Depuis le début de l'année au 28 août 2009, le fonds Amilton Small Caps, de la société Amilton Asset Management, affiche une performance de 38,2 %, alors que le CAC MS 190 monte de 29,4 %. Son gérant, Harry Wolhandler, pense que les marchés vont encore monter.

Après leur lancement il y a quelques semaines, UFG-LFP vient d’annoncer la commercialisation de cinq fonds d’investissement de droit luxembourgeois au sein d’une gamme dite «Major Trends». Chaque fonds affiche une thématique ISR précise : • UFG Trend Consumers doit relever le défi démographique (croissance de la population, émergence de nouveaux consommateurs et nouveaux modes de consommation…)• UFG Trend Infrastructures doit relever le défi urbain (besoins d’installer ou renouveler des infrastructures sous la pression démographique urbaine)• UFG Trend Planet doit relever le défi environnemental (contrer le réchauffement climatique et la pollution par le recours aux énergies renouvelables, etc.)• UFG Trend Technologies doit relever le défi technologique (enjeu essentiel pour l’innovation et la croissance économique)• UFG Trend Resources doit relever le défi matières premières (ressources alimentaires et énergétiques en voie d’épuisement)De façon classique, la gamme Major Trends associe des critères extrafinanciers (grâce à une démarche ISR) à des critères purement financiers, et le processus de gestion impose des filtres successifs qui permettent d’affiner progressivement la nature des investissements réalisés.Les fonds ont pour zone d’investissement l’Europe - à concurrence de 75 % minium - le solde étant investi sur le monde (hors Europe). Une exception cependant : UFG Trend Ressources est totalement investi à l’international - dont les marchés émergents. Les quatre premiers fonds ont pour indice de référence le DJ Stoxx 600 PI et UFG Trend Resources, le MSCI World PI euros.A noter que tous ces fonds - sauf celui investissant sur les ressources naturelles - ont reçu le label ISR Novethic. Tous les fonds sont éligibles au PEA et à l’assurance-vie, à l’exception de UFG Trend Ressources, uniquement éligible à l’assurance vie. Caractéristiques: UFG Trend ConsumersCode Isin : I : LU0414216654B : LU0414216498 UFG Trend Infrastructures Code Isin : I : LU0414217116 B : LU0414216902 UFG Trend Planet I : LU0414217546B : LU0414217389 UFG Trend Technologies I : LU0414218510B : LU0414218353UFG Trend ResourcesI : LU0414218197B : LU0414217892 Pour les parts B (dédiés aux particuliers) : Commission de gestion : 2% Droits d’entrée : 3% max Droits de sortie : néant Pour les parts I (dédiés aux institutionnels)Commission de gestion : 1%Droits d’entrée : néantDroits de sortie : néant

La Société Générale «pourrait envisager de commencer le remboursement des aides apportées par l’Etat français à partir de début 2010», rapporte l’Agefi. Les analystes sont toutefois persuadés que l’opération pourrrait être avancée. En théorie, la banque peut se contenter d’augmenter son capital de 1,7 milliard d’euros, soit l’équivalent reçu de l’Etat sous forme d’actions de préférence. Mais la Société Générale peut aussi viser plus large, afin d’anticiper le renforcement des exigences en fonds propres imposées aux banques, précise le quotidien.

Société Générale Asset Management lance SGAM Invest Inflation Duration Free, un produit, qui selon un communiqué de SGAM, offre aux investisseurs «un moyen simple et efficace de profiter dès maintenant du retour des anticipations d’inflation sans être pénalisés par le risque de remontée du niveau général des taux d’intérêt qui pourrait en découler». Ce produit est particulièrement adapté aux environnements économiques présentant des caractéristiques « inflationnistes » liées à une croissance forte de la liquidité mondiale, une orientation haussière du coût des matières premières, et des besoins croissants de financement. Ce type d’environnement est également susceptible de s’accompagner de tensions sur le niveau des taux d’intérêt. Les obligations indexées sur l’inflation peuvent donc subir simultanément les conséquences positives de la remontée des anticipations d’inflation et l’impact négatif de la hausse des taux d’intérêt. SGAM Invest Inflation Duration Free, FCP de droit français, est investi principalement dans des obligations indexées sur l’inflation émises par des pays de la zone Euro et libellées en euro. Son indice de référence est le Barclays Capital Instep, créé tout particulièrement par Barclays pour ce fonds. En parallèle, SGAM Invest Inflation Duration Free se fixe pour objectif de ramener la sensibilité cible du portefeuille à zéro afin de se prémunir contre la remontée des taux d’intérêts. Pour cela, le gérant utilise notamment des futures, des options et des swaps. Accessible dès 1000 euros pour les parts AC, le fonds profite ainsi de l’ensemble de l’expertise SGAM via une gestion active de l’exposition à l’inflation, observée et anticipée, le choix des supports d’investissements (pays, type d’indexation, swap ou obligation en direct), et l’immunisation de la sensibilité aux mouvements des taux d’intérêt. «Le fonds est cependant soumis aux risques d’indexation à l’inflation en cas de déflation, risque de taux, risque d’engagement et ne garantit pas la restitution du capital investi,» avertit SGAM.

Jubilee is making a change to its strategy, and has raised its minimal investment to GBP15,000 for its full range of structured products and for all vehicles to be launched in the future, Investment Week reports. The firm is seeking to orient itself to more upmarket clients, and has also suspended all promotional activities serving independent financial advisors (IFAs). The firm says the size of the average investment is already far above the GBP15,000 pound mark, and is set to rise in the future.

According to initial estimates, total assets at Man Group totalled USD43.8bn as of 30 September, compared with USD43.3bn at the end of June, and USD46.8bn as of 31 March. The alternative asset management firm puts its pre-tax profits for the first six months of its fiscal year, ending on 31 March, at USD280m, compared with USD622m for the corresponding period of last year. Gross subscriptions from retail investors in the first half of the current fiscal year totalled USD5bn, of which USD1.6bn were in July-September, while redemptions totalled USD2.7bn. As of 30 September, assets managed for retail investors totalled USD29.1bn, compared with USD27.3bn as of 30 June. Institutional investors withdrew a net total of USD1.7bn in July-September, compared with USD3.6bn in April-June. Quarterly redemptions booked for 1 October total USD0.7bn. As of the end of September, institutional assets are estimated at USD14.7bn, compared with USD16bn three months previously.

La Tribune reports that in a joint statement, the top five UK banks - HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered - have announced that they will work with the Financial Services Authority to apply the bonus restrictions agreed at last week’s G20 meeting in Pittsburgh, from 1 January next year. The banks note that all member nations have pledged to apply the rules in order to ensure a level playing field.

In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Peter Clarke, CEO of Man Group, says there has been a rebound in demand on the part of investors, particularly for guaranteed products. He also says that Man Group is favourably disposed to several points in the draft alternative management directive proposed in Brussels: some security standards need to apply to all hedge funds, including the smallest ones which are not publicly traded, in order for competition to be equitable. However, Clarke considers the text too hard on non-European hedge funds. He argues that the idea of requiring banks to be responsible for hedge funds’ risks is too onerous. Lastly, the idea of limiting the amount of leverage which hedge funds are allowed to use to increase their performance goes a step too far.

In August, according to statistics from the German association BVI, the asset management industry overall saw net redemptions of EUR1.05bn, following net inflows of EUR3.13bn in July and EUR3.61bn in the corresponding month of last year. This result is primarily imputable to open-ended money market funds, which saw net outflows of EUR3.04bn, after EUR5.86bn in outflows already in July, and, to a lesser extent, to bond funds, from which net redemptions totalled EUR765m, compared with net inflows of EUR979m the previous month. In the first eight months of the year, institutional funds have seen inflows of EUR6.3bn, compared with EUR11.63bn in January-August 2008, while open-ended securities funds saw net outflows of EUR3.64bn, compared with net subscriptions of USD17.65bn. Open-ended equities funds attracted USD8.86bn in January-August 2009 (compared with USD538m), while money market funds saw outflows of USD19.96bn (compared with net subscriptions of USD4.4bn). Bond funds have notably seen outflows of USD1.51bn (compared with USD3.11bn), while real estate funds attracted USD3.04bn, compared with USD5.78bn.

ETFs have been by far the largest area of growth in inflows for funds on sale in Germany since the beginning of the year: between them, Barclays Global Investors (with its iShares brand), Commerz Derivatives Funds (ComStage), Deutsche Bank (with db x-trackers) and Deka (with ETFlab) have attracted a total of EUR5.13bn in January-August, while open-ended securities funds as a whole saw net outflows of EUR3.64bn. db x-trackers stands out with inflows of EUR2.96bn, ahead of ETFlab, with EUR1.35bn, while ComStage and iShares products have attracted EUR573.2m and EUR248.3m, respectively. Thanks to db x-trackers, the DB/DWS group is the only one of the major actors to post net subscriptions (of EUR1.44bn), while Deka (savings banks) has seen outflows of EUR5.42bn. Allianz Global Investors has seen net redemptions of EUR2bn, while Pioneer (UniCredit) and Union Investment (co-operative banks) show outflows of EUR964.7m and EUR815m. Only two actors show assets of over EUR100bn as of 31 August: DB?DWS, with EUR132.03bn, and Deka, with EUR105.56bn.

In the first eight months of the year, US bond funds attracted a net USD209.1bn, while net subscriptions to equities funds were limited to USD15.2bn, according to statistics from Morningstar, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Nine out of the ten funds which have seen the strongest net inflows are bond products.

Lyxor Asset Management announced on 29 September that it now has nine hedge funds on its managed account platform. Since January 2009, Lyxor has regularly increased the diversification of its investment universe, adding a new hedge fund in April, one in June, one in July, and four in August. Since the beginning of the year, assets under management on the platform have increased by USD3bn. The most recent fund, launched in September, is the Apollo Distressed Fund, which deploys an event-driven and risk arbitrage strategy.

GLG Partners has launched a new fund which is primarily aimed at British and European distressed firms, Hedge Week reports. The fund favours tradeable and liquid shares in firms engaged in long and difficult restructuring processes, which are generally prized by distressed activists. The fund, which has about USD300m in assets, had been managed internally since July 2008. But returns of 84% since January have motivated GLG to launch a special product for external investors.

Dreyfus Corporation, an affiliate of BNY Mellon Asset Management, has announced the launch of two funds of funds. The Dreyfus Satellite Alpha Fund will invest in mutual funds advised by Dreyfus, which will themselves invest in non-traditional asset classes such as commodities, currencies, and real estate. For its part, the Dreyfus Diversified Global Fund will invest in US and foreign equities mutual funds advised by Dreyfus.

Baring Asset Management has announced that it will participate in the ABC of Bonds roadshow in the United Kingdom along with Axa Investment Managers and Cazenove Capital Management to popularise investment in bond funds with IFAs. The shows will be held in fifteen cities in the country, including London, Cardiff and Edinburgh, from the 17th to the 27th of November. It will reach about 400 IFAs.

SAC Capital, the USD16bn hedge fund group, has invested in a new London-based fund managed by one of its former traders, says the Financial Times. RWC Partners’ new US Absolute Alpha fund, run by Mike Corcell (ex-Threadneedle), is expected to launch on Thursday, according to people familiar with the situation. The fund has raised USD350m and should get a further USD200m.

Assets under management in the United Kingdom contracted by 12% last year, to a total of GBP3.7trn, International Financial Services London (IFSL), a body that promotes British financial services worldwide, reports. This contraction follows five consecutive years of increases, averaging 8%. Poor returns, falling subscriptions and redemptions to investors were to blame for this contraction. Initial indicators for 2009 show that the sector has begun to recover, with a 14% increase in January-July in assets in retail funds domiciled in the United Kingdom. IFSL reports that two thirds of assets in 2008 were held by institutionals, while 16% were represented by retail funds, and 9% were in hedge funds, while the remainder corresponded to private clients. Profit margins for fund managers fell to 23%, from 32% in 2007.

The fund management firm for Mutua Madrileña, Mutuactivos, last week launched the Mutuafondo Bonos Financieros fund. The product invests in bonds from European banks and insurers, which is a more conservative way of betting on the financial sector than through investment in equities, Expansión reports. The fund, which has already attracted EUR100m, is managed by Joaquín Álvarez-Borrás; securities in the portfolio will be rated at least BBB-, one notch above junk bonds, but the manager will focus on the leaders in each country. Until 15 October, subscriptions will carry no front-end fee. After that date, Mutuactivos will charge a 3% entry fee at subscription or in case of redemption after less than three years.

Thames River and Jupiter are launching new offshore products on the British and European markets, according to Investment Week. Thames River will offer two long/short funds in the first half of 2010, directed by Joel Amsellem and Gaurav Bamania. The two UCITS III vehicles will be domiciled in Dublin. Jupiter, for its part, has launched a new vehicle entitled Global Opportunities, as a sub-fund of its Global fund, domiciled in Luxembourg. The fund is dedicated to institutional clients, but the minimal investment is set at GBP1,000. The fund is primarily invested in international equities, and is benchmarked against the MSCI World, and will be managed by Malcolm Millar, manager of European Income unit trusts, and Ben Surtees, manager of Asian unit trusts and Asia Pacific Sicav funds.

According to sources close to the investor cited by Reuters, the sovereign fund China Investment Corp (USD200bn in assets) is planning to invest USD600-700m each in three distressed funds in the United States, of which one is from Goldman Sachs, and one from Oaktree Capital.

Agefi reports, citing a study by International Financial Services London (IFSL), that the asset management sector contributed 0.65% of British GNP last year, or GBP8.4bn.

The online broker Fortuneo Belgium has bought the Belgian business of Cortal Consors, a unit of BNP Paribas. The acquisition price has not been disclosed, L’Echo reports.

The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) has warned the European Commission about possible tax obstacles to cross-border fund mergers once the future Ucits IV directive is implemented, says Ignites Europe. Asset management companies may be deterred from using cross-border mergers.

Agefi Switzerland reports that a migration of Brevan Howard to the shores of Lake Geneva, where it has planned to move 250 of its staff, though its operational activities will remain in London, is anything but a surprise. 18 months ago, in an informal meeting with the FSA (Financial Services Authority), the directors of Brevan Howard put pressure on the British government with the announcement that they were studying a departure from the United Kingdom if their fears about a large increase in taxes were confirmed. For the moment, Brevan Howard has limited itself to a succinct and evasive statement: “The parent company of the Brevan Howard group regularly studies commercial opportunities, and is preparing to move into offices in several jurisdictions, including Switzerland.” Brevan already has offices in New York, Washington, Hong Kong, Dublin, and Tel Aviv.

Société Générale Asset Management is launching SGAM Invest Inflation Duration Free, a product which, according to a statement from SGAM, offers investors “a simple and efficient means to profit, starting immediately, from an expected rise in inflation, without being penalised by the risk of a rise in general interest rate levels, which may follow in its wake.” The product is particularly well-suited to economic environments which have “inflationary” characteristics, related to strong growth in overall liquidity, a rising orientation in commodity prices, and increasing needs for financing. This type of environment is also likely to emerge at times when there is tension over interest rate levels. Inflation-indexes bonds may be subject to both the positive consequences of rising projections for inflation and the negative impact of rising interest rates. SGAM Invest Inflation Duration Free, a French-registered FCP, is primarily invested in inflation-indexed bonds issued by Euro-zone countries and denominated in Euros. Its benchmark index is the Barclays Capital Instep, specially created by Barclays for this fund. The SGAM Invest Inflation Duration Free also sets itself the goal of reducing the target sensitivity of the portfolio to zero, in order to protect itself against rising interest rates. To achieve this, the managers will use futures, options and swaps. The fund will be available for a minimal investment of EUR1,000 for AC class shares, and will also benefit from SGAM’s expertise in active management of exposure to observed and anticipated inflation, choice of investment supports (countries, type of indexation, swap or direct bond), and immunisation against sensitivity to movements in interest rates. The fund is, however, exposed to inflation indexation risks in case of deflation, as well as to interest rate risks and engagement risks, and does not guarantee that investors will recuperate their initial investment, SGAM warns.

Jonathan R. Levin, who joined Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) in 2004, and who has since been in charge of several strategic projects, has been appointed to the newly-created position of treasurer and head of investor relations. The appointment comes at a time when, on 1 October, the absorption by KKR of KKR Private Equity Investors (KPE), traded in Amsterdam, takes effect (see Newsmanagers of 21 July).

Bank of America (BoA) has announced the recruitment of Andrew M. Sieg, who is director of the emerging affluent clients segment at Citigroup, as managing director and head of retirement and philanthropic services at the global wealth and investment management (GWIM) division. He will be based in New York, and will report to Sallie Krawcheck, president of GWIM. The group that Sieg will direct provides custom retirement solutions as well as administration, accounting, custody, advising and processing services to businesses and organisations, their employees and members, in approximately 40,000 collective retirement savings plans.

In New York, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) is expected to be added to trading on the NYSE from this Thursday. The transfer from Amsterdam to Wall Street comes much sooner than expected, as it had initially been slated for late 2010 at the latest, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports.

The ETF provider Source has announced that its assets under management now total USD2.2bn, or about EUR1.5bn, according to Hedge Week. In the space of two months, new products from Source, which have been well-received by institutional investors, particularly hedge funds, have seen nearly USD950m, or about EUR650m, in inflows.

Bank of America agreed to sell Columbia’s long-term asset management business to Ameriprise Financial, the parent company of the UK firm Threadneedle, for about USD1bn. The sale (equities and bond funds) covers assets under management of about USD165bn as of June 30. The transaction will be concluded in spring 2010. Bank of America also said on Wednesday that it has not yet decided what to do with Columbia’s short-term asset management business.