«Repositionnement réussi après deux années en demi-teinte». Le groupe Infopro Communications, organisateur du Forum GI, a publié en fin de semaine dernière quelques chiffres sur la manifestation qui s’est tenue les 12 et 13 mars derniers et dressé un bilan satisfaisant de son activité. Plus de 1400 visiteurs ont été recensés, soit une hausse de 2% par rapport à 2011 «avec, une présence renforcée des investisseurs institutionnels dont le nombre a augmenté de 18% par rapport à l’année dernière», selon un communiqué. Le visitorat est également apparu plus diversifié (banques privées, family offices, multigérants), les organisateurs ayant noté que les fonctions de direction générale, direction financière, direction d’investissement et trésorerie d’entreprise ont représenté plus de 60% de l’affluence, le solde se répartissant entre gérants privés, analystes financiers et multi gérants». Par ailleurs, en ce qui concerne les évènements ayant jalonné le Forum, Infopro Communications a recensé plus de 600 personnes aux conférences, les quinze ateliers ayant, pour leurs part, compté 70 participants en moyenne.Restait à opposer ces chiffres aux bilans des sociétés de gestion présentes à la manifestation. Globalement, il semble que le nombre réduit d’exposants (lire Newsmanagers du 14/03/2012) a permis à ces derniers de nouer plus facilement des contacts avec des clients importants. Plutôt inquiètes du fait notamment d’une première matinée difficile, plusieurs directions commerciales de sociétés de gestion se sont dites finalement satisfaites. «Une quinzaine de nos clients sont passées nous voir, explique un représentant d’une grande maison, et nous avons même rencontré deux prospects.» Il semble cependant que l’ouverture vers de nouveaux acteurs tels que les multigérants, les family offices et les banques privées n’a pas convaincu beaucoup de professionnels. Du côté des évènements, les conférences plénières, notamment celle portant sur Solvabilité II ont été appréciés, compte tenu de la qualité des intervenants. Les ateliers ont été jugés plus inégaux, une opinion qui s’explique «par un début laborieux et par le nombre d’orateurs à chaque table ronde ne permettant pas de développer plus précisément les dossiers abordés», a confié l’un des responsables interrogés. Au final, la volonté de chaque société de participer à l'édition 2013 est logiquement liée aux résultats enregistrés lors de Forum GI. Et comme l’on pouvait s’y attendre, la palette est large. Certains partis avec un a priori défavorable cette année, auront engrangé de bons résultats et se disent prêts à figurer parmi les exposants l’année prochaine. Tandis que d’autres, déçus par la faiblesse du nombre de contacts avec les investisseurs, ont d’ores et déjà confié qu’ils jettent l'éponge.

Piers Hillier, l’ex-chief investment officer de LV=Asset Management, a rejoint Kames Capital en tant que responsable des actions internationales. Piers Hillier sera coresponsable des fonds de multigestion et il dirigera une équipe de 25 pesonnes prenant des décisions d’allocation.Piers Hillier avait rejoint LV=AM en février 2010 mais n’avait pas été retenu par Threadneedle au terme de son accord d’externalisation de novembre dernier.Kames Capital a par ailleurs annoncé une restructuration de son équipe immobilière en cinq divisions : immobilier indirect, recherche, fonds spécialisés, actions immobilières et immobilier direct. Cette réorganisation fait suite au recrutement récent de Charles Follows en tant que responsable de la recherche en immobilier ainsi qu'à d’autres embauches dans la multigestion immobilière.

BNY Mellon a annoncé que Simon Nichols doit reprendre en tant que gérant principal la gestion du Newton Bridge fund dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à 314,7 millions de livres, rapporte Fund Web.Simon Nichols remplace Caroline Tye qui vient d'être nommée responsable de la clientèle privée suite à une réorganisation de l’activité.Chez Newton depuis plus de dix ans, Simon Nichols est le gérant principal du Newton Cautious Managed fund depuis octobre 2009.

Depuis vendredi, la cote du segment XTF de la plate-forme électronique Xetra (Deutsche Börse) comprend un ETF supplémentaire, l’irlandais MSCI Europe Value Source ETF, qui réplique le MSCI Europe Value EUR TRN Index. Cela porte à 948 le nombre d’ETF ainsi cotés à Francfort.CaractéristiquesDénomination : MSCI Europe Value Source ETFCode Isin : IE00B3LK4Z20TFE : 0,35 %.

BT Group a décidé de prélever avant fin mars 2 milliards de livres (2,38 milliards d’euros) sur ses liquidités pour réduire le déficit de financement de son fonds de pension, rapporte L’Agefi. Ce qui optimise les économies d’impôts liées à cette opération. Le gain fiscal afférent sera en effet calculé sur un taux d’impôt sur les sociétés de 26% contre 24% à partir 1er avril prochain. En outre, alors que le déficit du fonds s'élevait à 9 milliards de livres fin 2008, sa valeur nette actualisée est estimée à 4,1 milliards au 30 juin 2011, note le quotidien.

ING va lancer officiellement la vente de son activité d’assurance et de gestion d’actifs en Asie en avril, rapporte Financial News, citant des personnes proches du dossier. L’assurance et la gestion d’actifs vont être vendues séparément. La gestion sera proposée en premier. Le pôle asiatique d’ING avait un encours sous gestion de 54 milliards de dollars fin 2011.

Le CEO et co-fondateur de Polar Capital Tim Woolley a vendu des 500.000 actions de la société pour 1 million de livres, rapporte Investment Week. Il conserve encore 6,5 millions, soit 8,46 %.

La société de gestion Ignis Asset Management a enregistré en 2011 des souscriptions nettes de 1,7 milliard de livres, selon les résultats annuels de sa maison mère, le groupe d’assurance vie britannique Pheonix.Ses encours sous gestion, administration et supervision ont augmenté de 3 % à 70,7 milliards de livres, dont 62,1 milliards de livres gérés pour le compte du groupe. Ignis a dégagé par ailleurs un bénéfice d’exploitation de 46 millions de livres, inchangé par rapport à l’année précédente. Les revenus totaux sont ressortis à 144 millions de livres, en très légère baisse.

State Street Banque, dans les services titres, est un acteur important en Europe et qui ne veut pas s'arrêter là. En France, en dépit de la présence de champions nationaux, la société entend clairement se développer. La réalisation d'une opération de croissance externe aurait du sens d'autant que l'activité de services titres est faiblement margée et que la taille importe, comme l'explique Raphaël Remond à Newsmanagers.

Handelsblatt reports that Morgan Stanley would like to buy the remaining 40% stake in the wealth management firm Morgan Stanley Smith Barney still held by Citigroup, for USD10bn. The two firms declined to comment.

The InfraMed fund, dedicated to Mediterranean infrastructure, has acquired a 20% stake in the Limak Iskenderun Ulusarasi Isletmeciligi A.S. company (“Limak Iskenderun”) vis its affiliate InfraMinervois Holding. Limak Iskenderun is the firm in charge of managing and developing the port of Iskenderun in Anatolia, under a 36-year concession. The stake was acquired from Limak, one of the largest Turkish construction groups, which retains the remaining shares in the firm. The port was transferred to Limak Iskenderun in December 2011, as part of a government privatisation programme. The firm will invest in the project to transform a large portion of the current port area into a modern container terminal able to serve the entire south-eastern Mediterranean. Its capacity will be 1.3 million twenty-foot equivalent units per year. The five institutional investors who placed EUR285m in InfraMed at its launch were the Caisse des Dépôts, the Cassa depositi e Prestiti, the European investment bank, the Moroccan Caisse de Dépôt et de Gestion, and the Egyptian investment bank EFG Hermes. Inframed is aiming for a total volume of about EUR1bn, and has recently retained Deloitte to assist it with fundraising.

The former head of FX sales in the institutional clients group of BNP Paribas in London, François Boisson, is planning to team up with a senior US banker specialised in real estate to launch the asset management firm Money Never Sleeps in May, specialised in distressed real estate assets. He has told FX Week, relayed by Investment Europe, that he will shuttle between London and Paris.

2011 was a highly active year for voting, marked by an increase in participation at general shareholders’ meetings, according to the annual voting and engagement report published by Natixis Asset Management. This significant increase in the voting perimeter in 2011 (+11.8% compared with 2010) had Natixis AM voting on over 7050 resolutions, of which 2227 were proposed by French firms, and 4823 by foreign firms. The percentage of votes taken totalled 17% in 2011, reflecting a scaling up of the firm’s voting policies. The major themes voted on have remained relatively stable compared with the previous year. One key area in governance, the “appointment of directors,” once again represents the dominant area for votes against proposals, (representing more than 25% of these), followed by proposals related to “management pay scales,” which account for more than 20.5% of votes against, and capital operations, which account for nearly 16% of negative votes. The 2011 campaign was also particularly active in the area of dialogue with European businesses in the portfolio. With more than 130 engagement actions undertaken in 2011, Natixis AM has positioned itself as one of the most active investors. These engagement actions have involved investments representing nearly 60% of assets under management, meaning that effective action can be taken at businesses at which clients are the most exposed to ESG risks and for which the firm holds significant responsibility and powerful leverage. Direct exchange at the initiative of Natixis AM 70% of the time involved various subjects of governance, as well as environmental and social challenges at each particular business. IN many cases, engagement actions resulted in immediate action being taken, and resulted in modifications to proposed resolutions at general shareholders’ meetings, or a change in governance priactices in the short term. In other cases, the change process was over a longer-term horizon, but still resulted in formal engagements in the mid-term. In addition to the enlarged perimeter, both in terms of the number of businesses and of ESG topics, the year 2011 was marked by a significant increase in meetings with the top management at businesses to discuss areas which represent long-term growth areas. “This trend, which is continuing in 2012, represents a real orientation of Natixis AM to the expected quality and impact of its engagement policies,” the firm says.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Frédéric Buzaré is leaving Dexia Asset Management, where since 2007 he had served as global head of equities, and then as an equity strategist. “The decisions of our equity strategists will not be impacted by the departure. They remain in line with our principle of having dedicated and specialised teams which are responsible for decisions, under the direction of Vincent Hamelink, global head of traditional investments,” a spokesperson for the asset management firm says. The name of his replacement has not yet been announced. Buzaré has joined the Singapore sovereign fund GIC, according to reports in Les Echos. “He will be a senior manager in the European equities team. He will begin in his position at the end of April, first in London, and then in the Asian capital,” the finance newspaper reports. Before joining Dexia AM, Buzaré was senior equity fund manager at Axa Investment Managers and BNP Paribas Asset Management, according to his LinkedIn profile.

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.

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.

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%

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.