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28/04/2009

Germany - Schroders adds to sales team

Schroders Germany has recruited two assistants for its sales team. Gülcan Elmas joins the private cilents team, led by Clemens Bertram; she was previuosly at F&C Asset Management in London. From 1 May, Tobias Eppler will join the major accounts team in a support position for Joachim Mareike and Alexander Prawitz. He was previously in the structured products distribution service at BHF-Bank.
28/04/2009

Europe - Second wind for convertibles

April was a good month for European convertible bonds: roughly USD3.21bn were raised, according to statistics from Dealogic reported in the Wall Street Journal. Bankers estimate that convertible issues will remain dynamic for the rest of the quarter, so long as equities markets remain stable.
28/04/2009

United Kingdom - London becoming a threat to offshore financial centres

The dominance of offshore asset management centres such as Luxembourg and Dublin may face a threat from the United Kingdom, following the passage of a series of tax relief measures, Financial Times Fund Management reports. The British government has introduced a system by which tax is paid only by investors, and not by funds. It has also created a list of financial instruments in which funds may invest without having their activities classed as ?trading,? which would make them subject to capital gains tax.
28/04/2009

Europe - Fund selection will be increasingly outsourced, says Allfunds

In an interview with Citywire, Borja Largo, CIO of Allfunds Bank, predicts that many institutions will move to outsource their fund analysis in the future. He estimates that the only fund selection entities which will prove viable in the long term will be those with more than EUR1bn to EUR1.5bn in assets.
28/04/2009

World - Hedge funds may begin outsourcing administration

Hedge funds may be obliged to outsource their administration in order to reassure clients, the Financial Times reports. In a sector which has recently confronted some difficulties due to the Madoff scandal and the Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers bankruptcies, investors are increasingly concerned about compensation risks, and are putting pressure on hedge funds to alter their practices.
28/04/2009

United Kingdom - Fortis Investments: Wael Elkhouly takes over as head of Global Infrastructure Fund management team

Fortis Investments has appointed Wael Elkhouly as head of asset management for the Global Infrastructure Fund team, based in London. The team includes 19 members, under the responsibility of Hans Meissner. Elkhouly, a British-Egyptian dual citizen, previously worked five years at Citigroup, where he was a part of the infrastructure consulting group. Before Citigroup, Elkhouly spent ten years in the dedicated investment banking unit of the Bechtel group.
28/04/2009

United States - Invesco organizes participation in PPIP

Invesco Ltd and its affiliate WL Ross on Monday announced that they are planning to invest up to EUR1bn in the Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP) to revive the mortgage market in the United States. Invesco will provide the expertise of its 120-member bond team, which manages USD159bn in assets, while WL Ross will contribute expertise in distressed investments. The firms will be supported by the Le Frak Organization, along with several property developers who will be co-investors. Assured Guaranty Ltd, a sub-prime debt servicing business, and American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc, a credit monoliner, two firms in which the group owns stakes, will contribute their expertise in particular aspects of this type of investment. In addition, strategic partnerships have been signed with the woman-owned securities firm Muriel Siebert and Co, with the investment advising firm Williams Capital Group, and with Jackson Securities, an affiliate of Atlanta Life Financial Group.
28/04/2009

Germany - Goldman Sachs AM has high ambitions

Axel Hörger, head of Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) for Germany and continental Europe, is aiming for assets of EUR30-40bn in Germany in the long term. This is an ambitious goal, since, as Handelsblatt observes, the first step will be to regain a level of EUR18bn in assets, their peak before the crisis. Assets have now fallen below EUR10bn (institutional investors withdrew a net total of EUR2.2bn in 2008). GSAM has cut staff and closed its German-registered KAG format management firm. Hörger says there is now rising demand for simple and transparent products. GSAM is now planning to focus on funds for private clients via banks and insurance firms. This will mean some recruitments: soon, nearly one third of the firm’s 29 staff will be dedicated to this activity.
28/04/2009

World - Cash management to become a strategic profession

La Tribune reports that cash management has become a strategic financial profession, in a world where liquidity has become scarce. The profession is profitable, the newspaper observes, citing the example of Citigroup, which has seen 15% growth in its net profits for this activity to USD843m in first quarter.
28/04/2009

Losses for asset and wealth management at Deutsche Bank

For January-March 2009, the asset and wealth management (AWM) division of Deutsche Bank has posted pre-tax losses of EUR173m, compared with pre-tax profits of EUR188m in the corresponding period of last year. Invested assets for the division at the end of March totalled EUR627bn, close to their levels at the end of December. Positive currency effects compensated for net outflows of EUR3bn from asset management and EUR1bn from wealth management, as well as for depreciation of the value of portfolios due to falling markets. Earnings for the AWM division contracted by 49% to EUR515bn, due to falling revenues from brokerage and management due to falling markets and a slowdown in client transactions. Activities were also negatively affected by write-downs for RREEF activities.
28/04/2009

Carmignac and Threadneedle finish top in rankings

According to the most recent rankings by Feri Fund Rating, Carmignac, Vitruvius and Dr. Jens Erhardt Kapital all succeeded in having the entirety (100%) of their funds on sale in Germany (9, 8, and 9 funds, respectively) ranked in the top category, which includes only A and B-rated products. The rankings concern managers with fewer than 25 funds on sale in Germany. The next two firms in the rankings are Star Capital and State Street, with ratios of 87.5% and 70.8%.In the rankings of management firms with more than 25 funds on sale, the top three finishers are Threadneedle with 67.9% of its funds rated A or B (19 out of 28), followed by BNY Mellon Asset Management with 58.5% (31 funds out of 53) and Union Investment (co-operative banks) with 50% (44 out of 88).
27/04/2009

Retirement savings: asset managers have an image problem

The financial crisis has negatively affected 50.1% of individual investors and 58.3% of institutional investors in the retirement planning industry, according to a survey conducted by Kommalpha Institutional Consulting entitled ?Altersvorsorge in der Asset Management Industrie.? The study finds that a large majority of investors feel that for retirement planning, insurers are better positioned than asset managers. In addition, the knowledge of potential clients of the largest actors is relatively limited: only 20% of investors are able to name one, and 65% of respondents are unable to name an asset management firm with an especially strong position in retirement savings. The best-known are Allianz and Deutsche Bank, as well as Union Investment (co-operative banks) and Fidelity.
27/04/2009

10-year bond rates will stand at 2.50%, according to Sifma

USD466bn in US Treasury bonds (of all maturities, including t-bills, t-notes and t-bonds) will be issued in second quarter 2009, experts at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (Sifma) estimate, according to La Tribune. They also estimate that rates will remain low: the median prediction for 10-year rates is 2.50% until the end of second quarter 2009, and 2.60% up to the end of third quarter.
27/04/2009

Private equity groups interested in Springer

According to the Financial Times, private equity groups are preparing to invest about EUR400m in Springer Science and Business Media, which is selling 49% of the publishing business. Blackstone, CVC Capital Partners and TPG are expected to submit bids.
27/04/2009

CAAM ?Europeanises? its Dynarbitrage Actions fund

Crédit Agricole Asset Management (CAAM) has launched the CAAM Funds Equity Statistical Arbitrage (EUR), a sub-fund of its international Luxembourg Sicav. The product is a European variant of the CAAM Dynarbitrage Actions, aimed at institutional clients. It is a long/short statistical arbitrage fund, whose objective is to generate performance which is as decorrelated as possible from the evolution of the markets. The product (200-400 positions), which combines mean reverting and momentum investment, complies with UCITS III. The product aims to outperform the Eonia by 400 basis points per year for a minimum investment horizon of 4 years, with an ex-ante VaR of under 10%. The equities arbitrage management team includes three portfolio managers and one analyst. Minimal subscriptions are set at USD0.5m. In addition to subscription and management commissions, CAAM is charging a performance commission of a maximum of 30% on performance above the EONIA capitalisation plus 400 basis points per year.
27/04/2009

Banco Madrid closes Copernico

Banco Madrid has announced the liquidation of its only hedge fund, Copernico, whose assets at the end of March had fallen to EUR21,000, Funds People reports. This amount represents the remaining assets in the fund after redemptions totalling 54% of the fund at the end of December.
27/04/2009

Morningstar acquires two CPMS activities

Morningstar Research Inc, a Canadian affiliate of US-based Morningstar Inc., has bought the equities research and data businesses of CPMS Computerized Portfolio Management Services Inc., which has about 40 employees in Toronto, for CAD16.1m. The transaction is expected to be closed by the end of the quarter.CPMS provides monitoring of fundamental data concerning shares in approximately 4,000 businesses in the United States and Canada. It also monitors earnings projections by brokers on Canadian businesses, and offers eight quantitative portfolios modelled on the US and Canadian equities markets.The firm has about 500 clients, including institutional investment managers, pension funds, endowments, and independent financial advisers.
27/04/2009

Wall Street ETFs with a Spanish accent

One year ago, two natives of Madrid, Bruno del Ama and José Carlos González, founded the New York management firm Global X Funds, which received its SEC license after six months. Its first fund is the FTSE Colombia 20, launched in partnership with Interbolsa, the largest Colombian broker, Cinco Días reports. Global X is planning to launch ETF funds based on other emerging markets, including Peru, Egypt, and the Philippines. No other provider in the United States currently offers these niche products.
27/04/2009

One quarter of new funds launched in 2009 are guaranteed equities funds

Spanish fund managers estimate that the leading category of products in the next few months will be guaranteed capital equities funds, which provide protection of capital for those who are not confident in the upward direction of the stock markets, and who are exposed to equities in order to profit from a possible rebound in this asset class. Paul Mercado, director of research at VDOS Stochastics, tells Expansión that 25% of new funds or funds whose guarantee has been renewed in the past three months are in this category, which represents 17% of total assets in Spanish funds.
27/04/2009

Retirement savings plans increase allocation to bonds

According to a study by the consulting firm Mercer, managers of Spanish retirement savings plans have increased their exposure to bonds to 61% since the beginning of the year, compared with 49% in 2008, Cinco Días reports. Allocation to equities has fallen to 32%, 8 points lower than at the end of 2006.
27/04/2009

Derivatives: Report warns against blunt regulations

A report on derivatives commissioned by the City of London Corporation claims that London may lose its place as a top financial centre if authorities decide to regulate derivatives without distinguishing between products which contributed to the financial crisis and other types of products, the Financial Times reports.
27/04/2009

SRI: Pension funds could do better, says FairPensions

The 30 largest British pension funds (4.86 million members, GBP351bn in assets) have an average score for socially responsible investment of 40%, according to a study by FairPensions. Though many of these funds admit that extra-financial factors (such as environmental, social and governance, or ESG, issues) may affect the value of their investments, many of them still do not have strategies to manage this risk. One third of managers apparently neglect to apply their ESG principles in their instructions to fund managers or in their selection of managers. Nearly half of them have no personnel dedicated to ESG issues either internally or externally. Transparency also is under-optimal, as half of funds do not disclose their major investments, and two thirds of them do not disclose details of their votes in general meetings.
27/04/2009

Credit Suisse/Tremont adjusts weightings of hedge fund indexes

Credit Suisse Index Co has announced that on 1 April 2009 it made routine adjustments to its hedge fund indexes AllHedge Index (SECTAH) and Blue Chip Index (INVX), to which 12 and 14 funds, respectively, were added. The funds in the SECTAH and INVX indexes are part of the Broad Index. The SECTAH funds are the largest in each of the ten sectors of the Broad Index, weighted according to their sectoral weight in the general index, while the INVX funds replicate the largest open-ended funds in these ten sectors.
27/04/2009

Private equity activities contract severely

According to the British magazine Unquote, cited by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the number of transactions realised by private equity investors in Europe has fallen to 219 in first quarter, for a total of EUR4bn, compared with 358 deals worth EUR27bn in January-March 2008. This is the lowest level of activity since autumn 1996. The largest deal was the acquisition of Euromisure by BCC Private Equity for EUR454m.In Germany, Unquote counted only 6 acquisitions, for EUR156m, compared with 13 deals worth EUR1.1bn in first quarter 2008.
27/04/2009

Santander Banca Privada va devenir Santander Patrimonios

Selon Cotizalia, le président du groupe Santander, Emilio Botín, a decidé de changer le nom de Santander Banca Privada pour celui de Santander Patrimonios, en raison de la mauvaise image du concept de «banque privée» dans le pays, liée aux scandales Lehman et Madoff.
27/04/2009
Fonds

Un quart des nouveaux fonds lancés en 2009 sont des garantis actions

Les gestionnaires espagnols estiment que le produit vedette des prochains mois sera le fonds d’actions garanti dont le capital est protégé pour ceux qui ne font pas confiance à l'évolution de la Bourse et qui sont exposés aux actions pour pouvoir profiter d’une possible remontée de cette classe d’actifs. Paula Mercado, directrice de la recherche chez VDOS Stochastics a indiqué à Expansión que 25 % des nouveaux fonds ou des fonds dont la garantie a été renouvelée ces trois derniers mois font partie de cette catégorie qui représente 17 % de l’encours total des fonds en Espagne. A mesure qu’il devient plus cher de renouveler l'épargne captée sur les dépôts bancaires, les commerciaux vont intensifier leurs efforts pour placer ces fonds garantis actions, estime Sebastión Laura, associé d’AFI. Pourtant les experts préfèrent les fonds garantis obligataires, qui sont plus rentables pour le souscripteur, mais qui, commercialement, risquent de faire perdre des souscriptions à leurs homologues actions. Depuis le début de l’année, les établissements qui ont attiré le plus de souscriptions avec les garantis actions sont Mapfre, La Caixa, le Santander (qui en a même lancé onze nouveaux), Bankinter (qui en a lancé 5), suivis du BBVA, de Crediges, du Banco Sabadell et de BBK.
Fonds
27/04/2009
Fonds

SGAM commercialise sa gamme de fonds à échéance

Selon Funds People, SGAM va commercialiser en Espagne sa gamme Target Fund, comprenant deux fonds UCITS III investis en obligations privées : Credit 2012 est à échéance de trois ans et Credit 2014 de cinq ans, leur période de commercialisation durant jusqu’au 19 juin 2009.
Fonds

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