Source a annoncé le 14 avril le lancement de son nouvel ETF EURO STOXX® Optimised Banks. Il vient compléter la gamme des 18 ETF sectoriels européens optimisés de la société, qui représentent déjà 1,6 milliard d’euros d’encours sous gestion et constituent la référence en matière de liquidité, avec plus de 120 milliards d’euros de volume échangés depuis leur lancement en juin 2009.Le nouvel ETF EURO STOXX® Optimised Banks de Source offre une exposition aux banques de la zone euro en répliquant l’indice EURO STOXX® Optimised Banks Total Return (net). Découlant de l’EURO STOXX® composé de 312 valeurs représentant des sociétés issues de 12 pays de la zone euro, l’indice en question est composé de 24 valeurs libellées en euros. Tout comme pour les ETF sectoriels européens optimisés actuels de Source, l’indice de référence a été optimisé pour réduire l’exposition aux valeurs les moins liquides, créant ainsi un indice de référence sectoriel plus représentatif et investissable. CaractéristiquesNom du produit : EURO STOXX® Optimised BanksCode ISIN : IE00B3Q19T94Ticker Bloomberg : S7XE GRFrais de gestion : 0,30 % par anCotation : Deutsche Börse (XETRA)Nom de l’indice : EURO STOXX® Optimised Banks EUR (net return)Ticker de l’indice : SXO7T < indice>Domiciliation : Irlande

UBS a annoncé le 14 avril le renforcement de ses activités dans les produits structurés avec l’acquisition de Luxembourg Financial Group (LFG) pour 32,75 millions de francs. La transaction sera finalisée dans le courant du deuxième trimestre. LFG vient étoffer l’offre d’UBS dans le domaine des dérivés globaux d’actions. Fondée en 2007 et jusqu’alors en mains privées, la société du Grand Duché emploie au total 22 collaborateurs à Luxembourg et à Londres.

Le bénéfice net consolidé avant impôts de BNP Paribas (Suisse) s’est établi l’an dernier à 365 millions de francs suisses, en baisse de 11,6% par rapport à l’exercice précédent.L’intégration de Fortis Banque (Suisse) SA en mai 2010 a permis de renforcer la position de la Banque privée en Suisse, souligne un communiqué publié le 14 avril, mais l’évolution chaotique des marchés jusqu’à l’automne conjuguée à la forte appréciation du franc suisse ont pesé sur les revenus et les actifs sous gestion, qui ont reculé respectivement de 13% et 14% par rapport à 2009 (proforma avec Fortis). Les avoirs sous gestion s’établissaient à 41 milliards de francs suisses à fin décembre 2010. Les activités de financement sur matières premières, soutenues par une augmentation des volumes traités de 27% par rapport à 2009, ont en revanche enregistré une très bonne performance, avec une hausse de leurs revenus de 5% malgré le recul du dollar et le faible niveau des taux d’intérêt.

La Banque de Commerce et de Placement (BCP), surtout spécialisée dans le financement du négoce de matières premières et qui s’est lancée récemment dans une activité de gestion de fortune, possède déjà en portefeuille un montant d’un milliard de francs et escompte doubler cette valeur dans les deux ans à venir, avec des clients dont le cœur de cible est situé entre 5 et 50 millions de francs, rapporte L’Agefi suisse. La banque appartient à hauteur de 30% à la banque Yapi Credit et de 70% à la famille turque Karamehmet.

BlackRock lance le BlackRock Investment Institute, une plate-forme mondiale qui a vocation à produire des informations susceptibles d’aider les gérants de portefeuille de la société de gestion. Sa première publication est consacrée aux obligations souveraines.Pour s’occuper de cet institut, Lee Kempler a été recruté en tant que managing director et directeur exécutif. Il vient de McKinsey & Co où il était Principal et Director of Knowledge. Il sera placé sous la responsabilité de Richard Kushel, responsable du Portfolio Management Group de BlackRock. Par ailleurs, Ewen Cameron Watt devient chief investment strategist de l’institut. Il était jusqu’ici managing director et gérant de portefeuille au sein du groupe Multi-Asset Client Solutions, où il conservera certaines responsabilités.

La société de gestion allemande Tungsten Capital Management GmbH vient de lancer un fonds au format Ucits III via SEB Master KAG (Kapitalanlagesellschaft), une plate-forme créée par la banque suédoise SEB Enskilda pour faciliter le lancement et la commercialisation des fonds Ucits allemands.

Fitch Ratings a relevé de ‘M2(mar)’ à ‘M2+(mar) la note Asset Manager nationale (Maroc) de Wafa Gestion pour ses activités de gestion basées à Casablanca. Cette société marocaine, qui gère environ 5,7 milliards d’euros, est détenue à 66 % par AttijariWafa Bank et à 34 % par Amundi.Cette amélioration reflète principalement «la stabilisation des équipes après les changements organisationnels intervenus depuis 2008, les progrès continus apportés à l’environnement opérationnel (automatisation et équipes) ainsi que les améliorations effectuées au niveau de la plateforme technologique, notamment en termes d’intégration», explique l’agence de notation. Par ailleurs, Fitch considère comme étant des éléments positifs les quinze années d’historique de Wafa Gestion, son solide positionnement sur le marché marocain en termes d’encours sous gestion et d’offre produits, ainsi que le soutien de ses actionnaires de référence. Cependant, l’agence de notation souligne la nécessité de renforcer la structure de contrôle et le potentiel d’amélioration de certains aspects de la gestion des risques.

Ce jeudi 14 avril, Lyxor a lancé à la Bourse de Milan cinq ETF qui permettent d’investir sur des secteurs particuliers en Asie. Ils répliquent des indices sectoriels du MSCI AC Asia ex Japan, un indice constitué de plus de 600 actions de grande capitalisation cotées sur les Bourses de 10 pays asiatiques. Ces cinq ETF sont les suivants : - Lyxor ETF MSCI AC Asia Ex Japan CONSUMER STAPLES TR - Lyxor ETF MSCI AC Asia Ex Japan FINANCIALS TR - Lyxor ETF MSCI AC Asia Ex Japan INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TR - Lyxor ETF MSCI AC Asia Ex Japan INFRASTRUCTURE CAPPED TR - Lyxor ETF MSCI AC Asia Ex Japan MATERIALS TR

Falcon Private Bank SA a annoncé le 14 avril dans un communiqué l’ouverture officielle d’un bureau de représentation à Abou Dhabi. La banque, qui avait ouvert un premier bureau à Dubai en 2008, poursuit ainsi son expansion en direction des Emirats Arabes Unis. Falcon Private Bank SA appartient au fonds souverain Aabar Investments, contrôlé par le gouvernement de l'émirat, qui gère actuellement une douzaine de milliards de dollars.

Ces derniers mois, les fonds comportant «absolute return» dans leur nom se sont multipliés, constate Bloomberg Businessweek.com. La performance absolue promise à des investisseurs traumatisés par la crise de 2008 est avant tout un concept marketing, analyse Nadia Papagiannis, stratégiste chez Morningstar. La catégorie de ces fonds manque d’unité, estime Bloomberg, et les produits sont donc difficilement comparables entre eux, ce qui les rend peu transparents pour des investisseurs non spécialisés. De plus, les fonds sont souvent récents et manquent de track-record.

La Macif et AG2R La Mondiale ont annoncé le 14 avril avoir signé une lettre d’engagement finalisant leur partenariat en santé et en prévoyance collective, rapporte Les Echos. Il leur reste à obtenir le feu vert des autorités de contrôle. Leur activité commune sera logée dans ICIRS Prévoyance, qui portait jusqu'à présent une partie de l’offre collective de la Macif. Au passage, l’institution de prévoyance changera de nom pour s’appeler AG2R Macif Prévoyance. Sa nouvelle gouvernance sera mise en place en mai, les deux partenaires voulant être en ordre de bataille pour la rentrée.

La société spécialisée dans le non-coté XAnge a annoncé le 14 avril avoir réalisé l’an dernier des investissements pour un montant total de 38,7 millions d’euros pour 36 dossiers, incluant investissements et réinvestissements. Une année record en l’occurrence. Les 15 nouveaux investissements effectués pour un montant de 18,5 millions d’euros portent à 65 le nombre de participations de XAnge Private Equity. Les Fonds commun de placement dans l’innovation (FCPI) gérés par la société de gestion ont investi dans 6 entreprises en s’ouvrant notamment à des sujets très actuels comme l’open source (Exoplatform, RunMyProcess).Le montant des capitaux gérés par XAnge Private Equity s’élève à 340 millions d’euros fin 2010. XAnge Private Equity conseille notamment une SCR (XAnge Capital), un FCPR (XPansion), 11 fonds FCPI/FIP levés auprès d’une clientèle de particuliers et le Fonds de fonds Actys 2.

In the past few months, funds with the term “absolute return” in their name have multiplied, Bloomberg Businessweek.com observes. Absolute returns is above all a marketing concept which works on investors traumatised by the 2008 crisis, says Nadia Papagiannis, a strategist at Morningstar. The fund category lacks unity, Bloomberg estimates, and products are not easily comparable with one another, which makes them less transparent for investors. In addition, funds are often new and lack a track record.

German equity investment specialist, Tungsten Capital Management GmbH, has launched a new UCITS III fund via SEB Master KAG (Kapitalanlagesellschaft).SEB Master KAG is a one-stop shop which facilitates the launch and marketing of German UCITS funds. It helps manage risks and fund administration, accounting and pricing as well as fund and tax reporting.

Fitch Ratings has raised its national asset management rating (Morocco) for the management activities of Wafa Gestion, based in Casablanca, from M2(mar) to M2+(mar). The Moroccan firm, which manages about EUR5.7bn in assets, is 66% owned by AttijariWafa Bank, and 34% controlled by Amundi. The ratings rise largely reflects “the stabilisation of teams, after organisational changes that have taken place since 2008, continued progress in the operational environment (automatisation and teams), and improvements to the IT platform, particularly in terms of integration,” the ratings agency explains.

The price of gold is rising, and the trend appears to be here to stay for a long time. “We have entered a long rising cycle, which may last as much as ten years,” Martin Murenbeeld, chief economist at DundeeWealth, stated on 14 April in Paris. From his point of view, gold is not in a bubble situation, and remains attractively priced as a financial asset. According to quarterly projections from DundeeWealth as of 1 April, the weighted average price of gold in various more or less optimistic scenarios may hit about USD1,476 per ounce on average in 2011, and USD1,546 as of the end of December. The average for 2012 is USD1,573, with a potential low extreme of USD1,160, and USD1,880 at the most optimstic. There are many arguments in favour of a continued rise in the price of gold. In addition to accomodating economic policy, the sovereign debt crisis, which may concern European governments for several years to come, and geopolitical instability, relatively new phenomena are accentuating the optimstic scenario, including inflation in emerging countries, limited growth in production from gold mines, which may have peaked, rising financial demand (ETFs, China, India), and central banks, including banks in emerging countries, which are buying gold. China has increased its gold reserves from 600 to 1,054 tonnes, while India bought up the 200 tonnes sold off by the IMF, and Russia is buying gold every month. Russia and India have proposed to revise the basket of DTS products to include gold. Of course, there are also potentially negative factors for the price of gold as well, such as the continued rise of the equities markets observed at the beginning of this year, and solutions to the European debt crisis, which have helped to restore investor confidence. According to Murenbeeld, two developments are particularly likely to contribute to a correction in the price of gold: the establishment of more restrictive “crisis exit” policies, and Chinese recession, with growth falling under 6%, among them.

Due to the financial crisis, Baudouin Prot, CEO of BNP Paribas, has not received any stock options or free or performance-related share plans since 2008, Les Echos reports. To compensate for this situation, the board of directors at the bank has found a “more restrictive” substitute, which would allow it to improve the involvement of its director, and two other high-level employees, Jean-Laurent Bonnafé and Georges Chodron de Courcel, with the long-term performance of BNP Paribas’ share price. The three directors will receive cash payments, which will be paid only after a five-year period, under two conditions: one, that the BNP Paribas share price must have gained at least 5% in 2016 compared with its 2011 level; and two, that over that period and in each year, BNP Paribas shares must have outperformed the index of European banks.

BlackRock has launched the BlackRock Investment Institute, a global platform whose goal is to produce a flow of information that makes BlackRock’s portfolio managers better investors and helps deliver positive investment results for our clients. Its first publication is focused on sovereign bonds. Lee Kempler has joined the firm as managing director and executive director of the BlackRock Investment Institute. He comes from McKinsey & Co., where he was a principal and director of knowledge for the global management consulting firm. He reports to Richard Kushel, head of BlackRock’s Portfolio Management Group. BlackRock also announced the appointment of Ewen Cameron Watt as chief investment strategist for the Institute. He is a managing director and a portfolio manager in BlackRock’s Multi-Asset Client Solutions group (BMACS). He will retain certain portfolio management responsibilities in BMACS.

BNP Paribas Securities Services on 14 April announced that it has been issued a mandate to provide global custody for all non-life and life insurance assets of the MAIF Group. The contract represents EUR13bn in assets. “We previously had two different providers, of which BNP Paribas Securities Services was our provider for custody of life and non-life insurance assets. We were satisfied with the services which BNP Paribas Securities Services provided us, and after a call for proposals, we wanted to extend our agreement with this operator, to unite all our activities with a single provider,” Eric Berthoux, deputy administrative and financial director at MAIF, says in a statement.

The Banque de Commerce et Placement (BCP), largely specialised in financing for commodities trading, and which has recently launched a wealth management activity, already has over CHF1bn in its portfolio, and is planning to double that amount in the next two years, with a core target client segment with CHF5m to CHF50m, Agefi Switzerland reports. The bank is 30% owned by Yapi Credit, and 70% by the Karamehmet family.

Source on 14 April announced the launch of its new EURO STOXX® Optimised Banks ETF. The product is an addition to its range of 18 optimised European sectoral ETFs from Source, which already represent EUR1.6bn in assets under management, and strong liquidity, with over EUR120bn in volume traded since their launch in June 2009. The new EURO STOXX® Optimised Banks ETF from Source offers exposure to banks of the Euro zone, by replicating the EURO STOXX® Optimised Banks Total Return (net) index. This subindex of the EURO STOXX® index is composed of 24 shares denominated in euros (as the EURO STOXX® index is composed of 312 shares representing companies from the 12 contries of the euro zone, while the Stoxx Europe 600 index is composed of 600 shares from 18 European countries). As for the current optimise sectoral European ETFs from Source, the benchmark index has been optimised in order to reduce exposure to less liquid shares, thus creating a more representative and investable sectoral benchmark index. Major characteristics Name of product: EURO STOXX® Optimised Banks ISIN code: IE00B3Q19T94 Bloomberg ticker: S7XE GR Currency: EUR Management fees: 0.30% per year Listing: Deutsche Börse (XETRA) Name of index: EURO STOXX® Optimised Banks EUR (net return) Index ticker: SXO7T Country of domicile: Ireland

Morgan Stanley has announced the launch of a new fund under its Ucits Irish umbrella, FundLogic Alternatives. The new Newcit will be managed by New York based Sandler O’Neill Asset Management, and will offer European investors access to a long/short equity strategy focused on the U.S. financial services industry.

UCITS funds in February saw a net inflows of nearly EUR27bn, compared with EUR12bn the previous month, according to statistics from the European fund and asset management association (EFAMA). This rapid growth month on month, at a rate not seen since August 2010, is due to strong inflows to diversified funds (EUR9.2bn, compared with EUR4.1bn in January), and a return of investors to money market funds, which in February attracted EUR7.6bn, compared with outflows of EUR10.7bn in January). Long-term UCITS funds (excluding money market funds) posted a net inflow of EUR19bn, compared with EUR23bn in January. Equities funds attracted EUR2.6bn, compared with EUR9bn in January. Non-UCITS vehicles, for their part, gained EUR9bn in February, compared with EUR13bn the previous month. This decline is related to lower inflows for dedicated funds. Since the end of January, UCITS funds gained 1.2%, to EUR5.921trn, while non-UCITS funds were up 0.9%, to EUR1.958trn.

Falcon Private Bank SA on 14 April in a statement announced the official opening of a representative office in Abu Dhabi. The bank, which opened a first office in Dubai in 2008, is continuing its expansion in the region into the United Arab Emirates. Falcon Private Bank SA belongs to the sovereign fund Aabar Investments, controlled by the Emirates government, which currently manages USD12bn in assets.

The private equity specialist firm XAnge on 14 April announced that last year it made investments for a total of EUR38.7m in 36 targets, including investments and reinvestments. The 15 new investments, for a total fo EUR18.5m, bring the number of stakes held by XAnge Private Equity to 65. FCPI funds have invested in 6 businesses, and are focused on current issues such as open source (Exoplatform, RunMyProcess). The amount of capital managed by XAnge Private Equity totalled EUR340m as of the end of 2010. XAnge Private Equity advises one SCR (XAnge Capital), an FCPR (Xpansion), 11 FCPI/FIP Funds raised from retail clients, and one fund of funds, entitled Actys 2.

Both providers of ETF funds (iShares, see Newsmanagers of 14 April) and regulators (such as the financial stability fund, or FSB, see Newsmanagers of 13 April), appear to agree that recent developments in the ETF market present risks which deserve to be taken more serioualy. In its most recent report on global financial stability, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) dedicates an annex to ETFs (Annex 1.7. Exchange-Traded Funds: Mechanics and Risks), which points out an increase in risks related to the growing complexity of ETFs. The IMF finds that by some estimates, ETFs may grow by as much as 20% to 30% per year, largely due to the increasing interest of hedge funds in creating and distributing ETFs to a wider base of investors. Providers of ETFs themselves may be tempted to develop more complex instruments in order to replicate and improve the relatively inflexible returns from indices, the IMF remarks, adding that regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are increasingly monitoring this trend toward more complex products.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) on 14 April published a final draft of its recommendations for risk measurement and calculation of global exposure of some types of structured UCITS funds. The recommendations will come into force when they have been translated into all the languages of the European Union, and will accompany level 2 clauses in the UCITS directive, which will be legally binding from 1 July 2011.

On Thursday, 14 April, Lyxor launched five ETFs on the Milan stock exchange which allow investors access to particular sectors in Asia. They replicate sectoral indices of the MSCI AC Asia ex Japan index, which is composed of over 600 large cap equities listed on the stock markets of 10 Asian countries. The five ETFs are as follows: • Lyxor ETF MSCI AC Asia Ex Japan CONSUMER STAPLES TR • Lyxor ETF MSCI AC Asia Ex Japan FINANCIALS TR • Lyxor ETF MSCI AC Asia Ex Japan INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TR • Lyxor ETF MSCI AC Asia Ex Japan INFRASTRUCTURE CAPPED TR • Lyxor ETF MSCI AC Asia Ex Japan MATERIALS TR

The Norwegian pension fund (EUR381bn in assets under management) will increase its alloation to green sectors by EUR630m, Responsible Investor reports. The investments are part of an investment program which proposes to allocate more than EUR2.5bn to companies active in environmental issues, over the next five years.

Richard Schutte, the main witness for the defence in the trial of Raj Rajaratnam, founder of Galleon Group, on charges of insider trading, received USD15m from the billionaire’s family two months before the start of the trial, the Financial Times reports. The money was paid to the man in order for him to manage it in his SportTail fund. He had already received an investment of USD10m in September 2010 from Rajaratnam, two months after the launch of the fund. The information was revealed on the fourth day of testimony from Schutte, former president of Galleon Group.