Recherche
S'abonner
Connexion
Asset Management
Accueil Asset Management Actualités
13/02/2009

Italy - Libya and Mediobanca to launch a common fund

The head of the Libyan Investment Authority announced on Thursday that his fund and Mediobanca are planning to launch a joint fund, with USD500m in assets, which will buy stakes in Italian distressed firms, the Wall Street Journal reports.
13/02/2009

World - Hedge funds: Fixed Income Arbitrage leads the pack

In January, hedge funds posted returns of +1.53%, according to the Lyxor Hedge Fund Index, calculated on the basis of performance and assets in funds on the Lyxor platform (Société Générale group). For the month, the alternative strategy which posted the best performance was Fixed Income Arbitrage, at +4.19%, followed by Special Situations (+4.08%) and CTAs Short Term (+3.30%).
13/02/2009

Spain - Management firms launched 154 funds in 2008

According to the agency VDOS, 154 products were launched on the Spanish market last year, including both new funds and guaranteed funds whose maturity dates were extended. According to Cinco Días, this represents a decrease of 36% compared with 2007. The two most active management firms were BBVA Gestión, with 17 products, and Santander Asset Management, with ten funds. Of the 154 new funds, 57 are guaranteed funds. Of the remaining 97 funds, 25 are funds in the ?global? category, while 18 are euro money market funds, and 17 are hedge funds.
13/02/2009

Spain - Vulture funds enter the picture in wake of Madoff/Santander disaster

Expansión reports that vulture funds are planning to offer investors who fell victim to the Madoff fraud to buy up their shares at 22% of their nominal value, along with the right to take their place in legal proceedings against Santander and HSBC. The figure of 22% corresponds to the offer of reimbursement for damages made by Santander to shareholders in the Optimal US Equity fund. HSBC is named in the lawsuits because it was the depository bank for the funds.
13/02/2009

Spain - Management firms liquidate more than 100 unprofitable funds

In December, management firms liquidated or merged nearly 100 of their funds, and they are now making a fresh start, Expansión reports. The CNMV on Thursday announced the merger of 16 funds from Ahorro Corporación, to form two products. A few days ago, Santander dealt similarly with a number of equities funds, while Consulnor is liquidating its fund of hedge funds. It is certain that, with the decrease in assets and the departure of investors, more and more of these products will cease to be profitable for management firms. These firms are opting either to close, or to merge these funds, the latter being the quicker option. According to the most recent statistics from Inverco, more than 400 funds have less than the minimal level of assets under management required by the CNMV, meaning that, in principle, these funds may be expected to disappear in the next few months.
13/02/2009

Europe - A pleasant end-of-year surprise for funds

At the end of a disastrous year, European funds posted EUR6bn net subscriptions in December, to general surprise, according to the most recent statistics from Lipper FMI.This positive result is due to several causes, Lipper comments, citing in particular the annual investment of money from the Swedish pension fund (EUR2.5bn). But above all, a decline in outflows to investors is responsible.This slowdown is particularly noticeable in France, a market which usually shows outflows of EUR15bn in December, as investors pull out of money market funds to pay taxes, cover payments of bonuses, etc. This year, France finished the year with a month of net inflows, albeit a slight one (EUR40m). It would appear that French investors have become so averse to risk that they put everything they had in money markets, to such an extent that the normal cycle of end-of-year redemptions was more than compensated for by funds flowing in, Lipper concludes.French investors also invested in equities funds. There again, the volumes are low (EUR474m), but they include few ETF funds, and are concentrated on local shares.In Europe, equities were favoured by investors, with their strongest subscription volumes since February 2007 (EUR10m). ETFs represented half of this total.For the year, however, European funds have posted net redemptions of EUR300bn. Assets have fallen to EUR3.9trn, down 27% in one year. In May 2007, assets peaked at EUR5.5trn.The only asset class to have posted net subscriptions for the year is money markets (EUR96bn). Equities finished the year in the red by EUR119bn.The group which posted the strongest subscriptions for the year was Barclays, with EUR18bn.
13/02/2009

Luxembourg - Sal. Oppenheim turns to partners for financial backing

According to sources in financial industry circles, Sal. Oppenheim is planning to call on its approximately 40 partners to participate in a capital increase of EUR200m maximum, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. The private bank appears to have posted losses in fourth quarter, due to the turbulence on the markets, and total profits in 2008 are reportedly insufficient to maintain liquidity reserves.
13/02/2009

United Kingdom - GLG dodges trouble through agreement with SocGen

GLG Partners has avoided rupturing its covenants on its USD570m in debts, thanks to the acquisition of the British division of SocGen Asset Management, the Financial Times reports. This has allowed the firm to keep its assets above the minimal level set in its contracts with lending banks.
13/02/2009

United States - S&P warns of serious fall in dividends

Les Echos reports that Standard & Poor’s is predicting a 13.3% decrease in dividends from S&P 500 companies. ?Howard Silverblatt, index analyst, estimates that USD214.7bn will be paid to shareholders this year, after USD247.9bn in 2008, and USD246.6bn in 2007,? the newspaper says.
13/02/2009

World - Brazil gives a boost to Latin America funds

Since the beginning of the year, equities funds specialised in Latin America have posted performance of 13.6%, largely due to their strong exposure to Brazil, Cinco Días reports. Brazil is benefiting from a rebound on commodity markets, high interest rates, and attractive growth outlooks. The Bovespa index has gained 7.86% since 1 January, and as much as 17.89%, counting currency effects. Funds which invest exclusively in Brazil are posting returns of near 20%. Félix López, a manager at Atlas Capital, says the rise of the Bovespa is due to the positive evolution of its two largest businesses, Petrobras and CVRD, which represent 32% of the index. In addition, Mercedes Camacho of IGF notes, Brazil has attracted inflows of capital due to the high interest rate differential.
13/02/2009

World - Sovereign funds have invested USD63bn in western banks

Since the beginning of the subprime crisis, sovereign funds from emerging countries have invested USD63.23bn to buy stakes in western financial establishments, according to calculations by Bloomberg, reported by Expansión. The largest actors have been Qatar, Kuwait, Singapore, China, and Abu Dhabi, which have invested in banks such as Citi, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, UBS, and Barclays. Meanwhile, governments on both sides of the Atlantic have injected USD628.93bn to bail out the financial system.
13/02/2009

Germany - Union Investment buys up shares in its money market funds

In order to prevent closing some of its money market funds, Union Investment has been obliged to buy back shares in the funds from investors seeking to exit from them, says Rüdiger Ginsberg, chairman of the board. Redemption demands totalled up to EUR1bn per day in October, for that month, outflows totalled EUR10bn, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports, adding that the management firm for the German co-operative banks has refused to disclose the amount it has spent to absorb excess redemptions.
13/02/2009

United Kingdom - Profits down at Schroders

In 2008, net profits at Schroders totalled GBP76.7m, compared with GBP299.7m in 2007. Pre-tax profits and one-time elements for the asset management and private banking divisions totalled GBP289.5m, compared with GBP307.8m, while pre-tax profits for the group, after GBP167.4m in one-time charges, come out to GBP123.1m, compared with GBP392.5m. Assets as of 31 December totalled GBP110.2m, compared with GBP139.1m.Schroders states that it has posted net outflows of GBP3.8bn, compared with GBP10.6bn in 2007, for the institutional branch, while the retail branch showed outflows of GBP6.2bn, compared with net subscriptions of GBP8.8bn.
12/02/2009

France - UFG withstands market conditions thanks to diversification

?The fact of being multidispliplinary has made us able to hold out fairly well,? said Xavier Lépine, chairman of UFG, on Wednesday. The management firm may have seen net redemptions of EUR1.86bn from alternative management in 2008, bringing total assets in this area down from EUR3.54bn at the end of 2007 to EUR1.49bn at the end of 2008, but these outflows were partly compensated for by net subscriptions in all other professions: real estate (+EUR402m), securities (+EUR664m), private equity (+EUR28m), and insurance (+EUR163m). In total, UFG had net redemptions for the year of only EUR612m, and has seen a decline in its assets to EUR19.5bn, from EUR21bn at the end of 2007.In January of this year, although outflows have continued for alternative management (-EUR84bn), UFG has posted net subscriptions of EUR812m, largely in securities, which have brought assets back above the EUR20bn threshold.In 2009, UFG will enrich its product range with a new theme: socially responsible investment. The firm has acquired a majority stake in Sarasin AM, the French affiliate of the Swiss firm Sarasin, from which it will create a management firm, UFG Sarasin, which will start out with EUR500m in assets.As a part of this project, all equities management at UFG will be ?SRIzed,? in the words of Bertrand Fournier, chairman of the board at Sarasin AM. But SRI is also applicable to other asset classes managed by UFG. In real estate, the firm has recently launched an SRI OPCI fund (see article dedicated to the subject). SRI projects are also under consideration in private equity and alternative management.
12/02/2009

United Kingdom - Deutsche Bank launches CROCI Asia-Pacific fund

Deutsche Bank Fund Solutions has raised USD24m since its launch on 19 January, and is now releasing its new DB Platinum CROCI Asia Pacific Fund, aimed at institutionals, in Luxembourg and Singapore. The product is available in other European and Asian countries in the form of a private investment.The fund replicates the Deutsche Bank CROCI Asia Pacific Fund (CROCI is an abbreviation for Cash Return on Capital Invested), which aims to identify equities for which the valuations are the most attractive in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan. The portfolio includes 30 positions, from a universe of 150 shares with the largest floats.Deutsche Bank states that management commission for the institutional portion of the fund is 0.75%, and that the fund, in keeping with the UCITS III directive, offers daily net asset value reporting.
12/02/2009

United States - Madoff scandal will hurt scientific and medical research

According to experts in the world of philanthropy, the Madoff scandal will affect millions of people, since it will cost charities and endowments at medical and scientific research institutions in nearly all areas from diabetes to palliative care, the Wall Street Journal reports. The victims of the fraud include big names in philanthropy such as Mortimer Zuckerman, Leonard Feinstein and Carl Shapiro, and also... the Bernard L. And Ruth Madoff Foundation.
12/02/2009

Germany - Delta Index launches a German-language CFD platform

The Irish leveraged product broker Delta Index on Wednesday opened its German-language X-Deal platform for contracts for difference (CFD), on which it is possible to trade about 500 CFDs initially. Transaction costs for orders on X-Deal are 0.1% of the volume traded.Delta Index states that it has about 3,000 clients in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Hungary.
12/02/2009

Germany - Results down at DekaBank

For 2008, DekaBank has posted ?economic? profits (the sum of pre-tax IFRS and total valuation of financial instruments) of EUR167.9m, which represents a fall of 67.3% from 2007 results, and, despite net losses ?of an amount in the low hundreds of millions of Euros,? the asset management firm for the German savings banks is planning to pay out an unchanged dividend, totalling about EUR30m.Net subscriptions fell 84.4% to EUR1.94bn (for securities as well as real estate), while assets as of 31 December totalled EUR142.5bn, which represents a 13.8% decrease in one year. Gross inflows to open-ended funds fell to EUR48bn, from EUR49bn in 2007.
12/02/2009

United States - Putnam to lay off 10% of staff

Robert L. Reynolds, president and CEO, announced on Thursday that Putnam Investments (USD101bn in assets) will be laying off 260 employees, equivalent to about 10% of its personnel. The measure will primarily affect distribution and operational areas, but some sales staff will also be cut, Pensions & Investments reports. In addition, Putnam will be scaling down its distribution efforts outside the United States.
12/02/2009

World - Credit Suisse/Tremont index up 0.8% in January

According to preliminary estimates on the basis of 58% of assets in the sample, the Credit Suisse/Tremont hedge fund index is estimated to have earned performance of 0.80% in January. The two strategies that have posted the best results are convertible arbitrage (+7.43%) and global macro (+2.54%), while the heaviest losses were for multi-strategy funds (-1.59%) and long/short equity (-1.17%).
12/02/2009

Luxembourg - Regulator calls for liquidation of Herald (Lux)

The Luxembourg financial sector surveillance commission (CSSF) on 10 February decided to withdraw the Sicav Herald (Lux) from trading and to require its liquidation. The US Absolute Return Fund, a sub-fund of the Sicav, was exposed to Bernard Madoff.The verdict comes as a part of an effort ?to establish the responsibilities of various parties in relation to the Herald (Lux) and its depository bank, HSBC Securities Services (Luxembourg) S.A., and to better safeguard the rights of investors,? the regulator explains.
12/02/2009

United Kingdom - Arques acquires BSM from Aviva group

The German private equity firm Arques Industries has announced that it has acquired the British School of Motoring Ltd for an undisclosed amount from RAC plc, an affiliate of Aviva. The driving instruction network employs about 2,700 monitors and operates 100 service centres. It is the leader on the British market, with a market share of about 10%, and revenues of GBP34m in 2008. Arques states that, in keeping with its business model, it has acquired BSM without debt. For Aviva, the sale is a part of a move to concentrate on its core activities.
12/02/2009

United States - Fidelity appoints interim bond CIO

Following the retirement of Dwight Churchill, 55, Fidelity Investments has appointed Charles Morrison as its interim CIO for bonds, Handelsblatt reports. Morrison will also continue to serve as head of money market fund management.
12/02/2009

United Kingdom - FSA had concerns about HBOS as early as 2002

The Financial Times reports that the Financial Services Authority was concerned about risk management at HBOS as early as 2002, it emerged on Wednesday. At the same time, Sir James Crosby, former CEO of the bank, resigned from his position as vice-chairman of the FSA, in the wake of accusations that he ignored warnings about the rapid growth of HBOS.
12/02/2009

Spain - Assets and net outflows decrease in January

According to the Spanish Inverco association of management firms, total assets in funds at the end of January totalled EUR227.62bn, which is EUR1.19bn or 0.52% less than at the end of December. For securities funds, assets under management, at EUR165.39bn, were down by EUR2.24bn, or 1.3%, in one month, while net redemptions, at EUR1.81bn, were at their lowest levels since July 2007, with the exception of August 2008. In January, net subscriptions totalled EUR156m for long-term bond funds and EUR53m for emerging market bonds.Assets in Sicav funds, for their part, increased by EUR192m to a total of EUR26.97bn as of the end of the month, while assets in real estate funds fell by EUR152m or 2.1% to more than EUR7.25bn. Lastly, assets under management by foreign management firms are estimated by Inverco at EUR28bn at the end of January, or EUR1bn, (3.7%) more than at the end of the previous month.
12/02/2009

World - Firms with a sustainable development bias outperform others

According to a study by A.T.Kearney entitled ?Green Winners: The Performance of Sustainability-focused Companies in the Financial Crisis,? which surveys 99 of the largest firms considered ?sustainable? by dint of featuring on the Dow Jones Sustainability or the Sustain Focus List from Goldman Sachs, share prices in this category outperformed their sectoral averages by an average of 15% in 16 out of 18 industrial sectors, in the period from May to November 2008. In terms of market capitalisation, this outperformance corresponds to an average of USD650m per firm.
12/02/2009

United Kingdom - Standard Life reimburses clients of a fund

Standard Life will spend GBP100m to reimburse investors in the Pension Sterling Fund, a money market fund which was supposed to be a safe investment but which in fact lost money through investments in exotic products, the Financial Times reports. In one day, the fund lost 4.8%, as Standard Life revised its valuations of asset-backed securities (ABS) which constituted half of its portfolio.

Sujets d'actualité

Tous les sujets