«Afin de protéger les intérêts des porteurs existants», First State Investments a annoncé son intention de restreindre l’accès des nouveaux souscripteurs à ses fonds First State Global Emerging Market Leaders. Cette décision est liée aux importantes rentrées nettes enregistrées par les fonds qui sont gérés par Jonathan Asante, head of global emerging markets, et Glen Finegan, gérant de portefeuille.A compter du 7 septembre 2013, First State facturera un droit d’entrée de 4 % sur le fonds de la gamme britannique tandis que le fonds correspondant de la gamme irlandaise cessera d’accepter de nouvelles souscriptions. Les épargnants réguliers qui maintiennent leurs souscriptions dans l’un ou l’autre fonds ne seront pas touchés par ces mesures. First State a l’intention de créditer les fonds concernés des droits d’entrée annoncés.

Fundweb rapporte que Natixis Global Asset Management (NGAM) a lancé le 4 avril le Loomis Sayles US Leaders Fund avec un amorçage de 5 millions de dollars fourni par Aberdeen Asset Management par l’intermédiaire du Aberdeen Multi-manager Constellation Portfolio ; NGAM a apporté le même montant. C’est le deuxième fonds offshore importé au Royaume-Uni par NGAM, après le Loomis Sayles Strategice Income Fund.Le gérant, chez Loomis Sayles est le vice president Aziz Hamzaogullari. Le portefeuille se composera de 30 à 35 lignes, des grandes capitalisations américaines de croissance.

Tolga Uzuner, l’ancien patron international des actions et des obligations d’entreprises de la direction des investissements de JP Morgan, tristement connue en raison des pertes de la « Baleine de Londres », a quitté la banque le mois dernier, rapporte Financial News. Il s’apprêterait à lancer un hedge fund crédit, selon une personne proche du dossier. Il a créé Brocade Capital Management, où il est CIO.

Natixis Global Asset Management (NGAM) vient de lancer sur le marché britannique un fonds d’actions américaines, le Loomis Sayles US Leaders fund, avec une contribution de départ de 5 millions de dollars émanant d’Aberdeen, rapporte Investment Week.Le fonds, géré par Aziz Hamzaogullari, a été lancé début avril avec une contribution de 5 millions de dollars également de Natixis. Ce nouveau fonds, le deuxième produit onshore proposé par NGAM, est une stratégie de conviction déclinée dans un portefeuille concentré de 30 à 35 valeurs, pour l’essentiel de grosses capitalisations de croissance.

Jusqu'à présent, BNY Mellon Asset Servicing était déjà chargé de fournir au britannique River and Mercantile Asset Management LLP (R&M) des services de conservation mondiale, de fiducie, de banque dépositaires, d’agent de transfert et d’opérateur sur les marchés des changes. Le groupe américain a en outre été retenu le 13 mai par R&M comme fournisseur de services de back et middle office pour des actifs d’un total de 3,1 milliards de dollars. Cela concerne neuf fonds ouverts de type OEIC et tous les fonds cantonnés de R&M.BNY Mellon assume également les services de gestion des données concernant tous les actifs de R&M pour lesquels est utilisée la technologie Eagle Investment Systems, une filiale de BNY Mellon. Les données sont consolidées, validées et enrichies par BNY Mellon avant d'être livrées à R&M.

Dans un entretien au Financial Times fund management, Andrew Formica, directeur général de Henderson, répond aux critiques dont sa société fait l’objet : elle n’a pas réussi à proposer une marque distinctive dans l’une ou l’autre classe d’actifs, elle s’est centrée sur sa réorganisation après les acquisitions de New Star et Gartmore et elle est surexposée à l’Europe. Le FT fm note aussi que Henderson est la société de gestion britannique cotée en Bourse la moins performante derrière F&C, avec 19,3 milliards de livres de rachats, soit 39 % des encours, depuis le 1er janvier 2009.Andrew Formica assure que la société se diversifie dans d’autres classes d’actifs et régions, notamment les Etats-Unis et l’Australie, et qu’elle cherche à s’imposer comme une maison pour « l’equity income ».

Le Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System (PA SERs) a confié à l'écossais Martin Currie Investment Management Ltd un mandat de gestion 250 millions de dollars correspondant à la nouvelle stratégie marchés émergents mondiaux (global emerging markets ou GEM) de ce fonds de pension. Ce mandat est géré par Kim Catechis, head of GEM et les investment directors Andrew Ness et Jeff Casson, dont l'équipe affiche un encours de 487 millions de livres ou 739 millions de dollars.

KBC a annoncé en fin de semaine dernière la cession à PTE Allianz Polska S.A, filiale de TUiR Allianz Polska S.A., de l’activité en Pologne du fonds de pension Warta. «Cette transaction s’inscrit dans la stratégie de recentrage de KBC sur ses marchés principaux», indique un communiqué. L’opération qui reste soumise à l’aval des autorités compétentes n’a pas d’impact notamment sur les ratios financiers de l'établissement.A la fin de mars 2013, PTE Allianz Polska S.A gérait 8,232 milliards d’actifs. Après l’intégration de cette acquisition, l'établissement gérera 11,833 milliards d’actifs.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Funds on sale in Sweden in April recorded net inflows of SEK10.7bn, equivalent to about EUR1.2bn, according to the local investment fund association, Fondbolagens Förening. Balanced funds took the lion’s share, with SEK5bn in inflows (about EUR0.6bn), while money market funds and equity funds took in SEK3.2bn (EUR0.4bn) and SEK2.1bn (EUR0.2bn), respectively. Bond funds took in only SEK0.8bn, and hedge funds showed slight outflows, with SEK0.4bn. Since the beginning of the year, funds on sale in Sweden have attracted no less than SEK37.1bn, or EUR4.3bn. Equity and balanced funds have each seen inflows of slightly over SEK20bn, or EUR2.3bn. As of the end of April, Swedish funds set records for asset levels with SEK2.241trn (about EUR260bn), of which about 55% were in equity funds.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Fondsnieuws reports that the US firm Invesco has appointed William Lam and Tony Roberts, who have seven and ten years of seniority, respectively, to assist Stuart Parks with the management of the Pacific Equity Fund, an equity fund with USD134m in assets. Roberts is a specialist in Japanese equities.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Nordea has recruited Mathias Leijon as head of Swedish and Scandinavian equity management, the Scandinavian firm has announced in a statement on its Swedish website. He joins from Pictet, where he had been a European equity manager. Leijon will begin in his new role at Nordea on 12 August 2013. He will also have ultimate responsibility for a dozen equity funds, the firm says.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Investment institutions are more acutely aware of the risks they face since the global financial crisis but many still need to improve the way those risks are communicated internally, according to new research by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) commissioned by State Street Corporation.The survey of global asset managers and asset owners found that more than three-quarters of respondents (78 percent) said their organisation had a very risk-aware culture today. This compares with only 30 percent that made risk their highest priority in 2007. This shift represents a significant cultural change for investment institutions. The proportion of organisations placing risk management as their highest priority has more than doubled since before the 2008 financial crisis.The survey entitled, “Closing the communication gap: How institutional investors are building risk-aware cultures,” was conducted in the first quarter of 2013. Respondents included nearly 300 executives of investment institutions – 48 percent of which were asset managers, 35 percent asset owners and 18 percent intermediaries. Approximately 39 percent of respondents were headquartered in the Asia Pacific region, 33 percent were from Europe and 19 percent from North America.Reputational risk is now seen as one of the top risks for institutions, the survey found. More than half of all respondents (56 percent) ranked reputational risk equally with risk arising from market volatility (market risk) as among their organisation’s highest priorities. However, despite the greater awareness of risk, the study also found a disconnect between business and risk functions and differences of opinion about the role of the risk function at many institutions. The majority of non-risk staff (52 percent) think the risk function exists primarily to fulfill regulatory obligations, while less than a third (30 percent) of risk professionals think this.

Mirabaud is adding a new capability to its intermediation service with the formation of the Mirabaud M&A Advisory Group. The group will provide advice on corporate acquisitions and disposals, as well as related financing and strategic advice.Mirabaud has appointed, as partners of Mirabaud Securities LLP, four senior M&A practitioners, Maneksh Dattani, Ian Macfarlane, Paul Schultz and Nicolas Thum, previously partners at Europa Partners, to spearhead the new initiative. They each have more than 20 years’ experience in international mergers and acquisitions. Their existing clients range from FTSE 100 companies (and their equivalents) to financial sponsors and family-owned businesses. The team’s expertise covers a range of sectors and their transactions have been across four continents. The team will be based in London and will work closely with Mirabaud’s existing equity capital markets, debt capital markets and alternative capital teams, as well as Asset Management and Private Banking, throughout Mirabaud’s network.Maneksh DattaniDattani specialises in real estate and private equity related transactions, including financings. Prior to joining Mirabaud, Dattani was a partner at Europa Partners. Ian MacfarlaneMacfarlane specialises in financial institutions and industrials as well as the Nordic Region. Prior to joining Mirabaud, Macfarlane was a partner at Europa Partners. Paul SchultzSchultz specialises in the financial institutions sector. Prior to joining Mirabaud, Schultz was a partner at Europa Partners. Nicolas ThumThum specialises in the transportation & logistics sector. Prior to joining Mirabaud, he was a partner at Europa Partners.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 30 April, assets under management by Franklin Resources (Franklin Templeton Investments) totalled USD847.5bn, compared with USD823.7bn as of the end of March, largely due to incrases of USD6bn for equities (to USD325.9bn) and especially USD14.5bn (to USD383.7bn) for bond products.Assets at Invesco increased by USD19.2bn in April to finish the month at USD748.6bn, with the increases distributed over the various fund ranges (equities, bonds, balanced, money market and alternative). AllianceBernstein’s AUM increased by USD10bn, to a total of USD453bn as of the end of April, due to an increase of USD7bn for bonds (to USD272bn), and a gain of USD2bn (to USD145bn) for equities.Lastly, assets at Legg Mason fell to USD655.4bn as of the end of April, compared with USD664.6bn as of the end of March, largely due to a decline of USD16.4bn in assets in money market funds, while long-term funds were up by USD7.2bn, to USD534.1bn.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Jean-Philippe Olivier has left his position as head of the delegated management department at the French pension fund Fonds de Réserve pour les Retraites (FRR), the website IPE reports. He left the public establishment, whose assets total about EUR36.6bn, last month, in order to take up a position as chief investment officer at Coface. Olivier had been working at the FRR since 2006.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Lawrence Remstedt, a portfolio manager at Axa Rosenberg, which he joined in 2008 after working at American Century Investments since 2003, has been promoted to head of institutional development & relations at Axa Investment Managers for the United States.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Richard M. Weil, CEO, has announced that as Ron Sachs has resigned and left the firm on 31 May, Janus Capital Group has recruited Doug Rao from Marsico Capital Management to manage the Jany Forty and Aspen Forty funds.Marc Pinto, who has spent 19 years as a part of the large cap growth equities team at Janus, has been appointed from 13 May as portfolio manager for the Janus Twenty Fund (a fund which is currently closed to new investors), also replacing Sachs. Pinto will also remain as co-portfolio manager of the Janus Balanced Fund and a portfolio manager of the Janus Growth & Income Fund.Also from 13 May, Jonathan Coleman has been appointed as a portoflio manager at the Janus Triton Fund. With Maneesh Modi, an equity analyst, Coleman will also be co-manager of the portfolio of the Janus Venture Fund. They replace Chad Meade and Brian Schaub, who will be leaving the business after a period of transition, in order to allow the new managers to take over command of the fund. Coleman joined Janus in 1994 and Modi in 2008. As a part of the reorganization, Jonathan Coleman will be leaving the management of the Janus Fund and the Aspen Janus Portoflio, which he had co-managed, to Barney Wilson, who joined Janus in 2005 and who had been the other co-manager of the two products.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Tolga Uzner, former international head of equities and corporate bonds at the chief investment office at JP Morgan, sadly known because of the “Whale of London,” left the bank last month, Financial News reports. He is preparing to launch a credit hedge fund, according to a source familiar with the matter. He has founded Brocade Capital Management, where he is CIO.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) has signed a new partnership with the SEI Master TrustSEI is now using SSgA’s index fund components to help power its investment offering within the SEI Master Trust. The SEI Master Trust is a fully bundled multi-employer occupational pension scheme, which can be used to meet auto-enrolment requirements and to buy-out DC benefits. SEI will be utilising a number of SSgA DC funds to help participating employees design appropriate and competitively priced default funds.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } BNY Mellon Asset Servicing was up to now the provider of UK’s River and Mercantile Asset Management LLP (R&M) with global custody, trust, depositary banking, transfer agency and forex market operator services. The US group has now been retained on 13 May by R&M as provider a back and middle office services on assets totalling USD3.1bn. This includes nine OEIC type open-ended funds and all closed-end funds from R&M.BNY Mellon will also provide data management services concerning all assets at R&M for which technologies from Eagle Investment Systems, an affiliate of BNY Mellon, are used. The data are consolidated, checked and enriched by BNY Mellon before being delivered to R&M.

Baring Asset Management on May 13 announced the appointment of Marco Tang to the newly-created senior role of head of sales, client service and business development for mutual fund distribution, across Hong Kong, China and Singapore. He will be based in Hong Kong and report to Gerry Ng, chief executive officer, Asia ex Japan.Marco Tang joins Barings from JP Morgan Asset Management where he was executive director and head of intermediary business. Prior to this, he held various sales roles at Allianz Global Investors, HSBC Asset Management and Jardine Fleming Unit Trusts.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System (PASERs) has retained the Scottish firm Martin Currie Investment Management Ltd to manage USD250m, corresponding to a new global emerging markets (GEM) strategy for the pension fund. The mandate is managed by Kim Catechis, head of GEM, and the investment directors are Andrew Ness and Jeff Casson, whose team has assets of GBP487m, or USD739m.

Idinvest Partners, leader européen du financement des entreprises non cotées, annonce le closing intermédiaire à 205 millions d’euros de son nouveau véhicule d’investissement exclusivement dédié à la dette senior. Le fonds, appelé « Idinvest Dette Senior » vise à dépasser millions d’euros pour un closing final prévu d’ici fin juin. Les premiers souscripteurs sont principalement des grandes compagnies d’assurances.

Le Trésor espagnol pourrait lever mardi jusqu'à sept milliards d’euros à

Le groupe pétrolier et gazier a convenu d’accorder deux sièges de son conseil d’administration à des représentants du fonds activiste. Hess se trouve sous la menace de perdre le contrôle de cinq sièges à l’occasion de l’assemblée générale annuelle des actionnaires prévue ce jeudi. Elliott Management détient 4,5% du capital du groupe et appelle à des changements depuis janvier.

Le fonds de private equity est parvenu à un accord avec Bain Capital portant sur la cession de FTE Automotive. Les conditions de la transaction n’ont pas été révélées. Le closing est prévu courant juillet 2013. FTE est le leader mondial des systèmes de commande hydraulique d’embrayages pour véhicules légers. En 2012, le chiffre d’affaires de FTE s’est établi à 430 millions d’euros.

Le groupe, qui se voit déjà réclamer 4 milliards d’euros pour le recours à des options dans le cadre du rachat avorté de Volkswagen, fait l’objet de nouvelles poursuites en Allemagne de la part de vingt-cinq fonds d’arbitrage. Les plaignants, qui incluent Viking Global Equities et Glenhill Capital, demandent 1,4 milliard d’euros. En début d’année, ils avaient renoncé à des poursuites aux Etats-Unis.

La société britannique de paris en ligne a indiqué hier soir avoir rompu les négociations autour d’une offre d’un milliard de livres émanant d’un consortium emmené par CVC Capital Partners. Les parties ne sont pas parvenues selon le communiqué à nouer un accord concernant un plan crédible de développement. Les prétendants avaient pourtant relevé à deux reprises le prix de l’offre.

Un groupement d’investisseurs comprenant CITIC Capital et Temasek a prévu de racheter l’éditeur de logiciels pour l’industrie des télécoms pour environ 900 millions de dollars. A 12 dollars par titre, l’offre est supérieure de 2,8% au cours de clôture de la cible vendredi. Le financement comprendra 670 millions de dollars de fonds propres et 330 millions de dette.

L'agence estime qu'elle constitue néanmoins un chaînon clé de l’intermédiation du crédit qui permet de financer les emprunteurs les plus risqués