Le groupe de capital investissement Carlyle a annoncé avoir bouclé un fonds de CLO pour un montant de 335 millions d’euros. Il s’agit de la seconde émission de CLO cette année, précise un communiqué.Le Carlyle GMS Euro CLO 2013-2 investira en priorité dans des émissions primaires et secondaires de prêts bancaires garantis senior en Europe.Le premier fonds de CLO avait été bouclé en juin avec un montant de 350 millions d’euros.

Investment Europe reports that Jessica Eistrand (formerly of StormHarbour) and Deri Bainge (formerly of Crédit Agricole CIB) have been apopinted as directors at iShares, the former for bond sales in Nordic countries, and the latter for Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Both will report to Leen Meijaard, head of EMEA sales.

GLG Partners is preparing to close its GLG Market Neutral Fund, managed by Steve Roth, to new investors, when it reaches USD1bn in assets, in order to preserve its performance, Financial News reports. The size of the fund is currently USD870m. It will top USD1bn by the end of the year.

Fidelity Worldwide Investment has announced that it is extending its Fidelity Active Strategy (FAST) with the launch of the FAST Global long/short equity, a portfolio of 70-110 positions managed by Dmitry Solomakhin. The trial version of FAST Global, created in January 2013, has beaten out 99% of its peers, in terms of both performance and information ratio. The fund is aimed exclusively for professional investors. Its net exposure will range from 90% to 110%, and the manager is able to short-sell up to 30% of assets in unattractive equities.The asset management firm also reports that in September the Undiscovered Talent fund of funds was launched, aimed at high net worth retail clients affiliated to the Fidelity Wealth Service, with a minimal subscription of GBP100,000. The portfolio, managed by Nick Peters and James Bateman, invests in portfolios of managers who are still relatively little known.CharacteristicsName: FAST GlobalManagement commission: 1% (Y share class in pounds sterling)Minimal subscrption: USD1mPerformance commission: 20% of performance exceeding the MSCI AC World (N) fund by over 200 basis points

As of 30 June, assets under management at the Reyl group totalled CHF9.3bn, 26% more than six months previously.Consolidated operating revenues in first half are up 64% year on year, to EUR59.1m.

The alternative asset management firm Odey Asset Management, based in London, has opened an office in Geneva, Agefi Switzerland reports. “We are happy to be opening an office in Geneva,” a partner at the asset management firm Orlando Montagu has said, “since Odey already invests for many institutional and industrial families in continental Europe.” No further comment has been made about the number of employees, but market sources say that the small team being set up will concentrate on marketing. Odey AM has USD9.7bn in assets under management n 18 funds, and has nearly 90 employees.

The Canadian Manulife group has appointed Donna Cotter as head of distribution for the wealth management unit in Asia, Asian Investor reports. She will be responsible for developing relationships with private banks and insurers.

Khazanah National Bhd, the Malaysian sovereign fund, will acquire a 4.95% stake in Beijing Enterprises Water Group, for a total of USD152m, Opalesque reports. The Malaysian sovereign fund becomes one of the largest shareholders in the Chinese company.

Russell Investments has announced the recruitment of Rob Hall in London as portfolio manager in its multi-asset class management team, which includes 37 people.Hall will be based in London, and will report to Christophe Caspar, chief investment officer for multi-asset.Hall joined the firm from Schroders, where he had been head of manager selection. In particular, he was responsible for the management and selection of internal or external investment strategies to implement Schroders multi-asset products. From 1988 to 2008, Hall previously served as head of portfolio management at Russell Investments for European equity portfolios.

The online asset management firm Nutmeg, based in London, on 7 October launched a publicity campaign in the London Underground which is not pleasing the competition, Fund Web reports. Nutmeg presents asset managers as “fat cats” who, it is suggested, have practices with relation to fees which are not always transparent, while Nutmeg offers a top-quality service for a modest fee of 0.3% for GBP500000 up to 1% for GBP1,000.

Ugo Montrucchio, director and portfolio manager in the multi-asset class group at BlackRock, has been recruited as a portfolio manager in the multi-asset class and portfolio solutions unit at Schroders in London, which he will join on 1 January 2014. He will report to Joanna Kyrklund.

Vontobel, seduced by the success of GARS, the multi-asset class fund from Standard Life, is sounding the British market to acquire a multi-asset class boutique, Financial Times fund management reports. “However, we are also going to continue our own organic growth projects in terms of investments in multi-asset classes, and we will not be too devastated if no external opportunity emerges,” says Zeno Staub, CEO of Vontobel.

Mark Oestergaard has joined Neuberger Berman to cover the Northern European market from London, Fondbranschen reports. Oestergaard joins from Gottex, where he had been head of sales to institutional investors in Northern Europe.

The British Financial Conduct Authority has met with directors of all of the major asset management firms based in the United Kingdom, Financial Times fund management reports, stating that the regulator is seeking to confront misconducts in the asset management industry. Tracey McDermott, the director of enforcement and financial crime at the FCA, has warned that the authority will take strong measures against business which do not respect these rules. In addition, the regulator has creatd its own asset management surveillance team, composed of over 50 employees.

Vincent Juvyns has left ING Investment Managers to join JP Morgan Asset Management as executive director, global market strategist, according to his LinkedIn profile. He had previously been client portfolio manager, specialised in money market strategy. He joined ING in 2007.

Morgan Stanley Sgr, the real estate asset management firm for Morgan Stanley in Italy, has created a new investment fund reserved for qualified investors, which will manage a portfolio composed of shopping centres and retail spaces for a value of about EUR635m, Bluerating reports. This is the first real estate investment from Morgan Stanley in Italy since 2007.

Dans un essai de «finance-fiction» intitulé The Unintended Consequences of Banning Derivatives in Asset Management, Alessandro Beber, professeur de Finance à la Cass Business School à Londres, et Christophe Pérignon, professeur de Finance à HEC Paris, ont réalisé une analyse exploratoire des conséquences pour les gestionnaires d’actifs et pour leurs clients d’une interdiction des produits dérivés. Cette étude insiste particulièrement sur l’industrie de la gestion d’actifs, dans la mesure où cette dernière recourt souvent à ces produits à des fins de couverture et d’investissement.Selon ses conclusions, la suppression des produits dérivésauraient desconséquences très néfastes pour l’industrie de la gestion d’actifs notamment en ce qui concerne la performance et les risques des fonds, l’offre de fonds, ainsi que la concurrence du secteur. «L’interdiction de l’utilisation des dérivés entraînerait une augmentation des coûts de transactions et des stratégies de gestion des risques sous-optimales, ce qui pénaliserait dans les deux cas la performance pour l’investisseur final», estiment les auteurs.Les gestionnaires d’actifs devraient rester libres de choisir les instruments dérivés qui correspondent le mieux aux intérêts de leurs investisseurs. Qu’un gestionnaire utilise un instrument classique ou un dérivé plus exotique n’a en réalité aucune importance. Pour deux raisons. Tout d’abord, les gestionnaires ont développé des capacités de gestion des risques suffisantes pour utiliser correctement n’importe lequel de ces instruments. Ensuite, les dérivés complexes peuvent être «pricés» en utilisant des méthodes simples de réplication. Dans tous les cas, les dérivés permettent aux gestionnaires de réduire encore davantage les coûts de transactions.Les auteurs estiment par ailleurs que l’opacité et le déficit de réglementation que l’on prête au trading sur dérivés est très largement exagéré dans le cas de la gestion d’actifs, car le régulateur impose la transparence sur les coûts finaux et des exigences strictes sur la mesure des risques qui englobe tout le spectre des risques potentiels (marchés, contreparties, liquidité). Enfin, le gestionnaire est un investisseur professionnel et donc nécessairement, il n’est pas un utilisateur naïf des dérivés. Corollaire de ces observations, «il n’y a aucune preuve que les dérivés sont utilisés pour mettre en œuvre des paris risqués et injustifiés dans la gestion d’actifs». Cette étude est d’autant plus d’actualité que la dernière consultation UCITS VI sur la gestion d’actifs menée par la Commission Européenne propose de limiter l’usage de certains dérivés.L'étude des professeurs Beber et Pérignon repose à la fois sur l’analyse des principales conclusions de la recherche académique sur le sujet, sur une étude des organismes de placement collectif en valeurs mobilières(OPCVM) en France, ainsi que sur de nombreux entretiens auprès de gestionnaires d’actifs.

The asset management firm RiverPark Advisors, based in New York, on 7 October announced the launch of the RiverPark Strategic Income fund, an open-ended fund which aims to combine returns and capital appreciation. The new fund will be managed by Cohanzick Management, which already serves as sub-adviser to the RiverPark Short Term High Yield Fund, whih was recently closed to new investors, after taking in over USD850m since its launch in 2010. The new vehicle will invest in investment grade debt as well as specualtive debt, preferential equities, convertibles, bank loans, high yield bonds and income equities. At the beginning of October 2013, assets under management at RiverPark totalled about USD2.2bn.

In September, European ETPs posted net inflows of USD1.9bn, exactly the amount of net subscriptions from iShares (BlackRock), while SPDR (State Street) and Amundi attracted USD0.5bn and USD0.3bn. However, the BlackRock Institute notes, db x-trackers (Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management) has seen net outflows of USD0.9bn.In the first nine months of the year, iShares has posted net inflows of USD13.5bn, while the entire sector (including iShares) has gained USD9.6bn. ETF Securities has seen the heaviest net outflows, with USD3.4bn, followed by the Cantonal Bank of Zurich (ZKB), with USD2.3bn, Lyxor (Société Générale) with USD2.2bn, and db x-trackers with USD1.4bn.In terms of assets as of the end of September, iShares leads with USD182.1bn, while the next two are db x-trackers, with USD57.4bn, and Lyxor with USD41.1bn.

Den Norske Bank has taken first place in a survey by TNS Sifo Prospera to identify the best institutional asset management firms in the countries of Northern Europem realtid.se reports. In second place, SEB and Brummer & Partners are tied. Among international players, BlackRock takes top place, followed by JP Morgan Asset Mangaement and Goldman Sachs. The survey interviewed 108 institutions with over SEK200m in assets under management.

The asset management firm Axa IM has transferred its bond team from Singapore to Hong Kong as pat of a planned grouping of its investment capacities in the special economic zone, Asian Investor reports. The bond team, led by Rob Andrews, will set up in Hong Kong by the end of the year. Recruitments are planned, Asian Investor states. Mark Tinker, who had been based in London, moved to Hong Kong last month as head of Axa Framlington Asia. A portfolio manager will be recruited to assist Tinker.

Responsable depuis 2008 pour la région Nord de la gestion chez Deka Immobilien, Johannes Hermanns a été promu au 1er octobre directeur de la gestion immobilière pour l’ensemble de l’Allemagne, annonce DekaBank le 4 octobre. L’intéressé succès à Wolfgang Frisch, qui a manifesté le désir de prendre une retraite anticipée au 31 décembre.Dans ses nouvelles fonctions, Johannes Hermanns sera responsable de plus de 200 actifs figurant dans le portefeuille des fonds Deka.

BlackRock on Monday, 7 October announced that it has finalised its acquisition of MGPA, a real estate private equity asset mangement firm in Asia-Pacific and Europe. The sale price has not been disclosed. The deal is related to the creation of a global real estate platform with USD23.5bn in assets, which collaborates with more than 700 investors.The new platform will have 400 real estate experts on the ground, in 18 offices in 13 countries, and will operate under the BlackRock name. The extended expert unit will offer investors access to the six most important markets in the world, which represent 75% of the investible commercial real estate market. The asset management firm MGPA has complementary expertise in the area of real estate investment solutions to those which exist at BlackRock, with no overlap.Following the acquisition, BlackRock will manage a diversified range of real estate funds, including publicly-traded real estate securities, real estate debt, REIT securities, open-ended or closed funds, and special mandates, to meet the needs and investment objectives of certain clients, a statement says.

The HFRX Global hedge fun index gained 0.96% in the month of September, while the HFRX Market Directional, for its part, has gained 2.23%, according to statistics from Hedge Fund Research. The Event Driven strategy gained 2.10% in September, due to gains for special situations and actiist exposures. Since the beginning of the year, the HFRX Event Driven index has gained 10.87%.

Markit a annoncé le 7 octobre le lancement d’un système ouvert de messagerie instantanée pour les professionnels des marchés financiers, rejoint par Thomson Reuters et huit grandes banques, dont le Credit Suisse, qui va concurrencer celui de Bloomberg.Ce nouveau système «va permettre à des personnes de l’ensemble du secteur des services financiers de communiquer et de partager des informations sans encombres», souligne le cabinet britannique d’informations financières dans un communiqué.Actuellement, les communications quotidiennes entre les professionnels des marchés financiers passent pour la plupart par la messagerie instantanée présente sur les terminaux Bloomberg, qui dominent le marché. Mais grande différence avec le système de Bloomberg, qui est un atout majeur de son terminal, la messagerie ouverte de Markit va fédérer les messageries existantes des sociétés qui l’utiliseront.Membre fondateur du nouveau système ouvert de Markit, le groupe américano-canadien d’informations financières et professionnelles Thomson Reuters va y fédérer son système Thomson Reuters Eikon Messenger qui dispose de plus de 200.000 membres. Huit grandes banques ont également rejoint le système de Markit: BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase et Morgan Stanley."Jusqu'à présent, la communication entre les acteurs du marché a été entravée par l’absence d’interopérabilité entre les systèmes», estime Markit qui juge que son système «fait tomber les barrières» en fédérant les systèmes internes.

The board of directors has begun to officially study the possibility of an initial public offering, Bluerating reports, citing the news agency Radiocor. So far, this is only an examination, which has not ruled out other options. The asset management firm, which has over EUR40bn in assets under management, has Asset Management Holding, a company owned by Clessidra (37%), Banca Popolare di Milano (35.3%) and Monte dei Paschi (22.7%), as its sole shareholder.

UK-based Schroders has announced the release of the Schroder Investment Fund – Core Insurance-Linked Securities fund, a Luxembourg-registered specialised investment fund (SIF) launched in June, aimed at institutional investors. The portfolio, managed by Daniel Ineichen, may invest in catastrophe bonds (hurricanes, earthquakes) and other products related to insuance risks (ILS) “tied to human activities,” such as maritime and air navigation and offshore energy, but not life insurance risks.Ineichen will be assisted by a team of 16 ILS securities specialists working at Schroders at at Secquaero Advisors, which is providing its proprietary SPOT risk management tool and its knowledge of the reinsurance sector.The annual performance objective is 600 basis points above the Libor 3-month in US dollars, after fees, with a strong focus on the management of fat tails.CharacteristicsName: Schroder Investment Fund – Core Insurance-Linked SecuritiesCurrency of reference: USDISIN codesSIF Core Insurance Linked Securities I LU0954709472SIF Core Insurance Linked Securities K Acc US LU0954711619Management fees: 0% for I shares1.50% for K shares (institutional)Minimal subscription: USD2m (K shares)Calculation of net asset value: once per quarterPublication of NAV: 15 days after the end of each quarter

In addition to its range of four hedge funds (Adler, Alphaville, Laredo and Penta) as well as a Sicav (Germat 2006), Omega Gestión de Inversiones has launched a fund of funds, Omega Global Fund, Funds People reports. The product will invest 75-100% in other funds, with a maximum of 30% in non-UCITS products. The benchmark index is the MSCI World euro-hedged and the maximal volatility objective is set at 8%.There are four share classes with management, performance and depository banking commissions of 1.25%, 5% and 0.8%, respectively for the I share class, 0.75%, 5% and 0.06% for the II share class, 0.5%, 0% and 0.08% fr the III share class and lastly 0%, 0% and 0.08% for the IV share class. Minimal subscription is set at EUR1,000 for I and III share classes, EUR0.5m for the II share class and EUR1m for the IV share class.

L’Erafp a demandé en début d’année au régulateur français d’assouplir les règles d’investissement dans les classes d’actifs alternatives, rapporte IPE.com. S’exprimant lors de la première conférence IPE/Sterling Capital Partners sur les infrastructures à Londres, Jean-Michel Horrenberger, vice-directeur général de l’Erafp, a indiqué que le fonds n’avait pas le droit d’investir dans les classes d’actifs. Selon lui, le régulateur devrait rendre sa décision finale et assouplir sa position dans les mois qui viennent, ce qui permettrait à l’Erafp de procéder à son premier investissement dans les infrastructures.

The Edhec Risk Institute and Lyxor Asset Management on 7 October announced the launch of a research chair for risk allocation solutions which may be used to set up high yield multi-asset class solutions, developed acording to the specific needs of investors.The first of the first three years of research funding awarded as part of the chair will be dedicated to the next generation of “risk parity,” which may have a major flaw, in that it is not sensitive to changes in the economic environment.The research team will be led by Lionel Martinelli, scientific director at the Edhec Risk Institute, assisted by Vincent Milhau, deputy scientific director, while Nicolas Gausset, director of management at Lyxor, and Thierry Roncalli, head of quantitative research at Lyxor, will participate in the scientific committee for the research chair.