Financière de l’Echiquier vient de faire enregistrer en Italie Arty, un fonds à gestion discrétionnaire et opportuniste sur les marchés taux et actions géré par Olivier de Berranger, rapporte Fondionline. Le fonds, vendu en France depuis mai 2008, affiche un encours de 92 millions d’euros dont 50 millions collectés en 2010. «Arty est un support excellent pour retourner sur les marchés, tout en prenant un risque limité», déclare Paolo Sarno, responsable du développement en Italie de Financière de l’Echiquier.

Henderson Global Investors a recruté Tim Gibson en tant que responsable de l’immobilier coté en Asie, un poste qu’il occupera à compter du 1er mars. Il sera basé à Singapour et travaillera aux côtés de Michael Wong et Eric Khaw, dans une équipe gérant 950 millions de livres d’actifs immobiliers asiatiques. Tim Gibson vient d’AMP Capital Brookfield, où il était directeur et gérant de fonds européen dans l’équipe d’investissement spécialisée dans l’immobilier indirect. Il était responsable de la construction de portefeuilles et gérait un fonds de 1 milliard de dollars.

La Deutsche Börse et Credit Suisse ont annoncé séparément le 15 février l’admission à la négociation sur le segment XTF de la plate-forme électronique Xetra de quatre nouveaux ETF de Credit Suisse (deux d’actions et deux monétaires), ce qui porte à 49 le nombre de produits de ce promoteur cotés à Francfort.Ces produits sont tous de droit irlandais. Les deux monétaires, le CS ETF (IE) on EONIA (IE00B42SXC22) et le den CS ETF (IE) on Fed Funds Effective Rate (IE00B3XDJG53) sont chargés à 0,04 % par an chacun.Le CS ETF (IE) on MSCI World (IE00B3NBFN86) affiche pour sa part un TFE de 0,21 % tandis que le CS ETF (IE) on Credit Suisse Global Alternative Energy (IE00B3YKW880) permet aux investisseurs d’accéder à 30 des plus grandes entreprises du secteur des énergies alternatives. Ce fonds affiche un taux de frais sur encours de 0,57 %.

Dexia Asset Management a annoncé le 15 février l’arrivée de Michel Le Bras, en tant que senior fund manager, au sein des équipes de gestion alternative.Spécialiste de la gestion global macro, Michel Le Bras vient compléter l'équipe actuelle de 50 gérants alternatifs dirigée par Fabrice Cuchet. Sous la responsabilité de Sophie Elkrief, responsable des stratégies alternatives fondamentales, il développera la gestion discrétionnaire de portefeuilles global macro. Dexia AM va ainsi poursuivre sa stratégie d’innovation régulière, en proposant à ses clients professionnels un nouveau processus d’investissement global macro discrétionnaire. Ce style de gestion viendra étoffer les 15 stratégies alternatives initiées depuis 1996 sur différentes classes d’actifs (actions, taux, matières premières, dettes et devises émergentes, crédit corporate…). Michel Le Bras a co-fondé en 2004 la société indépendante de gestion de portefeuille L2S Capital, spécialisée sur ce type de stratégie global macro discrétionnaire.

La fusion BlackRock/BGI, officiellement intervenue le 1er décembre 2009, a été très rapidement maîtrisée à Paris avec la constitution d’une équipe désormais parfaitement repositionnée pour pouvoir commercialiser efficacement une offre protéiforme alliant les savoir-faire spécifiques des deux maisons. Cela a d’ailleurs d’ores et déjà profité à l’antenne française : «Nos encours sont passés de 11,5 milliards d’euros fin 2009 à 13,2 milliards au 31 décembre dernier. Nous espérons dépasser les 15 milliards à la fin 2011", explique à Newsmanagers Eric Wohleber, directeur général.L’explication de cette performance commerciale tient probablement, outre aux mérites de l'équipe, à l’existence d’un assortiment désormais complet de produits, qui tranche avec la monoculture qui prévalait antérieurement. «Notre avantage concurrentiel tient au fait que la gamme est désormais complète et complémentaire, avec les ETF iShares, certes, mais aussi avec des stratégies actives bien connues héritées de Merrill Lynch Investment Managers ou MLIM (or, énergie, minières, agriculture…) ou renforcées ces dernières années avec le recrutement d’une équipe de Scottish Widows (SWIP) pour les actions européennes et enfin avec l’expertise obligataire venant de BlackRock. Bref, nous avons à notre catalogue de la gestion active aussi bien que passive», souligne Eric Wohleber.Ce dernier, pour lequel BlackRock Paris a désormais une «forte volonté de croissance organique», annonce que, pour 2011, la maison compte mettre l’accent sur les assureurs (au travers ou non de leur société de gestion), «pour qui les coûts de production sont devenus une problématique plus aiguë et que nous pouvons accompagner dans leur gestion». De fait, la position du gestionnaire américain est assez confortable dans cette optique, puisque «nous mettons notre expertise à leur service sans forcément que la marque BlackRock ne soit placée en exergue : les assureurs comme les gestionnaires ne disposent généralement pas de toutes les briques, de sorte que nous nous adressons davantage aux «packageurs» (les fonds de fonds, les allocataires d’actifs, les structureurs…) qu’aux distributeurs».Cette année, grâce à un recrutement récent, BlackRock s’intéressera plus activement à la clientèle des banques privées et des sociétés de gestion indépendantes, en tout cas davantage qu’aux clients particuliers en direct, selon Eric Wohleber qui mise aussi beaucoup sur le troisième pilier de l’offre-maison, BlackRock Solutions (BRS), pour courtiser les investisseurs institutionnels : «nous avons un gros atout à jouer sur le segment institutionnel : BRS, une plate-forme de plus de 9.000 milliards de dollars, dont 3.500 milliards pour le compte de BlackRock. Cet outil, qui était initialement à usage interne, permet la modélisation des portefeuilles, les tests de résistance, le passage des ordres, la conformité, le reporting et l’analyse de risque. Autrement dit, nous pouvons offrir une approche service et non de produit et BlackRock Solutions propose une solution pour contrôler les coûts de production du rendement, une problématique beaucoup plus d’actualité à présent qu’il y a cinq ans».Pour résumer, «le retail, iShares et les institutionnels sont trois moteurs interconnectés que nous continuerons à activer simultanément cette année», conclut Eric Wohleber.

Ignis Asset Management, qui gère 83 milliards d’euros, vient de lancer des versions locales de son site Internet, dont une en français (www.ignisasset.com/fr). Implantée depuis fin 2009 en Europe continentale, la société de gestion britannique souhaite ainsi renforcer son ancrage en France.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swiss Federal council on 15 February announced that it would like to adapt administrative conditions for mutual assistance in taxation areas. The identification of taxpayers and the possessors of information about them, which are absolutely required preconditions for the provision of administrative assistance, will largely proceed by the mention of their name and address. “In the future, other means of identification will also be allowed,” the Federal council says in a statement. Switzerland has thus removed a potential obstacle to the effective exchange of information related to taxation, and has avoided the risk of a failure of the peer review process. Fishing expeditions will remain inadmissible. In general, the identification of taxpayers and those who possess information in a request for assistance will still proceed by name and address. But the proposed changes would prevent an overly formal interpretation of the conventional rules from imposing an obstacle to administrative assistance procedures, and to this end, also allow other means of identification, for example, bank account numbers.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Deutsche Börse and Credit Suisse on 15 February made separate announcements that four new ETFs from Credit Suisse (two equities funds and two bond funds) have been admitted to trading on the XTF segment of the Xetra electornic platform, bringing the number of products from this provider available on the Frankfurt exchange to 49.The products are all registered in Ireland. The two money market funds, the CS ETF (IE) on EONIA (IE00B42SXC22) and CS ETF (IE) on Fed Funds Effective Rate (IE00B3XDJG53) charge fees of 0.04%.The CS ETF (IE) on MSCI World (IE00B3NBFN86) charges a TER of 0.21%, while the CS ETF (IE) on Credit Suisse Global Alternative Energy (IE00B3YKW880) allows investors access to 30 of the largest businesses in the alternative energy sector, with a TER of 0.57%.

Marten S. Hoekstra, former CEO of UBS Wealth Management Americas, has joined Emerging Global Advisors, a US asset management company specializing in exposures to emerging markets, as chief executive officer. He assumes the CEO position from founder Robert Holderith, who will continue as president and concentrate on investment product development. Emerging Global Advisors is advisor to the EGShares family of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which target specific investment sectors or themes and allow investors access to more precise market exposures. The company currently manages nine emerging market ETF products offering exposures to the energy, financial, and mining and minerals sectors, emerging market consumers, and the respective infrastructures of Brazil, India, or China. Additional ETFs and other investment products are planned.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The California pension fund CalPERS on 14 February announced that it has adopted a strategic plan to go “back to basics” in the next five years, in which its real estate portfolio of approximately USD16bn will be reoriented to properties that generate revenue, with a stricter limitation of risks and debt and the creation of separate accounts for various partners.The plan stipulates that at least 75% of the portfolio will be invested in US residential or commercial real estate. New commitments will be spread out between five to 10 strategic long-term exclusive partners.The portfolio will have an allocation reserved for emerging markets, including China and Brazil, with an objective of 10% of assets.

After three quarters of significant outflows (EUR -16.9 billion) at TCW, following the restructuring undertaken at end-2009 and the departure of Jeffrey Gundlach, Q4 10 saw the beginning of a positive commercial momentum with an inflow of EUR 0.8 billion, says Société Générale in its latest annual report. «Moreover, the successful integration of MetWest and the expertise of its teams point to sound commercial growth for the new TCW entity as from 2011", adds the French bank. After taking into account a “market” effect of EUR +4.6 billion, a “currency” impact of EUR +5.5 billion and a structure effect of EUR +23.1 billion (including EUR 22.2 billion related to the integration of MetWest), assets under management totalled EUR 87.0 billion at end-December (vs. EUR 70.0 billion at end-December 2009). Against the backdrop of substantial changes in structure related firstly to the transfer to Amundi of SGAM’s activities and secondly, TCW’s acquisition of MetWest, the asset management business line’s revenues and operating expenses fell year-on-year by respectively -32.7% (-26.2% in absolute terms) to EUR 477 million and -35.2% (-30.3% in absolute terms) to EUR 457 million. Gross operating income came to EUR 20 million in 2010 vs. EUR -10 million in 2009. After factoring in Amundi’s contribution (EUR 100 million), the business line’s contribution to Group net income amounted to EUR 111 million vs. EUR -10 million in 2009. The Private Banking, Global Investment Management and Services division’s 2010 revenues totalled EUR 2,270 million, down -6.2% (-10.4% in absolute terms) vs. 2009. Gross operating income totalled EUR 268 million in 2010, down -23.5% (-12.4% in absolute terms vs. 2009). For 2010, the division’s contribution to Group net income amounted to EUR 289 million vs. EUR 201 million for 2009. The division’s revenues were stable at EUR 606 million in Q4 10 vs. Q4 09 (+0.2% and -5.3% in absolute terms). Operating expenses totalled EUR 521 million vs. EUR 555 million in Q4 09. Gross operating income remained stable vs. Q4 09 at EUR 85 million. The division’s contribution to Group net income amounted to EUR 80 million in Q4 10 vs. EUR 62 million in Q4 09.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Dexia Asset Management on 15 February announced the arrival of Michel le Bras as a senior fund manager in the alternative management team at the management firm. Le Bras, a specialist in global macro management, comes as an addition to the current team of 50 alternative managers, led by Fabrice Cuchet. He will report to Sophie Elkrief, head of fundamental alternative strategies, and will develop discretionary management of global macro portfolios. In 2004, Le Bras co-founded the independent portfolio management firm L2S Capital, a specialist in this type of discretionary global macro strategy.

ING announced on Tuesday that it has reached agreement to sell the majority of its ING Real Estate Investment Management business (ING REIM) in two separate transactions for a combined price of approximately USD 1 billion (EUR 770 million). In addition, as part of the overall transactions, the group has also agreed to sell up to approximately USD 100 million of its equity interest in existing ING REIM funds.ING has entered into an agreement with CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc., to sell ING REIM Europe, ING REIM Asia and Clarion Real Estate Securities (CRES), ING REIM’s US-based manager of listed real estate securities, as well as part of ING’s equity interests in funds managed by these businesses. The proceeds for these REIM businesses and the equity interests amount to approximately USD 1 billion. ING REIM Europe, ING REIM Asia and CRES combined have EUR 44.7 billion in assets under management as of 31 December 2010. In a separate transaction, the group has agreed to sell the private market real estate investment manager of its US operations, Clarion Partners, to Clarion Partners management in partnership with the private equity firm Lightyear Capital LLC for USD 100 million. Clarion Partners has EUR 16.5 billion in assets under management as of 31 December 2010. The Real Estate Investment Management business in Australia (ING REIMA), with EUR 4.8 billion in assets under management as of 31 December 2010, is not included in these transactions.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Financière de l’Echiquier has registered Arty, an opportunistic discretionary management fund focused on fixed income and equities markets, managed by Olivier de Berranger, in Italy, Fondionline reports. The fund, which has been available in France since May 2008, has assets of EUR92m, of which EUR50m flowed into the fund in 2010. “Arty is an excellent support for returning to the markets, while taking on limited risk,” says Paolo Sarno, head of development in Italy at Financière de l’Echiquier.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Delay in the deployment of of a climate change policy and a lack of international coordination could cost institutional investors trillions of US dollars in the coming decades, according to a study by Mercer and a group of top-calibre international investors with about USD2trn under management (Climate Change Scenarios – Implications for Strategic Asset Allocation). “Climate change will have fundamental repercussions on traditional management schemas, risks, and the returns expected by investors. Institutional investors need to take long-term considerations such as climate change into account in their strategic planning,” the chief investment officer at Mercer, Andrew Kirton, says. Risks related to climate change could represent 10% of portfolio risk in the next 20 years. From this point of view, investors could see increased allocation to the infrastructure, real estate, private equity, agricultural land, forestry and durable goods sectors. The report provides a general framework which could be used by institutional investors to improve their understanding of risks related to climate change, and analyse investment opportunities in various asset classes and regions. Mercer is launching the “TIP framework,” which it has developed with 14 institutionals, which evaluates investment levels in low-carbon-emission technologies (T), impact (I) on the environment, and the carbon emissions impact of international policy (P) according to four climate change scenarios.

Aberdeen Asset Management has announced that Marc van Heddeghem has been appointed as a new independent expert member of the Advisory Committee of the Aberdeen European Balanced Property Fund. Mr van Heddeghem has recently retired from his role as Managing Director of Redevco Belgium. The Aberdeen European Balanced Property fund is semi open-end, Core to Core-Plus fund designed for institutional investors to invest in a balanced and well diversified property portfolio in the Eurozone. The fund focuses on property markets with excellent prospects for both direct and indirect returns. At the end of December 2010, the fund’s gross asset value amounted to EUR 423 million.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Insparo Asset Management has launched a second Africa fund, the Insparo Africa Equity Fund, which aims to benefit from the growth potential of African businesses and the emergence of a consumer culture on the continent. It will invest in leading North African companies from sub-Saharan Africa, with minimal leverage, and in South Africa, which will account for up to a maximum of 20%. The fund launched with USD7.5m in assets.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On the basis of a study covering equities of the Stoxx 600 index in the eight years to the end of June 2010, Thorsten Paarmann, senior portfolio manager at Invesco Global Quantitative Equity (USD22bn in assets) has shown that the most volatile shares underperformed those which had lower volatility. In other words, the specialist explained at a presentation at the Funds Event 2011, held on Tuesday in Luxembourg, “the added risk does not pay off, and the slope of regression is negative.”With this in mind, the quantitative equities team at Invesco selected an optimisation formula with no constraints, breaking with the “benchmark” approach. It uses a highly severe risk management, and focuses more closely on stock-picking to avoid undesirable heavyweights from the indices. This leads to a highly diversified portfolio, with a high tracking error compared with the indices, which allowed for overweight positions on shares which the manager considers the most promising. In addition, this methodology offers a way to take into account the behavioural biases of other investors on the market. The average beta for the portfolio is 0.8, and the investment universe includes 800 European stocks out of 3,300, Paarmann explains. This results in returns, with average annual returns of 4.89% over the past five years, compared with 0.24% for the MSCI Europe ND, which tends to prove that combining low volatility with stock-picking can generate attractive results. This shows in the fact that the Invesco Pan European Structured Equity Fund, which had EUR500m in assets as of the end of last year, has recorded EUR100m in net subscriptions in 2010.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Henderson Global Investors has recruited Tim Gibson as head of publicly-traded real estate in Asia, a position which he will take up on 1 March. He will be based in Singapore, and will work alongside Michael Wong and Eric Khaw, as part of a team which manages GBP950m in Asian real estate assets.Gibson joins the firm from AMP Capital Brookfield, where he was director and manager of European funds in the investment team specialised in indirect real estate investment. He was responsible for portfolio construction, and managed a USD1bn fund.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Investors are showing more optimism about international equities than they have in more than ten years, according to the latest BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research Report, a survey undertaken between 4 and 10 February on a sample of 188 managers representing assets of USD569bn.The survey finds that a net total of 67% of asset allocators are overweight on international equities, a level not seen since the series began in April 2001. As of the end of 2010, only 40% of investors favoured this asset class.Meanwhile, interest in bonds and money markets has continued to fall. 66% of investors are now underweight in bonds, compared with 54% one month earlier, while 9% are underweight in money markets. The gulf between such a high rate of overweight positions in equities and of underweight positions in bonds has never been so large, the survey suggests.This new increase in appetite for risk has brought with it a spectacular rise in regional allocations. Only 5% of managers are now overweight in emerging markets equities, compared with 43% in January. This is the steepest monthly plunge since the series began; the average comes out to 28%.However, investors are far more positive about developed markets. 11% of them are overweight in Euro zone equities, whereas only 9% were so in January. The percentage of respondents overweight in US equities has also risen to 34%, compared with 27% the previous month, and 16% in December. The United States and the Euro zone are the two regions in which investors are prepared to invest as their first priority.Investors remain optimistic about outlooks for global economic growth, but a majority of them (75%, compared with 48% three months ago), predict that inflation will increase. A corollary of this development is that 70% of investors are now predicting that the Fed will raise its rates in the next twelve months, compared with only 62% in January.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Reyl & Cie group, with over CHF4bn in assets, is scaling up its presence in Singapore with the recruitment of Daryl Liew as financial analyst and senior portfolio manager, with the objective of strengthening the firm’s expertise in regional markets, Agefi Switzerland reports. Liew joins Reyl Singapore after a term at Providend Ltd (Singapore), where he served as Chief Investment Strategist & Executive Director. In his new position, he will be in charge of overseeing client portfolios, and will participate in developing asset allocation strategies in order to ensure the coherence of investment decisions on behalf of clients at Reyl in Singapore.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Oaktree Capital’s distressed fund has returned USD3bn to investors, out of a total of USD10bn raised, due to difficulties it has encountered in finding investment opportunities in a more favourable economic environment, the Financial Times reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. The fund, managed by Bruce Karsh, was one of the most aggressive buyers of distressed debt following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brother. But now the fund manager no longer knows what to do with investor’s money.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Financial News reports that the London hedge fund CQS has hired two senior employees from BlueCrest Capital Management: Leila Kotlar-Bouget, former head of client services at BlueCrest, who will serve in a similar role at BlueCrest, and Bojan Milicic, former partner and salesperson at BlueCrest.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Barclays revealed on 15 February at an announcement of its annual results that the overall total amount paid in bonuses to employees was GBP3.4bn, nearly equivalent to the annual profits, which totalled GBP3.5bn.The bank insists in a statement, however, that this amount is 7% lower than the 2009 total, despite a rise in profits. “We wanted to show that we are taking responsibility, and that we take our responsibility to the government seriously,” says Barclays CEO Bob Diamond.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Barclays Wealth has reported pre-tax profits for 2010 of GBP164m, up 14% year on year. Client assets as of the end of 2010 totalled GBP163.9bn, compared with GBP151.2bn one year previously. Net inflows totalled GBP6bn.The Investment Management unit, for its part, has earned pre-tax profits of GBP67m, compared with GBP22m previously, largely proceeding from the firm’s 19.9% stake in BlackRock.Pre-tax profits at the group have risen 39%, to GBP989m.

JO Hambro Capital Management has soft-closed its JOHCM UK equity income fund after it passed through the GBP750m barrier of AUM, according to Money Marketing.

Le Brésil et les Etats-Unis n’ont pas créé d’initiative commune afin de faire pression sur la Chine pour qu’elle laisse le yuan s’apprécier, a déclaré hier le ministre des Finances brésilien Guido Mantega. «Le Brésil s’inquiète tout autant de la faiblesse du dollar que de la monnaie chinoise», a-t-il ajouté lors d’une conférence téléphonique avec la presse.

L’assureur crédit a vu son bénéfice net atteindre 294,5 millions d’euros l’an dernier (il avait chuté à 19 millions d’euros en 2009), grâce à une baisse de 40 points du ratio de sinistralité. Cette contraction a permis au groupe d’abaisser son ratio combiné de 104,7% à 68,7%. Fort de ces résultats, Euler Hermès compte verser un dividende de 4 euros par action.

D’après le département du Commerce, les ventes au détail ont augmenté de 0,3% en janvier par rapport à décembre aux Etats-Unis. Il s’agit de la septième hausse mensuelle consécutive. Les économistes interrogés par Reuters tablaient sur une progression de 0,6%. Sur un an en janvier, l’augmentation s’inscrit à 7,8%.

Le président de la Banque mondiale Robert Zoellick a estimé que les prix alimentaires avaient atteint un «niveau dangereux». Ces hausses de prix sont, dit-il, «vivement préoccupantes». Les cours des denrées alimentaires de base ont augmenté en moyenne de 15% d’octobre 2010 à janvier 2011, et ils sont seulement de 3% inférieurs au pic atteint en 2008.