Last month, the Hennessee Hedge Fund Index posted returns of 0.59%, following gains of 1.68% in February and 2.25% in January, meaning that for first quarter, the average returns come out to 4.59%.Only three strategies saw losses in March: macro (-0.29%), short biased (-1.02%), and emerging markets (-1.28%). In January-March, only short bias shows losses (of 10.81%).

According to a study by Standard & Poor’s *S&P), only 16% of active fund managers in 2011 managed to beat the S&P Composite 1500 index, the poorest result since statistics began in 2002, Handelsblatt reports. In 2010 and 2009, the percentage of “outperformers” was 42% and 59%, respectively. This failure to outperform extends to large caps as well as small caps. The statistics will fuel current controversies about the added value that actively-managed funds offer compared to ETFs.

S&P Capital IQ is adding to its research team, Mutual Fund Wire reports. The firm has recruited Barbara Reguero has managing director of its cross-asset-class research team. Reguero had previously been global chief administrative officer in the fixed income research division at Nomura Securities International.

Swell Asset Management, dedicated to tactical asset allocation, whose foundation Newsmanagers announced on 11 January 2012, has announced that it began its activities on 27 March with the transfer of the Swell Soft GTAA Fund (formerly the LFP Allocation 3). The fund, whose assets total EUR93m, had since its inception in 2005 been managed by Olivier Ramé and Jean-Philippe Collin, the two founders of Swell AM, who were then head of alternative management and a manager, respectively, at La Française des Placements. The French regulator has also issued a license for the creation of the Swell Classic GTAA Fund, a second fund, also in UCITS IV format, which uses the same investment strategy but in a more aggressive mode. Swell Asset Management received its portfolio management firm license from the French regulator on 1 March 2012. Ramé and Collin each own 37.5% of capital in the firm, while La Française AM controls the remaining 25%. In addition to this capital relationship, La Française AM is also making operational infrastructure (IT, middle office, offices, etc.) available to the young asset management firm.

The broker Newedge has announced the appointment of Peter Ward as global head of marketing communications, based in the firm’s New York offices. In his new role, Ward will be responsible for Newedge’s marketing activities worldwide. He will report directly to Kevin Russell, global head, brand & communications. Ward had previously been an independent consultant in marketing and communications. He also spent six years at Greenwich Capital Markets and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Brett Langbert, who had been managing director at UBS in charge of the Americas prime brokerage unit, was on 10 April appointed president and chief operating officer (COO) of HedgeCo Networks, which acts as a consultant and operates a hedge fund database.Evan Rapoport, CEO of HedgeCo, says the recruitment comes at a time when US federal authorities are expected to repeal a rule forbidding hedge funds from applying for general subscriptions from the public. HedgeCo estimates that it will be able to offer a service to help investors find decorrelated returns through diversification of their portfolios, and that the repeal of the rule will primarily benefit newly-launched hedge funds.

Lazard Frères Gestion on 6 April announced the appointment of Gilles Trancart, former inspector at the Bank of France, as managing partner and chief operating officer. Trancart will be based in Paris, and will direct support and control functions. He joined Lazard Frères Gestion in late September 2011. Trancart previously worked at Newedge as chief risk officer and a member of the executive board.

The US asset management firm Principal Global Investors is hoping to take control of a fund of hedge fund management firm, in order to diversify its USD240bn network, Financial News reports.

According to a study of 10 “sustainable development” equity funds undertaken by the economic journalist Jochen Bettzieche for the Green party’s representation in the German Parliament, nine out of 10 products were directly or indirectly invested in companies that produce weapons, and all ten were invested in firms that produce oil or gas, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports.The Green party financial expert Gerhard Schick says the findings suggest that clear minimal legal advertising standards need to be established for funds which claim to invest sustainably.

After 14 years at AxaRosenberg in London as head of relationship management for institutional clients in Germany, continental Europe and the Middle East, Armin Gudat on 1 April joined the Hamburg-based Aquila Capital Institutional as senior fund manager in the quantitative team. As Roman Rosslenbroich, founder and CEO of Aquila Capital, states, the new recruit will assist in the development of quantitative investment strategies and products.

Lázaro de Lázaro, who had been head of financial institutions and insurance companies at Royal Bank of Scotland serving the Iberian peninsula, has joined Santander Asset Management (EUR35.5m in assets) as CEO, Funds People reports. He replaces Dolores Ybarra, who had served in the position since last October alongside her responsibilities as global CIO.

The head of the management and investment unit at Banco Madrid Gestión de Activos (EUR1bn in assets), Iratxe Oria, has been promoted to the position of CEO of the firm, replacing Rafael Valera, who has been appointed deputy CEO of the bank, Funds People reports.

ETP provider Source and financial services group Nomura on 10 April announced the launch of anew ETF, the Nomura Voltage Short-Term Source ETF. The ETF aims tooffer reactive and tactical exposure to volatility, replicating theNomura Voltage Strategy Short-Term 30-day USD TR index, which seeksto profit from volatility peaks, while reducing costs associated witha permanent long position on volatility.This is the second Source ETF of theNomura Voltage range. The Nomura Voltage Mid-Term Source ETF, whichreplicates the Nomura Voltage Strategy Mid-Term 30-day USD TR, waslaunched in April 2011, and now has over USD540m in assets undermanagement. The two ETF funds are aimed at qualified investors, andoffers them various volatility investment options, in order to bettermanage their risk/return profile.Futures contracts on the CBOEVolatility index (“VIX”) are practical instruments for exposureto volatility. However, as curves in VIX futures may reach a state ofcontango, maintaining this exposure over the long term may be costly,a statement says. The Nomura Voltage Strategy Short-Term 30-day USDTR offers an effective alternative for investors seeking to adopt along position on volatility. The index reproduces exposure tovolatility via the S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures TR index, butmay modify its level of exposure from 0% to 100% according to theNomura Voltage allocation model. In this way, the fund seeks toprofit from peaks in volatility while limiting the cost of rollingover positions on VIX index futures contracts.Primary characteristics of NomuraVoltage Source productsName of productNomura Voltage Short-Term Source ETF Nomura Voltage Mid-Term Source ETF Bloomberg codeVOLS LN VOLT LN (LondonStock Exchange) NVLT GR (Xetra) Currency of the fundUSD USD Trading currencyUSD USD (London StockExchange) EUR (Xetra) Management fees0.30% per year 0.30% per yearListed onLondon Stock Exchange (LSE) London Stock Exchange / Xetra Name of indexNomura Voltage Strategy Short-Term 30-day USDTR Nomura Voltage Strategy Mid-Term 30-day USD TR Bloomberg ticker for index NMEDVSU3 NMEDVMU3 DomicileIreland Ireland

In the Swiss financial sector, the number of job openings as of the end of March was 20.5% lower than its level twelve months previously, with a 35.2% decline for banks and a 4% decline at insurers, finews reports.On the websites of 1,400 banks, insurers and other Swiss financial sector businesses (auditors, IT, consultants, etc.), as of 31 March there were 3,430 jobs announced, compared with 4,312 as of the end of March 2011, according to the Finews-JobDirectory-Index, published in cooperation with the website JobDirectory.ch. Of this total, job openings at banks totalled 1,144, compared with 1,765 one year preivously.However, finews states that there has been some stability since the beginning of the year at the two major banks (UBS and Credit Suisse), but that the decline is more pronounced at cantonal and private banks.

The investment firm Aberdeen Development Capital is proposing to discontinue the activities of the company following a redemption of preferential shares to shareholders.Aberdeen Development has scheduled a general shareholders’ meeting for 30 April, in order to fulfil the firm’s final obligations. Shares in the company will be suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange from 30 April.

In partnership with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Deutsche Börse has placed climate change information concerning about 1,800 publicly-traded businesses online, free of charge, since the end of last week. The information makes it possible to compare the businesses in terms of their contribution to environmental protection and their transparency in terms of CO2 emissions.The data are available at http://www.boerse-frankfurt.com/.

According to reports in Citywire, Felix Freund, star manager at Union Investment (German co-operative banks), has been recruited as director of credit for Europe at Standard Life Investments (SLI).Investment Week reports, meanwhile, that SLI has recruited Mark Kedar as sterling credit investment director. Kedar had previously been fixed income investment manager at Kames.

BNP Paribas Investment Partners has appointed Guy Williams, CIO FFTW, as head of BNPP IP’s Global Emerging Fixed Income team after the departure at BlackRock of Sergio Trigo Paz with a six person team. He will assume responsibility for the management of its worldwide EMD strategies managed out of London.BNPP IP also says that «its priority is now to rapidly strengthen its emerging market fixed income resources with the required investment talent, a process that has already begun». BNP Paribas IP manages over EUR 4.5 billion of emerging market fixed income (EMD) assets.

Chong Jin Leow, head of Asia-Pacific at BNY Mellon Asset Servicing, has been appointed additionally as country executive and general manager for Singapore. He will continue to report to Tim Keaney, vice chairman of BNY Mellon and CEO of BNY Mellon Asset Servicing, but will also report to Steve Lackey, chairman of Asia-Pacific.In his new role as head for Singapore, Chong succeeds Jai Arya, who has been promoted to the position of head of the global sovereign institutions group at BNY Mellon. Arya will be in charge of coordinating services of the group to sovereign funds, sovereign pension funds, central banks and monetary authorities as well as government entities.

The British private equity investor CVC Capital Partners is hoping to make USD2bn for a sale of its 20% stake in the organiser of Formula 1 automotive races at its IPO, Cotizalia reports. According to Bloomberg, the IPO is to be held in Singapore, which could also be the case of the Manchester United football club.

The Chinese regulator, the CSRC, has announced that it is opening a new CNY50bn allocation for “renminbi qualified foreign institutional investors (RQFII)», who will have no investment restrictions, and will be able to invest their assets wholly in ETFs of equities listed in continental China (A-class shares), Z-Ben Advisors reports.For the first wave, investments by RQII funds in A-class shares had been limited to 20% of assets.

The Chinese securities regulatory commission (CSRC) has granted approval to a request from Huatia Securities to launch a private equity fund. The fund, Huatai Zijin (Jiangsu) Private Equity Investment Fund, will be managed by Huatai Ruitong Investment Management Company.Huatai is the second brokerage firm to have received such a license, after CICC, which launched its private equity fund in April 2011, with assets of CNY1.5bn, Z-Ben Advisors reports.

Thierry Brevet, directeur du Fonds de dotation du Louvre: Actuellement, nous étudions le remplacement d’une partie des fonds indiciels en actions émergentes par de la gestion active. En l'état actuel de nos réflexions, notre choix devrait se porter sur deux gérants satellites autour d’un c??ur qui demeurerait indiciel : un gérant français très spécialisé sur cette classe d’actifs et un gérant anglo-saxon avec un processus d’investissement original.

La Caisse d’assurance mutuelle des entreprises industrielles (Cameic) délègue l’intégralité de sa gestion financière à deux partenaires, soit 12 millions d’euros d’encours. Bruno Périssé, directeur du développement de la Cameic dans Option Finance numéro 1167: Notre préoccupation en tant qu’assureur n’est pas de dégager du rendement financier, mais de sécuriser nos placements. Notre métier est d’assurer nos clients, nous avons donc dès le départ fait le choix de confier notre gestion financière à des spécialistes en l’occurrence, la banque privée Saint Olive ainsi que plus marginalement à la société de gestion Darius Finance.

La Banque nationale suisse a cherché à rassurer sur sa capacité à maintenir son cours plancher de 1,20 franc pour un euro, son directeur général par intérim soulignant que la banque centrale pouvait négocier des centaines de milliards d’euros par jour. Jeudi dernier, le franc s’est brièvement traité à 1,1990 pour un euro, sous la barre de 1,20 fixée en septembre. Thomas Jordan a précisé que le franc était ensuite très vite reparti à la baisse grâce aux activités d’arbitrage.

Selon l‘observatoire de la dette des collectivités publié par Finance Active, la Caisse des dépôts et consignations se hisse au premier rang des prêteurs avec 22,1% du montant des prêts accordés aux collectivités en 2011. Devant BPCE, qui a totalisé 19,5% du flux. Les collectivités ont diversifié leurs sources de financement avec un peu plus d’un tiers des emprunts levés via des financements alternatifs. Les financements éligibles de la BEI et de la CDC représentant respectivement 5,9% et 22,1% des emprunts nouveaux, quand la proportion des émissions obligataires a atteint 7,7%.

Un troisième LTRO (opération de refinancement à long terme) ne s’impose pas pour le moment mais rien ne dit qu’il n’en ira pas autrement à l’avenir, selon Ewald Nowotny, membre du Conseil des gouverneurs de la BCE. «Je ne peux l’exclure mais je n’en vois pas la nécessité à présent». Ewald Nowotny a également dit qu’il n'était pas inquiet pour l’Espagne, le pays faisant ce qu’il faut pour remettre de l’ordre dans ses finances publiques.

La croissance économique devrait être nulle en France au premier trimestre 2012, confirme la Banque de France dans sa troisième estimation fondée sur son enquête mensuelle de conjoncture publiée hier. L’indicateur du climat des affaires dans l’industrie est stable en mars à 95. Dans les services, l’indicateur est stable d’un mois sur l’autre à 93.

L’Agence France Trésor a annoncé avoir servi hier 444 millions d’euros de soumissions non compétitives supplémentaires à l’issue de son adjudication d’OAT du 5 avril. Le montant total des OAT émises dans le cadre de cette opération s'élève à 8,883 milliards d’euros. Ce volume se répartit en 1,310 milliard d’euros d’OAT 4,25% 2017, 4,669 milliards d’euros d’OAT 3,00% 2022, 1,669 milliard d’euros d’OAT 3,50% 2026 et 1,235 milliard d’euros d’OAT 4,50% 2041.

La plus grosse société de gestion d’actifs alternative cotée a été placée sous revue en vue d’une possible dégradation de sa note par Moody’s qui évoque des pressions qui pèsent sur les résultats. La dette senior de Man Group est actuellement notée Baa2 par Moody’s, soit deux crans au-dessus de la catégorie spéculative. L’agence met également en avant la «sous-performance continue des principaux fonds ».