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31/03/2009

Switzerland - Boris Collardi to take over as head of Julius Baer

The board of directors at the Banque Julius Baer & Cie SA has appointed COO Boris F. J. Collardi to take over as CEO. He will succeed Johannes A. de Gier on 1 May 2009. Collardi joined the Banque Julius Baer as COO in early 2006, following the acquisition by Julius Baer, in late 2005, of three private banks and GAM from UBS.
31/03/2009

Germany - BaFin extends naked shorts prohibition

The German financial surveillance authority BaFin announced on Monday that it is extending its prohibition of short-selling of shares to which the vendor does not have direct access, or naked short selling, until at least the end of May, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. The prohibition applied to shares in Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, Allianz, Deutsche Börse, Munich Ré, Hannover Rück, Hypo Real Estate, AMB Generali, Aareal Bank, Postbank and MLP.
31/03/2009

United States - Managers highly optimistic about bonds

Russell Investments has announced that for the first time since the data series began about five years ago, the quarterly Investment Manager Outlook survey has found that managers surveyed are more optimistic about bonds than equities. 67% of respondents are bullish on corporate bonds, while 61% have a positive outlook on high yield bonds, compared with only 57% (compared with 72% in December) for large cap equities.
31/03/2009

United Kingdom - First State launches a Latin America fund

First State Investments on Monday announced the forthcoming launch (probably in mid-April, pending approval form the FSA) of the Latin America Fund, an equities product with 30-40 positions which will be managed by Jonathan Asante and Millar Mathieson, with the assistance of Alan Nesbit. Minimal subscription will be GBP1,500, while front-end fee and management commission will be set at 4% and 1.75%, respectively.For the fund, managers will apply the stock-picking methodology already employed for the Asia-Pacific and global emerging markets funds, with a focus on Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru.
31/03/2009

Spain - AlphaPlus launches its third fund

AlphaPlus Gestora on Monday announced the launch of a third product, following the Alpha Plus Dinero (money market) and Alpha Plus Diversificación (diversified) funds on 2 February: it is the absolute performance fund Alpha Plus Rentabilidad Absoluta, which will invest in equities, bonds, and derivatives; it may be up to 50% exposed to currency risks, and managers are authorised to place up to 20% of the portfolio in emerging markets. The objective is to outperform the Eonia by at least 300 basis points, and to limit volatility to less than 8%, with a combination of derivative, market neutral, global macro, and long/short strategies. Management commission is set at 1%, while performance commission is 9%.
31/03/2009

United Kingdom - Fourth consecutive month of net subscriptions

In February, funds domiciled in the United Kingdom have posted net subscriptions of GBP2.28bn, of which GBP1.19bn were for retail products, and GBP1.09bn for institutional funds, compared with GBP1.81bn, GBP1.19bn, and GBP623m in January, the Investment Management Association (IMA) reports. Richard Saunders, CEO of the association, points out that this is the fourth consecutive month of net subscriptions, while bond funds have continued to be the preferred category for investors, who for the moment do not appear disposed to invest their money in equities funds. In February 2008, net subscriptions totalled GBP775.3m.Funds domiciled abroad, for their part, saw net redemptions of GBP19.8m, compared with net inflows of GBP66.6m in January, and net outflows of GBP236.1m one year previously.Meanwhile, total assets at the end of February totalled GBP339.2bn for funds domiciled in the United Kingdom, and GBP13.7bn for funds domiciled abroad, compared with GBP355.2bn and GBP15.2bn as of 31 January. One year earlier, assets under management totalled GBP442bn and GBP16.2bn, respectively.
31/03/2009

Germany - Prestigious recruitment for Vontobel

Vontobel has announced that it has recruited Maximilien, prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein, as head of private banking in its wholesale distribution team in Germany. He will report to Matthias Klein, CEO of asset management for the German market. The prince is leaving the Fortis group, where he managed assets on behalf of Fortis Investments and Fortis Merchant Banking in Germany.
31/03/2009

Germany - DVAG posts record profits despite the financial crisis

The financial products distribution network Deutsche Vermögensberatung AG (DVAG) has posted record profits in 2008, up 18.1% to EUR149m, on revenues up 21.9% to EUR1.22bn. DVAG recruited 180,000 new clients in the second half of the year, bringing the total to 5.2 million.The IFA network of DVAG last year mediated net subscriptions of EUR1.2bn, compared with EUR900m in 2007 for DWS, bringing total subscriptions provided to the Deutsche Bank group to EUR6.2bn (+8%).
31/03/2009

World - Investors maintain confidence in hedge funds

According to an IRC Conferences/Terrapinn survey of 273 institutional investors, hedge fund managers and financial services providers worldwide, 80% of professionals surveyed still believe that hedge funds can generate good performance in the long term. Only 20% say that the financial turbulence has caused them to lost confidence in hedge funds.Responses also reveal that the various categories of respondents virtually unanimously consider it time to act to improve transparency, risk management, compliance, auditing, and market actors’ preference for self-regulation over regulatory legislation. The only disagreement is in the area of commissions, which are considered very important to improve confidence by 43% of investors, compared with only 14% of managers.Lastly, a majority of hedge fund managers are hoping for an improvement in net subscriptions in the second half of 2009, while most investors do not see it happening before next year.
31/03/2009

Germany - Credit Suisse releases an SRI fund

Credit Suisse has been granted a license in Germany to release the Credit Suisse (Lux) Global Responsible Equities fund, an SRI equities sub-fund of the firm’s Luxembourg Sicav, which may also invest in funds (up to 10%) and money market instrments. The product, denominated in Euros, was launched on 15 January 2009, and is managed in Zurich by Markus Mächler (see Newsmanagers of 24 March). Shares are selected on the basis of international environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria, which comply with the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN-PRI). Respect for the expense books is monitored by Global Ethical Standard Investment Services, and the benchmark index that has been selected is the Dow Jones Sustainability World TR index in Euros. Front-end fees are 5%, and management commission is 1.92%.
31/03/2009

World - Pioneer Investments signs up to Principles for Responsible Investment

Pioneer Investments (UniCredit group), which manages EUR160bn in assets worldwide, and which has 2,300 employees in 31 countries, announced on Monday that it has signed up to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN-PRI), a list of six ?best practices? in the areas of environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance.
31/03/2009

France - Blackstone sets up shop in Paris

The private equity investment firm Blackstone Group on Monday announced the opening of an office in Paris and the appointment of Jean-Michel Steg as senior managing director. For the past five years, Steg has been director of the banking unit at Citigroup in France and Belgium.The French management team will be a branch of the firm’s European head office in London. The opening of the Paris office will strengthen the global presence of the restructuring and merger and acquisition consulting unit of Blackstone, which now has 190 employees in the United States, Asia, and Europe.
31/03/2009

Europe - According to Gecam, funds have become slightly more active

The annual survey by German Capital Management (Gecam) of 7,548 funds and funds of funds on sale in Europe shows this year that the percentage of funds which have replicated more than 70% of their benchmark index in the past three years has fallen since 2008 to 75% from 86%. The most active managers are in charge of funds of funds and diversified funds, with 41% of products replicating less than 60% of their benchmark. This percentage falls to 21% for bonds and less than 1% for equities funds.Ultimately 36% of equities funds have succeeded in outperforming their benchmark indices, compared with 33% for funds of funds/diversified funds, and 12% for bond/money market funds. Of equities funds, 87% of small and midcap products have outperformed their benchmarks, by an average of 7 percentage points.
31/03/2009

United States - Launch of a hedge fund ETF

IndexIQ, a firm based in New York and specialised in the development of quantitative investment strategies, has launched an ETF fund which will aim to replicate the performance of the hedge fund sector, the Financial Times reports. The IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy Tracker ETF is listed on the NYSE.
31/03/2009

United States - Merrill Lynch required to reimburse Refco victims

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority on Monday sentenced Merrill Lynch to pay a total of USD39.8m in damages and interest to the Masonic Hall and Asylum Fund of Utica, New York, for having advised the endowment to invest in the Sphinx Managed Futures Index Fund from Refco, the Wall Street Journal reports. Refco collapsed in 2005, following the announcement that its CEO hid USD430m in loans of doubtful quality from bookkeepers at the business.
31/03/2009

France - AFG to publish a new transparency code for SRI funds

La Tribune reports that the French financial management association (AFG) will publish a new version of its transparency code applicable to retail socially responsible investment (SRI) funds. The code will be put in place ?once ratified by the board of directors of AFG, in second quarter,? the newspaper reports. Novethic will create a label by the end of the year to distinguish SRI funds with particularly rich reporting of extra-financial information.
31/03/2009

United States - Direxion seeks to eliminate distortions for inverse leveraged ETFs

To correct the distortions that may appear in the performance of inverse leveraged ETFs as far as possible, Direxion is introducing a new range of ETFs in the United States which uses the monthly evolution of the indices as an underlying, Das Investment reports. The configuration aims to avoid results such as a performance of 29.4% in January for the triple-inverse Russell 1000 Financial Services index, which in fact should have gained 62.7%, as the index lost 20.9%. The distortion was due to high day-to-day fluctuations in the price of banking sector shares.
31/03/2009

United Kingdom - Skandia launches a multi-managed equities fund

Skandia Investment Group (SIG) on Monday announced the launch of the Skandia Global Dynamic Equity Fund, a global equities product managed by twelve management firms, with the MSCI AC World GDP Index as its benchmark. Selection of managers was made by the management team at SIG, which includes 45 professionals. The product will be offered by the British fund management firm Skandia Investment Management Limited (SIML) and initially reserved for IFAs and British retail investors. It will be the first Skandia fund to exploit both geographical asset allocation strategies and Skandia’s expertise in the area of manager selection.In the United States, SIG has chosen Epoch, Marsico, QMA and Acadia; in Europe, the management firms will be Argonaut, Allianz RCM and AllianceBernstein; for the United Kingdom, SIG has selected Schroders, and for Japan, it has selected FiNNex, while for emerging markets outside Asia, the firm has selected Gartmore.
31/03/2009

Mark Smallwood est promu patron de la gestion de fortune Asie-Pacifique

Le Handelsblatt rapporte que la Deutsche Bank a annoncé lundi la nomination du patron de la succursale de Genève à la tête de la gestion de fortune pour l’Asie-Pacifique à Singapour. Mark Smallwood conservera toutefois aussi la responsabilité mondiale des asssurances pour les particuliers haut de gamme. Parallèlement, Anil Venuturupalli, qui dirigeait l’activité business risk & control de la banque aux Etats-Unis, devient COO pour l’Asie-Pacifique, également à Singapour.
30/03/2009

SG Private Banking réduit ses effectifs

Selon l"Agefi, SG Private Banking (SGPB), filiale de banque privée de la Société Générale, va réduire d"un peu moins de 10 % ses effectifs en Asie (hors Japon). «Une cinquantaine de postes sont concernés, sur un effectif de 600 personnes en Chine, en Inde, à Hongkong et à Singapour et de 2.900 collaborateurs au niveau mondial», précise le quotidien.
30/03/2009
Fonds

AP1 songe à investir en hedge funds

Rikard Kjörling, directeur de la gestion d’actifs externalisée d’AP1, a déclaré à Global Pensions que le fonds de pension compte réaliser ses premiers investissements dans des hedge funds l’an prochain. L’allocation fera partie de la poche de 10-15 % de l’encours réservée aux investissements alternatifs. D’autre part, AP1 va quintupler à 5 %, sur le long terme, son exposition au private equity. Les trois gestionnaires de private equity actuellement partenaires sont LGT Capital Partners pour l’Europe, WPGP pour les Etats-Unis et Hamilton Lane pour l’ensemble du monde.
Fonds
30/03/2009

La vente d?iShares est imminente

Barclays est sur le point de vendre iShares, rapporte le Wall Street Journal. Vendredi, plusieurs candidats au rachat étaient sur les rangs : Bain Capital et Colony Capital, Apax Partners et Hellman & Friedman, CVC Partners et, enfin, Goldman Sachs. L"opération se monterait à 5 milliards de dollars.
30/03/2009

Le fonds de Soros à l'amende

L’Autorité hongroise de surveillance des marchés financiers a condamné le gestionnaire alternatif Soros Funds Management à une amende record de 489 millions de forints ou 1,6 million d’euro pour avoir lancé une attaque spéculative en octobre sur la banque OTP, rapporte la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
30/03/2009
Fonds

Inverseguros suspend les remboursements du Segurfondo

Comme le Banif Inmobiliaro voici environ deux mois, le fonds Segurfondo Inversion d’Inverseguros suspend ses remboursements du 31 mars 2009 au 31 mars 2011, rapporte Expansión. Le quatrième fonds immobilier espagnol par la taille est incapable de faire face à des demandes de rachat qui portent sur 585 millions d’euros, soit 96,8 % de son encours. Le Segurfondo compte 478 souscripteurs, les principaux étant Mapfre, Aegon, Allianz Zurich, Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS) et Nacional de Reaseguros. Le fonds remboursera 10 % de son encours de fin mars en deux versements, l’un en avril et l’autre en juin, après avoir réalisé des cessions d’actifs.
Fonds
30/03/2009

UBS remercie Martin Liechti

Selon L"Agefi suisse citant un article du SonntagsBlick, UBS s"est définitivement séparée de son responsable de la gestion de fortune aux Etats-Unis, Martin Liechti. Dans le cadre de l"affaire fiscale qui vaut tant de déboires au groupe suisse aux Etats-Unis, Martin Liechti avait été arrêté l"an dernier à l"aéroport de Miami. Le cadre de l"UBS s"était vu interdire de quitter le territoire américain pendant plusieurs mois. Martin Liecthi avait aussi été cité à comparaître en tant que témoin devant une sous-commission du Sénat, les Etats-Unis reprochant à UBS d"avoir aidé de riches clients américains à frauder le fisc. Le banquier avait toutefois refusé de répondre à la sous-commission. En revanche, le chef des finances de la gestion de fortune pour UBS aux Etats-Unis, Mark Branson, également cité à témoigner, avait pour sa part présenté ses excuses pour le comportement de la banque. Il avait souligné que les contrôles avaient été insuffisants et promis que la banque n"offrirait plus ses services aux clients américains depuis la Suisse («offshore banking»). Martin Liechti est rentré l"été dernier en Suisse. Un porte-parole d"UBS n"a toutefois pas voulu indiquer au quotidien quand la banque s"était séparée de son ancien cadre et si celui-ci avait reçu une compensation financière.
30/03/2009
Fonds

Les hedge funds changent d?univers

Dans un entretien à L"Echo, Isabel Schauerte, analyste chez Celent, estime qu"en suggérant un enregistrement obligatoire des hedge funds auprès de la Securities and Exchange Commission, le secrétaire au Trésor américain Timothy Geithner «ne fait que reprendre un air connu. Ceci ne discrédite pas pour autant une telle mesure. Il faut voir quels seront les détails d’un tel plan». Isabel Schauerte indique par ailleurs qu"il y aura «un combat pour la survie» dans l"industrie des hedge funds. «Ceux qui sont parvenus à résister à la crise se retrouveront dans un monde bien différent, alors que le levier sera absent du jeu comme jamais. Ceci ne signifie pas la fin des stratégies traditionnelles des hedge funds. Les fonds spéculatifs ne sont pas que des outils à levier. Il faut juste comprendre que les stratégies utilisant le plus de levier seront délaissées de plus en plus».
Fonds
30/03/2009

Chris Flowers jette l'éponge chez HRE

Joueur d'échecs, Christopher Flowers sait qu’il faut parfois sacrifier des pions pour revenir en force et gagner la partie. C’est pourquoi beaucoup pensent que sa démission vendredi de son poste d’administrateur de la Hypo Real Estate (HRE) était surtout une man?uvre tactique de la part du capital-investisseur, rapporte le Handelsblatt. Avant l’expropriation par l’Etat fédéral, la participation de Chris Flowers ne vaut plus que 60 millions en Bourse, alors qu’il l’a payée plus d’un milliard d’euros. N'étant plus administrateur, Chris Flowers n’est plus tenu par le code allemand de bonne gouvernance à ?uvrer pour le bien de l’ensemble de la société. Il a donc les mains libres en tant qu’actionnaire individuel pour attaquer l’Etat en justice afin d’obtenir une indemnisation importante.

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