BNP Paribas Asset Management a annoncé ce 1er juin un renforcement des effectifs de son nouveau pôle d’investissement en dette privée & actifs réels. Ce pôle, dont NewsManagers avait divulgué la création en début d’année (NewsManagers du 4 janvier 2017), et le renforcement des équipes «confirment la volonté de BNP Paribas Asset Management de devenir un leader du marché», souligne un communiqué. Doté de 30 personnes et de 7 milliards sous gestion, il est dirigé par David Bouchoucha et spécialisé dans les prêts syndiqués, les prêts directs avec la création d’une nouvelle plateforme, et les obligations privées qui participent au financement des entreprises ou des actifs réels, et est constitué de trois équipes.L'équipe Actifs Réels, Prêts aux PME et Finance structurée, dirigée par Laurent Gueunier, étoffe son organisation afin de renforcer ses positions dans trois domaines clés. Ont été nommés Philippe Deloffre (ex-Acofi), responsable de la dette immobilière, en poste depuis mars, Karen Azoulay (ex-Scor Investment Partners), responsable de la dette d’infrastructure, en poste depuis avril, et Christophe Carrasco (ex-Céréa Partenaire), responsable des prêts aux PME, en poste depuis mai. Ces trois professionnels viennent compléter le dispositif existant, aux cotés de l'équipe dirigée par Stéphane Blanchoz, de Finance structurée.» Avec à ce jour dix professionnels dédiés, cette équipe entend développer une offre complète de solutions de dette privée, en capitalisant sur le succès du placement de 500 millions d’euros du fonds de prêt aux PME européennes, clos en septembre 2016", commente le communiqué.L'équipe Global Loans est dirigée par Vanessa Ritter avec 20 personnes basées à New York et Paris. Elle est spécialisée dans la gestion de prêts à effet de levier et d’obligations adossées à des prêts (CLO), sur un périmètre international. Selon le communiqué, cette équipe affiche un historique de performances solides au cours des sept dernières années et une croissance soutenue des actifs gérés. «Ces positions continueront d'être renforcées, avec de nouvelles solutions en cours de développement dans le domaine des prêts à effet de levier, des CLOs et du financement des entreprises de taille moyenne».Enfin, la plateforme SME Advanced Solutions, nouvellement créée, est placée sous la direction de Fabrice Susini, qui a récemment rejoint BNPP AM pour la développer. Il s’agit d’une plateforme alternative de prêts aux PME, qui opérera sur une base paneuropéenne. La combinaison de cette plateforme d’origination, avec les capacités de gestion de fonds de prêts aux PME permet à BNPP AM d’offrir à ses clients «un accès unique par sa taille au marché des prêts directs aux PME européennes». De nouvelles nominations viendront renforcer cette équipe prochainement, indique le communiqué.

Roland Lescure, qui a quitté en avril la Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec, où il était directeur des investissements, a rejoint le nouveau parti d’Emmanuel Macron, La République en Marche, rapporte Bloomberg. Il est candidat aux législatives, ayant remporté l’un des 11 sièges attribués aux expatriés.

Le responsable de la conformité et des affaires publiques de PAI Partners, Blaise Duault, va rejoindre Téthys, la société holding qui gère la fortune de la famille Bettencourt-Meyers, qui détient une participation dans L’Oréal, rapporte Private Equity News. Cela faisait 16 ans que Blaise Duault travaillait pour PAI Partners.

In a double move, the OFI group, an affiliate of Macif and Matmut, has this morning announced that it has acquired a 34% stake the Crystal group, a specialist in advising and distribution of wealth management solutions in France and internationally. With this reinforcement, the Crystal group, for its part, has announced that it is acquiring the wealth management consulting firm Expert & Finance. The objective is clear: become the brand of reference in the wealth management and independent investment consulting market in five years. For the OFI group, which had EUR68bn in assets under management as of the end of 2016, this operation in Crystal is a realisation of its multi-channel distribution strategy serving retail clients, and comes as part of the implementation of the “OFI 2020” strategic plan to extend its client base.With the acquisition of the Expert & Finance network, the Crystal group becomes the second-largest independent French network of independent financial advisers (CGP). With the addition of 20,000 clients from Expert & Finance, and its own 35,000 clients, 5,000 of them abroad, it now has 220 employees, 490 partners in the accounting professions, and 300 professional wealth management partners. The two groups say in a statement that they are now planning to engage in work to implement operational and commercial synerrgies following this strategic takeover. “Beyond development and commercial synergies, we are convinced that sharing in terms of experience, expertise, manageent and development between the Crystal group and the OFI group will be a real benefit. In addition, the strategic orientation of the OFI group is in sync with the vision of the Crystal group, and opens real new opportunities for development,” says Bruno Narchal, chairman and founder of the Crystal group, in a statement.

AXA Investment Managers - Real Assets announces the further expansion of its North American team with the appointments of Rob Neiffer as director of asset management, Shawn Duggal as vice president of acquisitions, Victoria Rozman as U.S. director of accounting, and Jimmy Lagreca as senior analyst to the asset management team.As director of asset management, Rob Neiffer will assume responsibility for designing and implementing strategies for maximizing the value of assets within the U.S. portfolio, reporting to Steve McCarthy, head of North America. Rob Neiffer joins AXA IM - Real Assets from Amazon Worldwide, where he held the role of Northeast regional asset manager, responsible for the management of all Amazon properties/facilities in the northeast U.S. and Canada. Prior to that, he spent over 10 years at Invesco Real Estate based in New York.Shawn Duggal joins as vice president of Acquisitions having spent the past two and a half years as assistant vice president of direct real estate Investments at the Partners Group in San Francisco. He reports to Aaron Kutner, U.S. director of acquisitions.Victoria Rozman, the newly appointed U.S. director of accounting, will be responsible for finance and accounting operations, reporting to Caryn Lombardi, U.S. head of finance and operations. Victoria Rozman joins AXA IM - Real Assets following over five years at JP Morgan Chase in New York where she held the role of vice president of alternative investments and private equity.In addition, Jimmy Lagreca joins as senior analyst to the asset management team from JP Morgan Chase Global Real Assets, and will be reporting to Soo Rhim, vice president of asset management.

BNP Paribas Asset Management confirms the creation of a Private Debt & Real Assets Investment Group and announces senior hires. BNPP AM’s Private Debt & Real Assets Investment Group, headed by David Bouchoucha, invests in syndicated loans, direct loans and private bonds that finance corporates or real assets, and consists of three main teams. The Real Assets, SME (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) Lending and Structured Finance team, headed by Laurent Gueunier, is positioning itself for future growth through the recent addition of three team heads: Philippe Deloffre joined in March as Head of Real Estate Debt, Karen Azoulay was appointed Head of Infrastructure Debt in April and Christophe Carrasco joined as Head of SME Lending, in May. They will complement the existing teams already in place, in particular the Structured Finance team, headed by Stéphane Blanchoz, which currently manages European ABS assets and has a solid track record. The team now comprises 10 dedicated professionals. With these recent developments, BNP Paribas Asset Management aims to accelerate its development across the full spectrum of private debt solutions, after having successfully closed a €500 million European SME lending fund in September 2016.The Global Loans team, headed by Vanessa Ritter is a truly global platform, comprising 20 dedicated experts in New York and Paris, and specialising in leveraged loan financing. It manages leveraged loan funds and collateralised loan obligations (CLOs), as well as being a market leader in private placements, having launched the Novo fund in 2013. Since 2010 the team has built up a strong track record and experienced a rapid growth in assets, and will continue to expand and innovate in the area of leveraged loans and mid-market financing.The SME Advanced Solutions is a new team headed by Fabrice Susini, who also recently joined BNP Paribas Asset Management. It consists of an innovative alternative pan-European SME lending platform. The creation of this platform within BNP Paribas Asset Management will enable to offer clients unique access to scale in the direct lending space, by providing a powerful origination engine to ramp up SME loan funds. This team will be reinforced with new hires in the near future

Charles-Henri Herrmann has been chosen as head of the French office of Janus Henderson, the firm born of the merger of Janus Capital and Henderson Global Investors, NewsManagers has learned. It will thus be a man drawn from the former Parisian ranks of Henderson who will take over as director of the entity created in France with teams from Janus, as appears to be the case elsewhere in Europe also. The head of the French office of Janus had quit the US firm a few months ago.Herrmann was promoted in late March to the position of director of development for France, Geneva and Monaco at Henderson GI, succeeding Patricial Kaveh, who was dismissed after 13 years at the company. He joined Henderson in 2010 as senior sales manager.The head of Janus Henderson for France will report to Ignacio de la Maza, who has just been appointed as director of wholesale for continental Europe and Latin America, a newly-created position. De la Maza had previously been head of sales for Latin America and the Iberian peninsula at Henderson Global Investors, positions which he will continue to occupy. He joined the British firm in 2009 following the acquisition of New Star Asset Management.Meanwhile, Steven de Vries becomes director of global financial institutions. He had previously been director of retail development for Europe at Henderson Global Investors, a position which he will no longer hold. The Dutchman joined the firm in 2001, after working for Axa Investment Managers and ING Group.Both will report to Greg jones, director of distribution, EMEA and Latin America.One further person will be recruited in the next few months to assist de Vries in his new role.

East Capital Explorer changes its name to Eastnine AB (publ), with new Nasdaq Stockholm ticker symbol “EAST”. The name change to Eastnine is a result of the company’s ongoing transformation from an externally managed investment company to a focused real estate company in the Baltics. ”With the new name Eastnine we want to highlight the new phase that our company is entering. The name Eastnine is based on the geographical direction for our investments, as well as on the date 9 November when the Berlin wall came down in 1989, which ultimately unlocked the Baltic countries for foreign investors”, says Lena Krauss, CFO at Eastnine. In conjunction with the name change, the company’s ticker symbol on Nasdaq Stockholm will change from ”ECEX” to ”EAST”, which is expected to be effective on 2 June, 2017.

As the week of sustainable development is in ful swing, BNP Paribas Asset Management has announcd that its Aqua investment strategy has posted record net inflows of EUR323m in the first four months of the year, largely thanks to subscriptions from retail investors on the BNP Paribas netwok in Belgium, France and Italy, compared with net inflows of slightly over EUR270m over all of last year. The main fund for the strategy, BNP Paribas Aqua, has assets of EUR1.8bn as of the end of April 2017. The fund has earned annual returns of 16.14% since its launch in December 2008, compared with 14.43% for its benchmark index, the MSCI World, the statement says.With inflows of EUR4.5bn in 2016, SRI assets at BNPP AM totalled EUR25bn as of the end of December 2016. BNPP AM is planning to continue the development of its range of SRI funds, “particularly in innovative themes,” to continue to offer clients “solutions with high added value,” the statement concludes.

NewAlpha Asset Management, which claims to have launched the first French venture capital fund dedicated to fintech startups in November 2015, on 1 June announced its sixth fintech investment, which represents a first international investment. The target is wikifolio.com, a website specialised in online trading. NewAlpha states that it is a lead investor in a round of fundraising which also includes historic shareholders at wikifolio.com.

KKR has announced the final closing of KKR Asian Fund III, a USD9.3 billion fund focused on investments in private equity transactions across the Asia Pacific region. The fund surpasses KKR’s USD6 billion Asian Fund II to become the largest private equity fund dedicated to investing in the region, according to Preqin. It received backing from a diverse group of new and existing global investors, including public and corporate pensions, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, endowments, family offices and high net worth individual investors."The Firm, along with KKR employees, committed approximately USD800 million, marking it our second-largest commitment to a KKR fund. This highlights our focus on the alignment of KKR’s interests alongside our fund investors, coupled with the excitement for the investment opportunities we are seeing across the region,» added Alisa Wood, KKR Member and Head of Private Market Products Group.With the closing of this fund, KKR’s private equity business manages over USD68 billion in assets under management worldwide (using valuations for existing funds as of March 31, 2017).

At a time when it has just finalised its investment in Smile (see Newsmanagers of 2 May 2017) for EUR47m, the investment company Eurazeo PME, a wholly-owned affiliate of Eurazeo, has announced that it has raised nearly EUR600m with its new fund Eurazeo PME III. Alongside the engagement of Eurazeo owners’ equity for EUR400m, EUR186m were raised from historic investors, as well as from new institutions in France, Europe and the United States. The fund remains open to new subscribers.The group points out that Eurazeo PME had raised EUR520m, including EUR156m from third parties.

We know that big data and artificial intelligence are IT tools which interest the asset management industry in France, not only for the abilities to analyse and anticipate the financial markets which they promise, but also for their abilities to analyse the behaviour of clients. “We cannot yet see use of big data at financial companies in France for commercial purposes, but we know very well that it will come,” Claire Castanet, director of relations with savings investors at the French Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), warned at a press conference. “We are vigilant in this area and to prepare we are going to watch the various players and our colleagues internationally who are already facing this development,” adds Olivier Fliche, director of the commercial practices unit at the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR). The two regulatory bodies argue that the essential point to watch out for is hypersegmentation of clients through data analysis, which may lead to exclusion of some categories of clients. “We have seen cases of algorithms which create social biases and in some way become racist,” explains Olivier Fliche. In his opinion, one of the solutions will involve the training of engineers who develop algorithms in such a way as to ensure that they prevent exclusion or commercial bias.

Intercontinental Exchange, a leading operator of global exchanges and clearing houses and provider of data and listings services, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the Global Research division’s index platform from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The BofAML indices are the second most used fixed income indices by assets under management (AUM) globally, says the press releas, and upon closing, the AUM benchmarked against the combined fixed income index business of ICE will be nearly USD1 trillion. Upon closing, the indices will be re-branded as the ICE BofAML indices. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed, and the transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of 2017. The financial impact of the transaction is expected to be immaterial in 2017.The BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research index platform encompasses more than 5,000 fixed income, currency and commodity (FICC) indices that are relied upon by thousands of investors and market participants around the world. Through ICE Data Services, ICE is positioned to enhance and grow the platform to meet customers’ needs across index management, analytics and valuations.Following the close of the transaction, the BofAML Global Research FICC indices will become part of ICE Data Services, a global leader in proprietary market data, analytics, desktops and connectivity solutions. “As the demand for independent indices rises, we are pleased to monetize this valuable set of benchmarks with a strategic owner,” said Candace Browning, head of Global Research, Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “

Swiss Life REIM, la filiale de gestion de l’assureur suisse, affichait à la fin de l’année dernière 10,7 milliards d’euros d’actifs, indique L’Agefi Hebdo dans son édition du 1er juin. «2016 a constitué une belle année, marquée par 1,2 milliard d’euros de collecte. L’exercice 2017 est bien engagé et devrait enregistrer une collecte de l’ordre du milliard, similaire à celle que nous réalisons chaque année», indique Frédéric Bôl, son fondateur et président du directoire. Depuis 2016, Swiss Life détient 100% de l’ancien Viveris REIM dans lequel il était entré au capital en 2011. Aujourd’hui environ, 2 milliards d’euros proviennent du réseau de Swiss Life.En France, l’offre s’oriente de plus en plus vers le grand public à travers sa SCPI Pierre Capitale lancée en février , et compte 7 salariés. L’Agefi précise ainsi que l'équipe s’appuie aussi sur la filiale soeur Corpus Sireo, rachetée en 2014 par Swiss Life et comptant plus de 600 salariés, pour sélectionner les biens dans lesquelles elle peut investir. La SCPI a déjà engagé 30 millions d’euros. D’ici l’an prochain, elle devrait atteindre 100 millions et vise 300 millions d’euros à horizon 2020. Le dirigeant dit viser 1 milliard d’euros à terme sur le grand public. Quant aux investissements réalisés, après l’Allemagne, des annonces pourraient être faites cette année en Espagne. Une équipe pourrait aussi y être installée, venant compléter le dispositif déjà installé en Belgique et au Luxembourg..

Stefan Lutz, jusque-là responsable de la recherche sur les fonds (« head of fund research ») chez Raiffeisen Suisse, a rejoint Credit Suisse au poste nouvellement créé de spécialiste produit senior (« senior product specialist »), a appris Citywire Selector. L’intéressé avait intégré Raiffeisein en novembre 2014 en provenance de Julius Baer où il avait travaillé pendant cinq ans comme analyste senior pour les fonds.Dans le cadre de ses nouvelles fonctions, Stefan Lutz sera rattaché à Harald Recezk, responsable des ventes de Credit Suisse, et sera intégré à Credit Suisse Asset Management Schweiz. Il sera responsable des fonds multiclasses d’actifs et des stratégies liées aux actions, en se concentrant plus particulièrement sur les stratégies à dividende et les fonds thématiques. Il s’agit d’une sorte de retour aux sources pour Stefan Lutz qui avait travaillé chez Credit Suisse de 2001 à 2010 comme assistant des gérants de fonds, puis comme analyste et, enfin, comme responsable de la sélection des fonds.

East Capital Explorer change de nom et devient Eastnine, annonce un communiqué de presse. Ce changement est censé refléter la transformation de la société suédoise en une société centrée sur l’immobilier dans les pays baltes. «Avec le nouveau nom Eastnine, nous voulons mettre en évidence la nouvelle phase dans laquelle est entrée notre entreprise. Le nom de Eastnine repose sur la direction géographique de nos investissements, ainsi que sur la date du 9 («nine» en anglais, NDLR) novembre, lorsque le mur de Berlin est tombé en 1989, ce qui a finalement donné accès aux pays baltes pour les investisseurs étrangers », déclare Lena Krauss, directrice financière (CFO) de Eastnine.

Invesco Perpetual a annoncé la nomination de Nicholas Mason, effective à compter du 30 juin, au poste de cogérant du fonds Invesco Perpetual Latin American. L’intéressé travaillera aux côtés de Dean Newman, responsable des actions des marchés émergents au sein de la société de gestion. Nicholas Mason a intégré Invesco Perpetual en septembre 2006 en tant qu’analyste senior au sein l’équipe dédiée aux actions des marchés émergents, spécialisé sur l’Amérique Latine. Il est promu gérant en août 2008. Puis, en octobre 2013, il devient gérant pour deux fonds axés sur les marchés émergents européens.

Paul Marriage et John Warren quittent Schroders pour lancer leur propre société, Tellworth Investments, rapporte Investment Week. Ils emmènent avec eux les stratégies UK Dynamic Absolute Return, représentant 380 millions de livres.

Vanguard, qui a lancé ce mois-ci sa plate-forme de fonds britannique, a indiqué que son service dédié aux particuliers pourrait à l’avenir référencer des produits de concurrents, comme c’est le cas aux Etats-Unis, rapporte Financial News.

Le gestionnaire d’actifs britannique Old Mutual Global Investors (OMGI) renforce sa gamme obligataire avec le lancement d’une nouvelle stratégie à rendement absolue. Pour se faire, la société de gestion va convertir le fonds Old Mutual Global Strategic Bond, domicilié en Irlande et doté de 24,8 millions de dollars d’encours, et l’intégrer dans un nouveau fonds, le «Old Mutual Strategic Absolute Return Bond». Ce nouveau véhicule continuera d’être géré par Mark Nash, responsable des obligations internationales, et par Nicholas Wall, gérant d’obligations internationales. Le produit cherchera à délivrer des rendements positifs sur une période de 12 mois roulants, avec des niveaux stables de volatilité tout en étant décorrellé des conditions de marchés actions et obligations, indique la société dans un communiqué. « OMGI pense que ce changement est dans le meilleur intérêt des investisseurs, compte tenu de la demande croissante pour des fonds à performance absolue dont la vocation est de délivrer des rendements positifs sur le long terme », indique le groupe britannique.La nouvelle stratégie a pour objectif de dégager de l’alpha en investissant sur les marchés obligataires des pays développés et des pays émergents ainsi que dans les devises. Le fonds mettra notamment l’accent sur des actifs à liquidité élevée. Mark Nash et Nicholas Wall ont tous deux rejoints OMGI à l’été 2016 en provenance d’Invesco Asset Management où ils assuraient ensemble la gestion de portefeuilles multisectoriels.

The Spanish asset management industry is still doing well. According to preliminary statistics released by Imantia Capital, Spanish mutual funds have posted net inflows of EUR1.87bn in May. As a result, since the start of the year, the sector has posted EUR9.95bn in net subscriptions. Gross inflows total EUR2.42bn in May, up 1% compared with April, Imantia Capital states. Since the beginning of 2017, gross inflows thus total EUR13.95bn, up 5.9% compared with the end of December 2016. In this context, assets under management in the sector totalled EUR251.52bn as of the end of May 2017.

Credit Suisse on 1 June announced that the Qatar sovereign fund, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), now holds 5.01% of capital in the Swiss banking group. “In an informational report dated 30 May 2017, Credit Suisse Group AG has been informed that as of 24 May 2017, Qatar Holding LLC, controlled by the state of Qatar, held 17.98% of voting rights listed on the commercial register (5.01% of equities, 12.96% of buy options),” a statement from the Swiss group states.In a market statement released in November 2016, the stake held by Qatar Holding in Credit Suisse was 4.93%. The majority of the total stake of 17.98% held by QIA in Credit Suisse is composed of conditional convertible bonds (cocos), which are converted into equities if the ratio of base capital to banking capital falls below a certain level.

Roland Lescure, who in April left the Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec, where he had been chief investment officer, has joined the new party of Emmanuel Macron, La République en Marche, Bloomberg reports. He is standing for the legislative elections, and has one one of the 11 seats reserved for expatriates.

Robeco announces that its Robeco Chinese A-share Equities fund is now open for external subscriptions from institutional investors. The fund offers European investors direct access to the growing potential of China’s economy and markets. The fund is a Luxembourg domiciled actively managed UCITS V compliant A-share equities fund.Robeco’s Chinese A-share Equities fund invests in the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets. The portfolio is constructed based on macro investment themes, including demographic, economic and social developments in China. The fund combines disciplined, fundamental research with input from Robeco’s proprietary quantitative model. Robeco Hong Kong is responsible for the day-to-day management of Robeco Chinese A-share Equities, while Robeco Shanghai provides local advice on the fund’s investment strategy.The fund follows a high conviction philosophy which leads to a concentrated portfolio of 30-50 stocks. It is benchmark agnostic and uses the MSCI China A International Index as a reference index. The fund is registered in Luxembourg, additional registrations and availability will be based upon investor demand in Robeco’s key markets in Europe. The fund is not yet registered locally in Asia.

La Banque centrale européenne (BCE) a annoncé ce matin l’ouverture d’une consultation sur les redevances qui sont prélevées chaque année sur les établissements de crédit soumis à sa supervision. La Banque centrale dit vouloir «évaluer les améliorations possibles» en la matière. La consultation, ouverte jusqu’au 20 juillet prochain, pourra servir au superviseur pour décider d’une éventuelle révision de la méthode et des critères de calcul des redevances.

L'économie grecque a enregistré une croissance de 0,4% au premier trimestre de 2017 par rapport aux trois derniers mois de 2016, a annoncé vendredi l’institut national de la statistique (Elstat). L’institut a ainsi révisé en nette hausse sa première estimation qui faisait ressortir une contraction de 0,1% du PIB. Sur un an, le PIB est aussi donné en hausse de 0,4% contre une précédente estimation d’un recul de 0,5%. La plupart des données récentes en matière de PIB ont été révisées, le recul au quatrième trimestre 2016 n'étant ainsi plus que de 1,1% par rapport au trimestre précédent (contre -1,2% auparavant) et de 1,0% sur un an (contre -1,1%).

Le gérant d’actifs filiale de la Macif et de la Matmut proposera ses expertises dans la gamme de produits d’épargne et retraite du groupe Crystal.

Le gestionnaire annonce trois recrutements pour diriger ses activités dette d'infrastructures, dette immobilière et prêts aux PME.

NewAlpha Asset Management, qui revendique le lancement en novembre 2015 du premier fonds français de venture capital dédié aux start-up fintech, a annoncé ce 1er juin son sixième investissement fintech, qui constitue son premier à l'international. Il s'agit de wikifolio.com, un site spécialisé dans le trading en ligne. NewAlpha précise être l'investisseur leader de cette levée de fonds qui inclut également des actionnaires historiques de wikifolio.com.