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19/04/2012

France accused of tax discrimination against foreign funds

On 10 May, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) will pronounce a verdict on the difference in tax status for foreign OPCVM mutual funds and French-registered funds in France, Les Echos reports. The latter category of funds will not be taxed on dividends paid by French businesses, unlike the former. For over six years, foreign firms have been denouncing this imbalance. The French tax authorities have already received more than 10,000 reimbursement applications for this withholding tax, for total rebates of about EUR4.2bn, including interest, equivalent to 0.2% of French gross domestic product in 2010.
19/04/2012

Concerted action structure created for Votaccess

The French association of securities professionals (AFTI), supported by the national association of equity companies (ANSA), on 18 April announced the creation of a concerted action structure to bring together representatives of the financial industry, shareholders and share issuing businesses interested in setting up and developing electronic voting and the Votaccess electronic platform, which has been operational since November 2011, and who would like to have some influence to ensure harmonious and controlled growth in the service of the general wealth. The body, entitled the Votaccess scientific council, which met for the first time on 17 April, will be open to professional associations concerned that may be interested in participating in its efforts, to representatives of share-issuing businesses, banks, shareholder representatives, and academics. The body is responsible for monitoring the institution of electronic voting, managing a statistical tool, sharing experiential feedback, considering ways to promote electronic voting throughout Europe, and formulating proposals to improve Votaccess.
19/04/2012

FMG launches a fund dedicated to Mongolia

The emerging market investment specialist FMG is launching a fund dedicated to Mongolia, FundWeb reports. FMG reports that the Mongolian economy will this year post record total growth of 23% to 26%. The FMG Mongolia Fund, in which minimum investment is set at USD10,000, is targeting the 25 most liquid companies on the Mongolian stock market. The three largest exposures of the fund are to the mining industry, for 42%, consumer goods for 39%, and construction, for 10%. The fund also includes allocations of 5% to real estate and 4% to the financial sector.
19/04/2012

New non-food commodity fund from LBBW AM

LBBW Asset Management, an affiliate of the German Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) has announced that on 11 April it launched a non-food commodities fund entitled LBBW Rohstoffe 3 Ex-Food, inspired by the LBBW Ex-Food-Rohstoff-Index ER index, currently composed of 18 commodities. It invests in futures contracts on ten commodities in the precious metals, base metals and energy sectors, as well as timber and cotton. Cash is placed in highly-rated bonds with a short maturity.The fund is available in R (retail) and I (institutional) share classes.CharacteristicsName: LBBW Rohstoffe 3 Ex FoodISIN codes:DE000A1H7292 (R share class)DE000A1H7284 (I share class)Front-end fee: 5% (R share class)Management commission:1.50% (R share class)0.80% (I share class)Minimal subscription: EUR75,000 (I share class)
19/04/2012

EDHEC-Risk: Two hedge fund strategies show losses in Q1

In first quarter, only two hedge fund strategies out of 13 monitored by EDHEC-Risk show losses: CTA Global (-0.6%), and short selling, which shows losses of 12.5%, but lost only 0.93% in March.The best performance in the first three months of the year were for emerging markets (6.4%), distressed securities (6.3%) and long/short equity (6.2%).Since January 2001, the best results have been for distressed securities and emerging markets, with annual returns of 10.5% each.
19/04/2012

Switzerland prepares to comply with GAFI recommendations

Switzerland is planning to apply the latest recommendations of the financial action group (GAFI) on the international war on financing for crime, Agefi Switzerland reports. The Federal Council yesterday created an interdepartmental working group to develop and present proposals. The body, led by the Federal finance department, will lay out proposals to be open for consultation by the beginning of 2013.
19/04/2012

M&G Investments opens an office in Singapore

M&G Investments has opened an office in Singapore, composed of five people, including Andrew Hendry, who has been appointed to the newly-created position of managing director, Asia. He is tasked with building a team in Singapore and Hong Kong who will service the growing number of M&G distribution partners in the region. Hendry joined the British asset management firm last year, after working at Capital International, where he was responsible for global distribution relationships.
19/04/2012

South-East Asia head leaves Coutts

The British private bank Coutts has announced the departure of its head for South-East Asia, Manfred Liechti, following a restructuring, Asian Investor reports. Liechti joined Coutts in 2010, and was in charge of Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Meanwhile, Coutts has appointed his successor, Ranjit Khanna, as head for South-East Asia. Khanna had previously been head of products and services for Asia.
19/04/2012

SWIP restructures its sales team

Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) has asked five members of its 14-member sales team to reapply for their positions, following a decision by the firm to redistribute roles, FundWeb reports. The size of the team will not be reduced, SWIP adds. In general, SWIP is hoping to move from a more silo-type client approach to a more holistic approach.
19/04/2012

BBVA launches a partially guaranteed fund

On 13 April, the CNMV registered the BBVA Crecimiento Bolsa BP fund from BBVA Asset Management, a fund guaranteed at maturity, on 9 December 2015, with a redemption of 95% of the net asset value as of 8 June 2012. The fund carries the potential for additional gains depending on the evolution of the Ibex 35 index. If losses are limited to 5%, or 1.453% per year, gains for the fund will have a ceiling of 75% of a 25% rise in the index, or 5.026% per year. From 9 June, the fund will invest in bonds issued by EU governments or Spanish autonomous communities rated at least A-, with a maximum of 20% corporate bonds, covered bonds, or securitisations.CharacteristicsName: BBVA Crecimiento Bolsa BP, FIISIN code: ES0113466009Front-end fee: 5%Management commission: 1.97%Early withdrawal penalty: 5%
19/04/2012

State Street: Profits up, assets down in 2011

For 2011, State Street Corporation has announced per-share profits of USD3.79, compared with USD3.09 and ROE of 10%, compared with 9.5%.Assets under management and administration increased to USD21.807trn as of the end of December, compared with USD21.527trn twelve months earlier, while assets under management declined to USD1.866trn from USD2.010trn.
19/04/2012

Assets under management at SPGP up in first quarter

Assets under management at the Société Privée de Gestion de Patrimoine as of the end of March 2012 totalled over EUR820m, compared with about EUR8090m as of the end of December 2011. Developments in first quarter were characterised by a positive market effect and an increase in inflows, though these were in modest proportions.Assets as of the end of March totalled EUR500m in collective management and EUR320m in mandated private management. Equity management represented 45% of assets, while bond management represented 40%, and flexible management and the IPO Sicav 15%.Skylar Origin is the new IPO Sicav, which is dedicated to investment in businesses which are undertaking an initial public offering. SPGP has recently taken over management of the vehicle. The new fund will be managed by two former Lazard managers, Cédric Chaboud, head of strategy and investments, and Jérémy Boublil, in charge of trading and risk management, who have joined the team at SPGP, and who had launched the fund at Lazard in spring 2010. The Sicav has been transferred to SPGP in a UCITS IV format, which last year received a license from the AMF.Chaboud hopes that the exposure his new position gives him will allow the fund, whose assets currently total about EUR10m, to increase in the next few months to EUR30m, or even EUR50m.In addition, the European IPO market is expected to take off again once the debt crisis eases. Two major operations have animated the market in the past couple of weeks, at the cable television operator Ziggo and DKSH, an Asian outsourcing firm listed in Switzerland.The two IPO deals, totalling several million euros each, have attracted interest 5 to 10 times higher than supply. This interest may be a prelude to a sustainable return to an active IPO market in Europe.
19/04/2012

FSI announces creation of a fund dedicated to railway operators

The strategic investment fund (FSI) on 18 April announced that it has signed an agreement protocol which defines general principles for the creation of a Fund for the Modernisation of Railway Businesses (FMEF), an investment fund dedicated to actors in the French rail industry. With EUR40m in capital supplied by Alstom, SNCF, Bombardier, and RATP, as well as the FSI, the FMEF will aim to invest in minority stakes in high-performance businesses with significant activities in the French rail sector, which will be likely to be competitive in this industry, with potential for growth and development in France and abroad.
19/04/2012

Russell Investments adds to index research team

Russell Investments has recruited Tom Goodwin to the new position of senior research director at Russell Indexes. Goodwin will be based in New York, and will aim to make Russell indices better known to clients, and to help them to use them as part of an asset allocation strategy. Before joining Russell, Goodwin, who has been an economist for 15 years, worked as chief economist for King County. Earlier in his career, he spent 13 years in several positions at Russell, including senior research analyst.
19/04/2012

4% increase in assets under custody/administration at BNY Mellon in first quarter

Assets under custody/administration at BNY Mellon have set a record at USD26.6trn as of 31 March 2012, a 4% increase compared with fourth quarter 2011. New mandates and market effects are to thank for this increase. Assets under management, for their part, were up 6% in March to a record USD1.3trn. Inflows of long-term assets in first quarter totalled USD7bn, but at the same time, redemptions of short-term assets totalled USD9bn. Commissions related to custody and administration services totalled USD1.6bn, down 4% year on year. Performance and management commissions totalled USD745m, down 2% compared with fourth quarter 2011. Net profits for the group in first quarter 2012 totalled USD619m, or USD0.52 per share, compared with USD625m, or USD0.50 per share in first quarter 2011, and USD505m (USD0.42 per share) in fourth quarter 2011.
19/04/2012

Profits stable at BlackRock in Q1

In January-March, BlackRock Inc has posted net profits down USD7bn compared with first quarter 2011, to USD575m, which nonetheless represents an increase of USD17bn compared with October-December. However, net income attributable to BlackRock Inc. came out to USD572m, up 3% compared with the corresponding period of last year (USD555m) and 1% compared with USD568m in fourth quarter 2011.As of 31 March, assets totalled USD3.684trn, compared with USD3.5127trn as of the end of December, and USD3.6474trn twelve months earlier. Net subscriptions of USD26bn were more than offset by USD36bn in previously-announced redemption of an institutional index-based bond mandate, while the acquisition of Claymore Investments brought in USD8bn. Positive forex and market effects contributed USD201bn and USD8bn, respectively, to boost assets under management. BlackRock states that its ETF unit, iShares, has posted all-time record net inflows in first quarter, with USD18.2bn, which represents organic annualized growth of 12%.Long-term assets totalled USD3,345trn as of the end of March, compared with USD3,318trn as of the end of December, and USD3,245trn twelve months previously. Long-term assets under management as of 31 March were 53% invested in equities, 37% in bonds, 7% in multi-asset clases and 3% in alternative assets. By client category, 68% came from institutional clients, 20% from iShares, and 12% from retail and high net worth clients.
19/04/2012

Asset and wealth management save Warburg results

The group headed up by the Hamburg-based private bank M.M. Warbirg in 2011 earned pre-tax profits of EUR43.6m, compared with EUR55.2m in 2010, a result which Christian Olearius, chairman of the managing partners, calls “satisfactory” due to the slowdown in the investment banking and credit industries.The results at Warburg are due to good performance of owners’ equity operations, corporate finance deals, and particularly the wealth and asset management units. This is the case for the Luxembourg affiliates MM Warburg & Co Luxembourg and Warburg Invest Luxembourg, which are focused on depository banking and fund administration operations: assets under administration at these businesses has increased by EUR6.1bn to EUR16.3bn as of the end of December. Overall, assets under management at the Warburg group last year increased by EUR2bn, to EUR38.1bn.
19/04/2012

Bank downgrades may drive BlackRock to change partners

BlackRock has announced that it may have to reduce its trading volumes with banks that will be downgraded by Moody’s, the Financial Times reports. Some clients set minimal credit ratings for counterparties to some transactions. A downgrade could thus provoke a transfer to other partners, says Larry Fink, CEO of the asset management firm, whose statements were first reported by the New York Times.
19/04/2012

bfinance recruits for international and alternative activities

bfinance is adding to its teams. The consultant has announced the appointment of Douglas Hansen-Luke, who had previously been CEO of Robeco Middle East, as CEO for Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia. He will be assisted by Alex Denby, who joined bfinance as a partner in the Middle East, after working previously at Osborne & Partners and Robeco Middle East. Brian Cyr joins the bfinance office in Montreal as director of clients serving Canadian investors, after twelve years in assets management, with manager selection or institutional mandate management duties at Pyramis Global Advisors (an affiliate of Fidelity Investments), Standard Life PLC and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. In Germany, Michael Wolfram will soon join the bfinance office in Munich as institutional client representative. Since December, he has been working in the bfinance research team in London. Chris Jones, previously chief investment officer at Key Asset Management, has joined bfinance as head of alternative investments, a newly-created position.
19/04/2012

Improvement in pension fund coverage in first quarter

The Swisscanto pension fund monitor reveals that in first quarter 2012 there was a “considerable improvement” in the financing situation for Swiss retirement planning institutions, due to the positive evolution of equity markets. Overall, average weighted coverage as a function of assets under management by all retirement planning institutions evaluated increased in first quarter from 97% to 98.8%. Due to this development, the financing situation for Swiss retirement planning institutions has approached its early 2011 levels. The retirement planning institutions evaluated have earned average returns, weighted according to asset volumes, of 2.4% since the beginning of 2012. The proportion of retirement institutions with insufficient coverage has declined. The estimated proportion of private pension institutions with inadequate coverage is considerably lower, at 17%, than at the end of 2011, when it was 26%.
19/04/2012

Unigestion continues sustained pace of private equity fundraising

Unigestion is maintaining a good pace of fundraising in private equity, despite a difficult environment in the sector. The Swiss asset management firm, which has EUR10bn in assets (one quarter of them in France) has launched a vehicle dedicated to European midcaps, Agefi reports. The fund, a Luxembourg-registered Sicav, “will be made available on the French market in the form of an FCPR vehicle not investing primarily in France, so as to offer diversification. We hope to raise over EUR250m by third quarter 2012, one fifth of which will come from the French portion,” says Christian Dujardin, head of development for private equity activities at Unigestion. A themed fund focused on sustainable development held a first closing in June. Meanwhile, “a new vehicle will be launched in early 2013,” says Dujardin.
19/04/2012

Pimco to set up shop in Brazil

Pimco will open an office in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in September 2012. The new office will be Pimco’s first location in Latin America and will be led by Alec Kersman, a senior vice president and head of Pimco’s Latin America and Caribbean business. He joined Pimco in 2005. Pimco will operate in Brazil as Pimco Latin America Administradora de Carteiras Ltda., and will be regulated by the Comissao Nacional de Valores (CVM).
19/04/2012

Investment funds woo Groupama UK

The private equity firms Charterhouse and JC Flowers are front-runners to take over the activities of Groupama in the United Kingdom. The reports on the website Insurance Times have been confirmed to Agefi by a source familiar with the matter. Meanwhile, the CEO of Eiffage, Pierre Berger, on Wednesday announced at a general shareholders’ meeting that Groupama, its fourth-largest shareholder, is interested in selling its stake if the share price rises.
19/04/2012

Schroders launches Schroder ISF Global Multi-Asset Income

Schroders has announced the launch of Schroder ISF Global Multi-Asset Income. This fund will aim to provide sustainable quality income by dynamically investing in attractive income opportunities across a range of asset classes, regions and sectors. Aymeric Forest, senior Multi-Asset fund manager, will manage the fund with the objective to pay a 5% per annum distribution in equal quarterly or monthly instalments, with an expected 7% total return per annum over a full market cycle. “We are currently seeing interesting opportunities within equities in healthcare in the UK and Japan, consumer staples in the US and Asia, and telecoms in China and South Africa. We are also finding attractive yields in some US municipal bonds and high yield debt and in local currency emerging markets with a loose monetary policy. We are cautiously positioned within our exposure to financials and prefer bonds issued by US and UK insurers to those issued by banks,” he comments.
19/04/2012

Franklin Templeton cuts back UK fund range

Fundweb reports that Franklin Templeton has decided to absorb the Templeton UK Equity Fund into the Franklin UK Managers’ Focus Fund, and to absorb the Franklin US Equity Fund into the Franklin US Opportunities Fund. Meanwhile, the Franklin Biotechnology and Franklin Global Reit funds will be liquidated at the end of May. These moves will increase the efficiency of the range, which will concentrate on OEIC sub-funds, says Ian Wilkins, country head for Franklin Templeton in the UK.
19/04/2012

New CEO at AC Gestión

Following Miguel Ángel Rodríguez’s decision to take on new challenges outside the Ahorro Corporación group, Enrique Sánchez del Villar has replaces him at CEO of the asset management affiliate AC Gestión, Funds People reports. Rodríguez joined the financial group of the savings banks in 2008, and focused primarily on relationships with savings banks.Sánchez del Villar says that asset management is a strategic profession for Ahorro Corporación, and that his role will be to conclude multiple partnerships to bring an increase in assets under management. He is planning to sign sales agreements with international groups, whose products would complement funds on offer to Spanish groups.
19/04/2012

Profits and assets up at Sparinvest

In 2011, the Danish asset management firm Sparinvest has announced pre-tax profits ot EUR13.7m, of which EUR0.8m are due to the acquisition of EgnsInvest, compared with EUR12.5m in 2010, and EUR10.1m in 2009.As of the end of 2011, assets totalled EUR9.1bn, compared with EUR8.8bn and EUR7.5bn respectively at the end of 2010 and the end of 2009.However, ROE has fallen to 22%, compared with 29% in 2010.
19/04/2012
Fonds

Amélioration de la couverture des fonds de pension au premier trimestre

Le moniteur des caisses de pension Swisscanto montre pour le premier trimestre 2012 une «bonne amélioration» de la situation de financement des institutions de prévoyance suisses en raison d’une évolution positive des marchés des actions. Au total, la couverture moyenne pondérée en fonction des actifs gérés de l’ensemble des institutions de prévoyance évaluées a augmenté au premier trimestre en passant de 97% à 98,8%. De ce fait, la situation de financement des caisses de pension suisses s’est rapprochée du niveau du début de 2011.Les institutions de prévoyance évaluées ont réalisé un rendement moyen pondéré en fonction de la fortune de 2,4% depuis le début 2012. Ainsi, la part des caisses en situation de sous-couverture a diminué. La part estimée des caisses de droit privé en situation de sous-couverture est avec 17 % (trimestre précédent : 26%) nettement plus basse qu'à la fin 2011.
Fonds
19/04/2012

Augmentation du bénéfice et de l'encours de Sparinvest

Pour 2011, le gestionnaire danois Sparinvest déclare un bénéfice avant ilmpôt de 13,7 millions d’euros, dont 0,8 million provenant de l’acquisition d’EgnsInvest, contre 12,5 millions pour 2010 et 10,1 millions pour 2009.Les encours ressortaient fin 2011 à 9,1 milliards d’euros contre 8,8 milliards et 7,5 milliards respectivement fin 2010 et fin 2009.Toutefois, le rendement des fonds propres est tombé à 22 % contre 29 % pour 2010.
19/04/2012

Pimco va s’installer au Brésil

Pimco va ouvrir en septembre 2012 un bureau à Rio de Janeiro au Brésil, annonce mercredi la société de gestion américaine du groupe Allianz. Cette structure, qui opèrera sous le nom de PIMCO Latin America Administradora de Carteiras Ltda, sera dirigée par Alec Kersman, vice-président senior et responsable de l’activité Amérique latine et Caraïbes de Pimco. Il avait rejoint la société de gestion en 2005. Il s’agit de la première implantation de Pimco (1.700 milliards de dollars au 31 mars) en Amérique latine.

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