UBS Global Asset Management has closed its UBS Global Diversified fund, which had been managed by Andreas Koester, who will continue to manage the UBS Global Allocation fund, Investment Week reports. The fund, which has only GBP1.58m in assets, had become economically unviable. UBS GAM has been reorganizing its fund range in the United Kingdom since last year.

Allianz Global Investors is continuing to redefine the borderlines between Pimco and Allianz GI, including the outsourcing of Allianz funds to Pimco, with a decision to transfer several bond funds managed by Pimco to Allianz Global Investors. All funds from Allianz with the Pimco brand name will be managed by Allianz by the end of this year. The funds concerned, whose strategies will not be modified, represent assets of about EUR4.6bn. Two of the most prominent managers at Pimco who will be replaced are Andrew Balls and Andrew Bosomworth. More precisely, the funds whose management will change hands are the following: - Adireth, previously managed by Andres Berndt, will now be managed by Mattias Grein; - Adirenta, previusly managed by Lorenzo Pagani, will be managed by Johannes Reinhard; - SGB Geldmarkt will be managed by Michael Verhoven; - Allianz Pimco Bondspezial, previously managed by Michael Sonner, will be managed by Ralf Jülichmanns and renamed as Allianz Bondspezial; -Allianz PIMCO Global Bond High Grade, previously managed by Thomas Kressin, will be managed by Lars Dahlhoff and renamed as Allianz Treasury Short Term Plus Euro; -Allianz Rendite Extra, previously managed by Andrew Bosomworth, will be managed by Michael Verhofen; -Allianz Pimco Pfandbrieffonds, previously managed by Kristion Mierau, will be managed by Christian Tropp; -Allianz Pimco Money Market fund will be managed by Lars Dahlhoff; -Allianz PIMCO Corporate Bond Europa, previously managed by Michael Sonner, will be managed by Laetitia Talavera-Dausse and renamed Allianz Corporate Bond Europa; -Allianz Pimco Corporate Bond Europa HiYield, previously managed by Axel Potthof, will be managed by Alexandre Caminade and renamed Allianz Corporate Bond Europa HiYield; -Allianz Pimco Multi-Strategie Investment Grade will be managed by Monica Zani; -Allianz Pimco Euro Bond, previously managed by Andrew Balls, will be managed by Franck Dixmier and renamed Allianz Euro Bond ; -Allianz Pimco Euro Bond Total Return, previously managed by Andrew Balls, will be managed by Franck Dixmier and renamed Allianz Euro Bond fund; -Allianz PIMCO Inflationsschutz, previously managed by Frederik Wemhöner, will be maanged by Ophélie Gilbert and renamed Allianz Inflationsschutz.

Marc Peterzens, head of Nordics at State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), has been recruited as head of institutional business for the Nordics and Benelux by Henderson Global Investors (HGI). He will be based in London and will report to Nick Adams, head of EMEA institutional.

Skandia has recruited the former executive director of Julius Baer, Stuart Clark, as head of research for investment solutions, Money Marketing reports. In his new role, Clark will be responsible for research for the new Select range. In addition to Julius Baer, Clark has also worked at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, UBS and BDO Investment Management. Last month, the vice chairman of Old Mutual Wealth, Peter Mann, announced that the new Select range would probably be named Wealth Select, and not Skandia Select, as initially planned.

Scottish Widows Investment Partnership has confirmed the departure of Calum Bruce, a senior manager in its real estate team, Financial News reports. This is the fifth departure of an investment professional from the firm, which is currently in a sale phase, in five months. Bruce has joined Ediston Real Estate. SWIP is being wooed by Macquarie and Aberdeen Asset Management.

Bedlam Asset Management has moved to close its business after the departure of its chief investment officer Ian McCallum led to fears of mass redemptions.This departure resulted in an automatic review both by large investors and by one consulting firm, whose clients account for over 40% of Bedlam’s AUM."As a result of the change, that consultant revised the recommendation on Bedlam to ‘sell’. Many clients are not allowed to invest with managers with such a rating, whether warranted or not. The result is that a considerable net outflow is expected, whilst potential new clients are almost certain to delay any investment decision. The consequences would be a material fall in fee income, with resultant losses at an unacceptable level. Thus although the reception from existing clients to recent performance has been universally good, and that from prospective investors better than for several years, the company now has almost nochance of achieving a sustainable critical mass», according to a statement.

Liontrust has published an increase of 326% to its adjusted pre-tax profits for the six months to 30 September, at GBP3.8m. This was driven by an increase of 66% in earnings and an increase in inflows.

The German firm Deka Immobilien has announced that for about EUR30m, it has acquired a 3,800 square metre office property in rue Nerviens in the Europe district of Brussels, from the insurer KBC. The property will be added to the portfolio of the open-ended real estate fund reserved for institutional investors WestInvest ImmoValue.

Unigestion, a Swiss asset management firm with EUR10.4bn in assets under management as of the end of September, has been selected to manage a fund of Swiss equities from the IST Investment Foundation for employee retirement planning, it has announced in a statement. Unigestion will be responsible for managing the new “IST2 Aktien Schweiz Minimum Varianz” fund. IST, the largest Swiss independent investment foundation, manages retirement planning capital totalling about EUR4.7bn, on behalf of 519 private and Swiss public savings banks.

The BNP Paribas Small Companies Netherlands (EUR35m) and BNP Paribas Netherlands (EUR250m) funds will be merged by BNP Paribas Investment Partners, Fonds Nieuws has announced, relaying reports in Morningstar, which has placed the products under watch. The two funds were inherited from Fortis Investments and ABN Amro Asset Management. The first was rated “neutral” and the second “negative.”

To satisfy demand from investors concerned by their exposure to interest rate risks and the negative impact of rising interest rates on their bond portfolios, Fidelity Investments, whose fixed income assets total about USD890bn, has launched three short duration mutual funds, bringing the number of such products to 13, with total assets of USD34bn. The products include the Fidelity Limited Term Bond Fund (ticker FJRLX), Fidelity Conservative Income Municipal Bond Fund (FCRDX) and Fidelity Short Duration High Income Fund (FSAHX). These products are managed by Robert Galusza, Doug McGinley and Matt Conti, respectively. The Limited Term Bond Fund charges 0.45%, while the Conservative Income Municipal Bond Fund has a total expense ratio of 0.40%.

US equity funds collected USD10.5bn in October, their highest monthly inflow since January 2013, according to the most recent monthly statistics from Morningstar for mutual funds. International-equity funds also had a solid month, leading all category groups with inflows of USD12.2 billion. Morningstar observes, however, that active U.S.-equity funds had strong monthly inflows for only the third time in 2013, a year many heralded as the great rotation into active strategies after years of passive-fund flow dominance. While the trend has not materialized, outflows from active equity funds have amounted to USD15.3 billion for the year to date compared with outflows of USD131.5 billion in 2012. Bond funds, for their part, have posted substantial outflows, starting with taxable bond funds, which finished October with redemptions totalling USD8.1bn, while municipal bond funds showed outflows of USD5.4bn. Since the beginning of the year, municipal bonds show outflows of USD43.9bn, while taxable bonds show inflows of only USD32.7bn. Vanguard dominated inflows at the provider level in October, collecting new assets of USD6.0 billion overall and led by inflows of USD2.1 billion for Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund. Vanguard’s market share of mutual fund assets stands at 17.5 percent, up from 15.6 percent three years ago. American Funds’ market share has fallen to 10.0 percent from 12.0 percent over the same period, and Pimco’s has dropped to 5.1 percent after peaking at 6.1 percent in late 2012.

The New York-based Global x Funds (USD2.5bn) has announced that on 13 November it admitted the first ETF dedicated to Portuguese equities to be launched on the United States market on the NYSE Arca platform, the Global X FTSE Portugal 20 ETF (ISIN code: US37950E1929), whose ticker is PGAL. The fund charges 0.61%. It replicates the FTSE Portugal 20 index, which reflects the performance of the 20 largest Portuguese caps listed on NYSE Euronext in Lisbon.

The Italian alternative asset management firm Hedge Invest SGR has announced the launch of a global macro strategy, the Hi Sibilla Macro Fund, which comes as an addition to the range from Hedge Invest in its Irish Sicav, Hedge Invest International Funds plc. Assets under management in the Sicav. Launched in October 2012, assets under management in the Sicav total EUR205m. The new strategy, manged by Lorenzo di Mattia, founder of Sibilla Capital, a company based in New York and registered with the SEC, aims for performance of over 10%, with volatility limited to 5% or 6%, decorrelated from equity and bond marktes. The fund aims for weekly liquidity.

T Rowe Price has launched the Global Industrials Fund (RPGIX), a fund which aims for long-term capital growth via investment in US and foreign companies within the industrial sector. The fund will invest at least 80% of its assets in securities issued by companies of the industrial sector, and at least 40% of its assets in securities from industrial companies outside the United States, with at least five different countries. The industrial sector includes air and defence, construction products and equipment, automotive, mechanical construction, electrical components and equipment, industrial technologies, transport, industrial conglomerates and manufacturers. The fund will bemanaged by Peter Bates, and is expected to have a total expense ratio of about 1.05%, with a minimum initial investment of USD2,500 or USD1,000 for a pension plan.

Pierre Moscovici, le ministre de l’Economie et des Finances, a signé avec l’ambassadeur des Etats-Unis d’Amérique en France l’accord de mise en œuvre de la loi Fatca (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) visant à développer l’échange automatique d’informations comme nouveau standard mondial pour lutter contre la fraude fiscale internationale. Le ministère précise que «la France continuera d’œuvrer pour faire en sorte qu’un projet multilatéral et réciproque d’échange automatique d’informations, sur un champ de revenus et d’actifs financiers aussi large que Fatca, voie le jour au niveau européen et au niveau mondial».

Le premier ministre irlandais, Enda Kenny, a confirmé devant son Parlement que le gouvernement ne demandera pas la mise en place d’une ultime ligne de crédit de précaution lors de la sortie du pays, mi-décembre, du programme de soutien de l’Union européenne.

Les prix à la consommation ont reculé en France en octobre de 0,1%. Il s’agit de leur deuxième repli consécutif après la baisse de 0,2% du mois de septembre. Sur un an, les prix à la consommation n’augmentent plus que de 0,6%, le rythme le plus faible depuis novembre 2009.

Le PIB de la zone euro n’a progressé que de 0,1% entre juillet et septembre par rapport au trimestre précédent, a annoncé Eurostat, l’office européen des statistiques. Un rythme plus faible que le chiffre de 0,3% enregistré au deuxième trimestre, période qui marquait la fin de la récession dans la zone euro après six trimestres dans le rouge. Les économistes interrogés par Reuters prévoyaient en moyenne une croissance à 0,2% d’un trimestre sur l’autre.

L'insee a souligné que l'investissement a baissé et les exportations ont rechuté entre juillet et septembre

Les autorités du pays espèrent ainsi accroître les volumes traités, en forte baisse depuis plusieurs mois, notamment sur les sociétés financières

Un rapport de Philippe Maystadt, présenté à l'Ecofin demain, propose de réorganiser l'Efrag pour accroître le poids de l'Europe au sein de l'IASB

Seize pays sur dix-huit présentent des déséquilibres macroéconomiques, mais la Commission européenne maintient que la zone euro est sur la bonne voie

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Le taux de chômage pourrait baisser à 7% plus tôt que prévu. Mais l'atteinte de ce seuil ne déclenchera pas nécessairement un relèvement des taux

Le fonds souverain de Singapour fait selon le quotidien partie d’un consortium emmené par le promoteur Related Companies devant mettre la main sur le siège de Time Warner. Un nouveau signe de l’intérêt des fonds souverains pour l’immobilier new-yorkais. Le montant de la transaction pourrait dépasser 1,3 milliard de dollars, dont 400 millions environ pour GIC.

Les deux agences américaines de refinancement du crédit hypothécaire restent un boulet pour Washington. Selon un document de présentation consulté par le quotidien, un groupe de gestionnaires alternatifs et de sociétés de private equity proposent une solution. Les investisseurs mettraient 50 milliards de dollars sur la table pour reprendre des actifs de Fannie Mae et Freddie Mac. Selon un représentant du Comité bancaire du Sénat, les obstacles politiques sont nombreux, à commencer par l’impopularité des hedge funds. Un représentant du Trésor assure que le fait d’assurer des crédits abordables ne pouvait pas être garanti par, selon le quotidien, «des fonds de Wall Street cherchant à gagner de l’argent».

La Commission européenne se penche sur les raisons et les risques que font courir les excédents records de l’Allemagne sur la zone euro, seize pays sur dix-huit présentant des déséquilibres macroéconomiques. Bruxelles maintient cependant que la zone euro est sur la bonne voie.

Alors qu'Ice a conclu hier l’acquisition de Nyse Euronext, le dirigeant sera chargé de mener la prise d'indépendance de la plate-forme

Dans un entretien, le directeur général du London Stock Exchange assure qu’il n’y aura de la place à terme que pour quatre ou cinq opérateurs boursiers internationaux. Dont un ou deux en Europe. Le rôle des chambres de compensation ira grandissant, et le LSE a son mot à dire en la matière selon son dirigeant. Le LSE a publié hier des résultats semestriels conformes aux attentes.