Le comité central du PCC prévoit dans le cadre du plan quinquennal de faire de la demande intérieure un moteur de croissance plus important

L’Allemagne obtient en contrepartie l’assurance de réviser les traités

Le taux de rémunération des échanges interbancaires européens a été publié hier à 1 %. Une première depuis juillet 2009

Sur le marché des futures, les positions nettes acheteuses de devises japonaise et australienne s’établissent encore à des niveaux records

La politique accommodante des banques centrales américaine et britannique ne sont plus seules en cause

La société américaine propose 1,73 milliard de dollars pour le gérant d’actif Perpetual dans un marché qui pèse 1.300 milliards de dollars australiens

Royal Bank of Canada a annoncé le rachat du gestionnaire de fonds BlueBay Asset Management pour environ 963 millions de livres (1,1 milliard d’euros), le groupe canadien cherchant à s’imposer parmi les 10 premiers gestionnaires de fortune au monde. La première banque du Canada en termes de capitalisation boursière a proposé lundi 485 pence par titre, ce qui représente une prime de 29% par rapport au cours de clôture du titre vendredi à 375,70 pence.

La foncière cotée a convoqué pour le 24 novembre une assemblée générale extraordinaire, afin de voter l'émission d’obligations subordonnées remboursables en actions (OSRA) pour un montant de 40,9 millions d’euros. Les principaux actionnaires (Amber Capital, Neuflize Vie, MMA, Maaf, GMF, Predica) devraient souscrire. Foncière Paris France discute du rachat de l’activité immobilier d’entreprise de la SAGI, filiale de la SNI, elle-même détenue par la Caisse des dépôts.

Pour la première fois depuis juillet 2009, l’Euribor 3 mois a atteint lundi matin 1%, soit le niveau des taux directeurs en zone euro. La réduction de l’excès de liquidité dans le système bancaire, qui pousse aussi les taux au jour le jour à la hausse, explique cette forme de retour à la normale. Les futures sur Euribor parient sur une poursuite du mouvement d’ici à fin 2010.

La performance du Fonds de réserve pour les retraites (FRR) au troisième trimestre a atteint 4,5 %, portant à 2,7 % la performance depuis le début de l’année 2010. Au 30 septembre, le montant des actifs s’établissait à 35,7 milliards d’euros, contre respectivement 31,9 milliards il y a un an et 33,3 milliards fin 2009. Le portefeuille est constitué à 33,3% d’actions, 3,8% de matières premières, 3,5% d’immobilier, et à 59,4% d’actifs obligataires et monétaires, indique le FRR.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Assets under administration at Hargreaves Lansdown rose 14% in third quarter, ending at the end of September, to GBP19.9bn, from GBP17.5bn at the end of June.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The announcement of an agreement over the planned AIFM directive was put off last Thursday due to a lack of consensus between Parliament, the Commission and the European presidency, in another chapter to the saga, Agefi reports. Jean-Paul Gauzès, reporter to the European Parliament on the directive, is not concealing some aberrations in the redaction of the directive. The Parliament has made a large number of amendments, in total 1,690, and has thus been required to rewrite the draft. “The text is changing virtually every day,” and remains difficult to keep track of, even for lawyers, the newspaper reports. The Parliament has also blamed reversals of positions of member states, not least “France, which rallied a week and a half ago behind the idea of a European passport.” But despite the change in the French position, the question of a license for foreign funds remains at the centre of the disagreement. The UK would like to see national supervisors remain responsible for issuing licenses, while France is pushing for ESMA, the future European market supervisor, to hold the keys to the system. “The Belgian presidency will have to choose between them, putting one country out, which could be a bad sign for the future,” the reporter opines. A vote on the text is now planned for November, Agefi reports.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to reports in Focus, German and Swiss experts are said to have found a spectacular solution which will allow the German tax authorities to recuperate EUR30bn from Swiss bank accounts of German tax evaders, without Switzerland needing to compromise its banking secrecy laws. The agreement is said to have been approved by the Swiss government in early October. It would involve a one-off, flat-rate levy of 35% (10 percentage points higher than the tax rate on capital gains in Germany), which Switzerland would transfer to Germany in order to provide the latter country with information on shareholders. In addition, the measures would be applied retroactively over a ten-year period, on the basis of hypothetical capital gains of 3% per year.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Marna Whittington, COO of Allianz Global Investors (AGI), announced on 15 Octber that AGI has created the Allianz Global Investors Center for Behavioural Finance, where professor Shlomo Benartzi (Anderson School of Management, UCLA) will be chief behavioural economist. The new structure will operate in three central areas: Behavioural research and training: the center will make training and pedagogical material available to IFAs, investors and decision-makers at retirement funds; Investment and risk management: the centre will apply the results of behavioural studies to improve the risk management and investment process; Products and solutions for preparations for old age and for the retirement phase: the centre will act as an interface between behavioural research and ageing and retirement planning needs.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In third quarter, the index of investment advisor morale (BSI) calculated by TNS Infratest on behalf of Robeco Deutschland fell by 0.3 points compared with April-June, to 99.8. The index is calculated on the basis of responses from 350 advisors at commercial banks, savings banks and co-operative banks. Only 27%, compared with 35%, of specialists surveyed consider the current situation satisfactory in terms of sales of open-ended funds. However, the proportion of optimists for the next six months totals 37%, compared with 35%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Prince Kyril of Saxe-Coburg, who was previously head of sales at GLG for the Iberian peninsula, will now be head of sales for newcits hedge funds from Man Group, the management firm which acquired GLG Partners, Funds People reports. The second son of the former king Simeon of Bulgaria succeeds Frank Pauls in this position.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 18 October, Universal-Investment launches the European equities fund European Equity Selection R, on behalf of the asset management affiliate of Hamburg’s Berenberg private bank. The product will invest at least 51% of its assets in shares in firms of all cap sizes with their headquarters in the EMU. The management team, which selects equities which are fundamentally undervalued, is also authorised to invest in ETFs and to retain cash. Characteristics Name: Berenberg European Equity Selection R ISIN code: DE000A1C2XN2 Front-end fee: 5% Management commission: 1%

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Since 14 October, Lyxor Asset Mangaement (Société Générale) has been offering four French-registered ETF products providing inverse replication of sub-indices of the Stoxx Europe 600 on the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic trading platform from Deutsche Börse. The products are the Lyxor ETF STOXX Europe 600 Automobiles & Parts Daily Short, Lyxor ETF STOXX Europe 600 Banks Daily Short, Lyxor ETF STOXX Europe 600 Basic Resources Daily Short and Lyxor ETF STOXX Europe 600 Oil & Gas Daily Short.

An analysis of the period 1999 to 2008 in quarterly 13Ffilings withthe SEC, stating the valuation of hedge funds’ positions on equities, reveals that about 7% of all statements of positions were falsified, meaning that hedge funds used other valuations than the market. The findings come in a working document from the Centre for Financial Research (CFR) at the University of Cologne, available at http://www.cfr-cologne.de/download/workingpaper/cfr-10-15.pdf.According to the authors of the study, Gjergji Cici (Mason School of Business), Alexander Kempf and Alexander Puetz (both of CFR- University ofCologne), the deviations show that hedge funds knowingly manipulate their valuation, as these variations are not random and serve the interest of managers.The authors show, firstly, that false valuations aim to make returns look better by reducing volatility and boosting the Sharpe ratio.Secondly, the divergences with reality are highest for funds which have the least risk to be controlled.Thirdly, the largest deviations are for hedge funds which are the most aggressive in the use of publicity materials which state their returns.Lastly, the study shows that suspicious performance profiles appear particularly for funds which most amply or most frequently falsify their equities positions.

In 2008, two quantitative management specialists founded FinanceCom Asset Management in Paris, with the help of the Moroccan private group FinanceCom. Now, Jean-Philippe Scholler, president, and Jean-Marc Divoux, CEO, are at the head of a 6-member team, and are planning to enlarge their product range and client base.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Wall Street Journal reports that RiverNorth Capital is planning to launch a strategic income fund, the RiverNorth/DoubleLine Strategic Income Fund, at the end of December. The fund will be managed by Patrick Galley, CIO of RiverNorth, and Stephen O’Neill, a portfolio manager at RiverNorth, and Jeffrey Gundlach, the former TCW star manager who has gone independent to found DoubleLine Capital (Usd5.5bn in assets), of which he is CEO and CIO. The new product will be an open-ended fund; Gundlach’s contribution will be based on a core bond strategy and an opportunistic strategy which may use derivatives. According to its SEC filing, the fund may make use of short-term trading, and will have a short-term portfolio turnover rate of over 100%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Assets under management at Polar Capital have topped USD3bn in the six months to 30 September, at a total of USD3.05bn, compared with USD2.53bn as of the end of March 2010. Net inflows in the period under review totalled USD283m, while the acquisition of HIM Capital contributed USD249m to the increase in inflows.

Polar Capital Holdings has announced the formation of the Global Convertibles team with the hiring of David Keetley, Steve McCormick and Kendrick Li. It isanticipated that the team will launch the Polar Capital ALVA Global Convertibles hedge fund on the 1st November 2010. The fund intends to invest in liquid, global convertiblesecurities. The team joins from Vicis Capital based in New York and London. At its peak Vicis Capital managed USD5.8bn with USD3.3bn of Long Market Value committed to convertibles.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Arnaud Gandon was recruited in August as CIO of the asset management division of Heptagon Capital, Hedge Week reports. Gandon spend 12 years at Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) in London, most recently as head of global equity. The group has also recruited Natalia Greslikova as director of institutional sales for Benelux, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. She was most recently managing director of sales at Gottex Fund Management, in charge of European clients.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } A new foreign asset management firm has recently made its first appearance in France, under the name E.I. Sturdza Strategic Management Ltd. Behind this slightly mysterious name hides an asset management unit of Banque Baring Brothers Sturdza SA, the former Swiss arm of the Baring bank, which is now wholly owned by its founder, the Prince Eric I. Sturdza and his partners. Founded in 1999, E.I. Sturdza Strategic Management Ltd. initially developed a range of funds for private clients of the Swiss bank. Relying on its expertise in outsourced management, it built its range on offerings from experienced managers who took the opportunity to go independent. For example, in 2008, E.I Sturda Strategic Management Ltd. teamed up with Lilian Co., the former star manager from Baring Asset Management Asia Ltd, who founded the firm LBN Advisors Ltd, in Hong Kong. Together they launced the Strategic China Panda Fund. “This type of partnership, bringing together operational quality and management talent, has allowed E.I. Sturdza Strategic Management Ltd. to attract well-known managers such as Frédérique Dubrion, former manager of the Gold and Energy funds from SGAM; Yutaka Uda, former director of Japanese investments for Baring Asset Management, Willem Vinke, former manager of Europe funds at Jo Hambro, and more recently, Michel Danechi, ex-head of trading emerging markets at Lehman Brothers,” explains Patrick Kopitz, one of the partners at Banque Baring Brothers Sturdza SA. “Before investing in a geographical region or an asset class, we first look to invest with talented managers,” he says. Though in principle E.I. Sturdza Strategic Management Ltd. demands exclusive rights to sales activity for the firm in which they sign an agreement, they do not buy a stake in capital. 10 funds have been released on this original model, covering asset classes and regions such as Japan, China, Europe, and natural resources. The first funds were based in Guernsey, but since 2008, E.I. Sturdza Strategic Managemetn Ltd. has been compliant with UCITS III. It will now launch two new UCITS III funds in October 2010, one focused on emerging Eastern Europe (including Turkey) with Danechi, who joined Armajaro Asset Management LLP in March 2009 as managing partners, and one fund focused on Europe, in partnership with Willem Vinke, CEO and CIO of Lofoten Asset Management Ltd. In total, E.I. Sturdza Strategic Management Ltd. has a relatively exhaustive range of products, which represents CHF1.5bn in assets. In 2009, E.I. Sturdza Strategic Management Ltd., registered its Strategic China Panda Fund with the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) in France. Other products will follow soon.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Spanish minister of Economy and Finance has already signed or is about to sign tax agreements with 20 offshore territories which will then be withdrawn from the offshore tax haven blacklist established by Spain in 1991, which then included 48 countries, Cinco Días reports. Such information exchange and/or double taxation agreements have been signed with Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Luxembourg, Andorra and Panama. In the short term, similar conventions are expected to be signed with the Bahamas, Bermuda, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey, Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands, the Isle of Man, Jordan, Oman, San Marino and Singapore.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Chinese securities commission (CSRC) has issued a fourth warning to Citic Securities as the firm did not meet a deadline on 29 September to comply with a requirement to reduce its stake in the first Chinese fund management firm from 100% to 49%. The firm, China AMC, has a 10% market share. China AMC had been barred from launching new funds for nearly one year, and this term has now been extended to mandates, A-Ben Advisors reports. The consulting firm estimates that it will be difficult for Citic Securities to sell a 51% stake in China AMC in one piece, for regulatory and financial reasons. The sale may be undertaken in 10% chunks, which would nonetheless represent CNY1.6bn or USD240m each, on the basis of known transactions.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 14 October, Van Eck Global launched the Market Vectors China ETF (acronym PEK on NYSE Arca), the first ETF on the US market to offer exposure to Chinese A equities listed in Shenzhen and Shanghai. It provides synthetic replication, for the moment, of the shares of the CSI 300 index. Management commission is 0.72%. Van Eck says that there are already 29 other ETFs (all of them synthetic replication products) based on Chinese A shares in Asia, 24 of them in Hong Kong, three in Singapore and Taiwan, and two in Tokyo.

Le hedge fund basé à Hong Kong Richland Capital Management a recruté Elena Lau en qualité de chief operting officer (COO), selon Asian Investor.Elle travaillait précédemment chez Bank of America Merrill Lynch, en tant que vice-president.

La société de gestion alternative EIM a annoncé en fin de semaine la nomination de John Ward en qualité de responsable de la due diligence opérationnelle au niveau du groupe.John Ward, qui sera basé à new York, rejoindra la société le 8 novembre prochain. Il était précédemment executive director et chief operating officer de la gestion alternative chez Nomura Funds Research and Technology.