Bankinter Gestion d’Actifs, la filiale de gestion de la banque éponyme, vient de lancer la commercialisation en Espagne d’un nouveau fonds de placement garanti baptisé Bankinter Indice Bolsa Española Garantizado II, qui prend le relais du Bankinter Euro Telecos Garantizado arrivé à échéance le 19 novembre dernier.Ce nouveau véhicule garantit, sur un horizon de placement à cinq ans, 100 % du capital initial (à la valeur de participation en date du 30 janvier 2014), plus une revalorisation de 50 % «point par point» en fonction de l’indice boursier espagnol de référence, l’Ibex 35. L’échéance du fonds est fixée au 30 janvier 2019. Le montant minimal de souscription initiale est fixé à 500 euros. La commission de gestion est fixée à 0,3 % au début de la période de garantie puis de 1,15 % par la suite, tandis que la commission de dépôt est de 0,10 %. Enfin, le fonds offre la possibilité d’obtenir le remboursement de l’investissement sans aucune commission tous les 2 de chaque mois à compter du 2 mars 2014 et jusqu’au 2 mars 2019
. Delubac Asset Management a annoncé le 10 janvier l’arrivée de Laurent Dumonteil en qualité de directeur du développement. Il aura pour objectif de renforcer les relations avec les investisseurs institutionnels, notamment les organismes mutualistes, les multigérants, les Banques Privées, les assureurs et les réseaux de distributeurs d’OPCVM. L’arrivée de Laurent Dumonteil s’inscrit dans la stratégie de développement de la société initiée depuis plus d’un an et fait suite à l’arrivée récente de Timothée Malphettes en qualité de responsable de la gestion actions. Agé de 39 ans, Laurent Dumonteil était jusqu’en 2013 responsable développement et partenariats chez Mandarine Gestion. Préalablement responsable du développement de la distribution externe France & Luxembourg chez Lombard Odier, il a également occupé la fonction de commercial au sein du pôle partenaires (France & Benelux) d’EdRAM.
iShares, la plate-forme ETF de BlackRock, lance à la Bourse de Milan trois ETF à réplication physique optimisée adaptés à la gestion du risque de taux : iShares $ Short Duration High Yield Corporate Bond UCITS ETF, iShares Euro Ultrashort Bond UCITS ETF et iShares Euro Corporate Bond Interest Rate Hedged UCITS ETF. Actuellement, la gamme obligataire d’iShares à Milan se compose de 40 ETF sur un total de 131 produits.
La société de gestion allemande Ampega, basée à Cologne, envisage de lancer un fonds dédié aux obligations à haut rendement, rapporte Citywire. Le fonds Ampega CrossoverPlus Rentenfonds sera domicilié au Luxembourg et devrait être officiellement lancé ce lundi 13 janvier.La stratégie sera pilotée par Christian Hendker, responsable de la recherche fixed income et elle va démarrer avec 5 millions d’euros d’actifs. Ampega est une filiale du groupe Talanx AG qui gère quelque 96,3 milliards d’euros.
L’industrie des hedge funds a terminé l’année 2013 sur une bonne note. Le secteur a en effet enregistré un quatrième mois consécutif de gains en décembre, faisant ainsi de 2013 l’année la plus performante depuis 2010. De fait, selon les données du Hedge Fund Research (HFR), le HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index a gagné 1,2 % en décembre 2013, portant la performance de l’ensemble de l’année à +9,3 %. Par ailleurs, le HFRI Fund of Hedge Funds Index a enregistré une performance de +1,2 % en décembre et de +8,7 % sur l’ensemble de l’année écoulée, soit la meilleure performance annuelle depuis 2009. Les performances ont été tirées en particulier par les stratégies «equity hedge» et «event-driven». Ainsi, le HFRI Equity Hedge Index a dégagé un gain de +1,6 % en décembre et +14,6 % sur l’ensemble de l’exercice 2013. Quant au HFRI Event Driven Index, il affiche une performance de +1,2 % en décembre et de 12,5 % sur l’ensemble de 2013. Dans les deux cas, il s’agit de la meilleure performance enregistrée depuis 2009.
Le spécialiste des actions asiatiques Mike Sell a rejoint la boutique basée à Londres Alquity Investment Management, surtout connue pour ses stratégique sur l’Afrique, rapporte Citywire. Mike Sell, qui travaillait précédemment chez F&C, sera responsable des investissements asiatiques chez Alquity où il pilotera également deux nouvelles stratégies. Ces deux fonds couvriront les actions asiatiques et le sous-continent indien.Alquity a également recruté en décembre dernier l’ancien responsable des actions émergentes internationales, Roberto Lampl, qui s’occupe des stratégies d’investissement en Amérique latine.
Le géant de la distribution Tesco a recruté l’ancien responsable obligataire de Barings, Dagmar Dvorak, en qualité de gérant senior au sein de l'équipe obligataire du fonds de pension de Tesco, rapporte Citywire.Dagmar Dvorak a rejoint Tesco en octobre dernier mais le recrutement n’avait pas fait l’objet d’une communication au public.Les actifs sous gestion du programme de pension du groupe britannique s'élèvent à quelque 6 milliards de livres, soit plus de 7 milliards d’euros.Dagmar Dvorak a été remplacé chez Barings par Alan Wilde, qui était également responsable du fonds Baring International Bond.
La société de gestion écossaise Kames Capital, qui affichait 53 milliards de livres d’encours à fin septembre 2013, se renforce sur le terrain de la gestion actions internationales avec le recrutement de Carolyn Bell. Cette dernière sera chargée de gérer les portefeuilles actions sur l’Amérique du Nord. Forte de cinq ans d’expérience dans le secteur, Carolyn Bell officiait précédemment chez Baillie Gifford en tant qu’analyste en charge de la recherche pour les actions nord-américaines. Auparavant, elle était analyste pour les actions asiatiques et les actions britanniques.
Fidelity vient de nommer Akihiko Murai en tant que gérant pour son fonds immobilier en Asie-Pacifique, à savoir le FF Asia Pacific Property Fund. Akihido Murai prend ainsi en charge la gestion de ce produit, qui représente 31 millions de dollars d’encours, en remplacement de Polly Kwan qui a été promue l’année dernière au poste de gérante du fonds Asian Dividend Fund, lancé en août 2013.
Belle moisson pour Azimut en 2013. L’an dernier, le groupe italien de gestion d’actifs a enregistré une collecte nette qualifiée de «record» de 3,2 milliards d’euros, en progression de 120 % par rapport à 2012. Ses actifs sous gestion atteignent ainsi 21,4 milliards d’euros fin 2013, soit une croissance de 22% depuis le 1er janvier 2013, et 24 milliards d’euros en incluant les actifs sous conservation.
Avec 160 milliards de dollars d’encours sous gestion, Nikko Asset Management - qui vient de changer de patron - est l’une des principales sociétés de gestion asiatiques. Depuis plusieurs années, elle tisse sa toile en Europe : elle dispose d’une présence à Londres pour profiter du savoir-faire local, mais aussi pour servir la clientèle européenne. En France, elle négocie actuellement un partenariat avec une société de gestion, confie Charlie Metcalfe, président de Nikko AM Europe, dans un entretien à NewsManagers.
Apollo Global Management at the end of last week announced real spoils of war: at the end of December, it closed its eighth private equity fund, Apollo Investment Fund VIII, with USD17.5bn in commitments from outside investors. With the addition of engagements from affiliated investors, including employees at the firm led by Leon Black, which total about USD880m, a statement says, the fund has firepower of USD18.4bn. The last private equity fund, Fund VII, raied in 2008, have earned internal annual rates of return of a gross 38% and a net 29% since launch on 30 September 2013, Apollo says. Assets under management by the private equity activity at Apollo total about USD43bn as of the end of September 2013. Total assets under management, which also include credit and real estate funds, total about USD113bn.
Prudential Investments has launched the Prudential Short Duration Multi-Selector Bond Fund, a bond strategy likely to earn returns in an environment of rising interest rates. Funds invest in a diversified portfolio of bonds, including asset-backed securities (ABS), bank loans, corporate debt securities, commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) collateralized bonds and US and foreign corporate bonds. The average duration is expected to total between 1 and 3 years. The benchmark index is the Barclays US Covernment/Credit 1-3 Year.
Two US courts have rejected claims filed by the trustee of the Madoff family empire against UBS, NZZ am Sontag reports. Before the weekend, the highest court in Washington debated whether or not to accept appeals filed by the trustee. If the court reject the appeals, the Madoff trustee will have lost the last chance to get back money from UBS to refund victims of the fraus, according to the Zurich newspaper. The verdict of the high court will be announced on 13 January. According to one observer, the court is expected to reject the trustee’s appeals.
The hedge fund industry finished the year 2013 on a good note. The sector posted a fourth consecutive month of gains in December, making 2013 the best year of returns since 2010. In fact, according to data from Hedge Fund Research (HFR), the HFRI Weighted Composite Index gained 1.2% in December 2013, bringing returns for the year as a whole to +9.3%. The HFRI Fund of Hedge Funds Index posted returns of +1.2% in Decembr, and +8.7% for the past year as a whole, the best annual returns since 2009. Returns were especially driven by equity hedge and event-driven strategies. The HFRI Equity Hedge Index earned gains of +1.6% in December, and +14.6% for the 2013 fiscal year overall. The HFRI Event-Driven Index earned 1.2% in December, and 12.5% for the year 2013 as a whole. In both cases, this is the best result since 2009.
With USD160bn in assets under management, Nikko Asset Management, which has recently changed heads, is one of the largest Asian asset management firms. For several years, it has been making inroads into Europe: it has a presence in London, to take advantage of local expertise, and to serve European clients. In France, it is currently in talks over a partnership with an asset management firm, says Charlie Metcalfe, chairman of Nikko AM Europe, in an interview with NewsManagers.
iShares, the ETF platform from BlackRock, is launching three physical replication optimised ETFs on the Milan stock exchange which are appropriate for fixed income management: iShares $ Short Duration High Yield Corporate Bond UCITS ETF, iShares Euro Ultrashort Bond UCITS ETF and iShares Euro Corporate Bond Interest Rate Hedged UCITS ETF. The bond range from iShares in Milan currently includes 40 ETFs out of a total of 131 products.
Delubac Asset Management on 10 January announced the arrival of Laurent Dumontell as director of development. He will aim to strengthen relationships with instituional investors, including mutualist organisations, multi-managers, private banks, insurers and mutual fund distribution network. The arrival of Dumonteil comes as part of the development strategy at the firm, initiated more than a year ago, which follows the revent arrival of Timothée Malphettes as head of equity management. Dumonteil, 39, in 2013 served as head of development and partnerships at Mandarine Gestion. He was previously head of development and external distribution for France and Luxembourg at Lombard Odier, and also served as a salesman in the partnerships unit (France & Benelux) at EdRAM.
The German asset management firm Ampega, based in Cologne, is planning to launch a fund dedicated to high yield bonds, Citywire reports. The Ampega CrossoverPlus Rentenfonds will be domiciled in Luxembourg and will officially be launched on Monday, 13 January.The strategy will be managed by Christian Hendker, head of fixed income research, and will start out with EUR5m in assets. Ampega is an affiliate of the Talanx AG group, which manages about EUR96.3bn in assets.
AXA Real Estate Investment Managers has completed the sale of two industrial portfolios for a combined value of EUR184.1 million on behalf of the European Industrial Partnership (EIP). The transactions mark the successful conclusion of an orderly programme to dispose of all EIP’s property assets, which was commenced in January 2013 ahead of the Fund’s expiry in January 2015. The final two transactions comprised the sale of the Spring portfolio of 10 French assets to Northwood Investors and of the Zander Portfolio of 11 Dutch assets to Rockspring Property Investment Managers.
The retail giant Tesco has recruited the former head of bonds from Barings, Dagmar Dvorak, as senior manageer in the bond team of the Tesco pension fund, Citywire reports. Dvorak joined Tesco in October last year, but the recruitment was not announced to the public. Assets under management in the British group’s pension programme total about GBP6bn, or more than EUR7bn. Dvorak has been replaced at Barings by Alan Wilde, who was also head of the Baring International Bond fund.
The Asian equity specialist Mike Sell has joined the London-based boutique Alquity Investment Management, largely known for its Africa strategies, Citywire reports. Sell, who previously worked at F&C, will be responsible for Asian investments at Alquity, where he will also manage two new strategies. The two funds will cover Asian equities and the Indian subcontinent. Alquity has also recruited the former head of international emerging market equities Roberto Lampl last year, who will handle investment strategies in Latin America.
Kames Capital has strengthened its international equities team with the hiring of Carolyn Bell. Carolyn, who has five years’ investment experience, joined on 6 January as an investment manager with responsibility for North American equities, reporting to Marcus Chandler.From 2008 to 2013 Carolyn was an investment analyst with Baillie Gifford, where her most recent role was researching North American companies, with a particular focus on the technology and energy sectors. Before that, she analysed Asian equities for two years and UK equities for one year. Before joining Baillie Gifford Carolyn founded and developed her own education business, before selling it to investors.
On Friday, Barclays and BlueBay Asset Management’s Direct Lending Fund announced that they are collaborating to offer joint bespoke lending solutions to medium-sized enterprises in the UK in specific deal situations. They are offering single “unitranche” loans to finance UK financial sponsor-backed mid-market companies. This initiative will provide unitranche loans of up to GBP120m, alongside which Barclays can provide other banking services and will be complementary to Barclays’ and the Fund’s existing lending activities.
Fidelity has appointed Akihito Murai has manager for its real estate FCP fund in Asia-Pacific, the FF Asia Pacific Property Fund. Murai also takes charge of managing the activity, which represents USD31bn in assets, replacing Polly Kwan, who was promoted last year to the position of director of the Asian Dividend fund division, launched in August 2013.
The New Year kicked off with bond funds posting their biggest weekly inflow since early May while equity funds recorded modest net redemptions. One year earlier, during the first days of 2013, emerging market international equity funds, on the contrary, took on weight and suggested that a great rotation could be expected, which never genuinely materialised. According to statistics released by EPFR Global, bond funds took in a net USD5.2 billion in the first week of the year ending on 8 January. Equity funds, however, posted a collective outflow of USD427 million. Commitments to Europe equity funds slipped to an eight week low and US equity funds recorded their biggest outflow since the first week of December. Japan equity funds, which are coming off a year of record-setting inflows, kicked off 2014 by taking over USD1.6 billion during the week under review. Money market funds took in nearly USD23 billion, lifting total inflows over the past three weeks past the USD65 billion mark.
The wealth management firm Henderson (Switzerland) has recruited a new head of sales, in the person of Michael Jöhr, formerly actie at J. Safra Sarasin, Agefi Switzerland reports. Jöhr will oversee advising and acquisitions for private and cantonal banks, family offices and wealth managers in Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austria. Jöhr will report directly to Ariane Dehn, head of sales for Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austria.
Charles Beazley is stepping down as president and chief executive officer of Nikko Asset Management «for family reasons», and will be returning to the U.K, the Tokyo-based asset manager announced on Friday.David Semaya has been appointed as chairman of Nikko AM. He will join the company as non-executive chairman effective April 1st, 2014, and is expected to become executive chairman on September 1st, 2014. Semaya most recently worked at Barclays Plc, where he served in various executive leadership positions since joining the bank in 2004. He was notably CEO of Europe and Asia for Barclays Global Investors (BGI). Before being based in the U.K., he lived and worked in Japan for more than 15 years and is fluent in Japanese.Meanwhile, Takumi Shibata has been named president and chief executive officer of Nikko AM effective January 10th, 2014. In addition to his new roles, he will continue as executive chairman until Semaya joins the company. Shibata joined Nikko AM as executive chairman in July 2013.Beazley joined Nikko Asset Management in London in 2006 as president of Nikko Asset Management Europe, where he ran the firm’s international business. In 2010, he relocated to Tokyo to head the institutional business in addition to his international responsibilities. In 2012, he was named chairman and chief executive officer, and in 2013 he also became president.Nikko Asset Management is one of the biggest companies in the Asian financial services industry, with over USD160 billion in assets under management as of September 30, 2013.
Nomura Asset Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nomura Holdings, on Friday announced that it has agreed to acquire ING Group’s interest in ING Securities Investment and Trust Company Limited, Taiwan, the local asset management unit of ING Group.Nomura Asset Management is partnering with an investment group led by Ashwin Mehta, former chief executive officer of ING Securities Investment and Trust Company Limited, Taiwan. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval.Commenting on the announcement, Toshihiro Iwasaki, CEO of Nomura Asset Management, said: “This acquisition is part of our ongoing expansion in Asia and represents a very important opportunity for us to enter the Taiwanese market, one of the leading mutual fund markets in Asia.
There has been another dramatic turn in the Telecom Italia-BlackRock case, Il Sole – 24 Ore reports. The Italian regulator, Consob, has decided to open an investigation into the role and the voting choices of major US investment funds during the last general shareholders’ meeting at Telecom Italia, which was held in mid-December to study a removal of directors due to conflicts of interest. The meeting rejected the measure. Consob would now like to throw light on the “abnormal behaviour” of some key shareholders at the group, especially BlackRock, which controls 10.1% of the group.