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10/02/2014

Le Qatar lorgnerait 20 % de Monte dei Paschi di Siena

Le fonds souverain du Qatar, QIA, déjà présent dans le capital de Barclays et Credit Suisse en Europe, serait en négociations avec la fondation en vue de la reprise de 15 à 20 % de MPS pour un prix compris entre 280 et 370 millions d’euros, rapporte Les Echos qui cite le quotidien italien « Il Messaggero ». Mais le vendeur viserait plutôt un prix de 490 millions, ce qui pourrait inciter le fonds souverain à reporter ses visées vers Banca Popolare ou Carige, 2 banques régionales également en mal de capitaux frais. La fondation présidée par Antonella Mansi a confirmé l’existence de « contacts avec des investisseurs étrangers ».
10/02/2014

Lyxor hedge fund index down in January

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Lyxor hedge fund index lost 0.42% in January, compared with gains of 1.15% in December 2013, acording to the Lyxor index of the alternative asset management industry, released on 7 February. The Lyxor CTS Long Term index has seen the heaviest losses, at -6.42%. The Lyxor L/S Equity Long Bias Index startegy lost 1.53% for the month. The strategies which posted the strongest gains in January are the Lyxor Fixed Income Arbitrage Index (+1.74%), Lyxor Merger Arbitrage Index (+0,92%) and Lyxor L/S Equity Market Neutral Index (+0,83%).
10/02/2014

PRI organisation holds consultation on governance

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The organisation responsible for the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment has published a document as part of its governance review, and has invited signatories to the Principles to share their comments. The aim of the review is to evaluate what organisation the PRI organisation should adopt to serve its mission.
10/02/2014

Annual results down at LLB

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Liechtensteinische Landesbank (LLB) in 2013 earned a net profit of CHF54m, down 44.8% year on year, it announced on Friday. The Vaduz-based bank has suffered write-downs due to court proceedings related to tax in the United States and restructuring costs. Aside from these one-time items, net profits at the group would have totalled CHF112m. Assets under management last year fell by CHF0.8bn, to a total of CHF49.1bn. The year finished with outflows of CHF2.2bn, taking into account restructuring during the year. As part of its restructuring programme, LLB closed its Swiss affiliate LLB (Switzerland), while the Lugano branch and Jura Trust were sold. These adjustments reduced the numebrof employees to 925 full-time equivalent, compared with 1090 previously.
10/02/2014

Invesco adds to team in Spain

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Invesco Asset Management is adding to its staff in Spain. The asset management firm has recruited Isabel Valenzuela Parra for its Madrid sales team, Funds People reports. She will report directly to Iñigo Escudero, head of sales for Iberia and Latin America. Valenzuela Parra had previously worked at Ahorro Corporación as fund of fund manager. Previously, she served at Santander Asset Management and the central bank of Chile.
10/02/2014

ING IM hands three funds to a new recruit

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } ING Investment Management has placed three funds covering the developing world and Asian debt under the management of Alia Yousuf, Citywire reports. Yousuf, who joined the Netherlands-based group in November last year, will co-manage the funds.
10/02/2014

Very good annual results at Och-Ziff

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The US alternative asset management firm Och-Ziff Capital Management has announced distributable profits of USD559m for fourth quarter 2013, compared with USD351.3m one year previously. For the year as a whole, profits total USD903.6m. The very good performance of funds, indouble digits, boosted performance commissions to USD1.1bn for the year as a whole, up 80% compared with the previous year. Assets under management as of the end of December totalled USD40.2bn, up 23% compared with the end of 2012. As of 1 February 2014, assets under management totalled USD41.3bn, due to net inflows of USD1.1bn, slightly offet by a negative market effect of slightly over USD90m, Och-Ziff says in a statement.
10/02/2014

Cerberus completes sale of its stake in Kokusai Kogyo

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The US private equity group Cerberus Capital Management before the weekend completed its sale of its stake in the Japanese real estate specialist Kokusai Kogyo for a total of about JPY140bn, or USD1.37bn, the news agency Reuters reports, citing sources familiar with the operation. Cerberus sold its majority stake of 55% to the family that founded the firm, which already controlled the remaining 45%.
10/02/2014

Morningstar appoints a CIO for Americas

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The research and data provider Morningstar on 7 February announced the appointment of Scott Wentsel as chief investment officer, Americas at Morningstar Investment Management. Wentsel, who will be based in Chicago, will be reopnsible for asset management teams based in the Americas, and joins the global investment team at Morningstar. He will report to Daniel Needham, globla CIO. Wentsel had worke at Morningstar since 2006. Assets under management at Morningstar Investment Management as of the end of September 2013 totalled USD176bn.
10/02/2014

Activist investors drive up takevoer prices

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In the first 10 months of 2013, hedge funds drove up prices of 14 attempted takeovers in the United States, winning gains in 10 cases, a study by the law firm Simpson, Thatcher & Bartlett, cited by the Financial Times, notes. In 2012, only one campaign out of four led to a rise in the price of the target company.
10/02/2014

US millionaires identify real estate as the most popular asset class

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The majority of millionaire investors in the United States (77%) say that they own real estate, while 35% have real estate investment trusts (REITs), Hedge Week reports, citing a Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Investor Pulse Poll. After real estate, millionaire investors cite their preferred alternative asset classes as collections (34%), precious metals (28%), private equity (27%), real assets (17%), private real estate funds (16%), hedge funds (16%) and venture capital (13%).
10/02/2014

M&G Investments teams up with Debory Eres in employee savints

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } M&G Investments, an affiliate of the insurer Prudential, has signed a distribution agreement in France with Debory ERES, an independent platform specialised in employee sagings and retirement savings. After 18 months of talks, the two partners are now baptising a new enterprise common investment fund (FCPE), ERES M^G Equilibre, which is available to the 8,000 employee clients of Debory ERES and to independent financial adviser clients.
10/02/2014

Good overall results for Apollo

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Assets under management at Apollo Global Management and its affiliates as of the end of December totalled USD161.2bn, compared with USD113.4bn as of the end of December 2012, according to a statement from the firm. This spectacular growth in assets of CHF47.8bn is related to the acquisition of Aviva Usa in early October, which brought a further USD44bn in assets under management. Economic net income (ENI) totalled USD1.89bn for the year as a whole, compared with USD1.47bn for the 2012 fiscal year. Apollo points out that on 31 December it performed a final closing of its flagship private equity fund, Apollo Investment Fund VIII, which rised USD17.5bn in external capital and USD880m in additional funds from Apollo and its affiliated investors.
10/02/2014

FCA appoints an adviser for investment management

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British FCA on 7 February announced that it has appointed James Kelly as adviser in the division dedicated to the surveillance of wholesale banking and investment management. Kelly, who will begin immediately, previously worked at Goldman Sachs and UBS.
10/02/2014

Henderson adds to British sales team

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Henderson Global Investors has added to its British retail team, with the recruitment of Matthew Nesbit, Fund Web reports. He will join the firm on 28 April as managing partner, with responsibility for London accounts. Nesbit joins from Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and previously worked at Aviva Investors.
10/02/2014

BNY Mellon wins a mandate from Aon Hewitt

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Aon Hewitt group, which offers fiduciary management services to British pension funds, has mandated BNY Mellon to provide it with fund administration services for two vehicles domiciled in Ireland, representing a total of nearly GBP4bn. In addition to administration services in the strict sense, BNY Mellon will also provide analysis of risk performance, securities lending and portfolio hedging.
10/02/2014

Cantonal bank of Zurich posts outflows for 2013

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The cantonal bank of Zurich (ZKB) has reported a net outflow for 2013 of CHF237m, at a time when one year earlier, it had posted inflows of over CHF8bn. Client assets remained stable at CHF191.86bn, compared with CHF191.79bn. Profits at the group rose 7.2%, to CHF797m. Operating profits imprived to 62.7%, compared with 64.4% previously.
10/02/2014

Schroder liquidates UK Core fund

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Schroder is closing its UK Core fund, Investment Week reveals, due to a shortage of assets. The fund, managed by Sue Noffke, Jessica Ground and Andy Simpson, was launched in 2011, and represented the first effort by Schroders to offer an actively-managed product at a low price.
10/02/2014

Anima applies for IPO

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Anima Holding, the structure which controls the Italian asset management firm Anima Sgr, has presented an application to be listed to the Milan stock exchange and an application to the Italian regulator, Consob, for its information prospectus to be approved, Il Sole – 24 Ore reports. Banca MPS and BPM will sell shares in the firm, but will remain as shareholders. Lauro Quarantadue, Prima Holding 2 and certain directors of the group will also sell their shares. It is likely that Anima will launch on the stock market in April, if conditions permit it, with a valuation of over EUR1bn, the Italian newspaper reports. The asset management firm created in 2010 has EUR46bn in assets under management.
10/02/2014

NPRF drops State Street Global Advisors

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Irish pension fund National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF) has cut off its business relationshipswith State Street Global Advisors Ireland (SSgA) and terminated all mandates awarded to SSgA due to a fine leveled by the British FCA against the US group, IPE reports. The FCA has fined the firm GBP23m due to deliberately excessive commissions charged by SSgA from six clients, including the NPRF, which had previously sought a refund of EUR2.65m in non-contractual commissions charged during the liquidation of a EUR4.7bn allocation. A spokesperson for the pension fund confirmed that ties with SSgA had been cut off, without specifying precisely which funds were affected. The NPRF has also announced that as of the end of 2013, its assets under management totalled EUR19.9bn, as the fund earned returns of more than 35% for the year as a whole.
10/02/2014

Institutionals revise allocations in favour of bonds

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }Institutional redemptions from US equity funds and commitments to US bond funds both set new records in dollar terms going into February as markets around the world continue to struggle with the shift in US monetary policy, China’s slower growth and the cautious tone of the latest corporate earnings forecasts, according to EPFR.This ‘mini-rotation’ underpinned a new inflow record for all bond funds and a new outflow record for all equity funds during the week ending Feb. 5. Collective outflows from all equity funds totaled USD28.3 billion, with emerging markets equity funds accounting for a fifth of that total, while a net USD14.7 billion flowed into bond funds.
10/02/2014

ESMA concerned by lack of information about complex financial products

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) on February 7 published an opinion on practices to be observed by investment firms when selling complex financial products to investors. ESMA is issuing this opinion «to remind national supervisors and investment firms about the importance of requirements governing selling practices under MiFID (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive)».ESMA is issuing this Opinion as it is concerned that firms’ compliance with the MiFID selling practices when selling complex products «may have fallen short of expected standards». “Investment firms increasingly sell complex financial products such as warrants, different types of structured bonds, derivatives and asset-backed securities, which were previously accessible mainly to professional investors, to retail investors», Steven Maijoor, ESMA chair, said. “ESMA is concerned that this trend greatly increases the risk that customers do not understand the risks, costs and expected returns of the products they are buying. Therefore, we believe that it is crucial that investment firms act responsibly and in the best interest of their clients».
10/02/2014

Number of ETPs worldwide tops 5,000

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The number of ETPs worldwide has for the first time exceeded 5,000, according to statistics from BlackRock. This is a spectacular development as the sector has taken 15 years to reach 2,000 products, but only six years to reach 5,000 By comparison, BlackRock observes that it took nearly 50 years for the mutual fund sector in the United States to reach 2,000 at the end of the 1980s, and another eight years to reach 5,000.
10/02/2014

Quantum fund from Soros posts a record year

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Quantun Endowment fund from George Soros has posted its second-best year ever expressed in US dollars in 2013, adding USD5.5bn to the wealth of the billionaire, and placing Quantum among the top hedge funds of all time, the Financial Times reports. These gains represent a return to stability for Quantum, which Soros closed to those not part of his family in late 2011. Management has been entrusted to Scott Bessent, CIO, the fund represents assets of USD28.6bn.
10/02/2014

Wells Fargo AM enters Dubai

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } After Lazard AM and First State Investments, another US asset management firm is setting up shop in Dubai. According to International Adviser, Wells Fargo Asset Management (AM) has set up a local team, which represents its first presence in the region. The Middle East had previously been served from Europe. Wells Fargo has not released the names of the people who will make up the Dubai team, as they are awaiting permission from the regulator.
10/02/2014

Bank of Luxembourg transforms a strategy

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The private Bank of Luxembourg has converted the strategy of its fund of funds dedicated to Asia into a fund dedicated to Asian equities, investing directly, Citywire reports. The BL Fund Selection-Asia fund, whose assets under management total USD108m, was formally converted into BL-Equities Asia on 30 January this year. The modification aims to take advantage of the growing capacity of the group to invest directly in emerging market equities, the private bank states. Tanguy de Kamp, who had managed the strategy of the fund of fund since its launch in 2005, will remain the principal manager of the transformed fund.
10/02/2014

Spain toughens hedge fund regulations

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Times are getting tougher for hedge funds in Iberia. According to Cotizalia, the Spanish national regulator, the national commission for securities markets (CNMV), has adopted more restrictive guidelines for its alternative fund registration policies in Spain, closing the door to many third countries. Concretely, hedge funds registered in a country with which the CNMV has not signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will not be eligible for sale in Spain. The CNMV has limited the number of third countries from which hedge funds will be permitted to access the savings of Spanish investors to 28. This figure assumes that 14 countries are also subject to a veto. According to the website, the Spanish market becomes the fourth most restrictive market for these vehicles in Europe, joining France, but behind Germany (21 vetos), Italy (21) and Austria (21).
10/02/2014

OMT bill: German courts turn to European judges

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The German constitutional court before the weekend decided to refer to European courts on the question fo a proposed programme for debt to eb repurchased yb the European central bank (ECB), known as the OMT programme, hitherto never used, as it claims that it exceeds its mandate in its current form. A majority of judges on the German court (6 out of 8) find that the programme infringes the national sovereignty of the 18 countries of the euro zone, insofar as these countries have to bear the ultimate risk taken on by the ECB by repurchasing bonds from the troubled states. However, the court points out that the ECB is an organ of the European Union, and has therefore decided to consult the European Court of Justice in the matter. This may increase the burden on its own shoulders: in the event of an unfavourable verdict, analysts predict that the fragile balance in the region may be compromised. The ECB reacted rapidly, claiming that it was taking note of the position of the German court, but persisting in the position that the OMT programme falls within its mandate. However, concerning the European stability mechanism, which was abandoned in the form it had in spring last year, the German court said that it would deliver its decision by 18 March.
10/02/2014

La culture financière des Français reste faible

L'école de management Audencia Nantes vient de publier un baromètre sur la vulnérabilité financière des Français dans le cadre de sa Chaire Banques Populaires. Bilan: seulement 58% des interviewés savent que 100 euros placés à 2% par an conduisent à un capital de 102 euros au bout d’un an. Neuf sur dix ne comprennent pas le fonctionnement d’une obligation et plus des deux tiers comprennent mal les mesures d’atténuation des risques grâce à la diversification. Autre sujet de réflexion pour les prestataires de services d’investissement: 84,6% des Français trouvent les services financiers compliqués et confus, selon ce baromètre.
10/02/2014

Deutsche Bank casse les prix sur ses ETF physiques

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (DeAWM) annonce lundi la réduction des frais annuels d’ETF physiques de sa gamme en introduisant les «ETF Core» qui afficheront des frais sur encours de 0,09% annuels – 9 points de base, contre 15 à 30 pb aujourd’hui. Les premiers indices concernés sont le Dax, le FTSE 100, l’EuroStoxx 50 et le MSCI USA. La filiale de gestion de Deutsche Bank a pris fin 2013 un virage vers les produits indiciels cotés à réplication phyisque.

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