Christophe Besson, directeur des gestions chez CM-CIC Asset Management

Cédric Fouché, Gérant de fonds de fonds, AG2R La Mondiale à la rédaction de www.institinvest.com : Les marchés actions sont plus favorables car la volatilité a baissé et les primes de risque évoluent vers une normalisation. Nous avons donc plus de visibilité et les stock-pickers sont moins perturbés par les rallyes court terme. D’où notre volonté d’augmenter la part du stock-picking. Plus globalement, nous sommes en train d’augmenter la poche actions au sein de notre portefeuille car cette classe d’actifs offre plus de rendement avec une volatilité moins importante. Actuellement, les actions représentent une des classes d’actifs présentant encore une bonne décote (qui varira selon les régions/secteurs). Le style de notre poche stock-picking est plus la résultante de notre sélection que le reflet d’une stratégie particulière. Nous surveillons avant tout le niveau de tracking error par rapport à l’indice de référence. Quand nous voulons augmenter ou baisser le risque spécifique lié à la performance dégagée directement par le gérant, nous investissons plus largement dans certains types de fonds comme les fonds small caps. Nous sélectionnons uniquement des gérants qui sont largement investis car nous ne voulons pas que le gérant effectue à son niveau un travail d’allocataire en se couvrant avec du cash. Nous aimons les stock-pickers purs. Prenons par exemple, le cas du stock-picker qui a un style « Croissance » et qui souhaiterait se protéger des mouvements de marché quand la croissance devient trop « chère ». Dans ce cas, il conservera du cash en plaçant une poche monétaire dans son fonds pour pouvoir « compenser » dans les périodes difficiles. Certains utilisent un investissement dans des valeurs télécoms offrant d’importants dividendes afin de garder de l’argent de côté et effectuer, si nécessaire, des ajustements. Nous comprenons cette logique mais nous préférons privilégier les fonds purs. Si le gérant présente un profil plus « momentum » c’est-à-dire qu’il achète quand les marchés montent et a tendance à vendre quand les marchés baissent, nous renforçons notre investissement dans les périodes de hausse et nous le réduisons dans les périodes de baisse.

Jack Lew, le secrétaire américain au Trésor, a reconnu que le Japon devait régler ses «problèmes de croissance» mais en s’en tenant aux accords internationaux en vigueur qui proscrivent les dévaluations compétitives. «Je me contenterai de renvoyer aux règles élémentaires et au fait que nous avons clairement dit que nous garderions un oeil sur la situation», a déclaré Jack Lew à la chaîne CNBC, avant la réunion des grands argentiers du G7 vendredi et samedi dans les environs de Londres. La devise nippone traitait à 101,80 yen pour un dollar vendredi après avoir cassé le seuil symbolique des 100 dans la nuit de jeudi.

Le président de la Réserve fédérale Ben Bernanke, a estimé vendredi que le système bancaire occulte («shadow banking») reste une menace pour la stabilité financière et qu’il surveillait de près toute une variété de marchés d’actifs afin de détecter tout signe éventuel d’une prise de risque excessive. «Même si le secteur bancaire occulte est moins important aujourd’hui qu’il ne l'était avant la crise... les régulateurs et le secteur privé doivent résorber les poches de fragilité restantes», a dit le banquier central. Il faut encore prendre des initiatives pour que le marché de financement de gros, par l’intermédiaire duquel les banques assurent leurs besoins de financement quotidiens, puisse absorber les répercussions potentielles d’un défaut d’un grand établissement ou d’un «broker-dealer», a-t-il expliqué. Des retraits massifs sur le marché des fonds monétaires restent par ailleurs une éventualité, estime-t-il.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Spanish courts on 8 May refused to extradite the Swiss former HSBC bank IT employee Hervé Falciani, claiming that the deeds he is accused of would not be subject to prosecution in Spain, the National Audience court in Madrid has declared. Falciani, who was arrested in Barcelona in 2012, and who holds French and Italian citizenship, is accused by Switzerland of theft of banking data which made it possible to identify thousands of tax evaders. Switzerland, which issued an international arrest warrant for him, had requested his extradition froM Spain for theft and disclosure of industrial or commercial secrets and banking confidentiality. In its verdict, the National Audience claims that the deeds cited by Switzerland would not be subject ot prosecution in Spain, as in the latter country there is not “a specific penal protection of banking confidentiality as such.”

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } Fondsnieuws reports that investors who bought structured bonds from the Netherlands-based Lehman Brothers Treasury BV, will receive a redemptoin of USD3.9bn. It is a first instalment, says Frédéric Verhoeven, of the law firm Houthoff Buruma. The Netherlands affiliate has a loan of USD34.5bn from its parent company, the US firm Lehman Brothers Holdings. Due to the anticipated recovery rate of 32%, Netherlands-based creditors may receive about USD6bn.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to Agefi, the Sheet Metal Workers Local 33 Cleveland District Pension Plan has filed a class action lawsuit against 12 banks, accusing them of distorting competition on the CDS market, as these derivatives carry an entitlemens to compensation in the event of default of the underlying asset. The banks being sued are BNP Paribas, Bank of America, Barclays, HSBC, UBS, RBS, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank. The fund, cited by Reuters, claims that banks boycotted a CDS trading platform initiated by the Chicago stock exchange, CME, and the hedge fund Citadel in 2008. It also supports financial establishments which took advantage of their presence on the boards and committees of the market data provider Markit and the industry lobby, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), to prevent competition from emerging.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Assets under management by the Cantonal Bank of Lucerne as of the end of March totalled CHF27.6bn, compared with CHF26.8bn as of the end of December 2012, according to a statement released on 7 May. Gross profits for the bank totalled CHF59.8m, up 4.2%.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } The Swiss private bank Frey is planning to submit a license application in the United States to assist its US clients from offices in the US, the Reuters news agency reports on the basis of information from sources in Switzerland. The United States operation would allow the bank to avoid potential lawsuits by US authorities who suspect Frey of assisting US clients to evade US taxes. The bank says that it is prepared to help US authorities with its investigations, as well as being prepared to open a United States arm of the busines.s Assets under management at Frey total slightly over CHF2bn.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } Ashvin Chhabra, who was head of wealth strategies & analytics at Merrill Lynch from 2001 to 2007, before joining the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton as CIO, has been recruited by Merrill Lynch Wealth Management as CIO, head of investment management & guidance (IMG), a statement says. Chhabra will be responsible for providing strategic investment advising to financial advisers and their clients. He will also be responsible at the IMG unit for due diligence on managers, analysis of investments and investment advising teams, and the ultra high net worth investment office.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } Gerfried Krifka, who had been a member of the board of directors at Matjka & Partner Asset Management, responsible for asset allocation, risk management and financial controlling, has been appointed as a director of the general management at HSBC Global Asset Management (Österreich) GmbH, alongside Jörg Westebbe, who was appointed in 2011. The two men are responsible for the asset management unit, and work to develop the institutional client base and relationships with wholesalers. HSBC Global Asset Management (Österreich) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of HSBC Global Asset Management (Deutschland) GmbH.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } The US firm Vanguard, whose assets under management total about USD2.4trn, is about to list its first ETF domiciled in Hong Kong, based on the FTSE Asi ex Japan index, Asian Investor reports. The ETF received approval from the Hong Kong supervisory authorities on 24 April.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } After 1.03% in January, 0.14% in February and a fall to 0.41% in March, the average returns for UCITS-compliant hedge funds in April fell to 0.21%, according to the UCITS Alternative index calculated by the Swiss firm Alix Capital. Since the beginning of the year, the average gains totalled 1.80%. Four strategies out of twelve, as in March, showed losses in the month under review. Three are the same as in the previous month: commodities (-1.05%), equity market neutral (-0.28%) and volatility (-0.77%), while fourth place this time was currencies (FX), with a loss of 1.23%. The strongest gains were for CTA funds, with gains of 1.81%. Total assets in UCITS-compliant single hedge funds as of the end of April totalled EUR160bn, compared with EUR147bn as of the end of March, EUR143bn as of the end of February, and EUR141bn as of the end of January.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; }A:link { } Due to a lack of financing, the Swiss firm Naisscent Cpaital has published what will be the final edition of its Alternative UCITS Performance Guide. It lists 963 UCITS-compliant single hedge funds and 108 UCITS-compliant funds of hedge funds in 175 pages, with summary statistics. Luxembourg its the European country in which the largest number of UCITS-compliant hedge funds are domiciled, with 51.3% of the total, followed by 20.6% for Ireland and 10.8% in France. The strategies with the largest number of products are equity long/short, with 198 funds, and bonds, with 180 funds, far ahead of multi-strategy funds of funds (73) and multi-asset class (69).

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; }A:link { } The German consulting firm Faros Pension & Asset Advisory has announced that it has created a wealth management structure dedicated to institutional invetors, Faros Fiduciary Management, based in Frankfurt, Das Investment reports. It is a sort of family office open to businesses, churches, charities and pension funds. Faros will handle the investment process for its clients, from strategic asset allocation to the selection of indices and managers, including risk management and financial controlling. Faros is planning to extend its range of services for insurers in 2014.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; }A:link { } The British firm Jupiter Asset Management has officially appointed Peter Swarbreck as head of Asia-Pacific Business (see Newsmanagers of 19 April). He had been head of the Hong Kong office of BlackRock, with additional responsibility for the largest clients of the US firm in Asia. Swarbreck is based in Hong Kong in the new Jupiter offices, and will work with Tony Yu, who joined Jupiter as sales director (Hong Kong) in January, and David Conway, sales director in Singapore since 2009.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; }A:link { } The index provider S&P Dow Jones Indices on 6 May announced the launch of the S&P 500 Buyback Index, an index to measure the performance of the top 100 equities with the highest buyback ratios of the S&P 500 index in the past 12 months. “Buybacks may be considered an important indicator of the health of businesses. Like dividends, redemptions are another means for businesses to deliver value to shareholders. In 2012, companies of the S&P 500 bought back USD399bn in shares, and continue to hold record amounts of cash.”

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The hedge fund manager Philip Falcone, who is being sued for misusing client assets to pay taxes, is settling with the SEC, Agefi reports. He will step down from his position as investment adviser for two years, and his firm, Harbinger Capital Partners, will pay a fine of USD18m. The agreement has yet to be approved by the Department of Justice and commissioners from the regulatory authority.

According to a study released by Greenwich Associates and sponsored by iShares, institutional investors are increasing their use of ETFs in a variety of ways to help solve investment challenges. More than half of institutional investors plan to increase their use of ETFs by the end of this year.This fourth yearly edition of the survey outlines year-over-year changes in the behaviors of corporate and public pension funds, foundations and endowments, investment consultants, insurance companies and investment managers in the U.S.. For the first time, the study surveys investment consultants, insurance companies and Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs).Across all institutions participating in the study, 58% describe their use of ETFs as generally strategic or long-term in nature, a slight increase from 57% in 2012. In general, Greenwich Associates defines a strategic investment as any asset that is held for a year or longer. 70% of institutional ETF users employ ETFs for tactical portfolio adjustments, up sharply from 48% in 2012.The most common application for ETFs by institutions is used within the core of their portfolios. 72% of insurance company users and 67% of pensions, foundations and endowments that use ETFs employ these products to obtain passive exposures in the “core” component of their portfolios. Approximately 80% of RIAs that buy ETFs use them for passive “core” exposures, and 90% of investment consultants who advise their clients to make use of ETFs recommend using these products for passive exposure to complete core/satellite portfolio structures.Eventually, while nearly 90% of institutions use ETFs for domestic equities exposure and 74% use ETFs for international equity portfolios, ETFs are also gaining traction in fixed income. 55% of institutions invest in domestic fixed income ETFs. As one would expect, usage of domestic fixed income is most common among insurance companies at 78%. Interestingly, 74% of RIAs also employ ETFs in domestic fixed income.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } US asset management at Old Mutual in first quarter posted net subscriptions of GBP2.6bn Emerging markets and Old Mutual Wealth posted inflows of GBP0.4bn each. Funds under Management (FUM) at the quarter end increased by 7% to £288.4 billion from £262.2 billion at 31 December 2012 due to positive market movements an net client cash flow of £3.9 billion across the Group

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } After the departure of 19 members of the emerging market debt team to Neuberger Berman (see Newsmanagers of 3 May), ING Investment Managers is planning to increase personnel in the unit to 28 people, Hans Stoter, CIO since February, has told Citywire. The reconstruction of the team will be based on transfers from other bond teams and the elimination of redundancies, limiting the position of co-head of department to a single position. Some repsonsibilities in the area of emerging market bonds have been transferred to the multi-asset class team. However, ING IM has already begun to recruit for fund management, with the arrival of Marco Ruijer (see Newsmanagers of 9 April). Stoter declined to state how much assets have been lost since the departure of the team to Neuberger Berman. At the beginning of the year, ING IM had USD16bn under management in emerging markets.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; }A:link { } As Javier Marín has been promoted to deputy director of Santander, the group has appointed the director of marketing, the private banking division, asset management and insurance, Luis Moreno García, to replace him as head of the unit, Funds People reports. García will be replaced by Maria Dolores Pescador Castrillo. Two other changes will be made in the division: José Salgado Fuertes de Villavicencio becomes global head of private banking, while Óscar Villoslada becomes head of the insurance arm, which had previously been the responsibility of Jorge Morán. Juan Alcaraz remains as head of asset management.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; }A:link { } The French independent asset management firm Oaks Field Partners has received a license from the NCMV to release its first fund in Spain, OFP 400, an absolute return product with daily liquidity, Funds People reports. There are also plans to register the OFP 150 fund. The OFP 400, launched in 2009, aims for outperformance of 400 basis points above the Eonia, with total volatility of 4% to 6%. It is managed by Emeric Challier, Abbas Benboubker, Joséphine Hicter and Sébastien Le Berre. OFP is the third foreign asset management firm to start up in Spain since the beginning of this year, after J. Chahine Capital and Ellipsis AM.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; }A:link { } According to quarterly reports from ING, the asset management firm ING Investment Management (ING IM) in first quarter underwent net redemptions in Europe and Asia totalling EUR0.4bn for retail and EUR2.8bn for institutional. Assets as of the end of March totalled EUR45.7bn for retail and EUR61bn for institutional, Fondsnieuws reports. In the United States, retail at ING IM also saw net outflows of EUR0.4bn in January-March, but institutional generated net inflows of EUR1.1bn.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; }A:link { } Caroline Kuhnert, head of Central 7 Eastern Europe & Turkey at UBS Wealth management, has been promoted to head of Emerging Markets UHNW from 1 June, and will now be responsible for maintaining relationships with ultra-high net worth clients in emerging markets, finews.ch reports. Kuhnert will be base din Zurich, and will report to Jow stadler, global head of UHNW, and Paul Raphael, head wealth management global emerging markets.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; }A:link { } Mirae Asset Management is planning to make its ETFs available internationally, more precisely on US, Latin American and South Asian markets, Asian Investor reports. So far, 130 house ETFs are available in several countries, of which 75 are available on the Toronto market. Mirae AM is planning to enter the US market with niche products, and will aim primarily at institutionals.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; }A:link { } The British firm RWC Partners on 8 May announced plans to launch the RWC Global Horizon Fund in June, managed by Louise Keeling, who was recruited in March from Marathon Asset Management (see Newsmanagers of 24 April), to found a long-only global equity management team. The product will be a UCITS-compliant, Luxembourg-registered contrarian long-only fund with no constraints, which will be part of a range of UCITS-compliant funds with USD2.5bn in assets, out of USD5.8bn managed by RWC overall. The Global Horizon Fund will chage a very low management commission, and a performance commission over a rolling 5-year period.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Carolina Minio-Paluello is joining Lombard Odier Investment Managers (LOIM, CHF38bn in assets as of the end of December) as deputy CIP, in London, where she will report to Jan Straatment, CIO. She was previously head of Europe, Middle East & Africa for equity & private investor solutions at Citigroup, after 11 years at Goldman Sachs, most recently as managing director for quantitative investment strategies. She will be primarily responsible for directing risk-managed institutional portfolio construction.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; }A:link { } The British firm M&G Investments has reported net inflows for first quarter of GBP2.4bn, up 38% compared with first quarter 2012, according to statistics released on 7 May at a publication of resuls for the Prudential group. Assets under management totalled a record GBP238.4bn, of which slightly over GBP119bn were in external funds. In the retail unti, net inflows from European investors totalled a record GBP2.9bn, nearly double the total for first quarter 2012. This substantial inflow was more than enough to offset weak inflows in the United Kingdom, related to a decision by M&G last summer to slow inflows to its tow large corporate bond funds. Retail assets under management increased 28% year on year to GBP61.4bn, as of 31 March 2012, of which GBP18.7bn were from European clients compared with GBP10.4bn as of the end of March 2012. On the institutional side, the quarter finished with a modest net outflow, as the loss of short-term segregated mandates wiped out the positive impact of contributions from the Alternative Credit team at M&G. Assets under management from external institutional clients as of the end of March totalled GBP57.7bn, up 27% year on year.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Norwegian sovereign fund has noticeably accelerated its investments in real estate, Le Temps reports. Among its most recent investments are nearly EUR450m in offices in the United States in February. The fund now has about EUR5bn in real estate assets, which represents only 0.9% of the fund’s total assets, far below the 5% objective defined by the Ministry of Finance. But, Le Temps reports, this is already three times higher than in September 2012.