The financial ratings agency Fitch Rating on 12 September announced that it has confirmed its Asset Manager rating of M2 for Sycomore Asset Management. The rating reflects the discipline of a proven stock-picking process, the solidity of the risk management framework, and the effectiveness of the operational platform, which is adapted to the types of assets traded. The rating also takes into account the development of the firm in the past several years in terms of human resources, development of activities and associated support functions (risks and controls). The primary challenge for Sycomore remains continuation of its international development and the development of its product range of genuinely diversifying assets, in order to generate further assets and further reduce its exposure to euro zone equity markets.

Henderson Global Investors will develop a bond team in the United States, to create a global high yield fund, Citywire Global reports. The objective is to release the fund by the end of the year.

L’Agefi reports that BNP Paribas has set up a five-year pan to develop wealth management services in the United States. The group is uniting its trust, brokerage and private banking activities at its unit Bank of the West. The new subsidiary manages about USD10bn in assets, more than two thirds of which is in brokerage accounts, the newspaper reports.

In a recent study for institutional investors (”Volatility Management”), Russell Investments presents a portfolio of strategies to reduce multiple risk, which may represent a useful complement to diversification and sensitivity reduction strategies. According to the study, this combination of strategies may offer a cumulative reduction in volatility of 30% to 40%. This result may have been achieved over the past past two decades without reducing profits, the study finds. Russell explains that these results are the product of a readjustment of the equity allocation in an institutional portfolio, in order to be able to manage volatility rather than tracking error. “Investment specialists have developed an unhealthy obsession with tracking error, even though managing tracking error is not the same as managing risk,” says Michael Thomas, chief investment officer in the Americas Institutional unit at Russell Investments. Thomas claims that the use of tracking error in a falling market can clearly not be considered “effective risk management.” The study lays out three strategies to be attractive to institutionals. The fisrt, “defensive equity,” selects shares which have lower-than-average risk characteristics. Contrary to the intuitions of most investors, these securities historically have earned better returns than the market overall. In the ten years from 9 July 2002 to 9 July 2012, the Russell Global Defensive index outperformed the Russell Global Dynamic index over several periods: one year (16.1% compared with 8.1%), three years (12.2% compared with 6.7%), five years (2.4% compared with -3.1%), and ten years (9.2% compared with 7.9%). Russell then points to risk reduction strategies based on options, which tend to exploit systematic imbalances between supply and demand for some types of protection against declines. Lastly, the third strategy, asset allocation which is adjusted according to volatility, adapts exposure to equities depending on risks related to falling or rising markets. “All of these risk management strategies aim to reduce volatility, but they do so with an effort to exploit various market effects. As a result, their return curves are not exactly correlated, and in combination, they do a good job of reducing volatility,” says Thomas.

Fidelity Worldwide has announced that David White, who is resigning, has been replaced by Hugh Mullan as CEO of FundsNetwork, Money Marketing reports. Mullan will serve in this position alongside his position as director of Fidelity’s defined contribution and UK retail activities.Paul Richards, head of sales at FundsNetwork, becomes deputy head of FundsNetwork, in addition to his current position.Mullan and Richards will serve in these roles until a permanent successor to White is appointed.

Prudential Real Estate Investors has recruited Michael Gallagher as co-manager of real estate investment strategies in the United Kingdom and Europe. He will be based in London. Before joining PREI, Gllagher was assistant fund manager at Aviva Investors.

Old Mutual Asset Managers (UK) has recruited Tim Barker to the newly-created position of head of credit research in its fixed income and macro team, Fundweb reports. Barker had previously been head of European credit research at Société Générale.

The British asset management firm Ashmore, a specialist in emerging markets, has reported pre-tax profits for the fiacal year to 30 June of GBP243.2m, a slight decline compared with the GBP245.9m posted for the previous fiscal year. Management commissions were up 21%, o GBP302.6m, but performance commissions fell from GBP85.4 tp GBP25.4m. Assets under management were down 3% in the period under review, from GBP65.8bn to GBP63.7bn.

Janus Capital International Limited has announced the appointment of Karen Bennett as head of marketing and communications for its non-US business. Her responsibilities cover Janus Capital’s European, Middle Eastern and Asia Pacific businesses.Effective immediately, Karen Bennett is based out of Janus Capital’s London office and reports to Nigel Austin, the firm’s Chief Operating Officer, EMEA and Gigi Chan, Chief Operating Officer, Asia Pacific.Karen Bennett joins Janus from Aegon Asset Management where she was head of corporate communications globally. Prior to that, she had led the marketing and communications functions for ING Asia/Pacific.

Pierre Pinel, head of institutional management at Paribas Asset Management in Switzerland, was on 1 September appointed as chief investment officer for balaned mandates and asset allocation funds at Mirabaud’s asset management division. He will also hold the positition of head strategist for private management.Pinel replaces Edouard Crespin-Billet, who is going independent in Geneva.

Skandia’s activities in the Old Mutual group will be merged into a new entity known as Old Mutual Wealth, according to a statement from Skandia published on 12 September.Skandia UK, Skandia International and Skandia’s activities in Europe, excepting Scandinavian countries, will addopt the Old Mutual Wealth brand name in 24 months, which will prevent any confusion with Skandia Liv, which has acquired the Scandinavian activities of Old Mutual which formed a part of Skandia.The new entity Old Mutual Wealth (formerly Old Mutual Wealth Management) will be managed by Paul Feeney as CEO, with the assistance of two heads, Peter Mann for the Britih market, and Steven Levin for international markets.The current legal strucrure Skandia Link, based in Spain, will be merged with the new Luxembourg entity Skandia Lifa SA on 1 October 2012. As a result, Skandia France which is an arm of hte Spanish entity, becomes an arm of the Luxembourg entity. The organisation and the current functioning of Skandia in France will remain unchanged.

“At Julius Baer we have a proven record on managing costs,” Boris Collardi, CEO of the Swiss bank, says, talking about the challenges of the integration of the non-US wealth management assets of Merrill Lynch for Julius Baer. With a cost-income ratio of 105 per cent, the Merrill unit is not profitable, and margins are lower in Asia, the Financial Times observes. The cost side of the equation will be improved by merging offices, joint-purchasing and also through job cuts.

Katja Wiechers and Alexander Bischoff joined the Swiss sales team of Carmignac Gestion to strengthen the relationship with Swiss clients. They will focus on the distribution of Carmignac Gestion’s investment funds through independent financial advisors, family offices, banks, insurance companies and other third party channels. They will report to Marco Fiorini, head of professional clients in Switzerland. Katja Wiechers brings more than 8 years of experience in the fund management industry including 4 years at BNP Paribas Asset Management in Vienna as senior sales director. She started her career at Fortis Investments in Brussels, gradually taking on the role of Head of Global Fund Promotion.Before joining Carmignac Gestion, Alexander Bischoff built up his 4-year sales experience at Fisch Asset Management in Zurich as deputy head Swiss clients and at Falcon Private Bank where he started his career as junior relationship manager.

The hedge fund investment specialist Gottex Fund Management has posted losses of USD5.5m in first half 2012. Last year at the same time, it showed slight gains of USD0.4m. Management commissions were down 24% to USD19.7m, whereas performance commissions continued to represent more than 25% of commissions in first half 2011, at a total of USD0.8bn. Assets under management as of the end of June totalled USD7.41bn, up 2.1% compared with the end of March.

In the first seven months of the year, German open-ended security funds have posted net inflows of EUR5.58bn. However, several asset management firms have seen net redemptions, including the Deka group (EUR3.14bn) and Deutsche Bank (EUR4.52bn). However, Allianz (with Pimco) has managed to attract EUR13.08bn, and Union Investment has posted net inflows of EUR2.11bn, the German BVI association of asset management firms reports.ETF promoters are not doing well either, with the exception of ETFlab (Deka), which has attracted EUR325m in seven months. BlackRock, with its iShares ETFs, has seen net outflows of EUR927m, while net redemptions totalled EUR797m for ComStage (Commerzbank). db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) has posted redemptions of EUR1.73bn.

In January-July, German funds and mandates posted net inflows almost three times higher than in the first seven months of 2011, at EUR44.36bn, compared with EUR15.17bn. Of this total, institutional funds (Spezialfonds) attracted EUR36.44bn, while open-ended funds attracted EUR7.99bn (of which EUR2.41bn were for real estate funds), and mandates underwent net outflows of EUR70.5m.As of 31 July, assets totalled EUR1.926trn, of which EUR925bn were in Spezialfonds, EUR701bn in open-ended funds (including EUR82.9bn in real estate funds), and EUR300bn in mandates.The German BVI association of asset management firms states that 57% of assets in institutional funds are managed by external managers, compared with 37% at the end of 2005.

The data provider S&P Capital IQ on 12 September announced that it has signed an agreement with Dun & Bradstreet, to considerably extend its range of financial data on non-public companies in Europe and North America. In particular, it is extending coverage of key markets such as Germany, the Scandinavian countries, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Market actors will be offered standardized, traceable information worldwide, as complements to credit analyst, risk management and merger and acquisition activities. “This is a significant step forward for the market. S&P Capital IQ will offer an extended range of quality information on non-public businesses, which is often difficult to obtain. The new data will be subjected to our cutting-edge validation and reprocessing process,” explains Silvina Aldeco-Martinez, head of Development for Europe at S&P Capital IQ. The new data will be included in flagship solutions from S&P Capital IQ, including desktop platforms and data feeds.

Three quarters of private equity investors with an exposure to Latin American private equity claim that the region’s potential in terms of economic growth and dealflow are attractive, compared with emerging private equity markets, according to the first annual survey by Coller Capital/LAVCA of the evolution of private equity in Latin America (“Latin American Private Equity Survey.”) The survey fins that 3% of private equity investors are planning to increase their engagements in the next twelve months, while 49% say they will maintain their engagements at current levels. Three quarters of private equity investors in Latin America (local or international) predict annual profits on their investments of 16%, both for Latin America ex Brazil and Brazilian funds.

Novethic a analysé la communication de 31 banques et assurances européennes sur quatre thèmes de la RSE (Responsabilité Sociétale des Entreprises) : l’environnement, le social, la gouvernance et les produits et services qu’elles offrent. L’objectif était d'évaluer comment le secteur financier répond aux interrogations qu’il suscite depuis la crise. Si les entreprises étudiées ont une communication détaillée sur leur politique sociale ou la gestion de leurs impacts environnementaux directs, elles donnent beaucoup moins d’informations sur des enjeux de gouvernance sensibles comme la rémunération des dirigeants ou les paradis fiscaux. Près de 50 points séparent l’entreprise la mieux classée de la plus mal notée L'étude du reporting des principales banques et assurances européennes montre qu’elles sont encore loin de partager la même vision des priorités en termes de RSE, démarche dans laquelle elles s’engagent volontairement. Les 6 premières entreprises du classement - Generali (Italie), Crédit Agricole (France), BNP Paribas (France), Société Générale (France), Rabobank (Pays-Bas), Aviva (Royaume-Uni) et Deutsche Bank (Allemagne) - ont une communication globalement responsable, même si les degrés de qualité et de précision de leur reporting restent variables. Certaines peuvent privilégier l’environnement, d’autres la gouvernance, mais sans indicateurs et périmètres communs, il est difficile d’identifier les entreprises les plus performantes en termes de RSE. Sujets privilégiés : politique sociale et limitation des impacts environnementaux La finance est un secteur à faible impact environnemental direct et qui dispose de bons avantages sociaux pour ses salariés. Ces deux thèmes sont donc privilégiés dans les reporting des deux tiers des banques et assurances analysées. La plupart d’entre elles publient des évaluations chiffrées de leur consommation d’eau, de papier et d'énergie, ou encore de leurs émissions de CO2 directes. Près de deux tiers indiquent même des objectifs de réduction de leur empreinte environnementale. Face à la pression des ONG qui demandent au secteur financier de prendre en compte des critères environnementaux dans ses politiques d’investissement, il est intéressant de noter que la moitié des banques et assurances du panel reconnaissent avoir une responsabilité sur les conséquences environnementales des activités qu’elles financent. Cela pourrait, à terme, faire évoluer les modèles de sélection des projets mais pour l’instant, une seule banque mentionne un objectif de mesure des émissions de CO2 induites par ses métiers. La communication RSE n’est pas à la hauteur des attentes des parties prenantes Si les informations publiées par les banques et les assurances sont assez variées, elles ne répondent globalement pas aux attentes de leurs parties prenantes qui espèrent que la crise financière modifie les pratiques du secteur. C’est le cas, par exemple, sur les modes de rémunérations des dirigeants qui continuent à manquer de transparence, ou des paradis fiscaux qui ne sont traités que par trois entreprises seulement sur trente-et-une.

Following the finalisation of its acquisition of KBL epb, the private banking network from Precision Capital, a Luxembourg-based entity representing the interests of an investor in Qatar, the new shareholder has announced in a statement that it will support the firm “in the deployment of a large recruitment campaign, which will strengthen the high level of customer service.” In addition, Precision Capital states that it can ensure the organic growth of KBL epb, but that it is also prepared to seize strategic external growth opportunities in Europe. Ties between Precision Capital and the Middle East will accelerate the expansion of KBL epb in this new region. Lastly, Vitis Life, the life insurance affiliate, will also benefit from these opportunities, both on markets where the company is already active, and on markets where it is planning to explore and develop, such as the Middle East and Asia.

The asset management firms Sparinvest and Hai Tong Asset Managment (HK) have signed an agreement to develop a joint product range in Europe, Hong Kong, Macau and continental China. The agreement is for an indefinite duration, and does not entail an exchange of capital between the two firms.The two businesses will continue to concentrate on their core activities in asset management, but will dedicate their research capacities to the search for and exploitation of better means to provide a joint product range in Europe, Hong Kong, Macau and continental China, a statement says.Haitong International has been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 1996. The group is known for providing quality corporate finance, asset management and brokerage services to international and local clients composed of institutionals, businesses and retail investors.As of the end of June 2012, Sparinvest had EUR9bn in assets under management for private and institutional investors.

Selon nos informations, la Fondation de France a mis en jeu un mandat de gestion portant sur les obligations euro aggregate pour un montant de 120 millions d’euros. Le consultant Amadeis a été en charge de l’appel d’offres lancé en avril 2012.

Reçus mercredi à l’Elysée, les régions ont obtenu l’assurance de présider le comité national d’orientation de la future Banque publique d’investissement. Elles présideront aussi les comités d’orientation régionaux de la BPI. Le seuil en-deça duquel la décision d’engager les fonds resterait du ressort des implantations régionales de la BPI n’a pas été arbitré et sera déterminé par le comité national - le chiffre de 10 millions d’euros a été évoqué. En revanche, l’entrée des régions au capital de la holding est écartée, comme le souhaitait Bercy. Au-delà du dossier BPI, l’Etat a décidé de confier aux régions la gestion des fonds structurels européens sur 2014-2020, avec la possibilité d’expérimenter cette mesure dès 2013.

L’Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC) s’attend à ce que la croissance du commerce mondial en 2012 soit inférieure aux +3,7% sur lesquels elle tablait lors de ses dernières prévisions en avril, a annoncé mercredi son directeur Pascal Lamy. L’OMC va donc probablement réviser à la baisse ses prévisions, a-t-il ajouté lors d’une conférence de presse à Rome.

Le Trésor brésilien a fait part de son intention d’émettre «à un certain moment» une nouvelle obligation à 30 ans afin de créer un nouveau benchmark de long terme. L’un de ses représentants a confirmé la volonté du gouvernement de faire son retour sur les marchés de capitaux internationaux cette année. La décision sur la maturité des obligations émises dépendra de la demande du marché.

Le troisième assureur britannique en termes de capitalisation boursière prévoit de rembourser 1,5 milliard de livres d’obligations arrivant à échéance en décembre d’ici trois semaines au plus tard. Le directeur financier du groupe, Philip Broadley, en a fait l’annonce, alors que le groupe a vendu ses activités vie aux Etats-Unis et une partie des activités de Skandia.

Selon le dernier rapport du département américain de l’Agriculture (USDA), la sécheresse aux Etats-Unis a provoqué moins de dommages que redouté. L’USDA a abaissé ses prévisions de moins de 1% pour la récolte de maïs et de 2% pour celle de soja. Les courtiers s’attendaient à une réduction de 3,7% en moyenne pour le maïs. Le niveau de production aux Etats-Unis devrait néanmoins être à un plus bas de six ans pour le maïs et à un plus bas de neuf ans pour le soja. La tendance est similaire au niveau mondial, avec des prévisions revues légèrement en baisse. Les prix records du maïs ont découragé les éleveurs de bétail cet été, offrant de meilleures conditions à la campagne commerciale qui s’est ouverte le 1er septembre.

L’Union européenne doit évoluer vers une véritable union politique et modifier ses traités fondateurs pour devenir une fédération d’Etats-nations, a déclaré le président de la Commission européenne, José Manuel Barroso. Il s’est engagé devant les députés européens à présenter une «esquisse» de cette nouvelle architecture institutionnelle avant les prochaines élections européennes de 2014. Avant cela, la Commission fera une série de propositions dont celle, à l’automne, d’une Union économique et monétaire plus poussée, dotée d’institutions politiques renforcées.

La Cour constitutionnelle allemande a autorisé la ratification du Mécanisme européen de stabilité à condition que l’engagement de l’Allemagne soit limité à 190 milliards d’euros, comme prévu par le traité. Tout accroissement de ce montant devrait être approuvé au préalable par le Bundestag, la chambre basse du Parlement.

Le rendement d’une adjudication de bons du Trésor italien à 12 mois est ressorti mercredi à un niveau nettement inférieur à 2%, à son plus bas niveau depuis le mois de mars. Le rendement a été de 1,692%, contre 2,77% il y a un mois et près de 4% mi-juin. La décision de la cour de Karlruhe a été annoncée environ 45 minutes avant l’adjudication. Rome a adjugé 9 milliards d’euros de bons à un an, échéance septembre 2013, avec un ratio de couverture de 1,65.