La transparence est la préoccupation principale des investisseurs institutionnels vis-à-vis du secteur mondial des hedge funds, devant les frais et la rémunération des gérants, montre une étude de Ernst & Young qui doit être publiée mardi et qui est citée dans le Financial Times.

Selon TrimTabs Investment Research et BarclayHedge citées par la Tribune, l’industrie des hedge funds a enregistré une collecte de 3,8 milliards de dollars en septembre. Soit sur les trois derniers mois, des souscriptions s'élevant à 16,1 milliards de dollars.

L'équipe actions de Franklin à Francfort a recruté deux analystes sell-side chez Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW), Robert Mazzuoli et Tim Burkhardt. De plus, le gestionnaire a embauché Anne Friedrich, également comme analyste pour la recherche, mais cette dernière vient d’une société de capital-risque, Creathor Venture Management.L'équipe comprend désormais onze personnes, sous la direction d’Uwe Zöllner.D’autre part, Michael Clements, qui était co-gérant de portefeuille du Franklin European Growth Fund a été nommé en octobre lead portfolio manager de ce fonds. Ed Lugo, qui remplissait cette fonction, reste gérant de portefeuille pour ce produit.

Gartmore a engagé une réflexion stratégique avec l’aide de Goldman Sachs, a indiqué la société de gestion à l’occasion de la publication de ses résultats intérimaires. Parallèlement, Gartmore va prendre des mesures pour renforcer sa force de frappe et améliorer sa situation financière, avec notamment la mise en œuvre d’un programme d'économies de 10 millions de livres par an. Par ailleurs, le gérant star de Gartmore, Roger Guy, est sur le départ. Conséquence, Gartmore va fusionner ses équipes dédiées aux actions européennes (large cap et all-cap) dans une seule équipe qui sera dirigée par John Bennett. Roger Guy poursuivra toutefois ses activités pendant les prochains mois pour assurer une transition en douceur. L'équipe «Large Cap» de Roger Guy gèrait 3,5 milliards de livres au 30 septembre, dont 1,3 milliard de livres de fonds alternatifs, 0,5 milliard de mutual funds et 1,7 milliard de mandats discrétionnaires. Gartmore a également annoncé le départ de Dominic Rossi, chief investment officer, qui doit assumer de nouvelles fonctions dans une autre société de gestion (lire par ailleurs). En attendant la nomination d’un successeur, Jeffrey Meyer, CEO, assumera l’intérim. Brian Mitchell, actuellement responsable des transactions, a été nommé chief operating officer du pôle investissement. Cela dit, les actifs sous gestion de Gartmore ont progressé de 4% au troisième trimestre, passant de 19,9 milliards de livres au 30 juin à 20,7 milliards au 30 septembre. L’effet marché et les performances ont été en partie annulés par une décollecte nette de 700 millions de livres. Au 31 octobre, les actifs sous gestion s'élevaient à 20,9 milliards de livres, malgré une décollecte nette de 300 millions de livres en octobre. Le groupe a également reçu pour 500 millions de livres de demandes de remboursement (dont 200 millions sur les «large caps» européennes qui seront honorées d’ici à la fin de l’année.

Dominic Rossi, qui vient de quitter ses fonctions de chief investment officer (CIO) chez Gartmore, rejoint Fidelity Investment Managers en tant que global CIO pour les actions, rattaché au chief executive Robert Higginbotham, rapporte Investment Week. Dans ses nouvelles fonctions, Dominic Rossi sera responsable du pôle actions, dont la gestion de portefeuille, la recherche, les dérivés, le trading et la finance d’entreprise.

Selon Financial News, Fidelity Investment Managers a décidé de réduire ses effectifs au Royaume-Uni de 500 personnes à 1.500 sur les cinq prochaines années, en raison d’une approche moins accueillante de la part des autorités réglementaires britanniques, de la hausse de la fiscalité et de la détérioration des perspectives en termes d’activité. Le site internet précise qu’il n’y aura pas de licenciement.

L’indice global des fonds Ucits calculé par Ucits Alternative Index a progressé de 0,71% au mois d’octobre, enregistrant ainsi son quatrième mois consécutif de hausse. Depuis le début de l’année, le Global Index affiche un gain de 0,99%.Les meilleures performances du mois ont été enregistrées par le Commodities Index (2,20%), le CTA (1,45%) et l’indice Emerging Markets (1,34%). Depuis le début de l’année, le Commodities Index et le CTA Index accusent toutefois des reculs de respectivement 4,71% et 0,59% alors que l’indice Emerging Markets affiche un gain de 2,56%. Les stratégies évènementielles ont progressé de seulement 0,13% mais font toujours partie des meilleures stratégies depuis le début de l’année avec une hausse de 3,60%. Le fixed income continue de faire la course en tête, avec un gain de 0,44% sur le mois et de 4,21% depuis le début de l’année.

Source a annoncé le 8 novembre la cotation de 15 ETC (Exchange Traded Commodities) sur la Bourse suisse SIX. Source va, dans un premier temps, faire référencer 14 T-ETC (Treasury Bill Secured ETC, des ETC sécurisés par des bons du Trésor américain) répliquant la performance d’indices de matières premières S&P GSCITM Total Return (dividendes réinvestis) et un P-ETC basé sur l’or physique. Le P-ETC Source Physical Gold réplique l'évolution des cours de l’or au comptant. Ses actifs sont garantis par des lingots d’or détenus dans les coffres de J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, à Londres.Les T-ETC Source sont collatéralisés par des bons du Trésor américain (US Treasury Bills) et des liquidités détenus par un administrateur dans un compte ségrégué. L’exposition aux indices de matières premières est assurée par le biais de swaps de performance disposant d’une diversification au travers de plusieurs contreparties. Tous les ETC Source sont négociables en dollars américains sur SIX. Les frais de gestion annuels des T-ETC sont de 0,49%. Les frais de gestion du P-ETC Source Physical Gold sont significativement moins chers que les produits concurrents, ils s'établissent à 0,29% par an.En outre, en réponse à la demande croissante des investisseurs pour une exposition plus efficiente aux matières premières, Source propose également le T-ETC Source Crude Oil Enhanced (SEWTI). Au cours des dernières années, la performance du contrat de futures indexé sur les ETP répliquant la performance des cours du pétrole s’est fortement éloigné de l'évolution des cours du pétrole au comptant, en raison de l’impact de la situation en contango (report) des marchés à terme du pétrole. Le T-ETC Source Crude Oil Enhanced (SEWTI) vise à répliquer la performance de l’indice S&P GSCI Crude Oil Enhanced Total Return. Il s’agit d’un indice optimisé dont le niveau d’exposition à la courbe des futures sur le pétrole est ajusté sur une base mensuelle, variant dynamiquement entre les contrats NYMEX WTI d'échéance en cours et à six mois, en fonction de la pente de la courbe. Le T-ETC Source Crude Oil Enhanced (SEWTI) a collecté des encours significatifs en 2010, les investisseurs s’intéressant plus en détail à la manière dont les ETC répliquent la performance des contrats de futures sur le pétrole.Travaillant en partenariat avec BofA Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Nomura, Nyenburgh et 17 autres teneurs de marché, Source a collecté plus de 7,5 milliards de dollars depuis sa création, en avril 2009, dont 850 millions de dollars au profit de sa plateforme dédiée aux ETC. La croissance de ce segment est en grande partie attribuable au succès du P-ETC Source Physical Gold (SGLD) qui a collecté à lui seul plus de 600 millions de dollars d’encours, favorisé par l’intérêt croissant des investisseurs pour l’or.

LGT Bank in Liechtenstein a proposé plus de 300 millions d’euros pour le rachat de la filiale de la Deutsche Bank, la banque BHF, rapporte L’Agefi suisse qui cite l’agence Dow Jones Newswires. La valorisation de BHF est estimée à 600 millions d’euros.

Le britannique Aviva Investors a obtenu l’agrément de commercialisation en France, en Allemagne et au Royaume-Uni du fonds coordonné de performance absolue Index Opportunities géré par Iyad Farah et Ned Kelly assistés d’une équipe de sept gérants et analystes qui suivent jusqu'à 25 indices européens, d’Amérique du nord, de la région Asie-Pacifique et des pays émergents.L’objectif consiste à profiter des inefficiences et des distorsions liées à la repondération des indices et donc des portefeuilles des fonds passifs. Cela se traduit par la prise de positions longues sur les actions qui entrent dans un indice et par la vente à découvert de celles qui en sortent.Le fonds, qui a été lancé le 23 avril, vise une performance supérieure de 500 points de base à l’euribor 1 mois, avec une volatilité ex-ante inférieure à 7,5 %.CaractéristiquesDénomination : Aviva Investors - Index Opportunities Fund ACode Isin : LU0469930712Droit d’entrée : 5 %Commission de gestion : 0,90 %Souscription minimale : 2 000 euros

Janus Capital International Limited, la division internationale de Janus Capital Group Inc, vient de lancer deux nouveaux compartiments de sa gamme irlandaise : le Janus Global Investment Grade Bond Fund et le Janus Global High-Yield Fund.Le Global Investment Grade Bond Fund sera principalement investi dans des obligations à taux fixe ou à taux variable de qualité «Investment Grade» d’émetteurs situés dans le monde entier. Le Global High-Yield Fund investira principalement dans des titres de créance ou des actions assortis d’une notation inférieure à «investment grade» ou de qualité équivalente. Les deux nouveaux compartiments seront co-gérés par Gibson Smith, co-directeur des investissements de Janus Capital Management, et par Darrell Watters. Tous deux sont co-gérants de portefeuille sur l’ensemble des stratégies à revenu fixe de Janus. Ils bénéficieront de l’appui de l’équipe de recherche en titres à revenu fixe basée à Denver et à Londres.

Le 8 novembre, comme Source (lire par ailleurs), db ETC AG (groupe Deutsche Bank) a fait admettre à la négociation sur le nouveau segment ETP de la Bourse suisse SIX quatorze ETC (exchange traded commodities) : six avec effet de levier (Booster) et huit qui en sont dépourvus. Le teneur de marché sera la Deutsche Bank, alors que celui des ETP de Source sera Nyenburgh Holding BV.A l’exception de l’ETC sur l’or physique, chargé à 0,29 %, les nouveaux produits db ETC sont tous chargés à 0,45 %. Dix de ces ETC répliquent des indices de matières premières et quatre des indices de métaux précieux (or, argent, platine et palladium). La monnaie de référence est le dollar.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Michael Clark in London will be the manager of the new Luxembourg-registered product Fidelity European Dividend Fund, launched on 2 November, whose portfolio will invest in equities in European firms which already pay attractive dividends, or which are likely to increase their dividends significantly in the future. So far, the investment team is preferring businesses in the consumer goods, utilities, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications sectors, with stable business models and strong competitive positions. The benchmark index is the MSCI Europe. In addition to this new fund, Clark has also been the manager of the Fidelity Income Plus Fund since 2008, and of the Fidelity Enhanced Income Fund since 2009. CharacteristicsName: Fidelity European Dividend FundISIN codes: LU0353647737 A-Acc Euro capitalisationLU0353647653: A-Euro distribution LU0353648032: Y-Acc-Euro capitalisationManagement commission: 1.5%

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Source on 8 November announced the listing of 15 ETC (exchange traded commodities) products on the Swiss stock exchange SIX. Source will initially list 14 T-ETC (Treasury Bill Secured ETC, ETCs which are secured by US Treasury bonds), replicating the performance of the S&P GSCITM Total Return commodities indices (dividends reinvested), and one P-ETC based on physical gold. The P-ETC Source Physical Gold replicates the evolution of the price of gold. Its assets are guaranteed by gold ingots held in the coffers of J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, in London. The Source T-ETCs are collateralised by US Treasury Bills, and liquidity is held by an administrator in a separate account. Exposure to commodities indices is provided via performance swaps with diversification over several counterparties. All Source ETCs are available in US dollars on SIX. Annual management fees for the T-ETCs are 0.49%. Management fees for the P-ETC Source Physical Gold are significantly lower than for competing products, at 0.29% per year. In response to growing demand from investors for more efficient exposure to commodities, Source is also offering the T-ETC Source Crude Oil Enhanced (SEWTI). In the past few years, the performance of futures indexed on ETPs replicating the price of oil has been significantly hier than the evolution of the price of oil, due to the impact of the contango (report) situation on oil futures markets. The T-ETC Source Crude Oil Enhanced (SEWTI) aims to replicate the performance of the S&P GSCI Crude Oil Enhanced Total Return index. It is an optimised index, whose level of exposure to the futures curve on oil is adjusted on a monthly basis, which varies dynamically between NYMEX WTI contracts with maturities of up to six months, depending on the curve. The T-ETC Source Crude Oil Enhanced (SEWTI) has seen significant inflows in 2010, as investors have become more interested in the way in which ETCs replicate the performance of oil futures. In partnership with BofA Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Nomura, Nyenburgh and 17 other market-makers, Source has collected more than USD7.5bn since its creation, in April 2009, of which USD850m have gone to its platform dedicated to ETCs. Growth in this segment is largely due to the success of the P-ETC Physical Gold (SGLD), which alone has collected over Usd600m in assets, due to the growing interest of investors in gold.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On Wednesday, 10 November, the amLeague company will get together some of the asset managers participating in its championship (see Newsmangers of 6/10/2010) to study the potential interest and technical details of a possible new asset allocation mandate with an absolute return objective. In practice, asset managers would be allowed to use futures and ETFs to compensate for the lack of direct investment in equities or bonds. Of 19 asset management firms, the meeting is expected to be attended by seven or eight, who have expressed an interest in competing.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Société Générale Private Banking on 8 November announced the appointment of Laurent Joly as global director of wealth engineering, fiduciary services and life insurance. He will be based at the headquarters of the private bank in Paris. Joly, who has been employed at Société Générale since 1989, replaces Olivier Gougeon, previously international director of wealth engineering and fiduciary services, who has recently been appointed CEO of Société Générale Private Banking for the South Asian region. Claudio Bacceli is appointed as director of private banking activities at Société Générale Bank & Trust Luxembourg, replacing Joly. Bacceli joined Société Générale Bank & Trust Luxembourg in 2005 as director of wealth engineering for private banking, and later became deputy director of private banking in 2008, and head of sales in July 2009.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } James Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley, has told the Wall Street Journal that the investment bank he leads is planning to move ahead with its acquisition of the remainder of its joint venture with Smith Barney. It plans to «move forward on the first trigger,» referring to the May 2012 option the investment bank has to buy the next 14% of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Morgan Stanley has also announced that it expects pre-tax losses of USD70m due to restructuring of its hedge fund affiliate FrontPoint Partners.

A Russell Reynolds’ annual survey suggests compensation for asset managers in Europe could go up by 20 per cent, compared with a 10 to 15 per cent rise in the US, according to the Financial Times Fund Management. “European based asset managers tend to have more asset classes that are doing well, so levels of optimism about bonus pools are higher,” said Amanda Foster, managing director of Russell Reynolds’ practice in London.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Since the beginning of this year, Aberdeen Asset Management has raised about EUR1bn in France, including mandates, meaning that assets under management for French clients at the UK management firm now total about EUR6bn, of which about EUR4bn are from Credit Suisse products, and EUR1bn for real estate products and mandates, while the remainder is net inflows, Frédéric Lejeune, head of business development for France and Monaco, explains. The Scottish management firm is not the only one to have posted highly respectable inflows this year, as Brice Anger, director of development for M&G Investments in France recently announced that the firm had already attractd EUR500m in net inflows in France (see Newsmanagers of 5 November), putting assets now above EUR1.2bn. Year-to-date net subscriptions at Schroders in France, according to information obtained by Newsmanagers, lie somewhere between the figures for the firm’s two British rivals.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) has announced two appointments. Guillaume Héraud will now serve as director of settlement services. He will continue to develop the range of settlement services from SGSS, for transactions on equities on traditional markets and multilateral trading platforms (MTF), on the one hand, and on the other, for all other types of assets subject to clearing processes, according to a statement. Héraud will report to Alain Closier, director of securities professions at Société Générale, and will also join the international steering committee of SGSS. Jeanne Duvoux has been appointed deputy CEO of SGSS S.p.A. And legal representative of SGSS in Italy. She will report to Massimo cotella, deputy director of SGSS S.p.A. One of Duvoux’ major responsibilities will be to support projects to optimise the range of services, including those intended to respond to new market requirements, and to foster the integration of new clients.

Transparency is the leading concern institutonal investors share about the global hedge fund industry, followed by fees and managers’ pay, a report due to be released by Ernst & Young on Tuesday and cited by the Financial Times shows.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British management firm Aviva Investors has been granted a sales license in France, Germany and the United Kingdom for the UCITS-compliant absolute return fund Index Opportunities, managed by Iyad Farah and Ned Kelly, assisted by a team of seven managers and analysts, which follows up to 25 indices of Europe, North America, the Asia-Pacific region and emerging markets. The objective is to profit from inefficiencies and distortions related to the rebalancing of indices and therefore of passively-managed funds. This involves long positions on equities entering the indices and short positions on outgoing businesses. The fund, which was launched on 23 April, aims for returns 500 basis points higher than the Euribor 1 month, with ex ante volatility of less than 7.5%. Characteristics Name: Aviva Investors - Index Opportunities Fund AISIN code: LU0469930712front-end fee: 5%Management commission: 0.90%Minimal subscription: EUR2,000

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The global UCITS fund index calculated by Ucits Alternative Index gained 0.71% in the month of October, its fourth consecutive month of gains. Since the beginning of the year, the Global Index has gained 0.99%. The best returns of the month were for the Commodities Index (2.20%), CTA (1.45%) and the Emerging Markets index (1.34%). Since the beginning of the year, the Commodities Index and CTA Index have seen losses of 4.71% and 0.59%, respectively, while the Emerging Markets index has gained 2.56%. Event-driven strategies have gained only 0.13%, but are still among the best-performing strategies since the beginning of the year, with gains of 3.60%. Fixed income has continued to perform well, with gains of 0.44% for the month and 4.21% since the beginning of the year.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } European ethical and green retail funds have pulled out of their slump in a thus far disappointing year, with net inflows of EUR212.9m in August, according to the most recent statistics from Lipper FMI, collected on behalf of Responsible Investor. This category of fund, known as “RI extended,” includes exclusionary and normative funds, funds related to climate change and microfinance funds. “RI extended” assets totalled slightly over EUR22bn as of the end of August. Sales of funds which use filters for ESG criteria (“RI screened”), for their part, lost EUR192.3m in August. Only bond funds and money market funds remained highly positive. Assets in RI screened funds as of the end of August totalled EUR64.1bn.

Janus Capital International Limited, the international arm of Janus Capital Group Inc., has launched the Janus Global Investment Grade Bond Fund and the Janus Global High-Yield Fund, part of its Dublin-domiciled Janus Capital Funds plc range.The Global Investment Grade Bond Fund will invest primarily in fixed or floating rate Investment Grade bonds of issuers anywhere in the world and the Global High-Yield Fund will invest primarily in Debt Securities or preferred stock of issuers anywhere in the world which are rated either below investment grade or if unrated are of a similar quality to below investment grade. Both funds will be co-managed by Gibson Smith, who is the co-CIO of Janus Capital Management, and Darrell Watters. Both are co-PMs on all of Janus’ fixed income strategies. They will be supported by the fixed income research team based in Denver and London.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As Pierre-Yves Cahart told Newsmanagers on 23 April 2010 (see interview on that date), Wegelin Asset Management, the unit dedicated to institutional clients at Wegelin & Co. Private Bankers, on 8 November announced the launch of its international equities strategy in France. The strategy, known as Active Indexing, combines active and index-based management and is available in three different UCITS III-compliant funds, which received licenses from the French financial market authority (AMF) on 27 July 2010: Active Indexing Europe, Active Indexing World and Active Indexing All Country World. The range is managed by Daniel Leveau, director of the quantitative management team at Wegelin Asset Management. The strategy involves market picking: the management team invests in the most attractive sectors and countries out of a given universe, as a function of their position in the valuation cycle.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British management firm Schroder announced on 8 November that it has received a sales license for its Luxembourg sub-fund Schroder ISF Small Cap Energy Fund in Austria (see Newsmanagers of 7 October).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Finles index of 28 hedge funds in the Netherlands as of 1 October measured 112.74, for a gain of 2.18%, its third consecutive monthly gain, following increases of 0.31% in August and 0.2% in July (see Newsmanagers of 29 and 8 September). The five best performances since the beginning of the year have been for the Trade Wind Equity fund (27%), QTR fund (20%), HIQ Invest Market Neutral fund (17%), Flonds Bloemendaal (12%) and Antaurus Europe Fund (12%). From 1 October, the Finles index includes a 29th fund, the Frog Fund.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The monthly Lipper survey of major Spanish asset management firms reveals that they have increased their average allocation to equities to 42% in October, compared with 40.7% in September, Cinco Días reports. Meanwhile, they have not lost their confidence in bonds, which have increased to an exposure to 42.3% from 40.7%. This move was largely made to the detriment of cash, which fell to 12.25% from 14.15%, and alternative investments, down to 3.42% from 3.62%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 8 November, State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) and Deutsche Börse announced that the asset management firm from State Street Corp has listed 12 French-registered SPDR ETF funds on the Xetra platform, including 10 based on super-sectors of the MSCI Europe, one product based on the MSCI Europe, and one on the MSCI Europe Small Cap index. The admissions bring the total number of ETFs listed in Frankfurt to 751. In detail, the newly-created funds are the following: – SPDR MSCI Europe (FR0000001885) – SPDR MSCI Europe Small Cap (FR0010149880) management commission: 0.30%– SPDR MSCI Consumer Discretionary (FR0000001752) management commission: 0.40%– SPDR MSCI Consumer Staples (FR0000001745) management commission: 0.30%– SPDR MSCI Europe Energy (FR0000001810) management commission: 0.30%– SPDR MSCI Europe Financials (FR0000001703) management commission: 0.30%– SPDR MSCI Europe Health Care (FR0000001737) management commission: 0.30%– SPDR MSCI Europe Industrials (FR0000001778) management commission: 0.30%– SPDR MSCI Europe Information Technology (FR0000001695) management commission: 0.30%– SPDR MSCI Europe Materials (FR0000001794) management commission: 0.30%– SPDR MSCI Europe Telecommunication Services (FR0000001687) management commission: 0.30%– SPDR MSCI Europe Utilities (FR0000001646) management commission: 0.30%