In the first eight months of the year, US bond funds attracted a net USD209.1bn, while net subscriptions to equities funds were limited to USD15.2bn, according to statistics from Morningstar, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Nine out of the ten funds which have seen the strongest net inflows are bond products.

Lyxor Asset Management announced on 29 September that it now has nine hedge funds on its managed account platform. Since January 2009, Lyxor has regularly increased the diversification of its investment universe, adding a new hedge fund in April, one in June, one in July, and four in August. Since the beginning of the year, assets under management on the platform have increased by USD3bn. The most recent fund, launched in September, is the Apollo Distressed Fund, which deploys an event-driven and risk arbitrage strategy.

GLG Partners has launched a new fund which is primarily aimed at British and European distressed firms, Hedge Week reports. The fund favours tradeable and liquid shares in firms engaged in long and difficult restructuring processes, which are generally prized by distressed activists. The fund, which has about USD300m in assets, had been managed internally since July 2008. But returns of 84% since January have motivated GLG to launch a special product for external investors.

Thames River and Jupiter are launching new offshore products on the British and European markets, according to Investment Week. Thames River will offer two long/short funds in the first half of 2010, directed by Joel Amsellem and Gaurav Bamania. The two UCITS III vehicles will be domiciled in Dublin. Jupiter, for its part, has launched a new vehicle entitled Global Opportunities, as a sub-fund of its Global fund, domiciled in Luxembourg. The fund is dedicated to institutional clients, but the minimal investment is set at GBP1,000. The fund is primarily invested in international equities, and is benchmarked against the MSCI World, and will be managed by Malcolm Millar, manager of European Income unit trusts, and Ben Surtees, manager of Asian unit trusts and Asia Pacific Sicav funds.

The fund management firm for Mutua Madrileña, Mutuactivos, last week launched the Mutuafondo Bonos Financieros fund. The product invests in bonds from European banks and insurers, which is a more conservative way of betting on the financial sector than through investment in equities, Expansión reports. The fund, which has already attracted EUR100m, is managed by Joaquín Álvarez-Borrás; securities in the portfolio will be rated at least BBB-, one notch above junk bonds, but the manager will focus on the leaders in each country. Until 15 October, subscriptions will carry no front-end fee. After that date, Mutuactivos will charge a 3% entry fee at subscription or in case of redemption after less than three years.

SAC Capital, the USD16bn hedge fund group, has invested in a new London-based fund managed by one of its former traders, says the Financial Times. RWC Partners’ new US Absolute Alpha fund, run by Mike Corcell (ex-Threadneedle), is expected to launch on Thursday, according to people familiar with the situation. The fund has raised USD350m and should get a further USD200m.

Assets under management in the United Kingdom contracted by 12% last year, to a total of GBP3.7trn, International Financial Services London (IFSL), a body that promotes British financial services worldwide, reports. This contraction follows five consecutive years of increases, averaging 8%. Poor returns, falling subscriptions and redemptions to investors were to blame for this contraction. Initial indicators for 2009 show that the sector has begun to recover, with a 14% increase in January-July in assets in retail funds domiciled in the United Kingdom. IFSL reports that two thirds of assets in 2008 were held by institutionals, while 16% were represented by retail funds, and 9% were in hedge funds, while the remainder corresponded to private clients. Profit margins for fund managers fell to 23%, from 32% in 2007.

The German conglomerate MAN SE announced on Wednesday in a regulated statement that the American management firm Invesco had notified it that it had passed the 3%, 5% and 10% thresholds in its capital, and on that date controlled 10.42% of voting rights in the business.

Unione di Banche Italiane (UBI Banca) has sold its depository banking activities, serving more than EUR19bn in assets, primarily held on behalf of UBI Pramerica, the third-largest Italian asset management firm, to RBC Dexia Investor Services (RBC Dexia). The agreement includes several commitments from the corresponding bank, including one to provide payment agency services in Italy for Luxembourg Sicavs and UCITS funds in Dublin, if clients agree to the transfer. The transaction affects EUR93m in assets, and UBI Banca will earn a net capital gain of EUR80m, and a 10 basis point increase to its core tier 1 ratio. The operation, which will be concluded in the first half of 2010, is wholly financed with internal funds from RBC Dexia.

La Tribune reports that in a joint statement, the top five UK banks - HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered - have announced that they will work with the Financial Services Authority to apply the bonus restrictions agreed at last week’s G20 meeting in Pittsburgh, from 1 January next year. The banks note that all member nations have pledged to apply the rules in order to ensure a level playing field.

In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Peter Clarke, CEO of Man Group, says there has been a rebound in demand on the part of investors, particularly for guaranteed products. He also says that Man Group is favourably disposed to several points in the draft alternative management directive proposed in Brussels: some security standards need to apply to all hedge funds, including the smallest ones which are not publicly traded, in order for competition to be equitable. However, Clarke considers the text too hard on non-European hedge funds. He argues that the idea of requiring banks to be responsible for hedge funds’ risks is too onerous. Lastly, the idea of limiting the amount of leverage which hedge funds are allowed to use to increase their performance goes a step too far.

Dreyfus Corporation, an affiliate of BNY Mellon Asset Management, has announced the launch of two funds of funds. The Dreyfus Satellite Alpha Fund will invest in mutual funds advised by Dreyfus, which will themselves invest in non-traditional asset classes such as commodities, currencies, and real estate. For its part, the Dreyfus Diversified Global Fund will invest in US and foreign equities mutual funds advised by Dreyfus.

Mary Callahan Erdoes, previously head of private banking, will take over as director of asset management activities at JP Morgan, the bank has announced in a statement. Erdoes, who succeeds Jes Stanley, who has been appointed CEO of investment banking activities, will also join the Operating Committee at JP Morgan Chase. Erdoes joined the JP Morgan private bank in 1996, to direct the Fixed Income department for high net worth investors (HNWI) and charities. After serving in other positions of responsibility, she was appointed CEO of the private bank in 2005, and joined the Executive Committee of the group.

According to sources close to the investor cited by Reuters, the sovereign fund China Investment Corp (USD200bn in assets) is planning to invest USD600-700m each in three distressed funds in the United States, of which one is from Goldman Sachs, and one from Oaktree Capital.

Following an injunction from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Deutsche Bank has announced that it will reduce the exposure to corn, wheat, crude oil, and sugar of its PowerShares DB Commodity Index Trading Fund (USD3.3bn) and PowerShares Db Agriculture Fund (USD2.2bn), and that it will instead invest in coffee, cocoa, live cattle, copper, natural gas, and gasoline, the Wall Street Journal reports. In addition, the Commodity fund will invest for the first time in a non-US energy commodity: Brent crude oil. The CFTC ordered Deutsche Bank to reduce its positions on corn and wheat futures by the end of October.

Agefi Switzerland reports that the manager Asoka Woehrmann, head of the Retail Fixed Income division at DWS, estimates that emerging market debt represents a new area of opportunities. Countries included in this universe are on the whole net exporters with trade surpluses. South Korea, for example, which at the beginning of the year underwent a 50% fall in its industrial production, is recovering faster than the United States, Germany, Italy, or France. China’s efforts to support its economy have never been so important. “As proof, the crisis has literally wiped the Icelandic kronur off the map of global currencies, but the Brazilian real, the Chinese yuan and the Korean won are doing well. Emerging debt is no longer hot finance.”

The online broker Fortuneo Belgium has bought the Belgian business of Cortal Consors, a unit of BNP Paribas. The acquisition price has not been disclosed, L’Echo reports.

From 1 October, the independent management firm GAM Holding Ltd has separated from Julius Baer Group, and its shares are now listed on the Swiss stock market SIX, under the acronym GAM. GAM Holding controls GAM Group AG and Swiss & Global Asset Management AG.

Asian Investor reports that Barclays Global Investors has opened a branch office in China, and that iShares now has a Chinese equivalent, whose name consists of two Chinese characters meaning “firm foundation” and “prosperity.” BGI would naturally like to develop its presence on the Chinese market, but many obstacles have yet to be overcome. The Chinese government and the Shanghai stock exchange have declared a desire to introduce international ETF funds to the local market in the near future. But Chinese regulators have made suggestions that they would give priority to Chinese businesses and their products before letting foreign competitors in on the market.

On Wednesday, Martin Currie announced the appointment of Dominik Issler as country head for Switzerland; he will join the firm on 4 January 2010. He will report to Eric Bateman, director, head of European sales. He was previously CEO of Fortis Investments/ABN Amro Asset Management for Switzerland.

Société Générale Asset Management is launching SGAM Invest Inflation Duration Free, a product which, according to a statement from SGAM, offers investors “a simple and efficient means to profit, starting immediately, from an expected rise in inflation, without being penalised by the risk of a rise in general interest rate levels, which may follow in its wake.” The product is particularly well-suited to economic environments which have “inflationary” characteristics, related to strong growth in overall liquidity, a rising orientation in commodity prices, and increasing needs for financing. This type of environment is also likely to emerge at times when there is tension over interest rate levels. Inflation-indexes bonds may be subject to both the positive consequences of rising projections for inflation and the negative impact of rising interest rates. SGAM Invest Inflation Duration Free, a French-registered FCP, is primarily invested in inflation-indexed bonds issued by Euro-zone countries and denominated in Euros. Its benchmark index is the Barclays Capital Instep, specially created by Barclays for this fund. The SGAM Invest Inflation Duration Free also sets itself the goal of reducing the target sensitivity of the portfolio to zero, in order to protect itself against rising interest rates. To achieve this, the managers will use futures, options and swaps. The fund will be available for a minimal investment of EUR1,000 for AC class shares, and will also benefit from SGAM’s expertise in active management of exposure to observed and anticipated inflation, choice of investment supports (countries, type of indexation, swap or direct bond), and immunisation against sensitivity to movements in interest rates. The fund is, however, exposed to inflation indexation risks in case of deflation, as well as to interest rate risks and engagement risks, and does not guarantee that investors will recuperate their initial investment, SGAM warns.

Jonathan R. Levin, who joined Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) in 2004, and who has since been in charge of several strategic projects, has been appointed to the newly-created position of treasurer and head of investor relations. The appointment comes at a time when, on 1 October, the absorption by KKR of KKR Private Equity Investors (KPE), traded in Amsterdam, takes effect (see Newsmanagers of 21 July).

Bank of America (BoA) has announced the recruitment of Andrew M. Sieg, who is director of the emerging affluent clients segment at Citigroup, as managing director and head of retirement and philanthropic services at the global wealth and investment management (GWIM) division. He will be based in New York, and will report to Sallie Krawcheck, president of GWIM. The group that Sieg will direct provides custom retirement solutions as well as administration, accounting, custody, advising and processing services to businesses and organisations, their employees and members, in approximately 40,000 collective retirement savings plans.

In New York, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) is expected to be added to trading on the NYSE from this Thursday. The transfer from Amsterdam to Wall Street comes much sooner than expected, as it had initially been slated for late 2010 at the latest, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports.

The ETF provider Source has announced that its assets under management now total USD2.2bn, or about EUR1.5bn, according to Hedge Week. In the space of two months, new products from Source, which have been well-received by institutional investors, particularly hedge funds, have seen nearly USD950m, or about EUR650m, in inflows.

Bank of America agreed to sell Columbia’s long-term asset management business to Ameriprise Financial, the parent company of the UK firm Threadneedle, for about USD1bn. The sale (equities and bond funds) covers assets under management of about USD165bn as of June 30. The transaction will be concluded in spring 2010. Bank of America also said on Wednesday that it has not yet decided what to do with Columbia’s short-term asset management business.

The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) has warned the European Commission about possible tax obstacles to cross-border fund mergers once the future Ucits IV directive is implemented, says Ignites Europe. Asset management companies may be deterred from using cross-border mergers.

Agefi Switzerland reports that a migration of Brevan Howard to the shores of Lake Geneva, where it has planned to move 250 of its staff, though its operational activities will remain in London, is anything but a surprise. 18 months ago, in an informal meeting with the FSA (Financial Services Authority), the directors of Brevan Howard put pressure on the British government with the announcement that they were studying a departure from the United Kingdom if their fears about a large increase in taxes were confirmed. For the moment, Brevan Howard has limited itself to a succinct and evasive statement: “The parent company of the Brevan Howard group regularly studies commercial opportunities, and is preparing to move into offices in several jurisdictions, including Switzerland.” Brevan already has offices in New York, Washington, Hong Kong, Dublin, and Tel Aviv.

Baring Asset Management has announced that it will participate in the ABC of Bonds roadshow in the United Kingdom along with Axa Investment Managers and Cazenove Capital Management to popularise investment in bond funds with IFAs. The shows will be held in fifteen cities in the country, including London, Cardiff and Edinburgh, from the 17th to the 27th of November. It will reach about 400 IFAs.

Georges Pauget, CEO of Crédit Agricole, announced on Wednesday that the bank would be withdrawing from tax havens in 2010, La Tribune reports. The bank will close its units in the Bahamas and Panama.