Cedrus Investments has appointed Denise Gower as vice president in charge of development for activities at the boutique specialised in wealth management and advising, Hedgeweek reports. Gower will be based in the Cayman Islands, where the firm’s headquarters are located, and will be in charge of development for international activities and client relations. Gower previously worked as head of marketing for Cayman Finance, an organisation in charge of promoting the financial services sector in the Cayman Islands.

At a press conference dedicated to the management firm’s development strategy in the area of equities, Yves Perrier, CEO of Amundi and director of the asset management and institutional services unit at Crédit Agricole S.A., announced on Tuesday, 21 June, that total net inflows last year totalled EUR3bn, resulting from EUR15bn in net outflows from money market products, and EUR18bn in net inflows in other areas. Perrier also said that the cost-income ratio totalled 54.4% in 2010 (while the main competitors had a rate of about 70%), and has further improved to 53.6% in first quarter 2011. As of the end of March, Amundi had EUR712bn in assets.Also present at the conference, the firm’s CIO, Pascal Blanqué, announced that the next addition to Amundi’s product range will be the release in Europe of a money market fund with constant net asset value.In the area of equities (EUR108bn), the topic of the press conference, Romain Boscher, director of equities management at Amundi Asset Management, noted that in 2010, EUR7bn in net subscriptions went to equities products. “Our ambition is to achieve EUR20bn by 2014,” he announced, adding that sales efforts will now largely focus on external distributors and businesses, but will not overlook institutional investors (among them sovereign wealth funds, which represent EUR50bn in assets in all asset classes combined).For its product range, Amundi will “further enrich” its already extensive range in the area of global large caps. The group will also be increasing its range of products that comply with Islamic law (Kuala Lumpur is the centre for expertise in that area) and in SRI. Amundi is also hoping to become a global leader in long/short management.Boscher says that the firm will now need to put personnel in place corresponding to these objectives. There will not be more geographical silos, but instead an organisation by expertise, which is now multilocal and will eventually become global. The system will be based on a network of concentrated teams by areas of expertise, both dedicated and autonomous, which will share resources and funding.

Laurent Fléchet, whose resignation as chairman of the board at the Ciloger group was announced earlier this week, will be joining the board at Primonial, where he will serve as deputy CEO, in charge of real estate activities, and will report to the chairman, André Camo. He will oversee all of the group’s real estate activities, a statement dated Tuesday, 21 June announces.

The British management firm Man Group is hoping that 15% to 20% of its assets under management will originate from the US in three to five years, compared with 7% currently, Peter Clarke, head of the group, has told the Wall Street Journal. Assets under management at the alternative management firm had previously largely been of European and Asian origin.

“In 10 years, we have created another M&G in continental Europe,” says Jonathan Willcocks, managing director, global head of sales, summing up the UK asset management firm’s growth in continental Europe in the retail field. In 2000, the fund manager had EUR13.1bn in assets under management for this segment, only in the United Kingdom. In 2011, the firm has nearly the same amount (EUR11.4bn) under management internationally (as of March 2011), while at the same time, the UK business has also grown, and now represents EUR36.1bn (in total, M&G manages EUR226bn). And Willcocks is not planning to stop there. Now, international assets represent 24% of assets at M&G; Willcocks would like to increase that to about 50%.His goal is to make the firm one of the top five European players in terms of net sales in Europe, now that it is already number one in the UK. In order to achieve that, the firm is increasing the number of countries it targets. It is now present, in chronological order of the time when it first entered them, in Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Chile, France, Greece, Portugal, and since last year, the Netherlands and Sweden. That brings the company some welcome diversity, as these markets are seeing contrasting evolutions.Diversification of the client base is also a primordial goal. Willcocks says one of the keys to the success of M&G has been not to limit itself to fund of fund clients, but to bet on all market segments, particularly financial advisers, who are sometimes ignored by other British and American asset management firms, because they can take a lot of time and require targeted marketing.This is the strategy which the firm has pursued in France, where M&G opened an office in 2007, and where Brice Anger, head of the French office, has been active in targeting IFAs. This segment now represents assets of EUR200m, out of a total of EUR1.7bn. For the rest, French clients are composed of private banks (EUR100m), pension funds (EUR500m), and funds of funds (EUR900m). The French market, along with the Italian one, has been one of the fastest-growing in recent years, and Anger, who will soon be recruiting another person in Paris, is hoping to top EUR2bn in assets.For the other countries in Europe, following Sweden and the Netherlands, the natural next step will be to head for Norway, Finland and Denmark. But that will be done gradually, depending on clients’ appetites.

Juan del Rivero, who a few weeks ago left his job as CEO of Goldman Sachs for Spain, after 23 years there, has been recruited by the family office Omega Capital, which manages the wealth of Alicia Koplowitz, Cotizalia reports. He will be in charge of the development of Gestiona de Inversión in Spain and Omega Asset Management in the United Kingdom, the group’s two fund management firms.

US money market funds may hold only a very small slice of Greek public debt, but they have about USD1trn in shares issued by major European banks such as BNP Paribas, Barclays and Deutsche Bank, for example, in their portfolios. And these banks themselves are sitting on mountains of government bonds issued by Greece and other European countries, which exposes them to significant losses if the European sovereign debt crisis turns bad, the Wall Street Journal observes.The issue is also of concern to the SEC and the Fed. The financial services committee of the US house of representatives will also hold a hearing on the subject with financial sector chiefs on Friday, on the subject of the financial stability of mutual funds.

Lyxor announced on Tuesday, 21 June that it has adopted a new policy for distribution of revenues from ETFs, following changes to the majority of the equities indices which serve as benchmarks for its ETFs. The funds will now no longer be “Price Return,” meaning that the value of the index does not include reinvestment of dividends distributed to shareholders in businesses belonging to the index, but rather “Total Return,” meaning that the value of the index will now include reinvestment of dividends.As a result, for distribution of revenues from ETFs themselves, the manager or the delegated financial manager for the ETFs may undertake a distribution once or twice per year for asset classes which earn dividends, of a total amount equivalent to the dividends earned as points for the index, a statement says.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the hedge fund manager Bridgewater Associates has nearly completed a USD10bn round of fundraising for a new hedge fund. Assets now total over USD100bn. The new Pure Alpha Major Markets Fund is largely an extension of the Pure Alpha macro strategy from Bridgewater, to cover major markets such as the British and German bond markets.

The Spanish affiliate of Barclays has signed a cooperation agreement with Allfunds Bank, an affiliate of Santander and Intesa Sanpaolo, Cinco Días reports. The platform will provide intermediation and analysis services for premier clients of Barclays (those who have more than EUR300,000 with the firm). The move aims to increase the firms’ presence in investment funds serving this priority “premier” client base.

On the anniversary of Jupiter Fund Management’s initial public offering last year, the directors of the group, including Edward Bonham Carter, CEO, sold nearly 6% of the firm, and raised GBP62.4m. Among the vendors were John Chatfield-Roberts, CIO, and the managers Tony Nutt and Philip Gibba, who were permitted to sell up to one third of their shares at the expiration of a 12-month lock-in imposed at the time of the IPO. Jupiter also announced that its assets have risen 3%, to GBP24.8bn.

In partnership with the index provider PriceStats, State Street Global Markets has launched daily inflation indices for institutional investors, Asian Investor reports. Following the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Brazil, State Street, which says that each index will be subject to the limits of the inflation statistics offered by respective governments, is planning to offer inflation indices for 35 countries by the end of the year, with Australia and Japan slated for next month.

Franklin Templeton Investments Australia Ltd has acquired Balanced Equity Management Pty. Limited, a management firm based in Melbourne (AUD10.3bn, or USD11bn, in assets as of 31 May), a specialist in equities with a fundamental value approach and bottom-up analysis based on ESG (environmental, social and governance) and fiscal criteria, for an undisclosed amount in cash and shares.

Participants at the GAIM convention in Monaco, a major conference for hedge funds, are talking about only one thing: Bernard Madoff’s yacht, the Financial Times reports. The 90-foot boat, “one of the fastest ever built,” has been discretely offered for sale at the conference at a price of EUR3m. The money from the sale of the boat, named “Bull,” will go to reimburse victims of Madoff.

La filiale à 75% du Crédit Agricole vise cette année 7 milliards de collecte nette dans sa gestion actions, qui atteint 108 milliards. Sur un marché en mutation, les clientèles entreprises, institutionnels hors assureurs, et distributeurs tiers sont appelées à monter en puissance.

Le fonds solde avec pertes et fracas son investissement dans Sino-Forest, la société chinoise dont les comptes font l'objet d'une polémique

Au niveau européen, l'impact sera atténué par la faiblesse de l'industrie cimentière et sidérurgique en Europe du Sud, selon Deutsche Bank

Les vingt ministres de l'agriculture sont aujourd'hui à Paris. La présidence française soutient la mise en place d'une base de données mondiale

Elle atteindra un sommet à 86,9 % du PIB d'après le ministère du Budget qui prévoit toujours un retour du déficit budgétaire à 2 % en 2014

La filiale du Crédit Agricole et de la Société Générale veut réaliser une collecte nette de 7 milliards d'euros en 2011 dans la classe d'actifs

Réunis à Paris aujourd’hui et demain, les 20 ministres de l’Agriculture vont essayer de trouver un accord pour créer une base de données mondiale sur les stocks des principales matières agricoles. Paris espère aussi un engagement en faveur de la régulation financière de ces marchés.

D’autres obstacles attendent encore Athènes. Le risque grec influence les « stress tests » bancaires

Les prêts faits à la Grèce, au Portugal et à l'Irlande n'auront pas de rang privilégié, pour faciliter le retour sur le marché des trois pays

Le quotidien fait part des nouvelles ambitions de la banque américaine dans le prime brokerage. JPMorgan a fait son entrée dans ces métiers de service aux fonds alternatifs (prêts de titres, gestion des liquidités notamment) il y a trois ans avec l’acquisition de Bear Stearns. La banque devrait annoncer aujourd’hui le lancement de l’activité en Europe.

D’autres obstacles attendent encore Athènes. Le risque grec influence les « stress tests » bancaires

L’autorité chinoise de régulation des métiers de titres a publié cette nuit seulement sur son site internet une décision datée du 9 juin autorisant les banques commerciales étrangères enregistrées localement de distribuer des fonds ouverts dans le pays. Une décision gage d’égalité des droits promise dans le cadre des discussions bilatérales avec les Etats-Unis le mois dernier.

Le fournisseur d’indices n’a cette nuit pas accordé le statut de marchés développés aux deux pays, qui demeurent sous surveillance pour un éventuel passage l’an prochain. Représentant un quart de l’indice MSCI mondial des marchés émergents, la Corée du Sud et Taïwan devront surtout progresser en termes de convertibilité de leur monnaie.

La Banque populaire de Chine (PBOC) a fixé lundi le milieu de la fourchette du yuan a un point record à 6,4690 yuans pour un dollar. Ce niveau est supérieur au plus haut historique de 6,4696 pour un dollar atteint lundi par la devise chinoise.

L’Espagne a émis mardi 2,99 milliards de bons du Trésor à 3 et 6 mois à des taux en légère hausse alors que les investisseurs sont toujours dans l’attente des modalités d’un nouveau plan de soutien à la Grèce. Le montant servi se situe dans le haut de la fourchette annoncée par le gouvernement espagnol de 2,25 à 3,25 milliards et l’opération a suscité une solide demande. Le rendement sur le papier à 3 mois s’est tendu de 18 points de base par rapport à la précédente adjudication en mai et ils n’ont augmenté que d’un point de base sur l'échéance à 6 mois. L'écart de rendement à 10 ans entre les titres d’Etat espagnol et allemand est revenu mardi à 256 points de base, soit 9 points de base en-dessous de son niveau de la veille. L’adjudication espagnole de bons du Trésor était très attendue alors que les résultats décevants de l'émission obligataire de la semaine dernière avaient déclenché des dégagements sur le papier espagnol.

Le risque d’abaissement de la note attachée à la dette souveraine des Etats-Unis a augmenté faute de consensus politique sur la question de la limite d’endettement du pays, a déclaré mardi l’agence de notation Standard & Poor’s. «Les risques négatifs à moyen terme ont augmenté et nous avons en effet affecté une perspective négative, ce qui signifie qu’il y a une chance sur trois que la note soit abaissée dans les prochaines années», a déclaré Moritz Kramer, directeur des notations souveraines de l’agence en Europe.