“Not only has the Schroder ISF Japanese Equity Alpha (EUR194.2bn) earned 10.4% since its launch, compared with 4.3% for its benchmark index, the Topix, but this strategy has outperformed the MSCI World index by 300/350 basis points over ten years,” Nuno Texiera, deputy CEO of Schroders France, and Shogo Maeda, head of Japanese equities, explain to Newsmanagers.Schroders now has about USD4.8bn in assets in Japanese equities, with four ISF funds, including the Japanese Equity fund managed by Maeda, which with assets of EUR307.1m as of the end of December, is focused on core portfolio large caps, with less risk and more stable earnings, while the Japanese Equity Alpha is more oriented to midcaps, with a portfolio concentrated on about 30 positions.Two of the four Luxembourg-registered Japanese equity funds of the range, the Japanese Equity and Equity Alpha, have brought in a net total of more than EUR158m in 2011. The Japanese Large Cap fund, which saw net outflows of EUR9.8m last year, will be converted into an “Opportunities” fund in April, and its investment perimeter will be extended to include all cap sizes. “One of the major advantages of Schroders, which has about 140 staff in Japan, is that it is interested in the under-researched midcaps universe, which many sell-side analysts have abandoned,” says Maeda.

The Japanese insurance group Nippon Life Insurance has acquired a 26% stake in the capital of the Indian asset management group Reliance Capital Asset Management, Finance Asia reports. Transaction costs total USD286m. This is the largest foreign investment in the Indian asset management sector to date. Nippon Life has already teamed up with Reliance for insurance activities.

According to sources familiar with the matter, JP Morgan Chase, State Street and Ameriprise Financial are among the finalists to acquire the asset management activities of Deutsche Bank, Handelsblatt reports. It appears likely that the German bank will ultimately sell the division off in lots, which would be more profitable then selling them all in a single block.

The Advantage Fund from the hedge fund manager Paulson & Co has earned 4% from the beginning of the year to 17 January, while the S&P 500 gained only 2.9%. This is a stretch of barely two weeks, but it comes as a consolation after the loss of about 35% from the fund in 2011, with unlucky bets on Bank of America, Hewlett-Packard and Sino-Forest, the Wall Street Journal states. The performance early this year is related to the stocks selected by Paulson, which are expected to profit from the economic recovery.

The asset management firm Garnier Principal Investments has announced a partnership with the US secondary fund Saints Capital, to attack the French market and buy up LBO shares from banks, Les Echos reports. “In France, nearly EUR40bn are now invested in private equity, and a large part of that historically comes from banks and insurers. All of these have announced sales of assets and will be less active in the future. We are expecting at least 10% to 20% of this total to be sold on the market,” says Grégoire Revenu, CEO of Bryan Garnier. Saints Capital, which has been active for more than a decade in the US, manages about USD1.2bn in assets, and has made 50 deals to invest in more than 300 businesses. In France, Bryan Garnier and Saints Capital will make one or two deals a year for EUR100m, and a total of possibly up to EUR500m.

Uwe Zöllner, head of Pan European equity at Franklin Equity Group, is head of the management team for the Franklin European Dividend Fund (LU0645132811), which has recently received a sales license from BaFin for Germany and the FMA for Austria. The fund is long-only, as it invests in European equities likely to pay higher than average dividends. The investment horizon for the product, which has no benchmark, is 3 to 5 years.

According to the Börsen-Zeitung, Axa IM is currently in talks with institutional investors who hold 100% of the open-ended real estate fund Axa Immosolutions (EUR352m), about a potential conversion of the fund into an institutional product.Hartmut Leser, chairman of the managing board at Aberdeen Asset Management, claims that a transformation of this kind is the only way to save the DEGI German Business fund (EUR242m).However, UBS Germany has ruled out converting the 3 Sector Real Estate Europe fund (EUR348m) into an institutional fund, as it still has 20% retail shareholders, and the asset management firm is keen to stay on the good side of these clients.

2012 will be marked by an increase in regulatory pressure, according to the Luxembourg investment fund association (ALFI), which says that it is “particularly concerned” by the Volcker Rule and a proposed tax on financial transactions.At a press conference, Marc Saluzzi, the new chairman of ALFI, claimed that the Volcker rule, in its current form, would create market distortions, and needs to be modified. “At the least, we think that the final version of this law should put European regulated funds on an even footing with their US equivalents,” says Saluzzi. In relation to the proposed tax on financial transactions, ALFI claims the legislation may drag down sales of UCITS-compliant funds outside Europe, and significantly reduce assets in European funds. In order to limit its impact, financial institutions “will make large-scale efforts to move their activities abroad, and/or to increase costs for consumers.” ALFI insists that the proposed legislation could slow sales of UCITS-compliant funds outside Europe, and significantly reduce assets placed in European funds. The impact on the fund sector would be significant, not only due to the high level of tax proposed, “but also because the proposal assumes multiple taxation of the fund portfolio and investors.”

The Swiss asset management firm Prosper Professional Services will advise and promote the fund Prosper Stars & Stripes, a UCITS-compliant version of a US long/short equity hedge fund. The product will be managed in Denver by the team at Independence Capital Asset Partners (ICAP) which is responsible for the original fund, Hedge Week reports. The fund will soon be registered in Switzerland, and will be aimed primarily at institutional clients.

The asset management firm Lazard Asset Management has created a fund based on an existing strategy dedicated to emerging markets, to be managed by Kai Jacob, Fund Web reports. The Dublin-based fund, Lazard Emerging Markets Allocation, may rely on Lazard’s offerings in equities, debt and emerging market currencies. The new fund, derived from the portfolio of the Lazard Emerging Markets Multi-Strategy fund, which Jacob has managed since 2009, places the emphasis on growth and value equities, fixed income and currencies, in order to benefit from developments in the economic environment. Currently, the fund’s largest geographical allocation is to Brazil, where nearly 12% of the fund is invested, followed by Russia (11%) and China (8%).

Skandia Investment Group (SIG) has awarded Tim Steer of Artemis a mandate in the Skandia Global Best Ideas Fund worth GBP38 million and a mandate within the Skandia UK Best Ideas Fund worth GBP24 million. His appointment to the two Best Ideas funds sees him taking over the reins from Audrey Ryan of Kames Capital.Tim Steer is well known to SIG having managed a mandate for UK Best Ideas when at New Star. Additionally, he currently manages a mandate in UK Strategic Best Ideas.

Invesco Perpetual is offering a new fund dedicated to financial sector equities, the Global Financial Capital fund, which will be managed by the co-heads of fixed income, Paul Causer and Paul Read, and CIO Nick Mustoe. The fund will seek to earn returns over the mid- to long term through investments in banks and other financial institutions across the globe, in order to benefit from regulatory developments such as Basel III and ongoing structural reforms. The fund will be launched on 25 January, with initial capital of GBP2m. Initially, the fund will be primarily a bond vehicle, with a total equities allocation of 0% to 5%, but allocation to equities may increase up to 40%.

The range of MyFolio profiled funds on offer from Standard Life Investments (SLI), which has already attracted GBP9000m since October 2010, has gained two families of five products, the multi-managed MyFolio Multi Manager Income I to V funds, and the income funds MyFolio Managed I to V. The Multi Manager products are by definition composed of funds from throughout the market, while Managed funds are largely built from SLI funds. The MyFolio range offers subscribers active or passive management, which is always weighted in terms of risk.

In the space of six months, the Italian asset management firm Arca Sgr has reduced its staff from 180 to 70, Il Sole – 24 Ore reports. The changes come as part of a restructuring, which has also involved a change of governance. “The firm needed to radically change in order not to be liquidated, in light of the ongoing decline in net inflows since 2001,” the chairman of the firm, Guido Cammarano, explains. As of the end of 2011, assets at Arca totalled EUR12.4bn, compared with EUR31.6bn in 2001.

Oxfam, a charity to fight poverty, is launching its first fund, the Financial Times reports. The Small Enterprise Impact Investment Fund is a joint initiative of Oxfam GB and Symbiotics, a Swiss microfinance specialist. It will invest in financial intermediaries with the goal of supporting small and mid-sized businesses in Africa and Asia.

Greg Mills, Dafydd Lewis and Donatas Uzkurelis are joining the frontier markets team at Lloyd George Management (LGM), Das Investment reports. Mills will be in charge of strategy; he had previously been national director of the South African institute for international affairs, and continues to serve as director of the Brenhurst Foundation in Johannesburg, which is dedicated to economic development in Africa. Lewis had been head of frontier market research at an investment firm in Dubai, and will be a specialist in the finance sector, while Uzkurelis will focus on the consumer goods sector, after serving for six years as an analyst at a European bank in Lithuania.

EQT, the nordic private equity company with close to EUR18bn in raised capital, has decided to manage future EQT funds onshore in Europe, citing clarification of the European regulatory environment. «A number of steps have been taken within the EU to introduce a harmonized framework for the regulation of alternative investment fund managers, such as private equity. The regulatory environment has been clarified significantly and the framework will enable EQT to manage future funds onshore», explains the company in a press release.Potential new locations for management will be UK, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, but also other onshore alternatives, for instance Sweden, will be considered.

From 23 January, two new Lyxor ETF funds focused on emerging countries will be listed on the Milan stock exchange. They are the Lyxor ETF MSCI Indonesia (FR0011067511), focused on Indonesia, and the Lyxor ETF Thailand (FR0011067529), focused on Thailand. The asset management firm is the largest ETF manager on the Borsa Italiana, both in terms of contracts (68%) and exchange value (57%).

Charlotte Walsh (ex-managing director at Ranieri Partners) and Gregory Weissman (ex-senior vice president at Old Mutual Asset Management) have been recruited as professional relations consultants at Putnam Investments, for the consultant relations team at the head office for global institutional management (GIM). Walsh and Weissman will be based in Chicago and Boston, respectively, and will report to Joseph Phoenix, head of GIM, and join a team which already includes Keith Thomas in London and Anne Lundberg in Chicago, as well as two associates in Boston. Putnam, whose total asssets under management as of the end of December totalled USD117bn, has about USD57bn in assets under management for institutional clients, including sovereign funds, government pension funds and pension plans for large corporations.

One of the largest US hedge funds, Millennium Management, with assets under management of USD14.1bn, is planning to open offices in South Korea, Hedge Week reports. Millennium Management is also reported to be the first foreign hedge fund to be active on the Korean market. The Korean authorities have recently decided to develop the onshore hedge fund sector.

Vince Sands has been appointed as deputy CEO at BNY Mellon Asset Servicing, a position in which he will report to Tim Keaney, vice chairman and CEO. He will be replaced as head of Asset Servicing Ammericas by Samir Pandiri, who had been CEO of BNY Mellon Shareowner Services.For his part, Lou Maiuri, head of outsourcing, has been appointed as head of the global financial institutions business, replacing Nadine Chakar, who becomes global head of Derivatives360.Hani Kablawi will replace Frank Froud, who is leaving the business, as head of EMEA Asset Servicing. Along with Maiuri, Kablawi will report to Tim Keaney, who will continue to report to Chung Jin Leow, head of Asia Pacific Asset Servicing.

Nadine Chakar, head of the global financial institutions group at BNY Mellon Asset Servicing, has been appointed as global head of Derivatives360, a derivatives trading platform. She will report to Karen Peetz, vice chairman and CEO of the financial markets & treasury services division at BNY Mellon, and succeeds Patrick Tadie, who has been appointed as business executive for hedge fund services and broker-dealer activities.

La Française REM last year posted a record increase of 20% to its real estate assets, the firm announced on 20 January in a statement. Assets under management now total over EUR7bn. Gross inflows last year totalled EUR1.2bn. The real estate asset management affiliate of La Française AM says that the past year was marked by the comlpetion of several projects using OPCI vehicles as their investment structure, for French and international clients, in the form of dedicated portfolios or as club deals. In one year, La Française REM has tripled its OPCI assets, to over EUR1bn as of the end of 2011. La Française REM is now positioning itself on the OPCI market as one of the leading providers, while retaining its position as leader in the SCPI non-publicly traded real estate fund segment (over EUR500m in gross inflows in 2011, and assets of EUR5.8bn). It is also continuing to develop multi-management in Europe, where it has increasing assets.

The Korean asset management firm Samsung Asset Management is seeking to develop its investment portfolio of real estate in the United States, the UK, and other developed economies, in order to profit from sales of distressed properties, Asian Investor reports. Samsung launched its real estate fund activity in 2009, with three funds representing assets under management of USD500m. Samsung also launched an infrastructure fund in 2011.

Porsche, which is facing lawsuits seeking damages and interest of EUR2bn from several US hedge funds which accuse the firm of misleading communications policies during a takeover bid by Volkswagen, has proposed to settle present and future cases for a sum in the hundreds of millions of euros, manager magazin reports. However, the plaintiffs are reported to have rejected the offer as too low. The heirs of Adolf Merckle are also seeking EUR250m in damages and interest from Porsche.

Pictet Asset Management veut se développer sur le marché du high yield. La société, qui propose d’ores et déjà son expertise sur le marché européen avec le fonds Pictet-Eur High Yield dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à quelque 420 millions d’euros, souhaite compléter son offre en 2012 avec le lancement de Pictet-Eur Short Term High Yield, d’abord au Luxembourg puis en France par la suite dans les prochaines semaines.Ce fonds fonctionne sur un modèle semblable à celui du Pictet-Eur High Yield, avec au moins une différence sur les maturités, de 1 à 3 ans en moyenne contre les deux tiers des maturités comprises entre 3 et 10 ans pour le Pictet-Eur High Yield.Dans le contexte de marché actuel, avec des taux allemands en dessous de 2% et une forte volatilité des marchés, les investisseurs sont à la recherche de rendement et de visibilité. «Nous sommes convaincus que le nouveau fonds répond à ce besoin», a souligné le 20 janvier à l’occasion d’un point de presse le gérant du fonds et responsable de l'équipe High Yield chez Pictet, Roman Gaiser. Le rendement moyen de classe d’actifs est de l’ordre de 8% par an. Historiquement, sur la période 2003-2011, la classe d’actifs affiche un rendement proche de 8,5% avec une volatilité de 6% contre un rendement très légèrement supérieur pour la classe high yield mais une volatilité deux fois plus importante (13%).En outre, le fonds devrait être peu sensible aux variations des humeurs des investisseurs dans la mesure où le processus de sélection des sociétés permet d’estimer sur trois ans l'évolution de l’activité et des bénéfices des entreprises. «On a de toute façon davantage de visibilité sur deux ou trois ans. A moins d’une crise majeure, l'élément marché passe à l’arrière-plan», remarque Roman Gaiser.Par ailleurs, estime Roman Gaiser, le marché européen du high yield court terme a atteint la masse critique. Le nombre d’obligations à maturités courtes s’est fortement accru au cours des dix dernières années; il a même doublé entre 2008 et 2011. On compte désormais 108 obligations émanant de 72 émetteurs qui arriveront à maturité dans moins de quatre ans, pour un montant de plus de 55 milliards d’euros. Avec tendance à la hausse.Caractéristiques : Code ISIN LU0726357527Frais de gestion 0,90%Positions simples maximum 2 ans et demiSecteurs poids par secteur : maximum 20%Dette senior et financière : maximum 10%Pas de financière subordonnéeRating BB & B : max 4%CCC : max 2%Indice de référence Merrill Lynch Eur High Yield 1-3yr ExFin BB-B Constrained

Lors du comité central d’entreprise vendredi, la direction générale de Groupama a annoncé aux syndicats sa volonté de céder en totalité sa filiale Gan Eurocourtage, dont l’activité vie, rapporte L’Agefi. S’il n’y a pas de repreneur pour l’activité vie, les 160 salariés rejoindront Groupama Gan Vie mais l’instruction se poursuivra. Groupama attend des offres d’ici à la fin janvier afin d'établir une «short list», note le quotidien.

L’Advantage Fund du gestionnaire alternatif Paulson & Co a gagné 4 % depuis le début de l’année jusqu’au 17 janvier alors que le S&P 500 progressait de 2,9 %. Cela ne fait qu’un peu plus de deux semaines, mais c’est une consolation après la perte d’environ 35 % accusée par le fonds en 2011 avec des paris malheureux sur Bank of America, Hewlett-Packard et Sino-Forest, souligne The Wall Street Journal. La performance de ce début d’année est liée à des actions de société qui devraient profiter de la reprise économique.

Le gestionnaire Garnier Principal Investments vient d’annoncer un partenariat avec le fonds secondaire américain Saints Capital pour s’attaquer au marché français et racheter aux banques leurs parts dans le LBO, rapporte Les Echos. « En France, près de 40 milliards d’euros sont investis aujourd’hui dans du «private equity», une part importante venant historiquement des banques et des assureurs. Toutes ont annoncé des cessions d’actifs et seront moins actives à l’avenir. Nous anticipons qu’au moins de 10 à 20% de ce total soit cédé sur le marché», indique Grégoire Revenu, directeur général de Bryan Garnier. Actifs depuis une dizaine d’années aux Etats-Unis, Saints Capital gère environ 1,2 milliard de dollars d’actifs et a mené une cinquantaine de transactions dans plus de 300 entreprises. Dans l’Hexagone, Bryan Garnier et Saints Capital visent une ou deux opérations par an d’une centaine de millions d’euros, pouvant atteindre 500 millions.

On trouve deux ETF sur le Dax parmi les cinq premiers pour les souscriptions nettes en 2011, selon les statistiques de BlackRock. Il s’agit tout d’abord du iShares Dax ETF, qui a collecté en net 11,6 milliards de dollars et qui a terminé l’année à 13,96 milliards. Ensuite le db x-trackers Dax ETF a drainé 5,67 milliards de dollars et son encours au 31 décembre ressortait à 7,55 milliards de dollars.Néanmoins, le numéro un mondial reste l’ETF SPDR S&P 500 de State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), dont les actifs sous gestion à fin 2011 se situaient à 95,28 milliards de dollars et qui a enregistré des rentrées nettes de 6,57 milliards de dollars.Les ETF sur le Dax de iShares et de db x-trackers se classent respectivement en 15ème et 39ème position pour le volume des encours.