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15/12/2011

China regulates private equity sector

Chinese private equity investors are now regulated by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), which will require that companies register and that they publish annual reports, Asian Investor reports. A circular from the NDRC states that private equity activities may be promoted to qualified investors capable of identifying and tolerating the risks related to private equity.
15/12/2011

Madoff trustee seeks USD375m from Credit Suisse

Credit Suisse is facing a lawsuit from the court-appointed trustee for the business interests of Bernard Madoff, Agefi Switzerland reports. Irving Picard is seeking USD375m from the bank in a New York court, NZZ reports, corresponding to assets which investors placed in the Fairfield Sentry and Kingate Global Fund, which invested virtually all of their assets with Madoff.
15/12/2011

Spanish stock exchange lists six more ETFs from db x-trackers

On 14 December, Bolsas y Mercados Españoles added six ETFs from db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) to trading, including a fund based on the Ibex 35, and five leveraged products based on the Dax, the S&P 500 and the Euro Stoxx 50. Madrid now lists 27 db x-trackers products.The new ETFs added to trading are:db x-trackers IBEX 35® INDEX ETF db x-trackers LEVDAX® DAILY ETF db x-trackers SHORTDAX® x2 DAILY ETF db x-trackers S&P 500 2x INVERSE DAILY ETF db x-trackers S&P 500 2x LEVERAGED DAILY ETF etdb x-trackers EURO STOXX 50® LEVERAGED DAILY ETF
15/12/2011

European outflows slowed in October

Funds in Europe suffered redemptions of EUR19.7bn in October, a significant improvement on the previous two months, according to Lipper. In September, outflows reached EUR60.7bn.After stumbling badly last month, bond funds suffered much more manageable redemptions this month (-EUR1.2bn compared to -EUR17.2bn) and even equity outflows of EUR10.6bn were half the level endured in September (EUR21bn).There were also significant pockets of positive activity. After redemptions of EUR18.5bn over the past four months, high yield funds enjoyed a come back with inflows of EUR3bn. It was a boost for Muzinich and its Short Duration High Yield fund. The asset manager came second of the group sales chart this month with net sales of EUR680m, after Allianz/Pimco (EUR1bn) and ahead of Prudential/M&G (EUR550m).Finally, in the ongoing parade of potential safe haven products, USDbond funds made a strong showing (EUR580m) this month. And the gold experience was very positive in October, with commodity funds as a whole reversing last month’s outflows of EUR1.3bn to enjoy inflows this month of EUR520m. Sterling was most attractive to investors as euro and dollar money market funds suffered redemptions of EUR10.8bn, but sterling-denominated funds attracted EUR8bn.
15/12/2011

Morgan Stanley launches a UCITS long/short strategy based on Brazilian equities

Morgan Stanley has launched a market neutral long/short strategy, which will become a sub-fund of its Irish UCITS-compliant Sicav, and which will be managed by the Brazilian firm Claritas Administraçao de Recursos, Investment Europe reports. The fund, MS Claritas Long Short Market Neutral Ucits, provides access to the Brazilian source strategy. Morgan Stanley says it is the first UCITS-compliant absolute return strategy dedicated exclusively to the Brazilian equity markets.
15/12/2011

Asset management firms enter alternative management in Korea

The South Korean financial market authority (FSC) has issued 13 licenses to asset management firms to launch hedge funds this month, Asian Investor reports. The companies concerned are Allianz Global Investors , Hanwha AMC, KB AMC, KDB AMC, Korea Investment Management, Kyobo Axa Investment Managers, Mirae Asset Global Investments, Mirae Asset Maps Global Investments, Samsung AMC, Shinhan BNP Paribas AMC, UBS Hana AMC, Tong Yang AMC and Woori AMC. Nine of these firms are planning to launch hedge funds in the month of December, totalling about USD450m overall. However, the hedge fund sector in Korea is only in its first teething stages, and may yet experience some setbacks due to the small scale of the market and inexperience of at least some asset management firms.
15/12/2011

State Street pulls out of gilt and bund markets

Barely three months after becoming an official dealer in government bonds in the United Kingdom and Germany, the US custodian State Street has invoked new rules, including the “Volcker rule,” to justify its withdrawal from the government bond markets in these countries, the Financial Times reports.The Volcker rule prohibits banks from proprietary trading. Exceptions are made for US Treasury bonds, but not for foreign government debt.Although market-making is allowed under the rules, bankers are afraid that the activity might be considered proprietary trading, which would limit liquidity.
15/12/2011

Solvency II is running four months behind schedule

Detailed recommendations for the enactment of the Solvency III directive may only be completed in time for a crucial vote in the European Parliament which has been put off until April, Global Reinsurance reports. The European Parliament has announced that the Omnibus II directive, which includes the amendments to Solvency II, and which must therefore be passed for Solvency II to be enacted, will not go to a vote before April 2012. The vote had initially been scheduled for November, and was then delayed until the end of January 2012. In other words, details about Solvency II will be released after the vote in April, which will shorten the time frame needed for the directive to come into force after that.
15/12/2011

KIIDs could be improved

The provider of services to the asset management sector Kneip, and the financial communications specialist Ebsylon claim, based on a study of 100 key investor information documents (KIID) from 29 asset management firms, in four languages – English, French, German, and Italian – that the content of these documents is unsatisfactory. They add that it would be possible to introduce a number of improvements to the form and presentation of these documents, which will be required from July 2012. “What our research finds is that asset managers have made a lot of progress in the content of KIIDs, but that the form still needs some work,” says Mario Mantrisi, head of innovation and product management and a member of the executive board at Kneip. Regulations are very clear and leave little room for interpretation, the study says. The document must identify the “objectives and investment policy” if the fund invests “primarily in equities,” while in its risk/return profile the document must indicate if the fund may invest “a substantial part of its assets” in government and corporate debt. Another inconsistency is that a benchmark indicator is mentioned in the Objectives, but is not mentioned in the chart of past performance, and vice versa. Emmanuel Bégat, managing partner at Ebsylon, says that “a vast majority of KIIDs use jargon or technical terminology, even though the regulations are clear about the need to avoid this vocabulary. Lastly, the research shows clearly that the devil is in the details when it comes to creating a KIID which is 100% compliant.”
15/12/2011

SWIP launches a European high yield fund

Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) has announced the launch of the European High Yield Bond Fund, which will be co-managed by Steve Logan, head of European high yield, and Lesley O’Neill, investment director, European high yield. The two managers joined SWIP in 2001.The portfolio will be managed with a “best ideas” approach, to identify the most attractive European high yield bonds, and to construct a portfolio of about 75 positions. Although it will be focused on European issuers, the fund also takes into account the best investment ideas from the SWIP high yield team based in New York. The product will have no benchmark index. The SWIP high yield team includes eight people, based in Edinburgh, London and New York, with about GBP2bn under management as of 30 September.
15/12/2011

Sumitomo Mitsui buys a stake in NewSmith Capital Partners

The Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings will buy a 40% stake in the British asset management firm NewSmith Capital Partners, FundWeb reports. The total price of the acquisition is GBP35m. Sumitomo Mitsui will have access to the equity fund product range from NewSmith, whose assets under management total GBP2.1bn. It may also benefit from the network developed by the British firm to serve institutional investors. NewSmith, for its part, may develop its client base in Asia, especially in Japan.
15/12/2011

Publicly-traded capital in British businesses on the hot seat

The British National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) would like to see the index provider FTSE increase the minimal limit for publicly-traded capital to 50% for companies registered in the United Kingdom. Other professional associations are also said to be in favour of a minimum limit of 25%, according to the British press. The current legislation requires a minimum of 15%, but a company with capitalisation of over USD5bn may have a float of only 5%. Investors claim that it is too easy to list a company in London, and the index provider last month launched a consultation on the subject, following the IPOs of several companies with small floats. The pension fund association claims that a 25% minimum would not be enough to ensure the protection of minority shareholders who may want to block resolutions by majority shareholders.
15/12/2011

Blanca Casas promoted to head of marketing at BBVA AM

Blanca Casas, who joined BBVA Asset Management in April 2010 on the team led by Gonzalo Meseguer, director of sales and marketing, will replace Beatriz de la Vega as director of marketing, Funds People reports. De la Vega has joined the marketing strategy team for the new global retail & business banking division at BBVA.Casas had previously worked at Allfunds Bank and ING IM.
15/12/2011

Aberdeen to launch a real estate fund in Italy

The real estate asset mangement team at Aberdeen in Italy, which is composed of four people, will manage a fund aimed at institutional and qualified investors, which will invest solely in Italian shopping centres, Il Mondo reports. The real estate fund may be extended to high net worth private clients and family offices.
15/12/2011

M&G signs a distribution agreement in Italy

M&G has signed an agreement with the Italian platform WeBank, under which 25 of its retail funds licensed for sale in Italy will be available to clients of the bank, via the website www.webank.it, Bluerating reports. The agreement is a new step in the British asset management firm’s development strategy on the Italian retail market, which began slightly over two years ago, says Matteo Astolfi, director of M&G Investments in Italy.
15/12/2011

Deficit for British pension funds rises sharply

The deficit for British pension funds covered by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), as calculated by the British National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has increased to GBP222.1bn as of the end of November, compared with GBP158.6bn as of the end of October. The professional association notes that the returns offered by British government bonds are currently being penalised by quantitative easing policies.
15/12/2011
Gestion d'actifs

Réunica pourrait encore renforcer son exposition aux obligations d'entreprises au détriment des obligations souveraines

Dans un article publié dans Option Finance, Francis Weber, directeur financier du groupe de protection sociale Réunica: Depuis le début de la crise sur les dettes souveraines, nous privilégions le crédit corporate plutôt que souverain. La part des obligations d’entreprises, actuellement déjà majoritaire dans un portefeuille d’assureur ou de caisse de retraite, pourrait donc encore augmenter.
Gestion d'actifs
15/12/2011

Carlyle à l’affût dans les CLO

Bloomberg rapporte que Carlyle est en discussions pour racheter auprès de Highland Capital Management une activité assurant la gestion de 3 milliards de dollars en CLO (collateralized loan obligations) en Europe.
15/12/2011

Le FTSE renforce ses exigences de flottant

Le FTSE a relevé de 10 points à 25% son exigence de flottant minimum pour faire partie de ses indices. Ce n’est pas assez, loin s’en faut, pour l’association des fonds de pension britanniques, la NAPF, qui selon le quotidien réclame par la voix de son responsable de la gouvernance David Paterson un seuil plancher de 50% des titres librement négociables sur le marché.
15/12/2011

Allianz songe à la cession de Selecta

Allianz Capital Partners, l’entité de private equity de l’assureur allemand, a selon le quotidien mandaté HSBC pour une revue stratégique de l’opérateur suisse de machines à café, numéro un européen du secteur. La mise aux enchères pourrait débuter au premier trimestre 2012 et l’opération pourrait représenter jusqu’à un milliard d’euros.

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