In an environment in which fundraising is proving especially difficult, Cerberus Capital Partners (Cerberus) may encounter some difficulty in reaching its final objective for its next vehicle. The US investment firm, which had been aiming for USD3.75bn (EUR2.9bn) for its fifth-generation fund, has raised USD1.1bn since the launch of the process one year ago, according to a letter sent yesterday to investors in the firm, reported by Bloomberg and relayed by Agefi.

The Swiss bank UBS, which is subject to a preliminary investigation in France (see Newsmanagers of 16 April), on 17 April announced that it is prepared to fully cooperate with the French aurthorities if required. The French affiliate of UBS “has become aware of the information recently reported in the press in relation to a preliminary investigation which has reportedly been opened against it,” the bank says in a statement. “If the opening of the investigation is confirmed, UBS (France) will fully cooperate with the authorities in charge,” the bank says.

The Investment Company Institute (ICI) and the US Chamber of Commerce (US CoC) have filed a lawsuit in the US District Court of Columbia against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), because the Commission is planning to require some mutual funds and ETFs to register as “commodity-pool operators,” in addition to their registrations with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), the Wall Street Journal reports. This would affect all funds which practice commodity-based strategies.The ICI and US CoC claim that the funds are already adequately regulated, and that the new regulations would affect about 500 products. The planned rules would cancel a rule from 2003 by which registered investment advisors were expressly excluded from the list of commodity pool operators.

Investors have scaled back both risk-taking and their expectations for global growth after concerns about European Union (EU) economies resurfaced, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Survey of Fund Managers from 5 to 12 April covering an overall total of 256 panelists with USD706 billion of assets under management. A 54 percent of the panel says that EU sovereign debt funding is the number one tail risk, up from a 38 percent in March. A net 63 percent of the panel predicts that Spain is likely to provide a negative surprise in 2012, up from a net 50 percent last month. But France is close behind Spain, with a net 56 percent of the panel saying France could provide a negative surprise, up from a net 52 percent.Investors have increased cash positions significantly since March. A net 24 percent of global asset allocators are overweight cash in April, up from a net 6 percent one month ago. A net 26 percent of asset allocators are overweight equities, down from a net 33 percent in March. Investors have increased allocations to pharmaceuticals, a counter-cyclical sector while reducing positions in materials, a cyclical sector. A net 20 percent of the panel says that the global economy will strengthen in the coming year, down from a net 28 percent in March - sentiment had improved steadily from November, when a net 29 percent predicted economic deterioration. A net 3 percent of the global investor panel expects corporate profits will worsen in the next 12 months, compared with a net 6 percent predicting an improvement in profits last month. Amid reduced optimism, investors are predicting more QE from both the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) and the European Central Bank (ECB). Only 36 percent of the global panel expects no further QE from the Fed, down from 47 percent in March. Many global investors have increased allocations to U.S. equities in April or expressed an intention to do so. A net 27 percent of global asset allocators are overweight U.S. equities in April, up from a net 14 percent in March. The U.S. is also the region that net 18 percent of the panel would like to overweight - only a net 2 percent named the U.S. as their preferred overweight last month. Investors within the U.S. are less optimistic, however. A net 8 percent of U.S.-based investors say the country’s economy will get stronger in the coming year, down from a net 29 percent in March.

The European Commission on Tuesday granted its approval to Swiss tax agreements with Germany and the United Kingdom. The agreements are “wholly in line with European law,” the commissioner in charge of taxation, Algirdas Semeta, told media in Brussels. The work undertaken by the Commission and the two member states to revise the agreements demonstrates that it is possible to succeed in a fruitful collaboration, Semeta says. “The results are there, and meet the EU’s requirements as well as those of member states very well,” he added. The Commission received the text of the taxation agreement between Switzerland and Austria only last Thursday. For this reason, its analysis is still underway, Semeta explained. Following an initial examination of the test, the Commission addressed a few questions to the Austrian government, but no positions have been articulated so far.

Credit Suisse has announced that it has recruited several senior bankers, who will be added to its private banking team for the Asia-Pacific region. Song Kun joined Credit Suisse Private Banking in Hong Kong as managing director and senior client partner for the Greater China region. Song previously worked at Merrill Lynch (Asia Pacitic) Ltd., where she was managing director of investments for private banking at the group. Jimmy Lee, previously head of Clariden Leu for Asia, is appointed as managing director in charge of integration of Clariden Leu activities, following the acquisition of the bank by Credit Suisse. Yee Chin Lit, also from Clariden Leu, becomes managing director and head of the Indonesian market.

The Aabar sovereign fund from Abu Dhabi, which controls 6.5% of capital in the Italian UniCredit bank, has entered the board of directors at the firm with two seats, replacing Libyans, the newspaper Corriere della Sera reports. The Aabar fund, the largest shareholder in the firm with 6.5%, is nominating its chairman Khadem Abdulla Al Qubaisi, adding that the chairman of Ferrari, Luca Cordero de Montezemolo, will also join the board as a representative of the fund. Libya will no longer have membership on the board, the newspaper reports, three weeks ahead of the general shareholders’ meeting on 11 May, which will elect the new board of directors. Libya did not participate in the most recent EUR7.5bn capital increase at UniCredit, which was completed in January, and marked a rise in the stake held by the Aabar fund.

Following the departure of Sergio Míguez, CIO for absolute return products, who is joining Lazard (see Newsmanagers of 16 April), the position of director of hedge funds at BanSabadell Inversión has now been handed to Félix Sánchez, who had been a hedge fund manager since 2005, Funds People reports. In his new position, Sánchez will report directly to José Antonio Pérez Roger, chief investment officer.For the moment, Bansabadell Inversión manages only EUR41m in hedge funds, but its alternative assets total EUR1.07bn, including funds of hedge funds, commodities, one real estate fund and absolute return quant funds.

The US firm Federated Investors has finalised its acquisition of Prime Rate Capital Management LLP (PRCM), a British asset management firm specialised in liquidity and fixed income products serving institutionals. Federated acquired the firm from Matrix Group Limited. The US firm managed USD369.7bn as of the end of 2011.

The retirementspecialist LV= has announced that it has added seven funds to itslist of funds available to independent financial advisers and theirclients.The funds include threeFidelity and four Threadneedle products.Fidelity MultiAsset Allocator Balanced Fidelity MultiAsset Allocator Defensive Fidelity MultiAsset Allocator Growth ThreadneedleGlobal Equity Income Threadneedle UKEquity Income ThreadneedleEuropean Select Threadneedle Defensive Equity & Bond

Pioneer Investments has hired five investment professionals for its new London based Emerging Markets hub.Reporting to Marco Mencini, head of equity and emerging markets research, the new team includes: Sebastian Barry Taylor, consumer analyst & team leader; Ji Young Park, consumer analyst; Richard Clode, technical analyst global emerging markets and Caroline Galligan, financial analyst. Oleksiy Soroka, senior credit analyst reports to Garrett Walsh, head of credit research Europe & Asia.Mauro Ratto, head of emerging markets, said: «we plan to expand our franchise with further hires in the coming months (...)».

An extension of the bond range from Axa Investment Managers in the United Kingdom will initially involve the addition of a global fund of inflation-linked securities similar to the Axa WF Global Inflation Bonds, but with the addition of emerging market debt, Investment Week reports. The product, managed by Marion Le Morhedec and David Dyer, will aim for 1% outperformance of average inflation, which is expected to be 3.5%.A second product would reportedly be a short-term emerging market debt fund managed by Damien Bouchet and Magda Branet, while the third fund, to be launched in a few weeks, would be a global strategic bond fund managed by Nick Hayes and CIO Chris Iggo.

La Commission préconise des hausses de salaires dans les pays où leur croissance est restée en deçà des gains de productivité

Le marché s'est tendu depuis l'annonce du décret d'expropriation de Repsol. Les investisseurs étaient déjà très prudents sur l'Argentine

Le conseil en immobilier fait à présent partie d'un groupe très diversifié sur lequel il peut s'appuyer

Le Fonds concède que des progrès ont été accomplis en zone euro mais reste très prudent

Le Fonds concède que des progrès ont été accomplis en zone euro mais reste très prudent

Les créanciers du CMBS néerlandais Opera Finance ont opté pour celle des deux résolutions qui leur apportait le plus de cash directement

La Commission européenne a approuvé deux accords fiscaux signés par la Suisse avec l’Allemagne et la Grande-Bretagne. Les accords sont «entièrement conformes avec le droit européen», a déclaré le commissaire chargé de la fiscalité Algirdas Semeta. Le texte de l’accord fiscal entre la Suisse et l’Autriche est en revanche toujours en cours d’analyse.

Le président américain a proposé de nouvelles mesures pour lutter contre la manipulation des prix sur le marché du pétrole. Il a notamment appelé le législateur à relever les sanctions civiles et pénales s’appliquant aux personnes et aux sociétés impliquées dans de telles pratiques. Il a également plaidé pour un renforcement des moyens financiers de l’agence chargée de faire respecter l’ordre sur le marché.

L’homme d’affaires américain a annoncé dans un communiqué qu’il souffrait d’un cancer de la prostate. Il indique devoir subir à partir de la mi-juillet un traitement par radiothérapie d’une durée de deux mois qui ne devrait pas l’empêcher de travailler au quotidien.

Holding de la famille Agnelli, Exor prendra une participation dans la holding Paris Orléans de Rothschild à l’occasion d’une consolidation des opérations de la famille française à partir du 4 juin, selon des informations de presse. Le Figaro a précisé hier que la société dirigée par John Elkann devrait racheter une partie des actions de Paris Orléans dévolues au conglomérat de Hong Kong Jardine Matheson.

Le groupe de capital investissement cherche à se séparer de l'équipementier automobile et compte retirer un milliard de dollars dans cette vente, a rapporté Reuters de sources proches du dossier. Une vente à ce prix serait un réel succès pour Carlyle, près de trois ans après le placement de Metaldyne sous la protection du chapitre 11 de la loi sur les faillites. Bank of America Merrill Lynch aurait été mandatée pour conduire l’opération.

Le fonds de private equity dédié aux services financiers a fait part de l’acquisition de la totalité du capital du comparateur de produits d’assurance Chiarezza, lancé par le groupe Admiral Group en Italie en février 2010. Cette opération doit permettre d’accroître les investissements marketing, d’offrir de nouveaux services aux internautes et d’élargir le panel d’assureurs. Cette transaction constitue le cinquième investissement de BlackFin.

Rome va retarder d’un an le retour à l'équilibre de ses comptes publics actuellement prévu en 2013, selon un projet de texte qui sera soumis aujourd’hui au conseil des ministres. Le projet de document sur la programmation des finances publiques que s’est procuré Reuters revoit l’objectif de déficit pour 2012 en légère hausse à 1,7% du PIB contre 1,6% précédemment, tandis qu’il est porté à 0,5% pour 2013 contre 0,1% précédemment.

La croissance de l'économie mondiale s’améliore lentement avec l’accélération de la reprise aux Etats-Unis et une relative dissipation des tensions en Europe mais les risques restent élevés et l’embellie très fragile, estime le Fonds monétaire international dans ses Perspectives économiques mondiales. L'économie mondiale pourrait enregistrer une croissance de 3,5% cette année et de 4,1% en 2013, selon les prévisions du FMI qui anticipait une croissance de 3,3% et 3,9% respectivement en janvier, lorsque le spectre d’un défaut de la Grèce et d’une contagion à l’Espagne et l’Italie était encore présent.

Tout en laissant mardi ses taux inchangés, la banque centrale canadienne a indiqué qu’un «retrait modeste» de sa politique monétaire accommodante «pourrait être approprié». Ce changement de ton de la Banque du Canada, préoccupée par le niveau de dette privée, coïncide avec la mise en oeuvre de règles plus strictes pour l’octroi de prêts immobiliers dans le pays.

La Commission européenne a approuvé deux accords fiscaux signés par la Suisse avec l’Allemagne et la Grande-Bretagne. Les accords sont «entièrement conformes avec le droit européen», a déclaré le commissaire chargé de la fiscalité Algirdas Semeta. Le texte de l’accord fiscal entre la Suisse et l’Autriche est en revanche toujours en cours d’analyse.

Le Mécanisme européen de stabilité financière, émanation de l’Union européenne, a placé 1,8 milliard d’euros d’obligations de maturité 2038. Il a trouvé un spread de 87 points de base au-dessus des swaps. Barclays, Deutsche Bank, DZ Bank et HSBC dirigeaient le placement. L'émetteur pensait lever à l’origine un milliard d’euros. Les fonds récoltés serviront à financer le Portugal.

Un fichier national de crédits destiné à lutter contre le surendettement des ménages, projet envisagé depuis des années mais jamais réalisé, verra le jour s’il est réélu, assure Nicolas Sarkozy dans une interview publiée sur le site internet de L’Express. Cet outil recenserait l’ensemble des crédits à la consommation ou renouvelables contractés par chaque ménage. Il n’existe pour l’instant en France qu’un fichier des incidents de paiement géré par la Banque de France.