Crédit Agricole S.A. et Société Générale ont signé hier un accord définitif en vue du rapprochement de leurs activités de gestion d’actifs. Cette opération porte le nouvel ensemble - dont les actifs sous gestion se montent à 591 milliards d’euros, au 4ème rang européen et au 8ème rang mondial.L’entité sera finalement détenue à 75% par Crédit Agricole S.A. et à 25% par Société Générale, prenant en compte, notamment, le niveau des fonds propres apportés par les deux entités ainsi que leurs derniers paramètres d’exploitation. La nouvelle entité [CAAM-SGAM] comprend toujours 100% des activités du groupe CAAM auxquelles la Société Générale apporte ses activités de gestion fondamentales, 20% de TCW et sa joint-venture en Inde. En revanche, compte-tenu de contraintes règlementaires locales et d’accords avec les partenaires, les joint-ventures de SGAM en Chine et en Corée ne seront pas apportées. Comme prévu initialement, Société Générale disposera au sein du conseil d’administration du nouvel ensemble d’un tiers des mandats d’administrateurs et d’une gouvernance donnant l’équivalent d’un tiers des droits de vote. Yves Perrier, actuel PDG de CAAM, assurera la direction générale du nouveau groupe. La clôture de la transaction devrait intervenir au cours du 4ème trimestre de cette année, l’opération restant soumise à l’approbation des différentes autorités réglementaires compétentes.Dans son communiqué, Crédit Agricole annonce que les prochains mois seront mis à profit pour définir l’organisation du nouvel ensemble afin de lui permettre d’être pleinement opérationnel en 2010. Enfin, il est précisé que ce dernier pourra s’ouvrir à de nouveaux partenaires.
Compte tenu de l’aversion au risque marquée des investisseurs institutionnels et de fait, de leur intérêt sur les premiers mois de l’année 2009 pour les classes d’actifs peu risquées, la collecte sur le fonds monétaire régulier de droit français Euro Cash (part I), a permis à l’encours du fonds de passer de 1,1 milliard d’euros d’actifs fin 2008 à 2,3 milliards d’euros d’actifs au 30 juin 2009.En outre, malgré des marchés globalement difficiles, les encours gérés en actions pour le compte des clients français ont progressé de plus de 60 % pour s’établir à plus de 2,1 milliards au 30 juin 2009.
Selon la dernière étude de McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), le bureau de recherche économique de la société de conseil rapporte que les placements à l’étranger des fonds souverains ont bien résisté à la crise. «Les portefeuilles des producteurs de pétrole, pays du Golfe, Norvège et Russie notamment, se montent à 5.000 milliards de dollars à fin 2008 (–2% sur un an), ceux des pays d’Asie, y compris les réserves de leurs banques centrales, à 4.800 milliards (+8%)», indique Le Temps.
Selon les estimations provisoires de Barclay Hedge, les 877 hedge funds ayant déclaré au 9 juillet leurs résultats ont affiché en moyenne une performance de 0,59 % pour juin contre 5,53 % en mai pour les 2.620 fonds déclarants. Sur le premier semestre, la performance cumulée atteint 11,14 %. Le gain le plus important pour juin a été obtenu avec 3,40 % par les 10 fonds d’arbitrage de convertibles, tandis que la perte la plus nette est affichée par les 5 fonds equity short bias (- 1,73 %).Depuis le début de l’année, l’equity short bias accuse un forte perte de 6,26 %, alors que les marchés émergents et l’arbitrage de convertibles signent des performances respectives de 22,13 % et de 24,93 %.
A la tête de Fidelity Europe, l'un des fonds porte-drapeau de la gamme de Fidelity, Victoire de Trogoff revient sur les changements intervenus sur le fonds depuis son entrée en fonction il y a deux ans, et sur ses convictions actuelles...
Le nouveau business model proposé par le président du directoire Franz Waas sous la pression des actionnaires indisposés par les pertes du premier semestre 2008 a été présenté en mars, mais il n’a pas encore été validé par le conseil d’administration de Deka bien qu’il ait figuré à l’ordre du jour des réunions de mars, de juin et de juillet, constate la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.Pour simplifier, il s’agit de couper tout ce qui ne sert pas directement à la gestion d’actifs, donc notamment le crédit aux pouvoirs publics et les produits structurés. La situation s’est compliquée parce que la ligne de partage des eaux n’est plus aussi claire : désormais en effet, certains administrateurs représentant les caisses d'épargne (la moité du capital) ne soutiennent plus le directoire, qui était déjà contesté par le camp des Landesbanken (l’autre moitié).
L’allemand versiko AG, cabinet de conseil spécialiste du développement durable, a indiqué jeudi en tant que co-promoteur du compartiment New Energy Fund de la Sicav luxembourgeoise Sarasin Multi Label que ce produit actions a affiché pour le deuxième trimestre une performance de 20,9 %. Il s’agit d’un fonds focalisé sur les titres de sociétés dans le domaine des énergies renouvelables, de la géothermie, de l’efficacité énergétique et de la technologie des piles à combustible. A fin mai, l’encours de ce produit lancé le 1er décembre 2000 se situait à 176,27 millions d’euros. Il est distribué en Allemagne, en Autriche, au Luxembourg et en Suisse.
Durant les cinq jours qui ont suivi la reprise des remboursements par le fonds immobiliers «CS», les sorties brutes «sont demeurées dans le cadre des attentes» du gestionnaire «tandis que les souscriptions ont nettement augmenté grâce à l’activité déployée par les partenaires de distribution», indique un communiqué de Credit Suisse Allemagne.Néanmoins, en cinq jours, les sorties nettes se sont situées à environ 430 millions d’euros, soit 6,2 % de l’encours de 6,9 milliards d’euros constaté au 30 juin. Sur les deux premiers jours après la réouverture, les remboursements nets ont porté sur 365 millions d’euros.
Udo Rosendahl, appointed director of funds of funds in early June at DWS, has told Citywire that the firm plans to make its range available to external funds. Das Investment reports that the senior manager Johanna Piechiski is planning to add the JOHCM Continental European Fund, the First Private Aktien Global and the Fortis L Equity World Fund to her portfolios for equities, and the Investment Grade Bond Fund (Bluebay) and LBBW Rentamax for bonds.
Bertelsmann et Kohlberg Kravig Roberts (KKR) sont convenus mercredi de créer une filiale commune sous le nom de BMG, initialement capitalisée à 50 millions d’euros. Cette dernière, dont KKR détiendra 51 %, reprend les activités de droits musicaux de BMG Rights Management (300 contrats), KKR apportant les financements au travers de son fonds européen de private equity.BMG restera dirigée par Hartwig Masuch, directeur général de BMG Rights Management et CEO de la nouvelle société, dont le chairman sera Thomas Rabe, directeur financier de Bertelsmann. KKR s’engage à mettre à disposition de BMG un montant de 200 millions d’euros sur les prochaines années, ce qui permettra d’effectuer des acquisitions.
On Wednesday, the Spanish socially responsible investment forum was officially convened for the first time, under the name SpainSIF, with 32 members. The forum was created by the Forética association, BBVA, Crédit Agricole, BBK, CASER, FTSE, the AERI entities, and the Esade business school. The chairman of the forum is Antoni Ballabriga, of BBVA, who is director of the bank’s social responsibility and reputation divison. The firm also includes unions and NGOs among its members (in addition to Forética, Economistas sin Frontieras also belong to the forum) and managers such as Santander AM, le Banco Popular, Fondital, Pictet and Ibercaja Gestión. SpainSIF will be affiliated to the European EuroSIF network. SpainSIF is composed of three colleges: financial entities (managers of funds of funds and pension funds), investment services enterprises (analysts and ratings agencies), and third-party entities (NGOs, business schools, and associations). The three main missions of the new forum are: institutional relations and liaison with public administrators and regulators to promote the development of SRI in Spain, dissemination of knowledge of investment products among institutional and retail investors, and the creation of services for members as a best practice forum.
The Church of England Pensions Board (GBP687m) has awarded a global equities mandate for GBP100m to RCM, Professional Pensions reports. The management firm will set up a filtering process for assets to ensure that they comply with the ethical standards of the church pension fund, under the direction of CIO Lucy McDonald.
The German management firm IVG Investments, an affiliate of IVG Immobilien, announced on Wednesday that it has sold an office building in the banking district of London, at 131 Finsbury Pavement, to the Orion Income Return Partners Fund, from the Luxembourg management firm Orion Capital Partners, for GBP45.5m. The transaction will pass via a Guernsey Property Unit Trust, which will allow the sale to be exempt of British stamp duty. The 7,307 square metre property is wholly leased.
The British Barclays group is planning to increase its personnel in Asia for its investment banking and private banking activities by about 5%, according to Investment Week. In 2008, Barclays already increased staff at Barclays Capital and the wealth management unit by about 5%. Barclays Wealth, which last year launched an onshore private bank in India, says it is aiming for assets under management of over USD1bn by the end of the year.
The XTF segment of the electronic trading platform Xetra (Deutsche Börse) now lists 460 products, with the addition of the Luxembourg-registered db x-trackers II Euro Inflation Swap 5 year TRI ETF de db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank). The bond product, which carries a management commission of 0.20%, replicates the Deutsche Bank Euro Inflation Swap 5 year TRI index, which in turn reflects the evolution of the Eonia and Euro zone inflation as measured by a harmonized consumer price index.
Commerz Real (EUR43bn in assets) has bought the Die Mitte building (20,000 square metres), containing retail space located Berlin’s Alexanderplatz, for its open-ended real estate fund hausInvest europa (EUR9bn in assets under management). The property, completed in March 2009, is wholly leased to Saturn, New Yorker, EDC Esprit, Esprit, dm, Promod, Steilmann, O2, E-Plus and L-Tur.
At the end of June, total assets in ETFs worldwide (1,707 products listed 3,066 times on 42 stock markets) totalled USD789.04bn, compared with USD775.2bn one month earlier. Since the beginning of the year, the growth of these funds totals 11%, while the MSCI World index in US dollars has gained 4.8%, Barclays Global Investors (BGI) reports. In first half, the number of products increased by 7.3%, with 180 launches and 68 closures. Currently, issuers are planning to launch 777 new ETFs. The three largest actors in the market, logically, remain the same as in previous months. iShares, the brand from BGI, comes first, with 386 ETFs and assets of USD320.23bn, corresponding to a market share of 48.2%. State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) is in second place, with 104 products and USD119.68bn in assets under management, for a 15.2% market share, while Vanguard is in third place, with 40 funds and USD59.52bn in assets (a 7.5% market share).
According to Les Echos, the British finance minister, Alistair Darling, would like to increase the powers of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), but without fundamental changes to the system. Macro-prudential monitoring will be provided by the Treasury, the Bank of England and the FSA. This macro-prudential monitoring will be overseen by a new financial stability committee, which will include the Treasury, the Bank fo England, and the FSA. The proposed legislation - part of which is still subject to consultation - will go to a vote when Parliament reconvenes in October. Many ponts have yet to be specified. On the controversial subject of bonuses, Darling promises that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) will have the objective of “reducing incitements to excessive risk-taking,” but says that details will follow a report to be submitted by David Walker next week.
In an interview with Les Echos, Peter Clarke, CEO of Man group, says he supports “efforts to supervise and register fund managers. We are also in favour of a European passport for management firms. The directive, however, lacks clarity in some areas such as leverage, derivative products, and rules for funds of funds … it is essential to measure the implications of the bill for the hedge fund industry in Europe. We feel regulations should not block access to funds when they are appropriately structured. The work consists in determining what is appropriate. But for the moment, some measures in the directive are merely a barrier which makes access to alternative management funds more difficult.” Man Group is also planning to scale up its presence on the US market. “We want to be more active there. Before, the difficulty was that institutional investors in the United States had already selected their partners. But now, the circumstances have changed: it’s a good time for us to make inroads into that market, as investors revise their portfolios and allocation strategies,” Peter Clarke explains to the newspaper.
The number of European ETF funds increased by 12.8%, or 101 funds, in the first half of 2009, to 719 products, listed 1,858 times on 20 stock markets. In June, the total number of products was 20 higher than at the end of May. Meanwhile, total assets have increased by 16.3% in the first six months of the year, to a total of USD165.83bn, while the MSCI Europe index in US dollars gained only 4.1%, but the total at the end of June is lower than the USD168.3bn at the end of May, according to statistics from Barclays Global Investors (BGI). The two largest promoters of ETFs in June saw a decline in their assets under management. For iShares (BGI), assets fell to USD64.4bn from USD65.87bn at the end of May, for a market share of 38.8%, compared with 39.1% one month earlier, while for Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale), assets totalled USD35.01bn, compared with USD36.25bn one month previously (a 21.1% market share, compared with 21.5%). However, it appears that the number of iShares ETF funds has remained stable at 158, while the number of Lyxor products has declined by 12, to 102 products. Meanwhile, as of 30 June, db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) had assets of USD28.48bn, compared with USD28.14bn as of the end of May, in an unchanged total of 102 products. The firm’s market share has increased to 17.2%, from 16.7% at the end of May.
In the first half of 2009, the average volume of merger and acquisition operations in the asset management sector fell below USD1bn for the first time since the 1990s. However, thanks to the acquisition of BGI (USD1.5trn in assets) by BlackRock for USD13.5bn, the total volume of transactions came to USD14.1bn, and assets which changed hands totalled USD2.3trn, compared with USD7.7bn and USD588bn, respectively, in the corresponding period of 2008, according to Jeffries Putnam Lovell. The number of transactions fell to 72, compared with 109 in the first half of last year. The investment bank from Jeffries & Company estimates that the mergers and acquisitions market in second half will continue to be marked primarily by a large number of asset sales (47% of transactions in first half compared with 26% in January-June 2008). However, other contributing factors in January-June, such as acquisitions by pure-play asset managers seeking to gain size, fill gaps in their product range or recruit new talent, or acquisitions by private equity investors attracted by the potential for growth and loose prudential requirements in asset management, will continue to play a part.
The fund of fund management firm from Union Bancaire Privée (UBP), UBP Asset Management (UBPAM), has announced the appointment of Sara Sprung as its Chief Investment Officer (CIO) for alternative management. Sprung is an experienced manager who most recently presided at Fortress Investment Group as Chief Risk Officer (CRO) for liquid market activities at Fortress. At UBPAM, Sprung is appointed to a newly-created position. “This appointment is one of several measures which we are currently taking with an aim to strengthen our alternative management activities,” said Matthew Stadtmauer, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at UBPAM, in a statement. UBPAM has also announced the appointment of Jonathan Morgan as Head of Research for altnernative management. With 16 years of experience in the alternative investment sector, Morgan previously served in the position of CEO and director of the hedge fund management department at Barclays Global Investors (BGI). Morgan says that “the markets now present many opportunities to profit from alternative strategies, whose effectiveness is amply demonstrated, and I think this is the ideal moment to join the team.”
According to the latest figures from the French association of private equity investors (Association Française des Investisseurs en Capital, or AFIC), Ernst & Young and Thomson Reuters, as of the end of 2008, the net performance of French private equity actors between 1998 and 2008 totalled nearly 12%. Capital Transmission / LBO funds earned returns of 17.9%, compared with 10.8% for Capital Development funds, 1.3% for Venture Capital / Early Stage funds, and 9.1% for generalist funds.
The only fund of hedge funds from Banco Popular, Eurovalor Multigestión, will be liquidated, the bank has indicated in a notification to the CNMV. Assets in the product, which aimed for overall annual performance of 5% to 10%, totalled EUR34m at the end of May.
According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, OTC AM is preparing to acquire the banking platform Cholet Dupont Partenaires, dedicated to independent financial advisors (IFAs). The forthcoming sale of Tocqueville Finance and the expected sale of the 15% stake which it holds in OTC AM highlight the ambitions of this ‘small’ boutique. After becoming a major actor in private equity via the management of innovation and proximity FCP funds, and then donning the guise of a management firm via an acquisition of a 40% participation in Sunny AM, founded this year, OTC AM is now opening to the world of IFAs. Cholet Dupont Partners, the affiliate of the Cholet Dupont group in which Crédit Agricole owns a 33.4% stake, offers a good opportunity for this. Generali, which already has a strong presence in the IFA market, was also recently invested in the firm.
The strategic alliance concluded about a year ago between Rockefeller Financial Services and SG Private Banking remains a top priority in the French bank’s development policy in private banking in the United States. SG Private Banking has no plans to enter into other agreements of this type on American soil, said Daniel Truchi, director of SG Private Banking, at a meeting with the press. Many initiatives have been undertaken, but the financial turbulence has not this far allowed them to be realised in more tangible form. “We have been working on a US equity fund. The product is ready and we are hoping to launch it in the next weeks or months,” though the right moment to do so is difficult to determine in the current environment, Truchi explains. The two partners have also advanced on the family office front. “We have been working on the launch of a family office platform. We will soon sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) setting out the conditions of our collaboration,” Truchi says; he hopes that the launch of the platform will follow the signing of the memorandum. In Canada, where the bank in late 2007 acquired a small management firm in Calgary entitled Canadian Wealth Management, SG Private Banking is currently studying the possibility of extending licenses which could favour the development of activities in the country.
On Wednesday, Credit Suisse announced the appointment of Filo Sedillo as head of asset management for Australia. In addition to this position, Sedillo will also serve as head of distribution for asset management products for Australia and New Zealand. Sedillo joined the Credit Suisse Group in 2007, after leaving Citigroup, where he was head of alternative investments for Australia and New Zealand. The sale of traditional equities and bond asset management activities for Australia to Aberdeen Asset Management was concluded on 30 April 2009. The Swiss group is continuing its alternative and multi-asset class management activities in Australia. As of the end of March, Credit Suisse Asset Management had total assets of CHF405.7bn, of which CHF143.1bn were in alternative investments.
Le capital-investisseur espagnol ProA Capital (254 millions d’euros d’encours) a bouclé sa première opération en acquérant le groupe familial Palacios d’aliments réfrigérés. L’opération, réalisée avec effet de levier, a été financée par BNP Paribas, le Santander, le BBVA, La Caixa, Caja Madrid et IKB, rapporte Expansión. Comme co-investisseurs, ProA (créé par d’anciens dirigeants de N+1) a également recruté l'équipe dirigeante de Palacios, le fonds basque Talde ainsi que le gestionnaire suisse Partners Group. L’objectif de ProA est de transformer Palacios en une plate-forme pour le développement de produits réfrigérés et préparés à la marque du distributeur pour l’Espagne et le Portugal.
Mercredi s’est constitué officiellement le forum espagnol de l’investissement socialement responsable, sous le nom de SpainSIF, avec trente-deux membres. Il a été créé par l’association Forética, le BBVA, le Crédit Agricole, BBK, CASER, FTSE, les entités AERI et l'école de commerce Esade.La présidence est assurée par le BBVA, et plus précis&ément par Antoni Ballabriga, qui dirige la division responsabilité sociale et réputation de la banque. Parmi les membres figurent également des syndicats et des ONG (en plus de Forética, il y a notamment Economistas sin Frontieras) ainsi que des gestionnaires comme Santander AM, le Banco Popular, Fondital, Pictet ou Ibercaja Gestión. Le SpainSIF sera affilié au réseau européen EuroSIF.Le SpainSIF est articulé en trois collèges : les entités financières (gestionnaires de fonds de de fonds de pension), les entreprises de services d’investissement (analystes et agences de notations) et entités tertiaires (ONG, écoles de commerce et associations).Les trois missions principales du nouveau forum seront : les relations institutionnels et la liaison avec les administrations publiques et les régulateurs pour promouvoir le développement de l’ISR en Espagne, la dissémination de la connaissance sur les produits d’investissement auprès des investisseurs institutionnels et des particuliers et la création de services pour les membres en tant que forum des meilleures pratiques.
Lancé en juin 2008, l’unique fonds de hedge funds du Banco Popular, l’Eurovalor Multigestión va être liquidé, comme l’a indiqué la banque dans une notification à la CNMV. L’encours de ce produit, qui visait une performance annuelle comprise entre 5 et 10 %, se situait fin mai à 34 millions d’euros.