P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As the unemployment rate in the United States remains 60 basis points above the level perceived as a trigger for a slowdown in bond repurchases by the US Federal Reserve, investors have partly focused on the corporate results season for second quarter, which began in early July, EPFR Global observes. Optimism about the outlooks for US and Japanese firms as well as for some European groups has allowed US and European equity funds to post their strongest net subscriptions since third quarter 2011 and second quarter 2012, respectively, while Japanese equity funds continued the inflows they had begun in mid-January.Overall, equity funds monitored by EPFR Global in the week to 10 July posted net inflows of USD13.6bn, while retail demand remained at its highest level in 21 weeks. Bond funds, for their part, posted net outflows of USD2.69bn. Money market funds, for their part, attracted USD34bn, the highest level in 27 weeks, while US products contributed over two thirds of net inflows.EPFR Global also comments that emerging market equity and bond funds have seen net redemptions of over USD3bn in total for the fifth time in the past six weeks.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Notenstein private bank has a growing presence on the Swiss structured product market. It has recruited Sinah Wolfers and Claudio Topatigh, both of whom join from the Cantonal Bank of Zurich (ZKB) and are specialists in this area, Finews reports.Topatigh will be head of structured products, while Wolfer will join the sell-side team.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has launched a Discussion Paper to prepare the regulatory technical standards (RTS) which will implement provisions of the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) regarding the obligation to centrally clear OTC derivatives.The consultation is aimed at assisting ESMA in developing its approach to determining which classes of OTC derivatives need to be centrally cleared and the phase-in periods for the counterparties concerned.The Discussion Paper is open for feedback until 12 September 2013.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In a notification to the CNMV, Banca March has announced that it has decided to avail itself of its pre-emptive right to buy Banco Inversis for EUR217.4m, at a time when its sale to Banco Privado Andorrano (BPA) for over USD200m was already a virtually done deal. Banca March thus avoids letting Inversis fall into the hands of a direct competitor, as BPA is the parent company of Banco Madrid.Banca March had previously controlled 5% of Inversis, compared with 38.4% for Bankia, 15.1% for Sabadell, 12.98% for Indra, 9.9% for El Corte Inglés, 8.9% for Cajamar, and 5.2% for Telefónica.At the same time, Banca March has announced that it has signed an agreement to resell the retail banking activities of Banco Inversis to Andbank (a rival of BPA) for EUR179.8m.Once the deal is done, Banca March will sell a 50% stake in Banco Inversis to the Portuguese group Orey Antunes.Inversis has assets under management of EUR40.6bn, of which EUR4.5bn are for retail investors.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The German private bank Berenberg (EUR28bn in assets) has announced that it has recruited Alexis Chardigny, Alexis Eman nd Stefano Novarini for its London branch. All three join from Morgan Stanley.Chardigny becomes head of international clients, after serving as executive director at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management, after serving as executive director and senior client adviser at UBS Wealth Management from 2001 to 2008.Eman, who is vice president in the private wealth management team at Morgan Stanley (where he has worked a total of 10 years), becomes associate director at Berenberg. Novarini, for his part, had been a sales analyst at Morgan Stanley since March 2010. He joins the same team as his two colleagues.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to Morningstar, US long-term mutual funds in June saw net outflows of USD47.29bn, compared with net inflows of USD38.6bn in May and USD37.8bn in April. They are the heaviest redemptions since USD105.6bn in October 2008. In first half overall, long-term mutual funds posted net inflows of USD215.2bn.Outflows in June were largely due to taxable-bond funds with USD43.78bn in net outflows, and to municipal bonds, which saw net redemptions of USD16.37bn.The asset management firms most severely affected by net redemptions of open-ended fund shares in June were Pimco (USD14.48bn), Fidelity (USD5.14bn), and Vanguard (USD4.88bn). American Funds, Franklin Templeton and JPMorgan saw respective net outflows of USD3.9bn, USD2.01bn and USD1.01bn.Among the top ten promoters in terms of assets, only two show net subscriptions in June. They are Dimensional Fund Advisors (USD938m) and T. Rowe Price (USD118m).
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Overall, assets for the four US asset management firms which release monthly statistics more or less simultaneously (AllianceBernstein, Franklin Templeton, Invesco and Legg Mason) fell by USD82.3bn as of 30 June compared with the end of May, to a total fo USD2.6001trn.The steepest decline, from USD31.5bn to EUR815bn, was at Franklin Templeton, whose assets in equity funds fell by USD13.1bn (to USD313.5bn) while bond funds contracted by USD16.1bn (to EUR365.7bn).At Invesco, the decline totalled EUR24bn, to USD705.6bn, with a decline of USD9.3bn to USD321.4bn for equities, and USD4.9bn for bonds, to USD321.4bn and USD173.1bn, respectively, while money market funds are down to USD77.8bn from USD82.7bn.The decline at AllianceBernstein totalled USD17bn, to USD453bn, of which USD13bn was contraction for bond products, to USD257bn.Legg Mason, for its part, shows a decline of USD9.8bn in June, to USD644.5bn, largely due to a decline of USD11.8bn for bond funds, to USD351gbn, but money market funds, due to an increase in assets of USD3.8bn, were up to USD129.1bn.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } At the end of this year, total asset management assets worldwide are expected to total USD70.400trn, which is USD20.000trn more than their nadir in 2008, Cerulli Associates estimates. The United States continue to drive this increase, but Euopre is expected to have increased the volume of its assets under mangement to USD5.900trn since 2008.The most recent study by Cerulli finds that as of the end of 2012, France stood in sixth place worldwide for household financial savings, with USD5.000trn, after the United States (USD30.000trn), Japan (USD18.000trn), the United Kingdom (USD7.200trn), China (USD6.8oootrn), and Germany (USD6.4000trn).In terms of assets in investment funds as a percentage of financial savings, France is in sixth place, with 16%, after the United States (38.8%), Canada (26.6%), Sweden (18.1%), Australia (17.7%), and Switzerland (17.5%).Cerulli has also released a projection of net revenue for fund management firms worldwide until 2017. For equities, it is expected to gradually rise to USD101.8bm, from USD66.1bn last year. For bonds, its projection shows USD48.3bn in 2017, compared with USD28bn in 2012.In the area of balanced funds, specialists at Cerulli project USD17.4bn in 2017, compared with USD12.2bn last year, while the “miscellaneous” category is expected to total USD9.2bn, up from USD6.5bn in 2012. For money markets, Cerulli predicts USD7.1bn, compared with USD8.3bn as of the end of last year.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Russell Emerging Markets index lost nearly 1% between 1 July and 8 July, and since the beginning of this year, more than 7%, This development comes amidst increasing regional political instability and declining growth in China, a statement from Russell Investments states. The index has also posted negative growth of 8.4% in second quarter alone.Russell notes, however, that although the Russell BRIC index (Russia, Brazil, India and China) has fallen since the beginning of the year (-11.3%), as of 8 July, some markets also showed net increases, including the United Arab Emirates (+46%), Philippines (+8.1%) and Malaysia (+8.1%), the best-performing countries on the Russell Emerging Markets index from the beginning of the year to 8 July. At the other extreme, Brazil (-21%), Greece (-16.6%) and South Africa (-15.1%) saw the worst performance in this period.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to statistics from BarclayHedge and TrimTabs Investment Research, on the basis of results provided by 3,368 hedge funds, alternative funds posted their strongest net subscriptions in more than two years in May, with USD18.5bn, compared with only USD430m in April. Hedge funds overall posted inflows in first half of USD35.7bn, compared with barely USD484m in the corresponding period of last year.In June, the 1,498 funds who had released results as of 14 July saw average losses of 1.30%, which reduces the total for first half to 4.31%. Of the 17 sub-indices, only four showed gains in June, while the two strongest performances were for the 17 tech funds (+1.17%), and the 59 equity market neutral funds (+0.68%). The heaviest loses were from the 245 emerging market funds (-3.86%), and the 30 distressed securities funds (-2%).Since the beginning of the year, the heaviest losses have been from the three equity short bias funds (-15.80%), while the other strategy that showed losses was emerging markets (-0.29%). The best two strategies for first half overall were Pacific Rim emerging market equities (+13.08%) for 40 funds, and the healthcare & biotechnology segment, with 10.60% for 27 funds.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } BNY Mellon is planning to add to its distribution team in Asia, Asian Investor reports. The first step is the recent recruitment of Mark Speciale as head of distribution to institutionals in the region. He will be based in Singapore, and will aim to bring dynamism to assets and recruit for the local team. Speciale joins from Capital Management, where he had most recently been vice president responsible for sales and customer service in Asia-Pacific ex Japan.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Australian bank Macquarie is planning to sell 77% of the Grenoble-based Rossignol group to Altor. Altor will control 80% of capital, compared with 10% for Weber Investment and about 9% for the chairman and CEO, Bruno Cercley, and his team.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to sources familiar with the matter, Deutsche Bank is reported to have recruited Caroline Kritidis as head of high net worth retail investors in the United States, Handelsblatt reports. Kritidis is a choice catch, as at Goldman Sachs she led a team that created derivatives for retail and institutional investors.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 12 July, Fitch Ratings lowered its long-term rating of French government debt denominated in foreign exchange as well as in local currency to AA+ from AAA, while maintaining a stable outlook. The country had already lost its AAA rating from S&P and Moody’s last year.Among the motives for the downgrade, the ratings agency cites the fact that the debt/GDP ratio for France is now expected to reach a peak of 96% in 2014, up from 94% projected in December. Fitch also predicts that the ratio will fall only to 92% by 2017, rather than the 90% previously predicted.The fiscal projection range is primarily negative, due to uncertain growth outlooks and the persistent crisis in the euro zone, even supposing that there is no hesistation in the implementation of budgetary austerity.Meanwhile, economic activity and projections are substantially lower than when Fitch revised its outlook to negative in December 2011.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In second quarter, Wells Fargo & Company on 12 July announced record profits of USD5.5bn, compared with USD5.2bn in January-March, and USD4.6bn in the corresponding period of 2012. Net profits in first quarter totalled USD10.7bn, compared with USD8.9bn in the first six months of last year.The wealth management/brokerage/pension division, for its part, has seen net profits of USD434m in April-June, compared with USD337m the previous quarter, and USD348m in the corresponding period of 2012.As of 30 June, assets in wealth management totalled USD203bn, which represents an increase of 3% compared with the level recorded 12 months previously.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Focus reports that Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, has made contact with Axel Weber, chairman of UBS and former chairman of the Bundesbank, to study the possibility that the major Swiss bank will buy Commerzbank. The stake held by the bailout fund Soffin in the second-largest German bank stands at 17%, and is currently valued at EUR1.2bn on the stock market.A spokesperson for the German government on Saturday announced that the German government is still planning to limit aid awarded during the financial crisis to the shortest possible duration, Handelsblatt reports.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In May 2013, long-term UCITS funds in Europe posted net inflows of EUR39.1bn, compared with EUR49.4bn in April, bringing the total to EUR223bn in the first five months of the year. Money market funds, for their part, have seen net outflows of EUR5.4bn in May, compared with EUR6.5bn in April, bringing net redemptions since the beginning of the year to EUR15.3bn, while UCITS-compliant funds have seen total inflows of EUR33.6bn in May, compared with EUR42.9bn in the previous month and EUR207.7bn in January-May, the European fund and asset management association (EFAMA) states.Detailed statistics reveal that in May, equity funds saw net outflows of EUR1.4bn, after net inflows of EUR0.7bn in April. Total net subscriptions to this asset class totalled EUR42.9bn in January-May, while bond and balanced funds took in EUR99.3bn and EUR60.7bn, respectively, in the first five months of the year. In May, bond funds attracted EUR21.3bn, compared with a record EUR30.4bn the previous month, which explains the decline in net subscriptions.Non-UCITS funds, for their part, posted net inflows of EUR5.3bn in May, compare with EUR19.5bn in April. In the first five months of the year, they attracted EUR71.2bn.As of 31 May, assets in UCITS-compliant funds represented EUR6.813trn, up by 0.5% compared with the end of April, while assets managed by non-UCITS funds were up by 0.1% in one month, to EUR2.686trn. Overall, net assets in European asset management in May increased by 0.4%, to EUR9.5trn.
Allianz a annoncé aujourd’hui un investissement de 127 millions d’euros dans le financement de la dette à long terme de la nouvelle Cité Musicale de l’Ile Seguin qui doit être construite à Boulogne-Billancourt. Allianz Global Investors gérera la dette pour le compte d’Allianz France et d’autres sociétés du groupe Allianz sur une période de 30 ans. L’appel des fonds aura lieu à l’issue de la construction prévue mi-2016. Commentant cette opération, Matthias Seewald, membre du Comité Exécutif d’Allianz France, en charge des Investissements, déclare : « Nous sommes ravis de participer à cette transaction importante qui contribue à la réalisation d’un grand projet d’infrastructure et au rayonnement culturel de la France. Pour Allianz, investir en dette de grands projets d’infrastructure offre une alternative intéressante aux autres placements obligataires de long terme. Nous avons été parmi les premiers à comprendre les opportunités que ce segment offre aux investisseurs et nous sommes prêts pour augmenter de manière significative notre exposition à de tels investissements ». Deborah Zurkow, en charge de la dette infrastructure chez Allianz Global Investors, ajoute : « Avec les appels d’offres en cours sur un certain nombre de projets d’infrastructures européens, nous sommes impatients de réaliser et de gérer d’autres investissements pour des clients en France et en Europe. » Le projet de « Cité Musicale de l’Ile Seguin » est la première transaction de dette infrastructure finalisée par Allianz Global Investors depuis la création de son équipe dédiée l’automne dernier.
Mois traditionnel de retraits sur le segment monétaire, juin a été marqué par une décollecte de 29 milliards d’euros et un effet marché négatif de 14 milliards sur les OPCVM de droit français. Les fonds actions et obligations ont aussi souffert dans la foulée du mouvement de correction déclenché par les déclarations de la Fed fin mai.
Le parlement slovène a approuvé la semaine dernière un budget qui prévoit un déficit à 7,9% du PIB à la fin de l’année 2013 contre 4% en 2012. Le pays doit se porter au secours de son secteur bancaire, dont la fragilité est en cours d'évaluation par des auditeurs. Le cas divise les économistes, certains estimant que la Slovénie aura besoin d’une aide.