FIL Investment Management a annoncé que le fonds d’actions Fidelity Deutschland Select (DE000A0D8C60), qui avait été lancé le 1er mars 2005 et qui est géré par Alexandra Hartmann, sera liquidé au 30 juin 2010. Au 30 avril, il n’affichait que 25 millions d’euros d’encours. Au 21 juin 2010, ce fonds a gagné 8,83 % depuis le début de l’année et 31,53 % depuis le lancement, mais il perd 30,13 % sur trois ans.

Comme annoncé voici plus de deux mois (lire notre article du 7 avril), Nomura Asset Management Deutschland a rebaptisé les fonds de la gamme Maintrust, toujours en remplaçant le préfixe MAT par Nomura, à compter du 23 juin. De plus, les nouveaux noms sont censés être fournir plus de transparence quant aux objectifs des fonds. Les codes Isin demeurent en revanche inchangés.Ancien nom Nouveau nomMAT Asia Pacific Fonds Nomura Asia Pacific FondsMAT Japan Aktien Nomura Japan Equity FondsMAT Fundamental Japan Nomura Fundamental Japan FondsMAT Fundamental Europa Nomura Fundamental Europe FondsMAT Asian Bonds Nomura Asian Bonds Fonds MAT Euro Plus Nomura Euro Convertible FondsMAT Real Return Nomura Real Return FondsMAT Real Protect Nomura Real Protect FondsMAT Medio Rent Nomura Medio Rent Fonds MAT APO LIQUID Nomura APO LIQUID Fonds D’autre part, Nomura AM Deutschland a l’intention d’importer en Allemagne des fonds luxembourgeois et irlandais offerts au public.

Dans un communiqué, RHJ International SA a annoncé qu’elle poursuivait ses efforts de développement et a convenu avec KBC Asset Management SA l’achat de KBC Asset Management Limited ( Dublin ). Le montant de la transaction a été fixé a 23,7 millions d’euros en cash. KBC AM recevra également 50 % d’une réduction de capital potentielle future de KBCAM Dublin avec un maximum de 3,5 millions d’euros.KBCAM Dublin gère environ 4 milliards d’euros pour des clients institutionnels et propose des produits investis notamment des actions «environnementales», des actions offrant des dividendes élevés et des stratégies multi actifs. Basée à Dublin ,KBCAM possède une forte clientèle en Irlande, en Asie et en Amérique du Nord .

Actuellement, l’encours des fonds luxembourgeois de Sparinvest dans les actions de style value représente environ 2,56 milliards d’euros, dont 2,3 milliards dans le Global Value, le reste se partageant entre quatre autres produits, dont deux «éthiques» pour quelque 150 millions (Sparinvest a signé les Principes de l’investissement responsable des Nations-Unies ou UN-PRI). D’après Jens Moestrup Rasmussen, chief portfolio manager, la maison danoise, qui gère également un fonds d’actions value de droit danois pour 700 millions d’euros, n’a subi que de minimes retraits cette année.Par principe, ont expliqué mardi à Paris Jens Moestrup Rasmussen et David Orr (portfolio manager), l’approche value de Sparinvest commande d’investir par sélection de titres à 100 %, dans des titres présentant au moins 40 % de décote et susceptibles d'être conservés en portefeuille pendant trois à cinq ans (la moyenne se situe actuellement à 4,1 ans de détention). Les gérants de l'équipe value (au total sept personnes), recherchent des titres d’entreprises présentant un bilan solide et un faible niveau d’endettement, sans se préoccuper d’un éventuel indice de référence, ce qui explique que les Etats-Unis soient fortement sous-pondérés par rapport au MSCI monde (7,4 % contre 48,3 %, pour le fonds mondial) tandis que le Japon s’avère très nettement surpondéré (27,5 % contre 10,2 %). Sur les cinq premiers mois de l’année, le fonds Global Value a gagné 10,08 % (dont 3,6 points grâce au Japon) contre 9,17 % pour le MSCI monde pendant que le European Value affichait une performance de 5,61 % contre une perte pour le MSCI Europe Value. Le Small Cap Value est en retard sur le MSCI monde small-cap avec 16,07 % contre 18,06 %, mais l’Ethical Value s’adjuge 10,82 % contre 9,17 % pour le MSCI monde.Le style value incite également les spécialistes de Sparinvest à s’intéresser au domaine des fusions-acquisitions, qui a été historiquement une source de performance pour les fonds maison et qui devrait rester un catalysateur important.

D’après la presse néerlandaise, il y aurait déjà eu des premiers pourparlers exploratoires entre le capital-investisseur britannique CVC Capital Partners et le groupe TNT, auquel le premier souhaite acheter sa division courrier, rapporte la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Le prix serait de l’ordre de 3 à 4 milliards d’euros, et CVC, qui contrôle déjà près de 50 % de l’activité courrier de la Poste belge, serait intéressé par une participation d’au maximum 1,5 milliard d’euros.

BBVA Asset Management a ouvert sa filiale de fonds tiers, Quality Funds à des clients externes au groupe. Myriam Luque, directrice de Quality Funds, a indiqué mardi que des services d’architecture ouverte sont proposés désormais à d’autres sociétés espagnoles, mais qu’elle n’a pas encore reçu de réponse, rapporte Cinco Días.Quality Funds gère des fonds de fonds dont l’encours a augmenté de 70,45 % depuis le début de l’année pour atteindre 825 millions d’euros. D’autre part, elle conseille des fonds d’autres gestionnaires d’un encours de 16 milliards d’euros. Actuellement, Quality a des accords avec 38 gestionnaires externes, et l’objectif est de porter ce nombre à 55.Interrogée sur le déréférencement il y a quelques mois des fonds Carmignac, Myriam Luque a expliqué qu’il est intervenu dans un contexte de révision générale des fonds et que Carmignac ne s’est pas ajusté aux critères préliminaires de Quality Funds.

Le juin, la CNMV a enregistré la sicav luxembourgeoise Aberdeen Global II. Elle aligne 26 compartiments, principalement obligataire. Le gestionnaire britannique (161,8 milliards d’euros) compte s’adresser principalement aux investisseurs institutionnels en Espagne et au Portugal.

UBS reports that the UBS-IS CMCI Oil ETF is the only oil ETF available on the European market to date. The product, launched on 18 June and listed on the Swiss stock exchange, synthetically replicates the UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index (CMCI), which aims to limit the influence of rolling positions. The fund is denominated in US dollars and is aimed primarily at high net worth retail investors. The counterparty for the swap if the UBS investment bank, and this risk is 100% covered. UBS has already planned to launch shares in the fund denominated in US dollars for institutional investors, as well as shares in Euros hedged for forex risks, for both retail and institutional investors. CharacteristicsName: UBS-Index Solutions - CMCI Oil ETF (USD) SF-A ISIN: CH0109967858 Currency of fund: USD Trading currency: USD Management commission: 0.45%

Vigeo announced on Tuesday that it has lowered its ratings for BP. “The downgrade comes after several weeks of examination of the behaviour of BP and investigations by the US authorities following the ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico,” the extra-financial ratings agency explains. “Due to serious reports about the weak level of diligence and doubts about the sincerity of communications by the business about the safety of its offshore installations and the volumes of oil being leaked, Vigeo is again revising its opinions about the integrity of environmental management systems and the security of the group downward to a minimal level,” the agency says.

UBS Global Asset Management has launched the UBS (Lux) Key Selection Sicav – Global Alpha Opportunities, the first UCITS III hedge fund from the Swiss firm to be released in Italy, Bluerating reports.

According to statistics from the German BVI association of management firms, the portfolios of open-ended real estate funds included 1,495 properties or properties under construction, of which 60% are valued at under EUR50m, while only 71 properties are valued at over EUR200m. Germany represents the highest proportion, with 28.3% of total assets as of the end of March, compared with 28.5% at the end of January. The percentage of properties located in France has also fallen to 18.9% from 19.3% at the end of 2009 (see Newsmanagers of 22 March). 35.1% of properties owned by funds are less than 5 years old, and 29.8% are 5 to 10 years old. The BVI also states that office properties represent 64.8% of the total, while commercial and restaurant properties account for 20%. the remainder consists of industrial properties (4.4%) and hotels (3.9%). Concerning the volume of transactions, real estate acquisitions in the twelve months to the end of March totalled 67, of which 23 were in Germany and 44 abroad. Venal properties represented EUR5.82bn. 97 properties were sold, of which 64 were in Germany and 33 abroad, with a venal total value of EUR2.77bn.

ING Groep is weighing a sale of its real-estate funds, says the Wall Street Journal. The Dutch financial group said earlier this month it was «conducting an evaluation of the position of ING REIM within the banking business.» Morgan Stanley has been appointed to evaluate ING REIM and could advise the bank on a sale, according to people familiar with the matter. Analysts believe ING could fetch between EUR800 million and EUR1 billion through a direct sale of REIM, which has EUR66.4 billion in property assets under management. Potential investors are coming forward, including AXA Real Estate Investment Managers.

In a statement, RHJ International SA has announced that it is continuing its development efforts, and that it has reached an agreement with KBC Asset Management SA to acquire KBC Asset Management Limited (Dublin). The transaction price has been set at EUR23.7m in cash. KBC AM will also receive 50% of a potential capital reduction at KBCAM Dublin, up to a maximum of EUR3.5m. KBCAM Dublin manages about EUR4bn for institutional clients, and offers investment products including environmental equities, value equities, and multi-asset strategy funds. KBC AM, based in Dublin, has a strong client base in Ireland, Asia, and North America.

As of 31 May, assets under management at Invesco Ltd totalled USD430bn, compare dwith USD456.7bn as of 30 April, and USD457.7bn as of 31 March. Of this total, equities funds represented USD181.2bn, while bond funds represented USD79.1bn. Diversified funds had assets of USD39.6bn, while money market funds had USD69.2bn, and hedge funds had USD60.9bn. In these categories, ETFs and passive funds accounted for a total of USD51.2bn in assets. Invesco states that of a contraction of USD26.9bn between the end of April and the end of May, USD6.1bn was due to ETFs and passive funds, which have seen net redemptions, and about USD6bn are due to currency effects related to the rising US dollar. These figures are worth noting as the takeover by Invesco of the activities of Morgan Stanley came into effect only from 1 June.

The French national pension fund, the Fonds de réserve pour les retraites (FRR), announced on 22 June that it has cancelled a management mandate assigned to Allianz Global Investors France, for which the financial management had been further outsourced to the firm’s sister firm, Nicholas Applegate Capital Management, also an affiliate of the Allianz Global Investors group. The FRR says in a statement that the mandate was cancelled “due to sustained relatively unsatisfactory returns.” The mandate was for the management of a US small cap equities portfolio totalling EUR172m as of 28 May of this year.

BNY Mellon Asset Management has announced that the application for a Discretionary Investment Management (DIM) license by BNY Mellon AM Korea Limited was successfully approved by Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) on 16 June 2010. BNY Mellon established an asset management representative office in Seoul in 2006. The DIM license allows BNY Mellon AM Korea Limited to contract for discretionary investment management services with local financial institutions and professional investors.

BBVA Asset Management has opened its third-party fund affiliate, Quality Funds, to clients from outside the group. Myrian Luque, director of Quality Funds, announced on Tuesday that open-architecture services are now available to other Spanish firms, but that it has not yet received a response, Cinco Días reports. Quality Funds manages funds of funds with assets that have increased by 70.45% since the beginning of the year to EUR825m. It also advises funds from other management firms with assets of EUR16bn. Currently, Quality has agreements with 38 external management firms, and aims to increase this number to 55. When asked about the removal of Carmignac funds from its offerings a couple of months ago, Luque explained that the move came as part of a general revision of funds, and that Carmignac did not adapt to meet the preliminary criteria of Quality Funds.

On Tuesday, British Airways (BA) overcame the last obstacle to its merger with Iberia, Cinco Días reports: the British airline reached an agreement with the trustees of its two pension funds, New Airways Pension Scheme (NAPS) and Airways Pension Scheme (APS), by which it pledges to make annual contributions of about GBP330m (EUR394m), in addition to which an amount estimated at 3% per year will be added to account for inflation. These contributions will run until 2026 for NAPS and 2023 for APS. Additional contributions from BA to offset the funds’ deficit (EUR4bn) are planned for years in which cash surpluses exceed GBP1.8bn. The agreement also includes a guarantee of GBP250m to ensure that pensions are paid in case of insolvency.

Credit Suisse and Dow Jones Indexes have signed an agreement which covers the calculation, licensing, branding and marketing of the hedge fund indexes formerly known as the Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Indexes. The joint venture between Credit Suisse and Tremont Capital Management, Inc. has been dissolved. Under this agreement, the indexes will be branded Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Indexes, and Dow Jones Indexes will calculate, distribute and market the indexes, while Credit Suisse affiliates will continue to manage the financial products linked to them. Credit Suisse and Dow Jones Indexes intend to keep the methodologies and rules for each of the existing indexes consistent with past practices. The Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Indexes are a family of hedge fund indexes which include broad market and investable indexes, all designed to track hedge fund performance. The indexes are constructed from a database of more than 5,000 hedge funds. The index family presently consists of 17 indexes. Dow Jones Indexes will discontinue its existing hedge fund indexes as of June 30.

Credit Suisse and Dow Jones Indexes have teamed up to provide the alternative management indexes previously known by the name Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Indexes. By the agreement, the indexes will be renamed as Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Indexes. Credit Suisse has also dissolved its joint venture with Tremont Capital Management. Dow Jones Indexes will now calculate, distribute and market the indexes, while affiliates of Credit Suisse will continue to manage the financial products associated with them. The two parters are planning to retain the existing methdologies and rules for each index. Dow Jones Indexes, for its part, will discontinue its own hedge fund indexes from 30 June. The Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund indexes are a family of 17 hedge fund indices which seek to replicate the performance of hedge funds. They are based on data from more than 5,000 funds.

Despite a global eocnomic context which remains uncertain, the number of millionaires and the volume of their wealth are both rising, according to the 14th edition of the World Wealth Report, published on 22 June by Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and Capgemini. This population once again represented 10 million people in 2009; their wealth increased 18.95 to a total of USD39trn. The most wealthy of them saw a 21.5% increase in their wealth in 2009. These figures show that the return to better economic conditions has made it possible to offset losses in 2008, and to return to 2007 levels. “The past few years were particularly marked for high net worth investors. While in 2008, the wealth of millionaires fell unprecedentedly, one year later, we are already seeing signs that it is recovering, and that in some regions, it has fully returned to the levels of wealth seen in 2007,” explains Gilles Dard, president for private management activities in France and continental Europe at Merrill Lynch. “Emerging markets continued to drive this recovery, particularly India, China, and Brazil,” says Laurence Chrétien, in charge of the World Wealth Report for France at Capgemini Consulting. “The Asia-Pacific region was the only region where macroeconomic indicators and drivers of wealth creation developed significantly in 2009.” While the increase in the number of millionaires and their wealth was generally more marked in emerging countries, most high net worth individuals continue to be concentrated in the United States, Japan and Germany, which alone account for 53.5% of this population as of 2009 (54% in 2008). In France, the number of millionaires has increased 10.8% to a total of 383,000. North America still has the largest number of millionaires, at 3.1 million, which corresponds to 31% of the world’s millionaires.

FIL Investment Management has announced that the equities fund Fidelity Deutschland Select (DE000A0D8C60), which was launched on 1 March 2005, and which is managed by Alexandra Hartmann, will be liquidated on 30 June 2010. As of 30 April, the fund had only EUR25m in assets. As of 21 June 2010, the fund had earned 8.83% since the beginning of the year, and 31.53% since its launch, but had lost 30.13% over three years.

As announced more than two months ago (see Newsmanagers of 7 April), Nomura Asset Management Deutschland has renamed the funds of its Maintrust range, replacing the MAT prefix with Nomura, from 23 June. In addition, the new names are intended to provide more transparency as of the objectives of the funds. The ISIN Codes will remain unchanged. Former name New name MAT Asia Pacific Fonds Nomura Asia Pacific FondsMAT Japan Aktien Nomura Japan Equity FondsMAT Fundamental Japan Nomura Fundamental Japan FondsMAT Fundamental Europa Nomura Fundamental Europe FondsMAT Asian Bonds Nomura Asian Bonds Fonds MAT Euro Plus Nomura Euro Convertible FondsMAT Real Return Nomura Real Return FondsMAT Real Protect Nomura Real Protect FondsMAT Medio Rent Nomura Medio Rent Fonds MAT APO LIQUID Nomura APO LIQUID Fonds Nomura AM Deutschland is also planning to import open-ended Luxembourg and Irish funds to Germany.

Feri EuroRating Services has found in a study of 60 insurers covering 90% of the unit-linked insurance policy market that of the 2,994 funds on offer, only about one quarter of them are rated A or B (the highest ratings), or in other words, that only one quarter of products have a sustainably higher-than-average performance with relatively low risk. Feri EuroRating adds that insurers tend to rely on flagship funds in the sector, which often have performance issues. The most used fund, offered by 37 out of 60 insurers, is the European Growth fund from Fidelity Funds, followed by the Templeton Growth (Euro), offered by 35 providers, DWS Vermögensbilgundsfonds I (24), and the BGF World Mining Fund from BlackRock (22). However, the Templeton Growth is rated D (the only one of the top 15 funds). But the DWS Akkumula, Carmignac Patrimoine and Investissement funds and the South East Asia Fund from Fidelity are all rated A. Meanwhile, many insurers tend to use their own funds in policies, while as a general rule the quality of in-house funds is lower than that of third-party products: the percentage of funds rated A or B among in-house funds is only 16%, while it comes to 29% for third-party funds.

Henderson Global Investors, the UK based asset manager with over USD90 billion assets under management, has appointed Nancy McNally as director of consultant relations, North America. Reporting to Nick Adams, head of global consultant relations, Nancy joined on 1st June 2010. She will be working alongside Mark Toomey, director of institutional asset management, and Michael Nagy, associate director of consultant relations, North America. Nancy has 10 years’ experience in asset management at Fidelity Investments, Robeco Investment Management, Clay Finlay and, most recently, Gartmore.

Six people have left the London office of Citadel Investment Group, the Chicago-based hedge fund manager, according to Financial News. Alex Maddox, who headed up Citadel’s European securitsation desk, has joined Deutsche Bank.

Henderson Group has announced that discussions regarding a potential acquisition by the Group of certain businesses of RidgeWorth Capital Management, Inc., the US asset manager owned by SunTrust Banks, Inc., have been discontinued as the parties have not reached agreement on terms.

State Street Global Advisors has announced the appointment of Raymond Haines as head of UK Liability Driven Investing (LDI) and Christopher J. Goolgasian, who joined SSgA as a senior portfolio manager in the Multi Asset Class Solutions (MACS) group in Boston. The company also announced the transition of Gregory Taieb from its Montreal office to support the UK MACS team in London. SSgA’s MACS group provides asset allocation, LDI and exposure management solutions to clients across all asset classes globally. Haines worked previously at LV= Asset Management where he was most recently chief investment officer. Joining Haines on the London team is Gregory Taieb, a MACS portfolio manager in Montreal who will relocate to London to support the company’s continued growth in that market. Boston-based Goolgasian joins State Street from Pyramis Global Advisors, where he was an institutional portfolio manager.

Schroders has announced that one of its subsidiaries has acquired 49 per cent of the share capital of RWC Partners Limited. The 49 per cent stake in RWC represents a financial investment by Schroders and was acquired mainly from existing third party, individual shareholders. RWC will remain a separate legal entity and will continue to be managed by the existing management team, says a release. RWC had gross assets of approximately GBP10 million as at the date of completion of the transaction.

Newton, an affiliate of BNY Mellon Asset management, announced on 21 June that one of its British arms, Newton Investment Management Limited has been assigned a new management mandate by the pension fund for the University of London, the Superannuities Arrangements of the University of London.