Selon el Confidencial, Ignacio Sarría, fondateur et jusqu’au 31 août administrateur délégué de l’espagnol Arcano Capital (1 milliard d’euros d’encours), a été recruté par New Mountain Capital (10 milliards de dollars). Il fera partie de l'équipe de développement, le gestionnaire américain souhaitant renforcer ses plates-formes de private equity tout en dynamisant la commercialisation de son hedge fund et de son fonds d’obligations d’entreprises.

Au 1er janvier 2014, Erik Breen, directeur des investissements socialement responsables de Robeco rejoindra l'équipe ISR de Triodos Investment Management. Il sera plus particulièrement chargé de l’innovation.Erik Breen est aussi membre du conseil des gouverneurs et vice président de l’ICGN (International Corporate Governance Network).A fin 2012, Triodos Investment Management, filiale de Triodos Bank, affichait un encours ISR de 2,2 milliards d’euros.

Simultanément à Paris, Londres, Milan et Francfort, Ossiam fait admettre à la négociation ce 12 septembre un nouvel ETF de stratégie dans sa gamme de beta intelligent. Ce produit, le Ossiam Risk Weighted Enhanced Commodity ex. Grains TR UCITS ETF 1C (EUR) (code mnémonique : CRWE), est un fonds coordonné (OPCVM IV) à réplication synthétique, de droit luxembourgeois.L’ETF réplique l’indice de stratégie Risk Weighted Enhanced Commodity ex. Grains TR. Cet indice créé en février 2013 a été développé par Société Générale mais il est calculé; rebalancé, et diffusé par S&P. L’indice offre une exposition globale aux matières premières, à l’exclusion des céréales, pour des raisons éthiques,. La pondération pour chaque matière première inversement proportionnelle à sa volatilité réalisée sur un an. Ainsi, les contrats à terme sur matières premières dont les volatilités sont les plus faibles se voient attribuer un poids proportionnellement plus important dans l’indice. Comme l’explique à Newsmanagers Isabelle Bourcier, directeur du développement commercial, «l’idée consiste à rouler les positions sur la prochaine échéance en cas de ‘backwardation’ et à la plus liquide des échéances les plus lointaines dans une configuration de contango». Le véhicule représente une extension à un nouvel univers d’investissement des stratégies «smart beta» déjà mises en oeuvre par Ossiam sur les actions. Bruno Poulin, président d’Ossiam (filiale de Natixis Global Asset Management) a souligné à ce sujet qu’avec ce nouvel ETF, les investisseurs «peuvent non seulement accéder à un panier de matières premières particulièrement diversifié (au travers de contrats à terme), tout en se distinguant par l’exclusion des céréales, mais bénéficier des avantages liés à l’optimisation du roulement des positions (rolls) et à une stratégie d’allocation qui vise à obtenir une meilleure diversification des risques». Et Isabelle Bourcier envisage déjà la prochaine étape, qui pourrait être celle d’un ETF smart beta sur la classe d’actifs obligations."Ce produit, avec un rendement voisin de celui des actions ", s’adresse avant tout à des professionnels dans une optique de diversification de leur allocation d’actifs globale. Sa corrélation est faible et il réduit la volatilité, ce qui cadre bien avec l’optique de moyen-long terme avec le contrôle des risques qui caractérise tous les produits Ossiam, souligne Isabelle Bourcier.Ossiam affiche actuellement un encours de 920 millions d’euros, ce qui représente un gonflement de 63,5 % depuis le début de l’année. Les actifs gérés dans les 13 ETF de la marque se montent à quelque 720 millions d’euros.CaractéristiquesDénomination : Ossiam Risk Weighted Enhanced Commodity ex. Grains TR UCITS ETF 1C (EUR)Code Isin : LU0876440578Taux de frais sur encours : 0,45 %

First State Investments vient de procéder à plusieurs changements dans le cadre de la gestion de ses fonds émergents, rapporte Fund Web. Tom Prew va ainsi prendre la succession de Glen Finegan à la tête du fonds First State Global Emerging Markets Leaders (4,4 milliards de livres d’actifs) qu’il va co-gérer avec Jonathan Asante.Glen Finegan travaillera également avec Jonathan Asante en tant que co-gérant du fonds First State Worldwie Equity (35 millions de livres). Nick Edgerton co-gère désormais avec David Gait le fonds First State Worldwie Sustainability (71 millions de livres). Enfin, David Gait devient co-gérant du fonds First Sate Asia Pacific dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à 861 millions de livres.

La boutique de gestion alternative Adelante Asset Management vient de ferme un fonds de dette émergente globale lancé il y a quatorze ans car elle estime que son style d’investissement n’est plus adapté à l’environnement actuel, rapporte Financial News.Le fonds en question, Adelante Emerging Debt Fund, dont les actifs sous gestion s'élevaient à 80 millions de dollars, a été fermé fin juillet. Le fonds affichait une performance négative de 2% sur les sept premiers mois de l’année. Il a toutefois enregistré un rendement annualisé de plus de 15% depuis son lancement en juillet 1999 jusqu'à sa fermeture.

La société spécialisée dans le ré-enregistrement de fonds Calastone a obtenu des investissements du capital investisseur Accel Partners et de son actionnaire Octopus Investments pour un montant total de 18 millions de dollars, rapporte Fundweb.Calastone estime que ces investissements seront utilisés pour accélérer la croissance des activités de Calastone dans la région Asie Pacifique et en Europe où la société travaille notamment pour SEI, Transact, Novia et Axa Elevate.

Le gestionnaire de fortune Brooks Macdonald a enregistré pour son exercice à fin juin un bénéfice avant impôts de 10,4 millions de livres, en progression de 22% par rapport à l’année précédente.Ses actifs sous gestion discrétionnaires ont fait un bond de 45% à 5,11 milliards de livres. Une évolution attribuée à des opérations d’acquisition (Spearpoint), à des alliances stratégiques mais également à la croissance organique et à l’effet marché.

Mark Walker, analyste actions sur les télécoms et les satellites en Europe chez Goldman Sachs, a rejoint le britannique RWC Partners pour travailler avec Louise Keeling comme analyste pour le fonds luxembourgeois RWC Global Horizon Fund (lire Newsmanagers du 10 mai).Louise Keeling a elle-même rejoint RWC en avril en tant qu’associée pour mettre sur pied une équipe actions mondiales. Elle venait de chez Marathon Asset Management, où elle travaillait avec Jeremy Hosking sur la gestion d’un portefeuille d’actions mondiale.L’assistante du «desk» actions mondiales est Alice Jarman, qui intègre ce mois-ci RWC en provenance de Searchlight Capital Partners, après avoir travaillé chez Artemis Investment Management.Actuellement, RWC affiche un encours de 6,4 milliards de dollars contre 4,8 milliards fin décembre.

Peter Harrison, le nouveau responsable global des actions de Schroders, a déclaré à Financial News que l’activisme actionnarial va devenir une classe d’actifs à part entière sur les prochaines années. «L’engagement stratégique avec les entreprises pour penser à la façon dont vous pouvez dégager de la valeur pour les actionnaires est aussi une bonne chose pour les rendements, de même que la responsabilité d’entreprise, et c’est un changement que le secteur n’a pas encore pris en compte», dit-il.

Fabio Caiani a été nommé responsable de la distribution de Nordea en Italie, rapporte Bluerating. L’intéressé conservera les fonctions de responsable des activités retail au sein de la société de gestion nordique qu’il occupe depuis 2007.

La société de gestion norvégienne Skagen a recruté Hilde Jenssen en tant que nouvelle gérante dans l’équipe de Skagen Kon-Tiki, son fonds d’actions mondiales et émergentes décotées, à compter du 1er octobre 2013.L’intéressée travaillait précédemment chez Skyview Investment Advisors aux Etats-Unis où elle était associée et gérante depuis 2009.L’équipe de Skagen Kon-Tiki se compose de Kristoffer Stensrud, gérant principal, Knut Harald Nilsson, Cathrine Gether et Erik Landgraff.

Une source impliquée dans l’opération a confié hier à IFR selon Reuters que le fonds souverain norvégien, le governement Pension Fund - Global, géré par Norges Bank Investment Management, filiale de gestion d’actifs de la banque centrale du pays, a mis en vente 13 millions d’actions EDF, représentant 0,7% du capital du groupe français, rapporte L’Agefi. Le prix unitaire de cession équivaut à un montant total de l’opération de près de 280 millions d’euros.

The wealth management firm Brooks Macdonald has posted pre-tax profits for its fiscal year to the end of June of GBP10.4m, up 22% compared with the previous year. Its assets under discretionary management are up 45%, to GBP5.11bn. This development is attributed to acquisitions (Spearpoint), strategic allegiances, and also organic growth and market effects.

First State Investments has made several changes to the management of its emerging market funds, Fund Web reports. Tom Prew will succeed Glen Finegan as head of the First State Global Emerging Markets Leaders fund (GBP4.4bn in assets), which he will co-manage with Jonathan Asante. Glen Finegan will also work with Asante as co-manager of the First State Worldwide Equity fund (GBP35m), Nick Edgerton no co-manages the First State Worldwide Sustainability fund with David Gait (GBP71m). Lastly, Gait becomes co-manager of the First State Asia Paciic fund, whose assets under management total GBP861m.

Mark Walker, an equity analyst for the telecom and satellite sectors in Europe at Goldman Sachs, has joined the British firm RWC Partners, where he will work with Louise Keeling as an analyst for the Luxembourg fund RWC Global Horizon Fund (see Newsmanagers of 10 May).Keeling herself joined RWC in April as a partner, to set up a global equity team. She comes from Marathon Asset Management, where she worked with Jeremy Hosking to manage a global equity portfolio. The assistant for the global equity desk is Alice Jarman, who will this month join RWC from Searchlight Capital Partners, after working at Artemis Investment Management. Currently, RWC has assets of USD6.4bn, compared with USD4.8bn as of the end of December.

The Calastone company, a specialist in fund re-registration, has obtained investment from the private equity investors Accel Partners, and its shareholder Octopus Investments, totalling USD18m, Fundweb reports. Calastone claims that these investments will be used to accelerate the growth of Calastone’s activities in the Asia-Pacific region and in Europe, where the firm works for SEI, Transact, Novia and Axa Elevate.

Peter Harrison, the new head of UK equities at Schroders, has told Financial News that activist shareholding will become an asset class in its own right in the next few years. “Strategic engagement with the business to think about the way you can earn value for shareholders is also a good thing for returns, as is corporate responsibility, and that is a change which the sector has not yet taken into account,” he says.

The alternative asset management boutique Adelante Asset Management has closed a global emerging market debt fund, launched 14 years ago, as it estimates that its investment style is no longer adapted to the current environment, Financial News reports. The fund in question, Adelante Emerging Debt Fund, whose assets under management total USD80m, was closed at the end of July. The fund posted negative returns of 2% in the first seven months of the year. However, it has posted annualised returns of over 15% from its launch in July 1999 to its closure.

Norway’s Skagen has hired Hilde Jenssen as a new portfolio manager in the Skagen Kon-Tiki fund team from 1 October 2013.She joins Skagen from Skyview Investment Advisors in the US, where she has been a partner and portfolio manager since 2009. In addition to Kristoffer Stensrud, lead portfolio manager, Skagen Kon-Tiki is managed by Knut Harald Nilsson, Cathrine Gether and Erik Landgraff.

According to Reuters, a source involved in the deal yesterday told IFR that the Norwegian sovereign fund, the Government Pension Fund – Global, managed by Norges Bank Investment Management, the asset management affiliate of the country’s central bank, has put 13 million shares in EDF, representing 0.7% of capital in the French group, up for sale, Agefi reports. The unit price for the sale adds up to a total amount for the operation of nearly EUR280m.

A slight improvement in macroeconomic conjuncture in Europe may result in a narrowing of the gap between ratings upgrades and downgrades for businesses in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), the ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service says in a study released on 12 September. “The percentage of ratings with a negative outlook or ratings under negative ratings watch is down slightly, to about 26% for the first time for several quarters, due to a slight improvement in the macroeconomic context in Europe, reflectd in a quarterly growth in GDP in the euro zone of 0.3% in second quarter 2013,” says Jean-Michel Carayon, Senior Vice President at Moody’s and author of the report, entitled “EMEA Non-Financial Corporates: Fewer Downgrades Likely to Follow Improvement in Europe’s Macroeconomic Trends.” “If we continue to anticipate a higher number of credit upgrades than downgrades in third quarter, a virtual rebalancing of the ratio would appear likely in fourth quarter, unless a marked and unexpected deterioration in activities in sectors exposed to cyclical fluctuations such as the mining, chemical or steel industries.”

After an apathetic month in August, the debt issues market appears once again effervescent, Les Echos reports. Since 1 September, European non-financial sector businesses raised abut EUR22bn, according to statistics from Dealogic. In total, 40 operatins have taken place. All participants on the market are aware that they are in a transitional phase, due to the reversal which the Federal Reserve is preparing to carry out, certainly by 18 September. Since May, the Fed has been preparing investors for a reduction in its quantitative easing, a prelude to a round of monetary policy tightening (although this is not planned before 2015). This explains the fact that the European credit market rates have already climbed on the secondary market, following returns on US and German government bonds.

AXA Real Estate Investment Managers, with over EUR46 billion of assets under management as of June 2013, has acquired the Cleveland Street office building in Sydney, from the Australian Postal Corporation. The total deal size is A$168 million for the land and redevelopment works. This acquisition is a sale and lease back transaction with Australia Post on behalf of a Singaporean client.This acquisition is made in collaboration between AXA Real Estate and Eureka Funds Management, an Australian fund manager focussed on the alternative investment sector in Australia.

The financial ratings agency Moody’s has expressed criticisms of proposals by the European Commission concerning money market funds. According to the agency, maintaining an adequate rate of return for money market funds with set value per share would impose an increase in fees of at least 30 basis points. The Irish investment fund association, for its part, has called for European and US regulations to be brought into line.

The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) on September 1 published a report entitled “The OCERP: a Proposal for a European Personal Pension Product,” on the establishment of a genuine European retirement savings product in line with the considerations undertaken for several years, and marked by the publication in 2010 of a white paper on pensions by the European Commission. The Officially Certified European Retirement Plan (OCERP) is intended as a blueprint for a “European brand” of personal pension products to be distributed on a cross-border basis. The product would allow individuals to choose between several investment options and ensure providers maintain a robust governance framework and administritive systems. Any product that meets these standards could be distributed throughout Europe with an EU passport. The report, which will be distributed to EU policy makers and institutions, contains a set of key recommended standards that a European personal pension product should comply with in order to be certified as an OCERP, and sold throughout Europe. It also presents different legislative approach scenarios to provide an EU passport to the OCERP and to regulate the conditions under which financial institutions could provide OCERPs across Europe. The creation of an EU framework for personal pension products would also contribute to channeling retail investors’ savings towards the proposed European Long-Term Investment Funds (ELTIFs) recently proposed by the European Commission. According to Peter De Proft, Director General of EFAMA, “the proposed high standards of consumer protection, governance and distribution will associate the OCERP with a high-quality EU label. As a blueprint for a European brand of personal pension products, the creation of the OCERP would help overcome the current fragmentation of the European pensions market and, thus, improve the cost-effectiveness of these products and their portability between Member States. By proposing that banks, insurers, pension funds and asset managers expand their product offering towards the OCERP, EFAMA proposes to follow an inclusive approach for the creation of personal pension products to serve the interests of all European citizens”.

The US authorities have opened a criminal investigation into the Zurich-based private bank Rahn & Bodmer for failure to declare assets in the United States. The bank was informed in late August, Christian Rahn, managing partner at the bank, has told the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Rahn & Bodmer says that in 2008 it decided no longer to accept undeclared US assets, and to encourage its US clients to voluntarily disclose their assets. This allowed the US authorities to discover the names of many of its clients, Rahn states. Rahn & Bodmer manages CHF12bn in assets, and has 20 employees.

Companies of the CAC 40 will redistribute half of their profits (excluding one-time entries) to shareholders: EUR39.9bn in dividends will be paid out in 2014 for the 2013 fiscal year, Les Echos reports. This figure is up 5%, according to estimates by FactSet, processed by PrimeView. The 2014 year will also be the second year of growth in coupons from stock market giants, after a fall in dividends paid for the 2011 fiscal year. The rise will bring them virtually back to their levels in the 2010 fiscal year (EUR40.2bn). This increase in payments to shareholders is supported by an improvement in the accounts and some confidence in the future. Analysts anticipate a rise of 16% in recurrent profits, to more than EUR80bn, in the 2013 fiscal year.

Abu Dhabi is planning to invet up to USD5bn in infrastructure projects in Russia in the next seven years, the Financial Times reports, illustrating Russian efforts to attract money from sovereign funds. The engagement of the department of finance in Abu Dhabi is expected to be announced on Thursday by the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the USD10bn fund supported by the government, founded in 2011 by Vladimar Putin.

One in four Swiss respondents (24%) are unaware of which pension fund manages its second retirement pillar (professional retirement planning). Although interest in professional retirement planning appears to be higher than average in German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino, only two thirds of French-speaking Swiss are concerned about it, according to the second survey carried out by AXA Investment Managers. Overall, 29% of policyholders surveyed have no interest in retirement planning, according to the study “Knowledge of the Swiss population concerning pension funds 2013,” presented earlier this week in Zurich. More than one quarter of them consider themselves still too young to think about it. One respondent in five considers the subject too complicated for themselves, ways Werner Rutsch, head of the study by AXA Investment Managers. About 10% avoid the subject squarely on the grounds that they have no influence over their pension.

As of 1 October, two people will join the management at the Munich-based UBS Real Estate KAG.Gabriele Merz, director of accounting for German and Luxembourg real estate funds since 2007, will replace Christine Bernhofer as chief financial officer. Bernhofer will be leaving the business at the end of the month to dedicate herself to charitable activities in Africa.Meanwhile, UBS Real Estate KAG has recruited Axel Vespermann, who had been head of the entire commercial real estate portfolio at Allianz Real Estate GmbH. He will be responsible for portfolio management, acquisitions and sales, asset management, construction and development.The other two members of the general management are Tilman Hickl (CEO) and Jörg Sihler.