Par un communiqué publié le 15 février, l’entreprise de marché allemande Deutsche Börse et son homologue américano-européenne NYSE Euronext ont annoncé que leur fusion va créer la plus grande organisation boursière mondiale, même si la nouvelle entité n’a toujours pas de nom. Les actionnaires de la Deutsche Börse détiendront 60 % du nouvel ensemble, ceux de NYSE Euronext les 40 % restants.L’opération se fera par l'échange d’une action Deutsche Börse contre une action de la nouvelle société tandis que les actionnaires de NYSE Euronext recevront 0,47 action du nouvel ensemble pour une action NYSE Euronext.La nouvelle société aura deux sièges administratifs, l’un à New York, l’autre à Francfort, le siège juridique étant Amsterdam tandis que les directions sectorielles, l’infrastructure et les cadres dirigeants seront localisés à Paris, Londres, Luxembourg et sur d’autres sites.Cette fusion est censée générer des synergies de coûts de 300 millions d’euros d’ici à trois ans et de permettre une forte augmentation du chiffre d’affaires où les synergies devraient d'être d’au moins 100 millions d’euros.

Le fonds «distressed» d’Oaktree Capital a restitué 3 milliards de dollars sur les 10 milliards levés auprès d’investisseurs, face aux difficultés qu’il éprouve pour trouver des opportunités d’investissement dans un contexte économique plus favorable, selon le Financial Times, qui cite des personnes proches du dossier. Le fonds, géré par Bruce Karsh, était l’un des acquéreurs les plus agressifs de dette de sociétés en difficulté après la faillite de Lehman Brothers. Mais maintenant il ne sait plus quoi faire de l’argent que lui ont confié les investisseurs.

Marten S. Hoekstra, l’ancien CEO de la division Wealth Management Americas au sein d’UBS, vient de rejoindre Emerging Global Advisors, une société de gestion américaine spécialisée dans les marchés émergents, en tant que chief executive officer. Il reprend à ce titre les fonctions du fondateur Robert Holderith qui reste président et se concentrera sur le développement de produits d’investissement.Emerging Global Advisors conseille la famille d’ETF EGShares ciblée sur des secteurs et thèmes précis dans les marchés émergents, comme les infrastructures au Brésil ou les petites capitalisations en Inde. La société gère actuellement 9 ETF de ce type et en prépare d’autres.

LCH.Clearnet Group a annoncé, le 15 février, la nomination de Ian Axe en tant que chief executive de LCH.Clearnet Group Limited (la société holding du groupe) et de LCH.Clearnet Limited (la filiale basée au Royaume-Uni). Jusque-là, Ian Axe travaillait chez Barclays Capital, où il était global head of operations and COO EMEA.Il remplace Roger Liddell, qui était chief executive chez LCH.Clearnet depuis juillet 2006 et qui a annoncé son intention de prendre sa retraite en juillet 2010.

Aberdeen Asset Management a annoncé la nomination de Marc van Heddeghem en tant que nouvel expert indépendant, membre du comité de conseil du fonds Aberdeen European Balanced Property. L’intéressé vient de quitter son poste de managing director de Redevco Belgium. Le Aberdeen European Balanced Property Fund est un fonds semi-ouvert investi dans l’immobilier européen et destiné aux investisseurs institutionnels. Il représente un encours de 423 millions d’euros.

Barclays Wealth a fait état pour l’exercice 2010 d’un bénéfice avant impôts de 163 millions de livres, en progression de 14% d’une année sur l’autre. Les actifs de la clientèle s’inscrivaient fin 2010 à 163,9 milliards de livres contre 151,2 milliards un an plus tôt. La collecte nette s’est élevée à 6 milliards de livres.Le pôle «Investment Management» a de son côté dégagé un bénéfice imposable de 67 millions de livres contre 22 millions précédemment, résultant pour l’essentiel de la participation de 19,9% dans BlackRock. Le résultat imposable du groupe a fait un bond de 32% à 6,06 milliards de livres.

Insparo Asset Management a lancé un deuxième fonds sur l’Afrique, Insparo Africa Equity Fund, censé profiter du potentiel de croissance des entreprises africaines et de l’émergence d’une culture de la consommation sur le continent. Il sera investi dans des sociétés leaders en Afrique du Nord et en Afrique sub-saharienne avec un levier minimal, ainsi qu’en Afrique du Sud, dans la limite de 20 %. Le fonds débute avec 7,5 millions de dollars.

JO Hambro Capital Management a fermé provisoirement aux nouvelles souscriptions son fonds JOHCM UK equity income après qu’il a passé la barre des 750 millions de livres d’encours, rapporte Money Marketing.

Selon Financial News, le hedge fund londonien CQS a débauché deux employés seniors chez BlueCrest Capital Management. Il s’agit de Leila Kotlar-Bouget, ancienne responsable du service clients de BlueCrest, qui occupera un rôle similaire chez CQS, et de Bojan Milicic, ancien associé et commercial de BlueCrest.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The first «Funds Event», held on Tuesday in Luxembourg, brought together more than 250 asset management professionals at the new Drosbach Luxembourg-Cloche d’Or conference centre. In addition to 12 “master classes” and two round tables, the program included two plenary sessions, organised around the participants Lionel de Broux, head of fund manager selection at ING Private Capital Management, and Laurent Gorgemans, head of multi-managers at Dexia Asset Management, which set the tone for the event.The conference is a first for Luxembourg, where professional gatherings have typically “been dedicated to fund administration and compliance,” explains Fabien Amoretti, a partner at Farvest, the organizer of the event. Events held by the Luxembourg investment fund association (Alfi) “are very high-level events, but focused on issues related to regulation. With the Funds Event, we wanted to create a dynamic meeting for asset management professionals, dedicated to methodology in the industry and fund selection.”In other words, the organizer explains, “we are creating a convivial networking space with, initially, an elitist concept. I mean ‘elitist’ in the sense that 75% of participants are real decision-makers in fund investment, either locally or globally. And the remaining 25% are vendors of funds or solutions.”The Funds Event is aimed at family offices, insurers and private banks, in addition to fund selectors. The difference with other events such as the Forum GI in Paris or the Funds Forum in the Netherlands is that it operates with totally open architecture.The organizer succeeded in bringing prestigious endorsements for this concepts, a sign of the seriousness of the endeavour. The “platinum” partner was BNY Mellon Asset Management Paris (the office which also covers north-eastern France and Benelux), while the “gold” partners were Aegon and Edmond de Rothschild Management Benelux.Among the “silver” partners were Amundi, ING Investment Management, Axa IM, Invesco, BNP Paribas Investment Partners, M&G Investments, Barclays CAP, Henderson, SEB and Schroders. The “bronze” partners were Aviva Investors and Delta Lloyd Asset Management.

Aberdeen Asset Management has announced that Marc van Heddeghem has been appointed as a new independent expert member of the Advisory Committee of the Aberdeen European Balanced Property Fund. Mr van Heddeghem has recently retired from his role as Managing Director of Redevco Belgium. The Aberdeen European Balanced Property fund is semi open-end, Core to Core-Plus fund designed for institutional investors to invest in a balanced and well diversified property portfolio in the Eurozone. The fund focuses on property markets with excellent prospects for both direct and indirect returns. At the end of December 2010, the fund’s gross asset value amounted to EUR 423 million.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Insparo Asset Management has launched a second Africa fund, the Insparo Africa Equity Fund, which aims to benefit from the growth potential of African businesses and the emergence of a consumer culture on the continent. It will invest in leading North African companies from sub-Saharan Africa, with minimal leverage, and in South Africa, which will account for up to a maximum of 20%. The fund launched with USD7.5m in assets.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Financial News reports that the London hedge fund CQS has hired two senior employees from BlueCrest Capital Management: Leila Kotlar-Bouget, former head of client services at BlueCrest, who will serve in a similar role at BlueCrest, and Bojan Milicic, former partner and salesperson at BlueCrest.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Barclays revealed on 15 February at an announcement of its annual results that the overall total amount paid in bonuses to employees was GBP3.4bn, nearly equivalent to the annual profits, which totalled GBP3.5bn.The bank insists in a statement, however, that this amount is 7% lower than the 2009 total, despite a rise in profits. “We wanted to show that we are taking responsibility, and that we take our responsibility to the government seriously,” says Barclays CEO Bob Diamond.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Barclays Wealth has reported pre-tax profits for 2010 of GBP164m, up 14% year on year. Client assets as of the end of 2010 totalled GBP163.9bn, compared with GBP151.2bn one year previously. Net inflows totalled GBP6bn.The Investment Management unit, for its part, has earned pre-tax profits of GBP67m, compared with GBP22m previously, largely proceeding from the firm’s 19.9% stake in BlackRock.Pre-tax profits at the group have risen 39%, to GBP989m.

JO Hambro Capital Management has soft-closed its JOHCM UK equity income fund after it passed through the GBP750m barrier of AUM, according to Money Marketing.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swiss Federal council on 15 February announced that it would like to adapt administrative conditions for mutual assistance in taxation areas. The identification of taxpayers and the possessors of information about them, which are absolutely required preconditions for the provision of administrative assistance, will largely proceed by the mention of their name and address. “In the future, other means of identification will also be allowed,” the Federal council says in a statement. Switzerland has thus removed a potential obstacle to the effective exchange of information related to taxation, and has avoided the risk of a failure of the peer review process. Fishing expeditions will remain inadmissible. In general, the identification of taxpayers and those who possess information in a request for assistance will still proceed by name and address. But the proposed changes would prevent an overly formal interpretation of the conventional rules from imposing an obstacle to administrative assistance procedures, and to this end, also allow other means of identification, for example, bank account numbers.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Financière de l’Echiquier has registered Arty, an opportunistic discretionary management fund focused on fixed income and equities markets, managed by Olivier de Berranger, in Italy, Fondionline reports. The fund, which has been available in France since May 2008, has assets of EUR92m, of which EUR50m flowed into the fund in 2010. “Arty is an excellent support for returning to the markets, while taking on limited risk,” says Paolo Sarno, head of development in Italy at Financière de l’Echiquier.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On the basis of a study covering equities of the Stoxx 600 index in the eight years to the end of June 2010, Thorsten Paarmann, senior portfolio manager at Invesco Global Quantitative Equity (USD22bn in assets) has shown that the most volatile shares underperformed those which had lower volatility. In other words, the specialist explained at a presentation at the Funds Event 2011, held on Tuesday in Luxembourg, “the added risk does not pay off, and the slope of regression is negative.”With this in mind, the quantitative equities team at Invesco selected an optimisation formula with no constraints, breaking with the “benchmark” approach. It uses a highly severe risk management, and focuses more closely on stock-picking to avoid undesirable heavyweights from the indices. This leads to a highly diversified portfolio, with a high tracking error compared with the indices, which allowed for overweight positions on shares which the manager considers the most promising. In addition, this methodology offers a way to take into account the behavioural biases of other investors on the market. The average beta for the portfolio is 0.8, and the investment universe includes 800 European stocks out of 3,300, Paarmann explains. This results in returns, with average annual returns of 4.89% over the past five years, compared with 0.24% for the MSCI Europe ND, which tends to prove that combining low volatility with stock-picking can generate attractive results. This shows in the fact that the Invesco Pan European Structured Equity Fund, which had EUR500m in assets as of the end of last year, has recorded EUR100m in net subscriptions in 2010.

Marten S. Hoekstra, former CEO of UBS Wealth Management Americas, has joined Emerging Global Advisors, a US asset management company specializing in exposures to emerging markets, as chief executive officer. He assumes the CEO position from founder Robert Holderith, who will continue as president and concentrate on investment product development. Emerging Global Advisors is advisor to the EGShares family of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which target specific investment sectors or themes and allow investors access to more precise market exposures. The company currently manages nine emerging market ETF products offering exposures to the energy, financial, and mining and minerals sectors, emerging market consumers, and the respective infrastructures of Brazil, India, or China. Additional ETFs and other investment products are planned.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The California pension fund CalPERS on 14 February announced that it has adopted a strategic plan to go “back to basics” in the next five years, in which its real estate portfolio of approximately USD16bn will be reoriented to properties that generate revenue, with a stricter limitation of risks and debt and the creation of separate accounts for various partners.The plan stipulates that at least 75% of the portfolio will be invested in US residential or commercial real estate. New commitments will be spread out between five to 10 strategic long-term exclusive partners.The portfolio will have an allocation reserved for emerging markets, including China and Brazil, with an objective of 10% of assets.

After three quarters of significant outflows (EUR -16.9 billion) at TCW, following the restructuring undertaken at end-2009 and the departure of Jeffrey Gundlach, Q4 10 saw the beginning of a positive commercial momentum with an inflow of EUR 0.8 billion, says Société Générale in its latest annual report. «Moreover, the successful integration of MetWest and the expertise of its teams point to sound commercial growth for the new TCW entity as from 2011", adds the French bank. After taking into account a “market” effect of EUR +4.6 billion, a “currency” impact of EUR +5.5 billion and a structure effect of EUR +23.1 billion (including EUR 22.2 billion related to the integration of MetWest), assets under management totalled EUR 87.0 billion at end-December (vs. EUR 70.0 billion at end-December 2009). Against the backdrop of substantial changes in structure related firstly to the transfer to Amundi of SGAM’s activities and secondly, TCW’s acquisition of MetWest, the asset management business line’s revenues and operating expenses fell year-on-year by respectively -32.7% (-26.2% in absolute terms) to EUR 477 million and -35.2% (-30.3% in absolute terms) to EUR 457 million. Gross operating income came to EUR 20 million in 2010 vs. EUR -10 million in 2009. After factoring in Amundi’s contribution (EUR 100 million), the business line’s contribution to Group net income amounted to EUR 111 million vs. EUR -10 million in 2009. The Private Banking, Global Investment Management and Services division’s 2010 revenues totalled EUR 2,270 million, down -6.2% (-10.4% in absolute terms) vs. 2009. Gross operating income totalled EUR 268 million in 2010, down -23.5% (-12.4% in absolute terms vs. 2009). For 2010, the division’s contribution to Group net income amounted to EUR 289 million vs. EUR 201 million for 2009. The division’s revenues were stable at EUR 606 million in Q4 10 vs. Q4 09 (+0.2% and -5.3% in absolute terms). Operating expenses totalled EUR 521 million vs. EUR 555 million in Q4 09. Gross operating income remained stable vs. Q4 09 at EUR 85 million. The division’s contribution to Group net income amounted to EUR 80 million in Q4 10 vs. EUR 62 million in Q4 09.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Dexia Asset Management on 15 February announced the arrival of Michel le Bras as a senior fund manager in the alternative management team at the management firm. Le Bras, a specialist in global macro management, comes as an addition to the current team of 50 alternative managers, led by Fabrice Cuchet. He will report to Sophie Elkrief, head of fundamental alternative strategies, and will develop discretionary management of global macro portfolios. In 2004, Le Bras co-founded the independent portfolio management firm L2S Capital, a specialist in this type of discretionary global macro strategy.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Henderson Global Investors has recruited Tim Gibson as head of publicly-traded real estate in Asia, a position which he will take up on 1 March. He will be based in Singapore, and will work alongside Michael Wong and Eric Khaw, as part of a team which manages GBP950m in Asian real estate assets.Gibson joins the firm from AMP Capital Brookfield, where he was director and manager of European funds in the investment team specialised in indirect real estate investment. He was responsible for portfolio construction, and managed a USD1bn fund.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Investors are showing more optimism about international equities than they have in more than ten years, according to the latest BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research Report, a survey undertaken between 4 and 10 February on a sample of 188 managers representing assets of USD569bn.The survey finds that a net total of 67% of asset allocators are overweight on international equities, a level not seen since the series began in April 2001. As of the end of 2010, only 40% of investors favoured this asset class.Meanwhile, interest in bonds and money markets has continued to fall. 66% of investors are now underweight in bonds, compared with 54% one month earlier, while 9% are underweight in money markets. The gulf between such a high rate of overweight positions in equities and of underweight positions in bonds has never been so large, the survey suggests.This new increase in appetite for risk has brought with it a spectacular rise in regional allocations. Only 5% of managers are now overweight in emerging markets equities, compared with 43% in January. This is the steepest monthly plunge since the series began; the average comes out to 28%.However, investors are far more positive about developed markets. 11% of them are overweight in Euro zone equities, whereas only 9% were so in January. The percentage of respondents overweight in US equities has also risen to 34%, compared with 27% the previous month, and 16% in December. The United States and the Euro zone are the two regions in which investors are prepared to invest as their first priority.Investors remain optimistic about outlooks for global economic growth, but a majority of them (75%, compared with 48% three months ago), predict that inflation will increase. A corollary of this development is that 70% of investors are now predicting that the Fed will raise its rates in the next twelve months, compared with only 62% in January.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Delay in the deployment of of a climate change policy and a lack of international coordination could cost institutional investors trillions of US dollars in the coming decades, according to a study by Mercer and a group of top-calibre international investors with about USD2trn under management (Climate Change Scenarios – Implications for Strategic Asset Allocation). “Climate change will have fundamental repercussions on traditional management schemas, risks, and the returns expected by investors. Institutional investors need to take long-term considerations such as climate change into account in their strategic planning,” the chief investment officer at Mercer, Andrew Kirton, says. Risks related to climate change could represent 10% of portfolio risk in the next 20 years. From this point of view, investors could see increased allocation to the infrastructure, real estate, private equity, agricultural land, forestry and durable goods sectors. The report provides a general framework which could be used by institutional investors to improve their understanding of risks related to climate change, and analyse investment opportunities in various asset classes and regions. Mercer is launching the “TIP framework,” which it has developed with 14 institutionals, which evaluates investment levels in low-carbon-emission technologies (T), impact (I) on the environment, and the carbon emissions impact of international policy (P) according to four climate change scenarios.

ING announced on Tuesday that it has reached agreement to sell the majority of its ING Real Estate Investment Management business (ING REIM) in two separate transactions for a combined price of approximately USD 1 billion (EUR 770 million). In addition, as part of the overall transactions, the group has also agreed to sell up to approximately USD 100 million of its equity interest in existing ING REIM funds.ING has entered into an agreement with CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc., to sell ING REIM Europe, ING REIM Asia and Clarion Real Estate Securities (CRES), ING REIM’s US-based manager of listed real estate securities, as well as part of ING’s equity interests in funds managed by these businesses. The proceeds for these REIM businesses and the equity interests amount to approximately USD 1 billion. ING REIM Europe, ING REIM Asia and CRES combined have EUR 44.7 billion in assets under management as of 31 December 2010. In a separate transaction, the group has agreed to sell the private market real estate investment manager of its US operations, Clarion Partners, to Clarion Partners management in partnership with the private equity firm Lightyear Capital LLC for USD 100 million. Clarion Partners has EUR 16.5 billion in assets under management as of 31 December 2010. The Real Estate Investment Management business in Australia (ING REIMA), with EUR 4.8 billion in assets under management as of 31 December 2010, is not included in these transactions.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Reyl & Cie group, with over CHF4bn in assets, is scaling up its presence in Singapore with the recruitment of Daryl Liew as financial analyst and senior portfolio manager, with the objective of strengthening the firm’s expertise in regional markets, Agefi Switzerland reports. Liew joins Reyl Singapore after a term at Providend Ltd (Singapore), where he served as Chief Investment Strategist & Executive Director. In his new position, he will be in charge of overseeing client portfolios, and will participate in developing asset allocation strategies in order to ensure the coherence of investment decisions on behalf of clients at Reyl in Singapore.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Deutsche Börse and Credit Suisse on 15 February made separate announcements that four new ETFs from Credit Suisse (two equities funds and two bond funds) have been admitted to trading on the XTF segment of the Xetra electornic platform, bringing the number of products from this provider available on the Frankfurt exchange to 49.The products are all registered in Ireland. The two money market funds, the CS ETF (IE) on EONIA (IE00B42SXC22) and CS ETF (IE) on Fed Funds Effective Rate (IE00B3XDJG53) charge fees of 0.04%.The CS ETF (IE) on MSCI World (IE00B3NBFN86) charges a TER of 0.21%, while the CS ETF (IE) on Credit Suisse Global Alternative Energy (IE00B3YKW880) allows investors access to 30 of the largest businesses in the alternative energy sector, with a TER of 0.57%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Oaktree Capital’s distressed fund has returned USD3bn to investors, out of a total of USD10bn raised, due to difficulties it has encountered in finding investment opportunities in a more favourable economic environment, the Financial Times reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. The fund, managed by Bruce Karsh, was one of the most aggressive buyers of distressed debt following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brother. But now the fund manager no longer knows what to do with investor’s money.