Wall Street a fini en légère hausse jeudi, établissant à la clé de nouveaux records en clôture pour le Dow Jones et le S&P 500. Le marché a été porté par des indicateurs économiques favorables aux Etats-Unis et des prévisions de résultats d’Intel supérieures aux attentes des analystes. Le Dow Jones a gagné 0,19% à 17.719 points et le Standard & Poor’s 500 a pris 0,20% à 2.052,75 points. Le Nasdaq Composite s’est adjugé 0,56%, à 4.701,87. Le marché avait ouvert en baisse, à l’image des places européennes, en réaction aux enquêtes de Markit montrant que la croissance a ralenti plus que prévu dans le secteur privé en Europe en novembre (lire en page 2), tandis que la production manufacturière chinoise s’est contractée pour la première fois en six mois. Les investisseurs ont été plus sensibles à l’indice d’activité industrielle de la Fed de Philadelphie, qui a bondi à 40,8 en novembre, alors qu’il était attendu en légère baisse. Il atteint un sommet depuis décembre 2003.

Pour la première fois de son histoire, la Chine a annoncé une estimation formelle de certaines de ses réserves stratégiques de pétrole, répondant ainsi aux demandes de transparence émanant notamment des Etats-Unis. Le Bureau national des statistiques a ainsi annoncé que la première étape de constitution des réserves était achevée: elles s'élèvent à 12,43 millions de tonnes (environ 91 millions de barils), répartis dans quatre dépôts.

Fitch Ratings indique, dans son nouveau rapport consacré au marché marocain de la gestion d’actifs, que 2014 est en passe de devenir l’année de la reprise pour ce secteur. A fin octobre, l’ensemble des classes d’actifs affichait des performances positives, y compris les actions qui avaient subi trois années consécutives de baisse. Quant aux fonds ouverts, ils ont enregistré une collecte importante, surtout les fonds obligataires.

Les deux groupes pourraient élargir leur partenariat prochain à la gestion d’actifs. Les discussions en sont encore à un stade préliminaire. La consolidation du secteur de la gestion d’actifs pourrait reprendre en France.

Les gérants ont besoin d’un récit pour expliquer ce qu’ils font et comment ils le font. Sans ça, ce n’est qu’une affaire de chiffres. Vous pourriez répondre que c’est comme ça que cela devrait être, que c’est juste une question de performance. Mais c’est irréaliste.

La Banque Postale et Malakoff Médéric seraient en discussion en vue de rapprocher leur filiales respectives d’asset management, La Banque Postale AM et Fédéris Gestion d’actifs, écrivent jeudi les Echos. Les discussions n’en seraient cependant qu'à un «stade très préliminaire», selon le quotidien. Interrogée par L’Agefi, la Banque Postale ne fait aucun commentaire. Avec 147 milliards d’euros d’encours à fin juin, LBP AM est six fois plus gros que Fédéris GA.

La Banque centrale européenne a publié jeudi les modalités de ses interventions sur le marché des ABS, étape juridique indispensable au lancement de son programme. Le texte inscrit dans le marbre les conditions attachées au programme d’achats de titrisation dont la BCE avait déjà communiqué les détails, tels que le type d’actifs et de sous-jacents, la limite de rachats fixée à 70% d’une tranche d’ABS (ou 30% pour les titres grecs et chypriotes), ou encore la notation minimale des titres.

Le gérant alternatif BlueBay Asset Management a annoncé jeudi la fermeture de son Macro Fund après le départ de son gérant Neil Phillips. L’intégralité des fonds sera rendue aux investisseurs. Hedge fund spécialisé sur l’arbitrage des tendances macroéconomiques, le véhicule avait été lancé en 2009 et affichait 1,4 milliard de dollars d’encours. Basé à Londres, BlueBay gère au total environ 66 milliards de dollars.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } The US asset management firm Columbia Management, an affiliate of the Ameriprise Financial group, which has USD358bn in assets under management, has announced that it has signed a letter of intent with Blackstone Alternative Asset Mangement to research and development of investment solutions that leverage Columbia’s asset management capabilities and Blackstone’s hedge fund solutions business, a statement says. “Collaboration with Blackstone will enhance Columbia’s already deep product line-up and should allow us to reach even more investors and distribution partners, both domestically and internationally, with a broad set of alternative investment capabilities,” says William Landes, deputy head of Global Investment Solutions at Columbia.

State Street Global Advisors has appointed David Saulnier as chief risk officer. Saulnier, age 47, previously served as chief risk officer for State Street’s investment servicing business in the Americas. He will assume his new role at SSgA effective immediately.Saulnier joined State Street in 2008 from Pioneer Investment Management USA, where for seven years he was director and head of risk management for all US operations, trading and portfolio management.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } Morgan Stanley Wealth Management has launched a new Global Sports & Entertainment (GSE) division, whose objective will be to meet the needs of former sporting stars and rising talents as well as their advisers in the fields of sports and leisure. A first group of financial advisers has been created, with solid experience, having already worked with high-level athletes and representatives of the leisure, industry, artists, writers, etc. Financial advisers have undergone special training to achieve the qualification of Sports & Entertainment Director. They can also offer their clients custom services, such as liability-driven investment, advising about philanthropy, governance services, and financial planning, as well as private equity investment solutions.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } The French asset management firm Amplégest has announced the arrival of Stéphane Cuau and Boris Lacordaire to manage the Amplégest Long/Short fund. The fund, launched on 18 November, with assets of EUR15m, invests in Euroepan equities. It is managed with a long/short strategy with a long bias of about 30%. From 2004 to 2014, Cuau was co-manager of the Moneta Long/Short fund at Moneta AM. Lacordaire, for his part, from 2007 to 2012 managed a proprietary long/short portfolio at Crédit Agricole CIB.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } According to Das Investment, Lupus Alpha has recruited a team of four specialists in collateralized loan obligations (CLO). Norbert Adam, Klaus Ripper, Michael Hombach and Stamatia Hagenstein will join the firm from Mainfirst Asset Management. The four have been working together for more than 10 years. In 2015, Lupus Alpha plans to launch several CLO products, Das Investment adds.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } Lazard Asset Management is increasing its global multi asset capabilities with the recruitment of Rupert Hope as director and portfolio manager. He will be based in New York, and will be help grow the firm’s Emerging Market and Global Multi Asset solution platform, according to a statement. Hope has more than 20 years of experience in the asset mangaement sector. Before joining Lazard AM, he was managing director and co-head of Global Equity Distribution at Renaissance Capital, where he built a global emerging markets equity research platform. Before that, he worked at Deutsche Bank as managing director in charge of management of various teams dedicated to emerging market equities.

Investment professionals are failing to deliver alpha and investors are failing to achieve their long-term goals, according to new research published today by the Center for Applied Research, the independent think-tank of State Street. The research, titled “The Folklore of Finance: How Beliefs and Behaviors Sabotage Success in the Investment Management Industry” explores the concept of investment success and the impact of common beliefs and biases within the investment management industry. While more than 60 percent of the industry’s capital is spent on the pursuit of alpha, a growing skepticism has emerged. Only 53 percent of individual investors and 42 percent of investment professionals believe that alpha production is primarily driven by skill. In addition, when questioned about whether they were prepared to meet their investment goals, only 12 percent of individual investors could say with confidence that they were. “The models for success in the investment management industry are broken,” said Kelly McKenna, global head of the Center for Applied Research, State Street. “Investment professionals pay significantly more attention to activities that they believe will contribute value to alpha. While some of these are helpful, many are of limited value. True success includes not only achieving alpha, it also requires helping investors achieve their long-term goals, sustainably, over time.” Influencing this are the shared beliefs, rooted in human bias, that govern both investment professionals’ and investors’ behaviors. The report investigates those beliefs, which can be broken down into three major categories, two of which can be described as conscious and one that is unconscious and hidden. Individual investors and investment professionals are overly reliant on past performance when making investment decisions despite the fact that past performance is not an indication of future results. They also consistently fail to focus on long-term goals when evaluating short-term performance. Nearly 60% of investment professionals use a timeframe of just one to three years to assess performance. In addition, more than 60% of individual investors say they would consider moving to a more conservative investment strategy if their portfolio declined by 20% in a year, of those 90% would make the change in less than three months. Only 22% of institutional investors define success based on achieving long-term investment goals and instead, the vast majority (63%) measure success against benchmarks. Additionally, less than 30% of individual investors define success as achieving their long- term goals and instead cite implausible or irrelevant success metrics like making gains and having no losses, outperforming the market and achieving short-term investment goals. The majority of portfolio managers surveyed exhibit an unconscious ‘self-attribution’ bias. Without realizing it, they credit themselves for their success, but blame external factors for their failures. Similarly, individual investors demonstrate significant overconfidence in their own abilities. Seventy-seven percent of asset managers and 47% of intermediaries cited “experience and analytical process” as the top reason they outperform, but when asked to explain underperformance, were more likely to blame market conditions, clients’ expectations or the senior management of companies they invested in. Nearly two-thirds of individual investors believe their current level of financial sophistication is advanced; however, when asked to complete a financial literacy test, the global financial literacy average score was just 61%. Despite this, 93% of individual investors believe they should make investment decisions themselves and two-thirds think their best investment was entirely their own decision. “While conscious and unconscious biases are one of the primary reasons investment professionals and individual investors are failing to achieve true success, an awareness of those biases is part of the solution,” said Suzanne Duncan, global head of research, Center for Applied Research, State Street. “It’s time to rewrite the story. By reconditioning the industry’s behavior, there’s an opportunity to reinforce the values necessary to achieve true success.”

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } The Italian asset management firm Anima Holding and the Italian bank Banca Popolare di Puglia e Basilicata have signed a strategic partnership agreement in asset management, Bluerating reports. The agreement, for a duration of eight years, will provide Anima with preferential access to the distribution network of the Italian bank. The bank, which has 137 branches, largely in the south of Italy, has posted indirect inflows of EUR2.5bn in 2013, becomes the fourth strategic partner of Anima.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } As of the end of 2013, the number of structures which offer family office services in Italy increased to 120, compared with 117 the previous year, Funds People Italia reports, citing a Magstat study of private banking in Italy. Its entities have assets of EUR56m under management for more than 13,000 clients.

ECM Asset Management, the multi-asset class traditional and alternative credit management specialist owned by Wells Fargo Asset Management, announces the launch of an infrastructure debt fund, the ECM European Infrastructure Debt fund. In order to secure a strong deal flow, ECM has entered into a strategic partnership with a leading European player allowing unique access to a large number of diverse transactions in Europe and UK on a first right of refusal basis. The fund’s strategy is to acquire infrastructure debt assets on a ‘buy-and-hold’ basis creating a highly diversified portfolio of high value/low risk assets. The countries that the Fund will invest in will be the UK, Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Spain and other selected countries in the EU. The sectors that will be invested in include renewable energy, social infrastructure, transport, power, oil & gas, telecoms and utilities and the asset class invested in will be limited/non-recourse debt and utility debt. The asset type invested in will be floating rate with flexibility to invest in fixed rate debt (up to 20%).

S&P Dow Jones Indices has created the S&P 500 Low Volatility Enhanced Index adding to its growing range of factor-based indices. The index aims to balance low volatility, yield and liquidity, and has been designed to be an investable index. The index has been licensed to Deutsche Bank. The S&P 500 Low Volatility Enhanced Index is comprised of 50 constituents from the S&P 500. The constituents that have a dividend yield less than the S&P 500 are removed from the selection list. The remaining stocks are then ranked by their beta, which measures the sensitivity of the stocks’ returns relative to the S&P 500. The 50 stocks with the lowest beta are selected for the Index.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } The number of multi-millionaires has set a new record in 2014, with 211,275 individuals identified worldwide as of the end of June, including 6,635 in Switzerland, according to a study released on 19 November by the Wealth X company, based in Singapore, in partnership with UBS. Their total global wealth totals nearly USD30trn. By annual comparison, the community of high net worth individuals has risen by 6%, while their wealth has increased by 7%. In the next five years, the group is expected to grow to 250,000. Europe no longer dominates the rankings, but is also hitting a peak. Betwen July 2013 and June 2014, the European continent gained an additional 3,755 multi-millionaires, for a total of 61,820. Their cumulative wealth has risen 8.9% in twelve months to USD8.355trn. North America has returned to the top of the rankings in 2014, with 74,864 high net worth individuals, and more than USD10trn in assets. The United States remains the country with the most large fortunes, with over 69,560. China, by comparison, takes second place, with 11,070 ultra-high net worth individuals, out of a total of more than 46,600 in Asia. In the European market, the top three, in order, are Germany, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } Rodolfo de Benedetti has taken a share in Decalia Asset Management, the new asset management boutique founded by Alfredo Piacentini, former founder and partner at Banque Syz, the Italian website Finance Community reports. De Benedetti was a member of the board of directors at the Swiss bank for more than 10 years. He will hold a stake in the new firm, and will have a seat on the board of directors. Decalia AM is also home to Isabella Pedrazzini (ex-Lombard Odier & Cie), Gabriel Gubener (ex-Atlas Capital) and Yves Rochat (ex-Syz), the Italian website reports. The firm is based in Geneva and has EUR850m in assets.

Asset managers plan to either increase or maintain the number of salespeople for sales teams to target European institutional clients, finds a new Cerulli report entitled European Marketing and Sales Organizations 2014. Not one manager surveyed by Cerulli plans to decrease headcount. More specifically, a total of 33% of managers say they will increase the number of salespeople to target the United Kingdom institutional market. And 22% will hire more people to target this channel in France, Germany, Benelux, and the Nordics. Cerulli research also finds that fully 100% of managers in its proprietary survey targeted institutional investors in Germany in 2014. And 83% also aimed for these clients in both the United Kingdom and Switzerland. At the same time 78% and 72% of managers surveyed also pitched to institutional investors in Benelux and the Nordics respectively. And 67% also targeted France and Italy, while 33% tried to woo Spanish investors.The institutional channel is most likely to have a dedicated country-level sales team to support it, according to Cerulli. “Institutional can be grouped by region, but only to a degree. Market size by assets and players is the determining factor, rather than a common language or culture. Compulsory Nordic schemes, Dutch industry schemes, and UK company schemes get the biggest allocations of staff. Real cross-border is a distant dream“.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } Germany is the champion of Europe for open architecture, according to the consulting firm Indefi Market Research. Assets in open architecture total EUR215bn, excluding strategic partnerships. According to Indefi, the German market is characterised by the predominace of the retail/fund sellers” segment (fund distribution), which represents nearly two thirds of assets in open architecture. Richard Bruyère, chairman of Indefi Market Research, says that “the market dynamics of fund distribution in Germany have been reversed in the past few years. Traditional distribution channels appear less attractive. The new pillars of open architecture are now the new client segments which have emerged since the crisis, such as independent portfolio managers, insurance companies, and probably also online distributors.” In this context, major changes are to be expected.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } The US ETF specialist WisdomTree has announced the launch of two new UCITS ETFS listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), bringing the number of tracker funds listed on the LSE in the past four weeks to six. These include two funds focused on emerging markets: the WisdomTree Emerging Markets Equity Income Ucits ETF (DEM) and WisdomTree Emerging Markets SmallCap Dividend Ucits EFT (DGSE).

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management vient de lancer une nouvelle division Global Sports & Entertainement (GSE), dont l’objectif sera de répondre aux besoins des anciens sportifs et des talents naissants ainsi que de leurs conseillers dans les secteurs des sports et loisirs.Un premier groupe de conseillers financiers a ainsi été constitué, doté d’une solide expérience pour avoir déjà travaillé avec des athlètes de haut niveau et des représentants de l’industrie des loisirs, artistes, écrivains, etc… Ces conseillers financiers ont suivi une formation spécifique qui leur a permis d’obtenir la qualification de Sports & Entertainment Director. Ils peuvent ainsi proposer à leur clientèle des services sur mesure, comme de la gestion actif/passif, du conseil sur la philanthropie, des prestations de gouvernance et de planification financière, ou encore des solutions d’investissement dans le private equity.

ECM Asset Management, société de gestion spécialisée dans le crédit filiale de Wells Fargo, annonce le lancement d’un fonds spécialisé sur la dette de projets d’infrastructures en Europe. Baptisé ECM European Infrastructure Debt Fund, le produit aura une durée de vie de quinze ans, précise un communiqué. Le portefeuille sera investi dans la dette de projets d’infrastructures de secteurs comme les énergies renouvelable, le transport, l'énergie, le gaz prévus en Grande-Bretagne, en Allemagne, en France, en Belgique, aux Pays-Bas, en Italie et en Espagne. Selon Reuters, l’objectif de collecte est de 750 millions d’euros auprès d’investisseurs institutionnels.

La société de gestion Meeschaert AM a récemment externalisé la prise en charge des contrôles de l’ensemble des processus front et middle de ses gérants. Cette tâche a été confiée à Linedata, éditeur de solutions globales dédiées notamment aux professionnels de l’asset management. Dans le détail, la solution mise en place assure la prise en charge des contrôles de l’ensemble des processus front et middle, mais également de la conformité, rapprochements, gestion des risques et valorisation. Elle permet aux équipes middle-office et aux responsables des risques de surveiller ces processus en temps réel et de traiter dans les plus brefs délais les éventuels écarts, atténuant ainsi leurs impacts, indique un communiqué."Nous avons délégué la gestion de nos opérations et la comptabilité des fonds à différents administrateurs tiers mais nous devons conserver la conformité, la gestion des risques et la supervision des valeurs liquidatives produites sur les portefeuilles de nos clients», a précisé Philippe Troesch, président du directoire de Meeschaert Asset Management. «Il est impératif pour une société de gestion de maintenir un contrôle rigoureux sur les activités qu’elle délègue, puisqu’elle reste responsable en dernier ressort des éventuels manquements aux directives d’investissement ainsi que des erreurs sur les valeurs liquidatives», a-t-il ajouté. «Nous anticipons une augmentation importante de nos encours, sur le segment des investisseurs institutionnels notamment, et dans ce contexte, nous étions à la recherche d’une solution fiable et éprouvée», a également expliqué Philippe Troesch. Dans ce cadre, «les outils de suivi de conformité et les procédures de vérification des valeurs liquidatives nous permettent d’effectuer des rapprochements et de mettre en place toute une gamme de contrôles sur nos nombreux fonds, dont certains sont soumis à des contraintes d’investissement particulièrement complexes», a également détaillé le responsable.

Lazard Asset Management étoffe ses capacités en gestion multi classe d’actifs avec le recrutement de Rupert Hope en qualité de «director» et gérant de portefeuille. Basé New York, il sera chargé d’accompagner la croissance de la plateforme Emerging Market and Global Multi Asset, selon un communiqué. Rupert Hope compte plus de 20 ans d’expérience dans le secteur de la gestion d’actifs. Avant de rejoindre Lazard AM, il était «managing director» et co-responsable de la distribution actions internationales chez Renaissance Capital, où il a notamment construit une plateforme de recherche dédiée aux actions des marchés émergents. Avant cela, il a travaillé chez Deutsche Bank au poste de «managing director» en charge de la gestion de différentes équipes dédiées aux actions des marchés émergents.

Le gestionnaire américain Columbia Management, filiale du groupe Ameriprise Financial qui gère 358 milliards de dollars d’actifs, a annoncé le 18 novembre la signature d’une lettre d’intention avec Blackstone Alternative Asset Management pour rechercher et développer des solutions d’investissements afin d’accroitre les capacités de gestion d’actifs de Columbia tout en permettant d’accélérer l’activité dédiée aux solutions de hedge funds de Blackstone, selon un communiqué. De fait, «la forte compétence de Blackstone dans les investissements alternatifs via des solutions et des fonds doit permettre de renforcer davantage les expertises de Columbia dans l’allocation d’actifs, les gestions actions et obligataires et la sélection de sous-conseillers», précise Columbia dans un communiqué. «La collaboration avec Blackstone améliorera notre gamme de produits et devrait nous permettre d’atteindre davantage d’investisseurs et de partenaires distributeurs, à la fois sur notre marché local et à l’international, grâce à un large ensemble de capacités d’investissement alternatif, a déclaré William Landes, responsable adjoint du «Global Investment Solutions» chez Columbia. C’est une opportunité importante pour nous de renforcer ainsi notre offre d’investissements alternatifs et de stratégies basées sur des solutions.»

State Street Global Advisors vient de nommer David Saulnier en tant que directeur des risques (chief risk officer). Agé de 47 ans, l’intéressé officiait jusqu’à présent en tant que responsable des risques pour l’activité investment servicing de State Street en Amérique. David Saulnier avait rejoint le groupe State Street en 2008 en provenance de Pioneer Investment Management où il était responsable de la gestion des risques aux Etats-Unis.