En 2013, la CAVP va plutôt chercher à investir dans des actifs de diversification dans lesquels elle n’est pas encore présente. « Nous avons l’intention d’investir dans les actifs favorisés indirectement par Bâle III comme la dette infrastructure, la dette immobilière et, dans une moindre mesure, les loans, explique Alain Pestre, directeur financier. En effet, avec Bâle III, les banques sont amenées à ouvrir ces marchés aux investisseurs institutionnels. Nous cherchons des actifs offrant des rendements intéressants sans pour autant dégrader le niveau de risque de notre portefeuille ». Ces investissements se feront via des fonds ouverts. « Nous souhaitons également investir plus largement sur les FCPR car nous en avons encore peu en portefeuille et les niveaux de valorisation actuels offrent un point d’entrée intéressant dans ce domaine, avec bien sûr un horizon long terme », poursuit Alain Pestre.
Selon la presse portugaise, plusieurs entreprises publiques, notamment dans le secteur des transports, auraient noué des contrats swaps qui pourraient entraîner des pertes de l’ordre de 3 milliards d’euros. Le ministère des Finances a confirmé l’existence de ces contrats et a indiqué avoir engagé des discussions avec les banques impliquées «en vue de compenser les pertes financières subies par l’Etat le plus rapidement possible».
Selon un sondage de Deloitte, les directeurs financiers suisses interrogés estiment pour 90% d’entre eux que le franc restera à 1,20 euro, voire plus, au cours des douze prochains mois. Ils n’étaient que 78% à penser la même chose à la fin du quatrième trimestre de 2012. Leurs attentes en matière de croissance des ventes se sont également renforcées pour l’année en cours.
Les ventes de logements neufs ont à nouveau augmenté en mars après avoir diminué le mois précédent, ce qui suggère que la tendance à l’amélioration du marché immobilier reste intacte. Elles ont augmenté de 1,5% en données corrigées des variations saisonnières au taux annuel de 417.000 unités, contre 411.000 en février, correspondant à un recul révisé de 7,6%. Les économistes anticipaient toutefois 420.000. En base annuelle les ventes ont bondi de 18,5%.
La croissance de l’activité du secteur manufacturier aux Etats-Unis a inscrit en avril son rythme le moins soutenu depuis six mois, en raison de la baisse de la demande intérieure, laissant penser que l'économie américaine patine au deuxième trimestre, montrent les résultats provisoires de l’enquête mensuelle Markit publiés mardi. L’indice PMI manufacturier est ressorti à 52,0 en avril contre 54,0 attendu par le consensus et 54,6 en mars.
Le tableau de bord trimestriel de l’Observatoire Crédit logement montre une nette atténuation de la baisse en volume de la production de prêts à l’habitat : -8,7% par rapport au quatrième trimestre 2012 contre une chute de 26,4% sur l’ensemble de 2012. Mais la production s’accompagne d’une hausse sensible (+5,1%) de l’endettement moyen des ménages qui contractent un prêt habitat, ce qui fait que le nombre de crédits accordés connaît une légère hausse par rapport au trimestre précédent.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As part of its alternative management development strategy, Union Bancaire Privée (UBP), which one year ago acquired the French firm Nexar, on 22 April announced that it has selected Guggenheim Fund Solutions (GFS) as a partner to develop a single platform which will allow client sto access a selection of dynamic and high-potential hedge fund managers, as well as a new-generation IT system which meets the requirements of investors for transparency, governance and reduction of structural risks.More specifically, UBP uses its strong experience in hedge fund investment to identify, select and track the best managers operating on the GFS managed account platform. At this time, 14 accounts are already active on the new fund platform; the bank is aiming for 30 by the end of 2013.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Luxembourg Sicav Martin Currie Global Funds (USD500m), an affiliate of the Scottish firm Martin Currie, has selected Kinetic Partners as a provider of management company services, or ManCo services, for its range of UCITS-compliant funds, Funds Europe reports.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Stenham Asset Management has launched two funds of hedge funds, Stenham Credit Opportunities and Stenham Healthcare, according to a statement from the firm. Stenham Credit, launched on 1 January with USD21m, has earned 3.44% since the beginning of the year. The fund is aiming for annual returns of 8% to 12%. The fund includes long/short credit, structured credit and distressed debt strategies, which are often not easily available to traditional investors. The fund invests in 6 to 10 conviction managers, and offers quarterly liquidity. The other fund also offered at the same time, Stenham Healthcare, with USD15m, has gained 7.48%. This concentrated fund also targets double-digit annual returns. It has 6 to 10 managers with good track records. It offers monthly liquidity.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Vanguard Investments Switzerland GmbH on 22 April announced the appointment of Peter Ritler as senior institutional sales executive in Switzerland. Ritler will aim to strengthen institutional activity in Switzerland at Vanguard, alongside Jacques-Etienne Doerr and Rula Schoenberger, concentrating its efforts on ranges of tracker funds and ETFs from the firm. Ritler will be based in Zurich, and will report to Simon Vanstone, director of the European institutional division of Vanguard. Before joining Vanguard, Ritler spent six years at Threadneedle Investments in Zurich, a firm for which he had served as head of sales since 2007. Before Threadneedle Investments, Ritler spent five years as a portfolio manager at Banque Leu.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swiss group Syz & Co (private banking, institutional management, Oyster funds) as of the end of December posted assets of CHF25bn, which represents an increase of 18% year on year. 57% of this increase of CHF3.9bn, or CHF2.2bn, is attributable to net inflows, and the remaining 43%, or CHF1.7bn, are due to market appreciation.Consolidated net profits for 2012, after deduction of dividends distributed to minority stakeholders, comes to CHF12.6m, compared with CHF12.4m in 2011.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Since the beginning of April, the Austrian asset management firm Erste Asset Management has announced, Gerold Permoser has become the group’s chief investment officer, responsible for all asset management activities (Erste AM and Erste Sparinvest) and investment strategy for all investment funds in Austria, Germany, Croatia, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary.Permoser was previously CIO at Macquarie Investment Management Austria KAG.He replaces Harald Egger, who has been apppointed as head of equity fund management, an area he will be responsible for developing.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The investment fund Blackstone on 22 April announced that it would be acquiring Strategic Partners, a private equity affiliate of the bank Credit Suisse, for an undisclosed total. Assets under management at Strategic Partners total USD9bn, a statement says. The transaction is “subject to rigorous approval conditions” and is expected to be finalised by the end of third quarter.Strategic Partners “complements the existing activities of Blackstone,” says Tony James, chief operating officer at Blackstone, cited in a statement, adding that “Many of us here at Blackstone have in the past been colleagues of the team at Strategic Partners, and that gives us confidence that our business cultures will marry well.”The sale is part of a plan by Credit Suisse to sell off business units announced on 18 July 2012, the statement says. Strategic Partners, founded in 2000, is a specialist in secondary private equity investment, with a team of 26 people.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Fitch Ratings on 22 April published an update to its criteria and ratings scale for asset management firms.Among the modifications made by the agency are a new five-point descriptive sale, new ratings definitions which explicitly label managers according to the standards practised by institutional investors, with more explicit ratings attributes for each of 30 ratings factors, and an introduction of ratings outlooks, which indicate the direction that a rating may take over a two-year period.The ratings resulting from these modifications will be communicated separately at a later date, Fitch Ratings says, but it does not expect major changes for the 55 asset management firms it rates.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The financial transaction tax proposed by 11 euro zone countries may cost US money market funds up to USD11bn, according to the first quantitative analysis of the impact of this tax on the US fund sector, undertaken by ICI Global.According to the study, the FFT may lead to the disappearance of transactions completed as part of hedged repurchase agreements between US money market funds and French and German banks. As of the end of 2012, these transactions represented about USD1.39bn.On the basis of a renewal of repurchase agreements every seven years, the cost would be at leat USD7bn on the basis of assets of USD139bn. In the event of one-day maturity, the FFT would represent a cost on the order of USD35bn.In this context, Luxembourg on 22 April announced, through its finance minister, Eric Frieden, that it would be supporting the United Kingdom’s appeal against the financial transaction tax.“We are very understanding of the position of the United Kingdom … We will certainly support the case which has been brought before the European Court of Justice,” Frieden said at a banking conference in the City of London, according to reports by the news agency Reuters.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Assets in hedge funds in first quarter rose by USD122bn, their strongest quarterly gain since fourth quarter 2010, to a total of USD2.375bn, according to the most recent HFR Global Hedge Fund Industry Report.Net inflows totalled USD15.2bn in first quarter, their highest level since first quarter 2012. Most strategies, 14 out of 15, have posted subscriptions.Relative Value Arbitrage (RVA) strategies finished the month with net inflows of USD9.4bn, continuing a trend observed for the past three years, which makes the strategy the largest in terms of assets, with nearly USD640bn. The HFRI Relative Value index gained 3.3% in first quarter, following gains of 10.6% last year.Macro strategies, for their part, gained a net USD3bn in first quarter 2013, of which about USD5bn went to Systematic CTA strategies. The HFRI index gained 1.4% in first quarter, following a loss of 0.3% in 2012.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: «Times New Roman»,serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: «WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: «Lohit Hindi"; font-size: 12pt; } The German firm Assénagon Asset Management on 3 April created a Luxembourg-registered fund which offers institutional investors a source of regular income from investment in European equities that pay high dividends, without assuming the entirety of share price risks. The product is the Assénagon Substanz Europa, which aims to distribute 4.5% per year in dividends. The fund is licensed for sale in Luxembourg, Germany and Austria.The portfolio will invest in 50 shares, out of a universe that includes 600. These equities will be equally weighted, and the portfolio will be hedged on an ongoing basis with the use of puts and out-of-the-money calls.CharacteristicsName: Assénagon Substanz EuropaISIN code: LU0819201681Front-end fee: 3%Management commission: 1.5%
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Depositary receipt indices from BNY Mellon have been selected by VelocityShares for three new emerging market ETFs.They are the VelocityShares Emerging Markets Depository Receipts ETF (Nasdaq ticker: EMDR), VelocityShares Emerging Asia Depositary Receipts ETF (ASDR), and VelocityShares Russia Select Depositary Receipts ETF (RUDR), which respectively replicate the BNY Mellon Emerging Market DR, BNY Mellon Emerging Asia DR and BNY Mellon Russia Select DR indices.VelocityShares claims that the products are the first to offer wide exposure to emerging market equities with the comfort of developed market regulation. The ETFs invest exclusively in American Depositary Receipts (ADR) and Global Depositary Receipts (GDR).
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Index Universe reports that WisdomTree has submitted a new license application to the SEC (following the one of July 2011) for the WisdomTree Germany Hedged Equity Fund, an ETF focused on German equities, which replicates an in-house index weighted by dividends.In order to be included in the index, shares are required to have been issued by a company listed in Germany, but which realises less than 80% of its earnings in Germany. They are also required to have paid at least USD5m in cash dividends in the previous fiscal year, and must have a market capitalisation of over USD1bn.In the index, the shares are weighted according to their cash dividends, with the ones that distribute the highest dividends accorded a greater weight. The allocation limit is set at 25% of the portfolio per sector.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The US firm Prudential Real Estate Investors (PREI) has announced that on 12 April, it acquired the 30-story Sabadell Financial Center skyscraper (523,000 square feet) in Miami from an affiliate of the Spanish bank Sabadell, Testa Immuebles en Renta, for USD185m.As of 31 December, PREI had net assets of USD36bn (gross USD52.2bn), for 490 clients worldwide.
Le groupe britannique de buyout Apax est en train de fusionner son pôle médias avec d’autres équipes sectorielles dans le cadre d’une stratégie de redéploiement sur les plateformes numériques au détriment des médias traditionnels, rapporte le Financial Times. Les 13 professionnels de l’investissement dans les médias sont redistribués dans les équipes retail et consumer en Europe et aux Etats-Unis. Parallèlement, les associés Ian Jones et Oriol Pinya, qui co-dirigeaient les pôles retail et consumer, quittent la société.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Henderson Global Investors on 22 April announced that it has appointed Rory Stokes, who joined the European Equity team at the end of March 2013. Stokes comes as an addition to the Small & Mid Cap team, as a small cap equity analyst. He will be based in London, and will report to Ollie Beckett, manager of the Henderson Horizon Pan European Smaller Companies and Henderson Gartmore Pan European Smaller Companies funds. Overall, the European small cap equity team led by Beckett has nearly EUR1bn in assets under management as of 30 March 2013. Stokes has more than 12 years of professional experience in investment. He began his career in 2001 as an analyst at Holt and Credit Suisse, and then joined Liberum Capital in 2007 as a vendor of European small and midcaps.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Louise Keeling, who spent six years at Marathon Asset Management as a global equity manager, has been recruited by RWC Partners to set up a global equity unit, Citywire reports.RWC states that Keeling uses a stock-picking approach (bottom-up), and that a number of recruitments for Keeling’s team will be announced in the near future.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The parent company of Threadneedle Investments, Ameriprise, is reportedly in the running to potentially take over Scottish Widows Investment Partenership (SWIP), the asset management unit of Lloyds Banking Group, the Sunday Times reports. Last week, the British group announced that it was studying the possibility of selling its asset management activities (Newsmanagers of 22 April), and that it had asked Deutsche Bank to assist it with that process. Aberdeen Asset Management, perceived as a potential buyer, has claimed, in the person of its CEO Martin Gilbert, that it is not interested in such an operation, whose risks outweigh the advantages, from his point of view. Assets under management at SWIP total about GBP117bn.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The wealth management firm Brooks Macdonald reported growth in its assets under management of 7.6% n first quarter, to GBP4.97bn, compared with GBP4.62bn as of the end of December 2012, according to an interim report published by the group. Assets advised fell 1.4% to GBP352m. Real estate activities, a part of Braemar Estates, saw an increase in their assets under administration of nearly 12%, and topped GBP1bn, at GBP1.004bn, compared with GBP897m at the end of fourth quarter 2012.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } BNY Mellon on 22 April announced that it has started trading operations at BNY Mellon Capital Markets EMEA, the new London-based structure which offers capital market services on a wide range of bonds and equities to institutional clients in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The mixed office (3,800 square metres), commercial (1,000 square metres) and housing (400 square metres) building TK Shin-bashi in Tokyo, which was purchased in 2004 for the Deka S-Property N°1 fund, has been resold for EUR44m to a Japanese REIT. Deka Immobilien states that it earned a capital gain on the transaction.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } State Street Corporation on 22 April announced that it has been selected by the Italian asset management boutique Ersel Asset Management SGR SpA to provide a range of investment services. State Street is currently the custodian for FCP funds from Ersel, and the group will now provide net asset value calculation and centralisation/transfer agency services for the entire fund range, as well as middle office services for FCP funds and hedge funds. According to State Street, the choice is a sign of the growing interest of asset management boutiques in providers able to offer complete fund administration services, covering both middle office and back office. A recent study of asset management boutiques commissioned by State Street found that managers of asset management boutiques are well-positioned, through diversification, to benefit from the “alpha rush” that investors are currently engaged in, but that many of them will need to overcome the limitations of their internal systems. For example, according to 32% of managers of asset management boutiques, their operational IT infrastructure is in need of “some” or “considerable” improvement.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Taiwan public employees’ pension fund has launched a request for proposals to manage each of five portfolios of USD168m each for a duration of four years, Asian Investor reports. Interested parties should submit bids by 2 May. Assets under management at the pension fund total about USD17bn, of which 35% have been placed with external managers.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The wealth management firm Brooks Macdonald reported growth in its assets under management of 7.6% n first quarter, to GBP4.97bn, compared with GBP4.62bn as of the end of December 2012, according to an interim report published by the group. Assets advised fell 1.4% to GBP352m.Real estate activities, a part of Braemar Estates, saw an increase in their assets under administration of nearly 12%, and topped GBP1bn, at GBP1.004bn, compared with GBP897m at the end of fourth quarter 2012.