La France place son budget sous le signe de la réduction des dépenses
Une grande part de l’effort correspond seulement à une moindre progression des dépenses. Le taux des dépenses publiques sera de 56,7% en 2014
Unéo renforce son engagement dans le non coté
Unéo affiche son intérêt dans le private equity. Elle vient d’investir dans deux autres fonds de private equity : un présent sur les nouvelles technologiques en partenariat avec la famille Dentressangle et un autre misant sur les sociétés de biotechnologies. Enfin, Unéo souhaite également participer au financement d’un centre de recherche et de traitement du cancer par ions carbone, à hauteur de 5 millions d’euros. La CDC et un fonds de private equity présent sur les biotechnologies devraient également participer à ce projet, pour le même montant. « Outre l’intérêt purement financier, ces différents investissements en private equity présentent l’avantage d'être en conformité avec notre engagement sociétal », ajoute Pascal Pigot, le directeur général adjoint.
L'UMR envisage d'investir dans la micro-finance
Les membres du comité stratégique de L’Union Mutualiste Retraite ont évoqué la possibilité d’investir à terme dans la micro-finance. Un projet qui est encore au stade embryonnaire puisque la caisse de retraite nantaise, qui passerait par une société de gestion spécialisée dans ce domaine, ne l’a pas encore officiellement validé.
LCH.Clearnet change sa gouvernance
La chambre de compensation a nommé Jacques Aigrain, son actuel président non exécutif et directeur non exécutif du London Stock Exchange Group, comme président exécutif par intérim. Parallèlement, Michael Davie deviendra, en plus des ses fonctions actuels de directeur général de SwapClear, le directeur général permanent de LCH.Clearnet UK, la chambre londonienne. Des changements qui prennent effet immédiatement et font suite à l’annonce en juillet du départ d’Ian Axe de son poste de directeur général de LCH.Clearnet Group et LCH.Clearnet Limited, effectif dès cette semaine.
Les Etats-Unis épuiseraient leur capacité d'emprunt le 17 octobre
Dans une lettre aux dirigeants du Congrès, le secrétaire au Trésor, Jack Lew, affirme que les capacités d’emprunt des Etats-Unis seront épuisées au plus tard le 17 octobre, date à laquelle la trésorerie du pouvoir fédéral ne sera plus que de 30 milliards de dollars. La Chambre des Représentants américaine pourrait cependant se prononcer dès vendredi sur un projet de loi relevant le plafond de la dette au-dessus du niveau actuel de 16.700 milliards de dollars, qui est en passe d'être atteint, a appris mercredi Reuters dans le camp républicain.
Borsa Italiana prend pied dans EuroTLX
L’opérateur boursier italien détenu par le London Stock Exchange Groupa pris une participation de 70% dans EuroTLX, selon un communiqué qui précise que l’opération a été approuvée par les autorités réglementaires compétentes. EuroTLX est une plate-forme de cotation au détail d’obligations d’Etat et d’entreprises italiennes, qui était jusqu’ici détenue conjointement par UniCredit et Banca IMI, la banque d’investissement d’Intesa Sanpaolo. Elle a exécuté quelque 1,8 millions d’opérations au premier semestre représentant une valeur faciale de 53,5 milliards d’euros.
La chute du real n’inquiète pas Moody’s
La dépréciation de la devise brésilienne de 11% contre dollar depuis le début de l’année «a un faible impact sur la qualité de crédit de la majorité des sociétés brésiliennes non financières, et pourrait être positif pour certains secteurs sur le long terme», estime l’agence de notation dans une note publiée aujourd’hui. Si cette tendance accroît le coût du service de la dette des sociétés brésiliennes, libellée à 52% en dollar, cet effet est compensé le fait que 42% de leurs revenus sont également libellés en billet vert.
25/09/2013
SAC Capital Advisors: large settlement proposed
A Federal court in the United States has proposed to settle the insider trading case against the hedge fund SAC Cpital Advisors for USD1.5bn to USD2bn, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing sources close to the case. Lawyers for SAC seek to obtain a lower fine and to deduct the USD616m already paid.
25/09/2013
Henderson preparing four credit funds
Thomas Ross, portfolio manager and co-manager of the Credit Alpha fund at Henderson Global Investors (HGI), announced on a visit to Paris on 24 Sepember that the six-member team recruited from Delaware Investments earlier this year (see Newsmanagers of 6 February) will be given a global high yield fund, which is expected to be launched in November.Henderson is also seeking to recruit a team to set up an emerging market credit fund. The team also plans a global and an EM investment grade funds.
25/09/2013
GLG Partners closes EM special sits fund
GLG Partners has closed its fund decicated to special situations on emerging markets, less than one year after the departure of its two co-heads of emerging markets, Karim Abdel-Motaal and Bart Turtelboom, Asian Investor reports.The GLG Emerging Markets Special Situations Fund saw a decline of about 60% in 2012. Investors were subject to three-year lock-up clauses, it is said.
25/09/2013
Amundi and BFT Gestion launch first global fund of implicit dividends
Amundi and BFT Gestion on 24 September announced the launch of the first global absolute return fund of dividends: Amundi Funds Absolute Global Dividend. The new sub-fund of the Luxembourg-registered, UCITS-compliant Sicav Amundi funds offers investors a solution which allows them to capture the potential difference in estimated dividends – through futures contracts – from those which are eventually paid by businesses. The more the markets undervalue dividends, the mosr the potential gains from the fund will be.This approach is applied to the major global equity markets, through futures contracts on market index dividends. The impicit dividends (futures and swaps on dividends) allow the fund to take positions on the dividends paid by companies which belong to a market index (Euro Stoxx 50, FTSE 100, Nikkei 225 and S&P 500) in the course of a year. At maturity, these dividends converge towards the level of dividends actually paid.
25/09/2013
Inflows to Italian funds continue at a fast pace
Open-ended funds on sale in Italy in August recorded net inflows of EUR3.267bn, nearly as much as in July, the most recent statistics from the Italian asset manager’s assocation Assogestioni reveal. Inflows were particularly driven by flexible funds, which attracted EUR2.316bn. Since the beginning of the year, Italian funds have attracted over EUR40bn. Taking into account closed funds and management under mandate, the Italian asset management sector in August took on EUR5.429bn. Since the beginning of the year, inflows have totalled EUR52.525bn, the same total as in all of 2005, Assogestioni notes, predicting a record 2013. In terms of inflows to open-ended funds and mandated management, the three firms which stood out in August were the Italian Intesa with EUR1.147bn in inflows, AM Holding with EUR1.041bn, and Poste Italiane with EUR639.8m. Among the few funds which had outflows are Generali (-EUR279.8m), BNP Paribas (-EUR142.3m) and Ubi Banca (-EUR93.8m).
25/09/2013
Dominique Biedermann to become Ethos chairman in 2015
Kaspar Müller, chairman of the Ethos Foundation and the Ethos Services company, has announced that he will not stand for re-election at the AGM in 2015, according to a statement released on 24 September. Müller has been a member of the board at the foundation since the creation of Ethos in 1997, and its chairman since 2007.In order to ensure continuity and strategic development, the Board at the Ethos foundaton and the Board of Directors at Ethos Services have decided to propose Dominique Biedermann, its current CEO, to become its new president from spring 2015. At that time, he will leave his position as CEO in order to concentrate on his new role.The board now has 18 months to locate and appoint a new director to head up Ethos. This time will allow to ensure that the changes in the management maintain the pioneering orientation of the Ethos Foundation in socially responsible investment and active shareholding.
25/09/2013
Chinese SWF acquires 12.5% of Russia's Uralkali
The Chinese sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation (CIC) has acquired a 12.5% stake in the Russian potassium producer Ukalkali, through a conversion of bonds, the news agency Reuters reports, referring to two sources familiar with the matter.The largest shareholders in Uralkali, the largest producer of potassium in the world, sold convertible bonds in November last year to Chengdong Investment Corporation, an affiliate of CIC, and to the second-largest bank in Russia, VTB, for about USD3bn.The foundation of the largest shareholder, Suleiman Kerimov, retains 21.75% of capital in Uralkali, and his partners, Filarev Glatchev and Anatoly Skourov, control 7%, and 4.8%, respectively. The remaining 53.95% of capital, has been the publicly-traded capital in the firm at the heart of a feud between Russia and Belarus since it ended a distribution agreement with the Byelorussian producer Belaruskali.
25/09/2013
Credit Suisse cuts back its offshore activities
Credit Suisse is cutting back its offshore activities, which are deemed costly and restrictive. The Swiss group has told Tages-Anzeiger that it will be discontinuing its activities in some countries and closing the accounts of some clients.Credit Suisse has not revealed the number of countries, clients and sums concerned. But the bank would like to recenter on certain segments and regions. It will be completely pulling out of some markets, and partially from others.The processing of offshore activities has become complicated and risky as a result of the tax-relevant conflicts between Switzerland and several countries. Abroad, the bank is also unloading private clients with limited means. Credit Suisse accepts only clients with wealth of at least CHF1m.At the publication of its results for second quarter, the bank announced that it is abandoning certain markets, to allow for savings of nearly CHF150m by the end of the year.
25/09/2013
BlackRock closes a retirement product
BlackRock has closed an innovative retirement product in the United Kingdom, as it was unable to attract sufficient interest from consultants or clients, Financial News reports. The investment strategy, which is known as “DC Banking” had aimed to give members of the new defined-contribution plans, which do not offer any guarantee, more certainty about the results of their savings.
25/09/2013
China Focus from Fidelity changes managers
At the end of October, Martha Wang will be leaving Fidelity to take a break in her career. According to Investment Week, she will be replaced as head of the Fidelity China Focus Fund (GBP2.2bn) by Jing King, who had been manager of the BGF China Fund (USD725bn) at BlackRock.Jing will be replaced at BlackRock by two co-managers: Andrew Swan, head of the Asia fundamental equities team, and Emily Dong, co-manager of the BGF Asian Growth Leaders Fund.
25/09/2013
Credit Suisse and Qatar support former Pioneer managers
Aventicum Capital, a joint venture of Credit Suisse and Qatar Holding launched last year, is planning to provide seed capital for a new long/short hedge fund created by a former team from Pioneer, Financial News reports.
25/09/2013
Dexia AM sold to New York Life Investments
Dexia has sold its asset management division Dexia Asset Management to New York Life Investments for a set price of EUR380m, the Frenco-Belgian group announced during the night. The two firms had entered exclusive negotiations on 19 September. The agreement, which covers all shares held by Dexia in its division, comes after the collapse of an agreement to sell Dexia AM to GCS Capital of Hong Kong. The EUR74bn in asstes under management at Dexia AM will be added to the USD388bn in assets at New York Life Investments, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the insurer New York Life Insurance Company (as of 31 July). «New York Life Investments constitutes a solid financial and operational partner, able to support Dexia Asset Management’s commercial development,» according to a statement.Finalisation of this transaction remains subject to the approval of the regulatory authorities. Dexia will release the impacts of the sale on its financial situation and its regulatory ratios when the transaction is closed.
25/09/2013
State Street confidence index down in September
The State Street Investor Confidence Index (ICI) for September 2013. fell to 101.4 in September, down 3.5 points from August’s revised reading of 104.9.The fall was driven by sentiment in North America, which declined 7.6 points to 104.5 from August’s revised reading of 112.1. Meanwhile, compared to their revised August readings, European confidence rose by 4.7 points to 101.7 while Asian confidence rose by 2.1 points to 95.3.
25/09/2013
JPMorgan and the Gates Foundation launch healthcare fund
A new investment fund, the Global Health Investment Fund (GHIF), structured by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will allegedly, for the first time, allow individual and institutional investors the opportunity to finance late-stage global health technologies that have the potential to save millions of lives in low-income countries. “The GHIF will invest in new drugs and vaccines, emerging diagnostic tools, child-friendly formulations of existing products, expanding manufacturing capacity and other applications that will help bring affordable technologies to those most in need”, according to a press release.London-based LHGP Asset Management («Lion’s Head»), an asset manager specializing in sustainable development, will be responsible for originating, managing and exiting GHIF portfolio investments.With USD94m committed by a pioneering group of investors - including Grand Challenges Canada (funded by the Government of Canada), the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (acting through KfW) and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation - the Global Health Investment Fund («GHIF» or the «Fund») will help advance the most promising interventions to fight challenges in low-income countries such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and maternal and infant mortality.To help mitigate the risk of investing in the clinical development of new technologies, the Gates Foundation and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency have committed to partially offset potential losses in the Fund, which will seek a financial return for investors by targeting high-impact technologies with public health applications in both developed and emerging markets.
25/09/2013
Petercam integrates institutional management into a wholly-owned subsidiary
From 1 October 2013, Petercam will merge it institutional management activities into a wholly-owned subsidiary entitled Petercam Institutional Asset Management SA (Petercam IAM SA), according to a statement released on 24 September.Investment, sales and marketing activities at the group, as well as fund distribution activities for institutional management, will be transferred from the group to the specialist affilite. It will also inclue management of indidivual institutional mandates.As of the end of 2012, institutional assets under management totalled about EUR5bn, compared with over EUR9bn in private management.
25/09/2013
Bogdan Popescu joins Hilbert Investments Solutions
Bogdan Popescu, former head of sales for French-speaking Europe at Skandia Invest Group, will in October join Hilbert Investment Solutions, a firm founded by Steve Lamarque, former head of structuration at Skandia Investment group in London, according to information obtained by Newsmanagers. The new firm, to be based in Paris, will specialise in the design and distribution of investment solutions based on structured products.
25/09/2013
Two recruitments at Allianz Global Investors
Jürgen Adam, who had been responsible for about EUR100bn in euro bond and money market portfolios at MEAG, has been recruited by Allianz Global Investors (AGI) as head of the portfolio management team for Germany for bonds. In this new role, he will be responsible for overseeing the management and development of bond portfolios for insurer clients of AGI in Germany. He will report to Karl Happe, CIO for insurance-related strategies.AGI has also recruited Grant-Yun Cheng, who on 1 Ocober will join the firm as manager of the Allianz BRIC Stars and BRIC Equity funds. Cheng replaces Michael Konstantinow, who left the business in early September. Cheng had previously been head of emerging markets at Union Investment.
25/09/2013
SRI: Wolfgang Pinner leaves Erste AM for RCM
The chief sustainability investment officer at Erste Asset Management, Wolfgang Pinner, has been recruited by Raiffeisen Capital Mangement (RCM), and will on 1 November join the firm as chief investment officer for socially responsible investment (CIO SRI). He will belong to the fund management leadership team, alongside Kurt Kotzegger (equities and asset allocation) and Robert Senz (bonds) from the asset management firm of the Raiffeisen group.Gergard Aigner, one of the MDs of RCM, says that the recruitment corresponds to a desire to better position and accentuate the sustainable investment theme within the asset management activities of the group, Following the arrival of Pinner, RCM will develop and launch new strategies.Pinner is vice-chairman of Forum Nachhaltige Geldanlage (FNG), the sustainable investment association.
25/09/2013
CommonWealth REIT improves governnance
The US CommonWealth REIT on 23 Sepember announced that it is making changes to its management agreements with REIT Management & Research (RMR) and improvements to its governance, according to a statement from the firm which seeks to respond to criticisms levelled at it by the hedge fund Corvex Management and the real estate fund Related Fund Management.The two funds, which together control nearly 10% of capital in CommonWealth, had lively criticism for the billing system between CommonWealth and RMR. Management fees will now be calculated on the basis of a new formula, which will no longer be based on historic costs alone.In the area of governance, CommonWealth has decided that the number of independent trustees on its board would be increased from 60% to at leat 75%. Activist funds did not appear to have been convinced by the news, which has been called “empty rhetoric.”
25/09/2013
KKR and Sycamore Partners eye Jones Group
The two private equity investors KKR and Sycamore Partners are planning to acquire the retail chain Jones Group in the next few days, according to the New York Post, citing several sources. KKR and Sycamore Partners have declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal had already a few days ago reported the potential for a joint bid from the two private equity groups.
25/09/2013
Profits down in first half at Miton
UK-based Miton has reported pre-tax profits for the half to the end of June of GBP300,000, compared with GBP500,000 in first half 2012, according to figures released by the firm.This development is due to spending of approximately GBP700,000 on the recruitment of four management professionals, the installation of a new IT system, the acquisition of PSigma, and the launch of two funds.Assets under management increased by 13% in the half under review, to GBP2.02bn. Net inflows totalled GBP121m.
25/09/2013
KBC sells KBC Bank Deutschland to a group of investors
The Belgian KBC group on 24 September announced that it has signed an agreement to sell KBC Bank Deutschland AG, a 100% owned subsidiary of KBC Bank SA, to a group of investors, including the Teacher Retirement Ststem of Texas (TRS), Apollo Global Management, LLC, Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance, Inc., and Grovepoint Capital LLP.KBC Bank Deutschland, a specialist in banking and financial services to German businesses, is also active in professional real estate financing, financing for acquisitions, institutional asset management and the management of wealth for ultra-high net worth clients.The transaction is subject to approval of the various antitrust authorities. In the meanwhile, KBC Bank Deutschland, with the support of KBC, will continue to dedicate itself wholly to its business activities and its clients.The transaction will free up about EUR0.1bn in capital for KBC, largely by reducing weighted assets, and will not have a notable impact on the financial results at KBC. KBC will thus improve its solvency position by about 15 basis points.