CEO d’UBS Real Estate KAG à Munich, Tilman Hickl est promu à compter du 15 mars directeur de l’activité européenne des fonds immobiliers (head global real estate- Europe) d’UBS Global Asset Management, un poste nouvellement créé, rapporte fondsprofessionell.de. L’intéressé, qui prend les commandes du pôle fonds immobiliers pour l’Europe entière hors Suisse, demeure pour l’instant membre de la direction d’UBS Real Estate.Son successeur à la direction générale sera Christan Paul. La nouvelle patronne de l’activité fonds immobiliers pour l’Allemagne (head of global real estate - Germany) et CEO sera Christine Bernhofer, actuellement CFO.Christian Paul, en dehors de son activité de directeur général, conservera la gestion du fonds UBS (D) Euroinvest Immobilien qu’il assure depuis avril 2005.
Les actifs sous gestion de MEAG (Munich Ergo Asset Management), la société de gestion du groupe de réassurance Munich Re, s’inscrivaient fin 2012 à 11,5 milliards d’euros contre 10,4 milliards d’euros à fin décembre 2011, a indiqué le groupe allemand le 12 mars à l’occasion de la publication de ses résultats annuels.Le groupe indique par ailleurs qu’il est investi à hauteur de 59% dans l’obligataire, contre 58% un an plus tôt, et à 3% dans les actions contre 2% précédemment. Le principal actionnaire du groupe reste Warren Buffett qui fin 2012 détenait une participation de 11,2% dans le groupe, indique Munich Re. Cette participation constitue pour Warren Buffett un investissement financier et non un engagement stratégique avec la volonté d’influencer la politique de Munich Re, souligne le groupe allemand dans son rapport annuel.
Depuis le 11 mars, les fonds de droit britannique gérés par Skandia Investment Management Ltd prennent tous le préfixe Old Mutual, a annoncé Old Mutual Global Investors (OMGI). Cela fait suite au changement de nom de Skandia IM, qui est devenue Old Mutual Investment Management Ltd.La liste des fonds concernés est disponible en pièce jointe.
La cession par Lloyds Banking Group d’une partie de sa participation dans St James’s Place devrait représenter un produit brut de l’ordre de 520 millions de livres, selon un communiqué du groupe bancaire britannique publié le 12 mars. Lloyds Banking précise avoir placé 101.703.070 actions au prix de 5,10 livres par action, ce qui correspondant à un montant d’environ 520 millions de livres. Après le règlement de l’opération, qui devrait intervenir le 15 mars, Lloyd Banking Group détiendra environ 37% du capital de St James’s Place. Lloyds Banking Group s’est engagé à ne pas réduire à nouveau sa participation dans St James’s Place pendant une période d’un an.
Les actifs sous gestion de Henderson Property ont progressé l’an dernier de 100 millions de livres pour s'établir à 12,5 milliards de livres, selon les chiffres communiqués le 12 mars par la société.Les transactions sur l’ensemble de l’année ont représenté un montant cumulé de 1,7 milliard de livres. Au 31 décembre 2012, les engagements des clients s'élevaient à 0,9 milliard de livres. Les projets d’investissement représentent actuellement un montant agrégé de quelque 1 milliard de livres. En France, suite à l’acquisition de Horizon Investment Management France SAS, les actifs sous gestion sont passés de 570 millions d’euros à plus de 1 milliard d’euros.
Cora Gibbons, head of the international product group chez Natixis Global Asset Management (NGAM), rejoint avec effet immédiat Baring Asset Management comme head of product & fund development. Basée à Londres, elle est subordonnée à David Stevenson, head of product & business development.Avant d’entrer chez NGAM pour exercer la responsabilité sur toutes les activités produits de NGAM dans le monde hors Etats-Unis, Cora Gibbons avait été head of product sales support chez Allianz Global Investors à Francfort, après y avoir été lead account manager. Auparavant, elle avait été manager, global products chez Invesco à Francfort également.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Equity analyst Henry Flockhart has replaced Ed Leggets as manager of the Standard Life Investments UK Equity High Alpha fund, Fund Web reports. Flockhart joined the asset management firm in 2010. Leggets will continue to manage the SLI UK Equity Unconstrained fund.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Since 11 March, British-registered funds managed by Skandia Investment Management Ltd will all adopt the Old Mutual prefix, Old Mutual Global Investors (OMGI) has announced, the change follows a name change for Skandia IM, which has become Old Mutual Investment Management Ltd.A list of affected funds is available as an attachment.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } JP Morgan Asset Management controls 2.051% of the Italian asset management firm Azimut Holding, Bluerating reports, citing information from Consob, the Italian securities commission.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Natixis Asset Management has received a management mandate for EUR50m from the Previp pension fund, for its balanced bond allocation, Bluerating reports. The allocation is 75% invested in bonds denominated in euros, and 25% in global equities. The mandate will be managed by the Institutional & Network Solutions team.The Previp pension fund as of the end of 2012 had assets of EUR1.4bn under management in 4 allocations.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 8 March, the CNMV issued a license in response to a request from Santander Asset Management to merge several Banif and Banesto products into Santander funds.In detail, the Santander Depositos Plus fund is authorised to absorb the Banif Fondepositos, Fondo Depositos Plus and Banesto Fondepositos funds, while the Santander Renimiento fund has received a license to absorb the Santander Renta Fija Flotante, Banif Corto Plazo, Banif Selección Emergentes and Banesto Ahorro.The funds are all managed by Santander Asset Management, whose assets totalled EUR18.26bn as of the end of February, in 237 funds, of which 58 (totalling EUR3.3bn) carry the Banesto brand name, and 35 (with EUR2.5bn) carry the Banif name.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As La Caixa in November took control ot Banco de Valencia, Invercaixa has taken over management of 16 funds from Banco Valencia, which had previously been managed by Nordkapp, recently acquired by Banco Madrid, Funds People reports. As a result, Invercaixa has paid an indemnity to Banco Madrid, an affiliate of Banca Privada de Andorra (BPA), for rupture of a sales agreement which had tied Banco de Valencia to Nordkapp.Invercaixa has assets of EUR15.6bn in investment funds, in addition to which it now has EUR200m from Banco de Valencia. Invercaixa may soon also take over EUR2.2bn in assets managed by Banca Civica Gestión de Activos.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Netherlands-based asset management boutique Cyrte Investments has launched two equity funds which are intended to capitalise on the rising spending of consumers of new technologies, Citywire reports. The Delta Lloyd L. Cyrte Global Fund and the Delta Lloyd L Cyrte LatAm fund will be housed in a Sicav, the first from the Netherlands firm. They will be managed by Peter van Rooyen.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } European long-term funds (excluding money market funds) in January recorded net inflows of EUR54.4bn, a level not seen since January 2006 (EUR56.1bn), Lipper reports.These inflows were driven by bond funds, which for the seventh consecutive month attracted over EUR20bn. More precisely, sales totalled EUR23.7bn, which brings the 7-month average to EUR23.2bn.Equity funds in January did not disappoint, with net inflows of EUR20.8bn, compared with EUR13.3bn in December 2012. It is the first time that the asset class has topped EUR20bn since December 2010, Lipper notes.Money market funds saw outflows of EUR4.5bn.In January, the three asset management firms which posted the strongest net sales were Pimco, BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, with EUR4.1bn, EUR3.7bn and EUR3.5bn, respectively. The three firms were also the ones which have accounted for the most inflows in the past 10 years, according to Lipper.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) on 11 March announced the launch of the Morgan Stanley Investment Funds (“MS INVF”) Global Morgage Securities Fund. “The fund will offer attractive returns by investing in a portfolio of mortgages and securities mortgage instruments issued by government agencies and private institutions,” a statement from Morgan Stanley IM says. The new fund adopts a constand and thematic “bottom-up” type investment logic, which combines global macroecnomic analysis, research and sectoral trend analysts to create a diversified portfolio of securitised products. Research teams at MSIM Global Mortgage seek to identify opportunities to create potential value in all segments of the securitisation market. The construction of portfolios is undertaken in three stages: identification of the security, deployment and evaluation. “We concentrate on our clients – in difficult market conditions, our objective is to develop products which offer our clients access to various asset classes. The Global Mortgage Securities Fund leverages the expertise of Long-Only investment professionals and helps our clients to achieve their investment objectives.” says Arthur Lev, head of MSIM Long-Only Business.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 4 March, the New York-based Global X notified the SEC that it had launched Global X SuperDividend U.S. ETF (NYSE Arca acronym: DIV), which will replicate the INDXX SuperDividend U.S. Low Volatility index, and will charge 0.45%. The product is expected to be admitted to trading on 12 March.The index is equally weighted. It includes 50 ordinary shares in companies, MLPs, and US REITs, which offer both high dividends and low volatility when the beta for each share is compared with the market benchmark index.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As of 28 February, assets under management by Legg Mason totalled USD661bn, compared with USD654.9bn one month previously, and USD648.9bn as of the end of December. For its part, Franklin Templeton has posted an increase in its assets to USD813.8bn, compared with USD809.8bn as of the end of January, and USD781.8bn as of 31 December 2012.For its part, Invesco has reported assets under management as of the end of February of USD713.8bn, compared with USD712.6bn one month previously, and USD687.7bn at the end of last year.At AllianceBernstein, assets remain unchanged compared with the end of January, at USD437bn, vs USD430bn as of 31 December 2012.For Legg Mason, most of the increase in February is related to money market funds, whose assets total USD142.9bn, compared with USD137.4bn as of the end of January, while for Franklin Templeton inflows were mostly to fixed income, with a total of USD364.7bn, compared with USD360.5bn one month previously.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Assets under management at MEAG (Munich Ergo Asset Management), the asset management firm of the reinsurance group Munich Re, as of the end of 2012 totalled EUR11.5bn, compared with EUR10.4bn as of the end of December 2011, the German group announced on 12 March at the publication of its annual results. The group has also announced that it is 59% invested in bonds, compared with 58% one year earlier, and 3% in equities, compared with 2% previously. The largest shareholder in the group remains Warren Buffett, who as of the end of 2012 controlled an 11.2% stake in the group, Munich Re states. The stake represents a financial investment for Buffett and not a strategic engagement with a desire to influence policies at Munich Re, the German group says in its annual report.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The chairman of the board at DWS Investment, head of the Asset & Wealth Management (AWM) unit for Germany and of active management for the Deutsche Bank group, Wolfgang Matis, has been appointed as chairman of the supervisory board at Sal. Oppenheim. He replaces Carsten Schildknecht, who will be leaving the Deutsche Bank group on 31 March.Joachim Häger has also been appointed as a member of the supervisory board at Sal. Oppenheim. Like Matis, he is a member of the AWM executive board at Deutsche Bank. He is also chairman of the supervisory board at Wilhelm von Fink Deutsche Family Office AG.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } SBAB bank, owned by the Swedish state, has launched three funds, which may invest in equities, bonds, commodities, real estate and hedge funds, and which will be managed by Öhman Fonder, Privata Affärer reports. Each fund will have a different allocation, depending on the investment horizon (short, medium and long).
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Tilman Hickl, CEO of UBS Real Estate KAG in Munich, has been promoted to head global real estate – Europe at UBS Global Asset Management, a newly-created position, effective 15 March, fondsprofessionell.de reports. Hickl, who takes command of the real estate unit for all of Europe except Switzerland, temporarily remains a member of the board at UBS Real Estate KAG.His successor as CEO will be Christian Paul. The new head of global real estate – Germany and CEO will be Christine Bernhofer, currently CFO.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The private equity group KKR is planning to sell its 50% stake in the French firm Tarkett as part of a transaction which would value the flooring specialist at USD2.5bn to USD3.8bn, the news agency Bloomberg reports. The firm, based in Nanterre, has been 50/50 controlled by KKR and the Deconinck family since 2007. The Deconinck family does not wish to sell its stake, Bloomberg reports. Pre-tax profits at Tarkett last year totalled EUR260m, up 36% year on year, on earnings up 11% to EUR2.3bn.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } UBS is reported to be interested in acquiring the Italian Banca Intermobiliare di Investimenti e Gestioni. The largest Swiss bank may also strengthen its wealth management activities, an informer familiar with the matter has told the news agency Bloomberg, which reported the information on 12 March. The agency thus confirms a report in the Italian newspaper Il Sole – 24 Ore. Banca Intermobiliare is majority owned by Veneto Banca. Talks with US are underway, the informer says. UBS and Veneto Banca had no comments on the rumour. Assets under management at Banca Intermobiliare total about EUR14bn.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Sven Wiedeker, head of sales, will now become head of Swiss market at Swisscanto (GBP51.9bn in assets as of the end of 2012), replacing Reto Tarreghetta, a board member. Tarregheta, who joined the firm in 2006, “has decided to give a new orientation to his career,” and will be leaving the central asset management firm for the cantonal banks on 28 March.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Notenstein private bank on 12 March announced that it has increased its stake in the structured services specialist EFG Financial Products (EFG FP), to 22.75% from 2.5% previously. The acquisition price is CHF70.2m, paid to EFG International. The purchse is expected to be finalised “during” first half, pending approval from the authorities, the Raffeisen Switzerland affiliate says in a statement. Notenstein has also signed an agreement with the founding shareholders of EFG Financial Products Holding. The agreement specifies that shareholders in EFG Financial Products Holding will be allowed to elect two members of Notenstein to the board of directors at an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting. The participants will mutually allocate the rights corresponding to their shares. Notenstein will then issue its own structured investment products, guaranteed by Raiffeisen Switzerland. EFG Financial Products will take responsibility for providing some services, related to the issue and sale of these products, while Notenstein will offer the products in its name. With the operation, Notenstein “emphasizes its will to accentuate its supremacy in the area of financial products, and further strengthen its position on the Swiss market.”
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The insurer Swiss Life is planning to offer to introduce an amendment at its next general shareholders’ meeting on 23 April to increase its conditional capital. The capital would be increased form 3.6 million to 6 million nominal shares, equivalent to 18.7% of equity capital. The operation will increase the conditional capital to a level which is “usual in the sector,” and increase the financial flexibility of the group, the life insurance specialist says in a statement released on 12 March. At the next general shareholders’ meeting, Volker Brenkamp will be leaving his position as a member of the board of directors, due to an age limit. Peter Quadri has been proposed for re-election. Frank Keuper of the insurer Axa, Ueli Dietiker of Swisscom, and Klaus Tschütscher, prime ministeer of Liechtenstein, will be proposed for election. As announced in annual results, the group will propose to pay an unchanged dividend of CHF4.50 per share, from capital reserves.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } State Street Corporation and Boston Financial Data Services (Boston Financial), a joint venture of State Street and DST Systems, have been retained by Transamerica Asset Mangement (an affiliate of Aegon NV) to provide a complete range of investment services on assets totalling USD55.5bn.The contract covers fund administration (financial reporting, expense administration, compliance monitoring) by State Street, which already has a relatively longstanding relationship with Transamerica. State Street is already custodian and accounting services provider to mutual funds from Transamerica.For Boston Financial, which, for its part, is a new partner of Transamerica, for shareholder recordkeeping, investor & intermediary servicing and compliance services.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson is planning to leave his native New York for Puerto Rico, in order to protect his wealth from the US tax authorities, the Financial Times reports. Puerto Rico has recently passed a law to encourage high net worth individuals to move to the island. Meanwhile, the United States may suppress a tax break for alternative management firms.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Derek Braddok and Bill Matthews, who had been partners at the recruitment agency specialised in executive search for the asset management and the financial servies sector HigdonBraddockMatthews, have joined forces to create a similar firm, BraddockMatthews LLC, which will initially have offices in New York and Boston.They plan to serve a client base of asset management firms, hedge funds, private equity firms, investment banks, brokerage firms, charities, and retail investors.BraddockMatthews will start up with a team of five other people, four of whom are former colleagues, and Crosby Haynes, who joins from Raines International.
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } So far, portfolio managers are only concerned spectators in the debate on bonus limits, Financial Times Fund Management reports. But observers of the sector agree that regulators will be likely to copy proposals to limit the size of bonuses as compared with salaries to a proportion of 1:2 and 2:2 with forthcoming reforms. The fear is that prohibition of bonuses which exceed salaries may be enshrined into law when the UCITS V directive comes into effect in 2015, FTfm reports.