Amundi renforce son équipe de gestion active sur les actions mondiales (active global equity) avec le recrutement de Jason Josefs en tant que gérant de portefeuilles senior. Il co-gérera le fonds active global equity thematic d’Amundi, sous la direction de Paul-Georges Moucan, responsable des actions mondiales à Londres. Sa nomination porte l’équipe active global equity d’Amundi à Londres à cinq professionnels de l’investissement.Jason Josefs vient d’Aviva Investors, où il était responsable de la recherche en 2007 et nommé gérant des fonds actions mondiales et diversifiés d’Aviva en 2008.

Le groupe sud-africain Investec vient de conclure un accord pour l’acquisition de la société britannique Evolution pour un montant de 233 millions de livres.Cette opération va permettre à Investec de se développer à la fois dans les activités de gestion de fortune, avec la société William de Broe, et de banque d’investissement via Evolution Securities. Le mois dernier, William de Broe a racheté BNP Paribas Private Investment Management (ex-Fortis PIM) auprès de BNP Paribas Wealth Management. Les actifs sous gestion de BNP Paribas PIM s'élevent à environ 1,8 milliard de livres ce qui a porté les encours de William de Broe à environ 7,8 milliards de livres (NewsManagers du 09 août 2011).

Andrew Blair a démissionné de son poste de head of business development chez Skandia Investment Management pour rejoindre Mirabaud Investment Management à Londres en tant que joint sales & marketing director, rapporte FundWeb. D’autres embauches sont prévues par le groupe suisse pour se renforcer au Royaume-Uni et en Europe continentale.

Deux associés du hedge fund Tudor Investment Corp, Nigel Whittaker et John Macfarlane, ont annoncé leur départ de la société avec l’objectif de lancer leur propre entreprise qui investira en priorité sur les marchés émergents, rapporte Bloomberg qui a eu connaissance d’un courrier adressé aux investisseurs.La nouvelle société, Zafferano Capital LP, sera basée à Londres et investira dans les actions et les obligations de sociétés tant cotées que non cotées. Les deux partants ne coupent pas les ponts avec Tudor (11 milliards de dollars d’actifs) puisque des associés de la firme vont participer aux activités d’investissement de Zafferano dans laquelle ils détiendront une participation. Zafferano Capital LP, dont les actifs engagés s'élèvent d’ores et déjà à plus de 100 millions de dollars, devrait démarrer ses activités d’investissement début 2012, avec deux cibles privilégiées, les hedge funds et le private equity. La nouvelle société sera dirigée par John Macfarlane, vice chairman depuis 2009 de Tudor, et aura deux co-responsables de l’investissement, Nigel Whittaker, qui était gérant de portefeuille et responsable du crédit corporate marchés émergents chez Tudor, et Brent De Jong, ancien CEO de Ashmore Energy International, qui doit rejoindre Zafferano Capital pour s’intéresser plus particulièrement au capital investissement.

Since Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer at Pimco and manager of its USD345bn flagship fund, recently made a very bad call with his decision to sell US Treasury bonds, the timing of a decision by Allianz to make its unit nearly completely autonomous has elicited surprise from the asset management industry, the Financial Times observes. The question is whether there is a reason for Allianz to hold onto a firm which is in practice independent, and whether it may not do better to sell off a firm which remains primarily a bond manager, before interest rates start rising.

C-Quadrat Kapitalanlage Ag, a wholly-owned subsidiary of C-Quadrat Investment AG, has announced that it has been awarded management mandates totalling EUR300m by Talanx Asset Management GmbH (which has controlled 25.1% of C-Quadrat Investment since late 2010). The transfer will be finalised during fourth quarter. Menahwile, C-Quadrat and Talanx AM have agreed to found a joint venture to recruit new institutional clients. Each partner will own a 50% stake in the venture. The firm will be based in Frankfurt, and will begin its activities on 1 January 2012. C-Quadrat Kapitalanlage manages about EUR2.8bn in assets.

Hedge funds in the month of August posted a loss of 2.3% according to the most recent statistics from Hedge Fund Research. Since the beginning of the year, hedge funds have posted a negative performance of 1.2% In the month under review, equities and event-driven strategies have seen declines of 4.1% and 3.7%, respectively, for their fourth consecutive month of losses. However, macro and short-biased strategies have seen gains of 0.1% and 6,9%, respectively. Funds of funds have lost 2% in August, putting them down 1.9% since the beginning of the year.

The default rate for speculative category businesses worldwide in the month of August was down to 1.8%, from 1.9% the previous month, according to monthly statistics from the ratings agency Moody’s. In the coming months, this percentage is expected to remain at a low level, to finish the year at 1.5%, and then to climb to 1.9% by August 2012. In the United States, the default rate fell to 2.1% in August, compared with 2.3% previously, while it remained unchanged month on month in August, at 1.1% The Standard & Poor’s agency, for its part, reports that the number of defaults by companies monitored by the agency worldwide totalled 28 this year up to the first days of September, compared with 61 in the corresponding period of 2010.

State Street Securities Finance Americas has recruited Douglas A. Brown as managing director in charge of sales. He will be based in Boston, and will supervise sales to the United States, Canada and Latin America.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has announced the appointment of Michael Terry as global head of capital introduction, in charge of development for these activities for the group. Terry will be based in New York, and will report to John Yalmokas, head of sales of prime brokerage sales for the United States.

Axa Investment Management is launching a new short duration fund, the Axa IM FIIS Europe Short Duration High Yield fund, which will be managed by the head of European high yield, Andrew Wilmont.Wilmont currently manages the Pan European High Yield Bond fund (GBP24.1m in assets) and the Global High Income fund (GBP56.8m).The fund will invest primarily in short term corporate high yield bonds denominated in euros or pounds Sterling, with an average duration of under two years. It will aim for returns of 5% to 6% on investments in high yield fixed rate securities.The UCITS-compliant fund is domiciled in Luxembourg. Minimal investment is EUR5,000.

Olivier Gourragne will be leaving Fidelity France on Monday, 12 September. The outgoing president of the asset management firm in Paris, who will announce the name of the company where he will continue his professional career in 15 days, will be replaced by Christophe Gloser. The transition is thus a smooth one, insofar as the new head of the firm is a company insider. Gloser joined the firm in 2001 to create and develop its institutional activities, and in 2008 became director of its banking activities, and then in 2010, director of French commercial activities, including all of Fidelity’s clients: institutionals, businesses, independent financial advisers, and banking and insurance platforms. In practice, Gloser, who had been head of all three units, will not be replaced. “We have made significant recruitments, with the arrival of Cédric Michel and Jean-Marc Didier, who join Laurent Coutanceau,” the president of Fidelity explains. “These three executives have great experience which will allow us to place each activity under their respective sole responsibility.” Gloser, who has been a member of the board of directors for ten years, has perfect knowledge of the business, which will allow him to be operational immediately. Concretely, as he will report directly to Robert Higginbotham, CEO Europe at Fidelity, the new head of the firm, which has EUR2.4bn in assets under management in Paris in the form of open-ended funds (EUR1.7bn) and dedicated funds (EUR700m) plans to continue the ongoing commercial efforts of the firm as decided on in spring, targeting independent financial advisers. In addition to these commercial objectives, Gloser adds that his arrival as head of Fidelity also coincides roughly with the arrival of a new manager in Paris. Bertrand Puiffe, an analyst specialised in French securities, and later Iberian securities at Fidelity, has since 1 August been manager of the FF Nordic Fund, which he took over following unsatisfactory performance of the previous manager. “This appointment is very important, as it confirms the recognised expertise of the European management unit at Fidelity in Paris,” says Gloser. The team now has four managers, including three equity managers, with Victoire de Trogoff and Vincent Durel, and one allocator, in the person of David Ganozzi, also CEO of Fidleity’s French asset management firm. The arrival of the new head of Fidelity in Paris also coincides with the firm’s new brand identity. “Fidelity is becoming Fidelity Worldwide Investment, and is getting a new logo,” Gloser says. “The new identity formally realises our desire to communicate and be transparent with clients.”

Il Sole 24 Ore reports that Arca, one of the oldest bank-owned asset management firms in Italy, an affiliate of Banco Popolare and Ubi Banca, has approved a restructuring and reorganisation plan for the firm. The plan may involve the sale of the depository bank and some layoffs.

Finesti, a Luxembourg-registered firm specialised in collecting and distributing data on investment funds, on 9 September announced the launch of a new service which allows investment funds to comply with the requirements of the UCITS IV directive regarding pan-European filings.Finesti will offer a notification service, based on secure and high-speed automatic electronic messages, to transmit a high number of documents to 30 supervisory authorities in the European economic area.The solution offered by Finesti for pan-European notifications is a new module, integrated into the e-file regulatory reporting platform, which Finesti operates with its parent company, the Luxembourg stock exchange.The e-file notification model allows fund managers, promoters, legal advisers, administrators and auditing firms to adapt to the new environment. It assists them in the completion and transmission of notification forms to the authorities in their countries. These forms include up to 10 documents, such as the prospectus, financial reports, and the Key Investor Information Document (KIID).The e-file platform from Finesti may also handle the initial registration procedure for investment funds in their home countries. It also allows funds to send updates to notification documents directly to the supervisory authorities in destination countries.

Two partners at the hedge fund Tudor Investment Corp, Nigel Whittaker and John Macfarlane, have announced that they will be leaving the firm, and that they are planning to set up their own business, which will invest primarily in emerging markets, Bloomberg reports, citing a message to investors obtained by the agency.The new firm, Zafferano Capital LP, will be based in London, and will invest in equities and bonds from listed and unlisted businesses. The two departing managers will not burn their bridges with Tudor (USD11bn in assets), as their colleagues at the firm will participate in the investment activities of Zafferano, in which they will control a stake.Zafferano, whose asset commitments already total over USD100m, will begin its investment actiivities in early 2012, with two preferred targets, hedge funds and private equity.The new firm will be directed by John Macfarlane, vice chairman of Tudor since 2009, and two co-chief investment officers, Nigel Whittaker, who was a portfolio manager and head of emerging market corporate credit at Tudor, and Brent Do Jong, former CEO of Ashmore Energy International, who will join Zafferano Capital to focus on capital investment in particular.

Amundi is adding to its active global equity management team, with the recruitment of Jason Josefs as senior portfolio manager. He will co-manage the active global equity thematic fund from Amundi, under the direction of Paul-Georges Moucan, head of global equities in London. His appointment brings the active global equity team in London to a total of five investment professionals. Josefs joins from Aviva Investors, where he was head of research in 2007, and was appointed manager of global and diversified equities funds for Aviva in 2008.

The South African group Investec has signed an agreement to acquire the British firm Evolution for a total of GBP233m. The operation will allow Investec to develop both in wealth management activities, with William de Broe, and in investment banking (Evolution Securities). Last month, William de Broe acquired BNP Paribas Private Investment Management (formerly Fortis PIM) from BNP Paribas Wealth Management. Assets under management at BNP Paribas PIM total about GBP1.8bn, which brings assets at William de Broe to about GBP7.8bn (see Newsmanagers of 9 August 2011).

The former head of funds of funds at Henderson Global Investors, Mark Harris, has joined Eden Financial as co-manager of the multi-asset class fund CF Eden Global Multi-Strategy Fund, the firm announced in a statement on 9 September. Harris, who will begin in his new role on Monday, 12 September, will also be in charge of development for the firm’s multi-asset class product range.

According to Asset Servicing Times, UBS Fund Services, which has withdrawn from the UK market, has recruited Gavin Byrnes as its new head for the United Kingdom at its Dublin affiliate, which will be transformed into a transnational multi-product platform.Byrnes, who will be head of alternative asset administration and vehicles domiciled in Dublin from UBS Global Asset Management, will collaborate with the heads of development at the bank, and the client assistance teams in Dublin, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Switzerland, and the United States.Byrne joins from SEB Fund Services, where he was in charge of sales development in Luxembourg.

Andrew Blair has resigned from his position as head of business development at Skandia Investment Management, to join Mirabaud Investment Management in London as joint sales & marketing director, FundWeb reports. Other recruitments are planned by the Swiss group to build its presence in the United Kingdom and continental Europe.

Julia Lemarchand is a market analyst at eFinancialCareers.fr, an employment and career management advising website specialised in banking, finance and insurance. At a time when asset management is facing highly uncertain markets, the financial job market specialist discusses the major trends in asset management with Newsmanagers. After a promising start to the year, the end of the year will likely bring a more hesitant environment on the job market.

JP Morgan on 8 September announced that it has been selected by First Trust to distribute 21 ETFs from Fist Trust Advisors, registered in the United States, on the Mexican Stock Exchange.The ETFs are the following:First Trust ISE-Revere Natural Gas Index Fund (FCG)First Trust ISE Chindia Index Fund (FNI)First Trust Dow Jones Select MicroCap IndexSM Fund (FDM)First Trust NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index Fund (FBT)First Trust Morningstar Dividend LeadersSM Index Fund (FDL)First Trust Dow Jones Internet IndexSM Fund (FDN)First Trust Large Cap Core AlphaDEX® Fund (FEX)First Trust Large Cap Value AlphaDEX® Fund (FTA)First Trust Large Cap Growth AlphaDEX® Fund (FTC)First Trust Technology AlphaDEX® Fund (FXL)First Trust Mid Cap Core AlphaDEX® Fund (FNX)First Trust Materials AlphaDEX® Fund (FXZ)First Trust Consumer Discretionary AlphaDEX® Fund (FXD)First Trust Financials AlphaDEX® Fund (FXO)First Trust Small Cap Core AlphaDEX® Fund (FYX)First Trust NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted IndexSM Fund (QQEW)First Trust Consumer Staples AlphaDEX® Fund (FXG)First Trust Energy AlphaDEX® Fund (FXN)First Trust Health Care AlphaDEX® Fund (FXH)First Trust Utilities AlphaDEX® Fund (FXU)and First Trust Industrials/Producer Durables AlphaDEX® Fund (FXR)

Mark McCombe is joining BlackRock, where he will replace Rohit Bhagai as chairman for Asia-Pacific, the Wall Street Journal reports.McCombe, who had been CEO of HSBC Global Asset Management in London, was most recently CEO of HSBC Holdings in Hong Kong.In this position, he will be replaced on 12 September by Anita Fung, who is currently group general manager for the Asian unit at HSBC.

August was characterized by stock market turbulence and the outflows from investment funds sold in Sweden were larger than the inflows, according to the Swedish fund association. The total net outflow amounted to SEK 8.1 billion. Equity funds had a net outflow of 34.8 billion and balanced funds had a net outflow of 2.2 billion. Fixed-income funds on the other hand recorded large net inflows, money market funds and bond funds had net inflows of 22.5 and 6.1 billion respectively.So far in 2011, SEK 4.2 billion have been invested in funds and money market funds accounts for the largest part of the net inflows.In total, assets in the industry fell to SEK1.797trn, from SEK1.919trn as of the end of July, of which SEK92bn remained in equity funds.

The Northern Trust group has announced that it will provide index-based asset management services to its institutional clients from its Hong Kong office. The development follows a license awarded to Northern Trust by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission to develop services of this type. As part of the move, Northern Trust has appointed Patrick Dwyer as senior portfolio manager in the team dedicated to index-based asset management. Craig Annakin, who joined the firm as head of Asian trading, will be in charge of setting up the new trading desk.

The Primonial group and Apicil on 9 September announced that they are forming a strategic partnership alongside parallel acquisitions. Groupe Primonial will acquire W Finance, an investment business with a national network of 140 investment advisers, and Apicil Prévoyance will acquire Coparc, the life insurance company serving the W Finance network. Following the acquisition, Groupe Primonial will have a network of 250 client advisers, serving 50,000 client families with more than EUR3bn in assets under management or advised. The group created by the move will generated combined earnings of over EUR100m in the next fiscal year. It plans to bring in more than EUR800m for savings offerings in 2012. With the addition of Coparc, the Apicil group will take on more extensive proportions, with its life insurance activities, currently offered through its affiliate Apicil Assurances, with assets of EUR2.2bn, set to double in size. The firm plans to become a leader in life insurance, supplementary retirement and retirement planning via IFAs, with the sales support of Primonial in this segment, as the Primonial group already has relationships with over 700 IFAs nationwide. After life insurance and real estate, personal insurance will become the Primonial Group’s third major target area. The two joint operations, advised by the Lazard bank, have been the subject of exclusive talks with Allianz since late July. The talks resulted in the signature of a definitive agreement which is still pending approval by the antitrust authorities and the prudential control authority.

On 6 September, the CNMV registered a new Spanish-registered “free investment fund” (hedge fund), Arcano European Income Fund FIL, from UBS Gestión, which will invest in the two sub-funds of the Luxembourg-registered special investment funds (SIF) Arcano Fund – European Income Fund I and II, at levels of 50-75%, and 35-50%, respectively.Any potential remaining assets will be retained in cash management and invested in bonds with at most one year remaining duration. The fund has four share classes, with management commissions of 0.5% (A1 and D1 share classes) and 1% (A2 and D2 share classes). Performance commissions will be 10% of performance exceeding the Euribor 6-month by at least 100 basis points.

Martin Currie has announced that it will be releasing its Global Emerging Markets fund, a product with a portfolio of 40 to 60 equity positions representing the strongest convictions of the management team, on the Australian market.

The German analysis firm Absolut Research has studied the performance of 674 absolute return funds (EUR113bn in assets) in July-August, Handelsblatt reports.The results range from gains of 17% to losses of 35% overall, 172 of these products generated positive returns on the crisis period, and losses were higher than 10% for only 50 funds. By comparison, the Dax lost 18.2%, and the MSCI World index lost 7.4%.The winner was the AC Spectrum Fund from Aquila Capital, while the worst results were for equity products, which lost an average of 5.9% in the two months under review.

In the week from 22 to 26 August, which was one of the most disastrous weeks ever on the Milan stock exchange, the short ETF Lyxor ETF Bear FTSE/MIB, from Société Générale, accounted for 22.4% of trades on the ETF market, according to Il Sole 24 Ore, citing statistics from Borsa Spa. The fund represented 10,582 transactions, out of a total of 47,182 on the market. In the month of August overall, trades on the Bear ETF amounted to EUR1.3bn in value.