BlackRock annonce le renforcement de sa gamme d’ETF iShares accessible aux investisseurs français. Il s’agit du iShares DJ Euro STOXX 50 (Acc), le sixième ETF actions à parts capitalisées géré en réplication physique de la gamme. Le produit est exposé à l'évolution de l’indice DJ Euro STOXX 50, et les dividendes générées sont automatiquement réinvestis.

Lundi, SEB Asset Management, filiale de gestion d’actifs de la banque scandinave SEB, a annoncé qu’elle entame la commercialisation en France du fonds alternatif multi-classes d’actifs et de performance absolue SEB Asset Selection, un produit conforme à la directive OPCVM III lancé en octobre 2006 et qui affiche environ 1,5 milliard d’euros d’encours. L’agrément de l’AMF a été délivré le 27 novembre dernier. C’est le premier fonds qu’elle distribue en France.Ce produit, à risque limité et à liquidité journalière, est géré par Hans-Olo Bornemann, responsable de la gestion quantitative et senior portfolio manager, comme nous l’annoncions l’an dernier (lire notre article du 26 juin 2009). Il s’adresse par conception à toutes catégories d’investisseurs mais sera bien entendu initialement proposé en France aux investisseurs institutionnels, puis aux conseillers en gestion de patrimoine indépendants et enfin au grand public, car cela dépend des capacités de distribution. L’horizon d’investissement recommandé est de 3-5 ans.La volatilité est plafonnée à 10 % et l’objectif consiste à générer une performance équivalente au taux sans risque plus 500 points de base (après frais) en investissant en «long» ou en «court» sur les actions, les obligations, les devises et les matières premières. Depuis sa création, le fonds a réalisé une performance annualisée de 10,6 %, frais inclus, soit une surperformance de 7,4 points par rapport au taux sans risque (au 31/12/09).Le taux de rotation se situe à 400 % pour le portefeuille de base, essentiellement monétaire, et à 50 fois pour le reliquat composé de futures. Mais ce sont des transactions dont le coût est extrêmement faible.Le potentiel maximal de perte se situe à 9 % sur un an et Hans-Olof Bornemann mise sur les réactions comportementales des acteurs de marché. Il reconnaît aussi que le fonds ne peut guère gagner d’argent lorsqu’il y a des mouvements erratiques ou lorsqu’il n’y a pas de tendance franche.Caractéristiques : Dénomination : SEB Asset SelectionCode ISIN : LU0256624742Devises : EUR SEK CHF USD GBP JPY NOKFrais de gestion : 1,1% Classe C (Institutionnels) / 1,75% Classe GC (Retail)Frais de performance : 20% de la surperformance au delà du taux sans risque (avec high watermark)

Le rapprochement des sociétés de gestion de portefeuille de GMF, MAAF et MMA entre dans sa phase finale et devrait se solder d’ici à fin mai par l'émergence d’un pôle gestion qui sera logé dans l’actuelle Covéa finance et doté d’un encours d’environ 60 milliards d’euros pour les valeurs mobilières, tandis que la branche immobilière Covéa Immobilier (investissement et exploitation) pèsera quelque 10 milliards d’euros. Un gros travail juridique reste à accomplir, notamment pour rationaliser la gamme d’OPCVM qui sont pour la plupart de droit français.La société de gestion devrait compter environ 130 collaborateurs, indique Sophie Beuvaden, directeur général délégué Finances, alors que la branche immobilière (responsable entre autres de 867.000 mètres carrés concentrés dans Paris et la proche banlieue) occupera plus de 60 personnes. A ces effectifs s’ajouteront les directeurs financiers des trois mutuelles composantes de Covéa avec chacun une équipe d’une dizaine de personnes.Lors de la présentation des vœux à la presse, Thierry Derez, le PDG de Covéa, a indiqué que le chiffre d’affaires du groupe a atteint les 13 milliards d’euros l’an dernier, ce qui représente une hausse de presque 8 % sur 2008. Le nouvel ensemble constitué par les trois mutuelles affiche par ailleurs une marge de solvabilité, y compris les plus-values latentes, couvrant 3,5 fois les exigences réglementaires.

Selon Les Echos, les plus gros hedge funds sont américains. Sur les 20 plus importants «hedge funds», 16 sont basés aux Etats-Unis, dont 11 à New York et 4 à Londres. Une domination écrasante des Anglo-Saxons par rapport aux autres Européens et Asiatiques. Le plus grand «hedge fund», par la taille des actifs gérés, est Bridgewater Associates, à l’approche le plus souvent quantitative, avec plus de 41milliards de dollars d’encours. Les 20 plus importants fonds alternatifs géraient 450 milliards de dollars fin 2009, soit autour du tiers des 1.500 milliards de dollars d’actifs du marché mondial des «hedge funds».

Le groupe AXA a racheté une participation de 15 % dans la banque en ligne biw Bank für Investments und Wertpapiere AG (biw) à Aragon AG. Le montant de la transaction n’a pas été dévoilé. biw est spécialisée dans l’online brokerage, la conservation, l’equity capital markets (ECM) et les new business solutions.

Lundi, ComStage (Commerzbank) a annoncé le lancement d’un 65ème ETF admis à la négociation sur le segment XTF de la plate-forme Xetra. Il s’agit du fonds luxembourgeois ComStage ETF iBoxx € Sovereigns Inflation-Linked Euro-Inflation TR, qui est également coté à Stuttgart. La commission de gestion de ce fonds d’obligations d’Etat indexées sur l’inflation se situe à 0,17 %. Son «benchmark» est le Markit iBoxx € Sovereigns Inflation-Linked Euro-Inflation Total Return Index.Désormais, la cote du XTF comporte 555 ETF.

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen (Heideldruck) a publié lundi un avis boursier selon lequel le Smallcap World Fund américain lui a déclaré avoir franchi le 19 janvier le seuil des 3 % de son capital et en détenir désormais 3,13 %.

Selon les informations de la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Gerd Häusler, l’un des responsables du capital-investisseur RHJ International pour l’Allemagne, sera nommé ce mardi par le conseil d’administration président du directoire de la Bayerische Landesbank. Il doit cette nomination à son parcours professionnel (Bundesbank, Dresdner Bank, FMI et Lazard) ainsi qu'à son appartenance au parti libéral FDP.

Selon Bloomberg, Asian Finance Bank prévoit de créer des fonds de valeur d’au moins 150 millions de dollars afin de profiter de l’expansion économique dans la région. Dans le détail, l’entité malaise détenue à 70 % par la première banque islamique du Qatar - Qatar Islamic Bank SAQ - va lancer un fonds de 100 millions de dollars qui investira dans des projets respectueux de l’environnement, puis un autre représentant 100 millions de ringgit (29 millions de dollars) qui sera destiné à financer un projet commercial à Kuala Lumpur, et enfin un troisème fonds qui sera destiné à investir dans des achats d’avions, selon le CEO Mohamed Azahari Kamil.

Cao Tong, numéro deux de la Citic Bank, a annoncé que au Nanfang Daily de Canton qu’il envisage de se lancer avec l’aide du BBVA dans la banque privée en Chine, rapporte Cotizalia. Le BBVA, qui détient 15 % de Citic Bank, aura 20 % dans cette nouvelle activité.Dans un premier temps, Citic Bank va se concentrer sur la vente de produits destinés à rehausser la performance de l'épargne financière. Elle ne se lancera qu’ensuite dans la gestion patrimoniale.

Le VIX, qui mesure la volatilité implicite à un mois de l’indice S&P 500, est passé de 17,6 % à 26 % hier après avoir touché 27,3 % vendredi

Le retour du pays sur le marché de la dette à 5 ans éloigne le risque d'une crise de liquidité

Le retour du pays sur le marché de la dette à 5 ans éloigne le risque d'une crise de liquidité

Un émetteur néerlandais s’apprête à solliciter les investisseurs. D’autres groupes pourraient ensuite relancer ce marché fermé depuis 2008

US-based investor services provider Nuveen Investments announced on 21 January that it has launched two new funds, the first of which is dedicated to emerging markets. The Nuveen Tradewinds Emerging Markets Fund aims for long-term capital appreciation, with the MSCI Emerging Markets index as its benchmark. The Nuveen Tradewinds Global All-Cap Plus Fund, for its part, will invest in US and global equities with a long/short strategy. Both funds will rely on the investment process of the asset management firm Tradewinds, with a bottom-up stock-picking approach to select undervalued equities. With more than USD20bn distributed over 61 mutual funds, Nuveen Investments offers a range of fixed-income, growth, value and global portfolios, covering several investment objectives and styles.

The Morningstar 1000 Hedge Fund Index gained only 0.1% in December, but for the year as a whole, it has earned 19.5%, close to the record set in 2003 (20.3%). The strategies with the most heavily negative results in 2008 went on to earn the highest returns last year, according to Morningstar. The Morningstar Emerging Market Equity Hedge Fund Index, which lost 45.7% in 2008, bounced back with gains of 50.4% in 2009. Meanwhile, the Morningstar U.S. Small Cap Equity Hedge Fund Index finished the year 2008 with one of its worst performances ever (-32.8%), but posted gains of 36.4% in 2009. However, hedge funds specialised in emerging markets and small caps did not manage to offset all of their losses in 2008. Another big winner in 2009 was convertibles arbitrage, whose benchmark index gained 2.1% in December, and shows gains of moer than 37% in 2009, after one of its worst performances ever in 2008. However, some strategies, such as the Short Equity and Global Trend, continued their negative trajectories through the end of the year. In the first eleven months of the year, hedge funds posted net outflows of USD53.4bn, but subscriptions began to flow in once again in June. In November of last year, hedge funds saw USD4.7bn in subscriptions. In other notable developments last year, Morningstar observes that small hedge funds outperformed larger structures and the single-manager hedge funds performed better on average than funds of funds.

Last year, the German-registered real estate fund of funds CS Portfolio Real turned in returns of 12.02%, after losses of 11.13% in 2008. The product, launched in January 2007, has assets of over EUR100m, and at the end of last year, had 32% of its assets allocated to real estate equities/convertible bond funds, and 8.5% to alternative products. As the limits for these two respective allocations are 50% and 10%, the allocation is slightly higher than the long-term target allocation. The remainder of the fund’s assets is invested in open-ended real estate funds, an asset class which may represent 40% to 90% of the portfolio. Credit Suisse manages a real estate portfolio in Germany worth EUR6.5bn, of which EUR6.13bn belong to the CS Euroreal fund.

On 25 January, DWS will launch the Luxembourg-registered fund DWS Dividende Direkt 2014, a fund which will mature in 2014, and which follows the formula established in 2009 for the Renden-Direkt bond strategy: it will invest in shares in companies which pay high dividends, and will pay EUR6 per share each year. The manager, Jens Labusch, will rely on research by Thomas Schüßler, the manager of the DWS Top Dividende fund, for the selection of equities. Characteristics Name: DWS Dividende Direkt 2014 ISIN: LU0418445317 Management commission: 1.45% maximum Front-end fee: 4% maximum

Expansión has surveyed star managers at Spanish management firms. Overall, they say that a bubble in bonds and rising interest rates are the primary concerns. They therefore recommend investing in equities for the long term, and avoiding government bonds. Juan Suárez de Figueroa, president of A&G Fondos and the only Spanish manager rated AAA by Citywire, says that after a strong rebound in 2009, stock markets are highly vulnerable to bad news, which will result in periods in which the danger will be due to a lack of proof of an economic recovery, and other periods when the danger will be rather one of excessive growth, which could generate inflation, and potentially interest rate increases.

Henri Faure, deputy CEO, has told Handelsblatt that BNP Paribas Real Estate is planning to develop through both organic and external growth on the German market. The firm is not interested in retail open-ended funds, as it has no distributor. As a result, the French group is planning to buy an asset management firm active in real estate funds for institutional and high net worth private investors. The other major key market of interest for BNPP RE is the United Kingdom. Funds for retail investors will be made available only in countries where the firm has a distribution network, including France, Italy, and soon, Belgium and Luxembourg (thanks to Fortis).

A team of management specialists has launched Galileo Capital Management, an advising, management and investment firm, with offices in London and Hong Kong. Hedge Week reports that the founders, Anders Jacobsen and Paul Thompson, have combined experience of more than 40 years at Goldman Sachs, Prudential Financial, Bankers trust and Chase Manhattan Bank. The firm will prioritise investment strategies focusing on niche activities which investors have neglected in the past.

As a distributor and provider of mutual funds, Fidelity has fallen back to second place in the rankings for reputation and customer loyalty, in the third annual study by Cogent Research, entitled “2010 Investor Brandscape Report.” On the basis of responses from approximately 4,000 high net worth private clients, the Boston-based management firm was dethroned last year as the top fund provider by Vanguard, while Charles Schwab has taken the top place in the rankings as a distributor. For mutual funds, the following places in the rankings go, in order, to American Funds, T. Rowe Price, and TIAA-CREF. Among distributors, the other favourites are Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Edward Jones, and Merrill Lynch.

Investment Week reports that Paul Harvey is expected to leave the multi-management division of GLG Partners by the end of next month. He founded the division of the group, and was director of DLD MMI. He will be replaced in this position by Neil Hobson and Jonathan Howard.

According to sources familiar with the matter, cited by the Wall Street Journal, RiskMetrics Group Inc, 46% controlled by General Atlantic, Spectrum Equity and Technology Crossover Ventures, has decided to put the business up for sale. The firm’s stock market value is about USD1bn. Among the potential buyers are MSCI, Bloomberg, McGraw-Hill, Thomson Reuters, KKR, and Carlyle.

MD Physician Services Inc (MDPSI) has granted a mandate to State Street Corporation for custody, fund accounting and asset valuation for a CAD15.6bn portfolio. MDPSI manages 22 mutual funds, sold under the brand name MBD Private Counsel.

Les Echos reports that a study by A. Gavazza at Leonard Stern School of Business in New York finds that asset managers who offer a higher number of fund products than other providers win out, proportionally, with a larger market share, at least in the retail segment. A firm which increases the number of funds in its product range by 10% will see an increase in total assets of 12.8%, while a 10% increase in categories of products on sale to retail clients (global equities, bonds, etc.) brings a 13.7% increase in assets. These efforts bear the most fruit for funds invested in equities. In the institutional segment, the story is different, as a firm which increases the number of funds in its product range for investors of this type by 10% sees only an 8.7% increase in assets.

Les Echos reports that the world’s top aluminium producer, the Russian firm Rusal, has received permission from the French financial market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), on its prospectus for an initial public offering in Paris. The firm has already placed virtually all of the shares to be included in the offering. Rusal will be listed from Wednesday 27 January, in the professional section of the Paris stock exchange. About 768 million Global Depository Shares (GDS) in the Russian business will be initially listed.

Morningstar reports that 2009 was the best year for hedge funds since 2003: the Morningstar 1000 hedge fund index gained 0.1% in December, and is up 18.5% for the year 2009 as a whole, slightly less than the 20.3% gains observed in 2003. The Morningstar MSCI hedge fund index hedged for currency risks gained 0.2% in December, and shows gains of 14.2% for the year. The worst-performing strategies in 2008 were the most profitable in 2009: the emerging markets index, which lost 45.7% in 2008, gained 50.4% last year, while convertibles arbitrage gained more than 37%. In other trends, results show that small hedge funds tended to outperform larger ones, and that single-manager hedge funds did better than funds of hedge funds. Morningstar also estimates that in January-November, hedge funds in its database saw net outflows of USD53.4bn, but that the sector has seen net subscriptions since June, with USD4.7bn in inflows in November alone.

Overnight between Friday and Saturday, Goldman Sachs announced the closure of its quantitative hedge fund Global Equity Opportunities (GEO), which saw heavy redemptions, and which managed only USD200m as of the end of 2009, compared with a peak of about USD7bn a few years ago, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. The Wall Street Journal adds that Goldman Sachs says it has no plans to pull out of the hedge fund sector. On Thursday, the bank stated that of USD871bn in assets, about USD146bn are in alternative investments, including hedge funds and funds of hedge funds managed by its quantitative team.

It appears that ETFs, even those that replicate broad indices, vary widely in their tracking error levels. The Wall Street Journal reports that the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index ETF (EEM) and the Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF (VWO), both of which are based on the MSCI Emerging Markets index, posted respective returns in 2009 of 72% and 76%, respectively, though the index itself gained 78.6%. In 2008, the first of these two funds lost 50%, and the second lost 53%, both beating the index (-54%). These differences are due, firstly, to a difference in commissions: 0.27% for the Vanguard product, compared with 0.72% for the iShares fund. Secondly, the two funds have different approaches, and are constructed differently. The Vanguard product replicates the index of more than 800 positions in its entirety, while the iShares product has only about 400 positions. As the iShares fund is intended to be easy to trade, it is managed in a way which is intended to preserve high levels of liquidity and transparency, avoiding less liquid shares of the index. The Vanguard fund avoids being stuck with less liquid shares due to a significant advantage: it can trade them with its twin fund, the open-ended Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund (VEIEX), which has assets of USD30.5bn.