The French association of securities professionals (AFTI), supported by the national association of equity companies (ANSA), on 18 April announced the creation of a concerted action structure to bring together representatives of the financial industry, shareholders and share issuing businesses interested in setting up and developing electronic voting and the Votaccess electronic platform, which has been operational since November 2011, and who would like to have some influence to ensure harmonious and controlled growth in the service of the general wealth. The body, entitled the Votaccess scientific council, which met for the first time on 17 April, will be open to professional associations concerned that may be interested in participating in its efforts, to representatives of share-issuing businesses, banks, shareholder representatives, and academics. The body is responsible for monitoring the institution of electronic voting, managing a statistical tool, sharing experiential feedback, considering ways to promote electronic voting throughout Europe, and formulating proposals to improve Votaccess.
In first quarter, only two hedge fund strategies out of 13 monitored by EDHEC-Risk show losses: CTA Global (-0.6%), and short selling, which shows losses of 12.5%, but lost only 0.93% in March.The best performance in the first three months of the year were for emerging markets (6.4%), distressed securities (6.3%) and long/short equity (6.2%).Since January 2001, the best results have been for distressed securities and emerging markets, with annual returns of 10.5% each.
On 13 April, the CNMV registered the BBVA Crecimiento Bolsa BP fund from BBVA Asset Management, a fund guaranteed at maturity, on 9 December 2015, with a redemption of 95% of the net asset value as of 8 June 2012. The fund carries the potential for additional gains depending on the evolution of the Ibex 35 index. If losses are limited to 5%, or 1.453% per year, gains for the fund will have a ceiling of 75% of a 25% rise in the index, or 5.026% per year. From 9 June, the fund will invest in bonds issued by EU governments or Spanish autonomous communities rated at least A-, with a maximum of 20% corporate bonds, covered bonds, or securitisations.CharacteristicsName: BBVA Crecimiento Bolsa BP, FIISIN code: ES0113466009Front-end fee: 5%Management commission: 1.97%Early withdrawal penalty: 5%
LBBW Asset Management, an affiliate of the German Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) has announced that on 11 April it launched a non-food commodities fund entitled LBBW Rohstoffe 3 Ex-Food, inspired by the LBBW Ex-Food-Rohstoff-Index ER index, currently composed of 18 commodities. It invests in futures contracts on ten commodities in the precious metals, base metals and energy sectors, as well as timber and cotton. Cash is placed in highly-rated bonds with a short maturity.The fund is available in R (retail) and I (institutional) share classes.CharacteristicsName: LBBW Rohstoffe 3 Ex FoodISIN codes:DE000A1H7292 (R share class)DE000A1H7284 (I share class)Front-end fee: 5% (R share class)Management commission:1.50% (R share class)0.80% (I share class)Minimal subscription: EUR75,000 (I share class)
Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) has asked five members of its 14-member sales team to reapply for their positions, following a decision by the firm to redistribute roles, FundWeb reports. The size of the team will not be reduced, SWIP adds. In general, SWIP is hoping to move from a more silo-type client approach to a more holistic approach.
The private equity firms Charterhouse and JC Flowers are front-runners to take over the activities of Groupama in the United Kingdom. The reports on the website Insurance Times have been confirmed to Agefi by a source familiar with the matter. Meanwhile, the CEO of Eiffage, Pierre Berger, on Wednesday announced at a general shareholders’ meeting that Groupama, its fourth-largest shareholder, is interested in selling its stake if the share price rises.
Schroders has announced the launch of Schroder ISF Global Multi-Asset Income. This fund will aim to provide sustainable quality income by dynamically investing in attractive income opportunities across a range of asset classes, regions and sectors. Aymeric Forest, senior Multi-Asset fund manager, will manage the fund with the objective to pay a 5% per annum distribution in equal quarterly or monthly instalments, with an expected 7% total return per annum over a full market cycle. “We are currently seeing interesting opportunities within equities in healthcare in the UK and Japan, consumer staples in the US and Asia, and telecoms in China and South Africa. We are also finding attractive yields in some US municipal bonds and high yield debt and in local currency emerging markets with a loose monetary policy. We are cautiously positioned within our exposure to financials and prefer bonds issued by US and UK insurers to those issued by banks,” he comments.
Fundweb reports that Franklin Templeton has decided to absorb the Templeton UK Equity Fund into the Franklin UK Managers’ Focus Fund, and to absorb the Franklin US Equity Fund into the Franklin US Opportunities Fund. Meanwhile, the Franklin Biotechnology and Franklin Global Reit funds will be liquidated at the end of May. These moves will increase the efficiency of the range, which will concentrate on OEIC sub-funds, says Ian Wilkins, country head for Franklin Templeton in the UK.
Pimco will open an office in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in September 2012. The new office will be Pimco’s first location in Latin America and will be led by Alec Kersman, a senior vice president and head of Pimco’s Latin America and Caribbean business. He joined Pimco in 2005. Pimco will operate in Brazil as Pimco Latin America Administradora de Carteiras Ltda., and will be regulated by the Comissao Nacional de Valores (CVM).
In 2011, the Danish asset management firm Sparinvest has announced pre-tax profits ot EUR13.7m, of which EUR0.8m are due to the acquisition of EgnsInvest, compared with EUR12.5m in 2010, and EUR10.1m in 2009.As of the end of 2011, assets totalled EUR9.1bn, compared with EUR8.8bn and EUR7.5bn respectively at the end of 2010 and the end of 2009.However, ROE has fallen to 22%, compared with 29% in 2010.
M&G Investments has opened an office in Singapore, composed of five people, including Andrew Hendry, who has been appointed to the newly-created position of managing director, Asia. He is tasked with building a team in Singapore and Hong Kong who will service the growing number of M&G distribution partners in the region. Hendry joined the British asset management firm last year, after working at Capital International, where he was responsible for global distribution relationships.
The British private bank Coutts has announced the departure of its head for South-East Asia, Manfred Liechti, following a restructuring, Asian Investor reports. Liechti joined Coutts in 2010, and was in charge of Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Meanwhile, Coutts has appointed his successor, Ranjit Khanna, as head for South-East Asia. Khanna had previously been head of products and services for Asia.
Following Miguel Ángel Rodríguez’s decision to take on new challenges outside the Ahorro Corporación group, Enrique Sánchez del Villar has replaces him at CEO of the asset management affiliate AC Gestión, Funds People reports. Rodríguez joined the financial group of the savings banks in 2008, and focused primarily on relationships with savings banks.Sánchez del Villar says that asset management is a strategic profession for Ahorro Corporación, and that his role will be to conclude multiple partnerships to bring an increase in assets under management. He is planning to sign sales agreements with international groups, whose products would complement funds on offer to Spanish groups.
Canadian regulators at the end of last week unveiled new regulations which aim to protect institutional investors hoping to move bloc trades to dark pools. Among the measures introduced include priority for orders originating from a regulated market, over orders from dark pools at the same price. If an order is not sufficiently large for a bloc trade and goes to a dark pool, the market must offer a better execution price.
Les placements de CCR se sont élevés à 7 313 millions d’euros en 2011, mais compte tenu de la situation sur les marchés financiers et immobiliers, les plus-values latentes nettes atteignent 603 millions d’euros, aussi le montant global des actifs financiers et immobiliers s'établit à 7 916 millions d’euros en hausse de 3 %. Au total, le rendement s’est établi à 2,9 % contre 3,3 % en 2010. A noter, que l’exposition aux risques souverains grec et portugais est nul et que la part de dette des autres pays fragilisés de l’Union Européenne (Espagne, Italie, Irlande) reste marginal à 1 % des actifs gérés. Enfin, CCR annonce qu’au 31 décembre 2011, elle couvrait 10,1 fois son besoin de marge de solvabilité au sens de la réglementation en vigueur, mais que selon les règles de Solvabilité 2, le ratio de couverture se serait établi à 155 %.
L’Espagne va demander à l’Union européenne de saisir l’Organisation mondiale du commerce afin que soit ouverte une procédure contre l’Argentine qui a pris le contrôle d’YPF, filiale de l’espagnol Repsol, a rapporté Reuters de source gouvernementale. Madrid a brandi la menace de rétorsions économiques et diplomatiques après la décision de la présidente argentine Christina Fernandez de nationaliser 51% d’YPF. Le gouvernement argentin a en outre décidé d’exproprier une société locale de gaz naturel détenue en partie par Repsol.
Le secrétaire américain au Trésor a qualifié la décision de la Chine d’élargir la bande de fluctuation du yuan de «très importante et très prometteuse». Timothy Geithner a toutefois souligné lors d’une conférence organisée par la Brookings Institution que «bien entendu, ils ont encore un long chemin à parcourir dans ce processus, notamment sur le taux de change».
Le régulateur américain a approuvé à l’unanimité un texte définissant l’univers des swap dealers, ce qui contraindra les acteurs concernés à respecter des exigences de capital, de marge et de conduite d’activité. Ces règles s’inscrivent dans le cadre de la législation Dodd-Frank, qui donne autorité à la SEC et à la CFTC pour réguler le marché des dérivés OTC.
A la rencontre dans l’Oise des salariés de Still Saxby, François Hollande a promis de revenir sur la procédure du LBO en cas d'élection. «Au départ, cette procédure dite LBO était destinée à des cadres ou à des salariés qui voulaient reprendre eux-mêmes leur entreprise. C'était un bon principe, mais ça a été détourné au profit de groupes financiers», a déclaré le candidat socialiste. «Et donc le législateur aura à revenir sur ce dispositif de façon à le réserver exclusivement aux salariés ou aux cadres d’une entreprise», a-t-il ajouté.
Le premier gestionnaire d’actifs mondial a enregistré un bénéfice net de 572 millions de dollars (3,14 dollars par action) au premier trimestre, contre 568 millions (2,89 dollars par titre) un an plus tôt. Les clients ont plébiscité les ETF. Ils ont en effet injecté en net 18,2 milliards de dollars dans iShares, une hausse de 74% par rapport au premier trimestre de 2011.
La plate-forme électronique suscitée par l’AFTI, avec le concours de l’ANSA, s’est dotée d’une structure de concertation baptisée «conseil scientifique». Ouverte aux associations professionnelles concernées, à des représentants des sociétés émettrices, à des banques et à des représentants des actionnaires et de l’Université, elle vise entre autres à suivre la montée en charge du vote électronique, à gérer un outil statistique et à formuler des propositions d’amélioration.
Selon le journal chinois qui cite Jia Kang, responsable d’un institut de recherche au ministère des Finances, la Chine devrait procéder à une baisse sélective de ses tarifs douaniers, alors que les gouvernements locaux pourraient augmenter le niveau des taxes sur les PME.
Le gestionnaire Pershing Square Capital Management, dirigé par l’actionnaire activiste William Ackmann, entend récolter 4 milliards de dollars à l’occasion de l’introduction en Bourse d’un nouveau fonds en janvier prochain, selon le quotidien, qui n’identifie pas ses sources. La cotation de Pershing Square Holdings pourrait être réalisée sur le London Stock Exchange ou sur Nyse Euronext.
Le Fonds monétaire international demande aux dirigeants européens d’accompagner le désendettement bancaire pour qu’il ne réduise l’encours de crédit que de 0,6%.