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11/12/2012

SEB ImmoInvest to distribute EUR145m at the end of December

After restoring EUR10.25 per share, or a total of EUR1.195bn to investors, the open-ended real estate fund SEB ImmoInvest (DE0009802306), whose gradual liquidation by 30 April 2017 was decided on 7 May this year, will distribute another EUR1.24 per share on 28 December, which represents a total of EUR145m, or 3% of current total assets of EUR4.8bn. The portfolio still includes 131 properties in 18 countries.
11/12/2012

SSgA brings back indices abandoned by Russell

Index Universe reports that State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) has filed a license application for two volatility ETFs which would use the indices which were the basis for ETFs which Russell liquidated (see Newsmanagers of 21 August).The SPDR Russell 1000 Low Volatility ETF will replicate the same index as the Russell 1000 Low Volatility ETF, which tracks about 200 low volatility shares, as well as the SPDR Russell 2000 Low Volatility ETF, which is based on the same index as the former Russell 2000 Low Volatility ETF, which covered about 400 securities.
11/12/2012

Legg Mason releases a Brandywine fund in Germany

BaFin and the FMA have issued sales licenses for the Legg Mason Brandywine Global Opportunistic Fixed Income Fund in Germany and Austria. It is an Irish-registered bond product, managed by Brandywine Global, an affiliate of Legg Mason, which may invest in all bond segments.The fund will be managed by David Hoffman and Stephen Smith, and has been actively managed since 25 June 2010, since which date it has generated returns of 28.06% as of the end of November 2012, which represents a gain 9 points higher than the Citigroup World Government Bond Index, and 10 points higher than its Morningstar peer group.CharacteristicsName: Legg Mason Brandywine Global Opportunistic Fixed Income FundISIN code: IE00B3V5M979Currency of reference: USDBenchmark index: Citigroup World Government Bond Index 25%Front-end fee: Maximum 5%Management commission: 1.15%Minimal initial subscription: USD1,000
11/12/2012

Une banque privée suisse sur deux menacée de disparition

Si l’on en croit des spécialistes du secteur bancaire suisse du cabinet de conseil PwC, les banquiers privés de la place ont du souci à se faire."Si le monde était rationnel, la moitié des banques privées suisses devrait disparaître», affirment Matthis Memminger et Pascale Guellner à l’hebdomadaire «Der Sonntag». Les deux experts de PwC relèvent toutefois que les banques privées suisses, actuellement au nombre de 220 environ, sont bien capitalisées et peuvent subir une période un peu plu longue de vaches maigres mais leurs actionnaires doivent aussi s’attendre à des rendements un peu moins intéressants. De nombreux acteurs de la place doivent toutefois adpater leur modèle d’affaires s’ils veulent maintenir leur rentabilité. D’où de multiples contacts au sein du secteur pour évaluer les possibilités de partenariats et/ou de fusions. Même les très discrets banquiers genevois se seraient prêté au jeu, souligne le journal.
11/12/2012

HSBC announces settlement with US authorities

HSBC on December 11th said it has reached agreement with United States authorities in relation to investigations regarding inadequate compliance with anti-money laundering and sanctions laws. This includes a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with the US Department of Justice. HSBC has also reached agreement to achieve a global resolution with all other US government agencies that have investigated HSBC’s past conduct related to these issues and anticipates finalising an undertaking with the United Kingdom Financial Services Authority shortly.Under these agreements, HSBC will make payments totaling USD1.921bn, continue to cooperate fully with regulatory and law enforcement authorities, and take further action to strengthen its compliance policies and procedures.Stuart Gulliver, Group Chief Executive, is reported as saying: «We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again. The HSBC of today is a fundamentally different organisation from the one that made those mistakes. Over the last two years, under new senior leadership, we have been taking concrete steps to put right what went wrong and to participate actively with government authorities in bringing to light and addressing these matters.
11/12/2012

La FSA inflige une amende de 1,2 million de livres à un prêteur immobiiler

L’Autorité des marchés brirtannique (FSA) a annoncé le 10 décembre avoir infligé une amende de 1,22 milliard de livres à la société spécialisée britannique Cheshire Mortgage Corporation Limited (CMCL) pour avoir spolié des clients dans la vente et la gestion de créances hypothécaires entre octobre 2004 et à la fin 2009.Deux dirigeants la société, le CEO et le responsable de la déontologie, ont écopé d’amendes de respectivement 70.000 livres et 13.500 livres. Le patron de la société, Henry Moser, devrait en outre quitter ses fonctions dans un délai de trois à six mois. Par ailleurs, la société doit procéder’ à un redressement qui pourrait déboucher sur le remboursement d’environ 2 millions de livres à quelque 2.000 clients affecté par les pratiques de CMCL.
11/12/2012

Fitch présente 50 principaux émetteurs high yield européens

L’agence d'évaluation financière Fitch Ratings a publié le 10 décembre les fiches signalétiques des cinquante principauxs émetteurs high yield européens. Le «Fitch 50 Europe» inclut une bonne partie des émetteurs entrant dans la composition de l’indice Bank of America Merrill Lynch European High Yield.Parmi les émetteurs retenus dans le Fitch 50 Europe figurent notamment Peugeot SA, Renault SA, Fiat SpA, Jaguar Land Rover PLC, Continental AG, Schaeffler AG; Lafarge SA, HeidelbergCement AG, UPM-Kymmene Oyj, Stora Enso Oyj, Smurfit Kappa Group plc; Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA, Phoenix Pharmahandel GmbH & Co. KG, Four Seasons Healthcare (Jersey) Holdings, Priory Group, Labco SA; Virgin Media Inc., Cableuropa SA, Unitymedia KabelBW GmbH, TVN SA, Ziggo NV, Sunrise Communications Holdings SA, Telenet NV, et Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA. Ce document est le le pendant du guide déjà existant sur les principaux émetteurs high yield aux Etats-Unis.
11/12/2012

Solvency II would be a disaster for European pension funds

The planned Solvency II directive, which the European Commission plans to impose on pension funds, would be a “disaster,” with fundreds of billions of euros in additional costs, job losses, devaluation of pensions, and a slowdown in long-term growth, according to a report by the independent consulting firm Oxford Economics on behalf of the British pensions union CBI. For the United Kingdom alone, reforms in Brussels would result in additional costs estimated at EUR440bn, long-term annual growth reduced by 2.5%, and 180,000 job losses. The European Venture Capital Association (EVCA) welcomed the publication of the report, claiming that Solvency II runs the danger of discouraging long-term invetment. “The owners’ equity rules inspired by Solvency II, a directive designed for insurers and not pension funds, would endanger the creation of value, jobs and growth. The rules would affect benefits for pensioners and would considerably delay economic recovery,” the EVCA says in a statement.
11/12/2012

Alexandre Dussaucy joins Wells Fargo AM to launch activities in France

Alexandre Dussaucy has joined Wells Fargo Asset Management, an asset management affiliate of the US financial services firm, according to reports in Newsmanagers. Dussaucy will initially be based in London, and will handle the launch of the firm in France and French-speaking Europe, and its commercial development. Dussaucy previously worked at Markov Processes International, where he was executive vice president, in charge of sales and professional services, for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He spent 5 years at the firm.
11/12/2012

Star bond manager leaves BlackRock

The US bond manager Matthew Marra has left BlackRock, where he spent 15 years, Citywire Global reports. He had been co-principal manager of the BGF US Dollar Core Bond fund (USD472bn), since October 2006. Eric Pellicciaro, junior manager of the fund, has also left the firm. The managers, Rob Rieder and Bob Miller, will be responsible for managing the BGF US Dollar Core Bond.
11/12/2012

Fidelity preparing actively-managed ETFs

In a license application to the SEC dated 7 December, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Fidelity Distributors Corportaion and Fidelity Merrimack Street trust have announced plans to launch a range of actively-managed ETFs, the first of which is expected to be the Fidelity Corporate Bond ETF. The new funds, which may use a master-feeder formula, may be listed on the NYSE-Arca platform.
11/12/2012

Ossiam recruits for sales team dedicated to French clients

Ossiam has recruited Julien Valarcher for its commercial development team led by Isabelle Bourcier. Valarcher will be in charge of developing French clients of private banks and wealth managers, diversified management and multi-management, a statement says. Before joining Ossiam, Valarcher served for four years as a salesman at Oddo Corporate Finance. The appointment follows the recent arrival of Michel Prouteau on the same team.
11/12/2012

Asset managers have backoffice problems

Surveying over 50 executives from almost 30 major buy-side firms across North America, the SimCorp poll revealed that 63% of firms experience data reconciliation errors that impact the accuracy of their portfolio values.Additionally, more than half of respondents stated that tracking and reporting on assets and exposures occurs with errors. In light of these challenges, the majority of firms surveyed do have plans to evaluate and make technology changes in the back-office, with 63% citing investment in improvements within a two year timeline. However a significant 35% of respondents stated that they have no plans to modernize their back-office infrastructure in the near future.
11/12/2012

Morningstar increases quarterly dividend and buys back equities

For its fifth quarterly dividend of 2012, Morningstar is planning to pay 12.5 cents per share on 28 December compared with 10 cents previously, to shareholders registered as of 17 December. The payment replaces the one which was schedules for january 2013. The next dividends will be paid on 30 April, 31 July and 31 October 2013. Meanwhile, the board of directors has approved an increase to USD500m from USD300m for the equity repurchase programme announced in October 2010. Since then, the firm has bought back 4.7 million shares for about USd281m. The programme thus has yet to buy back USD219m.
11/12/2012

T. Rowe Price pays a special dividend

The board of directors at T. Rowe Price has decided to pay a special cash dividend of USD1 per share, on 28 December, to shareholderes registered as of 17 December.After the distribution the asset management firm will retain cash and investments in mutual funds totalling about USD2bn, and T. Rowe Price has no debt, says James A.C. Kennedy, CEO.Assets as of the end of September totalled USD574.4bn.
11/12/2012

BPER to sell private equity unit

The Italian private bank Banca Popolare dell’Emiglia Romana will sell 100% of capital in its unit Arca Impresa Gestioni to IGI. The move follows the opening of exclusive talks on 24 October. AIG is a firm specialised in the promotion and management of closed private equity funds. Currently, it has four funds under management, of which two are in an investment phase (commitments of EUR9325m) and two are near divestment (net asset value as of 30 June of EUR24.5m). IGI is an asset management firm controlled by Giorgio at Matteo Cirla with Enrico Palandri and Paolo Merlano, who since 1998 have completed more than 50 investments totalling over EUR300m.
11/12/2012

Santander suspends 800 advisers

The Santander group has announced a decision to suspend the contracts of 800 investment advisers who are not yet trained under new RDR regulations, effective immediately, Fund Web reports. The advisers have all the required qualifications, but have not yet been initiated to the new RDR regulations, which come into effect in 2013. As a result, they will be subject to an intensive training programme in the next few weeks.
11/12/2012

SIX Financial Data readies for Fatca

SIX Financial Information, a division of SIX Swiss Exhange, on December 10th published its first Valordata Feed (VDF) structural changes in preparation for the introduction of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), affecting the financial industry worldwide. In light of the FATCA implementation anticipated to begin on the 1 January 2014, SIX Financial Information is already preparing its reference data structure to match the latest regulatory requirements. In order to ensure a solid implementation, a number of enhancements have already been made to VDF at the institution and instrument level. As part of the latest VDF release, the structures and labels required to mark the institutions and instruments affected by FATCA have been introduced. The implementation of rule sets and any potential sources to populate the structures will only be specified and carried out after the IRS has issued the final regulations and the relevant sources become available, SIX said in a press release.
11/12/2012

SIX Financial Data readies for Fatca

SIX Financial Information, a division of SIX Swiss Exhange, on December 10th published its first Valordata Feed (VDF) structural changes in preparation for the introduction of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), affecting the financial industry worldwide.In light of the FATCA implementation anticipated to begin on the 1 January 2014, SIX Financial Information is already preparing its reference data structure to match the latest regulatory requirements. In order to ensure a solid implementation, a number of enhancements have already been made to VDF at the institution and instrument level.As part of the latest VDF release, the structures and labels required to mark the institutions and instruments affected by FATCA have been introduced. The implementation of rule sets and any potential sources to populate the structures will only be specified and carried out after the IRS has issued the final regulations and the relevant sources become available, SIX said in a press release.
11/12/2012

Barclays Wealth lays off sales staff

The British firm Barclays Wealth has announced plans to lay off 15 members of its IFA distribution team due to a “strategic reorganisation,” Fund Web reports. Barclays announced last year that it would be winding down its advising activities for retail clients with the introduction of RDR regulations in early 2013. Barclays Wealth will continue to provide advising services to high net worth individuals.
11/12/2012

Appointment at Skandia

Skandia has appointed James Millard as chief investment officer, to create management of a new range of “Select” funds, which will be launched next year, Fund Web reports. Millard will begin in his new role on 1 January next year. He will report to Hylton Donnely, chief commercial officer at Skandia. The team which Millard will oversee will be responsible for the new range as well as monitoring of funds offered on Skandia platforms. Millard was previously chief investment officer at Old Mutual Global Investors, which is part of Old Mutual Wealth.
11/12/2012

Man Group loses CEO Peter Clarke

The alternative asset management firm Man Group on 10 December announced that its CEO, Peter Clarke, has announced plans to leave the firm and resign from the board of directors on 28 February next year. Clarke will be replaced in his role by Emmanuel Roman, currently president and chief operating officer. According to many observers, Roman, and his former partners from GLG, have made a presence for themselves recently at the helm of the group, which is considering its strategic options. In order to improve the group’s results, Roman is reported to have put in place a cost reduction programme, and recruited Jonathan Sorrell as chief financial officer and head of new fund launches. Clarke, who joined Man Group 20 years ago, made major contributions to the transformation of the firm into one of the heavyweights in alternative management worldwide. By the end of February 2013, when Man Group will unveil its results up to the end of December 2012, Clarke will work in close collaboration with his successor in order to ensure a smooth transition. Since the beginning of the year, the stock price of Man Group has fallen by about 40%, to about 74.4 pence per share, and its assets under management, after peaking at over USD70bn following the acquisition of GLG, now total about USD60bn.
11/12/2012

Hermes wins a mandate from a Swiss pension fund

Hermes Fund Managers has won a USD120m mandate from a Swiss pension fund, the IST Investment Foundation for Pension Funds (IST), Citywire repotts. The mandate will be handled by the team in charge of the US Small and Mid-Caps fund whose assets under management will increase to USD900m. IST manages about CHF5.7bn in assets, or about EUR4.7bn, for 560 clients.
11/12/2012

Skandia lays off 20 sales staff

As part of a restructuring of its sales division as a team of wealth management consultants, and another team of development consultants, Skandia has reduced its sales adviser personnel to 80 from 100, Fundweb reports.
11/12/2012

Two asset management firms plan layoffs

The British firm Henderson Global Investors and the German firm Union Investment will lay off employees, Financial News reports. About 10% of their personnel will be affected.
11/12/2012

Brummer & Partners recruits two controversial portfolio managers

The Swedish hedge fund firm Brummer & Partners has recruited two big names for its new global macro fund, Tim Attias as Santiago Alarco, Dagens Industri reports. The two men made their names in London for their strong returns and their luxurious lifetyles. They are also famous for beeing sued by Rubicon. They are accused of attempting to steal clients and assets totalling about EUR14bn. Attias and Alarco will become managers and partners at the new Brummer macro fund.
11/12/2012

Asset management firms come to the aid of funds with outflows

Major asset management firms are in the habit of holding internal trades to avoid funds suffering from significant outflows to have to sell shares at knock-down prices, Financial Times Fund Management reports. The newspaper refers to a study, Co-Insurance in Mutual Fund Families, by Luis Goncalves-Pinto at the National University of Singapore, and Breno Schmidt at Emory University, of the US market between 1995 and 2009. The authors found that funds were more likely to be assisted if they charged high commissions.
11/12/2012

Baisse du taux de défaut des entreprises en novembre

Le taux de défaut des entreprises notées en catégorie spéculative s’est établi à 2,7% en novembre, contre 3,1% en octobre, a annoncé le 10 décembre l’agence d'évaluation financière Moody’s.En Europe, le taux de défaut s’est inscrit à 2,3% contre 2,8% en octobre alors qu’aux Etats-Unis, il revenait à 3,1% contre 3,5% précédemment. Moody’s prévoit un taux de défaut de 2,7% à fin 2012, avec des taux de 3,2% aux Etats-Unis et de 2,2% en Europe.
11/12/2012

KBC rembourse 3 milliards d'euros d'aides publiques

Le bancassureur belge KBC a annoncé le lundi 10 décembre qu’il allait rembourser à la mi-décembre 3 milliards d’euros d’aides publiques au gouvernement belge. Il souhaite en outre accélérer le remboursement de 1,17 milliard d’euros d’aides publiques au premier semestre 2013. Les remboursements annoncés lundi sont assortis de primes en faveur du gouvernement belge, soit 450 millions d’euros pour le paiement de mi-décembre et 580 millions pour le paiement prévu en 2013Pour la suite, KBC s’engage à rembourser le solde des aides publiques de 2,33 milliards d’euros en sept versements de 330 millions d’euros chacun (augmenté d’une prime), échelonnés sur la période 2014-2020, comme convenu avec la Commission européenne, précise-t-il dans un communiqué. Le bancassureur se réserve en outre la possibilité d’accélérer le rythme de ces remboursements.Dans le même temps, KBC a annoncé, lundi également, le lancement d’une émission d’actions nouvelles pour un montant d’environ 1,25 milliard d’euros. Cette augmentation de capital doit aider KBC à maintenir un ratio de fonds propres de 10% dès le 1er janvier 2013. Grâce aux remboursements et au plan de capital annoncés aujourd’hui, KBC tient son engagement initial envers la Commission européenne de rembourser le montant de 4,67 milliards d’euros d’aides publiques avant fin 2013, indique-t-il. Le bancassureur souligne qu’il pourra désormais se concentrer entièrement sur son métier de base.
11/12/2012

Listed ETF turnover on NYSE Euronext dips in November

The daily on-book trading volumes for ETFs on the European markets of NYSE Euronext fell in November to EUR210.4m, from EUR217.4m in October, and EUR241.9m in September, while block trading volumes fell to EUR663m, compared with EUR740.1m the previous month, and EUR739.9m in September.The total value of on-book trades, at EUR4.63bn in November, is 20.61% lower than the average recorded YTD. It was EUR5bn in October, and EUR4.8bn in September.As of the end of November, the European markets of NYSE Euronext listed 590 ETFs 680 times, compared with 589 one month earlier, while three new products (one from ThinkCaptial and two from Lyxor) have been added to trading.The median spread for all listed ETFs is 35.7 basis points, compared with 37.4 basis points in October, and 26.8 points in September.

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