La hausse du PIB, freinée par les attentats, serait de seulement 0,2% au dernier trimestre 2015, avant un rebond à 0,4% lors des deux suivants.

La directrice générale du Fonds monétaire international (FMI) a estimé hier, à la suite de son renvoi pour «négligence» devant la Cour de justice de la République, qu’il n’existait «aucune charge qui puisse lui être imputée» dans le dossier Tapie. Elle a aussitôt décidé de former un recours auprès de la Cour de cassation. A Washington, le conseil d’administration du FMI lui a réaffirmé sa confiance, tandis que le ministre français des Finances, Michel Sapin, a souligné qu’elle était «présumée innocente».

Les responsables de la zone euro ont approuvé provisoirement une nouvelle tranche d’aide d’un milliard d’euros à la Grèce après le renoncement par Athènes à un projet de loi sur un programme économique parallèle, rapportait hier Reuters en se référant à un responsable européen. Le projet de loi en question, soumis par le Premier ministre Alexis Tsipras, comportait une série de mesures sociales destinées à répondre à ce qu’il a appelé une «crise humanitaire». Sous la pression des créanciers et de l’opposition de droite, ce projet de loi a finalement été retiré de l’agenda parlementaire et sera discuté en commission début janvier. Les créanciers de la zone Europa ont donc réagi en approuvant une tranche d’aide «sous deux à trois conditions techniques» qui devraient être remplies aujourd’hui, permettant ainsi au Mécanisme européen de stabilité (MES) de débloquer la somme, a expliqué ce responsable.

L’Italie vise dorénavant un déficit budgétaire représentant 2,4% de son produit intérieur brut (PIB) l’an prochain au lieu des 2,2% communiqués voici deux mois à la Commission européenne, a déclaré hier le ministre de l’Economie Pier Carlo Padoan. Ce dernier en a informé officiellement le parlement italien après que le président du Conseil Matteo Renzi eut dit que le gouvernement comptait dépenser davantage dans la sécurité et la culture à la suite des attaques terroristes du 13 novembre à Paris.

La Chambre des représentants américaine a adopté hier par 318 voix contre 109 un programme de 622 milliards de dollars visant à mettre en place de nombreux allégements fiscaux à destination des entreprises et des particuliers. L’adoption du volet recettes du projet de budget 2016 a recueilli le soutien de plusieurs élus démocrates. La Chambre basse doit se prononcer aujourd’hui sur le volet dépenses de la loi de finances. Le Sénat, quant à lui, devrait aussi se prononcer ce vendredi sur les deux volets lors d’un vote unique.

Le groupe patrimonial rebaptise sa société de multigestion et vise une à deux prises de participation dès l’an prochain.

Le passage de la note du pays en catégorie spéculative par deux agences de notation pourrait entraîner des ventes forcées d’obligations locales.

L’agence de refinancement des collectivités locales françaises a réalisé hier son deuxième placement privé dans le cadre de son programme EMTN, après une première opération du genre le 4 décembre. «Ces opérations répondent à une intensification des demandes de prêts auprès de l’Agence France Locale», assure un communiqué. Six investisseurs ont participé à ces deux émissions obligataires d’une maturité d’un an et d’un montant respectif de 50 millions d’euros et 50 millions de dollars. Portant des coupons à taux variable, les transactions ont été arrangées pour la première par Norddeutsche Landesbank et pour la seconde par Commerzbank.

Avec un bilan de 4.200 milliards de dollars, la Fed va utiliser des opérations de reverse repo pour stériliser la liquidité excédentaire.

La CFTC a assoupli sa position et exempte d’exigences de collatéral les transactions entre entités d’un même groupe.

Les rachats anticipés ont atteint un record en 2015, à 33 milliards d’euros. De quoi stabiliser à 187 milliards les émissions nettes de 2016.

Les incertitudes macro-économiques n’ont pas découragé la concentration dans de nombreux secteurs. Dix opérations ont dépassé les 50 milliards de dollars.

Swiss Life, en association avec Budget Insight, une start?up déjà active dans la technologie d’agrégation de comptes bancaires, a décidé d’investir dans CrossQuantum, une nouvelle FinTech indépendante.

« L’année 2015 sera une bonne année avec une progression à 2 chiffres malgré un environnement complexe » explique Meyer Azogui, Président de Cyrus Conseil. La société dépasse les 2,5 milliards d'euros d’encours avec une société de gestion Invest AM qui atteint les 300 millions d’encours. La collecte est de 400 millions d’euros cette année dont 80 millions en immobilier.

La société dédiée à la gestion flexible du groupe Primonial est rebaptisée Stamina AM, synonyme de « performance à l’épreuve du temps ».

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; } Axa Investment Managers – Real Assets, the real estate asset management firm of the Axa Investment Managers group, has appointed Sébastien Herzog as global chief financial officer, chief operating officer and corporate secretary, with effect from 15 December. Herzog also becomes a member of the board of directors at Axa IM – Real Assets, in which role he will report to Pierre Vaquier, CEO of the asset management firm. Since 2012, Herzog had been global head of internal audit at Axa IM. He joined Axa IM – Real Assets, formerly Axa Real Estate, in 1998, as corporate finance manager. Meanwhile, Axa IM – Real Assets has announced the appointment of Bertrand Loubières with immediate effect to the position of head of infrastructure finance. In his new position, he will lead a team specialised in infrastructure debt, which has already invested over EUR2.5bn in Europe over the past two years. Loubières is based in London, and reports to Isabelle Scemama, head of funds group at Axa IM – Real Assets, and CEO of Axa REIM SGP. Loubières, who has over 15 years of experience in project financing and infrastructure, joins from BNP Paribas, where he began in 2006, and most recently served as head of specialised product group.

Since 1 October this year, Serge Alarcon has taken over as director of institutional multi-asset management at J. Safra Sarasin bank in Geneva, assisted by Aurélie Krafft. Alarcon has over 15 years of experience in institutional asset management, largely serving pension funds. He directed balanced management for institutional and UHNWI clients at Union Bancaire Privée from 2010 to 2015. Previous to that, he served in various positions in the asset management department at Lombard Odier. His arrival comes as part of a strategic effort to further develop the product range for multi-asset portfolio management, based on a wider range of asset classes and instruments, adopting flexible (“Total Return”) approaches. Kraft, for her part, began her career as an analyst at UBP in 2007, and then became a manager and joined the team led by Alarcon in 2011.The bank also intends to create a Total Return product offering for bond management. To this end, it has created a position for a director of the fixed income total return team, and appointed Stéphane Decrauzat. Decrauzat joins the asset management department with Vincent Rossier, from 1 January 2016. Both have been active in the management of fixed income instruments for nearly 20 years, and contribute expertise in total return approaches to management in the bond segment. Decrauzat has served in this role at RAM Active Investments for eight years. Rossier, for his part, has served in a variety of positions in bond asset management at Pictet Wealth Management in Geneva since 1998.Lastly, the bank has announced the arrival of Yann Schorderet at the CIO Office. Since 15 November this year, he has been helping to develop macroeconomic and financial market scenarios, on which the investment committee bases its definitions of the house view. Schroderet, a commentator, is also responsible for publishing his analyses and views of the markets for French language clients in the French language press. He had served in a similar role at Mirabaud Asset Management since 2007.

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; } Following the departure of Heiko Beck, who in September decided to leave his position as director of Union Investment Real Estate, at the end of 2015, the real estate management firm based in Hamburg has undertaken a vast reorganization of its management, with effect from 1 January 2016. Martin Brühl has been promoted to the board of directors at Union Investment Real Estate, and will now be responsible for a new department dedicated to real estate investment internationally. He will also become responsible for fund management. Since 2013, Brühl had been working as head of the international investment management department. In this position, he was responsible for the development of the real estate portfolio at the firm in Asia, Australia, North America and the United Kingdom. Frank Billand, already a board member at Union Investment Real Estate, retains responsibility for management of investments and portfolios in Europe, and for shopping centres. For his part, Volcker Noack will continue to be responsible for asset management and project management. The institutional activity will continue to be managed by Union Investment Institutional Property, a sister company of Union Investment Real Estate, which is led by Christoph Schumacher and Wolfgang Kessler.

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; } Aviva Gestión, the Spanish asset management affiliate of the insurer Aviva, will finish the year 2015 with assets under management exceeding the EUR1bn threshold for the first time in its history, the firm has announced. “This amount implies growth of about 28% since 2012, when our assets totalled about EUR804m,” Aviva Gestión says in a statement.

Julien Mechler is quitting Neuflize OBC Investissements, Newsmanagers has learned. Since January 2010, he had been a board member at the asset management firm, responsible for the multi-management and solutions unit, including open architecture, absolute return management, investment strategy, and institutional solutions.Mechler is a co-founder of the AAA (ABN Amro Advisors) multi-management unit of the ABN Amro group.

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; } On 16 December, Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (Deutsche AWM) launched a new bond ETF of its db x-trackers range on Xetra, the trading platform from the market operator Deutsche Börse. The new vehicle, entitled db x-trackers iBoxx Eurozone Sovereigns Quality Weighted Ucits ETF, allows investors access to the performance of government bonds issued by euro zone countries. These bonds, denominated in euros, must be rated investment grade. The benchmark index is the Markit iBoxx EUR Eurozone Sovereigns Quality Weighted Index.

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; } According to a recent study by PwC, 61% of the 150 hedge funds belonging to the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) surveyed succeeded in increasing their assets in 2015. It was mostly the largest hedge funds which were able to boost their assets. PwC emphasizes that the funds which attracted the strongest subscriptions were the ones with the best returns last year. But performance is not the only catalyst for sales. According to PwC, subscribers pay much attention to the brand and the transparency of hedge fund managers with respect to management fees. For 2016, hedge fund managers are more optimistic. 44% would like to launch a new fund next year.

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; } In the month of November, Spanish common investment funds saw an increase of 1.1%, or EUR2.43bn, to their assets, compared with October, for a total of EUR222.74bn, according to statistics released by Inverco, the Spanish professional asset management association. Compared with the end of 2014, assets under management have increased 14.3%. In the past month, net subscriptions totalled EUR927m. At the conclusion of the first 11 months of 2015, net inflows to the sector totalled EUR24.17bn.

Schroders has announced a new senior appointment within its UK Strategic Solutions team, part of its UK Institutional business. Hannah Simons will be joining the UK Strategic Solutions team from Russell Investments. Prior to joining Schroders Hannah Simons was associate director of the Pensions Solutions Group at Russell Investment, a role she had held for the past two years. Hannah previously held senior positions at Pimco Europe, BlackRock and Towers Watson. She brings with her more than 16 years of experience. Reporting to the head of UK Strategic Solutions, Mark Humphreys, Hannah Simons joins a team of six actuaries and former investment consultants which was created in 2008 to work with clients and their advisors on investment strategy and implementation.

Ucits Equity funds distributed in Europe enjoyed large net inflows of EUR 19 billion in October, up from EUR 3 billion registered in September, according to the European Fund and Asset Management Association (Efama). Equity funds enjoyed in October their highest level of net sales since January 2013, comments the association.Bond funds registered net sales of EUR 0.3 billion, up from the net outflows of EUR 1 billion registered in September. Net sales of multi-asset funds remained steady for the third month in a row with net inflows of EUR 8 billion. Long-term UCITS (UCITS excluding money market funds) registered net sales of EUR 28 billion, compared to net outflows of EUR 12 billion in September. UCITS money market funds experienced a reversal in flows, recording net inflows of EUR 23 billion compared to net outflows of EUR 11 billion registered in September. Total AIF net sales registered net inflows of EUR 12.5 billion, up from outflows of EUR 6.3 billion in September. Net assets of AIF increased 2.5 percent to stand at EUR 4,400 billion at month end, while net assets of UCITS stood at EUR 8,224 billion at end October 2015, representing an increase of 5.2 percent during the month. Overall, total net assets of the European investment fund industry increased 4.3 percent to stand at EUR 12,624 billion at end October 2015.

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; } The Swedish asset management firm Didner & Gerge has recruited Jessica Eskilsson Frank to manage a future US small and micro-cap fund, a statement has announced. Frank joins from Handelsbanken, where she had been manager fo the Amerika Småbolag fund, a fund of US small caps. The new fund, entitled Didner & Gerge US Small and Microcap, will be launched in autumn 2016. Another manager will be recruited to work on the fund with Frank, who begins in her role in January. As of 30 November, Didner & Gerge Fonder had SEK49bn in assets, in four funds.

Le gérant de fonds multi-classes d’actifs Iain Barnes a décidé de quitter UBS Asset Management (UBS AM) pour poursuvire d’autres opportunités de carrière, révèle Citywire Global. L’intéressé, qui compte 15 ans d’expérience dans le secteur de la gestion d’actifs, avait rejoint UBS en 2010 en provenance de Schroders et avait été nommé gérant du fonds UBS Multi-Asset Income en avril 2012, avant de prendre en charge plusieurs autres stratégies multi-classes d’actifs au sein du groupe suisse.A la suite du départ d’Iain Barnes, UBS a nommé deux gérants pour le remplacer sur les trois stratégies domiciliées au Luxembourg dont il avait la charge. Ainsi, selon porte-parole d’UBS contacté par Citywire Global, Philip Brides devrait reprendre la gestion des fonds UBS Global Multi Income et UBS Multi-Asset Income. Ces deux fonds sont actuellement co-gérés par Curt Custard et Andreas Koester. En parallèle, Matthew Quaife a été nommé co-gérant du fonds UBS European Growth and Income aux côtés de Tom Rivers.

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (Deutsche AWM) vient de lancer, ce 16 décembre, un nouvel ETF obligataire de sa gamme db x-trackers sur Xetra, la plateforme de négociation de l’opérateur boursier Deutsche Börse. Baptisé db x-trackers iBoxx Eurozone Sovereigns Quality Weighted Ucits ETF, ce nouveau véhicule permet aux investisseurs d’accéder à la performance des obligations souveraines émises par les pays de la zone euro. Libellées en euro, ces obligations doivent être notées en catégorie investissement («investment grade»). L’indice de référence est le Markit iBoxx EUR Eurozone Sovereigns Quality Weighted Index.

Oddo Meriten Asset Management entame l’harmonisation de sa gamme de fonds. Deux premiers produits changent de nom. BNY Mellon Sustainability Fund et BNY Mellon Wertefonds deviennent ainsi Oddo Sustainability Fund et Oddo Wertefonds.Le mariage entre le français Oddo Asset Management et l’allemand Meriten Investment Management a donné naissance cet été à un groupe de 45 milliards d’euros d’encours.