Le fournisseur d’indices Solactive, basé à Francfort, termine l’année sur les chapeaux de roue. La société créée en 2007, juste avant que n'éclate la crise financière, a connu des moments difficiles mais l’année 2013 marque manifestement un nouveau départ avec une progression de ses revenus de l’ordre de 40% à 50%.Solactive, qui employait quatorze personnes il y a encore quelques semaines, vient d’ailleurs d’embaucher une responsable des relations publiques et du marketing, basée à Londres, qui a pris ses fonctions début novembre (Newsmanagers du 13 novembre). Et le créateur et PDG de la société, Steffen Scheuble, récemment de passage à Paris, a indiqué à Newsmanagers que plusieurs recrutements étaient en cours, dont un spécialiste actions, un spécialiste obligataire et un «legal counsel». Selon Steffen Scheuble, le développement de l’activité de Solactive est lié à un modèle original qui passe notamment par une commission fixe forfaitaire qui peut rivaliser avec celles des grands fournisseurs d’indices. En outre, la société peut mettre en place un indice en un temps record, quelques jours voire beaucoup moins, alors que chez la plupart des fournisseurs, on compte plutôt en nombre de semaines. Enfin, Steffen Scheuble met en avant la flexibilité de Solactive, qui peut intervenir sur à peu près toutes les classes d’actifs et qui peut proposer différents formats susceptibles de répondre aux besoins de la clientèle. Solactive calcule actuellement plus de 1.000 indices pour une bonne centaine de clients dans le monde et quelque 120 ETF sont liés à des indices calculés par Solactive. Les clients de Solactive sont actuellement répartis pour moitié en Europe, pour moitié aux Etats-Unis. Avec de grands clients des deux côtés de l’Atlantique, par exemple BNP Paribas et Société Générale en France, et entre autres Van Eck ou Global X-Funds aux Etats-Unis. «Nous voulons développer notre marque des deux côtés de l’Atlantique. Nous sommes plutôt bien du côté du sell side. Nous devons maintenant porter nos efforts sur le buy side», insiste Steffen Scheuble.Dans les prochaines semaines, Solactive va proposer trois nouveaux ETF basés sur de nouveaux indices, avec à la clé de nouveaux clients. Et début 2014, devrait être lancée une nouvelle famille d’indices smart beta. «Nous avons beaucoup de projets en cours et 2014 se présente sous de très bons auspices», affirme Steffen Scheuble. Si tout se passe bien, Solactive pourrait envisager , dans le courant du second semestre 2014 ou au début de 2015, de s’installer en Asie, avec au moins un opérationnel qui pourrait être basé à Hong Kong.

Le bénéfice économique (bénéfice aux normes IFRS avant impôt, plus résultat de la valorisation des instruments financiers) de Deka, le gestionnaire central des caisses d'épargne allemandes, a progressé pour les neuf premiers mois de l’année à 448,1 millions d’euros contre 444,9 millions pour la période correspondante de l’an dernier. Pour le premier semestre, il était ressorti en hausse de 3,2 % en glissement annuel, à 323,8 millions d’euros.L’encours total au 30 septembre ressortait pour sa part à 168,1 milliards d’euros contre 177 milliards fin juin et 162,6 milliards au 31 décembre 2012.Deka se targue d’avoir enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 4.774 millions d’euros pour les trois premiers trimestres, contre des sorties nettes de 2 milliards en janvier-septembre 2012. Cependant, on se souviendra que Deka avait déjà déclaré pour janvier-juin des rentrées nettes de 4.768 millions (lire Newsmanagers du 29 août).En janvier-septembre 2013, les souscriptions nettes sont venues pour 4,4 milliards de la clientèle institutionnelle (contre 0,6 milliard pour la période correspondante de l’an dernier, le retail générant 400 millions d’euros.Le gestionnaire précise que pour les fonds d’actions offerts au public, l’hémorragie a été en grande partie stoppée, après des remboursements nets de 2,5 milliards pour janvier-septembre 2012. Les rentrées nettes des fonds immobiliers sont demeurées stables à 1,4 milliard d’euros, dont 1,2 milliard (inchangé) pour les produits offerts au public.Les rentrées nettes des fonds de valeurs mobilières se sont situées à 3,3 milliards d’euros contre des sorties nettes du même montant pour les trois premiers trimestres de 2012. Le meilleur score a été réalisé dans le retail avec la solution patrimoniale Deka-Vermögenskonzept, qui a drainé en net 725 millions d’euros, et par Deka-BasisAnlage, qui a collecté 778 millions.

Ancien de la société de conseil itechx, après avoir travaillé chez Caceis et State Street Bank, Lars Hella a été nommé directeur des activités de banque dépositaire de BNY Mellon en Allemagne (une activité qui pesait 135 milliards d’euros fin septembre). Il avait été recruté au 1er juillet pour le pôle global securities operations.Dans ses nouvelles fonctions, Lars Hella est subordonné à Laura Ahto, operational head of investment services.

Le 26 novembre, la Deutsche Börse a annoncé avoir admis à la négociation sur le segment XTF de sa plate-forme électronique Xetra un ETF de petites capitalisations de 24 pays industrialisés lancé sous la marque SPDR de State Street Global Advisors (SSgA). Le SPDR MSCI World Small Cap UCITS ETF, un produit de droit irlandais, réplique le MSCI World Small Cap Index qui couvre 4.000 valeurs.La cote du segment XTF compte actuellement 1.031 ETF.CaractéristiquesDénomination : SPDR MSCI World Small Cap UCITS ETF Code Isin : IE00BCBJG560 Taux de frais sur encours : 0,45 %

Dans une notification boursière du 26 novembre, le distributeur pharmaceutique allemand Celesio annonce que le hedge fund américain Elliott Capital Advisors a augmenté sa participation dans son capital et l’a portée à 25,16 % le 19 novembre.

Neuberger Berman vient de lancer une fonds de dette émergente à duration courte qui investira sans contraintes dans de la dette souveraine et crédit, rapporte Citywire.Le fonds sera géré par Nish Popat et Bart van der Made, deux parmi les spécialistes des marchés émergents qui ont récemment quitté ING IM pour rejoindre Neuberger Berman.Le fonds domicilié à Dublin, doté de 21 millions de dollars, investira, au moins dans un premier temps, 20% environ dans la dette souveraine, 30% dans la dette quasi-souveraine et 50% dans la dette corporate. L’objectif de duration est de deux ans avec une fourchette de +/- 0,75 an. Le fonds se situera en moyenne dans la catégorie d’investissement.

Les levées de fonds enregistré par les fonds d’infrastructure non cotés européens ont enregistré une «hausse spectaculaire depuis 2011", note Preqin dans son Special Report: European Infrastructure. Ces levées ont triplé depuis deux ans, avec 13 fonds ayant clôturé des levées pour un total de 9,1 milliards d’euros depuis le début 2013, contre 2,6 milliards pour 11 fonds en 2011. A fin novembre, 58 fonds de ce type spécialisés sur l’Europe sont actuellement proposés aux investisseurs, visant un objectif total de 26,1 milliards d’engagements, précise Preqin. L'étude note que 48 % des investisseurs institutionnels européens sont encore en dessous de leurs objectifs d’allocation annuelle sur l’infrastructure, ce qui laisse une marge de progression pour la classe d’actifs en termes d’engagements.

Loomis, Sayles & Company, filiale de Natixis Global Asset Management, va gérer le fonds Global Opportunity de Nordea Investment Management, en vertu d’un partenariat exclusif. La société nordique distribuera à la fois le fonds et la stratégie institutionnelle au Royaume-Uni et en Europe.Global Opportunity est investi dans 45 à 65 grandes capitalisations mondiales, en vertu d’une gestion active et de « conviction ». Le fonds sera co-géré par Eileen Riley et Lee Rosenbaum chez Loomis.Loomis s’est récemment vu confier un mandat de 220 millions de dollars de la part du Cumbria County Council sur sa stratégie actions monde, ce qui porte le total géré dans ce domaine à plus de 1,5 milliard de dollars d’encours.

According to a survey carried out by Fonds Nieuws of 60 asset management firms which sell funds in the Netherlands, 69% of asset managers estimate that when the ban on commissions comes into effect at the beginning of 2013, between 70% and 100% of their range will be compliant with the new regulations, which greatly resemble UK’s RDR.Meanwhile, 76% of asset managers surveyed say that at the beginning of 2015, when the transitional period is completed, all of their funds on sale in the Netherlands will be without commissions.

Cinda Asset Management, l’un des principaux gestionnaires de créances à risque du système bancaire chinois, a dévoilé ses comptes avant son introduction en Bourse, rapporte Les Echos. L’entrée à la cote de Cinda, prévue mi-décembre, pourrait dépasser les 2,5 milliards de dollars, ce qui en ferait la plus importante opération cette année à Hong Kong, selon Reuters. Plusieurs investisseurs, dont le fonds souverain norvégien, se seraient engagés à investir environ 1,1 milliard dans cette opération. L’Etat détiendra encore près de 70 % du capital de Cinda à l’issue de la cotation.

State Street’s Global Investor Confidence Index fell to 91.3 in November, down 4.2 points from October’s revised reading of 95.5. «The decline was the result of a relatively steep fall off in European sentiment to 101.5 from a revised reading of 111.3 in October», observes State Street. Sentiment in both North America and Asia improved slightly over the month fueled by better economic news out of both regions. The North American ICI increased by 3.2 points to 89.4 over the revised October value of 86.2 and the Asian ICI rose 3.4 points to finish at 98.9 from an October revised value of 95.5.“Improved US economic data and consensus around the Yellen nomination implying delayed tapering seem to be leading to an uptick in North American investor confidence,” commented Ken Froot, one of the creators of the index. “Investors in the US are still aware of the challenges and overall confidence reflects this as sentiment has yet to return to a more neutral stance.”

In mid-2013, 60% of investors from continental Europe were exposed to emerging market debt for a cumulative total of only EUR24bn, a study carried out by Indefi Market Research on behalf of Aberdeen Asset Mangement of 161 investors in 10 countries, representing over EUR1trn in assets, has found.However, this percentage conceals different realities depending on the type of investor concerned. Thus, in the fund distributor segment, the penetration rate is extremely high: 90%. However, only 44% of institutional investors are exposed to emerging market debt. “This difference is due to the fact that the portfolios of end clients are subject to less strict constraints than institutional portfolios,” says Richard Bruyère of Indefi, who presented the study on Tuesday.At institutionals, the situation is also heterogeneous, according to the countries covered. Three quarters of German institutionals are invested in emerging market debt, while in France, the percentage is only 36%.The study shows, lastly, that investment sin emerging market debt proceeds largely via outsourcing to third parties (90%). “Outsourcing essentially leads to a search for global, actively-managed funds,” says Bruyère, who notes that the use of ETFs is rare in this asset class.

Loomis, Sayles & Company, an affiliate of Natixis Global Asset Management, has formed an exclusive partnership with Nordea Investment Management to manage Nordea’s Global Opportunity Fund. Nordea will distribute both the fund and the institutional strategy throughout the UK and Europe. Nordea’s Global Opportunity Fund is an actively managed, high-conviction, large cap, global strategy with typically 45-65 holdings. The fund is co-managed by Eileen Riley and Lee Rosenbaum of Boston-based Loomis, Sayles & Company. Loomis Sayles’ global equity strategy was recently awarded a USD220 million mandate from Cumbria County Council, a local government pension scheme in the UK, bringing its global equity opportunities platform to over USD1.50 billion in assets under management.

Neuberger Berman has launched a short-term emerging market debt fund, which will invest without constraints in government debt and credit, Citywire reports. The fund will be managed by Nish Popat and Bart van der Made, both of whom are among the emerging maket specialists who recently left ING IM to join Neuberger Berman. The Dublin-domiciled fund, with USD21m in assets, will invest, initially at least, about 20% of its assets in goernment debt, 30% in quasi-government debt, and 50% in corporate debt. The duration objective is two years, with a range of +/- 0.75 years. The fund will be in the middle of the investment grade range.

ING Investment Management is expected to soon launch a European equity SRI strategy, the firm announced on 26 November at an annual investment conference. The fund follows a strategy already deployed globally.The fund will have exactly the same approach as the ING (L) Invest Sustainable Equities fund. More precisely, businesses selected for the new fund will be required to combine respect for social (human rights, non-discrimination, child labour) and environmental principles, as well as good financial performance. The businesses selected will be required to meet the criteria of a “Best in Class” approach.Assets dedicated to these sustainable strategies currently total about EUR3.5bn, compared with about EUR3bn as of the end of 2012, says Nina Hodzic, senior specialist in ESG strategies at ING IM.

AEW Europe, one of the European leaders in real estate investment advising for third parties, on 26 November announced the appointment of Raphaël Brault as head of separate accounts and funds. Brault will be based in Paris, and will report to Rob Wilkinson, Chief Investment Officer. He will also sit on the executive board and on the investment board at the firm. In his new role, he will be responsible for investment strategy, supervision of institutional accounts, and funds managed in Paris. Jean Lavieille, deputy chief investment officer, had wished to retire in 2014, but will continue to work at the business as a consultant and member of the investment committee. Lavieille will work in close collaboration with Brault on funds managed in Paris, in order to ensure the smoothest transition possible. Before joining AEW Europe, Brault had worked at Acofi Alms, where he set up a debt fund platform. He had previously spent 12 yearsin Paris at the Morgan Stanley group.

Since the beginning of this year, the Paris office of BNY Mellon Asset Management has posted net subscriptions of USD650m, compared with USD500m in the corresponding period of 2012, Anne-Laure Frischlander, MD, has told Newsmanagers.Assets total nearly USD4bn, compared wth USD3bn one year ago. Inflows were more diversified than in the past. They were supported both by emerging market debt products from Standish and absolute return funds from Insight (market neutral, long/short equity, absolute return bonds, absolute return emerging market debt) and two Newton funds, the Global Real Return and the Asian equity fund.At the beginning of next year, BNY Mellon is planning to launch a UCITS-compliant version of its US all cap equity strategy.

Assets under management at Eaton Vance as of the end of October totalled USd280.7bn, up 41% compared with their level as of 31 October 2012 (USd199.5bn), and 4% compared with the end of July 2013 (USD268.8bn), according to statistics released by the company at the publication of its results for fourth quarter of the 2012-2013 fiscal year. Growth of more than 40% year on year reflects the acqusition of USD34.8bn in assets under management in December 2012, as part of the acquisition of Clifton Group Investment Management by its affiliate Parametric Portfolio Associates, with net inflows of USD24.6bn, and positive market effects of USD21.7bn. Compared with the end of July 2013, the increase in assets of 4% reflects net inflows of USD3.9bn, and market appreciation of USD8bn. Net results for the troup totalled USD72.13m for the quarter to the end of October, compared with USD74.44m one year previously.

Two investment companies based in Chicago have signed a partnership to develop their activities, largely through new products developed jointly. Nuveen Asset Management and Incapital aret therefore in the proces of setting up an investment trust unit, with the assistance of strategist Bob Doll, who left BlackRock last year, Investment News reports. The new vehicle is expected to debut in early 2014. Unit trusts, which are similar to mutual funds but which are closed funds, appear to be gaining popularity in North America recently. They had a total of USD72bn in 2012, compared with USD60bn one year previously, according to statistics from the US Investment Company Institute (ICI). Assets under management at Nuveen totalled USD118bn as of the end of September. Incapital is an investment boutique specialised in bonds and complex debt products.

The Italian independent asset management firm Azimut has teamed up with Antares Private Equity to launch a “mini-bond” fund, which will invest in bond issues frm Italian small and midcaps, Investment Europe reports. The fund, domiciled in Italy, will be reserved for qualified investors and will be closed. It will be developed at Azimut and managed by Antares. It will aim for assets of EUR200m.

On 26 November, Deutsche Börse announced that it had admitted an ETF for trading on its Xetra electronic platform. It is invested in small caps from 24 industrialised countries and launched under the SPDR brand from State Street Global Advisors (SSgA). The SPDR MSCI World Small Cap UCITS ETF, an Irish-registered product, replicates the MSCI World Small Cap Index, which covers 4,000 securities. The XTF segment currently lists 1,031 ETFsCharacteristicsName: SPDR MSCI World Small Cap UCITS ETFISIN code: IE00BCBJG560Total expense ratio: 0.45%

The British Ignis Asset Management is adding to its range of absolute return funds, with the launch of a new strategy dedicated to emerging market debt, Citywire reports. The Ignis Absolute Return Emerging Market Debt fund, domiciled in Luxembourg and managed by Dan Beharall, will be distributed throughout Europe, including the United Kingdom. It lays out a strategy put in place by Ignis since January 2012 on behalf of an institutional clint. The strategy aims for total positive returns higher than cash over twelve months on all types of bond markets.

At a presentation by the European asset management association (EFAMA) in Paris, chairman Christian Dargnat, with the assistance of Peter de Proft, deputy CEO, laid out the priority action principles for the coming months. Two of them are familiar: the ambition to speak with a strong and united voice on behalf of all actors in the industry, particularly when confonted with regulator(s) and a need to convince all actors that asset managers represent the interests of their clients and are not acting for their own account. The other two priorities follow from the first. EFAMA hopes to achieve a perception of like asset management firms at last as long-term investors in Europe, which will include the promotion of an appropriate vehicle, ELTIF (European Long Term Investment Fund), which may not necessarily match up with the liquidity requirements of Ucits Funds, and OCERP (Officially Certified European Retirement Product), the cross-border, truly portable pension fund.A fourth point is that EFAMA hopes to demonstrate that asset management firms bring real added value within the European economy: capital is needed in order to feed economic growth, in order to channel savings, and to place them optimally.Dargnat does not conceal the fact that the asset management sector is facing three major threats. Firstly, “to reman politically correct, we are about to reach overregulation,” the EFAMA chairman says.Next, EFAMA is calling for equal treatment for all products, either from asset management firms, banks, or insurers (level playing field), with the PRIPS directive.The third concern is related to the increasing fragmentation of the market in sales.Concerning the financial transaction tax (FTT), Dargnat claims that, if it were applied as it is in only 11 countries of the Union, it would generate a capital and brain drain while bringing little in for the states, as the tax base would contract.

Lars Hella, formerly of the consulting firm itechx, after working at Caceis and State Street Bank, has been appointed as director of depository banking activities at BNY Mellon in Germany (an operation which had EUR135bn in assets under administration as of the end of September). He was recruited on 1 July for the global securities operations unit.In his new role, Hella will report to Laura Ahto, operational head of investment services.

Economic profits (profits by IFRS accounting standards before taxes, plus the results of revaluation of financial instruments) for Deka, the central asset management firm for the German savings banks, increased to EUR448.1m in the first nine months of the year, compard with EUR444.9m for the corresponding period of last year. In first half, it was up 3.2% year on eyar, to EUR323.8m.Total assets as of 30 September, for their part, came to EUR168.1bn, compared with EUR177bn as of the end of June, and EUR162.6bn as of 31 December 2012.Deka has posted net subscriptions of EUR4.774bn in the first three quarters of the year, compared with net outflows of EUR2bn in January-September 2012. However, it must be remembered that Deka had in January-June already declared net inflows of EUR4.768bn (see Newsmanagers of 29 August).In January-September 2013, net subscriptions totalled EUR4.4bn from institutional clients (compared with EUR0.6bn for the corresponding period of last year), while retail generated EUR400m.The asset manager also states that outflows have largely been stopped from open-ended equity funds, after net redemptions of EUR2.5bn in January-September 2012. Net inflows to real estate funds remained stable at EUR1.4bn, of which EUR1.2bn (unchanged) were for open-ended products.Net inflows to securities funds totalled EUR3.3bn, compaed with net outflows of the same amount in the first three months of 2012. The best score was in retail, for the Deka-Vermögenskonzept wealth management solution, which attracted a net EUR725m, and Deka-BasisAnlage, which collected EUR778m.

In a market notification on 26 November, the German pharmaceuticals distributor Celesio has announced that the US hedge fund Elliott Capital Advisors has increased its stake in its capital to 25.16% as of 19 November.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined SEI Investments (Europe) Limited (SEI), a provider of asset management and wealth management services, GBP900,200 for failings in relation to its protection of client money."Between November 2007 and October 2012, SEI failed on several occasions to perform its internal reconciliations, failed on several occasions to ensure that any shortfall or excess identified in its internal reconciliation of client money was paid into or withdrawn from the client bank account by close of business on the day of the internal reconciliation, and failed to appreciate that it was using a non-standard method of internal reconciliation. SEI therefore failed to ensure that it maintained its records and accounts in a way that ensured their accuracy,» according to the regulator.Had SEI become insolvent, these failings could have led to complications and delay in distribution and placed client money at risk. Whilst the FCA considers the failings to be serious, there was no actual loss of client money in this instance.

As of 30 September, assets under management by Dutch hedge funds totalled EUR21.5bn, which represents a 2.9%, or EUR0.6bn, decline compared with the end of June, the Netherlands central bank (DNB) reports. This is due to an average loss of 3.4% in third quarter, compared with April-June.However, the number of hedge funds increased in September by 7, to 97 products.

According to reports in Fundweb the private equity investor Permira is rumoured to be in final talks with Deutsche Bank to acquire Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management, the former Tilney, from it. Permira has recently acquired Bestinvest from 3i.

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the asset management division of State Street Corporation, has announced the appointment of Susan Raynes to the newly-created position of global head of consultant relations. The appointment comes as part of larger plans to develop relationships at SSgA with clients and consultants through more targeted solutions and higher added value.Raynes will be based in Boston, and will be repsonsible for strengthening ties at SSgA with consultants worldwide, under the direction of Kristi Mitchem, head of the instututional client group for North America at SSgA.Raynes had previously served as head of SSgA for the United Kingdom, the Middle East and Africa. In this position, she will be replaced by Helen Copinger-Symes (see Newsmanagers of 10/28/2013).