In April, net inflows to funds in Europe were at their highest levels for 6 months, at EUR24.8bn, excluding money market activity, and EUR28.6bn including money market funds (of which EUR2.4bn were for French products), according to statistics from Lipper. The top three asset management firms in terms of subscriptions were Franklin Templeton, which holds onto the top spot with EUR3.3bn, followed by Allianz Global Investors/Pimco with EUR2bn, and GAM Holding with EUR1.3bn. Although net sales of bonds funds have increased for the fourth month in a row, to EUR7bn (compared with EUR4.7bn in March; see Newsmanagers of 13 May), equity funds have seen a spectacular recovery, with EUR12.9bn in net inflows, compared with EUR8.5bn in net outflows the previous month. Funds on sale across borders have seen net subscriptions of EUR10.6bn for bonds, and EUR7.8bn for equities, while Italian, Dutch and Spanish investors have made net redemptions. Lipper also points to good results for commodities and raw materials funds, which have attracted EUR960m and EUR860m in subscriptions, respectively, bringing the total for the first four months of the year to EUR3.7bn and EUR4.4bn.

The Hedge Fund Journal reports that assets under management by the Schroders UCITS-compliant hedge fund platform Schroder GAIA have topped USD1.03bn, only 18 months after the launch of the platform. The platform now includes five funds of which three are managed by external hedge fund managers, and two are internally managed. The most recent fund offered to investors is the Schroder GAIA CQS, a long/short credit strategy.

In May, Swedish investors once again turned their backs on equity funds, though they had massively returned to them in April. Equity funds on sale in Sweden saw net outflows of SEK1.9bn last month, according to statistics from Fondbolagens Förening, the Swedish investment fund association. In April, funds posted net inflows of SEK9.3bn, following two months of net outflows. Since the beginning of the year, equity funds saw net outflows of SEK1bn. In May, funds on sale in Sweden show net inflows, due to subscriptions to other asset classes, particularly money market funds (SEK1.7bn), and bond funds (SEK1.3bn). As of the end of May, funds in Sweden represented assets of SEK1.971trn, of which SEK1.169trn were invested in equity funds.

Luis Muñoz, who joined Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking (SG CIB) last month, will be in charge of distribution of structured products and multi-asset class solutions for Spain and Portugal. He most recently served as executive director for derivatives activity at Morgan Stanley in London.

On 22 April 2011, the Italian UniCredit bank announced that it will not be selling its asset management unit Pioneer Investments, and will be preferring internal growth. The announcement marked the end of a long period of uncertainty and speculation about the future of the firm, which was being wooed by the French firms Amundi and Natixis. Despite these difficult times, in 2010, the Paris office of Pioneer had “its best year ever” in terms of inflows, according to the director, Fabien Madar. The firm has posted net inflows of EUR300m, and finished the year with EUR1.5bn of assets under management. “2010 was a year of great success for our sales team. We needed to show that despite the strategic review our company was subject to, our future was not up in the air. We therefore needed to stay close to clients, which we did, and which they appreciated.” And since the beginning of the year, the Paris office has taken on a further EUR100m, putting assets at EUR1.6bn, of which 60% are for wholesale clients, and 40% for institutionals. The objective is to achieve net subscriptions of EUR250m by the end of the year. Madar’s ambitions don’t stop at the borders of France, and also extend to Monaco, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and since May, the Netherlands and Nordic countries, an area which represents slightly over EUR1bn in assets. The new position was handed to Madar following the departure of Jilert Blom, who had been head of the Netherlands and the Nordic countries. Combining these countries with the French-speaking ones can be explained as due to the fact that these markets are both institutional and wholesale, and they are at the same level of technicity as France, Madar says. Pioneer has now built itself a presence serving Dutch clients and a few in Sweden. But the firm, led by Madar, is also planning to develop in Denmark, Finland, and Norway. One sales person based in Amsterdam will be serving all these markets, while a country manager for the entire region is in a recruitment phase. For these countries, “we have no quantitative objectives for the moment, but rather qualitative objectives: to take on as many clients as possible,” says Madar. As to a potential physical presence in Scandinavia, that will come in time, depending on the results of ongoing development.

The British investment management association (IMA) claims that reforms to the financial services compensation scheme (FSCS) could make the British market more attractive as a platform for international management groups. The failures of the past three years (the Keydata affair not least) had a cost of about EUR500m for the financial services industry, the chairman of the professional association, Douglas Ferrans, says, and calls on the FSA to make reform of the compensation regime a priority.

Barclays Capital Fund Solutions, the asset management unit of Barclays Capital, late last week announced the launch of a UCITS format return fund in Singapore, entitled Barclays Real Return USD Fund, Asian Investor reports. The fund will invest up to 70% of its assets in bonds, including inflation-linked bonds. The remaining 30% will be invested in commodities and money markets, depending on market conditions.

Helios Investment Partners, a pan-African private equity group co-founded by a former TPG exécutive, has raised USD900m, the largest ever amount of money for a new private equity fund targeting Africa, according to the Financial Times. Helios sourced its funding from US university endowments, Asian sovereign wealth funds, large African corporate pension funds and European and American fund of funds as well as development finance institutions.

In a letter cited by the Wall Street Journal, the head of enforcement at the SEC, Robert Khuzami, has refused to disclose details to Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, Republican head of the legal commission, about the way in which the regulatory authority has made use of referrals from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) about questionable transactions by the hedge fund management firm SEC Capital Advisors. The senator says that he considers the response unacceptable.

Zvi Goffer, a former Galleon Group trader nicknamed Octopussy, as well as his brother Emanuel Goffer and Michael Kimelman been found guilty of insider trading, according to the Financial Times. They are accused of trading ahead of corporate takeover announcements of which they learnt from two Ropes & Gray lawyers advising the companies on the deals.

Markus Novak, who had served at Skandia at head of distribution clients, wealth management firms and banks in Germany, has joined JPMorgan Asset Management as second in command to Charles Neus, concentrating on sales to insurers and their networks.

30 institutional investors, with combined assets under management of about USD1trn, have sent a letter to companies of the Russell 1000 index, calling on them to accept the “new reality” of ESG (environmental, social and governance) risks, and to plan for it in their business planning. These issues cannot be considered areas “off the balance sheet,” the investors say. “They are rather concrete financial issues which represent both risks and opportunities for the long-term success of businesses,” they say. The Californian pension funds CalPERS and CalSTRS, which are among the signatories, had already announced last month that they had decided to better integrate ESG criteria into all of their investment decisions.

The alternative boutique BBVA & Partners (EUR200m in assets) from Saragossa is now wholly owned by BBVA Asset Management, which has been joined by its three partners, León Baltolomé, Pablo Gil and Juan Uguet, who had previously owned 30% of the former firm.Funds People also reports that the BBVA & Partners funds have been transferred to the Luxembourg Sicav from BBVA Durbana International Fund, which has a sales license for Spain. The funds include the BBVA & Partners Retorno Absoluto FIL (EUR21m), BBVA Partners Ahorro Dinámico, BBVA Partners Augustus, BBVA Partners Dynamic and BBVA Partners European Absolute Return.

The website e.fundresearch.at has announced that the Scandinavian institutional management firm DnB NOR Asset Management (EUR57bn in assets) in May acquired an operating license for Austria.Mike Judith, vice president of the firm and head of distribution for Germany, says that the nine best-known equities funds from the Carlson Funds brand are now available on the local market.

At the conclusion of a call for bids which opened on 22 October last year, for a renewed overlay management mandate, the French national pension fund, the Fonds de réserve pour les retraites (FRR), on 10 June announced that it has awarded the mandate to State Street Global Advisors France. The mandate will be for a renewable two-year period. The mission of the provider will be to inform and advise the FRR, to ensure currency risk management and to manage exposure of various asset classes defined by the FRR board, the fund says in a statement.

La banque privée londonienne de Fortis ne va finalement pas fusionner avec BNP Paribas Wealth Management, révèle L’Agefi, mais va être vendue, selon une source proche du dossier. De taille modeste, Fortis Private Investment Management, est axée sur la clientèle domestique mais ne peut s’appuyer sur un réseau bancaire tandis que le dispositif onshore (pour résidents) de BNP Paribas Wealth Management repose sur la banque de détail du groupe, explique le quotidien.

La banque privée londonienne de Fortis ne va finalement pas fusionner avec BNP Paribas Wealth Management, révèle L’Agefi, mais va être vendue, selon une source proche du dossier. De taille modeste, Fortis Private Investment Management, est axée sur la clientèle domestique mais ne peut s’appuyer sur un réseau bancaire tandis que le dispositif onshore (pour résidents) de BNP Paribas Wealth Management repose sur la banque de détail du groupe, explique le quotidien.

According to the most recent statistics from JPMorgan, exposure by US money market funds to securities issued by Euro zone banks as of the end of May had fallen to USD361bn, about 40% of the USD902bn allocation to non-US banks, the Wall Street Journal reports. As of the end of March 2010, when the debt crisis broke, the percentage was 50.9%. Exposure to Spanish banks had fallen 85%, to USD6bn, compared with USD40bn as of the end of March 2010. It had fallen 70% for Belgian banks, and 75% for Italian banks. It has also fallen 25% for German banks, and 9% for French banks. However, exposure to Swedish banks has risen 95%, while exposure to Norwegian banks has increased 53%, and to Canadian banks, 49%.

Maple Group Acquisition Corp., the vehicle which has been launched for a counter-bid to acquire the Toronto stock exchange (TMX, which is being wooed by the London Stock Exchange), bringing together Canadian banks and pension funds, on Sunday announced that it has signed up four new members: The Quebec financial group Desjardins, GMP Capital, Dundee Capital Markets, and Manulife Financial.

Barclays Capital Fund Solutions, le pôle gestion d’actifs de Barclays Capital, a annoncé en fin de semaine dernière le lancement d’un fonds de rendement au format Ucits à Singapour, le Barclays Real Return USD Fund, rapporte Asian Investor.Le fonds investira jusqu'à concurrence de 70% dans des obligations, y compris des obligations indexées sur l’inflation. Le reliquat de 30% sera investi dans des matières premières et du monétaire, en fonction des conditions de marché.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch et la Banque Mondiale viennent d’annoncer un projet d’offre sur une base périodique d’obligations vertes de la Banque Mondiale à destination des investisseurs de Merrill Lynch Wealth Management.Les premières obligations vertes de la Banque Mondiale, qui proposent des solutions favorables à l’environnement au travers d’un investissement obligataire noté en catégorie d’investissement, ont été lancées au deuxième trimestre 2011.

Le site e.fundresearch.at indique que le gestionnaire institutionnel scandinave DnB NOR Asset Management (57 milliards d’euros d’encours) a obtenu en mai une licence d’exploitation en Autriche.Mike Judith, vice-président de la société et responsable de la distribution en Autriche, a indiqué que les neuf fonds actions les plus connus de Carlson Funds - la marque de DnB NOR Asset Management - sont désormais disponibles sur le marché local.

En mai, les investisseurs suédois ont à nouveau délaissé les fonds actions, alors qu’ils y étaient revenus massivement en avril. Ainsi, les fonds actions commercialisés en Suède ont accusé des rachats nets de 1,9 milliard de couronnes suédoises le mois dernier, selon les dernières statistiques de Fondbolagens Förening, l’association suédoise des fonds d’investissement. En avril, ils avaient enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 9,3 milliards de couronnes après deux mois de sorties nettes. Depuis le début de l’année, les fonds actions voient sortir, en net, 1 milliard de couronnes.Néanmoins, en mai, le secteur des fonds commercialisés en Suède affiche une collecte nette, grâce aux souscriptions sur les autres classes d’actifs, et notamment sur les fonds monétaires (1,7 milliard de couronnes) et les fonds obligataires (1,3 milliard). A fin mai, les fonds en Suède représentaient un encours de 1.971 milliards de couronnes, dont 1.169 milliards investis dans des fonds actions.

Markus Novak, qui était principalement responsable de la clientèle de la distribution auprès des gestionnaires de fortune et des banques en Allemagne pour Skandia, vient de rejoindre JPMorgan Asset Management comme second de Charles Neus pour la distribution auprès des compagnies d’assurances et de leurs réseaux.

Après onze ans chez Gartmore, où il était en dernier lieu head of intermediary sales, Warren Shiels a été recruté le 6 juin par Man Group comme director, UK retail. Il sera ainsi chargé de superviser la commercialisation des fonds long-only et de performance absolue de Man ainsi que de GLG auprès des tiers, comme les «life offices», les plates-formes et les CGPI.

Helios Investment Partners, un groupe de private equity créé par un ancien dirigeant de TPG, a levé 900 millions de dollars pour un fonds de capital investissement ciblant l’Afrique, soit un montant record pour cette zone géographique, rapporte le Financial Times. Les financements viennent de fonds de dotation d’universités américaines, de fonds souverains asiatiques, de gros fonds de pension d’entreprises africains, de fonds de fonds européens et américains et d’institutions de développement.

Les anciens multigérants de Gartmore Ari Towli et Nick Roberts ont rejoint la boutique de multigestion North Investments Partners, rapporte Investment Week.Le duo va travailler avec Nick Stanhope sur l’ensemble de la gamme de multigestion, dont les actifs sous gestion s'élevaient au 31 mai à 450 millions de livres. Ils sont tous deux rattachés au chief executive de North IP, John Husselbee.

Anthony Cheung, gérant spécialiste de la Chine dans l'équipe marchés émergents mondiaux de Gartmore Investment Management, a été recruté par Pictet Asset Management dont il rejoint l'équipe total return Asie où il sera co-gérant de fonds long/short sous la direction de Nidhi Mahhurkar, rapporte Citywire.

State Street Global Advisors va inaugurer sa première gamme d’ETF au Royaume-Uni au trimestre prochain, rapporte Investment Week. Au total, la société de gestion américaine, qui est l’un des plus gros fournisseurs d’ETF aux Etats-Unis, compte en lancer une cinquantaine outre-Manche dans les deux prochaines années.

D’ici à la fin de l’année, Vanguard Investments UK (1,9 milliard de livres d’encours) compte porter de 14 actuellement à 25 le nombre de ses fonds commercialisés au Royaume-Uni, rapporte Fundweb. Parmi les produits pour lesquels un agrément de commercialisation a été sollicité auprès de la FSA figurent des ETF, des fonds à objectif de risque, des fonds à horizon et un fonds d’allocation stratégique.Tom Rampulla, le directeur général, a indiqué aussi que l’effectif sera porté d’ici à la fin de l’année à 105 personnes contre 68 actuellement.