Pour mai, l’indice mondial HFRX des hedge funds établi par Hedge Fund Research est ressorti à 1153,39. Il affiche ainsi une perte de 2,64 %, la plus forte depuis novembre 2008 (peu après la chute de Lehman Brothers), après une performance de 0,80 % en avril. Depuis le début de l’année, il enregistre une perte de 0,26 %.De son côté, l’indice Ucits HFS Index, qui restitue l'évolution des hedge funds coordonnés, marque une perte de 1,08 % pour mai contre un gain de 0,90 % pour avril. Depuis le début de l’année, ces fonds affichent une performance moyenne de 2,16 %. La plus forte perte en mai (5,58 %) a été accusée par les fonds de convertibles, contre une performance de 1,36 % en avril. Cette stratégie est d’ailleurs dans le rouge à - 0,26 % sur les cinq premiers mois de l’année. Pour janvier-mai, les fonds long/short equity perdent 0,40 % et les CTA perdent 2,53 %, précise Structured Solutions. Les gains les plus élevés pour les cinq premiers mois de l’année sont enregistrés par les stratégies global macro (8,55 %) et fixed income (7,63 %).
Dave Fishwick et Eric Lonergan sont les gérants du nouveau M&G Macro Episode Fund, version conforme à la directive OPCVM III d’un hedge fund, le Prudential life fund lancé au début de 2001 ainsi que d’un autre hedge fund de M&G domicilié aux îles Caïman. Ce produit, qui fait appel à la finance comportementale, est initialement réservé aux investisseurs institutionnels et aux particuliers avertis, avec une souscription minimale fixée à 1 million de livres, indique Investment Week. Le fonds géré pour Prudential affiche une performance annuelle moyenne de 12,2 % depuis le lancement, précise Hedge Week.L’objectif est de générer à l’aide d’une stratégie long/short sur des indices de plusieurs classes d’actifs (actions, obligations d’Etat, obligations d’entreprise, devises et cash) une performance supérieure à celle des actions mondiales sur le moyen terme, mais avec une volatilité inférieure.Le fonds comporte des classes de parts en dollars non couvertes, en livres et en euros couvertes du risque de change sur le dollar.
La nouvelle société de gestion Querns Asset Managers va lancer son premier fonds, un produit diversifié actions/obligations, le Querns Income Funds. Il investira principalement en actions britanniques et en obligations d’entreprises britanniques. Ce fonds, dans lequel les associés investiront 5 millions de livres pour l’amorçage, ne comporte pas de droit d’entrée et affiche une commission de gestion de 0,75 %.Querns Asset Managers a été créée récemment par les gérants Phil Roantree et Stephen Whittaker, deux anciens de New Star, ainsi que par Peter Gardner (ex Invesco Perpetual) et John Tierney (ex selectfunds et ancien de Perpetual). L’objectif de Querns AM est d’atteindre un encours de 250 millions de livres sous cinq ans.
BNP Paribas a annoncé, lundi 7 juin, le rapprochement au Royaume-Uni de ses activités de gestion privée avec celles de Fortis Private Investment Management et Insinger de Beaufort UK, sous le nom BNP Paribas Wealth Management. L’entité, qui va gérer près de 5 milliards de livres sterling d’actifs et emploiera 130 personnes, proposera des services d’investissement, de gestion de patrimoine, et des solutions de financement et de structuration à une clientèle britannique et internationale. «Au delà des solutions d’investissement dans les différentes classes d’actifs, des conseils juridiques et fiduciaires, BNP Paribas Wealth Management UK va mettre à la disposition de ses clients des équipes spécialisées dans des produits d’investissement sur mesure, mais aussi la philanthropie, l’art et l’immobilier. Elle va également pouvoir proposer des solutions de financement», précise un communiqué de la banque. Le nouvel ensemble sera dirigé par Ligia Torres, ancien responsable Fixed Income Corporate /SAS Origination and Sales, pour l’Europe, le Moyen-Orient et l’Asie, chez BNP Paribas.
Martin Currie a annoncé la promotion, à compter de début juin, de Claire Marwick au titre de co-gérante du Japan Alpha Fund aux côtés de Keith Donaldson et John-Paul Temperley. Claire Marwick avait rejoint l'équipe spécialisée sur le Japon en août 2007.Martin Currie a par ailleurs indiqué son intention de fermer le fonds lorsqu’il aura atteint 175 millions de livres. Le Japon Alpha Fund est un fonds de conviction, comportant de 30 à 40 lignes. Depuis le début de l’année, le fonds de 32 millions de livres a dégagé un rendement de 23,6% contre 14,6% pour le Topix.
BlueBay Asset Management, une société de gestion britannique spécialisée dans le crédit, gérant 47 milliards de dollars, vient de recruter Mark Dowding pour piloter le développement d’une activité d’obligations gouvernementales européennes au sein de la société. L’intéressé vient de Deutsche Asset Management, où il occupait le poste de responsable européen de l’obligataire institutionnel. Il était précédemment chez Invesco, où il travaillait en étroite collaboration avec Raphael Robelin, le responsable actuel du crédit investment grade de BlueBay. Les deux anciens d’Invesco vont donc désormais co-diriger l'équipe investment grade européenne de BlueBlay, avec chacun une spécialisation (obligations d’entreprises pour Raphael Robelin et obligations souveraines pour Mark Dowding). Après l’arrivée de Mark Dowding début septembre, la société de gestion londonienne va lancer des fonds, l’un dans les obligations gouvernementales européennes et l’autre combinant obligations souveraines et obligations d’entreprises.
Ancien analyste actions chez Morningstar aux Etats-Unis, Justin Craib-Cox quitte M&G Investments, où il était co-gérant de fonds, pour devenir gérant de fonds dans l'équipe obligations convertibles d’Aviva Investors. Il assistera les gérants seniors David Clott et Shawn Mato, basés à Boston.
Sur les cinq premiers mois de l’année, M&G a enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 3,4 milliards de livres, après 7,9 milliards sur la période correspondante de 2009, annonce sa maison mère, Prudential, dans un communiqué sur les résultats du groupe. Les entrées nettes en Asie sont ressorties à 0,3 milliard de livres (1,5 milliard en 2009).
BNY Mellon a annoncé en fin de semaine dernière le lancement d’une émission d’actions ordinaires pour un montant d’environ 700 millions de dollars (25,9 millions de titres à 27 dollars l’unité) afin de financer l’acquisition de PNC Global Investment Servicing.L’offre est ouverte jusqu’au 9 juin. Les co-teneurs du livre sont Goldman Sachs et Citi, BofA Merrill Lynch et Morgan Stanley opérant en tant que co-managers.
Selon L’Agefi suisse, Valartis Group prévoit de fermer le hedge fund European Energy Fonds. Le CEO de Valartis, Gustav Stenbolt, explique que les rendements sont inférieurs aux attentes.
Vontobel a annoncé le 7 juin la création d’une nouvelle unité, Swiss Wealth Advisors AG, qui s’occupera du suivi de clients américains dont la fortune est déclarée au fisc. L’unité est basée à Zurich et sera soumise à la surveillance de l’autorité américaine SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), indique le groupe bancaire dans un communiqué. La nouvelle entité se concentrera sur la gestion de fortune sur mesure adaptée aux besoins des clients américains. Vontobel entend ainsi répondre aux besoins d’investissements en actions européennes et asiatiques ou en devises de clients américains, besoins que des gestionnaires de fortune américains ne peuvent pas ou que partiellement satisfaire. L’offre de Vontobel s’adressera aussi bien à des citoyens américains domiciliés aux et hors des Etats-Unis et à des citoyens non américains qui vivent aux Etats-Unis. Les transactions seront assurées par Vontobel Securities AG, qui dispose déjà d’une licence de la SEC.
Selon un avis publié par la SEC, le Stockcar Stocks Index Fund sera liquidé d’ici au 1er août, rapporte The Wall Street Journal. Ce fonds spécialiste des voitures de stock-car et des courses du Nascar affichait un encours de seulement 4 millions de dollars.
En échange d’obligations de Harrah’s Entertainment de presque 1,12 milliard de dollars de valeur faciale, Paulson & Company, TPG Capital et Apollo Management ont pris 15,6 % de la société de casinos, dont 9,9 % pour Paulson et 5,7 % pour les deux autres gestionnaires alternatifs. Harrah’s a vendu à Paulson pour 351 millions de dollars en numéraire des obligations de 532 millions de dollars arrivant à échéance entre 2015 et 2017 ; TPG et Apollo ont acquis pour 200 millions de dollars d’autres obligations Harrah’s d’un volume de 303 millions.
On 2 June, BBVA Asset Management registered the commodities fund of funds Quality Commodities, created on 26 May, with the CNMV. The new fund will be allowed to invest at least 50% of its assets in other funds with complete flexibility. BBVA AM will use a composite benchmark index, which will be 70% composed of the DJ UBS Commodity TR, while HSBC Global Mining TR will account for 19.5%, and the MSCI World Energy will represent 10.5%. The management team will be allowed to adopt short positions and to invest in derivatives of financial commodities indices traded on regulated markets. The product will offer daily liqudity, but the prospectus adds that a 10-day advance notice period will be required for all redemption demands. The minimal recommended investment period will be 5-7 years, and minimal subscription is set at EUR3,000, except for employees and pensioners from the BBVA group. A distribution agreement has been signed with BBVA Quality Funds. Characteristics Name: Quality Commodities FI Risk profile: Very high Manager: BBVA Asset Management Depository bank: Banco Depositario BBVA Management commission -direct: 0.95% of assets and 9% of performance -indirect: 3% of assets and 20% of performance
In May, the HFRX global hedge fund index from Hedge Fund Research came in at 1153.39. This represents a decline of 2.64%, the heaviest loss since November 2008 (soon after the collapse of Lehman Brothers), and follows a positive performance of 0.80% in April. Since the beginning of the year, the index has lost 0.26%. The Ucits HFS Index, which tracks the evolution of UCITS-compliant hedge funds, has lost 1.08% in May, compared with gains of 0.90% in April. Since the beginning of the year, these funds have earned average returns of 2.16%. The heaviest loss in May (5.58%) was for convertible funds, compared with gains of 1.36% in April. The strategy shows losses of 0.26% in the first five months of the year. In January-May, long/short equity funds have lost 0.40%, and CTA have lost 2.53%, Structured Solutions reports. The largest gains in the first five months of the year have been for global macro (8.55%) and fixed income (7.63%) strategies.
Asset managers enjoyed growth in assets of USD5,000bn in 2009, taking total assets to USD49,000bn EUR41,000bn), according to research from Cerulli Associates cited by Financial Times Fund Management. Mutual funds made up USD21,000bn of the total, showing growth of 16 per cent, but just one percentage point, or USD240bn, of that was due to new money from investors.
Funds Strategy reports that Nomura is launching an absolute return fund offering controlled exposure to interest rate movements. The vehicle, entitled Irisx4, is compliant with UCITS III format, and is based on the IRIS (Interest Rate Investment Strategy) benchmark index from Nomura. Jean-Philippe Royer, head of fixed income at Nomura, says that despite the current market environment, “investors are still expecting returns 7% to 8% above the money markets, but without the volatility that generally accompanies such high alpha.”
In a statement, Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) announced on Monday, 8 June, that it has been granted a mandate by Grosvenor, a specialist in real estate investment and development, to provide securities services for the launch of its first French collective real estate investment organism, OPCI. The new fund will be managed by Viveris REIM, and capital in the fund will total nearly EUR300m. The mandate specifically mandates SGSS to provide depository services, custody of financial assets, market making for real estate assets, passive management, account administration, and valuation. As of the end of 2009, Grosvenor had GBP10.2bn in assets under management.
Anne-France Gauthier, who previously served as director of retail activities in France at Métropole Gestion, whose departure was announced in Newsmanagers (see article on 28/04/10), is joining Skandia as director of sales for major client and private banking partnerships. Gauthier, 42, will be responsible for defining and deploying the organisation and commercial strategy of Skandia Labels, a product range which will be aimed at asset management firms, private management departments, and private banks, according to a statement from Skandia. She will also be in charge of the organisation and commercial development of Skandia Labels in France, and for promoting the range of products and services in question and developing synergies with other activities of the group, such as marketing, products, back-office, Service Partners, finance, and others.
Jean-François Théodore, former deputy CEO of NYSE Euronext, on 6 May joined the supervisory board at the asset management firm HDF France. In addition to this responsibility, Théodore, who will remain as non-executive director of the stock exchange company, will “assist HDF with regulatory developments,” a statement says. In addition, HDF Finance has announced that it is in the process of recruiting a team member in the United States to replace one US-based departure, Gilles Guérin, at the end of June. The fund manager is also planning to request an SEC license for its US unit. In Switzerland, HDF has also recruited Joseph Steiger, formerly of Credit Suisse and SAM Asset Manaegment, to develop the German-speaking Swiss institutional client base. The Swiss affiliate of the asset management firm now has two offices: one in Geneva, for private banking clients, and one in Zurich. Some funds from the management firm are now in the process of being licensed in the country.
Net equity fund sales in Asia rose strongly in the first quarter to over USD10bn, according to the Lipper FMI’s latest FundFlash. They were two and half times the level of the previous quarter. In China, equity fund sales rose by 30% to USD7.5bn. But the picture was not so rosy in other asset classes. Total sales fell to a modest USD9bn, less than a quarter of the flows seen in the final three months of 2009. The main reason was the outflow from money market funds which totalled nearly USD15bn, almost as much as had flowed into this asset class in the previous quarter. The main culprits behind the large money market fund outflows were Chinese and Indian investors. In China, redemptions may have been influenced by the impending introduction of exit charges at the end of March. In India, more than USD10bn was taken out of money market funds, and there were also significant outflows from bond funds. Most of the withdrawals were in March when the Indian fund industry recorded its highest ever net outflows. Quarter-end redemptions are normal in India as banks and companies take out the excess cash they have accumulated in fixed-income and cash funds during the quarter. March is also the end of the tax year when many fixed-term plans reach maturity, says Lipper FMI. Meanwhile, sales of bond funds more than halved. The region’s most enthusiastic fund investors were the Japanese. They bucked the general trend with a 6% rise in overall sales.
With the sale of the Eugene Investment & Securities Building office property in Seoul for EUR123m, to the South Korean Public Officials Benefit Association, the German asset management firm Deka Immobilien, via its open-ended fund Deka-ImmobilienGlobal, has earned significant capital gains. The property, with about 40,000 square metres, was purchased for EUR70m in September 2004, and expert estimates value it in the current market at EUR95m.
Deutsche Börse announced on Friday that HeidelbergCement, which ranks 22nd among German equities by market capitalisation and trading volume, will replace Salzgitter in the Dax index from 21 June. Salzgitter has been relegated to the MDax index, where it joins Kabel Deutschland and Brenntag, which replace Pfleiderer and MLP. The latter two shares have been moved down to the SDax, where they are joined by Tom Tailor. The three new entries replace VBH, Villeroy & Boch and Dykerhoff, which have been removed.
The current debate over the quality and pertinence of the models and methods used to issue credit ratings for countries has led Feri EuroRating Services to investigate the reliability of its own ratings. The German agency has reached the conclusion that its ratings of four out of the five PIIGS countries (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain) were lowered considerably sooner than their ratings from other agencies, and by more severe degrees. In particular, Ireland and Spain were downgraded by Feri as early as mid-2007. Tobias Schmidt, a board member at Feri EuroRatings Services, says this good result is certianly due to the fact that these Feri ratings are largely based on projections.
The asset management firm Ceres Asset Management announced on Monday, 7 June that it has recruited Franck Vivier as deputy CEO. Vivier will be responsible for Ceres Japan and Ceres Greater China, among others. Vivier began his career at Indosuez New York,a nd later became CEO of Daiwa France Gestion. Since 1995, he had been director of systematic management at Société Générale.
BNY Mellon at the end of last week announced the launch of an issue of ordinary shares totalling about USD700m (25.9 million shares at USD27 per share), to finance an acquisition of PNC Global Investment Servicing. The offer will remain open until 9 June. The co-bookrunners are Goldman Sachs and Citi, while BofA Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley will act as co-managers.
The Swiss wealth management firm Helvetia Wealth AG has announced that it has acquired the investment advising firm Mercury Wealth Management, based in Dublin, which is one of the largest distributors of protected-capital investment products on the Irish market. The acquisition price has not been disclosed. Helvetia Wealth states that its assets have increased due to the acquisition by CHF70m. Gareth Fahey, who founded Mercury Wealth in 2003, will continue to lead the business.
BlueBay Asset Management has announced that it has hired Mark Dowding to lead the development of a European government bond business at the firm. He comes to BlueBay from Deutsche Asset Management, where he was European Head of Institutional Fixed Income; and was previously at Invesco, where he worked closely with Raphael Robelin - BlueBay’s Head of Investment Grade Credit. Raphael and Mark, who joins as a Senior Portfolio Manager, will co-head the European Investment Grade team at BlueBay; with a focus on corporate and government bonds respectively. Following Mark Dowding’s arrival at BlueBay in early September, the firm will be launching funds in both the European government bond and European Aggregate space; the latter product combining both sovereign and corporate credit.
BNP Paribas announces that it is combining BNP Paribas’ existing private banking activities with those of Fortis Private Investment Management and Insinger de Beaufort UK under the BNP Paribas Wealth Management brand. The combined business will offer a broad range of investment and wealth management services in addition to financing and structuring solutions for both onshore and international clients. The new business manages over GBP5.5 bn in assets and employs 130 people and will be led by Ligia Torres. Ligia was previously Head of Fixed Income Corporate and SAS Origination and Sales, EMEA at BNP Paribas, responsible for developing strategic business with corporate, sovereign, agency and supranational clients. In addition to offering cross asset class investment solutions and tax, legal and fiduciary services BNP Paribas Wealth Management UK’s clients will benefit from dedicated teams focussing on tailor made investment products, philanthropy, art and estates. BNP Paribas Wealth Management will also offer a range of financing solutions, says BNP Paribas.
Standard Life Investments has announced that the pension fund PGGM, one of the largest real estate fund managers in Europe, has invested about GBP75m in the Standard Life Investment UK Shopping Centre Trust, a portfolio which is currently valued at about GBP1.2bn.