Banque Heritage has launched the Chilton Global Strategies fund, a UCITS long/short hedge fund managed by Richard Chilton, a star manager of the hedge fund universe, Agefi Switzerland reports. Banque Heritage and Chilton Investment Company (nearly USD7bn in assets under management) have been working together since the inception of the US asset management firm in the early 1990s, and the bank was one of its first investors. The fund is probably the first global UCITS long/short equity fund managed in the United States. It is composed of six specialised portfolios: Flagship Strategies, European Equities, Small Caps, Global Natural Resources, Asian Equities et Hedged U. S. Equities, and covers all equities worldwide: all regions (excepting Japan) are represented, as are all sectors and market cap sizes. Chilton personally manages the U.S. Equities portfolio, and ensures the coherence of allocations.

Cinco Días notes that the asset management group Capital World is the largest shareholder in McGraw-Hill (with a stake of 10.26%), which owns Standard & Poor’s (S&P), and that its stake in Moody’s is even higher (12.6%). Vanguard holds 4.58% of MacGraw-Hill, and 5.02% of Moody’s. Alliance Bernstein controls 1.67% of S&P and 3.94% of Moody’s. Intech, an affiliate of Janus Capital, has a 1.30% stake in S&P and 1.89% in Moody’s; the stakes of BlackRock International, State Street and Independant Franchiser are 2.46 %, 3.24 % and 1.86%, respectively, while their stakes in Moody’s come to 2.18%, 4.25% and 2.51%.In addition to that, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Invesco and BNY Mellon are also shareholders in the agencies, and Berkshire Hathaway, the portfolio firm for Warren Buffett, holds 12.8% of Moody’s.The situation is different for Fitch, which is an affiliate of the French Fimalac group.

BNY Mellon has announced that it has recruited Ron Bruder as managing director for its wealth management team dedicated to ultra-high net worth families and family offices. Bruder had previously been head of subscriptions to the primary market of the Chicago Board Options Exchange at the bank Goldman Sachs.

Baring Asset Management (Barings) on 6 December announced the appointment of Michael Siciliano as head of sales for North America. He will report to George Harvey, head of sales, development and client services. Michael Siciliano previously worked at Merganser Capital Management in Boston, where he was director of sales. Barings plans to increase its offerings of multi-asset class products to North American clients, strategies which Siciliano knows particularly well, Barings says in a statement.

Handelsblatt reports that Fidelity Investments has submitted a license application to the SEC to create ETFs based on equity and bond indices of both US and foreign securities. The asset management firm is apparently planning to launch ETFs based primarily on fundamental rather than cap-weighted indices, including indices from Wisdom Tree, as well as short ETFs. These plans will only be achieved after some time, as the time required to obtain licenses is a matter of months, and may be over a year.

BNY Mellon Asset Servicing on 6 December announced that Touchstone Investment Advisors, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Western & Southern Financial Group, has retained it for administration, accounting and transfer agency services for its 42 mutual funds, with assets of over USD7bn in 110,000 client accounts. These services had previously been provided by JP Morgan.

Van Eck Global has recently launched Market Vectors Index Solutions (MVIS), a German-registered firm which will develop, sell and license the Market Vectors range of indices. The indices are currently used as the basis for many ETF funds from the US firm. Lars Hamich has been appointed CEO of MVIS.

The Wealth-X company, a specialist in research into the ultra-high net worth (UHNW) client segment, on 6 December announced the appointment of Steve Farrer as vice-president and head of development for activities in China. Farrer will be based in the Hong Kong offices of the firm, and will lead a strategic expansion of the company in China. Wealth-X already has an office in China, in Guangzhou. Farrer previously worked for the World-Check and Mastercard International companies, as a consultant specialised in financial services, and particularly regulatory risks and deontology. According to the most recent research by Wealth-X, China has 11,475 private individuals whose wealth totals at least USD30m, while in Hong Kong there are 3,200 such people.

UBS Wealth Management has recruited Valerie Chou for the newly-created position of head of clients for the global family office (GFO) unit, Asian Investor reports. Chou will be based in Hong Kong; she previously worked at Morgan Stanley, and will report to Amy Lo, head for high net worth clients in the Asia-Pacific region. The appointment is a sign of the importance UBS attaches to the Asia-Pacific region for this family office activity. The group has refused to give figures about assets, but says merely that staff are increasing in the region. UBS Wealth Management has also recruited Linda Kwo, previously of BNP Paribas, as country head for Hong Kong.

There is a mismatch between long term actual and expected returns for private equity strategies, reveals bfinance in a global survey of institutional investors issued yesterday. Responses from institutional investors highlight a significant difference between expected returns from private equity strategies and the reality of realised net of fees returns in their portfolio. 93% of institutions set their private equity funds a performance target (net internal rate of return - IRR) of over 10% yet less than half generated an actual net IRR of more than 10%.However expectations and experience varies greatly by investment strategy. In terms of individual strategies, institutions considered expected returns from private debt investments as the most closely aligned with actual returns.74% expected a net IRR of over 10% and nearly 70% achieved this. In contrast investors’ sentiment on venture capital shows the largest difference between expectations and past experience with 87% of all investors expecting over 10% net IRR and only 44% of such investors having achieved 10% or above net IRR from prior venture capital investments.Also according to bfinance, 88% of investors identified «portfolio return enhancement» as the first or second most important reason to invest in private equity. A similarly important rationale for investing in private equity is the ability to obtain returns from sources not accessible through public markets: 81% of all investors say this as the first or second reason for investing. In contrast, only 24% of investors saw «risk diversification» as being amongst the first two reasons for allocating to private equity.

Mirabaud Asset Management has decided to extend its Parisian product range (euro zone equities, France equities, funds of hedge funds, profiled asset allocation funds) to include convertible bonds, with the Luxembourg-registered fund Mirabaud – Convertible Bonds Europe, managed by Renaud Martin, who has recently been recruited (see Newsmanagers of 21 October).The new product invests in European convertible bonds which have a relatively short maturities, and aims to outperform the Exane Convertible Europe (ECI) fund. “This fund is designed on the principle of absolute returns. The portfolio (EUR35m in seed capital) has a short duration (2.5 years), returns of 5%, and a 25% sensitivity to equity markets. We are aiming for about EUR300m for the fund eventually,” Martin tells Newsmanagers.The manager adds that in light of a focus on convertible bonds issued by mid-sized businesses, the added value of the new fund “resides largely in credit analysis. We have good cash visibility for two years on securities that offer high returns.” In addition, “mid-sized companies offer more potential in terms of returns, and in terms of corporate events, since ratchet and poison put clauses created to protect the investor in case of a takeover favour convertibles,” the manager says.CharacteristicsName: Mirabaud – Convertible Bonds EuropeISIN codes:I shares: LU0689233525A shares: LU0689230778Minimal initial subscription: I shares: EUR0.5mPerformance commission: 20% of outperformance, with high watermark

AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) on 6 December announced the release of the AXA World Funds Framlington Natural Resources fund. AXA WF Natural Resources was launched on 31 August 2011 as a Luxembourg-registered SICAV which meets the requirements of the UCITS III directive. The fund is currently on sale in Luxembourg, France, and other European countries (Germany, Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands). The fund seeks growth opportunities on international equity markets among businesses in the commodity sector. It invests in businesses whose activities are related to industrial and precious metals, energy and soft commodities throughout the value chain (oil exploration to refinery, from agricultural machinery to fertilizer), and in all cap sizes (from USD1bn to USD350bn). The fund, aimed at investors of all types, holds an average of about 70 to 90 positions, and combines macro and bottom-up approaches in order to limit the correlation between various positions. It joins the AXA WF Framlington Hybrid Resources and AXA WF Framlington Junior Energy, which have a total of nearly EUR276bn in assets as of the end of October 2011. Main characteristics of the fund Share A I Type of investor All types of investors Institutional investors only Code Isin (USD) LU0645147686 (USD) LU0645148577 (EUR) LU0645147769 (EUR) LU06451 48650 Minimal initial subscription 0 EUR5,000,000 Minimal subsequent subscriptions 0 EUR1,000,000 Maximal management fees. 1.5% 0.6% Real management fees 1.5% 0.6% Maximum front-end fees. 5.5% 0 Maximum withdrawal fees. 0 0 Legal format Sub-fund of a Luxembourg-registered SICAV

The French financial market regulator, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), on 24 October issued a sales license for the Luxembourg sub-fund Allianz RCM Renminbi Currency, which was launched on 18 October (see Newsmanagers of 13 May and 4 October), with assets totalling about USD80m. The fund is managed by Helen Lam.Allianz Global Investors (AGI) had previously launched a bond fund denominated in Chinese offshore yuan (CNH) in spring, which was closed to subscriptions after attracting EUR450m in one week, due to liquidity considerations. Due to the exponential growth of the offshore yuan-denominated deposits market in Hong Kong (CNH) since third quarter 2010, the German asset management firm has chosen to orient itself towards this highly liquid segment, Arne Tölsner, head of development at RCM Europe, a member of the RCM European Investment Management Group and a specialist in Asian markets, explained at a presentation in Paris.Tölsner says the product presents three decisive advantages: it allows subscribers to diversify their currency exposure, and the profit from appreciation of the Chinese currency against the US dollar, while avoiding the duration risks inherent in bonds. However, the vehicle does not aim to generate high yields.The fund, which presently invests in deposits with a dozen banks considered solid, aimed at the general public, will be primarily of interest to funds of funds and high net worth private clients via private banks and family offices. Returns are higher than for retail savings accounts, due to the size of the investment.CharacteristicsName: Allianz RCM Renminbi CurrencyRetail A (H2-EUR) share class: LU0665628672Retail A (USD) share class: LU0665630819I (institutional) H2-EUR share class: LU0665629993Front-end fee: A euro-hedged or US dollar: currently 2% (3% maximum)Management commission: A shares: currently 0.50% (1.50% maximum)I shares: currently 0.40 % (1 % maximum)Administrative fees A shares: currently 0.15% (0.50% maximum)I shares: currently 0.11 % (0.50 % maximum)Minimum investmentI share class: EUR1m

The Swiss asset management firm Partners Group (about EUR20bn in assets) on 6 December announced that it has been included in the MSCI Switzerland index since 30 November, after being included in the SMIM (Swiss Small & Mid Cap Index), which includes the 50 largest publicly-traded companies in Switzerland.The MSCI Switzerland index is a part of the MSCI World Index (developed markets) and thus in the MSCI All Country World Index, which is thus included in the MSCI All Country World & Frontier Markets Index.Partners Group has announced that its inclusion in the MSCI Switzerland index has resulted in a signifiant increase in demand from active and passive investment vehicles.

Craignant un impact sur ses exportations vers l’Asie, la banque centrale a une nouvelle fois baissé ses taux de 25 pb à 4,25 %

La dégradation d'Etats par S&P ne bouleverserait pas la gestion des fonds obligataires

La dégradation d'Etats par S&P ne bouleverserait pas la gestion des fonds obligataires

Menacé de perdre son AAA, le FESF devait déjà voir sa durée de vie raccourcie de 2013 à 2012 selon l'accord franco-allemand de lundi

Les «sherpas» européens envisageraient de permettre au FESF actuel doté de 440 milliards d’euros de poursuivre son activité en l’état, et de créer en parallèle un autre fonds doté de 500 milliards de facilités de crédit qui pourrait voir le jour mi-2012, selon le quotidien qui cite des sources officielles. L’annonce pourrait être faite demain lors du sommet européen (lire aussi page 2).

Le gestionnaire d’actifs britannique met en place des plans de secours disponibles en cas d’éclatement de la zone euro, comme l’indique au quotidien son patron de la gestion Alan Brown. Il s’agit notamment de limiter le risque de contrepartie. Les dénouements par le biais d’interlocuteurs en Allemagne sont privilégiés. Seules les obligations d’«une liste très réduite» d’Etats «les plus puissants» sont acceptées en nantissement.

Londres ne donnera son aval à un nouveau traité européen que dans la mesure où il ne nuit pas à ses intérêts, a indiqué le Premier ministre dans un entretien accordé au quotidien. Si David Cameron précise que «l’objectif le plus important de la Grande-Bretagne est pour le moment de régler le problème de l’Eurogroupe qui a des effets négatifs sur (son) économie», il met en garde les Etats membres de la zone euro. «S’ils optent pour un traité séparé, la Grande-Bretagne n’aura évidemment pas à le signer ni à l’amender, mais s’ils utilisent les institutions européennes, nous insisterons sur les précautions et les garanties dont la Grande-Bretagne a besoin».

Selon le Financial Times, le spécialiste des produits indiciels sur matières premières serait en vente pour un milliard de livres

Les autorités européennes de la concurrence sont prêtes à empêcher la fusion entre Nyse Euronext et Deutsche Börse si les deux opérateurs boursiers ne consentent pas à de nouvelles cessions d’actifs, a rapporté hier Le Monde. La direction européenne de la concurrence considère qu'à ce stade, le projet déboucherait «sur un double monopole: sur le marché des dérivés en Europe et sur celui du règlement livraison». Deutsche Börse a qualifié cet article de «hautement spéculatif».

L'opération a permis à l'établissement de dégager 350 millions d'euros de core tier one avant décembre comme exigé par la banque centrale

La dégradation semble à présent acquise, et les rendements français se sont tendus hier. Les covered bonds pourraient en tirer profit

Le dispositif est mis en place à titre préventif afin de parer à une éventuelle détérioration de la situation dans la zone euro

Face à une crise de la dette en zone euro qui menace de faire dérailler sa fragile reprise, l’Irlande alourdit la fiscalité. Dans le cadre de la présentation devant le Parlement de la seconde partie d’un nouveau budget de rigueur, le ministre des finances, Michael Noonan, a dévoilé 1,6 milliard d’euros de recettes supplémentaires. L’augmentation de deux points du taux de TVA permettra de dégager 670 millions d’euros, tandis que le relèvement d’autres impôts indirects apportera 330 millions. 600 millions proviendront enfin de mesures fiscales reconduites pour le prochain budget. Le gouvernement a par ailleurs abaissé de 1,6% à 1,3% sa prévision de croissance du PIB l’an prochain. Il estime que l’objectif de réduction du déficit reste valable mais qu’une dégradation supplémentaire des perspectives de croissance pourrait le contraindre à présenter un budget encore plus sévère en 2013 et au-delà.

En prévision du prochain sommet, le président du Conseil européen propose que le MES recapitalise directement des banques en difficulté et se voit donner le statut d’institution de crédit. Il suggère également que ses décisions ne soient plus prises à l’unanimité et plaide pour une révision de son plafond de ressources. Enfin, il estime que ses statuts doivent indiquer clairement que le cas de la Grèce restera «unique et exceptionnel».

Le parlement grec a adopté le projet de budget 2012 du gouvernement de Lucas Papadémos qui prévoit de nouvelles mesures d’austérité très décriées, conformément aux conditions du plan d’aide de 130 milliards d’euros du FMI et de l’UE. Un budget qui vise à ramener le déficit de 9% du PIB à 5,4% l’année prochaine.

Le Premier ministre s’est déclaré hier soir hostile à une hausse du prix du gaz supérieure à 5% en janvier 2012. François Fillon a prédit une hausse «très inférieure» à 10%. «Je souhaiterais que ce soit inférieur à 50% de cette somme», soit 5%, a-t-il ajouté. François Fillon n’a par ailleurs pas exclu de possibles nouveaux ajustements budgétaires en fonction de la réalité de la croissance française de 2012.