The British firm Northern Trust on 5 May announced that it has won a mandate for custody services from Legal & General Investments Unit Trust, for assets of about GBP25bn.

The trustee for investors hurt by Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, Irving Picard, has reached a settlement with the liquidators of the Fairfield Greenwich Group funds, the biggest feeders of money into the fraud, the Wall Street Journal reports. The two sides have resolved claims against each other and reached an agreement to join forces to sue the fund owners, including Walter Noel. They also have agreed to share future sums recovered from fund operators and others.

According to estimates by BarclayHedge and TrimTabs, the hedge fund sector in March attracted USD15.7bn in inflows. Assets in the sector reached USD1.8trn, a level not seen since October 2008.CTA strategies attracted USD6bn, while funds of hedge funds took on USD3.4bn. Continuing a trend observed in previous months, funds dedicated to emerging markets earned inflows of USD3.4bn, while bond funds attracted USD3.3bn. The latter two strategies have accounted for about 50% of inflows to the sector since the beginning of the year.

Skandia Investment Group (SIG) has awarded a GBP20m mandate in its Skandia Global Best Ideas Fund to Mark Fleming at Tiburon Partners, a specialist Asian fund management firm. Fleming’s appointment to the fund sees him taking over the mandate from Peter Sartori from Treasury Asia.The Skandia Global Best Ideas Fund is managed by Lee Freeman-Shor, Francois Zagame and Ryan Hughes.

In the week ending on 4 May, at a time when macroeconomic data were showing a marked slowdown in growth in first quarter, commodities and energy sector funds saw a major exodus of investors, according to the most recent statistics from EPFR Global. Despite this deterioration in outlooks, equities funds absorbed USD3.7bn, of which USD1.2bn went to emerging markets equities funds, while bond funds in the same period attracted USD4bn. The most recent statistics confirm that investors have currently lost interest in the BRIC theme, with net redemptions in 16 of the past 18 weeks, and a cumulative outflow of over USD2.4bn. For US equities, ETFs, particularly those dedicated to large caps, represented more than 95% of inflows, as engagements from institutionals largely offset redemptions to retail investors. Since the beginning of the year, net inflows to US equities funds total over USD35bn, compared with slightly less than USD19bn in the corresponding period of 2010.

Prudential Real Estate Investors has announced that it has raised GBP492m (about USD800m) for its Pramerica Real Estate Capital 1 Fund. The fund, which is aimed at institutional investors, will invest in commercial real estate transactions.

Man Group on 9 May announced that its UCITS format fund range now offers daily liquidity. The funds affected, Man AHL, Trend and Man AHL Diversity, which allow retail investors access to the flagship strategy AHL Diversified PLC, were originally launched with weekly liquidity. The funds have attracted more than USD750m since their launch in July 2009.

OFI AM on Monday, 9 May announced the launch of OFI Global Emerging Debt, a new sub-fund of its UCITS III-compliant Luxembourg Sicav “Single Select Platform.” The sub-fund in question, created in late December 2010, has recently received a sales license for France, with assets under management of EUR51m, as of 30 April 2011.In terms of management, the sub-fund invests at least two thirds of its assets in government bonds from emerging markets, and up to one third in bonds from private issuers, most of which are rated investment grade. It is also in local currencies and “strong” currencies, depending on the anticipations of the management team, with a risk exposure that may go as high as 100% of assets, with discretionary hedging. The management of the fund is based on analysis of returns and risk factors inherent in emerging debt markets. This analysis leads to an allocation to assets which offer the best risk/return tradeoff, while also ensuring good diversification, a statement says.The managers are aiming for returns higher than the benchmark, which is composed 80% of the JPMorgan GBIEM Global fund (in unhedged euros), and 20% of the JPMorgan Euro EMBI index, over a 3-year period.The sub-fund is the second from the Single Select Platform Luxembourg Sicav, which has assets of EUR365m.CharacteristicsISIN code: LU0574846324Front-end fee: 1% TER maximum Management fees: 0.90% TER maximumPerformance commission: 15% of performance exceeding the benchmark indexBenchmark index: 80% JPMorgan GBIEM Global (unhedged) + 20% JPMorgan Euro EMBICurrency: euroValuation: Daily

The US management firm IndexIQ has announced the launch of an ETF of oil industry small caps on the NYSE Arca platform. Entitled IQ Global Oil Small Cap ETF, with fees of 0.75%. The product offers exposure to global small caps in the areas of exploration, production, equipment, and oil industry marketing services. The ETF replicates the performance of the IQ Global Oil Small Cap index, before fees.

Amundi ETF on Monday, 9 May annouced that it is extending its range of products on the British market to include 16 new ETFs on the London stock exchange (LSE). In total, 50 ETFs will be added to the LSE in the next three months, a statement says. Seven products from the first sortie are now available on the LSE. They include the Amundi ETF MSCI Nordic, Amundi ETF MSCI France, Amundi ETF MSCI Germany, Amundi ETF MSCI ItalyAmundi ETF MSCI Netherlands, Amundi ETF MSCI Spain, and Amundi ETF MSCI Switzerland. Details of the ETF funds may be found at the following address: http://public.adequatesystems.com/pub/attachment/117693/021632923196177…

NYSE Euronext on 9 May announced that it has listed two more ETFs from HSBC on the Paris exchange. The Irish-registered products were launched on 8 and 10 December, respectively, on the London Stock Exchange, and have since also been released on the Swiss market. The funds are the HSBC MSCI Turkey ETF (IE00N5BRQ873), which charges fees of 0.60%, and the HSBC MSCI World ETF (IE00B4X9L533), which charges 0.35%. The European platforms from NYSE Euronext include a total of 647 listings of 555 ETF funds, which replicate more than 360 indices. Since the beginning of the year, ETF listings on markets of the stock market business gained 106 listings, corresponding to 80 ETFs.

In April, funds on sale in Italy saw net redemptions of EUR2.16bn, according to the most recent statistics from Assogestioni (the Italian association of asset managers). Outflows were driven by bond and money market funds, which categories saw outflows of more than EUR1bn each. Flexible funds and hedge funds are also in the red, to the tune of EUR100m and EUR258m, respectively. Only equities funds and balanced funds show a positive flow, with net inflows of EUR411m and EUR48m, respectively. As of the end of April, assets in funds on sale in Italy totalled EUR448bn, down slightly compared with March. The asset management firms which saw the largest net subscriptions in April are Mediolanum (+EUR166.6m), JPMorgan Asset Management (+EUR76.7m), and Azimut (EUR61.8m). At the other extreme, the companies which had the largest net outflows were Pioneer (-EUR837.1m), Gruppo Intesa Sanpaolo (-EUR374.7m), and BNP Paribas (-EUR341m).

BaFin has awarded a license to Natixis Global Associates, a distribution affiliate of Natixis Global Asset Management, to release the Natixis Euro High Income Fund (ISIN: LU0556616935), a sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav Natixis International Funds, in Germany. The fund was launched more than a month ago in France (see Newsmanagers of 1 April).

In first quarter 2011, net subscriptions for member firms of the BVI association of German management firms totalled EUR9.37bn, compared with EUR31.6bn in the corresponding period of last year. Although institutional funds (Spezialfonds) show net inflows of EUR14.36bn, compared with EUR14.76bn in January-March 2010, open-ended funds have seen net redemptions of EUR4.63bn (compared with net subscriptions of EUR10.71bn), of which EUR3.36bn were in March.

Christoph Butz and Laurent Nguyen argue in a study entitled “How to Survive the Next Crisis,” published by Pictet, that environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria neither provided superior protection during the financial crisis, nor did they reveal the financial and economic factors which aggravated it. In other words, eliminating ESG risks is certainly a necessary precondition, but it is not enough for a genuinely sustainable investment strategy.For socially responsible investment (SRI) to survive and become a top choice investment strategy, rather than stagnating as a niche area for investment as it is now, these funds need to offer higher risk-adjusted returns, as well as sustainability, in the future.In other words, rather than seeking financial performance in extra-financial criteria, Pictet recommends doing exactly the opposite, and seeking sustainability in the financial fundamentals of businesses. In order to do that, the authors of the study try to identify and test the factors which make businesses more stable over the long term, more able to resist market draw-downs, and which thus help to make the financial markets and the economy as a whole more stable. Pictet focuses on the factors which show superior risk/return tradeoff characteristics: this formula is referred to as “financial sustainability.”The researchers construct portfolios which optimally reflect these financial sustainability characteristics. These factor portfolios are assembled to create a global portfolio and three regional equities portfolios with enhanced sustainability characteristics. The relative performance of the portfolios is then backtested against their traditional MSCI benchmark indices for the past decade. The results are encouraging, and confirm the hypothesis that optimising portfolios with a filter for financial sustainability could make them more resistant to losses, and more likely to outperform in most market conditions, excepting periods of rapid recovery.

On 9 May, BNY Mellon announced that it has created a new position for a president of its investment management division, which includes asset management and wealth management. The position will be occupied by Mitchell Harris, who had served as interim head of asset management activities, and who is also appointed as a member of the executive board. Like Larry Hughes, CEO for wealth management, with whom he will work closely, Harris will report to Curtis Arledge, vice chairman of BNY Mellon and CEO of the investment management division. Harris will retain his role as CEO of the bond, money markets and currencies group at BNY Mellon Asset Management, which manages more than USD500bn in assets, including the Pareto, Standish Mellon AM and Alcentra affiliates, as well as BNY Mellon Cash Investment Strategies (a division of the Dreyfus Corporation). Harris has previously also been CEO of Pareto and Standish, and remains as chairman of these firms.

The hedge fund manager John Paulson made USD4bn by betting against subprime mortgage, the market which precipitated the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings. Now, his fund Paulson & Co. could reap profits between USD350m and USD726m on bonds it bought up at a heavy discount from the investment bank two and a half years ago, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Bill Gross, founder and co-CIO of Pacific Investment Management Co. (Pimco, Allianz Global Invetors group), in April increased his bet that the price of US government bonds, including Treasurys, will fall, the Wall Street Journal reports. Exposure to bonds of this class was negative by 4% in April, where it had been negative by only 3% in March, as short positions have been increased. In February, allocation fell to zero from 12% in January for the Pimco Total Return Fund (USD240.7bn), the largest bond fund in the world.The cash allocation has been increased to 37%, compared with 31% at the end of March, while allocation to mortgage-backed securities (MBS) fell to 24%, from 28% at the end of March, and 34% at the end of February.

The management firm Bernheim, Dreyfus & Co. on Monday, 9 May announced the forthcoming arrival of Bénédicte Provost as a member of its team, in the area of risk control, operational procedure monitoring and the definition and deployment of asset allocation strategy. After spending more than 13 years as manager of the Valeurope fund, which is now the BNP Paribas Actions Europe fund, and the European sub-funds of the Inter Stratégie Sicav, now the BNP Equity Europe fund, Provost spent seven years at La Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild, where she managed the Saint-Honoré Euro-Opportunités, Europe Rendement and Nouvelle Europe, now known as EDRAM St-Honoré Europe, a statement says.

The German/Austrian management firm C-Quadrat Investment on 9 May announced net profits of EUR1m, compared with EUR4.7m in the corresponding period of last year, largely due to a decline in performance commission revenues, from EUR7.2m to EUR0.1m. This contraction is due to the volatility of the markets following the tsunami, and the fact that performance commissions for C-Quadrat products are based on a high watermark. However, C-Quadrat states that commission revenues increased to EUR11.5m from EUR7.6m, due to the effects of a substitution of institutional assets with higher-margin retail assets.

The manager of the LFP Long Vol fund, Brice Perin, has joined a member company of the UFG-LFP group, Acropole AM, where he will assist in the management of a wider range of volatility products.Perin will also continue to manage the LFP Long Vol fund via an outsourcing agreement.UFG-LFP has also entered a recruitment phase for a manager for the direct management team within the alternative management unit, led by Olivier Ramé. After the recruitment, the direct management team will have three members.

The head of British smidcaps from Collins Stewart, Martin Stewart, is leaving the firm in order to join MAM Funds, Money Marketing reports. At MAM Funds, Stewart will co-mange a similar fund of British small and midcaps, with Gervais Williams.

Having failed to obtain the support of the Spanish Cosmen family, which controls 17.2% of National Express, the US hedge fund management firm Elliott Advisors, which owns 17.4% of the British transport firm, has relented in its efforts to elect three candidates to the board of directors at the firm’s general shareholders’ meeting on 10 May, Expansión reports. Elliott will finally nominate only Chris Muntwyler (former head of DHL in the UK), as an independent administrator, and will agree not to criticise the strategy of National Express for one year. In other words, the hedge fund has accepted that National Express will not sell its Spanish affiliate Alsa to Cosmen.

Mark Mobius, executive chairman of the Templeton Emerging Markets Group, and Michael Hasenstab, portfolio manager and co-director of the international bond department, will join forces to direct a team which will manage the Luxembourg-registered diversified fund Templeton Emerging Markets Balanced Fund. The product will invest in equities as well as bonds from emerging markets. Minimal subscription is set at USD5,000, and management commission is 2.14%.

Man Group a annoncé le 9 mai que sa gamme de fonds au format Ucits offre désormais une liquidité quotidienne.Les fonds concernés, Man AHL Trend et Man AHL Diversity, qui permettent aux particuliers d’avoir accès à la stratégie phare AHL Diversified PLC, avaient été lancés à l’origine avec une liquidité hebdomadaire. Ces fonds ont drainé plus de 750 millions de dollars depuis leur lancement en juillet 2009.

L’américain Northern Trust a annoncé le 5 mai avoir remporté un mandat portant sur des services de conservation pour le compte de Legal & General Investments Unit Trust pour un montant d’environ 25 milliards de livres.

«Afin de renforcer son offre dans le domaine des sciences de la santé», BlackRock a décidé de placer sa gamme de fonds santé (healthcare) sous la responsabilité d’une équipe unique. Avec effet au 29 avril, Erin Xie et Thomas Callan deviennent co-gérants du BGF World Healthscience Fund, qui était jusque là confié à Bob Hodgson, et dont ni l’objectif ni l’indice de référence ne changent. Ils bénéficieront de plus du soutien d’analystes santé dans le cadre de l'équipe plus large «global opportunities» de BlackRock.Erin Xie, managing director et gérante de portefeuille, fait partie de cette équipe global opportunities ; elle est gérante de portefeuille principale pour le secteur de la santé, «product manager» pour les actions du secteur des sciences de la santé ainsi que membre du groupe stratégie d’investissement de l'équipe. Elle a rejoint State Street Research & Management (SSRM) en 2001, société qui a été reprise par BlackRock en 2005.Pour sa part, Tom Callan, managing director, a rejoint en 1996 l'équipe «global opportunities» qu’il dirige actuellement et dont il a été «l’architecte» du processus d’investissement. Il est aussi à la tête du groupe de stratégie d’investissement et assure la supervision de la gestion de portefeuille et du risque pour tous les produits gérés par l'équipe.

Mark Mobius, executive chairman du Templeton Emerging Markets Group, et Michael Hasenstab, gérant de portefeuille et co-director de l’international bond department, vont diriger ensemble l'équipe chargée de gérer le nouveau fonds diversifié de droit luxembourgeois Templeton Emerging Markets Balanced Fund. Ce produit investira aussi bien en actions qu’en obligations des pays émergents. La souscription minimale est fixée à 5.000 dollars et la commission de gestion se situe à 2,14 %.

OFI AM a annoncé, lundi 9 mai, le lancement de OFI Global Emerging Debt, un nouveau compartiment de sa sicav luxembourgeoise UCITS III «SingleSelect Platform». Créé fin décembre 2010, le compartiment en question vient d’obtenir son autorisation de commercialisation en France avec un encours sous gestion de 51 millions d’euros au 30 avril 2011.En matière de gestion, le compartiment investit au minimum deux tiers de ses actifs en obligations d’États des pays émergents et jusqu’à un tiers en obligations d’émetteurs privés, notés principalement «Investment Grade». Il est également investi en devises locales et en devises «fortes», en fonction des anticipations de l’équipe de gestion, avec une exposition au risque de change allant jusqu’à 100 % de l’actif et une couverture discrétionnaire. La gestion du fonds repose sur une analyse des rendements et des facteurs de risque inhérents aux marchés de dettes des pays émergents. Cette analyse conduit à une allocation sur les actifs présentant le meilleur rapport risque/rendement, tout en assurant une bonne diversification, indique un communiqué.Les gérants visent une performance supérieure à l’indice de référence composé à 80 % du JPMorgan GBIEM Global (en euros non couvert) + 20 % JPMorgan Euro EMBI, sur une période de 3 ans.Le compartiment est le dixième de la sicav luxembourgeoise Single Select Platform dont l’encours atteint 365 millions d’euros. Caractéristiques : Code isin : LU0574846324Droits d’entrée • 1 % TTC maximum Frais de gestion : 0,90 % TTC maximumCommission de surperformance : 15 % de la performance supérieure à celle de l’indiceIndice de référence : 80% JPMorgan GBIEM Global (non couvert) + 20% JPMorgan Euro EMBIDevise : euroValorisation : Quotidienne

La société de gestion Federal Finance, filiale du groupe Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, va lancer Kaléidoscope, un fonds diversifié offrant une garantie du capital à l’échéance. Ce produit se fonde sur un modèle quantitatif de suivi de tendances multi-classes d’actifs bâti par les équipes de recherche de la société de gestion brestoise en collaboration avec des universités. L’idée de base du modèle est que les actifs suivent des cycles de hausse et de baisse de deux à quatre ans. «Ainsi, les actifs ayant surperformé sur une période passée ont une probabilité forte de surperformer dans le futur», explique Erwan Marrec, responsable de la gestion quantitative de Federal Finance. Concrètement, le fonds sera investi, chaque mois, dans les classes d’actifs qui ont le mieux performé sur les six derniers mois et vendra ceux qui ont le moins bien performé sur la même période. Sachant que l’univers d’investissement comprend les marchés actions européens, américains, japonais et émergents, les marchés obligataires, les devises, les matières premières et l’immobilier. La diversification est en effet un autre pilier de la stratégie de Federal Finance.Les investissements se font sur des indices au travers de contrats à terme. Cinq indices de marché sur une vingtaine sont retenus chaque mois sur la base de leur performance passée. L’allocation au panier des meilleurs indices est aussi déterminée en fonction de la volatilité, afin que cette dernière se maintienne à 15 %. En cas de faible volatilité, jusqu’à 200 % du portefeuille peut être investi dans le panier d’indices. Inversement, si la volatilité est forte, moins de 100 % est investi dans le panier, le solde étant placé dans un actif monétaire. Enfin, le capital net investi est intégralement garanti à l’issue des huit ans du fonds, hors frais et commissions, le 28 juin 2019. Le fonds est en cours de commercialisation jusqu’au 28 juin 2011. Ce modèle «momentum» a déjà été testé sur des fonds dédiés de Federal Finance et représente d’ores et déjà 300 millions d’euros. Il sera utilisé dans le cadre d’un autre fonds ouvert diversifié, sans garantie de capital, qui sera lancé à la rentrée.