Les actifs des hedge funds asiatiques ont progressé l’an dernier de 16,3% pour atteindre 147 milliards de dollars, les investisseurs s’engageant en priorité dans des stratégies globales, comme la macro, au détriment des véhicules dédiés à un seul pays, rapporte Asian investor qui reprend des statistiques d’Eurekahedge.La progression des encours est due à la performance positive des marchés pour un montant de 10 milliards de dollars et à une collecte nette de 10,6 milliards de dollars.Le secteur a enregistré l’an dernier 143 lancements de fonds et 109 fermetures. Après de bons résultats l’an dernier, le début 2014 est plus laborieux. Les hedge funds asiatiques hors Japon ont affiché un recul de 0,79% en janvier.

ING Investment Managers (IM) vient de recruter Evan Moskovit, en provenance de Sheperd Financial Partners, au poste de responsable mondial du crédit investment grade, rapporte Citywire Global. Evan Moskovit, qui était basé à Boston, a officiellement rejoint le gestionnaire d’actifs néerlandais en décembre et a d’emblée occupé son rôle de gérant de fonds. Selon le site d’information, Evan Moskovit aurait ainsi pris en charge la gestion du fonds ING (L) Renta Fund Global Investment Grade Credit, jusque-là géré à titre intérimaire par Roel Jansen suite au départ en mai 2013 d’Anders Arendal. Evan Moskovit, qui affiche 26 ans d’expérience dans le secteur de la gestion d’actifs, a occupé précédemment le poste de directeur des investissements et responsable des gérants de portefeuille chez Sheperd Financial Partners, après avoir officié pendant 14 ans comme responsable du fixed income chez Sun Capital Advisers.

ING Investment Management (ING IM) a annoncé, le 20 février, le recrutement à Stockholm de Martin Philip avec la mission d’assurer le service clients et la promotion de ses offres d’investissement dans les marchés d’Europe du Nord. L’intéressé travaillera en lien étroit avec l’équipe en charge du développement de l’activité dans ces pays tout en se concentrant en particulier sur le marché suédois.De nationalité suédoise, Martin Philip compte 13 années d’expérience dans l’industrie de la gestion d’actifs. Avant de rejoindre ING IM, il occupait la fonction de responsable de la distribution et du support client chez Skandia Investment Groupe au Royaume-Uni.

Newton, la société de gestion basée à Londres filiale de BNY Mellon, a annoncé le 19 février la nomination de Jim Wylie au poste de responsable pour l’Amérique du Nord de Newton Capital Management. Basé à New York, il a pour mission de conduire et de développer la distribution et l’activité de services aux clients de Newton. Il rapportera directement à Helena Morrissey, directrice générale de Newton Investment Management.Précédemment, Jim Wylie était le directeur marketing et le directeur exécutif de Turner Investment Partners, après avoir été responsable des ventes chez Acadian Asset Management.

JPMorgan Asset Management se prépare à lancer des ETF en ce premier semestre 2014 et investit lourdement dans la préparation de ce lancement, rapporte Ignites, citant des dirigeants de la société. « Ce qui nous motive, c’est que nous avons des clients qui aimeraient nous voir gérer des ETF », commente Bob Deutsch, responsable de l’activité ETF de JPMorgan.La société devrait obtenir l’aval des autorités pour lancer des ETF dans les prochaines semaines. Son premier produit ne devrait pas être actif. La société a déposé un dossier pour un ETF actions mondiales smart beta en octobre. Mais sur le long terme, JPMorgan va se concentrer sur les ETF à gestion active.

Amundi Immobilier a fait le plein d’opérations en 2013. L’an dernier, la filiale du groupe Amundi, a réalisé pour le compte de véhicules SCPI et OPCI un volume global de transactions de 776 millions d’euros en France et à l’international, en hausse de 13 % par rapport à 2012. Dans le détail, la société a réalisé 646 millions d’euros d’acquisitions, représentant 31 actifs en France, 3 en Allemagne, 2 au Royaume et, enfin, 1 au Maroc. Amundi Immobilier a enregistré 536,3 millions d’euros d’acquisitions portant sur de l’immobilier d’entreprise et 63,9 millions d’euros d’investissements dans l’immobilier d’habitation. En parallèle, la compagnie a cédé pour 130 millions d’euros d’actifs, exclusivement en immobilier d’entreprise.Ce volume de transaction a permis d’accompagner «la croissance de nos encours à près de 8 milliards d’euros», commente Nicolas Simon, directeur général d’Amundi Immobilier dans un communiqué, évoquant «plus de 1,2 milliard d’euros de collecte brute».

La gestion d’actifs du groupe Axa maintient le cap. En 2013, ce métier a en effet enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 8 milliards d’euros. Mais les deux filiales du groupe d’assurance ont connu des dynamiques très contrastées. Ainsi, Axa Investment Managers (Axa IM) a réalisé une collecte nette de 12 milliards d’euros – provenant principalement des transactions immobilières et des produits obligataires – tandis que AllianceBernstein a subi une décollecte nette de 4 milliards d’euros. Chez AllianceBernstein, «la collecte nette sur les produits obligataires a été plus que compensée par la décollecte nette sur les actions principalement auprès du segment des investisseurs institutionnels et de la clientèle privée», souligne le groupe Axa dans un communiqué. Au total, à fin 2013, les encours du pôle de gestion d’actifs d’Axa atteignent 893 milliards d’euros, en recul de 1% par rapport à 2012. «La hausse de la collecte nette, principalement chez AXA IM, ainsi que l’impact positif de l’appréciation des marchés ont été plus que compensés par l’impact négatif des taux de change ainsi que par le changement de périmètre suite à la vente d’AXA Private Equity et de la cession du portefeuille MONY», précise Axa. Dans le détail, les actifs sous gestion d’Axa IM diminuent de 1,2 %, revenant de 554 milliards d’euros fin 2012 à 547 milliards d’euros fin 2013. De même, les encours de AllianceBernstein accusent un repli de 0,85 %, de 349 milliards d’euros fin 2012 à 346 milliards d’euros fin 2012.Pour autant, le chiffre d’affaires de la gestion d’actifs augmente de 3,5% en 2013, pour atteindre 3,46 milliards d’euros. Les revenus d’Axa IM s’élèvent à 1,36 milliard d’euros, en progression de 3%, tandis que ceux d’AllianceBernstein ressortent à près de 2,1 milliards d’euros, en hausse de près de 4%. Enfin, le résultat opérationnel du pôle gestion d’actifs a connu une croissance de 5,5%, à 400 millions d’euros. Ce résultat opérationnel progresse de 16,4% chez AllianceBernstein, à 185 millions d’euros, tandis qu’il recule de près de 2%, à 216 millions d’euros, chez Axa IM.

Avenir Finance a fait état au titre de l’exercice 2013 d’un chiffre d’affaires de 44,3 millions d’euros, le plus élevé de son histoire, en progression de 10% par rapport à l’exercice 2012, selon un communiqué publié le 20 février. Le pôle Gestion Privée enregistre un chiffre d’affaires de 15,7 millions, en hausse de 8% par rapport à l’exercice précédent. La Gestion d’Actifs affiche un chiffre d’affaires de 28,6 millions d’euros, soit une hausse de 11% par rapport à 2012.L’activité s’est fortement accélérée à partir du mois d’avril. Le chiffre d’affaires du quatrième trimestre s'établit à 18,2 millions d’euros, soit une hausse de 41% par rapport au quatrième trimestre 2012. Les troisième et quatrième trimestres ont ainsi largement contribué à compenser un début d’année laborieux.La dynamique commerciale est toujours soutenue en ce début d’année 2014. «Avenir Finance peut ainsi raisonnablement se fixer pour l’exercice 2014 un chiffre d’affaires de l’ordre de 70 millions d’euros», précise le communiqué.

Anne Broeng, director and CFO of the Danish pension fund PFA Pension, is leaving the firm, Fondbranschen reports. She had been director since September 2009.

Northern Trust has added to its London-based team dedicated to family offices with two new recruitments. John leder is also appointed to the newly-created position of managing director and senior investment adviser for multi-manager solutions. Elder will be responsible for advising family offices and similar structures for the creation and monitoring of complex investment programmes. Before joining Northern Trust, Elder served in advising to family offices and institutional investors. Jonathan Lidster has been recruited as senior wealth management strategist responsible for client relations, and promoter of wealth management solutions in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East and Africa). Lidster had previously been an independent aviser to a family office in London.

Paul-Georges Moucan, senior fund manager in the international equity unit in London, left Amundi at the end of 2013 to pursue other opportunities, a spokesperson for the asset management firm has told Newsmanagers, confirming reports in Citywire Global. Moucan’s LinkedIn profile indicates that he left his position in October 2013. “The departure took place as part of a reorganization of the equity team in London,” Amundi states. After beginning his career at Crédit Lyonnais Asset Management from 1998 to 2003, Moucan in 2004 joined Crédit Agricole Asset Management, which subsequently became Amundi. In July 2003, Amundi announced the recruitment of Nicholas Melhuish, formerly of UBS Global Asset Management, as head of international equities in London (see Newsmanagers of 2 July 2013).

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has named Dan Bienvenue the senior investment officer (SIO) for global equity, effective immediately. Bienvenue had been serving as the Acting SIO for Global Equity since June 2013 after Eric Baggesen took another leadership position within the CalPERS Investment Office.Dan Bienvenue joined CalPERS in 2004 after serving as a principal and senior portfolio manager with Barclays Global Investors, leading an international equity portfolio management team responsible for USD55 billion across developed and emerging markets. In his new role, Bienvenue is responsible for implementation and management of investment strategy and policy for the pension fund’s USD141.8 billion portfolio in publicly traded equity investments worldwide. Assets under management at CalPERS currently total nearly USD284bn.

In January, UBS gathered the largest net ETF/ETP inflows in Europe with USD1.8bn, followed by iShares with USD1.3bn and Lyxor with USD1.2bn net inflows, according to ETFGI. Meanwhile, ZKB experienced the largest net ETF/ETP outflows in January with USD223m, followed by Deka with USD179m.ETFs and ETPs listed in Europe received net inflows of USD5.4 billion in January 2014. They were composed of equity ETFs/ETPs gathering net inflows of USD4.0bn, followed by fixed income ETFs/ETPs with net inflows of USD2.1bn, while commodity ETFs/ETPs experienced net outflows of USD705m.The pattern for net flows in January was very different for ETFs and ETPs listed in the United States which suffered net outflows of USD15.5 billion with equity ETFs/ETPs having the largest net outflows of USD 15.9 bn, followed by commodity ETF/ETP net outflows of USD1.2bn, while fixed income ETFs/ETPs gathered net inflows with USD566m.

Assets in Asian hedge funds last year rose 16.3% to reach USd147bn, as investors are engaging primarily in global strategies, such as macro, to the detriment of vehicles dedicated to a single country, Asian Investor reports, based on statistics from Eurekahedge. The growth in assets is due to the positive performance of the markets for a total of USD10bn, and a net inflow of USD10.6bn. The sector last year posted 143 fund launches and 109 closures. After good results last year, the beginning of 2014 is more laborious. Asia ex Japan hedge funds are down 0.79% in January.

The hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin, who graduated from Harvard in 1989, has donated USD150m to the prestigious US university, the Wall Street Journal reports. It is the largest donation in the history of the school. Griffin founded Citadel, which has assets under management of USD17bn, in 1990.

It has been a mixed balance sheet at Eaton Vance for first quarter. After the first three months of its 2014 fiscal year, ending on 31 January 2014, the US asset management firm has earned USD360.3m in income, up 13% compared with first quarter 2013. At the same time, its quarterly net results are up 24%, to a total of USD76.7m, compared with USD62.1m one year previously. However, Eaton Vance has seen a net outflow of USD1.1bn in this first fiscal quarter, compared with net inflows of USD5.4bn in first quarter 2013, and USD3.9bn in fourth quarter 2013. Redemptions were concentrated on four strategies: global income and alternatives, large cap value equities, managed options, and lastly, municipal bonds. “Due to a growing interest in our multi-sector income and global allocation strategies, and due to prospects for improvement in our results for startegies which now show net outflows, we are expecting better flows for the balance of our fiscal year,” Thomas E. Faust, the chairman and Ceo of Eaton Vance, says optimistically in a statement. Assets under management rose 12% year on year to a total of USD278.6bn as of the end of January 2014, compared with USD247.8bn as of the end of January 2014. However, assets are down 1% compared with USD280.7bn as of 31 October 2013.

Newton, part of BNY Mellon, has hired Jim Wylie as head of North America for Newton Capital Management responsible for leading and developing Newton’s North American distribution and client servicing business. Based in New York, he reports to Helena Morrissey, CEO of Newton Investment Management.Jim Wylie was most recently chief marketing officer and executive managing director of Turner Investment Partners. Prior to that, he was global head of sales at Acadian Asset Management.

JPMorgan Asset Management is preparing to launch ETFs in first half 2014, and is investing heavily in the preparations for this launch, Ignites reports, citing executives at the firm. “What is driving us is that we have clients who would like to see us managing ETFs,” says Bob Deutsch, head of ETF business at JPMorgan. The firm is expected to obtain the approval of the authorities to launch ETFs in the next few weeks. Its first product is not expected to be active. The firm has submitted an application for a global smart beta equity ETF in October. But over the long term, JPMorgan will focus on actively-managed ETFs.

ING Investment Managers (IM) has recruited Evan Moskovit, from Sheperd Financial Partners, to the position of global head of investment grade credit, Citywire Global reports. Moskovit, who had been based in Boston, officially joined the Netherlands asset management firm in December, and has already taken up his role as fund manager. According to the website, Moskovit has taken charge of managing the ING (L) Renta Fund Global Investment Grade Credit fund, which had previously been managed for the interim by Roel Jansen following the departure of Anders Arendal in May 2013. Moskovit, who has 26 years of experience in the asset management sector, previously served as chief investment officer and head of portfolio managers at Sheperd Financial Partners, after spending 14 years as head of fixed income at Sun Capital Advisors.

Schroders and Sarasin & Partners have signed a letter, sent to the Financial Reporting Council, the organisation which includes the UK Accounting Standards Board, to oppose mark to market, Financial News reports. They are rallying several asset management firms which are calling for a reform of British accounting standards. These include Railpen, USS Investment Management, Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, London Pensions Fund Authority, Threadneedle Investments, Royal London Asset Management, Governance for Owners, UK Shareholders Assocation and Hermes Equity Ownership Services.

ING Investment Management (ING IM) has hired Martin Philip to service clients and promote ING Investment Management’s (ING IM) investment offering in the Nordic market. He will work together with the Nordic business development team and have a focus on the Swedish market from his base in Stockholm. Martin Philip is a Swedish national with 13 years industry experience and most recently had the position of head of distribution and client support at Skandia Investment Group in the UK.

The popularity of smart beta strategies is not letting up. According to Towers Watson, its own clients carried out twice as many investments in these strategies in 2013, with about USD11bn in 180 portfolios, compared with USD5bn in investment in nearly 130 portfolios in 2012. The results is that institutional clients at Towers Watson have allocated USD32bn to smart beta strategies worldwide, via a total of nearly 500 portfolios. Data compiled by the consultant also show that its clients – pension funds, sovereign funds and insurers – have selected alternative asset classes totalling over USD12.5bn, four times more than five years ago. Among alternative assets, real estate has sustained the most interest in 2013, with more than USD4bn in investment, one quarter of it in smart beta. This is followed by hedge funds (USD3bn in investment), then infrastructure (USD2bn), one third of which was also in smart beta strategies. In the same period, Towers Watson has observed that Private Equity attracted about USD1.5bn, while illiquid credit (distresed debt and loans) attracted about USD1bn in assets.

Asset management at the Axa group has posted net subscriptions of EUR8bn. But the two affiliates of the insurance group have had very contrasted dynamics. Axa Investment Managers (Axa IM) has earned a net inflows of EUR12bn, primarily from real estate transactions and bond products, while AllianceBernstein has seen a net outflows of EUR4bn. At AllianceBernstein, “net inflows to bond products was more than compensated by a net outflows from equities, primarily to the institutional investment and private client segment,” the Axa group says in a statement. In total, at the end of 2013, assets in the asset management unit at Axa totalled EUR893bn, down 1% compared with 2012. In detail, assets under management at Axa IM are down 1.2%, from EUR554bn at the end of 2012 to EUR547bn at the end of 2013. Assets at AllianceBernstein are down 0.85%, from EUR349bn at the end of 2012 to EUR346bn at the end of 2012. Earnings for asset management were up 3.5% in 2013, to a total of EUR3.46bn. Earnings at Axa IM total EUR1.36bn, up 3%, while those at AllianceBernstein total nearly EUR2.1bn, up by nearly 4%. Lastly, operating profits in the asset management unit have risen by 5.5%, to EUR400m. These operating profits are up by 16.4% at AllianceBernstein, to EUR185m, while they are down by nearly 2%, to EUR216m, at Axa IM.

Assets under management in the BCV group rose 6%, or CHF4.7bn, last year, to a total of CHF83.9bn as of the end of December, according to a statement released on 20 February. Net inflows totalled CHF1.6bn, as the original Swiss subscriptions (CHF2.9bn) were very largely compensated by outflows from offshore funds (CHF1.3bn). Assets at the parent company rose 7% to CHF76.7bn, while those at Piguet Galland were down 3%, to CHF7.2bn.

Lombard Odier Investment Managers on 20 February announced the publication by Bloomberg of its proprietary FWD Smart Beta indices, calculated independently. Since the launch of smart beta strategies based on bonds four years ago, Lombard Odier IM has invested in other asset classes. At the end of December 2013, assets under management in bond strategies, equities and commodities totalled USD5bn. The 14 strategies now available on Bloomberg are the following: Bonds (calculated by Bloomberg Indexes) LOIM FWD Global Government (code Bloomberg LOFEOEC) LOIM FWD Global Corporate (LOFGUIGH) LOIM FWD Global BBB-BB (LOFGU5BH ) LOIM FWD Euro Government (LOFEURG) LOIM FWD Euro Responsible Corporate (LOFEIGR) LOIM FWD Euro BBB-BB (LOFE5B) LOIM FWD Emerging Local Currency Bond (LOFEMLU ) Equities (calculated by Russell Investments) LOIM FWD Global Equity Risk Parity (LOGLORPN) LOIM FWD Emerging Equity Risk Parity (LOGEMRPN) LOIM FWD European Equity Risk Parity (LOEURRPN ) LOIM FWD North American Equity Risk Parity (LONAMRPN) LOIM FWD Asia Pacific Equity Risk Parity (LOAPARPN) Commodities (calculated by BNP Paribas) LOIM FWD Commodities Risk Parity (LOIMCOTR) LOIM FWD Commodities Risk Parity ex-Agri (LOIMCXTR)

The Swiss Re group announced on 20 February on the occasion of the publication of its annual results that its board of directors is proposing to elect Susan Wagner, founding partner of BlackRock and already chair of the US group’s supervisory board. Swiss Re has also announced the appointment of David Cole, previously chief risk officer (CRO), to the position of chief financial officer (CFO). He succeeds George Quin, who in December announced his departure for Zurich Insurance, from 1 May. Cole joined Swiss Re in 2011, after serving as CRO and CFO at the Netherlands-based bank ABN Amro. His current seat will be occupied in due course.

Neuberger Berman Group is proposing a new global strategy, the Neuberger Berman Unconstrained Bond Fund, an absolute return fund which seeks to profit from market inefficiencies. The fund will use the full spectrum of credit and securitisation, with total flexibility on duration (positive, negative or neutral). The fund will be managed by Andy Johnson, the head of global investment grade bonds, Jon Johnson, a senior portfolio manager based in London, and managing directors Thomas Bardas, David Brown, Ugo Lancioni and Thomas Marthaler.

Rathbone Brothers last year posted a net inflow of GBP2.7bn, up 28.6% compared with the previous year, according to provisional annual results. Assets under management have increased 22.2% for the year, from GBP18bn to GBP22bn as of the end of 2013. Pre-tax profits in the past year as of 31 December totalled GBP44.2bn, up by nearly 15% compared with the previous year.

JP Hambro Capital Management (JOHCM) has reshuffled its equity management team in the United Kingdom as of the end of 2013, Citywire Global reports. Alex Savvides has abandoned his role as support manager for the UK Growth Fund, which continues to be managed by Mark Costar, to concentrate exclusively on the management of the UK Dynamic Fund. Savvides is replaced on the UK Growth Fund by Vishal Bhatia, who in turn is abandoning his role as support manager to Savvides on the UK Dynamic Fund. The analyst Tom Matthews, who joined JP Hambro in November 2013, will now take over the support role from Savvides.

BNP Paribas Investment Partners (BNPP IP), the asset management arm of the eponymous bank, has added to its instituitonal marketing team, based in London, with two new hires. The asset management firm has recruited Kate Hudson for the position of head of European institutional marketing. She had previously successively led marketing activities at Prudential Group, AIG Investments and Pinebridge Investments. At the same time, Gaurav Tandon joined BNPP IP from HSBC in the position of digital specialist. At HSBC Global Banking and Markets Group, he served as senior head of digital marketing, in charge of digital marketing strategy and the digital vision of the bank.