Royal London Asset Management va fermer son fonds UK Ethical Equity après cinq ans, ce qui va permettre à son gérant Mike Fox de se concentrer sur le trust Sustainable Leaders de la société (536 millions de livres), rapporte Investment Week. Le fonds de 35 millions de livres avait été lancé le 9 mai et il sera liquidé le 31 août.

BMO Global Asset Management a lancé la première gamme au Royaume-Uni d’ETF Enhanced Income, rapporte fund strategy. Les ETF couvrent le Royaume-Uni, l’Europe et les Etats-Unis et fournissent une exposition actions avec un haut rendement durable venant des dividendes employant un overlay « call option ». Les ETF sont les suivants : BMO Enhanced Income USA UCITS ETF, BMO Enhanced Income UK UCITS ETF et BMO Enhanced Income European UCITS ETF.

Le gestionnaire d’actifs Polar Capital a annoncé, ce 13 juillet, que ses actifs sous gestion ont atteint le seuil des 10 milliards de livres au 30 juin 2017, contre 9,3 milliards de livres à fin mars 2017. Au cours du trimestre écoulé, la société de gestion a enregistré une collecte nette de 456 millions de livres. Elle a également pu compter sur un effet marché positif de 253 millions de livres pour gonfler ses encours d’un trimestre sur l’autre.

Le gestionnaire d’actifs écossais Aberdeen Asset Management (Aberdeen AM) a nommé Steen Foldberg au poste de responsable du Luxembourg et « managin director » d’Aberdeen Global Services, la société de gestion transfrontaliére du groupe, rapporte InvestmentEurope. L’intéressé sera rattaché à Gary Marshall, responsable des produits chez Aberdeen. Steen Foldberg arrive en provenance de Julius Baer où il était « managing director ».

US private equity firm Industrial Opportunity Partners, LLC, of Evanston, Ill., announced the closing of its third fund, Industrial Opportunity Partners III, L.P., with USD450 million of committed capital. IOP held a single close on June 30, 2017, achieving its hard cap for Fund III after a three-month fundraising process, and exceeding Fund III’s original target of USD400 million. Investors include university endowments, foundations, insurance companies, pension plans, and funds-of-funds.Founded in 2005, IOP focuses on acquiring and overseeing middle-market manufacturing and value-added distribution businesses with revenues typically between USD30 million and USD350 million. IOP primarily targets North American businesses with strong product, customer, and market positions.

AdvisorShares, a sponsor of actively managed exchange-traded funds (ETFs), announced today that the AdvisorShares New Tech and Media ETF (Ticker: FNG) will begin trading on Wednesday, July 12, 2017. The ETF will seek to provide a similar return stream to the performance of today’s technology and media equity leaders as popularly characterized by the FANG stocks acronym, representative of the first letters of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google (now Alphabet). FNG is managed by Sabretooth Advisors, LLC. In pursuing its investment objective, the actively managed FNG seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in U.S. equities, and internationally through American depositary receipts (ADRs), of technology and technology-related companies including social media and internet retail companies within the information technology and consumer discretionary sectors. FNG employs a quantitative process to select equities in the ETF’s portfolio, with a technical analysis overlay for entering and exiting individual positions in the portfolio.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System reported a preliminary 11.2 percent net return on investments for the 12-month period that ended June 30, 2017. CalPERS assets at the end of the fiscal year stood at more than USD323 billion. The strongest returns came from the Public Equity Program, which generated a 19.7 percent return. Private Equity’s preliminary net returns were 13.9 percent, followed by Real Estate, with preliminary net returns of 7.6 percent.Additional returns include Fixed Income, which earned 0.3 percent, while Inflation Assets lost 2.7 percent for the fiscal year.This brings Total Fund performance to 8.8 percent for the five-year time period, 4.4 percent for the 10-year time period, and 6.6 percent for the 20-year time period.

UBS Asset Management announced that its wholly foreign-owned enterprise (WFOE), UBS Asset Management (Shanghai) Limited, has been granted a Private Fund Management (PFM) license from the Asset Management Association of China (AMAC). The license allows the WFOE to offer onshore fixed income, equity, and multi-asset private funds to both institutional and high net worth investors in China."UBS Asset Management is the first international manager with a QDLP quota to receive a PFM license in China’s onshore market,» said Rene Buehlmann, Group Managing Director, Head Asia Pacific at UBS Asset Management."UBS Asset Management has been serving China investors since the 1990s. With the addition of the PFM license, augmented by our other platforms in China, we can provide a broad range of services to onshore and global clients. It also allows us to work more closely with subsidiaries of global firms in China to meet their domestic investment needs,» he added.In 2005, UBS AM entered into a joint venture with the State Development & Investment Corporation (SDIC), to form UBS SDIC Fund Management Co. Ltd, which offers onshore mutual funds. In addition, in 2011, UBS Asset Management (China) Limited was established as WFOE in Beijing to provide investment management and advisory services for alternative investment.

Equity funds in the week to 12 July posted net inflows of USD4.9bn, according to a weekly study by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, on the basis of data from EPFR Global. This is the fifth consecutive week of positive inflows. Equity ETFs are rallying, with USD6.2bn in subscriptions, compared with USD1.3bn in redemptions from mutual funds.US equity funds show further redemptions of about USD700m, while European equity funds show inflows of about USD800m, wiping out negative flows in the past week, which had been the first in 15 weeks.Bond funds, for their part, posted inflows of USD4.4bn, for 17 weeks of positive inflows. This level was achieved despite the largest weekly outflows from high yield funds in 17 weeks (-USD2.1bn).

The Italian wealth management firm Hedge Invest Sgr, a specialist in alternative investments, is growing in the United Kingdom, Bluerating reports. The independent firm had previously been present only via a research and representative office. Hedge Invest Sgr now makes Principia Investment Management Limited, a firm it acquired in February 2017, based in London and licensed to perform outsourced fund portfolio management, personalised management mandate and consulting activities, operational. Principia has initially taken on the management teams for the HI Principia Fund and the HI Africa Opportunity Fund. The platform will be extended in the future.

Asset and wealth management activities at JP Morgan posted net results in second quarter 2017, with USD624m, up 20% compared with the same period of last year. The group has also reported a record volume of assets under management, with USD1.9trn, up 11% compared with second quarter 2016. The bank states that it has posted inflows of USD9bn to long-term products, but has seen USD7bn of redemptions from liquidity products. Quarterly net earnings for the unit total USD3.2bn, up 9% in one year. These are nearly evenly distributed between wealth management (USD1.651trn) and collective management (USD1.561trn).Groupe-wide, quarterly profits are up 13.4%, to USD7.03bn. Net banking proceeds, for their part, are up 5% to USD26.4bn. The bank has seen higher profits driven by interet rates, which have offset for a decline in bond trading activity.

The Board of Directors of The Vanguard Group last week elected Vanguard’s Chief Investment Officer Tim Buckley as president and director of Vanguard, and announced plans for him to succeed Bill McNabb as chief executive officer on January 1, 2018. Under the planned succession, Mr. Buckley, 48, will become the firm’s fourth CEO since its founding in 1975. Mr. McNabb, 60, who has served as Vanguard’s CEO since 2008, will remain as chairman of the board. Greg Davis, 46, global head of Vanguard’s Fixed Income Group, assumes the position of chief investment officer. Commenting on his decision to step down as CEO, Mr. McNabb said: “As the firm continues to grow, evolve and expand globally, it is the right time for a new leader and the Board is unanimous in its belief that Tim Buckley is the ideal next chief executive for Vanguard. I have worked alongside Tim for many years and he brings a strong passion for serving Vanguard clients and crew, a global mindset, and significant leadership experience in all facets of our operations.” Mr. Buckley has been a member of Vanguard’s senior leadership team since 2001 and has served as Vanguard’s chief investment officer since 2013. He joined Vanguard in 1991 as assistant to then Chairman John C. Bogle. He was elected as a principal of the firm in 1998, and subsequently held senior leadership roles in two divisions, including as chief information officer and head of Vanguard’s Information Technology Division from 2001 to 2006, and head of Vanguard’s Retail Investor Group from 2006 to 2012. Mr. Buckley is also a long-tenured member of Vanguard’s Global Investment Committee, which has oversight responsibilities for Vanguard’s in-house equity and fixed income management functions, as well as the 27 external investment advisory firms employed by Vanguard. Mr. Buckley earned an A.B. in economics from Harvard in 1991, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1996. Mr. McNabb joined Vanguard in June 1986 and became a member of Vanguard’s senior leadership team in 1995 as head of Vanguard’s Institutional Investor Group. He was named CEO in 2008 and chairman in 2009. As chief investment officer, Mr. Davis assumes oversight responsibility for more than USD3.8 trillion managed by Vanguard’s Fixed Income, Equity Index, and Quantitative Equity Groups. The more than 300 mutual funds and ETFs managed by these groups encompass active and index stock, active and index fixed income, money market, and stable value mandates.

In the first half of this year, the Swedish pension fund AP4 earned returns of 5.2% after costs, for gains of SEK17bn, or EUR1.8bn. Assets thus totalled SEK348bn, or EUR36bn, a new record. In the past ten years, AP4 has posted gains of 88% after costs, corresponding to average annual returns of 6.5%.

Investment funds on sale in Germany posted net subscriptions of EUR19bn in May 2017, according to the German investment fund association BVI. Out of this total, EUR10.9bn have been invested in open Spezialfonds, while open funds dedicated to retail investors represented EUR7.8bn, and closed funds represented EUR300m. In the retail fund category, bond and diversified funds accounted for the majority, with EUR3.5bn and EUR3.1bn, respectively. Institutional investors withdrew EUR1.3bn from discretionary mandates. In total, since the beginning of the year, German funds show inflows of EUR71.9bn. As of the end of May, the German fund sector represented assets of EUR2.9trn.

UBS Asset Management announced that its wholly foreign-owned enterprise (WFOE), UBS Asset Management (Shanghai) Limited, has been granted a Private Fund Management (PFM) license from the Asset Management Association of China (AMAC). The license allows the WFOE to offer onshore fixed income, equity, and multi-asset private funds to both institutional and high net worth investors in China."China is a key growth market for UBS Asset Management. Our goal is to be a leading asset manager in China for both onshore and offshore investors and a strong partner to Chinese clients investing overseas,» said Ulrich Koerner, President of UBS Asset Management.

Société Générale Private Banking Suisse (SGPBS), the Swiss arm of the private bank from the French group, on 13 July announced the appointment of Simon Ibbitson as its new head of private equity funds, from 1 July 2017. Ibbitson will be based in Zurich, and will work to develop the private equity range for the private bank in Switzerland. He will work in collaboration with Manuel Keiser, senior investment manager, who joined the Zurich team of SGBPS on 1 May 2017. Ibbitson is also head of private equity funds for all entities of the private bank of the Société Générale group internationally. In this role, he will oversee teams dedicated to this segment of activity in Paris and Switzerland. Ibbitson joins from Credit Suisse, which he joined in 2008. He participated in the creation of the wealth management private equty team at the Swiss group. He began his career in financial services in 1985 as a trader at Ackroyd & Smithers on the London Stock Exchange, before that firm was acquired by SG Warburg ni 1986. He then dedicated himself to equity and investment company portfolio trading before joining the private equity placement team at UBS, where he was in charge of UBS Banque Privée in particular. In 2003, Ibbitson joined UBS Banque Privée and became one of the five specialists who created the private equity team at UBS Banque Privée, within which he was director of customer service.

Société Générale has reached an administrative composition agreement with the French financial watchdog, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), the website of the latter agency reports. The agreement was reached on 5 April, but was publicly announced only on 13 July. The agreement includes payment by Société Générale of a sum of EUR450,000 to the French treasury, following a control in March 2015 of the compliance of Société Générale with its professional obligations. The diligence for this control mission was focused in particular on investment research and financial analysis activities carried out by the global research & strategy (GRS) department at the bank.According to the AMF, the aforementioned diligence found, first, shortfalls in the production of ratings, and secondly, shortfalls concerning the system for management of confidential information.The bank has stated that it will comply with the transaction proposed by the AMF, and emphasizes that “the control mission incurred neither damages, nor claims on the part of third parties as a result of the publication of research and analysis ratings by the GRS department, nor were any market abuses committed respecting the securities covered by these ratings.” The bank has also made various commitments to improve controlling of its investment research and financial analysis activities, which are more fully detailed in the composition agreement.

Dans un entretien à NewsManagers, Lars Dijkstra, CIO du groupe néerlandais Kempen Capital Management, fait le point sur l’année 2016 et le début de 2017. Il annonce le lancement prochain d’un fonds haut rendement et le recrutement d’une deuxième personne pour couvrir la France.

Le géant américain de la gestion d’actifs BlackRock a nommé Katie Petering en qualité de responsable des ventes auprès des sociétés de gestion en Australie pour iShares, sa filiale dédiée aux ETF, rapporte le site spécialisé Asian Investor. Basée à Sydney, elle est rattachée à Jon Howie, responsable d’iShares pour l’Australie. Précédemment, Katie Petering était responsable du département « private investors product » chez Goldman Sachs, poste qu’elle a occupé jusqu’en avril 2015.

Au premier semestre de cette année, le fonds de pension suédois AP4 a dégagé un rendement de 5,2 % après coûts, soit un gain de 17 milliards de couronnes suédoises ou 1,8 milliard d’euros. Ses encours sont ainsi ressortis à 348 milliards de couronnes, soit 36 milliards d’euros, un nouveau record. Sur les dix dernières années, AP4 a affiché un gain de 88 % après coûts, ce qui correspond à un rendement annuel moyen de 6,5 %.

Le gestionnaire d’actifs britannique Hermes Investment Management va céder à l’Office d’investissement du Régime de pensions du Canada (OIRPC ou CPPIB en anglais) une participation de 50% dans le complexe Milton Park au Royaume-Uni pour environ 200 millions de livres, a annoncé le fonds de pension canadien ce 14 juillet. « Milton Park est évalué à environ 500 millions de livres », précise l’OIRPC. Le solde de 50% reste dans les mains d’Hermes Investment Management. Situé dans la vallée de la Tamise, Milton Park abrite des sociétés internationales de science et de technologie ainsi que des entreprises en démarrage, dont certaines sont dérivées de l’Université d’Oxford. Ce complexe commercial, scientifique et technologique intégré compte quelque 250 organisations qui emploient plus de 9.000 personnes.MEPC Limited, un promoteur immobilier et gestionnaire d’actifs qui gère Milton Park pour le compte d’Hermes Investment Management, continuera d’exercer ses fonctions de gestionnaire et de promoteur pour la propriété conjointe.

Amundi a annoncé lundi sa volonté de renforcer ses liens avec State Bank of India (SBI) dans le cadre de leur co-entreprise de gestion d’actifs, SBI MF. Une première étape est désormais franchie avec le co-branding de deux compartiments de la Sicav luxembourgeoise Amundi Funds investis en action indiennes gérés par SBI MF. L’objectif consiste à faire de SBI MF le centre d’investissement en Inde couvrant toutes les classes d’actifs du pays.

Le Conseil de stabilité financière (FSB) a invité, dans un communiqué publié lundi matin, les compagnies d’assurance à débuter les efforts de mise en oeuvre de la nouvelle norme IFRS 17 sur les contrats d’assurance « le plus tôt possible ». Officiellement adoptée par le normalisateur comptable international, l’International Accounting Standards Board, en mai dernier, la norme IFRS 17 doit entrer en vigueur en janvier 2021. Elle est notamment décriée par les assureurs français qui estiment que ses exigences sont parfois déconnectées de la réalité de leur métier et que sa mise en oeuvre sera compliquée.

Le premier gestionnaire d’actifs au monde a annoncé lundi une hausse de 8% sur un an de son résultat net au deuxième trimestre, à 860 millions de dollars, et de 10% de son bénéfice par action. BlackRock affiche 5.689 milliards de dollars d’encours à fin juin, en progression de 5% sur le trimestre et de 16% sur un an.

L'industrie doit revoir son portefeuille de produits et se tourner vers le big data ainsi que l’intelligence artificielle.

L'industrie doit revoir son portefeuille de produits et se tourner vers le big data ainsi que l’intelligence artificielle.

La caisse de pensions du CERN (organisation européenne pour la recherche nucléaire) qui dispose de 4 milliards de francs suisses (3,7 milliards d’euros) d’actifs sous gestion, recherche un expert professionnel pour son comité de placements. La gouvernance du comité de placements réserve deux places pour des experts professionnels externes, qui ont été occupés par Pierre Sauvagnat, vice-président de la Banque Cantonale de Genève (BCGE) en charge des marchés financiers et du Trésor, et par Jayne Atkinson, directeur des investissements du fonds de pension Unilever UK. Une place est actuellement vacante. Le comité compte 5 membres au total, dont deux membres du conseil d’administration et un administrateur, ès qualités. Les membres du comité de placements sont nommés par le conseil d’administration pour une période de trois ans renouvelable une fois. Le comité est présidé actuellement par Alessandro Raimondo du CERN. Le comité de placements est chargé notamment de faire des propositions au conseil d’administration de la caisse de pensions concernant les principes d’investissements, de suivre la performance du fonds et de superviser la tolérance au risque de la caisse. Il se réunit au moins 6 fois dans l’année au CERN à Genève. Le candidat devra disposer « d’une expérience dans la gestion d’actifs d’un fonds de pension ou d’un investisseur institutionnel de long terme comme un fonds de dotation, une fondation ou un fonds souverain », précise un communiqué. Il est aussi préciser que le candidat devrait avoir une expérience dans un conseil d’administration et une bonne connaissance des comités d’investissement avec des compétences dans l’un des domaines : la gestion d’actifs, la construction de portefeuille, la gestion du risque, les actions, les produits de taux, l’immobilier, le private equity, les hedge funds, et les infrastructures.

Atteindre l’objectif du président Donald Trump d’une croissance de 3% aux Etats-Unis ces prochaines années sera un «vrai défi», a estimé jeudi Janet Yellen, la présidente de la Réserve fédérale. «Je pense que c’est quelque chose qui serait formidable si on peut y parvenir, a-t-elle dit devant une commission du Sénat au deuxième jour de son audition semestrielle au Congrès. Mais je pense que ce sera assez difficile.» Une analyse qui corrobore le discours tenu hier sur le rythme modéré du resserrement monétaire de la Fed.

Le fonds de pension du nord-est de l'Écosse (North-East Scotland Pension Fund, NESPF) a renforcé ses relations avec Russell Investments en lui accordant un mandat multi-crédits de 100 millions de livres (112,7 millions de livres), indique le site Funds Europe. L’investissement a été complété par un fonds commun, rendant la stratégie plus facilement accessible aux investisseurs institutionnels britanniques, explique le cabinet de conseil. Russell Investments gère 44 milliards de livres sterling (49,5 milliards d’euros) en revenus fixes.