Coup sur coup, State Street Corporation a annoncé avoir remporté deux contrats de conservation pour des montants élevés, l’un de 80,4 milliards de dollars de la part du Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) et l’autre pour 32 milliards de dollars au profit de QSuper.En ce qui concerne le WSIB, le contrat porte également sur un reporting journalier des investissements et de la conformité, le prêt de titres, la valorisation des titres et le règlement. Pour QSuper, il est prévu que State Street assure la valorisation des parts, la surveillance de la conformité et le reporting sur les actifs alternatifs ainsi que des services d’ordre fiscal et de comptabilité.

Barclays a fait enregistrer en France les 16 compartiments de sa gamme de fonds de mandats GlobalAccess. La gestion de ces produits, couvrant différentes classes d’actifs et zones géographiques, est déléguée à différentes sociétés de gestion (une ou plusieurs selon les cas). Par exemple, le compartiment Emerging Market Equity est géré par Aberdeen, Arrow Street, Fidelity, BNY Mellon ARX et East Capital. Le compatiment US Small & Mid Cap a quant à lui été confié à Pyramis Global Advisors, Delaware Investments et Kennedy Capital… (la totalité de la gamme est présentée en pièce jointe). «Chaque gérant est sélectionné pour son expertise sur un marché spécifique. Il est, par la suite, «associé» à d’autres spécialistes de styles différents et complémentaires afin de diversifier les sources de surperformance («alpha»). Les encours sont confiés aux gérants, ainsi sélectionnés par l'établissement de mandats de gestion (...)», explique un communiqué de presse. Cette gamme, qui représente plus de 3 milliards d’euros d’encours, est gérée par l’équipe de multigestion de Wealth & Investment Management composée de neuf professionnels basés à Londres et à Paris. Dirigée par Jaime Arguello, l'équipe cumule près de 9 milliards d’euros d’investissement et 6,5 milliards d’euros en conseil dans la sélection de fonds.

Les fonds d’actions émergentes ont subi pour la première fois depuis le début de l’année des rachats nets durant la dernière semaine de mars mais sur l’ensemble du premier trimestre, ils affichent une collecte nette de 25,59 milliards de dollars contre une décollecte de 23,72 milliards de dollars pour les trois premiers mois de 2011, selon les données communiquées par EPFR Global.Durant la dernière semaine de mars, les fonds d’actions dans leur ensemble ont enregistré une décollecte nette de 4,42 milliards de dollars alors que les fonds obligataires affichaient des souscriptions nettes pour un montant de 4,35 milliards de dollars. Les fonds monétaires ont terminé la semaine sur une décollecte de 11,3 milliards de dollars. Depuis le début de l’année, les fonds obligataires enregistrent une collecte nette de 103,76 milliards de dollars contre 31,70 milliards pour le premier trimestre 2011. Les fonds monétaires terminent le trimestre sur des sorties nettes sensiblement équivalentes à celles du premier trimestre 2011, de 67,16 milliards de dollars contre 68,4 milliards un an plus tôt.

La fusion légale de Clariden Leu AG («Clariden Leu») au sein de Credit Suisse AG («Credit Suisse») est effective à compter de ce jour, a annoncé le groupe dans un communiquéDans le cadre de cette opération, le Credit Suisse a repris légalement l’ensemble des actifs et des passifs, et ainsi des droits et des obligations, de Clariden Leu. L’intégration sur le plan technique de toutes les activités devrait se terminer fin 2012. L’opération doit permettre à Credit Suisse de renforcer sa croissance dans le segment de la gestion de fortune et de réaliser des réductions de coûts annuelles d’environ 200 millions de francs suisses.Credit Suisse Group AG avait fait part le 15 novembre 2011 de son intention d’intégrer entièrement sa société affiliée Clariden Leu au Credit Suisse. Clariden Leu était née en 2007 de la fusion de cinq banques privées: Clariden Bank, Bank Leu, Bank Hofmann, BGP et Credit Suisse Fides.

Le britannique F&C vient de recruter Alvin Chua en qualité de responsable Asie avec pour mission de gagner de nouveaux clients institutionnels, de lancer de nouveaux fonds et de nouveaux partenariats, rapporte Asian Investor. Avec l’arrivée d’Alvin Chua, le bureau de Hong Kong compte désormais 4 personnes.Alvin Chua a déjà travaillé pour F&C de juin 2008 à mai 2009 en tant que responsable de la distribution et du développement en Asie.Les actifs sous gestion de F&C s'élèvent à quelque 160 milliards de dollars.

Pour n’avoir pas respecté leurs obligations professionnelles concernant la publicité de produits financiers, L’Agefi rapporte que le représentant du Collège, lors d’une réunion de la commission des sanctions de l’Autorité des marchés financiers, a requis 1,5 million d’euros contre Natixis AM. La Caisse d'épargne d’Ile-de-France risque de se voir infliger la même sanction, celle de Provence-Alpes-Corse pourrait devoir payer 1,3 million, celle de Normandie 1,1 million et celle de Loire-Drôme-Ardèche 1 million d’euros. En cause, différentes version de fonds à formule, baptisés «Doubl'ô» et «Doubl'ô Monde » commercialisés entre l'été 2001 et avril 2002, qui proposaient aux investisseurs de doubler leur capital de départ. La rapporteure de la commission des sanctions a néanmoins estimé, elle, que les manquements étaient prescrits.

Le fonds de private equity Oaktree, qui gère 75 milliards de dollars, va proposer 11,3 millions d’actions entre 43 et 46 dollars l’unité, dont un million de titres vendus par ses dirigeants lors de l’introduction en Bourse, rapporte L’Agefi. Sur la base du prix de milieu de fourchette, Oaktree espère lever 426 millions.

Après avoir accusé l’une de ses pires performances en 2011, Bill Gross, le gérant du Total Return Fund de Pimco, le plus gros fonds obligataire avec 252 milliards de dollars, a gagné 2,88 % sur les trois premiers mois de l’année, rapporte le Wall Street Journal. Il bat ainsi l’indice Barclays Capital Aggregate Bond Index de 2,58 points et se classe dans les 11 % des meilleurs fonds obligataires sur le trimestre, selon Morningstar. Bill Gross s’est refait grâce à de gros paris sur les MBS émis par Fannie Mae et Freddie Mac. Il a augmenté la participation de son fonds dans ces titres de 38 % en septembre 2011 à 52 % fin février.

Euro RSCG vient de publier son premier bulletin hebdomadaire sur les assemblées générales, rapporte L’Agefi, dont il ressort, notamment, que les demandes d’autorisations financières sont deux fois moins nombreuses qu’en 2011 (40% pour le moment) et moins dilutives. Globalement, les sociétés maintiennent un dividende. Cela étant, les actionnaires devraient encore s’exprimer, même s’ils peinent parfois à pouvoir déposer une résolution. Les 0,5% du capital peuvent être difficiles à rassembler pour des grosses capitalisations, note le quotidien. Selon Olivier Poupart-Lafarge, président du groupe de travail de l’AMF sur les AG, lors d’un récent séminaire de L’Agefi, la prise en compte d’un double seuil - 0,5% ou bien la capacité à réunir un nombre important d’actionnaires, par exemple une centaine - est une idée qui pourrait être étudiée.

Almudena Cambas a rejoint Asesores y Gestores Financieros (A&G), société dont l’actionnaire de référence est EFG International, comme directrice du marketing, annonce Funds People. L’intéressée était depuis 2007 directrice de la communication du Banco Gallego.

George Soros a perdu deux procès cette semaine ce qui devrait lui coûter des millions de dollars, rapporte Investment News. Selon Fox Nation, le milliardaire et le magnat indien Purnendu Chatterjee ont échoué dans leur tentative de faire annuler un procès contre eux. George Soros a aussi vu un appel devant la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme lié à la sanction pécuniaire qui lui avait été infligée en 2002 pour délit d’initié être rejeté.

Jupiter Fund Management a annoncé le 30 mars la nomination de Maarten Slendebroek en qualité d’executive director responsable de la distribution et de la stratégie.Dans cette fonction nouvellement créée, Maarten Slendebroek, qui devrait rejoindre Jupiter dans le courant du second semestre 2012, sera rattaché au directeur général du groupe, Edward Bonham Carter. Il aura pour mission le développement des capacités de distribution de Jupiter au Royaume-Uni et à l'étranger.Maarten Slendebroek vient de chez BlakRock, où il a travaillé pendant 18 ans, dernièrement en tant que responsable du retail international.

Au 30 mars, Landesbank Berlin Investment GmbH (LLB-Invest) a suspendu les souscriptions et rachats de son fonds de fonds immobiliers Stratego Grund*, un produit de 300 millions d’euros placés dans 15 fonds immobiliers offerts au public eux-mêmes investis dans environ 500 actifs immobiliers.Le Stratego ne dispose plus de liquidités suffisantes pour faire face aux demandes de rachat. Il est en outre légalement impossible de recourir à des crédits, parce qu’il faut respecter l'égalité de traitement entre tous les porteurs. Si cette situation d’insuffisance de liquidités devait perdurer, LLB-Invest serait obligée de liquider le fonds, ce qui prendrait beaucoup de temps, précise que gestionnaire berlinois.* Code Isin: DE000A0ERSF5

The index provider MSCI has announced the launch of a family of indices, the MSCI Economic Exposure indices, which reflect the performance of businesses with significant exposure to specific regions or countries, Investment Europe reports. MSCI has launched the first five indices, which provide exposure to companies on developed markets which are active in emerging markets.

The bailout package for Greece and the long-term refinancing operation (LTRO) for the European Central Bank have led US money market funds to invest in Germany and France again, Handelsblatt reports: in February, the ten largest money market funds, which have increased their flows by 21% to at least EUR15.1bn for bunds and 18% to at least USD13.9bn for OATs, according to estimates by iMoneyNet.

Almudena Cambas has joined Asesores y Gestores Financieros (A&G), a firm in which the largest shareholder is EFG International, as head of marketing, Funds People has announced. Cambas had since 2007 been director of communications at Banco Gallego.

Emerging markets equity funds have seen outflows for the first time since the beginning of the year in the last week of March, but for first quarter overall, they show inflows of USD25.59bn, compared with outflows of USD23.72bn for the first three months of 2011, according to statistics from SPFR Global. In the last week of March, equity funds overall posted net outflows of USD4.42bn, while bond funds posted net subscriptions totalled USD4.35bn. Money market funds finished the week with outflows of USD11.3bn. Since the beginning of the year, bond funds have posted a net inflow of USD103.76bn, compared with USD31.70bn for first quarter 2011. Money market funds have finished the week with net outflows largely equivalent to first quarter 2011, with USD67.16bn, compared with USD68.4bn one year previously.

As of 30 March, Landesbank Berlin Investment GmbH (LLB-Invest) has suspended subscriptions and redemptions from its real estate fund of funds Stratego Grund (ISIN code: DE000A0ERSF5) a product with EUR300m invested in 15 open-ended real estate funds, which in turn are invested in about 500 real estate properties. The Stratego fund does not have enough liquidity to meet redemption demands. It is also legally unable to use credit, as it is required to maintain a balance of trade between all investors. If this situation of inadequate liquidity persists, LLB-Invest will be required to liquidate the fund, which would take a lot of time, the Berlin-based asset management firm states.

Agicam on 30 March announced that it has awarded a mandate to Caceis for the functions of depository banking, custody and fund administration for all of its business common investment fund (FCPE) products. The agreement covers over 80 FCPEs with EUR800m in assets. From offices in Paris and Marseille, Agicam manages financial assets for complementary retirement retirement planning and insurance schemes from representative entities of the AG2R La Mondiale group. It also manages the range of financial vehicles which makes up the employee savings product range. Overall, Agicam assets under management total about EUR13bn.

One after another, State Street Corporation has announced that it has been awarded two large custody contracts, one for USD80.4bn from the Washington State Investment Board (WSIB), and one for USD32bn from QSuper. For the WSIB, the contract is for daily reporting on investments and compliance, securities lending, securities valuation and settlement. For QSuper, State Street will provider valuation of securities, compliance monitoring and reporting on alternative assets and fiscal and accounting services.

About 18 months after its creation, the asset allocation assistance website for IFAs Myflow just before the weekend announced the launch of a new product, the first participative directory of independent financial advisers aimed at retail clients, http://www.leconseilpatrimonial.com/, which will be unveiled on 3-4 April, at the conference of the Chambre des Indépendants du Patrimoine (CIP). The objective is to bring solutions to retail clients seeking advising on their financial investments, to put more than 1,800 independent financial advisers in contact, and to promote advising. “We need to work on relationships. Independent financial advisers are too isolated,” says the CEO of Mythflow, Frédéric Picard, who is hoping to position the platform, which is designed as a “tool for commercial conquest,” between insurers, platforms, asset management firms, IFAs and groups of IFAs.

Barclays has registered the 16 sub-funds of its GlobalAccess multi-manager funds range in France. The management of the products, which cover various asset classes and geographical regions, is outsourced to various asset management firms (one or more firms, depending on the fund). For example, the Emerging Market Equity fund is managed by Aberdeen, Arrow Street, Fidelity, BNY Mellon ARX and East Capital. The US Small & Mid Cap fund has been contracted out to Pyramis Global Advisors, Delaware Investments and Kennedy Capital. “Each manager is selected for their expertise in a particular market. That manager is then “teamed up” with other specialists in complementary styles, in order to diversify the sources of outperformance (“alpha”). Assets are contracted out to the asset managers, who are selected via management mandates, ...” a press statement explains. The range, which has over EUR3bn in assets, is managed by the multi-management team from Wealth & Investment Management, composed of nine professionals, based in London and Paris. The team, led by Jaime Arguello, manages nearly EUR9bn in investments and EUR6.5bn in assets advised in fund selection.

Aviva Investors France has started the year 2012 well, with external inflows of EUR949m as of 15 march. The new comes after “a very trying year in 2011,” the chairman of the board at Aviva Investors France, Jean-François Boulier, admitted on 30 March at a press conference. Over the year 2011 as a whole, net external inflows totalled EUR487m, of which EUR138m went to French clients. Gross external inflows totlaled EUR6.2bn, of which EUR1.2bn were for long-term assets. As of the end of December, assets under management totalled EUR79.7bn, compared with EUR80.7bn as of the end of December 2010. As of the end of the year, bonds represented 73.6% of assets, or EUR58.68bn,, compared with barely 13% for equities (EUR10.26bn) and 13.5% for short-term assets. In 2012, Aviva Investors France is planning to continue its external development, with the emphasis on institutional investors and concentrating its sales efforts on its expertise in bond, real estate and multi-asset class management. Following the recruitment of two credit analysts in 2011, the firm is planning to add to its management teams, setting up Aviva Investors France as the centre of expertise for European equity management at the group. Meanwhile, a programme to unite and improve the operational platforms, initiated in late 2010, is expected to be completed by the end of 2012. After the deployment of a monitoring and control module for market risks last year, Aviva Investors France in early February deployed operational management modules. All of these modules are included in a single platform, which will be used for all Aviva Investors sites. The strategic review initiated by the group, which reduced personnel by 12%, will have a limited impact in France, with only three employees out of about 100 to depart. This is partly because Aviva Investors France has opted for a “gradual increase” in its activities over the past few years, says Boulier.

The legal merger of Clariden Leu AG (“Clariden Leu”) into Credit Suisse AG (“Credit Suisse”) takes effect today, the group has announced in a statement. As a part of the operation, Credit Suisse legally takes control of all active and passive assets, as well as rights and liabilities, of Cariden Leu. The technical integration of all activities will be completed by the end of 2012. Credit Suisse Group AG on 15 November 2011 announced plans to fully integrate its affiliate, Clariden Leu, into Credit Suisse.

A comparative study by the Berlin-based ratings agency Scope has found that over the long run, “dividend” funds are on the whole neither better performing nor less risky than traditional funds. And ETFs may even bring significant losses in periods of falling markets, although some actively-managed products manage to perform better. According to Scope, “dividend” funds are only a marketing ploy, as things now stand.

Joe Linhares, CEO of BlackRock for Europe, on Friday called for European regulations to make a stricter separation between ETF promoters who use derivatives (synthetics) and the providers of these derivatives (swaps), which ESMA did not do in its proposals in late January, Handelsblatt reports. Linhares also claims that the names of ETFs should make it possible to easily determine whether the ETF uses synthetic or physical replication. Linhares is also critical of proposals by ESMA which would impose the same securities lending standards for counterparties and swaps, even though the portfolio and collateral do not have the same objective: in the former case, the aim is to avoid letting the portfolio get too concentrated, while collateral aims to minimise counterparty risks. Lastly, the BlackRock head affirms that it is necessary to label particularly complex ETFs, which is not the case for all products of that type, which use swaps. However, inverse leveraged funds clearly need to be identified as high risk.

The chairwoman of Medef, Laurence Parisot, announced on 1 April on Europe 1, without condemning a bonus of EUR16m to the chairman of Publicis, that even before the scandal broke out, she had asked the Medef ethical committee to “work on an enrichment to the Afep medef code, in order to sgrengthen it” and to take into account new business practices. Three subjects were identified as part of this “overhaul,” one of which is “pay scales over the very long term,” such as the pay recently granted to Lévy, for example. The board will also consider “non-competition clauses, which are developing” and will “study the ‘say on pay’ mechanism.”

Natixis AM has made deep changes to its organization, with the aim of “establishing” its expertise in “core” areas, and at the same time, of highlighting its expertise in high-potential satellite areas. All of this is based on the principle the firm holds by: a multi-boutique model with independent management teams, while only support functions are shared. In an interview with Newsmanagers, Voisin discusses the interest which investors may have in the offerings, and the ambitions the asset management firm has.

After one of his worst years ever in 2011, Bill Gross, manager of the Total Return Fund from Pimco, the largest bond fund in the world with USD252bn in assets, has gained 2.88% in the first three months of this year, the Wall Street Journal reports. This puts him ahead of the Barclays Capital Aggregate Bond Index by 2.58%, and in the top 11% of bond managers for the quarter, according to Morningstar. Gross came back thanks to big bets on MBS from Fannie May and Freddie Mac. He has increased his fund’s exposure to these shares from 38% in September 2011 to 52% as of the end of February.

On 29 March, ProShares introduced the ProShares UltraPro Short 20+ ETF, whose acronym is TTT, on NYSE Arca. The fund seeks to replicate the daily performance of the Barclays Capital 20+ Year US Treasury Bond Index, inversely, with leverage of three. The fund charges fees of 0.95%.