p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On Wednesday, 13 October, EU member states failed to reach agreement on the hedge fund directive (see previous editions of Newsmanagers), and it will now devolve on the finance ministers of the 27 member states to debate the bill next Tuesday, Agefi reports. At the monthly meeting of the Ecofin council in Luxembourg, they will be required to reach a consensus in order for Europe to present its legislation at the G20 summit in Seoul on 12 November.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to sources familiar with the matter, Steven Rattner, a donor to the Democratic party and supervisor of the automotive industry restructuring program rolled out by the Obama administration, is said to be close to an agreement with the SEC in the corruption controversy known as the “pay to play” scandal, involving the New York state pension fund, the Wall Street Journal reports. He would agree to pay about USD6m and be ruled out of all professional ties with securities trading for two years.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Standard Life Investments (SLI) announced on 13 October that it has won a RFP to sub-advise a 25% allocation from the UBS PACE Alternative Strategies Investments fund, which comes out to USD116.5m. The management methodology used for the SLI mandate will be the technique known as Global Absolute Return Strategies (GARS). The objective is to generate absolute returns similar to those expected from equities over the long term, but with a significantly lower risk budget, with a multi-asset class, multi-market approach that combines traditional and non-traditional sources of performance. Currently, GARS Portfolios have over USD8bn in assets (30 August), on behalf of 260 institutional clients. The strategy has produced gross annualised returns of 10.75% over the past three years, with volatility of 6.4%. Over the same period, the MSCI World TR GBP index lost 1.26% per year, with volatility of 20.33%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Eaton Vance Management on 12 October announced the launch of the Eaton Vance Richard Bernstein Multi-Market Equity Strategy Fund, an absolute return mutual fund which will be managed by Richard Bernstein, CEO and CIO of Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC (RBA) as sub-advisor. The management strategy combines top-down and customized portfolio construction approaches based on evaluation of a full range of exclusive and non-exclusive indicators by RBA, as well as analysis and the macroeconomic sentiment of the manager. The portfolio may invest in all cap sizes, in US or international equities, from emerging or developed markets. Stock-picking will be based on quantitative filtering and an optimisation stage to achieve the desired market exposure while managing risks specific to each position.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Citywire reports that Michael Clements on 1 October took over management of the Franklin European Growth fund, previously managed by Edwin Lugo. Lugo will continue to advise the fund.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management is launching a new core real estate investment business and it has hired Jeffrey A. Barclay to lead the effort. This new business will focus on investing in and managing core and core plus real estate assets primarily in the US on behalf of GSAM’s clients. Jeffrey Barclay will join GSAM from ING Clarion Partners, where he most recently served as managing director. He is expected to join GSAM in November 2010 and will be based in New York.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Marina Lewin, who joined BNY Mellon in 2000, and Steve Farlese, who has 15 years of seniority in the company, were promoted on 13 October to the newly-created global management positions at BNY Mellon Alternative Investment Services (AIS, USD350bn in assets under administration), as head of global sales and head of global service delivery, respectively. Lewin will be in charge of development teams worldwide for the full range of AIS activities, including hedge funds, private equity, and fund of fund administration and custody. Farlese will be in charge of all aspects of global AIS activities, including production of net asset value, investment services, portfolio accounting, and other operational communications to clients for single manager products, funds of funds and private equity funds.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } L’Agefi Hedbo reports that Natixis Global Asset Mangaement (NGAM) is going to buy a 51% stake in Ossiam, a French boutique dedicated to exchange-traded funds, for EUR2.8m. The chairman of the company, Bruno Poulin, was deputy chief investment officer and head of quantitative research at Systeia Capital Management, a former unit of Crédit Agricole Asset Management. Ossiam will offer 50 ETFs in three years, for which NGAM is aiming for EUR5bn in inflows over that time, the Agefi weekly newspaper reports.

Currently, Amundi Asset Management employs two managers and three analysts in London to manage its emerging market debt portfolio. Direct assets total EUR600m, of which EUR150m are net subscriptions since the beginning of the year, while EUR300m are in indirect allocations such as global funds, Thomas Delabre, co-manager of the Amundi Global Emergents fund announced on Wednesday.The three funds, Amundi Global Emergents and Amundi Oblig Emergents funds, registered in France, and the Amundi Funds Emerging Market Debt (a Luxembourg-registered UCITS-compliant product), have posted returns of about 20% since the beginning of this year. They are authorised to short currencies, but are long-only on bonds.The three highly actively managed products, one of which is a hybrid fund of local/external debt, while two are specialised in external debt, are about 30% invested in corporate bonds (including state-owned companies, such as the Venezuelan PVDSA), as for example in bond issues from Indonesian mining companies, Kazakh banks, and Mexican home-builders.The range is expected to grow, and the London-based team is planning to launch a pure local debt fund.

F&C will vote against the re-election of News Corp’s audit committee chairman at its annual meeting on Friday to oppose the group’s million-dollar political donations to the Republican Governors Association and the US Chamber of Commerce, writes the Financial Times. The UK asset manager holds a stake worth about USD1.1m in News Corp, which has a USD36.5bn market capitalisation.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) on Wednesday announced the appointment of Marco Fusco as CEO of the French activities of SSgA. He replaces Carl Bang, who is leaving to pursue new professional projects in Canada. Fusco joined SSgA in 2007. He most recently serves as CEO of SSgA in Italy, and head of the Intermediary Business Group for Southern Europe.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Schroders has announced the recruitment of Martha Metcalf to the position of high yield manager in its fixed income team in the United States. She was previously director of the US High Yield department at Credit Suisse in New York. Metcalf has 22 years of experience in high yield and emerging markets management, a statement says.

At an auction held by the liquidator, AmpegaGerling Asset Management GmbH (EUR84bn) won a 32.59% stake in the German-Austrian management firm C-Quadrat Investment AG which had previously belonged to the AvW AG group, and which had been held by Capital Bank since AvW encountered financial difficulties, at a price of EUR12.60 per share (reserve price: EUR12.50).As the stake in question represented slightly over 1.42 million shares, the price paid by AmpegaGerling comes to EUR17.92m. Compared with the EUR4.9bn in total assets at C-Quadrat (EUR4.9bn, of which EUR3bn are in asset management), this represents a price equivalent to 1.1% of assets.The transaction is still on hold pending approval from the Austrian financial market supervisory authority (FMA). However, the board of C-Quadrat has welcomed AmpegaGerling’s engagement, calling the firm a “strategic partner for the long term,” with which the business has worked for several years.

In third quarter 2010, the Asset Management division of JPMorgan had net inflows of USD38bn, of which USD27bn went to liquidity products, and USD11bn to long-term products.However, in the 12-month period to the end of September, the firm has seen net outflows of USD42bn. Assets under management totalled USD1.3trn as of the end of September, a stable level compared with the previous year, due to net outflows from liquidity products, which were offset by net inflows to long-term products and rising markets. Assets under supervision totalled USD1.8trn.The asset management activity at JPMorgan in third quarter earned net income of USD420m, a slight decline of 2% compared with the previous year. Revenues totalled USD2.2bn, 4% more than last year. These were divided between USD1.2trn for private banking (+9%), USD506m for institutional (-5%), and USD485m for retail (+3%).The bank as a whole earned net income up 23% to USD4.4bn in third quarter.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Asian Investor reports that the former regional head of sales and marketing from Lyxor Asset Mangement will be joining Credit Suisse, where he will rejoin his former Lyxor colleague, Dan Draper. Ho, who left Lyxor on 30 September, will be operational next February at Credit Suisse, where he will take up the newly-created position of regional head of ETFs, based in Hong Kong. He will report to Draper, global head of ETFs for Credit Suisse, based in London.

Allan Conway, head of global emerging market equities at Schroders (USD26bn in assets under direct management), announced in Paris on 13 October that the British management firm has posted very strong subscriptions to its ISF Global Emerging Markets (GEM) fund. In this case he observes a development which he considers symptomatic: flows are no longer dominated by retail, but instead by institutional investors. Emerging market equities have become a strategic rather than a tactical investment for these clients, with a tactical overlay.The BRIC fund has already had a soft closing at EUR9bn. In a few weeks, the same fate attends the ISF Global Emerging Markets Opportunities (GEMO), which is a concentrated, long-only collection of the best ideas from GEM, without the constraints of a benchmark and with a performance objective of 15% per year, and the ability to increase exposure to 30% cash and 30% developed market bonds, in a concentrated portfolio of 60 positions from only 12 countries (compared with 120-130 shares and 20-25 countries for the GEM).Since the beginning of this year, the GEMO fund has attracted about USD300m in net subscriptions, which, with market appreciation, has increased its assets by USD500m, to USD1.2bn. Because a major investor is planning to make a large investment in the fund, assets under management are expected to rapidly reach USD1.5bn, which will lead Schroders to announce a soft closing for this fund as well.When asked about plans to extend the product range, Conway says that the firm is studying the possibility of launching a frontier fund, which will carry over 55-60% of the investment ideas of the Middle East fund (USD250m), launched three years ago. The product will likely initially be a British-registered investment trust, which may open at Christmas time or in early 2011. There are also plans for a Luxembourg-registered version of the product, but the terrain must be prepared, bringing together the first potential investors before the operation begins.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } M&G Investments has launched an inflation-linked bond fund, co-managed by Jim Leaviss and Ben Lord, Money Marketing reports. Among the 150 names in the portfolio are direct participations in over 30 issuers, including Tesco, Thames Water and Toyota.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The CNMV on 8 October registered three French-domiciled funds from Aviva Investors: Aviva Investor Crédit Europe, Aviva Investors Monétaire and Aviva Investors Valeurs Europe. The products will be sold in Spain by Aviva Investors Global Services Ltd, the group’s Spanish affiliate.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to a report by Plus24, the money supplement of Il Sole – 24 Ore, and Interactive Data Kler, of Italian-registered funds, in 2009, asset management firms paid their distribution channels commissions of over EUR1.4bn out of EUR2bn in management fees. This amounts to an average of 71.44%. The fund management companies who are most generous with their distributors are banking affiliates. At the top of the rankings is Amundi Sgr, which pays out an average of 84% in commissions to its networks.

Avec 1,6 million de m² commercialisés au cours des neuf premiers mois de l’année, le marché se replace dans la moyenne décennale

L’amélioration des conditions de financement et l’attractivité du rendement immobilier ont permis un retour des capitaux sur le marché

Selon Asian Investor, Beonca Yip quitte Lyxor Asset Management pour rejoindre Prudential AM en qualité de responsable régionale de la distribution retail.De son côté, Sophina Hui, précédemment chez Amundi AM, a rejoint Schroder Investment Management en qualité de responsable de la clientèle institutionnelle à Hong Kong.

Le gestionnaire néerlandais de fonds de pension Achmea Beleggingsfondsen Beheer B.V., filiale du groupe d’assurances Achmea, a alloué un mandat de 230 millions d’euros à investir en obligations européennes à Standish Mellon Asset Management Company LLC, filiale de BNY Mellon Asset Management. Jusqu'à présent, la gestion du unit trust était confiée à un seul gestionnaire d’actif, mais Achmea a décidé de nommer deux gestionnaires supplémentaires. Standish est le seul étranger des trois. Le mandat sera géré par l'équipe de Standish spécialiste des obligations euro dirigée par David Leduc, managing director of global fixed income.Standish affiche un encours de 71 milliards de dollars.

Selon l’Agefi, les fonds Blackstone, Permira, KKR, Providence et Apax Partners, qui détiennent 88% du capital de l’opérateur danois TDC, ont confirmé avoir mandaté un consortium de banques pour un passage en revue des options stratégiques, qui pourrait «mener ou non à la vente de tout ou partie de leurs titres TDC».

Les villes d’Asie et d’Amérique latine rattrapent Londres et New York en tant que centres de domiciliation des plus gros hedge funds au monde, selon le Financial Times qui cite une étude de Hedge Fund Intelligence à paraître ce mercredi. São Paulo et Rio de Janeiro accueillent désormais cinq sociétés de hedge funds gérant plus de 1 milliard de dollars, contre une seulement il y a 12 mois. Hong Kong et Singapour quant à eux abritent 15 gérants de plus d’un milliard de dollars contre 10 en début d’année.

Pour le troisième mois consécutif, les hedge funds ont affiché un gain en septembre, avec une hausse de 3,5 %, selon Eurekahedge, tandis que le MSCI Monde avançait de 6,75 %. Il s’agit de la deuxième meilleure performance mensuelle de ces fonds depuis mai 2003. Depuis le début de l’année, l’indice Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index a progressé de 5,15 %. Toutes les régions et les stratégies ont dégagé des rendements positifs en septembre. Les plus fortes performances ont été enregistrées par les fonds Asie hors Japon (+6,03 %) et les fonds long/short equity (+4,33 %).

Les sociétés spécialisées dans le suivi de tendances (trend followers), comme Winton Capital, BlueCrest et Man Group, ont vu leurs hedge funds quantitatifs enregistrer des performances soutenues ces deux derniers mois et sont parties pour un bon troisième mois grâce aux évolutions marquées des marchés des devises et obligataires, rapporte le Financial Times. Par exemple, AHL, le fonds de man Group de 21 milliards de dollars, est déjà en hausse de 8,22 % environ depuis le début du mois selon une personne proche du dossier.

Suite à l’annonce du depart de Michiel Timmerman, qui était CIO, multi-manager investments, Aberdeen Asset Management a promu Graham duce et aidan Kearney, des anciens de Credit Suisse Asset Management qui ont rejoint en 2009, au poste de co-heads of multi-manager investments au sein de la division stratégies d’investissement alternatif du groupe. Ils seront responsables d’une équipe de 40 professionnels de l’investissement et d’un encours de 13,5 milliards de livres en multigestion long-only ainsi qu’en fonds de hedge funds. En d’autres termes, Aberdeen fusionne les activités long-only et fonds de hedge funds de Credit Suisse et de RBS.Jusqu'à présent, Graham Duce et Adian Kearney étaient co-heads de l’activité de multigestion qu’ils avaient apportée de Credit Suisse ; désormais, ils sont aussi responsables des portefeuilles de fonds de hedge funds acquis auprès de RBS Asset Management depuis le début de cette année. Cela posé, ils restent subordonnés à Anne Richards, head of alternative investment strategies et CIO d’Aberdeen AM.

Le 12 octobre, Santander Asset Management UK a confirmé l’information selon laquelle Tom Caddick et Toby Vaughan rejoignent son département multigestion (voir Newsmanagers d’hier) en provenance de LVAM. A cette occasion, précise Fund Strategy, le gestionnaire indique que Tom Caddick va prendre la succession de Keith Speck comme head of multi-manager. En effet, Keith Speck quitte l’entreprise.

Dans un article consacré à l’activité des gestionnaires étrangers bien supérieur à celle des espagnols (lire par ailleurs), Cinco Días montre que les maisons françaises ont été les plus actives cette année. Le nombre de fonds français est passé de 122 en 2007 à 201 actuellement.Ainsi Lyxor (Société Générale) a commercialisé 11 ETF sur le marché espagnol depuis le début de l’année, contre 3 pour l’an dernier à la même date. Axa a lancé trois fonds et décidé de les faire distribuer par Allfunds Bank, Banco Inversis et Catalunya Caixa, en plus d’Axa Ibercapital. Saint-Honoré a mis sur le marché 13 fonds, au travers d’Allfunds, contre 7 l’an dernier. LFP a lancé trois fonds..