Man Group, qui vient de créer une société de gestion en Italie, va lancer un fonds de hedge funds de droit italien, actuellement en cours d’agrément, selon Plus 24, le supplément argent de Il Sole - 24 Ore. Ce produit s’appuiera sur la plate-forme de «managed accounts» de la société.

Le groupe suisse UBS vient de recruter plusieurs spécialistes dans le cadre de sa stratégie de développement des activités de gestion de fortune en Asie.UBS a ainsi embauché trois banquiers privés issus de Credit Suisse et deux de DBS, qui seront tous basés à Singapour. Précédemment chez Credit Suisse, Gary Goh a rejoint UBS en qualité d’executive director et responsable de desk. Yvonne Koh et Loh Swee Sung, tous deux ex-Crédit Suisse, intègrent UBS en tant que director et conseiller clientèle pour la première et associate director et conseiller clientèle pour le second. Tan Yeu Cheng et Wendy Toh, précédemment chez DBS, rejoignent UBS en tant que respectivement executive director et associate director.

Chargée depuis 2005 du développement et de la gestion des relations avec la clientèle institutionnelle japonaise, coréenne et de Hong Kong chez Pioneer Global Investments, Melissa Lee rejoint Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management Hong-Kong Ltd comme responsable de la clientèle institutionnelle, annonce EdRAM le 13 décembre.La mission de l’intéressée sera de de développer les relations commerciales à travers l’Asie, de promouvoir les expertises d’EdRAM en matière de gestion actions, obligations convertibles et d’allocation d’actifs, et de distribuer l’ensemble des produits de la gamme enregistrés sur la zone et gérés depuis Paris et Hong Kong.Le communiqué précise qu’Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd, filiale à 100% d’Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management a obtenu une licence par la Securities and Futures Commission en février 2008 lui permettant de gérer des fonds et de distribuer tous supports d’investissement locaux, mais également de droit étranger. Elle regroupe aujourd’hui 18 collaborateurs et gère un encours supérieur à 1,6 milliard d’euros.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, le patron de la compagnie aérienne Emirates, a été nommé à la tête de Dubaï World, rapporte la Tribune. Une arrivée qui donne le coup d’envoi d’une nouvelle vague de restructuration pour le holding public. Ce dernier a fait défaut sur 24 milliards de dollars il y a un peu plus d’un an et a jusqu’ici réussi à rééchelonner 14 milliards. Mais Dubaï World n’est pas un cas isolé, précise le quotidien. D’autres structures publiques, comme Dubai Holding Commercial Operations Group, Dubai International Capital, ou encore le promoteur Nakheel renégocient leur dette.

Cristina García de Sola Riera, qui était responsable du service à la clientèle, du marketing et du sales support chez BlacRock en Espagne, a rejoint au 1er décembre M&G Investments, dont l'équipe en Espagne compte deux personnes en plus du directeur Ignacio Rodríguez Añino. Elle sera chargée du développement de M1G en Espagne, au Portugal, en Andorre et au Chili.

Dans la guerre entre le capital-investisseur Ibersuizas et ses quatre anciens associés-gérants (sur six), Goldman Sachs, le principal investisseur dans le second fonds de la maison, a apporté son soutien aux dirigeants sortants, auxquels est transférée la gestion des 330 millions d’euros de ce fonds, rapporte Expansión.

Le 13 décembre marque timidement le début d’une nouvelle ère pour db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank), dont les 160 ETF lancés jusqu'à présent étaient à réplication synthétique. En effet, "à la demande de clients», le gestionnaire allemand a fait admettre à la négociation sur le segment XTF de la plate-forme Xetra (Deutsche Börse) ses deux premiers produits à réplication physique, des fonds de droit irlandais à connotation ISR, db x-trackers STOXX Europe Christian ETF (DR) et db x-trackers Global Fund Supporters ETF (DR).Cependant, Thorsten Michalik, le responsable de db x-trackers, a bien souligné que sa maison continuera de privilégier sans restriction la formule de la réplication synthétique, sauf demande expresse de la part de la clientèle. Il reconnaît que la réplication physique peut dans certains cas présenter des avantages fiscaux pour certains groupes d’investisseurs ou bien convenir à des souscripteurs dont les statuts interdisent d’investir dans des fonds utilisant des dérivés. Ces fonds auront tous comme désinence «DR» pour «direct replication».L’indice Stoxx Europe Christian Index réplique l'évolution des actions d’entreprises sélectionnées sur des critères chrétiens et puisées dans l’indice Stoxx Europe 600. Cela exclut des entreprises actives dans les domaines de la pornographie, du contrôle des naissances, de l’armement et des jeux de hasard. Le respect des valeurs est confié à une commission indépendante composé de spécialistes de l’investissement et d’experts de Christian Brothers Investment Services Inc. Actuellement, cet indice comprend 545 valeurs.L’indice Dow Jones Global Fund 50, qui sert de sous-jacent au second fonds, réplique l'évolution des 50 plus grandes capitalisations qui soutiennent le Global Fund, une institution multilatérale qui finance la prévention et le traitement de la tuberculose, de la malaria et du VIH.Les deux ETF portent à 761 le nombre de fonds traités sur XTF.Caractéristiques de deux premiers fonds db x-trackers «DR"Dénomination : db x-trackers STOXX Europe Christian ETF (DR)Code Isin : IE00B3QWFQ10Taux de frais sur encours : 0,40 %Dénomination : db x-trackers Global Fund Supporters ETF (DR)Code Isin : IE00B46F7724Taux de frais sur encours : 0,25 %

Le 13 décembre, le gestionnaire helvétique Partners Group a annoncé la nomination de Lürgen Diegruber et d’Armin Weiland comme associés. Ils prennent en charge l’ouverture d’un bureau à Munich. Les deux hommes ont été notamment en 2005 les fondateurs du capital-investisseur German-Capital, une société de private equity spécialiste des petites et moyennes entreprises.Par ailleurs, Partners Group annonce la promotion au rang de managing directors de plusieurs membres de l'équipe dirigeante :Andreas Baumann, Private Equity Directs & Primaries, Singapour,Kelvin Chan, Private Equity Directs & Primaries, Singapour,Erik Gunnervall, Investments Solutions, Zoug,Juri Jenkner, Private Debt, Londres,Andreas Knecht, General Counsel, Zoug,Robert Lustenberger, Investment Solutions, Zoug,Peter Nietzer, Private Equity Directs & Primaries, Munich,et Philipp Schnyder, Private Equity Secondaries, Zoug.

La banque Sarasin a annoncé le 13 décembre la nomination de Christian Mosel en qualité de directeur des affaires institutionnelles et «wholesale» en Allemagne. A compter de début décembre, celui-ci assume à Francfort la responsabilité de l’ensemble des affaires institutionnelles sur le marché allemand, a indiqué la banque dans un communiqué. Christian Mosel était précédemment responsable de la clientèle institutionnelle chez HCI à Hambourg.

Arrivé en juin de chez Goldman Sachs pour diriger la desserte des particuliers haut de gamme, Axel Hörger a été nommé président du directoire d’UBS Deutschland à compter du 1er janvier 2011, un poste qui aura été vacant depuis juin et le départ de son prédécesseur Stephan Zimmermann pour le siège d’UBS à Zurich, rapporte la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.Le directoire sera de nouveau au complet. Martin Deckert est COO, Andreas Varnavides dirige la gestion de fortune pour l’Allemagne et l’Europe de l’Est et Stefan Winter reste patron de la banque d’investissement.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Bank Sarasin announced on 13 December that it has appointed Christian Mosel as head of institutional and wholesale business in Germany. Since the beginning of December, he is in charge of all institutional operations for the German market, based in Frankfurt, the bank says in a statement. Mosel was previously head of institutional clients at HCI in Hamburg.

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In October EUR16.9bn flowed into equity funds in Europe, according to Lipper FMI. One has to go all the way back to April 2006 to find when the equity total was last exceeded – then EUR22.6bn. Clearly this was still primarily an emerging market story, with over EUR7.5bn moving into emerging equity funds. However, it was interesting to see that European equity funds (including small caps) attracted EUR1.3bn after these products had suffered outflows of EUR12.9bn over the previous nine months, Lipper shows. This month a quarter of equity fund sales can be attributed to ETFs, whereas in April 2006 only EUR520m was attributable to ETFs out of EUR22.6bn. But even without this activity the asset class still attracted more new money than bond funds, which have enjoyed greater attention from European investors in every other month of 2010.Total net sales hit EUR20.3bn in October, although this reaches EUR30.8bn when the impact of money market funds is stripped out. For the year to date, net sales now stand at EUR248.5bn (ex-liquidity), above the level achieved for the whole of 2009.Franklin Templeton retook the crown for the greatest sales this month (EUR3.2bn), although once more the company was very close to Allianz/Pimco (EUR2.9bn). On the equity side, ETF giants Deutsche Bank and BlackRock enjoyed the benefits of these products success. Once ETFs are stripped out, there were three clear winners with net sales of EUR1bn or more — Amundi, JPMorgan and UBS.According to statistics published by the European fund and asset management association(EFAMA), UCITS funds finished the month of October with net inflows of EUR7bn, after outflows of EUR12bn in September. Long-term UCITS-compliant funds (excluding money markets) posted net inflows of EUR26bn, compared with only EUR10bn in September. This development is largely due to net inflows of EUR13bn to equities funds, which investors avoided in the previous months. Since the beginning of the year, long-term UCITS funds posted cumulative net inflows of EUR203bn, compared with EUR137bn in the first ten months of 2009. Money market funds in October saw further outflows, of nearly EUR20bn, bringing outflows in the first ten months of the year to EUR126.8bn.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Skandia Investment Group (SIG) on 13 December announced that it has awarded a GBP90m mandate to TewentyFour Asset Management for its Skandia Sterling Bond Fund. The fund was previously managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management. SIG estimates that the prospects of an increase in interest rates suggests that most corporate bond funds are running high interest rate risks; hence the idea of launching a corporate bond fund with a much more limited rate risk profile. TwentyFour relies on a strategy based on the short term, while the Goldman Sachs mandate was much more focused on the long term.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Via its Luxembourg Sicav, Franklin Templeton is now offering retail investors a version of its Templeton Global Aggregate Bond Fund, a strategy which has been available to institutional investors since 1997. The fund, whose currency of reference is the US dollar, was launched on 29 October.The fund is managed in London by John Beck and David Zahn, vice presidents of the international fixed income group at Franklin Templeton. The managers are permitted to hold up to 10% non-investment grade debt in the portfolio.CharacteristicsNames: Templeton Global Aggregate Bond Fund A(acc)USD and Templeton Global Aggregate Bond Fund A(Mdis)USDISIN codes: LU0543369267 and LU0543369770Front-end fee: 3% maximumManagement commission: 0.95%Minimal subscription: USD5,000Assets as of 10 December 2010: USD10.7m

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } HFT Investment Management, a Chinese joint venture from BNP Paribas, is planning to launch its first offshore fund in the next three months via its new Hong Kong affiliate, in order to accelerate its international expansion, its CEO announced on 13 December. HFT Investment is 49% owned by BNP Paribas and 51% by Haitong Securities, the third-largest Chiense brokerage firm by capitalisation. HFT Investment is also hoping to launch its second foreign investment fund for Chinese investors in the next month, as part of the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) program, Tian Rencan announced at the Reuters Chinese investment summit. The new fund from HFT Investment is targeted in particular to high net worth retail investors. Investments will be largely focused on equities.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Man Group, which has launched an asset management firm in Italy, will release an Italian-registered fund of hedge funds, which is currently in the license application process, according to Plus 24, the money supplement of Il Sole – 24 Ore. The product will use the firm’s managed accounts platform.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Morningstar statistics reveal that the Pimco Total Return fund, managed by Bill Gross, which has about USD256bn in assets, saw net outflows fo USD1.9bn in November, Mutual fund Wire reports. It is the first time in two years that the fund has seen such a setback. The Pimco Total Return lost 1.5% last month, its worst result since September 2008. The Barclays Capital US Aggregate Bond Index, for its part, lost 0.57% in the same period.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research has announced the recruitment of two senior SRI and sustainable development analysts, Sarbjit Nahal and Valery Lucas-Leclin. Both join from Société Générale. They will be based in London, and will be repsonsible for development of SRI research worldwide and integration of ESG (environmental, social and governance) criteria into all research products from BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Portuguese management firm ESAF on 13 December listed a Luxembourg-registered ETF on NYSE Euronext Lisbon. The product replicates the NYSE Euronext Iberian index, which tracks shares of the Iberian peninsula, with a limit of 10% for the weight of each component. With the addition of the new fund, NYSE Euronext has 573 listings of 503 different ETF funds. Characteristics Name: ESAF NYSE Euronext Iberian ETF ISIN code: LU0550486814 TEER: 0.45%

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swiss UBS group has recruited several specialists as a part of its wealth management development strategy in Asia. UBS has hired three private bankers from Credit Suisse and two from DBS, all of whom will be based in Singapore. Gary Goh, previously of Credit Suisse, joins UBS as executive director and desk head. Yvonne Koh and Loh Swee Sung, both formerly of Credit Suisse, join UBS, the first as director and client advisor, and the second as associate director and client advisor. Tan Yeu Cheng and Wendy Toh, previously of DBS, join UBS as executive director and associate director, respectively.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Melissa Lee, who since 2006 has been in charge of development and management of relations with Japanese, Korean and Hong Kong-based institutional clients at Pioneer Global Investments, is joining Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd as head of institutional clients, EdRAM announced on 13 December.Lee’s mission will be to develop commercial relations throughout Asia, promote EdRAM’s expertise in terms of equities management, convertible bonds and asset allocation, and to distribute all products of the range registered in the region, managed from Paris and Hong Kong.The statement adds that Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management, was granted a license by the Securities and Futures Commission in February 2008 which allows it to manage funds and distribute all local as well as foreign investment vehicles. It now has 18 employees and manages assets of over EUR1.6bn.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Cristina García de Sola Riera, who was previously head of client services, marketing and sales support at BlackRock in Spain, on 1 December joined M&G Investments, whose team in Spain includes two people aside from the director, Ignacio Rodríguez Añino. García de Sola Riera will be in charge of development for M&G in Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Chile.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Goldman Sachs has rejected accusations that its trading practices contributed to the collapse of two Bear Stearns hedge funds in 2007, the Financial Times reports. In documents submitted to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, the bank endeavours to prove that its valuation of MBS held by the fund had a limited impact on their financial health.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Securities and Exchange Commission has notified Danny Bogar, former president of brokerage operations at Stanford International Bank, and several other brokers in recent months that it plans to file civil charges against them as part of the investigation into the fraud orchestrated by Allen Stanford, the Financial Times reports. @font-face { font-family: «Arial"; }@font-face { font-family: «Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: «Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Agefi reports on the basis of a reliable source that Isabelle Bourcier, former global head of ETFs at Lyxor, who is leaving the Société Générale affiliate, will be joining the future specialist entity from Natixis AM, Ossiam. The French asset management firm, in which the bank owns 51%, is planning to launch its first ETFs in first quarter 2011.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The California pension fund CalPERS on 13 December announced a new asset allocation strategy to better adjust performance to risk. The president of CalPERS, Rob Feckner, says in a statement that the pension fund had not paid enough attention to allocation risks. The new allocation strategy, which does more to take into account market conditions, divides assets into five major categories on the basis of markets and inflation: liquidity (cash, Treasuries which are easily converted into cash in order to reduce deflationary risks); growth (exposure to rising markets, 63%); income (fixed income, for example, in order to provide revenues in falling markets, 16%); real (assets which are less sensitive to inflationary risks, 13%), and lastly, inflation (commodities and inflation-linked securities, 4%). CalPERS has also set fluctuation margins for the farious categories, for example, +/-7% for the “growth” category, and +/-3% for inflation and liquidity. “Allocations will not change hugely, but we will look at the assets differently,” says the president of the CalPERS investment committee, George Diehr.

Legg Mason has announced the appointment of Peter “Pete” H. Nachtwey as chief financial officer and a member of its executive committee. He will report to Mark R. Fetting, chairman and chief executive officer. He joins the firm from The Carlyle Group, where he was also chief financial officer and a member of their operating committee. Pete Nachtwey said, “At the right time, I am also ready to help expand Legg Mason’s investment capabilities through targeted acquisitions.”

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } US-based asset management firm Oppenheimer and Hyundai Securities from South Korea have signed an memorandum of understanding to create a non-exclusive alliance that would allow them to cooperate both in Korea and in the United States.The partnership project includes several areas of activity, including corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, institutional sales, research, and wealth management.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Funds People reports that SGK Fondsleitung (Liechtenstein) AG, the management affiliate of Clariden Leu (Credit Suisse group), has announced the reopening of the Clariden Leu (Lie) Cat Bond fund to new investors, as many cat bond issues have been announced since the beginning of second half. Subscriptions were suspended in June due to a lack of new bond issues.