The global investor confidence index by State Street Global Markets for February came out to 86.5 points, compared with 92.6 in January, with the largest declines in North America, where confidence is down 9.5 points, to 80.5, its lowest level in three years.However, the confidence of European investors has improved, with the regional index up 4 points, to 95.2 in February. In Asia, the confidence of investors has held relatively stable, with the index down slightly to 96.3 from a corrected level of 96.6.Ken Froot, one of the «authors» of the index, explains that in February, institutional investors reduced their allocations to equities. As this asset class has generated returns in the past three months, they have tended to act as “purveyors of liquidity” to the market, as they rebalance their portfolios to these higher valuations.At the same time, the specialist continues, there has been a pro-cyclic bias in reallocations: “institutional investors are tending to retain or increase their positions in growth sectors such as industrial sector equities and shares related to discretionary consumer spending, to the detriment of sectors such as consumer staples, health, and telecoms.”

The ESG business intelligence agency RepRisk on 28 February announced that its database of over 20,000 reports on the reputation of publicly-traded and private businesses worldwide is now available on the Webshop page on its website.The studies of these firms provide information about environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks related to controversial activities for which businesses may have met with criticism in publicly available sources (think tanks, universities, NGOs, the media, governments, communities).As CEO Philipp Aeby points out, clients of RepRisk had previously been banking and financial institutions, asset management firms, and pension funds. Now, the ESG database will also be available to multinational companies, NGOs, small and mid-sized businesses, consultants, and retail clients.

Mutual funds based in Asia and Japan posted net inflows of USD69.4bn in 2011, in line with a trend observed in the United States, while Europe saw significant redemptions, according to statistics from Strategic Insight relayed by Asian Investor. Worldwide, net inflows totalled USD200bn, five times less than the USD1trn in net subscriptions observed in each of the previous two years. Worldwide, inflows have been concentrated in recent years on fixed income products, but equities are expected to return to the foreground this year, Strategic Insight predicts. Currently, equities represent slightly over 42% of a total of USD30trn in assets.

Ray Dalio has dethroned George Soros as the best hedge fund manager in the world, after Bridgewater Pure Alpha made investors USD13.8bn last year, the Financial Times reports, citing rankings by LCH Investments. The fund is also the largest in the world, with USD72bn in assets.

RBC Dexia Investor Services on 28 February announced the recruitment of Paul Stillabower as head of strategy, in charge of deploying the group’s growth strategy. Stillabower, who had previously been at HSBC Securities Services, replacex Alex Muto, who will take up a new position as head of Enterprise Transformation, responsible for the integration of new acquisitions and transformation programmes announced by the business.

The Luxembourg-based asset management firm Gamax (Mediolanum group) on 28 February announced the launch of institutional share classes for its Gamax Funds Maxi-Fonds Asien International (LU0743995689) and Gamax Funds Junior (LU0743996067), which are managed by DJE Kapital.The share classes, available with a minimum investment of EUR1m, carry a management fee of 0.9%, rather than the 1.5% charged for retail shares. There are no front-end fees, placement fees, or sale fees.Gamax, which is distributed by max.xs financial services in Germany, says that it has created a special website dedicated to those clients who have invested more than EUR500,000 in these products. The complementary service, Premium Investors Club, offers reports on the funds and alerts by SMS, email, or telephone if the portfolio is modified. It also provides access to the international Gamax community blog and an information service relaying the Gamax Twitter feed.

Lyxor Asset Management has announced its partnership with Ikos to launch the second alternative manager on its Lyxor Dimension UCITS Platform. The Lyxor / Ikos Futures Strategy Index Fund offers access to a diversified managed futures strategywhich applies a systematic quantitative global macro approach to trade highly liquid listed futures. Ikos will be the second alternative strategy on the platform - after Old Mutual Asset Managers (UK) -and Lyxor plans to launch more alternative UCITS funds in the coming months.ISIN Code = IE00B7FN3698

In the area of retirement savings, two providers of retirement savings products are widely popular with the majority of institutional investors and asset management firms. According to the most recent edition of the Kommalpha study, German specialist institutional investors (insurers, pension funds, etc.) and asset management firms surveyed by the agency rank Allianz Global Investors (AGI) and DWS/DB Advisors (Deutsche Bank group) as the best, with 67%/63% and 63%/61% favourable responses, respectively. In third place is Metzler Kag, popular with investors (33%), and Union Investment for asset management firms (44%). Fourth place goes to Fidelity (27%) for institutionals and Deka (30%) for asset managers. Union Investments is cited by 17% of institutional investors for retirement savings products, while Fidelity is chosen by 26% of asset management firms.

Deutsche Bank on 28 February announced that it has entered exclusive negotiations with the financial services firm Guggenheim Partners over a potential sale of its asset management activities. The activities, which are the subject of a strategic review, include mutual funds in North America (DWS Americas), and the international asset management units dedicated to institutional investors (DB Advisors), for insurers (Deutsche Insurance Asset Management) and alternative investments (RREEF).In other words, the negotiations do not include the activities of DWS in Germany, Europe, or Asia, an essential part of the product offerings from Deutsche Bank to private clients in these markets.Guggenheim Partners, whose headquarters are in both New York and Chicago, is a financial services group which has developed expertise in asset management serving institutional clients, particularly serving insurers and retirement planning entities. Its assets under management total over USD125bn.In 2010, Guggenheim Partners acquired LBBW Securities, the broker-dealer affiliate of the German Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW). More recently, Guggenheim sold its Canadian affiliate Claymore, dedicated to ETFs.

A survey of 100 institutional investors by Morningstar, in partnership with Forum GI, finds that the European crisis will lead 41% of respondents to reduce their allocation to high-risk assets in the next few years. Meanwhile, 65% are planning to “prefer yield management to asset management,” to seek regular income and make returns consistent, rather than maximising them.These attitudes are also resulting in a “palpable” mistrust of delegated management, with 51% of respondents preferring to hold live shares rather than hand out asset management mandates or invest in mutual funds.It is clear that for institutionals subject to Solvency II regulations, safer securities need to be preferred, with short maturities. When a buy & hold strategy is opted for, it is less necessary to turn to asset managers. And the fact of holding securities directly provides total transparency, which the French Prudential Control Authority (ACP) will in the end be requiring from each investor; in addition, direct investment is more in line with extra-financial engagement requirements.Pierre-Emmanuel Besnard, head of development at Morningstar Professional, states that these factors will cause the management style to evolve: active management with a low tracking error (27%) is now rivalled by passive, index-based management (28%) and high alpha management (27%).

The board of directors at Bestinver Gestión has decided to considerably lower the minimum threshold for additional subscriptions to six of its funds, Funds People reports. The level has been reduced from EUR3,000 to EUR1,000 for the Bestinver Bolsa, Bestinfond, Bestinver Mixto, Bestinver Mixto Internacional, and Bestinvest International. The level has been lowered from EUR6,000 to EUR3,000 for the Bestinver Renta.

The Frontier Markets Fund, a sub-fund of the Luxembourg-registered Sicav HSBC GIF, is now available in Germany to retail investors (see Newsmanagers of 1 December 2011). The portfolio includes 70 to 90 positions, of which 50% are African and Middle Eastern firms, 40% are Asian and Latin American, and 10% are European. About 50% of the fund is invested in the financial sector.CharacteristicsName: HSBC GIF Frontier Markets FundISIN code: LU0666199749Front-end fee: 5.54%Management commission: 2.15%

Since Monday, 16 new ETC products from Commerzbank have been available for trading on the Xetra electronic platform from Deutsche Börse, which now lists 251 instruments of this type. The new products, all registered in Germany, are ETCs based on WTI oil and cocoa, in long and short versions, plus, for each type of instrument, versions with leverage of 2, 3 and 4. Management commissions vary from 0.40% to 0.75%.

David Loeb, managing director of Goldman Sachs Group, is the subject of a criminal investigation by the US federal authorities, who are seeking to determine whether he transmitted insider information about IT sector shares to hedge fund manager clients of the bank, the Wall Street Journal reports.

A US investigation into insider trading on Wall Street has been extended to shares in the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors, the Financial Times reports, citing a source familiar with the matter. The FBI and the attorney general’s office in Manhattan are investigating transactions by hedge funds in both sectors, in connection with approvals of new medicines and acquisitions or mergers of businesses. On Monday, the FBI identified 300 people concerned in the investigation.

After Citigroup and Bank of America, which have been under investigation since earlier this month, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs have announced that they have been sent Wells notices by the SEC, stating that they are suspected of providing misleading information to investors in order to sell them sub-prime backed securities, the Financial Times reports.

The Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament will Wednesday debate two highly controversial issues in the financial community, the tax on financial transactions and ratings agencies. Anni Podimata, the MEP in charge of the financial transaction tax legislation, will present the proposals as rather an extension of existing frameworks. For his part, Leonardo Domenici, the MEP responsible for the new legislation on ratings agencies, will call for unsolicited ratings of sovereign debt to be forbidden, and for the creation of an entity to evaluate the solvency of European Union member countries.

According to Morningstar, long-term funds domiciled in Europe in January attracted a net total of EUR13bn, of which EUR7bn went to bond funds. Investors showed a predilection for EUR high yield and corporate bond funds, and for high yield funds in US dollars, Investment Europe reports.Equity funds attracted over EUR3bn, their largest inflows since May 2011, while index-based funds attracted EUR1.2bn.

Nick Good will continue to be based in Hong Kong, and will continue to serve as head of iShares for Asia-Pacific until a replacement is found, but he has been appointed to the newly-created position of head of strategy and business development for Asia-Pacific at BlackRock, Asian Investor reports.

Five months after the departure of Dirk von Manikowsky as head of the office of the consultant Hering Schuppener in Düsseldorf, Sal. Oppenheim (Deutsche Bank group) has appointed Pia Kater as head of its press and external relations department, from 2 April. Kater had since 2005 been head of communications and marketing at the independent asset management firm Lupus alpha.The position has been filled in the interim by Markus Bohm, director of press and external relations for the asset management unit at Sal. Oppenheim.

An emblematic figure in the asset management industry in the UK, Nicola Horlick, has started up a new activity which aims to facilitate access to private equity for high net worth clients. Rockpool Investments, which Horlick is launching with two former heads from 3i, Gary Robins and Matt Taylor, will aim to take advantage of recent regulatory changes which aim to encourage investment in SMBs. Horlick, who is co-head of the new firm, will also continue to serve as chair of Bramdean Asset Management, a firm which she also founded. Horlick was in the news in 1997, when she successfully went head to head with her former employer, Deutsche Bank, which had suspended her from her position as managing director at Morgan Grenfell Asset Management on the grounds that she wanted to join a rival company with her entire team.

Philippe Hofer has been appointed as Managing Director and Market Head for Africa Offshore in the International Private Bank, Europe, Middle East and Africa (IPB EMEA) division at Barclays Wealth, Agefi Switzerland reports. He will be based in Geneva, and will report to Nomkhita Nqweni, market manager for Africa, and Patrick Ramsey, director of Barclays Wealth in Switzerland. Hofer had previously been director of emerging markets teams at UBS, where he spent 23 years, largely as Market Head for Africa and Turkey.

The United Kingdom, Switzerland and Sweden were the three markets that attracted the strongest net inflows in Europe in 2011, with nearly EUR46bn, EUR17bn and EUR8bn, respectively, according to estimates by Lipper, which has recently published its latest annual study of the European fund market.Overall, only eight countries out of 32 posted inflows last year, while the market overall saw outflows of EUR70.5bn. After the top three come Norway, Romania, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Russia.France, however, is at the bottom of the rankings, with net outflows of nearly EUR65bn, after Italy (-EUR34.2bn), Germany (-EUR22bn) and Spain (-EUR6bn).In terms of products, the two equity funds which sold best in 2011 were ETFs based on Germany: the iShares DAX with EUR8.4bn, and the DB X-Trackers DJ Dax, with EUR4bn.In bonds, the best-sellers are managed by Franklin Templeton: the Templeton Global Total Return (EUR5.8bn) and the Templeton Global Bond (EUR4.8bn). Pimco comes next, with two global bond funds. In 2011, the 25 best-selling funds accounted for 33% of total inflows.

In 2011, BlackRock, JP Morgan and Schroders were the favourite asset management firms of funds of funds, with 1,277, 1,047 and 1,028 clients of this type investing with them, respectively, according to Lipper, which analysed 2,000 third-party type funds of funds domiciled in Europe. In terms of assets, that represents EUR4.3bn, EUR3.4bn and EUR2.3bn. But only one fund from the three asset management firms places in the top ten best-selling products to this population in 2011: the BlackRock GF World Gold Fund, with 120 investors and EUR172m.The most popular fund for funds of funds in 2011 was the Templeton Global Bond fund, with 157 clients and EUR588m, followed by the M&G Global Basics (157 clients and EUR215.6m), and the Alken Fund – European Equities (155 clients and EUR407.3m).Two French firms place in the rankings of the top 10 favourite companies of funds of funds in 2011: Amundi, in seventh place, with 7661 fund of fund clients and EUR2bn in assets, and BNP Paribas, just behind with 705 clients and EUR2.4bn. But none of their funds placed in the top 10 products.Overall, in 2011, inflows from external funds of funds totalled EUR7.8bn in Europe, while the market saw outflows of about EUR70bn.France was the largest market in terms of assets in external funds of funds, according to Lipper, with EUR66.2bn, followed by the United Kingdom and Germany.

On 28 February, ETF Securities added four ETCs to trading on the London Stock Exchange, which replicate DJ-UBS sub-indices of Brent crude oil. The ETFS Brent Crude and ETFS Forward Brent Crude funds charge 0.49%, while the ETFS Short Brent Crude (leverage of -1) and Leveraged Brent Crude (leverage of 2) carry a management commission of 0.98%. They are all registered in Jersey, and denominated in US dollars.

In January, open-ended funds on sale in Italy underwent net outflows of EUR3.236bn, according to the most recent statistics from Assogestioni, the Italian association of asset managers. All categories of funds showed outflows, particularly money market funds, which saw outflows of EUR1.115bn. As of the end of January, assets in open-ended funds totalled EUR427bn, slightly up compared with December (EUR419bn). With the addition of closed funds and discretionary portfolios, assets totalled EUR469bn, compared with EUR938bn one month earlier. Asset management firms which posted the strongest net inflows in January for open-ended funds and discretionary management were Poste Italiane (EUR570.5bn), Credit Suisse (EUR314.9m) and Arca (EUR223m). At the other end of the rankings, the asset management firms which psoted the largest redemption demands were Generali (-EUR1.375bn), Pioneer (-EUR1.303bn) and Banca Popolare (pEUR434.6m). The French firms Amundi and BNP Paribas, for their part, posted outflows (-EUR399.4m and -EUR387.5m, respectively), while Axa posted a positive balance (+EUR89.6m). The sector is dominated by three Italian firms: Intesa Sanpaolo, Generali and Pioneer, which control nearly 50% of assets.

In fourth quarter 2011, operating margins for asset management firms in the United States fell to an average of 31.2%, compared with 32.2% in July to September, while the net margin increased to 23.1% compared with 20.1%, the consulting firm Kasina reports.Falling operating margins may be partly due to fundamental changes in investors’ asset allocations. Total flows now total over USD122bn, as investors have continued to pull out of equity products that charge high commissions and turn to lower-risk bond products. US equity funds have seen outflows of USD43.7bn in fourth quarter, while bond funds have posted inflows of USD41.1bn. Actively-managed funds have seen net redemptions of USD30bn, while index-based, passively-managed funds have seen net inflows of USD22.8bn.Kasina finds that asset management firms are facing increasing pressure from distributors on the price front. Major broker-dealers are increasing the prices for access to their platforms, due to the modest level of margins earned from distributors compared with asset management firms. Between 2009 and 2011, the spread between distributor and asset manager margins has consistently increased, and now totals 19%.

The CEO of the Philippines Stock Exchange (PSE), Hans Sicat, is working in close collaboration with the local market authority in order to develop new products and services, Asian Investor reports. Sicat is hoping to introduce ETFs on the Philippine market along with a functional framework for securities lending in second half 2012, possibly in third quarter.

La politique de gestion financière de CGPA repose sur les grands principes suivants : Favoriser les grandes classes d’actifs (obligations et actions des grands marchés) et réserver à la gestion plus spécialisée une part marginale du portefeuille. Déléguer l’ensemble de la gestion financière tout en assurant en interne un contrôle rigoureux de l’activité ainsi déléguée. Faire intervenir un conseil externe en actuariat, en l’occurrence Altia, dans les domaines de la gestion actif/passif, l’allocation stratégique d’actif, le suivi et le contrôle des délégations de gestion financière. L’allocation d’actifs est la suivante: 73.1% d’obligations et placements d’attente, 10.7% d’obligations convertibles, 10.6% d’actions (hors participation et non coté), et 5.6% d’autres actifs (immobilier et non coté). En 2011, l’ensemble des mandats a fait l’objet d’une revue afin de vérifier leur adéquation aux évolutions des conditions de marché et des risques. Il a été décidé d’investir notamment 35 millions d’euros dans un FCP dédié sur la gestion taux euro euro aggregate.

UFF Obli Context août 2015 : un fonds à échéance pour saisir les opportunités du marché du crédit, dans le monde entier La stratégie adoptée par le fonds consiste à construire un portefeuille d’obligations d’entreprises et d’obligations convertibles internationales notées en moyenne « investment grade » (> BBB-). Gérer de manière complémentaire ces deux univers permet l’accès à un plus grand nombre de titres. Le risque géographique est mieux réparti et le rendement optimisé, pour une qualité de signature qui peut ainsi demeurer élevée. Les obligations convertibles choisies sont en outre peu sensibles à la baisse des actions. Afin de limiter au maximum le risque de défaut d’une société, qui est le seul véritable risque du fonds, l'équipe de gestion s’emploie à sélectionner rigoureusement les valeurs et à diversifier le portefeuille, que ce soit en nombre de lignes, de pays (Europe, Etats-Unis, Asie) et de secteurs. Le fonds a une durée de vie fixée à l’avance, échéance fin août 2015. Le souscripteur connaît à l’avance le rendement moyen attendu du portefeuille (5% brut), sous réserve qu’aucune des entreprises dont les titres ont été sélectionnés ne fasse effectivement défaut. La gestion financière de ce fonds a été confiée à Acropole Asset Management, spécialiste de la gestion des obligations privées et convertibles, qui, pour réaliser cette stratégie, va adopter un processus d’investissement s’appuyant sur : la sélection d’obligations d’entreprises et d’obligations convertibles grâce à une analyse fondamentale sur les zones européenne, Etats-Unis et Asie l’utilisation de filtres crédit, liquidité et valorisation la revue de la concentration des risques avec le suivi des limites géographiques, émetteur, secteur et pourcentage d’investissement Par ailleurs, l’UFF prépare un fonds garanti à formule sur huit ans qui devrait être prêt pour avril-mai.