Joanne Jensen, Pat Janco, Becky Creavin et Jennifer Shaw rejoignent la division gestion de fortune de la Deutsche Bank à New York, où elles seront subordonnées à Chip Packard, head, US private bank - Eastern region, rapporte Hedge Week. Ces quatre nouveaux «managing directors» viennent de The Citi Private Bank.

La Finra aux Etats-Unis a approuvé l’acquisition de Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities par la société de private equity Castor Pollux Securities, rapporte Il Sole – 24 Ore. Casto Pollux Securities avait remporté la vente aux enchères le 25 avril avec 25,5 millions de dollars. L’activité du pôle vente de titres de la société de Bernard Madoff a été considérée comme légitime par les autorités.

En 2008, les fonds d’actions américains ont perdu 38,9 % en moyenne alors que le S&P 500 chutait de 37 %. Six des dix plus grands fonds gérés activement ont perdu plus que le S&P 500, rappelle The Wall Street Journal. Cette année, le mutual fund d’actions américaines moyen affiche au 10 juin une performance de 9,9 % contre 5,3 % pour l’indice et huit des dix plus grands fonds le battent aussi, le Growth Fund of America d’American Funds (131 milliards de dollars), gagnant 15 % et le Magellan de Fidelity opérant un bond en avant de 19,7 %.Ce n’est pas que les gérants soient devenus futés, cela tient simplement à la préférence pour les actions «growth», qui ont gagné près de 11 % depuis le début de l’année, contre 1 % pour les actions ‘value».Le journal souligne que ces bons résultats n’ont pas pour autant immunisé les fonds contre les retraits : chacun des dix plus grands fonds d’actions gérés activement a subi des remboursement nettes, d’après Lipper.

Selon Les Echos, le retour au mieux s’est confirmé au mois de mai pour la gestion collective française dans un contexte de marchés plus porteurs. Ainsi, après des mois de disette, la collecte est redevenue significative pour les fonds investis en actions et les produits diversifiés, avec des souscriptions mensuelles respectives de 1,63 milliard et de 1,81 milliard d’euros, selon les statistiques établies par Europerformance-SIX Telekurs. Depuis le début de l’année, les produits investis en actions affichent des gains compris entre 4 % (fonds investis en actions nord-américaines) et 12 % (fonds Asie-Pacifique).

Selon Les Echos, Markit indique que nombre de sociétés du CAC 40, pas moins de 14, et de valeurs moyennes proposent cette année un choix entre dividende en numéraire ou en titres. Une façon de préserver la liquidité en cette période tourmentée. Pour 2010, Markit attend une baisse des dividendes de l’ordre de 20 % à 30 % en Europe, avec des replis marqués dans les secteurs automobile et financier. L’observation des contrats à terme sur les dividendes pour le DJ Stoxx 50 va dans ce sens, suggérant un recul de 29 % en 2010, après 28 % en 2009.

Newsmanagers: Comment se comporte le marché des obligations convertibles?Jean-Edouard Reymond: Clairement, avec une performance comprise entre 10 % et 15 %, le marché des obligations convertibles surperforment à la fois le marché des actions et celui des obligations, dont celui des obligations privées. Le marché corrige sa sous-évaluation constatée à la fin de l’année dernière, liée à la faillite de Lehman Brothers. NM: Les nouvelles émissions sont importantes et semblent montrer un regain d’intérêt pour cette classe d’actifs… J.E.R.: Il est difficile de s’exprimer sur l’importance du marché des émissions primaires dans la mesure où, pour en juger, il faut qu’il y ait simultanément un intérêt de la part des investisseurs. Mais il est vrai que l’on revient de loin! Lehman avant sa faillite était un intervenant important sur le marché des obligations convertibles qui utilisait ces titres comme garantie d’emprunt. Avec la déconfiture de l’établissement financier, il y a eu une vente massive de ces titres avec les conséquences que l’on connaît. Ces marchés sont cependant restés très liquides. En revanche, les prix de ces titres ont été naturellement très dépréciés. A tel point qu’il était plus intéressant pour une entreprise d’émettre des obligations classiques que des obligations convertibles, alors qu’en théorie, c’est l’inverse qui se produit. Cette situation totalement anormale a duré jusqu’à la fin du 1er trimestre 2009, jusqu’à l’émission d’Arcelor. Depuis, tout n’est pas totalement rentré dans l’ordre puisque la décote reste notable. Pour autant, on compte de nouvelles émissions comme celles de Capgemini, Eurazeo ou Unibail par exemple, dont les montants, en moyenne de 750 millions d’euros sont très élevés. Plus fort encore, Anglo American a réalisé il y a un peu plus d’un mois une émission de 1,7 milliard d’euros. NM: Comment se présentent vos fonds d’obligations convertibles?J.E.R. : Nos deux fonds affichent pour l’un un profil nettement obligataire avec un delta de 0,20 et pour l’autre un profil plus dynamique avec un delta de 0,35. A titre de comparaison, le marché se trouve entre les deux. Compte tenu de leur positionnement, leurs performances sont remarquables : Ubam Convertibles Euro 10-40 affiche en 2009 un gain de 14,17% (*) et Ubam Convertibles Europe a progressé de 9.38% (*). Ainsi, depuis son lancement le 23 septembre 2008, Ubam Convertible Euro 10-40 a enregistré une plus-value de 19.6% (*) en raison de son profil défensif en matière d’exposition aux actions, ce qui lui a permis de profiter pleinement de la revalorisation des obligations convertibles a faible delta. Il affiche donc une sensibilité crédit plus importante.NM: Quels sont les grands risques de cette classe d’actifs?J.E.R.: Ils restent limités. A titre d’illustration, sur les douze, les vingt quatre ou les trente six derniers mois, et d’une façon générale depuis la faillite de Parmalat en 2003, il n’y a pas eu de défaut majeur dans cette catégorie. Cela s’explique également par le fait qu’en cas de difficultés, les obligations convertibles peuvent être converties en actions, ce qui améliore de facto la dette de l’émetteur. Certes, l’actionnaire pâtit de la dilution du capital mais, le cas échéant, il risque de subir la faillite de l’entreprise. On voit donc tout l’intérêt de cette classe d’actifs. NM: Pourquoi vous êtes-vous limité au marché européen? J.E.R.: Parce que nous souhaitons bien faire ce que nous entreprenons. Aujourd’hui le marché des convertibles européennes offrent à notre avis assez d’opportunités, d’autant plus que les hedge funds et les banques ont déserté ce marché. En conséquence, il nous semble inutile d’aller prendre des risques supplémentaires sur les changes ou sur le crédit inhérents à des investissements en dehors de l’Europe, même si la taille de nos équipes nous le permettrait. Nous disposons de deux gérants convertibles qui bénéficient du support de cinq gérants obligataires et de huit analystes buy side)(*) chiffres arrêtés aux 4/06/2009

La Tribune reports that Barclays will hire 800 people to complete its acquisition of Lehman Brothers. The bank, which has just sold all of its asset management activities to BlackRock, is planning to focus on investment banking. After acquiting the US activities of Lehman Brothers and earning GBP1bn in pre-tax profits in first quarter, the bank is planning to add to its personnel in Europe. In addition to 350 people recruited in London for market trading activities, Barclays is planning to hire a further 350 for sales and research for its equities markets activities. Then, Barclays will concentrate on putting its business banking activities in order, beginning with “primary actions” - rights issues and IPOs, among others - for which the bank will hire several dozen people, La Tribune reports. The bank will then add to its staff in mergers and acquisitions, where European teams will grow to include 65 bankers, of whom 10 will be based in France, at the conclusion of the recruitment phase. This represents a rebalancing of the activities for the British bank, the newspaper observes. It was already present in credit and fixed income markets, as well as in bond issues, but it had no activities in investment banking related to equities markets.

Irish Life & Permanent will leave the index ASPI Eurozone on 19 June, according the the Comité ASPI which has just revised the index. TUI will also leave the index. BAM GRP and SOLVAY will join the index.

UK City minister Paul Myners has declared that he will fight “tooth and nail” against a European Commission draft directive which would set limits on the amount of debt hedge funds are permitted to take on, the Sunday Times reports. The British politician is planning to meet with the Swedish deputy finance minister in ten days’ time, in an effort to get the draft changed, as Sweden takes over the EU presidency on 1 July. The largest London hedge funds are planning to launch a lobbying campaign against the planned European directive.

Emmanuel Morano, responsable pôle actions au sein de La Française des Placements Investissements

Eric Vergnaud, responsable économies OCDE au sein de la direction des études économiques de BNP Paribas

Franck Nicolas, directeur gestion allocation globale et ALM chez Natixis AM

Jean-Louis Mourier, coresponsable de la recherche économique & stratégie chez Aurel BGC

Nuno Teixeira, directeur général adjoint de Schroders France

Les ministres des Finances du G8 étaient réunis à Lecce pour préparer le prochain Sommet

La région des 2.840 points est le prochain objectif avec un palier à 2.605-2.615 points

Nic Barnes is leaving UBS Asset Management, where he was head of the Sterling bond team, which is in a phase of reorganization following a difficult period. The team has suffered losses of 17.9% in the twelve months to the end of April. Barnes’ responsibilities will be taken over by Bob Jolly, head of currencies, and Alix Stewart, in charge of British corporate bonds, the Wall Street Journal reports.Since the beginning of this year, UBS AM has also changed its head of US bonds, with the recruitment of Doug Dugenske from Neuberger Berman, who replaces John Penicook. Rob Gambi will retain his position as overall head of bonds.

The independent wealth management firm Flossbach und von Storch will manage the bond fund FvS Bond Opportunities, launched by Wallberg Invest, with the objective of long-term outperformance 2 percentage points above inflation. The management team may use international investment grade bonds and money market instruments. The fund is licensed for sale in Germany and Austria. The portfolio of 40-60 positions will be initially overweight in very high quality corporate bonds, but will also include linkers and interesting new issues.Selection of investments will rely on a proprietary analytical tool, and will aim to exploit inefficiencies in maturity structures. There will be active risk-management and forex, interest rate and credit risks will be hedged. Duration will be used by Flossbach & von Storch as a strategic and not a tactical parameter. Details Name: FvS Bond Opportunities ISIN Code: LU0399027613 Front-end fee: 5% Management fee: 1.20% Minimal subscription: EUR1,000

The Spanish investment bank Ambers&Co will soon launch the Gawa Microfinance Fund, 50% of which will be managed by the US firm Treetops Capital, and which will aim for a net annual performance of 9%, Funds People reports. The new product, which will be available as a Luxembourg-registered private equity fund or as a Spanish hedge fund, will invest in debt from the developing world issued by micro-credit establishments, or in minority stakes in such establishments. Minimal subscription will be EUR500,000, which in practice restricts the product to institutional investors, family offices, and national development agencies.

Arab Bank (Switzerland) has announced that it will reimburse all of its clients who lost money in the Madoff affair. These losses total nearly CHF20m, Le Temps reports.

L’Agefi Switzerland reports that Arab Bank (Switzerland), the Swiss affiliate of the Jordanian business, will create a platform to serve global private banking clients of the group from Geneva and Zurich. With these Zurich and Geneva affiliates, Arab Bank (Switzerland) will represent the service centre of the group for clients in the Near and Middle East.

The Chinese fund management sector will see a strong increase in its assets this year to CNY2.7trn, according to predictions by Z-Ben Advisors, reported in Financial Times Fund Management. In 2008, assets fell 40% to CNY1.94trn, or EUR200bn.

Only at the bottom of the second page of its statement on the subject of the anticipated synergies in the acquisition does BlackRock mention that its purchase of the entirety of Barclays Global Investors (BGI) from the British firm Barclays, including iShares (USD300bn in 350 ETF funds), announced on Thursday evening, will be paid with 37.8 million ordinary shares in BlackRock and USD6.6bn in cash. This represents a total of about USD13.5bn. Barclays will control 19.9% of the business resulting from the transaction, which will adopt the name of BlackRock Global Investors, and will employ 9,000 people in 24 countries, and manage USD2.7trn in assets. The acquisition will be completed during fourth quarter 2009. The purchase price corresponds to only 0.9% of total assets at BGI, while the usual price for such businesses before the crisis was closer to 2%. BlackRock is planning to finance the USD6.6bn in cash partly from available liquidity, and partly with a USD2bn line of credit furnished by Barclays, Citi and Credit Suisse, as well as an issue of new shares to institutional investors. BlackRock says it has received pledges from these investors to acquire 19.9 million shares, representing USD2.8bn.

The Jupiter Japan Select Fund will be launched in early July by Jupiter Asset Management. The new product with 40-55 positions, managed by Simon Somerville (also manager of the Japan Income Fund) will invest primarily in Japanese smidcaps, but may also invest up to 20% in shares from Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, as well as in government bonds. The fund will have the Topix as its benchmark, and will be one of eight sub-funds of the Luxembourg Sicav Jupiter Global Fund.Front-end fee and management commission will be 5% and 1.5%, respectively. Minimal subscription will be USD1,000, EUR1,000, or GBP1,000. Jupiter plans to release the product in Germany, Austria, Finland, France and Sweden, as the corresponding sales licenses are obtained.

Bill Nixon, chief investment officer for the private equity team at Aberdeen Asset Management, has launched an MBO with five senior executives on the team, Andrew Craig, Jock Gardiner, Stella Panu, Bill Kennedy and Andrew Ferguson, Money Marketing reports. Their new firm, Maven Capital Partners, will continue to manage venture capital trusts from Aberdeen (GBP54m) and the Capital for Enterprise fund (GBP30m) on behalf of Capital for Enterprise Managers. The back-office team which supports the private equity specialists will also join Maven.

La Tribune reports that Axa Insurance, the British affiliate of the French insurance firm, yesterday announced the suppression of 560 jobs in the United Kingdom to come in the next few months. “We will have to cut product lines which have not been successful and which are unprofitable,” says the head of the affiliate, Philippe Maso, cited in the newspaper. Less than half of the announced job cuts will be achieved through layoffs.

At the end of 2008, assets under management at Rensburg Fund Management totalled GBP1.08bn, compared with GBP1.47bn twelve months earlier, while “unit trusts” were down to GBP770m from GBP1.08bn. Outflows totalled GBP380m, but the contraction in assets under management is largely imputable to losses on the markets: investors, for their part, have placed GBP470m in subscriptions.Investment Week reports that Rensburg pre-tax profits fell last year by 26.5% to GBP4.3m. Final dividend remains unchanged at 17 pence per share, as do total dividends, at 25.5 pence.

Since the beginning of the year, ING Investment Management has registered EUR250m in net subscriptions for its dividend strategies as a whole, following a year in 2008 marked by a downturn in subscriptions in fourth quarter, Nicolas Simar, head of value high dividend management, said yesterday at an investment conference. As of the end of April, dividend funds had a total of approximately EUR4.2bn in assets.

Fund of hedge fund managers are recovering their optimism. According to the most recent Hedge Funds survey by Seeds Finance, the confidence index, which measures anticipated investments by hedge fund strategies, stands at +0.56, its highest level since fourth quarter 2007, and up from an all-time low of 0.37 in second quarter 2008. “After the storm of panic at the end of 2008 related to performance and massive redemption demands from investors, multi-managers are beginning to see a calmer horizon and to rediscover their portfolio,” says Seeds Finance in its latest Consensus Hedge Fund report (no. 29, May 2009).Fund managers are generally maintaining allocations that are highly oriented to non-directional strategies, and mostly have high levels of liquidity - in other words, trading strategies such as global macro, and arbitrage strategies such as fixed income arbitrage and convertible arbitrage. However, fund managers continue to be skeptical of the strategies that did worst last year: event-driven, multi-strategy and distressed. Outlooks for CTA strategies have gone from green to deep red, probably due to poor performance for this strategy in first quarter.A specific survey on the use of managed accounts by multi-managers finds that 40% of fund managers see these accounts as a positive development in the alternative management industry, while 44% think the opposite. More than three quarters of fund managers see them as providing security in terms of operational risk, liquidity and transparency. The major criticisms are that they provide access to only a limited number of high quality fund managers, returns are often disappointing compared with offshore vehicles, the fact that they provide transparency for the platform but not for the final investor, and the high fees.Nearly 64% of fund managers are planning to invest 10-30% of their portfolios in managed accounts.

Les Echos reports that international cooperation agreements between market regulators now include the Cayman Islands. The country is one of three new signatories of a multilateral agreement by the international organisation of securities regulators. The other two countries to have signed up are Albania and the West African monetary area (ZMAO), bringing the total number of regulators to have signed the agreement to 55.