P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } A new ETF specialist, the New York-based ETF Issuer Solutions Inc., has applied for permission from the SEC to launch the Manna Core Equity Enhanced Dividend Stream Fund Index Universe reports. The product is an ETF advised by Manna ETFs Management LLC, which invests in other ETFs, but with the ability to take short positions on shares in order to hedge country or currency risks.The fund focuses on high-dividend equities, and may add direct investment in equities to investments in ETFs based on broader indices. The ticker for the fund on NYSE Arca will be MANA. The declared total expense ratio is 0.85%.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Pimco on 8 April announced the launch of the PIMCO GIS Inflation Strategy Fund, a fund aimed at investors who would like to protect their portfolios against global inflationary risks, while increasing their odds of earning higher real returns. The PIMCO GIS Inflation Strategy Fund combines the expertise of PIMCO in the area of real returns and an approach based on risk factors concerning asset allocation. It is managed by Mihir Worah, managing director and head of the Real Return portfolio management team.The Pimco GIS Inflation Strategy Fund uses a multi-asset approach to identify the best way to provide protection against inflation by investing in various types of real assets, such as international index-linked bond, commodities, emerging market currencies, international publicly-traded real estate funds, and gold. Asset allocation and underlying investments are managed actively, and strategies to hedge against the risk of extreme events are put in place to attenuate the risk of major shocks. The strategies are designed to offer protection against the risk of falling markets, while ensuring that the positioning of inflation-linked assets allows for their full potential to be exploited. By “risk of extreme events,” Pimco means an marked and generalised downturn on the markets.The fund comes as an addition to the Global Investor Series (GIS) from Pimco, which complies with UCITS regulations. The range, registered in Dublin, now includes 45- sub-funds, with USD150bn in assets under management as of 31 March 2013. In addition to daily liquidity, these funds offer investors a way to expose themselves to a wide range of asset classes, ranging from traditional global and regional bond funds, to credit portfolios, alternative solutions, and asset allocation. The funds are available in various asset classes denominated in various currencies, according to the needs of the client.The Pimco GIS Inflation Strategy Fund is available in several asset clases, denominated in various currencies, and designed specifically for institutional or retail investors.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Spanish asset management firms Bestinver, Mutuactivos and March Gestión have teamed up with the Portuguese Banif, the German Lampe, the Italian Sella, the Mexican GBM and the Chilean Corpbanca to create the Group of Boutique Asset Managers (GBAM), Investment Europe reports. The structure will allow members to improve their competitiveness and strengthen their position against major players in their respective markets.Other boutiques, including two British, one Swiss and one Asian firm, have expressed interest in the project.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Marco Ruijer, senior fund manager at MnServices in the Netherlands, has been recruited for the emerging market debt team at ING Investment Management. The unit had assets of USD13bn at the end of February, and 20 employees. It has been led for slightly over two months by Sylvain de Ruijter (see Newsmanagers of 30 January).Ruijer takes the position of lead portfolio manager, and will be responsible for all global emerging market bond portfolios in hard currencies. He will be based in the Hague.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Munich-based wealth management firm Eyb & Wallwitz has announced that on 1 April it recruited Michael Wedel, who has reconstituted the distribution team from Griffin Capital Management, after serving as key account manager at Threadneedle Investments and DWS in Frankfurt. Wedel joins the firm as senior sales manager, and will be most particularly responsible for wholesale and semi-institutional clients.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Hedge fund managers have cut back their bets on commodities by proportions not seen since 2008, the news agency Bloomberg reports The range of commodity funds is continuing to rise in a context of reduced growth in the United States and record unemployment in the euro zone. Hedge funds have reduced their net long positions on 18 options and futures contracts by 31%, to 468,780 contracts in the week ending on 2 April, a decline not seen since October 2008, according to statistics from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Investors are predicting a fall in the price of silver and have taken record short positions on copper and sugar. The commodity super-cycle appears to be reaching its end, and it is unlikely that returns will return to performance levels of the past decade anytime soon, according to UBS.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Job openings in banking announced by Swiss establishments as of the end of March totalled 1,153, an increase of 14% since the beginning of the year, Finews reports in its recent Finews-JobDirectory-Index. A year ago, 1,144 positions were listed. According to Finews, Swiss banks appear to have put an emphasis on recruitments, in order to maintain a satisfactory level of customer service.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Finance Asia reports that Jason Kern, head of of the real estate investment board at the HSBC bank in Asia Pacific, has left his job to become CEO of LaSalle Investment Management in the United States. He will begin in his new role at the real estate investment specialist on 1 July, and will be based in Chicago. In this position, Kern replaces Peter Schaff, who last year announced that he plans to quit his job as CEO for North America. The group had USD47.7bn in assets under management as of the end of 2012.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) is planning to launch an absolute return fund in the next few months, which will be managed by Paul Rayner and Craig Inches, Investment Week reports. The fund will be a mirror version of a mandate currently managed by the duo on behalf of an institutional client. It will aim for returns equivalent to the Libor + 3%. The new vehicle will be domiciled in Dublin for wealth management clients and retail clients in the high net worth (HNW) segment.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Money Marketing reports that Jeremy Leadsom, sales director UK financial institutions, has admitted that 2012 was “a hell of a year” for Aviva Investors, as 12% of its personnel laid off and the departure of CEO Alain Dromer.However, although the firm has parted with its SRI funds, assets in British OEIC funds rose to USD14bn as of the end of 2012, compared with USD13.5bn 18 months earlier.British retail subscriptions were very strong: they totalled GBP290m, GBP70m more than in the previous year, at a time when IMA statistics show that most fund management firms were seeing net outflows.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British asset management firm Jupiter is planning to launch a global equity fund after having failed, due to opposition from its shareholders, in transforming the strategy of its European Income fund into a global one, Investment Week reports. The Global Equity Income fund will be managed by Sebastian Radcliffe and Gregory Herbert, the two managers who were to have managed the European fund after its conversion into a global fund.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } UniCredit will distribute the Algebris Financial Credit Ucits fund, specialised in debt and financial instruments issued by major banks worldwide, on its private banking network, Bluerating reports. It is the first long-only fund from Algebris. UniCredit has a network of 800 dedicated bankers at its 170 private banking affiliates.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } BNP Paribas Investment Partners SGR has appointed Matthieu David as head of external distribution for Italy, Bluerating reports. David had been head of retail distribution for three years. In the past, he had worked at Fortis Investments, Rothschild and Axa Sim.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Lyxor has launched the Lyxor ETF Dynamic SHORT VIX Futures Index, a product which allows investors to expose themselves to a short volatility index, on the Milan stock exchange. Meanwhile, the Société Générale affiliate has also launched the Lyxor ETF Dynamic LONG VIX Futures Index.

Ben Fulton, managing director des ETF globaux chez Invesco PowerShares, va quitter ses fonctions fin avril, rapporte IndexUniverse.Après huit années passées à la tête d’un des poids lourds du secteur des ETF, Ben Fulton souhaitait donner un nouveau tour à sa carrière. Il ne sera pas remplacé dans l’immédiat. Andrew Schlossberg, responsable de la distribution retail aux Etats-Unis et des ETF globaux, assumera les fonctions de Ben Fulton. Ben Fulton a rejoint PowerShares fin 2004. La société, qui avait été lancée en 2002, est passée dans le giron d’Invesco en janvier 2006. Au moment de l’acquisition, ses actifs sous gestion s'élevaient à 3,5 milliards de dollars. PowerShares affiche désormais un encours de quelque 77 milliards de dollars. «Parmi toutes les créations d’ETF des deux dernières années, seulement une poignée d’entre eux ont passé la barre du milliard de dollars, et deux des plus grandes réussites viennent de PowerShares», a relevé Ben Fulton qui faisait référence au PowerShares Senior Loan Portfolio (3 milliards de dollars) et PowerShares S&P 500 Low Volatility Portfolio (4,4 milliards de dollars)..

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Wall Street Journal reports that Cerberus Capital Management, which is known largely for buying Chrysler at the height of the financial crisis, is going into one of the most high-risk segments of the credit market. The hedge fund management firm is planning to invest in the highest-risk tranches of debt issues tied to commercial mortgages.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Richard Pandevant is joining Schroders France as head of marketing.He previously worked at Aberdeen Asset Management as marketing manager. Previous to that, he was at Banque d’Orsay (acquired by Oddo Asset Management) and as director of marketing and product specialist.Pandevant will join the team led by Nuno Teixeira.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The pension fund for Texas public employees (TERS) is planning to make 8 to 12 allocations to hedge funds, representing up to USD600m, in the first half of this year, Hedge Fund Intelligence reports. Due diligence has already been undertaken on some long/short equity and equity market neutral managers. Last year, the pension fund invested USD30m with Aspect Capital.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The London-based agency ETFGI, releasing its own estimates of asset flows to ETPs, has reported that the number of institutional investors using ETFs and other ETPs increased in the five years to the end of 2011 by 8.9% per year.ETFGI has also reported record net subscriptions for the products of USD73.4bn in first quarter (BlackRock recently estimated them at USD70.1bn), of which USD62.5bn (compared with USD65.1bn according to BlackRock) were for equity ETPs.These inflows have put total assets at a record USD2.090trn as of the end of March (compared with USD1.950trn as of the end of December), distributed over 4,778 products listed 9,847 times, from 209 issuers, traded on 56 stock markets.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } CoreCommodity Management, an affiliate of the US investment bank Jefferies, has launched the CoreCommodity Strategy Fund – Founders I, a Luxembourg Sicav, which may invest directly in commodity futures with the objective of outperforming the Dow Jones UBS Commodity Index. The management team for the institutional fund uses a quantitative method allied to risk measurement and return steering.CharacteristicsName: CoreCommodity Strategy Fund – Founders IISIN code: LU0775716714Management commission: 1.50%Performance commission: 20% on performance exceeding the Dow Jones UBS Commodity Index

La note souveraine de l’Espagne risque d'être reléguée en catégorie spéculative en raison de la probable incapacité de Madrid à atteindre son objectif de réduction du déficit public cette année, a estimé mardi l’agence de notation Moody’s. L’Espagne a abaissé en 2012 son déficit public à 6,98% de son produit intérieur brut (PIB), sans atteindre son objectif de 6,3%. Moody’s juge que Madrid ne devrait pas non plus atteindre sa cible pour 2013, fixée à 4,5%.

Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, la ministre suisse de Finances, s’est félicitée sur les ondes de la radio alémanique que l’attention des observateurs se porte désormais non plus essentiellement sur la Suisse mais sur d’autres places financières. La ministre a souligné les efforts importants consentis par son pays ces dernières années.

La société de gestion se hisse sur la première marche du podium de l’Alpha League Table, palmarès concocté par Europerformance et l’Edhec-Risk Institute visant à mesurer la «vraie utilité» selon le quotidien des gérants par rapport à la gestion indicielle. «Après trois années consécutives de hausse, l’alpha moyen généré est en recul», souligne le quotidien.

Les grands opérateurs boursiers américains unissent leurs forces pour s’opposer à la concurrence des «dark pools». Les directeurs généraux de Nyse Euronext, du Nasdaq et de Bats Global Markets devraient ainsi rencontrer aujourd’hui des représentants de la SEC afin de discuter d’un cadre réglementaire plus strict devant s’imposer à leurs yeux à ces marchés opaques.

La performance des fonds alternatifs actions a toutefois été inférieure à celle des principaux indices boursiers au premier trimestre

La décision de la Cour constitutionnelle annulant des mesures budgétaires tombe mal alors que le Portugal veut renégocier sa dette

Dans un contexte d’appétit pour le risque, la performance des fonds alternatifs actions en mars a toutefois été inférieure à celle des principaux indices boursiers américains au cours du premier trimestre. Les restructurations et la dette décotée ont bénéficié aux stratégies event driven.

Des rachats de positions courtes et des anticipations de flux venant du Japon pèsent sur les rendements

Des rachats de positions courtes et des anticipations de flux venant du Japon pèsent sur les rendements

Accompagnées d’une baisse du yen, ces anticipations dopent les actions japonaises. Il reste que l'objectif de la BoJ sera difficile à atteindre