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03/11/2010

Man Investments offers a CTA fund to retail investors in Singapore

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Asian Investor reports that Man Investments has opened sales of its CTA product, Man AHL Trend, to retail investors in Singapore. Man AHL Trend is a UCITS III-compliant vehicle available in Europe, in Germany, Italy and Spain. Minimal investment is SGD20,000, or about USD15,500.
03/11/2010

Insurance regulators vigilant over systemic risks

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) on 2 November announced plans to evaluate the systemic risks emanating from insurers worldwide and to consider ways to apply recent banking regulatory reforms to the insurance sector. At their triennial meeting in Dubai, the IAIS, which inlcudes regulators from 140 countries and over 120 insurers, established a two-year calendar for evaluating the recommendations of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) for financial reforms, the association says. “The evolution of the insurance sector with a growing number of insurers who extend their activities worldwide … has increased pressure to institute reforms,” says the president of the IAIS, Peter Braumüller. Although the association admits that traditional insurers present few systemic risks, regulators say they must be vigilant in the face of “the opacity of the borders of the financial sector” as it touches on insurers.
03/11/2010

Real estate funds turn to more solid assets

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Investors whose good luck ran out along with the boom times are now turning to “core” real estate assets, mature properties offering good returns, while funds specialised in turnaround situations are continuing to suffer, the Wall Street Journal reports. The CalPERS pension fund has sold off two opportunistic funds from CityView which invest in residential real estate to Blackstone Group for USD225m, including debt. The CalSTRS pension fund has announced that it will increase its allocation to core real estate funds from 35% to 50%, reducing its exposure to higher-risk RE funds from 65% to 50%. Goldman Sachs is launching a range of lower-risk real estate funds in the wake of losses for the Whitehall range of higher-risk real estate funds. The real estate fund from JP Morgan Chase, which previously weighed in at as much as USD11.5bn, has seen net outflows of USD1.8bn during the crisis, but has attracted USD3bn since the beginning of this year.
03/11/2010

Aquila registers Banca Capital in Spain

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The CNMV on 15 October issued a registration for the Branca Tactical Fund, a sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav AC Multistrategy from Aquila Capital. The product may be offered via 12 distributors, including Allfunds Bank, Calyon, and Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild Europe.
03/11/2010

Chris White takes over three funds previously managed by PSigma at Premier

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Premier Asset Management has recruited Chris White, a former Threadneedle manager who left that firm in February, to manage the Premier Income, Alpha Income and Monthly Income funds, from 17 November. The management firm has decided to bring the management of the products back in-house, Investment Week reports. The funds had been managed by Bill Mott and Neil Cumming of PSigma since July 2009, when Premier bought ten funds from Credit Suisse.
03/11/2010

Private banks battle to save margins

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Swiss private banks are confronting a steep deterioration of their margins. The major causes are rising costs, increasing regulation and morose markets, Le Temps reports. In a recent study, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) reviewed the evolution of profits at 100 private banks between 2006 and 2009. In the space of four years, their gross profit margins fell 6%. The situation is highly different from one firm to another. In four years, gross margins for institutions with more than CHF10bn under management have hardly moved, while at the same time, the smallest banks, with less than CHF2bn in assets, saw their margins plunge 13%.
03/11/2010

Credit Suisse recruits a big name from Man Investments

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 1 December, Andy Stewart will join the asset management division of Credit Suisse as managing director and head of the liquid alternatives business, the Swiss group has announced. Stewart was president and COO of Man Investments in the United States, and served as global head of managed accounts. The liquid alternatives branch of Credit Suisse Asset Management includes single manager hedge funds, fund sof hedge funds and tracker product activities.
03/11/2010

Assets up at Principal Global Investors

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In third quarter 2010, operating profits at Principal Global Investors, an affiliate of Principal Financial Group, totalled USD15m, compared with USD10.5m in the corresponding period of 2009, due to increased transaction fees and rising assets. Unaffiliated assets under management as of 30 September totalled USD76.2bn, compared with USD73.2bn one year previously.
03/11/2010

Bank of America Merrill Lynch adds to GTS team

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Bank of America Merrill Lynch today announced that it has recruited nine people as additions to its GTS (Global Treasuries Solutions) team. The firm is looking to increase its capacity and improve its integrated solutions for clients. “The arrival of these nine people with experience in the sales, product and strategic solutions sectors will help to improve our global treasuries solutions offerings to clients,” says Carole Berndt, director of GTS EMEA (Europe Middle East Africa). Jennifer Boussuge will become EMEA head of International Subsidiary Banking Sales for GTS. Matthew Davies becomes EMEA head of GTS sales for corporates. Jose Franco becomes global head of Corporate Banking Liquidity; Martin Knott becomes head of GTS sales for corporates for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa; Francyn Stuckey becomes EMEA head of strategic solutions delivery; Michael Edwards becomes EMEA head of Market Management; Paul Taylor becomes EMEA head of bank sales; Karl Turnbull becomes EMEA head of non-bank Financial Institutions sales for GTS, and Lesley White becomes EMEA GTS product executive for corporates.
03/11/2010

SEC settles with three suppliers of clients to Madoff

The Securities and Exchange Commission has reached an agreement in principle to settle civil fraud and negligence charges with Cohmad Securities and three individuals who solicited investments on behalf of Bernard Madoff, says the Financial Times. Robert Jaffe, Maurice Cohn and Marcia Cohn, along with Cohmad Securities, the company they represented, received more than USD100m in commissions and fees for bringing investors into Madoff’s funds. The SEC has not reached a financial settlement with them.
03/11/2010

HSBC Global AM releases four Sharia-compliant funds in Germany

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Since 2 November, HSBC Global Asset Management Deutschland is offering four Luxembourg-registered, Sharia-compliant funds for sale in Germany. The Amanah products were originally developed for Islamic investors, but are also suitable for investors of other faiths, especially prudent savers, as it is not permitted to speculate or receive interest. The funds also exclude excessive debt, gambling, alcohol, and pork products.Management of the products is quantitative, and all four rely on an active stock-picking strategy, dynamic selection of countries and sectors, and permanent adjustment of market positions. The HSBC Amanah joint venture was founded in 1998.The four funds are the following:HSBC Amanah Asia Pacific ex Japan Equity (ISIN: LU0384688981),HSBC Amanah Europe Equity (ISIN: LU0384690458),HSBC Amanah Global Equity (ISIN: LU0290245298)and HSBC Amanah Global Equity Index Fund (ISIN: LU0110459103).
03/11/2010

Reshuffle at the top at ERA Resources

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Werner J. Ullmann, founder of the investment boutique ERA Resources GmbH, has decided to retire at the end of this year and focus on his responsibilities as head of Placer Gold International Corp, a mining company which he also founded.He will be replaced at the helm of ERA Resources on 1 January 2011 by Martin Siegel, who has already been advisor to the Stabilitas-Pacific Gold + Metals fund since 2009. In his new reponsibilities, Siegel will also become advisor to other commodities funds of the Stabilitas range, whose promoter is the Luxembourg firm IPC Concept Fund Management, but Ullman will serve as external advisor for the Stabilitas Growth – Small Cap Resourcen.
03/11/2010

ETF trading platform created

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Munich-based ETF specialist broker Crossflow Financial Advisors on 2 November announced the launch of the Crossflow ETF trading platform, which will allow institutionals to make transactions regardless of the volumes. The platform is a joint project with the securities trading firm Baader Bank, which will provide some of the liquidity, and Assenagon Client Service (Assenagon Asset Management group), which will provide the legal framework for the project, Assenagon being under the supervosiory authority of the BaFin. Crossflow will provide clients with the best execution, continuity of prices in periods of market volatility, and settlement of transactions in line with operations completed. The advantage of the strategic alliance between Crossflow, Baader and Assenagon will be that it will be able to offer “particularly attractive” prices for buy and sell orders, even when transaction volumes are high. Crossflow says that the new platform may also have additional liquidity flows from creation/redemption platforms by a selection of ETF-issuing partners.
03/11/2010

East Capital reopens its Baltic fund

East Capital has announced that the temporary suspension for new subscriptions of the East Capital Baltic Fund was lifted on Monday, November 1, 2010. The fund has been temporarily closed since 20 October because of very large recent inflows to the fund, due to a strong performance in the region since the beginning of the year.Should, however, the fund re-experience flows that cannot be managed in a way that safeguards the unit-holders’ interest, the board may decide to close the fund for subscriptions again, says a press release.
03/11/2010

New senior strategist joins team at UBS Global Investment Solutions

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Sion Cole is leaving the consulting firm Hewitt and joining the Global Asset Management division of UBS as Senior Strategist in the Global Investment Solutions (GIS) team. Cole studied at the University of Cardiff, and began his career as a chartered accountant for pension funds at Mercer in 2000. Two years later, he took over as head of the investment team for Hewitt in Bristol. He later combined these responsibilities with those of head of consulting for pension regime administration, until 2010. Cole will be based in London, and will aim to make the range of GIS services more widely known in the UK.
03/11/2010

TCW launches a fund specialised in growth smidcaps

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } TCW, the US-based asset management affiliate of Société Générale, has announced the launch of the TCW SMID Cap Growth fund, a product which invests in US small and midcaps with a growth profile, most of which are part of the Russell 2500 Growth index. The fund is managed by Husam Nazer and Brendt Stallings, the two directors of the smidcaps team at TCW. It will be managed with the same approach and the same resources as the TCW Small Cap Growth and TCW Growth indices, with the only difference being the filter by cap size, the firm says.
03/11/2010

Janus launches three institutional products

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 1 November, Janus Capital Group launched three strategies aimed at institutional investors in the United States, which will be managed in dedicated accounts: Janus Emerging Markets Equity Portfolio, Janus Global High Yield Portfolio, and Janus Global Investment Grade Bond Portfolio. The products were developed in response to demand from clients seeking active strategies for emerging markets equities and global bonds. The Janus Emerging Markets Equity Portfolio will invest in equities of emerging markets with the MSCI Emerging Markets Index as its benchmark. It was launched on 30 September, with Wahid Chammas and Matt Hochstetler as co-managers. The Janus Global High Yield Portfolio and Janus Global Investment Grade Bond Portfolio were launched on 29 October, and are the first two global bond products from Janus. The co-managers are Gibson Smith and Darrell Waters, who will use a fundamental strategy for credit investments. The benchmarks are the Barclays Capital Global High Yield and Barclays Capital Global Aggregate Corporate Bond, respectively.
03/11/2010

Vanguard launches Global ex-U.S. Real Estate Index Fund

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Vanguard has announced the launch of the new Vanguard Global ex-US Real Estate Fund, a tracker mutual fund investing in shares in the real estate sector. The product is based on the S&P Global ex-US Property Index, and invests in REITs and REOCs in emerging and developed markets excluding the United States. These businesses acquire office, hotel and other types of real estate properties. The fund is managed by Gerard O’reilly, who has 18 years of experience. It is available in four share classes, including an ETF class.
03/11/2010

SSgA appoints a managing director for Italy

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) has appointed Danilo Verdecanna as managing director of SSgA Italia. He will report to Marco Fusco, who has been appointed as deputy director of SSgA France, but will also retain his responsibilities as country head Italia. Verdecanna has worked at SSgA since 2007, most recently as head of wholesale distribution for Italy. He was previously at Axa Investment Managers.
03/11/2010

Terry Smith launches his own management firm

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British manager Terry Smith, chief executive of Tullett Prebon, is launching his own management firm, Fundsmith. Smith will initially invest GBP25m in Fundsmith, which he says is his “principal investment vehicle,” Wealthbriefing reports. The portfolio will be composed of 20 to 30 growth businesses, in which investment will be retained for the long term. The portfolio has no benchmark or sectoral constraints.
03/11/2010

Assets under management up 11% at St James's Place

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Assets under management at St James’s Place rose 11% in third quarter to GBP24.8bn, due to net inflows of GBP700m and positive market effects. Total investments in the quarter were up 32% compared with third quarter 2009, at GBP1.1bn. “Assets under management have doubled in the past five years. Despite an uncertain outlook at the beginning of the year, 2010 has turned out to be a very good year,” says the head of St James’s Place, David Bellamy, in a statement.
03/11/2010

Railpen Investments awards a mandate to Schroders

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Railpen, one of the largest pension funds in the United Kingdom, has awarded Schroder NewFinance Capital a mandate to manage a commodities portfolio for the Opus Commodities Core Plus A (OCC+) fund, a multi-manager product, which aims to outperform a house commodities benchmark. The product was launched in 2005 and invests in the agricultural, livestock, energy, industrial and precious metal sectors.
03/11/2010

FSA forbids use of the word “cash” in the names of money market products

According to the Financial Services Authority, the use of the word “cash” in the names of money market funds is “potentially misleading,” as it implies that the capital of subscribers is protected, although the funds may undergo losses if their management commissions cut into the capital in an environment of low interest rates, according to issue 3 of the Life Insurance Newsletter from the regulator (http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/newsletters/life_nov10.pdf).The FSA also points to shortfalls in the areas of governance and/or respect for standards in the underlying investments. It says that it intends to contact the offending managers and to take corrective measures if necessary.
03/11/2010

Le LSE retarde la migration vers un nouveau système

L’opérateur boursier londonien a décidé de reporter la migration de son marché principal vers le nouveau système de cotation Millenium à l’an prochain après qu’un problème technique a suspendu les échanges durant deux heures hier sur sa plate-forme Turquoise. Celle-ci a basculé sur le nouveau système le 4 octobre dernier. Selon le LSE, la perturbation a été causée par une erreur humaine.
03/11/2010

Citigroup prêt à céder des actifs dans le private equity

La banque américaine pourrait vendre 475 millions de dollars de participations liées à des fonds de CVC Capital Partners, ont confié des sources proches du dossier à Bloomberg. Les actifs concernés comprennent 250 millions de dollars d’intérêts dans deux fonds asiatiques et 15 millions d’euros dans un fonds européen. A cela s’ajoutent 210 millions d’euros de participations que la banque a accumulées au fil du temps en tant qu’investisseur aux côtés de CVC.
03/11/2010

Le rebond du logement devrait se prolonger

Au deuxième trimestre 2010, l’indice notaire-Insee des prix des appartements anciens, publié mardi, a augmenté de 2,2% sur trois mois et de 6,3% sur un an, tandis que celui des maisons anciennes a progressé de 2,3% sur trois mois et de 5,7% sur un an. Selon les notaires de France, ce rebond des prix et des volumes dans l’Hexagone a toutes les raisons de se prolonger au début de l’an prochain, grâce à des taux d’intérêt qui devraient rester bas.
03/11/2010

Axa PE entre chez Arismore

La société de private equity a pris 11% du capital d’Arismore, société spécialisée dans la transformation et la sécurisation des systèmes d’information. Basée en région parisienne, elle compte aujourd’hui une centaine d’employés.

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