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17/11/2011

Prudential chooses Eastspring brand for management in Asia

UK-based Prudential Plc (GBP349.5bn in assets under management as of the end of June) has announced that in early January, it will adopt the brand name Eastspring Investments for the asset management unit of Prudential Corporation Asia (USD80bn in funds as of 30 September).The future Eastspring, which is active in ten markets in the region, employs about 2,000 people, and management teams on 8 markets, in addition to a central management team based in Singapore.The new brand will replace the Prudential brand in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Tiawan, Japan, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam. It will not be used for joint ventures in China, India or Hong Kong (BOCI-Prudential).Eastspring Investments will continue to be led by Graham Mason, a Prudential veteran who has served in management positions in the group for over 20 years.
17/11/2011

Franklin, MFS and AEW win mandates in Thailand

Of a total of USD600m included in a request for proposals (see Newsmanagers of 7 March), the Thai Social Security Office (SSO) has awarded mandates totalling USD200m to three foreign asset management firms, Franklin Templeton (global bonds), MFS Investment Management (global equities), and SEW Capital (global real estate). According to Asian Investor, the SSO has also retained the Thai firm Thanachart Fund Mangement as co-manager and head of forex risk.Mandates for the remaining USD400m will be selected next year. Meanwhile, SSO is seeking a consultant to assist it with this request for proposals.
17/11/2011

Syz recruits two former UBS managers

The Swiss banking group Syz & Co has announced that Reto Gehring and Alexandre Potelle have joined Syz Fund Research, its fund analysis and “long only” manager selection service. The two new staff members join the team of Katia Coudray Cornu, who was appointed head of Syz Fund Research in June 2011. Reto Gehring has been appointed head of research, while Alexandre Potelle is senior analyst.Prior to joining Syz & Co as head of research for Syz Fund Research, Reto Gehring spent ten years working at UBP in Geneva in the multi-manager and manager selection team established by Katia Coudray-Cornu in 2001, where he had held the position of Head of Research since 2009. Alexandre Potelle had also worked for UBP’s multi-manager and manager selection team, since 2006.
17/11/2011

Nikko AM planning IPO

The Japanese fund manager Nikko Asset Management announced on Wednesday it plans to list its shares via a 45.5 billion yen (USD591 million) initial public offering on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, according to Reuters.The fund manager will go public on December 15, with an initial offering of 54.15 million shares, with a price of 840 yen per share. The over-allotment options is of 2.98 million shares.Sumitomo Trust and Banking Co, which bought Nikko Asset from Citigroup in 2009 and now owns 91.3%, will sell a part of its shareholdings, says Reuters.Nikko AM had assets under management of USD162.4bn as of 30 June 30 and employs 572 employees, of which 71 fund managers.
17/11/2011

SSgA launches two passive credit funds with “alternative” weighting

In Luxembourg, State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) has released the index-based products SSgA US Issuer Scored Corporate Bond Index Fund and SSgA Euro Issuer Scored Corporate Bond Index Fund, which are inspired by the SPDR® Barclays Capital Issuer Scored Corporate Bond Exchange Traded Fund, released in the United States on 7 April, and which replicate Barclays Capital “alternative” Issuer Scored Corporate Bond Indices (ISCI). The indices exclude subordinate debt and debt issued by non-publicly-traded companies.SSgA research contributed to the creation of the indices, for whose use the asset management firm has obtained a two-year exclusive agreement. The methodology involves projecting the financial solidity of issuers by quantitatively changing the weightings for indices of private bonds denominated in US dollars and euros, depending on three factors: returns on assets (RoA), coverage for capital interests (leverage), and the current ratio.The change makes it possible to bet on the most financially solid issuers, while conventional capital-weighted indices give implicit primacy to larger issuers, and thus to companies with higher levels of debt.SSgA may now create portfolios with sectoral characteristics similar to a traditional index, but which would offer lower volatility and higher returns once adjusted for risk.
17/11/2011

ESMA publishes rules for AIFM directive

ESMA has published on Wednesday its final advice (ESMA/2011/379) on the detailed rules underlying the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD). The rules proposed by ESMA will establish a comprehen-sive framework for alternative investment funds, their managers and depositaries. They are also designed to help achieve the AIFMD’s objective of increased transparency and tackling systemic risk, ultimately contributing to a more sound protection of investors. ESMA’s advice follows a 2010 request by the Com-mission, originally sent to ESMA’s predecessor, CESR, asking ESMA to deliver its final advice by 16 No-vember 2011.ESMA was asked to submit its advice to the Commission by 16 November. It is now for the Commission to prepare the implementing measures on the basis of this advice.The report can be consulted at: http://www.esma.europa.eu/popup2.php?id=8059
17/11/2011

Regulators admit weakness of Solvency II on sovereign debt risk

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) yesterday released an official report on Solvency II. According to Agefi, the new prudential requirements for the insurance sector will come into force only on 1 January 2014. EIOPA hopes that the general principles of the directive, known as level 1, will be passed by the European Parliament in the firt half of 2012, as a part of the Omnibus 2 bill. The Authority will launch a parallel consultation in May 2012 to cover the enforcement of Solvency III, which it expects to complete only in September. 2013 will be dedicated to the transition to the new regime.
17/11/2011

SEC targets fund fees

The SEC has sent a first stern message to the mutual fund sector, by requiring Morgan Stanley to pay back USD1.8m to the Malaysia Fund, and to pay the SEC a further USD1.5m to settle the case, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Malaysia Fund apparently paid a third party consultant for services not rendered, and Morgan Stanley provided “wholly inadequate” oversight of the provider for 12 years.It can be expected to be more cases of this kind in the future, the SEC warned, in an effort to ensure that asset managers properly oversee their third-party providers and to keep their billing honest.
17/11/2011

Aaron Cowen launches Suvretta Capital Management

Aaron Cowen, a former portfolio manager at Soros Fund Management and SAC Capital Advisors, is preparing to launch the alternative management firm Suvretta Capital management, which will specialise in long/short equity hedge funds, in second or third quarter 2012, Absolut Return + Alpha reports.Cowen will be chief investment officer, and will be joined by other colleagues from Soros FM, as well as from Karsch Capital Management, another of his former employers.
17/11/2011

BNP Paribas Investment Partners also to reduce staff

Agefi reports that several sources have stated that BNP Paribas Investment Partners is also preparing to announce staff reductions. 279 jobs are at risk, of which 91 are in France, where a job protection plan with no involuntary redundancies will be put in place. The affiliate, which has 3,700 employees worldwide, of whom 800 are in France, yesterday confirmed the numbers to the newspaper. Management also cited a need to maintain productivity, though between 1 January and 30 September, asset management saw net outflows of EUR22.4bn.
17/11/2011

US asset management firms do not invest enough in growth

According to a McKinsey study published by the Financial Times, costs borne by US asset management firms have increased by 12%, but only 3 percentage points of this increase has been channelled in the form of investment to the segments which a consensus identified as likely to experience growth. These expanding areas are alternative investments such as hedge funds, retirement products, ETFs and emerging markets. Asset management firms are in agreement about where growth will be likely to come, but not necessarily about how much growth there will be.
17/11/2011

Direxion steps up leverage for 10 of its ETFs

From 1 December, the ten Bull and bear directional ETFs with leverage of 2 will be replaced by two products with a leverage of 3, with the objective of increasing daily exposure to +/- 300%, up from +/- 200% currently.
17/11/2011

Mandarine appoints a head of compliance

Arthur Clouard-Even has been appointed as head of compliance and controlling at Mandarine Gestion. He will also be in charge of creating controlling reports and regulatory reporting. Clouard-Even previously served as head of legal affairs at the French asset management firm. The responsibilities of compliance and controlling had previously been assumed by Rémi Leservoisier, CEO. “At this stage in our development, it is necessary to separate the functions of the CEO and the head of compliance and internal control, on the one hand in order to meet legal requirements, and on the other in order to guarantee to our investors that Mandarine Gestion management policy and deontology will be followed,” Leservoisier explains.
17/11/2011

Institutionals feel ETFs are adequately regulated

A survey by db-x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) of 143 German and Austrian institutional investors finds that 77% of respondents consider ETFs to be sufficiently regulated by the UCITS directive, while 71% feel that ETFs meet the highest transparency requirements for structure and counterparty risk (only 19% think this of conventional funds).Respondents say that the main selection criteria favouring ETFs are security and precision of replication of the index. However, db x-trackers notes, the criteria of “cost,” “transparency” and “liquidity” were mentioned considerably less often. The structure of the ETF was the criterion most often cited.
17/11/2011

Another unauthorised trading scandal at UBS

On Wednesday, the British court before which John Pottage is fighting a fine of GBP100,000 levelled by the FSA learned that there was another unauthorised trading case at UBS in 2007, at the Africa trading desk in London, the Financial Times reports. The former head of the wealth management division in the UK stated that he had taken all measures to remedy the serious shortfalls in risk management, and to eradicate “sloppy” compliance practices. The FSA accuses Pottage of detecting the faults too late.
17/11/2011

Pas de gestion de fortune à court terme en Chine

Le 21st Century Business Herald, citant des sources proches du régulateur, indique que la Commission bancaire chinoise a interdit aux banques de distribuer des produits de gestion de fortune dont la maturité est inférieure ou égale à un mois. Avec pour objectif d’atténuer la volatilité.
17/11/2011

Mario Monti passe son premier test

Le président du Conseil italien, qui s’est aussi réservé les Finances dans le gouvernement de techniciens formé hier, doit présenter son programme économique aujourd’hui.
17/11/2011

La finance islamique promise à une forte croissance

La crise de la dette pourrait permettre à la finance islamique de quasiment doubler ses actifs à 1.800 milliards de dollars d’ici 2016, selon une étude de Deutsche Bank,la stagnation du crédit corporate poussant les émetteurs à chercher des solutions de financement alternatives. L’industrie des obligations islamiques (sukuk), chiffrée à 50 milliards de dollars, qui représente actuellement 1% de l’émission totale de dette, attire un nombre croissant d’émetteurs et fournit des perspectives de croissance importante des revenus de commission pour les institutions financières islamiques. La liquidité du marché a éveillé l’intérêt d’acteurs de premier plan, à l’image de Goldman Sachs qui vient de créer un programme sukuk de 2 milliards de dollars. Deutsche Bank souligne par ailleurs que le pipeline d’émissions de sukuk pourrait être alimenté par le fait que de nombreux émetteurs européens sont détenus en partie par des fonds souverains du Golfe.
16/11/2011

Le nouveau gouvernement grec obtiendra la confiance cet après-midi

Le chef de file des conservateurs grecs, Antonis Samaras, a annoncé qu’il votera cet après-midi la confiance au nouveau gouvernement d’unité afin de permettre le déblocage de la sixième tranche d’aide au pays, même s’il a refusé de signer l’engagement écrit de respecter les modalités du dernier plan de sauvetage de la Grèce. «Y a-t-il plus grand engagement que de voter la confiance au gouvernement qui a été formé pour cette raison ?», a-t-il déclaré au parlement. Le cabinet de Lucas Papadémos devrait remporter confortablement la confiance du parlement.
16/11/2011

L'inflation stable dans la zone euro en octobre à 3% en rythme annuel

L’inflation est ressortie en hausse de 3,0% d’un an sur l’autre au mois d’octobre, a annoncé l’agence Eurostat. D’un mois sur l’autre, la hausse des prix s’est inscrite à 0,3%. Dans les deux cas, ces progressions sont conformes aux attentes. Le mois précédent, l’inflation avait déjà atteint 3,0% en rythme annuel.

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