Le gouverneur Stefan Ingves et le premier vice-gouverneur Svante Oberg ont déclaré que la banque centrale suédoise pourrait relever les taux de plus d’un quart de point si les pressions inflationnistes augmentaient. La Riksbank a annoncé une hausse des taux pour la cinquième fois d’affilée à l’issue de sa réunion du 15 février.

L’Union européenne va envisager une baisse du taux d’intérêt de l’aide d’urgence allouée à l’Irlande, a annoncé lundi Olli Rehn, commissaire aux Affaires économiques et monétaires. «Nous partageons avec l’Irlande l’objectif de relancer sa dynamique de croissance et de parvenir à assurer la viabilité de la dette», a-t-il déclaré lors d’une conférence de presse. «Les conditions de tarification, je veux parler des taux d’intérêt, sont ici l’une des questions clés qui sera évoquée dans le cadre de la stratégie globale de l’Union européenne.», a ajouté Olli Rehn. L’Irlande a obtenu fin 2010 du Fonds monétaire international (FMI) et de l’UE une aide d’urgence de 85 milliards d’euros pour faire face à une dette record. Le Fine Gail, vainqueur des élections législatives de vendredi en Irlande, souhaite négocier avec l’UE une révision du taux d’intérêt de ce prêt.

From 1 April, Ignis Asset Management will be making its funds available to Italian retail investors, via advisers and platforms. The Scottish asset management firm is in registering its products with this in view, and has recruited a second person to handle the Italian market. Ignis AM has previously served only wholesale investors in Italy, as in the other markets of continental Europe that it serves (France, Germany, Benelux, Scandinavia, and Spain, as well as Latin America).This move to serve retail clients in Italy is in response to the dynamism of the Italian market in 2010, and because the area has become one of the largest for Ignis AM in continental Europe. The asset management firm is planning to take advantage of the trend for Italians to move away from local management firms over to foreign firms. In 2010, more than EUR6bn were invested with non-Italian management firms. In continental Europe, Ignis AM remains concentrated on the development of wholesale clients.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } UBS SA on 28 February announced in a statement that it has appointed Alexander Friedman as Chief Investment Officer (Cio) of UBS Wealth Management. Alexander Friedman will begin in his new role on 1 March 2011. The CIO will be responsible for stratgy and global investment policy in close collaboration with the other departments of Wealth Management, as well as with Global Asset Management and the Investment Bank, UBS states. Friedman, former CFO for the Bill & Melinds Gates Foundation, has long experience in finance. He will be joined by Mona Sutphen, former deputy secretary general for the political affairs office at the White House, who will undertake macroeconomic analysis, and Mark Haefele, a well-known hedge fund manager, who will handle investment analysis.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } UBS has obtained initial authorisation to create its own bank in China. The bank is slated to begin operations in six months, David Li, head for China at the largest Swiss bank, has told the Reuters news agency. Banks are required to obtain authorisations in two phases in order to operate in China, in a long and complex administrative process. Li expects to receive final authorisation in six months’ time. The head of UBS is predicting continued growth in wealth management activities in China. The market for ultra-high net worth clients has been growing at 30% to 40% per year, he says. With its own bank in place as well as joint ventures, UBS is hoping to achieve a more highly effective deployment in China.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } With reports in the media of the departure of the star manager Raphael Kassin, who had recently joined the Geneva-based management firm Reyl & Cie from Credit Suisse (see Newsmanagers of 9 April and 21 May 2010), the Swiss firm was under the media spotlight on Friday.In an interview with Newsmanagers, Thomas de Saint-Seine, a member of the board of directors at Reyl Asset Management, confirms the news, and puts it in perspective: “we are liquidating the Luxembourg fund Emerging Debt Opportunities, which was managed by Kassin. We have parted ways with the manager, on good terms. In fact, his entry into our business was not entirely optimal: our very strong in-house culture makes it particularly demanding in this area. With that said. The EUR86m in assets in the fund will be redeemed to subscribers beginning this Monday. Investors will not have done badly out of it, as the bond of emerging markets government bonds denominated in ‘strong’ currencies, which was managed with an absolute return approach, last year generated returns of over 7% in one year.”Reyl now has other goals in its sights. “We now have several projects, either alone or in partnership. The furthest along is a UCITS long/short equity fund, for which we are in the process of applying for a license from the Luxembourg CSSF,” de Saint-Seine says.When asked about the volumes under management, the manager states that “as of the end of February, assets in our 15 funds (six equities, four bond and five hedge funds) total about CHF1.8bn, and net subscriptions since the beginning of 2010 have totalled about CHF900m. Market effects averaged 15%, with returns as high as 30% for our emerging markets equities fund.”Currently, Reyl & Cie has about CHF4.1bn in assets under management, including CHF2.3bn in private banking (compared with CHF1.7bn as of the beginning of 2010). This activity developed “nicely” in 2010, not only in Switzerland, but also in France and Singapore.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Ashmore, a management firm based in London specialised in emerging markets, with USD46.7bn in assets under management, has announced an agreement to acquire a 62.9% stake in Emerging Markets Management for USD246m. The latter management firm, founded in the United States, which is also specialised in emerging markets, but with an emphasis on equities, counts Amundi, the asset management affiliate of Crédit Agricole and Société Générale, among its shareholders. The French firm controls only 11.5% of its capital (with a stake inherited from Crédit Agricole Asset Management), but it is an important partner at EMM. The US structure manages several emerging markets funds for Amundi, representing a total of EUR5bn in assets under management, out of a total of USD10.4bn in assets at AMM as of 31 January 2011 (or over EUR7bn). These distribution agreements will remain in place, Ashmore says; Amundi confirms this. However, the French management firm is exiting from the capital of EMM. Ashmore says the acquisition will allow it to increase its assets in emerging markets equities, which represent 20% of its total assets.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } FinanceAsia reports that Goldman Sachs has reorganized its PIA (principal investment area) investment division in Asia, with the addition of India and Japan, which had previously been handled separately, and the appointment of Ankur Sahu and Andrew Wolff, as co-directors of the unit. Both men have worked at Goldman Sachs since 1998.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } For the first time in several months, Swedish savers in February pulled out of equities in favour of bond funds, Private Affarer reports, citing Nordnet. The move is due to turbulence on the markets related to events in North Africa and the Middle East.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The founder of the private equity firm Hopu Investment Mangaement, Richard Ong (ex-Goldman Sachs), has left the firm to create his own Asia fund, which will invest in financial establishments, consumer goods, natural resources, and foodstuffs. At the time of its inception in 2008, Hopu received an investment of USD1bn from the Singapore sovereign fund, Temasek, and launched an Asia fund with about USD2.5bn in assets. RRJ Capital, the new firm from Ong, will operate one of the largest funds dedicated to Asia. The fund is hoping to raise USD1.5bn by the end of March, with a second closing at USD2bn planned for early June.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } MoneyMarketing reports that Aegon Asset Management is planning to launch a multi-asset class fund, which will earn annual returns of 10% over a period of three years. The strategy, which will be available to retail investors, though it was previously restricted to institutional clients, will be launched on 1 March, and will include primarily long-only positions, mostly in equities and bonds. The management of the new vehicle will be shared between William Denning, head of investment strrategy, and Sean Flanagan, in the multi-asset class team. Minimal investment is GBP500. Front-end fee has been set at 5.5% (with a special rate of 2.5% valid until 1 March), and management commission is 1.5% per year.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 25 February, Deutsche Bank and the Swedish firm Lynx Asset Management announced the launch of the DB Platinum IV Lynx Index, a UCITS-compliant version of the Lynx Fund with daily liquidity, on the DB Platinum IV platform.The new product will be managed by Jonas Bengtsson, Svante Bergström (CEO and founder) and Martin Sandquist at Lynx, a member of the Brummer & Partners group in Stockholm, using the applied systematic strategy of the Lynx program (trend-following and statistical models), which has about USD3.3bn in assets. The method will be used to reduce tracking error in order to make the fund compatible with the UCITS III directive.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Russell Investments and Research Affiliates on 24 February announced the launch of a new series of indices based on a methodology developed by Research Affiliates, which takes into account fundamental criteria about the business, and not its capitalisation. The new range, entitled Russell Fundamental Index Series, will include 24 new indices designed to offer beta solutions to investors seeking access to products not weighted on the basis of capitalisation. The fundamental criteria used to construct the various indices are earnings, operational cash flow, average dividends and equities buybacks.

Jefferies Group, LoanCore LLC et le fonds souverain de Singapour, le Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), ont annoncé la création de la co-entreprise Jefferies LoanCore LLC, une société d’investissement financier dans l’immobilier commercial. Les promesses d’investissement s'élèvent d’ores et déjà à 600 millions de dollars.

Les turbulences au Moyen-Orient et en Afrique du Nord et la flambée des prix du pétrole ont poussé les investisseurs à favoriser les fonds des marchés développés, notamment l’Europe et le Japon, au détriment des fonds émergents, selon les dernières statistiques d’EPFR Global. Depuis le début de l’année, la collecte dans les fonds actions européens a dépassé la barre des 5 milliards de dollars. Les fonds énergétiques ont drainé plus de 1 milliard de dollars durant la troisième semaine de février.Globalement, les fonds d’actions ont subi une décollecte nette de 3,32 milliards de dollars durant la semaine au 23 février. Les fonds actions émergentes ont enregistré leur cinquième semaine consécutive de rachats si bien que la décollecte depuis le début de l’année a dépassé la barre des 20 milliards de dollars. En revanche, depuis le début de l’année, la collecte dans les fonds d’actions européennes a dépassé la barre des 5 milliards de dollars.Les fonds obligataires ont encore drainé 2,63 milliards de dollars alors que les fonds monétaires ont encore subi des rachats pour un montant d’un peu plus de 5 milliards de dollars, portant le total de la décollecte depuis le début de l’année à plus de 80 milliards de dollars.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, Mehdi Rachedi has been appointed head of partnerships in the external distribution management team at Natixis Asset Management. In this position he replaces Cédric Michel, who left the job in mid-February to join Fidelity (Newsmanagers of 15 February 2011). Michel joined Natixis AM in early 2009, with Stefan de Quelen. Direction of external distribution, which was directed by de Quelen, provides direction for sales to independent financial advisers (IFAs), platforms, insurers, private banks, and multi-managers. Rachedi will take over relations with IFAs and distribution platforms. He joined Ixis Asset Management in 2005, and in 2009 was appointed as a representative for external distribution at Natixis Asset Management.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to a survey by Accenture and RBC Dexia, outsourcing, particularly of back-office and middle-office, is perceived by asset management players as a structural solution to improve the profitability of proprietary capital in the industry. La Tribune reports that the survey of over 80 fund managers worldwide, entitled “Outsourcing: opportunities and strategies,” finds that 59% of respondents are now predicting an ROE of lower than or equal to 15%, compared with 20% previously. The major cause motivating asset management firms to outsource some of their activities is cost savings, for 95% of respondents, while 77% find that outsourcing is now a trend among funds. In terms of the providers selected, the market leaders, State Street and BNY Mellon, are the most often cited.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Robert S. Zuccaro has returned to Gamco Investors, the asset management firm of Mario Gabelli, as CFO. He is currently CFO of Commonwealth Management Partners. He previously worked at Gamco in the late 1990s.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } An analysis of risk for the open-ended real estate fund Immoinvest (EUR6.38bn in assets) will be completed for SEB Asset Management by mid-April, in order to allow the management firm to decide with a full body of information whether or not to extend the redemption freeze for the fund for another year, Die Welt reports.The fund has recently sold two office buildings in Milan and Brussels for EUR125m, at prices 6% and 9% higher than their market value. With these sales, the net liquidity rate for the fund increased to 12%, but this would not be sufficient to meet redemption demands.However, SEB AM theoretically has until May 2012 to obtain enough liquidity to reopen the fund to normal operations.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) on 24 February announced the launch of two new ETFs in its SPDR range (USD255bn as of 31 December) on the NYSE-Arca platform: the SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Dividend ETF (acronym EDIV), and the SPDR Barclays Capital Emerging Markets Local Bond ETF. The first of the two funds replicates the S&P Emerging Markets Dividend Opportunities index, which is composed of 100 positions. The fund charges 0.59%. The second tracks the Barclays Capital EM Local Currency Government Divrsified index, with a TER of 0.5%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Only insurers may subscribe to the new Putnam Variable Trust (VT) Absolute Return 500 Fund, which is a specialised variant of the Absolute Return 500 fund intended to be used for variable annuities policies (insurance policies linked to modifiable units) and other insurance products, Putnam Investments (USD123bn in assets as of the end of Jamuary 2011) has announced. The product will be launched in spring 2011.The objective is to outperform the return rate on Treasury bills by 500 basis points over a “reasonable period” (at least three years), regardless of market conditions. The management team will also make an effort to keep volatility at a level lower than traditional asset classes, which generate similar levels of returns.To achieve this objective, the Putnam VT Absolute Return 500 Fund will use two strategies: a “beta” strategy, which will aim to balance risk and generate performance through a diversified, multi-asset class approach, and an alpha strategy, using a variety of trading tactics (stock-picking, tactical allocation, currency trading, options).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Financial Times reports that the Digital Growth fund from JPMorgan is in talks to acquire a 10% stake in Twitter for USD450m.

Philippe Dutertre, at the helm of a largely captive entity overseen by two supervisory boards, with slightly over EUR13.7bn in assets under management, is pushing both for transparency in reporting and for an extension in the area of application of SRI.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Shareholders at US businesses proposed 360 resolutions at general shareholders’ meetings in spring 2011, according to the annual report from the As You Sow foundation. Of this total, nearly 290 proposals have yet to be voted on. More than one third of these resolutions (131) are related to environmental issues, or requests for information related to sustainable development. About one quarter of proposals (84, up from last year) are related to requests for information about political contributions by businesses. Managers of SRI funds are the largest source of proposals, contributing 24% of the total. Calvert Investments proposed 21 resolutions, Trillium AM 16, and Walden AM 14. Pension funds were also highly active, with 19% of the total. Then come religious institutional investors (15%), unions (13%), and retail investors (also 13%), who are increasingly active despite being unfamiliar with the regulatory process. Last year, nearly 20% of all investors supported initiatives to require US businesses to release more information, and concrete actions related to environmental issues.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The New York-based activist hedge fund Aurelius Capital Management (USD2.4bn in assets) has found a new target: it has filed a lawsuit against Energy Future Holdings Corp., formerly known as TXU, which was acquired for USD45bn by the private equity investors KKR and TPG in 2007, the Wall Street Journal reports.Aurelius states that the largest affiliate of EFH, Texas Competitive Electric Holdings Company, is technically in default on USD23bn in credit, and that it granted a loan of USD1.9bn to its parent company EFH at a rate of only 500 basis points above the Libor, which is far below the market rate.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Under a settlement reached on Friday evening, investors who lost money in the Madoff scandal due to investments in funds from Tremont Group Holdings, which funnelled money to Bernard Madoff, will share USD100m, the Wall Street Journal reports.The subscribers accuse Tremont of failing in their fiduciary duty, failure to undertake the necessary due diligence, and of deliberately ignoring warning signs.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The UK asset management firm Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) on 31 December 2010 announced net subscriptions up 92% year on year, to GBP1.133bn. Money market management had a total of GBP34m in net subscriptions. Assets under administration rose 189% in one year to GBP1.217bn.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Financial News reports that Credit Suisse has recruited Phil Cutts as managing director and CEO of its private bank in the UK. Cutts spent 25 years at Royal Bank of Canada.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } SBI-SG Global Securities Services, Private Limited, a joint venture from the State Bank of India (SBI) and Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS), has launched its accounting and fund administration services, a statement says. The firm has now become fully operational across all of its activities. The joint venture has over USD8bn in assets under administration, and since May 2010 has provided custody services, which now total about USD7bn in assets under custody to local and international institutional investors.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Via a capital increase, Espirito Santo Financière S.A., a Luxembourg affiliate of the Portuguese Espirito Santo group, has acquired a 40% stake for an undisclosed amount in Adepa AM, which will continue to provide fund administration services to Luxembourg institutional investors, Funds People reports.The two directors and partners at Adepa, Carlos Alberto Morales López et Javier Valls Martínez, will continue to direct the business.Adepa, which was founded in Spain in 1980, has recently liquidated its Spanish activities, and now operates only from Luxembourg, where it is regulated by the CSSF.