Simone Rosti, head of wealth clients at iShares, is joining UBS ETF (USD12bn in assets in Europe) as head of ETF sales for Italy. He will be based in Milan, and will report to Roger Boots, head of UBS ETF sales for Europe. UBS ETF, a division of UBS Global Asset Management, is aiming to launch 60 products on the market in 2013. Currently, only 12 funds of the range are on sale in Italy.

Zurich-based banking group Julius Baer (CHF184bn of AUM on August, 31st) on November 12th announced it has reached an agreement with Milan-based wealth manager Kairos Investment Management SpA (EUR4.5bn) for a cooperation to jointly create a leading onshore wealth management player in Italy.Julius Baer’s Italian SIM will be integrated into Kairos and, simultaneously, Julius Baer will acquire 19.9% of Kairos for an undisclosed amount. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the first half of 2013. Secondly, subject to regulatory approval, the parties have also agreed to set up a new private bank in Italy by separately applying for a banking licence after the closing of this transaction. All Italian wealth management activities of the two groups will be run under the name Kairos Julius Baer. However, Julius Baer Fiduciaria S.r.l. is not part of this transaction and will remain a wholly-owned subsidiary of Julius Baer.Both parties together will decide on a future increase of Julius Baer’s strategic participation after a few years.

Assets under management by external clients of the financial services unit of Generali as of 30 September totalled EUR93.23bn, compared with EUR90.66bn as of the end of June 2012, and EUR84.27bn as of the end of December 2011, the Generali group has announced at a presentation of its interim results. Operating profits for the unit rose 17.1% to EUR320m, largely due to an improvement in returns, and due to trading operations by the group, including for equity portfolios.

The Credit Suisse group will from 1 January 2013 merge its Private Clients Switzerland and Private Banking Switzerland units, according to the website finews, which has obtained an internal memo. The head of the new unit, Wealth Management & Private Clients Switzerland, will be Christoph Brunner, who had been responsible for private clients in Switzerland, and who had been chief operating officer of the private bank. The establishment of this new structure will lead to the loss of 300 jobs and will bring savings of CHF50m.

The pension fund for Japanese municipal authorities, Chikyoren, has decided to bring a considerable proportion of its portfolio management in-house. It will invest less in government bonds, according to the Japanese pension fund database, Asian Investor reports. Slightly over 20% of the portfolio is now managed internally, compared with less than 8% in 2003. Assets under management at Chikyoren totalled JPY15.850trn as of the end of March 2012, equivalent to about USD191.5bn.

An increase in the publicly-traded capital at Partners Group, announced last week, has been enacted as part of an accelerated book building procedure. The price of the equities released by the founders and major shareholders Marcel Erni, Alfred Gantner and Urs Wietlisbach has been set at 183 francs, and 3.3 million equities have been placed at this unit price, the group announced in a statement released on 9 November. The issue price range was previously set at between 180 nd 185 Swiss francs. The offer attracted a lot of interest worldwide, and was subscribed double, Partners Group states. Partners Group had previously announced that its founders and major shareholders will free up 300 million Swiss francs for direct investment in collaboration with clients. Several current and potential shareholders also expressed an interest for a capital increase. The firm may now invest at least CHF300m.

iShares has announced that it has recruited Christian Obrist for its sales department. He will be responsible for managing relationships with institutional clients, particularly pension funds. He will be based in Zurich, and will report to Andreas Zingg, head of the firm in German-speaking Switzerland. Obrist has eight years of experience in sales to institutional clients, most recently in London at JP Morgan Chase Bank in fixed income products.

British fund managers had previously been largely spared from scandals, but the British Financial Services Authority has revealed that the asset management sector is not irreproachable in terms of conflicts of interest, Les Echos reports. Commissions and transactions, in particular, are in question. Out of a sample of 15 asset management firms, whose names have not been disclosed, which the regulator examined between June 2011 and February 2012, “many,” the FSA says, “have not set up frameworks to identify and manage conflicts of interest.” The British financial market watchdog says it found evidence of “violations of detailed rules” on the use of commissions paid by clients, and the transaction allocation process. “We found that most of the companies in question could not prove that their clients were not bearing the costs incurred, and that they had access to all the appropriate investment opportunities,” the FSA writes.

Selon nos informations, le Ravgdt (régime d’allocations viagères des gérants de débits de tabac) a retenu les 3 gestionnaires pour l’appel d’offres public européen de l’ordre de 350 millions d’euros, sur 2 FCP dédiés, de droit français de gestion diversifiée. Il s’agit d’un marché à bons de commande multi-attributaires conclu avec 3 titulaires. Cependant, l’exécution de la prestation sera réalisée par les 2 titulaires classés les premiers après analyse des offres; le titulaire classé 3ème fera office de back-up. La gestion sera une gestion diversifiée d’actifs financiers, principalement de la zone euro, dont l’allocation stratégique sera de : 20 % en actions 60 % en obligations aggregate taux fixe 20 % en obligations indexées inflation Sur les 9 dossiers restants, le choix s’est porté sur : Allianz Global Investors La Banque Postale AM BNP Paribas AM (stand by)

Jean-Claude Guimiot, directeur général délégué d’Agrica Epargne lors d’une table ronde organisée par L’Agefi : Nous avons comme objectif d’avoir dans notre bilan, comptablement, 2% sur le private equity. Mettre l’accent sur la liquidité de quelque chose qui représente quelques pour cent des actifs d’un groupe, c’est un faux problème. Le problème c’est la perception de certains marchés et de certains produits par les conseils d’administration. Dans le monde paritaire, n’oubliez jamais que le pouvoir est détenu par le président. Le président, c’est un représentant soit du patronat (ce n’est pas le Medef car nous sommes dans le monde agricole) ou des syndicats de salariés. Je ne suis pas sûr que tout ce qu’on a pu entendre récemment sur le carried interest soit quelque chose qui milite en faveur du private equity. Mais on a aussi, dans le monde économique actuel, des dérèglements importants. Le rôle des banques par exemple est en train de devenir on ne sait trop quoi. Enfin, les investissements ont pu être faits massivement et tardivement, sur des millésimes qui ne sont pas bons.

Despite assurances from Barack Obama, who was re-elected on 6 November as president of the United States, that “the best is yet to come,” investors remained attentive to problems still in suspense: US debt and difficulties in a euro zone emerging from the crisis. In this environment, money market funds posted inflows of over USD50bn in the week to 7 November, while bond funds posted net inflows of nearly USD10bn, according to estimates by EPFR Global. Since the beginning of the year, bond funds have attracted over USD400bn. Equity funds finished the week with inflows of USD1.12bn, while dividend funds attracted over USD900m, despite risks related to the development of tax legislation in the United States following the Obama victory. Funds dedicated to the financial sector posted inflows of nearly USD1bn in the week under review.

European investors in September returned to European equity funds, Lipper observes in its latest Fund Flash. Pan-European and euro zone equity funds on sale in Europe posted net inflows of EUR3.1bn, of which EUR1.3bn went to ETFs. The major beneficiaries of these flows were the Threadneedle European Select, BlackRock EuroMarkets and MainFirst Top European Ideas funds. That helped equity funds to return to net inflows in September, for the first time since March, with EUR4.6bn (of which EUR1.7bn were for ETFs). Although European equity funds were a pleasant surprise, inflows to equities were driven largely by global dividend funds (particularly from Pimco, DWS and M&G). High yield bond funds also continued to be popular, with net subscriptions of a net EUR7.6bn in September. Since the beginning of the year, these products have posted net inflows of nearly EUR40bn, and assets now total EUR180bn, compared with EUR62.8bn three years ago. Other best-sellers include emerging market debt funds, which have seen inflows of EUR4.5bn. Total inflows to bond funds came to EUR21.6bn in September. Balanced funds also had a good month in September, and posted net inflows of EUR3.8bn, Lipper notes. Allocation funds dominated inflows, with EUR3.4bn. In total, funds on sale in Europe (excluding money markets) in September posted net subscriptions of EUR28.9bn, their highest level since October 2010. Since the beginning of the year, they have had net inflows of EUR135.6bn.

The US affiliate of Aberdeen Asset Management on Friday announced the launch of the Aberdeen Emerging Markets Debt Fund (acronym for A share class: AKFAX) on the US market. The fund may invest in all segments of emerging market debt, hard or local currencies, and government or corporate bonds.The new fund launch explicitly represents a desire on the part of the Scottish asset management firm to strenghthen its presence on the US market.

Après avoir obtenu en mars la condamnation de Joseph «Chip» Skowron III à lui verser 10,2 millions de dollars, Morgan Stanley a déposé le 31 octobre une autre plainte contre l’ancien managing director du gestionnaire alternatif FrontPoint Partners, à l’époque filiale de la banque, pour avoir commis des délits d’initiés, rapporte The Wall Street Journal.Morgan Stanley réclame cette fois plus de 65 millions de dollars supplémentaires parce qu’il a dû verser 33 millions de dollars afin d’obtenir l’arrêt des poursuites par la SEC, en sus des 32 millions de dollars perçus par Chip Skowron à l’époque des faits. Entre-temps, FrontPoint a été revendu à son management pour une fraction de son pris d’achat de 404 millions de dollars ; le gestionnaire alternatif semble avoir depuis lors cessé son activité.

The US authorities on 9 November announced that they will be calling off plans to begin to implement the new international standards known as Basel III in the United States from next January. Many banking establishments have expressed concerns about being subjected to definitive regulations of capital levels from 1 January 2013, without having had enough time to understand or change their systems as necessary, a brief statement from the Fed explains. The statement, which was also made on behalf of the other two financial system surveillance agencies, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), adds that the authorities in June published three draft regulations to implement Basel III. But due to the volume of comments received, and the wide variety of opinions expressed in the period defined for this uprpose, the authorities estimate that none of the draft regulations will be in place by 1 January 2013.

The repayment of retrocession fees to clients who have an asset management agreement with a bank, if applied retrospectively and to all banks in Switzerland, could lead to significant one-off provisions, Fitch Ratings says.In a test case involving UBS AG, the Zurich High Court decided in January 2012 that banks should reimburse retrocession fees to clients with whom they have an asset management agreement, unless those fees had been received for genuine distribution services. The Swiss Supreme Court confirmed the ruling on 1 November 2012.Although the ramifications are not yet clear, this landmark case could set a precedence for all banks in Switzerland to repay retrocessions relating to discretionary mandates services, bringing the banks’ standards in line with the rules for Swiss independent financial advisors’ and many other jurisdictions, says the rating agency. The amount of fees to be reimbursed to claimants is still being determined by the Zurich High Court. At this stage, the magnitude of the impact is difficult to assess. «We believe it is likely to vary considerably from bank to bank depending on the proportion of funds and other investment products affected», according to Fitch. «Without a long look-back period, client reimbursements should be manageable for the Swiss banks with large private banking operations. To offset some of the lost revenue, we expect the banks to adjust their management fee structures to maintain gross margins broadly similar to current levels, which is around 90bp-110bp of assets under management».

The European CFO Forum, which includes the chief financial officers of the major European insurance groups, and which defends their interests, particularly on the regulatory front, on 9 November announced the appointment of the chief financial officer of the Axa group, Gerlad Harlin, as president of the association. He will succeed Oliver Bäte, CFO of the Allianz group, who has been called to serve in other responsibilities at the Allianz group from 1 January 2013.

The boards of supervisors at the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) on 9 November announced the appointment of two new chairmen for its standing committees. The standing committee in charge of the investment management unit will be led by Gareth Murphy, director of markets at the Irish central bank. Among the other appointments, Gérard Rameix, chairmen of the French Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), will be in charge of the standing committee responsible for the Corporate Finance unit. Jean-Paul Servais, chairman of the Belgian Financial Markets and Services Authority (FMSA), has been appointed to a new term in his position has chairman of the standing committee in charge of intermediaries and investor protection. Jean Guill, CEO of the Luxembourg Commission de surveillance du secteur financier (CSSF), has been reappointed as chairman of the Review Panel.

In the first three quarters of 2012, Nuveen Investments has seen net redemptions of USD14.4bn, of which USD74m were in July-September, following USD7.9bn in April-June and USD6.4bn in the first three months of the year.Assets as of 30 September totalled USD220.09bn, compared with USD211.8bn three months earlier, and a peak at USD226.7bn at the end of March. As of 31 December, assets under management totalled USD220.1bn.

56% of Italian investors consider emerging markets more risky than developed European economies, according to a Gfk Eurisko survey undertaken for Goldman Sachs Asset Management and reported by Fondionline. The majority of Italians feel that developed countries have more solid macro-economic fundamentals (70%), higher levels of internal consumption (59%) and stronger currencies (70%) than emerging markets. Overall, 90% of respondents are not planning to increase (or reduce) their investments in emerging markets.

Ten Swedish funds, including funds which invest in growth markets from Danske Bank and Carnegie and the Kon-Tiki funds from Skagen, participate in investments equivalent to 5% of their assets which violate UN guidelines, Realtid.se reports, citing Dagens Industri. These are the results of an analysis of about 130 funds by Danica Pensions and Ethix according to UN and EU guidelines on the environment, human rights, corruption and labour rights.

As of 30 June 2012, ING Investment Management returned to its asset levels of one year previously for emerging market debt, at EUR12bn. However, this conceals the fact that after the intervening correction on the markets, net inflows since the beginning of this year as of the end of October total EUR2bn. For emerging market debt in local currencies, which represent about USD5.5bn of USD15bn in assets, net inflows were about USD500m, Raoul Luttik, head portfolio manger for emerging market debt in local currency, explains. In addition to that, about USD6-6.5bn ware in emerging market allocations from various other products.The specialist estimates that government bonds nonetheless have strong potential, though there may be room for margins to fall, with “decent” returns, which remain higher than the returns on govies from industrialised countries. Luttik is also “moderately optimistic” for the mid-term about appreciation of local currencies against hard currencies. Since the beginning of the year, portfolios have outperformed the GBI-EM index by 95-100 basis points, and the ELMI+ index, by about 170 basis points.ING IM currently has 33 staff members for emerging market debt strategies, which is distributed between three time zones (Singapore, the Hague, and Atlanta). The asset management firm does not yet have a fund dedicated specifically to emerging market corporate debt in local currencies in its product range, but the case is under study.

Le principal fonds de private equity d’Afrique orientale, Catalyst Private Partners, a bouclé son premier tour de table la semaine dernière, avec 125 millions de dollars, rapporte le Financial Times. Les trois quarts des capitaux proviennent des institutions financières de développement dont la Banque européenne d’investissement.

L’Agefi rapporte que le fonds souverain China Investment Corp (CIC) se concentrera davantage sur l’Asie pour contrer ce qu’il perçoit comme une montée du protectionnisme en Occident. Selon son PDG, Lou Jiwei, dans un entretien accordé à Reuters, une montée du protectionnisme est perceptible dans certains pays occidentaux tant dans le commerce que dans les investissements. Pékin observe une inquiétude croissante parmi les instances de régulation étrangères dès lors que CIC s’allie à des sociétés chinoises pour faire des acquisitions. «Nous éviterons les investissements dans des pays où nous ne sommes pas les bienvenus», prévient Lou Jiwei. En zone euro, le CIC juge l’industrie manufacturière européenne encore compétitive, il exclut en revanche d’investir dans les banques ou dans les dettes souveraines des pays les plus en difficulté, précise le quotidien.

Les investisseurs européens sont revenus en septembre sur les fonds d’actions européennes, remarque Lipper dans son dernier Fund Flash. Ainsi, les fonds actions paneuropéennes et de la zone euro commercialisés en Europe ont enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 3,1 milliards d’euros, dont 1,3 milliard se sont portés sur des ETF.Les principaux bénéficiaires de ces flux ont été le Threadneedle European Select, le BlackRock EuroMarkets et le MainFirst Top European Ideas.Cela a aidé les fonds actions à renouer avec une collecte nette en septembre, la première fois depuis mars, avec 4,6 milliards d’euros (dont 1,7 milliard concernant des ETF). Si les fonds actions européennes ont agréablement surpris, la collecte actions a été surtout tirée par les fonds dividendes mondiaux (notamment ceux de Pimco, DWS et M&G).Les fonds obligataires à haut rendement ont continué par ailleurs sur leur lancée, avec des souscriptions nettes de 7,6 milliards d’euros nets en septembre. Depuis le début de l’année, ces produits affichent des entrées nettes de quasiment 40 milliards d’euros et les encours atteignent désormais les 180 milliards d’euros, contre 62,8 milliards d’euros il y a trois ans. Autres « best-sellers », les fonds dette émergente ont quant à eux vu rentrer 4,5 milliards d’euros. La collecte totale des fonds obligataires est ainsi ressortie à 21,6 milliards d’euros en septembre.Les fonds diversifiés ont aussi connu un bon mois de septembre et ont enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 3,8 milliards d’euros, note encore Lipper. Les fonds d’allocation ont dominé les flux, avec 3,4 milliards d’euros. Au total, les fonds commercialisés en Europe (hors monétaire) ont enregistré en septembre des souscriptions nettes de 28,9 milliards d’euros, soit le niveau le plus élevé depuis octobre 2010. Depuis le début de l’année, ils affichent une collecte nette de 135,6 milliards d’euros. Depuis

La banque privée zurichoise Julius Baer (184 milliards de franc suisses d’actifs gérés fin août) a annoncé le 12 novembre la création d’une banque privée en coentreprise en Italie avec le gestionnaire de fortune milanais Kairos Investment Management (4,5 milliards d’euros d’encours).La filiale locale de l’établissement suisse, Julius Baer SIM, sera intégrée dans Kairos tandis que, simultanément, Julius Baer prend pour un montant non divulgué une participation de 19,9 % dans Kairos. La transaction devrait être bouclée dans le courant du premier semestre 2013. Une fois les autorisations reçues, Julius Baer et Kairos solliciteront séparément l’octroi d’une licence bancaire. Toutes les activités de gestion de fortune des deux groupes seront exploitées sous le nom de Kairos Julius Baer. Julius Baer Fiduciaria S.r.l. n’est pas concernée par la transaction et demeurera une filiale contrôlée à 100 % par Julius Baer.Les deux parties statueront sur une augmentation ultérieure de la participation stratégique de Julius Baer «au bout de quelques années».

Simone Rosti, head of wealth clients chez iShares, rejoint UBS ETF (12 milliards de dollars d’encours en Europe) comme head of ETF sales pour l’Italie. Basé à Milan, il sera subordonné à Roger Boots, head of UBS ETF sales pour l’Europe.UBS ETF, division d’UBS Global Asset Management, ambitionne de lancer 60 produits sur le marché en 2013. Actuellement, seuls douze fonds de la gamme sont distribués en Italie.

Les actifs sous gestion des clients externes du pôle «services financiers» de Generali s’inscrivaient au 30 septembre à 93,23 milliards d’euros, contre 90,66 milliards à fin juin 2012 et 84,27 milliards d’euros à fin décembre 2011, a indiqué le groupe Generali à l’occasion de la présentation de ses résultats intérimaires.Le résultat d’exploitation du pôle a progressé de 17,1% à 320 millions d’euros, grâce notamment à une amélioration des performances mais aussi grâce aux opérations de trading du groupe, entre autres dans les portefeuilles actions.

Dans un communiqué boursier publié vendredi, Deutsche Telekom annonce que Blackstone lui a notifié le 6 novembre avoir réduit sa participation à 2,93 % contre 4,44 % auparavant. Ces 65,2 millions de titres à 8,60 euros représentaient vendredi un montant de 561 millions d’euros alors qu’ils ont été payés 14 euros l’unité lorsque le capital-investisseur américain avait acquis 191,7 millions de titres auprès la banque publique KfW pour 2,68 milliards d’euros. Même si, depuis lors, Deutsche Telekom a servi des dividendes, la moins-value est relativement sensible.

Pierre Guillemin, directeur gestion diversifiée et actions de Swiss Life Asset Management, livre dans un entretien son allocation idéale pour un investisseur institutionnel. Il fait la part belle aux obligations, aux marchés émergents. En revanche, le monétaire et les hedge funds sont absents. Explications.