Recherche
S'abonner
Connexion
Asset Management
Accueil Asset Management Actualités
22/01/2013

Pacific Group converts one third of its alternative assets to gold

The Hong Kong-based asset management firm Pacific Group has decided to convert one third of its hedge fund assets to physical gold, Bloomberg reports. The firm, founded by a former PaineWebber trader, is betting on a rise in the price of gold due to accommodating moneary policy on the part of central banks.Pacific Group has bought USD35m worth of gold ingots.
22/01/2013

Emerging market equities attract investors

Emerging markets equity and bond funds maintained their strong start to the New Year during the second week of January, absorbing another USD7.2 billion between them and taking their combined inflows for the first 16 days of 2013 over the USD18 billion mark. During the same period last year they had taken in just over USD4 billion, according to EPFR.The flows in emerging markets equity funds helped all EPFR global-tracked equity funds outgain their bond fund counterparts for the fifth straight week. The margin was, however, much slimmer than the previous week’s USD15.6 billion gap in favor of equity funds. Those funds took in a net USD7.19 billion during the week ending Jan. 16, with roughly 20% of those flows going to dividend equity funds versus 8% the previous week, while bond funds attracted a 10 week high of USD6.95 billion.Equity funds did attract retail money for the second week running, the first time that has happened since the second half of April, 2011.
22/01/2013

Barings Germany hires Henderson exec

Lars Albert, director of distribution for Germany at Henderson Global Investors, will be joining Baring Asset Management in the same role, Das Investment reports.
22/01/2013

Mainfirst recruits a head of FI

In April, Oliver Reisinger will join MainFirst as head of fixed income, Siegfried Jachinski, a board member, has told the Börsen-Zeitung. Reisinger had since 2011 been head of sales & marketing at HSH Nordbank.Mainfirst is planning to double the personnel in its fixed income operation in two years, to 40 people.
22/01/2013

Pictet: Hervé Thiard also becomes head for Benelux

Following the recent opening of representative offices of Pictet Aset Management (PAM) in Brussels and Amsterdam dedicated to fund sales, Hervé Thiard, CEO in charge of the institutional market for Pictet in France, is also becoming director for the Benelux region. Assets in Paris totalled EUR3.1bn as of 31 December 2012.New offices come as additions to the existing marketing services of PAM in Luxembourg, the banking headquarters of the Pictet group in the European Union. In his new role, Thiard will be supported by Bruno Hellemans, who since 2007 has been operational head of the investment fund market in the Benelux countries.PAM has not disclosed its asset levels in Benelux, which Newsmanagers understands, is higher than its levels in Paris.
22/01/2013

Deka acquires 15,000 square metres in Frankfurt

Deka Immobilian has acquired the office and retail property Alte Hauptpost in Erfurt, a 15,000 suqre metres property, for its institutional real estate fund Deka S-Property Fund N°2. The vendor is Aberdeen Immobilien KAG, and the sale price has not been disclosed.
22/01/2013

BNP Paribas sells its green energy activity

BNP Paribas has agreed to spin off its private equity activity dedicated to green energies, the Financial Times reports. The team, which has adopted the name Glenmont Partners, will continue to have the bank as an investor in its EUR437m fund, raised in 2010. The bank has also agreed to sell the fund to its clients. Since 2007, the team at Glenmont Partners has invested over EUR1bn in 12 projects.
22/01/2013

CalSTRS finds more weapons manufacturers in its portfolio

CalSTRS, the second-largest pension fund in the United States, has identified two more makers of arms in its portfolio, following the shooting in a US school last month, Financial Times Fund Management reports. They are Sturm & Ruger and Smith & Wesson. “These stakes represent less than 10% of our daily equity trades,” says Ricardo Duran of CalSTRS. They come in addition to 2.4% of Freedom Group, the maker of the weapons used in the massacre, which is in the process of being sold by its owner, Cerberus, due to pressure from CalSTRS.
22/01/2013

Profits and assets up at Hennesy Advisors

California-based Hennesy Advisors has declared net profits for the quarter ending on 31 December of USD0.77m, compared with USD0.15m in the corresponding period of 2011, while assets at the end of 2012 totalled USD3.02bn, compared with USD780.9m one year previously. Asset increases largely come due to the acqusition of FBR Funds on 26 October.
22/01/2013

Strong dispersion in the performance of hedge funds for 2012

Edhec on 18 January published its estimate of the performance of hedge funds and funds of hedge funds in December and 2012 as a whole. Last year, only funds specialised in short-selling showed losses, of 3.94%. For 2012 as a whole, that strategy has lost 19.3%, while CTA has lost 2.3%. The S&P 500 index posted gains of 16% last year.However, the other categories all show gains, both for December and for the year as a whole, with the best results for 2012 as a whole for distressed securities and emerging markets, with respective perforamnce of 13.2% and 9.9%, followed by event-driven (+9.6%) and relative value (+9.2%).Overall, maximal return discrepancy last year totalled 32.5 percentage points. Edhec also states that since January 2001, distressed securities and emerging markets have posted average annual gains of 10.4% and 10.1%, while only dedicated short bias showed losses (of an average of 0.8%).The only strategy which shows a Sharpe ratio of higher than 1 is distressed securities (1.03), while two categories have a negative ratio: dedicated short bias (-0.35) and funds of funds (-0.09).
22/01/2013

Hedge fund assets up by USD60bn in fourth quarter

Assets in hedge funds rose by USD60bn in fourth quarter to a record USD2.25trn, according to the most recent statistics from the HFR Global Hedge Fund Industry Report.Net inflows totalled USD3.4bn in fourth quarter, bringing inflows for the year as a whole to USD34.4bn.The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index gained 1.3% in fourth quarter, and 8.2% for the year as a whole.HFR also states that it has launched the HFRU indices, which track the performance of UCITS-compliant hedge funds. The HFRU Hedge Fund Composite Index gained 4.9% in 2012.
22/01/2013

EFG to launch multi-asset fund in the UK

Investment Week reports that as a part of its development in the United Kingdom, EFG Asset Management, an affiliate of the Swiss firm EFG International, is planning to launch a multi-asset class fund in April (government and corporate bonds, hybrid debt, equities, hedge funds, real estate, infrastructure and cash), with OEIC status, which will be managed by Hilary Wakefield, head of UK portfolio management.The fund will aim for returns of 8%, and volatility of 4-7%, with the Libor + 300 basis points as its hurdle rate.
22/01/2013

Odey at work on a UCITS variant of its European L/S strategy

Odey Asset Management is planning to offer a UCITS-compliant version of its European long/short hedge fund strategy, launched ten years ago, which will be domiciled in Dublin, Investment Week reports.According to Bloomberg statistics, the Odey European fund, whose assets under management total about USD1.8bn, posted returns of 24% in 2012. Since its launch, the fund shows gross annual returns of 13.4%.Odey is planning to launch other UCITS-comlpiant funds in the next few weeks, including a long/short equity fund.
22/01/2013

IOSCO presents recommendations for distribution of complex products

The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) on January 21 published a final report on Suitability Requirements with respect to the distribution of complex financial products, which sets out principles relating to the distribution by intermediaries of complex financial products to retail and non-retail customers.The report, which forms part of IOSCO’s ongoing drive to promote customer protection, introduces nine principles that cover the following areas related to the distribution of complex financial products by intermediaries: classification of customers, general duties irrespective of customer classification, disclosure requirements, protection of customers for non-advisory services, suitability protections for advisory services (including portfolio management), compliance function and internal suitability policies and procedures, incentives and enforcement."Although complex financial products may not be necessarily more risky than standard financial instruments, they typically have terms, features and potential investment risks that may make it difficult for many customers, even non-retail customers, to appreciate fully. The financial crisis that began in 2008 raised serious concerns that the growing complexity of financial products made the associated investment risks less apparent to customers,» IOSCO says in a statement.
22/01/2013

Caceis expands its range of services for AIFM managers

Caceis on 21 January announced an extension to its range of services to help fund managers comply with and take full advantage of the AIFM (Alternative Investment Fund Managers) Directive, under which they will soon be regulated. Caceis is already helping some fund managers to evaluate the implications of the AIFM Directive by providing operational support for adapting their organisation and internal procedures, in particular concerning the delegation of functions, risk management and the new regulatory reporting format. These fund managers can also use the services of Luxcellence, a Luxembourg subsidiary of Caceis, to manage their risks, structuring and the domiciliation of their funds. Caceis has initiated discussions within its network with several local fund managers to help them consider the implications of the Directive, while keeping the characteristics of their market in mind. Conference debates have been organised for early this year in Germany, the UK, France and Asia to study the challenges posed by the Directive with AIFMs.
22/01/2013

Everyone wants a single market for ETFs in Europe, according to UBS

“Everyone would like a single market to trade ETFs in Europe. But we are not the United States,” said Clemens Reuter, global head of UBS ETF, in an interview with Plus, the supplement of Il Sole – 24 Ore. UBS ETF has launched 61 ETFs on the Milan stock exchange. The firm has also created a support team dedicated to Italian clients.
22/01/2013

Top ETF "SPY" turns 20

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF, launched on 22 January 1993 by State Street, which goes by the NyseArca ticker SPY, on Tuesday, 22 January celebrated its 20th birthday. Celebration is justified, according to IndexUniverse, since the product was the first ETF listed in the United States, and it is now the larget ETF in the world, with assets of USD125bn.SPY accounts for about 9% of the USD1.403trn now invested in ETFs, It is among the least costly ETFs on the market, with total TER of 0.0945%, while the TER of its direct competitors, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF and iShares Core S&P 500 ETF are 0.05% and 0.07%, respectively.
22/01/2013

Assets in individual pension funds rose in 2012

As of the end of December, assets under management by Spanish individual pension funds totalled EUR51.75bn, compared with EUR49.9bn one year previously. They underwent net outflows of EUR824.75m, but market effects were positive by more than EUR2.67bn, meaning that the increase in assets, at nearly EUR1.85bn, represented 3.71% for 2012 as a whole, according to statistics from VDOS Stochastics.As for investment funds, the top three asset management firms by assets are BBVA, with EUR9.14bn (+8.6% for the year), Santander, with EUR7.33bn (+5.1%), and Caixa, with nearly EUR7.13bn (-3.6%).However, BBVA shows net inflows of EUR309.3m, Santander has seen net outflows of EUR57m, and inflows at Caixa totalled EUR664.3m.VDOS reports that two products from BBVA lead, one for assets, the BBVA Proteccion 2015 (EUR1.71bn), and one for net subscriptions, the BBVA Tranquilidad 16V, with EUR110.2m. However, BBVA Proteccion 2014 is also the fund which has seen the heaviest net outflows (EUR192.9m).
22/01/2013

Crèdit Andorrà registers Luxembourg funds in Spain

En vue de les faire commercialiser en Espagne par sa filiale locale de banque privée, le Banco Alcalá, l’andorran Crèdit Andorrà a fait enregistrer par la CNMV les neuf compartiments de sa sicav luxembourgeoise Crediinvest, rapporte Funds People. Il s’agit des fonds Money Market Euro, Money Market Dollar, Fixed Income Euro, Fixed Income Dollar, Big Cap Value, Spanish Value, International Value, US American Value et Sustainability.
22/01/2013

Deka makes new acquisition in Paris

Deka Immobilien has acquired a commercial real estate property under construction located in the avenue de France in Pars from Nexity. The property (7,200 square metres), which is slated for completion in September 2013, will be added to the portfolio of an institutional real estate fund.
22/01/2013

db x-trackers: 4 sectoral A-class Chinese equity ETFs in Frankfurt

On 21 January, the listings on the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic platform reached 1,014, with the admission to trading of the first five sectoral ETFs in Europe of A-class Chinese equities, from db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank), Deutsche Börse reports. They are all Luxembourg-registered products, which charge 0.50%, and replicate sub-indices of the Shanghai CSI 300.db x-trackers has previously launched an ETF for the CSI 300, whose assets have increased from EUR272m at the end of June to EUR620m as of 14 January.The five new products are as follows:db X-trackers CSI300 Banks Index ETF (LU0781021877),db X-trackers CSI300 Consumer Discretionary Index ETF (LU0781021950),db X-trackers CSI300 Energy Index ETF (LU0781022172),db X-trackers CSI300 Health Care Index ETF (LU0781022339) anddb X-trackers CSI300 Real Estate Index ETF (LU0781022099)
22/01/2013

Assets in Swiss funds up by 13% yoy in December

Assets in Swiss investment funds as of the end of Dcember 2012 totalled CHF711.9bn, down by CHF6.1bn compared with the previous month, according to statistics from the Swiss Funds Association (SFA). Year on year, however, Swiss funds were up by 13%, or slightly over USD80bn.In December 2012, inflows to bond funds totalled CHF1.5bn, while equity funds were up by CHF344.7m, but at the same time, money market funds saw outflows of CHF1.9bn.In 2012, UBS (market share of 22.74%) and Credit Suisse (16.25%) remained the largest fund providers on the Swiss market, followed by Pictet (6.99%), Swisscanto (5.83%), and the Cantonal Bank of Zurich (5.11%).
22/01/2013

L'Ecofin donne son feu vert à la taxe sur les transactions financières

La majorité des ministres des Finances de l’Union européenne ont donné mardi leur accord à l’Allemagne, la France et neuf autres Etats membres pour préparer la mise en place d’une taxe sur les transactions financières dans le cadre d’une coopération renforcée. Ces 11 pays (Allemagne, France, Italie, Espagne, Autriche, Portugal, Belgique, Estonie, Grèce, Slovaquie et Slovénie) peuvent désormais lancer le projet sans la participation des 16 autres, comme le prévoient les règles de fonctionnement de l’UE.
22/01/2013

Le Royaume-Uni a emprunté plus que prévu en décembre

Selon l’Office national des statistiques, les emprunts publics de l’Etat britannique, hors interventions dans le secteur financier, ont atteint 15,4 milliards de livres (18,4 milliards d’euros) le mois dernier, contre 14,8 milliards en décembre 2011 et 15,2 milliards de livres attendu en moyenne par les économistes.
22/01/2013

Le futur directeur général du Takeover Panel vient de Citigroup

Philip Robert-Tissot, responsable chez Citigroup des fusions-acquisitions pour la région Europe-moyen-Orient et Afrique, sera le futur directeur général du Takeover Panel, l’autorité indépendante chargée du contrôle des offres publiques en Grande-Bretagne. Il prendra ses fonctions le 1er avril. Il remplacera Robert Gillespie, en place depuis septembre 2010.
22/01/2013

L'Espagne continue de profiter de la baisse des tensions

Afin d’allonger la maturité de sa dette, le Trésor espagnol a lancé son premier nouvel emprunt à 10 ans depuis plus d’un an mardi, profitant d’un apaisement des tensions sur le marché obligataire des pays périphériques européens. Madrid a fixé à 365 points de base au-dessus de la courbe des swaps le spread définitif de son emprunt syndiqué à 10 ans, indique Reuters de source de marché. Le Trésor souhaiterait lever entre 3 et 4 milliards d’euros, voire davantage en fonction de la demande. Sur le marché secondaire, le rendement des obligations souveraines à 10 ans reculait en fin de matinée de deux points de base, à 5,144%. Barclays, BBVA, Citi, Goldman Sachs et Société générale devraient fixer dans la journée les conditions d'émission définitives. Lors de sa dernière opération comparable, en février 2012, Madrid a mis sur le marché un emprunt à 10 ans assorti d’un coupon de 5,85%.
Photo: PHB
22/01/2013

L'indice allemand Zew remonte en flèche à ses niveaux de mai 2010

L’indice ZEW, qui mesure le sentiment des investisseurs en Allemagne, a progressé bien plus qu’attendu en janvier à 31,5, un niveau qu’il n’avait plus touché depuis mai 2010, après 6,9 en décembre. Les économistes interrogés par Reuters anticipaient en moyenne une amélioration nettement plus modeste, à 12,0. Selon l’institut l’optimisme des entrepreneurs pourrait très vite se traduire par une reprise de l’investissement.
22/01/2013

Nicolas Sarkozy encore loin de bâtir un fonds d’investissement

« Mon avenir immédiat, c’est de faire quelque chose d’utile et qui permette de gagner de l’argent. J’ai trouvé », déclarait en septembre dernier Nicolas Sarkozy, des propos rapportés à l'époque par le Journal du Dimanche. Selon Mediapart, l’ancien chef de l’Etat chercherait à créer un fonds d’investissement avec l’appui d’Alain Minc. Ce fonds, qui pourrait être basé à Londres, tendrait vers un objectif de levée d’un milliard d’euros. Nicolas Sarkozy, qui a surtout œuvré sur le terrain des conférences depuis son départ de l’Elysée, n’aurait toutefois « pas encore définitivement décidé de franchir le pas », tempère Mediapart. Cité par lefigaro.fr, Alain Minc bat en brèche de son côté l’idée d’une installation à Londres. Selon une autre source proche, interrogée par L’Agefi, le projet prêté à Nicolas Sarkozy par Mediapart ne reposerait sur aucun fondement.
22/01/2013

Charles Dallara va rejoindre Partners Group

En voie de quitter l’Institute of International Finance (IIF), qu’il a dirigé pendant plus de vingt ans, Charles Dallara va rejoindre le gérant de portefeuilles d’investissement Partners Group. Il y deviendra associé et assumera le rôle de président pour les Amériques. Sa nomination comme vice-président du conseil d’administration sera en outre proposée aux actionnaires.
22/01/2013

Le Parlement européen pourrait revenir sur les dérivés

Des membres du Parlement européen s’apprêtent à déposer une résolution demandant un réexamen des nouvelles règles sur les produits dérivés. Ils pointent notamment l’absence d’application de ces règles pour des acteurs non financiers tels que les compagnies aériennes, qui recourent aux dérivés pour se protéger de la volatilité des coûts du pétrole.

Sujets d'actualité

Tous les sujets