Les actifs sous gestion de Polar Capital ont dépassé la barre de 3 milliards de dollars sur les six mois au 30 septembre pour s’inscrire à 3,05 milliards de dollars contre 2,53 milliards de dollars à fin mars 2010. La collecte nette sur la période s’est élevée à 283 millions de dollars, l’acquisition de HIM Capital ayant contribué à la progression de la collecte pour un montant de 249 millions de dollars.
Les actifs sous administration de Hargreaves Lansdown ont progressé de 14% au troisième trimestre à fin septembre à 19,9 milliards de livres, contre 17,5 milliards de livres à fin juin.
Le 14 octobre, Van Eck Global a lancé le Market Vectors China ETF (acronyme PEK sur NYSE Arca), le premier ETF sur le marché américain à proposer une exposition aux actions chinoises A cotées à Shenzen et Shanghai. Il réplique, de manière synthétique pour l’instant, les valeurs de l’indice CSI 300. La commission de gestion se situe à 0,72 %.Van Eck précise qu’il existe déjà 29 autres ETF (tous à réplication synthétique) sur les actions chinoises A en Asie, dont 24 à Hong-Kong, trois à Singapour et Taïwan et deux à Tokyo.
Selon the Wall Street Journal, Bain Capital songe sérieusement à se joindre aux autres capital-investisseurs TPG Capital et KKR qui négocient l’acquisition de Seagate Technology à la faveur d’une opération qui porterait selon les proches du dossier sur 10 milliards à 12 milliards de dollars.Avant d’annoncer qu’elle envisageait un adossement, Seagate, dont la dette se monte à environ 2,5 milliards de dollars, affichait une capitalisation de 6 milliards de dollars, mais le cours a bondi de 22 % vendredi.
The Wall Street Journal rapporte que RiverNorth Capital compte lancer fin décembre un fonds stratégique de revenu, le RiverNorth/DoubleLine Strategic Income Fund, qui sera géré par Patrick Galley, CIO de RiverNorth, et Stephen O’Neill, gérant de portefeuille chez RiverNorth mais aussi par Jeffrey Gundlach, l’ancien gérant star de TCW qui s’est mis à son compte en créant DoubleLine Capital (5,5 milliards de dollars d’encours), dont il est le CEO et le CIO.Le nouveau produit sera un fonds ouvert ; la contribution de Jeff Gundlach s’articulera sur une stratégie obligataire cœur et une stratégie opportuniste permettant d’utiliser des dérivés. D’après le formulaire de déclaration à la SEC, le fonds pourra recourir au trading court terme et afficher des taux de rotation du portefeuille supérieurs à 100 %.
Selon l’Agefi, le gestionnaire de fortune australien Perpetual a annoncé avoir reçu de la société de private equity américaine KKR une offre de rachat indicative allant jusqu'à 1,75 milliard de dollars australiens (1,24 milliard d’euros). Perpetual gère environ 30 milliards de dollars d’actifs.
Suite à son acquisition par la banque d’investissement nordique Carnegie group, la société de gestion suédoise HQ Fonder Sverige AB change de nom pour devenir Carnegie Fonder AB. Le nom des fonds va aussi être modifié.Le groupe Carnegie gère un encours de plus de 110 milliards de couronnes suédoises.
Le directeur général d’Intesa Sanpaolo, Marco Morelli, a indiqué que le projet d’introduction en Bourse de Banca Fideuram restait d’actualité, même si cette dernière s’intéresse au dossier Banca Sara, qui est en vente, rapporte Bluerating.
Giorgio Giovannini a été promu directeur du développement de Henderson à l’échelle internationale, rapporte Bluerating. Il conserve néanmoins son poste de responsable de l’Italie (country manager). A ce nouveau poste, il sera chargé de guider et de renforcer le développement de la société de gestion dans de nouveaux marchés clés, dont l’Amérique latine. Il sera subordonné à Greg Jones, director of continental European wholesale.
La société de gestion italienne Azimut, cotée à la Bourse de Milan, va émettre un emprunt obligataire de 200 millions d’euros d’une durée de 5 ans, assorti d’un coupon fixe de 2,5 % par an. L’opération a été approuvée le 14 octobre en conseil d’administration et doit recevoir des organismes de surveillance. «L’emprunt obligataire est une réponse à l’actuelle période de marché particulièrement difficile, se caractérisant par une forte aversion au risque de la part de la clientèle, et permet d’investir une partie du patrimoine dans des instruments financiers qui restituent à l’échéance le capital investi en obtenant un rendement sûr et fixe, neutralisant ainsi les variations de taxes», explique un communiqué. Sur les neuf premiers mois de l’année, Azimut a enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 461,8 millions d’euros. Ses encours ressortaient à fin septembre à 14,3 milliards d’euros, en hausse de 2,9 % par rapport à fin décembre 2009 et de 6,7 % sur septembre 2009.
Au cours des douze derniers mois, les ETF actions ont fortement progressé sur le marché indien, selon Asian Investor.Au cours des dix-huit prochains mois, le marché devrait encore enregistrer une forte augmentation. Actuellement, le marché des ETF est dominé par la Chine, avec une part de marché de 40%, devant Hong Kong (33%), le Japon (12%) et l’Inde (0,2%). Les ETF dédiés à l’Asie cotés à l'étranger représentent toutefois un total de 3,4 milliards de dollars.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The German asset management firm Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investment GmbH has announced that as of 14 October, the net asset value of the open-ended real estate fund P2 Value has been lowered 77 cents to EUR27.34, due to the fact that the value of the portfolio has been revised downward by about EUR24m, to EUR852m at an annual revision of the valuation of properties in the portfolio. The adjustment is tied to a depreciation in the residential properties Spacia Ahinjuku and Chester House in Tokyo, and the Pia Reiju property in Osaka. The market values of the three properties have been revised downward by 6%, 10% and 15%, respectively. In addition, management firms has reduced the value on its books of the Spacia Shinjuku, Jade Hakata, Minds Hakataekihigashi, and Chester Houuse Kudanshita properties to zero. Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investment says that it does not expect any further routine depreciations until the end of October. The P2 Value fund is thus expected to be able to reopen as planned, with total assets of EUR820m to EUR870m.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } AXA Real Estate has added to its teams dedicated to open-ended real estate funds. Ian Gordine has been appointed as manager of the AXA Immoselect fund, while Achim Gräfen, who had previously managed the fund, will concentrate on directing AXA Investment Managers Deutschland GmbH, a position he has occupied since 2009. Bernd Hemmersbach has been promoted to Head of Distribution – Real Estate.
Hermes, the UK fund manager, has sent Klaus Wucherer, Infineon’s chairman, a letter pressing him publicly to present a succession plan in the next two weeks. In the letter, obtained by the Financial Times, Hans Hirt, head of corporate governance, wrote that he was “worried” about the speculation over the succession process.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Hong Kong-based hedge fund Richland Capital Management has recruited Elena Lau as chief operating officer (COO), Asian Investor reports. Lau previously worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch as vice president.
The Swedish asset management company HQ Fonder Sverige AB has changed its name to Carnegie Fonder AB. The individual funds will also shortly change name. On September 3, 2010 the Nordic investment bank Carnegie group signed an agreement to acquire all shares in HQ Fonder Sverige AB. The acquisition was completed on September 22. Carnegie has assets under management in excess of SEK 110 billion.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 18 October, Universal-Investment launches the European equities fund European Equity Selection R, on behalf of the asset management affiliate of Hamburg’s Berenberg private bank. The product will invest at least 51% of its assets in shares in firms of all cap sizes with their headquarters in the EMU. The management team, which selects equities which are fundamentally undervalued, is also authorised to invest in ETFs and to retain cash. Characteristics Name: Berenberg European Equity Selection R ISIN code: DE000A1C2XN2 Front-end fee: 5% Management commission: 1%
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Since 14 October, Lyxor Asset Mangaement (Société Générale) has been offering four French-registered ETF products providing inverse replication of sub-indices of the Stoxx Europe 600 on the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic trading platform from Deutsche Börse. The products are the Lyxor ETF STOXX Europe 600 Automobiles & Parts Daily Short, Lyxor ETF STOXX Europe 600 Banks Daily Short, Lyxor ETF STOXX Europe 600 Basic Resources Daily Short and Lyxor ETF STOXX Europe 600 Oil & Gas Daily Short.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } There has been an unprecedented price war raging in the past few weeks between providers of ETF savings plans. After Comdirect and DAB Bank, Cortal Consors, the third largest major online broker, is now working on a new fee model, which is expected to result in a major price drop, according to a spokesperson cited by Handelsblatt. The war was triggered a few weeks ago by DAB Bank, which offers 66 ETFs from db x-trackers with “zero fees.” The client is charged only the spread between buy and sell and the annual account management commission. Maxblue, the online broker from Deutsche Bank, is also offering plans based on db-x-trackers, its sister company, with no front-end fees. A competing price cut at SBroker, the platform for the German savings banks, has not been ruled out.
As of 30 September 2010, based on estimated and unaudited data, the French pension fund FRR’s annualised performance, net of expenses, since it commenced investment operations (June 2004) is +2.9%. The Fund’s performance since the beginning of 2010 is +2,7%.In the last three months, the FRR’s investments have benefitted from decreasing fear over the public finances of the Euro zone following the establishment of the European financial stability fund and the reassuring publication of European banks’ stress tests. The anxieties over growth in the US have also levelled off, which led to a clear upturn in the equity markets by the end of this quarter. As at 30 September last, the FRR’s assets totalled 35.7 Bn euros (31.9 Bn euros as at 30 September 2009 and 33.3 Bn euros as at 31 December 2009 respectively). Again at the end of September last, the global structure of the FRR’s assets is as follows : - performance assets represent 40.6% (of which 33.3% equities, 3.8% commodities and 3.5% real estate); - Fixed income and money market investments accounted for 59.4%.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Assets under management at Polar Capital have topped USD3bn in the six months to 30 September, at a total of USD3.05bn, compared with USD2.53bn as of the end of March 2010. Net inflows in the period under review totalled USD283m, while the acquisition of HIM Capital contributed USD249m to the increase in inflows.
Polar Capital Holdings has announced the formation of the Global Convertibles team with the hiring of David Keetley, Steve McCormick and Kendrick Li. It isanticipated that the team will launch the Polar Capital ALVA Global Convertibles hedge fund on the 1st November 2010. The fund intends to invest in liquid, global convertiblesecurities. The team joins from Vicis Capital based in New York and London. At its peak Vicis Capital managed USD5.8bn with USD3.3bn of Long Market Value committed to convertibles.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Arnaud Gandon was recruited in August as CIO of the asset management division of Heptagon Capital, Hedge Week reports. Gandon spend 12 years at Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) in London, most recently as head of global equity. The group has also recruited Natalia Greslikova as director of institutional sales for Benelux, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. She was most recently managing director of sales at Gottex Fund Management, in charge of European clients.
Corporate pension plans had almost 70% of their money in stocks by the mid-2000s, writes the Wall Street Journal. By this July, they had cut their stock exposure to 45%, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Some of the cutbacks at pension funds are the result of losses during the financial crisis.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Hedge funds have posted an increase of 3.58% in September, according to the Barclay Hedge Fund index. Over nine months, the funds show gains of 5.23%. An examination of the sub-indices reveals that 17 of the 18 indices finished the month with total gains ranging from 1.22% for the Pacific Rim Equities Index to 8.40% for convertibles arbitrage. The only losing strategy was equity short bias, which lost 6.45% for the month, and 6.48% over nine months,
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Giorgio Giovannini has been promoted to global business development director at Henderson Bluerating reports. He will, however, retain his position as country manager for Italy. In his new position, he will be in charge of guiding and strengthening the development of the UK asset management firm in new key markets, including Latin America. He will report to Greg Jones, director of continental European wholesale.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Wall Street Journal reports that RiverNorth Capital is planning to launch a strategic income fund, the RiverNorth/DoubleLine Strategic Income Fund, at the end of December. The fund will be managed by Patrick Galley, CIO of RiverNorth, and Stephen O’Neill, a portfolio manager at RiverNorth, and Jeffrey Gundlach, the former TCW star manager who has gone independent to found DoubleLine Capital (Usd5.5bn in assets), of which he is CEO and CIO. The new product will be an open-ended fund; Gundlach’s contribution will be based on a core bond strategy and an opportunistic strategy which may use derivatives. According to its SEC filing, the fund may make use of short-term trading, and will have a short-term portfolio turnover rate of over 100%.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Spanish minister of Economy and Finance has already signed or is about to sign tax agreements with 20 offshore territories which will then be withdrawn from the offshore tax haven blacklist established by Spain in 1991, which then included 48 countries, Cinco Días reports. Such information exchange and/or double taxation agreements have been signed with Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Luxembourg, Andorra and Panama. In the short term, similar conventions are expected to be signed with the Bahamas, Bermuda, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey, Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands, the Isle of Man, Jordan, Oman, San Marino and Singapore.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Marna Whittington, COO of Allianz Global Investors (AGI), announced on 15 Octber that AGI has created the Allianz Global Investors Center for Behavioural Finance, where professor Shlomo Benartzi (Anderson School of Management, UCLA) will be chief behavioural economist. The new structure will operate in three central areas: Behavioural research and training: the center will make training and pedagogical material available to IFAs, investors and decision-makers at retirement funds; Investment and risk management: the centre will apply the results of behavioural studies to improve the risk management and investment process; Products and solutions for preparations for old age and for the retirement phase: the centre will act as an interface between behavioural research and ageing and retirement planning needs.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In third quarter, the index of investment advisor morale (BSI) calculated by TNS Infratest on behalf of Robeco Deutschland fell by 0.3 points compared with April-June, to 99.8. The index is calculated on the basis of responses from 350 advisors at commercial banks, savings banks and co-operative banks. Only 27%, compared with 35%, of specialists surveyed consider the current situation satisfactory in terms of sales of open-ended funds. However, the proportion of optimists for the next six months totals 37%, compared with 35%.