The asset management firm Polar Capital on 16 April announced that its assets under management had topped USD5bn as of 31 March 2012, with a total of USD5.083bn, compared with USD4.24bn as of the end of December 2011 and USD3.88bn at the end of March 2011. Assets in long-only funds as of the end of March totalled USD4.36bn, while hedge funds had USD718m. Polar capital says in a market statement that in the twelve months to the end of March, net inflows have totalled USD1.11bn for long-only funds, while hedge funds have seen outflows of USD67m in the same period. Market and forex effects represent a positive balance of USD164m, of which USD150m is for long-only funds.

Hedge funds have begun to desert the fashionable Mayfair neighbourhood of London for more modest areas in the British capital, the Financial Times reports. Due to the difficult market environment, toughening regulations and rising taxes, fewer and fewer hedge fund managers are able to rent offices in Mayfair and St James. Half of all managers based in London are now located in these two areas, compared with 70% two years ago, according to statistics from Cushman and Wakefield.

Henning Stegmayer, director of marketing and communications at Universal-Investment, has been additionally appointed as a member of the board at the distribution affiliate Universal-Vertriebs-Services GmbH (UVS), alongside Christian Rauner, director of the private label funds & services unit.The marriage of marketing and sales aims to promote sales of white label products to new partners, and sales in non-German-speaking countries.As of the end of March, Universal-Investment managed 406 open-ended funds with total assets of EUR14.4bn, 80 more funds and EUR2bn more than two years previously.

The French AG2R La Mondiale group is reportedly soon to enter the British market via its international wealth management unit, La Mondiale Europartner (LMEP), a firm listed in Luxembourg, Investment Europe reports. Assets under management at LMEP, which is 65% controlled by La Mondiale and 35% by Aegon, total over EUR4bn.

The hedge fund management firm Skybridge Capital, whose assets under management and advising total about USD6.2bn (as of the end of February 2012), has recruited five people for its distribution teams in the United States and Europe, Hedgeweek reports. In addition to four people in the United States, Skybridge Capital has recruited Henrik P Molin as director of marketing for European activities of the firm. Molin, who will be based in Zurich, has previously worked at businesses including Systeia Capital Management.

The Californian pension fund CalPERS has announced the appointment of Kathleen Webb to the newly-created position of chief officer for risk, deontology and ethics. In her new role, Webb will be in charge of offering independent evaluation of all types of risk likely to affect the pension fund, including financial, legal, operational, political, strategic, and other risks. She will also act as an adviser and independent consultant on the CalPERS risk committee. Webb will report to Russ Fong, chief financial officer of CalPERS. She will begin on 23 April. Webb previously worked in the California state health department, where she was in charge of risk management.

The Edmond de Rothschild Capital Partners company on Monday, 16 April announced three promotions in its team. Sylvie Verges is appointed as a partner, while Bertrand Demesse and Louis-Antoine Roullier are both appointed as managing partner at the firm. Edmond de Rothschild Capital Partners has EUR530m in assets under management in three funds, dedicated to growth LBOs in the French midcap segment.

At the general shareholders’ meeting on 30 March, Emilio Botín’s re-election as chairman of Santander received a «no» vote from 24.27% of those present, all institutional investors. This means that slightly over 42% of institutional investors, who control 57% of capital in the firm, voted against the re-election of a chairman who has been in place for 26 yeasr, Cotizalia reports. As the bank’s annual accounts were approved with a majority larger than 95%, the conclusion is that institutionals would like to see changes at the top of the group.

The Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) on April 16 published three documents that promote global efforts to strengthen financial market infrastructures (FMIs): a report entitled Principles for financial market infrastructures; a consultation paper on an Assessment methodology for these new standards; and a consultation paper on a Disclosure framework for the standards.Comments on these two documents for public consultation should be sent by 15 June 2012. The CPSS and IOSCO, together with the Financial Stability Board, are also working on guidance for designing resolution regimes for FMIs. This work will be published in the coming months.

Barclays Capital Fund Solutions, the asset management unit of the British Barclays froup, will this week commence activities serving investors in Asia, Asian Investor reports. The new range of services, which is already well-developed in Europe and the United States, provides a way for institutional investors to outsource operations such as execution and risk management, particularly for non-traditional asset classes such as commodities, emerging markets, and derivatives. Barclays is aiming particularly at pension funds, sovereign funds and private banks.

London remains the largest centre for hedge fund managers outside the United States, with 57 firms managing at least USD1bn each (not counting the London offices of the 100 main US hedge fund firms), Financial Times Fund Management reports, citing figures from HedgeFundIntelligence. An increase in taxes and regulations does not appear to have driven hedge fund managers away.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 17 April estimated that peak levels of public debt will soon be reached in most of its member states. “debt ratios [to gross domestic product] are rising, but peaks are still ahead of us,” the IMF states in its semi-annual “Public Finance Monitor.”“By 2015, we predict that the debt ratio will have stabilised or begun to fall in 85% of countries surveyed” (a total of 60 countries) according to the IMF’s projections for the next five years. This is the case in France, where the peak is expected to be 90.8% in 2013, and in Italy, where levels will peak at 123.8% in the same year, but not in the United States and Japan, where public debt may set new records in 2017 (113.0% and 256.6%, respectively).“However, in many cases, this is based on the assumption of continued highly favourable interest rates and growth in the next few years in most countries, despite high levels of debt,” IMF economists warn. They say that “in many advanced economies, including France, Italy and the United Kingdom, even small shocks … could prevent stabilisation in the mid-term.”Japan announced on Tuesday, 17 April that it will be providing a further USD60bn to the IMF to help it fight the debt crisis in Europe.

The solution provider Thomson Reuters on 16 April launched its credit risk evaluation model, the StarMine SmartRatios Credit Risk Model. The new model takes into account various accounting ratios covering five areas: profitability, coverage, leverage, liquidity and growth, on scales of 1 to 100, so as to rapidly identify strengths and weaknesses of a business on the credit risk front.

Anthony Bolton will be extending his minimal tenure as portfolio manager for the Fidelity China Special Situations fund for one year, until April 2014, according to a statement released to the London Stock Exchange, where the product is listed.The star manager had initially planned to remain until April 2013.The Fidelity China Special Situations fund, which raised GBP460m at its launch in 2010, has so far delivered disappointing performance. In December 2011, it had lost 38% since its creation.

Bank Zweiplus is planning to refocus its activities on core activities in the future, including activities dedicated to financial services providers, wealth managers and insurers. In other words, the firm is planning to position itself as a preferred B to B banking partner, able to offer solutions adapted to its business clients. As a result, the retail clients unit will be managed by the Cash online platform, effective immediately, the firm controlled by Sarasin bank (57.5%) and Falcon PrivateBank (42.5%) announced on 16 April. Zweiplus claims that the market appears to be showing a need for an independent product and development platform for qualified financial service providers, wealth managers and insurers. The bank is planning to respond to this development by making a clear separation between accounts in its two major units of activity, namely business and retail clients. For retail clients, the Cash online platform, with Zweiplus, has created Cash Zweiplus AG, 50% controlled by Ringier and 50% by Zweiplus. Ringier is contributing the “Cash” brand and the platform of the same name, already used by 170,000 users. As of the end of 2011, assets under management at Zweiplus bank totalled CHF4.8bn.

The Swiss firm MIG Bank, which offers online trading services to private and institutional clients, is opening a representative office in Hong Kong. The measure is a first step in a growth plan for the bank in Asia, the firm says in a statement published on 16 April. MIG Bank is specialised in online forex trading, contracts for difference (CFD) and trading of precious metals for various private and institutional clients in 120 countries.

With Bank of Communication International Trust, Ping An Russell will be launching a Manager of Managers fund in China, which will be aimed at institutional investors, holders of QFII licenses, and retail clients, Z-Ben Advisors reports. The team will look for fund managers in continental China, as well specialists in mutual funds as of private funds, brokerage and QFII products.

Swiss Wealth Management has launched its first UCITS-compliant hedge fund in order to avoid direct replications of offshore funds, Citywire reports. The CB-Accent Alternative Alpha Evolution fund is managed by Gabriele Gentile. EIM will serve as an adviser to the fund for the first twelve months. The fund, which invests in about 25 UCITS-compliant hedge funds, aims primarily at funds designed from the ground up to fit the UCITS mold. The fund of fund is 30% exposed to long/short equity, 25% to arbitrage strategies, and 25% to directional strategies, with 10% reserved for credit strategies. The remaining 10% is the cash allocation.

Axa Investment Managers Germany on 1 March successfully transformed the open-ended real estate fund Axa Immoresidential into a Spezialfonds type institutional fund. It is the first time such a conversion has been undertaken in Germany.The Immoresidential fund was launched in 2009 as an open-ended fund available exclusively to institutional investors. Modifications to investor protection regulations have come since, so that insurers, one of the major target audiences for the product, may not invest in shares in this fund from their real estate allocations. With the adaptation of the fund’s format and its conversion into an institutional fund, the Immoresidential fund becomes eligible once again for investment from the real estate allocations of target clients, and all shareholders have agreed to the changes.Since the conversion, the fund has already seen an inflow of EUR10m from a German credit institute. The minimal subscription is EUR3m.As of the end of February, assets in the Immoresidential fund totalled EUR120m, and Axa IM estimates that it is possible the fund may reach EUR500m by the end of 2013. So far, the fund has acquired or is in the process of acquiring assets valued at a total of about EUR164m.

The SEB Immoinvest (EUR6.35bn) and CS Euroreal (EUR6bn) funds from Credit Suisse may be in severe danger of being liquidated as soon as next month after two years of a redemption freeze, but it’s not due to a problem with the quality of management, as surprising as that may be, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. It appears that the determining factor is whether the asset manager has a captive audience to sell its products. This is the case for RREEF (Deutsche Bank) for its Grundbesitz Europa, at Deka (savings banks) for its Deka ImmoEuropa, and Union Investment (co-operative banks) for its UniImmo: Europa, which have no problems in absorbing the shares redeemed by other branch clients.The newspaper points out that currently, open-ended retail funds which are operating as normal have assets of EUR61.5bn, while frozen funds have EUR13.9bn, and funds in the liquidation process have EUR9.7bn. Open-ended real estate funds have posted net inflows every year since 2008, and they attracted a further EUR1bn in the first two months of this year.

High-risk asset classes faced uncertainty about growth worldwide and in the euro zone in the week to 11 April. High yield bond funds finished the week in the red for the first time in nearly five months, according to statistics from EPFR Global. Equity funds have posted a net outflows of USD9.26bn, while bond funds have attracted only EUR2bn. Money market funds have finished the week with net outflows of USD1.7bn, with net redemptions in the United States easily cancelling out subscriptions in Europe.

A l’occasion d’une conférence organisée par Aberdeen AM, Jean-Marc Lefeuvre de la direction financement et investissement d’EDF a rappelé que la duration moyenne des portefeuilles du groupe s'élève à 30 ans, et 15 ans pour les engagements sociaux. Avec un tel horizon de passif, EDF recherche avant tout la diversification dans le cadre d’une allocation stratégique à long terme. Aujourd’hui, cette dernière est composée de 30-35% d’actions monde, de 30-35% de taux (souverains et entreprises), le solde étant représenté par les investissements en infrastructures. Jean-Marc Lefeuvre a distingué trois pistes de réflexion en cours sur les perspectives de diversification: Sur la poche actions, travailler sur des indices all country afin d'être plus centré sur les marchés émergents au détriment des pays développés Renforcer la part des investissements dans les actifs immobiliers Allouer plus d’actifs aux entreprises non cotées Derrière cette recherche de diversification se cache aussi la problématique de derisking des portefeuilles qui sont encore très exposés aux dettes publiques, et qui rapportent de moins en moins de rendement.

La Sacem dispose en moyenne de 900 millions d’euros de trésorerie. Celle-ci est investie essentiellement dans des placements obligataires, et fait l’objet d’une gestion en direct. Jean-Luc Vialla, directeur délégué en charge de la gestion de la Sacem, dans Option Finance numéro 1168: Les montants en attente de répartition sont dans un premier temps placés dans des produits à très court terme. Puis, nous les investissons très largement dans des titres obligataires. En effet, nous avons la possibilité de placer à long terme même si notre cycle d’exploitation est quasiment inférieur à un an. Ainsi, notre trésorerie est investie à 80% dans des placements de long terme. Notre horizon de placements ne dépasse cependant pas dix ans. Compte tenu notamment de nos contraintes liées au risque, nous privilégions les obligations d’Etat, en particulier de la France. Nous possédons quelques obligations privées mais uniquement des émetteurs bénéficiant d’une notation minimum A comme les grands acteurs publics type EDF. Cependant, à l’heure actuelle, il est extrêmement difficile de trouver des obligations primaires d'émetteurs à des taux intéressants, car les spreads se sont resserrés. Face à la baisse des taux ces dernières années, nous avons eu recours, de plus en plus, à des produits structurés. Ces derniers peuvent avoir pour sous-jacent des produits de taux ou encore des actions européennes ou américaines. Les produits structurés nous offrent la possibilité de nous intéresser au marché actions, tout en prenant moins de risques. Nos règles internes ne nous permettent pas en effet d’acquérir des actions en direct car cette classe d’actifs peut être source de perte en capital. Les 20% restant de notre trésorerie représentent davantage la gestion courante de notre exploitation. Au sein de cette poche, nous avons recours à des Sicav et à des produits de placements ou éventuellement à des certificats de dépôts négociables (CDN), des produits assez classiques pour une trésorerie courte. Toute la difficulté de notre gestion réside dans la prise en compte de l’inflation compte tenu de l’importance de nos placements obligataires. Nous possédons des titres de l’Etat français à 10 ans, qui ont 7 à 8 ans de maturité et qui datent d’une époque où les taux étaient de 5%. Mais actuellement les conditions ne sont pas aussi attractives et si nous nous en tenions à une politique traditionnelle, consistant à souscrire uniquement à des OAT, nos niveaux de rendements seraient très bas. Cela nous incite à privilégier les émissions obligations du secteur privé. Pour autant, notre anticipation d’une hausse de l’inflation ne nous a pas conduits à intégrer au sein de notre portefeuille des obligations de l’Etat français indexées sur l’inflation (OATi). L’augmentation de l’inflation aboutira à une augmentation très rapide des taux d’intérêt à court terme. Donc, pour un acteur comme nous, doté d’une trésorerie très importante, il est beaucoup plus efficace de parier sur cette hausse plutôt que sur des obligations indexées sur l’inflation où les taux immédiats sont extrêmement faibles.

Le courtier a vu son bénéfice fondre de 20% au premier trimestre à 195 millions de dollars. Les revenus ont reculé de 1% à 1,19 milliard de dollars. Les commissions de gestion ont baissé pour leur part de 4% à 484 millions de dollars, tandis que les dépenses liées aux rémunérations ont augmenté de 6% à 465 millions de dollars.

L’encours total géré dans les Perco (Plan d’Epargne pour la Retraite Collectif) s’établit au 31 décembre 2011 à 5 milliards d’euros, en hausse de près de 25 % par rapport au 31 décembre 2010, indique l’AFG, l’association française de la gestion financière. Fin 2011, ils bénéficient à près de 1 million de salariés actifs dans près de 150.000 entreprises. Au cours de l’année 2011, le nombre d’entreprises équipées a augmenté de 20 %.

L’agence de notation n’a «pas de raison particulière» d’agir ou de communiquer sur la note souveraine de la France le 12 mai, a déclaré lundi une porte-parole. Moody’s a ainsi réagi à des propos de François Hollande, le candidat socialiste à la présidentielle, qui avait dit s’attendre à une décision de l’agence de notation à cette date. Le placement sous perspective négative d’une note de crédit par Moody’s n’entraîne pas nécessairement de décision sous 90 jours, contrairement à l’annonce d’un examen de la note en vue de sa dégradation.

Démarrage timide hier pour le contrat à terme sur la dette française sur Eurex, avec un volume d'échange limité, selon des professionnels. En fin d’après-midi, l’Euro-OAT-Futures échéance juin perdait 0,6% à 125,26. Sur le marché au comptant, l’OAT de référence à 10 ans subissait à la fois le retour des craintes entourant les dettes souveraines en zone euro et l’approche du premier tour de l'élection présidentielle.

Le London Metal Exchange s’apprête à faire preuve de réalisme économique. Après 135 années d’existence, le marché à terme sur les métaux londonien songe à offrir aux opérateurs la possibilité de compenser leurs contrats en yuan. En parallèle, le LME pourrait abandonner la livre. Le contrat de référence resterait libellé en dollars. Ce projet, qui n’en serait qu’à un stade préliminaire, mettrait en lumière le nouvel ordre mondial sur les marchés, la Chine représentant désormais plus de 40% de la demande mondiale pour la plupart des métaux et une part en forte croissance de l’activité du LME. «Je n’ai pas négocié de contrat en livres depuis cinq ans» reconnaît un courtier.

Les régulateurs internationaux veulent qu'elles détiennent suffisamment de ressources en cas de défaut de deux de leurs membres

Le parquet a ouvert une information judiciaire sur les activités françaises d’UBS, qui a déjà été visée par des griefs similaires aux Etats-Unis