Jean-Jacques de Gournay, managing partner at Lazard Frères Gestion, has announced in an interview with L’Agefi Suisse that a location in Switzerland is a priority objective for Lazard. “We are planning to develop in private wealth management in Europe. For the moment, we are highly present in France, and we created a structure in Spain a few months ago. In the short term, we would like to open an office in Switzerland. However, it is not our intention to do it quickly. We want to avoid the start-and-go approach which is popular among many Anglo-American firms. When we arrive somewhere, we stay a long time. We need to find someone who is both a developer and a manager, which is a difficult mission,” de Gournay explains to the Swiss newspaper. Asset management last year generated 43% of revenues for the group, returning to the level it had enjoyed in the early years of the last decade.

Inflows to unit-linked life insurance policies in the month of October totalled EUR1.3bn, a slight increase compared with the previous month (EUR1.2bn, according to statistics from the French federation of insurance companies (FFSA, for Fédération française des sociétés d’assurances) and the group of mutual insurance businesses (GEMA, Groupement des entreprises mutuelles d’assurances).In the first ten months of the year, cumulative inflows to unit-linked policies totalled EUR15.9bn, down 5% year on year.The performance of unit-linked policies was positive once again in October (+3.2%), but remains negative for the first ten months of the year (-5%). In the same periods, the CAC 40 has earned returns of +8.7% and -14.8%, respectively.The percentage of total life insurance contributions directed to unit-linked policies came out to 15% for the first ten months of 2011, one percentage point more than in 2010.

The banking group BSI, based in Ticino in Switzerland and owned by Generali, has been issued with a banking license by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Agefi Switzerland reports.The group will also be permitted to fully exercise private banking activities and to offer clients a full range of banking and investment products.The license is a major step in the expansion of BSI in Asia, where activities have strongly contributed to net inflows of CHF2.9bn for the bank in second half.

For an undisclosed amount, First Solar Inc has sold its Topaz solar power facility in San Luis Obispo county, California, to MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co, an affiliate of Berkshire Hathaway, the Wall Street Journal reports.The value of the asset is estimated by the two partners at “over USD2bn.”The transaction marks the first venture for the portfolio management firm controlled by Warren Buffett into the area of solar energy. The firm had previously only operated wind farms and traditional power plants.

“In 2012, two themes will dominate. On the one hand, preservation of capital, taking into account not only risks and returns, but also liquidity. On the other, the search for returns in an environment of low interest rates,” Pascal Blanqué, chief investment officer at the Amundi group, explained on Wednesday at an end-of-year strategy presentation.In the present situation, in which the «appeasement» scenario (65%) predicts that the euro zone crisis will ease, Amundi’s portfolios show relatively high caution. Overall, they are “long on cash and underweight in risk assets such as emerging markets, credit, and equities,” says Philippe Thurbide, director of research.Naturally, these points need to be more finely nuanced to apply to specific products. Romain Boscher, CIO for equity, plans to capture potential growth in emerging markets via businesses with strong exposure to these markets.It is also a time “to adopt assymetrical strategies in order to profit from market fluctuations off of a trend which is not necessarily an upward trend.” The manager is favouring minimum variance strategies, smart equities indices, and deep value. Portfolios are underweight in financials, and are confident in commodities, agriculture, and energy.Eric Brard, global head of fixed income, says that “the priority is to shelter assets, not to earn returns.” So far, Amundi has significantly reduced its portfolios of debt from peripheral European countries, and moved assets to AAA-rated euro zone debt; the asset management firm has also diverisified its portfolios into corporate credit, a process which will continue in 2012. Amundi is preferring investment-grade credit to government bonds, is diversifying internationally, and is taking an interest in convertibles.

The asset management firm Atria Capital Partenaires yesterday announced to its investors that it is merging with Naxicap Partners, an affiliate of Natixis, Agefi reports, after announcing the operation on its website yesterday.Altria CP has seen several departures recently, and earlier this year was publicly reprimanded over a case that was ultimately settled out of court, brought by the wealth management firm Massena Patners, one of its investors. Fundraising for the next vehicle would logically have been more difficult.According to a source familiar with the matter, five professionals will be joining Naxicap Partners, and will take over management of the investments of the three Atria funds.

On a visit to Paris, Arnout van Rijn, CIO and Asia-Pacific equity fund manager at the Robeco Asia Investment Center, has presented its team of five people and its range of Asian products to Newsmanagers. These represent equity assets of over EUR1.5bn.The major funds from the Asian investment centre are the Asia-Pacific Equities fund, with EUR700m in assets, and the Chinese Equities fund, with EUR600m. “We started in March with the Asian Stars Equities (ex Japan), which as of the end of October had EUR10m. … To be thorough, we also have an Indian Equities fund (EUR15.26m), which is advised by Canara Robeco in Mumbai,” the CIO says. The head of Asian equity management at Robeco claims that “in fact, we are investors who have confidence in the quantitative rankings of shares produced by our headquarters in Rotterdam, while also relying on filters which include a ‘decent’ increase in returns on owners’ equity, the cost of capital, and cash flows. We are adherents to the value approach, unlike other managers, who tend to be ‘growth’ in Asia.”

The Towers Watson group has announced the recruitment of Danny Howell as head of the wealth management unit for Asia. Howell will be responsible for the development of advising activities serving high net worth clients in Asia.Before joining Towers Watson, Howell worked for Commonwealth Bank of Australia as general manager.

The Massachusetts state pension fund, which manages about USD48bn in assets, has selected ten hedge fund managers for a series of mandates representing a total of USD245m in assets, Reuters reports.Among the managers selected are Jonathan Jacobson of Highfields Capital, William Ackman at Pershing Square Capital Management, and Yan Yuo at Capula Investment Management, who will each have an allocation of USD25m to manage. Also on the list are Brigade Capital, Davidson Kempner Capital Management, Indus Capital Partners, Samlyn Capital and Winton Capital Management.Following the example of many pension funds, Massachusetts had previously relied on funds of funds to select managers and manage investments.In 2011, the state pension fund earned returns of 2%, with significant contributions from private equity and real estate. Investments in hedge funds made a loss of 2.18%.

According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, the asset management firm Ossiam has submitted a license application to a foreign regulator to be permitted to launch a physical replication ETF, whereas hitherto its range has been composed entirely of physical replication ETFs.

37 businesses listed in Paris, including EADS and STMicroelectronics, have no women on their boards of directors, eleven months after the passage of the Zimmermann-Copé law, which sets a quota of 40% on women on the governance bodies of listed companies, Les Echos reports. They have until mid-2012 to correct the shortfall. As a result, any appointment of male directors may be off the agenda.

The Wall Street Journal has established through an analysis of 154 quarterly filings to the SEC that since the beginning of this year, 50 money managers have been authorised not to declare the existence of stakes in companies, on the grounds that, in the regulator’s opinion, such a declaration might have caused “substantial harm” to their competitive position.The list of those with undeclared assets includes Warren Buffett (whose stake in IBM was declared in November, though the first purchases of shares began in March), and Deutsche Bank, as well as activist investors such as Carl Icahn and Nelson Peltz, and a number of hedge funds. The newspaper cites funds such as Relational Investors and HBK Investments.

At a presentation organised by the Club Tocqueville in partnership with Ossiam on ETFs, entitled “Do UCITS-compliant funds present a risk to the financial system and to savings investors?”, Pierre Bollon, director general of the French asset management association (AFG), sought to identify the element that differentiates synthetic and physical replication ETFs, an emblematic debate which calls for more global consideration.He identified several risks, including the risk of what he called “confusionism,” due to the common intermixing of ETP, ETF and ETN products. “We need transparency,” he claimed, “but also clarity. Adding information doesn’t always provide the necessary clarity.” In terms of transparency, the director also noted that the lower the tracking error on an ETF is, the better it is. From this point of view, synthetic ETFs are the best, he says. The AFG director says that a fourth risk is naïve optimism. Bollon was also critical of the role of various regulators worldwide, whose primary goal is to defend the financial systems in their respective countries.Patrick Artus, a member of the economic analysis council that reports to the French prime minister, picked up on this last ideas, pointing out that Basel III, for example, was a rule that would not affect US and Asian banking establishments, for example.Thierry Francq, secretary general of the AMF, gave the key another turn with the observation that for securities lending and borrowing, the rules currently in force were very different from one country to another, but that this problem is not unique to this topic. “There are other examples,” he says. In France, for example, depositories are subject to tough rules, but this is not the case in some other countries. In the Anglo-American countries, he said, regulations are more favourable to the intermediary than in France, which is more careful to protect the interests of the investor.

Unipension, a structure controlled by three Danish pension funds, has received approval from the local authorities to set up an asset management firm, Unipension Fondsmæglerselskab A/S, at the end of this year. The new entity will manage the assets of its owners, but will also work with third parties, in order to realise economies of scale. It now represents assets of DKK80bn, or about EUR10.8bn. Unipension Fondsmæglerselskab will be a unit of Unipension, which in turn is owned by the architects’ pension fund (AP), the pension fund for Danish MAs, MScs and PhDs (MP) and the pension fund for agricultural academics and veterinary surgeons (PJD)..

As of the end of November, assets managed worldwide in ETPs fell to USD1.543trn, compared with USD1.578trn as of the end of October, a decline of USD35bn in one month, though these assets have increased by USD61bn, or 4.1%, in the first eleven months of the year (USD1.482trn as of the end of December 2010).In the preliminary version of its ETF Landscape newsletter for November, BlackRock states that ETPs in November saw net outflows of USD0.6bn, following net subscriptions of USD26.5bn in October. In the first eleven months of the year, these products have posted net inflows of USD137.6bn, compared with USD145.5bn in the corresponding period of last year.However, the composition of flows by asset class have changed significantly: for example, ETPs specialised in emerging markets have seen net redemptions of USD0.5bn, compared with net subscriptions of USD39.9bn in January-November 2010. However, there was a very strong increase in net subscriptions to North American equity ETPs, to USD43.6bn, up from USD25bn. Gold ETPs have attracted USD12.1bn since the beginning of the year, while ETPs in all other commodities markets have seen net redemptions of USD1.7bn. Of the top ten actors in the ETP sector worldwide, only db x-trackers/db ETC and Lyxor Asset Management have seen a contraction in their total assets in the first eleven months of the year, of USD4.4bn (to USD45.8bn), and USD16.3bn (to USD37bn), respectively. The two big winners are Vanguard (+USD25.8bn, to USD174.3bn), and State Street Global Advisors (+USD19.3bn, to USD268.5bn). Ishares remains the uncontested leader, with assets of USD597.7bn as of the end of November, USD1bn more than at the end of December 2010.

The Bank of Spain has auctioned off Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo (CAM) to Banco Sabadell. In the area of asset management, the merger will allow Sabadell Inversión to overtake Ibercaja Gestión, to become the seventh-largest Spanish actor, once it has absorbed Gestimed, the asset management affiliate of CAM, Cinco Días reports.As of the end of October, Bansabell Inversión had assets of EUR4.326bn, while assets under management at Gestimed totalled EUR483m. This adds up to a total of about EUR4.8bn, compared with EUR4.425bn for Ibercaja Gestión.

Several UK pension funds have filed a lawsuit against Henderson Global Investors, over its decision to acquire the infrastructure group John Laing in 2006 for its PFI Secondary Fund II, IPE.com reports. The pension funds, which invested in the fund, claim that the deal exposed them to unexpected liabilities (including the John Laing pension deficit), which resulted in a 66% fall in the value of PFI Secondary.

Patrick Evershed and New Star have reached a confidential settlement out of court to end legal proceedings filed by the fund manager for unfair dismissal, Investment Week reports. Evershed had been seeking GBP1bn from his former employer, New Star, which is now controlled by Henderson, on the grounds that he was bullied by the founder, John Duffield.

State Street Corporation announced on December 6 that AUD18 billion Australian superannuation fund Sunsuper has appointed State Street Australia Limited as its custodian. State Street will provide custody and administration services to Sunsuper including unit pricing, compliance monitoring, performance reporting, alternative asset reporting and tax and accounting services.

The Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), the market regulator in Luxembourg, warns the public of the activities of an entity named Premier Partners, which claims to be located at Tour la Porte I, Place de l’Europe, Plateau de Kirchberg in Luxembourg, (website: www.premier-partners.com). According to the information available to the CSSF, this entity proposes investment services and investment advice to the persons contacted. The CSSF informs the public that Premier Partners has not been granted the required authorisation to offer financial services in or from Luxembourg.

The UK asset manager Threadneedle on December 7 announced the launch of the Threadneedle (Lux) UK Equities Fund in its Luxembourg SICAV range. The fund will be managed by Simon Brazier, head of UK equities at Threadneedle. It has been registered with the CSSF (Commission de surveillance du secteur financier) in Luxembourg, and registration is pending in other jurisdictions. The Threadneedle (Lux) UK Equities Fund will be managed with the same process and techniques employed over 26 years in the GBP1.1bn Threadneedle UK Fund, which is a conviction driven UK core equity strategy, also managed by Simon Brazier. According to Brazier, more than 75% of UK companies’ sales are derived from overseas, compared with 39% for Europe ex UK, 33% for Japan and 29% for the US. And, against this difficult backdrop the FTSE All Share has delivered a creditable performance, falling by just 4.3% to the end of November.

Éric Joseph, Directeur des Investissements de Sogecap: Dans un contexte de turbulence des marchés financiers et de difficultés de certains États de la zone Euro, Sogecap a poursuivi sa politique de gestion prudente et sélective du portefeuille obligataire (plus de 200 émetteurs d’obligations). Les investissements ont été réalisés majoritairement en obligations à taux fixe émises par des sociétés solides financièrement et par les Etats jugés les plus robustes de la zone Euro. La politique prudente menée de longue date par Sogecap est illustrée par une exposition limitée aux pays soulevant des inquiétudes quant au remboursement de leur dette. Dans un contexte de fortes turbulences des marchés financiers, l’allocation d’actifs régulièrement optimisée, n’a pas été et ne devrait pas être modifiée dans les prochaines semaines. Celle-ci est en effet adaptée à une politique de gestion financière prudente à moyen terme dans l’intérêt des assurés. Sogecap continuera donc à favoriser la sécurité des investissements via la diversification des risques, à privilégier les obligations d'émetteurs de qualité, mais aussi à saisir les opportunités sur les marchés actions quand elles se présentent afin de sécuriser le rendement du portefeuille sur le long terme. Au 30 juin 2011, le portefeuille obligataire de Sogecap était constitué à 64,2% par des obligations à taux fixe et 13,7% par des obligations à taux variable dont 28% d’obligations d’Etat et 49% d’obligations de sociétés. 83% des émetteurs d’obligations sont notés AAA ou AA, soit l’une des deux meilleures notes accordées par les agences de notation indépendantes. En dehors des obligations, Sogecap est investi à hauteur de 17,8% sur des actions et 5% sur l’immobilier.

SEB Asset Management a annoncé le 7 décembre la vente pour 34,8 millions d’euros d’un immeuble de bureaux de 13.500 mètres carrés dans le centre de Hambourg qui avait été acheté en 2006 pour 32,7 millions d’euros. Cet actif figurait dans le fonds immobilier offert au public SEB ImmoInvest (DE0009802306) d’un encours en dernier lieu de presque 6,34 milliards d’euros. Il est revendu au fonds Sarasin Sustainable Properties - European Cities géré par Catella Real Estate AG.D’autre part, SEB AM rapporte que des négociations sont en cours pour vendre une participation dans un ensemble situé Potsdamer Platz à Berlin ainsi que d’autres actifs. Avec l’immeuble de Hambourg, le SEB ImmoInvest a revendu au total sur 14 actifs en Allemagne et à l'étranger.D’ici à la fin de cette année, la liquidité du fonds (fermé aux remboursements depuis mai 2010) sera remontée à 21 %. Le gestionnaire compte toujours rouvrir le guichet des rachats à fin 2011, donc avant mai 2012, date-butoir.

Unipension, une structure détenue par trois fonds de pension danois, a obtenu de la part des autorités locales l’autorisation de créer une société de gestion, Unipension Fondsmæglerselskab A/S, à la fin de l’année. Cette nouvelle entité gérera les actifs de ses propriétaires mais a vocation à travailler avec des tiers, afin de dégager des économies d’échelle.Elle représente aujourd’hui un encours de 80 milliards de couronnes danoises, soit environ 10,8 milliards d’euros.Unipension Fondsmæglerselskab sera filiale d’Unipension, elle-même détenue par le fonds de pension danois des architectes (AP), le fonds des MA, MS et PhD danois et le fonds de pension des universitaires dans l’agriculture et des chirurgiens vétérinaires.

La Banque d’Espagne a adjugé la Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo (CAM) au Banco Sabadell. Dans le domaine de la gestion d’actifs, cette fusion permet à Sabadell Inversión de passer devant Ibercaja Gestión et de s’installer au septième rang des acteurs espagnols une fois qu’il aura intégré Gestimed, la filiale de gestion d’actifs de la CAM, indique Cinco Días.A fin octobre, Bansabell Inversión affichait en effet un encours de 4.326 millions d’euros tandis que les actifs gérés par Gestimed s'élevaient à 483 millions. Donc au total quelque 4.800 millions d’euros contre 4.425 millions pour Ibercaja Gestión.

Le groupe bancaire tessinois BSI, qui appartient à Generali, a obtenu une licence bancaire de la part de l’autorité de surveillance des banques de Hongkong (Hong Kong Monetary Authority). Le groupe pourra ainsi exercer pleinement des activités de banque privée et y offrir à ses clients la palette complète des produits bancaires et d’investissement. La licence constitue une étape importante dans l’expansion de BSI en Asie, où l’activité a fortement contribué à une collecte nette de 2,9 milliards de francs enregistrée par la banque au premier semestre.

Le britannique Threadneedle a annoncé le 7 décembre le lancement d’une sicav luxembourgeoise dédiée aux actions britanniques, le Threadneedle (Lux) UK Equities Fund, qui vient compléter sa gamme de sicav au Luxembourg.Le fonds sera géré par Simon Brazier , responsable des actions britanniques chez Threadneedle. Le fonds a été enregistré auprès de la CSSF (Commission de surveillance du secteur financier) au Luxembourg et devrait également l'être prochainement dans d’autres pays.Le fonds sera géré comme la stratégie britannique d’origine, le Threadneedle UK Fund dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à 1,1 milliard de livres et qui est également piloté par Simon Brazier.Selon Simon Brazier, les actions britanniques devraient davantage intéresser les investisseurs internationaux dans la mesure où plus de 75% du chiffre d’affaires des sociétés britanniques trouve sa source à l'étranger, entre autres dans les marchés émergents comme la Chine. En outre, malgré un environnement difficile depuis le début de l’année, l’indice FTSE All Share n’a cédé que 4,3% à fin novembre.Malgré ce contexte plutôt favorable, les poches d’actions britanniques dans les portefeuilles des grands investisseurs internationaux restent très modestes, constate Simon Brazier. La bonne santé des entreprises britanniques, ainsi que la faiblesse relative du sterling qui pourrait mettre en exergue les bas prix des actifs britanniques, pourrait toutefois inciter les grands investisseurs comme les fonds souverains à s’intéresser de plus près à cette classe d’actifs, estime Simon Brazier.

Le groupe State Street a annoncé le 6 décembre que sa filiale australienne State Street Australia avait été sélectionnée en qualité de conservateur par le fonds de pension australien Sunsuper.State Street Australia fournira des services d’administration et de conservation à ce fonds dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à quelque 18 milliards de dollars australiens.

Selon nos informations, la société de gestion Ossiam a déposé une demande d’agrément auprès d’un régulateur étranger afin de lancer un ETF à réplication physique, alors que l’ensemble de sa gamme est composé jusqu’ici d’ETF à réplication synthétique.

La collecte des contrats d’assurance vie en unités de compte (UC) s’est élevé au mois d’octobre à 1,3 milliard d’euros, en légère progression par rapport au mois précédent (1,2 milliard d’euros, selon les statistiques communiquées par la FFSA (Fédération française des sociétés d’assurances) et le GEMA (Groupement des entreprises mutuelles d’assurances).Sur les dix premiers mois de l’année, la collecte cumulée en UC atteint 15,9 milliards d’euros, en recul de 5% sur un an. La performance des contrats UC redevient positive en octobre (+ 3,2 %), mais reste négative sur les dix premiers mois de l’année (- 5 %). Dans le même temps, le Cac 40 affiche respectivement une performance de + 8,7 % et - 14,8 %. La part des supports UC dans l’ensemble des cotisations d’assurance vie s’établit à 15 % sur les dix premiers mois de l’année 2011, soit un point de plus qu’en 2010.