Six dirigeants de Gartmore, dont le directeur general Jeff Mayor, ont acquis des actions de la société pour un montant total de 557.162 livres, rapporte Financial News. Un nom important manque toutefois à l’appel : il s’agit du gérant vedette et principal actionnaire de la société de gestion, Roger Guy, souligne le site Internet.
"Value et contrarian" : ces deux concepts caractérisent le style de gestion de HMG Finance (250 millions d'euros), qui s'estime désormais parvenue à un stade où elle peut recourir à une distribution non exclusive. Mais en préservant une certaine sélectivité pour garantir la quiétude des gérants.
Georges Zecchin vient d’être nommé directeur de la Banque Privée de Crédit Agricole Suisse en Asie, basé à Hong Kong. Georges Zecchin sera en charge des équipes de Singapour et Hong Kong et supervisera le développement de leurs activités dans la région. Son expérience et son expertise lui permettront de consolider et de développer la position de Crédit Agricole Suisse dans cette partie du monde dans le domaine du Private Banking.Georges Zecchin a rejoint le Crédit Agricole en Suisse en 2001, où il a occupé le poste de responsable de la compliance. Il est ensuite nommé Secrétaire Général, Membre du Comité Exécutif puis Membre du Comité de Direction Générale.
Selon Asian Investor, Andrew Cohen a été nommé CEO des activités de gestion de fortune de JP Morgan Private Bank pour la zone Asie-Pacifique. Il remplacera dans ses nouvelles fonctions Paul Scibetta, appelé à évoluer au sein de la société.Actuellement responsable des activités en Californie du sud pour JP Morgan Private Bank, Andrew Cohen devrait déménager à Hong Kong dans les prochains mois.
Alors que Natixis a lancé depuis deux mois un appel d’offres pour céder ses fonds de capital investissement présents au Brésil, en Inde et en Chine pour un montant d’environ 250 millions d’euros, quatre offres fermes ont été remises auprès de la banque conseil Oddo, lundi dernier. Selon la Tribune qui cite plusieurs sources proches du dossier, le groupe Louis-Dreyfus et Artémis, le holding familial de François Pinault, font partie des candidats. Ces deux sociétés familiales sont en concurrence avec deux autres candidats plus «classiques». Le fonds de fonds Coller et Paul Capital associé à la société d’investissement française Pechel. Ce duo fait figure de favori car il est le seul à s’intéresser à l’ensemble des fonds émergents de Natixis.
Si la conservation de titres, la comptabilité, l’administration et la valorisation des fonds sont des activités largement sous-traitées dans l’industrie de la gestion d’actifs, c’est moins le cas pour le middle-office, rapporte Les Echos. Sa proximité avec le coeur du métier, la gestion, explique en partie la réticence des sociétés de gestion à sous-traiter une activité dont le périmètre peut varier d’un établissement à l’autre.
Après Lyxor, Amundi ETF, HSBC, Crédit Suisse et db x-trackers, c’est au tour d’EasyETF de lancer un ETF avec pour référence le S&P 500. En l’occurrence, EasyETF S&P 500 est une transformation de l’ETF de la gamme calé sur le S&P 100. EasyETF S&P 500 est disponible en euros et US dollars sur NYSE Euronext (Paris), Deutsche Boërse (Francfort) et Borsa Italiana (Milan). Il est éligible au PEA et conforme à la directive européenne UCITSIII. Caractéristiques :EasyETF S&P 500 EURCode ISIN : FR 0010616300Société de gestion : BNP Paribas Asset ManagementDevise : EURFrais de gestion annuels : 0,20%Code Bloomberg : SPTR 500 NEasyETF S&P 500 USDCode ISIN : FR 0010218843Société de gestion : BNP Paribas Asset ManagementDevise : USDFrais de gestion annuels : 0,20%Code Bloomberg : SPTR 500 N
Récemment, indique Funds People, GLG Partners a fait enregistrer quatre hedge funds coordonnés, compartiments de la sicav irlandaise GLG Investments VI PLC. Il s’agit d’un long/short equity, le GLG Pure Alpha, qui réplique un fonds enregistré aux îles Caïman et qui affiche 400 millions de dollars d’encours, ainsi que de trois produits marchés émergents, GLG Emerging Markets Equity, GLG EM Credit Opportunity et GLG EM Fixed Income and Currency.Un cinquième produit, le GLG Emerging Markets, a manqué la fenêtre d’homologation à cause d’une erreur, mais sera lancé ultérieurement. Tous ces fonds offrent une liquidité journalière et un profil décorrélé par rapport aux marchés.
Le suisse Fisch Asset Management, jusqu'à présent spécialiste des fonds d’obligations convertibles, a lancé le 31 mai un fonds d’obligations d’entreprises liquides et investment grade de pays émergents du monde entier libellées uniquement en dollars ou en euros, le Fisch Bond Value Investment Grade qui est géré par Philipp Good et Kurt Fisch. L’objectif de ce produit à liquidité quotidienne est de surperformer l’indice obligataire JP Morgan Corporate Emerging Market Bond Index Broad Investment Grade. Pour l’instant, le fonds ne bénéficie d’un agrément de commercialisation qu’au Luxembourg et en AllemagneCaractéristiquesDénomination ; FISCH Bond Value Investment Grade FundCode isin : LU0504482315Commission de gestion : 1,2 % (parts retail) ou 0,6 % (parts institutionnelles)Souscription minimale : 100 euros/francs suisses/dollars
Le 14 mai, Pictet Funds a lancé le compartiment High Dividend Selection de sa sicav luxembourgeois Pictet Funds, un fonds centré sur les infrastructures (lire notre dépêche du 14 juin) qui se focalise sur les actions de sociétés à dividendes élevés et pérennes offrant, donc une bonne visibilité sur leurs flux de trésorerie et avec des barrières à l’entrée très élevées.Dans la pratique, le gérant Hans Peter Portner, investira essentiellement investi dans des titres de sociétés spécialisées dans les services d’infrastructures publiques. Comme le souligne Hervé Thiard, Managing Director, Pictet & Cie Europe (S.A.) / Succursale de Paris, il s’agit d’une stratégie qui a été déjà commercialisée depuis 2005 au Japon auprès d’une population d’investisseurs qui avait besoin de revenu régulier dans un environnement de taux bas. Pictet a d’ailleurs collecté 8 milliards d’euros en un an sur ce produit qui est à présent «recopié» au format OPCVM III.Cette nouvelle version est investie dans le monde entier. Les titres offrent un rendement supérieur aux obligations (aucune société retenue n’affiche de dividende inférieur à 3 %), avec une volatilité bien inférieure à celle du MSCI monde. De plus, les bénéfices sont stables en l’absence de nouveaux concurrents, certaines des sociétés opèrent sur des marchés émergents en pleine croissance et le portefeuille est très décorrélé de la relation dollar/euro. En bref, souligne Hervé Thiard, la performance est meilleure tandis que le risque s’avère plus faible. Le portefeuille comporte entre 60 et 80 lignes, avec 88 % de titres investment grade.Le fonds est déjà enregistré Autriche, Finlande, Grande-Bretagne, au Luxembourg, aux Pays-Bas et à Singapour. Il n’a pas encore obtenu d’agrément de l’AMF pour une distribution en France.
Depuis jeudi, la cote du segment XTF de la plate-forme de négoce électronique Xetra de la Deutsche Börse comporte trois références supplémentaires. Il s’agit de trois ETF de droit français, Lyxor ETF EURO STOXX 50 Dividends (chargé à 0,70 %), Lyxor ETF Daily ShortDAX x2 (0,60 %) et Lyxor ETF Daily Double Short Bund (0,20 %). Cela porte le nombre total des ETF cotés à Francfort à 674 unités.
Franklin Templeton a annoncé avoir obtenu l’agrément de commercialisation en Allemagne et en Autriche de trois compartiments luxembourgeois supplémentaires. Il s’agit du Franklin Gold and Precious Metals Fund* (LU0496367417) géré par Steve Land, du Templeton European Corporate Bond Fund* (LU0496369546), confié à David Zahn et du neue Franklin Real Return Fund* (LU0496367250) que gèrent Tony Coffey et Kent Burns.La succursale de Franklin Templeton à Francfort gère environ 16,5 milliards de dollars (12 milliards d’euros) pour le compte d’investisseurs allemands.
Lorenzo Carcano, gérant depuis 2003 du fonds Metzler European Smaller Companies pour l’allemand Metzler Asset Management, a été sélectionné pour gérer une poche de petites et moyennes capitalisations correspondant à 30 % du produit de multigestion MSMM European Small Cap Fund de Russell Investments, rapporte Das Investment.
Dans son rapport annuel publié sur le site du Bundesanzeiger (Journal officiel), Sal. Oppenheim précise avoir accusé pour 2009 une perte de 1,27 milliard d’euros contre 163 millions l’année précédente.La banque privée, dont la Deutsche Bank a pris le contrôle le 15 mars 2010, indique qu’il sera indispensable de créer de nouvelles structures pour générer de la croissance et redevenir bénéficiaire, ce qui passera en particulier par un réexamen des fonctions de back-office pour créer des synergies avec la Deutsche Bank. Il faudra notamment réaliser des économies dans les technologies de l’information. Désormais, l'établissement se concentrera sur la gestion de fortune pour les particuliers, sur la gestion institutionnelle ainsi que sur la gestion de fonds «retail» et institutionnels.Sal. Oppenheim compte que le retour aux bénéfices prendra deux ou trois ans. Les comptes de 2010 seront plombés par des éléments exceptionnels liés à la restructuration et à la cession d’actifs en compte propre. Il se pourrait également que d’autres amortissements soient nécessaires sur certains crédits, de même que sur des participations et des immeubles. En exploitation, cependant, le bénéfice devrait augmenter pour retrouver un niveau satisfaisant.
Despite the financial crisis, a large majority of French students and young graduates in finance remain open to job opportunities abroad, according to a survey undertaken by eFinancialCareers.fr of 206 students and young graduates planning to work in the finance sector. Only 21% are concentrating their job searches on the French market. Of the 79% of respondents who are prepared to move abroad, more than half would like to work in a European country, with London their preferred European city to begin a career in the finance sector (cited by 62% of them).
Fidelity International would like to maintain the coexistence of bundled and non-bundled commissions, Fund Strategy reports. Following the publication of a working document by the British Financial Services Authority (FSA) on the subject of distribution platforms which raises the question of commissions, the management firm has undertaken a survey of 350 British independent financial advisers (IFAs) which finds that 80% of them favour the status quo. Two thirds of advisers estimate that the cost of investments would rise if the FSA intervened to forbid kickbacks.
Toby Hogbin, head of product development at Martin Currie, says that asset management firms which do not consider the British market their top priority will take the introduction of the UCITS IV directive on 1 July 2011 as an occasion to merge their British and continental product ranges, using a Luxembourg master fund and British feeder funds, Money Marketing reports. This will result in staff reductions in back-office and compliance in the UK.
In a first verdict over Madoff investments, Santander was sentenced on Thursday by a court in Madrid to reimburse an investor who subscribed in May 2006 to a structured product based on a basket of investments in the Multistrategy, Strategic US Equity and Arbutraje funds from Optimal, Cotizalia reports. The investor requested a redemption of his investment within the deadlines, before the Madoff scandal reduced the value of his investment to zero on 30 November. The judge found that the bank did not fulfil its obligations in failing to reimburse the subscriber, citing the arrest of Bernard Madoff and the suspension of his funds as the cause. However, the judge did not sentence the bank to reimburse the full initial value of the investment, but only its value just before the scandal broke.
From 1 July 2010, Vigeo will include the “transparency and integrity of influence practices” in the criteria it uses to rate the social responsibility of businesses. With this new criterion, Vigeo will measure what businesses publicly disclose about the engagements they take on, staff and resources they mobilize, either internally or through the use of specialised organisations (think tanks, lobbying agencies, professional associations, etc.), to affect expertise and legislative and regulatory processes likely to have an impact on their interests. In an environment in which the power of the professional lobbying industry is growing, with observable consequences in the absence of consistent international regulation, the risks of accusations of improper conduct are not negligible for businesses which are inadequately transparent in this area. On the other hand, businesses which make the effort to provide information on the positions they support, and on the organisation and budget dedicated to managing their relationships with public decision-makers, may see a benefit to their reputation, as well as increased legal security, increased investor confidence, and thus better attractiveness to investors as well as more permissive attitudes on the part of shareholders, and more generally, better social acceptability for their brand. The development of the ratings criteria was undertaken by vigeo with the support of the French section of Transparency International under a partnership agreement between the two organisations signed in July 2009.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the SEC is extending its investigation of the activities of the hedge fund management firm Magnetar Capital, founded by Alec Litowitz, a former trader from Cidatel Investment Group, the Wall Street Journal reports. The regulator is seeking to determine the exact role of Magnetar in the CDO markets, in which the hedge fund manager bought some of the highest-risk categories of derivatives, and made considerable amounts of money on CDS used to hedge against defaults on these assets.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Citi Capital Advisors, the alternative management platform from Citigroup, will seek to raise about USD1.5bn for private equity and USD1.75bn for hedge fund investments, the Wall Street Journal reports, adding that according to Bloomberg, the asset management firm will give itself two years to raise this amount of capital. The plans come ahead of the future “Volcker rule” which will forbid commercial banks from making speculative investments with their own capital. This point is also particularly sensitive for JP Morgan Chase, which owns the hedge fund management firm Highbridge Capital Management, and for Morgan Stanley, whose affiliates include the hedge fund management firm FrontPoint Partners.
As of 28 June, the Eurex platform will open trading of futures based on six more commodities indices. The futures are based on sub-indices of the Dow Jones UBS commodity range, covering soft commodities, grains, precious metals, energy, oil, and livestock. Since March 2009, Eurex has offered futures based on the composite Dow Jones UBS index and the three sub-indices for soft commodities, energy and metals.
The Swiss asset management firm Fisch Asset Management, which has previously specialised in convertible bond funds, on 31 May launched a corporate bond fund investing in liquid and investment grade emerging market bonds denominated exclusively in Euros or US dollars, entitled Fisch Bond Value Investment Grade, and managed by Philipp Good and Kurt Fisch. The objective for the product, which offers daily liquidity, is to outperform the JP Morgan Corporate Emerging Market Bond Index Broad Investment Grade index. To date, the fund has sales licenses only in Luxembourg and Germany. Characteristics Name: FISCH Bond Value Investment Grade Fund ISIN: LU0504482315 Management commission: 1.2% (retail shares), 0.6% (institutional shares) Minimal subscription: EUR100/CHF100/USD100
On Friday, Deutsche Bank and Winton Capital Management (USD13bn in assets) announced the launch of the DB Platinum IV dbX Systematic Alpha Index Fund, a UCITS III-compliant version of the Diversified Program hedge fund from Winton, which has posted annualised performance of 17.07% after fees from its launch in October 1997 until May 2010. The fund replicates the performance of the dbX Systematic Alpha Index, whose components are selected by Winton and which reflects exposure to about 100 publicly traded products (futures, forwards and options on commodities, equities indices, bonds, short-term interest rates and currencies). It is a largely passive strategy. Liquidity will be weekly, and investors may subscribe to shares denominated in Euros, pounds Sterling, US dollars, and Japanese yen.
The Moscow city government and Paris Europlace on 18 June signed a protocol agreement in Saint Petersburg in the presence of the French minister of the economy, Christine Lagarde. The protocol sets out the basis for an increased cooperation between the financial markets of Paris and Moscow in the area of financial services. The cooperation agreement will result in the establishment of concrete relations to exchange information and expertise for financial practices, development of services, and new products, especially in the area of debt management, where Paris and Moscow both play a top-tier role worldwide. It also provides for the organisation and management of an Institute for Risk Management, and for regular exchanges in the area of market infrastructure, in line with the evolution of securities rights and good international practices. A joint working group will structure the exchanges, which may also lead to the organisation of specific seminars and local and reciprocal assistance provided to French and Russian financial actors in the development of their commercial, institutional and public relations.
In January-May, the price of natural gas in the United States fell 22%, and many market trend-oriented hedge funds were then caught off-guard when the trend suddenly reversed, with gains of 15% in natural gas prices since the beginning of June, the Wall Street Journal reports. Among the funds which have lost out on the market are five funds from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, which lost more than USD120m out of USD640m it had invested. The same fate awaited the Bristol Energy Fund (which had USD500m invested) and several smaller funds from SandRidge Capital, which lost 19%, 15% of it in the first 15 days of June. Superfund USA also lost money on its bets on natural gas, which represented 1% of its assets of Usd1.25bn. However, Auspice Capital Advisors made money on natural gas, via a specialised ETF and a diversified commodities fund. The Claymore Natural Gas Commodity ETF has gained 7.4% since the end of May, and the London-based BlueCrest Capital Management has also posted returns of 2% in the first half of June, as its USd10bn BlueTrend Fund made gains on natural gas trading. The fund had lost 8% in May.
Russell Investments and RepuTex, a consulting firm specialised in the analysis of risks on global carbon trading markets, have announced that they have signed an agreement to launch environmental indices, dedicated to businesses which actively manage their carbon emissions-related financial risks. RepuTex will use its in-house methodologies to analyse the 2,500 shares of the Russell Global Developed Large Cap index on the basis of their carbon emissions, and to identify businesses which are engaging with clean technologies and alternative energies. The new range of indices will be launched in fourth quarter 2010.
Georges Zecchin has been appointed as director of the Crédit Agricole (Switzerland) private bank in Asia, based in Hong Kong. Zecchin will be in charge of teams based in Singapore and Hong Kong, and will oversee development of their activities in the region. His experience and expertise will allow him to consolidate and develop the position of Crédit Agricole Switzerland in this part of the world in the field of private banking. Zecchin joined Crédit Agricole in Switzerland in 2001, where he served as head of compliance. He was then appointed secretary general, then a member of the executive board, and then a member of the general direction committee.
Asian Investor reports that Andrew Cohen has been appointed CEO for wealth management activities at JP Morgan Private Bank for the Asia-Pacific region. In his new role, he replaces Paul Scibetta, who has been promoted within the firm. Cohen, currently head of Southern Californian activities at JP Morgan Private Bank, will move to Hong Kong in the next few months.
Since 10 June, investors are required to disclose short positions exceeding 0.2% of capital in any Spanish corporation to the CNMV, and when these short positions exceed 0.5%, the regulator renders the information public. Cinco Días reports that several firms have declared short positions on 15 Spanish firms totalling EUR1.218bn. The most heavily shorted firms by percentage of capital are BME (3.9%), Grifols (3.4%), and Banco Popular (3.2%). Deutsche Bank has bet the most (EUR750m) against the Spanish firms BBVA, Banco Popular, Gamesa and Grifols. The US-based hedge fund management firms Amber Capital, Morton Holdigns and Eminence Capital also have large short positions; others include Mason Capital Management, John A. Griffin, and Marshall Wace.