Renaud de Planta, l’un des huit associés de Pictet , a indiqué à Asian Investor que le groupe helvétique de 105 milliards d’euros d’encours compte aligner trois gérants actions (dont deux sont déjà recrutés) et trois traders actions (deux sont mutés et le dernier vient d'être embauché) à Hong-Kong. Quand ils seront opérationnels, l’ensemble du portefeuille d’actions Grande Chine long-only, y compris les actions A du contingent QFII, sera géré sur place. Les trois gérants feront partie de l'équipe marchés émergents mondiaux qui compte 20 personnes. L'équipe actions chinoises de Pictet Asset Management sera dirigée par Pauline Dan (ex Samsung Investment Trust Management). Parallèlement, la nouvelle équipe d’obligations d’entreprises émergentes sera composée de sept ou huit personnes dans le monde, dont la moitié basée en Asie, notamment à Singapour où il existe une équipe dette émergent de six personnes gérant 10 milliards de dollars.

Le 14 septembre, M&G Investments a annoncé le lancement du M&G Episode Defensive Fund qui vient compléter la gamme de fonds multi classes d’actifs M&G Episode récemment rebaptisée (M&G Episode Defensive Fund, M&G Episode Income Fund, ex M&G Income Multi Asset Fund, M&G Episode Balanced Fund, ex M&G Cautious Multi Asset Fund, M&G Episode Growth Fund, ex M&G Managed Fund et M&G Episode Macro Fund, ex M&G Macro Episode Fund).Ce produit est géré par Eric Lonergan, qui est également le co-gérant du M&G Episode Macro Fund. Il s’adresse à une clientèle d’investisseurs britanniques désireux de s’exposer aux stratégies de l'équipe dirigée par Dave Fishwick, mais avec une volatilité plus faible.Ce fonds peut utiliser des positions longues et courtes dans plusieurs classes d’actifs comme les actions, les obligations, le numéraire et l’immobilier, par exemple, le portefeuille étant en totalité en cash lorsque le gérant n’a pas d’opinion particulière sur l'évolution des marchés.L’Episode Defensive Fund sera investi au minimum à 70 % en livres sterling ou en actifs couverts du risque de change en livres sterling.

Henderson Global Investors souhaite fusionner le Henderson Global Bond Fund avec le Henderson Overseas Bond Fund, rapporte Fund Web.Les actifs sous gestion du Henderson Global Bond Fund s’inscrivaient à 726.765 livres au 24 août dernier. Une taille trop modeste pour continuer d’envisager une gestion rentable de ce véhicule, estime Henderson. Les actifs sous gestion du Henderson Overseas Bond Fund s'élèvent à plus de 225 millions de livres.La fusion devrait intervenir le 25 octobre sous réserve de l’approbation des investisseurs concernés.

Old Mutual Wealth (ex-Skandia) se propose de lancer d’ici à la fin du mois une série de fonds de multigestion axés sur le rendement, rapporte Fund Web.Les quatre fonds envisagés seront dénommés «Generation» et seront des fonds de multigestion pilotés par John Ventre et son équipe. Ils seront proposés sous la marque Skandia dans un premier temps et prendront la marque Old Mutual en 2013.Plus précisément, ces fonds sont Generation 3:4, Generation 3:6, Generation 4:4 et Generation 4:6. Le premier chiffre correspond à l’inflation envisagée, le second étant le rendement attendu.

Mark Lyttleton va retourner à son poste la semaine prochaine chez BlackRock après avoir fait une pause de plusieurs mois pour des raisons familiales, rapporte Investment Week. Il va reprendre la gestion des fonds UK Absolute Alpha et le UK Dynamic. Mark Lyttleton s’était arrêté en juin dernier.

Simon Wilson, qui a quitté Old Mutual Asset Managers au bout de 12 ans, rejoindra Premier Asset Management début octobre en tant que directeur marketing, rapporte Investment Week.

Mutual funds investing solely in equities in July underwent record net outflows, and show net redemptions over the past 13 months, according to figures released by the Bank of France on 17 September. Net outflows from equity mutual funds totalled EUR5.2bn in July, the largest amount ever observed by the Bank of France, whose statistics begin in January 2006.At the same time, mutual funds invested wholly in bonds finished the month with net inflows of EUR2bn, while mixed unfds posted net subscriptions totalling EUR3.4bn.Non-money market mutual funds finished the month of July with net outflows of only EUR0.7bn by seasonaly-adjusted figures, following record outflows of EUR9.2bn in June.An average incrase of 2.1% in net asset values, which applies to all types of funds, has resulted in a further increase in total assets of EUR19.7bn, to EUR862.9bn.Money market mutual funds in July underwent net outflows of EUR5.5bn, following net subscriptions of EUR4.7bn in June. Cumulative inflows year on year remain positive, at a total of EUR8bn.

From 17 September to 6 November, the Austrian firm Raiffeisen Capital Management (RCM) will open subscriptions to the corporate bond fund Raiffeisen-Unternehmensanleihen 2017, which will mature on 8 November 2017.The product is designed so that at maturity date the amount reimbursed will be at least equal to the initial net asset value (EUR100).The portfolio will be invested in investment-grade corporate bonds and high yield securities, all of which will be issues with maturity dates compatible with that of the fund.Front-end fee and management commissions are set at 2% and 0.6%, respectively, but the former will increase to 3% after 6 November 2012, of which 1% will be paid to the fund. There will be an early withdrawal penalty of 1%.RCM will pay out a regular distribution projected to be EUR3.50 per share, before taxes, but the final total will depend on the evolution of the markets.

Due to its performance, the Oyster European Opportunities fund from Syz & Co, managed by Eric Bendahan, has managed to win the loyalty of its investors since the beginning of this year. The fund has gained about 20% year to date, which represents a lead of 5 ½% compared with its peer group, and the manager announced in a presentation in Paris that assets now total about EUR1.25bn, compared with EUR1.01bn as of the end of 2011. The Stoxx Europe 600, its benchmark index, for its part, has gained 12.84%.The portfolio, 70% of whose outperformance comes from genuinely family-owned businesses, and 90% of which comes from stock-picking generally, has been gradually rebalanced over the course of this year, reducing the weight of growth stocks in order to increase the proportion of value shares.The new Oyster European Selection fund (see Newsmanagers of 1 December and 17 January), which is aimed at institutional investors (minimal subscription: EUR1m), has already attracted EUR55m. It is a more concentrated version of the Opportunities (70-90 holdings), with a portfolio of 40-50 positions.

On 17 September, Deutsche Bank announced the composition of the executive committee for its new asset & wealth management (AWM) division, which will be led by Michel Faissola (see Newsmanagers of 12 September).The committee will include:* Michele Faissola, Chair, Head of Asset & Wealth Management and* Jon Eilbeck, Chief Operating OfficerThe committee will additionally include representatives of the major investment platformand and the various functions in the AWM unit. These include:* Reinhard Bellet, Head of Passive Investments*Randy Brown, Co- Chief Investment Officer of Asset Management*Pierre Cherki, Head of Alternative Investments (Internal Managers)*Mark Cullen, Head of Operating Platform & Re-engineering*Stephane Farouze, Head of Alternative Investments (Third-party Managers)*Kevin Lecocq, Chief Investment Officer of Wealth Management*Wolfgang Matis, Head of Active Investments*Balaji Prasanna, Head of Loans/Deposits and Asset & Liability Managementand Asoka Woehrmann, Co-Chief Investment Officer of Asset Management.In addition, the committee will include representatives of client areas:*Marco Bizzozero, Head of Wealth Management EMEA*Thomas Bowers, Head of Wealth Management Americas*Joachim Haeger, Head of Wealth Management Germany (Deutsche Bank)*Wilhelm von Haller, Head of Wealth Management Germany (Sal. Oppenheim)*Ravi Raju, Head of Wealth Management Asia Pacific and*Dario Schiraldi, Head of DistributionThe regional executive committees for AWM will be chaired by members of the executive board:*Wolfgang Matis: Germany*Ravi Raju: Asia-Pacific*Dario Schiraldi: Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)The chairman of the regional committee for the Americas has yet to be appointed.

A reshuffle at Natixis Asset Management announced in late March, orienting the firm to six areas of management expertise, is now being put into practice. The firm this morning unveils its volatility management and structured product expertise unit, entitled Seeyond.The team, which includes 32 members, and has EUR14.7bn in assets under management, includes structured management, flexible asset allocation, active volatility management, modelled equity management and long/short equities. The objective is to offer strategies which combine the search for returns and reduction of risk, a statement says.This is based on the idea that it is more efficient to exploit volatility in the markets to generate value. “Seeyond uses variability and dispersion in the markets to generate performance, and concentrates on risk management to construct portfolios which are adapted to the environment,” says Natixis AM. In the unit, the teams will also have a dedicated quantitative research unit, and “experts in the unit may regularly question the assumptions of classic financial theory, as well as their own models.”Concretely, Seeyond will develop a complete range of funds, in four areas of expertise: structuring and active protected management, modelled and optimised equities, flexible allocation and volatility, and equity arbitrage. The range from the unit will be available from the global distribution platform of Natixis Global Asset Management, and will be aimed at all investors, be they professional or not (institutional investors, corporates, multi-managers, private banks, IFAs and banking networks).Lastly, Emmanuel Bourdeix, who is co-CIO at Natixis Asset Management and a member of the executive board, has been appointed as head of the unit. Frank Trividic will join him as head of flexible allocation and volatility management. Nicolas Just, CFA, will be head of modelled and optimised equity management. Samir Naït Bachir is director of structured and protected active management, while Stéphane Galzy is head of equity arbitrage, and Hamza Bahaji is head of quantitative research.

The asset management firm Pastel & Associés has signed an agreement with the third-party marketer Amadé Global Partners, to accelerate its international development. The partnership will aim to release funds to institutional investors and actors in private management, mostly located in continental Europe, the firm tells Newsmanagers.The products to be highlighted will be Valeur Intrinsèque and Margin of Safety Fund.Pastel & Associés, which currently has slightly over EUR200m in assets under management, hopes to reach EUR500m in assets under management in three years, due to international development.

Carmignac Gestion has recruited Pierre Andriveau as regional director of external distribution to IFA clients. He previously worked at Franklin Templeton Investments as head of sales. Andriveau will aim to strengthen relationships with IFAs in Paris and the South-East region, and will report to Ariane Tardieu, head of business development for France. He started on 17 September 2012.

The asset management firm ALPS Advisors, which advises open-ended and closed funds and ETFs, with assets of USD6.6bn, has announced that it has signed a licening agreement with Goldman Sachs to use its indices as a basis for new ETF products.The indices will be developed by the ETP structuring team at Goldman Sachs based in New York.

According to a spokesperson for the retail fund management firm DWS, its parent company, Deutsche Bank, will be transferring more than EUR50bn in assets to its new Asset & Wealth Management unit for ETFs (of which EUR35bn are in Europe), as well as EUR30bn in certificates, and EUR10bn in DB Platinum funds, all of which are products which had previously been managed by the Corporate Banking & Securities (CB&S) division, the Börsen-Zeitung reports.These products of the investment bank represent a mere tenth of total assets under management (EUR900bn), but they will contribute about one quarter of operating profits for the AWM unit.

Source has announced that it has listed 14 exchange-traded funds (ETF) on the Swiss SIX exchange. The new products come as additions to the existing range from Source, which includes 16 ETC (exchange-traded commodities), and are a “sign of the importance Source gives to the Swiss market.”ETF Securities has also admitted eight ETFs to trading on SIX, which will be the first products from the issuer to be traded in Switzerland.The listings on the ETF segment of the Swiss exchange now include 880 products.The list of new products is available as an attachment.

The deputy managing director of the French financial management association (AFG), in charge of the regulation unit, Alain Pithon, on 17 September joined the board of Paris Europlace as secretary general. In this role, a statement says, he will have both administrative and communicative management responsibilities, and will report to Arnaud de Bresson, managing director.When he served under Pierre Bollon, managing director of the AFG, Pithon was responsible for legal, taxation, accounting, and EU issues, as well as compliance and corporate governance. From Bollon he accepted responsibility for issues regarding the Paris financial center, including the transposition of European directives (AIFM, UCITS IV, MiFID).

In August, US long-term mutual funds attracted USD20.68bn in net subscriptions, coapred with USD24.63bn in July, and USD10.8bn in June. This brings the total in the first eight months of the year to USD220.8bn, Morningstar reports.As in the previous month, Vanguard and Pimco lead, with respective net inflows (excluding money market funds and funds of funds) of USD7.21bn and USD5.27bn, meaning that net subscriptions in January-August total USD71.94bn and USD33.51bn. Third place goes once again to JPMorgan, with USD3.15bn in August, and USD18.13bn in the first eight months of the year.Money market funds, for their part, attracted USD7.8bn last month, compared with USD30.6bn in July, and in January-August they have seen net redemptions of USD127.15bn.

iShares, the exchange traded funds platform of BlackRock, has announced the appointment of Ursula Marchioni to its EMEA Investment Strategy and Insights team.She joins iShares from Credit Suisse, where she was most recently head of ETF sales strategy for its asset management division. Ursula Marchioni joins iShares’ EMEA Investment Strategy and Insights team as a director and will be based in its London office. The team is led by Stephen Cohen, head of investment strategies EMEA.

Dalton Strategic Partnership has appointed Luca Vaiani as portfolio manager joining from Fondaco SGR, Fundweb reports. Previously manager of the multi-asset, absolute return Fondaco Global Opportunities fund, the new PM joins as part of a six-strong team responsible for the Melchior Multi-Asset fund and will work alongside CIO Rupert Caldecott

Simon Wilson, who has left Old Mutual Asset Managers after 12 years, will join Premier Asset Management in early October as head of marketing, Investment Week reports.

Boutique fund manager JO Hambro Capital Management, which was acquired last year by the Australian firm BT Investment Management, is planning to launch a multi-asset class fund, which will be limited to bonds and equities, Fund Web reports.According to the CEO of JO Hambro, Gavin Rochussen, “this will include only equities and fixed income. I would not like to include more complex investments. The reasons I would not like to add such products are the cost, the inherent difficulties of such products, and liquidity. Investors are looking for simple and easy-to-understand products.”

Henderson Global Investors would like to merge the Henderson Global Bond Fund with the Henderson Overseas Bond Fund, Fund Web reports.Assets under management in the Henderson Global Bond Funds totalled GBP726,765 as of 24 August. This is too small a size to continue to envision sustainable management of the vehicle, Henderson estimates. Assets under management in the Henderson Overseas Bond Fund total over GBP225m.The merger will take place on 25 October, pending the approval of the investors concerned.

UK-based M&G Investments has launched the M&G Episode Defensive Fund, completing the recently re-branded M&G Episode Multi Asset fund range, which now includes the M&G Episode Defensive Fund, the M&G Episode Income Fund, previously M&G Income Multi Asset Fund, the M&G Episode Balanced Fund, previously M&G Cautious Multi Asset Fund, the M&G Episode Growth Fund, previously M&G Managed Fund and the M&G Episode Macro Fund, previously M&G Macro Episode Fund.The fund is managed by Eric Lonergan, who is also co-manager of the M&G Episode Macro Fund. It offers UK investors with an appetite for lower volatility the opportunity to gain exposure to the multi asset strategy developed by the team led by Dave Fishwick.The Episode Defensive Fund is fully flexible and can take long and short positions in a broad range of investible assets including equities, fixed interest, cash and other assets such as property. When the fund manager has no market views, the fund will be invested in cash.The new product will be invested at a minimum 70% in sterling or hedged back to sterling.

Mark Lyttleton will be returning to his old position at BlackRock next week, after a break of several months for family reasons, Investment Week reports. He will return to managing the UK Absolute Alpha and UK Dynamic funds. Lytteton left in June this year.

Old Mutual Wealth (formerly Skandia) is preparing to launch a series of multi-management funds by the end of this month, based on returns, Fund Web reports.The four funds planned will be entitled “Generation,” and will be multi-management funds led by John Ventre and his team. They will be made available under the Skandia brand name initially, and will adopt the Old Mutual brand name in 2013.More precisely, the funds are Generation 3:4, Generation 3:6, Generation 4:4 and Generation 4:6. The first figure is the expected inflation rate, and the second is the expected return.

Renauld de Planta, one of Pictet’s eight partners, told Asian Investor that the Swiss-based group (EUR105bn in AUM) plans to put three equity managers (onf which two are already hired) and three equity traders in Hong Kong. By the time the are all in place, the entire Greater China long-only equities portfolio as well as the QFII quota (A-shares), will be managed on site. The three equity managers will be part of the 20-strong global EM equities unit.The Chinese equity team will be headed by Pauline Dan (ex Samsung Investment Trust Management).Meanwhile, the new corporate EMD team will comprise seven or eight persons globally, about half of which based in Asia, largely in Singapore.The global EMD team managers about USD10bn.

Occitan Capital Partners, a firm speclalised in investment in equities and equity derivatives, has extended its investment team with four new partners, two of whom work at Nomura, Financial News reports. These include Alexandre Capez and Othmane Akherraz. Occitan was founded in 2010 by Herve Gallo, a former equity derivaties trader at Nomura, and Thomas de Garidel-Thoron, of Boussard & Gavaudan Asset Management.

Ucits funds domiciled in Gibraltar can now be sold in the UK after HM Treasury agreed to enable fund “passports” from the offshore haven, FT Adviser reports.Gibraltar’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) signed up to Ucits IV in October 2011.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published on September 17 a consultation paper on proposed Guidelines on remuneration policies and practices under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).The proposed remuneration guidelines for MiFID investment firms are key to ensuring that the pay and incentive structures for sales staff and their superiors do not create false incentives when selling financial products to retail investors. The consistent application of ESMA’s remuneration guidelines will help strengthen investor protection and achieving the same level of protection for Europe’s retail investors no matter where they invest.The consultation period for the draft MiFID guidelines on remuneration closes on 7 December 2012. The final report, and the final guidelines, should be published by the second quarter of 2013.