Pour le troisième trimestre, la division gestion d’actifs de JP Morgan Chase a dégagé un bénéfice net de 430 millions de dollars contre 352 millions au deuxième et 351 millions pour la période correspondante de l’an dernier. L’encours a augmenté de 9 %sur le deuxième trimestre, à 1.300 milliards de dollars, essentiellement en raison des souscriptions pour les fonds monétaires, obligataires et d’actions, qui ont été partiellement compensées par un effet de marché négatif et des remboursements nets pour les fonds alternatifs.La banque affiche au total un bénéfice net de 3,59 milliards pour juillet-septembre contre 2,72 milliards en avril-juin et 527 millions pour la période correspondante de l’an dernier.
Cadogan Management, une société de hedge funds de 3,6 milliards de dollars, va prendre son indépendance vis-à-vis de Fortis Bank, selon le Wall Street Journal. Cadogan, Fortis et BNP Paribas doivent annoncer l’opération ce jeudi. BNP avait déjà une activité de hedge funds, qui était considérée comme redondante avec celle de Cadogan.
Le siège d’HSBC France (ex-CCF) sur les Champs-Elysées a été acquis par le fonds Qatari Diar. La transaction, qui porte sur 35.000 mètres carrés, serait d’environ 400 millions d’euros. A terme, le rez-de-chaussée serait transformé en galerie commerciale, et les étages en hôtel de luxe.
L’Agefi rapporte que deux articles d’une loi définitivement votée le 17 septembre qui proposait de modifier le Code civil pour permettre l'émission, sur la place de Paris, d’instruments financiers conformes aux principes de la charia ont été retoqués par le Conseil Constitutionnel. Sachant que ces articles figuraient dans une loi sur les PME, les membres du Conseil ont considéré qu’ils «étaient sans lien avec l’objet initial de la proposition de loi qui tendait à favoriser l’accès au crédit des petites et moyennes entreprises. Les articles contestés devront figurer dans un autre projet de loi directement en relation avec le dossier, par exemple celui sur la régulation bancaire, note le quotidien.
Aviva Investors France, qui gère plus de 75 milliards d’euros d’actifs, dont 95 % pour Aviva France, mise sur l’investissement socialement responsable (ISR) pour développer la clientèle pour compte de tiers, qui représente donc moins de 5 % de ses encours. La société de gestion d’actifs française s’appuie pour cela sur l'équipe de Peter Michaelis, responsable de l’ISR, basée à Londres. Composée de 12 professionnels de l’investissement, elle gère 2 milliards d’euros environ, sur un total de 262 milliards pour l’ensemble du groupe. Sa méthode, qui consiste en une intégration des critères ESG (environnementaux, sociaux et gouvernance) dans le processus d’investissement, a déjà séduit le Fonds de réserve pour les retraites (FRR). Parallèlement, une équipe dédiée de 6 personnes s’occupe d'être active en assemblée générale, et ce pour l’ensemble du portefeuille du groupe. D’ores et déjà, en France, deux fonds ISR sont disponibles : le Sustainable Future Pan European Equity et le Sustainable Future Global Equity, gérés à Londres, ainsi qu’un fonds indiciel, géré en France. Deux autres produits vont être prochainement lancés afin de répondre aux attentes des clients et élargir la gamme : un fonds monétaire ISR et un fonds diversifié. Ils seront le fruit de la collaboration des équipes française et londonienne. Ainsi, par exemple, pour le fonds diversifié, les choix actions seront réalisés par Londres, tandis que Paris s’occupera de l’allocation d’actifs. L’ISR ne sera pas réservé aux clients tiers, puisque Aviva Investors France compte aussi «basculer» progressivement la gestion des actifs d’Aviva France.
Jusqu’au 17 décembre 2009, le Crédit Agricole propose un nouveau fonds à formule, Oriance Epargne 3. D’une durée de 6 ans et 21 jours, ce fonds garantit le capital investi à l'échéance – net de frais. Quant à la performance, elle dépend de l'évolution du DJ Euro Stoxx 50 dividendes non réinvestis. Calculée sur la base de 12 relevés semestriels de performance, celle-ci est plafonnée à 50 % (soit un rendement annuel maximum de 6,92 %). Caractéristiques Code Isin FR0010783795 Valeur de la part à l’origine 100 euros Minimum de la première souscription 1 part Minimum des souscriptions ultérieures 1 millième de part Éligibilité fiscale PEA, CTO Durée de placement 6 ans et 21 jours Frais de fonctionnement et de gestion maximum 2,5 % TTC / an Commission de souscription maximum • 2,50 % maximum • 2 % par arbitrage avec les fonds Atout Monétaire PEA, Relais Monélia, Relais PEA Monélia et Atout Moné opportunité • 4 % maximum en dehors de la période de souscription (dont 1 % acquis au fonds) Commission de rachat • Néant à l’échéance • En cours de vie : 1 % (acquis au fonds) sur la dernière VL des mois de février, mai, août et novembre chaque année civile de février 2010 à novembre 2015) • 3 % à d’autres dates (acquis au fonds)
Selon la Tribune, la compagnie d’assurance vie Épargne Pension, filiale de la banque franco belge en France pourrait être reprise par BNP Paribas Assurance qui aurait fait cette semaine une offre ferme de rachat. La banque n’a fait aucun commentaire à ce sujet.Le prix de l’acquisition, autour de 100 millions d’euros, est relativement modeste si l’on considère les 4 milliards d’encours de la société et la collecte annuelle de 1,5 milliard en rythme de croisière, précise le quotidien, même si des sources proches du dossier évoquent des taux garantis élevés sur le fonds en euros et un volume non négligeable de contrats de capitalisation.
In 2008, the population of high net worth individuals (HNWI) in Asia-Pacific fell by 14.2%, to 2.4 million people, and their total wealth declined 22.3% to USD7.4trn, according to Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and Capgemini in a new study. Despite this evaporation of wealth due to the financial crisis, the total wealth of high net worth indivisuals in the region is expected to increase by 8.8% per year until 2018, a pace faster than the global average of 7.1%. China and India are expected to drive this growth, thanks to solid domestic consumer spending and a growing middle class. In terms of asset allocation, high net worth individuals in the Asia-Pacific region have increased their exposure to safer and simpler investments. Their exposure to cash has risen from 25% to 29% in one year. Ownership of equities, meanwhile, has fallen from 26% to 23%. In geographical terms, domestic investments have risen from 53% to 67%.
From 1 October, the US Large Cap Alpha sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav Schroders ISF has been renamed as Schroder ISF US All Cap. The fund may now invest in US equities of all cap sizes, rather than concentrating on large caps. Management will be provided by Jonathan Armitage, head of US equities, with the assistance of Jenny Jones, head of US small/midcap equities. The allocation will be one third to smidcaps and two thirds large caps, though the fund will retain a bottom-up stock-picking approach. Management commissions for all classes of shares in the fund will also be reduced by 25 basis points (to 1.25% for A class shares, for example), and the risk classification of the fund has been lowered to “moderate” from “high.”
According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), cited by La Tribune, 7,500 high net worth US residents have agreed to provide information to the tax authority about their secret bank accounts abroad, on the eve of the deadline for its amnesty program. The amounts disclosed to the authorities range from USD10,000 to more than USD100m, says Doug Shulman, director of the IRS, who is planning to increase the agency’s efforts to find funds, particularly in Beijing, Panama, and Sydney, Australia.
Two investors who lost more than USD2.4m in the Bernard Madoff fraud have filed suit against the US Securities and Exchange Commission, claiming that the government agency responsible for protecting investors was negligent in its oversight of Mr Madoff’s operations. Phyllis Molchatsky and Steven Schneider claim the government should compensate Ms Molchatsky by paying her USD1.7m, and by paying Dr Schneider USD750,000 – the amount they lost.
Two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, who ran funds that collapsed and marked the beginning of the financial crisis misled investors to save their multi-million dollar bonuses and reputations, US federal prosecutors claimed on Wednesday, says the Financial Times.
BC Partners and Cinven have chosen the Madrid stock exchange as the site of their initial public offering next spring of a 40% stake in Amadeus, in which Iberia, Air France and Lufthansa own stakes, Expansión reports. The two private equity investors control 53% of the IT group. In 2005, BC partners and Cinven paid EUR4.34bn for a 100% stake in Amadeus. Now, the banks in the investment consortium (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley) value the business at EUR8bn, and the vendors hope to make EUR4bn from the sale of the shares to be offered on the stock market.
Rising stock markets in second and third quarters have resulted in good performance for equities funds, according to Handelsblatt. On the basis of rankings from Feri EuroRating Service, taking into account results from about 4,300 funds on sale in Germany in 36 categories, four funds have posted gains of over 100% since the beginning of the year: the BSF Latin American Opportunities Fund A2 USD from BlackRock, managed by Will Landers, is in first place, with returns of 142.11%, ahead of the Earth Exploration Fund UI, with 128.26%, the JPM Emerging Markets Small Cap Fund A Acc USD from JP Morgan, managed by Greg Mattiko, and the PF(LUX)-Eastern Europe-P Cap from Pictet, managed by Agne Zikute, with 101.98%. Also notable in the high yield bond category is the Aberdeen Global - Euro High Yield Mond A Dist, managed by Paul Reed, with returns of 98.27%.
Bruce Wassterstein, president and CEO of Lazard and a Wall Street legend, died on Wednesday, 14 October, at the age of 61, Lazard has announced in a statement. The French-American bank revealed on 11 October that its chief had been hospitalised in a serious condition following a cardiac arrest. Wasserstein was particularly involved in the recent history of the prestigious US business bank, taking an active role in all strategic decisions ever since he arranged the firm’s IPO and took over as director of the firm in 2005. More recently, he had been active in Cadbury’s bid to acquire the US firm Kraft Foods. Lazard shares were suspended from trading for a few minutes before the end of the trading day, following the news of Wasserstein’s decease. Lazard has appointed Stephen J. Golub, Vice Chairman of Lazard Ltd., to serve as interim CEO, effective immediately. Golub, 63, joined Lazard in 1984, and was CFO and chairman of Lazard’s advising activities.
Cadogan Management, a USD3.6 billion hedge-fund investing firm, has agreed to buy the business back from Fortis Bank, according to the WSJ. Fortis and French bank BNP Paribas, which earlier this year agreed to acquire a range of assets from Fortis, plan to announce the agreement Thursday.
The headquarters of HSBC France (formerly CCF) on the Champs-Elysées has been acquired by the Qatari Diar fund. The purchase price for the 35,000 square metre property is about EUR400m. The ground floor of the building will be converted into a retail gallery space, while the upper floors will become a luxury hotel.
Supporters of SRI can breathe a sigh of relief. According to Les Echos, a study by Andreas Hoepner at Saint Andrews university and Stefan Zeume of Insead has found that the “Vice Fund” which invests in tobacco, alcohol, gaming and weapons, does not bring real value to investors. Instead, managers of the fund are more likely to destroy value for clients. The only previous study of the Vice Fund reached the opposite conclusion, but that study dealt with a shorter time period (three years rather than six), and did not correct for the style bias in products of this type. In fact, the outperformance of the fund compared with their benchmarks is due only to its very high exposure to small and midcaps, at a time when these were fashionable, as well as to its heavy bets on the tobacco industry.
According to Eurekahedge, hedge funds may attain assets as of the end of the year of USD1.5trn, and may turn in performance of 21%, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. As of the end of September, assets under management increased by USD26.3bn, from USD21.4bn in August. In the seven months to the end of September, performance totals 16.1%, and hedge funds are likely to turn in their best performance since 2003 for the year 2009 as a whole.
As of the end of September, the combined deficits of 7,400 defined-contribution pension funds monitored by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) had shrunk to GBP148.9bn, compared with GBP173.2bn as of the end of August, but this compared with a shortfall in coverage of GBP52.2bn as of 30 September 2008. According to the PPF, the total deficit of funds which have a shortfall has decreased to GBP174.9bn, from GBP194.6bn one month previously, and GBP98.4bn twelve months earlier. The total surplus at funds in positive territory rose to GBP25.9bn, from GBP21.4bn as of the end of August, but has decreased compared with the surplus of GBP46.2bn as of 30 September 2008.
Aviva and the United Nations will announce an initiative in November which will encourage global stock markets to modify the rules for publicly traded companies. The aim will be to require firms to publish a sustainable development report, and to submit the document to a vote of shareholders.
In October, investors’ appetite for risk is at its highest levels in more than three years, while fears of a W-shaped recession have dissipated, according to the most recent BofA Merrill Lynch Survey of Fund Managers (October). A majority of respondents estimated that a global recession in the next twelve months was unlikely, compared with 47% one month earlier. A net 72% of respondents estimate that corporate profits will improve in the next twelve months, compared with 68% in September. The corollary of this optimism is that exposures to cash are at their lowest levels since January 2004, and respondents are now overweight in equities (a net 38%) compared with 27% in September. Optimism for Europe is also notable. 30% of managers estimate that Euro zone equities are undervalued compared with other regions, the highest level of respondents to think so since April 2001. 9% of respondents want to go overweight in the region in the next twelve months, compared with 7% one month earlier. Japan, however, is seen as the least attractive region for the next twelve months, while outlooks for China remain excellent.
On Thursday morning, the private equity investor RHJ International announced that it has acquired Kleinwort Benson, including its private banking, wealth management and lending activities, from Commerzbank, for GBP225m in cash. The activities included in the deal (Kleinwort Benson Private Bank Limited and Kleinwort Benson Channel Islands Holding Limited) had GBP5.4bn in assets under management and GBP15.7bn in supervised assets as of 31 December 2008.
Principal Financial has awarded management of a portfolio of USD300m in large cap equities to Legg Mason, and Bill Miller’s team has obtained an equities mandate from SEI, says Kimberly Mustin, director of the institutional sector at Legg Mason, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Assets under management at the firm have fallen from USD1.01trn as of the end of September 2007 to USD695bn as of the end of August 2009, but redemptions have fallen to USD30bn in second quarter, from a record USD77bn in October-December 2008.
In third quarter, the asset management division of JP Morgan Chase has earned net profits of USD430m, compared with USD352m in second quarter, and USD351m in the corresponding period of last year. Assets increased by 9% in second quarter, to USD1.3trn, largely due to subscriptions to money market, bond and equities funds, which were partially offset by negative market effects and net redemptions for the group’s hedge funds. The bank has posted total net profits for July-September of USD3.59bn, compared with USD2.72bn in April-June, and USD527m for the corresponding period of last year.
The board of directors at Prudential Financial (USD580bn in assets as of the end of June) has decided to introduce an advisory, non-binding vote of shareholders each year on remuneration for executives of the group as well as procedures employed by the remuneration committee. The first vote will come at the 2010 AGM.
The major non-British banks based in the City, including Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Securities, Morgan Stanley Nomura and UBS, were yesterday compelled by an injunction from Paul Myners, secretary of state in charge of the City, to issue a joint statement expressing their “complete support” for the G20 agreement on remuneration, La Tribune reports. Top directors at the banks agree to defer “40% to 60%” of their bonuses for a three-year period, while these bonuses will be paid “at least 50% in equities.” BNP Paribas, Société Générale and Deutsche Bank are dragging their feet. With branches and not affiliates in the United Kingdom, they are not regulated by the FSA. They have announced instead that they “will apply the G20 agreements in accord with regulators in their home countries.”
Negotiations between Intesa Sanpaolo and Exor, the holding company for the Agnelli family, to sell a part of the Banca Fideuram to the former, will formally restart next week, Il Sole - 24 Ore reports. Analysts estimate the value of Fideuram to be at least EUR3bn. If the acquisition talks are not successful, Intesa Sanpaolo may opt for an IPO for its affiliate.
This Thursday, the Spanish congress will pass a law which will create Spanish REIT funds, «sociedades cotizadas de inversión en el mercado inmobiliario» (Socimi), Cinco Días reports. Though experts say the bill comes quite late, at the peak of the real estate crisis, they have nonetheless welcomed the legislation. SOCIMI vehicles will be subject to an 18% tax, lower than the current 30% rate, as long as they distribute at least 90% of their profits.
OCBC, Singapore’s third largest bank, on Thursday confirmed that it would buy the Asian private banking operations of ING, for USD1.46bn in cash, says the Financial Times. HSBC was the other main contender for the assets.