p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } HSBC Global Asset Management (HSBC GAM), led by John Flint since early 2010, has a strong presence in emerging markets, the traditionally strong territory of the HSBC bank, with USD145bn in assets, out of a total of USD439bn, an increase of 20% in one year. In an interview with La Tribune, Flint says the major advantage for his asset management firm is that 60% of its assets in emerging markets come from investments made by local players. “Inevitably, emerging markets will turn down sooner or later. When that happens, domestic products will be much more resistant than money coming from abroad. For us, that is a way to strongly reduce risks,” he says.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Alken Asset Management on 18 March announced the appointment of Marc Festa as fund manager. In his new role, he will continue his sector approach (aeronautics, defence, automotive), and will assist the founder and head of the firm, Nicolas Walewski. Walewski says in a statement, however, that the promotion does not mean that he will have to reduce his day-to-day involvement in the management of funds and the activities of the asset management firm. Alken says that Guillaume Dalibot, who is also in charge of distribution and housing, will take over research in the luxuries sector, and that Olivia de Cazenove will handle pharmaceuticals and the mining and metals sectors, utilities and leisure. The media sector will be watched by Vincent Rech, who already covers IT and telecommunications.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Daniel Trèves, CEO of La Compagnie Benjamin de Rothschild, will not stand for reelection to the board of directors at Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild (BPER). Trèves is planning to obey rules requiring that banking functions be separated from others under banking legislation, BPER announced following a meeting of its board of directors on 17 March. Trèves had served on the board for 18 years.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In January 2011, shares in non-money market mutual funds in the euro zone totalled EUR5.734trn, EUR10bn lower than their levels in December 2010, according to statistics released on 18 March by the European Central Bank (ECB). The decline is due to a fall in the value of shares, which was partly offset by net issues. Net subscriptions to non-money market mutual fund shares in the euro zone totalled EUR17bn as of January 2011, while money market mutual funds saw redemptions of EUR9bn. In terms of ventilation by investment strategy, the annual pace of growth in shares issued by bond funds totalled 7.7% in January 2011. Net subscriptions to shares issued by funds were close to zero in January 2011. For equities funds, the annual growth rate came to 2.9%, and net subscriptions totalled EUR9bn. For mixed funds, the figures are 5.5% and EUR6bn, respectively.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The alternative management heavyweight Fortress Investment Group last week launched an Asian macro strategy, the Fortress Asia Macro Fund, Hedgeweek reports. The Fortress macro strategy last year gained 10.7%. According to a recent study by Deutsche Bank, international macro funds will be among the most popular products in 2011, with a marked interest in Asia and its currencies.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 17 March, the New York-based management firm WisdomTree launched an actively-managed local currencies Asian bond fund, the Wisdom Tree Asia Local Debt Fund (ALD). The product, which charges fees of 0.55%, is managed by David Kwan and Mears O’Connor, managing directors at Mellon Capital, sub-advisor for the fund. The new ETF already has assets of USD145m. It invests in Asian debt, but not in Japanese bonds. WisdomTree Investments currently manages about USD10.1bn in ETFs.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 1 April, CBT Gestion (EUR34m in total assets), the company launched by Christian Bito and Vladimir Danesi, will extend its product range, founded on 5 November with the launch of the French-registered FCP fund CBT Action Eurovol 20 (see Newsmanagers of 8 November 2010), with the addition of CBT vol 5, CBT vol 7.5, CBT vol 15 and CBT vol 25 funds. The corresponding licenses frm the AMF were issued on 18 March.The funds of funds will be among the first licensed in Paris for which volatility control is built into their management objectives, at respective levels of 5%, 7.5%, 15% and 25% of the AMF prospectus.For the new products, the investment universe is extended to all global markets, and limited range from 0% to 100%, maximum 60% for the most moderate management, of the CBT vol 5 fund), while the Eurovol 20 focused on Europe and had exposure to euro equities limited to 60%.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Of the 13 hedge fund strategies monitored by Edhec-Risk, only two showed losses for February: dedicated short bias (-3.22%) and emerging markets (-0.45%). However, rises for commodities and a falling US dollar boosted CTA, where monthly returns total 1.72%, while the good performance of convertible bonds compensated for negative exposure to equities markets for funds specialised in convertibles arbitrage, which led to average gains of 1.66% in February. Since the beginning of the year, convertibles arbitrage has earned the highest returns (3.5%), followed by distressed securities, which earned 3.3%, while losses were limited to emerging markets (-1.1%) and dedicated short bias (-4%). The highest annual returns since January 2001 are for emerging markets (12.1%) and distressed securities (11.5%). The highest annual tracking errors since January 2011, by far, are for dedicated short bias (13.9%) and emerging markets (10.5%). The only strategy with a Sharpe ratio of over 1 is distressed securities, at 1.23. At the other end of the spectrum, dedicated short bias is the only strategy to produce a negative Sharpe ratio, of -0.29%.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British asset management firm ETF Securities has announced that its ETC trading platform, ETFS Commodity Securities Limited (CSL), now has a second counterparty, in addition to UBS as its commodity contract counterparty: Merrill Lynch Commodities (MLCI), of the Bank of America Merrill Lynch group. The agreement will take effect on 13 April or later. Bank of America Corporation will guarantee all payment engagements of MLCI. The CSL platform currently lists 113 ETCs.
The Paris-based firm Neuflize OBC Investissement (ABN Amro group), which has EUR22bn in assets under management, has released the NOBC Europe Convertible (FR0010281477) and NOBC Monde Convertible (FR001027315) funds, launched in 1997, which had assets as of the end of February of EUR305m and EUR228m, respectively, in Germany.The convertible bond funds have long been managed by Luc Varenne, and Basile Schlumberger, head of sales, tells Newsmanagers that the firm is planning to promote these French specialties to institutional investors and distributors in Germany.However, Neuflize OBC Investissements is not planning to offer its full range in Germany, nor is it planning to open an office in Germany, where the ABN Amro group already has an affiliate, the private bank Delbrück.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The German open-ended real estate fund CS Euroreal (DE0009805002, EUR6.06bn in assets as of the end of February) has resold the property located at Pergolesi 25 in Milan (7,045 square metres), for a price higher than its most recent expert valuation (30 September 2010), at EUR21.87m. Karl-Heinz Heuß, CEO of Credit Suisse Asset Management Immobilien KAG and co-manager of the fund, says that this is the fifth sale above venal value since the freeze on redemptions nine months ago (see Newsmanagers of 21 May 2010). Between the acquisition of the property in December 1999 and its sale in March 2011, the property has risen in value by about 34.5%. CSAM is negotiating sales of other properties, with the aim of bringing in enough liquidity to be able to sustainably reopen the fund to redemptions as soon as possible. After this most recent transaction, the portfolio still includes 109 properties, most of them recent, in eleven European countries. Office and commercial properties represent 58% and 32% of the portfolio, respectively.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 18 March, two new Irish-registered ETFs from db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank group) were admitted to trading on the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic trading platform (Deutsche Börse), bringing the total number of products listed on the platform to 803. Both of them are multi-asset class ETF funds (equities, bonds, commodities and alternative investments) which invest in ETFs from db x-trackers. They aim to satisfy the investment needs of small and mid-sized charities, says Michael Fuß, head of institutional distribution at DB Advisors, another Deutsche Bank affiliate. The basic ETF selection is undertaken by specialists from the investment solutions & analytics division of DB Advisors.The first of the two products, db x-trackers Stiftungs-ETF Stabilität (IE00B4WRDS59), is a prudent product, with 75% to 100% exposure to bonds, but which may also invest up to 20% in equities ETFs and up to 15% in commodities or currencies ETFs. It is aimed at charities which prefer capital protection and regular revenues.The second fund, db x-trackers Stiftungs-ETF Wachstum (IE00B3Y8D011), is aimed at charities seeking attractive returns with limited risk. It will invest 60% to 95% of its assets in bond ETFs, and up to 30% in equities ETFs. Allocation to commodities ETFs and alternative strategies may not exceed 10% in each case.Each of both products will have a total expense ratio of 0.75%, and distribute dividends half-yearly.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Union Investment Real Estate (UIRE) has frozen subscriptions and redemptions for its open-ended real estate fund UniImmo: Global, on the grounds that 14% of the properties in the portfolio of the fund are in Japan, and cannot now be valued. The move surprised and irritated the industry, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports, pointing out that the closure should be viewed in context: the net asset value of the fund was lowered in February by 4.5%, which triggered net outflows, bringing assets in the fund down to EUR2bn from EUR2.3bn at the end of January.Some managers estimate that UIRE must have been anticipating a closure due to these high levels of redemptions, in order to avoid a further deterioration in the fund’s liquidity levels.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Negotiations towards an out-of-court settlement have collapsed, and Irving Picard, the legally-appointed trustee for the business interests of Bernard Madoff, on Friday released further details of accusations against Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, the largest shareholders in the New York Mets baseball team. The Wall Street Journal reports that Picard claims the men must have known for years that Madoff’s activities were fraudulent. In addition, he accuses them of subsequently carrying out a plan to put their assets out of reach of confiscation once the fraud was discovered.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Two weeks after the opening of the Galleon trial, the former director of McKinsey and former director of Goldman Sachs, Rajat Gupta, who is accused of feeding insider information to the founder of Galleon, on 18 March filed a lawsuit against the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), Les Echos reports. Gupta denies the charges filed against him by the SEC on 1 March, and accuses the regulator of seeking to deprive him of his right to defence by filing the case as a civil suit.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } M&G, the asset management affiliate of the Prudential group, on 18 March announced the arrival of Benjamin de Frouville as co-head of distribution in its Paris team. He joins the team dedicated to intermediated distribution (platforms, IFAs, etc), composed of Gilles Dreyfus and Agathe Proust. Before joining M&G Investments, Benjamin de Frouville, 31, worked in partner relationships at Keren Finance, from February 2008. M&G Investments, with assets under management in France of EUR1.5bn, would like to accelerate its development in the IFA market this year.
Mark Fetting, chairman and CEO of Legg Mason for the past three years, tells Newsmanagers about his strategic priorities and his positioning in Europe, particularly in France, where the group is in the process of recruiting staff and would like to become one of the major players in US equities
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The CNMV has issued a license for the UCITS-compliant long/short fund Threadneedle (Lux) European Smaller Companies Absolute Alpha fund (see Newsmanagers of 13 March) for sale in Spain. The absolute return product is focused on small caps; it is a UCITS III-compliant version of the Threadneedle European Smaller Companies Crescendo fund, managed by Philip Dicken and his team (which is being closed).
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The number of ETFs listed on the European platforms of NYSE Euronext have increased to 623 from 621 in January, for a total of 546 products, compared with 544. Since the beginning of the year, the operator has registered 55 new ETFs, listed 61 times.The average daily number of transactions totalled 9,287, compared with 10,188 in January, but up 8.6% compared with February 2010. Meanwhile, average daily trading volume totalled EUR430.8m, compared with EUR473.4m in January and EUR413m in the corresponding month of last year.Total assets for all ETFs listed on European markets of NYSE Euronext as of the end of February totalled EUR144.4bn, compared with EUR140.8bn one month earlier, and EUR110.8bn as of the end of February 2010.The average spread in February totalled 28.15 basis points, compared with 28.5 basis points in January.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } John van Verre, head of HSS in Singapore from June 2010, and then managing director of HSS Ireland, has been appointed head of global custody at HSBC Securities Services (HSS). Before joining HSBC, he was chief commercial officer and member of the managing board at ABN Amro Mellon Global Securities Services.Van Verre will now be based in London, and will report to Drew Douglas, co-head of HSS.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Investment funds from BC Partners have bought the Phones 4U company from the private equity firm Providence Equity Partners, for an undisclosed amount. Phones 4U is one of the largest independent mobile telephone retailers in the United Kingdom. In 2010, the business posted more than 20% growth to its sales, to GBP900m.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British investment firm Caerus Portfolio Management has granted Odey Asset Management a mandate to manage its first active strategy, Fundweb reports. Caerus will launch a European and British equities fund, with minimal investment of GBP3,000 and annual commission of 1.75%, in the next few weeks.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } With the Axa WF Emerging Markets Local Currency Bonds fund (LU054088915), Axa Investment Managers (Axa IM) is releasing an emerging markets debt in local currencies fund managed by Damien Bluchet and Magda Branet. The portfolio will for the moment be focused on Brazilian, Polish, Mexican, Malaysian, South African, Chinese, Indian, South Korean, Israeli and Chilean government or corporate debt.
La société britannique d’investissement Caerus Portfolio Management a confié à Odey Asset Management la gestion de sa première stratégie gérée activement, rapporte Fundweb.Caerus va lancer dans toutes prochaines semaines un fonds d’actions européennes et britanniques dont l’investissement minimal a été fixé à 3.000 livres pour une commission annuelle de 1,75%.
Head of HSBC Securities Services (HSS) à Singapour depuis juin 2010 puis managing director de HSS ireland, John van Verre a été nommé head of global custody de HSS. Avant de rejoindre l'établissement, il avait été chief commercial officer et membre du managing board d’ABN Amro Mellon Global Securities Services.John van Verre sera désormais basé à Londres et «rapportera» à Drew Douglas, co-head of HSS.
Avec le Axa WF Emerging Markets Local Currency Bonds (LU054088915), Axa Investment Managers (Axa IM) lance un fonds d’obligations de pays émergents libellées en monnaies locales géré par Damien Buchet et Magda Branet.Le portefeuille sera pour l’instant focalisé sur des titres d’Etat ou d’entreprises brésiliens, polonais, mexicains, malaisiens, sud-africains, chinois, indiens, sud-coréens, israéliens et chiliens.
Désormais l’encours du LO Funds - Emerging Local Currencies and Bonds (lire nos articles du 24 mars et du 2( mai 2010) est voisin des 800 millions de dollars et affiche une performance de 16,22 % en euros depuis son lancement en janvier 2010.Le fonds «5B», le LO Funds - BBB-BB Bond (EUR) (voir notre article du 24 janvier 2011) utilise également comme référence un indice fondamental développé par Lombard Odier IM sous la direction de Stéphane Monier, CIO, fixed income & currencies ; il a été lancé le 1er décembre dernier. Et, à présent, le gestionnaire helvétique a commencé promouvoir, dans un roadshow européen, le LO Funds II - Global Government Bond investi dans les obligations d’Etat.
Selon Asian Investor, Korea Investment Management poursuit ses efforts d’internationalisation en Asie. Après avoir récemment ouvert un bureau à Shanghai, la société recherche activement un partenaire local pour créer une co-entreprise.Les actifs sous gestion de Korea IM s'élèvent à environ 17 milliards de dollars.
Société Générale Private Banking a annoncé, lundi 21 mars, le renforcement de sa direction en Asie pour soutenir ses ambitions et sa stratégie de développement dans la région, indique un communiqué. Olivier Gougeon, qui était précédemment directeur de l’Asie du Sud, devient directeur général de la région Asie-Pacifique, pour Singapour, Hong-Kong et la Chine. En outre, Patrick Dreyfuss, qui conserve ses fonctions de directeur des opérations de la zone, est nommé directeur général adjoint de Société Générale Private Banking pour la région Asie-Pacifique. Un comité stratégique composé de 4 membres est constitué : Alex Fung, est nommé président du comité stratégique de Société Générale Private Banking (Asie-Pacifique) en plus de ses fonctions de directeur général de Société Générale Private Banking (Hong-Kong),Olivier Gougeon, directeur général de Société Générale Private Banking (Asie-Pacifique), Hsiao-Yun Lee, directrice générale de Société Générale Private Banking (Chine), Bruno Lèbre, membre du comité exécutif de Société Générale Private Banking, superviseur des activités de la banque privée en Asie.
Union Investment Real Estate UIRE) a gelé les souscriptions/rachats de son fonds immobilier offert au public UniImmo: Global au motif que 14 % des actifs de ce fonds se trouvent au Japon et ne peuvent actuellement être valorisés. Cette initiative a surpris et irrité toute la profession, constate la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, soulignant que la fermeture doit être replacée dans son contexte : la valeur liquidative du fonds a dû être abaissée en février de 4,5 %, ce qui a provoqué des sorties nettes, l’encours du fonds diminuant à 2 milliards d’euros contre 2,3 milliards fin janvier.Certains gestionnaires estiment qu’UIRE n’a fait qu’anticiper une fermeture face à ces remboursements élevés, pour éviter une détérioration supplémentaire de la liquidité du fonds.