La banque d’affaires Arjil vient d’annoncer l’accession à la présidence d’honneur de l'établissement de Bernard Esambert, à la demande de Wladimir Mollof, président. Après avoir présidé de 2005 à 2008 l’Advisory Board d’Arjil, après sa cession par Lagardère, Bernard Esambert anime, gère ou est membre du conseil d’administration de nombreuses fondations et associations médicales.

Standard Life Investments a nommé Christopher Heckscher en tant que vice-président senior, crédit US (senior vice president, US credit). Il vient de Wellington Management où il a couvert divers secteurs dans le domaine de l’investment grade US et du haut rendement pendant 14 ans. Basé à Boston, Christopher Heckscher sera placé sous la responsabilité d’Erlend Lochen, responsable du crédit US et responsable global du haut rendement. Il sera chargé de couvrir le haut rendement US et travaillera avec l'équipe actions US pour élargir la couverture des émetteurs américains de qualité investment grade.

Vendredi, Barclays Global Investors (BGI) a fait admettre à la cotation du New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) les ETF iShares Russell Top 200 Value Index Fund (IWX), iShares Russell Top 200 Index Fund (IWL) et iShares Russell Top 200 Growth Index Fund (IWY). L’indice Russell 200 regroupe les 200 plus grands émetteurs de l’indice Russell 3000 qui représentent environ 65 % de la capitalisation des enterprises américaines cotées.

Elaborer un fonds garanti et en faire un produit intéressant coûte cher aujourd'hui compte tenu du niveau des taux et de la baisse de la volatilité. Sans renoncer à la sécurisation à terme de sa mise initiale, il y a mieux à faire, comme le confirme Jean-Baptiste Lacoste à Newsmanagers .

For EUR404m, Grupo Prisa is selling a 25% stake in the Santillana publishing house to the fund DLJ South American Partners, and 35% of the Portuguese firm Media capital to Ongoing Strategy Investments, Cinco Días reports.

Matthew Appelstein, executive vice president, in charge of institutional sales and marketing, will now also be in charge of retail distribution and non-US at Old Mutual Asset Management (OMAM), Mutual Fund Wire reports. Appelstein has announced that he will increase the size of the distribution team, which currently has 20 members, to 25. He joins a triumvirate that also include Julian Sluyters, president & CEO of Old Mutual Capital, in charge of retail activities, and James Mikolaichik, executive vice president and head of product, strategy and corporate development, who is in charge of products aimed at retail clients.

According to the Financial Times, 220 investors with up to USD1,000bn invested in private equity have grouped together to demand funds apply a framework of best practice and align their interests more clearly with investors. They are also pushing private equity funds to cut fees.

Standard Life Investments has appointed Christopher Heckscher as senior vice president, US Credit. He joins from Wellington Management where he covered a broad set of sectors within US investment grade and high yield for over 14 years. Based in Boston, Christopher will report to Erlend Lochen, head of US credit and global head of high yield. He will be responsible for covering US high yield and will work with the US Equities team to broaden coverage of US investment grade issuers.

Nearly two years after its creation, La Financière Responsable (LFR) is opening a new chapter in its history with the arrival of Olivier Johanet, the former president of La Française des Placements Investissements (LFP). Johanet is acquiring a 65% stake in the capital of the management firm specialised in socially responsible investment (SRI), and becomes president in charge of strategy, commercial development and marketing. This is a way for Johanet to remain in an entrepreneurial executive position, as LFP merges with UFG. This is a happy turn of events for Stéphane Prévost, CEO, vice-president and 35% owner of LFR, who had been seeking a partner since the departure of Patrick Savadoux, with whom he founded the business in late 2007. Johanet’s entry into the capital of the firm will also allow the boutique to cut its ties with La Française des Placements, which had assisted it in its development through an initial acquisition of a 30% stake, and later the additional 35% stake once held by Savadoux.

BNP Paribas announced on 29 September that it is planning a capital increase of EUR4.3bn, that from October it will redeem the EUR5.1bn in preferential shares in the business held by the French government, and that it will make a further payment to the government of EUR226m calculated over seven months. The bank will thus settle all of its engagements (credit and other payments) which it owes to the state. “It was agreed from the start with the state and the European Union that this participation would be reimbursed as soon as possible. Its cost was progressive, in order to incide rapid repayment,” the bank says in a statement. The EUR5.1bn will be financed by a capital increase of EUR4.3bn, combined with the creation of owners’ equity resulting largely from the payment of dividends in shares (EUR0.75bn) and a capital increase operation reserved for employees (EUR0.26bn). At the conclusion of the operation, BNP Paribas will have EUR59.4bn in Tier one owners’ equity, and its Tier one ratio will be over 9% (pro forms as of 30 June). The group’s capacity for profit (net results of EUR3.2bn for first half 2009) and the organic generation of owners’ equity will ensure that margins of financial maneuvering room appropriate for the continued development ina context of increased capital requirements will be maintained.

According to sources close to the firm, Deutsche Bank is said to have issued a supplementary line of credit of EUR350m to the families that own the Sal. Oppenheim bank, to allow them to pay off loans from other banks, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. This amount comes in addition to the EUR300m provided to the same families to finance a spinoff of their stakes in Arcandor, IVG and the custodial activities of BHF-Bank. In other words, with EUR650m already on the table, Deutsche Bank is not far from the 45% stake it had initially aimed for in Sal. Oppenheim. The firm is said to be valued at EUR1.5bn, excluding the investment bank. Deutsche Bank is interested in the wealth management arm of Sal. Oppenheim (EUR132bn in assets).

Hanspeter Brunner, former chief executive of RBS Coutts, has joined the Swiss private bank BSI, according to Asian Investor. He will move to Singapore next March to take over as head of the bank’s activities in Asia and to develop the bank’s presence in that region.

To reduce the stake in the firm held by the British government, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is reportedly considering a sale of part of its asset management activities, in which it would part with RBS Asset Management (GBP30bn in assets), the Times reports. The idea would be to retain Coutts (the bank of the British royal family), a firm specialised in asset management for high net worth private clients, and to sell off the remainder. Morgan Stanley is said to have been retained as advising bank for the sale.

The Swiss management firm Swisscanto has recruited Bob Barrett as head of UK institutional business, the same function he served at HSBC Global Asset Management, Professional Pensions reports. The recruitment is part of a change in strategy for Swisscanto, which has decided to sell its bond and global equities products to British pension funds, though it has already been managing investments in London for nearly 20 years.

EDF, Areva et KPN ont récemment émis avec succès des dettes à 15 ans. Malgré la demande, l’offre pourrait rester faible

From this Monday, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) will list nine new iShares ETFs from Barclays Global Investors, including four non-financial sector fixed income products, and five capitalisation version of equities funds. The new listings bring the number of bond ETFs from iShares on sale in Europe to 40; these funds carry a management commission of 0.20%, Investment Week reports. The new funds include the iShares Barclays Euro Corporate Bond ex-Financials, Barclays Euro Corporate Bond ex-Financials 1-5, Barclays Euro Corporate Bond 1-5 and iBoxx Corporate Bond ex-Financials. The five equities products replicate the MSCI Emerging Markets, S&P 500, MSCI World, MSCI Europe and MSCI Japan indexes.

In January 2010, the initiators of the Sustainable Value Creation Initiative (SVC) will publish the results of a questionnaire-based survey of governance and sustainable creation of value at the 100 largest firms traded on the Nasdaq OMX market in Stockholm, and the 74 businesses of the Oslo Børs Benchmark Index. The survey is a part of the SVC project, which is now supported by a group of 13 Swedish investors with assets of SEK3.8trn, and by 9 Norwegian investors with NOK2.5trn in assets. It was officially launched on 8 September. The Swedish underwriters of SVC are Andra AP-fonden (AP2), DnB NOR Asset Management, Fjärde AP-fonden (AP4), Folksam, Första AP-fonden (AP1), Meta Asset Management, Nordea Investment Funds, SEB, Skandia Liv, SPP, Swedbank Robur, Church of Sweden and Tredje AP-fonden (AP3). The Norwegian sponsors are Alfred Berg, DnB NOR/Vital, Folketrygdfondet, KLP, Nordea, the ministry of industry, Odin, Statoil Kapitalforvaltning and Storebrand.

Details of an aluminium ETF are being finalized by Swiss commodity supplier Glencore International and Credit Suisse Group, says the Wall Street Journal. If the product gets the regulatory go-ahead, Glencore, will need to buy aluminum as physical backing for the fund. The potential timing of the launch remains unclear.

The IVG Immobilien group has sold eight properties located in major European cities to an institutional fund with EUR300m in assets, IVG Protect Funds, which is wholly subscribed to by five insurers and pension funds, while IVG itself supplies 20% of the capital, Handelsblatt reports. The participation is a sign of goodwill to show other investors that the assets in the portfolio are healthy. Additionally, there are clauses stating that the first EUR33m of any potential losses will be borne solely by IVG.

According to figures from the agency FWW, assets in funds of funds primarily sold in Germany had fallen at the end of March to EUR54.21bn, from EUR57.80bn at the end of December, and a peak of EUR62.2bn at the end of 2007. The number of products of this type fell in the three-month period to 964 as of 31 March, from 998 as of 31 December. The BGF World Gold Fund from BlackRock was the most popular active fund with fund of funds managers: it featured in the portfolios of 137 fund of funds managers, ahead of the Axa Immoselect (in the portfolios of 122 funds of funds) and the JPM Highbridge Statistical Market Neutral fund, found in the portfolios of 121 funds. Among passively-managed funds, the most popular remained the db x-trackers II Eonia Total Return ETF, in 116 portfolios, compared with 119 in fourth quarter 2008. Lastly, FWW states that the main managers of actively-managed target funds are Deka (savings banks) with a market share of 29.9%, compared with 32.3% previously, followed by DWS-Deutsche Bank, with 6.95 of the market, and Union-Investment (co-operative banks) with 5.4%. For index-based target funds, the largest player is Barclays Global Investors with 40.8% of the market, followed by db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank), with 36.3%, and Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale) with 14.3%.

At the beginning of October, Pictet will launch its new Pictet (CH) Precious Metal Fund - Physical Gold, domiciled in Switzerland and aimed at Swiss investors, Citywire reports. The fund, denominated in US dollars, will aim to track the price of gold, and will invest primarily in gold ingots of 12.5 kilos each. Investors will be able to receive redemptions in physical gold when they redeem their shares.

The British management firm Man Investments has received permission from the CNMV to release the Man AHL Trend fund in Spain. The trend-following product complies with the UCITS III directive, Funds People reports. This is the first time that a fund from AHL (USD20.4bn in assets as of 30 June), the futures management affiliate of Man, has been released on the Spanish market.

Union Investment Real Estate (UIRE) has bought the A4C office building on the south bank of the Seine in Paris from Standard Life Investments for EUR177m. The 25,400 square-metre property is wholly leased; the largest tenant is Natixis, whose headquarters are located there. The A4C building will be added to the portfolio of the open-ended retail fund UniImmo: Deutschland. Karl-Joseph Hermanns-Engel, a member of the board of directors, says the property marks the beginning of the return of UIRE to the Parisian real estate investment market. Since the beginning of the year, UIRE has made acquisitions totalling about EUR1bn.

With interest rates at very low levels, Spanish banks are mostly dropping their campaigns to promote savings accounts, which are now too costly, Expansión reports. By the end of the year, they will begin making efforts to capture client savings with investment funds. The pioneers in this area are Ibercaja, La Caixa, Banif and GesBankinter. In two years, about EUR90bn have been withdrawn from funds and placed in savings accounts. But since the beginning of the year, withdrawals from savings accounts have totalled EUR10bn, and in August, funds saw net subscriptions of EUR282m.

Selon un communiqué réglementé diffusé par la Bourse suisse, Carsten Maschmeyer, fondateur du prestataire allemand de services financiers AWD, a vendu sur les deux dernières semaines des actions Credit Suisse pour 35 millions de francs suisses. Néanmoins, sa participation reste supérieure à 5 %. Elle avait atteint au plus haut plus de 7 %.

Le groupe suisse Julius Baer a confirmé le 25 septembre son calendrier de scission en deux unités indépendantes, l’une dédiée à la gestion de fortune, l’autre à la gestion institutionnelle. La scission effective des deux entités devrait intervenir le 30 septembre prochain, la cotation sur la bourse suisse SIX de Julius Baer Group d’une part et de GAM Holding d’autre part, étant programmée pour le 1er octobre.Comme annoncé précédemment, Julius Baer Group se concentrera sur la seuls gestion de fortune alors que Julius Baer Holding sera renommé GAM Holding, composé de GAM, Swiss & Global Asset Management et une participation dans Artio Global Investors.Le directeur général de Julius Baer Groupa a indiqué vendredi lors d’une présentation que l'établissement visait désormais un Tier One de 12% contre 19% actuellement après la cotation le 24 septembre d’Artio Global à New York, ce qui a permis de lever 650 millions de dollars. Boris Collardi a précisé que le groupe ne prévoyait pas de rachat de titres et qu’il envisageait des acquisitions. Le groupe a enregistré au premier semestre 2009 un afflux d’argent frais de 3,8 milliards de francs suisses et vise une croissance annualisée de 4% à 6% d’ici à 2012. Les actifs s'élevaient à fin juin 2009 à 142 milliards de francs suisses contre 148 milliards un an plus tôt.Les perspectives semblent plus mitigées pour GAM. David Solo, directeur des activités de gestion d’actifs, a expliqué dans une présentation séparée que la rentabilité des actifs demeurait sous pression en raison de l’engouement des investisseurs pour les produits à revenu fixe, de la stagnation de la demande pour les fonds alternatifs et des pressions accrues des grands distributeurs. Les revenus de 2010 devraient se maintenir à leur niveau du premier semestre 2009. La participation de 32,2% dans Artio est qualifiée de non-essentielle («non-core») et peut être considérée comme une réserve de capitaux dédiés à des objectifs stratégiques de moyen terme. Les actifs sous gestion s'élevaient au 30 juin dernier à 156,2 milliards de francs suisses, en recul de 27% par rapport au premier semestre 2008.

Début octobre, Pictet va lancer son nouveau Pictet (CH) Precious Metal Fund – Physical Gold, domicilié en Suisse, à destination des investisseurs suisses, rapporte Citywire. Le fonds, libellé en dollars US, va chercher à suivre le cours de l’or et va investir principalement dans des lingots de 12,5 kilos. Les investisseurs auront la possibilité d’obtenir de l’or physique lorsqu’ils vendront leurs parts.

Simon Blundell, head of investment grate credit chez Fortis Investments/ABN Amro Asset Management, a été recruté comme gérant de portefeuille senior chez Aviva Investors. Il entre dans l'équipe de gestion des fonds obligataires actifs et sera responsable de plusieurs portefeuilles d’obligations d’entreprise. Il sera subordonné à Mark Wauton, «head of credit».

Selon Money Marketing, le co-fondateur de Nucleus, Philip Martin, a été nommé «head of proposition» pour les activités retail chez F&C. Philip Martin était directeur du développement chez Nucleus, la plate-forme d’investissement des conseillers en gestion de patrimoine qu’il avait co-créée en 2006 et qu’il a quittée en juin dernier.

A compter de ce lundi, le London Stock Exchange (LSE) cote neuf nouveaux ETF iShares de Barclays Global Investors, dont quatre produits de taux hors financières et cinq versions de capitalisation de fonds d’actions.Cela porte à 40 le nombre d’ETF obligataires d’iShares en Europe ; ces fonds sont assortis d’une commission de gestion de 0,20 %, rapporte Investment Week. Il s’agit du iShares Barclays Euro Corporate Bond ex-Financials, du Barclays Euro Corporate Bond ex-Financials 1-5, du Barclays Euro Corporate Bond 1-5 et du iBoxx Corporate Bond ex-Financials.Les cinq produits actions répliquent les indices MSCI Emerging Markets, S&P 500, MSCI World, MSCI Europe et MSCI Japan.