The French national pension fund, the Fonds de réserve pour les retraites (FRR), has launched a RFP to select a provider of financial management for a ?global exposure? mandate. ?The portfolio is intended to serve as an exposure tool for all asset classes the FRR invests in, according to need. It will be activated when it becomes necessary to temporarily replace deficient or lacking managers, or to allow rapid exposure to certain asset classes,? a statement explains. Interested management firms have until 15 May 2009, at 12:00 Paris time, to respond to the FRR.

After a contraction of USD52.2bn in January, to USD658.8bn, assets in ETF funds worldwide fell again by USD67.77bn in February, to a total of USD593.03bn as of the end of the month, according to statistics from Barclays Global Investors (BGI). The number of ERTF funds totalled 1,603 compared with 1,602, with 2,720 funds, compared with 2,683, listed on 42 stock exchanges. Since the beginning of the year, assets under management in ETF funds fell 26.9%, while the MSCI World index in US dollars was down only 18.4%.With that said, net subscriptions to mutual funds other than ETFs represented USD152bn in January, while subscriptions to ETFs totalled USD12.9bn, Strategic Insight reports. As of the end of February, 679 ETF funds were in the process of planning or creation, compared with 613 one month earlier.

According to Morningstar, funds with higher risk profiles have performed well in first quarter, including high yield bond funds, equity small caps, and funds focused on Russia and Latin America.In specialised funds, the best performances were for precious metals, followed by technologies and industrial materials. Energy funds have also done well, with 0.65% gains.The contraction in the sector continued in the quarter under review, however. The number of share classes liquidated or merged has risen by more than 60% in one year, and merger and acquisition operations have increased.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Hennessee group index of hedge funds shows performance in March of 1.4%, while US equities indices posted total gains of 7.7% and 11%. However, hedge funds largely managed to avoid the losses of January and February. This underperformance is due to the fact that sectors which had been sold short, such as financials, discretionary consumer products and materials, were the ones in which the rally was strongest.

On Wednesday, Moody’s downgraded its long-term rating of Berkshire Hathaway to ?AA2.? The issuer previously enjoyed a ?AAA? rating. The ratings agency explains that the downgrade is due to a degradation in the economic environment, and heavy declines on stock markets. The firm controlled by Warren Buffett has seen heavy losses on its portfolio, which includes financial sector shares such as Wells Fargo and American Express, the Wall Street Journal reports. Buffett is the largest shareholder in Moody’s, with a 20% stake.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has announced that Steven Niemczyk will join the global corporate & investment banking division in June as global head of asset management investment banking in New York. Niemczyk was previously head of asset management investment banking at UBS in London. In his new position, he will report to Michael Rubinoff, head of global financial institutions corporate & investment banking.

On Wednesday, Partners Group (CHF24bn in assets) released an announcement of its general assembly to be held on 30 April. It has been confirmed that dividends for 2008 will remain unchanged at CHF4.25 per share, and that Peter Wuffli, former CEO of UBS, is a candidate so succeed Robert Schenker as director.Partners Group is also proposing to undertake a round of share buybacks for up to a maximum of CHF140m, or 10% of capital, to cancel these shares, which will result in a corresponding decrease in capital.

Les Echos reports that the French central bank has lowered its ?negative growth? projection for first quarter to 0.8%, after a previous estimate of 0.6% negative growth in French gross domestic product. This estimate remains less pessimistic than Insee, who predicts negative growth of 1.5% in the first three months of the year.

In 2008, assets under management at private banks in Spain fell 20-30%, while profits fell by 79%, according to statistics published by the Spanish banking association, covering 10 institutions specialised in advising high net worth clients, Cinco Días reports. According to Luis Racionera, director of private banking at Banco Madrid, the sector is about to undergo a wave of concentration and cost reductions, which will involve staff cutbacks. Ana Figaredo, deputy director of Lombard Odier, agrees that excess competition will be likely to be reabsorbed, and that several private banks will be likely to opt for more specialised service, where they had previously tended to become product sales outlets. Manuel San Salvador, CEO at Banco Urquijo, also believes that there will be a wave of concentration. He predicts that salaries will be frozen, bonuses will be minimal, and fixed-term contracts will not be renewed, and early retirement will be enforced. In addition, the marketing budget will be cut by as much as 40%. Banif (Santander) admits that 2008 was a very negative year for the private bank; the bank is planning to listen more closely to clients and to recommend ?very safe» products.

Skandia Investment Group announced on Wednesday that it has obtained exclusive rights until at least September to distribute the Fulcrum Alternative Beta Plus Daily (FAB+ Daily) fund, which is now available on the Selestia Investment Solutions platform, along with the Life & Pension range of funds. The UCITS III compliant fund may invest in currencies, equities, commodities, and bonds, with the goal of outperforming the hedge fund universe. Fulcrum Asset Management is a management firm led by Gavyn Davies, former partner and chief economist at Goldman Sachs. The FAB+ Daily aims to offer the advantage of diversification in the alternative investment space, but at a lower price than those typical of hedge funds.

Eric Mason is leaving Carlyle Group to manage the new office of the Church Pension Fund (USD8bn) in Hong Kong, according to sources close to the case. The Wall Street Journal reports that it is the first Asian office for the pension fund of the Episcopal Church, and than Eric Mason will work with the investment management team in New York in all asset classes, including hedge funds, private equity, and real estate. He will report to William Cobb, a former vice chairman of J.P. Morgan Investment Management, who has become CIO of the Church Pension Fund.

The London-based alternative management firm VCM Fund Management, which has a strategic distribution agreement with Robeco, has announced that it is cancelling all fees on exit and transfer for the six single hedge funds on its platform, with immediate effect. Five of these funds posted positive returns in 2008.

The UK private equity investor Candover has announced that its EUR3bn private equity fund launched in 2008 is suspending new investments, as revenues from sales of holdings are not enough to finance new investments, Handelsblatt reports. Meanwhile, Candover and Cinven are seeking an additional investor to take over a stake of less than 50% in the German publishing house Springer Wissenschaftsverlag for EUR500m, according to sources in financial circles. Candover and Cinven bought Springer from Bertelsmann six years ago for more than EUR1bn. They then merged it with Kluwer Academic Publishers, which had been previously acquired for EUR600m from Wolters Kluwer of the Netherlands.

According to VDOS Stochastics, about 50% of the 2,880 funds on sale in Spain finished first quarter in the black, particularly products specialised in emerging markets equities, which made an average of 4.42%, while international bonds made 1.9% and guaranteed/equities earned 1.12%, Cinco Días reports. However, many European equities funds suffered losses of over 20%. The best performance was for Altae Bricc, an emerging markets guaranteed fund from Caja Madrid, which earned a cumulative 24% in the first three months of the year. The fund which attracted the largest subscription volumes was BBVA Dinero FT Corto Plazo, with inflows of EUR521m in March.

The sale of iShares by Barclays to CVC Capital Partners may be announced as soon as Thursday, according to sources close to the deal cited by the Wall Street Journal. The operation will raise GBP3bn. The bank will retain a 20% stake in iShares, and will provide financing equivalent to 70% of the acquisition price.

Wilfrid Pham has been appointed director of equities management at Natixis Asset Management. Pham joined Natexis Asset Management in 2004 as head of international management. In 2007, he was promoted to head of modelled management and insurance management of European equities at Natixis Asset management, while maintaining charge of Japanese equities management. He then became co-head of equities management.

For EUR24.9bn, comdirect bank has acquired European Bank for Fund Services (ebase) from Commerz Asset Management Holding. The two entities belong to the Commerzbank group.ebase, which employs about 250 people, is a platform offering custodial services to independent financial services providers and insurance companies.With its acquisition of ebase, comdirect will have more than 2 million clients with assets of about EUR30bn.

Rob Feckner, chairman of the board of directors at CalPERS, has announced the creation of a new committee of the board in charge of the evaluation and management of risk in the governance and activities of the pension fund (USD174bn). The committee will include the chairs of the board’s other committees, George Diehr (investment), Henry Jones (investment policy), Priyah Matur (health benefits), Lou Moret (performance and pay scales), Tony Oliveria (finance) and Kurato Shimada (Benefits and Program Administration Committee). The first meeting of the new committee will be held on 20 April.

According to an internal memo, Eileen Rominger, global head of fundamental equities management at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) was appointed on Wednesday as global CIO, a position which did not previously exist, Pensions & Investments reports. Meanwhile, Steve McGuinness and Eric Lane have been appointed as co-COOs for the investments division, which includes GSAM and wealth management.

HSBC Global Asset Management is launching a quantitative forex sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav GIF, the Global Currency Fund, managed by Halbis, whose objective is to outperform the Libor by 500 basis points. This strategy has already been in use since 2006, and has generated average performance of 7.9% per year, Das Investment reports. The manager is aiming for assets of EUR500m within a few months for the fund, denominated in US dollars, with share classes in pounds sterling, Euros, yen, and Swiss francs, hedged for currency risks, Hedge Week reports. The computer-managed model makes allocations to six strategies (volatility, momentum, carry trade, etc.), depending on their recent performance; it maintains low volatility and managers have a way to reduce risk in the portfolio if necessary. For institutionals, management commission is 1%, in addition to which there is a commission of 20% on performance exceeding the Libor.

Two days after the announcement of a Euro zone credit fund maturing in 2011, Fortis Investments has announced that in mid-April, it will release the Fortis Crédit 2012 fund, a horizon fund (in the form of a French-registered FCP) of a ?buy and hold? type, which invests in businesses with ?resilient cycles and high quality credit.? The product aims for gross annual returns of about 7% per year. Shares in the portfolio, largely robust corporate bonds (at least 60% from European issuers), will be chosen with both top-down and bottom-up approaches, using both qualitative and quantitative criteria.

The Skandia US Large Cap Value Fund (USD147m in assets as of the end of 2008), whose management is outsourced to Epoch Investment Partners, and the multi-management fund Skandia European Best Ideas (EUR85m), two sub-funds of the Irish-registered Sicav Skandia Global Funds, have been listed by Sélection R, the distribution platform aimed at IFAs from the Rothschild group. The two products are already available on platforms from Skandia and UFG Partenaires. In both cases, management fees total 1.50%.The US Large Cap Value is a US large caps fund focused on financial analysis fundamentals. The European Best Ideas fund deploys a concept of investing an allocation in each of 10 managers selected by Skandia, corresponding to ten best investment ideas.

The Barclay hedge fund index for March shows positive performance of 2.56% for 886 funds, which brings the total since the beginning of the year to 0.95% The strongest increases were for 156 emerging markets funds (4.94%), 109 equity long bias funds (3.69%), and 19 tech funds (3.26%). In the first quarter, the strongest performance was for 9 convertible arbitrage funds (11.33%) and 30 multi-strategy products (6.19%).On the basis of results for 55% of the usual sample, meanwhile, Credit Suisse/Tremont estimates that its hedge fund index is up 0.86% for March, following losses of 0.88% in February. In January-March, they posted performance of 1.06%. The best results in March were for bond arbitrage (2.63%) and equity market neutral (2.58%), while dedicated short bias lost 4.88%. The strongest performance in the first quarter was for convertible arbitrage (+5.99%).

On Wednesday, a general shareholder’s meeting at Julius Baer Holdings approved an unchanged dividend payment for 2008 of CHF0.50 (which will be paid on 15 April), and a cancellation of more than 4.4 million shares, bought back in the period up to 31 December 2008, as part of a 2008-2010 share buyback program. Shareholders also elected Leonard H. Fischer as director, for a three-year term, while the chairman, Raymond J. Baer, was re-elected for a new three-year term.

L'investissement a été divisé par sept en un an à 395 milllions d'euros au premier trimestre, et la demande placée chute

Dans un entretien aux Echos, Daniel Lebègue, président de Transparency International, estime . qu» «il ne s’agit pas seulement de lutter contre l'évasion fiscale en ces temps de crise, mais aussi d'éliminer les «trous noirs» de la finance, sans quoi la reconstruction du système financier mondial serait un vain mot». «L’Europe va réviser sa directive sur l'épargne au second semestre de cette année de manière à couvrir les structures collectives de type trusts, fiducies et autres « anstalt » et à identifier leurs ayants droit économiques», souligne Daniel Lebègue.

Dans un entretien aux Echos, Benoît de Juvigny, secrétaire général adjoint de l"AMF, en charge de la direction des émetteurs, souligne que, avec les dernières modifications apportées au règlement général de l"AMF (arrêté du 2 avril publié au J.O. du 5 avril), « le marché libre sort désormais du champ de l’AMF. Le régulateur reste compétent sur le prospectus en cas d’offre au public, mais il n’y aura plus de contrôles par la suite».

Initialement connu en France pour sa gestion taux, l’autrichien Raiffeisen Capital Management (RCM) a fait découvrir au marché ses capacités particulières en matière d’actions des pays d’Europe de l’Est. A présent, le gestionnaire viennois s’attache à promouvoir son savoir-faire dans le domaine de l’allocation d’actifs tactique globale (GTAA), une spécialité à laquelle il a consacré des ressources importantes (12 personnes) et qui pèse environ 5 milliards euros d’encours sur un total de 28 milliards. Ce mode de gestion, qui allie les approches fondamentale et quantitative, s’applique à environ 80 fonds de la gamme.Depuis le dernier trimestre de l’an dernier, RCM a donc commencé à commercialiser en France son fonds de droit autrichien Raiffeisen 336 - GTAA Overlay (lire notre dépêche du 23 octobre 2008) qui vise une performance annuelle moyenne avant frais de 800 points de base au-dessus de l"indice Merrill Lynch German Government Bill et une volatilité ex ante de 10 % par an. Il s’agit d’un fonds de performance absolue (OPCVM III, liquidité journalière) reposant sur le principe de l’allocation tactique globale répartie sur 31 classes d’actifs et qui met en ?uvre parallèlement 9 stratégies, chacune avec son propre objectif de performance et son propre budget de risque, lequel correspond au double de l’objectif de performance. Le fonds (lancé le 17 décembre 2007, 256,03 millions d’euros à fin mars, dont une bonne quinzaine de millions en provenance de France) peut être acheteur ou vendeur sur toutes les classes d’actifs, mais il investit «de toute façon dans des actifs très liquides et tous cotés», explique Kurt Schappelwein, gérant senior au sein de l'équipe allocation d’actifs. La performance répond aux objectifs Au reste, le c?ur du portefeuille est constitué d’obligations d’Etat en euros à échéance résiduelle courte. La formule est suffisamment fiable, apparemment, pour qu'à fin février 86 % de l’encours aient été souscrits par des fonds de fonds institutionnel et retail de RCM. Autre élément apte à rassurer les investisseurs, l'équipe de gestion «ne prend pas d’effet de levier et ne fait pas de trading à court terme» pour ce produit dont l’horizon temporel doit être au moins d’un mois mais se situe en pratique dans la fourchette 1-3 mois. Pour la période 2003-2008, la stratégie Stratomatix Raiffeisen GTAA Overlay a généré une performance annualisée de 14,39 % contre un 2,92 % pour l’indice de référence avec une volatilité annualisée de 10,11 % contre 0,15 % pour le benchmark. Depuis 2003, la performance a fluctué entre 9 et 23 % par an et en 2008 elle a été de 13,5 % net de frais. «Ce produit grossit le potentiel de hausse et limite celui de baisse ", résume le gérant. Kurt Schappelwein estime que ce produit «peut être une vraie solution pour les investisseurs particuliers, dont le portefeuille n’est pas bien diversifié», même si ce fonds figure aussi dans l’offre des banques privées et sur les plates-formes ou chez les institutionnels. De fait, il peut répondre à une multiplicité de besoins et présente l’avantage d’afficher des corrélations très basses. Par rapport à un hedge fund global macro, il offre de surcroît l’avantage de la transparence et la liquidité journalière, ainsi qu’un tarif jugé raisonnable avec 1 % de commission de gestion et 15 % de prélèvement sur la surperformance.

InverCaixa Gestión a notifié lundi soir à la CNMV qu’au 31 mars l’encours de son fonds alternatif Foncaixa Privada Ideas était tombé à moins de 2,46 millions d’euros, affichant ainsi une contraction de 36,3 %. Cette diminution est imputable à des demandes de rachat de la part d’institutionnels qui investissent dans d’autres fonds de la société de gestion. Le Foncaixa Privada Ideas est le seul «single hedge fund» de la filiale de La Caixa, qui gère par ailleurs deux fonds de hedge funds, le Foncaixa Gestión Alternativa V6 et le Foncaixa Privada Estrategia Hedge.

Le gel des embauches dans la finance se propage aux bancs de l'école? L"Université Paris-Dauphine suspend en effet pour un an les recrutements pour le Master 203 «Marchés financiers, marchés des matières premières et gestion des risques», qui forme les professionnels des salles de marché."Les années 2009 et 2010, seront marquées par de fortes restrictions des recrutements, qui pourraient perdurer même dans la perspective d"une reprise économique. C’est pourquoi l’université a jugé que sa responsabilité est de suspendre le recrutement d"étudiants en Master 203 pour l"année universitaire 2009/2010», explique un communiqué. «L"Université Paris-Dauphine prend ainsi acte de la transformation profonde de l"industrie financière engendrée par la crise financière depuis août 2007", poursuit-il. Les responsables du Master 203 vont mettre à profit cette suspension pour rénover la formation. Et ils comptent ouvrir en 2010 un «programme ambitieux et adapté à la nouvelle donne du marché financier».