Par une notification à la SEC (form N1-A), Legg Mason ETF Trust a annoncé son intention de lancer «dès que possible» le Legg Mason Western Asset Ultra-Short Duration ETF. Il s’agira d’un ETF obligataire duration courte à gestion active. Le taux de chargement de ce produit «sous-conseillé» par la filiale Western Asset Management (Wamco) n’a pas été encore fixé. Les gérants seront Martin Hanley, Kevin Kennedy et Stephen Walsh.En période normale, précise la notification, la duration effective du portefeuille sera au maximum d’un an.

Strategic Insight a récemment racheté, via sa filiale Asset International, une gamme de six produits Financial Research Corp (FRC), rappelle Mutual Fund Wire. Les produits Monitor, Lifecycle, Market Sizing, Sub-Advisory, Alternatives et les 529 plans d'épargne pour les études supérieurs (college savings) vont continuer à être commercialisés sous la marque FRC. C’est Mike Rosenthal, senior vice président d’Asset International, qui va diriger le nouvel ensemble, précise Mutual Fund Wire.

Goldman Sachs Group va lancer une activité d’incubation de hedge funds, rapporte The Wall Street Journal.La banque a levé 600 millions de dollars auprès de clients (fonds de pension, familles fortunées et grandes institutions) pour un nouveau fonds dédié à cette activité.Elle prévoit d’investir dans 8 à 10 nouveaux hedge funds, selon des personnes proches du dossier. Chacun devrait recevoir entre 75 et 150 millions de dollars de la part du fonds, qui est censé lever un total de 1 milliard de dollars environ

La Société Générale a indiqué dans un communiqué que la vente de sa filiale de gestion californienne n'était toujours pas d’actualité contrairement à des informations de l’agence Bloomberg, rapporte L’Agefi. Bloomberg évoquait une cession ou une entrée en Bourse avec une valorisation d’un milliard de dollars. La SocGen a répété qu’une IPO était envisageable dans les deux ou trois prochaines années.

Les fonds ouverts commercialisés en Italie ont accusé en octobre des rachats nets de 5,125 milliards d’euros après avoir vu sortir 4,732 milliards en septembre, selon les dernières statistiques d’Assogestioni, l’association italienne des professionnels de la gestion. Depuis le début de l’année, les demandes de remboursements se montent à 18,516 milliards d’euros, faisant revenir les encours des fonds ouverts à 431,648 milliards d’euros.En octobre, toutes les catégories de fonds sont dans le rouge. Mais la décollecte a été particulièrement forte pour les fonds monétaires (-2,059 milliards) et les fonds obligataires (-1,763 milliards). En termes de domiciliation de fonds, ce sont les produits de droit italien qui ont le plus subi les rachats (-3,197 milliards), tandis que les fonds de droit étranger perdaient 1,928 milliard. Si l’on ajoute les fonds fermés et les gestions discrétionnaires, le secteur italien de la gestion d’actifs a vu sortir en octobre 5,799 milliards d’euros. Et les encours sont ressortis à 958.300 milliards d’euros.Concernant les sociétés de gestion, Credit Suisse tire son épingle du jeu en enregistrant des souscriptions nettes de 119,8 millions d’euros, devant Azimut (112 millions) et Axa (68,7 millions). De l’autre côté du spectre, Pioneer détient une fois de plus le record mensuel de décollecte nette, avec 1,784 milliard d’euros, devant Intesa Sanpaolo (1,6 milliard) et AM Holding (666,5 millions).

Pour 33 millions de dollars en actions, BNY Mellon acquiert Penson Financial Services Australia Pty Ltd (PFSA), qui deviendra filiale de sa boutique Pershing. La transaction devrait être bouclée avant la fin de l’année.PFSA est une société de compensation qui propose des services d’exécution et de compensation ainsi que le traitement des transactions sur les actions cotées localement ainsi que pour les options traitées en Bourse.

Wendel a reçu mardi une offre ferme et non sollicitée de TE Connectivity, en vue d’acquérir la totalité du capital de Deutsch, leader mondial des connecteurs pour environnements sévères. Wendel et Jean-Marie Painvin, co-actionnaire de Deutsch et président du conseil d’administration, ont décidé d’entrer en négociations exclusives avec TE Connectivity pour finaliser la transaction, indique un communiqué.

La Française AM et Energy Funds Advisors viennent de lancer LFP EFA Vision Pétrole, un fonds coordonné de droit français (UCITS IV) dont l’objectif consiste notamment à tirer profit de la rareté géologique, du retard dans le développement des produits de substitution, et de la croissance continue de la demande de pétrole. La Française AM s’appuie dans ce cadre sur l’expertise de la société de conseil en investissements financiers Energy Funds Advisors (EFA) dont les deux fondateurs présentent des expériences complémentaires en tant que spécialistes des marchés de l’énergie : Luca Baccarini, expert d’Energy Trading, ex directeur général délégué de Gaselys, et Olivier Rech, économiste de l’Énergie, ex Institut Français de Pétrole et Agence Internationale de l’Énergie.De nature diversifiée, le fonds investit sur des actions, devises, obligations, marché monétaire et instruments liés aux matières premières. Caractéristiques :Code ISIN : FR0011091891Frais de gestion : 1,70% (T.T.C.) maximumCommission de surperformance : 20% (T.T.C.) au-delà de l’indice de référenceDroits d’entrée : 4% maximum (non acquis)Droits de sortie : NéantSouscripteurs concernés : Tous investisseurs, et plus particulièrement les institutionnelsMontant minimum souscription initiale : 150 000 €Indice de référence : MSCI World Index (dividendes nets réinvestis) libellé en euroDevise : EuroPériodicité de valorisation : Hebdomadaire (le jeudi)

Dans un secteur sinistré, les fonds actions européennes des sociétés de gestion indépendantes, et notamment françaises, parviennent à engranger des souscriptions, montre une étude de Fitch Ratings.Ainsi, entre juillet 2010 et juillet 2011, les fonds actions européennes toutes catégories confondues ont accusé des rachats nets de 12,3 milliards d’euros. Malgré tout, 38 % des sociétés de gestion sur les 800 présentes sur ce segment ont réussi à collecter. Et sur les trente sociétés de gestion ayant enregistré les plus fortes souscriptions nettes, dix-huit sont des sociétés indépendantes. Parmi elles figurent de nombreuses structures françaises : Edmond de Rothschild, Financière de l’Echiquier, Oddo AM, Mandarine Gestion, DNCA, Rothschild & Cie et Métropole Gestion.En dépit du dynamisme de ces sociétés indépendantes, le segment des fonds actions européennes reste aux mains des grands acteurs. Ainsi, un tiers des actifs totaux (264 milliards d’euros) sont gérés par 13 sociétés de gestion et les deux tiers par 53 sociétés. Le principal acteur est Fidelity qui se détache avec 21,6 milliards d’euros d’encours, loin devant un groupe de sociétés gérant chacun environ 10 milliards d’euros (BNP Paribas Investment Partners, BlackRock et Allianz Global Investors). Seuls 80 acteurs sur 800 gèrent plus de 1 milliard d’euros d’actions européennes.Fitch Ratings observe par ailleurs que le secteur souffre depuis 2007. Ainsi, les encours ont baissé de 46 % depuis cette année, en raison à la fois de la baisse des marchés mais aussi des rachats nets (115,5 milliards d’euros). Une situation propre à ces fonds, puisque les fonds actions américaines n’ont eu que 5 % de rachats contre 20 % pour les actions européennes, les fonds actions émergentes n’ont pas enregistré de rachats et les actions monde ont enregistré 115 milliards d’euros de souscriptions.

Le gestionnaire français DNCA Finance (5,3 milliards d’euros d’encours) ouvre le 1er décembre une succursale à Munich, Ludwigstraße 8, où Guido Raddatz rejoint Jan Schünemann, directeur de la distribution pour l’Allemagne. Pour 2012, les deux personnes citées devraient pouvoir faire face à la montée en charge, «mais DNCA est naturellement prêt à investir davantage dans la croissance si l'évolution de l’activité le permet» a indiqué à Newsmanagers Jan Schünemann.L’ouverture du bureau de Munich s’inscrit dans la logique de la stratégie européenne de la maison française, qui a récemment ouvert une succursale en Italie (lire newsmanagers du 21 septembre).Guido Raddatz a fait une carrière dans la direction de la distribution chez DWS investments, DJE Kapital, Hypo Invest et Zürich Invest.

Directeur général de Risklab GmbH depuis juillet 2010, Reinhold Hafner a été nommé par Allianz Global Investors, la maison-mère de Risklab, au poste de CIO Global Solutions d’AGI à compter du 1er janvier 2012, rapporte la Börsen-Zeitung. L’intéressé était entré chez Risklab comme ingénieur financier en 1997. Il sera subordonné à Thomas Wieseman, directeur de Global Solutions.

Depuis le 29 novembre, la cote du segment XTF de la plate-forme électronique Xetra comporte 898 ETF, Amundi ayant fait admettre à la négociation quatre produits actions supplémentaires, de droit français.Il s’agit du Amundi ETF MSCI Spain (FR0010655746) chargé à 0,25 %, du Amundi ETF MSCI World (FR0010756098), chargé à 038 %, ainsi que de deux ETF pour lesquels la commission de gestion est fixée à 0,45 %, Amundi ETF MSCI EM Latin America (FR0011020973) et Amundi ETF MSCI EM Asia (FR0011020965).

Oliver Schlick, directeur général de Bayern Invest, a indiqué que la société de gestion institutionnelle (33 milliards d’euros d’encours) se détache toujours davantage de sa clientèle traditionnelle, celle des caisses d'épargne, qui ne représentent plus qu’environ 18 % de ses actifs sous gestion contre plus d’un quart il y a quelques années. Cela tient au fait qu’il est difficile de faire accepter par les caisses d'épargne des investissements cœur de portefeuille dans les émergents, alors qu’elles se focalisent sur les actions zone euro. Actuellement, les assureurs sont de loin le premier client, avec 31 % du total, devant les caisses complémentaires (25 % environ) et les entreprises (16 %). Bayern Invest compte développer ces segments de clientèle.

“Sometimes, I wonder what the point of my ratings is,” admits Valéry Lucas-Leclin, a senior SRI analyst at BofA Merrill Lynch in London, at a conference organized by Novethic on extra-financial ratings and measurement of ESG (environmental, social and governance) risks. “Even the best ESG analysis can’t predict a crash on the stock market,” he adds.Making a comparison with financial research, Lucas-Leclin notes that equity analysts establish recommendations based on the financial valuation of a share in 12 months’ time, while credit analysts calculate the likelihood of a default in the next 5 years. “These are two predictive and verifiable professions,” he says.For extra-financial analysis, things are more blurry: “Do we want to create a sort of standard by saying that companies shouldn’t behave in this or that way, or predict something?” he asks.Participating in the same round table, Nicole Notat observes that a growing number of investors want to use SRI as a way to control risks. But that process rarely results in a monetisation of risks.Notat points out that ratings by extra-financial ratings are used by investors to forge their own opinions. “We hope that we will never get to the point of what happens to financial ratings agencies, where the rating of a share is a sign to buy or sell,” says Notat.

Marie-Anne van den Berg, chairman of the managing board at LBBW Luxembourg, has been appointed as a managing board member at Hauck & Aufhäuser Banquiers Luxembourg. She joins Michael O. Bentlage and Bernd Sinnwell on the managing board of the wholly-owned subsidiary of Hauck & Aufhäuser Privatbankiers KgaA.On Tuesday evening, the website of the Luxembourg bank had not yet been updated to reflect the appointment.

The mutual fund industry in Latin America could reach between USD2.8trn and 3.6trn in assets by 2020, while assets in pension funds could approach USD3trn, according to a study by Strategic Insight. That would mean total assets of more than USD6trn. Currently, the Latin American fund industry represents USD1.4trn, equivalent in size to Asia, while pension funds total USD850bn. Latin America is also home to the densest population of ultra-high net worth individuals in the world.This potential is already attracting some Western asset management firms. Several of these are already present in the region, especially in Brazil, which represents over USD1trn in assets, and in Mexico (USD250bn), Julius Baer has bought a stake in the wealth management firm GPS, while JP Morgan Highbridge has acquired Gàvea.European actors may also profit from the strong growth of UCITS funds in the region. Chilean pension funds now hold 45% of their USD155bn in assets in UCITS. Peru and Colombia are also widely using cross-border UCITS.

Open-ended funds sold in Italy have seen net outflows in October of EUR5.125bn, following outflows of EUR4.732bn in September, according to the most recent statistics from Assogestioni, the Italian association of asset managers. Since the beginning of the year, redemptions have totalled EUR18.516bn, bringing assets in open-ended funds to EUR431.658bn. In October, all categories of funds are in the red, but outflows have been particularly heavy from money market funds (-EUR2.059bn), and bond funds (-EUR1.763bn). In terms of fund domicile, Italian-registered products have seen the heaviest redemptions (-EUR3.197bn), while foreign-registered funds have lost EUR1.928bn. With the addition of closed funds and discretionary management, the Italian asset management industry has seen net outflows in October of EUR5.799bn, and assets totalled EUR958.300bn. In terms of asset management firms, Credit Suisse has done well, with net inflows of EUR119.8m, followed by Azimut (EUR112m) and Axa (EUR68.7m). At the other end of the spectrum, Pioneer has once again set a monthly outflow record, with EUR1.784bn, followed by Intesa Sanpaolo (EUR1.6bn) and AM Holding (EUR666.5m).

Schroders will next month launch an onshore version of its Luxembourg-domiciled US equity alpha fund, Money Marketing reports.The fund, whose launch is slated for 14 December, will bring together the best ideas from the team dedicated to US large caps, led by Joanna Shatney.The fund, which will start with capital of GBP5m, will invest in 20 to 30 positions on companies with a market capitalisation of at least GBP1bn. It may have a cash allocation of up to 15%.The fund has a performance objective of 3.5% after commissions. Commissions are 1.5% per year, with a total expense ratio of 1.75% at most. The minimal investment is GBP1,000.

The British asset management firm Brooks Macdonald Asset Management has recruited the former star manager from New Star, Toby Thompson, as chief investment officer, Money Marketing reports. Over his career, Thompson has managed funds at Newington and Eagle Star Investment Managers.

The French asset management firm DNCA Finance (EUR5.3bn in assets) will open a branch office in Munich, at Ludwigstraße 8, on 1 December. In the new office, Guido Raddatz will join Jan Schünemann, head of distribution for Germany. In 2012, the two men will lead a charge, “but DNCA is naturally prepared to invest more in growth, if the evolution of the activity permits it,” Schünemann tells Newsmanagers.The opening of the Munich office is part of the French firm’s pan-European strategy. The firm has recently opened an office in Italy (see Newsmanagers of 21 September).Raddatz has spent his career as executive in distribution at DWS Investments, DJE Kapital, Hypo Invest and Zürich Invest.

Reinhold Hafner, CEO of Risklab GmbH since July 2010, has been appointed by Risklab’s parent company, Allianz Global Investors, to the position of CIO Global Solutions at AGI, from 1 January 2012, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. Hafner joined Risklab as a financial engineer in 1997. He will report to Thomas Wieseman, head of Global Solutions.

Oliver Schlick, CEO of Bayern Invest, has announced that the institutional asset management firm (EUR33bn in assets) will be moving further afield from its traditional client base in savings banks, which now represent only 18% of its assets under management, down from one quarter a few years ago, Börsen-Zeitung reports. This is due to the fact that it is difficult to convince savings banks to accept core portfolio investments in emerging markets, as they focus more on euro zone equities.Currently, insurers are the top client category by far, with 31% of the total, followed by complementary employee savings plans (about 25%) and businesses (16%). Bayern Invest is planning to develop these client segments.

With the Irish-registered iShares Dow Jones Emerging Markets Select Dividend fund, created on 25 November, BlackRock on 28 November added a physical replication ETF fund which tracks the Dow Jones Emerging Markets Select Dividend Index, including 100 companies in 18 emerging markets capable of paying high dividends over the long term, to trading on the London Stock Exchange.The official index for the fund (in pounds Sterling) is the net total return version of the inrex, but due to technical difficulties, iShares is currently replicating the gross total return version.CharacteristicsName: iShares Dow Jones Emerging Markets Select Dividend (SEDY)ISIN code: IE00B652H904Total expense ratio: 0.65%

About 42% of hedge fund managers cite the possibility of a default or a restructuring of Italian or Spanish debt, according to a survey undertaken in the past few weeks by Aksia of 125 funds representing more than one third of all hedge fund assets. The survey finds that 60% of managers predict that Greece will exit from the euro. Two thirds of managers surveyed estimate that EU member states will have to issue Euro bonds. Nearly 94% of managers would like to see further easing of monetary policy in Europe. The best-performing strategy in the next twelve months may be global macro.

The gobal investor confidence index published by State Street Global Markets increased to 97.2 in November, up 2.0 points from October’s revised reading of 95.2. North American investor confidence increased 4.7 points to 95.2 from October’s revised reading of 90.5, while confidence among European institutional investors rose 5.4 points from October’s revised level of 96.1 to 101.5. The mood was slightly more subdued in Asia, where the investor confidence index fell 4.2 points to 94.6 from October’s revised reading of 98.8.

A study by the Kommalpha agency of 150 decision-makers at institutional investors about the image of depository banks and asset management firms in terms of their perceived availability to clients, flexibility, and characteristics of expertise in their core professions, has found that 74% of respondents see image and brand as an important element in the selection of providers. The full results of the study will be made available in forst quarter 2012, Clemens Schuerhoff, a managing board member at Kommalpha, has told Newsmanagers.Dirk Bedarz, another board member at Kommalpha, points out that the first overall result is all the more important as depository banks and asset management firms, for their part, tend to strongly underestimate the importance of their image in winning over new clients.

In a SEC filing (form N1-A), Legg Mason ETF Trust has announced plans to launch the Legg Mason Western Asset Ultra-Short Duration ETF “as soon as possible.” The product will be a short-duration, actively-managed bond ETF fund. Fees for the product, which will be “sub-advised” by the firm’s affiliate Western Asset Management (Wamco) have not yet been set. The managers are Martin Hanley, Kevin Kennedy and Stephen Walsh. In normal conditions, the filing states, the effective duration of the portfolio will be at most one year.

La Française AM and Energy Funds Advisors have teamed up to launch LFP EFA Vision Pétrole, a French-registered, UCITS IV-compliant fund, in the diversified category, which aims to benefit from the geological rarity, delay in developing substitute products, and continuing growth in demand for oil.La Française AM will rely on the expertise of the financial investment advising firm Energy Funds Advisors (EFA), whose two founders have complementary experience as energy market specialists: Luca Baccarini, an expert at Energy trading, is former deputy CEO of Gaselys, and Olivier Rech, an energy economist, formerly of the French oil institute and the International energy institute.The fund will be diversified, and will invest in equities, currencies, bonds, and money market instruments, as well as instruments backed by commodities.CharacteristicsISIN code: FR0011091891Management fee: 1.70% (T.T.C.) maximumOutperformance commission: 20% (T.T.C.) on performance exceeding the benchmarkFront-end fee: 4% (not paid to fund)Withdrawal penalty: NoneSubscribers targeted: All investors, particularly institutionalsMinimal initial subscription: EUR150,000Benchmark index: MSCI World Index (net dividends reinvested) denominated in eurosCurrency: EuroValuation periodicity: Weekly (Thursdays)

Since 29 November, the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic trading platform lists 898 ETF funds, as Amundi has added four more French-registered equity products to trading.The new funds are the Amundi ETF MSCI Spain (FR0010655746), which charges 0.25%, the Amundi ETF MSCI World (FR0010756098), which charges 0.38%, and two ETFs for which the commission is set at 0.45%, the Amundi ETF MSCI EM Latin America (FR0011020973) and Amundi ETF MSCI EM Asia (FR0011020965).

The European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) is planning to introduce certain rules which are specific to ETFs, but there is no talk of creating an ETF-specific regime, the chairman of ESMA, Steven Maijoor, announced on 29 November at the Investment Management Forum of the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA).“The approach that ESMA intends to follow is to identify clearly those provisions which are relevant to all UCITS funds, with only some rules being specific to ETFs and reflecting their characteristics (for example, the aforementioned issues relating to the secondary market trading),” says Maijoor. For issues arising from securities lending activities, for instance, the approach that the regulator intends to follow is to cover all kinds of UCITS – ETFs and non-ETFs – engaging in such activity.Regarding the PRIPs initiatives, the range of products to be covered is quite broad and potentially includes collective investment undertakings, structured products, insurance-based investments and derivatives. Maijoor adds that for selling practices in particular, he is aware of the fact that a horizontal legislative approach may raise some issues in relation to the areas of competence of securities and insurance regulators in those EU Member States where they are not integrated and that the Commission already presented a proposal for the review of the MiFID rules. «Should the Commission decide not to adopt a horizontal legislative approach for the harmonisation of both disclosure rules and selling practices for PRIPs, I strongly hope that at least, in order to ensure the necessary consistency, the revised Insurance Mediation Directive (IMD) will provide that the MiFID II rules on selling practices apply to those PRIPs which are within the scope of the IMD», he says.