According to the Candy GPS Report (see attachment), published on 10 October by Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (DeAWM), Svills World Research and Candy & Candy, ultra-high net worth retail investors tend to choose the French Riviera as a priority for luxury homes. It is also in this region that five-bedroom villas are most expensive, with an average of USD28.5m. This type of property is worth USD24m in Monaco, and USD23m in Barbados.The CPS Report (for Global Prime Sector) finds that the increase in the number of ultra-high net worth individuals (UNHWI), which was 34% between 2009 and 2012, has driven up prices in luxury “enclaves,” and that a particuarly large number of Russian and Middle Eastern individuals are taking positions in this niche.
On 10 October, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced the launch of the S&P MENA Bond & Sukuk Index, and its two sub-indices, S&P MENA Bond Index and S&P MENA Sukuk Index. The indices are subject to filtering for Sharia compliance. The main index includes a universe of bonds denominated in US dollars, to replicate the performance of bonds and Islamic fixed-income securities (sukuks) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), issued by companies based in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuweit, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
Jake Moeller, senior management in the fund selection team at Lloyds TSB, will be leaving the bank next month, Citywire Global has announced. He will join Reuters, where he will work in research.
AXA Investment Managers on 10 October announced the launch of a range of pooled funds to meet the specific needs of pension funds, to cover their liabilities. The range of funds, which comes as an addition to the range of liability-driven investment (LDI) solutions, comes in three formulas (nominal, real and inflation only), each of which includes five offers with different maturities, in order to offer pension funds coverage solutions adapted to sensitivity and maturity. Programmes may hedge their sensitivity to interest rates and inflation in an approved, segregated manner, and liabilities may be covered with issues ranging from 10 to 50 years.
The manager of managers platform at Prudential Retirement (Prudential Financial group) now includes 78 institutional funds, sub-advised by external managers, including real estate products, which is a novelty.The firm has admitted the following 12 funds to its platform dedicated to promoters of retirement savings funds:- Large Cap Value / Becker Capital Fund (Becker Capital) - Large Cap Value / Ceredex Value Advisors Fund (Ceredex Value Advisors) - Large Cap Value / Nuveen Asset Management Fund (Nuveen Asset Management, LLC) - Large Cap Growth / Brown Fund (Brown Advisory) - Large Cap Growth / Fayez Sarofim Fund (Fayez Sarofim & Co.) - Mid Cap Value / Invesco Fund (Invesco Advisers, Inc.) - Mid Cap Value / WEDGE Fund (WEDGE Capital Management LLP) - Mid Cap Growth / American Century Fund (American Century Investment Management, Inc.) - Small Cap Growth / Palisade Capital Management Fund (Palisade Capital Management, LLC) - Real Estate / American Century Fund (American Century Investment Management, Inc.) - Real Estate / Cohen & Steers (Cohen & Steers) - International Blend / Neuberger Berman Fund (Neuberger Berman)
In order to strengthen its commercial policy, Axiom AI has announced the creation of its integrated Sales Department, to distribute its funds to client Independent Financial Adivisers, Family Offices, portfolio mangement companies and private banks, according to a statement released on 10 October. To this end, it is creating a team of experts, and appointing Bertrand Wojciechowski as Direcror, and Alexis Jarnoux as Head of Sales. Wojciechowski had previously been at Label Finance, a third-party marketer (TPM), in charge of sales and marketing development, from 2010 to 2013. He was responsbile for assisting independent asset management firms (Banque Transatlantique, Axiom-AI) to access the network of independent financial advisers (IFAs), banking-insurance platforms and mult-managers (private banking, family office, etc.) Jarnoux had previously been at Label Ifnance from February 2011 to August 2013, as representative in charge fo sale of funds form Transatlantique Gestion and Axiom AI to IFAs, family offices, portfolio management firms and private bankers.
The US firm Legg Mason is planning to develop in Asia through external growth operations, Asian Investor reports. The head of Legg Mason, Joseph Sullivan, who recently completed the integration of Fauchier Partners into its affiliate Permal, is planning other transactions of this type in Asia, where in particular he hopes to increase the firm’s presence in China. Sullivan also says that he would not like to launch ETFs, except perhaps in the active ETF segment.
The British authorities are planning to offer financial incentives to whistleblowers, Les Echos reports. The Home Office revealed that it is considering the move as it launches the National Crome Agency (NCA) this month. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), for its part, will launch a consultation in 2014. Under the Dodd-Frank law passed after the crisis, the US legislator has extended the practice, which is common in North America: it claims that some whistleblowers may get 10% to 30% of the sums recuperated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The asset management sector in Europe may be facing total costs of EUR300m to EUR500m, or EUR220m to EUR360m per year, in the next three years, to meet new regulatory requirements, according to a study by BNY Mellon, in association with Ernst & Young.These additional costs will in the next three to five years result in a “conservative” increase of 3% in operating costs and a 2% increase in total expense ratio (TER), on the basis of a stabilisation of profits at their current levels.The study, entitled “The Impending Profitability Challenge for European fund Managers,” emphasizes the growing pressure on asset management firms which are facing rising costs of compliance and investors who are demanding ever less costly products.
The Italian asset management firm Azimut has completed its acquisition of 50% of the Brazilian Legan Administração de Recursos via AZ Brazil Holdings, a Brazilian-registered holding company founded by AZ International Holdings, to acquire strategic stakes in the region. Legan is an asset management firm specialised in low-volatility strategies, which as of 4 October had the equivalent of EUR172m in assets under management, 19% more than as of 6 September, the date that the agreement was announced. The operation will include an acquisition from the founding partners, for about EUR3.3m, and subscription to a capital increase for a value of about EUR2.3m, in order to finance the business plan. The agreement also lays out purchase and sale options, and an engagement as part of the sale by the management of Legan to work with Azimut to make the activity prosper in Brazil over the long term. With the acquisition, the Italian Azimut becomes more international. The independent firm is already present in Luxembourg, Ireland, China, Monaco, Switzerland, Turkey and Taiwan.
Assets under management by sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) worldwide increased by EUR750bn in the past 12 months, from USD4.620trn to USD5.380trn, according to statistics from Preqin. This annual increase is the largest ever retorded by the data provider since 2007, the year in which the first study on the subject was published. The reasons for this significant growth in assets is partly the creation of new SWFs in the past few months, and partly an injection of fresh capital into existing funds, Preqin notes. Since 2008, 15 new SWFs have been created, of which 8 were in the past two years alone.In detail, Asian SWFs have seen the strongest growth in their assets since 2012, at 19%, compared with growth of 6% for thier Middle Eastern counterparts.Worldwide, the largest SWF remains the Norwegian Government Pension Fund – Global, with USD775.2bn in assets, up by USD185bn since 2012.
The European funds industry amassed net inflows of EUR3.5bn for August, which is lower than inflows for July (+EUR33.6bn), according to Lipper.Money market EUR was by far the most popular asset class for August (+EUR10.2bn of net inflows), followed by equities Europe (+EUR3.4bn) and asset allocation funds (+EUR3.2bn), as well as bond EUR shortterm funds (+EUR1.8bn). The shift toward money market and short-duration products in euros may indicate an increasing risk aversion of European investors, comments Lipper.Bond funds faced net outflows of EUR6.3bn. Nevertheless, this asset class remained the best selling asset class for 2013 year to date, with estimated net inflows of EUR91.2bn, out of EUR157.7bn.DeAWM was the best selling group of long-term funds for August, with net sales of EUR1.2bn, ahead of JP Morgan (+EUR0.8bn) and BlackRock (+EUR0.8bn).
As of the end of September, assets in funds on sale in Sweden totalled SEK2.324trn (EUR263bn), a level not previously recorded. Of this total, 55% are invested in equity funds. This comes after net inflows of SEK1.3bn (EUR0.15bn) in September. Inflows were driven by diversified and equity funds, which posted SEK4bn (EUR0.45bn) and SEK1.3bn (EUR0.15bn) in inflows, respectively.
Teera Chanpongsang from Fidelity will be leaving the management of the OEIC Emerging Asia fund on 1 November, in order to take over the OEIC South-East Asia fund (GBP2.1bn), Investment Week reports. The OEIC Emerging Asia fund will now be managed by Dhananjay Phadnis, who manages the Fidelity Funds Indonesia and has been working at the firm since 2004.
Skandia will merge the Old Mutual US Large Cap Value fund, managed by Epoch, with Old Mutual Dividend, Fondbranschen reports. The firm will offer the Skandia USA fund, managed by Goldman Sachs, to investors instead.
After the announcement by Stoxx of the launch of a new global infrastructure sector equity index (see Newsmanagers of 10 October), FlexShares ETF, an affiliate of Northern Trust, officially announced the launch of the FlexShares Stoxx Global Broad Infrastructure Index Fund, which replicates the Stoxx Global Broad Infrastructure Index. The product, whose acronym is NFRA, will be listed on the NYSE Arca platform, and has a total expense ratio of 0.47%. It was founded on 10 August 2013.
The index provider S&P Dow Jones Indices on 10 Octoebr announced the launch of the S&P Mena Bond & Sukuk Index as ell as the two sub-indices, S&P Mena Bond Index and S&P Mena Sukuk Index. With the exception of the S&P Mena Bond Index, each index on offer is Sharia-compliant. The S&P Mena Bond & Sukuk Index covers a range of bonds which are denominated in US dollars, which aim to measure the performance of Islamic bonds (sukuks) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The index measures the performance of companies based in the following countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
iShares has signed a co-operation agreement with Poste Italiane to allow investors to purchaase iShares ETFs on the online platform BancoPosta, Bluerating reports. In addition, for 6 months, iShares ETFs listed in Milan may be traded without order receiving or sending commissions for acquisitions of at least EUR1,000. “Our agreement with Poste Italiane is strategic in the development of financial education and the promotion of knowledge of ETFs on the part of the retail public,” says Emanuele Mellingeri, head of iShares in Italy.
According to Expansión, there are only four candidates remaining to acquire the real estate affiliate of Santander, Altamira. The vendor has opened the data room to the private equity invetors Cerberus, Apollo, Centerbridge and Starwood.
The Luxembourg Sicav ABN Amro Mutli-Manager Funds now includes 45 subfunds, which are primarily funds of mandates and funds of funds selected by AAAdvisors, an affiliate based in Paris and Amsterdam, and managed by the French firm Neuflize OBC Investissements, Fonds Nieuws reports.The funds concerned, some of which (formerly from Fortis and ABN Amro AM) are still officially run by BNP Paribas, include equity and bond, absolute return, diversified, target date and profiled products for insurance policies.
L’Agence France Trésor annonce vendredi l’adjudication, le jeudi 17 octobre, d’un montant compris entre 6,0 et 7,0 milliards d’euros d’obligations assimilables du Trésor (OAT) de maturité moyenne (ex-BTAN). Elle adjugera le même jour entre 1,0 et 1,5 milliard d’euros d’obligations indexées sur l’inflation française (OATi) et sur l’inflation de la zone euro (OATei), une opération qui portera sur les lignes OATi 2,10% juillet 2023, OATei 1,85% juillet 2027 et OATei 1,80% juillet 2040.
Le déficit budgétaire de la Grèce a finalement représenté 6,2% du produit intérieur brut en 2012, une proportion supérieure aux 6% estimés initialement, a annoncé vendredi l’agence statistique du pays, Elstat. Ce taux ne prend pas en compte l’aide publique apportée au banques à la suite de la restructuration de la dette grecque. Malgré cette révision à la hausse, le déficit reste inférieur aux 6,6% visés l’année dernière par le gouvernement.
Commerzbank, qui a placé jeudi 500 millions d’euros de covered bonds inaugurales à 7 ans, a vendu 59% des titres auprès d’investisseurs domestiques. Deutsche Bank, Natixis et UniCredit ont dirigé l’opération aux côtés de la deuxième banque allemande.
Si la ligne de swap signée par la BCE avec son homologue chinoise dépasse celle de la BoE, Londres reste le centre des échanges internationaux en renminbi.