It is unlikely that investment in equities will mobilise French insurers, La Tribune predicts. From a 20% exposure to equities, Groupama will lower its exposure to between 5% and 7%, says Helman le Pas de Sécheval, CFO, and the 2% of assets invested in private equity will be reduced to 0. At Axa, exposure to equities has already been reduced, and exposure to private equity will be maintained at its current levels, says Henri de Castries, chairman of the board at Axa. French insurers are also seeking to incorporate measures to comply with the European prudential regulations included in the Solvabilité 2 legislation.

As Newsmanagers reported in March, the Belgian asset management firm Petercam is planning to found a management firm in Paris. The operation has begun, and will be completed by the end of this summer.The Belgian group has been ?commercially? present in France since 2004. It sells its funds in the country through the efforts of Ives Hup, sales and account manager, who is based in Brussels, but often on the road in France. French clients now represent as much as EUR2bn in assets, or slightly more than 10% of total assets, making France one of the most promising markets for the Belgian group. The decision to open a physical location in Paris is primarily due to the group’s desire to develop its presence among French institutional investors, who are increasingly seeking dedicated funds to manage their assets. These products must be registered in France. It is certainly possible to outsource such projects to intermediaries, but this solution is costly and complicated. Another practical advantage of having a physical location in France is that it lets Petercam show its attachment to the French market. This will also give the firm an opportunity to develop its management of new asset classes, particularly those which French investors are showing demand for. The creation of an asset management firm requires the presence of managers, clearly. Petercam will therefore take the opportunity to recruit two professionals in France specialised in professions which the firm does not practice at present: bonds and convertibles. The recruitment process is underway for these two managers. Once the firm has been launched, a product will be placed on the market, with assets housed in products which Petercam already offered, which will come from different funds. It has not been ruled out, if the project is successful, to launch other products in France, which would be managed in the country. These might include a enhenced money market fund or a tactical asset allocation fund.

The board of directors at SG Private Banking (Switzerland) has approved the appointment of the firm’s vice-chairman, Daniel Truchi, as chairman. It has also approved the appointment of two new directors, Jean-Pierre Jacquemoud and Yves Thieffry, to replace Truchi and Philippe Setton.The appointments follow the acquisition by the Société Générale group last year of minority stakes owned by the directors of the Groupe René de Picciotto/Philippe Setton in the capital of SG Private Banking (Switzerland).

Constellation Growth Capital, the former private equity group from Bear Stearns specialised in media, communications and technologies related to these sectors, has joined Highbridge Capital Management, a hedge fund firm controlled by JPMorgan Chase, the Financial Times reports. The move comes as Highbridge attempts to construct a diversified asset management activity alongside its alternative investments.

In a letter to its investors which has been obtained by the Financial Times, TPG has revealed that it had planned 140 LBO operations in the past few months, but that it has not achieved any, illustrating the fact that this type of financial operation is used at certain points in the cycle but not at others. ?When debt is poorly valued and inexpensive, as it was before 2008, it makes sense to replace equities with debt. ? Now, it makes sense to replace debt with equities, which leads to restructuring and recapitalisations,? the letter says.

OFI AM, which signed the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UN-PRI) last year, followed by its affiliate OFI Private Equity, is now making its sustainable development activities a key aspect of the brand, both for its products and internally. As part of this initiative, responsibility for sustainable development themed operations is being granted to Sophie Fiszman, deputy CEO, both at OFI AM and its affiliates, Sicavs, and management mandates. She will retain her responsibilities as manager of the OFI Core Energy fund, which invests in international large and midcaps related to the theme of the increasing scarcity of fossil fuels. A logical consequence of this move is that the director of multi-management, Jean-Lousi Mercadal, will replace Fiszman as CIO. He becomes deputy CEO, and will take over management of OFI AM, while retaining responsibility for the traditional multi-management unit, with the support of Éric Bouffort as deputy director. Bouffort has been deputy CEO of the OFI group since January 2007, and will support Mercadal, who will be increasingly absorbed by his functions as director of management.

Next year, says François Carlotti, chairman of the board since September 2008, Sal. Oppenheim France will move into wealth management with at least five people, who will be recruited by the end of 2009. In the near future, the new affiliate of Sal. Oppenheim (25 people) will position itself on the French market, developing a management centre with areas of expertise to complement those of the group, and distributing this expertise commercially along with a selection of other management products and services from the group, and extending sales of management solutions to other countries in Europe. Initially (beginning in third quarter), this will extend to Switzerland and Italy. A dedicated team of four people will be involved in this extension.In other words, the business model in France will be based on the deployment already prevalent in the German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg), since, for its part, Sal. Oppenheim Jr. & Cie, the investment bank of the group, is already present in Paris, under the direction of Jefferson Count of Zeil, and has been active for slightly under two years (see Newsmanagers of 6 September 2007).

Babak Kiani and Christian Müller-Goedecke (co-head of portfolio management) are the managers of the new HSBC Trinkaus Multi Markets Select fund, launched by HSBC Global Asset Management (Deutschland), which will invest in five asset classes in addition to cash, largely via derivatives of shares in funds, CDS, ETS, and currency futures. The German-registered product, which may invest up to 100% of its assets in derivatives, aims for absolute returns of 5% per year, after fees. The selection process will occur in three stages to limit the risk of losses. After quantitative and selective stages, the portfolio is constructed with a horizon of one month, using an optimiser which takes into account the results of the two previous stages. The fund will only invest in asset classes which promise higher returns than the money markets. HSBC GAM Germany will charge a front-end fee of 5%, a 1% management commission, and a 20% performance commission on returns exceeding the 5% objective.

Privalto UK, an affiliate of BNP Paribas, has announced the launch of the Privalto Millenium Tracker Fund, which replicates the performance of the BNP Paribas Millenium 10 Europe Series 3 (Sterling Hedged) Total Return index. The index is composed of liquid shares including US, European and Asian equities, as well as commodities, real estate, and foreign currencies, Hedge Week reports.

L’Agefi reports that Italian investors are preparing to demand reparations from the Italian affiliate of BNP Paribas, claiming that they will be damaged by the closure of a real estate fund, Crescita, planned for 30 June. BNP Paribas denies the accusations, which have damaged its reputation in Italy.

After pre-tax profits on its ongoing activities of GBP1.4m in 2007, Integrated Asset Management, which has recently sold its 51% stake in Altigefi to Sal. Oppenheim France (see separate article), has posted losses for last year of GBP2.3m. Its assets as of the end of December totalled USD1.21bn, compared with USD2.89bn.

Mary Schapiro, chairman of the SEC, has announced that the regulator is investigating target-date funds to ensure that they provide accurate information about their asset allocation. The Wall Street Journal reports that Schapiro finds it troubling that the 31 funds with maturity dates in 2010 have lost an average of 25%.

The French market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), has handed down a fine of EUR1m to Ulf Werner, director of the Swiss firm Center-Tainment, for distributing ?imprecise and misleading? information in November 2006, when his firm launched a hostile takeover bid for Euro Disney. The sanctions committee described the ?extraordinarily serious? crimes committed by Werner, who used ?a carefully orchestrated and staged? scheme to generate ?considerable illegitimate gains.?

BNY Mellon Asset Servicing reports that in first quarter 2009, asset managers outperformed their benchmark indexes, and lost less than the FTSE All World Index, which fell by 10.2%. Asset managers lost an average of 9.2%, before fees.The last time managers as a whole outperformed the index was in fourth quarter 2006, the Wall Street Journal reports, when they earned an average of 4.4%, while the benchmark gained 4.1%.

Global real estate private equity funds have raised more than USD211bn in the past five years, though most of these funds were launched at the peak of the cycle in 2007, and will now have to write down the value of their investments, the Financial Times reports. According to a study by Private Equity Real Estate, two firms dominate the market: Blackstone and Morgan Stanley Real Estate, which have raised USD25.6bn and USD20.15bn, respectively, in the past five years.

The Oyster Funds Sicav from the Swiss bank Syz & Co will soon contain two new sub-funds, including a convertible bonds fund, outsourced to Advent Capital Management, and an absolute performance fund using a strategy already deployed for institutional clients of Syz, Das Investment reports.

Luis Puertas Jiménez is leaving his job in the sales service at Bloomberg in London to join ETF Securities as head for Spain, Portugal and Andorra, Funds People reports.

The Frankfurt-based management firm Fundmatrix has announced that it has signed an agreement with the Swiss management firm Exchequer Capital to sell its products in Switzerland and Germany; it will also provide customer assistance.Initially, Fundmatrix will distribute a fund of hedge funds invested solely in global macro funds, and a trading fund, advised by 3Oaks Capital. In both cases, the products are Luxembourg-registered funds aimed at institutional investors. Exchequer Capital is planning to launch a fund of hedge funds this year which will invest in products from top traders in the commodities sector, as well as a Gulf distressed Real Estate Fund and a managed accounts platform, Exchequer Managed Accounts SPC.

The Global Asset Management business unit of UBS has posted a loss for first quarter of CHF59m, compared with profits of CHF236m, largely due to a goodwill overvalue of CHF191m related to the sale of UBS Pactual. Operating revenues increased to CHF502m, compared with CHF478m, largely due to an increase in performance commissions and a decline in operating losses.Net outflows from the Global Asset Management unit fell to CHF7.7bn from CHF27.6bn. Net outflows of new investments from institutionals fell from CHF16.7bn to CHF1.1bn. Excluding flows related to money market investments, capital outflows were down from CHF22.7bn to CHF9.2bn. Net outflows in the Wholesale Intermediary segment fell from CHF10.9bn to CHF6.6bn. Excluding flows related to money market investments, capital outflows from Wholesale Intermediary fell from CHF16.6bn to CHF8.7bn.

The London Investment Banking Association (LIBA), a group of banks created after World War I, is to merge with the European part of the Securities and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), an association based in the United States which represents 650 banks, brokers, and asset managers.

In 2008, Sicav funds, the vehicle of choice for Spanish high net worth families, lost more than 20% of their assets in one year. In terms of absolute value, and counting only the 13 largest fortunes in the country, losses ran to EUR1.2bn, Expansión reports. But during the same period, the stock markets lost 40%. Assets in the Sicav funds belonging to Amancio Ortega (founder and chairman of Inditex) fell by proportions of 32% to 52%, though this is largely due to redemptions of EUR350m, which were reinvested in real estate. Other significant losses include 41% for Soixa, the fund of Hernández Callejas (Ebro Puleva); 34% for Nomit IV, owned by the Polanco family (Prisa), and 44% for Arbarin (Juan Abelló), which was 81% invested in equities. Keeper Inversiones (Del Pino family, Ferrovial), which was 65% exposed to equities, lost 48%. However, Sicavs belonging to Isak Andic (chairman of Mango and a 5.6% shareholder in Sabadell), were invested exclusively in bonds, and their assets increased by 9% in 2008, to EUR517m.

The Bayerische Börse AG, a market company which operates the Munich stock exchange, has announced that with the market-maker FXdirekt Bank AG of Oberhausen, it is launching a new segment of the Munich stock market entitled Contrex, on which contracts for difference (CFD) will be traded.

Deutsche Börse announced on Monday that it has admitted two new Luxembourg-registered ETF funds from db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank group, over EUR20bn in assets) to trading on the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic platform. One of them is a commodity fund db x-trackers db commodity booster-S&P GSCI Light Energy Euro ETF, which carries a management commission of 1%, according to Deutsche Börse, or 0.95% according to db x-trackers, and which uses the Deutsche Bank Commodity Booster-S&P GSCI Light Energy Euro Index as its benchmark. The product replicates the evolution of 24 commodities in the energy (30%), precious metals (7%), industrial metals (14%), soft commodities (35%) and livestock (12%) sectors.The DB Commodity Booster ETF replicates the S&P GSCI Light Energy Index via an optimum yield (OY) system which uses futures as its underlying, to increase profits from backwardation situations and reduce losses due to contango. db x-trackers points out that its ETF DBLCI - OY Balanced ETF is already the largest ETF in Europe based on a commodities index, with assets of over EUR400m. The other ETF, an equities product, is the db x-trackers MSCI Pan-Euro TRN Index ETF, which carries a management commission of 0.3%, and which replicates, as its name indicates, the MSCI Pan-Euro TRN Index, which covers 215 European large caps.With these new funds, the XTF segment now lists 445 ETF products.

The chairman of the Bundesbank, Axel Weber, is reported by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung to have declared on Monday that he sees the first cautious signs of an improvement in the German financial market. Subscriptions and assets in open-ended real estate funds and equities funds are increasing, and investors are returning to the Pfandbriefe market.

In the first four months of the year, only 17 private equity operations were realised in Italy, one third of the number of operations in the corresponding period of 2008 (45), Il Sole - 24 Ore reports, citing the Rapporto Private Equity Monitor Pem from the Università Carlo Cattaneo.

Une vingtaine d’entre elles ont fait appel aux investisseurs le mois dernier, proposant des primes très attractives

Erste Sparinvest (23 milliards d’euros d’encours) compte lancer le 1er juin un fonds à échéance d’obligations d’entreprises visant une distribution minimum de 4,25 % par an. Ce produit de droit autrichien, ESPA Corporate Basket 2013 affiche une échéance à 31 mai 2012. Le portefeuille se compose d’une centaine de lignes, des obligations «investment grade» avec au maximum 50 % de titres BBB. La souscription sera ouverte le 4 mai et fermée définitivement le 29 mai. Pendant sa durée de vie, le fonds sera géré de manière passive. Si la notation d’un emprunt venait à changer, les obligations ne seraient pas changées mais conservées jusqu'à l'échéance du fonds. Le fonds est profilé de telle sorte qu’un taux de défaut de 0,85 % par an sur le portefeuille n’ait pas d’incidence sur le dividende envisagé. S’il est inférieur, la distribution sera majorée pour atteindre au maximum 5 %. S’il était supérieur, la valeur liquidative serait ajustée à la baisse. Le droit d’entrée et la commission de gestion sont fixés à respectivement 2 % et 0,40 %. La pénalité de sortie anticipée de 2 % est acquise au fonds.

Selon Hedge Week, l’autorité de surveillance des marchés de Hong Kong (Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission) a engagé des poursuites contre onze personnes liées à un hedge fund privé, Descartes Athena Fund SPC. Le gendarme des marchés, qui a également ordonné le gel de quelques 250 millions de dollars de Hong Kong, a été alerté par le fait que les opérateurs de l’Athena Fund ont voulu liquider le fonds en juillet 2008 à la suite de demandes de rachat pressantes de la part de la clientèle. Par ailleurs, les administrateurs du fonds ont produit des états financiers et des contrats de souscription falsifiés. L’affaire sera devant la justice le 19 mai prochain.

Jeudi, Credit Suisse a annoncé qu’il entame le transfert à Woori Financial Group des 30 % qu’il détient dans la société de gestion d’actifs sud-coréenne Woori Credit Suisse Asset Management Co Ltd. Cette joint-venture est «solidement bénéficiaire», d’après la banque helvétique, qui conserve ses autres intérêts dans la gestion d’actifs en Corée du Sud et qui poursuivra aussi sa coopération avec Woori Financial Group.

Lancée fin 2007, le groupe de gestion indépendant Wallberg, spécialiste de la multigestion, affiche actuellement un encours de 520 millions d’euros. Sa gamme comporte actuellement 18 fonds pour les particuliers et les investisseurs institutionnels et ne dépassera en aucun cas les 30 produits, a indiqué Thorsten Schrieber, directeur général et fondateur du groupe, qui est l’un des anciens dirigeants du gestionnaire indépendant munichois Dr. Jens Ehrhardt Kapital.Le groupe Wallberg, au travers de sa filiale suisse SUCCESS Internationale Vermögensverwaltung AG, applique également la multigestion à la gestion de fortune et compte déjà 150 clients particuliers #internationaux#. L’objectif est d’atteindre les 250 clients pour la fin de cette année.