Henderson has hired Rob Gambi as chief investment officer. He will focus on the leadership and development of Henderson’s investment capabilities globally, including its growing resources in the US and Asia. Rob Gambi joins from UBS Global Asset Management where he was a group managing director and global head of fixed income with responsibility for over USD230 billion. In addition he was a member of the executive committee of UBS Global Asset Management.Previous to this he was head of equities and head of fixed income at AMP Asset Management (AMPAM) and Henderson. He will report directly to Henderson CEO Andrew Formica and sit on Henderson’s executive committee. He will start at Henderson in 2014.

Neil Woodford, a colossus in British asset management, is leaving Invesco Perpetual after a quarter century, the Financial Times reports. Shares in Invesco, its US parent company, fell 5% on the news. Woodford controls half of funds under management at Invesco Perpetual, and some financial advisers predict large-scale redemptions. He has GBP33bn in assets under management (more than any other British fund manager), and has one of the best track records around. The manager hopes to found a new asset management firm in April, once he has left his employer.

The bank Syz & Co was placed under investigation at the beginning of October in France, a spokesperson or the Genevan private bank, Ricardo Payro, confirmed the Swiss agency ATS on Monday, confirming reports on the website of the Geneva Tribune and 24 heures. The affair is related to a labour conflict following the dismissal of a French employee in July 2009. “this is simply a further procedural step, without any ultimate decision or prejudice. It is an old case, which is limited to rather technical questions of labour law and which concerns only one old employee responsible for selling investment funds to instituitonal clients,” says Payro.

London-based asset manager Finisterre Capital has injected USD55m of seed capital into its new long/short bond fund dedicated to emerging market debt, the Finisterre Emerging Market Debt Fund, Citywire reports. It is an Irish-registered product which has a sales license in most European countries. The managers are Paul Crean, co-founder and CIO of Finisterre, and Christopher Watson.The portfolio will invest in all bond segments (government, corporate, high yield, hard or local currncies) with a more diversified long/short strategy and a lower turnover than for other hedge funds from Finisterre. It will also have a longer investment horizon.

Dexia Asset Management has announced the launch of the UCITS IV Equities Global Optimum fund. The fund, which is aimed primarily at institutinoal investor clients such as pension funds, mutuals and insurers, may be exposed via a flexible allocation ranging from 0% to 200%. The portfolio is invested in global equities via derivatives, primarily options. The objective for the product is to “allow institutional investors subject to the constraints imposed by regulations to benefit from equity markets while limiting capital charge,” a statement says. “Let’s take the example of insurers: while traditional investment in equities implies an SCR of 39%, the management strategy used for the Equities Global Optimmum limits the SCR to less than 25% while seeking returns higher than those of the MSCI World hedged in euros with dividends reinvested,” says Nagi Nasr, head of alternative investment solutions at Dexia AM. Characteristics ISIN code: FR0011535897 (capi). Front-end fee: 1.00% Withdrawal penalty 1.00% Ongoing fees: 1.45%

Dexia Asset Management has announced the launch of the UCITS IV Equities Global Optimum fund. The fund, which is aimed primarily at institutinoal investor clients such as pension funds, mutuals and insurers, bay be exposed via a flexible allocation ranigns from 1% to 200%. The portfolio is invested in global equities via derivatives, primarily optins. The objective for the produc is to “allow institutional investors subject to the constraints imposed by regulations to benefit from equity markets while limiting capital charge,” a statement says. “Let’s take the example of insurers: while traditional investment in equities implies an SCR of 39%, the management strategy used for the Equities Global Optimmum limits the SCR to less than 25% while seeking returns higher than those of the MSCI World hedged in euros with dividends reinvested,” says Nagi Nasr, head of alternative investment solutions at Dexia AM. Characteristics ISIN code: FR0011535897 (capi). Front-end fee: 1.00% Withdrawal penalty 1.00% Congoing fees: 1.45%

Currently, La Financière Responsable has about EUR90m in assets under management, compared with EUR62m at the end of last year, and has posted net inflows of about EUR20m since the beginning of 2013. The “historic FCP” from the firm, LFR Euro Développement Durable, as of the end of September had EUR51.43m, and was 99.5% exposed to equities, of which 61.3% were French stocks. Since 31 December 2009, the fund has posted returns of 22.30%, compared with losses of 2.42% for the EuroStoxx 50 Price, and a gain of 11.06% for the EuroStoxx 50 Total Return, with volatility over 52 weeks of 12.59%, compared with 14.99% and 14.94%, respectively. The portfolio includes 35 positions and the turnover rate stands at about 33%. These results are consistent with the SRI strategy of La Financière Responsable, while on Tuesday, its chairman, Olivier Johanet, declared that “at the end of the day, SRI is a question of financial performance.” With that said, it needs to be demonstrated that extra-financial considerations are not counter-financial, and the difficulty for SRI or ESG managers is obtaining extra-financial information, and then enriching the data (LFR is now working with 63 indicators), and then take into account and justify extra-financial factors. Basic criteria (personnel, shareholders, companies, environment, partners, providers, clients, governance) allow for a eco-social footprint to be calculated, which is then used as a basis for financial judgements. In the construction of portfolios, capitalisation and weight biases are eliminated, stresses Stéphane Prévost, CEO.

State Street Global Advisors has suggested that it may double the number of ETFs which is manages in Europe, Ignites, a service from the Financial Times, reports. Scott Ebner, global head of product development at SSgA, thinks that there is room for about “100 ETFs” in the range from the company. SPDR, the ETF arm of the firm, currently has 52 products, compared with 13 when it restarted its European activities in 2010.

Syed Elias Alhabshi, senior advisor at Threadneedle Investments in Singapore since September 2011, has been appointed as chairman for Malaysia by UK asset manager Threadneedle, which is planning to offer Sharia-compliant products to institutional investors (sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, insurers, government and semi-government entities, businesses and charities).Mohd Farid bin Kamarudin (CEO of Malaysia) is also taking over the duties of senior fixed income fund manager, and will be based in Malaysia. He will report to Clifford Lau, head of fixed income Asia Pacific, Alhabshi and Andrew Chan, chief administrative officer, Asia Pacific. He will be responsible for putting Sharia-compliant investment capacities in place. He will be a senior member of the global investment team. He had previously been executive director and head of sukuks and alternative investments at AMIslamic Funds Management in Malaysia.Lastly, Sabrina Wong has been recruited as a fixed income analyst in Malaysia, and will report to Mohd Farid bon Kamarudian and Clifford Lau. She was previously a fund manager at Investec Asset Management, and also at Bank Negara.

Assets under management in sovereign wealth funds are approaching the USD6trn threahold, according to statistics communicated by the SWF Institute.In October this year, assets under management in SWFs totalled USD5.9998trn. Of this total, slightly over USD3.500trn were in sovereign funds depending on oil and gas resources.

Philipp Orth, Nadejda de Lousanoff and Umberto Prandi have been recruited for the institutional sales team at Pimco for the German and Austrian markets, and will report to Frank Witt, executive vice president and head of institutional customer relationships for Germany and Austria.The first of these becomes vice president and CRO. He had previously been director of customer relationships at Vescore. De Lousanoff joins from Banesto, where she had been head of distribution of structured products in Germany and the Scandinavian countries for the Spanish firm Santander. She is appointed as head of clients at Pimco.Lastly, Prandi is leaving Infineon Technologies, where he had been manager for mergers and acquisitions, to become a client adviser at Pimco.

According to NDR info radio, the Landesbank of Schleswig-Holstein and Hambourg, HSH Nordbank, in August sold its division HSH Real Estate for a symbolic one euro. That includes real estate funds with assets of EUR2bn and properties valued at EUR320m. A spokesperson for HSH Nordbank declined to comment on the reports, Fondsprofessionell says.

Specialist advisers manage nearly two times as many assets on average than advisers overall, according to a study carried out by Cerulli Associates in “The Cerulli Edge – Advisor Edition” (Fourth quarter). As of the end of June 2013, assets under management by specialists represented about 29% of total assets for advisers. “The great majority of financial advisers are generalists. Only 15% of advisers carry out their activities for a single client category, institutionals, corporate retirement programmes, or high net worth (HNW) investors,” says Bing Waldert, director at Cerulli. According to Cerulli, specialists clearly limit the market for an adviser but improve the degree of success in the development o the activity. By targeting a very small market and setting up a range of services which is tailored to it, advisers have more chances of winning requests for proposals when they are competing with a generalist.

German asset management firms posted net subscriptions in August of EUR3.4bn, of which EUR2.8759bn were for institutional funds, and EUR839.2m for open-ended funds, while mandates saw net outflows of EUR313.6m. In July, net inflows totalled EUR17.66bn, according to the German BVI association of asset management firms, of which EUR9.26bn went to Spezialfonds, EUR5.29bn to Publikumsfonds, and EUR3.1bn for mandates.However, in the first eight months of the year, net subscriptions totalled EUR62.4bn, comapred with EUR48.72bn in the corresponding period of 2012, of which EUR44.97bn, compared with EUR40.52bn for Spezialfonds and EUR16.87bn compared with EUR10.02bn for open-ended funds.The BVI states that as of the end of August, assets in open-ended and institutional real estate funds totalled EUR121bn, distributed over 3,300 properties in 35 countries. The portfolios include about 1,800 properties located in Germany, representing 63% of assets in institutional funds, compared with 42% of open-ended funds. France is the top destination country abroad, with 263 properties, followed by the Netherlands, with 247.In terms of asset management firms, Allianz Asset Management in the first eight months of the year has posted net inflows of EUR5.1447bn for open-ended securities funds, out of a total of EUR13.238bn for the sector overall. The Deutsche Bank group, for its part, has posted net inflows of EUR2.9254bn, less than Universal-Investment, a white label product specialist, which attracted EUR5.0364bn. These three asset management firms alone have thus posted more in net inflows than the entire profession combined.Union Investment is still has not put up with the loss of a mandate in April for EUR4.4bn outside the perimeter of the BVI, and shows net outflows of EUR2.1678bn. Deka has had net redemptions in the first eight months of the year which are down to EUR1.2741bn, from EUR1.38bn as of the end of July.

M&G Investments has registered its M&G Short Dated Corporate Bond fund in Italy, Bluerating reports. The fund is 80% invested in short duration investment grade corporate bonds (0-3 years).

To widespread surprise, Lithuania, which currently holds the European Union presidency, has accelerated the process of the UCITS V directive, increasing the likelihood that the controversial measure to cap bonuses will be dropped, Financial Times fund maangement reprts. In July, the European parliament rejected a proposal to limit bonuses to 100% of fixed salaries and to forbid performance commissions for UCITS funds by a vote of 348 to 341. Due to the tightness of the vote, many thought that it might be overturned by the parliament formed after the elections in May 2014. Lithuania has formed a working group for 21 October, which suggests that the planned directive may be completed by spring, meaning that the new parliament will not have a chance to review it.

L’Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) a rendu un avis favorbale au rachat de Nyse Euronext par l’américain ICE, a annoncé mercredi à Marseille son président Gérard Rameix. Cet avis a été adressé au ministre de l’Economie, Pierre Moscovici, qui doit maintenant se prononcer à son tour sur cette opération et qui aura également en main le rapport commandé à Thierry Francq. «Dans l’avis, nous ne nous prononçons que sur la fusion entre ICE et Nyse Euronext, et pas sur l’introduction en Bourse d’Euronext (la branche européenne de l’opérateur transatlantique) qui sera une autre étape», a précisé Gérard Rameix, cité par l’AFP. Les deux groupes espèrent boucler leur fusion le 4 novembre, selon un communiqué publié la semaine dernière.

Les prix à la consommation ont augmenté moins que prévu en septembre, s'éloignant encore davantage de l’objectif de la Banque centrale européenne (BCE) en matière d’inflation, selon les données finales publiées par Eurostat. Sur un an, ces prix ont enregistré une hausse de 1,1%, contre 1,3% en août et 1,6% en juin et juillet.

Le gouvernement ne souhaite pas que la taxe sur les transactions financières (TTF) soit étendue aux opérations intraday, a appris Reuters auprès du ministère du Budget, au lendemain de l’ouverture de l’examen du projet de loi de finances pour 2014 à l’Assemblée. Un amendement adopté la semaine dernière en commission prévoit d'élargir la TTF aux transactions intraday. «Une telle extension de la taxe française reviendrait à revoir en profondeur la taxe actuelle alors que des négociations communautaires sont en cours, dans lesquelles la France joue un rôle moteur, qui doivent permettre d’aboutir à une taxe harmonisée à l'échelle européenne», a ajouté la source à Bercy.

Les députés français ont adopté de justesse mardi en première lecture le projet de loi de réforme des retraites, les radicaux de gauche et les écologistes s'étant abstenus. Seul le groupe socialiste a voté pour ce texte clé du quinquennat de François Hollande, qui a été adopté par 270 contre 249, soit une majorité relative.

Fitch a annoncé hier soir avoir placé la note AAA des Etats-Unis sous surveillance avec implication négative en raison de l’incapacité des autorités à relever à temps le plafond de l’endettement américain.

«A mon avis, l’option n’est même pas sur la table», a déclaré à Reuters Richard Fisher, président de la Fed de Dallas, en réponse à une question sur la possibilité d’un début de réduction du programme d’assouplissement monétaire lors de la prochaine réunion de la Fed. «Le moment est trop délicat», a ajouté ce partisan des «faucons», en référence à l’actuelle impasse budgétaire à Washington, qui a entraîné la fermeture partielle des services de l’Etat fédéral depuis le début du mois.

Axa Global P&C a annoncé avoir placé avec succès 350 millions d’euros d’obligations catastrophes, la plus importante émission pour ce type d’obligations en euros à ce jour. Celle-ci comprend une Classe A, de 185 millions à échéance janvier 2017, et une Classe B, de 165 millions à échéance janvier 2018, qui permettent chacune de couvrir des niveaux de risque différents dans onze pays européens.

Selon la presse argentine, la banque centrale du pays négocierait avec son homologue chinoise (PBoC) un prêt de quelque de 10 milliards de dollars qui serait destiné à renforcer ses réserves en devises étrangères. Celles-ci ont chuté de 20,3% depuis le début de l’année, pour tomber à 34,5 milliards d’équivalent dollars. L’Argentine en profiterait également pour rembourser ses lignes de dette arrivant à maturité et pour couvrir ses besoins de refinancement.

Soucieux de calmer la controverse suscitée par des groupes américains qui utilisent l’Irlande comme un havre fiscal, le ministre des Finances Michael Noonan a promis de modifier la législation irlandaise sur la fiscalité des entreprises, afin que les sociétés immatriculées dans ce pays ne puissent plus être considérées comme apatrides. Mais le taux de l’impôt sur les sociétés, fixé à 12,5%, demeurera inchangé.

Nyse Euronext a indiqué que son directeur financier, Michael Geltzeiler, quittera ses fonctions une fois approuvée la fusion avec IntercontinentalExchange (ICE). John Halvey, directeur juridique et secrétaire général de Nyse Euronext, ainsi que Philippe Duranton, le directeur des ressources humaines, quitteront également la plate-forme.

Alors qu’un vote était attendu mi-octobre, le Sénat italien ne se prononcera sans doute pas avant novembre sur l'éviction de Silvio Berlusconi après sa condamnation définitive en août pour fraude fiscale, a dit hier un responsable du Peuple de la liberté (PDL), le parti de l’ex-président du Conseil.

Victime de l’austérité budgétaire, la marine britannique recherche un acquéreur pour l’Illustrious, son dernier porte-avions qui cessera d’être en service à fin 2014. Le futur acheteur ne doit pas nécessairement être britannique, mais il devra conserver tout ou partie du navire outre-Manche pour des raisons de patrimoine national. Le ministère de la Défense attend désormais des offres venant de sociétés, d’organisations humanitaires ou de fonds spécialisés.

Les Bourses pourraient bénéficier d’une saison de publications de résultats qui s’annonce légèrement meilleure que les trimestres précédents

Déjà partenaires dans l'immobilier en dur en France et en Allemagne, ils veulent consacrer jusqu'à 600 millions d’euros par opération