En 2009, plus de 135 000 épargnants ont témoigné leur confiance aux investisseurs en capital en souscrivant dans les 55 FIP (Fonds d’Investissement de Proximité) et les 47 FCPI (Fonds Commun de Placement dans l’Innovation) créés durant cette période par 38 sociétés de gestion, selon l’enquête commune publiée le 16 mars par l’AFG (Association française de la gestion financière) et l’Afic (Association française des investisseurs en capital). Le montant moyen des souscriptions s’est établi à 6.650 euros contre 7.700 euros en 2008.Près de 900 millions d’euros (427 millions dans les FIP et 471 millions dans les FCPI) ont ainsi été levés pour investir dans des PME et des entreprises innovantes. Un montant en recul de 20% par rapport à 2008 (1,13 milliard d’euros). Dans un contexte de crise sans précédent, ce soutien des épargnants est» un signal fort» alors qu’il existe un risque réel d’assèchement des ressources mises à disposition des PME et des entreprises innovantes par les investisseurs en capital, souligne les associations dans un communiqué commun. L’Afic et l’AFG se félicitent par ailleurs de l’annonce faite par le Président de la République, à l’occasion de son discours de conclusion des Etats Généraux de l’Industrie, de vouloir « repenser en profondeur la fiscalité de l'épargne, pour la concentrer vers les placements longs en actions, qui permettront d’apporter à l’industrie les fonds propres dont elle a besoin ».Alors que le dispositif FIP-FCPI arrive à échéance fin 2010, «les deux associations attendent que les mesures retenues et annoncées soient concrétisées rapidement afin d’aider les entreprises françaises à sortir plus vite de la crise et de financer leur croissance».

La société de gestion créée il y aura bientôt sept ans par Thierry Flecchia vient de recruter un analyste senior, Marc Huberty, qui devrait rejoindre l'équipe de gestion à bref délai. Marc Uberty était précédemment chez Berenberg qui a centralisé toute sa recherche à Londres l’an dernier, et chez Fortis.Par ailleurs, Flinvest, qui gère plus de 600 millions d’euros pour 80 grands investisseurs institutionnels et privés, envisage de recruter un développeur ayant un profil de gérant qui viendra épauler Thibault Feuillet, chargé d’affaires grands investisseurs, avec l’objectif d’investir plus en profondeur les marchés belge et suisse. Autrement dit, Flinvest reste plus que jamais fidèle à son marché de prédilection, la clientèle institutionnelle.A l’occasion d’une présentation du fonds Entrepreneurs, qui pesait 467 millions d’euros au 26 février dernier et qui affiche depuis sa création en 2003 un rendement annualisé de 17,1%, le président de Flinvest, Thierry Flecchia, a souligné l’attachement de la société à sa gestion traditionnelle long only, sans dérivés et contrariante, «qui s’est montrée très efficace à long terme, en particulier lors de la crise financière en 2008".Evoquant les incertitudes de la conjoncture qui pourraient durer quelque temps, Thierry Flecchia a rappellé son credo : «stock picking is king. Il va falloir gérer serré mais notre portefeuille est bien positionné pour des temps difficiles». Actuellement, le fonds Entrepreneurs compte 43% de sociétés britanniques, et un large éventail d’autres sociétés européennes (dont 11% de sociétés allemandes et 7% de françaises). Parmi les principales lignes figurent l’opérateur allemand United Internet (5,2%) et plusieurs groupes dans le secteur des biens de consommation (le britannique William Hill, le danois Danisco ou encore le néerlandais Unilever).

Maintenant que le fonds Diamant Bleu LFP a atteint les deux ans et se dirige vers les 190 millions d’euros d’encours, Diamant Bleu Gestion, dont UFG-LFP est l’actionnaire de référence, vient de mettre sur le marché, en décembre, un autre fonds guidé par le risque, mais bénéficiant d’un horizon plus large, Diamant Bleu Monde LFP.Ce produit sera surtout proposé dans un premier temps aux investisseurs institutionnels et couvrira une zone géographique plus large que son «grand frère» axé sur la zone euro, avec notamment des positions sur devises et la possibilité d’investir sur les aurifères au Canada et aux Etats-Unis, explique Hugues Le Maire, directeur général. Il s’agit d’un fonds de gestion diversifiée avec une volatilité maximale de 9 % contre 5 % pour le premier produit de la gamme (qui s’est dans la pratique limité à 2 % de volatilité). Les deux premiers fonds de la gamme ont pour objectif de battre le TEC 10, le Diamant Bleu Monde LFP étant censé offrir une performance plus élevée, dès lors qu’il prend un peu plus de risque.Parmi les autres projets dans les cartons de Diamant Bleu Gestion, dont Christian Jimenez est le président du directoire, figurent notamment un fonds ISR diversifié ainsi qu’un fonds actions thématique avec un contrôle du risque plus souple et investissant sur les grands thèmes du XXI° siècle. Diamant Bleu Gestion est une filiale à 75 % de SAS Imene Investment Partners, les autres actionnaires étant La Française des Placements pour 15 % et Hugues Le Maire pour 10 %.

Dans un communiqué publié mardi, Amundi Immobilier, qui affichait 5,2 milliards d’euros d’encours sous gestion au 30 septembre 2009, a annoncé qu’elle entendait doubler sa part de marché, d’ici 5 ans, et représenter plus de 25 % de parts de marché de la clientèle privée en France. Pour ce faire, la société s’ouvre notamment à la distribution externe et aux CGPI, le tout en proposant des gammes de produits. A ce titre, la société prévoit de commercialiser, dès avril 2010, la SCPI Scellier Premely Habitat 2, agréée par l’AMF et projette également de lancer un OPCI «grand public» au cours du second semestre 2010.

Bernard Madoff’s two sons believe they should be counted among the victims of their father’s crimes, according to court papers filed in a lawsuit brought by the court-appointed trustee for Madoff’s firm. Martin Flumenbaum, a lawyer for Mark Madoff and Andrew Madoff, said they went to the authorities shortly after their father revealed to them he had been running a Ponzi scheme, thus preventing the dissipation of USD170 million in funds.

CalPERS (California Public Employees’ Retirement System) early this week announced plans to call for 58 of the largest US companies in its portfolio to voluntarily adopt election of its management by majority vote. If the companies refuse, they run the risk of facing a resolution sponsored by the pension fund at their shareholders’ meetings.

The Basel Committee on 16 March published a series of principles which are intended to help improve corporate governance practices in the banking sector. The document is open to consultation until 15 June this year. The principles laid out in the document, which attempts to draw the lessons of the financial crisis, includes the role of the board of directors, qualifications of board members, risk management, and oversight of pay scales. The Committee points out in a statement that it composed the document in close collaboration with the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), which has undertaken a revision of its core principles to better take into account corporate governance issues.

Hedge funds included in the Credit Suisse/Tremont index in February ultimately achieved lower returns than the 0.87% announced (see Newsmanagers of 11 March), on the basis of results from 76% of funds: returns now average 0.68%, compared with 0.17% in January, bringing total gains for the first two months of the year to 0.85%. The worst results were -3.87% for dedicated short bias strategy, which has also seen the heaviest losses (3.61%) in the first two months of the year, followed by managed futures (-2.07%), which, however, saw the highest gains in February, at 1.81%. In January-February, distressed strategies have the best results, with gains of 2.32%.

Combined assets of funds of hedge fund groups with more than USD1bn under management slipped to USD625bn from USD744bn a year earlier, says the Financial Times Fund Management. Figures, from the InvestHedge Billion Dollar Club’s most recent survey are still an improvement on 2008, when assets dropped by a third.

Regulators are growing increasingly concerned that retail investors are being put at risk by the wave of hedge fund-like investment strategies being launched in the Ucits format, says the Financial Times Fund Management. Patrice Berge-Vincent, head of the asset management policy department at the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, the French regulator, called for higher minimum investments for some Newcits to deter retail investors.

Les Echos reports that the Spanish finance minister, Elena Salgado, chairwoman of the Council, opted to withdraw her proposed compromise on regulations for the alternative management industry in the AIFM directive, in the face of continued differences of opinion between the United Kingdom, on one hand, and France and its partners on the other. Paris and London disagree as to whether a European passport should be granted to asset management firms from outside the European Union. Though the UK favours this proposal, France, supported by Germany, would prefer not to risk opening the European market to offshore funds.

The Munich-based management firm MEAG Munich Ergo Asset Management on Tuesday announced the creation of a retail (A) share class in its MEAG Fair Return fund, a German-registered diversified product managed with an absolute return approach and in accordance with sustainable development principles, which was initially created with institutional investors (see Newsmanagers of 30 June 2009), especially foundations, in mind. MEAG states that the fund is suitable for investors who are seeking to reinvest life insurance or pensions which have matured. Front-end fee and management commissions are 3%. and 0.9%, respectively.

Onemonth after announcing the listing of 17 ETF funds on the Germanmarket, Amundi ETF announced on Tuesday, 16 March that it will befurther increasing its presence in Germany by listing 21 more ETFfunds, bringing the total number of its products available onDeutsche Börse to 38.Ofthe 21 ETF funds listed currently, 12 are being released for thefirst time on Xetra. They include10sectoral ETF funds previously unreleased on Xetra offering exposureto the major sectors of the MSCI Europe index.2Style ETF funds previously unreleased on Xetra, which allowinvestors exposure to equities with the highest dividend returns inEurope and the Euro zone.9of the ETF products being listed stand out for their management fees,lower than those generally charged by competitors on Xetra, astatement from the management firm states (0.14% to 0.16%, dependingon the product). Seven of them are invested in Euro zone governmentbonds (from 3 months to 15 years). In addition to this, the AmundiETF Euro Inflation and Amundi ETF Euro Corporates funds are composedof about 40 corporate bonds each, selected on the basis of liquiditycriteria, with a credit rating higher than or equal to BBB- from S&P.

Guotai Fund Management has announced that it will be launching its QDII fund on 22 March. It will be the first QDII tracker fund, and will replicate the Nasdaq 100 index. The QDII portion of the product will total USD700m, or CNY4.8bn. A-Ben Advisors reports that the fee structure is “aggressive,” with a management commission of only 0.80%, the lowest level for any existing QDII fund. Several other passively-managed QDII funds are in the pipeline: an ETF from China AMC focused on Hong Kong, an S&P 500 ETF from China Southern Fund Management, and a Topix 30 ETF from Fortune SGAM. A-Ben Advisors also reports that Fortis Haitong is planning to launch a product which will invest in both A and H share classes.

On 12 March, Groupama Asset Management registered its absolute return fund Groupama Alpha Forex (Eonia + 200 basis points, with volatility of under 1%), bringing the number of funds on sale in Spain to 26. The French management firm is planning to register the Groupama Index Inflation Monde fund with the CNMV in the near future.

BNP Paribas Real Estate Investment Management on 16 March announced the launch of a new OPCI RFA, entitled Shopping Property Fund 1, dedicated to commercial properties, and with a total objective of EUR500m in investments in three years. The OPCI, whose first phase of acquisitions was completed in February 2010, involves a partnership with the Casino group, which is also a shareholder, alongside several other investors, a statement says. At the conclusion of the first phase of acquisition, Shopping Property Fund 1 has assets with a total value at acquisition of about EUR159m, including commission and fees but excluding VAT, which is 50% financed by a loan from BNP Paribas.

As a complement to the Vanguard Explorer Fund (USD8.6bn), which is managed with a growth style, Vanguard is releasing the Vanguard Explorer Value Fund, another actively-managed fund, which follows a value style, and which will specialise in US smidcaps, with less than 200 positions, and an average cap size comparable to that of its benchmark index, the Russell 2500 Value. At the end of the initial subscription period, which will run until 30 March, assets will be equally divided between Cardinal Capital Management (USD1.1bn in assets), Sterling Capital Management (USD12bn), and Frontier Capital Management (USD6bn), which is jointly controlled by the management and Affiliated Managers Group. Initial minimal subscription is set at USD10,000, and the fund will charge fees of 0.59%. Vanguard states that, including Sterling and Capital, it has 29 external managers. Of the 30 actively-managed equities funds in the Vanguard range, 15 are managed by two or more external management firms.

To strengthen its presence in the area of “less traditional” strategies such as active management of commodities, investments in private equity and high-alpha strategies, Russell Investments is adding to its manager selection and advising services worldwide. To this end, the firm is planning to recruit more than 25 specialists in Australia, Japan, Europe, and the Americas. The recruitments will include senior consultants, senior investment strategists, and manager research analysts.

Standard & Poor’s announced on 16 March that it has confirmed a long-term rating of BBB+ for Greece. The rating does, however, remain on negative watch. The country’s short-term rating of A-2 has also been retained. The agency calls teh debt reduction program adopted by the government appropriate to achieve the budgetary objectives set in 2010, in light of the deterioration of growth outlooks in Greece.

The consulting firm bfinance has announced the appointment of Jean-François Milette as CEO for its Canadian operations. Milette, who has more than 23 years of experience in the asset management industry, and who served as vice president and senior director of commercial relations with Canadian institutional investors at Dexia AM, will head the Montreal and Toronto offices, and will report to the president and CEO of bfinance international, David Vafai, based in London.

The UK management firm M&G has made Mike Riddell manager of three bond funds, Investment Week reports. The funds are the M&G Emerging Markets Bond, Index-Linked Bond and International Sovereign Bond, previously managed by Jim Leaviss, head of retail fixed income at M&G. Leaviss, who will now serve as deputy manager of the products, will continue to work in close collaboration with Riddell to manage the three funds, with about GBP200m in assets.

Assets under management in the asset management unit of Close Brothers increased 7% in the half-year ending on 31 January 2010, to a total of GBP7.3bn, compared with GBP6.3bn as of 31 July 2009. Operating profits contracted to GBP2.7m from GBP6.6m previously, due to lower revenues from fund administration activities, and also to investments by the private clients unit. Close Asset Management, meanwhile, has announced the appointment of Nancy Curtin as chief investment officer. Curtin previously served in the same role at Fortune Asset Management, which has recently been taken over by Close AM.

Citywire reports that one of the best selectors of European funds, Alessandro Costa, has left his position at Eurizon Capital in Milan. The manager, who has several times been cited with distinction by Citywire, was director of the multi-management unit at Eurizon, and controlled more than EUR10bn in assets. The website states that Costa previously served as senior investment manager at Citibank in London and Lugano, before joining Sanpaolo AM, where he set up the multi-management activities.

In a statement, Amundi Immobilier, which had EUR5.2bn in assets under management as of 40 September 2009, announced on Tuesday, 16 March that it is planning to double its market share in the next 5 years to more than 25% of the private client market in France. To achieve this, the firm is turning to external distribution and IFAs, offering a range of products through these channels. The firm is planning to release the SCPI Scellier Premely Habitat 2 fund, which is licensed by the AMF, and also to launch a retail OPCI fund in second half 2010.

Chris Conkey has been appointed as chief investment officer, global equities, at MFC Global Investment Management. He will report to JF Courville, global president and CEO of MFC, the asset management affiliate of Manulife Financial. The new recruit is based in Boston, and will work in close collaboration with Barry Evans, CIO, fixed income, and with Mark Schmeer, CIO, asset allocation, strategy & research, who was previously also CIO, global equities. In the past three years, Conkey was CIO, equity at Evergreen, after the merger of Keystone Investments and Evergreen.

Financial News reports that Goldman Sachs has appointed a new head of principal strategies, following the annountment of the departure of the former head Pierre-Henri Flamand. Morgan Sze, head of principal strategies at Goldman Sachs for Asia, will take over the management of the group worldwide, according to an internal memo sent around at the firm this week. He will continue to report to David Heller, one of the four heads of securities at Goldman Sachs in New York.

Neuberger Berman (USD171bn in assets) has announced that it has selected J.P. Morgan Clearing Corp as provider of clearing and custody services, for about 50,000 accounts. The migration will take place in second quarter. The value of the contract has not been disclosed.

AXA announced on Tuesday, 16 March that it has submitted a Form 25 document to the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) to voluntarily end listing of its American Depository Shares (ADS) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The last say of trading for the ADS on NYSE will be 25 March 2010. “The withdrawal from listing will be effective from 26 March 2010. Following that date, ADS will be traded on the US over-the-counter (OTC) market, and will be listed on the OTC QX platform,” a statement from the group explains. The listings will be available at www.otcqx.com.

Fund Strategy reports that the Schroder Gaia Egerton European Equity fund is now available on the British market, via the Luxembourg-based Gaia platform for UCITS III-compliant hedge funds from Schroders. The fund is managed by Egerton Capital Limited Partnership, an independent management firm based in London, which focuses primarily on pan-European equities. Schroders has already exported its platform to Spain, Germany and Austria. Minimal investment is set at GBP5,000, while management fees are 2%, and performance commission is 20%.

Baring Asset Management announced on Tuesday that its Middle East and North Africa (MENA) fund, which will be released on 29 March (see Newsmanagers of 4 March 2009, 17 July 2009, and 15 December 2009), will charge a management fee of 5%, and a front-end fee of 1.5%. The fund will be an Open Ended Investment Company (OEIC), domiciled in Dublin and managed by Ghadir Abu Leil-Cooper. Minimal subscription is set at GBP2,500, or USD5,000, or EUR3,500. Initially, the new fund will invest primarily in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia (via P notes and swaps).