Le fonds monétaire phare AAA d’ING Investment Management, ING (L)Liquid Euro a collecté quelque 800 millions d’euros depuis le début de l’année pour tutoyer désormais les 4 milliards d’euros, a indiqué Vincent Juvyns, spécialiste de la stratégie monétaire chez ING IM.Vincent Juvyns a toutefois reconnu que ce fonds, qui pèse environ la moitié du total de l’encours des fonds monétaires d’ING IM, n'était pas représentatif de l’ensemble des stratégies, certains fonds ayant aussi dû faire face à des rachats, notamment en Belgique.Mais le fonds Liquid s’adresse à une clientèle institutionnelle et industrielle plus que jamais attentive à la préservation du capital et au rendement mais aussi à la liquidité. L’OPCVM maintient en permanence une poche minimum de liquidités d’au moins 20% tout en limitant le pourcentage des actifs moins liquides en portefeuille. Par ailleurs, le fonds bénéficie d’une diversification à la fois de la clientèle (entreprises, institutionnels, fonds de pension) et géographique, avec environ 1,5 milliard d’euros émanant de la Belgique, mais aussi environ 1 milliard des Pays-Bas et 800 millions de la France.

Le Schroder GAIA Opus Multi Strategy et le QEP Global Absolute, des hedge funds coordonnés gérés par Schroders lui-même, vont s’ajouter l’Egerton European Equity et au Sloane Robinson Emerging Markets sur la platre-forme GAIA de Schroders, rapporte Expansión.Le Schroder GAIA Opus Multi Strategy est un fonds de fonds multi-stratégies comme son nom l’indice, la sélection des gestionnaires et l’allocation aux différentes stratégies étant assurées par NewFinance Capital, la filiale de gestion de fonds de hedge funds de Schroders. La liquidité est hebdomadaire et le produit vise une performance supérieure de 200-600 points de base à l’Eonia, avec une volatilité de 3 à 7 %.Le QEP Global Absolute est un long/short avec un objectif de performance absolue de 8-10 % par an.

Selon Financial News, cinq des 15 partenaires de Stark Investments, un hedge fund américain de 4,4 milliards de dollars, sont sur le départ. Les encours de cette société auraient été divisés par deux ces 18 derniers mois.

StartFragment--> Vanguard prévoit de lancer un ETF basé sur l’indice S&P 500 et 19 fonds indiciels qui auront tous un correspondant ETF, rapporte le Wall Street Journal. Le nouvel ETF sera le troisième à suivre le S&P 500, avec celui de State Street et celui de BlackRock.

Henderson Global Investors, qui gère plus de 90 milliards de dollars, a annoncé la nomination de Nancy McNally en qualité de director des relations avec les sociétés de conseil en investissement en Amérique du Nord. Nancy McNally, qui travaillait précédemment chez Gartmore, a pris ses fonctions le 1er juin. Bien implanté auprès des institutionnels au Royaume-Uni et en Europe, Henderson souhaite s’imposer sur les marchés américain et canadien, notamment avec ses produits immobiliers et ses hedge funds.

Jeudi, Vanguard a annoncé son intention d'élargir sa gamme de fonds indiciels en lançant 19 produits actions et obligations avec des parts ETF ; l’enregistrement auprès de la SEC avait été effectué le jour-même. De plus, le gestionnaire a l’intention d'émettre des parts ETF de son fonds vedette Vanguard 500 Index Fund. Les nouveaux ETF afficheront des taux de frais «substantiellement» inférieurs à ceux de la concurrence. L’an prochain, ces nouveaux fonds ainsi que 20 nouveaux ETF doivent enrichir l’offre de Vanguard dans le domaine des produits actions, avec des fonds core répliquant des indices d’un nombre plus important de fournisseurs, ajouter des fonds municipaux indexés à la gamme obligataire et fournir un fonds immobilier international avec des parts ETF.

Selon l’Agefi, Axa Real Estate, la filiale immobilière du groupe Axa, a annoncé l’ouverture d’une nouvelle plate-forme de distribution aux Etats-Unis et la nomination d’Elizabeth Behnke comme responsable des ventes dans la région.

Alors que le projet américain de régulation financière progresse, les textes européens prennent du retard

Thomas Eriksson deviendra CEO de la plus grosse société de gestion en Suède, Swedbank Robur, début août, rapporte Citywire. Il était précédemment responsable de la banque privée de SEB. Il remplace Peter Rydell.

The real estate asset management firms Morgan Stanley Real Estate (MSREF) and Redos on 18 June notified the federal cartel office of their intention to acquire the “Bavaria” real estate portfolio from Metro, which includes 43 store locations which operate under the Cash & Carry brand name, as well as 19 Real supermarket locations.

Allianz Global Investors (AGI) on Wednesday announced that its integration of the cominvest companies (the non-realty asset management arm of Commerzbank) was completed in mid-June. AGI thus becomes the legal successor to cominvest. AGI is the larget German asset management firm, with EUR344bn in assets under management or administration for retail and institutional invetors as of 31 March. Worldwide, assets on that date totalled EUR1.312trn, of which more than EUR400bn were in Europe. However, asset management in the strict sense has now become a smaller proportion of the overall activities, as bonds have been handed off to the US affiliate Pimco and active equities management will be handled by RCM.

The US fund management firm BlackRock has increased its stake in the capital of the French group Bic above 5%, the French financial market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), announced in a statement. The AMF says that the increase in the stake, undertaken on 18 June, is the result of an acquisition of BIC shares on the market. BlackRock now owns 2,826,942 shares in the ball-point pen, lighter and razor manufacturer, equivalent to 5.79% of capital, and 3.84% of voting rights.

According to the most recent international alternative investment Russell survey, institutionals are planning to return to alternative investments, despite the market turbulence of 2008 to 2009. On average, institutionals may increase their allocation to alternative assets by more than one third, from 14% to 19%, in the next two to three years. Real estate, private equity and hedge funds are their preferred areas of investment, but commodities and infrastructure will also gain ground. For private equity, North American investors are planning to increase their allocation to 6.8% by 2012, up from 4.3% currently. In Europe, allocation could increase from 3.5% to only 3.7%. Allocation to hedge funds would increase from 4.2% in 2009 to 5.7% in 2012. The survey also finds that most respondents have modified their approach to risk management and governance. For alternative investments, 44% of institutional investors surveyed says that they have increased the depth and frequency of reporting, while 39% say that they have increased the number of training sessions for chairmen and senior executives.

Fitch Ratings has raised its Asset Manager rating for UFG-LFP from ‘M2-' to ‘M2,’ and has removed the watch with positive implications which had been placed on the asset management firm following the announcement of the merger of the management activities of La Française des Placements and UFG. The rating covers all securities management activities based in Paris (excluding private management). It does not apply to the real estate management and private equity activities of UFG-LFP, nor to management firms in which the group holds a stake. The raised rating reflects, the agency says, “the solidity of the new UFG-LFP structure,” which had EUR33bn in assets under management as of the end of March 2010 (EUR27bn for securities). The rating also denotes “the good diversification of the firm in terms of assets under management and type of client, as well as the stability it has shown in the past years during the merger process.” Lastly, the rating “takes into account the significant resources the firm has, particularly in terms of management and global risk control staff.”

Asian Investor reports that the real estate specialist LaSalle Investment Management is planning to develop its activities in China and Japan, and has recently recruited Mark Gabbay to this end, as chief investment officer for the Asia-Pacific region. Gabbay, who will be based in Hong Kong, has more than 12 years of experience in the region, most recently at Nomura International, and before that at Lehman Brothers. Only one fifth of the Usd40bn in assets under management at LaSalle are currently invested in the Asia-Pacific region. The firm is planning to bring this percentage up to Usd12bn in the next two to three years.

Thomas Eriksson will take over as CEO of the largest asset management company in Sweden, Swedbank Robur, at the beginning of August, says Citywire. He was previously head of private banking at SEB. He substitutes Peter Rydell.

Asian Investor reports that Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management has recruited 12 private bankers in first half for its team dedicated to north Asia. Seven of the twelve recruitments correspond to new positions. The north Asian team now includes 70 relationship managers and investment advisors. The bank has about 200 relationship managers in the region, out of total staff of 700. The objective is to recruit 30 more relationship managers by the end of the year.

In total, no less than 11 major investors, including the Qatar sovereign fund and the Australian Seven Group have pledged to buy shares at the initial public offering of AgBank, Agefi reports, totalling USD5.45bn. AgBank is therefore already assured of more than 40% of the amount planned for the Hong Kong fundraising. The group is hoping to place up to USD12.5bn in equities excluding a greenshoe option of 15%, the newspaper reports.

The British asset management firm Threadneedle has added three UCITS-compliant absolute return funds to its range of products on sale in Spain, as well as two tech equity specialist funds, Expansión reports. The three UCITS III-compliant hedge funds invest in the United States, in emerging market currencies, and commodities, while of the two tech funds, one invests in global shares, and one in US equities. The latter two products are managed with a GARP (growth and reasonable price) approach by the New York asset management firm J&W Seligman, which has recently been acquired by Threadneedle.

Since 21 June, the US equities fund DWS International Value Opportunities (USD41m) has been renamed DWS Dreman International Value Fund. The management of the fund has been reassigned due to inadequate performance of the internal DWS team, and has been contracted to Dreman Value Management as sub-advisor. As of 31 May 2010, the fund showed losses of 4.92% since its launch on 7 May 2006. The change in manager comes with a change in the benchmark index: the new benchmark will be the Russell Global ex-US vaule index, rather than the MSCI EAFE, which will allow the fund to invest up to 50% of its assets in emerging markets equities, compared with a maximum of 20% previously.

The management firm Raymond James Asset Management International has launched the RJ Déploiement Durable fund, a tactical allocation SRI fund of funds with a performance objective of the EONIA Capitalised +3%, on an investment horizon of three years. Concretely, the fund will invest a structural proportion of its assets (35%) in equities mutual funds selected partly according to extra-financial criteria. The tactical deployment of exposure to equities risk (maximum 40%) and interest risk (minimum 60%), including both nominal and real rates (via inflation-linked bonds) may be varied via hedged positions on major stock market indexes and fixed income futures, the management firm says. The management process is based on a study of interest rate projection models (Taylor, Sack, Rigodon, etc), and analysis of flux. Characteristics ISIN Code – A class shares: FR 0010883017ISIN code – I class shares: FR 0010887166Front-end fee: 2% maximumAnnual management fees: 0.598% (A-class shares)/0.299 % (B-class shares)Benchmark index: Capitalised EONIAEligible for investment from life insurance policiesValue of shares: EUR150 (A class)/EUR1,500 (I class) Minimal subscription: 1 share/1 share

New York state’s pension fund plans to sue BP over the plunge in the company’s share price following the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, says the Financial Times. The fund has hired Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, a leading law firm specialising in alleged securities fraud, to pursue claims that BP misled investors over its safety record and ability to deal with oil leaks.

The Spanish tax authorities (Agencia Tributaria) are currently investigating 1,000 Spanish high net worth individuals suspected of illegally exporting their capital into Swiss bank accounts. The strategy of the finance ministry is to regain some of the “evaded” tax revenue via administrative means, without the use of penal legal proceedings, which would drag on for a long time, Cinco Días reports. However, since the reform of the Spanish penal code, all fraud exceeding EUR120,000 may carry a prison sentence of up to 5 years (increased from 4 years previously), and a fine corresponding to six times the amount of the fraud. Expansión, for its part, says that the operation could have been launched because France has handed Spain a list of 3,000 names of Swiss bank account holders which it had acquired.

Assets in shares of non-money market OPCVM mutual funds in the Euro zone were up to EUR5.354trn in April 2010, compared with EUR5.293trn in March, due to an increase in the value of shares, as well as a net issue of shares. In the same period, the month of April, Europe saw net inflows of EUR29bn to shares in non-money market OPCVM funds, and assets in shares in money-market euro zone OPCVM funds increased from EUR1.175trn to EUR1.186trn. Net subscriptions to non-money market OPCVM Euro zone funds totalled EUR29bn in April 2010, while net subscription to money market OPCVM funds totalled EUR1bn.

The value of assets in the international custody sector have passed the USD105trn mark, according to an industry professional website. The market has not yet returned to its pre-crisis levels of USD115trn.

The German asset management firm Morgan Stanley Real Estate GmbH has announced that as of 18 June, the net asset value of a share in its open-ended real estate fund Morgan Stanley P2 Value has fallen by 128 cents, to EUR44.35. The adjustment is largely due to a routine revision of the valuation of the Santa Hortensia property in Spain (-6%), Equinox in France (-10%), and Ito-Yokado Koigakubo in Japan (-30%).

The financial group Riva y García (financial advising and corporate finance, private banking, capital markets, asset management and private equity) is buying the Adepa Fondtesoro Largo Plazo, Actibolsa and Ahorro Activo Fondtesoro Corto Plazo funds from the asset management firm Adepa, and will merge them with the ten Riva y García funds, Expansión reports.

Les Echos reports that France and Germany claim US banks have not changed their remuneration practices, and that it is high time to fix that. A report from the Fed finds that banks have “deficient remuneration models.” Many firms have already put in place changes to their pay policies, but there remains a lot to be done, the US central bank finds.

CECE Fundamental and CEETX Fundamental are the two new indices calculated by the Vienna stock exchange, which are based on fundamental data such as returns on capital, gross dividends and the P/B ratio for companies of central Europe of the CECE and CEETX (CEESEG Traded Funds) indexes. The new products, which will be made available in real time in both Euros and US dollars, are designed to function as an underlying for structured products as well as futures and options. The CECE Fundamental measured EUR1,301.54 points in Euros, and 1,809.48 points in US dollars as of 2 January 2009. As of the same date, the CEETX Fundamental stood at 1,000 points in both cases.

Fitch Ratings a relevé de ‘M2-’ à ‘M2’ la note Asset Manager attribuée à UFG-LFP et a levé la surveillance positive sous laquelle la note avait été placée à la suite de l’annonce du rapprochement des activités de La Française des Placements et d’UFG. Cette notation couvre l’ensemble des activités de gestion de valeurs mobilières basées à Paris (hors gestion privée). Elle ne concerne donc pas les activités de gestion immobilière et de private equity d’UFG-LFP, ni les sociétés de gestion dans lesquelles le groupe détient des participations. Le relèvement de la note reflète, selon l’agence, «la solidité de la nouvelle structure UFG-LFP» qui affiche 33 milliards d’euros d’encours sous gestion à fin mars 2010 (27 milliards d’euros pour la partie valeurs mobilières). Cela traduit également «la bonne diversification de la société en termes d’actifs gérés et de type de clientèle, ainsi que la stabilité dont elle a fait preuve depuis un an malgré le processus de fusion». Enfin, «la note prend en compte les ressources importantes dont la société dispose, notamment au niveau des gestions et du dispositif global de contrôle des risques». Par ailleurs, en levant la mise sous surveillance positive de la note (décembre 2009), Fitch prend acte de l’adossement au CMNE (qui détient 80 % de la structure) et de la stabilité de l’organisation en termes de dirigeants, d’équipes et de processus d’investissement. Observant que le rapprochement s’est opéré dans des délais relativement courts pour une opération de ce type, l’agence de notation indique que «les équipes de gestion de portefeuilles des deux entités ont été fusionnées tout en laissant subsister les processus de chaque société lorsque des complémentarités ont été constatées, comme dans les cas de la gestion obligataire (gestion de produits spécialisés/gestion assurancielle) et de la gestion actions (gestion thématique/ISR) notamment. Le processus top down, qui occupait une place prépondérante dans la gestion de LFP et que Fitch considérait comme un élément différenciateur de la société, reste inchangé. Enfin, le processus de multigestion alternative vient, pour une grande partie, d’UFG Alteram et bénéficie de ressources importantes et d’un processus discipliné. Il a vocation à devenir rapidement le pôle de gestion en performance absolue d’UFG-LFP, en direct ou en multigestion». Enfin, concernant l’avenir, Fitch souligne que les enjeux à moyen terme pour la société consisteront à accélérer le développement des investissements et de la clientèle à l’international, à pérenniser et institutionnaliser les processus de gestion rapprochés et à achever l’intégration de la plateforme technologique.