Following the surprise resignation of CEO Sander van Eijkern two months ago (see Newsmanagers of 4 February), it is now the turn of Roman Binder, COO, who has also decided to leave the Swiss asset management firm SAM, a company specialized in sustainable development. The Robeco affiliate has also announced that the powers of its executive committee have been strengthened. The committee will be chaired by Leni Boeren, a member of the board at Robeco, and representative of Robeco on the board of directors at SAM Group Holding AG. She will advise the other four members of the executive committee on questions of strategy. The executive board will be composed of Michael Baldinger (Head Global Clients & Marketing), Stephanie Feigt (CIO), and Andrew Musters (Clean Tech Private Equity), who has recently been appointed (see Newsmanagers of 18 February); they will be joined by Stefan Gordijn, who becomes COO. Gordijn has been COO at Robeco Hong Kong since 2007, and before that was head of Robeco’s legal service in Rotterdam.

BlueCrest Capital Management, London’s third largest hedge fund, has moved its headquarters to Guernsey, says the Financial Times, citing a letter to investors sent on Thursday. People close to the situation said regulatory uncertainty and questions over tax had prompted the decision to move the business from its UK base.

Credit Suisse on 8 April announced that it has appointed Aditya Mishra as head of Credit Suisse in Delhi, effective immediately. The appointment is a sign of the group’s desire to strengthen its wealth management activities in a rapidly-growing wealth management market, the bank says in a statement. Mishra was previously at AM Advisors, where he was a managing partner.

In the most recent edition of its “News in Brief” newsletter, F&C Investments announces that its multi-management team has recently bought a certificate related to the Harewood Vol Edge fund, a product managed by Harewood Asset Management, an affiliate of BNP Paribas. The new position represents 2.25% of the Multi Manager Balanced Portfolio (GBP227m), and was financed by the sale of the fund’s position on the Fidelity Strategic Bond. The manager of the fund, Paul Carne, says the volatility of the Harewood Vol Edge is expected to increase in periods of correction and that its performance has a positive correlation with the volatility of the DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index. F&C says that the Harewood Vol Edge fund has also been integrated for 2.25% into the portfolio of the Multi Manager Growth fund (GBP128m), while the necessary liquidity has been generated through a reduction of positions on the Artemis Income, Neptune Income, and BlackRock UK Absolute Alpha funds.

Prudential Real Estate Investors (PREI) on 7 April announced the appointment of Mark Chamieh as managing director and co-head of international distribution and client services. Chamieh will work alongside Lester Lockwood, who has served as head of international sales strategy at PREI for the past five years. Lockwood, based in New Jersey, will continue to develop activities in the United States, while Chamieh, based in London, will concentrate on distribution and client relations in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Both will be members of the Global Management Committee. Chamieh was previously managing director and global head of marketing at JER Partners. As of 31 December 2009, PREI managed a gross total of about USD42.5bn in real estate assets (for a net total of USD22.9bn), on behalf of about 500 clients worldwide.

Les Echos reports that a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers shows that London has been the leading location in Europe for initial public offerings in first quarter, both in terms of the volume of capital raised (EUR2.1bn), and in terms of the number of offerings (23). The London Stock Exchange beat out Deutsche Börse (EUR1.7bn), putting NYSE Euronext in third place in Europe, with far lower volumes (about EUR300m), though the North American stock market company topped the rankings in 2009.

Since Thursday, the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic platform (Deutsche Börse) has listed four more ETF funds from Source, all of them Irish-registered products which charge fees of 0.30%. The indices replicated are all optimised sub-indices of the Stoxx Europe 600. The products are the Consumer Discretionary European Source ETF (IE00B62RK662), Consumer Staples European Source ETF (IE00B6222Y34), Defensives European Source ETF (IE00B633JD33), and Cyclicals European Source ETF (IE00B62SYX47). The new products bring the total number of funds listed on XTF to 651.

PGGM, the pension asset manager for healthcare and related indusries in the Netherlands, will suggest to clients that they invest in fewer companies or adopt an exclusion policy, IPE.com reports. The objective is to reduce the number of positions in the portfolio, in order to know them better, and to be a more active and engaged investor. Johan van der Ende, CIO of PGGM, remarks that “it’s not a very comfortable feeling that we can’t always know exactly what we’re investing in.”

On Thursday, Citibank España announced in a joint statement with the association of bank customers Adicae and the law firms Zunzunegui and Jausas, that it will be offering a 55% cash compensation to the approximately 2,700 clients who purchased a total of EUR78m of Lehman Brothers structured products from the business. It is stated that the offer, valid from 9 April until 7 May 2010, is made without any admissions by the bank of any responsibility.

The CNMV on Thursday granted permission for the acquisition of a minority stake in the Spanish brokerage, management and fund distribution firm Venture Finanzas by the Swiss firm Mirabaud (see Newsmanagers of 25 November 2009). The deal will allow Venture Finanzas to strengthen its private banking activities, while it will provide the Swiss institution an opportunity to continue its geographical diversification and international expansion. From this summer, the private banking services, as well as the other activities of Venture Finanzas, will operate under the Mirabaud brand name. The two firms have already begun preparations for the integration of the Venture Finanzas product range into the Mirabaud group. Against this background, Venture Finanzas has recruited Tomás Termens as director of private banking, and also Xavier Solé. Mirabaud may subsequently acquire a majority stake in the capital of the firm, as was announced in November.

On Thursday, German fund manager db x-trackers (EUR29bn in assets) announced that it has listed 11 of its ETF products on the OMX market in Sweden, while 25 more will follow in the next four weeks. In Europe, products from this emanation of Deutsche Bank are also listed in Germany (112 products), Italy (89 products), the United Kingdom (92), Switzerland (36) and France (36). This makes a current total of 376 listings out of 423, all of which are UCITS III-compliant, worldwide. Since the beginning of this year, db x-trackers has listed 44 products on international markets. On the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Singapore Securities Trading, the number of ETF funds from db x-trackers currently totals 24 and 23 respectively. Among the new offerings in Hong Kong are ETFs based on sectoral sub-indices of teh CSI 300 (materials, financials, real estate), while in Singapore, the German management firm has innovated with the launch of an ETF based on the CSI 300 and another on the MSCI Indonesia.

Michel Barnier, the European Union’s internal market commissioner, has written to Tim Geithner, the US Treasury secretary, to assure him that new rules for the hedge fund and private equity industries will not shut foreign funds out of EU financial markets, says the Financial Times. “I am convinced that access to the European single market should be granted to managers and funds domiciled in third countries, including the US, provided that high-level standards of transparency and security are guaranteed,” Mr Barnier wrote in a letter sent last week and seen by the Financial Times.

The SEC announced in March that it is undertaking a detailed analysis of the use of derivatives by mutual funds and ETFs, in order to determine whether current practices are in compliance with Federal regulations on the use of leverage, concentration, and diversification. It will also verify whether funds manage risks and disclose information on this subject appropriately, the Wall Street Journal reports. The newspaper points out that the analysis concerns primarily OTC transactions, particularly on interest swaps and CDS, which are used by management firms such as BlackRock, Pimco (Allianz) and Western AM (Legg Mason), says Michael Herbst, an analyst at Morningstar. Some investors may be surprised to learn that several core bond mutual funds make very considerable use of derivatives. Particularly notable for their use of derivatives are the Pimco Total Return Fund (PTTAX) and the BlackRock Total Return Fund I (MDHQX) and II (BCBAX). The Western AM Core (WACSX) and Western AM Core Plus (WAPSX) also use them, but to a lesser extent more recently.

Hedge Week reports that Blue Mountain has raised more than USD250m for three new funds, whose objective will be to seize investment opportunities in the post-crisis credit world. The three funds are the BlueMountain Long/Short, BlueMountain Distressed Fund, and a fund dedicated to securitisations. Blue Mountain is also planning to launch a multi-client ABS fund by the end of third quarter. The funds will allow clients access to strategies which have already been proven by the firm’s flagship fund, the BlueMountain Credit Alternatives, but in dedicated products with custom liquidity conditions.

In a notification to the SEC (form N-1A), Russell Investments announced that it is planning to launch eleven ETF funds which replicate house indices, the Russell Global 1000, 2000 and 3000, each in simple, growth and value versions. In addition to these nine products, advised by Russell Investment Management Company, are two large cap ETFs, the Russell Developed ex US Large Cap and the Russell Emerging Markets Large Cap. They will be the first products launched by Russell since the recruitment of two former iShares chiefs at the end of January, James Polisson and Andrew Arenberg (see Newsmanagers of 27 January).

Funds People reports that ICR Institutional Asset Management has liquidated its fund of hedge funds Acciones Baja Volatilidad, which was launched in October 2009, and which as of the end of December had the minimal required assets of EUR0.3m. The objective of the equities product was returns 500 basis points higher than the Euribor 1-month, with volatility of less than 5%. The other two Spanish registered funds of hedge funds from ICR are Alpha Multistrategy and Alpha Plus.

The German firm SEB Asset Management has announced that it has acquired the Cap de Paris office building (8,100 square metres) in Montrouge, which is wholly leased for seven years to the La Martinière.group, for about EUR50.6m. The vendor is the pharmaceutical group Pfizer. The property will be added to the portfolio of the open-ended institutional real estate fund SEB Europe REI, which was launched in 2009, and which has already invested in the United Kingdom and Austria.

The Amundi group announced on Thursday that all of its open-ended Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) funds are compliant with the Transparency Code of the French financial management association (AFG), the Responsible Investment Forum (FIR), and EUROSIF (the European forum for promotion of and information about SRI). The code, which has been made obligatory by the AFG, with a deadline of 16 July 2010, is a questionnaire which aims to improve the readability and transparency of SRI funds by investors and savings clients. The Amundi group says that it is in favour of a clarification of the various SRI terminology in use, and will publish “all responses, will be updated each year, on its various websites, for each of its SRI funds and entities,” a statement from the firm says. Following is a list of SRI funds from the management firms of the Amundi group which comply with the Transparency Code. AMUNDICategory: equities ◄ AMUNDI ACTIONS FRANCE ISR◄ AMUNDI FUNDS EURO SRI◄ AMUNDI ACTIONS EURO ISR◄ AMUNDI ACTIONS EUROPE ISR◄ AMUNDI ACTIONS USA ISRCategory: thematic◄ AMUNDI FUNDS AQUA GLOBAL◄ AMUNDI FUNDS CLEAN PLANETCategory: bonds◄ AMUNDI CREDIT EURO ISRCategory: money markets◄ AMUNDI TRESO ISRIDEAMCategory: equities◄ LCL ACTIONS DEVELOPPEMENT DURABLE EURO◄ ATOUT VALEURS DURABLESCategory: ethical◄ HYMNOSCategory: sharing◄ EURCO SOLIDARITE◄ PARTAGIS◄ FCP HABITAT ET HUMANISMECategory: sharing and solidarity◄ IDEAM SOLIDARITES SCOUTS ET GUIDES DE FRANCECategory: social entprepreneurship◄ DANONE.COMMUNITIES D.MONETAIRE ISR◄ DANONE.COMMUNITIES D.MONETAIRE ISR PLUS◄ DANONE.COMMUNITIES MONETAIRE RESPONSABLE S1◄ DANONE.COMMUNITIES MONETAIRE RESPONSABLE S2 ◄ DANONE.COMMUNITIES MONETAIRE RESPONSABLE S3Category: development aid◄ AMUNDI AFD AVENIRS DURABLESCPR AMCategory: equities◄ CPR PROGRES DURABLE EUROPECategory: money markets◄ CPR MONETAIRE SREtoile GestionCategory: equities◄ ETOILE ENVIRONNEMENT◄ ETOILE PARTENAIRESSOCIETE GENERALE GESTIONCategory: equities◄ SG ACTIONS EURO ISR◄ SG ACTIONS EUROPE ISR◄ SGAM VALOR LABEL ACTIONS ISRCategory: fixed income◄ SG MONETAIRE ISR◄ SG OBLIG CORPORATE ISR ◄ SGAM VALOR LABEL OBLIG ISRCategory: thematic◄ SGAM FUND EQUITIES EUROPE ENVIRONMENTCategory: employee savings◄ ARCANCIA OBLIGATIONS ET SOLIDAIRE◄ ARCANCIA ACTIONS ETHIQUE ET SOLIDAIRE◄ ARCANCIA LABEL SÉCURITÉ◄ ARCANCIA LABEL PRUDENCE ◄ ARCANCIA LABEL HARMONIE◄ ARCANCIA LABEL EQUILIBRE ET SOLIDAIRE◄ ARCANCIA LABEL AUDACE ET SOLIDAIRE

Stewart Edgar, head for Asia of the new entity born of the merger of BNP Paribas Investment Partners (BNPP IP) and Fortis Investments, is planning to double Asia’s contribution to total profits at BNP Paribas IP. Currently, Asia contributes 10% to 15% of profits at BNPP IP. According to the most recent statistics available to Asian Investor, assets under management in the Asia-Pacific region as of last December represented USD64.7bn, of which 70% were for institutional investors. Growth in the next few years will rely on four pillars: China, India, Indonesia and south Korea.

Skandia Investment Group (SIG) on 7 April announced that it has integrated a long/short bond strategy into the range of strategies available in the Skandia Alternative Investments Fund. The change was made through an investment in the JPM Income Opportunity Fund, and a parallel reduction in exposure to infrastructure, which has produced excellent results in the past twelve months. The JPM Income Opportunity Fund is managed by Bill Eigen, and its objective is to generate alpha on all fixed income strategies.

On Thursday, HSBC launched a new sub-fund of its Irish-registered Sicav HSBC ETFs plc, the equities fund HSBC FTSE 250 ETF (IE00B64PTF05) which uses the physical replication of a portfolio of bonds from mid-sized corporations representing about 10% of total market capitalisation of the United Kingdom. The product has a TER of 0.35%.

Fitch announced on 8 April that it has confirmed its M2+ rating for BNP Paribas Investment Partners (BNPP IP), following the acquisition of Fortis Investments (FIM), for which the 2 rating has been discontinued. The confirmation reflects the rapid progress made in the integration of the two management firms, and outlooks for ongoing activities at BNPP IP. An examination of the new entity will be completed in second quarter 2010. Fitch will continue to closely monitor the integration of the two entities, including the ongoing reorganization of its operational platform.

Hedge Week reports that the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) is seeking a consultant who will be able to assist in the selection and monitoring of hedge fund managers for a global macro strategy. The consultant would assist CalSTRS in the selection and retention of 3 to 6 hedge fund managers, who will invest USD200m in global macro strategies.

BNY Mellon on 7 April announced the appointment of Roderic Prat to the newly-created position of global head of derivatives, in charge of trading and distribution. Prat was previously a consultant to the governor of the Bank of Canada.

Depuis jeudi, le segment XTF de la plate-forme électronique Xetra (Deutsche Börse) cote quatre ETF supplémentaires de Source, tous des produits de droit irlandais chargés à 0,30 %. Les indices répliqués sont tous des sous-indices optimisés du Stoxx Europe 600.Il s’agit du Consumer Discretionary European Source ETF (IE00B62RK662), du Consumer Staples European Source ETF (IE00B6222Y34), du Defensives European Source ETF (IE00B633JD33) et du Cyclicals European Source ETF (IE00B62SYX47).Ces nouveaux produits portent à 651 le nombre de fonds cotés sur XTF.

La Deutsche Bank a recruté Joachim Müller, qui dirige l'équipe des analystes européens actions/banques de Crédit Agricole Chevreux comme directeur du service relations investisseurs, rapporte la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. L’intéressé remplacera au 1er juin Gurdon Wattles, qui a démissionné pour convenance personnelle, mais reste conseiller de la banque.

Tom Wyse vient de quitter la Deutsche Bank pour rejoindre Credit Suisse à Sydney en tant que responsable des activités de gestion de transition de portefeuilles avec une attention particulière pour les fonds souverains et les fonds de pension.Selon Asian Investor, Tom Wyse travaillait chez Deutsche Bank à Sydney depuis 2007.

Stewart Edgar, responsable en Asie de la nouvelle entité issue de la fusion entre BNP Paribas Investment Partners (BNPP IP) et Fortis Investments, envisage de doubler la contribution de l’Asie aux résultats de BNP Paribas IP. Actuellement, la contribution asiatique représente 10 % à 15 % du bénéfice de BNPP IP. Selon les dernières statistiques disponibles communiquées à Asian Investor, les actifs sous gestion de la zone Asie-Pacifique représentaient en décembre dernier 64,7 milliards de dollars, dont 70 % pour le compte d’investisseurs institutionnels. La croissance des prochaines années devrait s’appuyer sur quatre piliers : la Chine, l’Inde, l’Indonésie et la Corée du Sud.

Prudential Real Estate Invesors (PREI) a annoncé le 7 avril la nomination de Mark Chamieh au poste de managing director et co-responsable de la distribution internationale et des services à la clientèle.Mark Chamieh travaillera aux côtés de Lester Lockwood, qui pilote la stratégie internationale de distribution de PREI depuis cinq ans.Lester Lockwood, basé dans le New Jersey, continuera de développer les activités aux Etats-Unis tandis que Mark Chamieh, basé à Londres, se concentrera sur la distribution et les relations clients en Europe, en Asie et au Moyen-Orient. Tous deux seront membres du Global Management Committee.Mark Chamieh était précédemment chez managing director et responsable mondial du marketing chez JER Partners.Au 31 décembre 2009, PREI gérait quelque 42,5 milliards de dollars d’actifs immobiliers en brut (22,9 milliards en net) pour le compte de près de 500 clients dans le monde.

A fin décembre, l’encours des 3.232 sicav de droit espagnol (443.509 actionnaires) ressortait à près de 25,65 milliards d’euros, soit presque 4,8 % de plus qu’un an auparavant, rapporte Funds People. La sicav avec les actifs les plus importants était Morinvest, gérée par BBVA Patrimonios, devant Allocation de Pactio Gestión avec 381 millions.D’après VDOS Stochastics, les dix premiers gestionnaires de sicav contrôlaient fin décembre 55,3 % du marché. Les plus importants sont BBVA Patrimonios (près de 2,8 milliards d’euros, 280 sicav), Banif Gestión (2,13 milliards, 286 sicav), Santander Asset Management (1,84 milliard, 270 sicav), Arcalia Inversiones (1,31 milliard) et Bankinter Gestión de Activos (1,24 milliard, 239 sicav).Les performances les plus élevées pour 2009 ont été enregistrées par Pactio Gestión (12,23 %), Credit Suisse Gestión (11,62 %) et Arcalia Inversiones (11,60 %).