P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Fidelity has appointed Dale Nicholls to replace Anthony Bolton as manager of the China Special Situations fund. Nicholls is currently manager of two funds, Fidelity Funds – Pacific and Fidelity Funds - Asian Smaller Companies, Citywire states. From April 2014, Bolton will step down from his fund management activities to concentrate on administrative responsibilities in various foundations. He will also remain an adviser to Fidelity. Bolton will now co-manage the fund with his successor until his departure.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } BlackRock, Fidelity, KBC, Amundi and Union Inestment together spent EUR700,000 on lobbying last year, Financial Times fund management reveals, citing European Commission transparency registers. Fund associations are also highly active to defend the interests of the asset management industry: in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy and Ireland, they dedicated more than EUR1bn to lobbying, while the European association EFAMA allocated nearly EUR2bn. These lobbying actions worry investor associations, who do not have the same financial resources.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Assets in ETFs in the United States may more than double in the course of the next five years to a total of more than USD3.5trn, compared with USD1.5trn currently, according to a study published recently by iShares. Among the reasons for this optimism are the integration of ETFs into the core portion of investment portfolios, where a few years ago, ETFs were considered rather a “satellite” type investment. ETFs are also much less costly on the whole than open-ended mutual funds and are subject to a preferential tax regime. ETFs offer ongoing liquidity, while mutual funds are traded only once per day, after the close of the markets. Despite the recent boom in ETFs in the United States, ETFs still have their best days ahead of them: “Even on the most mature market, the United States, there is still an incredibly bright future” ahead, the global head of iShres, Mark Wiedman, says in a statement.

Lyxor Asset Management announced on June 17 the launch of the Lyxor / Tiedemann Arbitrage Strategy Fund, a new UCITS-compliant vehicle, which is designed to give access to a pure merger arbitrage strategy in partnership with the hedge fund firm TIG Advisors, LLC. The fund will benefit from TIG’s merger arbitrage expertise supported by deal experience, focus on research and market convictions.The fund’s investment strategy is to play arbitrage deals from both a long and a short perspective by investing in securities that are subject to special events in North America, Europe, Australia, South America and Asia. The investment team focuses on 0-30 day events within the merger arbitrage process and looks for wide spreads and complex deal opportunities relying on TIG’s research capabilities. The current macro economic and financial landscape provides a robust environment for global merger arbitrage with: cash reserves in corporate balance sheets at an extremely high level, interest rates at historic lows, global banking stabilization and complex deals providing significantly better spread opportunities, Lyxor underlines. «We look for complex mergers where our research can add value and are anticipating an uptick in mega-cap deals driven by the increased availability of funding, both for strategic buyers and private equity,» comments Drew Figdor, portfolio manager for the strategy at TIG since 1993. The fund, now passported in 6 countries, is available on Lyxor’s Alternative UCITS Platform in EUR, USD, JPY, CHF, GBP, SEK and NOK. Investors in the fund will also benefit from the weekly liquidity and independent risk management provided by Lyxor.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Funds People reports that Cygnus Asset Management has chosen Spain to launch its first traditional fund. The Cygnus Value fund is a long-only fund which will invest in the same segment as the hedge fund Cygmus Utilities, Infraestructuras & Renovables, a specialist in utilities (electricity, water, gas, petrol, renewable energies and infrastructure), as well as their providers.The management of the new UCITS fund will be carried out by the same manager as the hedge fund, Juan Cruz, and his team. The product offers daily liquidity. The minimal subscription is EUR1,000.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The market for funds investing in wine is suffering, according to an article in Financial Times fund management. The Vintage Wine fund, a vehicle based in the Cayman islands which had assets of EUR110m in 2008, will be closed at the end of the month following poor performance and redemptions. “The wine market is dead,” says Andrew Davison, founder of the Vintage Wine Fund. The market has had other setbacks: this month the Financial Conduct Authority announced that wine funds listed in London should not be sold to retail investors. The Luxembourg regulator has also suspended subscriptions and redemptions for the Nobles Crus fund, due to a lack of liquidity.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } After the BNP Paribas Obliselect Nordic HY 2015 and BNP Paribas Obliselect Nordic HY 2015 Hedged funds, which were closed on 10 December with EUR320m, at a time when subscriptions were supposed to remain open until the end of December, BNP Paribas Investment Partners (BNPP IP) has since last week been offering two new similar products in France, Belgium and Italy, investing in Scandinavian high yield bonds and equities. They are the horizon FCP funds (30 June 2016) Obliselect Nordic HY 2016 and BNP Paribas Obliselect Nordic HY 2016 hedged (feeder of the former fund), also managed by the Norwegian affiliate Alfred Berg (EUR18bn, of which EUR900m are in high yield).For these two new products, subscriptions are slated to remain open until 31 July. If assets reach more than EUR200m, subscriptions will be closed early. After 30 June 2016, if market conditions allow it, and with permission from the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), the investment strategy of the FCP will be renewed for a new period.The fund aims for annual net returns of 4-6% (compared with 5-7% for the product maturing in 2015). It invests primarily in Norway (more than 60%) and Sweden (nearly 20%), and is exposed primarily to oil services/equipment (62%) and energy (10%), explains Torolv Herstad, investment specialist at Alfred Berg. The portfolio includes 45 positions, compared with 40 for the previous fund. This type of fund, in its version which is not hedged for currency risks in euros, has a lead of 150 basis points, due to forex rates and a positive differential of another 150 basis points on the spread. In addition, the correlation is low with global equity markets (0.29) and global high yield (0.32). The current duration is 2.78.CharacteristicsMaster fund: BNP Paribas Obliselect Nordic HY 2016ISIN codes: FR0011488162 (classic C shares)FR0011488212 (Classic distribution shares)FR0011488188 (O distribution shares)Management fees:1.20% maximum (Classic C or D shares)0.05% maximum (O shares)Feeder fund: BNP Paribas Obliselect Nordic HY 2016 Hedged (at least 85% invested in master FCP)ISIN codes:FR0011488220 (Classic C shares)FR0011488253 (Classic D shares)FR0011488188 (O distribution shares)Front-end fee: 2% maximum (Classic C or D shares)Management fees:1.20% maximum (Classic C or D shares)0.05% maximum (O shares)

Threadneedle Investments has hired Matthew Evans as UK small cap fund manager, starting early October 2013. He was previously a senior UK small cap fund manager and worked within a team managing EUR1.1bn at Legal & General Investment Management. Matthew Evans will work closely with James Thorne, UK small cap fund manager, and will report to Simon Brazier, head of UK equities at Threadneedle. The Threadneedle UK small and mid-cap team manage a total AUM of EUR1.69bn out of a total of EUR19.0bn in UK equities as at the end of March 2013.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Singapore-based investment company Temasek is preparing to open an office in London, which would become a centre for its growing portfolio of European investments, Financial News reports. The structure has founded Temasek International (Europe) Limited, and appointed John Cryan, formerly of UBS, chairman of European activities at Temasek, as its director.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Frontier Investment Management has appointed Christopher Cade as head of sales in the United Kingdom, and Darren Hymos as senior head of development of activities, Fundweb reports. Cade previously worked at Skandia and Baring Asset management. Hymos, for his part, worked at Cofunds and Investec.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The former head of EMEA retail strategic client accounts at BlackRock (see Newsmanagers of 22 April), Mark Elliott, on 17 June became head of UK advisory sales at Franklin Templeton, Fundweb reports.Meanwhile, Alex Brotherston, head of advisory sales and strategic partnership, ahs been promoted to the newly-created position of head of UK retail sales at Franklin Templeton.The asset management firm states that on 7 May it also recruited Mark Ward as marketing manager for UK and Nordic discretionary and institutional business. He previously worked at Gartmore, Fidelity International and Aviva Investors.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The investment firm LGT Capital Partners has won a “multi-alternatives” mandate from the Kingfisher Pension Scheme, for a total of GBP100m, Agefi Switzerland reports. The mandate will primarily cover investments in the areas of commodities, real estate and private equity.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } “ETPedia” is the name of the new guide which ETF Securities (UK) Ltd has unveiled to familiarise retail investors with ETPs, “liquid, inexpensive and transparent” solutions, a statement says.As of the end of April, total assets in ETPs came to USD2.1trn, but these products represent only 15% of the portfolios of European retail investors and financial advisers.However, ETF Securities notes, the recent introduction of Retail Distribution Review (RDR) regulations in the United Kingdom is inciting retail investors to take an increasing interest in ETPs, which they are tending to include in their strategic and tactical asset allocations.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The richest Europeans and Americans have taken two to three decades to build up their wealth, two to three times more than high net worth individuals in emerging countries. And for a majority of them, their assets come from inheritance or savings, while in the rest of the world, entrepreneurship remains the primary source of wealth, according to the most recent “Wealth Insight” report, released on 17 June by Barclays, based on a survey undertaken in first half of 2,000 individuals with wealth equal to or greater than USD1.5m, in 17 countries.In Switzerland, 54% of those with such wealth, meaning those in the High Net Worth Individual (HNWI) category, took more than 30 years to accumulate their wealth. Although the situation is comparable in Europe (23 years) and the United States (28 years), in Qatar, 52% of those surveyed said that they became rich in less than 10 years, three times faster. In emerging markets in Asia-Pacific and Africa, high net worth individuals took only 12 and 16 years, respectively, to get there.This longer length of time in Switzerland could be due to the fact that 31% of millionaires in the country derive their wealth from profits related to entrepreneurial activity, the report indicates. The main sources of wealth, however, remain inheritance and savings, for 52% of those surveyed. The situation in Switzerland contrasts with the rest of the world, where 40% of the 2,000 HNWIs surveyed are entrepreneurs and owners of businesses, while only 26% of them claim that their wealth is inherited. In the question of how to spend this money, the report finds that high net worth individuals who suffered a sudden change in their conditions have generally been more generous to their beneficiaries. One third of those whose wealth fell substantially during the recent economic crisis mentioned donations as one of the top three uses of their money. This is also the case for 24% of those whose wealth has increased spectacularly, the report states. The motivations for becoming involved in philanthropy vary from one region to another. High net worth persons in Western economies support charitable causes out of a sense of duty and responsibility. That is the case for 69% of them. The same percentage applies to the United Kingdom, although 71% in the United States and 84% in Monaco say the same. Through donations, high net worth individuals seek to thrive personally, especially in China (71%), Latin America (65%) and South Africa (56%).

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } After USD4.3bn in inflows in January, USD11.4bn in February and USD817m in March, the 3,393 hedge funds that release results to BarclayHedge and TrimTabs had inflows in April of only a net USD430m. The average performance totalled 0.6% in April, while the S&P 500 gained 1.8%. In the twelve months to the end of April, hedge funds gained an average of 8.1% compared with a gain of 14.3% for the stock market index.Funds of hedge funds saw net outflows of USD4.2bn in April, bringing total net redemptions for this category to USD52.2bn in the twelve months under review.In May, results for the 1,828 hedge funds which release results to BarlayHedge as of 17 June showed an average return of 1.08%, bringing the total for the first five months of the year to 5.88%. The only strategy to show losses is the three equity short bias funds which lost 4.01% in May and 17.14% in January-May.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In the decade of the 2000s, the market share for the four largest asset management firms in Sweden fell from 80% to 50% of assets under management, Fondbolagens Förening, the Swedish investment fund association, has revealed at the publication of a report on competition in the financial sector by the competition watchdog authority. This was due to the effect of the arrival of foreign firms on the market, as well as independent structures. However, tougher European regulations complicate the creation of new asset management firms, the association regrets. Also, several Swedish initiatives have damages competitive conditions. To improve things, Fondbolagens Förening is calling for three changes. It would like for asset management firms to be able to open investment savings accounts for savings investors, that the taxation be the same for all finance sector players, and that there should be more openness about commissions. However, it does not want these to be forbidden.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Intesa Sanpaolo is planning to transform about 1,000 of its own employees into financial advisers, in the wake of plans at BNP Paribas to launch their own network of financial advisers, Bluerating reports, citing a leak to La Repubblica.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The new financial advisers’ network for BNL, the Italian bank of the BNP Paribas group, is aiming for assets under management of EUR7bn in three years, Bluerating reports. The new network is counting on 50 full-time advisers at the bank, as well as 50 senior advisers who will be recruited by the end of the year. 25 young financial advisers will also be recruited.

Janus Capital Group, société de gestion internationale (163,8 milliards de dollars sous gestion à fin mars 2013), consolide sa stratégie de développement auprès des investisseurs français via Euroclear France, prestataire de services postmarché de premier plan facilitant les transactions de titres et l’accès aux fonds. En rendant disponibles ses fonds sur cette plateforme, Janus Capital Group renforce ses moyens pour développer ses relations avec les assureurs, les investisseurs institutionnels, les conseillers en gestion de patrimoine et les asset managers en France.

Des émissions souveraines et corporates, de duration inférieure à 4 ans, offrent un rendement supérieur à 8%, capable d’amortir des périodes de volatilité

Les représentants des Etats de l’Union européenne se sont entendus sur la réforme de l’organisation des marchés financiers. Selon eux, les actions pourraient être traitées sur de nouvelles plates-formes de négociation (OFT) mais ils doivent encore s’entendre avec les eurodéputés.

Les représentants des Etats de l'Union ont trouvé un accord hier sur MiFID et MiFIR. Les discussions avec le Parlement vont pouvoir commencer

Dans un contexte de poursuite de la libéralisation de la devise chinoise, la City a enregistré une hausse de ses volumes de transactions l’an dernier

Selon le Financial Times, les principaux acteurs de la gestion d'actifs au Royaume-Uni souhaitent se réunir au sein d'un forum et peser davantage

Le forum mondial de politique économique décrit les quatre étapes à franchir et soumet un calendrier de mise en oeuvre

Les banques font pression pour que la banque centrale reprenne ses injections de liquidités ou procède à une baisse du ratio des réserves obligatoires

Dans un entretien accordé hier à la chaîne publique, le président américain a indiqué que le président de la Réserve fédérale est «resté bien plus longtemps qu’il ne le souhaitait ou qu’il était censé le faire», signalant ainsi qu’il pourrait être à la recherche d’un nouveau candidat pour diriger la banque centrale. Il a cependant tenu à préciser qu’il «a été un partenaire formidable avec la Maison blanche».

En lançant une levée de fonds en dollars, le promoteur chinois veut ranimer les émissions obligataires en Asie, actuellement au point mort

Le fonds de capital-investissement a proposé quelque 810 millions d’euros pour acquérir la principale activité de Cermaq, le numéro deux norvégien de l'élevage de poissons, venant ainsi compliquer l’affaire de Marine Harvest qui a lancé une OPA hostile sur l’ensemble du groupe. Cermaq est détenu à 43,5% par le gouvernement norvégien.

La société de gestion indépendante créée par l’équipe de l’ancien « Acto Capital » détient désormais 40% du capital de la Compagnie des Vacances, aux côtés de ses dirigeants, Olivier Lachenaud et Luc Dayen, qui en possèdent le solde. La société, spécialisée dans l’hôtellerie de plein air, vend des séjours de vacances sur Internet.