Selon L’Agefi suisse, Brian Singer, l’ancien chef de la division Global Investment Solutions d’UBS, qui gérait 200 milliards de dollars d’actifs avant son départ de la banque suisse en 2007, vient de lancer Singer Partners. Pour lancer sa société, il reforme une équipe qui a travaillé ensemble durant une dizaine d’années. Et promet une approche transparente, liquide et constante de la gestion d’actifs. Il s’appuiera sur la stratégie «Global Opportunity», héritée de Brinson Partners. Singer est par ailleurs président du think tank «Free to choose», inspiré par la pensée de Milton Friedman.

Avec les nouvelles règles qui seront mises en place d’ici à fin juin 2011 dans l’UE et qui ouvriront les frontières, le secteur de la gestion d’actifs en Italie va devoir se doter d’acteurs suffisamment forts pour contenir les grands concurrents étrangers, note The Wall Street Journal.Marco Carreri, CEO de Prima SGR, s’attend à de très nombreuses fusions de gestionnaires d’actifs en 2010, parce que les sociétés avec moins de 7 milliards d’euros d’encours ne pourront plus survivre comme par le passé face aux grands groupes, du fait que générer des bénéfices est devenu plus difficile.Pour Marcello Messori, président d’Assogestioni, il faut que les sociétés de gestion qui dominent le marché et qui sont contrôlées par les banques améliorent leur efficacité. Elles doivent surtout diversifier leurs réseaux de distribution pour ne plus être dépendantes uniquement des produits de leur maison-mère bancaire.Les trois grands acteurs de la gestion d’actifs sont Intesa Sapaolo avec Eurizon et Banca Fideuram (187 milliards d’euros), Generali (127 milliards) et UniCredit avec Pioneer (115 milliards) .

Le hongrois Quantis Investment Management Zrt est devenu le plus grand multigestionnaire d’Europe de l’Est après avoir porté ses actifs à plus de 40 milliards de forints (soit 147 millions d’euros), rapporte Citywire. Quantis est une société indépendante fondée en juillet 2008 par Brokernet.

Hines Italia Sgr lance un fonds de développement immobilier de 950 millions d’euros, rapporte Il Sole – 24 Ore. Ce fonds compte parmi ses investisseurs le groupe Fondiaria Sai et l’américain Tiaa Cref.

L’hôtel quatre étoiles Radisson Blu (16.892 mètres carrés, 196 chambres et suites) de Cracovie a été vendu pour environ 32 millions d’euros à Union Investment Real Estate (UIRE) pour le fonds immobilier offert au public UniImmo: Europa. C’est le premier investissement d’UIRE dans le secteur hôtelier en Europe central. Le portefeuille hôtelier compte 21 sites en Europe, avec 6.350 chambres.L’hôtel de Cracovie est également le second investissement d’UIRE en Pologne, après l’acquisition en octobre par le UniImmo: Global du centre commercial 3 Stawy à Katowice.

Selon L’Agefi suisse, les statistiques de Lipper FMI montrent qu’en 2008, le flux positif en faveur des ETF a été trois fois plus élevé qu’en 2007. Pendant les quatre premiers mois de cette année, les fonds passifs répliquant des indices actions ont à nouveau récolté plus d’argent que leurs pairs gérés de manière active. Une bonne partie de cet engouement récent pour les ETF peut être attribuée à un constat d’échec. Près de trois quarts des gérants de larges capitalisations américaines ont réalisé des performances inférieures au S&P 500 entre 2004 et 2008, d’après la «S&P Indices Versus Active Funds Scorecard». Le nombre d’ETF listés à la SIX Swiss Exchange est passé de 26 en 2004 à 181 aujourd’hui. A l’échelle européenne, 693 véhicules sont disponibles.

Selon les statistiques d’EPFR Global, les fonds d’actions de pays émergents ont enregistré au deuxième trimestre des souscriptions nettes de 26,5 milliards de dollars, dont 972 millions pour la semaine au 1er juillet, indique la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Les investisseurs ont été impressionnés par l’ampleur et les retombées prévisibles du plan de relance chinois tandis que par ailleurs la conjoncture des pays industrialisés n’a pas été aussi mauvaise que redouté. L’indice MSCI des marchés émergents a affiché pour avril-juin une hausse de 34 %.

Désormais, Bank of America (BofA), grâce à la reprise de Merrill Lynch, a évincé UBS du premier rang mondial des banques privées, rapporte le Financial Times. D’après Scorpio Partnership, l'établissement américain affiche 1,5 billion de dollars d’encours, juste devant la banque helvétique, qui est tombée de 1,9 billion en 2007 à 1,5 billion l’an dernier. Grâce à sa fusion avec Wachovia, Wells Fargo (1 billion de dollars) a aussi fait son entrée parmi les dix premières banques privées du monde, comme Goldman Sachs.D’après Scorpio, les banques privées gèrent 14,5 billions de dollars (- 16,7 % sur 2007) et leur bénéfice a chuté en moyenne de 32,9 % pendant que leur coefficient d’exploitation (cost-income ratio) se détériorait pour l’an dernier à 72,4 % contre 63,7 %.

Credit Suisse a demandé à la CNMV l’agrément de commercialisation pour un fonds de fonds diversifié «active et flexible» à dominante actions, le CS Global Fondos Gestión Activa, qui investira entre 30 % et 75 % de son encours en fonds d’actions et ne sera pas habilité à acquérir de parts dans des actifs obligataires dont la note sera inférieure à BB- (S&P), rapporte Funds People.L’exposition maximale au risque devises sera de 30 % et l'équipe de gestion pourra investir jusuq'à 10 % en alternatifs (hedge funds, immobilier, etc). Les frais de gestion seront de 1,5 %.

L'équipe dirigeante de Quality Funds, la plate-forme de fonds tiers du BBVA, est désormais complète, rapporte Funds People. Le directeur général Juan Pablo Jimeno sera assisté de José Luís Segimón pour l’analyse et la sélection de fonds traditionnels tandis que José Martín de Cabiedes quitte la trésorerie du BBVA et BBVA & opartners pour prendre la responsabilité de la sélection des investissements alternatifs. Richard Gutiérrez est chargé des risques opérationnels tandis qu’Inés Castro, qui était responsable de l’analyse chez Quality Funds, prend la direction de Fund Solutions.

Après Fibanc début juin, Cajastur annonce qu’elle va liquider son fonds de hedge funds Liberta Multiestrategia qui affichait un encours de 3 millions d’euros fin mars et avait été lancé en septembre 2007. Ce fonds était nourricier d’un hedge fund d’ICR Institutional Investment Management.

According to statistics from EPFR Global, emerging markets equities funds posted net subscriptions in second quarter of Usd26.5bn, of which USD972m were in the week to 1 July, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Investors were impressed by the size and liely impact of Chinese stimulus initiatives and by the fact that conjuncture in industrialised countries did not have as large a negative impact as expected. The MSCI emerging markets index gained 34% in April-June.

Oswald Grübel, CEO of the Swiss banking giant UBS, has decided not to sell the firm’s brokerage and wealth management activities in the United States, which consist primarily of its affiliate Paine Webber, the American brokerage and wealth management firm acquired barely eight years ago for about USD10.8bn. To stimulate its brokerage activities, UBS is seeking a new head for US activities, the Financial Times reports.

Bank Julius Bär (Deutschland) on Monday morning announced that it will open a branch in Munich on 1 October 2009, which will coincide with the 20th anniversary of the bank’s first steps into the German market. Bank Julius Bär is already present in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Stuttgart. The new branch will be led by Volker Rützel, who is leaving UBS Munich. He will be assisted by Jürgen Wörl and Stefan Hansen as relationship managers.

With new regulations about to come into force at the end of June 2011 in the EU, which will open borders, the asset management sector in Italy will need to have actors with enough strength to compete with major foreign rivals, the Wall Street Journal observes. Marco Carreri, CEO of Prima SGR, predicts that there will be a large number of mergers of asset management firms in 2010, as companies with less than EUR7bn in assets will not be able to withstand the strength of the large groups as they have in the past, as it becomes more difficult to turn a profit. Marco Messori, chairman of Assogestioni, says management firms which dominate the market and which are controlled by banks will need to improve their efficiency. They will need to diversify their distribution networks so as not to be solely dependent on their banks’ house products any longer. The three largest actors in asset management are Intesa Sanpaolo with Eurizon and Banca Fideuram (EUR187bn), Generali (EUR127bn), and Unicredit with Pioneer (EUR115bn).

Hines Italia Sgr is launching a real estate development fund with EUR950m in assets, Il Sole - 24 ore reports. The fund includes the Fondiaria Sai group and the American institution TIAA CREF among its investors.

L’Agefi Switzerland reports that Brian Singer, former head of the Global Investment Solutions division of UBS, who managed USD200bn in assets before his departure from the Swiss bank in 2007, has founded Singer Partners. To launch his firm, he is reforming a team which worked together for a decade. It promises to deliver a transparent, liquid and consistent asset management approach, which will rely on “Global Opportunity” strategy, inherited from Brinson Partners. Winger is also president of the “Free to Choose” think tank, inspired by the thought of Milton Friedman.

Bank of America (BofA), after its acquisition of Marrill Lynch, has overtaken UBS as the largest private bank in the world, the Financial Times reports. Scorpio Partnership reports that the US firm has USD1.5trn in assets, just ahead of the Swiss bank, whose assets fell to USD1.9trn in 2007 and USD1.5trn last year. Thanks to its merger with Wachovia, Wells Fargo (USD1trn) has also entered the top 10 largest private banks in the world, as has Goldman Sachs. Scorpio reports that private banks manage USD14.5trn (-16.7% compared with 2007), and their profits have fallen by an average of 32.9%, while their cost-income ratio last year deteriorated to 72.4% from 63.7%.

The European Commission on 3 July launched a large public consultation on the function of the depository for UCITS funds. The consultation will occupy a significant place in the choice and definition of measures the European Union is to take to remedy the insufficiencies observed in the UCITS depository sector, and to improve the level of protection for investors in UCITS funds. “The Madoff affair has shown that the terms of the UCITS directive have been interpreted in widely divergent ways, which created inequalities in the protection afforded to small investors. The proposed directive for alternative investment fund managers recently presented by the Commission increases the obligations for depositories and their responsibilities. Regulations which aim to protect small investors could not be allowed to be any less strict than they are for professional investors. This is why requirements for UCITS funds need to be harmonised and strengthened,” explains Commissioner McCreevy in a statement. The consultation will aim to collect opinions and information on the obligations of depositories, their area of responsibility, organizational requirements and admissibility and monitoring criteria. In the area of responsibility, particularly when a depository does not satisfy its responsibilities or becomes insolvent, the Commission will make an effort to determine what risks are likely to emerge. It considers that the burden of proof should rest with the depositor. It is also proposing to impose new requirements when a sub-depository network is used for asset custodial services. Participants are invited to submit contributions until 15 September. Information about the consultation is available at the following address: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/investment/depositary_fr.htm

The European Commission has issued a statement on the security of derivatives markets and simultaneously launched a consultation on the subject, which will conclude with a public hearing on 25 September. Depending on the results of the consultation, the Commission will draw operational conclusions, and will then propose appropriate measures, including legislation if necessary, by the end of the year to increase transparency and financial security. The statement, which points out the considerable diversity of OTC derivative markets, mentions some tools which may be used to maintain financial stability, including, among others, standardisation which may reduce operational risks, databases which increase transparency, and operational efficiency. On this last point, the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) has launched a feasibility study on the possibility of creating data center locations in the European Union. Another potential measure is compensation by central counterparties (CCPs). The industry has agreed to set up a central compensation service for CDS by 31 July. If CCPs do not honour their commitments, the Commission says that it will consider other measures to push for centralised compensation. The Commission has also published two working documents. The first of these analyses OTC derivatives markets, while the second is a consultation instrument which includes a detailed questionnaire to be returned by 31 July.

As part of a process to develop regulations governing ratings agencies, the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) has been mandated by the European Commission to evaluate regulatory regimes in effect in Canada, Japan and the United States, and solutions to consider if there are manifest disparities with European regulations to govern ratings agencies, recently passed by the European Parliament and the European Commission. The terms of the regulations will be published in the Official Journal of the European Communities by the end of September, to come into effect 20 days later, in mid-October. The CESR will publish its findings by 15 February 2010.

Bernard Madoff, prisoner 1727-054, has engaged the services of Herb Hoelter, a specialist consultant at the National Centre for Institutions and Alternatives, to help him to find the best prison possible to serve his 150-year prison sentence in, the Times reports. Among the illustrious clients of Hoelter are the former president of Sotheby’s, Alfred Taubman, and the financiers Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky.

The investment bank of the Royal Bank of Canada group is made a series of recruitments in Europe, Hedge Week reports. Carmine Meoli has been appointed head of sales for private bakning, while Arif Hussein and Peter Drewienkiewicz joins RBC Capital Markets as part of the sales and trading team. Meoli was previously at ABM Amro and Deutsche Bank, while Hussein and Drewienkiewicz were previously at UBS.

La Tribune reports that Northern Rock, the British bank nationalised last year, will be split into two entities: one which will include branches and current accounts, and one which will contain loans and toxic assets, in preparation for a sale of the healthy portion of the group. Downing Street’s effort to sell the nationalised bank have been controversial. The current economic situation renders these efforts more vexed. On the one hand, the bank is being encouraged to refund the government aid it has received as soon as possible, but it is also being encouraged to increase lending to households in order to restart the ecnomy. The government must also be flexible with those financial firms which are not able to repay their debts. The result is that the bank’s capital reserves have fallen below the minimum level, and the government may be required to reach into its pockets once again.

An increase in taxes on incomes over EUR175,000 per year from 40% to 50% in April 2010 will affect only 1% of British taxpayers, La Tribune reports. But City financial sector employees will be the first to be affected. The newspaper cites David Butler, founder of Kinetic Partners, who estimates that 25% of hedge fund managers in the United Kingdom may leave for other countries as a result of the change. Those who earn over EUR116,000 will lose a small tax deduction previously available to all taxpayers. The tax increase, announced two months ago, La Tribune reports, is one of a series of changes to UK policies to high net worth persons who have been resident in the country for two years or more. One of the great attractions of the City had long been “non-domiciled” tax status. For those with this status, only income earned in the United Kingdom was taxable there, and not income earned elsewhere. Gordon Brown’s government changed this disposition in 2008. Now, “non-doms” choose either to pay a fixed sum of EUR35,000, or to pay tax on all their income. Despite these less favourable conditions, few financial sector workers have chosen to move to other countries, the newspaper observes. And even with the added consequences of the hedge fund directive - which is far from being passed by the British government - for the moment, London remains a top location for managers.

The four-star hotel Radisson Blu (16,892 square metres, 196 rooms and suites) in Cracow has been sold for about EUR32m to Union Investment Real Estate (UIRE) for the open-ended real estate fund UniImmo: Europa. This is UIRE’s first investment in the hotel sector in central Europe. The hotel portfolio includes 21 locations in Europe, with a total of 6,350 rooms. The Krakow hotel is also UIRE’s second investment in Poland, following the acquisition of the 3 Stawy shopping centre in Katowice by the UniImmo: Global fund in October.

Following Fibanc in early June, Cajastur has announced that it will liquidate its fund of hedge funds Liberta Multiestrategia, which had assets of EUR3m as of the end of March, and which was launched in September 2007. The fund was a feeder for a hedge fund from ICR Institutional Investment Management.

In its monthly survey, the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) has found that in June, the proportion of investors’ assets dedicated to equities was 50%, up from 41% in spring. But, Le Temps reports, this is an increase for lack of a better alternative. Money market investments are returning virtually nothing, commodities have become overpriced again, and bonds are too difficult to access due to a market overcrowded by institutional investors, or they involve too much risk, the newspaper analyzes.

Frédéric Leroux, right-hand man to Edouard Carmignac, estimates that the financial crisis has strengthened his convictions in favour of emerging markets and commodities, Citywire reports. The Carmignac Patrimoine fund, which he manages with Carmignac, now has over EUR10bn in assets.

On Friday, Credit Suisse announced that it is extending its Xmtch range of ETFs listed in Switzerland, whose assets currently total CHF6.76bn. The Xmtch range, launched by Credit Suisse in 2001, includes a series of Swiss indexes. With the launch of 16 new ETFs, Credit Suisse is diversifying the range, which now includes a complete selection of elements to construct a portfolio with exposure to government bonds with a wide range of maturities and a focus on Europe and the United States. The range inclues a fund based on 1-3 year Swiss governement bonds, and funds based on the MSCI UK Large Cap and its United States and Japanese equivalents. In the area of European government bonds, ETF products replicate the iBoxx EUR Govt 1-3, 3-7, 7-10 and Inflation Linked, and the equivalent indexes in the iBoxx USD series. Lastly, four “satellite” products are based on the MSCI Small Cap EMU, UK, USA and Japan indexes.