Deutsche Bank et Omega Advisors se sont associés pour lancer un hedge funds long/short actions conforme au cadre Ucits sur la plate-forme dbalternatives, rapporte Citywire. Appelé DB Platinum Omega, le fonds sera géré par le milliardaire Leon Cooperman.

Depuis 2006, Lombard Odier a développé des expertises bien ciblées pour s’adapter aux turbulences des marchés et de la demande. A présent, la maison suisse (113 milliards d’euros d’encours, dont 27,2 milliards pour l’institutionnel) ressort de l’anonymat médiatique, après avoir renforcé ses équipes en attirant des talents. Elle va désormais effectuer ainsi une présentation par mois de stratégies et/ou de produits à Paris, a annoncé Frédéric Cruzel (ex-SGAM) qui a rejoint le bureau de Paris en juin comme responsable de la clientèle institutionnelle et directeur de la clientèle française. Désormais, l'équipe commerciale en France compte trois personnes.Parmi les trois stratégies qui «fonctionnent» le mieux actuellement figure celle de l’obligataire et des devises émergentes avec le LO Funds - Emerging Local Currencies and Bonds (lire Newsmanagers du 21 mars 2011 et du 25 mai 2010), dont l’encours est retombé à 650 millions de dollars après avoir atteint 800 millions, mais uniquement à cause de prises de bénéfices par les souscripteurs. Le fonds repose sur le nouveau concept d’indice intelligent qui consiste à diminuer la pondération des émetteurs au fur et à mesure que leur dette augmente. Il s’agit de fournir au client à la fois sécurité, liquidités et rendement en misant notamment sur les pays émergents «solides» comme la Chine ou le Brésil, notamment.La deuxième stratégie porteuse est celle des obligations convertibles, qui pèse 4 milliards de dollars, avec notamment un fonds mondial et un fonds asiatique. L'équipe «Obligations convertibles» a été renforcée de deux gérants analystes.Enfin, Lombard Odier constate une montée en puissance du concept de «risk parity», mis en oeuvre par l'équipe de Jean-Louis Nakamura. Il s’agit d’une stratégie de diversification qui pondère l’allocation d’actifs en fonction du risque au lieu de se borner à un schéma classique de répartition 70/30 entre obligations et actions.

La banque israélienne Leumi a bouclé l’acquisition la banque privée genevoise Safdié, rapporte L’Agefi suisse. La transaction se monte à 143 millions de francs. L’institut israélien intégrera les activités de la banque Safdié dans sa filiale Leumi Suisse au début de l’année prochaine, dès qu’elle aura obtenu les autorisations nécessaires. Au terme de la fusion, le siège de la banque Leumi Suisse sera transféré de Zurich à Genève. La banque Safdié avait été créée en 1960 par la famille du même nom qui en était actionnaire jusqu’ici. A fin 2010, ses actifs sous gestion s’inscrivaient à 3 milliards de francs.

Goldilocks, le fonds suisse dédié à l’or et aux devises, est désormais accessible aux investisseurs sur une base permanente, rapporte Hedge Week. Lancé en janvier 2010, ce fonds, conseillé par Insch Capital Management, était à l’origine fermé.Sur les onze premiers mois de l’année, le fonds a dégagé une performance de 9,66% et de 11,01% sur les douze derniers mois.

Le 29 novembre, la Commission des valeurs (CSRC) a délivré sa licence d’exploitation à la 69ème société de gestion chinoise, Essence FMC.Cette société, qui a obtenu également une licence pour gérer des comptes «ségrégués», est capitalisée à 200 millions de yuans. Elle est contrôlée à 49 % par Essence Securities, à 36 % par Minmetals Investment et à 15 % par China Guangdong Nuclear GFC.Le directeur général sera Wang Lianzhi, vice-président d’Essence Securities, rapporte Z-Ben Advisors.

La China Construction Bank (CCB) a choisi BNY Mellon Asset Servicing comme conservateur international du nouveau fonds QDII (qualified domestic institutional investor) lancé en Chine par Fortune SG Fund Management Co le 29 septembre. La CCB est pour sa part le conservateur local de ce fonds.Fortune SG est une coentreprise de Hwabao Trust (filiale du groupe Baosteel) et de Lyxor Asset Management (groupe Société Générale).Le fonds concerné, le Fortune SG S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Select Industry Index Fund, est le troisième fonds QDII lancé par Fortune SG et le second à utiliser les services de BNY Mellon en tant que conservateur international, après le Fortune SG Overseas Growth Equity Fund (depuis mai 2008).Cette année, BNY Mellon AS a obtenu cinq mandats de conservation internationale pour des fonds QDII.

La société de gestion américaine Eaton Vance a enregistré au quatrième trimestre de son exercice à fin octobre une décollecte nette de 2,7 milliards de dollars. C’est la première fois depuis 22 trimestres que Eaton Vance termine un trimestre sur des rachats nets.Sur l’ensemble de l’exercice à fin octobre, Eaton Vance réalise toutefois une collecte nette de 3,9 milliards de dollars.

Selon Mutual Fund Wire, qui relaie Bloomberg, il y aurait quatre candidats repreneurs pour le pôle gestion d’actifs (hors DWS en Europe) que la Deutsche Bank envisage de céder. Il s’agirait d’Ameriprise, d’Invesco, de New York Life et de Principal. Récemment, une autre publication citait aussi Aberdeen BlackRock, BNY Mellon, JPMorgan et State Street….

The JP Morgan group on 1 December announced that it is extending its custody and prime brokerage services to European hedge fund clients, via an integrated platform. The Prime Custody platform will facilitate the movement of securities between custody and prime brokerage accounts, and allows for consolidated reporting.

Mutual Fund Wire relays reports in Bloomberg that a few final candidates are in the running to acquire the asset management arm of Deutsche Bank (excluding DWS in Europe), which the group is planning to sell. The bidders are said to include Ameriprise, Invesco, New York Life and Principal. Recently, another newspaper had also cited Aberdeen, BlackRock, BNY Mellon, JPMorgan and State Street.

The Japanese asset management firm Nikko Asset Management has called off plans for an initial public offering on the Tokyo stock exchange on 15 December, due to the high volatility of the markets, Agefi reports. According to the near-exclusive shareholder in Nikko Asset Management, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings, the firm will wait for a more favourable environment.

On 29 November, the Chinese securities commission (CSRC) issued an operating license to the 69th Chinese fund management company, Essence FMC.The firm, which has also been issued a license to manage “segregated” accounts, has capital of CNY200m. It is 49% controlled by Essence Securities, 36% by Minmetals Investment, and 15% by China Guangdong Nuclear GFC.The CEO of the firm is Wang Lianzhi, vice chairman of Essence Securities, Z-Ben Advisors reports.

Credit Suisse has appointed Giorgio Riccucci as its new head of private banking for Italy, Bluerating reports. He will replace Franco Müller on 1 January 2012. Riccucci had previously been at UBS Italia.

Pioneer, the asset management firm of the Italian UniCredit group, on Wednesday unveiled the outlines of its five-year plan. The strategy, developed over the summer and finalised in the past few weeks, is focused on three major areas, explains Sandro Pierri, head of the firm for western Europe and international activities. The first area, already presented by CEO Roger Yates in September, is to create a major emerging markets management centre in London. This will include the existing capacities of the group in this area (equities and bonds) and will also be enriched with some recruitments, including two people who have recently joined the group. This unit will represent about EUR7bn in assets. The second area will be to expand Pioneer’s distribution capacities in Asia and Latin America. This development will be realised entirely organically, says Pierri, who rules out any acquisitions. However, he has not spelled out a list of the countries concerned. “We will develop in a country only when we estimate that we have a product range which is suitable for local clients,” he says. The firm is now present in Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, China, and India, in Asia; and in Chile and Argentina in Latin America. In the third area, Pioneer is planning to “build a more solid operational infrastructure,” meaning that the firm will close come activities which are too “marginal” such as in Russia. In terms of objectives, Pierri says only that Pioneer, which had EUR162bn in assets under management as of the end of October, is aiming for double-digit growth in profits in the next four years. He adds that the plan will be completely self-financed. The five-year plan follows several months of uncertainty for Pioneer, which had undergone a strategic review in the course of which several options, including a sale of the business, were studied. That phase was completed in April this year, when UniCredit decided that the asset management firm would concentrate on organic growth.

November was the eighth consecutive month of net outflows for Spanish securities funds, with EUR850m in outflows, compared with EUR891m in October, EUR681m in September, and EUR699m in August, according to initial estimates from the Inverco association of asset management firms.Total assets fell 3.3% in November compared with October to a total of EUR125.156bn. This time, only about 20% of the decline is due to net redemptinos, whie the remaining 80% are related to negative market effects.Of the twelve largest asset management firms by volumes of assets under management, only Bestinver Gestión and Popular Gestión show net subscriptions, of EUR236m for the former and EUR6.5m for the latter.However, the two leaders in the sector, Santander Asset Management and BBVA Asset Management, have seen net outflows of EUR346.83m and EUR182.5m, respectively. InverCaixa Gestión has seen net redemptions of EUR84.49m, and Bansabadell Inversión has experienced net outflows of EUR73.19m.

A class action lawsuit filed against a Geneva-based asset management firm was dismissed by a New York judge on 29 November. The case, filed in early 2009 in New York, was related to losses by the Thema fund of USD1.1bn. The class action suit, launched by a shareholder in the fund, also named HSBC, JP Morgan, UniCredit, Bank of New York Mellon and PricewaterhouseCoopers, all of whom were accused of negligence in relation to the fraud orchestrated by Bernard Madoff. The south New York district judge, Richard Berman, dismissed all charges in the class action filing in question, except those against HSBC, at the express demand of the bank. Fundamentally, the judge found, the case should not be heard in the United States, but in Ireland, as the fund and its depository bank, HSBC, were domiciled there, and the two were cooperating under an Irish contract.

According to a recent study, more than 100 analysts have left rating agencies in the past five years to join the financial sector companies they had previously rated, the Wall Street Journal reports. The news is a sign of potential conflicts of interest at a time when the SEC is putting the finishing touches on proposals to strengthen controls on rating agencies.

According to sources familiar with the matter, the SEC is planning to investigate the way in which private equity firms value their investments. The objective for the US regulator is to uncover potential fraud, the Financial Times reports.

The Manhattan prosecutor’s office has accused Michael Balboa of ordering two of his colleagues to artificially inflate the value of a Nigerian government warrant, the Wall Street Journal reports. At the time (January-October 2008), Balboa was managing director of the London-based Millennium Global Investments.

The asset management firm Kames Capital, formerly known as Aegon Asset Management, will soon be opening an office in Hong Kong, Asian Investor reports. With this in mind, Kames has appointed James Cooper as head of development for Asian activities. Kames is initially planning to develop its presence serving Asian clients in its strong areas, such as bonds, real estate and multi-asset class products. Cooper, who had previously worked at a consulting firm, will construct an Asian team in the next 12 to 18 months, including the installation of local managers. Kames Capital, whose assets under management totalled GBP47bn as of the end of September, has nearly 250 employees.

Deutsche Bank and Omega Advisors have teamed up to launch a long/short equity hedge fund that complies with the UCITS directive for its db alternatives platform, Citywire reoprts. The product, entitled DB Platinum Omega, will be managed by the billionaire Leon Cooperman.

Aviva Investors France is not giving way to panic; quite the opposite. Despite a difficult economic and political environment, the asset management firm of the Aviva group does not subscribe to a scenario of a double-dip recession, nor does it predict that the euro zone will implode. It has even chosen to invest in risky assets, more particularly equities. Compared with a balanced portfolio composed of 50% equities and 50% bonds and money markets, with a preference for the European market and overweight positions on the banking and industrial sectors, “the equity markets, which have integrated an extremely pessimistic scenario, are inexpensive. There are very good points of entry, particularly on the European market, which is completely undervalued. That’s the market we are preferring currently,” says Pascal Heurtault. In terms of credit, Heurtault steers clear of German government bonds and is neutral on Spanish and Italian bonds. He prefers corporate issues, particularly from the banking sector. “We are lucky to belong to a major insurance company, which has made us safe from major redemptions,” says Heurtault. Aviva Investors France can therefore confront and consider long-term investments. “Our parent company is confident in our management teams, which have been in place for many years. We know that we have to accept some temporary declines, as this is a difficult period, but it will allow us to prepare for future gains,” says the chief investment officer at Aviva Investors France.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML) on 1 December announced the appointment of Bertrand Valet in Paris as managing director in charge of relations with investment funds in France. In the business banking activity at BofAML, Valet will assist in the development of French investment fund clients and international funds which invest in France. Valet will be based in Paris, after a 5-year career in Dubai, 12 years in London, and 18 months in San Francisco. In Dubai, Valet had since 2008 been head of development for sovereign fund and investment fund clients of BofAML in the Middle East/North Africa region.

Frédéric Laurent, chairman of the board at Federal Finance, will this Friday announce to clients and partners of Federal Finance that the firm has appointed Gérald Claudel as head of external development and key accounts. Claudel will begin in his new role from 2 January 2012. He will also be in charge of deploying the firm’s international distribution policy. Claudel joined Federal Finance in 2004, as head of institutional diversified management. He was primarily in charge of asset allocation and institutional mandates.

The Cogefi group has recruited Marie Damourette as head of wealth engineering. Damourette’s primary mission will be to assist private clients of the group in optimising protection, development and transmission of their wealth, via personalised legal and tax advising, a statement says. Damourette had previously been head of a private management service in a notarial study. She has also served as a wealth engineer at Patrimoine Management et Associés and Cortal Consors Select.

The Atrium Select platform, a new affiliate of the Crystal Group, was founded in association with a real estate professoinal, Philippe Khemili. The Crystal Group is hoping to centralise direct real estate supply for all entities of the group with the creation of Atrium Select, with the goal of becoming a significant presence in this market segment. Atrium Select, based in Montpelier, has six employees. It is led by Bruno Narchal, while Philippe Khemili is chief operating officer. In addition to tax minimisation programmes, Atrium Select targets its product range to an overall wealth management approach (constitution and valuation of wealth, creation of complementary revenue streams, organisation of inheritance). The platform also acts within specific service mandates for the full range of clients of the Crystal Group. Atrium Select works with a selection of quality promoters to offer a restricted selection of programmes, reserved for particular networks, in metropolitan France and DOM-TOM, where there is real demand for rentals, and these respond to an international probematic for clients of Crystal Finance. The sale of properties offered is also undertaken by Crystal Finance advisors, along with IFA partners of the Union Financière George V and other partnerships. The objective for the group is to make three hundred sales by the end of 2012.

The US asset management firm Eaton Vance has posted a net outflow for the third quarter of its fiscal year, ending on 31 October, of USD2.7bn. This is the first time in 22 quarters that Eaton Vance has finished a quarter with net redemptions. For the fiscal year to the end of October as a whole, Eaton Vance shows a net inflow of USD3.9bn.

Not all US investors believe that the euro zone will implode, including hedge funds, Les Echos reports. At a conference on hedge funds held by Bloomberg on 1 December in New York, many professionals admitted that a resolution to the European sovereign debt crisis would take time. But, they also added that the chances of a collapse of the euro were unlikely. Some funds such as Davide Serra, founder of Algebris Investments, estimate that European policies will have ot solidify before Christmas. Others, such as George Papamarkakis, CEO of North Asset Management, are convinced that the meetings on the 8th and 9th December (ECB and council of heads of state and the European government) will not be decisive, but rather additional steps in a process what will take a lot of time.

Goldilocks, the Swiss fund dedicated to gold and currencies, is now available to investors on a permanent basis, Hedge Week reports. The fund, launched in January 2010, is advised by Insch Capital Management; it had originally been closed. In the first eleven months of the year, the fund has earned returns of 9.66%, and 11.01% in the past twelve months.

The China Construction Bank (CCB) has appointed BNY Mellon Asset Servicing as the global custodian for its new qualified domestic institutional investor (QDII) fund, launched in China by Fortune SG Fund Management Co on 29 September. The CCB is the local custodian for the fund. Fortune SG is a joint venture of Hwabao Trust (an affiliate of the Baisteel group) and Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale group). The fund concerned, the Fortune SG S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Select Industry Index Fund, is the third QDII fund from Fortune SG, and the second to use the services of BNY Mellon as global custodian, after the Fortune SG Overseas Growth Equity Fund (since May 2008). So far this year, BNY Mellon AS has won five more global custody mandates for QDII funds.