Minuscule par rapport aus géants de la finance suisse, la Banque cantonale de Genève (BCGE), qui comme la plupart des autres banques cantonales suisses, a été largement épargnée par la crise si ce n’est pour profiter de la fuite vers la qualité avec des apports de capitaux sans précédent, veut se développer à l’international, notamment en Asie.La BCGE a ainsi ouvert un bureau à Hong Kong le 1er janvier dernier, selon Asian Investor. La banque envisage également d’ouvrir une antenne à Dubai.

Morningstar Australasia, la filiale australienne du groupe Morningstar, a annoncé le 24 mars l’acquisition de la société Aegis Equities Research, qui produit notamment de la recherche indépendante sur les actions de plus de 200 sociétés cotées sur l’ASX. La transaction, dont le prix n’a pas été divulgué, devrait être bouclée dans les prochaines semaines.

Man Group, the London-based hedge fund, has approached several US hedge fund managers with an eye to expanding its operations in the country. The aim is to sound out hedge funds for possible distribution agreements or takeovers. Among those Peter Clarke, chief executive of Man Group, has met are SAC Capital Advisors and Millennium Partners.

On Thursday, Liontrust Asset Management announced that it had assets as of 24 March of GBP1.16bn, of which GBP312m were for institutional clients, GBP781m in retail funds, and GBP67m in offshore funds. As of 1 January, assets under management totalled GBP1.18bn, of which GBP316m were for institutional clients, GBP795m in retail funds, and GBP69m in offshore funds. In the period from 1 January to 24 March, the UK asset management firm had net outflows of GBP53m, but market effects were positive to the tune of GBP33m.

At a time of growing demand for socially responsible investment (SRI) products by institutional as well as retail investors, asset management firms are stepping up their efforts to integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues into their traditional management. Though the development may be welcome news, Financière de Champlain, an asset manager specialised in sustainable management, warns of the dangers of SRI funds becoming too commonplace. “One of the approaches used by asset management compnaies for SRI integration is to use analysis undertaken for their SRI funds to set up ratings of traditional equities portfolios partly composed of the same shares,” the firm explains in a note. This type of analysis is known as “ex post.” Financière de Champlain claims that it “is not, fundamentally, based on a stock-picking process on the basis of extra-financial criteria.” Even though ESG integration practices make extra-financial information available to managers which could allow them to identify new risks, “they do not constrain the manager,” the asset management firm states. “The danger is thus high that this might create some confusion in the minds of retail investors between management firms which are genuinely in the process of converting their product ranges to SRI, and others who see the trend as an opportunity to paint themselves green,” Financière de Champlain concludes.

A spokesperson for Invesco AIM has announced that, following the completion of the firm’s acquisition of retail asset management activities at Morgan Stanley, the combined sales team to be led by John cooper will include 375 people, 60 less than at present, Mutual Fund Wire reports.

From 16 March, Jennifer Bell has been appointed executive vice president and COO of Franklin Resources, Franklin Templeton Investments has announced. She will continue to report to Gregory F. Johnson, president and CEO of Franklin Resources. Bell was previously executive vice president of operations and technology. In addition to her current responsibilities, she will now be in charge of HR and compensation.

In an SEC filing dated 17 March, DWS Investments (Deutsche Bank) has announced that from May, the equities portion of its target-date funds in the Target range (2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014) will be largely invested in large and liquid ETF funds.

Tressis is in the process of registering its first UCITS III compliant fund of hedge funds, which it advises and which is offered by Merchant Capital, for sale in Spain, Funds People reports. The Merchant European Equity Fund, which offers daily NAV, will include 20 long positions and 20 short positions (via CFD), applying a market neutral approach to a long/short equities strategy trading in shares of the DJ Eurostoxx 600 index. The objective of the fund, which will be offered in Spain by Tressis and in the rest of Europe by Merchant Capital, will be returns of 12%, with volatility of under 6%.

Six out of the ten funds on sale in Spain with the best returns since the start of this year are products which invest in biotech firms. The product from Dexia has gained 37%, while the DWS product has gained 26%, and the UBS fund 25%, Cinco Días reports. However, the asset management firms point out that the volatility of these funds may be higher than the average for equities funds.

In 2009, Banca Mediolanum has announced net profits of EUR217m, up 66% on the pro forma results for 2008, when net profits including the impact of the Lehman collapse came in at EUR24m. Pre-tax profits are up 56%, to EUR258m. Net subscriptions rose 177% compared with 2008 to total EUR6.94bn, which represents an all-time high. Assets increased 37% last year, to total more than EUR40.39bn. In terms of the Italian market, including the group’s 50% stake in Esperia, net profits increased 55% to EUR224m, and assets increased 38%, to a total of EUR38.53bn as of the end of December. For Banca Mediolanum, net subscriptions rose 122% to EUR5.795bn, while net inflows to managed accounts totalled EUR1.99bn (+1.01%), of which 57% went to equities products. In Spain, 2009 saw losses of EUR0.1m, compared with losses of EUR6.3m the previous year, but Fibanc Mediolanum earned profits of EUR0.5m. In Germany, losses remained similar to those in 2008, at EUR6.8m, while activities retained at Bankhaus August Lenz brought losses of EUR7.6m. In total, foreign banking affiliates of the group as of the end of December had assets of EUR1.86bn, which represents a 13% increase in one year.

Amundi ETF is planning to list up to 50 products in Italy by the end of 2010, an article from Soldi published on the Italian website Bluerating states. In early March, the firm launched 15 new equities products.

The Cantonal Bank of Geneva (BCGE), minuscule compared with the giants of Swiss finance, and which, like most other Swiss cantonal banks, has been largely spared from the crisis, and even profited from a wave of capital in search of higher quality, is now planning to develop its international presence, particularly in Asia. The BCGE opened an office in Hong Kong on 1 January of this year, Asian Investor reports. The bank is also planning to open a Dubai office.

Sovereign funds, which have accumulated more than USD3.5trn in assets worldwide, now have cash allocations that are not doing anything for them. They are thus planning to make a further increase in their allocation to higher risk investments, but their investments will be for far lower amounts each, and far more diversified. In addition, says Bernard Eschweiler, senior economic advisor for the German independent investment bank Silvia Quandt & Cie AG, the centre of gravity for these investments will move from industrialised countries towards emerging markets, and from financial institutions to infrastructure and alternative energies. According to the study by Eschweiler, sovereign funds in 2008-2009 lost nearly 15% of their assets, while incoming amounts fell due to the recession and the falling price of oil. However, even at a more moderate rate of growth, assets will probably exceed USD6trn in five years.

Barely two months after registering its UCITS III absolute performance fund in Spain, the SEB Asset Selection fund managed by Hans-Olov Bernemann, SEB Asset Management is preparing to launch a more defensive version of the product in the very near future, says Daniel Rubio of Capital Strategies, the firm which represents SEB AM in Spain. The new product will aim for average volatility of only 5%, down from the 10% of the original fund, Funds People reports.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management has announced that its unit, Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners (Morgan Stanley AIP), has raised USD370m for its fund Morgan Stanley AIP Phoenix Global Real Estate Secondaries 2009 LP (Phoenix), which is dedicated to opportunity-driven investments in private equity real estate funds. AIP had set itself an objective of USD250m.

Franklin Templeton has announced that the fund platform Metzler Fund Xchange is unilaterally delisting the Templeton Growth Fund from 30 June, Das Investment reports, adding that the management firm had anticipated the move. The measure concerns only assets in the fund which are invested directly through the Metzler platform as custodian. Franklin Templeton says in a letter to intermediaries that it will continue to provide free depositary services for clients of the Templeton Growth Fund as well as for Franklin Templeton Investment Funds (FTIF). It adds that there are no plans to “de-register” the Templeton Growth Fund in Germany.

China Merchants announced on Friday that its first QDII fund, the Global Resources Equity Fund, has attracted CNY553m, which is not necessarily a good sign for other fund management firms which have QDI products in the pipeline. The consultant Z-Ben Advisors, however, points out that the China Merchants fund raised CNY553m in only 19 days, while other asset management firms will open subscriptions for a period of 30 days. In addition, E-Fund, which is much larger than China Merchants, opened a fund for 40 days a month ago, and raised a similar amount (CNY593m) for its Asia Ex-Japan Equity fund.

In a press statement, the Austrian-German management firm C-Quadrat has announced that it is planning to add a range of ETF funds, entitled iQ Products, to its offerings. The funds will represent a new generation of ETFs which limit the risk of losses. The issuer of the first iQ ETF is Commerzbank. The products of the range will be unveiled in mid-April.

Morningstar Australasia, the Australian affiliate of the Morningstar group, on 24 March announced the acquisition of the firm Aegis Equities Research, which produces independent research into equities from more than 200 firms listed on the ASX. The acquisition, for an undisclosed price, will be completed in the next few weeks.

The French-American financier Guy Wyser-Pratte has denounced the law of limited partnership of shareholders which allows Arnaud Lagardère to completely control his group Poussielgue with only a 10% stake in its capital, Les Echos reports. He claims that the partnership has a negative impact on the value of shares. He is seeking a place on the supervisory board of the group, and to reform the group’s statutes.

Les Echos reports, citing AFP, that UBS has been summoned before the Paris courts on charges of defrauding 80 investors who lost money they had invested in the Luxembourg-registered fund Luxalpha, which was offered for sale by the bank, and which invested in companies operated by Bernard Madoff. The investors accuse UBS of having presented Luxalpha as a low-risk investment, and of having neglected its responsibilities as a manager and depositary for the product, which funnelled investments to the firm of the frauster Madoff without informing clients. The savings investors, who lost all of their investments in Luxalpha, have “strong grounds to seek reparation for the prejudice they suffered as a result of the deception of which they were victims and of the serious errors committed by UBS,” says the summons, of which a copy was obtained by AFP.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the SEC has announced that it has launched a review into the use of derivatives by mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and other investment companies. The review effectively means that any new or pending exemptive requests under the Investment Company Act submitted by ETF management firms that are seeking to heavily invest in derivatives will be suspended until the results of the study are clear, the SEC says. The regulator is seeking to verify that current market practices using derivatives respect the regulations of the Investment Company Act in relation to leverage and risk distribution. The regulator will also seek to determine what risk control instruments are used by funds which invest in derivatives.

Les membres de l’eurozone s’entendent sur un mécanisme sans « aucun élément de subvention »

Après le départ il y a peu du gérant vedette Filip Weintraub de Skagen (cf Newsmanagers du 10/03/10), la société de gestion nordique vient d’annoncer sur son site l’arrivée à la mi-mai de Søren Milo Christensen, un gérant danois qui vivait à Singapour depuis quelques années. Il travaillera essentiellement avec l'équipe d’analystes de Skagen Gobal Management. Søren Christensen Milo occupait ses fonctions de gérant de portefeuille au sein de la banque danoise BankInvest, où il était spécialisé sur l’Asie et les marchés émergents.

La quirin bank, qui fonctionne uniquement sur la base d’honoraires (sans commissions) et qui est dirigée par Karl Matthäus Schmidt, affiche pour 2009 une perte inférieure à ses prévisions avec 7,4 millions d’euros contre 12,9 millions. Le nombre de clients s’est accru de 50 % à 6.000 personnes tandis que les actifs sous gestion ont gonflé d’environ 0,5 milliard pour atteindre 1,6 milliard d’euros. quirin bank compte environ 100 conseillers clientèle pour suivre des particuliers haut de gamme dans toute l’Allemagne.

Au 30 septembre, les fonds immobiliers offerts au public hausInvest europa (10,9 milliards d’euros) et hausInvest global (1,6 milliard d’euros) seront fusionnés par Commerz Real pour former le nouveau hausInvest, qui pèsera donc 12,5 milliards d’euros et devrait être le plus gros fonds immobilier européen. Sur la base des chiffres actuels, ce fonds aura 125 actifs d’immobilier commercial dans 69 villes de 19 pays. 87 % de ces immeubles se situent dans les marchés stables d’Europe, les 13 % restants étant localisés dans des régions économiquements fortes d’Asie et d’Amérique du Nord. Le nouveau hausInvest sera investi au minimum à 85 % en Europe et le portefeuille extra-européen ne devra pas dépasser 15 %.La surface locative totale du nouveau fonds sera d’environ 3 millions de mètres carrés. Au 31 décembre, ces surfaces étaient louées à 96 %.Le hausInvest europa affiche actuellement un taux de liquidité de 27 %, tandis que celui du hausInvest global se situe à 12 %. Sur la base des données actuelles, le nouveau fonds aurait un taux de liquidité de 26 % correspondant à 3 milliards d’euros.Pour les souscripteurs, cette fusion ne nécessite aucune démarche et tous les frais seront pris en charge par Commerz Real.

Selon une présentation faite par Josef Ackermann, président du directoire de la Deutsche Bank, Sal. Oppenheim a subi en 2009 des sorties nettes de 2,7 milliards d’euros, rapporte la Börsen-Zeitung. Toutefois, l’effet de marché a plus que compensé cette hémorragie.

Pour 2009, DekaBank, le gestionnaire central des caisses d'épargne allemandes, déclare un bénéfice «économique» (résultat IFRS avant impôt et valorisation d’instruments financiers n’entrant pas dans le résultat) d’un montant record de 661,8 millions d’euros contre 71,5 millions pour 2008, le précédent record remontant à 2007 avec 514,1 millions d’euros. Le quotient de fonds propres de premier rang (tier 1) ressort à 12,7 % contre 10,5 fin 2008 et les provisions pour risques ont porté sur 352,4 millions d’euros contre 291,9 millions.La division gestion d’actifs/valeurs mobilières (Asset Management Kapitalmarkt ou AMK) a réalisé un bénéfice économique de 330,3 millions d’euros contre 241,5 millions pour l’année précédente. En raison de sorties nettes de 5,4 milliards d’euros pour les fonds monétaire, les remboursements nets ont atteint 2,5 milliards d’euros contre des souscriptions nettes de 520 millions en 2008 et les encours à fin décembre sont ressortis à 130,1 milliards d’euros contre 123,5 milliards (+ 5,3 %).Pour la division gestion d’actifs/immobilier (Asset Management Immobilien ou AMI), les souscriptions nettes sont ressorties à 2,5 milliards d’euros contre 1,4 milliards et le bénéfice économique s’est situé avec éléments exceptionnels à 60,8 millions d’euros contre 105,1 millions pour 2008. Compte tenu toutefois d’une charge exceptionnelle de 25 millions d’euros sur les parts de WestInvest GmbH achetées en 2004 et des montants liés à l’utilisation d’immeubles par le groupe Deka, le résultat économique de la division AMI se situe à 23,2 millions.Le résultat économique de la division Corporates & Markets s’est situé à 527,2 millions d’euros contre 408,2 millions (résultat ajusté des activités n’appartenant pas au cœur de métier). Les activités n’appartenant pas au cœur de métier ont généré un bénéfice économique de 127,2 millions contre une perte de 729,3 millions pour 2008, parce que les pertes sur les produits crédit ont été réduites à 97,6 millions contre 626 millions.

Lyxor Asset Management fait coter de nouveaux ETF sur Deutsche Börse. Il s’agit de quatre produits investis sur l’immobilier coté et deux sur les obligations. Parmi les ETF sur l’immobilier, l’un d’entre eux est investi en Europe (Lyxor ETF MSCI Europe Real Estate), un autre aux Etats-Unis (Lyxor ETF MSCI USA Real Estate), un troisième en Asie ex Japon (Lyxor ETF MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Real Estate) et enfin un dernier sur l’ensemble des marchés immobiliers mondiaux, le Lyxor ETF MSCI World Real Estate (lire Newsmanagers du 11/02/2010). Les ETF obligataires misent d’un côté sur les obligations d'état européens notes AAA (Lyxor ETF Euro MTS AAA Government Bond) et de l’autre sur les obligations corporate européennes hors financières (Lyxor ETF Euro Corporate ex Financials) notées investment grade.Avec ces nouveaux produits, la cote du segment XTF de la plate-forme électronique Xetra de la Deutsche Börse comporte 617 références.