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30/03/2010

Institutional investors have unrealistic expectations for returns

According to a survey by Pioneer Investment of 500 institutional investors, respondents on average expect returns of 4.4%, thus the potential for disappointment is high, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. Meanwhile, 50.1% of respondents prefer absolute returns to outperformance of a benchmark index. Wolfgang Kirschner, director of institutional business for Pioneer, says that half of the businesses surveyed have no equities in their portfolios. Those which do have an average allocation of only 7.5%. More than one quarter are planning to increase their exposure to equities, while 20% are planning to reduce their exposure to bonds.
30/03/2010

Invest & Give appoints a head of distribution

Angus Duncan, former head of distribution at Smith & Williamson, has been appointed as head of distribution for the investment fund Invest & Give. Fund Strategy reports that Duncan will be in charge of a marketing campaign to promote the fund which was launched last year.
30/03/2010

Philip Gibbs puts half of his fund in cash

Citywire reports that the Jupiter Asset Management manager Philip Gibbs is now putting more than half of the assets of his fund, Jupiter Financial Opportunities, or GBP1.2bn, in cash, according to the most recent report from the management firm. In addition to its 52.45% exposure to cash, nearly 37% of the fund consists of ten positions on equities. The remainder, roughly 11%, is invested in 18 other positions, totalling EUR136.2m.
30/03/2010

Hedge fund hit with CFTC fine

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has fined the hedge fund Lake Dow Capital USD4m for fraud in the management of the Aurora Investment Fund, a commodity pool and hedge fund, Hedge Week reports.
30/03/2010

Richard Wohanka plans to develop long-only activities at UBP

According to Financial Times Fund Management, Richard Wohanka, the new chief executive of UBP’s asset management and alternative investments division, is keen to develop its long-only operation, which has USD10bn of assets, alongside its hedge fund and private banking arms. In particular, he is keen to build up UBP’s capabilities in emerging markets.
30/03/2010

British government to require more transparency

The British government is planning to require institutional investors to disclose their voting policies for general shareholders’ meetings. In the draft budget submitted last week, the government says that it would like to study the possibility of requiring institutional investors to publish all information about their votes, Responsible Investor reports. The government has also launched a consultation on the role of pension funds and insurers in the determination of pay scales in the finance sector.
30/03/2010

Schelcher-Prince gets a foot in the door in Spain thanks to Capital Strategies

Capital Strategies Partners has added products from the French management firm Schelcher-Prince (EUR2bn in assets), whose range includes six funds, to its product offerings in Spain, Funds People reports. The key product from the management firm is Schelcher-Prince Convertibles, which has about EUR200m in assets.
30/03/2010

Generali: management firms want to propose candidates for board of directors

Assogestioni, the Italian association of management firms, is taking its time to release the names of candidates for the board of directors at Generali, Il Sole - 24 Ore reports. Its choices will be made known on 6 April. The idea is to propose a list of candidates likely to please both the Bank of Italy, which owns 4.46% of capital in the business, and foreign management firms. The largest foreign shareholder is BlackRock, with nearly 3%.
30/03/2010

Management firms should drop poor managers

Asset management firms should pay their star portfolio managers better and part sooner with the ones who perform poorly, according to a study by Cass Business School’s Pensions Institute, cited by Financial Times Fund Management. The study finds that funds which perform less well and see large-scale redemptions and then part with their managers tend to see an improvement in performance afterwards.
30/03/2010

Credit Suisse builds presence in India

Credit Suisse announced on 29 March that it has been granted permission by the Indian authorities to set up an office in Mumbai, which would allow it to extend its range of services on the Indian market. The Swiss bank has also been given permission to trade in Indian debt as well as other fixed income products.
30/03/2010

Pimco recruits a head of development for Nordic countries

Pimco has hired Mikael Angberg as a senior vice president and head of business development Nordics. Based in the firm’s London office, Mikael Angberg joins Pimco’s Nordic team to build on the firm’s strong franchise in the region. He will report to Michael Burns, executive vice president and head of Pimco’s Nordic business. Prior to joining Pimco, Mikael Angberg was head of Nordic institutional equity derivatives sales at BNP Paribas and previously, was executive director for Nordic institutional sales at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. He also worked at Axa Investment Managers.
30/03/2010

Investec to take control of Rensburg

Investec, the South African financial services group, is close to taking full control of Rensburg Sheppards in a deal that could value the private client wealth manager at GBP400m, says the FInancial Times. The investment bank has offered GBP9 a share to buy out the 52 per cent of Rensburg’s shares it does not own.
30/03/2010

Asset management firms appear to lack long-term strategy

The Financial Services Survey by the Confederation of British Industry, undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), has found that profits in the asset management sector increased further in the quarter to the end of March, setting a new record. For the financial services sector as a whole, profits have also increased, for the third consecutive quarterly rise. For investment management firms, the rapid improvement in profitability has resulted from an increase in volumes and an increase in revenues from fees and commissions. The increase in volumes is largely due to continued growth in activities serving financial institutions and foreign clients. However, concerns about the Malthusian impact of regulations on the growth of business in the next twelve months have increased, setting a new record, as 74% of heads surveyed say they are concerned. Pars Purewal, UK asset management leader at PwC, says that confidence in the asset management sector may prove fragile, as managers are more hesitant than in the past to develop new products, which leads to questions about whether they have really defined a clear long-term growth strategy. On the plus side, the survey finds that investment management firms are planning to increase their staff in the next three months, ahead of the UCITS IV directive, in order to meet the increased workloads that the regulations will impose on back and middle offices.
30/03/2010

SSgA adds to active equities management team

State Street Global Advisors (SsgA) on 25 March announced the appointment of Marc Reinganum as head of the active management team for developed equities markets. Reinganum will be based in Boston, and is head of all aspects of active management of equities portfolios on international developed markets. He was previously at Oppenheimer Funds, where he was senior portfolio manager and head of quantitative research.
30/03/2010

Mellon Capital Management selected by United Technologies

The defined-benefit pension fund United Technologies Corporation Master Retirement Trust has contracted Mellon Capital Management (BNY Mellon Asset Management) to manage “a USD100m active strategy which invests in high-quality corporate bonds for the long term.” The new mandate brings total assets managed in active corporate credit strategies to more than USD800m.
30/03/2010

Strong growth in assets at C-Quadrat

The Austrian-German management firm C-Quadrat Investment in 2009 earned net profits of EUR5.7m, compared with losses of EUR12.2m in 2008. The recovery is largely due to a strong increase in revenues from performance commissions, to EUR7.6m, up from EUR0.5m. Assets in funds increased by 58% in the course of the year, to a total of EUR2.66bn as of 31 December. Total assets under management at C-Quadrat generating revenues as of the end of the year came to EUR4.51bn, up from EUR3.28bn, which represents a 37% increase. The improvement in results is also due to a 39.7% contraction in operating costs excluding personnel, to EUR4.1m, while net personnel costs have risen 3.9%, to EUR7.4m.
30/03/2010

New head of sales at Dexia AM

Dexia Asset Management on Monday announced that it has appointed Benoît Magon de La Giclais as head of sales. He succeeds Cécile de Lasteyrie, who has been appointed as head of the client development department. Magon de La Giclais joined Dexia AM in 2001, and took charge of relations with French institutionals, including businesses, pension and retirement planning institutions, insurers, and banks investing on their own behalf. After serving as head of French institutional clients in in 2008, he has been in his current position since January 2010. “With over 10 years of experience in sales of high added value financial solutions, Benoît Magon de La Giclais is now responsible for strengthening Dexia AM’s position in the French asset management industry,” a statement from the firm says.
30/03/2010

AIG sells PineBridge to Pacific Century

AIG received USD277m from the private equity investor Pacific Century Group to whom it sold PineBridge Investment (USD87.3bn in assets), the Wall Street Journal reports. AIG is also planning to receive a “performance note” and will continue to receive a portion of carried interest. The deal, which is worth up to USD500m, was supposed to have been signed in late 2009, but has been subject to several delays. AIG continues to manage about USD509bn in assets.
30/03/2010

Former Petroleum Fund posts 25.6% returns for 2009

Sigbjørn Johnsen, the Norwegian Finance minister, on Monday announced that assets in the Government Pension Fund global (GPFG), formerly known as the Petroleum Fund, increased last year by NOK394bn, to a total of NOK2.757trn. NOK169bn of the increase is due to transfers and positive market effects of NOK642bn, but the revaluation of the Norwegian Kroner knocked NOK418bn off the total, though it did not wipe out the international buying power of the fund. The performance of the GPFG came to 25.6%, 4.1 percentage points better than its benchmark portfolio, while the performance of the Government Pension Fund Norway totalled 33.5%, which represents an underperformance of 2.2 percentage points compared with the benchmark portfolio. The minister says that in terms of active management, an expert report recommends limiting the margin for active management to 1% tracking error, from 1.5% previously, excluding exceptional circumstances. However, he admits that slavishly replicating benchmark portfolios also carries impractically high costs. In the area of responsible investment, Johnsen says that the GPFG has now added tools such as active exercise of ownership rights and exclusion on the basis of environmental, social and governance criteria to its range of techniques for all its investments.
30/03/2010

China's demand for gold may double in ten years

According to the study “China Gold Report: Gold in the Year of the Tiger” by the World Gold Council (WGC), the tonnage of gold consumed by China may double in the next ten years. Gold consumption was worth more than USD14bn last year, equivalent to 11% of global demand. The study finds that, although gold consumption per person was as high in China as in India, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia, annual demand for gold in China may increase by 100 tonnes, to a total of 4,000 tonnes, for the jewellery sector alone. In the past decade, Chinese gold producers have increased their production by 84%, but their known reserves represent only 4% of global reserves. If these figures are correct, the WGC estimates that China may have exhausted its gold resources in six years.
30/03/2010

F&C calls off takeover bid for C-Quadrat

The Austrian-German management firm C-Quadrat has announced that it has received a notification from F&C Asset Management that a takeover bid submitted for approval to the Austrian antitrust regulator Übernahmekommission (ÜBK) on 22 March will not be followed up. Legally, this means that F&C will not be allowed to make a bid to acquire C-Quadrat or buy shares in C-Quadrat which might result in such an operation for a period of one year.
30/03/2010

Deutsche Bank acquires 49.9% of Craigs Investment Partners

Deutsche Bank on Monday announced that it has signed a declaration of intent with Craigs Investment Partners to acquire a 49.9% stake in the New Zealand-based management firm (NZD5bn in assets). The acquisition price was not disclosed. Deutsche Bank and Craigs Investment Partners have also signed a strategic alliance which will include a close collaboration in market activities. The corporate finance team at the German bank will cooperate with the equities and bond platforms at Craigs to offer New Zealand clients of the latter firm a wider range of products. Craigs clients will also have access to the research and expertise of the investment bank of Deutsche Bank. Craigs Investment Partners will remain independent.
29/03/2010

Jean-Paul Malpuech rejoint Acropole AM

Jean-Paul Malpuech, l’ancien directeur général de la Banque d’Orsay, rejoint Acropole Asset Management en tant que conseiller du président. Il aura pour mission de promouvoir la société de gestion spécialisée sur les obligations convertibles auprès des investisseurs institutionnels. Il vient ainsi appuyer l’équipe développement d’Acropole AM dirigée par Nathalie Sabathier (lire interview de Jacques Joakimides).Agé de 58 ans, Jean-Paul Malpuech retrouve chez Acropole AM Jacques Joakimides, fondateur et président, avec lequel il avait travaillé à la Banque d’Orsay. Il avait participé à la création de cette banque en 1990, devenue filiale de West LB en 1995. Il en est directeur général jusqu’en novembre 2008.
29/03/2010

La BPCE et Qatar Islamic Bank signent un protocole d'accord sur la finance islamique

Selon l’Agefi, qui cite une source proche du dossier, Banque Populaire Caisse d’Epargne (BPCE) et Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) ont signé, le 25 mars, un protocole d’accord (memorendum of understanding) établissant «le cadre d’une réflexion commune dans le domaine de la finance islamique». Il s’agit de voir comment les deux banques peuvent appréhender le sujet de la finance islamique et coopérer ensemble. Même si l’accent a souvent été mis en France sur la banque de gros, les dirigeants de QIB n’ont jamais caché leur intérêt pour les produits destinés à une clientèle de particuliers comme des prêts immobiliers, des prêts à la consommation, des dépôts et des produits structurés. La joint-venture sera opérationnelle d’ici la fin de l’année mais d’ici là, un certain nombre d’obstacles restent à lever. Parmi ceux-ci figure la compatibilité des moyens de refinancement sur le marché interbancaire avec la prohibition par l’Islam de l’intérêt et la garantie des dépôts qui est en contradiction avec le principe de partage des pertes et des profits.
29/03/2010

Bolloré prend la vice-présidence de Generali

Selon Les Echos, le comité des nominations de Mediobanca a arrêté vendredi la liste des personnalités appelées à composer le nouveau conseil d’administration de Generali, à partir du 24 avril. Antoine Bernheim n’y figure pas. Il sera remplacé par Cesare Geronzi à la présidence de l’assureur. Vincent Bolloré crée la surprise en devenant vice-président.
29/03/2010
Fonds

L'UFF complète son offre "GPS"

Le dispositif de Gestion Pilotée et Suivi (GPS) mis en place fin 2009 par l’Union Financière de France (NewsManagers du 8 janvier 2010) est désormais complet. Outre les trois fonds proposés début novembre gérés par UFG-LFP (UFF Gestion Flexible 0-30 et UFF Gestion Flexible 0-70) et Aviva Investors France (UFF Diversifié 0-70), l’UFF a lancé début mars un fonds à risque fort pour les investisseurs les plus dynamiques, UFF Gestion Flexible 0-100 dont la gestion a été confiée à Pictet Asset Management.La gestion du mandat UFF Gestion Flexible est assurée par l’équipe de gestion diversifiée de Pictet Asset Management. Placée sous la responsabilité d’Olivier Ginguené, l’équipe est composée de neuf spécialistes, dotés d’une expérience de 14 ans en moyenne, et gère 6 milliards d’euros.
Fonds

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