L’Australian Financial Review croit savoir que la société américaine de private equity a engagé Goldman Sachs, Bank of America et UBS en tant que chefs de file pour l’introduction en Bourse de BIS Industries. L’opération pourrait avoir lieu à la fin du deuxième trimestre ou au début du troisième et pourrait valoriser la société à plus d’un milliard de dollars australiens (787 millions d’euros).

A 5 jours de l'instauration des coupes budgétaires automatiques, la Nabe anticipe une croissance limitée à 2% cette année et à 2,8% en 2014

Paris, comme Berlin, doivent donner l’exemple en matière de réduction des déficits, a déclaré Jens Weidmann, le président de la Bundesbank allemande. «Dans les circonstances actuelles, nous devons admettre que nous sommes confrontés à une crise de confiance», a-t-il souligné, appelant les poids lourds européens qui renforcent la crédibilité des règles budgétaires et des accords.

Michael Sarris, ancien économiste à la Banque Mondiale, a été nommé hier ministre des Finances par le nouveau président chypriote, le conservateur Nicos Anastasiades. Ce dernier a largement remporté dimanche au second tour l'élection présidentielle, s’engageant à trouver rapidement un accord de sauvetage financier avec les partenaires européens de l'île.

Le président fondateur d’Omea Telecom (Virgin Mobile), s’est déclaré hier candidat à la succession de Laurence Parisot à la présidence du Medef. Il est le cinquième candidat à la tête de l’organisation patronale, rejoignant notamment le président du Groupe des fédérations industrielles, Pierre Gattaz, et l’ancien médiateur des entreprises Jean-Claude Volot.

Selon nos informations, à l’issue d’un appel d’offres restreint piloté par le cabinet de conseil Alpha Institutionnels Conseil en 2012, la mutuelle Oréade Prévifrance a sélectionné Axa IM pour gérer un mandat de gestion assurantielle de 55 millions d’euros sur les obligations diversifiées zone euro.

Christian Carrega, directeur général de Préfon lors d’une conférence organisée par Novethic : Préfon a été créé en 1968, à l’initiative des organisations syndicales. Disposant de 400 000 affiliés, cet organisme délègue toute sa gestion financière à CNP, AXA, Groupama et Allianz. C’est en 2011, que nous avons adopté une charte ISR en lien avec les valeurs syndicales, notre portefeuille étant noté par Vigeo. Bien que Christian Carrega souligne l’importance de la création d’emploi dans les sociétés qui sont dans ses portefeuilles, il déplore la difficulté de la mesure, due au cycle économique ou à des fusions par exemple. Je vois cependant deux axes, le premier étant de distinguer les petites, moyennes et grandes entreprises en matière de création d’emploi. Le second axe est de comptabiliser la nombre d’heure de formation par heure et par salarié dans chaque société. Préfon n’est pas un fonds de pension, néanmoins, la performance financière est bien sur importante pour garantir la rente. Cependant, nous avons la conviction que l’ISR est un complément de sécurisation de la rente à moyen ou à long terme. De notre point de vue, nous ne pouvons pas opposer performance financière et ISR. Précise le directeur général de Préfon. Avec un encours de 11 milliards, Préfon, dispose d’un certain poids pour rencontrer des entreprises mal notées, afin notamment d’améliorer la rédaction de leurs reporting. Nous sommes en pleine réflexion pour tenter de faire changer les choses. conclue Christian Carrega. La mesure de la performance extra-financière intégrant les critères ESG est une nécessité. Les investisseurs institutionnels manquent néanmoins des critères objectifs, clairs et comparables. L'évaluation de la performance ISR est au début de son histoire. L’association Préfon (Caisse Nationale de Prévoyance de la Fonction Publique) a travaillé en 2012, à la demande de son conseil d’administration, sur la mise en place d’indicateurs ESG concrets pour les fonds proposés à ses affiliés. Pour Christian Carrega, le Directeur Général de la Préfon, ces indicateurs répondent à plusieurs objectifs. Le premier est d’aller au-delà des notations ESG ressemblant parfois à des « boîtes noires » pour les néophytes et dont la méthodologie est propre à chaque société de gestion. Ces indicateurs concrets et opposables doivent ainsi les rendre « palpables » pour le conseil d’administration ainsi que les affiliés. Enfin, ils permettent de comparer de manière homogène les différents gestionnaires. La Préfon a récemment défini des indicateurs en concertation avec les quatre sociétés de gestion avec lesquelles elle travaille. Sept indicateurs ont ainsi été retenus pour les investissements en actions et obligations d’entreprises (voir encadré). Bloomberg en est le principal fournisseur de données. Pour le régime de retraite, la prochaine étape sera de mettre en place un modèle de reporting commun aux différents gérants. Les sept indicateurs ESG retenus par la Préfon pour la gestion actions et obligations d’entreprises : Équilibre des pouvoirs et efficacité du conseil d’administration (indice composite de Vigeo) Part des femmes au sein du conseil d’administration des entreprises Nombre d’heures de formation / an / salarié Part des femmes à des postes d’encadrement Émissions de gaz à effet de serre rapportées au chiffre d’affaires et en absolu (seulement pour les services aux collectivités) Part des small caps / mid caps / large caps dans le portefeuille Part des entreprises n'étant pas signataires du Pacte Mondial des Nations Unies

Plusieurs projections diffusées par les médias italiens livrent des conclusions opposées sur les élections législatives en Italie. Selon l’institut Tecne pour la chaîne Sky, la coalition de droite de Silvio Berlusconi serait en tête au Sénat, avec 31,7% des suffrages, devant le centre gauche (29%). En revanche, l’institut IPR pour Mediaset voit la coalition de Pier Luigi Bersani mener la course (avec 32% des voix) devant celle de l’ancien président du Conseil (créditée de 29,7%). En prenant en compte les partis sur une base indépendante, le Mouvement cinq étoiles (M5S) de Beppe Grillo serait en première position au Sénat (avec 25,1% des voix), d’après la projection de l’institut Piepoli. Les sorts de plusieurs régions ; la Lombardie, la Campanie ou encore la Sicile, seront déterminants. Avec le risque d’un Parlement suspendu, voire d’un nouveau scrutin selon certains responsables du Parti démocrate, le blocage politique pourrait compromettre le rythme des réfomes.

Paris, comme Berlin, doivent donner l’exemple en matière de réduction des déficits, a déclaré Jens Weidmann, le président de la Bundesbank allemande. «Dans les circonstances actuelles, nous devons admettre que nous sommes confrontés à une crise de confiance», a-t-il souligné, appelant les poids lourds de la zone euro à envoyer des signaux qui renforcent la crédibilité des règles budgétaires et des accords.

Le Conseil d’Etat, la plus haute juridiction administrative des Pays-Bas, a rejeté les tentatives de rejet du plan d’expropriation de SNS Reaal mis en place par le gouvernement. Cette décision ne porte toutefois pas sur les réclamations futures. L’opération permet au quatrième groupe de banque et d’assurances du pays de recevoir des aides publiques.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } Citywire reports that the Emerging Market Equity sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav Vontobel Funds is now closed to new investors. Existing clients may continue to invest in the fund, managed by Rajiv Jain, which has USD4.8bn in assets. For about one year, the Swiss asset management firm has been making efforts to slow subscriptions to the fund.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } Agefi reports that the SEC has approved the launch of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) by the collective management giant BlackRock dedicated to copper, which would be listed on the NYSE Arca platform. The market authority in December licensed the sale of a comparable product managed by JPMorgan. Some copper industrials have expressed concerns that the market will be disturbed by the launch of these ETF funds.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } The Swiss stock exchange SIX has fined the Swiss group Weatherford International CHF200,000, SIX Exchange Regulation has announced in a statement released on 22 February. The group, active in oil exploitation services, was found guilty of violating a requirement to disclose management transactions, violating event notification rules, and violating rules concerning listing procedures.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } The financial ratings agency Moody’s on 22 February announced that it is cutting its credit rating for the United Kingdom by one notch, from AAA to AA1, due to “continued weak mid-term outlooks” for the country. The agency says that it expects muted economic activity in the country “to extend into the second half of the decade.” Several factors have contributed to this development, including a process of reducing debt in private and public sectors, which probably bit into growth. Moody’s says, however, that the British economy is solid, has “extremely high” solvency, and the outlook for the country has been increased from “negative” to “stable.” The United Kingdom took a first step towards another recession, with a contraction in its gross domestic product of 0.3% in fourth quarter 2012. If this morose economy continues in the first three months of 2013, the UK would be in its third recessionary dip since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008-2009.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } Bank am Bellevue on 22 February announced the recruitment of the Swiss equity specialist Michael Heider as head of equity research. Heider began on 1 February this year. He is responsible for a research team of 12 analysts. Heider, who has often won awards for his Swiss equity research, previously worked at Helvea, where he most recently served as co-head of equity research.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } The Boston-based asset management firm Affiliated Managers Group Inc (AMG, USD432bn in assets as of the end of December) on 21 February announced the opening of a sales office in Zurich, and the recruitment of Patrick Sege, head of sales & business development Switzerland at Liongate Capital Management, as director, head of distribution Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein. He will be based in Zurich.AMG has also recruited a director of sales & relationships, institutional clients, Germany, from Fidelity Investment Management. He will also be based in Zurich.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } La Financière Tiepolo on 18 February announced the arrival of Dominique Dequidt as deputy director of collective management and portfolio manager.At the French entrepreneurial asset management firm, he will be responsible for developing a European securities management unit, and will be responsible for managing a new FCP which will invest in European securities. The FCP range from La Financière Tiepolo currently includes two equity funds.Before joining La Financière Tiepolo, Dequidt had been a portfolio and mutual fund manager at KBL Richelieu Gestion. From 2007 to 2011 he served as co-director of the European Small & Mid Cpas Equities unit at Robeco Asset Management in Paris.He began his career in 1987, at the Portzamparc stock market company in Nantes, as a portfolio and mutual fund manager, until 1996. He then joined Crédit Mutuel in Brest, Brittany, as heat of the European equity management team, and then joined BNP Paribas Asset Management in 2001, to take charge of various mutual funds, investing in European small and midcaps as well as Europe Dividende mutual funds.La Financière Tiepolo currently has 16 employees and EUR500m in assets under management.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } After a very good year in 2012, the Swiss group Mirabaud is very seriously planning to recruit personnel in Paris. With 30 employees, the Paris office may add to its convertibles unit, which for slightly over one year has been led by Renaud Martin.The convertible strategy led by Martin also has delivered flattering results. The Mirabaud Convertible Bonds Europe A Cap (Eur) fund, launched in October 2011, last year earned returns of 16.6%, compared with 15.7% for the benchmark index, Exane Europe Convertible Bond Index. Its assets under management total about EUR175m.Another area for development is high yield, but in London, where Mirabaud will soon announce the recruitment of a person, Lionel Aeschlimann, a partner at Mirabaud, told Newsmanagers at a presentation in Paris. Andrew Lake, who manages the Mirabaud-Global High Yield Bonds fund (USD130m in assets under management) said at the presentation that the high yield segment will not return in 2013 to its exceptional levels of last year. However, it may earn returns of 6% to 7% in an environment in which volatility may remain high, and technical fundamentals for the segment remain very good.The evolution of Mirabaud’s activities in Paris are evidently not incompatible with recruitment plans, which may also affect sales teams. Last year assets in the French market totalled EUR1.4bn. In private banking, assets rose by about 9% to nearly EUR1bn, with 50% of the rise coming from the market and 50% from inflows. In institutional management, assets increased by about 25%, to EUR400m, two thirds of it due to inflows.For its two historic units, Mirabaud has for the past two and a half years been developing activities with IFAs via the Finaveo platform. “We are planning to intensify our relationships with our partners dedicated to IFAs and insurance platforms,” Raphaël Spahr, CEO of Mirabaud France, tells Newsmanagers.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } The asset management unit of the British HSBC group has decided to close a hedge fund dedicated to India due to excessive outflows, the news agency Reuters reports. The long/short equity fund India Alpha, launched in 2007, posted returns of 26% last year, compared with an average of 10.3% for hedge funds dedicated to emerging markets, according to Hedge Fund Research. Assets in the fund, which peaked at USD300m in 2008, as of the end of December 2012 totalled USD85m.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } The BlackRock World Resources Income fund is changing names to become the BlackRock Natural Resources Growth & Income fund, in order to better reflect its investment philosophy, Fund Web reports. The investment objectives for the fund have also been updated in order to clarify its management. The changes will take effect from 5 April.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } Les Echos reports that the Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR) group will this Monday announce that it is in exclusive talks with the fund Nordic Capital to sell it Ellos the Scandinavian arm of its Redcats mail-order unit, for a value of EUR300m, 8 or 9 times EBITDA. The Nordic Capital fund is interested in the acquisition in order to acqhieve strategic consolidation on the market in Scandinavia.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } “If everything goes according to nominal trajectory this year, we will have EUR1.812bn in gross inflows by the end of December, which will represent annual growth since 2007 of 34%, of which 6% are due to acquisitions, and 28% are organic. Total assets of the group as of the end of 2012 come to EUR5.2bn, where we started out in 2007 with EUR1.8bn. And we are expecting to reach EUR7.1bn-EUR7.2bn by the end of 2013,’ Patrick Petitjean, CEO of Primonial, a group which claims to be one of the top independent providers of investment solutions, has told Newsmanagers.For asset management, Primonial has launched the “Voltaire project,” led by François Barthélémy, director of Primonial Asset Management. The concept is “based on the observation that in France, many managers manage well, but don’t get inflows, and the success of managers comes from the independent world, before it is confirmed by institutional demand. The idea is to acquire a series of small managers who have already proven themselves, to help them with sales.”In this context, “Primonial has already acquired a 70% stake in Roche-Brune, a specialist in European equities, led yb Bruno Fine “and we are planning to add one to three new managers or funds per year to our little collection; they will retain their brand names, like Roche-Brune. We profit from their expertise, while the managers, freed from having to worry about sales, can focus on what they do best: managing. And they can also make money themselves,” says Petitjean, who has also announced plans to create a distribution platform in Luxembourg this year.So far, Primonial AM (20 employees, including 8 managers) has slightly under EUR1bn in multi-management and strategic allocation in the form of mandates. Primonial is planning to add to its range of mutual funds soon with a commodity fund.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } The management of Victory Capital Management (144 employees and USD22.1bn in assets under advisory or management as of the end of December) will take control of Victory, with the help of the private equity investor Crestview Partners. It will acquire the firm for USD246bn, 1.1% of assets under management, from KeyCorp, which says that it will make a total capital gain on the sale of USD145m to USD155m.The transaction will be completed in third quarter. The two heads of Victory, David Brown and Christopher Ohnmacht, will remain at the helm of the firm, the former as CEO and the latter as chairman.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } Richard Sullivan US district judge in Manhattan, has forbidden Apple from holding a bundled vote on three resolutions at its general shareholders’ meeting, including one which would allow the group to issue preferential shares, the Wall Street Journal reports. The alternative asset management firm Greenlight Capital, led by David Einhorn, is opposed to the move, as he would like a vote to be allowed to let shareholders get their share of USD137bn in cash accumulated by Apple.The two parties have until 1 March to make new proposals.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } Since Thursday, db x-trackers and db x-markets have been announcing on their websites that they belong to the asset & wealth management (AWM) unit of Deutsche Bank, which is a visible representation of an announcement that active (asset management) and passive (investment banking) management activities had been united in a single structure, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports Reinhard Bellet, who heads the passive management unit from London, says that passively-managed assets at Deutsche Bank total EUR98bn, of which 40% are in db x-trackers ETFs, 26% in options and certificates from db x-markets, and 9% in DB Platinum funds.Currently, Deutsche Bank is the fourth-largest provider of passively-managed products in Europe, after iShares (BlackRock), with EUR425bn, Legal & General with EUR300bn, and State Street with EUR203bn. Vanguard remains relatively modest in Europe, with EUR51bn. For ETFs, db x-trackers is second, after iShares.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } The third week of February saw nearly every major EPFR global-tracked fund group post inflows as cash pulled from US money market funds at the fastest clip since mid-3Q11 looked for new investment ideas. Overall, money market funds saw USD32.1bn pulled out during the week ending February 20 – with USD25.8bn of that coming from US funds. Meanwhile, equity funds absorbed a net USD8.58bn, bond funds USD3.47bn, balanced funds USD1.11bn and alternative funds USD710m.Year-to-date flows into EPFR Global-tracked Emerging Markets Equity Funds pushed past the USD33bn mark in late February as they extended their current inflow streak to 23 weeks. Once again the diversified Global Emerging Markets (GEM) Equity Funds took in the lion’s share of the new money with Asia ex-Japan Equity Funds a distant second while EMEA Equity Funds posted outflows for the fourth time in the past five weeks.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The US financial services group Catella is adding to its range of consulting services for German real estate, with the inclusion of debt consulting services, Investment Europe reports. The team will be led by Simone Schmidt, a specialist in structured finance, who previously worked for EAA, the real estate liquidation entity of West LB. Catella, which has about 440 employees in 12 European countries, has two major activity units: asset management and corporate finance. Real estate advising includes three major divisions, “Sales and Acquisitions,” debt and Equity,” and “Research and Valuation.”

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Threadneedle Investments is signing a distribution agreement with DBS Bank of Singapore, Citywire Global reports. Clients of the bank will have access to the Threadneedle (Lux) Emerging Market Short-Term Bonds fund from the asset management firm.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } Dealogic reports that Gingko Tree Investment Ltd., a British, wholly-owned subsidiary of the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), has recently invested over USD1.6bn in four British properties, including a water utility, student housing, and office properties in London and Manchester, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to sources familiar with the matter, other deals are also said to have taken place, but details have not been released.The investments mark a significant turn in the way in which the secretive managers of the largest currency reserves in the world use their financial resources.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The fund of funds Skandia UK Best Ideas, whose assets under management total GBP118m, will be integrated into the Old Mutual UK Select Equity fund, which has GBP80m in assets, Investment Week reports. The operation may take place next month, Old Mutual Global Investors (OMGI) says, claiming that the two funds represent a “redundancy zone” in the range, following the merger of the two firms Old Mutual Asset Managers and Skandia Investment Group to create the new entity OMGI.