A contre-courant de ce que l’on entend fréquemment à propos du marché des ETF en Europe, Valérie Baudson, directeur d’Amundi ETF considère que ce marché est encore très concentré, avec trois acteurs en Europe qui occupent 75 % de l’ensemble. De fait, la concurrence reste encore modeste, et ce d’autant que les différents acteurs arrivés il y a quelques années ont mené des stratégies différentes pour gagner des parts de marché. Les uns se sont focalisés sur les prix des produits par exemple, d’autres sur l’innovation. Pour sa part, Amundi ETF a fait le choix de frais à des niveaux attractifs. «Notre gamme de produits affiche des TER – Ndlr : Total Expense Ratio - inférieurs en moyenne de 20 % à ce que l’on trouve chez nos concurrents européens, explique Valérie Baudson, avec, à titre d’exemple, un TER de 0,15 % pour l’un des derniers nés, l’ETF actions répliquant le S&P 500, ou pour le Dow Jones Stoxx 50, ou encore un TER de 0,18 % pour le Dow Jones Stoxx 600.» Cet «angle d’attaque» n’a cependant pas exempté Amundi ETF de mener – comme ses concurrents d’ailleurs – une stratégie de développement de sa gamme. En termes de stratégie, très vite l’idée de se doter d’une «boîte à outils» de taille suffisante s’est imposée. Arrivé sur le marché des ETF en septembre 2008, Amundi ETF s’est tout d’abord attaché à «quadriller» le marché français. Aujourd’hui, la société dispose de 89 produits sur NYSE Euronext à Paris. Mais très vite, la vision de l’entreprise est clairement devenue européenne. Elle a, à ce jour plus de 200 cotations sur les places financières du vieux Continent – en suivant un rythme d’une vingtaine de nouvelles cotations par mois depuis le début de l’année. Dans les chiffres, cette montée en puissance est d’ores et déjà perceptible : selon de récentes données de Deutsche Bank, la filiale d’Amundi se place à fin mai en quatrième position en termes de collecte nette en 2010 avec 1,211 milliard d’euros, soit une progression de 27,6 % par rapport à l’année précédente. Reste à savoir si, avec une gamme qui s’enrichit ainsi, les craintes de voir certains ETF ne pas être rentable car de trop petite taille en termes d’encours ne se justifient pas. Sur ce point cependant, Valérie Baudson est catégorique : «La question de la rentabilité des ETF ne se pose pas en ces termes. L’important pour nous est d’offrir à nos clients le plus grand choix de produits possible. En s’inscrivant dans une logique de gamme de la sorte, nous pouvons «lisser» les coûts des «petits» ETF avec les autres dont les encours sont nettement plus élevés.» Et pas question – du moins aujourd’hui - de céder à la tentation d’une distribution élargie à la clientèle «retail» du Crédit Agricole par exemple. «Ce point n’est pas à l’ordre du jour, insiste t-elle, Amundi ETF a toujours considéré que ses produits étaient principalement destinés aux investisseurs institutionnels.» Autrement dit, ces ETF s’inscrivent uniquement dans le cadre des fonds propres des banques, fonds de pensions, de l’offre des banques privées ou des fonds de fonds. Cela dit, reconnait Valérie Baudson, un particulier ne peut se voir refuser la souscription de ce type de placement en passant simplement via sa banque… Doté d’une gamme d’ETF digne de ce nom - qui doit de surcroît poursuivre son développement - quels objectifs fixent désormais Valérie Baudson pour Amundi ETF ? Nous pouvons désormais intégrer une notion de «market timing» dans les sorties de nos produits, en tentant notamment de tirer profit des conditions de marché satisfaisantes pour certains actifs, note la responsable de l'établissement. Pour autant, rappelle t-elle, le «market timing» reste relatif puisque, pour des questions techniques, il faut compter un délai de deux à trois mois, entre la décision de lancer un ETF et sa mise sur le marché effective, du fait notamment de l’obtention de l’agrément de l’Autorité des marchés financiers, de sa cotation, etc."Amundi ETF tente aussi d’innover ou d’accéder aux demandes des investisseurs. Dans le premier cas, la société s’est illustrée en lançant il y a peu des fonds «short» «govies» de la zone euro ou des fonds long et short sur les «Treasuries» americains. Dans le second, Amundi ETF a lancé des ETF investis à l’international excluant certains marchés comme l’Europe de façon à simplifier les allocations géographiques des investisseurs institutionnels européens. Enfin, Amundi ETF entend également creuser son sillon en lançant des ETF calés sur les plus grands indices européens (MIB 40 italien, etc), puis des produits plus spécialisés comme des ETF de type «fixed income». «En veillant à chaque fois que ces produits soient transparents, clairs, et offrent une excellente liquidité», conclut Valérie Baudson.

Carolyn Lu, qui était CEO et regional head of business pour l’Asie chez Société Générale, a rejoint à Singapour Aviva Investors en tant que managing director, business development pour la région Asie-Pacifique. Elle est subordonnée à Erich Gerth, executive director et CEO global business devlopment, basé à Londres, et coopérera étroitement avec Craig Bingham, CEO Asia Pacific, basé en Australie.

SEB Asset Management has announced that it has dedicated about EUR20.4m to the acquisition of a 12,650 square metre commercial real estate property located in Munich-Passing. The property will be added to the open-ended real estate fund SEB ImmoPortfolio Target Return Fund (DE00009802314), a product aimed at institutional investors and high net worth retail clients. It will be the 13th German property in the portfolio of the fund, which includes 45 properties in 12 countries. The vendor is MG Grundbesitz Objekt Gleisdreieck Pasing GmbH & Co. KG, an ad-hoc affiliate of the Viennese UBM Realitätenentwicklung AG.

From 1 July 2010, Frankfurt Trust, an affiliate of BHF-Bank, has lowered its management commission by half, to 0.20%, for its money market fund FT AccuGeld. The move comes as a reaction to persistently low interest rates in the Euro zone, in order to allow the fund to remain an attractive receptacle for liquidity, says Karl Stäcker, CEO. The changes will not have any affect on the strategy of the manager, Matthias Bayer, who assigns the top priority to safe investments. Meanwhile, Frankfut Trust has announced that it will be launching two new classes of shares in the FT AccuGeld, including a distribution share class for retail investors (DE000A0YCBQ8) and a capitalisation share class for institutional investors (DE000A0YCBR6) with a minimal investment of EUR250,000.

Morgan Stanley Real Estate Invetment GmbH on Tuesday evening announced that the net asset value of its open-ended real estate fund P2 Value (EUR1.37bn in assets, EUR56m in net liquidity) has been lowered for the fourth time since 13 May (see Newsmanagers of 14 and 28 May and 24 June). This time, it has been reduced by EUR3.51, and the value of a share is down to EUR40.88. The downward revision is largely due to a new estimate of the value of the Itoche Headquarter Building in Osaka, Japan.

An investment industry conference needs to be organized in a playground for the super-rich, in order for a CEO to agree to travel there and stay for the weekend with his wife or mistress. This year, at the Fund Forum in Monaco, things are proceeding much as they did last summer, except that the financial crisis appears to have passed, and the sector is doing well. The only thing missing at the party is investors, Handelsblatt reports. According to a study by Cerulli Associates, net subscriptions in the sector, which manages about USD50trn, are expected to hit USD159bn this year. There are few critics. However, James Broderick, CEO of JPMorgan AM for Europe, says that the sector in Europe has water on the brain, with 38,000 funds, compared with only 8,000 funds in the United States for an equivalent population, which explains why funds are small and expensive.

CPB Immobilien KAG (an affiliate of Semper Constantia Privatbank) has announced that the Austrian real estate fund Constantia Real Estate (EUR116m as of the end of March) has once again begun accepting redemptions, from 21 June. Redemptions had been frozen since 22 July 2009. The management firm says that major clients have given firm commitments of their desire to remain invested in the fund for the long term. Since 8 July 2009, the fund has changed managers. The new managers, Detlef Schumacher and Carsten Wirth, spent second quarter adjusting strategy. As of 18 June, net returns from rent since the beginning of the year represented 2.22%, which makes it one of the most profitable products in Austria and Germany, according to the management firm. The average occupancy rate for the 25 properties in the portfolio is 98%.

The number of women sitting on the boards of directors of CAC 40 companies has leapt from 10.5% in 2009 to 15.3% this year, according to the most recent Capitalcom barometer of gender diversity on CAC 40 boards. In total, of 576 positions for directors in the CAC, 88 are held by women, compared with 29 in 2009, out of 562 positions. The “lady boom” may have been partly propelled by legislation proposed by Jean-François Copé and Marie-Jo Zimmermann, which has been passed by the French National Assembly, and which will soon go to a vote in the Senate, and by recommendations from Afep_Medef, published last April. At any rate, the objective of 20% women on boards of directors within three years has already been achieved at 12 groups (or 30% of the CAC 40), including Axa, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Dexia, Société Générale, Alstom, Essilor, PPR, and Vivendi, which is the “best of the CAC,” with more than 30% women. The barometer observes that 30 women attained positions on the boards of 28 groups this year, five times more than in 2009. But among these new women, only one represents employee shareholders: Michèle Vilain at Bouygues.

On Wednesday, BNP Paribas Investment Partners (BNPP IP) and the Russian TransKreditBank (TKB) announced that the management firm KIT Fortis Investments (EUR2.1bn in assets as of 31 May) has been renamed TKB BNP Paribas Investment Partners (TKB BNP Paribas IP). The 50% stake in the venture previously held by KIT Finance Holding Company will be transferred to TKB by the end of the year, which will transform it into a 50/50 joint venture between BNPP IP and TKB. According to BNPP IP, assets under management at the new TKB BNP Paribas IP have doubled compared with their level before the crisis in late 2007.

Carolyn Lu, who was previously CEO and regional head of business for Asia at Société Générale, has joined Aviva Investors in Singapore as managing director, business development for the Asia-Pacific region. She will report to Erich Gerth, executive director and CEO global business development. She will be based in London, and will work on close collaboration with Craig Bingham, CEO Asia Pacific, who is based in Australia.

The co-CEO of European activities at Tishman Speyer, Eric Adler, will join Pramerica Real Estate Investors, an affiliate of the US firm Prudential Financial, on 1 July, as CEO for Europe. He will be based in London, and will report to Allen Smith, CEO of Pramerica Real Estate Investors, in Parsipanny, New Jersey. In his new role, Speyer will be in charge of investments in western Europe and the emerging markets of central and eastern Europe. He is now responsible for offices in Luxembourg, Paris, Madrid, Lisbon, and Istanbul.

Paul Ilott, who was director of communications for the multi-management arm of Fidelity International, has launched a multi-management research institute, Money Marketing reports. Ilott says the increasing sophistication of multi-management has created a specific demand for funds of this type. Scopic Research will provide information and ratings on multi-management funds, and may also execute due diligence or offer custom advising.

HSBC has announced that it has brought together its specialists in asset management activities to form a single brand. Halbis, dedicated to active fundamental management, Sinopia, a specialist in quantitative management, HSBC Liquidity, which is focused on treasury management, and HSBC Multimanager, representing the multi-management activities, will now be united and sold under the brand name HSBC Global Asset Management. Each unit will retain its own investment philosophy and management process within this single brand, the firm says, adding that HSBC Global Management had USD427.3bn in assets under management as of 31 December 2009.

Fidelity Investments on 29 June announced the launch of ETF research tools which will be freely accessible. The tools, “ETF/ETP Screener” and “ETF/ETP Snapshot,” will be available on the Fidelity website from July. They use the same interface as the equities research tools, which have had a good reception from clients, Fidelity says in a statement.

State Street on 29 June announced the appointment of Andrew Kurizkes as chief risk officer. He will oversee a team of 300 risk professionals worldwide. Kuritzkes, who will take up his new position in August, will report to Jay Hooley, State Street CEO, and will join the Management Committee of State Street. He was previously at Oliver Wyman.

Altarea Cogedim on 30 June announced that on the same day, it signed an agreement to sell 39-41 avenue de Wagram in Paris, home to the 5-star Mariott Renaissance Paris Arc de Triomphe hotel, with 118 rooms and suites, the freshly-renovated Salle Wagram music hall, and 3 home interior shops, to the German open-ended real estate fund Deka-ImmobilienEuropa, for EUR113.8m. The average unit price per hotel room thus comes out at EUR620,000. Mariott will continue to operate the hotel. The Salle Wagram will be managed and operated by Eurosites. Assets in the German open-ended fund totalled EUR10.83bn as of 31 May.

Contrary to what is frequently said about the European ETF market, Valérie Baudson, director of Amundi ETF, argues that the market is still highly concentrated, with only three actors in Europe occupying 75% of the market. Competition remains limited, as many different actors who have arrived in recent years are using a variety of strategies to gain market share. Some have focused on the price of products, for example, while others have relied on product innovation. Amundi ETF, for its part, has chosen to offer attractive fee levels. This “angle of attack” has not exempted Amundi ETF from the need to construct a sufficiently large product range. After systematically covering the French market like a grid, the firm has 89 products on the NYSE Euronext in Paris. But the firm’s vision quickly became European. It now has more than 200 products listed on financial markets in Europe, and has followed a rate of 20 new listings per month since the beginning of the year. In numbers, this growth is already perceptible: according to recent statistics from Deutsche Bank, the Amundi affiliate was in fourth place as of the end of May in terms of net inflows in 2010, with EUR1.211bn, an increase of 27.6% compared with the previous year. With a range of ETF products worthy of the name, and which is set to grow further, Amundi ETF may now integrate a concept of “market timing” into its product release cycle, in order to take advantage of satisfactory market conditions for certain assets. Amundi ETF also aims to innovate or to accommodate the demands of investors, each time with “transparent products that offer excellent liquidity,” Baudson concludes.

RWC Partners has recruited two bond managers from Threadneedle, Peter Allwright and Stuart Frost. The two bond market experts will manage the RWC absolute return and currency funds, and will monitor the RWC Strategic Reserve fund. RWC has recently recruited two former Schroders managers, who acquired a 49% stake in the capital of the British management firm (see Newsmanagers of 23 June).

The British management firm Threadneedle has launched a new sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav, benchmarked against the Dow Jones UBS Commodities index, entitled Threadneedle Enhanced Commodities Fund (TECF). The product is a UCITS-compliant version of the Commodities Crescendo hedge fund (launched in 2008), which is not permitted to use any leverage or short positions. It is actively managed by Nicholas Robin and Daniel Belchers, under the supervision of David Donora. The outperformance objective is 6% per year, after fees, with a tracking error less than or equal to 6%. The fund will initially invest nearly one third of its assets in equities from businesses in the energy sector (including 14.3% in oil), and less than 20% each for industrial and precious metals, while the allocation to grains is about 10%.

Axa Rosenberg Group, which in mid-April belatedly admitted that a coding glitch had been detected and corrected last year, on Wednesday announced that Barr Rosenberg, one of the founders of the business, has resigned from the board, and that Thomas Mead has quit his job as director of research and board member, the Wall Street Journal reports. Both men “acted to limit the dissemination of information” about the software problem. Meanwhile, Agustin Sevilla has resigned from his position as global CIO, in favour of a “senior research role.” He did not “act in a manner in keeping with the house policy” in connection with the problem, the firm says. Assets under management by Axa Rosenberg have fallen to USD41bn as of the end of May, compared with USD62bn two months earlier. Charles Schwab will liquidate its four Laudus Rosenberg funds, which were closed to subscriptions in the weeks following the announcement of the problem.

The US investment boutique Aladdin Capital has recruited Kenneth Innes for the newly-created position of global head of sales. Aladdin, who will supervise the entire Aladdin distribution network, will be a member of the executive board. Innes previously worked at Forum Partners, where he was head of sales and marketing.

In December last year, the French national pension fund, the Fonds de réserve pour les retraites (FRR), selected Standard Life Investments to manage a EUR1bn allocation to investment grade credit, along with five other management firms. This was a triumph for the discreet Scottish management firm, which began to cover the French market only two or three years ago. With another mandate which it has recently won, but which has not yet been assigned, the firm’s assets for French clients now total about EUR300m. In addition to mandates from institutionals, Standard Life Investments serves fund of fund clients, with 10 sub-funds housed in its UCITS III-compliant Luxembourg Sicav. The Sicav has not yet been licensed for sale in France, but this may be expected to be achieved soon. The management firm is planning to do so next year, in order to step up its development in France, though for the moment it is not planning to target the retail segment, says Phil Barker, head of pan-European sales at Standard Life Investments, in Monaco. The registration will not necessarily include all the funds in the range, but only the sub-funds which may be expected to interest French investors most, such as the corporate bond funds, one of the specialties of Standard Life Investments. In France, Standard Life relies on Jill Shaw, who also serves Switzerland. For the moment, she is based in Scotland. The opening of a French office is not currently planned, but it may be a possibility if activities develop. Standard Life Investments is present in Paris with a research office for real estate, an asset class which may be an axis of development in France. The other areas of expertise that Standard Life Investments is planning to foreground are socially responsible investment (particularly in corporate bonds), equities in specialised segments such as small caps, and high alpha.

La Tribune reports that a proposed banking tax which would have brought in USD19bn in tax revenue for the US government has been buried. Barack Obama had claimed that the tax would bring in not USD19bn, but USD117bn over the next ten years. Two other sources of financing have been found. One of them, for USD11bn, will be the early cancellation of the TARP program. The other, for USD5.7bn, will be an increase in commissions paid by major banks to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The contributions, currently 1.15%, will be increased to 1.35%. Banks with less than USD10bn in assets will be exempted.

Invesco PowerShares Capital Management has acquired a license for the new StockInvestor Core index, which reproduces a diversified equities portfolio drawn from the Hare and Tortoise portfolios made popular by the StockInvestor newsletter from Morningstar. The portfolios include high-quality shares which are trading far below the estimations of Morningstar analysts. The StockInvestor Core Index will serve as the new benchmark for the PowerShares Value Line Industry Rotation Portfolio ETF, which will now be known as the PowerShares Morningstar StockInvestor Core Portfolio. The product is traded on the NYSE with the acronym PYH.

On the fund’s fifth birthday, Marc Girault, CIO for HMG Finance, announced that the HMG Globetrotter fund has reached EUR85m in assets as of 29 June, compared with EUR73.5m as of 31 May, with a performance of 4.1%, compared with 0.1% for the benchmark index, the MSCI World. The fund invests in affiliates of European companies in emerging countries, or in European companies whose activities are largely in emerging countries (see Newsmanagers of 21 June). Meanwhile, the heads of HMG Finance have announced that separate analysis tools have been created for each fund in the range, which will allow them to better serve institutional investors, by providing them with more detailed performance contribution statistics. HMG Finance, which has brought its sales and marketing within the firm, is planning a drive in the IFA and private banking markets. The management firm is also considering a potential international expansion, though there are no concrete plans at present.

HSBC a annoncé le regroupement de ses spécialistes au sein des activités de gestion d’actifs pour une seule marque unique. Désormais, Halbis dédié à la gestion fondamentale active, Sinopia, spécialiste de la gestion quantitative, HSBC Liquidity destiné à la gestion de trésorerie et HSBC Multimanager représentant l’activité multigestionnaire seront regroupés et commercialisés sous la marque HSBC Global Asset Management. Chacun conservera sa philosophie d’investissement et son processus de gestion propres sous cette seule marque, précise l'établissement, qui note que HSBC Global Asset Management gèrait 427,3 milliards de dollars, au 31 décembre 2009.

Paul Ilott, qui dirigeait la communication du pôle multigestion chez Fidelirty International, vient de lancer un institut de recherche sur la multigestion, selon Money Marketing. Selon Paul Ilott, la sophistication croissante de la multigestion a créé une demande spécifique pour ce type de fonds.Scopic Research fournira de l’information et des notations sur les fonds de multigestion et pourra aussi exécuter des «due diligences» ou proposer du conseil à la demande.

Axa Rosenberg Group, qui a avoué tardivement à la mi-avril une erreur de codage (coding glitch) découverte et corrigée l’an dernier, a annoncé mercredi que Barr Rosenberg, l’un des fondateurs de l’entreprise, a démissionné du board et que Thomas Mead a démissionné de son poste de directeur de la recherche et d’administrateur, rapporte The Wall Street Journal.Ils ont tous deux «agi pour limiter la dissémination de l’information» sur l’erreur survenue. D’autre part, Agustin Sevilla a démissionné de son poste de global CIO pour prendre un «senior research role» : il «n’avait pas agi d’une manière conforme avec la politique de la maison».En tous cas, l’encours géré par Axa Rosenberg est tombé à 41 milliards de dollars fin mai contre 62 milliards deux mois plus tôt. Charles Schwab va liquider ses quatre fonds Laudus Rosenberg qui avaient été fermés aux souscriptions dans les semaines suivant l’annonce de la bavure.

La boutique d’investissement américaine Aladdin Capital vient de recruter Keith Innes au poste nouvellement créé de responsable mondial des ventes. Keith Aladdin, qui supervisera l’ensemble du réseau de distribution d’Aladdin, sera membre du comité exécutif.Keith Innes travaillait précédemment chez Forum Partners où il était responsable des ventes et du marketing.

Invesco PowerShares Capital Management a acquis auprès de Morningstar la licence du nouvel indice StockInvestor Core qui reproduit un portefeuille diversifié d’actions extraites des portefeuilles Hare et Tortoise (lièvre et tortue) popularisés par la lettre d’informations StockInvestor de Morningstar. Ces portefeuilles comportent des actions de haute qualité qui se traitent avec de fortes décotes par rapport aux estimations des analystes de Morningstar.Le StockInvestor Core Index va donc servir de nouveau benchmark au PowerShares Value Line Industry Rotation Portfolio ETF qui prend désormais le nom de PowerShares Morningstar StockInvestor Core Portfolio. Ce produit est négocié sur le NYSE sous l’acronyme PYH.