La crise n’a pas freiné le développement des ETF en France, bien au contraire. La transparence et la liquidité de ces fonds indiciels cotés sont en effet apparues aux investisseurs comme des atouts non négligeables dans un environnement de marché chahuté, où la gestion du risque et des coûts devient crucial. Ils ont à ce titre reconsidéré leur approche vis-à-vis des ETF. «La volatilité des marchés a poussé les investisseurs institutionnels français à entrer dans le circuit des ETF pour bénéficier de la valeur ajoutée du ‘market timing’ tout en maîtrisant leur prix d’entrée», analyse Danièle Tohmé-Adet, responsable du développement de la plate-forme EasyETF chez BNP Paribas Investment Partners. De fin janvier à fin juillet 2009, les investisseurs français ont ainsi confié 964,7 millions d’euros à 310 fonds indiciels commercialisés en France, portant les encours à 32,66 milliards d’euros sur ces produits à fin juillet.Les ETF sont avant tout un élément de diversification, destinés à reproduire la performance de marchés particuliers. Pour cette raison, ils ont d’abord intégré la partie «core» des portefeuilles, puis «satellite». Isabelle Bourcier, responsable monde des ETF de Lyxor International Asset Management, dont la gamme comporte 140 produits en France, note un vif intérêt pour les ETF sur indices des marchés émergents. «Même si les deux ETF les plus souscrits par nos clients en France sont le Lyxor ETF CAC 40 et le Lyxor ETF DJ Eurostox 50, le retour d’un certain positivisme favorise la collecte sur les ETF sur indices émergents comme le Lyxor ETF HSCEI par exemple, qui permet une exposition aux actions chinoise cotées à Hong Kong», souligne-t-elle. «Les investisseurs français, autant privés qu’institutionnels, utilisent donc de plus en plus les ETF comme un élément à part entière de leur allocation d’actif», résume Isabelle Bourcier. On constate également un fort intérêt de la part des maisons de gestion et notamment des fonds de fonds. «Ces derniers sont en effet dans l’obligation de trouver une nouvelle orientation et de se concentrer davantage sur l’allocation d’actifs que sur la sélection de gérants. Ils se tournent de plus en plus vers les ETF et l’on voit même apparaître des fonds d’ETF», précise Thibaut de Cherisey, responsable du développement des fonds indiciels en Europe chez Invesco PowerShares, dont les encours européens sur cette activité sont passés de 450 millions à 850 millions de dollars, soit environ 600 millions d’euros, dont un quart environ pour le marché français. D’ailleurs Invesco lui-même a lancé un produit de ce genre. Une demande forte et des développements importantsC’est du côté de la distribution que la demande pour les fonds d’ETF est devenue particulièrement forte, constate pour sa part Danièle Tohmé-Adet, «Les ETF, jugés jusqu’ici peu intéressants par les intermédiaires, le deviennent grâce à une enveloppe de fonds de fonds, qui justifie une couche de frais supplémentaire», commente-t-elle. BNPPAM , dont la gamme d’ETF commercialisée en France compte 57 produits, propose d’ailleurs depuis le mois de juin le Parworld ETF Flexible Asset Allocation, qui permet d’en adapter l’exposition selon le profil de risque souhaité par le client.Face à une demande grandissante de la part des clients et un marché devenu très concurrentiel, les différents promoteurs français mènent une véritable course aux lancements. Pas question de se laisser distancer, y compris par des établissements étrangers dynamiques comme State Street, Barclays Global Investors avec ses 7 milliards d’encours sur l’Hexagone – à fin août – ou Vanguard (5 milliards). «Nous avons lancé 52 produits», insiste Valérie Baudson, directeur de CASAM ETF chez Crédit Agricole Structured Asset Management (CASAM), structure qui vient de fêter son premier anniversaire et dont la gamme compte aujourd’hui 55 ETF pour un encours de 2,7 milliards d’euros. Et CASAM ne veut pas pour autant ralentir le rythme des lancements, confirme Valérie Baudson, qui prévoit de lancer «une dizaine d’ETF tous les trois mois, et ce au moins jusqu’à fin 2009, mi 2010". Si CASAM s’est concentré en premier lieu sur la France, elle prévoit de partir à l‘assaut des marchés européens dès l’année prochaine, notamment l’Allemagne, l’Italie, la Suisse, le Benelux et le Royaume-Uni. Ce développement devrait rester axé sur la clientèle institutionnelle.Du côté d’EasyETF, la clientèle retail n’est pas encore la priorité, la commercialisation étant plus axée sur la clientèle institutionnelle ; mais celle ci sera «développée le moment venu» indique Danièle Tohmé-Adet, dont la gamme a triplé l’année dernière. Sa plateforme vient de terminer un cycle de lancement de produits. «Les investisseurs ont besoin de se retrouver dans l’offre d’ETF, il existe un fort besoin pour le conseil, et les due diligence se multiplient sur ces produits. A nous d’expliquer notre approche et nos résultats par rapport aux différents indices», explique-t-elle.Chez Lyxor, suite au transfert de la gamme ETF de SGAM vers Lyxor International Asset Management, les trackers de stratégies SGAM ETF sont renommés et intègrent la gamme Lyxor ETF. «Nous allons poursuivre le développement de cette gamme avec toutefois une possibilité de rationalisation quand notre gamme comprend deux trackers sur une même stratégie», annonce Isabelle Bourcier. Côté lancements, Lyxor travaille également sur l’élaboration d’une gamme d’ETF sur le secteur de l’immobilier, «qui sera proposé sur le marché français avant la fin de l’année», précise-t-elle. A fin 2009, Lyxor devrait pouvoir étoffer sa gamme à plus de 160 ETF, et 200 avant fin 2010.Les ETF se font en tous les cas doucement mais sûrement une place dans le cœur des investisseurs, et le marché français ne fait pas exception à la règle. Comme le soulignait déjà une étude du centre de recherche de l’Edhec publiée en mai, la quasi-totalité des investisseurs professionnels ont intégré dans leur gestion ces fonds indiciels cotés. Ainsi, 95 % des sociétés de gestion, investisseurs institutionnels et gérants privés interrogés par ETF Survey 2009 ont déjà utilisé des ETF actions.

CamGestion qui gère 10,8 milliards d’euros dans des fonds notamment logés au sein des contrats multisupports de Cardif, la filiale assurance vie de BNP Paribas, dispose d’une gamme composée de fonds pérennes, mais également de produits dits de niches dont l’objectif est de profiter ponctuellement de situations particulières sur les marchés. CamGestion Deep Value est de ceux-là, comme nous l’explique Philippe Forni, directeur de la gestion.

Selon les informations de Mutual Fund Wire, Jefferies Asset Management, filiale de Jefferies Group, a sollicité de la SEC l’autorisation de commercialiser un ETF répliquant un indice d’actions américain, le Initial Equity Fund et un indice obligataire, l’Initial Fixed Income Fund.

Le suisse Julius Baer Holding a annoncé mercredi que sa filiale américaine Artio Global Investors Inc. (maison-mère d’Artio Global Management LLC) vient de lancer la commercialisation de 23,4 millions d’actions ordinaires de classe A en vue de l’introduction en Bourse, l’option de surallocation (greenshoe) portant sur 3,51 millions de titres.Le produit de ce placement sera destiné au rachat de 21 millions d’actions ordinaires de classe C correspondant à 50 % de la participation détenue par Julius Baer Holding ainsi qu'à celui de deux fois 1,2 million d’actions ordinaires détenues respectivement par Richard Pell et Rudolph-Riad Younes.Les nouveaux titres seront cotés sur le New York Stock Exchange (symbole ART).

A fin août, l’encours des fonds de valeurs mobilières commercialisés au Portugal représentait près de 15,56 milliards d’euros, soit 4,4 % de plus qu’un mois plus tôt ; la hausse ressort à 8,5 % sur les huit premiers mois de l’année (14,34 milliards fin décembre). Cependant, précise l’association APFIPP, ce montant est encore inférieur de 19,4 % à celui de fin août 2008 (19,29 milliards).Le secteur a enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 512 millions d’euros en août, ce qui porte le total depuis le début de l’année à 8768,5 millions d’euros. Sur un an, les fonds ont accusé des sorties nettes de 2,43 milliards d’euros.Les trois plus grandes sociétés de gestion par le volume des encours sont Caixagest, avec 3,63 milliards d’euros, Esaf, avec 3,18 milliards et Santander Asset Management avec 2,88 milliards. La filiale du groupe espagnol est d’ailleurs celle qui a enregistré la plus forte hausse significative de ses actifs sous gestion depuis le début de l’année, avec 25,2 %, grâce à des souscriptions nettes de 521,4 millions d’euros, devant Esaf (+ 15 % et 244,5 millions). Barclays Wealth Managers Portugal, qui affiche 461,6 millions d’euros d’encours, a enregistré un gonflement de 65,1 % en huit mois et des souscriptions nettes de 158 millions d’euros (dont 45,2 millions en août).

Under the headline “Fonds de frappe,” given in French in the German newspaper, Financial Times Deutschland reports that Carmignac first appeared in Germany only in 2005, at the Fondskongress in Mannheim. Since then, the French management firm has quadrupled its assets, and Germany is now its largest foreign market, and the performance of its flagship funds, Patrimoine and Investissement, have been satisfactory. Carmignac is not the only French management boutique which has been causing headaches for better-established management firms in Germany. Assets under management in Germany at Comgest have risen from EUR150m in early 2006 to EUR1.5bn currently, largely due to its emerging markets fund Magellan. Mandarine Gestion, which began offering its funds for sale in Germany in December 2008, has posted subscriptions for its lead product, Valeur, of more than EUR200m this year, more than doubling assets in the fund.

The BVI confirmed to Newsmanagers on Tuesday that the Carmignac group has decided to cease publication of statistics on subscriptions and redemptions in Germany. It has therefore quit the association, in which it had been an “information member.” This is a first for the BVI, which has declined to provide details of the reasons given by the French asset management firm. The last monthly publication by the BVI of subscriptions and assets at Carmignac was in January 2009. As of 31 January, assets in 15 funds covered by the statistics total EUR1.66bn, while net subscriptions in January totalled EUR41.22m. Professional circles in Frankfurt consider that the French manager, which has posted significant net subscriptions in Germany, does not want the publication of partial statistics to lead to dubious extrapolations about capital raised in other European countries.

On Tuesday, Nordea Funds Service GmbH announced the recruitment of Thomas Marner, effective September 1, as director of distribution. Marner was previously senior client relationship manager, specialised in institutional investors “at an asset management firm in Frankfurt.” Along with Christian Betzel, he will be in charge of development of institutional clients and large banks.

Chen Deming, Chinese commerce minister, has announced that regulations governing foreign investment will be gradually liberalised, Die Welt reports. The Chinese government is seeking to encourage investors to place their capital in alternative energies as well as in less-developed provinces in the central and western regions of the country.

The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has estimated that the total deficit for 7,400 defined-benefit (DB) pension funds as of the end of August was GBP173.2bn, compared with GBP158.1bn one month earlier, and GBP133.9bn one year previously. The total deficit for 6,304 funds which show less than 1005 coverage increased to GBP194.6bn, from GBP179bn one month previously, and GBP92.7bn as of the end of August 2008, while total surplus for funds which show a surplus rose to GBP21.4bn, from GBP20.9bn one month earlier, far below the total of GBP53.4bn measured one year previously.

Money Marketing reports that Garratt Property Group is launching a Luxembourg-registered real estate fund aimed at investors hoping to profit from a rebound in the British residential real estate market. The management firm is offering the product to qualified and institutional investors, with a minimal subscription of GBP20,000. Garratt is aiming for assets of GBP50-100m, and total performance of 70-100% over five years.

Fairfield Greenwich Group, considered to be the largest feeder of investors to Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, agreed to pay USD8 million to settle civil fraud charges filed by Massachusetts Secretary of State Willial Galvin, says the Wall Street Journal. The sum will be shared among 15 investors who lost money in the scheme.

Les Echos reports that the price of gold on 8 September passed the psychologically significant barrier of USD1,000 per ounce, peaking at USD1,007.70 early in the trading day, and then falling back but still above the USD1,000 mark. This is the third time that the price of gold has topped USD1,000 since 13 March 2008, when it passed this threshold for the first time in its history. Some of the most reputable experts remain doubtful that gold will be able to remain above this limit for sustained periods of time.

On its website, La Tribune reports that consumer credit fell by 10.4% year-on-year in July in the United States, a record decline for a single month. Assets in consumer credit fell by USD21.5bn in July compared with June, while economists were predicting a fall of USD4bn.

Overlay Asset Management (OAM, BNP Paribas Investment Partners group) has announced the launch of the SingleHedge Currency Options Fund and the SingleHedge Multi-Strategy Currency Fund, Irish-registered products aimed at institutional clients in the currency alpha category. The former of these funds aims for positive returns from active positions on currency volatility and on directional bets on spot rates. The product is managed by Xavier Lefevre, head of portfolio management and trading. The Multi-Strategy Currency Fund is a feeder fund which combines exposure to three programs managed by OAM: the Developed Markets diversified Program, the Emerging Markets Currency Program, and the aforementioned currencies strategy. Investments in the underlying strategies are made in share classes that carry no fees.

According to the annual rankings from Watson Wyatt, assets in the world’s 300 largest funds in 2008 fell by USD1.5trn to a total of USD10.4trn, of which USD4.7trn is in North America, USD3trn in Asia, and USD2.5trn in Europe, the Wall Street Journal reports. Some European funds saw particularly severe contractions, such as the Netherlands fund ABP, whose assets fell to USD243bn from USD315bn, or the Norwegian state pension fund, which lost USD32bn. In the case of the latter fund, capital losses were significantly higher, but tax revenues compensated for part of the losses.

According to reports in Mutual Fund Wire, Jefferies Asset Management, an affiliate of Jefferies Group, has applied to the SEC for permission to release an ETF replicating a US equities index, the Initial Equity Fund, and a bond index, the Initial Fixed Income Fund.

CCR Asset Management, born of the merger of the asset management affiliates of the CCR Group with UBS Global Asset Management France (SA) on 30 June 2009, to create a wholly-owned affiliate of the UBS group, on 1 July transformed its Centrale Actions Europe fund into a sustainable development fund entitled CCR Actions Engagement Durable. The new fund invests in all market cap sizes within the Euro zone. Value-style financial management is coupled with an engagement policy which involves active dialogue with firms to move them towards governance practices which are more respectful of ESG (environmental, social and governance) issues, explains Axylia, the advisor to CCR AM in the creation of the product. The investment process also involves the exclusion of certain practices and sectors, and the inclusion in the investment management process of ESG dimensions.

Following the EasyETF iTraxx® Europe HiVol and EasyETF iTraxx® Crossover funds, launched in 2008, EasyETF is now offering a third tracker of European credit derivatives markets: EasyETF iTraxx® Europe Main. The fund is a Luxembourg-registered FCP, which charges a management commission of 0.15%. The benchmark index includes 125 equally weighted credit derivatives of investment grade European businesses, whose ratings are above BBB- (Standard & Poor’s) or Baa3 (Moody’s). the market-maker for the EasyETF iTraxx Europe Main is BNP Paribas.

As of the end of August, assets in securities funds on sale in Portugal represented nearly EUR15.56bn, 4.4% more than one year earlier; the increase comes to 8.5% for the first eight months of the year (EUR14.34bn as of the end of December). However, the APFIPP association says, this total is still 19.4% below levels at the end of August 2008 (EUR19.29bn). The sector registered net subscriptions of EUR512m in August, which brings the total since the beginning of the year to EUR8.7685bn. On one year, funds have seen net outflows of EUR2.43bn. The three largest asset management firms by asset volumes are Caixagest, with EUR3.63bn, Esaf, with EUR3.18bn, and Santander Asset Management, with EUR2.88bn. The affiliate of the Spanish group is also the firm which has posted the largest increase in its assets under management since the beginning of the year, with growth of 25.2%, thanks to net subscriptions of EUR521.4m, putting it ahead of Esaf (+15% and EUR244.5m). Barclays Wealth Managers Portugal, which has EUR461.6m in assets, has posted a 65.1% increase in eight months, and net subscriptions of EUR158m (of which EUR45.2m were in August).

RBC Dexia Investor Services has been selected by Vontobel Asset Management, an affiliate of the Swiss firm Bank Vontobel, to provide depository banking, fund administration, transfer agency, and record-keeping services for its Swiss-registered funds.

L’Echo reports that investors have regained confidence in outlooks for the markets. “Investors feel that the global economic recovery, driven by stimulus measures, will last, and are betting on assets considered higher-risk, such as equities,” says Chris Lafakis, on the Moody’s research site, Economy.com. Analysts at Credit Suisse are recommending that investors prefer equities to bonds and money markets, and are predicting 12% gains for European equities by mid-2010, the newspaper adds.

In the most recent edition of its publication “Global Perspective,” Standard Life Investments (SLI) estimates that investors would do well to diversify their portfolios further at this time, though equities have recently proven to bring in better returns than government bonds and cash. SLI experts estimate that wider diversification of portfolios to combine equities, commercial real estate, and government bonds, is likely to generate the best returns for investors in the decade to come. The difference in performance between asset classes is expected to decrease, reflecting the observation that the structural declines in inflation and interest rates, which were the determining elements in returns in the 1980s and 1990s, are now coming to an end. Now, outlooks for global economic growth and therefore of cash flows at businesses will be likely to remain less robust than they have been historically, which will influence the performance of equities. However, following a period of volatile and weak returns, equities will be likely to be the best-performing asset class in the coming decade, which will provide investors with good inflation-adjusted returns, says Richard Batty, global investment strategist at SLI.

Until 15 January 2010, Bankinter is offering subscribers to funds from other asset management firms a 1% supplement to the total amounts they transfer to funds it offers, Funds People reports. The offer is valid for transfers of at least EUR3,000, and is limited to a total supplement of EUR1,000 per client. In addition, participating investors must agree to keep their money in Bankinter funds until at least 15 January 2012.

La Tribune asks whether, with the arrival of Quote MTF in Hungary, the stock markets have entered the low-cost era. The alternative platform is not exempt from the financial market instruments directive (MiFID), but it does profit from a more attractively-priced labour market. But it is not quite so easy to operate in isolation from the financial community, the newspaper reports. Quote MTF has chosen to locate its IT resources in London. But to attract users of the platform more readily, the platform is offering lower prices than its competitors in London.

Invesco Real Estate has announced that it has invested EUR75m in two buildings, in France and the United Kingdom, on behalf of the iii-BVK Europa-Immobilien-Spezialfonds, a German-registered institutional fund which the management firm has managed since 2000 for the Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK). The properties include a building in Edinburgh, purchased for about EUR65m, and a extension to an existing logistical platform in Orléans, currently under construction, acquired for EUR10.5m.

Since July, the management team in charge of the diversified fund Deka-Stiftungen Balance, led by Thorsten Rühl, has been working in cooperation with the agency imug, to determine a universe of ethically correct shares, from which the asset management firm for the German savings banks will then construct the portfolio of the product, aimed primarily at small and mid-sized charities, but which is also available to pension funds, to savings banks for investments on their own behalf, and to religious organisations. Initially, the investment universe will be limited by exclusionary criteria such as sales of services or products related to abortion or the production of land mines. Selection then takes into account a variety of characteristics, such as the attitude of target firms to human rights, corruption, and animal testing of cosmetics. imug does not limit its analysis to equities and corporate bonds. With the assistance of the British agency EIRIS, it also ranges covered bonds (Pfandbriefe), as well as government bonds. The allows for SRI analysis of the complete portfolio. The fund was launched on 28 April 2003.

Alors que Volkswagen prépare une émission d'ABS de crédits automobiles, les marchés attendent un dégel du marché des RMBS britanniques

L’Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), qui appartient en totalité au gouvernement d’Abou Dhabi a annoncé l’acquisition pour 2,68 dollars de Singapour par action de Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing (Charterd), ce qui représente environ 2,5 milliards de Singapour (1,8 milliard de dollars américains). Le montant de la transaction, qui devrait être bouclée dans le courant du quatrième trimestre, se situe aux alentours de 5,6 milliards de Singapour ou 3,9 milliards de dollars américains. Le prix convenu représente une prime de 14,2 % sur le cours moyen des 30 dernières séances sur la Bourse de Singapour (SGX) et de 44,6 % sur celui des six derniers mois. Actuellement le fonds souverain Temasek détient 62 % de Chartered.L’acquisition de Chartered va permettre à l’ATIC d’utiliser les synergies avec la plate-forme de Global Foundries, une coentreprise constituée en mars avec AMD. Sous réserve des autorisations nécessaires, Doug Grose, CEO de Global Foundries devrait devenir CEO de l’entreprise issue du regroupement, tandis que Chia Song Hwee, CEO de Chartered, serait le COO avec la responsabilité plus particulièrement de diriger le processus d’intégration.

Les Echos reports that Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners has become the largest shareholder in the firm that operates the channel tunnel, with 21.2% of capital, far outstripping the M & G fund (Prudential group), which held a 7% stake at the beginning of the year. Small shareholders retain about 30% of the firm. This increase in Goldman’s stake is the expected consequence of a restructuring plan, a capital increase of EUR800m launched in March 2008 which allowed the firm to pay off part of its debts. Redeemable bonds were issued as part of the Eurotunnel safeguard plan. The operation was undertaken through bonds convertible into equities, of which 82% were subscribed to by two funds from Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners, which then decided, one and a half years later, to convert its bonds into shares.