Recherche
S'abonner
Connexion
Asset Management
Accueil Asset Management Actualités
22/01/2013

EFG to launch multi-asset fund in the UK

Investment Week reports that as a part of its development in the United Kingdom, EFG Asset Management, an affiliate of the Swiss firm EFG International, is planning to launch a multi-asset class fund in April (government and corporate bonds, hybrid debt, equities, hedge funds, real estate, infrastructure and cash), with OEIC status, which will be managed by Hilary Wakefield, head of UK portfolio management.The fund will aim for returns of 8%, and volatility of 4-7%, with the Libor + 300 basis points as its hurdle rate.
22/01/2013

Odey at work on a UCITS variant of its European L/S strategy

Odey Asset Management is planning to offer a UCITS-compliant version of its European long/short hedge fund strategy, launched ten years ago, which will be domiciled in Dublin, Investment Week reports.According to Bloomberg statistics, the Odey European fund, whose assets under management total about USD1.8bn, posted returns of 24% in 2012. Since its launch, the fund shows gross annual returns of 13.4%.Odey is planning to launch other UCITS-comlpiant funds in the next few weeks, including a long/short equity fund.
22/01/2013

Assets in Swiss funds up by 13% yoy in December

Assets in Swiss investment funds as of the end of Dcember 2012 totalled CHF711.9bn, down by CHF6.1bn compared with the previous month, according to statistics from the Swiss Funds Association (SFA). Year on year, however, Swiss funds were up by 13%, or slightly over USD80bn.In December 2012, inflows to bond funds totalled CHF1.5bn, while equity funds were up by CHF344.7m, but at the same time, money market funds saw outflows of CHF1.9bn.In 2012, UBS (market share of 22.74%) and Credit Suisse (16.25%) remained the largest fund providers on the Swiss market, followed by Pictet (6.99%), Swisscanto (5.83%), and the Cantonal Bank of Zurich (5.11%).
22/01/2013

Emerging market equities attract investors

Emerging markets equity and bond funds maintained their strong start to the New Year during the second week of January, absorbing another USD7.2 billion between them and taking their combined inflows for the first 16 days of 2013 over the USD18 billion mark. During the same period last year they had taken in just over USD4 billion, according to EPFR.The flows in emerging markets equity funds helped all EPFR global-tracked equity funds outgain their bond fund counterparts for the fifth straight week. The margin was, however, much slimmer than the previous week’s USD15.6 billion gap in favor of equity funds. Those funds took in a net USD7.19 billion during the week ending Jan. 16, with roughly 20% of those flows going to dividend equity funds versus 8% the previous week, while bond funds attracted a 10 week high of USD6.95 billion.Equity funds did attract retail money for the second week running, the first time that has happened since the second half of April, 2011.
22/01/2013

Barings Germany hires Henderson exec

Lars Albert, director of distribution for Germany at Henderson Global Investors, will be joining Baring Asset Management in the same role, Das Investment reports.
22/01/2013

Mainfirst recruits a head of FI

In April, Oliver Reisinger will join MainFirst as head of fixed income, Siegfried Jachinski, a board member, has told the Börsen-Zeitung. Reisinger had since 2011 been head of sales & marketing at HSH Nordbank.Mainfirst is planning to double the personnel in its fixed income operation in two years, to 40 people.
22/01/2013

BNP Paribas sells its green energy activity

BNP Paribas has agreed to spin off its private equity activity dedicated to green energies, the Financial Times reports. The team, which has adopted the name Glenmont Partners, will continue to have the bank as an investor in its EUR437m fund, raised in 2010. The bank has also agreed to sell the fund to its clients. Since 2007, the team at Glenmont Partners has invested over EUR1bn in 12 projects.
22/01/2013

CalSTRS finds more weapons manufacturers in its portfolio

CalSTRS, the second-largest pension fund in the United States, has identified two more makers of arms in its portfolio, following the shooting in a US school last month, Financial Times Fund Management reports. They are Sturm & Ruger and Smith & Wesson. “These stakes represent less than 10% of our daily equity trades,” says Ricardo Duran of CalSTRS. They come in addition to 2.4% of Freedom Group, the maker of the weapons used in the massacre, which is in the process of being sold by its owner, Cerberus, due to pressure from CalSTRS.
22/01/2013

Profits and assets up at Hennesy Advisors

California-based Hennesy Advisors has declared net profits for the quarter ending on 31 December of USD0.77m, compared with USD0.15m in the corresponding period of 2011, while assets at the end of 2012 totalled USD3.02bn, compared with USD780.9m one year previously. Asset increases largely come due to the acqusition of FBR Funds on 26 October.
22/01/2013

Caceis expands its range of services for AIFM managers

Caceis on 21 January announced an extension to its range of services to help fund managers comply with and take full advantage of the AIFM (Alternative Investment Fund Managers) Directive, under which they will soon be regulated. Caceis is already helping some fund managers to evaluate the implications of the AIFM Directive by providing operational support for adapting their organisation and internal procedures, in particular concerning the delegation of functions, risk management and the new regulatory reporting format. These fund managers can also use the services of Luxcellence, a Luxembourg subsidiary of Caceis, to manage their risks, structuring and the domiciliation of their funds. Caceis has initiated discussions within its network with several local fund managers to help them consider the implications of the Directive, while keeping the characteristics of their market in mind. Conference debates have been organised for early this year in Germany, the UK, France and Asia to study the challenges posed by the Directive with AIFMs.
22/01/2013

Deka makes new acquisition in Paris

Deka Immobilien has acquired a commercial real estate property under construction located in the avenue de France in Pars from Nexity. The property (7,200 square metres), which is slated for completion in September 2013, will be added to the portfolio of an institutional real estate fund.
22/01/2013

db x-trackers: 4 sectoral A-class Chinese equity ETFs in Frankfurt

On 21 January, the listings on the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic platform reached 1,014, with the admission to trading of the first five sectoral ETFs in Europe of A-class Chinese equities, from db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank), Deutsche Börse reports. They are all Luxembourg-registered products, which charge 0.50%, and replicate sub-indices of the Shanghai CSI 300.db x-trackers has previously launched an ETF for the CSI 300, whose assets have increased from EUR272m at the end of June to EUR620m as of 14 January.The five new products are as follows:db X-trackers CSI300 Banks Index ETF (LU0781021877),db X-trackers CSI300 Consumer Discretionary Index ETF (LU0781021950),db X-trackers CSI300 Energy Index ETF (LU0781022172),db X-trackers CSI300 Health Care Index ETF (LU0781022339) anddb X-trackers CSI300 Real Estate Index ETF (LU0781022099)
22/01/2013

Pictet: Hervé Thiard also becomes head for Benelux

Following the recent opening of representative offices of Pictet Aset Management (PAM) in Brussels and Amsterdam dedicated to fund sales, Hervé Thiard, CEO in charge of the institutional market for Pictet in France, is also becoming director for the Benelux region. Assets in Paris totalled EUR3.1bn as of 31 December 2012.New offices come as additions to the existing marketing services of PAM in Luxembourg, the banking headquarters of the Pictet group in the European Union. In his new role, Thiard will be supported by Bruno Hellemans, who since 2007 has been operational head of the investment fund market in the Benelux countries.PAM has not disclosed its asset levels in Benelux, which Newsmanagers understands, is higher than its levels in Paris.
22/01/2013

Strong dispersion in the performance of hedge funds for 2012

Edhec on 18 January published its estimate of the performance of hedge funds and funds of hedge funds in December and 2012 as a whole. Last year, only funds specialised in short-selling showed losses, of 3.94%. For 2012 as a whole, that strategy has lost 19.3%, while CTA has lost 2.3%. The S&P 500 index posted gains of 16% last year.However, the other categories all show gains, both for December and for the year as a whole, with the best results for 2012 as a whole for distressed securities and emerging markets, with respective perforamnce of 13.2% and 9.9%, followed by event-driven (+9.6%) and relative value (+9.2%).Overall, maximal return discrepancy last year totalled 32.5 percentage points. Edhec also states that since January 2001, distressed securities and emerging markets have posted average annual gains of 10.4% and 10.1%, while only dedicated short bias showed losses (of an average of 0.8%).The only strategy which shows a Sharpe ratio of higher than 1 is distressed securities (1.03), while two categories have a negative ratio: dedicated short bias (-0.35) and funds of funds (-0.09).
22/01/2013

Hedge fund assets up by USD60bn in fourth quarter

Assets in hedge funds rose by USD60bn in fourth quarter to a record USD2.25trn, according to the most recent statistics from the HFR Global Hedge Fund Industry Report.Net inflows totalled USD3.4bn in fourth quarter, bringing inflows for the year as a whole to USD34.4bn.The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index gained 1.3% in fourth quarter, and 8.2% for the year as a whole.HFR also states that it has launched the HFRU indices, which track the performance of UCITS-compliant hedge funds. The HFRU Hedge Fund Composite Index gained 4.9% in 2012.
22/01/2013

Petercam prepares an emerging markets sustainable bond fund

The Belgian asst management firm Petercam is expecting to receive a license from the CSSF for a new sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav, a fund of “sustainable” emerging market government bonds denominated in local currencies (at least one third in ‘hard’ currencies).Ophélie Mortier, SRI coordinator at Petercam, and Thierry Larose, portfolio manager, have explained to Newsmanagers that the universe for the new Emerging Markets Sustainable product includes 72 countries, yo which a normative filter is applied for democratic values, followed by a best-in-class allocation. By crossing data from the NGO Freedom House for liberty and the Economist democracy index, the asset management firm currently excludes 16 “not-free” and “authoritarian” countries from the initial universe, including China, the United Arab Emirates, and China.Initially, the two fund managers (Bernard Lalière is the co-manager) will retain a minimum of 40% securities issued by countries in the top quartile of the rankings produced by the filtering in the portfolio, which complicates the task of the managers, who may nonetheless also invest in securities from supranational entities to position themselves on difficult-to-access currencies (such as BIRD bonds for Colombia).The preliminary portfolio includes six countries in the top quartile, including Poland and Chile, ten issuers in the second and third quartiles (including Brazil and Turkey, and also Serbia, Ukraina, Ghana and Venezuela), and four from the bottom quartile (Indonesia, Zambia, Iraq, and Nigeria).
22/01/2013

db-X funds preparing an energies and metals fund

With the DB Platinum Energy & Metals (ISIN code: LU0820952413), db-X funds (Deutsche Bank group) has released an energy and industral metals fund whose benchmark index is the DB Platinum Energy & Metals, which reproduces the prices of underlying commodities via futures contracts. The index is 60% compose of industrial metals (aluminium, copper, zinc, nickel and lead), while the remaining 40% are distributed between Brent crude oil, petrol, diesel and natural gas. The weightings are updated on a monthly basis.The subscription period will remain open until 28 January. According to the prospectus dated September 2012, the management commission will be 1.20% per year, and the front-end fee is a maximum of 5%.db-X funds states that it already has eleven commodity funds under management, with total assets of EUR1.4bn.
22/01/2013

30% of UCITS-compliant hedge funds posted losses in 2012

According to an Absolute Report study relayed by the Börsen-Zeitung, assets in 933 UCITS-compliant hedge funds as of the end of 2012 totalled EUR148bn, compared with EUR124bn one year previously. 11 funds were created and 160 funds were liquidated or merged, and funds in the top quartile posted average returns of 12.4%, with gains of 14.7% for the best equity products. But 30% of funds posted losses, which average 5.3%.The best fund was the Antecedo CIS Strategic Invest, with returns of 76%, while the worse fund was Salus Alpha Managed Futures, with losses of 48%.
22/01/2013

Deka acquires 15,000 square metres in Frankfurt

Deka Immobilian has acquired the office and retail property Alte Hauptpost in Erfurt, a 15,000 suqre metres property, for its institutional real estate fund Deka S-Property Fund N°2. The vendor is Aberdeen Immobilien KAG, and the sale price has not been disclosed.
22/01/2013

Ignis veteran joins Henderson

James Senior, former head of marketing at Ignis, has joined Henderson Global Investors as consultant on marketing issues, Fundweb reports. Senior left Ignis in September 2012.
22/01/2013

SEI adds to its distribution team

SEI Investments has announced the appointment of Kevin Bull as director in charge of development of strategic alliances, and Simon Pinner as director of sales, and the distribution team of the UK Asset Management unit.Bull previously worked at Hearthstone Investments, while Pinner was previously at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP).Pinner will be responsible for about 50 British consulting firms, and will also assist with the team’s expansion in Europe.
22/01/2013

ESMA seeks better information on goodwill

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has on January 21 published a review of 2011 IFRS financial statements related to impairment testing of goodwill - the value of intangible assets which has a quantifiable value - and other intangible assets. The review, which looked into the accounting practices of a sample of 235 European issuers from 23 countries, found EUR800bn (EUR790bn in 2010) worth of goodwill balances in the 2011 financial statements of issuers, with 5% (c. EUR40bn) of that amount recognised as impairment losses in 2011.The report shows that significant impairment losses of goodwill were limited to a handful of issuers, mostly in the financial services (EUR19.2bn) and telecommunication industry (EUR9.7bn). This therefore raises the question as to whether the level of impairment disclosed in 2011 financial reports appropriately reflects the difficult economic operating environment for companies. Although the major disclosures related to goodwill impairment testing were generally provided, in many cases these were of the boilerplate variety and not entity-specific. In order to improve the overall disclosure provided by issuers, ESMA recommends that issuers: • Better specify the key assumptions used in the impairment test;• Include sensitivity analyses with sufficient detail and transparency, especially in situations when indicators are present that impairment might have occurred;• Determine the growth rates used to extrapolate cash flows projections based on budgets and forecasts; and • Disclose specific discount rates for each material cash-generating unit rather than average discount.
22/01/2013
Fonds

30 % des fonds alternatifs coordonnés ont accusé des pertes en 2012

Selon une étude d’Absolute Report relayée par la Börsen-Zeitung, l’encours des 933 fonds alternatifs coordonnés a atteint fin 2012 les 148 milliards d’euros contre 124 milliards un an plus tôt. Il y a eu 111 créations et 160 liquidations ou fusions et les fonds du premier quartile ont affiché une performance moyenne de 12,4 %, avec un gain de 14,7 % pour les meilleurs produits actions. Mais 30 % des fonds ont accusé des pertes, qui se sont situées en moyenne à 5,3 %.Le meilleur fonds a été l’Antecedo CIS Strategic Invest, avec une performance de 76 % tandis que le plus mauvais aura été le Salus Alpha Managed Futures, avec une perte de 48 %.
Fonds
22/01/2013
Fonds

Progression de 60 milliards de dollars des actifs des hedge funds au quatrième trimestre

Les actifs des hedge funds se sont accrus de 60 milliards de dollars au quatrième trimestre pour atteindre le niveau record de 2.250 milliards de dollars, selon les dernières statistiques publiées dans le HFR Global Hedge Fund Industry Report.La collecte nette s’est élevée à 3,4 milliards de dollars au quatrième trimestre, portant la collecte sur l’ensemble de l’année à 34,4 milliards de dollars.L’indice HFRI Fund Weighted Composite a progressé de 1,3% au quatrième trimestre et de 6,2% sur l’ensemble de l’année.HFR souligne par ailleurs avoir lancé des indices HFRU, c’est-à-dire des indices qui suivent les performances des hedge funds conformes à la réglementation Ucits. Le HFRU Hedge Fund Composite Index a ainsi progressé de 4,9% en 2012.
Fonds
22/01/2013

La DZ Privatbank acquiert le pôle banque privée de H&A Luxembourg

Dans le cadre de son redéploiement stratégiques, Hauck & Aufhäuser Banquiers Luxembourg SA (H&A) a vendu son activité de banque privée dans le Grand-Duché à DZ Privatbank SA. Le transfert aura lieu avant fin mars. Le montant de la transaction n’a pas été divulgué.Les conseillers de H&A seront transférés chez DZ Privatbank et continueront de suivre leurs clients.H&A a l’intention de développer à présent son activité dans les domaines des fonds d’investissement et de la banque dépositaire.
22/01/2013
Fonds

Progression de 13% en décembre des actifs des fonds suisses sur un an

Les actifs des fonds de placement suisses s’inscrivaient fin décembre 2012 à 711,9 milliards de francs suisses, en recul de 6,1 milliards de francs par rapport au mois précédent, selon les statistiques communiquées par la Swiss Funds Association (SFA). Sur un an toutefois, les fonds suisses affichent une progression de 13%, soit un peu plus de 80 milliards de dollars.En décembre 2012, la collecte des fonds obligataires s’est élevée à 1,5 milliard de francs suisses, celle des fonds actions à 344,7 millions de francs, mais dans le même temps, les fonds monétaires ont subi une décollecte de 1,9 milliard de francs suisses.En 2012, UBS (22,74% de part de marché) et Credit Suisse (16,25%) sont restés les plus grands promoteurs de fonds du marché suisse, devant Pictet (6,99%), Swisscanto (5,83%) et Banque cantonale de Zurich (5,11%).
Fonds
22/01/2013

Charles Dallara rejoint Partners Group

Partners Group a annoncé le 21 janvier que Charles Dallara, actuellement Managing Director de l’Institute of International Finance (IIF), devient partenaire de l’entreprise spécialisée dans le Private Equity. Charles Dallara reprendra la responsabilité de la région Americas en tant que président de cette entité. Il sera basé aux Etats-Unis.Lors de la prochaine assemblée générale de Partners Group, le 2 mai 2013, Charles Dallara sera proposé comme nouveau membre du conseil d’administration et comme son vice-président.
22/01/2013
Fonds

db-X funds prépare un fonds énergie et métaux

Avec le DB Platinum Energy & Metals (code ISIN: LU0820952413), db-X funds (groupe Deutsche Bank) vient d’entamer la commercialisation d’un fonds énergie et métaux industriels dont l’indice de référence est le DB Platinum Energy & Metals, lequel reproduit les prix des matières premières sous-jacentes au moyen de contrats à terme. Cet indice se compose à 60 % de métaux industriels (aluminium, cuivre, zinc, nickel et plomb), les 40 % restants se répartissant sur le pétrole Brent, l’essence, le gazole et le gaz naturel. Les pondérations sont actualisées chaque mois.La période de souscription est ouverte jusqu’au 28 janvier. Selon le prospectus daté de septembre 2012, la commission de gestion serait de 1,20 % par an et le droit d’entrée de 5 % maximum.db-X funds précise qu’elle gère déjà onze fonds de matières premières pour un encours total de 1,4 milliard d’euros.
Fonds
22/01/2013

Pictet : Hervé Thiard prend la direction de la zone Benelux

Après l’ouverture récente à Bruxelles et Amsterdam par Pictet Asset Management (PAM) de bureaux de représentation dédiés à la vente de fonds, Hervé Thiard, directeur général en charge du marché institutionnel de Pictet en France, prend également la direction de la zone Benelux. Les encours de Paris se situaient à 3,1 milliards d’euros au 31 décembre 2012.Les nouveaux bureaux viennent compléter les services de marketing existants de PAM à Luxembourg, siège de la banque du groupe Pictet dans l’Union européenne. Dans ses nouvelles fonctions, Hervé Thiard s’appuiera sur Bruno Hellemans, qui a depuis 2007 la responsabilité opérationnelle du marché des fonds d’investissement dans les Etats du Benelux.PAM ne communique pas le montant de ses encours dans le Benelux qui, selon nos informations, seraient supérieurs à ceux de Paris.
22/01/2013

Mainfirst recrute un patron de l'obligataire

En avril, Oliver Reisinger rejoindra MainFirst comme head of fixed income, a annoncé à la Börsen-Zeitung Siegfried Jachinski, membre du directoire. L’intéressé était depuis 2011 head of sales & marketing chez HSH Nordbank.Mainfirst a l’intention de doubler en deux ans, à quarante personnes, l’effectif de son pôle obligataire.

Sujets d'actualité

Tous les sujets