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19/09/2011

Investors strongly influenced by fears of Greek default in mid-September

In the week to 14 September, it was clearly fears of a Greek default which motivated investors’ decisions. Redemptions from European equity and bond funds reached a five-week high, according to statistics from EPFR Global.Equity funds overall, however, posted a net inflow of USD9bn. It is true that US equity funds saw their largest inflow since mid-June 2008, but only due to a single tracker fund, which saw inflows of over USD12bn in the week. However, excluding this singular inflow, redemptions from actively-managed funds were more or less offset by subscriptions to passive funds.In Europe, equity funds were hit hard by the rise in rates for Greek and Italian debt. Redemptions in the week meant that for the first time since the beginning of the year funds show a net outflow for the year as a whole to mid-September, with redemptions to retail clients cancelling out engagements from institutional clients to German equity funds.Bond funds, largely due to investor interest in emerging and US markets, finished the week under review with a net inflow of USD2.62bn. However, money market funds, after several week of significant subscriptions, saw net redemptions of USD16.7bn due to questions about the role of short-term credit in the financing policies of European banks.
19/09/2011

François Passant becomes head of Eurosif

The European network of responsible investment forums Eurosif has announced the appointment of François Passant as president of the association, replacing Matt Christensen, who has moved to Axa IM. Passant has worked at Vanguard Investments Europe as executive director.Eurosif has also announced the appointment of Anders Nordheim as its new head of research. Nordheim has previously worked as an analyst at International Shareholder Services (ISS), and as a financial advisor at a wealth management firm.The two new recruits will be based in Brussels, the new headquarters of Eurosif, after its move from its previous headquarters in Paris.
19/09/2011

S&P puts UBS on RWN

The ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) on 16 September announced that it may become the next agency to lower its long-term debt rating for the Swiss bank UBS, due to fraud which has recently been uncovered in the business bank. Moody’s on Thursday announced that it was considering a similar move.The ratings agency has placed the A+ long-term debt rating for the Zurich-based establishment on ratings watch with a negative outlook (RWN), following the discovery of fraud by a UBS trader who lost the firm USD2bn, which may lead to a loss in third quarter.The Fitch ratings agency, for its part, has confirmed its long-term debt issuer (IDR) rating of A+ and short-term rating of F1+ for the business. The long-term rating has been given a stable outlook. The fraud, however, represents a serious setback for UBS’ efforts to win back the confidence of clients in its business banking activities, Fitch says.
19/09/2011

13th foreign investment firm arrives in Spain

The Luxembourg-based Alceda Fund Management, an affiliate of the Hamburg-based Aquila Group, on 6 September registered its UCITS-compliant Sicav AC Quant in Spain. The Sicav will be offered for sale by Allfunds Bank. So far, the AC Quant-Spectrum Fund, a UCITS III-compliant CTA fund, will be the only product offered. Alceda becomes the thirteenth foreign management firm to be issued with a license by the Spanish regulatory since the beginning of this year, following the French firms Mandarine and Neuflize Private Assets, among others.
19/09/2011

Cambria to launch actively-managed ETFs

In a filing dated 12 September, Cambria Investment Management Inc (CIME) and Cambria ETF Trust applied to the SEC for an exemption under the 1940 Act, to allow them to launch several actively-managed ETFs. The products would be allowed to invest in open-ended or closed funds or in other ETFs, and thus could also be ETF funds.The Cambria Domestic Equity Strategy ETF will be the first fund in the new series. It will use a proprietary quantitative approach based largely on an algorhythm.
19/09/2011

Lyxor battens down synthetic ETFs

The Börsen-Zeitung reports that Simon Klein, director of ETF activities at Lyxor Asset Management for Europe, on Friday announced that the asset management firm will from next week (beginning on 19 September) be reducing the counteryparty risks for its synthetic replication ETFs, by reducing swaps to zero every night.
19/09/2011

GLG releases a UCITS-compliant long/short fund

GLG Partners, which is now an affiliate of Man Investments, has announced the launch of a UCITS-compliant version of another of its offshore hedge funds at the end of July. It is an Irish-registered product, the GLG European Equity Alternative, whose management team uses a long/short market neutral strategy for European equities.CharacteristicsName: GLG European Equity AlternativeISIN code: IE00B5429P46Management commission: 2%Performance commission: 20%
19/09/2011

Credit Newcits funds have EUR20bn in assets

In Europe, Fitch Ratings has counted 100 credit UCITS funds, which have an absolute return objective and employ hedge fund strategies, representing assets of about EUR20bn, in a report entitled “Credit ‘Newcits': Widely Available, Not Always Suitable.” These credit Newcits funds have seen 5% growth since the end of 2010, and 36% growth since the end of 2009. According to Fitch Ratings, 10 new funds have been launched in 2011. Five asset management firms account for about 70% of the sector in terms of assets. The leader is GAM, followed far behind by Amundi, Threadneedle, Henderson and Insight. Fitch Ratings warns that due to liquidity and leverage limitations, the UCITS framework is not suitable for all alternative credit strategies. As of the end of August 2011, credit UCITS funds using hedge fund strategies had earned positive returns since the beginning of the year. About one quarter of funds had earned a return uncorrelated with credit markets. Less than 6% have achieved returns above 5%.
19/09/2011

Amra Balic joins BlackRock

Amra Balic, director of the credit ratings division of Standard & Poor’s for Europe, is joining BlackRock in London as head of corporate governance and responsible investment (CGIR) for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. She will report to Michelle Edkins, Managing Director and Head of the Corporate Governance and Responsible Investment team, based in New York. The team has 20 specialists based in five major global regions.
19/09/2011

Williams de Broe may change name

The executive director of Williams de Broe, Colin Lewis, has suggested that the firm may change its name, following the acquisitin by Investec Group of Evolution Securities, which had been the owner of Williams de Broe, Money Marketing reports. A spokesperson for Investec says that no decision has yet been taken at this stage. However, in March 2010, Investec acquired Rensburg Sheppards, which has since been renamed as Investec Wealth & Management.
19/09/2011

Pershing to bring its US custody platform to the UK in October

The British asset management firm Pershing Limited (BNY Mellon group) has announced that it is planning to launch a custody platform aimed at independent financial advisers (IFA) and financial planning entities in the United Kingdom in October.The solution has been successfully tested for 18 months on the US market for Registered Investment Advisors (RIA). It uses open architecture, and is a customisable solution which offers IFAs a single point for custody and asset administration in all asset classes.It also uses the global trading capacities and IT solutions of Pershing, including an advanced workstation with integrated portfolio management and an investor portal.
19/09/2011

Former New Star CIO launches consulting activity

Alan Miller, former chief investment officer (CIO) at New Star, has launched a consulting unit, SCM Financial Planning, as part of the wealth management operation SCM Private, FundWeb reports.
19/09/2011

iShares makes changes to reduce tracking error

The ETF provider iShares has made modifications to the benchmark indices for several of its products, in order to reduce tracking error, FundWeb reports. The changes will be accompanied by name changes, in order to represent the index changes. The iShares MSCI EM Latin America ETF is now based on the MSCI EM Latin America 10/40 index, which replaces the MSCI EM Latin America Index. The fund will now be known as the iShares MSCI EM Latin America 10/40. There are also plans for several real estate funds to change their benchmark indices: iShares FTSE/EPRA European Property Index, FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Asia Property Yield, FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed Markets Property Yield Fund, FTSE EPRA/NAREIT UK Property Fund and FTSE EPRA/NAREIT US Property Yield funds.
19/09/2011

RBS lists a hedge fund ETF in Frankfurt

The 869th ETF to be listed on the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic platform from Deutsche Börse on 15 September became the RBS Market Access CTA Index Fund, which as its name indicates replicates the evolution of the RFS CTA index. The index is composed 50/50 of the sub-indices RBS Systematic CTA and RBS Discretionary CTA, which cover a diversified portfolio of hedge funds which use the CTA (Commodity Trading Advisor) strategy.The fund is a Luxembourg-registered (LU0653608454), swap-based product, which charges fees of 0.75%.
19/09/2011

Deka launches a guaranteed fund managed according to volatility

The guaranteed fund range form Deka International (a Luxembourg affiliate of the German firm DekaBank) on 30 September will grow by one fund, with the launch of the Deka EuroGarant Strategie, for which initial subscriptions will remain open until 29 September.The fund will allow investors to participate in the evolution of the EuroStoxx 50 Risk Control 12 Excess Return index. According to the level of volatility anticipated by the Euro Stoxx Volatility Index (Vstoxx), the management team may vary the exposure to equities from 0% to 150%.After the first six-year investment period (29 September 2017), shares will be redeemed at at least 103.5% of their initial price. In the following periods, at least 100% of the price of the shares at the beginning of the period will be guaranteed at its end. A restructuring commission of 3.% may be charged at the start of each new investment period (the first of which will be on 2 October 2017).CharacteristicsName: Deka EuroGarant StrategieISIN code: LU0656616918Front-end fee: 3.50%Management commission: 1.02%
19/09/2011

Danish pension fund PKA invests in international real estate

The Danish pension fund PKA is investing DKK375m, or about EUR50m, in an international real estate fund, as part of its strategy to increase its investments in real estate outside Denmark, the website IPERealEstate reports. PKA, which in the past few years has privileged Danish real estate investments, is investing in the SPF II fund, managed by the Danish asset management firm Sparinvest. The fund aims for annual performance of about 13%. With this new engagement, PKA’s investments in international real estate total DKK1.4bn, while investments in the Danish domestic real estate market total DKK11.5bn. Assets under management by PKA total about DKK150bn, or slightly over EUR20bn.
19/09/2011
Gestion d'actifs

Malakoff Médéric travaille à l'élaboration de modèles internes

Dans un portrait paru dans l’Agefi Hebdo, Vincent Cornet, directeur des investissements de Malakoff Médéric déclare que Solvabilité II nous oblige à réfléchir en permanence à tous les curseurs: nous sommes passés d’une approche statique, avec de simples pourcentages d’allocation, à une approche dynamique, où tout changement a un impact direct sur la duration optimale et sur l’allocation en capital. Vincent Cornet travaille aussi à l'élaboration de modèles internes, définis à partir du modèle standard d’allocation des fonds propres (QIS 5). Finalement, avoir sa propre société de gestion, quand on en a les moyens, permet de faciliter la transparisation sur les actifs que nous impose Solvabilité II et d’accélérer la transmission d’informations, qui serait forcément plus longue avec plusieurs prestataires extérieurs, estime Vincent Cornet. Le lien avec les clients que constituent les différentes entités du groupe décisionnaires s’en trouve aussi simplifié: Quand nous avons repensé notre benchmark en intégrant des actions émergentes, nous avons souhaité que nos administrateurs comprennent tout, et nous avons pu être plus précis et transparents dans un souci de pédagogie. Cette approche nécessite une flexibilité certaine des équipes de FGA (Fédéris Gestion d’Actifs) pour être réactifs face aux marchés: Avec la nouvelle régulation, les autorités ont rendu les investissements procycliques. Tout le monde bouge dans le même sens et en même temps. Avec une marge de man??uvre limitée, qui pousse à une analyse plus fine et à l’usage de produits plus sophistiqués.
Gestion d'actifs
19/09/2011

Calendrier chargé pour le sauvetage de la Grèce

Le calendrier du déblocage de la nouvelle aide du FMI et de l’Europe et de la participation du secteur privé est encore incertain. Heureusement, la Grèce n’a plus qu’une tombée de titres longs à financer d’ici la fin de l’année. Elle devra rembourser 5,8 milliards en décembre.

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