Le fonds Blackstone va réintroduire en Bourse le groupe hôtelier Hilton au premier semestre 2014, six ans après l’avoir acheté pour plus de 26 milliards de dollars. Hilton Worldwide a engagé les banques Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America et Morgan Stanley pour mener à bien une opération qui va demander, au préalable, un refinancement de l’importante dette du groupe hôtelier - autour de 13 milliards de dollars. Blackstone, qui veut ainsi profiter de l’amélioration du marché hôtelier, envisage aussi de se séparer d’autres actifs hôteliers, entre autres la chaîne La Quinta, si possible d’ici à la fin de l’année, par le biais d’une vente ou d’une mise en Bourse.

Le taux de chômage a atteint en Grèce un nouveau record en mai, à 27,6%, contre 27,0% (chiffre révisé) en avril, soit plus du double du taux moyen de la zone euro, qui était de 12,1% en juin, selon des données officielles publiées hier. Ce taux est le plus élevé depuis que le service de la statistique Elstat a débuté la publication de cet indicateur en 2006.

Selon des données publiées hier par les douanes, les exportations chinoises ont augmenté de 5,1% en juillet par rapport à il y a un an, contre -3,1% en juin et un consensus des économistes de +3%. Comme les importations ont bondi de 10,9%, soit plus de cinq fois plus que prévu, l’excédent commercial, à 17,8 milliards de dollars, est ressorti à un niveau inférieur aux attentes.

L’agence de refinancement hypothécaire a fait savoir hier que son bénéfice du deuxième trimestre avait presque doublé en glissement annuel pour atteindre 10,1 milliards de dollars, ce qui lui permettra de verser un dividende de 10,2 milliards de dollars au Trésor américain en septembre. Après ce paiement, Fannie Mae aura ainsi versé quelque 105 milliards de dollars de dividendes au Trésor, soit quasiment 90% de l’aide publique perçue.

Les inscriptions hebdomadaires au chômage ont enregistré une hausse moins importante que prévu aux Etats-Unis lors de la semaine du 29 juillet au 3 août mais restent proches de leur plus bas niveau antérieur à la crise financière, un signe encourageant pour l'économie américaine. Les inscriptions se sont élevées à 333.000, contre 328.000 (révisé) la semaine précédente.

La plupart des économies riches connaissent « une amélioration limitée de la croissance » selon les indicateurs composites avancés de l'OCDE

La Banque Populaire de Chine a injecté 27 milliards de yuans (3,3 milliards d’euros) hier sur le marché monétaire par le biais d’opérations de reverse repos, en fixant le taux moyen à des niveaux en baisse de 40 points de base par rapport à sa précédente intervention la semaine dernière.

Les injections de liquidités sont l’occasion pour la banque centrale d’imposer des rendements en baisse pour soulager les tensions monétaires

Des résultats trimestriels prometteurs et un rebond des fusions-acquisitions ont soutenu les performances des fonds arbitragistes

Tokyo s’est engagé hier sur une réduction des dépenses de 62 milliards d’euros sur deux ans, mais hésite encore à relever le taux de TVA

Contrairement à la BoE, les investisseurs estiment qu’il faudra moins de trois ans pour que le chômage britannique passe sous le seuil de 7%

Après avoir trébuché en juin, les fonds arbitragistes se sont repris en juillet: l’indice composite Hedge Fund Research affiche une performance positive de 1,36%, qui porte son gain depuis le début de l’année à 4,73%. Portées par des résultats trimestriels prometteurs, les stratégies consacrées aux actions sont les plus performantes.

La plupart des économies riches connaissent « une amélioration limitée de la croissance » selon les indicateurs composites avancés de l'OCDE.

Northern Trust has announced the appointment of Andrew Tan as head of investment risk analysis services (IRAS) for the Asia-Pacific region. Tan, who will be based in Singapore, previously worked for Royal Bank of Canada, where he served in a similar role.

Retail and institutional investors, as well as advisers, in first half 2013 continued to take a particular interest in strategies dedciated to large caps, according to rankings by Morningstar of the most popular investments on distribution platforms. The survey also finds that in the category of “separate accounts,” seven of the most popular strategies with institutionals ranked in the top ten (Federated Strategic Value Dividend MA et CS McKee Value Equity) “In the institutional segment, we observed a spectacular rise in interest in international preferential equities and domestic junk bonds, probably due to rapid interest rate movements in the United States,” says Paul Justice, head of research for funds at Mornignstar. Two debt strategies are among the most popular mutual funds and ETFs for retail investors. No strategy of this type made it into the 2012 rankings, Morningstar reports. Retail investors are more particularly interested in emerging market ETFs, while advisers have a marked interest in bond ETFs and large cap strategies.

The US group BGC Partners wants to develop its management, via its Parisian affiliate Aurel BGC, Les Echos reports. The broker “would like to start up this activity with an acquisition: Paris seems to us to be a good starting point for that,” explains Jean-Pierre Aubin, executive CEO of BGC. Aurel BGC, which has about 180 employees in France, is looking at cases “which represent several hundred million to several billion euros in assets under management [up to about EUR5bn, according to the newspaper],” he continues. The French firm will focus particularly on management of money market Sicavs and fixed-income management.

Perella Weinberg Partners is planning to launch a highly liquid global macro strategy to invest in equity indices, currencies, government debt, credit and commodities. The new fund, PWP Global Macro Strategy, will be managed by Maria Vassalou, who has recently joined Perella Weinberg as a partner and portfolio manager. Vassalou previously worked at MIO Partners, an asset management affiliate of McKinsey & Company.

The US fund Ray Investment has sold another bloc of shares in Rexel, representing about 10% of capital in the electrical equipment distributor, as part of an accelerated placement of EUR525.6m to institutional investors. According to a trader cited by Reuters, the fund made its investment in 28.8 million shares in Rexel at a final price of EUR18.25 per share, which is at the low end of the range of 18.20-18.95 set for the share by several market actors previously. The largest shareholder in Rexel, which had previously sold 10% of Rexel to the French group last June, and 14.7% in February, is expected to see its stake reduced to 24% at the conclusion of the operation. However, “Ray Investment plns to remain a highly engaged and active investor in Rexel, and reiterates its support for Rudy Provoost, chairman of the board at Rexel, and his management team, to effectively carry out the growth strategy at Rexel and to achieve its objectives for 2015,” the fund says in a statement.

Russell Investments has announced the appointment of Jeff Hussey as global chief investment officer (CIO). Hussey has been working at Russell for over 20 years. He succeeds Pete Gunning, who will return to his native Australia to develop the activities of Russell in the Asia-Pacific region. Gunning, who had served as global CIO since 2008, replaces Alan Shoenheimer, who will assume non-exucutive functions at the group.

The Swiss Federal financial market surveillance authority, Finma, claims that the recovery and liquidation capacity of banks which are “too big to fail.” With this in mind, on 7 August it released a position paper on recovery and liquidation of banks operating internationally. A credible threat of bankruptcy is essential to ensure a certain rigour in a market-based economic system, Finma claims. An “effective and co-ordinated” international recovery and liquidation strategy is thus “of central importance in the context of the ‘too big to fail’ issue, which affects banks of systemic importance,” the financial market watchdog adds. Finma recommends an approach in which the national watchdog authority co-ordinates recovery and liquidation for the entire group. The surveillance authority must, for example, be able to impose participation by landers to the bank who have suffered losses. In particular, creditors of bank loans may also participate in recapitalising the firm. That would also win time to reorganize the viable banking sector, and to transfer to a viable business model, says Finma, which prefers this approach.

The British investment management association (IMA) is planning to add to the fixed income sector, with the introduction of a new category, which would include emerging market bond funds, Fundweb reports. The new category, IMA Global Emerging Markets Bond, will be released on 31 December 2013, while modifications have also been made to other fixed income categories. The definition of the Global Bond sector will need to be clarified in order to take into account the introduction of the new category. All of these modifications will also be introduced at the end of December 2013, with a transitional period to run until 31 March 2014. Funds will be eligible to be classed in this category if they invest at least 80% of their assets in emerging market bonds, as defined by a known emerging market bond index. The funds must also respect a geographical diversification imperative. Emerging market debt represents an established asset class, with known and recognised funds such as the Pictet Emerging Local Currency debt (GBP7.8bn in assets under management), the Templeton Emerging Markets Bond (GBP5.4bn), and the Pimco GIS Emerging Local Bond (GBP5bn). The professional association has also published its 11th annual report on the asset management sector, which observes that assets under management in the United Kingdom as of the end of 2012 reached a record GBP4.5trn. The report points out a few major trends, particularly a propensity for portfolios to be rendered less sensitive, resulting in a modification of allocations. An emblematic example of this trend is a long-term declining trend for equity funds, which accounted for 52% of total assets under management in funds in 2012, compared with 89% in 2013. The origin of this development is diversification and the objective announced in recent years to seek returns while also requiring capital protection.

PeterPaul Pardi, Global Head of Distribution at BNY Mellon Investment Management commented: “With over 25 years’ experience in the industry, Adrian brings to the team a wealth of experience and expertise that will be of tremendous benefit to the business. Over the next five months he will work closely with Jonathan Lubran to ensure a smooth transition. Jonathan, who has been a key member of the senior management team at BNY Mellon for over 10 years, retires at the end of this year with our deep thanks and gratitude.”

GLL Real Estate Partners GmbH (GLL), a real estate management firm based in Munich, has retained CACEIS to provide depository banking activities to its most recent alternative investment fund, in order to ensure that it is perfectly compliant with the AIFM directive and German KAGB regulations, Caceis Investor Services announced in a statement released on 7 August. The fund invests primarily in commercial real estate in Europe and the United States. A key argument for GLL in the choice of depository is that CACEIS provides homogeneous depository banking services in several jurisdictions and can meet the particular needs of the asset management firm to create pension funds and insurance products.

Pioneer, the asset management firm for the Italian bank UniCredit, has posted net inflows of EUR2.8bn in second quarter 2013, according to half-yearly results released by the group this week. The inflows, which offset a negative market effect of EUR2.3bn, was almost entirely supplied by captive activities in Italy, UniCredit states. At the end of June, assets under management at Pioneer were up slightly (+EUR0.5bn) to EUR165.5bn.

Assets under management at Dexia Asset Management totalled EUR72.7bn as of 30 June, compared with EUR72.9bn at the beginning of the year, according to a statement released on 7 August. Dexia states that assets at the beginning of the year include “one-time adjustments of EUR3.9bn related to the planned exit of the Dexia group.” The group has recently put an edn to talks with the Chinese firm GCS, but has also announced that it still plans to go through with the sale of Dexia AM (Newsmanagers of 31 July). The EBITDA for first half comes out to EUR26.3m, up 21% compared with the first half of 2012. Dexia Asset Managment has posted a net outflow for first half of EUR192m, but the asset management firm emphasizes in a statement that second quarter was very positive, with net inflows of EUR1.46bn. This development is due to sustained inflows from retail and private banking products, as well as the winning of several institutional mandates. Dexia AM states that it is continuing its targeted innovation programme, and is exploring a product range with flexible and dynamic asset allocation profiles, equity funds optimised for Solvency II, and “smart beta” strategies.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management has announced that it has “absolutely no intention” of abandoning the money market fund business, despite concerns about the activity and about regulations, Financial Times Fund Management reports. Assets in money market funds from Goldman were down by about USD100bn to USD196bn since the end of 2008.

A rise in mergers and acquisitions is favouring hedge funds specialised in this area, the Financial Times reports. Merger and acquisition arbitrage strategies have outperformed all other styles of hedge fund since the beginning of the year. According to HFR, merger and acquisition arbitrage earned 5.7%, compared with 3.6% for the sector as a whole.

Jupiter is planning to scrap performance fees for its Absolute Return fund from 1 November, at a time when the fund managed by Philip Gibbs will in September be entrusted to James Clunie, Investment Week reports. Wealth managers are seeking the dismissal, in a context of underperformance for the fund.

The street newspaper Big Issue, which supports homeless people in the United Kingdom, will launch social funds by the end of the year, Financial Times Fund Management reports. An asset management firm will be created, which will aim to raise GBP250m in the first five years. Two initial funds will be launched: one will specialise in housing, and the other will be a regional fund.

Old Mutual Wealth has announced a pre-tax profit up 14% in first half to GBP108bn, Investment Week reports. Assets under management are up 9%, to GBP75.2bn since the beginning of the year.