D’après Javier Mazarredo, directeur commercial mondial de Santander Asset Management, la gestion d’actifs en Espagne a subi une fantastique hémorragie de 55-60 % de ses rentrées ces deux dernières années. C’est un secteur en déclin, et il ne connaîtra pas de reprise avant 2013, a-t-il souligné lors de la seconde Rencontre nationale de l’investissement collectif organisée par APD, Deloitte et Inverco.Le dirigeant de Santander AM espère qu’en 2013 et en 2014, les fonds pourront bénéficier de 30 milliards d’euros de souscriptions, ce qui paraît exagéré mais qui peut parfaitement se produire lorsque l’argent actuellement affecté à l'épargne et l’immobilier se tournera de nouveau vers l’investissement, rapporte Cinco Días.Paloma Piqueras, administrateur délégué de BBVA Asset Management, estime qu’en dehors des fonds garantis et des fonds structurés, la demande augmentera également pour les ETF et les fonds de niche.De son côté, Asunción Ortega, présidente d’Invercaixa, explique que si la société qu’elle dirige a vu son encours augmenter de 15 % depuis le début de l’année alors que celui du secteur a baissé de 10 %, cela tient à la fois à l’appui du réseau et au fait que La Caixa n’a pas lancé de campagne pour promouvoir les dépôts bancaires.

Ce 1er octobre, HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt inaugure sa première succursale depuis 20 ans, rapporte la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. La nouvelle agence dédiée à la clientèle fortunée qui s’ouvre à Cologne compte sept conseillers senior et trois assistants. Six des conseillers, dont le directeur de la succursale, Heinz-Jürgen Lievenbrück, ont travaillé auparavant chez Sal. Oppenheim.Olaf Huth, membre du directoire chargé de la banque privée, a précisé que les anciens de Sal. Oppenheim n’ont pas été débauchés de manière ciblée. Il a par ailleurs indiqué que les actifs sous gestion ou administration du pôle banque privée représentent environ 22 milliards d’euros, et que les rentrées depuis le début de l’année ont atteint 1,5 milliard d’euros.

L’unique fonds immobilier allemand offert au public dont la monnaie de référence est le dollar, le KanAm US-grundinvest (DE0006791817), va être liquidé d’ici au 31 mars 2012. Avant la fin de l’année, 250 millions de dollars seront distribués aux souscripteurs du fait qu’en sept mois seulement, 10 des 17 actifs du portefeuille ont déjà pu être vendus. Un onzième immeuble est en passe d'être cédé et les six autres seront repris pour être vendus par la banque dépositaire M.M. Warburg, qui répartira ensuite le produit de ces cessions entre les investisseurs, annonce le munichois KanAm le 30 septembre. Le fonds avait été fermé aux remboursements le 30 octobre 2008 et aux souscriptions le 19 octobre 2009. C’est historiquement le premier fonds immobilier allemand à mettre la clé sous la porte, si l’on excepte les fonds iii qui ont fusionné suite à de mauvais résultats il y a quelques années.De fait, une enquête auprès des souscripteurs en février avait laissé présager des demandes de remboursement de 200 millions de dollars, ce qui a été couvert en grande partie par les cessions d’actifs. Mais en septembre, avec la hausse du dollar, le sondage a fait apparaître des projections de rachats de 300 millions de dollars, pour un fonds qui affiche encore 540,3 millions de dollars d’encours (au 6 septembre). Dès lors, poursuivre l’activité n'était plus économiquement envisageable sur le long terme. Les autres éléments qui ont précipité la fermeture du fonds sont l’affaire Lehman et la garantie donnée le 5 octobre 2008 par le gouvernement allemand à tous les dépôts bancaires, ce qui a provoqué une hémorragie sans précédent pour les fonds d’investissement.Au 15 septembre, après la vente de dix immeubles, le fonds perdait 9,9 % sur une base annuelle en dollars et affichait une performance de 3,1 % en euros. Les ventes se sont jusqu'à présent effectuées avec une décote maximale de 2 % par rapport à la valeur vénale.Depuis le lancement le 20 mai 2003, la performance au 15 septembre est ressortie à 29,9 %, tandis qu’elle se situe à 12,4 % sur les cinq dernières années. Sur un an, la perte se limite à 1,2 %.

Jusqu'à présent CIO actions allemandes chez DWS (Deutsche Bank), Henning Gebhardt a été nommé responsable des actions européennes - head of European equities - en remplacement d’Udo Rosendahl, qui vient de prendre avec Christian Hille la tête du pôle multi classes d’actifs (lire notre article du 24 septembre).Selon nos informations, Henning Gebhardt conserve son rôle de patron des actions allemandes ainsi que la gestion en direct des fonds Aktien Strategie Deutschland (DE0009769869, 721,6 millions d’euros d’encours) et Investa (DE0008474008, 2,59 milliards d’euros). Il n’est pas encore précisé s’il va aussi garder celle du Select-Invest (DE0008476565, 266,3 millions).

AllianceBernstein vient de recruter Massimo Della Vedova qui aura pour mission de développer les ventes en Italie, rapporte Bluerating. Il était précédemment chez M&G où il a monté le réseau de distribution de la société de gestion en Europe du Sud.

Edmond de Rothschild Invesment Managers (Edrim) va commercialiser trois nouveaux fonds en Italie - Quadrim 8, Geo-Energies et Multigest Select Alpha – via la société italienne Edmond de Rothschild Sim, rapporte Bluerating. Quadrim 8 est un fonds de gestion quantitative investi sur différentes classes d’actifs et zones géographiques. Géo Energies est spécialisé sur les secteurs de l'énergie, des métaux, de l’agriculture et des utilities. Enfin, Multigest Select Alpha est un fonds de hedge funds conforme à la directive Ucits III avec un profil multi-stratégies.

East Capital, la société de gestion suédoise spécialisée dans les marchés émergents, vient de signer un accord de distribution avec Allfunds, plate-forme de distribution de fonds en Italie et en Espagne, rapporte Bluerating. En vertu de l’accord, les compartiments de la Sicav East Capital (Lux) seront disponibles sur la plate-forme Allfunds.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The German management firm Deka Immobilien has bought the office building at 19 West 44thStreet in midtown Manhattan for about EUR95m from SL Green Realty Corp. The 27,500 square metre property will be added to the portfolio of the open-ended real estate fund Deka-ImmobilienGlobal.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a pair of employees at Boston-based State Street Bank and Trust Company with misleading investors about their exposure to subprime investments.The SEC’s Division of Enforcement alleges that John P. Flannery and James D. Hopkins marketed State Street’s Limited Duration Bond Fund as an “enhanced cash” investment strategy that was an alternative to a money market fund for certain types of investors. By 2007, however, the fund was almost entirely invested in subprime residential mortgage-backed securities and derivatives. Yet despite this exposure to subprime securities, the fund continued to be described as less risky than a typical money market fund and the extent of its concentration in subprime investments was not disclosed to investors.The SEC charged State Street in a related case earlier this year. The firm agreed to settle the charges by repaying fund investors more than USD300 million.Flannery was a chief investment officer who no longer works at State Street. Hopkins was a product engineer at the time, and is currently State Street’s head of product engineering for North America.

BlackRock has recommended that regulators set stricter rules for clearing privately traded swaps than those that apply to the clearing of exchange traded futures, writes the Financial Times.The fund manager is concerned that rules being drafted might not be tough enough and could leave it too heavily exposed to the default of other investors. The point of contention is whether customer assets and margin payments towards cleared derivatives positions are held in pooled accounts or in segregated, accounts. BlackRock favours segregation.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } France and Germany are negotiating mutual concessions to remove obstacles to the AIFM directive and the Stability Pact, Agefi reports, citing European sources carried by Reuters. The French government is prepared to accept a tighter European budgetary framework if Germany will support a French proposal which would eliminate a clause from the AIFM directive which would allow for pan-European licenses to be issued to funds from countries outside the EU.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 29 September, the Scottish asset management firm Martin Currie launched the Luxembourg-registered funds Japan Absolute Alpha, European Absolute Alpha and Global Resources Absolute Alpha, all of them long/short products which comply with the UCITS III directive, and which will be offered to retail and institutional investors. The funds are UCITS-compliant versions of existing hedge funds, with shares in pounds Sterling, Euros and US dollars, and daily liquidity. Minimal subscription is set at USD10,000. Martin Currie says that its range of hedge funds as of 1 September had assets of USD1.3bn. Hedge funds from the firm adhere to Hedge Fund Standard Board norms. Only three other fund managers in the Investment Management Association (IMA) absolute return segment have adopted these norms to date.

The latest research from Lipper* suggests that institutional investors, such as fund selectors and wealth managers, could miss out on several years of good performance, if they continue to exclude new or newly-launched funds from their portfolio. No evidence was found that funds with long track records enjoy better performance or incur less risk than new funds. On the contrary, the empirical data suggest that newly- launched funds post higher average total returns and lower risk data, says Lipper. Furthermore, it suggests that fund managers enjoy slightly better performance during the first year of their tenures.* Ruling Out New Funds: Wrong Decision?

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } East Capital, the Swedish management firm specialised in emerging markets, has signed a distribution agreement with Allfunds, the fund distribution platform for Italy and Spain, Bluerating reports. Under the agreement, the sub-funds of East Capital (Lux) will be available on the Allfunds platform.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Edmond de Rothschild Investment Managers (Edrim) will release three new funds in Italy – Quadrim 8, Geo-Energies and Multigest Select Alpha – via the Italian firm Edmond de Rothschild Sim, Bluerating reports. Quadrim 8 is a quantitative management fund which invests in various asset classes and geographical regions. Geo Energies is specialised in the energy, metals, agriculture and utility sectors. Lastly, Multigest Select Alpha is a UCITS III-compliant fund of hedge funds with a multi-strategy profile.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Strategists at HSBC have grouped together the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan under the acronym HIIC, for highly indebted industrialised countries, the Wall Street Journal reports. Since the beginning of this year, investors have withdrawn about USD36bn from HIIC equities funds, while they have poured USD45bn into emerging markets funds, EPFR Global reports. HIIC countries carry investment risks which are generally associated with backwaters, developed markets which essentially behave as emerging markets, while emerging markets are rapidly becoming more developed, says Richard Yetsenga of HSBC.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The only German open-ended real estate fund denominated in the US dollar, KanAm US-grundinvest (DE0006791817), will be liquidated by 31 March 2012, and USD250m will already be distributed to subscribers by the end of this year, due to the fact that in only seven months, 10 of the 17 properties in the portfolio have been sold. An eleventh property is in the sale process, and the other six properties will be taken over to be resold by the depository bank, M.M. Warburg, which will then distribute the proceeds of the sales to investors, the Munich-based management firm KanAm announced on 30 September. The fund was closed to redemptions on 30 October 2008, and closed to subscriptions on 19 October 2009. It is the first German real estate fund to close down entirely. A survey of subscribers in February revealed that the fund could expect redemption demands of USD200m, which would have been largely covered by asset sales. But in September, with the rise in the value of the US dollar, the survey projected redemptions of USD300m, for a fund with only USD540.3m in assets (as of 6 September). As a consequence, continuing to operate was no longer viable for the long term.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } UBS has recruited Paul Raphael as head of the new emerging markets wealth management unit. He becomes a member of the wealth management executive board, and will report directly to Jürg Zeltner, CEO of UBS Wealth Management. For 25 years, Raphael served as director of emerging markets at Salomon Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse. Most recently, he founded his own investment and finance consultancy. At UBS, his new position will put him in control of wealth management in Latin America, central and eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as accounts in Switzerland for investors in emerging Asian countries.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swiss private bank Julius Baer will announce the appointment of Jacqueline Koo (ex LGT Investment Management) to the position of head of portfolio management for the North Asian region, Asian Investor reports. She will be in charge of a new team, which will also include Erika Mok, who will be in charge of multi-asset portfolios for clients in the region.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC), one of the Singapore sovereign funds, remains positive on emerging markets, particularly in the Asian region, Asian Investor reports. The fund’s chief officer, Ng Kok-Song, has decided to increase the exposure of the portfolio to these markets. He explains that the move is the result of limited economic growth in developed countries, which are expected to stagnate at 2.4% this year, compared with 8% for emerging Asia.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } AllianceBernstein has recruited Massimo Della Vedova, who will aim to develop sales in Italy, Bluerating reports. He was previously at M&G, where he set up the management firm’s distribution network in southern Europe.

Threadneedle - GBP59.7bn in assets under management - has announced the appointment of Vanessa Donegan to the newly created post of head of Asia and global emerging markets. She was one of the founding members of Threadneedle’s investment team when the company formed in 1994. She was most recently head of Asia Pacific equities at Threadneedle. In her new role Vanessa will have overall responsibility for overseeing the investment management activities for GBP6.5bn of assets under management in emerging market equities. This includes the Threadneedle Global Emerging Market Equities Fund (established April 2006), the Columbia Emerging Markets Opportunity Fund (established November 1996), the Columbia Emerging Markets Equity Fund (established May 2000), and the Threadneedle Latin American Fund (established Dec 1997). Vanessa will continue to manage the Threadneedle Asia Fund and the Asia Pacific Mutual Fund. Julian Thompson, former head of global emerging market equities at Threadneedle will be leaving the company «in due course».

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 30 September, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) announced that it has been awarded a mandate by the Multi Manager UK Equity Focus Fund from Scottish Widows Investment Management (SWIP), which has GBP1.1bn in assets, to actively manage GBP267m in equities. For the mandate, LGIM will replicate the strategy used since April 2006 by Robert Churchlow for the Legal & General Growth Trust (GBP220m), The portfolio will include 25 equally-weighted positions. Churchlow is also head of active equities at LGIM.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Investment Week reports that Robert Churchlow is the new head of actively-managed equities at Legal & General Investment Management. He replaces Mark Burgess, who has moved to Threadneedle. Churchlow was head of the UK desk at LGIM.

Jusqu'à présent CIO actions allemandes chez DWS (Deutsche Bank), Henning Gebhardt a été nommé head of European equities en remplacement d’Udo Rosendahl, qui vient de prendre avec Christian Hille la tête du pôle multi classes d’actifs (lire notre article du 24 septembre).Selon nos informations, Henning Gebhardt conserve son rôle de patron des actions allemandes ainsi que la gestion en direct des fonds Aktien Strategie Deutschland (DE0009769869) et Select-Invest (DE0008476565).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Henning Gebhardt, previously CIO for German equities at DWS (Deutsche Bank), has been appointed head of European equities, replacing Udo Rosendahl, who alongside Christian Hille has taken over as co-head of the multi-asset class unit (see Newsmanagers of 24 September). According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, Gebhardt will retain his role as head of German equities and direct management of the Aktien Strategie Deutschland (DE0009769869, EUR721.6m in assets) and Investa (DE0008474008, EUR2.59bn in assets) funds. It is not yet known whether he will also retain management of Select-Invest (DE0008476565, EUR266.3m).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Since 2001, State Street Corporation has been providing fiduciary custodial services in the areas of private equity and hedge funds to Babson Capital (USD128.9bn in assets as of 30 June). As of 28 September, these will be extended to investment operations and IT services, the two firms have announced in a joint statement.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 1 October, HSBC Trinkhaus & Burkhardt opens its first branch office in 20 years, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. The new office dedicated to high net worth clients which will be opened in Cologne will include seven senior advisors and three assistants. Six of the advisors, including the director of the office, Heinz-Jürgen Lievenbrück, previously worked at Sal. Oppenheim. Olaf Huth, a board member in charge of private banking, says that the former Sal. Oppenheim managers were not recruited in a targeted manner. He also says that assets under management or administration at the private banking unit represent about EUR22bn, and that inflows since the beginning of the year totalled EUR1.5bn.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Funds People reports that March Gestión has been granted a license by the CNMV to provide services in the European Economic Area, which will allow it to manage funds in Luxembourg without having a branch there, according to CEO José Luis Jiménez. The next step is to register a Sicav in Luxembourg, which will house the Vini Catena wine fund and the Terranova Sicav, the investment vehicle for the March family. To allow external clients to invest, March Gestión is joining the Allfunds Bank platform, where its funds will be available from next week.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Javier Mazzaredo, global head of sales at Santander Asset Management, says asset management in Spain has seen spectacular outflows of 55-60% of its inflows in the past two years. The sector is in decline, and will not bounce back before 2013, he said at the second national collective investment conference, organized by APD, Deloitte and Inverco. The Santander AM manager expressed a hope that in 2013 and 2014, funds would benefit from EUR30bn in subscriptions, which may appear exaggerated, but could well happen if the money currently invested in saving deposits and real estate returned to investment, Cinco Días reports. Paloma Piqueras, CEO of BBVA Asset Management, says that aside from guaranteed funds and structured funds, demand is also likely to increase for ETFs and niche products. Asunción Ortega, chairwoman of Invercaixa, explains that although the firm she leads has seen an increase of 15% to its assets since the beginning of the year at a time when the sector has lost 10%, this is due both to the strong network it relies on and the fact that La Caixa has not launched a campaign to promote savings deposits.