Pioneer Investment is planning to launch four emerging market funds to cover both equities and bonds, Citywire Global reports. The funds represent the first major product from the emerging market management hub of the asset management firm in London. The funds will be as follows: Pioneer Funds – Emerging Market Corporate High Yield Bond fund, Pioneer Funds – Emerging Market Corporate Bond fund, Pioneer Funds – Emerging Markets Equity Unconstrained et Pioneer Funds – Frontier Markets Equity.

The investment fund Apollo Global Management on 4 September announced that it has acquired the consumer lending activities of the Citigroup bank in Spain, without stating the total trasaction price. The unit includes more than 130,000 accounts, with about EUR265m in profitable loans, and EUR280m in non-performing loans, the group says in a statement. The management of the loans will be transferred to Avant, a credit card services and consumer lending service platform based in Madrid, owned by Apollo since 2011. Apollo has become an important investor in European portfolios of illiquid and non-performing debt sold off by financial institutions, with 26 operations representing EUR8bn in loans in the past four years, the group says. Assets under management at Apollo as of 30 June totalled USD105bn, up 46% compared with the end of June 2011. This increase is related to growth in the “capital markets” segment, which has more than doubled in size in the past 12 months to USD56.1bn. Assets under management which generate commissions totalled USD77.4bn as of 30 June, compared with USD48.9bn one year previously. This development is also partly due to growth in the “capital markets” segment.

In terms of employee shareholding, France leads in Europe, but this leadership conceals a variety of situations and types of relationships used, according to a study by the employee shareholding specialist consultant Debory Eres. Employee shareholding at major French businesses is highly developed and is the most “democratic” in Europe. France Europe Best in class (or 2nd) Percentage of businesses with an employee shareholding plan 95.3% 92.3% Ireland - 100% Percentage of businesses with a “democratic” plan 86.2% 53.4% Cech Republic – 84.4% Percentage of businesses which offered new plans in 2010/2011 43.8% 29.8% Finland – 49.3% Number of employee shareholders (in millions of people) 3.8m 9.9m UK – 2.6m Democratisation rate (1) 51.5% 30.1% Slovenia – 41.9% Capital held by employees (non-management) 3.87% 1.68% Switzerland – 2.39% Percentage of capital controlled by all employees (including management) 5.04% 2.83% Austria – 4.11% Capitalisation held by shareholders (in millions of dollars) USD67m USD232m UK – USD53.7m Source: EFES, DEBORY ERES – Employee shareholder study France 2012 (1) percentage of total employees who are employee shareholders

BNP Paribas Real Estate on 4 September announced that it has sold an office property located in King’s Cross, next to Saint Pancras station in London, to Axa Real Estate, under an off plan sale contract. The property, designed by architect Jean-Michel Wilmote, will be constructed by Promotion teams from BNP Paribas Real Estate UK. The transaction has been completed with the assistance of the Investment department of BNP Paribas Real Estate. The programme will develop 37,000 square metres of office space, with commercial space on the ground floor of the buildings, and will meet the most recent environmental and international comfort standards, to qualify for the label “Breeam Excellent.” “At King’s Cross, BNP Paribas is making its first promotion operation in London. It is an emblematic project, as it represents a British shop window of our expertise. It is also an illustration of our desire to strengthen our activities in the United Kingdom, where we are already present in Transaction, Advising, Expertise, Property Management and Investment Management. The United Kingdom remains a major country for the development of our business,” says Philippe Zivkovic, chairman of BNP Paribas Real Estate.

On 1 September, Mathias Müller became head of the new “retail distribution Germany” unit at Allianz Global Investors (AGI) in Frankfurt, which brings together responsibility for all distribution channels by which the asset management firm reaches retail investors in Germany in a single structure.Müller had previously been head of oversight for Commerzbank and Allianz networks. He will now also be responsible for distribution via other banks and financial intermediaries, which had previously been the responsibility of Nina Klingspoor, who has joined Allianz SE In Munich, as co-director of the office of the chairman of the board, Michael Diekmann.Müller will now report directly to James Dilworth, CEO of AGI for Europe.

According to the GDV association of insurance companies, the average allocation to equities by German insurers totalled 2.9% of portfolios at the end of 2011, compared with 8.5% at the end of 2007. According to a Die Welt survey of 30 top companies in the country, this exposure probably fell to 2.8% at the end of June.Debeka says allocation to equities is 0.9%, while it was 0.6% for Axa and 0.4% for VHV Hannoversche. The firms with the higest exposure to equities are Nürnberger Leben (6.7%), Allianz (6%) and Ergo (4.7%).Continentale, HUK-Coburg and Signal-Iduna, however, declined to respond to the survey.

Hartwig Rospisal, who had been CEO of the institutional management unit at NordLB, after serving at Pioneer Investments and Allianz/Dresdner, is joining Threadneedle Germany as institutional sales director, Fondsprofessionell reports. Rosipal will report to Werner Kolitsch, CEO of Threadneedle Deutschland, and will be responsible for developing the major institutional client base and managing relationships with their consultants.

Last month, the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) issued quotas worth USD1.335trn to holders of nine Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) licenses, including USD450m for Principal Global Investors, BOCI-Prudential Asset Management and ING Investment Management Asia Pacific (Hong Kong), with USD150m for each new entrant. Overall, the Chinese securities commission (CSRC) has issued 152 QFII licenses in the first eight months of this year.SAFE has also issued USD0.5bn quotas to holders of Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) licenses. The CSRC has issued QDII licenses to 101 firms since the beginning of the year.Z-Ben Advisors states that in January-August 2012, SAFE has issued quotas totalling USD19.868bn to holders of QFII licenses, and USD84.927bn to QDII managers.

Martin Wheatley, who will take over as head of the new British Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in Spring 2013, will on Wednesday give his first major speech to the City, to announce an extension of RDR regulations to all financial products, and not only investment products. In other words, a rule against commissions which is applicable to all investment products sold by independent financial advisers (IFA) may also apply to insurance and mortgage products. With this initiative, the future FCA is hoping to avoid another scandal similar to the one surrounding misselling of insurance policies, which has already cost UK banks GBP10bn.

Kirsty Desson is joining Standard Life Investments as an analyst of the Asia-Pacific region for management of the Global Smaller Companies fund, managed by Harry Nimmo and Alan Roswell, Investment Week reports. Desson, who previously served at Martin Currie, but left in 2009 to “take a break,” will become responsible for the Asia-Pacific allocation including Japan for the small caps fund, whose assets under management total slightly under GBP30m.

The London-based Principal Investment Management, an affiliate of the Sanlam group, is acquiring Iain Nicholson Investment Management, based in Newcastle, Investment Week reports. The two firms will have total assets of GBP1.8bn. The total transaction price has not been disclosed.

On 4 September, Jupiter Fund Management announced the arrival on 3 September of Maarten Slendebroek on the board as executive director in charge of distribution and strategy. The appointment had been announced for several months (see Newsmanagers of 30 March), but required approval from the FSA.Slendebroek will occupy a newly-created position, in which he will report directly to the group’s CEO, Edward Bonham-Carter. He had previously been head of international retail business at BlackRock.

Jenna Barnard, co-manager of several funds wit John Patullo, has been promoted to debuty head of retail fixed income at Henderson Global Investors.Nicholas Ware, who had belonged to the secured loans team, is joining the FI team as director. He will be responsible for high yield and loan credits analysis and portfolio management.

Ignis Asset Management has hired Mark Julio as portfolio manager, emerging market equities. He joins Ignis from Baring Asset Management where he was investment manager, global emerging market equities, responsible for managing and co‐managing assets in excess of GBP2.6 billion. He was lead manager on the Baring Emerging Markets Opportunities Fund.Ignis Asset Management has also recruited Allan MacLeod as head of global accounts. He will be responsible for developing Ignis’ institutional business outside the UK with the very largest institutions and sovereign wealth funds by capitalising on the firm’s strengths across a broad range of capabilities. Allan has joined Ignison 3 September 2012 and will work closely with Claude Chene, global head of distribution.Before joining Ignis, Allan MacLeod spent 21 years at Martin Currie in a variety of senior roles and was most recently managing director of sales, marketing and client service as well asbeing a member of the group’s main board and executive.

Currency Capital Management (CCM), a Lausanne-based provider of financial services, is launching a range of Managed FX Accoutns to meet the complex needs of institutional investors, Agefi Switzerland reports. With these managed accounts, independent wealth managers, financial advisers and other providers will now be able to bring their Swiss clients the benefits fo immediate and independent access to the major global forex markets.

The HSBC group has announced several recruitments which will allow it to build its equity and prime services teams in the Asia-Pacific region. The prime services unit has benefited from the arrival of three senior heads, Jean-Paul Linschoten, previously of UBS in New York, Adrian Harrison, previously of Keywise Capital Management, and David Streatfield, previously of Deutsche Bank. The bank has also recruited seven people for its equity team, including Tim Franks, previously of Bank of China International and Citi, as head of sales to hedge funds in Hong Kong.

Several major ETF providers are preparing new ETFs, which may be characterised by simplicity and Asian underlying assets, Asian Investor reports. Lippo Investments Management is awaiting permission from the Hong Kong authorities to release the Lippo Select HK & Maintaldn Property ETF, which will replicate the Lippo IM index, launched last month which is based on Chinese and Hog Kong real estate equities. For its part, db x-trackers is planning to launch new ETFs in Singapore, where its product range already includes 47 vehicles, and in Hong Kong, where its range of products currently numbers 30, and may easily be extended. ETF assets under management in the Asia-Pacific ex Japan region as of 31 July totalled USD12bn, up by nearly 22% over 12 months. In the course of the past six weeks, inflows to ETFs have totalled about USD2bn.

Assets under management by Swiss banks fell last year by slightly over CHF200bn (-3.7%) to a total of CHF5.269trn, largely due to depreciation of securities savings, Agefi Switerland reports. But at its annual convention, the Swiss banking association (ASB) reported that it has not observed significant emigration of foreign capital. The fear that foreign clients would massively withdraw their assets due to the adoption of tax compliance strategies by Swiss banks and the signature of agreements with major partners appears not to have materialised, the ASB states, claiming that regulations may be expected to promote the development of the market as a major centre for asset management. Switzerland already has advantages to make it a major financial centre, including handling of renminbi, a currency which in the next few years will play a growing role in international commerce.

Axa Investment Managers has recruited Peter von Albertini as head of sales. He had previously been in charge of distribution for Germany at Union Bancaire Privée (UBP), Finews reports.

The Tessino-based banking group BSI, specialised in wealth management and owned by the Italian insurer Generali, has announced along with its results for first half that it will be creating a wealth management affiliate to be known as Patrimony 1873 (1873 was the year of the foundation of BSI), which received an operating license from FINMA in early August.Patrimony 1873 will be an independent centre of expertise targeting demanding clients focused on the preservation and administration of complex and internationally diversified wealth. It offers consolidated wealth management and global risk management reporting to retail and institutional investors, pension funds and family offices.Meanwhile, BIS has also reported a 7% increase in its net inflows in first half, to CHF2.7bn. Assets under management as of the end of June totalled CHF81.5bn, up 4.9% compared with the end of December 2011.In first half, BSI earned net profits of CHF42.6m, up 32.5% compared with the corresponding period of 2011.

In first half, the Swiss firm Partners Group earned net profits of CHF121m, compared with CHF108m in the corresponding period of last year. Adjusted net profits from variations in the valuations of derivative products totalled CHF125m, compared with CHF113m.Net subscriptions totalled EUR2.4bn, compared with EUR2.1bn (and EUR3bn in fist half 2010); Partners Group thus confirms its objective of net inflows of EUR4-5bn in 2012 overall. As of 30 June, assets totalled EUR27.1bn, compared with EUR22.8bn one year earlier, while average assets in first half totalled EUR25.8bn, compared with EUR21.7bn.Of this total, private equity represented EUR18.8bn, while private real estate totalled EUR3.7bn, private debt EUR2.7bn, and private infrastructure EUR1.7bn. Assets at affiliates of the group represented EUR0.7bn.

D’après les statistiques du SWF Institute, l’encours des fonds souverains dans le monde a augmenté de 9,6 % en 2011, passant de 4.400 milliards à 4.800 milliards de dollars, rapporte le portail Gulf Business. On constate que les fonds souverains de pays émergents dominent clairement le classement et totalisent près de 2.000 milliards de dollars.Les dix premiers fonds souverains par les encours sont les suivants :Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) : 627 milliards de dollarsGovernment Pension Fund - Global (Norvège) : 593 milliardsSafe Investment company (Chine) : 567,9 milliardsSama Foreign Holdings (Arabie Saoudite) : 532,8 milliardsChina Investment Corporation (CIC) : 482 milliardsKuwait Investment Authority (KIA) : 296 milliardsHong Kong Monetary Authority Investment : 293,3 milliardsGovernment of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) : 247,5 milliardsTemasek Holdings (Singapour) : 157,5 milliardsNational Welfare Fund (Russie) : 149,7 milliards

iShares, la plate-forme d’ETF de BlackRock, vient de lancer l’iShares Barclays Italy Treasury Bond ETF sur le Bourse de Milan, rapporte Bluerating. Il s’agit de répondre à la demande pour des instruments donnant une exposition aux émissions gouvernementales de l’Italie.

Plusieurs grands fournisseurs d’ETF préparent de nouveaux ETF qui pourraient se caractériser par leur simplicité et des sous-jacents asiatiques, rapporte Asian Investor.Lippo Investments Management attend le feu vert des autorités de Hong Kong pour le Lippo Select HK & Mainland Property ETF qui devrait répliquer l’indice Lippo IM lancé le mois dernier et qui prend pour référence les actions immobilières chinoises et de Hong Kong. De son côté, db X-trackers envisage de lancer de nouveaux ETF à Singapour, où l’offre est déjà riche de 47 véhicules, et surtout à Hong Kong où la palette de produits, une trentaine actuellement, peut être facilement élargie. Les actifs sous gestion des ETF de la région Asie-Pacifique hors Japon s'élevaient au 31 juillet à 12 milliards de dollars, en progression de près de 22% sur douze mois. Au cours des six dernières semaines, la collecte des ETF a totalisé quelque 2 milliards de dollars.

Le groupe HSBC vient d’annoncer plusieurs recrutements qui vont lui permettre de renforcer ses équipes actions et «prime services» dans la région Asie-Pacifique.Le pôle «prime services» a ainsi bénéficié de l’arrivée de trois responsables senior, Jean-Paul Linschoten, précédemment chez UBS à New York, Adrian Harrison, précédemment chez Keywise Capital Management, et David Streatfield, précédemment chez Deutsche Bank. La banque a également recruté sept personnes dans l'équipe actions, dont Tim Franks, précédemment chez Bank of China International et Citi, en qualité de responsable des ventes aux hedge funds à Hong Kong.

Allianz Real Estate annonce avoir racheté à Gecina l’immeuble de bureaux loué en totalité au groupe de presse l’Express-Roularta, situé au 23-29 rue de Châteaudun dans le 9e arrondissement de Paris. Les deux sociétés ont décidé de ne pas divulguer le prix de vente, précise un communiqué. L’immeuble en question a été construit en 1995 et compte une surface totale de 15.000 m2 et 131 places de parking.

Onze ETF obligataires de iShares ont été récemment admis à commercialisation en France. Il s’agit notamment du iShares Markit iBoxx $ High Yield Capped Bond, qui a déjà drainé 540 millions d’euros et des huit ETF de govies européens (Allemagne, Autriche, Belgique, Espagne, Finlande, France, Italie et Pays-Bas) annoncés il y a quatre mois (lire Newsmanagers du 11 mai) et qui répliquent des indices Barclays et sont chargés à 0,20 %.iShares va aussi distribuer en France les ETF iShares Morningstar $ Emerging Markets Corporate Bond (*) et iShares Barclays Capital EM Asia Local Govt Capped Bond (**).(*) IE00B6TLBW47 ; TFE : 0,50 %(**) IE00B6QGFW01 ; TFE : 0,50 %

A l’instar d’Axa, Oddo souhaite se développer sur le marché de la retraite. Après Fipavie Retraite Garantie qui affiche plus de 80 millions d’euros de collecte, l'établissement propose une nouvelle solution d'épargne, Fipavie Expertises revenus à vie. «Il s’agit d’une nouvelle génération de contrats à destination d'épargnants qui sont confrontés à des marchés financiers compliqués, à la baisse de rentabilité des supports en euros et à une prise de conscience progressive des risques que présentent les supports en euro», a expliqué le 4 septembre Bertrand Sance, directeur associé de Oddo & Cie, à l’occasion d’une présentation.A la différence des contrats de variable annuities classiques, la nouvelle offre ne présente pas l’inconvénient de la gestion sous contrainte. «Cette nouvelle génération de contrats permet d’utiliser tous les supports dans le cadre d’une gestion classique», explique Bertrand Sance. Elle propose de nombreuses options qui peuvent être associées. Il est par exemple possible de choisir simultanément l’option «Gestion Libre» et un programme d’arbitrages automatiques», précise Bertrand Sance.Ce contrat présente une option spécifique, Fipavie Expertises Option Revenus à Vie qui permet notamment de bénéficier d’une rente viagère, à la date déterminée lors de la mise en place de la garantie optionnelle «Revenus à Vie».Oddo déclinera toutes les possibilités de cette nouvelle offre à l’occasion du salon Patrimonia fin septembre. Bertrand Sance espère ainsi donner un coup de pouce à la collecte plutôt poussive actuellement. Bertrand Sance évoque une «lègère progression» de la collecte grâce aux fonds datés, dont l’encours s'élève à quelque 1 milliard d’euros, et aux produits de participation aux bénéfices, mais sinon il n’y a pas de demande sur les actions. Pour les CGP, confrontés à une «baisse significative» des souscriptions, «la collecte est très dure sur tous les placements financiers», constate Bertrand Sance qui relève l’accueil très favorable d’ores et déjà réservé à la nouvelle offre…

Axa Investment Managers a recruté Peter von Albertini au poste de responsable commercial. Il était auparavant en charge de la distribution pour l’Allemagne de l’Union Bancaire Privée (UBP), précise Finews.

Au premier semestre, le suisse Partners Group a réalisé un bénéfice net de 121 millions de francs contre 108 millions pour la période correspondante de l’an dernier. Quant au bénéfice net ajusté des variations de valeurs sur produits dérivés, il s’est inscrit à 125 millions de francs contre 113 millions.Les souscriptions nettes sont ressorties à 2,4 milliards d’euros contre 2,1 milliards (et 3 milliards au premier semestre 2010) ; de ce fait, Partners Group confirme son objectif d’une collecte nette de 4-5 milliards d’euros sur l’ensemble de 2012. Au 30 juin, l’encours se situait à 27,1 milliards d’euros contre 22,8 milliards un an plus tôt et l’encours moyen durant le premier semestre s’est inscrit à 25,8 milliards d’euros contre 21,7 milliards.Sur ce total, le private equity représentait 18,8 milliards d’euros, le private real estate, 3,7 milliards, le private debt, 2,7 milliards et le private infrastructure 1,7 milliard. L’encours des filiales du groupe représentait pour sa part 0,7 milliard d’euros.