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07/07/2009

Merseyside pension fund signs up four transition managers

Global Pensions reports that the Merseyside pension fund (GBP3.7bn in assets) has awarded transition management mandates to BlackRock, JPMorgan, State Street and Legal & General. The contracts are part of a four-year agreement and are renewable for two years.
07/07/2009

L&G planning to sell asset management activities

The British insurer Legal & General is planning to sell all or part of its asset management arm, MoneyMarketing reports, citing the Daily Mail. Tim Breedon may sell off Legal & General Investment Management, whose assets under management total about GBP260bn, and use the proceeds of the sale to increase the group’s tier 1 equity. At the end of last month, L&G announced plans to cut 200 personnel.
07/07/2009

Chris Hohn more generous than ever

The head of the hedge fund TCI, Chris Hohn, well known for his sometimes devastating activism, is also a generous donor to charities. Last year, he gave more than GBP499m to the charity led by his wife, Jamie Cooper-Hohn, which develops projects for underprivileged children in developing countries, the Daily Telegraph reports. Hohn has beat his own record, set last year, of GBP323m, and has donated GBP1.1bn in the space of only four years. For the year from the end of August 2008, TCI’s annual profits have risen 73% to GBP555.9m.
07/07/2009

FSA gets tougher on financial violations

The British Financial Servies Authority (FSA) on 6 July unveiled a new grid to calculate financial sanctions which will triple some penalties. The initiative aims to alter the behaviour of those who violate regulations, by imposing adequate sanctions to cancel out any potential benefits of infraction, the FSA says in a statement. The British market authority says the move will create “credible” deterrents. “By affecting individuals and companies in the portfolio where it hurts, the fines will create a serious warning for others who may be considering breaking the rules,” says Margaret Cole, in charge of applying the FSA’s regulations. As part of the proposed reforms, companies which admit to having broken the rules will pay a fee of up to 20% of profits from the activities concerned by the infraction. For an employee, the fine may be up to 40% of pay (including bonuses) for an infraction outside the market. For market violations, the minimal fee will be GBP100,000 (EUR116,000) for an individual. The FSA’s proposals are subject to a consultation until 21 October. The new fee grid would apply to all violations committed after February 2010.
07/07/2009

Crisis profoundly affects attitude and practice of institutional investors

The economic and financial crisis appears to have profoundly altered the attitude and practices of investors, according to a study entitled EIAMS 2009, published by Invesco. In addition to a high turnover in asset allocation towards fixed income and money market assets to the detriment of equities, the study finds that investors are increasingly attentive to investment horizons, and that they will need to revalue their portfolios after the recent market turbulence. Combined with the mechanical impact of declining valuations of assets due to the falling markets (the MSCI Europe index lost 43% in 2008), investors’ quest for safety has affected allocations to the various asset classes. The proportion of equities in portfolios has fallen to 25% from 32% one year earlier. Treasury products are the big winners: they now represent 10% of assets in portfolios, up from 6% the previous year. 14% of investors surveyed are planning to maintain or increase their allocation to treasury products, and only 5% are planning to reduce their positions on these assets. Corporate bonds are also increasingly popular, and now represent 18% of all assets, compared with 12.9% at the time of the EIAMS 2008 study, while there is a pronounced bias in favour of Europe in asset allocation. On average, 81% of assets are invested in Europe, compared with 8.7% in the United States and 2% in Asia.
07/07/2009

Generali buys 30% of Guotai

The Italian management firm Assicurazioni Generali is building its asset management activities in China with the purchase of a 30% stake in Guotai AMC for about EUR100m. Guotai is one of seven businesses in the sector (out of a total of 60) which is allowed to managed all asset classes, and which is also active in the second pillar (corporate retirement savings). Generali and Guotai have also signed a wide-ranging cooperation agreement. Sergio Balbinot, CEO of the Italian insurer, says Generali’s objective is to become one of the largest actors in China in corporate retirement savings.
07/07/2009

Jim Rogers bets against US dollars and Tresuries

The star manager Jim Rogers has stated that his allocation to the US dollar is currently lower than one year ago, he has not bought any US equities since the beginning of the year, and he is planning to short-sell Treasury bonds, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. He says the increasing debt of the United States is sapping confidence in the dollar. He has bought Swiss francs, and also has positions on Japanese yen, Singapore dollars, Yuan, and Australian and New Zealand dollars.
07/07/2009

Margins for management firms down sharply

The Global Asset Management 2009 study from Boston Consulting Group has found that margins for asset management firms at the end of 2008 was down to 34% from 38% at the end of 2007, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. The contraction is due to an 18% decline in assets under management to USD48.6trn last year, following annual increases of an average of 12% in the period from 2002 to 2007.
07/07/2009

Bank of America désormais devant UBS

Selon la Tribune, avec 1.501 milliards de dollars d’actifs sous gestion, Bank of America a détrôné le suisse UBS en tête du classement des gestionnaires de fortune dans le monde, selon une étude publiée hier par Scorpio Partnership.
07/07/2009

BBVA scales up private banking activities

In 2008, BBVA Banca Privada (EUR52.2bn in assets increased the number of advisors from 160 to 300, and opened wealth management centres in La Coruna, the Canary islands, Valladolid, and Oviedo. A new location will soon be inaugurated in Malaga, Expansión reports. The objective will bne to recruit 15,000 new private banking clients in the next two and a half years, to a total of 106,500 clients. BBVA will also integrate Banca Personal into BBVA Banca Privada (for clients with EUR0.3m to EUR2m in assets), as well as BBVA Patrimonios (for clients with over EUR2m).
07/07/2009

Axa IoM launches Autobalancing fund

In close collaboration with the Royal Bank fo Scotland, Axa Isle of Man is launching the Axa IoM Autobalancing Fund, available exclusively in offshore bonds from Axa IoM. The fund offers diversified exposure to equities markets, real estate, and commodities in developed and emerging countries. On a monthly basis, the fund may pull out of some sectors and place assets in a money market fund if the market falls or shows excessive volatility. The fund is rebalanced each month and gravitates towards its original allocation of 25% per sector.
07/07/2009

Pension funds could dramatically cut carbon emissions

Professional Pensions reports that a study from Mercer and Trucost for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has found that emissions of greenhouse gases for equities portfolios of British pension funds varied between 209 and 1,487 tons per million pounds invested. The study finds that managers could dramatically reduce the carbon footprints of their funds by selecting shares without modifying their sectoral weighting or their global strategy.
07/07/2009

Jyske Invest opens Dusseldorf office

To develop its sales in Germany, the independent management firm Jyske Invest at the end of June opened an office in the Excellent Business Centre in Düsseldorf. The director is Wieland Thyssen, director of distribution for Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland.
07/07/2009

KanAm reopens grundinvest fund

The Munich-based management firm KanAm Grund KAG announced on Monday that it will reopen redemptions from the open-ended real estate fund grundinvest from 8 July, as liquidity in the fund now totals about EUR1bn, or 20% of assets, which would then total about EUR5bn, down from EUR5.63bn one year earlier. As the fund has continued to perform well during the redemption freeze which has been in effect since late October, more than two thirds of redemption demands have since been cancelled. The portfolio has also been subjected to an independent audit earlier in the year, and the fund’a value therefore corresponds to current values. In addition, the occupancy rate for properties in the portfolio is at approximately 99%. KanAm reports that, for the period ending 30 June, the performance of the grundinvest fund was 5%, compared with 5.7%, for the twelve months to the end of June 2008. Dividend will remain unchanged at EUR2.50 per share.
07/07/2009

SIVs have liquidated nearly all of their assets

According to Fitch Ratings, 95% of approximately USD400bn in assets held in July 2007 by structured investment vehicles (SIV) have now been liquidated. Though massive, these sales have taken place in a relatively orderly manner over the past two years, the Financial Times reports. Out of 29 SIVs, 5 have been restructured, 13 were consolidated on the balance sheets of sponsor banks,a nd 7 defaulted on their senior debt payments. Fitch estimates that only four funds have been dissolved, of which at least one caused no losses for its senior investors.
07/07/2009

Outflows rise again in June

While in May, Sicav funds on sale in Italy posted their first net subscriptions (EUR1.57bn) in many months, in June they showed net redemptions of nearly EUR1.43bn, of which EUR1.2bn came from Italian groups, and EUR225m from foreign groups.
07/07/2009

Accidental death of Jean-Pierre Aguilar, CEO of CFM

Capital Fund Management (CFM) on Monday announced that Jean-Pierre Aguilar, CEO and co-founder of the French hedge fund, has been killed in an accident. Aguilar, 49, was involved in a glider crash on Saturday, 4 July, during the last stage of the Open CFM de Barcelonette, a glider competition held in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. CFM, founded in 1991, is a private portfolio management firm and one of the oldest French alterantive management firms. Since its foundation, CFM has managed a futures (CTA) program. Statistical arbitrage of equities was launched in 2001, a multi-strategies fund launched in 2003 and a volatility arbitrafe fund launched this year, are also part of the product range.
07/07/2009

Anti-Americanism in the banking sector at an all-time high

L’Agefi Switzerland reports that the activist attitude of the US tax authority, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), is inciting a growing number of banks to avoid American clients. One of the roots of the problem is the IRS’ ambition to extend the application of the “Qualified Intermediary” (QI) status, whose proposed amendments impose an American auditor on foreign banks which serve American clients. In addition to the QI problem, banks need to contend with all the legal risks related to American clients.
07/07/2009

Russell Investments launches Russell-Jadwa Shariah indexes

Russell Investments and the Saudi Arabian bank Jadwa Investment on 24 June in London signed an agreement, in the presence of the president of Jadwa Investment, Prince Faisal Bin Salman, and Andrew Doman, CEO of Russell, to launch a new Sharia compatible product range of Russell-Jadwa Shariah indexes. The family of Sharia-compatible indexes will be divided into regions, countries, emerging and developed markets, cap size and sector, to provide fully modular benchmarks, representing major opportunites in each segment. The Russell-Jadwa Shariah indexes will include about 2,700 of the 10,000 shares in the global Russell indexes, in more than 60 countries.
07/07/2009

Morningstar introduces new classifications for funds

On Monday, Morningstar announced the launch of eleven new categories of mutual funds domiciled in the United States. They include six commodities categories (agriculture, broad basket, energies, industrial metals, miscellaneous and precious metals), four sectors (discretionary consumer products, inelastic consumer products, energy equities, and industrial shares) and one large commodities asset class, which includes the six new categories, and which will be benchmarked against the Morningstar Long-Only Commodity Index.
07/07/2009

Physical gold available from Cortal Consors

As mining of gold is in decline at a time when demand is steadily increasing, and a return of inflation is likely in the next few years due to considerable amounts in bonds issued by governments to confront the crisis, Cortal Cxonsors is offering its clients an opportunity to buy ingots or Napoleons of physical gold via its website www.cortalconsors.fr, or by telephone. It will be possible to monitor the valuation of gold daily on the website. Purchase and sales fees are 2% per order, with no minimum. The gold may be withdrawn or retained in a high security vault for a fee of 1.6% of assets.
06/07/2009

La vente de Northern Rock est difficile actuellement

Selon la Tribune, Northern Rock, la banque nationalisée britannique, va être divisée en deux entités : d’un côté, les agences et les comptes courante, de l’autre, le portefeuille de prêts immobiliers « toxiques », de façon à préparer une vente de la partie saine du groupe. L’empressement de Downing Street à céder la banque nationalisée fait débat. En outre, la réalité économique rend la situation délicate. D’un coté, la banque est invitée à rembourser au plus vite l’aide de l'État, mais aussi à augmenter ses prêts aux ménages afin de relancer l'économie. Elle doit aussi se montrer souple avec ceux qui n’arrivaient pas à rembourser leurs prêts. Résultat, son niveau de capital vient de passer sous le minimum réglementaire et que l'État pourrait être obligé de remettre la main à la poche.
06/07/2009

Vent de révolte chez M&S

L’assemblée générale de Marks & Spencer (M&S) promet d'être animée, mercredi, indique The Sunday Times. Les dirigeants du groupe de distribution refusent de prendre en considération une résolution imposée par le Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) qui prévoit le recrutement d’ici à juillet 2010 d’un président indépendant susceptible de limiter les pouvoirs du CEO, Sir Stuart Rose, actuellement président et CEO.
06/07/2009

S&P place les notes de F&C AM sous surveillance avec implication négative

Jeudi, Standard & Poor’s a placé les notes de contrepartie long terme BBB- et court terme A-3 de F&C Asset Management sous surveillance avec implication négative, mesure qui s’applique également au BB de la dette suboronnée. La mesure s’explique par la détérioration des paramètres de service de la dette, avec l’ebitda susceptible de tomber en-dessous des trois fois et demi le montant de la dette.
06/07/2009

F&C passe du statut de cible à celui de chasseur

F&C Asset Management devient une société de gestion cotée totalement indépendante pour la première fois de son histoire de 140 années, après la distribution par Friends Provident de ses 52 % aux actionnaires, souligne le Financial Times. Alors que F&C était considérée comme une cible lorsque Friends cherchait à se défaire de sa participation, la société de gestion britannique se trouve maintenant en position d’acquéreur. Selon Alain Grisay, directeur général, F&C peut agir vite s’il trouve la perle rare. Le dirigeant pense que plus de 15 banques européennes ne considèrent plus la gestion d’actifs comme un actif stratégique.
06/07/2009
Fonds

Union Investment investit à Cracovie

L’hôtel quatre étoiles Radisson Blu (16.892 mètres carrés, 196 chambres et suites) de Cracovie a été vendu pour environ 32 millions d’euros à Union Investment Real Estate (UIRE) pour le fonds immobilier offert au public UniImmo: Europa. C’est le premier investissement d’UIRE dans le secteur hôtelier en Europe central. Le portefeuille hôtelier compte 21 sites en Europe, avec 6.350 chambres.L’hôtel de Cracovie est également le second investissement d’UIRE en Pologne, après l’acquisition en octobre par le UniImmo: Global du centre commercial 3 Stawy à Katowice.
Fonds
06/07/2009

Sal. Oppenheim songe à une augmentation de capital

Dans un entretien avec Die Welt am Sonntag, Christopher, baron von Oppenheim, l’un des associés de Sal. Oppenheim, n’exclut pas que les familles propriétaires acceptent «le moment venu» d’augmenter le capital de la banque privée dont la note long terme vient d'être abaissée par Fitch à A- contre A. Le banquier note toutefois que le quotient de fonds propres de premier rang est déjà de 12 %, «ce qui n’est pas si fréquent de nos jours».
06/07/2009

Les gestionnaires doivent faire face à une nouvelle concurrence

Avec les nouvelles règles qui seront mises en place d’ici à fin juin 2011 dans l’UE et qui ouvriront les frontières, le secteur de la gestion d’actifs en Italie va devoir se doter d’acteurs suffisamment forts pour contenir les grands concurrents étrangers, note The Wall Street Journal.Marco Carreri, CEO de Prima SGR, s’attend à de très nombreuses fusions de gestionnaires d’actifs en 2010, parce que les sociétés avec moins de 7 milliards d’euros d’encours ne pourront plus survivre comme par le passé face aux grands groupes, du fait que générer des bénéfices est devenu plus difficile.Pour Marcello Messori, président d’Assogestioni, il faut que les sociétés de gestion qui dominent le marché et qui sont contrôlées par les banques améliorent leur efficacité. Elles doivent surtout diversifier leurs réseaux de distribution pour ne plus être dépendantes uniquement des produits de leur maison-mère bancaire.Les trois grands acteurs de la gestion d’actifs sont Intesa Sapaolo avec Eurizon et Banca Fideuram (187 milliards d’euros), Generali (127 milliards) et UniCredit avec Pioneer (115 milliards) .

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