p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Bernard Delattre, formerly of Prigest, has created Altimeo Asset Management, with himself as chairman; the firm received its AMF license in early February. The firm’s strategy is conviction-based management, highly flexible and opportunistic.Altimeo is planning to launch an absolute return mutual fund registered in France, once the regulator has granted its permission, with exposure limited to 100%, which will use a macro and geopolitical approach with monitoring indicators for major aggregates, to select equities or bond issues from attractively-priced firms, while also relying on option and hedging strategies, as well as potentially on ETFs. The portfolio may invest in all asset classes.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Mandarine Reflex fund, which earned 13% in 2010, and at least 8% over a rolling twelve-month period, will be registered and released for sale in six European countries outside France (Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and Spain), Marc Renaud, chairman and founder of Mandarine Gestion, announced on 10 February.Renaud has also unveiled plans for international development of the company. Mandarine already has an office in Frankfurt, and it relies on minority partners in the Spanish and Italian markets. In Austria, the firm will engage an agent.Meanwhile, Mandarine’s inflows continue unabated (see Newsmanagers of 20 December 2010). Net subscriptions since the beginning of 2011 represented about EUR100m, while assets are over EUR1.6bn.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Dauphine foundation, in partnership with the management firm Amundi, a leader in the French asset management industry, are for the first time in France endowing a chair wholly dedicated to Asset Management. The Chaire Asset Management at the Fondation Dauphine has three objectives: to develop research and education in asset management at the Université Paris-Dauphine; to complement the research that Amundi undertakes on behalf of clients, and to be a center for ideas and proposals to respond to the concerns of public authorities in the area of asset management. The partnership between the Fondation Dauphine and Amundi is exclusive, and is agreed for a period of four years.

Following the recent changes in the organisation of Edmond de Rothschild AM, which has moved from two divisions to eight management units (Newsmanagers of 14 January 2011), the new “roadmap” for the firm is no less ambitious. “In our range of 26 funds,” explains Philippe Uzan, director of management, “we would like to build a group of ten products with assets of over EUR1bn each, with the objective of making these ‘cornerstones,’ while not neglecting the other products in the range.” The ten core funds will be Tricolore Rendement, Europe Rendement, Saint-Honoré Europe Synergie, Saint-Honoré US Value & Yield, Saint-Honoré Chine and Saint-Honoré Convertibles, Goldsphere, Selective World, Saint-Honoré Global Convertibles, and Europe Flexible.In addition, the asset management firm also confirms that it has already been giving a priority to international development for several years. The objective is to find growth areas also for the French market. The management firm is also present in Latin America, in Chile. The choice of Chile owes nothing to chance. Edmond de Rothschild AM is working with Chilean pension funds which are expected to invest up to USD60bn outside their domestic market. “From this point of view,” says Uzan, “Chilean regulations stand out for their transparency, as they require pension funds to invest in open funds.” But this criterion is not without its limitations, particularly in terms of the leverage ratios for the funds in question. Hence the desire on the part of the management firm to increase assets in products likely to interest these institutional investors.In addition to this commercial development, the firm is considering several changes. “Alongside non-hedged shares, we would like to offer a wider range of investments which are systematically hedged for institutional investors,” explains Uzan. But, he adds, “we do not have a range in which our teams manage currency hedging dynamically.” From there, it is a small step for the management firm to decide to create a new unit dedicated to currencies. Uzan admits that this theme is of growing relevance to the firm, so this space is to be watched for further developments.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The former governor of New York, Mario Cuomo, has been appointed to act as mediator between the owners of the New York Mets and Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee for the business interests of Bernard Madoff, in a court decision on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reports. Picard is seeking about USD1bn from the owners of the Mets, claiming that they made no effort to verify that Madoff’s activities were legitimate, despite some warnings and evidence to the contrary.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In one year, the flexible fund of funds Mandarine Reflex (FR0010753608), which has become a fund which invest directly in equities, has increased from EUR2m to EUR135m in assets, without seed capital. This is a sign that the product, which relies on the expertise of Marc Renaud (value management) and Joëlle Morlet-Selmer (growth management) with management of exposure to equities (0-60%) via the use of futures and options by Françoise Rochette and her team at Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management (EDRAM, see Newsmanagers of 19 January 2011) has found a favourable audience. Initially, Renaud explained on 12 February, “there was no prudent product for IFA clients in the Mandarine Gestion product range, but private banks and institutionals were also interested in the fund, which allows them to increase risk and performance capacity without fear. In addition, for integrators, the product is an alternative to the runaway leader in this niche, as it reduces operational risk for the corresponding allocation from investors.” In other words, the fund hit a far larger vein of investors than it had initially been intended for.EDRAM’s intervention is highly active, with 5 to 10 transactions per day, a sign that the fund offers flexible and rapid adaptation in order to reduce volatility. Asset allocation is a discipline “which Mandarine has not mastered and has no plans to develop internally,” says Renaud.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The German asset management industry finished last year with all-time record assets of EUR1.8296trn, compared with EUR1.7061trn as of the end of 2009. Of increase of EUR123.5bn, EUR70.9bn (or 57.41% of the total) is due to net subscriptions to institutional funds (Spezialfonds), of which EUR29.6bn, compared with EUR13.6bn, were from insurers, and EUR19.3bn for open-ended funds, while mandates saw net outflows of EUR3bn.Thomas Neiße, president of the German BVI association of management firms, announced on 10 February that institutional assets had increased to EUR812.5bn as of the end of December, compared with EUR729bn one year previously, while open-ended funds totalled EUR710bn, compared with EUR651.6bn, and mandates totalled EUR307.1bn, compared with EUR325.5bn.In open-ended funds, diversified funds attracted a net total of EUR13.8bn, while equities funds attracted EUR10.2bn, and bond funds EUR9.9bn, and money market funds saw net outflows of EUR16.8bn.In addition, ETFs attracted a net total of EUR8.6bn in 2010, compared with EUR10.7bn for actively-managed funds. Among equities funds, inflows to ETFs totalled EUR6.6bn, compared with EUR3.6bn for actively-managed products.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } For last year as a whole, open-ended securities funds attracted a net total of EUR17.6862bn, according to the German BVI association of asset management firms. This total is only EUR113.1m away from the total for Pimco Europe alone (EUR17.5731bn), which gave Allianz Global Investors (AGI), its parent company, net subscriptions of EUR13.7436bn, and made it the top German asset management firm by inflow volume.Among the major asset management firms, the DWS/DB Advisors/Deutsche Bank family posted net inflows of slightly over EUR1.08bn, due to EUR5.44bn for db x-trackers, the ETF specialist of the group.However, Deka (German savings banks) and Union Investment (co-operative banks) saw net redemptions of EUR6.41bn and EUR2.81bn, respectively.In the area of ETFs, BlackRock (iShares) attracted a net total of EUR1.74bn, while ComStage attracted EUR880.7m, and ETFlab (Deka) drew EUR334.9m.Universal-Investment, the white label product specialist, attracted nearly EUR2.23bn.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In January, NYSE Euronext has seen 54 launches of 53 ETFs, of which 45 were from Credit Suisse in Paris, one from Amundi in Paris, one from EasyETF, listed in Paris and Amsterdam, four from iShares in Amsterdam, and two from Lyxor in Paris. Overall, the European listings at NYSE Euronext include 544 ETFs, listed 621 times, from 17 issuers. These products include 353 indices. Daily trading volumes increased in January by 17.7% compared with the corresponding month of last year, while daily trading volumes were up 37.8% to EUR473.4m. The average spread totalled 28.5 basis points. As of the end of January, total assets in ETFs listed on European markets of NYSE Euronext totalled EUR140.8bn, 32.8% more than one year previously.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to statistics from VDOS relayed by Expansión, 191 guaranteed funds, including 133 equities funds and 58 bond funds, will mature this year, for a total of EUR10.75bn.This will particularly affect BBVA Asset Management, with a total of 31 products and EUR3.03bn in assets to mature, Ahorro Corporación (25 funds and EUR938m), and Santander AM (24 funds and EUR1.1bn).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Wall Street Journal reports that several investment firms in the United States have been overcharged for currency trades by their banks. The giant BlackRock has found that it and its clients have been overcharged for some currency trades by banks such as the Bank of New York Mellon, according to an internal investigation by the asset management firm one year ago. Now, BlackRock is @font-face { font-family: «Arial"; }@font-face { font-family: «Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: «Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } doing the trading itself or asking evidence from banks that it is receiving prevailing market rates. Clients of a major unit of Fidelity Investments have experienced the same problem.

The Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, which oversees around USD11 billion in assets, filed a lawsuit against State Street Corp, according to The Wall Street Journal. It alleges that the bank for more than a decade violated law by overcharging customers for currency trades.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Ucits Hedge reports that the independent asset management firm Zadig Gestion (Luxembourg) SA has launched a new Ucits III long only fund, entitled Memnon Fund, which will be advised by Zadig Asset Management in London, Ucits Hedge reports. The fund was launched on 1 February, with USD125m in assets and commitments.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Equities funds on sale in Sweden had a strong start in 2011. According to the most recent statistics from the Swedish investment fund association (Fondbolagens Förening), these funds had net inflows of SEK6.4bn (EUR0.7bn) in January. Flows went largely to Swedish equities funds (SEK3.7bn) and Eastern Europe funds (SEK3.2bn). Balanced funds also had a positive month, with net inflows of SEK0.7bn. However, bond and money market funds saw net outflows, of SEK1.6bn and SEK2.6bn, respectively. Hedge funds also saw net redemptions, of SEK0.3bn. Overall, funds on sale in Sweden posted net inflows of SEK2.7bn (EUR0.3bn) in January, bringing total assets to SEK1.935trn (EUR219bn).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In 2010, socially responsible investment (SRI) funds on sale in France saw a 42% increase in their assets, to EUR48bn, according to the most recent statistics from Novethic. But 90% of this growth, or EUR12.6bn, was due to the adoption of SRI practices by traditional funds.The increase is thus driven by asset management firms and not by savings investors, who actually tended to divest from SRI funds in 2010. Funds saw net outflows of EUR0.5bn over the year. Investor redemptions from money market funds (-EUR480m) did not work to the benefit of equities funds, which also saw outflows (-EUR580m), Novethic reports. Only bond funds saw positive net subscriptions, of EUR620m.That didn’t stop the SRI portion of French collective management from continuing its growth, by 2.38% in 2009, and 3.6% in 2010.The conversion of funds also changed the situation in the rankings of asset management firms active in SRI in the French market. With nearly EUR10bn in assets, Natixis AM tops the list, with the conversion of its Fonsicav fund, a money market funds with several billion euros in assets, to SRI. This puts the firm just ahead of Amundi. Further behind, with under EUR4bn, are BNP Paribas IP, Allianz GI France and Edmond de Rothschild, which lands in fifth place due to the conversion of the Tricolore Rendement fund (EUR2.5bn).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } RBC Dexia Investor Services has appointed Andreas Schmid as Director of Relationship Management for Switzerland, Agefi Switzerland reports. Schmid will take up his new role in April 2011. In his role as head of client relations, he will be in charge of winning new clients and strengthening relations with current clients of the wealth management firm and financial institutions in Switzerland and Luxembourg. He will report directly to Marco Siero, director of the Swiss affiliate of RBC Dexia.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Spanish hedge fund management firm Epsilon Gestión Alternative, founded on 2 October 2008, has decided to change its name to match the brand name of its product, the multistrategy fund of funds BrightGate Absolute Return; the firm is now known as BrightGate Capital SGIIC. The Spanish hedge fund is advised by Permal Asset Management (Legg Mason group).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Franklin Templeton Switzerland has announced the recruitment of Martin Lasance as director of Swiss institutional clients. Lasance will be based in Zurich, and will be in charge of developing relations with pension funds, insurers and industrial groups. Lasance, who will report to Jens Kurse, director & country head for Switzerland, has spent the past five years as director of institutional management at BlackRock for Switzerland, after serving ain a similar role at Swiss Re.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } An expert valuation of the portfolio of the open-ended real estate fund Axa Immoselect (EUR2.695bn) has resulted in a depreciation of 9.5% for two properties in France, one in Spain, and one in Belgium. As a result, the net asset value of the fund has fallen to EUR55.54, from EUR56.04.The suspension of redemptions from the fund, which was initially announced at the end of October 2009, was extended to mid-November 2010 (see Newsmanagers of 15 November 2010). Liquidity levels since that date have fallen to 8.5% from 9.2%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Between the end of 2009 and the end of 2010, assets at the Belgian asset management firm Petercam increased from EUR14.2bn to about EUR15bn, of which EUR8.2bn were in the firm’s Sicav, compared with EUR8.4bn and EUR6.4bn, and EUR5.7bn for direct mandates. In addition to these areas, the firm also manages money market funds. Since there has been a market appreciation effect on the AUM, the Belgian firm has obviously seen some net outflows, as some clients have been obliged to mobilise cash and/or take profits.The proportion of equities portfolios as of the end of last year declined to 40.95%, from 46.6% twelve months previously, while bonds increased to 39.2%, from 34%. The percentage for money markets has fallen to 11.2% from 13.4%.Petercam is continuing to recruit, with a healthcare analyst for equities, a credit analyst for bonds, and two recruitments in sales, one in sales support for Belgium and one for RFPs.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The US life insurace specialist group Prudential Financial has reported net profits for 2010 of USD2.7bn for all of its financial services activites, compared with USD3.4bn for the previous year. Assets under management as of 31 December 2010 totalled USD784bn, compared with USD667bn one year earlier. Institutional net inflows totalled USD28.6bn.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to Richard Evans, portfolio manager at Martin Currie Asset Management, only a few dozen securities in the Asian region merit interest, Asian Investor reports. “Is it too late to invest in Asian equities?” is the question which clients are now beginning to ask. Evans manages a concentrated portfolio of up to 50 positions (currently 30), with about USD300m in assets. All the assets are expected to outperform on a 5 to 10 year horizon. The manager is closely interested in the Hong Kong and Malaysian real estate markets. He is underweight on Australia, particularly banks, which managed to avoid the crisis largely due to exposure to commodities.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British management firm Hargreaves Lansdown on 10 February announced a pre-tax profit of GBP56.2m for the half year to 31 December, up 41% compared with the six months to the end of December 2009. Assets under administration increased to GBP22.3bn as of 31 December 2010, compared with GBP17.5bn as of 30 June 2010, and GBP15.6bn as of the end of December 2009.

Les inscriptions hebdomadaires au chômage ont diminué plus que prévu aux Etats-Unis lors de la semaine au 5 février, à 383.000 contre 419.000 (révisé) la semaine précédente, tombant à un plus bas de deux ans et demi, a annoncé jeudi le département du Travail.

L’Université Paris-Dauphine et sa fondation ont lancé hier avec Amundi la première chaire française dédiée entièrement à l’Asset Management. Un partenariat exclusif a été signé pour une durée de quatre ans.

Elles bénéficieront d’une analyse financière largement diffusée à un coût réduit grâce à l’Observatoire du financement des entreprises par le marché

Le rapport Lepetit-Dissaux se montre réticent sur le capital contingent et la participation des créanciers seniors aux éventuels sauvetages

Le rapport Lepetit-Dissaux, remis hier à Christine Lagarde, reprend la position des banques françaises sur la résolution des crises bancaires. Les projets de surcharge systémique et de participation des créanciers seniors aux pertes sont rejetés par les auteurs.

Elliott Associates a trouvé un nouveau combat. Le fonds alternatif américain a écrit aux membres du conseil d’administration de Danisco, dont il détient environ 1,2%, pour leur faire connaître son opposition à l’offre amicale de rachat de 5,8 milliards de dollars formulée par DuPont. Une cession à ce prix serait une trahison des intérêts des actionnaires, selon le gérant d’Elliott Franck Tuil interrogé par le quotidien.

Après l’annonce des rapprochements Deutsche Börse-Nyse Euronext et London Stock Exchange-TMX, le Tokyo Stock Exchange n’a pas l’intention de suivre le mouvement. Le directeur général de la Bourse de Tokyo a indiqué «ne discuter avec personne à cet instant».