Recherche
S'abonner
Connexion
Asset Management
Accueil Asset Management Actualités
27/03/2012

Cayman Islands push back deadline for registration of master funds to 21 May

The government of the Cayman Islands has announced that it will be delaying the deadline for registration of master funds by 60 days, until 21 May 2012, Hedgeweek reports. The change is due to a disagreement between the government and the monetary authority of the Cayman Islands (CIMA) over whether master funds are required to register if they have only one regulated feeder fund. The government has announced that it will soon be issuing a clarification on this point.
27/03/2012

Deutsche Bank agrees to pay USD32.5m for high-risk loans

Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay USD32.5m to settle class-action lawsuits by investors who accuse the firm of having misled them before the crisis when it sold them shares backed by high-risk mortgage debts. In documents submitted to the New York Eastern District court, lawyers for investors and the bank proposed an amicable settlement which has yet to be approved by the judge, Leonard Wexler.The suit was brought in summer 2008 by a series of institutional investors, largely pension funds, who claims that Deutsche Bank sold them securities backed by real estate loans on the basis of “misleading representations which omitted important elements” about the quality of the credit.
27/03/2012

Revisions to investment law considered to severe

“Global sales of investment funds should not be strangled by an EU corset,” Matthäus Den Otter, director of the Swiss Funds Association (SFA), wanred yesterday, Agefi Switzerland reports. The revisions to the law on investment funds (LPCC) proposed by the Swiss federal council includes too many measures which are discriminatory against the market, particularly sales of collective capital investment products in Switzerland, or from Switzerland. The SFA claims that the proposed regulations on fund sales go far beyond EU standards. It thus disadvantages Swiss wealth managers by applying global standards with a severity that exists nowhere else. Despite their positive points, he says, the proposals show too much zeal in many areas.
27/03/2012

Irish asset management industry on the offensive

The Irish finance ministry has granted approval in principle to proposals by the asset management industry which would facilitate access to Irish funds for US investors, while reducing administrative costs. Without endangering the structures of existing firms, the Irish fund sector estimates that the creation of a structure especially dedicated to investment funds, and consequently not constrained by the rules which apply to other types of companies, would favour foreign asset managers, including US firms.
27/03/2012

Axel Miller leaves Petercam

Axel Miller is leaving his position as chairman of the executive committee at Petercam, a position in which he will be replaced by Xavier Van Campenhout. “Axel Miller has announced his plans to retire as a partner and head of day-to-day management of the group in order to pursue other interests,” the firm tells Newsmanagers. Miller arrived at Petercam as a partner at 2009, after serving as chairman of the executive committee at Dexia. Van Campenhout, who belongs to one of the two founding families, joined Petercam in 1998, and developed its buy-side research activities serving institutional management and private banking. From 2005 to 2010, he served as CEO of the Swiss banking affiliate, before returning to Belgium in early 2011 as head of investment policy strategy. The management committee chaired by Van Campenhout will continue to be composed of its current members: Hugo Lasat (institutional management), Fritz Mertens (private management) and Marc Janssens (intermediation activities).
27/03/2012

FSA fines Coutts GBP8.8m

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined Coutts & Company GBP8.75 million for failing to take reasonable care to establish and maintain effective anti-money laundering (AML) systems and controls relating to high risk customers, including Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs). The failings at Coutts were serious, systemic and were allowed to persist for almost three years. The FSA identified deficiencies in nearly three quarters of the PEP and high risk customer files reviewed.
27/03/2012

Asset managers bet on emerging market government bonds

According to the most recent sectoral newsletter from S&P Capital IQ, although most fund managers are convinced that the euro will survive, they see little value in government bonds from OECD countries. Most professionals estimate that government bonds from emerging markets denominated in US dollars or euros are a far superior choice, compared with countries such as Greece or Portugal, says Kate Hollis, fund analyst.Most managers surveyed already invested very little or nothing at all in peripheral euro zone countries last year. However, most funds chose to expose themselves to government bonds from emerging countries or European countries outside the euro zone.
27/03/2012

Barclays launches a volatility exposure strategy

The British asset management firm Barclays has launched an investment strategy which offers investors exposure to the Vix volatility index, Investment Week reports. The S&P 500 Dynamic Vix Futures Index Total Return Investment or Dynamic Vix offers exposure to volatility without use of traditional diversification investments such as gold and oil. Over the past year, simulations show that the Synamic Vix would have earned returns of 9.58%, compared with losses of 11.40% for the S&P 500 VIX.
27/03/2012

Kames cancels performance commission for an absolute return fund

Kames Capital has decided to cancel the performance commission for an absolute return fund, the ames UK equity absolute return fund, from 2 April until the end of the year, Money Marketing reports. The fund, whose assets under management total about GBP68m, will still charge a performance commission when it outperforms the Bank of England base rate. The current performance commission is 20%. After the suspension period, the performance commission will be 10%. The fund, launched in February 2010, has earned returns of 4.71% for the year to 29 February.
27/03/2012

Ashmore hopes to grow in Asia

The British asset management firm Ashmore has recruited Kon Chee-Keat for the newly-created position of head of credit for Asia, Asian Investor reports. He will be based in Singapore. The creation of the new position appears to be a sign of a desire on the part of Ashmore to grow in Asia. The British firm has declined to comment on its development plans in the region. Assets under management at Ashmore as of the end of December 2011 totalled USD60.4bn, about one third of which come from the Asia-Pacific region. Kon previously worked at Lion Global Investors in Singapore, as head of fixed income.
27/03/2012

Threadneedle launches a fund in Italy

Threadneedle has launched the US Contrarian Core Equities Fund in Italy, Bluerating reports. The Luxembourg-registered fund is managed by Guy W. Pop, managing director and portfolio manager at Columbia Management.
27/03/2012

Azimut hopes to increase foreign assets to EUR2.7bn

The Italian asset management firm Azimut is planning to reach EUR2.7bn in assets under management outside Italy by 2014, Il Sole – 24 Ore reports. Currently, counting the firm’s assets in Monaco, Switzerland and Turkey, “foreign” assets are slightly under EUR1bn. Azimut is also reportedly interested in Brazil. In Italy, Azimut would like to increase its market share, currently 3.3%. In order to achieve that, the firm is planning to make acquisitions and may have EUR240m to EUR250m to spend, the Italian newspaper calculates. Assets under management at Azimut totalled EUR17.67bn last year; it is planning to increase this to EUR27bn by 2014.
27/03/2012

Volume of unit-linked Riester contracts up 12.7% in 2011

As of 31 December, assets in Riester unit-linked, subsidised retirement savings plans totalled over EUR8.31bn, an increase of 12.7%, or about EUR1bn, compared with their levels twelve months earlier.The German BVI association of asset management firms states that these statistics come from the German ministry of labour and social affairs, which states that the number of Riester policies in the form of shares in investment funds has increased by about 4.9% in one year, to over 2.95 million policies, which represents about 19.2% of all Riester policies.By comparison, the number of Riester policies managed by insurers last year increased by 4.8% to 10.9 million.
27/03/2012

Good start to the year for Aberdeen

Aberdeen has recorded net new business inflows of GBP1.4 billion in the two first months of the year. Continued net inflows to higher margin products are going to add GBP20 million in annual revenues. Assets under management at 29 February 2012 totalled GBP184.4 billion, a 6% increase on 31 December 2011.
27/03/2012

British government may sell one third of RBS to Abu Dhabi

The British government is reportedly considering selling 10% to one third of the capital in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund, according to the BBC, Les Echos reports. The British government acquired an 82% stake in the capital of the firm with an injectino of GBP45bn to bail out banking giant during the crisis, and has now been in talks for several months with the hopes of signing an agreement before Christmas. If a deal goes through at current share prices, it would mean a loss for British taxpayers, who bought in at GBP0.50 per share, compared with a share price of about half that now.
27/03/2012

Performance of multi-manager funds lacks consistency

Although the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) legislation is leading many independent financial advisers to outsource at least part of their investment decisions to multi-manager funds, the independent research agency Defaqto has warned against multi-manager funds, which have not delivered highly coherent or consistent results since 2008. According to Defaqto, only 25 multi-manager funds, out of a sample of 184 funds, have succeeded in maintaining a stable rating of 3, 4 or 5 out of 5 since June 2008. In other words, it is extremely difficult for a multi-manager fund to earn solid performance over the long term. Defaqto yesterday released a “Guide to Multi-Managers,” which lays out key points for advisors considering the choice of a multi-manager fund, including changes in the market in the past six months, an analysis of the coherence of multi-manager funds, an update on regulatory developments, and analysis of portfolio turnover. Currently, 26% of users of platforms outsource their investment decisions to a multi-manager. This trend is likely to accentuate as RDR legislation requires financial advisers to revise their development model by the end of the year.
27/03/2012

Former Merrill Lynch director joins Protean Investments

Bob Champney, a former managing director at Merrill Lynch, has joined the investment boutique Protean Investments, to assist the firm in the development of new profducts, including dynamic macro tracker funds, Fund Web reports. Champney was previously head of product development at Merrill Lynch.
27/03/2012

InverCaixa + Banca Civica Gestión = EUR17.5bn

The acquisition of Banca Civica by La Caixa will result in a merger of Invercaixa (EUR15.5bn in assets as of the end of February) with Banca Civica Gestión de Activos (EUR2.05bn), Funds People reports. Of this total of EUR17.5bn, guaranteed funds investing primarily in bonds represent a volume of EUR9.76bn, and bond funds represent nearly EUR3.75bn.
27/03/2012

Barclays teams up with Allfunds in the Premier segment

With “Barclays Gestión de Carteras Premier,” Barclays Spain is launching a new discretionary, unit-linked wealth management service, Funds People reoprts. The product, aimed at clients with financial savings of at least EUR50,000, the so-called “Premier” segment, will be available from the Allfunds Bank platform, with which Barclays has signed a partnership to sell the best funds from the ranges of Barclays Wealth, JPMorgan AM, BlackRock and Franklin Templeton.
27/03/2012

Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild recruits a manager from La Caixa

The Spanish branch of Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild Europe has recruited Jaime O’Donnell to manage high net worth clients from its Madrid office, Funds People reports. O’Donnell had most recently been at La Caixa Banca Privada, after spending 5 years at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management Group and working at Franklin Templeton Investments in California.
27/03/2012

Espirito Santo recruits bankers from Deutsche Bank

José Ignacio Ruiz-Garna, Fernando Coscollar, Diego Martínez and Daniel Alonso, private bankers from Deutsche Bank in Spain, have joined Banco Espirito Santo, which is recruiting for its own retail and private banking division in the country, Funds People reports.Banco Espirito Santo has 115 wealth management banking advisers (for clients with EUR25,000 to EUR1m) and private banking advisers (for those with over EUR1m). Its affiliate Espirito Santo Gestión manages 83 Sicavs and 48 funds with EUR1.5bn in assets.
27/03/2012

Head of equities leaves Lombard Odier

Lombard Odier Investment Managers, the asset management unit of the Swiss private bank, at the end of 2011 parted with its chief investment officer for equities, Aziz Nahas, Financial News reports. Lombard Odier has confirmed the departure. For his part, Nahas had no comment, but according to sources familiar with the matter, he is now planning to launch his own hedge fund.
27/03/2012

Norway's GPFG gives good ratings to Adidas, Nestlé and Air France

Norges Bank Investment Management, the affiliate of the Bank of Norway responsible for managing the Government Pension Fund – Global (GPFG, formerly known as the Oil Fund) has awarded its top ratings for social and environmental risks to 39 companies out of 1,078, including Adidas, Nestlé and Air France-KLM. More than one third of the firms analysed had a score of zero in this area.Walt Disney, PVH, Intel, Hennes & Mauritz, Motorola Mobility, Gildan Activewear, Xstrata, Ericsson and Anglo American are among the 14 firms which received top ratings for their reporting on risks related to child labour in 2011. Adidas, Gap, Next, Bayer and BHP Billiton for the first time appear in the list of businesses with a top score. But of the 452 businesses analysed from this perspective, 41 received no ratings, compared with 44 in 2010.11 businesses received top ratings in 2011 for their reporting on risks related to climate change, including Air France-KLM, Air Products & Chemicals, BASF and Constellation Energy Group, as well as E-ON, Hera, Iberdrola, Lafarge, Linde, Xcel Energy and Angle American. In this category, 17 of the 453 businesses analysed received zero ratings.Lastly, on reporting on issues related to water, NBIM awarded top ratings to 14 businesses out of 447, including Nestlé, Anglo American, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Danone, GlaxoSmithKline, Kellogg, Kirin Holdings, Merck & Co, Molson Coors Brewing, PepsiCo, Pfizer, PG&E, SABMiller and Sanofi. 32% of businesses received zero ratings in this area.
27/03/2012
Gestion d'actifs

L'UFF sélectionne un gérant de private equity pour lancer un FCPI

UFF Innovation 14 est un nouveau Fonds Commun de Placement dans l’Innovation (FCPI) qui offre aux clients de l’UFF un des rares accès aux entreprises non cotées. Le FCPI UFF Innovation 14 a comme objectif d’investir 100% de son actif dans des sociétés innovantes principalement non cotées, particulièrement dans les secteurs de l'énergie, des technologies de l’information et des sciences de la vie. Le FCPI investira un minimum de 40% de son actif en actions de PME éligibles. Les 60% restants seront principalement investis en obligations classiques, BSA et en avances en compte courant dans des PME éligibles en croissance, qui cherchent des solutions de financement non-dilutif à moyen terme. Le FCPI UFF Innovation 14 sera géré par l'équipe de Truffle Capital.
Gestion d'actifs
27/03/2012

Threadneedle lance un fonds en Italie

Threadneedle vient de lancer en Italie le US Contrarian Core Equities Fund, rapporte Bluerating. Ce fonds de droit luxembourgeois est géré par Guy W Pop, managing director et gérant de Columbia Management.
27/03/2012

Baisse de 43% du bonus de Frédéric Oudéa au titre de 2011

Selon un document publié sur le site internet de l'établissement, la rémunération variable du PDG de la Société Générale au titre de l’exercice 2011 s'élève à 682.770 euros, en baisse de 43% par rapport à 2010, rapporte L’Agefi. Frédéric Oudéa va par ailleurs percevoir un fixe d’un million d’euros auquel s’ajoutent 300.000 euros «en compensation de la perte de tous ses droits au régime de retraite bénéficiant à l’ensemble des cadres hors classification du groupe». La totalité de la rémunération variable annuelle sera différée pour les dirigeants mandataires sociaux, précise le quotidien.
27/03/2012

Azimut veut porter ses encours étrangers à 2,7 milliards d’euros

La société de gestion italienne Azimut compte atteindre les 2,7 milliards d’euros d’encours gérés hors des frontières italiennes d’ici à 2014, rapporte Il Sole – 24 Ore. Actuellement, en additionnant les encours de la société à Monaco, en Suisse et en Turquie, les actifs «étrangers» sont légèrement inférieurs au milliard d’euros. Azimut serait notamment intéressée par une présence au Brésil. En Italie, Azimut souhaite augmenter sa part de marché, actuellement à 3,3 %. Pour ce faire, la société est prête à procéder à des acquisitions et aurait à disposition entre 240 et 250 millions d’euros de liquidités, calcule le quotidien italien. Les encours sous gestion d’Azimut ont atteint 17,67 milliards d’euros l’an dernier, un montant qu’elle souhaite porter à 27 milliards d’euros d’ici à 2014.
27/03/2012
Fonds

Le fonds Amérique du Nord de MainFirst arrive le 18 avril

L’allemand MainFirst Asset Management a annoncé que son premier fonds investissant hors d’Europe, le MainFrist North America Fund sera lancé le 18 avril (lire Newsmanagers du 15 mars), rapporte Fonds Professionell.Le portefeuille de 150 à 200 actions américaines et canadiennes sera constitué avec l’aide d’un modèle assisté par ordinateur et en fonction de multiples critères objectifs ; il sera investi en règle générale entre 90 et 100 %. L’objectif est de surperformer l’indice de référence MSCI North America de 400 à 500 points de base.
Fonds
27/03/2012

Warburg-Henderson se dote d'une filiale de distribution

Le gestionnaire hambourgeois de fonds immobiliers Warburg - Henderson Kapitalanlagegesellschaft für Immobilien mbH annonce lundi que sa nouvelle filiale de distribution Warburg - Henderson Vertriebs GmbH a entamé ses activités le 9 mars. Son état-major est composé de Christian, comte von Hochberg, qui était jusqu'à present director of institutional sales et par le spécialiste de la distribution Bodo Schrah.Cette nouvelle entité sera chargée de distribuer les 17 fonds institutionnels de Warburg - Henderson (4,1 milliards d’euros d’encours) de conseiller la clientèle allemande et étrangère et de capturer de nouveaux mandats.
27/03/2012

Espirito Santo recrute des banquiers privés chez Deutsche Bank

José Ignacio Ruiz-Garna, Fernando Coscollar, Diego Martínez et Daniel Alonso, banquiers privés chez Deutsche Bank en Espagne, rejoignent Banco Espirito Santo, qui est en train de renforcer sa propre division banque du particulier et banque privée dans le pays, rapporte Funds People.Banco Espirito Santo compte 115 conseillers en banque «patrimoniale» (entre 25.000 et 1 million d’euros) et banque privée (plus d’un million d’euros). Sa filiale Espirito Santo Gestión gère 83 sicav et 48 fonds pour 1,5 milliard d’euros d’encours.

Sujets d'actualité

Tous les sujets