According to estimates by BarclayHedge and Trimtabs of 3,340 products, hedge funds in August posted net subscriptions of USD10bn (or 0.5% of their assets), after USD8.23bn in July. In the first eight months of the year, hedge funds posted net inflows of USD45bn, compared with net outflows of USD3.6bn in the corresponding period of last year. As of 31 August, total assets were USD2trn, with the all-time record of USD2.trn tading from the end of September 2008. Funds of hedge funds, for their part, saw net redemptinos of USD4.2bn (0.9% of their assets) in August, after net outflows of USD4.1bn in July. Funds of hedge funds posted net subscriptions only during the first 24 months.
Gigi Chan, manager of the Threadneedle China Opportunities fund, has left the firm to take a break in her career, Investment Week reveals. Her fund will be taken over by Vanessa Donegan, head of the Asian equities team at Threadneedle in London.
The UK equity team at Polar Capital has been dissolved due to the departure of manager Philip Hardy, Investment Week reports. The closure will result in redemptions of USD293m for the December quarter. Although a direct replacement will not be recruited, the firm indicates that there is room for other teams to join the firm if an occasion presents itself.
In third quarter 2013, Man Group has recorded net inflows of USD0.7bn, as inflows to GLG Alternatives and long-only funds compensated for redemptions from funds at AHL and FRM. The AHL Diversified programme lost 6.6% for the quarter, which was the principal reason for redemptions of USD0.5bn in Quant strategies. The performance of FRM was negative all over, which reduced assets by USD0.3bn for the quarter. As of the end of September, assets under management at Man Group totalled USD52.5bn, compared with USD52bn as of the end of June.
In second quarter 2013, Jupiter recorded net inflows of GBP271m, after GBP209m in second quarter 2013 and GBP579m in third quarter 2012. These inflows and positive market effects allowed the UK asset management firm to slightly increase its assets from GBP29bn to GBP29.9bn for the quarter. Inflows to funds totalled GBP278m, with positive contributions both from British and international distribution channels. Assets in funds totalled GBP23.3bn as of 30 September. Since the beginning of the year, Jupiter has posted inflows of GBP689m.
The alternative asset management firm Egerton Capital has decided to close its long-only fund to new clients, the news agency Reuters reports. As of the end of 2012, Egerton also closed its long/short strategy to new investors. The source of this decision is an exceptional increase in assets under management of about 80% year on year. Assets under management at Egerton now total about USD11.4bn, also distributed between the two strategies, compared with USD6.3bn about one year ago. In the year 2013 to 11 October, the long/short strategy has earned returns of 19%, compared with an average of 9% for an equity hedge fund, according to Hedge Fund Research. The long-only strategy has posted gains of 25%.
In an effort to develop its own retirement operation and provide Annuity Direct the means to grow, Fidelity Worldwide Investment is acquiring all equity capital in Annuity Direct and its holding company Retirement Angels, pending permission from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).Annuity Direct will retain its status as an independent financial adviser. This firm is a provider of services both to retail investors and to a wide range of intermediaries, and the acquisition will allow Fidelity clients a wider selection of retirement planning solutions.The transaction comes at a time when Fidelity has decided to add to its retirement unit with the recruitment of Richard Parkin (ex UBS Global Asset Management), who will take a position as head of retirement, Head of Proposition, DC and Workplace Savings at the end of this month.
Patrick Summer, head of property equities at Henderson Global Investors (HGI), announced on Thursday during a visit to Paris that the house strategy, in terms of equity and real estate investment, is to maintain an “active share” of at least 60%, which is currently the case, at 61%. The portfolios include 8.8% of equities which are not in the benchmark indices.As of 30 September, HGI has assets of only USD2.7bn in real estate equities, of which USD2bn are in three Luxembourg-registered funds: USD1.3bn for the Henderson Horizon Global Property Equities Fund, EUR358m for the Henderson Horizon Pan European Property Equities Fund, and USD436m for the Henderson Horizon Asia Pacific Property Equities Fund, while the remainder corresponds to mandates, including from a Dutch pension fund and another pension fund from the Asia-Pacific region. Since the beginning of the year, the global fund has attracted a net USD172m, while the pan-European fund posted inflows of EUR17m, and the Asian product posted USD20m in net subscriptions.The portfolio of the global fund includes 67 positions, out of a universe of 306 securities in the index, and 400 securities including homebuilders. The only marked overweight position (3%) is to US equities. In Europe, a region in which it is neutral, HGI is underweight on France (3%) and overweight on Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden. Asia-Pacific is underweighted by 2%.
BNY Mellon has appointed Heneg Parthenay as chief operating officer of BNY Mellon Asset Management International Limited. Based in London, Parthenay reports to PeterPaul Pardi, CEO of BNY Mellon Asset Management International and global head of distribution for BNY Mellon Investment Management.Parthenay spent the last eight years at Aviva, latterly on the executive team of their global asset management arm, Aviva Investors Limited.
Treasury Asia Asset Management Limited (TAAM), founded in 2005, with the assistance of Treasury Group (Sydney) by Peter Sartori, has been acquired by the Tokyo-based Nikko Asset Management for an undisclosed amount.TAAM employs eight people in Singapore and Sydney. It specialised in “sophisticated” strategies based on Asian equities, a statement says.Nikko AM (USD156bn as of 30 June 2013) says that it has selected its Singapore office, led by Eleanor Seet, a its center of excellence for managing Asian securities.
After gains of slightly over 6% in 2012, assets under management for third parties on the French market once again rose by 3.3% in the first nine months of the year, to top EUR3trn as of the end of September, at EUR3.036trn, according to the most recent estimates by the French financial management association (AFG). Of this total, mandates, including foreign-registered OPCs, have gained nearly EUR100bn, to EUR1.529trn, while collective management held stable at EUR1.507trn. This psychologically significant threshold, which marks an increase of over 20% in five years, and of nearly 10% over the end of 2007, is nonetheless largely due to positive market effects, as all OPC asset classes show outflows since the beginning of the year, even though figures have improved since summer. With that said, asset management activity in Paris remains highly dynamic, with many creations of asset management firms once again this year. Without definite figures, the balance of creations is expected to total about 30, says Paul-Henri de La porte du Theil, chairman of the AFG, at a press conference. However, there has been a decline in creations since 53 in 2010, 39 the next year, and 34 last year.
The speculative fund SAC is preparing to pay a record fine of over USD1bn to settle legal proceedings against it over multiple insider trading charges, Les Echos reports, citing information in the Wall Street Journal. According to the US newspaper, the fund would agree to pay between USD1.2bn and USd1.4bn. It has already paid a fine of USD616m to the US stock market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, in March this year. Under the civil agreement, SAC neither admits nor denies the allegations against it. The total fine may exceed USD2bn, a sum hiterhto unseen in cases of this kind, and a sign that US regulators are continuing to put pressure in the financial sector, banks and hedge funds, and ratings agencies.
When the acquisition of NYSE Euronext by IntercontinentalExchange takes effect, in theory from 4 November, the French-American Stéphane Biehler, chief accouting officer & corporate controller at NYSE Euronext since 2007, will join Morningstar as chief financial officer (CFO). He will report directly to Joe Mansueto, chairman & CEO. Biehler replaces Scott Cooley, CFO since 2007, who has expressed a desire to take a sabbatical year to earn a university degree. He will then return to Morningstar in the area of research.
Assets under supervision in the Investment Management unit of Goldman Sachs have increased by USD36bn in third quarter, to a total of USD991bn, according to a statement released on 17 October. Assets under supervision include assets under management, but also other client assets invested with third-party managers. Long-term assets under management under supervision increased by USD35bn, due to positive market gains of USD19bn (largely in equities) and a net inflows of about USD16bn, largely to bond supports. Revenues for the Investment Management unit totalled USD1.22bn in third quarters, up 2% compared with third quarter 2012, but down by 9% comapred with second quarter 2013. The Goldman Sachs group has earned net profits for the part of the group of USD1.4bn, down by 2%, for earnings of USD6.7bn, down 20% year on year.
Amundi plans to launch new sub-funds in the next 12 months managed by its US partner First Eagle Investment Management (FEIM). Meanwhile, the Luxembourg Sicav Amundi International Sicav (EUR3.8bn as of 30 September), distributed by Amundi and managed under an outsourcing contract by FEIM, is changing names, to become First Eagle Amundi International Fund. In addition, the Sicav is adopting a structure with multiple sub-funds.The change reflects “a reinforcement of the partnership between Amundi and FEIM towards greater collaboration,” a statement says. “First Eagle has done excellent work managing the Sicav (…). First Eagle also helps us to promote the fund internationally. With this change of name we would like to team up with them in this commercial adventure,” explains Laurent Bertian, deputy director of the institutional and third-party distributor professional in charge of sales and marketing at Amundi.
More than 80% of fiduciary servicces at US banks are planning to increase their use of third-party funds in the next two years, according to a survey by Cerulli Associates. At the same time, three quarters of these “bank trusts” feel that the selection of external managers and the constitution of a research group for this purpose represent the primary challenges they will need to face in moving the needle.
In a SEC filing dated 15 october, Nomura Asset Management announced that effective immediately, subscriptions to all funds from Nomura Partners Funds Inc have been halted. Nomura says that it is planning to withdraw from retail fund activities in the United States, Mutual Fund Wire reports. Nomura will continue to manage the funds during this transitional period. Meanwhile, a Nomura employee confirms that Michael Andrews, head of US retail, has left the firm.
Assets under management at the Blackstone group as of the end of September totalled USD248bn, a record total, up 21% in one year, according to a statement released on 17 October. All Blackstone activities have posted good results, due to inflows and appreciation of assets. Gross inflows totalled USD21bn in third quarter, and USD53bn in the last 12 months. Blackstone has returned USD34bn to investors in the past twelve months.
The OneSource trading platform, launched in February, and on which Charles Schwab Investment Management offers commission-free ETFs, now lists 121 products. On 16 october, 16 new products were added, including five from Guggenheim Investments, five from SPDR ETF (State Street Global Advisors) and six from Charles Schwab IM. OneSource covers ETFs from six different providers, including the three aforementioned, plus PowerShres, ETF Securities and United States CommodityFunds.The complete list of ETFs available on OneSource is available here.
With the slogan “take the euro out of Germany,” the US asset management firm WisdomTree on 17 October launched the WisdomTree Germany Hedged Equity Fund (ticker: DXGE), an ETF of German equities which replicates the WisdomTree Germany Hedged Equity index, an index weighted by dividends which also neutralises fluctuations in the euro against the dollar in parallel.The total expense ratio is set at 0.48%.
The Financial Conduct Authority will require asset management firms to publish transaction costs following a report by the Office of Fair Trading on corporate retirement, Money Marketing reports. Speaking at a conference of the National Association of Pension Funds in Manchester, the director of the OFT, Ed Smith, declared: “We recommended that the FCA should undertake an exercise to ensure that these figures [transaction costs] be published regularly and made publicly available, and particularly to those who take decisions with respect to pensions.”
Ashmore has registered its Pan Africa and Latin America Equity funds as Sicavs, extending their availability to investors, Fund Web reports. The products are UCITS IV funds registered in Luxembourg, and they are available to institutional and retail investors.
Jupiter a enregistré au troisième trimestre 2013 des souscriptions nettes de 271 millions de livres, après 209 millions de livres au deuxième trimestre 2013 et 579 millions au troisième trimestre 2012. Cette collecte et un effet marché positif ont permis à la société de gestion britannique d’augmenter légèrement ses encours qui passent de 29 milliards de livres à 29,9 milliards de livres sur le trimestre.Les souscriptions aux fonds se sont élevées à 278 millions de livres, avec des contributions positives à la fois des canaux britanniques et internationaux. Les encours des fonds sont ressortis à 23,3 milliards de livres au 30 septembre.Depuis le début de l’année Jupiter a collecté 689 millions de livres.
Au troisième trimestre 2013, Man Group a enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 0,7 milliard de dollars, la collecte de GLG Alternatives et des fonds long-only ayant compensé les rachats des fonds AHL et FRM.Le programme AHL Diversified a perdu 6,6 % sur le trimestre, ce qui a été la raison principale des rachats de 0,5 milliard de dollars dans les stratégies Quant. La performance de FRM a été négative partout, ce qui a réduit les encours de 0,3 milliard de dollars sur le trimestre.A fin septembre, les encours sous gestion de Man Group sont ressortis à 52,5 milliards de dollars, contre 52 milliards fin juin.
Gigi Chan, la gérante du fonds Threadneedle China Opportunities, a quitté la société afin de faire une pause dans sa carrière, révèle Investment Week. Son fonds sera repris par Vanessa Donegan, responsable de l’équipe actions asiatiques de Threadneedle à Londres.
BNY Mellon Asset Management International Limited vient de recruter Heneg Parthenay en tant que chief operating officer. Basé à Londres, il est placé sous la direction de Peter Paul Pardi, CEO de BNY Mellon Asset Management International et responsable mondial de la distribution de BNY Mellon Investment Management.Heneg Parthenay a passé les huit dernières années chez Aviva, récemment au sein de l’équipe dirigeante du pôle gestion d’actifs Aviva Investors.
Dans le souci de muscler l’activité retraites de Fidelity et de fournir à Annuity Direct les moyens de se développer, Fidelity Worldwide Investment acquiert la totalité du capital actions d’Annuity Direct et de sa société holding Retirement Angels, sous réserve d’un agrément de la Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).Annuity Direct conservera son statut de conseiller financier indépendant. Cette société est prestataire de services tant pour les particuliers que pour un vaste échantillon d’intermédiaires, et l’acquisition permettra aux clients de Fidelity un choix plus large de solutions en matière de prévoyance retraite.La transaction intervient en un moment où Fidelity a décidé de renforcer son pôle retraites avec le recrutement de Richard Parkin (ex UBS Global Asset Management), qui prendra ses fonctions de head of retirement, head of proposition, DC and Workplace Savings à la fin du mois.
La société de gestion alternative Egerton Capital a décidé de fermer fonds long-only aux nouveaux clients, rapporte l’agence Reuters. Fin 2012, Egerton avait fermé sa stratégie long-short aux nouveaux investisseurs.A l’origine de cette décision, une hausse exceptionnelle des actifs de l’ordre de 80% sur un an. Les actifs sous gestion d’Egerton s'élèvent actuellement à environ 11,4 milliards de dollars, également répartis entre les deux stratégies, contre 6,3 milliards de dollars il y a environ un an.Sur l’année 2013 au 11 octobre, la stratégie long-short a dégagé une performance de 19%, contre 9% en moyenne pour un hedge fund actions selon Hedge Fund Research. La stratégie long-only affiche un gain de 25%.
Ashmore a enregistré ses fonds Pan Africa et Latin America Equity en tant que Sicav, élargissant ainsi leur accès auprès des investisseurs, rapporte Fund Web. Les produits sont des fonds Ucits IV enregistrés au Luxembourg et ils sont accessibles aux institutionnels et aux particuliers.
Selon les estimations de BarclayHedge et de Trimtabs portant sur 3.340 produits, les hedge funds ont enregistré en août des souscriptions nettes de 10 milliards de dollars (soit 0,5 % de leur encours) après 8,2 milliards en juillet. Sur les huit premiers mois de l’année, les fonds alternatifs ont collecté 45 milliards de dollars en net contre des sorties nettes de 3,6 milliards de dollars pour la période correspondante de l’an dernier.Au 31 août, l’encours total représentait 2.000 milliards de dollars, le record historique de 2.100 milliards datant de fin septembre 2008.Les fonds de hedge funds, pour leur part, ont subi des remboursements nets de 4,2 milliards de dollars (0,9 % de leur encours) en août, après des sorties nettes de 4,1 milliards en juillet. Les fonds de hedge funds n’ont enregistré des souscriptions nettes que durant deux des vingt-quatre derniers mois.