p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } After two years of absence, Aviva Investors is returning to Italy, Bluerating reports. “Aviva Investors was present in Italy from 2006 to 2012 with a team specialised in the retail segment and EUR1.5bn in assets,” Manuel Della Corte, director of development for Switzerland and southern Europe, tells the website. “In 2012, the firm decided to close all of its foreign affiliates to focus on the United Kingdom, which affected not only the Milan office, but also the ones in Frankfurt and Madrid,” he continued. Aviva returned to Italy in May this year. “Now, there are two people dedicated to this market: Aurelia Sax and myself, which means that we don’t have enough resources to dedicate to retail,” Della Corte explains. “For the moment, we are therefore concentrating on the wholesale segment, but we have the objective of starting to serve investors again in the next six months, via distribution agreements.” However, there are no plans to reopen offices in Milan. Activities will be coordinated from Zurich.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } Natixis Global Asset Management (NGAM) has announced the appointment of Markus Bertl to the position of head of wholesale sales for Germany. He will report to Jörg Knaf, head for northern Europe. Bertl will be responsible for the development of distribution activities in Germany, largely serving family offices, wealth managers, fund of fund managers and private banks. Bertl joins NGAM From UBS Germany, where he was client relationship manager, responsible for relationships with private banks.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } The investment fund industry in Spain is approaching EUR200bn in assets. According to provisional data released by Inverco, the Spanish asset management association, assets under management in the sector totalled EUR192.59bn as of the end of November, up by 1.1% compared with the month of October, and 25.2% compared with the end of 2013. This growth is partly due to net inflows of EUR898m in the past month, the 23rd consecutive month of positive net inflows. The only drawback is that it is the lowest monthly level of net inflows recorded for the market since January 2013. This total of EUR898m stands in strong contrast with the performances recorded since the beginning of the year, as net inflows have reached or exceeded EUR3.3bn seven times in 2014, with a peak at EUR4.33bn in July.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } Aviva Gestion, the Spanish affiliate of Aviva Investors, has appointed Beatriz Camacho as its new chief investment officer, the specialist website Funds People reports. Camacho worked for a long time at Aviva, where she was a bond manager and head of the matching and special products activity. Two months after losing its CEO, Carlos Franco Suances, Aviva Gestion also tells the Spanish website that the position of CEO was currently being served by managing director José Caturla.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } The ETF sector is expected to continue to grow. Institutional investors are expected to increase their allocations, the size of funds is expected to increase, and ETF promoters are expected to win market share from other active or passive asset managers. Notwithstanding rough weather on the markets, the growth of the ETF sector is expected to total 10% to 15% in 2015 in the United States, 20% to 25% in Europe, and 25% to 30% in the Asia-Pacific region, a survey carried out by EY of 60 providers, investors, market makers and providers of active services on both sides of the Atlantic and in the Asia-Pacific region finds. Issuers participating in the survey represent 84% of total assets in the sector. The survey finds that pension funds and insurers may increase their exposure to ETFs. Half of institutional investors surveyed are planning to increase their allocation to ETFs in the next 12 months. The European market is facing a series of specific challenges, the study finds. The fragmentation of the European market is continuing to slow the development of the market, with small and mid-sized funds complicating the search for efficiency. Liquidity, also a point of concern, is another major obstacle to the development of the market. Another European problem is cross-listing, which forces market-makers to buy and sell the same product on different markets. That leaves the retail market, which represents 15% of the total, compared with 45% in the United States. However, says EY, the European market remains attractive, largely due to the different tax regimes applied to US and European funds. US providers are continuing to add to their European product ranges, and to keep their ears to the ground for potential acquisitions. The information deficit could be in some way resolved with the recent launch of an analysis platform for European ETFs by Koris International, which, however, will be reserved for institutionals.

Loomis, Sayles & Company has announced that Scott Service has been named co-portfolio manager on the following suite of investment strategies managed by the company’s global bond team: Loomis Sayles Global Bond Fund (LSGLX), all institutional global aggregate strategies and all world government bond portfolios. Scott Service, a long-time global credit strategist and portfolio manager on the global bond team, joins co-portfolio managers Lynda Schweitzer, David Rolley and Ken Buntrock on the Global Bond Fund. Prior to this promotion, he was already a co-portfolio manager on several of the team’s other global credit strategies. Together, the team oversees approximately USD38 billion in global assets. Scott Service reports to Jae Park, chief investment officer. Scott Service, a member of the global bond team since 2004, remains co-portfolio manager on the team’s global credit and global corporate strategies. He joined Loomis Sayles in 1995 and was promoted to credit analyst in 1999. Between 2001 and 2003, Scott Service worked in Paris for Loomis Sayles’ parent company, Natixis Global Asset Management.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } A few weeks after signing up for its first investment with Focus Asset Managers, the sub-fund dedicated to equities of Emergence, a market Sicav launched in 2012 for incubation and development of young entrepreneurial asset management firms, has announced that it has made an investment of EUR35m in Financière Arbevel. The independent asset management firm, founded in 1997, was taken over in late 2008 and early 2009 by Jean-Baptiste Delabare and Sébastien Lalevée. “Financière Arbevel then had about EUR25m in assets under management at the time of its takeover, and we are now at nearly EUR300m,” says Delabare, chairman of the firm and head of private management. Now, the contribution from Emergence allows us to clearly establish ourselves above this symbolic level of EUR300m.” Financière Arbevel now has 12 employees, 5 of whom are dedicated to collective management. Emergence ‘Actions’ is contributing EUR35m to the capital of the Pluvalca AllCaps fund, a vehicle dedicated to French equities, whose objective is to earn higher returns than the SBF 120 benchmark index. “The contribution from Emergence allows us to take a critical step in the development of the company and the fund in particular, whose assets increased from EUR20m to EUR50m,” says Delabare. “This is a good sign for the development of the company in the coming years.”

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } The Belgian asset management firm Petercam will recruit a salesperson in Italy and another one in Germany. As a consequence, it will have two employees in each of these countries. The Italian market is now served from Milan by Alessandro Fonzi, while the German-speaking countries are served by Tomas Meyer, based in Frankfurt. The addition to international sales teams comes at a time when the Belgian press has been echoing rumours of a merger between Petercam, which had EUR14.37bn under management as of the end of June, and Banque Degroof, whose assets total about EUR28bn. “The two Belgian brands have the same professions in common (private banking, institutional management, corporate finance) as well as independence,” L’Echos remarks in an article on the subject. However, their cultures seem quite different.

Outflows from Pimco’s Total Return fund slowed in November, to USD9.5 billion, following record withdrawals after Bill Gross’s abrupt departure September 26. “Outflows from the Total Return Fund continued to slow significantly in November, ending the month 65% lower than flows the previous month,” said Daniel Tarman, a Pimco spokesperson. In October, outflows had reached USD27.5bn, after USD23.5bn in September. octobre, les rachats nets avaient atteint 27,5 milliards de dollars, après 23,5 milliards de dollars de sorties en septembre. Pimco Total Return has USD162.8 billion under management, far from theUSD293bn as of the end of April 2013.The Pimco Total Return Fund delivered a net after fee return of +1.00%, and excess returns above the benchmark of +0.29% for the month of November.

A group of investors, an NGO, a think tank and an investor research agency, today announce the launch of the first wide-scale project to rank companies on their human rights performance. A total of 500 of the top global companies from four key sectors - Agriculture, ICT, Apparel, and Extractives - will initially be researched and ranked. “The Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) will harness the competitive nature of the markets to drive better human rights performance, namely through developing a transparent, publicly available and credible benchmark,” according to a press release. Over the next three years the six organisations, making up the CHRB Steering Group, will conduct a worldwide consultation on the methodology and results with diverse stakeholders, and incrementally collect and release information on 500 companies’ human rights performance. Information will be made available through an open source, online portal to empower the range of business and human rights advocates among companies, investors, governments, local communities and NGOs."Our ranking will reward good practice by companies, and create a major incentive for poor performers to improve rapidly. The ranking will be a tool for campaigners, trade unions, investors and governments to encourage and press companies to deliver respect, dignity and essential freedoms to their workers, neighbouring communities, and the societies in which they invest,» said Phil Bloomer of Business and Human Rights Resource Centre.Steve Waygood of Aviva Investors added : «Our Benchmark will introduce a positive competitive environment as companies try to race to the top of the annual ranking.» The Benchmark portal will be housed on the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre website at: http://business-humanrights.org/en/corporate-human-rights-benchmark&nbs… partners are the following:• Aviva Investors is a global asset management business dedicated to building and providing client focused solution and part of Aviva plc, one of the UK’s largest insurance services providers.• Business and Human Rights Resource Centre is an international NGO that tracks the human rights impacts (positive & negative) of over 5600 companies in over 180 countries making information available on its seven language website. • Calvert Investments is an investment management firm and leader in sustainable and responsible investment strategies. • EIRIS is a global leader in the provision of environmental, social, governance (ESG) research for responsible investors.• The Institute for Human Rights and Business is a global «think and do» tank that provides a trusted, impartial space for dialogue and independent analysis to deepen understanding of human rights challenges and the appropriate role of business. • VBDO is the Dutch association of investors for sustainable development that aims at a sustainable capital market, considering financial as well as non-financial ESG criteria.

The Lancashire County Pension Fund and the London Pensions Fund Authority have announced the first stage in the development of an Asset and Liability Management Partnership, which would pool combined assets of over GBP10bn to deliver cost savings and improve performance. The central proposal is to create a commonly managed, jointly invested pool of assets overseen by an FCA registered entity created by the two pension funds. Each pension fund will retain its separate identity and local accountability. It could also ultimately cover all areas of activity involved in the running of the pension funds, including pension administration.

S&P Dow Jones Indices has launched the S&P 500® VEQTOR Switch Index, an index that seeks to simulate a dynamic portfolio that allocates between equity and the CBOE Volatility Index® (VIX® Index) based on realized volatility in the broad equity market. The allocation to the equity component of the S&P 500 VEQTOR Switch Index is dynamically adjusted to gain exposure to the S&P 500 with a target volatility of 10%. The remainder of the Index is allocated to the S&P 500 VIX Futures Long/Short Switch Index which allocates between cash and one-month VIX futures with the aim of capturing:

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } The Norwegian public pension fund may in the future invest in infrastructure to diversify its investments. The fund, supplied by the oil revenues of the country, has about NOK6.067rtn (EUR697bn), and is expected to be invested outside Norway in equities for 60%, bonds (35%) and real estate (5%), according to the current mandate awarded to the Norwegian central bank.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } Aviva is taking action. One week after announcing its plans to acquire the Friends Life Group, the British insurer has announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire its counterpart for about GBP5.6bn (EUR7.1bn). Aviva is thus completing the largest acquisition operation in the British insurance sector for 15 years. Aviva is offering 394 pence per share for Friends Life, a premium of 15% over the closing share price of Friends Life on 20 November. By the terms of the agreement, each shareholder in Friends Life will receive 0.74 new Aviva shares for each share in Friends Life owned, while shareholders in Friends Life will control nearly 26% of the merged company. Through this operation, the new Aviva gorup “secures its leading position in insurance and savings in the United Kingdom, with 16 million clients” the insurance company says in a statement. Aviva gets 5 million clients on the Friends Life books, The transaction also allows Aviva to add a new dimension to the British life insurance market, where it becomes a “leader in the area of corporate retirement planning.” The merger allows Aviva to “add about GBP70m in assets under administration at Friends Life in the United Kingdom, for an increase in its assets under management of 29%, and a total of about GBP309bn.” This is therefore a windfall for Aviva Investors, its asset management affiliate, which has since January 2014 been led by Euan Munro.

L’euro a touché un plus bas depuis août 2012 face au dollar mercredi matin à la veille d’une réunion mensuelle de la BCE au cours de laquelle la banque centrale ne devrait cependant pas annoncer de programme d’achats de dette souveraine, selon les économistes. Vers 13 heures, la monnaie unique traitait à 1,2324 dollar.

Le chancelier de l'Echiquier George Osborne devrait reconnaître aujourd'hui le dérapage des finances publiques. Un déficit largement structurel.

Le spread entre les taux 2 et 10 ans est au plus bas depuis fin 2008 en France et en Allemagne.

Le spread entre les taux 2 et 10 ans est au plus bas depuis fin 2008 en France et en Allemagne.

Comme Focus AM, la société de gestion recevra un apport d’encours de 35 millions d’euros de la part du compartiment «Actions» de la Sicav de place.

Le gouvernement allemand devrait approuver dans la journée de nouvelles incitations fiscales pour l’achat de véhicules électriques par les entreprises. Une mesure qui vise à relancer le marché des batteries et à réduire les émissions polluantes. L’objectif du gouvernement consiste à mettre au moins un million de véhicules électriques sur les routes allemandes d’ici 2020.

Le fonds souverain de Singapour va débourser 8,1 milliards de dollars. L'opération devrait être finalisée au premier trimestre 2015.

Pimco Total Return Fund a enregistré 9,5 milliards de dollars de retraits le mois dernier, son dix-neuvième mois de décollecte consécutif.

Le normalisateur comptable international a signé un partenariat pour mieux communiquer avec une dizaine de groupes représentants du buy-side.

La Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) du Luxembourg a mis en place une procédure accélérée (fast track) pour étudier les demandes des fonds Ucits qui souhaitent bénéficier du Stock Connect des Bourses chinoises. L’Alfi, l’Association des fonds luxembourgeois, en a fait l’annonce hier alors qu’un premier fonds Ucits a reçu le feu vert du gendarme des marchés.

Le Lancashire County Pension Fund (LCPF) et la London Pensions Fund Authority ont présenté hier un partenariat visant à combiner leurs actifs pour créer un acteur gérant 10 milliards de livres. Chaque fonds de pension gardera son identité juridique. Les promoteurs du projet espèrent notamment pouvoir rivaliser avec la concurrence des grands fonds souverains lorsque des opportunités d’investissement se présentent, notamment dans des classes d’actifs illiquides.

La Bourse paneuropéenne lancera le 9 décembre Euronext Expert Market, une plate-forme de trading électronique pour les titres non listés. Basée à Bruxelles, elle se substituera à l’actuel Marché des ventes publiques du groupe en Belgique, où ces opérations étaient traitées à la voix.

La Grèce a rejeté hier l’alourdissement de sa fiscalité et les baisses de revenus demandés par ses bailleurs de fonds internationaux, jugeant que ces mesures auraient un impact désastreux pour le pays. Des divergences persistantes font douter que les deux parties puissent se mettre d’accord d’ici la date limite du 8 décembre et permettre ainsi à la Grèce une sortie anticipée, avant la fin de l’année, de son programme d’aide international.

Philippe Maupas, président du CFA Society France, analyse les points clés de l’évolution du marché de la distribution sur lesquels les acteurs devront rapidement se pencher pour survivre.

Que retenir de ces deux jours de séminaire, des rencontres avec des professionnels de la multigestion, et des présentations de 9 gérants de fonds de performance absolue et des différents intervenants ?

Le Lancashire County Pension Fund (LCPF) et la London Pensions Fund Authority ont annoncé aujourd’hui un partenariat visant à combiner leurs actifs pour créer un acteur gérant 10 milliards de livres. Chaque fonds de pension gardera son identité juridique. Les promoteurs du projet espèrent notamment pouvoir rivaliser avec la concurrence des grands fonds souverains lorsque des opportunités d’investissement se présentent, notamment dans des classes d’actifs illiquides. C'était également le souhait de Boris Johnson, le maire de Londres, qui nomme le président de la London Pensions Fund Authority.