The Norwegian pension fund, which has USD608bn in assets, is planning to double the number of external mandates it hands out to about 100 in the next five years, the Financial Times reports. “ What we are actively doing is looking for managers country-by-country in the emerging markets and also looking for managers country-by-country with regards to small-cap,” chief executive Yngve Slyngstad tells FTfm.
The Japanese Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) on Friday reveals that the asset management firm AIJ Investment Advisors Co., which lose USD1.3bn of its clients’ money, had actually been concealing trading losses for nearly a decade, the Wall Street Journal reports. Between 1 April 2002 and 31 March 2011, the firm accumulated losses of JPY109.2bn, due to loss-making derivatives transactions. The SESC has been able to locate only JPY8.1bn in cash and savings deposits on Japanese accounts.
The US affiliate of Aberdeen Asset Management has released the Aberdeen U.S. High Yield Bond Fund, a fund of corporate bonds which are not investment grade, for sale.The high yield product was launched on 28 February; it is managed by Keith Bachman, head of US high yield, with Brendan Dillon, derivatives portfolio manager, Christopher Gagnier, US fixed income head, and two other portfolio managers, Edward Grant and Neal rayner.Management commissions range from 0.80% for institutional shares to 1.80% for C-class shares.
State Street Banque, in securities services, is a major actor in Europe, and is not planning to stop there. In France, despite the presence of national champions, the firm is clearly planning to develop. An external growth deal would make sense, as securities services have low profit margins and large volumes, as Remond explains to Newsmanagers.
The chairman of the French financial market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), Jean-Pierre Jouyet, says that he is in favour of the creation of a government secretariat dedicated to reforms, an idea which originated with the Green MEP Pascal Canfin. “Financial regulation is an increasingly political and European subject, which deserves a ministerial department of its own. That would allow France to have more influence in international negotiations, particularly in its dealings with the United Kingdom, which has a very strong and well-organised administration in these areas,” Jouyet has said in an interview with public sector actors. According to the AMF chairman, the creation of a ministry of financial reform in the French government would ensure that a political leader would be present at meetings of the Ecofin council, and that the initiative of the French president within the G20 would be effectively deployed.
Since Friday, the listings on the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic platform (Deutsche Börse) includes another ETF product, the Irish-registered MSCI Europe Value Source ETF, which replicates the MSCI Europe Value EUR TRN Index. The addition brings the number of ETFs listed in Frankfurt to 948.CharacteristicsName: MSCI Europe Value Source ETFISIN code: IE00B3LK4Z20TER: 0.35%
In 2011, net subscriptions to long-term funds worldwide fell to USD200bn, compared with USD1trn in 2010 and 2009. Funds in the United States, Latin America and Asia finished the YEar with net inflows, while in Europe, they have posted net redemptions, according to a study by Strategic Insight, relayed by Funds People.Size has certainly had an effect on flows, as only 1% of funds have accounted for net subscriptions of over USD1bn, with an average of USD1.5bn. Of these funds, the winning 1% attracted an average of USD11.5bn.Strategic Insight highlights the success of asset allocation funds and funds focused on the United States, such as the Pimco All Asset, the First Eagle Global and the Permanent Portfolio, which have each attracted over USD5bn.Hedge funds, for their part, have attracted USD100bn, of which USD3.7bn went to the Standard Life Global Absoulte Return Strategies, USD3.5bn to the Newton Real Return, the gold ETFs Van Eck Market Vector Gold Miners ETF and ZKB Gold ETF (USD3bn each), and the iShares Gold Trust (USD2.8bn).
Responsible investment research specialists, EIRIS, has launched the EIRIS Sustainability Ratings to provide investors with a definitive assessment of the sustainability performance of over 3,000 public companies worldwide. The ratings service provides a picture of corporate sustainability performance, expressed on an A-E Scale, and combine EIRIS’ assessment of a company’s sustainability impacts with our analysis of its management response to ESG risks.
Large prime brokerage firms are preparing to increase the cost of transactions for hedge funds, due to Basel III regulations, the Financial Times reports, based on information from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank. The new rules will have an impact on simple hedge fund strategies. For more esoteric programmes, including those using leverage, the consequences will be even more significant. It could kill off some markets entirely.
The second edition of the Institut Pro-Actions barometer reveals that since December, European and US managers have increased their exposure to North American equities, from 41.75 to 42.2% of their assets, compared with 36% for European equities, Les Echos reports. After US equities, British and Japanese equities are popular with managers. France takes 4th place in the rankings, but takes only fifth place for European funds, after Hong Kong. Despite its difficulties, the finance sector remains the preferred sector for international funds, and Apple is the most popular share to hold, followed by Nestlé and Novartis.
ING will officially initiate the process of selling its insurance and asset management activities in Asia in April, Financial News reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. Life insurance and asset management will be sold off separately, with asset management to be put up for sale first. The Asian unit of ING had assets under management of USD54bn as of the end of 2011.
BNY Mellon has announced that Simon Nichols will take over as lead manager of the Newton Bridge fund, whose assets under management total GBP314.7m, Fund Web reports. Nichols replaces Caroline Tye, who has been appointed as head of private clients, following a reorganisation of activities. Nichols, who has been at Newton for over ten years, has been the lead manager of the Newton Cautious Managed fund since October 2009.
The British association of investment companies (AIC), an association of closed investment funds, claims that the US administration has not yet answered fundamental questinos about the deployment of Fatca regulations, which are currently under consultation until 30 April. The director of public affairs for the association, Guy Rainbird, speaking at the annual AIC conference, has claimed that compliance with the regulations will be a “nightmare.” According to the head, the architects of the Fatca regulations did not really consider the fundamental issue of how firms will identify their US shareholders, among other issues.
The British Financial Services Authority (FSA) has published its final recommendations on the stress testing of structured products, as scheduled. The FSA says stress testing should be integrated into the approval process for structured products. The document also discusses the design of structured products and of after-sales service.
Peter Smith, head of investments policy at the Financial Services Authority (FSA), has told Bloomberg, as relayed by Investment Week and Investment Europe, that the British regulator has a hard time understanding why commissions charged by British fund managers are so high, and have been increasing in recent years. The FSA will now be investigating the subject. According to a study in the Review of Financial Studies, average annual fees for British mutual funds are 2.21%, while they are 1.04% in the United States.
In the third week of March, investors, sensitive to the less dynamic nature of the equity markets, tended to take their profits and had a slightly more limited appetite for high-risk assets. Equity funds had a net inflow of only USD645m in the week to 21 March, while bond funds, which have been doing well for several weeks, attracted their lowest inflows since the beginning of the year, according to estimates from EPFR Global. Long-term US government bond funds saw outflows of USd1.01bn, while US money market funds had outflows of over USD13bn. Emerging market bond funds had subscriptions totalled a net USd851m. High yield bond funds, still in high demand, have had USd25bn in inflows since the beginning of the year.
Piers Hillier, former chief investment officer of LV= Asset Management, has joined Kames Capital as head of international equities. Hiller will be co-head of multi-management funds, and will lead a team of 25 people responsible for allocation decisions. Hiller joined LV=AM in February 2010, but was not retained by Threadneedle at the conclusion of his outsourcing agreement at the end of November lasr year. Kames Capital has also announced a restructuring of its real estate team into five divisions: indirect real estate, research, specialised funds, real estate shares, and direct real estate. This reshuffle follows the recent recruitment of Charles Follows as head of real estate research, and other recruitments in real estate multi-management.
The CEO and co-founder of Polar Capital, Tim Wooley, has sold 50,000 shares in the firm for GBP1m, Investment Week reports. He retains 6.5 million shares, or an 8.46% stake in the firm.
Ignis Asset Management attracted net inflows of GBP1.7bn in 2011, according to the annual results of its shareholder Phoenix.Assets under management, administration and oversight increased 3% to GBP70.7bn, including GBP62.1 billion of assets for the group’s life companies. In addition, Ignis has shown stable financial performance, with an IFRS operating profit of GBP46 million in 2011.
Les investigations menées par des parlementaires américains sur la faillite de MF Global indiquent que John Corzine, l’ancien directeur général du courtier, aurait donné des « instructions directes » afin de transférer 200 millions de dollars d’un compte client vers son compte chez JPMorgan à Londres afin de régler un découvert.
Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) réunit ce lundi ses collaborateurs pour leur exposer les grandes lignes d’une nouvelle organisation, a-t-on appris de source proche de la direction. Son projet, adressé aux représentants du personnel la semaine dernière, s’articule autour des besoins des clients, multi-produits et multi-pays. L’organisation actuelle, par lignes de métiers, laisserait place à une matrice recentrée sur trois segments: institutions financières et courtiers; sociétés de gestion et assureurs; entreprises non financières. Celle-ci distinguerait distribution et production dans un souci de transversalité afin d’offrir toute la gamme de produits dans tous les pays (SGSS dispose de 28 implantations). Résultant de la refonte du comité exécutif communiquée en novembre, cette réorganisation pourrait être effective à l’été et n’aurait pas d’impact, selon cette source, sur les effectifs.