Jean-Louis Mourier, an economist at Aurel BGC, says in an interview with Agefi that several factors argue in favour of a continued rise in long-term interest rates, particularly in the UK and the US. The recovery may prove surprisingly strong, and inflation may remain higher than anticipated when basic effects fade away, despite the persistence of large amounts of unused production capacities, he says.
The specialist group LCH.Clearnet on 8 April announced that it has been granted permission by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to extend its settlement service for swaps and fixed income assets, SwapClear, to Ireland and Switzerland. The change in the area covered by the service will allow institutional investors to process their transactions via member agencies in the United States, France, Germany, Ireland, and Switzerland. SwapClear handles about 40% of the global market in swaps and fixed income assets.
La Tribune reports that Blackstone on Tuesday made an indicative offer to buy 318 bank branches which have been offered for sale by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). RBS has already received 4 bids from Santander, BBVA, Virgin Money and National Australia Bank, the newspaper reports.
Fidelity has recruited Ben Waterhouse as head of wholesale sales for the United Kingdom, Investment Week reports. Waterhouse previously worked at L&G Investments, as director of sales. He will begin in his new position in the next few months, and will consolidate and develop activities with wealth managers in particular.
Investment Week reports that Martin Currie has closed a hedge fund dedicated to China which had assets under management of USD203m. The fund, launched seven years ago, has earned annualised returns of 16.2%. In the past two years, the fund has earned returns of 22.8%, compared with losses of 15.4% for the MSCI Golden Dragon index in the same period.
The chief executive of F&C Asset Management collected a GBP1 million bonus last year, according to the Times, which cites F&C’s annual report. Alain Grisay received GBP700,000 in cash and GBP300,000 in shares deferred for three years. The bonus came on top of Mr Grisay’s GBP325,000 salary. It will rise by 7.7 per cent to GBP350,000 this year.
With the merger of BNP Paribas and Fortis, Juan Marín, head of sales for the Iberian peninsula at Fortis Investments, has joined Investec as director of sales for France, Luxembourg, Italy, Spain and Portugal, Funds People reports. The British-South African management firm in November registered the Luxembourg Sicav Investec Strategy Fund (32 sub-funds) with the CNMV, but its products have not yet gone on sale in Spain, except via Allfunds Bank.
Though the four client advisers who are joining Credit Suisse in Berlin are not necessarily big names, it has been confirmed that six people have quit their jobs at the Cologne headquarters of the private bank, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. The newspaper also states that a major client of Sal. Oppenheim is seeking to recruit several people to create a family office. The newspaper also points out that in Berlin it is not known whether the rest of the local Sal. Oppenheim team will be joining Berenberg, but the Hamburg-based private bank is expecting to take on two well-established advisers from Sal. Oppenheim, one in Frankfurt, and the other in Düsseldorf.
Deutsche Bank has announced that Doug Kline has joined the Global Prime Finance activity of its Global Markets division as managing director and head of hedge fund advising. Kline previously worked at Viking Global Investors, where he was a partner and chief information officer. Kline is based in New York, where he reports directly to Pam Kieman, managing director and global head of development, and Scott Carter, managing director and head of Global Prime Finance Sales and Capital Introduction for North America.
The Swiss asset management firm Partners group has concluded the sale of its managed accounts platform to Sciens Capital Management, an independent alternative management firm based in New York and London. This will allow the Swiss group, which manages CHF25bn in assets, to focus on private investments (including private equity, private debt, private real estate and private infrastructure), a press release states.
The University of Ohio has contracted BNY Mellon Asset Servicing to provide custody services for its long-term fund, the Ohio State Endowment Fund. The fund has nearly USD2bn in assets. BNY Mellon succeeds State Street in this role.
Les Echos reports that a growing number of US businesses are falling victim to market manipulations initiated by spam emails which spread false information about them. The spam messages target small companies with low liquidity and low daily trading volumes in particular, especially companies whose share prices are low, which are not listed on the major organized markets (NASDAQ or NYSE), and which generally release limited amounts of public information to the markets.
Les Echos reports that the investment holding company Eurazeo is currently considering a capital increase, in order to regain some manoeuvering room when the LBO markets recover. It may raise as much as EUR500m.
Although Fidelity International claims that the initial public offering (IPO) of shares in its China Special Situations has been its largest success since 1990 for an equities product, the total of GBP460m raised for the most recent product from Anthony Bolton represents less than three quarters (73%) of the GBP630m which the asset management firm had set as its objective for the high-profile operation, which was heavily covered by the media. The fund, which becomes the largest China fund listed in London, will officially be launched on 19 April on the London Stock Exchange. Bolton says that he himself has bought 2.5 million shares.
Christian Camenzind, CEO of Sal. Oppenheim Switzerland, on Friday announced the appointment of Gérard Piasko as chief investment officer (CIO). Piasko has in the past few years served in the same role at Julius Bär, after ten years as a global strategist at Credit Suisse in London, New York and Zurich.
UBS is projecting pre-tax profits of CHF2.5bn for first quarter 2010, the bank announced in a statement published on 12 April, slightly ahead of its general shareholders’ meeting to be held on 14 April. The bank has also registered net outflows from all sectors, though these were “considerably lower” than in fourth quarter 2009. “In first quarter 2010, UBS estimates that it has reached assets of about CHF8bn for Wealth Management & Swiss Bank, CHF7bn for Wealth Management Americas, and CHF3bn for Global Asset Management,” the bank says.
The Italian senator Elio Lannutti has expressed surprise at the “deafening silence” which has prevailed over the appointment of Domenico Siniscalco, former Italian minister of the economy, and current president of Morgan Stanley, as chairman of Assogestioni, the Italian association of asset managers, the Italian news agency Asca reports. The politician claims that the variety of positions now held by Siniscalco imply “obvious conflicts of interest.” He points out that as chairman of Assogestioni, Siniscalco is able to appoint independent directors in publicly-traded companies, with which he would also work in his capacities at Morgan Stanley. Lannutti is critical of the silence of the Bank of Italy and the market regulatory agency on this subject.
The Portuguese management firm Espirito Santo (ESAF), as promoter of the product, and Blue Activos Financeiros (BAF), as advisor, have announced the launch of the Luxembourg-registered fund Dynamic Alpha Portfolio III, which invests actively in funds, particularly UCITS III hedge funds. The objective is to earn returns 400-800 basis points higher than the Euribor 3-month, with volatility of less than 6%, an all market conditions. Among the preferred strategies of the fund are long/short equity, global macro, CTA, currencies, and volatility.
Bloomberg reports that AMP Capital Investors, which manages about USD90bn in assets, is preparing to launch an infrastructure fund which will invest in assets such as communications satellites and airports, to take advantage of demand for funds of this nature, and to diversify its stock portfolio.
Depuis jeudi, le segment XTF de la plate-forme électronique Xetra (Deutsche Börse) cote quatre ETF supplémentaires de Source, tous des produits de droit irlandais chargés à 0,30 %. Les indices répliqués sont tous des sous-indices optimisés du Stoxx Europe 600.Il s’agit du Consumer Discretionary European Source ETF (IE00B62RK662), du Consumer Staples European Source ETF (IE00B6222Y34), du Defensives European Source ETF (IE00B633JD33) et du Cyclicals European Source ETF (IE00B62SYX47).Ces nouveaux produits portent à 651 le nombre de fonds cotés sur XTF.
La Deutsche Bank a recruté Joachim Müller, qui dirige l'équipe des analystes européens actions/banques de Crédit Agricole Chevreux comme directeur du service relations investisseurs, rapporte la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. L’intéressé remplacera au 1er juin Gurdon Wattles, qui a démissionné pour convenance personnelle, mais reste conseiller de la banque.
Stewart Edgar, responsable en Asie de la nouvelle entité issue de la fusion entre BNP Paribas Investment Partners (BNPP IP) et Fortis Investments, envisage de doubler la contribution de l’Asie aux résultats de BNP Paribas IP. Actuellement, la contribution asiatique représente 10 % à 15 % du bénéfice de BNPP IP. Selon les dernières statistiques disponibles communiquées à Asian Investor, les actifs sous gestion de la zone Asie-Pacifique représentaient en décembre dernier 64,7 milliards de dollars, dont 70 % pour le compte d’investisseurs institutionnels. La croissance des prochaines années devrait s’appuyer sur quatre piliers : la Chine, l’Inde, l’Indonésie et la Corée du Sud.
Tom Wyse vient de quitter la Deutsche Bank pour rejoindre Credit Suisse à Sydney en tant que responsable des activités de gestion de transition de portefeuilles avec une attention particulière pour les fonds souverains et les fonds de pension.Selon Asian Investor, Tom Wyse travaillait chez Deutsche Bank à Sydney depuis 2007.
A fin décembre, l’encours des 3.232 sicav de droit espagnol (443.509 actionnaires) ressortait à près de 25,65 milliards d’euros, soit presque 4,8 % de plus qu’un an auparavant, rapporte Funds People. La sicav avec les actifs les plus importants était Morinvest, gérée par BBVA Patrimonios, devant Allocation de Pactio Gestión avec 381 millions.D’après VDOS Stochastics, les dix premiers gestionnaires de sicav contrôlaient fin décembre 55,3 % du marché. Les plus importants sont BBVA Patrimonios (près de 2,8 milliards d’euros, 280 sicav), Banif Gestión (2,13 milliards, 286 sicav), Santander Asset Management (1,84 milliard, 270 sicav), Arcalia Inversiones (1,31 milliard) et Bankinter Gestión de Activos (1,24 milliard, 239 sicav).Les performances les plus élevées pour 2009 ont été enregistrées par Pactio Gestión (12,23 %), Credit Suisse Gestión (11,62 %) et Arcalia Inversiones (11,60 %).