AXA Private Equity poursuit ses emplettes. La société d’investissement a annoncé mardi 3 juillet avoir signé avec OMERS, l’un des plus importants fonds de pension canadiens, un accord par lequel elle acquiert un portefeuille de onze fonds de capital investissement d’une valeur globale de 850 millions de dollars. Il s’agit essentiellement de fonds nord-américains et internationaux. En 2011, Axa avait déjà racheté un portefeuille de fonds de capital investissement de 1,7 milliard de dollars à Citigroup et un portefeuille de fonds de 740 millions de dollars auprès de Barclays.

A l’issue des assemblées générales annuelles de 2012, selon l’observatoire Ethics & Boards, le taux de féminisation des conseils d’administration atteignait 23,7% dans les groupes du CAC 40, et 20% dans le SBF 80 contre respectivement 20,6% et 14,8% en 2011, rapporte L’Agefi. La féminisation des conseils de l’indice parisien dépasse celle du Footsie (16,6%) et du Dax (13,7%), et apporte du sang neuf, les administratrices ayant en moyenne six ans de moins que les administrateurs. Cela étant, moins une entreprise est visible, moins elle fait d’efforts: d’où la proportion plus faible de femmes au sein du SBF 80 que dans le CAC 40. Pour accélérer le mouvement, cinq associations ont annoncé hier le lancement de la Fédération femmes administrateurs, note le quotidien.

Michelle Seitz, head of investment management, a annoncé que le gestionnaire américain William Blair & Company a décidé de fermer au 30 juin les deux fonds de sa stratégie international growth aux nouveaux investisseurs, afin de contrôler l’augmentation des encours et de préserver la performance. Cela concerne le William Blair International Growth et le William Blair Institutional International Growth, dont les encours représentent au total 4,8 milliards de dollars sur un total d’environ 12,4 milliards pour l’ensemble de la stratégie «international growth».

First State Investments a annoncé les nominations de Will Oulton au poste de responsable mondial de l’investissement responsable (à Londres) et de Pablo Berrutti au poste de responsable de l’investissement responsable en Asie-Pacifique (à Sydney). Ces nominations font suite à l’arrivée d’Amanda McCluskey au sein de l'équipe Actions Asie-Pacifique et marchés émergents mondiaux de First State Stewart, qui est basée à Singapour.Will Oulton, vice-président du Forum européen de l’investissement socialement responsable (EUROSIF) et Directeur du Forum britannique pour l’investissement responsable (UKSIF) travaillait auparavant pour Mercer Investments London, en tant que directeur de l’investissement responsable pour la zone EMOA.Pablo Berrutti occupait le poste de directeur de l’investissement responsable chez Perpetual à Sydney. Il est actuellement président du groupe de recherche du Institutionnal Investor Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) et directeur de l’Association australasienne de l’investissement responsable.

A l’issue de son assemblée générale qui s’est tenue à Rio de Janeiro au Brésil, l’International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) a nommé quatre nouveaux membres au sein de son conseil :Philippe Zaouati, directeur général délégué en charge du développement et de l’investissement responsable de Natixis Asset ManagementPhilip Armstrong, directeur du Global Corporate Governance ForumHeloisa Belotti Bedicks, CEO du Brazilian Institute of Corporate GovernanceJon Feigelson, senior managing director et general counsel & head of Corporate Governance, TIAA-CREFIls sont nommés en remplacement d’Arnaud de Bresson (Paris Europlace), Sandra Guerra (Better Governance), Dr. Nasser Saidi, (Hawkamah Institute for Corporate Governance in Dubai) et Christy Wood (ICGN).

Au deuxième trimestre 2012, le recrutement en finance a repris des couleurs dans son ensemble, avec une hausse de 8,7 % des embauches, indiquent les derniers chiffres de Dogfinance. Tous les secteurs ne sont pas toutefois au beau fixe. Les recrutements en gestion d’actifs sont en baisse de 1,7 % entre le premier et le deuxième trimestre. Dans la banque, ils baissent de 6,5 % tandis que les recrutements dans le secteur de l’immobilier ont reculé de 1,8%. La hausse des embauches en finance sont principalement dues aux bons chiffres des secteurs de l’assurance (+3,2 %) et de l’audit/comptabilité (+5,1 %), qui ont bénéficié des clôtures des comptes des entreprises.Dogfinance note au deuxième trimestre une hausse des contrats en CDI par rapport aux contrats temporaires avec une proportion de près des 4/5 des CDI durant le deuxième trimestre 2012. Les contrats à durée déterminés représentent quant à eux un peu plus d’un cinquième du volume du recrutement français dans la finance. D’un point de vue régional, l’Ile de France et la région Rhône Alpes sont toujours les deux régions qui recrutent le plus au deuxième trimestre (respectivement à 34,7 % et 7,4 %). La région Nord Pas de Calais, avec 4,4 %) prend la troisième place des volumes de recrutement financier au détriment de la région PACA.

L’encours au 29 juin duPimco Total Return Fund géré par Bill Gross à 260,9 milliards de dollars, grâce à des souscriptions nettes de 1,36 milliard en juin qui porte le total des rentrées nettes pour le premier semestre à 5,9 milliards de dollars contre des remboursements nets de 4,97 milliards de dollars pour la période correspondante de l’an dernier, rapporte Mutual Fund Wire, relayant The Wall Street Journal. De plus, avec une performance de 5,75 %, le fonds vedette de Pimco a battu 96 % des concurrents de sa catégorie.

Le fonds de gestion alternative Cube Capital a décidé d’ouvrir aux investisseurs extérieurs son hedge fund Global Opportunities, rapporte Pension & Investments.Les actifs sous gestion du fonds évènementiel de Cube Capital s'élèvent à environ 100 millions de dollars émanant des associés, des fonds de fonds, et de family offices.

Eric Helderlé, pour Carmignac Gestion, Jean-Louis Laurens pour Rothschild et Cie Gestion, et William Margoline pour CM-CIC Management, viennent de rejoindre le conseil d’administration de l’Association française de la gestion financière (AFG) en tant que titulaires, indique l’association dans la dernière livraison de Gestion Info (Juin 2012, n° 4).Leurs suppléants sont Pascale Guillier pour Carmignac Gestion, Denis Faller pour Rothschild et Cie Gestion et Luc Peyronel pour CM-CIC Asset Management. L’AFG indique par ailleurs qu’elle compte deux nouveaux adhérents, LFPI Asset Management et Nature Gestion.

Natixis Asset Management a informé en fin de semaine dernière les porteurs de parts du FCP Fructifonds France Actions (*) ainsi que les actionnaires de la SICAV Livret Bourse Investissement (**) qu’à compter de ce 4 juillet, ces deux OPCVM seront valorisés sur la base des cours de clôture.En outre, précise la société sur son site, les indices de référence respectifs de ces deux OPCVM (le CAC All Tradable DNR pour le FCP Fructifonds France Actions et le SBF 120 pour la SICAV Livret Bourse Investissement), qui étaient calculés en cours d’ouverture, seront désormais calculés en cours de clôture. (*) part C : FR0000437774 – part D : FR0000437782 – part T : FR0010833236(**) FR0000287955

Bordier & Cie France, filiale française de Bordier & Cie, Banquiers Privés genevois vient de recruter Eric Parot, en tant que banquier privé senior. Il sera chargé de développer et gérer les actifs financiers d’une clientèle fortunée, mais aussi d’approfondir les relations de partenariat avec les family-offices et les conseillers indépendants de l'établissement qui compte désormais une équipe de six gérants dédiés à notre clientèle française et internationale. En 2002, Eric Parot, 42 ans, occupait le poste de gérant de portefeuille au sein du bureau parisien de la Banque Degroof avant de rejoindre Toqueville Finance en 2009 comme gérant privé.

The German financial services provider max.xs has announced the creation of an advisory unit, “sales consultants,” which will aim primarily to offer asset managers a practical toolbox to help them elaborate the positioning of their products and their commercial strategy in German-speaking markets. Concretely, max.xs will provide information on distribution channels and assistance to establish marketing and communication strategy, as well as contacts with the major service providers. That may prove useful for asset managers seeking to develop an access strategy for German-speaking markets, and to establish a solid business plan. In addition, max.xs specialists may provide useful assistance in evaluating the effectiveness of commercial strategy and optimising sales service activities.max.xs has also announced that it has received an exclusive distribution mandate serving German institutional and wholesale investors for the Austrian asset management firm Kathrein Privatbank. The agreement extends to mutual funds as well as institutional products in the areas of European government bonds and overlay solutions.

Mario Lenke, most recently head of relationships with major banking clients, has been appointed as head of IFA sales at DWS. He will be responsible for distribution to IFAs, IFA networks, platforms, and financial portfolio managers. His predecessor, Ivan Rancic, has become director of distribution for retirement products throughout Germany. The two newly-promoted men will report to Steffen Leipold, director of external sales for Germany.

Credit Suisse has sold another 7% of its stake in Aberdeen Asset Management, reducing its stake to 2.8%. The group sold 80.4 million shares, representing about GBP205m at current prices. The Swiss group has confirmed reports initially circulated by Bloomberg, and adds that the operation will have a positive influence on the group’s profits in third quarter, without specifying further. The reduction in the stake will also have an impact on owners’ equity at Credit Suisse. In first quarter 2012, the Swiss bank already reduced its stake in Amberdeen by 10 percentage points, to 9.8%. Tier 1 owners’ equity got a boost of CHF0.2bn, while the contribution to profits of the operation totalled CHF146m.

The 300 largest institutional investors in Asia, Japan and Australia have posted cumulative assets of USD32.8trn, according to the July issue of AsianInvestor magazine. For the first time, the magazine has included Japan and Australia in its rankings, meaning that it is not possible to evaluate year-on-year developments. In the Asia ex Japan region, however, assets under management are up year on year, to USD18.1trn, from USD15.6trn. This development is due to growth in inflows as well as corrections, the magazine reports. The 50 institutional investors in Japan add USD13.1trn to this sum, while the 26 names selected for China represent cumulative assets of USD11trn, far higher than South Korea (USD2trn).

The Singapore-based hedge fund Dymon Asia Capital has recruited David Chan, who led macro trading in Asia at Goldman Sachs, the news agency Bloomberg reports. Chan will be teamed up with Dymon, which last year was the best-performing vehicle in Asia among major hedge funds. Assets under management at Dymon in February this year totalled USD2.85bn, of which USD2.5bn are in the firm’s flagship macro fund.

The CNMV on 29 June issued a sales license for Spain to the Santander 95 España 2 fund, a product which guarantees at least 95% of capital, which would represent a maximal loss of 1.6952% per year, at maturity on 31 July 2015. However, as a complement, Santander AM offers a maximal remuneration of 170% of the performance of the Ibex 35 index between 31 July 2012 and 17 July 2015, up to a limit of 20%, which would be equivalent to a maximal return of 29%, or 8.8587% per year.Until 31 July, the fund will invest at least 75% in repos and cash, while the remainder will be invested in corporate bonds. During the guarantee period, the portfolio will be invested in debt issued or guaranteed by European Union governments in cash, while the allocation to corporate bonds from companies domiciled in the EU is limited to 35%.CharacteristicsName: Santander 95 España 3, FIISIN code: ES017492005Maturity: 31 July 2015Front-end fee: 5%Management commission: 0.3% until 31 July 2015, 1.3% thereafterEarly withdrawal penalty: 5% from 1 August 2012Minimal subscription: EUR30,000

On 29 June, the CNMV issued a sales license for Spain to the French-registered fund Edmond de Rothschild Eastern Europe, managed by Gegham Ananyan, with Thomas Gerhardt, head of emerging markets equity and commodity management (see Newsmanagers of 26 April 2012).

Over the weekend, a hidden clause in a transportation bill, which will have a significant impact on pension funds, has come into force in the United States, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. The discount rate will now be calculated on the basis of average returns over the past 25 years on good quality corporate bonds, and will no longer be based on the past two years. As rates have been much higher over the longer period than the shorter one (during the recent downturn), this accounting trick had given manoeuvring room to pension funds, whose coverage rate on liabilities will mechanically increase. This could lead funds to return to equity markets as investors. As contributions to pension funds by businesses are set to decline, profits will increase, and thus so will tax revenues.

Shortly before the summer holiday, the European Commission finally unveiled a group of three legislative proposals to improve consumer protection in the area of financial services, and to address a lack of confidence on the part of the public.The three parts of the whole include proposed legislation on key investor information documents (KIID) for retail investment products, a revised Directive on Insurance Intermediation (DII) and last but not least, a proposal to strengthen protections for subscribers to investment funds, currently protected by the OPCVM directive.Following the publication of these proposals, five major professional associations, the CFA Institute (investment professionals), EuroFinuse (an association representing the users of financial services), FECIF (an association representing financial advisers and intermediaries), EFAMA (the European association of fund and asset managers) and AILO (an association representing cross-border life insurance companies) welcomed the initiative by the Commission, and insisted on the need for KIID documents to cover the widest possible range of savings products.The five associations agree on the point that one of the major challenges of KIID legislation is the format and contents of key investor information documents. They need to be as standard as possible to allow retail investors to compare th characteristics, returns on investment, risks, and costs of various savings products. With this in mind, the CFA Institute, with the support of EuroFinuse and FECIF, is currently setting up a research project on a standardised cost presentation format for the KIID. The research will be published in autumn.OPCVM/UCITSModifications to current rules for mutual funds proposed by the Commission are based on lessons drawn from the financial crisis, so as to continue to guarantee the safety of investors and the integrity of the market. In particular, the proposal will aim to ensure that the OPCVM label continues to inspire confidence, by ensuring that the obligations and responsibilities of the depository (the entity which guarantees the assets) are clear and uniform throughout the EU3.The proposal includes three parts: A precise definition of the duties and responsibilities of all depositories acting on behalf of a mutual fund; clear rules concerning remuneration of mutual fund managers: the way in which they are remunerated must not encourage excessive risk-raking. Remuneration policy will take long-term investor interests and the realisation of the investment objectives of the mutual fund better into account; and A common approach to ways to sanction major infractions of the legal framework governing mutual funds, introducing joint standards for administrative fee levels, so that these will always be higher than the potential profits of violating the regulations in force. Key Investor Information Documents/KIIDThe Commission’s proposal in relation to retail investment products would inform consumers in an easy-to-understand way, introducing a new, innovative standard for product information, expressed in clear language, much more comprehensible to the consumer. The document is known as a Key Investor Information Document (KIID). The proposal would require that each designer of investment products (investment fund managers, insurers, banks) to produce these documents for each investment product.

First State Investments has announced the appointments of Will Oulton as global head of socially responsible investment (in London), and Pablo Berrutti as global head of socially responsible investment (in Sydney). The appointments follow the arrival of Amanda McCluskey on the Asia-Pacific Equities and global emerging markets team at First State Stewart, which is based in Singapore. Oulton, vice president of the European socially responsible investment forum (EUROSIF) and director of the British socially responsible investment forum (UKSIF), previously worked at Mercer Investments London, as head of socially responsible invesment for the EMEA region. Berrutti previusly served as head of socially responsible investment at Perpetual in Sydney. He is currently president of the research group at the Institutional Investor Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), and director of the Australasian socially responsible investment association.

At its general meeting in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) has appointed four new members to its board:Philippe Zaouati, deputy CEO in charge of development and responsible investment at Natixis Asset ManagementPhilip Armstrong, director of the Global Corporate Governance ForumHeloisa Belotti Bedicks, CEO of the Brazilian Institute of Corproate GovernanceJon Feigelson, senior managing director and general counsel & head of Corporate Governance, TIAA-CREFThe four replace Arnaud de Bresson (Paris Europlace), Sandra Guerra (Better Governance), Dr. Nasser Saidi, (Hawkamah Institute for Corporate Governance in Dubai) and Christy Wood (ICGN).

Eric Helderlé of Carmignac Gestion, Jean-Louis Laurens of Rothschild et Cie Gestion, and William Margoline of CM-CIC Management have joined the board of the French financial management association (AFG), as trustees, the association has announced in the most recent issue of Gestion Info (June 2012, no. 4). Also on the board are Pascale Guillier of Carmignac Gestion, Denis Faller of Rothschild et Cie Gestion and Luc Peyronel of CM-CIC Asset Management. The AFG states that it has two new members, LFPI Asset Management and Nature Gestion.

The hedge fund firm Cube Capital has decided to open its Global Opportunities hedge fund to external investors, Pension & Investments reports. Assets under management in the event-driven fund from Cube Capital total about USD100m, from partners, funds of funds, and family offices.

A survey by the Edhec-Risk Institute of 139 North American professionals specialised in index-based investment finds that this population is certainly aware of the biases that cap-size weighted indices involve, but that they do not want to replace them. Although nearly 100% of those surveyed consider that the size-related biases introduced by cap-size weighted indices are an important or very important question (compared with 71% in Europe), only 23% of professionals estimate that “alternative” indices could replace cap-size weighted indices.

A former star journalist covering the financial markets for the German television network NTV, Stefan Riße, will manage the new Riße Inflation Opportunities UI fund, launched jointly by the wealth management firm HPM Hanseatische Portfolio Management and the independent fund manager Universal-Investment. The diversified, multi-asset class, German-registered fund will aim to earn performance in real terms by using fundamentals, liquidity and behavioural biases. Options and futures will be used to manage portfolio risk, which will gradually invested as opportunities arise.CharacteristicsName: Riße Inflation Opportunities UIISIN codes: DE000A1JUWR3 (B, retail share class)DE000A1JUV86 (A, institutional share class)Front-end fee: 5% (B-class shares)Management commission: 1.875% (B share class)1.125% (A share class)Performance commission: 15% on performance exceeding the hurdle rate, the German consumer price index

The central asset manager for the co-operative banks of North Rhine-Westphalia, WGZ, is releasing a fund administered by Monega and advised by Johannes Führ Asset Management, a specialist in bonds from German small and mid-sized enterprises, family-owned and entrepreneurial firms. The German-registered product, launched on 2 July, the WGZ Mittelstand-Rentenfonds, is primarily aimed at institutional investors in the co-operative sector. The fund is starting out with assets of EUR30m.CharacteristicsName: WGZ Mittelstand-RentenfondsISIN code: DE000A1JSWX5Management commission: 0.35%Minimal subscription: EUR100,000

Pimco and Source on 3 July announced that the Pimco German Government Bond Index Source ETF (or “Bund”), which since 25 June has been available for trading on the XTF segment of the Xetra platform (see Newsmanagers of 26 June 2012), is now licensed for sale in the United Kingdom, Austria, France, Finland and Italy (only for institutional investors), the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. The Bund is the seventh fund to join the Pimco Source physically invested ETF range. The range, launched last year, includes MINT strategies – the first actively-managed bond ETFs in Europe – and the first bond ETFs to weight various countries by their GDP, in order to optimally reproduce the benchmark indices of emerging market government bonds denominated in local and European currencies.

In first quarter 2012, total financial assets of insurance companies and pension funds in the euro zone totalled EUR7.222trn, compared with EUR6.935trn the previous quarter, according to statistics from the European Central Bank. In the same period, technical insurance claims, the largest category of liabilities for insurance companies and pension funds, increased, from EUR6.136bn to EUR6.267bn. This increase is due in nearly equal parts to positive transactions and valuation effects. In terms of ventilation of the overall balance sheet for insurance companies and pension funds in the euro zone, assets in securities other than equities as of the end of March 2012 represented 39% of total financial assets in the sector. Shares in mutual funds represented the second-largest exposure, with 24% of total financial assets. Lastly, equities and other participations represented 11% of the total.

Michelle Seitz, head of investment management, has announced that the US asset management firm William Blair & Company has decided to close the two funds of its international growth strategy to new investors from 30 June, in order to check increasing asset levels and preserve performance. This will affect the William Blair International Growth and William Blair Institutional International Growth funds, whose assets total USD4.8bn, out of a total of about USD12.4bn in the international growth strategy overall.