The Hamburg-based real estate fund management firm Warburg – Henderson Kapitalanlagegesellschaft für Immobilien mbH on Monday announced that its new distribution affiliate, Warburg – Henderson Vertriebs GmbH, commenced its activities on 9 March. Its management team includes count Christian von Hochberg, who had previously been director of institutional sales, and distribution specialist Bodo Schrah.The new entity will be responsible for distributing 17 institutional funds from Warburg – Henderson (EUR4.1bn in assets), advising German and foreign clients, and winning new mandates.
The German asset management firm Loys has appointed Ufuk Boydak as co-manager for the Loys Global and Loys Global L/S funds. The 26-year-old young man joined the firm upon completing his studies in 2009, as an equities analyst.
Threadneedle has launched the US Contrarian Core Equities Fund in Italy, Bluerating reports. The Luxembourg-registered fund is managed by Guy W. Pop, managing director and portfolio manager at Columbia Management.
The Italian asset management firm Azimut is planning to reach EUR2.7bn in assets under management outside Italy by 2014, Il Sole – 24 Ore reports. Currently, counting the firm’s assets in Monaco, Switzerland and Turkey, “foreign” assets are slightly under EUR1bn. Azimut is also reportedly interested in Brazil. In Italy, Azimut would like to increase its market share, currently 3.3%. In order to achieve that, the firm is planning to make acquisitions and may have EUR240m to EUR250m to spend, the Italian newspaper calculates. Assets under management at Azimut totalled EUR17.67bn last year; it is planning to increase this to EUR27bn by 2014.
As of 31 December, assets in Riester unit-linked, subsidised retirement savings plans totalled over EUR8.31bn, an increase of 12.7%, or about EUR1bn, compared with their levels twelve months earlier.The German BVI association of asset management firms states that these statistics come from the German ministry of labour and social affairs, which states that the number of Riester policies in the form of shares in investment funds has increased by about 4.9% in one year, to over 2.95 million policies, which represents about 19.2% of all Riester policies.By comparison, the number of Riester policies managed by insurers last year increased by 4.8% to 10.9 million.
Aberdeen has recorded net new business inflows of GBP1.4 billion in the two first months of the year. Continued net inflows to higher margin products are going to add GBP20 million in annual revenues. Assets under management at 29 February 2012 totalled GBP184.4 billion, a 6% increase on 31 December 2011.
The British government is reportedly considering selling 10% to one third of the capital in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund, according to the BBC, Les Echos reports. The British government acquired an 82% stake in the capital of the firm with an injectino of GBP45bn to bail out banking giant during the crisis, and has now been in talks for several months with the hopes of signing an agreement before Christmas. If a deal goes through at current share prices, it would mean a loss for British taxpayers, who bought in at GBP0.50 per share, compared with a share price of about half that now.
Although the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) legislation is leading many independent financial advisers to outsource at least part of their investment decisions to multi-manager funds, the independent research agency Defaqto has warned against multi-manager funds, which have not delivered highly coherent or consistent results since 2008. According to Defaqto, only 25 multi-manager funds, out of a sample of 184 funds, have succeeded in maintaining a stable rating of 3, 4 or 5 out of 5 since June 2008. In other words, it is extremely difficult for a multi-manager fund to earn solid performance over the long term. Defaqto yesterday released a “Guide to Multi-Managers,” which lays out key points for advisors considering the choice of a multi-manager fund, including changes in the market in the past six months, an analysis of the coherence of multi-manager funds, an update on regulatory developments, and analysis of portfolio turnover. Currently, 26% of users of platforms outsource their investment decisions to a multi-manager. This trend is likely to accentuate as RDR legislation requires financial advisers to revise their development model by the end of the year.
Bob Champney, a former managing director at Merrill Lynch, has joined the investment boutique Protean Investments, to assist the firm in the development of new profducts, including dynamic macro tracker funds, Fund Web reports. Champney was previously head of product development at Merrill Lynch.
Axel Miller is leaving his position as chairman of the executive committee at Petercam, a position in which he will be replaced by Xavier Van Campenhout. “Axel Miller has announced his plans to retire as a partner and head of day-to-day management of the group in order to pursue other interests,” the firm tells Newsmanagers. Miller arrived at Petercam as a partner at 2009, after serving as chairman of the executive committee at Dexia. Van Campenhout, who belongs to one of the two founding families, joined Petercam in 1998, and developed its buy-side research activities serving institutional management and private banking. From 2005 to 2010, he served as CEO of the Swiss banking affiliate, before returning to Belgium in early 2011 as head of investment policy strategy. The management committee chaired by Van Campenhout will continue to be composed of its current members: Hugo Lasat (institutional management), Fritz Mertens (private management) and Marc Janssens (intermediation activities).
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined Coutts & Company GBP8.75 million for failing to take reasonable care to establish and maintain effective anti-money laundering (AML) systems and controls relating to high risk customers, including Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs). The failings at Coutts were serious, systemic and were allowed to persist for almost three years. The FSA identified deficiencies in nearly three quarters of the PEP and high risk customer files reviewed.
The Irish finance ministry has granted approval in principle to proposals by the asset management industry which would facilitate access to Irish funds for US investors, while reducing administrative costs. Without endangering the structures of existing firms, the Irish fund sector estimates that the creation of a structure especially dedicated to investment funds, and consequently not constrained by the rules which apply to other types of companies, would favour foreign asset managers, including US firms.
The British asset management firm Ashmore has recruited Kon Chee-Keat for the newly-created position of head of credit for Asia, Asian Investor reports. He will be based in Singapore. The creation of the new position appears to be a sign of a desire on the part of Ashmore to grow in Asia. The British firm has declined to comment on its development plans in the region. Assets under management at Ashmore as of the end of December 2011 totalled USD60.4bn, about one third of which come from the Asia-Pacific region. Kon previously worked at Lion Global Investors in Singapore, as head of fixed income.
The British asset management firm Barclays has launched an investment strategy which offers investors exposure to the Vix volatility index, Investment Week reports. The S&P 500 Dynamic Vix Futures Index Total Return Investment or Dynamic Vix offers exposure to volatility without use of traditional diversification investments such as gold and oil. Over the past year, simulations show that the Synamic Vix would have earned returns of 9.58%, compared with losses of 11.40% for the S&P 500 VIX.
Kames Capital has decided to cancel the performance commission for an absolute return fund, the ames UK equity absolute return fund, from 2 April until the end of the year, Money Marketing reports. The fund, whose assets under management total about GBP68m, will still charge a performance commission when it outperforms the Bank of England base rate. The current performance commission is 20%. After the suspension period, the performance commission will be 10%. The fund, launched in February 2010, has earned returns of 4.71% for the year to 29 February.
Norges Bank Investment Management, the affiliate of the Bank of Norway responsible for managing the Government Pension Fund – Global (GPFG, formerly known as the Oil Fund) has awarded its top ratings for social and environmental risks to 39 companies out of 1,078, including Adidas, Nestlé and Air France-KLM. More than one third of the firms analysed had a score of zero in this area.Walt Disney, PVH, Intel, Hennes & Mauritz, Motorola Mobility, Gildan Activewear, Xstrata, Ericsson and Anglo American are among the 14 firms which received top ratings for their reporting on risks related to child labour in 2011. Adidas, Gap, Next, Bayer and BHP Billiton for the first time appear in the list of businesses with a top score. But of the 452 businesses analysed from this perspective, 41 received no ratings, compared with 44 in 2010.11 businesses received top ratings in 2011 for their reporting on risks related to climate change, including Air France-KLM, Air Products & Chemicals, BASF and Constellation Energy Group, as well as E-ON, Hera, Iberdrola, Lafarge, Linde, Xcel Energy and Angle American. In this category, 17 of the 453 businesses analysed received zero ratings.Lastly, on reporting on issues related to water, NBIM awarded top ratings to 14 businesses out of 447, including Nestlé, Anglo American, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Danone, GlaxoSmithKline, Kellogg, Kirin Holdings, Merck & Co, Molson Coors Brewing, PepsiCo, Pfizer, PG&E, SABMiller and Sanofi. 32% of businesses received zero ratings in this area.
Le ratio des créances douteuses dans les banques de la ville emblématique de Wenzhou ont progressé à 1,74% à la fin du mois de février, après 0,37% à la fin du mois de juin 2011, selon le journal qui cite des données de la commission de régulation bancaire chinoise. Les créances douteuses ont atteint 11,2 milliards, soit une hausse de 1,79 milliards de yuans par rapport à janvier et de 2,55 milliards par rapport à juin 2011.
Souhaitant profiter de l’intérêt des investisseurs pour le pays suite à l’augmentation du prix du pétrole, le Trésor russe préparerait une émission d’obligations de 7 milliards de dollars en trois tranches de 5, 10 et 30 ans dans les prochains jours, selon le journal. Il s’agirait d’une des plus grosses émissions réalisées par une économie émergente, alors que la Russie n’avait pas émis en dollars depuis avril 2010.
L’Autorité de contrôle prudentiel vient de publier le bilan des contrôles menés en 2010 et 2011 dans une vingtaine d'établissements, et qui ont notamment valu à la Société Générale l’ouverture d’une procédure disciplinaire. Elle y pointe de nombreuses insuffisances, corrigées depuis.
Le gérant de Pimco a dit s’attendre à ce que la Fed décide en avril d’un troisième round d’assouplissement monétaire (QE3). Il mise gros sur la politique de la Réserve fédérale, l’exposition du Total Return Fund de Pimco aux titres adossés à des prêts hypothécaires (MBS) étant passée de 50% en janvier à 52% en février. En octobre dernier, cette exposition n’atteignait que 38%.
Reuters croit savoir que Blackstone et Bain Capital, à eux deux détenteurs de 93% du capital, envisagent le prochain retour en Bourse du distributeur d’objets d’art américain Michael Stores. Ils l’avaient acquis en 2006 pour plus de 6 milliards de dollars. JPMorgan et Goldman Sachs dirigeraient l’IPO, dont les documents pourraient être enregistrés le mois prochain.
Le groupe de private equity se prépare à vendre le groupe de surgelés Iglo après avoir été approché par des fonds, dont Blackstone, BC Partners et Cinven, et le montant de l’opération pourrait atteindre 3 milliards d’euros, a rapporté Reuters de sources proches du dossier. Permira, qui a mandaté Credit Suisse pour trouver un repreneur à cette ancienne filiale d’Unilever, estime qu’une vente pourrait représenter 9 fois l’Ebitda contre 7 à 7,5 fois pour une IPO.
Le gestionnaire d’actifs et la société de conseil ont annoncé la signature d’un accord de coopération marketing et commercial pour la mise au point et la distribution de solutions d’investissements basées sur «les techniques de contrôle dynamique de budgets de risque conçues et développées par Koris International».