Carmignac Gestion a annoncé sur son site en début de semaine l'élargissement du nombre de parts mises à la disposition de ses clients. Les investisseurs ont donc désormais accès à des parts de capitalisation libellées en francs suisses et en dollars américains, et à des parts de distribution en euro. Les parts libellées dans une devise autre que l’Euro sont systématiquement couvertes contre le risque de change, précise la société de gestion.Liste des fonds concernés : Carmignac Investissement (A) EUR / accCarmignac Investissement (E) EUR / accCarmignac Investissement (D) EUR / incCarmignac Investissement (A) CHF / accCarmignac Investissement (A) USD / accCarmignac Euro-Entrepreneurs (A) EUR / accCarmignac Emergents (A) EUR / accCarmignac Emergents (E) EUR / accCarmignac Emergents (D) EUR / incCarmignac Emergents (A) CHF / accCarmignac Emergents (A) USD / accCarmignac Patrimoine (A) EUR / accCarmignac Patrimoine (E) EUR / accCarmignac Patrimoine (D) EUR / incCarmignac Patrimoine (A) CHF / accCarmignac Patrimoine (A) USD / accCarmignac Euro-Patrimoine (A) EUR / accCarmignac Euro-Patrimoine (D) EUR / incCarmignac Euro-Patrimoine (A) CHF / accCarmignac Euro-Patrimoine (A) USD / acc Carmignac Investissement Latitude (A) EUR / accCarmignac Profil Reactif 100 (A) EUR / accCarmignac Profil Réactif 75 (A) EUR / accCarmignac Profil Réactif 50 (A) EUR / accCarmignac Sécurité (A) EUR / accCarmignac Sécurité (D) EUR / incCarmignac Sécurité (A) CHF / accCarmignac Sécurité (A) USD / accCarmignac Court Terme (A) EUR / accCarmignac Court Terme (A) CHF / accCarmignac Court Terme (A) USD / acc

Pour obtenir l’arrêt des procédures, Citigroup accepte de verser 590 millions de dollars à ses actionnaires qui ont acquis leurs titres en 2007 et 2008 et qui estiment que la banque leur a caché l’ampleur de son exposition à des subprimes toxiques, rapporte The Wall Street Journal.

Après seulement un mois de commercialisation, le fonds Banesto Garantizado Selección Española 4, un fonds inspiré par la victoire de l'équipe espagnole («la Roja») à l’euro de football, a atteint le plafond des 75 millions d’euros fixés par le prospectus.Le plafond est à présent relevé à 90 millions ; dès que ce montant sera atteint ou au plus tard le 14 septembre, le Banesto appliquera un droit d’entrée de 5 %, rapporte Funds People. Le fonds est géré par Santander Asset Management.Le Banesto, qui est le sponsor de l'équipe d’Espagne a lancé ce fonds garanti (avec échéance au 31 juillet 2015) assorti d’une rémunération de 11,95 %,soit un taux annuel de 4 %, allusion à la victoire de la Roja contre l’Italie (4-0).

Dans une notification au régulateur espagnol CNMV, BBVA Asset Management annonce avoir désormais bouclé la reprise d’Unnim Gesfons, filiale de la caisse d'épargne Unnim acquise pour un euro symbolique (lire Newsmanagers du 8 mars), rapporte Funds People. De ce fait, BBVA AM ajoute à ses encours de 18,5 milliards d’euros les 219 millions d’euros (fin juin) des 11 fonds d’Unnim Gesfons.

Les sociétés de gestion néerlandaises ont vu leurs encours institutionnels sous gestion augmenter de 8,4 % en 2011 à un total de plus de 696 milliards d’euros, selon l’étude 2012 d’IPE sur les 400 principales sociétés de gestion. Presque tous les gestionnaires aux Pays-Bas ont vu leurs actifs sous gestion augmenter. La seule exception est ING Investment Management, qui a vu ses encours institutionnels reculer de 1,2 milliard d’euros à 52,7 milliards d’euros.

Cet été, le suédois Fonder Stockpicker a vendu ses deux fonds Stockpicker Norden Aktiv et Stockpicker J.F Commodity Energy à la société de gestion GustaviaDavegårdh Fonder. Il s’agit du dernier exemple en date de concentration du secteur de la gestion d’actifs en Suède, analyse le quotidien en ligne Privata Affärer. Pour Ola Gilstring, l’un des fondateurs de Gustavia Fonder, deux raisons expliquent cette tendance : l’intérêt décroissant du grand public pour les fonds actions, un secteur important en Suède ; et le poids grandissant de la compliance, qui conduit à une hausse des coûts. Ola Gilstring ajoute qu’il y a aujourd’hui beaucoup de sociétés de gestion à vendre en Suède.

Le gestionnaire francfortois MainFirst Asset Management a annoncé selon Das Investment son intention de recruter trois équipes pour muscler son dispositif sur les obligations d’entreprises européennes, les obligations émergentes et le multi-classes d’actifs.Il recrute ainsi pour début septembre Frank Schwarz, Adrian Daniel et Patrick Vogel chez Deutsche Asset Management pour sa nouvelle équipe mutlistratégies/performance absolue.De même, l'équipe marchés émergents sera dirigée par Cornel Bruhin et Dorothea Fröhlich, qui viendront de Clariden Leu.Enfin il est prévu quatre recrutements pour l'équipe obligations d’entreprises européennes, mais leur identité n’a pas encore été divulguée.

Les actifs gérés par les 100 premiers gestionnaires en placements alternatifs dépassent les 3.000 milliards de dollars pour s'établir à environ 3.136 milliards de dollars à fin 2011, selon une enquête de Towers Watson réalisée en partenariat avec le Financial Times, Global Alternatives Survey, qui inclut également les fonds de capital-investissement et les hedge funds.Parmi les 100 premiers acteurs, les gestionnaires immobiliers détiennent la plus grosse part des actifs (35%), suivis par les gestionnaires de capital-investissement (22%), ceux des hedge funds (21%), les fonds de fonds de capital-investissement (9%), les fonds de hedge funds (6%), les infrastructures (4%) et les commodities (3%).Plus largement, les données montrent également que le total des actifs alternatifs mondiaux s'élève désormais à 4.900 milliards de dollars, avec une répartition entre les diverses classes d’actifs dans des proportions similaires à celles observées pour les 100 premiers gestionnaires, à l’exception de l’immobilier qui tombe à 28% et des fonds de hedge funds qui augmentent à hauteur de 9% du total.Selon Thierry de la Noue, responsable du département Investissements de Towers Watson France, «la crise économique mondiale actuelle a conduit tous les types d’investisseurs institutionnels vers des portefeuilles d’investissements ou de placements diversifiés. Les allocations en actifs alternatifs, notamment, représentent aujourd’hui près de 20% de tous les actifs des fonds de retraite internationaux, contre 5% il y a quinze ans».Thierry de la Noue ajoute que «les fonds de retraite assortis d’un engagement de pension ont toujours été et demeureront la clientèle centrale des gestions alternative. En revanche, la demande des autres types d’investisseurs de très long terme, comme les fonds souverains par exemple, ne cessera d’augmenter à l’avenir».L’Amérique du Nord reste la principale destination de la gestion alternative (48%), à l’exception des infrastructures qui ont le vent en poupe en Europe. Plus généralement, un tiers des actifs est investi en Europe, un dixième en Asie-Pacifique et 5% dans le reste du monde.Thierry de la Noue estime que"l’incertitude économique actuelle encouragera vraisemblablement les investisseurs à ne pas détenir que des actions comme actifs de croissance, et avoir davantage recours à des actifs alternatifs. Si nous pensons qu’un tel effort de diversification vaut la peine, il reste que les investisseurs doivent être prudents dans le choix des véhicules de placement les plus efficaces, tout en tenant compte des moyens plus économiques pour améliorer l’efficacité des investissements, comme l’utilisation, de «Smart Beta» par exemple».Aucune société française ne figure dans le classement des dix premiers. AXA Real Estate arrive en onzième position, avec des actifs sous gestion de 54,54 milliards de dollars.

La banque de la famille princière du Liechtenstein, LGT Group, a déclaré pour le premier semestre un bénéfice net de 129,8 millions de francs suisses, ce qui représente un bond en avant de 58,1 % par rapport à la période correspondante de 2011. Le coefficient d’exploitation s’est amélioré à 65 % contre 75 % (hors charges liées à la vente de LGT Bank Deutschland) pour l’an dernier.Au 30 juin, l’encours total ressortait à 94,7 milliards de francs contre 86,8 milliards fin décembre (+ 9 %), notamment grâce à des rentrées nettes de 5,5 milliards de francs, ce qui représente une hausse annualisée de 13 %.

Le gestionnaire de fortune Dynapartners se renforce dans le secteur du luxe avec le recrutement de l’ex-gérante de Clariden Leu, Makiko Zürcher-Hosaka, qui prendra ses fonctions le 1er octobre, rapporte l’agence finews.La spécialiste du luxe sera la responsable des investissements dans le secteur. Dynapartners envisage d’ailleurs de lancer un fonds dédié au luxe d’ici à la fin de l’année. Dynapartners a par ailleurs engagé le britannique James Ogilvy en tant que conseiller indépendant à compter du 1er septembre. James Ogilvy, créateur du magazine «Luxury Briefing», compte parmi les meilleurs consultants internationaux dans le secteur du luxe.

In January 2012, Principal Global Investors received a Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) license from the Chinese securities commission (CSRC). Now, Z-Ben Advisors reports, the US asset management firm has received a QFII quota from the State Agency of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) of USD150m.Principal has already opened an office in Beijing, and its QFII investment team will be based in Hong Kong. Its Chinese joint venture, CCB-Principal Asset Management Co Ltd, has been retained as a consultant, but will not participate in the investment decision process.

The bank owned by the royal family of Liechtenstein, LGT Group, has declared a net profit for first half of CHF129.8m, which represents a 58.1% increase over the corresponding period of last year. The cost-income ratio improved to 65% from 75% (excluding charges related to the sale of LGT Bank Deutschland) last year.As of 30 June, total assets were CHF94.7bn, compared with CHF86.8bn as of the end of December (+9%), largely due to net inflows of CHF5.5bn, which represents an annualised increase of 13%.

Handelsblatt relays reports in Bloomberg citing John Gilbert, head strategist for the British General Re-New England Asset Management, a company of the Warren Buffett empire, as claiming that French government bonds are not better value than Spanish or Italian ones. France is clearly overvalued, he says in a letter to his clients, and OATs should be paying 4.5% to 5%. Businesses in the country have become less competitive in the past decade, and personnel costs are higher in France than Germany.Buffett also last month told CNBC that he had reduced his exposure to Spanish, Italian and French bonds two years ago. Jamie Stuttard, CIO fixed income at Fidelity in London, says that French fundamentals provide no support for bonds: unemployment is rising, while budget and payments deficits are increasing.Nicholas Spiro, of Spiro Sovereign Strategy in London, says the problem is that François Hollande is hesitating. He has manoeuvered himself into a political impasse, and the only thing that will make him announce significant reforms will be market pressure.

The financial ratings agency Moody’s on 29 August announced that it has lowered its long-term credit rating for 3i Group from Baa1 to Baa2, with a stable outlook. Moody’s explains in a statement that several factors contributed to this decision, including pressure on revenues for the group in a difficult environment in Europe, where 3i retains 76% of its investment portfolio as of the end of March 2012, and uncertainties about the ability of the group to generate cash flow now that it has moves its strategy toward asset management.

The wealth management firm Dynapartners is building its presence in the luxuries sector with the recruitment of a former Clariden Leu manager, Makiko Zürcher-Hosaka, who will begin on 1 October, the news agency finews reports. The luxuries specialist will be responsible for investments in the sector. Dynapartners is also planning to launch a fund dedicated to luxuries by the end of the year. Dynapartners has also engaged the British James Ogilvy as independent adviser from 1 September. Ogilvy, founder of the magazine “Luxury Briefing,” is one of the top international consultants in the luxury sector.

Assets under management by the top 100 alternative investment managers have reached over USD3trn, with a total of about USD3.136trn as of the end of 2011, according to a Towers Watson investigation undertaken in partnership with the Financial Times, Global Alternatives Survey, which also includes private equity and hedge funds.Among the top 100 managers, real estate management firms hold the largest share of assets (35%), followed by private equity managers (22%), hedge funds (21%), private equity funds of funds (9%), funds of hedge funds (6%), infrastructure (4%), and commodities (3%).More generally, data also shows that total global alternative assets now total USD4.9trn, distributed over various asset classes in similar proportions to those observed for the top 100 asset managers, excepting real estate, which falls to 28%, and funds of funds, which increase to 9% of the total.Assets in pension funds represent 33% of total assets under management by the top 100 asset managers, followed by insurers, sovereign funds and foundations. According to Thierry de la Noue, head of the Investments department at Towers Watson France. “The current global economic crisis has led all types of institutional investors to investment or diversified placement portfolios. Allocations to alternative assets in particular now represent nearly 20% of all assets in international retirement funds, compared with 5% 15 years ago.”De la Noue adds that “retirement funds that carry a pension liability have always been and still remain the central clientele for alternative asset management firms. However, demand from other types of very long-term investors such as sovereign funds will continue to increase in the future.”North America remains the primary destination for alternative management (48%), excepting infrastructure, which is doing well in Europe. More generally, one third of assets are invested in Europe, one tenth in Asia-Pacitic, and 5% in the rest of the world.De la Noue estimates that “the current economic uncertainty will likely encourage investors to hold on equities such as growth shares, and to use alternative investments more. If we think that such an effort at diversification is worth the trouble, investors still need to be prudent in their choice of the most effective investment vehicles, while taking into account the most economic means to improve the effectiveness of investments, such as the use of “Smart Beta,” for example.”No French company places in the rankings of the top 10 (see below). AXA Real Estate is in eleventh place, with assets under management of USD54.54bn. rank Manager Cdomicile Total assets under management (millions of USD) Asset class 1 CBRE Global Investors United States 94.100 Real Estate 2 The Carlyle Group* United States 90.741 Private equity 3 Macquarie Group Australia 88.665 Infrastructure 4 Brookfield Asset Management Canada 84.346 Real Estate 5 Goldman, Sachs & Co. United States 78.000 Private equity 6 BlackRock United Kingdom 77.335 Consumer products 7 Bridgewater Associates United States 76.100 Speculative funds 8 UBS Global Asset Management United Kingdom 59.971 Real Estate 9 RREEF Alternatives Germany 57.419 Real Estate 10 Morgan Stanley United States 56.391 Real Estate

The Wall Street Journal reports that at the request of Morgan Stanley and Citigroup, Perella Weinberg Partners will postpone until 10 September, rather than this week its verdict on the evaluation of the additional 14% stake in Morgan Stanley Smith Barney which Morgan Stanley is seeking to acquire in the joint venture. Estimates differ: Citigroup values Smith Barney wealth management operation at USD22bn, while Morgan Stanley values it at only USD9bn. Morgan Stanley already controls 51% of Smith Barney.

The French boutique Tocqueville Finance has confirmed the recruitment of Anne-France Gauthier in July. The new recruit had previously served as head of Key Account and Private Banking partnerships at Skandia, and previously as head of distribution for France at Métropole Gestion, from January 2008 to May 2010.Gauthier’s arrival, in a postion which has not been fully disclosed, comes at a time when Benjamin Biard, former head of distribution at Tocqueville Finance, left the firm in February, and François l’Hénoret, former head of partner relations (France) left in June.

After only one month on sale, the Banesto Garantizado Selección Española 4 fund, inspired by the victory of the Spanish football team (“La Roja”) at the Euro 2012 football championships has reached the EUR75m limit set by its prospectus.The ceiling is now raised to EUR90m; when this total is reached, or by 14 September at the latest, Banesto will apply a front-end fee of 5%, Funds People reports. The fund is managed by Santander Asset Management. Banesto, which is the sponsor of the Spanish team, launched the guaranteed fund (maturing on 31 July 2015) with returns of 11.95%, an annual rate of 4%, an allusion to the Spanish victory against Italy (4-0).

The SEC commissioners on Wednesday, by a vote of four to one, agreed to raise a decades-old ban on advertising by hedge funds for private investments, the Wall Street Journal reports.

In order to settle legal actions, Citigroup has agreed to pay USD590m to its shareholders who purchased their shares in 2007 and 2008, and who claim that the bank concealed the scale of its exposure to toxic sub-prime assets from them, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Carmignac Gestion has decided to offer its clients a wider variety of share classes to invest into its funds. In addition to the current existing share classes, Carmignac Gestion’s clients will now have access to both accumulating units denominated in CHF and USD and distributing units denominated in EUR. For units denominated in a currency other than euro, currency risk vis-à-vis the euro is systematically hedged. List of funds concerned: Carmignac Investissement (A) EUR / accCarmignac Investissement (E) EUR / accCarmignac Investissement (D) EUR / incCarmignac Investissement (A) CHF / accCarmignac Investissement (A) USD / accCarmignac Euro-Entrepreneurs (A) EUR / accCarmignac Emergents (A) EUR / accCarmignac Emergents (E) EUR / accCarmignac Emergents (D) EUR / incCarmignac Emergents (A) CHF / accCarmignac Emergents (A) USD / accCarmignac Patrimoine (A) EUR / accCarmignac Patrimoine (E) EUR / accCarmignac Patrimoine (D) EUR / incCarmignac Patrimoine (A) CHF / accCarmignac Patrimoine (A) USD / accCarmignac Euro-Patrimoine (A) EUR / accCarmignac Euro-Patrimoine (D) EUR / incCarmignac Euro-Patrimoine (A) CHF / accCarmignac Euro-Patrimoine (A) USD / acc Carmignac Investissement Latitude (A) EUR / accCarmignac Profil Reactif 100 (A) EUR / accCarmignac Profil Réactif 75 (A) EUR / accCarmignac Profil Réactif 50 (A) EUR / accCarmignac Sécurité (A) EUR / accCarmignac Sécurité (D) EUR / incCarmignac Sécurité (A) CHF / accCarmignac Sécurité (A) USD / accCarmignac Court Terme (A) EUR / accCarmignac Court Terme (A) CHF / accCarmignac Court Terme (A) USD / acc

This summer, the Swedish firm Fonder Stockpicker sold its two funds Stockpicker Norden Aktiv and Stockpicker J.F Commodity Energy to the asset management firm GustaviaDavegårdh Fonder. This is the most recent example of consolidation in the asset management industry in Sweden, the online newspaper Privata Affärer notes. Ola Gilstring, one of the founders of Gustavia Fonder, suggests two reasons for this trend: decreasing interest on the part of the public in equity funds, a large sector in Sweden; and the growing weight of compliance, which is leading to rising costs. Gilstring adds that there are currently many asset management firms up for sale in Sweden.

Ping An Insurance, one of the largest insurance companies in China, will be one of the first to take advantage of a new law authorising insurers to employ external asset managers, Financial News reports, citing Z-Ben Advisors. Requests for proposals have been announced to this end. Ping An has a portfolio of about EUR123bn.

Assets under management at Piguet Galland & Cie, the new private banking unit of the Banque Cantonale Vaudoise (BCV), remained stable in first half 2012 at CHF7.6bn, Agefi Switzerland reports. Piguet Galland earned consolidated net profits in first half of CHF8.3m, on earnings of CHF35.2m, down 2.6%. Between January and June, gross profits rose 6% compared with the same period of the previous year, from CHF6.3m to CHF6.7m. This increase is largely due to a reduction in operating costs due to a merger of Banque Piguet and Franck Galland, announced by BCV in late 2010.

Das Investment reports that Frankfurt-based MainFirst Asset Management has announced plans to recruit three teams as additions to its European corporate bond, emerging market bond and multi-asset class personnel.It is recruiting Frank Schwartz, Adrian Daniel and Patrick Vogel from Deutsche Asset Management, to begin at the start of September on its new multi-strategy/absolute return team.The emerging markets team will be led by Cornel Bruhin and Dorothea Fröhlich, who join from Clariden Leu.Four recruitments are planned for the European corporate bond team, but their identities have not yet been disclosed.

Due to market turbulence, the fund management firm for the German savings banks, DekaBank is predicting difficulties in second half 2012. As a precaution, Handelsblatt reports, Deka has set aside EUR80m to cover potential depreciations or a modification to its ratings. But Oliver Behrens, interim chairman of the managing board, is confident: he says economic profit at Deka will be higher in 2012 overall than 2011 (when it fell 58.6% to EUR383.1m, ed).

In first half 2012, DekaBank, the central asset management firm for the German savings banks, has announced an “economic profit” (pre-tax profits according to IFRS accounting standards, plus the results of a valuation of financial instruments) of EUR313.8m, compared with EUR336.6m in the corresponding period of last year.As of 30 June, assets were down 0.8% compared with the end of December, at EUR149.8bn, compared with EUR151bn.Real estate funds from Deka posted net subscriptions of EUR1.1bn, compared with EUR0.3bn in January-June 2011, while securities funds had undergone net outflows of EUR3.2bn, compared with EUR3.6bn. In total, the firm has posted net redemptions of EUR2.109bn in first half, compared with EUR3.311bn in January-June 2011.

The German firm Feri EuroRating Services is planning to create a “structured finance & covered bond rating” unit, which will be dedicated to ratings of structured collateralised bonds and covered bonds. The new operation will be led by Gerald Dorsch, who has been recruited from Deutsche Postbank in Frankfurt, where he had been head of portfolio transactions in the area of liquidity and capital management, as well as ratings and reporting on Pfandbriefe.

What is the favourite sector for sovereign funds in the mid- to long-term? Between 2005 and 2011, sovereign funds have invested primarily in the finance sector, according to statistics from the SWF Institute. In this period, investments by sovereign funds in finance sector shares totalled USD164.91bn. It is followed by real estate, with a total of USD54.49bn, and then energy, infrastructure and utilities. The least popular sectors were health and IT.