La Caisse de Prévoyance Sociale Te Fare Turuutaa (CPS) est une personne morale de droit privé chargée d’une mission de service public et dotée de l’autonomie financière. Elle fonctionne sous tutelle du Gouvernement de Polynésie Française. En novembre 2011, la CPS a investit 84 millions d’euros sur un mandat de gestion obligataire zone euro, avec l’aide de son consultant, Amadeis.

The European financial market regulator is in the home stretch to impose new regulations governing exchange-traded funds (ETF) and all UCITS funds which use index replication or securities lending techniques, from second quarter this year. Professionals responded to a consultation launched earlier this year. According to Agefi, the major actors in the sector, Lyxor Am and BlackRock, are satisfied overall with the framework proposed. For example, BlackRock would like to see securities lending, counterparty risks and potential conflicts of interest mentioned in product prospectuses. Actors appear sceptical of ESMA’s collateral diversification proposals.

The hedge fund sector has done well in first quarter, but has not really shined, according to information from the major press agencies. Third Point Partners by Daniel Loeb gained 7.1% in first quarter, with the Third Point Ultra fund posting gains of 10%. Greenlight Capital by David Einhorn has posted gains of 6.9% for the first three months of the year. There are many good results, but no exceptional ones. Hedge funds have earned an average of about 2.3% in first quarter, according to analysts at BofA Merrill Lynch, compared with gains of 12% for the Standard & Poor’s 500. The hedge fund giant John Paulson is a good illustration of the muted mood for hedge fund quarterly results. The oldest portfolio from the management firm, Paulson Partners, has earned gains of 6.6% in first quarter, and the Paulson Enhanced Fund has gained 13.3%. But the Advantage fund lost 1.05%, and its leveraged version Advantage Plus lose 2.23%. The Glod fund lost 13.41% in March, and has lost 6.37% over the quarter.

European money market funds, which began reducing their exposure to Spain and Italy in summer 2011, had virtually eliminated their exposured to the two countries as of the end of February, Fitch Ratings announced in its most recent monthly bulleting about European money market funds. European money market funds had already reduced their exposure to Greece, Ireland and Portugal to 0% in 2009 and 2010. Fitch states that as of the end of February, European money market funds no longer had any exposure to Italian banks, and allocation to Spanish banks, mostly to Banco Santander, were marginal and would be maturing in the next two months. As of the end of February 2012, funds maintained a significant allocation to issuers in major European countries (France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands), while increasing their investments in Australian, Scandinavian, Japanese and Canadian financial institutions.

The German life insurer Stuttgarter Lebensversicherung has launched unit-linked retirement insurance policies which invest in five ETFs from iShares, Das Investment reports. The funds in question are the following: iShares MSCI World, iShares Dax, iShares Euro Stoxx 50, iShares S&P 500, and iShares MSCI Emerging Markets.

Union Investment Real Estate, an affiliate of the central asset management firm for the German co-operative banks, has acquired the office property Rosmarin Karree, located on Friedrichstraße in Berlin, for an undisclosed amount for the portfolio of its UniImmo: Deutschland open-ended real estate fund.The property, with 11,76 square metres of office space, 3,196 square metres of rental apartmnets and 2,61 square metres of shops, is leased for the long term to the DSGV association of savings banks, which now controls 100% of DekaBank, the central asset management firm for the savings banks.

The German asset management firm Deka Immobilien has acquired “The Rock” (30,000 square metres), an office property located in Amsterdan, from Evans Randall for about EUR132m. The property will be added to the portfolio of the open-ended real estate fund WestInvest InterSelect, bringing the proportion of the portfolio invested in Netherlands properties from 8.1% to 10.5%, with the strategy of slightly reducing the exposure of the portfolio to Germany, and to bring younger properties into the portfolio.

Ken Hsia has taken over as manager of onshore and offshore European equity funds at Investec, as part of a reshuffle at the South African asset management firm, InvestmentEurope reports. Hsia, who has been at Investec for seven years, will be responsible for equity funds, including the European (GBP27.6m in assets under management) and Continental European (GBP60m in assets). He replaces Nigel Hankin, who will continue to serve as sectoral head in the 4Factor equities team at Investec.

Switzerland and Germany on 5 April signed a new tax agreement, according to a statement released by the Swiss federal finance department (DFF). The protocol comes as an amendment to an agreement signed in September 2011, and defines the tax rate for regularising offshore assets. The tax rate, initially planned to be between 19% and 34%, will now be between 21% and 41%. The entry into force of the new regulations will take place at the start of next year. The law is extended to apply to inheritances taking place after the entry into force of the agreement. In case of succession, the heirs may choose either to pay a tax of 50% or to declare the assets, the DFF states. Meanwhile, the maximum number of authorised requests for information from the time the agreement comes into effect will be raised from 999 to 1,300 for a period of two years. There will no longer be a way to transfer assets from German taxpayers in Switzerland to other third-party countires without declaring the transfer. The DFF claims that the agreement is a significant contribution to tax equality. It respects the protection of the privacy of banking clients in Switzerland, while guaranteeing that legal taxes are recovered in Germany. There are also plans to improve procedural aspects related to activities between the two states in the financial sector. Strengthened collaboration of the surveillance authorities in the two countries and respect for national legislation will allow for improvements to banking procedures for Swiss banks in Germany, making them simpler and faster. The changes will have little effect on the opinions of the German opposition, who hold a majority in the Bundesrat, the upper chamber of the German Parliament, which represents the regions, and is planning to block the passage of the bill.

Pending the publication of a complete study of the ETF market, the Hanover-based research agency Kommalpha has published a survey of professional investors which finds that the growth margin for this type of fund is limited. According to 43.4% of respondents, the needs of new ETF promoters are considered weak, while 47.4% estimate that these needs are highly limited. In other words, over 90% consider that there is no room for new ETF providers, while 3.9% think that this is a major need, and 2.6% consider it most important.

The common funds for employee shareholders in France Telecom, which owns 3% of capital, has decided to present a resolution at the general shareholders’ meeting on 5 June which would reduce the dividend from EUR1.40 to EUR1, Les Echos reports. The management of the firm is reportedly not opposed to the proposal.

The day after the official launch of its new French asset management firm, Russell Investments France, the US firm Russell Investments has announced the recruitment of Alexandre Attal (already named in yesterday’s Newsmanagers) as a portfolio manager and analyst. Attal, who joins the firm from Barclays Wealth Managers France, will report to Alain Zeitouni, CIO at Russell Investments France. He will be in charge of analysis and management of multi-asset class portfolios managed for clients of the Paris office of Russell Investments, and will support its commercial development. The other recruitment is the result of a transfer, as Jean-David Larson, the new director of client solutions, who has spent five years at Russell Investments in Seattle, where he had most recently been chief of staff, is transferred to France. In his new role, he will be in charge of client offerings; he will also participate in the design of multi-asset solutions and to commercial development.

The IFA group Infinitis on 5 April announced that it now has 205 agencies, with 313 member IFAs. Infinitis has seen inflows of EUR115m (excluding real estate) in 2011, with assets under management of EUR287m. All agencies of the group combine have assets of EUR2.7bn. The 2012 objective is to reach 300 agencies, in order to draw nearer to its ultimate goal of 400 member agencies.

BNP Paribas Investment Partners has announced the appointments of François Hullo as head of bond management at BNPP AM and of David Bouchoucha as head of institutional sales for southern Europe. Hullo will lead a team composed of 100 investment professionals in 8 countries, a statement says.Hullo has worked for over 24 years at the BNP Paribas group, half of it at BNPP IP. Before his appointment, he had been head of institutional sales for southern Europe at BNPP IP. Between 2000 and 2004, he set up the alternative investment structure at BNPP IP, and developed a complete range of structured and alternative products.Bouchoucha, for his part, joined BNPP IP in May 2010, as head of mission, reporting to the CEO and deputy head of institutional sales for southern Europe. He joined BNP Paribas in 2007 as head of strategy for the group, and managed several projects in collaboration with the general management.

Finance professionals can be satisfied. According to a survey by eFinancialCareers in the United States, set pay levels for finance professionals rose 6% in 2011. Nearly half of professionals surveyed (47%) say they are “very” or “rather satisfied” with their pay scales in 2011, compared with 43% in 2010. Nearly half of professionals, 54% of respondents, saw a pay raise in the space of one year. The raises were largest at boutiques and alternative management firms, at +14% and +13%.

According to statistics from the Swiss firm Alix Capital, the UCITS Alternative Index Global, which measures the performance of UCITS hedge funds, fell 0.49% in March, following returns of 0.87% in February and 1.37% in January. Since the beginning of the year, these funds have posted average gains of 1.75%.All strategies, excluding fixed income, which have gained 0.31%, show losses in March, with the heaviest losses (1.70%) from emerging market funds.

Employees from Clariden Leu, the former Credit Suisse affiliate, have decided to found the wealth management firm Metropole Partners, the specialist website finews reports. The firm was founded in mid-March, and will have 30 employees, including 15 client advisers, as well as portfolio managers and back-office assistants. The initiative was initiated by the American Anthony Cagiati, a former banker at Clariden Leu The members of the board of directors include client advisers Bruno Lienhart (formerly of Clariden Leu) and Christian Sieber (formerly of Bank Leu). The former banker and lawyer Christian Brunner will stand for the position of chairman of the board of directors. He is currently a partner at the Zurich-based research agency Brunner & Decurtins.

The US bank JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay USD20m to the commodity futures trading commission (CFTC), the Financial Times reports. The US regulator accused the firm of illegally managing the separate accounts of Lehman Brothers clients.

The Wall Street Journal reports that US bankruptcy judge Burton R. Lifland on Wednesday evening ruled that Irving Picard, trustee for the business interests of Bernard Madoff, may modify his initial lawsuit in order to seek about USD5.5m from the daughters-in-law of the fraudster, Stephanie Mack, widow of Mark Madoff, Susan Elkin, his first wife, and Deborah Madoff, wife of Andrew Madoff.

The French financial market authority (AMF) on 5 April announced that it has integrated guidelines by the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) on automated trading into a position published on that date (issue 2012-03). The terms of the regulations will be effective from 7 May 2012, the AMF states. The guidelines, based on financial market instrument directives (MiFID) and market abuse regulations, lay out the appropriate way to apply certain directives, and introduces specific clauses related to their application in the particular area of automated trading, including high-frequency trading. The regulations apply primarily to the following activities: operation of an electronic trading system by a regulated market or a multilateral trading system (SMN); use of an electronic trading system, including trading algorithms, by an investment firm, for trading on its own behalf or execution of orders for clients; provision of direct access to the market or sponsored access to an investment business to execute orders on behalf of its clients.

Lombard Odier Investment Managers (LOIM) has appointed Marcel van Ostaden as director of sales for the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Van Ostaden will be based in Amsterdam. Before joining LOIM, he had been director of sales for the Netherlands at BlackRock, since 2005. LOIM managed EUR28bn as of the end of 2011.

After an extended period of uncertainty and volatility on the markets, several top-calibre operations in first quarter are an indication that the initial public offering market in Europe is rebounding. The “IPO Watch” report from PwC finds that 58 operations were undertaken in first quarter 2012 on European stock markets, totalling EUR2.3bn, compared with EUR0.9bn in fourth quarter 2011, and EUR3bn in first quarter 2011. The average value of the operations is EUR50m, compared with EUR17m in fourth quarter 2011, and EUR39m in first quarter 2011. Although activities remain muted compared with their historic levels, outlooks have been boosted by encouraging transactions by several recent issuers. Thierry Charron, a partner at PwC specialised in capital markets, “initial offering prices are at the high end of the price range, and new issuers overall have been performing well after their initial public offerings, which is clearly a good sign for companies which are considering a launch on the stock market this year. The initial offering from Ziggo may lead other companies financed by private equity funds to follow suit.” The Us IPO market has also rebounded in first quarter 2012, with 44 operations and EUR4.4bn raised, an increase in volume of 33% compared with the 433 initial offerings in first quarter 2011. There has also been strong interest on the US markets from secondary market investors in new issuers following their initial offerings, which has led to positive returns for 80% of companies which launched on the stock markets this quarter.

The British asset management firm M&G Investments has overtaken Invesco Perpetual to become Britain’s largest asset management firm in terms of assets under management, according to statistics from the British investment management association (IMA). Invesco had held the top spot since October 2007. M&G has earned excellent returns in the past year, and its net inflows rose last year by GBP4.4bn, at a time when the sector as a whole was seeing net outflows of nearly GBP70bn. IMA rankings of the top ten asset management firms in the United Kingdom in terms of assets under management (February 2012) M & G Securities Limited £39,464,246,537 1 Invesco Perpetual £39,431,441,702 2 Fidelity Worldwide Investment £26,878,568,253 3 Schroder Investment Management Ltd £25,991,973,342 4 BNY Mellon Fund Managers Limited £25,824,063,802 5 St James’s Place Unit Trust Group Ltd £25,428,811,572 6 Threadneedle Investment Services Ltd £25,379,523,918 7 BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited £24,211,271,760 8 Henderson Global Investors £24,092,777,014 9 Legal & General (Unit Trust) Managers Limited £23,916,470,986 10

The British activist investment fund The Children’s Investment fund (TCI) has decided to file a lawsuit against the Indian government and the state-run business Coal India for failure to respect the interests of minority shareholders, Les Echos reports. The coal producer Coal India was IPOed in 2010, in order to reduce India’s budget deficit. The British fund bought 1.01% of Coal India, which makes it the second-largest shareholder in the group, which is 90% controlled by the Indian government.

One of the largest commodity hedge funds, BlueGold Capital, is liquidating its portfolio and returning capital to investors, the Financial Times reports. The fund is hoping to be able to repay 98% of invested capital by May. Last year, the portfolio of BlueGold lost 34% of its value. After assets one year ago of about USD2.4bn, assets under management have fallen to slightly over USD1bn.

Following the departure of David Gagnon in January, Anthony Swift, his deputy, becomes AsPac head of transition management & product development at BlackRock, Asian Investors reoprts. Swift has been a member of the transition management team since December 2009, after spending a decade at Barclays Global Investors (BGI).

Rathbone Investment Management, an affiliate of Rathbone Brothers, has acquired the wealth management firm RM Walkden & Company, Investment Week reports. The cost of the acquisition is said to have been GBP948,393. Assets under management at Rathbone Investment Management total GBP15.8bn.

According to a study by Russell Investments of British defined-benefit pension funds, conducted in July and August 2011, trustee boards and investment boards dedicate an average of 15.6 hours per year to investment questions, and never more than 26 hours, equivalent to one half-hour per week for the largest and most complex funds. This appears to be very little for strategic decisions about, for example, liability-driven investment (LDI), overlays, portfolio structuring, or selection and monitoring of managers.However, the study finds that there has been increasing use of investment committees, and more appointments of fiduciary managers than in the 2009 edition of the study, with large funds more likely to select the investment committee solutions, while smaller funds often opt for a fiduciary manager. In the latter case, the percentage of small funds using a fiduciary manager has risen from 15% in 2009 to 26% in the 2011 study.Russell also points out that despite the installation of investment committees or the appointment of fiduciary managers, these structures are rarely able to take investment decisions: 75% of trustee boards retain control of selection of managers, and the trustee is cited by less than 70% of respondents as the decision-maker for all points in the survey.Lastly, the study finds that over 80% of trustees are convinced on every point raised that the decision-making structures at their fund meet the needs for their purpose, and particularly that they are able to respond to rapid changes in the business environment. This appears paradoxical, as there is no indication of a change in the frequency of meetings (generally quarterly meetings of the investment committee) or an increase in delegation to entities which are better equipped to respond in “real time”.

The bottom line for March published by the German BVI association of asset management firms (see Newsmanagers of 5 April) finds that three of the major asset management firms have posted net inflows to open-ended securities funds, with net subscriptions in first quarter totalling about EUR1.15bn. The firms are Allianz Asset Management, which alone attracted EUR2.86bn, largely thanks to Pimco Europe, the DWS/DB Advisors/DB family (Deutsche Bank), which took on EUR515.1m (including EUR504.5m for ETFs from db x-trackers), and Union Investment (co-operative banks), with net inflows of EUR114m.However, Deka (savings banks) underwent net outflows of EUR1.43bn in January-March, while BlackRock, with its iShares brand ETFs, saw outflows of nearly EUR1bn, ComStage (ETF provider from Commerzbank) has seen net redemptions of EUR289m.For ETFs, the provider for the Deka group, ETFlab, has posted net subscriptions of EUR64.5m.

La consultation lancée début 2012 par le régulateur européen, l’Esma, sur l’encadrement des fonds indiciels cotés est terminée. Le nouveau cadre réglementaire, censé apporter plus de transparence, devrait être finalisé au deuxième trimestre. Les professionnels sont plutôt satisfaits.