Bank of America Merrill Lynch has announced the appointment of Michael Terry as global head of capital introduction, in charge of development for these activities for the group. Terry will be based in New York, and will report to John Yalmokas, head of sales of prime brokerage sales for the United States.

The default rate for speculative category businesses worldwide in the month of August was down to 1.8%, from 1.9% the previous month, according to monthly statistics from the ratings agency Moody’s. In the coming months, this percentage is expected to remain at a low level, to finish the year at 1.5%, and then to climb to 1.9% by August 2012. In the United States, the default rate fell to 2.1% in August, compared with 2.3% previously, while it remained unchanged month on month in August, at 1.1% The Standard & Poor’s agency, for its part, reports that the number of defaults by companies monitored by the agency worldwide totalled 28 this year up to the first days of September, compared with 61 in the corresponding period of 2010.

Olivier Gourragne will be leaving Fidelity France on Monday, 12 September. The outgoing president of the asset management firm in Paris, who will announce the name of the company where he will continue his professional career in 15 days, will be replaced by Christophe Gloser. The transition is thus a smooth one, insofar as the new head of the firm is a company insider. Gloser joined the firm in 2001 to create and develop its institutional activities, and in 2008 became director of its banking activities, and then in 2010, director of French commercial activities, including all of Fidelity’s clients: institutionals, businesses, independent financial advisers, and banking and insurance platforms. In practice, Gloser, who had been head of all three units, will not be replaced. “We have made significant recruitments, with the arrival of Cédric Michel and Jean-Marc Didier, who join Laurent Coutanceau,” the president of Fidelity explains. “These three executives have great experience which will allow us to place each activity under their respective sole responsibility.” Gloser, who has been a member of the board of directors for ten years, has perfect knowledge of the business, which will allow him to be operational immediately. Concretely, as he will report directly to Robert Higginbotham, CEO Europe at Fidelity, the new head of the firm, which has EUR2.4bn in assets under management in Paris in the form of open-ended funds (EUR1.7bn) and dedicated funds (EUR700m) plans to continue the ongoing commercial efforts of the firm as decided on in spring, targeting independent financial advisers. In addition to these commercial objectives, Gloser adds that his arrival as head of Fidelity also coincides roughly with the arrival of a new manager in Paris. Bertrand Puiffe, an analyst specialised in French securities, and later Iberian securities at Fidelity, has since 1 August been manager of the FF Nordic Fund, which he took over following unsatisfactory performance of the previous manager. “This appointment is very important, as it confirms the recognised expertise of the European management unit at Fidelity in Paris,” says Gloser. The team now has four managers, including three equity managers, with Victoire de Trogoff and Vincent Durel, and one allocator, in the person of David Ganozzi, also CEO of Fidleity’s French asset management firm. The arrival of the new head of Fidelity in Paris also coincides with the firm’s new brand identity. “Fidelity is becoming Fidelity Worldwide Investment, and is getting a new logo,” Gloser says. “The new identity formally realises our desire to communicate and be transparent with clients.”

Two partners at the hedge fund Tudor Investment Corp, Nigel Whittaker and John Macfarlane, have announced that they will be leaving the firm, and that they are planning to set up their own business, which will invest primarily in emerging markets, Bloomberg reports, citing a message to investors obtained by the agency.The new firm, Zafferano Capital LP, will be based in London, and will invest in equities and bonds from listed and unlisted businesses. The two departing managers will not burn their bridges with Tudor (USD11bn in assets), as their colleagues at the firm will participate in the investment activities of Zafferano, in which they will control a stake.Zafferano, whose asset commitments already total over USD100m, will begin its investment actiivities in early 2012, with two preferred targets, hedge funds and private equity.The new firm will be directed by John Macfarlane, vice chairman of Tudor since 2009, and two co-chief investment officers, Nigel Whittaker, who was a portfolio manager and head of emerging market corporate credit at Tudor, and Brent Do Jong, former CEO of Ashmore Energy International, who will join Zafferano Capital to focus on capital investment in particular.

Amundi is adding to its active global equity management team, with the recruitment of Jason Josefs as senior portfolio manager. He will co-manage the active global equity thematic fund from Amundi, under the direction of Paul-Georges Moucan, head of global equities in London. His appointment brings the active global equity team in London to a total of five investment professionals. Josefs joins from Aviva Investors, where he was head of research in 2007, and was appointed manager of global and diversified equities funds for Aviva in 2008.

The South African group Investec has signed an agreement to acquire the British firm Evolution for a total of GBP233m. The operation will allow Investec to develop both in wealth management activities, with William de Broe, and in investment banking (Evolution Securities). Last month, William de Broe acquired BNP Paribas Private Investment Management (formerly Fortis PIM) from BNP Paribas Wealth Management. Assets under management at BNP Paribas PIM total about GBP1.8bn, which brings assets at William de Broe to about GBP7.8bn (see Newsmanagers of 9 August 2011).

The former head of funds of funds at Henderson Global Investors, Mark Harris, has joined Eden Financial as co-manager of the multi-asset class fund CF Eden Global Multi-Strategy Fund, the firm announced in a statement on 9 September. Harris, who will begin in his new role on Monday, 12 September, will also be in charge of development for the firm’s multi-asset class product range.

According to Asset Servicing Times, UBS Fund Services, which has withdrawn from the UK market, has recruited Gavin Byrnes as its new head for the United Kingdom at its Dublin affiliate, which will be transformed into a transnational multi-product platform.Byrnes, who will be head of alternative asset administration and vehicles domiciled in Dublin from UBS Global Asset Management, will collaborate with the heads of development at the bank, and the client assistance teams in Dublin, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Switzerland, and the United States.Byrne joins from SEB Fund Services, where he was in charge of sales development in Luxembourg.

Since Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer at Pimco and manager of its USD345bn flagship fund, recently made a very bad call with his decision to sell US Treasury bonds, the timing of a decision by Allianz to make its unit nearly completely autonomous has elicited surprise from the asset management industry, the Financial Times observes. The question is whether there is a reason for Allianz to hold onto a firm which is in practice independent, and whether it may not do better to sell off a firm which remains primarily a bond manager, before interest rates start rising.

C-Quadrat Kapitalanlage Ag, a wholly-owned subsidiary of C-Quadrat Investment AG, has announced that it has been awarded management mandates totalling EUR300m by Talanx Asset Management GmbH (which has controlled 25.1% of C-Quadrat Investment since late 2010). The transfer will be finalised during fourth quarter. Menahwile, C-Quadrat and Talanx AM have agreed to found a joint venture to recruit new institutional clients. Each partner will own a 50% stake in the venture. The firm will be based in Frankfurt, and will begin its activities on 1 January 2012. C-Quadrat Kapitalanlage manages about EUR2.8bn in assets.

Hedge funds in the month of August posted a loss of 2.3% according to the most recent statistics from Hedge Fund Research. Since the beginning of the year, hedge funds have posted a negative performance of 1.2% In the month under review, equities and event-driven strategies have seen declines of 4.1% and 3.7%, respectively, for their fourth consecutive month of losses. However, macro and short-biased strategies have seen gains of 0.1% and 6,9%, respectively. Funds of funds have lost 2% in August, putting them down 1.9% since the beginning of the year.

Il Sole 24 Ore reports that Arca, one of the oldest bank-owned asset management firms in Italy, an affiliate of Banco Popolare and Ubi Banca, has approved a restructuring and reorganisation plan for the firm. The plan may involve the sale of the depository bank and some layoffs.

The German analysis firm Absolut Research has studied the performance of 674 absolute return funds (EUR113bn in assets) in July-August, Handelsblatt reports.The results range from gains of 17% to losses of 35% overall, 172 of these products generated positive returns on the crisis period, and losses were higher than 10% for only 50 funds. By comparison, the Dax lost 18.2%, and the MSCI World index lost 7.4%.The winner was the AC Spectrum Fund from Aquila Capital, while the worst results were for equity products, which lost an average of 5.9% in the two months under review.

Dans un entretien accordé à Option Finance, Philippe Goubeault, directeur financier de l’AGIRC ARRCO revient sur les aménagements en cours de réflexion au sein des fédérations Agirc et Arrco: Concernant la construction des portefeuilles, les instances ont demandé à la direction financière de poursuivre différentes études. Une question portera notamment sur l’intérêt d’une déclinaison de l’allocation stratégique d’actifs en incorporant dans un indice composite de référence des composantes de diversification (par exemple, un niveau de duration, un poids donné à la diversification internationale, etc.). Les dispositions du règlement financier seront réexaminées, en vue d’une mise à jour, notamment celles relatives à la diversification (notation minimale des titres, accès aux dettes des pays émergents...). Une institution ne peut pas aujourd’hui investir plus de 5% en titres notés BBB, et ne doit détenir aucun titre en dessous de cette note. Les critères de notation pour la partie taux ne seront vraisemblablement pas desserrés, mais il pourrait être envisagé une reclassification des investissements de crédit dans la partie des placements actions et assimilés, comme cela existe déjà dans certaines réglementations. La question se pose aussi pour les obligations convertibles qui sont affectées selon notre réglementation dans la partie taux. La contrainte d’une noté égale ou supérieure à BBB a pour conséquence de priver les institutions de près de 90% du marché des convertibles. Une étude sera également menée sur les indices de référence susceptibles d'être retenus par classes d’actifs, notamment une réflexion sur les principes de construction, par exemple, les avantages et inconvénients des indices construits en fonction de critères fondamentaux par rapport aux indices fondés sur l’importance des capitalisations ou émissions.

Global Logistic Properties (GLP), filiale du fonds souverain de Singapour (GIC), prépare la cotation de ses actifs japonais, une opération qui lui permettrait de lever au moins 100 milliards de yens (950 millions d’euros), a rapporté Reuters de sources proches du dossier. GLP a mandaté Citigroup, Goldman Sachs et Nomura comme souscripteurs principaux.

Directeur général d’HSBC à Hong Kong, Mark McCombe va prendre la responsabilité des activités de BlackRock sur le continent asiatique. Le gestionnaire d’actifs pourra compter sur son expérience, puisqu’il a dirigé HSBC Asset Management pendant plusieurs années. Il a notamment été en charge d’HSBC AM Europe à Paris, au début des années 2000 après le rachat du CCF.

Les autorités américaines disposent désormais de données statistiques en provenance de dix banques suisses soupçonnées par la justice d’avoir aidé leurs clients basés aux Etats-Unis à frauder le fisc, a rapporté samedi le Neue Zürcher Zeitung. TagesAnzeiger, un autre journal suisse, a écrit de son côté que les banques suisses ont maintenant jusqu’au 23 septembre pour fournir des informations plus spécifiques sur leurs clients.

Yves Maillot, directeur investissements et actions chez Robeco Gestions

Maryannick Plomion, gérante diversifiée chez AllianzGI Investments Europe

Christophe Besson, directeur des gestions chez CM-CIC Asset Management

Athènes collectera via les factures d'électricité un nouvel impôt sur l'immobilier. Berlin ne considère plus le défaut comme un sujet tabou

C’est la dernière chose dont l’Europe avait besoin, une crise au sein de la BCE qui a conduit à la démission de son chef économiste, Jürgen Stark. Même si des « raisons personnelles » peuvent expliquer cette initiative sans précédent, son occurrence au paroxysme de la crise de la dette souveraine est désastreuse. Jürgen Stark n’était pas favorable à l’intervention de la BCE sur le marché de la dette souveraine. Il considérait, selon un courant de pensée très répandu outre-Rhin, que la banque centrale n’a pas à intervenir sur le terrain fiscal, et qu’il revient aux seuls gouvernements de faire les efforts budgétaires nécessaires pour retrouver la confiance des investisseurs. Les arguments avancés par justifier l’intervention - d’opportunité d’abord face à la carence des Etats, de légalité, de modération s’agissant des montants engagés, et d’efficacité -, tout comme son caractère temporaire, ne l’ont pas convaincu. Après le renoncement d’Axel Weber à briguer la succession de Jean-Claude Trichet, ce départ a toutes chances d’être perçu comme un nouveau signe d’érosion de l’influence allemande au sein de la BCE. La polémique outre-Rhin s’annonce virulente. Jean-Claude Trichet a sans doute l’autorité qu’il faut pour y résister. Mais pour son successeur italien, Mario Draghi, assurer une gouvernance harmonieuse de l’institution s’annonce très difficile. En Allemagne, où l’on regrette volontiers la Bundesbank, la BCE est entrée dans l’ère du soupçon.

Le plan de 447 milliards de dollars qui doit encore être validé par le parti d'opposition, ne dynamiserait le PIB que de 0,5 % en 2012 selon BNP Paribas

Anne Velot, responsable de l’équipe crédit Europe chez Axa IM

Vincent Guenzi, directeur de la stratégie chez Cholet-Dupont

Le PIB de l’Archipel s’est finalement contracté de 0,5 % au deuxième trimestre, pénalisé par la force du yen et le ralentissement de l’économie mondiale

Leur avant-projet vient d'être adressé à Bruxelles. Différentes assiettes et taux sont évoqués, sur le spectre le plus large possible de transactions

Avec une limite à 1.765 points, l’indice est probablement entré dans la dernière phase de la correction baissière engagée en février

L’économiste en chef de la banque centrale souligne ainsi son opposition au programme de rachat de dettes souveraines, très mal perçu en Allemagne

Le déficit du budget de l’Etat français s'établit à 86,6 milliards d’euros à fin juillet contre 93,1 milliards un an plus tôt, selon les données publiées vendredi par le ministère du Budget. L'évolution d’une année sur l’autre est marquée notamment par une dégradation de 10,9 milliards du solde des comptes spéciaux, liée principalement aux décaissements du prêt octroyé à la Grèce. Le solde du budget général s’est parallèlement amélioré de 17,4 milliards d’euros.