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24/08/2009

Spain opens market to other ETF promoters

According to Expansión, the Spanish government has decided to modify its regulations to bring the tax regime applicable to ETFs registered in the form of Sicav funds into line with the regime for traditional funds. This has previously been the largest obstacle to the entry of iShares (BlackRock) and db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank), among others, into the Spanish market. Currently, only BBVA and Lyxor are active on this market.The Spanish government is also planning to cancel minimal subscriptions of EUR50,000 for professional investors to local hedge funds, and to authorize real estate funds to invest in other real estate funds and in SOCIMI (Spanish REITs), which would make it possible to launch real estate funds of funds.
24/08/2009

Sicavs and funds may invest in foreign private equity

The Spanish government is planning to allow Spanish fund and Sicav managers to invest in foreign private equity funds, Expansión reports. The rule could come into effect as soon as fourth quarter of this year. Currently, funds and Sicavs are allowed to invest only in Spanish private equity funds, from their discretionary investment allocation limited to 10% of assets.
24/08/2009

Fund assets at lowest levels since 2002

According to statistics from the Bank of Spain, Spanish households at the end of June had assets of EUR130.14bn in the form of shares in investment funds, 18.3% less than one year previously, and the lowest levels since September 2002, Cinco Días reports. However, the decline in annual terms is slowing: it was 20.7% in May, and 21.8% in April, while the steepest monthly contraction was in November 2008, at 29.2%.
24/08/2009

SRI funds represent only 0.52% of total assets

As of the end of June, assets in 27 SRI funds available on the Spanish market represented EUR844.8m, 12.3% less than one year previously, which represents only 0.52% of total assets, compared with USD1.3trn at the end of 2007. These products are available from 19 asset management firms, including, among others, Dexia (15 funds), Pictet (one fund), and Aviva (2 funds).
24/08/2009

RBC CM recruits a head of hedge funds

RBC Capital Markets, the finance and investment banking unit of the Royal Bank of Canada, has recruited Marc Fleischman as managing director and head of sales for hedge funds in Europe. He previously worked at Citigroup.
24/08/2009

Morgan Stanley to sell Van Kampen

Morgan Stanley’s management is planning to sell the mutual fund activities operating from Van Kampen, Pensions & Investments reports. According to sources in financial circles, Invesco Ltd is the best-positioned of the potential buyers who have been invited to study the potential acquisition.
24/08/2009

BNP Paribas partly pulls out of Argentina

BNP Paribas will sell its retail banking divisionin Argentina to Banco Santander Río. The network consists of 17 locations in central and suburban Buenos Aires, serving over 30,000 retail and 900 business clients. The French bank will continue to have a presence in Argentina via its range of products and services available to businesses and investment companies.
24/08/2009

BBVA Compass takes control of Guaranty Bank

On Saturday, the Spanish firm BBVA confirmed that its US affiliate BBVA Compass has acquired the Guaranty Bank of Austin, Texas, from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Compass takes on Guaranty’s entire balance sheet, totalling USD12bn, and USD11.5bn in deposits, 300,000 clients, 106 branch locations in Texas and 58 others in California. This will allow Compass (which now has a total of 750 branches) to strengthen its presence in retail banking, business banking, and wealth management.
24/08/2009

Delays to come for Lehman clients awaiting reimbursement

L’Agefi reports that the British high court which must approve a plan to accelerate the reimbursement of clients whose money was ensnared in the collapse of the US bank Lehman Brothers, proposed by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the administrator of the European assets of Lehman Brothers International (LBIE), has claimed it is not competent to give permission for reimbursements of USD9bn to begin in first quarter 2010.
24/08/2009

Goldman Sachs gives tips to key clients

Goldman Sachs distributes trading ideas to key clients, hurting other customers, says the Wall Street Journal. For exemple, «Goldman Sachs Group Inc. research analyst Marc Irizarry’s published rating on mutual-fund manager Janus Capital Group Inc. was «neutral» in early April 2008. But at an internal meeting that month, the analyst told dozens of Goldman’s traders the stock was likely to head higher, company documents show». «The next day, research-department employees at Goldman called about 50 favored clients of the big securities firm with the same tip, including hedge-fund companies Citadel Investment Group and SAC Capital Advisors, the documents indicate. Readers of Mr. Irizarry’s research didn’t find out he was bullish until his written report was issued six days later, after Janus shares had jumped 5.8%», says the WSJ.
24/08/2009

Dollar General plans return to public trading

The private equity investor KKR, Goldman Sachs, and the other investors in the consortium that bought Dollar General for USD7.3bn in 2007 are getting ready to pocket an special dividend of USD200m on the occasion of the retail group’s partial return to public trading on the stock market, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. The IPO will raise up to USD750m.
24/08/2009

Barclays UK pension fund recruits a manager selection specialist

The British pension fund for Barclays (BUKRF) has appointed Andre Konstantinow as head of manager selection, a newly-created position. Konstantinow joins the firm from Morgan Stanley Investment Management, where he was senior manager, largely in charge of hedge fund managers in Europe and emerging markets.
24/08/2009

Close Brothers makes an offer for Kleinwort Benson

The private bank Close Brothers, advised by Greenhill, has made an offer to acquire Kleinwort Benson from Commerzbank, which is seeking up to GBP300m for the firm, The Sunday Times reports. Among the other potential buyers are the management of Kleinwort Benson, supported by Simon Robertson, the chairman of Rolls Royce, and by Sir John Bond, chairman of Vodafone.The new CEO of Close Brothers, Preben Prebenson, is seeking to strengthen the group’s private banking activities; he is planning to create an online fund management tool for high net worth clients, like those available from Fidelity and Hargreaves Lansdown.
24/08/2009

Things are improving, says Bernanke, but there is still a lot left to do

In his address on Friday, 21 August, to the annual meeting of economists at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, organized by the United States Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, its chairman, claimed that the US economy has “avoided the worst,” and that it appeared to be stabilizing, with “good” prospects of a return to positve growth in the short term, La Tribune reports. The rebound will likely be “relatively slow at the beginning,” in light of considerable difficulty in gaining access to credit for many households and businesses. Bernanke insisted that “a new financial regulatory framework” needs to be created in the United States and in the world, which would draw “lessons from the crisis, and which would prevent a repetition of the events of the past two years.” Jean-Claude Trichet, chairman of the European Central Bank, has also stated that there is a mountain of work to be done, and that regulatory changes are needed to restore the stability of the financial system.
24/08/2009

Publicly-traded hedge funds under pressure

After a disastrous year in 2008, the publicly-traded hedge fund sector (in which most funds are listed on the London Stock Exchange) has continued to underperform, deapite a recovery in hedge funds and private equity in the past 7 months, the Financial Times reports. Publicly-traded funds of funds are doing worst of all. On average, funds of hedge funds are trading 18.2% below the value of their assets, according to an RBS study cited by the FT.
24/08/2009

UN PRI delists five signatories

The United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI) has removed five signatories from its membership lists, as they did not fulfil their annual “reporting & assessment” obligations, which are required, though the signatories receive a one year grace period to comply. In total, 284 signatories participated in the PRI Report on Progress, 2009, which represents a 98% response rate.The institutions ejected from the initiative are DESBAN (Brazil), Christopher Reynolds Foundation (United States), Foresters Community Finance (Australia), Oasis Group Holdings and Trinity Holdings (South Africa). In addition, three institutions voluntarily left the UN PRI: Mennonite Mutual Aid (MMA), New York State Teachers’ Retirement System (NYSTRS), and Rapaki Property Group. 93 new members have meanwhile signed up for the charter. Currently, the PRI has 573 members, of whom 182 are “asset owners,” 282 are asset managers, and 109 are professional service partners.
24/08/2009

Hedge fund directive: A long road ahead

Hedge funds may be facing a month of conflict over the European directive intended to impose constraints on them, the Guardian reports on its website. “The United Kingdom … has obtained the support of Sweden, which currently holds the European Union presidency, to rewrite the document. But that process will likely still be ongoing next year, when Spain takes over the presidency. And Spain, with 4 million unemployed and a minuscule hedge fund industry, will not be likely to make rewriting the directive a priority,” the British newspaper predicts.
24/08/2009

iShares lists five German ETFs

Continuing its cross-listing strategy, iShares (Barclays Global Investors, BlackRock group) has added five German-registered ETF funds to trading on the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (Mexico City). The funds now available on the Mexican stock exchange are the iShares DAX (DE), iShares DJ Stoxx 600 (DE), and three bond products: iShares eb.rexx Government Germany (DE), eb.rexx Government Germany 1.5-2.5 (DE) and iShares eb.rexx Government Germany 2.5-5.5 (DE).In May, iShares took over the NAFTRAC ETF from the Mexican bank National Financiera.
24/08/2009

DEGI acquires P&G headquarters

Germany’s DEGI, an affiliate of Aberdeen Property Investors, has announced the acquisition for EUR110m of the Italian headquarters of Procter & Gamble (P&G). The 20,000 square metre property, whose sale was agreed in principle in July 2007, will be added to the portfolio of the open-ended real estate fund DEGI International. Real estate assets under management by DEGI in Italy total about EUR860m.
21/08/2009
Fonds

La performance des hedge funds en hausse de 2,54 % en juillet

Les hedge funds ont enregistré une performance de 2,54 % en juillet, confirme Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Funds Index. Depuis le début de l’année, l’indice monte de 9,9 % en glissement annuel. L’arbitrage de convertible continue d'être en tête avec 5,8 % en juillet et +31,14 % depuis le début de l’année.
Fonds
21/08/2009

Sparinvest se distingue pour ses fonds éthiques

Finance & Ethics Research a évalué 100 fonds disponibles en Autriche utilisant des critères éthiques et environnementaux, rapporte Das Investment. Seuls deux fonds apparaissent comme étant 100 % durables : Espa WWF Stock CLimate Change et Espa WWF Stock Umwelt d’Erste Sparinvest.
21/08/2009

Fortis voit son bénéfice d'exploitation divisé par dix

Le journal les Echos rapporte que Fortis a enregistré un bénéfice net de 338 millions d’euros au premier semestre 2009 grâce à des éléments exceptionnels. En revanche, son bénéfice d’exploitation de 51 millions d’euros sur la période a été divisé par dix comparé à ce qu’il était un an plus tôt. Il s’affiche néanmoins en hausse de 10 millions d’euros par rapport au second semestre 2008.Le bénéfice d’exploitation a «surtout été soutenu par la banque de détail et la banque commerciale» précise le communiqué de l’établissement, tandis que les activités de banque privée ont enregistré une perte nette de 3 millions d’euros.
21/08/2009

John Wood quitte Artemis pour Aviva Investors

Aviva Investors a recruté John Wood, qui rejoindra la société le 1er octobre, pour gérer le fonds Aviva Investors UK Growth Fund et contribuer au développement de l’activité institutionnelle en actions britanniques. L’intéressé vient d’Artemis Asset Management, où il était gérant de fonds senior couvrant le Royaume-Uni et l’Europe. Avant, il était directeur des actions UK chez Deutsche Asset Management.
21/08/2009

Le groupe BCV commence bien l'année

Le Groupe Banque cantonale vaudoise (BCV) a annoncé pour le premier semestre 2009 un bénéfice brut à 228 millions de francs suisses, en hausse de 37 % par rapport à la même période en 2008. En dépit de la crise financière et économique, le volumes d’affaires s’est affiché en forte hausse. Les revenus du Groupe BCV ont progressé de 14 % à 479 millions de francs par rapport au premier semestre de l’an passé. De leur côté, les actifs sous gestion ont progressé de 4,6 milliards à 71,4 milliards de francs.Enfin, pour le second semestre, le groupe s’attend à des résultats semblables.
21/08/2009

Les bons comptes semestriels de Raiffeisen

Raiffeisen peut se targuer à nouveau d’un excellent semestre, rapporte le quotidien Le Temps. Le troisième groupe bancaire helvétique a enregistré un bénéfice en augmentation de 11 %. L'établissement affiche une hausse des prêts à la clientèle de 4,3 % à 113,3 milliards de francs suisse. Ces bons chiffres résultent des créances hypothécaires en hausse de 4,4 % à 105,85 milliards de francs. Par ailleurs, précise le quotidien, les fonds de la clientèle en Suisse augmentent de 3,5 % à 107,7 milliards. L’afflux d’argent frais se chiffre à 3,6 milliards de francs au premier semestre. Pour faire face à cette croissance, les effectifs de l’établissement ont été étoffés de 466 emplois. Beaucoup des nouveaux employés recrutés proviennent des grandes banques, notamment UBS. Pour la seconde moitié de l’année, en l’absence d’importants changements en matière de taux d’intérêt, l’établissement s’attend dans le domaine des prêts hypothécaires à des investissements élevés. Et en se refinançant principalement grâce aux dépôts des clients à hauteur de 95 %, Raffeisen affiche une moindre dépendance vis-à-vis des marchés des capitaux.
21/08/2009
Fonds

Le FRR profite du rebond de la bourse au deuxième trimestre

Sur les six premiers mois de l’année, le Fonds de réserve pour les retraites (FRR) dégagé une performance nette de +3,3 %. «Cette performance résulte pour l’essentiel du fort rebond des marchés actions depuis la deuxième quinzaine du mois de mars», commente le FRR. De fait, au premier trimestre, le fonds perd 6,5 %, tandis qu’il gagne 10,5 % entre avril et juin. Cela «a permis de renouer avec une performance annualisée légèrement positive», ajoute le fonds. La performance annualisée du FRR, nette de tous frais de fonctionnement financiers et administratifs, depuis son démarrage opérationnel (juin 2004) est de + 0,9 %. Compte tenu de ces évolutions, le montant des actifs du FRR au 30 juin s’élevait à28,8 milliards d’euros, en légère hausse par rapport aux 27,7 milliards au 31 décembre 2008. Ils se répartissent au 30 juin 2009, entre 48 % d’actifs de performance (actions, immobilier et matières premières) et 52% d’actifs obligataires et d’actifs monétaires en attente d’investissement, précise le FRR.
Fonds
21/08/2009

Le sauvetage d'HRE justifié pour les autorités allemandes

Selon le journal Les Echos qui cite les propos jeudi du ministre allemand des Finances devant une commission d’enquête parlementaire, une faillite de la banque Hypo Real Estate aurait eu «des conséquences bien au-delà de la République fédérale allemande».L’effondrement brutal de la banque de Munich à l’automne dernier a conduit les autorités à verser depuis 102 milliards d’euros de garanties essentiellement publiques, puis à nationaliser l'établissement en juin .
21/08/2009

Le FRR profite du rebond de la bourse

«A fin juin 2009, la performance annualisée du Fonds de Réserve pour les Retraites (FRR), nette de tous frais de fonctionnement financiers et administratifs, depuis son démarrage opérationnel en juin 2004, ressortirait à 0,9%, indique la Tribune. Sur l’année 2009, sa performance nette a été de 3,3% avec une hausse de 10,5% au second trimestre.

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