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07/02/2011

SAM recruits a manager from Asset4

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Christopher Greenwald, director of data content at the extra-financial information specialist Asset4, has left the firm to join the Swiss management firm SAM, as head of Sustainablility Applications & Operations, Responsible Investor reports. Greenwald began in his new role on 1 February. Responsible Investor also reports that the head of research, Pierin Menzli, has left SAM.
07/02/2011

Assets up at SEB

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swedish SEB group (Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken) has posted operating profits for 2010 of SEK11.1bn, compared with SEK4.35bn for the previous year. Operating profits for the wealth management division (private banking and institutional clients) totalled SEK1.65bn, compared with SEK1.14bn, with an increase in net inflows to SEK26bn, up from SEK17bn, for private banking, and stable inflows from institutional clients at SEK31bn. The cost/income ratio has improved to 62% from 69%. For the year as a whole, average assets increased 7%, due to net subscriptions of SEK54bn, up from SEK41bn, and positive market effects. Total assets reached a new record of SEK1.321trn as of the end of fourth quarter, up from SEK1.271trn as of the end of September, and SEK1.275trn one year previously. Of this total, investment funds represented 41% as of the end of December, compared with 44% for institutional clients (excluding money market funds), and 15% for private banking (excluding money market funds). As of the end of fourth quarter, equities funds represented 40% of assets in SEB funds, compared with 23% for bond funds, 16% for diversified funds, and 21% for hedge funds.
07/02/2011

Carnegie Fonder shuts down its ETF activities

Sweden’s Carnegie Fonder has on 3 February 2011 decided to terminate its operations in exchange traded funds (ETFs). Carnegie Fonder will therefore once again focus entirely on its core business of actively managed funds.The activities in exchange traded funds (ETFs) were initiated in 2009 by HQ Fonder, which in September 2010 was bought by Carnegie and changed its name to Carnegie Fonder. «Exchange traded funds have limited synergies with the other fund operations, and have not achieved a critical mass. We have therefore decided to terminate these activities and focus on our core area, namely actively managed funds with a focus on Sweden, emerging markets and fixed-income securities,» says Hans Hedström, president of Carnegie Fonder. With the decision to terminate the ETF operations, the following funds will be closed: HQ OMX Double Long ETFHQ OMX Double Short ETFHQ Verkstad ETFHQ Fastighet ETFHQ Finans ETFHQ Material ETFHQ NASDAQ 100 ETF As a consequence of the funds being closed, the board of Carnegie Fonder has also decided to apply for delisting of these funds from Nasdaq OMX Stockholm AB.
07/02/2011

Investors pull out of emerging market funds

Investors have pulled more than USD7bn from emerging market equity funds last week, which is the biggest withdrawal in more than three years after turmoil in the Middle East and rising food inflation raised fears of economic instability, according to th Financial Times. The outflows also reflected rising unease about economic overheating in China, India, Brazil and other big emerging economies.
07/02/2011

Jean-Pierre Mustier may join UniCredit

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to reports in Il Sole – 24 ore, an agreement between the directors of UniCredit and Jean-Pierre Mustier are at the signature stage. The former director of the investment bank of the Société Générale group would succeed Sergio Ermotti as head of the corporate & investment banking division of the Italian bank. His appointment should be approved at the next meeting of the board of directors at UniCredit, scheduled for 22 February.
07/02/2011

Assets under management at Cantonal Bank of Grisons up 6.5%

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Agefi Switzerland reports that assets under management at the Cantonal Bank of Grisons increased last year by 6.5%, to CHF26.49bn. Net inflows totalled CHF1.78bn. Net profits increased 7.1%, to CHF154.1m.
07/02/2011

Increase in net assets at Julius Baer, despite strong Swiss franc

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Due to costs related to the integration and restructuring after the purchase of ING Bank in January 2010, as well as depreicaiton on goodwill, net profits at the Julius Baer group by IFRS accounting standards in 2010 fell 9% to CHF353m. Excluding these elements, net profits increased 6% to CHF504m. Due to a reduction in gross margins, and partly due to the appreciation of the Swiss franc, the cost-income ratio deteriorated to 65.4% from 63.1%.As of the end of December, assets under management had increased to CFH170bn, up from CFH154bn one year earlier. This increase of CHF16bn is due to CHF14bn in assets from the acquisition of ING Bank, CHF9bn in net inflows, CHF8bn in positive market effects, and a currency loss of CHF14bn due to the devaluation of the euro and the US dollar against the Swiss franc.Net subscriptions represented 6% of AUM as of the beginning of the year, compared with 4% in 2009, largely due to strong inflows from growth markets, particularly Asia, Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Latin America, as well as to domestic activities of the German bank.As of the end of 2010, total client assets came to CHF267bn, while savings assets as of the end of December totalled CHF98bn, compared with CHF87bn one year earlier, largely due to CHF7bn in net inflows.
07/02/2011

Eva Castillo joins board at Old Mutual

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The former head of Merrill Lynch and its head of private banking in Spain (until 2009), Eva Castillo, who has since served on the board of directors at Telefónica, has been recruited as non-executive director fo Old Mutual, Expansión reports. She will sit on the risk, appointment and remuneration committees.
07/02/2011

State Street Global Advisors wins two investment mandates in the UK

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } State Street Global Advisors on 4 February announced that it has won five available investment mandates from National Employment Savings Trust Coporation (NEST) in the United Kingdom. Following a call for bids, SSgA was awarded the passive management tenders for inflation-linked and conventional gilts in the UK. Kanesh Kakhani, head of State Street Global Advisors in the United Kingdom, says: “We are very pleased to have won these five mandates from NEST in this call for proposals. We are particularly happy to see our fixed income product management capacities recognised in the call for proposals at NEST. This is a unique opportunity to participate in what is a major step in the retirement savings process in the United Kingdom. SSgA already works with many of the largest pension funds in the world, managing a range of investment strategies in order to ultimately help our clients to achieve their investment objectives.” NEST is a new retirement program in the United Kingdom, created to help employers to respect the new legal requirements which will come into force in the United Kingdom in 2012, which will require employees to be automatically subscribed to a retirement plan. The plan will include about 6 million employees in the United Kingdom who have no other retirement coverage. It will function as an employee savings retirement tax program, managed by NEST Corporation.
07/02/2011

SWIP adds to international strategy team

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } SWIP has announced that it has added to its international strategy team with the appointment of Emilion Cano as investment manager. Cano, who will report directly to Ken Adams, head of international strategy at SWIP, will be in charge of strategic and tactical asset allocation services for SWIP clients. Cano previously worked at Popular Banca Privada in Madrid.
07/02/2011

Head of multi-management at Schroders resigns

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Citywire reports that Andrew Yeadon, head of multi-management at Schroders, has left the firm, following the merger of multi-management and multi-asset class teams. The new merged team manages about GBP14.4bn, in assets, and is now led by Jahanna Kyrklund.
07/02/2011

Société Générale Private Banking Hambros adds to wealth management personnel

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Société Générale Private Banking Hambros (SGPB Hambros) announced on Friday, 4 February that it has signed an agreement to acquire the dedicated portfolio management activities dedicated to private banking at Baring Asset Management Limited, based in the United Kingdom and Guernsey. The agreement will be finalised in May 2011. Baring Asset Management Limited has a team of professionals including six private managers, who will come as additions to the wealth management teams at Société Générale Private Banking Hambros, which include about 500 employees, located in London, Guernsey, Jersey and Gibraltar, a statement says.
07/02/2011

JPMAM releases an investment grade emerging markets bond fund

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 3 February, JPMorgan Asset Management (JPMAM) received a sales license in Germany for the new Emerging Markets Investment Grade Bond Fund, a sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav JP Morgan Funds, which was launched on 29 November 2010.As its name indicates, the portfolio is invested in emerging market bonds rated at least BBB-. About 70% of assets are invested in government bonds, and the remainder in corporate bonds, denominated in US dollars or euros.Michael Mewes, head of the fixed income team at JPMAM in Frankfurt, says that more than half of bond issues in these markets are rated investment grade, and that they often have attractive spreads, which makes it possible to earn higher reutrns than from bonds in industrialised countries, which are expected to remain low.The new fund is managed by Pierre-Yves Bareau, CIO for emerging market debt, with Alain Defise (who also came to the firm from Fortis Investments) as co-manager. In Paris on 3 February, Bareau mentioned corporate bonds as among his favourite investments, because emerging market corporates have returns 100 basis points higher than developed countries bonds “with a rating one nothc higher.”
07/02/2011

“Our international development plans include Europe”

Following the successful integration of La Française des Placements, the UFG-LFP group has signed a strategic partnership with Cholet-Dupont. Two core areas of development for UFG-LFP are international activities, particularly in Europe, and private management.
07/02/2011

Madoff receiver takes on owners of New York Mets

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Irving Picard, the court-appointed receiver for the business activities of Bernard Madoff, is seeking the return of USD300m in fictive profits from the fraud distributed to Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, two brothers-in-law who own the New York Mets baseball team, their partners, and several entities with ties to their real estate operation, Sterling Equities Associates, the Wall Street Journal reports.The liquidator may also require that USD700m in principal which they received from Madoff’s business since 2002 be reimbursed. The lawsuits were filed in December, but the two brothers-in-law and Picard were involved in secret negotiations.Unlike in other cases, the trustee does not affirm that Wilpon and Katz were complicit with Madoff. He accuses them of having been alerted on several occasions of serious irregularities, but of having done nothing.
07/02/2011

ISS calls on Apple to disclose its CEO succession plans

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The general shareholders’ meeting voting agency ISS claims that Apple Inc should disclose its plans for succession to the position of CEO Steve Jobs, who in January announced his second leave of absence on health grounds in two years, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to ISS, this would not require Apple to reveal the name of the people up to succeed Jobs, but the group should at least accept a motion proposed by shareholders at the general shareholders’ meeting on 23 February to require the firm to indicate in writing what its policies in this area are. Apple has recommended that shareholders vote against the resolution.
07/02/2011

M&G launches a bond fund in Italy

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } M&G Investments has launched an inflation-linked corporate bond fund dedicated to private einvestors in Italy, entitled M&G European Inflation Linked Corporate Bond, which is already available in Spain and France. The product will be co-managed by Jim Leaviss, head of fixed income at M&G, and Ben Lord, fund manager.
07/02/2011

Managers require advance notice for redemptions

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Since November 2009, Spanish funds have seen uninterrupted net redemptions. Several management firms are now requiring minimum advance notice periods of 10 days, in order not to have to sell assets at sacrificial prices, and so as not to penalise investors who remain in the funds, Cinco Días reports. Advance notice periods of this type have been announced to the CNMV in the past few weeks by Bansabadell Inversión and Ahorro Corporación Gestión, among others.
07/02/2011

Highbridge to launch a credit fund

Highbridge Capital, the hedge fund owned by JPMorgan, has hired Serge Adam to head its Principal Strategies unit and is preparing the release of a standalone credit fund, according to the Financial Times.The move comes a week after the firm fired its event trading team, headed by Jason Esralew.
07/02/2011

Merrill Lynch releases six more Newcits sub-funds of its MLIS Sicav

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 24 January 2011, the German BaFin and the Austrian FMA issued sales licenses for Germany and Austria for six sub-funds of the Luxembourg-registered, UCITS-compliant Sicav Merrill Lynch Investment Solutions (MLIS). The newcits funds in question are the AQR Global Relative Value UCITS Fund (LU0562189042), Boyer Allan Asian Long-Short UCITS Fund (LU0511125394), Graham Capital Systematic Macro UCITS Fund (LU0556497740), Theorema European Equity Long-Short UCITS Fund (LU0517905021) and York Asian Event-Driven Fund (LU0532509808). The products, all available in institutional shares in euros, bring the number of sub-funds of MLIS to 10.
07/02/2011

Bouwfonds releases its first closed real estate fund in Germany

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The closed residential real estate fund Wohnen in Deutschland 01 is the first product released in Germany by Bouwfonds Real Estate Investment Management (Bouwfonds REIM), an affiliate of Netherlands-based Rabobank. Bouwfonds REIM has been operating in Berlin since 2006, and manages a portfolio of nearly 10,000 housing units, which were initially acquired via Netherlands-registered funds, Fondsprofessionell reports.The new fund holds assets totalling 26,500 square metres in stable regions of Germany (Hamburg, Göttingen, Neuss and Reutlingen), valued at EUR39.7m. Minimal subscription is set at EUR15,000, and annual distribution is 5%, with maturity after 14 years.Bouwfonds has already been offering the Netherlands-registered product Bouwfonds European Residential Fonds (BER), which has assets of EUR230m, in Germany for three years.
07/02/2011

Astrance Capital hérite de Descamps

Le tribunal de commerce de Bobigny a désigné vendredi le fonds d’investissement Astrance Capital pour mettre en œuvre un plan de continuation du groupe textile Descamps-Jalla, filiale de l’italien Zucchi. La société était en redressement judiciaire depuis juin dernier.
07/02/2011

SG Hambros se renforce outre-Manche

La banque privée de la Société Générale en Grande-Bretagne a annoncé le rachat des activités de gestion dédiée à la clientèle privée de Baring AM, basées au Royaume-Uni et à Guernesey. De sources proches du dossier, les encours rachetés se montent à 500 millions de livres, à rapprocher des 10 milliards que gère SGPB Hambros.
07/02/2011

Une cession de Financière de Siam à l’étude

OFI Private Equity indique avoir commencé à travailler avec des banques d’affaires afin d'évaluer les options stratégiques à la portée de Financière de Siam, un groupe industriel spécialisé dans les solutions d'étanchéité de haute technologie. Objectif: lui donner les moyens financiers de «monter en première division».
07/02/2011

Nasdaq OMX victime d’une attaque informatique

La société mère du gérant de la place de marché des valeurs technologiques a annoncé avoir découvert des «fichiers suspects» sur ses serveurs informatiques américains et a constaté que l’une de ses applications de transactions en ligne avait «potentiellement» été affectée par des pirates informatiques. Nasdaq OMX a précisé dans un communiqué qu’il n’y avait aucun signe que les pirates aient eu accès à des données concernant la clientèle, ni qu’aucune de ses nombreuses plates-formes d'échanges ait été mise en péril. Les fichiers découverts sur les serveurs de son application en ligne «Directors Desk» ont été éliminés, a indiqué l’entreprise dont un porte-parole a souligné par mail que l’enquête se poursuivait et que les autorités des marchés avaient été avisées. L’attaque informatique a dans un premier temps été dévoilée vendredi soir par le Wall Street Journal.
07/02/2011

Al Gore se lance en Asie

Bloomberg croit savoir de sources proches que la société d’investissement de l’ancien vice-président américain, Generation Investment Management, s’apprête à lancer, d’ici au mois de juillet, un fonds de 500 millions de dollars dédié aux actions asiatiques. Le fonds respecterait naturellement les principes de développement durable chers à Al Gore, mettant en avant les aspects économiques, sociaux et environnementaux et écartant la recherche de profit à court terme. Generation Investment Management s’intéressera notamment au thème de la demande asiatique en matières premières et à son impact sur l’économie mondiale. Al Gore a fondé cette société d’investissement, basée à Londres, en 2004 avec l’ancien responsable de la gestion d’actifs de Goldman Sachs, David Blood.

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