p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Indian private equity investor Access Asia will launch a new private equity fund, targeting small and mid-sized businesses in India, by the end of the year, Asian Investor reports. The fund, with USD150m, will focus on deals measuring USD8m to USD12m. The two founders of Access Asia, Nilesh Mehta and Sangeera Modi, think that there is an attractive niche in India, with major undervaluations and a larger deal flow. Access Asia will focus on a few industries that its founders and partners know well, including life sciences, infrastructure services, media, and IT. Access Asia has already received soft pledges for USD30m, and is hoping for a first closing by the end of the year.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } After receiving a license in July from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the US firm BNY Mellon and the Chinese Western Securities of Xi’an (CNY1bn in assets) on 15 November launched an asset management joint venture, BNY Mellon Western Fund Management Company. The official ceremony was held at the Shanghai World Financial Center. The joint venture is 51% controlled by Western Securities, and 49% by BNY Mellon. Initially, the firm will be limited to management of Chinese domestic assets in a range of funds aimed at retail clients. Distribution will be undertaken via the banking and brokerage sectors in China.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Deutsche Börse on 15 November admitted the first strategy ETC from DB ETC Index Plc (Deutsche Bank) to trading on its Xetra platform. The German-registered product (DE000A1E6XY8) is the db Mean Reversion Euro Hedged ETC; it charges fees of 0.45%.The ETC allows subscribers to invest, with hedging for currency risks, in a basket of commodities including aluminium, gold, diesel, corn, wheat and WTI oil, weighted on the basis of a return to baseline principle, and replicating the db Mean Reversion EUR Index. The weighting is largely based on the average price over the past 365 days, compared with the average over the past 5 years. The weighting is updated whenever the average price of a commodity over the past 365 days is significantly different from its average over 5 years. The ETC segment of the Deutsche Börse now inlcudes 179 products, and monthly trading volumes total about EUR550m.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Stefan Krause, CFO of Deutsche Bank, has told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the firm is still planning to sell BHF-Bank by the end of this year. Talks have been held with several potential buyers. Deutsche Bank would like to sell the Sal. Oppenheim affiliate as a whole in a single transaction. According to sources familiar with the matter, only LGT is said to be inclined to pay a price close to EUR650m, the book value of BHF. Among the other candidates are Apollo, the Hinduja group and perhaps also KKR, which at one time had teamed up with the Lampe private bank.

Anthony Bolton expects to step down from the Fidelity China Special Situations fund, the investment trust he launched last April, no earlier than 2013, says the Financial Times. The fund had a rise in net asset value per share of 7.7 per cent from April 19 to September 30.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swiss private equity group Partners Group Holding SA on 16 November announced that it has opened an office in Seoul, Korea. An increase in the number of clients in the region has been complemented by two new mandates from the sovereign fund Korea Investment Corporation (KIC). The opening of a Seoul office, which allows direct access to Korean businesses, is also a sign of the strong engagement of the business in the Asia-Pacific region, a statement says. Partners Group is present in five countries in the region, with more than 100 professionals.

Threadneedle has appointed Raymundo Yu to the newly created position of Asia Pacific chairman. He was a member of the Merrill Lynch and Co. operating committee and was chairman, Asia Pacific region at Merrill Lynch from July 2000 to December 2008, where he was responsible for leading an integrated platform across businesses and geographies.. Threadneedle established a presence in Asia in 2008 and has offices in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Neptune has announced the appointment in October of Piers Harrison as deputy finance director and head of operational risk. He joins from Matterley Asset Management, a division of Charles Stanley & Co Ltd. He co-founded Matterley, a value-focused investment management boutique, in August 2008, which then joined Charles Stanley in August 2009.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }a:link { } A&F Markets has announced the launch of the first centralised market for works of art, Art Exchange, which allows for investment in a new type of asset. “By allowing institutionals and retail investors to buy and sell shares in works of art on a stock market model, Art Exchange makes investment in art simple, attractive, fast, and liquid,” a statement says. “We believe we are answering a concrete need of all financial investors: to be able to invest simply, in an attractive asset which had previously escaped them,” says Pierre Naquin, founder of A&F Markets. “By bringing all the transparency and liquidity which was lacking in this market, we believe we have found a good formula which will allow more people to consider investment in art to be accessible and simple.” “The art market is very particular, and doesn’t depend much on the other major economic cycles. It offers a highly attractive ratio of security to gains (long term security, short-term volatility),” explains Caroline Matthews, CIO at A&F Markets. Art Exchange is starting up with 10 major works and the support of several partner galleries. Among the first works of art are an installation by Mike Kelley, another by Ansel Kieffer, an immense tapestry by Dubossarsky & Vinogradov, and a spectacular sculpture by Richard Texier. Via its order processing platform, available at www.aexchange.net, users may view the list of available works (all autheticated and certified), and their detailed descriptions, the financial track record of the works, the central order book, and facts about the works, the artists, and the art market. Buy and sell orders are processed daily (on business days) at 6 PM.

Despite the financial crisis, US investors’ appetite for socially responsible investment (SRI) has remained strong, The 2010 edition of the report by the Social Investment Forum (SIF) on trends in socially responsible investment in the United States (“Report on Socially Responsible Investing Trends in the United States”), shows that SRI investment grew faster than the entire asset management sector between 2007 and 2009.Since 2005, SRI assets have increased by more than 34%, while the larger asset management universe has grown by only 3%. From the beginning of 2007 to the end of 2009, assets involved in responsible and sustainable investment increased by more than 13% to USD3.07trn, while at the same time, the asset management sector as a whole grew by less than 1%.The number of vehicles using ESG criteria has risen by 90% since the last study, undertaken by SIF in 2007, from 260 to 493. Meanwhile, assets which integrate ESG criteria exploded, from USD202bn previously to USD569bn. The report adds that according to estimates by Thomson Reuters Nelson, nearly one dollar out of every eight taken in hand by a management professional in the United States, or 12.2% of USD25.2trn in assets under management monitored by Thomson, is implicated in a sustainable and responsible investment strategy.According to the authors of the study, this trend is expected to further accelerate in the next few years, and it will be all the stronger, as growth in SRI is driven not only by institutional investors but also by private clients.

In a SEC filing (form N-1A), American Funds has announced plans to launch the American Funds Global Balanced Fund on 1 February 2011. As its name indicates, the product may invest worldwide in equities and bonds, with a significant portion of its assets placed in securities from issuers outside the United States, some of them in emerging countries.Normally, the portfolio will include at least 45% ordinary shares and other types of equities. It will focus on mid- to large caps, but not exclusively. At least 25% will be invested in bonds and other debt instruments, including money market instruments. These papers will be investment grade or an equivalent quality.Assets will be divided into several segments, each one managed by a dedicated advisor who will decide how to invest the allocation allotted to him or her.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Global Fixed Income team at Standish Mellon Asset Management has been retained by BNY Mellon Asset Management to manage a new global unconstrained bond fund, the BNY Mellon Evolution Global Strategic Bond Fund. The absolute return product may invest in all segments of fixed income, which offers considerable diversification, allows it to exploit several sources of performance, and brings much flexibility to adapt to a rapidly-changing environment. The fund will seek to generate performance over a complete market cycle by exploiting relative value potential and investment in a vast range of assets including government bonds from developed and emerging countries, inflation-linked bonds, investment grade corporate bonds, and derivatives. Active management of curation via derivatives will also be used to generate performance in periods of rising bond yields.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Following its acquisition of Morgan Stanley’s retail funds (including the Van Kampen Investments products) last year, Invesco will be lowering commissions on 57 of the funds, which will be merged with Morgan Stanley products, the Wall Street Journal reports. Phil Taylor, head of the North American affiliate of Invesco, says the move will allow subscribers to save USD78m in the next two years. Ryan Leggio, fund analyst at Morningstar, says that the cost reduction will be limited to 0.1% of commissions for the first year. The reduction, however, is larger than for some funds, such as the future Invesco Van Kampen Growth & Income Fund, which will charge 0.75%, compared with 1.50% for the current Invesco Fundamental Value Fund, which will be merged with the Invesco Large Cap Relative Value, whose management commission is 0.92%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Dexia Asset Management on 16 November announced a new fund, bringing its product range to 24 funds. Dexia Global Alpha is based on a global macro investment process which seeks to exploit potential returns detected for several diversified asset classes (equities, fixed income, currencies, commodities), largely in Europe, North America, and Asia. The objective of the fund is to obtain substantial performance beyond the Eonia, with average volatility of about 6%, on a recommended investment horizon of 3 years. Dexia Global Alpha seeks to capture potential sources of returns in various asset classes and geographical regions. These returns correspond to the average performance over and above the risk-free rate for a given strategy. These premiums may come, for example, from dividends, reinvested profits, bond coupons, the return differential between currencies, etc. “Our management team has identified about 20 potential sources of returns which may be exploited via two types of strategies: long exposures, for example, to equities indices, government bonds from G20 countries, credit and commodities indices; and long and/or short arbitrage strategies based on a single asset class, in order to profit from macroeconomic, financial or market imbalances,” says Fabrice Cuchet, head of alternative management at Dexia AM. “Concretely, our fund is exposed to interest rate portage strategies, global currency portage strategies, premiums earned on the sale of options on equities indices, fixed income or currencies, and trend-tracking strategies, in order to profit from market excesses and behavioural bias,” says Charles-Henry de Courcel, manager of the fund. Major characteristics of the fund Benchmark index EONIA CapitaliséLegal format UCITS III de droit françaisDate of creation 09/11/2010Currency of valuation EURInvestment period 3 ansWeekly valuation (on Tuesdays) ISIN code Management feesC shares: FR0010931618 1.5% maximumI shares: FR0010931717 1.0% maximumN shares: FR0010931626 1.5% maximum

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Würzburg prosecutor has indicted Helmut Kiener, who has been jailed since October 2009, on 35 charges of serious fraud, falsification of documents, and tax evasion, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. He is accused of using his hedge funds, K1 Global and K1 Invest, to orchestrate a Ponzi scheme which cost EUR345m to 5,000 retail clients and banks, including Barclays Cap and BNP Paribas.

La chambre de compensation va réduire certains tarifs sur la plate-forme Xetra à compter du 1er décembre. Les frais de compensation devraient baisser de 11% par rapport au troisième trimestre 2010, indique la coentreprise entre Deutsche Börse et SIX Swiss Exchange.

La banque en ligne acquiert une part de 60 % du capital de ThinkCapital, une société de gestion de trackers néerlandaise. Le capital social non libéré sera détenu par Flow Traders et la direction de ThinkCapital. BinckBank renforcera son réseau de distribution et ThinkCapital se chargera du développement de produits.

Une aide européenne soulagerait la Banque centrale, qui apporte en refinancement aux banques irlandaises l'équivalent de 80 % du PIB du pays

A l’occasion de sa journée investisseurs, la banque a évalué l’effet des conventions de double imposition entre 15 à 40 milliards de francs suisses

Leurs spreads se sont creusés en quinze jours de 120 pb, à environ 800 pb, tandis que l'activité secondaire pour cette classe d'actif s'est asséchée

Le quotidien britannique relève qu’Abou Dhabi met en place une maison de courtage publique destinée à garantir l’approvisionnement alimentaire à un coût raisonnable. L’objectif est de préserver la nation des fluctuations de cours induites par la spéculation mondiale sur les denrées agricoles, un enjeu important pour une nation importatrice en la matière.

La société d’investissement a relevé son offre de rachat à 5 dollars par action, un montant qui reste insuffisant pour Carl Icahn et Seneca Capital

Depuis l'annonce du programme de rachat de 600 milliards de dollars de Treasuries, les taux à 10 ans se sont tendus de 42 pb à 2,93 %

L’aide sera ciblée sur le secteur bancaire mais ses modalités restent floues

L’aide sera ciblée sur le secteur bancaire mais ses modalités restent floues

Si les flux ont reculé en septembre à 91,4 milliards de dollars, ils restent supérieurs de 15 % à leur moyenne mensuelle calculée depuis le début de l’année

Le président de la Réserve fédérale de Chicago, Charles Evans, a indiqué que le programme de rachat de 600 milliards d’obligations d’Etat était un «bon début» mais que d’autres mesures de soutien seraient nécessaires, rapporte le quotidien. Des propos confirmés par Eric Rosengren, le président de la Fed de Boston, inquiet de la montée du chômage et de la baisse des prix.

Le quotidien américain indique que le fonds de private equity conjoint entre le chinois Fosun et Carlyle pourrait lever entre 3 et 10 milliards de yuans (entre 335 millions et 1,12 milliard d’euros) dans le cadre d’un second tour de levée de fonds. Le quotidien cite Liang Xinjun, le directeur général de Fosun International.

La société américaine de private equity songe à acquérir une participation au capital de RJ Corp, le principal embouteilleur de PepsiCo en Asie du Sud-Est, pour un montant voisin de 100 millions de dollars. RJ Corp accapare notamment 60% de l’activité pour PepsiCo en Inde.

Le moral des analystes et investisseurs allemands a progressé bien plus qu’attendu en novembre pour atteindre 1,8, contre -7,2 le mois précédent, révèlent les données publiées mardi par l’institut ZEW. L’indice sur le sentiment vis-à -vis des conditions actuelles dépasse lui aussi les attentes en passant de 72,6 en octobre à 81,5 en novembre, là où les analystes prévoyaient 75.