La Caisse francaise de financement local a mandaté des banques dans le but de lancer sous peu une émission de nouvelles obligations foncières

Les performances ont été bien plus contrastées qu'en 2012. Sur l’obligataire, seul le high yield a tiré son épingle du jeu

Le promoteur immobilier Nakheel va rembourser dès cette année plus de la moitié de sa dette bancaire arrivant à maturité en 2015

La marque lancée en novembre 2012 devient filiale à 100% du gestionnaire d’actifs, sous la direction générale de Philippe Zaouati

L'année 2013 devrait se solder par une perte de 9 milliards de francs, due aux moins-values enregistrées sur les stocks d'or

Selon BlackRock, la filiale de gestion de la banque accuse 5,3 milliards de dollars de sorties nettes en 2013 sur le marché européen des produits indiciels cotés. L’actionnaire du leader iShares estime aussi que Lyxor est en décollecte, une thèse réfutée par le gestionnaire d’actifs français.

La boutique parisienne va prendre 35% du capital de la société bordelaise pour créer un ensemble de 250 millions d’encours

Le français Lyxor conteste pour sa part la décollecte que lui attribue, pour l'année 2013, BlackRock, la maison mère de son concurrent iShares

Le financement par internet, les prêts informels, les sociétés de gestion et de crédit, sont visés

Les prix à la consommation ont augmenté en décembre comme prévu de 0,4% sur un mois et de 1,4% en variation annuelle, selon des premières estimations de l’Office fédéral des statistiques. Sur l’ensemble de l’année 2013, les prix à la consommation ont augmenté de 1,5%. La hausse des prix harmonisée aux normes européennes a été de 0,5% en décembre sur un mois et de 1,2% en variation anuelle.

Afin d’assurer la transversalité de l’activité de conseil à ses clients, la Banque Neuflize OBC, a décidé de regrouper sous une seule direction les expertises dédiées à la valorisation et à l’optimisation du patrimoine global de ses clients. Sous la responsabilité de Sophie Breuil, cette «direction du conseil» regroupe une trentaine de collaborateurs autour de cinq domaines d’activité distincts, auquel viendra s’ajouter une sixième activité dès janvier 2014, le family office.

Directeur général délégué de Natixis AM jusqu’en décembre 2013, Philippe Zaouati a «décidé de [se] consacrer à 100% au développement de Mirova», dont il est directeur général, selon un message envoyé lundi. La marque dédiée à l’investissement responsable et lancée en novembre 2012 est devenue au 1er janvier une filiale à part entière de Natixis AM, qui a officialisé lundi sa création dans un communiqué distinct. Mirova revendique 4 milliards d’euros d’actifs sous gestion.

Les prix à la consommation en décembre ont augmenté comme prévu de 0,4% sur un mois et de 1,4% en variation annuelle, selon des premières estimations de l’Office fédéral des statistiques publiées lundi, qui confirment une légère accéleration de l’inflation par rapport au mois de novembre. Sur l’ensemble de l’année 2013, les prix à la consommation ont augmenté de 1,5%. La hausse des prix harmonisée aux normes européennes a été de 0,5% en décembre sur un mois et de 1,2% en variation anuelle. Sur l’année 2013, l’indice des prix IPCH ressort à 1,6% contre 2,1% en 2012.

L’Irlande a mandaté des banques en vue d’un emprunt syndiqué à 10 ans qui constituera le premier test grandeur nature de la confiance des marchés depuis sa sortie du plan d’aide de l’Union européenne et du FMI, a annoncé lundi l’agence de gestion de la dette publique. La National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) a choisi Barclays, Citi, Danske Bank, Deutsche Bank et Morgan Stanley pour piloter cette opération d'échéance mars 2024, prévue dans un «futur proche» en fonction des conditions de marché.

La collecte mondiale sur les produits indiciels cotés (ETP) s’est accélérée en décembre pour finalement atteindre 24,7 milliards de dollars, suite à la décision de la Fed de revoir à la baisse son programme mensuel d’achat d’obligations de 85 milliards de dollars, indique BlackRock. Les ETP actions ont collecté à eux seuls à 28,9 milliards de dollars, entièrement réalisée par les marchés actions développés.

Axa Real Estate Investment Managers a décroché un mandat de gestion auprès du The Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS), le plus gros fonds de pension du Texas. Ce mandat de 135 millions d’euros portera sur de l’immobilier en Europe du Nord.

2013 ended well for stock markets in developed markets, and much less well for emerging markets, with eight emerging markets seeing double-digit declines, and only eight finishing the year with gains, S&P Dow Jones Indices points out. Stock markets overall brought in USD7.960trn in additional money from investors, with the US market representing 61.8% of this amount, or USD4.92trn. In developed markets, 24 out of 26 markets finished the year in positive territory, with 19 posting double-digit gains. Developed markets overall gained 24.49%, while the gains over two years totalled 41.81%. Developed markets outside the United Staes have gained 18.07%, while the United States along are up by nearly 31%.

Close Brothers Asset Management has recruited Seton Craven, previously head and multi-asset portfolio manager for wealth management clients at PSigma Investment Management, as chief investment officer in its “Bespoke Investment Management” team. In this role, Craven will report directly to Nancy Curtin, head of the unit. The recruitment is the third for Close Brothers Asset Management in the past four months, following the arrival of two directors of development in September 2013.

M&G Real Estate, an affiliate of M&G Investments, has appointed Jonathan Clarke as investment management director. Clark had since January 2011 worked at Genesis Housing Association, first as head of planning and financial development and then as director of corporate finance from January 2012. At M&G Real Estate, Clarke will take responsibility for all investment activities on behalf of insurance clients and pension funds at M&G. The precise details of his functions will be disclosed during the month, following a meeting of the board of directors of M&G Real Estate.

The Marlborough UK Leading Companies fund, whose assets under management total slightly over GBP86m, has been renamed as the Marlborough UK Multi-Cap Growth fund from 1 January, Fundweb reports. The change aims to better reflect the approach of manager Richard Hallet, who will be responsible for all cap sizes as part of his long-term strategy.

The most recent monthly results for 2013 for the amLeague mandates give the advantage of Invesco, particularly to the team of Martin Kolrep and Manuela von Ditfurth for Europe mandates, which comes out top in Decemer, with returns of 2.76%, followed by Swiss Life Asset Managers and Roche-Brune (2.52% and 2.08%, respectively). For the year overall, however, French asset management firms do well. In European equities, BNP Paribas IP, with Theam, tops the rankings, with returns of 28.06%, followed by Invesco, AllianceBernstein And Roche-Brune, which have similar returns (27.78% to 27.74%). In euro zone equity mandates, Invesco tops the rankings for the year, with returns of 38.70%, just ahead of the French Roche-Brune, where the team of Bruno Fine and Grégoire Laverne earned 31.40%, and which did better than AllianceBernstein (29.67%). Considering results for the past year overll, for Europe, ten out of 22 companies did better than the benchmark, the Stoxx 600 Net Return, which has gained 20.79%. For the euro zone mandate, eight companies out of 28 beat the Eurostoxx Net Return index, which gained 23.74%.

The Metco division of the Sulzer group, which is up for sale, has attracted two interested candidates, OC Oerlikon, led by the Russian Viktor Vekselberg, and the EQT holding company of the Swedish Wallenberg investment group, HandelsZeitung reports. The newspaper reveals that the adviser to EQT is Ulf Berg, formerly head and chairman of the board of director at Sulzer. Berg left Sulzer after a shareholder battle which was won by Vekselberg, it says. Metco is a very profitable division of Sulzer, active in the treatment of surfaces. Its sale is expected to bring in about CHF900m for Sulzer. Bids may be submitted until 18 January.

The fund associated with George Soros has purchased a 3.1% stake in the Spanish construction group FCC from the largest shareholder in FCC, Esther Koplowitz, the Financial Times reports. Soros becomes the second international investor in the Spanish group, following Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who controls a 6% stake. Shares in the FCC group, which has decided to reduce its debt by selling off non-strategic assets, and which has strengthened its position internationally, has gained more than 125% in the past six months.

As part of its development strategy in Asia, Amundi has submitted an application for a licence to open its first branch in Thailand by the end of first half 2014, Pascal Blanqué, chief investment officer at the French asset management firm, tells the website Asian Investor. It will be the firm’s eighth sales office in Asia-Pacific, after Beijing, Brunei, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Sydney and Taipei, the website reports. Amundi would meanwhile like to strengthen its local sales teams in 2014 with 15 to 20 recruitments, largely for its activities serving instituitonal and third-party clients, Blanqué tells Asian Investor.

Boost ETP, an independent issuer of ETPs, has appointed Antionio Sidoti and Marlene Rodriguez as senior sales executives for the Italian market, Bluerating reports. Sidoti join from Ecomunicare, while Rodriguez, who had already been at Boost since 2012, previously worked at BNP Paribas and Axa Investment Managers.

Swedbank Robur, one of the largest Swedish asset management firms, owned by Swedbank, has decided to bring its Luxembourg-registered funds back to Sweden. The firm thinks that there is no longer any fiscal advantage to remain in Luxembourg. The move follows the introduction in 2012 of a new tax regime for funds in Sweden. Additionally, new European rules make fund mergers easier. The transfer began with the merger of the Luxembourg-registered equity funds Global High Dividend Sub Fond into its Swedish equivalent, Global High Dividend. “Our plan is to repatriate all our funds domiciled in Luxembourg to Sweden. Now, there is no fiscal advantage to keeping them there. It is also less expensive for us and for savers when funds are in Sweden,” Pär Bäckman, head of information at Swedbank Robur, explains to the Swedish press.

Carlyle, the US-based private equity firm, has submitted the necessary documents to the SEC to launch its first two mutual funds aimed at retail cients, Agefi reports. One of these funds will be oriented to commodiie, the other to a more diversified universe of equities, debt, real estate, commodities and currencies, largely via excchange-traded funds (ETF). An article in the Financial Times describes this project and plans by Fortress to list its infrastructure fund Worldwide Transportation and Infrastructure on the NYSE. The British newspaper states that the two firms plan to open to retail investors.

A year that saw most emerging markets equity and bond funds struggle despite rising risk appetite ended with China equity funds absorbing over USD1.5 billion during the 10 days ending December 30 while developed markets equity funds added to their already record setting inflow totals and bond funds overall recorded modest outflows, according to EPFR.Based on monthly and daily data, preliminary numbers for 2013 show all four of the major developed markets equity fund groups – US, Europe, Japan and global equity Funds – setting inflow records. “Bar the possibility of another fight over the US debt ceiling and the impact of the hike in Japan’s sales tax in 2Q14, there isn’t too much on the immediate horizon that is likely to shake fund flows out of their current pattern,” observed EPFR global research director Cameron Brandt.The strong flows into frontier markets funds are an illustration of the enduring yield hunger and rising risk appetite evident in 2013 which saw investors pour record setting amounts into Spain equity and bond funds. Since the beginning of April Spain bond funds only posted outflows three of the 39 weeks to year end as they absorbed a net USD6.4 billion, thereby accounting for over 80% of the net flows into all Europe bond funds. Among retail investors risk appetite fell off sharply during the final two months of the year when they pulled over USD19 billion from both bond and equity funds, observes EPFR. The final days of 2013 saw flows follow a general pattern that has by and large been in place since the late summer. Investors again pulled money from emerging markets, US Long Term, municipal, mortgage backed, inflation protected and Asia Pacific bond funds and committed fresh money to Europe, floating rate, convertible and short term bond funds and balanced funds.

The Total Return fund, the flagship fund from Pimco, whose assets under management total about USD244bn, has seen its first annual loss since 1999, Investment Week reports. The fund, managed by the co-CIO of Pimco, Bill Gross, lost 2% last year, according to data from Morningstar. In the month of December along, the fund lost 1%, in the wake of a decision by the Federal Reserve to end its quantitative easing policy. The fund has posted its worst result since 1994, when it had a negative performance of 3.6%. US Treasury bonds, which according to Reuters represent about 37% of the portfolio, have seen a difficult second half following indications by the Federal Reserve in May last year that it planned to end its quantitative easing policy.

The California-based asset management firm TCW has appointed Alex McCulloch as head of retail distribution and marketing, Mutual Fund Wire reports. The appointment follows the recent departure of its CEO Charles Baldiswieler, who has become chairman of Angel Oak Capital, which has required the company to redistribute its responsibilities internally. McCulloch, who has been present at TCW since 1995, previously served as co-head of client relationships with private clients. According to a TCW spokesperson cited by Mutual Fund Wire, McCulloch’s mission will be to “grow our capacities in asset management with common investment funds on the retail market.”