In a statement dated 4 May, CCR Asset Management, the asset management firm of the UBS group for France, has announced the appointment for Lorenzo Ballester-Barral to the position of CEO. He replaces Tim Blackwell, who will remain as president of the firm, while Jean-François Sarlat will become deputy CEO. Blackwell has been head of Europe, Middle East and Africa, excluding Switzerland, for UBS Global Asset Management since October 2009, and head of France since October 2008. Ballester-Barral has been deputy CEO and chief investment officer at CPR AM since 2009. Sarlat was previously deputy CEO of CCR AM, in charge of the products and marketing department.

Jupiter announced on Tuesday that Guy de Blonay will co-manage the Financial Opportunities fund (GBP1.2bn in assets), alongside Philipp Gibbs, from 1 June. Initially (see Newsmanagers of 19 November), he had been set to take on this role beginning in summer. De Blonay, who left Henderson New Star on 21 October 2009, joined Jupiter as an advisor in January this year. He had previously spent six years at Jupiter, before joining New Star on 28 December 2001.

The French strategic investment fund (FSI) on 3 May announced that it plans to invest in the capital of Inside Contactless, a firm specialised in contactless payment systems, based in Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône), to assist it with a planned acquisition. The FSI will bring a EUR7.5m participation to a capital increase planned by Inside to finance an acquisition of the secure micro-controller division of the US semiconductor manufacturer Atmel, based in Rousset (Bouches-du-Rhône). The current shareholders at Inside, the private equity firm Gimv and Sofinnova Partners, will also participate, and Atmel will also invest in Inside. Gims has announced in a separate statement that it is planning to invest EUR11.2m in this round of fundraising.

LCF Rothschild has announced that Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management (EDRAM) on 23 April signed the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN-PRI). EDRAM has also decided to integrate awareness of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into its voting policies, in addition to the principles of good corporate governance. The policy will apply uniformly to all shares held in portfolios in France and all global stock markets. To respect the highest standards for transparency about its SRI approach and ESG selection for investors, Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management has also brought its Saint-Honoré Europe SRI fund into compliance with AFG/FIR standards. The code is the French application of the guiding transparency principles for retail SRI funds established by Eurosif.

Kenneth Griffin, founder of Citadel Investment Group, last week asked Patrik Edsparr, head of the securities division, to leave the hedge fund management firm due to differences over business strategy and the culture of the firm more generally, the Wall Street Journal reports. Edsparr has not been replaced sof ar, but Citadel is planning to seek an external candidate for the position. The move is a further sign that Griffin has more work to do to stabilise the ranks at the firm.

«As expected, the restructuring undertaken at TCW at end-2009 resulted in a significant outflow in Q1 10,” Société Générale has announced at a presentation of results for its asset management activities. Since the departure of Jeff Gundlach and several other employees from the US firm, outflows from the asset management affiliate of SG have totalled EUR12.6bn. Accordingly, out of total withdrawals of EUR -12.6 billion, EUR -10.8 billion are attributable to the restructured MBS activity, whereas the outflow in other asset classes amounted to only EUR -1.8 billion. Going forward, the restructured MBS activity will be affected by further withdrawals, mainly by institutional clients, most of which have already been announced (EUR -4 billion). April suggests a more favourable trend for the rest of the activity scope, with a positive inflow of EUR +0.9 billion,” Société Générale says. The business line’s net banking income totalled EUR 83 million on the back of the growth in performance commissions and management fees, underpinned by improved market conditions. Operating expenses were down -3%(1) vs. Q1 09, at EUR -94 million. Gross operating income was EUR -11 million in Q1 10 vs. EUR -39 million in Q1 09. Amundi’s contribution of EUR 26 million takes the contribution to Group net income to EUR 19 million. At EUR 504 million, the Private Banking, Global Investment Management and Services division’s Q1 revenues were down -14.3% (-11.9%(1) when adjusted for changes in Group structure and at constant exchange rates) vs. Q1 09. Operating expenses were down -15.9% (-7.9%(1) when adjusted for changes in Group structure and at constant exchange rates) vs. Q1 09, reflecting the cost-cutting measures implemented under the infrastructure optimisation plan. Gross operating income totalled EUR 38 million. The division made a profitable EUR 55 million contribution to Group net income.

The husband of heiress Aerin Lauder, Eric Zinterhofer, chairman of Charter Communications, is leaving Apollo Global Management, where he is co-head of media & telecom investing, to found his own private equity firm, according to souces familiar with the matter cited by the Wall Street Journal. His new fund, which will be supported by the Lauder family, may raise USD500m to USD1bn, and will specialise in media and telecommunications. Apollo, for its part, is planning to appoint Gregory Beard, managing director of Riverstone Holdings, as head of commodities. He replaces Neal Shear, who, after a brief stint at Apollo, has moved on to become global head of securities at UBS.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the European Parliament is preparing to pass regulations which woudl ban hedge funds based in some offshore tax havens from raising money from EU investors. The proposed rule would require European authorities to create a blacklist. To avoid being put on the list, countries would be required to satisfy five criteria, the reporter on the legislation, Jean-Paul Gauzès, says.

Carmignac Gestion on Tuesday, 4 May announced the arrival of Nicolás Llinas as head of fund sales at its Madrid office, opened in 2008. He joins the sales team at Carmignac Gestion, which already includes six people. Llinas was previously head of analysis and fund selection at Skandia, where he spent nine years. Llinas will officially concentrate his efforts on the growth of the management firm, which experienced some difficulties in Spain in 2009, following the decision of Quality Funds, an affiliate of BBVA, to withdraw six funds bearing the Carmignac Gestion brand name from its list of recommended products (see Newsmanagers of 16 October 2009). Soon after, the French management firm appointed a second account commissioner (KPMG), and BBVA returned Carmignac to its recommended list.

The investor defence association Aktionsbund Aktiver Anlegerschutz (AAA) is planning a lawsuit against Commerz Real over its plans to merge the open-ended real estate fund hausinvest Europa (EUR10.89bn in assets) with the hausinvest Global fund (EUR1.58bn) on 30 September, Das Investment reports. The AAA claims that the deal could disadvantage subscribers in the hausinvest Europa fund as half of the portfolio of the hausinvest Global fund is composed of properties located in Singapore, Canada and Japan, many of which are under leases which will expire this year or in 2011. Fees for the hausinvest Global are also higher, and would be charged to shareholders in the hausinvest Europa if the funds were merged.

On 17 May, db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank group) is planning to launch a UCITS-compliant ETF fund which replicates the S&P 500 TR index (dividends reinvested) on Deutsche Börse and the London Stock Exchange. The db xtrackers S&P 500 ETF fund will subsequently be launched on other European stock markets (Borsa Italiana, SIX Swiss Exchange, Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, NYSE Euronext Paris), and in Asia (Singapore Exchange SGX and Hong Kong Stock Exchange). Management commissions total 0.20%. Institutional investors will be allowed to make over-the-counter (OTC) transactions directly with Deutsche Bank, even before the product is released on the stock markets.

Deutsche Börse has announced that on Thursday it admitted 10 ETC and 5 ETN funds from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) based on the Rogers International Commodity Indexfamilie Enhances (RICI Enhanced) family of indices to trading. The ETC products replicate the evolution of indices for oil (Brent Crude Oil, WTI Crude Oil), natural gas, soft commodities, industrial metals, grains and oil seeds, and a basket of 37 commodities. The other three products replicate the S&P Goldman Sachs commodity indices for oil (Brent and WTI) and natural gas. The four ETN products replicate MSCI indices, they include the MSCI FM (Frontier Markets) Daily Net Total Return Index, the MSCI AC South East Asia Net TR USD Index, the MSCI Gulf Cooperation Council ex SA Top 50 Net TR USD Index and the MSCI Daily TR Net Emerging Markets USD Index. Deutsche Börse states that its ETP segment now includes 171 ETC and 19 ETN products, with monthly trading volumes for ETC products of about EUR440m.

Aberdeen Asset Managament has called a halt to the acquisitions that have helped assets under management grow from GBP96bn in March 2009 to GBP171bn in March 2010, says Financial Times. Instead, according to Martin Gilbert, chief executive, the asset manager would focus on organic growth and paying off debt.

Aberdeen Asset Management has reported underlying pre-tax profits of GBP92.6m for the six months to the end of March 2010, compared with GBP33m for the corresponding half of last year. Between 30 September 2009 and 31 March 2010, assets increased by 16.2% to GBP170.9bn, largely due to the acquisition of the multi-management activities of RBS (GBP13.5bn), and positive market effects. Net inflows were limited to GBP0.1bn. However, these were concentrated on high-margin activities, which resulted in an increase of GBP26m per year in revenues from commissions. These revenues totalled GBP294.9m, compared with GBP192.2m one year earlier.

F&C Asset Management confirmed at the beginning of this week that it will retain the Thames River Capital brand. The management firm will operate autonomously within the F&C group, which is seeking to do what is necessary to retain the management of Thames River. If the deal is approved by shareholders, the transaction announced last week would be completed by the end of third quarter 2010.

Morningstar has placed four Rosenberg funds under review, following an error in the investment process at the management firm for Axa Investment Managers detected a few weeks ago (see Newsmanagers of 19 April), fundstrategy reported on Tuesday. The funds concerned are Axa Rosenberg America, Axa Rosenberg Europe, Axa Rosenberg Japan and Axa Rosenberg Asia Pacific ex-Japan, all of which are rated “standard” due to mediocre returns for the funds since their management has been provided by Rosenberg.

According to statistics from Mercer (Pension Investment Performance Service), Spanish pension funds lost an average of 0.8% in April, with losses of 3.6% for equities funds denominated in Euros, while in the first four months of the year, these funds gained 1.5%. Funds specialised in equities from outside the Euro zone posted gains of 14.6%, but funds focused on Euro zone equities saw losses of 4.4%, while funds specialised in bonds gained 1.7%. In twelve months, pension funds posted returns of 10.6%; funds invested in bonds gained 5.6%, while funds positioned on equities posted gains of 24.1% for funds in Euros, and 37.7% for those denominated in other currencies.

HSBC has registered ETFs in Spain which replicate the CAC 40, FTSE 100 and DJ Euro Stoxx 50 indices, Expansión reports. The asset manager will soon launch ETFs on international markets which track the FTSE Xinhua China 25 and the FTSE 250, which will also soon be made available in Spain.

On Tuesday, Vanguard announced that it will cancel transaction commissions for 46 funds of its low-cost ETF range. It is reducing fees to USD7 and USD2 on transactions on equities and ETFs which do not belong to its product range. The changes apply to transactions at Vanguard.com as well as to trades made with the assistance of a broker affiliated with Vanguard. The average management commission for Vanguard ETFs now totals 0.18%, compared with a market average of 0.52% as of 31 December 2009, according to estimates from Lipper. The management firm has posted net subscriptions of USD11.7bn for its ETFs from the beginning of this year to 29 April. Assets in its ETF funds total over USD100bn; the largest products are the Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF (VWO), with USD24bn, and the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI), with USD15bn.

Ivan Rancic has been appointed head of IFA-sales at DWS in Frankfurt. With his team, he will be in charge of client relationship management serving brokers and small management firms in Germany. He was previously in charge of distribution for Austria and Eastern Europe at DWS Austria.

The new MSCI Emerging Markets Source ETF, launched by Source UK Services on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), replicates the MSCI Emerging Markets Total Return (net) index. The Irish-registered product (IE00B3DWVS88), denominated in US dollars, uses several counterparties to ensure a faithful replication of the evolution of the underlying index. The precaution is not trivial, as according to Source, performance tracking error for other ETFs which replicate the MSCI EM index ranges from 1% to 5.2%. The management commission for the fund is 0.65%.

Citywire reports that the Dublin-based management firm Merrion Investment Managers has launched a new absolute returns fund in UCITS III format, which will be managed by Michael Nicol and Alistair Campbell, both of whom come from Pengaga Capital, where they previously managed a European long/short strategy before joining Merrion in April of this year.

La banque a placé 3,9 milliards d’euros de titres adossés à l'immobilier résidentiel britannique, à un meilleur prix que lors de sa précédente transaction

La contagion grecque pourrait forcer la banque centrale à engager des rachats de titres d'Etat

Aberdeen Property Investors a notifié à la CNMV, le régulateur espagnol, que les fonds immobiliers allemands offerts au public Degi Europa (1,64 milliard d’euros) et Degi International (1,97 milliard d’euros fin décembre), dont les remboursements sont gelés et/ou qui n’acceptent plus de souscriptions, ne font plus désormais officiellement partie des produits de la catégorie faisant appel public à l'épargne en Espagne.

Dans un entretien avec Funds People, Guillaume Poli, président du conseil d’administration de la société de gestion française Edmond de Rothschild Investment Managers ou EDRIM (groupe LCF Rothschild), indique que son objectif est d’atteindre le milliard d’euros d’encours contre 250 millions actuellement. Il reconnaît cependant que dans la période actuelle, il n’y a pas beaucoup de croissance et que les actifs sous gestion restent stables.La gamme commercialisée en Espagne par EDRIM (qui est physiquement présente depuis quatre mois à Madrid) comporte onze fonds, mais cinq autres vont les rejoindre. Il y aura un hedge fund en version coordonnée, trois fonds d’actions avec des degrés d’expositions respectifs de 0-35 %, 25-75 % et 60-100 %. Le cinquième sera un produit structuré avec une exposition de 70-100 % aux marchés émergents, avec une garantie du capital et une faible volatilité.

La société de gestion de Caja Madrid, Gesmadrid, a annoncé qu’elle compte renforcer la distribution de ses fonds auprès de la clientèle institutionnelle, avec des produits et des services destinés principalement aux groupes financiers et aux compagnies d’assurances, rapporte Funds People. Rocío Eguiraun, administrateur délégué de Gesmadrid, a indiqué en outre que des produits nouveaux seront développés exclusivement pour les investisseurs institutionnels.

Le britannique M&G envisage de lancer un fonds obligataire «international macro» qui investirait à la fois dans le crédit et la dette souveraine, avec un objectif de haut redement, indique Investment Week.Le fonds serait piloté par Jim Leaviss, responsable du retail fixed interest, qui a récemment confié trois de ses fonds (Index-Linked Bond -123 millions de livres, International Sovereign Bond -54 millions de livres et Emerging Markets Bond -12 millions de livres) à Mike Riddell. Jim Leaviss gère actuellement les fonds Gilt & Fixed Interest (645 millions de livres), Global Macro Bond (83 millions de livres) et High Yield Corporate Bond (1 milliard de livres). Selon le managing director de M&G, Jonathan Willcocks, le nouveau fonds devrait renforcer la présence de Jim Leaviss sur les marchés internationaux.

Suite à l’acquisition le 28 avril (NewsManagers du 29 avril) de Thames River par F&C, Standard & Poor’s a annoncé en fin de semaine qu’il plaçait sous surveillance négative les notes de contrepartie à long et court terme de F& C («BBB-A-3»).L’agence de notation évoque le levier élevé de F&C qui dispose d’une moindre capacité à assurer le service de sa dette par rapport à d’autres sociétés de gestion notées de la même façon.

C’est aujourd’hui que commence le négoce du certificat capped-outperformance émis par Vontobel sur le platine: le VonTT sur Platinum (Troy Ounce) à échéance 5 mai 2011 (CH111816671), rapporte L’Agefi suisse. Le cours du produit à la date du fixing initial est de 1713 dollars pour un cap de 2007,64 dollars. Depuis le 4 mai 2009, le platine a pris plus de 55% à environ 1742 dollars, sans que la ligne de tendance haussière ne présente de cassures intermédiaires significatives. Le 31 mars dernier, Vontobel avait également émis 20.000 contrats VonTT sur le platine, qui ont enregistré depuis leur lancement une performance de 5,44% contre un peu plus de 4% pour la référence Platinum Troy Ounce. Les VonTT permettent à l’investisseur de participer plus que proportionnellement à la performance totale du sous-jacent entre le prix d’exercice et le niveau du cap.