Syria’s civil war, as well as questions about the China’s economy and US policy have led investors to wait and see in early September.Overall, investors pulled over USD9 billion out of US equity funds during the week ending September 4 and nearly USD6 billion out of emerging markets equity and bond funds. Despite a regain of interest in Europe, equity funds recorded outflows of USD11.4 billion, according to statistics released by EPFR Global.Bond funds posted net outflows of USD284 million as they extended a six week outflow streak. Money market funds saw USD7.43 billion flow out.

US investors have pumped more money into European equities than at any time since 1977, according to the Financial Times, which says that it is a big vote of confidence for the region. Pension funds and other big US groups invested USD65bn in European stocks in the first six months of 2013, the highest in 36 years over that time period, according to research by Goldman Sachs.

Christophe Gloser, who became head of Fidelity in France in 2011, has succeeded to change the image of the asset management firm, which was too much equities and not enough bonds. This has given him the means to add to sales teams and to highlight the good results from asset management in France. This is a characteristic which Fidelity in London is able to appreciate.

The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), the global hedge fund industry association, published on September 5 an enhanced statement of policy principles. The paper builds on the AIMA Policy Platform, the landmark 2009 document in which AIMA offered its support for improved transparency, unified global standards, manager authorisation and supervision, aggregated short position disclosure to regulators and new policies to reduce settlement failure. “Capital markets are crucial in the financing of the economy and the hedge fund industry plays an ever increasing role in the entire chain of investing and financial intermediation, contributing to market depth, sophistication, transparency and thus its ability to support growth. AIMA therefore wishes to participate actively in the elaboration of policies in the areas of asset management and financial markets regulation with the aim of improving investor protection, market transparency and financial stability overall,” Kathleen Casey, chair, AIMA, said.

UCITS recorded net inflows of only EUR 12 billion in the second quarter of 2013, down from the record net inflows of EUR 132 billion recorded in the first quarter of the year, according to the latest statistical release of the European Fund and Asset Management Association (Efama).This drop can be attributable to a large increase in net outflows from money market funds and a reduction in net inflows into long-term funds, as investors’ expectations of increased interest rates rise.Long-term UCITS, i.e. UCITS excluding money market funds, continued to register strong net inflows (EUR 65 billion), albeit down from EUR 134 billion in the previous quarter. Money market funds recorded a large rise in net outflows to EUR 53 billion in the second quarter, up from EUR 2 billion recorded in the previous quarter. Equity funds experienced a turnaround in net flows to register outflows of EUR 8 billion, compared to net inflows in the first quarter of EU 44 billion. Bond funds attracted net inflows of EUR 30 billion during the quarter, down from EUR 44 billion. Balanced funds registered another quarter of strong net sales (EUR 28 billion), albeit down from EUR 36 billion in previous quarter.Combined assets of UCITS and non-UCITS decreased 1.7 percent in the second quarter to stand at EUR 9,232 billion at end June 2013. Nevertheless, since end 2012 total net assets of UCITS and non-UCITS have increased 3.2 percent.Overall in the first half of 2013, UCITS recorded net inflows of EUR 144 billion, driven by net sales of bond funds (EUR 74 billion), balanced funds (EUR 64 billion) and equity funds (EUR 36 billion).

Newsmanagers understands that OFI Asset Management will soon announce the acquisition of a stake in the Parisian third-party marketing (TPM) firm Aloha Finance, as OFI AM is planning to accelerate its development in France and internationally. The primary objective for OFI will be to reposition the internally-managed product range and its external product range. This new acquisition will allow OFI AM to reconcile and improve the two product ranges, and to consolidate its Luxembourg platform, in order to accelerate its international development. The acquisition of Aloha Finance would also be an occasion for OFI AM to add to its management team. Sandrine Toulouse, founder of Aloha Finance and former head of the Paris office of BlackRock, should become head of development, in which position she will report to Gérard Bourret, CEO, and Jean-Marie Mercadal, deputy CEO reponsible for asset management. Gilbert Nguyen, associate partner of Aloha Finance, should also be appointed as head of distribution at OFI AM for France and abroad.

The two asset management firms from the private bank Neuflize OBC are expected to be only one firm by the end of the year, Agefi has learned from multiple sources. Once agreed by the AMF and its social partners, Neuflize Private Assets will be absorbed into Neuflize OBC Investissements. All asset management activities and a maximum of employees will be retained, says Philippe Vayssettes, chairman of the board at Neuflize OBC, who is seeking to significantly reduce the cost/income ratio (77% as of the end of 2012).The group does not want to initiate a social plan, but will take advantage of natural departures. The range would be reduced from about 50 funds to 30, preferring performance to critical size. Lastly, sales teams would be grouped at the bank and would sell all products from the firm, including credit, insurance and advising, to all institutional clients.

Crédit Agricole and Société Générale banking groups are contemplating to put an end to their joint ventures in the brokerage and asset management industries, after five years of cooperation, les Echos reports, citing Journal du dimanche.The financial side of the deal would involve Crédit Agricole selling to its partner its 50% stake in their joint brokerage operation Newedge, while Société Générale could sell 10 % of its 25% stake in their Amundi asset management affiliate to Crédit Agricole. Crédit Agricole and Société Générale refused to comment

Claudia Calich has left Invesco, where she had been head of the Invesco emerging market debt unit, for personal reasons, Citywire Global reports. To succeed her, the firm has promoted two of its managers; Eric Lindenbaum and Jack Deino.

The alternative asset management firm Pine River Capital Management is expected to launch a fund dedicated to China in October, with initial capital of USD150bn, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg. Last year, the Pine River Fixed Income FuND earned returns of 35%, largely due to exposure to mortgage bonds. Since 1st August 2011, assets under management by Pine River have more than doubled, to a total of USD13.6bn.

Switzerland is one of the European countries in which the asset management group Henderson Global Investors is planning to develop. After opening a branch office in Zurich, Henderson GI is planning to set up shop in Geneva, Andrew Formica, CEO of Henderson GI, tells the news agency finews. The Australian head of Henderson adds that he would also like to develop in Germany and Italy, through independent financial advisers, as the firm has already done in the United Kingdom.

Bryan Collings has announced that he has resigned from his position as managing partner of the British asset management boutique Hexam, in order to concentrate on managing the range of onshore and offshore funds from the group, Investment Week reports. Collings, a founding partner of the group, had managed the Global Emerging Markets fund, whose assets under management totalled GBP13m, and which has lost more than 33% in the past three years, compared with average gains of 1.2% in the same period for the benchmark index. Hexam, which is 35% controlled by Ignis Asset Management, has not yet found a successor for Collings.

One woman out of every two employed in asset management has been subjected to regular harassment or sexist behaviour at the office, according to the initial results of a survey carried out by FTfm, which surveyed 100 men and women employed in the sector. 54% of women say that they have faced “inappropriate” conduct in the workplace, while 28% say they have been sexually harrassed. One respondent explains that the asset management sector is highly masculine.

The British firm ETF Securities on Monday announced the launch of Canvas, a new service which will allow asset managers worldwide, both passive and active, to crate and sell ETFs under their own brands in Europe in a totally open architecture context.The white-label product factory offers multiple opportunities, including the possibility of issuing ETFs using all infrastructure from ETF Securities, the option of creating an advanced ETF platform, and of converting UCITS funds into ETFs, or to create an ETF share class in a UCITS fund.As Matt Johnson, head of distribution for Europe, the Middle East and Africa explains, Canvas supports all possible configurations, from the simple development of ETFs to total responsibility for management, with the primary objective of rapidly releasing products on the market in the context of efficiency in the use of capital and resources. The sustem allows for ETFs to be offered with both physical replication and synthetic replciation. For its part, ETF Securities will continue to offer its own range of UCITS-compliant ETFs to investors, with the service provided by the Canvas team.The creation of Canvas represents a smart diversification for ETF Secutities, which needs to reduce its dependency on gold ETPs, which represent about 75% of its assets of USD23bn, after a peak of USD31bn, when gold was valued at USD1,800 per ounce.Massimo Siano, director of sales for Italy, France and Monaco, has told Newsmanagers that Canvas will be aimed at the asset management firms industry acorss a variety of asset classes. The formula selected “provides a means to share costs, competence, and profits.”Meanwhile, ETF Securities is planning to add to its range in new segments such as intelligent beta and variable rate high yield, but these plas are still in the development stages.

Mark Chan, vice president for Greater China at JPMorgan Asset Management Asia, after serving as relationship manager at Allianz Global Invstors in Hong Kong, has been recruited by Threadneedle Investments as director, institutional, North Asia. He will be based in Hong Kong and will be a member of the Asia-Pacific team led by Raymundo Yu.Chan will cooperate closely with June Wong, vice-chairman of Asia-Pacific and CEO Hong Kong, to develop a strategic plan at Threadneedle for the region. He will aim in particular to develop relations with institutional investors in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.

UK-based ETF Securities on Monday announced the launch of Canvas, a new service which will allow asset managers worldwide, both passive and active, to create and sell ETFs under their own brands in Europe in a totally open architecture context.The white-label product factory offers multiple opportunities, including the possibility of issuing ETFs using all infrastructure from ETF Securities, the option of creating an advanced ETF platform, and of converting UCITS funds into ETFs, or to create an ETF share class in a UCITS fund.As Matt Johnson, head of distribution for Europe, the Middle East and Africa explains, Canvas supports all possible configurations, from the simple development of ETFs to total responsibility for management, with the primary objective of rapidly releasing products on the market in the context of efficiency in the use of capital and resources. The system allows for ETFs to be offered with both physical replication and synthetic replciation. For its part, ETF Securities will continue to offer its own range of UCITS-compliant ETFs to investors, with the service provided by the Canvas team.The creation of Canvas represents a smart diversification for ETF Secutities, which needs to reduce its dependency on gold ETPs, which represent about 75% of its assets of USD23bn, after a peak of USD31bn, when gold was valued at USD1,800 per ounce.Massimo Siano, director of sales for Switzerland, Italy and France, has told Newsmanagers that Canvas will primarily be aimed at entrepreneurial asset management firms (like ETF Securities itself), which are not competitors since they do not have commodity products. The formula selected “provides a means to share costs, competence, and profits.”Meanwhile, ETF Securities is planning to add to its range in new segments such as smart beta and variable rate high yield, but these plans are still in the development stages.

Bill Gross, manager of the Total Return fund (USD251.1bn) at Pimco, suffered redemptions of USD7.7bn last month, the fourth consecutive month of outflows, according to Morningstar. In the same period, the DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund by Gundlach (USD36.7bn) has seen outflows of USD1.1bn in August, the third consecutive month of outflows. Gross and Gundlach have rock-star status in the bond universe, due to the solid performance of their funds over the long term.

The alternative asset management firm Pine River Capital Management is expected to launch a fund dedicated to China in October, with initial capital of USD150bn, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg.Last year, the Pine River Fixed Income Fund earned returns of 35%, largely due to exposure to MBS. Since 1 August 2011, assets under management by Pine River have more than doubled, to a total of USD13.6bn.

The Wall Street Journal rapporte que vendredi, le Reserve Primary Fund, le premier fonds monétaire américain à valeur liquidative constante à «avoir cassé le dollar» (break the buck), est parvenu à un accord à l’amiable avec le Third Avenue Institutional International Value Fund et les autres plaignants d’une action de concert.Il accepte de verser les quelque 75 millions de dollars restant dans le fonds, dont 10 millions en numéraire seront versés aux trois co-gérants Bruce Bent Senior et ses fiols Bruce bent II et Arthur Bent III. De la sorte, les porteurs du Reserve Primay Fund auront recouvré le reste de leur argent, puisqu’ils en avaient jusqu’à présent récupéré 99 %.

Hopewell Wood, CEO, has announced that the London-based macro alternative management firm Comac Capital laid off 18 employees in August, equivalent to one third of its personnel, the Wall Street Journal reports. The move follows two years of losses, which also resulted in net redemptions. Assets have fallen to about USD2.2bn, compared with USD4.8bn as of September 2012, and more than USD5bn as of the end of 2010.Colm O’Shea, former proprietary trader at Citigroup, who founded Comac in 2005, has explained that the negative returns were due to bad bets, first against the euro in 2012, and then on interest rates in early 2013. However, the fund has made money by betting against some emerging maket currencies.

HSBC has offered USD250m to shareholders in the Thema fund to settle a lawsuit filed on 30 April this year in Dublin, Agefi Switzerland reports. The fund, which had been sold in Switzerland by Geneva-based staff at Genevalor, was seeking USD1.5bn from its depository bank, which it had accused of negligence in the surveillance of assets.The first settlement of a Madoff-related lawsuit corresponds to 43% of capital lost by the fund according to the shareholder register, HSBC states. It may represent a precedent for the next cases of this type.

Pressure exerted by disappointed investors has obliged hedge fund managers to reduce the commissions they charge, which places the traditional 2%/20% structure (2% management commissions, 20% performance commissions) on the list of threatened species, the Wall Street Journal reports. The average now stands at 1.6% for management commissions, and about 18% for performance commissions.

Pioneer Investments has launched a UCITS-compliant version of its US fund Dynamic Credit, Citywire Global reports. The new fund, which is domiciled in Luxembourg, replicates the USD366bn fund launched for US investors in April 2011. The co-managers of the fund are Andew Feltus, Michael Temple and Chin Liu.

Pioneer Investments a lancé une version coordonnée de son fonds américain Dynamic Credit, a dévoilé Citywire Global. Le nouveau fonds, domicilié au Luxembourg, réplique le fonds de 366 millions de dollars lancé pour les investisseurs américains en avril 2011. Les co-gérants du fonds sont Andrew Feltus, Michael Temple et Chin Liu.

La Banque de France a relevé lundi sa prévision de croissance de l'économie française au troisième trimestre à 0,2%. L’enquête mensuelle de l’institution pour le mois d’août fait par ailleurs apparaître des hausses de deux points des indicateurs du climat des affaires dans l’industrie (97) et dans les services (93). Si ces indicateurs restent inférieurs à leur moyenne de long terme (100), un niveau qu’ils n’ont pas atteint depuis mai 2011 pour l’industrie et juin 2011 pour les services, les chiffres d’août sont les meilleurs enregistrés depuis septembre 2011 pour l’industrie et mai 2012 pour les services. Cette embellie intervient après la publication de plusieurs indicateurs positifs pour l'économie française, dont l’annonce d’une croissance de 0,5% du PIB au deuxième trimestre par l’Insee.

A fin août 2013, le bureau français de Fidelity enregistre des encours sous gestion pour le compte de ses clients de plus de 5,5 milliards d’euros, contre 4,5 milliards à fin 2012. «Cette croissance des encours est due à un environnement plus porteur sur les marchés, mais également à une tendance très positive et régulière de collecte auprès des clients français», signale la société de gestion, qui a anoncé par ailleurs deux recrutements de commerciaux, Isabelle Foy (ex-Montpensier Finance) et Vincent Chabriel (ex-Edram).

Benoît Coeuré, membre du comité exécutif de la Banque centrale européenne, a été élu lundi président du Comité des système de paiements et de règlement-livraison (CPSS, Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems). Il remplace Paul Tucker pour un mandat de trois ans.

L’Agence France Trésor annonce qu’elle a servi, lundi, 1,51 milliard d’euros de soumissions non compétitives à l’issue de son adjudication d’OAT du 5 septembre. Le montant total des OAT émis dans le cadre de cette opération s'élève à 9,895 milliards d’euros. Ce volume se répartit en 2,537 milliards d’OAT 3,25% 2021, 5,208 milliards d’OAT 1,75% 2023 et 2,15 milliards d’OAT 3,25% 2045.

Monceau Assurances est plus positif sur les actions. « Nous avons renforcé nos investissements dans les actions européennes en début d’année, indique à la rédaction de www.institinvest.com, le patron de l’institution, Gilles Dupin (lire son portrait). Nous sommes entrés sur quelques nouveaux fonds. En revanche, nous continuons de sous-pondérer les actions américaines ». Au total, Monceau Assurances a en portefeuille une trentaine de fonds (ouverts ou dédiés) sur les actions et les convertibles. L’institution a notamment investi dans deux fonds spécialisés dans le domaine de la Santé, BSO Bio Santé (Banque Saint Olive) et Trecento Global Healthcare (Trecento AM), à hauteur de 4 millions d’euros environ dans chaque cas. Par ailleurs, Monceau Assurances reste acheteur dans l’immobilier en ciblant en priorité Paris. L’institution qui avait déjà effectué plusieurs acquisitions en 2012, a acheté cette année un immeuble de bureaux dans la capitale, situé rue de Mogador. Elle a également acquis un nouvel immeuble (en construction) à Villeneuve d’Ascq dans une ZAC très attractive. Retrouver la fiche Monceau Assurances dans le Guide

Stéphane Waldisberg, managing director chez Olympia Capital Gestion