Nigel Legge, l’ancien CEO qui a quitté Liontrust avec une prime de 665.000 livres (lire Newsmanagers du 10 mai et 25 novembre), lancera en janvier 2012 le IM Vinculum Global Equity Fund, premier compartiment d’un OEIC de Vinculum Fund Management Llp, sa nouvelle société de gestion régulée par la FSA, rapportent divers médias britanniques.Le portefeuille se composera d’une cinquantaine de lignes, des actions du monde entier, et visera à surperformer le MSCI World TR. La commission de gestion se limitera à 0,25 % et Vinculum prélèvera 20 % sur la surperformance trimestrielle. La souscription minimale est fixée à 1.000 livres. Vinculum a été lancée par quatre associés. En dehors de Nigel Legge, il s’agit de Bjarne Jensen, CEO de StockRate Asset Management; Niels Jensen, associé gérant d’Absolute Return Partners; et de Douglas Thursby-Pelham, un spécialiste du marketing et de la communication.

A German federal court in Frankfurt (Oberlandesgericht, or OLG) has found that victims of the Lehman bankruptcy have the right to file lawsuits in Germany against S&P, seeking damages and interest, as the ratings agency has a legally independent affiliate in the country with its own assets, Handelsblatt reports.With this verdict, the OLG has authorised the district court (Landgericht) to rule that a lawsuit filed by an investor who lost about EUR30,000 in September 2008, which were invested in Lehman certificates four months earlier, due to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, may be heard. The plaintiff claims that he made the investment decision based on S&P ratings.Lawyers are now expecting a wave of lawsuits against S&P in Germany. S&P had no comment.

The perception of financial risks by institutional investors in Europe has risen sharply. But the rankings of these risks has changed considerably in the past six months. The RiskMonitor survey from Allianz Global Investors, published yesterday, shows that European institutional investors now consider volatility the major risk they will need to confront in the next 12 months, followed by sovereign debt and falling equity markets. In the last survey, interest rates were the most cited concern, while volatility was only in fourth place. In numbers, the percentage of investors surveyed who consider volatility a major risk rose from 16% to 89%. However, sovereign debt is now perceived as a major risk by more than one third of the investors surveyed, a higher percentage than all other risk categories, the study finds. Thomas Wiesemann, chief market officer at Allianz Global Investors in Europe, says a prolonged aversion to risk could prove costly for investors. “The current low interest rates,” he explains, “will not let them manage sufficient returns to meet their payment liabilities, and may even result in real negative returns,”The full results of the survey may be consulted at the following address: http://www.allianzglobalinvestors.de/docs-produkte/global/RiskMonitor-N…

Following the departure of its chief investment officer for North American equities, Simon Laing, who has joined the teams at Invesco (see Newsmanagers of 25 November 2011), Newton Investment Management has decided no longer to provide investment advising to the Newton American Fund, which is available to British investors from BNY Mellon Fund Managers. Newton is not planning to replace Laing immediately. BNY Mellon will now entrust investment advising for the fund to one of its boutiques, Boston Company Asset Management. The product will be renamed as The BNY Mellon American Fund. All of these changes will take place in early 2012.

Nigel Legge, former CEO of Liontrust, who left that firm with a GBP665,000 severance pay (see Newsmanagers of 10 May and 25 November), will launch the IM Vinculum Global Equity Fund, the first sub-fund of an OEIC fund from Vinculum Fund Management LLP, its new FSA-regulated asset management firm, in January 2012, several British media sources are reporting.The portfolio will include 50 positions on equities worldwide, and will aim to outperform the MSCI World TR. Management commission will be limited to 0.25%, and Vinculum will charge a 20% commission on quarterly outperformance. Minimal subscription is set at GBP1,000.Vinculum was launched by four partners: in addition to Legge, these include Bjarne Jensen, CEO of StockRate Asset Management, Niels Jensen, managing partner at Absolute Return Partners, and Douglas Thursby-Pelham, a marketing and communications specialist.

OppenheimerFunds has announced the recruitment of Kamal Bhatia, who becomes vice president, and joins the fixed income and alternative investments team as director of products. Bhatia worked previously for TIAA-CREF, where he was managing director in charge of real asset and socially responsible products.

Hedge fund managers expect global growth to slow next year, in a context of probable sovereign defaults in the euro zone and a slowdown in China, the Financial Times reports, citing a survey of hedge fund managers with USD800bn in assets under management. Many of them predict that the European Central Bank will have to ease its monetary policy, and slightly under 80% predict that the Federal Reserve will need to do the same.

The French asset management firm La Financière de l’Echiquier has set itself an ambitious goal, the Börsen-Zeitung reports: “In the mid to long-term,” says Didier Le Menestrel, its founder and president, the firm is aiming for assets of EUR1bn in Germany, up from EUR100m currently. After all, he adds, it might be ambitious, but the firm will have needed 10 years to reach EUR200m in assets under management in France.

Goldman Sachs has priced the international asset management arm of Deutsche Bank at EUR2.5bn, Financial News reports. Among the potential buyers, the online news source cites BlackRock, State Street, Legg Mason and Franklin Resources.

As of the end of November, the online B2B bank ebase GmbH has taken over account and service management for over 30,000 clients and EUR1bn in assets from the real estate fund management firm KanAm Grund. It will also be responsible for new accounts to be opened in future.The agreement allows KanAm to focus on its core profession, management, distribution and administration of open-ended real estate funds, says Heiko Hartwig, CEO of KanAm Grund.ebase, for its part, says that the range of products and services KanAm clients are offered will be extended with a wide range of ways to interact with the firm. Opening hours will be extended for the telephone service, and clients will receive “comfortable” online account access, says Rudolf Geyer, CEO of ebase.

Mark Parry, managing director and head of fixed income at Close Asset Management after serving as head of inflation bonds at Schroders, is joining Aberdeen Asset Management as senior investment manager in the multi-asset class team (9 people, GBP6bn in assets). He will report to Mike Turner, head of global strategy and asset allocation.

Cliff Pattenden has left Tudor Investment Corporation, a USD11bn hedge fund, to join former colleagues at Zafferano Capital, Financial News reports. He will be COO and chief financial officer at Zafferano.

The Zurich-based firm Swiss Investment Managers GmbH (SIM) in September launched a long/short fund entitled Directors Dealing Fund, which aims to outperform the equity markets through an analysis of legal insider trading, directors’ delaings, which is declared to the authorities. This approach identifies financial institutions which are the most exposed to heavy losses due to their exposure to the European debt crisis, AR Absolute Return + Alpha reports.The president and CEO of SIM and manager of the fund, Athanasios Ladopoulos, says that the portfolio is currently net short on European banks.The objective for SIM is to raise about EUR50m for the fund in one year, and EUR200m in two years.

The Hong Kong-based asset management firm Myriad Asset Management, created by a former Highbridge manager, Carl Huttenlocher, is to launch a multi-strategy fund in December, Asian Investor reports. The fund, Myriad Oppiortunities Master Fund, whose launch has been delayed by valuation problems, will start with about USD300m in funds. The multi-strategy approach from Myriad has an Asian bias, and includes long/short equity, convertible, capital structure arbitrage, event driven, and credit strategies. The capacity of the new fund is USD2bn. If this level is reached by the end of second quarter 2012, the fund will be closed.

On 25 November, the CNMV registered the Foncaixa Garantia Eurobolsa fund, whose depository is CaixaBank. The product is a variable return fund which guarantees 104% of the initial net asset value (as of 17 February 2012), or alternatively the initial net asset value plus a 60% participation in the revaluation of the EuroStoxx 50 (PriceEuro) index between February 2012 and January 2016, at maturity (1 February 2016).The portfolio will be invested in cash, Spanish government debt repos, and money market funds, with an average maturity of less than 3 months and a minimal rating of A.CharacteristicsName: Foncaixa Garantia Eurobolsa 6 FIISIN code: ES0137665008Front-end fee: 4%Management commission: 1.77%Early withdrawal penalty: 4%

One year after being granted a license by the SEC for its new actively-managed ETF activity (see Newsmanagers of 23 11 2010), Neuberger Berman is preparing the first product in its new range. According to Mutual Fund Wire, the New York-based asset management firm has submitted an application for a license for an ETF to be entitled Neuberger Berman Real Return Active ETF. It would invest in the US and international markets, in equities and bonds. Neuberger Berman has not stated what management fees the ETF will charge, Mutual Fund Wire reports.

The asset management firm Cosmo Asset Management, based in Seoul, is preparing to launch a mutual fund aimed at retail clients, Asian Investor reports. CosmoAM is also working on products for its Japanese parent company, Sparx, aimed at institutional clients. Cosmo is planning to offer a long-only equity strategy dedicated to the Korean market, which may be launched in January or February 2012. The alternative asset management firm Sparx, which controls 70% of Cosmo, manages about USD6.8bn in assets. Cosmo AM, for its part, manages slightly over USD3bn.

“We are hoping to soon top EUR50bn in SRI assets,” Pierre Schereck, director of employee savings and socially responsible investment at Amundi, said at a meeting organised by Novethic. The asset management firm of the Crédit Agricole group has recently topped EUR20bn in SRI assets, he says. This increase in assets will be a consequence of a transformation of mandates. “We are putting a lot of energy into motivating clients to apply SRI in their management,” Schereck explains. “That takes time, but we are on the way.” Beyond that, the director of employee savings and SRI says that Amundi is hoping to extend ESG criteria to all of its asset management.

The US-based State Street group, which has been present in France for 20 years, is continuing to add to the range of products and services offered by its two local entities, State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) and State Street Bank.At SSgA, which has recently recruited two sales staff for ETFs (Olivier Paquier and Erich Geoffroy, see Newsmanagers of 8 November), Marco Fusco, CEO for France and Italy, has confirmed that the asset management firm is planning to add to its range of products on sale in France (see Newsmanagers of 16 May) with the launch of new investment strategies, including alternative management, relying on the expertise of its specialised affiliate SAARIS, and in active fundamental management, based on the expertise of the management teams recently integrated following the acquisition of Bank of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM).State Street Bank, which is headed in Paris by Raphaël Remond, calls itself a “pioneer in outsourcing of middle office services,” and is preparing to extend its custom reporting offerings to meet the needs of a vision of portfolios brought on by transparency requirements imposed by the Solvency II directive, and its range of post-market over-the-counter (OTC) currency and derivatives trading.

The net number of funds available for sale in Europe decreased by 390 funds between January and September 2011, a consequence of a significant increase in the number of merged funds rather than a fall in newly launched funds, explains Dunny P Moonesawmy, head of Europe and Middle East research at Lipper, which has published the statistics. 1,260 funds were merged in the period, compared with 1,142 in the year 2010 overall, and 1,662 in 2009. The mergers were primarily of equity funds (423). Meanwhile, 1523 funds were closed between January and September, while 2,383 funds were launched. As of the end of September, the number of funds on sale in Europe totalled 35,017. A trend for fund mergers is expected to continue, says Lipper, as the process of rationalising product ranges at asset management firms continues and with the UCITS 4 directive. Lipper also notes that Luxembourg continues to dominate the fund industry in Europe, with 9,183 funds out of 35,017 domiciled in the grand duchy as of the end of September, followed by France, with 5,425 products.

Laura González, head of development for private banking in Germany, Benelux, the Iberian peninsula, France and Africa at Thomson Reuters, has been appointed as head of international accounts at Allfunds Bank, Funds People reports. She will report to Gianluca Renzini, global head of sales.Currently, Allfunds Bank has EUR55bn in assets intermediated for 320 institutional clients in 25 countries.

Dans l’optique d’améliorer la performance de ses actifs, la Caisse de Retraite des Sénateurs belges a lancé en août 2011, un appel d’offres pour désigner plusieurs « specialty managers ». Pour rappel, il s’agit de mandats de gestion discrétionnaire sur plusieurs thèmes d’investissement spécialisés: énergie (lot 1), agri-food (lot 2), real assets (lot 3), actions européennes large cap (lot 4), actions à haut dividende (lot 5). Un gestionnaire sera mandaté pour chaque lot, à l’exception des actions à haut dividende et actions large cap, où il y aura deux gérants retenus. Au total, la Caisse de Retraite des Sénateurs de Belgique prévoit de sélectionner 7 gérants, dont certains pourront assurer la gestion de plusieurs lots. Avec une exigence de performance située à 2% au-dessus de l’inflation et une allocation stratégique qui se porte davantage sur l’obligataire (60/40 contre 50/50 aujourd’hui), Lode Vanhaverbeke, en charge du dossier au sein de la caisse de retraite des sénateurs ASBL, s’est dit « déçu » devant le faible nombre de sociétés, 8 au total, qui ont répondu. « Nous voulons investir entre 5 et 10 millions d’euros pour chacun des 5 lots, uniquement au travers de mandats de gestion discrétionnaire. Or, beaucoup de sociétés de gestion ont souhaité nous imposer d’investir dans leurs fonds ouverts phares ajoute-t-il. La société de conseil Econopolis Strategy va rendre dans les prochains jours un rapport à partir duquel les dirigeants de la caisse de retraite désigneront fin décembre au plus tôt les sociétés mandatées. Il s’agit uniquement de gestions actions puisque les obligations sont gérées en direct grâce au soutien du manager fiduciaire (Econopolis pour le moment en attendant les résultats d’un autre appel d’offres en cours dans ce domaine). La Caisse de Retraites des Sénateurs de Belgique a souhaité ajouter une composante ISR aux gestions des specialty managers, en reprenant les principes éthiques du principal fonds de pension norvégien.

La société de gestion remportant l’appel d’offres de l’IRCANTEC concernant un OPCI de 100 millions d’euros (d’après les projections) va être sélectionnée à l’occasion du prochain conseil d’administration de la caisse de retraite au mois de décembre. Comme indiqué dans l’appel d’offres, seules quatre candidats ont été pré-sélectionnées lors de la seconde phase qui a débuté en septembre. A noter que l’un des acteurs majeurs de la gestion d’OPCI intégrant une composante ISR, La Française AM, ne s’est pas porté candidat.

Laura González, directrice du développement pour la banque privée en Allemagne, dans le Benelux, la Péninsule ibérique, la France et l’Afrique chez Thomson Reuters, a été nommé responsable des comptes internationaux chez Allfunds Bank, annonce Funds People. Elle est subordonnée à Gianluca Renzini, directeur mondial des ventes.Actuellement, Allfunds Bank affiche 55 milliards d’euros sous intermédiation pour 320 clients institutionnels de 25 pays.

Le 25 novembre, la CNMV a enregistré le Foncaixa Garantia Eurobolsa dont les dépositaire est CaixaBank. Il s’agit d’un fonds à rendement variable garantissant à échéance (1er février 2016) 104 % de la valeur liquidative initiale (17 février 2012) ou le cas échéant la valeur liquidative initiale plus une participation de 60 % de la revalorisation de l’indice EuroSotxx 50 (Price Euro) entre février 2012 et janvier 2016.Le portefeuille sera investi en liquidités, en «repo» sur la dette d’Etat espagnole et en fonds monétaires avec une échéance moyenne inférieure à 3 mois et une notation minimale de A-.CaractéristiquesDénomination Foncaixa Garantia Eurobolsa 6 FICode Isin : ES0137665008Droit d’entrée : 4 %Commission de gestion : 1,77 %Pénalité de sortie anticipée :4 %

La société de gestion basée à Hong Kong, Myriad asset Management, créée par un ancien de Highbridge, Carl Huttenlocher, va lancer le 1er décembre un fonds multi-stratégies, rapporte Asian Investor.Le fonds, Myriad Opportunities Master Fund, dont le lancement a été retardé par des problèmes de valorisation, va démarrer avec des fonds d’environ 300 millions de dollars. L’approche multi-stratégies de Myriad a un biais asiatique et comprend des stratégies equity long/short, convertibles, arbitrage de structure du capital, event driven et crédit. La capacité du nouveau fonds est de 2 milliards de dollars. Si ce niveau est atteint d’ici à la fin du deuxième trimestre 2012, le fonds sera fermé.

L’heure semble bien aux arbitrages d’actifs chez BNP Paribas, rapporte L’Agefi. Outre la possibilité d’une cession d’un portefeuille de participations dans plus de cinquante fonds de capital-investissement comme l’annonçait le Financial Times, des rumeurs de marché évoquent Klépierre, la société foncière cotée tombée dans l’escarcelle du groupe lors de l’acquisition de Paribas par la BNP en 2000. Même s’il s’agit d’un acteur majeur de son secteur, «la cession de Klépierre est une évidence. Ca ne représente pas le coeur de métier de BNP Paribas», estime un analyste repris par le quotidien.

La société de gestion BlueBay AM Ltd, agissant pour le compte de fonds dont elle assure la gestion, a franchi en hausse les seuils de 20 % et 25 % du capital et des droits de vote et détient 29,23 % du capital et 29,21 % des droits de vote de la société Atari (21/11/11). Capital Research and Management Company (CRMC) a franchi en baisse le seuil de 5 % des droits de vote et détient 5,60 % du capital et 4,99 % des droits de vote de la Société Générale (21/11/11). Manning & Napier Advisors, LLC, agissant pour le compte de fonds et de clients sous mandat de gestion, a franchi en baisse le seuil de 5 % du capital et détient 4,99 % du capital et 4,78 % des droits de vote (18/11/11) de la société CGG-Veritas.

Linedata, éditeur de solutions pour les professionnels de l’asset management, de l’assurance et du crédit, et Riskdata SA, éditeur de logiciels spécialisé dans la simulation du risque, viennent de signer un partenariat. L’accord permettra à Linedata d’offrir à ses clients des fonctionnalités de gestion du risque, intégrées dans un premier temps à la solution de gestion de portefeuille Linedata Beauchamp. Elles seront proposées sous la forme de deux modules distincts : la production quotidienne de rapports de risque couvrant des indicateurs tels que VaR, exposition globale, stress tests, et d’autre part des outils de simulation interactive « temps réel » permettant de décomposer une allocation de risque par stratégie de gestion par exemple.

«Nous espérons bientôt dépasser le seuil des 50 milliards d’euros d’encours ISR», a déclaré Pierre Schereck, directeur de l’épargne salariale et de l’investissement socialement responsable d’Amundi, à l’occasion d’un colloque organisé lundi par Novethic. Aujourd’hui, la société de gestion du groupe Crédit Agricole vient de franchir le seuil des 20 milliards d’euros dans l’ISR, précise-t-il. Cette hausse des encours passera par la transformation de mandats. «Nous développons beaucoup d’énergie pour motiver les clients à appliquer l’ISR dans leur gestion», explique Pierre Schereck. «Cela prend du temps mais nous sommes dans notre feuille de route». Au delà, le directeur de l’épargne salariale et de l’ISR indique qu’Amundi cherche à étendre les critères ESG à l’ensemble de la gestion. Au total, la société de gestion gérait au 30 septembre 679,4 milliards d’euros.