Reuters rapporte que l’assureur américain pourrait bien céder son activité de gestion d’actifs immobiliers en Asie à Invesco. La valeur brute de ces actifs avoisinerait 5 milliards de dollars, et la transaction pourrait se chiffrer en dizaines de millions. Un accord pourrait être signé ce mois-ci, les deux parties d’étant pour l’heure refusées à tout commentaire.

Le premier opérateur boursier américain sur les futures a porté à 25 dollars par action, contre 22,5 dollars précédemment, son offre de rachat des titres détenus par ses anciens membres. CBOE a réduit de 13,3 millions à environ 12 millions le nombre de titres concernés par l’offre.

Un juge fédéral a rejeté hier une demande de Goldman Sachs visant à lui épargner une sentence d’arbitrage de 20,6 millions de dollars concernant l’ancien hedge fund Bayou. Les créanciers ont reproché à une filiale de la banque américaine d’avoir compensé des ordres pour Bayou tout en ignorant des signaux de fraude.

La FSA britannique a reçu une plainte de traders sur métaux qui s’inquiètent de l’effet déstabilisant des projets de lancement d’ETP sur métaux industriels.

La foncière vient d’obtenir auprès de trois banques allemandes une ligne de 270 millions d’euros sur sept ans pour un coût annuel inférieur à 3,50 % pour sa tour CB 21 à la Défense. Il s’agit du troisième refinancement de ce bâtiment acquis juste avant la crise financière.

L'Autorité des marchés britannique a reçu une plainte de plusieurs traders sur métaux et d’autres experts sur les projets de lancement d'ETP

La société britannique a mandaté Goldman Sachs pour conduire une revue stratégique après l’annonce du départ de son gérant vedette Roger Guy

En visite dans le pays, le commissaire européen à l'Economie et aux Affaires monétaires a indiqué qu’aucune aide de l'Union européenne n’est envisagée

Selon les experts, les 600 milliards de dollars d'achats de Treasuries par la Fed feront baisser le dollar et viendront soutenir le prix du pétrole

La montée en puissance des titres en dollars et des covered bonds explique en partie la baisse des émissions sur les obligations en euros

Les « dragons asiatiques » comme la Corée ou Taiwan affichent également des taux de change proches de ceux atteints lors de la crise de 1997

Plusieurs grands groupements industriels, des secteurs de l’automobile, de l'électronique et de l'énergie ont publié une lettre ouverte pour appeler les dirigeants du G20 à garantir un approvisionnement continu en terres rares, soulignant qu'à défaut, la croissance économique en souffrirait.

La production industrielle allemande a décrû en septembre à son rythme le plus soutenu en près d’un an mais la reprise du secteur industriel de la première économie européenne est intacte, a annoncé le ministère de l’Economie. La production a diminué de 0,8% CVS en septembre. C’est sa baisse la plus forte depuis octobre 2009.

Les exportations allemandes ont augmenté deux fois plus que prévu en septembre, permettant au pays d’afficher son plus fort excédent commercial en près de deux ans, ce qui laisse présager d’un troisième trimestre solide. D’un mois sur l’autre, la hausse des exportations s'établit à 3%, en données corrigées des variations saisonnières, tandis que les importations sont en repli de 1,5%, indique l’Office fédéral de la statistique.

Echaudé par l’offre de rachat du géant local de l’engrais Potash par le groupe anglo-australien BHP Billiton, le gouvernement canadien envisage de renforcer son arsenal législatif pour éviter que ses ressources naturelles ne tombent dans des mains étrangères. Il souhaite ainsi renforcer ses règles de contrôle et de transparences sur les investissements étrangers, indique par le ministre de l’industrie, Tony Clement, dans le Financial Times. L’Etat canadien pourrait exiger que, pour toute offre supérieure à 299 millions de dollars canadiens (298 millions de dollars américains), les acquéreurs potentiels étrangers détaillent publiquement les avantages que le pays pourrait retirer de l’opération en termes d’emploi, d’investissements locaux, de transferts de technologie et de concurrence. Le seuil serait même inférieur pour les sociétés issues de pays non membres de l’OMC.

Le collectif budgétaire voté en décembre devrait aligner la fiscalité des sociétés de personnes en France sur celle de ses voisins, rapportent lundi les Echos. Aujourd’hui, en France, l’impôt est payé par les associés mais calculé au niveau de la société, alors que toute sles règles s’apprécient au niveau des associés dans les autres pays, ce qui complique les schémas d’investissement transfrontières, notamment dans l’immobilier. Désormais, c’est la résidence de l’associé qui sera retenue pour les conventions fiscales internationales.

L’Autorité des marchés britannique a admis lundi avoir reçu une plainte sur les projets de lancement d’ETP (exchange traded products) adossés à des métaux de base. «Nous devons regarder les problèmes que cette plainte soulève», indique la FSA. ETF Securities et JPMorgan ont annoncé en octobre leur intention de lancer des ETP sur métaux de base, alors que les ETP sur métaux précieux rencontrent un succès croissant.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Thomas Olbrich, a senior fixed income portfolio manager at Oppenheim KAG, where he was in charge of several open-ended and institutional bond funds, has joined Gothaer Asset Management (GOAM) as a senior portfolio manager. He will be in charge of the fixed-income derivatives allocation for open-ended funds from GOAM and the investments of the insurer Gothaer Versicherung.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to financial industry sources, the Lampe private bank (Oetker group) backed out shortly before the deadline set by Deutsche Bank (Friday, 5 November) for firm bids to acquire BHF-Bank (1,500 employees, EUR40bn in assets), the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. For the moment, it is not yet known what the attitude of the private equity investor KKR, which was teamed up with Lampe and was supposed to provide most of the financing, will be. However, it appears that as the other potential buyers (Hinduja and Apollo) have also backed out, LGT-Bank remains as the only candidate. It would appear, however, that the bank owned by the royal family of Liechtenstein is only interested in BHF’s asset management and wealth management, and not its business banking and proprietary trading activities.

One year ago, Ignis Asset Management announced plans to develop its network of asset management boutiques, which then consisted of three entities. Since then, the Scottish asset manager has changed its approach. Now, it is planning rather to focus on its own investment teams, a more profitable strategy, says Philip Goldsmith, managing director Europe. That could also be based on a multi-boutique model, but this time, an internal one.To achieve this, Ignis AM has recently hired several big names in investment. Most recently, Mark Lovett, former chief investment officer at Allianz RCM for UK and European equities, joined the firm as chief investment officer (CIO). The arrival follows that of Chris Fellingham, formerly of Soros, who became chief investment officer. Other recruitments will follow. Ignis AM is seeking to strengthen its staff for international bonds.At the same time, the Scottish asset management firm has partially pulled out of the capital of Hexam, a joint venture in which it held 50%, with a sale of 15% to its partners. Now, it will no longer provide distribution of the firm’s products. The asset management firm will, however, retain a 35% stake in the company, as well as 50% stakes in its other boutiques, Argonaut, a specialist in European equities, and Cartesian, dedicated to UK equities, whose funds it will continue to sell.For Ignis AM, the objective underlying this strategy is development of third parties business. Of the firm’s EUR81bn in assets under management as of 30 September 2010, nearly 90% are still managed for its shareholder Phoenix, which is a British life insurance group.To get there, in addition to reinforcing its investment staff, the asset manager wants to move in three directions commercially, Philip Goldsmith explains to Newsmanagers. The first is to develop retail activities in the UK. The second is European expansion. A sales team from New Star has been recruited to cover continental Europe. Lastly, Ignis AM is also hoping to develop in the institutional segment. A team which will be based in London will soon be hired for this. In terms of European development, the team recruited in September had a difficult first year, facing a hard context. “Europe and equities are the two Lipper sector which have suffered most,” says Goldsmith. Ignis’ product range now consists largely of equities, mostly European.Hence the interest in broadening the product range. The firm is in the process of transforming a global emerging markets equities fund, which will be managed with a macro-economic approach. Goldsmith is also planning to sell UK funds from Cartesian, one of its boutiques. Other funds may also be launched in other asset classes.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Citywire reports that the former Threadneedle manager Rob Jones is preparing to launch his first fund at Union Bancaire Privée, his new employer. The fund will invest in European equities, and will be managed in the same way as the Threadneedle Pan European fund which he recently managed, the manager has told Citywire.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In a notification to the CNMV, Renta 4 has announced that its net profits for the first nine months of the year increased 9.1% compared with the corresponding period of last year, to EUR5.1m, on earnings up 9.8% to EUR45.3m. The increase in assets observed in the past few months has continued, putting assets under management or administration as of 30 September at over EUR5.09bn, due to net subscriptions of EUR293m since the beginning of the year.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The European Commission on 5 November launched a consultation on credit ratings agencies. “It became apparent during the debt crisis which affected the Euro zone that a re-examination of certain aspects of the regulatory framework may be necessary. There are increasing concerns that financial establishments and institutional investors are relying excessively on external ratings to the detriment of internal evaluation of credit risks, which could lead to market volatility and instability of the financial system,” the Commission says in a statement. The deadline to respond to the consultation is 7 January 2011. In the chapter on improving ratings of sovereign debt, the Commission proposes that agencies should be required to inform countries three days before ratings of their sovereign debt are to be altered. The consultation document also addresses excessive confidence placed in ratings by agencies, conflicts of interest for the thee major ratings agencies that have a stranglehold on the market, and the possibility of introducing a civil responsibility regime as part of the European Union’s regulatory framework which would be applicable to ratings agencies.

UBS has poached three employees from J.P. Morgan private bank to strengthen its wealth management offering in Asia, says FinanceAsia. Elan Cohen has joined as managing director. Rizvan Baig becomes executive director. And Matthew Peh is associate director.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Wall Street Journal reports that, according to sources familiar with the matter, the SEC is investigating losses from bond funds at the broker Smith Barney, which was at the time owned by Citigroup (before being sold to Morgan Stanley). The regulator is asking former brokers from Smith Barney, who have since been laid off, to testify. They accuse their former employer of misleading clients about the level of risk for its MAT Finance (municipal arbitrage trust) and Falcon (municipal bonds, bank loans, MBS) funds, products for which leverage was as high as 8, and which lost 77% in March 2008. The funds raised USD2.8bn between 2002 and 2007, from investors with at least USD5m in investable assets. Citigroup then partly reimbursed these subscribers, bringing their total losses down to 61%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In its quarterly report, the Canadian firm Manulife has announced that net subscriptions to mutual funds from John Hancock in the United States totalled Usd2.3bn in third quarter, and USD7.2bn in the first nine months of the year, topping the total for 2009. As of 30 September, assets in these funds totalled USD31.6bn, 23% more than one year earlier.

MatlinPatterson, a USD9bn asset management firm specialising in distressed assets, is hiring a credit investment team which used to work for KeyCorp, the US bank, people familiar with the matter said according to the Financial Times. The team, headed by Craig Ruch, is expected to invest in corporate credit and municipal debt.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } For the third quarter and the first nine months of 2010, Prudential Financial has announced net profits of USD1.17bn and USD2.5bn, respectively, compared with USD1.09bn and USD1.62bn in the corresponding periods of last year. Operating profits for asset management activities increased to USD148m for July-September, compared with USD29m for third quarter 20009, bringing the total for January-September to USD355m, compared with USD61m. Assets under management by the asset management division as of 30 September totalled USD518.1bn, compared with USD443.9bn one year previously. For the group as a whole, assets totalled USD750.1bn, compared with USD640.9bn, in addition to which come assets of administration clients totalling USD100.8bn, compared with USD116.3bn. In total Prudential Financial had assets under management and administration of USD850.9bn as of the end of September, compared with USD757.2bn twelve months earlier.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In third quarter 2010, Berkshire Hathaway, the firm controlled by Warren Buffett, saw a decline in its net profits to USD2.99bn, down from USD3.24bn in the corresponding period of last year, which still allowed the total for the first nine months of the year to increase to USD8.08bn, from USD5.54bn. Operating profits, for their part, increased to USD2.79bn in July-September, compared with USD2.05bn in third quarter 2009, putting profits for January-September at USD8.08bn, compared with USD5.54bn. Currency effects due to a weak US dollar and low interest rates provoked losses on the derivatives portfolio, which were partly offset by positive effects of the integration of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), which contributed USD706m in profits in July-September (and USD1.56bn since its consolidation in February). Losses on derivatives represented USD95m for third quarter, and USD1.24bn in January-September.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In the first nine months of the year, the French private bank Neuflize OBC has posted net subscriptions of EUR2.183bn. “These results exceed our objectives set at the beginning of the fiscal year of net inflows of EUR2.047bn for the year 2010 as a whole, compared with EUR1.526bn in 2009,” a statement says. The bank projects that by the end of the year it will have net inflows higher than its budgetary projections. Fort the year as a whole, net banking proceeds are expected to total EUR300m, compared with EUR272m in 2009, while net profits are expected to top EUR30m, compared with EUR24.1m in 2009. Operating costs will be in line with the anticipated EUR244m.