On 3 October, a new sub-fund joined the Luxembourg SICAV from Sparinvest. The fund, initially entitled Atrium Value Partner SICAV European Small Cap, was launched in June 2006 by Atrium Asset Management, a Danish asset management firm specialised in value investments, which was acquired by Sparinvest in March 2011. The fund is now renamed as Sparinvest European Small Cap Value, and will retain its ISIN code (LU0256591552) and management team. The team consists of Karsten Løngaard and Lisbeth Søgaard Nielsen, who will continue to jointly manage the “new” fund as a part of the value equities team at Sparinvest, which is composed of 10 members. The fund thus joins the SICAV with a five-year track record. Although Sparinvest is specialised in long-term investment and does not believe in the virtues of market timing, it nonetheless considers the current prospects for the fund excellent, due to the massive divestment recently affecting the European stock markets. Due to the euro crisis, small companies based in Europe have all indiscriminately been devalued, and now represent a promising hunting ground for investors seeking opportunities. The Sparinvest European Small Cap Value index aims to earn positive returns over the long term, using Sparinvest’s value equities strategy a 100% bottom-up approach, which seeks out value investment opportunities in the small and micro-cap segments (as defined by MSCI), on stock markets of EU member countries plus Norway and Switzerland. Characteristics of the portfolio at launch: ISIN code: LU0256591552 R Launch date: 22 June 2006 Size: EUR3.31m Subscription commission: 3% Top five positions: Aareal Bank AG 6.1%, Wash Tec AG 5.3%, Wolford AG 4.8%, Derby Cycle AG 4.8%, Haldex Group AB 4.6% Top three sectors: Consumer goods 32.5%, industrial materials 27.5%, corporate services 10.3%.

The JO Hambro Capital Management group has launched two Asian equity funds, Investment Week reports. The funds are the JOHCM Asia ex Japan fund, a fund investing in all cap sizes which will be managed by Samir Mehta, and the JOHCM Asia ex Japan Small and Mid Cap fund, a small and midcaps fund which will be managed by Cho-Yu Kooi. The two managers are both veterans of the Singapore-based management boutique Silver Metis Capital Management, which was acquired a few months ago by JO Hambro Capital Management. The fund, which will be available to institutional and retail clients, will be available in Dublin in shares denominated in pounds Sterling, US dollars, and euros. Front-end dees are 5%, while management fees are 1.50% per year, and performance commission is 15%.

Louis N. Cohen, managing director of the global fixed income division of the New York firm MacKay Shields (USD56bn in assets), on a visit to Paris to present the US Corporate Bond Fund (LU0458979746), a sub-fund of the Nordea 1 Sicav, to investors, said a few words in praise of US investment grade corporate bonds, whose potential is at least as solid as that of high yield bonds, he says.The fund, whose assets as of the end of September totalled USD1.252bn, up from USD978m at the end of December, has not seen redemptions since the beginning of this year. Cohen’s confidence is partly due to the fact that he does not believe there will be a recession, but is still expecting a slow growth rate of 2% for the United States. This is in line with the results of a survey by Russell Investments published on 29 September, in which 79% of US asset managers predict that there will not be a double-dip recession. In addition, the profit situation for surviving US businesses has improved considerably, and US banks are not as vulnerable as they were in 2008. The “Twist” operation initiated by the Fed aims to dissuade banks from converting the maturities of their bonds to invest in Treasuries, but to convince them instead to “pump credit into the system.” For investors, the returns on investment grade corporate bonds is highly attractive, with spreads of 225 basis points. The Nordea fund invests 60% of its assets in BBB-rated bonds, 10% in BB bonds, and 25% in A-rated papers. The portfolio has about 225 positions, with a low turnover rate.

BlackRock has launched the BlackRock Absolute Return Bond Fund, a UK authorised unit trust, in response to growing investor demand to add value in an environment of low interest rates and stretched valuations across many areas of fixed income investments.The BlackRock Absolute Return Bond Fund is managed by Ian Winship, a senior portfolio manager.

The UK asset management firm Baring Asset Management (Barings) on 3 October announced the recruitment of William Palmer as investment director for its global emerging markets (GEM) team. Palmer, who had previously been senior asset manager and head of Asia ex-Japan equities at KBC Asset Management, will report to Roberto Lampl, head of GEM equities. The Barings Global Emerging Markets fund as of the end of August had assets of USD1.7664bn.

Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) has announced the recruitment of James Carver as investment director for absolute return bond funds. Carver will co-manage absolute return bond funds with Juan Valenzuela. Carver previously spent ten years at Aberdeen Asset Management.

BlueBay Asset Management is planning to launch a range of funds with several billions of euros in assets, which will lend money to European businesses, to fill a gap currently left vacant by banks, the Financial Times reports. The new activity, which will start up in 2012 with a closed-end fund, will directly finance small and mid-sized businesses.

The hedge fund manager Cambridge Strategy Asset Management, a specialist in emerging markets, has recruited Adam Reynolds for the newly-created position of chief executive officer for the Asian region, Asian Investor reports. Reynolds, who will begin in January 2012, previously worked at Société Générale, where he was co-head of bonds and currencies for Asia.

According to an analysis by the ratings agency Scope, open-ended real estate funds which have suspended their redemptions are endangering funds of funds, Handelsblatt reports. Once real estate funds reopen their redemption windows, there is a danger that funds of funds will call in their money immediately.Scope analysed funds of funds with assets of EUR3.1bn, and found that 60% of their portfolios are composed of shares in real estate funds. In three cases, the funds of funds themselves which were closed to redemptions had 70% to 90% of their assets frozen in closed real estate funds. Handelsblatt cites the recent case of the Premium Management Immobilien-Anlagen fund of funds, which Allianz Global Investors announced in mid-August would be liquidated (probably this month), with EUR500m, or EUR19 per share, to be paid out to subscribers. This represents a considerable loss for clients.Many funds of funds are invested in the Morgan Stanley P2 Value fund, which will be liquidated. The next funds to reopen, in mid-November, will be the Axa Immoselect and the DEGI International (Aberdeen). If the re-opening is a failure, these funds will also have to be liquidated.

In the context of the sovereign debt crisis and global economic recession, investors are turning to hedge funds which aim to protect them from extreme risks, the Financial Times observes. Among the funds which are benefiting from the trend are tail-risk funds from Bennelong Asset Management, 36 South and Saba. All of them have seen increases in their assets of 10% in August and September, according to JP Morgan. Funds managed by Man Group, Capula and Universa also posted subscriptions.

In 2011, hedge funds are set to invest as much as USD2.09bn to IT stocks, equivalent to about 9 basis points as a proportion of their assets under management, according to a study by Citi Prime Finance covering hedge funds based in the United States and Europe. Hedge funds with assets under management of over USD5bn will spend an average of USD7.9m in 2011, 13 times the amount estimated for funds with assets under management of less than USD500m.

In third quarter overall, redemptions affected most investment categories monitored by EPFR Global. Funds dedicated to emerging market equities saw net outflows of USD23.32bn in third quarter and USD36.33bn in the first nine months of the year. Funds dedicated to equities in developed markets, for their part, saw net outflows of USD77.37bn in third quarter, and USD51.31bn over three months. For bonds, however, emerging market funds posted record inflows of USD4.83bn in third quarter, and nearly EUR20bn in nine months. US bond funds attracted USD3.57bn in third quarter and USD39.6bn in the first nine months of the year. European bond funds finished the quarter with outflows of USD5bn, and ended the nine-month period with outflows of USD21.1bn. For bond funds overall, third quarter brought net outflows of USD8.3bn, but for the nine month period, the category shows net inflows of USD77.15bn. Money market funds finished third quarter with outflows of USD51.2bn, while the outflows for the first nine months of the year totalled over USD151bn. In the same period in 2010, redemptions were close to USD508bn. In the week ending on 28 September, money market funds posted net inflows of USD8.8bn. In the same period, bond funds posted net inflows of USD4.3bn, while equity funds saw redemptions of USD8.9bn. Sectoral analysis reveals that commodity funds have posted net inflows of USD4.13bn in third quarter, and USD11.85bn over nine months. Another big winner is utilities funds, which have seen inflows of over USD1bn in third quarter, and of USD1.7bn in the first nine months of the year. However, funds dedicated to financials finished the quarter with outflows of nearly USD2bn, and the first nine months of the year with outflows of USD3.33bn.

The UBS group is expected to report a slight net profit for third quarter, and net inflows to its wealth management activities, the Swiss bank announced in a statement on 4 October. The results include a loss of USD2.3bn due to unauthorised trades previously announced, and about CHF0.4bn in restructuring costs associated with the firm’s cost reduction programme. Results were also boosted by gains for the firm’s own financial sector engagements, which at fair value made about CHF1.5bn, largely due to a narrowing of credit spreads at UBS in third quarter. In addition, UBS will announce a capital gain on its sale of cash investments, which allowed it to make nearly CHF0.7bn at the Wealth Management & Swiss Bank division. Currently, the group’s tax costs for the quarter come out to near zero. UBS will also post a net inflow to its wealth management activities at a level comparable to the previous quarter. Global Asset Management will for its part announce a limited net outflow.

The Swiss asset management firm Unigesion has appointed Bill Foo as its president for Asia and its Singapore office, Unigestion Asia, from 1 October. Since 1999, Foo had served as chairman and CEO at ANZ Bank in Singapore. He will remain as vice-chairman of ANZ South & South East Asia. In his new role, Foo will assist Bernard Sabrier, chairman of Unigestion and CEO of Unigestion Asia Pte Ltd., and Nicholas Hulme, executive director based in Singapore, to develop the activities of Unigestion in Asia.

The British asset management firm Schroders, which has already released its GAIA CQS Credit fund in France (see Newsmanagers of 11 July) and in Spain (see Newsmanagers of 31 August) will now make a roadshow for the UCITS-compliant hedge fund for German and Austrian investors in the month of October, Investment Europe reports. The product has gained 6.8% since its launch in April, and its objective is returns higher than the Libor 3-month.

InvestmentEurope reports that Martin Currie has decided to close two funds, the Pan European Alpha and Global Financials. The first of these funds is to be closed due to the departure of its co-manager, Eric Woehrling, while the second is being closed because its net asset value has fallen below USD10m.

Fonds Professionell reports that Evelyn Muth, who in November 2010 was promoted to Head of Global Relations Central Europe at Fidelity Germany, will officially be leaving the firm at the end of this year, but that she has taken a leave of absence beginning on 30 September. She had been employed at the group since 1995.At the end of June, Fidelity recruited Kerstin Behnke, managing director and head of Northern Europe, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg at Gartmore, to be director of distribution for Germany (see Newsmanagers of 17 May). At that time, the firm announced that Adam Lessing would be leaving his job as head of distribution for Germany in order to focus on Austria and central Europe.

Cormac Sheedy, head of sales at SHUAA Capital, an investment bank based in the United Arab Emirates, has been recruited as senior executive officer for Middle East & Africa at RBC Dexia Investor Services. He will be in charge of directing the development of the business in the Middle East from the Dubai office of RBC Dexia, and will report to Simon Shapland, managing director of UK, Ireland and Middle East.

A l’occasion de la publication de son son premier rapport sur l’investissement responsable, Vauban Humanis a détaillé les nouvelles étapes clés de sa politique ISR: Faire coter la note Investissement Responsable issue de notre norme interne Vauban Humanis par un tiers externe reconnu sur le marché de l’Investissement Responsable. Mettre en ??uvre des plans d’actions permettant d’augmenter de manière continue la qualité de nos processus de gestion et l’impact sociétal de nos investissements. Faire valider par un conseil externe les conditions de mise en ??uvre des supports spécifiques d’investissement tels que les produits structurés, la gestion alternative, en terme responsable. Reporter sur les politiques de vote et d’engagement menées via nos deux fonds dédiés « actions » afin d’aboutir, à terme, à la transcription et la promotion des valeurs du Groupe. (NB : nos deux gérants partenaires représentent un total d’environ 800 milliards d’euros d’actifs gérés) Développer la formation et la sensibilisation à l’ensemble des parties prenantes du périmètre Vauban Humanis à notre démarche d’Investisseur Responsable.

Des fonds affiliés à la société de private equity ont vendu le spécialiste des systèmes de stockage de céréales GSI Holdings au fabricant de matériel agricole Agco Corp. La transaction a été conclue pour un montant avoisinant les 940 millions de dollars.

Theam, le spécialiste de la gestion indicielle, systématique active, garantie et alternative de BNP Paribas IP, a confirmé son renforcement en gestion alternative, en augmentant de 25 à 50% sa participation dans Innocap, détenue avec la Banque Nationale du Canada.

Les fonds Carlyle et Hellman & Friedman rachètent le groupe américain de services pour la recherche Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) pour 3,9 milliards de dollars en numéraire. Le prix de 33,25 dollars par action représente une prime de 29,6% sur le cours de clôture de vendredi.

Angela Merkel recevra dimanche à Berlin Nicolas Sarkozy pour discuter des préparatifs du Conseil européen des 17 et 18 octobre à Bruxelles, a annoncé hier le porte-parole de la chancelière allemande dans un communiqué.

Le Brésil et la Turquie sont déjà engagés dans un cycle d’assouplissement

Le cimentier a concédé un coupon de 9,5 % pour son opération à 7 ans. Un niveau dissuasif pour les autres émetteurs

A contrario, les Etats-Unis et le Japon ont bénéficié à la fois de l'effet change et de l'évolution des coûts salariaux unitaires

Le groupe économique enjoint les régulateurs à respecter la date limite de fin 2012 pour la mise en œuvre des réformes décidées par le G20

Selon Eurostat, les conditions des banques sont aussi moins avantageuses. La France n’échappe pas au resserrement du crédit

Les opérateurs misent massivement sur le dollar, au détriment d'autres devises, en particulier la monnaie unique et la livre sterling

Le rapport sur la Grèce et le vote de l'EFSF ouvriront la voie à des réformes plus ambitieuses