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12/04/2011

UBS hit with a fine and ordered to reimburse US funds

One of the United States financial regulatory bodies, Finra, announced on 11 April that the UBS group will be required to pay a total of USD10.75m, of which USD2.5m is fines, and USD8.25m are restitution, for misinforming clients about products with ties to Lehman Brothers. “Between March and June 2008, when the credit crisis was at its height, UBS promoted … structured securities such as protected investments on a principal, without mentioning that these were non-securitised bonds of (the business bank) Lehman Brothers, which ultimately collapsed in September 2008,” FINRA explains in a statement. “In some cases, financial advisers at UBS did not themselves understand the complex products they were selling, and they thus failed to reveal the necessary information to investors,” in a way that might have made them able to understand the magnitude of the potential losses, a Finra chief, Brad Bennett, added. UBS neither confirmed nor denied the accusations, but agreed to the proposed settlement, Finra says in its statement.
12/04/2011

Head of Hermes Fund Managers resigns

Glyn Jones, head of Hermes Fund Managers, the management firm for the BT Pension Scheme, has resigned from his job, Responsible Investor reports. Jones took over as head of the firm in 2008. The recruitment of a successor to Jones is underway, Hermes states.
12/04/2011

Nest awards mandates to F&C and HSBC GAM

NEST Corporation has announced the fund managers it has appointed for its ethical and sharia mandates, the building blocks for the scheme’s ethical and sharia funds.NEST’s Ethical Mandate has been awarded to F&C Asset Management.NEST’s Sharia Mandate has been awarded to HSBC Global Asset Management.More specifically, the equity portion of NEST’s Ethical Fund will be invested in the F&C Stewardship International Fund, an actively managed global equity fund.NEST’s Sharia Fund will invest solely in the HSBC Life Amanah Pension Fund. This fund passively tracks the Dow Jones Islamic Titans 100 index, a global equity index screened so as to be in accordance with Sharia principles.
12/04/2011

iShares releases four ETC funds

iShares, the Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) platform of BlackRock, has launched its first physically backed Exchange Traded Commodities (ETCs) in the UK.The iShares Physical Gold ETC, iShares Physical Silver ETC, iShares Physical Platinum ETC and iShares Physical Palladium ETC listed on the London Stock Exchange on Monday morning.
12/04/2011

LV=AM for sale

Investment Week cites reports in the Financial Mail that Liverpool Victoria is looking to sell its management business, LV= Asset Management. Four potential buyers are reported to be interested.
12/04/2011

Gulf countries improve their corporate governance practices

Member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are making progress in terms of corporate governance, according to a report published recently by Standard & Poor’s (“Corporate Governance Moves Center Stage as Gulf Countries Aim for Increased Transparency.”) “Corporate governance, which has long been considered an Achilles heel for companies in the Gulf region, is beginning to appear on the radar of political leaders,” says Amra Balic, an analyst at Standard & Poor’s. However, the agency continues, significant changes in the long term will only take hold if pressure from investors keeps up.
12/04/2011

Steep fall in defaults in 2010

After a year 2009 marked by succeeding records in corporate defaults, the year 2010 was characterised by a reversal of that spectacular trend. Defaults of corporate debt issuers worldwide last year totalled 81, compared with a record 265 in 2009, according to annual statistics compiled by Standard & Poor’s (“2010 Annual Global Corporate Default Study and Rating Transitions.”) None of the 81 defaulting companies began the year 2010 with investment-grade ratings, while 87.3% of them were rated B- or lower as of the beginning of the year. Alongside the fall in defaults, an improvement in credit quality has also been observed. There have been 1.36 upward ratings revisions for every 1 downward revision, while the percentage of unchanged ratings is 72.7%, a level not seen in six years. As of the end of 2010, the default rate for speculative category issuers was down to 3.27% in the United States, compared with 1.03% in Europe, and 1.23% in emerging markets. The global default rate came to 1.14% in 2010, compared with 4.04% the previous year.
12/04/2011

European electronic shareholder proxy voting platform launched

The European shareholders’ association organisation Euroshareholders has launched EuroVote, a European electronic correspondence voting platform. With this initiative, “shareholders will for the first time be able to exercise their voting rights at the general shareholders’ meetings of the major European companies,” a statement from Euroshareholders says. The platform, which allows shareholders to vote from a different country than the one in which the general shareholders’ meeting is held, currently only extends to the 50 companies of the Stoxx 50 index. Euroshareholders is also publishing its first European recommendations to facilitate proxy voting by shareholders.
12/04/2011

Major UK banking reforms in the works

The Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) on 11 April published its interim report on the British banking system, at the request of the government. The commission, led by the economist Sir John Vickers, recommends a separation of retail banking and investment banking activities in a document of over 200 pages, without making any definitive statements about the details of the separation. Rather than a structural radicalism, which would require the universal banking model to be dismantled, or a laisser-faire policy which would require much higher levels of owners’ equity at banks, the Commission estimates that “the most effective policy is probably a combination of more moderate measures in terms of absorption of risks or structures.” The report recommends increasing the owners’ equity ratio from 7% currently to 10% for banks which present systemic risks, and for major British retail banks. In structural terms, the report suggests that an entity protected by taxpayer money should be created, distinct from the larger entity, and with its own share of owners’ equity. The report will now be submitted to a period of consultation of several months, which will likely be very active. The Commission will submit its final report to the government in September.
12/04/2011

Two Canadian pension funds acquire a forest operator

The Canadian pension funds British Columbia Investment Management and Public Sector Pension Investment Board will acquire the forest operator TimberWest Forest for CAD1.03bn (EUR910m), including debt, Agefi Switzerland reports. The funds are offering CAD6.48 per share, in cash, which represents a premium of 25% over the share price over a 20-day period up to Friday, 8 April. The forest operator has changed the date of its general shareholders’ meeting, which was initially scheduled for 28 April, in order to allow shareholders to vote on the proposed acquisition.
12/04/2011

Aviva Investors creates an executive board dedicated to Europe

The CEO of Aviva Investors Europe, Jean-François Boulier, announced on 11 April that he has created an executive board dedicated to the activities of Aviva Investors in Europe (excluding the UK). “The creation of an executive board dedicated to Europe will help us to integrate our management and distribution activities in the region, and to step up development of our activities in our priority markets,” Boulier says in a statement. The European executive board includes: · Jean-François Boulier, CEO of Aviva Investors Europe· Emmanuel Babinet, COO for Europe· Christian Dormeau, CFO and head of human resources for Europe· Shaun Meadows, head of strategy for Aviva Investors· Ted Potter, head of business development for Europe· Marek Przybylski, head of development for central Europe The members of the regional executive board already generally serve in similar roles in their respective areas or countries. Aviva Investors adds that the European executive board has four major missions, which fall into its global strategy: accelerate commercial development in Europe; set up an international operational platform for Aviva Investors; maintain excellent quality investment services by Aviva Europe, and to develop joint activities of Aviva Investors in Europe.
12/04/2011

Stoxx launches ESG indices

The index provider Stoxx on 11 April announced the launch of a series of equities indices which will include ESG (environmental, social and governance) criteria, based on data and research from the Sustainanalytics company. The series will include three specialised indices covering the E, S and G criteria, as well as an overall index. The indices are entitled Stoxx Global ESG Environmental Leaders, Stoxx Global ESG Social Leaders, Stoxx Glboal ESG Governance Leaders and Stoxx Global ESG Leaders. The universe for the indices is the Stoxx Glboal 1800 index. Stoxx says that the innovation of the new family of indices is that ratings of companies in various categories and the methodology used will be made public on the Stoxx website as well as on the new Deutsche Börse site dedicated to sustainable investment.
12/04/2011

Lyxor Hedge Fund index down in March

The Lyxor Hedge Fund index lost 0.34% in March. In the month, the alternative strategies which performed best were: Lyxor L/S Equity Statistical Arbitrage Index (1.26%); Lyxor Convertible Bonds & Volatility Arbitrage Index (0.81%); Lyxor Equity Market Neutral Index (0.57%), and Lyxor Fixed Income Arbitrage Index (0.31%). The least well-performing strategies were: Lyxor L/S Equity Short Bias Index (-3.02%), Lyxor Special Situation Index (-1.47%) and Lyxor CTA Long Terme Index (-1.18%). From the beginning of the year to the end of March, the global index has gained 0.76%.
12/04/2011

Tong Yang AM looks to develop in Asia

The Korean management firm Tong Yang Asset Management is seeking to strengthen its presence in several countries of south-east Asia, and is in talks with several potential clients in Japan, Asian Investor reports. Assets under management in the Korean asset management sector represent about USD267bn, of which 20% come from abroad. This percentage is expected to increase strongly, says Paik Chang-ki, CEO of Tong Yang AM.
12/04/2011

Credit Suisse launches a bond fund in Italy

Credit Suisse has launched the Credit Suisse (Lux) Fixed Income Cycle Invest fund, a dynamically-managed bond fund, in Italy. The fund may invest in government or corporate bonds of any rating. Allocation is defined as a function of the economic context.
12/04/2011

State Street recruits an ETF specialist in Italy

State Street Global Advisors has appointed Francesco Lomartire as an ETF specialist, Bluerating reports. He will also belong to the IBG (Intermediary Business Groups) team, and will report to Danilo Verdecanna, managing director of SSgA Italia. Lomartire joins from Morgan Stanley Capital International.
12/04/2011

Swedish investors pull out of equities funds

In March, Swedish investors continued to pull out of equity funds. After net outflows of SEK9.3bn (about EUR1bn) in February, in March, these products saw SEK5.3bn (nearly EUR600m) in outflows, according to the most recent statistics from Fondbolagens Förening, the Swedish investment funds association. Outflows largely affected funds invested in Swedish equities, Swedish and global equities funds, and Asian equities funds. This brings total net redemptions since the beginning of the year to SEK8.2bn (EUR911m). However, due to money market funds, which saw net subscriptions of SEK7.6bn, the Swedish fund industry finished the month with a positive inflow of SEK3.6bn. Other sectors showed virtually no change, excepting hedge funds, which took on SEK1.2bn. Pia Nilsson of Fondbolagens Förening explains that these transfers from equities funds to money market funds is a result of the international context, in which there are many uncertainties at present, driving investors to seek less risky investments. As of the end of March, assets in funds on sale in Sweden totalled SEK1.946trn (EUR216bn), of which SEK1.158trn are in equity funds.
12/04/2011

Skandia IG to serve the Netherlands from Paris

Bogdan Popescu, head of distribution in France for Skandia Investment Group, will now serve the Netherlands, in addition to Monaco and France. The firm was not previously represented in the Netherlands. It will offer sub-funds of the Skandia Global Funds Sicav, which are already available in France. These will be aimed primarily at the major financial institutions based or present in the Netherlands, as well as family offices and institutional investors. Popescu will continue to be based in Paris.
12/04/2011

Wealth management: IT investments in North America continue

Following the rebound observed last year, investments by North American wealth managers in IT industries are expected to increase further this year, the research and consulting firm Celent says in a new report (“The Financial Planning Market,” April 2011). Celent finds that spending may increase by 7.6% in 2011, to about USD1.6bn. Front office (45%) will absorb a considerable part of that spending, followed by back office (30%) and middle office (25%).
12/04/2011

Financière de l’Echiquier adds to sales team for Germany

Financière de l’Echiquier, having recently received a sales license on the German market for its diversified fund Arty (see Newsmanagers of 06/04/2011), is now stepping up its development in Germany further, with an addition to its German sales team. The French asset management boutique has recruited Csaba Dani, formerly of Eurogroup Consulting. The Austrian Dani will assist Sébastien Guedy in developing sales of funds on the German market, where the management firm led by Didier La Menestrel has been present since 2006. With this recruitment, the sales team at Financière de l’Echiquier dedicated to international sales now includes 15 people, a statement says. The management firm, which is planning to triple its assets to EUR15bn by 2015 (see Newsmanagers of 21/01/2011), posted net subscriptions in 2010 of EUR700m, of which 36% came from clients outside France. Since the beginning of the year, inflows have totalled EUR400m.
12/04/2011

La croissance chinoise prévue à 9% en 2011

L’économie chinoise devrait croître à un rythme de 9% sur l’ensemble de l’année 2011 selon l’économiste au centre de l’information de l’Etat, Fan Jianping, cité par le China Securities Journal. Par ailleurs, le pays devrait continuer à subir une accélération de l’inflation au premier semestre de l’année.
12/04/2011

Le Japon va débloquer 1.000 milliards de yens pour l’emploi

Le gouvernement nippon va allouer 1.000 milliards de yens (8,19 milliards d’euros) pour soutenir les chômeurs et prévenir d’autres pertes d’emplois après le séisme qui a secoué l’Archipel, rapporte le journal. Le dégagement de ces fonds sera inclus dans le collectif budgétaire de l’exercice 2011 qui doit être déterminé avant la fin du mois.
12/04/2011

La Chine pourrait réduire ses rabais à l’export sur certains métaux

Le Ministère des Finances chinois envisage de réduire les rabais à l’exportation sur les produits finis en aluminium et en acier inoxydable, rapporte le journal sans préciser ses sources. Les rabais sur certains produits en aluminium pourraient passer de 13% à 9%, tandis que celui de 5% sur l’acier inoxydable serait entièrement supprimé, ajoute le quotidien.
12/04/2011

Terra Firma vend ses cinémas

La société d’investissement dirigée par Guy Hands aurait débuté des négociations exclusives avec BC Partners et Omers Private Equity afin de céder la chaîne de cinémas Odeon & UCI Cinemas pour une valeur totale de 1,2 milliard de livres (1,4 milliard d’euros), selon le quotidien qui ne cite pas ses sources. Guy Hands aurait mandaté Bank of America pour diriger l’opération.
12/04/2011

Le FMI abaisse sa prévision de croissance pour les Etats-Unis

La flambée des prix du pétrole et l’inflation dans les pays émergents risquent de menacer l'économie mondiale, a déclaré lundi le Fonds monétaire international (FMI). Le FMI a abaissé sa prévision de croissance aux Etats-Unis à 2,8% en 2011 (3% précédemment), mais l’a relevée à 2,9% pour 2012 (contre 2,7%). Dans la zone euro, le Fonds prévoit une expansion de 1,6% cette année, contre 1,5% précédemment, et de 1,8% l’an prochain (révisé de 1,7%). «La perspective va dans le sens d’un maintien de la croissance progressive et inégale en Europe», selon le rapport. Contre toute attente, l’institution de Washington juge que le séisme, le tsunami et la crise nucléaire qui ont frappé le Japon n’auront pas d’impact durable. Le FMI a revu en légère baisse sa prévision de croissance nippone en 2011, à 1,4% contre 1,6% précédemment, et a relevé sa prévision pour 2012, à 2,1% contre 1,8%.

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