TheScreener is launching a new service to evaluate directly comparable funds and ETFs, Agefi Switzerland reports. The service provides a way to exhaustively determine when passively-managed investments outperform actively-managed investments, and vice versa. The new service covers 15,000 funds and ETFs.

Although JP Morgan Chase appears to have thrown in the towel, the list of potential buyers for the asset management activities of Deutsche Bank, particularly DWS in the United States, still includes six candidates, Mutual Fund Wire reports: Guggenheim Partners is said to have joined the small remaining group of contenders which also includes Power Corp of Canada, Macquarie Group, State Street Corp, Ameriprise Financial and Apax Partners.

In the last month of 2011, hedge funds saw net outlfows of USD5.2bn, and assets as of the end of December totalled USD1.64trn, a level 7.7% lower than at the end of 2010, according to BarclayHedge and TrimTabs.The BarclayHedge hedge fund index fell 0.4% in December, after a decline of 1.4% in November. Since May 2011, hedge funds have seen losses every month, except in October. For 2011 as a whole, hedge funds lost 5.5%, while the S&P was flat.

Last year, net subscriptions of owners’ equity to closed-end German funds rose 0.2% to EUR5.8461bn, compared with EUR5.8351bn in 2010, according to estimates by the VGF professional association, taking into account the 39 member firms and shareholders who raised at least EUR5m in owners’ equity in the past three years, a sample of 168 firms, of whom 112 had disclosed their results to the VGF. Inflows from private clients represented EUR4.8078bn, compared with EUR5.2125bn the previous year, while institutional investors increased 67%, to EUR1.3083bn. As of the end of 2011, assets in funds were down to EUR9.8908bn, compared with EUR10.8003bn twelve months previously. DWS Access (Deutsche Bank group) has stated that it was the closed fund manager with the largest inflows last year, with EUR504.3m in owners’ equity. The largest success was the DWS Access Deutsche Bank Türme fund, with a volume of EUR665.7m and subscriptions of EUR340m.

For the first time, Barbara Knoflach, head of SEB Asset Management, on Tuesday did not rule out the possibility that the open-ended real estate fund ImmoInvest (over EUR6bn in assets) may have to be liquidated, Handelsblatt reports. The fund, which has been frozen to redemptions since May 2010, still has not reached the 30% liquidity level considered necessary for redemptions to be reopened, and a sale of the family jewels, the 19-building complex at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, is taking longer than expected. The properties are valued at EUR1.4bn, but the market is difficult, and buyers are taking their time, though the deadline to reopen the fund is May 2012, as it is for the Credit Suisse Euroreal, the other major real estate fund currently closed to redemptions.

In January, three open-ended real estate funds, Deka-ImmobilienEuropa, Deka-ImmobilienGlobal and WestInvest InterSelect had net subscriptions of EUR400m, comparedf with EUR320m in the corresponding month of 2011. Of this total, about EUR270m were from reinvestment of dividends distributed by two Deka funds. However, net subscriptions in January 2010 totalled EUR415m.

The European Commission will today present a proposal which would create a legal status for European foundations, which would allow institutions to be active in other EU countries beyond their country of origin, by eliminating taxation obstacles, Expansión reports.The foundations are important economic actors, whose assets are estimated at over EUR350bn. The proposals would preserve a double system which would allow for national regimes to coexist alongside the European regime.Political foundations would be excluded from the rules, as they are already covered by separate legislation.

The additional retirement institution for public employees (ERAFP) has launched a consultation to award a real estate asset management mandate. The consultation will issue two allocations, corresponding to two types of mandates.The first will be for an allocation to private properties in France, mostly offices, commercial and residential properties. This allocation will select three candidates, two of them for standby mandates. The total investment amount will be about EUR310m in the next three years.The second mandate is for an allocation to private properties in Europe. This allocation will also select three candidates, two of them for standby mandates. Investments will total about EUR345m in the first three years.The new mandates must comply with the ERAFP SRI charter.

SEI has announced that it has won a fund administration, trust and custody mandate for the new range of Irish-registered Qualified Investment Funds (QIF) from the London-based asset manager Asset Value Investors (AVI, USD2.6bn in assets). AVI has chosen the QIF formula which allows investors a regulated vehicle while preserving flexibility of investment strategies.

On Tuesday, Goldman Sachs Asset Management (USD828bn in assets as of the end of December) announced that it has acquired the defined-contribution retirement planning specialist Dwight Asset Management (USD42bn in assets as of the end of December) from Old Mutual Asset Management (USD224bn as of the end of September). The sale price for this deal which will be finalised in second quarter has not been disclosed.

Prudential Asset Management has recruited Jeremy Hall as head of sales for northern Asia, as part of a development of its activities serving institutional investors, Asian Investor reports. Hall, who had previously worked at RREEF (Deutsche Bank), will be based in Hong Kong, and will serve China, Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

The Swedish SEB group has merged its London-based boutique Key Asset Management with its alternative investment team (AIT) in Stockholm, Hedge Week reports. The new merged entity will be led by Mikael Spångberg as managing director based in Stockholm, and Chris Rule as deputy CEO and CIO, in London, Key AM is specialised in funds of hedge funds, while SEB AIT has expertise in seed capital and incubation. The merger coincides with the departure of Chris Jones, who spent seven years as head of Key AM.

Skandia Investment Group (SIG) has removed Julius Lipner of Aviva Investors from its Skandia UK Strategic Best Ideas Fund. The mandate stood at GBP7m out of assets under management of GBP52.1m as of the end of December.Lee Freeman-Shor, portfolio manager for Skandia Investment Group, said: “We have made the decision to remove the mandate from the Skandia UK Strategic Best Ideas Fund due to the uncertainty and unknown consequences, created by Aviva Investors’ announcement that it plans to review active equity management and concentrate on fixed income, real estate and multi asset solutions.”Lipner’s mandate will be equally redistributed amongst the remaining managers within the Skandia UK Strategic Best Ideas Fund (Richard Packett and Mark Lyttleton of BlackRock, Phil Hardy of Polar Capital, Colin McLean of SVM, Tim Steer of Artemis and Paul Casson of Henderson).

Schroders is going to launch in the United Kingdom the Schroder Strategic Bond Fund (subject to FSA approval) which aims to achieve a total return by investing across a broad range of fixed income markets. The fund will be managed by Gareth Isaac, senior portfolio manager, who joined Schroders in 2011 from GLG. The alternate manager will be Bob Jolly, head of global macro.The benchmark unconstrained fund will invest in fixed income opportunities across the globe while actively allocating between government bonds, investment grade corporates, high yield corporates and emerging market debt of both governments and credit. Additionally the fund may use derivatives to limit downside risk, with 80% of the portfolio being hedged back to sterling.

Six British consumers out of ten have no appetite for investment risk, according to an annual survey (FSA Consumer Awareness Survey 2011) recently published by the British Financial Services Authority (FSA). Only 4% of the 2,063 people surveyed say they are prepared to take on more risk in the hopes of higher returns. The FSA reports that the consumers have a “slightly” higher aversion to risk than in 2010.

Standard Life Investments, the fourth-largest shareholder in Xstrata, with about 2% of capital, will vote against a merger with Glencore, as the operation “clearly undervalues” the mining company, Investment Week reports. For his part, Richard Buxton, head of UK equities at Schroders, has told Reuters that he shares SLI’s position.

“Institutionals bought, and retail investors sold,” said Thomas Neiße, president of the German BVI association of asset management firms on Tuesday, discussing investment flows in 2011. Institutional funds (Spezialfonds) attracted a net total of EUR45.3bn, while mandates outside funds received EUR0.8bn, but open-ended funds saw net outflows of EUR16.6bn. Overall, the German asset management sector saw net inflows of EUR29.5bn.Total assets as of the end of December for institutional funds and mandates wree EUR1.132trn, compared with EUR1.122trn twelve months previously. However, assets under management in open-ended funds were down by EUR59bn in one year, to EUR651bn.For open-ended funds, only funds specialised in real estate had net subscriptions in 2011, totalling EUR1.2bn. The largest net outflows were from bond funds (EUR5.8bn) and guaranteed funds (EUR2.6bn, of which EUR0.9bn were for maturing products). Diversified funds, for their part, saw net redemptions of EUR2.3bn (EUR2.8bn in net subscriptions for balanced funds, EUR3.9bn for predominantly bond products). Equity funds had net outflows of EUR2.3bn.

Pioneer Investments has launched a fund dedicated entirely to the Italian bond market, Bluerating reports. The Pioneer Obbligazionario Sistems Italia a distribuzione fund will be composed of Italian government bonds and high quality corporate bonds issued by businesses based in Italy with healthy balance sheets and convincing business plans.

Dans le cadre de la diversification de son allocation d’actifs, l’Etablissement de retraite additionnelle de la fonction publique (ERAFP) lance une consultation (procédure négociée) pour l’attribution de mandat de gestion d’actifs immobiliers. L’ERAFP organise une consultation portant sur deux lots (correspondant respectivement à deux types de mandats) : un lot d’actifs immobiliers non cotés situés en France et un lot d’actifs immobiliers non cotés situés en Europe. En cohérence avec le choix d’un investissement 100% ISR, les nouveaux mandats intègreront le dispositif ISR du Régime. La stratégie d’investissement repose essentiellement sur l’investissement dans des actifs immobiliers générant un rendement locatif stable mais pourra également conduire les gérants à investir dans des actifs à restructurer afin d’améliorer leur performance ISR. Lot n°1 : Immobilier France ISR Ce lot porte sur l’attribution de mandats pour la gestion d’un portefeuille d’actifs immobiliers non cotés situés en France. Les investissements seront réalisés principalement dans les catégories d’actifs immobiliers suivantes : bureaux, commerces et habitations. Le lot n°1 aura trois attributaires, dont deux mandats dits « Standby ». Le montant total des placements sur les Mandats du lot n°1, donné à titre indicatif, sera de l’ordre de 310 millions d’euros sur les trois premières années du Marché. Lot n°2 : Immobilier Europe ISR Le lot n°2 aura pour objet principal la gestion d’un portefeuille d’actifs immobiliers non côtés situés en Europe, dans des pays membres de l’OCDE. Les investissements réalisés en France seront possibles mais ne devront être ni prioritaires ni prépondérants. Le lot n°2 aura trois attributaires, dont deux mandats dits « Standby ». Le montant total des placements sur les Mandats du lot n°2, donné à titre indicatif, sera de l’ordre de 345 millions d’euros sur les trois premières années du Marché. Les mandats seront d’une durée de 10 ans. Pour lire l’avis complet: cliquez ici

L’Etablissement de retraite additionnelle de la fonction publique a lancé une consultation pour l’attribution de mandat de gestion d’actifs immobiliers. Cette procédure négociée portera sur deux lots: un lot d’actifs immobiliers non cotés situés en France et un lot d’actifs immobiliers non cotés situés en Europe. Les nouveaux mandats intègreront le dispositif ISR du régime.

La division de gestion d’actifs de Goldman Sachs rachète Dwight Asset Management, une société de gestion détenant 42 milliards de dollars d’actifs, à Old Mutual Asset Management. La transaction doit être finalisée au deuxième trimestre. Dwight est un gérant spécialisé dans des fonds à valeur fixe pour des plans de retraite.

La filiale du LSE et le courtier ont annoncéle lancement de leur plate-forme de repo tripartite, Agency Cash Management. Un projet annoncé en septembre et destiné à profiter du développement du financement interbancaire sécurisé.

Hedge Fund Research a indiqué que son indice HFRI Fund Weighted Composite, retraçant la performance des fonds alternatifs dans le monde, a progressé de 2,63% le mois dernier. Soit sa meilleure performance mensuelle depuis plus d’un an.

Les autorités ciblent le soutien au marché immobilier, mais aussi aux PME et aux ménages avec une hausse du salaire minimum de 13% par an d'ici 2015

Elles devraient avoir la possibilité de durcir les ratios réglementaires pour gérer un risque systémique identifié localement

Alors que quarante prêts sous-jacents sont arrivés à maturité, seuls cinq ont été remboursés dans les temps selon Barclays Capital

La Chine refuse que ses compagnies achètent du CO2 alors que la participation de l'aérien au marché du carbone doit soutenir les prix

Le gestionnaire américain EIG Global Energy Partners, dont le fonds souverain chinois CIC est actionnaire minoritaire depuis peu, pourrait faire faux bond à la plateforme de cotation de Goldman Sachs, GSTrUE, pour introduire son véhicule d’investissement Gateway sur la Bourse de Hong Kong. Un signe clair selon le quotidien du manque d’attractivité du cadre réglementaire aux Etats-Unis.

Le CAC 40 a clôturé en hausse de 0,18%, à 3.411 points, le marché s'étant retourné sur des espoirs de résolution de la situation en Grèce. L’indice avait cédé jusqu'à 0,8% en séance. Aux Etats-Unis, en fin de matinée, l’indice Dow Jones grappillait 0,27%, tout comme le Nasdaq.

«Nous avons encore un long chemin à parcourir avant de pouvoir dire que le marché du travail se comporte normalement», a déclaré cet après-midi le président de la Fed devant la commission budgétaire du Sénat. «Ce qui est particulièrement troublant, c’est le niveau inhabituellement élevé du chômage de long terme», a ajouté Ben Bernanke, réitérant des remarques formulées le 2 février devant un panel de la Chambre des Représentants. Concernant la trajectoire budgétaire américaine, il a jugé nécessaire «un plan à long terme pour mettre notre ratio de dette sur PIB, notre fardeau fiscal global sur une voie durable».