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06/11/2012

Fund activities up in Malta

The number of funds registered with the Maltese financial services authority continued to increase in first half 2012, according to statistics released by the Authority. The number of Professional Investor Funds (PIF) increased 4% compared with the end fo 2011, to a total of 460 as of the end of June 2012. The net asset value of PIF products in the same period rose by 23%, from EUR5.8bn in December 2011, to EUR7.2bn in June 2012. The registration of UCITS-compliant funds is also encouraging, with assets of EUR2.3bn as of the end of June, an increase of EUR0.7bn, or 40%, since December 2011. It is also notable that 40% of funds domiciled in Malta were managed by fund management firms based in Malta as of June 2012. Similarly, 70% of funds domiciled in Malta were administered in Malta in mid-2012.
06/11/2012

Asset management firms worried about US economy

“ America is facing an urgent crisis, barely discussed during the fall’s election campaign,” a group of asset management firms and pension funds warns in a one-page advertisement placed in several major United States newspapers on Monday, the Financial Times reports. BlackRock, which organised and financed the advertisement, says that the fiscal cliff is the largest concern for investors surveed in October, who have a collective total of USD5trn in assets under management.
06/11/2012

New head of private banking at MPS

Francesco Fanti has been appointed as head of private banking at Banca Monte dei Paschi de Siena. He will aim to consolidate and relaunch the activities of the unit.
06/11/2012

Andy Clark takes over at HSBC GAM UK

HSBC Global Asset Management UK has appointed Andy Clark as director general, replacing Simeon Brown, Money Marketing reports. Clark joined HSBC as head of British retail activities, and last year was appointed as regional head of wholesale for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Brown is leaving the firm to take on new challenges after 16 years of collaboration, including five years as head of British activities.
06/11/2012

Strong international growth for LGIM

Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), whose assets as of the end of September totalled GBP391bn, has posted GBP4.6bn in net subscriptions (+28% year on year), largely due to its liability-driven investment (LDI) products and its actively-managed bond products, which have posted inflows of GBP3.3bn, through growth has come from abroad, with net inflows of GBP5.6bn, compared with GBP1.9bn in January-September 2011.LGIM states that its international assets have increased 25% over the end of 2011, to GBP39bn.
06/11/2012

Lloyds may sell its stake in St James's Place

Lloyds Banking Group is planning to sell its 60% stake in St James’s Place, the Sunday Times reports. On the basis of a share price of 398 pence, the firm is valued at about GBP2bn. The proceeds of the sale may represent a total of over GBP1bn, which Lloyds would use to increase its capitalisation.
06/11/2012

Aviva funds boost AUM at Alliance Trust

Assets under management at Alliance Trust Investments as of the end of September totalled over GBP1.7bn, following the acquisition of the socially responsible investment (SRI) activities of Aviva Investors in August this year.According to interim results released by Alliance Trust, this total of GBP1.7bn includes GBP578m in Alliance Trust funds, while the remainder consists of the SRI product range from Aviva Investors.
06/11/2012

State Street wins a mandate from a British pension fund

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) has been appointed by Merseyside Council to manage GBP1.4 billion in assets of its pension fund, bringing the assets SSgA manages for the Local Authority sector to more than GBP7 billion.
06/11/2012

Family offices internalise their activities

A growing number of family offices are scaling up their resources in order to be able to offer their key activities internally, according to a study by the Wharton Global Family Alliance (WFGA), which is publishing some of its conclusions, while reserving its full results for family offices. Activities related to investment are particularly affected by this trend, as well as activities related to fund administration. In the wake of the financial crisis, family offices have considerably developed their expertise in the area of risk management. This desire to better control risks has resulted in a diversification of portfolios and the introduction of a larger range of risk measurement tools, including less conventional tools at the largest family offices. The WGFA reports that family offices increased their investments in art and precious metals fivefold between 2009 and 2011, which brings their allocation in portfolios to 5%, Handelsblatt also reports. Meanwhile, private equity investors have fallen from 11% in 2009 to 9% in 2011. Allocation to hedge funds has held stable at 12%, but the proportion of funds of funds has fallen to a near-zero leel. This disaffection with funds of funds is due to potential conflicts of interest at the largest providers, and last but not least, on mediocre returns in the past few years. In the past four years to the end of 2011, funds of funds lost an average of 3% per year, according to Bloomberg statistics.
06/11/2012

Axa IM releases an emerging market debt fund in Germany

BaFin has issued a sales license for the new short-duration emerging market debt fund from Axa Investment Managers (see Newsmanagers of 21 September), the Axa WF Emerging Markets Short Duration Bonds, launched on 5 September, in German. Axa IM has EM fixed income AUM of about USD2bn.The Luxembourg-registered product, managed by Damien Buchet, head of emerging markets fixed income, may be invested in all ratings categories from investment grade up to high yield, in both government and corporate bonds.The new fund comes as an addition to a range which already includes the AXA WF Global Emerging Markets Bonds and the AXA WF Emerging Markets Currency Bonds.CharacteristicsName: AXA WF Emerging Markets Short Duration BondsISIN code: LU0800572702 (capitalisation)Front-end fee: 3%Management commission: 1%
06/11/2012

BRIC debt gets bad ratings on ESG criteria

Sovereign debt issued by BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China) may be riskier than their credit ratings suggest, a study by ING Investment Management cited by Financial Times Fund Management shows. No BRIC countries place in the top 20 of rankings of 85 countries on environmental, social and governance criteria. Brazil places top, at 25th place, while China is 39th, India 53rd and Russia 57th.
06/11/2012

Sanford C. Bernstein hires three analysts

The US asset management firm AllianceBernstein has announced that the research firm Sanford C. Bernstein has scaled up its Asia team with the recruitment of three analysts.Kenneth Tsang, head of research & strategy for Asia Pacific at LaSalle Investment Management, will be specialised in Asian real estate, while Kevin Kwek (ex Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore) will cover banks in South-East Asia, and Vanessa Lau (ex Alcoa) will be responsible for metals and mining.
06/11/2012

Osvin Nöller promoted to head “cost-cutter” at Deka

The central asset management firm for the German savings banks, DekaBank, has announced the appointment of Osvin Nöller, director of marketing and distribution, as head of “cost flexibilisation initiative» at the group. He will report directly to Michael Rüdiger, the new chairman of the managing board.His successor as head of marketing and distribution will be Frank Kalter, who is Generalbevollmächtigter de la Nassauische Sparkasse and director of retail distribution at Nassauische Sparkasse in Wiesbaden. He will join DekaBank in first half 2013.
06/11/2012

Nicolas Duchêne takes over as head of Reyl Singapore

While retaining his position as director of Reyl Private Office, Nicolas Duchêne will now also serve as CEO of Reyl Singapore, an affiliate of the Swiss Reyl group. Duchêne, who joined Reyl in 2009, becomes head of a team of professionals in Europe and Asia specialised in wealth management and legal and fiscal advising “in a multi-jurisdictional framework,” a presse release says.With the arrival of Duchêne, Reyl Singapore will also strengthen the promotion and distriubtion of its investment fund range managed by Reyl Asset Management, particularly to institutional actors, family offices and ultra-high net worth individuals located in Singapore and South-East Asia.Before being recruited by Reyl, Duchêne was international head of the fiscal and financial planning department at BNP Paribas Private Banking, simultaneously in Singapore and Hong Kong.
06/11/2012

Globalance offers ethical diagnostics of entire portfolios

The new Swiss firm Globalance Bank is the first company in the world to integrate a balance sheet on the “sustainable” impact of investments in all asset classes in the real world into its traditional risk/return diagnostics of entire portfolios for each client, Handelsblatt reports.The Portfolio Footprint is calculated by specialists at Globalance on the basis of data from MSCI ESG Research, on the basis of nine criteria, with different weightings for a single criterion depending on the specific challenges of each sector or asset class, the CEO of Globalance, Reto Ringger, says.
06/11/2012

French regulator issues a warning over a website

The French financial regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), on 5 November issued a warning over the “Fairvesta” website. The Fairvesta International GmbH company, whose headquarters are located at sis Konrad – Adenauer Str. 15 D- 72072 Tübingen in Germany, and whose website is at http://www.fairvesta.com, offers real estate investments such as Mercatus VIII, Lumis, and Chronos, with high prospects of returns. These investments are often sold highly actively in France by individuals whose predictions are sometimes out of balance with the riks incurred. “These products do not satisfy regulations applicable to financial assets. The investments offered have not been elaborated with a key investor information document or reviewed by the AMF,” a statement says. The AMF states that “Fairvesta International GmbH, based in Germany, and the owner of the aforementioned website, is not authorised to offer investment services in French territory or to deliver banking or financial activities.”
06/11/2012

Increase in the number of ETFs listed on NYSE Euronext

As of the end of October, the European markets of NYSE Euronext listed 589 ETFs 679 times, up from 587 funds 676 times at the end of September, while six new products were introduced during October, four of which were from Lyxor, one from Ossiam and one from Amundi.However, average on-book daily trading volumes for ETFs on the European markets of NYSE Euronext in October totalled EUR217.4m, down 10.15% compared with EUR241.9m in September, but total block trading volumes have increased to EUR740.1m, compared with EUR739.9m the previous month (+0.11%), to represent 14.6% of total trading volumes on regulated ETF markets, compared with 15.3% in September.The total value of on-book trades came to EUR5bn, compared with EUR4.8bn in September, a lower level than the average of 5% posted since the beginning of the year.NYSE Euronext states that in October, the median spread for all publicly-traded ETFs has been 37.4 basis points, compared with 26.8 basis points in September.
06/11/2012

FoF sales down by half

In third quarter, UK funds of funds posted net subscriptions of GBP754.5m, bringing the total for the first 12 months of 2012 to GBP2.2bn, less than 50% of the GBP4.6bn posted in the corresponding period of last year, according to statistics from the Investment Management Association (IMA).However, assets in funds of funds as of 30 September totalled GBP67.5bn, with a record 10.7% of assets managed in funds overall (compared with 10.4% twelve months earlier). Funds invested in third-party funds represented GBP33.9bn, while funds invested in internal funds total GBP33.6bn.Meanwhile, the IMA states that net subscriptions to tracker funds in July-September, at GBP263m, were the lowest since first quarter 2010, while the average in the previous four quarters was GBP471m. Assets in tracker funds as of the end of September totalled GBP47.7bn, a record 7.6% of the total for all funds, compared with 7.1% as of 30 September.Lastly, ethical funds have seen record net outflows in third quarter of GBP33m, while products had attracted an average of GBP9m in net subscriptions in the previous three quarters. As of 30 September, assets under management in these funds represent GBP7.3bn.
06/11/2012

Source creates pound-denominated shares in Man GLG Europe Plus ETF

Investment Europe reports that Source has listed its smart beta Man GLG Europe ETF for trading on the London Stock Exchange, with share classes in pounds sterling, while the USD800m fund had previously only been available in the form of euro-denominated shares listed in Frankfurt (Deutsche Börse).
06/11/2012

Partner Group looks to increase investments and publicly-traded capital

The wealth management firm Partners Group is seeking to increase its investments, and is currently in talks on the subject with its co-founders and primary shareholders, Marcel Erni, Alfred Gantner and Urs Wietlisbach. According to a statement released by the firm on 5 November, the investors are discussing a proposal by which the co-owners would collectively invest CHF300m alongside clients of the business, and would finance that via a placement of some of their shares. This portion is said to be about 1.6 million shares, which would represent about 6% of equity capital. The proceeds of the operation would be used to finance investments. Many shareholders and potential shareholders have on several occasions expressed interest in an increased amount of publicly-traded capital in Partners Group shares. In order to respond to these desires, the founders, each of whom contrrols 14.2% of capital, are planning to reduce their stakes, but not by any more than 4%. “Each founder would then control over 10% of capital following this operation,” a statement says. At the end of first half, assets under management by Partners Group totalled EUR27.1bn, compared with EUR24.8bn at the end of 2011.
06/11/2012
Gestion d'actifs

BNP Paribas Cardif investit dans les prêts aux entreprises

BNP Paribas annonce le lancement de BNP Paribas France Crédit, Fonds Commun de Placement (FCP) dont la vocation est de contribuer au financement des entreprises françaises à travers les ressources collectées par sa compagnie d’assurance. L’engagement de BNP Paribas Cardif, filiale assurance du Groupe, à hauteur de 250M€ dans le FCP sera réalisé progressivement sous la forme de tirages successifs des opportunités d’investissement. Par cette opération, BNP Paribas Cardif confirme son engagement d’investisseur de long terme pour le soutien à l'économie française et à ses entreprises. Il investit principalement dans des titres de créance de maturité inférieure à 6 ans, acquis sur le marché primaire, dans le cadre de crédits syndiqués pour l’essentiel. Il peut aussi intervenir dans le cadre de placements privés obligataires d’entreprises émettant pour la première fois sur les marchés de capitaux. L’ordre de grandeur typique de chaque investissement du fonds est de l’ordre de 10 à 20 millions d’euros. L’origination des dossiers de financement est principalement assurée par la banque BNP Paribas, tandis que la sélection des dossiers est effectuée de façon indépendante par le gérant BNP Paribas Investment Partners. A l’occasion de ce lancement, Eric Lombard, Président Directeur Général de BNP Paribas Cardif a notamment déclaré : « Avec le fonds BNP Paribas France Crédit, nous avons souhaité remplir pleinement notre rôle d’investisseur de long terme et contribuer ainsi efficacement au développement des entreprises. Cette création va nous permettre d'élargir notre horizon de placement, d’investir durablement dans l'économie française, et de répondre à ses besoins de rentabilité tout en servant les intérêts de nos assurés».
Gestion d'actifs
06/11/2012
Gestion d'actifs

Groupama continue à s'alléger sur les actions

Groupama a cédé 1,6 milliards d’euros d’actions depuis le début de l’année, s’allégeant notamment sur Société Générale. La poche actions ne représente plus que 9,9% de ses placements, contre 12,8% fin 2011. Notre exposition actions sera un peu en dessous de 7,5% dans notre portefeuille à fin 2012, avance Thierry Martel, directeur général de Groupama SA dont l’ambition est de porter cette part à 5% dans les deux ou trois ans à venir.
Gestion d'actifs
05/11/2012

Fitch propulse la Turquie en en catégorie investissement

L’agence de notation a relevé la note à long terme de la Turquie dans la catégorie investissement, de BB+ à BBB-, assignant par ailleurs une perspective stable, décision attendue depuis longtemps par Ankara. Pour justifier sa décision, Fitch met en avant les points forts de l'économie turque (diminution du poids de la dette publique, un système bancaire sain, bon potentiel de croissance à moyen terme) ainsi qu’un recul des risques à court terme.
05/11/2012

Le secteur américain des services a légèrement ralenti

La croissance de l’activité dans le secteur des services aux Etats-Unis a légèrement ralenti au mois d’octobre, en raison notamment d’une baisse des nouveaux contrats malgré une l’amélioration sur le front de l’emploi. L’indice ISM est ressorti à 54,2 le mois dernier, contre 55,1 en septembre et 54,5 attendus par les économistes. La composante de l’emploi a progressé à 54,9 après 51,1 en septembre.
05/11/2012

Madrid dit non à Yves Mersch pour la BCE

L’Espagne s’oppose à la nomination d’Yves Mersch au directoire de la Banque centrale européenne, ont déclaré des responsables de l’Union européenne cités par Reuters. Des membres du Parlement européen et du Conseil européen, ce dernier représentant les Etats membres, ont indiqué que l’Espagne avait fait obstacle à une tentative d’assurer la nomination par le biais d’une méthode accélérée dite «procédure écrite».
05/11/2012

Le G20 assure veiller à ne pas étouffer la croissance

Réuni pour deux jours à Mexico, les ministres des Finances des pays du G20 s’engagent à «faire en sorte que le rythme de la consolidation budgétaire soit adapté à la volonté de soutenir la croissance», selon un projet de communiqué. Ils disent également vouloir s’attacher «à assurer la viabilité des finances publiques conformément aux engagements de Toronto».
05/11/2012

Le FMI prend part au débat sur la compétitivité

Le jour où Louis Gallois propose une batterie de mesures pour accroître la compétitivité des entreprises françaises, le FMI participe au débat. Il a publié cet après-midi un rapport invitant la France à saisir «une opportunité unique pour entreprendre des réformes d’envergure». Les experts de Washington recommandant notamment de s’atteler à «corriger les dysfonctionnements du marché du travail qui entravent l’investissement, l’emploi et, en fin de compte, la croissance ; et accroître la concurrence dans le secteur des services».
Le FMI prend part au débat sur la compétitivité. Photo: PHB/Agefi
05/11/2012

Nathaniel Rothschild prépare sa contre-attaque sur Bumi

Démissionnaire du conseil d’administration de Bumi,Nathaniel Rothschild aurait approché des magnats indonésiens en vue de former un consortium pour éjecter la famille Bakrie de Bumi. Selon le Financial Times, des contacts auraient été noués avec l’ancien général Prabowo Subianto et des hommes d’affaires locaux.
05/11/2012

Bons signes pour l'activité australienne

Les ventes de détail australiennes ont grimpé de 0,5% à 21,6 milliards de dollars locaux au mois de septembre, après une hausse de 0,3% en août. Parallèlement, le déficit extérieur s’est réduit à 420 millions, après 1,46 milliard en août. De quoi soutenir la devise qui rebondissait de 0,3% contre le billet vert ce matin à 1,0363, à la veille de la réunion mensuelle de la Banque centrale à l’issue de laquelle les marchés s’attendent à 53% à une baisse des taux directeurs.
05/11/2012

Athènes poursuit son plan de privatisations

La Grèce compte solliciter des offres pour sa participation de 61% dans Thessaloniki Water & Sewage, indique le président du Fonds hellénique de développement des actifs, Takis Athanasopoulos, qui évoque la nécessité d’un système fiscal stable et d’une meilleure gouvernance pour attirer les investisseurs. À la veille d’une semaine décisive, le premier ministre Antonis Samaras a brandi la menace d’une sortie de l’euro si le plan d’austérité n’était pas voté.

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