The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), the global hedge fund trade association, in 2 April expressed concern about the European Commission’s new draft text for the implementation of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) (see Newsmanagers of 30 March). In response to the recommendations by the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA), the Commission has developed a text in the form of a regulation, which may be applied more quickly than a directive. The Commission has given member states and the Parliament two weeks to react to the new bill. According to the director general of the AIMA, Andrew Baker, the Commission’s bill appears to “to significantly and substantially diverge” from ESMA’s proposals on a number of key points, such as the responsibility of the depository, outsourcing, and outside countries. “We fully respect the Commission’s right not to follow ESMA advice when producing secondary legislation. However, there should be more transparency and better consultation if the Commission has decided to depart from the advice in such crucial areas for the global asset management industry.” The professional association invites the Commission to state its point of view on the terms concerning outside countries, where it does not appear to follow ESMA’s recommendations. According to the Commission, European and non-European regulators should sign legally binding bilateral cooperation agreements. This would be very problematic or impossible to put into practice if regulations stipulate that cooperation agreements require that regulators in outside countries apply European legislation in their respective territories.

Activity has been lively in March, but for first quarter as a whole, initial public offerings have raised only USD16.2bn, the lowest amount observed since 2009, according to statistics from Bloomberg. In fourth quarter 2011, IPOs represnted a total of USD28.8bn, and in first quarter 2011, total IPOs measured USD48.4bn. Renaissance Capital observes that expected IPOs in the United States are close to their highest level in over 10 years. However, in recent weeks, some interest in activity in the United States, Asia and Europe has returned. In the United States, nine companies raised USD1.4bn in the week to 30 March.

Rob Jones, formerly of Threadneedle, who joined Union Bancaire Asset Management (UBAM), an affiliate of UBP, 20 months ago as co-head of European equity, has been appointed by the firm to manage the new UBAM Equity Europe Dividend +, which will pay an annual return of 10% over a sliding 5-year period, using a covered call strategy to reduce volatility and increase revenues, Citywire reports. The fund will have a concentrated portfolio of about 22 positions, on securities selected for the sustainability of their dividends. The objective will be to generate returns of 5% per year for the equity portfolio, while exposure to derivatives is expected to bring in a net gain of about 6%.

Last year, the Chinese asset management sector, affected by a 22% drop on the Shanghai stock exchange, underwent cumulative losses of over RMB500bn, or over USD79bn, Asian Investor reports. 28 asset management firms have posted losses of over RMB10bn, including AMC, with losses of over RMB43.7bn, E Fund (RNB34.7bn), and Harvest (RMB28.7bn). Statistics reveal that 812 mutual funds out of 970 finaished the year with losses, including equity funds (RMB314.7bn) and diversified funds (RMB152.3bn). The largest Chinese mutual fund, Harvest CSI 300 LOF, whose assets under management total slightly over RMB27bn (as of 29 March), has lost RMB7.35bn. Only money market and guaranteed funds posted gains last year, with cumulative gains of RMB5.8bn for the former and of RMB25.6bn for the latter.

Henderson Global Investors on 2 April announced that it has opened an office dedicated to real estate in Sweden, with the recruitment of Johan Aström as head of real estate, based in Stockholm. The recruitment marks a desire on the part of Henderson Property to develop its activities in Scandinavian countries and to profit from the dynamic created by the recent acquisition of a shopping centre in Sweden. Aström had previously worked as a manager at Nordic Real Estate Partners.

Luis Martín, who had belonged to the sales team at J.P. Morgan Asset Management in Spain, has joined BlackRock as director of retail and institutional sales for the Iberian market, Funds People reports.Martín will report to Armando Senra, CEO of BlackRock Iberia and Latin America, and Dominik Rohe, head of retail and institutional in the same regions.BlackRock manages about USD49bn in the Iberian peninsula and Latin America. The group has recently confirmed the appointment of Alex Hoctor-Duncan as head of retail for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, replacing Maarten Slendebroek, who has moved to Jupiter (see Newsmanagers of 2 April).

Tradewinds Global Investors, an affiliate of Nuveen Investments, has seen a further setback with the departure of its chief investment officer, David Iben, Pensions & Investments reports. Fundamentals improved at Tradewinds last year, thanks to a net inflow of USD13bn. But with the departure of Iben, Nuveen will have a lot of trouble putting an exit strategy at Tradewinds into practice, as the firm has debts of over USD4bn, after an LBO in 2007.

Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking (SG CIB) on 2 April announced a reshuffle and apopintments which particularly affect Lyxor Asset Management, which is now directly under the direction of SG CIB. This development allows Lyxor Am to “continue its development as a top-raking asset management firm in the areas of alternative management, ETFs, structured and quantitative management,” a statement says, adding that Inès de Dinechin, CEO of Lyxor AM, is joining the extended executive committee at SG CIB. Richard Paolantonacci, head of the newly-created Management of Rare Resources department, Vincent Mortier, CFO, and Sylvie Préa, director of human resources, are also newly-appointed. The Financing and Investment Bank will continue to be organised around its three major professions: investment banking, financing, and market activities. In these three divisions, SG CIB is making the following changes and appointments, effective from 2 April: In the Client Relations and Investment Banking division, led by Thierry Aulagnon and his deputy, Diony Lebot: two new departments are created, including Primary Equity Capital Markets and Merger and Acquisition Advising activities, and dedicated to client segments. A department of Corporate Finance, led by Thierry d’Argent, offers major clients of the bank a complete range of services from origination to execution. Luis Vaz Pinto and Olivier Buttier are appointed as deputies. A Financial Institutions department, led by Pierre-Yves Bonnet, will include a ream of bankers serving financial institutions. In the Global Finance division, led by Pierre Palmieri and his deputies, Slawonir Krupa and David Coxon: an organisation oriented to distribution and favouring synergies. Creation of a Financing professional area, led by Matthew Vickerstaff. This professional area includes Infrastructure and Asset Financing, Expore Financing and Debt Optimisation. Creation of an Energy and Natural Resources professional area, co-directed by Federico Turegano and Jonathan Whitehead. The professional area includes the Financing activities in the Energy sector, Commodity Trading, Metals and Mines, and will work closely with the team in Commodities Markets in the Market Activities division. Creation of a Capital Markets professional area, led by Patrick Ménard and his deputy, Jean-Marc Giraud. This professional area includes the Capital Markets Finance (securitisation and capital structuring) activities, Capital Debt Markets, Ratings Advising, Leveraged Financing and Media & Telecom, Strategic Acquisition Financing and Financial Engineering. In the Market Activities division, led by Dan Fields: Fixed Income activities are scaled up. Creation of a Fixed Income & Currencies professional area, created by merging the Fixed Income, Treasury and Fixed Income and Currency Derivatives, led by Danielle Sindzingre. For commodity market activities, Jonathan Whitehead has been appointed Head of these activities in the Market Activities division, assisted by François Combes and Jean-François Maurey.

The board of directors at DekaBank (central asset management firm for the German savings banks) on 2 April appointed Georg Stocker as a board member. He will be responsible for distribution to savings banks and treasuries, and succeeds Hans-Jürgen Gutenberger, who is retiring. From 2004, Stocker had been a member of the board at the Frankfurter Sparkasse, and became its vice president in 2009.

On 2 April, BNP Paribas Germany announced that Stefan Hartl, head of external distribution at BNP Paribas Investment Partners in Germany, has been promoted to the position of managing director of the wealth management-key clients unit at BNP Paribas.Hartl, who had previously worked at Schroders, where he had been responsible for German institutional clients, replaces Pascal Gundrich, who is now in charge of assisting wealth management key accounts at BNP Paribas in Luxembourg.

In a nine-line statement, the DSGV federation of German savings banks on 2 April announced that it is immediately relieving Franz S. Waas of his responsibilities as a member and chairman of the board at DekaBank, the second-largtest German asset management firm. The savings banks now control the entirety of capital in the firm, in which the Landesbanken had held half until last year. The decision, taken the day before a press conference at Deka to announce results, is officially motivated by the fact that “the necessary relationship of confidence no longer existed, due to a lawsuit over additional bonuses filed by the party in relation to his first term in the position, in 2008-2009.” The board of directors at DekaBank has appointed Oliver Behrens as interim chairman of the board.

Florian Uleer, who had been head of banking and business clients for “A deposits” at Union Investment Institutional, has joined Schroders Germany as head of distribution for banks and funds of funds, replacing Alexander Prawitz.Prawitz has been transferred to the global financial solutions group Asia in Hong Kong, to assist international and local banking clients as well as strategic distribution partners.Uleer will report to Joachim Nareike, director of distribution at Schroders Investment Management GmbH.

M&G Investments announces that Phil Cliff, who joined M&G in January 2012 from Threadneedle, assumes management of the M&G Pan European Dividend Fund as of Monday.His appointment frees up the incumbent manager Richard Halle, who has been managing both the M&G European Strategic Value Fund and the M&G Pan European Dividend Fund, to concentrate full time on his European value portfolios.The M&G Pan European Dividend has EUR27,07 million assets under management as of 29 February 2012.

Proposées par les BFI, et dans une moindre mesure par les asset managers, les options de couverture des risques permettent de réduire l’exigence de fonds propres. La Sham a étudié des scénarios où un risque important se matérialise sur ses actifs. Elle souhaite construire elle-même (avec l’aide d’un consultant en finance) des stratégies de couverture, « mais nous ne les avons pas encore mises en ??uvre car aujourd’hui tout le monde cherche à se protéger contre les mêmes risques (baisse brutale du marché actions, hausse brutale des taux obligataires ), ce qui rend les couvertures très chères » note Dominique Godet, le directeur général de la Sham. Sur les produits structurés, les asset managers proposent des offres proches de celles des BFI. Ces produits financiers effrayent certains investisseurs : « Des banques ou des asset managers nous proposent des produits structurés qui sont moins consommateurs en fonds propres que les actifs sous-jacents, décrit Dominique Godet. Ce type de produits ne m’intéresse pas car le risque intrinsèque demeure. Si un sous-jacent me coûte trop cher en fonds propres, je préfère y renoncer. »

PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory has sought to put a figure on the consequences of the UCITS IV directive on the six major Italian (or Italian-registered) groups, which manage a total of EUR231bn at 42 asset management firms affiliated to them, Plus24, the wealth supplement of Il Sole – 24 Ore reports. This represents 1,101 funds, of which 21% are Italian-registered, 54% are Italian but registered abroad, and 25% are foreign. PwC finds two potential outcomes. One is that six group will retain one asset management firm each in Italy or abroad. There would then be an 83% reduction in the number of asset management firms, from 42 to 7. In the second case, the six groups might merge asset management firms in countries of reference and specialist centres (Luxembourg and Ireland). Then, the reduction in the number of asset management firms would be 50%. This development would take place over three years, and PwC predicts that there would be a parallel reduction of 30% in the number of funds, from 1,010 to 731.

La société est sortie victorieuse de la bataille pour VIP Commodities, permettant la mise sur pied d’une équipe spécialisée sur le courtage du coton. «Nous pensons que c’est un bon assemblage», a déclaré Louis Barbera, l’un des trois courtiers de VIP Commodities. «Ils ont une base de clientèle élargie», a-t-il ajouté, soulignant que l’opération devrait permettre à la société de développer ses activités de dérivés, notamment OTC.

Le numéro un mondial de la gestion d’infrastructures se prépare à lever 2 milliards de dollars cette année pour son troisième fonds dédié aux Etats-Unis et au Canada, a rapporté Reuters de sources proches du dossier. Son deuxième fonds dédié, de 1,6 milliard de dollars, est totalement investi. Fin septembre, le groupe disposait de 317 milliards de dollars d’actifs sous gestion.

La société de données financières a fait l’acquisition de Data Explorers Limited, qui fournit à une base de données de clients internationaux une évaluation quantitative quant à la rentabilité et aux risques du prêt-emprunt de titres. La transaction s’est effectuée auprès du fonds de private equity Bowmark Capital. Les modalités financières n’ont pas été précisées.

Le régulateur américain des contrats à terme accuse Royal Bank of Canada d’avoir mis en œuvre au moins entre juin 2007 et mai 2010 un ensemble de transactions de plusieurs centaines de millions de dollars entre différentes filiales dans un but uniquement fiscal. RBC a «énergiquement» démenti les accusations de la CFTC, estimant notamment que les opérations concernées avaient été réalisées en toute transparence auprès des régulateurs.

Le principal fonds ouvert de DoubleLine, gestionnaire d’actifs fondé par l’ancien gérant vedette de TCW, affiche pour le premier trimestre 2012 une collecte nette de 6,4 milliards de dollars, selon les données préliminaires publiées par Morningstar. Le montant total des actifs sous gestion de la société passe en trois mois de 22 à 31 milliards.

Les ministres des Finances de l'Union demandent à Bruxelles de revoir sa copie sur l'idée d'une rotation tous les trois ou six ans des agences

L'Esma a estimé que la plate-forme répondait aux exigences de transparence prénégociation contenues dans la directive MIF

Les valorisations relatives sont aujourd’hui plus favorables aux actions, y compris aux Etats-Unis

Ils reprochent à la Commission de ne pas suivre le régulateur européen, l'Esma, sur la directive AIFM

Ils reprochent à la Commission de ne pas suivre le régulateur européen, l'Esma, sur la directive AIFM

L’autorité de régulation comptable de Hong Kong mène une enquête sur plusieurs sociétés chinoises cotées sur la Bourse locale concernant des suspicions de fraudes, indique le South China Morning Post qui cite la présidente de l’autorité, Sophia Kao. La démission de certains auditeurs et le report de la publication des résultats de plusieurs sociétés chinoises auraient alerté les autorités.

De source non identifiée, le South China Morning Post avance que la chute du leader politique local de Chongqing Bo Xilai aurait «bouleversé les règles du jeu». Le fonds texan serait ainsi disposé à transférer quelque 4 milliards de yuans, l’équivalent de près de 480 millions d’euros, récoltés en vue d’être investis à Chongqing vers Pékin et Shanghai.

L'opérateur boursier compte se lancer sur le marché des différentiels de cours et vise 250 millions de dollars d’économies annuelles d’ici 2014

Les dépenses de construction aux Etats-Unis ont subi en février leur recul le plus marqué en sept mois, ce qui pourrait conduire à une révision à la baisse des prévisions de croissance pour le premier trimestre. Ces dépenses ont diminué de 1,1% pour revenir à 808,86 milliards de dollars en données annualisées, leur plus bas niveau depuis octobre, a précisé le département du Commerce.

La croissance du secteur manufacturier aux Etats-Unis a été plus marquée que prévu en mars, selon l’indice des directeurs d’achats publié lundi par l’Institute for Supply Management (ISM). L’indice manufacturier s’est établi à 53,4 contre 52,4 en février et 54,1 en janvier, alors que les économistes interrogés par Reuters l’anticipaient en hausse plus modeste, à 53,0.