Martin Currie, the specialist active-equity manager, has announced that its new fund, a UCITS IV-compliant Sicav that invests in global emerging markets (GEMs), is open to investors.The Martin Currie GF – Global Emerging Markets Fund is managed by Kim Catechis and co-managers Alastair Reynolds and Divya Mathur. The fund is a 40–60-stock, multi-cap portfolio of Martin Currie’s best investment ideas and is unconstrained at a country and sector level. Its benchmark is the MSCI Emerging Markets index.

Edhec-Risk Institute has released statistics for the performance of hedge fund strategies in November. Among the most important developments during the month, the fixed income market has seen a net decline, with traditional bonds showing their heaviest losses of the year (-1.20%), and convertible bonds giving up half of their gains in October (-2.74%). Commodities, after two months of high returns (1.55%), once again finished the month with net gains (0.13%). Credit spread (-2.23%) has also seen significant declines, bringing them to their lowest level since September 2009. Convertible Arbitrage strategy has been affected by the fall of the convertible bond markets and the narrowing of credit spread (-0.91%). CTA Global strategy managed modest gains (-0.13%). Equity Market Neutral strategy, for its part, has held stable (+0.02%), despite high short-term correlation with equity markets. Equity Market Neutral (0.02%) and Merger Arbitrage (0.17%) were the only equity-based strategies to post gains both in November and for the year (0.83% and 1.66%, respectively). On the other hand, Event Driven (-0.54%) and Long/Short Equity (-1.36%) were not able to reproduce their positive returns in October. In November, the fund of fund strategy (-0.91%) has sacrificed nearly all of its gains in October.

Neuberger Berman has announced the launch of the Neuberger Berman Short Duration High Yield Bond Fund, a sub-fund of its Irish-domiciled UCITS fund umbrella, Neuberger Berman Investment Funds.The Fund will be managed by the team that are responsible for the Neuberger Berman High Yield Bond Fund, using the same investment process. The strategy will offer a lower-risk approach which will be achieved by focusing on short-duration, high-grade bonds.The lead portfolio managers are Russ Covode, Ann Benjamin and Tom O’Reilly.

“Go-anywhere” funds, which may invest in asset classes of any kind anywhere in the world, and aim to protect themselves against falling markets, have not kept their promises, the Wall Street Journal reports. Global allocation funds have lost an average of 6% this year up to 16 December, according to Morningstar, compared with gains of 3% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. However, these funds remain popular. Investors have placed a net USD16bn in these funds this year through November, after USD23bn in 2010.

La société de gestion espagnole Bestinver a lancé un nouveau fonds actions mondiales grandes capitalisations, Bestinver Grandes Compañias, pour parer à une éventuelle fermeture de ses fonds actions vedette pour des contraintes de capacité, rapporte Citywire. Sa gamme de fonds comprend actuellement Bestinver Internacional, Bestinfond et Bestinver Bolsa.

Un groupe d’investisseurs du Qatar, Precision Capital, va acquérir 90 % de Dexia Banque Internationale à Luxembourg, l’une des entités de la banque franco-belge. Le grand-duché de Luxembourg devient pour sa part actionnaire à hauteur des 10 % restants. Selon un communiqué paru mardi 20 décembre, le prix global de la transaction s'élève à 730 millions d’euros.L’opération reste entre autres soumise à toutes les approbations réglementaires ainsi qu’à l’autorisation de la Commission européenne.

La Chine va assister à une vague de lancements de hedge funds quantitatifs par des spécialistes de la gestion quantitative chinois, selon Asian Investor, qui était à la conférence Battle of the Quants qui se tenait la semaine dernière à Hong Kong. En Chine, l’un des domaines qui se développe rapidement est celui du CTA, note aussi le site Internet.

Neuberger Berman vient de lancer un fonds obligataire haut rendement à duration courte, le Neuberger Berman Short Duration High Yield Bond Fund, un compartiment de son fonds irlandais Ucits, Neuberger Berman Investment Funds.Le fonds sera géré par l’équipe qui est responsable du Neuberger Berman High Yield Bond Fund, dont Russ Covode, Ann Benjamin et Tom O’Reilly, en utilisant le même processus d’investissement. Ce fonds représente un encours de 4,33 milliards de dollars au 30 novembre.Le nouveau compartiment est pour le moment uniquement enregistré en Irlande. D’autres agréments sont en cours.

Selon Les Echos, le Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), le fonds souverain libyen, attend de récupérer la majorité de ses actifs, gelée à l'étranger. Pour les équipes en place du fonds souverain, plusieurs scénarios se profilent. Soit il devient un investisseur national stratégique, sur le modèle du fonds du Qatar, soit il devient un fonds de précaution sur le modèle cette fois du fonds d’Abu Dhabi (Adia). Soit enfin, ses actifs sont progressivement vendus pour financer la reconstruction.

HSBC Holdings a annoncé ce mercredi matin avoir noué un accord pour vendre son activité de banque privée au Japon à Credit Suisse. Le montant des actifs bruts concernés par la vente ressort à environ 2,7 milliards de dollars au 31 octobre.La transaction devrait être bouclée au deuxième trimestre 2012.

La société de gestion britannique Martin Currie, dédiée à la gestion actions, lance comme prévu son fonds marchés émergents Martin Currie GF – Global Emerging Markets Fund . Ce compartiment de sicav luxembourgeoise, conforme au format Ucits IV, est géré par Kim Catechis et ses co-gérants Alastair Reynolds et Divya Mathur, qui ont rejoint Martin Currie en 2010 en provenance de SWIP. Martin Currie GF – Global Emerging Markets Fund est un fonds de 40-60 lignes concentrés sur les meilleures idées d’investissement de Martin Currie, quelle que soit la taille des capitalisations.

Les fonds «tout terrain», susceptibles d’investir sur n’importe quelle classe d’actifs partout dans le monde, et de se protéger contre les baisses de marchés, n’ont pas tenu leurs promesses, observe le Wall Street Journal. Les fonds d’allocation mondiale ont perdu en moyenne 6 % cette année au 16 décembre, selon Morningstar, contre un gain de 3 % du Dow Jones Industrial Average. Pourtant, ces fonds restent populaires. Les investisseurs y ont investi en net 16 milliards de dollars cette année à fin novembre, après 23 milliards en 2010.

The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), the Libyan sovereign fund, is waiting to get back most of its assets, which are frozen abroad, according to Les Echos. The teams in place at the sovereign fund say that several possible scenarios are taking shape. Either the fund will become a strategic national investor, on the model of Qatar’s fund, or it will become a safeguard fund on the model of the Abu Dhabi fund Adia. The third possibility is that assets will be gradually sold off in order to finance reconstruction of the country.

La part des BTF diminuera encore en 2012. Des obligations à taux variables pourraient être lancées

La part des BTF diminuera encore en 2012. Des obligations à taux variables pourraient être lancées

Avec les ABS auto, les créances adossées à des prêts immobiliers résidentiels britanniques devraient tirer leur épingle du jeu en 2012

Le pays doit lever 64 milliards d'euros pour couvrir les tombées. Mais les mécanismes de soutien sont loin d'être opérationnels

Révisant sa prévision de croissance et d’inflation à respectivement 1,3 % et 1,5 % en 2012, la banque centrale a baissé ses taux hier de 25 pb à 1,75 %

Selon Nomura, en cas d’éclatement de l'union monétaire, beaucoup d’obligations d'entreprises financières pourraient être converties en nouvelle devise

Le ministère de l’Economie a annoncé que le taux de rémunération des Plans épargne logement appelés à être souscrits en 2012 va rester inchangé à 2,50%. La réforme du 1er mars 2011 a fixé un «taux plancher» à ce niveau.

La société de capital-investissement britannique a accepté de payer 100 millions de réaux, soit environ 41 millions d’euros, pour acquérir une participation dans le fournisseur de chaînes de télévision câblée brésilien Blue Interactive Group. «Nous croyons que Blue est bien positionné pour profiter du nouvel environnement de croissance au Brésil» a indiqué 3i qui s’est refusé à chiffrer le niveau de la participation.

La banque d’investissement a enregistré une baisse annuelle de 23% de son bénéfice net au quatrième trimestre à 48,4 millions de dollars, soit 21 cents par action. Un résultat néanmoins bien supérieur au consensus des analystes qui tablaient sur un bénéfice par action de seulement 11 cents, après la menace de dégradation en catégorie spéculative émise par l’agence de notation Egan Jones.

Les deux opérateurs boursiers ont proposé, dans un courrier adressé au commissaire européen à la Concurrence Joaquin Almunia, de plafonner pendant trois ans les commissions de base perçues sur les contrats dérivés en Europe une fois leur union entérinée. Les deux groupes ont rendez-vous aujourd’hui à Bruxelles pour un point d’étape, selon Reuters. La décision de la Commission sur la fusion est attendue d’ici au 9 février.

The financial ratings agency Moody’s on 19 December announced that it has issued a rating of A3 for subordinate debt from Julius Baer Group. The rating has a negative outlook, the agency says. It is the first rating ever issued for Julius Baer by Moody’s. In the long term, the agency may modify its outlook on its rating of Julius Baer if the Swiss group manages to develop in private banking in emerging markets, improves the profitability of its assets under management, and realises economies of scale due to its geographical reach.

Generali is hoping to reach EUR30bn in assets under management by 2015, between Asia and Eastern Europe, the economy supplement of Il Corriere della Serra reports. Asset management is one of three growth areas for the Italian insurer, along with real estate and international.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has published for consultation a set of requirements for banks to disclose the composition of their regulatory capital. These aim to improve the transparency and comparability of banks’ capital bases, including on a cross border basis. «During the financial crisis, market participants and supervisors attempted to undertake detailed assessments of the capital positions of banks and make cross jurisdictional comparisons,» the Basel Committee recalls in a statement. «These efforts were often hampered by insufficiently detailed disclosure and a lack of consistency in reporting between banks and across jurisdictions». The committee underscores that this lack of clarity on the quality of capital may have contributed to uncertainty during the financial crisis.» In addition to improving the quality and level of required capital, Basel III established certain high level disclosure requirements to improve transparency of regulatory capital and enhance market discipline. The Basel Committee noted that it would issue more detailed Pillar 3 disclosure requirements in 2011. Comments should be submitted by Friday 17 February 2012. The Basel Committee has also released a consultative paper on Principles for the Supervision of Financial Conglomerates. The consultation will remain open until 16 March 2012.

The former controller at Bernard Madoff’s firm, Enrica Cotalessa-Pitz, has admitted falsifying documents, the Wall Street Journal reports. She becomes the sixth person, including Madoff, to plead guilty since hirs arrest in December 2008. “Even though I know that the crimes I committed helped to cover up and perpetuate the fraud of Bernard Madoff, at the time I did not know that Madoff and others were stealing money from investors,” the former employee of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities said.

Groupama Asset Management has announced the appointment of François Delaleu as director of IT systems. Delaleu has a solid 15 years of experience in the Crédit Agricole group. He was appointed director of IT at the time of the creation of Amundi Investment Solutions in 2005. At that time, he participated in the merger of 3 entities with 130 employees, and set up Governance IT for the new Amundi affiliate.

The banking group SYZ & Co has announced the launch of the fund Oyster Multi-Manager Tail & Trading, a new sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav 3A Alternative Funds, part II. Devised by SYZ Asset Management, this innovative new fund combines two complementary alternative strategies in order to provide investors with protection in the current environment, which is generally unfavourable to traditional asset classes. It thus combines decorrelated CTA funds with funds that pursue a strategy of active protection against extreme risks (“tail risk”). Thanks to its low correlation with the financial markets and other alternative strategies, this new fund aims to provide a significant improvement in the risk profile of a traditional portfolio. The Oyster Multi-Manager Tail & Trading fund allocates the majority of its assets to CTA funds (combining short-term, medium-term and macro systematic approaches) and supplements it with an active risk management strategy. The proportion allocated to the two strategies may vary. The pro-forma historical results of this combination are particularly attractive, in terms of both annualized performance and volatility. In view of these good results and a low correlation with the financial markets and the other alternative strategies, the inclusion in a traditional portfolio of an allocation – however moderate – to this strategy significantly improves its maximum drawdown and volatility characteristics. This new strategy is available in five different reference currencies (USD, CHF, EUR, GBP and JPY). The fund invests its assets exclusively in the products based on the managed accounts platform developed through the cooperation between SYZ Asset Management and UBS Investment Bank. Oyster Multi-Manager Tail & Trading provides weekly subscriptions and redemptions. The fund is only aimed at an institutional client base.

The European summit on 9 December had only a very fleeting positive impact on the confidence of investors, who are concerned about a recession in the euro zone, and who are still avoiding equities. In the week to 14 December, equity funds have seen a net outflow of USD9.5bn, according to statistics from EPFR Global. Only funds dedicated to Indonesian, South African and Colombian equities finished the week with net inflows. Emerging market funds have seen net outflows since the beginning of the year of USD38.8bn, compared with net inflows of USD91.5bn in the corresponding period of 2010. Bond funds, which have been less popular, attrracted USD1.1bn in the week to 14 December. For the first time since the end of third quarter 2011, none of the major categories of bond funds have seen positive or negative flows of over USD1bn. Money market funds have posted net inflows of USD3.2bn. Since the beginning of November, money market funds have posted net subscriptions of about USD60bn.