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17/04/2012

Swiss Wealth Management launches its first UCITS-compliant fund of funds

Swiss Wealth Management has launched its first UCITS-compliant hedge fund in order to avoid direct replications of offshore funds, Citywire reports. The CB-Accent Alternative Alpha Evolution fund is managed by Gabriele Gentile. EIM will serve as an adviser to the fund for the first twelve months. The fund, which invests in about 25 UCITS-compliant hedge funds, aims primarily at funds designed from the ground up to fit the UCITS mold. The fund of fund is 30% exposed to long/short equity, 25% to arbitrage strategies, and 25% to directional strategies, with 10% reserved for credit strategies. The remaining 10% is the cash allocation.
17/04/2012

Bank Zweiplus refocuses on B to B

Bank Zweiplus is planning to refocus its activities on core activities in the future, including activities dedicated to financial services providers, wealth managers and insurers. In other words, the firm is planning to position itself as a preferred B to B banking partner, able to offer solutions adapted to its business clients. As a result, the retail clients unit will be managed by the Cash online platform, effective immediately, the firm controlled by Sarasin bank (57.5%) and Falcon PrivateBank (42.5%) announced on 16 April. Zweiplus claims that the market appears to be showing a need for an independent product and development platform for qualified financial service providers, wealth managers and insurers. The bank is planning to respond to this development by making a clear separation between accounts in its two major units of activity, namely business and retail clients. For retail clients, the Cash online platform, with Zweiplus, has created Cash Zweiplus AG, 50% controlled by Ringier and 50% by Zweiplus. Ringier is contributing the “Cash” brand and the platform of the same name, already used by 170,000 users. As of the end of 2011, assets under management at Zweiplus bank totalled CHF4.8bn.
17/04/2012

IOSCO and CPSS publish principles for market infrastructure

The Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) on April 16 published three documents that promote global efforts to strengthen financial market infrastructures (FMIs): a report entitled Principles for financial market infrastructures; a consultation paper on an Assessment methodology for these new standards; and a consultation paper on a Disclosure framework for the standards.Comments on these two documents for public consultation should be sent by 15 June 2012. The CPSS and IOSCO, together with the Financial Stability Board, are also working on guidance for designing resolution regimes for FMIs. This work will be published in the coming months.
17/04/2012

Universal “dircom” takes on sales duties as well

Henning Stegmayer, director of marketing and communications at Universal-Investment, has been additionally appointed as a member of the board at the distribution affiliate Universal-Vertriebs-Services GmbH (UVS), alongside Christian Rauner, director of the private label funds & services unit.The marriage of marketing and sales aims to promote sales of white label products to new partners, and sales in non-German-speaking countries.As of the end of March, Universal-Investment managed 406 open-ended funds with total assets of EUR14.4bn, 80 more funds and EUR2bn more than two years previously.
17/04/2012

Efama defends ISIN codes

The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) has pointed out the importance of the EU Commission decision of 15 November 2011 to accept commitments by the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s in relation to billing for international securities identification number (ISIN) codes, in a public statement dated 16 April.The Commission had decided to legally require the ratings agency to honour its commitments, including a commitment to discontinue royalties paid to banks for the use of ISIN codes in the European economic area, and ISIN numbers for securities issued in the United States. In a complaint filed in November 2009, the Commission expressed concern that S&P, the only national ratings agency covering securities issued in the United States, was able to charge excessive fees for the use of ISIN numbers and their dissemination in Europe, in violation of European monopoly and competition regulations.Efama stresses that this decision is a major victory for the European financial services industry which will save approximately USD100m per annum in ISIN license fees going forward. Efama deplores that S&P has failed to cooperate voluntarily with the financial services industry in the EU in the past and still does not want to address valid user concerns. Therefore, EFAMA, and several other entities, including the German financial management association (BVI), the Commission in charge of services and IT systems serving market operators (Cossiom), part of the Forex and bank treasury association (ACI France), the British Information Provider User Group (IPUG), and its Swiss counterpart, SIPUG, have launched a complaint in Switzerland with the relevant competition authority to require Standard & Poor’s to enact its commitments on ISIN numbers in Switzerland also.
17/04/2012

Not all German real estate funds are in trouble

The SEB Immoinvest (EUR6.35bn) and CS Euroreal (EUR6bn) funds from Credit Suisse may be in severe danger of being liquidated as soon as next month after two years of a redemption freeze, but it’s not due to a problem with the quality of management, as surprising as that may be, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. It appears that the determining factor is whether the asset manager has a captive audience to sell its products. This is the case for RREEF (Deutsche Bank) for its Grundbesitz Europa, at Deka (savings banks) for its Deka ImmoEuropa, and Union Investment (co-operative banks) for its UniImmo: Europa, which have no problems in absorbing the shares redeemed by other branch clients.The newspaper points out that currently, open-ended retail funds which are operating as normal have assets of EUR61.5bn, while frozen funds have EUR13.9bn, and funds in the liquidation process have EUR9.7bn. Open-ended real estate funds have posted net inflows every year since 2008, and they attracted a further EUR1bn in the first two months of this year.
17/04/2012

Axa IM transforms Immoresidential fund into a Spezialfonds, in a German first

Axa Investment Managers Germany on 1 March successfully transformed the open-ended real estate fund Axa Immoresidential into a Spezialfonds type institutional fund. It is the first time such a conversion has been undertaken in Germany.The Immoresidential fund was launched in 2009 as an open-ended fund available exclusively to institutional investors. Modifications to investor protection regulations have come since, so that insurers, one of the major target audiences for the product, may not invest in shares in this fund from their real estate allocations. With the adaptation of the fund’s format and its conversion into an institutional fund, the Immoresidential fund becomes eligible once again for investment from the real estate allocations of target clients, and all shareholders have agreed to the changes.Since the conversion, the fund has already seen an inflow of EUR10m from a German credit institute. The minimal subscription is EUR3m.As of the end of February, assets in the Immoresidential fund totalled EUR120m, and Axa IM estimates that it is possible the fund may reach EUR500m by the end of 2013. So far, the fund has acquired or is in the process of acquiring assets valued at a total of about EUR164m.
17/04/2012

Anthony Bolton to continue to manage China fund until 2014

Anthony Bolton will be extending his minimal tenure as portfolio manager for the Fidelity China Special Situations fund for one year, until April 2014, according to a statement released to the London Stock Exchange, where the product is listed.The star manager had initially planned to remain until April 2013.The Fidelity China Special Situations fund, which raised GBP460m at its launch in 2010, has so far delivered disappointing performance. In December 2011, it had lost 38% since its creation.
17/04/2012

London remains a major hedge fund centre

London remains the largest centre for hedge fund managers outside the United States, with 57 firms managing at least USD1bn each (not counting the London offices of the 100 main US hedge fund firms), Financial Times Fund Management reports, citing figures from HedgeFundIntelligence. An increase in taxes and regulations does not appear to have driven hedge fund managers away.
17/04/2012

Asset management unit of Barclays adds to range of services in Asia

Barclays Capital Fund Solutions, the asset management unit of the British Barclays froup, will this week commence activities serving investors in Asia, Asian Investor reports. The new range of services, which is already well-developed in Europe and the United States, provides a way for institutional investors to outsource operations such as execution and risk management, particularly for non-traditional asset classes such as commodities, emerging markets, and derivatives. Barclays is aiming particularly at pension funds, sovereign funds and private banks.
17/04/2012

One out of two institutionals votes against Botín at Santander

At the general shareholders’ meeting on 30 March, Emilio Botín’s re-election as chairman of Santander received a «no» vote from 24.27% of those present, all institutional investors. This means that slightly over 42% of institutional investors, who control 57% of capital in the firm, voted against the re-election of a chairman who has been in place for 26 yeasr, Cotizalia reports. As the bank’s annual accounts were approved with a majority larger than 95%, the conclusion is that institutionals would like to see changes at the top of the group.
17/04/2012

Strong increase in net subscriptions for Polar Capital

The asset management firm Polar Capital on 16 April announced that its assets under management had topped USD5bn as of 31 March 2012, with a total of USD5.083bn, compared with USD4.24bn as of the end of December 2011 and USD3.88bn at the end of March 2011. Assets in long-only funds as of the end of March totalled USD4.36bn, while hedge funds had USD718m. Polar capital says in a market statement that in the twelve months to the end of March, net inflows have totalled USD1.11bn for long-only funds, while hedge funds have seen outflows of USD67m in the same period. Market and forex effects represent a positive balance of USD164m, of which USD150m is for long-only funds.
17/04/2012

Hedge funds desert Mayfair neighbourhood of London

Hedge funds have begun to desert the fashionable Mayfair neighbourhood of London for more modest areas in the British capital, the Financial Times reports. Due to the difficult market environment, toughening regulations and rising taxes, fewer and fewer hedge fund managers are able to rent offices in Mayfair and St James. Half of all managers based in London are now located in these two areas, compared with 70% two years ago, according to statistics from Cushman and Wakefield.
17/04/2012

Moody's ne voit pas de raison d'agir sur la note française le 12 mai

L’agence de notation n’a «pas de raison particulière» d’agir ou de communiquer sur la note souveraine de la France le 12 mai, a déclaré lundi une porte-parole. Moody’s a ainsi réagi à des propos de François Hollande, le candidat socialiste à la présidentielle, qui avait dit s’attendre à une décision de l’agence de notation à cette date. Le placement sous perspective négative d’une note de crédit par Moody’s n’entraîne pas nécessairement de décision sous 90 jours, contrairement à l’annonce d’un examen de la note en vue de sa dégradation.
17/04/2012

Charles Schwab subit une baisse des commissions de gestion

Le courtier a vu son bénéfice fondre de 20% au premier trimestre à 195 millions de dollars. Les revenus ont reculé de 1% à 1,19 milliard de dollars. Les commissions de gestion ont baissé pour leur part de 4% à 484 millions de dollars, tandis que les dépenses liées aux rémunérations ont augmenté de 6% à 465 millions de dollars.
17/04/2012

Les Perco ont poursuivi leur progression en 2011

L’encours total géré dans les Perco (Plan d’Epargne pour la Retraite Collectif) s’établit au 31 décembre 2011 à 5 milliards d’euros, en hausse de près de 25 % par rapport au 31 décembre 2010, indique l’AFG, l’association française de la gestion financière. Fin 2011, ils bénéficient à près de 1 million de salariés actifs dans près de 150.000 entreprises. Au cours de l’année 2011, le nombre d’entreprises équipées a augmenté de 20 %.
17/04/2012

Le contrat à terme sur OAT démarre mollement

Démarrage timide hier pour le contrat à terme sur la dette française sur Eurex, avec un volume d'échange limité, selon des professionnels. En fin d’après-midi, l’Euro-OAT-Futures échéance juin perdait 0,6% à 125,26. Sur le marché au comptant, l’OAT de référence à 10 ans subissait à la fois le retour des craintes entourant les dettes souveraines en zone euro et l’approche du premier tour de l'élection présidentielle.
17/04/2012

L'Espagne passe un test périlleux

Le pays doit émettre jeudi des emprunts à trois et dix ans alors que ses taux longs sont repassés hier au-dessus de 6%. Aucune détente n’est anticipée.
17/04/2012

Bras de fer pour le contrôle de la SNCM

Veolia demande selon le site internet une modification du pacte d’actionnaires au sein de la SNCM afin de lui permettre de céder sa participation de 66% à l’Etat. Ce dernier s’oppose à cette initiative et demande une vision à long terme sur l’avenir de la SNCM. De quoi menacer à nouveau l’avenir de la société de transport maritime.
17/04/2012

Le LME fait une place au yuan

Le London Metal Exchange s’apprête à faire preuve de réalisme économique. Après 135 années d’existence, le marché à terme sur les métaux londonien songe à offrir aux opérateurs la possibilité de compenser leurs contrats en yuan. En parallèle, le LME pourrait abandonner la livre. Le contrat de référence resterait libellé en dollars. Ce projet, qui n’en serait qu’à un stade préliminaire, mettrait en lumière le nouvel ordre mondial sur les marchés, la Chine représentant désormais plus de 40% de la demande mondiale pour la plupart des métaux et une part en forte croissance de l’activité du LME. «Je n’ai pas négocié de contrat en livres depuis cinq ans» reconnaît un courtier.
16/04/2012

L'indice Empire State nettement plus mauvais que prévu

La croissance manufacturière dans l’Etat de New York a nettement ralenti en avril pour atteindre son plus bas niveau en cinq mois, a indiqué lundi la Réserve fédérale de New York. Son indice dit «Empire State» est tombé à 6,56, au plus bas depuis novembre, contre 20,21 en mars. Le marché anticipait un indice en baisse nettement moins marquée, à 18,00.
16/04/2012

Les Perco ont poursuivi leur progression en 2011

L’encours total géré dans les Perco (Plan d’Epargne pour la Retraite Collectif) s’établit au 31 décembre 2011 à 5 milliards d’euros, en hausse de près de 25 % par rapport au 31 décembre 2010, indique l’AFG, l’association française de la gestion financière. Fin 2011, ils bénéficient à près de 1 million de salariés actifs dans près de 150.000 entreprises. Au cours de l’année 2011, le nombre d’entreprises équipées a augmenté de 20 %.
16/04/2012

L'Espagne est en récession, admet son ministre de l'Economie

Le ministre espagnol de l’Economie a admis que le pays était retombé en récession, pour la deuxième fois depuis 2009. Les chiffres officiels sur le PIB espagnol du premier trimestre 2012 ne seront pas publiés avant le 30 avril. Luis de Guindos a cependant déclaré que l'économie espagnole devrait avoir enregistré au premier trimestre une contraction similaire à celle du dernier trimestre 2011, qui était de 0,3% par rapport au troisième trimestre.

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