Selon des proches du dossier cités par Reuters, Clive Cowdery préparerait une OPA sur le gestionnaire d’actifs Pioneer au travers de sa société Resolution qui a été contactée par le vendeur potentiel, UniCredit, indique la Börsen-Zeitung.

Le pôle asset management de JPMorgan a dégagé au quatrième trimestre 2010 un bénéfice net de 507 millions de dollars, soit une hausse de 20 % par rapport au trimestre correspondant de 2009. Cela reflète notamment une hausse des revenus nets de 19 % sur un an à 2,6 milliards de dollars. Sur le trimestre, JP Morgan a accusé des rachats nets de 2 milliards de dollars. Sur l’année, la société affiche également un solde négatif, de 20 milliards de dollars. Les encours ont néanmoins progressé de 4 % sur le dernier trimestre à 1.300 milliards de dollars, grâce à l’effet de marché.

Sonal Desai est nommée «back-up» de Michael Hasenstab sur la gestion de trois fonds de Franklin Templeton Fixed Income Group : Templeton Global Bond Fund, Templeton Global Bond (Euro) Fund et Templeton Global Total Return Fund. Elle secondera le gérant dans la gestion de ces produits.Sonal Desai, PhD, a rejoint Franklin Templeton en octobre 2009 au poste de directrice de la recherche pour le département obligations internationales de Franklin Templeton Fixed Income Group, en charge de délivrer l’ensemble des analyses macroéconomiques pour l’équipe obligataire.

Prudential Investments a annoncé le lancement du Prudential Real Assets Fund, un fonds dont le portefeuille est essentiellement investi en actifs réels tels que l’immobilier, les métaux, le pétrole et autres matières premières, «offrant une protection potentielle contre l’inflation et la hausse des taux d’intérêt», note la société de gestion.

Gruppo Banca Leonardo a annoncé, vendredi 14 janvier, l’acquisition de Sal. Oppenheim jr & Cie Corporate Finance (Suisse) SA, une société de conseil dédiée à la finance d’entreprises.Sal. Oppenheim CF Suisse affiche une expérience de 12 ans sur ce marché et compte une clientèle composée de moyennes et grandes entreprises suisses, des sociétés internationales et des investisseurs privés. La société suisse dispose d’une équipe de 14 collaborateurs, et a réalisé plus de 60 missions au cours des dix dernières années pour un volume de transactions de plus de 30 milliards de francs, précise un communiqué. Sal. Oppenheim CF continuera à couvrir les fusions-acquisition de même que les marchés actions et elle assurera ses services dans le domaine de la restructuration de la dette et ce, dans l’ensemble des secteurs (y compris l’immobilier). Dans le cadre de la transaction, la filiale de gestion d’actifs 4IP et l’activité d’expertise immobilière vont être séparées. Le montant de la transaction n’a pas été divulgué.

AXA Winterthur a annoncé la nomination de Kamila Horackova à la direction de l’Asset Management, rapporte L’Agefi suisse. Elle devient simultanément membre du directoire et entrera en fonction le 14 mars. Elle succède à Matthias Henny, nommé directeur financier (CFO) le 6 décembre dernier, et qui a dirigé l’Asset Management ad interim. Kamila Horackova dirige l’Asset Management d’AXA Tchéquie et Slovaquie depuis 2007.

La succursale italienne de la société française Européenne de Gestion Privée a été liquidée par le ministère italien de l’Economie et des Finances, sur proposition de la Consob et avec l’avis de la Banque d’Italie, rapporte Bluerating. Cela fait suite aux irrégularités et violations de la réglementation qui se sont produites dans le cadre de l’administration de l’entité italienne.

Dans une interview à la Börsen-Zeitung, Horst Schmidt, président du directoire, et Stephan Isenberg, membre du directoire, indiquent que les rentrées nettes d’argent frais de la banque privée allemande Delbrück Bethmann Maffei (filiale d’ABN Amro) ont doublé à 1,3 milliard d’euros et que l’encours atteint à présent 16,5 milliards d’euros. Le bénéfice d’exploitation a fortement augmenté. La hausse des rentrées nettes est attribuable selon Horst Schmidt à la «retailisation» constatée chez plusieurs concurrents qui ont commis l’erreur d’appliquer les méthodes du retail à la banque privée, notamment en donnant des consignes concrètes en matière de vente de produits.

Selon les milieux financiers, la Deutsche Bank aurait renoncé à vendre la BHF-Bank en un seul bloc, rapporte la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. De la sorte, LGT pourrait acheter uniquement les activités de gestion de fortune et celle de banque des PME, la Deutsche Bank devant conserver certaines activités de marché de la BHF.

Depuis 2006 et la fusion des activités de gestion de fonds de valeurs mobilières et de fonds immobiliers, Alexander Klein était COO responsable de l’ensemble des activités de back-office de SEB Investment, la société de gestion de fonds de SEB Asset Management Allemagne. Il a été nommé membre de la direction générale de SEB Investment au 1er janvier 2011 et conserve ses fonctions de COO. Il aura la responsabilité des finances, de la gestion du risque, du contrôle de gestion et de l’informatique.

Directeur de la distribution de fonds structurés chez Bank of America Merrill Lynch depuis décembre 2009, Peter Vogel a été recruté par MainFirst Asset Management, filiale de MainFirst Bank, comme directeur de la distribution et du marketing. Il fera également partie du comité de gestion d’actifs de MainFirst.

María Cassinello a été désignée responsable de Banif Advisory, un nouveau service que la banque privée du Santander propose à ses clients disposant d’une épargne liquide d’au moins 3 millions d’euros mais qui ne lui délèguent pas la gestion de cette épargne, rapporte Funds People.Chaque conseiller dédié de Banif Advisory contactera son client en temps réel pour l’informer sur les développements de marché et des opportunités d’investissement, en lui indiquant quelles sont les recommandations de la banque. La décision finale reviendra au client. Le conseiller de Banif Advisory travaillera en équipe avec le banquier privé chargé du compte. L’objectif est de fournir un conseil en portefeuille similaire à celui dont bénéficient les clients qui ont confié à Banif la gestion de leur sicav.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } With the MMA Praxis International Index Fund, MMA Praxis Mutual Funds has launched a socially responsible investment fund for which it hopes to find enough investments to achieve a 20% exposure to emerging markets, the Wall Street Journal reports.The manager will make an effort to exclude shares in companies with poor compliance with socially responsible investment (SRI) criteria, and the tobbaco, alcohol and weapons sectors, but does not hope that all companies in the portfolio will meet all the criteria, says Chad Horning, CIO of MMA Praxis.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Prudential Investments has announced the launch of the Prudential Real Assets Fund, a fund whose portfolio is invested largely in real assets such as real estate, metals, oil and other commodities, “which offer potential protection against inflation and rising interest rates,” the asset management firm notes.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } From 12 January, the management of the fund Capital UFF FCP, which is eligible for PEA (equity savings plans), has been contracted to Carmignac Gestion, and the product renamed UFF Grande Europe 0-100. The product was previously managed by Aviva Investors France, which helped to redefine the orientation of the fund: “the uncertain evolution of conjuncture and the new fiscal situation in 2011, which makes PEA once again attractive, has led the Union financière de France (UFF) to analyse its range of funds eligible for PEA,” the product presentation states.The fund invests at least 75% of its assets in equities from the European Community. Stock-picking selects the shares with the most potential, and up to 25% of the fund is invested in the best “opportunities” from countries outside the European Union (including Turkey and Russia). From this point of view, the fund faithfully reflects the management undertaken by Carmignac Gestion for its Carmignac Grande Europe fund.The exposure of UFF Grande Europe 0-100 to equities markets is completely flexible, and may vary from 0 to 100%, due to the use of derivative instruments, which implies a wholly separate management, both from the range of funds available from UFF through its PEA, and from funds currently managed by Carmignac Gestion for its own clients. This highly reactive mode of management is “particularly well-adapted to confront periods of volatility on the market such as we may see in 2011,” explains Nicholas Schimel, president and CEO of UFF. CharacteristicsName: UFF Grande Europe 0-100ISIN code: FR0000034548 Minimal subscription: EUR762.25 (C and D shares); EUR300,000 (V shares)Management fees: 2.25% (from 1 March 2011) for C and D shares; 1.75% for V sharesPerformance commission: 10% of net performance of funds exceeding 7.5% in annualised terms

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Michel Camdessus on 14 January submitted his report to Chrstine Lagarde, French minister of the economy, as controller for bonuses handed out by banks which received government support for their owners’ equity levels, according to rules decided at the Pittsburgh G20 summit at the instigation of France, in relation to limiting pay scales for market professionals. The report concludes that the standards have been satisfactorily adopted by French banks overall. It points out that the application of the new standards and the actions of the bonus controller reduced bonuses distributed for the year 2009 by about EUR800m. “The full and complete application of the rules remains a priority for 2011. I expect banks to continue their efforts at moderation in 2011,” Lagarde says in a statement. To increase transparency of bonuses, Lagarde has asked the prudential control authority and the French banking association to offer a standardised presentation within two months, in the form of a poster which would be the same for all banks, to inform employees about bonuses which the banking and financial regulation laws require to be identified in a report presented at the general shareholders’ meetings of the establishments concerned.

After pointing out the key role of the global custodian in asset management worldwide, Bernard Blaud discusses recent developments in the sector of activity as well as the consolidation movement which it cannot avoid. There is no doubt that European and American firms are opposed in this area.

The European securities specialist Nicolas Walewski, founder of Alken Asset Management, on 14 January in Paris announced the launch of an absolute return fund, Alken Absolute Return Europe (AARE).The European long/short equities fund, which complies with the UCITS III directive, has daily liquidity, aims for capital growth in the mid-term, and invests largely in European equities, with the main objective of generating alpha in the case of long as well as short-term investments.The objective is to remain focused on the best ideas which generated absolute returns of 64% for the Alken Capital One fund since its launch on 21 July 2008 in European equities, through active management of the portfolio.The fund aims for gross exposure of 50% to 150%, and net exposure of -20% to 75%. For the long portion of the portfolio, which is not highly concentrated, absolute return will be the priority, and when opportunities present themselves, the fund will also make small arbitrages, For the short portion of the portfolio, the fund, which will invest in individual shares as well as indices and baskets, will act as a hedge fund and directly.An initial share class will be offered from 17 January with a commission of 0.9%, instead of 1.5%, The offering is scheduled for 31 January.As of 31 December, assets under management at Alken AM totalled over EUR2.7bn, of which EUR2.18bn were in the Alken European Opportunities fund, which has outperformed the Stoxx 600 index by 21% since its launch in January 2006, and by over 6% in 2010.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Some major asset management firms have shown that an investment in their own shares brings better performance than the funds they offer, Expansión reports. Shares in Schroders and Aberdeen have gained 48% and 75% in value in the past twelve months. Shares in F&C have gained 33%, and T. Rowe Price is up 21%, while shares in Henderson gained 20.7%. Shares in Invesco were in line with the market, rising 11.5%, while BlackRock shares lost 16%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Italian arm of the French firm Européenne de Gestion Privée has been liquidated by the Italian minister of the economy and finance, at the request of Consob and with a supporting opinion from the Bank of Italy, Bluerating reports. The move comes in response to irregularities and violations of regulations which occurred in the administration of the Italian entity.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } La Tribune reports that in connection with the Madoff case, an Irish court has asked the British bank HSBC to provide documents in relation to the UCITS-compliant feeder fund Thema International (EUR1.1bn in assets), for which the bank was the depositary. “The bank is required to produce the documents, justifying respect for article 39(d) of the transposed UCITS 3 directive,” and it “must provide its accounts to investors, understood as the parties able to demonstrate that they are economic beneficiaries of the fund,” judge Frank Clark states in his opinion.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to sources familiar with the matter cited by Reuters, Clive Cowdery is preparing a takeover bid for the asset management firm Pioneer, via his firm Resolution, which has been contacted by the potential seller, UniCredit, the Börsen-Zeitung reports.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Gruppo Banca Leonardo announced on Friday, 14 January that it has acquired Sal. Oppenheim jr & Cie Corporate Finance (Suisse) SA, a consulting firm dedicated to corporate finance. Sal. Oppenheim CF Switzerland has 12 years of experience in this market, and has a client base composed of Swiss mid-sized and large businesses, multinational corporations and private investors. The Swiss firm has 14 employees, and has undertaken more than 60 missions in the past 10 years for a transaction volume of over CHF30bn, a statement says. Sal. Oppenheim CF will continue to cover mergers and acquisitions and equities markets, and will provide services in the area of debt restructuring in the entire sector, including real estate. As a part of the operation, the asset management affiliate 4IP and the real estate expertise activity will be separated. The acquisition price has not been disclosed.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } AXA Winterthur has announced the appointment of Kamila Horackova as head of Asset Management Agefi Switzerland reports. At the same time, she becomes a member of the board, where she will begin on 14 March. She succeeds Mattias Henry, who was appointed CFO on 6 December, who has been the interim director of asset management. Horackova has been director of asset management for AXA Czech and Slovakia since 2007.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Pope Benedict XVI has appointed cardinal Attilio Nicora as chairman of the new Financial Information Authority (Autorità di informazione finanziaria, or AIF) at the Vatican. The entity will also include the Vatican Bank, and the ministry of finance for the apostolic state, the Amministrazione del Patrimonio della Sede Apostolica (APS), the Börsen-Zeitung reports. The cardinal, a reputed lawyer, will retain his position as president of the APS.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On Friday, Pimco (Allianz Global Investors group) announced on its website that the allocation of the Pimco Total Return Bond Fund, managed by Bill Gross, to Treasuries, Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), agency bonds and futures and options based on Treasuries as of the end of December totalled 22%, its lowest level since February 2009, though the level stood at 30% in November, the Wall Street Journal reports.Assets in the fund fell to USD240.7bn, from USD250.2bn as of the end of December, and USD255.9bn as of the end of October. This compared with USD115.9bn in assets at the end of 2009, with the increase due to significant net subscriptions during most of last year.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Anne-Laure Frischlander, CEO of BNY Mellon Asset Management for France, has told Newsmanagers that net subscriptions in France last year totalled USD415m, out of USD700-800m in gross inflows, and that assets totalled USD1.9bn in France as of the end of the year. Very strong subscriptions have continued in the first weeks of 2011.Inflows totalled 50% for an emerging markets local currency debt fund, the BNY Emerging Markets Debt Local Currency Fund (which now has over USD4bn in total assets), from the firm’s affiliate Standish. The asset allocation bond fund BNY Mellon Euroland Bond (also from Standish) has also attracted significant subscriptions.In 2011, BNY Mellon is planning to put the emphasis on the new BNY Mellon Latin America Infrastructure fund (see Newsmanagers of 11 January). The manager is also planning to offer real and absolute return products, as well as some Luxembourg-registered absolute return newcits from its affiliate Insight.Frischlander also says that her team at the Paris office now includes 7 people, counting herself.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As of the end of December, assets under management by Invesco totalled USD616bn, compared with USD604.5bn one year earlier, while assets in equities funds totalled Usd294.1bn, compared with USD294.4bn. Assets in ETFs contracted, to USD80.3bn, compared with USD89.9bn.In December, Invesco completed its acquisition of the Asian asset management activities of AIG Global Real Estate, including USD5.4bn in alternative assets (out of a total of USD78.1bn as of the end of December), of which USD0.2bn are in passive management (out of USD60.3bn).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The US management firm Principal Global Investors, which has about Usd227.4bn in assets, or about EUR170bn, on 13 January announced that it has signed up to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Agefi reports, citing financial industry sources, that the French asset management firm LFP-UFG will finalise its investment in Cholet-Dupont by the end of February. UFG-LFP will replace Crédit Agricole Indosuez BP Holding, and will control a 33.4% stake in the business, specialised in management of financial portfolios and wealth organisation advising. The CMNE affiliate is also buying a 51% stake in the Cholet-Dupont Partenaires platform (see Newsmanagers of 19/10/2010), which was previously 100% controlled by the holding company, the same sources cited by the newspaper say. UFG-LFP has also made its agreement with Siparex in venture capital official. It owns 66% of UFG-Siparex, the newspaper notes.