Tim Steer, l"un des gérants les mieux notés de New Star, va quitter la société, annonçait The Telegraph dans son édition du 3 mars, information depuis relayée par de nombreux supports de presse. «Son départ est un revers pour Henderson», la société de gestion qui va acquérir New Star, commentait le quotidien britannique.Le gérant du UK Alpha Fund rejoint Artemis, où il va notamment contribuer au développement des hedge funds. Son collègue Stephen Yiu le suit également chez Artemis.

Julian Roberts, le nouveau directeur général de Old Mutual, a annoncé une ?simplification? du groupe ?lorsque le climat financier le permettra?, rapporte le Financial Times. Certains investisseurs souhaiteraient un démantèlement, et notamment une séparation des activités sud africaines et internationales, observe le quotidien.

Selon le site Boursorama, citant l’AFP, le groupe d’assurances britannique Aviva a annoncé jeudi matin une perte nette de 885 millions de livres (992 millions d’euros) en 2008, en traitement comptable IFRS.

Mirabaud renforce ses équipes parisiennes avec la nomination de Caroline Duret, Directeur, Gérant Privé. Caroline Duret, 46 ans, a mené la plus grande partie de sa carrière professionnelle dans le monde des médias et du sport, avant de mettre à profit cette expérience au service de la gestion privée. Elle était depuis 2001 chez UBS où elle a exercé pendant huit ans la fonction de directeur en gestion de fortune du département sports, entertainment, médias et new entrepreneurs.

La Consob, commission italienne des valeurs mobilières, vient de publier de nouvelles règles de transparence et de comportement sur la distribution par les intermédiaires financiers de produits financiers illiquides aux particuliers. Par produits illiquides, elle entend les obligataires bancaires, les produits d’assurances et les dérivés."La communication recommande aux intermédiaires de fournir au client des informations sur la valeur correcte et sur les coûts du produit illiquide distribué, ainsi que de présenter des comparaisons avec des produits simples et connus susceptibles de faciliter les décisions. (?). Le document souligne la nécessité, de la part de l’intermédiaire, d’une connaissance approfondie des préférences de la clientèle, avec une attention particulière concernant l’horizon d’investissement (?)», indique la Consob.

Les souscriptions nettes des fonds commercialisés en Allemagne ont porté en janvier sur 13,92 milliards d’euros contre 5,3 milliards pour décembre et 9,76 milliards un an plus tôt.Sur ce total, les rentrées nettes des fonds de valeurs mobilières se sont montées à 7,57 milliards d’euros contre 3,11 milliards le mois précédent et 5,75 milliards un an auparavant. On remarque que les trois grands émetteurs d’ETF ont collecté en net 2,06 milliards (Barclays Global Investors ou BGI), plus de 1,83 milliard pour ETFlab (Deka) et 1,1 milliard (db x-trackers, deutsche Bank). Soit au total presque 5 milliards d’euros ou 66 % du total. Et ces chiffres ne comprennent pas le résultat de ComStage, la filiale ETF de la Commerzbank...

Tom Cooper, qui dirigeait l’activité fusions-acquisitions d’UBS, rejoint la Deutsche Bank comme co-chairman des fusions-acquisitions à l'échelon mondial, rapporte la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. L’intéressé sera subordonnée à Henrik Aslaksen et Brett Olsher, les deux patrons de la division fusions-acquisitions du groupe.

Le comité des indices de la Deutsche Börse a décidé mercredi que les actions préférentielles de Fresenius et les actions ordinaires d’Hannover Rückversicherung (Hanovre Ré) feront leur entrée le 23 mars dans le Dax en remplacement des actions d’Infineon et de la Deutsche Postbank, qui sont évincées de l’indice pour capitalisation boursière insuffisante. L’action Postbank remplacera la préférentielle Fresenius dans le MDax où lactions Hannover Rück se trouve remplacée par Rational. De plus, ElringKlinger remplace Aareal Bank dans le MDax., Aareal remplaçant Rational dans le SDax où la place laissée vacante par ElrinKlinger est prise par CeWe Color. Au TecDax, Infineon remplace Manz Automation, qui est radiée.

Au quatrième trimestre, la DZ Bank est devenue le numéro un des émetteurs de certificats en Allemagne, avec 22,7 % de part de marché (+ 3,2 points), grâce à sa spécialisation sur les produits garantis qui représentent désormais 50 % du marché contre 30 % précédemment, selon le Deutsche Derivate Verband, indique la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. La caisse centrale des banques populaires détrône la Deutsche Bank, qui atteint 21,8 % (+ 1,6 point), laquelle précède la HypoVereinsbank (12,6 %) et la WestLB (10,5 %).

Pour janvier, les souscriptions nettes des fonds distribués en Allemagne ont porté sur 13,92 milliards d’euros, le meilleur résultat de ces six dernières années, si l’on excepte 2007 (15,4 milliards). Ce total se compare à seulement 5,3 milliards d’euros en décembre et à 9,76 milliards d’euros pour janvier 2008. Sur ce total, les fonds offerts au public ont drainé 78,36 milliards d’euros contre 3,97 milliards le mois précédent et 7,12 milliards un an auparavant.Toutes les catégories de produits, parmi les fonds de valeurs mobilières, ont enregistré des rentrées nettes en janvier, à l’exception de fonds garantis (- 141,6 millions). Les plus fortes souscriptions nettes ont été affichées par les fonds d’actions avec 4,04 milliards d’euros et les fonds obligataires avec presque 1,5 milliard.

Alors que l’Europe a été plus fortement touchée par les sorties au second semestre 2008, un rattrapage se fera outre-Atlantique en 2009

Un premier paquet sur l'organisation de la supervision financière en Europe sera présenté fin mai

L'Agence France Trésor s'estime en mesure d'étaler sur l'année ce surplus de 10%. D'autres pays européens devraient lui emboîter le pas

Le coût des options de vente sur le S&P 500 d'échéance 2 ans a plus que doublé alors que la courbe de volatilité, elle, s'est inversée

Hervé Letoublon is joining Avenir Finance Gestion as director of participations.He was previously at Rhône-Alpes Création, where he was director of investments.

Allianz Global Investors (AGI) has announced operating profits of EUR904m in 2008, compared with profits of EUR1.32bn in 2007 (-32%), while net profits have contracted by EUR101m, or 21.5%, to EUR369m, on assets down by EUR50bn or 5.2% to EUR920bn, while assets under management for third parties have fallen by EUR52bn, or 7.1%, to EUR673bn.

Euroclear has announced that it has signed a partnership with ten major management firms (AllianceBernstein, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Invesco, JPMorgan Asset Management, Pictet Asset Management, Pioneer Investments, Robeco Asset Management, Schroders Investment Management, Société Générale Asset Management and Virmont SARL, formerly known as Alken Asset Management), to offer incentives to promote a transition to automatic transactions at the 50% of distributors who are not yet using the STP FundSettle transaction processing and settlement system from Euroclear. A wholly electronic transaction processing system for funds would save the asset management sector about EUR300m per year, Euroclear estimates.All asset servicing and custody activities will be free for new distributors who sign up for FundSettle. Fund distributors who use the STP FundService system from FundSettle pay EUR0.75 per transaction for routing and settlement of a buy or sell order, compared with an average commission of EUR7 by other means. In addition, distributors can rationalise their back-office by using FundSettle as a unique access point, and would reduce their risk levels through the automatisation of these processes.

In January, for the first time in a long time, the specialised investment fund and collective investment organism sector in Luxembourg has posted an increase in total asset levels totalling EUR11.881bn for the month. EUR8.423bn of this increase was due to the positive impact of financial markets, and EUR3.458bn came from net subscriptions.As of 31 January, assets totalled EUR1.571534trn, an increase of 0.76% since 31 December 2008. But over twelve months, asset volumes are down 19.46%.

The Luxembourg financial sector surveillance commission (CSSF) decided on 27 February to withdraw the Luxembourg Investment Fund Sicav, which was exposed to Bernard Madoff, from the official list of collective investment organisms, and to order its legal liquidation. The move is part of an effort ?to establish the responsibilities of the various actors in relation to the Luxembourg Investment Fund and its depository bank, UBS (Luxembourg) S.A., and to better safeguard the rights of investors,? says a statement.

US lawyers preparing the case against Bernard Madoff have detected possible conflicts of interest concerning his lawyer, Ira Sorkin, the Financial Times reports. In 1992, Sorkin represented an accountancy firm which had invested in Madoff. Sorkin’s father, now deceased, had a retirement savings account with Madoff.

2008 was a hard year for investors in clean energies, but the election of president Obama in the United States and his declared intention to facilitate the development of clean energies during his term in office have recently given a boost to ?Clean Tech.?Henderson Global Investors (HGI) nonetheless estimates, however, that it is still too soon to declare a recovery in the Clean Tech sector, and remains cautious in the short term. But there are opportunities to be had in clean energies, the management firm says. ?The largest companies, for example, have outperformed the market since October 2008, and come shares, such as the Japanese battery maker GS Yuasa, have posted record performances,? says Seb Beloe, director or SRI research. He points out that the sector still needs to surmount a number of difficulties, such as financing. There may be some improvement in 2009, ?particularly if negotiations succeed in producing an international agreement, but it remains likely that growth will not really return until 2010,? he says. This means 2009 will be an eventful year in Clean Tech, says HGI.

The LGT Bank of Liechtenstein has announced the recruitment for its private banking activities in Frankfurt of a team of five client advisors from Dresdner Bank, who have longstanding relationships with high net worth private clients in the Frankfurt-Mainz-Bad Homburg triangle, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. The team is led by Andreas Bluck, who becomes the number two ranking member of the LGT-Bank branch in Frankfurt.

The Börsen-Zeitung reports that, as a result of the turbulence on the financial markets, assets in the ETF from db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) based on the Eonia have reached EUR6.3bn. The issuer says the product has become the largest ETF in Europe.

Following the announcement of USD1.1bn losses for the past fiscal year, the deteriorating economic environment may lead KKR to call off plans to become a publicly traded company through the takeover of KKR Private Equity Investors (KPE), listed in Amsterdam, Les Echos reports. KKR floated its KPE fund, specialised in leveraged buyouts, on the Amsterdam stock exchange in May 2006.

The Edhec Risk and Asset Management Research Centre has announced the creation of a chair for research on active-passive management and sovereign funds («ALM and Sovereign Wealth Fund Management»), in partnership with Deutsche Bank, which will be overseen by Lionel Martellini, scientific director of the EDHEC Risk and Asset Management Research Centre.The research chair will be responsible for the following developments: the introduction of a formal asset allocation model, which will incorporate the most important factors in the management of sovereign funds; empirical analysis of risk factors that impact cash flows in and out of sovereign funds; conception of dedicated solutions for sovereign funds based on financial engineering with the goal of facilitating the establishment of coverage requirements for sovereign funds relative to the presence of a variety of risk factors.

Renaissance Technologies (USD20bn in assets) on Tuesday announced the recruitment of Matthew H. Scanlan as president and CEO of its affiliate Renaissance Institutional Management. Scanlan was previously managing director and head of the Americas institutional business at Barclays Global Investors. He replaces Stephen Robert, who retired at the end of last year. Pensions & Investments reports that Scanlan will be replaced in the interim at BGI by William Chinery, managing director and head of client service for the group’s activities in the Americas.

The extraordinary audit of the Banif Inmobiliario fund from Santander Real Estate has resulted in a downward revision of the value of the portfolio of 7.5%, lower than market expectations, Expansión reports. The newspaper adds that 97% of subscribers to the fund have requested redemption of their shares. The Banif Inmobiliario will distribute redemptions (between 9 March and 5 May) to investors in a first group equivalent to 10.3% of the audited value of the fund. Santander will then deliver subsequent redemptions to investors in 10% stages as properties are sold off, as a function of the net asset value of the fund.

Henderson Global Investors, led since the end of last year by its former CIO, Andrew Formica, follows a policy of actively adapting its product range to market conditions. Recently, the British management firm announced that it will be closing two sub-funds of its Horizon Sicav, including the Pan European Property Equities Alpha Plus Fund (EUR0.8bn), which was tactically positioned to enter at the low point of the market and profit from a rebound in real estate properties, which the market will apparently not deliver in the next few months.Similarly, the Global Financials Fund sub-fund was launched in late 2007, and was tactically aligned to the bottom of the market, and oriented to the recovery of financial sector shares. The fund will be closed on 1 June. It was not intensively promoted, and its assets as of the end of January totalled EUR2m, says Patricial Kaveh, director of development for France, Geneva and Monaco.The Strategic Yield Fund (EUR4m), for its part, has been reoriented to Europe, whereas it was previously focused on global and United States investments. Its high yield positioning is not meeting market expectations; the fund will therefore be closed.This housekeeping in the product range will also bring reorientations. For example, the Henderson Horizon Pan European Alpha Plus will on 1 April become the Pan European Alpha. The management team has recently been changed, and ?Plus? was let go as part of cost-saving measures. The product, which was a multi-strategy fund, will become a ?fundamental? product. The long/short sub-fund (30 long positions, 10-20 short positions), delivering portable alpha in a UCITS-III compliant vehicle, will be highly flexible, says Kaveh.The London offices of Henderson have also announced the launch of an offshore Luxembourg version of its Industries of the Future fund, which is not yet licensed for sale in France. The product, managed by Tim Dieppe, is intended for European and Asian investors.

In asset management, total assets under management at Crédit Agricole came to EUR457.5bn as of 31 December 2008, compared with EUR525bn one year earlier. That puts them 12.9% lower than 12 months earlier; 8.5 points of this decline are due to falling valuations. ?Outflows in the period are limited to 4.4% of assets, thanks to strong inflows to money market products (+EUR18.3bn), guaranteed products (+EUR4.9bn), and employee savings, which partially compensate for disaffection from absolute performance and alternative products (-EUR26.8bn), and equities products (-EUR9.2bn),? the bank says in a statement. In total, net redemptions totalled EUR23bn for the year.The asset management unit will soon be merged with Société Générale.

After reorganizing its fixed-income management, Axa Investment Managers is now taking on ?qualitative? equities management. The management firm of the Axa group has recently concluded the merger of the Conviction Actions, Axa Framlington and Talents teams, which manage assets of EUR63bn, out of a total of EUR120bn in equities management overall; the remainder is at Axa Rosenberg, the quantitative equities management arm. The merger will involve the creation of a single brand name for qualitative equities management. The product range will be reorganized around two major areas: ?core? funds and ?specialised? funds (thematic funds, absolute return, etc). This means that some products will be merged, but others will also be created, when lacunae are identified, which will offer ?more complete and coherent? product range, says Nathalie Boullefort-Fulconis, global director of Axa IM Distribution. The new range will be unveiled in one month.Equities management represented 24% of assets at Axa IM at the end of 2008, which total EUR485bn, At the end of 2007 they represented 31% of total assets of EUR548bn.In addition to this project, begun in 2008, Axa IM has set three priorities in 2009, a year which will be ?more difficult than 2008, with the impact of the markets playing a major role,? says the firm’s CEO, Dominique Carrel-Billiard.One of these, unsurprisingly, will be cost reduction in a context of falling revenues. Among its other priorities, Axa IM is also planning to improve its risk management, with an investment of EUR9bn, and to work on client relations.In an environment in which acquisition opportunties are numerous, Axa IM says it is also ?always ready to make a small targeted acquisition? in areas where it is not already present. The firm has already considered 4 or 5 possible candidates which have been submitted to them since the beginning of the year.