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14/06/2010

Foreign money returning to Switzerland

Rich foreigners are increasing the funds they hold in Switzerland, according to the Financial Times. Jacques de Saussure, designated senior partner of Pictet, said his group had seen an upturn, in spite of uncertainties about Swiss bank secrecy. Other private bankers have confirmed higher foreign remittances because of fears about the stability of the euro and financial crises in some countries.
14/06/2010

Axa in negotiations to sell off some UK activities

In a press statement, AXA confirmed on Monday, 14 June, that it is in talks with Resolution Ltd. for a potential sale of some of its life, savings, and retirement activities in the United Kingdom. Once the deal is finalised, AXA would retain AXA Wealth Management and AXA Direct Protection, and sell the remainder of its UK activities to Resolution Ltd. Axa states that the activities of AXA Wealth Management include the Elevate sales platform, Architas Multi-Manager, AXA Isle of Man and the investment and retirement savings specialist activities of AXA Winterthur Wealth Management. These activities together represented 41% of new business in the UK in 2009. The deal currently under discussion would involve a total sale price of GBP2.75bn (about EUR3.3bn). Of this amount, GBP2.25bn (about EUR2.7bn) would be payable in cash, while senior preferred dividend shares would account for GBP0.5bn (about EUR0.6bn).
14/06/2010

Basel Committee sticks to its guns

In a speech delivered on 11 June at a meeting of the International Institute of Finance (IIF), the president of the Basel Committee, Nout Wellink, insisted on the need to strengthen the stability of the financial system, but did not comment on an impact study of alarmist comments, published the day before by the IIF. The immediate costs of the reforms may not be negligible, but “may be managed over appropriate transitional periods,” he claimed, adding that very significant adjustments have already taken place. Welling’s position is more nuanced over the long term, but he does not appear to have doubts about the benefits of such reforms for the stability of the financial system.
14/06/2010

Lyxor Hedge Fund index down 2.22% in May

The Lyxor Hedge Fund Index lost 2.22% in May. A few strategies did manage to perform well: /s Equity Short Bias Index, up 5.95%; Term Index, (+1.81%); /S Equity Statistical Arbitrage Index (+0.12%), and /S Equity Market Neutral Index (+0.11%). The heaviest losses were for the L/S Equity Long Bias Index (-4.01%), and the Special Situations Index (-4.25%). The Lyxor Hedge Indices are investable hedge fund indexes. Their performance is calculated on the basis of performance and assets in hedge funds on the Lyxor platform.
14/06/2010

Global ETF assets down in May

As of the end of May, the number of ETFs worldwide was up to 2,118 products, listed 4,478 times, from 2,189 products and 4,354 listings as of the end of April. Assets were down to USD1.0441trn, from USD1.1131trn one month earlier. This corresponds to an increase of 0.8% compared with December, from 7.4% between the end of December and the end of April. There are currently plans to launch 884 new ETFs, BlackRock states. The top three providers remain unchanged. iShares (BlackRock) remains the leader, with 442 products and assets of USD481.2bn, compared with 438 ETFs and USD516bn as of the end of April. Second place continues to be State Street Global Advisors (SsgA), with 110 products and USD149bn, up from 108 ETFs and USD159.9bn, followed by Vanguard, with 47 funds and USD104.4bn, compared with 47 ETFs and USD110.2bn. These three actors (out of a total of 131) account for 70.4% of total assets under management, compared with 70.7% one month earlier. In terms of subscriptions, Vanguard led the ETF market in the first five months of the year, with USD14.3bn in subscriptions, out of a total of USD23.6bn, followed by iShares, with USD7bn, and net outflows at SSgA of USD8.8bn.
14/06/2010

Acropole launches an anti-inflation convertible bond fund

In light of a strong likelihood of rising inflation in the short to mid-term, Acropole Asset Management has launched a fund which is intended to offer investors protection against this risk, and to profit from it, entitled Acropole Euro Convert’i. In keeping with the specialty of the asset management firm, the product invests in convertible bonds. “This fund combines three approaches,” explains Emmanuel Martin, chief invetment officer at Acropole AM. “First, we invest in convertible bonds, which typically outperform in periods of inflation, like equities. Second, we will concentrate on a few themes which are expected to do well in inflationary contexts, such as mining companies and producers of commodities, agriculture, real estate, companies with pricing power, and volatility. Lastly, the fund will be hedged against forex risks,” he continues. Acropole AM is also preparing to launch another fund which will invest in high yield.
14/06/2010

Net outflows from long-term funds in May

As US equities funds have seen net outflows of about USD15bn, and international equities markets, dragged down by European markets, have seen net redemptions of USD6bn (ending a run of 13 consecutive months of net subscriptions), long-term mutual funds domiciled in the United States in May saw net redemptions of USD13.2bn, according to statistics from Morningstar. US ETFs, for their part, saw net subscriptions of USD4.8bn in May, bringing total net inflows in this category to USD24.7bn since the beginning of the year. Assets in ETFs as of the end of May totalled USD792.6bn. Excluding horizon funds, the number of new funds launched since the beginning of January comes to 80. The DoubleLine Total Return fund by Jeff Gundlach was the most popular new launch, with subscriptions of USD610m from its launch in early april to the end of May.
14/06/2010

Losses for copper ETPs

The price of copper has fallen by 20% since its peak of USD8,000 per metric ton in April, and ETPs based on the metal show losses since the beginning of the year, due to concerns about the global economic recovery and the rising US dollar, the Wall Street Journal reports. There are two ETPs which replicate the evolution of copper. One of them is an ETN, the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Copper Subindex Total Return ETN from Barclays, which has nearly USD100m in assets. For the past three months, there has also been an ETF, the First Trust ISE Global Copper Index Fund, which has less than USD4bn in assets, and which invests in mining companies. Management commission is 0.7%. The portfolio includes 26 equities, with the largest positions as of 10 June being Southern Copper, BHP Billiton, Antofagasta, Xstrata, and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold.
14/06/2010

Hedge fund which invests in race horses launched

Susan and John Moore, who have owned horses for a long time, have launched the hedge fund Platinum Horse Racing Ventures, which will invest in a few dozen purebred colts which show a likelihood of winning races and may then be resold at a higher price, the Wall Street Journal reports. Minimal subscription is set at USD500,000, and the fund has a traditional fee structure, with 2% management fees and 20% performance commission. Investors will be locked in for three years.
14/06/2010

BBVA launches a recruitment drive for private banking clients

On Friday, BBVA announced the launch of a campaign to capture clients for its private bank, which will run until the end of September. The firm is offering an iPad to clients who place at least EUR300,000 with the bank. Mid- to high-end clients will be able to use a new application designed specially for the iPad, entitledBBVA Banca Privada. The objective is to recruit 25,000 clients.
14/06/2010

Gesmadrid and Bancaja create fourth-largest asset management firm in Spain

Although the planned merger of Caja Madrid and Bancaja will create the largest savings bank in Spain, the merger of their two asset management firms, Gesmadrid and Bancaja Fondos, will not create the largest entity in the sector, Funds People reports. Even counting the asset management firms for the savings banks of Avila, Rioja, Segovia and Laietana, which will also be merged with Caja Madrid, total assets come to less than EUR8.85bn as of the end of May, while Invercaja on the same date had assets of EUR13.56bn under management. Invercaja will thus remain the third-largest asset management firm in Spain, after BBVA and Santander.
14/06/2010

Lehman and Neuberger Berman sell artworks

Lehman Brothers Holdings on 3 June asked a New York bankruptcy court for permission to auction off 447 works of art, including 52 from its own collection, while the remainder come from Neuberger Berman, Handelsblatt reports. The sale, which will be held on 25 September, will include a number of famous pieces, and will generate about USD10m, including an expected USD800,000 to USD1m for the installation “We’ve Got Style (The Vessel Collection-Blue),” by Damien Hirst.
14/06/2010

OFI reorganizes incubation activities

Since last year, New Alpha Asset Management has become the sole incubation structure for the OFI AM group, the asset management firm for the Macif and Matmut mutuals. Its other entity, Amlab, founded in late 2007 in partnership with La Banque Postale Asset Management, was sold in its entirety last year. Among others, the structure is a shareholder in Mandarine Gestion, the fund management firm of Marc Renaud. Since the acquisition in late 2008 of ADI, an alternative management firm, which had originally been incubated by OFI AM, and which in turn launched its own incubation arm in 2003, entitled NewAlpha, the two structures had been coexisting. As part of this reorganisation, NewAlpha became an asset management firm in its own right in 2009, with a programme for alternative multimanagement and contractual funds. “This OFI affiliate is specialised in incubation and seed money via funds of funds,” explains Thierry Callault, deputy CEO of OFI AM and president of NewAlpha AM. For the sake of clarity, the structure will also take on two participations which OFI holds in two small management firms, Stelphia and Prim’Finance. Though AMlab had a more general focus, NewAlpha will concentrate on alternative management, an area in which the structure was specialised. After investing a total of EUR380m since 2003, it is preparing to launch its fourth fund of funds, NewAlpha Genesis 4.
14/06/2010

KKR invests in natural gas

According to sources familiar with the matter, the private equity investor KKR will announce a USD400m investment in a 40% stake in a joint venture with Hilcorp Energy Corp, to extract Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas and produce natural gas from it, the Wall Street Journal reports. Hilcorp will control a 60% stake in the venture, and will contribute about 100,000 acres of land to the joint venture.
14/06/2010

Europeans go for emerging market bonds in first quarter

According to rankings established by JPMorgan AM and Lipper FMI exclusively for Expansión, net subscriptions in Europe totalled over EUR60bn in first quarter 2010, compared with EUR38bn in October-December. The category of funds which attracted the most assets was emerging markets bonds, with EUR9bn, 64% more than in the previous quarter. The manager which attracted the most net subscriptions was Franklin Templeton, with EUR7.32bn. The best-selling fund was the SWIP Global Liquidity-Sterling Liquidity Fund, whifh raised EUR5.15bn. The only non-bond or money market fund among the best-sellers in first quarter was Carmignac Patrimoine with net subscriptions of EUR2.83bn, 46% of net inflows to balanced mixed funds.
14/06/2010

iShares, Lyxor and db x-trackers lead in European ETF market

Assets in the 946 ETF funds domiciled in Europe as of the end of May, up from 932 at the end of April, totalled USD220.7bn, compared with USD234.3bn one month earlier. They were down 2.7% compared with a total of USD226.9bn at the end of December. The number of products increased 14.1% in the first five months of the year, with 177 new launches, according to statistics from BlackRock. iShares (BlackRock) remains by far the largest provider, with 173 ETFs and USD81.5bn, followed by Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale), with 133 products and USD42bn in assets, and db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) in third place, with 133 ETFs and assets of USD34.4bn. Their total market share (out of 36 providers) comes to 71.5%, down from 72.1%. The ranking looks a little different for net subscriptions, which totalled USD22.2bn in the first five months of the year: iShares attracted USD4.1bn, while db x-trackers is in second place, with USD3.8bn, and Lyxor, for its part, attracted USD3.4bn.
14/06/2010

Galaxy and Merchant launch a fund

Galaxy Asset Management and Merchant Capital have teamed up to launch a Newcits fund focusing on the Chinese market, says Citywire.The Galaxy China Long/Short Fund fund is still awaiting final regulatory approval but the firm is expecting to launch it in July with a target of USD500 million in assets.
14/06/2010

European Commission proposes a compromise on hedge funds

According to sources familiar with the matter, the European Commission will propose a three-year transitional period, during which governments of member states will be permitted to continue to apply national regulations to the activities of hedge funds, as recommended by Ecofin. The new single European regulatory regime would take over after this transition, at the impetus of the European Parliament, the Wall Street Journal reports. The European Parliament also recommends that the five criteria set forth by Jean-Paul Gauzès, the reporter for the bill, to determine whether a country has adequate financial regulations, should be replaced by criteria which are easier to implement and verify.
14/06/2010

GLG fund earns 8% in May

London-based hedge fund GLG Partners’ macro hedge fund, which specialises in making money from shifts in the global economy, gained 8 per cent in May, a month in which many of its peers lost ground, says the Financial Times. The USD160m fund was launched a little more than a year ago. It is up 25 per cent this year.
14/06/2010

Change of managers at JO Hambro

JO Hambro Capital Management’s Rod Marsden has handed the reins of his Continental European fund to Paul Wild, says Citywire.The pair has worked together for nine years, including seven in tandem at JO Hambro.
14/06/2010

Rising Star recruits Giuseppe Benelli

Frank Erhard, CEO of the Swiss investment boutique Rising Star, has announced the appointment of Giuseppe Benelli as director and head of market evaluation and products. Benelli was previously CIO of Vontobel bank, and before that, CIO and head of asset management at Swiss Re. He founded Benelli Consulting, an investment and portfolio management consulting firm serving banks, insurers, and other businesses.
14/06/2010

Finma to regulate wealth managers' travel

Le Temps reports that wealth managers’ visits to their clients abroad are going to be regulated. Rules will be published “by October,” Urs Zulauf, deputy director of Finma, told the newspaper on Thursday. “In principle, a manager should be permitted to visit a client only if the bank has a license to operate there. However, few establishments based in Switzerland have these licenses, in the interests of banking confidentiality. This means that a manager who travels professionally runs a risk of being arrested at the Swiss border,” Le Temps explains. The banking authorities may set two types of penalties for this type of offense: placing restrictions on the travel of executives at establishments which are guilty of these violations, and forcing them to maintain higher levels of reserves.
14/06/2010

Head of risk to leave FSA

Money Marketing reports that the director of risk at the Financial Services Authority (FSA) will be leaving her job. Sally Dewar will leave the British regulatory authority in May 2011.
14/06/2010

CAC 40 : la reprise reste fragile

Tant que l’indice sera sous les 3.780 points, le risque de revenir à 3.275 points, voire à 3.000 points, restera élevé

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