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24/03/2011

Axa to finalise AXA APH deal by 1 April

AXA on 23 March announced the end of the period to determine theprice for the Axa Asia Pacific Holdings (AXA APH) merger with AMPLimited (AMP), and the sale of the Asian activities of AXA APH toAXA. The finalisation of the acquisition of the Asian activities ofAXA APH by AXA is slated for 1 April 2011.The transaction has provisionally received all the necessaryregulatory approvals and the permission of shareholders in AXA APH.On the basis of the average price weighted by VWAP volumes of AMPshares over a reference period of 10 days, which comes to AUD5.32,the final price per share to be paid to minority shareholders in AXAAPH will be 0.73 AMP shares and AUD2.5464 in cash.AMP will acquire 100% of the existing shares in AXA APH forAUD13.3bn. AMP will buy the shares in AXA APH held by AXA forAUD7.2bn in cash. As a part of the transaction, AXA will buy 100% ofthe Asian activities of AXA APH from AMP for AUD9.8bn in cash. Theprice for the activities of AXA APH in Australia and New Zealand willbe AUD3.5bn.The total paid by AXA in cash will be AUD2.6bn (or aboutEUR1.8bn).The transaction will depend on operating profits per share in2011, and will have the following estimated impact on first half2011:About EUR0.7bn in one-time capital gains included in netresults, due to the sale of activities in Australia and New Zealand-1 point for the Solvency 1 ratio, which stood at 182% as of31 December 2010+4 points for the debt ratio, which stood at 28% as of 31December 2010. This impact is primarily due to the net cash paymentand the reduction in owners’ equity by about EUR1.6bn.
24/03/2011

Axa creates a new organisation in Asia

Following the finalisation of the AXA APH transaction (see full article in today’s edition), John Dacey, a member of the executive board at the Axa group, will become vice-chairman of the Asia=Pacific region, effective immediately, and will report to Henri de Castries. In his new role, Dacey will continue AXA’s development in the region. He was previously CEO of the Japan and Asia-Pacific region, which has been reorganised into two entities: AXA Asia and AXA Japan.Michael Bishop, a member of the executive board at the AXA Group, has been appointed as CEO of AXA Asia, and will report to de Castries. He was previously CEO of AXA Asia Life, an entity of AXA APH. In his new role, he will continue to direct life insurance, savings, and retirement activities of AXA in Asia (China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand), and will also supervise the development of damage insurance activities (in China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam).Gaëlle Olivier, who has recently been appointed as CEO of AXA Asia P&C, will report directly to him.Jean-Louis Laurent Josi, CEO of AXA Japan and a member of the executive committee at the AXA group, will report directly to de Castries.
24/03/2011

BaFin grants a license to LaSalle Investment Management KAG

The German financial services authority (BaFin) has issued an operating license to LaSalle Vermögensverwaltungs GmbH, founded by LaSalle Gmbh, whose headquarters are located in Munich (see Newsmanagers of 20 September 2010), which operates the LaSalle Investment Management Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH (LaSalle KAG) brand.The firm, which is 100% controlled by LaSalle GmbH, will aim to create German-registered institutional investment funds (Spezialfonds) for German, Austrian and Swiss institutional investors.Claus Thomas, CEO of LaSalle GmbH, says the new German management firm opens access for the group to Spezialfonds, and allows it to offer custom vehicles for separate accounts.The co-CEOs of LaSalle KAG are Martin Jochem and Ulrich Nach.
24/03/2011

Threadneedle signs an agreement with DB in Italy

Threadneedle and Deutsche Bank have signed an agreement to distribute 34 Threadneedle funds via the 271 branches of the German bank in Italy, and via Finanza & Futuro Banca, the network of 1,250 financial advisers at the group. Among the Threadneedle funds which will now be sold in Italy by Deutsche Bank are the Pan European Fund, American Fund, American Select Fund and European High Yield Bond Fund.
24/03/2011

Amundi launches a money market Sicav

Amundi has launched a money market Sicav, Amundi Money Market Fund Short Term (EUR), Citywire reports. Its objective is to outperform the Eonia. The management firm is also planning to launch a sub-fund in US dollars in the next few months, and may also launch a fund in pounds Sterling.
24/03/2011

Prudential adds to range of real estate funds

Prudential Investments is launching two new real estate funds. The Prudential U.S. Real Estate Fund concentrates on investments in real estate companies in the United States, while the Prudential International Real Estate Fund invests in real estate companies outside North America, in developed countries and emerging markets.
24/03/2011

CCR AM hires a former Lyxor manager

Olivier Cornuot, 43, is joining the volatility and convertibles unit at CCR Asset Management, as a senior manager in charge of quantitative strategies. Cornuot was previously head of absolute return and manager of volatility arbitrage funds at Lyxor.
24/03/2011

New Alpha AM finalises first closing on new incubation vehicle

NewAlpha Asset management has completed a first round of fundraising at EUR105m for the NewAlpha Genesis 4 fund, from 10 institutional investors. The fund, whose final asset target is set at EUR150m, will be able to accept further subscriptions until the end of July 2011. The fund will aim to invest in diversified alternative strategies from asset management firms in a launch or development phase. The analysis and research team at NewAlpha Asset Management, which considered more than 300 candidates for incubation in 2010, has already identified, selected and begun negotiations with several managers that show attractive characteristics, both in terms of future performance and growth in activities. NewAlpha Genesis 4 will make its first investments by the end of first half 2011. NewAlpha Genesis 4 aims to offer total annualised performance of 8% to 12%, on an investment horizon of at least 3 years.
24/03/2011

Unicredit ne dit toujours rien sur la vente de Pioneer

La nouvelle direction d’Unicrédit emmenée par Federico Ghizzoni pourrait envisager de conserver Pioneer Global Asset Management, sa filiale de gestion d’actifs si les offres reçues se révélaient insuffisantes, rapporte L’Agefi. La banque italienne négocie actuellement avec trois candidats (Natixis, Amundi et le britannique Resolution) mais une rumeur parle aussi d’un rapprochement de Pioneer avec Eurizon, son concurrent chez Intesa Sanpaolo. «Une décision sera prise dans deux à trois semaines», a indiqué simplement le directeur général qui a déjà exclu toute vente de l’activité américaine de Pioneer, considérée comme «stratégique».
24/03/2011

Pioneer decision due in two to three weeks

At a presentation of its annual results, Federico Ghizzoni, CEO of UniCredit, announced that a decision would be made in two to three weeks on the sale of Pioneer, Il Sole – 24 Ore reports. The Italian newspaper reports that representatives of Resolution, one of the candidates, have met top management of UniCredit on several occasions in Milan to present the most recent details of their bid. The UK group is proposing to create a European asset management platform capable of attracting other players in the sector. Pioneer would then be owned by a newly-created firm owned by the new and former shareholders in the asset management firm, and thus potentially also UniCredit. The entity would be listed in London and Milan, with at least 51% of its capital public. The other candidates are Amundi and Natixis, though these have been made uneasy by the Italian government’s decision to block hostile operations in strategic sectors in the country, Il Sole notes. Ghizzoni did not rule out the possibility that Pioneer would not be sold.
24/03/2011

Mapfre launches a guaranteed fund benchmarked to Eurostoxx 50

The insurance firm Mapfre Vida on Wednesday launched the Fondmapfre Garantizado 1104, which will mature on 4 May 2015. The capital is 100% guaranteed, and returns will depend on the performance of the Euro Stoxx 50. There will be weekly liquidity windows beginning in the second year.
24/03/2011

Axa, Mirabaud and Pimco register funds in Spain

Three foreign management firms have recently received licenses to sell some of their products in Spain. They include the Axa IM Euro Moderato (E share class, FR0010950055, and I share class, FR0010950063) from Axa Ibercapital, and the Mirabaud Active Allocation (A share class, LU0562891944, and I share class, LU0562892165) from Mirabaud Finanzas. For its part, Pimco (Allianz Global Investors group) has registered the Pimco Emerging Asia Bond Fund, Pimco Emerging Markets and Infrastructure Bond Fund, and PIMCO Global Advantage Fund. The last of these replicates the fundamental index GLADI (Global Advantage Index), which was developed internally.
24/03/2011

Galleon: Goldman Sachs president and CEO testifies against former McKinsey head

In the third week of the Galleon trial, the president and CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, took a stand against the former head of McKinsey, Rajat Gupta, defending the confidentiality of the deliberations of the bank’s board, to which he had belonged, Les Echos reports. Gupta is accused of feeding confidential information to the founder of Galleon, Rajat Rajaratnam.
24/03/2011

RBS resells Spanish real estate loans to Perella Weinberg

Expansión reports that the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has commenced the sale process for its non-strategic credit portfolio in Spain, to sell EUR286m in loans made at the peak of the market to real estate promoters, to the opportunistic Perella Weinberg Real Estate Fund, for an undisclosed amount, but probably at a steep markdown. RBS is still seeking buyers for about EUR700m in loans.
24/03/2011

BNY Mellon raises dividends

BNY Mellon on 22 March announced an increase of 44% to its quarterly dividends, from 8 cents to 13 cents per share. The dividend will be paid on 1 May to shareholders registered on 29 April. The group has also announced that its board of directors has granted approval for a further extension to the share buyback program now underway. The new program will increase the buyback total to 47 million shares, with a value of up to USD1.3bn.
24/03/2011

Amundi remains overweight in equities

In its diversified portfolios, Amundi Asset Management “has been overweight in equities by several percentage points for the past six months,” and is planning to continue to prefer higher-risk assets. The management firm “is gradually reducing its overweight position on high-yield bonds,” Philippe Thurbide, head of research, strategy and analysis, stated on 23 March, adding that the firm has already been underweight in investment-grade corporate bonds for some time. In government bonds in particular, the French management firm is short on duration, due to continuing, yet evanescent prospects of a rise in inflation in western Europe, and more concrete dangers of rising prices in eastern Europe. Pascal Blanqué, deputy CEO and CIO of Amundi Group, adds that the management firm “is moving from credit to equities, particularly Euorpean equities, where valuations are currently attractive.” This slant towards European equities is leading symetrically to a reduction in the overweight exposure to emerging markets. In terms of Amundi’s product plans, Eric Turjeman, head of equities management in Paris, states clearly that the range is nearly complete in “all terrain,” and thus capable of satisfying any fluctuations in demand due to market evolution. But there might be additions to the range of minimum variance (minvar) products to control volatility, and «return» products.
24/03/2011

Four appointments at Société Générale Private Banking

Société Générale Private Banking (SGPB) on Wednesday, 23 March announced four appointments to its wealth engineering, fiduciary services and life insurance divison, led by Laurent Joly. Jon Needham, who is based in Jersey, is appointed as global director of fiduciary services for the international banking network. He is also in charge of wealth engineering and fiduciary services for Société Générale Private Banking Hambros. Vittorio Castellani, who is based in Geneva, is appointed head of wealth engineering for Latin American clients of SGPB. He reports to Alberto Valenzuela, deputy CEO of Société Générale Private Banking (Switzerland) SA, and director of the Latin American client segment. Cécile Decomps, who is based in Paris, is appointed head of life insurance for Société Générale Private Banking, in charge of developing and promoting the life insurance product range in the international network of the private bank. Marco Cameroni, who is based in Luxembourg, is appointed head of wealth engineering and fiduciary services for private banking activities at Société Générale Bank & Trust (SGBT). He replaces Claudio Bacceli, who has recently been appointed CEO in charge of private banking at Société Générale Bank & Trust.
24/03/2011

Ossiam appoints head of compliance and internal control

Ossiam, the affiliate of Natixis Global Asset Management specialised in ETFs (exchange-traded funds), announced on Wednesday, 23 March that it has appointed Paul-Marc Lachaud as head of compliance and internal control at the firm. Lachaud, 32, is an addition to the organisation at the management firm, which is planning to launch its first products in May 2011, a statement says. In September 2007, Lachaud joined the inspector general’s office at the BPCE group, as inspector, and was in charge of evaluation of the risk control framework at the bank and its affiliates, and of improving the organization and effectiveness of the group’s various risk management entities.
24/03/2011

Le FSI s’intéresse à Delachaux

Le Fonds stratégique d’investissement s’intéresse au dossier Delachaux, une société spécialisée dans les équipements ferroviaires et dont certains actionnaires familiaux souhaitent vendre leurs parts, a indiqué à Reuters une source proche du FSI. Le magazine Challenges a indiqué mercredi que Rothschild avait été mandatée pour conseiller Delachaux sur une possible restructuration de son capital. La société capitalise environ 850 millions d’euros en Bourse.
24/03/2011

Chute spectaculaire des ventes de logements neufs aux Etats-Unis

Les ventes de logements neufs ont reculé de 16,9% contre toute attente au mois de février pour ressortir à un niveau sans précédent depuis 1963, montrent des chiffres publiés jeudi par le département du Commerce et qui laissent entendre que la glissade de l’immobilier se poursuit. En rythme annuel, les ventes sont ressorties à 250.000 unités alors que les analystes tablaient sur 284.000. Comparées à février 2010, elles ont plongé de 28%.
24/03/2011

L'Allemagne veut modifier le système de contribution au MES

L’Allemagne va chercher à modifier le système de contribution au futur Mécanisme européen de stabilité (MES) lors du sommet de l’Union européenne jeudi et vendredi à Bruxelles, a déclaré mercredi un responsable du gouvernement allemand. Les règles de fonctionnement de l’actuel Fonds européen de stabilité financière (FESF), que le MES devra remplacer, doivent être finalisées d’ici le mois de juin.
24/03/2011

L'UE veut durcir les règles nucléaires

Les dirigeants de l’Union européenne appuieront vendredi des mesures de sécurité nucléaires plus strictes. Selon un projet de déclaration finale du sommet européen qui se tient jeudi et vendredi à Bruxelles, et dont Reuters s’est procuré une copie, les chefs d’Etat et de gouvernement européens déclarent que «la sécurité des centrales nucléaires de l’UE doit être revue, sur la base d’une évaluation des risques et de la sécurité transparente et complète (stress tests)».
24/03/2011

Statu quo pour la Banque d’Angleterre

Le comité de politique monétaire de la Banque d’Angleterre (BoE) est resté tiraillé entre partisans du statu quo et ceux d’un durcissement, montrent les minutes de la réunion de mars. Le nombre de partisans d’une hausse des taux est resté bloqué à 3 membres, les 6 autres étant partisans du statu quo.
24/03/2011

Dubai World signe un accord définitif sur sa dette

Dubai World a signé mercredi un accord définitif avec ses créanciers sur la restructuration de ses 24,9 milliards de dollars de dettes. Le conglomérat contrôlé par l'émirat de Dubaï a précisé avoir conclu un accord avec 80 créanciers. Il remboursera ses obligations sur une période de cinq à huit ans.

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