Carmignac Gestion vient d’annoncer l’arrivée d’Anne Bellavoine en tant que directrice du marketing. Interrogé par Newsmanagers, Eric Helderlé, directeur général, a expliqué que la société de gestion avait souhaité, avec cette arrivée, remettre le marketing au centre des préoccupations de la maison compte tenu de son évolution. Et ce d’autant que Carmignac Gestion, selon le responsable, enregistre outre-Manche des résultats en deçà de ses espérances et qu'à terme, le développement de la société de gestion passera également par l’Asie et l’Amérique du sud. «Nous sommes dans un environnement où nous franchissons des étapes importantes et attaquons de nouveaux marchés très différents de ceux d’Europe continentale», a confirmé le dirigeant. «En outre», a-t-il rappelé, «la donne réglementaire est de plus en plus présente complexifiant sensiblement l’approche produits». Dans ce cadre, la nouvelle responsable va avoir pour objectif de mener l’approche dite «glocal» chère à Carmignac Gestion. «Glocal» pour global avec des fonds commercialisés à l’international au sens large du terme, et local ce qui revient à prendre en compte les caractéristiques très différentes de la demande desdits fonds pays par pays (axer plus ou moins fortement sur les parts de distribution, les parts de capitalisation, etc). En pratique, Anne Bellavoine dirigera et coordonnera l’équipe marketing composée de 20 personnes et sera placée sous la direction d’Eric Le Coz, directeur général délégué. Concrètement, il ne s’agit pas d’une création de poste, Laurence Bertrand ayant occupé ces fonctions avant de quitter la société la société fin mai 2012. Cependant, «il nous fallait une vision plus stratégique ", a insisté Eric Helderlé qui a souligné les compétences manageuriales de l’impétrante et son «sens du client» pour justifier son recrutement - le marketing ne figurant pas parmi ses activités professionnelles couvertes précédemment. La nouvelle responsable a en effet travaillé 17 ans à la Société Générale où elle a occupé successivement les fonctions de directeur mondial des Ventes Actions et présidente de SG Securities, directeur de la salle des marchés Actions et Dérivés et enfin banquier en charge des institutions financières.Reste que le profil senior de la nouvelle recrue lui ouvre les portes du comité de développement stratégique contrairement à l’ancienne directrice du marketing de la société.

L’Association française de la gestion financière (AFG) indique dans la dernière livraison de son bulletin Gestion Info (décembre 2012, n° 7) que trois sociétés ont rejoint l’association professionnelle. Il s’agit de Gemways Assets, Generali Investments Opéra et Tikehau Investment Management.La société d’avocats Taj rejoint l’association en tant que membre correspondant.

Mandarine Gestion annonce le renforcement de son pôle «Croissance» par le lancement du fonds Mandarine Europe Opportunités, investi dans les valeurs de croissance européennes toutes capitalisations. Il est géré par Marie-Jeanne Missoffe, qui a rejoint l'équipe de Joëlle Morlet-Selmer et Diane Bruno en provenance de SPGP fin 2012 (lire NewsManagers du 23.10.2012). Géré activement, Mandarine Europe Opportunités est investi en actions (90 à 100%) sans contrainte d’indice, de secteur ou de taille. Au sein d’un univers d’investissement de 250 valeurs, 50 à 60 valeurs sont retenues pour constituer le portefeuille. Trois moteurs de croissance pérennes sont identifiés pour le stock-picking par la gérante: l’innovation, le leadership et la diversification géographique. La structure sectorielle et géographique du portefeuille est ensuite ajustée en fonction d’une analyse top-down (macroéconomique).Le pôle «Croissance» de Mandarine Gestion compte désormais trois fonds spécialisés sur les actions de croissance. Mandarine Opportunités est investi sur la France, Mandarine Unique se concentre sur les small et mid cap européennes tandis que Mandarine Europe Opportunités n’affiche aucun bien de capitalisation sur le vieux Continent.Caractéristiques Code ISIN: FR0011351626 (Parts R), FR0011352160 (Parts I)Souscription initiale minimale : 1 part (Part R),1.000.000 euros (Part I)Frais de gestion (TTC) : 2,20% (Part R), 0,90% (Part I)Devise : euro

Director of marketing chez Eaton Vance, Judy May a rejoint le gestionnaire ISR Pax World Management comme senior vice president of marketing. Elle est subordonnée à Joe Keefe, president & CEO.

Selon des sources concordantes, Philippe Loiseau est depuis hier chief operating officer (COO) du groupe Edmond de Rothschild, annonce L’Agefi. Il occupait depuis cinq ans la fonction de directeur des ressources de Société Générale Private Banking, après sept ans chez PwC comme consultant puis huit ans à la banque privée de BNP Paribas. Basé à Paris, Philippe Loiseau supervisera les opérations et les systèmes d’information de l’ensemble du groupe franco-suisse. Il devra s’atteler à la mutualisation ou coordination des moyens (notamment les back-offices, les middle-offices et l’informatique) prévue dans le plan stratégique à horizon 2016 dévoilé le mois dernier, détaille le quotidien.

Dans le cadre de sa stratégie de cession de ses activités non stratégiques, Groupama a vendu le 7 janvier au groupe ACG, pour un montant non communiqué, la totalité du capital de Groupama Private Equity (GPE, 1,6 milliard d’euros d’engagements gérés pour le compte des différentes entités de Groupama et d’investisseurs institutionnels tiers), une cession qui devrait être bouclée avant fin mars. Le fonds de fonds Quartilium représente 1,4 milliard d’euros d’encours et la mezzanine sponsor & sponsorless ActoMezz pèse 0,2 milliard d’euros. Avec l’appoint de GPE, le capital-investisseur ACG affichera 3,5 milliards d’encours.Tout récemment, Groupama a annoncé la cession de ses parts détenues dans les fonds d’investissement direct en capital (FCPR Acto et FCPR Acto Capital II) à Luxempart et à Five Arrows Secondary Opportunities III, un fonds du groupe Rothschild (lire Newsmanagers du 4 janvier).

Le munichois Patrizia Immobilien (600 salariés, 7,5 milliards d’euros d’encours, dont 80 % pour des clients externes) a annoncé en fin d’année 2012 l’acquisition du britannique Tamar Capital Group (21 salariés, 700 millions d’euros d’encours). La transaction doit encore être approuvée par la FSA et Tamar devrait être consolidée dans les comptes de Patrizia à partir du premier trimestre 2013.

Julian Ide, directeur général d’Old Mutual Global Investors, espère doubler la taille des actifs du groupe de 13 milliards de livres actuellement dans les trois ans, rapporte Financial Times Fund Management. La société de gestion est en plein exercice de changement de marque, après avoir abandonné le nom Skandia. Dans ce cadre, le groupe a recruté 21 dirigeants ces trois derniers mois. Des recrutements additionnels de gérants sont attendus.

Vanguard Asset Management vient de recruter Axel Lomholt, d’iShares, en tant que responsable du développement de produits et des fonctions de gestion en Europe. L’intéressé vient de BlackRock où il était managing director et responsable du développement produits d’iShares pour la zone Europe, Moyen-Orient et Afrique.Chez Vanguard, il aura pour mission de poursuivre la construction de la gamme de produits et de son équipe d’ETF. Il fournira aussi un soutien technique aux activités de relations avec la clientèle.Basé à Londres, Axel Lomholt rejoindra l’équipe de direction de Vanguard Europe et il sera subordonné à Tom Rampulla, managing director.Vanguard a récemment lancé ses premiers ETF en Europe, qui ont recueilli environ 170 millions de livres. Outre sa base à Londres, la société américaine a aussi des bureaux à Zurich, Paris et Amsterdam.

Schroders Property Investment Management vient d’annoncer le premier closing de son fonds immobilier Core European Property, destiné plus particulièrement aux fonds de pension suisses défiscalisés, à 225 millions d’euros.Schroders Property espère un doublement de la taille de ce fonds à l’occasion d’un second closing dans les prochains mois. Le fonds, qui vise un dividende annuel de 5%, s’intéresse en priorité aux marchés français et allemand mais investira également sur les autres marchés européens les plus liquides.

The Dow Jones Credit Suisse Core Hedge Fund index rose 0.99% in December, as each component of the index contributed to gains. The best-performing strategy in December was event-driven (2.14%), followed by emerging markets (1.34%) and Global Macro (0.89%), while the worst performer was managed futures (0.15%). For the year as a whole, the benchmark index shows gains of 3.38%, with contributions of 6.99% from convertible arbitrage and 6.75% for event-driven. Managed futures strategies finished the year with losses of 5.51%.

Pictet & Cie is launching the Pictet Emerging Corporate Bonds fund, a sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav investing in private bonds from companies in emerging markets. The fund will be managed by Alain Nsiona Defise, who is based in London, and who left JPMorgan AM last year to join the Swiss asset management firm and become head of a team of specialists in emerging market corporate bonds.The fund has been registered in France since 10 December 2012.CharacteristicsISIN code: LU0844697853Front-end fees: Maximum 5%Withdrawal penalty: Maximum 1%Management commission: 1.5%

On 7 January, DWS Investments (Deutsche Bank group) announced that on 21 December it released profiled wealth/diversified funds of funds for sale in Germany whose assets total EUR120m, and which since 2004 have been administered by DWS, but managed by ARTS Asset Management, an affiliate of the Austrian-German firm C-Quadrat. They had been known as RAM Konservativ, RAM Wachstum and RAM Dynamisch, and will now be available as DWS Concept ARTS Conservative, ARTS Balanced ARTS Dynamic. The products deploy a trend-following strategy.CharacteristicsName: DWS Concept ARTS CondervativeISIN code: LU0093745825Front-end fee: 3%Management fee: 1.35%TER: 1.71%Name: DWS Concept ARTS BalancedISIN code: LU0093745825Front-end fee: 4%Management fee: 1.60%TER: 1.90%Name: DWS Concept ARTS DynamicISIN code: LU0093746393Front-end fee: 5%Management fee: 1.85%TER: 2.03%

Following Switzerland and Japan, Lxuembourg is getting a new head of private banking. Société Générale has appointed Olivier Lecler as deputy CEO of Société Générale Bank & Trust, its local entity, Agefi reports. Lecler, who had previously been head of Société Générale Private Banking (SGPB) Monaco, will be responsible for private banking activities in Luxembourg, replacing Claudio Bacceli, who becomes director of financial intermediary clients for the entire profession. Thierry Garde replaces Lecler as CEO of SGPB Monaco, He had previously been deputy director of the activity in Belgium, and previously held a similar role in the UK.

AllianceBernstein has announced that its affiliate Sanford C. Bernstein, a specialist in research and brokerage in equities, has recruited the global head of equities from Jefferies & Company, Jason Griffith, as global head of trading. He will report directly to Robert van Brugge, chairman & CEO of the firm.Meanwhile, following the resignation of Richard Haxe as co-head of the EMEA client group, AllianceBernstein has promoted Timothy Ryan as sole head of the EMEA client group. He had previously been CEO of AllianceBernstein Ltd and co-head of the EMEA client group. He will continue to report to Robert Keith, head of institutional and retail client services, sales and marketing.

According to multiple sources, Philippe Loiseau yesterday became chief operating officer (COO) at the Edmond de Rothschild group, Agefi reports. For five years, he had served as director of resources at Société Générale Private Banking, after seven years at PwC as a consultant, and eight years at the BNP Paribas private bank. Lioseau will be based in Paris, and will oversee operations and IT systems for the entire French-Swiss group. He will be involved in the mutualisation or co-ordination of resources (including back office, middle office and IT activities) as part of a strategic plan for 2016 unveiled last month, the newspaper reports.

The head of marketing at Eaton Vance, Judy May, has joined the SRI asset management firm Pax World Management as senior vice president of marketing. She will report to Joe Keefe, chairman & CEO.

As part of its EUR2.5bn Renewable Energies and New Technologies (RENT) programme, Munich Re has invested an amount in the hundreds of millions of euros to acquire a 40% stake in a joint venture which has acquired 32 wind farms in France. The units, with a total power generating capacity of 321.4 megawatts, were added to the French electricity network between 2006 and 2012; they use turbines from various manufacturers.Munich Re is participating in the deal via its asset management joint venture with Ergo, the Munich-based MEAG. The other two partners are GE Energy Financial Services, which also holds 40% of shares in the joint venture, and EDF Energies Nouvelles, which controls the remainder and is responsible for operating the facilities.

iShares has posted inflows of USD85.3bn on USD262.7bn in the ETP sector, iShares has announced in a statement released on 7 January.All regions of the world contributed to the growth of inflows at iShares. Inflows to US products represented a record USD61bn, beating a previous record of USD59.1bn set in 2007.In Europe, inflows totalled USD18.3bn, equivalent to 56% of subscriptions to European ETPs.iShares says that ETFs represented a preferred means of access to the bond market. Inflows to fixed income ETFs at iShares totalled USD28.8bn, representing 41% of all subscriptions to bond ETFs.As of 31 December 2012, assets under management at iShares totalled USD758.6bn.

The average coverage rate for the liabilities of US corporate pension funds rose 1.9 percentage points in the month of December, to a total of 7.63%, according to BNY Mellon. For the year as a whole, the coverage rate is up 1 percentage point. In the month under review, assets in pension funds rose 0.9% due to the strength of stock markets, while liabilities, for their part, were down 1.7%. The actualisation rate rose 13 basis points to 3.89% for companies rated Aa.

Mandarine Gestion has announced that it is adding to its “Growth” unit with the launch of the Mandarine Europe Opportunités fund, which invests in European growth shares of all cap sizes. It is managed by Marie-Jeanne Missoffe, who joined the team led by Joëlle Morlet-Selmer and Diane Bruno from SPGP in late 2012 (see NewsManagers of 23 October, 2012). Mandarine Europe Opportunités is actively managed, and fully invested in equities (90% to 100%) without the constraint of a benchmark, sector or cap size. Within an investment universe of 250 shares, 50 to 60 are selected to construct the portfolio. Three perennial drivers of growth have been identified for stock-picking by the manager: innovation, leadership and geographical diversification. The sectoral and geographical structure of the portfolio are then adjusted according to a top-down analysis. The “Growth” unit at Mandarine Gestion now includes three funds specialised in growth equities: France, with Mandarine Opportunités, European Small and Mid caps with Mandarine Unique, and now Europe, with Mandarine Europe Opportunités. Characteristics ISIN code: FR0011351626 (R share class), FR0011352160 (I share class)Currency: EUR Minimal initial subscription: 1 share (R share class), EUR1m (I share class)

Philipp Waldstein Wartenberg, who had been head of group strategic funding & portfolio at UniCredit in Milan since 2006, was on 1 December appointed as a managing director of MEAG (EUR24bn in assets), to be responsible for the portfolio management of securities, currencies and money market instruments.Meanwhile, MEAG, a joint venture of Munich Re and Ergo, has announced that its CEO, Dieter Wolf, 62, will be retiring on 31 March 2013.

Christoph Schumacher, one of Union Investment Institutional Property GmbH’s MDs, has announced that net subscriptions and subscription commitments from institutional clients to in-house real estate products (EUR3.5bn in assets) totalled over EUR1.5bn in 2012, compared with EUR1bn in 2011.The open-ended real estate funds reserved for institutional investors UniInstitutional European Real Estate and UniInstitutional German Real Estate attracted EUR620m. The second fund, launched on 17 October, was three times oversubscribed within the first five hours. It is a fund reserved for religious organisations, co-operative banks and foundations, with subscriptions limited to EUR2m per investor.Institutional real estate funds have also posted subscription commitments of EUR960m, of which EUR850m were for retirement schemes, banks and insurers, and EUR100m in additional new subscriptions to existing institutional funds.Lastly, Union last year launched the institutional infrastructure fund UniInstututional Erneuerbare Energien Sicav-SIF, which specialises in renewable energies, particularly wind, in Europe. The fund reached EUR48m at its first closing.

U.S. private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management plans to sell most of its 57.8% stake in Japanese lender Aozora Bank. It will keep 7.74% and thus remain the largest shareholder in the bank. The unit price for the 632.50 million shares (including a greenshoe option of 41.25 million shares) at which Cerberus is prepared to sell will be determined between 16 and 18 January, Aozora states in a document for investors. The sale will mark a significant reduction in the presence of the Cerberus fund in Japan, where it is also a shareholder in Seibu Holdings, a railway and hotel group.

The German affiliate of Swiss Life, AWD, which in November 2012 was renamed as Swiss Life Select, has missed its annual profit objectives by a wide margin. The specialist in financial advising “will not even achieve 10%” of its expected CHF50m to CHF60m profits, Focus magazine reported on 6 January.The magazine, which refers to sources familiar with the matter, cites poor results and provisions that AWD was forced to make to cover reimbursement for poor advising, particularly in Austria, as reasons. Another reason given is the departure of several advisers.Swiss Life in November announced at its investor day that it was reorganising distribution of financial products and changing the name of its German affiliate. This will lead to a fourth quarter charge of CHF576m. The name change will cost Swiss Life CHF94m. Amortisations total CHF96m for activities abandoned in Slovakia and Hungary. The remaining CHF386m is goodwill.

In 2013, the sustainability analysis team at Sarasin will publish a detailed report every month including commentary on an economic theme or sector. Two publications will be released in January 2013: the sustainability of government borrowing, and tourism will be the first subjects treated.Among the subjects that will be addressed subsequently are communication technologies and consumer spending, water desalination, urban sustainability, sustainable investment in Brazil, and fracking.

The behaviour of the financial markets in December will once again benefit active management. More precisely, asset management firms whose portfolios are most exposed to the markets have earned the highest returns. Within the euro zone equity mandate, six companies performed better than the benchmark Eurostoxx Net Return (2.44%): the first three of these, ING IM, Mandarine Gestion and Invesco AM have betas higher than 1 for the past three months. Their respective gains are 4.49%, 3.76% and 3.74%. The choice of shares also played a role, particularly in the portfolios of Mandarine Gestion and AllianceBernstein (3.35%).History is repeating itself in the area of Europe equity mandates: In the eight portfolios from 20 rivals which outperformed the Stoxx 600 Net Return (1.48%), the top three – Bestinver (4.69%), Mandarine Gestion (3.67%) and AllianceBernstein (2.24%) - do not all have a beta of higher than 1 for the past three months. However, stock-picking did have a predominant role, particularly at Bestinver.For competitors for the Global Equities prize, in which seven asset management firms out of 13 outperformed the Stoxx 1800 Net Return (0.60%), the results were slightly different: of the top three, AllianceBernstein is the only firm whose portfolio has posted both an overexposure to the equity markets for the past three months and a largely positive pick of stocks. The next two, Ecofi Investissements and Petercam, with gains of 1.48% and 1.21%, respectively, stand out with low beta but a positive stock pick.

45.7% of Italian-registered funds beat their benchmarks in 2012, Plus, the weekly supplement of Il Sole – 24 Ore, reports. This result is higher than in 2009, when 43% of managers did better than their benchmarks. In other years, the percentage of funds beating the index has varied from 10% to 25%. Italian-registered funds are better on their home field: 90% of managers beat the index when they are investing in the Milan stock exchange. For European equities, the percentage of winners is 26-36%. But the further away from Europe you get, the lower this number gets.

Pam R. Holding, who had been managing director, global value equities at Putnam Investments from 2001 to 2009, has joined Pyramis Global Advisors (PGA, Fidelity group), which has USD190bn in assets under management, of which USD112bn are in equity products, as head of portfolio management. In this newly-created position, Holding will report to Young Chin, chief investment officer.Holding will be responsible for directing equity portfolio management teams, and overseeing strategy and its implementation for institutional clients.

According to reports in Die Welt, the Whitehall fund from Goldman Sachs and the private equity investor Perry Capital are planning to launch part (probably one third) of the residential real estate firm LEG (91,000 housing units), which they acquired in 2008 from the German region of North Rhine/Westphalia for EUR3.4bn, of which EUR2.6bn were debt, on the German stock market. The IPO, planned for the first half of February, would be led by Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.