Amundi renforce son équipe de gestion active sur les actions mondiales (active global equity) avec le recrutement de Jason Josefs en tant que gérant de portefeuilles senior. Il co-gérera le fonds active global equity thematic d’Amundi, sous la direction de Paul-Georges Moucan, responsable des actions mondiales à Londres. Sa nomination porte l’équipe active global equity d’Amundi à Londres à cinq professionnels de l’investissement.Jason Josefs vient d’Aviva Investors, où il était responsable de la recherche en 2007 et nommé gérant des fonds actions mondiales et diversifiés d’Aviva en 2008.

Le groupe sud-africain Investec vient de conclure un accord pour l’acquisition de la société britannique Evolution pour un montant de 233 millions de livres.Cette opération va permettre à Investec de se développer à la fois dans les activités de gestion de fortune, avec la société William de Broe, et de banque d’investissement via Evolution Securities. Le mois dernier, William de Broe a racheté BNP Paribas Private Investment Management (ex-Fortis PIM) auprès de BNP Paribas Wealth Management. Les actifs sous gestion de BNP Paribas PIM s'élevent à environ 1,8 milliard de livres ce qui a porté les encours de William de Broe à environ 7,8 milliards de livres (NewsManagers du 09 août 2011).

Andrew Blair a démissionné de son poste de head of business development chez Skandia Investment Management pour rejoindre Mirabaud Investment Management à Londres en tant que joint sales & marketing director, rapporte FundWeb. D’autres embauches sont prévues par le groupe suisse pour se renforcer au Royaume-Uni et en Europe continentale.

Deux associés du hedge fund Tudor Investment Corp, Nigel Whittaker et John Macfarlane, ont annoncé leur départ de la société avec l’objectif de lancer leur propre entreprise qui investira en priorité sur les marchés émergents, rapporte Bloomberg qui a eu connaissance d’un courrier adressé aux investisseurs.La nouvelle société, Zafferano Capital LP, sera basée à Londres et investira dans les actions et les obligations de sociétés tant cotées que non cotées. Les deux partants ne coupent pas les ponts avec Tudor (11 milliards de dollars d’actifs) puisque des associés de la firme vont participer aux activités d’investissement de Zafferano dans laquelle ils détiendront une participation. Zafferano Capital LP, dont les actifs engagés s'élèvent d’ores et déjà à plus de 100 millions de dollars, devrait démarrer ses activités d’investissement début 2012, avec deux cibles privilégiées, les hedge funds et le private equity. La nouvelle société sera dirigée par John Macfarlane, vice chairman depuis 2009 de Tudor, et aura deux co-responsables de l’investissement, Nigel Whittaker, qui était gérant de portefeuille et responsable du crédit corporate marchés émergents chez Tudor, et Brent De Jong, ancien CEO de Ashmore Energy International, qui doit rejoindre Zafferano Capital pour s’intéresser plus particulièrement au capital investissement.

Fundana a annoncé la semaine dernière la nomination d’un ancien collaborateur de Lombard Odier, Cédric Kohler, en tant que responsable des mandats discrétionnaires, rapporte L’Agefi suisse. Il était déjà à la tête d’une unité similaire dans la banque genevoise. En tant que responsable du hedge fund advisory group, Cédric Kohler utilisera l’actuelle stratégie adoptée par la société pour les clients ayant besoin de solutions sur mesure.

The British asset management firm Aberdeen Asset Management has recruited Christophe Palumbo as business development manager in Luxembourg, where he will be in charge of development for financial institutions (insurers, banks and independent asset management firms) for Benelux. He was most recently sales executive Belgium at Carmignac Gestion in Luxembourg.In April 2010, Aberdeen recruited Menno de Vreeze, head of Netherlands at Carmignac Luxembourg, as senior business development manager for Benelux.In the meantime between the two hires, according to the press releases, assets under management at Aberdeen for clients in Benelux have increased from EUR8bn to EUR12bn.

Merrill Lynch has launched a UCITS-compliant version of its Merger Fund, which is managed by its affiliate Westchester Capital Management, via its Luxembourg Sicav Merrill Lynch Sicav.The Westchester Merger Arbitrage UCITS Fund, aimed at institutionals, invests in companies involved in takeover deals, mergers and publicly-announced restructuring operations.The portfolio includes 40 to 65 positions, and the manager is focusing on securities with a high level of liquidity.CharacteristicsName: Westchester Merger Arbitrage UCITS FundISIN code: LU0620299601Management commission: 1.90%Performance commission: 20%, with high watermarkMinimal subscription: EUR1m

In the week from 22 to 26 August, which was one of the most disastrous weeks ever on the Milan stock exchange, the short ETF Lyxor ETF Bear FTSE/MIB, from Société Générale, accounted for 22.4% of trades on the ETF market, according to Il Sole 24 Ore, citing statistics from Borsa Spa. The fund represented 10,582 transactions, out of a total of 47,182 on the market. In the month of August overall, trades on the Bear ETF amounted to EUR1.3bn in value.

The German analysis firm Absolut Research has studied the performance of 674 absolute return funds (EUR113bn in assets) in July-August, Handelsblatt reports.The results range from gains of 17% to losses of 35% overall, 172 of these products generated positive returns on the crisis period, and losses were higher than 10% for only 50 funds. By comparison, the Dax lost 18.2%, and the MSCI World index lost 7.4%.The winner was the AC Spectrum Fund from Aquila Capital, while the worst results were for equity products, which lost an average of 5.9% in the two months under review.

Martin Currie has announced that it will be releasing its Global Emerging Markets fund, a product with a portfolio of 40 to 60 equity positions representing the strongest convictions of the management team, on the Australian market.

Axa Investment Management is launching a new short duration fund, the Axa IM FIIS Europe Short Duration High Yield fund, which will be managed by the head of European high yield, Andrew Wilmont.Wilmont currently manages the Pan European High Yield Bond fund (GBP24.1m in assets) and the Global High Income fund (GBP56.8m).The fund will invest primarily in short term corporate high yield bonds denominated in euros or pounds Sterling, with an average duration of under two years. It will aim for returns of 5% to 6% on investments in high yield fixed rate securities.The UCITS-compliant fund is domiciled in Luxembourg. Minimal investment is EUR5,000.

Julia Lemarchand is a market analyst at eFinancialCareers.fr, an employment and career management advising website specialised in banking, finance and insurance. At a time when asset management is facing highly uncertain markets, the financial job market specialist discusses the major trends in asset management with Newsmanagers. After a promising start to the year, the end of the year will likely bring a more hesitant environment on the job market.

JP Morgan on 8 September announced that it has been selected by First Trust to distribute 21 ETFs from Fist Trust Advisors, registered in the United States, on the Mexican Stock Exchange.The ETFs are the following:First Trust ISE-Revere Natural Gas Index Fund (FCG)First Trust ISE Chindia Index Fund (FNI)First Trust Dow Jones Select MicroCap IndexSM Fund (FDM)First Trust NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index Fund (FBT)First Trust Morningstar Dividend LeadersSM Index Fund (FDL)First Trust Dow Jones Internet IndexSM Fund (FDN)First Trust Large Cap Core AlphaDEX® Fund (FEX)First Trust Large Cap Value AlphaDEX® Fund (FTA)First Trust Large Cap Growth AlphaDEX® Fund (FTC)First Trust Technology AlphaDEX® Fund (FXL)First Trust Mid Cap Core AlphaDEX® Fund (FNX)First Trust Materials AlphaDEX® Fund (FXZ)First Trust Consumer Discretionary AlphaDEX® Fund (FXD)First Trust Financials AlphaDEX® Fund (FXO)First Trust Small Cap Core AlphaDEX® Fund (FYX)First Trust NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted IndexSM Fund (QQEW)First Trust Consumer Staples AlphaDEX® Fund (FXG)First Trust Energy AlphaDEX® Fund (FXN)First Trust Health Care AlphaDEX® Fund (FXH)First Trust Utilities AlphaDEX® Fund (FXU)and First Trust Industrials/Producer Durables AlphaDEX® Fund (FXR)

On 6 September, the CNMV registered a new Spanish-registered “free investment fund” (hedge fund), Arcano European Income Fund FIL, from UBS Gestión, which will invest in the two sub-funds of the Luxembourg-registered special investment funds (SIF) Arcano Fund – European Income Fund I and II, at levels of 50-75%, and 35-50%, respectively.Any potential remaining assets will be retained in cash management and invested in bonds with at most one year remaining duration. The fund has four share classes, with management commissions of 0.5% (A1 and D1 share classes) and 1% (A2 and D2 share classes). Performance commissions will be 10% of performance exceeding the Euribor 6-month by at least 100 basis points.

Olivier Gourragne will be leaving Fidelity France on Monday, 12 September. The outgoing president of the asset management firm in Paris, who will announce the name of the company where he will continue his professional career in 15 days, will be replaced by Christophe Gloser. The transition is thus a smooth one, insofar as the new head of the firm is a company insider. Gloser joined the firm in 2001 to create and develop its institutional activities, and in 2008 became director of its banking activities, and then in 2010, director of French commercial activities, including all of Fidelity’s clients: institutionals, businesses, independent financial advisers, and banking and insurance platforms. In practice, Gloser, who had been head of all three units, will not be replaced. “We have made significant recruitments, with the arrival of Cédric Michel and Jean-Marc Didier, who join Laurent Coutanceau,” the president of Fidelity explains. “These three executives have great experience which will allow us to place each activity under their respective sole responsibility.” Gloser, who has been a member of the board of directors for ten years, has perfect knowledge of the business, which will allow him to be operational immediately. Concretely, as he will report directly to Robert Higginbotham, CEO Europe at Fidelity, the new head of the firm, which has EUR2.4bn in assets under management in Paris in the form of open-ended funds (EUR1.7bn) and dedicated funds (EUR700m) plans to continue the ongoing commercial efforts of the firm as decided on in spring, targeting independent financial advisers. In addition to these commercial objectives, Gloser adds that his arrival as head of Fidelity also coincides roughly with the arrival of a new manager in Paris. Bertrand Puiffe, an analyst specialised in French securities, and later Iberian securities at Fidelity, has since 1 August been manager of the FF Nordic Fund, which he took over following unsatisfactory performance of the previous manager. “This appointment is very important, as it confirms the recognised expertise of the European management unit at Fidelity in Paris,” says Gloser. The team now has four managers, including three equity managers, with Victoire de Trogoff and Vincent Durel, and one allocator, in the person of David Ganozzi, also CEO of Fidleity’s French asset management firm. The arrival of the new head of Fidelity in Paris also coincides with the firm’s new brand identity. “Fidelity is becoming Fidelity Worldwide Investment, and is getting a new logo,” Gloser says. “The new identity formally realises our desire to communicate and be transparent with clients.”

Il Sole 24 Ore reports that Arca, one of the oldest bank-owned asset management firms in Italy, an affiliate of Banco Popolare and Ubi Banca, has approved a restructuring and reorganisation plan for the firm. The plan may involve the sale of the depository bank and some layoffs.

Hedge funds in the month of August posted a loss of 2.3% according to the most recent statistics from Hedge Fund Research. Since the beginning of the year, hedge funds have posted a negative performance of 1.2% In the month under review, equities and event-driven strategies have seen declines of 4.1% and 3.7%, respectively, for their fourth consecutive month of losses. However, macro and short-biased strategies have seen gains of 0.1% and 6,9%, respectively. Funds of funds have lost 2% in August, putting them down 1.9% since the beginning of the year.

C-Quadrat Kapitalanlage Ag, a wholly-owned subsidiary of C-Quadrat Investment AG, has announced that it has been awarded management mandates totalling EUR300m by Talanx Asset Management GmbH (which has controlled 25.1% of C-Quadrat Investment since late 2010). The transfer will be finalised during fourth quarter. Menahwile, C-Quadrat and Talanx AM have agreed to found a joint venture to recruit new institutional clients. Each partner will own a 50% stake in the venture. The firm will be based in Frankfurt, and will begin its activities on 1 January 2012. C-Quadrat Kapitalanlage manages about EUR2.8bn in assets.

Finesti, a Luxembourg-registered firm specialised in collecting and distributing data on investment funds, on 9 September announced the launch of a new service which allows investment funds to comply with the requirements of the UCITS IV directive regarding pan-European filings.Finesti will offer a notification service, based on secure and high-speed automatic electronic messages, to transmit a high number of documents to 30 supervisory authorities in the European economic area.The solution offered by Finesti for pan-European notifications is a new module, integrated into the e-file regulatory reporting platform, which Finesti operates with its parent company, the Luxembourg stock exchange.The e-file notification model allows fund managers, promoters, legal advisers, administrators and auditing firms to adapt to the new environment. It assists them in the completion and transmission of notification forms to the authorities in their countries. These forms include up to 10 documents, such as the prospectus, financial reports, and the Key Investor Information Document (KIID).The e-file platform from Finesti may also handle the initial registration procedure for investment funds in their home countries. It also allows funds to send updates to notification documents directly to the supervisory authorities in destination countries.

State Street Securities Finance Americas has recruited Douglas A. Brown as managing director in charge of sales. He will be based in Boston, and will supervise sales to the United States, Canada and Latin America.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has announced the appointment of Michael Terry as global head of capital introduction, in charge of development for these activities for the group. Terry will be based in New York, and will report to John Yalmokas, head of sales of prime brokerage sales for the United States.

Mark McCombe is joining BlackRock, where he will replace Rohit Bhagai as chairman for Asia-Pacific, the Wall Street Journal reports.McCombe, who had been CEO of HSBC Global Asset Management in London, was most recently CEO of HSBC Holdings in Hong Kong.In this position, he will be replaced on 12 September by Anita Fung, who is currently group general manager for the Asian unit at HSBC.

The Northern Trust group has announced that it will provide index-based asset management services to its institutional clients from its Hong Kong office. The development follows a license awarded to Northern Trust by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission to develop services of this type. As part of the move, Northern Trust has appointed Patrick Dwyer as senior portfolio manager in the team dedicated to index-based asset management. Craig Annakin, who joined the firm as head of Asian trading, will be in charge of setting up the new trading desk.

The Primonial group and Apicil on 9 September announced that they are forming a strategic partnership alongside parallel acquisitions. Groupe Primonial will acquire W Finance, an investment business with a national network of 140 investment advisers, and Apicil Prévoyance will acquire Coparc, the life insurance company serving the W Finance network. Following the acquisition, Groupe Primonial will have a network of 250 client advisers, serving 50,000 client families with more than EUR3bn in assets under management or advised. The group created by the move will generated combined earnings of over EUR100m in the next fiscal year. It plans to bring in more than EUR800m for savings offerings in 2012. With the addition of Coparc, the Apicil group will take on more extensive proportions, with its life insurance activities, currently offered through its affiliate Apicil Assurances, with assets of EUR2.2bn, set to double in size. The firm plans to become a leader in life insurance, supplementary retirement and retirement planning via IFAs, with the sales support of Primonial in this segment, as the Primonial group already has relationships with over 700 IFAs nationwide. After life insurance and real estate, personal insurance will become the Primonial Group’s third major target area. The two joint operations, advised by the Lazard bank, have been the subject of exclusive talks with Allianz since late July. The talks resulted in the signature of a definitive agreement which is still pending approval by the antitrust authorities and the prudential control authority.

The default rate for speculative category businesses worldwide in the month of August was down to 1.8%, from 1.9% the previous month, according to monthly statistics from the ratings agency Moody’s. In the coming months, this percentage is expected to remain at a low level, to finish the year at 1.5%, and then to climb to 1.9% by August 2012. In the United States, the default rate fell to 2.1% in August, compared with 2.3% previously, while it remained unchanged month on month in August, at 1.1% The Standard & Poor’s agency, for its part, reports that the number of defaults by companies monitored by the agency worldwide totalled 28 this year up to the first days of September, compared with 61 in the corresponding period of 2010.

August was characterized by stock market turbulence and the outflows from investment funds sold in Sweden were larger than the inflows, according to the Swedish fund association. The total net outflow amounted to SEK 8.1 billion. Equity funds had a net outflow of 34.8 billion and balanced funds had a net outflow of 2.2 billion. Fixed-income funds on the other hand recorded large net inflows, money market funds and bond funds had net inflows of 22.5 and 6.1 billion respectively.So far in 2011, SEK 4.2 billion have been invested in funds and money market funds accounts for the largest part of the net inflows.In total, assets in the industry fell to SEK1.797trn, from SEK1.919trn as of the end of July, of which SEK92bn remained in equity funds.

Dans un entretien accordé à Option Finance, Philippe Goubeault, directeur financier de l’AGIRC ARRCO revient sur les aménagements en cours de réflexion au sein des fédérations Agirc et Arrco: Concernant la construction des portefeuilles, les instances ont demandé à la direction financière de poursuivre différentes études. Une question portera notamment sur l’intérêt d’une déclinaison de l’allocation stratégique d’actifs en incorporant dans un indice composite de référence des composantes de diversification (par exemple, un niveau de duration, un poids donné à la diversification internationale, etc.). Les dispositions du règlement financier seront réexaminées, en vue d’une mise à jour, notamment celles relatives à la diversification (notation minimale des titres, accès aux dettes des pays émergents...). Une institution ne peut pas aujourd’hui investir plus de 5% en titres notés BBB, et ne doit détenir aucun titre en dessous de cette note. Les critères de notation pour la partie taux ne seront vraisemblablement pas desserrés, mais il pourrait être envisagé une reclassification des investissements de crédit dans la partie des placements actions et assimilés, comme cela existe déjà dans certaines réglementations. La question se pose aussi pour les obligations convertibles qui sont affectées selon notre réglementation dans la partie taux. La contrainte d’une noté égale ou supérieure à BBB a pour conséquence de priver les institutions de près de 90% du marché des convertibles. Une étude sera également menée sur les indices de référence susceptibles d'être retenus par classes d’actifs, notamment une réflexion sur les principes de construction, par exemple, les avantages et inconvénients des indices construits en fonction de critères fondamentaux par rapport aux indices fondés sur l’importance des capitalisations ou émissions.

Le britannique Aberdeen Asset Management a embauché Christophe Palumbo comme business development manager à Luxembourg, où il sera responsable du développement de la clientèle «institutions financières» (compagnies d’assurances, banques et gestionnaires d’actifs indépendants) pour le Benelux. Il était en dernier lieu sales executive Belgium chez Carmignac Gestion à Luxembourg.En avril 2010, Aberdeen avait déjà recruté Menno de Vreeze, head of Netherlands chez Carmignac Luxembourg, comme senior business development manager pour le Benelux.Entre-temps, si l’on en croit les communiqués, l’encours géré par Aberdeen pour sa clientèle au Benelux est passé de 8 milliards à 12 milliards d’euros.

Actionnaire-associé de Syntegra Capital Investors Ltd à Londres, entité qui a repris SG Capital Europe Ltd (SGCE) en 2009, Bruno Lambert a été nommé directeur général de BIP Investment Partners SA à compter du 3 octobre 2011.L’ancienne BGL Investment Partners, devenue BIP Investment Partners en février 2006, est une société de participations luxembourgeoise cotée au Luxembourg. Elle investit dans des sociétés cotées et non cotées opérant principalement en Allemagne, au Benelux et en France.

Au travers de sa sicav luxembourgeoise Merrill Lynch Sicav, Merrill Lynch vient de lancer une version coordonnée du The Merger Fund qui est gérée par la filiale Westchester Capital Management. Le Westchester Merger Arbitrage UCITS Fund, ciblé sur les institutionnels, investit dans des sociétés impliquées dans des OPA, dans des fusions et des restructurations publiquement annoncées. Le portefeuille comporte entre 40 et 65 lignes et le gestionnaire se focalise sur des valeurs liquides.CaractéristiquesDénomination : Westchester Merger Arbitrage UCITS FundCode Isin : LU0620299601Commission de gestion : 1;90 %Commission de performance : 20 % avec high watermarkSouscription minimale : 1 million d’euros.