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27/10/2009

BankInvest unites global distribution activities in Luxembourg

From early 2010, the Danish management firm BankInvest will centralise its international distribution activities in Luxembourg, which will involve the closure of its Bavarian branch office in Straßlach/Kleindingharting, covering Germany, Switzerland and Austria, fondsprofessionell reports. The sales & relationship manager for the German office, Joachim Böttcher, will continue in his duties from Luxembourg.
27/10/2009

Macquarie acquires Blackmont Capital

The Australian investment bank Macquarie is scaling up its wealth management operations in North America. It will acquire Blackmont Capital, based in Canada, for USD87.2m.
27/10/2009

Irish fund administrator Apex Fund Services makes its debut in China

The Irish boutique specialised in fund administration Apex Fund Services has launched its first range of services in China, according to Asian Investor. The firm already has four fund administration mandates in China, and is hoping to increase that number to six in the near future. The firm, which has had offices in Shanghai since 2008, where it currently has four employees, is planning to open an office in Australia. Apex has been present in Asia since January 2008. Its Hong Kong and Singapore offices have eight and 16 employees, respectively, and administer 60 funds.
27/10/2009

Share plc acquires 5% of Way Group

As part of a commercial agreement, Share plc, the parent company of The Share Centre Ltd. and Sharefunds Ltd., will acquire a 5% stake in the capital of Way Group Ltd., the holding company that owns Way Fund Managers Ltd., Way Investment Services Ltd., and Elite Administration Services Ltd., for three payments of GBP157,500, and thus a total of GBP472,500. Way Fund Managers will outsource the administration of its approximately 40 funds to Sharefunds.
27/10/2009

db x-trackers adjusts content of ETF funds

Das Investment reports that all ETF funds from db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) are now invested in a uniform portfolio of about 1,000 equities, corresponding roughly to the MSCI World index, which covers 1,700 equities. Only two of these products, the fund based on the Dax and the one based on the MSCI World index itself, remain to be brought into line with this policy, which will be achieved in the next few weeks. The move will prevent future events similar to Morningstar’s observation in late 2007 that the portfolio of a db x-trackers ETF replicating the Dax was solely exposed to Japanese equities plus a swap.
27/10/2009

Commerzbank launches 11 ComStage ETF funds based on iBoxx indexes

On Monday, Commerzbank announced that its range of ETF funds bearing the ComStage brand (51 funds) has grown by 11 products, as licences have been issued for bond ETFs replicating Markit iBoxx indexes. The ComStage product range, which now includes 62 funds, covers equities, bonds, commodities and money markets. The new ComStaeg products are available for trading on the Stuttgart and Frankfurt stock markets as well as the Xetra electronic platform from Deutsche Börse. The new products were launched on the 5, 7, and 8 October. They are: ComStage ETF iBoxx € Liquid Sovereigns Diversified 10-15 TR ComStage ETF iBoxx € Liquid Sovereigns Diversified 15+ TR ComStage ETF iBoxx € Liquid Sovereigns Diversified 25+ TR ComStage ETF iBoxx € Sovereigns Germany Capped 10+ TR ComStage ETF iBoxx € Sovereigns Germany Capped 5-10 TR ComStage ETF iBoxx € Sovereigns Germany Capped 1-5 TR ComStage ETF iBoxx € Liquid Sovereigns Diversified Overall TR ComStage ETF iBoxx € Liquid Sovereigns Diversified 1-3 TR ComStage ETF iBoxx € Liquid Sovereigns Diversified 3-5 TR ComStage ETF iBoxx € Liquid Sovereigns Diversified 5-7 TR ComStage ETF iBoxx € Liquid Sovereigns Diversified 7-10 TR
27/10/2009

Ahorro Corporación merges twelve funds at once

In a notice to the CNMV, Ahorro Corporación, the main management firm for the Spanish savings banks, has announced that it will absorb eleven bond funds, Ahorro Corporación Renta Fija Privada, AC Bonos Corporativos, Caja Badajoz Plazo 2, Fonvalor, AC Plazo Rentas 2, AC Rendimiento Garantizado, AC Cupón activo, AC Capital 4, AC Ibex Garantizado, Caja Supercupón and AC Eurostoxx Año I, into its AC Plazo Rentas fund. The merger of so many products in one fell swoop is unprecedented in Spain.
27/10/2009

Financial disclosure: Major British banks to apply new rules

The British financial sector regulator (FSA) announced on 26 October that the major British banks had agreed to follow new rules governing the publication of financial information, in order to respond to concerns in the international financial community. The new rules are set out in a document which remains open for consultation until 30 April 2010. The FSA is hoping to significantly improve the quality and comparability of financial information provided by banks and other lenders. The new code will be applied tot he 2009 annual results. If these disclosures of results do not meet expectations, the regulatory body reserves the right to replace the code which is under consultation with stricter rules.
27/10/2009

UBS recruits former Merrill Lynch head of wealth management

UBS announced on Tuesday morning that it has appointed Robert J. McCann as CEO of UBS Wealth Management Americas (WMA) and as a member of the UBS managing board. McCann, 51, will take over immediately as head of the group’s local wealth management activities in the United States and Canada, including all international activities on the books in the United States. He will direct nearly 800 financial advisors in more than 320 branch locations throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada, who manage total assets of CHF695bn. McCann, who spent his entire previous career (26 years) at Merrill Lynch, was, at the time of his departure from that firm in January 2009, president of the global wealth management division and vice president of Merrill Lynch Co.
27/10/2009

CalPERS launches a new website to respond to reports in media

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) announced on 26 October that it has launched a new website, CalPERSREsponds.com, dedicated to training and informing its members, partners and collaborators about current issues, including the safety of pensions and reforms to the health system. “There is a lot of erroneous information and reports about CalPERS. We hope this site will help to separate fact from fiction,” said the director of external affairs at CalPERS, Patricia K. Macht.
27/10/2009

Ares Capital buys Allied Capital

Private equity investor Ares Capital Corp has announced plans to acquire its competitor Allied Capital Corp for USD648m in equities, the Wall Street Journal reports. Allied, a specialist in LBO operations, has suffered losses of more than USD1.6bn on its investments since the beginning of 2008. Allied’s owners have been offered 0.325 Ares shares for each Allied share, which values the shares at USD3.47 each, and represents a 27% premium over the closing share price on Friday.
27/10/2009

Outsourced management: asset volumes up 11% in first half

Les Echos reports that bfinance has estimated the total amount in outsourced management in France, meaning the total amount that management firms manage on behalf of French institutional investors, excluding captive life insurance assets, at EUR650bn as of the end of June. The consulting firm has based its estimates on declarations from management firms. On one year (June 2008-June 2009), outsourced management has stagnated, but it has risen 11% in first half. The top four management firms (BNP Paribas IP, Crédit Agricole AM, Natixis AM, and SG AM), account for 46% of the market. Amundi, the new firm born of the merger of Crédit Agricole AM and SG AM, manages about EUR130bn for French institutional investors. This makes it the top management firm, ahead of BNP IP (EUR98bn) and Natixis AM (EUR77.4bn).
27/10/2009

Bank of America adds to Wealth Management team in Paris

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has announced the appointment of Nicolas Beyaert as a financial advisor in its French wealth management team. He joins Arthur de Mortemart and Jérôme Sack, who were also appointed as financial advisors in the Wealth Management team a few months ago. “The three new recruits will join the Paris offices of the group, and will report to Gilles Dard, Director of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management for Western Europe,” says a statement. Beyaert, an expert in wealth management for entrepreneurs, was previously a private banker at the Lombard Odier banking group, where he spent six years. De Mortemart, for his part, joined Merrill Lynch Wealth Management as a vice-president. He is specialised in advising families with large investment capacities, and previously worked at the Robeco group in Paris, where he was in charge of development for advised management. Sack previously spent 16 years at Merrill Lynch as director of capital markets in London and Paris.
27/10/2009

FRR: 12.8% net returns in nine months

The board of trustees of the French national pension fund, the Fonds de réserve pour les retraites (FRR), announced on 26 October that the net performance of the fund from the beginning of 2009 until 30 September, on the basis of estimated and unaudited figures, comes out at 12.8%, with a decline of 6.5% in first quarter, but gains of 10.5% in second quarter and 9.5% in third quarter. In annualised terms, excluding financial operating and administrative costs, since its operational launch (June 2004), the performance of the fund is +2.6%. This performance is mostly the result of a strong rebound on the equities markets since the second half of March 2009. As a result of these developments, total assets in the FRR as of 30 September totalled EUR31.9bn (EUR27.7bn as of 31 December 2008). On this date, these assets were distributed with 49.5% in performance assets (equities, real estate and commodities), and 50.5% in bonds and money markets awaiting investment.
27/10/2009

Eduardo Mollo Cunha leaves Sparinvest

According to a statement from Sparinvest relayed by Fondsprofessionell, Eduardo Mollo Cunha has resigned from his position as head of institutional sales for the German-speaking countries due to differences over commercial policy at the Danish management firm.
27/10/2009

AUA: Hedge fund outbids Lufthansa

The German airline Lufthansa is offering to buy out minority shareholders who still hold 4 million shares in AUA Austrian Airlines for 50 Euro cents per share. The hedge fund Exchange Investors, however, has offered EUR1.50 per share, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. It estimates that the Lufthansa offer is inexcusably low, as the takeover bid took place in early September at a price of EUR4.49 per share, and suggests that the low offer may be a sign of payment and liquidity problems at the German airline. Exchange Investors is clearly hoping to extract a more attractive price from the airline.
27/10/2009

New fund from EFG Asset Management France

EFG Asset Management France has launched EFG Optimum, a UCITS III-compliant FCP fund with daily liquidity reporting and an absolute returns approach, which will invest in UCITS III funds. To select the OPCVM funds the product will invest in, EFG AM France will employ the services of the investment advising firm Seeds Finance, before managing the fund with real-time asset allocation and trading. Characteristics: ISIN Code: FR0010804005 (A share class) and FR0010813329 (B class) Performance objective: Eonia +3% Number of strategies: about 10 (none to exceed 15% of the portfolio). Number of underlying funds: about 20 Front-end fee: Management fee: Value of one share: Minimal subscription:
27/10/2009

Strong subscriptions for emerging markets funds

According to EPFR Global, equities funds specialised in emerging markets as of the end of September had record net subscriptions of USD52.6bn since the beginning of the year, which is close to the record of USD54.3bn for 2007 as a whole. On the basis of weekly figures since the beginning of October (USD5.5bn), the 2007 record has probably already been beaten. And this more than makes up for net redemptions of USD49.5bn in the year 2008 as a whole. By comparison, US equities funds have seen net outflows of USD71bn in the first nine months of the year. Emerging markets bond funds, meanwhile, have seen USD3.2bn in net subscriptions in January-September, with weekly inflows of USD83m in second quarter, USD280m in third quarter, and USD780m in each of the first two weeks of October.
26/10/2009

Deutsche Bank to acquire more than 75% of Sal. Oppenheim

According to sources familiar with the matter, Deutsche Bank may announce on Wednesday or Thursday that it will finally acquire more than 75% of Sal. Oppenheim, with 4,000 employees and EUR132bn in assets, for less than EUR1bn, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. The owning families will be interested in results at the firm, in order to motivate them to try and keep clients. Of the current directors, only Christian, Baron von Oppenheim, will remain, for the sake of his name. Meanwhile, Sal. Oppenheim is also reported to be about to sell its investment bank, with 300 employees, to Australian-based Macquarie, for a maximum of EUR300m. Sal. Oppenheim’s stake in the real estate funds Oppenheim-Esch (EUR4bn), which represent EUR200-300m, will be placed in a trust fund, and, if better times return, the family shareholders in Sal. Oppenheim will share into the profits.
26/10/2009

ING to sell insurance and asset management activities

ING announced on Monday that it has earned net profits in third quarter of EUR500m, excluding sales of assets and one-time elements. This represents profits of EUR0.24 per share, compared with 3 cents in second quarter, and losses of 22 cents per share in the corresponding period of 2008. The group, which will undertake a capital increase totalling EUR7.5bn to pay back the EUR5bn in aid which it received from the Netherlands government in December, has also announced that it will gradually sell off all its activities in insurance and asset management via initial public offerings, sales, or combinations of the two.
26/10/2009

iShares and db x-trackers to launch in December

With changes to legislation in Spain which will probably allow ETF promoters to create Sicav funds from December, BlackRock, with its iShares brand, and Deutsche Bank with db x-trackers, will arrive directly on the Spanish market, where hitherto only BBVA and Lyxor (Société Générale) have been present, Expansión reports. For the moment, BlackRock and Deutsche Bank are selling their products in Spain via foreign platforms. Expansión also reports that ETF Securities, the world’s leading provider of ETC funds, is preparing to register its products in Spain.
26/10/2009

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney targets private clients with "more than USD20m"

The wealth management arm of Morgan Stanley, in partnership with the family office arm of Citi, have now created Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. The entity is now creating Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management, to serve the class of very high net worth private clients with USD20m in assets or more. The new operation, led by Michael Armstrong, managing director, will have 25 offices worldwide, and will eventually have 500 highly specialised advisors.
26/10/2009

UBS revises bonus policies

L’Agefi Suisse reports that UBS, like Credit Suisse, has revised its bonus policies. But it has done so much more discreetly, without informing the media. Partners at the bank were informed in a letter published on the establishment’s web page. Like Credit Suisse, UBS will strongly increase the fixed portion of salaries for its top directors, and will reduce variable pay. Among the other measures which will be taken, bonuses will be tied to the performance of the bank, as measured by profits earned, and this will apply for each division of the firm. Shares received from the bank will be embargoed for three years. Meanwhile, the weekly newsmagazine Sonntag reports that UBS will massively increase the bonuses it pays its employees.
26/10/2009

CESR consultation on inducements

The purpose of this consultation is to highlight some of the observed industry practices (based on a questionnaire CESR members distributed to investment firms) on the MiFID inducements rules and to provide investment firms with an understanding of how CESR views such practices. CESR invites responses to this consultation paper by 22 December 2009.
26/10/2009

Securitisation market making a gradual recovery

Les Echos reports that the British bank Nationwide is this week launching a securitisation operation for at least GBP3.5bn in real estate securitisations backed by residential mortgages (RMBS). The move follows securitisation issues from Lloyds Banking Group and Volkswagen. These deals do not mark a return to normal, as the Nationwide offer includes maximal guarantees to reinsure investors who continue to be cautious. The preliminary rating from Fitch gives the maximal rating (AAA) to the first two rounds of issues, while the selection of loans to be included in the securitisations means that Nationwide will retain 5% of the structured debts on its books, which is a gauge of the quality of the underlying assets.
26/10/2009

Galleon insider trading investigation widens

Federal investigators in charge of an insider trading enquiry at Galleon Group have asked to see the trading book of Richard Grodin, a hedge fund manager who worked previously at SAC Capital Advisors under Steven A. Cohen, and who employed witnesses who are “cooperating” with investigators, the Wall Street Journal reports. The subpoena is the first sign that the range of transactions under investigation is widening.
26/10/2009

Blackstons plans IPO for Merlin

The private equity investor Blackstone is planning an initial public offering for Merlin Entertainments, Handelsblatt reports. The banking consortium for the deal reportedly includes Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, UBS and Nomura. The operation values Merlin at EUR2.2bn. The sovereign wealth fund Dubai International Capital (DIC) owns 20% of the British group.
26/10/2009

La pression sur les bonus incite au spin-off

Selon L’Agefi suisse, la pression réglementaire croissante sur les rémunérations bancaires variables pourrait très vite ouvrir des voies de contournement. Les traders, cadres et autres spécialistes à bonus ont déjà compris qu’un statut indépendant des banques, dans lesquels ils seraient par exemple actionnaires, leur permettrait d’exercer librement aux mêmes niveaux de revenus qu’avant 2008. Le nombre de lancements d’entreprises par des anciens employés de plus ou moins grandes entités semble augmenter.
26/10/2009

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney s'attaque au créneau des "plus de 20 millions de dollars"

La gestion de fortune de Morgan Stanley, alliée à la division family office de Citi, a désormais constitué Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Cette dernière crée à présent Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management pour servir la catégorie des particuliers très haut de gamme à partir de 20 millions de dollars. La nouvelle enseigne, dirigée par Michael Armstrong, managing director, aura 25 bureaux dans le monde entier et comptera à terme 500 conseillers très spécialisés.

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