La boutique de gestion LGM Investments, détenue par BMO Global Asset Management, a prévu de lancer un fonds Ucits sur les actions indiennes, a appris Citywire Asia. Le fonds sera géré par Rishikesh Patel, un gérant basé à Londres.

L’ancien gérant d’Ignis, Diamond Lee, va reprendre les rênes du fonds Old Mutual Greater China Equity de 100 millions de dollars, rapporte Investment Week. La gestion du fonds était précédemment déléguée à Metisq Capital. Diamond Lee a rejoint l’équipe actions asiatiques d’Old Mutual Global Investors en novembre 2014.

Magnus Peterson, le patron d’un hedge fund qui a escroqué des investisseurs pour un montant de 353,8 millions de livres, pourrait écoper de 10 ans de prison après avoir été reconnu coupable, rapporte Investment Week. L’intéressé faisait l’objet d’une enquête du Serious Fraud Office. A l’issue d’un procès de 12 semaines, il a été jugé coupable de huit chefs d’accusation, selon Reuters.

Trevor Greetham, responsable de l’allocation et spécialiste des fonds multi-asset, va quitter Fidelity Worldwide Investment après 9 années passées dans le groupe, indique Investment Week. Il souhaite «poursuivre de nouvelles opportunités professionnelles». L'équipe multi-asset continuera à être dirigée par James Bateman. Kevin O’Nolan et Nick Peters reprendront à partir du 30 janvier la gestion des principaux fonds supervisés jusqu'à présent par Trevor Greetham.

Peter Ball, qui avait été nommé en juin 2014 au poste de responsable de l’activité institutionnelle par intérim chez Kames Capital, a été confirmé à ce poste de manière permanente et définitive par la société de gestion britannique, rapporte eFinancial News.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 120%; }p.western { font-family: «Liberation Serif»,"Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }p.cjk { font-family: «Droid Sans Fallback"; font-size: 12pt; }p.ctl { font-family: «FreeSans"; font-size: 12pt; } The British asset management firm Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) has unveiled a profound restructuring of its management and direction teams. The objective is to “foster the future development of LGIM over its full range of key products, while better meeting the constantly evolving needs of clients, both in the United Kingdom and internationally,” the asset management firm says. As a part of this move, Aaron Meder, previously global head of solutions, has been appointed to the newly-created position of head of investment, and will be responsible for directing investment teams at LGIM for all asset classes, except for real assets (real estate, infrastructure, etc.). Meanwhile, Bill Hughes has been appointed to the newly-created position of head of real assets, responsible for all direct investment by LGIM in real estate and infrastructure, with a single united team. He had previously been managing director of Legal & General Property, an affiliate of LGIM dedicated to real estate. In addition, Roger Bartley, previously global head of fixed income, has been appointed as vice-chairman responsible for investments. In this role, he will work closely with Mark Zinkula, CEO of LGIM, “to assist LGIM to grow in new markets and via new distribution channels,” according to a statement. Mike Craston is also appointed as vice-chairman of Legal & General Investment Management America, responsible for development of activities on the US Market. He had previously served as managing director responsible for activities serving institutional clients worldwide. Lastly, Sarah Aitken has been appointed as head of distribution at LGIM, both for retail and for institutional clients, in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. She arrived at LGIM in October 2014 from Insight Investment, and was previously head of institutional activities for Europe and the Middle East. “These changes to our management are meant to help support our growth in the Americas, the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia,” says Mark Zinkula, CEO of LGIM. Lastly, LGIM has announced that Ali Toutounchi, previously managing director responsible for tracker funds, has announced his intention to retire at the end of 2015. Until that time, he will work closely with Zinkula and Meder to find a replacement and facilitate the transition.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { } The Swiss asset management firm Unigetion, whose assets total EUR13.8bn, on 20 January announced the launch of Uni-Global Cross Asset Navigator, a fund with daily liquidity which complies with OPCVM IV. The fund will allocate actively over the full range of asset classes, on the basis of an evaluation of risks related to the macoreconomic environment. Uni-Global Cross Asset Navigator aims for annual returns of over 4% of the three-month Libor rate over a full economic cycle, with long-term risks less than half of those on equity markets. It adopts an investmetn approach based on risk coupled with deep macroeconomic analysis, in order to offer attractive potential for returns in most market environments. The fund first performs a diversified allocation to a wide range of risk premiums, including both traditional ones (equities on global developed and emerging markets, government bonds, credit and commodities), alternatives (carry, momentum). Then, the investment team dynamically adapts the positioning of the fund on the basis of evaluation of the economy and markets, in order to gain from opportunities related specifically to macro themes or market disruptions. The cross asset solutions team at Unigestion, with 15 members, is led by Jérôme Teiletche. The Navigator portfolio management team is composed of three managers recruited last year: Teiletche, Oliver Blin, and Guilhem Savry.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { } Trevor Greetham, head of allocation and specialist in multi-asset funds, will be leaving Fidelity Worldwide Investment after nine years at the group, Investment Week reports. He wishes to “pursue new professional opportunities.” The multi-asset team will continue to be led by James Bateman. Kevin O’Nolan and Nick Peters will from 30 January take over the management of the main funds hitherto supervised by Greetham.

It is official: the marriage between Banque Degrood and Petercam is in negotiation. The two Belgian companies have confirmed reports published last week by the Belgian newspaper L’Echo. Banque Degroof, Petercam and their top shareholders announced in a statement on Tuesday that they had signed an agreement protocol on 19 January 2015 for a merger.The new group will be speicalised in private banking, institutional management and investment banking activities, and will have a total of EUR47bn in assets under management.Its new size will, a statement says, put the merged entity in third place for size on the private banking market. In the asset management sector, the new entity will become a leader on the pension fund market in Belgium, with EUR27.7bn in assets.From the point of view of governance, all activities of the new group will be steered by an executive board composed of seven members. Subject to the approval of the control authorities, this future board will be chaired by Philippe Masset, CEO. The statement says that as co-head of institutional asset management, Hugo Lasat would be CEO of the asset management firm.The signature of a final merger agreement is planned for second quarter 2015, and will be submitted for approval to the various authorities. The merger is expected to be completed during second quarter 2015.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { } Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) has appointed Koon Chow as senior Macro & FX specialist on its new emerging market bonds team, led by Denis Girault, and composed of seven investment professionals, with a total of over USD4bn in assets under management. The head will be based in London, and will be responsible for research into government debt and the currency market, and will provide trading ideas for the bank’s strategies for government bonds denominated in local currencies. Before joining UBP, Chow worked at Barclays, as managing director responsible for the EM Strategy team.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { } A subscriber to the Pimco Total Return Fund, Robert Kenny, has filed suit against Pimco, claiming that the asset management firm is ripping off investors with excessive advising fees, to feed the bonuses of executives, Bloomberg reports. The suit, filed in Seattle, claims that fees totalling USD1.2bn in 2013 are unfair and excessive and have no reasonable relationship to the services rendered. Kenny claims that Pimco infringed its fiduciary duty with respect to investors, and should refund the undue payments to shareholders. Pimco paid more than USD1.5bn in bonuses to its top directors, at a time when performance suffered, Kenny points out. According to a spokesman, Pimco considers the lawsuit baseless.

Amundi has hired Jeannine Daniel as head of equity strategies, senior analyst at Amundi Alternative Investments, based in its London office.She will be responsible for sourcing, selecting and monitoring the best hedge fund managers for event driven and other equity strategies, for the needs and benefits of Amundi Alternative Investments’ multi-manager solutions and Irish managed account platform. She reports to François-Regis Bocqueraz, global head of hedge fund manager relations and selection.Before joining Amundi AI, Jeannine Daniel worked for over 4 years as a senior analyst at Kedge Capital Services, where as part of a team she was in charge of hedge fund manager selection on a global basis (US, Europe, Asia) across hedge fund strategies. Prior to this, she worked at Ivy Asset Management, JP Morgan and Barclays Global Investors.Separately, Amundi has announced the appointment of Andy Wiggins as head of UK & Ireland institutional business. Reporting to Laurent Guillet, chief executive officer of Amundi London Branch and Pierre Cailleteau, global head of institutional & sovereign clients, Andy Wiggins took up his position in December 2014Based in London, he will work alongside Frederic Barthelemy, head of corporate relationships and Peter Brackett, head of global consultant relations.Andy Wiggins joins Amundi from Allianz Global Investors where he held the role of head of UK institutional business development responsible for sales and client development teams and partnering the consultant relations team (2012-2014). Prior to this, he was head of UK institutional clients at Threadneedle Investments and director, client relations at AllianceBernstein.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { } Alliance Bernstein, whose assets under managemetn total abut USD474bn, on 20 January announced a change to its visual identity to better reflect the evolution of the firm. To accompany the new AB logo, the firm has redesigned the architecture of its digital applications and set up a new website whose address is www.abglobal.com. All of these changes come as part of an advertising campaign launched worldwide on 20 January.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { } Société Générale Private Banking has appointed Eric Verleyen as global chief investment officer and deputy head of the portfolio management team for the entire private bank. Verleyen, who began in his new role on 8 January 2015, is based in the United Kingdom, where he reports to Olivier Gérard, head of the portfolio management team based in Luxembourg, and to Paul Wiltshire, head of wealth management solutions for Société Générale Private Banking Hambros, where Verleyen had previously been chief investment officer.

Investors have regained a muted risk appetite, turning to U.S. equities, bonds and real estate in spite of a more downbeat assessment of global growth and corporate profits.The proportion of respondents overweight cash has tumbled to a net 17 percent from a net 28 percent last month, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey for January covering an overall total of 219 panelists with USD630 billion of assets under management. Average cash positions have fallen to 4.5 percent of portfolios, the lowest in six months, down from 5.0 percent in December. More than two-thirds of investors say equities will outperform other major asset classes in 2015. Accordingly, a net 51 percent of asset allocators are overweight equities, down one percentage point since last month but the third-highest reading in the past year. A net 24 percent of asset allocators are overweight U.S. equities, up from a net 16 percent a month ago. However, a net 75 percent say U.S. equities are overvalued – the highest reading since the question first appeared in 2001. The proportion of asset allocators overweight real estate has climbed six percentage points to a net 9 percent.Investors are less optimistic about the economy. A net 51 percent of the panel believes the world economy will improve this year, down from a net 60 percent in December. But, as deflation surfaces in the Eurozone, expectations of stimulus from the European Central Bank (ECB) are high. This month, 72 percent predict QE to start in the first quarter. Furthermore, the third quarter is now the most likely timing for a rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve, verses the second quarter a month ago.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { } EFG International values the impact which the current value of the euro against the Swiss franc has had on its pre-tax profits as a single-digit percentage number. About 20% of assets under management and revenues are denominated in euros, the Swiss bank announced on 20 January in a statement. The abandonment of the ceiling was not expected to have a “material” impact on tier one equity. If it remains at its current level, the EUR/CHF exchange rate is expected to have a single-digit impact on pre-tax profits. The firm also indicates that its expenses in euros represent 15% of its cost base. EFG reports further that its earnings in Swiss francs represent 4% of its assets under management and its revenues, while 30% of its costs are denominated in the Swiss currency; this percentage has fallen in the past four years. Assets under management and revenues denominated in US dollars represent 50%, and 30% of costs. Lastly, EFG International calls the effect of the GBP/CHF exchange rate negligible. The impact on the tier one equity ratio is called “immaterial.” EFG will on 25 February release its complete results for the year 2014.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { } Bank J. Safra Sarasin announced on 20 January that it has appointed Serge Ledermann as head of the asset management division in Switzerland, and his admission to the executive board at the bank. The appointment will take effect from 1 March 2015. The Swiss Ledermann has over 30 years of experience in portfolio management and on the Swiss institutional activities market. He joins Bank J. Safra Sarasin after serving as deputy CEO and a member of the board of directors responsible for investment activities of the Retraites Populaires group. Over a long career as a partner and head of asset management and Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch, Ledermann played a dominant role in founding the asset management activities at UBP.

Le fonds souverain Temasek a annoncé avoir réduit sa participation dans la China Construction Bank (CCB), rapporte The Standard. Temasek a cédé 54,38 millions d’actions H à un prix moyen de 6,50 dollars de Hong Kong, ce qui a ramené sa participation à 5,99% contre 6,02%.

C’est officiel, le mariage entre Banque Degroof et Petercam est en cours de négociation. Les deux sociétés belges ont confirmé les informations publiées la semaine dernière par le quotidien belge L’Echo. Banque Degroof, Petercam et leurs actionnaires de référence ont indiqué dans un communiqué publié le 20 janvier avoir signé un protocole d’accord le lundi 19 janvier 2015 en vue d’une fusion. Le nouveau groupe sera spécialisé dans les activités de la banque privée, la gestion institutionnelle et la banque d’investissement et pèsera au total 47 milliards d’euros d’actifs sous gestion. Sa nouvelle taille lui assurera, selon le communiqué, la troisième place sur le marché de la banque privée. Sur le secteur de la gestion d’actifs, le nouvel ensemble devrait devenir leader sur le marché des fonds de pension en Belgique, avec 27,7 milliards d’euros d’encours. Du point de vue de la gouvernance, l’ensemble des activités du nouveau groupe sera piloté par un comité exécutif composé de sept membres. Il fonctionnera comme organe central de direction. Sous réserve de l’approbation des autorités de contrôle, ce futur comité sera présidé par Philippe Masset, CEO. Il sera par ailleurs composé de Xavier Van Campenhout, deputy CEO et responsable du Private Banking, Jan Longeval (Institutional Asset Management), Gautier Bataille de Longprey (Capital Markets), Gilles Firmin (CRO), et d’un COO et CFO externes désignés sous peu. Le communiqué précise qu’en tant que co-head Institutional Asset Management, Hugo Lasat sera CEO de la société de gestion. Alexis Meeùs sera CEO de la société de corporate finance. La signature d’un accord de fusion définitif est prévue dans le courant du premier semestre 2015 et est soumis à l’approbation des différentes autorités. La fusion devrait être réalisée dans le courant du second semestre 2015. Selon la presse belge, les actionnaires de Degroof, conseillés par Rothschild, devraient en détenir 70% et ceux de Petercam, épaulés par JPMorgan, 30%. Des proportions que les dirigeants ne démentent pas.Selon L’Agefi, des suppressions d’effectifs de 10% à 15% sont également évoquées mais, «Il est trop tôt à ce stade et il y aura de la croissance dans certains domaines», a indiqué Philippe Passet. Ce sera le cas en France, où il est question de faire grandir l’activité à Paris, en rachetant d’autres petits acteurs ou des portefeuilles, selon Philippe Masset.

Le fonds spéculatif Macro de Fortress Investment Group a perdu 7,64% la semaine dernière, victime apparemment de l’envolée du franc suisse après la décision de la Banque nationale suisse d’abandonner son cours plancher. Le hedge fund révèle cette performance négative dans une lettre à ses clients, dont Reuters a pu prendre connaissance, sans en préciser les raisons. Il ajoute que sa perte totalise 7,9% depuis le début de l’année.

La décision de la Banque d’Angleterre (BoE) de ne pas relever ses taux d’intérêt en janvier a été prise à l’unanimité de son comité de politique monétaire (MPC), une première depuis juillet. Martin Weale et Ian McCafferty, les deux membres (sur un total de neuf au MPC) qui prônaient depuis août l’abandon d’une politique de taux historiquement bas, ont jugé qu’un relèvement du loyer de l’argent dans le contexte actuel pourrait favoriser une inflation durablement inférieure aux objectifs.

La filiale de gestion d’actifs d’Axa annonce la nomination de Stéphane Janin au poste de responsable du développement réglementaire international, basé à Paris. Dans le cadre de ce poste nouvellement créé, Stéphane Janin aura plusieurs missions: développer la stratégie d’Axa IM en fonction de thématiques réglementaires clés, accompagner les programmes de mise en conformité réglementaire de l’entreprise à l’échelle mondiale et gérer les relations avec les autorités européennes et internationales. Depuis 2005, Stéphane Janin exerçait la fonction de directeur des affaires internationales auprès de l’Association française de gestion financière (AFG).

Le gouvernement polonais a ordonné aujourd’hui une enquête auprès des banques locales ayant offert des prêts hypothécaires en franc suisse - une pratique qui concerne 550.000 Polonais et un encours de 31 milliards d’euros fin novembre (8% du PIB). Les emprunts ont été souscrits au début des années 2000. Mais depuis la semaine dernière, le franc s’est apprécié d’environ 20% par rapport au zloty. Les emprunteurs font face à des échéances beaucoup plus lourdes.

La demande de prêts des entreprises de la zone euro a augmenté au quatrième trimestre 2014 et elle devrait continuer de progresser au cours des trois premiers mois de 2015, indique mardi l’enquête trimestrielle de la Banque centrale européenne (BCE) sur la distribution du crédit bancaire. Les banques interrogées ont aussi constaté une hausse de la demande des prêts immobiliers et s’attendent à une nouvelle progression lors du premier trimestre 2015.

Le moral des investisseurs et analystes allemands mesuré par l’institut Zew a progressé en janvier pour le troisième mois consécutif avec la chute des cours du pétrole et l’affaiblissement de l’euro. L’indice Zew a bondi à 48,4, son plus haut niveau depuis février 2014, après 34,9 en décembre. Ce résultat est supérieur au consensus Reuters, qui était de 40,0.

Selon l’enquête de Paris Europlace sur les pratiques et les attentes en matière d’investissement socialement responsable (ISR), les investisseurs soulignent que la démarche ISR s’inscrit dans leur stratégie de réduction des risques de long terme. Les trois quarts des gérants, contre un tiers en 2011, sont prêts à faire certifier leur processus. La création d’un label serait un gage de sécurité pour l’investisseur ; 85% des banques et assureurs y sont favorables.

Deutsche Börse a obtenu un accord de principe des autorités de Singapour afin que sa filiale Eurex installe une chambre de compensation en 2016. Le groupe espère d’abord démarrer une activité de clearing de produits dérivés listés sur Eurex et traitant aux heures asiatiques, avant d'étendre l’activité aux produits assis sur des sous-jacents asiatiques.

La banque centrale turque a annoncé mardi une baisse d’un demi-point de son taux de repo à une semaine, à 7,75%, alors que le consensus Bloomberg tablait sur un statu quo. Les taux de dépôt et de prêt au jour le jour restent inchangés à 7,50% et 11,25% respectivement. Soumise à la pression du président Recep Tayyip Erdogan pour diminuer ses taux, la banque centrale a justifié sa décision par la baisse des prix du pétrole.

Le Trésor espagnol a emprunté 9 milliards d’euros à 10 ans à travers une syndication bancaire. Barclays, BBVA, le Crédit Agricole, CaixaBank, Citi et HSBC ont dirigé l’opération. Le livre d’ordres a atteint 22,8 milliards d’euros et le placement a été réalisé à une marge de 92 pb au-dessus des swaps, contre un prix indicatif initial de 90 pb. L’opération fait ressortir un rendement de 1,656%, alors que l’emprunt de référence espagnol à 10 ans traitait mardi à 1,52%.

Le rang pari passu permettrait de limiter la perturbation du marché mais pourrait forcer la BCE à plafonner ses achats pour une même ligne obligataire.