Les sociétés de gestion cherchent de plus en plus à lancer des fonds multi classes d’actifs à rendement absolu et des stratégies d’investissements sous contrainte de passif (LDI), les marges sur les produits traditionnels étant sous pression, montre une étude de Cerulli Associates citée par le Financial Times. La société d’études observe aussi que les sociétés de gestion cherchent à doper leurs ventes via les produits blancs, notamment en Asie où elles peuvent imposer les frais qu’elles veulent.

La société de capital investissement CVC Capital Partners et Resource America viennent de signer un accord pour regrouper les sociétés CVC Cordatus Group et Apidos Capital Management pour constituer la société CVC Credit Partners.Dirigée par Marc Boughton, managing partner, CVC Credit Partners sera responsable de 7,5 milliards de dollars d’actifs distribués dans une bonne vingtaine de véhicules aux Etats-Unis et en Europe. Resource America, dont le CEO devient président de la nouvelle entité, dans laquelle la société aura une participation de 33%.

La firme de services dédiés aux hedge funds GlobeOp Financial Services est en discussions avec les sociétés de capital investissement Advent International et TPG sur l’opportunité d’une offre de rachat, rapporte l’agence Reuters.GlobeOp, dont les actifs sous administration s'élèvent à 173 milliards de dollars, est conseillé dans cette démarche par Evercore Partners. Les discussions sont encore au stage préliminaire, a précisé GlobeOp.

Se référant aux Echos, le Financial Times Deutschland indique que la «banque en chaos» Dexia qui a subi une perte de 10,5 milliards d’euros sur les obligations d’Etat grecques, a tout de même payé des bonus à 360 de ses collaborateurs. Des cadres supérieurs auraient perçu des primes de 45.000 euros tandis que ceux d’un rang moyen ou inférieur ont touché entre 2.500 et 5.000 euros.

Axa a levé un fonds qui investira jusqu’à 2,5 milliards d’euros dans le développement de bureaux et de centres commerciaux en Europe continentale, pour profiter du vide laissé par le retrait des banques et autres fournisseurs de crédit du marché immobilier, rapporte le Financial Times. Le fonds a levé 585,5 millions d’euros, principalement auprès de fonds de pension et d’assurances.

La société amLeague, qui annonçait au début de l’été 2011 l’élaboration d’un nouveau mandat «Actions Internationales» d’ici à la fin de l’année, aura tenu les délais. Le mandat Global Equities a démarré au 31/12/2011 et compte d’ores et déjà 10 compétiteurs. Comme Antoine Briant, le CEO d’amLeague, l’avait expliqué (lire Newsmanagers du 07/07/2011), les Caisses de pension suisses membres du GIP - lui-même membre du club d’amLeague – ont participé à son élaboration, accompagnées d’un ou deux investisseurs français ayant oeuvré à l'établissement des mandats «actions Europe» ou «actions Euro». L’univers d’investissement de ce mandat est représenté par l’indice Stoxx 1800. En attendant des résultats tangibles pour les compétiteurs de ce dernier mandat, amLeague a communiqué en fin de semaine dernière les performances des catégories «historiques», et notamment celles investis en actions de la zone euro et d’Europe pour le mois de décembre 2011 et sur l’ensemble de l’année. Pour le mandat «zone euro», le dernier mois de l’année 2011 a consacré la gestion d’Aberdeen AM devant Invesco AM et Dexia AM avec des gains respectifs de 2,66 %, 0,97 % et 0,14%. Ces chiffres sont à rapprocher des performances de l’indice de référence – l’Eurostoxx Net Return – en baisse de 0,31 %. Logiquement, ces établissements – à l’exception de Dexia AM – affichent une sous-exposition au marché et une contribution positive du choix de valeurs. En bas de classement, Barclays AM et Mandarine Gestion ferment la marche (en perte de 1,91% et de 2,02 %). On notera que les performances de la gestion active comparées à celle de l’indice mettent en évidence le fait que sept établissements ont « rempli leur contrat» tandis que neuf n’y sont pas parvenus. Les résultats sur l’année 2011 de cette même catégorie consacrent pour sa part Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management devant CM-CIC AM et Invesco AM. Avec des pertes respectives de 11,09 %, 12,37% et 13,47 %. Ils battent de près l’indice (-15,22 %). Une fois encore, les gérants ont été plutôt sous-exposés au marché, le choix de valeurs ayant été déterminant. Le constat inverse explique les dernières places – celles de CCR AM (-24,47 %) et Federal Finance (-23,65 %). Du côté du mandat Europe, sur le seul mois de décembre, deux sociétés de gestion déjà sur le podium dans le mandat «actions zone euro» se retrouvent en haut du classement : Aberdeen AM (3,28 %) devant Invesco AM (2,69%) et CM-CIC (2,51 %). L’univers d’investissement européen s’avère plus difficile pour la gestion active puisque six gérants parviennent à faire mieux que l’indice Stoxx 600 Net Return (1,92 %), tandis que 13 sociétés de gestion se retrouvent en deça de l’indicateur. Aux dernières places figurent La Française AM (-1,29%), Federal Finance (-1,26 %) et CCR AM (-1,18 %). Parmi les éléments remarquables, on notera le très bon résultat d’Invesco AM obtenu avec un beta de 0,54 ou la troisième place de CM-CIC AM avec une… sur-exposition au marché de 1,12. A l’inverse, les dernières places s’expliquent essentiellement par le choix de valeurs des gérants qui, à l’évidence, «n’a pas payé»…Sur l’année 2011, Invesco AM (-0,37 %) devance Aberdeen AM (-2,13 %) et Petercam AM (-7,42 %). Ils battent l’indice – Stoxx 600 Net Return – qui se place en… quatrième position (-8,61 %). Ces chiffres sont à rapprocher avec ceux des derniers du classement : Mandarine Gestion (-19,31 %), CCR AM (-24,28 %), OFI AM (-29,42 %). Près de trente points de base séparent ainsi le premier du dernier... Par rapport aux plus performants, les sociétés de gestion en bas de tableau se distinguent par une «tracking error» élevée – tandis que ce n’est pas le cas pour les deuxième et troisième de la catégorie. Autres points communs dans le bas du classement : les betas sont supérieurs à 1 et la contribution du choix de valeurs, négative... L’ensemble des performances des sociétés de gestion dans les différents mandats est disponible en pièce jointe.

Pranay Gupta, qui était directeur des investissements (CIO) d’ING Investement Management Asia Pacific, a été recruté par Lombard Odier (160 milliards de dollars d’encours) comme CIO pour l’Asie et global head of investment solutions. Il sera basé à Hong-Kong et subordonné à Vincent Duhamel, head of Asia.Chez ING IM, Pranay Gupta était responsable de l’investissement d’actifs d’un volume de 85 milliards de dollars. Il faisait également partie de la global investment leadership team qui assurait la supervision du placement des 484 milliards de dollars d’encours du gestionnaire.Avant de rejoindre ING IM, Pranay Gupta a aussi été directeur-adjoint des investissements de Pearl Group et membre senior de l'équipe de direction d’ABP Investments.C’est le second recrutement d’importance de Lombard Odier Investment Management (LOIM) chez ING IM. En effet, il y a moins d’un mois, LOIM annonçait le recrutement de Jan Straatman comme directeur des investissements (CIO), le poste qu’il occupait auparavant chez ING IM. De plus, il avait été CEO et CIO de Pearl Group entre 2006 et 2008 (lire Newsmanagers du 13 décembre 2011)...

The National Pension Service (NPS, USD300bn), the fourth-largst pension fund in South Korea, on Sunday announced that it has obtained a Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) license from the Chinese authorities, and is planning to make its first direct investments in equities and bonds denominated in Chinese yuan this year, the Financial Times reports. The chairman of NPS, Jun Kwnag-woo, says that he is aiming for 25% of investments abroad by 2014, up from 10% in 2010.

The Paris Europlace association, which promotes and develops the Paris financial market, has declared its opposition to the establishment of a tax on financial transactions if it is not applied throughout Europe. A tax which would specifically sanction the French financial sector would be inappropriate, the association claimed on Friday, 6 January, pointing out the limitations and risks of such an initiative.Though the law would aim to combat financial speculation, its overly broad application would affect transactions made by private investors, businesses and institutional investors, and would cause significant risk distortions. Its cost would also penalise French banks, asset management firms and insurers, and toughen borrowing conditions for businesses throughout the French economy. It would also lead to substantial losses for the Paris financial industry, and that would come in addition to the already high cost of new financial regulations being put in place (Based 3, Solvency 2), a statement from Paris Europlace claims.The association of financial sector businesses and their retail and business clients claims that they would be at a disadvantage of the plans are put into action. If the law were applied only in France, it would inevitably lead to “a delocalisation of the activities concerned at banks, insurance companies and asset management firms, in favour of the major global financial centres, and would consequently reduce control of financing conditions in our economy and the role of the Paris market in the European and global economies,” the association claims.

On 6 January, Source announced that the Nomura Voltage Mid-Term Source ETF has been admitted to trading on the XTF segment of the German Xetra electronic trading platform (Deutsche Bank). The fund is an Irish, German-registered product (DE000A1JQQZ6), and the listing comes in addition to the version of the product already available in US dollars on the London market (VOLTLN). It allows investors to invest in euros and provides them simple and rapid access to an instrument exposed to volatility.The ETF, which charges fees of 0.30%, replicates the Nomura Voltage Strategy Mid-term 30-day USD TR index. It applies a tactical approach to volatility, which allows investors to profit from volatility peaks, while reducing the costs associated with permanent long positions on volatility. Assets in the fund, launched in April 2011, total over USD165m.

Iridian Asset Management has closed its largest hedge fund, the Iridian Opportunity fund, following a decline in assets and disappointing returns in 2010 and 2011. The fund lost 8,90% between January and October of last year, Absolute Return Alpha reports. The global equity hedge fund was launched in 2005 by former managers from Arnold and S. Bleichroeder Advisors.

Returns on funds in euros are expected to fall again, Les Echos reports. The average rate paid out in 2011 is expected to be about 3%, compared with 3.4% in 2010 and 3.7% in 2009. The return rate, a historic barometer of the market, will be released tomorrow by Afer, the French association of savings investors. The profession is not expecting much in the way of inflows in 2012.

In the scandal over personal forex trades conducted by Philipp Heldebrand, chairman of the Swiss National Bank (BNS), Banque Sarasin has announced that on 5 January it filed criminal charges in a Zurich court against the employee the firm dismissed on 3 January.The firm states that the former employee “stole” screenshots revealing the portfolio and transactions of the Hildebrand family, and sent them to a lawyer he knew, rather than reporting the trades which appeared to him subjectively to be dubious to his line manager or to the compliance department.The charge is infraction of the law of banking confidentiality and commercial secrecy. It also names third parties for inciting these infractions.Banque Sarasin states that it reserves the right to file other legal proceedings, including civil proceedings seeking damages and interest, and/or a filing before the Swiss Press Council for erroneous reporting of the facts by a Swiss weekly newsmagazine (possibly Weltwoche; see Newsmanagers of 5 January 2012).

A slowdown in ETF trading continued in December on the European markets of NYSE Euronext, which posted an average of 7,734 on-book trades per day and a volume of EUR268.7m per day, compared with 10,965 trades and EUR405.8m the previous month. For the year as a whole, transaction volumes have fallen 43.2%. December was the month last year when activities were at their lowest.Block trading of shares in December declined to EUR930.5m, from EUR974.9m in November, but rose compared with a total of EUR47.5m in December 2010.The average spread in December averaged 36.6 basis points, compared with 40 in November. It had been 36.3% in October, 38.83% in September, and 28.5% in August.The number of new funds launched increased for 2011 as a whole to 157 (of which 129 were primary listing and 28 were secondary listings), from 133 in 2010 (111 and 22, respectively).NYSE Euronext states that the four major underlying indices for ETFs traded on European markets last year were the CAC40 (28%), Euro Stoxx 50 (24%), the CAC40 Leverage (13%), and the Dax (6%).

Asset management firms are increasingly seeking to launch multi-asset class absolute return funds and liability-driven investment (LDI) strategies, as margins on traditional products are under pressure, a study by Cerulli Associates cited by the Financial Times reports. The research firm also finds that asset management firms are seeking to boost their sales with white-label products, particularly in Asia, where they have a freer hand to charge fees as they like.

The hedge fund services firm GlobeOp Financial Services is in talks with the private equity firms Advent International and TPG over a potential takeover bid, Reuters reports. GlobeOp, whose assets under administration total USD173bn, is being advised in the talks by Evercore Partners. The talks are still at a preliminary stage, GlobeOp states.

The private equity firm CVC Capital Partners and Resource America have signed an agreement to combine the firms CVC Cordatus Group and Apidos Capital Management to create the firm CVC Credit Partners. CVC Credit Partners, led by Marc Brighton, managing partner, will be responsible for USD7.5bn in assets distributed over more than 20 vehicles in the United States and Europe. Resource America, whose CEO will become chairman of the new entity, will hold a 33% stake in the new firm.

A UCITS IV license from the French AMF and the German BaFin to the long-only funds Rouvier Valeurs, Europe and Patrimoine will allow Rouvier Associés (EUR750m) to start up its activities in Germany with the opening of a branch office in Frankfurt (see Newsmanagers of 7 November 2011).The director, Patrick Linden, predicts that the company will be present on two or three platforms by the time of the Fonds professionnell congress in Mannheim (25-26 January), Fonds Professionell reports. A cooperation agreement has already been signed for fund distribution with Fondsnet.

Axa has raised a fund which will invest up to EUR2.5bn in the development of offices and shopping centres in continental Europe, in order to profit from a gap left open by the withdrawal of banks and other credit providers from the real estate market, the Financial Times reports. The fund has raised EUR585.5m, largely from pension funds and insurers.

Legal & General Investment Management is expected to announce the launch of its first ETF this Monday, in partnership with Source, according to reports in Financial Times Fund Management. The new product will be a commodity ETF. It will track a composite of four commodity indices from Barclays Capital, Citi, JPMorgan and UBS.

Stenham Asset Management has launched a new Global Macro fund of hedge funds – Stenham Helix. The investment manager has been invested in Global Macro hedge funds since the 1980s and its flagship macro fund of hedge funds, Stenham Trading, has achieved an annualised return of +9.07% since inception compared to the HFRX Macro Index which has posted a return of 6.51% and the MSCI World Equity Index which was 4.13% over the same period.The Stenham Helix fund aims to invest in similar types of macro managers but to assemble a portfolio where the liquidity provided by the underlying managers allows Stenham to offer monthly liquidity with 35 days’ notice. The fund will consist of a concentrated portfolio of around 15 managers with a target return of Libor +5% to 6% and low volatility. The minimum investment is US$ 25,000 with no lock up period. The Stenham Helix fund has launched with USD 36 million and is available in USD, GBP and EUR share classes.Stenham has over USD 1.1 billion invested in Global Macro hedge funds and has USD 2.7 billion invested in hedge fund strategies overall.

An increase in taxation on savings in Spain will make investments in the form of shares in investment funds more competitive, since the subscriber will deal with the tax office only when selling off the investment. In addition, the investor will remain able to modify the investment profile without paying taxes, as trades between funds retain a tax exemption, Cinco Días reports.These advantages will prove more important if the higher taxes on savings are truly limited to two years, as announced.Cinco Días reports that the investment fund sector has suffered considerably due to the crisis, with assets now back to their 1996 levels.

Members of the European parliament are highly reticent about complex financial products. More than half of them (57%) would like to forbid complex or manifestly risks financial products, according to a survey by Cicero Consulting and ComRes of a sample of 100 European MPs about the regulatory and gestation framework for the asset management sector. A majority of MPs estimate that financial establishments which hold savings should be subject to much stricter regulations. One of the few sources of disagreement between MPs is about the impact of reforms on the flow of capital to offshore financial centres. 36% of respondents say that tighter regulations would reduce the flow, while 37% think the opposite.

Assets under management in China have fallen 13% in 2011, from CNY2.479trn as of the end of 2010 to CNY2.169trn, according to Z-Ben Advisors. The decline was particularly marked for equity funds, where assets contracted from CNY927bn to CNY704bn, and for balanced funds, which declined from CNY741bn to CNY544bn. However, the fixed income category saw an increase in assets, from CNY302bn to CNY464bn. The majority of this has gone to money market funds, where assets total CNY295bn. Between September and December 2011, this category saw a 133% leap in its assets. But the trend is expected to reverse in early 2012, Z-Ben Advisors predicts. Pessimism about the markets has led to a decline in interest in funds on the part of investors, Z-Ben Advisors notes. During the final three months of 2011, the average product launch attracted assets totaling just CNY1bn, compared with CNY2.6bn in fourth quarter 2010. However, the lower level is also due to a 43% increase in the number of funds launched in 2011.

Anthony Bolton has personally lost more than USD1m due to heavy losses from his China fund last year, the Financial Times reports. The decline represents one third of the value of his 2.5 million shares in the Fidelity China Special Situations fund. The fund, which raised GBP460m at its launch in April 2010, saw a decline in its share price of one third in 2011.

Paranay Gupta, who had been chief investment officer (CIO) at ING Investment Management Asia Pacific, has been recruited by Lombard Odier (USD160bn) as CIO for Asia and global head of investment solutions. He will be based in Hong Kong, and will report to Vincent Duhamel, head of Asia.At ING IM, Gupta had been responsible for the investment of assets totalling USD85bn. He also belonged to the global investment leadership team, which supervised the placement of USD484bn at the manager.Before joining ING IM, Gupta has also been deputy CIO at Pearl Group, and a senior member of the management team at ABP Investments.This is the second major recruitment from ING IM at Lombard Odier Investment Management (LOIM). Less than a month ago, LOIM announced the recruitment of Jan Straatman as CIO, the same position which he had previously held at ING. In addition, he had been CEO and CIO of Pearl Group from 2006 to 2008 (see Newsmanagers of 13 December 2011)...

Van Eck is adding to its investment team. The US asset management firm has recruited Imaro Casanova as a senior analyst specialised in gold. She joins the team responsible for the International Investors Gold Fund, Global Hard Assets Fund and Van Eck VP Global Hard Assets Fund, among others. In total, the three mutual funds have USD6.6bn in assets.The team dedicated to hard assets now includes 12 people. Casanova joined Van Eck from McNicoll Lewis & Vlak, where she had been a senior analyst in equities research, specialised in the mining sector.

The chairman of BNP Paribas, Baudoin Prot, on 6 January announced on BFM that results at BNP Paribas would be down significantly despite a profitable fourth quarter. “Fourth quarter will clearly bring a profitable result,” said Prot, but added that for the fiscal year as a whole, results would be “noticeably down” compared with 2010. Dividends are also expected to be reduced, as will bonuses for management and market operators at BNP Paribas.

The US asset management firm Putnam Investments, an affiliate of Power Corporation of Canada, has announced that due to market volatility, it will be laying off 78 employees in the Boston region, equivalent to 4.4% of its 1,767 employees. The Boston Globe reports that this is the fourth wave of layoffs since Robert “Bob” Reynolds became CEO in July 2008. Since then, the firm has recruited 500 people and laid off 489.The new layoffs will primarily affect operations and not investment professionals.As of the end of December, assets at Putnam were down to USD117bn, compared with USD121bn one year earlier.

According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, Thibault de Vitry quit Axa Investment Managers (Axa IM) on 31 December. The asset management firm confirmed to Newsmanagers that de Vitry, who had since 2007 served as Global Head of Investment Solutions, and had been head of asset liability management and multi-asset investment activities as well as AXA funds of hedge funds, had left the firm. Other sources report that the firm is seeking a replacement for de Vitry to be recruited from another asset management firm. Until his replacement arrives, a transitional committee has been established. Before joining Axa IM in 1998, de Vitry held a series of positions as managing director of quantitative and structured investments, global head of operations at AXA IM, global head of insurance investment, COO of securities investment management, and finally global head of insurance investment at AXA IM.