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03/01/2011

Threadneedle recruits a manager from Ahorro Corporación

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Juan Carlos Acitores, European equities fund manager at Ahorro Corporación, has been recruited as head of sales at Threadneedle for the Iberian peninsula and Latin America.He joins the Madrid office of the British asset management firm, where he will work with Leonardo López, head of sales for Spain. He will report to Rubén García, head of distribution for the Iberian peninsula and Latin America.
03/01/2011

Norwegian government pension fund changes strategies

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Government Pension Fund – Global (GPFG), formerly known as the Petroleum Fund, has recently obtained permission to invest up to 5% of its assets (currently NOK3trn) in real estate, Handelsblatt reports. Previously, the fund was allowed to invest 60% of its assets in foreign equities and 40% in bonds, but the proportion in bonds has now been limited to 35%.The CEO of the GPFG, Yngve Slyngstad, soon afterwards announced the acqusition of a 25% stake in 113 properties in Regent Street in London from The Crown Estate, for NOK4.2bn (EUR513.8m). Further real estate acquisitions are planned in the United Kingdom, Germany and France, but no investments will take place in the United States before 2012.Slyngstad and Svein Gjedrem, governor of the Norwegian central bank, are currently in talks with the government to get an approval for the GPFG to invest in private equity.
03/01/2011

Porsche: setback for hedge funds

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Agefi reports that a New York state judge, Harold Baer, on Thursday rejected lawsuits filed by hedge funds related to the financial disclosures made by Porsche in 2008. The judge thus strengthened hopes that the merger of Porsche and Volkswagen would go ahead as planned in late 2011. The 40 hedge funds, led by Elliott Associates and Black Diamond, which lost USD2bn in the takeover bid by the largest European auto maker for its specialist compatriot, may now be defeated, the newspaper notes. Porsche did not disclose its real intentions to the hedge funds, which had short-sold shares, provoking a “short squeeze” effect when the funds were required to buy back the shares in catastrophic conditions.
03/01/2011

Euro has a one-in-five chance of surviving the next ten years

The euro has only a 20% chance of surviving in its current form for the next ten years, according to the British research institute CEBR (Centre for Economics and Business Research), which on 31 December published its ten major predictions for 2011.In its commentary on the euro, at the top of the list of predictions, the CEBR points out that Spain and Italy will need to refinance EUR400bn of their debt in spring, which could potentially create a new crisis in the euro zone. The euro may disintegrate at that time, even if European directors are capable of responding to such a crisis.“If the euro does not fall apart, 2011 could be the year when it weakens substantially, towards parity with the dollar,” says the CEO of the CEBR, Douglas McWilliams. “I think that the thing which will put an end to the euro will be the failure of most countries to adopt remedies that include the necessary constraints to make their economies competitive over the longer term,” the CEBR chief explains.The British think tank estimates that Germany will continue to play the role of a super-star in the Western world. It points out that the success of the German economy is partly due to the contribution of its immigrants, particularly from Turkey. However, Japan, whose debt now represents 200% of its GNP, may be facing a new financial crisis.The CEBR gives itself a positive verdict on its predictions for 2010, but admits that its sporting predictions were nearly all wrong. For 2011, the CEBR is nonetheless giving it another try. In football, it plucks for Manchester United for the British championship, and Real Madrid for the European title. New Zealand will beat Australia in the rugby world cup final, it says.
03/01/2011

Assets in funds down by more than 15% in 2010

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to statistics from VDOS Stochastics, Spanish funds as of 24 December had assets of EUR144.54bn, 15.35% less than at the end of 2009. In December, assets under management were down by EUR324m, due to the fact that gains of over EUR1.59bn were not enough to offset net redemptions of nearly EUR1.92bn.
03/01/2011

Hargreaves withdraws SVM global opportunities from list of recommended funds

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British firm Hargreaves Lansdown has withdrawn the SVM global opportunities fund from its list of 150 recommended funds, pointing to its increased volatility since the beginning of the financial crisis, Money Marketing reports. The fund has very significantly underperformed its benchmark sector in the past three years, down 24.6%, compared with gains of 8% for the Global Growth sector.
03/01/2011

Gemini IM working on new funds

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Money Marketing reports that Gemini Investment Management is considering new funds which may be dedicated to South America and Africa. Gemini is also planning to launch alternative vehicles. Two funds may already be available in first quarter, the managing director of Gemini, Stuart Alexander, says. In November, Gemini launched the Gemini Most India fund in partnership with the Indian broker Motilal Oswal.
03/01/2011

Klaus Kaldemorgen: Fall of a DWS superstar

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Professionals do not believe the official version of the story, according to which Klaus Kaldemorgen is voluntarily giving up his position as administrative head of DWS (EUR274bn in assets) in order to concentrate on management of equities funds, Handelsblatt reports (see Newsmanagers of 30 December 2010).Sources familiar with the matter say that the transfer or departure of Kaldemorgen and other senior officers from the management firm (Andreas Feiden, who is moving to Fidelity, Ingo Gefeke and Axel Schwarzer, who are leaving the group) is due to insufficient profits for the investment fund activitie and to the fact that the heads of Deutsche Bank, would haveve wished to see DWS develop more internationally. In addition, open-ended funds from DWS in 2010 saw net outflows of over EUR1.6bn.The new CEO is Wolfgang Matis, 54, who had been planning to retire. He was a colleague of Anshu Jain, the head of the investment banking division of Deutsche Bank. Jain is credited with the best chances of succeeding Josef Ackermann, chairman of the board.
03/01/2011

“We need to aim at more targeted clients in 2011, especially institutional investors”

Eric Helderlé tells Newsmangers what's new at a rising star firm with EUR50bn in assets under management. The CEO of the company based in the place Vendôme in Paris isn't bashful about answering any questions, on topics ranging from recent appointments, the firm's founder, Edouard Carmignac, the success of the Carmignac Patrimoine fund, the limits of its popularity...
03/01/2011

hausInvest fund falls below EUR10bn

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As of 22 December, assets in the hausInvest fund, managed by Commerz Real, represented less than EUR9.98bn, compared with more than EUR10.81bn as of 1 October, Das Investment reports.This decline of nearly EUR1bn is due to rising equities and uncertainties related to the future of open-ended real estate funds. Despite the redemptions, Commerzbank is not planning a sales drive, says Markus Esser, spokesman for Commerz Real.HausInvest is the product born of the merger of the hausInvest europa and hausInvest global funds (see Newsmanagers of 25 March 2010).
03/01/2011

Union Investment sells a property in Hamburg

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } One week after selling two properties in Saint-Denis for EUR120m (see Newsmanagers of 24 December), Union Investment Real Estate (UIRE) has announced the sale of an office/commercial property in Hamburg for EUR44.6m to Aachener Grundvermögen Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH. The sale, like those of the two French properties, took place at a price higher than the most recent expert valuation.
03/01/2011

CS Euroreal fund sells two properties in Paris

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The open-ended real estate fund CS Euroreal from Credit Suisse Germany, which has been closed to redemptions for several months (see Newsmanagers of 21 May 2010), on 17 December announced the sale for EUR184m of two properties in Paris: an office building located at 31 avenue Pierre I de Serbie, and a commercial property at 88 rue de Rivoli. The total sale price is higher than the most recent expert valuation.Credit Suisse also states that the fund on 14 December distributed EUR199.1m in dividends for the period to 30 September 2010, of which more than one quarter, EUR52.4m, were reinvested in the fund in the next three days.
03/01/2011

Good outlooks for private equity in Germany

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The sun is rising over the Rhine. Major transactions are still expected in the German private equity industry, despite its collapse in 2009, and the fact that the recovery of private equity funds has been slower than expected, the Financial Times Deutschland reports. But investors estimate that the time is not right, and nothing is changing in terms of fundamental trends. Germany is nonetheless a privileged hunting-ground for large funds, due to the excellent financial health of many businesses which may represent potential targets. In this environment, major market actors have all built up funds with very good volumes of spending money, with more than EUR11bn at Apax, more than EUR6bnat BC Partners and about EUR10bn at Blackstone.
03/01/2011

Pension fund sues Wells Fargo

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The School Employees Retirement System of Ohio, a pension fund with USD9.7bn in assets, is seeking a total of Usd24m, which it lost on operations related to securities lending, from Wachovia, and therefore Wells Fargo, which acquired the firm, the Wall Street Journal reports. The pension fund says the bank reinvested the cash collateral in transactions which were not a part of the mandate it had been assigned, particularly with Sigma Finance, a structured investment vehicle.
03/01/2011

Receiver for Petters' business seeks USD300m from J.P. Morgan Chase

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Douglas A. Kelley, the court-appointed receiver for the business of Tom Petters, has filed several lawsuits against J.P. Morgan Chase and its affiliate One Equity Partners, seeking USD300m on the basis that they knew, or should have known, that money seized from the accounts of the fraudster were the proceeds of fraud, the Wall Street Journal reports. The amount sought represents the millions of dollars in these accounts as well as commissions earned from the acquisition of shares in Polaroid in operations related to a Ponzi scheme.
03/01/2011

US economists create ethical code

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Les Echos reports that US economists at the American Economic Association (AEA) would like to give some support to their credibility by setting up an “ethical code” to smooth relations between Wall Street and academic circles. At the annual conference, which will be held in Denver on 6 January, the executive committee of the largest global organisation of economists (17,000 professionals) will propose a new charter for its members which would require economists to make their consulting activities publicly known. The initiative comes a few months after the release of a documentary entitled “Inside Job” by Charles Ferguson, which revealed the sometimes incestuous relations between Wall Street and certain university professors.
03/01/2011

ESMA to stand up to national market authorities

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } ESMA, the new European market authority, will be created on 3 January in Paris, with the aim of harmonizing national regulatory frameworks, Les Echos reports. It will become a force to contend with for national market regulators, including the British FSA. To this end, it has new competences beyond those of its predecessor, the European Committee of Securities Regulators (CESR). The most important of these is the ability to declare technical standards applicable to all markets in Europe.
03/01/2011

Gold gained nearly 30% in 2010

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Gold gained nearly 30% in 2010, on the basis of its closing price on Friday, 31 December, after a fifth consecutive month of rising value in December. The metal has turned in its best annual performance since 2007, the news agency Reuters reports. The gold fixed spot price was USD1,410.25 per ounce on Friday morning, compared with USD1,405.50 at the previous fixing on Thursday afternoon. On the basis of these fixings, the price of the metal has risen 29.7% over the year, compared with gains of 28.7% on the free spot market.
03/01/2011

Net assets up by nearly 21% in 12 months for Luxembourg based funds

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As of 30 November 2010, overall net assets in collective investment organisms (OPC) and specialised investment funds in Luxembourg totalled EUR2.160872trn, compared with EUR2.107575trn on 31 October 2010, an increase of 2.53% in one month, according to statistics from the financial sector regulator (CSSF). Over the past twelve months, net asset volume has increased by 20.79%.The Luxembourg OPC industry has seen a positive variation in November totalling EUR53.297bn. This increase is a result of a combination of favourable impact of financial markets totalling EUR37.034bn (+1.76%), and positive net issues of EUR16.263bn (+0.77%).The CSSF observes that most of the OPC equities categories have seen increases in asset volumes. This development is due to the fact that the largely negative evolution of the equities markets due to investors’ uncertainties related to sovereign debt in Europe were offset for several markets by a rise in the dollar against the euro of more than 6%. In Japan, better-than-expected corporate results triggered a rise of about 8% for OPC of Japanese equities. Only European equities OPCs saw losses.For European government debt markets, continuing uncertainties about sovereign debt markets in the Euro zone contributed to an increase in the volatility of returns and a fall in asset levels. It follows that OPC funds denominated in euros saw declines in asset levels, and negative net issues.In the United States, uncertainties related to the announcement of an expansive new wave of quantitative easing triggered an increase in the volatility of returns on US government bonds. For Luxembourg OPCs of bonds denominated in US dollars, falling assets were offset by the appreciation of the dollar against the euro.
03/01/2011

Carlyle s’allège dans China Pacific Insurance

La société d’investissement américaine a vendu 215,8 millions d’actions au prix unitaire de 31,15 dollars de Hong Kong, selon un prospectus obtenu par Bloomberg. Au total, le montant de l’opération s’élève à 6,7 milliards de dollars (près de 650 millions d’euros). La banque suisse UBS a tenu le livre d’ordres.
03/01/2011

Le « Panel Allocation » se renforce en actions

Les gestions du Panel Allocation de L’Agefi consacrent désormais la moitié de leur portefeuille aux actions, au plus haut niveau depuis fin 2009. Ce mouvement s’est réalisé au détriment de l’obligataire, ainsi que du cash qui constitue plus que jamais une classe d’actifs de transition.

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