Since 15 October, Pioneer Investments Taiwan can sell its funds directly via distributors in Taiwan, Asian Investor report. ING Securities Investment & Trust had previously provided distribution of Pioneer funds.

Martin Theisinger, managing director at Oppenheim Capital Management in charge of client relations and development after serving in management positions at BNP Paribas Investment Partners, Fortis Investments, Schroder Investment Management and JPMorgan Asset Management, has been appointed as a member of the general management at Meriten Investment Management GmbH (EUR24bn as of the end of September), an affiliate of BNY Mellon Investment Management. He will be responsible for sales and report to Werner Taiber, CEO.

Sergio Penchas, a Brazilian citizen who has already spent more than 20 years at the Safra group, a large part of it at Banco safra in Brazil, and at JSI Investments, the family office from Safra, has been appointed as head of the asset management, products and sales division at Banque J. Safra Sarasin. He becomes a member of the executive board at the bank, and succeeds Burkhardt Vamholt, who has resigned.To assume the new role, Penchas has stepped back from his responsibilities on the boards of directors of Banque J. Safra Sarasin Ltd and J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG.

Funds People reports that as of 30 September, assets at Santander Asset Management totalled EUR59.3bn in Spain (investment funds, retirement savings plans and mandates), which represents a 14% increase compared with the end of December.For Sabadell, assets under management in investment funds have topped EUR10bn, up 17.4% in nine months. Retirement savings plans and insurance as of the end of third quarter posted assets of EUR3.88bn (+8.6%) and EUR7.29bn (-5.3%), respectively.Profits for the group, for their part, totalled EUR3.31bn in the first nine months of the year for Santander (+77%), and EUR186.1m (+105.4%) for Sabadell.

According to Funds People, A&G Banca Privada, in which fhe largest shareholder is the Swiss firm EFG International, has recruited a team of four private bankers from Inversis Banco, led by Paul Gromero.Over the past five years, A&G has doubled its assets to EUR4.3bn.

The index provider Russell Indexes has launched a new index which comes as an addition to its range of fundamental indices. The Russell fundamental US TOP100 Volatility Control 7% Index provides investors with exposure to the 100 largest US firms on the basis of three fundamental criteria: leverage-adjusted earnings, operational cash flow, dividends and equity repurchases, as part of a volatility control schema which aims to achieve volatility of 7%.

As of 30 September, assets at AllianceBernstein totalled USD45.2bn, which represents an increase of 2.4%, or USD10.6bn comapred with the end of June, and an increase of 6.3%, or USD26.3bn year on year.However, the US asset management firm states that in third quarter, it suffered net outflows of USD4.8bn, compared with net subscriptions of USD0.2bn in April-June, and net redemptions of USD4.4bn in the corresponding period of last year.In its quarterly report, AllianceBernstein states that as of 1 October, Axa has sold one of its affiliates, MONYLife Insurance Company, to a third party outside the group. As a result, AllianceBernstein has lost about USD7bn in bond assets out of the USD8bn managed by MONY as of 30 September. However, the loss of these assets does not have a major impact on operating revenues, insofar as they were very low-margin assets.Net profits at AllianceBernstein LP (the operating partnership) in third quarter totalled USD99.95m, compared with USD120.71m in April-June, and a loss of USD44.25m in the corresponding period of 2012. Net profits at AllianceBernstein Holding LP (the publicly-traded partnership) total USD29.52m, compared with USD40.28m in the previous quarter, and a loss of USD23.14m in July-September last year.

Musical chairs at AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM). The asset management firm has appointed Laurent Seyer as global head of distribution. He will be responsible for strengthening relationships with third-party clients at AXA IM and ensuring the effective distribution of high quality investment solutions from AXA IM to its clients, throughout the world, a statement says, adding that Seyer remains a member of the board of directors at AXA IM. He will be based in Paris, and will report to Andrea Rossi, CEO of AXA IM. Seyer, currently head of multi-asset client solutions (MACS), will be replaced on 1 March 2014 by Christophe Coquema, currently chief operating officer at AXA IM. Joseph Pinto, global head of markets and investment strategy (MIS), will simultaneously become global chief operating officer. They will both remain members of the board of directors, and will continue to report to Rossi. Seyer will continue to serve as global head of MACS until 1 March 2014, alongside his new responsibilities as global head of distribution. Seyer joined AXA IM in May 2012 as Global Head of Investment Solutions. He previously worked for Lyxor Asset Management, where he was chief executive officer from May 2006. Coquema was appointed global chief operating officer in December 2011, and is also a member of the executive board and the management committee at AXA Investment Managers. He joined AXA IM in July 2006 as head of strategy and innovation, and from 2007 to 2010 served as global ehad of shared operational functions at AXA IM (IT, change management, operational support service management, procurement and product engineering). Pinto has been global head of markets and investment strategy at AXA IM since December 2011. He is also a member of the executive board and the management committee at AXA IM. From 2007 to 2011, he was director for France, Southern Europe and the Middle East at AXA IM.

In third quarter 2013, Janus has posted outflows of USD4.2bn, which follow outflows of USD5.4bn in second quarter 2013, and USD2bn in third quarter 2012. All categories of funds showed outflows, except for “mathematical equity long term.” Due to positive market effects, Janus saw an increase in its assets nonetheless, to USD166.7bn as of the end of September, compared with USD160.6bn as of the end of June, and USD158.2bn as of 30 September 2012. Net profits totalled USD32.6m, compared with USD15.8m in second quarter, and USD25.1m in second quarter 2012.

Michael Novogratz, co-chief investment officers of macro funds at Fortress Investment Group, has publicly supported the virtual currency Bitcoin, at a conference in New York, the Financial Times reports. He says he personally invested in the currency three months ago. However, Fortress felt that it was too speculative to do itself. Among other investors in Bitcoin are the Winklevoss twins, who are working to launch an ETF backed by the currency.

Bad news is back. Carmignac Gestion, which is exposed to emerging markets, has paid for the poor performance of these regions, linked to the announcement in spring that monetary support would be reduced by the Fed. In third quarter, the asset management firm recorded outflows of EUR1.2bn from its balanced funds, Carmignac Patrimoine, Carmignac Emerging Patrimoine and Carmignac Euro Patrimoine. The first, the flagship of the range, has seen net redemptions of EUR1bn, while the second has seen EUR230m. Overall assets at the firm as of the end of September total EUR54bn, “down 2.2% since the beginning of the year, and 4% for balanced funds,” Carmignac states.“We nonetheless have reasons to be satisfied,” says Didier Saint-Georges, a member of the investment committee, who states that the Carmignac Captial Plus fund posted net inflows in third quarter of EUR120m, and now has a three-year track record which is in phase with the expectations of the firm. Carmignac Investissement has also posted inflows of EUR200m. “With everything taken into account, Carmignac Gestion shows inflows of EUR380m for the year,” says Saint-Georges.

Asset management earnings at the Axa group increased 8% in the first nine months of the year to EUR2.6bn, largely due to rising management commissions tied to increasing average assets under management, an increase in distribution ccommissions at AllianceBernstein, and an increase in real estate transaction commissions and performance commissions at AXA IM, according to a statement released on 24 October.Assets under management are down 2% to EUR884bn compared with 31 December 2012, largely impacted by a change in the perimeter following the sale of AXA Private Equity (-EUR22bn), and a negative currency effect, partially offset by a positive impact of financial markets and a positive net inflow, largely at AXA IM.Net inflows totalled +EUR6bn in the period, with +EUR7.5bn at AXA IM, largely supported by bond and equity products, and -EUR1.5bn at AllianceBernstein, with positive net inflows to bond products more than offset by net outflows from equities. Net inflows in third quarter deteriorated in the institutional segment at the two asset management firms, with outflows largely to clients located in Asia.

According to Funds People, citing Augusto Martin, head of Iberia, La Française AM has registered the Rendement Global 2020 LFP fund with the CNMV, a fund of investment grade and high yield bonds from issuers in the OECD region, or up to 30% in emerging markets, with maturities of 31 December 2020 at the latest.The fund wil be managed by Jean-Luc Hivert, co-head of fixed income, and Akram Gharbi. The objective is to outperform the returns on OATs maturing in 2020. The recommended investment duration is seven years.

Jupiter Asset Management has recruited Katharine Dyer as product specialist for its bond and multi-asset class team, Fund Web reports. Dyer will join Jupiter in December 2013 from BlackRock, where she worked as managing director and retail product specialist for multi-asset class client solutions.

Following recent press speculation, Aberdeen Asset Management confirmed on Thursday that it is in discussions with Lloyds Banking Group in relation to a possible acquisition of Scottish Widows Investment Partnership and the formation of a strategic partnership with Lloyds.“The potential acquisition would add further scale and diversity to the Company’s product range, thus complementing organic growth, consistent with the Board’s strategy,” according to the Scottish asset manager.If agreed, the acquisition would be funded through the issuance of new shares in the Company to Lloyds and additional deferred payments in cash, conditional on the performance of the partnership over a period of years.“The proposed transaction would also offer substantial cost efficiencies and synergies.” Earlier this week, Investment Week revealed Aberdeen and Australia’s Macquarie Group, were the two remaining bidders for the asset management business.

Schroders has published the conclusions of its most recent survey on asset alloction for defined contribution plans at companies whose equities are listed in the FTSE 350. It finds that in the past 12 months, 85% of the companies studied did not significantly modify their asset allocation, and that of the remaining 15%, few of them diversified. Most funds continue to deploy a strategy which is highly dependent on equities.Comparing the results of the 2012 and 2013 studies, it appears that the typical allocation for funds remains steady at 84%, with a reduction of 2 points, however, for exposure to British equities (to 31%), while the global equity allocation gains 2 points, to 48%. The weight of fixed income has been reduced to 8%, compared with 9.2%, and there has been no change in allocation to alternative asset, which remain at 8%.In terms of funds for companies of the FTSE 100, portfolios have changed only marginally, with the most notable change being an increase in the amount allocated to emerging markets, to 5%, from 3%. Funds of the FTSE 250 were more mobile, with a reduction of 5 points for the UK equity allocation, to 36%, and an increase of 4 points, to 48%, for global equities.

BlueBay Asset Management is launching an absolute return credit fund, Citywire report. The BlueBay Total Return Credit fund will be added to the range of Luxembourg funds from the firm, and will be managed by the asset allocation committee at the firm.

The wealth management firm st. James’s Place has seen its assets increase by 5% as of the end of September, to GBP41.8bn, and 20% since the beginning of the year, Investment Week reports. Net subscriptions have totalled GBP1.03bn, up 37% compared with the corresponding period of last year.

David Oliphant from Threadneedle has taken over the corporate bond strategy previously managed by Alasdair Ross Citywire Global reports. Oliphant will now manage the Threadneedle UK Corporate Bond Retail. Ross will remain as assistant manager of the fund, and will continue to manage the rest of his portfolio.

Index Europe reports that JPMorgan has submitted a license application to the SEC for its first global equity ETF focused on developed countries and subject to the Investment Company Act of 1940. The index replicated has not yet been disclosed, nor has the ticker for the new product, the total expense ratio, or the stock market on which it will be listed.

With a total expense ratio of 0.12%, Fiidelity Investments claims to have launched the least expensive passively-managed sectoral ETFs on the market on NYSEArca on Thursday, since the comparable products from Vanguard and State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) charge from 14 to 19 basis points and 18 basis points, respectively.The ETFs, which represent a great first for Fidelity, replicate all sub-indices of the MSCI index. The list of new products is available as an attachment. As announced (see Newsmanagers of 14 March), these ETFs from Fidelity are sub-advised by BlackRock.Fidelity also states that it has filed with the SEC for five actively-managed bond ETFs. As soon as it gains approval, the funds will be handed over to specialists in the Fidelity fixed income division based in Merrimack, New Hampshire.

According to Markit Equities Research, the 2,370 ETFs listed in Europe posted net inflows of USD9.4bn in the first nine months of the year. Due to these net inflows and performace effects, assets as of the end of September totalled USD388bn, Investment Europe reports. The 151 new ETFs lsunched in the period under review attracted about USD2.5bn in net inflows.In detail, Markit estimates that European equity ETFs posted net subscriptions of USD11.4bn, while those specialised in commodities saw net outflows of USD10.1bn.

The Taiwan arm of Pioneer Investments may, from 15 October, sell funds directly via local distributors, Asian Investor reports. By obtaining “master agent” status, the firm can sell its 21 offshore funds directly via banks in the country. In the past three years, the firm has raised EUR2bn from retail investors in Taiwan.

As of the end of June 2014, Franklin Templeton will withdraw its Templeton Growth Fund, launched in 1954, from the European market, since it is not UCITS compliant, and will thus be regulated under AIFMD, which would lead to excessive organisational difficulties. However, Fonds Professionell indicates, investors may continue to subscribe to shares in the fund in euros, as can holders of savings accounts. This is apparently the first fund to exit the market for this reason. The TGF fund received its sales license in Germany in 1982.Fonds Professionell points out that Franklin Templeton will continue to sell the Templeton Growth (Euro) Fund, which received a license in 2000. The fund is managed by the same team as the original fund, and pursues the same strategy. However, since then, the US fund (which charges fees of 1.10%) has outperformed its European clone (which has a TER of 1.84%) in eight of the years under review.

For its new infrastructure fund UniInstitutional Infrastruktur SICAV-SIF, aimed at institutionals, Frankfurt-based Union Investment has purchased two wind farms, constructed by Vestas and Nordex. One of them is located in Grenville en Beauce (départment Loiret), and the other in Gibbet Hill (Irish county of Wexford).The Greneville plant (eight turbines for 24 megawatts in total) was sold by VSB Energies Nouvelles, an affiliate of the German WSB (Dresde), while the Gibbet Hill facility (6 turbines for 15 megawatts in total) was purchased from the German promoter ABO Wind (Wiesbaden).Ten months after its launch, the fund has already invested about EUR143m in four European wind farms located in three countries. It will soon invest in a solar installation. The objective is to reach EUR300m in owers’ equity, which would allow for investment of about EUR800m.

Starting next year and in the following years, the pressure on margins is expected to increase in the asset management sector, with competition getting more severe and activities that generate commissions falling, the financial ratings agency Fitch Ratings estimates in a study released on 24 October.The average margin on assets under management for European actors in the sector last year totalled 40 basis points, compared with 44 basis points in 2010. This decline, which is not considerable, is a sign of the long-term risk of pressure on margins. This development is partly related to the abandonment of high-margin equity products. “We estimate that this movement is expected to continue due to a growing trend for institutional investors to favour passive investments,” Fitch says, adding that the marings will also fall due to the gradual adoption of low-cost products (ETFs and target-date funds) by retail investors. This trend is structural, although a regain in interest in equities may temporarily boost margins. Competition may also intensify in Europe due to the relative openness of the market to foreign investors, attracted by the efficiency and simplicity of UCITS funds and the UCITS brand. US investors have responded favourably to the attactiveness of the UCITS brand, which is also beginning to win over Asian and Latin American mangers.

“The unbundling resulting from the prohibition on commissions to intermediaries with the new RDR regulations is a good thing. The public price of asset management will be able to be lowered in the direction of the real price, while improving performance. In addition, it will reduce the gap between the prices for actively-managed products and ETFs. Clients will also be able to raise their expectations, they will be able to get better advice, but the corrolary will be that a lot of IFAs will disappear,” says Thomas Balk, chairman of Fidelity Worldwide Investments (USD260bn in assets and USD40bn in assets under administration) at a press conference in London.For his part, Ed Dymott, head of business development, says that the number of “qualified IFAs” has fallen from about 85,000 in 2008 to 32,000 in September 2013, not counting the fact that Barclays, Santander and HSBC have pulled out of advising “post-RDR,” thus reducing the number of advisers by about 2,000 in the space of six months.According to Fidelity, the average management commsision for an equity fund has fallen by half, to 75 basis points, and the intensity of competition is also lowering prices on platforms, which occupy a central place in distribution in the United Kingdom. However, it is clear that advisory commissions have tended to rise, meaning that the overall cost supported by the investor, compared with the pre-RDR regime, has “certainly” increased. But there again, it is likely that competition will ultimately reduce the cost.

Guernsey has signed an agreement with the United Kingdom which includes a series of fiscal measures intended to improve the automatic exchange of information already in place between the two jurisdictions, HedgeWeek reports.

Le chiffre d’affaires de la gestion d’actifs du groupe Axa a augmenté sur les neuf premiers mois de 8% à 2,6 milliards d’euros, principalement en raison de la hausse des commissions de gestion liée à l’augmentation des actifs moyens sous gestion, de l’augmentation des commissions de distribution chez AllianceBernstein et de l’augmentation des commissions des transactions immobilères et des commissions de performance chez AXA IM, selon un communiqué publié le 24 octobre. Les actifs sous gestion sont en baisse de 2% à 884 milliards d’euros par rapport au 31 décembre 2012, principalement impactés par un changement de périmètre suite à la vente d’AXA Private Equity (-22 milliards d’euros) et d’un effet de change négatif, partiellement compensés par un impact positif des marchés financiers et une collecte nette positive essentiellement chez AXA IM. La collecte nette s’élève à 6 milliards d’euros pour la période avec dont 7,5 milliards d’euros chez AXA IM, principalement soutenue par les produits obligataires et les actions tandis qu’AllianceBernstein enregistre une décollecte de 1,5 milliard d’euros. La collecte nette positive en produits obligataires est donc plus que compensée par une décollecte nette sur les actions. La collecte nette s’est détériorée au troisième trimestre sur le segment institutionnel chez les deux gestionnaires d’actifs avec une décollecte provenant principalement des clients situés en Asie.

La Sicav IT Funds se nomme désormais Fourpoints Funds. Il s’agit de la dernière étape dans la fusion des deux maisons de gestion IT Asset Management et PIM Gestion, indique un communiqué. La sicav comporte aujourd’hui deux compartiments, Fourpoints Funds Info Tech et Fourpoints Funds America. La société dont 30% du portefeuille de clients se trouve hors de France vise une montée en puissance à 50% dans les deux ans, auprès d’investisseurs européens dans les 9 pays où la sicav est enregistrée,