Le gestionnaire alternatif américain, géant des hedge funds et du private equity, a annoncé un bénéfice net économique plus que triplé au titre du deuxième trimestre, passant de 212 à 703 millions de dollars, sous l’impulsion notamment des performances engrangées au sein de son portefeuille immobilier.

La filiale de la Caisse des dépôts a annoncé son entrée au capital du spécialiste très haut de gamme de la peinture décorative aux côtés du fondateur de ce dernier, Antoine Courtois, du management et de l’IDI. Président de Qualium Investissement, Jean Eichenlaub s’est félicité de ce soutien à «une très belle maison française».

L’opérateur de la Bourse de Francfort a choisi Liquidnet comme agent pour un nouveau service destiné à rendre à partir du 29 juillet «plus efficiente» la négociation de blocs d’actions allemandes par les investisseurs institutionnels, avec particulièrement une amélioration du prix et un moindre impact sur le marché.

Le numéro un mondial de la gestion d’actifs a publié un résultat net en hausse de 32% à 729 millions de dollars au deuxième trimestre. Si la collecte nette s’est élevée à 11,9 milliards sur la période, elle a été, fait rare, négative à hauteur de 963 millions du côté de la filiale iShares, le mastodonte des fonds indiciels cotés (ETF). Le lancement de nouveau ETF devrait permettre à BlackRock selon son directeur général Laurence Fink d’augmenter ses actifs (de 3.860 milliards à fin juin) de 5% par an.

Delta Alternative Management, spécialiste des «situations spéciales» sur les marchés obligataires corporates, a dévoilé le lancement du fonds Delta Bond Plus. L’objectif de ce dernier est selon la société de gestion de proposer aux entreprises une «source de financement alternative et complémentaire aux canaux de crédit traditionnels, notamment bancaires» sans omettre de promettre «un rendement élevé aux investisseurs».

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } According to estimates by Swiss Fund Data and Lipper, assets under management by investment funds in Switzerland as of 30 June were down to CHF732.665bn, which represents a contraction of CHF30.356bn, or 3.98%, compared with their levels as of the end of May (CHF763.021bn). Only CHF3.6954bn, or 13.06%, of this decline is due to net redemptions in the month of June.In fact, Markus Fuchs, director of the Swiss Fund & Asset Management Association (SFAMA) reports, net outflows totalled CHF2.1438bn for bond funds, CHF1.4739bn for equity funds, and EUR1.1129bn for commodity funds.However, money market funds posted net inflows of CHF795.9m, and diversified funds captured CHF181.8m. The top ten firms by asset volumes all saw a decline in the volume of their assets under management in June. The top three players are as follows: UBS, with CHF165.040bn as of the end of June, compared with CHF171.927bn one month earlier, Credit Suisse, with CHF114.881bn, compared with CHF118.640bn, and Pictet, with CHF50.51bn, compared with CHF52.47bn.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } Less than one week after publishing a duscussion paper on 12 July to prepare regulatory technical standards for the introduction of EMIR regulations concerning a requirement for centralised compensation of over-the-couter (OTC) derivative trading, the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) on 17 July launched a market consultation on regulatory technical standards to im[lement the terms of the EMIR regulations concerning over-the-counter derivative transactions by counterparties located in countries outside the European Union.The consultation also includes means to prevent these counterparties from outside the EU being able to circumvent the terms of the EMIR regulations.Suggestions and contributions from participants on regulatory technical standards will be accepted until 16 September 2013.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } In Genoa, Banca Carige SpA has announced that, following an examination of final bids submitted to it for the entirety of its stake in Carige Asset Management SGR SpA (EUR4.32bn in assets as of the end of May), it has decided to open an exclusive consultation period until 9 August 2013 with Arca SGR SpA (EUR19.98bn). According to the Italian press, the other candidates for the acquisition had been Natixis, Anima and Amundi. Arca is reported to have bid EUR80m, or 1.85% of assets.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } For an undisclosed total, DekaBank, the central asset management firm for the German savings banks, will acquire both the asset management firm LBB Invest (about EUR10bn in assets) and trading activities on behalf of clients from Landesbank Berlin (LBB).Deka agrees to retain LBB Invest as an independent entity and to retain the Berlin location. Personnel from the trading activity (traders and salespersons) will be transferred from LBB to Deka.LBB and Deka are both controlled by the financial grouping of the German savings banks, which with the managing boards of the two entities determins their respective strategic orientations and their implementation.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } Roman Loebsch has been recruited by the real estate unit at Henderson Global Investors (which has EUR15bn in assets) as a senior portfolio manager in Vienna. He will report to Clemens Rumpler, head of property investment Austria, and will be largely responsible for investing the remaining capital raised by the real estate fund Warburg-Henderson Austria Fund Nr. 2.Loebsch had been responsible for commercial real estate transactions at Conwert Immobilien Invest SE. He had previously spent six years in Hamburg with HIH Global Invest, a real estate affiliate of MM Warburg.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } FIL Fondsbank (FFB), an affiliate of Fidelity Worldwide Investments in Germany, on 17 July announced that it will be taking over securities accounts management from Oppenheim Fonds Trust (OPFT) from 1 January 2014. This represents about 82,000 accounts, with a volume of EUR3.1bn. Sal. Oppenheim has been using the IT infrastructure of FFB since 2003 to administer these accounts.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } Anil Dala, who had for six years been head of solution development for the wealth management and financial advising divisions at Pershing (a boutique of the BNY Mellon group), has been appointed as market manager in the treasury services unit for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at BNY Mellon. He will be based in London and will report to Peter Hazou, head of EMEA Market Management, Treasury Services.He will be responsible with sales teams for developing product lines of solutions aimed at French non-banking institutions, including sales of various multi-currency compensation services from BNY Mellon and the internationalisation of a variety of products in the procurement chain sourced exclusively from BNY Mellon.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } For second quarter 2013, BNY Mellon has announced net profits of USD833m, compared with a loss of USD266m in January-March, and a profit of USD466m in April-June 2012.As of 30 June, assets under management totalled USD1.432trn, compared with USD1.429trn three months previously, and USD1.299trn one year previously. Assets under management and/or administration, for their part, represented USD26.2trn, compared with USD26.3trn as of the end of March, and USD25.2trn as of the end of first half 2012.In second quarter, long-term products received net subscriptions of USD21bn, while long-term funds saw net outflows of USD1bn. Net inflows from long-term funds profited liability-driven investments, and demand was concentrated on equity and bond funds.The increase in assets year on year is largely due to net subscriptions and positive market effects. Compared with January-March 2013 net subscriptions were cut short by a fall on bond markets.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } The most recent survey by Bolsas y Mercados Españoles of ownership of Spanish equities finds that the percentage of households owning equities increasaed by 4 percentage points in 2012, to 25.1%, but that foreign funds hold a lot more shares thann Spanish funds.Overall, non-resident investors as of 31 December 2012 held approximately 39.2% of equities in publicly-traded Spanish companies. The 9,000 Spanish nd foreign investment and pension funds held EUR71.9bn in Spanish equities, of which EUR20.7bn were held by US fund, and EUR12.15bn by French funds. In other words, US funds as of the end of last year held four times more Spanish equities than their Spanish counterparts. In the case of France, it is more than double the EUR5.05bn held by Spanish funds.The largest foreign asset management firms with holdings in Spanish equities are Norges Bank investment Management (EUR6.73bn), BlackRock UK (EUR4.46bn), Lyxor (EUR3.43bn), BlackRock US (EUR2.86bn), Vanguard (EUR2.75bn) and Natixis AM (EUR2.13bn). Amundi takes tenth place, with EUR1.51bn. http://www.bolsasymercados.es/asp/doc.asp?id=esp&doc=/aspx/BME/Pren…

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } In second quarter, net profits for the global wealth & investment management (GWIM) business unit of Bank of America totalled USD758m, compared with USD720m in January-March, and USD548m in the corresponding period of last year, on assets of USD743.6bn as of the end of June, compared with USD745.3bn as of the end of March and USD667.5bn one year previously.The bank states that its GWIM division in April-June has posted record earnings, pre-tax profits, net profits and management commission revenues.The Bank of America group overall has announced net profits for second quarter of USD4.012bn, compared with USD1.483bn in first quarter, and USD2.463bn in April-June 2012.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } In its informational newsletter Gestion Info for the month of July, recently placed online, the French financial management association AFG has announced the following changes to its board of directors: Ghislaine Bailly (outgoing) and Ludovic Jacquier (incoming) - Covea FinanceAndrea Rossi (outgoing) and Jean-Louis Laforge (incoming) - AXA IM ParisDidier Deleage (outgoing) and Mattéo Pardi (incoming) - HSBC Global AM FranceChantal Lory (incoming) - LBPAM Inés de Dinechin (outgoing) and Cédric Florentin (incoming) - Lyxor AMLorenzo Gazzoletti (incoming) - Oddo AM The association has also announced that Phillimore and FRI Rhône-Alpes Gestion have joined the association.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } The Wall Street Journal reports that the former Goldman Sachs director and former head of McKinsey & Co, Rajat K. Gupta, has been sentenced in civil court to pay a fine of USD13.9m to the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC); he is also barred for ever from practising as director of a publicly-traded business. He is accused of leaking confidential information as director of Goldman Sachs to his friend and partner Raj Rajaratnam, who was the head of the hedge fund Galleon Group and who is involved in a vast insider trading scandal.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } The members of the CFA Institute estimate that bonus limits, on the model of those at banks, when applied to fund managers in the European Union, would have the effect of “carving remuneration rules in stone,” which could “disadvantage investors and indirectly damage compromise between the interests of managers and investors.”Although limiting bonuses does not appear to be the right solution, the CFA Institute is providing a list of several areas to explore: Defer remuneration for a longer time and extend the reference period to calculate the variable portion of remuneration. Claw back bonuses from asset managers to guarantee symmetrical performance commissions, in order to reduce overall costs when funds underperform their benchmark index. Increased transparency in the area of bonuses and premiums so as to allow end investors to compare and make informed decisions about the funds in which they invest. “High watermark” thresholds (all-time high points) so that fund managers do not receive large sums of money for poor results. For example, if a manager loses money in a given period, he should not receive a performance commission when the fund tops its previous peak Personal investment by the managers in their own funds, in order to ensure better alignment of their own interests with those of their clients (reinvestment in funds and partnership structres).

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } The Swiss federal financial market supervisory authority (FINMA) on 17 July announced that it has signed co-operation agreements with the surveillance authorities in 28 countries of the European Union and the European Economic Area. The agreements apply to collaboration and exchange of information concerning surveillance of alternative investment fund managers. These agreements represent one of the preconditions for the management of European hedge funds to be outsourced to Swiss investment management firms, or for Swiss hedge funds to be eligible for sale to professional investors in EU member countries. The agreements will come into effect on 22 July 2013, at the same time at the alternative investment fund management directive (AIFMD).Since December last year, FINMA and the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) had reached an agreement on the terms of their collaboration in the area of hedge funds. To this end, ESMA, negotiating in the name of all national securities regulatory agencies in the EU and EEA, reached an agreement with Finma. Last week, that collaboration took concrete form as bilateral memoranda of unerstanding (MoU) signed between the national securities regulatory agencies in the EU and EEA, on one side, and Finma on the other (see list below).• Autoriteit Financiële Markten (Netherlands) • Central Bank of Ireland (Ireland) • Comissâo do Mercado de Valores Mobiliarios (Portugal) • Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (Germany) • Autorité des marchés financiers (France) • Autorité des services et marchés financiers (Belgium) • Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (Spain) • Financial Supervisory Authority (Romania) • Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (Luxembourg) • Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (Cyprus) • Česká národní banka (Czech Republic) • Finansinspektionen (Sweden) • Finanssivalvonta (Finland) • Finanstilsynet (Denmark) • Finansu un kapitâla tirgus komisija (Latvia) • Finanzmarktaufsichtsbehörde (Austria) • Finansinspektsioon (Estonia) • Polish Financial Supervision Authority (Poland) • Financial Conduct Authority (United Kingdom) • Financial Supervision Commission (Bulgaria) • Hellenich Capital Market Commission (Greece) • Lietuvos bankas (Lithuania) • Malta Financial Services Authority (Malta) • Narodna Banka Slovenska (Slovakia) • Pénzügyi Szervezetek Állami Felügyelete (Hungary) • Fjármálaeftirlitið (Iceland) • Finanstilsynet (Norway) • Finanzmarktaufsicht Liechtenstein (Liechtenstein)

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } In first half, assets under management by emerging market debt funds from ING IM fell from EUR13bn to EUR5.5bn, and US institutionals were the first to pull out, Istvan Fritsche, client portfolio manager, tells Fondsnieuws.Not all funds have been affected in the same manner by the phenomenon, which is partly due to the departure of 19 managers out of 35 (who joined Neuberger Berman): ING Patrimonial EMD Opportunities and ING Renta EM Corporate Debt Fund were virtually unaffected, but the two largest funds, ING Renta Fd EM Debt Hard Currency and ING Renta Fd EM Debt Local Currency, saw outflows of about 40%.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } BNP Paribas Investment Partners has launched the Parvest Diversified Dynamic sub-fund of its Parvest Sicav on the Italian market, Investment Europe reports. The multi-asset class fund is managed by Andrea Mossetto. It invests in European, US, Japanese and emerging market equities. The bond allocation is concentrated on European, US and emerging market securities.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } James Clunie has from 1 September 2013 been appointed as manager of the Jupiter Absolute Return fund (GBP482m in assets). In this position he replaces Philip Gibbs, who will be retiring in October 2014. Gibbs was previously manager of the SWIP UK Flexible Strategy Fund long/short fund. Before 2007, eh had been head of global equities at Aberdeen Asset Management.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } As an addition to its product range, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) is preparing to launch several funds, the first of which is expected to be an inflation-linked tracker product, the Global Inflation Linked Bond Index fund, to replicate the Barclays World Government Ex UK Inflation Linked Bonds TR Hedged GBP Index, Invstment Week reports.However, a spokesperson for LGIM states that the effective launch of new funds will depend on the outcome. The release days have not yet been announced.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } Marc Thatcher has been recruited as director, principal investments and advisory business at Kleinwort Benson. According to Fundweb, Thatcher had previously been managing director at Macquarie.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } Aviva Investors has divided its multi-asset class team into two, according to Investment Europe. There is now a retail team and an institutional team. The objective is to more easily respond to the various needs of each client. Multi-asset retail is led by Peter Fitzgerald, previously co-director of manager selection. The reshuffle comes following the departure of Justin Onuekwusi, previously lead manager of multi-asset funds, who left Aviva Investors at the beginning of summer for Legal & General. The institutional portion will be managed by Mirko Cardinale.

Anil Dala, qui était depuis six ans responsable du développement de solution pour les divisions gestion de fortune et conseillers financiers de Pershing (une des boutiques du groupe BNY Mellon), a été nommé market manager du pôle treasury services pour l’Europe, le Moyen-Orient et l’Afrique (EMOA) de BNY Mellon. Il sera basé à Londres et subordonné à Peter Hazou, head of EMEA Market Management, Treasury Services.Il sera chargé de développer avec les équipes de vente et de lignes produit des solutions destinés aux institutions financières non-banques, ce qui comporte notamment la commercialisation des diverses solutions de compensation multidevises de BNY Mellion ainsi que l’internationalisation d’un certain nombre de produits de la chaîne d’approvisionnement exclusifs de BNY Mellon.

Sigma Gestion a annoncé hier avoir rejoint les sociétés de capital investissement Seventure Partners et Naxicap Partners Création au capital de Motwin, entreprise qui édite une plateforme logicielle permettant à ses clients de développer des applications mobiles complexes. Le financement complémentaire apporté par Sigma Gestion doit permettre de finaliser le modèle de croissance en France et de poursuivre le développement à l’International », indique un communiqué.

À compter du 19 juillet 2013, la part X du fonds Seeyond Actions Volatilité sera supprimée suite à un rachat total de part, indique Natixis AM sur son site.Part X : FR0011202068

Les membres de CFA Institute estiment que le plafonnement des bonus, sur le modèle des banques, attribués aux gestionnaires de fonds de l’Union Européenne aurait pour effet de «graver dans le marbre les règles de rémunération», ce qui pourrait «porter préjudice aux investisseurs et indirectement nuire à la conciliation des intérêts entre gestionnaires et investisseurs».Si plafonner les bonus ne semble pas la bonne solution, CFA Institute donne une liste de plusieurs pistes à explorer : - Différer plus significativement les rémunérations et allonger la période de référence pour le calcul de la part variable de la rémunération. - Reprise des primes et bonus des gestionnaires d’actifs pour garantir des commissions de performance symétriques, afin de réduire les frais globaux lorsque les fonds sous-performent leur indice de référence. -Transparence accrue en matière de primes et bonus de manière à ce que les investisseurs finaux puissent comparer et faire des choix éclairés sur les fonds dans lesquels ils investissent. -Des seuils dits de «high watermark» (la plus haute valeur historique) afin que les gérants de fonds ne perçoivent pas d’importantes sommes d’argent en cas de mauvais résultats. Par exemple, si un gestionnaire perd de l’argent sur une période donnée, il ne devrait recevoir une commission de performance que le fonds a dépassé son précédent plus haut - Investissement personnel des gérants dans leurs propres fonds en vue de garantir un meilleur alignement de leurs propres intérêts et de ceux de leurs clients (réinvestissement dans les fonds et structures de partenariat).

Pour muscler sa gamme, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) prépare le lancement du plusieurs fonds, le premier devant être un produit indiciel indexé sur l’inflation, le Global Inflation Linked Bond Index fund, répliquant le Barclays World Government Ex UK Inflation Linked Bonds TR Hedged GBP Index, rapporte Investment Week.Cependant, un porte-parole de LGIM a souligné que le lancement effectif des nouveaux fonds dépendra de la demande. Les dates de mise sur le marché n’ont pas encore été arrêtées.