The IFA group Infinitis on 5 April announced that it now has 205 agencies, with 313 member IFAs. Infinitis has seen inflows of EUR115m (excluding real estate) in 2011, with assets under management of EUR287m. All agencies of the group combine have assets of EUR2.7bn. The 2012 objective is to reach 300 agencies, in order to draw nearer to its ultimate goal of 400 member agencies.

The common funds for employee shareholders in France Telecom, which owns 3% of capital, has decided to present a resolution at the general shareholders’ meeting on 5 June which would reduce the dividend from EUR1.40 to EUR1, Les Echos reports. The management of the firm is reportedly not opposed to the proposal.

BNP Paribas Investment Partners has announced the appointments of François Hullo as head of bond management at BNPP AM and of David Bouchoucha as head of institutional sales for southern Europe. Hullo will lead a team composed of 100 investment professionals in 8 countries, a statement says.Hullo has worked for over 24 years at the BNP Paribas group, half of it at BNPP IP. Before his appointment, he had been head of institutional sales for southern Europe at BNPP IP. Between 2000 and 2004, he set up the alternative investment structure at BNPP IP, and developed a complete range of structured and alternative products.Bouchoucha, for his part, joined BNPP IP in May 2010, as head of mission, reporting to the CEO and deputy head of institutional sales for southern Europe. He joined BNP Paribas in 2007 as head of strategy for the group, and managed several projects in collaboration with the general management.

Finance professionals can be satisfied. According to a survey by eFinancialCareers in the United States, set pay levels for finance professionals rose 6% in 2011. Nearly half of professionals surveyed (47%) say they are “very” or “rather satisfied” with their pay scales in 2011, compared with 43% in 2010. Nearly half of professionals, 54% of respondents, saw a pay raise in the space of one year. The raises were largest at boutiques and alternative management firms, at +14% and +13%.

Pending the publication of a complete study of the ETF market, the Hanover-based research agency Kommalpha has published a survey of professional investors which finds that the growth margin for this type of fund is limited. According to 43.4% of respondents, the needs of new ETF promoters are considered weak, while 47.4% estimate that these needs are highly limited. In other words, over 90% consider that there is no room for new ETF providers, while 3.9% think that this is a major need, and 2.6% consider it most important.

The British activist investment fund The Children’s Investment fund (TCI) has decided to file a lawsuit against the Indian government and the state-run business Coal India for failure to respect the interests of minority shareholders, Les Echos reports. The coal producer Coal India was IPOed in 2010, in order to reduce India’s budget deficit. The British fund bought 1.01% of Coal India, which makes it the second-largest shareholder in the group, which is 90% controlled by the Indian government.

One of the largest commodity hedge funds, BlueGold Capital, is liquidating its portfolio and returning capital to investors, the Financial Times reports. The fund is hoping to be able to repay 98% of invested capital by May. Last year, the portfolio of BlueGold lost 34% of its value. After assets one year ago of about USD2.4bn, assets under management have fallen to slightly over USD1bn.

Rathbone Investment Management, an affiliate of Rathbone Brothers, has acquired the wealth management firm RM Walkden & Company, Investment Week reports. The cost of the acquisition is said to have been GBP948,393. Assets under management at Rathbone Investment Management total GBP15.8bn.

According to a study by Russell Investments of British defined-benefit pension funds, conducted in July and August 2011, trustee boards and investment boards dedicate an average of 15.6 hours per year to investment questions, and never more than 26 hours, equivalent to one half-hour per week for the largest and most complex funds. This appears to be very little for strategic decisions about, for example, liability-driven investment (LDI), overlays, portfolio structuring, or selection and monitoring of managers.However, the study finds that there has been increasing use of investment committees, and more appointments of fiduciary managers than in the 2009 edition of the study, with large funds more likely to select the investment committee solutions, while smaller funds often opt for a fiduciary manager. In the latter case, the percentage of small funds using a fiduciary manager has risen from 15% in 2009 to 26% in the 2011 study.Russell also points out that despite the installation of investment committees or the appointment of fiduciary managers, these structures are rarely able to take investment decisions: 75% of trustee boards retain control of selection of managers, and the trustee is cited by less than 70% of respondents as the decision-maker for all points in the survey.Lastly, the study finds that over 80% of trustees are convinced on every point raised that the decision-making structures at their fund meet the needs for their purpose, and particularly that they are able to respond to rapid changes in the business environment. This appears paradoxical, as there is no indication of a change in the frequency of meetings (generally quarterly meetings of the investment committee) or an increase in delegation to entities which are better equipped to respond in “real time”.

The bottom line for March published by the German BVI association of asset management firms (see Newsmanagers of 5 April) finds that three of the major asset management firms have posted net inflows to open-ended securities funds, with net subscriptions in first quarter totalling about EUR1.15bn. The firms are Allianz Asset Management, which alone attracted EUR2.86bn, largely thanks to Pimco Europe, the DWS/DB Advisors/DB family (Deutsche Bank), which took on EUR515.1m (including EUR504.5m for ETFs from db x-trackers), and Union Investment (co-operative banks), with net inflows of EUR114m.However, Deka (savings banks) underwent net outflows of EUR1.43bn in January-March, while BlackRock, with its iShares brand ETFs, saw outflows of nearly EUR1bn, ComStage (ETF provider from Commerzbank) has seen net redemptions of EUR289m.For ETFs, the provider for the Deka group, ETFlab, has posted net subscriptions of EUR64.5m.

Employees from Clariden Leu, the former Credit Suisse affiliate, have decided to found the wealth management firm Metropole Partners, the specialist website finews reports. The firm was founded in mid-March, and will have 30 employees, including 15 client advisers, as well as portfolio managers and back-office assistants. The initiative was initiated by the American Anthony Cagiati, a former banker at Clariden Leu The members of the board of directors include client advisers Bruno Lienhart (formerly of Clariden Leu) and Christian Sieber (formerly of Bank Leu). The former banker and lawyer Christian Brunner will stand for the position of chairman of the board of directors. He is currently a partner at the Zurich-based research agency Brunner & Decurtins.

According to statistics from the Swiss firm Alix Capital, the UCITS Alternative Index Global, which measures the performance of UCITS hedge funds, fell 0.49% in March, following returns of 0.87% in February and 1.37% in January. Since the beginning of the year, these funds have posted average gains of 1.75%.All strategies, excluding fixed income, which have gained 0.31%, show losses in March, with the heaviest losses (1.70%) from emerging market funds.

Following the departure of David Gagnon in January, Anthony Swift, his deputy, becomes AsPac head of transition management & product development at BlackRock, Asian Investors reoprts. Swift has been a member of the transition management team since December 2009, after spending a decade at Barclays Global Investors (BGI).

The British asset management firm M&G Investments has overtaken Invesco Perpetual to become Britain’s largest asset management firm in terms of assets under management, according to statistics from the British investment management association (IMA). Invesco had held the top spot since October 2007. M&G has earned excellent returns in the past year, and its net inflows rose last year by GBP4.4bn, at a time when the sector as a whole was seeing net outflows of nearly GBP70bn. IMA rankings of the top ten asset management firms in the United Kingdom in terms of assets under management (February 2012) M & G Securities Limited £39,464,246,537 1 Invesco Perpetual £39,431,441,702 2 Fidelity Worldwide Investment £26,878,568,253 3 Schroder Investment Management Ltd £25,991,973,342 4 BNY Mellon Fund Managers Limited £25,824,063,802 5 St James’s Place Unit Trust Group Ltd £25,428,811,572 6 Threadneedle Investment Services Ltd £25,379,523,918 7 BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited £24,211,271,760 8 Henderson Global Investors £24,092,777,014 9 Legal & General (Unit Trust) Managers Limited £23,916,470,986 10

Expertise du patrimoine immobilier de placement détenu par le RSI en sa qualité de propriétaire bailleur d’immeubles de bureaux, de commerces et d’habitation loués à des personnes morales ou physiques. 63 immeubles dont 39 immeubles à usage d’habitation et 24 immeubles à usage commercial (bureaux et boutiques). Pour lire l’avis complet: cliquez ici

Les ETF dédiés aux actions du Vieux Continent ont subi des sorties de 600 millions de dollars au premier trimestre 2012

Le ministre de l’Economie s’est inquiété du niveau des spreads, qui ont dépassé les 400 pb avec le Bund allemand et «ne seront pas tenables longtemps»

Citant Huang Danhua, vice-directeur au sein de la Commission de supervision et d’administration des actifs contrôlés par l’Etat, le quotidien chinois indique que les sociétés contrôlées par le pouvoir central devraient utiliser de manière «proactive» les marchés de capitaux internationaux. Certaines devraient émettre des obligations libellées en yuans.

Le quotidien a consulté un courrier adressé hier aux clients du fonds alternatif londonien, l’un des plus importants au monde sur le segment des matières premières, selon lequel BlueGold met actuellement en œuvre une «fermeture ordonnée». Le fonds, dirigé par Pierre Andurand et Dennis Crema, entend rendre aux investisseurs d’ici mai 98% du capital engagé.

Le Chicago Board Options Exchange, qui gère les plus gros volumes de contrats d’options sur actions aux Etats-Unis, aurait lancé une vaste enquête sur les pratiques des traders qui opèrent sur son marché, selon le quotidien. L’opérateur aurait ainsi envoyé cette semaine une lettre aux sociétés qui opèrent sur son marché pour passer en revue des «violations apparentes» sur les trois dernières années.

Michelin et PSA viennent de vendre leur siège parisien, l'un vide, l'autre loué. Quelques transactions similaires seraient dans les tuyaux

Les acteurs sont globalement satisfaits du cadre proposé par l'Esma même s'il veulent notamment clarifier l'information contenue dans les prospectus

La consultation lancée début 2012 par le régulateur européen, l’Esma, sur l’encadrement des fonds indiciels cotés est terminée. Le nouveau cadre réglementaire, censé apporter plus de transparence, devrait être finalisé au deuxième trimestre. Les professionnels sont plutôt satisfaits.

Les volumes d'investissement en Ile-de-France, ténus au premier trimestre, pourraient rebondir au deuxième

Les volumes d'investissement en Ile-de-France, ténus au premier trimestre, pourraient rebondir au deuxième

La BNS a dû voler au secours du seuil de 1,20 franc pour un euro, que le marché des changes a brièvement testé hier

La Société Générale aura mis une semaine à comptabiliser les voix des 160 actionnaires d’Altamir-Amboise s’étant exprimé à l’assemblée générale du 29 mars dernier. Les taux d’approbation ont été plutôt bas pour la validation des comptes (72,5%), la fixation du dividende (68,4%), les conventions réglementées (71%) et les renouvellements de deux administrateurs (72,2%). La proposition de dividende à un euro présentée par Moneta et l’Adam a été approuvée par 31,3% des actionnaires, mais 49,8% des actionnaires hors la participation de Maurice Tchenio, patron d’Altamir, et des associés Apax.

La Banque d’Angleterre a maintenu sans surprise son taux directeur à 0,5%, son niveau depuis mars 2009, et laissé sans surprise inchangé le montant de son programme de rachats d’actifs, alors que se multiplient les signes augurant d’un retour à la croissance de l'économie britannique.

L’économie russe tournerait au-dessus de son rythme de croissance potentielle, selon un porte-parole du FMI. «L’augmentation prévue du déficit non pétrolier en 2012 pose un risque de surchauffe» a estimé Gerry Rice. Il ajoute que «le gouvernement devrait tirer profit du prix élevé du pétrole pour réduire son déficit non pétrolier et mettre dans le fonds de réserve les revenus tirés du pétrole».

Les prix alimentaires mondiaux ont augmenté pour le troisième mois consécutif en mars et cette hausse devrait se poursuivre, selon l’Organisation des Nations Unies pour l’alimentation et l’agriculture (FAO). L’indice de la FAO s’est établi en moyenne à 215,9 en mars, contre 215,4 (chiffre révisé) en février. S’il est encore inférieur au pic de 237,9 atteint en février 2011, il dépasse le niveau auquel il se trouvait lors de l’envolée des prix alimentaires en 2007-2008.