Selon Les Echos citant le Chicago Business, le Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), serait en pourparlers avec le numéro un mondial des Bourses de commerce, CME Group, en vue d’une fusion. A ce stade des discussions, menées par des intermédiaires des deux entreprises de marché, CME Group valoriserait le Chicago Board Options Exchange autour de 5 milliards de dollars, soit 20 fois ses bénéfices. Les synergies d’un éventuel regroupement pourraient s'élever selon certains analystes à environ 100 millions de dollars par an. Dans l’immédiat, le promoteur du regroupement n’aurait pas l’intention de lancer une offre formelle.
Suite à l’arrestation de son co-fondateur Raj Rajaratnam vendredi, le hedge Galleon Group fait face à des retraits d’environ 1,3 milliard de dollars sur les 3,7 milliards gérés, rapporte le Wall Street Journal, citant des traders. Cela l’a obligé à se défaire de certaines de ses valeurs technologiques et d’autres positions afin de lever du cash. De plus, deux courtiers avec lesquels Galleon travaille habituellement, Bank of America Merrill Lynch et Barclays, ont annoncé à Galleon qu’ils ne négocieraient plus de positions avec la société de gestion, selon des personnes proches du dossier.
Invesco Ltd a annoncé lundi soir avoir conclu un accord définitif sur l’acquisition de l’activité de gestion d’actifs retail de Morgan Stanley, dont la société de gestion Van Kampen Investments, pour 1,5 milliard de dollars, dont 500 millions de dollars en numéraire et 44,1 millions d’actions, ce qui confère à Morgan Stanley une participation de 9,4 % dans Invesco. Les activités cédées par Morgan Stanley représentent des encours de 119 milliards de dollars en actions, obligations et gestion alternative (y compris les mutual funds et les mandats) ainsi que les unit investment trust. Van Kampen pèse environ 86 milliards de dollars d’actifs sous gestion Au terme de cette transaction, qui doit être bouclée pour la fin du premier semestre 2010, l’effectif d’Invesco augmentera d’environ 650 personnes, des professionnels de l’investissement, des commerciaux et des spécialistes des fonctions support. Invesco disposera ainsi d’environ 700 professionnels de l’investissement
Moody’s Investors Services a dégradé la note de la dette senior à long terme de la maison mère de Fidelity Investments FMR de A1 à A2, rapporte le Wall Street Journal. L’agence explique que les marges bénéficiaires de Fidelity ne sont pas conformes aux attentes et que la dégradation a été motivée par l’utilisation élevée par la société du financement par l’endettement interne.
Pour le troisième trimestre 2009, Columbia Management déclare une perte nette de 48 millions de dollars contre 356 millions pour la période correspondante de l’an dernier. Columbia Management appartient à Bank of America qui cède la gestion long terme de cette filiale pour 1 milliard de dollars à Ameriprise Financial (lire notre dépêche du 1er octobre).
In third quarter, hedge funds posted their first net subscriptions in more than a year, with total inflows of USD1.1bn, according to Hedge Fund Research. The Wall Street Journal states that more than two thirds of funds posted inflows of USD38bn, which were largely offset by USD37bn in net redemptions and fund liquidations. Outflows continued, however, for funds of hedge funds, though these totalled only USD3.2bn net, compared with USD180bn over the previous four quarters.
The ETF Exchange platform, launched in late 2008 by ETF Securities, now has assets under management of USD275m, an 84% increase over the past twelve months, ETF Securities has announced in a statement. Since the beginning of the year, ETFs related to commodities have all posted spectacular growth, with an average progression of 42% in the week ending 9 October. These gains result from a 109% leap for the ETFX Russell Global Coal Mining Fund index, an 85% increase for the ETFX Dow Jones 600 Basic Resources Fund, and a 60% increase for the ETFX Russell Global Steel Large Cap Fund.
Emerging markets and distressed securities, with respective gains of 5.24% and 4.38%, were the two strategies to post the best returns in September of the 13 strategies regularly monitored by Edhec. Only one strategy remained in negative territory: dedicated short bias, with losses of 3.63%. In the first nine months of the year, the dedicated short bias and CTA global categories are the only ones running losses, of 17.8% and 1%, respectively, while the best results have been for convertible arbitrage, with returns of 41.3%, ahead of emerging markets, with gains of 31.4%. Since January 2001, two strategies show double-digit average annual results: emerging markets (12.3%) and distressed securities (10.6%). No category shows losses over this period.
Schroders is launching Gaia, short for Global Alternative Investor Access, says the Financial Times FM. This Luxembourg-based Sicav will act as an umbrella for hedge fund strategies packaged as Ucits III funds. The first fund available is the Schroder Gaia Egerton European Equity Fund, managed by Egerton Capital, a European equity long/short hedge fund manager.
Approximately 5% of funds domiciled in Europe may disappear by the end of the year, according to predictions from Morningstar based on trends observed since the beginning of the year. According to quarterly statistics from Morningstar, the number of fund closures far exceeds the number of new funds opened in Europe and Asia. Of a total of over 33,000 funds domiciled in Europe, 2,968 have been closed since 1 January, while only 1,560 have been created, resulting in a negative overall evolution of the fund population by 1,877 funds. While the universe covered by Morningstar includes slightly over 33,000 funds (36,779 including money market funds), the United States account for only 6,736 (excluding money market funds). Assets total about EUR4.5trn in Europe, compared with EUR3.8trn in the United States (excluding money market funds). Excluding money market funds, the largest funds in Europe have assets of EUR14.5bn, with about 100 products (only 0.03% of the number of funds in the universe) having assets of over EUR1bn. In the United States, the largest funds have EUR127bn; there are 862 funds, or 12.8% of the total, with over EUR1bn in assets.The wave of consolidation to come in Europe, with a projected 22% increase in the number of closures this year compared with 2008, and a 73% increase over the number of closures in 2007, is therefore a welcome development, Morningstar says, pointing out that it is not possible for European funds to realise economies of scale, while they need to dedicate more resources to distribution in order to survive on an overcrowded market.
Klépierre France, in which BNP Paribas controls a majority stake, has sold the Espace Kléber building (10,600 square metres, 158 parking spaces) to the German firm Commerz Real for EUR120m. The buyer has announced that it will add the property to the portfolio of its open-ended real estate fund hausInvest europa (EUR10bn in assets). The property is 70% occupied by the Paris headquarters of the Credit Suisse private bank. Commerz Real notes that this is the third property purchased in Paris between the Arc de Triomphe and Trocadéro in Paris since April (the other two properties were for institutional funds). In addition, in September, hausInvest europa purchased the Le Flavia building in Ivry sur Seine, near Paris.
The open-ended real estate fund KanAm US-grundinvest, which has been closed to redemptions since 27 October 2008, may remain closed for up to twelve more months, the Munich-based management firm has announced. The occupancy rate for properties in the portfolio was 98.2% as of 30 September. The US-grundinvest is the only German real estate fund whose shares are denominated in US dollars. Its performance for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2009 was 4.4%, compared with 6.3% one year previously (see Newsmanagers of 2 July). Assets in the fund as of early June totalled USD626m.
According to statistics from Barclays Global Investors (BGI), assets in ETF funds in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) as of the end of September totalled USD35.58bn, compared with USD31.08bn as of the end of June, USD23.13bn as of the end of March, and USD23.76bn as of the end of December 2008. Over nine months, that corresponds to a 49.7% increase. However, in January-July, ETFs have seen total net redemptions of USD0.1bn, according to Strategic Insight. As of the end of third quarter, there were 114 ETFs in the region, which were listed 187 times on 13 stock markets, from 37 issuers. Since the beginning of the year, the number of ETFs has increased by 18.8%, with 20 new products released and four withdrawn from trading. The major players in the region are State Street, with USD9.55bn in assets in 6 ETF funds, corresponding to a market share of 26.9%, followed by iShares (BGI), with USD6.98bn in eight funds (19.6%), and Hang Seng Investment Management, with USD4.91bn, three ETF funds, and a market share of 13.8%.
The Asian fund industry will grow from USD1.2 trillion to USD1.9 trillion in 2014 — a 46% increase, predicts Lipper FMI, a Thomson Reuters company, in a new 300-page report*. Such growth is forecast to come despite an expected decline in fund assets in 2010. The twelve Asian fund markets analysed by Lipper FMI** posted net sales of USD34 billion over the first half of 2009. At one end of the scale India enjoyed inflows of USD28 billion, while the Chinese industry suffered net redemptions of USD39 billion. The latter’s investors withdrew almost as much as they had invested for the whole of 2008 (USD48 billion). Bella Caridade-Ferreira, head of market research at Lipper FMI, commented: “(...) Any fund manager with serious ambitions in Asia needs to take a very long-term view; at least 20 years. But by then Asia could well have overtaken both Europe and the US in terms of industry size.” Already in 2009, while Asian funds have assets less than a third the size of those in domestic European funds, Asian net sales were just 20% lower than in Europe over the first half of 2009. * Lipper FMI’s 2009 ‘Asian Fund Market Almanac’ ** China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand
For third quarter 2009, Columbia Management has announced a net loss of USD48m, compared with USD356m for the corresponding period of last year. Columbia Management is owned by Bank of America, which is selling the long-term management operations at the affiliate to Ameriprise Financial (see Newsmanagers of 1 October) for USD1bn.
After Friday’s arrest of co-founder Raj Rajaratnam, investors have sought to withdraw about USD1.3 billion of the USD3.7 billion in assets Galleon Group manages, says the Wall Street Journal, quoting traders. The hedge fund group moved to sell some of its technology stocks and other holdings to raise cash. Moreover, two of the brokerage firms Galleon normally deals with, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Barclays, have told Galleon they will no longer trade securities positions with the fund firm, according to a person close to the situation.
Invesco Ltd. announced on Monday night that it has signed a binding agreement to acquire the retail asset management activities of Morgan Stanley, including the management firm Van Kampen Investments, for USD1.5bn in total, including USD500m in cash and 44.1 million shares, which will leave Morgan Stanley with a 9.4% stake in Invesco. The activities being sold by Morgan Stanley represent assets under management of USD119bn in equities, bonds, and alternative management (including mutual funds and mandates), as well as unit investment trusts. Van Kampen has about USD86bn in assets under management. After the transaction has been completed, in mid-2010, personnel at Invesco will have increased by about 650 people, including investment professionals, sales, and support functions. Invesco will then have about 700 investment professionals.
Moody’s Investors Services downgraded the long-term senior debt rating of Fidelity Investments parent FMR from A1 to A2, the Wall Street Journal reports. The agency explains that Fidelity’s profit margins are not meeting expectations, and that the downgrade was driven by the firm’s high use of internal debt financing.
According to two different sources whose stories confirm one another, the Börsen-Zeitung reports, the sale of Sal. Oppenheim’s investment banking operation to Macquarie is imminent. Last week, talks already began between the Australian group and the enterprise committee at the originally German bank which has moved its headquarters to Luxembourg.
According to reports in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) has applied to the European Commission for permission to sell its 15% stake in DekaBank, as part of a 40% reduction of its overall balance sheet the Commission has required the bank to complete by 2013. The other Landesbanken have a first claim to the stake, but it appears that they are not likely to exercise it. The savings banks will therefore wind up with a majority stake in the asset management firm, in which they currently control 50% (the other half is owned by 8 Landesbanken).
By the end of June 2010, the M.M. Warburg private bank will have concentrated its asset management operation (Warburg Invest) and shut down its Frankfurt offices, to concentrate all its personnel at its Hamburg offices, fondsprofessionell reports. The move affects about 30 employees, including sales, portfolio management and back-office personnel, who were informed of the move in late September. The deadline for these employees to decide whether to accept or refuse the proposed transfer comes this Tuesday. The private banking activities of M.M. Warburg in Frankfurt will not be affected by the move.
According to Agefi Suisse, the London-based asset management firm Maseco Financial is opening an affiliate in Geneva dedicated to US clients. The asset manager, founded in London nearly 18 months ago by former Citigroup managers, has a license from the SEC and may thus serve “US persons” whom the entire financial management industry seems to have refused in recent months. Maseco is planning to serve only US clients with declared assets in Switzerland, who have a potential total of USD3bn in Switzerland, with a strong presence in Geneva, according to various estimates.
Gartmore has appointed Brian Mitchell as head of all trading activities, including equities, derivatives, fixed income and currencies, in London, Tokyo and Boston. He will report directly to CIO Dominic Rossi. Mitchell previously worked at Baring Asset Management, where he was in charge of trading for eleven years.
The real estate fund management firm Tristan Capital Partners, launched in May by Ric Lewis, former CEO of Curzon Global Partners, has announced the recruitment of Ian Laming, former head of research at Morgan Stanley, who will become Chief Operating Officer of Tristan Capital Partners.
The Association of British Insurers and Fidelity International are calling for radical change in the way investment products are sold across Europe. The ABI will urge the European Commission to remove remuneration bias from the sale of retail investments and raise the level of professionalism in the industry. Fidelity is also calling on the Commission to make a distinction between “advisers” covering the whole of the market and “salesmen” offering a limited suite of in-house products.
In an interview with Les Echos, Hirander Misra, head of operations at Chi-X Europe, says he is closely monitoring revisions to the European financial instruments market directive (MiFID), which is proposed to come into effect next year, and which invites European regulators to focus on best execution. “Unlike its equivalent in the United States, the MiFID directive leaves national regulators a lot of latitude. That’s the real problem: each national regulator has its own definition of what best execution is,” he says. In order to decide between these, there naturally has to be an adjudicating body: this should be the CESR, so long as the texts are sufficiently clear, adds Misra. Among the improvements which the legislation would bring to European regulation, the required use of clearing houses is one. “What we want is for regulators to define a series of coherent standards for European compensation providers, in order to foster interoperability and reciprocity between them,” he explains.
Danish asset management firm Jyske Fund Management has announced that it has adopted the MOVE process (momentum, value, evaluation) for its fixed income management, Fondsprofessionell reports. First of all, quantitative analysis will provide indicators of trends in the bond market, and will serve as the basis for an overall strategy taking in duration, credit risks and fluctuations in exchange rates. Then, due diligence will allow for the results of quantitative analysis to be verified. Bond-picking comes only in a third stage, says Wieland Thyssen, head of the German offices of Jyske Invest.
The sovereign wealth fund of Alberta, the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund, has seen losses of 18.1% in the fiscal year ending 31 March, amounting to CAD2.6bn, while the total budget for the province grew by CAD769m, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. This is a catastrophic result, in light of the financial situation of the province of Alberta. To help balance the budget, the Heritage Fund is supposed to increase its assets by at least 4.5% per year in real terms.
From Monday, 19 October, all depository banking and payment agency services for sub-funds of the Sicav Sarasin Investmentfonds have been transferred from BGL SA, formerly known as Fortis Banque Luxembourg SA, to RBC Dexia Investor Services (RDIS). BGL is also transferring its administration, domicile, registration and transfer agency services, which it previously exercised for Sarasin funds, and which it had outsourced to European Fund Administration SA (EFA), to RDIS.