Schroders a annoncé le 13 novembre sa décision d’internaliser sa gestion en obligations convertibles, déléguée depuis début 2008 à un partenaire extérieur, la société suisse Fisch Asset Management.Peter Reinmuth, actuel gérant des fonds «phare» de la gamme, Schroder ISF Global Convertible Bond et Schroder ISF Asian Convertible Bond, intégrera ainsi le gérant britannique le 29 novembre 2013. Il sera accompagné de deux autres experts de Fisch AM (dont un membre de l’équipe de trading), ainsi que d’un gérant externe, tous appelés à rejoindre le groupe britannique d’ici à fin novembre pour gérer les véhicules existants. L’équipe de gestion sera répartie entre Zurich et Singapour et sera placée sous la responsabilité du français Philippe Lespinard, CIO Fixed Income de Schroders. Schroders gère près de 1,5 milliard d’euros en obligations convertibles et affiche en 2013 une collecte nette de plus de 500 millions d’euros sur cette classe d’actifs. La gestion en obligations convertibles constitue un axe de développement majeur pour Schroders, qui bénéficiera non seulement du savoir-faire de cette nouvelle équipe, mais aussi des expertises existantes du groupe britannique dans les gestions de crédit et en actions. Les fonds dédiés à cette classe d’actifs actuellement offerts au sein de la SICAV luxembourgeoise de Schroders, Schroder ISF Global Convertible Bond et Schroder ISF Asian Convertible Bond, se distinguent déjà par des encours sous gestion importants (respectivement de 1,5 milliard d’euros et 115 millions d’euros sous gestion). Lancés en mars 2008, ces fonds ont affiché ces cinq dernières années des performances annualisées de respectivement +10,9% et +11,8%, pour des volatilités annualisées associées de 9,6% et 9,2%.

M&G Investments prévoit de lancer un nouveau fonds de rendement afin de muscler sa gamme multi-classes d’actifs, est en mesure de révéler Citywire. Le fonds, M&G Income Allocation fund, attend encore l’agrément des autorités. Il sera géré par Steven Andrew.

La boutique britannique James Hambro & Partners vient de recruter Christopher Macklin, un ancien gérant de portefeuille de Schroders Private Bank, en tant que business development manager, rapporte FundWeb.Christopher Macklin, dont la principale mission sera de développer les activités avec la clientèle, sera directement rattaché à Tim Broughton.Les actifs sous gestion et conseillés par Hambro & Partners s'élèvent à 1,2 milliard de livres.

finews rapporte que Crédit Agricole Suisse a recruté comme nouveau responsable de la division clients privés Patrick Ramsey, qui sera la tête de l'équipe banque privée pour la Suisse Abou Dhabi, Beyrouth, Dubaï, Hong Kong et Singapour. Il sera subordonné à Hervé Catala, CEO de Crédit Agricole Suisse.Jusqu'à présent, Patrick Ramsey était directeur général de Barclays Bank (Suisse), head of wealth management Switzerland et country managers de Barclays Group pour la Suisse. Il avait auparavant été CEO de Merrill Lynch pour la Suisse.D’autre part, Crédit Agricole Suisse a embauché Hans Diederen comme directeur de la banque privée pour l’Asie, sous les ordres de Patrick Ramsey, tandis que Youssef Dib a été nommé responsable des particuliers très haut de gamme (UHNWI). Hans Diederen était aupravant chez Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Youssef Dib étant pour sa part, global coordinator chez BNP Paribas Private Banking.

As announced to Newsmanagers by George Muzinich (see Newsmanagers of 7 October), the New York-based asset management firm Muzinich & Co (USD25bn in assets) has launched its Emerging Markets Short duration Bond Fund, which, as its name indicates, invests in a diversified portfolio of investment grade and high yield short-duration corporate bonds, issued by companies focused on emerging markets.For the new Luxembourg-registered fund, managed by Warren Hyland and Christina Bastin, which prefers bonds in hard currencies, for the moment only a super-inistitutional S share class (IE00BCCW0T67), with a minimal subscription of USD100m, has been launched. These shares charge 0.5%, but A shares in US dollars, euros and pounds sterling charge 0.8%. Assets total about USD60m.

On 12 November, NYSE Euronext admitted a 558th ETF to trading on the European markets, in Amsterdam. It is a FinEx fund, the Fin Ex HELD Gold, whose ticker is FXGD and which replicates the morning gold fixing in London (Gold London AM fixing). The total expense ratio totals 0.45%.Elsewhere, 15 new Netherlands-registered funds from SNS Beleggingfondsen (non-ETF) have been admitted to the NYSE Euronext NAV Trading Facility (formerly Euronext Fund Service of EFS). This brings the total number of non-ETF funds listed on the platform to 209. The list of new products is available in the attached pdf document.

Lazard Asset Management has launched a UCITS version of its Global Hexagon equity strategy, Fundweb reports. The long/short fund, Lazard Global Hexagon Equity, invests worldwide, including in emerging markets. The portfolio manager, Jean-Daniel Malan, will manage the fund.

A regain in interest in European equities has given an unexpected boost to a long neglected segment: 130/30 funds, Financial Times fund management reports. For example, the Europe Equity Plus fund from JPMorgan, launched in 2007, has seen its assets leap to USD1.25bn, although it had only USD24m in December 2012.

The index provider Solactive AG on 12 November announced the appointment of Barbara Mahe as head of public relations (PR) and marketing, from 1 November 2013.Mahe, who will be based in London, previously worked for S&P Dow Jones Indices, as PR manager.

Ulrich Köhne has decided “for personal reasons” to resign from his position as a managing board member at Union Investment Asset Management Holding, effective from 30 November, the group announced on 12 November. Köhne was chief financial officer since 2003.In the interim until a successor can be appointed, the responsibilities of the outgoing man will be distributed among other managing board members.

BNY Mellon has been awarded a Capital Markets Services licence by the Monetary Authority of Singapore for its new dedicated Singapore-based subsidiary to provide fund management services in Singapore. The licence was approved on 11, November 2013.With the new licence, the Singapore subsidiary, BNY Mellon Investment Management Singapore Pte. Limited, will be able to conduct a full range of investment management activities, including research, portfolio management, marketing and sales of collective investment schemes. BNY Mellon Investment Management has been offering global investment solutions to institutional investors in the region through its investment boutiques.BNY Mellon employs over 450 people in the city.

The British firm F&C Investments on 11 November announced plans to launch a new fund for its multi-asset class targeted risk fund, which already includes four products. The F&C MM Lifestyle Foundation Fund will be the least risky of the range, with an allocation to cash/fixed income of 64.3%, a proportion of equities of 27.7%, and a proportion of real estate of 8%. Each fund invests in a basket of 35 to 40 funds or instruments, and the range currently weighs about GBP435m.

M&G Investments is planning to launch a new income fund as an addition to its multi-asset class range, Citywire reports. The fund, M&G Income Allocation fund, is still pending permission from the authorities. It will be managed by Steven Andrew.

The British boutique James Hambro & Partners has recruited Christopher Macklin, a former portfolio manager from Schroders Private Bank, as business development manager, Fundweb reports.Macklin, whose primary mission will be to develop activities with clients, will report directly to Tim Broughton.Assets under management and advised by Hambro & Partners total GBP1.2bn.

Net inflows to equity funds are on track to reach their highest levels since 2000, according to the most recent edition of the Pridham Report. According to statistics from the British investment management association (IMA), net inflows to equity funs have already topped GBP8bn in the first nine months of the year. In third quarter, Standard Life Investments tops the rankings for sales with net inflows of GBP819.9m. It is followed by Schroders with GBP622.1m, Artemis (GBP498.5m), Henderson (GBP481.9m) and BlackRock (GBP471.8m).

finews reports that Crédit Agricole Switzerland has recruited Patrick Ramsey, who will be head of the new Swiss private banking division as well as for Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore, as its new head of the private clients division. He will report to Hervé Catala, CEO of Crédit Agricole Switzerland.Ramsey was CEO of Barclays Bank (Switzerland), head of wealth management Switzerland and country manager at Barclays Group for Switzerland. Before that, he was CEO of Merrill Lynch for Switzerland.Crédit Agricole Suisse has also recruited Hans Diederen as director of private banking for Asia, who will report to Ramsey, along with Youssef Dib, who has been appointed as head of ultra-high net worth investors (UHNWI). Diederen was previously at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, while for his part, Dib was global coordinator at BNP Paribas Private Banking.

The European private equity investor 3i on 11 November announced that it had completed its acquisition of the intrastructure operation of the British Barclays group, at Barclays Infrastructure Funds Management.The activity includes four private funds, which invest in British and European PPPs as well as in energy projects, and which have assets under management of GBP780m.The Barclays entity will be renamed as 3i BIFM, and will be integrated into the 3i infrastructure activity led by Cressida Hogg. The team dedicated to infrastructure will be based at the London and Paris offices of 3i.

Rob Geeraets, director of institutional sales at F&C, after working at Lombard Odier and Kas Bank, has been recruited as director for the newly-created position of head of distribution at Affiliated Managers Group (AMG) for Benelux, Fonds Nieuws reports. Geeraets will report to Jenny Segel, director of distribution for Europe at AMG.

The Lyxor Hedge Fund Index posted a positive performance of 1.58% in October (+4.80% YTD).Equity strategies generated strong performance. L/S Equity Long bias was up 1.6% in October (13% YTD).The CTA Long Term returned 4.03%), but is down 2.37% year to date.

Investors have regained confidence in the global economic outlook following resolution of the U.S. debt crisis, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey, carried out between 1 and 7 November, of a sample of panelists with USD599bn in assets under management. With political paralysis in Washington overcome, a net 67 percent of respondents now expect the world’s economy to strengthen over the next 12 months – up a notable 13 percentage points from October. In an important new question for the survey, investors were asked when the U.S. Federal Reserve will begin “tapering” its bond purchases – a signal that the central bank views economic conditions as robust enough to lessen its support. Forty-eight percent see this happening next March. Eighteen percent expect it in the second quarter of 2014.Investors increased their equity allocations slightly during the month to a net 52 percent overweight, while also upping their underweight in bonds. Their biggest shift was into global emerging markets equities, where they returned to a net overweight, while strong overweights in eurozone and Japanese stocks were moderated slightly. Strikingly, a small net majority of asset allocators now view equities as overvalued. This marked the first such reading on this measure since March 2004, but regionally, Europe is still considerably undervalued compared to the U.S. Over the month, fund managers also shifted their preferences strongly between global emerging markets. Reflecting the restoration of a potential hard landing in China as the greatest tail risk globally, emerging markets specialists scaled back their overweight in the country substantially to a net 11 percent, down 45 percentage points. China replaced Russia as their top pick among the BRIC markets on a 12-month basis, however.

The alternative investment management association (AIMA) has announced the appointment of Jack Inglis as head of the professional association, according to a statement released on 11 November.Inglis, who is expected to begin in his duties in early 2014, was previously head of distribution for prime services and a member of the global executive board for prime services at Barclays.Inglis will succeed Andrew Baker, who had been head of the association since the beginning of 2009.

The asset management unit at UniCredit, housed at Pioneer, recorded net inflows of EUR7.7bn in the first nine months of the year. Captive and non-captive clients both contributed to inflows, the Italian bank says. As of the end of September, assets under management totalled USD168.9bn, up 7% since the beginning of the year (+EUR11bn), also due to positive currency effects (+EUR3.3bn).

According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, Gérard Moulin is leaving Delubac Asset Management this Wednesday. He is reportedly leaving to “manage much more” at another firm.It is thus not entirely by chance that Delubac AM on 12 November announced the arrival of Timothée Malphettes as head of equity management. Malphettes managed the Covea Equities Euro until his departure from Covea.The firm states that Malphettes will “aim to develop equity expertise at the structure, and will also manage the Delubac Pricing Power fund, alongside Séverine Alluin, co-manager of the fund since 2011.” The new recruit states that with Alluin, he will continue to “manage the Delubac Pricing Power fund with respect for the selection criteria of the companies that make its success.”

South Korea and Russia are expected to announce a joint fund of USD500m on Wednesday to stimulate trade and investment between the two countries, on the occasion of a visit to Seoul by Vladimir Putin, the Financial Times predicts. The fund, which will be financed and managed by the Russian Direct Investment Fund and the Korea Investment Corporation, comes as part of efforts to triple flows of direct investments between the two countries in the next two years.

Funds on sale in Sweden in October recorded net inflows of SEK4.1bn (EUR0.46bn), after SEK1.3bn (EUR0.15bn) in September, according to the most recent statistics from the Swedish fund association Fondbolagens Förening. Inflows were driven by balanced funds, which totalled SEK3.9bn (EUR0.44bn). Equity funds, for their part, took in SEK1.3bn (EUR0.15bn), due to Swedish equity funds and European equity funds. Money market funds, however, saw recemptions of SEK1.6bn. Year to date, funds on sale in Sweden have recorded net inflows of SEK62.8bn (EUR7bn), due to balanced and equity funds. As of the end of October, assets in funds on sale in Sweden totalled SEK2.389trn (nearly EUR270bn), about 55% of which is in equity funds.

Lyxor has launched the Lyxor UCITS ETF CSI 300 A Shares ETF in Sweden, Fondbranschen reports. The fund charges fees of 0.40%.

Funds People reports that Mutuactivos has notified the CNMV of its decision to open the liquidation period for its Mutuafondo Multimix fund of funds as of 7 November 2013. Due to the effects of redemptions and transfers to other funds from the group, assets in the product had fallen to EUR13.7m as of the end of June.As of the end of September, the Multimix posted returns of 4.25% since the beginning of the year. Its annualised performance over three and five years was 2.84% and 2.72%, respectively, according to calculations by the Inverco association of asset management firms.

After an increase of USD71.5bn in September, assets under management by Legg Mason, Invesco, Franklin Templeton and AllianceBernstein posted further gains of USD57.5bn in October, for a total of EUR2.7487trn. Overall, that represents an increase of 2.14% month on month.In detail, Franklin Templeton has posted gains of USD24.2bn in its assets in one month, to USD868.9bn, while at Invesco total assets under management as of the end of October totalled USD763.9bn, an increase of USD18.4bn compared with 30 September.At Legg Mason, the increase totalled USD13.9bn, for a total of USD669.9bn as of 31 October. Lastly, AllianceBernstein has posted gains of USD1bn to its assets, to USD446bn.

Atos has entered the close circle of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index World (DJSI), which from the 2,500 largest companies in the world, selects the 10% which are recognised as the best performers in terms of corporate responsibility, both from a governance and from an environmental and social point of view. This recognition represents a further step by Atos in terms of corporate responsibility. For three years, after a rating of A+ from the Global Reporting Initiative for its sustainable development report and the recognition awarded by the “Great Place to Work” institute to several of its affiliates, Atos would like to become a point of reference for the IT services industry.

Murielle Didier, head of multi-management clients and private banks for France and Monaco at ING Investment Management, after serving as a senior salesperson for these clients at BNP Paribas Investment Partners (initially Fortis IM), is joining JPMorgan Asset Management (JPMAM) in Paris, in the position of senior head of sales for the multi-management and distributor client segment. Her arrival brings personnel on the dedicated team to four.