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16/12/2013

iShares launches a new ETF

BlackRock on 13 December announced that iShares had added to its short-term ETF range, with the launch of the iShares Liquidity Income ETF to the Bats platform (ticker: ICSH). The actively-managed ETF seeks to produce earnings appropriate for the preservation of capital through diversified exposure to short-term bonds and money market instruments. The total expense ratio is set at 0.18% per year.
16/12/2013

Net redemptions from hedge funds in October

After net subscriptions of USD4.4bn in September, hedge funds have seen net redemptions of USD2.2bn in October, according to BarclayHedge and TrimTabs. For the first 10 months of the year, hedge funds have posted a net inflows of USD49.4bn, compared with net outflows of USD12.9bn in the corresponding period of 2012.As of the end of October, assets in the sector totalled USD2trn, on the basis of data released by 3,348 funds. Since the beginning of this year, total assets under management have increased by 15.3%, although they remain at a level 16.1% below the all-time record of USD2.4trn, in June 2008.
16/12/2013

Sudden drop in number of hedge fund launches

The Volcker rule in the United States is already having negative effects on the hedge fund industry. According to the most recent study by HFR Market Microstructure Industry, the number of new hedge funds launched in third quarter has reached its lowest level in three years. The report evaluates the 23 new hedge funds launched on the market in third quarter, compared with 288 in second quarter, and 275 in third quarter 2012, their lowest level since fourth quarter 2012, when 220 funds were placed on the market. Overall, since the beginning of the year 2013, 816 new hedge funds have been launched, compared with 824 in the same period last year. Meanwhile, liquidation of hedge funds has increased sharply. In third quarter, 222 vehicles were liquidated, 190 in second quarter and 211 in third quarter 2012. Such a level has not been reached since fourth quarter 2012. Since the beginning of this year, 608 funds have been discontinued. In the opinion of HFR, this situation is closely related to the uncertainties engendered by the introduction of the Volcker rule. “The number of hedge fund launches has declined in third quarter, as managers, investors and financial institutions awaiting the passage of the Volcker rule, which includes restrictions on proprietary trading by financial institutions, and restricts holding of hedge funds by financial institutions,” says Kenneth J. Heinz, president of HFR.
16/12/2013

SLI toughens its governance standards

UK-based Standard Life Investments (SLI) has announced that it is toughening its “governance stewardship principles and policy guidelines” used for the evaluation of governance at businesses in which the asset management firm invests or may invest its clients’ capital. The guidelines will now be applied worldwide, and now include a new “values & business practices” section.The new rules also include a standard by which administrators or directors of a business would be required to hold an “appropriate” proportion of their shares after they leave the firm.The new rules and principles will take effect from January 2014, from which date the regional guidelines will be updated to allow managers to implement them as part of their voting policies.
16/12/2013

More than 300,000 Brits have not saved enough for their retirement

According to a survey carried out in November 2013 by Opiniom on behalf of Liverpool & Victoria of a representative sample of 1,070 people aged 60-65 in the United Kingdom, the necessary nest egg to retire decently for 17 years (the average duration of retirement according to the National Statistical Office) is said to be at leat GBP225,276. According to calculations, more than 300,000 people aged 60 to 65 have not saved enough for their retirement, and are facing a shortage of sacings of GBP106,000.The legal pension regime gives an average GBP5,727 per year, while spending for a pensioner represents GBP7,263.20 for 52 weeks.
16/12/2013

Ashcourt Rowan posts losses for first half

The British wealth management firm Ashcourt Rowan has reported a pre-tax loss of GBP2.5m for the six months to the end of September, largely related to one-time costs for the restructuring of the group, according to figures released on 13 December. Assets under management by the group remained stable at GBP3.7bn, of which GBP1.6bn in discretionary assets or assets under management. The recent acquisition of Generali Portfolio Management (UK) as well as other recent initatives are expected to contributed to an increase in assets under management of more than GBP300m in second half, the group says in its interim results. Ashcourt Rowan also, before the weekend, announced the acquisitiou of the asset management firm UK Wealth Management (UKWN, GBP1.3bn in assets under management as of the end of October), totalling GBP14.25m. This operation is financed by a cash issue of 8.25 millino shares at 185 pence each, which represents a total of about GBP15.2m. The sale price represents a discount of 2.4% compared with the closing price of 189.5 pence as of 12 December.
16/12/2013

Guillaume Rambourg returns to United Kingdom

Guillaume Ramourg, former star manager at Gartmore, whose problems with the British regulator led to the fall of the asset management firm as an independent structure, is returning to the British fund market, Financial Times fund management reports. Verrazano Capital, his Paris-based hedge fund, has raised GBP50m from private high net worth invetors and family offices for a Europe ex UK long-only fund aimed at British invetors. The Verrazzano Advantage European fund will be concentrated on about 40 to 60 positions.
16/12/2013

Burkhard Varnhold to become new head ISG and CIO of Julius Baer

Julius Baer has appointed Burkhard Varnholt as new head investment solutions group (ISG) and chief investment officer (CIO) as of 1 March 2014. Hans Lauber who has previously held both positions will leave Julius Baer for private reasons: already some time ago he requested to be relieved of his duties to devote more time to his family. Prior to joining Julius Baer, Burkhard Varnhold has been CIO and head asset management and institutional clients of Bank J. Safra Sarasin and before that he had held a leading position at Credit Suisse.
16/12/2013

Nordea AM adds to its product range

Nordea Asset Management, the asset management affilate of the bank Nordea, which has EUR228bn in assets under management as of the end of September, has added to the fund range for its Nnordea 1 Sicav, with the launch of four new vehicles. Its range thus gains the addition of new emerging market equity funds. The first of these, entitled Emerging Markets Small Cap Fund, whose management is outsourced to the US boutique Copper Rock Capital Partners, concentrates on emerging market small caps. The second, Chinese Equity Fund, aims to invest in Chinese high quality businesses. Meanwhile, Nordea Am is adding to the bond portion of its Sicav with two new vehicles. The Unconstrained Bond Fund, whose management is outsourced to the US bond market specialist McKay Shields, is based on “a dynnamic, multi-strategy asset allocation process and active management of durations,” Nordea Am explains in a statement. Lastly, Nordic Corporate Bond Fund, centred exclusively on the Scandinavian corporate bond segment, aims to invest both in investment-grade and high yield bonds, except the financial sector.
16/12/2013

Nordea AM adds to its product range

Nordea Asset Management, the asset management affilate of the bank Nordea, which has EUR228bn in assets under management as of the end of September, has added to the fund range for its Nnordea 1 Sicav, with the launch of four new vehicles. Its range thus gains the addition of new emerging market equity funds. The first of these, entitled Emerging Markets Small Cap Fund, whose management is outsourced to the US boutique Copper Rock Capital Partners, concentrates on emerging market small caps. The second, Chinese Equity Fund, aims to invest in Chinese high quality businesses. Meanwhile, Nordea Am is adding to the bond portion of its Sicav with two new vehicles. The Unconstrained Bond Fund, whose management is outsourced to the US bond market specialist McKay Shields, is based on “a dynnamic, multi-strategy asset allocation process and active management of durations,” Nordea Am explains in a statement. Lastly, Nordic Corporate Bond Fund, centred exclusively on the Scandinavian corporate bond segment, aims to invest both in investment-grade and high yield bonds, except the financial sector.
16/12/2013

Wealth of retail investors totals USD195trn

The cumulative wealth of retail investors was USD195,000 as of the end of 2012, according to statistics released by WealthInsight. The number of high net worth individuals (HNWI) as of the end of 2012 totalled 16.8 million, with cumulative wealth of USD66trn. Global asset management firms, family offices and private banks had USD19.3trn in assets under management in 2012. More than 5,000 family offices were operating last year worldwide, with most of them based in Europe and the United States (2,900 in the US). The cumulative wealth of family offices is estimated at USD2.5trn. This is equivalent to 3.7% of the cumulative wealth in the HNWI segment, and 13% of assets under management worldwide.
16/12/2013

Hedge funds cut their commissions for large investors

Managers of hedge funds tend to reduce the commissions they charge large invetors, and offer a much wider range of personalised investment options, the Financial Times reports. “The challenges for managers have never been so large, but the appetite of investors has never been so large, meaning that managers are feeding off investors’ agitation,” says Cary Steir, head of the asset management division at Deloitte. However, enthusiasm for hedge funds on the part of institutional investors, particularly corporates and mid-sized pension funds, may appear excessive, in light of the more modest ambitions for returns. Acording to the Global Hedge Fund Report for 2014, which will be published by Preqin in January, expectations of returns from hedge funds are now at about 7%, compared with 7.7% in 2011.
16/12/2013

BP pension fund extends mandate for BNPP IP

According to Fonds Nieuws, Stichting Pensioenfonds BP, the Netherlands pension fund from BP, has extended its mandate for BNP Paribas Investment Partners (BNPP IP), which will now be responsible for the management of half of the fund’s investment portfolio (EUR850m). BNPP IP was selected after a process to evaluate several candidate managers. It will aim to provide liability-driven investment (LDI) investment solutions, and will also be responsible for monitoring interest rate risks for the overall portfolio.
16/12/2013

Investors anticipate end of quantitative easing

Although the US Federal Reserve has yet to hold their December meeting, investors have been acting as if it has already occurred and a vote to start winding down the current quantitative easing program (QE3) took place. During the week ending December 11 redemptions from EPFR Global-tracked bond funds hit their highest weekly total since late August, investors pulled over USD1.6 billion out of both emerging markets equity and bond funds and outflows from commodities sector funds climbed to levels last seen in early July while commitments to floating rate bond funds jumped to a 10 week high. Overall, bond funds posted a collective net outflow of USD4.2 billion for the week while equity funds absorbed USD1.37 billion and money market funds USD8.8 billion., according to data released by EPFR Global. EPFR Global repors that interpreting this week’s equity fund flows is complicated by the fact that a number of major US equity funds went ex-dividend on Wednesday, with sizable capital gains distributions showing up as outflows until they are reinvested on Thursday which will appear as inflows next week. However, with three weeks of the year remaining over a dozen fund groups remain on course to post full year inflow records, among them Europe, convertible, floating rate and Colombia bond funds, balanced funds, industrials, infrastructure and healthcare/biotechnology sector funds and all five of the major developed markets equity fund groups.
16/12/2013

AllianceBernstein completes acquisition of W.P. Stewart

AllianceBernstein, an affiliate of the Axa group, on 12 December completed its acquisition of W.P. Stewart, an equity asset management firm whose assets total about USD2bn (see Newsmanagers of 19 August 2013). Teams at W.P. Stewart will remain in place, and will continue to provide investment services. The deal allows AllianceBernstein to strengthen its expertise in growth equities.
16/12/2013

SSgA appoints a global head of defined contribution research

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the asset management business of State Street Corporation has announced the appointment of Mark Fortier to managing director, head of global defined contribution research and product development.In this position, Fortier will be responsible for developing best-in-class products that anticipate plan sponsor needs and will work closely with the investment teams across SSgA to bring new defined contribution products to market globally. Fortier will be based in Boston and report to Fredrik Axsater, managing director and global head of defined contribution at SSgA. Fortier joins SSgA from Alliance Bernstein, where he most recently served as head of product and partner strategy.
16/12/2013

Institutional demand for inclusion of ESG and SRI increases

According to a survey of 83 asset management firms carried out in September by ING Investment Management International in the Netherlands, 66% of pension fund managers and advisers apply environmental, social and governance (ESG) or socially responsible investment (SRI) criteria to investments they are responsible for, and 58% cite “a sense of personal responsibility” as the primary motivation for the use of ESG/SRI criteria, compared with 52% who cite internal procedures at the company, and 42% who say pressure from investors is responsible.Meanwhile, 21% of respondents feel that the use of ESG/SRI criteria represents a more effective investment method, while 10% feel that this approach tends to outperform the benchmark index.ING IM found that 91% of institutionals who invest in corporate bonds apply ESG/SRI criteria to this asset class, compared with 89% for those who invest in equities from developed countries, and 87% of those who are exposed to emerging market equities and private equity.Overall, 75% of respondents feel that environmental and socially responsible sub-funds as well as compliance with good governance standards are important for the future of investment.The survey finds that 38% of heads surveyed reported that their appetite for ESG/SRI has increased in the past six months.Heads of pension funds have the highest level of awareness of ESG/SRI criteria (73%), followed by charities (62%).
16/12/2013

BlackRock doit dévoiler sa montée au capital de Telecom Italia

BlackRock, le numéro un mondial de la gestion d’actifs, a confirmé lundi être monté au capital de Telecom Italia dont il détient désormais 7,789% des droits de vote. Dans un communiqué, le groupe américain dit détenir en sus des obligations convertibles d’une valeur de 183 millions d’euros, correspondant à une participation de 1,639%. Des documents de la Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) montraient que la participation de BlackRock était passée de 5,1% fin octobre à 10,1% fin novembre. Dimanche, la Consob, le gendarme boursier italien, a fait savoir qu’elle pourrait infliger une amende à BlackRock pour ne pas s'être manifesté, la réglementation en Italie rendant obligatoire de déclarer les franchissements de seuils à partir de 10%.
16/12/2013

Wolfgang Schäuble soutient Sabine Lautenschläger pour la BCE

Le ministre allemand des Finances, Wolfgang Schäuble, a affirmé lundi que Sabine Lautenschläger, actuelle vice-présidente de la Bundesbank, serait une bonne candidate pour succéder à Jörg Asmussen au directoire de la Banque centrale européenne. «C’est une excellente vice-présidente de la Bundesbank», a-t-il dit à la radio Deutschlandfunk en notant son expérience dans le domaine de la supervision bancaire. Jörg Asmussen a annoncé dimanche qu’il quitterait ses fonctions à la BCE pour rejoindre le gouvernement allemand de grande coalition en tant que secrétaire d’Etat au Travail.
16/12/2013

OFI AM se réorganise

OFI doit annoncer aujourd’hui un nouveau plan stratégique qui passera par une réorganisation de ses structures. Selon plusieurs sources, OFI AM, Macif Gestion et OFI Mandats, qui sont aujourd’hui trois sociétés distinctes, ne devraient plus former qu’une seule entité. Le principe de cette réorganisation avait été annoncé il y a un an par Gérard Bourret, directeur général de la société de gestion. La nomination de Franck Dussoge au poste de DG de Macif Gestion, officalisée il y a quelques jours, en plus de ses fonctions chez OFI Mandats, en témoigne. Cette simplification a aussi conduit la Macif, actionnaire à 66% d’OFI aux côtés de la Matmut (34%), à céder sa participation directe de 34% dans Macif Gestion à OFI AM, qui n’en détenait que les deux tiers. D’où une repondération des parts de la Macif et de la Matmut au capital d’OFI. La filiale de gestion affichait autour de 55 milliards d’euros d’encours à fin septembre.
16/12/2013

Le fonds souverain norvégien vise l’immobilier à Boston

Le fonds souverain norvégien a annoncé avoir acquis pour 238 millions de dollars une participation de 47,5% au sein du One Financial Center, un immeuble de bureaux de 46 étages à Boston. MetLife a dans le même temps renforcé de 2,5% sa participation à 52,5%.
16/12/2013

La création de hedge funds s’essouffle

Hedge Fund Research indique que 231 fonds alternatifs ont été créés dans le monde au cours du troisième trimestre, pour 222 liquidations. Le volume de créations est le plus faible depuis le quatrième trimestre 2010, tandis que celui de liquidations est le plus important depuis le quatrième trimestre 2012. La prudence du trimestre écoulé s’explique selon HFR par les craintes entourant la finalisation de la règle Volcker aux Etats-Unis, approuvée cette semaine par les régulateurs.
16/12/2013

Jörg Asmussen quitte le directoire de la BCE

Nommé secrétaire d’Etat au travail dans le nouveau gouvernement de coalition, Jörg Asmussen va céder son fauteuil de membre du directoire de la BCE. Sa place devrait revenir à une Allemande, les noms de Sabine Lautenschläger (vice-présidente de la Bundesbank), Elke König (directrice de la BaFin) et Claudia Buch (responsable de l’institut économique de Halle), étant les plus fréquemment évoqués.
16/12/2013

Tokyo revoit à la hausse sa prévision de croissance pour 2014

Le gouvernement japonais a décidé de relever ses prévisions de croissance pour 2014, qui sont ainsi passées de 1 à 1,3%, a rapporté Reuters samedi. Sur cette base, Tokyo table désormais sur 50.000 milliards de yens (353 milliards d’euros) de recettes fiscales. Le gouvernement de Shinzo Abe compte sur l’effet de mesures de relance pour compenser une hausse de la TVA prévue en avril.
16/12/2013

Le FMI verse sa toute dernière tranche d'aide à l'Irlande

Le Fonds monétaire international (FMI) a versé vendredi à l’Irlande la toute dernière tranche de son aide financière, soit 890 millions de dollars (648 millions d’euros), permettant à Dublin de tourner définitivement la page du plan d’aide international qui lui a permis d'échapper à un défaut en 2011. Selon le ministre des Finances, Michael Noonan, Dublin pourrait ramener l’année prochaine le poids de sa dette à 116% de son PIB, après 124% cette année.

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