Selon la Tribune, la filiale belge d’Axa étudie deux possibilités d’acquisitions en assurance-vie. Dans un entretien à l’Echo, Emmanuel de Talhouët, le patron d’Axa Belgique a confirmé l’intérêt que son entreprise porte à la clientèle de First, la filiale du groupe d’assurance Ethias.
HSBC Global Asset Management commercialise en Italie deux nouveaux fonds de sa gamme Ucits III Absolute Return : le HSBC GIF European Equity Alpha et HSBC GIF Global Emerging Markets Equity Alpha, rapporte Bluerating. Par ailleurs, Pictet Funds vient de lancer le Pictet High Dividend Selection dans la Péninsule.
Intesa Sanpaolo s’achemine vers un report de l’introduction en Bourse de Banca Fideuram, rapporte Il Sole – 24 Ore. La banque souhaiterait valoriser sa filiale de gestion d’actifs à un prix de 3 milliards d’euros, sa participation étant inscrite dans son bilan à 2,5 milliards. Mais ce niveau semble trop élevé compte tenu des difficiles conditions de marché actuelles. Si l’introduction en Bourse est reportée, ce serait aussi le cas de l’acquisition de 15-20 % de Fideuram de la part de Hellman & Friedman.
La société de gestion autrichienne Superfund a fermé six bureaux dans le monde (Dubai, Liechtenstein, San Paolo, Singapour, Sydney et Monaco) en raison de difficultés financières, rapporte le site Internet italien Bluerating, citant des médias étrangers. La société de hedge funds, qui gère 1,24 milliard de dollars, ne conserverait que trois bureaux à Vienne, Hong-King et New York. Ces réductions de coûts sont liées aux difficultés de la société : son fonds Superfund Q-AG a perdu 24 % en 2009 et 6,9 % ces cinq derniers mois, précise Bluerating.
Threadneedle a annoncé jeudi le lancement d’un hedge fund sous enveloppe OPCVM III, le Threadneedle (Lux) American Absolute Alpha Fund, qui vient compléter une gamme de produits de performance absolue dont l’encours atteint les 3 milliards de dollars. Ce fonds, dont Newmanagers avait annoncé le prochain lancement (voir nos articles des 15 et 16 mars), est géré par Stephen Moore, qui est le gestionnaire principal de l’American Crescendo Fund, un long/short equity spécialiste des valeurs nord-américaines. Il gère depuis le lancement en 2007 le premier fonds 130/30 coordonné de Threadneedle, l’American Extended Alpha Fund (lire notre article du 19 octobre 2009) .
Le patrimoine global des organismes de placement collectif et des fonds d’investissement spécialisés s’est élevé à 2.012,88 milliards d’euros au 30 avril 2010 contre 1.980,54 milliards au 31 mars 2010, soit une augmentation de 1,63% sur un mois, selon les statistiques communiquées par la Commission de surveillance du secteur financier (CSSF) du Luxembourg. Sur les douze derniers mois, le volume des actifs nets est en augmentation de 26,36%.L’industrie des OPC luxembourgeois a ainsi enregistré une variation positive de 32,35 milliards en avril, dont 18,54 milliards d’euros d’effet marché positif (+0,94%) et 13,80 milliards (+070%) provenant d'émissions nettes positives.Le nombre d’organismes de placement collectif (OPC) et de fonds d’investissement spécialisés (FIS) pris en considération est de 3.521 par rapport à 3.516 le mois précédent. 2.158 entités ont adopté une structure à compartiments multiples ce qui représente 11.189 compartiments. En y ajoutant les 1.363 entités à structure classique, un nombre total de 12.552 entités sont actives sur la place financière.
Le néerlandais Morningstar Europe BV, filiale de Mornngstar Inc, achète à Phosphorus A/S ses 75 % dans Morningstar Danmark A/S pour 15,2 millions de dollars plus la part de Phosphorus aux bénéfices de la société pour le premier semestre 2010.Désormais, Morningstar Europe détient ainsi la totalité des parts de sa filiale danoise qui emploie 11 personnes. La transaction devrait être bouclée en juillet.
Threadneedle on Thursday announced the launch of a UCITS III-compliant hedge fund, the Threadneedle (Lux) American Absolute Alpha Fund, which comes as an addition to a range of absolute return products with assets of USD3bn. The fund, whose forthcoming launch has previously been reported by Newsmanagers (see articles of 15 and 16 March), is managed by Stephen Moore, the main manager of the American Crescendo Fund, a long/short equity product specialised in North American equities. Since its launch in 2007, he has managed the first UCITS-compliant 130/30 fund from Threadneedle, the American Extended Alpha Fund (see Newsmanagers of 19 October 2009).
Sarasin Alpen (India) Private Limited, an affiliate of the Swiss private bank Sarasin & Cie SA, has appionted Shiv Khanzanchi as director of its Indian operations. Khazanchi will be based in locations other than the Sarasin Alpen head offices in New Delhi. In addition to his responsibilities as director of Sarasin Alpen for India, he will supervise the activities of Alpen Capital India Private Limited, the investment bank associates with Sarasin Alpen. The Sarasin group is present in the Middle East and India under the Sarasin Alpen name. Its Indian activities started up in July 2009, with the opening of offices in Mumbai and New Delhi. Sarasin Alpen (India) Private Limited operates as a non-banking financial institution; the firm offers financial advising and consulting services to Indian high net worth private clients and distributes a selected range of products from premier partners, especially investment funds. The bank has also appointed Damien Ng, previously of Credit Suisse, as head of investment advising for Asia. He will be based in Singapore.
Analistas Financieros Internacionales (AFI), which has been tasked by the Inverco association of management firms with studying the causes of a steep drop in assets under management, has found that Spanish funds are comparatively defensive, to the extent that the hemorrhage at the onset of the crisis was less due to the falling equities markets than it was to the “war for deposits,” as banks sought to attract savings investors to the detriment of investment funds, Cinco Días reports. From mid-2009 until February 2010 (when the study was carried out) however, net outflows were not related to this competition so much as they were to the fact that savings investors were seeking to offset both rising debts and reductions in their income. Emilio Ontiveros, president of AFI, says the asset management industry will need to restructure, since it is currently burdened with excess capacity, with 122 actors in the market, of which 39 saw losses in 2009.
The pension fund CalPERS (USD200bn) is in the process of recruiting a number of directors, in order to have them on hand when it needs to nominate candidates for positions on the boards of directors at companies in which the fund is invested when they are reporting poor results, the Wall Street Journal reports. The 3D (Diverse Director Database) is being created ahead of changes soon to come to the rules governing the composition of boards of directors. The new rules will give CalPERS and other investors more influence over the composition of these boards. Anne Simpson, head of corporate governance, says that to be included in the new CalPERS database, in addition to a position as a major point of reference in management, finance and sectoral expertise, candidates should also belong to groups which have been historically underrepresented on boards, such as women and minorities.
The Austrian management firm Superfund has closed six offices worldwide (Dubai, Liechtenstein, Saõ Paolo, Singapore, Sydney, and Monaco), due to financial difficulties, the Italian website Bluerating reports, citing reports in the international press. The hedge fund firm, which manages USD1.24bn in assets, retains only three offices, in Vienna, Hong Kong and New York. The cost reductions are related to troubles at the firm, as its Superfund Q-AG lost 24% in 2009, and has lost 6.9% in the past five months, Bluerating states.
At his first meeting with clients since the firm was launched nearly two years ago, Marc Renaud painted a concise and clear picture of the activities of Mandarine Gestion, which now has EUR1.2bn in assets vs EUR1,04bn on March, 19. The firm has seen inflows of over EUR420m, and is set to continue on this path this year. Mandarine Gestion, which was profitable in 2009 and continues to be so in 2010, has 17 employees, and offers 6 funds or areas of expertise. 80% of assets come from within France, while slightly under 10% come from Germany, and slightly over 10% from Switzerland. Clients are 50% composed of institutional and 50% retail investors. Multi-management represents about 20%-25% of assets, while the remainder is divided between IFAs, “a stable client base with daily inflows,” and private banking in Paris and Geneva.
Putnam Investments has announced that its four absolute return funds, launched in December 2009, have recently topped USD2bn in assets, of which USD1bn have come in the past six months. A survey of independent financial advisers has also found that most of them are expecting unprecedented inflows to their absolute return products in the next 12 months.
Les Echos reports that a move to closer ties between Exane and BNP Paribas in research, cash equities and derivatives is under study. Exane would recruit 50 professionals in London, while the bank would scale up its coverage of the British market from London.
Intesa Sanpaolo is moving toward a postponement of the planned initial public offering for Banca Fideuram, Il Sole – 24 Ore reports. The bank would like to value its asset management affiliate at EUR3bn, as its stake in the business is valued on its books at EUR2.5bn. But this level appears too high, due to difficult conditions in the current market. If the IPO is postponed, Hellman & Friedman’s planned acquisition of a 15-20% stake in Fideuram would also have to be put off.
Volker Plate, who was replaced by Werner Kollitsch at Threadneedle Germany (see Newsmanagers of 2 March) has joined MainFirst Asset Management as head of wholesale business for Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Italy. Robert Focken, who in 2009 moved from the equity sales sector to asset management sales, has joined the wholesale team as director of sales for Germany, Austria and France.
Responsible Investor reports that Merrill Lynch is planning to rebuild its research team dedicated to responsible investment, with the recruitment of two former co-heads of the sustainable development team at Société Générale. Valéry Lucas-Leclin and Sarbjit Nahal, both ESG analysts, who were co-heads of the SRI research team at Société Générale, will join Merrill Lynch in September. The two former Société Générale managers would continue to be based in Paris.
Collins Stewart Wealth Management has announced its acquisition of Andersen Charnley (ACL), an independent wealth management firm which offers discretionary management and financial advising, with offices in London and Bagshot, Surrey. The operation will bring assets under management at Collins Stewart to GBP6.8bn, the management firm says in a statement, adding that it continues to pursue an ambition to achieve GBP10bn in assets under management by 2012.
HSBC Global Asset Management has released two new funds from its UCITS III Absolute Return range in Italy: the HSBC GIF European Equity Alpha and HSBC GIF Global Emerging Markets Equity Alpha, Bluerating reports. Pictet Funds has also launched the Pictet High Dividend Selection fund in Italy.
The Credit Suisse/Tremont hedge fund index lost 2.76% in the month of May, its heaviest loss since November 2009, according to final statistics. Nine sectors out of ten posted negative results in May. Only short bias showed gains of 5.84%.
Santander Asset Management, via Allfunds Alternative, the fund of hedge fund advisory affiliate of Allfunds Bank, is launching the Santander Absolute Strategies UCITS, an absolute return fund which complies with the UCITS III directive. The product will invest in 20 hedge funds domiciled in Luxembourg, but will also be registered in Spain, in order to be distributed to clients of the private bank, Expansión reports. Assets at the Luxembourg affiliate now total EUR1.3bn, compared with EUR600m in early 2009. In addition to the Absolute Strategies UCITS, the asset management firm has applied for a sales license for five other products.
Pictet Funds has released its UCITS-compliant long/short hedge fund Corto Europe on the Spanish market, Expansión reports. Management commission is 1.6% for retail investors, and 1.1% for institutional investors, in addition to which there is a performance commission of 20% (see Newsmanagers of 4 April and 1 June).
The British investment management association (IMA) has received a further 130 applications for membership from offshore funds seeking to be included in carious sections of the association’s registers. In a first wave of registrations, the professional association has already signed up 117 offshore funds, while 36 more funds are waiting for their data to be finalised. Offshore funds will have another opportunity to sign up in autumn, and by the end of the year, several hundred of them may have done so.
Les Echos reports that a US financial regulation bill would allow investors to sue ratings agencies if their valuations of certain financial instruments are “terribly negligent.” US legislators also support the idea of creating a new supervisory authority to manage the conflicts of interest inherent in the ratings industry, which is ultimately financed by the same businesses it is meant to rate.
Le graphique ci-contre compare les densités de probabilité des surperformances des fonds actions européennes sur deux sous-périodes récentes: août 2009 – décembre 2009 et janvier 2010 – mai 2010. Ces deux sous-périodes correspondent à des conditions de marché très différentes puisque la performance moyenne des fonds était respectivement de 9,2% et de -4,1% sur les deux périodes considérées.
Les tableaux ci-contre présentent les meilleures et plus mauvaises performances des fonds sur le marché des fonds actions américaines et celui des fonds actions françaises au cours du mois de mai 2010. Ces performances sont mises en perspective par le calcul de la volatilité et du ratio de Sharpe sur trois ans d’historique ainsi que du rendement depuis un an.
Le Global ETF Fund, en cours d’autorisation à Luxembourg, sera selon Funds People le premier fonds espagnol d’ETF couvrant le monétaire, les obligations d’entreprise, les obligations d’Etat, les obligations indexées sur l’inflation, les actions, les REIT, le private equity, les hedge funds et les matières premières, le risque de change étant couvert au moyen de dérivés.Ce nouveau produit lancé par Triple A Investment Advisors, dirigée par David Gonzalvo, sera géré au jour le jour par Adepa. L’objectif est une performance absolue sur 3 à 5 ans, avec un rendement supérieur de 500 points de base à l’euribor 1 mois, une volatilité annualisée de 7 % et une liquidité hebdomadaire. La souscription minimale sera de 5.000 euros et la commission de gestion sera de 1,5 % pour les particuliers ou de 0,75 % pour les institutionnels. Il est prévu aussi une commission de performance de 10 % sur les gains supérieurs à l’euribor 1 mois.