La banque genevoise Banque Heritage constituée autour du «family office» baptisé Heritage Finance & Trust se dit optimiste pour l’avenir. En septembre, les actifs sous gestion du groupe s’élevaient à 7 milliards de francs suisses, contre 5,2 milliards à fin 2008. « Nous voulons doubler nos actifs sous gestion d’ici 2 à 3 ans», souligne Roland Knecht, directeur général adjoint et responsable de l’unité de banque privée.

Selon L’Agefi suisse, Banque Heritage, qui était un family office à l’origine, tisse fermement sa toile au plan international dans ses trois métiers distincts mais reliés entre eux: private banking, asset management et merchant banking. Elle a notamment ouvert récemment une succursale à Zurich, qui est sa troisième implantation en Suisse, avec Genève et Lugano (une agence). Elle est par ailleurs présente à l’international, en mettant l’accent sur les marchés émergents, avec des filiales à Londres, Guernesey, Paris, Lisbonne (un bureau de représentation), Singapour, Sao Paulo, Montevideo et les Iles Caïmans. La gestion de fortune demeure son métier principal. A fin septembre 2009, Heritage avait des actifs sous gestion consolidés de 7 milliards de francs, dont 5 milliards relatifs au private banking. Heritage a pour objectif de doubler cette masse sous gestion, d’ici 2 à 3 ans, indique Roland Knecht, global head of Private Bank et membre du comité exécutif.

Selon L’Agefi suisse, Mirabaud a monté une équipe qui prospecte le marché institutionnel de Fribourg. Une présence encore discrète qui pourrait à terme se matérialiser par l’installation d’une succursale en bonne et due forme. Les fonds institutionnels gérés en Suisse par Mirabaud s’élèvent à 1 milliard de francs. «Notre action est axée sur plusieurs pôles entre Genève et Zurich. Fribourg est l’un d’eux. Le processus d’implantation est long, c’est pourquoi nous privilégions une approche progressive, en nous appuyant sur l’organisation d’événements locaux ou de séminaires», explique au quotidien Pierre Lingiaerde, responsable des relations institutionnelles en Suisse romande.

Le gestionnaire suisse Mother Earth Investments a l’intention de lancer dans environ trois semaines un fonds destiné aux investisseurs institutionnels et aux particuliers haut de gamme qui sera investi physiquement dans 20 matières premières, rapporte le Handelsblatt. Roland Jansen, de Mother Earth craint la formation d’une bulle sur les matières premières, parce que la spéculation représente désormais 50 % du marché contre 20 % il y a dix ans. Les swaps, les futures, les ETF et les produits structurés sur les matières premières représenteraient selon ce spécialiste environ 95 milliards de dollars.

Selon l’Agefi, la Société Générale a découvert à l’occasion d’un contrôle interne, une fraude au sein de SGAM Banque, filiale de Société Générale Asset Management. Réalisée sous forme de fausses factures de frais généraux, elle porte sur 1,8 million d’euros. L’auteur de la fraude a été immédiatement mis à pied. Une partie de la somme aurait été récupérée et aucun client ni fournisseur n’aurait subi de préjudice. Reste, note le quotidien, que sa révélation jette encore le discrédit sur la qualité des contrôles de premier niveau du groupe, et remet sous les feux des projecteurs SGAM Banque, une entité impliquée dans les lourdes pertes que le pôle de gestion d’actifs de la Société Générale. Notamment lorsque SGAM Banque était chargée pour SGAM AI, la filiale de gestion alternative de SGAM, de mettre en place et de gérer les produits structurés du pôle.

Avenir Finance Gestion renforce sa gamme d’investissements en non coté. La société de gestion a annoncé le lancement du FIP Alliance Capital PME 3 et du FCPI Alliance Innovation PME. Le premier produit permet d’accompagner dans leur phase de croissance des PME des régions Ile-de-France, Bourgogne, Rhône-Alpes et Languedoc-Roussillon. Le FCPI Alliance Innovation PME est investi dans des PME innovantes.Avenir Finance a par ailleurs décidé de reverser un pourcentage de ses revenus à la Fondation Avenir Finance (www.avenirfinance.com/fondation) afin de financer des projets liés à l’environnement et plus précisément aux problématiques de l’eau soutenus par celle-ci.

LCL a annoncé le 16 novembre le lancement d’une nouvelle offre de fonds commun de placement à capital garanti, à destination des particuliers, LCL Sécurité 100 (Octobre 2009), éligible au compte de dépôt et au PEA. LCL Sécurité 100 (Octobre 2009) offre aux épargnants une garantie de 100% du capital net investi à l’échéance de six ans et sécurise une partie des gains potentiels en cours de vie du fonds. En effet, grâce à l’effet cliquet, dès que le fonds réalise une performance de +15%, il atteint son 1er palier, et un gain de 5% est alors sécurisé et acté, même en cas de retournement ultérieur des marchés (la garantie à l’échéance passant alors de 100% à 105% du capital net investi). Puis, à chaque fois que la valeur liquidative du fonds augmente de 5%, un nouveau palier est franchi et le fonds sécurise un gain supplémentaire de 5% : c’est le bénéfice du cliquet de performance. L’objectif du fonds consiste à offrir à l'échéance des six ans, soit le 14 janvier 2016, 100% du capital net investi ainsi que le meilleur entre le bénéfice d’un cliquet de performance et la performance finale du fonds. La souscription au nouveau fonds est ouverte jusqu’au 14 janvier 2010. Principales caractéristiques du fonds Code ISIN : FR0010792879Classification AMF : diversifiéSociété de gestion : CAAMValeur liquidative de la part à l’origine : 100 eurosMinimum de la première souscription : 1 partFrais de fonctionnement et de gestion maximum : 2,50% max pour les souscriptions centralisées jusqu’au 14/01/2010 à 12h; 3% (dont 1% acquis au fonds) pour les souscriptions centralisées après le 14/01/2010 à 12hCommission de rachat : néant pour les rachats effectués sur la base de VL finale (établie le 14/01/2016) ou postérieurement; 1% (acquis au fonds) pour les rachats effectués sur la dernière valeur liquidative des mois d’avril, juillet, octobre et janvier de cjhaque année (d’avril 2010 à octobre 2015); 2% (dont 1% acquis au fonds) ou les rachats centralisés à d’autres dates (autres valeurs liquidatives).

Credit Suisse a annoncé l’arrivée, en janvier 2010, de Michael Ingelog en tant que CEO pour la région nordique, sous la responsabilité d’Eric Varvel, CEO pour l’Europe, le Moyen-Orient et l’Afrique. Il sera responsable des activités de Credit Suisse dans la région : banque privée, banque d’investissement et gestion d’actifs. Michael Ingelog sera initialement basé à Londres avant de s'établir dans la région nordique. De fait, Credit Suisse prévoit d’ouvrir d’un bureau à Stockholm en Suède en 2010. Précédemment, Michael Ingelog était chez Deutsche Bank où il était managing director et directeur de la clientèle institutionnelle pour les pays nordiques et les Pays Bas.

According to statistics from Aon Consulting, assets in defined-contribution British pension funds as of the end of October had contracted to GBP489bn, from GBP509bn one month earlier, largely due to declines on equities markets, the Independent reports. Assets in these funds had reached their highest levels for 16 months in early October, at GBP520bn.

ETF Securities has announced that its recently-announced currencies ETC platform (see Newsmanagers of 6 November) will initially include 18 currencies ETC products, listed on the ETC segment of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), which will replicate the MSFX index from Morgan Stanley. These ETCs will provide long and/or short exposure to currencies of the G10 against the US dollar (AUD, CAD, CHF, EUR, GBP, NOK, NZD, SEK, and JPY). The new products will be fully collateralised, to reduce default risks.

According to statistics from the CNMV compiled by Funds People, Spanish asset management firms last year paid EUR1.6bn to their distribution network, out of EUR2.03bn which they took in in commissions. Of the 89 management firms which pay a part of their commissions to distributors, 5.6% paid more than 90% of these revenues. The most generous are Barclays Wealth Managers, UBS Gestión, Gesnavarra, BBVA Asset Management et Mapfre Inversión. 34% of asset management firms pay between 70% and 90% of their commission revenues, 29% pay between 50% to 70%, and lastly, 30% pay less than 50% of their commission revenues to distributors. Lastly, 31 management firms say they pay no distribution commissions, including Cygnus AM, Siitnedif, and Valira.

According to the Sustainable Business Institut (SBI) in Oestrich-Winkel, the number of sustainable development funds in the German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) as of the end of September totalled 309 products, with assets of about EUR29bn. There were 274 products with EUR21bn in assets under management as of the end of December 2008. Since the beginning of the year, the SBI has counted 19 new fund launches, with EUR300m in assets, of which 11 are equities funds, two are funds of funds, three are diversified funds, and one is an ETF. In addition, 25 funds already registered in other countries or which have recently opted for a sustainable development approach have been added to the list, with EUR2.9bn in assets. Meanwhile, 12 funds (seven of them equities products, three bond products and two diversified funds) were closed or merged with other products. As of the end of September, assets in 187 equities funds totalled EUR20.74bn, while 41 bond funds had assets under management of EUR3bn. The 17 funds managed EUR119m, while the nine ETFs had assets of about EUR430m. Lastly, the SBI cites two microfinance funds, with EUR409m in assets under management.

Europe’s 430 largest listed companies are underestimating their collective pension deficits by EUR300bn, according to analysis by AlphaValue quoted by the Financial Times FM. As of 2008, the companies acknowledged a combined deficit of EUR1,550bn.

According to reports on Mutual Fund Wire, Beth Brown, who is head of retail distribution at Columbia Management, will be appointed director of retail sales for the combined RiverSource-Columbia range, replacing Jeffrey McGregor, president of RiverSource Distributors, which will continue to be responsible onlly for annuities and insurance products. Beth Brown will report to Mike Jones, president of Columbia Management, who will become president of asset management activities at Ameriprise for the United States. Meanwhile, Jeffrey Peters, currently senior vice president and head of global institutional distribution at Columbia, will be appointed head of institutional sales for the new merged group, and will report to Mike Jones, while Christopher Keating, head of institutional sales at RiverSource, will be leaving the group in spring 2010.

Charlie R. Shaw, head of product marketing & equity at Legg Mason, will be joining Sentinel Investments as senior vice president, national marketing director, replacing Bruce Hoffmann, who left the firm last spring.

Hermes Fund Managers Ltd (Hermes) has recruited a global equities team joining from Fortis. The Boston-based team of six is led by Lode Devlaminck and John Chisholm and has an average of 19 years of investment experience. The recruitment is «a significant step in our development to become a multi specialist asset manager», says Hermes. The company will build a core active global equity business which will be structured as a specialist investment partnership. Hermes will own the majority share but the partners and employees will have a stake in both the long-term profitability and the enterprise value of the business. Following approval from the SEC the team will initially focus on the requirements of the BT Pension Scheme (BTPS) but will also be looking to market this new capability to institutional third parties. BTPS will provide a cornerstone investment of USD 500m.

As of the end of September, according to Great-West Lifeco, an affiliate of the Canadian firm Compagnie Financière Power, assets at Putnam Investments totalled CAD113.6bn, compared with CAD102.78bn as of 30 June. This total is lower than the total observed at the end of September 2008 of CAD136.59bn. During third quarter 2009, Putnam has undergone net redemptions of CAD1.8bn, compared with CAD8.76bn in April-June, and, in the first nine months of the year, net outflows totalled CAD13.31bn, compared with CAD 9.71bn. However, market effects were positive by CAD12.62bn in July-September, compared with CAD12.99bn in second quarter. In January-September, market effects were positive by CAD21.21bn, while they were negative by CAD32.21bn in the corresponding period of last year. Putnam Investments has seen losses in third quarter of CAD10bn, compared with CAD26m in second quarter, bringing the net loss for January-September to CAD45m, compared with CAD4m in the first nine months of 2008.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has bought shares in ExxonMobil and Nestlé, while almost doubling its stake in Walmart in a move that appears to increase Mr Buffett’s bet on both a US economic revival and what it might mean for energy prices, says the Financial Times. The investments were made in the quarter ending September 30.

Agefi reports that internal controls at Société Générale have uncovered a fraud at SGAM Banque, a unit of Société Générale Asset Management. The fraud, involving false receipts for general expenses, runs to EUR1.8m. The perpetrator fo the fraud was immediately dismissed. Part of the money is reported to have been recovered, and no clients or providers suffered financial damage as a result of the case. The newspaper notes that the discovery further discredits the quality of first-level controls at the group, and puts SGAM Banque in the spotlight once again, after the entity was previously involved in heavy losses at the asset management unit of Société Générale. SGAM Banque was called in by SGAM AI, the alternative management affiliate of SGAM, to set up and manage the unit’s structured products.

La banque genevoise Banque Heritage constituée autour du «family office» baptisé Heritage Finance & Trust se dit optimiste pour l’avenir. En septembre, les actifs sous gestion du groupe s’élevaient à 7 milliards de francs suisses, contre 5,2 milliards à fin 2008. « Nous voulons doubler nos actifs sous gestion d’ici 2 à 3 ans», souligne Roland Knecht, directeur général adjoint et responsable de l’unité de banque privée.

Agefi Suisse reports that Banque Heritage, which was originally a family office, is raising the curtain internationally on its three distinct but interrelated professions, private banking, asset management, and private banking. In particular, it has recently opened an office in Zurich, its third location in Switzerland after Geneva and Lugano (an agency). It is also present internationally, with an emphasis on emerging markets, with affiliates in London, Gernsey, Paris, Lisbon (a branch office), Singapore, Sao Paulo, Montevideo, and the Cayman Islands. Wealth management remains its primary profession. As of the end of September 2009, Heritage had consolidated assets under management of CHF7bn, of which CHF5bn are related to private banking. Heritage aims to double this total amount of assets under management in 2 to 3 years, says Roland Knecht, global head of Private Bank, and a member of the executive board.

The Swiss management firm Mother Earth Investments is planning to launch a fund aimed at institutional investors and high net worth private investors in about three weeks, which will physically invest in 20 commodities, Handelsblatt reports. Roland Jansen at Mother Earth is concerned about the formation of a commodities bubble, as speculation now represents 50% of the market, compared with 20% ten years ago. Swaps, futures, ETFs and structured products dealing on commodities represent about USD95bn in assets, according to this specialist.

Japanese investors have poured a net USD37.4bn into emerging market debt funds since 2004, more than twice the USD14.7bn pumped in by US and European investors, research by JPMorgan suggests, according to the Financial Times FM. In addition, the Japanese have also invested a further USD14.6bn in emerging market foreign exchange overlay funds.

La banque genevoise Banque Heritage constituée autour du «family office» baptisé Heritage Finance & Trust se dit optimiste pour l’avenir. En septembre, les actifs sous gestion du groupe s’élevaient à 7 milliards de francs suisses, contre 5,2 milliards à fin 2008. «Nous voulons doubler nos actifs sous gestion d’ici 2 à 3 ans», souligne Roland Knecht, directeur général adjoint et responsable de l’unité de banque privée.

HSBC Bank Plc., an affiliate of HSBC Holdings, is selling its wholly-owned affiliate Projet Maple II BV to NPS 8CS Holdings SARL, an affiliate of the South Korean National Pension Service (NPS), for GBP772.5m. The transaction, which will bring in capital gains for HSBC of GBP350m, involves the sale of the British banking group’s head offices, located at 8 Canada Square in Canary Wharf. HSBC will continue to occupy the premises for the remaining 17.5 years of the lease, and will pay GBP46m per year in rent. At the end of last year, HSBC purchased its headquarters for GBP838m from the Spanish firm Metrovacesa; it had sold the investor its offices in May 2007 for EUR1.09bn (see Newsmanagers of 8 December 2008).

According to Financial News Online, UK asset management firms are hiring again. Some are planning to increase their assets by up to 7%. Among the firms which are hiring, Financial News cites Standard Life Investments, Hermes, Schroders, State Street Global Advisors, Edinburgh Partners, Fidelity International, Aviva Investors, Marshall Wace, and The Children’s Investment Fund Management.

Newedge on 16 November launched onshore brokerage activities in Mumbai, with cash equity and equities derivatives for foreign institutional investors as priorities, according to Asian Investor. Newedge Broker India Private Limited, led by Jerome Burban, employs 20 people, and is licensed to trade on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) as well as the Mumbai stock exchange.

Les Echos reports that human resources specialists at banks in the City were doubtful of new powers the British government will seek for the Financial Services Authority (FSA) which would allow it to apply bonus limit rules. The Queen’s speech, which takes place at the opening of Parliament and which is written by the sitting government, will tomorrow lay out plans for legislation which would give the FSA power to punish banks or employees who do not respect G20 rules in regard to pay scales, but practical and legal obstacles to the FSA being able to exercise such powers are numerous.

Lord Myners, City minister, complained a new code of shareholders’ responsibilities proposed on Monday by the Institutional Shareholders’ Committee did not go far enough, says the Financial Times. He said: “The ISC is still advocating a self-governance model, which is shown to have failed. ”

Lord Myners, le ministre de la City, estime que le nouveau code sur les responsabilités des actionnaires proposé lundi par le Institutional Shareholders’ Committee, qui contient sept principes de bonnes pratiques, ne va pas assez loin, rapporte le Financial Times. Il regrette que le manque d’audit externe ou de vérification. Pour lui, le ISC prône encore un modèle d’auto gouvernance, qui a montré ses limites.