p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 4 January, BaFin issued a sales license for Germany to the British-registered Credit Alpha fund, a sub-fund of the Henderson Strategic Investment Funds, launched on 16 April 2010. The fund invests in corporate bonds, ABS, preferential equities, equities, collateralised credits in CDS, and other derivatives. The fund is available in US dollar and euro shares, all of which are hedged for currency risks. Characteristics Names: Henderson Credit Alpha Fund A USD (hedged) Acc. ; Henderson Credit Alpha Fund A EUR (hedged) Acc.ISIN codes: GB00B603K666 (shares in dollars) ; GB00B630QF50 (shares in euros)Front-end fee: 5%Management commission: 1.5%depository banking commission (RBS): 0.30%Performance commission: 20% of quarterly outperformance of the Libor GBP 3-month, with high watermark Account maintenance fee: 0.18%Minimal subscription: USD1,500 or EUR1,500
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Johannes Müller, a bond expert at DWS (Deutsche Bank), says that the fund management firm of the Deutsche Bank group has long had a rule against investment in Portuguese bonds, and that it now prefers short-term bonds issued by Greece to Portuguese government bonds, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Union Investment (German co-operative banks), for its part, states that it has taken the occasion of low yields and high prices to reduce its exposure to Portuguese mid- and long-term bonds.At Pimco, Andrew Balls, head of portfolio management for Europe, says that the firm is concerned for the wider Euro zone, beyond the next six to twelve months, because some states may have difficulty in adhering to their multiple-year long austerity programmes. If one or more Euro zone countries is late in its repayments, it could trigger a banking crisis for all of Europe.Schroders says that it is extremely pudent: the British asset management firm is overweight in bunds, underweight in French government debt, and has no exposure to government bonds from peripheral countries of the Euro zone, according to David Scammel, a manager of British and European bond funds.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The new European regulatory body for the insurance and pension fund sectors (EIOPA, formerily CEIOPS), which on 10 January held its first meeting, is planning to quadruple its staff (currently 28) by 2013, and to supervise the enactment of Solvency II standards, Les Echos reports. The name of the president of the agency will be revealed in the next few days.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swiss private bank Bordier & Cie has opened an affiliate in Singapore, Le Temps reports. It will be led by Evrad Bordier, a partner since 1 January, who will be based in Singapore. The location on Monday received its merchant banking license from the regulatory authority, the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Personnel will be increased to 20 people by the end of the year. Bordier & Cie, whose assets under management total about CHF9.5bn, is planning to have CHF1bn in assets under management at the affiliate by the end of its first year of operations. To achieve this goal, the bank will offer clients of Bordier International Bank & Trust (BIBT), an entity domiciled in the Turk and Caicos Islands, a British territory in the Caribbean, specialised in offshore private management, the opportunity to transfer their assets, which total nearly CHF500m.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } A survey conducted by Schleus Marktforschung between 20 November and 10 December, which spoke to 156 institutional investors with total assets of EUR156bn, has provided Axa Investment Managers Germany with knowledge with which it has developed a real estate risk index that will now be regularly calculated, on a scale from 0 for no risk to 100 for maximal risk. In its first edition, the risk level stands at 38.The first survey has also found that institutional investors have widely differing conceptions of the concept of risk. Frank Richter, head of institutional business Germany & Austria at Axa IM, says that nearly one quarter of respondents say the largest risk is losing assets or revenues, while 18% say that it is failing to achieve objectives, and 16% say risk is largely a measure of chance. However, 47% of specialists surveyed say that direct investment in real estate carries low or very low risk, while 23% say so for indirect investment in real estate. Axa IM says that this reflects current problems for open-ended real estate funds, many of which are now closed to redemptions (with assets of about EUR25bn), in liquidation (three funds), and/or have been forced to announce depreciation in the value of shares.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } After launching a real estate unit two years ago, the British Aviva Investors group has recruited Manish Singhai and Kevin Talbot to develop its Asian equities and bond activities from Singapore, Aviva Investors reports. Singhai has been appointed chief investment officer for equities, while Talbot joins the group as chief investment officer for fixed income. Singhai, who spent 10 years at AllianceBernstein, in 2008 launched a market neutral hedge fund dedicated to Asia ex Japan, Arjava Capital, which has recently been closed. Talbot previously worked at ANZ Private Bank in Singapore.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Fundstrategy reports that Invesco Perpetual is planning to launch an income fund focused on Asian equities. The fund, managed by Stuart Parks and Tim Dickson, will invest largely in Asia and Australia (ex Japan). The fund aims for returns from dividends equivalent to 120% of the MSCI Asia Pacific ex Japan index.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swedish asset management firm East Capital has renamed two funds managed by Asia Growth Investors, an asset manager specialised in Asia, also based in Stockholm, which it acquired last year (see Newsmanagers of 17 June 2010). From 1 January, the AGI China East Asia Fund has become the East Capital China East Asia Fund, while the AGI China Fund becomes known as the East Capital China Fund. The change of names has no impact on the investment strategy of the funds, which remains the same, says Karine Hirn of East Capital on the website of the Scandinavian asset management firm. The two funds are exposed to China, where the China East Asia Fund has a slightly broader universe than the other fund. The products are managed by the same team, which has recently been enlarged.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Despite average losses of 0.9%, according to Ahorro Corporación, Spanish guaranteed funds, with EUR2.1bn, were the only category aside from equities funds (EUR500m), to post net subscriptions in 2010, Cinco Días reports. And of the 124 new funds launched in Spain last year, 61 were guaranteed products.Assets in guaranteed funds increased by EUR1.6bn to total EUR48.5bn as of the end of the year. Meanwhile, assets managed by bond funds fell over the year as a whole by EUR27.5bn (of which EUR20.9bn were net outflows), to a total of EUR52.6bn as of 31 December.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The French Association for the Defence of Minority Shareholders (ADAM) will appeal a decision by the French financial market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), to grant a special dispensation to the usual takeover regulations for family shareholders in Hermès defending themselves against LVMH. Colette Neuville, president of ADAM, has told Reuters that she will file the appeal by Monday, 17 January. The appeal does not come as a surprise, as the ADAM president had already stated on several occasions that she opposed any exceptions under the law. “The appeal will be filed within six days, as regulations stipulate,” says Neuville, adding that the six-day period counts from last Thursday, when the AMF granted its clearance to Hermès. Neuville, who challenges the “reclassification” arguments used by the AMF, claims that the case “poses the problem of the value of regulated information” published by the Hermès directors, who had always claimed in the documents they supplied to the regulator and to the market that there were no shareholders who singularly or collectively controlled the capital of the company.
The Investment Company Institute presented regulators with a proposal that would form a liquidity bank to help stabilize money-market funds during a market panic, according to The Wall Street Journal. The proposed bank wouldn’t backstop a fund that collapsed on its own. Instead, it would seek to prevent the damage from spreading to other funds.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges against the co-founder of hedge fund Trivium Capital Management and three others persons, accusing them of trading on inside information regarding Google and other companies as part of its investigation into Galleon Group, the Financial Times writes.The US regulator alleged that Trivium, its co-founder Robert Feinblatt and analyst Jeffrey Yokuty made USD15m in profits by trading ahead of Google and Polycom’s earnings reports and before private equity takeovers of Hilton and Kronos were announced.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) has announced the appointment of Philippe Huerre as deputy director of emerging markets. He will work in close collaboration with Ramy Bourgi, director of emerging markets. Huerre, who since 2004 had been director of retail client custody services at SGSS, will aim to “consolidate the leading position of SGSS in emerging markets, where SGSS provides securities services to domestic and international investors,” a statement says. In 2010, SGSS extended its geographical presence into the Gulf states, through a commercial agreement with the National Bank of Abu Dhabi.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Raifeissen Switzerland, which for several years has been partnered with Vontobel for the management and distribution of investment funds, has selected the private bank Pictet & Cie to launch its first tracker fund, due to the size of its portfolio of assets managed in this area, totalling CHF22bn. The Swiss equities segment was selected by the partner banks. Their choice fell on the SPI index of 220 shares. The partners are planning to launch a similar fund in mid-2011. Meanwhile, Raifeissen is planning to raise CHF10m for its Swiss fund.
In an internal memo signed by CEO Larry Fink which has been confirmed by sources familiar with the matter, BlackRock has announced the departure of Blake Grossman, who had been vice-chairman for slightly over a year, since the acquisition by BlackRock of Barclays Global Investors (BGI), which Grossman had led. The acquisition of BGI for USD15.2bn was concluded in December 2009 (see Newsmanagers of 2 December 2009).Grossman is not expected to be replaced as BlackRock vice president. However, on 10 January, Grossman’s name was still on the list of members of the global executive committee.p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Fidelity Investments has announced that it has renewed its contract with BP America, an affiliate of the BP group, for a 5-year term. Under the contract, the management firm will continue to provide services to the corporate retirement savings plan for the business for a total of 95,000 employees.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }Morgan Stanley has announced that it has reached an agreement with the employees of its in-house quantitative proprietary trading unit Process Driven Trading (PDT), whereby PDT employees will acquire certain assets from Morgan Stanley and launch an independent advisory firm at the end of 2012. Morgan Stanley will have the option to acquire a preferred stake in the new entity, to be known as PDT Advisors. It is expected the full PDT team, which comprises approximately 60 employees globally, will join the independent firm.During the two-year transition period, PDT will remain a part of Morgan Stanley and continue to manage Firm capital as it has historically. PDT will also build out its infrastructure and its third-party investment business during this period.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Tao Huang, COO for Morningstar since 1990, will be leaving the company at the end of January. He is also leaving his position as head of IT, corporate sales and the affiliate Logical Information Machines (LIM), acquired in 2009.Morningstar says that Huang will not be replaced as COO. Responsibility for IT will be taken over by Jow Mansueto, chairman and CEO, while corporate sales will be overseen by Scott Cooley, CFO, and LIM will be moved into the data division of Morningstar, led by Elizabeth Kircher.
Lawrence M. Clark Jr left Harbinger Capital Partners where he was a senior analyst and a partner to launch his own hedge fund, The Wall Street Journal writes. This departure comes as Harbinger in recent years has evolved from a diversified hedge-fund firm to one which looks more like a private-equity firm. Assets have declined from about USD26 billion in 2008 to USD6.4 billion in November.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Agefi reports that Société Générale Private Banking is planning to open a long-term location in the United States. The bank is finalising plans for a brokerage and banking services platform based in New York, and aimed at US domestic high net worth clients. “Pending approval from the necessary authorities, we are hoping to begin our activities in the next few months,” says Daniel Truchi, director of the platform, cited by the newspaper. The platform will be complementary with the activities of Rockefeller Financial Services, a management firm dedicated to family offices based in New York and in which the bank has controlled a 37% stake since 2008.
Lawrence Clark a selon le quotidien américain quitté Harbinger Capital pour créer son propre fonds alternatif. Une nouvelle aventure parmi tant d’autres de nouveaux entrepreneurs tentés par la création de hedge funds. Lawrence Clark espère bien voir naître effectivement son fonds, dont le nom n’a pas été choisi, dans un délai de six mois.