Private equity investor BC Partners has attracted investment commitments in 18 months of EUR6.5bn for its new European Capital IX buyout funds, the largest in Europe since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. But, the Börsen-Zeitung reports, the managing partner for Germany at BC Partners, Stefan Zuschke, has admitted that the company had to make concessions to investors in the form of reduced commissions. The circle of investors has been enlarged compared with the previous fund, with the arrival of Asian investors. Zuschke claims that it is still possible to make deals totalling as much as EUR1bn or EUR2bn in Germany, even though banks have become more cautious.

Petercam is working to develop a high yield bond strategy that would invest in government bonds denominated in local currencies from emerging markets, which would meet socially responsible investment (SRI) criteria. The fund would be an addition to the high yield range from the Belgian asset management firm, which already includes two funds: the Petercam L bonds Eur High Yield Short Term and the Petercam L Fund – Petercam L Bonds Higher Yield. The introduction of an SRI filter aims to meet demand from clients, says Thierry Larose, senior manager at Petercam. The fund, currently in production, would exclude certain countries, such as China and Russia. The new strategy, which is expected in second half, will be managed by the high yield bond strategies team, led by Bernard Lalière.

“The UCITS IV directive is good news, not because it provides a way to accelerate cross-border mergers of funds, as the tax questions have not all been resolved, but because it creates a European master-feeder fund structure,” Christophe Coquema, COO, explained at a presentation of results for Axa Investment Managers on Tuesday in Paris. Axa IM is interested in the formula, which would allow for an actively-managed master fund to have several national funds with similar objectives as feeder funds. The French asset management firm has recently set up a dedicated initiative to reduce the number of funds, which would also reduce costs and improve profitability. Axa IM is eventually aiming for a 15% to 20% reduction in its fund universe, Coquema says. Clearly, it is not possible to apply the same fine-toothed approach to the catalogue of dedicated funds as to open-ended funds, which number 400 to 500 in Europe.

Ratings of structured financing in Europe improved further last year, according to an annual study of the sector recently published by Standard & Poor’s. The percentage of ratings which were lowered in 2011 came to 22.3%, compared with 25.4% the previous year. This development reflects both macroeconomic trends in Europe and modifications to ratings methodologies, the agency says in a statement. Standard & Poor’s points out, however, that the number of ratings lowered represents 2.5 times the number of ratings that were raised.

The Investment Management unit of BNP Paribas Real Estate has had another full year in 2011. Earnings have risen by more than 10%, to EUR89.2m. This activity, which has been growing rapidly for three years, has also seen “very good inflows,” Philippe Zivkovic, chairman of BNP Paribas Real Estate, said at a press conference on 21 February. Assets under management in Europe as of the end of December totalled EUR12.7bn (of which EUR4.1bn are in France), an increase of EUR1.9bn year on year.New investment vehicles are in preparation. For several years, OPCI funds have been exclusively dedicated to institutional investors. The OPCI SPF1 will finish its investment programme in first half, and a second commercial OPCI will be launched at the end of June. The OPCI HPF1 (Health Property Fund), dedicated to health properties, will make its first acquisitions in first half 2012.There are also other plans to launch OPCI Funds dedicated to specific asset classes.All real estate activities at BNP Paribas Real Estate, where the Investment Management profession accounted for 14% of earnings last year, have earned net profits of EUR142m, compared with EUR139m (EUR129m excluding one-time elements) in 2010, for operating profits up 11% to EUR156m, and gross earnings of EUR658m (+6%).Zivkovic has also announced that the firm is preparing a new three-year development plan “with the first effects in the year 2012,” but had no further comment.

“The hoped-for rebound has come,” Dominique Carrel-Billiard, CEO, said on Tuesday at a presentation of 2011 results for Axa Investment Managers (Axa IM), which included operating profits of EUR215m, compared with EUR191m in 2010 and EUR171m in 2009.AUM as of 31 December, of EUR51bn, ultimately fell by only EUR4bn over the year. Axa IM France had net inflows of about EUR1.6bn, but Axa Rosenberg had further net outflows of EUR5bn. Net redemptions were limited to EUR1.2bn, while market effects and disposal of operations each «cost» the firm EUR3bn in assets, and currency effects were positive to the tune of EUR5bn.The CEO claims that Axa IM is now well-prepared for 2012, with a return to good performance at Axa Rosenberg, due to its enhanced index, emerging Asia and long term/long volatility strategies. Axa IM also now has a range “which has something for everybody,” and will now aim to strengthen its platforms (Germany, UK, Netherlands, Switzerland and Nordics). The asset management firm is also planning to develop in India in the long term, through its cooperation with Bank of India. It is also planning to launch loan products.Carrel-Billiard says that the client categories that will be worked particularly hard this year were fund distributors, followed by mid-sized institutionals and finally institutionals such as sovereign wealth funds and major Dutch, US and British pension funds.

The US firm Third Avenue Management has announced that it has signed a partnership with Jim Millstein, former head of restructuring at the US Treasury. They will join forces to create new products and strategies which will focus on distressed businesses. Millstein led the restructuring of AIG in the United States.

It has been a difficult year for Man Group, but an acceptable one in France. “We posted very satisfactory inflows last year for all of our range. We even saw several hundreds of millions of dollars in inflows to the GLG European Alpha Alternative Ucits fund, managed by Philippe Isvy, and nearly USD100m for the Japanese equity fund, Japan Core Alpha. Convertibles are also subject to sustained demand,” says Olivier Dubost, managing director in charge of distribution for Man and GLG funds in France.Despite an environment that remains uncertain. Dubost is expecting to extend these good results to other strategies in 2012. In particular, he is planning to once again promote a flagship strategy from GLG, European Long/Short Strategy, which for 10 years has been managed by the co-founder of GLG, Pierre Lagrange, with a team of 30 people, of which a UCITS version was launched in July 2010. Assets under management for this strategy total about USD1.1bn, of which USD250m are for the UCITS version. It has earned annualised returns of slightly over 10%, with volatility of 8.5% over ten years, while the MSCI Europe has gained 4.70% in its UCITS version since the beginning of the year.Another area which will be foregrounded this year is a volatility strategy which offers hedging against extreme risks, which is particularly well-adapted to management of funds of funds. This strategy, which is in the process of being replicated in a non-UCITS-compliant onshore version, earned returns of over 25% in 2011.Dubost is also planning to foreground decorrelated strategies, CTAs and macros which exist in UCITS-compliant formats.Has the crisis had much effect on the way assets are managed at Man? Dubost says that “risk management, which has not fundamentally changed because of the crisis, remains a cornerstone of long/short management, but neutral exposure to the market has been applied more strictly since early 2009.”Dubost continues to extol the virtues of alternative management as a means of diversification in the construction of a portfolio. “It seems to me that alternative management should not systematically be seen as an asset class unto itself, and I maintain that we need to integrate a dose of alternative into every asset class, for example, long/short equities within the equities allocation.”Overall, the group offers 12 UCITS-compliant alternative strategies, including generalist, sectoral, emerging markets, and others. All of these rely in simple replication, i.e. without the use of a transformation process based on derivative products.

Assets under management by Swiss investment funds as of the end of January totalled CHF648.9bn, up CHF18.2bn compared with the previous month, according to statistics from Swiss Fund Data and Lipper. All fund categories posted net subscriptions, except strategic investment funds. Net inflows in January totalled CHF2.4bn, compared with CHF923.3m the previous month. Equity funds attracted CHF1.2bn, while bond funds attracted CHF956m. The largest subscriptions went to equity funds in the Emerging Markets Global category, bond funds denominated in Swiss francs, and money market funds in Swiss francs. Japanese equity funds and money market funds denominated in US dollars, however, saw redemptions.

The Financial association on 21 February released its practical guide to solidaristic employee savings, which aims to inspire employees to subscribe to a solidaristic employee savings fund. Savings in solidaristic FCPE funds, which are partly invested in businesses with socially responsible policies, provide a way to create jobs for the long-term unemployed, construct social housing and to foster international solidaristic activities that respect the environment. In 2010, solidaristic FCPE funds certified by Finansol delivered total financial returns ranging from 2.6% to 9.75%.

With the Microbank Fondo Ético Garantizado, registered by the CNMV on 17 February, InverCaixa will launch a fund on 27 April which is both guaranteed and ethical, and which will mature on 2 May 2016. On that date, subscribers will receive 100% of their initial net asset value, plus 55% fo the returns on an equally-weighted basked of equities composed of shares in five companies of the FTSE4Good Europe index, selected on the basis of responsible investment criteria. The firms are the Spanish Inditex, the German firms Allianz ,Bayer and Deutsche Bank, and the Dutch KPN. Returns may vary from 0% at the worst to 7.4% per year at the best.CharacteristicsName: Microbank Fondo Ético Garantizado, FIISIN code: ES0171732003Front-end fee: 4%Management commission: 1.64%Early withdrawal penalty: 4%

The asset management unit of the Rathbone Brothers company has reported a 30% increase in its pre-tax profits for 2011, at GBP39.2m. Assets under management as of 31 December totalled GBP15.85bn, up 1.4% compared with the end of 2010.

Axa Wealth is preparing to launch a direct investment platform with a group of independent financial advising firms in the next six months, Fund Web reports. The platform, whose launch aims to meet demand from IFAs, will offer about 130 funds selected by Architas (AXA group).

The London City Police is investigating a suspected attempted fraud for USD150m by a former trader at Threadneedle, the Financial Times reports. The asset management firm on Tuesday confirmed that the police and other authorities had been notified after internal controls were triggered and the execution of a suspicious transaction was stopped last August. Threadneedle, which manages about GBP60bn in assets, points out that it lost no client money.

The manager of the Government Pension Fund – Global (formerly the Norwegian Oil Fund), Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), has announced that it will become the sponsor of the Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA), which it has belonged to since 2008. It is the first foundation sponsor, and Anne Kwan, global head of ownership policy, says that the interests of the ACGA, which is highly competent and effective, are well-aligned with those of NBIM, which is a major investor in the region.

Les mesures prises par les gouvernements européens pour soulager les ménages très endettés pourraient avoir un impact sur les RMBS

Dans le meilleur des cas, la dette grecque restera à 120,5% du PIB en 2020

La décollecte d’Axa Rosenberg s'est améliorée en 2011 mais atteint encore 5 milliards d'euros. Un passage dans le vert n'est pas exclu en 2012

Dans le meilleur des cas, la dette grecque restera à 120,5% du PIB en 2020

La police londonienne enquête selon le quotidien sur une tentative de fraude de quelque 150 millions de dollars réalisée l’été dernier par un ancien trader de la société d’investissement Threadneedle. Cette dernière a confirmé au quotidien qu’un trader junior avait été licencié après avoir été démasqué. Les systèmes de contrôle interne aurait permis de donner l’alerte.

Le Shanghai Securities News croit savoir, citant un responsable anonyme du régulateur local du secteur immobilier, que la ville de Shanghai a assoupli les conditions pour l’achat d’un second bien immobilier. La notion de résident en la matière, qui ouvre droit à cette acquisition, est désormais établie après trois années de présence dans la ville.

Si les créanciers ne participent pas suffisamment au plan, la Grèce menace d'activer des clauses d'action collective

Depuis 2009, les couronnes suédoise et norvégienne se sont appréciées contre dollar de respectivement 27% et 22,5% et sont surévaluées de 25% et 40% selon l'OCDE

«Notre enquête montre que les effets négatifs liés au trading algorithmique et à haute fréquence sont limités», estime la Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. «Il est évident que le trading a connu une transformation, et dans une certaine mesure une détérioration, mais la plupart des observateurs estiment que cela est dû à de multiples facteurs et non pas seulement à des techniques de trading plus rapides et plus informatisées », ajoute l’autorité.

La Banque asiatique de développement a indiqué êtreen discussions avec des pays donateurs disposés à participer au financement d’un fonds d’au moins 12 milliards de dollars qui servira à octroyer des prêts pour des projets de construction d’infrastructures dans des pays pauvres entre 2013 et 2016.

Les députés français ont adopté hier par 301 voix contre 207 le projet de loi de finances rectificative pour 2012 qui prévoit notamment la création d’une «TVA sociale». Les groupes UMP et du Nouveau centre (NC) ont voté ce «collectif» budgétaire que le Sénat examinera à son tour demain.

Les banques centrales chinoise et turque ont annoncé avoir conclu un accord de «swap» de devises à trois ans d’un montant de 10 milliards de yuans (1,2 milliard d’euros), destiné à faciliter les échanges commerciaux entre les deux pays et accélérer l’utilisation du renminbi comme monnaie internationale. La Chine avait déjà signé un accord similaire de 35 milliards de yuans avec les Emirats Arabes Unis.

D’après des sources citées par Reuters, la BCE veut que sa deuxième offre accommodante de liquidité à long terme prévue la semaine prochaine soit la dernière. L’institut d’émission s’inquiète de la perspective que les banques deviennent trop dépendantes de ses fonds, ce qui leur enlèverait tout intérêt à faire du financement interbancaire.

La Chine, l’Inde et le Japon envisagent de réduire d’au moins 10% leurs importations de pétrole en provenance d’Iran dans le contexte de renforcement des sanctions contre la république islamique. Ces trois pays absorbent au total 45% des exportations de brut iranien. Pékin a déjà sensiblement réduit ses importations de brut iranien au premier trimestre.

Selon les données fournies par la Caisse des dépôts et consignations (CDC), la collecte nette du Livret A et du Livret de Développement Durable (LDD) a atteint 4,87 milliards d’euros en janvier pour l’ensemble des réseaux, après +1,15 milliard en décembre 2011. L’encours total sur les deux produits s’élève ainsi à 291,7 milliards d’euros à fin janvier.