On 6 May, the management firm UBS-SDIC will launch its first QDII fund (the 16th since the launch of the program, and the 6th since the beginning of this year). The product will be the Global Emerging Market Equity Fund, which will be based on the MSCI Emerging Market index as its benchmark, and which will allocate at least 60% of its assets to equities, half of them in emerging markets. The custodians will be ICBC for China, and Standard Chartered in other countries. Z-Ben Advisors reports that the fund will be listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange, which will allow the management firm to attract capital through the banking network as well as through brokers. For each of these sources, investment is limited to CNY2bn. The new product, which received its sales license in mid-December, will be managed by Lu Rongqjanfg, who is already manager of the CSI 300 Index Classified Fund.
On the basis of figures from the Bank of Italy, Franco Citterio, director of the association of bankers in the Swiss canton of Ticino (ATB), says that Italians at the end of February “legalised” EUR85bn in undeclared assets deposited abroad, of which EUR60bn came from Switzerland, largely from Ticino, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung reports. But of this total, only EUR25bn actually returned to Italy. Many banks, such as the Banca della Svizzera Italiana (BSI) and Banca del Sempione, for example, were able to recuperate a large amount of the funds which were eligible for this tax amnesty, either through Italian affiliates, or through “legal repatriation.” Eventually, the fiscal amnesty offered by the Italian finance minister, Guilio Tremonti, did not achieve its other objective which was to draw assets out of the Swiss financial centre in Lugano.
Agefi reports that, following an announcement on Wednesday by Nasdaq OMX Europe that it will be closing Neuro, its alternative trading platform (MTF) on 21 May, the trading platform Equiduct on Friday announced that it is in exclusive talks with the operator to offer Neuro clients an opportunity to connect the two systems without interruption to trading flows.
In the first three months of the year, Agefi reports, Barclays has earned net banking proceeds of GBP8.1bn, compared with a predicted estimate of GBP9.4bn advanced by analysts at KBW. This decline in revenues is particularly severe for the investment banking unit, where net banking proceeds fell by 26% to GBP3.8bn, compared with analysts’ expectations of GBP5bn. The bank has not profited as much as its rivals from trading in fixed income, currencies and commodities, the newspaper adds.
BNY Mellon Asset Servicing has been selected by UOB Asset Management (UOBAM) to provide custody and administration services for its fund United Asia Bond Multi Currency Fund, domiciled int he Cayman Islands. The product has assets of about CNY5bn (USD50m).
On Thursday evening, the Carlyle Group announced that it will be taking over the management mandates of Stanfield Capital Partners, a specialist in bond management. These mandates represent USD5.1bn in the form of CLO (USD4.2bn) and other credit assets (USD950m); including these assets, total assets at Carlyle in alternative credit come to USD18.1bn, of which USD14.4bn are in CLO assets. The financial terms of the transaction have not been made public.
The management firm Carl Spängler Kapitalanlagegesellschaft, an affiliate of the Spängler private bank, and the Institut für Quantitatives Asset Management (IQM) have decided to create the joint brand Spängler IQAM Invest for funds and other asset management products. Spängler KAG will handle wholesale clients, including banks, funds of funds and wealth managers, while IQAM will serve institutional investors (insurers, businesses, pension funds and professional organisations). The product range from Spängler IQAM (Spängler KAG acquired a stake in IQAM some time ago) will include open-ended funds, investment solutions (i.e., mandates managed by IQAM), institutional funds (from Spängler) and investment advising.
In first quarter, mutual fund activities at The Hartford posted net subscriptions of USD1.5bn, and assets totalled USD97.7bn as of the end of March, compared with USD69.4bn twelve months previously.
The alternative management firm Gottex Fund Management on Thursday evening announced the recruitment in Boston of Debra Tothman as managing director, head of North American sales & marketing. She was previously head of business development at SCS Financial, where she contributed to the commercial development of the fund of hedge funds range. Gottex has also recruited Mark Ostergaard as marketing director in London. He will be in charge of developing and assisting North American clients. He was previously in charge of relations with Scandinavian establishments at London & Capital.
Jefferies has announced the recruitment of several people in the past few weeks, who will join the team dedicated to fixed income products in the Asia-Pacific region. Shiran Dias and Sailesh K. Jha have been appointed as managing directors, and will aim to establish commercial relations with private banks, central banks and hedge funds in the region. Jun-ichi Kasakura and Philip Wen will serve as senior vice presidents.
Les Echos reports that a survey undertaken in mid-April by MultiRatings of 50 professional treasurers who manage assets of over EUR200bn finds that “long term money market” funds are returning in force to the allocations of French institutional investors. Within the new classifications of money market funds, the “long terme” category includes diversified funds with volatility of less than 2%. These funds have less risk and aim to outperform the Eonia rate through various strategies. Most institutional investors surveyed were planning to increase (45%) or maintain (41%) their allocation to these products. Only a minority (14%) were planning to reduce the weight of these funds in their future allocations.
In the fiscal year to 31 March, Macquarie Group Limited has posted net profits of AUD1.05bn, which represents a 21% increase over 2008-2009. Assets under management have increased by a total of 34% to AUD326bn, largely due to the acquisition of the American asset management firm Delaware Investments, which brought in USD125bn in assets. The Macquarie Funds Group contributed AUD95m, or 4% of total operating profits, compared with AUD45m and 6% in the previous period. For the division, assets increased to AUD209.9bn as of the end of March, from AUD49.7bn twelve months previously, thanks to the addition of Delaware (AUD151bn), and to net subscriptions to institutional products and AUD9.1bn in positive market effects. The annual report states that Macquarie is continuing to study potential strategic acquisitions in the area of investment funds, particularly on the largest financial markets.
RREEF, the real estate fund management affiliate of Deutsche Bank, has repositioned its open-ended real estate fund grundbesitz invest, which is now known as grundbesitz Europa, with EUR2.6bn in assets, while the grundbesitz Global now has EUR615m, and has had the largest volume of net subscriptions in the category since the beginning of this year, Handelsblatt reports. Georg Allendorf, CEO of RREEF, expects investments this year of EUR500m for the open-ended real estate fund operation, and another EUR500m for the institutional real estate fund division, with the objective of becoming one of the top five management firms in the latter category. The competition is not idle, however: IVG, the top firm in the sector, is making a major effort to recruit new clients, while iii, the number two provider, is refocusing on institutional funds as its open-ended fund operations have gone awry. The number three asset management firm, Hansainvest, is planning to raise EUR300-400m by the launch of up to four new institutional real estate funds by the end of the year.
From the month of July, ETFs based on Korean assets will be taxed at a more attractive rate than ETFs with foreign underlying assets, which will be required to pay a tax of 15.4%, Asian Investor reports. Bae Jae-Kyu, chief investment officer for ETF activities at Samsung AM, says the tax will damage the development of ETF funds in Korea.
Elliott Associates has confirmed that 18 more funds have joined the first 17 plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Porsche for share price manipulation, and the demands for damages and interest now exceed USD2bn, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. The funds accuse Porsche of knowingly misleading investors and lying about its true intentions concerning Volkswagen. At the end of October 2008, the firm cornered the market for shares in Volkswagen, whose share price at one point topped EUR1,000.
According to Les Echos, war, terrorism, and elections sometimes cause disturbances to the markets. Between 1974 and 2004, there were 112 conflicts (including wars, coups and others), of which 84 were national and 28 international, which affected the financial markets. Only 1 out of 5 of these had a significant effect (positive or negative) on global equities (MSCI World index), according to a study by two economists at the Federal Reserve in Saint Louis; 11.2% of these conflicts had a negative impact on the global stock markets, while 6.7% had a positive effect. The least affected markets (negatively) are the United Kingdom, France, Japan, and the United States. Wall Street is also the market which gains least often (12.4% of the time) on conflicts.
José Antonio Méndez, an equities analyst and portfolio manager at Banque Rothschild in Zurich, has been recruited by March Gestión (EUR1.5bn) as head of European funds and co-manager of the March Vini Catena fund, which invests in wine production and vineyards. March Gestión is an affiliate of Banca March.
Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) on Friday, 30 April denied reports in the Spanish press last week that it the firm will be shutting down its securities custody services in Spain, which operate under the name Euro-VL. SGSS explains in its denial that in Spain it has previously offered two types of activities – custody, and fund administration – both of which have been available under the Euro-VL name. “In a financial context in Spain which is continuing to deteriorate, leading to a decline in assets under administration in the asset management industry, SGSS has decided to refocus its Spanish activities on its core profession of custody,” a statement from the firm says, adding that of the 32 employees the firm has in Spain, only 2 will be affected by the refocusing of activities, which which will take place by the end of this year.
From May 5th, GLG Partners will close its newcits UK Alpha Select to new subscriptions, since this vehicle has already reached the USD300m (GBP195m) mark it had been assigned at the time of the launch, on February 19th. The fund is et UCITS III compliant version of the long/short equity market neutral fund managed by John White.
From 1 May, Thomas Mueller has taken over as chief financial officer of Banque Sarasin (Rabobank group), replacing Matthias Hassels, “who has decided to leave the firm after 12 years there, to take on a new professional challenge.” Mueller, who for the past three years had been CFO and Chief Risk Officer at Swiss Life, will be in charge of investor relations, corporate development, and enterprise financing, and will oversee the Legal & Compliance, human resources, group finance, Controlling, Risk Office, credit and tax departments at the group. Mueller will report directly to Joachim H. Straehle, CEO of Banque Sarasin.
China Construction Bank, the second-largest Chinese bank in terms of the size of its portfolio of loans, will soon launch the largest capital increase ever undertaken in Asia, according to La Tribune. The total amount raised will be CNY75bn (USD11bn), through share offerings in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Le groupe financier londonnien Matrix et Redux, gestionnaire spécialisé dans les marchés émergents fusionnent et créent une co-entreprise, Redux Research, qui sera dirigée par Sudeep Singh. Dans le passé, il était actif dans le trading de securities sur les marchés émergents, et gérant chez Caxton Associates et chief investment officer de Lotus Capital Partners. La joint-venture prévoit le lancement de hedge funds sur les monnaies émergentes et des stratégies macro plus tard dans l’année.
La Tribune rapporte que l'éruption du volcan islandais Eyjafjöll a aussi des conséquences sur l’avancement de différents dossiers dans le monde de la finance. Natixis, par exemple, a pris du retard dans la cession de son activité de capital-investissement dans les pays émergents, au Brésil, en Chine et en Inde, les dirigeants de chacune des filiales locales ayant dû annuler leur séjour. De la même façon, la vente de la banque privée KBL piétine alors que les banquiers belges de KBC négocient avec la famille indienne Hinduja, qui n’a pu venir en Europe, ajoute le quotidien.