L’allemand Metzler Asset Management (48,5 milliards d’euros fin 2011) indique avoir obtenu de la China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) une licence de Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) qui lui permet d’investir directement sur le marché des actions A et Shanghai et Shenzen, ainsi que sur des obligations locales d'émetteurs chinois. Apparemment, le montant du quota, comme c’est l’habitude, sera fixé ultérieurement.

CortalConsors et la Augsburger Aktienbank distribuent avec effet immédiat les trois fonds OPCVM IV Valeurs, Europe et Patrimoine de Rouvier Associés en Allemagne, annonce Fonds Professionell. Le gestionnaire français vient d’ouvrir un bureau à Francfort, sous la direction de Patrick Linden. D’autre part, elle est devenue depuis le 1er janvier «Premium Partner» du réseau de courtiers Fondsnet.

La banque liechtensteinoise VP Bank table, pour 2011, sur un bénéfice de groupe en baisse de 60% à 6,4 millions de francs (chiffre non audité) contre 17,2 millions de francs l’année précédente. La collecte nette s’est élevée à 1 milliard de francs durant l’exercice écoulé mais les actifs sous gestion s'établissaient fin décembre à 27,5 milliards de francs contre 28,2 milliards de francs un an plus tôt.

La filiale française de Pioneer Investments (12 personnes) a terminé l’année 2011 avec un encours de l’ordre de 1,5 milliard d’euros et des souscriptions nettes de quelque 100 millions d’euros, malgré une décollecte assez nette en août et septembre, du fait principalement de la réorientation de l’allocation d’actifs de certains clientsPour Fabien Madar, directeur général France, cette évolution au total fort satisfaisante est surtout attribuable aux produits actions européennes, aux fonds actions américaines ainsi que sur le plan obligataire à l’euro aggregate (obligations d’Etat et obligations d’entreprise), en version avec ou sans sensibilité. Le manager insiste aussi sur le fait que Pioneer ne commercialise pas de fonds monétaires en France.

DNCA Finance vient d’obtenir l’agrément pour un nouveau fonds. DNCA Rendement 2017 sera investi dans des obligations et autres titres de créance négociable émis en euro par des entités du secteur public ou privé, domiciliées dans des pays de l’Union européenne ou de l’OCDE, les obligations convertibles ou échangeables (jusqu’à 25% de l’actif net), des dépôts (jusqu’à 20% de l’actif net) et des OPCVM monétaires (jusqu’à 10%). Le portefeuille sera composé de titres ayant une échéance d’au plus 6 mois après le 30 juin 2017. Le fonds géré par Philippe Champigneulle et Jean Charles Mériaux sera fermé à la souscription le 30 juin 2012. En cas de baisse des rendements actuariels des titres en portefeuille de 1,20%, il sera mis fin à la période de souscription, précise la société de gestion française. CaractéristiquesCode ISIN :FR0011176346Frais de gestion : 1,20 %

La société de gestion autrichienne Raiffeisen Capital Management vient de lancer en France le Raiffeisen-GlobalAllocation-StrategiesPlus, un fonds diversifié, investi en actions, obligations, matières premières et devises. Ce produit s’appuie sur un processus d’allocation par le risque et une gestion asymétrique. Quatre sources de risque majeures sont équipondérées : le risque actions, le risque de spread, le risque de taux et le risque d’inflation. Code ISIN: AT0000A0SE25 – part retail

Après le recrutement d’Alain Zeitouni (ex Barclays Wealth) comme directeur de la gestions multistratégies (lire Newsmanagers du 20 octobre), Russell Investments Paris a annoncé l’embauche de Cédric Denais comme «manager service clients». Il sera chargé du suivi des relations avec les clients de Russell et de l’analyse de leurs investissements.L’intéressé a auparavant passé six ans au sein de l’équipe reporting et mesure de la performance chez Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management (Edram) où il était en charge du développement de l’international et a notamment mis en place la norme GIPS au sein de la structure.

Même si l’on observe des lancements record d’ETF, de plus en plus de ces nouveaux produits n’arrivent pas à attirer suffisamment d’actifs, notamment les ETF actifs, rapporte MutualFundWire.Selon Ron Rowland, fondateur de la firme de conseil Capital Cities Asset Management, 368 ETF, soit près de 20%, sont en arrêt de mort, dans la mesure où il leur manque au moins 5 millions de dollars d’actifs sous gestion ou un montant moyen de transactions de 100.000 dollars pendant trois mois, avec un délai de grâce de six mois. Par ailleurs, selon des statistiques de XTF, sur les 308 nouveaux ETF lancés l’an dernier, 86% n’ont pas réussi à capter au moins 30 millions de dollars d’actifs. Et ETF Database indique que plus de 200 ETF ont été liquidés depuis 2008.

Le hongrois Brokernet Investment Holding Zrt a vendu à LGT Group (88,1 milliards de francs suisses d’encours au 30 juin 2011) pour un montant non divulgué une participation de 30 % dans Quantis Investment Management Zrt ,dans le cadre d’un partenariat stratégique sur les marchés d’Europe orientale.Quantis (480 millions de dollars dans 10 fonds et 21 mandats) prendra en charge la distribution des fonds LGT Capital Management. La coopération permet à Quantis d'élargir son offre à à LGT Capital Management d’obtenir de nouveaux débouchés, car ses produits n'étaient jusqu'à présent pas disponibles en Hongrie. Quantis entretient déjà des filiales en Slovaquie et en Roumanie et souhaite prendre pied sur d’autres marchés voisins. Les deux partenaires ont aussi l’intention de développer des produits en commun.

Le danois Sparinvest a annoncé que l’intégralité de sa gamme de 32 fonds danois et 15 fonds internationaux est désormais en conformité avec les Principes pour l’investissement responsable des Nations Unies. Les gérants de Sparinvest estiment que l’intégration des critères ESG ajoute d’ores et déjà de la valeur à leur process d’investissement. La société de gestion a intégré les risques ESG au process d’investissement de ses fonds activement gérés tant en actions qu’en obligations. La société de gestion a maintenant finalisé l’intégration des risques ESG dans la politique d’investissement de toute sa gamme de fonds de gestion quantitative, de gestion passive ainsi que de ses fonds danois en obligations hypothécaires et ses fonds immobiliers. « En tant qu’investisseurs « value » à long terme qui investissent dans des titres pendant quatre ans en moyenne, le succès de notre stratégie repose sur l’identification de tout risque susceptible d’affecter la solidité des bilans pendant la période de détention. Il ne fait aucun doute que le flux régulier d’informations sur les risques environnementaux, sociaux et de gouvernance que nous recevons de la part de nos fournisseurs d’analyse ESG contribue à améliorer l’analyse du risque au sein de notre process d’investissement, permettant à nos gérants d’intégrer les risques non financiers liés à leur prise de décisions», explique Jacob Nordby Christensen, le directeur de l’investissement responsable de Sparinvest. «Nous n’en sommes qu’au début, poursuit-il, et il est donc difficile de déterminer exactement dans quelle mesure l’intégration ESG nous a aidés à réduire le risque du portefeuille. Mais nous sommes convaincus que les preuves de ses effets bénéfiques apparaîtront au fil du temps. Nous avons fait d’énormes progrès en intégrant les facteurs ESG à tous nos process d’investissement et c’est quelque chose que nous continuerons d’affiner».

Among institutional investors, who is most engaged on the African continent? According to a study commissioned by the asset management firm Invest AD and undertaken by the research cell Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), covering 158 management professionals worldwide, 25% have an allocation of under 1% to Africa, and 20% have no allocation to the continent at all. But by 2016, all institutionals surveyed are planning to have exposure to Africa, with nearly one third of them planning to have an exposure of more than 5% to the region.51% of professionals surveyed say Africa will be the most attractive region for investment in the next decade. Two thirds of respondents put Africa at the top of their list of frontier markets, before Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and central and eastern Europe.Why invest in the region? Three major themes are cited: the emergence of a significant middle class (for 39% of respondents), strong economic growth (35%), and rising commodity prices (34%).Among the most highly-regarded destinations in the next three years, Nigeria tops the list (51%), followed by Kenya (48%), Zimbabwe (35%), Egypt (34%), Ghana (34%) and Libya (22%). This nascent enthusiasm for Africa does not blind investors to the difficulties they will need to confront there, however, including bribery and corruption (cited by 41% of respondents), weak institutions (40%), and limited liquidity of local capital markets (36%).

The Liechtenstein bank VP Bank reckons that its 2011 consolidated net income for 2011 is down 60%, to CHF6.4m (unaudited figure), compared with CHF17.2m the previous year. Net inflows totalled CHF1bn in the period under review, but assets under management as of the end of December totalled CHF27.5bn, compared with CHF28.2bn one year previously.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has decided to fine David Einhorn, owner of the US hedge fund Greenlight Capital Inc, and his fund GBP7.2 million for engaging in market abuse in relation to an anticipated significant equity fundraising by Punch Taverns Plc in June 2009."The FSA accepted that Einhorn’s trading was not deliberate because he did not believe that it was inside information. However, this was not a reasonable belief. Investment professionals are expected to handle inside information carefully regardless of whether they have been formally wall-crossed. This was a serious case of market abuse by Einhorn and fell below the standards the FSA expects, particularly due to Einhorn’s prominent position as President of Greenlight and given his experience in the market», comments the UK regulator.

Vigeo has announced that for the first time it is issuing ratings of the 40 largest businesses listed on the Casablanca stock exchange for social responsibility risks. The ratings will be distributed to over 100 investors and international asset manager clients of Vigeo. The businesses have been rated according to the Vigeo methodology on 38 criteria and more than 250 indicators, on the basis of their public information and statements provided in response to questions from the agency; this information is then cross-checked with information received from participants (unions, NGOs, press, etc.).

The Sanction Commission of SIX Swiss Exchange has announced a fine for Altin Ltd of CHF 100,000 as a result of breaches of the rules on ad hoc publicity and the disclosure obligations of the directive on Corporate Governance. All breaches relate to the company’s 2009 annual report. Altin Ltd did not disclose its 2009 annual report – which included potentially price relevant information – as required by the rules on ad hoc publicity. The Sanction Commission has determined that certain financial figures, such as the annual and interim financial statements, are to be fundamentally classified as potentially price-relevant information and must therefore be disclosed in accordance with the rules on ad hoc publicity.

Allen Stanford, the Texan banker accused of operating a USD7bn Ponzi scheme, modified the figures in the 1998 annual report, because they didn’t add up, according to the testimony of Leonel Mejia, chairman of a PR firm owned by Stanford, the Financial Times reports. Stanford’s trial began on Tuesday.

Although there have been a record number of ETF launches, these new products are increasingly not reaching sufficient asset levels, particularly for actively-managed ETFs, MutualFundWire reports. Ron Rowland, founder of the consulting firm Capital Cities Asset Management, says 368 ETF funds, or nearly 20%, are on the verge of death, as they have less than USD5m in assets or an average trading volume of USD100,000 over three months, with a six-month grace period. According to statistics from XTF, of 308 new ETF funds launched last year, 86% did not manage to capture at least USD30m in assets, and ETF Database reports that more than 200 ETFs have been liquidated since 2008.

The Austrian asset management firm Raiffeisen Capital Management has launched the Raiffeisen-GlobalAllocation-StrategiesPlus fund, a balanced fund investing in equities, bonds, commodities and currencies, in France. The product is based on a risk allocation process based on asymmetrical management. Four sources of major risks are equallky weighted: equity risk, spread risk, interest rate risk and inflation risk. ISIN: AT0000A0SE25 – retail share class

From 24 January, six equity ETFs from Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale group), including three funds based on Russell indices and two based on MSCI indices, have been admitted to trading on the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic trading platform (Deutsche Börse). The sixth product, focused on Thailand, replicates the SET50 Net TR index.Total expense ratios for the French-registered products range from 0.40% to 0.55%.The new funds bring the total number of ETFs listed in Frankfurt to 918.

Deutsche Börse on 23 January admitted 16 new ETC products from Commerzbank (Coba ETCs) to trading on its Xetra electronic platform. With the exception of one fund, based on copper, the products are all leveraged or inverse leveraged funds, ranging up to 4x. The ETCs invest in Brent, natural gas and copper, and are all German-registered products.Management commissions vary from 0.40% to 0.75%.The ETC segment of the Xetra platform now lists 234 instruments. Average trading volume on Xetra for ETCs is about EUR900m per month.

As a result of the financial crisis and general scepticism in relation to financial products, and as a part of ongoing reflection in the Finance Innovation competitiveness unit about derivative products, French valuation professionals have founded the Professional Association of Financial Instrument Valuators (APVIF). The APVIF will aim to bring together representative processionals to define and distribute standards and best practices in financial valuation processions and methods, to issue communications about and promote these professions, and to participate in various working groups with the regulator, and to provide representation for financial instrument valuation professionals to the French Federation of Evaluation Experts (FFEE). The founding members of APVIF are DeriveXperts, Finance Innovation, Lexifi, Momentum Consulting, Pilcer & Associés, Pricing Partners, Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) and Zéliade Systems. The President elected at the first general meeting of the association is Francis Cornut, Chairman of DeriveXperts. The office is composed of Jacques-Patrick Pilcer (Pilcer & Associés), vice-president, Laurent Thuillier (SGSS), vice-president, Jean-Marc Eber, treasurer (Lexifi) and Edouard-François de Lencquesaing (Finance Innovation).

Following the departure of Frédéric Jolly, who resigned last July to found his own business, Johan Cras has been appointed as CEO of Russell Investments for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. Cras joined Russell in 1996 to found the Amsterdam office, and since 2007 has been head of institutional EMEA activities at the US asset management firm.Pascal Duval, who has been at Russell for 14 years, has been appointed as executive managing director EMEA, a position in which he will report to Cras.Cras will be replaced for the interim as head institutional services EMEA by John Stannard, currently managing director, institutional investment services.

From one year to the next, the rankings of asset management firms in Europe by assets under management have shown little movement; this is particularly true for the large “cruise liners” among them. The five firms with the largest assets under management as of 31 December 2010 all retain their places twelve months later, in the same order. The evolution of net subscriptions, excluding market effects, at each asset management firm in 2011 was considerably different, a Morningstar study finds, however. The universe of the Morningstar study includes open-ended funds (excluding mandates, dedicated funds, etc.) domiciled in Europe. Morningstar also excludes funds of funds, FCPI-FIP, Master-Feeder and ETF products.) With EUR196bn in assets under management, JP Morgan tops the rankings, ahead of BNP Paribas (EUR162bn), UBS (EUR139bn), Amundi (EUR123bn), and BlackRock (EUR118bn). But JP Morgan has consolidated its leading position, with inflows of EUR11bn in 2011, while BNP Paribas and Amundi held onto their places despite outflows of EUR21bn and EUR17bn, respectively. By comparison, UBS has posted “relatively” limited net outflows (EUR3bn) and BlackRock inflows (EUR 5bn) .The Morningstar study finds that Franklin Templeton has posted the largest net inflows (EUR14bn). Among the heaviest outflows, meanwhile, BNP Paribas and Amundi top the list. But several other French asset management firms were not spared. Carmignac Gestion (-EUR7bn), Crédit Mutuel (-EUR6bn), Natixis (-EUR5bn), and Société Générale (-EUR4bn) are also among the biggest losers.

CortalConsors and the Augsburger Aktienbank will be offering the UCITS IV-compliant Valeurs, Europe and Patrimoine funds from Rouvier Associés in Germany, effective immediately, Fonds Professionell reports. The French asset management firm has opened an office in Frankfurt, led by Patrick Linden.Since 1 January, the firm has also become a Premium Partner of the Fondsnet brokerage network.

The Berlin-based firm Scope has added a third strategic business line, credit ratings, to its range of services aimed at institutional investors, with its acquisition of the European ratings agency PSR Rating GmbH, based in Stuttgart, for an undisclosed amount. The new division comes in addition to investment ratings and management ratings.PSR Rating will become known as Scope Credit Rating, and will remain a legally independent entity within the group. It will continue to be led by Thomas Morgensten, who has been CEO of the firm for the past five years.The new affiliate, which is focused on businesses, corporate bonds and covered bonds, will extend its universe to include all SMBs in the manufacturing sector. It will use the investment rating methodology already used by Scope.

The German asset management firm Metzler Asset Management (EUR48.5bn in assets as of the end of 2011) has announced that it has received a license as a Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), which allows it to invest directly in the A equities markets in Shanghai and Shenzhen, and in local bonds from Chinese issuers. The quota level will be defined subsequently, in line with general practice.

From 25 January, the XTF segment of the Xetra platform (Deutsche Börse) lists two new ETF funds from db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank). One of these replicates the equal-weighted version of the S&P 500 index, while the other tracks the Austrian index of reference ATX. Frankfurt now lists 920 ETF products. db X-trackers S&P Equal Weight ETFISIN: LU0659579493TER: 0.30%Benchmark: S&P 500 Equal Weight Indexdb X-trackers ATX ETFISIN: LU0659579063TER: 0.25%Benchmark: ATX index

With the SEB Asian Property II and SEB Asia REI funds, the German firm SEB Asset Management has launched two Asian real estate funds aimed at institutional and high net worth retail investors. The funds will invest in pan-Asian real estate portfolios, relying on the expertise of a team of eight people based in Singapore.The Frankfurt-based asset management firm, which already had a Luxembourg-registered institutional fund in its range, the SEB Asian Property Fund, has already received investment commitments of EUR100m for the two new products.The SEB Asia REI fund targets a core/core plus universe, and aims for average returns of 8% per year, and an annual distribution of 5%. It is aimed in particular at investors who are subject to insurance supervision. SEB has set the minimal initial subscription at EUR20m.The SEB Asian Property II fund, for its part, will apply a core-plus/value add strategy. It will aim for an internal rate of return over eight years of 12% per year, and will be aimed at private banks, wealth managers, family offices, and foundations. Minimal initial subscription is set at EUR15m.

Union Bancaire Privée has announced consolidated profits for 2011 of CHF198m (EUR163.1m), down 8% compared with 2010. One year earlier, the Swiss bank announced consolidated net profits of CHF216m for its 2010 fiscal year, the same level as in 2009, a year in which results were halved compared with the previous year. Taking into account integration costs related to the acquisition of ABN AMRO Bank (Switzerland) AG in the second half of 2011, profits total CHF176m (EUR145m). This acquisition has allowed the bank to post an increase in its assets for 2011. The total volume under management now totals CHF72bn (EUR59.3bn) as of 31 December 2011, compared with CHF65bn (EUR52.2bn) as of 31 December 2010, an increase of 10.8%. In mid-August, when the operation was announced, assets at ABN Amro Bank (Switzerland) AG totalled EUR11bn. Inflow levels were never disclosed, but net subscriptions totalled EUR1.7bn, according to Dominique Leprévots, chairman of the board at UBI, the French arm of UBP.

The Swiss asset management firm Swisscanto (Swiss cantonal banks, CHF51.7bn in assets) has announced that it has been retained as a social partner of the business DieSozialfirma AG, which aims to create jobs for persons with reduced employment capacity, in order to integrate them into the ordinary labour market.The new partnership “represents a major new stage in Swisscanto’s commitment to sustainable development,” Swisscanto says.