La société de gestion CPR AM, qui revendique quelques «premières» dans le monde de la gestion d’actifs avec la sortie de produits comme le fonds CPR Credixx Global High Yield en juin 2010, le fonds CPR Reflex Responsable qui concilie gestion flexible et ISR ou le fonds thématique actions internationales CPR Global Infrastructures, compte, dans le domaine de l’innovation, faire à nouveau parler d’elle. Cette fois, par l’intermédiaire d’un fonds «club» lancé au début de l'été. Ce fonds investi en actions de la zone euro s’inscrit dans l’environnement de Solvency II en se donnant pour objectif de maîtriser les risques extrêmes et réduire les besoins en fonds propres (SCR) des investisseurs. Pour cela, le fonds utilise des techniques de couverture – plutôt bien traitées dans le cadre de la directive – et repose sur un mécanisme «simple et robuste» en étant composé d’une sélection de titres issus du portefeuille de CPR Euroland, à laquelle s’ajoutent des stratégies optionnelles de pilotage des risques extrêmes développées initialement sur la gestion diversifiée. Lancé le 15 juin, le fonds affiche actuellement un encours de près de 30 millions d’euros issus exclusivement d’investisseurs soumis à la directive Solvency II - cinq au total - et disposant d’un horizon d’investissement long. «Naturellement», explique Jean-Eric Mercier, directeur général de la société de gestion, «le fonds peut répondre aux attentes d’autres types d’investisseurs qui apprécieront la gestion des risques extrêmes permettant de réduire significativement la volatilité… D’ailleurs, bien que n'étant pas soumis à Solvency II, des établissements bancaires et des caisses de retraite ont fait part de leur intérêt pour notre offre», ajoute-t-il. A ce propos, la période heurtée de cet été a permis de mettre à l'épreuve la gestion du fonds. En chiffres, le contrat est rempli si l’on compare la performance de l’indice pris en référence – le MSCI Europe. Sur juillet-août, le fonds a battu l’indice de 0,7 point de pourcentage avec une gestion optionnelle ayant contribué à hauteur de 1,5 point à la performance tandis que la contribution de l’investissement actions a été négative (-0,7 point). Et sur les vingt premiers jours de septembre, le fonds affiche une surperformance de 3%, l’essentiel provenant des stratégies optionnelles. En matière de volatilité, les résultats sont également intéressants. Sur juillet-août, celle du fonds est de 26 % contre 32 % pour le MSCI et sur les vingt premiers jours de septembre de 33 % pour le fonds contre 44 % pour l’indice. A plus longue échéance, CPR AM réfléchit à lancer d’autres fonds de ce type investis sur d’autres zones géographiques et/ou sur d’autres classes d’actifs. De la même façon, le produit pourrait s’exporter, notamment en Allemagne où la société de gestion a noué des contacts avec d’importants investisseurs institutionnels. A noter que les velléités exportatrices de CPR AM ne sont pas une nouveauté, la société gérant déjà, pour un fonds de pension belge, un produit dédié. Enfin, à un horizon inférieur à un an, les investisseurs particuliers devraient également bénéficier d’une offre comparable. Dans un autre genre, CPR AM sera présent au salon Patrimonia qui se tiendra à Lyon les 29 et 30 septembre, pour mettre en avant son activité «Le Comptoir par CPR» dédiée à sa clientèle de conseillers en gestion de patrimoine indépendants (CGPI). «Nous y allons dans un esprit de conquête, pour conforter notre place», annonce Jean-Eric Mercier, et nous comptons bien mettre en évidence nos atouts, notamment celui d'être «un gérant (ou expert) multi classes d’actifs» qui nous permet de ne pas être prisonnier d’un discours mono produit et d’avoir la capacité de proposer des solutions d’investissement sur-mesure».Dans ce cadre, la société de gestion dont la clientèle issue du monde de la distribution représente 20 % - contre 60 % aux institutionnels et 20 % en épargne salariale - arrive à la manifestation avec une offre qu’elle juge adaptée à la période. Celle-ci comporte à la fois des fonds flexibles comme CPR Croissance Prudente, des fonds «stars» «actions internationales» comme Amundi International Sicav – ex Sgam International - et aussi une offre «pierre papier» assurée par Amundi Immobilier via la SCPI Edissimmo. Cette société, l’une des plus importantes du marché, a procédé récemment à une nouvelle ouverture du capital, une opération qui ne s'était pas faite depuis plus de 10 ans.

The real estate unit at Deutsche Bank, RREEF, has recruited Leslie Chua as head of research and strategy for the Asia Pacific region excluding Japan and Korea, Asian Investor reports. Chua had previously served as head of research and strategic planning at Pacific Star Holdings.

The Korean asset management firm Mirae Asset Global Investments is planning to enter the hedge fund market in Hong Kong, Financial Times Fund Management reports. Woong Park, CEO of Mirae Asset Global Investments (HK), says the group already has quasi-hedge funds managed in Hong Kong and domiciled in Korea, but it is planning to create its own hedge fund activity on the Hong Kong market. Several products are in the works.

US-based BNY Mellon on 27 September announced that it will now be offering settlement and clearance services directly in the Netherlands. To this end, it has signed an agreement with Euroclear Netherlands, which will provide its clients for broker-dealer services (USD1.8trn in tri-party balances worldwide) faster and more convenient access to the Dutch market.

Renaissance Asset Managers was created in 2003. The asset management affiliate of the Russian Renaissance group was initially concentrated on Russian high net worth clients. Since 2010, following a change in the management team, the asset management team specialised in investments in the emerging countries of Europe, including Russia and Turkey, and the African “frontier” markets, has sought to add dynamism by setting out to win over clients outside its home country, including in France. Renaissance AM thus now joins asset management firms such as Raiffeisen Capital Management and East Capital, which have a strong presence in this segment in France. The asset manager would like to make itself better known in France, and brings long experience in its preferred markets, and strong teams. “We have 30 people working on emerging Europe alone now, while BlackRock has only 4,” says Plamen Monovski, chief investment officer. Monovski, as a manager at Renaissance AM, knows the US giant well, as he previously managed its emerging Europe fund. Renaissance AM thus plans to position itself in France as a specialist in these markets, as France “is still underinvested in emerging markets, despite the immense growth opportunities to be found there,” says Monovski. “We are targeting funds of funds and large institutional investors as our first priority,” says Sandrine Reynaud, director of sales for France, Monaco and Geneva. The opening of a Paris office is not planned. Sales of Renaissance AM products will be directed from the London office of the asset management firm, and also from Moscow. In addition to closed funds, the product range from Renaissance Am includes a range of nine Luxembourg-registered UCITS funds. The funds are pending licenses from the AMF. “They may be made available in France by the end of the year, and will be available to distributors and life insurance companies,” says Reynaud. In total, Renaissance Am currently manages about USD2.2bn, of which more than USD214m are in its UCITS fund range.

In an internal memo sent to North American employees of the group, Kaspar Villiger, chairman of the board of directors, and Sergio Ermotti, interim CEO of UBS, on Monday clearly stated that their wealth management activities in the United States are not for sale, Handelsblatt reports.The two heads of the Swiss group are also supporting Robert McCann, CEO, Wealth Management Americas, in whom they say they have confidence to continue to develop this activity in a highly important market.

Reuters reports, citing sources familiar with the matter, that Société Générale is seeking to sell its stake in Newedge, its derivative products affiliate, owned jointly with Crédit Agricole, as part of its plan to sell off non-strategic assets estimated at EUR250m. In addition to Newedge, the French bank may also sell SGSS, its securities management affiliate. The same source says that no decisions have been taken so far. Société Générale et Crédit Agricole had no comment on the reports.

Emmanuelle Hsu joined Global Financial Services (GFS), a third-party marketing firm which helps asset management firms in introducing their funds to qualified institutional investors in France and internationally, in early September. Hsu will be in charge of development for France and internationally for multi-manager and institutional clients. Hsu was previously head of distribution for France and Monaco at Threadneedle Asset Management from 2006 to 2009, Since 2009, she had been a partner at Spread Box, a start-up specialised in competitiveness, marketing and social media optimisation. In June, GFS made another addition to its sales team, in the person of Linda Caussade, who was appointed head of development for France and internationally. Caussade most recently worked at Calyon as a structured products salesperson for equities indices and mutual funds to clients of the regional banks of the Crédit Agricole network. The recruitments come at a time when GFS has recently integrated the financial company Assya, in order to strengthen the latter’s unit dedicated to asset management.

Mark Raskopf, who had been managing director in charge of the hedge fund team at Ermitage Americas, is joining Russell Investments as head of tactical trading strategies in the hedge funds solutions team.Raskopf will direct research and due diligence on hedge fund managers in the area of tactical trading, which includes global macro, managed futures, commodities and currencies. He will also be responsible for research and due diligence for long-only commodities managers, for Russell’s range of commodity products.

Oddo Asset Management on Tuesday, 27 September announced the arrival of Lorenzo Gazzoletti as deputy CEO, in charge of development for institutional clients. Be becomes a member of the executive board at the group.Gazzoletti succeeds Jean-Philippe Taslé d’Héliand, who has been appointed chairman of Oddo Banque Privée. He will have the primary mission of developing the institutional client base in France, as well as internationally. The objective for the firm is to double assets at Oddo Asset Management in four years. Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Benelux are the priority countries, a statement says.Since 2008. Gazzoletti has been chairman of the board at La Banque Postale Gestion Privée, a joint venture of La Banque Postale and Oddo & Cie in wealth management, with assets under management which increased from EUR120m to EUR1.3bn between 2008 and June 2011.In 2009 Gazzoletti also founded La Banque Postale Immobilier Conseil, a firm specialised in real estate, of which he was chairman.

Janus Capital Group has announced the arrival of Susan Oh, who will serve as vice-president of the institutional division in the United States from 3 October, at the asset management firm. Oh will be responsible for sales to institutional clients and institutional marketing teams. Before joining Janus, Oh spent 20 years at JP Morgan Asset Management, where she served in positions dedicated to relations with institutional investors, including a stint as global consultant strategy sales leader for the US market.

Standish Mellon Asset Management Company, an affiliate of BNY Mellon with USD80bn in assets, has recruited Rosa E. Velasquez in Boston for the newly-created position of analyst for corporate debt on emerging markets (EM corporate debt). Velasquez will report to the Russian Alexander Kozhemiakin, managing director and head of the emerging markets team.Assets under management by Standish for emerging markets corporate debt total over USD11bn in dedicated portfolios.

Feri Finance AG, an affiliate of MLP, on 27 September announced that it is combining its advisory operations serving high net worth retail and institutional clients, which had previously been housed at Feri Family Trust GmbH and Feri Institutional Advisors GmbH, in a single structure, Feri Institutional & Family Office GmbH.All services from the two companies in areas including and connected with wealth management will be concentrated in another new firm, Feri Trust GmbH.All “support” functions, such as book-keeping, reporting and investment controlling, will now be placed in a new entity, Feri Investment Services GmbH.With Feri EuroRating Services AG, the Feri group thus includes four companies.

European investors are paying higher transaction costs to use ETFs than their American counterparts, the Financial Times reports. For example, the average spread for trading the MSCI Emerging Markets ETF from iShares on the London Stock Exchange is 28 basis points this week. That means that investors are paying transaction costs of 0.28% to enter or exit the fund in London. By comparison, in the same period, the average spread for the equivalent product traded in New York was 8 basis points, meaning costs of 0.08%. The difference in spreads between the two regions is due to the lower transaction volumes and fragmentation of liquidity in Europe, the FT reports.

State Street’s Global Investor Confidence increased slightly to 89.9 in September, up from August’s revised reading of 88.1. The gains in the index originated in Europe and Asia. The European Investor Confidence Index gained 5.6 points to reach 95.7, up from August’s revised reading of 90.1, while the Asian Investor Confidence Index behaved in a similar fashion, rising 5.5 points to reach 100.7. Among North American investors, sentiment declined slightly to 85.1, down 1.1 points from August’s revised level of 86.2. “On the face of it, it may seem surprising to measure an increase in Global Investor Confidence in a month in which equity volatility has increased substantially,” commented Ken Froot, who created the index. “There are two points that should be kept in mind about the increase. First, confidence remains in the eighties, a relatively low level, albeit better than the low eighties observed in late 2008. Second, despite all of the concern surrounding sovereign balance sheets, corporate balance sheets remain in relatively good shape at present, and this is an attractive feature of equities for institutional investors.”

Thomas Vester Nielsen, a manager of frontier markets mandates at BankInvest in Denmark, has been recruited by the British firm Lloyd George Management (LGM, an affiliate of BMO Asset Management), Investment Week reports. Nielsen has been appointed head of the new “equities, frontier markets” strategy at LGM, which launched a fund in the segment earlier this month.

Carmignac Gestion on Tuesday, 27 September officially unveiled the Luxembourg-registered fund Carmignac Emerging Patrimoine (a sub-fund of the Carmignac Portfolio Sicav) to the European press. The product has EUR120m in assets, and was launched on 31 March 2011 with EUR20m of seed capital.The most recent addition to the Patrimoine trange is managed jointly by Simon Pickard for the equities portion, Charles Zerah for the bond portion, and Frédéric Leroux, who handles the coverage for the portfolio and derivative strategies, along with other resources from the Carmignac team. The asset management firm has also recently recruited Haiyan Li-Labbé from OFI as an analyst responsible for the Chinese and Taiwan markets. At her previous employer, Li-Labbé had been manager of a fund investing in local Chinese equities (A shares) and head of the asset management team specialised in Asian markets."The Carmignac Emerging Patrimoine fund is a capital preservation fund, which is flexible, balanced, and oriented to the long term, with a tactical overlay», Eric Le Coz, deputy CEO, explained.In light of the current market conditions, the fund is defensively positioned, with 25% of its assets in equities (out of a maximum of 50%), and a net exposure to equities of 15%, with 10% short positions on emerging markets indices. The portion of assets freed up by the limited equities exposure is taken up by bonds and fixed income, with a highly active management of duration, and a 10% exposure to Treasury bonds denominated in Singapore dollars (6 months), as Carmignac Gestion is currently highly pessimistic about the euro.CharacteristicsName: Carmignac Emerging PatrimoineISIN codes:A share class in euros: LU0592698954E share class in euros: LU0592699093GBP shares: LU0592699176USD shares: LU0592699259Front-end fee:A shares: maximum 4%E shares: noneGBP shares: 4% maximumUSD shares: 4% maximumManagement commission:A shares: 1.50% maximumE shares: 1.25% maximumGBP shares: 1.50% maximumUSD shares: 1.50% maximumWithdrawal fees: NoneVariable management commission: 15% of performance exceeding the fund’s performance benchmark in case of positive returns.Performance benchmark: 50% MSCI Emerging Markets in euros and 50% JPMorgan GBI EM global diversified in euros.

As John Paulson is going through one of the most difficult periods of his career in terms of performance, he is also having to confront hoardes of vulture investors who are hoping he will have to initiate a fire sale of his investments, the Wall Street Journal reports. Rival hedge funds, brokers and other firms are going through the investments of Paulson & Co with a fine-toothed comb, in an effort to second-guess what the manager would sell first, if he needs liquidity to pay off investors. Some firms have even approached Paulson and made him cut-price offers for some of his assets.

The European open-ended residential real estate fund reserved for institutional investors Bouwfonds European Residential Fonds (DE000A0M98N2), available from Robeco, has announced that it has made an investment of EUR23.4m in a student housing complex in Stuttgart (initial gross return: 6.6%), and another investment of EUR10m in two residential properties in Stockholm (initial gross return: 5.4%). Currently, net assets in the fund total EUR280m, in 40 properties. Counting leverage, the total volume of the fund is EUR350m, with the objective of reaching EUR1bn in assets.

In 2011, 156 funds out of 184 applicants obtained the Novethic SRI label, which aims to provide a benchmark for individual investors. Last year, 142 funds out of 182 received the distinction, and in 2009, in the first year of the label, 92 out of 121 were granted it. “The label now has reached critical size,” says Dominic Blanc, head of research at Novethic. It now covers half of the market, as the number of SRI funds in France as of the end of June 2011 was 307, with assets of EUR47bn. Seven asset management firms and 20% of funds were candidates for the label for the first time in 2011, including products from Sycomore Asset Management and La Financière de l’Echiquier. And among those which were granted the label, 65 funds have had it for three years. However, 15 funds, whose names have not been disclosed, lost their labels in 2011. “These are often from firms which had a stagnant SRI range,” says Blanc. Although asset management firms appear to have widely adopted the label, what do the retail investors for whom the label was created think of it? According to Novethic, inflows to funds with an SRI label (in 2010) remained positive in the first half of 2011, at EUR587m, though this was largely due to the weight of money market funds in this category. Equity funds bearing the SRI label saw net redemptions of EUR253m, But Anne-Catherine Husson-Traore, CEO of Novethic, points out that the label is developing in a difficult overall context for financial management. She also notes that there is an increasing and encouraging presence of the SRI label on the funds on the websites of retail networks of banks. A list of funds bearing the label may be found here: http://www.novethic.fr/novethic/developpement-durable/liste-fonds-inves…

The Luxembourg investment fund association (ALFI) is setting itself new ambitions. At its 20th annual conference, held on 27 and 28 September in Luxembourg, ALFI is unveiling its action plan for the next four years.In a difficult international environment, ALFI is planning to create a more propitious environment for investment funds, by highlighting their positive contribution for savings investors and society. Luxembourg is now the largest domicile for investment funds in Europe, largely due to its rapid transposition of European UCITS fund directives. “However, the recent crisis has shown the importance of better protection for savers. ALFI would like to show that UCITS funds already offer highly significant protection. Our ambition is to meet these challenges, and is based on two strong convictions: on the one hand, funds are beneficial for all; and on the other, Luxembourg is good for funds,” the president of ALFI, Marc Saluzzi, says.A reference document, “ALFI Ambition Paper 2011-2015,” translates these two convictions into five objectives: to ensure that UCITS funds remain the standard for savings investor protection; to help fund managers and institutional investors to participate in the development of regulated alternative funds, under the AIFM directive; to stimulate innovation, facilitate international fund distribution, and lastly, to strengthen the position of Luxembourg as a preferred partner in the asset management sector.In order to realise these ambitions, ALFI will work in close collaboration with its members and partners, and with all parties associated with the development of the industry. In the next few months, the action plan will be discussed by the High Market Committee, chaired by Luxembourg’s finance minister, Luc Frieden.

US Federal judge Jed Rakoff has set a limit to the claims of Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee for the business interests of Bernard Madoff. Picard will be allowed to seek only USD83.3m in alleged false profits and USD301m in principal from the owners of the New York Mets baseball team, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, the Wall Street Journal reports. Picard was seeking restitution of USD300m in false profits and USD700m in principal from the two men.In addition to setting a two-year time limit on the case, the judge has required the trustee to provide more conclusive evidence that Wilpon and Katz were wilfully blind to signs of fraud.

Dans un entretien au magazine Option Finance, Didier Bonneau, directeur financier de Vauban Humanis revient sur les chantier en cours au sein de son groupe. Le principal problème que nous rencontrons dans le cadre de Solvabilité 2 consiste à anticiper et à gérer la volatilité du bilan économique, et donc de nos actifs. Dans ce cadre, nous étudions avec Christophe Cattoir la mise en place d’outils de mesure du portefeuille qui nous donnent à la fois sa performance, son niveau de risque et de volatilité en fonction de scénario de stress de marché. Le point essentiel consiste à pouvoir détecter une aggravation ou une amélioration de la situation économique et de voir, lorsqu’un événement non envisagé se produit, comment réagit le portefeuille. Nous souhaitons également consolider notre démarche d’investisseur responsable (IR). La problématique d’IR est apparue dans notre gestion depuis trois ans; notre norme interne d’analyse IR est opérationnelle depuis le début de l’année. Nous souhaitons déployer progressivement cette démarche dans l’ensemble de nos portefeuilles et supports. Par exemple, nous l'étudions actuellement pour le non coté avec deux axes principaux: la santé et le développement régional des régions dans lesquelles Vauban Humanis est présent, comme le Nord ou le Centre. Nous l'étendons aussi aux produits structurés et à la gestion alternative.

Les membres de la Commission européenne devaient encore débattre hier mardi des taux applicables aux transactions financières dans le cadre du projet de taxe qui doit être dévoilé aujourd’hui devant le Parlement européen par leur président, José Manuel Barroso. Le cadre général de la taxe, dont l’entrée en vigueur est prévue pour 2014, est proche de ce qu’avaient proposé le ministre de l’Economie français François Baroin et son homologue allemand Wolfgang Schaüble le 9 septembre. Mais le taux, différent pour dérivés, d’un côté, et actions et obligations, de l’autre, continuait de diviser le collège. Pour être adoptée au niveau de l’Union européenne, cette proposition, à l’instar de toute législation fiscale,devra être acceptée par les 27 ministres des Finances de l’Union européenne. Le projet rencontre des résistances, notamment en Grande-Bretagne, en Suède et aux Pays-Bas.

Le gouvernement français va créer pour 2012 une taxe exceptionnelle pour les industriels soumis aux quotas de dioxyde de carbone (CO2), a confié hier à Reuters une source gouvernementale, confirmant une information du quotidien Le Figaro. Cette taxe sera assise sur leur chiffre d’affaires hors taxe, à un taux variant entre 0,08% et 0,12%, et elle devrait rapporter près de 250 millions d’euros, indiquait hier soir le journal sur son site internet. Les électriciens, en première ligne EDF, en payeront le tiers, précisait-il, tandis que «les petits pollueurs, ceux qui ont reçu des quotas pour moins de 60 000 tonnes, en seront exonérés». La source gouvernementale a confirmé la création de cette taxe ainsi que son taux, mais pas le rendement attendu. Le gouvernement doit présenter dans la journée le projet de budget pour 2012 qui vise à ramener le déficit public de la France à 4,5% du produit intérieur brut à la fin de l’an prochain.

La Banque des règlements internationaux, via sa commission «Marchés», a publié un rapport relatif au trading haute fréquence sur les marchés de change. Estimant que ce type de trading aura des implications significatives, le rapport recommande aux régulateurs de développer des contacts appropriés avec les diverses plates-formes de trading, les prime brokers et la communauté du trading algorithmique et haute fréquence.

«De mon point de vue, le programme de rallongement de la maturité, combiné à celui de rachat de MBS, représente une tentative pondérée et progressive d’apporter plus de soutien à la reprise. Ca ne consiste pas à réparer tout ce qui ne va pas dans l'économie mais ça devrait aider», a déclaré hier le président de la Fed d’Atlanta.

Selon les chiffres publiés par la Banque de France, la croissance des crédits aux sociétés non financières en France a maintenu son rythme de croissance (+6,0% en rythme annuel après +6,1%). Le fléchissement des crédits à l’habitat aux ménages s’est parallèlement confirmé (+8,4%, après +8,7% en juillet).

Le rendement d’obligations souveraines italiennes à deux ans a atteint 4,511% lors d’une adjudication du Trésor hier, soit un plus haut depuis juillet 2008. L’Espagne a de son côté émis pour 3,23 milliards d’euros de papier à trois et six mois, consentant également dans les deux cas un rendement plus élevé que lors d’opérations précédentes, avec des taux respectifs de 1,692% et 2,665%.