iShares has published a guide to ETFs to make Italian financial advisers more familiar with them, Bluerating reports. “We have observed a growing interest from financial advisers in ETFs,” explains Emanuele Bellingeri, head of iShares for Italy.

A new Italian fund for small and mid-sized businesses is taking its first steps, Il Sole - 24 Ore reports. It is a closed private equity fund aimed solely at institutional investors, whose aim is to support mergers and recapitalisations for about 15,000 companies. Between January and February, the asset management firm which will manage the fund will be founded. It will open in March, and will make its first investments in late June. The fund will have assets of EUR3bn.

Aviva Investors has reopened its EUR249.5 European Property Sicav, more than 13 months after it suspended dealing in the fund. The fund suspended on 4 November 2008 due to a lack of immediate liquidity and to safeguard existing client interests.

The Swiss alternative management firm Partners Group has announced the hard closing of its Secondary 2008 fund with EUR2.5bn, above the objective for the fund of EUR2bn. The fund took the crisis as an occasion to acquire a portfolio from a bank at a 70% discount in early 2009, in a deal which is expected to generate an internal rate of return (IRR) of over 20%. The fund has also more recently acquired a portfolio of high-quality assets from adistressed investor in search of immediate liquidity. This deal is also expected to generate an IRR of over 20%.

The Luxembourg financial sector surveillance commission (CSSF) has granted a license to Centurion Fund Managers to launch its fourth open-ended longevity fund, which also becomes the first product on the market to combine micro- and macro-longevity. The Centurion Longevity Fund, a specialised investment fund (SIF) registered in Luxembourg and aimed at professional investors (minimal subscription EUR125,000), aims for total annual performance of 6% to 9%, with low volatility and a “minimal” correlation with equities markets. The fund was launched in June 2009 with seed capital while awaiting the license from the CSSF, with the declared objective of reaching USD100m in assets. The micro approach makes it possible to invest in longevity funds via physical or synthetic instruments, while the macro approach allows to use derivatives.

FaithShares Trust has announced the launch of two products in its range of faith-based ETFs, which includes the FaithShares Catholic Values, FaithShartes Methodist Values and FaithShares Christian Values funds. The new products are the FaithShares Baptist Values and FaithShares Lutheran Values, with the acronyms FZB and FKL. The products were developed with the FTSE Group and KLD Research & Analytics, who created custom indices for the environmental, social and governance (ESG) component. Each of the ETFs will include 100 positions on large businesses, excluding those which may be objectionable to believers of the religion in question. The commission for each of the two new ETF funds is 0.87%.

Patricia Cohen, who was married to Steven Cohen from 1979 to 1988, is seeking more than USD100m from her ex-husband, the Wall Street Journal reports. In a suit filed on Wednesday at US District Court in Manhattan, Patricia Cohen accuses Steven Cohen and his alternative management firm, SAC Capital Advisors, of insider trading in the 1980s, and of having concealed assets during the divorce proceedings.

Mutual Fund Wire reports that Putnam Investments has hired another employee from Fidelity. Scott Sipple, who was head of the bank trust at Fidelity, will be joining Putnam in the newly-created position of head of strategic relations. At Fidelity, his former responsibilities will now be distributed among other members of the team.

In the letter sent to the Korean Ministry of Justice on Monday, 22 institutional investors with over USD2.5trillion in assets under management show their opposition to an amendment to Korean company law that would allow companies to introduce poison pills. The letter was sent out by F&C, a member of the Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA), who initiated this effort. «As a matter of principle, we tipically oppose poison pills because they are ofter used to shield management and protect the interests of related parties at the expense of public minority shareholders and wider economic efficiency and competitiveness», says the letter.

Pioneer Investments (USD58bn in assets in the United States) has announced the recruitment of seven people for its sales team in the United States, as reinforcements for its sales force serving large retail clients. Among the new arrivals are Mary Power (formerly of John Hancock Financial) and Jason Xanthakis (from Ameriprise Financial), who will report to Bill Taylor, head of the new “business development group” (formerly known as the “relationship management team”). Taylor is also head of the “investment-only & retirement group.”

Wells Fargo & Company will pay USD4.5bn to buy from Prudential Financial its stake in their brokerage joint venture of which Wells Fargo Advisors is making part. This stake does not amount to a controlling shareholding.

The bank Citigroup announced on Tuesday, 15 December, that it has been named in a lawsuit filed in a New York court by the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund, which, under an agreement signed in 2007, is obliged to buy ordinary shares in the bank for a total of USD7.5bn on specific dates in 2010 and 2011. At the time, shares in the bank were considerably more valuable than they are now. In its lawsuit, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) cites “false and fraudulent declarations” on the part of Citigroup, and seeks an annulment of the agreement, and damages and interest of USD4bn. The bank vigorously denies the accusations.

Mellon Capital Management Corporation (MCM) a été choisi par Jackson National Asset Management pour gérer un nouveau produit selon la Stratégie d’Allocation d’Actifs Tactique Internationale (Global Tactical Asset Allocation ou GTAA). Jackson National Asset Management avait déjà confié 30 millions de dollars à MCM pour un autre produit GTAA.

Les investisseurs institutionnels n’anticipent pas de reprise de la demande des utilisateurs. Les loyers seront donc encore orientés à la baisse

Seuls les biens les plus cotés trouvent preneur. Sur les autres, les taux de rendement devraient encore monter légèrement

China Universal Asset Management has recruited Sheldon Gao and Doria Wong to join its Hong Kong office. Gao, previously CEO of Schroders in Shanghai, will direct the office, while Wong, currently CIO in the Hong Kong office of Standard Life Investments, will be in charge of product sales, Asian Investor reports. The Hong Kong office of China Universal Asset Management will open in February 2010.

Fitch Ratings has assigned an Asset Manager rating of “M2” to Société Générale Asset Management (SGAM) for its traditional asset management activities, and then withdrawn the rating, due to the merger of the asset management firm with Crédit Agricole Asset Management (CAAM), which will be completed in January 2010, and which will mark the end of SGAM’s existence as a distinct entity. The rating will cover all asset management activities based in Paris, Tokyo, Singapore, and Hong Kong, excepting the activities of SGAM Alternative Investment (SGAM AI) and other alternative management operations. Trust Company of the West (TCW) is also excluded from the perimeter of the rating. “The M2 rating mirrors the solidity of the operational platform at SGAM, which is based on Decalog, the central position maintenance tool now used for all portfolios, whose ability to connect with brokers, administrators and depositories has recently been upgraded. The rating also reflects the rigorous risk control and compliance system at SGAM, the high technical level of fixed income management, and the diversity of asset classes covered, and the reach of the investor base. The last two elements reduce the risk of revenue volatility, despite net redemptions in 2008 and 2009,” the ratings agency says. The rating “also takes into account the deterioration of profits at the firm in the past three years, due to significant losses related to support lent to dynamic money market and hedge funds.” Fitch also counts among the negative factors that “the imminent merger with CAAM will weaken the stability of teams and processes, due to the climate of uncertainty engendered by the merger and the facilities for internal mobility within the Société Générale group, which have resulted in departures on several levels from the asset management firm.”

On Sunday, Chris Browne suffered a cardiac arrest. He was widely viewed as a high priest of value management. He was senior advisor and former managing director of Tweedy Browne. The announcement was made by the four remaining managing directors, his brother, Will Browne, Thomas Shrager, John Spears, and Robert Wyckoff Jr., Mutual Fund Wire reports.

Since Mary J. Miller has been appointed deputy secretary to the Treasury for financial markets (see Newsmanagers of 7 October), T. Rowe Price has promoted Mike Gitlin to the position of director of fixed income, putting him in charge of assets of about USD100bn (out of a total of USD366.2bn as of the end of September). Gitlin was previously head of global trading. He joined T. Rowe Price in 2007.

Prudential Real Estate Investors (PREI) has announced that it has signed the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN-PRI). PREI has also recently signed up to the Energy Star program with the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). As of the end of March 2009, gross assets in real estate properties owned by PREI, an affiliate of Prudential Financial, totalled USD43.3bn, on behalf of 490 clients.

The French asset management firm Tobam, formerly known as Lehman Brothers Asset Management France, has signed a partnership with Investeam, a third party marketing firm, to distribute its funds to Canadian institutional investors. “With high barriers to entry and high implantation costs, we think that the use of a known local partner on the Canadian market who will be able to bring the unique AntiBenchmark approach to a high-quality client base is the most effective way for us at Tobam to offer our expertise to Canadians,” explains Yves Choueifaty, president of the asset manager. The partnership marks a new stage in the international development of Tobam, which manages about EUR750m in assets, following distribution agreements in Scandinavia and Australia.

Cameron Pettigrew, a relationship manager in the private client group at Fidelity Investments’ Westlake office, and three other employees were fired for playing fantasy football, according to the Star-Telegram. Pettigrew, who was the commissioner of his league, knew Fidelity had a policy against playing fantasy football at the office. But he said the policy was poorly communicated and ignored by leadership.

In a statement, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that it has ordered refunds of USD418m to subscribers in Fair Funds who lost money due to market timing transactions by certain Invesco mutual funds advised by the Invesco Funds Group (IFG) to be unfrozen. The majority of the money, USD325m plus USD39m in interest, will come from IFG, but Bank of America Capital Management, BACAP Distributors, and Bank of America Securities, LLC Fair Fund, will pay a total of USD45.8m, and USD8.7m will come from the Bear Stearns & Co. Fair Fund.

Les Echos reports that the City will remain one of the largest financial centres in the world, but a 50% tax on 2009 bonuses over GBP25,000 and other measures have already led to the departures of the most mobile finance professionals, such as younger traders, fund managers, and high-profile bankers.

The High Court in London on Tuesday ruled money that was not properly ring-fenced by Lehman’s European arm could not be claimed out of a USD1bn pool controlled by the bank’s administrators, says the Financial Times. While a victory for Goldman and GLG, whose money was properly separated, the decision means that several Lehman affiliates as well as other hedge fund clients will not be able to pursue about USD3bn worth of claims against the pool.

Die Welt has announced that Christopher, Baron von Oppenheim, will no longer be a member of the new management team at Sal. Oppenheim, and neither will the other three heads of the bank, Matthias, count of Krockow, Dieter Pfundt, and Friedrich Carl Janssen, as BaFin is planning to withdraw the license which allowed them to manage the bank. Von Oppenheim may hope to play a role as a director, if he succeeds in organizing an acquisition of a participation in the bank from Deutsche Bank, but his efforts currently appear likely to fail. If BaFin shows a red card to the four heads of the bank, it may complicate a resale of the investment bank’s activities. Previously, Dieter Pfundt appeared to be likely to continue to direct the division after its sale by Deutsche Bank.

According to Financial News, Karl Bergqwist, the former co-head of fixed income at Gartmore, has resurfaced at Arrowgrass Capital Partners, a multi-strategy hedge fund founded by a team from Deutsche Bank, less than a year after he left the UK investment group.

Un gestionnaire de fortune luxembourgeois, conseiller en opérations financières, réclame 8,35 millions d’euros à la KBC et à la KBL, rapporte l’Echo. Il est reproché aux établissements un manquement à leurs obligations d’information lors de la promotion d’obligations CDO ( Collateralized Debt Obligations).Au début de l’année 2007, KBL European Private Bankers avait contacté le gestionnaire de fortune pour faire la promotion des CDO, des crédits structurés, en réalité des obligations émises et promues par KBC Groupe. Le gestionnaire de fortune luxembourgeois les a proposées à sa clientèle privée estimant que les obligations proposées étaient sécurisantes sur base des informations communiquées par KBC et KBL. Mais en janvier 2008, après avoir reçu un avis concernant la dégradation des cours des crédits structurés, les clients ont cherché à revendre leurs obligations. Demande rejetée, les banques belge et luxembourgeoise faisant elles-mêmes savoir qu’elles ne pouvaient plus prendre ces obligations en position. Selon les informations du quotidien belge, une proposition d’indemnisation faite par KBL et portant sur un montant d’un peu plus d’un million d’euros a été refusée par la société gestionnaire.

Standard Life Investments annonce que les investisseurs institutionnels et retail australiens pourront désormais investir dans un fonds géré selon la stratégie Global Absolute Returns Strategies (GARS). Le GARS Australian Trust dispose d’ores et déjà de 75 millions de dollars australiens d’actifs en provenance d’un institutionnel local. Le fonds est investi dans fonds nourricier offshore GARS à travers une part de droit australien couvert en dollars australiens. Selon un communiqué, la stratégie GARS a généré une performance de 8,7 % au Royaume-Uni sur trois ans, pour une volatilité de 7,4 %, contre 0,9 % pour le MSCI World (19 % de volatilité).