Brigade Capital Management, a hedge fund which invests in credit markets, has recruited Scott Hoffman, an analyst specialised in distressed debt, from Deutsche Bank, the news agency Bloomberg reports. Hoffman joined the US asset management firm, based in New York, this month. Deutsche Bank announced last month that it would be cutting back its high-risk assets in order to remain within its objectives for owners’ equity in early 2013.

The Californian pension fund CalPERS is planning to boycott IPOs which authorise minority shareholders to control a majority of votes via multi-tiered shareholder structures, Financial News reports. CalPERs will also campaign against existing governance structures which authorise this type of control. Since the beginning of the year, in the United States, one IPO out of every eight, from a total of 98 up to 16 August, has offered more than two share classes, according to statistics from Dealogic. When Dealogic began to collect these statistics in 2009, the proportion was one in twelve. CalPERS claims that the increasing variety of share classes, which has characterised several major recent IPOs (Facebook, Manchester United, and Oaktree Capital), represents an approach which completely contradicts the principles of good governance.

The US firm CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) is in talks with the British Financial Services Authority (FSA) over a launch of a derivatives exchange based in London, Les Echos reports. CME, which opened a clearing-house in London last year, is hoping to be able to begin its activities by the middle of next year, initially with futures contracts on currency markets, and potentially trading of other products subsequently. The Chicago-based operator is hoping to rival Eurex and Liffe, both of which are operating in London, at a time when regulators are moving to impose ruled on over-the-counter trading.

Fidelity Worldwide Investment has appointed Raymond Ma as principal manager of its Greater China fund (USD406m), following the departure of Joseph Tse, Citywire reports. Ma is already manager of the Fidelity Funds China Consumer Fund.

The Board of Trustees of Russell Exchange Traded Funds Trust has authorised the liquidation of a range of 25 passively-managed US ETFs by 24 October this year; subscriptions will remain open only until 9 October 2012. The funds had total assets as of 31 July of USD310m.The funds will be delisted from NYSE Arca, Inc. or the NASDAQ Stock Market LLC, as the case may be, effective at the close of trading on October 16, 2012. All shareholders remaining on October 16, 2012 will receive cash equal to the amount of the net asset value of their Fund shares. They will also not be required to pay any potential costs due to the liquidation of the fund.However, the US manager will continue to operate the Russell Equity ETF (ONEF) ETF, which is benchmarked to the Russell Developed Large Cap Index. A list of ETFs which will be liquidated is available as an attachment.

Assets under management at the Cantaonal Bank of Lucerne in first half 2012 totalled CHF25.9bn, up 3.1%, or CHF784m, compared with the end of December 2011, the bank announced in a statement on 21 August. The increase is due to a net inflow of CHF392m and a positive market effect.

Following the resignation of Qian Hua, who had been in the position since December 2010, Axa SPDB appointed Yu Beihua as CEO. She had previously been head of the retail banking activity at China Merchant Bank in Shanghai. Z-Ben Advisors points out thath this time, the recruitment is a sign of a desire to recruit a competent manager rather than a candidate presented by a shareholder.

Since the beginning of August, Marcel B. Salzmann, director of Invesco in Switzerland, has joined the US asset management firm GMO as country head Switzerland, finews.ch reports. Salzmann had previously been trained by UBS Global Asset Management, where he was director of client relationships for key institutional accounts.

Credit Suisse has recruited two people for its ETF activity, Financial News reports. Matt Tagliani, formerly of Citigroup, has been appointed as director, while James Kingston, from Royal Bank of Scotland, becomes vice-president.

Julius Baer is proposing to limit its capital increase via an issue of preferential subscription rights to shareholders to CHF500m, and not CHF750m, as announced a week ago. The private bank would like to create the capital necessary to partially finance an acquisition fo the non-US wealth management activities of Merrill Lynch, it announced in a statement released on 20 August. An increase in owners’ equity of CHF250m which was initially announced to provide future strategic flexibility will not be proposed at an extraordinary general shareholders’ meeting, the bank added following a meeting of its board of directors. In addition to the issue of preferential rights, shares totalling CHF240m will be issued to Bank of America, as a partial payment of the acquisition price. The extraordinary general shareholders’ meeting will be held on 19 September.

The Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) in July awarded Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) quotas totalling USD1.2bn to six foreign asset management firms, Z-Ben Advisors reports. In June, quotas distributed totalled USD1.35bn (see Newsmanagers of 2 July). Overall, the Chinese securities commission (CSRC) awarded 37 new QFII licenses in the first seven months of the year, compared with 29 in 2011 overall.Two new actors on the most recent list released, William Blair & Company and Van Eck Associates, each receive allocations of USD100m. Four other asset managers receive extensions, including the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), with USD700m, and Templeton Investment Counsel, Korea Investment Trust Management and Manulife Asset Management (Hong Kong), which each receive additional allocations of USD100m.Meanwhile, the CSRC has further liberalised the investment possibilities for QFII license holders. These parties may now invest in bonds issued by Chinese SMEs on private placements. They will also be allowed to invest in the inter-bank bond market; in addition, their limit for participation in publicly-traded firms is being increased to 30%, from 20% previously.

The British asset management firm Ashcourt Rowan has recruited Alan Scrimger as head of fund research, Money Marketing reports. Scrimger, who will report directly to chief investment offiver Toni Meadows, will work to improve the research capacities of the dedicated team, which has eight analysts. Scrimger previously worked at Standard Life as head of research.

Investment Week reports that Baring Asset Management has refused to comment on reports that it has recruited Christopher Mahon, head of investment strategy at RMB Asset Management, to become director at its multi-asset class team, led by Andrew Cole and Percival Stanion.Mahon will reportedly arrive in September, to replace Toby Nangle, who joined Threadneedle in early 2012 as director of the multi-asset class team (see Newsmanagers of 20 July 2011).In the area of multi-asset class investment, Barings manages a retail fund with GBP100m, an institutional mandate for GBP5bn, and an offshore fund with GBP5.2bn.

In first half 2012, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) earned operating profits of GBP119m, compared with GBP117m in the corresponding period of last year, while assets as of the end of June totalled GBP381bn, compared with GBP371bn as of 31 December, of which GBP227bn, compared with GBP224.2bn were for index-based products.

George Soros, the billionaire hedge fund manager, has acquired nearly 8% of the English football club Manchester United, the Financial Times reports. He becomes one of the largest shareholders in the club, after the Glazer family. Soros acquired the stake via the investment branch of his family office, Quantum Partners.

The sentencing date has been set for 20 December. On Monday, a nine-member jury found Doug Whitman guilty of insider trading and complicity in insider trading, crimes which each carry up to 20-year prison sentence, the Wall Street Journal reports.The head of the hedge fund Whitman Capital, based in Menlo Park, California, was unable to convince the jury that his trades had really been based on legitimate research: he was unable to refute recordings of telephone conversations in which he talks to his “moles” and plans to send gifts to his sources.

At a lunch held by Funds People in the offices of the law firm Cuatrecasas Gonçalves Pereira with representatives of BNY Mellon, Fidelity Worldwide, DWS Investments, Franklin Templeton, Pioneer Investments, BNP Paribas Securities Services and Allfunds Bank, foreign asset management firms which distribute their funds in Spain expressed a desire to maintain their local marketing services.However, all of these firms aim to reduce their costs and to realise economies of scale. To achieve that, they are planning to make more use of the internet, which prevents rising advertising costs, while being careful to avoid “saturating” their clients which means using targeted information, depending on the category of client, and ensuring that that information is pertinent and, if possible, collective, but personalised.Foreign asset managers also say they will make major effort in educating their clients and holding events.

En décembre 2011, les sociétés de gestion françaises et étrangères représentées dans les « fonds de fonds ISR » d’Agicam ont été interrogées sur leur politique, leurs pratiques et leurs résultats en termes de Responsabilité Sociale d’Entreprise. Cette enquête a pris la forme d’un questionnaire articulé autour de 5 rubriques : Implication dans le domaine de l’ISR : poids des encours ISR dans l’encours total, participation active à des initiatives de place, soutien à des programmes de recherche, etc. Existence d’une politique RSE : formalisation de la politique RSE au niveau de la société de gestion ou du groupe d’appartenance, personnes en charge du déploiement de la politique au niveau de la société de gestion, publication d’un rapport de développement durable. Environnement : politique, pratiques et résultats : existence d’une politique, indicateurs suivis, objectifs d’amélioration et résultats. Social : politique, pratiques et résultats : existence d’une politique vis-à-vis des salariés, clients et fournisseurs, indicateurs suivis, objectifs d’amélioration et résultats. Gouvernance : politique, pratiques et résultats : séparation des fonctions de gestion et de contrôle des risques, politique de rémunération, politique de vote et mise en application de celles-ci. Cette initiative s’inscrit dans le prolongement de la construction d’une poche de multigestion ISR qui capitalise près de 450 millions d’euros. Elle relève tout à la fois d’une démarche « d’engagement », de questionnement d’acteurs de l’ISR que de l’ambition d’Agicam d’acculturer les meilleures pratiques de l’industrie que ce soit dans le domaine de la Responsabilité Sociétale de l’investisseur (RSI) ou de l’entreprise (RSE). Par ailleurs, en 2011, Agicam a lancé un important chantier qui vise à doter EthisScreeninG®, la pierre angulaire du filtre ESG appliqué à la construction des portefeuilles ISR, d’un nouveau module d’impact holistique («impact réel») qui permettra aux gérants d’appréhender la contribution effective de leurs portefeuilles à une économie durable et à la société. Les impacts mesurés relèveront de la contribution d’un portefeuille à la réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre, à la promotion de l'égalité des sexes, à la promotion de la liberté syndicale et d’association...

La Banque centrale européenne n’a pas acheté la moindre obligation souveraine la semaine dernière. La BCE n’a plus activé son Programme pour les marchés de titres (SMP) depuis 23 semaines en dépit d’une intensification de la crise de la zone euro. Aucune tranche d’emprunt n’est arrivée à échéance la semaine passée et en l’absence de tout nouvel achat, le montant de titres rachetés par la BCE dans le cadre du SMP lancé en mai 2010 reste de 211,5 milliards d’euros.

Le fonds souverain singapourien GIC a fait une offre de 1,5 milliard de dollars pour un groupe d’hôtels en faillite entre les mains du hedge fund Paulson & Co. Ces actifs incluent notamment l’Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa et La Quinta Resort & Club (Californie). Paulson avait racheté les hôtels à Morgan Stanley en 2011, les déclarant en faillite un mois plus tard pour les réorganiser. Il a déjà revendu l’un des hôtels à Donald Trump.

Le Fonds monétaire international et la Banque mondiale conseillent aux Etats de se préparer à une éventuelle poursuite de la hausse des prix alimentaires au cours des prochains mois mais ils ne prévoient pas de véritable crise comparable à celle de 2007-2008. Pour Thomas Helbling, directeur de division au département de la recherche du FMI, la hausse actuelle des prix des céréales reflète «un choc d’offre classique».

Le pays d’Amérique centrale a indiqué hier être dans l’incapacité d’honorer le versement à ses créanciers obligataires d’environ 23 millions de dollars. Alors que s’ouvre une période de grâce de 30 jours, le gouvernement du Belize a annoncé vouloir ouvrir le plus rapidement possible des discussions avec ses créanciers. Le cabinet Cleary Gottlieb doit l’assister dans cette restructuration.

Après quatre séances consécutives de hausse, les cours du pétrole ont terminé en légère baisse hier sur le marché new-yorkais Nymex. Les incertitudes sur l'évolution de la politique de la BCE ont pesé sur la tendance au cours d’une séance en dents de scie, mais les tensions affectant la production en mer du Nord et au Moyen-Orient ont limité les pertes. Le contrat septembre sur le brut léger américain (WTI) a fini la journée sur une perte de quatre cents, soit 0,04%, à 95,97 dollars le baril, après avoir oscillé entre 95,02 et 96,53 dollars.

La réticence des établissements bancaires à prêter de l’argent à des clients fragiles est en train de peser sur la reprise américaine en empêchant les consommateurs d’emprunter et de dépenser, indique une nouvelle étude de la Réserve fédérale de San Francisco. Elle estime que les responsables politiques devraient non seulement tenter de garder les coûts de financement bas mais aussi trouver de nouveaux moyens pour inciter les banques à prêter.

La rentrée des dirigeants démarre jeudi avec une rencontre à Berlin entre François Hollande et Angela Merkel. Avant la réunion de la BCE du 6 septembre

La «BuBa» réaffirme son opposition au rachat de dettes souveraines. La BCE veut calmer la spéculation

La «BuBa» réaffirme son opposition au rachat de dettes souveraines. La BCE veut calmer la spéculation

Face à la domination de ses deux concurrents, la Bourse de Chicago va demander un agrément pour ouvrir, mi-2013 à Londres, une plate-forme de dérivés

A quelques jours de la présentation très attendue de son iPhone 5, le groupe californien a signé hier un record en affichant à la clôture une valorisation sans précédent de 623,5 milliards de dollars. C’est la plus forte capitalisation boursière jamais atteinte par une entreprise américaine, devant Microsoft et son faste de la fin des années 1990.

Der Spiegel a affirmé que la Banque centrale envisage de fixer des seuils de taux pour les obligations souveraines de pays en difficulté et d'en racheter si leur spread par rapport au bund dépasse un certain niveau.