P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } JP Morgan Asset Management is offering a return fund dedicated to convertibles, the Global Convertibles Income Trust, which aims for annual returns of 4.5%, Investment Week reports. The fund will be managed by Antony Vallee, head of the convertible bond team at JP Morgan. The fund will take the form of a closed structure, in order to give the manager more flexibility to invest in new issues.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to a survey by Wealth-X cited by Asian Investor, ultra-high net worth clients in Hong Kong are aged an average of 57 years, and have USD150m in financial assets. On average, USD34m of this is held in cash. In total, in Hong Kong, the wealth of ultra-high net worth individuals adds up to about USD480bn, largely invested in real estate. One quarter of ultra-high net worth individuals in Hong Kong are aged over 70, with average wealth of USD100m which means that “a significant period of wealth transfer” will be coming in the next 15 to 20 years, Wealth-X reports.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Baring Asset Management is planning to launch a fund in the next few weeks dedicated to frontier markets for its senior manager Michael Levy, Fundweb reports. The Barings Frontier Markets fund would be at lesat 70% exposed to frontier markets such as Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka and Ukraine. Levy says, “frontier markets are now positioned like emerging markets were 20 years ago, ready to become the great opportunity of the next few years.”
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The CNMV has issued a sales license for Spain to the Luxembourg Sicav Abante Global Funds from the Spanish firm Abante Asesores, Funds People reports. The Sicav has four sub-funds.Santiago Satrústegui, chairman of Abante, has stated that the objective is to sell products to Spanish clients who prefer the Luxembourg version of funds to their original Spanish versions.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to the most recent statistics from EFAMA, investment funds worldwide attracted EUR828bn last year, of which EUR395bn were for the United States, and EUR201bn for Europe. However, money market funds alone took inflows of EUR599bn, with EUR306bn in North America, and EUR203bn in Europe.It is also noted that equity funds worldwide saw net outflows of EUR49bn, largely due to EUR58bn in outflows in the United States, while in Europe the balance was slightly positive (EUR2bn). However, 37% of global assets in funds as of the end of 2012 were held in equity funds, compared with 24% for bond funds, and 16% for money market funds.Total assets as of the end of December came to EUR22.170trn, compared with EUR19.970trn one year previously, and EUR19.940trn at the end of 2010. It has thus increased 11%, or EUR2.200trn, in one year, meaning that market effects contributed 62.4% of the increase in assets under management, compared with 37.6% from net inflows.
The French Court of audit has recently cleared the additional pension fund for public employees (ERAFP) both of charges that the system is not sufficiently generous, and for the results of its management. Newsmanagers gives the floor to the defence, in the person of Philippe Desfossés, director general of the entity.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } JP Morgan Asset Management has promoted Simon Crinage to the position of head of activities related to investment trusts, effective immediately, Money Marketing reports. In this position, he replaces David Barron, who left the firm earlier this year. Crinage, who has been working at JP Morgan AM for 28 years, now reports to the head of management for British funds, Jasper Berens.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Two managers from the bond team at Schroders, Bhupinder Bahra and Frederick Bourgoin, are leaving the firm, Citywire reports. The move follows a reshuffle in the bond unit, which will be adopting a more team-oriented workflow.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Although it has had a representative office in the country since 2009, the Scottish asset management firm Martin Currie on 5 April announced that it has created a platform in Singapore to provide services directly to Asian clients. In addition, the enlarged location will have research capacities for equities, and capacity for local equity trading. The CEO for Singapore is Paul Danes, investment director. He joined Martin Currie in 2007, and will make particular additions to the equity research unit. Kimon Kouryialas, head for Asia Pacific, returned to Singapore in October, and Mike Gibb will leave Edinburgh to direct development at the new office. Martin Currie is also transferring Steven McCole, head of Asia-Pacific dealing, from Edinburgh to Singapore, while Liping Tan has been recruited from Prusik Investment Management as an equity dealer.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Funds People reports that BBVA AM has finally opted for an internal promotion: the asset management firm has appointed Joaquín García Huerga, who had previously been head of equity research at the bank, as its head of asset allocation and strategy. He joined the group in February 2008, and will now report to Eduardo García Hidalgo, global CIO.BBVA AM will now need to appoint a replacement for the second vacant post, that of chief investment officer for Spain. Retail asset allocation is directed by Javier Achótegui, while institutional asset allocation is led by Fernando Aguado, and global asset allocation for Latin American clients is led by Juan José García Petit.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } ZKB Asset Management has made Samuel Manser principal manager of its EUR116m European investment grade bond fund, Citywire reports. Manser joined the bank in late 2012. The strategy, ZKB Bond Vision Fonds EU, had previously been managed by Edgar Salzmann, who will now assist in the management of the fund.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Threats in North Korea, unorthodox politics in Japan and Eastern Europe and mediocre employment figures on both sides of the Atlantic have not helped second quarter to a strong start. Investors have nonetheless retained some appetite for risk, and high yield and emerging market bond funds both posted inflows of over USD850m in the week ending on 3 April. According to estimates by EPFR Global.Overall, bond funds finished the week with net inflows of USD4.89bn, while equity funds posted net inflows of USD1.9bn, more than half of it to dividend funds. Money market funds, for their part, posted net redemptions totalling a net USD11.3bn.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Ontario teachers’ pension fund (RREO, for Régime de retraite des enseignantes et des enseignants de l’Ontario) has announced that it earned a return of 13% for the fiscal year ending on 31 December 2012, bringing its net assets to CAD129.5bn, compared with CAD117.1bn as of the end of 2011. Returns for the pension fund exceeded those for its global benchmark (11%) by two percentage points, which is equivalent to gains of CAD2.2bn, Earnings on investments totalled CAD14.7bn in 2012, compared with CAD11.7bn in 2011. The real estate portfolio, managed by Cadillac Fairview (a wholly-owned affiliate of RREO), reached a value of CAD16.9bn, and earned annual returns of 19.4% as of 31 December 2012, compared with 15.5% for the benchmark, equivalent to gains of CAD0.5bn. At the end of the fiscal year, the value of the infrastructure portfolio came to CAD9.6bn, compared with CAD8.7bn as of 31 December 2011. Its returns were 8.4% compared with 8% for the benchmark index, for gains of CAD0.1bn. The global annualised rate of return over ten years stands at 9.6%.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In March, Delta Lloyd took over the largest mezzanine fund in the Netherlands, which was created by the bank Oyens & Van Eeghen, and which takes positions on Netherlands-based businesses which are healthy but experiencing temporary financial difficulties, Fondsnieuws reports. The insurance group invested EUR25m to seed the fund, which is the initiative of Erwin de Jong, one of the directors of Oyens, who has since joined Delta Lloyd. The objective is to achieve returns of 12% per year. The volume of the fund will be limited to EUR100m, half of which will come from the insurer, and the other from high net worth clients of Oyens. The initiators of the project plan on a three-year building phase for the product.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The ETF provider Actively Managed Trust has submitted a license application for an actively-managed fund dedicated to dividends, which would also be hedged for risks related to US and international equities which pay high dividends, IndexUniverse reports. The Manna Core Equity Enhanced Dividend Stream Fund, which would charge fees of 0.85%, would be listed in New York on the Arca electronic platform.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 4 April, the NYSE Arca platform admitted the SPDR Blackstone / GSO Senior Loan exchange traded fund to trading under the ticker SRLN. The product is developed by State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) in cooperation with GSO Capital Partners, the credit unit of the Blackstone Group. According to the designers of the product, it is the first actively-managed ETF of senior loans. The objective is to manage a high income, preserve capital and outperform the Markit iBoxx USD Liquid Leveraged Loan Index and S&P/LSTA U.S. Leveraged Loan 100 Index. The underlying senior loans are generally rated below investment grade, and it is expected that an average of 30% to 35% of credit will come from outside the index each year. The total expense ratio is 0.90%.
La Bourse de Lisbonne est en baisse lundi, après que la Cour constitutionnelle portugaise a rejeté quatre des neuf mesures d’austérité adoptées par le gouvernement. En milieu de journée lundi, l’indice de la Bourse de Lisbonne recule de 0,71% à 5.600,63 points, alors que l’EuroStoxx 50 rebondit de 0,6%. Le rendement de l’emprunt d’Etat portugais à 10 ans se maintient autour de 6,42%, après avoir grimpé jusqu'à 6,83% en matinée. Les obligations françaises et belges, les premières à avoir profité de l’exode des fonds japonais ont vu leurs rendements à 10 ans toucher des plus bas record dans la matinée. Et les rendements des 10 ans espagnols et italiens perdent encore respectivement six points de base à 4,72% et 10 pdb à 4,31%.
Le ratio de couverture des engagements des fonds de pension des entreprises américaines membres de l’indice S&P500 par leurs actifs a selon Wilshire Associates fondu en 2012 de 1,6 point à 78,1%, en dépit d’une progression des marchés actions.
Les 44 propositions issues des Assises de l’entrepreneuriat doivent être présentées demain à Bercy. Selon le Journal du Dimanche, François Hollande devrait intervenir fin avril ou début mai pour présenter celles retenus officiellement par le gouvernement, avec à la clé «un choc de compétitivité» pour les PME.
Standard & Poor’s a confirmé la note souveraine AAA de la Grande-Bretagne tout en prévenant que des performances économiques et budgétaires inférieures à ses attentes pourraient lui coûter cette distinction. La note reste assortie d’une perspective négative. Pour justifier ce maintien, S&P met en avant l’engagement du gouvernement à mettre en oeuvre son programme d’assainissement budgétaire et la diversité de l'économie.
Les autorités chypriotes ont assoupli vendredi le dispositif mis en œuvre pour éviter des retraits massifs après l’accord conclu avec leurs créanciers internationaux, qui prévoit une lourde taxation des dépôts de plus de 100.000 euros. Entreprises et particuliers ont ainsi été autorisés à transférer des fonds d’un compte à un autre dans la limite de 10.000 euros par mois pour les premières et de 2.000 euros pour les seconds.
«Chypre constituait un cas particulier (...) mais la directive bancaire à venir prévoit que la responsabilité d’un investisseur et d’un déposant s’exercera dans le cas d’une restructuration bancaire ou d’une mise en sommeil», a déclaré le commissaire européen aux affaires économiques et monétaires à la télévision finlandaise. «Mais la hiérarchie est très claire: d’abord les actionnaires, ensuite éventuellement les investissements et les dépôts non garantis. Cependant, la limite des 100.000 euros est sacrée: les dépôts inférieurs à cette somme seront toujours garantis», a-t-il assuré.
L’ex-président du Conseil italien a révélé que son parti de centre-droit allait soumettre prochainement huit propositions de loi au parlement italien, dont l’abrogation de l’impopulaire taxe d’habitation rétablie par le chef du gouvernement sortant. Ces huit propositions de lois, qui seront présentées la semaine du 15 avril, seront le reflet des objectifs de campagne du PDL, a-t-il précisé.
«La croissance continue de se renforcer et de s’étendre parmi les économies émergentes et en développement», tandis qu’un élan est en train de gagner de la vitesse aux Etats-Unis, a déclaré Christine Lagarde à l’occasion du Boao Forum. La directrice générale du FMI a indiqué qu’elle livrait un avant-goût des Perspectives de l’économie mondiale, dont la publication est attendue demain.
Le gouvernement égyptien a confirmé son souhait d’emprunter davantage que les 4,8 milliards de dollars sollicités auprès du Fonds monétaire international pour couvrir l’augmentation du déficit budgétaire. Des discussions sont en cours et une délégation du FMI est actuellement au Caire.
La croissance de l'économie russe n’a été que de 1% au premier trimestre, un chiffre inférieur aux attentes qui compromet la prévision pour l’ensemble de l’année, a déclaré hier le ministre de l’Economie, Andreï Beloussov. Ce dernier a expliqué que son ministère allait abaisser ses prévisions de croissance pour 2013 à moins de 3% dans un scénario prudent et à environ 3,2% dans un scénario optimiste, contre une prévision initiale de 3,6%.
Le gouvernement français vise une croissance économique de 1,2% en 2014 et 2,0% en 2015, a confirmé hier Pierre Moscovici, qui transmettra à Bruxelles des prévisions macroéconomiques finalement en ligne avec celles de la Commission européenne. L’exécutif doit communiquer ses prévisions dans les prochains jours au Haut conseil des finances publiques (HCFP), nouvelle instance créée pour prévenir tout dérapage des comptes publics. Pour 2013, le ministre de l’Economie et des Finances a indiqué que le gouvernement tablait désormais sur 0,1% de croissance (contre 0,8% précédemment) mais qu’il espérait dépasser cette perspective. Par ailleurs, le gouvernement a décidé de repousser à 2014 le retour à un déficit public en-deçà du seuil de 3% du PIB qu’il aurait dû atteindre cette année. «Le déficit public pour 2013 sera annoncé à 3,7%», a déclaré Pierre Moscovici.
Assurant au Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung que «le Luxembourg n’est pas un paradis fiscal», le ministre des Finances, Luc Frieden, évoque la possibilité d’un allègement du secret bancaire et une coopération plus étroite avec les autorités fiscales étrangères. Le Luxembourg et l’Autriche sont aujourd’hui les deux seuls Etats de l’Union européenne qui refusent de communiquer aux autres pays membres l’identité des titulaires étrangers de comptes bancaires dans leurs établissements financiers. Le ministre allemand des Finances, Wolfgang Schäuble, s’est dit satisfait des déclarations du Luxembourg. «Je salue toute avancée vers l'échange automatique d’informations», a-t-il déclaré au Saarbrücker Zeitung. Par ailleurs, selon le TagesAnzeiger, Credit Suisse et Julius Baer ont demandé à des clients allemands de prouver qu’ils sont en règle avec le fisc, faute de quoi leurs comptes seront clôturés.