Although managers are increasingly optimistic about the macroeconomic environment, they are still not moving their assets from cash to equities, according to the most recent survey from Merrill Lynch-Bank of America. Pessimism about this asset class has increased in the past month, as 41% of respondents say they are expecting to be underweight in equities, compared with 34% in February. Managers are preferring bonds, in which 26% of respondents are overweight. In February, only 7% of respondents favoured bond investments.

Redemptions from funds on sale in Italy seem to be slowing, in a sign that the market is beginning to stabilise, Marcello Messori, chairman of Assogestioni (the Italian association of management professionals), has said at the association’s annual meeting. Redemptions primarily affected mid-sized and large firms, particularly those owned by banking groups, Il Sole - 24 Ore reports.

David Bloom at HSBC, cited by the Financial Times, says that ?the best refuge currency in our opinion is currently the Norwegian Kroner. It is probably the best currency in the world.? The Norwegian Kroner is one of the few currencies in the world to have outperformed the US dollar since the beginning of the year. It has climbed 3% to NOK6.694. Bloom says the currency can be expected to rise in the next 18 months.

Rolf Enders, partner at the new firm Sal. Oppenheim Private Equity Partners (Sopep), says that the private equity firm born of the merger of the private equity activities of Sal. Oppenheim with CAM Private Equity and VCM Capital Management has assets of EUR5bn. About 95% of this total is invested in 380 funds from private equity firms worldwide, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Enders expects assets under management to double through organic growth. This year, Sopep will launch an infrastructure fund and a buyout fund of funds.

The Wall Street Journal reports that it is likely that the yields of money market funds will decline as the recommendations of the Investment Company Institute (ICI) are applied. The ad hoc working group formed in the wake of the Reserve Primary Fund affair recommends increasing liquidity and shortening maturities. Paul Schott Stevens, president & CEO of the ICI, says fund management firms will probably follow the recommendations in advance of any rule-making from the SEC.

DEGI, which was taken over by Aberdeen Property Investors on 28 March 2008, has stated that last year it invested EUR1.7bn. The occupancy rate for properties in the portfolios of its five open-ended funds as of 28 February 2009 ranged from 93.3% for the DEGI Europa fund and 100% for the DEGI Europe Retail, while the one-year performance ranged from 4.4% (compared with 4.7% one year ago) for the DEGI Europa to 5% (compared with 4.5%) for the DEGI Europe Retail.Assets total roughly EUR6bn. The manager says the evolution of prices and returns have now extended the number of markets on which investments may be attractive. Among the markets which have now become affordable are the UK, France, and Germany.

Investment Week has announced that Henderson Global Investors (HGI) is recruiting Mark Skinner, managing director of New Star, as head of retail distribution. He will begin in his new role as soon as HGI completes its acquisition of New Star.

Skandia, which has been present in Spain for years, has previously focused on institutional clients in the country. Funds People reports that José Ramón Morso, CEO of Skandia Spain, has announced that the firm will now move into the ?personal banking? client advising market, serving clients with assets of EUR60,000 to EUR3m. Skandia is planning to recruit 30 advisors this year, and 100 in the next three years. The group has also opened two dedicated offices, one in Madrid, and the other in Valencia. Currently, Skandia only uses employee advisors, but it is planning to recruit independent advisers, who will operate under the new EAFI status now being created by the CNMV.

Fondsprofessionell reports that Warburg Invest KAG has announced that it has suspended subscriptions and redemptions on March 11th until further notice for its entitlement warrant note fund Warburg-Multigenuss-Fonds, in order to keep up with redemption demands and avoid having to sell assets at prices that would be disadvantageus to shareholders.

On Wednesday, BlackRock announced the release in France, Germany and Austria of the European Absolute Return Strategies sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav BlackRock Strategic Funds. The product complies with UCITS IIII, and is managed by Vincent Delvin, a senior portfolio manager based in Edinburgh. The objective is to generate performance regardless of the market configuration, by investing in equities and other shares related to equities (including derivative instruments) in companies which are domiciled or which realise a large part of their economic activities in Europe.The manager is authorised to use derivatives to hedge risks and to reduce the volatility of the portfolio, with a risk budget lower than that of long-only funds. The portfolio includes 50 to 100 shares, and used four strategies: traditional (long), synthetic-short, pair trading, and liquidity.BlackRock has been testing the fund internally since 12 June 2008. During this period, the ?fictitious? portfolio generated ?solid absolute returns? despite extremely difficult market conditions, says BlackRock.

GAM has announced that Jonathan Colchester, who was in charge of a team of six bankers serving ultra high net worth clients at Barclays Private Bank, will join the management firm in London on 22 May as head of private clients, Investment Week reports.

John Clougherty, managing director UK, retail, at Aviva Investors (GBP235bn in assets) will meet French colleagues this week to prepare the launch of a European equities fund on the British market, Investment Week reports. It is not certain that the fund will replicate a Luxembourg Sicav. Clougherty says that institutional investors represent a potential market for recovery real estate funds, and that such a product could then be made available to retail investors, once the press has given a better image to real estate investments.

Hedge Fund Research has announced the launch of 38 new HFRX indexes, which constitute a major extension of its range of strategy, region and country sub-indexes. The new offerings bring the total number of products available from HFRX to 65. HFR says the methodology complies with the UCITS III directive. The indexes are designed to be investible, and the funds used are selected from 7,500 products in the HFR database.The new indexes are the HFRX Energy/Basic Materials Index, HFRX Fundamental Growth Index, HFRX Fundamental Value Index, HFRX Quantitative Directional Index, HFRX Short Bias Index, HFRX Technology/Healthcare Index, HFRX EH: Multi-Strategy Index, HFRX Activist Index, HFRX Credit Arbitrage Index, HFRX Private Issue/Regulation D Index, HFRX Special Situations Index, HFRX ED: Multi-Strategy Index, HFRX Active Trading Index, HFRX Commodity Index, HFRX Currency Index, HFRX Discretionary Thematic Index, HFRX Systematic Diversified Index, HFRX Macro: Multi-Strategy Index, HFRX Fixed Income-Asset Backed Index, HFRX Fixed Income-Corporate Index, HFRX Fixed Income-Sovereign Index, HFRX Yield Alternative Index, HFRX RVA: Multi-Strategy Index, HFRX BRIC Index, HFRX Brazil Index, HFRX Russia Index, HFRX India Index, HFRX China Index, HFRX MENA Index, HFRX Multi-Emerging Markets Index, HFRX Total Emerging Market Index, HFRX Latin America Index, HFRX Multi-Region Index, HFRX North America Index, HFRX Northern Europe Index, HFRX Russia/Eastern Europe Index, HFRX Western/Pan Europe Index and HFRX Aggregate Index.

Ravi Mehra, the founder of Vega Asset Management, and Jesús Saá Requejo, are working together to launch the Sapphire Global Fund, a fund that complies with European legislation, which will be closed for three years, and which will invest primarily in global macro funds whose promoters are currently distressed due to lack of liquidity, Hedge Week reports. The fund will use no leverage.

Petercam Institutional Asset Management is launching a European corporate bond fund with a set maturity date, Petercam L Bonds EUR Corporate 06/2014. The sub-fund of the firm’s UCITS III-compliant Luxembourg Sicav will invest in investment grade corporate bonds denominated in Euros, which will mature at dates close to June 2014.The subscription period for the fund will begin on 23 March.

For 2008, Frankfurt Trust posted net subscriptions of EUR1.5bn, of which EUR1.2bn went to open-ended funds. The management firm from BHF-Bank (Sal. Oppenheim group) had assets at the end of the year of EUR16bn, of which EUR9.6bn were in institutional fund management mandates, and EUR6.3bn in open-ended funds, compared with EUR17.7bn, of which EUR10.4bn were in Spezialfonds and institutional mandates, and EUR7.3bn in open-ended funds, the previous year. In net subscriptions to open-ended funds in 2008, Frankfurt Trust posted EUR0.5bn in inflows to money market funds and EUR802.3m for equities funds, while bond funds posted net redemptions of EUR133m. Net inflows to institutional funds totalled EUR381.8m.In January-February, net subscriptions totalled EUR250m for open-ended funds, of which EUR200m were for the FT Accugeld money market fund.As of 28 February, total assets at Frankfurt Trust came to EUR15.6bn, of which EUR9.5bn were in institutional funds and EUR6.1bn in retail funds.

In 2009, Groupama Asset Management is aiming for EUR5bn in net subscriptions, of which it is hoping that EUR3.7bn will come from outside the group. The firm appears to have made a good start to meeting this objective, as it has already registered inflows of EUR2.9bn since the beginning of the year.These inflows come after net inflows of EUR5.3bn in 2008, ?the strongest inflows in the history of the group,? says Francis Ailhaud, CEO of Groupama AM. Due to the falling markets, the management firm nonetheless posted a 7.5% decrease in assets under management, to EUR81.3bn. Due to falling net banking proceeds and rising costs, the firm posted net profits down 49% to EUR15.3m.EUR2.8bn in inflows in 2008 came from clients outside the Groupama group; EUR625m came from calls for offers. These include institutionals and distributors, and now represent EUR14.8bn, or 20% of total assets.This dynamic has been helped by the international growth of Groupama AM. The French management firm has posted net subscriptions of EUR443m abroad, largely in Italy, where it opened an affiliate in 2006. The firm also opened a branch in Spain last year, and signed a distribution agreement in Canada in 2007 (with Investeam).The international deployment will continue in 2009. ?We will develop in two areas,? explains Jean-Marie Catala, director of development at Groupama AM. ?On the one hand, we will assist in the international growth of the group. On the other hand, we will develop autonomously when we identify growth areas,? he says. The firm is planning to set up in Switzerland, and is studying the Middle East, where it may eventually establish operations by the end of the year.In terms of product range, Groupama AM is planning to launch new ?alpha? funds in equities, fixed income, and foreign currencies, as well as in conviction-based management.

Neuflize OBC Asset Management has recruited Karen Decque (née Terdjman) from Natixis Asset Management, where she managed the Natixis Europe Smaller Companies fund, Citywire reports. She will manage the Noam Europe Expansion fund with Guillaume Lanelier, following the departure of Franck Le Franc and Guillaume Laconi. The management firm has also recruited Olivier Mollé, from Exane, for the Noam Europe Long Short fund.

UBS has announced that it is reopening its two open-ended real estate funds, Euroinvest (EUR3.3bn) and UBS 3 Kontinente Immobilien (EUR619m) to redemptions from April. The funds have been frozen since late October.Das Investment reports that Tilman Hickl, chairman of the board at UBS Real Estate, has announced real estate investments of EUR600m this year. Euroinvest will receive total subscriptions of EUR200m to EUR250m.

La FSA revoit sa stratégie et durcit toutes les règles. Elle veut renforcer la supervision des banques

DWS (Deutsche Bank group) is launching the DWS Invest Sovereign Plus fund, which will aim for performance 100 basis points higher than the Iboxx Eurozone Sovereign, which measures returns on 3-5 year Euro zone government debt, Cinco Días reports. Management commission for retail shares in the fund in Spain is 1.2%.

Aviva is planning to suspend securities lending to hedge funds, the Financial Times reports. The insurer believes it has been targeted by short-sellers, and that hedge funds are responsible for a 40% fall in its share price in 48 hours two weeks ago. The British group has also shared its concerns with other European insurers.

BBVA has decided to close down its alternative management division. One of the firms affected, Próxima Alfa, has decided to negotiate with other managers to export its model as a white-label product under the brand name of the distributor. According to Expansión, the first fund concerned will be Próxima’s flagship, the Accurate Global Assets fund, managed by Narciso Vega and Igor Alonso. Assets in the fund fell to USD35.45m from USD100m when BBVA withdrew, but the fund has posted performance of 8.8% since the beginning of the year.

Partners Group, whose assets remained stable last year at CHF24.4bn, thanks to gross infows of CHF6.2bn, which compensated for outflows as well as for currency and market effects of CHF6.2bn, has posted net profits by IFRS accounting standards of CHF171m, compared with CHF255m in 2007, and CHF154m in 2006. Revenues increased 6% to CHF328m, while EBITDA increased 4% to CHF240m. Adjusted net profits, excluding the valuation of certain derivatives related to insurance policies, fell to CHF213m, compared with CHF228m.

Epsilon Gestion Alternativa, the Spanish affiliate of Permal which received its license from the CNMV in September, will soon launch its first fund of hedge funds, which will be entitled BrightGate Capital, Funds People reports. The team includes four former managers from Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse, and one veteran of Santander Securities.

According to Fund Pro rankings published by Funds People, assets in funds domiciled in Latin America fell to less than USD600bn at the end of December, from a peak of USD745bn twelve months earlier. The top two actors are Brazilian: Banco do Brasil and Bradesco have respective assets under management of USD94.9bn and USD65.4bn, and respective market share of 17% and 11.7%.Santander and BBVA are in fourth and ninth place, with USD48.2bn and USD14.6bn. BNP Paribas is in 17th place, with USD5.82bn.

The founder and now co-chairman of the board at AWD, Carsten Maschmeyer, has decided to quit his job as head of the German financial services provider. He will join the board of Swiss Life, a company in which he owns an 8% stake, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. In his new role, he plans to focus on development of strategy and internationalisation.

Lazard Frères Gestion has announced three appointments as part of a reconfiguration of its activities. François de Saint-Pierre will become head of private management activities at the management firm. Saint-Pierre, who joined the group in 1993, became a managing partner at Lazard Frères Gestion in 2003, and then a managing partner at Lazard Frères Paris and Managing Director of Lazard LLC in 2007. He will work to continue and accelerate the development of private management activities, particularly in areas such as the organisation of wealth, asset allocation, and the investment process. Matthieu Grouès will assume the newly-created position of director of management at Lazard Frères Gestion. He will retain his responsibilities as head of strategy and asset allocation. His mission will be to coordinate and develop institutional and collective management in a manner that is coherent with Lazard Frères Gestion’s macroeconomic scenario. Régis Bégué has been director of research at the equities management firm since 1 January 2009. Before that, from 2005 he was in European equities management as an analyst, in charge of the pharmaceuticals, utilities and automotive sectors. His mission will be to maintain the good track record the firm has established over the past 10 years, while continuing to improve the investment process and enrich the product range.

On Tuesday, Deutsche Börse admitted seven new ETFs from iShares (a brand from Barclays Global Investors, or BGI) onto the XTF segment of its Xetra electronic trading platform. Three are bond products, while the other four are based on equities indexes. All of them are German-registered products.The new products include the iShares JPMorgan $ Emerging Markets Bond, ? Covered Bond et Global Inflation-Linked Bond. D’autre part, iShares fait coter trois ETF de petites capitalisations : S&P Small Cap 600, MSCI Japan Small Cap and MSCI AC Far East Ex-Japan Small Cap.The seventh new product is the iShares S&P Emerging Markets Infrastructure, whose underlying index includes the 30 largest companies involved in the development of infrastructure in emerging countries. With these new ETFs, the total number of products available on the XTF segment comes to 420.

The Clariden Leu private bank (Credit Suisse group) on Tuesday announced the appointment of Jimmy Lee Kong Eng as ?head Asia.? In this position he will succeed Stefan Hausherr, who held the position in the interim, and who will remain as head operations and branch manager in Singapore. Jimmy Lee Kong spent four and a half years as head of private wealth management South East Asia/South Asia at Deutsche Bank in Singapore, with a team of 150 people under his responsibility.