Syz & Co has announced the launch of Oyster Global High Dividend, a new sub-fund of its UCITS IV-compliant Luxembourg Sicav Oyster, investing in equities that pay a high dividend worldwide. The sub-fund will be managed by Roberto Magnatantini at SYZ Asset Management, and combined quantitative and fundamental analysis, with a particular emphasis on growth in dividends. “At a time when returns from dividends are often higher than bond returns, this type of strategy is increasingly attractive,” Syz&Co points out. For the moment, Oyster Global High Dividend is limited solely to institutional clients, but may soon be registered in several countries in Europe and Asia to become available to the public, a statement says. CharacteristicsUSD : LU0821216339, management commission 1.50%EUR : LU0821216685, management commission 1.50%CHF : LU0821216768, management commission 1.50%USD D : LU0821216412, management commission 1.50% Institutional share classes I USD : LU0821216842, management commission 0.75%I USD D : LU0821217063, management commission 0.75%I EUR : LU0821217147, management commission 0.75%I CHF : LU0821217220, management commission 0.75%

Baptiste Janiaud, trésorier de Veolia Environnement dans un article paru dans Option Finance numéro 1193 : Sur quels supports placez-vous votre trésorerie? Nous disposons d’environ 4 milliards d’euros de trésorerie, que nous plaçons quasiment pour moitié dans des OPCVM monétaires. L’autre moitié se répartit entre les certificats de dépôts bancaires, à hauteur de 45%, et le solde entre des billets de trésorerie ainsi que des commercial papers étrangers. Cette dernière allocation, conçue comme un outil de diversification, est purement opportuniste. Sa part évolue donc en fonction des entreprises émettrices et des rendements offerts, pour des maturités allant de un à trois mois. Dans un contexte de taux bas, avez-vous modifié votre allocation afin de maximiser le rendement offert? Notre allocation n’a pas changé significativement au cours des derniers mois. Certes, les rendement offerts par les OPCVM monétaires ont diminué de plusieurs dizaines de points de base (pb). Mais cette tendance est avant tout liée à la baisse du taux de référence interbancaire, l’Eonia, qui est passé, depuis janvier, de 0.40% à 0.10 % environ. En effet, les spreads sont, quant à eux, restés stables, quand ils n’ont pas légèrement progressé. Certains OPCVM nous offrent ainsi des rendements à Eonia + 60pb, voire au-delà. Cette situation s’explique notamment par le fait que les gérants ont investi sur des titres de plus longue maturité, afin de bénéficier de taux plus élevés. En outre, ils ont diversifié leurs investissements en sélectionnant des profils dont la qualité de crédit se révèle légèrement inférieure pour obtenir du rendement. Au final, nous nous contentons des rémunérations actuelles, d’autant que nous nous appuyons sur un nombre limité d’OPCVM très liquides - cinq à six fonds, dont l’encours dépasse 5 milliards d’euros - , ce qui nous permet d’en sortir dès que nous le souhaitons. En raison de la concurrence bancaire pour attirer les dépôts, les placements bancaires sont-ils aujourd’hui plus intéressants que les OPCVM? La rémunération des dépôts bancaires est très hétérogène parmi les établissements européen. L'écart de rendement offert peut ainsi varier d’Eonia + 64 pb, soit une différence de 70 pb ! En moyenne, les OPCVM restent néanmoins plus avantageux. Au premier semestre, le rendement moyen de nos différents placements a atteint environ 1 %. Nous continuons toutefois à déposer des liquidités sur des comptes à terme ainsi qu'à souscrire à des certificats de dépôt car cette pratique s’inscrit dans le cadre de notre relation globale avec nos banques historiques. Mais, comme pour les OPCVM, nous choisissons des supports qui nous permettent de récupérer l’argent placé dès que nous le voulons.

The average coverage rate for liabilities of US corporate pension funds fell in October by 1.4 percentage points, to a total of 73.6%, according to estimates by BNY Mellon. In the month under review, a rally on international equity markets did not offset a decline in the US markets. Assets in pension funds fell by 0.7% in October, while liabilities, for their part, increased by 1.1%. The discount rate fell by six basis points to 3.72%, for business with an Aa rating.

The Börsen-Zeitung reports that the open-ended real estate fund KanAm grundinvest, which is in the process of liquidation, has succeeded in selling the former headquarters of Deutsche Bank in London to an Asian sovereign wealth fund. The sale took place above the purchase price, but the market value of the asset was not disclosed.The DEGI International fund from Aberdeen, meanwhile, a fund which is also in the process of liquidation, has sold a property in Canada to a local institutional investor, at a price below its most recent expert valuation.

Following the recent launch of the CTA MS QTI UCITS Fund from Quest Partners (IE00B89MRY57, see Newsmanagers of 30 October), the FundLogic Alternatives platform from Morgan Stanley has accepted a global macro UCITS-compliant hedge fund from SLJ Macro Partners, the MS SLJ Macro UCITS Fund (IE00B7YD6N88), which applies the same strategy as the SLJ Macro Offshore Fund.While the MS QTI charges 1%, the SLJ Macro has a TER of 1.50%, and carries a performance commission of 20% with high watermark.

It has been a delicate period for active management in October. In the euro zone, only four asset management firms out of 18 did better than the market benchmark, the Eurostoxx Net Return, while in Europe, half of portfolios were outperformed by the Stoxx 600 net Return index. And the situation has not really changed within the Global Equities mandate, as eight firms out of 15 have done better than the Stoxx 600 NR – but with negative results.In detail, the month of October favoured value management. In the euro zone, Alliance Bernstein has gained 3.40%, followed by Mandarine Getion (+2.35%) and Somangest (+2.06%). Within the Europe mandate, the situation is similar. Value management is leading the pack. In addition to Dexia AM (+1.86%), in the top places are Bestinver (+1.56%), Alliance Bernstein (+1.52%) and Mandarine gestion (+1.43%). These portfolios are comfortably outperforming the index (+0.78%). In the Global Euqities mandate, the situation is slightly different: the best-performing portfolios are struggling to remain in positive territory. Petercm (-0.07%) is head of Swiss Life AM (-0.08%) and Alliance Bernstein (-0.32%). Value management has limited the damage, while the Stoxx 180 Net Return has lost 1.30%.

Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee for the business interests of Bernard Madoff, has announced that he has recuperated or completed agreements to recuperate more than USD9.2bn of the USD17.3bn in principal lost by investors due to the fraud, the Wall Street Journal reports.

BlackRock has topped rankings of the 500 largest asset management firms worldwide undertaken by Towers Watson (as of 31 December 2011). Allianz, State Street Global, Vanguard and Fidelity follow it. The top French firm is BNP Paribas, in eighth place, followed by Amundi (12th) and Natixis (15th). Investment Europe has published the full list on its website.

As of 30 September, GAMCO Investors had record assets of over USD36.94bn, 3.6% more than USD35.7bn as of the end of June, and 17.95% more than USD31.1bn as of the end of September 2011.In third quarter 2012, CAMCO underwent net redemptions of USD356bn, compared with net subscriptions of USD111m in April-June, and USD899m in the corresponding period of last year.Net profits in July-September 2012 totalled USD19bn, compared with USD15.1bn in second quarter, and USD7.7bn in third quarter 2011. In the first three quarters of the year, net profits totalled USD57.94m, compared with USD45.99m for January-September 2011.

On the eve of the US presidential election, the market for invesment grade corporate issues has set records, with an amount never before seen in a single day of USD22.1bn, IFR reports. Among the issues on 5 November are AbbVie, the pharmaceuticals activity from Abbott, for a total of USD14.7bn. In the space of three trading days during the presidential elections, corporate debt issues have totalled USD47.45bn, IFR points out.

Tony Williams, previously chairman and COO of Artio Global Investors, a US affiliate of Juilus Baer, has been appointed as CEO of the firm. In this position he replaces Richard Pell, who will now concentrate exclusively on investment management. Francis Ledwidge, director of the firm will serve as chairman of the board.

The hedge fund Permian Investment Partners, which has gained some notoriety since its founder, Cara Goldenberg, was invited to lunch by Warren Buffett, has earned returns of 16.2% since the beginning of the year, according to the website Valuewalk. Assets in the fund, which invests primarily in a long/short strategy, total about USD200m. Among the major long positions of Permian are Kroton, Atos SA and Merck.

Agefi reports that a Los Angeles federal judge yesterday issued a provisional ruling blocking the sale of TCW by Société Générale to Carlyle, following a lawsuit filed by the fund EIG Global Energy Partners. The fund claims that it would suffer damages for a common fund with TCW which competes with the product range from Carlyle, the newspaper explains.

In the first nine months of the year, the asset management business line at BNP Paribas posted net redemptions totalling an undisclosed amount. The bank, which is releasing its quarterly results this morning, has simply announced that “Asset Management’s asset inflows into money market and bond funds were more than offset by asset outflows in the other asset classes.” In first half, outflows from the business line already totalled EUR1.9bn, and in 2011, they totalled -EUR35.7bn for the year as a whole.Assets under management in asset management fell to EUR408bn.The other professions in the Investment Solutions unit (wealth management, insurance, and others), to which asset management belongs, have posted net subscriptions. Net asset inflows for the first nine months of the year totalled 0.9 billion euros and were penalised by a client’s (fund manager) decision in the third quarter to insource a distribution contract. Excluding this effect, net asset inflows were +12.2 billion euros for the first nine months of the year. Investment Solutions’ assets under management rose 5.2% compared to 31 December 2011 and 4.1% compared to 30 September 2011, to 886 billion euros (842 billion euros as at 31 December 2011).For the first nine months of the year, Investment Solutions’ revenues moved up 1.9% compared to the first nine months of 2011, the 6.0% drop in Wealth and Asset Management, a result of reduced managed assets in Asset Management, being offset by the 13.3% rise in revenues from Insurance (+5.8% at constant scope and exchange rates) and 5.1% revenue growth from Securities Services. Operating expenses edged up 2.0% compared to the first nine months of 2011, given business development investments in Insurance and Securities Services, but they were down 3.3% at Wealth and Asset Management due to the adjustment of costs to the new environment. The cost/income ratio was thus stable at 69.2% compared to the first nine months of 2011. Pre-tax income was 1,515 million euros, up 14.9%.

Activist investor Nelson Peltz has bought a 1 per cent stake in Danone, worth about EUR300m, according to people familiar with the situation cited by the Financial Times. He is expected today to call for the French food group to cut costs and be more disciplined with its use of cash.He is expected to call for moderate improvements, such as improving operating margins by 100 basis points to 15.1 per cent by 2015 and the return of all excess cash flow in the form of share buybacks.

The Italian asset management firm Banca Generali has reported net inflows in third quarter of EUR174m, compared with EUR65m in the previous quarter, Investment Europe reports. Assets under management totalled EUR1.36bn as of 30 September. The firm, which has recruited 40 asset management professionals in the first nine months of the year, has announced that it is planning to continue to recruit staff in the next few months.

Oddo Asset Management, Alliance Bernstein and Aberdeen Asset Managment have each recently announced the launch of a fund of fund on the Banca Generali platform, Investment Europe reports. The products are now available via the Luxembourg Sicav BG Selection, launched by the Italian firm in 2008. Piermario Motta, CEO of Banca Generali, says that the Sicav is an easy means for an international brand to reach the Italian market. BG Selection has attracted over EUR5bn since its launch. It now includes 46 sub-funds managed by 26 asset management firms, and that number is set to increase. Motta may launch a sub-fund with a small caps specialist.

Glenn Carlson will resign from his position as CEO of Brandes Investment Partners on 1 February, according to a letter sent to clients and obtained by MFWire. He will be replaced by Brent Woods, managing director of investments. Glenn Carlson will remain at Brandes as a senior partner and member of the investment supervisory board.

Greg Johnson, chairman and CEO of Franklin Resources, is in acquisition mode, Financial Times Fund Management reports. The goal is to strengthen the alternative management activity of the group, better known by the name Franklin Templeton Investments. Despite recent alternative acquisitions, Greg Johnson says that he would like to “have a more significant presence” at a time when he feels that institutional and retail demand for alternative management is increasing. The director would like to acquire a private equity firm in particular.

The former head of Asian bonds at First State Investments, Murray Collis, will join Standish Mellon Asset Management, AsianInvestor has learned. He may be responsible for establishing an Asian product range for the American bond specialist firm.

Last month, exchange-traded products (ETPs) attracted USD9.5bn in net subscriptions, of which USD4.2bn were for products listed in Europe, according to estimates by the BlackRock Investment Institute. In the first ten months of the year, net inflows totalled USD192.3bn (of which USD23.9bn were in Europe), which is higher than the total of USD173.4bn posted for all of 2011; in January-October last year, net subscriptions totalled USD157.7bn.In the first ten months of the year, the strongest net subscriptions were for the Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets and the iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond with USD11.48bn nd USD6.73bn, respectively, while the two strongest net outflows were from the iShares MSCI EAFE and Barclays 1-3 year Treasury Bond, with USD2.71bn and USD2.55bn, respectively.Total assets in global ETPs as of the end of October came to USD1.8267trn, of which USD1.2823bn were in the United States, and USD348.3bn in Europe.

The Centre for Econmics and Business Research (CEBR) has published a study which claims the London financial sector will lose 13,000 jobs in 2013. The CEBR estimates that the number of jobs will fall to 237,000 next year, and 236,000 in 2014, which corresponds to 1993 evels. The situation aggravated severely, as six months ago, the study says, projections were predicting that the financial sector would have 256,000 jobs in 2013.In detail, the decline reflects a collapse in several sectors of activity during this year. Equity market activities, for example, lost 20% in value year on year. After very strong gains last year, international orders, for their part, fell off by more than 50%, and sovereign issues have seen a decline of 33%. Merger and acquisition activities in the United Kingdom also fell by one third in 2012, the study finds, adding that internationally, the decline is even steeper. Even the once-important derivatives sector has lost nearly one fifth. The only exceptions the CEBR observes are private equity and mergers and acquisitions in the IT sector are keeping up.Lastly, the CEBR projection models indicate that the situation will stabilise in 2013-2014 at best, and that a slight increase will follow.

The Swiss group UBS has appointed Oscar Balcon as head of the wealth management unit in India, the website finews reports. Balcon, who has been working for UBS for 28 years, will move from Singapore to Mumbai, where he will be responsible for the development of wealth management activities for the Indian market. The product range, which already includes equities, funds and cash products, will be extended to include credit.

Assets under management at Royal London Asset Management have increased 17% in the first nine months of the year to a total of GBP46.6bn, according to an interim report published on 6 November by the asset management firm. Net inflows, however, fell 28% to GBP156.8m.

Fidelity has appointed Pat Shea as head of its FundsNetwork platform, Investment Week reports. He succeeds Hugh Mullan, who had temporarily managed the platform since the departure of David White in June. Shea has been working at Fidelity for 26 years.

The German energy market EEX, and its French counterpart Powernext, which are already co-shareholders in the European electricity trading market Epex-Spot, on 6 November announced that they are joining forces to create a pan-European natural gas market, based on a joint IT platform. In detail, EEX and Powernext will remain two distinct gas markets, and will not create a joint affiliate, a joint statement says, but the two groups will both offer their products on a joint Trayport platform, using the same technology used by Powernext since 2004. According to the two groups, the project will be completed in first quarter 2013, pending the necessary regulatory approval.

Since October, Andreas Zöllner has become a member of the management at the Munich-based independent asset management firm Eyb & Wallwitz, along with partners Georg, count of Wallwitz, and Ernst Konrad. He will additionally be responsible for the management of funds and institutional mandates.Previously, Zöllner had spent 11 years as manager of institutional funds for pension funds and foundations at Hauck & Aufhäuser Asset Management.

Last month, the flagship bond fund from Bill Gross, the Pimco Total Return Fund, attracted over USD2.4bn in net subscriptions, beating out the DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund managed by Jeff Gundlach, which attracted USD1.9bn, Mutual Fund Wire reports.US mutual bond funds have posted net inflows of USD238.27bn in the first ten months of the year, while equity mutual funds have seen net outflows of USD82.97bn, according to statistics published by Reuters.

The British Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) on 6 November opened a consultation which opens the way for infrastructure investments to double for pension funds of local councils. Investment in infrastructure, currently limited to 15%, may increase to 30%, according to proposals by the DCLG. According to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, the modification to the limit could allow for as much as GBP22bn to be injected into job-creating infrastructure projects.

The Swiss asset management firm Bellevue Asset Management has announced the appointment of Heiko Ulmer as head of distribution in Germany. Bellevue is planning to meet increasing demand for investment products in the areas of “Health/biotechnologies, Africa and Entrepreneur,” the firm, a part of Bellevue Group, says in a statement published on 6 November. Ulmer previously worked for JP Morgan and UBS.