La Banque nationale suisse ne devrait cependant pas revenir sur ce seuil, mais privilégier plutôt la diversification de ses réserves de change

La plate-forme de négociation paneuropéenne étudie différentes options, dont celle d’une possible fermeture, croit savoir Reuters. Citadel et Knight Capital, deux de ses principaux investisseurs, ont semble-t-il perdu en motivation. Un conseil d’administration doit se réunir début février.

L’aéroport londonien de Stansted a attiré trois offres fermes de chacune un milliard de livres (1,2 milliard d’euros), a rapporté Reuters de trois sources proches de l’opération. L’australien Macquarie, le groupe Malaysia Airports Holdings et le groupe Manchester Airports (MAG) avec son partenaire australien IFM ont chacun déposé un dossier. Un accord pourrait être conclu d’ici la semaine prochaine.

La demande étrangère d’actifs américains a augmenté en novembre, que ce soit d’actions ou d’emprunts du Trésor, a annoncé ce dernier. Les investisseurs étrangers ont acheté en net 52,3 milliards de dollars d’actifs à long terme, alors qu’après révision ils étaient vendeurs nets en octobre, à hauteur d’un milliard de dollars. Une première estimation pour octobre les avait donnés acheteurs nets pour 1,3 milliard.

L’opérateur des Bourses de Paris, Bruxelles, Amsterdam et Lisbonne, pourrait être scindé et introduit en Bourse mais il n’est pas à vendre, a déclaré Duncan Niederauer, le directeur général de Nyse Euronext, à Bloomberg Television. L’annonce le mois dernier du projet de rachat de Nyse Euronext par IntercontinentalExchange alimente depuis les spéculations sur le sort d’Euronext.

Le rapport mensuel de l’Organisation des pays exportateurs de pétrole (Opep) prévoit une demande de 29,65 millions de barils par jour (bpj) en moyenne en 2013, une baisse de 100.000 bpj par rapport à ce qui était anticipé au mois de décembre, durant lequel la production de l’Opep a atteint 30,37 millions bpj. Le cartel, qui a un objectif de production officiel de 30 millions bpj, indique ainsi que l’offre mondiale dépassera largement la demande au premier semestre.

Standard & Poor’s a annoncé l’abaissement de la note à long terme de Malte de A- à BBB+, tout en lui assignant une perspective stable. La note à court terme A-2 est confirmée. L’agence observe que la dissolution du Parlement le 7 janvier dernier empêchera l’adoption du budget 2013 tant que les élections prévues pour le 9 mars n’auront pas eu lieu. Cela soulève à ses yeux des questions sur la capacité du gouvernement à rétablir une souplesse budgétaire qu’il a perdu peu à peu.

Le département du Travail a fait état d’un indice des prix de détail (CPI) inchangé le mois dernier, aidé en cela par une baisse des prix de l’essence, ce qui est conforme au consensus des analystes. La Fed ne choisit par le CPI comme étalon de l’inflation mais un indice publié par le département du Commerce. Ces deux indices sont en général assez proches l’un de l’autre. Tous deux donnent une inflation annuelle éloignée de l’objectif de la Fed, qui est de 2%.

La production industrielle a augmenté en décembre aux Etats-Unis, avec notamment une accélération dans l’automobile, donnant à penser que le secteur manufacturier poursuit une croissance à un rythme modéré. La production a progressé de 0,3% le mois dernier après un gain de 1,0% en novembre, selon la Fed. La production manufacturière a progressé de 0,8% en décembre.

Réunis à Strasbourg, les parlementaires européens ont adopté ce mercredi le rapport de Sylvie Goulard sur la faisabilité d’introduire des obligations de stabilité (eurobonds). Ils estiment que la piste la plus importante à long terme, et notamment après les propositions d’Herman Van Rompuy en décembre pour un budget de la zone euro, semble être celle de l’option 4 c’est-à-dire l'émission d’une dette européenne et non la mutualisation de dette nationale.

La confiance des promoteurs immobiliers dans l'évolution du marché du logement est restée stable en janvier, au plus haut niveau depuis près de sept ans, montre l’enquête mensuelle de la fédération NAHB. Son indice de confiance ressort à 47, comme en décembre, son plus haut niveau depuis avril 2006. Le sous-indice mesurant les anticipations de ventes à un horizon de six mois a reculé d’un point à 49 mais celui des acheteurs potentiels ressort en hausse d’un point à 37.

La demande étrangère d’actifs américains a augmenté en novembre, que ce soit d’actions ou d’emprunts du Trésor, a annoncé ce dernier. Les investisseurs étrangers ont acheté en net 52,3 milliards de dollars d’actifs à long terme, alors qu’après révision ils étaient vendeurs nets en octobre, à hauteur d’un milliard de dollars. Une première estimation pour octobre les avait donnés acheteurs nets pour 1,3 milliard de dollars.

With the Kresge Foundation (USD3bn) and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Morgan Stanley is participating in the first investment fund (with USD100m in capital) to allow those with low income and limited economic resources to gain access to health care and affordable housing. The fund also aims to finance services to help achieve these objectives in more deprived areas.The fund has sufficient capital to construct 500 housing units with integrated health care services, as well as eight health care centres with Federal permits to serve 75,000 people. The structure will put health care providers and residential developers in contact, since these groups have not often worked together previously, even though they frequently serve the same low-income populations in the same areas.The fund ia managed by New Markets Support Company, an affiliate of LISC, and is expected to contribute initially to the creation of 2,200 jobs in particularly deprived areas.

The Australian asset management firm AMP Capital has announced recruitments for its alternative management team, with the appointments of Alistair Rew and Celine Nguyen as portfolio managers. Rew previously worked at XL Group, where he was most recently managing director. Nguyen, for her part, was an analyst at EIM Management, where she led due diligence missions for investments in hedge funds.

According to one of its executives, Mutuelle Médicis (EUR2.5bn) has recently called off plans to launch a cross-border pension financing organisation (OFP) in Belgium, “because that is not any more in line» with its strategy, IPE reports.

The European Commission will by this summer set out proposed legislation to et up a joint mechanism to resolve banking crises, the president of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso, announced on 15 January. “Following the adoption of the single supervision mechanism, the Commission will make a legislative proposal for a shared resolution mechanism for the banking sector before summer. I consider that an absolute priority,” Barroso said. Barroso, who was speaking before the European Parliament in Strasbourg, welcomed the compromise reached in December between European finance ministers to set up a joint banking supervision mechanism for the euro zone and other countries of the European Union (EU) that wish to participate. “Talks over the bill are in progress with Parliament, and I hope that the final step in its passage is coming within a matter of weeks, not months,” he said.

The asset management firm ECM Asset Management, an affiliate of the Wells Fargo banking group, has appointed Jens Vanbrabant as co-manager of two of its largest funds in the Sicav range, Citywire reports. Vanbrabant becomes the third manager of the European Credit Fund Sicav-Elbe, whose assets under management total EUR467m, and co-manager of the European Credit Fund Sicav-Danube (EUR82m). The managers in place for these strategies, Henrietta Pacquement and Derek Hynes, will retain their positions, but will now be supported by Vanbrabant. Despite these new duties, Vanbrabant will continue to manage the three funds that he currently manages, one European bond fund (European Credit Fund Sicav-Interlaken), one corporate bond fund (European Credit Fund Sicav – European Corporate), and one European bond mandate for Universal Investment.

A research chair for equity investments and benchmarking in the area of infrastructure has been created in Singapore by the Edhec-Risk Institute with Meridiam Infrastructure (EUR2.8bn in assets) and Campbell Lutyens. It will employ up to three senior researchers at the Edhec campus in Singapore in the next three years.

In its “interim management statement” for the period from 1 October to 31 December 2012, Liontrust Asset Management Plc on 15 January announced that its assets increased in the period under review yo GBP2.530bn, from GBP2.364bn, thanks to GBP64m in net subscriptions, and a positive market effect of GBP102m. As of 11 January, assets totalled GBP2.584bn.Assets under management for institutionals fell to GBP542m, compared with GBP570m as of 1 October, with net outflows of GBP53m, while retail represented GBP1.978bn, compared with GBP1.756bn, with net subscriptions of GBP147m. In the nine months to the end of December, net inflows totalled GBP253m, compared with GBP74m in the corresponding period of 2011.Liontrust also confirmed that Michael Mabbutt (formerly of Thames River) has been appointed on 2 January as head of global credit, and announced that Felix Martin will join the global credit division in February, also from Thames River.Lastly, the group has announced the forthcoming launch of the Liontrust GF Global Strategic Bond Fund in February, pending approval from the authorities. The product will represent a diversification of the product range, which is currently highly concentrated on UK, European and Asian equities.

The Norwegian asset management firm Odin has reshuffled its teams, following its decision to repatriate the management of its funds to Oslo, Citywire Global reports. Management had previously been divided between Oslo and Stockholm. Vegard Søraunet will take over as manager of the Odin Sverige/ODIN Sverige II, and Carl Erik Sando will take over the ODIN Eiendom/ODIN Eiendom I, following the departure of Tomas Ramsälv. Søraunet will no longer manage the Odin Global/ODIN Global II and Odin Global SMB funds, which will be taken over by Oddbjørn Dybvad and Harald Nilssen.

Partners Group on 16 January announced net inflows of EUR4.9bn in 2012. This amount is at the high end of the EUR4bn to EUR5bn range targeted by the private equity group, a statement says. Assets under management at the end of December totalled EUR28.6bn. The firm has also confirmed its projections of a total inflow of EUR4bn to EUR6bn in 2013.

Oscar Andreu, who had most recently served as head global emerging markets sales & distribution at UBS until the end of 2012, has been appointed as head of sales at Fidelity Switzerland, finews.ch reports. He will be responsible for overseeing banking/insurance and wealth management clients.

Borrowing by sustainable industrialised or emerging countries overall has evolved more positively than sovereign borrowing by countries that are not considered sustainable. The availability of resources shows every sign of having gained importance as a parameter in the evaluation of government debt These are the findings of the sustainability analysis department of Banque Sarasin, in its most recent commentary on the sustainability of governments and the valuation of their borrowing. The evolution of sustainable and unsustainable industrialised countries, which had previously been nearly synchronous, has become clearly differentiated since the outbreak of the debt crisis in Europe. With a difference of 27.3 percentage points compared with unsustainable countries, sustainable economies had done considerably better as of the end of December 2011. In 2012, the difference fell to 12.4 percentage points, but the valuation difference remained substantial over the entire period. Taking sustainability criteria into account also paid off in the selection of emerging market government debt. This conclusion is drawn from a consistent decline which peaked during the international financial crisis in 2008, as borrowing from sustainable emerging countries such as Brazil, Peru and Indonesia developed considerably more favourably than those of unsustainable countries such as China or South Africa. At the end of December 2012, the performance difference peaked at 77.0 percentage points. In the context of the current market, the risk looms as large as the performance in the evaluation of an investment. Aside from returns and volatility, the sustainability analysis team at Banque Sarasin therefore also calculated the Sharpe ratio for the countries under study. Sustainable countries also clearly stand out from the others in this area.

Swiss-based wealth management firm GAM is reorganising. It is moving from a financial holding company structure to a much more strongly integrated structure. This is not expected to result in any one-time restructuring costs, according to a statement released on 16 January.The current chairman and CEO of the holding company, Johannes de Gier, will now concentrate entirely on his responsibilities as chairman of the board of directors. David Solo, currently CEO of the two operational business units, will take over as CEO for the group.The finance and risk departments will be combined, and will now report to a chief financial officer for the group, in the person of Marco Suter, currently chief risk officer. The CFO of Gam Holding, Andrew Wills, will oversee the transition before leaving the group. The changes will be effective from 17 April this year.At the next general shareholders’ meeting, de Gier, Dieter Enkelmann, and Hugh Scott-Barrett will stand for new terms. Their current terms will end in April this year. Tanja Weiher is proposed as a new independent member, the board of directors would then grow from five to six members.

The SS&C GlobeOp hedge fund performance index posted a gross return of 1.27% in December, Investment Europe reports. The index of net inflows (Capital Movement Index), for its part, shows a decline of 2.58% in the month of January. Assets under administration by the GlobeOp platform currently represent about 10% of assets invested in the hedge fund sector.

Investors in 2013 are looking for the best terms possible, with an appetite for risk not seen in nine years, according to the latest BofA Merrill Lynch survey of a sample of 354 respondents representing cumulative assets under management of USD754bn, undertaken between 4 and 0 January.Global investors have entered 2013 in buoyant but not yet exuberant mood. The new year sees asset allocators assigning more funds to equities than at any time since February 2011, while their confidence in the world’s economic outlook has reached its most positive level since April 2010.Investors’ appetite for risk in their portfolios is now at its highest in nine years, while an increasing number judge equities as undervalued – particularly in Europe. Moreover, investors have reduced cash holdings to 3.8 percent from 4.2 percent in December.Participants’ perception of the U.S. fiscal crisis as the biggest “tail risk” for asset markets has calmed (down nearly 20 percentage points in two months), though it remains their largest concern. Views of China remain very positive, with a net 63 percent still anticipating a stronger economy this year, but one in seven sees a Chinese hard landing as their number one risk.Investors’ bullishness reflects a growing confidence in economic recovery. A net 59 percent now expect the global economy to strengthen this year, compared to a net 40 percent a month ago. This marks the panel’s most positive outlook since April 2010. An increasing proportion of respondents expect inflation to pick up as well.The panel has shifted its stance on financial stocks strongly, moving to its first net overweight in global bank names since February 2007 following a 15 percentage move versus last month. Nevertheless, banks are still perceived as the global equity market’s most undervalued sector. The existing overweight in insurance has also been extended, particularly in Europe, and now stands its highest level since January 2007.

The Dow Jones Credit Suisse hedge fund index gained 1.48% in December, following gains of 0.64% in November. For the year as a whole, the index is up 7.67%. All strategies of the index contributed to this performance, except the dedicated short bias strategy, which lost 2.95% in December, and more than 20% for the year. Among the best results of the month are emerging market strategies, with 2.3% in December and 10.28% for the year as a whole, and event-driven, which was up 1.98% for the month, and 10.63% for the year.

In a difficult fundraising environment, a growing number of new hedge fund firms is setting up shop in New York, where they estimate that it is easier to get noticed, the Wall Street Journal reports. Of the new hedge fund firms opening in Manhattan or Greenwich or Stamford in Connecticut, about 86% have chosen New York, on average, between 2003 and 2008, accorsing to eVestment. In 2009 and 2010, Manhattan accounted for 92% of fund launches. 2011 data indicate that the trend has continued.

The Préfon association on 15 January announced that its Préfon-Retraite pension scheme has generated inflows of EUR430m in the past twelve months, an increase of 3.4% year on year. The leader in elective retirement savings for public employees has also announced that the number of new members joining the Préfon-Retraite scheme rose 15% in 2012 compared with the previous year, with 8,500 new subscriptions. As of the end of September 2012, assets at Préfon-Retraite totalled about EUR11.2bn.

M&G Investments has announced the appointment of Dario Carrano as a sales manager in the sales team in Milan, Bluerating reports. He joins a team of 10 people who will report to Matteo Astolfi, head of M&G Investments in Italy, and will be responsible for independent financial advisers and institutional management. Carrano had previously worked at Amundi, where he spent six years as a sales manager. Currently, assets under management at M&G in Italy total over EUR4bn, double their total at the end of 2011.