Malgré une hausse de 600 millions de livres au deuxième trimestre (le troisième de son exercice au 30 septembre 2012) à 93,5 milliards de son encours actions, Aberdeen Asset Management a accusé durant la période sous revue une diminution de 2 milliards de livres de ses actifs totaux sous gestion à 182,7 milliards de livres.Cependant, le gestionnaire écossais a collecté 8,79 milliards de livres en brut et 305 millions de livres en net, avec des rentrées nettes pour les produits les plus margés, ce qui a compensé les remboursements nets sur les moins rémunérateurs. Au total, les souscriptions nettes d’avril-juin devraient générer environ 15 millions de livres supplémentaires de revenus annualisés sur les commissions. Toutefois, pour les neuf premiers mois de l’exercice en cours, Aberdeen accuse des rachats nets de 74 millions de livres contre 379 millions pour le semestre au 31 mars.

Ghadir Abu Leil-Cooper, head of the EMEA Equity Team de Baring Asset Management, reçoit du renfort : le gestionnaire britannique a en effet recruté le 16 juillet Mike Levy comme senior investment manager pour les actions Europe/Moyen-Orient/Afrique EMOA ou EMEA en anglais). L’intéressé était précédemment gérant de fonds d’actions internationales et marchés émergents, notamment EMOA, chez AllianceBernstein. Il a aussi géré des portefeuilles d’actions des marchés frontières focalisés sur l’Afrique. Auparavant, il a été analyste chez Alliance Capital Management.

Après avoir rejoint Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) en avril 2011 en provenance de BlackRock, William Low dirigeait l’équipe actions mondiales du gestionnaire écossais. Il vient d’être promu director of equities en remplacement d’Andrew November, qui assumait cette fonction depuis août 2010, indique Fundweb. Andrew November a été nommé au poste nouvellement créé d’investment propositions director où il sera plus particulièrement chargé de développer l’offre de SWIP à l’intention des clients du groupe Lloyds Bank.

Nicolas Picard a quitté CPR Asset Management, où il était gérant actions européennes et émergentes, après y avoir travaillé pendant 15 ans, pour rejoindre Amundi, la maison mère de la société de gestion, selon les informations de Citywire. Il aurait intégré l’équipe d’épargne salariale.Contacté par Newsmanagers, Amundi précise que cette mutation interne a eu lieu il y a environ 6 mois.

La banque privée suisse EFG Bank a nommé BNP Paribas Securities Services en qualité de conservateur local et international sur plusieurs marchés, y compris l’Australie et la Nouvelle Zélande.EFG Bank devient ainsi le troisième client de BNP Paribas SS sur le marché australien où le groupe propose ses services de conservation depuis mai 2012. Les actifs sous conservation d’EFG Bank s'élèvent à environ 3 milliards de dollars.

Fidelity Investments a annoncé avoir collecté au premier semestre 25,2 milliards de dollars sur des plans de retraite à contributions définies, un montant en augmentation de 36% par rapport au premier semestre 2011.Il s’agit d’un des meilleurs résultats semestriels enregistrés au cours des cinq dernières années, souligne Fidelity Investments dans un communiqué.

Le conseil d’administration du fonds de pension californien CalPERS a approuvé le 15 août son nouveau plan stratégique quinquennal, a annoncé CalPERS dans un communiqué.Ce nouveau plan prévoit notamment une plus grande adéquation entre les risques pris et les rendements attendus ainsi qu’une attention accrue à toutes les problématiques de gouvernance.

La société de gestion néerlandaise Robeco va ouvrir un bureau à Miami, aux Etats-Unis, afin de renforcer sa présence en Amérique latine, rapporte Investment Europe. Cette offensive sera pilotée depuis le bureau de Madrid, dirigé par Javier García de Vinuesa, qui supervise déjà les clients et les produits en Amérique latine. Le bureau devrait être inauguré après l’été avec moins de cinq personnes initialement.

After joining Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) in April 2011 from BlackRock, William Low has been director of the global equities team at the Scottish asset management firm. He has now been promoted to director of equities, replacing Andrew November, who has held the position since August 2010, Fudweb reports. November has been appointed to the newly-created position of investment propositions director, and will be in charge of developing SWIP’s product range aimed at clients of the Lloyds Banking group.

Despite an increase of GBP600m in second quarter (the third quarter of its fiscal year, ending on 30 September 2012) in its assets in equities, to GBP93.5bn, Aberdeen Asset Management has seen a decline in its assets in the period under review of GBP2bn in its total assets under management, to GBP182.7bn.However, the Scottish asset management firm took in a gross GBP8.79bn, and a net GBP305m, with net inflows to high-margin products, which offset net redemptions from less lucrative products. Overall, net subscriptions in April-June are expected to generate an additional GBP15m in annual commission revenues. However, in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, Aberdeen has seen net redemptions of GBP74m, compared with GBP379m for the half ending on 31 March.

The asset management firm M&G has beat out its competition in retail sales in second quarter, according to a report by Pridham published by Fundscape, Fund Web reports. Activities at M&G, and several other actors including Invesco Perpetual, Fidelity and Kames, were driven by sales of bond products. Net inflows for the quarter at M&G totalled GBP1.3bn, while gross inflows totalled GBP2.9bn. They are followed by BlackRock, with total net retail sales of GBP566.8m, Standard Life Invesments with a total of GBP478m, BNY Mellon (GBP420m), and Kames (GBP258m).

Standard Life Investments has reported net inflows of GBP0.6bn in first half for its activities dedicated to clients external to the group, according to a statement released on 14 August. Assets under management in this activity now total GBP74.3bn, compared with GBP71.8bn as of the end of December 2011. The lead product line from Standard Life, GARS (Global Absolute Return Strategies), has continued to grow in first half, and now totals over GBP17bn. Pre-tax operating profits totalled GBP68m in first half, compared with GBP67m one year previously.

Assets under management at Henderson Global Investors as of 30 June 2012 totalled GBP63.6bn, compared with GBP64.3bn at the beginning of 2012, according to an interim report published by the asset management firm. The half finished with net outflows of GBP2.1bn, which completely offset positive market and currency effects totalling GBP1.4bn. In first half, institutional redemptions totalled nearly GBP1.2bn, while at the same time, outflows from the retail unit of only GBP110m in first quarter accelerated yo GBP792m in second quarter. Operational margin increased, however, to 36.8%, compared with 36.1% in first half 2011, and 36.3% in 2011 overall.

Ghadir Abu Leil-Cooper, head of the EMEA Equity Team at Baring Asset Management, is receiving reinforcement: the British asset management firm on 16 July recruited Mike Levy as senior investment manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) equities. Levy had previously been manager of an international and emerging markets equity fund, including the EMEA region, at AllianceBernstein. He also managed frontier markets equity portfolios focused on Africa. He had previously been an analyst at Alliance Capital Management.

The German and Austrian regulatory authorities have granted sales licenses to the new Schroder ISF Global Multi-Asset Income fund, the fourth multi-asset class product in the series, Schroders announced on 15 August. With the Luxembourg-registered fund, launched on 18 April (see Newsmanagers of 19 April and 7 June), the British asset management firm is aiming for a “sustainable” distribution of 5% per year, which will be paid on a quarterly basis for shares in euros, and monthly for US dollar-denominated shares. The fund is managed by Aymeric Forest.The portfolio may contain 10% to 50% equities, and 25% to 90% bonds, but may also include derivatives, REITs or ETFs, and positions on currencies. The objective is to preserve stable returns with total volatility of 7% to 12%.CharacteristicsName: Schroder ISF Global Multi-Asset IncomeISIN codes: LU0757360960 (A, EUR hedged, distribution)LU0757360457 (A, EUR hedged, capitalisation)LU075735995 (A, USD, distribution)LU0757359368 (A, USD, capitalisation)Front-end fee: Maximum 4%Management commission: 1.25%

The Raiffeisen group, which has recently acquired Notenstein Banque Privée, in second quarter posted growth of 4.3% in its profits, to CHF354m, compared with CHF340m in first quarter 2011, the group has announced in a statement released on 16 August.Assets under management have risen to CHF169.8bn as of the end of June, compared with CHF145.9bn as of the end of December 2011.The acquisition of Notenstein Banque Privée SA, which has nearly CHF21bn in assets under management, “undeniably strengthens the abilities of the Raiffeisen group in investment operations,” the group says in a statement. The acquisition by Notenstein Banque Privée SA by Raiffeisen Switzerland “proceeded as planned.” After limited redemptions by clients from funds, Notenstein has been posting net subscriptions and signing up new clients again since June.

Z-Ben Advisors reports that Fortune SG (a joint venture of the Société Générale and Bao Steel groups) is denying reports in the local media that the Chinese asset management firm is requiring all of its employees to join an automatic investment plan in which they subscribe to shares in the money market fund Fortune SG Cash Box Money Market Fund, in an effort to boost assets under management.According to Fortune SG, all investments made by personnel in the fund were made voluntarily. However, the Fortune SG product has seen massive subscriptions in the fourth quarter of the past five years running, and then significant redemptions in the following quarter. It is not unusual for Chinese fund management firms to seek to increase their assets in fourth quarter to improve their end-of-year rankings.

In July, the daily volume of “on-book” trades of ETFs on the European bourses of NYSE Euronext came in at EUR239.7m, compared with EUR257.7m in June, and the total decline in volumes in July is 2.6% compared with the previous month, to EUR5.3bn. Compared with July 2011, average daily trading volumes have fallen 45.9%.However, block trades totalled EUR741.5m last month, up 1.1% ompared with EUR733.4m in June, which represents 14.1% of total trading volumes, compared with 13.5% the previous month.The median spread fell to 29.7 basis points, compared with 31.15 basis points in June.

The financial ratings agency Fitch Ratings on 14 August announced that it is updating its criteria for ratings of bond funds. The analysis framework remains unchanged, and Fitch estimates that the process of updating the previous table, released on 16 August 2011, will not result in modifications to the ratings of the various types of bond funds concerned.

According to Inverco statistics as of the end of June, Spanish funds had average assets of EUR50.2m, compared with EUR82m as of the end of 2007, and EUR76m in 2000. The largest average volumes were for Bestinver (EUR3.1bn in nine funds), with EUR344m per fund, followed by Cartesio (EUR134m), Funds People reports.As of the end of June, Inverco counted 2,447 investment funds, with a total of EUR122.84bn. Only eight of these products have assets under management of over EUR1bn; the top two are FonCaixa Estabilidad (EUR2.35bn) and Santander Banif Inmobiliario (EUR2.33bn). However, 435 funds have less than EUR5m in assets, and 211 of them have assets of under EUR3m, the minimal level required by the CNMV to be recognised as a collective investment vehicle.

Pimco has appointed Phil Michels of Schroders as account manager for the Benelux region, Investment Europe reports. He will be based in Schiphol. The recruitment aims to extend growth at Pimco in wealth management into the Benelux countries, as well as distribution networks for the retail market.

The Netherlands-based asset management firm Robeco will open an office in Miami in the United States to strengthen its presence in Latin America, Investment Europe reports. The campaign will be directed from the Madrid office, led by Javier García de Vinuesa, who already oversees clients and products in Latin America. The office will be opened after summer, with fewer than five staff in Miami.

Fidelity Investment has announced that in first half it sold defined contribution retirement plans totalling USD25.2bn, up 36% compared with first half 2011. This is one of the best semiannual results in the past five years, Fidelity Investment says in a statement.

The Swiss private bank EFG Bank has appointed BNP Paribas Securities as its local and international custodian in several markets, including Australia and New Zealand. EFG Bank becomes the third client of BNP Paribas SS on the Australian market, where the group has been offering custody services since May 2012. Assets in custody at EFG Bank total about USD3bn.

The US millionaire Carl Icahn has given USD3bn to two managers, including his son Brett Icahn and David Schechter, the news agency Bloomberg reports. Icahn junior and Schechter will invest the capital in stocks with market capitalisations of USD750m to USD10bn. The two managers have already managed about USD300m for Icahn Enterprises, whose assets under management total about USD24bn. Icahn junior joined his father’s business 10 years ago as an analyst. Schechter has been working for Icahn senior since 2004, following a period at Citigroup.

Investor sentiment has risen sharply from the lows of July and fund managers have increased allocations to equities, real estate and commodities, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Survey of Fund Managers for August (an overall total of 232 panelists with USD640 billion of assets under management participated in the survey from 3 August to 9 August). A net 15 percent of the 173 panelists participating in the global survey believe that world economy will get stronger in the coming 12 months. This represents a monthly swing of 28 percentage points, the largest leap in confidence since April to May 2009. In July, a net 13 percent said the economy would weaken. A corrolary of this development is that fears about the outlook for corporate profits have reduced since July. A net 21 percent of the panel expects profits to deteriorate in the coming year, down from a net 38 percent a month ago. The fresh optimism comes amid growing expectations of intervention by the European Central Bank (ECB). The proportion of the panel ruling out more quantitative easing by the ECB has halved to 9 percent, while 38 percent expect the ECB to act during the third quarter (up from 29 percent in July). BofA Merrill Lynch reports that this surge in confidence seems to be more a triumph of policy projection and potential than positive economic data. In other words, the risk is now that inaction by policy makers would lead to a negative reaction in global markets. Investors’ positions remain highly prudent: bond allocations remain high and investors are shunning the most cyclical equity sectorsHaving turned their backs on Europe, especially the eurozone, for much of 2012 investors are becoming far less bearish on the region. A net 5 percent of investors want to underweight eurozone equities – down from a net 18 percent in July. A net 9 percent wants to underweight the U.S., compared with a net 6 percent looking to overweight U.S. equities in July.

Francisco Gómez-Trenor y García del Moral has joined Mirabaud Finanzas as CEO of wealth and asset management for Spain, Funds People reports. He had previously been director of Bankia Banca Privada.

The Spanish BBVA group has recently announced the creation of a new division, Banca Retail, which includes retail banking activities worldwide and South American affiliates. The new structure will be led by Ignacio Deschamps, who had previously been CEO of the Mexican affiliate BBVA Bancomer. Deschamps will be replaed in this position by Vincente Rodero, who had previously been director of the South American operations of the BBVA group.Banca Retail will include the areas of insurance, means of payment, private banking, consumer credit and asset management.

In first half, Santander Asset Management has generated a net profit of approximately EUR32m, or 28.6% less than in the corresponding period of 2011, and assets fell 1% compared with the end of December, to EUR137.5bn, of which EUR107bn were for investment and pension funds, EUR7bn for dedicated portfolios and institutional mandates, and EUR23bn in management mandates for other entities of the Santander group.The quarterly report states that traditional management as of the end of June represented about EUR134bn, 85% of it in four countries (Brazil, the United Kingdom, Spain and Mexico), while in “non-traditional” management (real estate funds, hedge funds and private equity), the volume remained stable at EUR3.5bn.Funds People, for its part, on 8 August announced that Santander am is planning to create a branch office in Frankfurt to manage portfolios and provide investment advising.

Robeco, the asset management unit of Rabobank, recorded net cash inflows of EUR17bn in the first half year, against EUR7.6bn for the entire year 2011.“Net cash inflow from institutional clients was strong, deriving particularly from the Netherlands and increasing the proportion of institutional assets to Robeco’s total assets under management to 51% from 46% in the first half of 2011,” according to a press release.Assets under management increased to EUR 179bn at 30 June 2012, vs EUR 150bn at the end of 2011.But net profit decreased to EUR 97m, against EUR 105m one year earlier.Commenting on the half year results, Roderick Munsters, CEO of Robeco Group said: “The 19% growth in assets under management in the first half of 2012 is supported by a combination of significant net cash inflows and strong investment performance, giving us confidence in this period in which Robeco is working closely with Rabobank on the strategic review of the business”.