AXA Investment Managers (Axa IM) is giving a breath of fresh air to its Global Flex range. The AXA WF Force 5 and AXA WF Force 8 funds have new names: AXA World Funds Global Flex 50 and AXA World Funds Global Flex 100. AXA World Funds Global Flex 50 has 50% of its portfolio invested in assets which are considered “prudent,” such as fixed income, while the other 50% will be invested in equities or commodities. AXA World Funds Global Flex 100 is aimed at investors who accept a higher level of risk. Exposure to equities will vary from 50% to 100%, while the remainder will be invested in fixed income.

Investments by wealth management specialists in information technologies (IT) are expected to increase by 4.3% next year, to USD1.97bn, compared with an increase of 7.5% in 2012, according to estimates from the specialist consulting firm Celent.However, investments in North America are expected to increase 6.9% in 2013, to USD1.8bn. The same trend is expected in Asia, where IT investments are expected to increase by 10% next year, with an annual increase of 8% over the next five years, to a total of USD1.08bn in 2016. According to Celent, 55% of investments worldwide are dedicated to the front office.Global investments in information technologies are expected to total USD4.4bn in 2012, to then increase to 6.4% in 2013, to USD4.7bn. By 2016, total investments are expected to total USD5.7bn.Europe still represents 43% of total investments in wealth management, compared with 39% in the United States, while the Asia-Pacific region is still far behind with an 18% share of investment, at slightly under USD800m.

The Basel Committee on banking controls on 29 October published a report on the implementation of Basel III by its member jurisdictions (Report to finance ministers and governors of central banks of the G20). The report will be examined at a meeting of ministers and governors of central banks of the G20, which will be held in Mexico on 4 and 5 November.

According to Fondsprofessionell, the British firm ETF Securities has recruited Peter Lidblom as head of Nordic, to direct distribution of products from the group in Scandinavia. He had previously been head of distribution to institutional investors, banks and corporate treasurers in the same region for NSBO Ltd.

Paal Hagerud, CIO of the Norwegian finance ministry, has announced that the Government Pension Fund – Global (GPFG, the former Oil Fund) has changed its strategy, and that it will now be “swimming upstream” in the equity markets, Handelsblatt reports. The sovereign fund, with USD650bn in assets, “can afford to let itself buy equities only when they are falling,” since it doesn’t have short-term liabilities and has regular inflows of new assets.In favour of the new adjustment in its investment policy, the government has just authorised the fund to buy equities when the exposure to this asset class at the end of the month was 4 percentage points below the ordinary level of 60% of assets.The results for the GPFG in third quarter will be released on 2 November.

Assets under management at F&C Asset Management fell by GBP1.4bn in third quarter, to GBP96.8bn, compared with GBP98.2bn as of 30 June 2012, according to figures released on 29 October. Over a nine-month period, F&C has posted outflows of GBP8.41bn.

The CNMV has registered the bond fund Allianz Enhanced Fixed Income IT from Allianz Global Investors, which received a sales license in several other European countries on 6 March, Funds People reports. The portfolio is invested in euro zone government bonds, and uses the JP Morgan EMU Government Bond Investment Grade 1-10 years as a benchmark index, but may invest up to 20% of its assets in high yield.

The Swiss asset management firm Picard Angst has announced the launch of a new energies and metals index, which will equally weight Brent, WTI, heating oil, gasoline, aluminium, nickel, gold, silver and platinum at 10% each. The index will be used as a benchmark for the new Picard Angst Energy & Metal Fund, which uses a strategy similar to that of the Pictet Angst All Commodity Tracker Plus (which has already attracted assets of USD700m).The Swiss-registered institutional fund (CH0190273505) is available with a minimum investment of CHF1m, EUR1m, or USD1m, The TER is 1.07%. The management team combines the futures curve with tactical investments.

All activities at UBS posted an increase in profits in third quarter, including Wealth Management, Wealth Mangement Americas and Retail and Corporate, which have posted their highest levels of profits ever since the beginning of the year, on the basis of corrected figures, the Swiss group announced in a statement released on 30 October. Assets invested totalled CHF2.242bn, up by CHF79bn.Pre-tax profits for Wealth Management were up 20% to CHF600m, while the unit has posted a net inflow of CHF7.7bn. Wealth Management Americas has posted a record pre-tax profit for the third consecutive quarter, up 9% to USD230m. However, the UBS group has posted a net loss of CHF2.17bn in third quarter, compared with a net profit of CHF1.02bn in the same period of last year. Over the first nine months of 2012, the bank has posted losses of CHF920m, following profits of CHF3.84bn one year ago.In this environment, UBS, which is predicting further losses groupwide in fourth quarter, will be undertaking a drastic restructuring, with nearly 10,000 employees to be laid off worldwide by 2015, bringing personnel to about 54,000, from 64,000 currently.

Credit Suisse is hoping to develop its asset management activities in common with the Qatar sovereign fund, the news agency Bloomberg reports. A new unit, based in Doha, the capital of the emirate, will concentrate on investments in the Middle East and North Africa, the news agency reports, citing a source familiar with the matter. After 12 months of talks, the joint project by the bank and the Qatar Investment Authority may be announced by the end of this year. This may be a sign at Qatar and Credit Suisse are planning to develop their existing relationship. Qatar is a 6% shareholder in Credit Suisse. Spokespeople for the Qatar sovereign fund and the bank have declined to comment on the reports.

Bob Jain, head of the equities unit at the Credit Suisse group, will be leaving his job, which he has held for four years, to become head of house hedge funds in the money management division, the news agency Bloomberg reports, citing sources with information about the move. As head of alternative management, Jain will be based in New York, and will report to the head of asset management, Robert Shafir. Timothy O’Hara, former head of the bond unit for the Americas, will take over Jain’s former role.

Morgan Stanley has announced the launch of a new product in partnership with Equinox Fund Management, entitled MS QTI UCITS Fund. The CTA fund will be an addition to its FundLogic Alternatives range, Hedgeweek reports.

Barclays has teamed up with Amundi Investment Solutions to launch a fund that offers exposure to US merger and acquisition operations, Investment Week reports. The UCITS-compliant fund is domiciled in Dublin, and will invest in securities targeted by an acquirer following the announcement of a planned merger/acquisition operations. Only operations of over USD500m will be considered. The fund will be managed by Amundi, which will hedge volatility with the use of futures contracts on the S&P 500 in order to maintain a market neutral portfolio.

The Philips pension fund, whose assets under mangement total EUR14.9bn, has earned returns of 5.2% in third quarter, meaning that in the first nine months of the year, the fund as earned returns of 9.5%, according to the specialist website IPE. The liability-driven management allocation (71% of the total) outperformed its benchmark by 1.7 percentage points, at 5.5%. The performance observed is thought to be largely due to French inflation-linked bonds. The performance allocation (29%), composed of equities, real estate and commodities, has earned returns of 4.4%, slightly below its benchmark index. The coverage rate has improved by 6 percentage points, to 105%

Michael Rüdiger, former CEO of Credit Suisse Central Europe, who was appointed as chairman of the managing board at DekaBank on 15 August, will begin in his new role on 1 November (see Newsmanagers of 16 August).Oliver Behrens, who had been interim head of the central asset management firm for the German savings banks since Fran Waas was dismissed on 2 April, will serve as vice-chairman of the board. The other three members of the board are Matthias Danne, Friedrich Olrich and Georg Stocker.

BaFin and the FMA have issued sales licenses for Germany and Austria, respectively, to the Templeton Africa Fund (LU0744128314), a sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav Franklin Templeton Investment Funds (FTIF). The fund is managed by Mark Mobius (see Newsmanagers of 24 April), with the assistance of Carlos von Hardenberg.The US asset management firm currently has assets of USD900m invested in 57 African companies.

Two analysts at Citigroup have been fired for releasing information to the media, Les Echos reports. Posts on Facebook were sent to journalists. Regulators are looking into communications with other banks.

The global leader in water, Veolia Environnement, on 29 October called on the French financial market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) to open an investigation into “dissemination of false information,” following a report in the press claiming that it was planning to increase its capital to at least EUR1bn. “Baseless information has been disseminated since 26 October suggesting that Veolia Environnement is planning to increase its capital by at least EUR1bn. In reaction, Veolia Environnement denies that it is planning a capital increase,” the group says in a statement. “Veolia Environnement has asked the Autorité des marchés financiers to open an investigation into this dissemination of false information,” it says.

BNP Paribas Securities Services will be launching a range of clearing, settlement and custody services in the United States for all major asset classes listed on NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq OMX, Investment Europe reports.

A survey undertaken by Union Investment of 106 German institutional investors with more than EUR900m in assets finds that 83% of respondents say safety is the most important investment criterion. This is the highest level to say so since the beginning of the crisis in 2009. 92% of respondents say that avoiding losses is “important” or “very important.”Bonds remain the top asset class, with 46% of portfolios, compared with 74% last year, while money market instruments have gained ground, to 23%, compared with 11%, and exposure to equities has fallen to 7%, from 9% one year ago. Meanwhile, the need for safety appears to have been the reason for a tripling in exposure to real estate in one year, to 15%.

The Swiss Life Best Select brand name will soon substitute for that of the German financial services provider AWD, founded in 1998 by Carsten Maschmeyer, Der Spiegel reports. At Swiss Life, the reports have been dismissed as “pure speculation.“

German-based Allianz on 29 October published in advance partial results for third quarter. Its operating profits totalled EUR2.5bn in third quarter, compared with EUR1.9bn in July -September 2011. Its net profits have risen to EUR1.4bn from EUR258m. All business lines within the group contributed to this improvement in results, but particularly asset management, Alianz stresses.In these conditions, Allianz is revising its operating profit projections for 2012 upward, to EUR9bn, from a range of EUR7.7-8.7bn previously, compared with EUR7.86bn in 2011.Complete figures for the quarter will be published as scheduled on 9 November.

On 30 October, Deutsche Bank announced a pre-tax profit for third quarter of EUR64m for its Asset & Wealth Management (AWM) division, compared with EUR186m in the corresponding period of last year, largely due to a restructuring charge of EUR90m. Net inflows to wealth management more than offset net redemptions from asset management.Groupwide, profits in July-September totalled EUR755m, compared with EUR661m in second quarter, and EUR777m in the corresponding period of last year. In the first three quarters of 2012, net profits at Deutsche Bank are down to EUR2.818bn, compared with EUR4.140bn.

The carbon trading exchange BlueNext, co-founded by NYSE Euronext and the Caisse des Dépôts in 2007, is in its final days, Les Echos reports. BlueNext will finally close its doors on 5 December, as the operator has not received permission to manage auctions of carbon emission quotas in the European Union from next year.

The Edmond de Rothschild group will be laying off 66 people, out of a total of 1,000 Les Echos reports. This is the first time that a plan on this scale has been put in place by the group in France. “It will be accompanied by a job protection plan and voluntary departures, which began on 13 October, and are expected to conclude on 31 December,” a source close to the group says. Labour unions were consulted, and all offered a negative opinion. The restructuring is the result of a refocusing of activities at the gorup on the asset management and private banking professions. The firm on 13 July made the merger of its two major asset management affiliates, Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management (EdRAM) and Edmond de Rothschild Investment Managers (EdRIM) official. The merger will be completed on 1 December.

The ETF provider WisdomTree Investments has announced net profits for third quarter of USD4.53m, compared with USD0.13 in April-June, and USD1.36m in the corresponding period of last year.As of 30 September, ETF assets at WisdomTree totalled USD16.783bn, compared with USD15.004bn as of the end of June, and USD11.184bn one year previously. Net subscriptions totalled USD1.036bn in July-September, compared with USD338m in second quarter.

The private equity group Blackstone is planning to scale up its presence in the Asian region, the head of the firm, Stephen Schwarzmann, has announced, Asian Investor reports. Blackstone would like to develop its activities in real estate and financing for new hedge funds, Schwarzmann says. Since the beginning of the year, staff at Blackstone in the region have risen 20% to 191 employees.

Sturgeon Capital has announced the launch of the Sturgeon Central Asia Equities Fund, a UCITS-compliant hedge fund which will invest in equities with a strong exposure to central Asia, Hedgeweek reports. Lemanik Asset Management will be responsible for managing portfolio risks.

There is a mood of “satisfaction” at Carmignac Gestion. At a quarterly meeting to present macro-economic analysis and investment strategy in third quarter, Frédéric Leroux, global manager, noted that high-risk assets are expected to see a rebound in valuation, and the times are becoming favourable for stock-picking. The manager, however, insisted on continuing to reduce leverage in developed economies, which are weighing down economic growth rates and profit margins at businesses. The head of the firm, which since the beginning of the year has posted net inflows of EUR4bn, has also declared that it is more optimistic about Europe. “Mario Draghi has spoken,” the director says, “and systemic risks have fallen due to the role of the European Central Bank as a lender of last resort.” The executive also noted the potential for European markets to catch up to their peaks in 2007, from their current levels. In numbers, the Euro Stoxx 50 index is expected to gain 75%, to return to their peaks of five years ago, while the S&P 500 is expected to fall by 1.40%. “Although in Europe the financial crisis is in the process of being dealt with, the situation is no less complicated,” the manager warns, “since the recession is continuing.” Leroux had a tempered outlook for France, where he sees “no structural reforms.” As an example, he points to the unit price for labour hours, which has continued to rise since 2008 in France, at a time when it has been falling for three years in Spain and Ireland. Carmignac Gestion has also returned to indices of Europe, and has recently divested from Chinese banks, in favour of European establishments, including two French banks, Société Générale and BNP Paribas. For the flagship funs of the Carmignac Patrimoine range, this return of optimism and a desire on the part of the firm to profit from the rebound on the markets is the reason for an increase in exposure to equities of nearly three percentage points in third quarter (41.2% overall), while government bonds have been reduced in favour of private issues. In currencies, Carmignac Gestion is also more prudent: exposure to the euro has doubled over the quarter, while it has fallen from 56.22% to 33.77% for the US dollar. Lastly, within the portfolio, exposure to cash has been sharply reduced (to 13.7% from more than 20% as of the end of June).

D’après Bernard Descreux, directeur de la division gestion d’actifs d’EDF, l'électricien a l’intention de « monter en puissance dans le non coté ». Après avoir misé 60 millions d’euros en mai dernier dans le FCPR Electranova Capital via son département recherche et développement, EDF examine actuellement la possibilité de placer une partie plus importante de ses actifs dédiés (26,7 milliards d’euros sous gestion fin 2011) dans le non coté. Alors qu’un appel d’offres limité pour sélectionner un gérant « toutes catégories confondues » serait en cours, un second appel d’offres sur invitation pourrait être lancé d’ici fin novembre. Le directeur de la division gestion d’actifs d’EDF n’a pas souhaité indiquer les montants en jeu.