The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has received an injunction from the courts requiring the alleged hedge fund IU Group to immediately cease its activities.The SEC says the firm, based in Beverly Hills, which served pensioners, university professors and members of the Christian community, claimed to be in operation since 2007, and said that its assets under management totalled USD800m.The SEC says that IU Group, which also went by other names (IU Wealth Management), was not registered with the SEC, and that the license for IU Group had been suspended by the State of California, and IU Wealth was no longer registered in California.

The US asset management firm Oppenheimer Funds on Wednesday announced the launch of the Oppenheimer Short Duration Fund, co-managed by Carol Wolf and Chris Proctor. The product will invest in investment grade bonds denominated in US dollars, including short-term corporate bonds, ABS, and bonds issued by US government agencies. Minimal investment is USD250,000.

For first quarter 2011, Ameriprise Financial has announced net profits of USD241m, down from USD305m in October-December (see Newsmanagers of 4 February), but up from USD214m in the corresponding period of last year.Results for January-March were burdened by a net charge of USD77m related to an out-of-court settlement on 15 April 2011 over the private sale by the group’s affiliate Securities America of securities issued by Medical Capital and Provident Royalties. Medical Capital and Provident Royalties are accused by the SEC of fraud which resulted in losses for Securities America’s customers. The management of Ameriprise has decided to find a buyer for Securities America.Assets under management or administration as of 31 March 2011 totalled USD693bn, compared with USD673bn as of the end of December, and a 50% increase over the level twelve months earlier, due to the acquisition of Columbia Management, rising markets, and to net subscriptions from retail clients.Assets for the asset management unit, for their part, rose 89% year on year, to USD465bn (they stood at USD457bn as of the end of 2010), also due to the acquisition of Columbia Management and gains on the equities markets, but the increase was limited by net outflows. Net redemptions from Columbia Management were “significantly” reduced by an increase in retail subscriptions and a decline in net outflows to institutional clients. At Threadneedle, net redemptions totalled USD3bn, largely in the institutional domain (particularly the Zurich portfolios, which have reliable margins) and due to higher outflows to European retail investors, which reflects the volatility of the markets.As of the end of March, assets at Columbia Management represented USD363bn, compared with USD355bn at the end of December, and USD153bn one year previously. At Threadneedle, assets under management as of the end of March totalled USD107bn as of the end of March, compared with USD106bn three months earlier. They rose 10% in one year, due to market effects, which were partially offset by net outflows.

By US-GAAP accounting standards, Invesco Ltd in first quarter 2011 earned net profits of USD177.5m, compared with USD175.2m in fourth quarter 2010, and USD95m in the corresponding period of last year.Assets as of 31 March totalled USD641.9bn (see Newsmanagers of 19 April), compared with USD616.5bn as of the end of December, and USD457.7bn twelve months earlier.Invesco explains that the increase in assets under management of USD15.4bn is due to market effects of USD12.9bn, compared with USD24.2bn in October-December, while forex gains totalled USD3.3bn, compared with USD1.4bn.Net subscriptions to long-term products totalled USD6.6bn, compared with net outflows of USD17bn in the previous quarter. Net inflows for ETFs, UITs and pssafis funds totalled USD8.1bn, compared with net redemptions of USD14.6bn in October-December.The first quarter accounts also reflect an outflow of USD18.6bn corresponding to a passive institutional mandate which carried low fees, while net outflows from long-term products other than ETFs, UITs and passive funds totalled USD1.5bn, compared with USD2.4bn the previous quarter.In the institutional segment, Invesco earned net subscriptions in January-March of USD2.6bn, compared with net redemptions of USD1.6bn in fourth quarter 2010.Personnel as of the end of March totalled 6,191, 574 more than at the end of December, with the increase due to the opening of an office in Hyderabad, India.

According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, Ossiam, the ETF development firm led by Bruno Poulin and Antoine Moreau (see Newsmanagers of 26 October 2010), with Natixis Global Asset Management as its majority shareholder, are planning to launch five new products in the month of June. It will be a European launch, as license applications have been submitted to several European regulators (Italy, Germany, and the UK).The ETFs in question are part of what could be called a niche strategy. The Ossiam products will belong to the “smart” family of ETFs, as opposed to traditional ETFs. According to our sources, this may mean equities ETFs offering alternatives to indices weighted according to market capitalisation, and which may be instead weighted according to other factors, such as volatility. The indices on which the house products will be based will be created in collaboration with traditional index providers, on the basis of optimisation criteria, backtesting, etc.More has also now become clear about the organisation of the firm, particularly about the development and distribution arms of Ossiam. Natixis Global Associates International (NGAI) will handle distribution to institutional investors in Europe and Asia. Isabelle Bourcier, who has recently been appointed as director of development, will be exclusively in charge of the French market. In addition, the former head of Lyxor AM will also have a “product specialist” role, at least in the interim, for products to be distributed in Europe by NGAI. In France, two other people will soon be recruited to assist her.

Morningstar Inc on 27 April, after hours, declared a net profit of USD22.5m for first quarter 2011, compared with USD20.2m in the corresponding period of last year.The investment information unit posted earnings up 16.3% to USD120.4m (of which USD7.7m come from acquisitions), and an operating margin of 26.8%, compared with 31.6%.The investment management unit, for its part, posted an increase of 26.7% in its earnings to USD31.4m, and an improvement in its operating margins to 54.3%, compared with 53.7%.Advised assets as of the end of March 2011 totalled USD111.1bn, compared with USD62.6bn one year earlier, which is largely due to the integration of USD41.1bn from a fund of funds program launched in May 2010 for a client of Morningstar Associates. Excluding this element, advised assets increased by 13% in one year, largely due to market effects.Assets under management by the retirement advice and managed portfolios units as of the end of March totalled USD20.6bn and USD2.9bn, respectively, compared with USD16.1bn and USD2.3bn.

The Californian pension fund CalPERS has announced that it has awarded a global mandate for USD400m to very young management firm start-ups, as part of its Manager Development Program II (MDP II), which hands out assets to young firms whose assets under management are under USD2bn, or offers venture capital in exchange for significant minority stakes.CalPERS has awarded USD150m to the Paris-based asset management firm Tobam, specialised in quantitative strategies, which is developing a new portfolio diversification approach.CalPERS has also awarded USD150m to the San Francisco-based firm Victoria, which is specialised in emerging markets. Lastly, the Quotient company, which has been supported by the Californian fund since 2008, will receive USD100m for a new ESG product.

Benito López-Sors has been recruited for the sales team at Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management (EDRAM) in Spain, led by Bruno Aguilar. Lopez-Sors, who will be in charge of developing client relations, was previously a sales assistant at Schroders.

The global institutional investor confidence index published by State Street Global Markets came out to 97 points for the month of April, down slightly, by 0.3 points, from a corrected level fo 97.3 for March 2011.The decline is most marked in North America, where the index fell by 3.9 points, from 102.3 (corrected level) to 98.4. In other regions, institutional investors are showing more confidence. In Asia, the confidence index has risen from 96.5 (corrected level) in march to 99.2. In Europe, investor confidence rose by 6.3 points, from 66.9 to 73.2.

For January-March, Deutsche Bank has announced record net profits of EUR2.13bn, compared with EUR1.78bn in the corresponding period of last year.The asset & wealth management division (AWM), for its part, has posted net pre-tax profits of EUR190m, compared with losses of EUR5m in first quarter 2010, while operating revenues increased 21%, or EUR173m, to EUR1bn. For 2010 as a whole, AWM earned pre-tax profits of EUR100m, compared with EUR200m in 2009.Invested assets in the AWM division as of the end of March totalled EUR799bn, EUR26bn less than at the end of December. For asset management, assets fell by EUR21bn, or 4%, to EUR529bn, largely due to currency effects, but there were also EUR5bn in net redemptions, largely from money market products and insurance, which were partly offset by net inflows to higher-margin products.In private wealth management (PWM), assets in first quarter were down EUR5bn to a total of EUR271bn. An EUR8bn decrease is due to a rising euro, and was partly offset by net inflows of EUR3bn, largely from Germany and Asia.

Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild has decided to scale up its services to clients residing in Switzerland. The Geneva-based bank, which is publicly traded, and which considers the Swiss market a strategic area for business development, announced on 27 April in a statement released after end of business that it has appointed Benoît Clivio to direct the activity from 1 May.Clivio will be in charge of setting up a team and developing a product range aimed specifically at the Swiss market.

The international private banking group EFG International has announced that the 2011 fiscal year has begun “encouragingly,” according to a statement released on 27 April at the general shareholders’ meeting.“Underlying performance (in local currency) of the five divisions of EFG International largely correspond to expectations,” the bank says, adding that the continuing increase in the value of the Swiss franc against the major global currencies, particularly the US dollar, places accounts denominated in Swiss francs at EFG International “under increasing pressure.” As a consequence, base net profits, expressed in Swiss francs, are “below objectives.” Results for first half 2011 will be published on 27 July.

The Danish logistical services provider DSV has sold a 57,000 square metre logistical building in Moerdijk (north Brabant, Netherlands) to the German asset management firm Deka Immobilien. The property will be added to the portfolio of an institutional real estate fund.

The CNMV on 19 April registered five funds from the French management firm Neuflize Private Assets (EUR4bn, ABN Amro group): Neuflize Optimum, a European equities product managed by Olivia Giscard d’Estaing, and the Neuflize Ambition (US equities), managed by François Moutet. The license applied to C and I share classes for the former, and A, AH Euro hedge, I and S share classes in the second.The products will be available in Spain from Allfunds Bank, Banco Inversis and CP Capital Markets Bolsa.

Asian Investor reports that value, multi-asset class and ETF products are three areas of development in which BlackRock hopes to make major gains globally, particularly in Asia in the next twelve months.The head of international clients at BlackRock, Robert Fairbairn, says that he wanted to develop the range of products available to institutional clients overall, including pension funds, charities, insurers, and sovereign funds.Fairbairn also points out the “agressive” time scale for development of the ETF platform from iShares, which includes the development and registration of more vehicles in the Asia-Pacific region.

The German management firm Axa Investment Managers Deutschland on 27 April announced that it is actively preparing to reopen its open-ended real estate fund Axa Immoselect (DE0009846451, EUR2.61586bn in assets), for which redemptions have been frozen since 17 November 2009. The objective is to first reach 30% liquidity before reopening redemptions, says Achim Grâfen, CEO of Axa IM Deutschland.In order to achieve that, the fund will continue to sell off assets, which appears to be easier now that sale prices are more attractive in several markets where the Immoselect fund is invested. The fund manager says it has also suspended subscriptions, effective from 27 April at 11:30 AM.

On 27 April, SEB Asset Management announced that a redemption freeze from its open-ended real estate fund SEB Immoinvest (DE0009802306, EUR6.59bn in assets as of the end of March) has been extended by legal order until 5 May 2012. The suspension of redemptions went into effect on 6 May 2010, following the publication by the German government of draft legislation that would toughen regulations applicable to real estate funds (see Newsmanagers of 4 and 10 May 2010).The German asset management firm says in the same statement that it is planning to reopen redemptions before the end of this year, as the positive evolution of real estate markets makes it possible for properties to be sold at agreeable prices, which will generate sufficient liquidity to allow normal functioning of the fund on a sustainable basis.Barbara Knoflach, chairman of the board at SEB AM, says that in the past 12 months, the fund has been able to resell five of its properties at satisfactory prices, of which four have been sold since the beginning of the year (see Newsmanagers of 28 February and 5 April).

Handelsblatt quotes Sonja Korr, a real estate fund specialist at the ratings agency Scope, as saying that TMW and Credit Suisse are not expected to end the redemption freezes for their funds TMW Weltfonds and CS Euroreal in May. These funds have 0.85% and 16.9% liquidity, respectively, which is not sufficient to meet redemption demands, while the legal minimum is 5%. The cash rate for SEB Immoinvest, whose redemption freeze was extended for a year on Wednesday, is only 15.6%. A comfortable level of liquidity would be 25-30%.Handelsblatt also reports that KanAm has also decided to extend the redemption freeze for its grundinvest fund for one year.

For private bankers, the internet as a medium is clearly not a piority at present. According to the most recent study by MyPrivateBanking of the presence of the largest wealth management firms in the world on the internet, less than half of the 40 management firms included in the 2011 survey had the most basic internet technologies in place. Only one third of websites offered information on fees and commissions.The winners in the 2011 survey were UBS, Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch. UBS places at the top of the rankings, with a rating of 84 out of a possible 100 points, due to a clear structure and excellent navigation of the website. The Swiss group offers a wide variety of interactive tools, which clients may use to analyse their investment needs and locate corresponding products. Merrill Lynch, in a tie for second place with Deutsche Bank, stands out for its search capacity, while Deutsche Bank is the only firm to offer fee information online, in fine detail.Overall, the study finds that there is still some considerable ground to be covered by a significant portion of the sample. Areas for improvement include the basic functions of a website, such as search, which does not appear to have been achieved by many firms. 60% of the sample did not manage to score even 50% of the possible points.Websites of private banks are very rich in information concerning services on offer or their investment process, but much less precise about total volumes of assets under management or minimal investments required. Exhaustive information about costs and returns are offered on only a few sites.The study also finds that the websites of major wealth managers are far from optimal, “which is all the more surprising as, in most cases, a minimal effort could significantly improve their potential to win new clients.” European managers are stronger in this area: of the 15 non-European websites surveyed, only two managed to place in the top 10 of the rankings.

With the Pimco GIS Emerging Multi-Asset Fund, managed from New York, Pimco (Allianz Global Investors group) is launching an emerging markets multi-asset class fund (equities, US bonds, bonds denominated in US dollars, currencies), which will be a sub-fund of the Irish sicav Global Investor Series, which includes 41 UCITS-compliant funds with total assets of GBP46bn. The product is managed by Curtis Mewborne, managing director and head of portfolio management at the New York office.Meanwhile, the asset manager is launching the PIMCO GIS EqS Emerging Markets fund, an emerging markets equities fund managed in London by Masha Gordon, head of the EM portfolio management team in London, who will also be in charge of the equities allocation from the multi-asset class fund.Management of the bond allocation for the multi-asset class fund will be undertaken by Ramin Toloui and Michael Gomez, two specialists in emerging market debt.

The management firm Syndicate Asset Management on 27 April announced that it has sold its fixed income institutional activity Epic Asset Management to the British investment firm Hume Capital, for a total of GBP2.1m.Syndicate AM in February announced plans to sell the activity in order to concentrate on the wealth management sector, with a name change an important component, as Syndicate AM becomes Ashcourt Rowan.In the six months to 30 September 2010, Epic announced pre-tax losses of GBP68,000, on earnings in the same period of GBP1.67m.

Assets under management at Barclays in first quarter increased 1%, to a total of GBP166bn, the British bank announced on 27 April at a release of its quarterly results. Pre-tax profits rose 2%, to GBP46m.Pre-tax profits for the Investment Management unit, which mostly include earnings from Barclays’ stake in BlackRock (valued at about GBP4.7bn as of 31 March), totalled GBP24m, compared with GBP29m in first quarter 2010.Taxable profits for the Barclays group, for their part, totalled GBP1.65bn in first quarter, down 9% compared with the first three months of 2010.

La société de gestion d’actifs a fait part d’un résultat net de 177,5 millions de dollars (38 cents par action) au premier trimestre, contre 95 millions de dollars (21 cents par action) un an plus tôt. Les analystes du panel Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S tablaient sur un BPA de 39 cents. Ces résultats ont été gonflés par le rachat des activités de gestion d’actifs de clientèle particulière de Morgan Stanley (Van Kampen Investments).

Le régulateur américain des marchés à terme a indiqué que la plupart des produits et transactions entreraient dans le cadre de la définition d’un swap, sauf certains produits d’assurance, ainsi que des transactions commerciales et de consommation tels que les contrats portant sur l’achat de fioul de chauffage ou des participations dans des prêts. Les produits ou transactions catégorisés comme des swaps seront soumis à la compensation et au négoce sur des plates-formes d’exécution dédiées.

L’inflation s’est accélérée en Allemagne en avril, au taux annuel de 2,4% contre 2,1% en mars, suivant les données provisoires publiées mercredi par l’Office fédéral de la statistique. Un tel chiffre conforte les anticipations d’une nouvelle hausse des taux dans la zone euro durant l'été. D’un mois sur l’autre, les prix ont augmenté de 0,2% en Allemagne en avril. Les données mensuelles et annuelles sont exactement conformes aux prévisions.

La banque d’investissement a vu son résultat d’exploitation reculer de 5% au premier trimestre pour s’établir à 73,4 millions de dollars. La hausse de 11% des revenus liés au conseil en fusions et acquisitions n’a pas été suffisante pour contrer la chute de 65% des revenus de l’activité de restructuration. Durant le trimestre, Lazard a vu une forte progression des commissions de gestion qui ont atteint 206,8 millions de dollars, contre 161,8 millions de dollars un an plus tôt.

Le câblo-opérateur néerlandais a obtenu de ses créanciers le report de deux ans et demi de la maturité de son prêt term loan B, qui arrivait à échéance en septembre 2014. Il va aussi refinancer deux tranches avec une nouvelle tranche de 460 millions d’euros à 2017, margée à 325 pb sur Euribor. Détenu par Cinven et Warburg Pincus, Ziggo prépare ainsi son entrée en Bourse.

La Banque mondiale a relevé ce matin ses perspectives de croissance du PIB chinois en 2011 pour la deuxième fois en quelques mois, à 9,3%, contre 9% dans une étude en mars et 8,7% dans son rapport de novembre. L’institution prévoit désormais un taux d’inflation de 5% cette année, contre 4,7% et 3,3% envisagés en mars et novembre.

Berkshire Hathaway a annoncé que David Sokol, un temps considéré comme le successeur possible de Warren Buffett, avait induit la société en erreur au sujet de ses intérêts financiers dans le groupe de chimie et de lubrifiants Lubrizol, racheté pour neuf milliards de dollars (6,4 milliards d’euros) en numéraire le 14 mars dernier. Dans un communiqué, le conseil de Berkshire précise que son comité d’audit étudiait toujours la possibilité d’intenter une action en justice contre David Sokol, qui a réalisé une plus-value de 3 millions de dollars dans l’opération. Et d’ajouter que la société d’investissement coopèrerait avec la justice dans l'éventualité d’une enquête fédérale. «Les informations volontairement trompeuses qu’il a présentées aux dirigeants de Berkshire concernant ces achats (d’actions Lubrizol) sont en violation avec le devoir de franchise qu’il avait à l'égard l’entreprise», note Berkshire.

La banque peine à confirmer ses performances de 2010 avec un bénéfice net en baisse de 45 % à 1,14 milliard de francs, contre 1,81 milliard pour UBS