NYSE Euronext has announced that Amundi has added the Amundi ETF MSCI EM Asia B (code Isin : FR0011018316) and Amundi ETF MSCI EM Latin America B (FR0011018324) ETF funds, both of which charge fees of 0.45%, to trading on its Paris ETF platform. They replicate the MSCI Emerging Marekets ASIA And MSCI Emerging Markets Latam indices.With these new French-registered products, NYSE Euronext now lists 557 ETFs 649 times in Europe. Since the beginning of the year, the European platforms of the market business have registered 108 listings, corresponding to 82 ETFs.

The French investment management association (AFG) has responded to comments by the financial stability board (FSB) about ETFs and the risks that they could pose to financial stability. In response to the uncertainties expressed by the FSB about potential systemic risks inherent in these products, the professional association points out that these products are developing in a robust regulatory environment in Europe. On the one hand, ETFs are UCITS format funds, which therefore have a very solid regulatory framework; on the other, ETFs, unlike other UCITS-compliant funds, are also required to respect a series of requirements related to their listing on stock exchanges, such as disclosure of their indicative asset value and intra-day net asset value. The AFG also claims that ETFs are simple products, regardless of the method of replication used, either synthetic or physical. More sophisticated products, such as inverse ETFs and leveraged ETFs, represent only a very small part of the market, and these are also UCITS-compliant funds, meaning, for example, that leverage may not exceed 100% of net assets. However, the professional association points out that there is currently a “very high” risk of confusion for the final investor between ETFs and products whose legal status is completely different, and which do not offer anything like the same guarantees, such as exchange-traded products (ETP) exchange-traded vehicles (ETV), exchange-traded commodities (ETC), and exchange-traded notes (ETN).

The alternative management firm SAC Capital Advisors is planning to launch a new quantitative hedge fund in the next few months, probably in third quarter, Bloomberg reports. Quantitative strategies represent about 15% of total assets under management at SAC Capital Management, which weigh in a USD35bn overall.

In the month of April, in a context of rising equities and commodities markets coupled with strong gains for the US dollar, all hedge find strategies posted gains, according to statistics from the Edhec Risk Institute. The best results were for CTA Global strategies, which gained 3.82%. However, convertibles arbitrage strategies saw some difficulties, despite good results for convertible bonds (2.68%), and finished the month with modest gains of 0.12%. Equity Market Neutral strategies earned returns of 0.97%, while all equities strategies posted good results, such as event-driven, with +1.19%, and long/.short equity, with +1.35%.

Barclays Capital and HFR Asset Management have announced that they are creating a partnership in the managed accounts segment. The cooperation will bring together the managed accounts platform at HFR, on which more than 1,000 hedge fund strategies are available, and the expertise of Barclays Capital, particularly in structuring and distribution.

Appetite for risk has continued to diminish over the week to 18 May, as investors were confronted with not particularly encouraging macroeconomic data, a rise in speculation about a potential restructuring of Greek debt, and the forthcoming end to the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing programme. According to the most recent statistics from EPFR Global, equities funds have seen a net outflow of USD7.07bn in the third week of May, while outflows from emerging markets equities funds totalled USD1.64bn. However, bond funds posted a net inflows of USD4.59bn Since the beginning of the year, inflows to bond funds invested in emerging markets posted a net inflow of USD7.9bn. Inflows to US bond funds have totalled USD28.4bn since the beginning of the year, while international bond funds have taken on USD24.5bn, and funds dedicated to high yield bonds have seen inflows of USD22.1bn. However, US municipal bond funds have seen outflows of more than USD25bn since the beginning of the year, and European bond funds have seen outflows of nearly USD13bn.

Ibercaja Gestión on 24 March launched a “expected performance” bond fund, which is described as an intermediate solutions between a guaranteed fund and a savings deposit. The product, Ibercaja Renta Fija 2014 – 2, matures on 29 December 2014. It aims for annualised performance of 3.25% to 3.50%.The portfolio will be invested in bonds rated at least A- by S&P or the equivalent, but may be up to 40% invested in BBB+/BBB- rated shares, and may allocate a maximum of 3% of its assets to bonds with a rating of less than BBB-, or which are not rated. The average duration for the portfolio will initially be less than 3.5 years. All securities will be retained until maturity.The fund will be available until 30 July with no front-end fee.CharacteristicsName: Ibercaja Renta Fija 2014 – 2ISIN code: ES0147049003Front-end fee: 0.5%, from 30 July 2011Management commission: 0.95%Depository banking commission: 0.1%Early withdrawal penalty: 1.5%, from 30 July 2011

On 18 May, the Hamburg stock exchange has announced that a freeze on subscriptions and redemptions for the open-ended real estate fund of funds DB ImmoFlex, announced by DWS Investment, has led to shares in the product being admitted to trading on its platform. The stock market business, which operates the Hamburg and Hanover stock markets, adds that all German open-ended real estate funds and funds of funds which are currently subject to freezes are admitted to trading on its markets.

Fidelity International is now offering those German investors who tend to be more prudent and conservative the Fidelity Global Strategic Bond Fund, which covers all bond segments (investment grade corporate bonds, high yield bonds, government bonds, inflation-linked bonds, and emerging markets bonds). The fund, denominated in euros and registered in Luxembourg, has received a German sales license from BaFin.Fidelity Germany on 20 May also announced that it has released the Fidelity Asian Bond Fund (in USD), which is aimed at clients who are less hesitant to take risks, and who are seeking to participate in Asian growth.Assets in Asia-Pacific (ex Japan) managed by Fidelity as of the end of December totalled USD55.7bn.CharacteristicsName: Fidelity Global Strategic Bond FundISIN codes: Distribution share class: LU0594301060Capitalisation share class: LU0594300682Manager: Andy WeirBenchmark index: Barlcaus Capital Global Aggregate Bond IndexFront-end fee: 3.5%Management commission: 1.15%Name: Fidelity Asian Bond FundISIN code: capitalisation share class: LU0605512275Manager: Bryan CollinsBenchmark index: BofA/Merrill Lynch Asian Dollar Investment Grade Index (ADIG)Front-end fee: 3.5%Management commission: 0.75%

The US Senator Charles Grassley, a Republican from Iowa and head of the Senate judiciary committee, is investigating 20 cases over the past decade in which the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) suspects the alternative management firm SAC Capital of making trades on options on the basis of insider information, the Wall Street Journal reports. The transactions concerned companies in the healthcare sector. Neither SAC Capital, nor its CEO, Steven A. Cohen, have been accused of wrongdoing.The Senate investigators will study transactions made by SAC Capital, with the assistance of the SEC and the Department of Justice, sources familiar with the matter say. The investigations will also concern hedge fund management affiliates, such as CR Intrinsic Investors and Sigma Capital Management.

The team of trustees who have been working to create France’s Strategic Investment Fund (FSI) since its inception in November 2008 have nearly completed their mission, Les Echos reports. The seven members of the board of directors of the CDC affiliate, which inherited a three-year renewable civil mandate, will meet on 31 May to prepare for the future. Fresh terms for the two representatives of the CDC on the one hand, and of the government on the other, do not appear to be in doubt. The two independent administrators, Patricia Barbizet, CEO of Artémis, the financial holding company for the assets of François Pinault, and Denis Kessler, chairman and CEO of the reinsurer SCOR, have expressed their intention to continue to assist in the development of the FSI. However, Xavier Fontanet, currently chairman of Essilor, will not be standing for another term.

Jean-Rémy Roulet, who is both president of the Groupement des Institutions de Prévoyance in Switzerland, a group of Swiss pension funds, and the head of a pension fund, talks with Newsmanagers about the way that institutional investors' capital is managed in Switzerland, and the natural internationalisation of their investments. The president and head would like to be able to bring asset managers at the various management firms face to face with a global investment universe.

In an environment in which the CSI 300 equities market has lost 12.5%, the portfolio of the Chinese social security fund (NCSSF) earned 4.23% in 2010, compared with 16.12% in 2009. These results are better than the 3.3% gains for the consumer price index, Z-Ben Advisors reports, due to mandates for foreign investments, bonds, and cash.Assets increased in one year to CNY856.7bn as of the end of December, compared with CNY776.7bn one year previously of which 41.1% is in the form of mandates (compared with 46.6%), and CNY497.8bn in direct investments. A 10.2% increase in assets under management is due to performance of 4.23% on the one hand, and to capital injections and transfers from the Ministry of Finance and state-owned enterprises, on the other.

Palaedino Asset Management, an asset management firm created by a Geneva-based family office that manages CHF1.1bn in assets, is launching the Axiom Global Currency fund, a sub-fund of its UCITS III-compliant Luxembourg Sicav, with the objective of diversifying money market risks. The fund replicates the PAM Hard Currency Index, an investable index created by the Swiss firm in mid-December 2010, and composed of 25 currencies with strong potential for revaluation. “It aims to protect and preserve the global purchasing power of investors based in euros or dollars, in a context of monetary disorder, at a time when the dollar and euro are likely to depreciate against other currencies, Sandro Mauceri, one of the managers of the fund, along with Jérôme Berset and Christian Bado, explains. In order to be included in the index, currencies need to come from countries where the sovereign debt situation is viable in the long term, which are undervalued in terms of purchasing power parity, and which are enjoying an environment of strong growth potential, with the characteristics of a refuge investment. The euro and US dollar are not included in the index. Depending on their potential for appreciation, the various currencies are over- or underweighted in the index, which is revised every three months. The fund currently has assets of EUR50m, with the objective of raising a further EUR100m to EUR200m in the next few years. In France, the fund, like the other five products in the range, will be sold by the third-party marketing firm Compagnie Financière Jacques Cœur.

Frank Schröder, manager of the HSBC Trinkaus Kurzläufer fund (DE0005324552) at HSBC Global Asset Management (Deutschland), has announced that the fund’s investment policy concept is changing, for two reasons.On the one hand, a change in the economic environment, as official rates are increasing and the quality of credit is holding stable, argues in favour of a shorter-duration credit portfolio, which would be actively managed, and focused on floating rate securities, with the euribor three-month as its benchmark.On the other hand, the segment of banking sector bonds with state guarantees, which was the fund’s largest allocation, is beginning to shrink, as these securities begin to mature. The fund will now invest in senior corporate bonds investment grade, complemented by covered bonds and government bonds. The fund invests solely in bonds denominated in euros, with a maximal duration of one year.

Investors worldwide are acquiring a growing interest in emerging markets and alternative asset classes, according to an annual survey of institutional investors by Mercer (“2010 Global Manager Search Trends report”). From a diversification standpoint, investors are interested in real estate, largely due to the relatively attractive prices in this asset class. There is also a growing interest in commodities, infrastructure, and multi-strategy hedge funds. Research into emerging markets, both in equities and bonds, has also increased strongly. Andy Barber, global director of Manager Research at Mercer, says that “interest in non-traditional asset classes is continuing to increase, as investors seek to diversify their investments and participate in opportunities to generate alpha and beta.” Interest in traditional investments is falling, due to the crisis, but it will continue, Berber predicts, adding that mandates for traditional equities and bond management will continue to dominate research activities in the short term. In Europe, research activities have been significantly reduced in the United Kingdom in 2010, but had increased strongly the previous year, while it has risen more than 50% in Germany, with strong demand for emerging markets strategies (equities and bonds). Activities have also increased in Switzerland and Sweden, while they have fallen in France, Ireland, and the Netherlands.

Nancy Utterback (ex European Credit Management) and Alessandro Rovelli (ex Deutsche Bank) have been recruited as credit analysts in the corporate bonds team at Aviva Investors.Utterback will be in charge of completing the integration of the offshore research team based in Mumbai; she will be responsible for the credit research process, covering the TMT (telecom, media, and technology) and consumer sectors.Rovelli will be in charge of the industrial and utilities sectors.

With the arrival of Sébastien Thomas, (ex Invest AM, ex Olympia Capital Management), the Paris office of Pictet & Cie Europe is now planning to offer its clients additional services, with the addition of an interlocutor in a position to inform them about the asset allocation sentiment of teams at Pictet Asset Management in Geneva.A second recruitment has also been finalised, which will bring an addition to the Paris sales staff in July.

The “Offene Immobilienfonds Rating 2011” rankings from the Berlin-based agency Scope Analysis covers only 24 open-ended real estate funds, compared with 29 in 2010 (see Newsmanagers of 12 May 2010). Only three products saw increases to their ratings: the Deka-ImmobilienGlobal (up to A+ from A), the grundbesitz europa fund from RREEF Investment (Deutsche Bank), which is promoted to AA from AA-, and the WestInvest InterSelect, reserved for institutional investors, which has moved into the AA+ category from A+, putting it at the top of the rankings. In total, 10 funds get A ratings or higher, compared with 12 in 2010, and 18 in 2009.Scope has also maintained its ratings for ten funds unchanged, and has further lowered its ratings for 11 funds (compared with 23 in 2010). At the bottom of the rankings, the only funds in the “D” class are two funds from DEGI (Aberdeen group), the Global Business fund (which was already rated D in 2010), and the International fund (which was rated BB in 2010). The DEGI International fund, meanwhile, is the fund which has seen the heaviest losses in one year (15%); it is also second for highest levels of leverage (41.6%), after the TMW Immobilien Weoltfonds (48%).The dispersion of performances for the various funds is very wide, from +5.2% and -15% in one year. According to calculations by the BVI, average one-year performance as of the end of March totalled 0.9%, due to the fact that the German association of asset management firms does not take into account real estate funds whose liquidation has been announced since the beginning of the year, which had seen double-digit losses. According to estimates as of the end of December, however, open-ended real estate funds had lost an average of 1.3%.The best retail products in the rankings are the grundbesitz europa, followed by the Deka-ImmobilienGlobal, SEB ImmoPortfolio Target Return Fund (high net worth private clients and institutionals), which receive A+ ratings, and then the Deka ImmobilienEuropa, hausInvest (Commerz Real) and UniImmo: Deutschland, which receive A ratings.

In an echo of the 2011 rankings of open-ended real estate funds by Scope (see article in today’s Newsmanagers), Die Welt reports that the ratings agency finds that the UniImmo: Global fund from Union Investment has a good chance of being able to reopen to redemptions, because it did not close to redemptions in March due to liquidity problems, but rather due to the disaster in Japan.Scope also estimates that the CS Euroreal fund (Credit Suisse Asset Management) and the KanAm grundinvest fund, which have high quality portfolios, could reopen to redemptions in the relatively near future. However, the SEB ImmoInvest fund is facing a handicap due to the fact that one fifth of its portfolio is invested in properties on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, which presents a cluster risk. In addition, SEB Asset Management lacks a reliable distribution partner, who could prevent redemptions from being too high if the fund is reopened.Lastly, four funds will have difficulty reopening, either because they are too small, or because they have seen losses, or because the value of their portfolios could be revised heavily downwards: these funds are the TMW Immobilien Weltfonds, Axa Immoselect, and the DEGI International and Global Business funds.

One of the wealthiest women in Europe, Elena Ambrosiadou, has been accused of spying on the top employees at her hedge fund, Ikos, including her husband, Martin Coward, according to a lawsuit viewed by the Financial Times on Friday. The fund’s manager, Sam Gover, and the research team at Ikos, were fired by the businesswomen on 23 December 2008. In the lawsuit, Gover claims that his former employer hired an agent to infiltrate his private life.

The value of the F&C Commercial Property Trust increased by GBP12.98m in first quarter, the firm has announced in a statement. As of 31 March, the portfolio of the fund weighed in at GBP851.28m.

The hedge fund services provider BNY Mellon Alternative Investment Services (AIS) has announced that its assets under administration have topped USD400bn, making it one of the top actors in the sector. Since 2008, BNY Mellon AIS has doubled its assets under administration, largely due to the acquisition of the Global Investment Servicing unit in July 2010. In addition to its assets under administration, assets under custody at the firm total over USD120bn.

« Notre soucis est de renforcer des classes d’actifs aujourd’hui faiblement représentées dans notre gestion comme les obligations convertibles et l’alternatif. Nous parlons d’ailleurs plutôt de gestions décorrélées pour éviter de rentrer dans les schémas complexes de type fonds de fonds », analyse Georges Caubel, trésorier du Crédit agricole Aquitaine. La banque s’attache désormais à des stratégies à la fois plus lisibles et plus liquides. Cependant, le seul paramètre que la crise a vraiment modifié concerne la partie fonds alternatifs de son portefeuille qui en était autrefois, une composante forte. La caisse exprime aussi de façon ponctuelle, des intérêts sur des produits structurés de type EMTN avec participation à la hausse d’un indice action ou d’un panier de valeurs. En termes de rendement pour 2011, la caisse s’attend à Eonia + 50 point de base sur la globalité du portefeuille. Si la caisse n’entérine pas encore Bâle III dans sa gestion, Georges Caubel admet cependant : « Nous allons procéder à une adaptation graduelle de la règlementation et nous avons commencé à regarder les covered bonds mais l’actualité ne nous incite pas vraiment à aller aujourd’hui vers les titres d’Etat ». Car la banque est dynamique et travaille hors Amundi, avec une dizaine de contreparties parmi lesquelles se trouvent de petites sociétés comme Metropole Gestion ou de très grandes comme Robeco et Deutsche Bank. « A travers leurs compétences, actions ou gestions décorrélantes, nous cherchons à compléter l’offre groupe pour ne pas être prisonniers d’une gamme », observe Georges Caubel.

La caisse régionale a une gestion orientée sur le rendement. Déjà investie sur le crédit, elle est aussi très exposée sur les actions. Xavier Cibois, responsable de la gestion des actifs financiers et immobiliers, expose cette stratégie: «Nous faisons jouer les timing sur Solvency 2 pour investir encore sur les small caps, les convertibles mais aussi pour rechercher des obligations sur le thème du haut rendement». La caisse tient pourtant compte de la nouvelle règlementation car après avoir pris des bénéfices, elle s’est petit à petit, allégée d’un certain nombre de positions en désinvestissant sur la gestion alternative et un certain nombre de risques crédit qui avait très bien performé mais qui ont été revendu dans le cadre de Solvency 2. «Aujourd’hui, notre caisse couvre ses besoins en SCR plusieurs fois, souligne Xavier Cibois. Cela dit, nous allons être côtés et par le jeu de la consolidation des comptes du groupe, nous allons entrer dans un esprit groupe et si on nous demande de réduire la voilure, on le fera car l’approche groupe sera plus forte». En dehors de Groupama Asset Managment, la caisse Centre-Manche travaille avec d’autres sociétés de gestion, mais en nombre réduit qu’elle sélectionne d’abord par le produit et ensuite, en s’appuyant sur les critères classiques de la taille, la réputation ou la notation. «J’ai beaucoup réduit la voilure du nombre de sociétés de gestion, explique Xavier Cibois. Quand on a fusionné avec la caisse du Maine-Eure et Loire et Normandie, on avait une quarantaine de sociétés de gestion car chacun avait sa propre diversification et c'était ingérable».

Palaedino Asset Management, une société de gestion issue d’un family office genevois gérant 1,1 milliard de francs suisses, lance le fonds Axiom Global Currency, compartiment de sa Sicav luxembourgeoise Ucits III, dont l’objectif est de diversifier le risque monétaire.Concrètement, ce fonds réplique l’indice PAM Hard Currency Index, un indice investissable créé par la société suisse mi-décembre 2010 qui se compose de 25 devises possédant un fort potentiel de revalorisation. «Il vise à protéger et préserver le pouvoir d’achat mondial des investisseurs en base euro ou dollar dans un contexte de désordre monétaire où le dollar ou l’euro vont se déprécier par rapport aux autres devises», explique Sandro Mauceri, l’un des gérants du fonds, aux côtés de Jérôme Berset et Christian Bado. Pour entrer dans la composition de l’indice, les devises doivent provenir de pays dont la situation de la dette souveraine est viable sur le long terme, être sous évaluées en termes de parité de pouvoir d’achat, bénéficier d’un environnement à fort potentiel de croissance et présenter les caractéristiques d’une valeur refuge. L’euro et le dollar n’y figurent pas.En fonction de leur potentiel d’appréciation, les différentes devises sont sur ou sous-pondérées dans l’indice, qui est révisé tous les trois mois.Le fonds affiche à ce jour un encours de 50 millions d’euros, l’objectif étant de lever 100 à 200 millions d’euros supplémentaires sur les prochaines années. En France, le fonds, comme les cinq autres de la gamme, sera commercialisé par la société de tierce partie marketing Compagnie Financière Jacques Cœur.

Nancy Utterback (ex European Credit Management) et Alessandro Rovelli (ex Deutsche Bank) ont été recrutés comme analystes crédit dans l'équipe obligations d’entreprises d’Aviva Investors.La première sera chargée de parachever l’intégration de l'équipe de recherche offshore basée à Bombay. Elle sera responsable du processus de recherche sur le crédit tout en couvrant les secteurs des TMT (télécoms, médias, technologie) et de la consommation.Quant à Alessandro Rovelli, il sera chargé des secteurs industriel et utilities.

La valeur du F&C Commercial Property Trust s’est accrue de 12,98 millions de livres au premier trimestre, a indiqué la société dans un communiqué. Au 31 mars dernier, le portefeuille du fonds s’inscrivait ainsi à 851,28 millions de livres.

Jean-Rémy Roulet, qui est à la fois président du GIP suisse et responsable d'un fonds de pension, revient pour Newsmanagers sur la façon dont sont gérées les capitaux des investisseurs institutionnels en Suisse et sur la naturelle ouverture à l'international de leurs investissements. Dans ce cadre, le responsable apprécierait de pouvoir confronter les gérants actifs de différentes sociétés de gestion ayant le monde pour univers d'investissement...

En raison de demandes de rachats qui ont fait suite à une accusation de délit d’initiés contre l’un de ses gérants de portefeuille, Joseph F. «Chip» Skowron III, ainsi qu'à de mauvaises performances, FrontPoint Partners va liquider quelques-uns de ses hedge funds, rapporte The Wall Street Journal. Toutefois, le gestionnaire a refusé de préciser le montant de ces rachats et d’indiquer quels fonds seront fermés.Selon les proches du dossier, FrontPoint pourrait conserver un fonds récent d’un milliard de dollars spécialisé dans des crédits à des entreprises de taille moyenne, un fonds quant-macro et un fonds crédit stratégique.