According to the study “China Gold Report: Gold in the Year of the Tiger” by the World Gold Council (WGC), the tonnage of gold consumed by China may double in the next ten years. Gold consumption was worth more than USD14bn last year, equivalent to 11% of global demand. The study finds that, although gold consumption per person was as high in China as in India, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia, annual demand for gold in China may increase by 100 tonnes, to a total of 4,000 tonnes, for the jewellery sector alone. In the past decade, Chinese gold producers have increased their production by 84%, but their known reserves represent only 4% of global reserves. If these figures are correct, the WGC estimates that China may have exhausted its gold resources in six years.

Deutsche Bank on Monday announced that it has signed a declaration of intent with Craigs Investment Partners to acquire a 49.9% stake in the New Zealand-based management firm (NZD5bn in assets). The acquisition price was not disclosed. Deutsche Bank and Craigs Investment Partners have also signed a strategic alliance which will include a close collaboration in market activities. The corporate finance team at the German bank will cooperate with the equities and bond platforms at Craigs to offer New Zealand clients of the latter firm a wider range of products. Craigs clients will also have access to the research and expertise of the investment bank of Deutsche Bank. Craigs Investment Partners will remain independent.

In 2009, the Warburg group, which includes the private bank M.M. Warburg and six affiliates in Germany, and one each in Luxembourg and Switzerland, but which does not include Degussa Bank, which publishes its accounts separately, posted a 26.3% increase in pre-tax profits to EUR65.7m. ROE rose to 31% from 23% in 2008. Assets under management at the group as of 31 December totalled EUR32.3bn, compared with EUR29.2bn twelve months previously.

Since 1 January 2010, the chairman of the board at BHF-Bank, an affiliate of Sal. Oppenheim, has been Wilhelm von Haller, who has been installed by Deutsche Bank as head of Sal. Oppenheim. On Monday, the AGM of BHF-Bank elected four Deutsche Bank executives to its supervisory board. They are Stefan Krause, a managing board member and chief financial officer (CFO) at Deutsche Bank, Philipp von Girsewald, Head of Corporate Mergers & Acquisitions, Henning Heuerding, Managing Director Group Strategy & Planning, and Christian Sewing, Chief Credit Officer. Dietman Schmid, a managing board member at BHF-Bank, has been elected as a member of the «administration board» (Verwaltungsrat) at the bank, and then elected as chairman of that board. The board of directors consists of representatives of industrial and service sector businesses as well as public sector enterprises. He advises the board on economic questions, and promotes relations with other businesses.

According to a survey by Pioneer Investment of 500 institutional investors, respondents on average expect returns of 4.4%, thus the potential for disappointment is high, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. Meanwhile, 50.1% of respondents prefer absolute returns to outperformance of a benchmark index. Wolfgang Kirschner, director of institutional business for Pioneer, says that half of the businesses surveyed have no equities in their portfolios. Those which do have an average allocation of only 7.5%. More than one quarter are planning to increase their exposure to equities, while 20% are planning to reduce their exposure to bonds.

Assogestioni, the Italian association of management firms, is taking its time to release the names of candidates for the board of directors at Generali, Il Sole - 24 Ore reports. Its choices will be made known on 6 April. The idea is to propose a list of candidates likely to please both the Bank of Italy, which owns 4.46% of capital in the business, and foreign management firms. The largest foreign shareholder is BlackRock, with nearly 3%.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has fined the hedge fund Lake Dow Capital USD4m for fraud in the management of the Aurora Investment Fund, a commodity pool and hedge fund, Hedge Week reports.

Robert Moffat, a former senior vice-president at IBM, admitted on Monday he provided inside information to Danielle Chiesi, a person involved with the Galleon Group hedge fund insider trading scandal, says the Financial Times.

Asset management firms should pay their star portfolio managers better and part sooner with the ones who perform poorly, according to a study by Cass Business School’s Pensions Institute, cited by Financial Times Fund Management. The study finds that funds which perform less well and see large-scale redemptions and then part with their managers tend to see an improvement in performance afterwards.

According to Financial Times Fund Management, Richard Wohanka, the new chief executive of UBP’s asset management and alternative investments division, is keen to develop its long-only operation, which has USD10bn of assets, alongside its hedge fund and private banking arms. In particular, he is keen to build up UBP’s capabilities in emerging markets.

Investec, the South African financial services group, is close to taking full control of Rensburg Sheppards in a deal that could value the private client wealth manager at GBP400m, says the FInancial Times. The investment bank has offered GBP9 a share to buy out the 52 per cent of Rensburg’s shares it does not own.

The Financial Services Survey by the Confederation of British Industry, undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), has found that profits in the asset management sector increased further in the quarter to the end of March, setting a new record. For the financial services sector as a whole, profits have also increased, for the third consecutive quarterly rise. For investment management firms, the rapid improvement in profitability has resulted from an increase in volumes and an increase in revenues from fees and commissions. The increase in volumes is largely due to continued growth in activities serving financial institutions and foreign clients. However, concerns about the Malthusian impact of regulations on the growth of business in the next twelve months have increased, setting a new record, as 74% of heads surveyed say they are concerned. Pars Purewal, UK asset management leader at PwC, says that confidence in the asset management sector may prove fragile, as managers are more hesitant than in the past to develop new products, which leads to questions about whether they have really defined a clear long-term growth strategy. On the plus side, the survey finds that investment management firms are planning to increase their staff in the next three months, ahead of the UCITS IV directive, in order to meet the increased workloads that the regulations will impose on back and middle offices.

Credit Suisse announced on 29 March that it has been granted permission by the Indian authorities to set up an office in Mumbai, which would allow it to extend its range of services on the Indian market. The Swiss bank has also been given permission to trade in Indian debt as well as other fixed income products.

Pimco has hired Mikael Angberg as a senior vice president and head of business development Nordics. Based in the firm’s London office, Mikael Angberg joins Pimco’s Nordic team to build on the firm’s strong franchise in the region. He will report to Michael Burns, executive vice president and head of Pimco’s Nordic business. Prior to joining Pimco, Mikael Angberg was head of Nordic institutional equity derivatives sales at BNP Paribas and previously, was executive director for Nordic institutional sales at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. He also worked at Axa Investment Managers.

The British government is planning to require institutional investors to disclose their voting policies for general shareholders’ meetings. In the draft budget submitted last week, the government says that it would like to study the possibility of requiring institutional investors to publish all information about their votes, Responsible Investor reports. The government has also launched a consultation on the role of pension funds and insurers in the determination of pay scales in the finance sector.

Angus Duncan, former head of distribution at Smith & Williamson, has been appointed as head of distribution for the investment fund Invest & Give. Fund Strategy reports that Duncan will be in charge of a marketing campaign to promote the fund which was launched last year.

Citywire reports that the Jupiter Asset Management manager Philip Gibbs is now putting more than half of the assets of his fund, Jupiter Financial Opportunities, or GBP1.2bn, in cash, according to the most recent report from the management firm. In addition to its 52.45% exposure to cash, nearly 37% of the fund consists of ten positions on equities. The remainder, roughly 11%, is invested in 18 other positions, totalling EUR136.2m.

Capital Strategies Partners has added products from the French management firm Schelcher-Prince (EUR2bn in assets), whose range includes six funds, to its product offerings in Spain, Funds People reports. The key product from the management firm is Schelcher-Prince Convertibles, which has about EUR200m in assets.

State Street Global Advisors (SsgA) on 25 March announced the appointment of Marc Reinganum as head of the active management team for developed equities markets. Reinganum will be based in Boston, and is head of all aspects of active management of equities portfolios on international developed markets. He was previously at Oppenheimer Funds, where he was senior portfolio manager and head of quantitative research.

The defined-benefit pension fund United Technologies Corporation Master Retirement Trust has contracted Mellon Capital Management (BNY Mellon Asset Management) to manage “a USD100m active strategy which invests in high-quality corporate bonds for the long term.” The new mandate brings total assets managed in active corporate credit strategies to more than USD800m.

The Austrian-German management firm C-Quadrat Investment in 2009 earned net profits of EUR5.7m, compared with losses of EUR12.2m in 2008. The recovery is largely due to a strong increase in revenues from performance commissions, to EUR7.6m, up from EUR0.5m. Assets in funds increased by 58% in the course of the year, to a total of EUR2.66bn as of 31 December. Total assets under management at C-Quadrat generating revenues as of the end of the year came to EUR4.51bn, up from EUR3.28bn, which represents a 37% increase. The improvement in results is also due to a 39.7% contraction in operating costs excluding personnel, to EUR4.1m, while net personnel costs have risen 3.9%, to EUR7.4m.

Dexia Asset Management on Monday announced that it has appointed Benoît Magon de La Giclais as head of sales. He succeeds Cécile de Lasteyrie, who has been appointed as head of the client development department. Magon de La Giclais joined Dexia AM in 2001, and took charge of relations with French institutionals, including businesses, pension and retirement planning institutions, insurers, and banks investing on their own behalf. After serving as head of French institutional clients in in 2008, he has been in his current position since January 2010. “With over 10 years of experience in sales of high added value financial solutions, Benoît Magon de La Giclais is now responsible for strengthening Dexia AM’s position in the French asset management industry,” a statement from the firm says.

AIG received USD277m from the private equity investor Pacific Century Group to whom it sold PineBridge Investment (USD87.3bn in assets), the Wall Street Journal reports. AIG is also planning to receive a “performance note” and will continue to receive a portion of carried interest. The deal, which is worth up to USD500m, was supposed to have been signed in late 2009, but has been subject to several delays. AIG continues to manage about USD509bn in assets.

The Austrian-German management firm C-Quadrat has announced that it has received a notification from F&C Asset Management that a takeover bid submitted for approval to the Austrian antitrust regulator Übernahmekommission (ÜBK) on 22 March will not be followed up. Legally, this means that F&C will not be allowed to make a bid to acquire C-Quadrat or buy shares in C-Quadrat which might result in such an operation for a period of one year.

La Grèce, qui a placé 5 milliards à 7 ans, poursuit tant bien que mal son programme de financement

La Grèce, qui a placé 5 milliards à 7 ans, poursuit tant bien que mal son programme de financement

Selon une étude de DTZ, les banques ne seraient pas en mesure de refinancer la totalité des besoins du secteur en 2010 et 2011

Avec le Global Dynamic Allocation Fund, le gestionnaire britannique M&G Investments lance un OEIC de droit britannique qui n’est pas encore commercialisable en France et qui vise à générer avec une gestion flexible une performance positive sur toute période de trois ans grâce à une allocation multi classes d’actifs (actions, obligations d’Etats, obligations d’entreprises, convertibles, matières premières, alternatif, dérivés, devises, numéraire, etc).Ce produit confié à George Tsinonis (qui dirige l'équipe stratégie de portefeuille et risque de M&G depuis 2005) n’a pas d’indice de référence et sera géré avec une conviction forte, l’allocation d’actifs s’effectuant sur la base des perspectives macro-économiques retenues par le gérant, de la valorisation des différentes classes d’actifs et une gestion active du risque dans la construction de portefeuille.Le concept consiste à tirer profit de plusieurs sources potentielles de performance. Cependant, en période d’incertitude marquée sur les marchés, la priorité sera donnée à la préservation du capital.Pour l’instant, ce produit est le seul dans la gamme M&G à figurer sous la rubrique «multi assets funds». Il vient compléter l’offre plus traditionnelle de fonds d’actions (18 produits) et obligataires (3 produits). Le gestionnaire ne facture pas de commission de performance pour ce fonds qui bénéficie déjà d’un agrément de commercialisation en Allemagne, en Espagne et au Luxembourg.

La société de gestion vietnamienne PXP Vietnam Asset Management est sur le point de coter son véhicule phare, le PXP Vietnam Fund (avec un encours de 62 millions de dollars), à la Bourse de Londres. En fonction de l’obtention des différentes autorisations, le fonds pourrait être coté vers la fin du mois de mars, selon Asian Investor.PXP va par ailleurs convertir son fonds fermé Vietnam Emerging Equity Fund en un fonds ouvert qui pourrait être fusionné ensuite avec un autre fonds, le Vietnam Lotus Fund. Le nouveau fonds pèserait quelque 37 millions de dollars.

Ghadir Abu Leil-Cooper, head of EMEA et gérante du fonds Baring MENA qui est lancé ce lundi, a précisé que cet OEIC irlandais focalisé sur le Moyen-Orient et Afrique du Nord (lire nos articles des 4 et 17 mars) aura un portefeuille concentré de 20 à 50 lignes et qu’il s’agit bien entendu d’un produit risqué puisqu’il sera investi en actions de marchés «frontière», où existent des risques à la fois de marché, de conjoncture et politiques.Malgré le très fort tropisme de l'équipe marchés émergents pour la Turquie, où Barings surpondère nettement les banques et considère qu’avec le faible niveau des taux la population peut même envisager de contracter des prêts hypothécaires, la poche turque du fonds MENA est plafonnée à 25 % «pour ne pas en faire un autre fonds Turquie», précise la gérante. Par ailleurs, il n’y aura pas de valeurs israéliennes dans le portefeuille, puisque l’Etat hébreu quitte dans un mois les indices des pays émergents.D’une manière générale, Ghadir Abu Leil-Cooper souligne que les pays de la région MENA ont comme atouts d'être riches en ressources naturelles, qu’ils bénéficient d’une population jeune, croissante (l'équivalent de deux Egypte sur les 20 prochaines années) et sous-endettée.Un risque bien doséCes pays devraient connaître une «vraie» croissance, ils disposent de liquidités avec le pétrole et sont gouvernés par des dirigeants qui ont tout intérêt à créer des emplois face à l’expansion démographique, pour préserver leur régime. Cela se traduit par une ouverture progressive des marchés financiers aux investisseurs occidentaux, et l’on vient d’ailleurs d’enregistrer le lancement d’un premier ETF sur les actions saoudiennes. On constate aussi un fort développement des programmes d’infrastructures. Les pays sont solvables, si l’on considère les ressources des fonds souverains (ces derniers pèsent d’ailleurs 9 % de l’encours total de 28,9 milliards de livres de Baring, qui gère 12,5 milliards de livres sur les marchés émergents). Actuellement, «après que beaucoup de valeurs ont été massacrées après l’affaire de Dubaï, les valorisations dans la région ne sont peut-être plus très, très bon marché, mais elles restent raisonnables voire carrément bon marché, notamment parce que nous sommes nettement plus optimistes que le consensus en matière de croissance des bénéfices», poursuit Ghadir Abu Leil-Cooper. Et «Barings s’est, cette fois encore, positionné à temps» avec sa stratégie GARP (growth at reasonable price) qui est censé lui éviter d’acheter des valeurs trop chères.Dans cette optique, le gestionnaire britannique étudie actuellement la possibilité de confier à son équipe marchés émergents la gestion d’un fonds BRIC et d’un fonds Inde.