Credit Suisse is planning to fully integrate Clariden Leu into its organisation by the end of 2012, the bank announced in a statement on 15 November. The move will result in recurring annual cost savings of about CHF200m, and an increase in private banking profits of CHF800m by 2014. CS is expecting the integration to strengthen its position and to increase the profitability and efficiency of private banking operations. The currently clients of Clariden Leu will be transferred to Credit Suisse. Hans-Ulrich Meister, Chief Executive Officer Private Banking at Credit Suisse, has been elected as chairman of the board at Clariden Leu, while Hanspeter Kurzmeyer is appointed as its new CEO.

The German asset management firm Deka Immobilien has announced that it has resold the logistics property Myren 6 & 8 (15,000 square metres), located in Huddinge near Stockholm, “at a profit.” The property is wholly leased to Posten Sverige AB and was purchased for about EUR35m by the British asset management firm Rockspring Property Investment Managers.Myren 6 & 8 were acquired in 2004 for an institutional real estate fund from Deka.

The Danish pension fund PFA will most likely reduce its exposure to European banks. Jesper Langmack, managing director of PFA for equity and alternative investments, has told the Financial Times that returns on equity at most European banks will fall to 5-10%, due to the Basel III regulations and slowing growth.

The Danish pension fund Lønmodtagernes Dyrtidsfond (LD, DKK50bn) has jointly selected Nykredit and BNY Mellon Asset Servicing as its global custodians, following an EU-wide request for proposals.Nykredit Portefølje Administration will supervise day-to-day administration, while BNY Mellon AS will provide the IT system, process and resources of its global network.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc, the portfolio company for Warren Buffett, on 14 November announced that it has acquired 5.4% of International Business Machines Corp (IBM), for a total of USD10.7bn, the Wall Street Journal reports.The investment at current market prices represents USD12bn, thus Berkshire Hathaway has already made gains of 12%. After State Street, Berkshire Hathaway was the second-largest shareholder in IBM as of 30 September. The buyer had begun to amass shares since March, twice receiving confidential treatment from the SEC.Since the beginning of this year, the share price for IBM has increased by 28%, while the S&P 500 index was flat. With an investment in IBM, Buffett breaks with his longstanding aversion to the technology sector.

Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global, and Axa Real Estate Investment Managers, acting on behalf of Axa France Insurance Companies, has announced that their Paris office joint venture partnership has exchanged contracts to acquire by the end of the year a portfolio of prime Paris offices for EUR290 million (excluding transfer taxes), reflecting a passing cap rate of 6.0%. This second acquisition by the JV has been negotiated off market and comprises three office properties, with some retail units on ground floors: two in Paris and one in Boulogne-Billancourt, in the Western Business District of Paris. The details of the assets are as follows: 28 – 32 Victor Hugo – Paris 16 – A prime office asset located in the heart of the Paris central business district in the immediate vicinity of Place de l’Etoile. It has a total GLA of approximately 9,500 sqm, of which 900 sqm of retail, arranged over five basement levels, a ground floor and seven upper levels. The property is fully let. 99 Avenue de France – Paris 13 – Located in the Rive Gauche business area in the 13th district of Paris, the asset has a total GLA of approximately 14,300 sqm, of which 4,600 sqm of retail, arranged over two basement levels, a ground floor and eight upper levels. It is fully let. Le Prélude – Boulogne-Billancourt – A headquarter office building located within Boulogne-Billancourt, in the established Western Business District of Paris. It has a total GLA of approximately 8,200 sqm arranged over three basement levels, a ground floor and six upper levels. It is fully let to a single strong covenant tenant. The JV between Norges Bank and Axa Real Estate was launched in August 2011 to target co-investment opportunities in the Paris office market.

NewAlpha Asset Management, an affiliate of IFO AM specialised in the incubation of management firms in the inception phase, has signed its seventeenth incubation partnership with the Heieck Siebrecht Capital Advisors company, via an investment of USD40m in the asset manager’s flagship fund. HSCA AG, based in Zurich, is an independent company founded in 2009 by Frank Siebrecht and Stefan Heieck. Siebrecht and Heieck had a total of over 26 years of experience in German and European equities. Siebrecht was an equities analyst at Deutsche Bank for 9 years, before spending three years at Absolute Capital Management, where he was co-manager of the Absolute Capital Germany fund. Heieck was in equity sales at DG Financial Markets, and then at ManFirst Capital, before joining Absolute Capital Management to co-manage Absolute Capital Germany. Heieck Siebrecht Capital Advisors uses an absolute return strategy on European equities with a particular focus on German, Swiss and Austrian large and midcaps. HSCA also includes in its investment universe European rivals to their German counterparts.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has announced the appointment of Carol Baldwin Moody as senior portfolio manager for investment compliance and operational risk. As the head of CalPERS new Investment Compliance function, she will be responsible for developing, implementing and monitoring investment management compliance and operational risk programs and policies. Moody comes to CalPERS from Wilmington Trust, where she was senior vice president and chief risk officer.

The US investment firm Evercore Partners Inc has bought a 45% stake in Evercore Investment Management LLC (24 employtees, USD3.5bn in assets) for about USD45m in cash. The transaction will be closed by the end of the year.The founders and employees of the firm will retain the remaining 55%. Alain De Coster, Laurence Russian and Guilherme Ribeiro do Valle, the founders, will remain as heads of ABS IM, and will sign long-term employment contracts. They will invest a large part of the proceeds of the sale in products managed by ABS.

The French entrepreneurial asset management firm IT Asset Management (about EUR150m in assets) has recruited Ines Thibault as head of sales for France. She had previously been head of sales at Algofi.Pierre Nicolle, an intern sales assistant, has been recruited as a salesperson for France. He joined the asset management firm in December 2009, after being responsible for development of major accounts at a finance specialist IT services company. He will be in charge of monitoring and distribution of funds in France to institutional clients and independent financial advisers.IT Asset Management is also adding to its sales drive in Europe, with the registration of the IT Funds Info Tech fund in Spain, and a new sales partner in the United Kingdom, Gemini Investment Management.

At the end of last month, assets under management by Legg Mason totalled USD628.7bn, compared with USD611.8bn as of 30 September. This level remains well below USD662.5bn at the end of June, and USD671.8bn as of 31 December 2010.Among its long-term assets, the equity allocation increased to USD159.4bn as of the end of October, from USD144.9bn at the end of September (it totalled USD184.2bn as of the end of last year), while bond products totalled USD359bn as of 31 October, compared with USD355.5bn one month previously, and USd355.8bn as of 31 December 2010.Assets in money market funds were down to USD110bn, from USD111.4bn as of 30 September. As of the end of 2010, these asstes totalled USD131.8bn.

The commodities investment pioneer Jim Rogers is now taking a tour of Australia to find investors interested in a project to raise AUD350m (EUR262m) for investments to focus on agricultural land in the northern part of New South Wales, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports.The concept is based on predictions that inflation will increase and demand for agricultural products from Asia will provoke a rise in the price of investments of this type. The farmers will be maintained in charge of their operations.The new fund advised by Rogers will be known as Laguna Bay Pastoral Company. Laguna Bay as the support of the investment bank Morgan Stanley.

The first ETF to replicate the performance of social media companies will be launched this Tuesday in the United States, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Global X Social Media ETF, from the Global X Funds company, will track 25 companies. It will have a strong exposure to Chinese internet companies.

The average number of on-book trades on ETFs on European markets of NYSE Euronext in October fell to 11,250, from 13,070 in September, and 14,658 in August. In the first ten months of the year, the rate of increase has slowed to 26.1%, from 26.6% in January-September.The average on-book daily trading volume came to EUR433.8m last month, compared with EUR558m in September, and EUR618.2m in August. In January-October, the annual increase came to 32%.The European listings on NYSE Euronext as of the end of October included 593 ETF funds listed a total of 691 times. Since the beginning of this year, there have been 153 fund launches, of which 125 were primary listings, and 28 were secondary listings. In October, 14 ETFs were newly added to trading, of which 6 were from SPDR (SSgA), 5 from RBS Market Access, and 3 from Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale).The average spread for all ETFs in October totalled 36.3 basis points, compared with 38.83 in September, and 28.5 in August.

Overall, open-ended funds in Germany, excluding real estate funds, have seen net outflows of EUR8.43bn in January-September, the German BVI association of asset management firms reports.Aside from Allianz Global Investors, which has taken on EUR1.49bn due to net subscriptions of EUR5.73bn at its affiliate Pimco Europe, all the major asset management firms have seen net outflows in the first three quarters of the year: redemptions have totalled EUR7.53bn for Deka (savings banks), EUR3.54bn for the DWS/DB Advisors/DB family (Deutsche Bank), and EUR1.52bn for Union Investment (co-operative banks).ETF promoters, excepting ETFlab (Deka), which has seen net outflows of EUR1.09bn, have posted net subscriptions, including BlackRock (for its iShares products), which have attracted over UER7.55bn, db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank), with EUR1.3bn, and ComStage (Commerzbank) with EUR279m.Open-ended funds overall saw net outflows of EUR2.77bn, which brings net outflows to EUR3.94bn in third quarter, and EUR7.55bn in the first nine months of the year. In the first three quarters of 2010, these funds attracted a further EUR18.91bn.German asset management overall has seen net subscriptions of EUR10.75bn in January-September, thanks to EUR20.08bn in inflows to institutional funds. These last two figures compare with EUR83.41bn and EUR42.93bn, respectively.Mandates managed outside funds, which represented EUR278.18bn as of the end of September, posted net inflows in the first nine months of the year of EUR1.79bn, despite net inflows of EUR1.85bn in September.

The Luxembourg-based veNova SA and Axxion SA (EUR3bn) have jointly launched the sub-fund Globalyze Fund – Globalyze QuantValue (ISIN code: LU0690028625), which invests in equities in the 25 best companies identified by the fundamental analysis IT program Globalyze Top Value, and then put into effect by Norbert Lohrke.Selection is based on the potential for share prices to rise, and the sale of shares when the target share price is achieved.

A l’occasion de la semaine de la finance solidaire, Sophie Bigeard, analyste et gérante multi gestion chez OFI Asset Management présentait mercredi 9 novembre la gestion du fonds avenir partage ISR, avec 13 millions d’euros d’encours, de la Fondation de l’avenir. Composé à 50 % de dons en provenance de parrainages et de collecte, à 30 % de mécénat, à 10 % de fonds de dotation et à 10 % de produits financiers de partage (livret de finance solidaire ou garantie obsèques Mutuac avenir solidaire), il s’agit d’OPCVM en multi-gestion. « Chaque année, un coupon équivalent à 2 % de l’actif net du fonds est reversé » précise Sophie Bigeard soit l'équivalent de 250 à 300 000 euros. Benchmarké sur le DJ Stoxx Sustainability, il s’agit d’un fonds actions européennes en grande majorité. « Nous avons pris très récemment un positionnement de 2 % sur les futures Euro Stoxx 50, mais les 98 % restants sont des actions » explique la gérante du fonds. Cette position permet une meilleure réactivité aux comportements du marché grâce à sa volatilité. Le fonds est géré par une approche qualitative et exclusivement ISR, ce qui permet d’adopter différents aspects d’investissement responsable au sein d’un véhicule unique.

Christian Matécat, le directeur comptable et financier de la caisse d’allocation vieillesse des agents généraux (CAVAMAC), a annoncé à la rédaction d’Instit Invest que la CAVAMAC a sélectionné deux mandataires pour l’allocation flexible de la caisse. Les encours de la CAVAMAC s'élèvent à un milliard d’euros, gérés à 90 % en fonction d’indices pur action et taux. L’allocation flexible représente aujourd’hui 100 millions d’euros » confirme son directeur comptable qui souhaitait disposer d’actifs plus aptes à faire face aux comportements du marché. Depuis plus de dix-huit mois, nous réfléchissons à passer de 10 à 20/25% d’allocation flexible. Pour avoir une vision d’ensemble, une rencontre avait été organisée avec tous les gestionnaires, à la suite de laquelle il avait été décidé de faire appel à deux gérants externes, sélectionnés par l’intermédiaire de la société de conseil Amadeis. Fortes de l’année 2009 où la CAVAMAC avait réduit ses expositions sur le corporate et le regrette désormais devant les excellents résultats réalisés, les contraintes imposées aux mandataires sont peu nombreuses. Souhaitant une flexibilité optimale des 200 millions d’euros d’encours, nous n’avons pas déterminé d’actifs en particulier explique Christian Matécat. Toutefois, des réserves ont été émises sur certaines classes d’actifs, à commencer par la dette émergente, limitée à l’OCDE, et en particulier à l’Europe au niveau obligataire. C’est également le cas pour la gestion alternative qui ne doit pas dépasser 15/20% du portefeuille, les devises 20%, ou encore les convertibles US et les obligations limités 50%. La grande latitude entre les classes d’actifs permet une répartition actions/obligations allant de 0 à 100%. Pour benchmark, la CAVAMAC a choisi Eonia + 4% sur une période de 3 à 5 ans, avec un draw-down maximum de 10% et une volatilité ne pouvant dépasser les 20%. Cette dernière indication est superflue ajoute Christian Matécat, avec les limites que nous avons fixées en amont, les mandataires assurent qu’il serait improbable d’atteindre ce seuil.

La croissance a rebondi de 1,5 % au troisième trimestre et de 6 % en rythme annualisé, avec une contribution du commerce extérieur de 0,4 point

La diminution, dont le gros provient de cessions de titres, atteint 24 milliards d'euros selon un pointage provisoire de « L'Agefi »

Les spreads se sont nettement tendus la semaine dernière. Les émetteurs non financiers sont également touchés

Sur 25 ans, les blue chips américaines et les marchés émergents affichent une performance annualisée respective de +9 % et +13 %

Elle a placé trois milliards d’euros de titres à cinq ans avec un rendement de 6,3 %, en hausse par rapport à la dernière adjudication

Le Premier ministre Lucas Papadémos a plaidé en faveur d'un nouveau programme d'ajustement budgétaire, une perspective que la droite rejette

La Commission européenne devrait indiquer qu’il est justifié d’encadrer la liberté des agences de notation dans des «circonstances exceptionnelles» et dans une logique de «prévention des désordres», selon le texte qui doit être rendu public aujourd’hui et dont le quotidien s’est procuré une copie. La Commission estime ainsi que les agences peuvent augmenter «les effets de contagion» par des «biais subjectifs» et des dégradations de notes «arbitraires».

Le directeur général de la Banque asiatique de développement, Rajat Nag, a enjoint, dans un entretien au quotidien, la Chine et l’Inde de «faire tout leur possible» pour soutenir la zone euro à se relever de la crise dans la mesure où elle pourrait avoir «des effets de effets significatifs» sur le continent asiatique. «Nous sommes tous dans le même bateau» a indiqué le dirigeant.

Quinze banques européennes ont diminué de 24 milliards leur exposition à la dette italienne, soit 17% de la base à fin juin, selon un pointage de L’Agefi.

Les retraits subis par les fonds monétaires ont pesé sur les filiales de gestion des banques françaises. BNP Paribas et Amundi souffrent tout particulièrement. En revanche, Natixis confirme sa solidité depuis le début de l’année, notamment grâce à son ancrage américain.

Les deux groupes restent «en quête d’un nouvel équilibre» selon le quotidien au sein de leur coentreprise, La Banque Postale Gestion Privée. Pierre-Manuel Sroczynski, secrétaire général de La Banque Postale Asset Management, devrait prendre la tête de LBPGP. Cette nomination, qui ne sera officialisée que début décembre, confirme la volonté du groupe public de réduire le poids d’Oddo.

La holding destinée à des prises de participations dans l’agriculture, sponsorisée par Massena Partners, a réalisé son premier closing avec un tour de table de près de 40 millions de dollars. Terra Magna Capital a sélectionné un portefeuille de terres agricoles détenues en pleine propriété, situées en Amérique Latine et d’une superficie totale de 70.500hectares.