Recherche
S'abonner
Connexion
Asset Management
Accueil Asset Management Actualités
13/01/2014

SLI recruits in the Netherlands

Standard Life Investments (SLI) has announced the appointment of Johan Langerak as second chief investmnt officer for the Netherlands. Langerak, who will be based in the Netherlands, will join Woods as head of development for the activity in the country for over a decade, as part of a European team of 16 people. Langerak previously worked at Bank J. Safra Sarasin as head of institutional and wholesale activity in Benelux.
13/01/2014

Fidelity appoints a new manager for real estate funds in Asia

Fidelity has appointed Akihito Murai has manager for its real estate FCP fund in Asia-Pacific, the FF Asia Pacific Property Fund. Murai also takes charge of managing the activity, which represents USD31bn in assets, replacing Polly Kwan, who was promoted last year to the position of director of the Asian Dividend fund division, launched in August 2013.
13/01/2014

Telecom: Italian regulator attacks BlackRock again

There has been another dramatic turn in the Telecom Italia-BlackRock case, Il Sole – 24 Ore reports. The Italian regulator, Consob, has decided to open an investigation into the role and the voting choices of major US investment funds during the last general shareholders’ meeting at Telecom Italia, which was held in mid-December to study a removal of directors due to conflicts of interest. The meeting rejected the measure. Consob would now like to throw light on the “abnormal behaviour” of some key shareholders at the group, especially BlackRock, which controls 10.1% of the group.
13/01/2014

BlackRock supports Nigel Bolton, suspected of insider trading

BlackRock is supporting Nigel Bolton, its head of European equities, following allegations of insider trading against him by the Italian regulator Consob, the Financial Times reports. The manager will retain his USD14bn portfolio and will continue to deal with clients; the asset management firm expects him to be exonerated. Consob claims that Bolton had non public information when he sold shares in Saipem for EUR315m in January last year, one day before a profit warning with devastating consequences. Investors who bought the shares to BlackRock lost more than USD114.5m, according to Consob.
13/01/2014

Appointment at Henderson (Switzerland)

The wealth management firm Henderson (Switzerland) has recruited a new head of sales, in the person of Michael Jöhr, formerly actie at J. Safra Sarasin, Agefi Switzerland reports. Jöhr will oversee advising and acquisitions for private and cantonal banks, family offices and wealth managers in Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austria. Jöhr will report directly to Ariane Dehn, head of sales for Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austria.
13/01/2014

Nomura to acquire ING Asset Management business in Taiwan

Nomura Asset Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nomura Holdings, on Friday announced that it has agreed to acquire ING Group’s interest in ING Securities Investment and Trust Company Limited, Taiwan, the local asset management unit of ING Group.Nomura Asset Management is partnering with an investment group led by Ashwin Mehta, former chief executive officer of ING Securities Investment and Trust Company Limited, Taiwan. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval.Commenting on the announcement, Toshihiro Iwasaki, CEO of Nomura Asset Management, said: “This acquisition is part of our ongoing expansion in Asia and represents a very important opportunity for us to enter the Taiwanese market, one of the leading mutual fund markets in Asia.
13/01/2014

Charles Beazley leaves Nikko AM

Charles Beazley is stepping down as president and chief executive officer of Nikko Asset Management «for family reasons», and will be returning to the U.K, the Tokyo-based asset manager announced on Friday.David Semaya has been appointed as chairman of Nikko AM. He will join the company as non-executive chairman effective April 1st, 2014, and is expected to become executive chairman on September 1st, 2014. Semaya most recently worked at Barclays Plc, where he served in various executive leadership positions since joining the bank in 2004. He was notably CEO of Europe and Asia for Barclays Global Investors (BGI). Before being based in the U.K., he lived and worked in Japan for more than 15 years and is fluent in Japanese.Meanwhile, Takumi Shibata has been named president and chief executive officer of Nikko AM effective January 10th, 2014. In addition to his new roles, he will continue as executive chairman until Semaya joins the company. Shibata joined Nikko AM as executive chairman in July 2013.Beazley joined Nikko Asset Management in London in 2006 as president of Nikko Asset Management Europe, where he ran the firm’s international business. In 2010, he relocated to Tokyo to head the institutional business in addition to his international responsibilities. In 2012, he was named chairman and chief executive officer, and in 2013 he also became president.Nikko Asset Management is one of the biggest companies in the Asian financial services industry, with over USD160 billion in assets under management as of September 30, 2013.
13/01/2014

Axa RE finalises sale of two industrial real estate portfolios

AXA Real Estate Investment Managers has completed the sale of two industrial portfolios for a combined value of EUR184.1 million on behalf of the European Industrial Partnership (EIP). The transactions mark the successful conclusion of an orderly programme to dispose of all EIP’s property assets, which was commenced in January 2013 ahead of the Fund’s expiry in January 2015. The final two transactions comprised the sale of the Spring portfolio of 10 French assets to Northwood Investors and of the Zander Portfolio of 11 Dutch assets to Rockspring Property Investment Managers.
13/01/2014

Tesco pension fund recruits from Barings

The retail giant Tesco has recruited the former head of bonds from Barings, Dagmar Dvorak, as senior manageer in the bond team of the Tesco pension fund, Citywire reports. Dvorak joined Tesco in October last year, but the recruitment was not announced to the public. Assets under management in the British group’s pension programme total about GBP6bn, or more than EUR7bn. Dvorak has been replaced at Barings by Alan Wilde, who was also head of the Baring International Bond fund.
13/01/2014

Mike Sell joins a boutique specialised in emerging markets

The Asian equity specialist Mike Sell has joined the London-based boutique Alquity Investment Management, largely known for its Africa strategies, Citywire reports. Sell, who previously worked at F&C, will be responsible for Asian investments at Alquity, where he will also manage two new strategies. The two funds will cover Asian equities and the Indian subcontinent. Alquity has also recruited the former head of international emerging market equities Roberto Lampl last year, who will handle investment strategies in Latin America.
13/01/2014

Kames Capital adds to its international equity management team

Kames Capital has strengthened its international equities team with the hiring of Carolyn Bell. Carolyn, who has five years’ investment experience, joined on 6 January as an investment manager with responsibility for North American equities, reporting to Marcus Chandler.From 2008 to 2013 Carolyn was an investment analyst with Baillie Gifford, where her most recent role was researching North American companies, with a particular focus on the technology and energy sectors. Before that, she analysed Asian equities for two years and UK equities for one year. Before joining Baillie Gifford Carolyn founded and developed her own education business, before selling it to investors.
13/01/2014

Barclays teams up with Bluebay AM to finance small companies

On Friday, Barclays and BlueBay Asset Management’s Direct Lending Fund announced that they are collaborating to offer joint bespoke lending solutions to medium-sized enterprises in the UK in specific deal situations. They are offering single “unitranche” loans to finance UK financial sponsor-backed mid-market companies. This initiative will provide unitranche loans of up to GBP120m, alongside which Barclays can provide other banking services and will be complementary to Barclays’ and the Fund’s existing lending activities.
13/01/2014

Fourth consecutive month of gains for hedge funds in December

The hedge fund industry finished the year 2013 on a good note. The sector posted a fourth consecutive month of gains in December, making 2013 the best year of returns since 2010. In fact, according to data from Hedge Fund Research (HFR), the HFRI Weighted Composite Index gained 1.2% in December 2013, bringing returns for the year as a whole to +9.3%. The HFRI Fund of Hedge Funds Index posted returns of +1.2% in Decembr, and +8.7% for the past year as a whole, the best annual returns since 2009. Returns were especially driven by equity hedge and event-driven strategies. The HFRI Equity Hedge Index earned gains of +1.6% in December, and +14.6% for the 2013 fiscal year overall. The HFRI Event-Driven Index earned 1.2% in December, and 12.5% for the year 2013 as a whole. In both cases, this is the best result since 2009.
13/01/2014

iShares launches three bond ETFs in Italy

iShares, the ETF platform from BlackRock, is launching three physical replication optimised ETFs on the Milan stock exchange which are appropriate for fixed income management: iShares $ Short Duration High Yield Corporate Bond UCITS ETF, iShares Euro Ultrashort Bond UCITS ETF and iShares Euro Corporate Bond Interest Rate Hedged UCITS ETF. The bond range from iShares in Milan currently includes 40 ETFs out of a total of 131 products.
13/01/2014

Apollo closes an eighth private equity fund with USD18.3bn

Apollo Global Management at the end of last week announced real spoils of war: at the end of December, it closed its eighth private equity fund, Apollo Investment Fund VIII, with USD17.5bn in commitments from outside investors. With the addition of engagements from affiliated investors, including employees at the firm led by Leon Black, which total about USD880m, a statement says, the fund has firepower of USD18.4bn. The last private equity fund, Fund VII, raied in 2008, have earned internal annual rates of return of a gross 38% and a net 29% since launch on 30 September 2013, Apollo says. Assets under management by the private equity activity at Apollo total about USD43bn as of the end of September 2013. Total assets under management, which also include credit and real estate funds, total about USD113bn.
13/01/2014

Prudential Investments launches a short-duration bond fund

Prudential Investments has launched the Prudential Short Duration Multi-Selector Bond Fund, a bond strategy likely to earn returns in an environment of rising interest rates. Funds invest in a diversified portfolio of bonds, including asset-backed securities (ABS), bank loans, corporate debt securities, commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) collateralized bonds and US and foreign corporate bonds. The average duration is expected to total between 1 and 3 years. The benchmark index is the Barclays US Covernment/Credit 1-3 Year.
13/01/2014

UBS reportedly nearing a final stage in Madoff case

Two US courts have rejected claims filed by the trustee of the Madoff family empire against UBS, NZZ am Sontag reports. Before the weekend, the highest court in Washington debated whether or not to accept appeals filed by the trustee. If the court reject the appeals, the Madoff trustee will have lost the last chance to get back money from UBS to refund victims of the fraus, according to the Zurich newspaper. The verdict of the high court will be announced on 13 January. According to one observer, the court is expected to reject the trustee’s appeals.
13/01/2014

Investors return to bond funds

The New Year kicked off with bond funds posting their biggest weekly inflow since early May while equity funds recorded modest net redemptions. One year earlier, during the first days of 2013, emerging market international equity funds, on the contrary, took on weight and suggested that a great rotation could be expected, which never genuinely materialised. According to statistics released by EPFR Global, bond funds took in a net USD5.2 billion in the first week of the year ending on 8 January. Equity funds, however, posted a collective outflow of USD427 million. Commitments to Europe equity funds slipped to an eight week low and US equity funds recorded their biggest outflow since the first week of December. Japan equity funds, which are coming off a year of record-setting inflows, kicked off 2014 by taking over USD1.6 billion during the week under review. Money market funds took in nearly USD23 billion, lifting total inflows over the past three weeks past the USD65 billion mark.
13/01/2014

Moody's passe son tour sur la note du Portugal

Moody’s Investor Service n’a pas pris de décision sur le Portugal le 10 janvier. La prochaine date pour une action potentielle est le 9 mai, a annoncé l’agence de notation lundi. Les marchés s’attendaient à l’annonce d’une décision vendredi sur la note Ba3 du Portugal, qui est assortie d’une perspective stable, alors que le pays vient tout juste de réussir l'émission d’un emprunt obligataire de 3,25 milliards d’euros à cinq ans et sort cette année de son programme d’aide international.
13/01/2014

Les perspectives de croissance de la zone OCDE s'améliorent

Les perspectives de croissance continuent de s’améliorer dans la plupart des économies avancées, y compris dans la zone euro, a indiqué lundi l’OCDE. L’indicateur composites avancé mensuel de l’organisation, conçu pour anticiper les points de retournement de l’activité, ressort en global à 100,9, en hausse de 0,2 point par rapport au mois précédent. Le seuil de 100 correspondant à la tendance de long terme de l’activité économique. Celui des pays du G7, en hausse de 0,1 point à 101,0, indique une consolidation de la croissance, tandis que celui de la zone euro progresse de 0,2 point à 101,0. L’indicateur pour la France progresse de 0,1 point, à 100,3, signalant une inflexion positive.
13/01/2014

Menaces sur le marché des IPO en Chine

Alors que les autorités chinoises ont à nouveau fin décembre ouvert le marché des introductions en Bourse en Chine continentale après quinze mois de gel, faisant vœu de laisser les forces de marché jouer un rôle décisif, cinq sociétés ont annoncé hier le report de leur projet de cotation suite à un communique des autorités laissant craindre un certain interventionnisme.
13/01/2014

Nomura rachète la gestion d'ING à Taiwan

La banque japonaise Nomura a annoncé le rachat de la filiale de gestion d’actifs à Taiwan, en association avec des investisseurs locaux, dont l’ex-directeur général de la structure; Le montant de la transaction n’a pas été dévoilé. ING gérait dans le pays 7 milliards de dollars à la date du 31 octobre 2013. Nomura devient le premier gérant d’actifs d’origine japonaise à entrer sur ce marché.
13/01/2014

Les chiffres de l'emploi américain déçoivent

L'économie américaine a créé en décembre 74.000 emplois seulement, la plus faible statistique publiée en trois ans. Les économistes interrogés par Reuters prévoyaient en moyenne 196.000 créations de postes. Le taux de chômage a reculé de 0,3 point en un mois, à 6,7%, revenant ainsi à son niveau le plus faible depuis octobre 2008. Le faible chiffre de créations d’emplois semble cependant incohérent avec d’autres indicateurs, relevaient vendredi certains économistes, et il pourrait être ultérieurement révisé à la hausse.

Sujets d'actualité

Tous les sujets