Franklin Templeton has announced that it has been granted a sales license in Germany and Austria for three new Luxembourg-registered sub-funds. They are the Gold and Precious Metals Fund* (LU0496367417), managed by Steve Land, the Templeton European Corporate Bond Fund* (LU0496369546), managed by David Zahn, and the new Franklin Real Return Fund* (LU0496367250), managed by Tony Coffey and Kent Burns. The Franklin Templeton offices in Frankfurt manage about USD16.5bn in assets (EUR12bn) for German investors.

Lorenzo Carcano, who since 2`003 has been manager of the Metzler European Smaller Companies fund at the German management firm Metzler Asset Management, has been selected to manage an allocation to small and midcaps representing 30% of the multi-management product MSMM European Small Cap Fund from Russell Investments, Das Investment reports.

After a disastrous month of May in which legislators the world over sought to impose stricter regulations on their activities, hedge funds and the alternative management profession are continuing to grow. In the past few days, the English language press has reported on several new funds currently in development. Pierre-Henri Flamand, a veteran of Goldman Sachs, is planning to launch an event-driven hedge fund in autumn, to be entitled Edoma Capital, with about USD1bn in assets. The hedge fund will be based in Geneva, probably in order to avoid the recently announced tax hikes in the United Kingdom. A former Merrill Lynch trader, Frédéric Marino, will launch a hedge fund in summer, to be entitled FM Capital Partners, with the support of the Libyan government, which the British Independent newspaper reports will invest hundreds of millions of dollars. Marino launched a hedge fund nearly one year ago, and is planning to hire nearly 40 staff by autumn. Among the top figures at the fund will be Mohamed Taher Siala, former Libyan undersecretary for foreign affairs, and Khaled Kagigi, head of a Libyan government fund which invests in Africa. The fund’s activities will include traditional hedge fund strategies as well as research to locate investment opportunities in Africa. The Bloomberg news agency also reports that Citigroup is planning to dedicate USD750m to hedge funds this year, and Usd1bn next year.

Hedge Week reports that estimates by Preqin show that institutional investment in hedge funds have been rising again since the end of 2009. Institutional investors are providing 72% of the capital invested in hedge funds.

Six managers and directors at Gartmore, including chief executive Jeff Meyer, have bought GBP557,162 worth of shares, says Financial News. But one prominent name has not joined in the buying spree - star manager and major shareholder Roger Guy.

Fund Strategy reports that Collins Stewart Fund Management and Corazon Capital are planning to merge their funds of funds, in the wake of the acquisition of Corazon by Collins Stewart in March of this year. The time-frame has not been set in stone, say sources at Collins Stewart, adding that the operation will not involve any layoffs.

The private equity investor Inflexion and F&C Private Equity Trust have sold their stakes in ICS to the US management firm Blackstone, for a total of GBP110m-GBP125m. F&C says that it received GBP6.3m in cash and GBP0.5m in loan notes, which, along with subsequent payments, will bring the internal return rate to 73% after 22 months.

Graham Kitchen, who manages several equities funds at Henderson, says that several fund managers at the firm bought a total of 2% of the shares in Jupiter released as part of its IPO, as they considered the issue price of 165 pence per share highly attractive, Investment Week reports. Since Thursday, the shares have been trading at about 190 pence per share. The first listing will take place this Monday. Jupiter, whose share offering was more than 2.5 times oversubscribed, has not posted a single quarter of net redemptions in the past 10 years.

By a vote of 91.64% in favour, 4.27% against, and 4.09% abstaining, shareholders in F&C at a general meeting on Friday approved the firm’s planned acquisition fo the management firm Thames River for about GBP53.6m, of which GBP33.6m will be paid in cash.

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.

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.

La Tribune reports, citing Bloomberg, that the alternative management affiliate of the Citigroup bank is seeking to increase its private equity assets by USD1.5bn, and its hedge fund assets by USD750m, this year. Citi is also planning to increase its assets by USD1bn next year.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) announced on 18 June that it has acquired a 12.7% stake in London’s Gatwick airport for GBP106m (USD155m) from the infrastructure fund Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP). GIP led the acquisition of Gatwick from BAA in December 2009 for about GBP1.5bn. The acquisition of the stake represents a first direct investment by CalPERS as part of its infrastructure program, launched in 2007, which aims to invest 1.5% of the pension fund’s total assets in infrastructure.

F&C is embroiled in a legal battle with two hedge fund managers - Francois Barthelemy and Anthony Culligan -, says the Financial Times. The case centres on a limited liability partnership set up in 2004 between the asset management company and the two men. The two men, who hold 20% each in the partnership, allege that after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, F&C, which has a 60% interest, «wanted to shut down the LLP» and «recognised they could not do that under the agreement without buying the individual partners out under the options». They claim that F&C «started to run the business down without even informing the individual partners» and from mid-December 2008 «they sought to impose . . . cuts that would . . . have undermined the business altogether», according to the FT.

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.

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.

Jean-Louis Mourier, directeur de la recherche économique chez Aurel BGC

Hugues de Montbel, gérant chez Aberdeen Asset Management France

Selon les données mensuelles d’iShares pour « L’Agefi », la dette souveraine a suscité un vif intérêt. Côté actions, l'Europe est privilégiée

Il faudrait casser la résistance des 2.800 points pour réduire le risque d’un retour à 2.400-2.450 points

Le marché des subordonnées se rouvre. Deutsche Bank a émis de la dette « lower tier two » à 10 ans

Le marché des subordonnées se rouvre. Deutsche Bank a émis de la dette « lower tier two » à 10 ans

Isabelle Rome, responsable de la stratégie crédit chez Dexia AM

Jean Fauconnier, gérant gestion absolue chez Groupama AM

Marc Olivier, directeur général de Nordea en France

Les placements moins liquides, comme l’immobilier et les infrastructures, ainsi que les actifs non-cotés, ressortent avec les obligations comme les principaux bénéficiaires du mouvement de réallocation des portefeuilles institutionnels, selon la quatrième édition du bfinance Pension Fund & Insurance Asset Allocation Survey, réalisé auprès de 50 investisseurs institutionnels originaires d’Europe et d’Amérique du Nord. Parallèlement, à court comme à moyen terme, le poids des actions en portefeuille semble appelé à diminuer.Depuis le printemps 2009, marqué par un bref retour en grâce des actions, les fonds de pension mondiaux affichent une volonté d’ouvrir plus largement leurs portefeuilles aux placements à liquidité plus réduite et horizon d’investissement long, en vue notamment de capter la prime de risque associée à ces actifs. Cette tendance se confirme dans la nouvelle édition du bfinance Pension Fund & Insurance Survey, réalisé en mai 2010. En effet à horizon six mois, les investissements en infrastructures sont crédités d’un solde net d’intentions d’investissement de + 16 %. La tendance se renforce à trois ans, avec un solde net de + 30 % des investisseurs prévoyant d’accroître l’exposition de leur portefeuille à cette classe d’actifs.« Des deux cotés de l’Atlantique, les investisseurs institutionnels que nous rencontrons nous expriment leur souhait d’accroître la part de leur portefeuille consacrée aux infrastructures, dont l’horizon d’investissement est particulièrement adapté à leur contrainte d’adossement du passif », explique David Vafai, directeur général de bfinance. L’immobilier et le capital investissement sont également crédités d’intentions d’investissement positives à court comme à moyen terme. A horizon six mois, l'écart entre les intentions de hausse et les intentions de baisse de l’exposition du portefeuille ressort à + 20 % pour l’immobilier et + 10 % pour le capital investissement. A horizon trois ans, la tendance reste significativement positive pour les matières premières (solde net : + 21 %), le capital investissement (+ 19 %), les stratégies de performance absolue (+ 18 %), l’alpha portable (+ 14 %) et l’immobilier (+ 9 %). A contrario, les investisseurs envisagent de réduire le poids des actions, un solde net de 17 % d’investisseurs prévoyant d’alléger leur exposition à horizon six mois. A trois ans, le solde ressort à - 37 %. L’exposition à l’obligataire devrait, quant à elle, se maintenir à court terme (solde net d’intentions d’investissement de + 2 % à horizon six mois) et progresser à moyen terme (+ 22 %). « Il ressort que le désengagement des actions devrait bénéficier aux investissements en infrastructures, matières premières, stratégies d’alpha portable et de performance absolue. Si ces différentes classes d’actifs, prises individuellement, sont généralement perçues comme plus risquées, une fois regroupées au sein d’un portefeuille, elles répondent à l’objectif de diversification de chaque investisseur », conclut David Vafai.

Selon Responsable Investor, Merrill Lynch envisage de reconstituer son équipe de recherche dédiée à l’investissement responsable avec le recrutement de deux anciens co-responsables de l'équipe développement durable au sein de la Société Générale. Valéry Lucas-Leclin et Sarbjit Nahal, deux analystes ESG qui codirigeaient l'équipe de recherche ISR à la Société Générale, devraient ainsi rejoindre Merrill Lynch en septembre prochain. Les deux anciens de la banque française pourraient rester basés à Paris.

Les résultats des stress tests actuellement en cours de réalisation par les superviseurs bancaires seront publiés au plus tard dans la seconde moitié de juillet rapporte l’Agefi qui reprend l’annonce hier les Vingt-Sept à l’issue du Conseil européen. Les tensions sur la dette espagnole auront finalement eu raison des réticences des gouvernements à faire la lumière sur la situation de leurs banques, note le quotidien. Les Vingt-Sept sont également convenus de porter au G20 de Toronto les deux projets de taxe bancaire et de taxe sur les transactions financières. La première est d’ores et déjà sur le métier avec les fonds de résolution que la Commission propose de mettre en place de façon harmonisée. La seconde est moins consensuelle.