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11/07/2011

Morgan Stanley launches a UCITS-compliant hedge fund with Cohen & Steers

Morgan Stanley has released a new sub-fund of its Irish Sicav FundLogic Alternatives Plc entitled MS Cohen & Steers Global Real Estate L/S Fund, which deploys a long/short strategy for listed real estate. The UCITS-compliant hedge fund will be managed by Todd Voigt at Cohen & Steers Capital Management Inc (USD40bn in assets). According to the manager, 95% of the portfolio, which complies with the UCITS III directive, exactly reproduces the corresponding offshore product. The minor difference of 5% is the result of adaptation to European standards.
11/07/2011

Reyl acquires Solitaire Wealth Management

The Geneva-based bank Reyl & Cie has unveiled its external growth plans (see Newsmanagers of 26 May): it is acquiring the Zurich-based firm Solitaire Wealth Management (EUR400m in assets), a specialist in private management. The move brings assets under management by the Reyl group to about EUR4bn.In addition, with Solitaire, Reyl, which will open a branch in Zurich, inherits an investment advisor license from the US regulatory authority, the SEC. The license for Reyl Overseas Ltd will allow the Reyl group to develop a wider range of services for US onshore clients.The Reyl Zurich team will rely on the German-speaking Swiss resources of the Reyl bank, concentrated in three major professions: wealth management, investment funds managed by Reyl Asset Management, and family office activities led by Reyl Private Office. Reyl Zurich will also soon welcome a team from Reyl Asset Management into adjacent office space; they will work to accelerate diffusion of the Reyl Funds range in German-speaking Switzerland.Outside Switzerland, the Reyl group is already present in Paris, Luxembourg and Singapore.
11/07/2011

Baring Global Agriculture fund to change benchmarks

Barings on 8 July announced that from 1 August, the benchmark for the OEIC Baring Global Agriculture Fund (GB00B3B9VB40, EUR198.2m as of the end of May) will be the DAX Global Agribusiness Index, replacing the MSCI All Countries World Index. The DAX Global Agribusiness is also the benchmark for, among others, the BGF World Agriculture Fund from BlackRock.The new benchmark is a cap-weighted index, which replicates the performance of 45 of the largest companies in the agricultural sector, including subsectors such as agrochemicals, agricultural equipment, and palm oil plantations. Companies in the index are required to make at least 50% of their earnings from agribusiness.However, Barings states, the investment universe from the fund, “from farm to fork,” will remain larger than the one covered by the new index, which allows the management team to locate companies further long the supply chain, in downstream industries such as food manufacturers and foods retailers, which are more defensive and less volatile.
11/07/2011

Investor confidence edges back in early July

Amidst some easing of troubles related to Greek debt and brighter-than-expected economic data from the United States and Japan, investors have made some timid returns to the markets in early July. In the week to 6 July, equities funds posted a net inflow of USD6.19bn, of which USD1.36bn went to funds dedicated to emerging markets equities.Bond funds attracted a net USD3.19bn, while money market funds saw outflows of USD2.26bn.Interest rate hikes by the European Central Bank and the Bank of China also brought concerns about inflation back to the foreground, leading to a movement not seen in more than a year in favour of inflation-linked bonds.
11/07/2011

GLG Partners replicates some of its offshore funds in UCITS format

The product ranges from the two asset management firms GLG Partners and Man Group are highly complementary, Agefi notes. GLG Partners uses active management, covering all asset classes, via alternative strategies (USD20.2bn) as well as long-only strategies (USD13.7bn).The manager is now planning to replicate most of its Cayman Islands-registered mutual funds in UCITS format. It has recently launched its thirteenth hedge fund, a long/short equity fund of Euorpean multi-sector shares. The management firm is not, however, planning to duplicate all of its offshore funds, which at times would require the use of performance swaps, on credit or convertible markets in particular, “in order to remain within the spirit of the UCITS directive, manage funds in the purest possible manner, and also respect the letter of the management process of the original vehicle,” the co-founder of the firm, Pierre Lagrange, says.
11/07/2011

Henderson increases TER for 14 Gartmore funds

Henderson has decided to ratchet up the total expense ratio (TER) for 14 Gartmore funds which have been meaintained in the product range following the acquisition of the group in March this year, Investment Week reports.The TER will be raised by 11 basis points for several of the 14 funds, including the European Selected Opportunities fund and the China Opportunities fund. These increases will bring fees for the funds of the range into line with Henderson funds, which range from 1 basis point to 13 basis points.
11/07/2011

Martin Currie plans to launch an emerging markets fund

FundWeb reports that Martin Currie is planning to launch a fund dedicated to emerging markets, as an addition to its UCITS-compliant fund range.The Martin Currie GF Global Emerging Markets Fund will be managed by Kim Catechis, head of emerging markets, who leads a team of seven specialists in these markets.The fund will include 40 to 60 positions on these assets, without geographical or sectoral constraints.
11/07/2011

Manulife AM plans to double Asian assets

The CEO of the Toronto-based management firm Manulife Asset Management, Jean-François Courville, is hoping to double its assets under management to about USD80bn in the next five years, Asian Investor reports.With this in mind, Manulife AM has recruited a product manager to handle distribution and sales to institutionals, Mahesh Fonseka, who will be based in Hong Kong. He previously worked for Perpetual Investments.As of 31 March, the Asia-Pacific region represented about 20% of total assets under management, which came to USD217bn, of which about USD60bn were for multi-asset class funds.
11/07/2011

A new CIO for Asia at HSBC

Bill Maldonaldo, head of international investment strategy for equities, will move to Hong Kong next month to take up a position as CIO of HSBC for the Asia-Pacific region, Asian Investor reports.In his new role, Maldonaldo will replace Ayaz Ebrahim, who left HSBC in May of this year to join Amundi.Assets under management at the Chinese-British firm in Asia total about USD72bn.
11/07/2011

Hedge funds are not systemic institutions, says AIMA

The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), an association of hedge fund managers, announced at the end of last week in a statement that no hedge funds were qualified to be labelled as financial institutions that are relevant to the financial system. That designation would of course imply increased surveillance by regulatory authorities. In the United States, the Financial Stability Oversight Council will soon announce a decision as to the criteria which will determine the systemic character of non-banking financial establishments.“We estimate that no hedge fund is currently important, leveraged, complex or interconnected enough that its bankruptcy or a situation of financial stress would lead to a disturbance in the market capable of destabilising the financial system,” the AIMA president, Todd Groome, says, adding that the British FSA has recently undertaken a study of hedge funds which found that the levels of leverage used were “relatively low,” suggesting “a limited level of risk.”The professional association comments that in 2008, more than 1,400 hedge funds were closed or liquidated without particular impact on the stability of the financial system as a whole.The AIMA reiterates its support for registration of hedge fund managers with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) or other national authorities.
11/07/2011

KBC releases three more funds

Germany’s BaFin and the Austrian FMA have issued sales licenses for Germany and Austria for three Belgian-registered funds from KBC Asset Management, which will be at least 75% exposed to the segments indicated by their names.Two of the funds, which will have no benchmarkets, will be available for retail as well as institutional investors. The KBC Equity Fund Euro Non Cyclicals, EUR (BE6215122415 and BE6215123421) invests in defensive shares (utilities, health, food), while the KBC Equity Fund Industrials & Infrastructure, EUR (BE6216682490 and BE6216680478) specialises in businesses which contribute to the construction and development of infrastructure (engineering and transportation).The KBC Equity Fund SRI Equity Institutional Shares, EUR (BE6218517413), an SRI product, has a hybrid benchmark (50% MSCI Mord and 50% MSCI Emu), and will be available exclusively to institutional investors.
11/07/2011

Wells Fargo to reimburse several pension funds

On Thursday, 7 July, Wells Fargo agreed to reimburse a total of USD125m to pension funds (Alameda County, the government of Guam, New Orleans, the Louisiana Sheriff’s Fund, and funds from Detroit, Chicago, Mississippi and Pennsylvania), the Wall Street Journal reports.The settlement will still need to be approved by a court. If it is approved, it will allow Wells Fargo to obtain settlement of cases filed against it for losses related to mortgage-based securities sold by the bank, which underwent losses in the crisis.
11/07/2011

Primonial adds to management team

The Primonial group on 8 July announced the recruitment of Jean Orgonasi as deputy CEO, in charge of the group’s key accounts and web operations; he will report to Patrick Petitjean. Orgonasi will oversee the operational committee, and will also define organic growth strategy in cooperation with top management.Orgonasi in July 2009 became global head of distribution and strategic partnerships at BNP Paribas Cardif.
11/07/2011

Laffitte Capital Management adds to management team

As Laffitte Capital had recently told Newsmanagers (see article on 01/07/2011), the asset management firm has this year recruited Matthieu Raimbault as a manager in charge of managing the special situations allocation for the Laffittee Equity Arbitrage fund.Before joining Laffitte Capital, the manager spent more than 10 years using his expertise in operations of this type, particularly in the mining sector. Raimbault was manager of the Long/Short Catalyst strategy at Copperneff AM, an affiliate of BNP Paribas, a statement says.
11/07/2011

Talence recruits staff

In the past three months, assets at Talence Gestion have increasd 14.3% (to EUR160m as of the end of June, up from EUR140m; see Newsmanagers of 28 March), of which EUR40m are in the Optimal fund, EUR12m in the Opportunités fund, and EUR25m in the Midcaps fund, Didier Demeestère, chairman of the management firm, says. Mandates represent about EUR65m.Since the firm’s launch in June 2010, funds have outperformed their benchmark indices by an average of 700 basis points, with lower volatility than the benchmarks, the president said at an event to celebrate the first birthday of Talence, founded by himself, Régis Lefort and Cathy Jeffrey.Staff now totals nine people, but the firm is planning to recruit two specialists for private management and mandates, Demeestère says.However, there are still no plans to have an internal sales force, as the directors of Talence would like to focus on targeted growth for the moment, based on a word-of-mouth reputation for very good service and strong performance.
11/07/2011

Pimco Total Return ETF taking shape ahead of launch

On 7 July, Pimco ETF Trust (Allianz Global Investors group) made a SEC filing according to which the future ETF version of the Pimco Total Return bond fund, managed by Bill Gross (USD242.8bn), will charge a management commission of 0.55%.
11/07/2011

Schroders releases GAIA CQS Credit fund in France

The AMF has issued a sales license for the UCITS-compliant fund GAIA CQS Credit ( LU0616010236), launched on 31 March (see Newsmanagers of 1 April), the fifth strategy on its GAIA (Global Alternative Investor Access) platform.The product applies an unconstrained long/short credit strategy, managed by CQS, a global multi-strategy manager with about USD10.3bn in assets under management. The fund, managed by Simon Finch, aims for annualised performance equivalent to the Libor + 4 to 8 percentage points, after fees.
11/07/2011

Ignis recruits a head from AllianceBernstein

Ignis Asset Management has appointed Claude Chene, head of AllianceBernstein for the United Kingdom, as its head of sales and distribution.Chene, who will begin in his new position in October 2011, will succeed Jonathan Polin, who left the firm in early June (see Newsmanagers of 6 June 2011).Chene will also become a member of the board of directors at Ignis.
11/07/2011

ETF provider profit margins four times higher than mutual fund management firms

According to a study by Deutsche Bank, reported by FTfm, the profit margins for ETF providers last year was 55.5 basis points on the basis of assets under management, four times higher than the 12.5 points estimates by McKinsey for the industry as a whole.The German bank estimates that profits for European ETF management firms in 2010 totalled EUR1.2bn, on assets under management of EUR216.6bn. In other words, if the figures are correct, the ETF sector, which represents just 2.8% of total assets in European fund management, generated 13% of total profits of EUR9bn, as estimated by McKinsey.The figures could explain by the popularity of ETF funds: 139 have been launched since the beginning of 2011, and there are now a total of 1,185 funds.
11/07/2011

Lyxor signs up to Calastone

According to the operator of the electronic fund share buy and sell order processing and routing system Calastone, Lyxor Asset Management has signed up to the network in order to allow its clients to make trades for free on shares in hedge funds. Regardless of the format of the order message, the Calastone network converts it to the Calastone ISO 20022 standard, and enters it into the Calastone Execution Management System (EMS), which provides straight-through processing.
11/07/2011

Only one FMC out of five is prepared to roll out KIID documents

According to a survey by Deloitte Luxembourg in first half, 80% of asset management firms are lagging behind in rolling out the Key Investor Information Document (KIID), and only 20% of them are prepared to publish their first KIID, as required by the OPCVM IV directive from 1 July next year.50% of asset management firms said that they are planning to get it done at the last minute, on 1 July 2012, to meet the requirements. 30% of firms are planning to have them ready by 2012.28% of respondents are planning to publish their KIID documents in several languages, while 27.3% are planning to publish them in more than 10 languages, in order to facilitate fund distribution.In terms of costs, 49.2% of managers are expecting the cost of production of the documents to come to under EUR50,000, while 28.6% estimate that costs will be in the EUR50,000-EUR250,000 range, and 28.6% say it will cost EUR250,000-EUR500,000.
11/07/2011
Fonds

Martin Currie veut lancer un fonds marchés émergents

Selon FundWeb, Martin Currie envisage de lancer un fonds dédié aux marchés émergents qui viendra compléter sa gamme de fonds Ucits.Le Martin Currie GF Global Emerging Markets fund sera piloté par Kim Catechis, le patron des marchés émergents à la tête d’une équipe de sept spécialistes de ces marchés. Le fonds comprendra de 40 à 60 lignes de titres sans contrainte géographique ou sectorielle.
Fonds
11/07/2011
Fonds

Henderson relève les TER sur 14 fonds de Gartmore

Henderson a décidé d’augmenter le total des frais sur encours (TER) sur 14 fonds de Gartmore maintenus dans le sillage de l’acquisition du groupe en mars dernier, rapporte Investment Week.Les TER seront ainsi relevés de 11 points de base sur plusieurs de ces quatorze fonds, entre autres le European Selected Opportunities fund et le China Opportunities fund. Sinon, les hausses qui vont permettre d’aligner les frais sur la gamme des fonds Henderson, s'échelonnent entre un point de base et treize points de base.
Fonds
11/07/2011

Ignis recrute chez AllianceBernstein

Ignis Asset Management a nommé Claude Chene, le patron pour le Royaume-Uni d’AllianceBernstein, en qualité de responsable des ventes et de la distribution.Claude Chene, qui doit prendre ses fonctions en octobre 2011, prend la succession de Jonathan Polin, qui a quitté la société début juin (Newsmanagers du 6 juin 2011). Claude Chene devient parallèlement membre du conseil d’administration d’Ignis.
11/07/2011

Manulife AM veut doubler ses encours asiatiques

Le président directeur général de la société de gestion basée à Toronto, Manulife Asset Management, Jean-François Courville, ambitionne de doubler les actifs sous gestion à environ 80 milliards de dollars au cours des cinq prochaines années, rapporte Asian Investor.Dans cette perspective, Manulife AM vient de recruter un «product manager» pour la distribution et la vente auprès des institutionnels, Mahesh Fonseka, qui sera basé à Hong Kong. Il travaillait précédemment pour Perpetual Investments. Au 31 mars dernier, la zone Asie-Pacifique représentait 20% environ des encours totaux, qui s’inscrivaient à 217 milliards de dollars dont quelque 60 milliards issus de fonds multi-classes d’actifs.
11/07/2011

Nomination d'un nouveau CIO pour l'Asie chez HSBC

Bill Maldonado, responsable de la stratégie d’investissement internationale pour les actions, doit s’installer le mois prochain à Hong Kong pour assumer les fonctions de CIO pour la zone Asie-Pacifique, selon Asian Investor.Dans ses nouvelles fonctions, Bill Maldonado remplace Ayaz Ebrahim, qui a quitté HSBC en mai dernier pour rejoindre Amundi. Les actifs sous gestion du groupe sino-britannique s'élèvent en Asie à environ 72 milliards de dollars.
11/07/2011

Reyl acquiert Solitaire Wealth Management

Le genevois Reyl & Cie a levé le voile sur son projet de croissance externe (lire notre article du 26 mai) : il acquiert le zurichois Solitaire Wealth Management (400 millions d’euros d’encours), un spécialiste de la gestion privée. Cela porte les actifs gérés par le groupe Reyl à quelque 4 milliards d’euros.De plus, avec Solitaire, Reyl, qui va maintenant ouvrir une succursale à Zurich, hérite d’une licence d’investment advisor délivrée par la SEC américaine. Cette licence, attribuée à Reyl Overseas Ltd, permettra au groupe Reyl de développer une offre de services plus large destinée à la clientèle américaine onshore.L’équipe de Reyl Zurich s’appuiera en Suisse alémanique sur les différentes ressources de la banque Reyl concentrées au sein de trois métiers complémentaires : la gestion de fortune, les fonds d’investissements gérés par Reyl Asset Management, et l’activité de bureau privé dirigée par Reyl Private Office. Par ailleurs, Reyl Zurich accueillera bientôt dans des locaux adjacents une équipe détachée par Reyl Asset Management dont la tâche sera d’accélérer la diffusion de la gamme Reyl Funds sur le marché alémanique.Le groupe Reyl est déjà présent, hors de Suisse, à Paris, Luxembourg et Singapour.
11/07/2011
Fonds

L'indice Dow Jones Credit Suisse en recul de 1,95% en juin

Selon les dernières estimations, l’indice Dow Jones Credit Suisse s’est inscrit en recul de 1,95% au mois de juin, la plupart des secteurs enregistrant des performances négatives, rapporte Hedgeweek.Les stratégies global macro ont subi la plus forte baisse, avec un recul de 3,12% sur le mois alors que le fixed income arbitrage a réalisé un gain de 0,20% le mois dernier et affiche une progression de 2,38% sur les six premiers mois de l’année.
Fonds
11/07/2011
Fonds

Retour timide de la confiance des investisseurs début juillet

Avec une embellie sur la dette grecque et de meilleures nouvelles macroéconomiques en provenance des Etats-Unis et du Japon, les investisseurs sont sortis timidement de leur réserve début juillet. Selon les données d’EPFR Global, durant la semaine au 6 juillet, les fonds actions ont ainsi enregistré une collecte nette de 6,19 milliards de dollars, dont 1,36 milliard de dollars à mettre sur le compte des fonds dédiés aux actions émergentes.Les fonds obligataires ont drainé 3,19 milliards de dollars en net alors que les fonds monétaires accusaient une décollecte nette de 2,26 milliards de dollars. A noter par ailleurs que les relèvements de taux opérés par la Banque centrale européenne et la Banque de Chine ont remis les inquiétudes concernant l’inflation sur le devant de la scène, ce qui a suscité un mouvement jamais vu depuis plus d’un an en faveur des obligations indexées sur l’inflation.
Fonds
11/07/2011
Fonds

Le fonds Baring Global Agriculture va changer d'indice de référence

Barings a annoncé le 8 juillet qu'à compter du 1er août, l’indice de référence de son OEIC Baring Global Agriculture Fund (GB00B3B9VB40, 198,2 millions d’euros fin mai) sera le DAX Global Agribusiness Index, en remplacement du MSCI All Countries World Index. Le DAX Global Agribusiness est aussi l’indice de référencedu BGF World Agriculture Fund de BlackRock.Le nouveau «benchmark» est un indice pondéré par la capitalisation qui réplique la performance de 45 des plus grandes sociétés du secteur agricole avec des sous secteurs comme l’agrochimie, les équipements agricoles et les plantations d’huile de palme brute. Les sociétés intégrées dans cet indice doivent réaliser au minimum 50 % de leur chiffre d’affaires dans «l’agribusiness».Néanmoins, souligne Barings, l’univers d’investissement du fonds «de la fourche à la fourchette» demeure plus vaste que celui couvert par le nouvel indice ce qui permet à l'équipe de gestion de rechercher des entreprises plus loin sur la chaîne d’approvisionnement jusque dans des secteurs en aval comme la production et la distribution de produits alimentaires, plus défensifs et moins volatils.
Fonds

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