Le gestionnaire d’actifs allemand Buss Capital GmbH & Co. KG a choisi Caceis afin de fournir des services de dépositaire pour ses fonds fermés investis dans les containers maritimes et gérés sous le nouveau régime du « Kapitalanlagegesetzbuch » (KAGB), selon un communiqué publié le 17 décembre. Basé à Hambourg, Buss Capital est leader du marché des fonds fermés investis dans les containers en Allemagne, avec 29 fonds communs de placement, quatre placements privés et huit investissements directs. Dirk Baldeweg, Executive Director de Buss Capital, indique : « Notre objectif était de sélectionner un dépositaire expérimenté afin de nous permettre de remplir les obligations du régime KAGB tout en concentrant nos ressources sur la gestion des investissements. Les prestations de Caceis correspondaient à nos besoins. »

Harcourt, la boutique de gestion alternative de Vontobel Asset Management, lance le fonds Vontobel Fund – Pure Premium Strategy, qui offre une stratégie alternative liquide dans un cadre Ucits. Le fonds, géré activement par Martin Tschunko, est principalement investi dans des options liquides d’achat et de vente. Libellé en dollars, il vise un rendement ajusté au risque supérieur de 3 à 5 % au Libor trois mois en dollars. Ce fonds de droit luxembourgeois s’adresse aux investisseurs institutionnels et aux clients privés. Il complète la gamme de produits Research-Driven Strategies récemment créée par Harcourt.CaractéristiquesCodes Isin : B: LU0971938781 I: LU0971938864 H-CHF: LU0971938948 HI-CHF: LU0971939086 H-EUR: LU0971939169 HI-EUR: LU0971939243Frais de gestion : 1,50 % pour la part retail et 0,75 % pour la part institutionnelleCommissions de performance : 10 %

Onlime Sim sera la première plate-forme Internet à distribuer les fonds d’Alkimis sgr, une société de gestion italienne indépendante, née à l’initiative de professionnels du secteur et de familles d’entrepreneurs, spécialisée sur des stratégies à rendement absolu, rapporte Bluerating.

Dans le cadre d’une transaction sous seing privé (off-market), l’allemand Union Investment Real Estate (UIRE) a acheté à Commerz Real l’immeuble de bureaux One Snowhill (24.500 mètres carrés) situé à Birmingham. Le montant de la transaction n’a pas été dévoilé. L’actif est affecté au portefeuille du fonds immobilier offert au public UniImmo: Europa.Avec des immeubles à Manchester, Glasgow et à présent Birmingham, le volume d’investissements du fonds Europa au Royaume-Uni se situe à 520 millions d’euros, a indiqué Martin Brühl, directeur des investissements internationaux chez UIRE.

GLG Partners a recruté Simon Price pour travailler comme gérant dans son équipe dédiée aux valeurs financières, rapporte FundWeb. L’intéressé était précédemment responsable du secteur des financières et de l’analyse macro chez Occitan.

Old Mutual Wealth, filiale de Old Mutual, aurait engagé des pourparlers en vue de racheter le réseau de conseillers financiers Intrinsic, croit savoir Money Marketing. Old Mutual Wealth aurait même déjà transmis une offre pour reprendre la société qui, en juin 2013, avait fait l’acquisition auprès d’Aegon de Positive Solutions. Suite à cette opération, Intrinsic avait porté à près de 3.000 le nombre de ses conseillers.

Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) a nommé Jason Nabi au poste de directeur du département Institutions Financières et Courtiers (IFC) au Royaume-Uni. Ce poste nouvellement créé est rattaché à Guillaume Heraud, directeur du développement, Institutions Financières et Courtiers chez SGSS. Jason Nabi aura pour mission de mener la stratégie de développement et de renforcer la position de SGSS auprès des IFC, segment de clientèle important au Royaume-Uni. Préalablement à sa prise de fonction chez SGSS, l’intéressé a dirigé à partir de 2012 le développement commercial stratégique de l’activité de gestion d’actifs de la société Markit. Il était depuis 2010 responsable des relations pour BNY Mellon Pershing.

Harcourt, the alternative boutique of Vontobel Asset Management, has launched the Pure Premium Strategy to offer liquid alternatives in UCITS wrapper. The Vontobel Fund – Pure Premium Strategy offers diversification benefits to institutional and private clients in periods of stress in financial markets. The fund, managed by Martin Tschunko, complements Harcourt’s newly created «Research-Driven Strategies» product line. The fund is actively managed and mainly invests in liquid call and put options that Harcourt believes, based on an in-house systematic analysis, represent attractive investment opportunities. The funds aim is to achieve a risk-adjusted return exceeding the three-month US-dollar LIBOR by 3% to 5%.Characteristics :Codes Isin : B: LU0971938781 I: LU0971938864 H-CHF: LU0971938948 HI-CHF: LU0971939086 H-EUR: LU0971939169 HI-EUR: LU0971939243Frais de gestion : 1,50 % pour la part retail et 0,75 % pour la part institutionnelleCommissions de performance : 10 %

Marcel B. Salzmanna été nommé début décembre directeur d’Allianz Global Investors pour la Suisse, indique Finews. L’intéressé occupait auparavant un poste similaire chez GMO. Avant cela, il avait été directeur d’Invesco Suisse. Dans ses nouvelles fonctions il aura pour mission de développer l’activité d’AGI sur le marché helvétique. Il travaillera sous la direction de Tobias Pross, managing director et responsable de l’activité institutionnelle d’AGI en Europe.

Swisscanto, société suisse de gestion d’actifs et de distribution de fonds, a fusionné le 9 décembre deux fonds au sein d’une seule et unique stratégie de performance absolue. Concrètement, les véhicules Swisscanto Sicav II Bond Absolute Return (CHF) et Swisscanto Sicav II Bond Absolute Return (EUR) sont ainsi rapprochés pour donner naissance à un nouveau fonds, baptisé Swisscanto Bond Invest Absolute Return. Domicilié au Luxembourg, ce fonds cumule désormais 1,65 milliard de francs suisse d’actifs, soit 1,35 milliard d’euros.

L’Union bancaire privée (UBP) serait sur le point d’acquérir la banque privée genevoise Syz & Co, selon le magazine suisse Bilan. L’accord de principe aurait déjà été signé. UBP a déjà racheté les activités suisses d’ABN Amro en 2011 et de Lloyds en mars dernier. Les actifs sous gestion de Syz s'élevaient à environ 25 milliards de francs à fin décembre 2012.Du côté de l’UBP, le porte-parole Jérôme Koechlin, contacté par Bilan, ne fait aucun commentaire. La banque fait simplement savoir qu’elle discute avec Syz pour partager des services communs. Du côté de la banque Syz, on réfute l’information: «Nous n’avons signé à ce jour aucun accord avec cette banque ni avec aucun autre établissement d’ailleurs», déclare Ricardo Payro, porte-parole de Syz.

Par une notification à la CNMV en date du 17 décembre, le Santander a annoncé avoir bouclé la cession de la moitié des parts de Santander Asset Management et de ses filiales dans onze pays à un véhicule ad hoc, Sherbrooke Acquisition Corp (SPC), domicilié aux îles Caïman. Cette structure est elle-même gérée et administrée par des sociétés appartenant aux américains Warburg Pincus et General Atlantic et basées aux îles Caïman et aux Bermudes. L’opération avait été annoncée il y a sept mois (lire Newsmanagers du 31 mai)."Cette alliance permettra à Santander Asset Management d’améliorer ses capacités à concourir avec les grandes sociétés de gestion indépendantes internationales, avec l’avantage supplémentaire de pouvoir compter sur la connaissance et l’expérience de la banque sur les marchés où elle est déjà présente», souligne l’avis à la CNMV.

La CNMV a accordé son agrément de commercialisation en Espagne du fonds DB Platinum IV Equity Risk Premia, un ETF actions de beta intelligent (lire Newsmanagers du 20 novembre) de Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (DeAWM), rapporte Funds People.L’agrément a également été obtenu pour le Portugal, a indiqué Pedro Dañobeita, responsable de la gestion d’actifs chez DeAWM pour la péninsule ibérique.

José Manuel Arrojo a eu du flair. Sa Sicav Liratres, dans laquelle l’entrepreneur espagnol a investi une partie de sa fortune, a pris le parti de sortir du capital de la société Service Point, dont il est par ailleurs le président, quelques jours seulement avant sa débâcle boursière. Pendant des années, Service Point était en effet partie intégrante du portefeuille de la Sicav Liratres, représentant jusqu’à plus de 1 % des investissements totaux. Or, entre l’été et le début de l’automne 2013, le président de Service Point a décidé de ne plus lier l’avenir de sa fortune personnelle à l’évolution de la compagnie. Résultat: alors que le cours de Bourse de Service Point a chuté de 76 % au cours de cette période, la Sicav de José Manuel Arrojo n’a pas perdu un centime. Au 30 septembre 2013, la Sicav Liratres présentait un bénéfice de 6,6 millions d’euros.

Investors enter 2014 optimistic about the global economy and outlook for Japanese and European equities, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey, undertaken between 6 and 12 December on a sample of 237 participants with a total of USD655bn in assets under management. The proportion of investors believing the global economy will strengthen in the year ahead has risen to a net 71 percent from a net 67 percent in November. Conviction in the global economy is far stronger than 12 months ago when a net 40 percent of the panel predicted it would strengthen. Similarly, the outlook for profits has ticked upwards month-on-month and is far stronger than the end of 2012. A net 41 percent believes global profits will improve over the coming year, compared with a net 11 percent taking that view a year ago. Preference for equities over bonds remains at historically high levels. The spread between equity overweights and bond underweights stood at 118 percentage points in December, compared with 76 points one year ago and just 19 points in July 2012. Investors demonstrated a strong preference for Europe and Japan. Global investors have increased overweight positions in Japanese and eurozone equities in the past month and indicated appetite for more, while domestic investors in each region have become more optimistic. “Weakness in the U.S. dollar next year is the biggest threat to positioning given a consensus to go long Japanese and European cyclicals,” said Michael Hartnett, chief investment strategist at BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research. Investors and asset allocators have increased allocations towards banks over the past month. The net percentage of the global panel overweight banks rose to a net 17 percent from a net 12 percent in November. A net 22 percent of European respondents said they are overweight banks this month. Commodities and related stocks remain deeply unpopular. A net 31 percent of asset allocators are underweight commodities, up seven percentage points month-on-month.

As of the end of November, Vanguard had a total of nearly USD65.31bn in net inflows over 11 months, according to estimates by Morningstar. The second-largest actor in terms of net inflows was Dimensional Fund Advisors, with more than USD20.98bn, followed by JPMorgan with USD18.2bn, MFS (USD17.36bn) and OppenheimerFunds (USD15.41bn).Meanwhile, the largest net redemptions were from Pimco (USD20bn) and American Funds (USD15.7bn).In total, long-term funds posted net inflows of USD258.84bn in January-November, of which USD132.16bn were for allocation funds, while money market funds saw net outflows of USD14.33bn. Total assets in long-term funds as of 30 November totalled USD10.824trn, and money market funds totalled USD2.460trn.In terms of assets, only three firms as of the end of November had over USD1trn: Vanguard, with USD1.896trn, excluding money market funds and funds of funds; Fidelity Investments, with USD1.144trn, and American Funds, with USD1.086trn.

David Steyn, former COO of AllianceBernstein and CEO of Gulf International Bank since January 2013, will join Aberdeen Asset Management in January 2014 as head of Americas. He will replace Gary Marshall, who has spent four years in this position, and will return to the United Kingdom, “where he will continue to play a key role in the development of the group,” a statement says.

Assets under management at the alternative asset management firm SkyBridge, based in New York, totalled USD9bn as of the end of October 2013, compared with USD7.1bn as of the end of December 2012, Opalesque reports. The fund of hedge funds Skybridge Multi-Adviser Hedge Fund Portfolios has returned 9.73% in the first 10 months of the year. Since its launch in January 2003, its performance is 7.675 per year, compared with 3.94% for the HFR Fund of Funds Composite index in the same period. Assets in the fund have increased from USD2.7bn in August 2012, to USD4.5bn in October this year, an increase of USD1.8bn in the space of 14 months.

OppenheimerFunds has announced the appointment of Arthur Steinmetz, currently chief investment officer, as chief executive officer from 1 July 2014. Steinmetz will on that date replace William Glavin, who will remain as chairman of OppenheimerFunds. From 1 January 2014, Krishna Memani, currently head of bond investment, will replace Steinmetz and will assume the roleof chief investment officer. Also from 1 January 2014, John McDonough, head of sales nationwide, is promoted to head of distribution, replacing Philipp Hensler, who has left the firm.

The German asset management firm Buss Capital GmbH & Co. KG has selected Caceis to provide it with depository services for its closed funds investing in shipping containers, managed under the new “Kapitalanlagegesetzbuch” (KAGB) regime, according to a statement released on 17 December. Buss Capital, based in Hamburg, is a leader in the market for closed funds investing in containers in Germany, with 29 FCP funds, four private placements and eight direct investments. Dirk Baldeweg, executive director of Buss Capital, says: “Our objective was to select an experienced depository to allow us to fulfil the obligations of the KAGB regime, while concentrating our resources on the management of investments. The services of Caceis corresponded to our needs.”

With Delta Data Software Inc, the settlement agency BNY Mellon has launched a fee management service aimed at asset managers, to help them to identify which distributors are the most effective in the distribution of their funds. In other words, it allows managers to better understand the services which they receive in exchange for the commissions that they pay to broker-dealers.The service automates tasks which many asset management firms had previously been carrying out manually, explains Michael DeNofrio, head of enterprise investor services in the global financial institutions unit at BNY Mellon.

The Swedish asset management firm Optimized Portfolio Management (OPM) has closed its fund CTA Efficient Global Equity Allocation (EGEA), Realtid.se reports. The fund, launched two years ago, posted gains of 10% in 2013, but has not met with the commercial success that had been hoped for it. OPM is 50% controlled by Carnegie Investment Bank, and 50% by its founders.

Blackrock has invested at least EUR10bn in companies listed on the Milan stock exchange, according to Il Sole – 24 Ore, quoting Capital IQ. It makes the asset management giant the first foreign investor in Italy. Telecom, Atlantia, Prysmian, Azimut, Banco Popolare, MPS… it is almost impossible to find an Italian company which does not count BlackRock among its 10 main shareholders, according to the Italian newspaper.

In 2013, the consultant Scorpio Partnership has counted 60 takeovers, involving wealth managers worldwide, 28 of which took place in the United Kingom, where the Retail Distribution Review has led to a wave of consolidation, the Financial Times reports. Since 2008, 236 deals have been recorded; those represent assets transferred of USD1.770trn. A large proportion of assets have been acquired in the past 12 months, which shows that mergers and acquisitions are accelerating in the sector, the FT notes.

Assets in non-traditional bond funds leapt by 76% in the United States in 2013, the Financial Times reports, citing Morningstar. Since January this year, USD51.5bn have been invested in the funds, which are sold under the name “absolute return” or discretionary,” bringing assets in the category to USD119.4bn.

On 17 December, NYSE Euronext announced the admission to trading on the Paris stock exchange of a new ETF from Lyxor Asset Management, the Lyxor ETF SX7T, which replicates the Euro Stoxx Bank index, and which charges 0.30%. The ticker code for the product is BNKE.As a result, the European markets of NYSE Euronext currently list a total of 561 ETFs 651 times.

The manager of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund – Global (GPFG), Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), has announced that in early December, it signed a joint venture agreement with MetLife Inc. The agreement will result in an initial investment of USD238m, for a GPFG stake of 47.5% in the One Financial Center office tower in Boston (120,800 square metres). The asset management of the platform will be provided by MetLife, which has increased its stake in One Financial Center Equity LLC, an affiliate of Beacon Capital Strategic Partners V LP, from 2.5 points to 52.5%.The joint venture between NBIM and MetLife will aim to invest “over a long period” in “class A” office properties in the major United States markets.

Mutual Fund Wire reports that Bill Miller, star manager and former Legg Mason CIO, has submitted an application to the SEC for the Miller Income Opportunity Trust (LMOPX), a mutual fund which he will manage, with the assistance of his son Bill Miller IV.The fund will be launched by LMM LLC, a boutique with USD.16bn in assets in which Legg Mason controls a stake.

Vanguard has announced that John J. Granahan will at the end of this year cease to participate in the management of the Vanguard Explorer Fund, Vanguard Variable Insurance Fund - Small Company Growth Portfolio and Vanguard U.S. Discoveries Fund, which are advised by Granahan Investment Management. Granahan, aged 77, is the co-founder of the firm, which he will continue to lead. The management of the funds will from the beginning of January be provided by Gary C. Hatton and Jane M. White, respectively chief investment officer and CEO of Granahan Investment Management.

Union bancaire privée (UBP) is reportedly about to acquire the Geneva-based private bank Syz & Co, according to the Swiss magazine Bilan. The agreement in principle has already been signed. UBP already acquired the Swiss activities of ABN Amro in 2011, and of Lloyds in March this year. Assets under management at Syz totalled about CHF25bn as of the end of December 2012. At UBP, Jérôme Koechlin, a spokesperson contacted by Bilan, had no comment. The bank simply says that it is in talks with Syz to share common services. At Syz bank, the reports are refuted: “We have to date signed no agreement with this bank, nor with any other establishment elsewhere,” says Ricardo Payro, a spokesman for Syz.