Selon les informations de Funds People, Bankinter est sur le point de boucler l’acquisition des trois quarts du capital du courtier Mercaval qu’il ne détient pas. L’établissement compte acheter leurs participations de 24,99 % à Bankia et Banco Cooperativo Español ainsi que celle de 25,01 % détenue par le Banco Popular.Bankinter compte mettre à la tête de Mercaval Javier Bollaín, qui dirige la société de gestion Bankinter Gestión de Activos (5,6 milliards d’euros d’encours) depuis 1989. Le poste de ce dernier pourrait maintenant échoir à Miguel Artola, directeur des investissements depuis 2011.
Laurence Chapman a quitté RBS pour entrer dans l'équipe de distribution européenne du britannique Kames Capital (61 milliards d’euros d’encours), qui souhaite à présent élargir ses activités aux marchés allemand et autrichien. La nouvelle arrivante est subordonnée à Richard Dixon, head of wholesale, continental Europe. Elle travaillera sur les deux marchés germanophones en tandem avec Barnaby Woods.Actuellement cinq fonds de la gamme bénéficient d’un agrément de commercialisation en Allemagne et en Autriche : : Kames Absolute Return Bond, Kames High Yield Global Bond, Kames Investment Grade Global Bond, Kames Strategic Global Bond et Kames Global Equity Income.
Selon les informations d’Investment Week, Fidelity a l’intention d’investir 250 millions de livres sur les cinq prochaines années pour développer sa plate-forme d’architecture ouverte britannique. Dans ce programme, le gestionnaire d’actifs prévoit un nouveau programme focalisé sur les gérants de fonds, du nom d’Access, visant à promouvoir les produits de ces gérants auprès de la clientèle dans le monde entier, avec des efforts de marketing et de suivi de clientèle en échange d’un accès aux classes de parts les moins chargées.Les groupes adhérents auront un accès plus facile aux utilisateurs finaux, la plate-forme Fidelity comptant 1,1 million de clients particuliers au Royaume-Uni et 10.000 conseillers adhérents.D’autre part, Fidelity va muscler ses activités de marketing pour les utilisateurs de sa plate-forme au Royaume-Uni, ce qui recouvre FundsNetwork, l’activité personal investing et le pôle contributions définie.
La priorité des acteurs de la gestion d’actifs dans la région Asie-Pacifique est l’expansion sur de nouveaux marchés de la zone mais cette évolution se heurte à un obstacle majeur, la fragmentation des marchés, souligne une étude réalisée par State Street, en partenariat avec Longitude Research, auprès de 200 cadres du secteur actifs dans la région.Le sondage indique que 42% des cadres interrogés envisagent un développement sur de nouveaux marchés dans la région, et 28% de l'échantillon précisent même qu’il s’agit de leur engagement numéro un. Cette priorité donnée aux nouveaux marchés est particulièrement forte au Japon (52%), devant Hong Kong (28%), la Chine (23%) et l’Australie (23% également).La Chine fait partie des cibles les plus citées, mais les marchés frontières font également partie des possibilités envisagées, notamment la Malaisie et la Thaïlande.Mais ces projets d’expansion se heurtent selon une majorité de sondés à la fragmentation des marchés et à la diversité des réglementations qui gêne notamment l’innovation produits. «La région est plus fragmentée qu’aucune autre au monde en termes de taille, de géographie, de langue, de culture, de réglementation et de fiscalité», souligne Damien Barry, senior vice president, Offshore Funds Services chez State Street.L’initiative régionale lancée récemment d’un passeport pour les fonds asiatiques va dans le bon sens mais ses contours sont encore flous. En attendant, 51% des gestionnaires interrogés soulignent qu’ils doivent mettre en œuvre des changements majeurs pour développer des stratégies de gestion des risques solides adaptées à chaque marché.
Peter Peterburs, qui vient de passer six ans chez BlackRock en Allemagne, dont quatre ans comme vice president, retail business, pour le Nord du pays, a rejoint Jupiter Asset Management comme sales managers pour cette même région. Il est subordonné à Andrej Brodnik, head of sales pour l’Allemagne, l’Autriche et la Suisse.Par ailleurs, Max Günzl, qui était déjà European sales director chez Jupiter, a été promu business development & operations director.
A l'occasion de la semaine de l'ISR, Jean-Pascal Gond analyse l'évolution des pratiques en matière de développement durable et de responsabilité sociale de l'entreprise. Le choc de la crise financière a suscité une dynamique bienvenue qui s'est toutefois enlisée au fil des années. Les problèmes qui freinent l'essor de l'ISR et de la RSE sont de mieux en mieux identifiés, notamment en France.
Since 10 October, the NYSE Arca platform has been listing the PowerShares China Ashare Portfolio (ticker: CHNA), which Invesco PowerShares Capital Management LLE claims is the first ETF to allow exposure to the Chinese A-class equity market, investing primarily in securities filtered from the SGX FTSE China A50 index. It is an actively-managed product, using a quantiative strategy. The portfolio may be invested in instruments other than futures on the SGX FTSE A50 index, such as ETFs of the largest companies in the A-class equity universe and directly in A-class shares in proportions allowed under Chinese law.The total expense ratio is estimated at 0.50%.
To meet demand from investors who are increasingly concerned about the risk of rising interest rates, State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) has launched a very short-term bond ETF, in a niche in which net subsriptions have already reached USD9.4bn in the first nine months of the year, according to Morningstar.This time it is an actively-managed ETF, the SSgA Ultra Short Term Bond ETF (ticker: ULST), listed on the NYSE Arca platform since 10 October, which offers investors access to a diversified portfolio of bonds with ultra-short term durations. The product allows clients to earn additional returns without sacrificing liquidity, says James Ross, senior managing director and global head of SPDR ETFs at SSgA.The fund charges fees of 0.20%.
Hedge fund and private equity firms have not rushed to sell their businesses to high net worth individuals, although they are now allowed to promote their products to US investors, the Financial Times observes. “The Goliaths in our industry are not going to advertise,” agreed Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital, a hedge fund of funds. “They think it is gauche and déclassé, and their partners already have their private planes and their beachside mansions in the Hamptons, so why disrupt the business model?”
The Baring Frontier Markets Fund, launched on 24 April, now has assets of USD24bn, and the British asset management firm is beginning to actively promote the Irish-registered UCITS fund on the European continent. The Baring Asian Frontier Markets fund, for its part, already has USD500m in assets.Michael Levy, principal manager of the new fund, pointed out on Friday in Paris that although frontier markets are a little more “expensive” than emerging markets in terms of price/earnings (11.2% compared with 9.5% P/E) and price to book value (P/B of 2.2 compared with 1.3) in 2014, they are far more profitable in terms of dividend returns (5.5%, compared with 3.3%) and returns on owner’s equity (ROE), at 20.1% compared with 13.3%.Additionally, the portfolio of 55 positions includes a lot of shares that are not in the MSCI Frontier Markets TNR index, which is considered too narrow, and Levy points out that 70% of performance comes from the stock-picking.CharacteristicsName: Baring Frontier Markets FundISIN code: IE00B8BVS817 (A shares)Front-end fee: 5%Management commission: 2%Minimal initial subscription: USD5,000
The priority for asset management actors in the Asia-Pacific region is expansion into new markets in the region, but this development is running up against a major obstacle in the fragmentation of markets, a study carried out by State Street in partnership with Longitude Research, covering more than 200 managers in the asset management sector in the region finds.The suvey reveals that 42% of managers surveyed predict growth into new markets in the region, and that 298% of respondents even say that this is their number one engagement. This priority for new markets is particularly strong in Japan (52%), Hong Kong (285), China (23%) and Australia (also 23%).China is one of the most cited targets, but frontier markets are also among the possibilities envisaged, including Malaysia and Thailand.But these expansion plans are, according to a majority of respondents, running up against market fragmentation and the diversity of regulations, which impede product innovation. “The region is more fragmented than any other in the world in terms of size, geoography, language, culture, regulations and taxation,” says Damien Barry, senior vice president, Offshore Funds Services at State Street.The regional initiative launched recently for a passpot for Asian funds is a move in the right direction but its contours are still blurry. Meanwhile, 51% of respondents surveyed say that major adaptations have to be made to develop solid risk management strategies adapted to each market.
According to the latest quarterly bulletin from the CNMV, assets in Spanish investment funds as of 30 June totalled EUR166.7bn, 9% more than as of the end of December while aggregated profits for Spanish asset management firms were up 11.1% year on year in first half, to EUR318m, Funds People reports. The increase in assets under management is the first since the beginning of the crisis in 2007.The number of asset management firms showing losses has fallen to 19 from 28 in second half 2012, with an average loss of EUR3.7m, compared with EUR10m.
The European ETF market is continuing to give its preference to physical replication, and several major providers are now trying to get in tune with this major trend, IndexUniverse reports. According to data from Deutsche Bank, 23 European providers out of 35 give the priority of physical ETFs, of which 17 offer only physical replication funds. In Europe there are now 762 synthetic products, compared with 550 physical products. Physical ETFs have posted inflows of abou EUR80bn since 2011, compared with barely EUR10bn for synthetic ETFs in the same period. Assets in physical replication ETFs represent over EUR173bn, compared with slightly over EUR90bn for synthetic vehicles. Amundi, Source, Ossiam and ComStage are primarily providers of synthetic products, while major actors such as Vanguard, iShares and HSBC have more than 99% of their assets in physical replication ETFs. Deutsche Bank and Lyxor, which are highly engaged in the synthetic segment, are now developing their ranges of physical replication products. Lyxor now offers 16 physical replication ETFs, whose assets under management total EUR2.2bn.
On 14 October, Fairouz Bouhmida joins the wholesale fund distribution unit at Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) in Zurich as vice president. She will be responsible for relationships with German- and Italian-speaking clients. She had previously been head of distribution in the German-speaking countries for the British boutique Alken AM, and will now report to Reto Eisenhut, director/head of third party retail clients for Switzerland and Liechtenstein, who in turn reports to Anton Commissaris, head of wholesale clients Swtizerland/EMEA.
Funds People understands that Bankinter will soon complete its acquisition of the three quarters of capital in the broker Mercaval which it does not already own. The firm is planning to buy the stakes of 24.99% held by Bankia and Banco Cooperativo Español as well as the 25.01% held by Banco Popular.Bankinter is planning to appoint Javier Bollaín, who is head of the asset management firm Bankinter Gestión de Activos (EUR5.6bn in assets) since 1989, as head of Mercaval. Bollaín’s former position may now fall to Miguel Artola, chief investment officer since 2011.
According to Fundweb, Newton Investment Management (BNY Mellon group) on 13 December decided to liquidate its equity fund Newton European Higher Income, launched on 30 January 2007, and managed by Rajesh Shant since March 2012. The British-registered product has only GBP25.6m in assets.
The association of British insurers (ABI) will make improvements to its recommendations for unit-linked accounts, following an enquiry by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which found “specific” shortfalls at certain insurers concerning monitoring of policies, Investment Week reports. The FCA did not detect signs of systemic risks which threaten the entire sector, but the anomalies identified may disadvantage investors in these policies.
According to reports in Investment Week, Fidelity is planning to invest GBP250m in the next five years to develop its British open architecture platform. As a part of this programme, the asset management firm is planning a new programme focused on fund managers, entitled Access, which will aim to promote products from these asset management firms to clients worldwide, with marketing and client relationship efforts in exchange for access to less costly share classes.Member groups will have easier access to end users, as the Fidelity platform has 1.1 million retail clients in the United Kingdom, and 10,000 member advisers.Fidelity will also scale up its marketing activities for users of its platform in the United Kingdom, which includes FundsNetwork, the personal investment operation and the defined contributions unit.
Laurence Chapman has left RBS to join the European distribution team at the British firm Kames Captial (EUR61bn in assets), which would now like to extend its activities to the German and Austrian markets. The new arrival will report to Richard Dixon, head of wholesale, continental Europe. She will work in the two German-speaking markets in tandem with Barnaby Woods.Currently, five funds in the range have a sales licene for Germany and Austria: Kames Absolute Return Bond, Kames High Yield Global Bond, Kames Investment Grade Global Bond, Kames Strategic Global Bond and Kames Global Equity Income.
As an addition to its product range aimed at retail invetors, the independent asset management firm Aquila Capital has opened a new office and to this end, in early October, recruited Christian Brezina and Jan Peters, who will be responsible for creating a private equity segment. Brezina becomes head of private equity investments. He had previously been director of the private equity and multi-asset class sectors at Blue Capital and WealthCap, where he had most recently been responsible for assets of EUR1.3bn. Peters was a member of Brezina’s team at Wealthcap, where he was responsible for the management of existing funds and the structuring and design of new funds, as well as the selection of partner funds.
Peter Peterburs, who has spent six years at BlackRock in Germany, four of them as vice president, retail business, for the North of the country, has joined Jupiter Asset Management as sales manager for the same region. He will report to Andrej Brodnik, head of sales for Germany, Austria and Switzerland.Max Günzl, who had been European sales director at Jupiter, has been promoted to business development & oerpations director.
The budget impasse in the United States drove investors away from all US asset classes in the first few days of October. Retail outflows from Us equities reached levels not seen in nearly six months. Europe, Japan, and to a lesser extent China, profited from this development, but not to the extent of offsetting the massive redemptions observed in the United States.In the week to 9 October, equity funds overall posted a net outflow of USD6.45bn, according to statistics communicated by EPFR Global. European equity funds, however, continued to attract investors, while Japanese equity funds have posted a net inflow of over USD1bn for the third time in five weeks.Bond funds finished the week with redemptions of USD1.82bn. European bond funds attracted nearly USD800m, one third of which went to Spanish bond funds.Money market funds, for their part, saw outflows of USD23.3bn.
Following the resignation of Rob Gambi, who is expected to join a competitor, UBS Global Asset Management has promoted John Dugenske as head of fixed income. Dugenske was already head of North American fixed income.In his new role, Dugenske will report directly to the Australian John Fraser, chairman & CEO. He will continue to be based in Chicago.
The Bank of Italy has granted a license for Invimit, the asset management firm founded by the minister of the Economy to value and sell the real estate assets of the italian government, Bluerating reports, citing Reuters. Invimit, founded in May, is led by Vincenzo Fortunato, head of Giulio Tremonti’s office at the Treasury in Silvio Berlusconi’s government. The asset management firm will receive an initial allocation in 2013 equivalent to EUR800m.
Pramerica Life has signed two new distribution agreements in Italy with the Cassa di Risparmio di Cento and the Banca della Marca Credito Cooperativo, Bluerating reports, citing MF.
The Employees’ Retirement System of the State of Hawaii (HIERS), which has 112,000 members, has selected BNY Mellon Asset Servicing as its global custodian for its USD12.5bn in assets. The service will include global custody, securities lending, currencies, cash management and a vast range of risk solutions.
Fred Alger Management has recruited Jeanne Sdroulas as senior vice president and head of marketing. She previously worked at Stone Harbor Investment Partners, where she was global head of marketing. Fred Alger Management as of 30 September had USD19bn in assets under management.
One of the largest actors in alternative management, Brevan Howard, has posted disappointing results for its flagship fund, and has seen heavy losses from its portfolio dedicated to emerging markets, the news agency Reuters reports. The Brevan Howard Master Fund, whose assets under management total about USD28bn, is virtually unchanged since 2013 as of 4 October. It showed gains of 3.8% as of the end of June, but has been oriented downward since that date. Since its launch in 2003, the fund has never posted a single negative year. Another negative performance has been recorded for the hedge fund dedicated to emerging markets, which has about USD2.8bn in assets, and which has seen a decline of 12% in the year 2013 as of 4 October. The traditional hedge fund invested in emerging markets shows gains of 2.07% since the beginning of the year, according to Hedge Fund Research. The fund also shows variable returns. Last year, the fund gained 14%, but it lost 6% in 2011.
Rob Gambi, global head of bonds at UBS Global Asset Management, is leaving the firm after seven years, Investment Week reports. He will be replaced by John Dugenske, previously head of bonds for North America.
The asset management group La Française AM would like to develop its activities serving investors in Latin America and Asia. The target destinations are Miami, Chile, Peru and Colombia, as well as Hong Kong and Singapore, Citywire reports. As part of this strategy, the asset management firm is promoting three funds domiciled in Luxembourg: an Asian value small and midcaps fund, a Chinese value small and midcaps fund, and a global bond fund. The CEO of La Française, Philippe Lecomte, says that development in Latin America will be steered by the Spanish office, with Augusto Martin, head for the Iberian peninsula, and Gerardo Duplat, head of international distribution for Spain. The two will concentrate on high net worth clients in Miami and Chilean, Peruvian and Colombian pension funds.