p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Dexia Asset Management on 15 February announced the arrival of Michel le Bras as a senior fund manager in the alternative management team at the management firm. Le Bras, a specialist in global macro management, comes as an addition to the current team of 50 alternative managers, led by Fabrice Cuchet. He will report to Sophie Elkrief, head of fundamental alternative strategies, and will develop discretionary management of global macro portfolios. In 2004, Le Bras co-founded the independent portfolio management firm L2S Capital, a specialist in this type of discretionary global macro strategy.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Henderson Global Investors has recruited Tim Gibson as head of publicly-traded real estate in Asia, a position which he will take up on 1 March. He will be based in Singapore, and will work alongside Michael Wong and Eric Khaw, as part of a team which manages GBP950m in Asian real estate assets.Gibson joins the firm from AMP Capital Brookfield, where he was director and manager of European funds in the investment team specialised in indirect real estate investment. He was responsible for portfolio construction, and managed a USD1bn fund.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Investors are showing more optimism about international equities than they have in more than ten years, according to the latest BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research Report, a survey undertaken between 4 and 10 February on a sample of 188 managers representing assets of USD569bn.The survey finds that a net total of 67% of asset allocators are overweight on international equities, a level not seen since the series began in April 2001. As of the end of 2010, only 40% of investors favoured this asset class.Meanwhile, interest in bonds and money markets has continued to fall. 66% of investors are now underweight in bonds, compared with 54% one month earlier, while 9% are underweight in money markets. The gulf between such a high rate of overweight positions in equities and of underweight positions in bonds has never been so large, the survey suggests.This new increase in appetite for risk has brought with it a spectacular rise in regional allocations. Only 5% of managers are now overweight in emerging markets equities, compared with 43% in January. This is the steepest monthly plunge since the series began; the average comes out to 28%.However, investors are far more positive about developed markets. 11% of them are overweight in Euro zone equities, whereas only 9% were so in January. The percentage of respondents overweight in US equities has also risen to 34%, compared with 27% the previous month, and 16% in December. The United States and the Euro zone are the two regions in which investors are prepared to invest as their first priority.Investors remain optimistic about outlooks for global economic growth, but a majority of them (75%, compared with 48% three months ago), predict that inflation will increase. A corollary of this development is that 70% of investors are now predicting that the Fed will raise its rates in the next twelve months, compared with only 62% in January.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Reyl & Cie group, with over CHF4bn in assets, is scaling up its presence in Singapore with the recruitment of Daryl Liew as financial analyst and senior portfolio manager, with the objective of strengthening the firm’s expertise in regional markets, Agefi Switzerland reports. Liew joins Reyl Singapore after a term at Providend Ltd (Singapore), where he served as Chief Investment Strategist & Executive Director. In his new position, he will be in charge of overseeing client portfolios, and will participate in developing asset allocation strategies in order to ensure the coherence of investment decisions on behalf of clients at Reyl in Singapore.

ING announced on Tuesday that it has reached agreement to sell the majority of its ING Real Estate Investment Management business (ING REIM) in two separate transactions for a combined price of approximately USD 1 billion (EUR 770 million). In addition, as part of the overall transactions, the group has also agreed to sell up to approximately USD 100 million of its equity interest in existing ING REIM funds.ING has entered into an agreement with CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc., to sell ING REIM Europe, ING REIM Asia and Clarion Real Estate Securities (CRES), ING REIM’s US-based manager of listed real estate securities, as well as part of ING’s equity interests in funds managed by these businesses. The proceeds for these REIM businesses and the equity interests amount to approximately USD 1 billion. ING REIM Europe, ING REIM Asia and CRES combined have EUR 44.7 billion in assets under management as of 31 December 2010. In a separate transaction, the group has agreed to sell the private market real estate investment manager of its US operations, Clarion Partners, to Clarion Partners management in partnership with the private equity firm Lightyear Capital LLC for USD 100 million. Clarion Partners has EUR 16.5 billion in assets under management as of 31 December 2010. The Real Estate Investment Management business in Australia (ING REIMA), with EUR 4.8 billion in assets under management as of 31 December 2010, is not included in these transactions.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Delay in the deployment of of a climate change policy and a lack of international coordination could cost institutional investors trillions of US dollars in the coming decades, according to a study by Mercer and a group of top-calibre international investors with about USD2trn under management (Climate Change Scenarios – Implications for Strategic Asset Allocation). “Climate change will have fundamental repercussions on traditional management schemas, risks, and the returns expected by investors. Institutional investors need to take long-term considerations such as climate change into account in their strategic planning,” the chief investment officer at Mercer, Andrew Kirton, says. Risks related to climate change could represent 10% of portfolio risk in the next 20 years. From this point of view, investors could see increased allocation to the infrastructure, real estate, private equity, agricultural land, forestry and durable goods sectors. The report provides a general framework which could be used by institutional investors to improve their understanding of risks related to climate change, and analyse investment opportunities in various asset classes and regions. Mercer is launching the “TIP framework,” which it has developed with 14 institutionals, which evaluates investment levels in low-carbon-emission technologies (T), impact (I) on the environment, and the carbon emissions impact of international policy (P) according to four climate change scenarios.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Oaktree Capital’s distressed fund has returned USD3bn to investors, out of a total of USD10bn raised, due to difficulties it has encountered in finding investment opportunities in a more favourable economic environment, the Financial Times reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. The fund, managed by Bruce Karsh, was one of the most aggressive buyers of distressed debt following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brother. But now the fund manager no longer knows what to do with investor’s money.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On the basis of a study covering equities of the Stoxx 600 index in the eight years to the end of June 2010, Thorsten Paarmann, senior portfolio manager at Invesco Global Quantitative Equity (USD22bn in assets) has shown that the most volatile shares underperformed those which had lower volatility. In other words, the specialist explained at a presentation at the Funds Event 2011, held on Tuesday in Luxembourg, “the added risk does not pay off, and the slope of regression is negative.”With this in mind, the quantitative equities team at Invesco selected an optimisation formula with no constraints, breaking with the “benchmark” approach. It uses a highly severe risk management, and focuses more closely on stock-picking to avoid undesirable heavyweights from the indices. This leads to a highly diversified portfolio, with a high tracking error compared with the indices, which allowed for overweight positions on shares which the manager considers the most promising. In addition, this methodology offers a way to take into account the behavioural biases of other investors on the market. The average beta for the portfolio is 0.8, and the investment universe includes 800 European stocks out of 3,300, Paarmann explains. This results in returns, with average annual returns of 4.89% over the past five years, compared with 0.24% for the MSCI Europe ND, which tends to prove that combining low volatility with stock-picking can generate attractive results. This shows in the fact that the Invesco Pan European Structured Equity Fund, which had EUR500m in assets as of the end of last year, has recorded EUR100m in net subscriptions in 2010.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Financial News reports that the London hedge fund CQS has hired two senior employees from BlueCrest Capital Management: Leila Kotlar-Bouget, former head of client services at BlueCrest, who will serve in a similar role at BlueCrest, and Bojan Milicic, former partner and salesperson at BlueCrest.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Barclays revealed on 15 February at an announcement of its annual results that the overall total amount paid in bonuses to employees was GBP3.4bn, nearly equivalent to the annual profits, which totalled GBP3.5bn.The bank insists in a statement, however, that this amount is 7% lower than the 2009 total, despite a rise in profits. “We wanted to show that we are taking responsibility, and that we take our responsibility to the government seriously,” says Barclays CEO Bob Diamond.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Barclays Wealth has reported pre-tax profits for 2010 of GBP164m, up 14% year on year. Client assets as of the end of 2010 totalled GBP163.9bn, compared with GBP151.2bn one year previously. Net inflows totalled GBP6bn.The Investment Management unit, for its part, has earned pre-tax profits of GBP67m, compared with GBP22m previously, largely proceeding from the firm’s 19.9% stake in BlackRock.Pre-tax profits at the group have risen 39%, to GBP989m.

JO Hambro Capital Management has soft-closed its JOHCM UK equity income fund after it passed through the GBP750m barrier of AUM, according to Money Marketing.

Aberdeen Asset Management has announced that Marc van Heddeghem has been appointed as a new independent expert member of the Advisory Committee of the Aberdeen European Balanced Property Fund. Mr van Heddeghem has recently retired from his role as Managing Director of Redevco Belgium. The Aberdeen European Balanced Property fund is semi open-end, Core to Core-Plus fund designed for institutional investors to invest in a balanced and well diversified property portfolio in the Eurozone. The fund focuses on property markets with excellent prospects for both direct and indirect returns. At the end of December 2010, the fund’s gross asset value amounted to EUR 423 million.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Insparo Asset Management has launched a second Africa fund, the Insparo Africa Equity Fund, which aims to benefit from the growth potential of African businesses and the emergence of a consumer culture on the continent. It will invest in leading North African companies from sub-Saharan Africa, with minimal leverage, and in South Africa, which will account for up to a maximum of 20%. The fund launched with USD7.5m in assets.

Marten S. Hoekstra, l’ancien CEO de la division Wealth Management Americas au sein d’UBS, vient de rejoindre Emerging Global Advisors, une société de gestion américaine spécialisée dans les marchés émergents, en tant que chief executive officer. Il reprend à ce titre les fonctions du fondateur Robert Holderith qui reste président et se concentrera sur le développement de produits d’investissement.Emerging Global Advisors conseille la famille d’ETF EGShares ciblée sur des secteurs et thèmes précis dans les marchés émergents, comme les infrastructures au Brésil ou les petites capitalisations en Inde. La société gère actuellement 9 ETF de ce type et en prépare d’autres.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The first «Funds Event», held on Tuesday in Luxembourg, brought together more than 250 asset management professionals at the new Drosbach Luxembourg-Cloche d’Or conference centre. In addition to 12 “master classes” and two round tables, the program included two plenary sessions, organised around the participants Lionel de Broux, head of fund manager selection at ING Private Capital Management, and Laurent Gorgemans, head of multi-managers at Dexia Asset Management, which set the tone for the event.The conference is a first for Luxembourg, where professional gatherings have typically “been dedicated to fund administration and compliance,” explains Fabien Amoretti, a partner at Farvest, the organizer of the event. Events held by the Luxembourg investment fund association (Alfi) “are very high-level events, but focused on issues related to regulation. With the Funds Event, we wanted to create a dynamic meeting for asset management professionals, dedicated to methodology in the industry and fund selection.”In other words, the organizer explains, “we are creating a convivial networking space with, initially, an elitist concept. I mean ‘elitist’ in the sense that 75% of participants are real decision-makers in fund investment, either locally or globally. And the remaining 25% are vendors of funds or solutions.”The Funds Event is aimed at family offices, insurers and private banks, in addition to fund selectors. The difference with other events such as the Forum GI in Paris or the Funds Forum in the Netherlands is that it operates with totally open architecture.The organizer succeeded in bringing prestigious endorsements for this concepts, a sign of the seriousness of the endeavour. The “platinum” partner was BNY Mellon Asset Management Paris (the office which also covers north-eastern France and Benelux), while the “gold” partners were Aegon and Edmond de Rothschild Management Benelux.Among the “silver” partners were Amundi, ING Investment Management, Axa IM, Invesco, BNP Paribas Investment Partners, M&G Investments, Barclays CAP, Henderson, SEB and Schroders. The “bronze” partners were Aviva Investors and Delta Lloyd Asset Management.

Les Etats-Unis ont attiré en décembre des flux de capitaux nets à long terme de 65,9 milliards de dollars, après 85,1 milliards en novembre, a indiqué hier le département américain du Trésor. La Chine, premier créancier des Etats-Unis a réduit dans le même temps de quatre milliards le montant de dette qu’elle détient.

L’indice manufacturier de la Réserve fédérale de New York a augmenté de 3,51 points en février pour s'établir à 15,43, soit légèrement au-dessus des attentes du marché et à son plus haut niveau depuis juin dernier. L’indice des stocks a bondi à 9,64 en février contre 4,21 le mois précédent mais les commandes nouvelles et les livraisons ont cependant reculé.

Le département américain du Travail a fait part hier d’une hausse de 1,5% des prix à l’importation en janvier, soit presque le double de la prévision de 0,8% des économistes interrogés par Reuters. Les cours du pétrole, qui ont grimpé de 3,4% le mois dernier, ont pesé sur cette tendance.

Selon le bureau budgétaire du Parlement canadien (PBO), il y a moins de 20% de chances que le gouvernement fédéral équilibre son budget d’ici 2015-2016, comme Ottawa le prétend. «Un déficit budgétaire va persister. Cela signifie qu’un déficit structurel existe, le PBO l’estimant à 10 milliards de dollars canadiens (0,5% du PIB) en 2015-2016», a-t-il précisé.

Le Brésil et les Etats-Unis n’ont pas créé d’initiative commune afin de faire pression sur la Chine pour qu’elle laisse le yuan s’apprécier, a déclaré hier le ministre des Finances brésilien Guido Mantega. «Le Brésil s’inquiète tout autant de la faiblesse du dollar que de la monnaie chinoise», a-t-il ajouté lors d’une conférence téléphonique avec la presse.

L’assureur crédit a vu son bénéfice net atteindre 294,5 millions d’euros l’an dernier (il avait chuté à 19 millions d’euros en 2009), grâce à une baisse de 40 points du ratio de sinistralité. Cette contraction a permis au groupe d’abaisser son ratio combiné de 104,7% à 68,7%. Fort de ces résultats, Euler Hermès compte verser un dividende de 4 euros par action.

D’après le département du Commerce, les ventes au détail ont augmenté de 0,3% en janvier par rapport à décembre aux Etats-Unis. Il s’agit de la septième hausse mensuelle consécutive. Les économistes interrogés par Reuters tablaient sur une progression de 0,6%. Sur un an en janvier, l’augmentation s’inscrit à 7,8%.

Le président de la Banque mondiale Robert Zoellick a estimé que les prix alimentaires avaient atteint un «niveau dangereux». Ces hausses de prix sont, dit-il, «vivement préoccupantes». Les cours des denrées alimentaires de base ont augmenté en moyenne de 15% d’octobre 2010 à janvier 2011, et ils sont seulement de 3% inférieurs au pic atteint en 2008.

La société de private equity française a officialisé hier le retrait de son fondateur Maurice Tchenio qui va développer la fondation à but caritatif AlphaOmega. Eddie Misrahi assure désormais la présidence d’Apax Partners qui procède actuellement à la levée d’un nouveau fonds, Apax France VIII. 600 millions d’euros d’engagements ont été souscrits à ce jour.

La chambre de compensation européenne a nommé hier Ian Axe au poste de directeur exécutif de LCH.Clearnet Group Limited (la holding du groupe) et de LCH.Clearnet Limited (la filiale britannique). Ian Axe, qui arrive de Barclays Capital, remplace Roger Liddell, en poste depuis 2006.

Barack Obama a estimé hier que les législateurs américains républicains et démocrates devaient faire des concessions pour trouver un compromis sur la réduction des dépenses publiques. Lors d’une conférence de presse, le président a estimé que l’amélioration de la situation budgétaire implique de réformer les programmes Medicaid et Medicare.

L’association de valeurs moyennes MiddleNext a décidé de s’allier avec l’ESSEC pour créer le programme de formation «Women Be European Board Ready» dédié aux femmes accédant aux comités exécutifs et aux conseils d’administration. Parmi les thèmes abordés: la relation aux actionnaires ou encore les responsabilités de l’administrateur.

Une procédure simplifiée sera lancée. Les questions institutionnelles sont au cœur des négociations sur la gouvernance économique

Sans attendre les détails encore non publiés de la fusion Deutsche Börse-Nyse Euronext, il y aura, n’en doutons pas, bien des observateurs qui pousseront les hauts cris pour déplorer la marginalisation de la place boursière française telle qu’elle ressort de l’opération. Pour être pleinement audibles, encore faudrait-il que ceux-ci s’interrogent en contrepartie sur ce qu’il serait advenu de la Bourse française si celle-ci avait, comme elle l’a recherché en son temps, préféré un mariage allemand ou opté au contraire pour un splendide isolement. Serait-elle aujourd’hui mieux placée ? Aurait-elle mieux résisté aux bouleversements survenus sur les marchés organisés, surtout en Europe où la directive MIF a eu des conséquences radicales ? On peut en douter. Sans doute l’une des clés de l’évolution des places boursières réside-t-elle plutôt dans la manière dont elles ont su conserver des activités post-marchés intégrées. Euronext a rompu avec ce modèle, alors que c’est de ses activités de compensation et de règlement-livraison que Deutsche Börse tire aujourd’hui une bonne partie de sa puissance. Il sera d’ailleurs fort intéressant de connaître l’avis de Bruxelles sur ce point de la fusion. Car la Commission a toujours critiqué le modèle en «silo» que la Place allemande, l’histoire le montre, a fort bien fait de conserver. Avalisera-t-elle l’accord sans sourciller ou tirera-t-elle la conséquence logique de ses critiques ?