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18/09/2009

Mandat de gestion administrative pour Citi

Citi a annoncé le 16 septembre que la firme spécialisée dans la gestion alternative Twin Haven Capital Partners lui avait attribué un mandat pour la fourniture de services d’administration de middle et de back office, y compris l’administration de dette. Le portefeuille d’actifs sous administration s'élève à 65 milliards de dollars.
18/09/2009

Deloitte renforce son équipe dédiée aux hedge funds

Le groupe Deloitte a annoncé le 16 septembre que Ellen Schubert et Ray Iler allaient renforcer l'équipe hedge funds au sein de la practice Asset management services. Dix associés de Deloitte ont parallèlement rejoint l'équipe hedge funds.Ellen Schubert a rejoint Deloitte le 1er septembre au poste nouvellement créé de chief adviser au sein de la practice Asset management services. Elle était précédemment managing director et responsable mondial de l’activité Fixed Income Hedge Fund Business chez UBS Investment Bank. Ray Iler a rejoint Deloitte en juillet dernier et sera responsable des questions relatives à l’audit, la fiscalité et le conseil. Il était précédemment directeur financier chez Quadrise Canada, une société spécialisée dans les technologies gazières et pétrolières.
18/09/2009

KKR s'installe chez Kodak

Pour 400 millions de dollars, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) obtient des options sur 20 % du capital d’Eastman Kodak et des obligations nanties rémunérées à plus de 10 % par an, ainsi que deux sièges au board, rapporte la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Kodak pour sa part compte placer auprès d’investisseurs institutionnels un emprunt convertible de 300 millions de dollars.
18/09/2009

Legg Mason accroît ses encours

StartFragment--> Legg Mason a annoncé que ses encours sous gestion avaient augmenté à environ 693 milliards de dollars au 31 août, soit une augmentation de 5 % par rapport au 30 juin, rapporte le Wall Street Journal. Cela reflète la hausse des marchés et le ralentissement des rachats. Par ailleurs, Bill Miller, le gérant emblématique de Legg Mason, a déclaré qu’il pensait continuer sa carrière dans la société de gestion après y avoir travaillé 27 ans.
18/09/2009

BBVA sells branch locations to RREEF

According to reports in Expansión, the BBVA will sell 80% of its 1,350 branches in Spain, which it decided to sell off a year ago, to RREEF Alternative Investment (a fund from Deutsche Bank), for EUR1.2bn. The operation, which is known internally under the name “Proyecto Árbol,” will be a sale & lease-back deal. The US-based fund Area will be the junior partner of RREEF in the transaction. Expansión states that RREEF may also acquire the remaining 200 branches in the next two to three weeks, for EUR400m, but the financing for these acquisitions has yet to be secured. One of the unique characteristics of the operation is that BBVA will be able, within the overall agreement, to change the branches it occupies depending on the market situation, which would make it possible to restructure the network.
18/09/2009

Profits down at Temasek

In the fiscal year ending on 31 March, net profits for the severeign fund Temasek Holdings fell to SGD6bn, from SGD18bn the previous year. Ho Ching, CEO of the fund and wife of the prime minister, says that the fund “did not expect the rapidity and ferocity of the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression.” Assets as of the end of March totalled SGD130bn, compared with a peak of SGD185bn twelve months earlier, but had risen back to SGD172bn as of the end of July. In the 2008-2009 fiscal year, Temasek sold assets worth SGD16bn and made investments worth SGD9bn, of which SGD3bn were participations in capital increase operations at businesses including Standard Chartered, DBS group Holdings and CapitaLand. Among the assets that were sold, a 3.9% stake in Bank of America and a 2% stake in Barclays led to significant capital losses. The average annual performance of the fund since its creation in 1974 fell to 16%, compared with 18% as of the end of March 2008.
18/09/2009

CESR launches consultation on UCITS-compliant funds

As part of its revision of the UCITS directive, the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) is launching a consultation on level 2 measures in mergers of UCITS funds, master-feeder structures, and notification procedures for cross-border distribution of UCITS funds. The consultation will be open until 17 November. Two other UCITS consultations are open until 30 October, one on the European passport for management firms, and the second on the details of the required fund documentation, which would present Key Investor Information (KII) for UCITS funds to investors. The document would replace the fund prospectus.
18/09/2009

KKR enters capital of Kodak

For USD400m, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) has obtained options on 20% of capital in Eastman Kodak, and high-yield bonds which pay more than 10% per year, as well as two seats on the board of directors at the business, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Kodak, for its part, is planning to issue convertible bonds to institutional investors to raise USD300m.
18/09/2009

Assets up at Legg Mason

Legg Mason has announced that its assets under management had increased by about USD693bn as of 31 August, a 5% increase over 30 June, the Wall Street Journal reports. This reflects rises on the markets and slowing redemptions. Meanwhile, Bill Miller, the emblematic manager at Legg Mason, has announced that he is considering ending his career at the asset management firm after 27 years of employment there.
18/09/2009

Martin Currie wins a mandate from Indiana PERF

The Indiana Public Employees’ Retirement Fund has allocated Martin Currie Investment Management a mandate for USD210bn in global equities ex US, which will be managed by James Fairweather, CIO and head of global equities. The Scottish management firm says that it has obtained new global equities and global equities ex US mandates worth USD900bn since the beginning of the year. Global equities represent 23% of assets at Martin Currie (USD16.3bn).
18/09/2009

Jupiter to distribute its funds via deVere & Partners

Jupiter Asset Management has announced a strategic alliance with deVere & Partners, an independent financial consultancy. Under the agreement, deVere & Partners will offer both the Jupiter Global Fund Sicav and the Jupiter Merlin Sicav, comprising 11 sub-funds, through its network of 350 consultants, who operate from 40 offices around the world. The UK asset manager will potentially have access to 50,000 clients in over 100 countries.Kevin Scott, executive director, international at Jupiter AM, says: «deVere offers significant potentiel for Jupiter to develop both brand awareness and sales internationally».
18/09/2009

ETFS chooses BNY Mellon AS

BNY Mellon Asset Servicing has announced that it has been granted a servicing mandate from ETF Securities for its Physical Swiss Gold Shares ETF. The mandate includes trustee services, accounting, and fund administration, as well as settlement.
18/09/2009

Four more management firms pledge not to use placement agencies

The Wall Street Journal reports that seven management firms have now signed up to the code of conduct laid out by Andrew Cuomo, attorney general of New York. The four new firms are HM Capital Partners, Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, Access Capital Partners, and Falconhead Capital, which will now no longer make use of placement agencies. As a result of the legal investigation into the “pay-to-play” scandal, these firms have agreed to pay USD4.5m into the New York State Common Retirement Fund. In total, the seven management firms will pay USD56.5m to the pension fund.
18/09/2009

SEC regulates ratings agencies

On its website, La Tribune reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will take measures to create a stricter regulatory framework for ratings agencies such as Moody’s Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s, which are accused of having played a major role in the financial crisis by granting high ratings to high-risk products. The agencies will be required to increase transparency and will now have the right to demand detailed information about certain products. Other measures will aim to encourage competition between the ratings agencies and avoid conflicts of interest.
18/09/2009

Bonuses: Bank of America directors may be sued by New York attorney general

Les Echos reports that, following a subpoena on the five members of the audit committee at Bank of America, the New York attorney general’s office may file lawsuits against the top directors of Bank of America over bonuses paid to these directors ahead of the firm’s merger with Merrill Lynch at the end of 2008.
18/09/2009

French Parliament approves sukuk legislation

Les Echos reports that the French Parliament on 17 September passed a bill which would adapt the fiscal regime to allow for the issue of fiancial instruments that comply with Islamic law, including “sukuks,” bonds which respect the principles of Sharia, which do not allow for the payment of interests. The legislation is closely supported by Christine Lagarde, who wants to see France catch up with the UK in this area.
18/09/2009

FTSE removes Iceland from its indexes

FTSE has removed Iceland from the investable universe that make up its indices following the fall in its financial markets after the collapse of its three main banks, says the Financial Times. It is the first time the global equity index provider has taken a country off its lists since it established its global equity index series in September 2003.
18/09/2009

Hedge funds: fewer liquidations, and lower commissions

In second quarter, Hedge Fund Research (HFR) reports 292 liquidations of hedge funds, compared with 376 between January and March, while the number of new funds launched totalled 182 compared with 148, the Wall Street Journal reports. Meanwhile, the crisis has taken its toll on performance commissions, which have been in decline for three quarters in a row, and averaged 19.18% in second quarter, compared with 19.34% in first quarter.
18/09/2009

DJE Kapital reopens its real estate fund

From 18 September, DJE Kapital is reopening its DJE Real Estate fund to redemptions; they had been frozen since the end of October 2008. The unique feature of this product, compared with German-registered funds which were frozen at the same time, is that it is a fund of funds, and DJE Kapital says that most of the target funds it invests in have now reopened their redemptions. In addition, the fund is registered in Luxembourg (launched on 5 July 2004), with assets currently totalling USD796.65m. The fund has lost 5.26% since the beginning of the year, but has earned 12.10% in the past five years, or 2.31% per year. Ulrich Kaffarnik, CEO of DJE Investment SA, states that it has been possible to increase the liquidity of the fund in the past few months, and the cash reserves are now at considerable levels. In addition to this, the fund’s portfolio has been reprofiled, which has increased the agility with which the management team may profit from opportunities for returns on situations in a difficult market. The fund has withdrawn its investments from open-ended and semi-institutional real estate funds which had a low liquidity level during the crisis, in order to take up positions on shares in realty firms, realty sector equities funds and well-rated bonds, says Jens Ehrhardt, chairman of the managing board at DJE Kapital.
18/09/2009

M&G recruits sales personnel

M&G Investments has announced that on 1 September it recruited Alexander Müller has relationship manager for German banks, and that on 1 June it recruited Sultan Deniz as sales support for the banking sales team. They join the distribution team led by Marcus Perschke, who is also in charge of the banking sales force. Müller joins from the wealth management arm of Citibank, while Deniz had been in sales at Schroder Investment Management GmbH since early October 2008.
18/09/2009

TMW Immobilien Weltfonds prepares to reopen

Marcus Kemmer, CEO of the management firm TMW Pramerica Property Investment, has told the Börsen-Zeitung that the open-ended real estate fund TMW Immobilien Weltfonds will reopen redemptions, which were suspended in late October 2008, during fourth quarter, as the cash rate will have risen back to 20-25% by the end of October 2009. TMW is expecting redemption demands of about EUR100m, on assets of EUR1bn. Kemmer also states that the TMW Pramerica Property Weltfonds will now position itself as the first “green” real estate fund in Germany.
18/09/2009

Le BBVA vend des agences à RREEF

Selon les informations d’Expansión, le BBVA vendra la semaine prochaine à RREEF Alternative Investment (un fonds de Deutsche Bank), pour 1,2 milliard d’euros, 80 % des 1.350 agences dont la banque espagnole a décidé de se défaire voici un an. L’opération, connue en interne sous l’appélation de «Proyecto Árbol», est un «sale & lease-back». Dans cette transaction, le fonds américain Area est le junior partner de REEEF. Expansión indique que REEF pourrait aussi mettre la main d’ici deux à trois semaines sur les 200 agences restantes pour 400 millions d’euros, mais qu’il reste à en boucler le financement.L’une des particularités de la transaction est que le BBVA aura la faculté, au sein de l’enveloppe globale, de changer les succursales qu’il occupe en fonction de la situation de marché, ce qui doit permettre de restructurer le réseau.
17/09/2009

CalPERS signs ILPA private equity principles

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has announced that it is signing up to the new principles to align the interests of investors and managers in private equity, which were unveiled on 8 September by the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA), which has 215 members with about USD1trn in assets under management in private equity. The three main principles are the alignment of interests with commissions that “reasonably” cover costs, a substantial investment on the part of general partners, and a balanced distribution of profits. The principles also extend to governance, with higher powers for limited partners when a fund is dissolved or suspended, and the independence of the auditor. Lastly, in terms of transparency, general partners are responsible for providing more details to investors on revenues from commissions and the performance of firms whose shares are in the portfolio. The ILPA principles are available on the website http://www.ilpa.orgAs of 31 July, private equity assets at CalPERS totalled USD20.6bn; the fund also had unfunded commitments for a further USD21.9bn in private equity.
17/09/2009

Bonuses: Bank of America board members subpoenaed

The day after a federal judge rejected an out-of-court settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Bank of America over USD5.8bn in bonuses the latter paid to its employees on the day before its acquisition of Merrill Lynch on 23 December, the attorney general of the state of New York, Andrew Cuomo, yesterday subpoenaed five board members at the American bank, Les Echos reports. Like judge Jed Rakoff, who on Monday rejected the compromise with the SEC, the attorney general accuses the directors of the bank, which received USD45bn in federal assistance, including USD20bn to aid in its absorption of Merrill Lynch, of knowingly concealing the bonus payments until after the closing of the merger deal on 1 January.
17/09/2009

Voluntary redundancies at BNP Paribas and Natixis

La Tribune reports that BNP Paribas and Natixis have completed their voluntary redundancy plan in France. According to internal sources, BNP Paribas is said to have achieved its target of 204 departures in France, of which 125 were in banking and 69 at the BNP Paribas trading affiliate. Natixis, for its part, is aiming for 286 departures, of which 130 would be from finance and investment banking (BFI), and 156 from Eurotitres. In the BFI division, “only” 76 voluntary redundancies have been achieved, while the other 75 requests do not fall within the area of potential layoffs. Between 50 and 70 positions at Banque Privée 1818, which has about 400 employees, will also be cut in the next few months.
17/09/2009

Carlyle dusts off plans for IPO

According to the Financial Times, citing sources close to the firm, Carlyle is once again planning an IPO. No decisions have been taken yet, and any potential offering would come only after six to nine months.
17/09/2009

Aragon signs contract to acquire MLP Vienna

Following through on an agreement reached in early August with MLP, the German financial services provider Aragon AG (EUR3.2bn in assets under administration) on Wednesday signed an act stating that it will acquire the Viennese business MLP Finanzdienstleistungen AG, pending the approval of the Austrian financial market supervision authority (FMA). The price of the acquisition, which will be set once all the valuations have been completed, will be EUR2.5m to EUR5m, payable over several years. MLP Austria managed assets of EUR81.8m as of 31 December 2008, and currently employes about 59 advisors, and manages about 15,000 clients. Restructuring costs for MLP Austria will be borne by MLP Germany.
17/09/2009

MAS may toughen hedge fund regulations

The central bank of Singapore, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), has held a consultation with local hedge fund managers over a potential reinforcement of regulations applicable to the “exempt” sector. Funds are not currently required to have a full capital market license when they have less than 30 financially qualified investors, the Financial Times reports. Professionals estimate that managing a hedge fund in Singapore costs half as much as it does in Hong Kong and only a third of what it would cost in London. The MAS, which is clearly responding to international pressure to toughen its regulations, states that as of the end of 2008, there were 350 hedge funds in Singapore, with assets of about USD42bn.
17/09/2009

La Caixa recrute Pablo Forero

Pablo Forero, directeur général de la gestion d’actifs chez J.P. Morgan, a été recruté par La Caix comme sous-directeur général de la gestion d’actifs de La Caixa, rapporte Funds People. L’intéressé, placé à la charnière entre La Caixa et sa société de gestion, Invercaixa, sera subordonné à Tomás Munies, l’un des quatre directeurs généraux adjoints exécutifs de la caisse d'épargne catalane.

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