3bn) and a 4.8% increased over USD32.5bn in assets as of the end of 2010. Although the asset management firm has seen net outflows o fUSD50bn in fourth quarter, it has posted net subscriptions of USD2.74bn for the year as a whole. Mutual funds of the Gabelli range finished the year with USD12.27bn in assets, compared with USD11.47bn as of the end of September, and USD11.25bn as of 31 December 2010. Net profits for the 2011 fiscal year totalled USD69.68m, up 1.3% compared with USD68.79bn the previous year.

For the year 2011 as a whole, net profits at The Hartford have fallen 61% to USD662m, of which USD127m (-79%) were in fourth quarter. The insurance group does not provide annual data for wealth management profits, but says that net profits for the unit were USD112m for October-December, compared with USD340m for the corresponding period of last year.Total wealth management assets as of the end of December totalled USD193.8bn, compared with USD216.9bn one year previously, which represents an 11% contraction. This decline reflects bot net outflows and negative market effects, which brought a 16% decline in individual annuity assets and 14% in non-proprietary mutual funds. The Hartford has recently signed a sub-advisory agreement with Wellington Management Company (see Newsmanagers of 12 December). Wellington is now the sole sub-advisor for non-proprietary mutual funds at The Hartford, which amount to 45 products out of 77 in The Hardford’s range.

According to results published by its parent company, Great-West Lifeco, Putnam Investments has posted an increase in its earnings to USD28.1bn, compared with USD24.1bn the previous year, but its assets as of the end of the year totalled USD116.7bn, compared with USD121.2bn as of the end of 2010, although they bottomed out at USD113.9bn at the end of September.Putnam did not earn any significant performance commissions in third and fourth quarters, and its management commissions were down to USD126m in October-December, compared with USD1.33m in third quarter 2011 and fourth quarter 2010. They totalled USD141m in April-June 2011, compared with USD136m in January-March.Putnam’s ROE for the year totalls 0.9%.However, net profits for the Great-West Lifeco group last year rose 25% to USD2.02bn.

The Japanese government has announced plans to create a sovereign fund, one of whose missions would be to contain the growth of the Japanese national currency by investing in assets in foreign currencies. Prime minister Yoshihiko Noda has stated before Parliament that he is prepared to approve the plans. The prime minister would not like to see the current national pension fund requisitioned in an effort to combat a strong yen. The Government Pension Investment Fund, which with EUR1.2trn represents the largest pension fund in the world, currently invests very prudently, with two thirds of its assets in Japanese government bonds.

The Italian asset management firm Azimut has posted net subscriptions in January of EUR119m, of which EUR113m were for collective management. Total assets under administration are EUR17.2bn, of which EUR15.2bn are assets under management.

No representative of the Wegelin bank was present on Friday, 10 February as New York judge Jed Rakoff held a first hearing, Agefi Switzerland reports. The private bank has been accused by US prosecutors in a case that began on 3 February of helping high net worth clients to evade the US tax authorities. The bank explained that it was absent because “the legal conditions to open a penal case have not been satisfied.”

The wealth management unit of the British Barclays group has earned pre-tax profits of GBP207m in the 2011 fiscal year, compared with GBP163m the previous year. The Investment Management unit, for its part, has earned adjusted profits of GBP96m, compared with GBP67m, largely reflecting a dividend of GBP123m (GBP100m in 2010) on the group’s 19.7% stake in BlackRock. Assets under management in the wealth management unit totalled GBP164.2bn as of the end of December 2011, compared with GBP163.9bn one year earlier. Significant growth in net inflows were largely offset by negative market and currency effects. Pre-tax profits for the group totalled GBP5.9bn, down 3% compared with the previous fiscal year. For the group as a whole, bonuses were down 26% year on year. In the investment bank (Barclays Capital), the decline is as much as 35%.

Fidelity Worldwide Investments has joined a growing chorus of Xstrata shareholders calling for a change to the terms proposed by Glencore for a merger of the two firms, the Financial Times reports. Fidelity is one of the ten largest shareholdres in Xstrata, with 1.5% of capital, and owns 2.3% of Glencore. “We support the deal in principle, but we think that the terms need to be revisited,” Fidelity says.

The Hennessee hedge fund index in January posted 2.51% returns, following losses of 4.6% in 2011. All strategies finished the year with gains. “The hedge fund industry is starting 2012 on a highly positive note,” says Charles Gradante, co-founder of the Hennessee Group.

From 1 April 2012, Holger Kerzel, who had already been a member of management at the business for 12 years, will join the board of directors at MEAH Munich Ergo KAG. He will be in charge of the management of equity portfolios and “other tier 1 investments” for Munich Re, Ergo and external clients of the group. The executive chairman of the firm is Thomas Kabisch, who also serves as its CIO. MEAG currently manages EUR210bn, of which EUR10bn are for retail and institutional clients from outside the group.

In a joint letter sent on Monday to top European Commissioners, the directors of the National Association of Pension Funds, the CBI and TUC say that European plans in the area of pensions may have disastrous consequences for businesses and employees, the Financial Times reports. If passed, the proposals to strengthen the financial condition of corporate retirement plans (with the adaptation of Solvency II requirements) would be a death sentence for defined-benefit plans, and may lead to the bankruptcy of many businesses.

For the first time this year, money market funds have accounted for the majority of inflows. Bond funds have also posted considerably lower net inflows, which cannot be said of funds investing in equities taken overall. This is the state of health of French-registered funds as of January 2012, according to Europerformance-SIX Telekurs. Money market funds took on EUR7.12bn, in assets, provoking a 2.16% increase in their assets. Bond categories all show net inflows. Funds investing in euro zone securities took on EUR790m, most of inflows to this asset class. The situation for equity funds is more mixed. In terms of inflows, three categories of funds have posted net outflows: funds investing in French equities (-EUR480m), those investing in Europe (-EUR260m) and Asia/Pacific (-EUR10m). All other categories show inflows: mutual funds investing in the euro zone (EUR30m), international (EUR340m) and the US market (EUR220m).

In his column in Monday’s Cinco Días, Juan Manuel Vicente Casadevall, former director of analysis at Lipper Thomson Reuters in Spain, says that the asset management sector is one of the least competitive in the Spanish economy, largely because it had no competition for years. It was long dominated by bank networks, meaning that it has always had a hermetic rather than open architecture. In addition, Spanish legislation did not favour opening it up. The results have been devastating. Based on Lipper data, in the past ten years, Spanish funds (pension funds and traditional funds) have seen an average performance lag in all categories of 1.5 to 3 percentage points per year compared with foreign funds.

Christoph Gebert has been appointed to manage the new Warburg -D – Fonds Small & Midcaps Deutschland fund, which will specialise in German small and midcaps, an asset class which has earned average returns of 8% in each of the past ten years, compared with 1% for large caps. In addition, the universe is considerably larger than for large caps, with 95% of German equities falling into the smidcaps category.The portfolio is composed entirely through bottom-up stock-picking, from equally-weighted equities in all sectors. The benchmark index is composite: 50% MDax, 50% TecDax.CharacteristicsName: Warburg – D – Fonds Small & Midcaps DeutschlandISIN codes:DE000A0RHE28 (R share class)DE000A0LGSG1 (I share class)Front-end fee: 5%Management commission:1.40% (R share class)0.60% (I share class)

In the three years to the end of December 2011, more than 80% of the 214 absolute return funds in the Lipper database analysed by the Frankfurt-based firm Lupus alpha have posted gains, and the average returns are 2.63%. 60% of funds have a positive Sharpe ratio, but with a rather wide range, from +1.76 to -2.36, a sign of rising divergences between the quality of the various absolute return strategies, according to Ralf Lochmüller, CEO of Lupus alpha.However, 2011 was a difficult year for absolute return funds, which lost an average of 3.02%, with a maximal dispersion ranging from +20.07% to -49.06%. About 30% of products have managed to generate positive results.Lupus alpha emphasizes that absolute return funds have performed better than equity markets in Germany and Europe, as the Dax and Euro Stoxx 50 lost 14.69% and 14.54%, respectively, last year. Hedge funds have lost nearly 9%, according to the HFRX index.In addition, 99.42% of absolute return funds have seen a maximum draw down of an average of 7.35%, compared with 33.26% for European equities, 33.62% for German equities, and 10.59% for hedge funds.Lupus alpha says that there are now 375 absolute return funds in Germany, with assets of EUR63.8bn.

Reyl Asset Management in December launched two long/short funds complying with UCITS IV standards: the Reyl Long/Short European Equities fund of European equities, and the Reyl Long/Short Emerging Markets equities fund of emerging markets equities. The two products, co-managed by Thomas de Saint-Seine, Maxime Botti and Emmanuel Hauptmann, have recently been licensed for sale in France. They aim for returns of 8% to 12% per year, with long-term volatility of 6% to 8%. The Reyl Long/Short European Equities fund replicates the Reyl Absolute Return fund based in the Cayman Islands.

Rising equity markets in the United States and the rest of the world in January contributed 1.7 percentage points to rising coverage rates for US pension funds, BNY Mellon Asset Management reports. Coverage rates now stand at 74.1% as of January, compared with a corrected level of only 70.1% in September 2011.

In 2011, BlackRock has been the firm to post the largest net inflows in Europe, with EUR14.3bn in assets excluding money market funds, Lipper reports. But excluding ETFs, Frankling Templeton takes the top spot, with EUR12.6bn, most of it in bond funds. The two groups stand out at a time when the European fund sector has seen net redemptions of EUR69.3bn last year. This is the second negative result in 10 years, as the last negative bottom line was in 2008, when outflows totalled EUR298bn. Only 12 markets of the 33 monitored by Lipper posted net inflows. Among them are the United Kingdom (+EUR13.1bn) and Switzerland (+EUR9.8bn). Norway and Sweden are also among the countries that stood out in 2011. However, France is deep in the red, as is Italy. In terms of investment universes, global funds were the most popular in 2011, both for global bond funds (+EUR16.4bn) and global equity funds (+EUR6.3bn). This theme also extended to balanced funds, as flexible funds able to invest in the full spectrum took on EUR12bn.

As on 30 September, Threadneedle has made a clean sweep of the rankings of managers with the largest proportion of funds rated A and B (the top ratings) as of 31 December 2011 from Feri EuroRatings Services (see attached). The British asset management firm places top in five of the seven countries covered by the German ratings agency, and finished third in Switzerland and 4th among “small” asset management firms (with 8 to 24 funds) in Sweden.Among the larger firms, BlackRock takes two second and two third places, while Fidelity finishes second in Italy, and third in France and Austria. The rankings are far more widely dispersed as of the end of December than at the end of September (see Newsmanagers of 8 November 2011). Among the smaller firms, Carmignac ranks second in Italy (75%), third in France (70%), and tenth in Switzerland (50%).

Net subscriptions to ETPs (1,244 ETFs, 544 ETC and ETN products) in Europe totalled USD3.3bn in January, according to BlackRock.This total is exactly equivalent to the inflows to the top three players, as iShares (BlackRock) attracted USD1.7bn, db x-trackers/db ETC (Deutsche Bank) took on USD1.1bn, and Lyxor Asset Mangement (Société Générale) posted inflows of USD0.5bn.Assets at these three major actors were USD113.4bn, USD47.2bn and USD40.7bn, respectively, at the end of last month.

According to the New York court-appointed trustee James Giddens, the total amount of missing funds that need to be refunded to clients of MF Global is now estimated at USD1.6bn, the Wall Street Journal reports. A total of USD700m located in the United Kingdom have been added to the USD900m in commodities trading in the United States. These USD700m may be at the centre of legal battles with KPMG, which is in charge of overseeing the unwinding of MF Global’s division in the United Kingdom.

Doug Whitman, a hedge fund manager at the Californian asset management firm Whitman Capital, was accused by the FBI on Friday, as part of the Galleon investigation, of making USD900,000 in illegal gains on shares in Google and Polycom between 2006 and 2007 through the use of insider information obtained from Roomy Khan and Karl Motey, who both pled guilty of insider trading in the Galleon case. The Wall Street Journal reports that Whitman was released on bail of USD1.5m, and that the SEC is also filing a civil suit against him.