L'AMF et l'AFG s'inquiètent d'une interprétation de la directive qui empêcherait les gestionnaires alternatifs d'offrir certains services avec leur passeport AIFM
D’après la Commission, la directive AIFM tout juste transposée ne permet pas aux gestionnaires alternatifs d’utiliser leur passeport européen pour commercialiser des services connexes, comme le conseil en investissement, dans l’ensemble de l’Union. L’AMF et l’AFG s’en inquiètent.
Les autorités ont soumis à consultation de nouvelles règles de rétention du risque dont seraient très largement exemptées les titrisations immobilières
JPMorgan Asset Management va moderniser ses systèmes de trading, indique Lee Bray, patron du négoce pour l’Asie depuis avril dernier. Après l’examen des systèmes de gestion et d’exécution des ordres, la modernisation des systèmes devrait être réalisée dans le courant de l’année prochaine.
La rémunération de l’administrateur le mieux payé du pôle européen de Pimco - dont le nom reste inconnu - a reculé de 30% en 2012 à 20,9 millions de livres, malgré une hausse du bénéfice avant impôts de l’activité de 54 % à 22,93 millions de livres, rapporte le média financier.
Le secteur des produits indiciels cotés (ETP) a enregistré au mois d’août 15 milliards de dollars de retraits nets au niveau mondial, selon les statistiques de BlackRock. Il s’agit d’un record absolu sur un mois. Depuis le début de l’année, la collecte des ETP reste néanmoins positive à hauteur de 128 milliards de dollars, contre 140 milliards à la même période de 2012. Au mois d’août, les ETF actions Etats-Unis et pays émergents, ainsi que les produits indexés sur les obligations longues, ont le plus souffert des arbitrages liés à la perspective d’un durcissement de la Fed et à l’instabilité des émergents.
By the end of September, Jörn Stobbe, a partner at the law firm Clifford Chance, and until the end of August chairman of the German arm of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, will join RREEF Management GmbH, a real estate fund management affiliate of Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (DeAWM), as a member of general management. He will have the position of managing director, and will be responsible for asset management activities and trading for the German-speaking countries (Germany, Switzerland, Austria). Stobbe is also a member of the board at the Corporate Governance Initiative (ICG) by the German real estate sector.Pierre Cherki, global head of alternatives & real assets at DeAWM, states that Stubbe will report to Georg Allendorf. He highlights the expertise of the new arrival in the area of “opportunity-driven investment.”
Deutsche Bank on 2 September announced that it had completed a transaction by which, in May, it acquired the 51% stake held by its partner, Xchanging plc, in their joint venture, Xchanging Transaction Banking (XTB).As the necessary permission had been obtained from the supervisory authorities and the shareholders in Xchanging the change of ownership took place on 1 September, and XTB will now be known as DB Investment Services GmbH.Holger Wegmann becomes CEO of DB Investment Services, while Catrin Röthe, a member of the executive team at XTB, will serve as chief production officer. The position of COO will go to Thomas Beemelmann.
With effect from 1 September 2013, Gunther Will has become director of distribution of open-ended funds from Berenberg to wealth managers, funds of funds and IFAs.Will, who for some months was chairman of the board at the brokerage pool Argentos Verwaltungs-AG, served until spring 2012 as head of retail sales at Alceda Fund Management SA, and head of fund distribution for the Aquila Capital group.Will will report to Uwe Schedewsky, head of client management at the asset management business unit of Berenberg. Assets under management by the oldest private bank in Germany total about EUR28bn.
Currently, institutional assets at Deka, the central asset management firm for the German savings banks, represent EUR85bn, out of a total of EUR177bn. This includes open-ended funds dedicated to institutionals (EUR10bn), institutional funds (Spezialfonds) for EUR62bn, ETFs (EUR4.6bn), and advised assets (EUR8.5bn). The unit will now be placed under the heading “Deka Institutionell” and will allow the firm to offer clients a complete value chain, from strategic analysis to reporting and controlling, without forgetting the selection of appropriate products solutions, and their deployment, says Klaus-Dieter Böhme, director of institutional distribution.Of this total of EUR85bn in institutional assets, about 60% come from businesses and institutions which belong to the galaxy of the savings banks. Deka predicts that net inflows to the institutional unit will total EUR6bn this year.
The Banque J. Safra Sarasin on 3 September announced the recruitment of four experienced specialists as additions to its team of wealth managers. Florian Esterer (who joins from MainFirst, after several years at Swisscanto) is the new head of the wealth management team in the area of equities, and is joined by Thomas Zbinden, senior wealth manager (who also joins from Swisscanto), as well as Christoph Lang, wealth manager, who joins from the Cantonal Bank of Zurich. The German Helmut Kotschwar, head of investment strategy and portfolio analysis at SAM Sustainable Asset Management since 2008, has also been recruited to serve in the newly-created position of head of the investment centre. He will be responsible for developing portfolios for all asset management units.
The Swiss wealth management firm Aquila has lost its chief investment officer, Jürg Furrer, who had also been a member of the executive board at the group, the specialist information website finews reports.After nine years at Aquila, Furrer will on 1 October join the Swiss office of the US group Pimco. The head of Pimco Switzerland, Christian M. Staub, had recently announced that he wished to strengthen his team with the recruitment of professionals with a lot of knowledge of the Swiss market.
The Swedish asset management firm Carnegie is closing the Carnegie Sverige Select fund, an unconstrained Swedish equity fund, to new investors. “In order to preserve our freedom, we must close the fund before it becomes too large,” explains Simon Blecher, manager of the fund. The fund, launched on 28 September 2007, now has SEK1.6bnin assets, or EUR180m. Carnegie Sverige Select, highly concentrated, has about 15 positions in its portfolio, and one single share can represent about 30% of the fund.
Citigroup has sold assets from private equity and hedge funds in the past few months for USD6bn, in order to comply with new laws that limit the stakes that banks may hold in alternative investments, the Wall Street Journal reports. Last week, the US group sold a USD4.3bn private equity fund, Citi Venture Capital International, to Rohatyn Group, a private equity fund. On 9 August, it sold an emerging market hedge fund with USD1.9bn to the managers of the fund. Ciigroup had once been a major player in alternative investment. In February 2012, the group had USD18.6bn in assets under management in hedge funds and private equity at its affilate Citi Capital Advisors. But after the recent operations, the structure has only one fund left, the Metalmark Capital fund, with USD2.5bn in assets, which the bank is seeking to sell.
Azimut, via its Luxembourg sub-holding company AZ International Holding, has subscribed to a capital increase related to the acquisition of a 51% stake in the capital of An Ping Investment, the holding company which controls all capital in Sinopro Financial Planning Taiwan Limited, Bluerating reports. Sinopro is a Securities Investment Consulting Enterprise which is present in the distribution of asset management products in Taiwan. The total cost of the operation is EUR3bn. The objective for the agreement is to create a joint venture for the distribution of asset management products in Taiwan.
On 2 September, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the organisation responsible for developing UK corporate governance and stewardship codes and accounting, auditing and actuarial work standards, appointed Marian Williams as codes & standards director, in which position she will assist Melanie McLaren, executive director, codes & standards, and Angus Bogle, director of investor engagement, as deputy to Mridul Hegde, executive director, strategy.Williams had previously been director of the insurance financial services unit at PwC. Bogle, who had been co-head of equity at Fildelity Worldwide Investments from November 2007 to December 2011, will be responsible for creating an enhanced engagement programme for the FRC and “the investor community.” He will also work with the codes & standards team to ensure that governance and reporting meet the expectations of investors.
One of the Singapore sovereign wealth funds, Temasek, announced before the weekend that it had selected locations for its offices in London and New York, with the objective of being operational before the end of the year, according to a statement.The New York office will be located at 375 Park Avenue, in the business district of Manhattan. The London office will be at 23 King Street, in St James’s, near a highly valued hedge fund area.The offices come in addtion to the SWF’s network of foreign locations, with nine offices in Asia and two in Latin America.
JP Morgan has decided to limit access to an Asian equity fund managed by Pauline Ng, Citywire reports. The fund, the JP Morgan ASEAN Equity, had been subject to access constraints since June. As of the end of July 2013, its assets under management peaked at USD1.2bn, and had then fallen back to USD1.04bn. The fund has earned returns of 49.51% for the three years to the end of July 2013, compared with gains of 36% for the Citywire benchmark index, the MSCI South East Asia TR USD, over the same period.
Legal & General Investment Management has announced the appointment of Justin Onuekwusi as a portfolio manager specialised in retail multi-asset class profiled funds, Investment Europe reports. Onuekwusi previously worked at Aviva Investors, where he was lead manager for several profiled multi-asset class funds. At Legal & General, he will be lead manager fo the Legal & General Multi-Index range, launched on 21 August 2013.
Claus Hein, former head of ETF sales for the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands and Scandinavia at Lyxor, will be joining Deutsche Bank, Financial News has learnt. He will be responsible for synthetic distribution in the United Kingdom. This will include ETFs.
Daniel Godfrey, CEO of the Investment Management Association (IMA), on 2 September announced that it has created two seats on its executive board for directors of regulatory affairs. They go to Julie Patterson, currently director fo authorised funds & tax, for “retail & funds,” and to Richard Metcalfe, deputy head of EMEA at the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), for the “institutional & capital markets” portion.The IMA will also create an office of the director for risk, compliance and legal affairs, which will be occupied by Guy Sears, currently director, institutional.The recruitment of a COO as an addition to the executive committee is also in progress.
Dan Higgins, former chief investment offier at Fauchier Partners, will this week launch his own asset management boutique, Marylebone Partners, Financial News reports.
Old Mutual Wealth Management, the holding company of Skandia and Old Mutual Global Invetors, has announced the appointment of three independent, non-executive directors, Ashok Gupta, Jane Hanson and Simon Davies.Gupta holds other non-executive responsibilities at New Ireland Assurance, AA Insurance Services, JP Morgan JP Morgan European Smaller Companies Investment Trust and eValue FE. Gupta will chair the auditing board at Old Mutual Wealth. Hanson holds other non-executive responsibilities, including one at Direct Line Insurance Group, where she is chair of the risk board. At Old Mutual Wealth, she will also be chair of the risk committee. Davies is also chairman of the JP Morgan Overseas Investment Trust and non-executive director at Grainger PLC. Davies, who was also chairman and CEO of Threadneedle, will chair the remuneration committee at Old Mutual Wealth.
Ashmore Investment Management, one of the specialist managers of emerging market debt and equity securities, on September 2 announced the launch of the Ashmore SICAV Turkish Equity Fund.The fund is an open-ended vehicle primarily investing predominantly in Turkish equity and equity related instruments issued by corporates and quasi-sovereigns. Ashmore’s globally managed funds have been major investors in Turkish equities since 1987. The asset manager further strengthened its Turkish connections when it launched Ashmore Portföy, Turkey in 2008, one of Ashmore’s first domestic asset management ventures.The SICAV Turkish Equity Fund is an open-ended daily dealing UCITS IV Luxembourg registered fund. The fund will be registered for sale in Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the UK and is available in share class denominations in US Dollars, Euros, UK Sterling and other currencies.Ashmore has assets under management of USD77.4billion as of 30 June 2013.
Baring Asset Management has hired Laura Luo as head of Hong Kong China equities, starting on 12th September. She replaces Agnes Deng who has left the firm and will report to Wilfred Sit, chief investment officer, Asia. Laura Luo joins from Schroder Investment Management where she worked for over 12 years. Since 2002 she has been lead manager on several Hong Kong China equity funds, responsible for assets under management of over USD2bn. This includes the Schroder International Selection Fund: China Opportunities, which she has managed since it launched in 2006.Based in Hong Kong, Laura Luo will be responsible for managing the Hong Kong China equities team as well as being lead manager on the Baring Hong Kong China Fund and segregated portfolios.Winston Ke, who has materially contributed to the portfolio management of the China A-share product since its inception, will become lead manager on the Baring China A-Share Fund and all China A-Share segregated portfolios, effective immediately. He will report to Laura Luo.Winston Ke joined Baring Asset Management in April 2010 from First State Cinda Asset Management in Shenzhen, China, where he covered China A-Share markets.
BNY Mellon Asset Management on 2 September announced the appoinment of Justine Mizrahi, 38, as its new head of the institutional distribution department for French- and Italian-speaking Switzerland, based in Geneva, and Nicolas Kopitsis, 36, s its new head of wholesale distribution for Switzerland and Austria. Mizrahi is the new head of distribution for products from all investment departments of BNY Mellon Asset Management aimed at financial intermediaries and institutional investors in French-speaking Switzerland. She joined the Cash Investment Strategies (CIS) department at BNY Mellon in 2010 as a bond portfolio specialist. Mizrahi, previously at BlackRock, had been head of sales for cash and short-term bond products for France, Italy and Spain. She also worked at Schroders and Axa Private. In his role as head of the intermediated distribution channel, Kopitsis is a newcomer at BNY Mellon. In his previous role, he served as head of wholesale distribution in Switzerland and Liechtenstein at Lombard Odier Asset Management. He had previously worked at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, as head of the Swiss market for institutional investors and as a portfolio manager at Credit Suisse.
The Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) has announced that in August it issued QFII quotas totalling USD1.5bn to twelve firms. This brings the total authorisations to a record USD46.443bn.Z-Ben Advisors points out that it should be remembered that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has obtained an additional quota of USD500m as part of this process, bringing the total under this quota to USD1.5bn. The HKMA becomes the first operator to pass the USD1bn mark, and it is likely that SAFE will now focus on developing its QFII programme for asset owners, such as pension funds, sovereign funds, monetary authorities and charities rather than asset managers.Among the recipients of quotas issued in August, three are new: Hall Capital Partners LLC, University of Notre Dame du Lac and Greenwoods Asset Management Hong Kong Limited.
Mark Lacey will join Schroders as a co-fund manager on Schroder ISF Global Energy and Schroder ISF Small Cap Energy. He joins on 9th September from commodities trader Mercuria Global Energy Solutions and brings with him more than 17 years’ of investment experience in the global energy sector.Mark Lacey will work alongside the funds’ existing manager John Coyle ; the investment objective of both funds remains unchanged. He will report to Peter Harrison, Global Head of Equities and will work alongside the Global and International Equities team providing specialist energy analysis and stock recommendations.Ben Wicks, an existing equity analyst within the Global and International Equities team, will assume the role of Global Sector Specialist - Energy.