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24/03/2011

Russell recruits for advising activities in Asia

Russell Investments on 23 March announced that it has appointed Trevor Persaud as head of advising activities for Asean countries, India, Hong Kong and Taiwan. In his new role, Persaud will be responsible for developing advising activities in the region, including investment advising, asset allocation, risk management and portfolio construction. Persaud, who previously worked at Prudential Asset Management in Singapore, will continue to be based in Singapore, and will report to Mahendran Nathan, chief executive for Asean, Hong Kong, Taiwan and India.
24/03/2011

Funds continue to proliferate in Europe

In the United States, there are 7,5000 funds, with assets under management of EUR6trn. This comes out to an average of EUR806m per fund, according to statistics from Lipper. In Europe, no less than 26,000 funds have total assets of EUR3.6trn, meaning that a European fund weighs only EUR137m.This trend is showing no signs of change. In 2009, the number of new funds launched in Europe is larger each year than the number of funds closed or merged. “The UCITS directive has not led to a rationalisation of product ranges,” says Dunny Moonesawmy, head of research for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, at a conference held in Paris on Wednesday by FitchRatings. Mooesawmy says Europe remains a highly fragmented market compared with the United States, and it remains difficult to sell a French fund in other countries. In addition, the needs of investors are divergent depending on their country of origin.Innovation continues to be very strong in terms of asset management, with niche products that aim to respond to constantly-changing demand. The proliferation of products is also a result of the fact that the barrier to entry for new asset management firms is very low, Moonesawmy notes.Of a total of 26,000 funds, very few bring in inflows. For example, in 2010, 70% of the 5,000 equities funds on sale in Europe attracted only 10% of inflows. However, 50 funds captured EUR50bn, a sign of real concentration in inflows on a few funds, asset classes, and management firms.However, Moonesawmy says, due to the growing number of managers finding themselves out of work and setting out to launch their own management firms, the rationalisation of the fund sector, which has been discussed for a decade or more, is not going to happen tomorrow.
24/03/2011

Four appointments at Société Générale Private Banking

Société Générale Private Banking (SGPB) on Wednesday, 23 March announced four appointments to its wealth engineering, fiduciary services and life insurance divison, led by Laurent Joly. Jon Needham, who is based in Jersey, is appointed as global director of fiduciary services for the international banking network. He is also in charge of wealth engineering and fiduciary services for Société Générale Private Banking Hambros. Vittorio Castellani, who is based in Geneva, is appointed head of wealth engineering for Latin American clients of SGPB. He reports to Alberto Valenzuela, deputy CEO of Société Générale Private Banking (Switzerland) SA, and director of the Latin American client segment. Cécile Decomps, who is based in Paris, is appointed head of life insurance for Société Générale Private Banking, in charge of developing and promoting the life insurance product range in the international network of the private bank. Marco Cameroni, who is based in Luxembourg, is appointed head of wealth engineering and fiduciary services for private banking activities at Société Générale Bank & Trust (SGBT). He replaces Claudio Bacceli, who has recently been appointed CEO in charge of private banking at Société Générale Bank & Trust.
24/03/2011

BNY Mellon raises dividends

BNY Mellon on 22 March announced an increase of 44% to its quarterly dividends, from 8 cents to 13 cents per share. The dividend will be paid on 1 May to shareholders registered on 29 April. The group has also announced that its board of directors has granted approval for a further extension to the share buyback program now underway. The new program will increase the buyback total to 47 million shares, with a value of up to USD1.3bn.
24/03/2011

Ossiam appoints head of compliance and internal control

Ossiam, the affiliate of Natixis Global Asset Management specialised in ETFs (exchange-traded funds), announced on Wednesday, 23 March that it has appointed Paul-Marc Lachaud as head of compliance and internal control at the firm. Lachaud, 32, is an addition to the organisation at the management firm, which is planning to launch its first products in May 2011, a statement says. In September 2007, Lachaud joined the inspector general’s office at the BPCE group, as inspector, and was in charge of evaluation of the risk control framework at the bank and its affiliates, and of improving the organization and effectiveness of the group’s various risk management entities.
24/03/2011

Amundi remains overweight in equities

In its diversified portfolios, Amundi Asset Management “has been overweight in equities by several percentage points for the past six months,” and is planning to continue to prefer higher-risk assets. The management firm “is gradually reducing its overweight position on high-yield bonds,” Philippe Thurbide, head of research, strategy and analysis, stated on 23 March, adding that the firm has already been underweight in investment-grade corporate bonds for some time. In government bonds in particular, the French management firm is short on duration, due to continuing, yet evanescent prospects of a rise in inflation in western Europe, and more concrete dangers of rising prices in eastern Europe. Pascal Blanqué, deputy CEO and CIO of Amundi Group, adds that the management firm “is moving from credit to equities, particularly Euorpean equities, where valuations are currently attractive.” This slant towards European equities is leading symetrically to a reduction in the overweight exposure to emerging markets. In terms of Amundi’s product plans, Eric Turjeman, head of equities management in Paris, states clearly that the range is nearly complete in “all terrain,” and thus capable of satisfying any fluctuations in demand due to market evolution. But there might be additions to the range of minimum variance (minvar) products to control volatility, and «return» products.
24/03/2011

RBS resells Spanish real estate loans to Perella Weinberg

Expansión reports that the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has commenced the sale process for its non-strategic credit portfolio in Spain, to sell EUR286m in loans made at the peak of the market to real estate promoters, to the opportunistic Perella Weinberg Real Estate Fund, for an undisclosed amount, but probably at a steep markdown. RBS is still seeking buyers for about EUR700m in loans.
24/03/2011

Unicredit ne dit toujours rien sur la vente de Pioneer

La nouvelle direction d’Unicrédit emmenée par Federico Ghizzoni pourrait envisager de conserver Pioneer Global Asset Management, sa filiale de gestion d’actifs si les offres reçues se révélaient insuffisantes, rapporte L’Agefi. La banque italienne négocie actuellement avec trois candidats (Natixis, Amundi et le britannique Resolution) mais une rumeur parle aussi d’un rapprochement de Pioneer avec Eurizon, son concurrent chez Intesa Sanpaolo. «Une décision sera prise dans deux à trois semaines», a indiqué simplement le directeur général qui a déjà exclu toute vente de l’activité américaine de Pioneer, considérée comme «stratégique».
24/03/2011

Pioneer decision due in two to three weeks

At a presentation of its annual results, Federico Ghizzoni, CEO of UniCredit, announced that a decision would be made in two to three weeks on the sale of Pioneer, Il Sole – 24 Ore reports. The Italian newspaper reports that representatives of Resolution, one of the candidates, have met top management of UniCredit on several occasions in Milan to present the most recent details of their bid. The UK group is proposing to create a European asset management platform capable of attracting other players in the sector. Pioneer would then be owned by a newly-created firm owned by the new and former shareholders in the asset management firm, and thus potentially also UniCredit. The entity would be listed in London and Milan, with at least 51% of its capital public. The other candidates are Amundi and Natixis, though these have been made uneasy by the Italian government’s decision to block hostile operations in strategic sectors in the country, Il Sole notes. Ghizzoni did not rule out the possibility that Pioneer would not be sold.
24/03/2011

Prudential adds to range of real estate funds

Prudential Investments is launching two new real estate funds. The Prudential U.S. Real Estate Fund concentrates on investments in real estate companies in the United States, while the Prudential International Real Estate Fund invests in real estate companies outside North America, in developed countries and emerging markets.
24/03/2011

CCR AM hires a former Lyxor manager

Olivier Cornuot, 43, is joining the volatility and convertibles unit at CCR Asset Management, as a senior manager in charge of quantitative strategies. Cornuot was previously head of absolute return and manager of volatility arbitrage funds at Lyxor.
24/03/2011

New Alpha AM finalises first closing on new incubation vehicle

NewAlpha Asset management has completed a first round of fundraising at EUR105m for the NewAlpha Genesis 4 fund, from 10 institutional investors. The fund, whose final asset target is set at EUR150m, will be able to accept further subscriptions until the end of July 2011. The fund will aim to invest in diversified alternative strategies from asset management firms in a launch or development phase. The analysis and research team at NewAlpha Asset Management, which considered more than 300 candidates for incubation in 2010, has already identified, selected and begun negotiations with several managers that show attractive characteristics, both in terms of future performance and growth in activities. NewAlpha Genesis 4 will make its first investments by the end of first half 2011. NewAlpha Genesis 4 aims to offer total annualised performance of 8% to 12%, on an investment horizon of at least 3 years.
24/03/2011

Galleon: Goldman Sachs president and CEO testifies against former McKinsey head

In the third week of the Galleon trial, the president and CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, took a stand against the former head of McKinsey, Rajat Gupta, defending the confidentiality of the deliberations of the bank’s board, to which he had belonged, Les Echos reports. Gupta is accused of feeding confidential information to the founder of Galleon, Rajat Rajaratnam.
24/03/2011

Mapfre launches a guaranteed fund benchmarked to Eurostoxx 50

The insurance firm Mapfre Vida on Wednesday launched the Fondmapfre Garantizado 1104, which will mature on 4 May 2015. The capital is 100% guaranteed, and returns will depend on the performance of the Euro Stoxx 50. There will be weekly liquidity windows beginning in the second year.
24/03/2011

Axa, Mirabaud and Pimco register funds in Spain

Three foreign management firms have recently received licenses to sell some of their products in Spain. They include the Axa IM Euro Moderato (E share class, FR0010950055, and I share class, FR0010950063) from Axa Ibercapital, and the Mirabaud Active Allocation (A share class, LU0562891944, and I share class, LU0562892165) from Mirabaud Finanzas. For its part, Pimco (Allianz Global Investors group) has registered the Pimco Emerging Asia Bond Fund, Pimco Emerging Markets and Infrastructure Bond Fund, and PIMCO Global Advantage Fund. The last of these replicates the fundamental index GLADI (Global Advantage Index), which was developed internally.
24/03/2011

Amundi launches a money market Sicav

Amundi has launched a money market Sicav, Amundi Money Market Fund Short Term (EUR), Citywire reports. Its objective is to outperform the Eonia. The management firm is also planning to launch a sub-fund in US dollars in the next few months, and may also launch a fund in pounds Sterling.
24/03/2011

Rome contre-attaque sur Parmalat

Le gouvernement a adopté un décret-loi augmentant le délai de tenue des assemblées générales. Une mesure fustigée par le patronat italien.
24/03/2011

La Bourse de Singapour fait pression sur les groupes chinois

SGX, l’opérateur de la Bourse de Singapour, a demandé aux entreprises basées en Chine et cotées sur son marché de prendre davantage de contrôle sur leurs entités de Chine continentale. L’opérateur souhaite que les sociétés soient capables de recruter et de licencier librement les patrons de leurs activités en Chine continentale.
24/03/2011

La hausse des taux aura bien lieu

Juergen Stark, membre du comité de politique monétaire de la BCE, a estimé dans un entretien au journal que «les taux d’inflation ont accéléré d’une manière nettement plus rapide qu’anticipé depuis leurs plus bas niveaux de début 2009». Prenant acte de l’impact de la situation au Japon, il estime néanmoins que «les marchés financiers ne peuvent s’attendre à ce que la politique monétaire soit obligée de réagir en mettant genou à terre à chaque situation exceptionnelle».
24/03/2011

L'UE veut durcir les règles nucléaires

Les dirigeants de l’Union européenne appuieront vendredi des mesures de sécurité nucléaires plus strictes. Selon un projet de déclaration finale du sommet européen qui se tient jeudi et vendredi à Bruxelles, et dont Reuters s’est procuré une copie, les chefs d’Etat et de gouvernement européens déclarent que «la sécurité des centrales nucléaires de l’UE doit être revue, sur la base d’une évaluation des risques et de la sécurité transparente et complète (stress tests)».
24/03/2011

Statu quo pour la Banque d’Angleterre

Le comité de politique monétaire de la Banque d’Angleterre (BoE) est resté tiraillé entre partisans du statu quo et ceux d’un durcissement, montrent les minutes de la réunion de mars. Le nombre de partisans d’une hausse des taux est resté bloqué à 3 membres, les 6 autres étant partisans du statu quo.
24/03/2011

Dubai World signe un accord définitif sur sa dette

Dubai World a signé mercredi un accord définitif avec ses créanciers sur la restructuration de ses 24,9 milliards de dollars de dettes. Le conglomérat contrôlé par l'émirat de Dubaï a précisé avoir conclu un accord avec 80 créanciers. Il remboursera ses obligations sur une période de cinq à huit ans.

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