Aberdeen Asset Management souhaite augmenter le montant des encours gérés par son équipe dette émergente de 7 milliards de dollars à 30 milliards de dollars, selon Financial News. Et d’après son directeur général, Martin Gilbert, la société compte le faire sans recruter de nouveaux professionnels.

Henderson a cédé sa participation dans Hermes GPE, un fonds de fonds de private equity acquis dans le cadre du rachat de Gartmore, rapporte Money Marketing.Hermes GPE était une joint venture entre Gartmore et le gérant de fonds institutionnel Hermes Fund Managers qui a souhaité exercer son droit d’acquisition de la part de Gartmore dans la co-entreprise. L’opération n’a aucun impact sur les comptes de Henderson. Seuls les actifs sous gestion vont diminuer de 1,4 milliard de livres.

Generali is hoping to reach EUR30bn in assets under management by 2015, between Asia and Eastern Europe, the economy supplement of Il Corriere della Serra reports. Asset management is one of three growth areas for the Italian insurer, along with real estate and international.

The financial ratings agency Moody’s on 19 December announced that it has issued a rating of A3 for subordinate debt from Julius Baer Group. The rating has a negative outlook, the agency says. It is the first rating ever issued for Julius Baer by Moody’s. In the long term, the agency may modify its outlook on its rating of Julius Baer if the Swiss group manages to develop in private banking in emerging markets, improves the profitability of its assets under management, and realises economies of scale due to its geographical reach.

Eric Verleyen has been appointed chief investment officer of Société Générale Private Banking Hambros (SGPB Hambros), in London. He has previously served in the same role at Société Générale Bank & Trust Luxembourg, a firm he joined in 2005. In Luxembourg, he will be replaced by Alexandre Cegarra, as chief investment officer at Société Générale Bank & Trust in Luxemmbourg. Cegarra had been head of the discretionary portfolio management at the firm. Cegarra and Verleyen will lead the Investment Strategy implementation in their respective entity and will chair the relevant entities’ local Asset Allocation Committee. They will also be responsible for developing and managing the local investment products & services offering dedicated to high net worth clients in their market.

It is now China, and not the euro zone, which is galvanising analysts and hedge fund managers, the Financial Times reports. Concerns are increasing about global outlooks, in light of negative economic signals coming from the country. Emerging Sovereign Group, which is one of the hedge funds which anticipated the euro zone crisis, feels that the next stage of the global debt crisis may play out in Asia. The difficulty is that official figures from China only provide a partial view of the situation there, the FT adds. Many professionals, such as GLG Partners, are therefore recruiting staff locally to verify the economic situation.

Groupama Asset Management has announced the appointment of François Delaleu as director of IT systems. Delaleu has a solid 15 years of experience in the Crédit Agricole group. He was appointed director of IT at the time of the creation of Amundi Investment Solutions in 2005. At that time, he participated in the merger of 3 entities with 130 employees, and set up Governance IT for the new Amundi affiliate.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has published for consultation a set of requirements for banks to disclose the composition of their regulatory capital. These aim to improve the transparency and comparability of banks’ capital bases, including on a cross border basis. «During the financial crisis, market participants and supervisors attempted to undertake detailed assessments of the capital positions of banks and make cross jurisdictional comparisons,» the Basel Committee recalls in a statement. «These efforts were often hampered by insufficiently detailed disclosure and a lack of consistency in reporting between banks and across jurisdictions». The committee underscores that this lack of clarity on the quality of capital may have contributed to uncertainty during the financial crisis.» In addition to improving the quality and level of required capital, Basel III established certain high level disclosure requirements to improve transparency of regulatory capital and enhance market discipline. The Basel Committee noted that it would issue more detailed Pillar 3 disclosure requirements in 2011. Comments should be submitted by Friday 17 February 2012. The Basel Committee has also released a consultative paper on Principles for the Supervision of Financial Conglomerates. The consultation will remain open until 16 March 2012.

The European summit on 9 December had only a very fleeting positive impact on the confidence of investors, who are concerned about a recession in the euro zone, and who are still avoiding equities. In the week to 14 December, equity funds have seen a net outflow of USD9.5bn, according to statistics from EPFR Global. Only funds dedicated to Indonesian, South African and Colombian equities finished the week with net inflows. Emerging market funds have seen net outflows since the beginning of the year of USD38.8bn, compared with net inflows of USD91.5bn in the corresponding period of 2010. Bond funds, which have been less popular, attrracted USD1.1bn in the week to 14 December. For the first time since the end of third quarter 2011, none of the major categories of bond funds have seen positive or negative flows of over USD1bn. Money market funds have posted net inflows of USD3.2bn. Since the beginning of November, money market funds have posted net subscriptions of about USD60bn.

Granite Investment Advisors is preparing to launch its first mutual fund. The Granite Value Fund will be managed by Scott Schermerhorn, CEO and CIO of the firm, as principal manager.

The multi-management fund OFI MultiSelect BRIC from OFI Asset Management, which invests primarily in equities from the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), is extending its investment universe to the African continent. As a result, the fund has been renamed as OF MultiSelect BRICA. The management of the new Africa mandate will be handled by the London-based asset management firm Silk Invest, which has local teams in seven African countries. Geographical allocation to these countries is determined on the basis of the demographic dynamism of each region, direct investment flows, and creation of wealth. 50% of the mandate will be invested in African countries excluding South Africa, 15% in South Africa, and 35% in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

Wells Fargo will close its Wells Fargo Advantage Growth Fund to new subscribers from 31 January 2012, Mutual Fund Wire has announced, citing reports by Morningstar. Assets in the fund have fallen by USD2.9bn since the beginning of the year to USD7.2bn. It is managed by Tom Ognar, Bruce Olson, and Joe Eberhard.

The banking group SYZ & Co has announced the launch of the fund Oyster Multi-Manager Tail & Trading, a new sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav 3A Alternative Funds, part II. Devised by SYZ Asset Management, this innovative new fund combines two complementary alternative strategies in order to provide investors with protection in the current environment, which is generally unfavourable to traditional asset classes. It thus combines decorrelated CTA funds with funds that pursue a strategy of active protection against extreme risks (“tail risk”). Thanks to its low correlation with the financial markets and other alternative strategies, this new fund aims to provide a significant improvement in the risk profile of a traditional portfolio. The Oyster Multi-Manager Tail & Trading fund allocates the majority of its assets to CTA funds (combining short-term, medium-term and macro systematic approaches) and supplements it with an active risk management strategy. The proportion allocated to the two strategies may vary. The pro-forma historical results of this combination are particularly attractive, in terms of both annualized performance and volatility. In view of these good results and a low correlation with the financial markets and the other alternative strategies, the inclusion in a traditional portfolio of an allocation – however moderate – to this strategy significantly improves its maximum drawdown and volatility characteristics. This new strategy is available in five different reference currencies (USD, CHF, EUR, GBP and JPY). The fund invests its assets exclusively in the products based on the managed accounts platform developed through the cooperation between SYZ Asset Management and UBS Investment Bank. Oyster Multi-Manager Tail & Trading provides weekly subscriptions and redemptions. The fund is only aimed at an institutional client base.

The former controller at Bernard Madoff’s firm, Enrica Cotalessa-Pitz, has admitted falsifying documents, the Wall Street Journal reports. She becomes the sixth person, including Madoff, to plead guilty since hirs arrest in December 2008. “Even though I know that the crimes I committed helped to cover up and perpetuate the fraud of Bernard Madoff, at the time I did not know that Madoff and others were stealing money from investors,” the former employee of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities said.

Aberdeen Asset Management would like to increase its assets under management by its emerging markets debt team from USD7bn to USD30bn, Financial News reports. According to its CEO, Martin Gilbert, the firm is planning to do so without recruiting new staff.

UBS Global Asset Management has recruited Ian Barnes to replace John Nestor as head of business in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Financial News reports. He joins the firm from Russell Investments.

Paul Feeney has been appointed chief executive of Skandia Investment Group (SIG) – an asset management business within the Long Term Savings Division (LTS) of Old Mutual plc.He is expected to join in early January. Since 2008, he has been head of distribution and executive director of BNY Mellon Asset Management responsible for all global distribution outside the United States.Paul Feeney’s new appointment to SIG follows Phil Wagstaff’s decision to take the role of global head of distribution at Henderson Global Investors following his appointment to the role of SIG CEO just two weeks ago.Paul Feeney will also be chief executive of all of Old Mutual’s Asset Management businesses within LTS. He will report directly to Paul Hanratty, chief executive of Old Mutual’s Long Term Savings business.

Henderson has sold its stake in Hermes GPE, a private equity fund of fund it acquired along with Gartmore, Money Marketing reports. Hermes GPE is a joint venture of Gartmore and the institutional fund management firm Hermes Fund Managers, which is exercising its right to acquire Gartmore’s stake in the joint venture. The operation will have no effect on the books at Henderson, except that assets under management will decline by GBP1.4bn.

Les spécialistes sont partagés sur l'évolution du marché primaire du crédit l’an prochain, après un millésime 2011 décevant. Les nouveaux émetteurs tireront l’activité, tout comme les entreprises anticipant les importantes tombées de 2013.

Après des émissions inférieures aux attentes en 2011, l'activité pour l'année prochaine est encore incertaine

En dépit de leur volonté de convergence, l’IASB et le normalisateur américain ont renoncé à modifier leurs normes sur la compensation

Le président de la BCE a indiqué que « tous les scénarios » sont à l’étude pour faire face à la perte éventuelle d’une ou plusieurs notes AAA

Sous l’impulsion de sa maison-mère, l’entité française s’attellera l’an prochain au développement de cette activité, qui restera à terme minoritaire. Generali Real Estate (RE) France, qui gère 6 milliards d’euros pour le compte du groupe, table par ailleurs sur une hausse de ses encours de plus de 2 milliards d’euros sur les trois prochaines années.

Mariano Rajoy a annoncé lors de son discours d’investiture au Parlement espagnol une réduction de 16,5 milliards d’euros des dépenses publiques

La LTRO prévue mercredi pourrait osciller entre 200 et 550 milliards d'euros selon plusieurs stratégistes taux

La banque centrale pourrait injecter demain entre 200 et 550 milliards d'euros selon les prévisions

La demande pour les bons du Trésor atteint des sommets en cette fin d'année. Le programme de financement 2012 pourrait être dévoilé ce matin

Le prince saoudien Al-Walid bin Talal et son holding Kingdom Holding Company ont annoncé hier avoir déboursé quelque 300 millions de dollars pour s’emparer d’une «participation stratégique» au capital de Twitter. Une part de 3,75% selon une valorisation totale de 8 milliards de dollars estimée par certains analystes.

Apax Partners et Altamir Amboise ont annoncé hier avoir finalisé après approbation des autorités de régulation la cession de Vizada à Astrium, filiale d’EADS. La transaction, dévoilée en juillet dernier, porte sur un montant total de 960 millions de dollars.

Les fonds de Singapour, Global Logistic Properties (GLP), et le fonds souverain chinois China Investment Corp (CIC) se sont associés pour racheter quinze sites logistiques au Japon pour un montant de 1,6 milliard de dollars à LaSalle Investment Management. Il s’agit de la plus impotante transaction immobilière réalisée au Japon depuis le début de l’année. Les deux fonds prendront chacun 50% dans la coentreprise créée.