La Banque Postale a annoncé, jeudi 17 mars, ses résultats 2010 faisant état d’un produit net bancaire consolidé de 5,215 milliards d’euros (en hausse de 4,2 %). De son côté, le résultat d’exploitation consolidé atteint 719,5 millions d’euros (+ 15,2 %) et le résultat net part du Groupe, 651,3 millions d’euros (+ 10,8 %). La collecte de dépôts et d’épargne bancaire a progressé modérément, de + 0,8 %. En matière d’assurance vie, les encours dépassent les 108,3 milliards d’euros, également en légère progression. L’année 2010 a été notamment marquée par le succès de la commercialisation des contrats d’assurance vie en unités de compte Cachemire et Toscane Vie (lancé en septembre 2010). Au total, les encours d’épargne et de dépôts s'établissent à 283,5 milliards d’euros, à fin 2010, indique un communiqué. La Banque Postale Asset Management a également enregistré une collecte nette de 1,1 milliard d’euros, portant à près de 126 milliards d’euros les actifs gérés à fin décembre 2010, en progression de 4 %. La société de gestion Tocqueville Finance, filiale dédiée à la gestion de portefeuille spécialisée dans la gestion «value» et détenue à 75 % par La Banque Postale, compte 1,435 milliard d’euros en gestion collective à fin décembre 2010.
Alain Leclair, président d’honneur de l’AFG, a profité de son intervention lors de la plénière de forum GI jeudi pour indiquer que le projet d’un fonds de fonds de place pour aider au développement des fonds innovants prend tournure, grâce entre autres à l’implication de Muriel Faure (IT Asset Management, qui représente les sociétés de gestion entrepreneuriales) et de Gide Loyrette. «C’est une réponse au benchmarking qui est destructeur de valeur sur le long terme», précise-t-il.Cette nouvelle entité, pour laquelle il serait exigé une période immobilisation des capitaux apportés, répond aux desiderata des investisseurs institutionnels. Ce serait une sicav contractuelle permettant de détecter les jeunes talents au terme d’un processus de sélection très sévère.Les quinze plus grands institutionnels de la place ont d’ores et déjà manifesté un intérêt suffisant pour que le projet passe «au second round» et que l’on examine à présent de quels types de société, d’investissement et de compartiments il s’agit de retenir."Il faudra une gouvernance très bien définie et l’on choisira avec les investisseurs les produits éligibles», indique Alain Leclair. «Les principaux investisseurs auront leur mot à dire sur l’orientation de la sicav et ils auront un droit de veto sur la sélection», poursuit-il, précisant que parallèlement est étudiée la possibilité d’un rescrit fiscal.
Aviva Investors Europe a obtenu récemment deux mandats «importants» de fonds de pension néerlandais, a indiqué à Newsmanagers Jean-François Boulier, directeur général, en marge de Forum GI. Pour l’instant, les montants exacts ainsi que l’identité précise des deux investisseurs ne sont pas dévoilés.Cela laisse présager un développement de l’activité du groupe aux Pays-Bas, un pays qui était traditionnellement desservi jusqu'à présent à partir de Londres. Au demeurant, un recrutement dans le domaine commercial est prévu dans ce pays pour début juin (lire notre article du 11 mars).
En marge du Forum GI, Gilbert Généré, directeur de la gestion des convertibles chez Ofi AM s’est félicité du seuil du milliard d’euros d’actifs franchi au sein des fonds d’obligations convertibles de la société de gestion.
Jean-Noël Vieille, directeur des gestions de KBL Gestion a quitté la société vendredi 11 mars. L’intéressé qui gérait un fonds flexible est remplacé par Pascal Bernarchon, un des cadres de la banque KBL. Selon nos informations, Jean-Noël Vieille avait des divergences de vue importantes avec la direction de la société, qui lui aurait reproché de vouloir développer sa propre entreprise au détriment de la gestion de KBL Gestion. Toujours selon nos informations, Jean-Noël Vieille a rejoint la société Ycap Asset Management.
Selon le Financial Times, Amalgamated Bank of New York, qui agit en tant que trustee de plusieurs fonds, et le Central Laborers Pension Fund ont porté plainte devant un tribunal du du Delaware contre News Corp. Ils accusent Rupert Murdoch de faire preuve de «népotisme» et d’avoir acheté Shine Group, le producteur de films, à sa fille Elisabeth dans le but unique de la faire profiter personnellement de la richesse du groupe et d’asseoir l’influence de la famille au conseil de News Corp. La fille de Robert Murdoch s’est vu proposer des sièges en plus des 675 millions de dollars payés pour son entreprise.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } T. Rowe Price International has announced the recruitment of Viral Patel, who from 2007 had been vice president, research analyst at the Sydney offices of AllianceBernstein. Patel joins the T. Rowe Price offices in Sydney as associate director of research for Australia, and with three people who will subsequently be recruited, will be in charge of strengthening the firm’s capacities in analysis of Australian equities. He will report to Randel Jenneke, who joined T. Rowe Price in June 2010 to build a local management team in Australia.The new team will come as an addition to its global staff of 121 analysts located in Baltimore, London, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo, and will allow the firm to offer specific strategies for Australian equities to local investors as well as clients in the Asia-Pacific region.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Olivia Engel, who was most recently a portfolio manager in charge of all Australian equities portfolios as GMO Australia, has joined State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) as head of active Australian equities. She will report to Marc Reinganum, global head of active equities, developed markets.The recruitment will allow SSgA to strengthen its active and quantitative investment unit for the Australian market, which has been Engel’s specialty for 14 years.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Two companies of the Austrian co-operative banks, including the local affiliate Premiumred, have developed the North Gate office building in Warsaw, and sold the 30,000 square metre property to the German asset management firm Deka Immobilien for about EUR103m. The property is the headquarters of Sanofi Aventis in Poland, and is also leased to 24 other companies. The property will be added to the portfolio of the open-ended real estate fund WestInvest InterSelect.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The number of open-ended pension funds worldwide investing in hedge funds has risen from 196 in 2007 to 295 currently, and average allocation in this asset class in the same time has risen from 3.6% to 3.6%, according to the most recent study by the consultant Preqin. In other terms, this exposure is now one percentage point higher than allocation by these investors to private equity funds.In general, the authors of the study continue, pension funds expect returns of 6.1% from hedge funds, which is lower than the expectations of other hedge fund clients, who look for 7%.Funds of hedge funds are in particular demand by pension funds, as 80% of these in who invested for the first time in hedge funds in 2010 did so through multi-management allocations, and 70% of pension funds investing in hedge funds have shares in funds of hedge funds in their portfolios.Preqin also points out that the 10 largest public pension funds investing in hedge funds allocated a total of USD836bn to this asset class.The report may be found at http://www.preqin.com/docs/newsletters/HF/Preqin_Hedge_Fund_Spotlight_M….
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swedish bank SEB has entered the ETF business, the website Privata Affarer reports. Up to now, the Swedish ETF market has been dominated by Handelsbanken, with its XACT Fonder company.The first ETFs from SEB are three products - SpotR, SpotR Bull and SpotR Bear – based on the OMXS30 index, the benchmark index of the Swedish market. The first ETF simply tracks the index; the second has leverage of two, and the third has inverse leverage of two.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The private equity fund of fund specialist firm Squadron Capital has recruited Chau Ly for the newly-created position of director of investor relations and development. She will be based in Hong Kong, and will report directly to the head of Squadron Capital, David Pierce.Chau previously worked in New York for the private equity fund of funds Siguler Gulf.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The private equity fund of fund specialist firm Squadron Capital has recruited Chau Ly for the newly-created position of director of investor relations and development. She will be based in Hong Kong, and will report directly to the head of Squadron Capital, David Pierce. Chau previously worked in New York for the private equity fund of funds Siguler Gulf.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports that at a conference in London, representatives of RAB Capital, Sturgeon Capital and Signet Group have announced their support for Mario Draghi, governor of the Bank of Italy, as successor to Jean-Claude Trichet as chairman of the ECB. Draghi did a convincing job as president of the Financial Stability Forum.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Schroders on 17 March announced the launch of a second actively-managed low cost fund. The Schroder QEP Global Core fund, with a TER limited to 40 basis points, aims for 1% outperformance of the MSCI World index or equivalent indices. The fund is the second in this category to be launched in March.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Fidelity International has launched a long/short fund of UK equities for Aruna Karunathilake, as an addition to its Fidelity Active Strategy (FAST) range, Investment Week reports. The fund, FAST UK, will be similar to the UK Aggressive fund in terms of stock-picking, but may invest in short positions with up to 30% of its portfolio.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Jean-Noël Vieille, director of management at KBL Gestion, left the firm on Friday, 11 March. Vieille, who co-managed a fund with Roland Fernet, is replaced by Pascal Bernachon, from the KBL bank executive team.According to reports received by Newsmanagers, Vieille disagreed in significant ways with the management of the businesses, who are said to have accused him of wanting to develop his own business to the detriment of management at KBL Gestion.The information obtained by Newsmanagers suggests that Vieille has joined Ycap Asset Management.
In January, GAM, one of the two management firms owned by the Swiss group GAM Holding, an arm of Julius Baer, recruited Jan Hein Alfrink as director of clients, to cover the French market. Alfrink, who was previusly at Dexia Asset Management, is based in London. The Dutchman speaks fluent French. GAM had previously had a salesperson for France, but the position had stood vacant for about one year.Alfrink’s objective will be to continue to sell the GAM range on the French market, where product offerings are expected to be widened in the next few months, with the addition of a UCITS III fund of funds. The director of clients would like ot foreground the GAM Star range, a UCITS III platofrm offering several types of management, and funds of hedge funds, his major specialty.The product range from the Zurich-based firm is largely focused on absolute returns (27% of assets, which total CHF53.8bn) and funds of hedge funds (23%). But the firm is also active in equities management (15%) and fixed income (15%).
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Following the resignation of Len Brennan, who for five years was president and CEO of Rainier Investment Management (USD18.8bn in assets as of the end of December), the firm has announced the promotion of James M. Ridgeway, director of sales & client services in the Taft-Hartley client services team at the firm, as acting president and CEO.Meanwhile, Kurt Polk, head of institutional sales & client service team, becomes global head of distribution.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } La Banque Postale announced on Thursday, 17 March that its 2010 results show consolidated net profits of EUR5.215bn (up 4.2%). Consolidated operating profits total EUR719.5m (+15.2%), and net profits of the group come to EUR651.3m (+10.8%).Inflows to savings and bank savings accounts increased moderately, by +0.8%. In life insurance, assets total EUR108.3bn, also a slight increase. The year 2010 was particularly marked by the good sales of the unit-linked life insurance policies Cachemire and Toscane Vie (launched in September 2010). Overall, assets in savings and deposits total EUR283.5bn as of the end of 2010, a statement says.La Banque Postale Asset Management also posted a net inflow of EUR1.1bn, bringing assets under management as of the end of December 2010 to nearly EUR126bn, up 4%. Tocqueville Finance, an affiliate dedicated to portfolio management and specialised in value management, 75% controlled by La Banque Postale, had EUR1.435bn in assets under collective management as of the end of December 2010.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } At the Forum GI, Gilbert Généré, head of convertibles at Ofi AM, announced that the management firm’s convertible bond management has topped EUR1bn in assets.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Following the German BaFin and the Swiss Finma (see Newsmanagers of 11 January and 25 February), the Spanish CNMV has granted permission for sales of the British UCITS-compliant fund Henderson Credit Alpha, which aims for returns 500 basis points higher than the Libor 3-month, with VaR of 3-6%.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 11 March, the CNMV granted a sales license for Spain to two French-registered funds, Mirabaud Euro Actions (C, D and I shares) and Aviva Investors Obligations Variables (E shares). The products will be offered by Mirabaud Finanzas and the Spanish branch of Aviva Investors Global Services, respectively.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Financial Times reports that Amalgamated Bank of New York, which acts as a trustee for several funds, and the Central Laborers Pension Fund, have filed a suit in a Delaware court against News Corp. They accuse Rupert Murdoch of “nepotism” in his acquisition of Shine Group, a filmmaking firm, from his daughter Elizabeth, with the sole objective of allowing her to profit from the wealth of the group and to strengthen the family’s influence on the board of News Corp. Murdoch’s daughter has been offered a seat on the board in addition to USD675m paid for her business.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The DJ Credit Dow Jones Credit Suisse hedge fund index finally posted gains of 1.38% in February, with eight out of ten strategies showing positive results.Convertible arb earned the best returns, with gains of 2.90%.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to a joint study by TrimTabs Investment Research and BarclayHedge, hedge finds in January posted net subscriptions of about USD2.9bn, corresponding to 0.2% of their assets, for a sixth consecutive month of net inflows.Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge, says this result is highly encouraging for the sector, insofar as January is traditionally marked by heavy redemptions. However, February is usually a month of very large inflows, meaning that the authors of the study predict net subscriptions for the month of about USD10bn.Although funds of hedge funds have seen net outflows of USD3.6bn (0.7% of their assets) in January (3rd consecutive month of net redemptions), commodities funds (CTAs) attracted USD2.8bn (1% of their assets), and macro funds attracted USD1.2bn (1.2% of their assets).Overall, the six equities strategies all saw net redemptions, and emerging markets equities saw their first net outflows since July, while bond funds received net subscriptions of USD3.5bn (2% of assets), their strongest inflows since February 2008.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Amundi has listed three more French-registered ETFs for trading on the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic platform from Deutsche Börse, Amundi ETF AAA Govt Bond EuroMTS (FR0010930636), which charges fees of 0.14%, Amundi ETF MSCI Europe Energy (FR0010930644), which charges 0.25%, and Amundi ETF MSCI Emerging Markets (FR0010959676), which charges 0.45%.Thus, the XTF segment now lists 801 ETFs.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The German management firm Union Investment Real Estate (UIRE) has announced that until further notice, subscriptions are frozen from 17 March for the open-ended real estate fund UniImmo: Global (DE0009805556), which had EUR2.34bn in assets as of the end of October. The net asset value of the fund had already been lowered by 4.45% recently (see Newsmanagers of 3 March), due to the depreciation of three properties in Tokyo.Now, the suspension is explained as a result of the fact that seven Tokyo properties in the portfolio represent 14% of total assets for the fund. The other real estate funds from UIRE are also invested in Tokyo, but to a lesser extent, and consequently none of them have been frozen for the moment.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Russell Investments has announced plans to add 100 new shares from recent IPOs in first quarter 2011 to its global Russell Global Index as of 31 March. Of the shares, 18 will also be added to the Russell 3000 index of US equities. Of the remaining 82, 30 will be added to the Russell Greater China Index (China, Hong Kong and Taiwan), while 12 will be added to the Russell Europe Index. The Brazilian and Indian indices will gain 6 stocks each.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Financial advisers in the United States are optimistic. According to the most recent quarterly survey by Russell Investments (“Financial Professional Outlook,”) 31% of respondents among 800 financial advisers surveyed predict growth in their overall activities of 10% to 14%, and 44% say they are expecting to see growth of 15% or more.