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04/03/2011
Fonds

Les lancements de hedge funds dépassent les fermetures en 2010

Pour la première fois depuis 2007, les lancements de hedge funds ont dépassé en 2010 les fermetures. Selon les données de HFR Hedge Fund Research, 935 hedge funds ont été lancés en 2010, soit la meilleure année depuis 2007 lorsque 1.200 hedge funds avaient vu le jour. Parallèlement, 743 hedge funds ont été liquidés en 2010, soit le plus faible nombre depuis 2007 et environ la moitié du record atteint en 2008, où 1.471 fonds avaient disparu. Le quatrième trimestre a été particulièrement dynamique, avec 220 lancements et seulement 158 fermetures de hedge funds. Par ailleurs, HFR note que l’écart de performances entre le meilleur et le plus mauvais hedge fund s’est réduit considérablement en 2010 par rapport à 2008 et 2009, à 58 points de performance.Enfin, les commissions d’intéressement ont continué à décliner en moyenne, à 18,95 %, soit le plus faible niveau depuis que HFR a commencé à suivre les frais. Les frais de gestion sont restés au même niveau à 1,58 %.
Fonds
04/03/2011
Fonds

Guggenheim Partners lance une stratégie de trading

La firme de services financiers Guggemheim Partners lance un fonds de trading, le Guggenheim Global Trading avec un objectif initial d’allocation d’environ 500 milliards de dollars, pour ensuite monter à terme à 2 milliards de dollars, rapporte Hedgeweek.Le fonds, copiloté par Loren Katzovitz et Patrick Hughes, tous deux managing partners de Guggemheim, souhaite développer cette stratégie en raison de la nécessité réglementaire pour les banques de réduire leurs activités de trading pour compte propre et aussi parce que les hedge funds les plus petits jugent la poursuite de cette activité peu rentable.
Fonds
04/03/2011

State Street opens an office in Sydney

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } State Street Corporation has announced the opening of a new general office in Sydney, Australia, which will become the base for 700 employees previously based in two offices in the Australian city by the end of the year. The objective is to unite Global Advisors, Global Markets and Global Services in a single location.
04/03/2011

Harcourt posts an increase in assets

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swiss alternative management specialist Harcourt Investment Consulting has announced that assets under management as of 31 December totalled USD4.8bn, up USD300m for the year 2010. The firm says in a statement that outlooks for 2010 are favourable. It is predicting an increase in assets under management.
04/03/2011

Malta becoming an attractive destination for hedge funds

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Several major hedge fund managers based in London are transferring all or part of their activities to Malta, in response to rising costs and the growing regulatory burden in the United Kingdom, the Financial Times reports, citing Clive Capital, Vector Commodity Management, and others as examples. Malta has the advantage of belonging to the European Union. In addition, having an office on the island is less expensive than London or Geneva. The cost of living is also cheaper.
04/03/2011

Morningstar offers management firms a production tool for KIID documents

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 3 March, Morningstar announced the launch of its KIID (Key Investor Information Document) production platform, available over a secure internet connection. The new service is intended to provide management firms and distributors with a simple and complete system to produce, manage and publish their KIID documents. The service is available to all funds domiciled in the European Union included in the Morningstar database.
04/03/2011

Which funds sold best in 2010?

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In 2010, in Europe, bond funds were the best-selling products in the asset management sector, with net inflows of EUR126bn, their highest level since 2005, out of total net inflows of EUR170.7bn. The five bond funds which sold best in Europe were the Templeton Global Bond funds, with net subscriptions of EUR13.4bn, the Pimco Total Return Bond (EUR7.8bn), Templeton Global Total Return (EUR6.2bn), Pictet Emerging Local Ccy Debt (EUR4.8bn) and Axa US Short Duration High Yield (EUR4.5bn), according to annual statistics from Lipper (Thomson Reuters). For equities funds, inflows, which were highly slanted towards emerging markets, totalled EUR83.2bn, and the best-sellers were the Templeton Asian Growth (EUR4bn), Aberdeen Global Emg Markets Equity (EUR3bn), Vanguard Emg Markets Stock Index (EUR2.7bn), Carmignac Investissement (EUR2.3bn), and iShares MSCI Emerging Markets (EUR2.1bn). The rankings gives an idea of the asset management firms which earned the largest inflows in Europe: Franklin Templeton, with net inflows of EUR31.4bn, Allianz (EUR20.5bn), and Carmignac Gestion (EUR16.9bn).
04/03/2011

Ping An-UOB launches its first mutual fund

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Chinese management firm Ping An-UOB is about to launch its first investment fund, which will invest 60% to 95% of its assets in sectors which outperform at various stages in the economic cycle. Ping An-UOB is also planning to launch another mutual fund by the end of the year.
04/03/2011

Italian asset management sector has over EUR1trn in assets

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In 2010, the Italian asset management sector received EUR26bn in investments, and saw an increase in its assets to EUR1.007trn, according to the most recent statistics from Assogestioni, the Italian association of asset managers. Inflows from portfolio management totalled EUR18.6bn, while inflows from collective management topped EUR7.3bn. Foreign-registered funds represent 58% of assets invested in open-ended mutual funds.
04/03/2011

Goldman CEO may testify in Galleon trial

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd C. Blankfein, is reported to have agreed to testify for the US government in the upcoming trial of Raj Rajaratnam, the founder of the Galleon hedge fund, who is accused of insider trading, according to the Wall Street Journal.
04/03/2011

Guggenheim Partners launches a trading strategy

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The financial services firm Guggenheim Partners has launched a trading fund, the Guggenheim Global Trading fund, with an initial allocation objective of about USD500m, which may subsequently be increased to USD2bn, Hedgeweek reports. The fund, which will be co-managed by Loren Katzovitz and Patrick Hughes, both managing partners at Guggenheim, are seeking to develop this strategy due to the regulatory need for banks to reduce their proprietary trading activities, and because the smallest hedge funds find the continuation of these activities unprofitable.
04/03/2011

More hedge funds launched than closed in 2010

New hedge fund launches continued at a steady pace through the end of 2010, as new fund offerings outpaced fund liquidations for the first time since 2007, according to data released by HFR Hedge Fund Research. New hedge fund launches totaled 935 in 2010, topping each of the prior two years and completing the best year for launches since 2007, when nearly 1,200 new hedge funds launched. The fourth quarter saw 220 new funds launched, completing a strong calendar year despite being the second lowest quarterly launch total in the last six quarters. Hedge fund liquidations totaled 743 in 2010, the fewest since 2007 and nearly half of the record calendar year liquidation total of 1,471 set in 2008. The fourth quarter saw only 158 funds liquidate, the lowest total since 4Q07 and only approximately 20 percent of the record total of 778 funds which liquidated two years earlier in the volatile 4Q08. Performance dispersion between the best the worst performing hedge funds also narrowed considerably in 2010 from the staggering levels of 2008 and 2009, with only 58 percentage points of performance separating the average of the top and bottom deciles of hedge fund industry returns for the year. Finally, average hedge fund incentive fees continued to decline, falling to 18.95 percent industry wide, the lowest level since HFR began tracking aggregate industry fee structure; average management fees were unchanged at 1.58 percent.
04/03/2011

Skandia lists two more funds in Spain

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The range of products from Skandia Investment Group available in Spain has gained the addition of two funds of the Skandia Global Funds series: the Skandia Global Emerging Markets fund, oriented to emerging markets and managed by Fisher Investments (see Newsmanagers of 28 September 2010), and the Skandia Investment Corporate Bond, an investment-grade corporate bond fund, managed by Wellington Management (see Newsmanagers of 30 April 2010).
04/03/2011

Bankinter launches a fund which guarantees 110% of capital after 3 years

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Bankinter has launched a new bond product, the Bankinter Renta Fija 2014 Garantizado, for which subscriptions are open until 15 March, for which a redemption is guaranteed of 100% of initial capital plus returns of 10.10% after three years, equivalent to an effective annual rate of return of 3.25%, a statement says. Management commission will be 0.20%, and the depository banking commission is 0.10%. Minimal initial subscription is set at EUR600.
04/03/2011

Fulcrum releases a commodities Newcits in Germany

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Fulcrum Asset Management, an independent management firm founded by Gavyn Davies and Anderw Stevens, has received a sales license for Germany for its UCITS-compliant hedge fund Fulcrum Commodity Fund. The product is a UCITS-III compliant version of the Fulcrum Alpha Fund, a global macro quantitative fund which tracks global trends in 24 commodities markets. The fund offers daily liquidity.
04/03/2011

Highbridghe loses its head for Asia

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Before the departure of Carl Huttenlocher was officially announced, Highbridge Capital Management, an alternative management affiliate of JPMorgan Asset Management, liquidated USD1.4bn in positions from its Asian equities portfolio of about USD2bn, Hedge Week reports.Huttenlocher, who managed the Highbridge Asia Opportunities Fund and an allocation equivalent to 8% of the multistrategy hedge fund, has left the firm to found his own hedge fund.Highbridge has transferred the managers Alec McAree and Mark Vannacore from New York to Hong Kong to reinforce the Asian team, which includes about 24 employees.
04/03/2011

Record profits for Aragon

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The financial services group Aragon earned record net profits in 2010 of EUR1.53bn, compared with losses of EUR2.01m in 2009. Assets under administration, which fell to EUR2.1bn as of the end of March 2009, totalled EUR4bn as of the end of 2010, compared with EUR3.8bn one year previously.Earnings increased 57% to EUR109.11m. The objective set by the chairman of the board, Sebastian Grabmaeier, is to top EUR200m by 2014, with a double-digit earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) margin, compared with 3.7% last year.
04/03/2011

Record net inflows for Berenberg in 2010

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Due to recruitments in investment banking and IT investments, net profits at the private bank Berenberg fell in 2010 to EUR61.5m, from a record EUR65.1m the previous year.However, due to record inflows of new capital, assets under management increased by EUR3.6bn to EUR25.5bn.
04/03/2011

Asset size influences investment decisions by family offices

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } A study undertaken in autumn 2010 by Family Office Consulting GmbH and iShares, covering 130 German family offices with average assets of EUR1bn, has found that asset classes selected by various actors in the category vary depending on asset volumes. Family offices in the sample which work for a single family, with average assets fo EUR600m, tend to prefer real estate and alternative investments, while wealth managers at banks (EUR1.6bn on average) invest more in bonds. Family offices who fall between the two have average assets of EUR1.3bn.The study also found that in 2010, family offices sought an average pre-tax rate of return of 7.4%; in 2010, their returns were higher than this, at 7.8%.To achieve these high returns, family offices use a relatively high proportion of real estate and alternative investments. The study, of which iShares is one of the authors, finds that more than one quarter of managers surveyed also relies on passive investments. In this category, two third of managers use ETFs, and among those, more than 60% are invested in emerging markets ETFs, while nearly one quarter are invested in high yield bonds.Regardless of the volume of assets under management, the study finds, 70% of family offices prefer physical replication ETFs in order to avoid counterparty risks and achieve higher levels of transparency.
04/03/2011

Axa Framlington launches a British midcaps fund

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 3 March, Axa Framlington (EUR23bn in assets as of the end of December) announced the launch on 4 March of the AXA Framlington UK Mid Cap Fund, which will be managed by Chris St John, an addition to the firm’s 19 UK equities products. The portfolio, which will invest in 60 to 80 positions, will be at least 70% exposed to shares of the FTSE 250 index, and a maximum of 15% exposed to the FTSE 100.The fund, which will rely on a macroeconomic (top-down) as well as a stock-picking (bottom-up) approach, will initially be available only to institutional investors, with a management commission of 0.75%, and a minimal subscription of GBP100,000.
04/03/2011

Threadneedle launches one fund and closes another

Threadneedle is to launch the Threadneedle (Lux) European Smaller Companies Absolute Alpha Fund, a European smaller companies absolute alpha product. The UCITS III fund will give manager Philip Dicken and his team flexibility in strategy and fund positioning. The Threadneedle (Lux) European Smaller Companies Absolute Alpha Fund, which is a regulated UCITS III SICAV fund, will launch on the 3 March 2011. Along side this launch, Threadneedle is updating certain investment vehicles to refine its absolute return range in anticipation of reforms to the way products can be distributed in Europe. Consistent with this and with the new fund launch, the hedge fund Threadneedle European Smaller Companies Crescendo Fund has closed.
04/03/2011

Eurex to fund Edhec research

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 3 March, the EDHEC Risk Institute announced the launch of a research project dedicated to the use of volatility derivatives in equities portfolios. The project will be supported by the Eurex stock market operator (Deutsche Börse and SIX Swiss stock exchange), which operates a futures market. The objective is to optimise access to equities risk premia while controlling underlying risk.The project is led by Stoyan Stoyanov, head of research at EDHEC Risk Institute – Asia, and Lionel Martellini, scientific director of EDHEC – Risk Institute.
04/03/2011

Eaton Vance appoints a vice-president

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Eaton Vance has announced the arrival of Charles G. Turgeon as vice-president, in charge of development of activities serving institutional investors and consultants. He was previously director of development at Mellon Capital Management.
04/03/2011

Investment Management at the core of development at BNP Paribas Real Estate

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } BNP Paribas Real Estate, which includes six professional areas – promotion, transaction, advising, expertise, Investment Management and property management – last year earned pre-tax profits of EUR139m, an increase of 79%, for gross earrnings up 17% to EUR618m. “2010 was a vintage year, due to the pertinence of our economic model and our strengthened position on several European markets,” Philipe Zivkovic, chairman of BNP Paribas Real Estate, announced on 3 March. The dynamism of the firm is largely related to the growth of its Investment Management activities. “The Investment Management unit is one of the drivers of growth at BNP Paribas Real Estate,” Zivkovic says. Last year, Investment Management posted a 24% increase to its gross earnings, to EUR80.8bn, of which 58% were earned in France, and 42% internationally, primarily in Italy. Assets under management increased by EUR1.1bn, to EUR11bn, of which EUR4.1bn are in France. Since 2004, assets under management have tripled. Wealth under management is expected to continue this trend in 2011, with the development of several new vehicles. BNP Paribas Real Estate, now present in seven countries (France, Italy, the UK, Spain, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Jersey), is projecting an increase in assets under management of “at least EUR2bn.”
04/03/2011

Several banks vie for outgoing assets from Banif Inmobiliario

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Expansión reports that redemptions of shares in the Santander real estate fund Banif Inmobiliario are being sought after in a resurgence of the war for assets of private banking clients dissatisfied with their experience with the fund. Overall, EUR2.5bn which the fund managed as of the end of February are up for grabs.The most active firm in the race is the Portuguese Espirito Santo, which has extended the deadline to subscribe to its savings accounts with 4.6% returns over 18 months until 10 March.Banco Finantia Sofinloc is offering a savings account paying 4% in one year on savings over EUR50,000, just at the time when the Banif Inmobiliario reopened to redemptions, with returns increasing to 4.25% over 18 months, or 4.5% over 25 months.Banco Mediolanum has reopened its Ahorro Futuro offer, with returns of 4% for 6 or 12 months, but with a requirement to subscribe to another financial product.
04/03/2011

Assets up at Rabobank in 2010

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Due to positive currency effects, net subscriptions and gains on equities, assets under management and administration at Rabobank rose by 17% to EUR270bn as of the end of December. Robeco manages about half of these assets, while Sarasin is responsible for one quarter of the total, and the remainder is the province of Schretlen & Co, Rabo Real Estate Group and the local banks of the Rabobank network. All divisions posted an increase in assets, Rabobank reported on 3 March. Net profits for the 2010 fiscal year for the Rabobank group increased 26% ot EUR2.6bn.
04/03/2011

Italian asset management becomes competitive

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In an interview with Il Sole – 24 Ore, Domenico Siniscalco, chairman of the Italian association of asset managers, Assogestioni, welcomes the recent reforms to the tax regime for Italian-registered funds, which finally places them on a level playing field with foreign-registered funds. “The elimination of this burden does not mean that the race is won, but at least now the possibility exists,” he says. Italian funds are now taxed on capital gains at exit, and not on day-to-day gains. Siniscalco is also positive about the tax regime approved last July, which is now in the process of being passed, according to which European asset management firms (and thus also Italian firms which in recent years moved their domicile to avoid Italian taxation) will be allowed to transfer their headquarters to Italy and receive advantageous tax conditions for a period of three years.
04/03/2011

Aberdeen presents its SRI process

At a presentation of the Aberdeen Global World Equity fund in Paris on 3 March, Samantha Fitzpatrick, senior investment manager, described the equities fund embodying the group’s “best ideas” (43 positions, USD2.8bn, with nearly USD1bn in net subscriptions since the beginning of 2010), in a presentation of the socially responsible investment (SRI) process used by the Edinburgh-based management firm.The global equities team, led by Stephen Doherty, includes four SRI specialists, under the leadership of Cindy Rose. Assets in this area account for about 10% of total global equities, or over EUR2bn (out of EUR213.9bn for the group as a whole), but the type of management varies from one fund or mandate to another.For example, the largest fund, the Aberdeen Ethical World Fund, (GBP300m) operates on the basis of exclusion (alcohol, tobacco, etc), as does the youngest fund, the Aberdeen Global Ethical World Fund (USD60m), which dies not exclude businesses which conduct experiments on animals. The Aberdeen Global Responsible Fund (USD240m) is based less on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria than on the virtues of “engagement.”Aberdeen does not yet offer a Sharia-compliant fund, and outsources the corresponding mandates, but Fitzpatrick states that the possibility of launching such a product to be managed internally is under study.
04/03/2011

Profits up at Aviva Investors in 2010

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In 2010, Aviva Invetors saw an increase in its operating profits (IFRS) to GBP100m, compared with GBP115m in 2009. The asset management firm posted external net subscriptions, excluding money market funds, of GBP2.364bn, compared with net redemptions of GBP236m in 2009. Money market funds saw net redemptions of GBP745m, following subscriptions of GBP2.593bn in 2009. Aviva Investors states that in 2010 it reoriented its activities to higher-margin funds. Assets under management increased over the year by 4% to GBP260bn. Of this total, the proportion from external clients increased to GBP51bn from GBP45bn in 2009.
04/03/2011

Assets under administration at GlobeOp up 37%

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } GlobeOp is an independent British-American provider of administration services. The integrated middle and back office and risk reporting specialist, aimed primarily at hedge funds and management firms, as well as pension funds, corporate treasuries, insurers and banks, has published its results for 2010. Last year, assets under administration increased 37% to USD149bn as of the end of December 2010, compared with USD109bn as of the end of 2009. Net profits in 2010 totalled USD33.7bn.

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