Millenium Management poursuit ses efforts pour étoffer ses équipes. Le hedge fund d’Izzy Englander, qui gère 21,8 milliards de dollars d’actifs, a recruté Owain Self, ancien responsable mondial des services d’exécution chez UBS, révèle eFinancial News qui citent trois sources proches du dossier. Owain Self, qui a quitté UBS il y a 15 jours après y avoir passé près de 15 ans, devrait rejoindre Millenium Management dans le courant de l’année et sera basé aux Etats-Unis.

Robert Howell, responsable des matières premières et gérant du fonds Schroders Alternative Solutions Commodity, quitte la société et sera remplacé par Geoff Blanning, rapporte Investment Week. L’intéressé, qui a rejoint la société en 1998, a décidé de quitter Schroders et le secteur des services financiers.

Pioneer Investments a fusionné son fonds or et matières premières (Pioneer Funds Gold and Mining) dans un nouveau fonds centré sur les actifs réels, le Pioneer Funds Real Assets Target Income, lancé fin mars, révèle Citywire Global. La gestion du nouveau fonds est confiée à Alfred Grusch et au spécialiste multi-classes d’actifs Francesco Sandrini.

Le fonds Loomis Sayles Emerging Markets Opportunities, lancé à la mi-février pour les investisseurs américains, est désormais disponible au format Ucits à destination des investisseurs européens, rapporte Citywire.Le fonds est géré par Peter Marber, responsable des marchés émergents actions et dette, et David Rolley, qui a plus de 30 ans d’expérience.Le fonds investit à la fois dans la dette souveraine et corporate des marchés émergents en Asie, Amérique latine, Afrique, Europe centrale et Moyen-Orient, en devises locales ou en devises dures.

Les marchés ont été plus hésitants en mars. Sur la zone euro, la progression de l’indice Eurostoxx NR a été nettement plus modeste que le mois précédent (0,37 %), tandis que sur l’Europe, le Stoxx 600 NR a reculé de 0,79 %. Enfin, dans le mandat «global equities», l’indice Stoxx 1800 a progressé de 0,34 %... De fait, les portefeuilles au sein des différents mandats affichent sur le mois des résultats très contrastés. Et la moyenne des performances calculée par amLeague l’atteste. A l’exception du mandat européen; ces moyennes sont inférieures à la référence de leurs marchés respectifs. Aussi, soit un nombre important de gérants se sont faits surprendre, soit certains d’entre eux ont chuté. En attendant, six sur 18 seulement ont battu l’indice de la zone euro, contre 13 sur 23 qui y sont parvenus face au Stoxx 600 et cinq sur onze face au Stoxx 1800. L’autre enseignement majeur des résultats de mars porte sur la nature des gérants. Ce mois-ci, il est quasiment impossible de tirer une ligne directrice. Autrement dit, en haut de classement,– mais également aux dernières places ! - les «quants» cohabitent avec les gérants adeptes de l’analyse fondamentale, même si il est clair que sous l’appellation «quant» figurent des modes de gestion sensiblement différents. Au sein du mandat euro par exemple, Federal Finance se reprend (1,26 %) et devance Theam (0,94 %) et Tobam (0,76 %). En bas de tableau, AllianceBernstein et Roche-Brune ferment la marche (-080 % et -0,85 % respectivement). Sur l’Europe, la gestion value de Bestinver a porté ses fruits. Le portefeuille de la société espagnole devance le quant Swiss Life AM (0,92 % contre 0,87 %), qui devance par ailleurs Federal Finance (0,53 %). Même «diversité» en bas de classement où Invesco AM se retrouve dernier devant Theam et AllianceBernstein (respectivement -2,48 %, -1,98 % et -1,97 %) Au sien du mandat global, à la première place, Theam affiche un gain de plus du double du suivant, Roche-Brune (1,80 % contre 0,85 %). AllianzGI et EdRAM pour leur part, ferment la marche (-1,47 % et -1,01 %). Enfin, concernant le dernier mandat «ISR Europe», seuls Ecofi Investissements et Theam affichent des gains de 0,44 % et 0,28 %, tandis que Swiss Life AM occupe le bas du tableau (-1,55 %). L’information portant sur l’importance des critères ESG au sein de ces différents portefeuilles permet de constater que le premier affiche la note globale la plus élevée et le dernier du classement l’une des notes globales parmi les plus faibles. Dans le détail, le critère extra-financier «social» du premier est le plus élevé tandis que pour le dernier, il s’agit du critère «gouvernance».

Après trois mois d’existence, GIS European Recovery Equity, le compartiment de la sicav luxembourgeoise de Generali Investments, exposée quasi exclusivement sur l’Europe du sud (*), affiche un encours de 424 millions d’euros. Avec pour objectif de tirer profit d’un effet «recovery», 250 millions ont été investis par la société de gestion - correspondant à de l’amorçage - tandis que 150 millions ont été investis par des investisseurs institutionnels. «Principalement allemands», a précisé François Gobron, le gérant du fonds, à l’occasion d’une présentation de l’OPCVM à des conseillers en gestion de patrimoine indépendants. «Après avoir investi dans des titres Bund qui ne rapportent plus grand-chose, ou dans l’indice DAX qui est arrivé à un sommet en termes de valorisations, les institutionnels allemands trouvent dans la thématique de notre fonds des vertus décorrélantes», a expliqué le gérant.Mais le stock picking réalisé par la gestion obéit à une contrainte précise : les entreprises recherchées sont tournées vers leur marché domestique, et non pas vers l’international. Un cadre qui n’est pas sans arrière-pensées dans la mesure où l’on note un engouement croissant pour des pans de l'économie de ces pays. En matière de fusions-acquisitions, les pays émergents sont d’ores et déjà très présents. «C’est le cas dans les infrastructures au Portugal où les Chinois sont d’actifs investisseurs», a noté François Gobron, «ou encore le cas du Brésilien Oi qui a racheté l’an dernier Portugal Telecom."Récemment», a noté le responsable, «China’s Fosun a aussi pris le contrôle de l’assurance portugaise (80 % du capital) et en 2013 le singapourien Temasek holdings a pris une participation de 1 milliard d’euros dans l’espagnol Repsol. Pour sa part», a–t-il ajouté, «le français Vinci a racheté les aéroports portugais pour 3,1 milliards d’euros, et en Espagne, les fonds d’investissement Blackstone et Apollo s’intéressent aux portefeuilles d’actifs immobiliers en difficulté de banques espagnoles. Enfin, en Grèce, des fonds de capital-investissement sont désireux d’injecter de l’argent frais dans des sociétés grecques en difficulté…"Actuellement, François Gobron privilégie le Portugal et la Grèce - où des entreprises semi publiques, mal gérées, doivent nécessairement se restructurer. Ces deux marchés représentent près de 45 % de l’ensemble. Le gérant a salué la compétitivité retrouvée de l’Espagne en matière de coûts salariaux, expliquant de fait que des entreprises comme Renault ont renforcé ses capacités quand bien même le constructeur français dispose au Maroc d’une usine flambant neuve. En revanche, l’Italie n’a pas encore pris les mesures nécessaires. Le poids de ce pays est de l’ordre de 16%. Adepte d’une gestion GARP (Growth at a reasonable price), le fonds qui présente un biais «midcaps» (56 % du portefeuille) doit se singulariser par un turn over annuel faible, de l’ordre de 20 %. Les valeurs financières représentent plus de 30 % du portefeuille dont 20 % de valeurs bancaires, devant l’industrie et les matériaux – près de 20 % pour les deux secteurs. Depuis le début de l’année, le fonds a progressé de 15,80 % contre 3,14 % pour l’indice de référence Euro Stoxx - Price Index.

Le fonds de pension japonais Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), qui gère 1.240 milliards de dollars d’actifs, remet à plat sa politique d’investissement actions sur son marché domestique. Concrètement, le fonds de pension a décidé de mettre en place une large gamme d’indices dans sa stratégie dédiée («Indexing Strategy») à la fois pour les investissements passifs et les investissements actifs, a-t-il annoncé le 4 avril dans un communiqué. Concernant les investissements passifs, outre l’indice TOPIX, trois nouveaux indices vont désormais être utilisés: JPX-Nikkei 400, MSCI Japan et Russell Nomura Prime. En parallèle, sur le terrain des investissements actifs, en complément de la catégorie de gestion active traditionnelle («Traditional Active Management»), GPIF introduit une nouvelle catégorie «Smart Beta active management», «une approche d’investissement visant à capter du rendement sur le moyen et long terme à travers une stratégie d’indexation», indique le fonds de pension. Grâce à l’introduction de ces nouveaux indices, GPIF va commencer à réaliser des investissements passifs et actifs dans l’immobilier local à travers les REIT (real-estate investment trusts) japonais.Dans le cadre de cette réorganisation, le GPIF a donc sélectionné 14 gérants"actifs» et 10 gérants «passifs». Sur le terrain de la «gestion active traditionnelle», le fonds de pension va ainsi travailler avec les gérants suivants: Eastsping Investments Limited, Invesco AM, Capital International K.K., Seiruy AM, Natixis AM Japan, Nikko AM, FIL Investments (Japan), Mizuho AM, Russell Investments Japan, JP Morgan AM et DIAM (les deux derniers travaillant déjà avec le GPIF). Pour la gestion active «smart Beta», le fonds de pension a retenu trois gérants, à savoir Goldman Sachs AM, Nomura Funds Research and Technologies et, enfin, Nomura AM avec qui il collaborait déjà.Enfin, concernant les investissements passifs, le GPIF a retenu 5 nouveaux gérants. DIAM, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank et Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation interviendront sur les stratégies liées à l’indice JPX-Nikkei 400. En parallèle, BlackRock Japan a été retenu pour superviser les investissements liés à l’indice MSCI Japan tandis que Mizuho Trust & Banking a été sélectionné pour les placements liés à l’indice Russell Nomura Prime.

Dans un entretien à Newsmanagers, Lionel Aeschlimann, associé de Mirabaud & Cie, fait le point sur deux années de développement du pôle gestion d’actifs dont il est le responsable. La banque suisse ne compte pas s’arrêter là et prévoit de continuer à étendre le maillage européen de Mirabaud Asset Management et de lancer d’autres produits…

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Loomis Sayles Emerging Markets Opportunities fund, launched in mid-February for US investors, is now available in UCITS format for European investors, Citywire reports. The fund will be managed by Peter Marber, head of emerging market equity and debt, and David Rolley, who has more than 30 years of experience. The fund invests both in government and corporate debt from emerging markets of Asia, Latin America, Africa, Central Europe and the Middle East, in local or hard currencies.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Pioneer Investments has merged its commodity fund Pioneer Funds Gold and Mining into a new fund focused on real assets, the Pioneer Funds Real Asset Target Income, launched in late March, Citywire Global reports. The management of the new fund has been assigned to Alfred Grusch and the multi-asset class specialist Francesco Sandrini.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Robert Howell, head of commodigies and manager of the Schroders Alternative Solutions Commodity fund, is leaving the firm, and will be replaced by Geoff Blanning, Investment Week reports. Howell, who joined the firm in 1998 has decided to leave Schroders and the financial services sector.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Millennium Management is continuing its efforts to add to its teams. The hedge fund from Izzy Englander, which has USD21.8bn in assets under management, has recruited Owain Self, former global head of execution services at UBS, eFinancial news reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. Self, who left UBS 15 days ago after nearly 15 years there, will join Millenium Management during the year, and will be based in the United States.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Keith Ney was on 4 April appointed as the single manager of Carmignac Sécurité, a European bond fund which he had co-mnaged with Carlos Galvis since 22 January 2013. As a member of the bond team led by Rose Ouahba, he will retain his current role as head of credit, and will continue to contribute promising investment ideas for the fund range from the Carmignac Gestion group. Ney joined the Carmignac Gestion group 9 years ago as a global equity analyst and portfolio manager, covering the full range of equity and credit capital structures.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } M&G Investmetns has registered a further 13 funds in Sweden, almost doubling its range of funds on offer in Sweden to 28, Fondbranschen reports. Swedish clients are showing a large interest in European equities and balanced funds, and we see a growing interest in high yield and bond funds,” says Volker Buschmann, head of retail sales for Northern Europe at the British firm. The list of funds registered in Sweden: • M&G Corporate Bond Fund • M&G Dynamic Allocation Fund • M&G Episode Macro Fund • M&G European Fund (ex UK) • M&G European High Yield Bond Fund • M&G European Index Tracker Fund (ex UK) • M&G European Inflation Linked Corporate Bond Fund • M&G European Smaller Companies Fund • M&G High Yield Corporate Bond Fund • M&G Japan Fund • M&G North American Value Fund • M&G Recovery Fund • M&G UK Growth Fund

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to Asia Asset Management, BlackRock on 7 april announced that it has appointed Ryan Stork as head of the asset management firm for the Asia-Pacific region, effective from 1 June 2014. Stork, who will move from New York to Hong Kong, has worked at BlackRock for 13 years, and has served in several leadership positions, which have allowed him to participate actively in the development of the US firm. The appointment comes as part of a profound reorganization at BlackRock (see elsewhere). Mark McCombe, current head for Asia-Pacific, will move to New York to take up a position as global head of the activity dedicated to institutional clients and chairman of BlackRock Alternative Investors. However, McCombe will temporarily retain his position as president for Asia-Pacific until the end of 2014, in order to ensure a smooth transition.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } A representative of the French Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) on Friday, 4 April called for a record fine of EUR40m against the investment fund Elliott, for fraud and manipulation of the share price of APRR, Agefi reports. The case dates from 2010, and concerns the Eiffarie consortium, formed by the Eiffage group and the Australian Macquarie, which then controlled 81.48% of capital in the Autoroutes Paris Rhin Rhône, which had been privatised four years earlier. Representatives of the AMF accuse the British fund arm of the fund,Elliott Advisors UK, of sending US partners of Elliott management Corp insider information concerning the prospects of a sale of APRR shares to Eiffage, at a price higher than the market. Representatives of the fund, which has firmly denied any wrongdoing, have found a heavyweight supporter in the reporter to the sanctions commission, who feels that there was no price manipulation.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Métropole Gestion has recruited Tanja Bender as head of distribution in Germany, Das Investment reports. Bender, who had previously worked at Oppenheim Asset Management Services in Luxembourg, will be responsible for banks, family offices and independent asset management firms. She will report to the head for Germany, Markus Hampel.

The board of directors at BlackRock is preparing a reshuffle which would be the first step in a long-term succession plan for Larry Fink, the founder and CEO of the group, the Financial Times reports today. Fink has been been working to hand off more responsibility to a younger generation of directors below the three top men, being himself, Rob Kapito, chairman, and Charlie Hallac, COO. Rob Goldstein, global head of institutional client activity and BlackRock Solutions, becomes COO, while Richard Kushel, deputy to Hallac, is promoted to chief product officer. The reshuffle was put in place in order to allow Hallac to take time off as he receives treatment for colon cancer.Hallac becomes co-chairman, with responsibility for strategy, talent development and future technologies. Other young directors are promoted, including Mark McCome, Mark Wiedman, Quintin Price and Gary Shedlin, adds the FT.

bfinance has hired Emily Porter-Lynch, as a director, investment advisory. Prior to joining bfinance, Porter-Lynch was a senior investment manager at Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), where she developed the hedge fund capabilities of the UK’s second largest pension scheme and helped oversee a multi-billion dollar allocation to hedge fund strategies. At USS Porter-Lynch was also a member of the Alternative Investment Committee. Prior to joining USS, she was an Investment Director at Key Asset Management, where she worked closely with Dr Chris Jones and Dr Toby Goodworth, now respectively Head of Public Markets & Alternatives and Head of Risk Management at bfinance. Porter-Lynch has 13 years’ experience in hedge funds and has served on numerous industry panels and committees as a thought leader on institutional investing in Alternatives.

Neuberger Berman has announced that Erik Knutzen will join the firm as Multi-Asset Class chief investment officer. He joins from NEPC, LLC where he has served as chief investment officer since 2008.In this new role, Erik Knutzen will drive the asset allocation process on a firm-wide level and create related client content for strategic partnerships and multi-asset class solutions while joining in portfolio management on a number of mandates.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } BNL-BNP Paribas has recruited three people for its new Italian financial adviser network Sviluppo and Promozione Finanziaria, Bluerating reports. They are Paolo Cecconello, Massimiliano Domizio, and Cristiano Gargiulo. Cecconello becomes head of Campania, Puglia and Basilicata, while the Adriatic region is the responsibility of Domizio. Gargiulo will be responsible for contract management.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) on 4 April launched the PCSE ETF on two Indian stock markets, the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange, Asian Investor reports. The ETF includes ten stocks, all of them state companies in the energy, utility and financial services industries, with capital which has been opened to investors to varying extents. GSAM, which acquired the Indian ETF provider Benchmark Mutual Fund in 2011, has raised nearly USD500m for the CPSE ETF, which makes it the largest equity ETF since the launch of the Reliance Natural Resources Fund in 2008. With the launch of the CPS ETF, assets under management in the 24 ETFs available on the Indian market total USD114m.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } BNP Paribas Investment Partners (BNP Paribas IP) is adding to its product range. The asset management firm, an affiliate of the eponymous banking group, has launched a new short duration bond fund denominated in renminbi, Citywire global reports. The BNP Paribas Flexi I RMB Short Duration Bond fund is an UCITS vehicle which will be managed by Adeline Ng, head of fixed income for Asia, and her team based in Singapore. At its launch, the fund has received seed capital from BNP Paribas totalling USD100m. It has 30 to 60 investment grade corporate bond positions in its porttfolio, which a high yield of 25%. It will invest both in Chinese domestic and in international companies operating in China. The product, with a three-year duration, aims to offer annual investment of about 4.5%.

EFG International has nominated two new directors for approval at its annual general meeting, scheduled for 25 April 2014. The proposed new directors are Robert Chiu, non-executive chairman of EFG Bank Asia, and Daniel Zuberbühler, formerly senior financial consultant, at KPMG in Zurich. After more than eight years as a member of the board of EFG International, Hans Niederer is not putting himself forward for re-election at the annual general meeting. The shareholders will individually elect the members of the board of directors, the chairman of the board of directors and the members of the remuneration committee for a one-year term of office.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Investcorp, via its hedge fund activity based in the United States, and Eyck Capital Management, an asset management firm based in London, on 3 April announced that they had signed a strategic alliance which will aim to allow Eyck Capital Management to increase its capital and accelerate its activities, while offering Investcorp and its investors access to event-driven and distressed credit strategies throughout Europe. Eyck Capital, founded in 2013, is the most recent asset management firm to have received the support of Investocorp, which has USD11.3bn in assets under management as of 31 December. Historically, Investcorp has provided seed capital or new money totalling USD50m to USD100m.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The asset management firms DoubleDividend B.V. and Activinvestor Management B.V. on 4 April announced that they had decided to merge. The two entities officially merged on 1 April, with total assets under management of EUR50m.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Crédit Agricole Private Banking has recently recruited Alberto Ibañez as head of the activity serving institutional clients in Spain, Funds People reports. Ibañez, who has 12 years of experience in the finance sector, previously worked at UBS Wealth Management as director of the financial intermediary relationships department.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Spanish Bankia group has appointed Pablo Hernandez as its new head of sales for its asset management arm, Funds People reports. Hernandez replaces Begoña Hernandez, who will continue her career in the banking group with other responsibilities on the network. Hernandez will now be head of sales for mutual fund and pension funds activities at the Bankia group, and in this role will report directly to Rocio Eguiraun, director of asset management. Hernandez spent most of his professional career at Bankia, where he began in 1998.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Threatened with being presented as a systemic risk, large asset management firms are fighting against measures worldwide, the Financial Times reports. In a letter to the Financial Stability Board, BlackRock argues that a leverage “screen” should be the primary tool used to identify which global giants should be subject to tougher regulation.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Large asset management firms may represent a risk to the stability of the financial system, Andrew Haldane, executive director for financial stability at the Bank of England, announced, as cited in the Wall Street Journal. At an asset management conference at the London Business School, he said that several asset manaement firms are so large that “difficulties at an asset management firm may aggravate frictions on the financial markets.” Amond these major risks, he cites the case of a fund in difficulty required to sell assets, which would drive down prices on the market. That could trigger another wave of massive sales, which would amplify the fall.