Avec le MMA Praxis International Index Fund, MMA Praxis Mutual Funds vient de lancer un fonds socialement responsable pour lequel il compte trouver suffisamment de titres pour atteindre une exposition de 20 % aux marchés émergents, indique The Wall Street Journal.Le gestionnaire s’efforcera d’exclure les actions des sociétés les moins conformes aux critères de l’investissement socialement responsable (ISR), celles des secteurs du tabac, de l’alcool et de l’armement, mais n’espère pas que toutes les firmes retenues rempliront la totalité des critères, a indiqué Chad Horning, le CIO de MMA Praxis.

A fin décembre, les actifs gérés par Invesco se montaient à 616 milliards de dollars contre 604,5 milliards un an plus tôt, les encours des fonds d’actions se tassant à 294,1 milliards de dollars contre 294,4 milliards. L’encours des ETF s’est contracté pour sa part à 80,3 milliards de dollars contre 89,9 milliards.En décembre, Invesco a bouclé l’acquisition des activités de gestion d’actifs asiatiques d’AIG Global Real Estate comportant 5,4 milliards de dollars d’actifs alternatifs (sur un total de 78,1 milliards fin décembre), dont 0,2 milliard de gestion passive (sur 60 milliards).

Le spécialiste des valeurs européennes Nicolas Walevski, fondateur d’Alken Asset Management, a annoncé le 14 janvier à Paris le lancement d’un fonds de performance absolue, Alken Absolute Return Europe (AARE).Ce fonds d’actions européennes long/short conforme à la directive Ucits III et à liquidité journalière, vise une croissance du capital à moyen terme en investissant essentiellement dans les actions européennes, ayant pour objectif principal la génération d’alpha tant sur les cas d’investissement longs que les shorts. L’objectif est de rester axé sur les meilleures idées qui ont permis de générer une performance absolue de 64% du fonds Alken Capital One depuis son lancement le 21 juillet 2008 dans les actions européennes grâce à une gestion active du portefeuille. Le fonds cible une expostion brute de 50% à 150% et une exposition nette de -20% à 75%. Sur la partie longue, pas très concentrée, l’absolute return aura la priorité, et selon les opportunités, le fonds jouera aussi les petits arbitrages. Sur la partie courte, le fonds, qui sera présent tant sur les titres que les indices ou les baskets, interviendra «en hedge et en sec». Une classe fondatrice sera proposée à compter du 17 janvier avec une commission de 0,9% au lieu de 1,5%. La cotation est programmée pour le 31 janvier. Au 31 décembre dernier, les actifs sous gestion d’Alken AM s'élevaient à plus de 2,7 milliards d’euros, dont 2,18 milliards d’euros pour le fonds Alken European Opportunities qui a surperformé l’indice Stoxx 600 de 21 points de pourcentage depuis son lancement en janvier 2006 et de plus de 6 points de pourcentage en 2010.

Selon des proches du dossier cités par Reuters, Clive Cowdery préparerait une OPA sur le gestionnaire d’actifs Pioneer au travers de sa société Resolution qui a été contactée par le vendeur potentiel, UniCredit, indique la Börsen-Zeitung.

China Investment Corp a demandé davantage de capitaux aux autorités chinoises, ayant investi la totalité de ses fonds actuels, rapporte le Financial Times. Le fonds souverain chinois travaille avec 200 milliards de dollars qu’il a obtenu à sa création à l’automne 2007. La deuxième injection de 200 milliards de dollars, évoquée il y a plus d’un an, ne s’est jamais matérialisée.

Sonal Desai est nommée «back-up» de Michael Hasenstab sur la gestion de trois fonds de Franklin Templeton Fixed Income Group : Templeton Global Bond Fund, Templeton Global Bond (Euro) Fund et Templeton Global Total Return Fund. Elle secondera le gérant dans la gestion de ces produits.Sonal Desai, PhD, a rejoint Franklin Templeton en octobre 2009 au poste de directrice de la recherche pour le département obligations internationales de Franklin Templeton Fixed Income Group, en charge de délivrer l’ensemble des analyses macroéconomiques pour l’équipe obligataire.

Prudential Investments a annoncé le lancement du Prudential Real Assets Fund, un fonds dont le portefeuille est essentiellement investi en actifs réels tels que l’immobilier, les métaux, le pétrole et autres matières premières, «offrant une protection potentielle contre l’inflation et la hausse des taux d’intérêt», note la société de gestion.

Le pôle asset management de JPMorgan a dégagé au quatrième trimestre 2010 un bénéfice net de 507 millions de dollars, soit une hausse de 20 % par rapport au trimestre correspondant de 2009. Cela reflète notamment une hausse des revenus nets de 19 % sur un an à 2,6 milliards de dollars. Sur le trimestre, JP Morgan a accusé des rachats nets de 2 milliards de dollars. Sur l’année, la société affiche également un solde négatif, de 20 milliards de dollars. Les encours ont néanmoins progressé de 4 % sur le dernier trimestre à 1.300 milliards de dollars, grâce à l’effet de marché.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to sources familiar with the matter cited by Reuters, Clive Cowdery is preparing a takeover bid for the asset management firm Pioneer, via his firm Resolution, which has been contacted by the potential seller, UniCredit, the Börsen-Zeitung reports.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Maria Cassinello has been appointed head of Banif Advisory, a new service which the Santander private banking arm offers its clients with liquid savings of at least EUR3m, who do not contract out the management of these savings, Funds People reports.Each dedicated adviser at Banif Advisory will contact the client in real time to inform them about market developments and investment opportunities, and will provide information about the bank’s recommendations. The final decision will be made by the client. The adviser at Banif Advisory will work in a team with the private banker in charge of the account. The objective is to provide portfolio advising similar to what clients who have contracted the management of their Sicav to Banif receive.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Gruppo Banca Leonardo announced on Friday, 14 January that it has acquired Sal. Oppenheim jr & Cie Corporate Finance (Suisse) SA, a consulting firm dedicated to corporate finance. Sal. Oppenheim CF Switzerland has 12 years of experience in this market, and has a client base composed of Swiss mid-sized and large businesses, multinational corporations and private investors. The Swiss firm has 14 employees, and has undertaken more than 60 missions in the past 10 years for a transaction volume of over CHF30bn, a statement says. Sal. Oppenheim CF will continue to cover mergers and acquisitions and equities markets, and will provide services in the area of debt restructuring in the entire sector, including real estate. As a part of the operation, the asset management affiliate 4IP and the real estate expertise activity will be separated. The acquisition price has not been disclosed.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } AXA Winterthur has announced the appointment of Kamila Horackova as head of Asset Management Agefi Switzerland reports. At the same time, she becomes a member of the board, where she will begin on 14 March. She succeeds Mattias Henry, who was appointed CFO on 6 December, who has been the interim director of asset management. Horackova has been director of asset management for AXA Czech and Slovakia since 2007.

F&C has announced plans to enhance flexibility of its cost baseand annual cost savings of GBP12 million. The primary aim of this initiative is to create an operational cost base which will more readily adapt to future changes in F&C’s business profile as the UK asset manager focuses on diversifying its business and caters for new client needs. As a core part of this project the group has been in discussions with a number of potential outsourcing providers and is now close to selecting a preferred partner from a short-list of two (subject to contract, due diligence and completion of employee consultation processes). The asset management company will also reorganise its remaining business processes around the outsourced operational model. The restructuring programme will create an operational cost base that varies with assets under management and transaction levels.F&C estimates this restructuring programme will reduce annual operating costs by at least GBP9 million. Based on the expected implementation timescale, the first of these savings will commence in Q2 2011 and be substantially achieved by Q3 2012. Associated one-off net costs to achieve these reductions are expected to be no more than one full-year of the annual savings.The outsourcing arrangement will affect approximately 110 staff, which represents around 70% of the group’s existing operations staff, a significant number of whom are expected to transfer to the outsourcing provider. This initiative does not affect the staffing of investment, distribution and client service functions.The group has also identified an additional potential annual cost saving of GBP3 million arising from reduced premises requirements following the reduction in head count.In addition to the initiatives announced on Friday, F&C continues to review further opportunities for cost reduction and business simplification, including product rationalisation.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) has appointed Kevin Addison as head of wholesale sales, replacing Tony Maddock, who has joined Lazard AM. Addison, who joined SWIP in 2008, will report to John Brett, director of sales and marketing at SWIP.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Graham Kitchen will replace Bill McQuaker as head of equities at Henderson Global Investors. When the firm acquired Gartmore recently, McQuaker decided to concentrate primarily on management of his funds. He becomes assistant to his successor.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Some major asset management firms have shown that an investment in their own shares brings better performance than the funds they offer, Expansión reports. Shares in Schroders and Aberdeen have gained 48% and 75% in value in the past twelve months. Shares in F&C have gained 33%, and T. Rowe Price is up 21%, while shares in Henderson gained 20.7%. Shares in Invesco were in line with the market, rising 11.5%, while BlackRock shares lost 16%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On Friday, Pimco (Allianz Global Investors group) announced on its website that the allocation of the Pimco Total Return Bond Fund, managed by Bill Gross, to Treasuries, Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), agency bonds and futures and options based on Treasuries as of the end of December totalled 22%, its lowest level since February 2009, though the level stood at 30% in November, the Wall Street Journal reports.Assets in the fund fell to USD240.7bn, from USD250.2bn as of the end of December, and USD255.9bn as of the end of October. This compared with USD115.9bn in assets at the end of 2009, with the increase due to significant net subscriptions during most of last year.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Anne-Laure Frischlander, CEO of BNY Mellon Asset Management for France, has told Newsmanagers that net subscriptions in France last year totalled USD415m, out of USD700-800m in gross inflows, and that assets totalled USD1.9bn in France as of the end of the year. Very strong subscriptions have continued in the first weeks of 2011.Inflows totalled 50% for an emerging markets local currency debt fund, the BNY Emerging Markets Debt Local Currency Fund (which now has over USD4bn in total assets), from the firm’s affiliate Standish. The asset allocation bond fund BNY Mellon Euroland Bond (also from Standish) has also attracted significant subscriptions.In 2011, BNY Mellon is planning to put the emphasis on the new BNY Mellon Latin America Infrastructure fund (see Newsmanagers of 11 January). The manager is also planning to offer real and absolute return products, as well as some Luxembourg-registered absolute return newcits from its affiliate Insight.Frischlander also says that her team at the Paris office now includes 7 people, counting herself.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As of the end of December, assets under management by Invesco totalled USD616bn, compared with USD604.5bn one year earlier, while assets in equities funds totalled Usd294.1bn, compared with USD294.4bn. Assets in ETFs contracted, to USD80.3bn, compared with USD89.9bn.In December, Invesco completed its acquisition of the Asian asset management activities of AIG Global Real Estate, including USD5.4bn in alternative assets (out of a total of USD78.1bn as of the end of December), of which USD0.2bn are in passive management (out of USD60.3bn).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The US management firm Principal Global Investors, which has about Usd227.4bn in assets, or about EUR170bn, on 13 January announced that it has signed up to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Agefi reports, citing financial industry sources, that the French asset management firm LFP-UFG will finalise its investment in Cholet-Dupont by the end of February. UFG-LFP will replace Crédit Agricole Indosuez BP Holding, and will control a 33.4% stake in the business, specialised in management of financial portfolios and wealth organisation advising. The CMNE affiliate is also buying a 51% stake in the Cholet-Dupont Partenaires platform (see Newsmanagers of 19/10/2010), which was previously 100% controlled by the holding company, the same sources cited by the newspaper say. UFG-LFP has also made its agreement with Siparex in venture capital official. It owns 66% of UFG-Siparex, the newspaper notes.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The college of managing partners at Rothschild & Cie Gestion is now planning to take on two new members. They are Denis Faller, head of multi-management, and Philippe Chaumel, co-head of asset allocation, and equities and diversified portfolio management, La Tribune reports. According to the newspaper, at the same time, Daniel Fighiera and Sébastien Barbe, head of midcaps management and head of fixed income management, respectively, have been promoted as managers at the management firm, along with Arnaud Perrier, director of sales development and marketing.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Sonal Desai has been appointed as Michael Hasenstab’s back-up for the management of three funds from the Franklin Templeton Fixed Income Group: Templeton Global Bond Fund, Templeton Global Bond (Euro) Fund, and Templeton Global Total Return Fund. She will assist the manager in the management of these products. Dr. Desai joined Franklin Templeton in October 2009 as head of research for the international bonds department of the Franklin Templeton Fixed Income Group, in charge of providing all macroeconomic analysis for the bond team.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The asset management unit of JPMorgan earned net profits in fourth quarter 2010 of USD507m, an increase of 20% compared with the corresponding quarter in 2009. This largely reflects a 19% increase in net revenues year on year, to USD2.6bn. For the quarter, JP Morgan has seen net redemptions of USD2bn. For the year, the firm also shows a negative bottom line, of USD20bn. Assets nonetheless increased 4% in the last quarter, to USD1.3trn, due to positive market effects.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Since 2006, when the asset management and real estate management activities were merged, Alexander Klein has been COO in charge of all back-office activities at SEB Investment, the fund management firm of SEB Asset Management Germany. He has been appointed as a board member at SEB Investment from 1 January 2011, and will retain his position as COO. He will be in charge of finance, risk management, controlling, and IT.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to financial industry sources, Deutsche Bank is rumoured to have backed down from plans to sell BHF-Bank as a single entity, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. LGT may now acquire only the wealth management and SMB banking activities, while Deutsche Bank would retain some market activities of BHF.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Peter Vogel, head of sales for structured funds at Bank of America Merrill Lynch since December 2009, has been recruited by MainFirst Asset Management, an affiliate of MainFirst Bank, as head of sales and marketing. He will also be a member of the asset management committee at MainFirst.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } BNP Paribas Wealth Management on 14 January announced a reorganisation of its Asian wealth management activities, and the creation of a new affiliate dedicated to its ultra-high net worth (UHNW) clients. As a part of the reshuffle, BNP Paribas is redeploying its affiliates in Asia as key markets, with a separate director in charge of each market: Serge Janowski for Hong Kong, Mignonne Cheng in the interim until a head is appointed for China, Henry Pang for Taiwan, Stephane Honig for India, Serge Forti for Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, and Eric Morin for the other Asian Markets, including Korea, the Philippines and Thailand. The bank will also set up an affiliate dedicated to ultra-high net worth clietns, which for most establishments in the sector, requires a minimum of USD30m (EUR22m) in assets to invest. The identity of the heads of the new affiliate dedicated to high net worth clients will be announced at a later date, BNP Paribas Wealth Management says in a statement. In the interim, Mignonne Cheng, who will retain her position as chairman and CEO of wealth management for the Asia-Pacific region, will also become head of UNHWI & Independent Wealth Managers for Asia-Pacific. Ernest Leung has also been appointed head of strategy and development of wealth management activities for Asia-Pacific, and will work in partnership with the market heads to develop initiatives in the region.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Bank Julius Baer on 13 January announced the appointment of David Lim as CEO of Bank Julius Baer Singapore, effective immediately. Thomas Meier, a member of the executive board and CEO for Asia and the Middle East, who was also CEO for Singapore, will continue to be based in Singapore as a member of the executive board, and will direct activities and promote Asia as the second major market for the firm, after Switzerland.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } La Tribune reports that in connection with the Madoff case, an Irish court has asked the British bank HSBC to provide documents in relation to the UCITS-compliant feeder fund Thema International (EUR1.1bn in assets), for which the bank was the depositary. “The bank is required to produce the documents, justifying respect for article 39(d) of the transposed UCITS 3 directive,” and it “must provide its accounts to investors, understood as the parties able to demonstrate that they are economic beneficiaries of the fund,” judge Frank Clark states in his opinion.