Fidelity Worldwide Investment serait sur le point de supprimer son activité de prêt de titres, rapporte le Financial Times Fund Management. La rentabilité de tels programmes a été érodée par les nouvelles lignes directrices de l’Autorité européenne des marchés financiers (ou ESMA), introduites en février, et exigeant que les sociétés de gestion restituent l’ensemble des revenus du prêt de titres, nets de coûts. De plus, de nouvelles règles d’harmonisation fiscale en France, obligeant les fonds locaux à payer le même taux de taxe sur les dividendes que les fonds étrangers détenant des actions françaises, devraient aussi réduire la demande pour le prêt de titres lors de la saison des dividendes. Beaucoup pensent que les régimes similaires en Allemagne, Espagne, Belgique et Pologne vont aussi disparaître.

Viveris REIM a annoncé, vendredi 5 avril, la nomination de Bruno Gerardin en tant que membre de son directoire. Cette nomination a pris effet le 29 mars 2013, indique le communiqué qui précise que Bruno Gerardin conserve également ses fonctions de directeur administratif et financier de la société. Il supervise et anime la direction administrative et financière de Viveris REIM et est en charge de tous les aspects financiers, notamment de la supervision du middle office de tous les OPCI gérés par la société de gestion.Agé de 47 ans, Bruno Gerardin a rejoint la société en juin 2011.

Très discrète depuis sa création il y a cette année dix ans, Amiral Gestion, une société de gestion indépendante détenue par ses salariés, s’est malgré tout distinguée à travers les performances de sa gamme de fonds Sextant et l’obtention l’an dernier du mandat Nova 2 émis par la Caisse des dépôts et un pool d’investisseurs.La société compte aujourd’hui 13 collaborateurs, dont 10 gérants. Après avoir culminé à 550 millions d’euros, les actifs sous gestion de la société s'élevaient au 31 mars 2013 à 370 millions d’euros, dont environ 200 millions d’euros dans des fonds ouverts. Le fonds phare d’Amiral Gestion, Sextant PEA, a des encours d’un peu moins de 100 millions d’euros.Fidèle à une gestion de conviction éprouvée, surtout dans la sphère des petites et moyennes capitalisations en France et dans le monde, Amiral Gestion a l’an dernier recruté un directeur du développement, Benjamin Biard, qui ne va pas néanmoins modifier le modèle de croissance de la société. «Avoir dix ans et garder son indépendance dans le contexte actuel est déjà en soi la preuve d’un développement sain et maîtrisé», a souligné Benjamin Biard le 5 avril à l’occasion d’un point de presse. «Nous ne cherchons pas à grossir pour grossir. Nous sommes davantage en quête pérennisation et d’optimisation des relations avec nos partenaires investisseurs», ajoute-t-il.Autrement dit, Amiral Gestion souhaite se développer naturellement et conserver ses valeurs d’origine, conviction dans les choix d’investissement, indépendance, notamment vis-à-vis des benchmarks, transparence sur les choix d’investissement ou encore qualité du service, notamment pour éviter les risques. ""Notre seul et unique objectif est de générer de la performance sur la durée, c’est-à-dire en prenant un minimum de risque», rappelle Julien Lepage, gérant et directeur général d’Amiral Gestion. «Les fonds de la gamme Sextant sont investis dans des entreprises bien gérées et fortement sous-évaluées», poursuit Julien Lepage.La société envisage-t-elle de lancer de nouveaux produits ? «Chez Amiral Gestion, répond Benjamin Biard, nous ne faisons pas de produit «marketing», nous ne bâtissons pas une offre uniquement dans un but commercial. Les produits qui existent ont été créés parce qu’ils correspondaient à une conviction forte et à une vraie philosophie d’investissement. Et ça, ça ne changera pas. Il n’y aura pas de création de produits pour répondre à une mode, il n’y aura peut-être même pas de création de produits du tout!». Benjamin Biard estime toutefois que la marge de progression des encours est bien réelle, notamment sur Sextant Europe (moins de 10 millions d’euros d’encours) et Sextant Grand Large (environ 30 millions d’euros d’encours).

La Société Générale envisage de supprimer 600 à 700 postes en France dans le cadre de ses réductions de coûts, rapporte L’Agefi qui cite une information de Reuters via trois sources syndicales. La direction de la banque française a rencontré les organisations syndicales le 3 avril pour évoquer différents projets de réorganisation, dont les modalités et le calendrier définitifs ne sont pas encore arrêtés. 50 à 100 postes pourraient être recréés en dehors de France dans le cadre de ce projet, précise le quotidien.

Le fournisseur ETF Actively Managed Trust a déposé un dossier de demande d’agrément pour un fonds dédié aux dividendes géré activement qui disposera également d’une couverture contre les risques liés aux titres américains et étrangers servant des dividendes, rapporte IndexUniverse.Le Manna Core Equity Enhanced Dividend Stream Fund, qui sera chargé à 0,85%, sera coté à New York sur la plate-forme électronique Arca.

BNY Mellon vient de remporter un mandat de conservation auprès de Howard University couvrant le fonds de dotation et le programme de pension pour un montant total d’environ 1,1 milliard de dollars, selon un communiqué publié le 4 avril.BNY Mellon assure déjà 46% des 50 plus importants fonds de dotation universitaires aux Etats-Unis représentant des encours cumulés de plus de 113 milliards de dollars.

JP Morgan Asset Management vient de promouvoir avec effet immédiat Simon Crinage en qualité de responsable des activités liées aux trusts d’investissement, rapporte Money Marketing.Il remplace à ce poste David Barron, parti en début d’année.Simon Crinage, qui travaille chez JP Morgan AM depuis 28 ans, est rattaché au responsable de la gestion des fonds britanniques, Jasper Berens.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Fidelity Worldwide Investment is reportedly planning to scrap its securities lending activities, Financial Times Fund Management reports. The profitability of such programmes has been eroded by new guidelines by the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA), introduced in February, which require that asset management firms return all revenues from securities lending, after costs. In addition, new tax harmonisation rules in France require local funds to pay the same tax rate on dividends as foreign funds which hold French equities, which is also expected to reduce demand for securities lending in the dividend season. Many feel that similar regimes in Germany, Spain, Belgium and Poland will also disappear.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Since its launch in February 2012, the Total Return ETF from Pimco (USD4.6bn) has posted returns of 13.5%, 5 percentage points higher than the Pimco Total Return mutual fund (USD288bn), the Wall Street Journal reports. The two funds are both managed by Bill Gross. But the smaller ETF is more manoeuvrable: a position equivalent to 1% of its assets is less than USD50m, while a 1% position for the mutual fund would represent nearly USD3bn, which would run the risk of throwing a market segment off balance. In other words, the ETF can position itself on less liquid but more lucrative securities than its daddy.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The natural resources and emerging markets specialist US Global Investors, based in San Antonio, Texas, has announced the acquisition of a 50% stake in the Toronto-based asset management firm Galileo Global Equity Advisors. Assets under management at Galileo total about CAD320m, while assets at US Global Investors totalled USD1.68bn as of the end of December 2012.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } BNY Mellon has won a custody mandate from Howard University, covering the endowment and the pension plan, for a total of about USD1.1bn, according to a statement released on 4 April. BNY Mellon already serves 46% of the 50 largest university endowments in the United States, with cumulative assets of over USD113bn.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Beat Wittmann is launching an asset management firm entitled TCMG Asset Management, Finews reports. The founder of the asset management firm Dynapartners has chosen to found a firm on the model of a galaxy of multi-boutiques. Teams of asset managers will be integrated into the group in the next few months, but will continue to work independently. TCMG AM will initially concentrate on the Swiss market, with the initial integration of Dynapartners. In the mid-term, more than 10 firms may be included in the group, Finews reports.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In March, Delta Lloyd took over the largest mezzanine fund in the Netherlands, which was created by the bank Oyens & Van Eeghen, and which takes positions on Netherlands-based businesses which are healthy but experiencing temporary financial difficulties, Fondsnieuws reports. The insurance group invested EUR25m to seed the fund, which is the initiative of Erwin de Jong, one of the directors of Oyens, who has since joined Delta Lloyd. The objective is to achieve returns of 12% per year. The volume of the fund will be limited to EUR100m, half of which will come from the insurer, and the other from high net worth clients of Oyens. The initiators of the project plan on a three-year building phase for the product.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } ZKB Asset Management has made Samuel Manser principal manager of its EUR116m European investment grade bond fund, Citywire reports. Manser joined the bank in late 2012. The strategy, ZKB Bond Vision Fonds EU, had previously been managed by Edgar Salzmann, who will now assist in the management of the fund.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The ETF provider Actively Managed Trust has submitted a license application for an actively-managed fund dedicated to dividends, which would also be hedged for risks related to US and international equities which pay high dividends, IndexUniverse reports. The Manna Core Equity Enhanced Dividend Stream Fund, which would charge fees of 0.85%, would be listed in New York on the Arca electronic platform.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 4 April, the NYSE Arca platform admitted the SPDR Blackstone / GSO Senior Loan exchange traded fund to trading under the ticker SRLN. The product is developed by State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) in cooperation with GSO Capital Partners, the credit unit of the Blackstone Group. According to the designers of the product, it is the first actively-managed ETF of senior loans. The objective is to manage a high income, preserve capital and outperform the Markit iBoxx USD Liquid Leveraged Loan Index and S&P/LSTA U.S. Leveraged Loan 100 Index. The underlying senior loans are generally rated below investment grade, and it is expected that an average of 30% to 35% of credit will come from outside the index each year. The total expense ratio is 0.90%.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Munich-based private bank Merck Finck & Co, an indirectly-owned affiliate of the Qatari firm Precision Capital, has announced the recruitment of Philipp Stodtmeister and Stefan Ludwig as client advisers in Hamburg, with responsibility for the northern part of Germany. Both previously worked at Berenberg, whence the firm recruited Eberhard Hoffmann and Carsten Gennrich, the new heads of the Hamburg office, in January.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Cotizalia reports that Gonzalo Nebrada, who was director of private banking at Bankinter, has been recruited as director of private banking at Renta 4 Banco, which is planning to develop the unit by recruiting new clients and offering highly specialised and proactive service. Renta 4 is maintaining its independence, which allows it to offer the most appropriate products to clients at all times.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } ING Investment Management (ING IM) on Friday, 5 April announced the appointment of Alistair Perkins as head of Project Finance. He will be responsible for developing and managing portfolios of loans for infrastructure and industrial projects, both for ING Insurance and for other institutional investors. Perkins will report to Jan Rijken, head of Fixed Income Insurance at ING IM.Perkins had previously served at Dexia Management Services as head of Restructuring and Asset Sales, where he had been in charge of corporate restructuring, sub-prime loan and the preservation of asset value. He was previously director at Dexia Credit Local, and has also served in senior roles at NIBC Bank and CIT.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } With the assistance of Munich-based analyst at Meyer & Cie, Neue Vermögen Asset Management on 15 March launched a risk parity fund, managed by AmpegaGerling Investment, entitled Active Return AMI. Each asset class (equities, government bonds, corporate bonds, and non-agricultural commodities) contribute equally to the risk of the portfolio, with monthly re-weighting of the allocation. The weight of each asset class is determined by analysts at Meyer & Cie, while Neue Vermögen provides allocation solely to index-based products.CharacteristicsName: Active Return AMIISIN code: DE000A1J3AK7Front-end fee: 3%Management commission: 1.30%Performance commission: 10% on performance exceeding the Euribor 3 month + 300 basis points

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Stevena Berexa will now concentrate on his role as head of research at Allianz Global Investors (AGI), the asset management firm has confirmed to Fonds Professionell. Berexa will remain as deputy manager of the two technology funds Allianz Informationstechnologie and Allianz Global Hi-Tech Growth, whose principal manager since 1 April is Sebastian Thomas.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Lyxor hedge fund index gained 0.62% in the month of March, bringing gains in the first three months of the year to 2.36%, according to the most recent Lyxor Flash, released on 5 April.Ten strategies out of the 14 that compose the index finished the month with gains, particularly the Lyxor Special Situations fund, which gained 2.09% for the month, the Lyxor L/S Equity Long Bias (+1.41%), and the Lyxor Merger Arbitrage (+1.14%).The best strategy in first quarter was the Lyxor L/S Equity Market Neutral, with gains of 7.20%, followed by the Lyxor L/S Equity Long Bias (+6.15%).

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Threats in North Korea, unorthodox politics in Japan and Eastern Europe and mediocre employment figures on both sides of the Atlantic have not helped second quarter to a strong start. Investors have nonetheless retained some appetite for risk, and high yield and emerging market bond funds both posted inflows of over USD850m in the week ending on 3 April. According to estimates by EPFR Global.Overall, bond funds finished the week with net inflows of USD4.89bn, while equity funds posted net inflows of USD1.9bn, more than half of it to dividend funds. Money market funds, for their part, posted net redemptions totalling a net USD11.3bn.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Baring Asset Management is planning to launch a fund in the next few weeks dedicated to frontier markets for its senior manager Michael Levy, Fundweb reports. The Barings Frontier Markets fund would be at lesat 70% exposed to frontier markets such as Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka and Ukraine. Levy says, “frontier markets are now positioned like emerging markets were 20 years ago, ready to become the great opportunity of the next few years.”

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The CNMV has issued a sales license for Spain to the Luxembourg Sicav Abante Global Funds from the Spanish firm Abante Asesores, Funds People reports. The Sicav has four sub-funds.Santiago Satrústegui, chairman of Abante, has stated that the objective is to sell products to Spanish clients who prefer the Luxembourg version of funds to their original Spanish versions.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } JP Morgan Asset Management is offering a return fund dedicated to convertibles, the Global Convertibles Income Trust, which aims for annual returns of 4.5%, Investment Week reports. The fund will be managed by Antony Vallee, head of the convertible bond team at JP Morgan. The fund will take the form of a closed structure, in order to give the manager more flexibility to invest in new issues.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } JP Morgan Asset Management has promoted Simon Crinage to the position of head of activities related to investment trusts, effective immediately, Money Marketing reports. In this position, he replaces David Barron, who left the firm earlier this year. Crinage, who has been working at JP Morgan AM for 28 years, now reports to the head of management for British funds, Jasper Berens.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Two managers from the bond team at Schroders, Bhupinder Bahra and Frederick Bourgoin, are leaving the firm, Citywire reports. The move follows a reshuffle in the bond unit, which will be adopting a more team-oriented workflow.

The French Court of audit has recently cleared the additional pension fund for public employees (ERAFP) both of charges that the system is not sufficiently generous, and for the results of its management. Newsmanagers gives the floor to the defence, in the person of Philippe Desfossés, director general of the entity.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Funds People reports that BBVA AM has finally opted for an internal promotion: the asset management firm has appointed Joaquín García Huerga, who had previously been head of equity research at the bank, as its head of asset allocation and strategy. He joined the group in February 2008, and will now report to Eduardo García Hidalgo, global CIO.BBVA AM will now need to appoint a replacement for the second vacant post, that of chief investment officer for Spain. Retail asset allocation is directed by Javier Achótegui, while institutional asset allocation is led by Fernando Aguado, and global asset allocation for Latin American clients is led by Juan José García Petit.