A fin juillet, l’encours mondial de iShares (Barclays Global Investors ou BGI) ressortait à 414,4 milliards de dollars (soit une part de marché de 48,1 %) contre 380,23 milliards (48,2 %) un mois plus tôt et 324,84 milliards (45,7 %) fin décembre. Le gestionnaire d’ETF indique avoir affiché dans le monde des souscriptions nettes de quelque 32 milliards de dollars, ce qui laisse supposer que l’effet de marché est ressorti à 55,39 milliards d’euros, soit plus de 1,7 fois le montant des rentrées nettes. iShares, qui alignait fin juillet 391 ETF contre 361 en fin d’année dernière, est très largement le premier promoteur mondial de ce type de produits, devant State Street (15,2 % de part de marché fin juillet avec 104 fonds), Vanguard (7,8 % avec 40 fonds) et Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale, 4,5 % avec 105 fonds).En Europe, iShares est également le numéro un avec un encours de 72,26 milliards de dollars pour 158 produits, ce qui représente 39,6 % de part de marché avec les gammes irlandaise et allemande. Les deux dauphins sont Lyxor avec 103 fonds, 37,37 milliards de dollars d’actifs sous gestion et une part de marché de 20,5 %, et db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) avec 105 fonds, 29,79 milliards d’euros et 16,3 % de part de marché. A fin juin, le leader iShares arrivait à 64,40 milliards de dollars et 158 produits, soit 38,8 % de part de marché, après avoir terminé 2008 avec 55,89 milliards de dollars d’encours, 145 fonds et une part de marché de 39,1 %. La collecte nette en Europe est estimée à 4,3 milliards d’euros.

J.P. Morgan Asset Management annonce le recrutement de Pierre-Yves Bareau au poste de responsable de l’équipe de gestion spécialisée sur la dette émergente. Il sera en charge de la coordination des équipes internationales de gestion de dette émergente situées dans les différentes zones géographiques.Pierre-Yves Bareau gère des portefeuilles de dette émergente depuis près de vingt ans. Il rejoindra J.P. Morgan Asset Asset Management après avoir été directeur de la gestion de dette émergente chez Fortis Investments durant plus de dix ans. Pierre-Yves Bareau sera basé à Londres, et reportera directement à Bob Michele, Directeur mondial de la gestion obligataire de J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

Les hedge funds investis dans les marchés émergents ont dégagé des performances supérieures à la moyenne au deuxième trimestre. Selon Hedge Week, l’indice HFRI des marchés émergents a progressé de 18,92 % durant le trimestre alors que l’indice composite affiche un gain de 9,17 %.Sur les six premiers mois de l’année, les hedge funds spécialisés sur les marchés émergents ont dégagé un gain de 20,18 %, le meilleur résultat sur six mois depuis un bond de 27,4 % en 1999. Malgré ces performances flatteuses, la décollecte sur les marchés émergents s’est poursuivie, pour un montant de 2,5 milliards de dollars au deuxième trimestre. Un mouvement largement compensé par l’effet marchés pour un montant de 12,9 milliards de dollars. L’encours des actifs dédiés aux marchés émergents s'élève désormais à 77 milliards de dollars.

Désormais, l’avance de BBVA Asset Management sur Santander Asset Management atteint deux points de part de marché, à 20,61 %, constate Expansión en rappelant que BBVA AM n’a dépassé Santander AM de justesse que depuis la fin de 2008.Parmi les autres gestionnaires ayant gagné du terrain ces derniers mois figure La Caixa qui, selon VDOS Stochastics, a drainé plus de 2 milliards d’euros entre le début de l’année et le 21 août, essentiellement grâce à des campagnes de promotion pour ses fonds garantis. La caisse catalane a ainsi augmenté sa part de marché à 7,42 % contre 5,6 % fin décembre.

Le capital-investisseur CVC et la famille asturienne Cosmen ont présenté une offre de 560 millions de livres (450 pence par action) en numéraire pour les 81,4 % de National Express que les Cosmen ne possèdent pas encore, rapporte Cinco Días. Cette offre est plus avantageuse que celle de 500 millions de livres primitivement attendue. Parmi les autres actionnaires importants de National Express figurent Barclays (8 %) et Prudential (6,58 %).National Express intéresserait aussi Stagecoach et Arriva.

Dans un avis financier paru dans Les Echos, Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management informe les porteurs qu’une nouvelle catégorie de parts sera créée à compter du 31 août 2009, une part «R» au sein de Saint-Honoré Convertibles dont la valeur liquidative d’origine est de 100 euros, le montant minimum de la souscription initiale étant fixé à 500.000 euros. Les caractéristiqus des parts existantes demeurent en l’état, précise l’avis

Groupama qui présentait hier ses résultats semestriels a enregistré, sur la première moitié de l’année 2009, une hausse de son chiffres d’affaires de 8,4 % - à 8 358 millions d’euros - grâce à «la forte croissance en assurance et la mise en place de solides plateformes de développement à l’international», a déclaré Jean Azéma, son directeur général. En revanche, en raison des tempêtes en Europe au début de l’année, le résultat net a reculé de 40,5 %, à 166 millions d’euros. Concernant les activités financières et bancaires, le produit net bancaire s’affiche en hausse de +18,2%, pour atteindre 116 millions d’euros. Du côté de la gestion d’actifs, les encours gérés par Groupama Asset Management et ses filiales s’élèvent à 89,5 milliards d’euros au 30 juin 2009 en hausse de 8,2 milliards d’euros par rapport au 31 décembre 2008. Ces résultats sont liés, en particulier, à l’évolution du marché obligataire et la bonne performance de la gestion actions qui a surperformé le marché, précise Groupama. La collecte nette totale sur le 1er semestre 2009 est positive, à hauteur de 3,1 milliards d’euros - dont 2,3 milliards réalisés hors groupe.

Frédéric Lemoine, président du directoire de la société d’investissement Wendel réorganise sa direction, rapporte la Tribune. Dirk-Jan Van Ommeren, patron d’Oranje-Nassau, remplace Philippe Donnet dans ses fonctions de responsable du développement international. Quant au poste de Jean-Michel Mangeot, secrétaire général, il n’est pas maintenu. Enfin, Laurent Marie est nommé directeur de la communication financière.

Philipp Hensler ayant quitté l’entreprise, DWS Investments a nommé Michael J Woods en tant que US head of Distribution. Il sera subordonné directement à Ingo Gefeke, le nouveau Global Head of Distribution and Product Management. En dernier lieu, Michael Woods était Head of the Financial Intermediaries and Investments Group chez Evergreen Investments. Il a auparavant été CEO de XTF Global Asset Management.

Deux des plus anciens gérants de fonds d’une filiale de Legg Mason, Clearbrige Advisors, ont démissionné entrainant un remaniement dans la gestion des fonds de la société de gestion investis dans des actions américaines. Après 32 ans de carrière dont 18 passées chez Clearbridge Advisors, Alan Blake, gérant de Clearbrige US Large Cap Growth et co gérant de Clearbrige US Large Cap Growth fund avec Peter Borbeau, a décidé de se retirer à compter de fin octobre 2009. Scott Glasser, co directeur de la recherche remplacera Alan Blake aux cotés de Peter Borbeau. Harry ‘Hersh’ Cohen, CIO de Clearbridge, l’autre gérant qui quitte Legg Mason, abandonne la gestion du fonds ClearBridge U.S. Appreciation.

BBVA Asset Management’s lead over Santander Asset Management has now reached two percentage points of market share, to 20.61%, Expansión reports, adding that BBVA AM did not really overtake Santander AM until the end of 2008. Among the other asset management firms which have gained ground in the past few months are La Caixa, which, according to VDOS Stochastics, has attracted more than EUR2bn between the beginning of the year and 21 August, largely due to campaigns to promote their guaranteed funds. The Catalonian savings bank has gained market share to reach a total of 7.42%, compared with 5.6% as of the end of December.

The Danish asset management firm Sparinvest has set up a consulting committee. Allan Timmermann, professor at the University of California, San Diego, and Thorsten Hens, professor at the Swiss Banking Institute at the University of Zurich, will be the first appointments to the new body. The consulting committee will be in charge of defining reliable criteria on which to base products which meet the requirements of the new market, Sparinvest says.

The private equity investor CVC and the Asturian Cosmen family have made an offer of GBP560m (450 pence per share) in cash for the 81.4% of National Express that the Cosmen family does not already control, Cinco Días reports. The bid is higher than the GBP500m offer previosuly expected. Among the other major shareholders in National Express are Barclays (8%) and Prudential (6.58%). National Express is also reported to interest Stagecoach and Arriva.

Regulatory changes which spell the end of banking secrecy in cases of tax evasion not not only in cases of tax fraud have cost the major Liechtenstein banks. Net redemptions have totalled CHF1.6bn for LGT, and CFH304m for Landesbank (LLB), the Börsen-Zeitung reports. LGT, which is acquiring the Swiss affiliate of Dresdner Bank has seen net outflows equivalent to those in second half 2008, but its assets, which as of the end of June were CHF79bn,will increase due to the acquisition by about CHF9.4bn.

The British asset management firm Hermes (EUR30bn in assets) has asked directors of Dax and MDax companies in a letter to make use of the opportunities offered by the new law on managerial pay scales (Gesetz zur Angemessenheit der Vorstandsvergütung, or VorstAG), and to to hold general meetings to pass consultative votes on pay scales for board members, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. If the businesses refuse to do so, Hermes will choose some companies on which it will impose (with at least 5% of capital) agenda items added to the programs at general meetings.

With at least one month to go until the next G20 summit, the Basel Committee on 27 August published a set of guidelines which will aim to support,and perhaps provide a framework for, the work of the IASB in relation to provisioning, evaluation and fair valuation, and related problems. The guidelines will help the architect of international accounting standards to set up a new set of basic reference points for financial instruments, which will aim to replace the highly controversial IAS 39 standard, to improve the utility and pertinence of financial reporting for all parties, including prudential regulators, the Basel Committee says in a statement. Central banks add that these principles will also facilitate the handling of larger issues related to procyclicity and systemic risks. In July of this year, the IASB published a survey and review of classification and evaluation systems for financial instruments for comment until mid-September. The guidelines, which draw lessons from the financial crisis and which respond to recommendations made at the G20 summit in April, also reflect the necessity for rapid accounting of losses on loans in order to make projections of the consequent outcomes, with an awareness that their fair value is not appropriate in a context of dislocated or illiquid markets, and authorises reclassifications of assets in very specific circumstances from the fair value category into the amortised cost category, and promotes the same regulations for all these categories. To appease partisans of fair value, the Basel Committee statement points out that the new approach to financial instruments “will not result in an expansion of accouting in fair value,” for companies involves in intermediary activities in particular. Credit instruments, particularly loans, will not be included in the fair value accounting category, the statement says. The chairman of the Basel committee, Nout Welling, also points out that one of the lessons of the crisis is that “all accounting regulations must be articulated with appropriate practices in terms of risk management,a nd should promote transparency, in order to assist supervisors, banks, investors and other participants to achieve their respective objectives.” This also means that the objectives of international accounting: transparency, readability, comparability of financial states, have not yet been achieved. The Basel Committee says in its statement that the need to produce transparent and comparable information will lead to a revision of IFRS 7 standards. The IASB has put this revision on its agenda for the beginning of the coming season. It is one of the propositions included in the survey and report cited above.

In first half, Henderson Global Investors (HGI) has posted pre-tax profits of GBP34.7m, compared with GBP60.6m, while profits at Henderson Group have fallen 47% to GBP27.1m, comparedd with GBP50.8m. Henderson Group shows a net loss of GBP0.6m, compared with profits of GBP41.2m in January-June 2008. The British asset manager blames the deterioration in its results to net outflows of GBP2.9bn, as well as to the negative impact of capital losses and currency effects, which represented a total of GBP1.7bn. As of the end of June, assets totalled GBP53bn, compared with GBP49.5bn as of the end of December, and GBP52.6bn twelve months previously. The acquisition of New Star on 9 April brought in about GBP8.1bn in assets; these totalled GBP8bn as of the end of June.

In first half, Deka had posted pre-tax profits of EUR50m, compared with EUR113.8m, while net profits totalled EUR46.4m, compared with EUR53.8m. The central asset management firm for the German saving banks has written down EUR218.9m (compared with EUR0.5m), of which about half is related to loans to Icelandic banks, and EUR25m to an amortisation of goodwill on the acquisition of Westinvest in 2004. Deka, which has reached an agreement with the board at the business to lay off about 350 people out of a total of 3,355 employees, at the end of June had assets of EUR145bn, compared with EUR142.5bn six months earlier. Net subscriptions fell to EUR1.3bn, compared with EUR1.4bn for the real estate arm (AMI), while the securities arm (AMK) saw net outflows of EUR1.4bn, largely due to money market funds, compared with net inflows of EUR7.3bn. In total, the group has posted net redemptions of EUR134m, comapred with net subscriptions of EUR8.654bn.

On Thursday, Deutsche Bank announced that its due diligence on accounts at sal. Oppenheim has been going positively so far, and that it will have reached a decision over a possible acquisition of a stake (of 30% to 50%) in the firm by mid-October, Handelsblatt reports. According to sources close to the firm, it is likely that Deutsche Bank will later acquire a majority stake in the family-owned private bank.

The British management firm Martin Currie has announced that it has signed the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI). Tim Hall, managing director of the investment team, says that Martin Currie has long recognized the importance of taking a full range of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into account in corporate research. These elements will now be more systematically integrated into the analysis undertaken by the research team.

Jeudi, la Deutsche Bank a indiqué que sa due diligence des comptes de Sal. Oppenheim s’est jusqu'à présent déroulée «positivement» ; elle devrait être achevée à la mi-septembre et une décision sur une éventuelle prise de participation (entre 30 et 50 %) pourrait être prise pour la mi-octobre, rapporte le Handelsblatt. Selon les proches du dossier, il est vraisemblable qu’ultérieurement la Deutsche prendra la majorité dans la banque privée familiale.

Jeudi, la Deutsche Bank a indiqué que sa due diligence des comptes de Sal. Oppenheim s’est jusqu'à présent déroulée positivement ; elle devrait être achevée à la mi-septembre et une décision sur une éventuelle prise de participation (entre 30 et 50 %) pourrait être prise pour la mi-octobre, rapporte le Handelsblatt. Selon les proches du dossier, il est vraisemblable qu’ultérieurement la Deutsche prendra la majorité dans la banque privée familiale.

As Philipp Hensler has left the company, DWS Investments has appointed Michael J. Woods as US head of distribution. He will report directly to Ingo Gefeke, the new Global Head of Distribution and Product Management. Woods was most recently Head of Financial Intermediaries and Investments Group at Evergreen Investments. He was previously CEO of XTF Global Asset Management.

Groupama, which yesterday announced its half-yearly results, has posted an increase in its earnings in first half 2009 of 8.4%, to EUR8.358bn, due to “strong growth in insurance and the deployment of solid platforms for international development, says Jean Azéma, its CEO. However, due to the turbulence in Europe earlier this year, net results were down 40.5%, to EUR166m. For financial and banking activities, net banking proceeds are up 18.2%, to a total of EUR116m. On the asset management side, assets under management by Groupama Asset Management and its affiliates total EUR89.5bn as of 30 June 2009, an increase of EUR8.2bn compared with the end of December 2008. These results are closely related to the evolution of the bond market and the good performance of equities management, which outperformed the market, Groupama says. Total net inflows in first half 2009 are positive at EUR3.1bn, of which EUR2.3bn were earned outside the group.

According to estimates by VDOS Stochastics relayed by Cinco Días, assets un securities funds on sale in Spain increased between 1 and 21 August by EUR1.06bn, or 0.63%, to nearly EUR170.16bn. For the first time since the start of the crisis, these funds show net subscriptions (of EUR446m), while positive market effects represented EUR612m.

The British management firm Martin Currie, which has been developing its presence in Asia for several years, with the opening of an office in Shanghai in 1997, and of a branch office in Melbourne in August 2008, has announced the opening of an office in Singapore on 1 October of this year. Asian activities will be directed from Melbourne, where the office is directed by Kimon Kouryalas. The Singapore office will be led by a senior business development officer, whose appointment will take place soon.

The Dax, which as of 9 March was at 3588, is now in the region of 5500. It has thus gained more than 50% in less than six months. Many retail investors who missed this rising trend are now moving into the equities markets, Die Welt reports. The most recent statistics from the BVI association of management firms reveal that in July, net subscriptions to retail equities funds exceeded EUR2.5bn, one hundred times more than in June. Diversified funds attracted EUR1.2bn, while bond funds saw inflows of about EUR1bn. Meanwhile, investors withdrew nearly EUR6bn from money market funds, which are traditionally used as a place to park liquidities. But money market rates have since fallen to such a low level that they did nto even quite pay for all management commissions. This has led investors to seek more profitable investments.

In July, German and Luxembourg-registered funds on sale in Germany attracted net subscriptions of EUR3.13bn, which brings the total for the first seven months of the year to EUR6.9bn, the BVI association reports. This total conceals significant discrepancies. Of this total, institutional funds saw inflows of EUR5.92bn. Then, securities funds in January-July show net outflows of EUR1.73bn, largely due to net redemptinos fo EUR16.92bn from money market funds (of which EUR5.86bn were in July. The largest net subscriptions were for equities funds, with EUR7.41bn in inflows in the seven-month period, and EUR2.51bn in July. Open-ended real estate funds saw net redemptinos of EUR437.4m in July, but net subscriptions of EUR2.71bn in January-July.

Net redemptions in January-July from Deka (savings banks), at more than EUR3.39bn, and from Allianz Global Investors (AGI), at more than EUR2.14bn, represent 3.15 times the net outflows from all German- and Luxembourg-registered securities funds on sale in Germany as a whole (EUR17.3bn). According to statistics from the BVI association of asset management firms, nearly all the major players say net outflows. Pioneer (UniCredit) and Union Investment (co-operative banks) posted net outflows of EUR875m and EUR600.2m, respectively. Only DWS/DB (Deutsche Bank) can boast net subscriptions, totalling EUR1.15bn, but this is due solely to EUR2.57bn in inflows to ETF activities at db x-trackers. The other two major ETF promoters have posted net subscriptions also, with EUR291.94m for iShares ETFs registered in Germany from Barclays Global Investors, and EUR1.96bn for ETFlab, an affiliate of Deka.

After accusing Bank of America directors of lying to their shareholders about USD3.6bn in bonuses awarded to Merrill Lynch executives, Judge Rakoff has now accused the SEC of complacency. The District Court of Manhattan judge has challenged the “amicable settlement” reached between the SEC and BoA, by which the bank paid a fine of USD33m. Rakoff argues that a more severe sanction needs to be imposed on the directors responsible rather than on shareholders.