Charles Schwab Investment Management (CSIM) will this week launch six ETF Schwab Fundamental Index ETFs in the United States, which track Russell Fundamental indices. The new products come in addition to the 15 proprietary CSIM ETFs. Ttey will be available on the Schwab ETF OneSource platform. Schwab has USD12bn in assets under mangement in ETFs as of 30 June 2013, and over USD167bn in assets under custody in ETFs present on the platform. The funds are as follows: Schwab Fundamental U.S. Broad Market Index ETFSchwab Fundamental U.S. Large Company Index ETFSchwab Fundamental U.S. Small Company Index ETFSchwab Fundamental International Large Company Index ETFSchwab Fundamental International Small Company Index ETFSchwab Fundamental Emerging Markets Large Company Index ETF
The Sanctions Commission of the AMF has fined a financial sector firm EUR30,000, in a case related to the sale of CFDs aimed at retail investors in 2009-2010. The EMF has not revealed the identity of the firm, but the AFP, which cites a source familiar with the matter, suggests that it may be Saxo Bank France. After a control of the firm, the AMF brought two major complaints, which focused on the release of sales documents for CFDs in late 2009 and early 2010. It accuses the firm of “failing its obligation to provide accurate, clear and non-misleading information in its promotional communications on the subject of CFDs.” It also accuses the firm of “failing to correctly identify certain commercial supports as relevant to communications of a promotional character.” The AMF notes that it has taken into account the fact that the firm quickly adopted corrective measures “before the end of control and following it.”
The Norwegian sovereign fund has indicated in its most recent quarterly report that it is reducing its exposure to British, French and Australian bonds, and has increased the proportion of Japanese, US and Brazilian government debt in its portfolio. The fund states that it has reduced its assets in British government debt securities by 26%, to USD7.26bn, while meanwhile increasing its assets in Japanese bonds by 30%. The sovereign fund, whose assets under management as of the end of June totalled about EUR558bn (NOK4.397trn), has also announced that it has increased the percentage of equities in its portfolio to 63.4% in second quarter, compared with 52.4% in first quarter, anticipating a reocvery of growth in the United States. In equities, Nestlé remains the top position for the fund, with about NOK38.2bn, while royal Dutch Shell has risen from third to second place. For second quarter overall, the fund has earned returns of 0.1%, as equity investors posted returns of 0.9%, while the bond allocation finished the week with returns of -1.4%. Real estate, whose percentage of the portfolio is 0.9%, has posted returns of 3.9%.
Swiss Life Select, an affiliate of Swiss Life, and the Austrian consumer protection organisation Verein für Konsumenteninformation VKI, have settled a lawsuit out of court, according to a statement released on 12 August by the insurer Swiss Life. The insurer will pay EUR11.1m to settle the case. The affiliate Swiss Life Select, successor to the financial advisng specialist AWD, has settled a series of class actions as part of mediation approved by the Vienna court. The affiliate will pay damages of EUR11.1m to investors who suffered losses from AWD financial products. After deduction of costs associated with the legal proceedings. VKI will receive EUR7m, which it will pay out to investors who suffered losses.
The “Whale of London,” the name attributed to a trader responsible for a trading loss of USD6.2bn at JPMorgan Chase in 2012, may escape charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Les Echos reports. The French broker, Bruno Iksil, took disproportionate risks on CDS. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal report that he is ultimately expected to avoid criminal charges. JPMorgan Chase is reportedly nearing an agreement with the US and British regulatory authorities. A transaction may be announced in autumn, and the SEC is expected to file a civil suit. The reason for this development is that the French trader, who sought to alert his supervisors of the dangers inherent in his positions on several occasions, has been cooperating with authorities. The SEC would also like JPMorgan Chase to admit to “fault” as part of any out-of-court settlement, although the heads of the bank would not personally be held responsible.
Several major money market fund management firms, including J.P. Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, are now supporting plans by the SEC to ask the riskiest money market funds held by institutional investors to abandon their constant net asset value of USD1 per share, and adopt a floating share price, the Wall Street Journal reports. In the face of determination from the SEC, promoters of money market funds prefer this solution to the alternatives, particularly since only 35% of the sector would be affected.
BlackRock has appointed a new head for its ETF activities at iShares, the Financial Times reports. Rachel Lord, global head of corporate equity derivatives at Citi, will become head of iShares for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. She succeeds Linhares, who will return to the United States at the end of 2013, after a three-year term.
The True Potential platform has signed a distribution agreement with Goldman Sachs, which will allow it to offer two of its multi-asset class strategies on the British retail market, Fundweb reports. The platform will be exclusively responsible for distribution of the Goldman Sachs Multi-Asset Dynamic Strategy Portfolio and GSQuartix Multi-Asset Dynamic Protection Strategy Portfolio funds to advisers and their clients.
The co-manager of the Kames Strategic Bond fund, Phil Milburn, has reduced his long-term underweight position on interest rate risk, in order to take into account the scale of the recent exodus of investors from bonds, Fundweb reports. Milburn states, however, that his fund, whose assets under management total slightly over USD640m, remains underweight on duration risk, and that this position helped it to get through a period of aversion to bonds.
The Swiss private bank Bank J. Safra (Deutschland) on 9 August announced in a statement that it is planning to build a presence in the south of Germany, opening an office in Stuttgart. The new office will open on 1 October this year, with a dedicated team led by Arthur J. Montanhas, who has been working for the bank since 2009. He will also be regional head for Baden-Wurttemberg, while Werner Shenk becomes deputy director of the Stuttgart office. As a corollary to the opening of this Stuttgart office, activities in Nuremberg will be transferred to Stuttgart and Munich from 30 September 2013, a statement says.
Bill Ackman of the fund Pershing Square Capital Management has called for Thomas Engibous, chairman of the board at the retail chain JCPenney, to be replaced as soon as possible, Les Echos reports. Ackman already has a replacement in mind: Allen Questrom, former CEO of JCPenney, who would be willing to return to the role. The current chairman and CEO, Myron Ullman, is not to the liking of Ackman either, who would like to see him go. The speculative fund Perry Capital, which controls 7.3% of capital, on Friday announced that it plans to support Ackman, the largest shareholder in the business. The management at JCPenney has called Ackman’s agitation “misleading, inaccurate and counterproductive,” at a time when the survival of the business is at stake.
The London-based asset management firm Threadneedle is planning to set up an asset management team in Asia, which will initially specialise in the equity asset class, Asian Investor reports. Threadneedle, which has also received an Islamic finance license for Malaysia, is studying the possibility of creating a range of Sharia-compliant funds. About 10% of assets under management at Threadneedle, which total about GBP86bn, originate from the region.
The Swiss boutique Swan Asset Management has launched the SIF Bond Enhanced SICAV, an all-terrain global bond fund, Citywire reports. It has also converted one of its funds based in the Cayman Islands into a Sicav entitled Swan SICAV SIF Bond Fund. It is an unconstrained fund.
Comgest has promoted Galina Besedina to strengthen the management team for its GEM Promising Companies fund, Citywire reports. Besedina, an analyst at the firm since January 2008, is assuming responsibility for portfolio management for the first time. She will work alongside Jean-Louis Scandella.
Soros Fund Management decided to exit form Pershing Square Capital Management, the fund by William Ackman, due to disappointing returns, according to the Reuters agency, citing a source close to the case. Pershing is expected to redeem funds to Soros, totalling uner USD250m, by the beginning of 2014. Pershing Square lost 2.2% in July, but has continued to deliver returns of 3.8% since the beginning of the year. The decision comes at a time when Soros and William Ackman have been locked in a merciless battle for several months over the case of Herbalife, a firm of which Soros is the chairman.
ING US, via its broker-dealer ING Financial Partners, is launching a wealth management platform aimed at financial advisers and their clients. The new platform is expected to be operational in fourth quarter 2013 to the 1,500 advisers of the ING Financial Partners network.
The default rate for corporate issues rated speculative grade totalled 2.9% in the month of July, up slightly compared with the previous month (2.8%), the financial ratings agency Moody’s reports. In Europe, the default rate remained stable at 3.4%, while it had remained at 2.8% in the United States, compared with 2.9% the previous month. As of the end of July 2012, the default rate stood at 3.4%, both in Europe and the United States. Since the beginning of the year, the number of issuers rated by Moody’s which defaulted totalled 43, of which 24 were in the United States, 13 in Europe and the remainder in Latin America.
Henderson Global Investors has appointed Sonia Ginelli as the new general manager of the Italian asset management firm Mario Pellò, as its new head of property in Italy, Fondionline reports. The appointments follow the departure of Alberto Albertazzi, who had served in the two roles until 1 August. Ginelli and Pellò have both worked at Henderson since 2006.
Giulano D’Acunti has recently been appointed as head of sales for Invesco in Italy. In an interview with Bluerating, he explains that in his new role, he will aim to define the commercial strategy for the firm in the country, and also to handle customer relations and support. At the same time, he will retain his position as head of retail distribution. Alongside his appointment, a European sales committee has been created. The new body was sought by Sergio Trezzi, head of Invesco in Europe and head for Italy, and aims to “share market trends and local projects between various countries, and also to work on long-term strategies able to contribute to strengthen the position of Invesco on the European market.” In 2012, Invesco posted net inflows in Italy of EUR2.106bn. In the month of May 2013 alone, the firm posted inflows of EUR440.5m, and now has assets of EUR8bn.
Emma Mogford, manager of the Neptune UK Higher Income fund, with GBP2.2m in assets, has left the firm, Investment Week reports. Her fund will be taken over by George Boyd-Bowan.
Les fonds obligataires commercialisés en Europe ont accusé en juin des rachats nets de 28 milliards d’euros alors que le secteur dans son ensemble voyait sortir 70,4 milliards d’euros, montrent les dernières statistiques de Lipper. La décollecte a surtout concerné les fonds de dette émergente (-5,4 milliards d’euros), les fonds obligataires mondiaux à haut rendement (-4,8 milliards d’euros) et les fonds d’obligations d’entreprises américaines à haut rendement (-4,6 milliards d’euros).En revanche, les fonds obligataires euros court terme (+1,6 milliard d’euros), les fonds obligataires flexibles (+1,5 milliard d’euros) et les fonds obligataires « specialty » (+1 milliard d’euros) ont enregistré des souscriptions nettes.Malgré les sorties de juin, les fonds obligataires restent la catégorie de fonds ayant le plus collecté depuis le début de l’année avec 81 milliards d’euros, tandis que l’ensemble du secteur affiche un solde positif de 109,6 milliards d’euros.En juin, ce sont les fonds d’allocation d’actifs qui ont été les plus populaires auprès des investisseurs, avec des souscriptions nettes de 4,4 milliards d’euros.Lipper note que les marchés européens ont connu des évolutions différentes en juin. Ainsi, la France et l’Allemagne ont été en décollecte, avec pas moins de 28,1 milliards d’euros et 2,7 milliards d’euros respectivement. A contrario, l’Espagne, l’Italie et la Grèce ont enregistré des souscriptions nettes (1,6 milliard, 0,6 milliard et 0,3 milliard d’euros).Enfin, BlackRock a été la société qui a vendu le plus de fonds hors monétaire en juin, avec des souscriptions nettes de 1,7 milliard d’euros, devant Banco Popolare Società Cooperativa (+0,8 milliard) et Standard Life (+0,7 milliard d’euros).
BlackRock a nommé un nouveau patron pour son activité ETF logée dans iShares, rapporte le Financial Times. Ainsi, Rachel Lord, responsable mondial des dérivés actions chez Citi, va devenir responsable d’iShares pour la zone Europe, Moyen-Orient et Afrique. Elle succède à Joe Linhares, qui retournera aux Etats-Unis fin 2013, après un mandat de trois ans.
Henderson Global Investors vient de nommer Sonia Ginelli en tant que nouveau general manager de la société de gestion italienne et Mario Pellò en tant que nouveau responsable du property en Italie, rapporte Fondionline.Ces nominations font suite au départ d’Alberto Albertazzi, qui occupait ces deux fonctions jusqu’au 1er août. Sonia Ginelli et Mario Pellò travaillent tous les deux chez Henderson depuis 2006.
Charles Schwab Investment Management (CSIM) va lancer cette semaine aux Etats-Unis six ETF Schwab Fundamental Index qui suivent les indices fondamentaux Russell Fundamental.Ces nouveaux produits viennent s’ajouter aux 15 ETF propriétaires de CSIM. Ils seront disponibles sur la plate-forme Schwab ETF OneSource. Schwab affiche 12 milliards de dollars d’actifs sous gestion pour ses ETF au 30 juin 2013 et plus de 167 milliards d’actifs sous conservation pour les ETF présents sur sa plate-forme.Les fonds sont les suivants :Schwab Fundamental U.S. Broad Market Index ETFSchwab Fundamental U.S. Large Company Index ETFSchwab Fundamental U.S. Small Company Index ETFSchwab Fundamental International Large Company Index ETFSchwab Fundamental International Small Company Index ETFSchwab Fundamental Emerging Markets Large Company Index ETF
La dernière phase du processus de transfert de l’équipe d’investissement et de la gamme de fonds Sustainable Future d’Aviva Investors à Alliance Trust Investments a été achevée. Depuis le 26 juillet 2013, le fonds Sustainable Future Pan-European Equity, auparavant intégré à la sicav Aviva Investors, a rejoint Luxcellence, selon un communiqué de Caceis. Désormais baptisé Luxcellence - Alliance Trust Sustainable Future Pan-European Equity Fund, le fonds constitue un compartiment de la sicav Luxcellence, la plateforme Ucits du groupe Caceis.L’équipe, qui gère le fonds Sustainable Future Pan-European Equity Fund depuis 12 ans sous la houlette de Peter Michaelis, continuera de le faire après le transfert. Elle continuera également de collaborer avec le comité indépendant d’experts en investissements IDR («SRI Advisory Committee»), qui remplit une mission de supervision et de conseil supplémentaires sur les fonds.Alliance Trust Investments devient ainsi l’un des principaux gérants sur le marché de l’Investissement durable et responsable (IDR), fort d’un portefeuille constitué d’une sicav et de sept sociétés d’investissement à capital variable de droit anglais (OEIC) d’un montant total de 1,37 milliard de livres sterling, soit 1,58 milliard d’euros. Le fonds a surperformé sur trois ans son indice de référence de 5,85% à fin juin 2013 et sa performance cumulée s’établit à 43,82% à fin mai 2013.
Soros Fund Management a décidé de sortir de Pershing Square Capital Management, le fonds de William Ackman, en raison de performances décevantes, selon l’agence Reuters qui cite une personne proche du dossier.Pershing devrait restituer les fonds de Soros, au total moins de 250 millions de dollars, d’ici au début de l’année 2014, précise-t-on. Pershing Square a perdu 2,2% en juillet mais affiche encore une performance de 3,8% depuis le début de l’année.Cette décision intervient alors que George Soros et William Ackman se livrent une bataille sans merci depuis plusieurs mois sur le dossier Herbalife, une société dont George Soros est le président.
ING US, par le biais de son broker-dealer ING Financial Partners, lance une plateforme de gestion de fortune à destination des conseillers financiers et de leurs clients.La nouvelle plateforme devrait être opérationnelle dans le courant du quatrième trimestre 2013 pour les 1.500 conseillers du réseau ING Financial Partners.
Comgest a promu Galina Besedina pour renforcer l’équipe de gestion de son fonds GEM Promising Companies, rapporte Citywire. Analyste au sein de la société depuis janvier 2008, l’intéressée accède pour la première fois à des responsabilités de gestion de portefeuille. Elle travaillera aux côtés de Jean-Louis Scandella.
Le gestionnaire d’actifs basé à Londres Threadneedle envisage d’installer une équipe de gestion en Asie, dans un premier temps spécialisée sur la classe d’actifs actions, rapporte Asian Investor.Threadneedle, qui a par ailleurs obtenu une licence de finance islamique en Malaisie, étudie la possibilité de développer une offre de produits conformes à la charia.Les actifs sous gestion de Threadneedle, qui s'élèvent à environ 86 milliards de livres, sont originaires à hauteur d’environ 10% de la région.
Bill Ackman, du fonds Pershing Square Capital Management, a demandé le remplacement au plus tôt de Thomas Engibous, président du conseil d’administration de la chaîne de magasins JCPenney, rapporte les Echos. Bill Ackman a déjà un remplaçant en tête : Allen Questrom, ancien directeur général de JCPenney, disposé à reprendre du service. Le PDG actuel, Myron Ullman, ne convient pas non plus à Bill Ackman qui souhaite aussi le voir partir. Le fonds spéculatif Perry Capital, qui détient 7,3 % du capital, a manifesté vendredi son soutien à Bill Ackman, premier actionnaire. L'état-major de JCPenney a qualifié l’agitation de Bill Ackman de « trompeuse, inexacte et contre-productive », à un moment où la survie de l’entreprise est en jeu.