The Brazilian asset management firm Bradesco Asset Management is planning to increase its activities in Asia, with the appointment of a head of sales for Hong Kong, Asian Investor reports. The position will probably be filled during second half 2012, at Bradesco Securities in Hong Kong, an entity which opened in February. IN Asia, Bradesco AM already has an office in Tokyo, and a partnership with Mitsubishi UFJ for distribution. Assets under management in both equities and bonds total USD1.5bn. Assets under management at Bradesco AM total USD125bn.

Governments need to act now in order to ensure that transportation infrastructure and public works which the world will need between 2020 and 2030 will be ready on time, according to a report published recently by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), “Transcontinental Infrastructure Needs for 2030.” The OECD claims that passenger air traffic could double, while merchandise air traffic will triple, and the volume of maritime containers in ports will quadruple worldwide by 2030. The report notes that most of the current infrastructure at access points and corridors will be unable to absorb the traffic, even if there is only a 50% increase in demand. The OECD values the investment required to meet the demand for the next decades at USD53trn, the equivalent of 2.5% of annual global GDP. Of this total, more than USD11trn will be needed for ports, airport and major rail junctions alone. The private sector will necessarily have to increase its investment in strategic transport infrastructure, the report finds. Pension funds will certainly play a more active role in providing financing, but before engaging much money, they will need more transparency and regulatory certainty.

In 2011, Allianz Real Estate announced that it had invested a total of about EUR2bn in equity and debt. Direct investments total about EUR1bn, a statement says. Among its direct investments, there are major transactions such as the acquisition of an 80% stake in the Skyline Plaza shopping centre in Frankfurt, and the acquisition of the Forum Seine office property in Issy-les-Moulineaux, in the suburbs of Paris.

Annual studies by PwC of transactions in the energy and renewable energy sectors (“Power Deals” and “Renewable Deals”) have found a strong increase in the value of mergers and acquisitions in the two sectors, of 15% and 40%, respectively. Total transactions in 2011 in the electricity and gas sectors totalled USD174bn. In Europe, the total value of mergers and acquisitions fell to USD40bn in 2011, down 43% in value compared with the previous year. North American utilities made all-time record deals in 2011. The value of these deals has more than doubled year on year, to USD108bn. The main reason for this very high activity is consolidation between the sectors in the United States. Mega-deals have been a highly active sector, with seven operations out of the ten largest in the world, and the largest deal in 2011: the acquisition of the natural gas transporter El Paso Corp by the energy storage and transport giant Kinder Morgan, for a total of USD37.9bn.

Although its asset management operations in 2011 posted record operating profits, with a very low cost/income ratio, Allianz is now planning to completely overhaul the unit, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. The group is laying the concept of boutiques to rest, as it has admitted that the increasing complexity of products requires that distribution be closer to each product, and no commercial organisation is able to place the full range of disparate investment styles credibly and completely.

Stefan Tölg, a member of the board at Wave Management AG (VHV group) in charge of portfolio management, research and product development, has been recruited from 1 March as chief representative (Generalbevollmächtigter) at Pioneer Investments Germany.He will be head of the institutional client management and solutions unit, and will be in charge of developing the client base of complementary retirement funds and insurers, says CEO Evi Vogl.

DWS Investments, the asset management firm of the Deutsche Bank group, has created the DWS Global Financial Institute (DGFI), an economic research institute, which published its first working document on Monday. The mission for the new structure is to “bring together independent points of view in the mid- to long-term from two different worlds: finance, and academia.” The structure will be led by Dr. Henning Stein. Lord John Eatwell, chairman of Queens’ College, Cambridge, will be chairman of the DGFI Foundation. The contributors to DGFI will include Asoka Wöhrmann, chief investment officer at DWS, economist in chief Johannes Müller, head of research Petra Pflaum, and renowned professors from throughout the world. The publications will cover a wide range of research, from macroeconomics and finance to psychology and sociology. The first working document is entitled “Real Interest Rates Worldwide: A story of Two Regimes,” by Jagjit Chadha, professor of economics at the University of Kent, and a partner at the centre for international macroeconomic and financial research at the University of Cambridge. It details the real implications of a general decline in interest rates, why they are beneficial for the current global economy, and why we can expect a gradual rise in interest rates when the global economy returns to growth.

François Gazier, former head of the product range from Banque Robeco, has joined Haussmann Patrimoine, an independent wealth management advising firm in France, as a wealth manager in the financial department. Gazier spent 20 years at Robeco, first as head of client relationships, and then as head of middle office for banking clients, before becoming head of the product in 1999. Since 2010, he had been a third party marketer. The activities of Haussmann Patrimoine include financial investment advising, direct selling in the banking sector, life insurance and retirement planning brokerage, real estate transactions, banking operation intermediation, locating financing and services as an Independent Financial Adviser and Wealth Manager.

Axa Real Estate Investment Managers has announced total transaction volumes of EUR6.2 billion in 2011 (completed and signed). The firm managed EUR42bn in assets as of the end of December 2011. Acquisitions totalled a net EUR2.6bn. France represented 42% of the total value of acquisitions, while the UK accounted for 26%, Switzerlanfd 17%, and Germany 10%. Sales totalled EUR2.1bn, of which 67% were in France. Axa REIM announced that it had approximately EUR2bn of acquisitions already in the pipeline for 2012.

Société Générale on 5 March announced the appointment of Karim Hajjaji as chief operating officer (COO) of GIMS, the private banking, asset management and investor services unit of the Société Générale group.In this role, he joins the board of the GIMS unit. Hajjajji will also retain his position as CFO of the unit. Hajjaji reports to Jacques Ripoll, director of the GIMS unit, and is a member of the Executive Board at GIMS.Hajjaji joined the Société Générale group in 1999 as Head of the financial controlling deparment at the finance and investment bank. From 2005 to 2009, he became CFO of SG Americas, and supervised all financial activities of Société Générale in the United States, Canada, Brazil and Latin America. In July 2009, he was appointed CFO of GIMS at the Société Générale group, and became a member of the Executive Board at GIMS, under Jacques Ripoll, director of the GIMS unit.

The independent investment analysis provider Morningstar on 5 March announced that it is releasing a CIC identification management system to assist insurers with their reporting obligations under Solvency II legislation. Morningstar will rely on a global database containing over 8 million codes for securities, in oder to offer a CIC code management system to insurance companies which will allow them to identify all that assets held under standard categories defined by the European System of Financial Supervision (EIOPA). The solution uses a proprietary system developed by Morningstar, which asks insurers for information to identify all types of assets with a standard CIC code.

The Audacia company, which offers financing solutions dedicated to profitable and growing small and midcaps, has recruited François Terrier as chief investment officer. At the same time, Nicolas Mulle becomes chief risk and participations officer.Terrier had previously been at Neuflize OBC – ABN-Amro in charge of development for the provincial network serving directors of businesses, before joining Neuflize OBC Corporate Finance handling high-value operations concerning private and family-owned businesses.Mulle, for his part, had managed corporate holdings at Audacia, after serving as chief investment officer from 2009 to 2011.

As a part of its active management of Opcimmo, its retail OPCI fund, Amundi Immobilier has acquired an office property with 7,620 square metres of area located at 142 Avenue Paul Vailliant Couturier in Paris (14th district), off-plan (Purchase of property not yet complete, or VEFA). The property, entitled CAP 14, is located facing the ring road, and will have a High Quality Environmental (HQE) certification. The environmental aspect of the building will be based on controlling the impact of the exterior and creating a clean and comfortable interior. The property will have 135 underground parking spaces, and will be completed in June 2014. The building is already wholly leased to Kaufman and Broad with a firm 9-year lease.

As of 29 February, the US ETF sector had assets of USD1.0583trn, in 1,140 products from 30 issuers on three stock markets. The number of ETF launches was 61, and net subscriptions totalled USD9.3bn, ETF Global Insight, the firm founded by Deborah Fuhr, reports.The three actors who attracted the largest net inflows last month were Vanguard (USD5.6bn), iShares (USD2.7bn) and PowerShares (USD1.3bn). The largest net redemptions were from State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), at USD1.5bn.

The asset management affiliate of the Grupo Arcano, Arcano Capital, has announced that it has attracted USD700m for the Arcano Secondary Fund I, Funds People reports. The fund will specialise in the acquisition of portfolios of private equity funds on the secondary market. This brings assets at Arcano Capital to USD1.8bn.

With the Luxembourg-registered product SOP MultiAssetAllokation, Sal. Oppenheim (Deutsche Bank group) is offering a new multi-asset class fund which will make no direct investments and which will aim for an average annual return of 5% over the mid-term with ex ante volatility of 7% per year. The fund will be available from 2 April.The new fund, managed by Lars Edler, is constructed around a monthly rebalancing of projections for 14 equity, bond and commodity markets, with the possibility for short positions. The fund will invest in futures, ETF, ETC and ETN products.CharacteristicsName: SOP MultiAssetAllokationISIN codes: LU0724750038 (I share class)LU0724749709 (R share class)Front-end fee: 3% (R share class only)Management commission:0.60% (I share class)1.20% (R share class)Performance commission: 20% on performance exceeding 400 basis points (with high watermark)Minimal subscription: EUR0.5m (I share class)

On 5 March, Fidelity Worldwide Investment in Germany announced the launch of the Fidelity Asian Smaller Companies Fund, Fidelity China RMB Bond Fund and Fidelity Emerging Markets Inflation-Linked Bond Fund, all sub-funds of the Luxembourg-registered Fidelity Funds Sicav.The product specialised in small caps (under USD5bn) will have a portfolio of 125 to 200 positions. It is managed by Dale Nicholls in Singapore, and takes its orientation from the MSCI AC Asia Pacitfic ex Japan Small Cap Net Return Index (10% Australian equities), but does not constrain itself to that index.The China RMB Fund, which is managed in Hong Kong by Bryan Collins, will have 50 to 150 positions on offshore debt denominated in Chinese yuan from issuers in continental China. These are so-called “dim sum” debt, but, unlike competing products, the fund will invest only in investment-grade debts (rated at least BBB) denominated in Chinese yuan, but the asset management team will also be allowed to invest in bonds in currencies from industrialised countries, in which case currency risks will be hedged.The portfolio of the inflation-linked bond fund will include 10 to 50 sovereign emerging market issuers. It is managed by Aandy Weir, who may include up to 25% bonds denominated in strong currencies.CharacteristicsName: Fidelity Funds – Asian Smaller Companies FundISIN code: LU0702159426 (shares in EUR)LU0702159343 (shares in USD)Front-end fee: 5.25%Management commission: 1.50%Name: Fidelity Funds – China RMB Bond FundISIN code: LU0715234463Front-end fee: 3.50%Management commission: 0.75%Name: Fidelity Funds – Emerging Markets Inflation-linkd Bond FundISIN code: LU0699195888Front-end fee: 5.25%Management commission: 0.80%

The net return over the year on the overall net assets of the French pension fund FRR since 1st January was +0.37% and the FRR’s annualised performance, net of all expenses, since the commencement of operations totals 2.65%. Against challenging market conditions, the net assets held up well, according to the FRR. On 31 December 2011, the fund had net assets of EUR35.1 Bn whereas they stood at EUR37 Bn on 31 December 2010. However, during the course of the year, EUR2.1 Bn were paid out to CADES on 25 April 2011. In total, the movement in net assets, excluding the pay-out, was therefore EUR+200 M. This resilience of the net assets is attributable to the combined effect of three factors. - First, the strong performance (+4.5%) of hedging assets (bonds) which accounted for around 60% of the portfolio on average. This performance is due to a large extent to the fall in interest rates of issuers seen as a safe refuge in periods of uncertainty (Germany, United States); - Secondly, the diversification of the performance portfolio which softened the crash affecting the equities markets. The performance of this compartment over the year was -5.9%, whereas European equities lost 14.5%1, due in particular to the resilience of American equities (+2%), US corporate bonds (+9%), debt instruments of emerging countries (+3.4%) and commodities (+1%). - Finally, flexible management of the performance compartment helped to reduce the volatility of the portfolio during the course of the year. The financing ratio reached 136.5%, slightly lower than its level at the beginning of the year (139.25%). This slight fall is due to the combined effect of the increase in asset value and the even greater increase in the value of liabilities due to the fall in the reference discounting rates (10 year treasury bonds (OAT) dropping from 3.36% to 3.15%). Taking market movements into account, the hedging compartment on 31 December represented 62.1% of total assets and the performance compartment 37.9% on the same date.

BNP Investment Partners on 29 February joined the ranks of the asset management firms competing for the amLeague title. For the moment, the asset management firm is limiting its participation to the “Global Equities” full invested mandate, launched on 1 January this year, which invests internationally with the Stoxx 180 net return as its benchmark.

The investment advising firm Wells Fargo Funds Management, which advises the Wells Fargo Advantage Funds, has launched the Wells Fargo Advantage Absolute Return Fund, which will invest most of its assets in a master fund managed by the institutional investment specialist GMO. The fund gives access for the first time to the absolute return strategy from GMO. The fund aims for returns higher than inflation over the duration of a market cycle, regardless of market conditions. The fund is highly flexible, and has no constraints as to asset class or exposure (markets, sectors, countries, cap sizes.) It uses a very wide range of strategies, including inflation-linked bonds, emerging market debt, currencies, options, spread trading, natural resources, commodities, real estate and long/short.

BNY Mellon has announced the launch of the BNY Mellon Emerging Markets Corporate Debt Fund. This is the second fund in its range to be managed by Insight Investment Management (Global) Limited, part of BNY Mellon Asset Management. A UCITS fund offering daily pricing liquidity, the fund will be a sub-fund of the Dublin-domiciled BNY Mellon Global Funds, plc range.The fund, which launched on 31 January 2012, is managed by Insight Investment’s Emerging Market Debt team, headed by Colm McDonagh.It will aim to generate a total return comprised of income and capital growth by investing primarily in corporate debt and related financial derivative instruments issued by emerging market issuers worldwide. The fund will consist of a globally diversified ‘best ideas’ portfolio.The BNY Mellon Emerging Markets Corporate Debt Fund is currently available for distribution in the UK and Republic of Ireland. BNY Mellon Asset Management, subject to regulatory approvals, is aiming to have the Fund registered for distribution across Europe.

The team specialist in socially responsible investment at Hendreson is joining WHEB Asset Management, the asset management unit of the WHEB group, the group announced in a statement on 5 March. The team, which includes George Latham, Seb Beloe, Tim Dieppe and Hyewon Kong, left Henderson in late 2011. The Henderson veterans will join the existing team at WHEB AM, led by Clare Brooke. From 1 April, Dieppe will be the manager of the Wheb Sustainability fund (GBP30m in assets), launched in May 2009, whose returns have hitherto fallen short of expectations. Latham will be the chief investment officer for the unit, while Brooke, who created the activity at the group, will take charge of development. The WHEB group is an investment firm which aims primarily at sustainable development and investment in private equity, renewable energies, and publicly traded securities.

The British asset management firm LV= (London & Victoria) has joined the Association of Independent Financial Advisers (AIFA) as an associate member. Several asset management firms have joined the association in the past twelve months, including M&G, Royal Bank of Scotland and BlackRock.

Anthony Nutt and John Hamilton will be handing over co-management of the Jupiter Distribution fund, whose assets under management total GBP250m, to Alastrair Gunn and Rhys Petheram, Investment Week reports. Gunn joined Jupiter in 2007, after serving as head of equity research at Arbuthnot Securities. Petheram, who joined Jupiter in 2006, had previously been a credit analyst at Moody’s. Nutt will continue to manage the income trust, whose assets under management total over GBP2bn, the High Income fund, with GBP529m (with Ariel Bezalel) and the Dividend & Growth trust, with GBP66m. Hamilton will remain in charge of the Corporate Bond fund (GBP212m).

At a time when Klaus Tschütscher, Liechtenstein’s prime minister, says that the principality is planning to become a global centre for investment funds, the local affiliate of the Geneva-based asset management firm Banque Pasche is causing it trouble in precisely this area, Handelsblatt reports. The Liechtenstein-based asset management firm VTM (EUR1bn in assets) had invested in the British MF Global fund via Banque Pasche as depository. And the latter bank, in contravention of international regulations, did not cordon off (segregate) the EUR20m in assets in question. The scandal has been referred by the Vaduz prosecutor’s office to the Liechtenstein Financial Market Authority (FMA). But the new head of the FMA, Urs Philipp Roth-Cuony, has not so far stood out for the dynamism of his initiatives, Handelsblatt remarks.

La banque centrale estime que la bande de fluctuation quotidienne de la monnaie pourrait être élargie, jugeant cette démarche appropriée

Faute de recours, les investisseurs ont plutôt intérêt à participer à la restructuration de la dette grecque

La Banque du Japon pourrait décider lors de sa réunion des 12 et 13 mars de prolonger d’un an une mesure destinée à encourager les banques, par le biais de taux extrêmement bas, à financer des projets cibles de poches de croissance pour l’économie japonaise, selon le journal qui ne cite pas ses sources. Cette mesure doit jusqu'à présent expirer fin mars.

L’Association des banquiers britanniques (BBA) aurait entamé hier une consultation concernant le calcul et la régulation des taux Libor suite aux accusations de manipulations de cours proférées ces dernières semaines et ayant conduit à une vaste enquête dans plusieurs pays, selon le quotidien britannique. «Dans le cadre du processus de revue normale du taux Libor, un certain nombre de banques contributrices se sont rencontrées aujourd’hui afin de s’entretenir des règles futures et des développements de marché, tels que les règles sur la liquidité, liées aux paramètres de mesure du Libor» rapporte un communiqué de la BBA cité par le journal.

Elles affichent une volatilité annualisée inférieure à celle des marchés actions sous-jacents, et apparaissent encore décotées