p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } The Luxembourg investment fund indsutry has had “a historic year in 2014,” according to the Association of Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI). For the first time, assets under management in Luxembourg-registered funds have topped EUR3trn, with a total of EUR3.095trn as of the end of December 2014. “More than half of this growth, or 52%, was due to inflows of new money from investors,” ALFI comments. Luxembourg last year confirmed its place as the top centre for investment funds in Europe. According to the association, “with a market share of 42% for net inflows of new capital to all Euorpean reguated investment funds up until the end of the month of November, investments in Luxembourg-registered funds were more than twice as high as for the next investment fund centre. … An average of 100 new funds promoters choose Luxembourg to domicile their funds each year,” said Marc Saluzzi, chairman of ALFI, at the traditional year-opening press conference. Luxembourg also appears to have benefited from the introduction of the European alternative investment fund management (AIFM) directive. “With 183 alternative investment funds licensed at present, we hold third place in Europe, after the United Kingdom and France,” Saluzzi says.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } In 2014, the French asset management firm Sycomore posted net inflows of EUR350m. These inflows went largely to the flexible equity/cash fund Sycomore Partners (EUR140m), the flexible discretionary fund Sycomore L/S Opportunities, and the socially responsible fund Sycomore Sélection Responsable. As of the end of 2014, assets at Sycomore totalled EUR2.5bn, compared with EUR2.2bn as of the end of 2013, and EUR1.6bn as of the end of 2012. In 2015, the managers at Sycomore feel that it is time to turn to equities with fully-invested funds. With this in mind, they will be promoting the euro zone equity funds Sycomore European Growth and Sycomore European Recovery, the French equity funds Sycomore Francecap and Sycomore Sélection Responsable.

Guggenheim Partners has sold Guggenheim Global Trading (GGT), a standalone multi-strategy trading platform based in Purchase, NY, to an investor group led by GGT management. The new business will operate under the name of Deimos Asset Management. Deimos will retain the current senior management team of GGT, led by Loren Katzovitz and Patrick Hughes. Mark Standish, former Co-CEO of RBC Capital Markets, will also join Deimos as a Managing Partner.

Rothschild & Cie Gestion is focusing on its international development, while not neglecting France.At the end of 2014, the French asset management firm had assets under management of EUR24.2bn, after posting net inflows of EUR1.6bn in 2014. EUR1.1bn of these inflows came through institutional and distribution channels, including EUR860m from French clients, and the remainder international. The remaining EUR500m come from private clients.The weight of international clients might have been larger if Rothschild & Cie Gestion had not suffered a setback due to the introduction of RDR legislation in the United Kingdom, and a decision by a major player to close its open architecture in 2014. But the firm may console itself with good results in Switzerland (+EUR142m) and Italy (+EUR121m), where it has local offices in each country with two people, as well as in Benelux (EUR112m), a market which the firm ‘works’ from Paris.At any rate, Rothschild & Cie is looking far beyond the borders of France. In Europe, it has opened an office in Germany, which will soon have two members. Further off, Jean-Louis Laurens, the head of the firm, also confirms to Newsmanagers that it plans to open an office in China.In terms of management, the United Kingdom is where the firm has shifted into aggressive mode. Last year it founded an entity in London to develop a smart beta activity. The London-based structure, entitled isk Based Investment Solutions, has high ambitions. Laurens expects higher total net inflows for the firm in 2015 than last year, “of which a significant part will be due to the entity based in London.”Clearly, these projects will require recruitments of personnel. In addition to two people in Germany and the addition to the firm’s presence in Switzerland and Italy, London, where the firm currently has three people, will soon grow to 12. Paris and conviction-based management will not be left out. Laurens plans recruitments for the management team, particularly for fixed income. The head is also planning to double up on the distribution sector, where he says the asset management firm does not have the market share it deserves.

In January The Pimco Total Return Fund had outflows of approximately -USD11.6 billion, and the fund had assets of USD134.6 billion at the end of the month.The new outflows were lower than the USD19.4 billion in December. But January was the 21st consecutive month of withdrawals from Pimco’s flagship fund, according to the Wall Street Journal. The fund delivered a net after fee return of +3.99% in the four months since the end of September, outperformed its benchmark, and generated +1.11% above the Morningstar Intermediate-Term Bond Average during that period. Last month, the Fund returned 2.64%, net of fees, and excess returns of 0.54% above its benchmark and 0.89% above the Morningstar category.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } The US asset management firm State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) on 3 February announced that it has reduced its management fees for 41 ETF of its SPDR range, including products which invest in a wide range of domestic and international asset classes. The total expense ratio, which previously ranged from 0.12% to 0.59% for the various products, now ranges from 0.10% to 0.50%. The funds affected by this reduction in management fees are not available in Europe.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } 2014 was a vintage year for Fidelity in France. “2014 has been a very good year in terms of inflows,” says Christophe Gloser, chairman of Fidelity France, during a conference held in Paris. “We had inflows of USD1.4bn last year, which will go down as an exceptional year for Fidelity in France.” The asset management firm posted USD400m in subscriptions to bonds, while the remainder went to equities. “Our first product was US equities,” says Gloser. Fidelity now has USD9.7bn in assets under management, a record for the asset management firm in France.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } Banco Santander is continuing to negotiate the merger of its asset management affiliate with Pioneer Investments, the asset management firm of the UniCredit group, Bluerating reports, citing the CEO of the Spanish firm, Jose Antonio Alvarez. Alvarez adds that the deal “makes a lot of sense.”

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } UBS Global Asset Management Italia has recruited Luca Matassino as its new head of advisory business, Bluerating reports. Matassino, who joins from Fidelity, will work from Milan as part of the wholesale activity led by Giovanni Papini. He will be responsible for overseeing relationships with all distribution channels in Italy: financial adviser networks, private bankers, and advisers. “The arrival of Luca coincides with the launch of a growth plan which will have the objective of developing the wholesale market in Italy,” says Papini. “Our goal in 2015 is to strengthen the team dedicated to distribution. This comes as part of a larger strategy to extend our activity worldwide.”

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } The Scottish asset management firm Aberdeen Asset Management on Tuesday, 3 February announced the appointment of Val Rahmani to the position of non-executive director, effective from 2 February 2014. Rahmani joins the innovation and risk committee at the asset management firm. Rahmani is currently non-executive director of the Canadian IT company Teradici Corporation. She was previously CEO of Damballa, a US firm specialised in internet security software, but she spent most of her career at IBM, where she worked for 29 years, until her departure in 2009.

Aberdeen Asset Management has been feeling the cold. The Scottish asset management firm on Tuesday, 3 February, announced net outflows of GBP4.8bn in the first quarter of its fiscal year, ending on 31 December 2014.Gross inflows totalled GBP11.3bn in the past three months, while redemptions totalled GBP16.1bn. Aberdeen funds underwent GBP3.3bn of net outflows, while funds from SWIP (Scottish Widows Investment Partnership) had more than GBP1.5bn in redemptions.All asset classes had outflows in the past quarter. Redemptions totalled nearly GBP900m from equities, and about GBP1.6bn from bonds. The Solutions unit at Aberdeen, meanwhile, has seen nearly GBP2bn in redemptions, and real estate has seen net outflows of nearly GBP400m.In this context, and despite a market effect of GBP1.3bn and a currency effect of GBP2.4bn, assets under management are down, to GBP323.3bn as of 31 December 2014, compared with GBP324.4bn as of 30 September 2014.Aberdeen AM explains that this negative performance is a result of turbulence on emerging markets at the end of the year, and that investor confidence has been fragile with respect to ongoing concerns in Europe. “Aberdeen is in good shape,” Martin Gilbert, its CEO, claims nonetheless. The asset management firm had posted GBP20bn in outflows in its 2013/2014 fiscal year, ending on 30 September 2014.

La Banque populaire de Chine (PBoC) a annoncé mercredi un abaissement du coefficient des réserves obligatoires des banques, le premier en son genre pour l’ensemble du secteur bancaire depuis mai 2012. Le ratio diminuera de 50 points de base, à 19,5%, dès jeudi. Certaines banques rurales et locales bénéficieront d’une baisse supplémentaire de 50 pb, et l’Agricultural Bank of China verra son taux abaissé de 400 pb.

Le Crédit Foncier a présenté mercredi son étude annuelle sur les marchés immobiliers résidentiels et d’entreprise en France. «Les loyers réels des bureaux continuent à baisser avec des écarts importants entre loyers réels et loyers faciaux pouvant aller jusqu’à -30 % à La Défense», fait valoir l'étude. Une situation qui contraste avec la hausse de 50 % de l’investissement en immobilier d’entreprise en 2014, à 22,5 milliards d’euros. Celle-ci «est portée par une abondance de liquidités à placer et une prime de risque immobilier (par rapport au rendement des emprunts d’Etat) qui bondit pour les produits core : 283 points de base fin 2014 à comparer à 76 points de base en moyenne en 2008», souligne le Crédit Foncier.

La Bourse annonce mercredi la création de son Comité des utilisateurs. Consultatif, celui-ci aura pour mission de conseiller l’entreprise de marché «dans ses initiatives, ses nouveaux produits ou services, ou son positionnement compétitif (...). Il sera consulté sur des sujets d’intérêt majeur pour les utilisateurs d’Euronext et se réunira tous les trimestres à compter du premier trimestre 2015», souligne un communiqué. Présidé par Inès de Dinechin, administrateur indépendant d’Euronext London et ancienne patronne de Lyxor AM, le comité compte 18 membres, représentant des émetteurs, des intermédiaires et des gérants. La Banque de France, l’AMF, l’Agence France Trésor, Euroclear France, et LCH Clearnet SA, sont également conviés en qualité d’observateurs.

Pimco Total Return, le principal fonds du gérant obligataire, a subi 11,6 milliards de dollars de retraits en janvier, ce qui marque son 21e mois consécutif de décollecte. En ralentissement cependant, par rapport aux 19,4 milliards enregistrés en décembre.

L’AMF et la Banque de France ont annoncé mardi l’installation du Haut comité juridique de la Place financière de Paris, dont la première réunion a eu lieu le 28 janvier. Créé sous l’impulsion des deux autorités, ce comité «permettra d’anticiper les évolutions internationales et de préciser les positions juridiques de la place financière de Paris», souligne un communiqué. «Il a décidé d’engager sans attendre une réflexion sur le droit des titres», indique Michel Prada, son président.

La banque privée du Crédit Agricole estime qu’elle devrait doubler à un horizon de 3 à 4 ans le montant de ses encours investis dans le non-coté au sens large, a indiqué à Bloomberg Olivier Carcy, responsable mondial du private equity au sein de l’activité. Leur volume devrait ainsi atteindre 4 à 5 milliards de dollars dans le monde, contre 2 milliards aujourd’hui.

Emission inaugurale à 30 ans réussie pour l’Irlande. Alors que le rendement des 4 milliards d’euros d’obligations a été fixé à 2,088% - un niveau plus bas que celui des titres espagnols et italiens de même maturité sur le marché secondaire - la demande a dépassé les 11,2 milliards d’euros au moment de la clôture des livres d’ordres, selon un banquier cité par le Wall Street Journal.

Choix assumé ou contraint par les politiques des banques centrales, l'achat d'emprunts d'Etat à taux négatif a plusieurs causes, selon JPMorgan.

Guerre des changes et baisse du prix des matières premières forcent les banques centrales à réagir.

Guerre des changes et baisse du prix des matières premières forcent les banques centrales à réagir.

Les associations bancaires réclament un assouplissement du ratio à 16% des actifs pondérés et aucune réglementation nationale supplémentaire.

L’agence a passé plusieurs accords aux Etats-Unis pour un montant total de 1,5 milliard de dollars, d’une fois et demie le résultat attendu de sa maison mère.

L’agence a passé plusieurs accords financiers mardi avec les autorités pour un montant total d’une fois et demie le résultat attendu de sa maison mère.

Après avoir réalisé une collecte nette de 1,6 milliard en 2014, la société cherche des relais de croissance en distribution externe et dans le smart beta.

Le débat continue sur la relance du marché de la titrisation. La Commission en a fait sa priorité pour l'union des marchés de capitaux.

Troquer une part de la dette grecque contre des obligations indexées sur la croissance permettrait d'éviter les risques liés à l'austérité.

Romain Roucoules quitte la Compagnie Financière Jacques Coeur chez qui il a travaillé pendant 9 ans. Il en était le directeur depuis janvier 2014. Selon nos informations, la société de gestion italienne Eurizon Capital, basée au Luxembourg, vient de le recruter afin de prendre en charge du développement de la clientèle distribution et institutionnelle en France.

Finance Innovation, seul pôle de compétitivité mondial dédié aux métiers de l’économie et de la finance, lance à partir du 22 janvier 2015 un appel à projets d’envergure nationale. Cet appel à projets vise à identifier des projets innovants portés par des entreprises des secteurs financier et industriel, pour relever les défis de l’économie et de la finance.

La Mutuelle Prévifrance avait mené un appel d’offres restreint sur la multigestion actions lors du premier trimestre 2014. Pour l’aider dans son processus de sélection la mutuelle s’est appuyée sur les services du consultants AC2F - AIC (Alpha Institutionnels Conseils). AAAdvisors a remporté l’appel d’offres pour la gestion d’un fonds de fonds dédié actions monde. L’encours serait de 35 millions d’euros.