Natixis Global Asset Management (GAM) a lancé un fonds d’actions internationales issu de Gateway Investment Advisers. Le Gateway International Fund a pour objectif de réaliser des performances similaires à long terme à celles de l’indice MSCI EAFE avec un niveau réduit de risque.Le fonds investit dans un portefeuille diversifié de 200 à 400 actions internationales. Basé sur la capitalisation de marché, le fonds comprend des allocations représentatives de six indices : ASX/S&P 200 (Australie), Euro Stoxx 50 (Europe), Hang Seng (Hong Kong), Nikkei 225 (Japon), SMI (Suisse) et FTSE 100 (Royaume-Uni).
Arrow Investment Advisors annonce le recrutement de Joseph Cunningham, un spécialiste des ETF, au poste de directeur des marchés de capitaux au sein de la société américaine. Il travaillait auparavant chez ProShares Advisors où il était Director of Institutional ETF Order Flow, précise Mutal Fund Wire.
Touchstone Investments a annoncé avoir fait l’acquisition de 16 fonds de Fifth Third Asset Management (FTAM) qui faisaient partie de la gamme de mutual funds de la société américaine. Les actifs des fonds seront intégrés dans des fonds Touchstone au troisième trimestre, une fois la transaction finalisée.
Neuflize OBC vient de recruter Olivier Maestracci au poste de directeur adjoint Clientèle institutionnelle et Distribution externe. Cet ancien d’Invesco, après un court passage chez Financière de l’Echiquier, rejoint notamment Robert Vela, également directeur adjoint, avec qui il a collaboré pendant quatre années chez Europerformance au début des années 2000.
L’Union Mutualiste Retraite (UMR), qui présentait ses résultats 2011 en fin de semaine dernière, a annoncé une collecte de 208 millions d’euros avec un montant d’actifs gérés de 7,6 milliards d’euros. L'établissement qui compte 391 000 sociétaires a enregistré 6700 adhésions supplémentaires au produit d’épargne retraite individuelle Corem. «Et cette tendance se confirme en 2012", précise un communiqué qui relève une augmentation de 12 % d’adhésions au premier trimestre par rapport à l’année précédente. Les résultats 2011 de l’UMR ont été affectés par la crise grecque. Avec 220 millions d’euros de provisions ou de pertes résultant directement ou indirectement de la crise grecque, l’UMR fait les plus mauvais résultats financiers depuis sa création en 2003. D’autres actifs tel que l’immobilier en Allemagne et quelques fonds déjà impactés en 2008 – 2009 ont également généré des provisions supplémentaires, précise l'établissement.Les rendements nets comptables s’affichent pour Corem à 0,49 % fin 2011, contre 5,18 % en 2010 et pour le régime fermé (R1) à 2 % contre 5 % en 2010. Sur 9 ans (2003 – 2011) le rendement moyen des 2 principaux fonds s’établissent à 4,87 % ( Corem) et 5,11 % (R1).
Le liechtensteinois Centrum Bank a annoncé l’arrivée de deux spécialistes de Clariden Leu à des postes de direction tant à Vaduz que dans la filiale de Zurich. Sous réserve d’un agrément du régulateur (la FMA), Sandro Schmid, head operations, IT & services chez Clariden, prendra cet été la direction du nouveau corporate center au siège, dans la Principauté. En Suisse, Centrum Bank se sépare du CEO Marck Zahn et du head private banking Christian Müri, qui sont remplacés avec effet au 1er avril par Yusuf Savmaz, qui devient à la fois CEO de Centrum Bank (suisse) et group head wealth management. L’intéressé était en dernier lieu head of tax & estate planning chez Clariden Leu.Pour l’exercice 2011, Centrum Bank affiche un bénéfice net de 2,5 millions de francs contre 5,7 millions pour l’année précédente dont le résultat avait été gonflé par une reprise de provisions de 3,5 millions de francs. Le bénéfice d’exploitation n’a diminué pour sa part que de 5 % à 62,6 millions de francs.A fin décembre, l’encours total avait diminué de 5 % en un an, à 8,29 milliards de francs, en raison de la baisse du cours des actions et d’un effet de change adverse. Cependant, Centrtum Bank a enregistré l’année dernière des rentrées nettes de 321 millions de francs contre des sorties nettes de 283 millions en 2010.
La Caisse de Prévoyance des agents de la Sécurité Sociale et assimilés (CAPSSA) gère environ un milliard d'euros à la manière d'un fonds de fonds et avec des performances enviables. Son directeur général, Jean-Pierre Mottura, bénéficie d'une grande liberté en matière d'allocation, avec en contrepartie des contrôles a posteriori particulièrement stricts. Cela a permis de tenter des expériences probablement impossibles dans d'autres maisons.
La succursale de Bank Julius Baer Europe à Hambourg (ouverte en 2006) vient de déménager dans de nouveaux locaux plus vastes et son directeur, Sven Nykamp, a annoncé que six nouveaux collaborateurs ont été recrutés à compter du 1er avril, rapporte finews. De nouvelles embauches sont prévues à moyen terme si le volume d’affaires continue de gonfler au même rythme.
The Hamburg branch of Bank Juilus Baer Europe (opened in 2006) has moved into new, larger offices, and its director, Sven Nykamp, has announced that six new employees have been recruited from 1 April, finews reports. Further recruitments are planned in the mid-term if business volume continues to increase at the same pace.
As of the end of March, the volume of assets under administration by HSBC in Germany for the first time topped EUR70bn, which means that assets have more than doubled in five years, a press statement says, adding that this growth has been entirely organic, Fonds Professionell reports. Christiane Lindenschmidt, director of HSBC Securities Services Germany, is planning to make the firm one of the winners from the inevitable concentration process soon to come on the German depository banking market, which has unaccountably not yet begun.
The Boletín Oficial del Estado (Official Gazette) has published a decision by the Director general of insurance and pension funds (DGSFP) authorising Aegon España to manage pension funds in Spain, Funds People reports.
The number of hedge fund closures appears to be on the decline in recent years, Hedge Fund Research reports. Despite a slight increase in 2011 to 755 from 743 in 2010, the research firm points out that this level remains far below an all-time peak in 2008, at 1,471 closures. HFR also points out that 1,113 funds were created last year, up from 935 in 2010, compared with a record of 1,197 in 2007, Agefi notes.
Arrow Investment Advisors has announced the recruitment of Joseph Cunningham, an ETF specialist, as director of capital markets at the US firm. He had previously worked at ProShares Advisors, as Director of Institutional ETF Order Flow, Mutual Fund Wire reports.
Neuflize OBC has recruited Olivier Maestracci as deputy director of institutional clients and external distribution. Maestracci, formerly of Invesco, who has also served a brief stint at Financière de l’Echiquier, will join Robert Vela, also deputy director, with whom he worked for four years at Europerformance in the early years of the last decade.
Touchstone Investments has announced that it has acquired 16 funds from Fifth Third Asset Management (FTAM), which had been part of the mutual fund product range from the US firm. Assets in the funds will be integrated into Touchstone funds in third quarter, once the transaction is completed.
As of the end of February, no subscribers had signed up to the closed-end fund DWS Access Wasserkraft (see Newsmanagers of 3 November 2011), which leaves the asset management firm of the Deutsche Bank group unable to comply with a new deadline of 20 March (the deadline hd previously been set at the end of November, and then at the end of December) to publish a complementary prospectus stating that the start-up of the fund is postponed by four months until 20 July, Fonds Professionell reports. If by this new date, DWS is still unable to provide at least EUR25m in capital, the legal structure of the fund will be dissolved. Management will be outsourced to the Austrian firm enso hydro, which has begun to construct a portfolio with small Norwegian firms.
On 30 March, the Spanish regulator CNMV has registered the Bankinter Eurostoxx 50 Garantizado fund, which aims on the one hand to guarantee initially invested capital at maturity (on 30 November 2015), and on the other hand to deliver a return which will depend on the performance of the Eurostoxx 50 index in the meanwhile. In the worst case, there will be no additional return, and in the best case, the return will be equivalent to 6.50% per year, depending on a 60% participation rate in gains limited to 42% during the period of reference. From 8 May (subscriptions will close on 7 May), the portfolio will be invested in bonds denominated in euros rated at least A-, with a maturity similar to that of the fund. Characteristics Name: Bankinter EuroStoxx 50 Garantizado, FI ISIN code: ES0159142001 Front-end fee: 5% Management commission: 1.27% Early withdrawal penalty: 3%
The retirement planning entity for social security personnel (CAPSSA) manages almost EUR1bn as a fund of fund, with enviable results. Its CEO, Jean-Pierre Mottura, has a lot of freedom in asset allocation, but faces strict a posteriori controls. This has allowed for types of experiment that would be impossible at other complementary insurance firms.
In a speech on Monday, Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, claimed that it is necessary to adopt additional measures to increase the resilience of money market funds, since this stability is important for the stability of the entire US financial system, the Wall Street Journal reports. He added that the risk of panic is the result of a combination of redemptions from funds with fixed net asset values, and a situation in which investors are extremely hostile to taking risks and the lack of an explicit capacity to absorb losses, all topics which remain a matter of concern, he added.
Natixis Global Asset Management (GAM) has launched an international equities fund from Gateway Investment Advisers. The Gateway International Fund aims to earn long-term returns similar to those of the MSCI EAFE index, with a reduced risk level. The fund invests in a diversified portfolio of 200 to 400 international equities. Based on market capitalisation, the fund includes representative allocations to six indices: ASX/S&P 200 (Australia), Euro Stoxx 50 (Europe), Hang Seng (Hong Kong), Nikkei 225 (Japan), SMI (Switzerland) and FTSE 100 (United Kingdom).
Das Investment reports that the Swiss regulator has granted sales licences for Switzerland to the R2016 and R Focus Corporate 2016 funds from Rothschild & Cie Gestion. A similar license has been applied for from the German BaFin.
The US asset management firm Nikko Asset Management has joined the international organisation ICI Global, a recent emanation of the US financial asset management association ICI. Nikko AM becomes the first Asian firm in the asset management sector to join ICI Global. The members of the ICI association and its affiliated members represent total assets under management of at least USD16.380trn in UCITS and mutual funds.
The London-based alternative asset management firm Odey Asset Management, which acquired something of a reputation due to its bets on the banking sector during the financial crisis, has parted with its senior banking sector analyst, Ben Lambert. Lambert, who joined the firm led by Crispin Odey in 2007, resigned last week, the Reuters news agency reports. Odey has confirmed the resignation of Lambert, but declined to comment. Assets under management at Odey total about USD6bn. Since its inception, Odey has ranked as one of the best hedge funds in the sector.
The hedge fund SG Alpha, specialised in emerging Europe, has launched a hedge fund dedicated to Ukraine, HFM Week reports. The SG Alpha Ukraine Fund started up on 2 April with capital of USD10m from European institutional investors. The firm hopes to reach USD100m in two years. The founder of SG Alpha, Steffen Gruschka (formerly of Deutsche Bank) has been investing in Ukraine for over 10 years. The new fund will provide a way to benefit from highly favourable share prices and a potential free trade agreement between Ukraine and the European Union.
Jefferies has announced the opening of an office in the Dubai International Financal Centre (DIFC). George Azar will be the managing director and senior executive officer of the Dubai office. Azar previously worked at Union Bancaire Privée, where he was CEO of the Qatar office and managing director for Dubai. Also from Union Bancaire Privée, Imrad Ahmed joins Jefferies as senior vice president and adviser of the wealth management unit at Jefferies.
BNY Mellon has appointed Jane Caire to the newly created role of head of strategy & development, product & marketing for investment management in the Asia-Pacific region. Based in Hong Kong, she will report to Alan Harden, Asia-Pacific CEO of BNY Mellon Investment Management.Jane Caire joins BNY Mellon from ING Investment Management where she was most recently head of business management.
The Liechtenstein-based Centrum Bank has announced the arrival of two specialists from Clariden Leu in management positions in Vaduz and the bank’s Zurich affiliate. Pending permission from the regulator (FMA), Sandro Schmid, head operations, IT & services at Clariden, will become director of the new corporate centre at the head office in Liechtenstein from this summer. In Switzerland, Centrum Bank is parting with CEO Marck Zahn and head of private banking Christian Müri, who will be replaced by Yusuf Savmaz from 1 April. Savmaz becomes both CEO of Centrum Bank (Switzerland) and group head wealth management. Savmaz had most recently been head of tax & estate planning at Clariden Leu.For the 2011 fiscal year, Centrum Bank has reported net profits of CHF2.5m, comapred with CHF5.7m in the previous year, when profits were boosted by a CHF3.5m increase in provisioning. Operating profits declined by only 5%, to CHF62.6m. As of the end of December, total assets were down by 5% in one year, to CHF8.29bn, due to a decline in equity prices and adverse currency effects. However, Centrum Bank last year posted net inflows of CHF321m, compared with net outflows of CHF283m in 2010.
The Italian asset management firm Azimut has posted net inflows in March of EUR308.1m, while the Italian fund industry as a whole shows outflows, Il Sole – 24 Ore reports. Since the beginning of the year, inflows total EUR609.3m. The Italian firm has been successful with its renminbi fund and its cat bond fund, as well as with its growth abroad.
L’économie chinoise a enregistré un excédent extérieur de 5,35 milliards de dollars au mois de mars, porté par une hausse des exportations de 8,9% supérieure à celle de 5,3% des importations, selon les chiffres officiels publiés ce matin. En février, la Chine avait subi un déficit record de sa balance commerciale de 31,5 milliards de dollars.
Wall Street a terminé en baisse hier soir pour la quatrième séance d’affilée, en réaction à une médiocre statistique de l’emploi publiée vendredi. L’indice S&P500 a touché un plus bas de plus de trois semaines en séance mais a finalement limité ses pertes à 1,14% pour descendre à 1.382,20 points. Le Dow Jones a cédé 1% à 12.929,59 points et le Nasdaq Composite 1,08% à 3.047,08 points. Les pertes ont été portées surtout par les financières, dont l’indice S&P a perdu 1,61%, et les industrielles, dont l’indice a également cédé 1,61% . L'économie américaine a créé nettement moins d’emplois qu’attendu en mars, relançant les espoirs d’un troisième volet d’assouplissement quantitatif (QE3) de la part de la Fed, même si le taux de chômage, à 8,2%, est au plus bas depuis trois ans. Selon une enquête Reuters, 11 des 15 primary dealers interrogés anticipent un QE3 de quelque 600 milliards de dollars.