SPDR ETF, la plateforme de trackers de State Street Global Advisers, a annoncé le 2 septembre le lancement à la Bourse de Londres de trois nouveaux ETF sur les obligations à court terme. Ces trois nouveaux ETF sont également cotés à la Deutsche Börse (Newsmanagers du 30 août).Ces trois nouveaux ETF en réplication physique viennent compléter la gamme obligataire des trackers SPDR ETF, offrant une exposition à une variété d’indices – Global, US, Europe, Royaume-Uni, Marchés Emergents, Haut Rendement et obligations indexées sur l’inflation. En raison de la récente volatilité observée sur les marchés et l’augmentation des taux d’intérêt, la maturité des titres retient à nouveau l’attention des investisseurs, comme risque majeur au sein de leurs portefeuilles obligataires. L’un des moyens de circonvenir ce risque lié à la maturité est d’investir dans des obligations à courte échéance, ce qui peut améliorer les rendements ajustés au risque et diminuer la sensibilité générale d’un portefeuille aux changements de taux d’intérêt.
Mark Lacey, qui a été pendant quatre ans gérant des fonds GSF Global Energy et GSF Global Enhanced global Energy avant de rejoindre la maison de trading Mercuria Global Energy, a été recruté par Schroders comme co-gérant (avec John Coyle) des fonds ISF Global Energy et Small Cap Energy. Il sera subordonné à Peter Harrison, global head of equities, et exercera parallèlement des activités d’analyse dans le domaine de l'énergie. Il émettra également des recommandations de titres pour l'équipe actions mondiales.Par ailleurs, Ben Wicks réintègre l'équipe énergie de Schroders en tant que global sector specialist. Il avait été basic materials sector specialist chez Schroders de 1999 à 2005, avant de conseiller le gouvernement britannique en tant que senior analyst pour les risques géopolitiques.
Le britannique Miton envisage de lancer un fonds long/short dédié aux actions britanniques, rapporte Fundweb.George Godber, qui a rejoint Miton en début d’année, pourrait obtenir la gestion de cette nouvelle stratégie, croit savoir le site spécialisé.Les actifs sous gestion de Miton s'élevaient à un peu plus de 2 milliards de livres fin juin. Depuis, Miton a racheté PSigma AM dont les actifs sous gestion s’inscrivent autour de 750 millions de livres.
Legal & General Investment Management a annoncé la nomination de Justin Onuekwusi en qualité de gérant de portefeuille spécialisé sur les fonds profilés multi-classes d’actifs retail, rapporte Investment Europe.Justin Onuekwusi travaillait précédemment chez Aviva Investors où il était notamment lead manager sur un certain nombre de fonds profilés multi-classes d’actifs. Chez Legal & General, il sera lead manager de la gamme Legal & General Multi-Index, lancée le 21 août 2013.
Claus Hein, l’ancien responsable commercial des ETF pour le Royaume-Uni, l’Irlande, les Pays-Bas et les pays nordiques chez Lyxor, rejoint Deutsche Bank, a appris Financial News. Il sera responsable de la distribution synthétique pour le Royaume-Uni. Cela inclura la vente d’ETF.
Le spécialiste des marchés émergents Ashmore a annoncé le 2 septembre le lancement d’une stratégie actions dédiée au marché turc. Ashmore, qui est exposé au marché turc depuis la fin des années 80, a renforcé sa présence dans le pays en 2008 avec l’installation d’une antenne locale. Le fonds ouvert Ashmore SICAV Turkish Equity, domicilié au Luxembourg, sera géré de façon collégiale. Le fonds sera commercialisé en Autriche, en Allemagne, au Luxembourg, en Suisse et au Royaume-Uni, précise Ashmore dans un communiqué.Les actifs sous gestion d’Ashmore s'élevaient à environ 77,4 milliards de dollars à fin juin 2013.
La Banque J. Safra Sarasin a annoncé le 3 septembre le recrutement de quatre spécialistes expérimentés pour renforcer son équipe de gérants de fortune. Florian Esterer (qui vient de MainFirst après avoir passé plusieurs années chez Swisscanto) est le nouveau responsable de l’équipe de gérants de fortune pour le domaine des actions et sera rejoint par Thomas Zbinden, gérant de fortune senior (qui vient lui aussi de Swisscanto), ainsi que par Christoph Lang, gérant de fortune, qui rejoint en provenance de la Banque Cantonale de Zurich. L’Allemand Helmut Kotschwar, responsable des stratégies d’investissement et de l’analyse de portefeuilles chez SAM Sustainable Asset Management depuis 2008, a par ailleurs étérecruté pour occuper le poste nouvellement créé de responsable de l’investment centre. Il sera chargé de l’élaboration des portefeuilles pour toutes les unités de gestion d’actifs.
Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the Qatari sovereign wealth fund, is in the process of recruiting experienced bankers to reduce its dependence on Europe, and to diversify its assets, Agefi reports. The newspaper, which relays informed sources quoted by Reuters, states that the fund is seeking opportunities in Asia and the United States, at a time when it is 80% exposed to Europe.Qatar Holding, the investment affiliate of the sovereign fund, has hired Ugo Arzani, among other professionals, a figure from Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London, to direct his investment in the consumer product and retail sectors. Jason Chew, previously head of Chinese operations at Pramerica Real Estate Investos, has been recruited for his knowledge of the real estate market in Asia, etc.The new recruitments will also bring the fund the necessary expertise to make more complex operations, for example, bond issues.
From 2 September, the DWS Japan Opportunities fund (DE0008490954) has become known as the Deutsche Nomura Japan Growth. The change is a sign of the deepened coopertion between Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (DeAWM) and Nomua Asset Management.The fund actually will now be managed by the team at Nomura Asset Management led by Shinsuke Yauchi and Ken Nagano. This will allow the fund to benefit from the local expertise of Nomura AM, one of the largest strategic partners of the German group. Asoka Wöhrmann, co-CIO, says that there is not yet any product of this type in Europe.The team at Nomura Asset Management benefits from the work of more than 20 buy-side analysts, and the fund will be managed with a growth method, with a portfolio of 40 to 60 positions out of a universe of 450 securities.
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.
Michael O. Bentlage, managing partner responsible for the asset servicing unit, has announced that the Frankfurt-based private bank Hauck & Aufhäuser Privatbankiers (H&A) will be taking over the depository banking activities previously provided by SEB for seven Ampega funds. H&A will also be taking over six Ampega funds launched in May and July this year.Bentlage announced at this time that H&A is planning to develop a depository banking activity and has already entered talks on the subject with several firms.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) released on September 2 the final framework for margin requirements for non-centrally cleared derivatives.Under the globally agreed standards published yesterday, all financial firms and systemically important non-financial entities that engage in non-centrally cleared derivatives will have to exchange initial and variation margin commensurate with the counterparty risks arising from such transactions.The final requirements have been developed taking into account feedback from two rounds of consultation (a July 2012 consultative paper and a February 2013 near-final proposal) as well as a quantitative impact study that helped inform the policy deliberations.The requirement to collect and post initial margin on non-centrally cleared trades will be phased in over a four-year period, beginning in December 2015 with the largest, most active and most systemically important derivatives market participants.
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.
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.
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.
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.