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07/12/2010

Axa communique les résultats de « Shareplan 2010 »

Axa a annoncé les résultats, lundi 6 décembre, de son offre d’actionnariat salarié « Shareplan 2010 » dont le lancement a été annoncé le 24 août dernier. Près de 26.500 collaborateurs issus de 40 pays, représentant 22 % de l’effectif salarié concerné, ont souscrit à cette augmentation de capital qui leur était réservée. Au total, la souscription s’élève à plus de 330 millions d’euros correspondant à l’émission de plus de 30 millions d’actions nouvelles, souscrites au prix de 10,58 euros pour la formule classique et de 11,01 euros pour l’offre à effet de levier, précise un communiqué.Au terme de l’opération de cette année, les collaborateurs d’AXA détiennent environ 6,5 % de son capital et 7 % de ses droits de vote.
07/12/2010
Fonds

Les fonds italiens misent sur les PIGS

Entre le début septembre 2009 et la fin octobre 2010, les gérants de fonds italiens ont curieusement augmenté leur exposition aux obligations irlandaises, espagnoles (de plus de 50 %) et portugaises (de près de 20 %), contrairement à leurs homologues étrangers, s’étonne une étude de Morningstar réalisée pour Plus24, le supplément argent de Il Sole – 24 Ore.Selon le journal, la différence entre ce qui se passe en Italie et à l’étranger pourrait trouver son explication dans le fait que les banques, qui contrôlent la grande partie des sociétés de gestion dans la Péninsule, ont massivement vendu leurs obligations des pays PIGS (Portugal, Italie, Grèce, Espagne). On ne peut donc exclure, selon Plus24, que les titres obligataires soient passées des portefeuilles des banques à ceux des fonds des sociétés de gestion...
Fonds
07/12/2010
Fonds

Un ancien de New Star lance un fonds Afrique

Jamie Allsop, l’ancien gérant du fonds Heart of Africa chez New Star, obligé de fermer en 2008 pour des problèmes de liquidités, lance un nouveau fonds Afrique avec Insparo Asset Management, spécialiste des marchés frontières, rapporte le Financial Times Fund Management. Son fonds, Insparo African Equity Fund, sera destiné aux investisseurs institutionnels et aura une liquidité mensuelle.
Fonds
07/12/2010

Candover cède ses actifs en liquidation

La société de private equity Candover Partners Limited (CPL), cherchait des acquéreurs potentiels dans le but de se restructurer et de rembourser ses investisseurs, rapporte l’Agefi. Et c’est finalement la société Arle Capital Partners, récemment formée par certains cadres dirigeants de Candover Partners, qui serait preneuse «pour une livre symbolique». Parallèlement, le groupe prévoit de lever environ 60 millions de livres grâce à la cession de 29,1% de son portefeuille d’investissements au même Arle Capital Partners ainsi qu'à Pantheon, afin de réduire sa dette nette et ses engagements. Soit une décote de 14% par rapport à la valeur comptable des actifs cédés. Le directeur de Candover, Malcolm Fallen, a expliqué que la vente d’une partie du portefeuille était préférable pour les investisseurs à toute autre stratégie qui impliquerait une dilution du capital dans le but de préserver la valeur de long terme du groupe, note le quotidien.
07/12/2010
Fonds

Source lance des ETF sur le Brésil, l'Inde et la Chine

Le 6 décembre, Source a annoncé le lancement de trois ETF de droit irlandais répliquant les indices pays MSCI Brazil, China et India, à dividendes réinvestis (total return), qui viennent compléter celui de MSCI sur les marchés émergents et sur le RDX russe. Ces nouveaux produits, Ces fonds négociables, en dollars, sur le London Stock Exchange,. portent à 83 la gamme des ETF et ETC Source dédiés aux indices actions et matières premières.Caractéristiques :Dénomination : ETF MSCI Brazil Source Code Isin : IE00B4MYWN47Commission de gestion : 0,65 %Dénomination : ETF MSCI China SourceCode Isin : IE00B4LXWX21Commission de gestion : 0,65 %Dénomination : ETF MSCI India SourceCode Isin : IE00B4Z17P98Commission de gestion: 0,85 %
Fonds
07/12/2010

F&C crée un pôle "Investment Solutions"

F&C Investments lance une activité «Investment Solutions», issue du regroupement de ses équipes de gestion actif-passif, d’investissement multi-classes d’actifs, de conseil en assurance, de gestion fiduciaire, de gestion de dérivés et de sélection de gérants institutionnels. Ce nouveau pôle sera chargé de proposer des stratégies d’investissement multi-classes d’actifs aux investisseurs institutionnels sensibles à leurs engagements et aux obligations réglementaires futurs. Cette activité sera dirigée par Richard Watts, promu responsable des solutions d’investissement. Il avait rejoint F&C en 2005 après avoir passé huit ans comme spécialiste dérivés chez JPMorgan. Trois personnes ont également été recrutées pour ce pôle. Ernst Hagen, responsable de la gestion d’actifs du fonds de pension néerlandais Pensioenfonds Horeca & Catering, dirigera le desk investissement fiduciaire à compter du 4 janvier. De plus, Peter Hill-King, de P-Solve Asset Solutions, est nommé responsable de la sélection de gérants, tandis que David White, un ancien d’Aon, devient directeur de la sélection de gérants.
07/12/2010

Asia may compete with UCITS

Asia’s fund managers are convinced the setting up of an Asia funds passport is critical for the industry’s growth, according to a report by PwC commissioned by Australia’s Financial Services Council. Currently, if Australian investment managers want to launch their products into the Asian markets they have to set up an office in Europe and export Ucits from there, the Financial Times Fund Management wrote.
07/12/2010

BlackRock GF closes two funds for holidays

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The board of directors of the Luxembourg Sicav BlackRock Global Funds (BGF) has announced that, in light of the closure of the London stock exchange, the net asset value of the BGF United Kingdom Fund will not be calculated and shares in the fund will not be traded on 27 and 28 December. The same decision has been taken for the 30 and 31 December as well as the 3 January for the BGF Japan Small & Mid Caps Opportunities Fund and BGF Japan Value Fund.
07/12/2010

Former New Star manager launches an Africa fund

Jamie Allsop, former manager of the Heart of Africa fund at New Star, which had to close in 2008 due to liquidity problems, is launching a new fund with frontier markets specialist Insparo Asset Management, the Financial Times Fund Management said. The Insparo African Equity Fund will target institutional investors offering monthly liquidity.
07/12/2010

Source launches ETFs focused on Brazil, India and China

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 6 December, Source announced the launch of three Irish-registered ETFs replicating total return MSCI country indices for Brazil, India and China, as additions to the MSCI emerging markets and RDX Russia indices. The new products, available in US dollars on the London Stock Exchange, bring the range of ETF and ETC products from Source dedicated to equities and commodities indices to 83.CharacteristicsName: ETF MSCI Brazil Source ISIN code: IE00B4MYWN47Management commission: 0.65%Name: ETF MSCI China SourceISIN code: IE00B4LXWX21Management commission: 0.65%Name: ETF MSCI India SourceISIN code: IE00B4Z17P98Management commission: 0.85%
07/12/2010

F&C creates an Investment Solutions unit

F&C Investments has created an integrated Investment Solutions business focused on providing multi-asset investment strategies to institutional investors that are sensitive to their future liabilities and regulatory obligations. The new Investment Solutions business comprises F&C’s asset-liability management, multi-asset investment, insurance advisory, fiduciary management, derivative fund management and institutional manager selection teams.Richard Watts has been appointed as head of investment solutions to lead the business. He joined F&C in 2005 after eight years as a derivatives specialist at JP Morgan. Also, F&C has hired Ernst Hagen, currently head of asset management at Pensioenfonds Horeca & Catering, one of the largest Dutch industry pension schemes, to head its Fiduciary Investment desk. Ernst will join F&C on 4 January and will be based in the Amsterdam office. Peter Hill-King joins as head of manager selection from P-Solve Asset Solutions and David White, who previously worked at Aon, will join as director, manager selection.
07/12/2010

Bestinver adds a new value fund

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 2 December, the CNMV issued a license for the Spanish-registered fund Bestvalue FI from Bestinver, which reproduces the management style of the Bestinver Bestvalue Sicav.The fund will be at least 75% invested in equities, and the remainder will be invested in government or corporate bonds. The portfolio will be at least 60% exposed to equities issued by entities domiciled in the Euro zone, and exposure to currency risks may not exceed 30%.Characteristics Name: Bestvalue FI ISIN code: ES0114579008 Management commission: 1.25% Withdrawal penalty: 3% (for redemptions within one year) Benchmark index: IBGM (30%) + MSCI World (70%) Minimal subscription: EUR200,000
07/12/2010

Janus launches an emerging markets equities fund

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Janus Capital International Limited, the international division of Janus Capital Group, has launched the Janus Emerging Markets Fund, a sub-fund of the Janus Capital Funds Sicav, based in Dublin. The fund is invested in global emerging markets equities with a bottom-up approach. It will be managed by Wahid Chammas and Matt Hochstetler, two portfolio managers who will work in close collaboration with the risk management division of Janus to actively control macroeconomic risks such as country, sector and currency positions. The portfolio will invest in 80 to 140 positions which will be diversified sectorally and geographically, and its benchmark index is the MSCI Emerging Markets.
07/12/2010

Aprionis signs PRI

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Aprionis group announced at the end of last week at the Novethic conference (see Newsmanagers of 6 December) that it has strengthened its commitment to socially responsible investment by becoming the first joint social economy and solidarity partner in France to sign the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). The signature of the Principles illustrates a genuine broader social reflection which has been undertaken for the past 10 years by the Aprionis group. For example, it was, via its financial management firm Expansion, the first to create regional solidaristic funds, local savings funds which finance jobs in the region. In 2008, Inter Expansion becomes one of the pioneering actors in the Water Disclosure project, through its study fo the role of investors in water shortage. Inter Expansion has also signed up to the Carbon Disclosure Project, a collective investor initiative to incite businesses to develop strategies to reduce their carbon emissions.
07/12/2010

Olympia Capital Management attracts suitors

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, the asset management firm Olympia Capital Management, in which Sagard, the US private equity fund, controls 45% of capital, says its recently-announced sale (cf. Newsmanagers of 03/11/2010) interests several firms, including one “high calibre” player. The name of Natixis AM was mentioned. In an interview with Newsmanagers, the asset management firm in question had no comment, but did not deny the information. Another name has also been mentioned: the hedge fund management firm Nexar Capital Group SCA, founded last year by former SGAM AI employees, including Arié Assayag, CEO, and Eric Attias, CIO. Nexar Capital Group SCA on 13 September distinguished itself with the announcement of its acquisition of Allianz Alternative Asset Management (AAAm) from Allianz France, its majority shareholder, and Allianz Global Investors Europe.
07/12/2010

Google acquires an office building for USD1.8bn

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The largest real estate deal since the outbreak of the crisis has been completed in New York, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Google is paying about USD1.8bn for an office building at 111 Eighth Avenue (27,000 square metres) in Chelsea, in which it already rents one fifth of the total area.The vendor is a consortium composed of the local real estate firm Taconic, a New York state pension fund, and the German-American investment management firm Jamestown. At the time when Jamestown got involved in the investment, in 2004, the building was valued at USD800m.
07/12/2010

Oddo looks to grow in Switzerland

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Oddo is planning to develop its activities in Switzerland, Agefi Switzerland reports. According to the international head of sales for the group, Bertrand Levavasseur, the French group is planning to send a salesperson, who will potentially create a unit in Geneva or Zurich in the next 18 months. The French group, which is already present in French-speaking Switzerland via cooperation agreements with several private banks in the region, is now aiming to develop its activities in the remainder of Switzerland.. “We are primarily aiming at private banks, wealth managers, and institutional clients,” says Levavasseur.
07/12/2010

Ameriprise Financial adds to its retail product range

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Ameriprise Financial has announced the launch of ETF and high yield portfolios to provide access for retail investors to investment processes which are often reserved for institutional clients. The Active Opportunity ETF Portfolios include a series of twelve portfolios designed to provide high returns in all market environments. The Active Diversified Yield Portfolios are a group of four portfolios which correspond to various return objectives.
07/12/2010

Changes at the top at Lyxor

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking and its affiliate, Lyxor Asset Management, on Monday announced the appointment of the new management team for Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) in Europe, following the announcement of the departure at the end of this year of Isabelle Bourcier, global head of ETFs. Simon Klein is appointed as head of ETFs for Europe, from 1 January. He joins from Deutsche Bank, where he was head of ETF and ETC sales for continental Europe. He will continue to be based in Frankfurt, and will report to David Escoffier, head of Global Equity Flow at Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking, and Laurent Seyer, CEO of Lyxor Asset Management. Nizan Hamid, former head of the ETF strategy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at BlackRock/BGI, also joined Lyxor AM on 22 November, as head of ETF strategy and deputy head of ETFs for Europe. He will be based in London, and will report to Klein.
07/12/2010

Transparency offensive at db x-trackers

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Source, Credit Suisse and BlackRock wera the first ones. db x-trackers, the ETF arm of Deutsche Bank, followed suit on 6 December and announced that it is now offering more complete transparency for synthetic replication portfolios of its products.The evolution of the indices which ETFs replicate is generated on the Deutsche Bank website, which is (so far) the only partner for swaps. For each ETF in the range, db x-trackers now publishes the net percentage of swap compared with the net asset value and the composition of the collateral by type of security, by country, by currency and where applicable by sector, in addition to the rating for bonds.These data were previously available on request, but db x-trackers is now taking the initiative to publish them without being asked to do so.The asset management firm, created in January 2007, already has over EUR35bn in assets, while net subscriptions from 1 January to 15 November totalled over EUR7bn.
07/12/2010

db x-trackers launches an Indonesia ETF

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 6 December, Deutsche Börse announced that it had admitted a 757th ETF to trading on the XTF segment of its Xetra electronic platform. It is the Luxembourg equities fund db x-trackers MSCI Indonesia TRN Index ETF, which as its name indicates, replicates the MSCI country-index for Indonesia, which covers about 85% of the capitalisation of the local market, on the base of total float.CharacteristicsName: db x-trackers MSCI Indonesia TRN Index ETF ISIN code: LU0476289623 TER: 0.65%
07/12/2010

Deutsche Bank launches its first UCITS hedge fund with Paulson

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Four good months after its first rumours of a cooperation between Deutsche Bank and Paulson & Co, the DB Platinum platform is launching a UCITS-compliant hedge fund managed by Paulson, Fondsprofessionell reports.The open-ended fund is entitled DB Platinum IV Paulson Global Fund, and replicates the Advantage Fund from Paulson. Minimal subscription is EUR10,000. Management commission is set at 2.79%, and DB Platinum will also charge a performance commission, Financial Times Deutschland reports.
07/12/2010

Italian funds bet on PIGS

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Between the beginning of September 2009 and the end of October 2010, Italian fund managers oddly increased their exposure to Irish, Spanish, and Portuguese bonds (the first two by over 50% and the last one by nearly 20%), unlike their counterparts in other countries, according to the surprising findings of a Morningstar study undertaken for Plus24, the money supplement of Il Sole – 24 Ore. The newspaper finds that the difference between what is happening in Italy and other countries may be due to the fact that banks, which control most asset management firms in Italy, massively sold their bonds from PIGS countries (Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain). Plus24 suggests that it cannot therefore be ruled out that these bonds may have been transferred from the portfolios of banks to those of funds from their asset management firms.
07/12/2010

Madoff: Swiss firm UBP prepared to pay up to USD500m

The court-appointed trustee for the Madoff funds, Irving Picard, announced on 6 December that he has signed an agreement with the Swiss bank Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) for a sum of up to USD500m.The settlement, which has yet to be approved by the Manhattan bankruptcy courts, was signed with UBP and an affiliate of UBP based in the Cayman islands, M-Invest, “for at least USD470m in cash, an amount which may total USD500m, depending on the outcome of other ongoing legal actions,” Picard says in a statement. The agreement allows UBP to avoid a USD1bn lawsuit which the trustee was planning.“The amicable agreement with UBP is the first cash agreement with a feeder fund, and the first major international agreement, two major steps in the global recovery effort” to claw back funds lost in the giant fraud orchestrated by Bernard Madoff, Picard comments.In a statement, UBP says that it accepted the agreement in order to protect its clients and to move on. Picard has also accepted UBP’s claims as a victim of the Madoff fraud for a total of USD756m. UBP was named in a class-action lawsuit filed in May 2009 by former clients, accusing it of having stripped their funds and invested them with the fraudster Madoff’s business.
07/12/2010

CESR publishes its first annual report on ratings agencies

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) on 6 December published its first annual report on ratings agencies, as required by the new European Commission regulations which came into force one year ago (7 December). The Committee observes that at the time of the publication of the document, only one ratings agency has been registered, though 23 others are still under evaluation. In other words, the CESR is not in a position to comment in detail on the deployment of the various measures set forth by the regulations, and in its first report limits itself to a more general description.
07/12/2010

Petra Reinhard Keller joins SFA board

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swiss Funds Association (SFA) has announced that its board at its 25 November meeting elected Petra Reinhard Keller as a new member, managing director and head fund solutions & clients services, as well as deputy CEO of Credit Suisse Asset Management Funds. In her role as a board member at the SFA, she replaces Raoul-Philip Backmann, who has left Credit Suisse and is also leaving the board of SFA.
07/12/2010

BaFin awards HansaInvest a universal license

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Hansainvest Hanseatische Investment GmbH, an affiliate of the insurance group Signal-Iduna, on 6 December announced that it has become the first German management firm to obtain a universal operating license from the Federal financial services supervision office (BaFin). According to Jörg W. Stotz, CEO, this means that, on the one hand, Hansainvest is authorised to launch all varieties of funds which are already covered by the InvG regulations in force, with immediate effect, and on the other hand, that the manager is now permitted to launch all varieties of funds which have recently been authorised in Germany, without needing to apply for a specific license. The general license does not apply only to the construction of funds, but also to investments (categories of assets) by funds. Management firms which do not have a universal operating license, meanwhile, are required to obtain licenses for each new funds and each new category of assets. Hansainvest reports that it was already the only German management firm allowed to launch and manage securities funds, real estate funds, funds of funds, money market funds, institutional funds and hedge funds. Its range includes more than 90 retail funds and over 30 institutional funds.
07/12/2010

Schroders to limit access to US midcap strategies

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Fund Strategy reports that Schroders is planning to limit access to its US midcap stratgies in the next 12 months. Assets under management in these strategies, the onshore Schroder US Mid Cap and offshore ISF US Small and Mid Cap Equity funds, total about USD4bn, and may rapidly increase to their optimal levels of about USD4.5bn, above which performance objectives may be more difficult to achieve. Therefore, a provisional closure of the two funds to new investments is expected in the near future. Investors interested in these funds will be redirected to another strategy, the ISF US All Cap Equity, launched in 2006, one third of whose assets are managed with the same approach as the midcap funds.
07/12/2010

DBS AM and Nikko AM join forces

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } DBS Bank, Sumitomo Trust & Banking and Nikko Asset Management on 6 December announced in a joint statement that they have signed an agreement to unite the activities of DBS Asset Management with those of Nikko AM. The firm born of the operation will manage over USD150bn in assets, making it one of the largest management firms in the Asia-Pacific region. Nikko AM has recently announced its acquisition of the Australian Tyndall Investments (USD25bn in assets under management). By the terms of the agreement, Nikko AM will acquire DBS AM, and take over all of its employees, for a total of USD104m, while DBS will take a strategic minority stake of 7.25% in Nikko AM. The agreement also includes a non-exclusive distribution agreement which will allow DBS to offer its clients investment products from Nikko AM. In detail, DBS brings Nikko AM its asset management affiliate in Singapore, its 30% stake in the Malaysian independent management firm HwangDBS Investment Management Berhad, its 51% stake in Asian Islamic Investment Management Sdn Bhd (in which the remaining 49% is controlled by HwangDBS IM), and its Hong Kong-based asset management affiliate. Assets under management at these entities together as of the end of September 2010 totalled USD7bn. The 33% stake in the Chinese firm Changsheng Fund Management controlled by DBS AM is not part of the transaction, and will be held directly by DBS Group. DBS will be represented on the board of directors of Nikko AM and the Singapore affilaite of Nikko AM.
07/12/2010

GLG gets a Hong Kong trading license

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The hedge fund company GLG Partners has received a license in Hong Kong that it will use to trade, Asian Investor reports. Pierre Lagrange, managing director of GLG, based in London, says Hong Kong will be the regional centre for the asset management firm. GLG will transfer traders and analysts to Hong Kong, and is also planning to make local recruitments.

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