Selon L’Agefi suisse, Fidelity Suisse annonce l’intensification de ses activités sur le territoire helvétique avec le lancement d’une activité institutionnelle. Fidelity, qui est implanté en Suisse depuis 1996 avec des bureaux à Genève et Zurich, est parvenu à une taille critique sur le marché de détail et entend aujourd’hui poursuivre un second volet de croissance en mettant en place une activité institutionnelle dans le second semestre 2010.
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), Barclays Wealth et Nikko Cordial Securities ont annoncé avoir signé un accord de co-entreprise pour la fourniture de services de gestion de fortune à une clientèle haut de gamme au Japon.La co-entreprise s’appellera SMBC Barclays Wealth Division et fonctionnera à partir de la plate-forme de Nikko.
En vue de rembourser les aides publiques reçues durant la crise, KBC le bancassureur belge a annoncé lundi deux nouvelles cessions, dont celle de ses activités de produits dérivés en Asie et d’obligations convertibles au groupe financier japonais Daiwa. Le montant de la cession dont la date définitive est prévue au quatrième trimestre s’élève à un milliard de dollars (799 millions d’euros). Cette transaction libérera approximativement 200 millions de dollars de capital (160 millions d’euros).
Suite à un appel à candidatures internes comme externes, Achim Arnhof, qui faisait partie de l'équipe de distribution institutionnelle depuis 2002 a été nommé directeur des ventes institutionnelles d’Erste Sparinvest pour l’Autriche à compter du 1er juillet. Il est subordonné à Christian Schön, l’un des membres de la direction générale d’Erste Sparinvest depuis octobre 2009.Achim Arnhof remplace Anton Kovar, qui est devenu co-directeur général d’Erste Sparinvest pour l’Allemagne en avril, aux côtés d’Harry Möhring.
L’ancien patron du développement Europe d’Aviva Investors, Adam Lessing, a retouvé un poste : il est désormais directeur général de Fidelity International pour l’Autriche et sera de plus chargé du développement dans ce pays ainsi qu’en Europe de l’Est. Il avait dû quitter son ancien employeur fin décembre 2009, dans le cadre d’une restructuration.Adam Lessing reprend les prérogatives d’Alfred Strebel, qui s'était chargé de l’Autriche début 2007 et qui va pouvoir à présent se concentrer à nouveau sur le marché suisse pour y développer la clientèle institutionnelle, en complément du retail.
The four Swedish government pension funds (AP1, AP2, AP3 and AP4), which manage total assets of about EUR84bn, have launched a reuquest for proposals for an analysis and consulting mandate on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. The four funds are now co-ordinating their efforts on environmental and ethical questions in an Ethical Council. The primary goal of the mandate proposed by the Swedish pension funds is to provide the Council information and specific analysis of the behaviour and strategy of companies in their portfolios. The call for bids is open until 9 August.
Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management Hong Kong announced on Monday, 5 July that it has become a member of the Association for Socially Responsible Investment in Asia (AsrIA), a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of corporate responsibility and sustainable investment practices in the Asia-Pacific region. Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management Hong Kong Limited will now have access to the research, resources and data of ASrIA, which will allow it to identify SRI-related issues encountered by local companies, and the major areas of concern of investors, a statement from the management firm says.
According to reports in Dinhero Digital, relayed by Funds People, the Benfica Stars Fund, which has been managed by Esaf since September 2009, will make EUR5m on the EUR25m paid to Benfica by Real Madrid for the transfer of left wing Angel di María. This represents a gain of EUR0.6m for the fund. The SAD Benfica sold 20% of its rights to Di María to the Benfica Stars Fund for EUR4.4m when the fund was created, which valued the player at EUR22m. As of the end of May, assets in the fund totalled EUR35.74m.
Neptune investment management has announced that its analyst Nicola Muirhead, who joined the firm in December 2008 from BlackRock, is the manager of the fifth UK equities fund in its range, the UK Alpha, launched on 30 June. It is a “strong conviction” product with only 30 to 40 positions. Muirhead is already co-manager of the UK Spcial Situations fund with Alex Breese, and of the UK Mid Cap fund with Jeremy Smith.
As previously announced (see Newsmanagers of 6 May), Henderson Global Investors (HGI) on 1 July launched the Henderson Horizon Global Currency Fund, as a sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav. It is the first Henderson fund to be launched simultaneously in continental Europe and the United Kingdom. The Newcits fund, a clone of an original fund registered in the Cayman Islands (Henderson Global Currency Fund), is managed by Bob Arends, head of the currencies team at HGI, which also includes five other Fortis veterans. The team uses a quantitative strategy, which allows them to open positions on the most attractive carry-trades, with specific filters to optimise risk controls in periods of falling markets.
Neuberger Berman Europe has launched a UCITS III-compliant global equities fund. The Neuberger Berman Global Thematic Opportunities fund will invest primarily in companies which are well-positioned to profit from various growth themes. The portfolio will have no more than 50 positions. The minimal investment has been set at USD10,000, or GBP6,667.
Between the end of 2009 and the end of June 2010, assets under management at Spanish funds and securities investment companies fell by EUR4.9bn, or 2.5%, to a total of EUR191.57bn, the CNMV states in its most recent quarterly report. The CNMV is not yet in a position to disclose an exact figure for subscriptions/redemptions in second quarter. In January-March, net redemptions totalled nearly EUR3.1bn, largely due to net outflows of EUR4.7bn from bond funds. For funds alone, assets fell 3.2%, or nearly EUR5.45bn, to a total of EUR165.1bn. Of this total, bond funds represented EUR76.93bn, compared with EUR84.66bn as of the end of December. The two categories with the largest asset volumes, after bonds, are guaranteed equities funds, (EUR24.45bn, compared with EUR25.66bn), and guaranteed bond funds (EUR22.65bn, compared with EUR21.03bn).
According to Robert Lee, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, the new legislation applicable to banks will only have a minor impact on fund managers, the Wall Street Journal reports. However, the “Volcker-rule,” which limits prop trading by banks, will also apply to asset managers who are already subject to banking laws. Franklin Resources, for example, has the status of a bank holding company, while T. Rowe Price Group has a banking affiliate, and BlackRock is a non-banking affiliate of Bank of America and PNC Financial Services Group.
In an interview with Les Echos, Gérard Mestrallet, chairman of the Paris Europlace association, whose 17th annual international financial conference begins today in Paris, claims that the City is still “very powerful and reactive,” but that the Paris market withstood the crisis better. “The good management of most French banks proves that their universal banking model softened the blow of the crisis. The permanent dialogue between French regulators and users of the market guaranteed a level of regulation which was adapted to investor protection. This resilience in a crisis context allowed Paris Europlace to form international ties with emerging financial markets with strong growth potential, such as Dubai, Qatar, and most recently Moscow. The Paris market plans to continue to improve its positioning, particularly in SMB financing and long-term savings development,” Mestrallet tells the newspaper.
Investment Week reports that Aberdeen has halved the number of positions for its European Frontiers fund (GBP52m), from 60 to 28. Country and sectoral allocations for the fund have also been modified. One year ago, the fund was 53% exposed to Russia, and 14% to Turkey. These countries’ exposures are now 44% ,and 25%, respectively. The fund is overweight in the discretionary consumer and health sectors, and underweight in energy and utilities.
In June, the Hedge Fund Research’s hedge fund index (HFRX) was down 0.94%, meaning that losses in first half were limited to 1.25, while the S&P 500 lost 5% and 7.6% in June and first half respectively, the Wall Street Journal reports. In general, hedge fund managers avoided big losses because they stayed defensive, says Chris Jackson, a fund of hedge fund manager at SFG Asset Advisors. The main hedge fund managed by Och-Ziff Capital Management lost 0.46% in June, but gained 1.39% in January-June. David Einhorn made more than 2% in June for Greenlight Capital Re, putting its performance for first half at 0.6%.
On 19 July, Credit Suisse will launch two bond sub-funds of its Luxembourg Sicav Credit Suisse Fund (Lux), entitled Fixed Maturity 2013 EUR and Fixed Maturity 2015 EUR. They are target date funds, which are already on sale in Germany. The products are aimed at investors in search of a secure investment, and represent an alternative to investment directly in securities. The two funds will invest primarily in bonds denominated in Euros, maturing in 2013 and 2015, and which as a general rule will be retained until maturity. The portfolios, managed by Maurizio Pedrini, will include 50 to 100 positions. Characteristics Names: Credit Suisse (Lux) Fixed Maturity 2013 EUR and Credit Suisse (Lux) Fixed Maturity 2015 EUR ISIN: LU0507003050 (2013) and LU0507003480 (2015)Maturity dates: 29 November 2013 and 30 November 2015Distribution: annualManagement commission: 0.40%
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), Barclays Wealth and Nikko Cordial Securities have announced that they have signed a joint venture agreement to provide wealth management solutions to high net worth clients in Japan. The joint venture will be entitled SMBC Barclays Wealth Division, and will operate from the Nikko platform.
Dieter Frerichs, 72, a suspected accomplice of Helmut Kiener, known in the press as the German Madoff, has died in Majorca, Das Investment reports. He Spanish police, arriving to arrest Kiener a second time, this time to extradite him to Germany, claim that he committed suicide by gunshot during the arrest, while his daughter-in-law, Fiona Ferrer, accuses the police of having shot her father-in-law. The deceased manager operated Kiener’s management firms K1 Global Limited and K1 Invest Limited from Majorca. Kiener has been in prison since October 2009, and is accused of having defrauded his clients of EUR300m.
The former head of development for Europe at Aviva Investors, Adam Lessing, has a new job: he is now CEO of Fidelity International for Austria, and will be in charge of development in the country, and also in Eastern Europe. He left his former employer in December 2009 in a restructuring. Lessing replaces Alfred Strebel, who became CEO for Austria in early 2007, and who will now be able to once again concentrate on the Swiss market, in order to develop the institutional client base there, to complement the retail segment.
Following a search for both internal and external candidates, Achim Arnhof, who had previously served in the institutional sales team since 2002, has been appointed as director of institutional sales at Erste Sparinvest for Austria, from 1 July. He will report to Christian Schön, who has been a part of the management team at Erste Sparinvest since October 2009. Arnhof replaces Anton Kovar, who became co-CEO of Erste Sparinvest for Germany in April, alongside Harry Möhring.
Amundi has confirmed to Newsmanagers that Loïc Cadiou, head of fixed income, absolute returns and currencies, based in London, has left the firm; his resignation was previously reported by Citywire. He will be replaced by Cédric Morisseau, who previously served as deputy head. In the new organisational structure put in place following the departure of Bruno Crastes, whose resignation was announced in April (see Newsmanagers of 14/04/10), then of Vincent Chaillet, head of international bond and absolute returns activities, and then of Jean-Noël Alba, deputy CEO of CAAM London Branch, Pascal Blanqué is now CEO of Amundi London, Laurent Crosnier is CIO, and Morisseau becomes head of fixed income, absolute returns, and currencies.
Colin Purdie, who was credit investment manager at Aegon Asset Management, has joined Aviva Investors as credit funds manager, in the socially responsible investment (SRI) team, where he will report to Peter Michaelis, head of SRI. He will be in charge of integrating ecological, social and governance directives affecting bond investments with SRI analysts at Aviva Investors. The SRI unit at Aviva Investors has assets of GBP3.6bn.
Equitable Life on 4 July announced that it has selected BlackRock to provide risk management and investment solutions to its 40,000 policyholders and investment program subscribers. BlackRock’s objective will be to maximise returns on Equitable Life’s GBP5.7bn portfolio, while remaining within regulatory solvency ratio requirements.
Philipp Kowollik, who for 5 years was a sales manager for Germany and Austria at Société Générale Asset Management in Frankfurt, has joined Threadneedle Germany in the same city as sales director, in charge of private banks and family offices throughout Germany. He will report to Werner Kolitsch, head of Germany & Austria.
The Swiss Vontobel group, which has chosen Germany as its “second domestic market,” on Monday announced that it is adopting the single brand name Bank Vontobel Europe AG in the country, as a result of the merger of Vontobel Securities AG in Cologne with Vontobel Europe SA in Frankfurt. The group will now offer private banking, asset management and investment banking services under the single brand name. The managing board at Bank Vontobel Europe AG will be chaired by Frank Wieser, and will also include Alois Ebner, Andreas Heinrichs, Richard Zweng and Matthias Klein. The supervisory board will be chaired by Herbert J. Scheidt, CEO of the Vontobel group.
Since the beginning of the year, assets in European ETF funds have increased 16%, to EUR197.6bn, following a 63% increase in 2009, db x-trackers reports. Thorsten Michalik, director of the arm of Deutsche Bank, has told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the firm is hoping to overtake Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale) as the second-largest European ETF provider in the near future. Currently, Lyxor has EUR34.4bn in assets under management, and a market share of 17.4%, while db x-trackers has EUR28.7bn, or 14.5%. The top provider is BlackRock, after its acquisition of iShares, with EUR64.7bn, or a market share of 32.7%. As innovation gives an advantage to managers who are the first to launch a promising product, db x-trackers is planning to make itself stand out in the currencies, commodities and emerging markets ETF domains.
Martin Katheder, who was previously head of solutions development for corporate savings plans at Allianz Global Investors, has been appointed CEO of Allianz Pension Partners (APP), an affiliate of Allianz Global Investors KAG (AGI) specialised in corporate retirement savings solutions. Katheder will also become head of pension markets activities at AGI. In his new role, Martin Katheder replaces Tobias Pross, who will take on new reponsibilities in the institutional clients division of AGI.
«Chargée marketing» chez Franklin Templeton Investments à Paris, Cecilia Georges a quitté son employeur vendredi soir. Ce lundi, elle prend un poste de marketing opérationnel chez BNP Paribas Asset Management.