The German asset management firm Credit Suisse Asset Management Immobilien KAG has announced that its open-ended real estate fund CS Euroreal has sold three properties for an undisclosed total price higher than the most recent expert valuations.Since redemptions were suspended in May 2010, the CS Euroreal fund has sold 11 properties (all above market value) for EUR880m. That brings liquidity available for potential redemptions as of 5 October to EUR1.29bn, or 21% of assets. Gross liquidity totals EUR1.65bn, or 26.9% of assets managed.The past three sales have included a commercial/residential property in Leipzig, a commercial property located in Dresden, and an office property in London.The buyer of the two German properties is RREEF (Deutsche Bank), which will add the Leipzig property to tis open-ended fund grundbesitz europa, and the Dresden property to an institutional real estate fund.The London property, St Katherine’s Estate (18,000 square metres) has been sold to the Employees Provident Fund of Malaysia.

The central asset management firm for the German co-operative banks, Union Investment, will soon be extending its range of guaranteed funds (90 products, EUR16.4bn in assets as of the end of August), with the addition of the UniGarantPlus: Erneuerbare Energien (2018), which will be launched on 14 December 2011, and for which subscriptions have been open since 17 October and will remain open until 9 December.The new fund, denominated in euros, will focus on equities in the renewable energies sector (wind, solar, geothermal, biocarbons, ethanol, etc).CharacteristicsName: UniGarantPlus: Erneuerbare Energien (2018)ISIN code: LU0661713296Maturity: 21 September 2018Guarantee: EUR104 per share at maturityFront-end fee: 4%Management commission: 1% (maximum 1.5%)Premature withdrawal fee: 2% (paid to the fund)Depository banking commission (DZ Privat Bank SA, Luxembourg): 0.05% (maximum)

Most of the pension liabilities of BHF-Bank were outsourced in early October to the BHF Pension Trust e.V. pension fund. The migration involved a volume of about EUR120m. The portfolio will be managed by Frankfurt Trust, the asset management firm of the BHF group.Deutsche Bank is currently in talks with the private equity investor RHJ over a sale of BHF-Bank, which was inherited by Deutsche Bank along with the private bank Sal. Oppenheim, which it took over in late October 2009.

No major European bank is sufficiently transparent about its employees’ pay scales, which need to be disclosed in fuller detail, the European Banking Authority (EBA) claims. “Disclosure of pay policies and practices observed could be considerably improved for the majority of banks in our sample,” the EBA stated in a report on bank transparency on 17 October. According to the report, one quarter of the banks in the sample provide “insufficient” information about their pay practices, while half of them could improve their communications in this area. The organisation also recommends giving more emphasis to the ties between practices and risks. It also considers that disclosure of credit counterparty risks and risks related to interest rates need to be improved. The report is available at the following address: http://www.eba.europa.eu/News--Communications/Year/2011/EBA-publishes-f…

The US group Franklin Templeton is planning to launch a real estate fund dedicated to emerging markets or to the Asia-Pacific region, Asian Investor reports. Franklin already offers two real estate funds, one of which is international in scope, while the other is focused on the United States. Assets in the two vehicles total about USD1bn, of which 70% are in the international fund.

The Parisian office of the Australian asset management group First State Investments, which will open soon, will be composed of two people, according to information obtained by Newsmanagers.The two staff will be Eva von Sydow, sales director - Europe, who has been working with the asset management firm for nine years. She will cover the French and Swedish markets (she is Swedish). The second is Philippe Taillardat, formerly of Amundi, who has recently joined First State to co-direct the asset management team for infrastructure investments in Europe.First State, which belongs to Colonial First State Global Asset Management, the largest fund management firm in Australia (with GBP99.2bn in assets as of 30 June), is already present in London and Edinburgh, but not yet in continental Europe, an area where it has ambitions to develop. The firm manages Asian and emerging markets equity, global resources, global equities, publicly traded real estate and infrastructure funds.

The British asset management firm Neptune is planning to launch a glboal long/short fund in the near future, the firm announced on 17 October, confirming reports in Money Marketing. Though it confirms the reports, the asset management firm did not wish to give further details about the new vehicle. “We are not in a position to comment further or to confirm other details at this stage,” Neptune added in a note. According to Money Marketing, the fund may be managed by Robin Geffen.

Isam, the hedge fund founded by the former head of Man Group, Stanley Fink, is planning to increase its assets under management by a factor of at least seven in the short term, by moving into the Middle Eastern sovereign fund and institutional markets, the Reuters news agency reports. The firm, with total assets under management of slightly over USD700m, is currently in talks with sovereign funds, pension funds and high net worth clients in the region, Fink tells Reuters.

Pictet & Cie has opened a representative office in the Italian city of Bologna. The Swiss firm already has headquarters in Turin, Milan, Florence and Rome. The new structure will be led by Alessandro Andreoli, former partner and director at Banca Esperia.The new office aims to address the needs of local clients and to strengthen ties with the city of Bologna and the region of Emilia-Romagna, which is considered strategic for the development of the Private Wealth Management division of Pictet in the next few months.

Alberto D’Avenia has been appointed as head of external distribution in Italy and the Mediterranean countries (Greece, Israel, Malta and Cyprus) at BNP Paribas Investment Partners Sgr. He had previously been responsible for the Group Networks Italy unit at the French asset management firm, where he was coordinating the sales offer for the Italian bank BNL. Mario Mosca has also been appointed as head of the Group Networks Italy unit, where he will be in charge of coordinating the asset management product range for the Italian BNL network, in synergy with the private and retail banking division. He was previously working for BNL.

Emerging markets equities funds have seen another week of redemptions, according to the most recent estimates from EPFR Global. Since the beginning of the year, net outflows from these funds have totalled USD40.5bn.However, equities markets appear to be in a slightly less pessimistic phase than in the past few weeks. “Some balance seems to be developing between optimists and pessimists. And if you look at flows to ETFs, which are most immediately sensitive to changes in investors’ moods, optimists appear to be gaining the upper hand,” says the managing director of EPFR Global, Brad Durham.Outflows from equity funds as a whole nonetheless totalled USD1.37bn in the second week of October.

A quarterly survey by Financial Times Deutschland of the major asset management firms has found that a majority of strategists are doubtful of the effectiveness of the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF). For example, Kurt Schappelwein (Raiffeisen Capital Management) claims that the EFSF does not solve any of the fundamental problems, while Stefan Rondorf (Allianz GI) says that it lacks the dissuasive capacity that would allow it to intervene on the necessary scale in the Italian or Spanish bond markets.For fourth quarter, strategists recommend a positioning on defensive shares such as equities in the health and food sectors. On the other hand, banking sector shares which appear to be directly affected by the debt crisis in peripheral European countries figure at the bottom of the list of recommendations.

On 17 October, ING Investment Management announced the launch of the ING (L) Emerging Market High Dividend Fund, which will inherit the ISIN Code of the ING Invest Asia Pacific High Dividend fund (LU0300631982). The migration will be accompanied by an enlargement of the universe of the fund and a change of managers.The UCITS-compliant fund (whose launch had been planned; see Newsmanagers of 9 June) will be managed by Manu Vendenbulck (senior investment manager) and Nicolas Simar (head of the high dividend team at ING IM). It was previously managed by Pranay Gupta and Bing Li. The fund is not yet on sale in France, but has received sales licenses for Germany and the United Kingdom.The actively-managed fund may now invest in all emerging markets, rather than being limited to Asia-Pacific, as previously. It focuses on businesses which deliver high dividends, and is inspired by the closed fund ING Emerging Markets High Dividend Equity, launched this year by ING IM in the United States, which attracted USD385bn in assets. The objective for the new fund is to outperform the MSCI Emerging Markets index by at least 100 basis points, with low volatility and limited risk of loss. The original Asia-Pacific fund was managed in Asia with a quantitative methodology. It will now apply the high dividend strategy of the team dedicated to this theme.

Threadneedle Investments has launched the Threadneedle (Lux) US Contrarian Core Equities Fund in its Luxembourg SICAV range. The fund is managed by Guy W Pope, managing director and senior portfolio manager at Columbia Management, fellow asset management subsidiary of Ameriprise Financial. The Threadneedle (Lux) US Contrarian Core Equities Fund is managed with the same approach as the USD1.6bn Columbia Management Contrarian Core Fund which seeks out of favour income and growth stocks. Guy W Pope, along with his associate portfolio manager, Harvey Liu, use their proprietary screening method to find large cap US stocks which are in the bottom third of their 52-week price range. This leads to stocks being identified where it is felt that the price undervalues the company. The portfolio is constructed to seek above average returns whilst balancing risk and rewards. Guy W Pope commented: “This fund is all about pessimism – we are looking for those companies that have fallen out of favour due to undue pessimism about their future.” The investment approach is to be offered to clients in Europe, the UK and Asia. The fund has been registered with the CSSF in Luxembourg and the AFM in the Netherlands and registration is pending in other jurisdictions.

Après l’examen des 61 candidatures reçues en février 2011 à propos de l’appel d’offres de prestation de services relative à la gestion d’actifs pour le compte de l’IRCANTEC, un deuxième questionnaire a été transmis mercredi 5 octobre aux 35 répondants pré-sélectionnés. Pour lire l’avis complet pour la deuxième phase: cliquez ici. Pour rappel, les prestations sont réparties en 4 lots. Le portefeuille de valeurs mobilières constitué en représentation des réserves est actuellement proche de 6 milliards d’euros d’actifs à fin septembre 2010. La nouvelle allocation stratégique cible comprend 25 à 30 % d’actions, 10 à 15 % d’obligations indexées sur l’inflation et environ 60% d’obligations nominales. Les marchés sont conclus pour une période de 4 ans à compter de la notification du contrat. La date prévisionnelle de début des prestations est le 4ème trimestre 2011. LOT 1: Mise en place et gestion de 2 FCP investis en actions et valeurs assimilées. L’allocation initiale indicative de chaque FCP est de l’ordre de 150 millions d’euros avec un volume cible de 500 millions d’euros par FCP ; La gestion sera une gestion active, principalement dans la zone euro(s). LOT 2: Mise en place et gestion de 3 FCP investis majoritairement en obligations à taux nominal, TCN et valeurs assimilées L’allocation initiale indicative de chaque FCP est de l’ordre de 200 millions d’euros avec un volume cible de 800 millions d’euros par FCP ; La gestion sera une gestion active dans la zone euro(s). LOT 3: Mise en place et gestion de 3 FCP investis en actifs financiers diversifiés. Ces fonds seront dédiés à l’Ircantec, avec une allocation indicative 50% actions et 50 % obligations. L’allocation initiale indicative de chaque FCP est de l’ordre de 200 millions d’euros avec un volume cible de 700 millions d’euros par FCP ; Ces FCP intègreront une gestion tactique en fonction des opportunités identifiées sur les marchés. Ils intégreront une part significative de titres en dehors de la zone euro(s). LOT 4: Mise en place et gestion de 2 FCP investis en obligations à taux indexés sur l’inflation. L’allocation initiale indicative de chaque FCP est de l’ordre de 200 millions d’euros avec un volume cible de 400 millions d’euros par FCP.

Le Fonds de sauvetage européen pourrait ainsi aider les pays périphériques en difficulté à se refinancer à bon compte sur le marché

La demande a été élevée pour les titres Iberdrola, Enel et Telecom Italia. Ce dernier a dû offrir un coupon de 7 %

Le sommet du 23 octobre n'accouchera pas d'un remède miracle, même si des solutions se dessinent

L’inflation attendue à 6 % demeure dans la fourchette cible mise en place en 1999. Le pays dispose d'une marge de baisse de ses taux directeurs

L'augmentation de la participation du secteur privé au sauvetage de la Grèce semble néanmoins avancer

Le quotidien avance, citant son directeur général Seth Merrin, que la dark pool indienne est en négociations avec trois marchés boursiers de la région en vue de former des alliances. Liquidnet est présente au sein de huit marchés de la région dont Singapour, Hong Kong et en Australie.

Les projets publics de construction de routes en Chine ont connu un coup d’arrêt du fait d’un manque de financement depuis les deux ou trois derniers mois dans certaines provinces, indique le journal qui rapporte des propos du ministre des transports du pays. Une situation qui devrait s’intensifier au quatrième trimestre et la réalisation des projets devrait être 20% inférieure au programme initial.

Lisbonne s'attend à ce que le produit intérieur brut se contracte de 2,8 %, soit bien plus que les précédentes estimations (-2,2 à -2,3 %)

L’agence a annoncé qu'elle allait surveiller et évaluer le caractère stable de la perspective du « Aaa » français dans les trois prochains mois

Le stock d'emprunts d'Etat américains détenus par les banques centrales étrangères a connu en septembre sa plus forte contraction depuis août 2007

LuxCSD, coentreprise détenue à parité par la Banque centrale du Luxembourg et Clearstream International, a été désigné comme système de règlement-livraison sur valeurs mobilières au Luxembourg. Le service y fera office de point d‘accès national à Target 2 Securities (T2S).

Charles Evans, le président de la Réserve fédérale de Chicago, a indiqué que les opinions exprimées par les membres du FOMC laissent à penser que la Fed durcira sa politique monétaire plus vite qu’elle ne le devrait. «Il y a des différences sur l’état actuel de l’économie et sur les pressions inflationnistes», rappelant que pour sa part, il estime que «les pressions inflationnistes sont plus faibles que ce que beaucoup de personnes évoquent».

Le directeur financier de Citigroup, John Gerspach, a confié hier à l’occasion d’une conférence téléphonique avec des analystes que la banque américaine avait engagé la liquidation de son unité de trading pour compte propre Equity Principal Strategies. L’opération, motivée par l’entrée en vigueur de la «règle Volcker», est déjà réalisée « presque aux deux tiers» selon le dirigeant. Une porte-parole a néanmoins tenu à souligner la part modeste de cette activité dans le trading de Citigroup.

Dow Jones lance aujourd’hui deux nouveaux indices régionaux pour l’Asie et l’Europe. Des indices, dénommés Asia Dow et Europe Dow, dont la méthodologie de calcul reprend celle du Dow Jones Industrial Average américain. Ils regroupent effectivement chacun 30 valeurs.Le secteur financier est le plus représenté.

Les perspectives de l'économie allemande se sont détériorées à l’approche de l’hiver en raison d’un ralentissement du rythme des commandes de l'étranger, déclare la Bundesbank dans son rapport mensuel publié lundi. La banque centrale allemande précisé qu’après la poursuite de la reprise économique au troisième trimestre, le tableau est nettement moins rose pour les deux trimestres à venir. «Le flux de commandes, notamment en provenance de pays au-delà de l’Europe, a sensiblement diminué», note la Buba.