Morgan Stanley a annoncé le lancement d’une gamme de quatre produits structurés, selon Investment Week. Il s’agit de Morgan Stanley FTSE Best Entry Growth, FTSE Capital Accumulator, FTSE Kick Out Growth and FTSE Protected Growth Plan 31, avec des points d’entrée, des niveaux de risque et des stratégies de sortie différentes. L’offre est disponible depuis le 23 novembre et sera clôturée le 18 janvier. L’investissement minimum a été fixé à 3.000 livres.

Selon Money Marketing, Liontrust a vu ses actifs sous gestion diminuer de plus des deux tiers entre 2008 et 2009 pour tomber à 1,2 milliard de livres au 24 novembre 2009, contre 3,9 milliards de livres l’an dernier.Sur les six mois au 30 septembre, le groupe a dégagé un bénéfice imposable de 500.000 livres, contre 6,1 millions l’année précédente. A l’occasion d’un point de presse, le chief executive de Liontrust, Nigel, Legge, a reconnu que 2009 aura été une année difficile pour la société, en raison notamment du départ de Jeremy Lang et Willima Pattisson, deux de ses principaux gérants, et une décollecte significative, en particulier de la part des investisseurs institutionnels.

David Houston, l’ancien gérant du fonds petites capitalisations européennes de Bank Vontobel, a rejoint Euronova Asset Management, la société qu’il a cofondée en 2000, indique Citywire.Il gérait le Vontobel Fund European M&S Cap chez Berenberg Bank.

Echaudés par la crise de liquidité et par l’affaire Madoff, les investisseurs en gestion alternative réclament désormais davantage de sécurité. «Certains clients ne veulent plus investir dans des formats offshore», explique Christophe Bernard, directeur des investissements (CIO) et membre du comité exécutif de l’Union Bancaire Privée, banque privée suisse spécialisée dans la multigestion alternative. D’où l’essor des fonds Ucits III et des comptes gérés (managed accounts), qui offrent un cadre plus sécurisé avec une plus grande liquidité, en contrepartie d’une déperdition de performance. «Par exemple, nous avons calculé que pour un Ucits III qui répliquerait un hedge fund, le coût de la liquidité est de 200-250 points de base par an», précise Christophe Bernard. «Mais beaucoup de clients acceptent le compromis d’une performance inférieure pour une liquidité supérieure».Dans ce nouveau contexte, UBP va lancer un fonds à base de comptes gérés. «L’avantage des managed accounts est qu’ils sont très transparents sur leurs positions. Et cette transparence va pouvoir nous permettre d’agir sur les portefeuilles si par exemple nous estimons que notre position dans une valeur est trop importante», explique Christophe Bernard. Cet «overlay» a vocation à s'étendre à d’autres fonds de fonds, pourvu que les sous-jacents offrent une transparence suffisante. Pour cela, UBP recrute actuellement de nombreuses personnes venant des marchés. En effet, pour Christophe Bernard, il est important que le secteur de la multigestion alternative, dont l’utilité a été remise en cause avec la crise et l’affaire Madoff, démontre qu’il a une valeur ajoutée, en plus de la sélection de produits et de l’allocation d’actifs.UBP songe aussi à lancer un fonds de fonds Ucits III, comme certains l’ont déjà fait. Mais la banque privée ne s’est pas précipitée, car elle estime que pour l’instant le gisement n’est pas suffisamment important. «Il n’y a pas assez de matière première ! Mais nous encourageons les gérants à traduire leurs stratégies dans des formats Ucits III. Et nous pensons qu’au premier semestre 2010, nous serons en mesure de proposer un fonds de fonds», affirme Christophe Bernard. S’agissant de la gamme existante d’UBP, elle sera également remaniée et réorganisée autour du critère de la liquidité. Les gammes américaines et européennes seront aussi fusionnées pour ne garder qu’une seule marque. La sécurité passe aussi par une «due diligence» plus stricte. Ainsi, après avoir été investi dans du Madoff, UBP a enjoint ses gérants d’instaurer un «système triangulaire», autrement dit, une séparation entre le gérant, le dépositaire et l’administrateur. Un système assez répandu en Europe, mais pas aux Etats-Unis. Mais 9 gérants sur 10 ont accepté de s’y conformer.Christophe Bernard note enfin, toujours dans le même esprit, que les gérants offrent désormais de meilleurs conditions en matière de frais et de liquidité.

La Tribune note que, pour la première fois, la cour d’appel de Luxembourg a ordonné à UBS (Lux) de fournir des documents, dont l’autorisation de gestion, à un Espagnol investi dans la Sicav Castalia Ahorro.

The concept of socially responsible investment (SRI) is dying, according to Jon Williams, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, cited by IPE.com. He admits, though, that negative and positive screening models and engagement may continue to interest some investors. He feels that the future is in sub-themes focused on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria, such as water, climate change, and forestry, which are showing strong performance.

On Wednesday, Rabobank, the World Wildlife Fund, the technical university of Delph and Wageningen University announced the launch of the Dutch Greentech Fund, which will invest in Dutch green startup firms exploiting innovative technologies and processes throughout the basic manufacturing chain through to finished products in the areas of agructulture, food, water, air, and bio-energies. Investment will be limited to EUR2.5m per business, on the condition that it must be equivalent to a minority stake in the business. At launch, assets in the fund will be EUR21m, but they are expected to increase to EUR40m from early 2010. The portfolio will include 15 to 25 positions.

Fidelity International announced on Thursday morning that Anthony Bolton will take over management of a portfolio of Chinese and international equities likely to profit from growth in China. The new fund may be on sale by the end of first quarter 2010. The star manager retired at the end of 2007 from day-to-day management to become the “mentor” and strategist for Fidelity, a management firm which opened its Hong Kong offices in 1981, and which has been present in continental China since 2004.

According to statistics from the Investment Company Institute (ICI), assets in mutual funds in the United States as of the end of October totalled USD10.6883trn, USD144bn or 1.3% less than one month earlier. However, this result remains USD1.0871trn or 11.3% higher than the USD9.6012trn recorded at the and of December 2008. In October, long-term funds posted net subscriptions of USD40.88bn, compared with USD47.87bn in September. But equities funds saw net redemptions of USD7.08bn, compared with USD10.38bn the previous month, due to the fact that funds which invest primarily in the United States saw net outflows of USD14.83bn, compared with USD11.33bnin September. Hybrid and bond funds in October saw respective net inflows of Usd2.94bn and USD45.02bn. But money market funds saw further outflows of USD71.8bn in October, following USD126.91bn in outflows in September.

Robert Frey, who was managing director of the Nova Fund, and then of Renaissance Technologies, between 1992 and 2004, will launch a multi-strategy quantitative fund, to be entitled Frey Quantitative Strategies (FQS) Multi-Strategy fund. He plans to start out with about USD350m in assets, and generate performance of 10-15%. The IT system is operated partly in the United States (Frey is a professor of applied mathematics and statistics at Stony Brook University in New York state), and partly by a team of IT professionals based in London, India, Ireland, Sweden, and France.

The global index of investor confidence calculated by State Street Global Markets in partnership with Harvard University fell 7.6 points in November to 100.8 points, from 108.4 in October. The confidence of investors in Asia fell most sharply, as the regional index fell 4.1 points to 91.2. Other regions show slightly more enthusiasm. North American investors’ appetite for risk has remained virtually unchanged, rising slightly from 101.1 to 102.2 points. European investors were slightly less optimistic, as their confidence level rose 2.7 points to 105.5 points. Ken Froot, one of the people responsible for the index, commented that “the aggregate data conceal disparities between individual countries and regions. This month, for example, institutional investors radically reduced their positions on some markets, such as Australia, while they have continued to increase their positions on emerging markets. Overall, investors are somewhat cautious about the current level of valuations, and they would like to see more evidence of economic activity and real global demand, particularly in the United States, before they increase their positions on equities further.”

“In an environment of limited growth and low returns, investors in 2010 are seeking sustainable and high growth as well as attractive returns,” said Eric Siegloff, head of strategy and tactical asset allocation for ING IM, at a press conference in London. In this environment, “the importance of returns has led us to prefer large caps, high-quality businesses, and high-yield strategies for equities markets, and products with high ratings on bond markets,” he added. “Globally, we expect 2010 to be a good year for equities, in the wake of regular profit growth,” said Patrick Moonen, senior equities strategist at ING IM. ING IM is thus particularly positive on emerging markets equities, as these offer high and sustainable growth. Moonen argues that emerging markets should no longer be considered a simple “bet” on global growth, “but rather as a region unto itself which offers unique opportunities.” ING IM predicts high growth in profits in emerging countries, as well as high returns in terms of returns on owners’ equity (ROE) and operating margins, due to the solidity of balance sheets in a region which also has benefited from rising commodity prices. Of course, against this background, countries which are net exporters of commodities will have an advantage in 2010, while net importers will see an increase in their costs. On bond markets, Valentijn van Nieuwenhuijzen, head for the economy and bond strategy at ING IM, recommends a diversification of risks within portfolios in order to concentrate on the relative solidity of balance sheets. “We are therefore overweighting corporate bonds, mortgage-backed securities, and government bonds (from emerging countries). We are also predicting a slight increase in volatility in 2010. As a result, we are preferring corporate bonds with higher ratings, and we are seeking diversified exposure to healthy macroeconomic fundamentals on emerging markets,” he concludes.

ING IM has finalized a reorganization of its teams, begun in March this year. “We have abandoned organization by asses classes in favour of a system of teams centred around strategies, each in a separate ‘boutique,’ but integrated within the group,” explains Jan Straatman, CIO of ING IM, at a press conference in London. The 14 European teams are now in place, and their heads have been appointed, he adds, and a similar reorganization will be undertaken internationally in the near future. The various boutiques all have their head offices in the Netherlands, but local specialists will be based abroad, where local presence is indispensable. This multi-boutique structure will give asset management teams more freedom in equities management in terms of the investment process, which will allow them to generate more performance, and “each team will have its own goals to achieve,” says Straatman. “These multi-boutiques will function with quasi-entrepreneurial flexibility and liberty, without having the same operational risk, as they will be backed by the infrastructure and means of a large group,” says the chief investment officer. The various internal boutiques will also be able to rely on a global team of 30 equities and fixed income analysts. ING Investment Management (ING IM), which manages EUR400m worldwide, and which now includes the asset management activities of ING in a single unit alongside real estate asset management, will publish combined annual results from 2010. Within the group, ING will continue its internal reorganization program, which began in 2006, and while will eventually lead to a separation of banking and insurance activities, including asset management. “We are still aiming for a return to our roots, which would allow us to better respond to the needs of our clients,” says Michel van Eck, the new CEO for Europe since 23 November. The group’s total restructuring will be completed by the end of 2013, and “until then, we are analysing all possible options,” van Eck conlcludes.

On Wednesday, Munich Re announced that it has acquired a block of shares in the primary insurance group Ergo from a fund management operation of HypoVereinsbank (HVB, UniCredit group), meaning that its stake in the firm now amounts to over 95%. This means that the AGM to be held on 12 May 2010 will vote on a proposition to squeeze out minority shareholders. After that procedure, Munich Re will become the sole shareholder in the management firm MEAG, a joint venture from Munich Re and Ergo, which as of the end of September managed EUR191bn, of which EUR175bn were on behalf of Munich Re, EUR8bn in mandates, and EUR2bn in open-ended funds.

There is a saying that women are less enclined to risk than men in financial investments. But, according to a study by the Berlin-based economic research agency DIW, this attitude has more to do with the fact that women often have less income and wealth than men than it does with women being more prudent. Under equal financial conditions, men and women show the same propensity to make high-risk investments, says Nataliya Barasinka, co-author of the study, which covered 8,000 households, in half of which the woman was the determining decision-maker. DIW estimates that, in order to develop custom financial products for women, banks would do better to design product ranges that correspond to differing levels of wealth.

With the Market Vectors Poland ETF, which charges 76 basis points, Van Eck Global is launching its 23rd ETF product. The fund will have the acronym PLND on the Arca electronic trading platform from NYSE. The new product will replicate the Poland Market Vectors (total return) index, calculated by the German firm 4assetmanagement GmbH. The indicator includes 26 stocks, of which 40.3% are in the financial sector, 13.6% in energies, and 11% industrials. Small and midcaps represent 60% of the total. Van Eck’s assets in ETFs totalled about USD10bn as of 31 October.

According to the proposals of MEP Jean-Paul Gauzès, the European Parliament is recommending that the AIFM directive should apply to all hedge funds and private equity funds, regardless of their size, and that funds should be required to adhere to certain regulatory ratios for all their activities, Handelsblatt reports. The European MP also calls for stricter rules for hedge funds than for private equity funds. However, he does not want to deprive hedge funds of the ability to short-sell, and refuses to require private equity funds to disclose sensitive information about the firms in their portfolios. And he does not demand that venture capitalists undergo regular ratings. Lastly, Gauzès supports proposals by the European Commission that the European passport be restricted to funds domiciled in the European Union, though he would leave member states free to accept funds from outside the Union within their own borders.

Hedge fund and private equity managers have given a lukewarm and cautious reception to proposed amendments to the AIFM directive, the Financial Times reports. They are concerned in particular about the proposal that the European Commission would have the power to impose limits to the levels of leverage a manger may be allowed to use in exceptional circumstances.

David Houston, former manager of the European small caps fund at Bank Vontobel, has joined Euronova Asset management, the firm he co-founded in 2000, Citywire reports. He previously managed the Vontobel Fund European M&S Cap at Berenberg Bank.

Deutsche Börse announced on Wednesday that it has added seven ETFs denominated in Euros, seven in US dollars, and two in pounds Sterling to trading on the XTF segment of its Xetra electronic platform. These funds belong to the Xmtch range from Credit Suisse (see Newsmanagers of 18 November). This brings the total number of funds listed on XTF to 541. Of the new products, 15 are registered in Ireland, and one in Luxembourg. They are: Name of fund ISIN code Currency Management commission Xmtch (IE) on MSCI UK Large Cap IE00B3VWKZ07 GBP 0.36% Xmtch (IE) on MSCI UK Small Cap IE00B3VWLG82 GBP 0.42% Xmtch (IE) on MSCI USA Large Cap IE00B3VWLJ14 USD 0.22% Xmtch (IE) on MSCI USA Small Cap IE00B3VWM098 USD 0.30% Xmtch (IE) on MSCI Japan Large Cap IE00B3VWM213 EUR 0.36% Xmtch (IE) on MSCI Japan Small Cap IE00B3VWMK93 EUR 0.42% Xmtch (IE) on MSCI EMU Small Cap IE00B3VWMM18 EUR 0.42% Xmtch (IE) on iBoxx USD Govt 1-3 IE00B3VWN179 USD 0.12% Xmtch (IE) on iBoxx USD Govt 3-7 IE00B3VWN393 USD 0.12% Xmtch (IE) on iBoxx USD Govt 7-10 IE00B3VWN518 USD 0.12% Xmtch (IE) on iBoxx EUR Govt 1-3 IE00B3VTMJ91 EUR 0.12% Xmtch (IE) on iBoxx EUR Govt 3-7 IE00B3VTML14 EUR 0.12% Xmtch (IE) on iBoxx EUR Govt 7-10 IE00B3VTN290 EUR 0.12% Xmtch (IE) on iBoxx USD Inflation Linked IE00B3VTPS97 USD 0.16% Xmtch (IE) on iBoxx EUR Inflation Linked IE00B3VTQ640 EUR 0.16% Xmtch (Lux) on MSCI Emerging Markets LU0254097446 USD 0.45%

Deka Immobilien has acquired a 9,000 square metre office and commercial building in Hamburg from Movesta Development and Momeni Projektentwicklung for an undisclosed amount. The tenants of the building in clude the management firms Nordacapital and Natixis Capital Partners. The property will be added to the portfolio of the open-ended real estate fund Deka-ImmobilienEuropa (EUR10.32bn in assets as of the end of October).

The central management firm of the Icelandic savings banks, DekaBank, has announced that it is filing suit against the Icelandic government, accusing it of treating foreign lenders less well than local investors, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. The Frankfurt-based firm is suing for a reimbursement of a figure “in the hundreds of millions of Euros.” Deka’s exposure to Iceland totals about EUR500m.

The California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) has admitted that it has paid USD36m to an affiliate of UBS and to Pacific Alternative Asset Management for two years even though their hedge fund advisory contracts had expired, the Wall Street Journal reports. It appears that Paamco, at least, continued to provide services during the period in question. Kurt Silberstein, head of the hedge fund program at CalPERS, has been temporarily suspended from his duties.

The ratings agency Moody’s has modified its valuation methodology for preferential and subordinate securities issued by financial sector institutions, as it considers the risk these securities present to be higher than it had previously estimated, Expansión reports. The change will affect 170 banks worldwide, and the total value of the securities concerned is approximately EUR300bn. In Spain alone, the change will affect 15 firms and EUR27.7bn in debts. The two banks most affected by a potential downgrade are Santander and BBVA, for amounts totalling EUR9.08bn and EUR5.08bn, respectively.

«Male traders, like animals in the wild, take more risk when their testosterone levels rise», says John Coates, a research fellow in neuroscience and finance at Cambridge university in the Financial Times. Research by himself and his colleagues found that moderately elevated levels of this hormone increased the profits of high-frequency traders. But at higher levels it can cause overconfidence and risky behaviour. They could not say, however, was whether testosterone was having its beneficial effects by increasing the trader’s skill or merely by increasing his appetite for risk.

Des créanciers internationaux sont concernés par le gel des échéances de Dubaï World

La comparaison avec la période postérieure à la bulle TMT plaide pour une accalmie des volatilités réalisées et implicites

La BCE est visiblement de plus en plus mal à l’aise avec le degré d’accommodation de ses mesures non conventionnelles d’assouplissement du crédit. Les interventions verbales préparant le marché à leur extinction se multiplient. Le risque est donc plus grand aujourd’hui d’une «sortie» prématurée plutôt que tardive. Avec des conséquences pourtant bien plus dommageables pour l’économie réelle.

La Commission bancaire, financière et des assurances a émis une mise en garde contre les propositions d’investissement émanant de GreenIndex International Ltd. (http://www.greenindex-international.com/), qui prétend avoir son siège à l’adresse suivante : avenue Louise 149/24, 1050 Bruxelles.L’autorité de tutelle belge précise dans son communiqué que GreenIndex International Ltd. ne dispose pas de l’agrément requis pour pouvoir proposer des services d’investissement en Belgique ou à partir du territoire belge. En outre, GreenIndex International Ltd. n’est pas établi à l’adresse précitée. Enfin, la Commission déconseille au public de donner suite aux propositions d’investissement émanant de GreenIndex International Ltd. et d’effectuer tout versement sur un compte renseigné par GreenIndex International Ltd.