Dans le cadre d’une opération de sale & lease-back, le Banco Sabadell a réalisé une plus-value de 265 millions d’euros sur la cession pour 403 millions d’euros de 378 agences au fonds Moorpark Capital Partners, rapporte Cinco Días. Cela permet de porter le ratio de fonds propres de premier rang du Sabadell à près de 8 % contre 7,6 %.

Au moment où plusieurs gestionnaires lancent des fonds de hedge funds coordonnés, BanSabadell Inversión commence à commercialiser activement auprès des particuliers haut de gamme et des investisseurs institutionnels le Sabadell BS Selección Hedge Top, qui a commencé à investir en septembre dans les hedge funds traditionnels, a indiqué Sergio Miguez, directeur de la gestion performance absolue.Funds People rapporte que le fonds a affiché une performance de 2,17 % sur les quatre derniers mois de 2009 et qu’il reste en territoire positif depuis le début de l’année.Ce produit à liquidité trimestrielle est investi à 60 % dans des hedge funds à liquidité mensuelle ou plus fréquente. A la différence d’autres maisons espagnoles, BanSabadell Inversión dispose d’une équipe en interne pour la gestion du produit

Allianz Global Investors (AGI) a annoncé vendredi que l’intégration complète de la société de gestion cominvest, achetée à la Commerzbank lors de la vente de la Dresdner Bank par Allianz, aura lieu dans le courant du deuxième trimestre.La dernière étape sera l’absorption de cominvest Asset Management GmbH par Allianz Global investors KAG. Une fois cette transaction inscrite au registre du commerce, la fusion entrera en vigueur avec effet rétroactif du 1er janvier 2010.En conséquence, Sebastian Klein, le CEO de cominvest, va démissionner de ses fonctions et quitter le groupe AGI.

Depuis le 1er mars, la responsabilité des fonds de multigestion de cominvest a été transférée à RCM, une filiale d’Allianz Global Investors (AGI) spécialiste des actions, parce que le conseiller de ces produits, SEI Investments, s’est retiré du marché allemand. La gestion des produits a ainsi été confiée à l'équipe RCM MultiManagement qui assurait déjà la gestion des fonds Commerzbank allstars-anlage, Dresdner Vermögensmanagement, cominvest Best-In-One World I et cominvest Multi Asia Active.Trois des quatre fonds en multigestion restant chez cominvest seront fusionnés avec d’autre produits : le cominvest Multi Manager Global Balanced II sera absorbé le 14 mai par le cominvest Multi Manager Global Balanced I. Ensuite, le cominvest Multi manager Global Dynamic sera repris par le cominvest Best-In-One World I le 16 juillet et le cominvest Multi Manager Global Conservative sera absorbé par le Allianz Pimco Rentenfonds le 3 décembre. Le dernier fonds, le cominvest Multi Manager Global Balanced I, subsistera, mais l’allocation d’actifs sera plus dynamique. L'équipe de gestion pourra investir non seulement dans des fonds AGI mais aussi dans des produits d’autres sociétés de gestion.

Samedi, l’agence d’information des Emirats arabes unis a annoncé que le planeur d’Ahmed bin Saïed al Nahjan, CEO de l’Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) s'était abimé la veille dans un lac de retenue près de Skhirat au Maroc, rapporte le Handelsblatt.Le pilote a pu être sauvé, mais les secours n’ont pas retrouvé le patron du plus gros fonds souverain mondial (entre 400 milliards et 800 milliards de dollars). Le disparu était aussi le frère du président des Emirats.

Dimanche, les sauveteurs continuaient à rechercher Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, le managing director du fonds souverain Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia), qui manquait toujours à l’appel deux jours après un accident de planeur au Maroc. L’appareil s’est écrasé près de Rabat vendredi.

M&G Investments is launching the Global Dynamic Allocation Fund, which is not yet available in France, but which aims to generate positive returns in all market phases over a three-year period, through flexible management of a multi-asset class allocation (equities, government bonds, corporate bonds, convertibles, commodities, alternative assets, derivatives, currencies, cash, etc.) The product will be managed by George Tsinonis (head of the portfolio and risk strategy team at M&G since 2005), and has no benchmark index. It will be managed with strong conviction, and asset allocation will be based on macroeconomic outlooks as seen by the asset manager, through valuation of various asset classes, and active risk management in portfolio construction. The idea is to profit from several potential sources of performance. In periods of higher uncertainty on the markets, priority will be given to capital preservation. For the moment, the product is the only one in the M&G range to fall into the “multi assets funds” category. It comes as an addition to a rage of more traditional equities funds (18 products) and bond funds (3 products).

On Saturday, the news agency of the United Arab Emirates announced that Ahmed bin Saïed al Nahjan, CEO of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), was in a glider that crashed into a reservoir near Skhirat in Morocco, Handelsblatt reports. The pilot of the craft was rescued, but rescue workers were not able to locate the head of the largest sovereign fund in the world (between USD400bn and USD800bn in assets). Al Nahjan is also the brother of the president of the United Arab Emirates.

The British financial market regulatory agency FSA (Financial Services Authority) on 26 March published new rules which require financial advisers or providers of retail investment products to state in advance the amount to be charged in fees for services rendered, and not to conceal the cost of advising in the price of the product. The rules, which will apply from 2012, are based on the findings of a study of British retail investment (Retail Distribution Review, or RDR). The new rules aim to end bias in financial advising due to commissions paid to financial advisers, as a product which paid a higher commission was inevitably promoted more and more often sold by the adviser who earns the commission. The new rules do not allow commissions to be paid to financial advisers by providers of products. A statement from the FSA says that it is crucially necessary to restore the confidence of retail clients in the financial product market, which will gain increased professionalism and improved transparency of costs. At the same time as it published the new rules, the FSA has launched a consultation, which will remain open until 26 May, on distribution platforms for financial products. The British management association IMA immediately responded to the FSA’s initiatives, calling them useful, but also incomplete. “In particular, we would like to better understand how the FSA envisions the practical functioning of the asset management sector and how the adviser would be paid,” says Julie Patterson, Director of Authorised Funds & Tax at the professional association. The IMA also claims that in the wake of decisions to regulate platforms more strictly, the FSA would be well advised to revise the rules published on 26 March. The association also says that the category of investment products should also include all structured products, but that the definition at present is too restrictive. In other words, the FSA may have written an important chapter, but there are still some revisions to be made.

The Vietnamese management firm PXP Vietnam Asset Management will soon list its flagship product, the PXP Vietnam Fund (with assets of USD62m) on the London Stock Exchange. Depending on the authorisation received from various authorities, the fund may be listed by the end of March, Asian Investor reports. PXP will also convert its closed fund Vietnam Emerging Equity Fund into an open-ended fund, which may then be merged with another fund, the Vietnam Lotus Fund. The new fund would have about USD37m in assets.

Ghadir Abu Leil-Cooper, head of EMEA and manager of the Baring MENA fund, launched this Monday, says the Irish OEIC fund focused on the Middle East and North Africa (see Newsmanagers of 4 and 17 March) will have a concentrated portfolio of 20 to 50 positions, and that it is naturally a higher-risk product, as it will invest in equities from “frontier” markets, where there are both market, conjuncture, and political risks. Despite the considerable preference of the emerging markets team for Turkey, where Barings is largely overweight in the banking sector and estimates that with low interest rates the popularion may even be liable to take out mortgages, exposure to Turkey for the MENA fund is limited to 25%, “to avoid making another Turkey fund,” says the manager. There will also never be any Israeli shares in the portfolio, since Israel will be leaving emerging markets indices in one month’s time. In general, Abu Leil-Cooper says that some advantages of the countries of the MENA region are that they are rich in natural resources and have a young, growing population (which is expected to grow by the equivalent of twice the population of Egypt in the next 20 years), and that they are under-leveraged.

Aberdeen Asset Management is planning to launch two new bond funds next month, one of which will invest in Asia (Asian Bond Fund), and the other in pan-european high yield bonds (Aberdeen High Yield Bond Fund), according to Funds Strategy. A few days ago, Aberdeen announced the launch of an onshore bond fund covering emerging markets. The two funds will be structured as British OEIC products.

In a Form N-14 notification to the SEC dated 12 March, John Hancock Investment management Services (JHIMS, Manulife group) has announced that it will be taking over the management of the mutual fund Robeco Boston Partners Mid Cap Value Fund, with “substantially similar” investment objectives, but will now be known as the John Hancock Disciplined Value Mid Cap Fund, within the John Hancock Funds III product range. In the “adoption” of the fund, JHIMS will advise the fund, while Robeco will be the sub-adviser, responsible for the day-to-day management of the fund, which will follow the same strategy as previously applied. According to the notification, Robeco felt that the considerable capacities of John Hancock in distribution would provide a better opportunity to market its midcap value management capacities than continuing to market the fund itself might. The product becomes the 11th fund to be “adopted” by John Hancock, which previously took over the Robeco Boston Partners Large Cap Value Fund in January 2009, which was renamed as John Hancock disciplined Value Fund.

In the most recent edition of its Fonds-Check, Feri EuroRating Services found only eight products of the 21 Latin American equities funds in its database worthy of its top A or B ratings. And between these four funds, there are significant differences in quality. The Amundi Funds Latin America Equities has been rated A for over one year: it receives a top rating due to its performance, and places in the middle of the pack for risk. For its part, the ISI Latin America Equities fund from Sydinvest gets a very good rating on five out of six performance criteria, and a good rating for risk. The top-rated funds also include the Gartmore SICAV Latin American Fund, which is rated B, but whose five-year performance is merely equal to that of the MSCI EM Latin America fund. The BGF Latin American fund from BlackRock, which is the largest in its class, with assets of EUR6bn, also scores poorly for ris, but still obtains a B rating.

At a time when many asset management firms are launching UCITS III-compliant funds of hedge funds, BanSabadell Inversión is beginning active promotion of the Sabadell BS Hedge Top fund to high net worth private and institutional investors. The fund began to invest in traditional hedge funds in September of last year, says Sergio Miguez, director of absolute return management. Funds People reports that the fund earned 2.17% in the last four months of 2009, and that it remains in positive territory since the beginning of this year. The product offers quarterly liquidity, and is 605 invested in hedge funds with monthly or more frequent liquidity. Unlike other Spanish asset managers, BanSabadell Inversión has an internal product management team.

Allianz Global Investors (AGI) on Friday announced the complete integration of the management firm cominvest, which it acquired from Commerzbank when Dresdner Bank was sold by Allianz, in second quarter of last year. The final step in the integration will be the absorption of cominvest Asset Management GmbH into Allianz Global Investors KAG. Once this transaction has been placed on the commercial register, the merger will be effective retroactively from 1 January 2010. As a result, Sebastian Klein, CEO of cominvest, will be resigning from his position and leaving the AGI group.

A study recently published by Cornerstone Research (Securities Class Action Settlements: 2009 Review and Analysis) finds that the amounts recuperated by plaintiffs in class-action lawsuits rose by more than 39% compared with 2008, to USD3.83bn, while the number of cases settled increased by only 6.2% year on year, to 103. The average size of class action settlements, correspondingly, increased to USD37m in 2009 from USD28m one year earlier.

Jean-Paul Malpuech, former CEO of Banque d’Orsay, is joining Acropole Asset Management as adviser to the president. He will be responsible for promoting the asset management firm, specialised in convertible bonds, to institutional investors. He will be an addition to the development team at Acropole AM, led by Nathalie Sabathier. Malpuech, 58, rejoins Joakimides, founder and president of Acropole AM, with whom he worked at Banque d’Orsay.

TCP Global Investment Management on Thursday announced that it has created a bond unit, and that it is recruiting Jerry Thunelius and four members of his bond team from Oppenheimer Capital (Allianz Global Investors group) to manage core and core plus funds and other bond strategies. Thunelius has been appointed as managing partner and head of fixed income, effective from 24 March.

BofA Merrill Lynch on 25 March announced the appointment of Karen Fang as managing director and head of Cross Asset Strategies & Solutions for Global Markets. She will be based in New York and will report directly to Bryan Weadcock, co-head of Global Fixed Income, Currencies & Commodities Sales. Fang, who was previously managing director at Goldman Sachs, will take up her new position in June of this year. She will also be in charge of pension funds and Asian sovereign funds.

As part of a sale & lease-back operation, Banco Sabadell has earned a windfall profit of EUR265m on its sale of 378 branches for EUR403m to the Moorpark Capital Partners fund, Cinco Días reports. The sale brings the tier 1 ratio at Sabadell to nearly 8%, up from 7.6%

UBS has appointed Lukas Gähwiler as CEO of UBS Switzerland and co-CEO of Wealth Management & Swiss Bank. In these roles, he will also become a member of the group executive board. Gähwiler will take up his new position on 1 April 2010. He succeeds Franco Morra, who will support him during the transition period. Until February 2010, Lukas Gähwiler was under contract with Credit Suisse, where he began his career in 1990 and held various leadership positions with responsibility for client businesses as well as control functions. Most recently, he served as the Chief Credit Officer of Credit Suisse Private Banking, responsible for the division’s credit business worldwide.

According to Financial News, Frédéric Jolly, the former European chief executive of Russell Investments, has teamed up with Philippe Collas, a former head of SG Asset Management, to set up London-based Lexam Partners. Lexam plans to create a private equity vehicle that will invest in asset managers and other players in the funds industry.

The Open Global Distribution fund (GBP342.3m in assets) and the Global Return fund (GBP132.81m) from HSBC will now be managed by Jon Rebak, who replaces Nicholas Pothier, who has decided to leave the firm and return to his native country, South Africa, to practice sustainable agriculture. Pothier will, however, continue in an advisory capacity to ensure a smooth transition as his successor takes over the management of the two funds from 1 May. Rebak joined HSBC in 1992, and managed funds of funds for over ten years. He has also managed the growth fund of funds from HSBC (GBP161m in assets) since February 2003.

Liverpool’s GBP12bn wealth management industry is the UK’s biggest outside London, a report by ComPeer has found.

Claire Chaves d’Oliveira, gérante actions européennes chez Groupama AM

Michael Mewes, gérant crédit chez JPMorgan AM

Vincent Guenzi, directeur et responsable de la stratégie d’investissement chez Cholet-Dupont

Hélène Baudchon, économiste chez Crédit Agricole SA

Patrick Moonen, stratégiste senior d'ING IM