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23/04/2009

Abante becomes first financial consulting firm

The independent asset management agency Abante Asesores has been granted a license by the CNMV to become the first financial advising firm (EAFI) in Spain. Abante will offer advising, financial planning and wealth management diagnostics as separate services, for a minimum of EUR3,000 per year, Funds People reports. The services will include initial diagnostics and one year of assistance.For this activity, Abante has created a specialised affiliate, Consejeros Financieros Independientes, which has a team of six people, equivalent to 15% of the firm’s total personnel. This arrangement leaves the choice to the client between simple advising and advising and management consulting.
23/04/2009

Projected margin levels are too high

Financial analysts have under-estimated the intensity of the crisis for European businesses, Jean-Luc Buchaet and Pierre Sabatier, presidents of Pythagore Investissement and Prime-View, argue in La Tribune. They predict a 6% net margin in the best case for the DJ Stoxx 600 in 2009. Despite repeated corrections, the levels predicted are too high, the authors claim, particularly in the industrial sector.
22/04/2009

UBS va licencier un tiers de son personnel en Espagne

UBS a entamé une réduction d’environ un tiers de son effectif en Espagne, dans le cadre de son plan de réduction mondial des effectifs de 8700 emplois dans le monde, selon Cotizalia. Le nombre de collaborateurs licenciés serait compris entre 105 et 120 personnes, sur un effectif total de la filiale de 320 personnes, selon différentes sources et en l’absence de confirmation d’UBS. La réduction concernerait surtout la banque privée et la gestion de patrimoine, tandis que la banque d’investissement, plus rentable, serait moins touchée. UBS va également fermer sa succursale de Marbella.
22/04/2009
Fonds

Epsilon GA prépare un fonds de hedge funds

Epsilon Gestión Alternativa, qui a obtenu son agrément d’exploitation de la CNMV en septembre et dont la marque commerciale est BrightGate Capital, est sur le point d’obtenir le feu vert du régulateur espagnol pour le lancement de son premier fonds de hedge funds, le BrightGate Absolute Return, dont Permal, filiale de Legg Mason, sera le conseiller, rapporte Funds People. L’objectif de performance se situe dans une fourchette de 8-12 % avec une volatilité annuelle de 5-7 %. La commission de gestion se situe à 2,25 % et Epsilon ne facture pas de commission de performance. Ce fonds permettra aux souscripteurs d’accéder à plus de 60 gestionnaires et à huit stratégies (Systematic, Discretionary, Event Driven, Fixed Income Developed Markets, Fixed Income Emerging Markets, Fixed Income Hedge, Relative Value Arbitrage, Natural Resources).
Fonds
22/04/2009
Fonds

Les hedge funds de BBVA en tête du classement au T1

Trois fonds d’ «investissement libre» de BBVA figurent en tête du classement des fonds espagnols pour le premier trimestre 2009, indique Funds People. Le fonds Accurate Global Assets, de Próxima Alfa a progressé de 7,79% ; BBVA & Partners Retorno Absoluto, de BBVA & Partners, de 4,36%: et BBVA Codespa Microfinanzas, de BBVA AM, de 1,58%. Toutefois ces fonds risquent de connaître un avenir incertain, BBVA ayant décidé de liquider une partie de son activité de gestion alternative.
Fonds
22/04/2009

J. Martínez Gómez nommé directeur des investissements de Fonditel

La société de gestion d’actifs Fonditel a embauché comme directeur des investissements Jaime Martínez Gómez, précédemment responsable de l’allocation d’actifs des fonds mixtes et de pensions de Santander AM, selon Funds People citant le journal Negocio. Fonditel, qui gère un encours de 357 millions d’euros à la fin mars 2009, a connu une année 2008 difficile : ses deux fonds vedettes Fonditel Velociraptor et Fonditel Albatros ont chuté respectivement de 35% et de 28% l’an dernier.
22/04/2009

Unigestion est en "mode projet"

En 2008, Unigestion, société spécialisée dans la gestion actions, les hedge funds et le private equity, a comme les autres souffert de la baisse des marchés. Mais elle a enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 250 millions d’euros. A fin 2008, ils s'établissaient à 6,8 milliards d’euros. Dans ce contexte, et grâce à des fonds propres de 100 millions d’euros, Unigestion est toujours en «mode projet», selon Jean-François Hirschel, managing director, responsable du marketing. L’idée générale est de profiter des opportunités qui se présentent, à la fois sur les marchés avec de nouveaux produits, sur le marché du travail avec des recrutements, mais aussi dans le secteur de la gestion d’actifs, avec pourquoi pas une acquisition qui viendrait compléter l’offre de la société. La société travaille aussi au remplacement de Kostas Iordanidis, qui avait rejoint la société en septembre dernier en tant que managing director responsable des activités de hedge funds.
22/04/2009

Rafale d'embauches chez Bank of China à Genève

A Genève, la Bank of China a nommé Daniel Penseyres CEO de BOC (Suisse) Fund Management SA. L’intéressé continuera à diriger la division Sélection des fonds et placements alternatifs, rapporte l’Agefi suisse. La société de gestion recrute par ailleurs Fulvio Maccarone comme head of global equities. Il était depuis 2004 associé du londonien BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd, une société de gestion alternative, où il gérait un portefeuille d’actions acheteur/vendeur. Pour sa part, Bank of China (Suisse) SA nomme Fatima Al Arabi (ex BNP Paribas) au poste de responsable de la clientèle institutionnelle pour le Moyen Orient. Enfin, Bank Of China (Suisse) SA à Genève a recruté Mohamad Bleik (co-head private banking GCC) Teresa Cheung-Constantin (senior private banker); Jean-Pierre De Barro (head of sales); Julien Froidevaux (responsable du département des gérants indépendants); Jose Luis Piccinini (head of institutional clients - Latin America); Daniel Alexander Rieber (senior private banker - Amérique Latine).
22/04/2009

Spéculations autour d'une vente de sa division A&Q par UBS

Les analystes réagissent avec scepticisme aux informations selon lesquelles l’UBS souhaiterait se séparer rapidement de son activité hedge funds, rapporte le Handelsblatt. Sur le principe, une cession de la division alternative & quantitative investments (A&Q, 39 milliards de dollars d’encours) est concevable, puisque la banque veut se cantonner à l’avenir à la gestion classique. Mais une telle vente ne renforcerait pas de manière décisive la base de capital et d’autre part les acquéreurs potentiels pour une activité aussi risquée ne seront pas nombreux.
22/04/2009
Fonds

SGAM AI lance deux fonds d'investissement de proximité ISF

SGAM Alternative Investments (SGAM AI) annonce la commercialisation par les réseaux de Société Générale et du Crédit du Nord, jusqu"au 22 mai 2009, des fonds d’investissement de proximité (FIP) «ISF» SGAM AI FIP Opportunités IDF Centre-Est et SGAM AI FIP Opportunités Grand-Sud. Le premier investira dans des PME des régions Ile-de-France, Bourgogne, Rhône-Alpes et Auvergne tandis que le second fera de même dans les régions Aquitaine, Midi-Pyrénées, Languedoc-Roussillon et Provence-Alpes-Côte d"Azur. Ces fonds de droit français investiront 60% minimum des sommes collectées dans des entreprises à caractère régional, dont au moins 20% dans de jeunes sociétés créées depuis moins de 5 ans, à différents stades de croissance et appartenant à des secteurs diversifiés, notamment les services à la personne et aux entreprises, l"informatique, les biotechnologies, la chimie, l"environnement, l"énergie, l"agroalimentaire et les multimédias. Ces fonds sont gérés par l"équipe «private Equity» de SGAM AI qui est responsable d’environ 2 milliards d’euros d’encours répartis sur une trentaine de fonds de capital-investmssement. La durée de placement est de 8-10 exercices pour les deux produits ; dans les deux cas, le droit d’entrée maximum acquis au distributeur est de 2,5 %. La souscription minimale de ces fonds destinés aux particuliers, qui peuvent bénéficier de «conditions fiscales optimisées», est fixée à 1 part.
Fonds
22/04/2009

Germany - Deterioration in results at Bankhaus Lampe

In 2008, after a withdrawal of EUR22m from reserves, the private bank Bankhaus Lampe, which is owned by the Oetker family, has posted profits of EUR10m on its balance sheet. It thus has lost a total of EUR12m fur to increased expenses related to recruitments, the opening of three new branch offices, and a depreciation in the value of its 6% stake in Aareal Bank compared with its share price at the end of December. In 2007, Lampe posted net profits of EUR21.5m (see Newsmanagers of 17 April 2008).For 2009, Bankhaus Lampe is planning to bring on board the family offices of its affiliate Lampe Corporate Finance as part of the parent company.
22/04/2009

State Street profits down

For first quarter 2009, State Street has posted profits of USD1.02 per share, compared with USD0.54 in October-December 2008, and USD1.35 per share in the corresponding period of last year. Earnings totalled USD2bn, compared with USD2.67bn last quarter, and USD2.58bn in January-March 2008.As of the end of March, assets under administration and management were down by 24% and 29% on one year, respectively, to USD11.337bn and USD1.395bn.
22/04/2009

Assets at Bank of NY Mellon down

In first quarter, the Bank of New York Mellon has seen a decline in its assets under management to USD881bn, a fall of 20% in one year and of 5% compared with the previous quarter. In the first three months of the year, the bank has seen net redemptions of USD12bn, largely due to redemptions from government money market funds.
22/04/2009

Active fund managers underperform

S&P states that over the five-year period to end-2008, its S&P 500 index has lost 18.8% but outperformed 71.9% of actively managed US large cap funds. The same pattern applies to small caps, emerging markets and bonds.
22/04/2009

Pimco sees normalization on credit markets

According to Steve Rodosky, head of Treasury and derivatives trading at Pimco Treasuries purchases thorough the Fed have helped improve credit markets and there are signs that the markets have started to «operate more normally.»
22/04/2009

Profits down at BlackRock

By US-GAAP accounting standards, BlackRock has posted a fall of 65% in its net profits to USD84m, or USD0.62 per hsare in January-March, on earnings down 25% to USD987m. As of 31 March, assets totalled USD1.283bn, which represents a 2% decline from the end of December, and a 6% decline compared with the end of first quarter 2008.The firm’s chairman and CEO, Laurence Fink, points out that net subscriptions nonetheless totalled USD5.6bn in January-March, and USD138bn in the twelve months to the end of March. This organic growth more than compensated for negative market and currency effects of USD29.4bn and USD219.1bn, respectively. BlackRock has posted net inflows in the first three months of the year of USD21.3bn on products and long-term advising mandates (of which USD18.8bn come from institutional investors, and USD3.3bn from high net worth private clients), while cash management products suffered net outflows of USD15.7bn. Fink also states that personnel at the hedge fund management firm R3 Capital Partners (USD1.5bn in investments in credit), led by Rick Rieder, have agreed to join BlackRock.
22/04/2009

Epsilon GA preparing a fund of hedge funds

Epsilon Gestión Alternativa, which was issued its operating license by the CNMV in September of last year, and which trades under the brand name BrightGate Capital, is about to receive permission from the Spanish regulator to launch its first fund of hedge funds, the BrightGate Absolute Return fund, which will be advised by Permal, an affiliate of Legg Mason, Funds People reports. The performance objective for the fund will be 8-12%, with annual volatility of 5-7%. Management commission is 2.25%, and Epsilon will not charge a performance commission.The fund will provide subscribers with access to 60 managers and eight strategies (Systematic, Discretionary, Event Driven, Fixed Income Developed Markets, Fixed Income Emerging Markets, Fixed Income Hedge, Relative Value Arbitrage, Natural Resources).
22/04/2009

Hedge funds: only two strategies out of 13 are in the red for March, according to Edhec

While in February, only four hedge fund strategies out of 13 monitored by Edhec posted positive results, in March 11 strategies out of 13 did so. The only two strategies in the red were CTA global, with losses of 1.64%, and dedicated short bias (-4.62%).The convertible arbitrage strategy posted its fourth consecutive month of positive results, with gains of 2.58%, and returns of 9.4% for first quarter as a whole. Only CTA global shows losses (2.1%) in January-March.
22/04/2009

Draft European directive for hedge funds comes in for criticism

In a letter sent on Monday to the chairman of the European Commission, the Socialist bloc in the European parliament claims that a draft European directive on hedge funds, which is up for a vote on 29 April, is ?ineffective? and ?full of loopholes,? Les Echos reports. The major fault with the bill pointed out by Socialists is that it singles out hedge fund managers, who would be required to register, rather than the funds themselves.
22/04/2009

Postbank to distribute M&G funds

The ?financial centres? and mobile sales personnel of Deutsche Postbank will now carry three British-registered funds from M&G Investments, the M&G Global Basics Fund, M&G Global Leaders Fund, and M&G European Corporate Bond Fund. The British asset management firm thus becomes the fifth preferred partner of the German bank in distribution of investment funds, alongside DWS Investment (Deutsche Bank), Credit Suisse, Allianz Global Investors, and Fidelity Investments.
22/04/2009

Wolbern Invest not included in sale of Bankhaus Wolbern

Fondsprofessionell reports that the M.M. Warburg private bank has indeed acquired Bankhaus Wölbern, but that the deal does not include Wölbern Invest, a promoter and manager of closed-ended investment funds. The reports were confirmed by Heinrich Maria Schulte, who was the owner of Bankhaus Wölbern and remains the owner of Wölbern Invest, a management firm created in a spinoff from the bank in April 2007.
22/04/2009

Assets up at BlueBay

BlueBay has seen an increase in its profits of 8% to USD18bn in the quarter ending 31 March, the Financial Times reports. The firm has benefited from an increased interest on the part of investors in investment grade credit.
22/04/2009

CNMV may allow side pockets

To remedy liquidity problems in investment funds, the Spanish securities commission, CNMV, is considering integrating ?side pockets? into its regulations in the coming month, Expansión reports. The conditions would require, for example, that the proportion of low-liquidity assets not exceed 20%. The measures would not be limited to hedge funds, but would be extended to all categories of funds.
22/04/2009

Retirement funds scale up exposure to alternative asset classes

European pension funds and retirement institutions, severely affected by the stock market collapse of last year, are seeking new ways to optimise their risk management. These institutions are increasingly frequently opting for alternative investments, according to the annual ?European Asset Allocation Survey? by Mercer. The survey, covering 1,000 pension funds and retirement institutions in Europe, which manage more than EUR400bn, finds that ?35% of British retirement plans and 60% of European retirement plans (outside the UK) are planning to introduce new types of investments into their portfolios to improve their risk/return profiles.? In 2008, allocations to non-traditional asset classes increased in one year from 10% to 11% in Germany, from 9% to 11% in the Netherlands, and from 4% to 6% in the United Kingdom. In France, they represented 5% to 10%, depending on the institution. Another finding of the study is that exposure to equities was affected by the crisis and the dent it made in reserves for defined-benefit pension plans. ? In the United Kingdom, allocations fell from 58% to 54%, while in Ireland, they fel from 67% to 60%. Exposure to the equities markets has remained low in other European markets, including France,? says the Mercer study, adding that bonds have remained the dominant asset class in most European countries.
22/04/2009

State Street perfects confidence index

State Street Global Markets announced on Tuesday that from 26 May, its index of institutional investor confidence will be improved, to provide more specific information about investors’ level of appetite for risk. The basis of the index will be consequently recalibrated so that a level of over 100 indicates that institutional investors are increasing their exposure to high-risk assets, while a level of under 100 means that they are reducing their exposure. This adjustment will be undertaken separately for the global index and for the regional indices. The publication of the indexes will now take place on the last Tuesday of each month, in order to better align the results with quarterly and monthly developments.
22/04/2009

State Street index: institutional investors seem to be regaining confidence

The global index of institutional investor confidence maintained by State Street Global Markets comes in at 79.6 for April, compared with 70.2 in March (up from an initial announcement of 70; see Newsmanagers of 25 March). This is the third increase in four months, from a level at the start of the year of 60.2 (and 48.2 in December). The index of US institutional investor confidence is up to 70.2 from 60.2 in March, while the index for Europe has risen to 68.9 from 63.9, and the Asian index is up to 87.3 from 86.6.?Despite the increases on the global index, we think that a dose of prudence is necessary,? says Paul O’Connell of State Street Associates. ? This is the first time since September 2008 that institutional investors worldwide have increased their allocation to high-risk assets, but many questions remain as to the pace of the economic recovery. ? Due to the global nature of the current financial crisis, estimates of the time necessary for an economic recovery on the basis of historic examples drawn from specific countries are perhaps over-optimistic, and this issue may drag down the morale of investors in second quarter.?
22/04/2009

Morningstar 1000 hedge fund index: -0.1% in Q1

Morningstar has calculated that its Morningstar 1000 Hedge Fund Index has posted an increase of 2.1% in March, while the Morningstar MSCI Asset-Weighted Hedge Fund Composite Index was up 0.1%. For first quarter as a whole, the former index has fallen 0.1%, while the latter has gained 0.5%.In March, the Morningstar MSCI Emerging Markets and Morningstar Emerging Markets Hedge Fund indexes have posted respective gains of 4.2% and 6.2%.
22/04/2009

Hedge funds will bottom out this year, according to BNY Mellon and Casey Quirk

On the basis of a survey of 150 institutional investors, investment consultants, hedge fund and fund of hedge fund managers and experts on the industry worldwide, Bank of New York Mellon and Casey Quirk estimate that assets in hedge funds will reach a low point of about USD1trn this year, down from USD1.9trn at the end of 2007. Then, as the markets begin to rise and approximately USD800bn in net subscriptions roll in, total assets under management may rise to USD2.6trn in 2013.

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