Morgan Stanley a annoncé le 24 octobre le lancement d’un nouveau fonds dans le cadre de son offre FundLogic Alternatives. En partenariat avec Equinox Fund Management, le MS QTI Ucits Fund est le premier fonds d’une série de quatre stratégies CTA conformes au format Ucits.Equinox est une société de multigestion basée aux Etats-Unis et spécialisée dans la construction de portefeuilles constitués de programmes de CTA. Ses actifs sous gestion s'élèvent en nominal à plus de 2 milliards de dollars. La stratégie systématique proposée par Morgan Stanley a été conçue par Quest Partners, un gérant de CTA basé à New York.

Au 30 septembre, l’encours total des 3.866 fonds luxembourgeois représentait 2.314,448 milliards d’euros contre 2.295,399 milliards un mois plus tôt et 2.296,717 milliards fin août, selon les statistiques de la CSSF. Les actifs gérés dans les fonds d’investissement spécialisés (FIS ou SIF en anglais) représentaient 10.715 millions d’euros.

La collecte nette du groupe Credit Suisse s’est élevée au troisième trimestre à 5,3 milliards de francs suisses contre 4,4 milliards de francs au deuxième trimestre, selon le communiqué publié le 25 octobre par le groupe.Les actifs sous gestion s’inscrivaient fin septembre à 1.251 milliards de francs suisses, contre 1.213 milliards de francs fin juin. Le pôle Private Banking a dégagé un bénéfice avant impôts de 689 millions de francs au troisième trimestre, avec une contribution de 206 millions de francs du segment «Corporate & Institutional Clients». La collecte nette s’est élevée à 5,2 milliards de francs, grâce aux «rentrées dans les Booking Centers en dehors de la Suisse, qui ont été partiellement effacées par des sorties sur la plate-forme suisse dans les marchés matures, principalement en Europe occidentale». La collecte du segment Wealth Management représente 5,1 milliards de francs, celle des «Corporate & Institutional Clients» 0,1 milliard de francs. Les actifs sous gestion du pôle Private Banking ont dépassé les 1.000 milliards de francs pour la première fois depuis 2007 à 1.023 milliards de francs, ce qui constitue une hausse de 35,7 milliards de francs par rapport au deuxième trimestre 2012. Le pôle Asset Management a terminé le trimestre sur un bénéfice avant impôts de 222 millions de francs, ce résultat incluant un gain de 140 millions de francs suite à la vente de la participation résiduelle de 7% dans Aberdeen Asset Management et une dépréciation de 38 millions de francs liée à Asset Management Finance LLC (AMF). Le pôle a subi une décollecte nette de 0,5 milliard de francs, «avec des sorties liées aux placements traditionnels et aux placements diversifiés, partiellement neutralisées par des rentrées liées aux investissements alternatifs».

La Suisse paie ses chefs d’entreprises et les autres membres de la direction générale mieux que les autres pays européens. C’est ce qui ressort d’une étude non encore publiée de la société zurichoise de conseil en management Hostettler, Kramarsh & Partner, rapporte L’Agefi suisse. L’analyse comparée porte sur les entreprises européennes les plus importantes dans 12 pays. En 2011, le salaire moyen d’un chef d’entreprise était de 5,7 millions d’euros. Joseph Jimenez (Novartis) et Severin Schwan (Roche) faisaient partie du top 10, alors qu’on ne trouve aucun représentant d’un groupe suisse parmi les dix derniers. La Suisse rémunère particulièrement bien les présidents des conseils d’administration: ceux qui portent les couleurs de Novartis, Nestlé et Roche se trouvent largement en tête. L’importance de leurs émoluments s’explique aussi, il est vrai, par le fait que, contrairement à leurs collègues d’autres pays européens, ils exercent leurs fonctions à plein temps et assument nettement plus de responsabilités, relève le quotidien.

La CNMV a donné son agrément à la commercialisation du fonds à compartiments Fongrum FI d’Inversis Banco, rapporte Funds People. Ce véhicule comporte les fonds Fongrum/Valor et Fongrum/Renta fija mixta. La gestión est confiée à atl2 Capital Gestión.

Old Mutual Global Investors a annoncé le 24 octobre qu’Anthony Gillham a été nommé gérant unique du Skandia Strategic Bond Fund (165 millions de livres). Le communiqué ne fait pas allusion au fait que l’intéressé co-gérait le fonds avec Adam Smears, head of investment research, lequel ne figure pas dans l’état-major nouvellement constitué d’Old Mutual GI (lire par ailleurs) et aurait quitté l’entreprise.

Les fonds ouverts commercialisés en Italie ont enregistré en septembre des souscriptions nettes de 1,4 milliard d’euros, selon les dernières statistiques d’Assogestioni, l’association italienne des professionnels de la gestion. Cette collecte – uniquement le fait de fonds de droit étranger - a été alimentée par les fonds obligataires, à hauteur de 1,8 milliard d’euros, et les fonds diversifiés, pour 1,3 milliard d’euros. En revanche, les fonds actions voient sortir 378 millions d’euros et les fonds monétaires, 1,1 milliard d’euros.En ajoutant les fonds fermés, la gestion collective a affiché des entrées nettes de 1,6 milliard d’euros en septembre. En revanche, les gestions sous mandat ont vu sortir 1 milliard d’euros, dont 904 millions côté institutionnels.Du côté des acteurs, Banco Popolare se classe au premier rang en termes de souscriptions nettes avec 573 millions d’euros, devant Invesco (301 millions d’euros) et Ubi Banca (268 millions d’euros). Dans le bas du classement figurent en revanche Generali (-492 millions d’euros), BNP Paribas (-239 millions) et Credit Suisse (-190 millions).A fin septembre, les fonds ouverts vendus en Italie représentaient un encours de 494 milliards d’euros, tandis que la totalité du secteur transalpin de la gestion d’actifs (incluant fonds fermés et mandats) pesait 990 milliards d’euros.

La plateforme Z Platform Solution, qui offre des services de gestion et de conseil en investissement pour les conseillers financiers a signé un accord de partenariat avec la banque italienne Banca Sella pour la distribution. La plateforme propose 82 OPCVM de 32 sociétés de gestion.

Les gestionnaires de hedge funds macro les plus renommés, comme Moore Capital, Tudor Corporation et Caxton Associates, ont du mal à honorer leur réputation. Selon Hedge Fund Research, les hedge funds macro ont gagné seulement 0,7 % en moyenne cette année et 1,52 % par an en moyenne ces trois dernières années. Mais certains gérants macro réussissent. Ce qui semble les rassembler est un plus grand focus sur les économies émergentes. Parmi eux figurent le fonds macro marchés émergents de BTG Pactual, Autonomy Capital Research, Pivot, Armajaro Emerging Markets et Pharo Capital.

A Paris court of appeals yesterday confirmed a five-year prison sentence, with a minimum of three years hard time for the former Société Générale trader Jérôme Kerviel, the news agency Reuters reports.Kerviel, who was sued for losses at the bank of EUR4.9bn in 2008, will also have to repay damages. The verdict confirms that the young man has been found guilty of “abuse of confidence, false statements and fraud, and introduction of fraudulent information into an IT system.”David Koubbi, Kerviel’s counsel, says he is studying the possibility of an appeal, and says that the verdict is an “absolutely lamentable injustice.”Kerviel walked out of court free, as the court did not require his detention.

Judge jed Rakoff has setenced Rajat gupta to two years in prison and a fine of USD5m, Les Echos reports. The former McKinsey head, who was found guilty in June this year of insider trading after disclosing insider information to the Galleon fund about Goldman Sachs, will enter detention on 8 January. He is planning to appeal the verdict. Raj Rajaratnam, founder of the speculative fund Galleon, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison. He is awaiting a verdict on his appeal on Thursday.

Rajat Gupta, former head of McKinsey, has been sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of USD5m, the Financial Times reports. Gupta was found guilty in June of providing insider information he was privy to as a board member at Goldman Sachs to his friend Raj Rajaratnam, co-founder of Galleon Group. The secrets included details of a capital injection of USD5bn from Warren Buffett.

Morgan Stanley on 24 October announced the launch of a new fund as part of its FundLogic Alternatives range. In partnership with Equinox Fund Management, the MS QTI UCITS Fund is the first fund in a series of four CTA strategies that comply with UCITS format. Equinox is a multi-management firm based in the United States, specialised in the construction of portfolios constructed from CTA programmes. Its nominal assets under management total over USD2bn. The systematic strategy offered by Morgan Stanley was designed by Quest Parntners, a CTA management firm based in New York.

The French-registered FCP fund CPR Silver Age, launched on 22 December 2009, now has EUR80m in assets, and has posted EUR28m in inflows since the beginning of this year. The EUR100m threshold appears likely to be passed by the end of this year, and CPR Asset Management (Amundi group) received a license from BaFin early in October to sell the fund in Germany, while a license application has also been submitted to the Swiss agency Finma. Sweden is also on the hit list, and CPR has not ruled out creating a Luxembourg-registered clone of the product, to reach a broader client base (also see Newsmanagers of 4 October).The basic idea is to use the secular trend of an ageing population to create a portfolio of 50 securities likely to see long-term growth exceeding that of the economy and European markets. Since launch, as of 15 October, the fund shows returns of 29.9% (22.3% since the beginning of the year), compared with 16.9% (13.3%) for the MSCI Europe index in euros, with dividends reinvested, which is a commercial landmark. The managers, Vafa Ahmadi (director of thematic equity management) and Clément Maclou, have constructed a highly active conviction-based portfolio of about 50 holdings, which differs considerably from this index. This results in significant overweight positions in stocks corresponding to the seven relevant macro-sectors (financial savings, dependency, health equipment, leisure & lifestyle, health products, pharmaceuticals, and security). Though it is not an SRI fund, the managers have incorporated an ethical dimension in their selection of stocks, with the assistance of Vigeo and Amundi ISR. The fund is also advised by a 9-member committee of experts led by Gilles Duthil, chairman of the Silverlife institute, a think tank specialised on the economy of ageing populations.At launch, the fund was primarily of interest to institutional investors, mutual insurers and employee savings structures. Now, it appears to be pertinent to private bankers, multi-managers and asset allocators.

Kevin Scherer, a former portfolio manager at Citadel, is planning to launch a hedge fund dedicated to commercial and residential mortgage debt and ABS the news agency Bloomberg reports. The new vehicle, entitled Continuum Investment Management, will be launched in January 2013 by Scherer, with the assistance o three former colleagues from Citadel. It will aim for assets of USD250m.

BNY Mellon in March launched the BNY Mellon Absolute Return Bond Fund, a UCITS IV-compliant version of the absolute return bond fund managed by its boutique Insight Investments (USD280bn in assets under management). The product, managed by Peter Bentley, head of global and British credit, is now on sale in France. The BNY Mellon Absolute Return Bond Fund, which is based on a strategy developed by Insight Investment since 2006, invests both in long and short positions on government bonds, corporate and investment grade debt, corporate high yield debt, ABS, emerging market debt, cash, and money market instruments. The fund, which currently has USD125m in assets, aims to outperform the Euribor 3-month money market index by 3% per year. Risk controlling, a real demand of institutional investors, is an integral part of the fund. Portfolio risks are evaluated with the assistance of a VaR system. The management team defined a “risk unit” framework on the basis of an in-house model, in order to allocate risk within the portfolio. Characteristics ISIN code: IE00B706BP88 Minimum investment: EUR5m Annual management fees: 0.50% Maximum front-end fees: 5% Performance commission: 10%

The recent arrival of Guillaume Jonchères at Banque Leonardo is accompanied by the arrival of Jacques Loussert. Loussert had been manager of the Sarbacan Fund at Sarbacan Capital Limited, with whom the former chairman of Cogefi Gestion had worked when the two asset management firms were integrated into Cogefi. The Imago fund, whose creation at Banque Leonardo Newsmanagers announced a few days ago, will be an exact copy of the Sarbacan fund.The long/short fund, investing in European stocks, can claim a track record since 2006, with annual performance of 5.18%, slightly under the equity markets, but with volatility of less than 5. It will be likely to be attractive to private clients of Banque Leonardo, as it is eligible for equity or life insurance savings plans. According to its managers, the fund aims to position itself between funds in euros with steeply falling returns, and funds exposed to equity markets.

The Blackstone group is preparing to launch a fund which will acquire stakes in hedge fund management firms on the secondary market, as traditional actors such as banks are now pulling out due to sometimes disappointing returns from the sector and regulations, the Reuters agency reports.The activities of Blackstone related to hedge funds have assets under management of USD46.2bn.The size of the new fund, which has not been closed, may reach as much as USD2bn to USD3bn, it is said. Few actors are intervening in this niche activity. One of the largest actors is Neuberger Berman, with its Dyal fund.

The German asset management firm Union Investment Real Estate (UIRE) has acquired the Euro Plaza 4 office building (48,500 square metres), located in the centre of Vienna, from the Austrian firm Klapsch Immobilien, for about EUR150m.The property will be added to the portfolio of the open-ended real estate fund UniImmo: Deutschland.Open-ended real estate funds from UIRE have now invested EUR400m in the Austrian capital.

Open-ended funds in Italy posted net subscriptions in September of EUR1.4bn, according to the most recent statistics from Assogestioni, the Italian association of management professionals. These inflows, entirely to foreign-registered funds, were driven by bond funds, with EUR1.8bn, and balanced funds, with EUR1.3bn. However, equity funds saw outflows of EUR378m, and money market funds, EUR1.1bn. With the addition of closed funds, collective management posted net inflows of EUR1.6bn in September. However, mandated management saw outflows of EUR1bn, of which EUR904m were to institutionals. In terms of players, Banco Popolare ranks first, with net subscriptions of EUR573m, followed by Invesco (EUR301m) and Ubi Banca (EUR268m). At the bottom of the rankings, however, are Generali (-EUR492m), BNP Paribas (-EUR239m) and Credit Suisse (-EUR190m). As of the end of September, open-ended funds on sale in Italy had assets of EUR494bn, while the entire Italian asset management sector (including closed funds and mandates) had EUR990bn.

AllianceBernstein used to be know for its equity funds. But since the former Goldman Sachs executive Peter Kraus became chairman and CEO in 2008, the asset management firm has turned massively to bond funds, the Wall Street Journal relates. At the end of 2007, Alliance Bernstein had 72% of its assets under management in equities (USD580bn), and 25% in bonds (USD198bn). Now it holds about USD240 billion, or about 57% in bonds and 27% in stocks. This strategy is paying off for the moment. But analysts estimate that an excessive dependence on the popularity of bond funds may be risky.

For July-September, Morningstar’s net profit was USD27.1m vs USD27.9m in Q2, 2012, but it stills shows a yoy increase of USD21.4m.Assets under management and advisory at end-September for the Investment Advisory Services division amounted to USD142.4bn vs USD138,1bn thre months earlier and USD119/3bn twelve months ago.For Retirement Solutions, AUM was USD45.4bn vas USD41.7bn as of June, 30th, and USD36.3bn on September, 30th, 2011.

According to multiple sources cited by the weekly Agefi Hebdo, the wholesale bank from BPCE will merge its affiliates Natixis Multimanager (NMM) and 1818 Gestion, as part of a project entitled “Elite.” On 1 January 2013, 1818 Gestion will absorb NMM, currently a part of Natixis Asset Management (NAM). NAM will control 40% of the new entity, compared with 60% for Banque Privée 1818, an internal presentation obtained by Agefi Weekly says. The firm will include the expertise of the Natixis group in multi-management, a sector in crisis, including funds of hedge funds.

BNY Mellon has named Marina Lewin head of sales for its Asset Servicing business in the Americas. Lewin will report to Samir Pandiri, CEO of Americas Asset Servicing & Alternative Investment Services. She will be based in New York, managing teams in several U.S. cities, as well as Dublin, London and Hong Kong.

The planned merger of the asset management structures of AG2R-La Mondiale, Agicam et La Mondiale Gestion d’Actifs, or LMGA (see Newsmangers of 24 October) and the creation of a single portfolio management firm will be likely to result in the emergence of a multi-management entity of respectable size, with EUR4bn in assets currently, half contributed by each of the two participating entities.Rationality is also expected to be maintained with the emergence of a single investment management team.

Assets under management at the asset management unit of the AXA group are up by EUR52bn as of the end of Sepemer compared with 31 December 2011, to a total of EUR899bn, the group announced in a statement on 25 October.Net outflows totalled EUR8.3bn, including:-EUR8.4bn from AllianceBernstein, largely from the institutional segment;-EUR0.1bn in flows to AXA IM, largely due to positive net inflows to AXA Fixed Income, AXA Private Equity, AXA Real Estate and AXA Framlington, partly offset by net outflows, primarily following a voluntary withdrawal from unprofitable employee shareholding schemes (-EUR4.0bn), and net ourflows from Axa Rosenberg (-EUR2.0bn).Market evolution represented +EUR63bn, at AXA IM as well as AllianceBernstein, proportionately on the basis of asses, whiel currency effects totalled +EUR8bn, primarily due to depreciation of the euro compared with major currencies.In addition to this, a perimeter effect of -EUR11bn, primarily due to a transfer of assets from Friends Provident following the sale to Resolution of life insurance activities in the United Kingdom, the sale of Canadian activities and the sale of activities in Australia and New Zealand.Earnings for the asset management unit are down 6%, to EUR2.46bn, largely due to a decline in management commissions at AllianceBernstein, relecting a decline of 3.9 basis points on average and a delcine in assets under management. Earnings at AXA IM are stable, as a rise in management commissions was offset by a decline in commissions on real estate transactions and performance commissions.

Natixis Asset Management (Natixis AM) on 24 October announced that it has signed a research agreement with the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership (CPSL) to promote sustainable investment and to encourage adoption of more responsible bahaviour by finance professionals in Europe and internationally. The partnership will have two levels. The first will be an active collaboration based on research, with nine joint publications over the next three years. These reports will analyse sustainable development challenges: how climate change is taken into account, how biodiversity and human rights can affect current business models and promote the generation of investment ideas. Analysts at Natixis AM and Cambridge academics will work together on concrete problems to formulate recommendations for sustainable investment. The reports will be made public in order to encourage the adoption of better practices. The second level of collaboration will take the form of a working group entitled Investors Leaders Group, based at CPSL, and led by Philippe Zaouati, deputy CEO and head of the responsible investment expertise unit at Natixis AM. The group, composed of directors and financial market experts, will meet for the first time next year. The objective will be to work to define concrete tools and measures to adopt to promote and deploy responsible investment.

Warrenn Buffett has announced that he is “salivating” at the idea of spending some of his USD40bn in cash on a major acquisition, after revealing that two USD20bn operations fell through this year due to disagreements over price, the Financial Times reports.

The US asset management firm AllianceBernstein LP, with total assets of USD418.9bn as of the end of September, with net outflows totalling USD44bn in July-September, has posted an operating loss for third quarter of USD56m, compared with profits of USD79m in second quarter 2012, and USD78m in the corresponding period of last year (see Axa results elsewhere in today’s Newsmanagers).

The State Street group on 24 October announced that it has been awarded a mandate by UTI International (Singapore) Private Limited to provide custody and fund administration services for its UCITS-compliant product range investing in India.UTI International (Singapore) Private Limited is an asset management firm regulated by the Singapore market authority. It is an affiliate of the Indian asset management firm UTI AMC, with assets under management of USD2.6bn.