p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Regulators in the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom have launched an investigation to determine whether major banks have conspired to “manipulate” the Libor, the index used to calculate the cost of billions of dollars in debt, the Financial Times reports. The investigation is focusing on a sample of 16 banks which help to British bankers’ association to determine the index. UBS revealed the existence of the investigation in its annual report, the FT states.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } KBC Goldstate, the Chinese management firm owned 51% by Goldstate Securities and 49% by KBC, has recruited Zhang Jiabin as general manager, replacing Yi Qiang, who left the firm on 24 February due to continued underperformance, Asian Investor reports. Last year, assets under management at the joint venture fell 60% to USD197m. Zhang, who began in his new role on 1 March, previously worked at Minsheng Royal FMC, which since March 2009 has launched six mutual funds (three equities funds, two fixed income funds and one balanced fund), with assets under management as of 11 March totalling about RMB3.7bn, or about USD563m.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } From 16 March, 12 new RBS MarketAccess ETFs from the Royal Bank of Scotland will be listed on the ETFPlus market from Borsa Italiana. Ten of the funds have a monthly leverage factor of two. The other two are hedged for currency risks. The new ETFs are the following: ETFs with a monthly leverage of two:LongLeveraged FTSE MIB Monthly IndexEuro Stoxx 50 Monthly Leverage IndexLevDAX x2 Monthly IndexLeveraged FTSE 100 Monthly IndexS&P GSCI Capped Component 35/20 2X Leverage Monthly Index ShortShort FTSE MIB Monthly IndexEuro Stoxx 50 Monthly Double Short IndexShortDAX x2 Monthly Index Short FTSE 100 Monthly IndexS&P GSCI Capped Component 35/20 2X Inverse Monthly Index ETFs hedged for currency risks:S&P 500 EUR Hedged Index TOPIX EUR Hedged Index

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } M&G Investments has signed an agreement with Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking, by which its funds will be offered for sale by the private banking network of the Italian banking group. The M&G Investments product range includes 25 funds registered in Italy. Among these are the M&G Global Basics Fund, a global equities fund managed by Graham French on the basis of major trends that might impact businesses, and the M&G Optimal Income Fund, a flexible bond fund managed by Richard Woolnough.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Financial Services Authority (FSA) on Tuesday, 15 March sentenced the currency trading firm ActivTrades Plc to pay a fine of GBP85,750, for failing to protect client assets.As client assets need to be separated from the business with “trust status,” in order to protect the capital of savings investors, the FSA found that between 14 April 2009 and 2 September 2010, ActivTrust did not ensure that the amounts in client funds, ranging from GBP3.4m to GBP23.6m, and averaging GBP12.2m, were properly isolated in case the firm were to go bankrupt.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British-registered fund (OEIC) Global Listed Infrastructure from First State Investments, launched on 31 October 2007, has returned 21.1% per year since its launch (retail A shares, before taxes), compared with 1.7% for the benchmark index, which until 1 June 2008 was the S&P Global Infrastructure Index, and since then has been the UBS Global Infrastructure & Utilities 50-50 Index. “In 40 months of existence, we have seen net redemptions in only two months,” Andrew Greenup, co-manager of the fund with Peter Meany, tells Newsmanagers.The product, whose assets totalled GBP210m as of the end of January, invests in 40 purely infrastructure businesses worldwide (including 7 French businesses which account for 12% of the portfolio), in all cap sizes, with 60% midcaps (from USD2bn to USD10bn), and 30% large caps. Only 4% are emerging markets equities (with a limit of 20%), and the turnover rate for the portfolio is low, “between 30% and 35%.”“These are not glamorous companies. They operate installations, their stable revenues offer good visibility, and they provide good insurance against inflation. In addition, they benefit from structural growth. And we pick good companies which are unjustly underpriced,” says Greenup.The infrastructure equities team at First State, which has seven members, “picks only the companies out of the 135 that it monitors which are likely to outperform the infrastructure asset class, for which returns are 12%, with dividends reinvested,” the manager says.The shares are analysed on the basis of their current cash flows (DCF) compared with the beta for the asset class and the category of similar shares, as well as on the basis of 25 qualitative criteria, including the three variables known as environmental, social and governance (ESG), which are important from a reputational risk point of view.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The financial information specialist firm GFM on 15 March announced that it has launched a new data service to which access will be free of charge. Globalfunddata includes profiles of over 34,000 funds, hedge funds, ETFs and long-only funds which submit their results to Morningstar. Users will have several possible ways to search for funds, e.g. by name, domicile, and legal format. In the next few months, GFM is planning to improve the service, with the addition of graphs and portfolio tools.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In the wake of the recent explosion in oil prices, investors are showing some concern about the profitability of businesses and continued global growth, according to the latest survey by BofA Merrill Lynch, undertaken between 4 and 10 March, of a sample of 203 managers with slightly over USD600bn in assets under management.Only a net 32% of investors predict that corporate profits will increase, compared with 51% last month. 31% expect that the consensus on profits is too high. Though in January 10% predicted that margins would progress, now 24% of investors predict that margins will fall in the next twelve months.This low level of confidence also extends to macroeconomic outlooks. Only 31% of allocators predict that growth will accelerate in the next twelve months, compared with 51% last month. In the United States, the decline is even more marked, to 21% compared with 52% the previous month.The prospect of stagflation has risen again. In the space of two months, the proportion of managers who predict that growth will be below the trend and that inflation will be higher than the trend has doubled to 38%. Investors no longer believe that interest rates will be increased in the near future due to the rise in oil prices. Three quarters of respondents predict that rates will be raised in the next twelve months. But at the same time, the rate curve may flatten out, 35% of managers predict, compared with 14% in February. In Europe, no less than 72% of managers estimate that the ECB will raise its rates before July. In February, nobody predicted that this would be the case.However, the period of stagflation may be short if the price of oil falls back again. “There has not been a massive selloff. Investors are adopting a wait-and-see attitude,” says Bary Baker, head of European equities strategy at BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research.In this context, investors have increased their liquidity allocations: 18% say they are overweight in cash, while 3% of them were underweight the previous month. They have also reduced their allocation to equities and commodities. Only 45% are overweight in equities, compared with 67% in February. But this has not resulted in a regain of interest in bonds, as investors remain underweight in this asset class (59%).The erosion of confidence in emerging markets is also beginning to diminish. Only 15% of managers of funds which invest in this region predict that the Chinese economy will slow down, compared with 27% in February. Fears for the Chinese real estate market are also less marked than previously.

As reported in Newsmanagers in June 2010, Harewood Asset Management, founded in 2004 by the equities management teams from BNP Paribas CIB, has been merged with the Sigma team of BNP Paribas Asset Management. The new entity born of the merger, entitled Theam, now becomes a wholly-owned affiliate of BNP Paribas Investment Partners, Philippe Marchessaux, administrator and CEO of BNP Paribas IP, announced on Tuesday at a press conference. Assets under management now total nearly EUR50bn, with EUR44.3bn from Sigma and EUR4.7m from Harewood. Marchessaux hopes to double this total in the next five years, through client development in Asia and North America. Staff total 120 people, and the structure is led by Gilles Guérin, who joined on 1 July to oversee the merger from HDF Finance, where he was vice-chairman of the board.Theam’s activities are structured around four specialties. The largest in terms of assets (EUR25.1m) is management of its guaranteed and protected funds. This is followed by ETF and index-based management, including the EasyETF range, with EUR15.9bn. The third unit is alternative management, which represents EUR5.4bn. This will be undertaken directly, with discretionary quantitative strategies contained in UCITS III funds, or in open architecture, via alternative multi-management funds. Theam also has an active systematic management operation.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Fabienne Pasquet has joined UFG-LFP as head of relations with banks. She was previously at Rothschild & Cie Gestion, where she served as sub-director, in charge of distribution to private banks.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The French asset management firm Dorval Finance announced on Tuesday, 15 March, that it has added to its asset allocation management team, with the arrival of Gustavo Horenstein as manager of international flexible funds. In practice, with his double expertise in economy and allocation management, he will become co-manager of the flexible funds Dorval Flexible Monde and Dorval Flexible Emergents, and will oversee the asset allocation unit alongside Sophie Chauvellier, a statement says. Horenstein, 37, was previously an analyst and manager in the diversified management and multi-management unit at Oddo Asset Management, from 2006. He joined the firm in 2000 as an economist at Oddo Securities.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The California pension fund CalPERS announced on 15 March that an internal committee has decided to recommend that the fund maintain its annual rate of return at 7.75%. The board of trustees is expected to approve the recommendation on Wednesday, 16 March. In the past 20 years, CalPERS points out, the yield rate before fees and commissions averaged 7.9% per year. For the fiscal year to 30 June 2010, the yield rate was 13.3%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The publication fo solvency ratios for the Spanish savings banks last week by the Bank of Spain did not help the situation: now vulture funds are demanding rebates of as much as 70%, or 0.3 times book value, to enter the capital of the banks, Cotizalia reports. Investors called in to help increase the owners’ equity ratios at the banks include Apollo, Blackstone, Cerberus, J.C. Flowers and Paulson.The demands of these investors are virtually unacceptable: they have told the central bank that they estimate the value of real estate assets held by the banks at zero.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The head of the external fund analysis services and hedge fund products at Banco Banif for the past four years, José María Martínez-Sanjuán, has been appointed as head of a team of six analysts in the third-party fund selection service at Santander Asset Management. Banif is the private bank of the Santander group.The appointment will allow Santander AM to standardise its manager and third-party fund selection rules across the group.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 15 March, the SEC filed charges against Eugenio Verzili and Arturo Rodroguez, the founders of the hedge fund management firm Juno Mother Earth Asset Management LLC, which it accuses of diverting about USD1.8m in assets from a fund managed by the firm, the Wall Street Journal reports. The two men are also accused of artificially inflating their assets and making false declarations to the regulator, including a claim that they had USD200m in assets under management.The money funnelled form the fund is said to have been used to cover Juno’s operating expenses.The financial authorities in the Cayman Islands and Liechtenstein cooperated with the SEC in the investigation.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Vigeo announced on 15 March that the Aspi Committee, which undertakes the quarterly revision of the Aspi Eurozone® index, decided at its most recent session to remove Deutsche Postbank from the index. Deutsche Postbank was removed from the Euro Stoxx index on 1 February. The Spanish firm Criteria Caixacorp has been added to the Aspi index.The Aspi index includes the 120 best-rated publicly-traded businesses in the euro zone on the basis of Vigeo ratings. Changes affecting the composition and weight of shares in the index will take effect from the opening of trading on Monday, 21 March, Vigeo states.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As part of its move to refocus on the performance of equity and bond portfolios, Alliance Trust Plc has announced that over the next few months will gradually wind down its operations in the area of private equity.Alliance Trust Equity Partners has six employees, and manages GBP110m in assets, 3.8% of total assets at the group as of the end of February.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Among the 218 people, including 53 managers, in the real estate division of Aviva Investors, there are two people in charge of developing a potential new line of “real asset” products, along with the parent company, Aviva, and institutional clients.Laurence Monnier and Ian Berry, fund managers, are focusing on infrastructure in order to offer clients funds that provide long-term visibility combined with low risk, with the objective of identifying profitable niches for each risk level.Three strategies are under study. One strategy works with external partners to create a product which is not a fund of funds, but which specialises on structuring and analysis to make direct investments in the area of renewable energies, focusing on operators rather than producers or providers of equipment.Meanwhile, the team is also hoping to release a fund of debt from regulated utilities or gas or electricity transport companies, which are low risk activities. For this project, specialists at Aviva Investors are cooperating with Hadrian’s Wall Capital. The two partners have signed an agreement to create a GBP1bn vehicle to finance projects in the United Kingdom and continental Europe.The third project under study is a management fund with no passive constraints, which would aim to bring in regular returns (Return Enhanced Asset Liability Management or REALM; see Newsmanagers of 10 March).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The index-linked bond funds Overseas Government Bond Tracker (GBP190m) and BlackRock Overseas Corporate Bond Trackerf (GBP160m) from BlackRock, which replicate the JP Morgan Global Government Bond ex UK index and the Barclays Capital Global Aggregate Corporate ex UK index, have now been added to the range of 12 British retail funds known as BlackRock Collective Investment Funds, in response to significant demand from investors. Management commission is limited to 0.52% for each product. The two funds invest physically in assets from the indices, but may also place a part of their portfolios in money market instruments or other funds. The managers may also use derivatives and futures transactions to more effectively manage the portfolio.

Le ministre irlandais des Finances a indiqué qu’aucun accord ne peut être envisagé avant les résultats des stress tests à la fin du mois

Même si elle se réjouit d’une reprise plus vigoureuse, la Réserve fédérale américaine a décidé hier de maintenir ses taux et son plan de rachat d’obligations du Trésor

La réforme du Pacte de stabilité et de croissance adoptée hier donne le top départ aux négociations avec le Parlement européen

Selon Barclays, les emprunteurs français dans l’univers européen des CMBS pourraient l'utiliser pour se protéger contre l’insolvabilité

Les incertitudes autour de la centrale nucléaire japonaise favorisent les obligations d'Etat

Le pôle spécialisé en gestion indicielle, qui gérait 49 milliards d’euros d’encours à fin 2010, mise sur son développement à l’international

Le déploiement de forces sécuritaires par le Conseil de coopération des Etats arabes du Golfe à Bahreïn a été vivement critiqué hier par Téhéran

Un rapport du cabinet d’avocats de Washington Steptoe & Johnson, fruit d’une enquête de dix-sept mois, révèle de surprenantes pratiques au sein du fonds de pension du secteur public californien. Les gérants sélectionnés pour la gestion des fonds du plus important fonds de pension public américain auraient versé environ 180 millions de dollars pour s’assurer ce rôle au cours des dix dernières années. L’ancien directeur général, Frederico Buenrostro, serait intervenu régulièrement, à l’encontre des règles, pour faire pression sur les membres des comités de sélection en faveur de certaines sociétés de gestion. Le quotidien souligne qu’une enquête fédérale est en cours sur les «agents de placement».

Le média en ligne avance que le régulateur sud-coréen devrait dévoiler aujourd’hui son approbation finale de l’acquisition d’une participation de contrôle de Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) par Lone Star. Un engagement dont le fonds texan cherche à se défaire depuis des années, bloqué par la justice. La vente devrait avoir lieu au bénéfice de Hana Financial pour 4,1 milliards de dollars.

La Réserve fédérale américaine se réjouit d'une reprise plus vigoureuse. Elle fait toutefois le choix du statu quo afin de favoriser l'emploi

L’agence de notation a décidé de dégrader de 2 crans à A3 la note souveraine du pays, à l’aube d’une adjudication test lancée par le gouvernement