Selon les données iShares pour « L’Agefi », les « commodities » ont représenté la moitié des 5,9 milliards d’euros de flux entrants en septembre

Le groupe californien a confirmé être en pourparlers, sans identifier son prétendant. La cible pourrait être valorisée par TPG 7,55 milliards de dollars

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p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swiss private bank Vontobel has opened its new Italian offices on Piazza Affari, the square on which the Milan stock exchange is located. It is also strengthening its private banking team, led by Stefano Calvi, with the addition of 5 new members, 3 of them are private bankers. Massimo Verduci and Ganluca Landi, who join from Banca Passatore, will develop relations with private clients. Alessandro degli Alessandri will focus on ultra high net worth clients in central Italy.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Eaton Vance Management on 12 October announced the launch of the Eaton Vance Richard Bernstein Multi-Market Equity Strategy Fund, an absolute return mutual fund which will be managed by Richard Bernstein, CEO and CIO of Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC (RBA) as sub-advisor. The management strategy combines top-down and customized portfolio construction approaches based on evaluation of a full range of exclusive and non-exclusive indicators by RBA, as well as analysis and the macroeconomic sentiment of the manager. The portfolio may invest in all cap sizes, in US or international equities, from emerging or developed markets. Stock-picking will be based on quantitative filtering and an optimisation stage to achieve the desired market exposure while managing risks specific to each position.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Citywire reports that Michael Clements on 1 October took over management of the Franklin European Growth fund, previously managed by Edwin Lugo. Lugo will continue to advise the fund.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to a report by Plus24, the money supplement of Il Sole – 24 Ore, and Interactive Data Kler, of Italian-registered funds, in 2009, asset management firms paid their distribution channels commissions of over EUR1.4bn out of EUR2bn in management fees. This amounts to an average of 71.44%. The fund management companies who are most generous with their distributors are banking affiliates. At the top of the rankings is Amundi Sgr, which pays out an average of 84% in commissions to its networks.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The CNMV on 8 October registered three French-domiciled funds from Aviva Investors: Aviva Investor Crédit Europe, Aviva Investors Monétaire and Aviva Investors Valeurs Europe. The products will be sold in Spain by Aviva Investors Global Services Ltd, the group’s Spanish affiliate.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to sources familiar with the matter, Steven Rattner, a donor to the Democratic party and supervisor of the automotive industry restructuring program rolled out by the Obama administration, is said to be close to an agreement with the SEC in the corruption controversy known as the “pay to play” scandal, involving the New York state pension fund, the Wall Street Journal reports. He would agree to pay about USD6m and be ruled out of all professional ties with securities trading for two years.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management is launching a new core real estate investment business and it has hired Jeffrey A. Barclay to lead the effort. This new business will focus on investing in and managing core and core plus real estate assets primarily in the US on behalf of GSAM’s clients. Jeffrey Barclay will join GSAM from ING Clarion Partners, where he most recently served as managing director. He is expected to join GSAM in November 2010 and will be based in New York.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Marina Lewin, who joined BNY Mellon in 2000, and Steve Farlese, who has 15 years of seniority in the company, were promoted on 13 October to the newly-created global management positions at BNY Mellon Alternative Investment Services (AIS, USD350bn in assets under administration), as head of global sales and head of global service delivery, respectively. Lewin will be in charge of development teams worldwide for the full range of AIS activities, including hedge funds, private equity, and fund of fund administration and custody. Farlese will be in charge of all aspects of global AIS activities, including production of net asset value, investment services, portfolio accounting, and other operational communications to clients for single manager products, funds of funds and private equity funds.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } L’Agefi Hedbo reports that Natixis Global Asset Mangaement (NGAM) is going to buy a 51% stake in Ossiam, a French boutique dedicated to exchange-traded funds, for EUR2.8m. The chairman of the company, Bruno Poulin, was deputy chief investment officer and head of quantitative research at Systeia Capital Management, a former unit of Crédit Agricole Asset Management. Ossiam will offer 50 ETFs in three years, for which NGAM is aiming for EUR5bn in inflows over that time, the Agefi weekly newspaper reports.

Currently, Amundi Asset Management employs two managers and three analysts in London to manage its emerging market debt portfolio. Direct assets total EUR600m, of which EUR150m are net subscriptions since the beginning of the year, while EUR300m are in indirect allocations such as global funds, Thomas Delabre, co-manager of the Amundi Global Emergents fund announced on Wednesday.The three funds, Amundi Global Emergents and Amundi Oblig Emergents funds, registered in France, and the Amundi Funds Emerging Market Debt (a Luxembourg-registered UCITS-compliant product), have posted returns of about 20% since the beginning of this year. They are authorised to short currencies, but are long-only on bonds.The three highly actively managed products, one of which is a hybrid fund of local/external debt, while two are specialised in external debt, are about 30% invested in corporate bonds (including state-owned companies, such as the Venezuelan PVDSA), as for example in bond issues from Indonesian mining companies, Kazakh banks, and Mexican home-builders.The range is expected to grow, and the London-based team is planning to launch a pure local debt fund.

F&C will vote against the re-election of News Corp’s audit committee chairman at its annual meeting on Friday to oppose the group’s million-dollar political donations to the Republican Governors Association and the US Chamber of Commerce, writes the Financial Times. The UK asset manager holds a stake worth about USD1.1m in News Corp, which has a USD36.5bn market capitalisation.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) on Wednesday announced the appointment of Marco Fusco as CEO of the French activities of SSgA. He replaces Carl Bang, who is leaving to pursue new professional projects in Canada. Fusco joined SSgA in 2007. He most recently serves as CEO of SSgA in Italy, and head of the Intermediary Business Group for Southern Europe.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Schroders has announced the recruitment of Martha Metcalf to the position of high yield manager in its fixed income team in the United States. She was previously director of the US High Yield department at Credit Suisse in New York. Metcalf has 22 years of experience in high yield and emerging markets management, a statement says.

At an auction held by the liquidator, AmpegaGerling Asset Management GmbH (EUR84bn) won a 32.59% stake in the German-Austrian management firm C-Quadrat Investment AG which had previously belonged to the AvW AG group, and which had been held by Capital Bank since AvW encountered financial difficulties, at a price of EUR12.60 per share (reserve price: EUR12.50).As the stake in question represented slightly over 1.42 million shares, the price paid by AmpegaGerling comes to EUR17.92m. Compared with the EUR4.9bn in total assets at C-Quadrat (EUR4.9bn, of which EUR3bn are in asset management), this represents a price equivalent to 1.1% of assets.The transaction is still on hold pending approval from the Austrian financial market supervisory authority (FMA). However, the board of C-Quadrat has welcomed AmpegaGerling’s engagement, calling the firm a “strategic partner for the long term,” with which the business has worked for several years.

In third quarter 2010, the Asset Management division of JPMorgan had net inflows of USD38bn, of which USD27bn went to liquidity products, and USD11bn to long-term products.However, in the 12-month period to the end of September, the firm has seen net outflows of USD42bn. Assets under management totalled USD1.3trn as of the end of September, a stable level compared with the previous year, due to net outflows from liquidity products, which were offset by net inflows to long-term products and rising markets. Assets under supervision totalled USD1.8trn.The asset management activity at JPMorgan in third quarter earned net income of USD420m, a slight decline of 2% compared with the previous year. Revenues totalled USD2.2bn, 4% more than last year. These were divided between USD1.2trn for private banking (+9%), USD506m for institutional (-5%), and USD485m for retail (+3%).The bank as a whole earned net income up 23% to USD4.4bn in third quarter.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The most recent statistics from the European asset management association (EFAMA), for the month of August, suggest that prudence is on the rebound for investors who steered clear of equities and instead invested in bonds and returned to money markets. Long-term UCITS funds (excluding money markets) posted a record net inflow of EUR38bn in August, compared with EUR16bn in July. Bond funds contributed largely to this evolution, with net inflows of EUR23bn, compared with EUR9bn in July.Net inflows to diversified funds, for their part, totalled EUR7.3bn, compared with EUR2.7bn. Net inflows to equities, however, were down to EUR0.6bn, compared with EUR4.8bn the previous month. For the first time in a long time, money market funds were in positive territory, with net inflows of nearly EUR16bn, while they showed net outflows of EUR10.8bn in July. UCITS funds as a whole showed a net inflow fo EUR53.7bn in the month of August, compared with EUR5.4bn in July. Outside the UCITS perimeter, dedicated funds attracted nearly EUR11bn in the month of August, compared with EUR7.3bn in July, while inflows of real estate funds fell to zero, from EUR1bn in July.

Allan Conway, head of global emerging market equities at Schroders (USD26bn in assets under direct management), announced in Paris on 13 October that the British management firm has posted very strong subscriptions to its ISF Global Emerging Markets (GEM) fund. In this case he observes a development which he considers symptomatic: flows are no longer dominated by retail, but instead by institutional investors. Emerging market equities have become a strategic rather than a tactical investment for these clients, with a tactical overlay.The BRIC fund has already had a soft closing at EUR9bn. In a few weeks, the same fate attends the ISF Global Emerging Markets Opportunities (GEMO), which is a concentrated, long-only collection of the best ideas from GEM, without the constraints of a benchmark and with a performance objective of 15% per year, and the ability to increase exposure to 30% cash and 30% developed market bonds, in a concentrated portfolio of 60 positions from only 12 countries (compared with 120-130 shares and 20-25 countries for the GEM).Since the beginning of this year, the GEMO fund has attracted about USD300m in net subscriptions, which, with market appreciation, has increased its assets by USD500m, to USD1.2bn. Because a major investor is planning to make a large investment in the fund, assets under management are expected to rapidly reach USD1.5bn, which will lead Schroders to announce a soft closing for this fund as well.When asked about plans to extend the product range, Conway says that the firm is studying the possibility of launching a frontier fund, which will carry over 55-60% of the investment ideas of the Middle East fund (USD250m), launched three years ago. The product will likely initially be a British-registered investment trust, which may open at Christmas time or in early 2011. There are also plans for a Luxembourg-registered version of the product, but the terrain must be prepared, bringing together the first potential investors before the operation begins.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } M&G Investments has launched an inflation-linked bond fund, co-managed by Jim Leaviss and Ben Lord, Money Marketing reports. Among the 150 names in the portfolio are direct participations in over 30 issuers, including Tesco, Thames Water and Toyota.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On Wednesday, 13 October, EU member states failed to reach agreement on the hedge fund directive (see previous editions of Newsmanagers), and it will now devolve on the finance ministers of the 27 member states to debate the bill next Tuesday, Agefi reports. At the monthly meeting of the Ecofin council in Luxembourg, they will be required to reach a consensus in order for Europe to present its legislation at the G20 summit in Seoul on 12 November.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Asian Investor reports that the former regional head of sales and marketing from Lyxor Asset Mangement will be joining Credit Suisse, where he will rejoin his former Lyxor colleague, Dan Draper. Ho, who left Lyxor on 30 September, will be operational next February at Credit Suisse, where he will take up the newly-created position of regional head of ETFs, based in Hong Kong. He will report to Draper, global head of ETFs for Credit Suisse, based in London.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Standard Life Investments (SLI) announced on 13 October that it has won a RFP to sub-advise a 25% allocation from the UBS PACE Alternative Strategies Investments fund, which comes out to USD116.5m. The management methodology used for the SLI mandate will be the technique known as Global Absolute Return Strategies (GARS). The objective is to generate absolute returns similar to those expected from equities over the long term, but with a significantly lower risk budget, with a multi-asset class, multi-market approach that combines traditional and non-traditional sources of performance. Currently, GARS Portfolios have over USD8bn in assets (30 August), on behalf of 260 institutional clients. The strategy has produced gross annualised returns of 10.75% over the past three years, with volatility of 6.4%. Over the same period, the MSCI World TR GBP index lost 1.26% per year, with volatility of 20.33%.

Despite the slowdown in economic growth, sustainable and responsible investment (SRI) has grown considerably in the past two years. According to the most recent edition of the Eurosif annual study, “European SRI Study 2010,” assets under SRI management have increased from EUR2.7trn as of the end of 2007 to EUR5trn as of the end of 2009, an increase of about 87% in the space of two years. The financial crisis probably contributed to this evolution, as it revealed to investors the importance of taking ESG criteria into account, and accentuated demand for transparent products.The study, undertaken with the cooperation of Ideam Amundi Group, BNP Paribas Investment Partners, Crédit Agricole Cheuvreux and Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management, finds that the “core SRI” segment, which includes normative exclusions based on value or other types of positive selection, totals EUR1.2trn, while “broad SRI” (simple exclusion, engagement and integration approaches) weigh in at EUR3.8trn.The study confirms that the market continues to be dominated by institutional investors, who represent 66% of total assets under management, but the proportion from retail investors has increased in virtually all the countries covered by the study.The preferred asset class for SRI investors is now bonds, which account for 53%, compared with 33% for equities.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to IPE.com, Rudolf Apenbrink has been appointed CEO of the European division of HSBC Asset Management, following the promotion of Joanna Munro to the position of CEO for Asia-Pacific, a position which he had previously occupied.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Convertible bonds are apparently so complex that German management firms are not investing in them, the Frankfurer Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Aside from DWS (Deutsche Bank), only Union Investment (co-operative banks) has a fund of respectable size. This is all the more surprising since convertibles appear to be designed specially for German investors, who are averse to risk. The DWS Convertibles, with assets of nearly EUR1bn, is highly invested in the United States (Gilead Sciences, Intel, Symantec), where there is a richer vein on offer. In Germany, its largest position is on Qiagen. Among the few management firms to invest exclusively in European convertibles are Flossbach von Storch, but with only EUR27.5m, it is necessarily more agile.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 16 August 2010, Bank of America Merrill Lynch obtained a sales license from the Irish regulator for its locally domiciled Sicav BofAML Invest Funds Plc, including the commodities sub-funds MCLX Agriculture Optimal Crop Fund and MLCX Commodity Alpha Fund. The UCITS-compliant Sicav is now also registered for sale in Spain, with a license from the CNMV.

Aux enchères menées par le liquidateur, AmpegaGerling Asset Management GmbH (84 milliards d’euros) a remporté pour 12,60 euros par action (mise à prix : 12,50 euros) la participation de 32,59 % que détenait le groupe AvW AG dans la société de gestion austro-allemande C-Quadrat Investment AG et qui avait été hébergée par Capital Bank lorsque AvW a connu ses difficultés financières.Comme la participation en question représentait un peu plus de 1,42 million d’actions, le prix acquitté par AmpegaGerling se monte à 17,92 millions d’euros. Ramené aux 4,9 milliards d’encours totaux de C-Quadrat (4,9 milliards d’euros, dont 3 milliards pour l’asset management), cela représente un prix de 1,1 % des actifs.Cette transaction est encore suspendue à l’autorisation de l’Autorité autrichienne de surveillance des marchés financiers (FMA). En tout cas, le directoire de C-Quadrat Investment s’est félicité de l’engagement d’AmpegaGerling, qualifié de «partenaire stratégique pour le long terme», avec lequel l’entreprise travaille au reste depuis plusieurs années.

D’après IPE.com, Rudolf Apenbrink a été nommé directeur général de la division européenne de HSBC Asset Management, suite à la promotion de Joanna Munro au poste de directeur général de l’Asie-Pacifique, une fonction qu’il occupait jusqu’ici.