Les fonds d’investissement britanniques ont enregistré au mois d’octobre une collecte nette de 615 millions de livres, équivalente à celle de septembre, mais très inférieure à la moyenne mensuelle de 2,2 milliards de livres pour les six premiers mois de l’année, selon les dernières statistiques mensuelles communiquées par l’Association britannique de la gestion financière (IMA).Sur les dix premiers mois de l’année, la collecte nette atteint 16,3 milliards de livres, contre 23,8 milliards de livres pour la période correspondante de 2010. Les actifs sous gestion se sont accrus de 6% par rapport à septembre à 577,8 milliards de livres. Durant le mois sous revue, les fonds obligataires ont drainé 547 millions de livres, un montant supérieur à la moyenne mensuelle de 358 millions de livres pour les douze derniers mois. En revanche, les fonds d’actions ont subi une décollecte nette de 222 millions de livres en octobre, la plus élevée depuis octobre 2008. Les fonds diversifiés ont pour leur part enregistré une collecte nette de 279 millions de livres. La collecte brute des plates-formes de fonds s’est élevée en octobre à 3,1 milliards de livres. Leur part de marché s’est inscrite à 43% en octobre contre 39% un an plus tôt. Les actifs sous gestion des plates-formes s'élevaient en octobre à 110,1 milliards de livres.
L’agence d'évaluation financière Standard & Poor’s se dit préoccupée par par la taille atteinte par le fonds M&G optimal income fund dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à 5,5 milliards de livres, rapporte Money Marketing.Au cours des douze derniers mois, le fonds a doublé de taille, passant la barre des 5 milliards de livres en juillet dernier. En période normale, une telle taille ne pose pas problème mais le gérant du fonds, Richard Woolnough, a indiqué qu’il était difficile de modifier plus de 10% du fonds en une seule fois, malgré le support d’une équipe importante et le recours aux dérivés. S&P a toutefois maintenu le AAA du fonds, en raison de l’excellente réputation de Richard Woolnough et de l'équipe obligataire de M&G.
Le britannique HSBC Global Asset Management a annoncé le lancement du compartiment Frontier Markets de sa sicav luxembourgeoise Global investment Funds (GIF), qui sera géré par Andrea Nannini. Le nouveau produit absorbe l’ancien New Frontiers Fund de 170 millions de dollars, un fonds d’investissement spécialisé (FIS ou SIF en anglais) lancé en février 2008, également géré par Andrea Nannini.L’indice de référence ne change pas : le nouveau produit utilise aussi MSCI Frontier Markets Capped Index.La commission de gestion ressort à 1,75 % pour les parts retail et à 1,25 % pour les parts institutionnelles tandis que la souscription minimale se situe à 5.000 dollars pour les premières et 1 million de dollars pour les secondes.
L’Association britannique de la gestion financière (IMA) vient d’annoncer la création d’un secteur dédiée aux actions internationales qui sera en place à compter du 1er janvier 2012.Ce nouveau secteur prendra en compte tous les fonds dont au moins 80% des actifs sont investis dans des actions internationales. L’association réfléchit également à la possibilité de créer un segment dédié aux actions européennes mais estime actuellement insuffisant le nombre de fonds susceptibles d’entrer dans ce secteur.
NYSE Euronext a annoncé le 30 novembre avoir admis à la négociation sur sa plate-forme parisienne trois ETF obligataires de Lyxor Asset Management (groupe Société Générale). Ces produits de droit français répliquent les indices d’obligations d’Etat AAA EuroMTS sur des plages d'échéances différentes. Ils sont tous chargés à 0,165 %.Désormais, 596 ETF sont cotés 695 fois sur les plates-formes européennes du groupe NYSE Euronext. Depuis le début de l’année, 158 de ces fonds ont été admis à la négociation, dont 128 en cotation principale et 28 en cotation secondaire.CaractéristiquesLYXOR MA13 (FR0011146315) sous-jacent : EuroMTS AAA Government Index (1-3 years) LYXOR MA35 (FR0011146349) sous-jacent EuroMTS AAA Government Index (3-5 years)LYXOR MA57 (FR0011146356) sous-jacent EuroMTS AAA Government Index (5-7 years)
L’autrichien Signa Holding, dont l’ancien patron de Porsche, Wendelin Wiedeking, vient de rejoindre le conseil de surveillance, vient d’annoncer le recrutement à compter d’avril 2012 de Michael Morgentoh, membre du directoire de l’allemand Gothaer Asset Management chargé de l’immobilier et des investissements. L’intéressé, qui fera partie de la direction générale de Signa, rejoint la société avec pratiquement la totalité de son équipe de Gothaer AM.Michael Morgenroth est aussi président de l’association européenne des investisseurs en fonds immobiliers non cotés (Inrev) ainsi que de la commission «immobilier» de l’association allemande GDV des assureurs. Chez Signa, il sera responsable de la clientèle institutionnelle et des activités du groupe en Allemagne.Signa, le groupe du financier controversé René Benko, recrute également chez Gothaer AM Patrick Züchner (head of real estate), Lars Armgart et Antje Bonnewitz. Ils seront chargés de la filiale allemande SIGNA Real Estate Advisory AG (SIGNA READ) à Düsseldorf.Le premier produit lancé par l'équipe nouvellement recrutée sera un real estate debt fund.Chez Gothaer AM, Michael Morgenroth n’aura pas de successeur au directoire, tandis que Patrick Züchner est remplacé à compter du 1er décembre par Ingo Bofinger comme patron de l’immobilier.
Shirish Godbole, qui travaillait chez Goldman Sachs depuis 2007, vient de rejoindre Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing (MSREI) pour prendre la tête des activités dans l’immobilier en Inde, rapporte Asian Investor.Il est directement rattaché à Hoke Slaughter, patron de l’Asie chez MSREI, qui gère quelque 175 milliards de dollars d’actifs dans le monde. Shirish Godbole a déjà travaillé pour Morgan Stanley entre 1994 et 2007.
The European Financial and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) has called recent comments that suggest that a tax on financial transactions sought by some regulatory parties would contribute to the service sector of the economy and to society at large “misleading,” in a statement on 30 November.The association claims that the remarks are misleading since the economic cost of the tax would in practice be borne by the end consumer, including savings investors and pension fund policyholders. The impact of the tax on the fund sector on the long-term savings market would be “significant,” not only because the main taxes would be “relatively high,” but also because the plans in their current form would result in multiple taxation.In the case of investment funds, for example, the tax would apply both to funds (on transactions on assets in their portfolios) and to their investors (on transactions on shares in the funds). The use of financial intermediaries for sales of fund shares is also an example of how the acquisition of shares by a single investor could imply multiple transactions throughout the distribution chain, and thus several places where they might be liable to be taxed.
The hedge fund sector suffered redemptions in October of USD10.8bn, or 0.7% of assets, compared with USD2.9bn in September, according to estimates by TrimTabs based on data gathered from 2,902 hedge funds. This would be the largest outflow observed since July 2009. The weak level of returns from hedge funds appears to be the reason for this disaffection.Total assets in the sector are estimated to total USD1.63trn in October, compared with USD1.73trn in September. Assets have thus returned to their lowest levels since January 2010, partly due to the evolution of returns. The Barclay Hedge Fund index gained 3.5% in October, following five consecutive months of declines.However, the sector has seen only six months of outflows in the 22 months since January 2010. They posted inflows of USD54.3bn in first half 2011, their highest levels since 2007. And since the beginning of 2010, inflows have totalled USD102.7bn.Funds of hedge funds, for their part, have seen outflows of USD2.7bn in October, and since January 2010, they have seen outflows of USD20.2bn.
The alternative management firm Edgebell Capital, led by former bankers from Goldman Sachs and Mizuho, is planning to launch a global macro hedge fund in February, Bloomberg reports. The Edgebell Capital Global Macro Strategy fund, which will focus on stock and bond market trends as well as currency markets, will start up with at least JPY2bn, or about USD26m, raised from high net worth Japanese clients. The fund will also be available to outside investors via an offshore fund. The fund, which aims for total annual returns of 10% to 20%, will invest in stock market indices, including options and futures, worldwide, primarily in bond markets of G7 countries, currencies, and commodity ETFs.
The volatility of the markets is driving Danish pension funds to increase their exposure to real estate, the website IP Real Estate reports.Exposure of Danish funds to real estate typically hovers around 10%, but the current market turbulence is driving funds to increase their exposure to this asset class, largely due to its lower volatility compared with other asset classes.
The US federal authorities suspect individuals at three major investment firms of insider trading, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter. The investigators are targeting an analyst at Neuberger Berman Group and traders who worked for the hedge funds Diamondback Capital Management and Level Global Investors. These individuals will face charges in mid-December.
The British asset management firm HSBC Global Asset Management has announced the launch of the Frontier Markets sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav Global Investment Funds (GIF), which will be managed by Andrea Nannini. The new product will absorb the former USD170m New Frontiers Fund, a Specialised Investment Fund (SIF) launched in February 2008, also managed by Nannini.The benchmark index will not change: the new product will also use the MSCI Frontier Markets Capped Index. The management commission will be 1.75% for retail shares, and 1.25% for the institutional share class, while minimal subscription is USD5,000 for the former and USD1m for the latter.
The British Investment Management Association (IMA) has announced the creation of a sector dedicated to international equities, which will be in operation from 1 January 2012. The new sector will include all funds whose assets are at least 80% invested in international equities. The association is also considering the possibility of creating a segment dedicated to European equities, but considers the number of funds eligible to be included in the sector insufficient for the moment.
The financial ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has expressed concerns about the size of the M&G optimal income fund, whose assets under management total GBP5.5bn, Money Marketing reports. In the past twelve months, the fund has doubled in size, topping GBP5bn in July. In normal periods, such a size is not a problem, but the manager of the fund, Richard Woolnough, has said that it is difficult to modify more than 10% of the fund at a time, despite the support of a large team and the use of derivatives. S&P has maintained the fund’s AAA rating, however, due to the excellent reputation of Woolnough and the bond team at M&G.
Sovereign funds have invested as much as USD12.69bn in the past four quarters (only up to the end of November for fourth quarter), according to the SWF Institute database. In the financial sector, a significant proportion has been invested in emerging market financial institutions.In the same period, investments in the energy sector have totalled USD10.84bn, putting them ahead of investments in utilities and infrastructure. Another preferred target is real estate, though figures are not available for this segment.The regional distribution shows that the difficult situation in Europe has not dissuaded sovereign funds from making investments. France leads in the euro zone, with a total of USD11.6bn in the past four quarters, followed by the United Kingdom with USD9.4bn.
Matthias Egger is joining Mirabaud Asset Management from 1 December 2011, Agefi Switzerland reports. He will manage the Mirabaud Equities – Swiss Small and Mid Caps fund and institutional mandates meeting similar criteria from 15 December 2011.
Philip J. Lofts, CEO UBS Group Americas, is returning to his former role as Group Chief Risk Officer at UBS. He previously held this position between November 2008 and December 2010, and was appointed CEO UBS Group Americas in January 2011. He joined UBS in 1984.Robert J. McCann, who joined UBS in 2009, will become CEO UBS Group Americas, in addition to his current role as CEO Wealth Management Americas, the bank continues.Ulrich Körner, who joined UBS in 2009, will become CEO UBS Group Europe, Middle East and Africa, in addition to his current role as Group Chief Operating Officer and CEO Corporate Center.In their new roles, Lofts, McCann and Körner will continue to be board members at the group, UBS states. Handelszeitung also reports on 1 December that UBS is planning to merge its activities in Europe, ending a period of separation between on- and offshore banking. Jakob Stott is reportedly going to be the new director of European operations. Stott has worked at UBS for one year, and spent a large part of his career at the US bank J.P. Morgan. He is very close to the new group CEO, Sergio Ermotti, the newspaper notes.
Geneva’s Pierre Lombard, who has been an independent manager for over 15 years, has returned to the banking business, as a manager and board member at Gonet & Cie, Agefi Switzerland reports. He will begin in his new position on 1 January.The change is reported to be largely due to the increasing burden of compliance for small structures, which will not be able to remain independent in the future, according to many observers.The asset management firm Pierre Lombard Finance has three employees and CHF150m in assets under management.
Dow Jones Indexes and the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges (FEAS) have launched the first blue-chip index derived from Euro-Asian stock exchanges, the Dow Jones FEAS Titans 50 Equal Weighted Index.An equal-weighted measure of the 50 largest stocks traded on FEAS-member exchanges, the new gauge is designed to serve as the basis for financial products such as funds and structured products.The index universe is defined as all stocks in the Dow Jones FEAS Composite Index. Exchanges represented in the index are: Abu Dhabi (UAE), Almaty (Kazakhastan), Amman (Jordan), Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Belgrade (Serbia), Bucharest (Romania), Cairo (Egypt), Istanbul (Turkey), Karachi (Pakistan), Manama (Kingdom of Bahrain), Muscat (Oman), Nablus (Palestine), Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Skopje (Republic of Macedonia), Sofia (Bulgaria) and Zagreb (Croatia).Separately, Dow Jones Indexes has licensed the new Dow Jones Switzerland Select Dividend 15 Index to UBS to serve as the basis for a structured product, Open End PERLES, listed today on the SIX Swiss Exchange.
Antonio Durán, an investment analyst at Wealthsolutions EAFI since 2010, after serving as a part of the investment consulting team at Allfunds Bank, has joined Ahorro Corporación Gestión as head of the international fund platform, Funds People reports. The platform offers over 3,500 funds from 14 international asset managers.
The Netherlands pension fund GBF (Grafische Bedrijsfonden), dedicated to the graphics industry, has changed names, the website IPE reports. The new name of the pension fund, Timeos, will be effective from 3 December, and aims to attract new clients. Assets under management by the fund total over EUR11bn.
The Gonet Group on 30 November announced the opening of Gonet (Asia) Pte Ltd in Singapore, an Exempt Fund Manager (EFM). “This operation constitutes the first step in the development of the Gonet Group in serving Asian clients,” the group says in a statement. The new entity will practice asset management, and has confirmed the launch of its activity as an Exempt Fund Manager (EFM) governed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). This status will allow the firm to serve a set number of qualified clients initially. The top objective for the new entity is to serve Asian clients. The firm, which since its inception has been composed of seven local professionals, is led by Viraj Somboon, CEO and partner at Gonet (Asia). The banker had previously been Managing Director of EFG Bank in Singapore.
NYSE Euronext on 30 November announced that it has admitted three bond ETFs from Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale group) to trading on its Paris platform. The French-registered products replicate the AAA EuroMTS government bond indices of various maturities. All of the products charge 0.165%.596 ETF funds are now listed 695 times on the European platforms of the NYSE Euronext group. Since the beginning of the year, 158 of these funds have been admitted to trading, of which 128 are primary listings, and 28 are secondary listings.CharacteristicsLYXOR MA13 (FR0011146315) underlying: EuroMTS AAA Government Index (1-3 years) LYXOR MA35 (FR0011146349) underlying: EuroMTS AAA Government Index (3-5 years)LYXOR MA57 (FR0011146356) underlying: EuroMTS AAA Government Index (5-7 years)
John Paulson has apologised to investors, stating that the performance of his funds this year have been the worst in the 17-year history of the firm, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing a letter dated 28 October. In the letter, Paulson also states that Harvard professor Martin Feldstein is joining the board’s consulting committee.
Berkshire Hathaway will acquire the local newspaper read by Warren Buffett, though he has often said that the press industry is facing a difficult future, the Financial Times reports. The billionaire on Wednesday announced the acquisition of the Omaha World Herald Company, which owns several daily and weekly publications in Omaha and south-west Iowa. Berkshire will pay USD200m and will take on the firm’s debts.
The Austrian firm Signa Holding, where the former head of Porsche, Wendelin Wiedeking, has joined the supervisory board, on 24 November announced the recruitment of Michael Morgenroth, a board member at the German firm Gothaer Asset Management, from April 2012, as head of real estate and investments. Morgenroth, who will be a member of the board at Signa, joins the firm with virtually all of his team from Gothaer AM.Morgenroth is also chairman of the European association of investors in private real estate funds (INREV), and the real estate commission of the German insurers’ association GDV. At Signa, he will be responsible for institutional clients and the group’s activities in Germany.Signa, the group controlled by the controversial financier René Benko, has also recruited Patrick Züchner, head of real estate, Lars Armgart and Antje Bonnewitz from Gothaer AM. They will be in charge of the German affiliate SIGNA Real Estate Advisory AG (SIGNA READ), based in Düsseldorf.The first product from the newly-created team will be a real estate debt fund.At Gothaer AM, Morgenroth will not be replaced on the board, while Züchner will be replaced from 1 December by Ingo Bofinger as head of real estate.
With the Mapfre Puente Garantía 10, Mapfre Vida has launched its first fund which guarantees both capital and returns set at 16% at maturity (12 January 2016).The portfolio will be invested solely in bonds, mostly securities issued by Spanish public authorities.In addition, Mapfre Vida says, the subscriber will have access to liquidity at all times, under advantageous conditions, with an expected withdrawal penalty of only 1%.Subscriptions will be open until 27 December through all of the group’s 3,200 branches.
On 18 November, BBVA Asset Management obtained a sales license in Spain for its new fund BBVA Solidez XIV BP, which guarantees 110.08% of initial net asset value as of 16 January 2012, at maturity on 16 January 2015, corresponding to an annualised rate of return of 3.25%. Minimal subscription is EUR50,000. The portfolio will be composed of government bonds from EU states or autonomous communities, promissory notes from corporates, corporate bonds denominated in euros, mortgage-backed securities, and cash.CharacteristicsName: BBVA Solidez XIV BP, FIISIN code: ES0110015007Front-end fee: 5% from 17 January 2012, or when assets exceed EUR250mManagement commission: 0.40% until 16 January 2012, and 0.85% thereafterWithdrawal penalty: 1%
British investment funds posted a net inflow in the month of October of GBP615m, equivalent to their levels in September, but far below their monthly average of GBP2.2bn in the first six months of the year, according to the most recent monthly statistics from the British Investment Management Association (IMA). In the first six months of the year, net inflows totalled GBP1.6bn, compared with GBP23.8bn in the corresponding period of 2010. Assets under management have increased by 6% compared with September, to GBP577.8bn. In the month under review, bond funds attracted GBP547m, a higher level than the monthly average of GBP358m in the past twelve months. However, equity funds have seen a net outflow of GBP222m in October, the largest since October 2008. Diversified funds, for their part, posted a net inflow of GBP279m. Gross inflows to fund platforms in October totalled GBP3.1bn. Their market share in October totalled 43%, compared with 39% one month earlier. Assets under management by platforms totalled GBP110.1bn in October.