Florent Combes, le responsable des taux d’Ecofi Investissements, a quitté la société après y avoir passé neuf ans, selon Citywire. Il rejoint le Crédit Mutuel en tant que responsable taux et devises. Bernard Angéniol reprend ses responsabilités chez Ecofi. Il est désormais le responsable de la gestion de la société de gestion, indique Citywire. Précédemment, il était responsable des risques.

BNP Paribas a annoncé vendredi avoir décidé de conserver 75% de son résultat 2011 dans l’entreprise pour renforcer ses fonds propres. Les 25% restants seront distribués sous forme de dividende à ses actionnaires. Les actionnaires se sont vu proposer le paiement de ce dividende soit en numéraire, soit en actions BNP Paribas. La banque a précisé que le paiement en actions a été choisi à hauteur de 72% du dividende total. «93% du bénéfice 2011 de BNP Paribas aura donc été réinvesti dans l’entreprise pour renforcer ses fonds propres, donc sa solidité et sa capacité de faire crédit», note un communiqué.

Stéphane Chossat a quitté Hixance Am pour Alexandre Finance. La société de gestion a confirmé à Newsmanagers les informations de H24 Finance. Il pilotera le nouveau fonds «Patrimoine by Alexandre ", a précisé Michel Peronne, président d’Alexandre Finance. Le nouveau produit «sera investi à 90 % en obligations issues de la zone euro et à 10 % en actions, mais nous ne nous interdisons pas de monter jusqu'à 30 % en actions si l’environnement s’y prête», a-t-il ajouté. Alexandre Finance gère 150 millions d’euros dont 65 millions en gestion privée.C’est Jean-Noël Vieille qui assure au sein de Hixance AM la gestion des fonds dont a été responsable Stéphane Chossat.

Natixis chercherait à vendre sur le marché secondaire un portefeuille de participations dans le capital investissement, rapporte Financial News. Le portefeuille s'élèverait à 200 millions de dollars et serait constitué de participations en LBO levés par des acteurs tels que 3i Group, Cinven et PAI Partners.

Neuberger Berman négocie avec plusieurs grands réseaux de conseillers financiers afin de distribuer ses fonds en Italie, a déclaré Marco Avanzo Barbieri, directeur exécutif de la société, au site Internet italien Bluerating. Derrière le nom Neuberger Berman se cache l’ancienne activité de gestion d’actifs de Lehman Brothers, rappelle le site. Basée à New York, la nouvelle structure cherche à se développer en Europe. Un bureau a été ouvert en Italie en novembre 2011 et d’autres pourraient être inaugurés en Europe.

Le conseil d’administration de la banque italienne Banca Generali a approuvé le projet de fusion par incorporation de sa filiale de gestion BG SGR qui avait été présenté en décembre, annonce un communiqué de presse du 21 juin. L’opération a aussi obtenu le feu vert de la Banque d’Italie et de l’assemblée des actionnaires de BG SGR.Cette intégration s’insère dans le projet de rationalisation des activités de gestion de Banca Generali lancé en septembre dernier avec la cession par BG SGR de ses fonds à Generali Investments Italy. La fusion, qui est la seconde étape du projet, permet de réintégrer dans le périmètre de Banca Generali les activités restantes de BG SGR, c’est-à-dire les gestions sous mandat, représentant 3,1 milliards d’euros. Ces activités deviendront une division autonome au sein de la banque, spécialisée dans la gestion sous mandats.

The first payment to shareholders in the German open-ended real estate fund CS Euroreal (EUR6bn in assets as of the end of April), which Credit Suisse has decided to liquidate (see Newsmanagers of 22 May) will be made on 3 July. It will be EUR4.50 for each share in euros (DE0009805002) and CHF6.70 for each share in Swiss francs (DE0009751404). Overall, Credit Suisse will distribute EUR446.9m, or 7.7% of total assets in the fund.The next payment will come with the fund’s annual distribution in December 2012. Its total amount will depend on the volume of properties sold off, on the one hand, and on the results of negotiations over potential early repayment of bank loans, on the other. As for all credit, lenders must be paid off before shareholders.

On Thursday, Deutsche Börse admitted the iShares DJ Emerging Markets Select Dividend ETF to trading on the Xetra electronic trading platform. On Friday, the German-registered product was followed by two Luxembourg-registered products from UBS Global Asset Management.The new additions bring the number of ETFs listed in Frankfurt to 984. This represents some recent stagnation, as the number of products was 983 on 18 June, and 986 on 10 June.CharacteristicsName: iShares Dow Jones Emerging Markets Select DividendISIN code: DE000A1JXDN6Benchmark index: Dow Jones Emerging Markets Select DividendTER: 0.65%Name: UBS-ETF MSCI Pacific (ex Japan) IISIN code: LU0446734799Benchmark index: MSCI Pacific ex JapanTER: 0.30%Name: UBS-ETF FTSE 100 IISIN code: LU0446735176Benchmark index: FTSE 100TER: 0.23%

In an effort to reinforce its sales teams, re-edit its domestic products, and eventually release them throughout Europe, the British asset management firm M&G Investment (EUR243m in assets) has now adapted most of its teams and product range to the changes in demand observed since the onset of the last crisis, as Johnathan Willcocks, head of sales, explained in London on Friday.Concretely, sales staff in Paris and Milan has been doubled. “We are going to actively release our Global Macro Bond Fund, which will add a ‘portfolio diversification’ element to a product range which we had voluntarily limited to three products in France, starting in second half,” Willcocks tells Newsmanagers.M&G, which has recently opened offices in Singapore and Hong Kong, has also in the space of only two years concluded nine global distribution partnerships, largely with major banks, in order to promote partnership relations over vendor-client relationships. The asset management firm is also studying the possibility of opening an office in Dubai and a location directly in Latin America.On the subject of changes to the product range, Willcocks emphasizes multi-asset class products, which are “less volatile than single strategy funds, and which meet the requirements of clients who are now in search of both revenues and solutions.” M&G is in the process of revising a series of four Episode products in the United Kingdom which comply with the UCITS directive, and which will subsequently be released for sale in continental Europe. M&G will also be releasing a global real estate fund which was launched as a British product (NURS) in April 2008 as a UCITS product. The M&G Global Real Estate Securities Fund, which will receive a sales license for the United Kingdom in the next few days, and which can then be sold in continental Europe, has EUR75m in assets. Managed by Gillian Tiltman, the fund will invest 70-80% of its assets in REITs, and the remainder directly in real estate.

It is still a little early to measure the effects of the UCITS IV directive, but “I can tell you at this stage that it’s not a revolution,” says the re-elected president of the French financial management association (AFG), Paul-Henri de La Porte du Theil, in an interview with Les Echos. “One year on, the passport for asset management firms is not widely-used. The product passport, an innovation of the previous directive, works better. However, the master/feeder framework, which was created to promote the recovery of certain financial management industries in France, has left us cold. Exports of French ‘feeder’ funds are now possible, but creations of master funds, unfortunately, are now happening more in Luxembourg than Paris. That’s where regulations face considerable competition: asset management is strategic for Luxembourg, and its regulator, the financial sector surveillance commission (CSSF),” the AFG president explains.

The money manager J. Exra Merkin has agreed to pay about USD410m to settle claims that he transferred billions of US dollars of investors’ money to Bernard Madoff, the Wall Street Journal reports. The agreement will be announced on Monday.

After managing not only to stabilize its high net worth client base, but also to enlarge it a bit, Lazard Frères Gestion (LFG) is resolutely moving into “conquering” mode and is now also targeting its rivals' customer base, with the choice of a dedicated management approach for each of its clients.

BaFin has issued a sales license for Germany to the equity fund Axa WF Framlington LatAm, created on 14 May, and managed by Julian Thompson, global head of emerging markets at Axa Framlington (see Newsmanagers of 15 June).The Luxembourg-registered fund, distributed by Axa Investment Managers (LU0746602159), charges fees of 1.5% to retail investors (no minimal subscription), and 0.75% for institutional investors (from EUR0.5m).Axa IM states that it is planning to apply for a sales license in other European countries.

Exposure of US money market funds to European banks continued to fall in May, to a total of about 12% of assets in funds, the financial ratings agency Fitch Ratings reports in its latest study of money market funds (“U.S. Money Fund Exposure and European Banks: Disengagement Continues.”) The slight increase in the exposure of US money market funds to European banks in the first two months of the year was ultimatel a sop, quickly wiped out when investor concerns about the situation in the euro zone returned to the foreground. Since late November 2011, the exposure of US money market funds to European banks have remained at about 12%, after a steep fall in this exposure level in the first part of second half 2011. For the first time, Fitch Ratings is offering a temporal data series for the proportion of pension assets collateralised with US Treasury debt.

The Euorpean hedge fund manager Brevan Howard Asset Management is currently seeking to get USD20m together for a debt fund, Bloomberg reports. The fund, Brevan Howard Credit Value Master Fund, will invest in mortgage-backed securities (MBS), CDOs backed by real estate, and illiquid shares which are trading below their intrinsic value, Brevan Howard says in sales documentation obtained by the news agency.

In the equity universe, midcaps in general, and US midcaps in particular, are not taken adequately into account, claims Steven Pollack, manager of the Robeco Boston Partners Mid Cap Value Equity fund at Robeco for more than 10 years. “A US pension fund will look at large caps as a first priority, or at small caps with an eye to diversification, but in few cases will they look specifically at midcaps,” Pollack opined last week on a visit to Paris. The Los Angeles-based manager, whose midcaps fund has nearly USD2bn in assets, and whose strategy has been available since September 2011 as a Luxembourg Sicav, U.S. Select Opportunities (USD50m in assets as of the end of May), claims that the US midcaps universe, made up of over 2,000 companies, and exploited in the United States by mutual funds, is too neglected by institutional investors, even though it offers real opportunities, and historically better returns than small or large caps. The fund managed by Pollack, which is highly diversified, with about 120 holdings, is primarily interested in companies which meet three requirements: attractive valuation, solid fundamentals, and growth outlooks. “If one of these three selection criteria deteriorates, we sell,” says Pollack. Currently, the fund’s largest position is CBS, at 2%, followed by Moody’s (1.6%) and Wesco (1.6%). Overweight sectors include consumer services, health and technologies. However, the fund is underweight in utilities, energy and transport. Since the beginning of the year, the fund has earned net performance after commissions of 5.21% compared with 3.98% for the Russell Midcap Value Index. It has earned annual returns of 19% over three years, compared with 18.57% for the benchmark index, and nearly 12% since its launch in May 1995, compared with 10.38% for the benchmark.

Aberdeen Asset Management established the presence of Fujitsu Technology Solutions SA in the building River Plaza in Asnières ( 92 ), through a green lease of 6 years. This building, property of the DEGI Europa Fund, is currently 92 % let to 4 prime tenants.

According to a survey by RBC Dexia undertaken on 31 May, thus after the presidential election, of 55 French asset managers, 78% said they have little or no confidence in the present government to bring about an economic recovery (see sttachment).A majority of 62% do not feel that governments worldwide are able to resolve the crisis either, and the majority of participants (60%) estimate that it will take another four to five years for the crisis to end, although 55% are of the opinion that outlooks in the current crisis are too pessimistic. French asset managers also believe the government estimate that austerity alone will not be enough to resolve the crisis in the euro zone: 65% do not feel that this strategy will be effective.Lastly, about 42% of those surveyed feel that the French equity market will rise by the end of 2013, compared with only 29% who think that it will fall, and 27% who predict that it will remain at current levels.

On Thursday, the Austrian firm conwert Immobilien Invest SE announced that it has been selected to manage a third closed residential real estate fund for DWS (Deutsche Bank group), the DWS Access Wohnen III, which will invest exclusively in existing housing units in Germany, with a volume expected to total EUR120m. Subscribers can expect a dividend of 6% per year from 2014.The concept of the DWS Wohnen III is to hold 70% of assets for a period of 10 years, while the remaining 30% will be in the trading portfolio. So far, the fund has invested EUR24m in nine properties, mainly in Berlin, Potsdam and Leipzig.As for the DWS Access Wohnen I and II funds, conwert will be responsible for all duties from acquisition of the properties to sale of each apartment, including administration and development. It also provides the entire asset management of the portfolio.

The Hamburg-based sustainable investment specialist Pure Blue GmbH is launching its first fund specialised in forestry, the closed fund Pure Forest I, to mature in 15 years, and to serve its first dividend of about 8% in four years, fondsprofessionell reports. This visibility is due to the fact that the portfolio will be invested in teak forests which have already been planted (for 4 to 17 years) in the Panamanian province of Ciriqui. The objective is to promote the plantation of bio-diverse forests after the valuable wood is harvested. Minimal subscription is set at EUR5,000, and front-end fee at 5%.

Swisscanto at the end of last week announced that it is launching four passively-managed equity funds aimed at private and institutional investors. The funds, which are closer to the reality of the financial market than traditional ETFs or tracker funds, have better risk/return properties. Instead of basing investment selections on market capitalisation, they take into account the current ecnomic performance of businesses and fluctuations in their value. Additional risks are avoided by steering clear of derivative instruments and securities lending. Name of fund, fees for B/J share classes (B capitalisation share class for private investors, J capitalisation share class for institutional investors) Swisscanto SmartCore® Global Equity (ex CH) 0.65%/0.45% Swisscanto SmartCore® European Equity (ex CH) 0.60%/0.45% Swisscanto SmartCore® North American Equity 0.65%/0.45% Swisscanto SmartCore® Asia Pacific Equity 0.70%/0.50%

Neuberger Berman is in talks with several major financial adviser networks to distribute its funds in Italy, Marco Avanzi Barbieri, executive director of the firm, has announced to the Italian website Bluerating. Behind the name Neuberger Berman is concealed the former asset management activities of Lehman Brothers, the website points out. The new structure, based in New York, is seeking to grow in Europe. An office was opened in Italy in November 2011, and other offices may soon be opened in Europe.

Increasing competition in the institutional asset management industry has reached such a level that clients have begun to react to under-performing periods, asking for fee reductions, an article in Financial News reports. In many cases, they get them.

The index provider S&P Indices on 22 June announced the launch of an index dedicated to companies which respect Islamic Sharia law, the S&P/OIC COMEC 50 Shariah Index, designed to evaluate the performance of 50 major Sharia-compliant businesses based in member countries of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC).The index has been developed in partnership with the OIC, a statement from S&P Indices states, adding that all companies in the 19 countries and territories whose stock markets are members of the OIC stock markets, and which are monitored by S&P Indices, are eligible to be included in the index.The composition of the index must include at least one company, and up to 8 companies from each country, in order to ensure diversification. Major positions of the index Country Weight in index Number of shares Bahrain 0.1% 1 Bangladesh 0.3% 1 Ivory Coast 0.4% 1 Egypt 0.6% 1 Indonesia 19.7% 8 Jordan 0.1% 1 Kazakhstan 3.6% 2 Kuwait 9.0% 3 Lebanon 1.1% 1 Malaysia 20.4% 7 Morocco 2.4% 2 Nigeria 0.6% 1 Oman 0.6% 1 Pakistan 0.9% 1 Qatar 7.5% 3 Saudi Arabia 20.7% 8 Tunisia 0.1% 1 Turkey 11.7% 6 U.A.E. 0.3% 1 Total 100.0% 50 Counry Company Weight in index Indonesia Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk PT 5.3% Saudi Arabia Al Rajhi Banking & Investment Corp. 5.1% Kuwait Mobile Telecommunications Company 5.1% Saudi Arabia SAUDI BASIC INDUSTRIES CORP 5.1% Malaysia Sime Darby Bhd 4.5% Qatar Industries Qatar 4.2% Malaysia IOI Corp Bhd 3.5% Turkey BIM Birlesik Magazalar AS 3.3% Kuwait Kuwait Finance House 3.2% Malaysia Maxis Bhd 3.1% Total 42.4%

Sovereign funds invested 42% more tin 2011 than in 2010, according to a study by the Sovereign Investment Lab at the University of Bocconi in Milan, cited by the Financial Times. In 2011, there were 237 direct investments by these funds, totalling USD80.9bn. Most of this money went to developed countries, particularly businesses with exposure to emerging markets.

Le secteur de la gestion d’actifs peine à renouer avec son niveau de rentabilité d’avant crise. Si les actifs sont revenus à leur plus haut niveau (38.200 milliards d’euros en 2011, contre 38.100 milliards d’euros en 2007 au niveau mondial), les bénéfices enregistrés sont ainsi restés de 20 à 30% inférieurs au niveau de 2007 dans des zones telles que l’Amérique du Nord et l’Europe occidentale, selon une étude mondiale sur le secteur réalisée par McKinsey.

La Banque Postale Asset Management is opening up to the new asset class of debt funds, and on Monday announced that it has recruited three specialist managers. The team is composed of René Kassis, who will serve as director of management for debt funds, and in this role, head of current infrastructure and real estate fund projects. He also becomes a member of the board of directors at LBPAM. In the unit, Kassis works with Pierre Saeli, a specialist manager of real estate debt, and Pierre Bonnet, a manager specialised in infrastructure debt. The members of the team, who will report to Vincent Cornet, chief investment officer and a board member at LBPAM, all hail from the banking industry. Kasss, 44, had been head of infrastructure financing at Dexia, and since 2009, had served as deputy director of project financing at Dexia Crédit Local, while Saeli, 38, was in 2005 director of real estate financing at Royal Bank of Scotland, and then in 2012 joined Deutsche Pfandbriefbank. Lastly, Bonnet, aged 33, had served since 2008 as director of projects and co-head of public-private partnerships for France for direction of project financing, the infrastructure sector, and Dexia Crédit Local.

Stéphane Chossat has left Hixance Am to join Alexandre France. The asset management firm has confirmed reports on H24 Finance to Newsmanagers. He will manage the new “Patrimoine by Alexandre” fund, says Michel Peronne, chairman of Alexandre Finance. The new product “will invest 90% in euro zone bonds, and 10% in equities, but we will allow ourselves to increase the proportion of equities to 30% if the environment is right,” he adds. Alexandre Finance manages EUR150m, of which EUR65m are in private management. Jean-Noël Vieille will serve as fund manager at Hixance AM, for funds previously managed by Chossat.

BlackRock has announced that Susan L. Wagner, a founding partner of BlackRock, is retiring as a vice chairman of BlackRock and has been elected to BlackRock’s board of directors. She will retire at the end of this month and take her seat on the board at the October meeting. She also will continue to serve as a director of DSP BlackRock Investment Managers, the firm’s joint venture in India.In addition to serving as a vice chairman of BlackRock, Ms. Wagner serves as a member of BlackRock’s global executive committee and global operating committee.

JPMorgan Asset Management has announced that Chris Willcox will become global head of fixed income and currencies, Investment Week reports. He succeeds Seth Bernstein, who has been appointed by the asset management firm to direct its multi-asset class activities as part of a new group entitled asset management solutions.