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15/10/2009

Late birth of REITs

This Thursday, the Spanish congress will pass a law which will create Spanish REIT funds, «sociedades cotizadas de inversión en el mercado inmobiliario» (Socimi), Cinco Días reports. Though experts say the bill comes quite late, at the peak of the real estate crisis, they have nonetheless welcomed the legislation. SOCIMI vehicles will be subject to an 18% tax, lower than the current 30% rate, as long as they distribute at least 90% of their profits.
15/10/2009

UN initiative for sustainable development requirements

Aviva and the United Nations will announce an initiative in November which will encourage global stock markets to modify the rules for publicly traded companies. The aim will be to require firms to publish a sustainable development report, and to submit the document to a vote of shareholders.
15/10/2009

In the City, statement of support for bonus rules not universally popular

The major non-British banks based in the City, including Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Securities, Morgan Stanley Nomura and UBS, were yesterday compelled by an injunction from Paul Myners, secretary of state in charge of the City, to issue a joint statement expressing their “complete support” for the G20 agreement on remuneration, La Tribune reports. Top directors at the banks agree to defer “40% to 60%” of their bonuses for a three-year period, while these bonuses will be paid “at least 50% in equities.” BNP Paribas, Société Générale and Deutsche Bank are dragging their feet. With branches and not affiliates in the United Kingdom, they are not regulated by the FSA. They have announced instead that they “will apply the G20 agreements in accord with regulators in their home countries.”
15/10/2009

Mass confessions of secret accounts to IRS

According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), cited by La Tribune, 7,500 high net worth US residents have agreed to provide information to the tax authority about their secret bank accounts abroad, on the eve of the deadline for its amnesty program. The amounts disclosed to the authorities range from USD10,000 to more than USD100m, says Doug Shulman, director of the IRS, who is planning to increase the agency’s efforts to find funds, particularly in Beijing, Panama, and Sydney, Australia.
15/10/2009

Two Madoff victims file suit against SEC

Two investors who lost more than USD2.4m in the Bernard Madoff fraud have filed suit against the US Securities and Exchange Commission, claiming that the government agency responsible for protecting investors was negligent in its oversight of Mr Madoff’s operations. Phyllis Molchatsky and Steven Schneider claim the government should compensate Ms Molchatsky by paying her USD1.7m, and by paying Dr Schneider USD750,000 – the amount they lost.
15/10/2009

Former Bear Stearns managers misled investors

Two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, who ran funds that collapsed and marked the beginning of the financial crisis misled investors to save their multi-million dollar bonuses and reputations, US federal prosecutors claimed on Wednesday, says the Financial Times.
15/10/2009

Schroders reprofiles US Large Cap Alpha fund as US All Cap

From 1 October, the US Large Cap Alpha sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav Schroders ISF has been renamed as Schroder ISF US All Cap. The fund may now invest in US equities of all cap sizes, rather than concentrating on large caps. Management will be provided by Jonathan Armitage, head of US equities, with the assistance of Jenny Jones, head of US small/midcap equities. The allocation will be one third to smidcaps and two thirds large caps, though the fund will retain a bottom-up stock-picking approach. Management commissions for all classes of shares in the fund will also be reduced by 25 basis points (to 1.25% for A class shares, for example), and the risk classification of the fund has been lowered to “moderate” from “high.”
15/10/2009

Private equity investors aim for EUR4bn in Amadeus IPO

BC Partners and Cinven have chosen the Madrid stock exchange as the site of their initial public offering next spring of a 40% stake in Amadeus, in which Iberia, Air France and Lufthansa own stakes, Expansión reports. The two private equity investors control 53% of the IT group. In 2005, BC partners and Cinven paid EUR4.34bn for a 100% stake in Amadeus. Now, the banks in the investment consortium (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley) value the business at EUR8bn, and the vendors hope to make EUR4bn from the sale of the shares to be offered on the stock market.
15/10/2009

Thick cream on the pint for fund subscribers

Rising stock markets in second and third quarters have resulted in good performance for equities funds, according to Handelsblatt. On the basis of rankings from Feri EuroRating Service, taking into account results from about 4,300 funds on sale in Germany in 36 categories, four funds have posted gains of over 100% since the beginning of the year: the BSF Latin American Opportunities Fund A2 USD from BlackRock, managed by Will Landers, is in first place, with returns of 142.11%, ahead of the Earth Exploration Fund UI, with 128.26%, the JPM Emerging Markets Small Cap Fund A Acc USD from JP Morgan, managed by Greg Mattiko, and the PF(LUX)-Eastern Europe-P Cap from Pictet, managed by Agne Zikute, with 101.98%. Also notable in the high yield bond category is the Aberdeen Global - Euro High Yield Mond A Dist, managed by Paul Reed, with returns of 98.27%.
15/10/2009

Bruce Wasserstein (Lazard) dead at 61

Bruce Wassterstein, president and CEO of Lazard and a Wall Street legend, died on Wednesday, 14 October, at the age of 61, Lazard has announced in a statement. The French-American bank revealed on 11 October that its chief had been hospitalised in a serious condition following a cardiac arrest. Wasserstein was particularly involved in the recent history of the prestigious US business bank, taking an active role in all strategic decisions ever since he arranged the firm’s IPO and took over as director of the firm in 2005. More recently, he had been active in Cadbury’s bid to acquire the US firm Kraft Foods. Lazard shares were suspended from trading for a few minutes before the end of the trading day, following the news of Wasserstein’s decease. Lazard has appointed Stephen J. Golub, Vice Chairman of Lazard Ltd., to serve as interim CEO, effective immediately. Golub, 63, joined Lazard in 1984, and was CFO and chairman of Lazard’s advising activities.
15/10/2009

Cadogan buys Fortis and BNP Paribas out of its capital

Cadogan Management, a USD3.6 billion hedge-fund investing firm, has agreed to buy the business back from Fortis Bank, according to the WSJ. Fortis and French bank BNP Paribas, which earlier this year agreed to acquire a range of assets from Fortis, plan to announce the agreement Thursday.
15/10/2009

Qatar buys HSBC Paris headquarters

The headquarters of HSBC France (formerly CCF) on the Champs-Elysées has been acquired by the Qatari Diar fund. The purchase price for the 35,000 square metre property is about EUR400m. The ground floor of the building will be converted into a retail gallery space, while the upper floors will become a luxury hotel.
15/10/2009

Excellent year expected for hedge funds

According to Eurekahedge, hedge funds may attain assets as of the end of the year of USD1.5trn, and may turn in performance of 21%, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. As of the end of September, assets under management increased by USD26.3bn, from USD21.4bn in August. In the seven months to the end of September, performance totals 16.1%, and hedge funds are likely to turn in their best performance since 2003 for the year 2009 as a whole.
15/10/2009

"Vice funds" don't pay

Supporters of SRI can breathe a sigh of relief. According to Les Echos, a study by Andreas Hoepner at Saint Andrews university and Stefan Zeume of Insead has found that the “Vice Fund” which invests in tobacco, alcohol, gaming and weapons, does not bring real value to investors. Instead, managers of the fund are more likely to destroy value for clients. The only previous study of the Vice Fund reached the opposite conclusion, but that study dealt with a shorter time period (three years rather than six), and did not correct for the style bias in products of this type. In fact, the outperformance of the fund compared with their benchmarks is due only to its very high exposure to small and midcaps, at a time when these were fashionable, as well as to its heavy bets on the tobacco industry.
15/10/2009

Concentration of investments increases use of platforms

About two thirds of independent financial advisers in the United Kingdom are expecting to work with platforms in the next 12 months, according to a survey of 200 IFAs by Skandia. 85% of them explain this trend as the result of a consolidation of client assets on a single platform.
15/10/2009

Government siphons money from state pension fund

In its proposed budget for 2010, the Norwegian government is planning to balance its non-oil finances, which show a deficit of NOK153.8bn, with a transfer of funds from the Government Pension Fund - Global (GPFG), a higher amount than the NOK118.1bn the budget drew from the fund in 2009. Meanwhile, net transfers to the fund have fallen to NOK66.6bn, from NOK146.6bn, and net profits for the pension fund, including dividends, is expected to total NOK172.2bn, compared with NOK255bn. The government projects that at the end of 2009, assets in the GPFG will total NOK2.597trn, compare dwith NOK2.280trn as of the end of 2008; it is expected to total NOK2.824trn as of the end of 2010.
15/10/2009

Strong growth of Hong Kong hedge fund industry

The hedge fund industry is continuing to develop in Hong Kong, but assets under management have declined in the past twelve months. The number of hedge funds managed by managers registered in Hong Kong has risen to 542 as of 31 March 2009, nearly five times as many as there were in 2004, the first year for which statistics are available, according to the most recent edition of a study undertaken by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), which had not measured this population since 2006. The number of funds is also up from its total last year (488 as of March 2008). Assets under management have also risen sharply in the period under review, to USD55.3bn as of 31 March 2009, six times their 2004 levels. However, assets as of 31 March this year are down 39% from March 2008, when they peaked at Usd90.1bn. The top 20 hedge funds manage USD32.7bn in assets, slightly over 59% of total assets. The industry now employs nearly 2,000 people in Hong Kong, up from 1,053 in 2006, an increase of 86.8% in three years.
15/10/2009

Fewer high net worth individuals in Asia

In 2008, the population of high net worth individuals (HNWI) in Asia-Pacific fell by 14.2%, to 2.4 million people, and their total wealth declined 22.3% to USD7.4trn, according to Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and Capgemini in a new study. Despite this evaporation of wealth due to the financial crisis, the total wealth of high net worth indivisuals in the region is expected to increase by 8.8% per year until 2018, a pace faster than the global average of 7.1%. China and India are expected to drive this growth, thanks to solid domestic consumer spending and a growing middle class. In terms of asset allocation, high net worth individuals in the Asia-Pacific region have increased their exposure to safer and simpler investments. Their exposure to cash has risen from 25% to 29% in one year. Ownership of equities, meanwhile, has fallen from 26% to 23%. In geographical terms, domestic investments have risen from 53% to 67%.
14/10/2009
Fonds

Les ETF flirtent avec la barre des 1 000 milliards de dollars d'encours

A fin septembre, les ETF dans le monde affichaient des actifs sous gestion d’un montant record de 933,49 milliards de dollars, ce qui représente une hausse de 4,8 % sur le précédent record enregistré un mois plus tôt (891 milliards de dollars). Depuis le début de l’année, l’encours a gonflé de 31,3 % alors que l’indice MSCI monde connaissait une hausse de 22,5 % en dollars, rapporte Barclays Global Investors (BGI).Les souscriptions nettes pour tous les fonds hors ETF en janvier-juillet, d’après Strategic Insight, ont représenté 97,5 milliards de dollars tandis que celles d’ETF se chiffraient à 65,7 milliards.Pour les neuf premiers mois de l’année, le nombre d’ETF s’est accru de 14,3 % à 1 819 produits, avec 295 nouveaux lancements et 72 fermetures. Ces fonds étaient cotés 3247 fois sur 40 Bourses.Les trois premiers promoteurs demeurent iShares (la marque de BGI) avec 403 ETF et 451,87 milliards de dollars), State Street Global Advisors (106 fonds et 138,32 milliards de dollars) et Vanguard (40 ETF et 77,15 milliards de dollars).Actuellement, d’après BGI, quelque 811 lancements d’ ETF sont en projet.
Fonds
14/10/2009
Fonds

Les hedge funds travestissent la réalité

Un gérant de hedge funds sur cinq présente son fonds ou sa performance sous un faux jour aux investisseurs lors de due diligences formelles, affirme une étude de la Stern School of Business de l’Universitié de New York citée par le Financial Times. Le plus souvent, les gérants travestissent les encours du fonds, la performance et l’historique réglementaire et juridique.
Fonds
14/10/2009

Hémorragie chez RBS Coutts

La banque privée RBS Coutts est touchée par le départ de 70 personnes de son bureau de Singapour (soit plus d’un quart de son effectif), plusieurs d’entre elles allant probablement rejoindre le suisse BSI (groupe Generali), soit dans la ville-Etat soit ailleurs en Asie, rapporte la Börsen-Zeitung. RBS Coutts a indiqué qu’elle envisage de recruter une vingtaine de banquiers en Asie.
14/10/2009

UBS : Allen Lo nommé country head pour Hong Kong

UBS a annoncé le 12 octobre la nomination de Allen Lo au poste de responsable pays pour Hong Kong. Allen Lo conserve ses fonctions de Deputy CEO Wealth Management Asia Pacific et CEO Wealth Management pour Hong Kong. Il prend la succession de Chi-Won Yoon, président et CEO de UBS AG, Asia Pacific, qui démissionne pour se concentrer exclusivement sur ses responsabilités de management pour UBS dans la zone Asie-Pacifique.
14/10/2009

Le Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 sous-jacent du premier ETF dans les Emirats Arabes Unis

Le fournisseur d’indices Dow Jones Indexes a annoncé le 13 octobre avoir accordé une licence d’exploitation du Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 Total Return Index à la National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD). L’indice servira de base à un ETF qui sera coté à la bourse d’Abu Dhabi. Cet ETF sera le premier ETF disponible sur le marché des Emirats arabes unis (UAE).
14/10/2009

Le Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 sous-jacent du premier ETF dans les Emirats arabes unis

Le fournisseur d’indices Dow Jones Indexes a annoncé le 13 octobre avoir accordé une licence d’exploitation du Dow Jones GCC Titans 50 Total Return Index à la National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD). L’indice servira de base à un ETF qui sera coté à la bourse d’Abu Dhabi. Cet ETF sera le premier ETF disponible sur le marché des Emirats arabes unis (UAE).
14/10/2009

Gabriel Herrera quitte UBS GAM

UBS Global Asset Management s’est séparé de son patron de l’Europe, du Moyen-Orient et de l’Afrique, Gabriel Herrera, également membre du conseil de direction, rapporte le Wall Street Journal. Ce départ s’inscrit dans le cadre d’une réorganisation. Gabriel Herrera avait passé 22 ans au sein de la banque suisse.

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