The Swiss responsible investment foundation Ethos on 2 November announced the appointment of Christophe Hans as Corporate Communications Manager. Hans will also serve as secretary general of the Ethos Academy association, the foundation says in a statement. He will begin in January 2013.

The European energy, climate change and infrastructure investment fund Marguerite on 31 October announced the acquisition of a 49.99% stake in wind farms in Poland from an Austrian-based firm, RP Global Group, which retains a majority stake in the project, and which provides the operational management of the farms. The transaction is the first investment by Marguerite in the Polish market. The fund has already invested in four projects in Belgium, France and Spain. The Marguerite fund was created in 2010 by the major European national financial institutions, with the European Investment Bank (IEB) and the European Commission, to invest in new infrastructure projects and projects to extend infrastructure in the transport, energy and renewable energy sectors in the 27countries of the European Union.

Jean-Baptiste Coiffet is a specialist in organisational missions, integration and project management, and is responsible for Asset Management & Fund Securities at the consulting firm Equinox Consulting. With Newsmanagers, he discusses the services offered by his business to asset managers in order to help them to confront an environment in which operational efficiency is becoming a key challenge.

As of 30 September, investment funds from Banesto posted assets of EUR4.222bn, 9.9% less than one year earlier, Funds People reports. This decline is due to the fact that clients “preferred other types of savings,” including bank savings accounts, whose volume increased by 0.1% to EUR45.540bn. The ratio of investment funds/savings stands at 9.27%, which is one of the lowest ratios in the industry.Assets in pension funds have fallen 0.5% in one year, to EUR1.223bn.Overall. Banesto has seen an 83.2% fall in its net profits in the first nine months of the year, to EUR50.1m, after EUR804.7m in provisions to cover real estate risks. The EUR682.5m in capital gains have offset a large part of those provisions.

About 32% of fund managers are planning to outsource back office functions in the next twelve months, a level double last year, according to a study which has recently been undertaken by the fund sector service provier Kneip of 130 companies worldwide. Last year, only 18% of managers cited such a possibility.Among the functions which are liable to be outsourced are functions related to UCITS and KIID regulations. About 17% of candidates for outsourcing say they are planning to use external providers to produce Key Investor Information Documents (KIID). 22% and 16%, respectively, say they would be outsourcing distribution and treatment of KIID documents.

Martin Gilbert, CEO of Aberdeen Asset Management, has called for a complete separation of retail and investment banking, and an introduction of risk-adjusted leverage in the sector, Financial News reports. The comments were made in a speech given Wednesday evening at the Imperial College Business School.

JP Morgan, BNP Paribas and State Street are the best-liked fund administrators in the UK, according to the ninth annual survey published by FundServices.net and GlobalCustody.net, and undertaken by R&M Surveys (“2012 Fund Accounting & Administrative Survey,”) covering fund managers based in the UK.Year on year, JP Morgan has taken the top spot from BNP Paribas, while State Street, which took sixth place last year, made significant gains. It is followed by Northern Trust and BNY Mellon, which hold onto their positions from last year.For BNP Paribas, the survey highlights the quality of personnel and its ability to provide key performance indicators and to respect its Service Level Agreements. The survey finds that reporting and performance measurement are among the points in need of improvement.

In the second half of October, money market funds saw outflows of over USD40bn, of which USD28bn were in the week to 31 October, according to estimates by EPFR Global. But investors have remained on the tips of their toes due to several factors: mixed quarterly results, hurricane Sandy and the approaching US elections. As a result, bond funds have posted inflows of only USD5bn, modest in comparison to the inflows observed in previous weeks. European and emerging market bond funds continued to attract more than USD1bn in subscriptions each in the final days of October. Equity funds took inflows of USD2.8bn, with demand remaining strong for emerging market equities, as Chinese equity funds attracted USD600m.

Hermes Fund Managers, managing nearly GBP25 billion of assets on behalf of its clients, has announced the launch of its Emerging Asia UCITS fund. The fund, which invests in Asia excluding Japan, has a focus on China, Korea, Taiwan and India. The fund is managed by Jonathan Pines, who has led the Emerging Asia strategy since its inception on 31 December 2009. The Hermes Emerging Asia strategy is a contrarian, value-biased, high conviction strategy with an emphasis on stock selection. It is benchmarked against the MSCI Asia ex-Japan Index. Since inception the strategy has returned an annualised 15%, beating its benchmark by an annualised 10%. The Emerging Asia UCITS Fund will be available to discretionary managers, multi-manager fund selectors and wealth managers in the UK. The fund is available at an annual management charge of 1%, with a minimum investment of GBP1,000.

Liontrust will be launching an Irish-domiciled offshore version of its Special Situations unit trust next month, Investment Week reports. The British equity fund is managed by Julian Fosh and Anthony Cross, and has attracted GBP550m. With the offshore version, Liontrust is aiming to meet demand on the part of foreign investors.

From 1 November, six new Netherlands-registered funds from BNP Paribas Fund II N.V., BNP Paribas Fund III N.V., and BNP Paribas OBAM N.V. were admitted to trading on the NYSE Euronext Fund Service.They are:BNP EUR OBL FONDS P (NL0010261475) with fees of 0.57%, replicating the Ctitigroup WGBI EMU (RI),BNP GL PROP SEC FD P (NL0010261483) based on the FTSE EPRA NAREIT Global (NR) (Dutch tax rate), with fees of 0.87% BNP HIGH INC PR FD P (NL0010261491) based on the FTSE EPRA NAREIT Global Dividend + (hedged in EUR) (NR) BNP GL HIGH IN EQ P (NL0010261509) based on the S&P High Income Equity World (hedged in EUR) (NR) and the BNP AS PAC HI INC P (NL0010261517) based on the S&P High Income Equity Asia Pacific (hedged in EUR) (NR), all three of which also charge 0.87%,as well as the BNP OBAM P (NL0010261525) based on the MSCI World (RI), whose TER is 0.60%.Overall, the Euronext Funds Service now lists 192 funds.

Lyxor has lowered its total expense ratio (TER) in Italy for seven ETF funds from 22 October, Bluerating reports. The products concerned are the following: Lyxor ETF EURO STOXX 50, Lyxor ETF Japan, Lyxor ETF MSCI AC Asia-Pacific Ex Japan, Lyxor ETF MSCI Emerging Markets, Lyxor ETF MSCI EMU, Lyxor ETF MSCI Europe and Lyxor ETF MSCI USA.

For third quarter 2012, Invesco Ltd has posted net profits of USD188.4m, compared with USD184.7m in April-June, and USD192.3m in the corresponding period of last year. Net profits in the first nine months of this year total USD518.4m, compared with USD527.4m in January-September 2011.Assets increased to USD683bn as of the end of September, from USD646.6bn at the end of June, and USD598.4bn one year previously. An increase of USD36.4bn in third quarter is USD11.7bn due to net subscriptions, compared with net outflows of USD8.3bn in April-June.

The sale by Société Générale of its asset management affiliate TCW to Carlyle, made official on 9 August, is moving ahead, Les Echos reports. The operation is expected to be completed in first quarter next year, but a lawsuit against TCW, filed in Los Angeles on 21 August before a Federal court by the institutional investor EIG Global Energy Partner, may delay the sale. EIG claims it has a right of veto which it acquired during the creation of a joint venture with TCW last year, and which specifies that any change of control concerning one of the co-shareholders in the joint venture cannot act without the agreement of the board of directors of the joint venture, on which EIG controls a majority of seats. A hearing is scheduled for this morning in Los Angeles.

Warrenn Buffett’s group Berkshire Hathaway has announced the acquisition of the mail-order toy distributor Oriental Trading from KKR and a group of investors. According to sources familiar with the matter cited by the Wall Street Journal, the sale is estimated to have cost about USD500m.Meanwhile, Berkshire Hathaway has reported a 72% increase in its net profits in third quarter 2012, to USD3.92bn, due to gains on investments and an improvement in the derivatives portfolio.Operating profits, the variable on which Buffett focuses, has contracted by 11% to USD3.4bn. This decline is due to base effects, as reinsurance activities in July-September 2011 underwent a major upward revision in their reserves.

The Swedish firm SEB has opened a hedge fund for private clients, which had previously been reserved for institutional investors, the SEB Dynamic Manager Alpha fund, Privata Affärer reports. The fund invests in other equity funds, but protects itself from market risk by selling the benchmark indices of the various funds. The product, launched in 2005, has not had a negative year of results so far.

After opening an office in Hong Kong (see Newsmanagers of 2 November 2012), led by Michael Chang, Natixis Global Asset Management is expected to open another office in South Korea, Asian Investor reports. The office will be located in Seoul, and will open in December. It will be led by the Japanese Jung Tai-Hwan, who had previously served institutional clients from Japan.

Generali Assecurazioni has become the largest asset management firm in Italy in terms of assets, with over EUR310bn, putting it ahead of Intesa Sanpaolo (EUR220bn), Milano Finanza reports. This is the result of a reorganization of the insurance group, which has resulted in the integration of funds managed in France and Germany.

Assets under management in the wealth management unit of RBS fell by GBP1.1bn in third quarter, the British group has announced at the publication of its quarterly results. Quarterly outflows, which totalled GBP1.5bn, were only partially offset by a positive market effect of GBP0.4bn. The banking group has also reported a net loss of GBP1.384bn, or EUR1.7bn, compared with a net profit of GBP1.226bn one year earlier.

The Norwegian Government Pension Fund - global (GPFG), one of the largest sovereign funds in the world, has profited from a rebound on the global stock markets in third quarter, and has continued to reduce its exposure to a crisis-hit Europe, the Norwegian central bank, responsible for its management, announced on 2 November.In the past quarter, the fund, which invests in international equities and bonds, has posted returns of 4.7%, which brings its assets to NOK3.723trn, or about EUR507.1bn.Returns on investments in equities totalled 6.5%, and as much as 9% on the European continent, where the Norwegian fund is a top investor. Returns on bond assets total only 2.2%, however. At the end of third quarter, the fund was 60.3% invested in equities, 39.4% in bonds, and 0.3% in real estate.The real estate portfolio has earned returns of 2.7%. After transactions with Generali in third quarter, the fund has invested in the United Kingdom aince the end of the quarter with British Land, and in Germany with AXA France.In the quarter under review, the fund has continued its announced rebalancing, reducing its proportion of investments in Europe, particularly of government bonds from southern European countries, to increase its presence in North America and particularly Asia.The fund has reduced its investment in French and Spanish government debt. It has also increased its investments in US and Japanese government bonds, and has increased its assets in government bonds denominated in emerging currencies in markets such as South Korea, Mexico, and Russia, it says.Accross equities and bonds combined, the Norwegisn fund, supplied by the country’s enormous oil revenues, now holds 47.8% of its investments in Europe, 37.8% in America, and 14.4% in Asia-Pacific. Eventually, in order to reflect the geographical distribution of the real economy, the objective is to increase this market share to 41%, 40% and 19%, respectively.

Syz & Co has overhauled its Oyster range of Luxembourg funds, Citywire reports. Several funds have been merged, closed or repositioned, according to a note obtained by the website. The changes will affect seven funds covering US equities, European equities, Latin American equities and emerging market equities.

Selon nos informations, les Assurances du Crédit Mutuel (ACM) ont augmenté récemment leur exposition aux pays émergents. Ce développement, qui se fait au gré des opportunités et sur l’ensemble des zones, est toujours en cours, la partie émergente de l’assureur étant quasi-nulle fin 2011. « Dans le cadre de la gestion actif-passif et en fonction de la part d’actifs gérés en direct, ACM procède à des arbitrages sur l'émergent, à l’aide de trackers et avec l’appui d’une dizaine de gérants » détaille un proche du dossier. Qui ajoute que globalement, « l’allocation stratégique, constituée principalement d’obligataire, n’a pas connu de modification notable en 2012, si ce n’est un renforcement sur les obligations corporate sécurisées ». Précisons par ailleurs que Les Assurances du Crédit Mutuel, qui gèrent 70 milliards d’euros de placements, ont recours à de l’alternatif (hedge funds et private equity) pour une faible part, et n’identifient pas l’ISR comme une classe d’actifs en tant que telle. L'équipe financière est composée de trois gérants sur la poche obligataire, deux gérants et un analyste sur la poche actions, toutes deux gérées en direct, et deux gérants en charge de la diversification sur les pays émergents et les Etats-Unis.

Depuis décembre dernier le conseil de surveillance de l’entreprise PagesJaunes travaille sur la refonte du dispositif PEG (Plan d’Epargne Groupe) - PERCO (Plan d’Epargne Retraite Collectif). Les objectifs fixés sont de simplifier et rationnaliser le dispositif en le sécurisant. L’objectif principal est le maximiser le couple rendement/risque. Concrètement, il a été décidé d’intégrer deux fonds dans le PEG: Amundi protect 90 garanti à 90% et devrait faire mieux que le fonds Arcancia et Carmignac Investissement, fonds action monde plus spéculatif. Le nouveau dispositif construira une échelle de risque/rendement plus régulière. Le PERCO aura un objectif de sécurisation des actifs avec la mise en place du PERCO garanti : mieux sécuriser, diversifier, simplifier et communiquer.

La fondation suisse pour l’investissement responsable Ethos a annoncé le 2 novembre la nomination de Christophe Hans en qualité de Corporate Communications Manager. Christophe Hans occupera également la fonction de secrétaire général de l’association Ethos Académie, précise la fondation dans un communiqué. Il entrera en fonction en janvier 2013.

Spécialiste des missions d'organisation, d’intégration et de gestion de projet, Jean-Baptiste Coiffet est responsable Asset Management & Fund Securities Services au sein du cabinet de conseil Equinox Consulting. Il revient pour Newsmanagers sur les services offerts par son entreprise aux asset managers pour les aider à affronter un environnement où l'efficacité opérationnelle devient un enjeu crucial.

Les entreprises américaines ont accéléré leurs recrutements en octobre et l’amélioration de la conjoncture a incité un nombre accru de chômeurs à reprendre leur recherche d’emploi, faisant remonter le taux de chômage d’un dixième de point à 7,9%. Deux signes encourageants pour la reprise économique à quatre jours du scrutin présidentiel. Le département du Travail a recensé 171.000 créations de postes non-agricoles le mois dernier et il a revu à la hausse les chiffres des deux mois précédents, de 84.000 au total, dans son rapport mensuel sur l’emploi publié vendredi. L’augmentation des recrutements a dépassé les pronostics les plus optimistes: la plus haute des estimations recueillies ne donnait que 168.000 créations pour octobre.

L’Agence France Trésor a annoncé l’adjudication, le lundi 5 novembre, d’un montant global compris entre 5,6 et 6,8 milliards d’euros de bons du Trésor (BTF). Cette opération portera sur des montants compris entre 3,4 et 3,8 milliards d’euros de bons à 12 semaines qui arriveront à échéance le 31 janvier 2013, entre 1,2 et 1,6 milliard d’euros de bons à 23 semaines, à échéance du 18 avril 2013, et entre 1 et 1,4 milliard d’euros de bons à 49 semaines, à échéance du 17 octobre 2013.

Le Government Pension Fund Global, qui gère les revenus pétroliers de la Norvège, a dégagé une performance de 4,7% au troisième trimestre grâce au rebond des marchés actions. Il avait perdu 2,2% au deuxième trimestre. Le fonds souverain norvégien gère l'équivalent de 660 milliards de dollars, investis à 60,3% en actions, 39,4 % en obligations et 0,3% en immobilier. Son portefeuille d’emprunts d’Etat français a diminué de 17%, le fonds cherchant à rééquilibrer son portefeuille hors de la zone euro.

L’autorité de l’île est contrainte de multiplier les interventions sur le marché des changes, qui engendrent une hausse de l'immobilier et des actions

Le respect des critères de Maastricht a un coût exorbitant pour certains pays membres, qui pourraient d’eux-mêmes préférer la sortie