Le 16 février, iShares a fait admettre à la négociation sept ETF obligataires, dont six constituent des premières en proposant une exposition à des secteurs donnés ou à des qualités de crédit spécifiques. Ces produits ont été lancés pour faire face à une demande importante de la part la clientèle, précise BlackRock.Quatre des nouveaux ETF permettent d’accéder à des segments de marché. Le iShares Aaa – A Rated Corporate Bond Fund (acronyme sur NYSEArca : QLTA) est le premier ETF permettant d’investir dans les titres des émetteurs d’obligations d’entreprises de la meilleure qualité sur un vaste éventail de secteurs et d’échéances. Il réplique le Barclays Capital U.S. Corporate Aaa – A Capped Index.Le iShares Barclays U.S. Treasury Bond Fund (GOVT) permet de s’exposer à une large gamme de valeurs du Trésor américain sur des échéances allant de de 1 à 30 ans; il réplique le Barclays Capital U.S. Treasury Bond Index.Avec le iShares Barclays CMBS Bond Fund (CMBS), l’investisseur obtient l’accès au premier ETF focalisé sur les titrisations hypothécaires sur l’immobilier commercial de qualité investissement.Le premier ETF permettant de s’exposer à un portefeuille diversifié de titrisations hypothécaires (MBS) émises par la Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA) est le iShares Barclays GNMA Bond Fund (GNMA) Par ailleurs, iShares lance les trois premiers ETF obligataires sectoriels: iShares Financials Sector Bond Fund (MONY), iShares Industrials Sector Bond Fund (ENGN) et iShares Utilities Sector Bond Fund (AMPS).

iShares (groupe BlackRock) s’apprête à lancer les premiers ETF sectoriels d’émissions d’obligations entreprises américaines bien notées, rapporte MutualFundWire.com. Trois ETF verront le jour suite au lancement d’indices par Barclays se concentrant sur les financières, les utilities et les industielles.

Lazard Frères Gestion vient de recruter Bertrand Simon à Lyon en tant que Banquier Privé Junior. Il renforce l’équipe de développement de gestion privée dans la région.Bertrand Simon est ingénieur généraliste des Mines d’Alès avec une spécialité en Génie Civil. Il a débuté sa carrière à Genève en tant que directeur de projets au sein du Groupe Implenia.

Le rendement moyen des fonds en euros pourrait s'établir cette année à 3,30% avec une variation de plus ou moins 20 centimes, selon l’hypothèse centrale présentée le 17 février à l’occasion d’un point de presse par le cabinet de conseil Facts & Figures, spécialisé sur le secteur de l’assurance et de la protection sociale.Autrement dit, les fonds en euros ont probablement touché en 2011 le point le plus bas avec un taux de 3% en moyenne. «Les fonds en euros ne sont pas morts et de mon point de vue, l’assurance vie n’est pas sur le déclin comme certains le disent mais plutôt entrée dans une période de stabilité», estime le président et fondateur de Facts & Figures, Cyrille Chartier-Kastler.Sa prévision de rendement se fonde notamment sur la remontée du taux moyen des emprunts d’Etat à environ 3,4% en 2011 contre 3,2% en 2010. En faisant l’hypothèse en outre que les dépréciations complémentaires des dettes souveraines des PIIGS (*) ne dépasseront pas au global 20% en 2012, les compagnies ont d’une manière générale la capacité à absorber ces prochains chocs avec leur PPE (participation pour excédent), selon Facts & Figures.Les rendements 2011 ont été caractérisés par un creusement de l'écart entre l'épargne standard (2,70%) et la gestion privée (3,35%). «Si la communication aujourd’hui réalisée par les compagnies pourrait donner à penser que les rendements 2011 sont «meilleurs que prévu», force est de constater que les produits faisant l’objet de taux de rendement de 2,20% à 2,40% ne font l’objet que d’une communication limitée», relève Cyrille Chartier-Kastler. Facts & Figures anticipe en outre une évolution des encours d'épargne vie entre 0% et 3%. «Encore une fois, l’assurance vie n’est pas en péril en France; elle aborde une période de moindre croissance après une décennie 2000-2010 particulièrement favorable», a insisté le président de Facts & Figures.(*) Portugal, Italie, Irlande, Grèce et Espagne

Israël a dévoilé un projet de création d’un fonds souverain, qui aura pour mission de gérer les flux d’argent provenant d’une série de champs de gaz naturels découverts au large, rapporte le Financial Times. Le fonds devrait avoir au moins 80 milliards de dollars sous gestion d’ici à 2040.

Aviva Investors annonce avoir été choisi par Ahli United Bank (AU) pour un mandat de multi-gestion en immobilier, initialement de 97 millions de dollars qui sera confié à Bart Coenraads, responsable de la multi-gestion immobilière d’Aviva Investors Asie Pacifique. Le gérant s’appuiera sur les ressources de l'équipe Multi-gestion Immobilier.AUB est une banque commerciale et d’affaires qui propose des services de gestion de fortune et d’investissement pour les entreprises et les particuliers, ainsi que de la gestion de trésorerie, du financement offshore et des services de banque privée au Moyen-Orient. Le nouveau partenariat porte à trois le nombre de mandats gérés par Aviva Investors pour le compte d’AUB.

Ranodeb Roy, l’ancien patron du fixed income pour la zone Asie-Pacifique chez Morgan stanley, va lancer un hedge fund dédié à l’Asie autour des taux, du crédit et des devises.Selon Reuters, la société de gestion de Ranodeb Roy, RV Capital Management, sera basée à Singapour. Le nouveau fonds devrait être lancé en avril ou en mai.

Dan McNicholas, head of financing sales for global markets financing & futures, Asia Pacific chez Bank of America Merrill Lynch à Hong-Kong a été recruté par State Street Corp comme head of sales pour son activité alternative investment servicing solutions (AIS).Subordonné à Maria Cantillon, global head of AIS sales, l’intéressé sera chargé d’établir et de mettre en œuvre les stratégies de vente pour les activités de State Street en Asie-Pacifique dans les domaines des hedge funds, du private equity et de l’immobilier.

DND has launched DNB Norway Absolute Return, a market neutral long/short fund within the UCITS framework. The fund aims to achieve a positive absolute return over the long-term regardless of market conditions by taking long and short positions in equities listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Portfolio manager is Eirik Hauge.

As of 10 February, net subscriptions to ETP funds since the beginning of 2012 totalled USd38.3bn, or EUR29.2bn, according to a Deutsche Bank study cited by the Börsen-Zeitung. Demand has been particularly strong for ETFs focused on emerging markets: the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets and the db x-trackers MSCI Emerging Markets have seen respective net inflows of USD462m and USD231m, respectively. Overall, iShares (BlackRock) has attracted USD2.2bn, while db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) has attracted USD1.2bn.

An employee at the British asset management firm Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) was arrested by the British Financial Services Authority (FSA) as part of an investigation into an insider trading case. The asset management firm has confirmed that one of its employees was arrested on 16 February and released on bail. Legal & General adds in a statement that it is not aware of the precise extent of damages that may have affected some clients or the impact of the case on the firm’s financial results.

L’assureur français Axa ne consacre plus qu’un quart de ses achats d’obligations à des titres d’Etat, a indiqué jeudi le directeur général délégué, Denis Duverne, alors que les obligations souveraines pesaient encore plus de la moitié de son portefeuille obligataire fin 2011. Le solde des achats, soit 75% du total, va aux obligations d’entreprises ainsi qu’aux obligations de banques adossées à des actifs, a précisé M. Duverne. A fin 2011, l’actif général des compagnies d’assurance du groupe, destiné à faire face à leurs engagements, atteignait 467Mds d’euros, dont 82% investis en obligations. Au sein de ce sous-ensemble, les obligations d’Etat et assimilés pesaient 54% et les titres d’entreprises 39% environ. Toujours fin 2011, le portefeuille d’obligations d’Etat était en plus-value latente globale de 3,1Mds d’euros, dont 900M pour la France et 800M sur le Japon. Les pays dits périphériques de la zone euro affichaient eux une moins-value latente de 700M d’euros. Axa a procédé au deuxième semestre à des dépréciations sur la valeur de ses titres grecs dont l’impact net se monte à 295M d’euros. Sur l’ensemble de l’année 2011, la charge nette est de 387M d’euros.

In the March issue of its magazine Finanztest, the German consumer defense organisation Stiftung Warentest analysed 2,850 of the over 10,000 funds on sale in Germany. It selected only 170 of these, less than 6%, as recommended, because they had a better track record than an ETF in the same category, Das Investment reports.Among equity funds, only 36 out of 539, or 6.68%, were selected from a list of recommendations, as they had better results than the iShares MSCI World ETF. The M&G Global Basics fund from Graham French is the fund which shows the best returns, while the R&P Universal (Universal Investment) has the lowest risk. The most “effective” fund is the Uni Global from Union Investment, which has a slightly higher performance than the benchmark ETF with lower risk.

The French real estate unit of Henderson Global Investor, which has been present in France since 2001, has previously concentrated its efforts on international clients seeking to invest in the French commercial, office and logistical real estate markets. Now, with 10 years of experience on a market which it considers “passionate,” Chris Linney, director of real estate for France, would like to more directly approach French institutional investors, in order to bring them the pan-European expertise of HGI.

The Hedge Fund Standards Board (HSFB) has decided to subject its members to stricter governance criteria by 1 September, particularly in cases where hedge funds have no independent directors, Hedge Week reports.New members have also been recruited, with Towers Watson as core supporter, while Goldman Sachs Hedge Fund Strategies, Grosvenor Capital Management and Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Advisors join the Investor Chapter and Candlewood Investment Group has signed up to the HSFB principles.

HSBC has created classes of shares in the HSBC Next Generation Fund for high net worth private clients (from USD25,000 or EUR25,000), and for institutional investors (from EUR2.5m). The fund of hedge funds, which offers monthly liquidity, was launched in September, and already has USD100m in assets. The portfolio is concentrated on 10 to 15 emerging managers, and aims for annualised performance of 12-15%, with volatility of 8-10%.

Israel has unveiled plans to create a sovereign wealth fund, which will aim to manage revenue flows from a series of natural gas fields discovered off the coast, the Financial Times reports. The fund would have at least USD80bn in assets under management by 2040.

In 2011, according to CNMV filings, Sicavs increased their investments in Spanish government bonds by 14.2%, to EUR143m as of the end of December, Cinco Días reports. The percentage of these assets in the portfolios of these investment vehicles preferred by wealthy Spanish investors varies from 2.1% to 22%. Although it has fallen by 3.8% to EUR88.56m, the Spanish government bond allocation from the Sicav of the Del Pino family is the largest, followed by the one of Alicia Koplowitz’s Sicav, which has quadrupled to EUR40m.

In the past few months, many Middle Eastern and Chinese investors have taken the occasion of an exit by British and American funds to buy up shares in major French companies, Les Echos reports. Alongside sovereign funds, private asset management firms are also positioning themselves on the market. These actors aim to make money with the abundant savings of wealthy families in emerging markets, and their financial investments in Europe are only beginning. In a sign of the times, a delegation of managers from Bahrain visited Paris last autumn, with the overt objective of identifying future market investments.

Ranodeb Roy, former head of fixed income for the Asia-Pacific region at Morgan Stanley, will be launching a hedge fund dedicated to Asia, which will invest in fixed income, credit and currencies. Reuters reports that the asset management firm owned by Roy, RV Capital Management, will be based in Singapore. The new fund will be launched in April or May.

Julia Ho has left Western Asset Management, where she had been a senior manager, to join Schroder Investment Management, according to reports in AsianInvestor. Ho began in her new role last week in London, where she reports to Bob Jolly, head of global macro.

On 25 January, Bankia launched the guaranteed bond fund Bankia Garantizado Rentas 2, which will return not only its net asset value as of 27 April 2012 at maturity on 16 February 2017, but also a return corresponding to 4% annually, in 19 quarterly payments. The fund, which will invest primarily in bonds from the Kingdom of Spain and the City of Madrid, was registered on 17 February by the CNMV. It will be on sale from 22 February to 27 April.CharacteristicsName: Bankia Garantizado Rentas 2, FIISIN code: ES0113447009Front-end fee: 5%Management commission: 0.5%Withdrawal penalty: 3%Minimal initial subscription: EUR100

On Friday, in a very long telephone conference, Philip Falcone provided investors with no details about how he plans to deal with the failure of LightShared, the Wall Street Journal reports. Funds from Harbinger Capital Partners, the firm led by Falcone, invested billions of dollars in the creation of a new network by LightSquared, but the federal authorities in the US Tuesday forbid the project because of potential interference with GPS systems.

Muzinich & Co., a specialist manager in the global corporate credit markets with USD15bn under management, has hired two professionals in its New York office.Mike McEachern has been hired as a senior investment officer and member of the investment policy committee to work closely with the investment team in managing the firm’s array of credit strategies. Sam Zona has joined in the new role of director of business development for North America to increase the firm’s institutional and high-net-worth client base.McEachern joins Muzinich from Seix Investment Advisers, where he spent 14 years, most recently as president and head of the high yield team. Zona was director of client service and marketing at Seix, where he worked for 13 years.

Pyramis Global Advisors, a Fidelity Investments company, has hired Mike Jones as its president and CEO. He will succeed Kevin Uebelein, who is taking on a new role as global head of Solutions Delivery for Pyramis.Mike Jones joins Pyramis from Columbia Management, a subsidiary of Ameriprise Financial, where he served as president of U.S. Asset Management overseeing more than USD326 billion in assets. He will join Pyramis in mid-March and will report to Ronald P. O’Hanley, president of Fidelity Asset Management. He will also serve as chairman of Pyramis.

Fitch Ratings has affirmed SEB Investment GmbH’s (SEB) ‘M2' Real Estate Asset Manager rating. The rating covers the company’s real estate investment operations.The affirmation «reflects SEB’s strong investment management capabilities and its effective asset management», explains the rating agency. «Nonetheless, SEB faces uncertainty regarding its ability to successfully re-open and avoid liquidating its flagship fund, SEB ImmoInvest, no later than May 2012". With EUR6.3bn in (net) assets under management (AUM), this fund represents 53% of the firm’s real estate AUM.In Fitch’s opinion «SEB’s sustainability is not contingent on the re-opening of ImmoInvest. SEB has made progress in diversifying its investor base away from retail investors to institutional and international investors with institutional investors now representing around 48% of gross AUM as of December 2011. Fitch expects these areas of the business to continue growing as SEB places a greater emphasis on this segment, independent of the status of ImmoInvest».Fitch will review SEB’s rating in mid-2012 following the regulatory deadline for the reopening of ImmoInvest.

Dan McNicholas, head of financing sales for global markets financing & futures, Asia Pacific at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong, has been recruited by State Street Corp as head of sales for its alternative investment servicing solutions (AIS) business unit. McNicholas will report to Maria Cantillon, global head of AIS sales, and will be in charge of establishing and deploying sales strategies for State Street’s activities in the Asia-Pacific region in the areas of hedge funds, private equity and real estate.

Aviva Investors has announced that it has been selected by Ahli United Bank (AU) for a real estate multi-management mandate, initially for USD97m, which will be entrusted to Bart Coenraads, head of real estate multi-management at Aviva Investors Asia-Pacific. The manager will rely on the resources of the Real Estate Multi-management team.AUB is a commercial business bank which offers wealth and investment management services to businesses and retail clients, as well as cash management, offshore financing, and private banking services in the Middle East.The new partnership brings the number of mandates managed by Aviva Investors for AUB to three.

On 16 February, iShares launched seven bond ETFs to trading on NYSEArca, of which six become the first funds to offer exposure to their designated segments or to specific credit qualities. The products were launched to meet significant demand from clients, BlackRock states.Four of these new ETF funds provide access to market segments. The iShares Aaa – A Rated Corporate Bond Fund (acronym on NYSEArca: QLTA) is the first ETF to allow investment in securities from top-rated issuers of corporate bonds in a wide range of sectors and durations. It replicates the Barclays Captial U.S. Corporate Aaa – A Capped Index.The iShares Barclays U.S. Treasury Bond Fund (GOVT) allows exposure to a wide range of US Treasury securities with maturities ranging from 1 to 30 years; it replicates the Barclays Capital U.S. Treasury Bond Index.With the iShares Barclays CMBS Bond Fund (CMBS), investors have access to the first ETF focused on investment grade commercial mortgage-backed securities.The first ETF providing exposure to a diversified portfolio of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) issued by the Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA) is the iShares Barclays GNMA Bond Fund (GNMA).iShares is also launching the first three sectoral bond ETFs: iShares Financials Sector Bond Fund (MONY), iShares Industrials Sector Bond Fund (ENGN), and iShares Utilities Sector Bond Fund (AMPS).

iShares (BlackRock group) is preparing to launch the first sectoral ETFs of highly-rated US corporate bond issues, MutualFundWire.com reports. Three ETFs will be released folllowing the launch of indices by Barclays focusing on the financial sector, utilities, and industrials.