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03/09/2012

BNY Mellon suggests that sovereign funds adapt their strategy

At a round table discussion organised by the sovereign institutions group at BNY Mellon, Rumi Masih, senior investment strategist in te investment strategy & solutions group (ISSG) reported that participants agree on the fact that sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) have much to gain from heeding warning signs such as rising commodity prices to reduce the risk in their portfolios, before market shocks occur.That may appear counter-intuitive, but a sovereign fund with sensitivity to fluctuations in commodity prices should start with positions on more liquid assets at a time when these prices are peaking, rather than waiting for them to start to fall. Of course, these warning signs should be adapted to the driving factors for the economy of each SWF’s country.
03/09/2012

Strong demand for platinum ETFs

The Marikana platinum mine (Lonmin group) remains closed two weeks after tragic events caused 44 deaths, 34 of them strikers. Investors are predicting a shortage. The price of the metal has already increased 13%, and ETF providers are predicting that the trend will continue, Handelsblatt reports. The four groups which offer ETFs monitored by Reuters in August posted net inflows of 88,821 ounces, which represents USD133.2m, with the largest subscriptions going to ETF Securities.
03/09/2012

Lyxor appoints a head of development for United States

Lyxor Asset Management has announced the appointment of Michael Bernstein to the position of head of development for North America. His primary responsibility will be to strengthen and develop relationships with institutional investors, consultants, distribution partners and other asset managers.Bernstein joined Lyxor in 2009 as head of Pension Fund and US Consultant clients.His appointment comes as part of an expansion of the firm on the North American market, “a key area of development for Lyxor,” a statement says. The “Business Development” team working under Bernstein will also be enlarged in due course.
03/09/2012

Charles Firmin-Didot leaves Axa IM

Charles Firmin-Didot, founder and manager of the Talents range of funds, is leaving Axa Investment Managers to “pursue other opportunities,” a spokesperson for the French asset management firm has confirmed to Newsmanagers, following reports in the British press. Firmin-Didot developed the Talents strategy, focused on entrepreneurs who hold a stake in their own firms. This strategy is now managed by Mark Beveridge, who has been supervising Firmin Didot over the past three years. He will rely on two analysts, one portfolio engineer, and the resources of Axa Framlington, a statement from the firm says. The departure of Firmin-Didot was revealed as it was announced that the UK domiciled OEIC Axa Framlington Talents Fund will be closed. But Axa IM states that the two events are unrelated. The fund is being closed due to its limited size GBP5.5m as of 24 August 20120, the asset management firm explains. Its liquidation will be effective from 29 October. AXA IM’s two other funds in the Talents strategy, the Luxembourg domiciled AXA WF Framlington Talents Global and AXA WF Framlington Emerging Markets Talents funds, will remain open.
03/09/2012

CalSTRS increases exposure to real estate

The pension fund for Californian teachers CalSTRS invested USD1.2bn in real estate in second quarter, with 78.5% of its engagements invested in core strategies, CalSTRS announced in its quarterly activity report.
03/09/2012

Chinese sovereign fund sells nearly all of its stake in BlackRock

China Investment Corp has sold most of its stake in BlackRock, as part of a strategy to reduce its exposure to financial institutions, the Financial Times reports. The Chinese sovereign fund bought the stake of nearly 3% of BlackRock, representing about USD1bn, when the firm acquired Barclays Global Investors in 2009. In the past few months, it has been gradually selling off these shares, for a profit, sources familiar with the matter say.
03/09/2012

Some hedge funds rank France as a peripheral European country

Investors have this year generally given the benefit of the doubt to France, treating it as a “core” country of the euro zone economy, despite its high levels of debt. However, some hedge funds are questioning this way of seeing things, and are incstead tending to rank France as a peripheral European country, the news agency Reuters reports. Many macro hedge funds are now claiming that very low returns on French government bonds are not sustainable for a country on the verge of recession. Hedge funds are also sceptical of the fiscal policy of France’s new president Hollande. “The market appears to consider France a safe place, but we estimate that in reality, French returns should converge more towards Italian and Spanish returns and not towards German returns,” says Pedro de Noronha, managing partner at Noster Capital.
03/09/2012

KanAm shows rapacity

Handelsblatt considers it inappropriate that the Munich-based asset management firm KanAm has decided to increase its commission on one of its open-ended real estate funds currently in liquidation from 0.825% to 1.20%. It is a sign of extreme rapacity, as investors cannot sell their shares to escape the rip-off, the newspaper claims.
03/09/2012

Laffitte CM releases a third arbitrage fund

Laffitte Capital Management is planning to launch an arbitrage fund based on indices. The fund, entitled Laffitte Index Arbitrage, will be a UCITS-compliant European product, and will aim to detect arbitrage opportunities on the global stock markets on the basis of indices. It will have complementary drivers of performance: arbitrage of index re-balancing, arbitrage on dividends, and also securities trading arbitrage.“With this fund, we return to one of our first loves. From 1990 to 2006, we used index-based arbitrage for proprietary trading at Crédit Mutuel-CIC,” explains Eric Robbe, co-founder and chairman of Laffittee CM. “But it had previously been difficult to realise this activity within a regulated and liquid fund, since many products were traded over the counter. In addition, there was disparate fiscal treatment of dividends throughout Europe. These obstacles have been removed today. As many banks are withdrawing from this profession, we also have expertise on the market,” he continues. Laffitte has recruited Gregory Meyappen for the fund; he had previously directed operations of this type for proprietary trading at Crédit Agricole. He will co-manage the fund with two colleagues from Laffitte CM. The fund has a capacity of up to EUR1bn. With daily liquidity, it will be on sale to clients of all types, and will have an institutional and a retail share class to this end. It will also be listed on life insurance platforms. With the Laffitte Index Arbitrage, the firm diversifies its range, which now consists of two merger and acquisition arbitrage funds. This may help the firm to reach its objective of EUR500bn. Five years after its launch, the firm currently has slightly under EUR300bn in assets under management, and 10 employees.
03/09/2012

Hedge funds prefer Singapore

The status of London as a top destination for hedge funds appears to be under threat, according to a survey undertaken by the recruitment firm Astbury Marsden, FINalternatives reports. When asked about the preferred location for their activities, 462 British bankers and hedge fund managers placed Singapore on top, with 31% of votes, followed by New York (20%) and London (19%). The British capital comes only slightly ahead of Hong Kong (16%) and Dubai (15%).
03/09/2012

Credit Suisse recruits a head for ultra-high net worth clients

On 20 November, Matthew Haines will become the head of services to ultra-high net worth (UHNW) clients in the United Kingdom/International at Credit Suisse, Wealth Briefing reports. He had previously been UK head of family office solutions at JP Morgan Private Bank.Haimes replaces Ian Dembinski who has been appointed head of UK domestic clients, and takes over a position left facant by Paul Sarosy when he left in May to go on to become head of investment solutions at Coutts.Haines will report to Blake Shorthouse, head of UNHW EMEA, and Eric Pfister, head of market area UK/International.
03/09/2012

US prosecutors suspect investment funds of tax fraud

The New York state prosecutor has named more than a dozen funds which are accused of defrauding the tax authorities by modifying the type of management commissions paid by investors, the New York Times reports, relayed by Les Echos. The practice involves exonerating investors of the management commission (generally 1% to 2% of the total invested) in exchange for a reinvestment in funds from the asset management firm on the firm’s behalf. As investments, these amounts are then taxed as financial products, at rates of about 15%, though the tax on ordinary revenues would be about 35%. In addition to Bain Capital, TPG, KKR, Sun Capiatl, Apollo and Silver Lake are said to have saved hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes. The practice is common in the sector, but experts are divided over its legality.
03/09/2012

Caceis selected by a German asset management firm specialised in real estate

Caceis this summer became the depository bank for the asset management firm Patrizia GewerbeInvest KAG, for its real estate poortfolios. The mandate concerns the real estate fund sector dedicated to institutional investors under the German investment law, and represents over EUR1.3bn in assets, which were transferred in July 2012. Assets under custody for German asset management firms specialised in real estate at Caceis now total over EUR19bn.
03/09/2012

Guy Monson withdraws from management of two funds from Sarasin

Guy Monson, managing partner and CIO of Sarasin, has withdrawn from the management of the Global Equity Income and International Equity Income funds, Investment Week reveals. The funds will now be managed by Mark Whitehead, who was already their co-manager, with Darryl Lucas.
03/09/2012

Kai Sotorp returns to UBS GAM

The CEO of UBS Global Asset Management, John Fraser, has convinced Kai Sotorp, former head for Asia-Pacific, to return to work for the firm, and to return to his former position, Financial News reports. Sotorp had been head for Asia-Pacific at UBS GAM Between 2002 and 2004 He left the group in 2010.
03/09/2012

Two Singapore funds eye Swiss private banking activities of Generali

BSI, the Swiss private bank belonging to the Generali group, is reported to have received expressions of interest from two Singapore sovereign funds, Temasek and Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), Agefi reports, citing the Italian press.The Italian insurer had been hoping to make about USD2bn for BSI, which was considered optimistic in the banking world. According to several analysts, the Italian insurer needs about EUR5.5bn to comply with Solvency 2 regulations.
03/09/2012

Steep fall in profits at US Global Investors

In the fiscal year ending on 30 June 2012, the Texas-based asset management firm US Global Investors, a specialist in commodities and emerging markets, posted net profits of USD1.53m, compared with USD7.83m in 2010-2011, with a loss of USD0.11m in April-June, compared with a net profit of USD0.49m the previous quarter, and USD1.54m in April-June 2011.Revenue for 2011-2012 fell to USD23.85m, compared with USD41.93m.Assets at the end of the fiscal year totalled USD1.62bn, compared with USD2.60bn one year previously. Average AUM over the past fiscal year totalled USD2.06bn, compared with USD2.82bn in 2010-2011.Frank Holmes, CEO, says that US Global Investors was not the only asset management firm to suffer from outflows from its money market and equity funds, as statistics from the Investment Company Institute (ICI) show that equity funds underwent net redemptions of USD171bn in the twelve months to the end of June. However, despite the scale of the redemptions, US Global Investors has strengthened its sales and marketing strategy, added to its institutional sales team, and beefed up its IT systems. “At the same time, the firm has lowered its overhead,” the manager says.
03/09/2012

Ignis introduces a second hedge fund in Spain

The British asset management firm Ignis Asset Management has registered the Ignis Absolute Return Credit fund, managed by Chris Bowie, with the CNMV, Funds People reports. It is the second hedge fund launched in Spain by Ignis (following the Absolute Return Government Bond Fund). It is a corporate bond and absolute return fund which aims to be market neutral with low volatility, totalling between 2% and 6%. The portfolio is composed of 10 to 30 pair trades via highly liquid CDS.
03/09/2012

Estate of Peregrine head will be sold off at auction

Michael Eidelman, court-appointed trustee for the Peregrine Financial Group, is planning to auction off the estate of Russell Wasendorf Senior, CEO of the firm, at auction, the Wall Street Journal reports.Peregrine, which entered bankruptcy protection on 10 July, left a hole in its finances estimated at USD215mThe trustee has already recuperated USD1m from a life insurance policy. He will now be selling off Wasendorf’s property at internet auction, including a wine cellar containing thousands of bottles at Opus One, an Italian restaurant in Cedar Falls, a Patek Philippe watch, jewelry, and several SUVs.It now remains to be determined whether the Peregrine CEO also had accounts abroad, in addition to his stake in a Romanian business.
31/08/2012

Rome et Berlin ne veulent pas puiser dans les stocks de pétrole

L’Allemagne et l’Italie restent opposées à des prélèvements sur les stocks pétroliers stratégiques, estimant que l’offre est amplement suffisante en dépit des sanctions qui frappent la production iranienne, ont déclaré vendredi des sources gouvernementales des deux pays. Les ministres des Finances du G7 avaient toutefois appelé mardi les pays producteurs de pétrole à augmenter leur production pour répondre à la demande, en laissant entendre qu’ils étaient prêts à puiser dans leurs réserves stratégiques.
31/08/2012

Hausse de 2,8% des commandes à l'industrie en juillet aux Etats-Unis

Les commandes à l’industrie aux Etats-Unis ont enregistré en juillet leur plus forte progression depuis un an, montrent les statistiques publiées vendredi par le département du Commerce. La hausse des commandes a atteint 2,8% le mois dernier, le chiffre le plus élevé enregistré depuis juillet 2011, après un recul de 0,5% en juin. Les économistes interrogés par Reuters prévoyaient en moyenne une hausse de 1,9%.
31/08/2012

L'indice de confiance du Michigan à un pic de trois mois

Le moral du consommateur américain a progressé en août, à son plus haut niveau depuis trois mois, les ménages ayant avancé dans le remboursement de leurs dettes, mais leur opinion concernant l'évolution de la conjoncture économique aux Etats-Unis reste morose, montrent les chiffres définitifs de l’enquête Thomson Reuters/Université du Michigan publiés vendredi. L’indice du sentiment des consommateurs a progressé à 74,3 après 72,3 en juillet, contre une première estimation à 73,6.
31/08/2012

Tassement de la croissance dans la région de Chicago

La croissance de l’activité économique dans la région de Chicago a été moins forte que prévu en août, selon l’enquête mensuelle de l’antenne régionale de l’institut ISM auprès des directeurs d’achats publiée vendredi. L’indice, calculé par l’Institute for Supply Management, est ressorti à 53 contre 53,7 en juillet. Les économistes interrogés par Reuters attendaient en moyenne un chiffre de 53,5.
31/08/2012

L'AFT annonce des adjudications de BTF et d’OAT

L’Agence France Trésor annonce l’adjudication, le lundi 3 septembre, d’un montant global compris entre 5,5 et 6,8 milliards d’euros de bons du Trésor (BTF). L’AFT annonce aussi l’adjudication, le jeudi 6 septembre, d’un montant compris entre 7 et 8 milliards d’euros d’obligations assimilables du Trésor (OAT), dont une nouvelle ligne à 15 ans.
31/08/2012

Inflation plus forte que prévu en août dans la zone euro

Les prix à la consommation ont augmenté un peu plus que prévu en août dans la zone euro, montrent des chiffres publiés vendredi qui pourraient dissuader la Banque centrale européenne d’abaisser à nouveau ses taux d’intérêt la semaine prochaine. Selon la première estimation de l’Agence de la statistique de l’Union européenne, l’inflation s’est élevée à 2,6% en août, contre 2,4% en juillet.
31/08/2012

La BCE supervisera tout le secteur bancaire en zone euro

La Commission européenne compte attribuer à la BCE la charge de superviser la totalité du secteur bancaire de la zone euro, selon le quotidien allemand, citant le commissaire au Marché intérieur Michel Barnier. La BCE surveillerait ainsi toutes les banques qui ont eu recours du Mécanisme européen de stabilité (MES) à partir de janvier 2013. Ses prérogatives s’appliqueraient ensuite à tous les autres établissements à partir de juillet 2013 puis de 2014. Les pays en dehors de la zone euro pourront volontairement soumettre leurs banques à la surveillance de la BCE. La Commission doit présenter le 12 septembre des propositions détaillées en ce sens.

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