La société américaine de private equity songe à acquérir une participation au capital de RJ Corp, le principal embouteilleur de PepsiCo en Asie du Sud-Est, pour un montant voisin de 100 millions de dollars. RJ Corp accapare notamment 60% de l’activité pour PepsiCo en Inde.

Le quotidien britannique relève qu’Abou Dhabi met en place une maison de courtage publique destinée à garantir l’approvisionnement alimentaire à un coût raisonnable. L’objectif est de préserver la nation des fluctuations de cours induites par la spéculation mondiale sur les denrées agricoles, un enjeu important pour une nation importatrice en la matière.

La société d’investissement a relevé son offre de rachat à 5 dollars par action, un montant qui reste insuffisant pour Carl Icahn et Seneca Capital

Depuis l'annonce du programme de rachat de 600 milliards de dollars de Treasuries, les taux à 10 ans se sont tendus de 42 pb à 2,93 %

L’aide sera ciblée sur le secteur bancaire mais ses modalités restent floues

Une aide européenne soulagerait la Banque centrale, qui apporte en refinancement aux banques irlandaises l'équivalent de 80 % du PIB du pays

A l’occasion de sa journée investisseurs, la banque a évalué l’effet des conventions de double imposition entre 15 à 40 milliards de francs suisses

L’aide sera ciblée sur le secteur bancaire mais ses modalités restent floues

Si les flux ont reculé en septembre à 91,4 milliards de dollars, ils restent supérieurs de 15 % à leur moyenne mensuelle calculée depuis le début de l’année

Leurs spreads se sont creusés en quinze jours de 120 pb, à environ 800 pb, tandis que l'activité secondaire pour cette classe d'actif s'est asséchée

L’inflation s’est accrue en octobre dans la zone euro en raison de la hausse des coûts de l'énergie, les chiffres définitifs publiés mardi par Eurostat. Les prix à la consommation dans les 16 pays utilisant l’euro ont augmenté de 0,4% sur un mois en octobre et de 1,9% sur un an. En septembre, l’inflation annuelle était de 1,8%.

Le Fonds de réserve pour les retraites (FRR) a fait savoir le 15 novembre qu’il avait résilié un mandat confié à BlackRock «du fait de performances relatives durablement insatisfaisantes». Le mandat portait sur la gestion d’un portefeuille d’actions américaines de petites capitalisations, pour un montant de 478 millions d’euros au 1er novembre 2010.

Legg Mason annonce ce jour que son équipe parisienne verra l’arrivée de deux nouveaux commerciaux, en charge des marchés francophones d’une part, et des clients institutionnels français d’autre part. «Ces recrutements seront finalisés très prochainement», indique la société de gestion, qui a promu Vincent Passa en tant que directeur de la distribution en France et en Europe francophone.

Le moral des analystes et investisseurs allemands a progressé bien plus qu’attendu en novembre pour atteindre 1,8, contre -7,2 le mois précédent, révèlent les données publiées mardi par l’institut ZEW. L’indice sur le sentiment vis-à -vis des conditions actuelles dépasse lui aussi les attentes en passant de 72,6 en octobre à 81,5 en novembre, là où les analystes prévoyaient 75.

Aucune décision n’est attendue sur une aide européenne éventuelle à l’Irlande lors de la réunion des ministres des Finances de la zone euro qui se tient ce mardi à Bruxelles, indique Reuters. Une déclaration politique des pays utilisant la monnaie unique n'était en revanche pas exclue. Les emprunts d’Etat allemands et les obligations souveraines des pays périphériques de la zone euro sont pratiquement stables mardi dans l’attente des résultats de la réunion. En fin de matinée, l'écart de rendement entre les obligations souveraines irlandaises à 10 ans et leurs homologues allemandes reculaient de huit points de base (pdb) par rapport la clôture de lundi, à 555 pdb. De leur côté, celui impliquant les emprunts portugais baissait de neuf pdb, à 425 pdb.

L’inflation en Grande-Bretagne s’est accélérée en octobre pour atteindre son rythme annuel le plus élevé depuis quatre mois. Les prix à la consommation ont augmenté de 0,3% en octobre et de 3,2% sur un an, selon les chiffres publiés mardi par l’Office national des statistiques. Il s’agit de son rythme annuel le plus élevé depuis juin. Selon les projections de la banque centrale publiées la semaine dernière, l’inflation devrait s’accélérer jusqu'à un rythme de 3,5% en début d’année prochaine avant de revenir en dessous de 2% au début de 2012.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The German-Austrian management firm C-Quadrat, in which AmpegaGerling Asset Management last month acquired a 32.6% stake (see Newsmanagers of 14 October), has announced net profits for the first nine months of the year of EUR9.3m, compared with EUR3m in the corresponding period of last year. In the period under review, assets in funds increased from EUR2.66bn to EUR3.04bn, while assets under management overall increased to EUR4.86bn from EUR4.51bn.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In 2009, the French financial regulator, the Financial Markets Authority (AMF), granted only 25 licenses to management firms, compared with 50 in 2008, a decline of 50%. In the same period, 29 licenses were cancelled. This represents a 71% increase year on year, which is due partially to difficult market conditions, and partly to a consolidation in the profession. As a result, the number of active asset management firms has fallen slightly to 567 as of 31 December 2009, the AMF reports in its report on asset management for third parties in 2009, published on Monday. This level remains high, the AMF says. This development did not prevent assets from increasing, as, following a decline in 2008, they increased by 12% both for mandated and collective management, to EUR2.533trn. This increase in assets did not directly result in an increase in earnings at portfolio management firms (-8%), as the sector was penalised by unfavourable declines in assets in second half 2008 and a product mix oriented to more prudent but less lucrative strategies, the AMF reports. After heavy declines in 2008 (-34.5%), operating results at portfolio management firms remained stable in 2009, at EUR2.2bn. Operating margins recovered, from 18% in 2008 to 20% in 2009, but nonetheless remain well below their peaks in 2006 (25%). In 2009, the number of management firms to have posted operating losses remains high, at 123 (23% of the total), compared with 137 firms in 2008, while entrepreneurial management firms represent the largest number of firms to have posted operating losses.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On Tuesday, 16 November, Barclays France launched Bmarkets, the listed structured products platform from Barclays Capital. About 200 certificates are on offer to French private investors on Euronext Paris, including 100% Open-End certificates and leveraged certificates known as Turbos Infinis. The certificates are based on a wide range of underlying assets, including CAC 30, French large caps, European and American shares, international indices. Barclays will also offer stock-picking based on specific themes, sectors or regions via exclusive indices. The first available series, the Chips indices (a reference to “blue chips”), aim to provide access to selections of quality shares (China Chips, Euro Chips, Green Chips, etc). As investors are tending to avoid more complex products, Bmarkets does not aim to revolutionise the product range for structured products, but merely to offer investors solutions which will allow them to imagine and deploy their strategies. ‘The current situation does not lend itself to fantasy or to experimentation. Bmarkets aims to simplify investors’ lives as much as possible,” explained Estelle Elbaz, head of the Euronext-listed structured products at Barclays Capital, at a press conference on 15 November. With this in mind, Bmarkets offers several informational resources for pedagogical purposes, a quarterly magazine, SimpliCity, a weekly newsletter, SimplyFi, and video and radio programs. The objective of Bmarkets in France is to gradually enrich the product offerings to achieve about 1,000 products during the year 2011. Bmarkets, created in 2009, is now active in several European countries, including Germany, where it has over 4,000 products, and where it is aiming for 20,000 by the second half of 2011, and in Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore). The next steps are Spain, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom in Europe, and China and India in Asia.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Invesco Ltd and Morgan Stanley announced at the end of last week that the 30.89 million ordinary shares being placed on the market by an affiliate of Morgan Stanley (see Newsmanagers of 12 November) will be offered as part of a secondary placement at USD21.48 each, which will bring in revenues for the vendor of USD664m. On Friday, the closing price of the shares was USD22.13, down 1.43% from the previous day.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Pershing, an affiliate of BNY Mellon, has announced its acquisition of the custody and clearance activities of Jeffereies & Company. The sale price has not been disclosed. By the terms of the agreement, Jefferies will gradually transfer its broker-dealer clients to Pershing, which will offer them its full range of services.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Spanish RMBS Fund from Renta 4 will be absorbed into the Spanish-registered fund of hedge funds Minerva from the same management firm, Funds People reports. The Spanish RMBS, launches slightly over one year ago, was never actively promoted, and its assets essentially consist of the seed capital. Renta 4 retains two other hedge funds, Accurate Global Assets and Mosaic Iberia.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In the first nine months of the year, MLP posted net profits of EUR12.5m, compared with losses of EUR2.3m the previous year, while profits for continued operations increased from EUR11.7m to EUR17m, on earnings of EUR348.8m compared with EUR345.3m. In third quarter, net profits totalled EUR6.8m, compared with EUR4.6m for the corresponding period of last year. Due to net subscriptions from retail and institutional investors, and to positive market effects, assets at MLP as of 30 September totalled a new record of EUR19.3bn, compared with EUR18.7bn as of 30 June, and EUR12.5bn one year previously. The number of clients as of the end of September totalled 771,000, compared with 767,000 as of the end of June, and 781,000 one year previously. The number of client advisers fell to 2,317 as of the end of September, from 2,359 as of the end of June.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } CB Richard Ellis Investors, a real estate fund management firm, on 15 November announced the appointment of Jean Lamothe as president of CB Richard Ellis Investors Europe. He will direct the UK and European platforms, and will also be responsible for strategic orientation, operational management, financial results and leadership of a single European platform.

In its most recent fiscal year, ending on 30 September 2010, Franklin Templeton Investments has posted net inflows in Europe of USD24bn via distributors and institutional investors, making it one of the largest destinations of inflows in the region.Franklin Templeton says in a statement that France has participated in this trend, as Templeton France SA in the period saw all-time high net inflows of EUR1.2bn for the sub-funds of the Luxembourg Sicav Franklin Templeton Investment Funds (FTIF), which has a total of USD72bn in assets under management in Europe. Assets under mangaement in France totalled USD3.2bn as of 30 September 2010.Inflows went both to fixed-income and equities products. For bonds, subscriptions largely went to the Templeton Global Bond Fund and Templeton Global Total Return Fund. In the equities category, inflows were largely concentrated on emerging markets equities, via the Templeton Asian Growth Fund.These results confirm the group’s resolutely international model, with half of net sales now consisting of international sales (outside the United States).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Chinese management firm Harvest Global Investment (HGI), in which Deutsche Asset Management (Asia) owns a 30% stake, has signed an outsourcing deal with State Street, Asian Investor reports. By the terms of the agreement, State Street will provide middle office services, which will allow HGI to reduce its costs. This is the first time that State Street has won a mandate of this type from a Chinese management firm.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The index provider S&P Indices on 15 November published the results of a study which reveals that small caps in emerging markets perform better than large caps in the same markets. The S&P Emerging SmallCap Index has posted an annualised growth rate of 16.6% over the ten years to 30 September 2010, compared with a rate of 13.2% for the S&P Emerging LargeMidCap. S&P says that the small cap index beat the LargeMidCap index in eight out of ten years between 2001 and 2010. The performance difference was particularly marked in the past year, with performance as of 30 September of 17.2% for the SmallCap index, compared with 10.9% for the large cap index. Despite this evolution, many investors still are not exposed to small caps in their emerging markets portfolios. As of 30 September this year, the S&P Emerging SmallCap Index included 1,648 shares from 19 countries, of which 397 were from Taiwan, 359 from China, 241 from India and 130 from Brazil.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to Hedge Fund.net, the hedge fund industry in October posted the highest net subscriptions since November 2009, as investors regained confidence in signs of economic stabilisation and strong increases on the markets, The Wall Street Journal reports. These net subscriptions totalled USD18.4bn, compared with USD12.2bn in September, USD6.73bn in August, USD7.72bn in July, and net redemptions of USD2.54bn in June.Average performance was 2.23% for October, bringing the total for the first ten months of the year to 7.42%. Assets as of the end of October totalled USD2.41trn, including USD52.7bn in market effects and USD18.4bn in net subscriptions.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Investors are flocking to ETFs specialised in precious metals, and assets in the SPDR Gold Shares fund from State Street total nearly USD60bn, The Wall Street Journal reports, adding that the fund owns more gold than all the central banks in the world save five. The iShares Gold Trust (BlackRock), with USD4.8bn, has gained a lot of assets since it split its shares on a 10-to-1 basis, which appears to prove that retail investors are flocking to the previous metals ETF segment at a time when there is a major risk of a correction.The iShares Silver Trust, for its part, has seen a 15% increase in the number of shares since 1 September, and has USD9.6bn in assets. Among the other ETFs with less than USD1bn in assets are the ETFS Physical Gold Shares from ETF Securities and the Sprott Physical Gold Trust. For silver, there are also the ETFS Silver Trust and the Powershares DB Silver Shares (Invesco).The ETFS Physical Platinum Shares and Physical Palladium Shares were launched this year, and made a very good start in terms of inflows.

Calpers has signed an agreement to license proprietary portfolio management software from Ermitage – one of Europe’s oldest quantitative hedge fund managers, according to the Financial Times. The pension fund is now going to roll out the trading software, known as Optics, across its long-only and absolute return portfolios.