Hermes Fund Managers has appointed Neil Williams as chief economist on the fixed income team. Williams was previously head of research and strategy for government bonds at Mizuho International, in London. He will report to Penni Coe, director of government and inflation-indexed bonds.

Graham Ashby, along with his colleagues at Credit Suisse, Michael Crawford, Marcus Chandler, and Mira Bhogaita, have been hired by LV=Asset Management to take over the UK Growth and UK Equity Income funds, currently managed by Chris Price, head of the equities team, Investment Week reports. LV=AM manages about GBP1.1bn in UK equities. The funds which were managed by Ashby at Credit Suisse have been outsourced by the asset management firm to Premier Asset Management.

On 20 August, Universal Investment launched the currency fund Berenberg Currency-Alpha-Universal Investment, which is advised by Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG. It is a German-registered product, for which State Street Bank GmbH is the depository bank. The manager may take long and short positions. Though the investment universe is not limited by a specific rule, investments will concentrate on G8 currencies. Characteristics Name Berenberg Currency-Alpha-Universal-Fonds ISIN code DE000A0RGXP9 Front-end fee 5.00% Management commission 1.28% Performance commission 15% of absolute returns with high watermark and a hurdle rate corresponding to the Euribor 3-month

The real estate asset management firm Commerz Real (EUR43bn in assets) has announced the acquisition for about EUR32.7m of the office property Espace Dumont d’Urville, in the 16th district of Paris. The vendor of the 3,100 square-metre property is Klépierre (BNP Paribas group). Espace Dumont d’Urville, which is wholly leased to SEGECE, an affiliate of Klépierre, will be added to the portfolio of the institutional real estate fund Euro Office 1.

In the first half of 2009, 1,913 funds were merged or closed, more than the 1,206 funds which were launched in the same time period, according to statistics from Lipper FMI, reported by Financial Times Fund Management. For the first time in a long time, the number of funds has declined, to a total of 33,543.

Allianz Global Investors (AGI) is planning to release a UCITS III version of its long/short Discovery Europe fund, as a sub-fund of this fund itself, Investment Week reports. The new product, Allianz RCM Discovery Europe Strategy, will be managed by the same manager as the main fund, Harold Sporleder, with Ralf Walter as co-manager. Two thirds of the profile will be invested in “strong conviction equities,” while the remainder will be invested with a more short-term outlook.In the first five months of the year, Allianz RCM Discovery Europe has posted returns of 11.91%, compared with 6.07% for the MSCI Europe index.

According to statistics from the BVI association, German asset management firms in first half posted net subscriptions of EUR3.7bn, of which EUR2.2bn were for institutional funds and EUR1.5bn for open-ended funds, while assets increased by about 4%, to a total as of 30 June of EUR1.2627trn, compared with EUR1.2175trn as of the end of December. The Kommalpha agency points out that inflows in January=June were saved by db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) and ETFlab (Deka), whose ETF funds alone attracted more than EUR4.8bn, while money market funds, for example, saw net redemptions of more than EUR11bn. The financial crisis is working to the advantage of Germany as a site of fund production, as German-registered open-ended funds have attracted about EUR6.5bn in assets, while Luxembourg-registered funds have seen net outflows of nearly EUR7.4bn. Kommalpha says this is due to the fact that Luxembourg funds are often more complex structures oriented to equities.

The new regional government of Pudong has signed an agreement in principle (MOU) with the Blackstone Group to create the first private equity fund denominated in Chinese yuan in the region of Shanghai-Pudong. The Blackstone Zhonghua Development Investment Fund will raise about CNY5bn, and will invest as its first priority in the Shanghai region and its surroundings.

Keith Sloane, senior vice president of Hartford Mutual Funds, has announced that the affiliate of The Hartford has posted net subscriptions in second quarter and that assets totalled USD40.7bn as of the end of July, compared with USD28.7bn as of the end of first quarter (they were USD50bn as of the end of third quarter 2009), the Wall Street Journal reports. Hartford Mutual Funds underwent net redemptions in fourth quarter 2008 and first quarter 2009, but subscriptions increased by 37% in second quarter 2009 compared with first quarter.The Hartford’s focus on wealth management has led to a centralisation of mutual fund, retirement and variable annuities affiliates into a new investment and retirement division. The goal is to reach USD100bn in assets under management.

The New York State Common Retirement Fund (USD110bn) has been licensed the FTSE Environmental Technology 50 and HSBC Global Climate Change indices as benchmarks for a new suite of inhouse investments in cleantech and climate change solutions, according to Responsible Investor. This amount is part of a USD500m Green Strategic Investment Program (GSIP) announced in 2008, of which USD200m has been allocated in April to Generation Investment Management.

L’Agefi reports that the CFTC is investigating the influence of speculative investment on price volatility on the US energy market. Following this investigation, the sectoral regulator is planning to set limits on positions permitted on certain assets on futures markets. ETFs, publicly-traded index-based funds which trade in commodities, may be the first victims of these increased regulations, with the objective of protecting the final consumer of energy and ensuring that prices paid by the consumer are fair and not the result of price manipulation.

Hedge funds managing close to USD15bn in assets quit the United Kingdom and moved to Switzerland in the past year, following plans to increase top personal tax rates to 51%, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing lawyers. Others are expected to follow.

The international association of the hedge fund industry, AIMA (Alternative Investment Management Authority), has welcomes a decision this past weekend by the FSA (Financial Services Authority) to commission a study of the impact the planned hedge fund directive would have on the United Kingdom. The British financial market authority has asked the research firm CRA International to study the costs and benefits of the legislation, focusing on the impact of the project on investment portfolios, costs to companies and investors, on the functioning of the market and on systemic risk, and finally, to study the effects of the legislation on financing for small businesses and European competitiveness. The findings of the study will be presented by the end of the year. The Association favours a revision of the draft directive in its current form. Though it approves of some planned measures such as systematic reporting of appropriate data to national supervisory authorities, the Association argues that some areas of the planned legislation, such as those concerning leverage, depositories, and marketing, need to be revised and corrected to avoid counter-productive effects. The AIMA, which has already called on the European Commission to order a pan-European impact study, hopes that the FSA’s initiative will inspire the Commission to take that step. “We hope that the European Commission will follow suit on the pan-European level. It would be extraordinary if there were not an appropriate evaluation on the European level of the impact of a directive which could have very serious consequences.” Like the AIMA, the FSA, whose annual conference for asset management, to be held on 17 September in London, will be dedicated to the subject of the planned European directive, is said to be favourable to a revision of the Commission’s draft directive, which it considers too constraining for the hedge fund industry. The British government is concerned about the impact of the draft directive on the competitiveness of an industry which in European terms is largely centred in London. The United Kingdom’s efforts to produce a revised version of the text will be likely to provoke some debate in Europe. France, among others, is widely known to favour increased surveillance of the activities of hedge funds.

According to a study by S&P cited by the WSJ, about 60% of equities fund managers lagged behind their index over five years to June 30. With the exception of emerging market debt funds, at least 75% of bond fund managers trailed behind their index. The news is grist for the mill of supporters of passive, index-based management. But Jane Li of FundQuest (BNP Paribas) says that “the less efficient the market, the more potential there is for a manager to add value.”

Following a decision by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to toughen regulations, Barclays Global Investors has ceased sales of new shares in its iShares fund based on the S&P GSCI Commodity index, L’Agefi reports.

La Tribune reports that two former bank directors, Erastus Akingbola and Cecilia Bru, who were dismissed on 14 August for poor management, including fraudulent use of credit facilities, insider trading, market manipulation and money-laundering, are being sought in Nigeria by the economic and financial crimes commission.

Inspired by the agreement between UBS and the United States, the Canadian government is giving a look to the bank accounts that its taxpayers hold in Switzerland, Le Temps reports.“We would like to obtain information. UBS tried to slow things down, but in early September, we will meet with our lawyers (and UBS) to obtain this information,” the Canadian minister of internal revenue, Jean-Pierre Blackburn, told the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper.

L’activité sur le marché primaire devrait en revanche ralentir, la plupart des émetteurs ayant déjà couvert leurs besoins de financement

En juillet, les investisseurs suisses ont pris des bénéfices sur leurs fonds en actions, indique Le Temps. Selon les derniers chiffres de Lipper, les retraits se sont montés à 180 millions de francs suisse. A l’inverse, les fonds obligataires ont attiré 2,648 milliards de francs. Sur les fonds d’allocation d’actifs, les sorties se sont poursuivies à hauteur de 193 millions en juillet, alors que les fonds monétaires ont enregistré des retraits de 352 millions le mois dernier.

Selon L’Agefi suisse, les banques anglo-saxonnes considèrent la présence en Suisse comme absolument nécessaire lorsque l’on veut occuper une place significative dans le private banking. Leur environnement est parfois délicat, mais les effets variés de la grande crise bancaire de 2008 semblent compter davantage que les problématiques très helvético-suisses de confidentialité. Sans parler des préoccupations tout simplement locales : les actifs, les commissions ont diminué et bien des clients ne sont pas satisfaits des performances. Cependant, les divisions wealth management de Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Citibank ou encore Barclays, enregistrent des afflux nets de capitaux et même une hausse des actifs en gestion, depuis la reprise des marchés, souligne le quotidien.

Selon L’Agefi suisse, la Banque cantonale bernoise a réalisé de bons résultats au premier semestre 2009, avec un bénéfice net avant impôts en hausse de 5,5% à 77,5 millions de francs suisses. L’établissement cantonal a aussi enregistré un fort afflux d’argent frais de 166 millions de francs suisses.

BNP Paribas va céder sa division de banque de détail en Argentine à Banco Santander Río. Il s’agit d’un réseau, composé de 17 agences situées dans la ville et la province de Buenos Aires, qui dessert une clientèle de plus de 30 000 particuliers et 900 entreprises. La banque française reste néanmoins présente en Argentine via son offre de produits et de services aux entreprises et aux sociétés d’investissement.

En juillet, les hedge funds ont enregistré leur troisième mois consécutif de hausse de leurs encours, rapporte Eurokahedge. Les actifs ont ainsi gonflé de près de 11 milliards de dollars sur le mois pour s'établir à 1.350 milliards de dollars. Cette hausse est essentiellement liée à l’effet performance, les souscriptions nettes s'étant limitées à 2,1 milliards de dollars. Quelque 15 milliards de dollars ont été investis dans les hedge funds, mais 12,9 milliards en sont sortis.

Après une année 2008 désastreuse, le secteur des fonds alternatifs cotés (dont la plupart sont enregistrés sur le London Stock Exchange) a continué à sous-performer malgré une reprise dans les hedge funds et le private equity ces 7 derniers mois, rapporte le Financial Times. Les fonds de fonds cotés sont ceux qui souffrent le plus. En moyenne, les fonds de hedge funds se négocient actuellement avec une décote de 18,2 % par rapport à la valeur de ses actifs, selon une étude de RBS citée par le FT.

Le fonds de pension britannique de Barclays (Bukrf) a nommé Andre Konstantinow en tant que directeur de la sélection de gérants, un poste nouvellement créé.Il vient de Morgan Stanley Investment Management où il était gérant senior, notamment responsable des gestionnaires de hedge funds Europe et marchés émergents.

Conseillée par Greenhill, la banque privée Close Brothers aurait présenté une offre pour acquérir Kleinwort Benson auprès de la Commerzbank, qui souhaiterait en tirer jusqu'à 300 millions de livres, rapporte The Sunday Times. Parmi les autres candidats repreneurs figure le management de Kleinwort Benson, soutenu par Simon Robertson, le chairman de Rolls Royce, et par sir John Bond, celui de Vodafone.Le nouveau directeur général de Close Brothers, Preben Prebensen, cherche à renforcer les activités de banque privée du groupe ; il aurait aussi l’intention de mettre sur pied un outil en ligne de gestion de fonds pour le compte de clients fortunés, comme Fidelity et Hargreaves Lansdown.

Au 31 juillet, la liquidité nette du fonds immobilier offert au public Axa Immoselect, qui demeure fermé aux remboursements depuis fin octobre 2008, ressortait à 493 millions d’euros contre 380 millions au 30 juin (lire notre article du 24 juillet). Cela tient entre autres à la vente au-dessus de la valeur de marché d’un immeuble sur la «Kö" de Düsseldorf, après celles de l’immeuble de magasins O 7 de Mannheim et d’un immeuble d’habitations et de commerces à Cologne.Actuellement, par ailleurs, le taux d’occupation des immeubles appartenant au fonds se situe à 96,4 %.

La Deutsche Börse a annoncé l’admission à la négociation sur le segment XTF de sa plate-forme électronique Xetra de quatre nouveau ETF «de stratégie» proposé par ETF Securities. Ce sont tous des produits de droit allemand.Il s’agit du ETFS DAX 2x Long Fund, qui réplique l'évolution du LevDAX x2 Index, du ETFS DAX 2x Short Fund, qui se réfère au ShortDAX® x2 Index et du ETFS Dow Jones EURO STOXX Double Short (2x) Fund, dont le benchmark est le Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 Double Short Index. La commission de gestion pour ces trois ETF est de 0,60 %.Le quatrième nouveau produit est le ETFS Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 Leveraged (2x) Fund, qui reproduit l'évolution du Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 Leveraged Index et pour lequel la commission de gestion se situe à 0,40 %.Avec ces produits, la cote du segment XTF comprend 481 ETF.

Poursuivant sa stratégie de cotations croisées, iShares (Barclays Global Investors, groupe BlackRock) a fait admettre à la négociation de la Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (Mexico) cinq de ses ETF de droit allemand. Il s’agit du iShares DAX (DE), du iShares DJ Stoxx 600 (DE) et de trois produits obligataires, iShares eb.rexx Government Germany (DE), eb.rexx Government Germany 1.5-2.5 (DE) et iShares eb.rexx Government Germany 2.5-5.5 (DE).En mai, iShares avait repris l’ETF NAFTRAC à la banque mexicaine Nacional Financiera.

RBC Capital Markets, le pôle banque de financement et d’investissement de Royal Bank of Canada, vient de recruter Marc Fleischman en tant que managing director et responsable des ventes pour les hedge funds en Europe. L’intéressé travaillait précédemment chez Citigroup.