In theory, Barings has already largely covered its areas of excellence well with appropriate products. The British asset management firm, whose funds dedicated to emerging markets represent about EUR16bn, out of a total of EUR37bn, already include heavyweight players such as the Hong Kong China fund, with EUR3.36bn, Eastern Europe (EUR2.41bn), and Global Emerging Markets (EUR1.63bn), as well as Global Resources (USD1.23bn), Marino Valensise, CIO, announced on Friday.In these conditions, the need for new products is not urgent. Barings may, however, soon fill a gap in its product range with an Asian emerging market bond fund, to take advantage of appreciation of local currencies and the fact that Asian and Middle Eastern investors, including sovereign funds, are seeking local investment opportunities, which ultimately carry less risk than US Treasuries.Asset allocation mandates and funds which have been offered by Barings hitherto have aimed at returns 400 basis points higher than the Libor or the consumer price index. The management firm will also add to its range of products of this type. The British asset management firm has not ruled out the possibility of releasing a more aggressive product, which would aim to achieve returns 600 basis points higher than the Libor.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The life insurer Württembergische Lebensversicherung has sold four of the seven buildings of the Friedrich Carré complex in Berlin, totalling 23,500 square metres, including 18,000 square metres of office space and 3,400 of retail space, to Deka Immobilien. The property will be added to the portfolio of the open-ended real estate fund Deka-ImmobilienGlobal. It is the second German property to be acquired by Deka in 2010, following the Krankenhaus Süd hospital in Cologne.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Austrian-German management firm C-Quadrat on 1 April will close the C-Quadrat Arts Total Return Global-AMI fund (EUR700m) and the C-Quadrat Arts Total Return Dynamic to new retail and institutional investments, as well as to new investments from unit-linked savings plans. However, payments from existing savings plans will continue to be accepted, along with investments from life insurance policies of existing or future clients. The two funds will be replaced by the German-registered flexible fund C-Quadrat Arts Total Return Flexible (DE000A0YJMN7), which was launched in November 2010, and whose “highly active” allocation to equities and more exactly to equities funds may vary from 0% to 100%, depending on market conditions. The new fund, managed by Arts Asset Management, currently has assets of EUR9.63m.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The ETF range from Charles Schwab has gained two new members, and now includes 13 products. The new ETFs are the Schwab U.S. REIT ETF (acronym SCHH) and the Schwab U.S. Mid-Cap ETF (SCHM), both of which charge fees of 0.13%.Like the other ETFs of the range, they may be bought and sold without a commission from Schwab online accounts.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Van Eck Global has announced that the board of trustees at the Market Vectors ETF Trust has approved a 1-for-3 split share split in the Market Vectors Indonesia Index ETF (acronym: IDX). Shares were trading at USD75.54 on Friday, 21 January.The split will take place at the close of trading on 28 January 2011, and shares resulting from the operation will begin to be traded on 1 February.The split will allow for a lower unit price for shares, making the fund more accessible to investors. Van Eck global estimates that the move will increase liquidity, and by extension, tighten bid-ask spreads.Assets in the fund, focused on the most liquid Indonesian shares, on Friday totalled USD494.79m.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } With the Frost Diversified Strategies Fund (actonym FDSFX), Frost Investment Advisors has launched a mutual fund which offers investors access to alternative strategies which have previously been available only to hedge fund and private equity fund clients. The objective is to preserve capital and to reduce potential losses while also offering potential outperformance. About 60% of the portfolio will be allocated to traditional investments (equities, bonds, cash and publicly-traded options). The hedge fund replication portion will total 30% to 40%, and will rely on beta and hedge fund index replication strategies, using freely available products.The fund will be managed by four people: Tom Stringfellow, president of Frost, David Telling, principal portfolio manager, Brad Thompson, director of research, and Jeffrey Elswick, fixed income director.Front-end fees will be limited to a maximum of 5.75%, and TER will total 2%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Bankinter has announced the launch of the Fondo Bankinter Eurostoxx Inverso, an equities product which, as its name indicates, seeks to inversely replicate the evolution of the Euro Stoxx 50 index. The minimal recommended investment duration is 1 year.The passive management fund, which was registered on 16 December and founded on 9 October 2008, will invest in futures, and will be authorised to invest up to 10% of its assets in other funds.CharacteristicsName: Bankinter Eurostoxx InversoISIN code: ES0164585004Management commission: 1%Minimal subscription: 60

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to sources close to the case, the RREEF Infrasctructure fund from Deutsche Bank has acquired a 49% stake in thee Spanish firms which have five wind farms in the Castille-Leon province, for an undisclosed amount, Cotizalia reports.The vendor is the real estate promoter Rafael González Vallinas, head of Inversiones Empresariales Vapat, who is selling up to 200 megawatts of the installated power to the German fund.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The former head of European distribution at iShares, Isabell Mössler, has been recruited as co-head of European distribution at ETF Securities LLP, where she joins Scott Thompson. She will be in charge of the German-speaking markets (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland), northern Europe, and the Iberian peninsula. She will report to Mark Weeks, partner at ETF Securities Marketing, and replaces Tim Harvey, who will join the New York office to develop distribution in North America.

A Morgan Stanley banker allegedly leaked details of Advanced Micro Devices plan to buy ATI Technologies, which was ultimately passed to Galleon Group co-founder Raj Rajaratnam, prosecutors say, according to the Financial Times. A spokesman for Morgan Stanley said that the banker has been placed on leave and that the bank is fully co-operating with the government’s investigation.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Wall Street Journal reports that Phil Roblee, head of alternative investments for the School Employees Retirement System of Ohio pension fund (USD10bn) has asked the hedge funds Level Global Investors LP (USD4bn) and Diamondback Capital Management LLC (USD5bn), who are among the asset management firms involved in a wide-ranging investigation by the SEC and the FBI of possible insider trading, for an explanation. They have not learned anything so far, and Diamondback has replies that it cannot provide any information while the investigation is underway.Roblee has hot withdrawn the money invested in the fund, nor has the Public Employees Retirement System of Pennsylvania, which has also maintained its allocation to Diamondback. The fund, which will have to handle redemption requests of USD400m by mid-February, has offered its clients a discount on management commissions to 1.75% from 2%. It is also planning to charge 1% on redemptions, to pay for potential sentencing that could require disgorgements.

Aberdeen Asset Management has launched the Aberdeen Global - Emerging Markets Corporate Bond Fund, Aberdeen Global - Ethical World Equity Fund and the Aberdeen Global – American Smaller Companies Fund. The three funds are part of the Group’s Luxembourg-domiciled Aberdeen Global SICAV.The Scottish asset management company has secured over USD120 million of seeding for the three funds from existing clients - USD32.5 million for the emerging market corporate bond fund, USD54.5 million for the ethical world equity fund and USD41 million for the American smaller companies fund. Once authorised for sale by local regulators the funds will be actively marketed across Europe and parts of Asia.The Aberdeen Global - Emerging Markets Corporate Bond Fund will be managed by Aberdeen’s emerging market debt team, led by Brett Diment. Currently the team has over USD600 million invested in emerging market corporate bonds out of total assets under management of over USD5 billion.The Aberdeen Global - Ethical World Equity Fund will be based on the existing UK-domiciled, Aberdeen Ethical World Fund and will be managed by the Group’s global equity team based in Edinburgh. The 14-strong team, led by Stephen Docherty, manages over USD1 billion in Environmental, Social Corporate Governance (ESG) segregated mandates and pooled funds.The team will screen companies for involvement in alcohol, tobacco, pornographic products, gambling and weaponry. If a company’s turnover in any of these areas exceeds 10% (or 5% for pornography), it will automatically be excluded from the Fund’s investment universe. Companies will be also analysed on an ESG basis. The Aberdeen Global –American Smaller Companies Fund will be managed from Philadelphia by the Group’s 12-strong North American equity team, led by Paul Atkinson. The team will employ Aberdeen’s group-wide, disciplined, bottom-up equity investment process in managing the portfolio.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swiss asset management firm Lombard Odier Investment Managers (LOIM) has announced the launch of the UCITS-compliant bond fund 5Bs Bond Fund, an actively-managed Luxembourg-registered product which invests in corporate bonds with ratings of BBB and BB. The benchmark is a fundamental weighting index, which unlike indices which are weighted in terms of capitalisation, give no advantage in the weighting to businesses in sectors which have higher levels of debt. The fund will be managed by Kevin Corregan, head of credit at LOIM.Stéphane Monier, CIO for fixed income & currencies at LOIM, explains that “the potential of the cross-border universe covering BBB and BB has been neglected up to now. Many investors are required to sell bonds when their ratings are lowered, and these bonds then become available to investors who are not subject to this constraint.”The 5Bs fund aims to capture additional performance by focusing on “fallen angels” whose rating has been lowered to high yeild, and “rising stars,” whose ratings are likely to soon be raised to investment grade. “This is not a niche market, since the 5B universe of corporate bonds represents three times the volume of high yeild, and produces higher returns than investment grade, with equivalent volatility and a negligible amount of added risk,” says Monier.

La gamme d’ETF de Charles Schwab s’est enrichie de deux nouvelles références et compte désormais treize produits. Les nouveaux ETF sont le Schwab U.S. REIT ETF (acronyme SCHH) et le Schwab U.S. Mid-Cap ETF (SCHM), tous deux chargés à 0,13 %. Comme les autres ETF de la gamme, ils peuvent être acquis et vendus sans commission en ligne sur des comptes Schwab.

La banque d’affaires franco-américaine Lazard a annoncé le 21 janvier dans un communiqué que Peter Mandelson, l'éminence grise du parti travailliste britannique, devenait un de ses «conseillers senior», pour fournir «des avis stratégiques indépendants à la firme et à ses clients». «Lord Mandelson a une expérience et une sagacité exceptionnelles dans le domaine des affaires et du service public», asouligne le PDG de Lazard, Kenneth Jacobs.

Avec le Frost Diversified Strategies Fund (acronyme : FDSFX), Frost Investment Advisors vient de lancer une mutual fund offrant aux investisseurs des stratégies d’investissement alternatif jusqu'à présent réservées aux clients des hedge funds et des fonds de private equity. L’objectif consiste à préserver le capital en réduisant le potentiel de perte tout en offrant des possibilités de surperformance. Environ 60 % du portefeuille seront alloués à des investissements traditionnels (actions, obligations, cash et options cotées). La partie réplication de hedge funds se situera entre 30 et 40 % et utilisera des stratégies de beta et la réplication d’indice de hedge funds sur la base de produits librement disponibles.Le fonds sera géré par quatre personnes, Tom Stringfellox, président de Fros, David Telling (principal portfolio manager), Brad Thompson (directeur de la recherche) et Jeffrey Elswick (fixed income director). Le droit d’entrée est plafonné à 5,75 % et le taux de frais sur encours se situe à 2 %.

L’autorité américaine des marchés plaide pour la mise en place d’un standard fiduciaire commun s’appliquant aux courtiers et aux conseillers financiers enregistrés. Selon la SEC, cette uniformisation se justifie en raison de la confusion dans laquelle sont plongés nombre d’investisseurs particuliers face aux rôles joués par les conseillers en investissement et les broker-dealers.

Le groupe américain va selon des sources concordantes étudier cette semaine une offre le valorisant à près de 13 milliards de dollars et émanant d’un consortium de sociétés de capital-investissement. Les offres étaient attendues par Sara Lee jusqu’à vendredi dernier. Apollo Global Management, Bain Capital et TPG offriraient ainsi ensemble jusqu’à 20 dollars par titre, contre un cours de clôture vendredi de 18,70 dollars.

Les investisseurs ont réalisé des transactions pour 96 milliards d’euros dans l’immobilier d’entreprise européen en 2010 d’après le conseil en immobilier DTZ. Le volume a donc doublé par rapport à 2009. Au quatrième trimestre, les marchés français et allemands ont été les plus dynamiques. Pour 2011, DTZ table sur 123 milliards d’euros d’investissement, soit une progression de 28 % par rapport à 2010.

Emmanuel Morano, responsable de la gestion actions chez UFG-LFP

Yves Maillot, directeur des investissements et de la gestion actions chez Robeco Gestions

Jean-Luc Proutat, responsable économies OCDE chez BNP Paribas

Etienne Gorgeon, responsable de la gestion taux et crédit chez Edmond de Rothschild IM

Alors que la Réserve fédérale se réunit mercredi, l’écart entre les taux 2 ans et 30 ans a atteint un plus haut historique à plus de 400 pb

L’indice pourrait marquer une courte pause avant de viser les 4.550 points

La Réserve fédérale ne devrait pas modifier mercredi son programme d’assouplissement, alors que la courbe des taux américaine affiche une pente record.

Les caisses d'épargne devront lever des fonds auprès d'investisseurs privés ou être nationalisées

Les professionnels déplorent les effets opposés de la nouvelle réglementation des OPCVM monétaires et celle de Bâle 3

D’après les données d’iShares pour « L’Agefi », les ETF sur les actions européennes et monde ont fait recette en décembre

Elles s’exposeraient au risque d’une plus forte décote ou d’un rééchelonnement si elles n’apportaient pas leurs titres à une offre du fonds