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13/12/2013

Barings débauche un directeur de Martin Currie

Barings Asset Management a embauché Duncan Goodwin, ancien directeur de Martin Currie où il était le gérant principal du GF Global Resources Fund, pour prendre la tête de ses équipes dédiées aux ressources énergétiques mondiales (head of global resources team). Basé à Londres, il sera subordonné à Tim Scholefield, head of equities.Duncan Goodwin, qui prendra ses fonctions en janvier en remplacement de Jonathan Blake, aura la responsabilité au niveau de l’ensemble du groupe des fonds Global Resources et sera le gérant principal du Baring Global Resources Fund.
13/12/2013

Edison s'ouvre sur Israël

Funds Europe indique qu’Edison Investment Research, régulée par le FCA britannique, vient de recruter comme analyste le créateur de l'équipe de recherche de HSBC sur les actions cotées en Israël, Will Manuel. L’intéressé était head of equities research de HSBC pour l’Europe centrale, le Moyen-Orient et l’Afrique.Ce recrutement correspond à la volonté d’Edison d'élargir sa couverture des entreprises dans les secteurs de la santé et de la technologie, face à un accroissement de la demande d’actions israéliennes de la part des clientèles nord-américaine et européenne.
13/12/2013

Russell Investments recrute un responsable de l’allocation d’actifs EMEA

Russell Investments vient d’annoncer le recrutement de Mirko Cardinale en qualité de responsable de l’allocation d’actifs EMEA. Basé à Londres, il va rejoindre David Vickers, arrivé en novembre en qualité de gérant de portefeuille senior, et Rob Hall qui a également intégré le pôle multi-actifs en octobre, précise un communiqué. Auparavant Mirko Cardinale était chez Aviva Investors, où il a dirigé la stratégie d’allocation d’actifs pendant six ans et a occupé la fonction de gérant principal pour les fonds multi-actifs de droit britanniques (« with profits » et « unit-linked »). Avant cela, il a travaillé pour Watson Wyatt (désormais Towers Watson) en qualité d’Economiste, avant d’évoluer vers un poste de Consultant Senior entre 2002 et 2007.
13/12/2013

Brewin Dolphin réduit ses services pour les clients les plus modestes

Le britannique Brewin Dolphin envisage de supprimer les services d’investissement pour les clients disposant de moins de 50.000 livres d’actifs investissables, rapporte Fundweb. Les clients concernés par cette mesure sont contactés par Brewin qui leur propose à la place des services «execution-only».Il y a quelques jours, Brewin Dolphin a fait état d’une baisse de 4% de ses bénéfices et des coûts de 4,8 millions de livres liés à des fermetures de bureaux et plusieurs départs de grosses pointures.
13/12/2013

Francis Louvard et Gregory Ingram acquièrent 90 % de KGAL

La Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB), la Commerzbank, Haspa Finanzholding et Sal. Oppenheim (groupe Deutsche Bank) ont vendu près de 90 % de la société de gestion bavaroise de fonds fermés KGAL à deux particuliers, Francis Louvard et Gregory Ingram, qui «ont une expérience de plusieurs années dans la gestion d’actifs à l’international», selon un communiqué. Les nouveaux propriétaires «soutiennent les projets de croissance de KGAL dans les classes d’actifs immobilier, infrastructure et aéronefs». Les anciens propriétaires conservent 10 % des parts.Consécutivement à cette transaction, le directeur général Georg Reul a quitté l’entreprise avec effet immédiat au 10 décembre. Ses fonctions sont reprises provisoirement par Kurt Holderer, le directeur financier de KGAL.KGAL gérait fin 2012 des investissements de 25,1 milliards d’euros avec 6,4 milliards d’encours. La gamme comporte 135 fonds fermés et un seul fonds (immobilier) offert au public.
13/12/2013

KBL epb nomme un responsable fusions-acquisitions

KBL European Private Bankers (KBL epb) a annoncé le 12 décembre la nomination de Marc Formisani au poste de head of Mergers & Acquisitions. Fort d’une dizaine d’années d’expérience en corporate finance, précédemment conseiller en fusions-acquisitions au sein du groupe Dexia, il sera basé à Luxembourg. Cette nomination fait écho à l’ambition de KBL epb d’intégrer le classement des 20 meilleures banques privées européennes d’ici 2015. En vue d’atteindre cet objectif ambitieux, le groupe définit actuellement des opportunités de croissance externes, notamment par le biais d’acquisitions potentielles sur ses marchés clés.A la tête de l’équipe fusions-acquisitions, Marc Formisani aura en charge la gestion, la coordination et l’exécution des processus de fusions-acquisitions, en étroite collaboration avec toutes les parties prenantes concernées. Il a également été mandaté pour apporter des analyses auprès du comité de direction de KBL epb en sa qualité d’expert. «
13/12/2013

UBS part à la conquête du marché immobilier australien

UBS veut partir à la conquête du marché immobilier australien et pour y arriver, la banque a conclu un partenariat avec Grocon. Les deux sociétés créent une joint-venture pour offrir une plateforme de gestion d’actifs spécialisée dans l’immobilier. C’est John Fraser, président et directeur général de Global Asset Management d’UBS, qui dirigera la joint-venture jusqu'à son départ à la retraite, prévu courant 2014.
13/12/2013

Le président de la BKB quitte ses fonctions le 18 décembre

La démission du président du conseil de banque de la Banque cantonale de Bâle (BKB), Andreas Albrecht, prendra effet le 18 décembre, rapporte L’Agefi suisse. La BKB avait annoncé en novembre ce départ, suite à un blâme infligé par la Finma. Andreas Albrecht quittera également le 18 décembre le conseil d’administration de la banque Coop, filiale de la BKB. Il abandonne également le conseil de fondation de la caisse de pension de la BKB. Son départ fait suite au blâme prononcé par la Finma en novembre contre la BKB. L’autorité fédérale de surveillance des marchés financiers a reproché à la banque d’avoir entre 2009 et 2012 illicitement soutenu le cours en Bourse de ses propres bons de participation et enfreint les règles de conduite sur le marché. L’administrateur Andreas Sturm assurera l’intérim jusqu'à la nomination d’un nouveau président.
13/12/2013

Facebook joins S&P 100 and S&P 500

The index provider S&P Dow Jones Indices has announced that Facebook will replace The Williams Companies in the S&P 100 index, and Teradye in the S&P 500, according to a statement released on 11 December. Teradyne will replace Scholastic on the S&P MidCap 400.All of these changes will take effect after the close of the trading day on Friday, 20 December.
13/12/2013

Amundi Alternative Investments receives AIFM license

Amundi Alternative Investments, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amundi, has received an AIFM license from the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) for a range of asset management solutions.According to the management of the firm, the issuing of the license marks “the fruition of a strategic choice engaged upon in 2010,” with the move of domicile to Europe (France, Ireland and Luxembourg) for its alternative range at all levels: 10 funds of funds and 21 managed accounts.The issuance of the AIFM license represents a first step before the awarding of passports by the end of first quarter 2014.
13/12/2013

ESMA appoints new group of stakeholders

The European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) on 12 December announced the composition of the Securities Markets Stakeholder Group (SMSG). The new members of the stakeholders’ group will have a 2-year term, which will begin on 1 January next year.The new group will have 30 members from 17 member countries, and will represent consumers, users of financial services, actors on financial markets, employees at financial institutions, SMEs and academics. Some members of the new group participated in the first group.The group of participants may express their point of view and advise ESMA on its working programme, while also being required to be consulted concerning technical standards, guidelines and recommendations of the European authority.
13/12/2013

Stable outlooks for money market funds in 2014

The financial ratings agency Fitch Ratings has called the outlooks stable for money market funds in 2014. These outlooks also reflect the regulatory status quo, as all reforms under consideration would only be implemented very graudally. However, the challenges related to this regulation and the contraction of the investment universe are very real. If they are implemented, the regulatory texts under consideration would lead to profound changes which would alter the time scope and investment strategies on both sides of the Atlantic. The Moody’s ratings agency shares the point of view of Fitch Ratings, claiming that outlooks are stable for money market funds in 2014, as the key problem remains regulatory changes under consideration on both sides of the Atlantic.
13/12/2013

Threadneedle wins international equity mandate

UK-based Threadneedle Invesments on 12 December announced that it has won an international equity mandate for a total about about GBP150m from Dyfed Pension Fund, whose assets under management total about GBP1.6bn.The mandate awarded by the pension fund is a sign of its desire to abandon regional equity allocation in favour of a much more international exposure. The mandate will be managed by Stephen Thornber, who manages the Global Equity Income strategy.
13/12/2013

Edison recruits in Israel

Funds Europe reports that Edison Investment Research, regulated by the British FCA, has recruited the created of the HSBC research team for publicly-traded equities in Israel, Will Manuel, as an analyst. Manuel had been head of equities research at HSBC for Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The recruitment corresponds to a desire on the part of Edison to enlarge its coverage of businesses in the healthcare and technology sectors, in the fact of increased demand for Israeli equities on the part of North American and European clients.
13/12/2013

Brewin Dolphin cuts back service for more modest clients

The British firm Brewin Dolphin is planning to discontinue its investment services for clients with less than GBP50,000 in investable assets, Fundweb reports. The clients affected by this measure will be contacted by Brewin, which will offer them “execution-only” services instead.A few days ago, Brewin Dolphin reported a 4% decline in its profits and costs of GBP4.8m, related to the closure of offices and several departures of big names.
13/12/2013

Barings recruits a director from Martin Currie

Barings Asset Management has recruited Duncan Goodwin, former director of Martin Currie, where he had been principal manafer of the GF Global Resources Fund, to take over as head of global resources team. He will be based in London, and will report to Tim Scholefeld, head of equities. Goodwin, who will take over in January, replacing Jonathan Blake, will be responsible group-wide for Global Resources funds, and will manage the Baring Global Resources Fund.
13/12/2013

Russell Investments recruits head of EMEA asset allocation

Russell Investments has announced the recruitment of Mirko Cardinale as head of asset allocation for EMEA. He will be based in London, and will join Davi Vickers, who joined in November as senior portfolio manager, and Rob Hall, who also joined the multi-asset team in October, a statement says.Previously, Cardinale had been at Aviva Invetors, where he was director of asset allocation strategy for six years, and has served as lead manager for British multi-asset funds (“with profits” and “unit-linked”). Before that, he worked for Watson Wyatt (now Towers Watson) as an economist, and then moved to a position as a Senior Consultant from 2002 to 2007.
13/12/2013

Brooks Macdonald launches a managed accounts service

The asset management firm Brooks Macdonald International (BMI) has launched a managed accounts service aimed at international investors, Investment Week reports. The new service offers four active strategies: defensive, diversified prudent, diversified, and growth. Investors will also have multiple currency options available to them, with a way to invest in sterling, euros, or US dollars.
13/12/2013

Francis Louvard and Gregory Ingram acquire 90% of KGAL

Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB), Commerzbank, Haspa Finanzholding and Sal. Oppenheim (Deutsche Bank group) have sold nearly 90% of the Bavarian asset management firm specialised in closed funds KGAL to two individuals, Francis Louvard and Gregory Ingram, who “have several years of experience in the international management of assets,” according to a statement. The new owners “support the growth plans of KGAL in the asset classes of real estate, infrastructure, and aircraft.” The former owners will retain 10% stakes.Following the transaction, the CEO, Georg Reul, left the firm with immediate effect on 10 December. His responsibilities will provisionally be taken over by Kurt Holderer, chief financial officer of KGAL.As of the end of 2012, KGAL managed investments of EUR25.1bn, with EUR6.4bn in assets. The range includes 135 closed funds, and only one (real estate) open-ended fund.
13/12/2013

Eastspring Investments appoints head in Singapore

Eastspring Investments, the Asian asset management affiliate of the insurer Prudential, has appointed Jackiw Chew as CEO of its Singapore activity. With slightly under 300 employees, Singapore is the largest of the 11 offices of Eastspring in Asia, and serves as an investment centre in the region.
13/12/2013

Institutionals like smart beta ETFs

53% of institutional investors are planning to increase their exposure to smart beta ETFs in the next three years. This is the category of ETFs which receives the most votes, exceeding even cap-weighted ETFs (48%), a survey by Cogent Research, relayed by Invesco PowerShares, reveals. This result corroborates the trends observed for flows throughout the profession: non-cap-weighted ETFs have attracted 25% of subscriptions to equity ETFs since the beginning of the year, while they represented only 12% of total assets, says John Hoffman, director of institutional sales & capital markets at Invesco PowerShares. The survey of 193 institutionals between 5 September and 2 October reveals that interest in smart beta ETFs is the result of a desire to improve risk-adjusted returns, to reduce volatility and to access more elaborate weighting methodologies. The survey by Cogent Research (Market Strategies International group) reveals that the largest institutionals, those which have USD500m in assets under management, have twice as much of an opportunity as average to consider that smart beta ETFs offer higher risk-adjusted returns than cap-weighted ETFs.
13/12/2013

Three Skandia vets found company

Three former partners at the Skandia – Old Mutual group, Steve Lamarque, Bogdan Popescu and Eric Gairin, are teaming up to found the firm Hilbert Investment Solutions, according to a statement released on 12 December. Hilbert IS presents itself as a specialist in structured engineering solutions for all types of underlying assets: equities, fixed income, credit, commodities. The solutions proposed cover the universe of products which provide a capital guarantee, products which privilege returns, or index-based products. These products may be created through a «public call for savings» (APE), private investment, and is eligible for investment from life insurance policies and/or securities accounts. Hilbert IS also proposes to create custom products to meet precise specifications.Hilbert IS designed products for wealth management clients as part of a diversification of its financial wealth, but also for businesses, for the management of their cash or their owners’ equity. For commercial distribution, the preferred partners of Hilbert IS are Independent Financial Advisers, institutionals and and private management teams at banking networks.
13/12/2013

Appointments at Wilshire Associates

The consultant Wilshire Associates has announced that Jason Schwarz will become chairman of Wilshire Funds Management, its activity dedicated to asset management, Mutual Fund Wire reports. In this position he will replace Victor Zhang, who is moving to American Centry to take over the position of co-chief investment officer. Cleo Chang, meanwhile, becomes CIO fo Wilshire Funds Management.
13/12/2013

Tobam opens an office in New York

Paris-based Tobam on 12 December announced the opening of an office in New York and the appointment of two representatives, who will work to develop the activities of Tobam in North America. “From the beginning, we have expressed a desire to expand in North America, with a certain number of emblematic clients such as CalPERS. The proportion of North America in our assets currently stands at about 35%. We would like to accelerate our expansion and increase this proportion to 50%,” the chairman of Tobam, Yves Choueifaty, tells Newsmanagers, emphasizing the sustained engagement of the firm in North America.The New York office will allow Tobam to increase its presence serving North American investors, and will be led by Stéphane Detobel and Francis Verpoucke, both of whom come from Amundi and both of whom are associate directors at the new firm Tobam North America. They will be responsible for commercial development and relationships with US investors. The announcement comes at a time when Tobam will finish the year with highly satisfactory results. “Our objective is to double our assets every two years. We did much better this year. Assets under management at Tobam have already doubled in one year, to USD5.4bn as of the end of November 2013,” says Choueifaty. 25% of inflows are coming from North America, and 75% from Northen Europe, which corresponds to the current distribution of assets. “We are also seeing the first fruits of our parnership with Amundi,” Choueifaty adds, “with two mandates in Japan and one mandate in Taiwan.”
13/12/2013

JP Morgan may pay USD2.5bn to Madoff victims

Funds collected to reimburse the victims of the Ponzi pyramid scheme perpetrated by Bernard Madoff may, according to the Financial Times, cover as much as 75% of their losses due to the fraud, which total USD17.5bn. JPMorgan has agreed to pay USD2.5bn by the end of the year, following an agreement with the US authorities, who had accused it of failing to denounce the massive fraud, discovered five years ago.
13/12/2013

Azimut forms partnership to grow in Brazil

Azimut is making a push into Brazil. The Italian asset management firm has signed an agreement with the Brazilian financial group FuturaInvest, to create a joint venture to provide services to financial advisers on the Brazilian market.The agreement inludes the acquisition by Azimut, via its local affiliate AZ Brazil Holding, of a 50% stake in three structures of the FuturaInvest group: a financial advisory firm; an asset management firm dedicated to funds of funds and managed accounts; and, lastly, in FuturaInvest DTVM, an institution which has been distributing financial products to local investors since September 2013. As of the end of November, FuturaInvest had about EUR71m in assets under management.The deal is estimated at about EUR3.9m, financed largely through a capital increase. Under the agreement signed by the two parties, the sale price may be altered according to the commercial development achieved in the next three years. “After two years of research, we estimated that FuturaInvest represents our ideal partner to provide services to financial advisers,” said Pietro Giuliani, chairman and CEO of Azimut Holdings, pointing to “a major step in the implementation of our integrated model in Brazil.” The Italian firm is not inexperienced. In early September, it purchased a 50% stake in Legan, a Brazilian independent asset management firm.
13/12/2013

KBL epb appoints a head of mergers and acquisitions

KBL European Private Bankers (KBL epb) on 12 December announced the appointment of Marc Formisani as Head of Mergers & Acquisitions. With 10 years of experience in corporate finance, previously as an adviser for mergers ad acquisitions at the Dexia gorup, he will be based in Luxembourg. The appointment echoes an ambition on the part of KBL epb to join the ranks of the 20 best European private banks by 2015. In order to achieve this ambitious objective, the Group is currently defining external growth opportunities, largely through potential acquisitions in key markets. As head of the mergers and acquisitions team, Formisani will be responsible for management, co-ordination and execution of merger and acquisition processes, in close collaboration with all stakeholders concerned. He has also been mandated to provide analysts to the Steering Committee at KBL epb as an expert.
13/12/2013

L'Autorité bancaire européenne s'alarme des risques du bitcoin

La popularité croissante des monnaies virtuelles, bitcoin en tête, constitue un sujet de préoccupation pour les régulateurs. Après la Banque de France, l’Autorité bancaire européenne (EBA) a publié une note avertissant des risques liés à ce phénomène. Pour l’EBA, le consommateur doit ainsi avoir conscience du fait qu’il peut perdre la totalité de sa mise ou être victime d’un acte de piratage. Le régulateur met également l’accent sur l’implication possible de ces devises dans des activités criminelles, dont le blanchiment d’argent. Il recommande en guise de conclusion au consommateur de ne pas engager de l’argent «réel» qu’il ne peut pas se permettre de perdre.
Photo: Elisabeth Blanchet
13/12/2013

Les ventes au détail américaines surprennent agréablement

Les ventes au détail ont augmenté davantage que prévu le mois dernier aux Etats-Unis, accréditant l’hypothèse d’un raffermissement de la croissance au quatrième trimestre. Elles ont progressé de 0,7% selon le département du Commerce. La hausse enregistrée le mois dernier est la plus élevée en cinq mois et fait suite à une progression de 0,4% en octobre.

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