From 17 September to 6 November, the Austrian firm Raiffeisen Capital Management (RCM) will open subscriptions to the corporate bond fund Raiffeisen-Unternehmensanleihen 2017, which will mature on 8 November 2017.The product is designed so that at maturity date the amount reimbursed will be at least equal to the initial net asset value (EUR100).The portfolio will be invested in investment-grade corporate bonds and high yield securities, all of which will be issues with maturity dates compatible with that of the fund.Front-end fee and management commissions are set at 2% and 0.6%, respectively, but the former will increase to 3% after 6 November 2012, of which 1% will be paid to the fund. There will be an early withdrawal penalty of 1%.RCM will pay out a regular distribution projected to be EUR3.50 per share, before taxes, but the final total will depend on the evolution of the markets.

The US asset management firm BlackRock has notified the CNMV that it now holds 3.11% of capital in the Spanish firm Banco Sabadell, compared with 2.53% previously, Cotizalia reports.As Sabadell shares now trade at about EUR2.17, the 91.9 million shares held by BlackRock represent an investment of about EUR200m.

According to a spokesperson for the retail fund management firm DWS, its parent company, Deutsche Bank, will be transferring more than EUR50bn in assets to its new Asset & Wealth Management unit for ETFs (of which EUR35bn are in Europe), as well as EUR30bn in certificates, and EUR10bn in DB Platinum funds, all of which are products which had previously been managed by the Corporate Banking & Securities (CB&S) division, the Börsen-Zeitung reports.These products of the investment bank represent a mere tenth of total assets under management (EUR900bn), but they will contribute about one quarter of operating profits for the AWM unit.

The deputy managing director of the French financial management association (AFG), in charge of the regulation unit, Alain Pithon, on 17 September joined the board of Paris Europlace as secretary general. In this role, a statement says, he will have both administrative and communicative management responsibilities, and will report to Arnaud de Bresson, managing director.When he served under Pierre Bollon, managing director of the AFG, Pithon was responsible for legal, taxation, accounting, and EU issues, as well as compliance and corporate governance. From Bollon he accepted responsibility for issues regarding the Paris financial center, including the transposition of European directives (AIFM, UCITS IV, MiFID).

In August, US long-term mutual funds attracted USD20.68bn in net subscriptions, coapred with USD24.63bn in July, and USD10.8bn in June. This brings the total in the first eight months of the year to USD220.8bn, Morningstar reports.As in the previous month, Vanguard and Pimco lead, with respective net inflows (excluding money market funds and funds of funds) of USD7.21bn and USD5.27bn, meaning that net subscriptions in January-August total USD71.94bn and USD33.51bn. Third place goes once again to JPMorgan, with USD3.15bn in August, and USD18.13bn in the first eight months of the year.Money market funds, for their part, attracted USD7.8bn last month, compared with USD30.6bn in July, and in January-August they have seen net redemptions of USD127.15bn.

A reshuffle at Natixis Asset Management announced in late March, orienting the firm to six areas of management expertise, is now being put into practice. The firm this morning unveils its volatility management and structured product expertise unit, entitled Seeyond.The team, which includes 32 members, and has EUR14.7bn in assets under management, includes structured management, flexible asset allocation, active volatility management, modelled equity management and long/short equities. The objective is to offer strategies which combine the search for returns and reduction of risk, a statement says.This is based on the idea that it is more efficient to exploit volatility in the markets to generate value. “Seeyond uses variability and dispersion in the markets to generate performance, and concentrates on risk management to construct portfolios which are adapted to the environment,” says Natixis AM. In the unit, the teams will also have a dedicated quantitative research unit, and “experts in the unit may regularly question the assumptions of classic financial theory, as well as their own models.”Concretely, Seeyond will develop a complete range of funds, in four areas of expertise: structuring and active protected management, modelled and optimised equities, flexible allocation and volatility, and equity arbitrage. The range from the unit will be available from the global distribution platform of Natixis Global Asset Management, and will be aimed at all investors, be they professional or not (institutional investors, corporates, multi-managers, private banks, IFAs and banking networks).Lastly, Emmanuel Bourdeix, who is co-CIO at Natixis Asset Management and a member of the executive board, has been appointed as head of the unit. Frank Trividic will join him as head of flexible allocation and volatility management. Nicolas Just, CFA, will be head of modelled and optimised equity management. Samir Naït Bachir is director of structured and protected active management, while Stéphane Galzy is head of equity arbitrage, and Hamza Bahaji is head of quantitative research.

The asset management firm Pastel & Associés has signed an agreement with the third-party marketer Amadé Global Partners, to accelerate its international development. The partnership will aim to release funds to institutional investors and actors in private management, mostly located in continental Europe, the firm tells Newsmanagers.The products to be highlighted will be Valeur Intrinsèque and Margin of Safety Fund.Pastel & Associés, which currently has slightly over EUR200m in assets under management, hopes to reach EUR500m in assets under management in three years, due to international development.

Carmignac Gestion has recruited Pierre Andriveau as regional director of external distribution to IFA clients. He previously worked at Franklin Templeton Investments as head of sales. Andriveau will aim to strengthen relationships with IFAs in Paris and the South-East region, and will report to Ariane Tardieu, head of business development for France. He started on 17 September 2012.

The asset management firm ALPS Advisors, which advises open-ended and closed funds and ETFs, with assets of USD6.6bn, has announced that it has signed a licening agreement with Goldman Sachs to use its indices as a basis for new ETF products.The indices will be developed by the ETP structuring team at Goldman Sachs based in New York.

Source has announced that it has listed 14 exchange-traded funds (ETF) on the Swiss SIX exchange. The new products come as additions to the existing range from Source, which includes 16 ETC (exchange-traded commodities), and are a “sign of the importance Source gives to the Swiss market.”ETF Securities has also admitted eight ETFs to trading on SIX, which will be the first products from the issuer to be traded in Switzerland.The listings on the ETF segment of the Swiss exchange now include 880 products.The list of new products is available as an attachment.

Occitan Capital Partners, a firm speclalised in investment in equities and equity derivatives, has extended its investment team with four new partners, two of whom work at Nomura, Financial News reports. These include Alexandre Capez and Othmane Akherraz. Occitan was founded in 2010 by Herve Gallo, a former equity derivaties trader at Nomura, and Thomas de Garidel-Thoron, of Boussard & Gavaudan Asset Management.

Due to its performance, the Oyster European Opportunities fund from Syz & Co, managed by Eric Bendahan, has managed to win the loyalty of its investors since the beginning of this year. The fund has gained about 20% year to date, which represents a lead of 5 ½% compared with its peer group, and the manager announced in a presentation in Paris that assets now total about EUR1.25bn, compared with EUR1.01bn as of the end of 2011. The Stoxx Europe 600, its benchmark index, for its part, has gained 12.84%.The portfolio, 70% of whose outperformance comes from genuinely family-owned businesses, and 90% of which comes from stock-picking generally, has been gradually rebalanced over the course of this year, reducing the weight of growth stocks in order to increase the proportion of value shares.The new Oyster European Selection fund (see Newsmanagers of 1 December and 17 January), which is aimed at institutional investors (minimal subscription: EUR1m), has already attracted EUR55m. It is a more concentrated version of the Opportunities (70-90 holdings), with a portfolio of 40-50 positions.

According to the most recent update of fund management firms which applied for a licence from the securities commission released by the Chinese regulator, the CSRC, the foreign partner in the joint venture that had initially been formed by Aviva Invetors (49%) and China Central Securities of Changsa (51%) is now Ashmore Investment Management, Z-Ben Advisors reports. No details about the sale price have been released.Aviva Investors had been engaged since 2007 in an effort to break into the Chinese market, initially with COFCO, and then with China Central.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published on September 17 a consultation paper on proposed Guidelines on remuneration policies and practices under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).The proposed remuneration guidelines for MiFID investment firms are key to ensuring that the pay and incentive structures for sales staff and their superiors do not create false incentives when selling financial products to retail investors. The consistent application of ESMA’s remuneration guidelines will help strengthen investor protection and achieving the same level of protection for Europe’s retail investors no matter where they invest.The consultation period for the draft MiFID guidelines on remuneration closes on 7 December 2012. The final report, and the final guidelines, should be published by the second quarter of 2013.

Renauld de Planta, one of Pictet’s eight partners, told Asian Investor that the Swiss-based group (EUR105bn in AUM) plans to put three equity managers (onf which two are already hired) and three equity traders in Hong Kong. By the time the are all in place, the entire Greater China long-only equities portfolio as well as the QFII quota (A-shares), will be managed on site. The three equity managers will be part of the 20-strong global EM equities unit.The Chinese equity team will be headed by Pauline Dan (ex Samsung Investment Trust Management).Meanwhile, the new corporate EMD team will comprise seven or eight persons globally, about half of which based in Asia, largely in Singapore.The global EMD team managers about USD10bn.

L’activité manufacturière dans l’Etat de New York s’est contractée en septembre pour le deuxième mois d’affilée, reculant à son plus bas niveau depuis trois ans et demi à la suite d’une chute des commandes, a annoncé lundi la Réserve fédérale de New York. L’indice dit «Empire State» a reculé à -10,41, son plus bas niveau depuis avril 2009, contre -5,85 en août. Les économistes interrogés par Reuters prévoyaient en moyenne une amélioration à -2,00.

Les Etats-Unis ont annoncé lundi l’ouverture d’une nouvelle procédure contre les subventions à l’exportation chinoises dans le secteur de l’automobile et des pièces détachées. «Les subventions à l’exportation sont interdites au regard des textes de l’OMC parce qu’elles sont injustes et faussent gravement les échanges internationaux», a déclaré le délégué américain au Commerce Ron Kirk dans un communiqué.

L’agence de l’Onu dédiée à la sécurité alimentaire a apporté lundi son «plein soutien» au projet de François Hollande de constituer des stocks alimentaires stratégiques pour lutter contre la volatilité des cours des prix alimentaires. Le directeur général de l’organisation a indiqué à l’issue d’un entretien avec le président français qu’il jugeait le moment particulièrement bien choisi pour constituer ces stocks.

La cotation de Telecom Italia Media a été retardée lundi à la Bourse de Milan alors que le titre était indiqué en hausse de 12%, en réaction à des informations selon lesquelles plusieurs sociétés ont exprimé leur intérêt pour l’entreprise. Parmi les repreneurs potentiels cités figure Mediaset , le numéro un du secteur, contrôlé par la famille de l’ex-président du Conseil Silvio Berlusconi.

Le régulateur européen publie une consultation dans le cadre de la mise en oeuvre de la directive MIF.

Montefiore Investment, le fonds indépendant spécialiste de l’investissement dans les PME de services de l’économie présentielle en France, annonce avoir atteint son objectif de levée pour le Fonds Montefiore Investment III. Après avoir lancé la souscription de son dernier Fonds au printemps 2012, ce troisième véhicule affiche d’ores et déjà une taille globale de 180 millions d’euros, soit le montant initialement ciblé.

Malik Haddouk, directeur de la gestion diversifiée de CPR AM

Matthieu Louanges, vice-président exécutif de Pimco Europe

Pierre Guillemin, directeur gestion diversifiée et actions chez Swiss Life AM

L’indice teste un des points clés du scénario d’une baisse vers les 2.700 points

James Tomlins, gérant du fonds M&G European high yield bond

Jean-Louis Mourier, économiste chez Aurel BGC

L’Allemagne, appuyée par des partenaires européens, s’oppose à la France sur le calendrier et le contenu du projet de supervision bancaire en zone euro.

Alors que Paris veut voir la supervision unique des banques de la zone euro mise en place d'ici à la fin 2012, Berlin appelle à la prudence

Un changement de la formule pourrait être annoncé demain. Il risque d’amputer le rendement nominal des emprunts d'Etat indexés sur l'inflation