Le gestionnaire d’actifs absorbe Egret Management, filiale de sa maison mère Société Générale CIB, et prépare un fonds de dette LBO pour continuer sa diversification dans la gestion active et obligataire. Son bureau londonien va recruter dix professionnels de la vente et de l’analyse.
Le marché de l’immobilier de bureaux en Ile-de-France s’est inscrit à la baisse en 2012 tant du point de vue de la demande placée que des volumes investis. La crise économique et les incertitudes dans la zone euro ont pesé mais les grandes transactions ont toutefois soutenu le marché.
Le gérant de fonds britannique cherche à lever au moins 100 millions de livres en introduisant sur le marché junior londonien Aim une société d’investissement immobilier nouvellement créée, le West End of London Property Investment Company (Welpic), selon le journal qui cite des propos William Hill, responsable de la division immobilière chez Schroder Property Investment Management.
La Banque du Japon devrait céder à la pression du nouveau Premier ministre et relever son objectif d’inflation de 1% actuellement à 2% et accorder une nouvelle rallonge de 10.000 milliards de yens à son programme de rachat d’actifs lors de la prochaine réunion de son comité de politique monétaire qui se tiendra les 21 et 22 janvier prochains, indique le journal qui ne cite pas ses sources.
Le Shanghai Securities News, citant un analyste anonyme, ne table pas sur le retour prochain des approbations d’introduction en Bourse en Chine de titres de classe A de la part du régulateur, qui a plutôt émis récemment des mesures visant à restreindre la liberté d’action des émetteurs. 882 sociétés ont enregistré une demande d’IPO au 4 janvier. Le marché pourrait s’ouvrir au second semestre.
Selon le chef de l’Agence nationale de gestion du Trésor (NTMA), l’Irlande est proche d’un financement de marché normalisé qui la rendrait éligible au programme de rachat de titres publics par la BCE (OMT). «La transaction de mardi (2,5 milliards d’euros à échéance 2017) est proche de la normalisation, peut-être que les adjudications mensuelles seront la cerise sur le gâteau», a estimé John Corrigan.
La production industrielle allemande n’a que timidement rebondi en novembre après sa forte baisse d’octobre, renforçant le scénario d’une contraction au quatrième trimestre. Soutenue par les biens d'équipement et le BTP, la production des usines a augmenté de 0,2% en novembre alors qu’elle avait reculé de 2% le mois précédent (révisé de -2,6%), selon les chiffres du ministère de l’Economie.
Lauréat du prix Nobel d’économie en 1986 pour ses travaux sur le développement de la théorie des choix publics, qui souligne l’impact des intérêts propres des politiciens sur les politiques économiques des gouvernements, James M. Buchanan est décédé ce mercredi à l’âge de 93 ans. Parmi ses écrits, on retiendra «Les limites de la liberté» (1975) et «Liberté, marché et Etat» (1985).
Le président Obama devrait proposer ce jeudi la nomination du chef du personnel de la Maison blanche Jack Lew au poste de secrétaire au Trésor, en remplacement de Timothy Geithner. L’information est rapportée par Bloomberg et le Wall Street Journal. Agé de 57 ans, Jack Lew a également été le responsable du Bureau de la gestion et du budget (OMB).
Au moins un quart des dirigeants de petites et moyennes entreprises américaines ont repoussé un investissement ou une embauche fin 2012 en raison de la menace du «mur budgétaire», selon une enquête publiée par Vistage International. Un accord budgétaire a été conclu in extremis le 31 décembre entre la Maison blanche et le Congrès.
Sur Europe 1, le ministre de l’Economie et des Finances, Pierre Moscovici, a assuré que le futur taux du Livret A, en vigueur à partir du 1er février, ne baisserait pas d’un point. Compte tenu de l’inflation, une application stricte de la formule prônée par la Banque de France, pourrait faire descendre le taux à 1,25% contre 2,25% actuellement, estiment des économistes. «Si on conclut que c’est l’inflation plus 0,25 (point) au moins, non ce ne sera pas un point, je peux le dire», a déclaré le ministre.
At the end of 2012, assets under management in European ETPs totalled USD367bn, 22.7% more than the USD299bn recorded the previous year, as net subscriptions totalled USD32.7bn of the USD68bn in asset growth, according to statistics from the BlackRock Institute. In December, net subscriptions totalled USD5.7bn, the highest level in 17 months.The top firm by assets and net inflows remained iShares (BlackRock), with USD140bn and USD18.5bn, respectively. It is followed by db x-trackers/db ETC (Deutsche Bank) with USD50.2bn, but only USD1.3bn in net subscriptions, and Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale) with USD42.3bn and USD0.5bn in net inflows.ETF Securities, in fourth place by assets with USD24.1bn, has USD2.6bn in net subscriptions, while Source, in seventh place with USD13.3bn, has posted net inflows of USD5.1bn.
The German open-ended real estate fund Deka-ImmobilienGlobal has announced that it has sold the office building at 5, Plaza de Cataluña in Barcelona, with 14,000 square metres, to an investor who wishes to remain anonymous. According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, the buyer would appear to be the billionaire Amancio Ortega, the largest shareholder in Inditex. Deka Immobilien states that the sale has allowed it to earn a capital gain. In addition, the sale comes as part of the strategy of Deka-ImmobilienGlobal, which is to focus its investments on major cities outside Europe, and on Germany and the United Kingdom.
Six years to the day after acquiring the portfolio, the German open-ended real estate fund UniImmo: Global has resold its portfolio of five properties in Chile for EUR171m to Aurus Renta Inmobiliaria. The sale price is about EUR33m higher than the purchase price. The properties sold total 55,725 square metres of area in the Birmann 24, Torre Paris, Xerox, Bandera 76 and Teatinos 254-258 buildings in Santiago, Chile. After the sale, the UniImmo: Global fund retains six properties or stakes in properties in Latin America, totalling EUR230m.
The Swedish firm Stella Asset Management will liquidate its two hedge funds, Stella Nova and Stella Polaris, Privata Affärer reports. The funds had a difficult year in 2012. The Swedish website says this is only the beginning of a wave of hedge fund closures to come.
The Luxembourg firm Palaedino Fund has selected five asset management firms to deploy a passive investment strategy based on five indices designed by Palaedino Asset Management. The firms are Duet Group, Morgan Stanley, Olympia Capital, RBS and Unigestion. Each one will manage a sub-fund based on an index, and will aim to outperform the index by overweighting and underweighting components. The indices are the following: Palaedino Structural Leaders Index, Palaedino Hard Currency Index, Palaedino Diversified Commodity Index, Palaedino Global Fixed Income Index and Palaedino Euro Fixed Income Index.
Wesley Wang, a former analyst at the hedge fund trading firm SAC Capital, has named 20 people who traded on inside information, the Financial Times reports, citing the prosecution. Wang, who has confessed to dealing in insider information while working at SAC and Whitman Capital, faces a verdict on Wednesday.
Jupiter has announced that Luca Evangelisti and Harry Richards have joined the fixed interest and multi-asset team as credit analysts, reporting to Hilary Blandy, Senior Credit Analyst.An Italian national, Luca Evangelisti joins the company from Moody’s, where he was an associate in the Financial Institutions Group for two years. Harry Richards will be transferring internally from Jupiter’s Private Clients & Charities Team, where he has been working since 2011. He has experience of quantitative and qualitative fund analysis and client portfolio monitoring.With these appointments, the fixed interest and multi asset team will comprise 11 members - four credit analysts, one quantitative analyst, two fixed income portfolio managers, two convertible/ multi-asset portfolio managers and two specialist dealers.
Schroders has ended its relationship with its auditor, PwC, which had served it for over 50 years, the Financial Times reports, adding that the change is a sign that major corporations are becoming more aware of accusations that they are not hard enough on those who check their books. The asset management firm has chosen KPMG instead.
The Eurekahedge hedge fund index gained 1.46% in December, bringing its performance for the year as a whole to 6.19%. The Mizuho-Eurekahedge Top 100 index, which tracks the evolution of assets and the performance of the 100 largest hedge funds, for its part, posted gains of 5.82% in 2012. Distressed debt strategies earned the best results in 2012, with gains of 12.87% over twelve months.
Two former employees of Man Investments are joining teams responsible for assisting independent wealth management advisers and family offices in Switzerland at Swiss & Global Asset Management (CHF87.4bn in assets as of the end of September). Remo Badertscher, senior relationship manager at his former employer, and Markus Lienert, who had been head of clients for independent wealth management advisers in Liechtenstein and Switzerland, have been recruited for the sales team at Swiss & Global in Zurich.
Philippe Currat, who will reach the age of 65 in May 2013, has announced plans to leave the executive board at Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild S.A. at the beginning of 2013, from 9 January, the Geneva-based bank has announced in a statement released on 8 January, after the close of the trading day. Currat had been chairman of the executive board at the private bank for 25 years.
GLG, the discretionary investment manager of Man Group plc, has announced a number of senior hires to its macro and fixed income team. The appointments are part of a focus on expanding GLG’s strategy as it relates to absolute return macro and fixed income. Kumaran Damodaran joins Sudi from Pimco as a portfolio manager focusing on emerging markets within GLG’s fixed income platform. He has significant experience managing absolute return and outperformance portfolios and has worked closely with Sudi Mariappa in the past, who also joined GLG in October.Brian Pinto will join from the World Bank to take on the role of Senior Macro- Economist, specialising in emerging markets. With many publications to his credit, Brian has spent nearly thirty years at the World Bank, where he is currently Senior Adviser, focusing on sovereign debt, financial integration and growth in emerging markets. He will work closely with GLG strategist Driss Lamrani. Richard Bateson joins from Man AHL as a Senior Quantitative Analyst. He currently heads a strategy within AHL which trades trend, reversion and value strategies across over 150 markets. He is also an Associate of the OxfordMan Institute, Oxford University. The overall macro and fixed income platform will be co-headed by Jamil Baz and Sudi Mariappa.