Le juin, la CNMV a enregistré la sicav luxembourgeoise Aberdeen Global II. Elle aligne 26 compartiments, principalement obligataire. Le gestionnaire britannique (161,8 milliards d’euros) compte s’adresser principalement aux investisseurs institutionnels en Espagne et au Portugal.

BNY Mellon Asset Management vient d’annoncer que son bureau de représentation de Séoul, BNY Mellon AM Korea Limited, a obtenu le 16 juin une licence Discretionary Investment Management (DIM) auprès de la Commission coréenne des services financiers. Cette licence permettra à l’entité coréenne de gestion d’actifs BNY d’offrir des services d’investissements discrétionnaires aux institutions financières locales et aux investisseurs professionnels. BNY Mellon est présent physiquement en Corée depuis 2006.

Le rachat d’une partie des fonds de Credit Suisse AM par Aberdeen AM le 01/07/2009 entraîne l’intégration de fonds de Credit Suisse Equity Fund (Lux) au sein des fonds Aberdeen Global. Cette opération entraîne plusieurs changements, notamment sur la dénomination des parts (cf. tableau) : - Parts Retail - Les parts anciennement dénommées part A - Credit Suisse- en devise de référence du fonds deviennent S-1 - Les parts anciennement dénommées part B - Credit Suisse - en devise de référence du fonds deviennent S-2 - Les parts anciennement dénommées part R (CHF) et part R (USD) - Credit Suisse - couverture en CHF et couverture en USD deviennent S (CHF) -2 et S (US$)- 2 - Parts Institutionnelles - Les parts anciennement dénommées part I - Credit Suisse - en devise de référence du fonds deviennent I-2 Par ailleurs, voici le récapitulatif des nouvelles catégories de parts en circulation sur ces différents compartiments : - Parts Retail - Les parts anciennement dénommées part A - Credit Suisse- en devise de référence du fonds deviennent S-1 - Les parts anciennement dénommées part B - Credit Suisse - en devise de référence du fonds deviennent S-2 - Les parts anciennement dénommées part R (CHF) et part R (USD) - Credit Suisse - couverture en CHF et couverture en USD deviennent S (CHF) -2 et S (US$)- 2 - Parts Institutionnelles - Les parts anciennement dénommées part I - Credit Suisse - en devise de référence du fonds deviennent I-2 L'émission des parts des fonds absorbés sera suspendue à partir du 9 juillet 2010, 15h00. Les porteurs de parts peuvent demander le rachat des parts des fonds absorbés jusqu’au 20 juillet 2010, 15h00. Enfin, la date de transfert a été fixée le 23 juillet 2010 et celle de la la première valeur liquidative, le 27 juillet 2010. A noter que la liste des codes isin des différents compartiments figure en annexe.

ING Groep songe à se séparer d’ING REIM (Real Estate Investment Managers), son activité de fonds immobiliers qui gère 66,4 milliards d’euros, rapporte le Wall Street Journal. En début de mois, le groupe a annoncé qu’il menait une évaluation sur la position de REIM dans son activité bancaire. Morgan Stanley a été nommé pour étudier ING REIM et pourrait conseiller la banque sur une vente, estiment des personnes proches du dossier. Selon des analystes, une cession pourrait rapporter entre 800 millions d’euros et 1 milliard d’euros. Une vente à un tiers plutôt qu’une introduction en Bourse serait privilégiée. Des acquéreurs sont déjà sur les rangs. Ainsi, AXA Real Estate Investment Managers serait intéressé.

Le suisse UBS-IS CMCI Oil ETF est, selon UBS, le premier et pour l’instant le seul ETF pétrolier sur le marché européen. Lancé le 18 juin et coté sur la Bourse Suisse, il réplique synthétiquement l’UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index (CMCI), ce qui doit limiter l’influence du roulement des positions.C’est un produit en dollars qui s’adresse principalement aux particuliers haut de gamme. La contrepartie du swap est la banque d’investissement d’UBS et ce risque est couvert à 100 %. UBS a déjà prévu le lancement de parts en dollars pour les investisseurs institutionnels ainsi que de parts en euros couvertes du risque de change tant pour les particuliers que pour les investisseurs institutionnels.CaractéristiquesDénomination : UBS-Index Solutions - CMCI Oil ETF (USD) SF-A Isin : CH0109967858 Devise du fonds USD Devise de négoce USD Commission de gestion : 0.45%

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) vient de nommer Raymond Haines en tant que responsable des solutions LDI (Liability Driven Investment) au Royaume-Uni et Christopher J. Goolgasian en tant que gérant de portefeuilles senior dans le département Multi Asset Class Solutions, qui fournit des solutions d’allocation d’actifs, de LDI et de gestion de l’exposition sur toutes les classes d’actifs. Raymond Haines était précédemment directeur des investissements de LV= Asset Management, tandis que Christopher J. Goolgasian, qui sera basé à Boston, vient de Pyramis Global Advisors, où il était gérant de portefeuille institutionnels. La société a aussi annoncé le transfert de Gregory Taieb, actuellement basé à Montréal, pour renforcer l'équipe UK MACS à Londres. Son remplaçant au Canada sera Vincent-Philippe Sicotte, gérant de portefeuilles.

Newton, filiale de BNY Mellon Asset Management, a indiqué le 21 juin que l’une de ses antennes britanniques, Newton Investment Management Limited, que le fonds de pension de l’université de Londres, le Superannuation Arrangements of the University of London, lui a attribué un nouveau mandat de gestion.

Six personnes ont quitté le bureau londonien de Citadel Investment Group, le gestionnaire de hedge fund basé à Chicago, selon Financial News. Parmi eux, Alex Maddox, qui dirigeait le desk titrisation de Citadel en Europe, rejoint Deutsche Bank.

Schroders vient d’annoncer l’acquisition de 49 % du capital de la société de gestion britannique RWC Partners Limited, via l’une de ses filiales.Cette participation représente un «investissement financier» pour Schroders. Elle a été acquise principalement auprès d’actionnaires individuels. Le reste du capital est aux mains des salariés.Le communiqué précise que RWC, qui gère environ 10 millions de livres d’actifs bruts, restera une entité juridique autonome et continuera par être gérée par son équipe dirigeante actuelle. En tout, les encours sont gestion de la société dépassent les 2,5 milliards de dollars. A noter que récemment, RWC Partners a recruté deux anciens gérants de… Schroders, Ian Lance et Nick Purves. Elle a par ailleurs annoncé le lancement d’un fonds actions long/short au format Ucits III, le RWC Europe Absolute Alpha Fund, qui sera géré par Ajay Gambhir, un ancien de JPMorgan.

La Financial Services Authority ( FSA ) a infligé lundi une amende de 700.000 livres à Vantage Capital Markets LLP pour ne pas avoir empêché Daniel Hassell, un courtier, d’exercer, en dépit d’un titre de simple consultant, une influence importante dans l’entreprise pendant plus de quatre ans sans avoir obtenu au préalable l’approbation de la FSA.La majorité de l’activité de courtage était précédemment détenue par Hassell et a généré près de la moitié du chiffre d’affaires de Vantage. Hassell a perçu environ un tiers des profits de l’entreprise.

Henderson Group a annoncé avoir mis fin aux négociations concernant une éventuelle acquisition de certaines activités de RidgeWorth Capital Management, la société de gestion américaine détenue par SunTrust Banks. En effet, les deux parties n’ont pas réussi à se mettre d’accord sur les conditions.

La société de gestion britannique Henderson Global Investors (90 milliards de dollars d’encours) vient de recruter Nancy McNally en tant que directeur des relations avec les consultants en Amérique du Nord. Elle a rejoint la société le 1er juin et sera subordonnée à Nick Adams, responsable des relations avec les consultants à l'échelle mondiale. Elle travaillera aux côtés de Mark Toomey, directeur de la gestion d’actifs institutionnelle, et de Michael Nagy, directeur associé des relations avec les consultants en Amérique du Nord. Nancy McNally était précédemment chez Gartmore. Elle a aussi travaillé chez Fidelity Investments et Robeco Investment Management.

Mardi, British Airways (BA) a fait sauter le dernier verrou qui bloquait la fusion avec Iberia, rapporte Cinco Días : la compagnie aérienne britannique a conclu avec les administrateurs de ses deux fonds de pension, New Airways Pension Scheme (NAPS) et Airways Pension Scheme (APS), un accord selon lequel elle s’engage à fournir des contributions annuelles de l’ordre de 330 millions de livres (394 millions d’euros), somme à laquelle s’ajoutera une compensation de l’inflation estimée à 3 % annuels. Ces contributions vont jusqu’en 2026 pour le NAPS et en 2023 pour l’APS.Des contributions supplémentaires de BA pour combler le déficit (4 milliards d’euros) sont prévues pour les années où l’excédent de trésorerie dépasserait 1,8 milliard de livres. L’accord prévoit également une garantie de 250 millions de livres pour assurer le versement des retraites en cas d’insolvabilité.

Au 31 mai, les actifs sous gestion d’Invesco Ltd ressortaient à 430 milliards de dollars contre 456,7 milliards au 30 avril et 457,7 milliards au 31 mars. Sur ce total, les fonds d’actions représentaient 181,2 milliards de dollars et les fonds obligataires 79,1 milliards. Les fonds diversifiés affichaient un encours de 39,6 milliards, les fonds monétaires se situant à 69,2 milliards et les fonds alternatifs à 60,9 milliards. Au sein de ces catégories, les ETF et autres fonds passifs pesaient au total 51,2 milliards de dollars.Invesco précise que la contraction de 26,9 milliards de dollars entre fin avril et fin mai est imputable à hauteur de 6,1 milliards aux ETF et aux fonds passifs, qui ont subi des remboursement nets, et de 6 milliards environ à l’effet de change lié à la hausse du dollar.Ces chiffres sont à retenir dans la mesure où la reprise par Invesco des activités de fonds retail de Morgan Stanley a été effective seulement à partir du 1er juin.

UBS reports that the UBS-IS CMCI Oil ETF is the only oil ETF available on the European market to date. The product, launched on 18 June and listed on the Swiss stock exchange, synthetically replicates the UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index (CMCI), which aims to limit the influence of rolling positions. The fund is denominated in US dollars and is aimed primarily at high net worth retail investors. The counterparty for the swap if the UBS investment bank, and this risk is 100% covered. UBS has already planned to launch shares in the fund denominated in US dollars for institutional investors, as well as shares in Euros hedged for forex risks, for both retail and institutional investors. CharacteristicsName: UBS-Index Solutions - CMCI Oil ETF (USD) SF-A ISIN: CH0109967858 Currency of fund: USD Trading currency: USD Management commission: 0.45%

BBVA Asset Management has opened its third-party fund affiliate, Quality Funds, to clients from outside the group. Myrian Luque, director of Quality Funds, announced on Tuesday that open-architecture services are now available to other Spanish firms, but that it has not yet received a response, Cinco Días reports. Quality Funds manages funds of funds with assets that have increased by 70.45% since the beginning of the year to EUR825m. It also advises funds from other management firms with assets of EUR16bn. Currently, Quality has agreements with 38 external management firms, and aims to increase this number to 55. When asked about the removal of Carmignac funds from its offerings a couple of months ago, Luque explained that the move came as part of a general revision of funds, and that Carmignac did not adapt to meet the preliminary criteria of Quality Funds.

In a statement, RHJ International SA has announced that it is continuing its development efforts, and that it has reached an agreement with KBC Asset Management SA to acquire KBC Asset Management Limited (Dublin). The transaction price has been set at EUR23.7m in cash. KBC AM will also receive 50% of a potential capital reduction at KBCAM Dublin, up to a maximum of EUR3.5m. KBCAM Dublin manages about EUR4bn for institutional clients, and offers investment products including environmental equities, value equities, and multi-asset strategy funds. KBC AM, based in Dublin, has a strong client base in Ireland, Asia, and North America.

According to statistics from the German BVI association of management firms, the portfolios of open-ended real estate funds included 1,495 properties or properties under construction, of which 60% are valued at under EUR50m, while only 71 properties are valued at over EUR200m. Germany represents the highest proportion, with 28.3% of total assets as of the end of March, compared with 28.5% at the end of January. The percentage of properties located in France has also fallen to 18.9% from 19.3% at the end of 2009 (see Newsmanagers of 22 March). 35.1% of properties owned by funds are less than 5 years old, and 29.8% are 5 to 10 years old. The BVI also states that office properties represent 64.8% of the total, while commercial and restaurant properties account for 20%. the remainder consists of industrial properties (4.4%) and hotels (3.9%). Concerning the volume of transactions, real estate acquisitions in the twelve months to the end of March totalled 67, of which 23 were in Germany and 44 abroad. Venal properties represented EUR5.82bn. 97 properties were sold, of which 64 were in Germany and 33 abroad, with a venal total value of EUR2.77bn.

ING Groep is weighing a sale of its real-estate funds, says the Wall Street Journal. The Dutch financial group said earlier this month it was «conducting an evaluation of the position of ING REIM within the banking business.» Morgan Stanley has been appointed to evaluate ING REIM and could advise the bank on a sale, according to people familiar with the matter. Analysts believe ING could fetch between EUR800 million and EUR1 billion through a direct sale of REIM, which has EUR66.4 billion in property assets under management. Potential investors are coming forward, including AXA Real Estate Investment Managers.

As of 31 May, assets under management at Invesco Ltd totalled USD430bn, compare dwith USD456.7bn as of 30 April, and USD457.7bn as of 31 March. Of this total, equities funds represented USD181.2bn, while bond funds represented USD79.1bn. Diversified funds had assets of USD39.6bn, while money market funds had USD69.2bn, and hedge funds had USD60.9bn. In these categories, ETFs and passive funds accounted for a total of USD51.2bn in assets. Invesco states that of a contraction of USD26.9bn between the end of April and the end of May, USD6.1bn was due to ETFs and passive funds, which have seen net redemptions, and about USD6bn are due to currency effects related to the rising US dollar. These figures are worth noting as the takeover by Invesco of the activities of Morgan Stanley came into effect only from 1 June.

The French national pension fund, the Fonds de réserve pour les retraites (FRR), announced on 22 June that it has cancelled a management mandate assigned to Allianz Global Investors France, for which the financial management had been further outsourced to the firm’s sister firm, Nicholas Applegate Capital Management, also an affiliate of the Allianz Global Investors group. The FRR says in a statement that the mandate was cancelled “due to sustained relatively unsatisfactory returns.” The mandate was for the management of a US small cap equities portfolio totalling EUR172m as of 28 May of this year.

BNY Mellon Asset Management has announced that the application for a Discretionary Investment Management (DIM) license by BNY Mellon AM Korea Limited was successfully approved by Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) on 16 June 2010. BNY Mellon established an asset management representative office in Seoul in 2006. The DIM license allows BNY Mellon AM Korea Limited to contract for discretionary investment management services with local financial institutions and professional investors.

Credit Suisse and Dow Jones Indexes have signed an agreement which covers the calculation, licensing, branding and marketing of the hedge fund indexes formerly known as the Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Indexes. The joint venture between Credit Suisse and Tremont Capital Management, Inc. has been dissolved. Under this agreement, the indexes will be branded Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Indexes, and Dow Jones Indexes will calculate, distribute and market the indexes, while Credit Suisse affiliates will continue to manage the financial products linked to them. Credit Suisse and Dow Jones Indexes intend to keep the methodologies and rules for each of the existing indexes consistent with past practices. The Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Indexes are a family of hedge fund indexes which include broad market and investable indexes, all designed to track hedge fund performance. The indexes are constructed from a database of more than 5,000 hedge funds. The index family presently consists of 17 indexes. Dow Jones Indexes will discontinue its existing hedge fund indexes as of June 30.

Credit Suisse and Dow Jones Indexes have teamed up to provide the alternative management indexes previously known by the name Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Indexes. By the agreement, the indexes will be renamed as Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Indexes. Credit Suisse has also dissolved its joint venture with Tremont Capital Management. Dow Jones Indexes will now calculate, distribute and market the indexes, while affiliates of Credit Suisse will continue to manage the financial products associated with them. The two parters are planning to retain the existing methdologies and rules for each index. Dow Jones Indexes, for its part, will discontinue its own hedge fund indexes from 30 June. The Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund indexes are a family of 17 hedge fund indices which seek to replicate the performance of hedge funds. They are based on data from more than 5,000 funds.

Despite a global eocnomic context which remains uncertain, the number of millionaires and the volume of their wealth are both rising, according to the 14th edition of the World Wealth Report, published on 22 June by Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and Capgemini. This population once again represented 10 million people in 2009; their wealth increased 18.95 to a total of USD39trn. The most wealthy of them saw a 21.5% increase in their wealth in 2009. These figures show that the return to better economic conditions has made it possible to offset losses in 2008, and to return to 2007 levels. “The past few years were particularly marked for high net worth investors. While in 2008, the wealth of millionaires fell unprecedentedly, one year later, we are already seeing signs that it is recovering, and that in some regions, it has fully returned to the levels of wealth seen in 2007,” explains Gilles Dard, president for private management activities in France and continental Europe at Merrill Lynch. “Emerging markets continued to drive this recovery, particularly India, China, and Brazil,” says Laurence Chrétien, in charge of the World Wealth Report for France at Capgemini Consulting. “The Asia-Pacific region was the only region where macroeconomic indicators and drivers of wealth creation developed significantly in 2009.” While the increase in the number of millionaires and their wealth was generally more marked in emerging countries, most high net worth individuals continue to be concentrated in the United States, Japan and Germany, which alone account for 53.5% of this population as of 2009 (54% in 2008). In France, the number of millionaires has increased 10.8% to a total of 383,000. North America still has the largest number of millionaires, at 3.1 million, which corresponds to 31% of the world’s millionaires.

FIL Investment Management has announced that the equities fund Fidelity Deutschland Select (DE000A0D8C60), which was launched on 1 March 2005, and which is managed by Alexandra Hartmann, will be liquidated on 30 June 2010. As of 30 April, the fund had only EUR25m in assets. As of 21 June 2010, the fund had earned 8.83% since the beginning of the year, and 31.53% since its launch, but had lost 30.13% over three years.

As announced more than two months ago (see Newsmanagers of 7 April), Nomura Asset Management Deutschland has renamed the funds of its Maintrust range, replacing the MAT prefix with Nomura, from 23 June. In addition, the new names are intended to provide more transparency as of the objectives of the funds. The ISIN Codes will remain unchanged. Former name New name MAT Asia Pacific Fonds Nomura Asia Pacific FondsMAT Japan Aktien Nomura Japan Equity FondsMAT Fundamental Japan Nomura Fundamental Japan FondsMAT Fundamental Europa Nomura Fundamental Europe FondsMAT Asian Bonds Nomura Asian Bonds Fonds MAT Euro Plus Nomura Euro Convertible FondsMAT Real Return Nomura Real Return FondsMAT Real Protect Nomura Real Protect FondsMAT Medio Rent Nomura Medio Rent Fonds MAT APO LIQUID Nomura APO LIQUID Fonds Nomura AM Deutschland is also planning to import open-ended Luxembourg and Irish funds to Germany.

Feri EuroRating Services has found in a study of 60 insurers covering 90% of the unit-linked insurance policy market that of the 2,994 funds on offer, only about one quarter of them are rated A or B (the highest ratings), or in other words, that only one quarter of products have a sustainably higher-than-average performance with relatively low risk. Feri EuroRating adds that insurers tend to rely on flagship funds in the sector, which often have performance issues. The most used fund, offered by 37 out of 60 insurers, is the European Growth fund from Fidelity Funds, followed by the Templeton Growth (Euro), offered by 35 providers, DWS Vermögensbilgundsfonds I (24), and the BGF World Mining Fund from BlackRock (22). However, the Templeton Growth is rated D (the only one of the top 15 funds). But the DWS Akkumula, Carmignac Patrimoine and Investissement funds and the South East Asia Fund from Fidelity are all rated A. Meanwhile, many insurers tend to use their own funds in policies, while as a general rule the quality of in-house funds is lower than that of third-party products: the percentage of funds rated A or B among in-house funds is only 16%, while it comes to 29% for third-party funds.

Henderson Global Investors, the UK based asset manager with over USD90 billion assets under management, has appointed Nancy McNally as director of consultant relations, North America. Reporting to Nick Adams, head of global consultant relations, Nancy joined on 1st June 2010. She will be working alongside Mark Toomey, director of institutional asset management, and Michael Nagy, associate director of consultant relations, North America. Nancy has 10 years’ experience in asset management at Fidelity Investments, Robeco Investment Management, Clay Finlay and, most recently, Gartmore.

Six people have left the London office of Citadel Investment Group, the Chicago-based hedge fund manager, according to Financial News. Alex Maddox, who headed up Citadel’s European securitsation desk, has joined Deutsche Bank.