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19/02/2010
Fonds

Brevan Howard va restructurer un fonds Ucits III

Selon Citywire, Brevan Howard a décidé de restructurer son fonds Ucits III Absolute Return Bond Plus. «Malgré des performances positives, le fonds intéresse peu les investisseurs dans sa forme actuelle», indique la dernière newsletter du fonds. «Nous étudions une stratégie d’investissement qui soit plus étroitement alignée avec les expositions cœur du Brevan Howard Master Fund Limited». Pour mémoire, ce fonds est commercialisé en France par OFI Asset Management.
Fonds
19/02/2010

Source launches an ETF based on DAX index

st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } Source announced on 18 February that it has launched an ETF based on the DAX index, entitled DAX Source ETF. The new fund, which complies with the UCITS III directive and is registered in Germany, aims to replicate the DAX total return index through investment directly in the shares that make up the index, without the use of derivatives. Primary characteristics of the fund Name of product DAX Source ETF Bloomberg Ticker DAX30S GR Currency of fund EUR Management fee 0.15% per year Listing Deutsche Börse (XETRA) Name of index DAX Total Return Index Dividends Gross dividends reinvested End of fiscal year 30 November
19/02/2010

Changes at Conseil Plus Gestion

According to Citywire, at Conseil Plus Gestion, Xavier Note, who co-managed the Europe Provence fund with Arnaud Roux, has left the company to join La Compagnie Financiere Edmond de Rothschild’s Marseille office. Note has been replaced by Bruno Marquier. Separately, Florent Bainier left the company Neville Gestion.
19/02/2010

ETF tracking error up sharply in 2009

According to a study of the performance of ETFs undertaken by Goldman Sachs, ETFs had an average tracking error last year of 1.25 percentage points against the indices they replicate, compared with 0.52% in 2008, the Wall Street Journal reports. Tracking errors of more than 3% were observed for 54 funds while only 4 funds had tracking errors at this level in 2008. Some funds missed their indices by more than 10%. Though the SPDR (SPY), the largest ETF on the market, finished the year only 0.19% behind the S&P 500, the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index ETF (EEM), which has USD40bn in assets, earned returns of 71.8% last year, while its benchmark gained 78.5%. The SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield ETF (JNK) was 1,300bps late on its index which gained 53.5%. But tracking errors are not always negative: the Vanguard Telecom Services ETF (VOX, USD200m) earned 29.6% returns, compared with 12.6% for the benchmark.
19/02/2010

CAAM España chief takes over as head of Amundi

Michel Escalera, who was previously head of CAAM in Spain, will take over as head of Amundi for Spain and Portugal, Expansión reports. The new management firm born of the merger of CAAM and SGAM will be the second-largest foreign asset management firm in Spain, after JPMorgan AM, with EUR3.2bn in assets as of the end of September. Christina Regozzino will be head of sales for Amundi Spain, while Alfonso O’Donell, deputy director of SGAM Spain, will be leaving the firm to join Société Générale.
19/02/2010

New executive team at Allianz GI France

Michel Haski has been appointed chief executive officer at Allianz Global Investors France. In a statement released on 17 February, Allianz GI states that Haski will also retain his responsibilities as chief executive officer of Allianz Global Investors Europe GmbH. At the same time, three deputy CEOs have also been appointed. They are: Franck Dixmier, in charge of investments; Johann Gaulier, in charge of human resources, compliance, internal controls and legal affairs, finance, and risk control; Christophe Mallet, in charge of development for networks. Lastly, Sylvie Bernard and Jean-Marc Voisin have been appointed as deputy CEOs. Bernard will be in charge of operations, reporting and organization, while Voisin will be in charge of IT systems. From May 2006, Haski was in charge of commercial development for Allianz Global Investors Europe GmbH, before becoming chief executive officer of Allianz Global Investors Europe GmbH in July 2008.
19/02/2010

Guggenheim Partners to retain SGI and Rydex brand names

Richard Goldman, CEO of Security Global Advisors (SGI) and Rydex SGI, has told Mutual Fund Wire that Guggenheim Partners, which has recently acquired the two firms for USD400m, is planning to retain the two brands. He is confident that the acquirer will help to finance planned development in 2010, and that recruitments are planned for sales, marketing and management teams. Currently, SGI and Rydex SGI (USD22bn) employ 275 people and offer three product lines: Rydex inverse and leveraged index-linked mutual funds and ETFs; fundamental alpha equities funds, and hedge fund products.
19/02/2010

Profits down at Morningstar

For the year 2009, Morningstar has posted a 4.7% decline in its earnings to USD479m, while operating profits are down 9.8% to USD125.3m. Net profits, meanwhile, contracted by 10.9% to USD82.45m. John Mansueto, chairman and CEO, says that 2009 was a challenging year for the firm. The decline in earnings is due to the loss of two key clients in investment management, the loss of revenues from Global Analyst Research Settlement (GARS), and a fall in earnings from Internet advertising.
19/02/2010

Deutsche Bank plans to promote managed accounts

Deutsche Bank has announced that it has founded a dedicated sales team to develop global distribution of its managed accounts platform, to take advantage of growth in demand for alternative means of accessing hedge funds. The team is led by Daniel Caplan, who remains head of prime finance sales and capital introduction for Europe. The bank has also recruited Guillaume Mathais, who will be dedicated to sales of managed accounts. Mathais was head of distribution of managed accounts at Lyxor Asset management for the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Scandinavia.
19/02/2010

L&G to offer longevity insurance to pension funds

Like Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, Legal & General is beginning to offer pension funds insurance against longevity risks, the Financial Times reports. Prudential is soon expected to follow suit. British pension funds will this year insure themselves against about GBP15bn in liabilities to reduce the cost and volatility of defined-benefit savings plans, and two thirds of this insurance will be in the form of longevity swaps, the consulting agency Hymans Robertson estimates.
19/02/2010

Skagen to open a London office

Skagen, an independent Norwegian management company, will be opening an office in the West End of London early in the second quarter of 2010. The London office will be SKAGEN’s tenth office – in addition to the six in Norway, two in Sweden and one in Denmark.Stephen Millar has also been appointed Managing Director Skagen UK with responsibility for activities in the UK. He assumes his position on 15th February 2010. Stephen comes to Skagen from T. Rowe Price where he was Head of UK Institutional Business and Pan-European Investment Consultant Relations. The UK is «an important and growing market» for Skagen. It has almost GBP700 million under management, predominantly from institutional clients.
19/02/2010

GLG reduces losses

In 2009, the London-based alternative management firm GLG Partners lost USD319m, roughly half the losses it turned in for 2008, which totalled USD631m. Assets at the firm increased over the year by 47% to USD22.2bn, largely due to net subscriptions of USD3.2bn, of which USD2.6bn came through the acquisition of SGAM UK. Net revenues, however, declined by 39.2% to USD300.9m, as a large proportion of assets are now in long-only funds and managed accounts, which have lower management fees than alternative strategies.
19/02/2010

BT downgraded due to pension fund deficit

On Thursday, shares in BT lost 1.2%, to 115¾p per share, as the GBP9bn deficit of the firm’s pension fund led Standard & Poor’s to downgrade its rating of the group to one notch above junk. The move was unexpected, the Financial Times reports, as Moody’s and Fitch had decided to maintain their ratings of BT unchanged following the publication of the most recent figures for the pension fund. S&P estimates that BT’s decision to pay in up to GBP533m per year until 2029 will not be enough to reabsorb the deficit, but that it will penalise shareholders and limit the strategic options for the telecoms operator in a highly competitive sector.
19/02/2010

Brevan Howard to rectructure a UCITS III fund

According to Citywire, Brevan Howard is restructuring the Brevan Howard Absolute Return Bond Plus Fund, a UCITS III fund. In the latest newsletter for the fund, the London-based firm says: «Despite positive performance, there has been relatively little investor interest for the product in its current form». It adds: «We are therefore evaluating an investment strategy which is more closely aligned with the core investment exposures of Brevan Howard Master Fund Limited (…)».
19/02/2010

MENA manager leaves Investec

st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } Citywire reports that Amr Saif, the manager of the Africa and Middle East fund from Investec, has quit the firm. Roelof Horne will replace him.
19/02/2010

comdirect hopes to increase profits by one third in 2010

Pre-tax profits at comdirect bank (Commerzbank group) last year were down 2.3% compared with 2008, at EUR76m, on the back of a restructuring charge of EUR9m related to the closure of comdirect private finance and the effects of a support plan for ebase. Net profits were down 1.9% at EUR56.6m. Michel Mandel, chairman of the managing board, announced on Thursday that this year he is aiming for pre-tax profits of EUR100m. By 2013, he is aiming for EUR150m-EUR170m in profits, through an increase in the number of clients to 3 million, from 2.1 million presently, and an increase in assets under management or custody to EUR50bn. For B2C (direct banking) activities, assets under management or administration as of the end of December totalled EUR22.2bn, 9% more than one year previously, while B2B activities (ebase) gained 26.6% to EUR13.3bn.
19/02/2010

Asian capitals catching up with Paris

Les Echos reports that a study by OpinionWay and KPMG for the Paris Ile-de-France Capitale economic association has found that the Paris region still have a very good image among major international businesses, as 35% of these firms consider the city the most attractive, putting it in third place after New York (41%) and London (42%). In fourth place in the rankings, Shanghai receives only 14% of the vote. The association points out, however, that this is the first time that an Asian metropolis has appeared so high in the rankings. When realised investments, excluding mergers and acquisitions, are taken into account, London takes the top place with 270 deals, followed yb Shanghai (242), Hong Kong (231), Paris (191) and Beijing (149).
19/02/2010

Lupus alpha scores a big name from AGI

Thomas Dittrich, one of the heads of Allianz Global Investors Advisory, is joining the independent management firm Lupus alpha, as a member of the executive board and senior relationship manager. He will be in charge of a sales team of nine people, who will aim to develop the institutional client base, without neglecting wealth management clients.
19/02/2010

Union Investment projects that a vintage year in 2009 has not offset all losses of 2008

In 2009, “a fiscal year crowned with success,” according to Rüdiger Ginsberg, chairman of the board, Union Investment, the central asset management firm for the German co-operative banks, earned net profits of EUR204m, compared with EUR143m in 2008, and EUR345m in 2007. Assets were up 15% to a total of EUR166bn as of the end of December, compared with EUR144.4bn twelve months previously, when they were down 17.7%. Net subscriptions last year totalled EUR10.7bn, compared with net outflows of EUR6.8bn in 2008, but net inflows in 2007 totalled EUR12.2bn. In detail, Union states that EUR1.9bn of net subscriptions went to open-ended funds (compared with net redemptions of EUR3.3bn in 2008), and a record EUR8.3bn went to institutional management (compared with outflows of EUR3.6bn). The manager also states that net inflows to open-ended real estate funds represented EUR2.6bn, the best results for the entire management sector in Germany. Union also attracted more than 135,000 clients for Riester retirement savings plans, where the UniProfiRente product has about 1.8 million subscribers. Guaranteed funds attracted about EUR2.5bn in net subscriptions, of which EUR1.9bn went to newly-launched products.
19/02/2010

Lombard Odier adds to sales staff

Frank Stefes, who was previously head of fund sales at Henderson Global Investors in Germany, on 1 January joined Lombard Odier, where he takes charge of sales of open-ended funds to wealth management clients, funds of funds, family offices, private banks, insurers, and IFA fund platforms.
19/02/2010

Contrasting performance for hedge funds in January

In January, the alternative strategies which earned the highest returns were, according to the Edhec Risk Institute, distressed securities (+1.97%) and short selling (+1.85%). Of 13 strategies, 8 are in positive territory. The heaviest losses were for CTA Global (-2.82%) and long/short equity (-1.02%) strategies.
19/02/2010

Emerging markets hedge funds up strongly in 2009

Hedge funds invested in emerging markets have offset their significant losses in 2008, and made significant progress last year, according to statistics from Hedge Fund Research. The HFRI Emerging Markets Index gained 40.4% for the year as a whole. Assets invested in emerging markets last year rose by USD25bn to over USD93bn, while gains related to positive market effects of USD34.4bn generously compensated for outflows of USD8.5bn. Funds dedicated to emerging markets finished the year with ten consecutive months of gains, though January 2010 brought a dip of -1.24% largely due to concerns over government debt risks.
19/02/2010

SEI aims for USd1bn in Islamic funds

st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } The wealth management firm SEI is hoping that its four Sharia-compliant funds will be able to top USD1bn in assets in the next two to three years, a top head of the firm, Jahangir Aka, said yesterday at the Islamic finance and banking conference held by Reuters in Dubai.
19/02/2010

Reyl releases an emerging markets bond fund in Switzerland

Agefi Switzerland reports that Reyl Emerging Debt Opportunities has obtained permission from the authorities to be released for sale in Switzerland. The fund will be managed by Raphael Kassin, a specialist in emerging markets and engaged debt at Reyl & Cie, who has been at the firm since 1 January. Kassin, formerly of ABN Amro and Credit Suisse, hopes to be able to raise up to CHF5bn in total for the product. He claims that bonds are a good means to invest in emerging markets such as Venezuela, as they reflect the attractive fundamentals of the countries, and offer more attractive returns.
19/02/2010

Des performances extrêmement variées dans un marché difficile

Les tableaux ci-contre présentent les meilleures et plus mauvaises performances des fonds sur les marchés des fonds actions américaines et françaises au cours du mois de janvier 2010. Ces performances sont mises en perspective par le calcul de la volatilité et du ratio de Sharpe sur trois ans d’historique ainsi que du rendement depuis un an.
19/02/2010

Les régions plus diversifiantes que les secteurs

Le graphique ci-contre montre l’évolution de l’indicateur de gain à la diversification calculé à partir de la corrélation moyenne entre des indices sectoriels globaux d’une part, et des indices régionaux d’autre part. Nous avons considéré une classification en dix secteurs (santé, industrie, télécoms, etc.) et huit zones géographiques (Etats-Unis, UEM, Asie, etc.). Cet indicateur permet de comparer les gains potentiels de diversification qui résultent d’une stratégie de diversification sectorielle et d’une stratégie de diversification régionale dans un portefeuille d’actions internationales.
18/02/2010
Fonds

Nouveau mandat de conservation pour BNY Mellon

Les deux fonds de pension néerlandais Stichting Bedrijfstakpensioenfonds voor de Suikerverwerkende Industrie et Stichting Bedrijfspensioenfonds voor de Suikerwerk- & Chocoladeverwerkende Industrie (Bpf Koek & Snoep) ont annoncé qu’ils avaient confié à BNY Mellon Asset Servicing un mandat de conservation pour un encours de 1 milliard d’euros.BNY Mellon fournira également d’autres services comme la comptabilité, la mesure de la performance ou encore le reporting.
Fonds
18/02/2010

Le fonds souverain coréen veut se brancher sur l'alternatif

Le fonds souverain coréen, Korea Investment Corporation (KIC), qui gère quelque 30 milliards de dollars, envisage d’accroître ses investissements dans la gestion alternative, selon Asian Investor.Le ministère des finances et de la stratégie, qui a déjà contribué au fonds pour un montant de 13 milliards de dollars, pourrait ajouter cette année 5 milliards de dollars. Une proportion croissante de ces nouveaux fonds pourrait être investie dans l’alternatif, y compris le private equity, l’immobilier, les hedge funds et les commodities. Les allocations les plus significatives devraient aller au private equity.A terme, l’exposition à la gestion alternative pourrait se situer dans une fourchette de 15% à 20%.
18/02/2010

DWS rationalise sa gamme

Désormais, DWS Investments ne commercialise plus en Autriche de fonds de droit local. Les six derniers qui subsistaient au 31 décembre 2009 ont été soit transférés à d’autres gérants, soit liquidés.Le gestionnaire de fonds offerts au public de la Deutsche Bank a déjà entamé depuis assez longtemps une concentration de son offre de produits sur la sicav luxembourgeoise DWS Invest. Les fonds de droit français et italien, notamment, y avaient déjà été transférés.DWS juge que la gestion en local coûte finalement trop cher et que la centralisation à Francfort de l’essentiel de la gestion est une formule à la fois moins onéreuse et plus efficace.
18/02/2010

La Deutsche Börse va se séparer de 80 cadres supérieurs

Gregor Pottmeyer, directeur financier, a indiqué mercredi que la Deutsche Börse a l’intention de se séparer à l’amiable de 80 cadres supérieurs sur 400, rapporte la Börsen-Zeitung. Cela vise les strates immédiatement sous le directoire, donc les managing directors, heads of department et senior experts.Selon le concept élaboré par McKinsey, cela doit permettre d’accélérer la prise de décisions et donc de mettre plus rapidement sur le marché de nouveaux produits et services.Les dégraissages ne s’arrêteront pas en si bon chemin puisque Gregor Pottmeyer a chiffré le coût des autres mesures d'économies pour 2010 à 50 millions d’euros, dont 30 % pour des départs dans les échelons inférieurs à celui des cadres supérieurs.

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