Janus Capital International Limited, la branche internationale de Janus Capital Group, vient de lancer le Janus Asia Fund, un compartiment de sa gamme basée à Dublin. Il sera investi à hauteur d’au moins 80 % de ses actifs dans les marchés émergents et développés d’Asie, à l’exception du Japon. Le portefeuille se composera de 60-100 positions et s’autorisera un écart de suivi (tracking error) de 3-7 % par rapport à son indice de référence, le MSCI All Country Asia ex-Japan. Créé le 31 août, le fonds est géré par Hiroshi Yoh, qui a rejoint récemment Janus à Singapour, en provenance de Tokio Marine Asset Management, en fonction d’une approche bottom up GARP (growth at a reasonable price).

Marco Strimer reprendra la direction des opérations de la Banque Sarasin & Cie SA à compter du 1er novembre, a annoncé la société le 6 septembre dans un communiqué. Il était précédemment le CEO de SIX x-clear SA. Marco Strimer succède à Julius Zuercher, qui prendra sa retraite à la fin 2011 après 44 ans d’activité dans le secteur bancaire, dont douze à la Banque Sarasin.

Le gérant du fonds European Growth (641 millions de livres d’actifs) de Royal London Asset Management (RLAM), Kevin Lilley, va rejoindre Old Mutual Asset Management (OMAM).Kevin Lilley devrait prendre ses fonctions le mois prochain. Il va piloter le fonds d’actions européennes (European Equity fund) dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à 71 millions de livres. Kevin Lilley, qui pratique une gestion de conviction, devrait également aider le groupe à développer son offre de fonds d’actions. Le fonds European Growth, que Kevin Lilley gère depuis juillet 2001, a dégagé un rendement annualisé de 5% sur dix ans. Sur la même période, le European Equity fund, lancé en 1998, a réalisé une performance annualisée de 4,4%.

Le groupe Amundi a annoncé, mardi 6 septembre, le lancement d’une nouvelle série de huit ETF sur le marché britannique, ce qui porte à quarante-et-un le nombre total de produits de la maison disponibles sur le London Stock Exchange (« LSE »). Dans le détail, sept produits, indexés sur les indices MSCI, offrent des expositions aux marchés émergents différentes dont certains à un seul marché tandis que d’autres se calent sur des régions émergentes et qu’un dernier ETF a pour exposition les marchés émergents mondiaux. Ainsi, l’offre est composée de : - Amundi ETF MSCI Brazil , Amundi ETF MSCI China et Amundi ETF MSCI India qui permettent aux investisseurs de s’exposer aux indices composés de titres phares dans ces trois pays. Ces ETF sont offerts avec un total frais sur encours (TFE) de 0,55 %. - Amundi ETF MSCI EM Asia, Amundi ETF MSCI EM Latin America et Amundi ETF MSCI Eastern Europe ex Russia qui offrent une exposition aux principales régions à travers le monde. Ces trois ETF sont proposés avec un TFE de 0,45 %.- Amundi ETF MSCI Emerging Markets qui vise à répliquer la performance de son indice de référence, le MSCI Emerging Markets. Cet ETF permet de s’exposer à près de 20 pays émergents et couvre environ 85% de la capitalisation boursière de chaque pays. Son TFE est de 0,45 %. D’autre part, Amundi ETF lance Amundi ETF Real Estate REIT IEIF, qui donne une exposition au marché immobilier européen en ayant pour objectif de répliquer l’évolution de l’indice Euronext IEIF REIT Europe. Cet indice est composé d’un panier de près de 25 valeurs liquides foncières européennes cotées ayant opté pour le régime REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust). Les caractéristiques des ETF peuvent être consultées en cliquant sur le lien : www.amundietf.com .

Gareth Lewis a été recruté comme head of investment management chez Bestinvest, rapporte Fundweb. L’intéressé était head of investment management chez UBS pour le Royaume-Uni.Cela posé, Graham Frost a signé le 6 septembre son «Market Update» en tant que CIO de Bestinvest.

Le groupe de capital-investissement britannique 3i, dont l’action vient d'être radiée du Footsie, souffre de la désaffection des marchés pour toutes les valeurs financières, mais se tient moins bien que ses pairs, rapporte Les Echos. Certains analystes estiment néanmoins la baisse du cours exagérée.

EFG Asset Management (EFGAM) UK a officiellement ouvert ses portes le 6 septembre. Il s’agit de la nouvelle filiale d’EFG International dont le CIO, Moz Afzal, basé à Londres, est également le CEO, rapporte Fundweb.

Après presque un an de «soft-closing», le guichet des souscriptions du compartiment European High Yield Bond Fund de la sicav luxembourgeoise Nordea 1 a été rouvert le 5 septembre. Officiellement, ce fonds (LU0141799097) de 1,15 milliard d’euros n’est plus contraint à présent par sa taille, grâce à l'élargissement du marché européen des obligations à haut rendement qui a été nourri par un volume record d'émissions. Dans la pratique, il semble aussi que l’encours se soit dégonflé quelque peu, ce qui laisse d’autant plus de marge pour accepter de nouvelles souscriptions.Nordea observe que les doutes quant à la solvabilité de certains pays occidentaux et l’anticipation d’un ralentissement de la croissance mondiale ont provoqué une forte remontée des spreads sur le marché des obligations à haut rendement. L'équipe de gestion externe que dirige Henrik Østergaard souligne ainsi qu’en août l’OAS (Option Adjusted Spread) s’est écarté de 237 points de base, à 852 points. Ce niveau de spread permet en théorie de compenser un taux de défaut de plus de 10% alors que le taux de défaut se limite actuellement à 2%.

Compared with the most recent official statistics from the BVI association of asset managers, for June, German equity funds saw a decline in August of more than 20% in their assets. Assets under management have also declined for other asset classes. On the basis of average commissions, experts at the Kommalpha agency in Hanover estimate that fund “producers” have seen an arithmetic loss in their revenues of EUR500m in annualised terms, due to the turbulence on the financial markets. This loss will aggravate pressure on asset managers which in the recent years have undergone a noticeable erosion of their margins and a deterioration in their profit situation.In first half, total assets in funds in Germany (including institutional funds, or Spezialfonds), increased by EUR5.01bn, to a total of EUR1.52753trn. Assets under management in Spezialfonds increased by EUR20.18bn in six months, to EUR832.66bn. Overall, funds have seen net subscriptions of EUR13.33bn (but Spezialfonds have attracted EUR16.95bn), while market effects have been negative overall by EUR8.32bn (though the figure was positive by EUR3.23bn for Spezialfonds).Kommalpha also observes that professional and institutional investors are currently tending to withdraw from open-ended funds, or to partially trade these in favour of ETFs. However, retail investors are more radical in their decisions: as in the period from 2008 to 2009, many of these investors are tending to completely withdraw from funds. In the last crisis, the asset management sector lost 1.3 million retail clients.

Marco Strimer will take over as chief operations officer at Banque Sarasin & Cie SA from 1 November, the firm announced in a statement on 6 September. Strimer had previously been CEO of SIX x-clear SA. Strimer succeeds Julius Zuercher, who will be retiring in late 2011 after 44 years of activity in the banking sector, including twelve years at Banque Sarasin.

Franklin Templeton Investments controls 2% of the Italian asset management firm Azimut Holding, within its asset management activities, Bluerating reports, citing the Italian market regulator, Consob.

Moudy El Khodr, who had been one of the high dividend strategy managers at ING Investment Managers, has joined the Belgian asset management firm Petercam. He will dedicate himself to the dividend strategy in the institutional management team, with Olivier Hertoghe, who has been manager of the Petercam Equities Europe Dividend fund since its launch, and Kris Hermie, who joined the team in December 2010.At Petercam, El Khodr will manage a dividend fund dedicated to the United States, the US Dividend, which will soon be launched. In reality, the fund is the former North American Equities fund, which will be reconverted. The fund currently has assets of EUR15m, and comes as an addition to a range which already includes two funds, the Petercam Equities Europe Dividend, focused on Europe, with a total of EUR350m in assets as of the end of August, and the Petercam Real Estate Europe Dividend, focused on the European real estate sector, with EUR73m in assets. The family of products, logically enough, is expected to be complemented in the near future by a global dividend fund.The product range from Petercam will also gain a wealth-management fund, launched in early 2011, which will be released for sale in a year’s time. The Petercam L Patrimonial fund, managed by Maarten Geerdink, formerly of Brevan Howard, is currently in a testing phase, with EUR25m in seed capital from the Petercam private bank.The Brussels-based manager also states that in May it recruited an eleventh equities analyst. Bert Talloen becomes a buy-side analyst for the insurance and diversified financials segments (including asset management). He had previously been a financial analyst at Dexia AM.Lastly, the Belgian firm has signed up to the UN-PRI, and to the Eurosif principles for sustainable equity and government bond funds.Additions to sales forceIn sales, Petercam is also scaling up its teams. The Belgian asset manager now has two people in charge of responding to RFPs: Jurgen Vluijmans, Head of RFP & Communications joined last month, and Aurore Goethals, who was recruited earlier this year.Two sales staff have also recently been recruited: Amparo Ruiz Campo, who will work in Madrid with the support of the head of Spain, Brussels-based Tomás Murillo (who also covers the Belgian market), and Thomas Meyer, who will handle the German market from Frankfurt, as a support to Bernard Jans.Eventually, Petercam is planning to recruit two local employees for sales in Italy, where it plans to open an office, as it has planned for Spain and Germany. In addition, the Belgian asset manager is planning to recruit in Switzerland, where the group is already present via its private bank.

The wealth management unit of the Royal Bank of Canada, RBC Wealth Management, has appointed Hilary May as head of its Singapore arm, RBC Trust Company Singapore, which recived a license in July this year, Asian Investor reports. RBC Wealth Management, which has assets under administration of CAD575bn, and assets under management of over CAD300bn, is planning other senior recruitments in emerging markets.

The manager of the European Growth fund (GBP641m in assets) at Royal London Asset Management (RLAM), Kevin Lilley, will be joining Old Mutual Asset Management (OMAM). Lilley will begin in his new role next month. He will be manager of the European Equity fund, whose assets under management total GBP71m. Lilley, who practices a conviction-based management, will also assist the group to develop its range of equity funds. The European Growth fund, which Lilley has managed since July 2001, has earned annualised returns of 5% over ten years. In the same period, the European Equity fund, launched in 1998, earned annualised returns of 4.4%.

The cost of a Euro break-up would be extremely high, and far higher than the price of bailing it out, a recent research from UBS Investment Research shows.The cost of a weak country leaving the Euro is significant. Consequences include sovereign default, corporate default, collapse of the banking system and collapse of international trade. UBS estimate that a weak Euro country leaving the Euro would incur a cost of around EUR9,500 to EUR11,500 per person in the exiting country during the first year.That cost would then probably amount to EUR3,000 to EUR4,000 per person per year over subsequent years. That equates to a range of 40% to 50% of GDP in the first year. If Germany were to leave, UBS believe the cost to be around EUR6,000 to EUR8,000 for every German adult and child in the first year, and a range of EUR3,500 to EUR4,500 per person per year thereafter. That is the equivalent of 20% to 25% of GDP in the first year. In comparison, the cost of bailing out Greece, Ireland and Portugal entirely in the wake of the default of those countries would be a little over EUR1,000 per person, in a single hit.

The Luxembourg affiliate of the German private bank Hauck & Aufhäuser (H&A) on 6 September announced the launch of the fund of wealth-management fund Diversified Strategic Asset Allocation Funds Saphir, a multi-strategy and multi-manager product whose currency of reference is the euro. The advisor for the product is the independent wealth manager performance IMC, based in Mannheim.The performance objective for the fund, which aims for a 60/40 balance between equities and bonds, is 4%. The portfolio may invest in equity and bond funds (corporate bonds, high yield) as well as UCITS-compliant absolute return funds and hedge funds.CharacteristicsName: Diversified Strategic Asset Allocation Funds SaphirISIN code: LU0635707374Front-end fee: maximum 4%Management commission: maximum 1.25%Depository banking commission: 0.08% maximumPerformance commission: 20% of performance exceeding 4%, with high watermark

After nearly a year in soft closing, subscriptions to the European High Yield Bond Fund, a sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav Nordea 1, were reopened on 5 September. Officially, the fund (LU0141799097), with EUR1.15bn in assets, is now no longer constrained by its size, due to the enlargement of the European high yield bond market due to a record number of issues. In practice, it also appears that assets have somewhat declined, which leaves more room for the fund to accept new subscriptions.Nordea observes that concerns about the solvency of some Western countries, and anticipation of a slowdown in global growth have provoked a sharp increase in spreads on the high yield bond market. The external management team, led by Henrik Østergaard, points out that in August, the Option Adjusted Spread (OAS) widened by 237 basis points, to 852 points. This spread level theoretically makes it possible to offset a default rate of over 10%, though the default rate is currently only 2%.

Handelsblatt reports that Goldman Sachs has submitted an application to the SEC for its first US-registered ETF fund. It would be an equity product, which would replicate an index, weighted according to the book value and ROE or dividends, not to market cap. Goldman Sachs is also planning bond and wealth-management type ETFs.

HSBC Global Asset Management is launching the HSBC Global Investment Funds-China Consumer Opportunities, which it describes as the first international equity fund in Hong Kong to invest both in local and international companies that profit from growth in consumer spending in China, Asian Investor reports. According to estimates by HSBC, consumer spending in China is expected to exceed US consumer spending by 2020, when the Chinese middle class will have expanded to include 700 people, up from 400 million currently. The fund will invest in mid and large caps in a wide range of sectors, including automotive, electronics, fashion, general retail, and jewellery. 50% to 70% of the assets in the portfolio will be invested in luxury brands, with a 30% to 50% proportion invested in less high-end local and international brands.

Janus Capital International Limited, the international arm of Janus Capital Group Inc., has launched the Janus Asia Fund, part of its Dublin-domiciled Janus Capital Funds plc range. The Fund’s investment objective is long-term growth of capital by investing at least 80% of its assets in emerging and developed markets in Asia – with the exception of Japan and uses the MSCI All Country Asia ex-Japan Index as its benchmark. It will consist of between 60-100 holdings and will have a tracking error range to benchmark of between 3-7%. The fund which was launched on 31 August, 2011 will be managed by Singapore-based Janus portfolio manager, Hiroshi Yoh.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking to determine if ETFs amplified the volatility on the markets in August, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter. It is concentrating on leveraged ETFs, which amplify investors’ bets, often through the use of derivatives. ETFs now generate 35% to 40% of market volumes, according to Morningstar. In the first two weeks of August, leveraged ETFs represented about 13% of total ETF volumes.

Gareth Lewis has been recruited as head of investment management at Bestinvest, Fundweb reports. Lewis had been head of investment management for the United Kingdom at UBS. Meanwhile, Graham Frost on 6 September signed his “Market Update” as CIO of Bestinvest.

The British private equity group 3i has been punished by the market’s disaffection with all financial sector shares, but is doing worse than its counterparts, Les Echos reports. Some analysts estimate that the drop in its share price is exaggerated, however.

EFG Asset Management (EFGAM) UK officially opened for business on 6 September. It is a new affiliate of EFG International, whose CIO, Moz Afzal, based in London, is also CEO, Fundweb reports.

Un groupe d’investisseurs institutionnels représentant quelque 1.300 milliards de dollars d’actifs ont annoncé le 6 septembre le lancement des Principes de l’investissement responsable dans l’agriculture (Farmland Principles) avec l’objectif d’améliorer les aspects développement durable, transparence et responsabilité des investissements dans l’agriculture. Ces principes ont été mis au point et adoptés par plusieurs grandes institutions, le suédois AP2, les néerlandais ABP et APG, le danois ATP, les britanniques BT Pension Scheme et Hermes EOS, le néerlandais PGGM et l’américain TIAA-CREF, tous signataires des Principes pour l’investissement responsable des Nations Unies (UN-PRI). Ces principes sont les suivants: - Promoting environmental sustainability (Principle 1) - Respecting labour and human rights (Principle 2) - Respecting existing land and resource rights (Principle 3) - Upholding high business and ethical standards (Principle 4) - Reporting on activities and progress toward implementing and promoting the principles (Principle 5)

Henderson Global Investors (HGI) now has a seven-member sales team in Frankfurt, to serve the German market and to sell products of the Henderson and Gartmore brands, Das Investment reports.The Frankfurt office will be led by Lars Albert, director of distribution, who worked at HGI from 2004 and 2006, and who returned to the firm in January 2010 after a period at SEB Asset Management. Albert will be assisted by Daniela Brogt, who until October 2008 worked at Gartmore Investment (which has since been acquired by Henderson), before joining the sales team at Aviva Investors in Germany.Alexander van den Berg was recruited in July 2010 as head of wealth management clients, funds of funds, and independent financial advisers; he had previously served in the wholesale distribution service at SEB Asset Management.The three heads of sales will be assisted in client relationships by four sales staff.

Hermes BPK Partners, the alternative management advising boutique from Hermes, on 5 September announced plans to contribute seed capital and to assist candidates to create activities in the hedge fund sector, once the climate appears to have improved for start-ups. The specialised unit of Hermes will aim to identify and provide strategic and financial assistance to new players in the industry via an established platform, in partnership with Northern Lights Capital Group. Assets under management at Hermes BPK Partners as of 30 June totalled USD1.6bn.

M&G on 6 September announced the appointment of Adrien Barbanchon as co-head of distribution in its Paris team. He joins the team dedicated to intermediated sales (platforms, IFAs, etc), which consists of Benjamin de Frouville and Agathe Proust. Before joining M&G Investments, Barbanchon, 30, spent four years in the sales and distribution team at Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management. He has also served in sales roles at Schroders and ACI-Financement.

Carlos Aparicio Belmonte, who is responsible for trading and account management for the UK and Spain at CMC Markets in London, is joining the sales team of Massachusetts Financial Services (MFS) as senior salesperson for Spain and Portugal, Funds People reports. He will report to Juan Martín, director of sales for two countries, and since 2005, director of the Madrid branch. All MFS funds have a sales license for Spain from the CNMV.

As of 5 September, Ossiam, the new ETF boutique from Natixis Global Asset Management, already had nearly EUR186m in assets, despite the current market turbulence. Of this total, about EUR110m have gone to minimum variance (“minvar”) products, which aim to minimise risks by considerably reducing volatility, while the remainder went to funds which replicate equal-weight indices which aim to even out sectoral exposures and to reduce the predominance of large caps which characterises indices based on market cap.At a presentation at Euronext, Isabelle Bourcier, head of business development, on Tuesday evening told Newsmanagers that other ETFs are now in preparation or in a license application phase. These include both minvar funds based on variants of indices in demand by clients, and funds based on equal-weight indices for other geographical regions. Ossiam is also planning to create funds on smart indices for the world of bonds, with the launch of one or more products late this year or early in 2012.