Fidelity Investments annonce avoir renouvelé pour une durée de 5 ans un contrat avec BP America, filiale du groupe BP. Le contrat prévoit que la société de gestion continuera de fournir des services de plan d'épargne retraite en entreprise à la société pour un total de 95.000 salariés.
Dans une note interne signée du CEO Larry Fink et confirmée par des proches du dossier, BlackRock annonce le départ de Blake Grossman, qui était vice-chairman depuis un peu plus d’un an, donc depuis l’acquisition par BlackRock de Barclays Global Investors (BGI) que l’intéressé avait dirigé jusque là. L’achat de BGI pour 15,2 milliards de dollars a été bouclé début décembre 2009 (lire notre article du 2 décembre 2009).A priori, Blake Grossman ne devrait pas être remplacé à la vice-présidence de BlackRock, Cela posé, le 10 janvier, le nom de Blake Grossman figurait toujours dans la liste des personnalités composant le global executive committee.
L’agence de notation a communiqué ses réponses à la consultation ouverte par la Commission européenne sur le secteur du rating, rapporte l’Agefi. Tout en saluant la volonté de diminuer les références aux notations dans la réglementation financière, la société estime en revanche contre-productif de retarder de trois jours la publication d’une modification sur la note d’un émetteur souverain, après que l’Etat a été mis au courant.Moody’s s’oppose aussi logiquement à la mise à disposition gratuite de la recherche sur les émetteurs souverains, une autre des propositions phare de la Commission.
Les fonds gérés par les banques et les compagnies d’assurance dégagent en général de plus faibles performances que ceux des sociétés de gestion indépendantes en Europe, selon des données de Lipper compilées pour le Financial Times Fund Management. Mais dans certains pays comme la France, les sociétés de gestion pures sont surreprésentées aux deux extrêmes de l’échelle de performance, ce qui laisse supposer qu’elles prennent plus de risque que leurs concurrentes dans la banque et l’assurance.
Début 2007, les ETF européens affichaient des actifs sous gestion de 103 milliards d’euros. A fin septembre 2010, l’encours représentait 232 milliards d’euros, selon des données de Global ETF Research et de BlackRock, rapporte Expansión. Pendant le même temps, l’offre a triplé, passant de 500 à 1.500 produits.Les trois premiers opérateurs en Europe sont iShares (BlackRock), avec une part de marché de 32,7 %, devant Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale), avec 16,6 %, et db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank), avec 15,7 %.
Le secteur des hedge funds a enregistré une collecte nette de 13 milliards de dollars en novembre, selon les estimations de TrimTabs Investment Research et BarclaysHedge. Il s’agit du cinquième mois consécutif de collecte et du montant le plus élevé depuis février 2010.L’année 2011 se présente sous les meilleurs auspices pour le secteur, estime le fondateur et président de Barclayshedge, Sol Waksman, qui souligne dans un communiqué que «les hedge funds ont dégagé une performance de 11,6% en 2010 et les investisseurs continuent de leur confier des capitaux». En outre, les fonds de pension seront certainement amenés à faire appel à leurs services compte tenu de la faiblesse des rendements offerts par le marché.Les fonds actions long/short ont drainé 2,5 milliards de dollars durant le mois sous revue, le montant le plus élevé parmi l’ensemble des stratégies alternatives. Les fonds évenementiels ont attiré 2,2 milliards de dollars et les fonds émergents 1,8 milliard de dollars. Les fonds obligataires ont poursuivi sur leur lancée des mois précédents, avec une collecte de 1,9 milliard de dollars.Les CTA ont en revanche subi une décollecte de 3,9 milliards de dollars en novembre, la première en neuf mois mais, précise-t-on, en raison du remboursement d’un seul fonds. Les fonds de fonds ont pour leur part collecté 473 millions de dollars.Vincent Deluard, executive vice president responsable de la recherche chez TrimTabs, estime que 50% environ des gérants de hedge funds vont toucher des commissions pour les performances réalisées en 2010. C’est mieux que les 32% de 2009 ou les 16% de 2008, mais loin du niveau record de 90% enregistré en 2006.
Les hedge funds ont enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 70 milliards de dollars en 2010, portant les encours à plus de 1.650 milliards de dollars pour la première fois depuis septembre 2008, indique Eurekahedge. Ils ont en outre affiché une performance de 10,86 % sur l’année. Eurekahedge note que les hedge funds japonais ont progressé de 6,79 % en 2010, soit leur meilleure performance annuelle en 5 ans.
Selon Fundstrategy, une étude réalisée par PricewaterhouseCoopers et la Confédération de l’industrie britannique (CBI) indique que la profitabilité du secteur de la gestion d’actifs a fortement progressé outre-Manche au cours du dernier trimestre. Les coûts moyens ont augmenté, mais les volumes d’affaires ont progressé, ainsi que les frais et commissions.
Le spécialiste du secteur de l’environnement coté sur l’AIM, Impax Asset Management Group (partenaire de BNP Paribas IP), a indiqué le 10 janvier que ses actifs sous gestion avaient progressé de 44% durant l’année au 30 septembre pour s'établir à 1,82 milliard de livres. Les actifs sous gestion ont continué de progresser durant les mois suivants pour atteindre 2,25 milliards de livres au 31 décembre 2010.Le bénéfice imposable, gonflé par le remboursement d’un prêt évalué à 1 million de livres, s’est inscrit à 5,2 millions de livres contre 2,5 millions de livres l’année précédente. La société propose de distribuer un dividende 0,60 pence par action contre 0,40 pence l’année précédente. Les stratégies long only sur les actions cotées ont enregistré une performance de 69,3% sur cinq ans au 31 décembre, contre 23,6% pour l’indice MSCI World.
Le britannique Threadneedle a annoncé le 10 janvier la nomination d’Irina Miklavchich en qualité de gérante de fonds spécialisée sur les actions des marchés émergents. Irina Miklavchich rejoint l'équipe actions internationales émergentes et Asie (hors Japon) pilotée par Vanessa Donegan.Irina Miklavcich travaillait précédemment chez Goldman Sachs en tant qu’executive director, responsable du portefeuille «equity long short» pour la zone EMEA. Au 30 septembre 2010, les actifs sous gestion de Threadneedle en actions marchés émergents et Asie (hors Japon) s'élevaient à 6,1 milliards de livres.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The French Association for the Defence of Minority Shareholders (ADAM) will appeal a decision by the French financial market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), to grant a special dispensation to the usual takeover regulations for family shareholders in Hermès defending themselves against LVMH. Colette Neuville, president of ADAM, has told Reuters that she will file the appeal by Monday, 17 January. The appeal does not come as a surprise, as the ADAM president had already stated on several occasions that she opposed any exceptions under the law. “The appeal will be filed within six days, as regulations stipulate,” says Neuville, adding that the six-day period counts from last Thursday, when the AMF granted its clearance to Hermès. Neuville, who challenges the “reclassification” arguments used by the AMF, claims that the case “poses the problem of the value of regulated information” published by the Hermès directors, who had always claimed in the documents they supplied to the regulator and to the market that there were no shareholders who singularly or collectively controlled the capital of the company.
The Investment Company Institute presented regulators with a proposal that would form a liquidity bank to help stabilize money-market funds during a market panic, according to The Wall Street Journal. The proposed bank wouldn’t backstop a fund that collapsed on its own. Instead, it would seek to prevent the damage from spreading to other funds.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges against the co-founder of hedge fund Trivium Capital Management and three others persons, accusing them of trading on inside information regarding Google and other companies as part of its investigation into Galleon Group, the Financial Times writes.The US regulator alleged that Trivium, its co-founder Robert Feinblatt and analyst Jeffrey Yokuty made USD15m in profits by trading ahead of Google and Polycom’s earnings reports and before private equity takeovers of Hilton and Kronos were announced.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Despite average losses of 0.9%, according to Ahorro Corporación, Spanish guaranteed funds, with EUR2.1bn, were the only category aside from equities funds (EUR500m), to post net subscriptions in 2010, Cinco Días reports. And of the 124 new funds launched in Spain last year, 61 were guaranteed products.Assets in guaranteed funds increased by EUR1.6bn to total EUR48.5bn as of the end of the year. Meanwhile, assets managed by bond funds fell over the year as a whole by EUR27.5bn (of which EUR20.9bn were net outflows), to a total of EUR52.6bn as of 31 December.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } At the beginning of 2007, ETFs in Europe had assets under management of EUR103bn. As of the end of September 2010, assets totalled EUR232bn, according to data from Global ETF Research and BlackRock, Expansión reports. In the same period, the number of funds tripled, from 500 to 1,500 products. The three largest operators in Europe are iShares (BlackRock), with a market share of 32.7%, Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale), with 16.6%, and db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank), with 15.7%.
Funds managed by banks and insurance companies generally underperform those operated by independent asset managers across Europe, according to data compiled for Financial Times Fund Management by Lipper.However, in some countries, such as France, pure asset managers are over-represented at both extremes of the performance scale, suggesting they are taking more risk than their banking and insurance counterparts.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Raifeissen Switzerland, which for several years has been partnered with Vontobel for the management and distribution of investment funds, has selected the private bank Pictet & Cie to launch its first tracker fund, due to the size of its portfolio of assets managed in this area, totalling CHF22bn. The Swiss equities segment was selected by the partner banks. Their choice fell on the SPI index of 220 shares. The partners are planning to launch a similar fund in mid-2011. Meanwhile, Raifeissen is planning to raise CHF10m for its Swiss fund.
In an internal memo signed by CEO Larry Fink which has been confirmed by sources familiar with the matter, BlackRock has announced the departure of Blake Grossman, who had been vice-chairman for slightly over a year, since the acquisition by BlackRock of Barclays Global Investors (BGI), which Grossman had led. The acquisition of BGI for USD15.2bn was concluded in December 2009 (see Newsmanagers of 2 December 2009).Grossman is not expected to be replaced as BlackRock vice president. However, on 10 January, Grossman’s name was still on the list of members of the global executive committee.p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Tao Huang, COO for Morningstar since 1990, will be leaving the company at the end of January. He is also leaving his position as head of IT, corporate sales and the affiliate Logical Information Machines (LIM), acquired in 2009.Morningstar says that Huang will not be replaced as COO. Responsibility for IT will be taken over by Jow Mansueto, chairman and CEO, while corporate sales will be overseen by Scott Cooley, CFO, and LIM will be moved into the data division of Morningstar, led by Elizabeth Kircher.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) has announced the appointment of Philippe Huerre as deputy director of emerging markets. He will work in close collaboration with Ramy Bourgi, director of emerging markets. Huerre, who since 2004 had been director of retail client custody services at SGSS, will aim to “consolidate the leading position of SGSS in emerging markets, where SGSS provides securities services to domestic and international investors,” a statement says. In 2010, SGSS extended its geographical presence into the Gulf states, through a commercial agreement with the National Bank of Abu Dhabi.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Fidelity Investments has announced that it has renewed its contract with BP America, an affiliate of the BP group, for a 5-year term. Under the contract, the management firm will continue to provide services to the corporate retirement savings plan for the business for a total of 95,000 employees.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }Morgan Stanley has announced that it has reached an agreement with the employees of its in-house quantitative proprietary trading unit Process Driven Trading (PDT), whereby PDT employees will acquire certain assets from Morgan Stanley and launch an independent advisory firm at the end of 2012. Morgan Stanley will have the option to acquire a preferred stake in the new entity, to be known as PDT Advisors. It is expected the full PDT team, which comprises approximately 60 employees globally, will join the independent firm.During the two-year transition period, PDT will remain a part of Morgan Stanley and continue to manage Firm capital as it has historically. PDT will also build out its infrastructure and its third-party investment business during this period.
Lawrence M. Clark Jr left Harbinger Capital Partners where he was a senior analyst and a partner to launch his own hedge fund, The Wall Street Journal writes. This departure comes as Harbinger in recent years has evolved from a diversified hedge-fund firm to one which looks more like a private-equity firm. Assets have declined from about USD26 billion in 2008 to USD6.4 billion in November.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Agefi reports that Société Générale Private Banking is planning to open a long-term location in the United States. The bank is finalising plans for a brokerage and banking services platform based in New York, and aimed at US domestic high net worth clients. “Pending approval from the necessary authorities, we are hoping to begin our activities in the next few months,” says Daniel Truchi, director of the platform, cited by the newspaper. The platform will be complementary with the activities of Rockefeller Financial Services, a management firm dedicated to family offices based in New York and in which the bank has controlled a 37% stake since 2008.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } After launching a real estate unit two years ago, the British Aviva Investors group has recruited Manish Singhai and Kevin Talbot to develop its Asian equities and bond activities from Singapore, Aviva Investors reports. Singhai has been appointed chief investment officer for equities, while Talbot joins the group as chief investment officer for fixed income. Singhai, who spent 10 years at AllianceBernstein, in 2008 launched a market neutral hedge fund dedicated to Asia ex Japan, Arjava Capital, which has recently been closed. Talbot previously worked at ANZ Private Bank in Singapore.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The environmental sector specialist Impax Asset Management Group (a partner of BNP Paribas IP), which is listed on the AIM, announced on 10 January that its assets under management were up 44% in the year to 30 September, to a total of GBP1.82bn. Assets under management have continued to increase in the subsequent months, to a total of GBP2.25bn as of 31 December 2010. Pre-tax profits, which got a boost from the repayment of a loan valued at GBP1m, totalled GBP5.2m, compared with GBP2.5m the previous year. The firm is proposing to pay a dividend of 0.60 pence per share, compared with 0.40 pence per share the previous year. Long-only strategies on publicly-traded equities earned returns of 69.3% in the five years to 31 December, compared with 23.6% for the MSCI World index.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Fundstrategy reports that a study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) finds that the profitability of the asset management sector has increased significantly in the UK in the past quarter. Average costs have increased, but business volumes have also increased along with fees and commissions.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }Threadneedle has annouced the appointment of Irina Miklavchich to the position of fund manager, Global Emerging Markets Equities. She will join the Asia (ex Japan) and Global Emerging Markets Equities team of seven headed by Vanessa Donegan and will manage a number of global emerging markets funds. Ms Miklavchich joins Threadneedle from Goldman Sachs where she was an executive director in the Principal Strategies Group since 2006, with responsibility for managing the EMEA equity long-short portfolio. Prior to that Ms Miklavchich worked at Goldman Sachs Asset Management as an executive director in the Emerging Markets and Global Financial teams.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The global “Ucits Alternative Index,” published by the company of the same name, gained 1.07% in December and 1.86% over the year as a whole, compared with 9.27% in 2009. The best-performing strategies in December were commodities and CTA, which gained 2.73% and 2.66%, respectively. But for the year as a whole, commodities strategies have lost 2.10%, following gains of nearly 6% in 2009. CTA, for their part, finished the year with gains of only 0.01%, compared with 0.88% in 2009. The big winners for the year were event-driven (+4.47%) and fixed income (+4.15%).