p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } European ethical and green retail funds have pulled out of their slump in a thus far disappointing year, with net inflows of EUR212.9m in August, according to the most recent statistics from Lipper FMI, collected on behalf of Responsible Investor. This category of fund, known as “RI extended,” includes exclusionary and normative funds, funds related to climate change and microfinance funds. “RI extended” assets totalled slightly over EUR22bn as of the end of August. Sales of funds which use filters for ESG criteria (“RI screened”), for their part, lost EUR192.3m in August. Only bond funds and money market funds remained highly positive. Assets in RI screened funds as of the end of August totalled EUR64.1bn.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The monthly Lipper survey of major Spanish asset management firms reveals that they have increased their average allocation to equities to 42% in October, compared with 40.7% in September, Cinco Días reports. Meanwhile, they have not lost their confidence in bonds, which have increased to an exposure to 42.3% from 40.7%. This move was largely made to the detriment of cash, which fell to 12.25% from 14.15%, and alternative investments, down to 3.42% from 3.62%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Finles index of 28 hedge funds in the Netherlands as of 1 October measured 112.74, for a gain of 2.18%, its third consecutive monthly gain, following increases of 0.31% in August and 0.2% in July (see Newsmanagers of 29 and 8 September). The five best performances since the beginning of the year have been for the Trade Wind Equity fund (27%), QTR fund (20%), HIQ Invest Market Neutral fund (17%), Flonds Bloemendaal (12%) and Antaurus Europe Fund (12%). From 1 October, the Finles index includes a 29th fund, the Frog Fund.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Source on 8 November announced the listing of 15 ETC (exchange traded commodities) products on the Swiss stock exchange SIX. Source will initially list 14 T-ETC (Treasury Bill Secured ETC, ETCs which are secured by US Treasury bonds), replicating the performance of the S&P GSCITM Total Return commodities indices (dividends reinvested), and one P-ETC based on physical gold. The P-ETC Source Physical Gold replicates the evolution of the price of gold. Its assets are guaranteed by gold ingots held in the coffers of J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, in London. The Source T-ETCs are collateralised by US Treasury Bills, and liquidity is held by an administrator in a separate account. Exposure to commodities indices is provided via performance swaps with diversification over several counterparties. All Source ETCs are available in US dollars on SIX. Annual management fees for the T-ETCs are 0.49%. Management fees for the P-ETC Source Physical Gold are significantly lower than for competing products, at 0.29% per year. In response to growing demand from investors for more efficient exposure to commodities, Source is also offering the T-ETC Source Crude Oil Enhanced (SEWTI). In the past few years, the performance of futures indexed on ETPs replicating the price of oil has been significantly hier than the evolution of the price of oil, due to the impact of the contango (report) situation on oil futures markets. The T-ETC Source Crude Oil Enhanced (SEWTI) aims to replicate the performance of the S&P GSCI Crude Oil Enhanced Total Return index. It is an optimised index, whose level of exposure to the futures curve on oil is adjusted on a monthly basis, which varies dynamically between NYMEX WTI contracts with maturities of up to six months, depending on the curve. The T-ETC Source Crude Oil Enhanced (SEWTI) has seen significant inflows in 2010, as investors have become more interested in the way in which ETCs replicate the performance of oil futures. In partnership with BofA Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Nomura, Nyenburgh and 17 other market-makers, Source has collected more than USD7.5bn since its creation, in April 2009, of which USD850m have gone to its platform dedicated to ETCs. Growth in this segment is largely due to the success of the P-ETC Physical Gold (SGLD), which alone has collected over Usd600m in assets, due to the growing interest of investors in gold.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } LGT Bank in Liechtenstein offered more than EUR300m to acquire the Deutsche Bank affiliate BHF bank, Agefi Switzerland reports, citing Dow Jones Newswires. The valuation of BHF is estimated at EUR600m.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Securities & Exschange Commission (SEC) on 8 November announced its decision to severely limit the use of stub quotes, a practice which involves issuing orders at irrational prices in relation to the market consensus. The decision is the result of investigations in the wake of the one-day crash of 6 May this year. Stub quotes contributed to a loss of more than 9% for the Doe Jones in the space of a few minutes. The US market regulator says in a statement that the limitation on stub quotes is essentially a pure and simple prohibition: “By prohibiting stub quotes, we are reducing the danger that market transactions may take place at irrational prices,” says Mary Schapiro, chairwoman of the SEC, cited in a statement. The new rules will come into force on 6 December.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Michael Keiner, who has been in preventive detention for more than a year (see Newsmanagers of 29 and 30 October 2009), will be indicted this week or next for serious fraud, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports, citing the Wurzburg public gazette. The founder of the hedge fund management firm K1 group causes losses of hundreds of millions of euros for Barclays, J.P. Morgan and BNP Paribas.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Since the beginning of this year, Aberdeen Asset Management has raised about EUR1bn in France, including mandates, meaning that assets under management for French clients at the UK management firm now total about EUR6bn, of which about EUR4bn are from Credit Suisse products, and EUR1bn for real estate products and mandates, while the remainder is net inflows, Frédéric Lejeune, head of business development for France and Monaco, explains. The Scottish management firm is not the only one to have posted highly respectable inflows this year, as Brice Anger, director of development for M&G Investments in France recently announced that the firm had already attractd EUR500m in net inflows in France (see Newsmanagers of 5 November), putting assets now above EUR1.2bn. Year-to-date net subscriptions at Schroders in France, according to information obtained by Newsmanagers, lie somewhere between the figures for the firm’s two British rivals.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) has announced two appointments. Guillaume Héraud will now serve as director of settlement services. He will continue to develop the range of settlement services from SGSS, for transactions on equities on traditional markets and multilateral trading platforms (MTF), on the one hand, and on the other, for all other types of assets subject to clearing processes, according to a statement. Héraud will report to Alain Closier, director of securities professions at Société Générale, and will also join the international steering committee of SGSS. Jeanne Duvoux has been appointed deputy CEO of SGSS S.p.A. And legal representative of SGSS in Italy. She will report to Massimo cotella, deputy director of SGSS S.p.A. One of Duvoux’ major responsibilities will be to support projects to optimise the range of services, including those intended to respond to new market requirements, and to foster the integration of new clients.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The former head of the Paris office of BlackRock, until October 2009, Sandrine Toulouse, has created the third-party marketing (TPM) firm Aloha Finance with Gilbert Nguyen, sales manager for distributor clients of BlackRock from September 2007 to October 2010. The new company offers services to asset management firms seeking to establish themselves or strengthen their position on the French market, provided that they have a license from the French regulator AMF. Aloha Finance develops the sales strategy for fund management companies it represents, designs sales and communication tools, and distributes financial investment products to French professional investor clients. Pending three more partnerships which are expected to be signed in the next few weeks and months, the new TPM will start with agreements with Wegelin (Lux) Funds SICAV), the European fund platform for the Swiss bank Wegelin & Co. Banquiers Privés, and with the French hedge fund manager Orchidée Finance.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In October 2010, funds and Sicavs on sale in Italy saw net redemptions of EUR1.3bn, according to the most recent statistics from Assogestioni, the Italian association of asset managers. These outflows were driven by redemptions of EUR2.5bn from Italian-registered funds. However, foreign-registered funds, managed either by Italian or other groups, saw inflows of EUR1.2bn. This category now represents 55.55% of assets in the sector. In terms of asset class, money market funds alone saw outflows of slightly over EUR2bn. Hedge funds have also seen outflows of EUR225m, as have flexible funds, of EUR100m. Equities funds, balanced funds and bond funds, on the other hand, have seen net inflows of EUR704m, EUR250m and EUR146m, respectively. Since the beginning of the year, Italian mutual funds have posted net subscriptions of EUR3.3bn. As of the end of the month, assets in the industry represented EUR450bn, a slight increase compared with the previous month. 49.5% of the industry is in the hands of four Italian groups: Intesa Sanpaolo, Pioneer Investments, UBI Banca and Mediolanum. The top two players posted some of the heaviest net outflows of the month, at EUR310.5m and EUR196.7m. However, Mediolanum saw the largest inflows of the month, with EUR217m.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As Pierre-Yves Cahart told Newsmanagers on 23 April 2010 (see interview on that date), Wegelin Asset Management, the unit dedicated to institutional clients at Wegelin & Co. Private Bankers, on 8 November announced the launch of its international equities strategy in France. The strategy, known as Active Indexing, combines active and index-based management and is available in three different UCITS III-compliant funds, which received licenses from the French financial market authority (AMF) on 27 July 2010: Active Indexing Europe, Active Indexing World and Active Indexing All Country World. The range is managed by Daniel Leveau, director of the quantitative management team at Wegelin Asset Management. The strategy involves market picking: the management team invests in the most attractive sectors and countries out of a given universe, as a function of their position in the valuation cycle.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British management firm Schroder announced on 8 November that it has received a sales license for its Luxembourg sub-fund Schroder ISF Small Cap Energy Fund in Austria (see Newsmanagers of 7 October).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On the same day that Source listed funds on the SIX exchange, 8 November, db ETC AG (Deutsche Bank group) has listed 14 exchange-traded commodities (ETC) on the new ETP segment of the Swiss SIX exchange. Six of the products (Booster) use leverage, while eight do not. The market maker is Deutsche Bank, while the market maker for the Source ETPs will be Nyenburgh Holding BV. With the exception of the ETC based on physical gold, which charges 0.29%, the new products from db ETC all charge 0.45%. Ten of these ETCs replicate commodities indices, while four replicate indices of precious metals (gold, silver, platinum and palladium).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The equities team at Franklin in Frankfurt has recruited two sell-side analysts from Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW), Robert Mazzouli and Tim Burkhardt. In addition, the management firm has recruited Anne Friedrich, also as a research analyst, but she joins the firm from a venture capital firm, Creathor Venture Management. The team now includes eleven people, who will report to Uwe Zöllner. Meanwhile, Michael Clements, who was co-portfolio manager for the Franklin European Growth Fund, was appointed in October as lead portfolio manager for the fund, while Ed Lugo, who previously held these duties, remains as portfolio manager for the product.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Dominic Rossi, who has left his job as chief investment officer (CIO) at Gartmore, has joined Fidelity Investment Managers as global CIO for equities. He will report to Robert Higginbotham, Investment Week reports. In his new position, Rossi will be responsible for the equities unit, including portfolio management, research, derivatives, trading and corporate finance.

Gartmore has entered a phase of strategic reflection with the assistance of Goldman Sachs, the asset management firm has announced, at a presentation of its interim results. Meanwhile, Gartmore will take measures to strengthen its firepower and improve its financial situation, with the deployment of a GBP10m per year cost reduction program.The Gartmore star manager Roger Guy is leaving the firm. As a result, Gertmore will be merging its teams dedicated to European equities (large cap and all-cap) into a single team, which will be led by John Bennett. Guy will continue to serve at the firm for the next few months in order to ensure a smooth transition. Guy’s large cap team managed GBP3.5bn as of 30 September, of which GBP1.3bn were in hedge funds, GBP0.5bn in mutual funds and GBP1.7bn in discretionary mandates.Gartmore has also announced the departure of Dominic Rossi, chief investment officer, who will take a new position at Fidelity. Until a successor can be appointed, Jeffrey Meyer, CEO, will serve in this role in the interim. Brian Mitchell, currently head of trading, has been appointed chief operating officer for the investment unit.Assets under management at Gartmore increased 4% in third quarter, from GBP19.9bn as of 30 June to GBP20.7bn as of 30 September. Positive market and performance effects were partially offset by net outflows of GBP700m. As of 31 October, assets under management totalled GBP20.9bn, despite net outflows of GBP300m in October. The group has also received GBP500m in redemption demands, of which GBP200m are for European large caps, and will be honoured by the end of the year.

According to Financial News, Fidelity Investment Managers has decided to cut its UK staff by 500 to 1,500 over the next five years, due to a less welcoming approach by UK regulatory authorities, higher income tax, and deteriorating prospects for new business. It will not be making anyone redundant, adds the website.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Asian Investor reports that Michael McManus is joining Kima Capital to serve as chief financial officer, after previously working for Kima Capital as an accountant. He will report to Michael Gallagher, CEO of the hedge fund management firm.

«Notre part sera mise en vente d’ici à quelques jours et ce sera complété à la fin du premier trimestre» 2011, a déclaré Lionel Zinsou, le président de PAI, sur la radio BFM. Il a affirmé avoir reçu «beaucoup de marques d’intérêt venant d’industriels ».

La modification du règlement général de l’AMF insérant les obligations de déclaration des positions courtes a été publiée au JO du 6 novembre. Une instruction du régulateur sur les conditions d’application de ce nouvel article 223-37, qui entrera en vigueur le 1er février 2011, sera publiée dans les prochains jours.

La présidente de la Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary Schapiro, a indiqué hier lors d’une conférence que ses services traiteraient la question des algorithmes «fous» dans le cadre du trading à haute fréquence.

La société de private equity a dévoilé deux acquisitions dans les secteurs de la chimie et des cosmétiques. TPG va reprendre une filiale d’Ashland pour 930 millions de dollars en numéraire ainsi que la filiale japonaise d’Avon pour 7,3 milliards de yens (65 millions d’euros environ).

La société de private equity a officialisé la reprise de Vue Entertainment, troisième chaîne britannique de cinémas. Doughty Hanson a conclu le rachat pour 450 millions de livres auprès de l’équipe dirigeante et d’un fonds affilié à Och-Ziff Capital Management Group. Le fondateur et PDG, Tim Richards, procèdera à un réinvestissement.

La maison de courtage a annoncé lundi des nominations destinées à renforcer son activité «cash equity» à Hong Kong et à Londres. Louis Capital Markets a notamment engagé Nick McDonald, en provenance d’Instinet, pour diriger cette activité sur la zone Asie.

Reuters rapporte que l’assureur américain pourrait bien céder son activité de gestion d’actifs immobiliers en Asie à Invesco. La valeur brute de ces actifs avoisinerait 5 milliards de dollars, et la transaction pourrait se chiffrer en dizaines de millions. Un accord pourrait être signé ce mois-ci, les deux parties d’étant pour l’heure refusées à tout commentaire.

Le premier opérateur boursier américain sur les futures a porté à 25 dollars par action, contre 22,5 dollars précédemment, son offre de rachat des titres détenus par ses anciens membres. CBOE a réduit de 13,3 millions à environ 12 millions le nombre de titres concernés par l’offre.

Un juge fédéral a rejeté hier une demande de Goldman Sachs visant à lui épargner une sentence d’arbitrage de 20,6 millions de dollars concernant l’ancien hedge fund Bayou. Les créanciers ont reproché à une filiale de la banque américaine d’avoir compensé des ordres pour Bayou tout en ignorant des signaux de fraude.

La montée en puissance des titres en dollars et des covered bonds explique en partie la baisse des émissions sur les obligations en euros

Les « dragons asiatiques » comme la Corée ou Taiwan affichent également des taux de change proches de ceux atteints lors de la crise de 1997