Le directeur général de la banque britannique Barclays, Antony Jenkins, nommé l’an dernier après la chute de Bob Diamond en raison du scandale du Libor, a annoncé le 1er février qu’il renonçait à recevoir un bonus au titre de l’année 2012."L’année passée a clairement été très difficile pour Barclays et ses parties prenantes» et «j’en ai conclu qu’il serait inapproprié de ma part de recevoir un bonus pour 2012 dans ces circonstances», a-t-il expliqué dans un communiqué. Cette forme de rétribution très répandue dans la City suscite régulièrement l’indignation de l’opinion publique au Royaume-Uni, à cause des montants parfois faramineux versés à certains financiers. Les divers scandales qui ont récemment frappé les banques britanniques ont rendu les bonus encore plus impopulaires en ces temps d’austérité.Par ailleurs, selon L’Agefi, la banque a annoncé ce week end que son directeur financier Chris Lucas et son directeur juridique Mark Harding démissionneraient de leur propre volonté. Les deux hommes resteront en place jusqu'à nomination de leurs successeurs, a ajouté l'établissement dans un communiqué. Le recherche de ces derniers est en cours.
Le gestionnaire écossais Baillie Gifford annonce la nomination au 1er mai de trois nouveaux associés : Spencer Adair, investment manager dans l'équipe Global Alpha, Kathrin Hamilton, directrice au sein du Clients Department et responsable des clients nord-américains, ainsi que Graham Laybourn, director of Legal and Regulatory Risk.Avec le départ à la retraite d’Angus Mc Leod, directeur dans le Clients Department pour l’Asie et le Moyen-Orient, le nombre d’associés au 1er mai ressortira à 39.Baillie Gifford indique par ailleurs que ses encours à fin décembre s’inscrivaient à 85 milliards de livres et que la société emploie 752 personnes.
BNY Mellon annonce avoir été sélectionné par le britannique Coutts comme administrateur de ses nouveaux fonds coordonnés de droit irlandais Coutts multi-asset funds.Le service comprend l’exécution sur les dérivés, la production de DICI (ou KIID en anglais) le reporting quotidien sur la performance et la couverture des classes de parts.
Ayant préféré mettre l’accent sur la commercialisation de dépôts plutôt que des fonds d’investissement, le BBVA a subi en 2012 une baisse de 2,5 % de l’encours de ses fonds en Espagne, à 19.116 millions d’euros fin décembre, rapporte Funds People.Dans le reste du monde, les actifs gérés dans des fonds d’investissement ont augmenté de 13 % à 22.255 millions d’euros tandis que l’encours des fonds de pension gonflait de 16,3 % à 71.473 millions et que le volume des mandats de gestion de portefeuilles pour les clients s’accroissait de 6,9 % à 13.652 millions d’euros. Pour l’an dernier, le groupe BBVA a subi une chute de 45,3 % de son bénéfice net, à 1.676 millions d’euros.
Dans un communiqué boursier publié par la CNMV, le BBVA a annoncé le 1er février qu’il cède sa participation de 64,3 % dans le gestionnaire de fonds de pension chilien AFP Provida à MetLife Inc pour 1.521 millions d’euros, dont approximativement 500 millions de plus-value nette. La transaction sera bouclée d’ici à la fin du deuxième trimestre.
Old Mutual Asset Management vient de recruter Miranda Poon au poste nouvellement créé de responsable des ventes institutionnelles pour l’Asie, rapporte Asian Investor.Basée à Hong Kong, Miranda Poon est directement rattachée à Olivier Lebleu, responsable de la distribution hors Etats-Unis. Skandia Investment Group a fusionné avec Old Mutual Asset Management pour former une nouvelle entité appelée Old Mutual Global Investors (OMGI) Une modification qui sera officialisée après le Nouvel An chinois. Ses actifs sous gestion s'élèveront à plus de 20 milliards de dollars, la part de l’Asie dans ce montant représentant un peu plus de 1 milliard de dollars.
Les actifs sous gestion de Julius Baer ont progressé l’an dernier de 11%, soit 19 milliards de francs suisses, à 189 milliards de francs suisses, slon un communiqué publié le 4 février. La progression des actifs sous gestion résulte d’un impact positif de la performance du marché de près de 11 milliards de francs suisses grâce à des améliorations substantielles dans plusieurs catégories d’investissement, notamment les actions, d’une collecte nette de de 9,7 milliards de francs et enfin d’incidences de change négatives de 1 milliard de francs, dues principalement au recul de la valeur du dollar vers la fin de l’année.Comme les années précédentes, si toutes les régions ont produit une contribution positive, la majorité de la collecte provient des marchés de croissance - Asie, Amérique latine, Moyen-Orient, Russie et Europe centrale et de l’Est.Par ailleurs, Julius Baer indique avoir le mois dernier renforcé sa présence sur le marché japonais de la gestion de fortune, en prenant une participation de 60% dans TFM Asset Management Ltd. (TFM), société de gestion d’actifs indépendante enregistrée en Suisse. Fondée en 1996, TFM a des bureaux à Tokyo et Zurich. La société détient des licences de conseil en placements et de gestion d’investissements délivrées par la FSA japonaise et se concentre essentiellement sur le service aux clients privés japonais à haut potentiel financier. TFM gère quelques centaines de millions de francs suisses d’actifs de clients. Julius Baer aura un droit de propriété intégrale trois ans après l’opération de bouclage prévue pour avril 2013. Les deux parties sont convenues de ne pas divulguer le prix d’achat.
La banque Credit Suisse a publié le 1er février des résultats révisés, adaptés à la nouvelle structure du groupe. Dans la division Private Banking & Wealth Management (PB&WM), le résultat de la gestion d’actifs est indiqué désormais comme une unité spécifique, tout comme les résultats des unités Wealth Management Clients et Corporate & Institutional Clients.Le négoce sur titres en Suisse a par ailleurs été transféré en grande partie de la banque d’affaires vers la division PB&WM, précise Credit Suisse dans un communiqué. Ces ajustements ont un effet sur les résultats des trois unités de la division PB&WM et sur celui de la banque d’affaires. Ces changements, ainsi que le transfert du négoce sur titres n’ont cependant aucun effet sur le résultat consolidé et le résultat net de Credit Suisse, qui va adapter ses chiffres rétroactivement jusqu’en 2008. Credit Suisse a annoncé en novembre 2012 une réorganisation de son fonctionnement et de sa direction, prévoyant un transfert des unités de banque privée et de gestion d’actifs vers la division PB&WM.
«La Chine, l’un des principaux marchés d’UBS, continuera de figurer au centre de notre stratégie», a déclaré le président du conseil d’administration d’UBS, Axel Weber, à l’occasion de sa première visite en Chine dans les fonctions qu’il occupe depuis l’an dernier, rapporte le China Daily..Dans cette perspective, UBS va continuer de développer ses activités de gestion de fortune en Chine où le groupe souhaite figurer parmi les tout premiers gestionnaires de fortune. Au niveau mondial, la gestion de fortune représente 50% environ du portefeuille d’UBS. Ce pourcentage est évidemment beaucoup plus modeste pour ce qui concerne la Chine alors que les actifs investissables enregistrent d’année en année des progressions à deux chiffres.
L’Agefi rapporte que UBS a confirmé à l’agence de presse suisse ats qu’elle entendait renoncer aux rétrocessions perçues dans le cadre de ses activités de gestion de fortune, dans un souci de mettre à mal les conflits d’intérêt.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its final Guidelines and a Feedback Statement on the exemption for market making activities and primary market operations under the Short Selling Regulation. The Guidelines will be translated into all the official EU languages and will be applicable two months after the translations are published.ESMA will publish on its website the lists of those entities who have been granted exemptions without further details on the financial instruments and markets, with this latter information being available to national authorities.
Stéphane Müller, who in mid-January was appointed as chairman of the boards at Federal Finance, which include two asset management firms, Federal Finance Gestion and Schelcher Prince, arrives with precise objectives, which are expected to make the firm better known abroad, soon to include Asia and South America. The business insider, who had previously been head of Suravenir Assurances, the insurance affiliate of Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, is planning to rationalise the group.
OFI Asset Management has announced the launch of two 2018 target date credit funds. OFI High Yield 2018 and OFI Haut Rendement 2018 are both French-registered FCP funds, investing in high yield corporate bonds. The investment universe is composed of bonds issued in euros, larley from companies in OECD member countries in the case of the first fund. The second fund is diversified over issues from emerging countries in currencies other than the euro. Characteristics OFI High Yield 2018 ISIN codes: C share class: FR0011398809 • C/D share class: FR0011412584 Management fees: 0.50% TER Front-end fees: maximum 5%, including taxes Withdrawal penalty: 5% until 31 December 2012, 4% until 31 December 2014, 3% until 31 December 2015, 2% until 31 December 2016, 1% until 31 December 2017, and no charge after that until maturity of the fund
The pension fund for public employees in the Netherlands, ABP, with 2.8 million members, on 1 February confirmed that a reduction of benefits by 0.5% planned for this year will be applied from 1 April 2013, as the increased life expectancy for the Dutch has reduced the coverage rate to 96% as of the end of 2012 (compared with 97% as of the end of September), below the 104.3% required by the legislator.Henk Brouwer, chairman, has also announced that if coverage rates do not improve, benefits may be reduced by approximately a further 1.6% in 2014.Assets increased by EUR35bn in 2012 to EUR281bn, due to returns of 13.7%, representing EUR34bn. But liabilities were revised upwards by EUR29bn in one year, to USD292bn. With interest rates virtually unchanged, the revision is almost entirely imputable to the most recent projections by the Netherlands Statistical Office (CBS) about the longevity of the population. This means that ABP will be required to pay out pensions for a longer time, and concretely, that liabilities will increase by 1.8 percentage points as a result of this fact.
Equity funds attracted another USD18.7 billion during the final week of January, according to EPFR.They close the books on a month when they outgained bond funds by a nearly 3-to-1 margin and fueled talk of a “great rotation” from fixed income assets to equity.Emerging markets equity and bond funds maintained their strong starts to 2013, pulling in a combined USD5.12 billion, with emerging Asia by far the preferred region.Money market funds recorded net outflows of USD12.16 billion, their third straight week of outflows in excess of USD10 billion, with Europe money market funds accounting for the bulk of those redemptions after two weeks of US money market funds leading the way.
Preferring to emphasize sales of savings accounts rather than investment funds, BBVA in 2012 saw a decline of 2.5% in assets in its funds in Spain, to EUR19.116bn as of the end of December, Funds People reports.In the rest of the world, assets under management in investment funds rose 13%, to EUR22.255trn, while assets in pension funds increased by 16.3% to EUR71.743bn, and the volume of portfolio management mandates for clients increased 6.95 to EUR13.652bn.Last year, the BBVA group saw a 45.3% decline in its net profits, to EUR1.676bn.
Old Mutual Asset Management has recruited Miranda Poon for the newly-created position of head of institutional sales for Asia, Asian Investor reports. Poon will be based in Hong Kong, and will report directly to Olivier Lebleu, head of sales outside the United States. Skandia Investment Group has merged with Old Mutual Asset Management to create a new entity, entitled Old Mutual Global Investors (OMGI), in a change which will become official at the Chinese New Year. Assets under management by the firm total over USD20bn, of which Asia represents slightly over USD1bn.
In a stock exchange filing released by the CNMV, BBVA on 1 February announced that it is selling its 64.3% stake in the Chilean pension fund management firm AFP Provida to MetLife for EUR1.521bn, of which about EUR500m represent a net capital gain. The transaction will be completed by the end of second quarter.
Rob Heins, a former manager at PGGM, Robeco and Rabobank Netherlands, is joining the institutional sales team for the Netherlands at ING Investment Management, led by Michael Jasper, which now has five members, Fondnieuws reports.ING IM has about EUR316bn in assets under management for institutional and retail clients.
The integration of Banif into Santander will result in an increase in the minimal level of financial savings required by the group for access to private banking services, from EUR500,000 currently, to EUR1m, within six months, Funds People reports.The absorption of Banif is expected to generate synergies in the third year of EUR520m, of which EUR420m are savings, and EUR00m are additional revenues.
AXA Real Estate Investment Managers has announced that its Italian regulated subsidiary AXA REIM SGR has raised EUR209 million at the close of the Caesar Fund. This exceeds the target equity set out when Caesar was officially launched with a first close of EUR118 million in March 2012 and gives a total potential fund size of around EUR420 million once fully invested.AXA Real Estate, supported by the full capabilities of its parent company AXA IM in Italy, raised the money from 13 Italian institutional investors that have committed to invest alongside AXA Insurance companies, which represent around 20% of the total commitment. Caesar is a regulated closed ended fund for institutional investors and will target investments in well let “CORE” office buildings. The Fund aims to provide an annual average net dividend distribution of over 5.5%2 on capital invested, once the investment phase is completed, and a 9%2 IRR net of fees.The Fund will seek investments in eurozone countries and the United Kingdom and will have a particular focus on investments on France, Germany and United Kingdom for the first 12 months, while maintaining a watching brief on opportunities in Benelux. No single investment will exceed 15% of the Fund’s target portfolio value. AXA Real Estate plans to complete the investment phase of the Fund in the next 24 months, at which time, under the Italian law for regulated funds, it will have the option to reopen the Caesar for further subscriptions. The Caesar Fund will be managed by AXA REIM SGR in Italy and will benefit from the expertise and resources of AXA Real Estate’s European real estate investment and asset management platform.
Barclays yesterday announced that its chief financial officer, Chris Lucas, and its legal director, Mark Harding, will be resigning voluntarily, Agefi reports. The two men will remain in place until their successors are appointed, the bank added in a statement. It states that a search for these replacements is underway.
The CEO of the British bank Barclays, Antony Jenkins, who was appointed last year following the departure of Bob Diamond due to the Libor scandal, on 1 February announced that he would not be claiming a bonus for the year 2012. “Last year was clearly very hard for Barclays and its shareholders,” and “I have concluded that it would be inappropriate on my part to receive a bonus for 2012 under these circumstances,” he explained in a statement. The widely-practised form of remuneration in the City is regularly subject to indignation on the part of the British public, due to the sometimes exceptionally large amounts paid to some financiers. The various scandals which have recently affected British banks have made bonuses even more unpopular in times of austerity.
The asset management firm Troy Asset Management has announced that it will limit access to the Troy Income Fund, due to the continuing rise of its assets under management, Money Marketing reports. The manager of the fund, Francis Brooke, is spending an increasing amount of time in meetings with clients. These meetings are legitimate, but are gradually increasing the time needed to manage the fund. From 1 May, minimal investment in the fund will be increased from GBP1,000 to GBP250,000, while front-end fees will now be set at 5%. This is the second time that Troy has decided to limit access to the fund, whose assets under management total GBP930m.
BNY Mellon has announced that it has been selected by the British firm Coutts as administrator for its new Irish-registered, UCITS-compliant Coutts multi-asset funds.Services include settlement for derivatives, the production of KIIDs, daily reporting on performance, and hedging of share classes.
The Scottish asset management firm Baillie Gifford has announced the appointment of three new partners as of 1 May: Spencer Adair, investment manager in the Global Alpha team, Kathrin Hamilton, director of the Clients Department in charge of North American clients, and Graham Laybourn, director of Legal and Regulatory Risk.With the retirement of Angus McLeod, director of the Clients Department for Asia and the Middle East, the number of partners as of 1 May will total 39.Baillie Gifford has also announced that its assets as of the end of December totalled GBP85bn, and that the firm has 752 employees.
Bruce Berkowitz, the founder of the asset management firm Fairholem Funds, has announced that he has decided to close three mutual funds to new investors, at the end of the trading day on 28 February this year. Current shareholders will be permitted to continue to invest in the various funds. Fairholme explains in a statement that the decision comes largely as a result of the risk of diluting the current shareholders and the currently good positioning of the various funds for financing operations and realising new investments. Among the three funds which have been closed to new investors is the Fairholme Fund, whose assets under management total about USD7.5bn.
French boutique Tocqueville Finance on Thursday announced at its annual convention that it is overhauling its fund product range. Funds investing solely in France will have their investment universe extended to cover all of Europe and all capitalisation sizes. This includes Ulysse, the flagship fund from the firm, which was managed by the star fund manager Marc Tournier until his departure about one year ago, which becomes a euro zone fund for all cap sizes. It is now managed by Daniel Fighiera, CIO since May 2012, with the assistance of Nelly Davies, co-manager. Tocqueville Dividende and Odyssée also open to Europe. Tocqueville Finance also announced the transformation of Ithaque, a value fund, into a megatrend fund. The new fund will be managed by Nelly Davies with Thibault Moureu as analyst. Tocqueville Finance had assets under management of EUR1.2bn as of Decembre 31, 2012, against EUR2bn as of June 2011. But the new CEO, Hervé Guiriec still targets AUM of EUR4bn in 2015.
Axa Investment Managers on 1 February recruited Jörg Schomburg to replace Frank Richter, who has left the business, as head of institutional sales for Germany. Schomburg had since 1999 been at Allianz Global Investors (AGI), where he had since 2007 directed the institutional sales team.
Matthias Reimer, who was head of portfolio management for guaranteed funds and multi-asset class strategies in the wealth management unit of DWS (Deutsche Bank group), is joining Warburg Invest (EUR14.8bn in assets), Das Investment reports.At his new employer, Reimer will direct the portfolio engineering team, which includes multi-asset class strategies and the development of custom investment strategies for private clients.