Ed O’Reilly, le responsable marketing et commercial pour l’Amérique de Capula, un hedge fund européen de 10 milliards de dollars, va quitter la société où il a passé cinq ans, a appris Financial News. Sa destination n’est pas connue.
Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP), a relevé sa tarification sur son trust immobilier dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à quelque 2,5 milliards de livres, rapporte Investment Week.C’est une collecte de 200 millions de livres au cours des six derniers mois qui a poussé SWIP à revoir ses prix à la hausse. Le fonds, géré par Gerry Ferguson, a dégagé une performance de 10,2% sur les douze mois au 10 décembre, alors que le secteur immobilier affiche un rendement moyen de 4,6%.
Manulife Asset Management (Manulife AM) vient de recruter Michelle Ng en provenance de chez Mercer au poste de responsable du portefeuille spécialisé en allocation d’actifs en Asie. Sa mission sera d’aider à la gestion des solutions de multi-assets dans la région en ciblant à la fois la clientèle de particuliers et les investisseurs institutionnels. Cette arrivée doit permettre à Manulife AM d’accélérer son développement en Asie, qui représente 4,6 % (ou 5 milliards de dollars) des actifs sous gestion totaux de son portefeuille mondial dédié aux solutions.
La société de gestion suédoise spécialisée sur les marchés émergents Tundra Fonder a recruté le Pakistanais Shamoon Tariq en tant que gérant et analyste, rapporte realtid.se. Il travaillera sur les marchés frontières. Tundra Fonder a lancé depuis sa création en 2011 six fonds et gère aujourd’hui 600 millions de couronnes d’encours.
La société de gestion suédoise Didner & Gerge a recruté un ancien gérant des fonds nordiques de Nordea, Carl Granath, rapporte Fondbranschen. Et ce, dans la perspective de lancer un nouveau fonds en 2014.
Le plus gros fonds de pension de Taïwan, le Labour Pension Fund (LPF), dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à 21 milliards de dollars, vient de lancer un appel d’offres pour quatre mandats de gestion dans l’immobilier et les infrastructures pour un montant de 400 millions de dollars, rapporte Asian Investor.Chaque mandat s'élève à 100 millions de dollars et porte sur une durée de cinq ans. Les candidats doivent disposer d’une présence à Taïwan et gérer au moins 5 milliards de dollars. Les dossiers peuvent être présentés jusqu’au 21 janvier.
Pour remplacer Alfred Ritter, qui exerçait la fonction depuis 2009 et qui prend sa retraite, la Banque cantonale de Bâle (BKB) a recruté Sandro Merino comme directeur des investissements (CIO), poste qu’il prendra au 1er janvier 2014. Il sera responsable avec son équipe des portefeuilles institutionnels et retail tant de la BKB que de la filiale de cette dernière, Bank Coop.Sandro Merino vient de chez le gestionnaire d’actifs zurichois Arecon. Il a occupé de 2000 à 2012 des postes de responsabilité dans la gestion de fortune chez UBS.
La banque Reyl & Cie se réorganise, indique Le Temps. Elle a nommé Dominique Paladini, actuel directeur d’exploitation (COO), en tant que directeur général ad interim pour remplacer François Reyl, retenu en France par sa mise en examen dans l’affaire Cahuzac, a expliqué la banque mercredi.
Hedge funds have attracted USD360bn in inflows this year, an increase of 15.7% compared with their asstes as of 2012, and despite performance inferior to equity markets, according to Preqin, cited by the Financial Times. One quarter of these are planning new fund launches next year, and a large majority are anticipating further inflows from high net worth private and institutional investors.
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has announced that the bank is prepared to pay fines concerning allegations that it did not notify the US authorities that it thought Bernard Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme, the Financial Times reports. JPMorgan is in negotiations to settle with the US Department of Justice, according to sources familiar with the matter. Dimon said that he would pay to settle the Madoff case, although the bank has maintained for five years that the accusations are baseless.According to the Wall Street Journal, JPMorgan would pay more than USD1bn.
For EUR3208m, the retirement fund management firm Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has acquired a 15% stake in the Orpea company, one of the European leaders in the management of dependents (retirement companies, retirement clinics, and psychiatric rest homes) from Dr. Jean-Claude Marian, founder and chairman of the board at the firm, and the Santé Finance et Investissement company. The firm is listed on Euronext Paris (ISIN : FR0000184798). At the conclusion of the operation, Dr. Marian will remain a shareholder in Orpea, with a stake of 8%, and will retain his position as chairman of the board of directors; he has committed to retain shares in Orpea for a minimum period of 18 months. CPPIB, a long-term international investors, with CAD192.8bn in net assets under management, has an investment portfolio composed of public and private companies, bond and real estate securities, totalling USd22bn. As of 30 September 2013, investors in CPPIB in Europe totalled USD19.4bn.
The head of institutional business development, Albert Stöger, who joined Erste Asset Management (EAM), the largest Austrian asset management firm, in 2009, was on 1 November 2013 promoted to head of international institutional business steering.It is a newly-created position, in which Stöger, based in Vienna, will monitor the European markets in which EAM is not yet represented with sales teams. In addition, he wll be responsible for co-ordinating the operations of institutional sales teams in various countries, particularly those of central and eastern Europe.
La société de conseil Fifth Third Asset Management, spécialisée sur la clientèle institutionnelle, a été renommée ClearArc Capital.La modification est effective immédiatement et s’inscrit dans la volonté du groupe de proposer non seulement des services d’investissement traditionnels mais également des solutions plus sophistiquées à destination des clients institutionnels.
At a time when in Germany, open-ended real estate fund have posted inflows of nearly EUR3.16bn in the first ten months of the year, Netherlands real estate funds have in the first three quarters of this year seen net redemptions of EUR800m, compared with net subscriptions of EUR1.2bn in the corresponding period of 2012, according to the most recent statistical bulletin from the Bank of the Netherlands (DNB).The 204 “direct” real estate funds in the Netherlands as of the end of September had assets of EUR42.6bn, but total assets in real estate funds came to EUR88.1bn, counting EUR45.4bn in 161 “indirect” real estate funds.
Ed O’Reilly, head of marketing and sales for the Americas at Capula, a European hedge fund with USD10bn in assets, will be leaving the firm where he has spent five years, Financial News has learned. His destination is not known.
The Swedish asset management firm Didner & George has recruited a former Scandinavian fund manager from Nordea, Carl Granath, Fondbranschen reports. The move comes ahead of the launch of a new fund in 2014.
BNP Paribas Investment Partners (BNPP IP) has carried out a profound restructuring of its activities in Asia, merging sales teams and customer service, Asian Investor reveals. Meanwhile, the asset management affiliate at BNP Paribas has abandoned its sales approach centred on institutional investors, on the one hand, and retail and distribution clients on the other, to now concentrate its efforts on three client segments: large institutions (central banks, sovereign funds, etc), private bankers and family offices, and lastly, insurers and other foundations. The new team constructed to this end now has 45 employees, led by Chang Tan-Feng, who has become head of sales for Asia-Pacific. BNPP IP would like to scale up this team, with the recruitment of four salespeople in Hong Kong and one more in Singapore. The restructuring comes at a time when the asset management firm shows a decrease of 24.5% of its assets from clients in Asia-Pacific, which have fallen from USD74.1bn as of the end of 2012, to USD56bn as of the end of September 2013, Asian Investor reports.
The Swedish asset management firm specialised in emerging markets Tundra Fonder has recruited the Pakistani Shamoon Tariq as a manager and analyst, realtid.se says. He will work on frontier markets. Tundra Fonder has since its launch in 2011 released six funds, and now manages SEK600m in assets.
To replace Alfred Ritter, who had served in the role since 2009 and who is retiring, the Cantonal Bank of Basel (BKB) has recruited Sandro Merino as chief investment officer (CIO), a position which he will take up on 1 January 2014. With his team, he will be responsible for both institutional and retail portfolios for BKB and its affiliate, Bank Coop.Merino joins from the Zurich-based asset management firm Arecon. He served in positions of responsibility in wealth management at UBS from 2000 to 2012.
A growing number of family offices and foundations are taking an interest in private equity, according to a survey carried out by Private Equity International (PEI) and Montana Capital Partners. The survey finds that 30% of businesses in the sample consulted are at least 20% exposed to private equity. More than 50% of them have allocations of over 15%.These figures are much higher than the average hitherto. More than 53% of investors in private equity dedicate less thann 10% of their allocation to the asset class, according to another survey by PEI. The average allocation for pension funds and insurers comes to 7.3% and 3.6%, respectively, according to a PEI study which also indicates that the average allocation to private equity totals 14.7% for family offices and foundations.The PEI/Montana survey also finds that 39% of family offices say they are prepared to increase their allocation to private euqity in the next 12 months, while 29% would like to maintain their engagement at the current level. Most family offices interested in private equity (87%) use primary funds, but 53% invest through funds of funds.
The European funds industry enjoyed net inflows of EUR16.4 bn for October 2013, bringing the estimated net inflows for the year-to-date period to EUR167.7 bn, according to Lipper’s latest statistics. The inflows were mainly driven by inflows into equity funds while money market funds showed net outflows of EUR5.5bn.Even as equity funds showed impressive net inflows for October (+EUR15.2bn), bond funds—with estimated net inflows of EUR93.6 bn—remained the best selling asset class for 2013 year to date.Single fund market flows for long-term funds showed a mixed picture for October, with Spain (+EUR2.2 bn), the United Kingdom (+EUR1.1 bn), and France (+EUR0.7 bn) leading the table. Meanwhile, Portugal (-EUR0.3 bn), Germany (-EUR0.2 bn), and the Netherlands (-EUR0.2 bn) stood on the other side.BlackRock was the best selling group of long-term funds for October, with net sales of EUR6.8 bn, ahead of JP Morgan Asset Management (+EUR2 bn) and Schroders (+EUR1.1 bn).
Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) has revised the price structure for its real estate trust, whose assets under management total about GBP2.5bn, Investment Week reports. Inflows of GBP200m in the past six months have driven SWIP to revise its prices upward. The fund, managed by Fary Ferguson, has earned returns of 10.2% in the 10 months to 10 December, while the real estate sector shows average returns of 4.6%.
With the Market Vectors Emerging Markets Aggregate Bond ETF, Market Vectors ETF (Van Eck Global group) is launching an emerging market debt fund (ticker code on NYSE Arca: EMAG), which charges a net 0.49% (at least, until 1 September 2015), and a gross 1.26%, and which replicates the Market Vectors EM Aggregate Bond Index (MVEMAG) index. The index covers emerging market government bonds denominated in US dollars and euros, government bonds in local currencies, corporate bonds denominated in US dollars and euros, and lastly, corporate bonds in local currencies. About 70% of issuers are investment grade, and about half of securities are denominated in US dollars or euros. As of 30 November, the five major issuers in the index are from Mexico (9.78%), Brazil (9.46%), Russia (9.30%), China (6.73%), and Poland (5.36%).The shareholders in the ETF Market Vectors LatAm Aggregate Bond ETF (BONO) will automatically be transferred to the new EMAG, with a conversion rate of one BONO share to one EMAG share.
Markman Peters, who joined Jefferies & Co in 2009 to develop the wealth management activity, has left the firm to join a hedge fund, according to reports released by Reuters. The head is joining Whippoorwill Associates, a hedge fund founded by Shelley Greenhaus in 1990. Jefferies states that the responsibilities of Peters will temporarily be taken over by Frank Scheuer, chief operating officer of the wealth management activity. Jefferies, which has offices throughout the United States, is planning to open an office in Hong Kong in the next few months.
Pogdan Popescu, Steve Lamarque and Eric Gairin, all three former employees at the Skandia group, have teamed up to create the structured product engineering firm Hilbert Investment Solutions based in Paris. They are offering products based on all types of underlying assets, aimed at independent financial advisers, institutionals and private management teams at banking networks. Popescu, who had been head of sales for France, Switzerland and Benelux at Skandia Investment Group, and whose arrival at the firm was anticipated by Newsmanagers, will handle the sales portion. Lamarque, who had been head of the financial product structuring under the Skandia – Old Mutual name, will be responsible for structuring. Lastly, Eric Gairin, who had been head of marketing and sales at Skandia Life, Old Mutual group, will be responsible for the marketing portion.
After gains of USD57.5bn in October, assets under management by AlianceBernstein, Franklin Templeton, Invesco and Legg Mason have posted more modest growth of USD10.8bn in November. As of the end of November, their cumulative assets totalled USD2.7596trn, an increase of 0.4% month on month.The winner is Legg Mason, which has seen an increase in its assets of USD4.8bn, to a total of USD674.7bn in November, while Invesco as posted growth in its assets under management of USD3.4bn, to a total of USD767.3bn. At Franklin Templeton, the increase in assets under management has been considerably more modest: it totals USD1.6bn, bringing total assets to USD870.6bn. Lastly, driven by the market effects which were responsible for a “modest outflow” in November, AllianceBernstein has managed to increase its total assets by USD1bn to USD447bn.
The US asset management firm Russell Investments has appointed Josh Cohen to the position of head of its defined-contribution retirement operation for institutional investors. With 20 years of experience in the sector, Cohen will aim to assist and accelerate the development of Russell in retirement service. The defined-contribution operation at the asset management firm represents USD24bn in assets under management globally, and USD130bn in assets advised in the United States as of the end of September 2013.
Manulife Asset Management (Manulife AM) has recruited Michelle Ng from Mercer as head of the portfolio specialised in asset allocation in Asia. His mission will be to assist with the management of multi-asset solutions in the region, targeting both retail and institutional clients. His arrival will allow Manulife AM to accelerate its development in Asia, which represents 4.6% (or USD5bn) of total assets under management in its global portfolio dedicated to solutions.
Alan Flanagan, global head of product management for alternative investment services, has announced that BNY Mellon has launched a new service aimed at fund managers, to allow them to identify, aggregate and manage their regulatory reporting requirements under the European alternative investment fund management (AIFM) directive. To this end, BNY Mellon will work with clients of its fund administration services to collect and aggregate the necessary data from the various sources concerned (alternative managers, administrators, custodians, prime brokers and risk vendors). Lastly, MNY Mellon will take responsibility for filling out the AIFM regulatory report, which will need to be verified, approved and submitted to the relevant national authorities.
The largest pension fund in Taiwan, the Labour Pension Fund (LPF), whose assets under management total USD21bn, has launched a request for proposals for the management of real estate and infrastructure totalling USD400m, Asian Investor reports.Each mandates totals USD100m, and runs for five years. Candidates are requires to have a presence in Taiwan and to manage at least USD5bn. Applications may be submitted until 21 January.