Après cinq mois de décollecte, les fonds actions commercialisés en Suède ont renoué avec les souscriptions. En octobre, ils ont enregistré une collecte nette de 5,5 milliards de couronnes (soit 0,6 milliard d’euros), selon les dernières statistiques de l’association suédoise des fonds d’investissement. Mais ils restent néanmoins en négatif de 60,2 milliards de couronnes (6,62 milliards d’euros), depuis le début de l’année. Les fonds diversifiés ont aussi enregistré des souscriptions nettes, à hauteur de 1,4 milliard de couronnes (0,15 milliard d’euros). En revanche, les fonds obligataires ont vu sortir 5,4 milliards de couronnes (0,59 milliard d’euros), les fonds monétaires 2,6 milliards de couronnes (0,28 milliard) et les hedge funds 0,1 milliard (0,01 milliard d’euros). Au total, le secteur des fonds commercialisés en Suède est dans le rouge en octobre à 1,1 milliard de couronnes (0,12 milliard d’euros). Depuis le début de l’année, il voit sortir 4,2 milliards de couronnes (0,46 milliard d’euros).A fin octobre, le secteur des fonds suédois représentait un encours de 1.804 milliards de couronnes, dont 958 milliards de couronnes dans des fonds actions (soit respectivement 198,5 milliards d’euros et 105,4 milliards d’euros).

Capital Strategies Partners, MCH Investment Strategies et Selinca AV, trois «agences de valeurs» espagnoles spécialistes de la distribution en Espagne de fonds de gestionnaires indépendants, ont decidé de créer une association de tierce partie marketeurs (TPM) pour promouvoir ce type de gestionnaires, selon Funds People. Cette association devrait être opérationnelle dès le début de 2012 et les promoteurs de l’idée invitent tous les gestionnaires indépendants qui ont une présence commerciale «régulée» en Espagne à y adhérer.

La division institutionnelle d’Inversis Banco, Inversis Banco Institutional, a signé un accord stratégique par lequel il sous-traite la totalité de ses services d’investissement au groupe belge Optima, rapporte Cinco Días. Parallèlement, Inversis Institutional prend une participation minoritaire dans la filiale bancaire du groupe Optima.

Le fonds Barclays Private Equity, spécialisé dans l’investissement dans les sociétés non cotées, a été repris par ses cadres et opérera à l’avenir sous le nom d’Equistone Partners Europe, selon un communiqué diffusé le 11 novembre par l’entreprise.Les conditions financières de l’opération n’ont pas été dévoilées, mais Barclays restera investisseur dans les fonds gérés par Equistone, “aux côtés de nombreux autres investisseurs institutionnels”. Cette décision illustre le désintérêt croissant des banques classiques pour une activité consommatrice en capitaux, alors que les nouvelles normes de solvabilité exigent d’elles un renforcement significatif de leurs fonds propres. Depuis 1996, Barclays Private Equity a investi 5,3 milliards d’euros dans 214 transactions. Le fonds, qui affirme que ces investissements lui ont permis de réaliser “d’excellentes performances pour le compte de ses investisseurs”, est spécialisé dans les entreprises de taille moyenne. Equistone opérera depuis six bureaux, en France, Allemagne, Suisse et Royaume-Uni, réunissant 35 gérants. Le fonds compte cibler des acquisitions dont la valeur est comprise entre 50 et 300 millions d’euros, selon le communiqué.

Ignis Asset Management a recruté Liisa Juntunen pour son équipe de distribution. A compter de janvier 2012, elle occupera un rôle clé dans l’équipe de développement institutionnel de la société de gestion, et se focalisera sur les relations avec les consultants. Elle contribuera aussi au développement de l’offre actions et immobilier d’Ignis.Liisa Juntunen sera placée sous la responsabilité de Claude Chene, le nouveau directeur et responsable de la distribution mondiale d’Ignis depuis octobre 2011, avec lequel elle avait travaillé chez AllianceBernstein. Dans cette dernière société, elle était responsable du marketing et des ventes, du développement produits et des relations avec les consultants.

Le groupe Prudential va enrichir sa gamme de fonds gérés en fonction des risques avec le lancement de quatre nouveaux fonds proposant différentes expositions aux actions, rapporte Money Marketing. Les quatre nouveaux produits sont le Prudential PruFund 0-30, le Prudential PruFund 10-40, le Prudential PruFund 20-55 et le Prudential PruFund 40-80.

Le groupe britannique Schroders a réalisé sur les neuf premiers mois de l’année une collecte nette de 5,1 milliards de livres, a annoncé la société le 10 novembre dans un communiqué. Durant le trimestre au 30 septembre, la collecte nette auprès des investisseurs institutionnels s’est élevée à 2,8 milliards de livres mais parallèlement, le secteur intermédié a subi une décollecte nette de 2,7 milliards de livres et la banque privée des rachats nets pour un montant de 100 millions de livres. Au 30 septembre, les actifs sous gestion s’inscrivaient à 182,2 milliards de livres.Au niveau du groupe, le bénéfice imposable des neuf premiers mois de l’année a progressé à 317,3 millions de livres contre 282,7 millions de livres pour la période correspondante de 2010. Le bénéfice avant impôts du pôle gestion d’actifs s’est inscrit à 295,8 millions de livres contre 263,2 millions de livres.

«Compte tenu de l’importance croissante de son rôle international au sein de la division Long Term Savings d’Old Mutual», Skandia Investment Group (SIG) a décidé de s’installer à Londres et de quitter son siège de Southampton. Le déménagement sera bouclé pour la fin de 2013.Actuellement, les deux tiers des 57 salariés de SIG sont basés à Southampton, les autres travaillant à Londres. SIG «espère» que la plupart des collaborateurs basés à Southampton accepteront de suivre l’entreprise dans la capitale.

According to a study by Ernst & Young (E&Y), relayed by Funds People, each year brings about 200,000 key investor information documents (KIID). The KIID is one of the elements required of managers by the UCITS IV directive. The consulting firm also finds that most KIIDs will be published in January 2012, as managers will have 35 days from the start of the year 2012 to comply with the regulations.

Lors d’une table ronde organisée par Option Finance, Jean-Marc Boyer, directeur général du Groupe Pasteur Mutualité a jugé les relations existantes avec les sociétés de gestion et les stratégies privilégiées: Le Groupe Pasteur Mutualité n’a pas récemment investi dans l’alternatif ni dans les ETF. Nous ne ciblons aucun indice, mais nous devons rester dans la moyenne du marché. Notre gestion est désormais contrainte par des reportings de performances trimestrielles. Nos préoccupations relèvent plus des perspectives de rendements que nous pouvons attendre. Nous avons des obligations allemandes qui peuvent rapporter du 2%, ce type de placement est sûr, mais ne rapporte rien actuellement net d’inflation. Alors que la collecte nette du Groupe Pasteur Mutualité est en forte hausse, la décollecte des produits en assurance vie est un autre sujet qui inquiète le marché à l’heure actuelle. La crise ne semble pas avoir transformé la vision des gérants qui se concentrent toujours purement sur la gestion de nos actifs, alors que nous raisonnons en termes de risque de marché à la fois sur le passif et sur l’actif. Les gérants devraient donc mieux intégrer l’ALM. De plus, à l’intérieur de leur mandat, les gérants d’actifs essayent de déplacer la responsabilité sur le mandant. A cet égard, dès que nous avons enregistré des dégradations de notation sur un émetteur en portefeuille, les gérants nous demandent ce qu’il faut faire. On voit bien qu’il est difficile de prendre la responsabilité de céder maintenant des titres dans cet univers très incertain. Dans ces conditions, le partage de responsabilité n’est pas forcément très simple entre le mandataire et le mandant. En plus, il y a parfois eu des problèmes de communication, puisque de notre côté nous pouvions parfois aimer le risque de taux à l’actif, compte tenu de la longueur de certains passifs. Nous raisonnons en effet actif-passif en termes de risque. Dans les cas d’anticipation de baisse des taux, nous pouvons souhaiter rallonger la duration d’actifs presque à hauteur de la duration du passif.

Si la Caisse régionale collabore étroitement avec les structures du groupe concernant son offre de solutions patrimoniales, l'établissement indique toutefois travailler en architecture ouverte. Les unités de compte adossées à certains de nos produits ne proviennent pas nécessairement de la société de gestion Amundi. 60% d’entre elles émanent d’ailleurs d’autres structures commente Bernard Roy, responsable du marché patrimonial. La banque a notamment tissé au fil des années un partenariat solide avec la Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild. En assurance vie, les conseillers peuvent également proposer des contrats gérés par d’autres assureurs pour répondre aux demandes spécifiques de certains de leurs clients. Parallèlement à Prédica, ils font ainsi appel à Generali et AG2R La Mondiale. Source: L’Agefi Actifs

Fundweb reports that David Holland, CIO for US growth equity, mid & small cap stocks, and Michael Orndoff, portfolio manager, will be in charge of the new Luxembourg-registered fund American Century US All Cap Growth.The product will replicate the investment strategy of the original product from American Century Investments, which is available only in the United States, and which has assets of over USD900m.Minimal subscription is set at GBP2,500, with a front-end fee of 5.75% and a management commission of 1.65%.

The Swiss Federal financial market supervision authority, Finma, “has issued a clarification of the relationships between 20 Swiss banks with ‘politically exposed persons’ (PEP). In four cases, the Finma has initiated enforcement procedures,” a statement on money-laundering published on 10 November says. Finma, however, does not name the four incriminated institutions.

State Street on 10 November announced that it is extending its 13-year partnership with the Lufthansa German Airlines company, to offer securities lending for assets in various regions, with a total volume of EUR9bn in assets under custody. In 1998, State Street was selected by Lufthansa for a contract on securities custody and accounting services for the German fund KAG Spezialfonds. The mandate has since been extended to offer a range of services in several domiciles, such as investment compliance, performance analysis and risk analysis.

Nicolas Walewski is not highly optimistic about the investment theme “France.” “We are highly prudent about France,” the founder of the asset management firm Alken Asset Management, and manager of the Alken European Opportunities fund, announced on 10 November at an investor conference. “We have never had such a low exposure to France. We have no visibility on this market. In our investment choices, we need to focus on companies which do not depend on local financing,” Walewski added. Exposure to France totals about 10%, compared with an average of about 16%. However, exposure to British equities totals 36%. “The British economy isn’t doing much better, but the country has never been in default. Financing costs will remain lower,” Walewski predicts. As of 28 October, assets under management in the firm’s flagship fund, Alken European Opportunities, totalled about EUR1.93bn, compared with EUR2.64bn as of 30 June. Negative market effects are mostly to blame for this development. One client may have sought to liquidate an equities portfolio for about EUR130m, but assets under management remain highly stable since the beginning of the year, Isabel Ortega, head of clients, continues, adding that the fund has seen inflows in the tens of millions of euros since the beginning of the year.

According to estimates from Morningstar, long-term mutual funds (excluding money market products) in the first ten months of the year posted net inflows of USD92.12bn, of which USD745m were in October, compared with USD244.11bn in January-October 2010.Inflows in October conceal significant divergence, with net subscriptions of USD23.7bn for municipal and taxable bonds, while net redemptions from US and international equity funds totalled USD21.1bn. Redemptions from US equity funds totalled USD18.23bn last month, bringing the total in the first ten months of the year to UDS53.55bn.Morningstar says that net redemptions from US equity funds are on course to beat an all-year figure of USD63.6bn set in 2010, or to beat the record of USD77.4bn in the year 2008.Money market funds, for their part, have seen net outflows of USD19.12bn in October, and USD180.7bn in January-October. In the first ten months of 2010, outflows totalled USD476.25bn.

The Barclays Private Equity fund, a specialist in investment in non-publicly traded businesses, has been taken over by six executives, and will continue to operate in the future under the name Equistone Partners Europe, according to a statement released by the business on 11 November. The financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed, but Barclays will remain an investor in funds managed by Equistone, “along with many other institutional investors.” The decision is a sign of the increasing disinterest of traditional banks in an activity that consumes capital, at a time when solvency requirements are requiring them to significantly increase their owners’ equity levels. Since 1996, Barclays Private Equity has invested EUR5.3bn in 214 transactions. The fund, which states that its investments have allowed it to earn “excellent returns on behalf of its investors,” is specialised in mid-sized businesses. Equistone operates out of six offices, in France, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, with 35 managers. The fund ia planning to focus on acqusitions with a total value of EUR50m to EUR300m, the statement says.

Ignis Asset Management has announced the appointment of Liisa Juntunen who will join Ignis’ distribution team in January 2012. She will take a leadership position in Ignis’ institutional business development team with a focus on consultant relations. With her experience she will also help to develop and position Ignis’ equity and real estate offerings. Liisa Juntunen has been responsible for marketing and sales, product development and consultant relations at AllianceBernstein since 2001 and has 17 years’ industry experience.She will report to Claude Chene, director and head of global distribution. The latter worked with Liisa Juntunen at AllianceBernstein prior to joining Ignis in October 2011.Ignis has made a number of senior appointments over the past 18 months and Liisa Juntunen’s appointment will help to further develop the company’s existing and future institutional offerings.

“Due to major growth in its international role in the Long Term Savings division at Old Mutual,” Skandia Investment Group (SIG) has decided to move to London, and to leave its head offices in Southampton. The move will be completed by the end of 2013. Currently, two thirds of the 57 employees at SIG are based in Southampton, while the others work in London, where SIG “hopes” that most Southampton employees will agree to move with the business.

The British Schroders group has earned net inflows in the first nine months of the year of GBP5.1bn, the firm announced in a statement on 10 November. In the quarter to 30 September, net inflows to institutional investors totalled GBP2.8bn, but at the same time, the sector saw net outflows of GBP2.7bn, and the private bank underwent net redemptions totalled GBP100m. As of 30 September, assets under management totalled GBP182.2bn. Groupwide, pre-tax profits in the first nine months of the year rose to GBP317.3m, compared with GBP282.7m in the corresponding period of 2010. Pre-tax profits at the asset management unit totalled GBP295.8m, compared with GBP263.2m.

The asset management division of Deutsche Bank has acquired the remainder of capital in its joint venture with UFG Asset Management, Deutsche UFG Capital Management, for an undisclosed amount. At the creation of the joint venture in 2008, the German group bought a 40% stake in UFG Invest, the asset management affiliate of Russia’s UFG AM. Deutsche UFG Capital Management has assets of EUR370m, and is one of the top ten Russian asset management firms. It will become a part of DWS Investments, the retail fund affiliate of Deutsche Bank. Florian Fenner will remain as chairman of Deutsche UFG Asset Management, and will also join the regional executive board for Russia at Deutsche Bank

Bond funds had greater outflows in September, increasing from -EUR13.0bn in August to -EUR17.4bn, according to Lipper. Emerging market debt (outflows of EUR3.4bn) and Global bonds (-EUR3.0bn) were the hardest hit, while different High Yield sectors of various currencies suffered again (redemptions of EUR5.9bn brought the total over the last four months to -EUR18.6bn). By contrast, corporate bonds denominated in USD and GBP picked themselves up off the canvas and pulled in EUR840m and EUR500m respectively.Equities were also badly hit, with redemptions of EUR21.2bn, which was nonetheless an improvement on last month. Long-term funds in Europe suffered redemptions of EUR46.2bn in September. The European industry as a whole suffered outflows of EUR60.7bn (the worst since Oct 2008).Prudential/M&G attracted the largest proportion of sales by one group (EUR600m), ahead of Comgest (EUR430m) and Threadneedle (EUR370m).

The board of supervisors (BoS) of the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) has elected Martin Wheatley, managing director, Conduct Business at the British FSA, as a member of its board. Wheatley replaces Alexander Justham, who was elected to the position in January, but who has recently left the FSA. Wheatley will become CEO of the Financial Conduct Authority. His term at the ESMA will run until July 2013. The board at the ESMA includes five members. In addition to its German chairman Karl-Burkhard Caspari, (BaFin), the board includes Jean Guill (CSSF), Raul Malmstein, of Estonia’s Finantsinspektsioon, Kurt Pribil (FMA, Austria) and Fernando Restoy (CNMV, Spain).

The Hamburg-based Hansinvest Hanseatische Invesment GmbH (Signal Iduna bank) on 15 September launched the National-Bank Stiftungsfonds 1, which as its name indicates, is aimed at charities. Minimal subscription is set at EUR25,000, and management commission totals 1.01%. Front-end fee is 3%. The German-registered product (DE000A1H44D5), actively managed by the National-Bank of Essen, is composed of a core portfolio which invests in top-rated bonds, and which therefore present low levels of risk, and a satellite allocation to be placed in corporate bonds, Pfandbriefe and value equities. Risk management relies on a dynamic overlay. The management team is permitted to use derivatives. The fund will distribute dividends twice a year, and the recommended investment duration is over 3 years.

After five months in a row of withdrawals, equity funds on sale in Sweden have returned to net inflows. In October, they recorded net inflows of SEK5.5bn (EUR0.6bn), according to the most recent statistics from the Swedish investment fund association. But they remain negative, at -SEK60.2bn (-EUR6.62bn) since the beginning of the year. Balanced funds had net inflows of SEK1.4bn (EUR0.15bn). However, bond funds saw outflows of SEK5.4bn (EUR0.59bn), while money market funds had outflows of SEK2.6bn (EUR0.28bn), and hedge funds lost SEK0.1bn (EUR0.01bn). Overall, the fund industry in Sweden had outfows in October of SEK1.1bn (EUR0.12bn). Since the beginning of the year, these funds have seen outflows of SEK4.2bn (EUR0.46bn). As of the end of October, the Swedish fund sector represented assets of SEK1.804trn, of which SEK958bn were in equity funds (about EUR198.5bn and EUR105.4bn, respectively).

Facing the continuing Euro zone debt saga, investors have recently shown a preference for US equity and bond funds. In the week to 9 November, net inflows to these funds totalled USD11bn, according to statistics from the agency EPFR Global. Inflows to US equity funds alone totalled USD7.3bn, while large cap ETFs represented about 80% of this total. Another winner on turbulence in the European markets is emerging market equity funds, which have earned net inflows of USD2.1bn. Equity funds overall have posted a net inflow of USD9.59bn, while bond funds have earned net subscriptions totalled USD4.07bn.US money market funds, for their part, have attracted USD23.8bn, despite returns of only about 0.02%. European money market funds have also been popular.

The Continental European Equity Fund (LU020915757), a sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav Henderson Horizon, has been renamed, under an application submitted on 7 October, to become the “Euroland Fund” (LU0011889846) as of 8 November, and at the same time the investment strategy of the manager is being changed. As the new name of the fund indicates, the portfolio will now focus on solid and undervalued equities from euro zone equities, rather than on continental Europe. The euro-denominated product will invest at least 75% in shares in businesses domiciled in the euro zone, or which realise most of their activities there. The benchmark index will now by the MSCI EMU Net Return Index, instead of the FTSE World Europe ex UK Index. The new manager is Nick Sheridan, who replaces Paul Casson. As of the end of September, assets in the fund, launched in July 1984, totalled EUR46.18m.

The platform, which is the result of close cooperation between Syz Asset Management and UBS Investment Bank, features substantial advantages in terms of transparency, risk management and reporting. As part of this cooperation, Syz Asset Management will select managers to be included on the platform and will manage investment mandates as well as other investment vehicles. Syz Asset Management selected the UBS platform for the flexibility it offers to hedge fund managers, its extensive reporting and highly sophisticated risk management. Compared with competing structures, it is a high

Hyposwiss Private Bank is launching the Hyposwiss (Lux) Fund – African Daws (USD). The fund will be actively managed, and will invest in businesses whose headquarters are in Africa, or which are domiciled outside the continent, but which operate there. Management will be based on an optimistic scenario for Africa, due to several factors, a statement says. These include the demography of the continent and the fact that there are a lot of young people, who are increasingly better-educated, improvement in fundamentals, with limited levels of public debt; increasing capital flows, particularly from foreign direct investment from countries such as China and India, and from large businesses such as Siemens and Nestlé; the appearance of a new middle class, in the wake of urban development and urbanisation; and the development of infrastructures. Characteristics ISIN code: LU0653670769 Benchmark: DJ African Titans 50

UniCredit is expected to unveil a capital increase of EUR7-7.5bn this Monday, and a three-year industrial plan based on drastic cost reductions, Il Sole – 24 Ore reports. Announcements are also expected about the future of Pioneer, the group’s asset management firm, which is one of the few companies to have remained outside the intra-group integration process of the past few years, the Italian newspaper reports.