Après la nomination en juin dernier de Ravi Singh comme responsable de l’ensemble des placements alternatifs de Credit Suisse Asset Management, la grande banque a annoncé le 1er novembre avoir fait appel à Andy Stewart comme responsable des placements dits liquides de l’unité stratégique, fonction précisément assumée précédemment par Ravi Singh, rapporte L’Agefi suisse. Andy Stewart a travaillé précédemment chez Man Investments aux Etats-Unis, notamment en tant que Président et CEO. Il a aussi dirigé au plan mondial les managed accounts de Man Investments.
Selon L’Agefi suisse, Falcon Private Bank, qui appartient au fonds souverain d’Abu Dhabi IPIC et qui gère actuellement une douzaine de milliards de dollars, composés à 75% de fonds privés, veut accélérer son développement. «Nous voulons maintenant élargir notre clientèle, qui provient pour le moment essentiellement des pays du Golfe et de l’Europe de l’Est; c’est pourquoi nous sommes actuellement en négociation avec des banquiers seniors spécialisés», explique Heiner Weber, qui dirige la succursale genevoise depuis septembre dernier (le siège zurichois comptant plus de 220 personnes). «Nous voulons couvrir davantage l’Amérique latine depuis Genève, par exemple». De huit employés, l’unité genevoise ambitionne de doubler ses effectifs à bref délai.
Les banques privées suisses doivent faire face à la détérioration de leurs marges. Les raisons principales sont l’augmentation des coûts, la réglementation croissance et des marchés moroses, constate Le Temps. Dans une étude récente, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) a passé en revue l’évolution de la rentabilité d’une centaine de banques privées entre 2006 et 2009. En l’espace de quatre ans, leurs marges brutes ont diminué de 6%. La situation est très différente d’un établissement à l’autre. En quatre ans, les marges brutes des institutions gérant plus de 10 milliards de francs suisses n’ont pratiquement pas bougé, alors qu'à l’inverse, les plus petites banques gérant moins de 2 milliards d’actifs ont vu leurs marges plonger de 13%.
L’Agefi rapporte que l’opérateur boursier londonien a décidé de reporter la migration de son marché principal vers le nouveau système de cotation Millenium à l’an prochain. Mardi 2 novembre, les échanges ont été suspendus durant deux heures sur sa plate-forme Turquoise en raison d’un problème technique. La perturbation aurait été causée par une erreur humaine selon l’opérateur.
Sion Cole quitte la société de conseil Hewitt et rejoindra la division Global Asset Management d’UBS en qualité de Senior Strategist dans l'équipe Global Investment Solutions (GIS). Formé à l’Université de Cardiff, Sion Cole a démarré sa carrière comme conseiller actuariel dans le domaine des fonds de pensions chez Mercer en 2000. Il prend deux ans plus tard la direction de l'équipe d’investissement de Hewitt à Bristol. Une fonction qu’il cumulera ensuite avec celle de responsable du conseil dans l’administration de régimes de retraites jusqu’en 2010. Basé à Londres, Sion Cole aura pour mission de faire connaître les capacités et la gamme de services de GIS en Grande-Bretagne.
La société de gestion suédoise East Capital, spécialisée dans les marchés émergents, annonce la réouverture du East Capital Baltic Fund le 1er novembre. Le fonds investi dans les pays baltes avait été fermé temporairement le 20 octobre après un niveau très important de souscriptions lié à la forte performance de la région depuis le début de l’année.East Capital précise dans un communiqué que si le fonds fait à nouveau l’objet de flux de nature à ne pas permettre la protection des intérêts des souscripteurs, une nouvelle fermeture pourrait être décidée.
Selon Asian Investor, Man Investments a ouvert son produit CTA, Man AHL Trend, aux investisseurs particuliers à Singapour. Man AHL Trend est un véhicule au format Ucits III déjà disponible en Europe, en Allemagne, en Italie et en Espagne. L’investissement minimum est de 20.000 dollars de Singapour, soit environ 15.500 dollars.
State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) vient de nommer Danilo Verdecanna en tant que managing director de SSgA Italia. Il travaillera sous la direction de Marco Fusco, qui vient d’être nommé administrateur délégué de SSgA France, mais qui conserve néanmoins la fonction de responsable du marché italien (country head Italia). Danilo Verdecanna travaille chez SSgA depuis 2007, récemment en tant que responsable de la distribution wholesale en Italie. Précédemment, il était chez Axa Investment Managers.
Dans un entretien accordé à Il Sole – 24 Ore, Larry Fink, le CEO de BlackRock, déclare que l’Italie est un pays où son groupe veut croître, grâce à de nouveaux produits. «Nous connaissons l’une de nos meilleures années», dit-il. La société de gestion distribue déjà des fonds auprès de banques du calibre d’Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit et Mediolanum. Et elle gère aussi des mandats d’investisseurs institutionnels comme Polaris et Fondaco.
Javier Ferrán, associé du capital-investisseur britannique Lion Capital (créé en 2004 par des anciens de KKR), a conclu un accord de principe (MOU) avec Corpfin Capital pour boucler sous un mois le financement de l’acquisition de l’espagnol Restauravia qui possède les chaînes de magasins en franchise Il Pastificcio, Trastevere et La Tagliatella, rapporte Cotizalia. Lion Capital compte investir environ 100 millions d’euros dans cette opération.
Mardi, Ferrovial a surpris le marché en revendant pour 654 millions d’euros la totalité du capital de Swissport, le plus gros opérateur mondial de manutention, rapporte Cinco Días. L’acquéreur est le capital-investisseur PAI Partners, qui reprend une dette de 226 millions d’euros. Pour Ferrovial, qui va pouvoir réinvestir le produit de cette cession dans de nouveaux projets d’infrastructures, cette transaction génère une plus-value de 150 millions d’euros. En 2009, Swissport a réalisé un CA d’un peu plus de 1,12 milliard d’euros.
La CNMV a enregistré le 15 octobre le compartiment Banca Tactical Fund, un compartiment de la sicav luxembourgeoise AC Multistrategy d’Aquila Capital. Le produit pourra être commercialisé par une douzaine de distributeurs dont Allfunds Bank, Calyon, Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild Europe.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Premier Asset Management has recruited Chris White, a former Threadneedle manager who left that firm in February, to manage the Premier Income, Alpha Income and Monthly Income funds, from 17 November. The management firm has decided to bring the management of the products back in-house, Investment Week reports. The funds had been managed by Bill Mott and Neil Cumming of PSigma since July 2009, when Premier bought ten funds from Credit Suisse.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Sion Cole is leaving the consulting firm Hewitt and joining the Global Asset Management division of UBS as Senior Strategist in the Global Investment Solutions (GIS) team. Cole studied at the University of Cardiff, and began his career as a chartered accountant for pension funds at Mercer in 2000. Two years later, he took over as head of the investment team for Hewitt in Bristol. He later combined these responsibilities with those of head of consulting for pension regime administration, until 2010. Cole will be based in London, and will aim to make the range of GIS services more widely known in the UK.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Since 2 November, HSBC Global Asset Management Deutschland is offering four Luxembourg-registered, Sharia-compliant funds for sale in Germany. The Amanah products were originally developed for Islamic investors, but are also suitable for investors of other faiths, especially prudent savers, as it is not permitted to speculate or receive interest. The funds also exclude excessive debt, gambling, alcohol, and pork products.Management of the products is quantitative, and all four rely on an active stock-picking strategy, dynamic selection of countries and sectors, and permanent adjustment of market positions. The HSBC Amanah joint venture was founded in 1998.The four funds are the following:HSBC Amanah Asia Pacific ex Japan Equity (ISIN: LU0384688981),HSBC Amanah Europe Equity (ISIN: LU0384690458),HSBC Amanah Global Equity (ISIN: LU0290245298)and HSBC Amanah Global Equity Index Fund (ISIN: LU0110459103).
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Investors whose good luck ran out along with the boom times are now turning to “core” real estate assets, mature properties offering good returns, while funds specialised in turnaround situations are continuing to suffer, the Wall Street Journal reports. The CalPERS pension fund has sold off two opportunistic funds from CityView which invest in residential real estate to Blackstone Group for USD225m, including debt. The CalSTRS pension fund has announced that it will increase its allocation to core real estate funds from 35% to 50%, reducing its exposure to higher-risk RE funds from 65% to 50%. Goldman Sachs is launching a range of lower-risk real estate funds in the wake of losses for the Whitehall range of higher-risk real estate funds. The real estate fund from JP Morgan Chase, which previously weighed in at as much as USD11.5bn, has seen net outflows of USD1.8bn during the crisis, but has attracted USD3bn since the beginning of this year.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) has appointed Danilo Verdecanna as managing director of SSgA Italia. He will report to Marco Fusco, who has been appointed as deputy director of SSgA France, but will also retain his responsibilities as country head Italia. Verdecanna has worked at SSgA since 2007, most recently as head of wholesale distribution for Italy. He was previously at Axa Investment Managers.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } TCW, the US-based asset management affiliate of Société Générale, has announced the launch of the TCW SMID Cap Growth fund, a product which invests in US small and midcaps with a growth profile, most of which are part of the Russell 2500 Growth index. The fund is managed by Husam Nazer and Brendt Stallings, the two directors of the smidcaps team at TCW. It will be managed with the same approach and the same resources as the TCW Small Cap Growth and TCW Growth indices, with the only difference being the filter by cap size, the firm says.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 1 November, Janus Capital Group launched three strategies aimed at institutional investors in the United States, which will be managed in dedicated accounts: Janus Emerging Markets Equity Portfolio, Janus Global High Yield Portfolio, and Janus Global Investment Grade Bond Portfolio. The products were developed in response to demand from clients seeking active strategies for emerging markets equities and global bonds. The Janus Emerging Markets Equity Portfolio will invest in equities of emerging markets with the MSCI Emerging Markets Index as its benchmark. It was launched on 30 September, with Wahid Chammas and Matt Hochstetler as co-managers. The Janus Global High Yield Portfolio and Janus Global Investment Grade Bond Portfolio were launched on 29 October, and are the first two global bond products from Janus. The co-managers are Gibson Smith and Darrell Waters, who will use a fundamental strategy for credit investments. The benchmarks are the Barclays Capital Global High Yield and Barclays Capital Global Aggregate Corporate Bond, respectively.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Vanguard has announced the launch of the new Vanguard Global ex-US Real Estate Fund, a tracker mutual fund investing in shares in the real estate sector. The product is based on the S&P Global ex-US Property Index, and invests in REITs and REOCs in emerging and developed markets excluding the United States. These businesses acquire office, hotel and other types of real estate properties. The fund is managed by Gerard O’reilly, who has 18 years of experience. It is available in four share classes, including an ETF class.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } La Tribune reports that only 39% and 28% of the 102 hedge fund managers surveyed by TrimTabs/BarclayHedge have negative outlooks on the evolution of the S&P 500 and 10-year interest rates in the US. 32% of respondents say that the currency wars are the greatest threat to global financial stability at present.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) on 2 November announced plans to evaluate the systemic risks emanating from insurers worldwide and to consider ways to apply recent banking regulatory reforms to the insurance sector. At their triennial meeting in Dubai, the IAIS, which inlcudes regulators from 140 countries and over 120 insurers, established a two-year calendar for evaluating the recommendations of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) for financial reforms, the association says. “The evolution of the insurance sector with a growing number of insurers who extend their activities worldwide … has increased pressure to institute reforms,” says the president of the IAIS, Peter Braumüller. Although the association admits that traditional insurers present few systemic risks, regulators say they must be vigilant in the face of “the opacity of the borders of the financial sector” as it touches on insurers.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The CNMV on 15 October issued a registration for the Branca Tactical Fund, a sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav AC Multistrategy from Aquila Capital. The product may be offered via 12 distributors, including Allfunds Bank, Calyon, and Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild Europe.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 1 December, Andy Stewart will join the asset management division of Credit Suisse as managing director and head of the liquid alternatives business, the Swiss group has announced. Stewart was president and COO of Man Investments in the United States, and served as global head of managed accounts. The liquid alternatives branch of Credit Suisse Asset Management includes single manager hedge funds, fund sof hedge funds and tracker product activities.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Swiss private banks are confronting a steep deterioration of their margins. The major causes are rising costs, increasing regulation and morose markets, Le Temps reports. In a recent study, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) reviewed the evolution of profits at 100 private banks between 2006 and 2009. In the space of four years, their gross profit margins fell 6%. The situation is highly different from one firm to another. In four years, gross margins for institutions with more than CHF10bn under management have hardly moved, while at the same time, the smallest banks, with less than CHF2bn in assets, saw their margins plunge 13%.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In third quarter 2010, operating profits at Principal Global Investors, an affiliate of Principal Financial Group, totalled USD15m, compared with USD10.5m in the corresponding period of 2009, due to increased transaction fees and rising assets. Unaffiliated assets under management as of 30 September totalled USD76.2bn, compared with USD73.2bn one year previously.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Bank of America Merrill Lynch today announced that it has recruited nine people as additions to its GTS (Global Treasuries Solutions) team. The firm is looking to increase its capacity and improve its integrated solutions for clients. “The arrival of these nine people with experience in the sales, product and strategic solutions sectors will help to improve our global treasuries solutions offerings to clients,” says Carole Berndt, director of GTS EMEA (Europe Middle East Africa). Jennifer Boussuge will become EMEA head of International Subsidiary Banking Sales for GTS. Matthew Davies becomes EMEA head of GTS sales for corporates. Jose Franco becomes global head of Corporate Banking Liquidity; Martin Knott becomes head of GTS sales for corporates for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa; Francyn Stuckey becomes EMEA head of strategic solutions delivery; Michael Edwards becomes EMEA head of Market Management; Paul Taylor becomes EMEA head of bank sales; Karl Turnbull becomes EMEA head of non-bank Financial Institutions sales for GTS, and Lesley White becomes EMEA GTS product executive for corporates.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has reached an agreement in principle to settle civil fraud and negligence charges with Cohmad Securities and three individuals who solicited investments on behalf of Bernard Madoff, says the Financial Times. Robert Jaffe, Maurice Cohn and Marcia Cohn, along with Cohmad Securities, the company they represented, received more than USD100m in commissions and fees for bringing investors into Madoff’s funds. The SEC has not reached a financial settlement with them.
East Capital has announced that the temporary suspension for new subscriptions of the East Capital Baltic Fund was lifted on Monday, November 1, 2010. The fund has been temporarily closed since 20 October because of very large recent inflows to the fund, due to a strong performance in the region since the beginning of the year.Should, however, the fund re-experience flows that cannot be managed in a way that safeguards the unit-holders’ interest, the board may decide to close the fund for subscriptions again, says a press release.
According to the Financial Services Authority, the use of the word “cash” in the names of money market funds is “potentially misleading,” as it implies that the capital of subscribers is protected, although the funds may undergo losses if their management commissions cut into the capital in an environment of low interest rates, according to issue 3 of the Life Insurance Newsletter from the regulator (http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/newsletters/life_nov10.pdf).The FSA also points to shortfalls in the areas of governance and/or respect for standards in the underlying investments. It says that it intends to contact the offending managers and to take corrective measures if necessary.