Citi Global Transaction Services (GTS) has won a mandate from the fund of fund specialist Sandalwood Securities, to provide administration and custody services.

In an article on BlackRock, the Economist observes that the size of the world’s largest asset manager may already be a problem. According to analysts, the firm has seen about USD149bn in outflows since 2010, many pension funds feeling that they have too much money invested with BlackRock. Due to its size, the firm may be declared a “systemically important financial institution” by the US government in the next few months. Another source of concern is how BlackRock will grow. One of the answers is to develop more on the retail market. But the hardest challenge for the management giant, in these volatile markets, will be to maintain its performance.

Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) on 8 September announced the appointment of Paloma Pedrola as international head for custody and depository services. Pedrola will be based in Paris and will report to Etienne Denau, and will be in charge of coordination of existing custody and depository services in Western Europe (Germany, Ireland, Spain, the United Kingdom), central and eastern Europe (Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Slovenia) and Africa (Egypt, Morocco and South Africa). She will also be responsible for development of services in new countries, particularly Tunisia, Ivory Coast and Bulgaria. Pedrola was appointed head of SGSS for Spain in 2006. Nathan Derhy has been appointed country head of Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) for Ireland. He is responsible for development of the main activities of SGSS in the country, particularly for custody and depository services, fund administration and distribution services. Derhy, reviously head of SGSS in India, replaces Christian de Beaufort. He will report to Bruno Prigent, who will become Director of SGSS from 1 October. De Beaufort has been appointed as head of investor services for SGSS in Spain. He will report to Etienne Denau, Director of custody and depository services. De Beaufort is in charge of developing the services of SGSS in that country. Murali Narasimhan has been appointed as the new country head and head for SGSS in India. He will report to Philippe Huerre, deputy director of emerging markets at SGSS. He also becomes deputy CEO at SBI-SG Global Securities Services Pvt Ltd, a joint venture of SGSS and State Bank of India, the largest public sector bank in the country; the joint venture provides custody services to local and foreign investors in India.

Kames Capital (formerly Aegon Asset Management) is to launch an absolute return fund, which will be managed by Stephen Snowden and Colin Finlayson, Investment Week reports. It is the first product to be offered since the change of names. The Kames Absolute Return Bond Fund, which will invest in the entire curve, will be launched by the end of the month, and will represent the first addition to the Kames product range since the arrival of Stephen Snowden at the firm a few months ago (see Newsmanagers of 7 April 2011).

Dario Carfizzi has left Eurizon Capital, the asset management firm of the Intesa Sanpaolo group, where he had been a fund selector and manager, to join Groupama Asset Management Sgr in Italy, Bluerating reports. He will be Institutional Business Development Executive for the Italian market.

Mining companies, which are confronted with significant environmental, social and governance issues due to their commodity extraction activities, dislose little information about sustainable development, a research by Novethic and be-linked, covering 23 businesses in the industry with a total turnover of over EUR386bn, has found. More than half of the companies in the study had not made voluntary commitments concerning issues in the sector. Only ten companies out of 23 had joined the ITIE, an initiative which encourages signatory companies to publish information about the value of the minerals they mine, and encourages signatory governments to disclose information about how much money they receive. Six businesses out of 23 had a public policy of adhering to the Voluntary Principles to protect human rights, which aim to limit violations of human rights by security companies and national armies employed by the mining companies to protect their sites and operations. Among the few good practices, the study notes that nine businesses in the study had formed collaborative partnerships with NGOs. But in general, those relationships had involved some conflict. “The major mining groups are often challenged, locally and internationally, by many organisations who point to their poor environmental policies, and the facts that they ferret away riches and fail to respect the rights of local populations,” say the authors of the research. Pressure on the companies from NGOs may eventually drag down their financial results. The “media firepower” which they have at their disposal is also likely to damage the reputation of businesses, but may also represent an operational risk for them, as sites may get picketed. In addition to this, there are legal and financial risks due to legal actions against businesses. “At a time when mining companies are posting exceptional economic perforamnce, we wanted to raise the awareness of responsible investors about risks in this sector,” said Anne-Catherine Husson-Traore, CEO of Novethic.

On 1 November, Frank Pörschke, who until 31 August had been chairman of the management board at Eurohypo, will join the Jones Lang LaSalle Germany group as international director. He will then become CEO from 1 January 2012, replacing Andreas Quint, who has directed the German operations of Jones Lang LaSalle for the past three years, and who has been promoted to head of the pan-European corporate finance unit, a position in which he will shuttle between London and Frankfurt.

Selon des proches du dossier, le capital-investisseur Blackstone aurait payé au total environ 220 millions d’euros pour acheter les 6.800 logements sociaux et les 73 magasins du groupe immobilier Level One en faillite, rapporte la Börsen-Zeitung. La plupart de ces actifs sont situés à Berlin. Blackstone apporte bien moins que la moitié de la somme en fonds propres, l’opération étant principalement financée par Corealcredit Bank et SEB.

Net inflows to open-ended funds and dedicated funds in July totalled EUR6.6bn, according to statistics from the German financial management association (BVI).In open-ended funds, which attracted a net total of EUR3.9bn, investors concentrated on traditional asset classes. Equity funds posted a net inflow of EUR4.1bn. Bond funds attracted EUR1.1bn, while open-ended real estate funds posted subscriptions totalling EUR200m. However, diversified funds saw an outflow of EUR200m.BVI observes in a statement that the new classification of money market funds which came into use on 1 July has brought more than two thirds of the funds previously classified as money market funds into the bond fund category. As of the end of July, assets in money market funds totalled EUR11.9bn, compared with EUR39bn the previous month, while assets in bond funds rose to EUR183.6bn, from EUR154.1bn previously.As of the end of July, assets in open-ended funds totalled over EUR697bn, of which EUR235bn were in equity funds, and EUR184bn in bond funds. Diversified funds represent 17% (EUR119bn) of the total, while open-ended real estate funds represent 12%, with about EUR85bn.Assets in dedicated, institutional, funds totalled EUR848bn as of the end of July.

Ignis Advisors, a multi-manager business unit established in November 2010 by Ignis AM, has recruited Aoifinn Devitt, principal and founder of Clontarf Capital, as head of client strategies. She was previouslya specialist consultant at Cambridge Associates in London and Boston, and at Goldman Sachs. Aoifinn Devitt will be joined by two of her associates at Clontarf Capital, Javier Herranz and Cian O’Sullivan,who will further strengthen the investment team. She will be working closely with Claude Chene, Ignis Asset Management’s recently appointed global head of distribution, to bring Ignis Advisors’ capabilities to a wider client base.Ignis Advisors has also hired a chief operating officer. Mark Long, who held roles as senior vice president operational due diligence, European general counsel and head of corporate development at FRM, has joined with responsibility for operational due diligence, product development and operations. Andreas Schroeder, formerly of ABP, has joined as head of quant analytics, responsible for risk modelling and quantitative asset allocation.

The time when managers could impose commission increases on funds has come to an end. At a time when costs are rising, asset managers are now having to accept reductions in their income. According to a study by Cerulli Associates (“European Fund Fee Analysis,” August 2011), the rise of passive management, regulatory changes, and recurrent criticism of fee levels are requiring active managers to change their positions on commissions and management fees. In order to remain competitive, reduced commissions appear to be inevitable, Cerulli estimates. The power to dictate prices remains the privilege of the best managers, and as in the luxuries sector, those who can offer something more than their rivals also have the pricing power, Cerulli observes. Less well-performing actors, who do not have good distribution networks, or who don’t have the best track records, will realise that it is increasingly difficult to justify high commissions in comparison with beta rivals, explains Yoon Ng, a senior analyst at Cerulli in London. However, the active management model is far from outmoded. Passive funds have managed to outperform active funds in only two asset classes out of five: diversified funds and commodities. Active funds performed better over three years in equities, alternative assets and bonds, even with administrative and management fees taken into account.In order to prove their superiority, active managers have often offered emerging markets equities funds or absolute return funds whose average fees total 2% and 1.6%, respectively; these are currently the best-selling funds.Ultimately, a vast majority of managers have ultimately moved to diversify their model and to offer both active and passive strategies. Among the elite management firms in terms of assets under management, only one firm is not yet offering passive strategies.Active managers with no passive funds in their product range have recently been launching low-cost active funds. Cerulli finds that this trend is not new, and that a recent study undertaken in partnership with Ignites Europe found that half of managers surveyed offered funds with a total TER of less than 1%, and that 60% of managers said they were planning to launch low-cost funds. Cerulli says growth in the low-cost actively-managed fund sector will be driven not only be active managers, but also by tracker funds, providers of ETFs, and fund of fund assemblers.

La banque helvétique Credit Suisse étudierait, selon La Tribune, qui cite la presse suisse, la possibilité de retirer son activité de banque privée des États-Unis. Elle doit en effet y faire face à la pression des autorités américaines, décidées à lutter contre l'évasion fiscale.

Bloomberg reports that the wealth management division of UBS in Zurich has recruited seven specialists from Turkey, including four advisers and three assistants, who previously worked at Credit Suisse. They will report to Beat Frey, head of the Turkey team.

The Singapore sovereign fund Temasek has recruited Tan Chong-Lee as co-CIO (chief investment officer), Asian Investor reports, adding that it was unable to confirm the information. Tan previously worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he was responsible for investment banking activities for South-East Asia.

Neil Hounslow, head of prime brokerage services for Asia-Pacific at Credit Suisse, and two members of his team have left the firm, Asian Investor reports.Hounslow is replaced by Dereke Seeto, previously based in Sydney, where he had been director of prime brokerage services for Australia. Hounslow may join JP Morgan, Asian Investor states.

The coverage rate for US pension funds in the month of August fell 5.6 percentage points, to 78%, according to monthly statistics from BNY Mellon Asset Management. The coverage rate, which is affected both by falling assets and by an increase in liabilities for the second consecutive month, is at its lowest level since September 2010.

BNY Mellon Asset Management on 8 September in Paris announced the launch of the BNY Absolute Return Equity fund, the first fund of its range to be managed by Insight Investment Management Limited (Insight Investment), one of its 18 management affiliates. The fund is a sub-fund of the BNY Mellon Global Funds plc Sicav, domiciled in Dublin and compliant with UCITS III. The new fund will aim to deliver positive absolute returns in all market conditions, over a 12-month period, investing both in long and short positions on the pan-European market, using paired-trade strategies. With the help of a specialised research process led by a team of highly-qualified professionals, the fund aims to identify valuation anomalies and to profit from those opportunities with the use of carefully developed investment positions, while undesired potential risk is hedged for. Anne-Laure Frischlander, CEO of BNY Mellon AM France, says that “the current period of major economic uncertainty and volatility on all asset classes demands that we rethink risk, and seek sources of revenue that are less directional and offer lower levels of correlation. The demonstrated experience of Insight in managing market risk and earning alpha in the past 5 years with its Absolute Insight UK Equity Market Neutral fund reassures us about the opportunities that such a product now represents for sophisticated investors who are increasingly demanding high-performance solutions in all market conditions.” The investment process for the fund is based on the long/short strategy that the equities team has been applying for the Absolute Insight UK Equity Market Neutral fund since May 2005. The fund will also be able to adopt larger positions and directional positions on the market, in order to seize opportunities for growth. In addition to dynamic management of net and gross exposure and daily liquidity, the managers will also use stop-loss strategies for each position in order to limit risk of losses. Though the fund has no geographical constraints, the management team will focus initially on Europe, and particularly the UK.

Neuberger Berman is launching two international equities funds, the Global Equity Fund (acronyms NGQAX, NGQCX, NGQIX) and the Global Thematic Opportunities Fund (NGHAX, NGHCX, NGHIX), as complements to the Global Allocation Fund, launched in June. The first of these funds, manage dby Benjamin Segal and Saurin Shah, invests primarily in large and midcaps in developed and emerging markets, in shares in companies likely to generate sustainable and high profits, but which are trading below their intrinsic value. The team also seeks to control volatility. The Global Thematic Opportunities Fund uses a strategy which has been available to institutional investors and high net worth private investors since 2003, with an unconstrained approach. The objective for Tony Gleason, Alexandra Pomeroy, Richard Levine and William Hunter is to identify significant and undervalued themes and trends on the basis of research by Neuberger Berman, in order to select equities in companies likely to profit from those themes. As of the end of June, Neuberger Berman managed USD198bn, of which USD96bn were in equities, USD85bn in bonds, and USD18bn in alternative assets.

Advantage Plus, le hedge fund que gère John Paulson, accuse depuis le début de cette année une perte de 34 %, en grande partie à cause d’un mois d’août «noir» où il a chuté de 15 %, contre 1,1 % pour la moyenne du secteur, rapporte Cinco Días. Le fonds a aussi été pénalisé par la chute de 44 % du cours de Bank of America, même si John Paulson avait anticipé les problèmes et réduit de moitié sa position en mars à 60,4 millions de titres.

On the basis of detailed statistics published by the German association of asset management firms BVI (see article in today’s Newsmanagers), open-ended securities funds have seen total net redemptions in the first seven months of this year of EUR370.9m. However, this overall result conceals significant disparities, as some asset management firms have been able to post considerable net inflows, at least for a part of their activities.Three of the four ETF providers have posted major net subscriptions: first among them BlackRock, whose iShares funds took in a net EUR6.43bn. For its part, db x-trackers attracted more than EUR1.86bn, which limited net outflows for the DWS/DB Advisors/Deutsche Bank group to EUR859.3m. ComStage (Commerzbank) attracted a net EUR215.6m. However, ETFlab (Deka) has seen net outflows of EUR1.04bn in the first seven months of the year.Among the major asset management firms, Allianz Global Investors stands out with total net inflows of nearly EUR2.26bn, due to good results at Pimco alone, where inflows totalled EUR5.78bn.Deka (savings banks) and Union Investment (co-operative banks) bore net outflows of EUR6bn and EUR619m, respectively.Universal Investment, a specialist in white-label products, has posted net subscriptions of EUR833.5m.

The Swiss management firm SAM Sustainable Asset Management (Robeco group) and Dow Jones Indexes on 8 September unveiled the revised composition of their Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI).The global DJSI World index has taken on 41 additions, the largest of which in terms of capitalisation are Medtronic, Schneider Electric and Société Générale. 23 companies have been removed from the index, the largest of which are Coca-Cola, Hewlett Packard and EnCana. The index now includes 342 companies.To the DJSI Europe index, selectors added 21 equities, the largest of which are, in addition to Société Générale, Zurich Financial Services, Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit, Atlas Copco, Alcatel Lucent, Alstom, Svenska Cellulosa, Adecco and Orkla. 13 companies were removed from the index, including ING Group, Volkswagen, Arcelor Mittal, Essilor and Crédit Agricole.Modifications were also made to the DJSI North America, Asia Pacific and Korea indices.The corresponding adjustments will take effect at the opening of trading on 19 September 2011.

Fidelity China, the investment vehicle managed by Anthony Bolton, bought back its shares for the first time on Thursday, from shareholders pulling out of the firm due to its weak performance, the Financial Times reports. The investment trust spent more than GBP380,000 to raise its own stake in two separate share repurchases during the day, at a discount of 5% to the firm’s underlying value.

BNY Mellon Asset Management has announced that it is repositioning its range of UK equity funds managed by Newton, one of the asset management affiliates of the group. The objective is to make the product range more visible and comprehensible for investors, a statement says. The Newton UK Equity and Newton Growth Fund will merge, to create a product to be known as the Newton Income Fund, which will have GBP1.3bn in assets. It will be managed by Richard Wilmot and Ben Russon.

With the Bonds EUR Investment Grade Aggregate, a sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav Petercam L Fund, Petercam is offering an all-terrain product in the area of investment grade bonds, from 15 September.The bond management teams (Johnny Debuysscher for govies and Peter de Coensel for corporates) will assist the manager, Sam Vereecke, to build a portfolio which will be optimised with active arbitrage between the various segments of the market, government and corporate bonds. All of the securities in the portfolio (60-80 positions) will be denominated in euros.A sales license for France has already been applied for from the AMF.CharacteristicsName: Petercam L Bonds Eur Investment Grade AggregateISIN codes: Income share – class A – ISIN LU0664123691Accumulation share - class B - ISIN LU0664123774Income share - class E - ISIN LU0664123857Accumulation share - class F - ISIN LU0664123931Front-end fee: maximum 3%Management commission: 0.60%Initial net asset value: EUR100 as of 15 September

Une taxe européenne sur les transactions financières est en cours de finalisation et sera présentée début octobre au plus tard, a expliqué le commissaire européen à la Fiscalité, Aldirgas Semeta. Ses équipes ont planché cet été sur une formule permettant d'éviter une délocalisation des transactions dans d’autres centres financiers. Le commissaire rejette l’argument voulant que les banques ne sont pas en situation de s’acquitter d’une telle taxe.

Le conseil d’administration a décidé de révoquer Jean-Michel Bonnichon de son mandat de directeur général en raison d’un conflit l’opposant à ABC participation et gestion, administrateur et actionnaire de référence d’ABC arbitrage. Il a nommé Dominique Ceolin, président directeur général de la société ABC arbitrage.

Le conseil des ministres des Finances renâcle à réguler de peur de subir la défiance des investisseurs

Le quotidien assure que le courtier actions britannique Evolution Group pourrait annoncer dès aujourd’hui son rachat par l’anglo-sud –africain Investec, pour plus de 230 millions de livres (264 millions d’euros), à raison d’une livre par titre. L’acquéreur pourrait vouloir scinder l’activité de gestion de fortune.

Nasdaq OMX a selon le quotidien intensifié son opposition à l’union entre Nyse Euronext et Deutsche Börse. Un tel mariage pourrait «détruire irrévocablement» la concurrence au sein du marché européen des dérivés. C’est ce qu’a indiqué le Nasdaq à la Commission européenne en réponse à une demande d’information sur l’impact de l’opération. La décision finale de Bruxelles sur la transaction, attendue mi-décembre, devrait apporter la touche finale à la fusion.

L'institution a changé hier de rhétorique, évoquant les risques pour la croissance en zone euro