Les compartiments Global Classic, Global Dynamic, Global Challenge, Gobal Balance, Global Discovery et Stable value de la Sicav luxembourgeoise BG Umbrella Fund seront liquidés au premier janvier 2010 en raison de l’affaire Madoff et les souscripteurs pourront récupérer à ce moment là leurs actifs, indique LRI Invest .
Pour son fonds immobilier offert au public Deka-ImmobilienEuropa (10 milliards d’euros), l’allemand Deka Immobilien a acheté l’immeuble de bureaux Gemini à Prague, un actif de 40.000 mètres carrés. La transaction porte sur environ 110 millions d’euros. Le vendeur est l’autrichien Sparkassen Immobilien AG.
Axa Investment Managers vient d’annoncer la nomination de Jean-Pierre Leoni au poste de directeur de la région Asie Pacifique. Basé à Hong-Kong, il sera en charge du développement de la présence de la société de gestion dans la région Asie Pacifique. Il prendra ses nouvelles fonctions à compter du 1er janvier 2010 et sera membre du comité exécutif d’Axa IM et d’Axa Rosenberg. Jean-Pierre Leoni a rejoint Axa IM en 1998 en tant que responsable de l’expertise crédit et a créé en 2005, l’unité spécialiste produits dont il a pris la responsabilité jusqu’à aujourd’hui. "(…) la nomination de Jean-Pierre Leoni confirme notre engagement à faire croître nos activités dans cette zone», indique Dominique Carrel-Billiard, directeur général d’Axa IM. D’ailleurs, pour accroître sa présence en Asie, le gestionnaire d’actifs prévoit également le renforcement de ses équipes commerciales dans les mois à venir.
Pour le premier semestre, dont les résultats sont clos au 30 septembre, la structure de capital investissement 3i a essuyé une perte nette de 59 millions de livres (65,2 millions d’euros), contre 143 millions de livres enregistrés un an plus tôt, rapporte la Tribune. Les acquisitions du groupe se sont élevées à 190 millions de livres au premier semestre, dans un marché global du private equity en forte contraction depuis dix-huit mois. Le principal obstacle reste le manque de dette, moteur des reprises d’entreprises avec effet de levier, même si la patron de 3i estime que « le marché de la dette commence à se libérer et la dette devient disponible ».
Selon Hedge Fund Research, au cours du deuxième trimestre, 182 nouveaux hedge funds ont vu le jour dans le monde (148 au cours des trois premiers mois de l’année).
Actuellement director of fiduciary management chez Kempen Capital Management, Hans Rademaker rejoindra au 1er février 2010 le gestionnaire néerlandais Robeco (127 milliards d’euros fin septembre) en tant que responsable de la gestion traditionnelle (mainstream investments), poste qui avait été pourvu le 1er décembre 2008 par Jean-Louis Laurens, qui a entre-temps pris la tête de Rothschild & Cie Gestion à Paris depuis le 1er septembre.La gestion traditionnelle de Robeco est répartie sur des sites à Rotterdam, Paris, Boston, New York et Hong-Kong.
Jeudi, ETF Securities (ETFS) a annoncé le lancement de quatre ETF «longs» sur la cacao, le plomb, l’étain et le platine qui sont cotés sur le London Stock Exchange (LSE). Ces nouveaux produits portent à 148 le nombre d’ETC dans la gamme d’ETFS, dont la plate-forme matières premières dépasse les 16 milliards de dollars d’encours, grâce à triplement sur les douze derniers mois.
Selon les informations de Citywire, RWC Partners a recruté Davide Basile, vice president et patron des convertibles de Morgan Stanley, pour combler le vide laissé par le départ de Miles Geldard, responsable des convertibles.
La société de gestion GLG Partners envisage de lancer sur le marché britannique cinq fonds de performance absolue, selon Money Marketing, qu’elle compte prendre dans sa gamme de douze fonds Ucits III domiciliés à Dublin. Il s’agit de quatre fonds marchés émergents, emerging markets credit opportunity, equity, fixed income et devises, et du fonds alpha long/short paneuropéen.
Clive Capital, le plus gros hedge fund de matières premières dans le monde, ferme ses portes à de nouveaux investisseurs, deux ans seulement après son lancement, rapporte le Financial Times. Des personnes proches du dossier expliquent que le fonds souhaite rester maniable dans un marché des matières premières relativement petit. Le fonds a atteint 3,5 milliards de dollars d’encours.
Grâce à une récente modificiation du règlement pour les fonds d’investissement qui homologue les ETF aux statuts de sicav, Barclays Global Investors peut à présent faire enregistrer ses iShares en Espagne. Dans un premier temps, rapporte Funds People, le gestionnaire demande l’agrément pour douze de ses ETF. Il s’agit des produits répliquant des indices d’actions de marchés développés comme le DJ Euro Stoxx 50, le S&P 500, le FTSE 100, le MSCI Japan et le MSCI World. Les autres reproduisent des indices d’actions de pays émergents: índices FTSE BRIC 50, MSCI Latin America, FTSE/Xinhua China 25, MSCI AC Far East ex-Japan, MSCI Brazil, MSCI Eastern Europe 10/40 y etMSCI Emerging Markets. Ces fonds sont des compartiments des sicav iShares Public Limited Company et iShares II Public Limited Company.
Après une période difficile, les fonds de pension individuels affichent à nouveau des rendements relativement importants sur un an : d’après l’association Inverco des sociétés de gestion, la performance moyenne sur un an à fin octobre s'établit à 5,48 %, grâce à un gain de 14,12 % des fonds investis en actions. Cela posé, sur trois ans, Inverco fait état d’une perte annuelle moyenne de 0,33 %, les fonds en actions accusant un recul de 8,07 %. Sur cinq et dix ans, la performance annuelle moyenne se situe à respectivement 1,82 % et 1,33 %.Inverco indique par ailleurs que ces chiffres correspondent à 1 106 fonds de pension individuels représentent environ 96 % de l’encours total du secteur, soit 49,15 milliards d’euros répartis sur 8,35 millions de comptes.
The market for over-the-counter derivative products grew by 10% in the first six months of the year compared with the previous half, to a total of nearly USD604.6trn, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) has announced in its most recent semiannual report. The markets for derivative instruments based on fixed income, currencies, and equities all grew in the period under review, while assets in contracts based on commodities stabilised. The CDS market continued to contract, losing 14% to USD36trn, following a 27% contraction in the second half of 2008.
The German firm Deka Immobilien has bought the 40,000 square-metre Gemini office building in Prague, for its open-ended real estate fund Deka-ImmobilienEuropa (EUR10bn). The acquisition price is about EUR110m. The vendor is the Austrian Sparkassen Immobilien AG.
European hedge funds will be confronted with more severe restrictions in terms of pay scales than banks, under last-minute changes to the draft directive on alternative management (AIFM). The most recent version of the bill, obtained by the Financial Times, now includes a three-page appendix of provisions restricting pay policies.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has removed Liechtenstein from its “grey list” of countries which refuse to exchange tax information. The OECD is still monitoring 28 countries which, in many cases, have engaged to comply with OECD standards for tax information sharing, but have not yet done so in practice.
At the request of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is investigating Dynamic Decision Fund Management, an alternative asset management firm based in the Cayman Islands, which managed GBP500m, Handelsblatt reports. The FSA and the SFO have both been flooded with complaints from subscribers about investment practices at Dynamic Decision. Investigators are focusing on the Dynamic Decisions Growth Premium Master Fund, the firm’s main hedge fund, which was closed last year after suffering heavy losses.
The chairman of the board of trustees at CalPERS, Rob Feckner, has called on his colleagues on the board to militate for strengthened legislation to regulate the activities of placement agents or organizations which use their services, in order to make them subject to the same ethical and reporting standards which apply to lobbying groups. CalPERS says in a statement that Feckner has sent a letter to this effect to the 13 members of the board of trustees, following recent events in which placement agents attempted to unduly influence the California pension fund’s investment decisions.
On Thursday, the FBI estimated that the Ponzi type pyramid fraud scheme operated by lawyer Scott W. Rothstein probably ran to over USD1bn, the Wall Street Journal reports. On Monday, the US government filed a civil case against the high-profile Florida lawyer, accusing him of selling investors participations in fictitious legal settlements, promising double-digit returns. The fraud began in 2005, and only came to light in October, when investors complained of not having been paid. The FBI says the investigation will take time, and criminal charges are not expected to be filed for several more weeks.
The Luxembourg-based provider of services to the investment fund market announced on 12 November that it has opened an office in Paris with Christian Mavides at its head. The opening of the Paris office follows the recent acquisition of La Cote Bleue, which is located in the historic Palais de la Bourse, the former stock market building in the heart of Paris at Brongniart palace. Christian Mavides, former director of financial advertising at BFM Radio and head of the financial, banking and insurance sectors, will be in charge of development for French clients and management of relations with existing clients. “The opening of a Paris office fits wholly within Kneip’s enlargement strategy, as it seeks to bring support to clients in France, where the investment fund industry is currently experiencing strong growth,” says a statement. In addition to its new Paris office, Kneip is also present in London and Switzerland, and is planning to open a location in Germany in early 2010.
On Thursday, the Sarasin group announced the launch of an Islamic wealth management range, including the full spectrum of private banking products and services compatible with Sharia law. This includes inheritance and wealth transmission planning, financing, and wealth management, as well as money market investments and structured products based on wakala, murabaha, and maraya. Sarasin’s compliance with the precepts of Sharia law will be guaranteed by an independent committee of specialists.
Independent asset management firm Weston Capital Management LLC has announced the creation of a joint venture with the Swiss asset management firm Harcourt Investment Consulting, to form a hedge fund incubator. The joint venture will bring together Weston CM’s expertise in hedge funds in the early stages of development and in marketing, with Harcourt’s abilities in manager selection, due diligence, and risk management. The goal is to create a fund with USD250m in assets.Harcourt and WR Group Holdings have also agreed to combine their managed accounts platforms. The Swiss firm, specialised in alternative investment solutions for institutional investors, will allow access to its managed accounts platform and will provide exclusive due diligence services to funds of the WR Group platform. It will also provide analysis and portfolio construction services.The objective is to create a single platform to serve institutional investors with products from 50 managers; this will be increased to 75 managers in first quarter 2010. Currently, the platform from WR Group includes 30 managers, with assets of USD200m, while Harcourt has 15 managers and USD150m.
Axa Investment Managers has announced the appointment of Jean-Pierre Leoni as director for the Asia-Pacific region. He will be based in Hong Kong, and will oversee development of the management firm’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region. He will begin in his new role from 1 January 2010, and will be a member of the executive board at Axa IM and Axa Rosenberg. Leoni joined Axa IM in 1998 as head of the credit expertise team, and in 2005 created a specialist products unit, which he has led until the present time. “The appointment of Jean-Pierre Leoni confirms our commitment to growing our activities in this region,” says Dominique Carrel-Billiard, CEO of Axa IM. To increase its presence in Asia, the asset management firm is also planning to strengthen its sales teams in the next few months.
Clive Capital, the world’s largest commodity hedge fund, is shutting its doors to new investors just two years after its launch, says the Financial Times. People familiar with Clive said the fund wanted to stay nimble in relatively small commodity markets. The fund has swelled to USD3.5bn in assets.
The management firm GLG Partners is planning to launch five absolute performance funds on the British market, according to Money Marketing, which will become part of its range of 12 UCITS III-compliant funds domiciled in Dublin. They include four emerging markets funds - emerging markets credit opportunity, equity, fixed income and currencies - and a pan-European long/short alpha fund.
On Thursday, ETF Securities (ETFS) announced the launch of four “long” ETF products based on cocoa, lead, pewter and platinum, which are listed on the London Stock Exchange. The new products bring the number of producs in the ETFS range of ETC products to 148. Its commodities platform now has over USD16bn in assets, triple their levels twelve months ago.
According to reports in Citywire, RWC Partners has hired Davide Basile, vice president and head of convertibles at Morgan Stanley, to fill the position left vacant by the departure of Miles Geldard, head of convertibles.
The CNMV has issued its first authorisation to group together orders for investment funds and pension funds to Fonditel, Expansión reports. The manager of investment funds and of the Telefónica pension fund (EUR363m in assets as of the end of October) will be the first Spanish asset management firm to be allowed to make combined transactions for both the former and the latter, a practice which was previously considered irregular, as it was considered necessary to maintain a strict separation (Chinese walls) between pension fund and investment fund activities, in order to avoid conflicts of interest in asset allocation. Luis Peña, CEO of Fonditel, explained to Expansión that this aspect is overseen by an external risk manager.
Hans Rademaker, currently head of fiduciary management at Kempen Capital Management, will join the Dutch management firm Robeco (EUR127bn in assets as of the end of September) on 1 February 2010, as head of mainstream investments, a position which was left vacant on 1 December 2008 with the departure of Jean-Louis Laurens, who has since become head of Rothschild & Cie Gestion, a position he has held since 1 September.Mainstream investments at Robeco are divided between five locations in Rotterdam, Paris, Boston, New York, and Hong Kong.
The Global Classic, Global Dynamic, Global Challenge, Global Balance, Global Discovery and Stable Value sub-funds of the Luxembourg Sicav BG Umbrella Fund will be liquidated on 1 January 2010, as a result of the Madoff scandal. Subscribers will be able to redeem their investments at this time, LRI Invest announces.