Recherche
S'abonner
Connexion
Asset Management
Accueil Asset Management Actualités
31/03/2010

Russell clients adopt a more dynamic asset allocation approach

A growing number of institutional clients at Russell Investments are opting for liability-responsive asset allocation (LRAA), first launched in April 2009. As their coverage situation improves, pension funds respond with gradually less aggressive allocations. Russell Investments states that some pension funds using LRAA approaches have reduced their equities allocations 15% in the past three months, increasing their allocations to long-term bonds by the same proportion. Since its launch in spring 2009, the LRAA strategy has been chosen by 15 institutional clients. Many other clients are considering adopting this approach.
31/03/2010

Philippe Aurain becomes new CIO at FRR

Effective April 1st, 2010, Philippe Aurain is appointed chief investment officer of the FRR (Fonds de réserve pour les retraites). He succeeds Nicolas Sobczak. Philippe Aurain began working for the FRR in 2003 as investment director, and was later appointed head of external asset management for the FRR, then financial deputy director. Before joining the FRR, Philippe Aurain was head of savings surveys and network relationships within the CDC, ALM manager for the CDC, then head of own-account European equity management for Ixis. Philippe Aurain earned an MBA at ’ESCP Europe, and a post graduate degree in finance from the Université de Dauphine. He is also a member of the Société Française des Analystes Financiers (SFAF).
31/03/2010

oekom research to advise charities

The Munich-based SRI ratings agency oekom research on Tuesday announced that it has signed a cooperation agreement which will come into force on 1 April, with the German charities association (Bundesverbandes Deutscher Stiftungen). By the terms of the agreement, oekom research will offer more than 3,400 charities which belong to the association one-shot custom sustainable diagnostics on their portfolios, free of charge. This will allow the investors to avoid pitfalls such as the controversy in the Netherlands which was triggered when an anti-cancer charity, KWF Kankerbestrijding, was found to have invested part of its assets in the tobacco sector. Speaking to Newsmanagers, Rolf Häßler, head of products and development at oekom research, says that the agency may later earn commissions if the charities consider it useful to undertake ongoing screenings of their portfolios, or if they decide to invest in SRI funds which rely on research from oekom research.
31/03/2010

AWD aims for EBIT of EUR40-50m in 2010

In 2009, the German financial services provider AWD Holding dragged down results at Swiss Life, as restructuring and one-time charges of EUR53.7m at the firm put earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) at -EUR41.1m, compared with profits of EUR19.7m in 2008, on revenues down 16.5% to EUR528.7m. Manfred Behrens, chairman of the board, announced on Tuesday that a restructuring program which made it possible to reduce set expenses by EUR50m per year has now been completed, meaning that it should now be possible to earn a positive EBIT of EUR40-50m this year. In first quarter, profits came to more than EUR9m, higher than expectations.
31/03/2010

Marshall Wace releases two ETF funds in Spain

Via RBC Dexia Investor Services, which will sell the funds, Marshall Wave is making its debut on the Spanish market with two absolute return ETFs which will use a market neutral strategy: the MW TOPS Global Alpha and the MW TOPS Global Alpha UCITS Fund, Funds People reports. The two products replicates the MW TOPS Global Alpha fund, developed by Marshall Wace, which includes the major MW TOPS strategies worldwide. MW TOPS is a systematic process for the analysis and selection of investment ideas from equities sales forces in 50 countries. The two ETFs are available in US dollars, Euros and pounds Sterling. They have been listed since January on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and the Frankfurt stock exchange.
31/03/2010

AXA National Australia Bank Limited and AXA Asia Pacific reach agreement

AXA announced on 30 March that AXA National Australia Bank Limited (“NAB”) and AXA Asia Pacific Holdings Limited (“AXA APH”) have reached an exectuvei agreement. The deal includes a scheme of arrangement and a sales agreement, by the terms of which NAP will acquire 100% of AXA APH, and then retain the Australian and New Zealand activities, and sell 100% of the Asian activities to AXA. Minority shareholders in AXA APH will have a choice between a payment of AUD6.43 in cash per share in AXA APH, and 0.1745 NAB shares and AUD1.59 in cash per share in AXA APH. Shareholders in AXA APH received a final 2009 dividend from AXA APH totalling 9.25 Australian cents per share. The consequences for Axa are as follows: as part of the transaction, NAB will buy AXA’s shares in AXA APH for AUD7.2bn in cash, and AXA will then buy 100% of the Asian activities of AXA APH from NAB for AUD9.4bn in cash. As part of this operation AXA will pay a net total of AUD2.2bn (or EUR1.4bn) in cash to NAB, corresponding to the difference in price between 100% of the Asian activities of AXA APH and 54% of the value of AXA APH.
31/03/2010

New Hong Kong chief at ABN Amro Private Banking

ABN Amro Private Banking has appointed Arjan de Boer as head of private banking in Hong Kong, following the promotion of his predecessor, Hans Diederen, last September to the position of head of Asian activities, Asian Investor reports. Since 2006, de Boer had been head of special products for Asia at ABN Amro Private Banking.
31/03/2010

Bonus reforms: Still some way to go

The Financial Stability Council (FSB, formerly known as the Financial Stability Forum, or FSF), on 30 March published an initial evaluation of bonus reforms currently being undertaken. This is the first peer review of bonus reforms to date. The FSB says in a statement that “significant progress” has been made, but that the application of the council’s recommendations, in the Principles for Sound Compensation Practices and Implementation Standards, is not yet complete. “Sustained efforts” are still necessary to bring pay scales into line with prudent risk policy. With this in mind, the Basel Committee is expected to release a document for consultation by this autumn which would set out methodologies for aligning risks and performance with pay scales. The FSB is also planning to undertake a further evaluation of the situation in second quarter 2011. The financial stability council has also announced that the next evaluation will include information published by market actors on the subject of risk. The Council has also launched its first country evaluations. On the agenda for 2010 are Italy, Mexico and Spain.
31/03/2010

Five months of net redemptions from funds

After net outflows of EUR485m in January and EUR1.81bn in February, Spanish securities funds saw net redemptions of EUR913m in March, their fifth consecutive month of net outflows, according to the Inverco association of asset management firms. However, thanks to rising markets, assets increased by 0.6% in March, to EUR160.93bn. In the past month, InverCaixa posted the strongest net subscriptions, with EUR110.7m, while Santander Asset Management saw the heaviest net outflows (EUR453.5m).
31/03/2010

GAM launches a UCITS III-compliant quant fund

GAM is adding to its range of UCITS III funds with the launch of a systematic managed futures fund, managed by Sushil Wadhwani, founder and chief executive of Wadhwani Asset Management, Hedge Week reports. The new product range will for the first time provide investors with access to these strategies in a regulated onshore format. Wadhwani has more than 25 years of experience in quantitative modelling. These strategies rely on risk management on several levels, as risk control is integrated into the systematic models, and risk exposure is subject to ongoing analysis by risk committees and research teams.
31/03/2010

Dubai launches a shariah compliant fund of hedge funds

Dubai is opening up its inaugural fund of hedge funds to investors, says the Wall Street Journal. The fund, DSAM Kauthar Commodity Fund, which was launched at the beginning of 2009, beat comparable indexes by posting a 41% return last year. Fund operator Dubai Shariah Asset Management sees this as proof that a hedge fund based on Islamic law can provide similar or better returns than conventional hedge funds. The USD260 million fund is currently managed by managers at BlackRock, Tocqueville Asset Management, Lucas Capital Management LLC and Zweig-DiMenna International Managers Inc.
31/03/2010

Head of Abu Dhabi sovereign fund is dead

Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the managing director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, was found dead yesterday four days after his glider crashed in Morocco, says the Financial Times. His replacement will be appointed by his half-brother, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
31/03/2010

Raj Shant (Newton) joins Skandia European Best Ideas club

Skandia Global Funds announced on Tuesday that Raj Shant, CIO for European equities at Newton Investment Management (a fund management boutique from BNY Mellon Asset Management) has been selected to be one of the ten fund of fund managers to be included in the Irish-registered Skandia European Best Ideas fund (EUR216.17m in assets as of 26 February 2010). He replaces Dirk Henderlein, of Allianz Global Investors (AGI). He will be in charge of the management of an equities allocation to include his 10 top equities picks, without the constraints of a benchmark index. The current fund management line-up includes, in addition to Shant, Crispin Odey (Odey Asset Management), Barry Norris (Argonaut), Terry Burnham (Acadian AM), Roger Guy (Gartmore), James Inglis-Jones (Liontrust), Hugh Cuthbert (SVM), and James Buckley (Barings), based in the UK; Tobias Klein, at the German asset management firm First Private, and Didier Le Ménestrel, at Financière de l’Échiquier.
31/03/2010

Hedge funds: USD160bn in net outflows in 2009

Hedge funds last year saw a net outflow of USD160.11bn, according to data from Lipper Tass reported by Hedge Week. The trend was largely reversed in fourth quarter 2009, putting assets under management at the end of 2009 at USD1.34trn, compared with USD1.29trn as of the end of September 2009.
31/03/2010

Hong Kong tightens up rules on sensitive information

The government of Hong Kong has announced that it will be toughening the active regulations, to require publicly traded companies to disclose sensitive information, defined in terms similar to the concept of insider trading, without delay, the Wall Street Journal reports. The planned changes to the law, which would fill a gap in legislation, would provide for fines of up to USD1m. Activists are reported to have called for those who conduct insider trading in Hong Kong to face penal proceedings.
31/03/2010

Bill Gross is not the only one wary of bonds

According to Emerging Portfolio Fund Research, net subscriptions to bond funds worldwide this year have already totalled USD89bn, nearly five times the total for the first three months of 2009, Die Welt reports. Bill Gross, who manages a bond fund with USD214.3bn in assets at Pimco (Allianz Gobal Investors), has warned that the rally on bonds, which has lasted for more than three decades, is nearing its end. Pimco announced in December that it will be launching equities funds, and recommends positions on government bonds with low deficits, such as Germany and Canada, or else investment in corporate bonds. Gross is not the only manager to be preaching prudence: Bill Eigen, manager of the JP Morgan Strategic Income Opportunities Fund (USD8bn), is predicting rising interest rates in the next two years, which will mean losses for subscribers to long-term bond funds. And Keith Harstein, CEO of John Hancock Funds, says small investors have already almost missed the right time to back out of bond funds. They are now once again making the mistake of betting on past performance, at a time when they need to be making investment decisions for today.
31/03/2010

Computer-based quant funds speculate against the Euro

Some of the largest European hedge funds have made large bets against the Euro and the Pound Sterling. The attacks have not been instigated by human managers, though, but rather by trend-follower funds which are managed by computers, Handelsblatt reports, citing examples at Man Group (AHL), Winton Capital at Blue Crest, with assets of over USD40bn. One hedge fund manager says these computer-based funds made a lot of money betting on a falling US dollar, but that the trend has now inverted itself, and now the pound Sterling and the Euro are on the list of weak currencies. Managers of these funds says that they are not triggering the trends, but following them. In addition, most of them use futures for their bets, and these contracts are traded on futures markets which are closely regulated, unlike currency markets, where 90% to 95% of transactions take place over the counter (OTC).
31/03/2010

Returns on British pension funds rebound

According to data from BNY Mellon Asset Servicing, British pension funds posted weighted average returns last year of 14.4%, a level not seen since 2005. Real returns come in at 12% compared with the price index for 2009, and 12.9% compared with the National Average Earnings Index. In 2008, returns for British pension funds came in at -13.6%. For the three years to the end of December 2009, average returns come to +1.7% per year. On the major equities markets, returns last year ran to 30.1% for UK equities, 50.7% for the Pacific ex Japan region, and 58.9% for emerging markets. The sole exception is Japan, where losses averaged 5.9% for the year.
31/03/2010

Standard Life Investments plans international development

The management firm Standard Life Investments announced on 30 March that it has appointed Colin Clark as Director-Global Client Group, in charge of distribution, marketing and global development of activities, for both retail and institutional products. For the past five years, Clark has been non-executive director at Standard Life Investments.
31/03/2010

Gartmore suspends one of its managers

Following consultation with the Financial Services Authority, the UK asset manager Gartmore has suspended Guillaume Rambourg pending the outcome of an internal investigation in relation to breaches of internal procedures regarding directing trades. In the meantime, assets managed by the fund manager continue to be managed by Roger Guy. Gartmore says it has not identified any information to date which suggests that Gartmore’s clients have suffered any loss as a result of these breaches. Guillaume Rambourg had joined Gartmore in October 1995 and is a senior investment manager in the European equity team. He works alongside Roger Guy on the European retail investment funds and high performance funds. He also co-manages the European hedge funds with Roger Guy.
31/03/2010

Cecilia Reyes appointed as head of investment at ZFS

Zurich Financial Services has announced the appointment of Cecilia Reyes as chief investment officer and a member of the executive board of the group, replacing Martin Senn, who, since 1 January 2010, has been serving as CEO of the group. Reyes was previously head of deployment for investment strategies, a position she had held since April 2006.
31/03/2010

Le bénéfice de la banque privée Rothschild recule de 31,9%

La Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild à Genève conclut l’exercice 2009 par un bénéfice net en baisse de 31,9% à 136,8 millions de francs suisse, rapporte Le Temps. La rentabilité souffre du repli des clients vers les produits financiers les moins risqués et donc moins générateurs de commissions bancaires. Les encours sous gestion rebondit de 12% à 92,2 milliards de francs après le creux de 82,3 milliards de francs touché à la fin de 2008.
31/03/2010

Two small sustainable development funds from UBS merge

With effect from 26 March, the Sustainable European Equities (EUR) P-acc sub-fund of the Sicav UBS (Lux) Equity Fund 2 has been absorbed into the Sustainable Global Leaders (EUR) P-acc (EUR3.38m as of the end of January, according to Fondsweb), the UBS Responsibility Fund Management Company has announced. The operation is notable for the motives cited by the management firm: weak demand for the “best-in-class” strategy, and the low level of subscriptions render it impossible to freeze the fund in a profitable and effective manner.
30/03/2010

Schelcher-Prince prend pied en Espagne grâce à Capital Strategies

Capital Strategies Partners a intégré dans son offre en Espagne les produits du gestionnaire français Schelcher-Prince (2 milliards d’euros d’encours), dont la gamme comprend six fonds, rapporte Funds People. Le produit star de cette société de gestion est le Schelcher-Prince Convertibles, qui pèse environ 200 millions d’euros.
30/03/2010

MPC Capital sauvé par ses actionnaires

La société de gestion de fonds fermés MPC Capital va procéder à l’augmentation de capital exigée par les banques créancières. L'émission portera sur un maximum de 8,8 millions d’actions à 2,75 euros l’unité, ce qui représente une décote de 40 % sur le cours de clôture sur Xetra vendredi, rapporte le Handelsblatt.Les titres seront souscrits par le capital-investisseur américain Corsair, qui détient 29,9 % du capital, par MPC Holding (29,8 %) et par la famille d’Ulrich Oldehaver (3,7 %), à la condition qu’ils seront exemptés de l’obligation de lancer une OPA s’ils franchissaient la barre des 30 %.En contrepartie, les lignes de crédit et les financements intermédiaires seront prolongés pour une durée de trois ans.MPC Capital a perdu 78,2 millions en 2009 après déjà 100 millions en 2008.
30/03/2010

La Deutsche Bank délègue quatre administrateurs à la BHF

Depuis le 1er janvier 2010, le président du directoire de la BHF-Bank, filiale de Sal. Oppenheim, est Wilhelm von Haller, qui a été détaché par la Deutsche Bank à la tête de Sal. Oppenheim.Lundi, l’assemblée générale de la BHF-Bank a par ailleurs élu quatre dirigeants de la Deutsche Bank au conseil de surveillance. Il s’agit de Stefan Krause, membre du directoire et directeur financier (CFO) de la Deutsche Bank, de Philipp von Girsewald, Head of Corporate Mergers & Acquisitions, d’Henning Heuerding, Managing Director Group Strategy & Planning et de Christian Sewing, Chief Credit Officer.Par ailleurs, Dietmar Schmid, membre du directoire de la BHF-Bank, a été élu membre du conseil d’administration (Verwaltungsrat) de la banque, lequel l’a lui-même élu ensuite président. Le conseil d’administration se compose de représentants d’entreprises industrielles et de services ainsi que de sociétés appartenant au secteur public. Il conseille le directoire sur les questions économiques et promeut les relations avec d’autres entreprises.
30/03/2010

Forte hausse du bénéfice de M.M. Warburg

Pour 2009, le groupe Warburg, qui comprend la banque privée M.M.Warburg et six filiales en Allemagne, une au Luxembourg et en Suisse, mais ne couvre pas la Degussa Bank, qui publie des comptes séparés, a affiché un bénéfice avant impôt en hausse de 26,3 % à 65,7 millions d’euros.Le rendement des fonds propres (ROE) s’est accru à 31 % contre 23 % pour 2008.Enfin, les actifs sous gestion au 31 décembre pour le groupe sont ressortis à 32,3 milliards d’euros contre 29,2 milliards douze mois auparavant.
30/03/2010

Un mandat pour Sociéte Génerale Securities Services outre-Rhin

Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) qui depuis décembre 2009 fournit à W&W Asset Management GmbH des services de dépositaire, valorisateur et agent de transfert pour des fonds de droit irlandais, tout en y incluant des services de reporting en Allemagne, vient d’annoncer la création d’un nouveau standard de prestation en combinant ses services titres via une offre transnationale, note un communiqué de la banque.Afin de remplir son mandat, SGSS utilise son réseau international existant et a spécifiquement développé une solution globale transnationale pour la filiale de Wüstenrot & Württembergische AG (W&W), spécialiste de la retraite et de la prévoyance, qui affiche 25,3 milliards d’euros d’actifs sous gestion.

Sujets d'actualité

Tous les sujets