Investment funds showed reduced activity in late August, in a market context that remained agitated, considerably reducing investors’ appetite for risk, and consequently also investment flows. According to the most recent statistics from EPFR Global, equity funds posted inflows of USD6.02bn in the week to 31 August, while US and German equity funds accounted for most subscriptions. The prospects of a further round of quantitative easing in the United States, and attractive valuations stimulated a net inflow of more than USD6bn to US equity funds, for a total of over USD11bn in the first two weeks of August. However, 95% of inflows went to ETF funds, as actively-managed funds fell into disfavour, except funds dedicated to midcaps. Since the beginning of the year, US equity funds showed an outflow of USD28bn, whereas in early May, they showed a net inflows of over USD35bn. The last week in August brought a net inflow to funds dedicated to European equities, but as has frequently been the case since the beginning of the year, engagements from institutional investors to German equity funds were offset by a further wave of redemptions from retail clients for most other fund categories. In emerging markets equity funds, outflows slowed further, to a total of USD590m, while Asia ex Japan funds, Latin America funds, EMEA funds and global emerging markets equity funds in the month of August saw redemptions totalling nearly USD8bn. Money market funds posted a net inflow of USD3.12bn in the week to 31 August, while bond funds saw a net outflow of USD791bn.

Net inflows to funds in July were at their lowest levels since October 2008, following the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, according to statistics from the British Invesment Management Association (IMA). Net inflows totalled GBP936m, compared with GBP2.4bn in July 2010, and below a monthly average of GBP2.3bn for the past twelve months. Equity funds saw net redemptions for the first time since February 2009, totalling GBP114m, compared with an average monthly net inflow of GBP676m in the past twelve months.

As of 30 June, assets in the Swedish pension fund Första AP Fonden (AP1) had increased to SEK221.6bn (EUR24.3bn) from SEK218.8bn as of 31 December 2010. In its half-yearly report, AP1 states that net revenue from its investments totalled SEK3.02bn in January-June, compared with SEK2.33bn in the corresponding period of last year, and SEK20.52bn in 2010 overall. AP1 reduced its exposure to equities to 53.6% as of the end of June, from 60.3% as of the end of December, which resulted in a reduction of SEK11bn in the allocation to this asset class. Most of that amount was reallocated to bonds, whose percentage of the portfolio increased to 38.2% from 32.5%. Exposure to alternative investments was increased to 8.3% from 7.8% six months earlier. The currency allocation was reduced to 23% of the total, from 24%. The pension fund also states that the proportion of its assets managed externally as of the end of June had been reduced to 41.3% from 43.7% six months earlier. Lastly, the report states that the turbulence on equity markets worldwide provoked a drop in the value of its investments. However, the impact was limited by the fact that the allocation to equities had been reduced in first half.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Hong Kong Securities & Futures Commission (SFC) has received an anonymous complaint that Carl Huttenlocher and some of his colleagues incorrectly valued certain illiquid assets at the peak of the financial crisis, when they were working at Highbridge, a hedge fund management firm owned by JPMorgan. The SFC has opened an investigation, and is seeking further information, which has delayed the issuance of a hedge fund license for a fund that Huttenlocher, former CIO for Asia at Highbridge, was planning to launch.

Banque Havilland has recently completed its acquisition of Dexia Private Bank Monaco from Dexia Banque Internationale of Luxembourg. Dexia Private Bank Monaco will be renamed as Banque Havilland (Monaco), and will develop its current activities with an emphasis on wealth management services aimed at high net worth clients in Monaco. The new entity will be fully operational by the end of fourth quarter 2011.

The real estate unit of Deutsche Bank, RREEF, has recruited Rahul Ghai as head of investment activities for the firm in South-East Asia, Asian Investor reports. The position is newly created, and is a sign of RREEF’s ambition to develop its activities in the Asia-Pacific region. Ghai previously worked at Standard Chartered Bank.

Schroders strengthens its GBP35 billion FUM Multi-Asset business with the appointment of Matthias Scheiber. He starts at Schroders on 8th September 2011, joining a team of over 60 multi-asset investment professionals globally and will report to the Head of Multi-Asset Investments, Johanna Kyrklund. Matthias Scheiber joins from Aethra Asset Management, where he was a Fund Manager and partner. There he was responsible for managing absolute return mandates and a hedge fund, as well as setting up a qualitative and quantitative investment process. Prior to joining Aethra Asset Management, Matthias Scheiber was a Tactical Asset Allocation Portfolio Manager and Strategist at Fortis Investments within BNP Paribas Investment Partners.

BlackRock has announced that Ingo Heinen has joined the company as managing director within BlackRock Alternative Investors. He joins the Alternative Investment Strategy Group, a team that works closely with the client coverage and portfolio management teams to develop, position and promote BlackRock’s alternative investment solutions.Based in London, Mr. Heinen reports to Rick Arney, BlackRock’s head of hedge funds and head of the Alternative Investment Strategy Group.Most recently Mr. Heinen managed Institutional Equity Derivatives and Fund-Linked Sales for Germany and Austria at the Royal Bank of Scotland. Previously he spent more than 10 years at Merrill Lynch and Nomura structuring and selling alternative products.

Franklin Templeton Global Investors has bought the asset manager Rensburg Fund Management from Investec for GBP45m in cash (see Newsmanagers of 19 November 2010). From 17 October 2011, the Rensburg brand will disappear, to be replaced by Franklin Templeton Fund Management, and the six funds from the firm will adopt the name Franklin UK as a prefix to their names. The Rensburg UK Blue Chip Growth Trust, Equity Income Trust, Managers’ focus trust, Mid Cap Growth Trust, Select Growth Trust and Smaller Companies Trust will retain their names, but Rensburg UK will be replaced by Franklin UK. In addition, these unit trusts will convert to OEIC status. The asset management teams at Rensburg will retain their full independence, says Ian Wilkins, head of distribution at Franklin Templeton. The firm has also announced that Alex Brotherston, based in Leeds, has been promoted to head of advisory sales and strategic partnership. He was been recruited from Aegon Asset Management. Peter Jackson will become business development manager for northern England and Scotland. Fraser Wildgoose has been confirmed as head of discretionary sales; he had recently joined Kevin Lloyd at Henderson Global Investors. Lloyd will begin at Franklin Templeton on 19 September as business development manager for key accounts.

State Street announced on 5 September that it has been appointed by the Danish pension fund Industriens Pensionsforsikring A/S (Industriens Pension) to provide analysis services for private equity fund investments. Industriens Pension is a top-calibre Scandinavian investor in alternative investments. The fund is invested in more than 125 different private funds, including investments in private equity, infrastructure, and real estate. As of the end of June 2011, assets under management by Industriens Pension totalled DKK87bn, or about EUR12bn.

Allianz has announced a new name for its asset management division - Allianz Asset Management - and a new corporate structure effective January 1, 2012, which will more clearly define two discrete investment management businesses, namely PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors. Allianz Global Investors will build upon its existing business, now driven under global leadership, with one AllianzGI strategy. PIMCO will continue its evolution as a complete provider of global investment solutions across asset classes to its clients, and will now become responsible for distribution of its products to client segments in Europe and Asia Pacific markets, as is already the case in the US and with institutional clients globally. «The significant overall scale of Allianz’s asset management business now (EUR 1.4 trillion assets under management (AuM)) has been driven by the outstanding, consistent growth of PIMCO since it became part of Allianz more than 11 years ago. At the same time, the investment firms of AllianzGI and RCM have also achieved notable growth rates, supported by remarkable product development and client coverage across 19 markets globally», says a press release. This new structure will enable both asset management businesses to best tailor products and solutions to meet their clients’ needs.The changes follow the development that began in the US market last year whereby the distribution of PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors products has been separated. Jay Ralph, member of the Board of Management of Allianz SE, will become chairman of Allianz Asset Management on January 1, 2012 upon Joachim Faber’s retirement.He will establish and chair a global executive committee of Allianz’s Asset Management division comprising: Elizabeth Corley, CEO-designate of Allianz Global Investors; Douglas Hodge, COO of PIMCO; and Thomas Naumann, who will become CFO of Allianz Asset Management, joining from Allianz SE where he is currently Head of Group Planning and Controlling. 

Marna Whittington, who until April of this year was COO of Allianz Global Investors AG and has remained CEO of Allianz Global Investors Capital LLC, has decided to retire at the end of the year. A global management committee will also be created to promote a globally aligned product strategy and the development of global solutions covering risk management advice, fiduciary management and pensions solutions.

Shin-Woo Kang, head of the Korean asset manager Hanwha Asset Management (Hanwha AMC), born of the merger of Hanwha Investment Trust Management and Prudential Financial, which will begin its operations on 19 September, has told Asian Investor that he would like to forge partnerships with foreign managers to develop new products. With assets under management of about KRW17trn, or about USD16bn, the new entity will be one of the six largest asset management firms in the country.

BNY Mellon renforce sa division dédiée aux œuvres de charité, le Charitable Gift Service group. La banque américaine a recruté Sally Rubin au poste de directrice des investissements de CGS Investments. L’intéressée était auparavant vice présidente au sein de Frontier Capital Management.

Natixis Global Asset Management (NGAM) has bought a majority stake in Darius Capital Partners, a company founded in 2004 specialising in investment advisory. Based in Paris with offices in New York, Darius selects investment vehicles to offer alternative investment solutions to institutional investors. As the other units of NGAM, Darius keeps its independence for the development of its investment solutions and strategies. But the company will use NGAM’s ressources in marketing and international distribution.

Natixis Global Asset Management (NGAM) a annoncé, mardi 6 septembre, l’acquisition d’une participation majoritaire de Darius Capital Partners. Fondée en 2004 par Reza Ghodsi, président et gérant associé, et Mathieu Klein, directeur général et gérant associé, Darius est une société de conseil en investissement qui fournit des solutions sur mesure en matière de hedge funds auprès des investisseurs institutionnels. Basée à Paris et disposant de bureaux à New York, Darius sélectionne des véhicules d’investissement, parmi lesquels des OPCVM, des comptes gérés, des hedge funds, des fonds de fonds, des réplicateurs de hedge funds et des ETFs afin de fournir des solutions d’investissements alternatives à ses clients. Pierre Servant, directeur général de Natixis Global Asset Management, a déclaré : «Au sein de notre organisation multi-boutique, Darius est la première de nos sociétés à se consacrer exclusivement au conseil en investissement. Elle apporte une expertise, des outils de pointe et une approche en architecture ouverte qui permet à NGAM d’accroître sa capacité à fournir aux investisseurs institutionnels des conseils en matière d’investissements alternatifs, quelle que soit la solution requise au final. »À l’instar de toutes les filiales du modèle multi-boutique de NGAM, Darius conserve son indépendance pour la conception de ses solutions et sa stratégie d’investissement. La société s’appuiera sur les moyens déployés par NGAM pour le marketing et la distribution internationale de ses produits. De son côté, Darius compte élargir son champ d’action et d'étendre sa présence en Europe, au Moyen-Orient et en Asie, tout en maintenant sonindépendance en matière de conseil et d’approche consulting.

With the bad economic news of last week, bond managers are resigned to the notion that the Fed will soon launch further quantitative easing measures, the Wall Street Journal reports. The most likely scenario will be that the Fed will sell short-term Treasury notes, and buy long-term Treasury notes.

Reuters croit savoir que la banque d’investissement australienne pourrait s’associer avec un autre candidat pour formuler une offre sur l’activité de location d’avions mise en vente par Royal Bank of Scotland, pour une valeur voisine de six milliards de dollars. Le premier tour d’enchères, qui suscite l’intérêt d’«autres acteurs asiatiques», devrait se tenir cette semaine.

Le Serious Fraud Office a lancé une enquête sur des ventes d’obligations adossées à des crédits immobiliers (ABS) par des établissements bancaires dans le cadre d’un «exercice de cadrage» afin de rassembler des informations sur la manière dont le marché fonctionne.

Alors que selon la presse suisse, les Etats-Unis ont fixé un ultimatum à la Suisse pour qu’elle lui communique des éléments sur des clients américains disposant de comptes dans des banques suisses pour échapper au fisc, l’Association des banquiers suisses a plaidé lundi pour une solution à l’amiable. Elle cite comme exemples des accords fiscaux passés avec l’Allemagne et la Grande-Bretagne.

Amundi et sa filiale Amundi Private Equity Funds ont cédé leur participation dans le fonds secondaire, dont la valeur atteint 161 millions de dollars. L’acquéreur, Abraaj Capital, reprend la gestion du fonds, ainsi que l'équipe constituée de onze membres du groupe Amundi. Le cabinet Ashurst a conseillé les vendeurs.

Un projet de directive révisée, consulté par L’Agefi, crée une nouvelle catégorie de Bourses et veut ouvrir l’accès aux services de compensation

Les indicateurs se tendent sur le marché interbancaire et les CDS continuent à s'écarter

Le projet de directive MIF, consulté par « L'Agefi », crée notamment une nouvelle catégorie de Bourses qui « légalise » les plates-formes existantes

Les indicateurs se tendent sur le marché interbancaire et les CDS continuent à s'écarter

Le total des actifs des banques représente désormais autour de 200 % du PIB en moyenne, et même davantage en France, contre 75 % aux Etats-Unis

La volatilité n’est pas inhabituelle en période de révision des anticipations de croissance. Elle rappelle la situation du printemps 2010

Le premier ministre français, François Fillon, aurait proposé d’acquérir des combustibles nucléaires provenant de la centrale nucléaire de Fukushima, irradiés lors de la catastrophe du 11 mars dernier, indique le journal qui cite des propos de l’ancien ministre des finances, Naoto Kan. Le gouvernement japonais serait en train d'étudier cette offre.

Le nouveau gouvernement de Libye examinerait si des paiements effectués par la Société Générale, dans le cadre de ses relations avec le fonds souverain du pays, auraient bénéficié à des proches de Mouammar Kadhafi. La banque aurait payé un montant non connu à une société localisée au Panama, Leinada, pour structurer et conseiller un investissement d’un milliard de dollars dans un véhicule financier, selon des sources du journal.

Le président Barack Obama entend lancer un grand programme d’investissements en infrastructures et maintenir la baisse de charges sociales

Le maintien d'une politique monétaire accommodante devrait être entériné vendredi par les ministres des Finances et banquiers centraux