p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Italian Fund Hub, an internet platform which is intended to bring together data on funds from asset management firms members of Assogestioni, the Italian association of asset managers, has been a mitigated success, Plus, the money supplement of Il Sole – 24 Ore reports. Of 74 financial groups registered with the association, only 18 have released information on the site so far, though among them are the major players in the sector: Eurizon Capital, Generali, Pioneer, Allianz and Mediolanum. The cost of the service is not prohibitive: from EUR1,440 to EUR7,200 per year. The idea is to offer investors a single location where information on funds from various asset management firms can be found.
Jeff Kaplan, the global head of mergers and acquisitions, is going to leave Bank of America Merrill Lynch to become become chief operating officer of Appaloosa Management, according to the Financial Times. Steven Baronoff will again take control of the deals business at the bank.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The board of directors at Berkshire Hathaway has named a fourth candidate on its top-secret list of potential successors to Warren Buffett, CEO, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing a securities filing. Matt Rose is head of Burlington Northern Santa Fe, in which Berkshire is a shareholder.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The French independent asset management boutique Tikehau may see the entry of the Italian group UniCredit into its capital, Les Echos reports. UniCredit would buy a stake of about 10% in the firm’s holding company, Tikehau Capital Advisors, which is controlled by the management. A joint venture would be created to set up shared teams and work on operations (valuation, distribution). UniCredit will also gradually invest in funds from Tikehau Investment Management. The partnership could be made official on Tuesday, 1 March, and then be presented to a general shareholders’ meeting on 2 March.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The equities managers Stephen Corr and James Kinghorn will join the international equities team at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP), led by Mike McNaught-Davis, on 3 March and 14 March, respectively. The team on 4 January already gained Craig Bonthron, who previously managed the Global Water Fund at Kleinwort Benson, and who will be in charge of the management of ethical and environmental products, under Johnny Russell. Corr previously worked at BlackRock, where he was director and portfolio manager. Kinghorn was senior manager for North American and Latin American equities at Scottish Investment Trust.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Assets under management at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) as of 31 December totalled GBP146.2bn, compared with GBP141.7bn as of the end of December 2009. Gross inflows totalled GBP3.1bn.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } BlackRock Advisors (UK) Ltd on 28 February announced the admission to trading on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) of two UCITS-compliant sustainable development ETFs, using the Dow Jones Sustainability Indixes (DJSI0 from the Swiss firm SAM Sustainable Asset Management (Robeco group) as underlying.These physical replication products are registered in Ireland, as sub-funds of the Sicav iShares II plc.The “global” fund, iShares Dow Jones Global Sustainability Screened (IGSC, IE00B57X3V84), replicates the Dow Jones Sustainability World Enlarged index ex alcohol, tobacco, gambling, armament & firearms and adult entertainment. It charges 0.60%.The European version of the product excluding “sensitive” sectors, the iShares Dow Jones Europe Sustainability Screened fund (IESE, IE00B52VJ196), replicates the DJSE index with the same sectoral exclusions (tobacco, alcohol, gambling, armaments & firearms, and adult entertainment). The management commission is 0.45%.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Scottish asset management firm Baillie Gifford has decided to announce a provisional closure to new investors of its emerging markets fund. The soft close will take place on 6 April, fundstrategy reports. The Emerging Markets Growth fund, which recently topped GBP1bn in assets, is managed by Richard Sneller. The manager says that liquidity has become a real problem for the fund, driving the management team to take significant stakes in increasingly small businesses.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } F&C will launch an absolute return fund focused on Europe, which will be managed by Randeep Grewal, who has recently been recruited by the British asset management firm, Investment Week reports. The Thames River European Absolute Return fund will be available from 1 March, and will be offered as a UCITS III-compliant OEIC vehicle, domiciled in Dublin. The manager will select 10 promising investment themes, and three positions per theme.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Marco Van Bussel at the end of January joined the 13-member global real estate securities management team at First State Investments (UK) as a portfolio manager. He was previously in charge of mandates focused on European real estate securities at Macquarie Fund Management in London. Van Bussel will continue to be based in London with First State, and will be in charge of continental European and UK real estate securities. He will report to Andrew Nicholas, head of global property securities.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swiss federal financial market surveillance authority (Finma) on 28 February announced that it has reprimanded HSBC Private Bank (Switzerland) for a data theft which took place between 2006 and 2007. Finma holds the bank responsible “due to insufficient internal organisation and control of IT activities.” The investigation, opened in March 2010, sought to determine how a data theft of such a scale could have taken place and been carried out, Finma announced on Monday. According to figures from the bank, 15,000 of its clients were affected by the data theft, committed by Hervé Falciani, a French former IT technician. In addition to this, 9,000 closed accounts were compromised. In light of the findings of the investigation, Finma requires that “HSBC continue in the direction it has begun, and complete the process of putting in place necessary measures to establish the required IT security.” Finma will monitor these measures, and “will oversee their establishment without delay.”
Aberdeen Asset Management has created a fund providing dedicated exposure to local currency short duration Asian bonds.The Aberdeen Global – Asian Local Currency Short Duration Bond Fund is domiciled in Luxembourg and managed by Aberdeen’s Asian Fixed Income team in Singapore which manages over USD6.4 billion in assets.The fund will invest mostly in sovereign bonds, across as many as ten different countries in Asia ex-Japan, with an expected initial duration of less than 1.65 years (making it relatively insulated from current inflation threats). The average credit rating will be A-minus. The benchmark will be the iBoxx – Asia ex Japan sovereign 1-3 years index.
L’équipe responsable du non coté au sein de SAC Capital Advisors cherche à lancer une société indépendante de private equity, Siris Capital, par le biais de la levée d’un fonds. L’actif de ce dernier pourrait être de 400 millions de dollars, essentiellement consacrés aux secteurs de la technologie, des télécommunications et de la santé.
Le fonds souverain de Singapour, Temasek, et celui de Pékin, China Investment Corp, font partie selon le quotidien des prétendants à la reprise d’une part de 39% du capital de Shanghai Jahwa United, détenu par le gouvernement local. C’est ce qu’a indiqué au quotidien le président du groupe chinois, Ge Wenyao. Le groupe discute également avec des acheteurs privés.
Le gouverneur de la Banque du Japon, Masaaki Shirakawa, a estimé dans un entretien accordé au quotidien que le niveau actuel du yen ne posait pas de problème pour l’économie du pays. «Pour le moment, le niveau du yen ne constitue pas un facteur additionnel de risque». L’impact d’une appréciation de la devise sur le niveau des exportations serait ainsi compensé, selon lui, par l’effet bénéfique sur les conséquences de la flambée du prix des matières premières. Masaaki Shirakawa estime en outre qu’un accroissement de l’incertitude internationale pourrait entrainer une hausse future du yen, du fait de son statut de «monnaie refuge».
Elles ont enregistré plus de 40 milliards d’euros de décollecte nette en 2010 dans les fonds monétaires. La baisse des taux n’est pas seule en cause. Les normes de Bâle 3 poussent les établissements bancaires à se tourner vers des produits bilanciels.
Le groupe français étudie la possibilité de céder son réseau de distribution de gaz en Italie, ont déclaré hier plusieurs sources financières citées par Reuters, dans le cadre d’une transaction pouvant représenter 750 millions d’euros. GDF Suez se serait notamment entretenu avec CVC Capital Partners, RREEF Infrastructure et un consortium composé d’Axa Infrastructure et du fonds italien F2i.
Un représentant anonyme de Carlyle a confié à Reuters que la société de private equity américaine doit dévoiler ce matin les détails de l’acquisition du groupe industriel japonais Tsubaki Nakashima auprès de Nomura Holdings. Le quotidien Nikkei avait évoqué la transaction pour un montant de quelque 70 milliards de yens (617 millions d’euros).
Bloomberg croit savoir que General Mills et Nestlé font partie des candidats tenant la corde pour la reprise des 50% du capital de Yoplait mis en vente par PAI Partners. Ils auraient présenté des offres valorisant la cible à 1,6 milliard d’euros. Le chinois Bright Dairy & Food aurait présenté la meilleure offre, de 1,7 milliard, mais pourrait ne pas obtenir l’approbation de Pékin. Axa Private Equity serait le dernier fonds en lice.
Jean Peyrelevade devient l’homme fort de Leonardo & Co en France. Déjà président de la banque d’affaires et de sa division midcaps, l’ancien dirigeant du Crédit Lyonnais prend la direction opérationnelle de la structure, remplaçant Nicolas Mérindol. Ce dernier ne siègera pas au comité exécutif, continuera à développer son portefeuille de clients et s’occupera du suivi des affaires de la banque privée en France.