Un groupe de travail commun de l’Association suisse des banquiers et de la Swiss Funds Association a dévoilé un document-cadre identifiant huit axes pour développer la gestion d’actifs en Suisse. Parmi les pistes évoquées figurent l’amélioration de l’accès au marché, le développement et l’application de normes pour la gestion d’actifs ou encore la création d’un environnement fiscal optimal pour les investisseurs.

La société de private equity a enregistré auprès de la SEC les documents préparatoires au lancement d’un fonds alternatifs à destination des clients particuliers, baptisé Blackstone Alternative Investment Funds. Le gestionnaire n’a pour l’heure pas précisé le montant d’investissement minimum requis pour accéder à cette nouvelle offre.

Crédit Mutuel Arkea, via Arkéa Capital Investissement, et six caisses régionales de la Caisse d’Epargne, ont investi dans Viveris Croissance IV. La société de gestion en private equity Viveris Management, créée en 2000 en association avec le groupe Caisse d’Epargne, vient en effet de réaliser le premier closing de son nouveau fonds de capital-développement small caps, à hauteur de 30 millions d’euros. Arkéa Capital Investissement a investi un ticket supérieur à 1 million d’euro, « dans le cadre d’une approche marginale mais complémentaire à son c??ur de métier » d’après Cyril Miller, directeur régional à Paris de la filiale de Crédit Mutuel Arkea, qui réalise la grande majorité de ses investissements minoritaires en direct. Quant aux six caisses d'épargne régionales du groupe BPCE, elles investiraient chacune près d’un million d’euros. Quatre d’entre elles ont souscrit au fonds dans une logique de soutien aux entreprises locales, Viveris Management investissant à partir de ses bureaux marseillais et parisiens principalement sur un axe Marseille-Lyon-Paris. Il s’agit de la Caisse d’Epargne Provence Alpes Corse, toujours actionnaire de la société de gestion à hauteur de 80 %, de la Caisse d’Epargne Côte d’Azur et de la Caisse d’Epargne Ile-de-France. Deux d’entre elles ont investi à titre purement financiers, la Caisse d’Epargne Midi-Pyrénées et la Caisse d’Epargne Nord-France Europe. La sixième caisse de ce pool n’a pas souhaité que Viveris Management révèle son nom. Selon Nicolas Fraïssé, directeur du développement, le fonds, qui cible 15 à 20 % de TRI brut, devrait réunir 80 millions d’euros pour son closing final, prévu mi-2013. Avec le soutien en cours de négociation de « sociétés d’assurance et de mutuelles françaises » notamment.

Jean Rémy Roulet, Directeur de la Caisse Paritaire de Prévoyance de l’Industrie et de la Construction (CPPIC) à Genève et Président du Groupement des institutions de prévoyance (GIP) lors d’une table ronde organisée par amLeague et Newsmanagers : « Nous n’avons pas de mandats balancés mais une allocation stratégique. Nous jouons de temps en temps avec des allocations tactiques - mais relativement peu. Nous avons une série de fonds de mandats, une importante poche dans l’allocation stratégique et dans l’immobilier direct. Notre allocation est la suivante : 37.5% d’immobilier, et dans cette tranche immobilière 35% sont en direct. Nous avons également de l’alternatif pour, toujours en ce qui concerne notre allocation stratégique, 9% en hedge funds et 5% en private equity. Le total des actions, incluant la Suisse (10%), l’Europe (5%) et l’International, représente 22%, dont 7.5% d’actions internationales. Les obligations représentent 12.5%. A ce titre, nous avons opéré un switch ces dernières années en passant de l’obligataire aux hedge funds. Mais nous l’avons fait trop tôt. Il y a 5-6 ans, nous pensions que les taux allaient remonter. Cela dit, le fait d’avoir des hedge funds nous a été relativement utile en 2008 mais ce n'était pas voulu, et nous restons humbles face à ça. Il y a aussi des liquidités pour 2% et des hypothèques pour 11%. Typiquement, pour les actions internationales, nous avons en fait deux importants mandats de fonds, et c’est tout. Nous utilisons également beaucoup les compétences d’un consultant dans le sens ou c’est lui qui propose, et le conseil de fondation qui dispose. L’allocation n’est donc pas le fruit du consultant, mais bien d’une discussion dans le board. Le conseil décide de l’allocation, mais c’est une émanation de ce conseil que l’on voit une fois par mois. C’est un peu lourd à gérer pour le back-office, mais disons que c’est très utile, surtout quand les temps sont chahutés et qu’il faut calmer les craintes, et au contraire, attiser des comportements un peu plus risqués. Ca marche très bien. A titre indicatif, avec une allocation comme celle-ci, nous avons enregistré fin 2008 une perte de 12%, ce qui est relativement honnête par rapport à ce que les marchés offraient à l'époque. Il n’y a donc pas de raison pour qu’on change de style de gestion, ni de façon de gérer la caisse de pension. Nous n’avons pas recours aux ETF, c’est une décision du board qui ne veut pas de ce genre de couverture. Mais cela peut évoluer. Ce n’est pas un sujet clos. Il n’y a pas une périodicité donnée de révision des mandats. Ce qui est important, c’est l’allocation stratégique. Nous sommes en train de changer, mais le dernier changement date d’avant 2008 ! En fait, si le gérant a un mauvais comportement, nous allons le suivre et le mettre sur watching list. Mais nous n’avons pas de timing ni d'échéances précises.

A l’occasion de sa conférence de presse qui s’est tenue à Francfort, le président de la BCE a défendu le projet de superviseur unique en zone euro qui traverse actuellement une passe difficile. «Les avantages d’un superviseur unique en zone euro ne sont pas contestés», a déclaré Mario Draghi.

Un cadre juridique permettant une recapitalisation directe des banques par le fonds de sauvetage de la zone euro devrait être défini d’ici fin mars 2013, peut-on lire dans un rapport préparé pour les dirigeants européens qui plaide également pour une forme de mutualisation des émissions de dettes au sein de la zone euro. Le rapport rédigé par le président du Conseil européen, Herman Van Rompuy, prépare le terrain à une plus grande intégration budgétaire pour les 17 pays de la zone euro. Le texte recommande la mise en place d’une structure budgétaire indépendante et centralisée à partir de 2014.

La Banque d’Angleterre (BoE) n’a pas décidé de nouvelles mesures de soutien à l’activité et a maintenu son taux directeur à 0,5%, le niveau auquel il est fixé depuis mars 2009, malgré les signes d’essoufflement de la reprise économique britannique. La banque centrale a annoncé qu’elle maintenait également le montant total de ses rachats d’actifs à 375 milliards de livres.

Les inscriptions hebdomadaires au chômage aux Etats-Unis ont poursuivi ainsi leur reflux la semaine dernière à 370.000 contre 395.000 (révisé) la semaine précédente, selon le département du Travail. Ces données restent toutefois trop volatiles pour dégager une tendance claire de l’emploi, alors qu’une amélioration ténue mais constante avait été constatée avant l’ouragan Sandy.

La banque canadienne a fait part du rachat de la société de gestion de patrimoine américaine Epoch Holding Corporation pour 668 millions de dollars (514 millions d’euros) en numéraire. Cette opération gonflera les actifs sous gestion de TD Asset Management de 24 milliards de dollars. Ils totaliseront près de 207 milliards de dollars. Epoch gardera sa marque et sa structure d’exploitation.

Un groupe de travail commun de l’Association suisse des banquiers et de la Swiss Funds Association a dévoilé un document-cadre identifiant huit axes pour développer la gestion d’actifs en Suisse. Parmi les pistes évoquées figurent l’amélioration de l’accès au marché, le développement et l’application de normes pour la gestion d’actifs ou encore la création d’un environnement fiscal optimal pour les investisseurs.

L'économie chypriote sera encore en récession en 2013, affectée par le plan d’austérité qui sera mis en place dans le cadre du plan de sauvetage de l’Union européenne et du FMI, a déclaré le ministre des Finances. Toutefois, malgré son impact négatif à court terme, ces mesures d’austérité posent les bases d’un retour à la croissance, a déclaré Vassos Shiarly devant le Parlement de Chypre.

Il devrait évoluer entre une baisse de 0,9% et une croissance de 0,3%, selon la BCE qui continuera à répondre aux demandes de liquidités des banques au moins jusqu'en juillet 2013.

British asset management is the exception in European management, Agefi Weekly reports today. “The United Kingdom is the only European country to have posted positive inflows in the past decade,” says Ed Moisson, head of research at Lipper for the United Kingdom and cross-border markets, who has noted “a genuine dynamic for cross-border managers.” The movement was particularly beneficial for M&G (EUR2.674bn), whose net inflows in third quarter totalled EUR6.4bn. In the UK market, where the ten largest funds represent over 51% of sales, according to the Investment Management Association, mid-sized players are facing the most difficulties, “as they are more vulnerable to market declines.” Asset managers, whose business model is largely based on commissions to intermediaries, are also in danger, the weekly newspaper suggests. The industry is also preparing to face a genuine revolution in financial services distribution in the domstic market on 1 January. The Retail Distribution Review (RDR), first announced in 2006, will end commissions to financial advisers, who will now need to negotiate their added value directly with end clients.

Fitch Ratings has affirmed Schroder Investment Management’s ‘M1' Asset Manager rating. The rating covers the company’s London-based investment activities with the exception of the alternative asset management business. The rating affirmation reflects Schroders’ strength and overall stability during 2012, according to the agency. The main challenges facing Schroders are to accelerate growth in certain regions (Asia and US) and client segments (Sovereign Wealth Funds and private saving pools), expand its absolute return and income-oriented investment capabilities and adapt to regulatory changes. The forthcoming overhaul of the Front Office technological platform is a major project to support the longer term evolution of the business, including the increased use of derivatives.

David Dudding will be stepping down from the management of the Threadneedle European Smaller Companies fund next year, to manage the Threadneedle (Lux) Global Focus, succeeding Neil Robinson, Citywire Global reports. He will be replaced on the European small caps fund by Mark Heslop on 1 January, but will retain control of the Threadneedle European Select.

According to reports received by Newsmanagers, Philippe Couvrecelle is preparing to launch a consulting firm with a former employee of Edram, the asset management firm of the Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild which he led for five years. Couvrecelle, who left Edram in August this year, would now like to put the experience he acquired in the collective management world to use. Via his firm, which will be known as PTH Conseil, the head will serve not only French businesses with reflections on the transformation of their asset management activities, development, and future, but also foreign asset management firms seeking to gain a foothold in Europe. Couvrecelle, who has worked for major groups and family-owned businesses, has also opened international offices and has good knowledge of the challenges to come. He is entering a market in crisis in which questions of strategy are increasingly present. According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, the professional is also planning to serve US and Asian investment firms which are aiming to establish a presence in Europe, such as GCS, which has recently entered exclusive negotiations with the Dexia group to take over Dexia AM. In light of the currently attractive valuations, investment funds are also a target for PTH Conseil. Lastly, Couvrecelle is also expected to approach firms whose objective is to profit from savings reserves in emerging markets and capital managed by pension funds, such as Chilean funds.

KPMG, the U.S. audit, tax and advisory firm, is adding several new hires to its Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) practice’s national team, in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The new hires include: Martin A. Griffiths, K. Peter Ritter, and Graeme M. Fletcher as principals. Martin A. Griffiths has joined the Los Angeles office as a principal in the Federal Tax practice. He will be KPMG’s West Coast real estate tax practice lead. Before joining KPMG, he was senior vice president at Irvine Company, overseeing its income and property tax group.K. Peter Ritter has joined KPMG as a principal in KPMG LLP’s San Francisco Federal Tax practice. He came to KPMG from the law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP where he was a tax partner resident in its San Francisco office.Graeme M. Fletcher is a principal in International Corporate Services, who transferred from KPMG’s Atlanta office to San Francisco. In addition, Daniel Prager has joined KPMG as a managing director in its Federal Tax AIF practice. Based in Los Angeles, he most recently served as head of Corporate Finance for Telefónica Czech Republic. Richard Hinton has joined KPMG’s San Francisco AIF practice, as a Seconded Partner with a focus on the hedge fund industry. He established and led the team responsible for rolling out KPMG’s FATCA proposition to clients in the United Kingdom.

After laying out its principles on weapons, Crédit Agricole will soon publish its policy for the energy sector, Stanislas Pottier, head of sustainable development at Crédit Agricole, announced on 4 December, at a round table held by Novethic as part of its annual conference. This is an enormous challenge, as it involves deploying this sector policy for all positions of the group, starting with the investment bank, and extending to advising activities. The next two industries on which Crédit Agricole is already at work are metals and transport. Pottier also says that Crédit Agricole will in early January publish the first edition of the social performance index from the Crédit Agricole group, the FreD index, which will have an impact on variable pay scales for managers throughout the group. This is a good way for the issue of SRI to attract “regular attention” in the group, says Pottier.

Finews reports that Anna Tokaeva has quit her position as head of UBS Global Asset Management Russia in order to take charge of the Sherbank private bank. The Russian banking group has recently launched its activities dedicated to high net worth clients.

Analysts estimate that shares in Alcatel-Lucent may be removed from the CAC 40 index, Les Echos reports. The scientific index council, which decides on additions and removals of shares from the CAC 40 index, is expected to undertake its quarterly review at the end of this week. At that time, Gemalto may enter the flagship index. With a decline of 27% since the beginning of the year, its second-worst year ever, and a market capitalisation of only EUR2bn, Alcatel-Lucent is “by far” the smallest member of the CAC 40.

After Kathrin Andres two months ago (see Newsmanagers of 4 October), Henderson Global Investors has again recruited a specialist from Cushman & Wakefield for the real estate team at its Frankfurt office. This time, it is James Ellis, who becomes assistant portfolio manager. He will be responsible for providing performance measurement and analysis elements for the AUB Oportunity III and Henderson German Logistics funds.

Although overall, European ETFs have posted net inflows of USD21.18bn between 1 January and 30 November, ten of the 20 largest firms have seen net redemptions. The heaviest were from ComStage (USd1.45bn), EasyETF (USD831m) and db x-trackers (USD788m), according to statistics from ETFGI.However, the strongest net inflows were for iShares (USD14.7bn), Source (USD2.87bn), and SPDR ETFs (USD2.07bn).In terms of assets, iShares dominates the rankings by far, with USD132.06bn as of the end of November, followed by db x-trackers (USD44.38bn) and Lyxor (USD37.39bn).

In November, the 4,746 ETPs worldwide posted net subscriptions of USD25bn, compared with USD11bn for the 4,721 products listed as of the end of October. Assets as of 30 November totalled USD1,871trn, compared with USD1,842trn one month earlier, the BlackRock Institute reports.In the first eleven months of the year, net inflows totalled USD218.9bn, a new record, and this amount is considerably higher than the USD173.4bn posted for 2011 overall. The previous record for January-November was in 2008, at USD208.5bn.In terms of flows, US ETPs, which represent 70% of total assets, received 73% of net subscriptions since the beginning of the year, and 82% in the month of November alone.

In January-November, a time when ETFs attracted a net total of USD201bn worldwide, iShares products rank at the top, with net inflows of USD65.85bn, followed by Vanguard, with USD54bn, and SPDR ETFs with USD4.68bn, ETFGI reports.The heaviest net outflows in the first eleven months of the year were from ComStage (Commerzbank) at USD1.45bn, Direxion (USD887m) and EasyETF (BNP Paribas) with USD831m. As of the end of November, overall assets in ETFs totalled USD1.688trn, 2% more than at the end of October (USD1.655bn), and 24.6% more than at the end of December 2011 (USD1.355trn). The top three ETF providers are iShares (USD707.24bn as of the end of November), SPDR ETFs (USD251.16bn), and Vanguard (USD242.76bn). For matter of record only, the fourth-largest player is Invesco PowerShares, with only USD60.91bn. In other words, the top three players alone account for 71.2% of total ETF assets.

The acquisition of SteelPath Capital Management and SteelPath Fund Advisors (USD3.3bn in assets as of the end of November) has been completed by Oppenheimer Funds. Steelpath will become known as OFI Steelpath. The acquisition price has not been disclosed.OppenheimerFunds Distributor, Inc will become the distributor and primary subscriber to each series from The SteelPath MLP Funds Trust.Steelpath is an asset management firm specialised in investment in infrastructure related to energies, focused on Master Limited Partnerships (MLP). It offers a range of mutual funds as well as dedicated funds focused on MLPs.

On 4 December, the board at Eaton Vance Corp announced that it is paying out a quarterly dividend of USD0.20 per share on 20 December to shareholders registered as of 17 December. It has also decided to pay a special dividend of USD1 per share, payable on 20 December to shareholders registered on 14 December. As of 31 October, assets at Eaton Vance totalled USD199.5bn.

Institutional asset owners are reconsidering their asset allocation strategies, in the wake of ongoing volatility on international financial markets, which has highlighted deficiencies in investment portfolios. “In their allocation decisions, many asset holders are now targeting liquidity as a priority, and they are reconsidering their management approach from this perspective,” says Dan Farley, senior managing director at SSgA and global director of the investment solutions division at the asset management firm, at a presentation of a Vision report. The report, entitled “The Asset Owners’ Perspective: Evolving Investment and Operational Models,” attached, explains that investors are relying on new liquidity management approaches ot modify the composition of their portfolios, to reconcile the two imperatives of liquidity and returns. Among the foremost measures taken by asset owners in order to offset the liquidity crisis are tougher stress tests. In terms of allocation, 39% of corporate retirement plans which participated in the SSgA study are planning to increase their allocation to investment grade corporate credit, and 30% of public retirement regimes are planning to include emerging markets in their allocation next year. 45% of asset owners also note that low returns on traditional assets have generated increased interest at their organisation in alternative products.

As regulations require, BlackRock has announced that it has reduced its stake in the alternative management group Man Group below 5%, compared with 9.32% in March this year. The news comes at a time when Man Group has been through a difficult period for the past two years, which has resulted in its removal from global MSCI indices last month.

Pre-tax profits at Brewin Dolphin have leapt 36.5% in the period to 30 September, to a total of GBP29.9bn, from GBP21.9bn in the previous fiscal year, the asset management firm announced on 5 December. Assets under management as of the end of September totalled GBP25.9bn, compared with GBP24bn one year previously. The development is largely due to a 16.7% increase in discretionary funds to GBP18.2bn as of the end of September, compared with GBP15.6bn one year previously.

The US Patent & Trademark Office has issued a patent to Pimco (Allianz Group), Bill Gross (co-CIO) and Ramin Taloui (global co-head of emerging markets portfolio management) for the methodology underlying the Global Advantage Bond Index (GLADI). The patent application was filed in November 2008.The bond index aims to better capture investment opportunities in an environment of “new normal.” It is weighted according to GDP and not cap-weighted, in order to offer higher risk-adjusted returns than those delivered by traditional methods.