p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Investment Week reports that the British management firm Artemis on 11 April will launch a UCITS III compliant energy fund, which will be managed by the energy sector specialist John Dodd. The fund will include 30 positions, and will invest in publicly-traded firms in the energy, gas, energy generation and transmission sectors, and in renewable energies. The benchmark portfolio has allocations of 17% to North America, 3% to South America, 63% to Europe and Russia, 10% to the Far East, and 7% to Australia.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Investment Week reports that JP Morgan Asset Management has launched JPM Emerging Markets Currency Alpha Fund, a fund dedicated to emerging markets currencies, which aims for euro cash returns of over 8%. The absolute return fund in UCITS III format will be managed by Amit Tanna and Harry Bazzaz, with the assistance of 14 strategists and analysts present in a variety of emerging markets.

Many active managers are capable of finding winning stocks, but only deliver average performance for fear of losing their jobs, according to Skagen, the Norwegian asset manager, citing a scientific study from 2008, “Best Ideas» by Randy Cohen, Christopher Polk and Bernhard Silli.It is possible for active portfolio managers to beat the index and generate better returns than the market. But in practice this is often not reflected in their funds’ performance. Many portfolio managers find themselves forced towards mediocrity, partly for fear of losing their jobs. “Active portfolio managers can generate excess returns over time. We are not just talking about ourselves – this is also true of a number of managers with talented investors. But often the reality is that the portfolio manager has to keep close to the index to ensure that he isn’t left behind when the index goes up. Otherwise their job could be on the line. And this means that their performance is no better than average in the long-term», says Skagen’s deputy managing director, Åge Westbø.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } An investigation by US authorities into insider trading has had an unexpected consequence. According to the Financial Times, hedge fund managers are calling in security firms to ensure that their offices and residences have not been bugged with listening devices. This is taking place despite the fact that listening in on phone calls can nowadays be achieved with the collaboration of telephone companies, and does not require agents to enter the offices of a business. It is therefore indetectible to private investigators with scanners.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } 1818 Gestion will appeal a decision by the courts which would require it to pay EUR100,377 (with interest) to the Someg Group, Agefi reports. In its decision on 4 February, which has been obtained by Agefi, the Paris commercial court finds that by placing a part of the EUR2.5m its client entrusted to it in the Luxalpha fund (the Luxembourg Sicav operated by Bernard Madoff), 1818 Gestion failed in its obligations. The court finds that the Luxalpha strategy, “which involves alternative management, does not correspond to the operations authorised by article 6 of the mandate,” which required “prudent” management. 1818 Gestion, however, argues that article 6.2 cites hedge funds, including Aria and Aria EL (with leverage) as permitted investments.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Italian management firms virtually all have offices abroad, but their clients remain virtually entirely domestic, Plus, the money supplement of Il Sole – 24 Ore reports. This odd situation is a result of the fact that Italian taxes for years penalised Italian-registered funds compared with foreign funds (which will soon no longer be the case). In order to get around this obstacle, Italian firms opened affiliates in Luxembourg or Dublin. The objective was not to conquer market share in other countries, but to be able to create products that could compete with foreign-registered rivals, the Italian weekly newsmagazine reports. As a result, assets in foreign-registered funds in italy managed by Italian groups represent 57% of the total, compared with 30% in 2005. A firm such as Mediolanum manages 98% of its assets on behalf of Italian clients, though 89% of assets are managed abroad.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Investment Week reports that Ignis is considering launching a strategic bond fund, which could take the form of a long-only portfolio with 30 positions, which would be concentrated on the United Kingdom. Exposure to Europe and emerging markets is also under study. The fund, which would be managed by Chris Bowie, head of credit portfolio management, would be released in second or third quarter.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to Frankfurt financial industry sources, operating profits at DekaBank are rumoured to have leapt by nearly 80% in 2010, to EUR900m, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. This major improvement is said to be largely due to gains for structured products.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to statistics from the Spanish Inverco association of asset management firms, the total volume of transfers from one fund to another, which have been subject to a tax exemption since 1 January 2003, came to only EUR27.52bn in 2010, compared with EUR33bn in 2008, and a peak of EUR66.2bn in 2008.This result is the lowest since 2003, even though it represents 43% of gross subscriptions, and 18% of average assets last year. Fund trades represented slightly over EUR2.29bn per month.The steep decline in transfers from one fund to another since 2008 is due to a “war for deposits” which has led many subscribers to withdraw their money from funds and place it in savings accounts that pay higher rates.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The German private bank Ellwanger & Geiger (Stuttgart) has announced in its newsletter Kapitalmarkt Report that it has created the E&G Green-Utility-Index, which includes shares in ten companies (nine of them European, including the Austrian firm Verbund, and one Brazilian company), which are involved in the production of energy from alternative sources, particularly water and wind. Backtested to 2005, the index far outperforms both the Ökosur index from Sarasin and the MSCI World index.Several shares in the index are small and midcaps, often with a stable majority shareholders, meaning that the liquidity of the index is relatively limited, and the investment horizon should be long-term.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As of the end of December, assets in Chinese funds totalled CNY2.4972trn, compared with CNY2.3867trn as of the end of September, of which CNY927bn, compared with CNY904.1bn, were in equities funds, and CNY741.4bn, compared with CNY730.8bn, were in diversified funds. QDII and guaranteed funds were the only categories to see declines in their asset volumes, to CNY72.9bn from CNY74.2bn, and CNY22.8bn, from CNY24.4bn.Z-Ben Advisors explains that the overall increase in assets is due to gains of CNY124.5bn and the launch of 47 new funds, which attracted CNY126.8bn, while on the other hand, net outflows ran to CNY140.7bn.Money market funds saw an increase in their assets of over half, to CNY153.3bn, from CNY100bn, but in 2010 the movement was less pronounced than usual, as the regulator exercised some pressure to limit the trend.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Asian Investor reports that the Singapore-based management firm Lion Global Investors, which manages assets for the insurer Great Eastern Holdings, has appointed David Conner as chairman of the firm, and Christopher Wei as vice president. Conner was previously chief executive at OBCC Bank, which controls 91% of Lion Global, 70% of it via Great Eastern. Wei, who joined the firm on 10 February, previously worked at the insurance group AIA. As of 31 December 2010, assets under management at Lion Global totalled approximately SGD29bn, or about USD23bn.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Neither Oaktree nor Nueva Rumasa would confirm reports in Expansión that the US fund specialised in restructuring is planning to acquire a stake in the Spanish holding company of the Ruiz-Mateos family, including ten affiliates which have been put up for provisional liquidation (including Clesa and Dhul).Oaktree would acquire a stake in the capital, or else acquire the debt of several companies owned by Nueva Rumasa, in order to restore the assets and their management to good financial health, and allow the group, with financial liabilities of over EUR700m, to overcome the difficulties it now finds itself in.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Responsible Investor reports that the Dutch pension fund PGGM (EUR103bn in assets under management) is planning to increase its capacities in the area of sustainable investment, with the recruitment of a senior adviser and an adviser.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Andrew Bosomworth, a manager at Pimco (Allianz Global Investors group), says that Spanish government bonds (bonos) are currently enjoying “a real improvement in their potential as investments,” Expansión reports.Bonos are a better investment than Greek or Irish debt, the management firm says. This attitude is a reversal, as in 2010, Pimco decided to discontinue investment in Spanish bonds.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Alberto Palomero, who has served in several positions at Thomson Reuters in Spain since 2003, including chief operations officer at Lipper, and director of sales to buy-side, investment banks and non-financial sector businesses in Italy, Spain and Portugal, has been recruited as director of sales at VDOS Stochastics, Funds People reports. Palomero will oversee development of new internet content and solutions for distributors, fund management firms, advisers, and pension fund managers. His responsibilities will also include developing existing operational intelligence tools so as to optimse communication with final clients and automate processes.

As announced in mid-September, 24 institutional investors, representing assets of USD1.6trn, have written to the 30 largest international stock markets to call for improved communications of information related to sustainable development policies of publicly-traded companies.The 24 signatories of the letter, include the following institutional investors: Allianz Global Investors Investments Europe, AP7, Australian Council of Super Investors, Aviva Investors, BC Investment Management Corporation (bcIMC), Church of Sweden, Dexia Asset Management, Environment Agency Active Pension Fund, EQAO, Ethos Foundation, Fonds de réserve pour les retraites - FRR, Mn Services N.V., NEI Investments, North East Scotland Pension Fund, Pax World Management LLC, RCM une entreprise du groupe Allianz Global Investors, SNS Asset Management, Solaris Investment Management, Sparinvest, «TD Asset Management (TD Asset Management Inc., TDAM USA Inc.)», The Co-operative Asset Management, Trillium Asset Management, Triodos Investment Management B.V. And VIP (Vereinigung Institutionelle Privatanleger) eV. Four service providers are also signatories of the letter: they are Ceres, Ethix SRI Advisors, Fondation Guilé and Illac Ltd.The letter comes as part of a wider initiative launched by Aviva Investors in 2008, which aims to promote the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI). Its objective is to incite stock markets to seek ways to improve the quality of sustainable development reporting for publicly-traded companies. On the basis of information from Bloomberg, the letter also presents rankings of stock markets on the basis of environmental, social and governance (ESG) information from listed companies. At the top of the list are Euronext Paris, Tokyo Stock Exchange, Helsinki, Euronext Amsterdam, Euronext Lisbon and Borsa Italiana. However, at the bottom of the rankings are the Australian Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq GS, the Korea Exchange, the Santiago Stock Exchange, and the Philippine Stock Exchange.Aviva Investors supports a proposed new criterion for admission to trading, based on the requirement that businesses evaluate the level of sustainability and responsibility of their business model, and submit a prospective strategy for sustainable development to a vote at their general shareholders’ meeting.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British management firm Schroders has announced that the Global Demographics & Wealth Dynamics sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav Schroder ISF (see Newsmanagers of 10 December 2010) has been renamed as ISF Global Demographic Opportunities, under the same ISIN code (LU0557290698). The move is intended to place more emphasis on the demographic aspect of the fund’s investment policy.

La filiale de Natixis est la première société condamnée en France dans ce dossier dans le cadre d'un mandat de gestion

Le gérant immobilier britannique regarde trois dossiers en petite couronne. Il mise sur une croissance de ses loyers en Grande-Bretagne en 2011

Le prix du Brent livrable en avril a bondi hier de 2,5 dollars à un record depuis juillet 2008

Menacée dans son fief du Bade-Wurtemberg et laminée au scrutin régional de Hambourg, la chancelière doit davantage prendre en compte ses électeurs

Les sociétés liées au forage et aux services pétroliers sont les plus sensibles aux mouvements du prix du l'or noir

Le prix du Brent livrable en avril a bondi hier de 2,5 dollars à un record depuis juillet 2008

Exclure les réserves de change et les taux de change réels de la liste des indicateurs de déséquilibres limite l'intérêt de l'exercice

Le succès de son émission de 2 milliards de dollars la semaine dernière devrait inciter d’autres banques européennes à solliciter les investisseurs

La NAR, association nationale des promoteurs immobiliers aux Etats-Unis, a peut-être surestimé depuis 2007 le nombre de transactions immobilières dans le pays, rapporte le quotidien. Les transactions mensuelles publiées par cette association ne seraient pas en accord avec les chiffres de la société californienne CoreLogic qui considère que les chiffres de la NAR surestimeraient de 20% le niveau réel des transactions.

Le fabricant de bagages américain, détenu par CVC Capital Partners, prévoit de lever au deuxième ou au troisième trimestre environ un milliard de dollars à l’occasion d’une entrée en Bourse de Hong Kong, ont indiqué plusieurs sources à Bloomberg. La société a mandaté Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Morgan Stanley et Royal Bank of Scotland, ont ajouté ces sources.

Utiliser le Fonds européen de stabilité financière (EFSF) pour racheter des obligations de pays de la zone euro équivaudrait pour les gouvernements et les créanciers à se délester de leurs responsabilités, a déclaré la Bundesbank (Buba). La banque centrale allemande a également écarté l’idée d'émettre des obligations européennes conjointes, ou «eurobonds», ainsi que la possibilité que l’EFSF prête des fonds aux Etats à des taux avantageux pour qu’ils rachètent leur propre dette, une proposition soutenue par la Grèce.

Sous l’impulsion de la branche de gestion d’actifs internationale d’Aviva, 24 investisseurs institutionnels représentant un encours de 1.600 milliards de dollars viennent d’écrire aux trente plus grandes places boursières internationales pour réclamer une meilleure communication des informations relatives au développement durable des sociétés cotées.