Warren Buffett pourrait bien avoir donné un signal important hier sur la forme et le calendrier de la reprise, note l’Agefi, qui précise que le gérant star a décidé de lancer une offre de 44 milliards de dollars sur l’opérateur ferroviaire Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF). Cette opération est la plus importante en taille de l’histoire de son groupe.L’offre de 100 dollars par action correspond à une prime de 31 % et valorise le capital de l’entreprise à 34 milliards de dollars, somme à laquelle s’ajoutera une reprise de dette de 10 milliards, précise le quotidien.

Selon Les Echos, le décès de son patron Bruce Wasserstein, le 14 octobre, a laissé un grand vide au sein de Lazard. Le conseil de la banque d’affaires et ses 200 associés doivent réussir à lui trouver un successeur, à sécuriser l’avenir des 11% du capital qu’il détenait sans bouleverser les équilibres entre Paris, Londres et New York, tout en préservant l’indépendance de la maison. Le processus pourrait prendre plusieurs semaines, voire plusieurs mois.

Selon Mutual Fund Wire.com, la société de gestion Vanguard a doublé le montant des frais d’entrée de son fonds Emerging Markets Stock - avec pour indicateur de référence le MSCI Emerging Markets Index. Ils sont passés de 25 à 50 points de base, précise le site internet. Cette hausse est la conséquence de l’application de la taxe imposée par le gouvernement brésilien depuis le 20 octobre, de 2 % sur les titres achetés par les investisseurs étrangers. A titre d’information, le poids des actifs investis au Brésil représente 16 % du portefeuille. Le fonds qui investit sur la plupart des marchés émergents tels que la Russie, la Chine, la Corée ou Taïwan affichait, vendredi 31 octobre, une performance de 67 % depuis le début de l’année.

BNY Mellon a annoncé le 2 novembre la nomination de Brian Ruane au nouveau poste de Chief Executive Officer des services dédiés à l’investissement alternatif (AIS). BNY Melon Alternative Investment Services est un administrateur de hedge funds à la tête de 200 milliards de dollars de fonds sous adminsitration. Brian Ruane, qui reste basé à New York, sera directement rattaché à Art Certosimo, senior executive vice president et responsable de Broker-Dealer/Alternative Investment Services.

Pour un montant non divulgué, ING a vendu trois de ses brokers-dealers implantés aux Etats-Unis et de leur holding ING Brokers Network au capital-investisseur Lightyear Capital LLC qui gère environ 3 milliards de dollars. Il s’agit de Financial Network Investment Corporation, d’El Segundo (Californie), de Multi-Financial Securities Corporation, de Denver (Colorado) et de PrimeVest Financial Services, Inc de St Cloud (Minnesota).ING a précisé mardi qu’il conserve ING Financial Advisers de Windsor (Connecticut) et ING Financial Partners Inc à Des Moines (Iowa) parce que ces entités sont très intégrées à son activité et jouent un rôle clé dans la stratégie du groupe aux Etats-Unis, stratégie focalisée sur les services de retraite, l’assurance vie et les «rollover annuities».

Les experts estiment que la séparation de Northern Rock en «bonne/mauvaise» banque n'handicapera pas son véhicule d'émission Granite

Le rachat par l'Inde de 200 tonnes du FMI confirme l'appétit des pays émergents et le retournement d'un des fondements du marché

The international Tax Justice Network (TJN) on 2 November published an alternative list of tax havens, which takes into account a lack of transparency in 60 jurisdictions and their size in terms of international financial activity. The network of researchers and activists, who closely monitor the negative impact of tax evasion, fiscal competition, and tax havens, has created the Financial Secrecy Index (FSI), composed of 12 criteria considered far more pertinent than the OECD criteria, noting that the importance of a tax haven, and hence its attractiveness to clients, depends less on its tax rates than on the degree of opacity it offers. Contrary to what may have been previously thought, the major actors in financial opacity are not small isolated islands, but rather rich countries which have set up their own special opacity zones, often related to satellite jurisdictions, which serve as a stepping-point in the transmission of illicit capital flows to the world’s major capital markets. At the top of the rankings established on the basis of these criteria is the US state of Delaware, due to its commitment to non-transparency, its marked lack of cooperation, and its failure to comply with international standards. Second place goes to Luxembourg, which has attracted a highly significant hedge fund activity, and which bankers describe as the “guardians of the private sphere.” Number three is Switzerland, one of the few countries to receive a rating of 100 out of 100 for opacity, and whose reputation does not appear to be improving much despite extensive efforts, according to TJN. In fourth place is the Cayman Islands, whose authorities continue to strongly deny the nation’s status as a tax haven, followed by the City of London, a state within a state, says TJN, which sits like a spider in the centre of a web which includes half of the 60 jurisdictions in the index. Although it is less opaque than the other jurisdictions analysed, “London operates on such a scale and is politically so unaccountable that it has the potential to do much more harm than most of its competitors,” says TJN.

The chairman of the China securities regulatory commission (CSRC), Shang Fulin, last week made an appeal to the Beijing government to modernise the asset management industry in China, Asian Investor reports. The management industry has undergone unprecedented growth, but still lacks crucial benchmarks and frameworks. In particular, Fulin insisted on the necessity of channeling capital from institutional investors to serve long-term objectives. Among the reforms it has called for, the regulatory authority is seeking to advance the development of fund ratings agencies, and to initiate a redevelopment of the architecture of commissions paid between fund issuers and product distributors. It is also working to simplify the product licensing process. Fulin also emphasized four major areas in which the Chinese management industry is still lagging behind. Management firms need to protect the interests of investors, improve the quality of the products and services they provide, continue to innovate, and improve their respect for compliance.

The management of the Luxembourg-registered fund Legg Mason Asia Pacific (ex Japan) will be transferred by Legg Mason to its affiliate Batterymarch on 30 November. The new manager will replace Esemplia Emerging Markets, the commercial name of Legg Mason International Equities, Investment Week reports. The investment objective of the product will not change, but the management method will be different. Legg Mason has announced that Batterymarch will probably increase the number of positions in the portfolio to 120-160, and that the turnover rate will be 80-100%.

Les Echos reports that the US research and consulting firm Tabb Group estimates that dark pools account for 4.1% of trading volumes in Europe by value. Opaque trades of securities may be expected to increase in the next twelve months, to account for 7% by 2010, Tabb Group predicts.

Société Générale is planning to increase the size of its bond team in Asia by more than 10% next year, Bloomberg reports, citing announcements by Robert Reilly, co-head of the department. Overall, the largest French bank in terms of market capitalisation will have increased personnel on its team by more than 50% in 2009, Reilly also stated. He has moved from Hong Kong to Sydney to oversee the development of these teams. The research department based in Hong Kong and tokyo will gain four to seven people.

Bernd Bogmeier, a managing partner at the MM Warburg private bank until the end of 2008, has founded the investment boutique BAY Investment in Eschborn (near Frankfurt), in collaboration with Achim Hammerschmitt, who was previously director of asset allocation at Warburg Invest, and Youngjun Yoon, former CI of Warburg Invest. The acronym “BAY” comes from the first initials of the three founders. The new boutique will start up with assets of EUR1bn, and will offer quantitative fundamental products to both institutional and retail clients.

Hedge Week reports that hedge funds in the Netherlands gained an average of 1.31% in the month of September, according to the Finles/IEX index. Over nine months, the index shows gains of 11.48%, compared with 10.8% for the HFRX Global index. Since the beginning of the year, the top five hedge fudns are HIQ Invest Market Neutral Fund (+40%), Antaurus Europe Fund (+36%), IdB Real Estate Fund (+34%), EV Smaller Companies Fund (+31%), and Farringdon Alpha One Fund (+30%).

On Monday, Deutsche Börse announced that it has launched its pan-European trading platform Xetra International Market (XIM), which will allow Xetra cilents to trade European large caps and to settle their transactions on their national market. Initially, XIM will offer this service for the most liquid shares of Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. In a few weeks, they will be joined by Finnish and Spanish equities. As of mid-January 2010, XIM will also cover Italian equities. At the end of this initial launch period, 96 shares denominated in Euros will be available on XIM. These include shares belonging to the DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index, as well as other shares with a high level of liquidity which feature in other indexes. Transactions on XIM will be settled by Eurex Clearing at a competitive price on national markets. Clearstream will serve as an interface between Eurex Clearing and these markets.

On Tuesday, Banque Sarasin has announced that it is offering to acquire a majority stake (between 51% and 60%) in the Zurich-based bank NZB Neue Zürcher Bank, panding approval from the regulatory authorities and the current shareholders of NZB. As a part of a move to recentre itself on its private banking activities, Sarasin sold its Swiss brokerage activities to NZB Neue Zürcher Bank in 2007, and then held a stake of over 40% in the firm, via NZB Holding. The acquisition price has not been disclosed. The planned acquisition of a majority stake in NZB Holding “was decided on in a context of personnel changes at NZB, and of decisions recently taken by FINMA in relation to the Sulzer affair,” says Sarasin, adding that “the acquisition aims to maintain a climate of confidence among clients and partners” at NZB. Sarasin is planning to concentrate NZB’s activities on brokerage; in other words, NZB will withdraw from private banking activities.

Net outflows of assets from the Wealth Management & Swiss Bank division of UBS in third quarter totalled CHF16.7bn, while they totalled CHF9.9bn for Wealth Management Americas, and CHF10bn, compared with CHF17.1bn in second quarter, for the Global Asset Management division, the group announced on Tuesday morning. As of the end of September, total assets came to CHF2.258trn, compared with CHF2.250trn as of 30 June. The Wealth Management & Swiss Bank division has seen a decline in its pre-tax profits to CHF792m, compared with CHF932m in second quarter, while Wealth Management Americas had CHF110m in profits, compared with losses of CHF221m. Global Asset Management reported increased pre-tax profits of CHF130m, up from CHF82m, largely due to an increase in revenues from performance commissions (particularly for alternative and quantitative investments) and management commissions.

A spokesperson for Alliance-Bernstein has told Mutual Fund Wire that by the end of the year, staff at the Axa affiliate will be reduced to about 4,000, from 4,544 at the end of September, and 5,633 at the end of September 2008. CEO Peter Kraus has also stated that the management firm has not reduced its recruitment efforts, and that it has added to specialist teams in real estate and special government programs.

In third quarter 2009, the asset management firm WisdomTree, a specialist in ETFs, underwent losses of nearly USD4.99m, compared with USD5.2m in second quarter, and USD5.67m in the corresponding period of last year. In the first nine months of the year, net losses have contracted to USD16.2m, compared with USD22.1m. As of 30 September, assets totalled USD5.47bn, of which USD4.9bn are in ETF funds, 32% and 33.8% more than at the end of June, respectively. Net subscriptions in third quarter totalled USD558m. As of the end of September 2008, assets under management totalled USD466bn. Wisdom Tree has also submitted an application to the SEC for a license for the WisdomTree Real Return Fund, a product “advised” by Mellon Capital Management, which will invest in inflation-indexed bonds (TIPS), bonds, and commodities derivatives.

There is a growing number of UCITS III-compliant funds of funds available, Financial Times Fund Management reports. Following 3A, Collins Stewart has launched a fund of this type, entitled Alternative Strategies Fund. HSBC Alternative Investments will follow suit by the end of the month, with AvantEdge.

Six themed funds will become a front line in the sectoral equities offerings from Robeco from 30 November 2009, Robeco Deutschland has announced. Existing products which are unable to adapt to long term thematic developments will undergo a change in investment policy or will be merged or closed. The Netherlands-based management firm is placing a particular emphasis on its “solid” range of emerging markets and US equities products, with a particular emphasis on sustainable development. The six new thematic funds, all of them registered in Luxembourg, will be: Robeco New World Financials Equities, the result of a change in investment policy for the Financial Equities fund; Robeco Agribusiness Equities, the result of the absorption fo the Food & Agri Equities into the Agribusiness Equities; Robeco Health & Wellness Equities, a transformed version of the Healthcare Equities. The fund will have SAM Sustainable Asset Management as sub-advisor; Robeco Infrastructure Equities, which will continue in its current form and absorb the Industrial Equities fund; Robeco Consumer Trends Equities, the result of a change in investment policy for the Consumer Goods fund, which will absorb the IT Equities and Telecom Services Equities funds; lastly, the Robeco Natural Resources Equities, the result of a change to the management policy of the Energy Equities fund, while the Materials Equities and Utilities Equities funds will be closed.

Globalfoundries, a joint venture from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), itself owned by the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund Mubadala, on Monday announced the appointment of Alan E. “Lanny” Ross, former CEO of Broadcom, as its interim chairman. Ross replaces Hector Ruiz, who is taking a “voluntary leave of absence” with immediate effect, until his resignation, submitted in September, takes effect on 4 January 2010. Ruiz, the former CEO of AMD, is one of the people suspected of having provided insider information to several hedge funds, including Galleon, For the moment, he is not facing criminal proceedings.

Barclays Global Investors (BGI) reports in the October 2009 issue of its «ETF Landscape» newsletter, published on Monday, that the total expense ratio (TER) for equities ETFs in Europe average 37 basis points per year, compared with 87 basis points for the average index-based equities fund, and 175 basis points for the average actively-managed fund. The statistics were compiled in March by Morningstar. In the United States, the average total expense ratio for equities ETFs totalled 32 basis points, compared with 73 basis points for the average index-based equities fund, and 141 basis points for the average actively-managed equities fund.

Consob, the Italian securities commission, and the Bank of Italy are seeking to improve the efficiency of the asset management sector in the country, Il Sole - 24 Ore reports. The two authorities on Monday released a document resulting from a joint project begun un summer 2008, in which they propose to dematerialize fund shares, in order to favour portability and to bring about an end to the plurality of systems, procedures, and language adopted by the various asset management firms. The goal is to achieve an application by 2011 of a plan in partnership with all market actors.

BNY Mellon has completed the acquisition of Insight Investment Management from Lloyds Banking Group. Insight Investment’s assets under management, net of identified internal assets that will be retained by another part of the Lloyds Banking Group, are approximately USD133 billion. It joins the other investment boutiques at BNY Mellon Asset Management. With this acquisition, BNY Mellon will have more than USD1 trillion in assets under management.

According to the 2 November issue of Ignites Europe, Diana Mackay and her husband Rodney Williams will be leaving their jobs as co-CEOs of Lipper FMI at the end of the year.

According to a survey undertaken by the advising agency NMG, and commissioned by National Ethical Investment Week and the independent financial advisers’ association, 87% of independent financial advisors (IFAs) now advise green and ethical investments, compared with 70% one year ago. The percentage of IFAs who say information on responsible investment is appropriate has increased from 15% last year to 34% this year. One third of advisors surveyed say that it is still difficult to find information on SRI, compared with 37% last year.

Sharia-compliant equities underperformed the markets as a whole in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman), the United States, and Europe in third quarter, according to the latest Shariah Scorecard from Standard & Poor’s. Islamic investors adopted a wait-and-see attitude while the financial sector began to rebound. The S&P Global BMI Shariah Index earned 15.46% returns in the three months to 30 September, while the non-Shariah S&P Global BMI Index, which includes a higher weighting of financial sector equities, gained 18.67% in the same period.

Man Investments and Credit Suisse on 2 November announced the launch of a joint managed accounts project, to respond to growing demand from investors for increased transparency, liquidity and controls. By the terms of the agreement, Man Investments, which for more than ten years has been developing a managed accounts platform which will continue to be available directly to Man clients, will be responsible for surveillance of managers and portfolios, risk management, reporting and investment advising for the joint project. Credit Suisse, for its part, will be responsible for risk transfer, and will contribute its expertise in structured products, as well as its strong balance sheet, which will open up possibilities for protection, dynamic leverage, and increased levels of liquidity.

Legg Mason is in the early stages of planning the launch of a new absolute return bond fund to be run by its affiliate Western Asset Management, Citywire has learned.