The Boston Company Asset Management, la «boutique» de gestion, filiale de BNY Mellon Asset Management, a annoncé plusieurs changements au sein de son équipe de direction. Bart Grenier, chief executive officer, occupera dorénavant également le poste de chief investment officer. Joe Gennaco deviendra président en plus de son poste de chief operating officer. John Truschel, actuellement chief investment officer, devra diriger une équipe nouvellement créée en tant que global head of investment strategy.
Le groupe américain Cowen vient de lancer le Ramius Trading Strategies Managed Futures Fund qui propose aux investisseurs l’accès à un portefeuille de managed futures dédiés à une clientèle institututionnelle et qui offre une information transparente sur l'évolution des positions ainsi qu’un dispositif d’analyse des risques amélioré.Les actifs sous gestion du fonds lancé le 13 septembre dernier s'élèvent à 230 millions de dollars.
«A la faveur de deux transactions avec des investisseurs internationaux», DIC Asset a acheté un immeuble commercial, le Marktforum (10.000 mètres carrés entièrement loués) à Duisbourg pour 16 millions d’euros et deux immeubles de bureaux «core» de 40.000 mètres carrés pour 62 millions situés l’un à Karlsruhe, l’autre à Leipzig. Les deux derniers sont affectés au fonds immobilier institutionnel DIC Office Balance I dont DIC Asset détient 20 % des parts.DIC Asset, qui fait partie de l’indice SDax depuis juin 2006, gère actuellement un patrimoine immobilier d’environ 3,2 milliards d’euros réparti sur 280 actifs.
La nouvelle société de gestion allemande AD-VANCED Dynamic Asset Management GmbH créée par trois transfuges de Veritas (lire notre dépêche du 22 septembre) indique avoir obtenu son premier mandat de conseil pour un montant à deux chiffres en millions d’euros.Le pilotage de l’allocation d’actifs dynamique repose sur un processus exclusif d’analyse des techniques de marché et des indices, «Indexpicking». Cette formule qui s’appuie sur des investissements en ETF est utilisée pour le premier fonds d’ETF de la société, AD-VANEMICS (LU0665450838), qui vient d’obtenir son agrément au Luxembourg. Il est disponible en parts institutionnelles et retail. La période de souscription initiale est fixée du 10 octobre au 10 novembre 2011.
Le fonds immobilier offert au public Degi International (1,58 milliard d’euros) a revendu à RREEF (Deutsche Bank) l’immeuble de bureaux Focus Filtrowa (33.644 mètres carrés) de Varsovie pour 117 millions d’euros. Ce prix est supérieur à la valeur d’achat en 2007, mais inférieur aux 118 millions d’euros de la valeur vénale.Cependant, cette transaction permet à Aberdeen de procurer des liquidités au fonds Degi International, dont la fermeture aux remboursements avait été prorogée d’un an, au 16 novembre 2011 (lire notre article du 8 novembre 2011). A présent, la liquidité de ce fonds atteint 22 %.
Allianz Global Investors a signé un accord global d’externalisation avec Northern Trust pour la fourniture de services de middle office pour le compte de RCM en Asie-Pacifique, en Europe et en Amérique du Nord. Northern Trust fournira également des services de règlement et de comptabilité.Dans le cadre de ce contrat, Northern Trust a intégré une équipe de douze personnes d’AllianzGI à Hong Kong où, depuis novembre dernier, le groupe américain développe des activités de services d’administration. Ces activités occupent désormais une trentaine de personnes.
The private equity investor Permira has acquired 61% of the Israeli irrigation firm Netafim (3,000 employees) for USD870m, of which it provided USD400m from its own capital. Counting its USD200m in debt, Netafim is valued at over USD1bn, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports.The firm was founded in 1965 by the kibbutz Hatzerim, which will retain a 30% stake after the transaction. The other vendors are the kibbutzim Magal (whose stake is reduced to 6% from 23%) and Yiftach (which controls 8%).
The US group Cowen has launched the Ramius Trading Strategies Managed Futures Fund, which offers investors access to a portfolio of managed futures dedicated to institutional clients, and which offers transparent information about the evolution of positions, along with an improved risk analysis framework. Assets under management in the fund, launched on 13 September this year, total USD230m.
The independent Spanish management firm EDM (EUR1.2bn) is entering the Latin American market, starting with Mexico, Funds People reports. To this end, EDM has recruited María Diaz-Morera, who joins the firm from Goldman Sachs, and who will aim to seek out local retail clients and to sign fund distribution agreements with a Mexican establishment.
According to statistics from the BlackRock Investment Institute reported by AGEFI, European ETFs posted outflows of USD1.8bn in August. This increased aversion to risk largely affected trackers focused on emerging markets equities, which lost as much as USD1.5bn, and ETFs focused on North American equities, which saw outflows of USD1.1bn. Investors appear to have concentrated on their home markets, and European equity ETFs saw inflows of over USD1bn.
“In two deals with international investors,” DIC Asset has acquired a commercial property in Duisburg, the Marktforum (10,000 square metres, wholly leased) for EUR16m, and two core office properties, measuring 40,000 square metres, for EUR62m, one of which is in Karlsruhe, and the other in Leipzig. The latter two properties will be added to the portfolio of the institutional real estate fund DIC Office Balance I, in which DIC Asset controls a 20% stake.DIC Asset, which has been a part of the SDax index since June 2006, currently manages real estate assets of about EUR3.2bn, in 280 properties.
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has invested USD100 million in seed money with Breton Hill Capital, a Toronto-based global macro hedge fund with investments in equities, commodity and financial futures, and currencies.The investment, part of the CalPERS Absolute Return Strategies program, is CalPERS first seed investment with a hedge fund manager. The pension fund also has approximately USD500 million invested with customized funds of hedge funds focusing on emerging managers.CalPERS launched its Absolute Return Strategies program in April 2002 and had USD5.3 billion invested in it as of June 30, 2011.
The UK’s Investment Management Association (IMA) has published its response to ESMA’s paper on guidelines for UCITS Exchange-Traded Funds and Structured UCITS. It questioned ESMA’s rationale for singling out certain types of UCITS products while excluding others, such as non-UCITS Exchange-Traded products."UCITS are already subject to detailed regulation. Regulatory intervention should happen only where there is a clear market failure, but we see no evidence of this», comments Julie Patterson, director at the IMA. «Regulators are concerned about ‘complexity’ in retail products. But complexity does not necessarily equate to risk. Sophisticated investment strategies often mean less risk for investors in terms of the expected return», she adds.
The major US money market funds have cut their exposure to the European banking sector to their lowest level since 2006, the Financial Times reports. The 10 largest US money market funds have reduced their short-term lendings to European banks to only USD284.6bn as of the end of August, equivalent to 42.1% of their total assets, according to Fitch Ratings.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland on Thursday dismissed portions of a USD198m lawsuit filed by court-appointed trustee Irving Picard in the Madoff case, The Wall Street Journal reports. The judge said parts of the complaint are «opaque» and lack detail about some of the transactions by some relatives of Bernard Madoff who all had been working at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities.But he said the flaws were largely «correctable,» and gave Picard 45 days to amend his lawsuit
The monthly rankings of ETF/ETP providers in Europe by BlackRock has found that iShares (BlackRock) remains the leader for assets, with USD110.7bn, followed by db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) with USD50.6bn, and Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale) with USD43.9bn.The top two have posted respective increases in their assets of USD8.9bn and USD1.6bn, while the third has seen a decline of USD8.5bn.In terms of market share, iShares has gained 0.3 points since the beginning of the year (to 33%), while db x-trackers and Lyxor have lost 0.6% and 3.7%, respectively, to 15% and 13%.
As of the end of August, global ETF and ETP assets totalled USD1.575trn, according to BlackRock. This represented a decrease of USD68bn, despite USD1.6bn in net subscriptions, due to falling markets and negative currency effects totalling USD70bn. This is the third month of 2011, following May and June, when assets have fallen compared with the previous month.However, over 12 months, assets under management have increased 32%, or USD378bn, of which USD93bn have been since the beginning of this year: net subscriptions in the first eight months of the year totalled USD106bn, but falling markets and currency effects took a toll of USD13bn.As of 31 August, assets for the leading brand, iShares, totalled USD602bn, USD6bn more than at the end of December. Assets under management at State Street Global Advisors have increased by USD22bn, to USD272bn, while assets at Vanguard were up USD17bn, to USD166bn.
For Asian brokers, two objectives appear particularly important in the current market context: standing out from the crowd in order to attract clients, and automating their operations.Those are the findings of a survey of the industry commissioned by BNP Paribas Securities Services and SWIFT, undertaken in April and May 2011. More than 75% of respondents consider outsourcing an adequate solution to manage the complecity and cost of post-trade processes.The survey also finds that brokers in the region feel the need to privilege activities which generate revenues for the firms themselves, such as third-party clearing.
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) is seeking external strategic partners to manage a multi-asset class portfolio and provide insights and analytics on asset allocation and portfolio construction decisions. CalPERS expects to retain two or three firms to manage a total of up to USD2 billion in assets. The solicitation begins September 23, 2011, and ends on October 21, 2011.
British pension funds are increasing their strategic allocations to emerging market debt, the ratings agency Moody’s says in a release on 22 September entitled “UK Pension Funds: Increased Allocations to Emerging Market Debt Enhance Portfolio Stability and Diversification.” This is a positive strategic development for the stability of long-term portfolios of the pension fund, Moody’s adds. There are two positive aspects. On the one hand, this diversification will limit volatility related to an exposure which is concentrated on a limited number of issuers. On the other hand, this development will make it possible to improve returns for the portfolio, due to the better growth outlooks in emerging markets than in developed countries. Moody’s adds that an investment in emerging market debt is not risk-free. Pension funds will need to comprehend the nature of these risks in order to establish a methodology for evaluating them. From the point of view of managers, this development also presents the advantage of greater stability of assets under management, which allows for a more effective deployment of capital than less predictable engagements. Moody’s also finds that in the past two decades, bond issues rated investment grade outperformed high yield issues in Latin America and Asia. And of course, the size of the markets in liquid and tradeable investment grade securities has also increased.
From the beginning of the year to the end of August, the Schroders group has brought in month after month of net subcriptions, says Nuno Teixera, deputy CEO and head of development for Schroders in France.In France, Philippe Lecomte, CEO, tells Newsmangers that net subscriptions since the beginning of the year have totalled about EUR490m, and that assets now total over EUR3bn.Among the strategies that have been best received by investors is multi-asset class, which represents EUR40bn in assets groupwide. In this area, the British asset management firm is planning to release a fund in France in the near future which is formatted specially for continental investors, which was launched in 2009, and which is more defensive than the products available in the UK. The fund, which is already available in other European countries, has barely EUR100m in assets, but the strategy, with its mandates, already has nearly EUR1bn. This type of fund is also attractive for the asset management firm, since investors in general tend to keep multi-asset class products longer than other funds in their portfolios.Also, due to the commercial success of emerging market funds (in equities as well as bonds) and of global quant, Schroders is hoping to launch a more regional quant product, focused on emerging markets.The French firm is also planning to announce the recruitment of two people in the near future, one for institutional and one for distribution.
Allianz Global Investors has signed a global outsourcing agreement with Northern Trust to provide middle office services for RCM in Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America. Northern Trust will also supply settlement and accounting services. As a part of the contract, Northern Trust has taken on a team of 12 people from AllianzGI in Hong Kong, where since November last year, the US firm has been developing its administration services activities. The activities now employ 30 staff.
The open-ended real estate fund Degi International (EUR1.58bn) has sold the office property Focus Foltrowa (33,644 square metres) in Warsaw for EUR117m. The sale price is higher than the price the property was acquired for in 2007, but lower than its EUR118m book value.However, the sale will allow Aberdeen to free up liquidity for the Degi International fund, whose closure to redemptions was extended for one year, until 16 November 2011 (see Newsmanagers of 8 November 2011). Liquidity in the fund currently totals 22%.
The new German management firm AD-VANCED Dynamic Asset Management GmbH, founded by three veterans of Veritas (see Newsmanagers of 22 September 2011), has announced that it has received its first advising mandate for a total amount in the tens of millions of euros.Management of the dynamic asset allocation will be based on an exclusive process for analysis of the market and its indices, entitled “Indexpicking.” The process, which relies on investments in ETFs, is used for the first fund of ETFs from the firm, AD-VANEMICS (LU0665450838), which has recently received a sales license in Luxembourg. The new product is available in institutional and retail share classes. The initial subscription period will run from 10 October to 10 November 2011.
J.P. Morgan Asset Management has recruited Nima Tayebi for its team specialised in emerging markets debt and currencies. He will be in charge of investment strategy for emerging markets currencies, and will report to Pierre-Yves Bareau, director of the emerging markets debt unit, and Jonathan Griggs, director of currencies strategy. Tayebi had previously been a portfolio manager at Polar Capital Partners. He also spent 9 years as a manager specialised in emerging market currencies and debt at Aberdeen Asset Management. He had previously spent two years at Millennium Global Investments, a boutique specialised in currencies, and held research and trading positions in currencies (sell side) at Salomon Brothers and Renaissance Capital in Moscow. The emerging market debt teams, led by Bareau, are spread over seven cities worldwide. Their assets under management have increased from USD7bn to USD17bn in the past two years.
The Boston Company Asset Management, a management boutique affiliate of BNY Mellon Asset Management, has announced several changes to its management team. Bart Grenier, chief executive officer, will now also serve as chief investment officer. Joe Gennaco will become chairman in addition to his position as chief operating officer. John Truschel, currently chief investment officer, will direct a newly-created team as global head of investment strategy.
DWS Investments has hired Amédée de Guillebon for its French sales team. De Guillebon will be in charge of fund sales and distribution activities via third-party distributors, including fund of fund managers, insurers, banks and distribution platforms. He will report to Philippe Goettmann, head of DWS Investments for France and Monaco. Before joining DWS Investments, De Guillebon, 36, was head of development at BNP Paribas Investment Partners. He began his career in asset management in 2002 at Fortis Investments in Brussels, as head of marketing.
JP Morgan Worldwide Securities Services (WSS) is planning to develop its custody and clearance activities in Brazil and Russia, two key markets for the sub-custodian activities of JP Morgan, Hedge Week reports. For Russia, Katerina Sizova has joined JP Morgan as head of activities in Russia, and will deploy the group’s growth strategy. Sizova previously worked at Renaissance as head of operations. For the Brazilian market, JP Morgan has announced that it has integrated its custody activities.
Barr Rosenberg, le fondateur de la société de gestion quantitative Axa Rosenberg, a accepté une amende de 2,5 millions de dollars et une exclusion à vie de l’industrie des titres pour mettre fin aux poursuites de la SEC. Une faille dans les modèles de gestion, cachée pendant plusieurs mois, a forcé Axa IM à verser 25 millions à la SEC et 217 millions à ses clients lésés.
Les cotisations des Français à des produits d’assurance-vie ont encore baissé en août, portant à 12% leur recul depuis le début de l’année, a indiqué hier la Fédération française des sociétés d’assurances (FFSA). Le mois dernier, le montant des cotisations collectées à diminué de 11%. La collecte nette s'établit à 21 milliards d’euros à fin août, soit moitié moins qu'à la même période en 2010.