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07/10/2013

Muzinich profite de la désintermédiation

La boutique américaine spécialiste des obligations à haut rendement lance une activité de placements privés en Italie. Malgré les incertitudes sur l'évolution des taux, l’entreprise poursuit son expansion avec 25 milliards de dollars d’actifs, principalement en Europe.
07/10/2013
Gestion d'actifs

L'ERAFP aimerait pouvoir investir dans les infrastructures

Jean-Michel Horrenberger, directeur général adjoint de l’ERAFP, a déclaré à Londres, lors de la première conférence organisée par IPE / Sterling Capital Partners consacrée aux infrastructures, que le conseil d’administration de l’ERAFP a formulé une demande aux régulateurs français avec pour objectif d’obtenir un allègement des contraintes réglementaires à l'égard des classes d’actifs alternatives. Cela permettrait à l’institution de réaliser ses premiers investissements dans les infrastructures. Jean-Michel Horrenberger a indiqué que le l’ERAFP n'était actuellement « pas autorisé par la loi » à investir dans des classes d’actifs telles que les infrastructures. Il a ajouté que l’institution, dont la poche obligations représente plus de 70%, ne pouvait pas investir dans des fonds communs de placement à capital variable, et était de plus limitée au moment d’investir dans des titres non cotés. En 2011, l’ERAFP avait déjà reçu l’autorisation d’investir dans l’immobilier et le bois.
Gestion d'actifs
07/10/2013
Gestion d'actifs

La Collective de Prévoyance écarte 2 gérants d'actifs

La Collective de Prévoyance (Copré), environ 470 millions d’euros d’encours, a écarté deux gérants d’actifs, IAM Independent Asset Management et Aforge Finance, et a sélectionné UBS Global Asset Management. L’institution met davantage l’accent sur l’investissement indiciel. Christina Tournier, secrétaire générale de la Collective de Prévoyance, a déclaré qu'«après plusieurs années d’observation, nous avons noté que indiciel faisait mieux, et à moindre coût». Christina Tournier a révélé que les mandats avec les gestionnaires actifs IAM Independent Asset Management et Aforge Finance avaient pris fin, et que l’institution a sélectionné UBS à la place. L’institution avait délégué un mandat indiciel à Crédit Suisse Asset Management (lire brève du 27 mai 2011), elle a également retenu Swiss & Global Asset Management.
Gestion d'actifs
04/10/2013

Rebond modéré du crédit immobilier en France

Le redémarrage du marché intervenu en septembre 2013 - comme chaque année à la même époque - a été modéré. Pour autant, la production demeure en progression de 15,9% en rythme annuel en septembre (en glissement annuel). Compte tenu de la forte diminution des apports personnels mobilisés et donc d’un retour au crédit plus intense, le nombre de prêts bancaires accordés progresse moins rapidement avec une hausse de 4,8 % en rythme annuel en septembre.
04/10/2013

Les ETF retrouvent le chemin de la collecte

La collecte sur les produits indiciels cotés (ETP) a atteint 35 milliards de dollars au mois de septembre, selon les données de BlackRock, alors qu’août avait marqué le troisième mois de décollecte en 2013. Les signaux accommodants lancés par la Fed, puis sa décision de ne pas ralentir tout de suite son programme de rachats d’actifs, ont alimenté les flux après les incertitudes de l'été. Les ETF actions européennes ont encore été en vedette avec une collecte de 5,3 milliards de dollars. Les flux sur ETF marchés émergents sont quant à eux repassés en territoire positif le mois dernier, même si le cumul reste négatif sur 2013. A fin septembre, l’encours mondial d’ETP atteignait 2.226 milliards de dollars pour 4.937 produits répertoriés par BlackRock.
Illustration: PHB
04/10/2013

Les républicains sont en conclave sur le budget

Les élus républicains de la Chambre des représentants se sont réunis à huis clos vendredi pour affiner leur stratégie, au quatrième jour de «shutdown» des services fédéraux non essentiels, que beaucoup craignent de voir durer jusqu'à ce que la classe politique finisse par s’entendre sur un relèvement du plafond de la dette. Estimant que l’impasse actuelle nécessitait sa présence à Washington, Barack Obama a annulé ses déplacements prévus la semaine prochaine en Indonésie et à Brunei.
04/10/2013

Azimut veut se développer en Asie

Le groupe de gestion italien Azimut Holding et le gestionnaire indépendant basé à Singapour Athenaeum ont conclu un accord pour lancer des activités en partenariat sur le marché local, selon un communiqué publié le 2 octobre.S’il obtient les autorisations requises, Azimut, par l’intermédiaire de AZ International Holdings, rachètera 55% du capital de la société de gestion au travers d’une augmentation de capital qui permettra de financer le projet de partenariat. L'équipe dirigeante d’Atheaeum devrait rester aux côtés d’Azimut pour développer l’activité asiatique au cours des prochaines années.
04/10/2013

UBS ETFs cuts its TERs

Clemens Reuter, head of UBS ETFs, has told Fondsprofessionell that his asset management firm has decided to cut the total expense ratios (TER) for several of its ETFs with effect from 16 September. In order for investors to be aware of the additional costs involved with synthetic replication ETFs, particularly costs related to the swap, UBS ETFs has also decided to publish a parallel “drag level” TER, in order to offer complete transparency. The “drag level” rate will be calculated by UBS once per year, on 31 July, and will apply for the following 12 months.
04/10/2013

iShares rationalizes EMEA product range

Following its acquisition of the ETF activities of Credit Suisse, iShares has modified its range of products on offer in the EMEA region (Europe, the Miiddle East and Africa), Investent Europe reports. As part of the changes, iShares will close 15 ETFs from 24 October 2013 for various reasons, particularly a lack of interest on the part of investors in these vehicles. The funds concerned include 89 funds from iShares and 7 funds from Credit Suisse.iShares has also repositioned the capitalisation versions of the iShares FTSE 100 UCITS ETF, iShares S&P 500 UCITS ETF and iShares S&P 500 - B UCITS ETF with a total expense ratio of 15 basis points, in order to meet rising demand from institutional investors for inexpensive and transparent ETFs. The versions of these products placed on sale have not been modified.
04/10/2013

LB(Swiss) Investment extends its product range

The Zurich-based LB(Swiss) Investment AG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Frankfurter Bankgesellschaft (Switzerland), announced on 3 October that on 1 October it added a new business unit to its activities, namely the provision of representation for foreign funds in Switzerland. This comes in addition to activities to create and manage funds as well as compliance and risk management.As a centre of expertise, LB(Swiss) Investment offers its potential clients expertise in Swiss fund legislation, which permits the development of commercial strategy. In addition, the business model is designed to exclude conflicts of interest, particularly to avoid any situation of competition between the firm and its clients, Marcel Weiss, CEO, says.
04/10/2013

BlackRock plans to increase personnel in Switzerland by 25 %

At the official inauguration of new BlackRock premises on Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich, Martin Gut, country head for Switzerland, says that the US asset mangaement firm may soon employ considerably more than 100 people in Zurich and Geneva, compared with 80 currently, finews reports.This will be organic growth, after BlackRock acquired the multi-management activities of Swiss Re and the ETF activities of Credit Suisse, which made it possible to increase assets to nearly USD120bn.Gut has announced that BlackRock is also about to found a fund management and administration company in Switzerland. Talks with Finma are promising, the manager says.
04/10/2013

ComStage preparing two new ETFs

Deutsche Börse will soon announce that it has admitted two new Luxembourg-registered ETFs to trading on the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic trading platform launched by ComStage, an affiliate of Commerzbank. The funds were founded on 30 September. One of them, the ComStage ETF FTSE China A50 UCITS ETF, replicates an index in US dollars of shares in mainland Chinese companies developed by FTSE; the other, the ComStage ETF MSCI World with EM Exposure net UCITS ETF, tracks an index of the 300 companies of the MSCI index most exposed to emerging markets.CharacteristicsName: ComStage ETF FTSE China A50 UCITS ETFISIN code: LU0947415054Total expense ratio: 0.50%Name: ComStage ETF MSCI World with EM Exposure net UCITS ETFISIN code: LU0947416961Total expense ratio: 0.40%
04/10/2013

Acatis highlights Gané Value Event fonds UI fund

The Frankfurt-based asset management boutique Acatis Investment, whose assets total EUR2.1bn thanks to EUR685m in net subscriptions in the first eight months of 2013 (thus not counting inflows in September) unveiled the largest fund in the litter in Paris on 3 October, which is managed by Universal Investment and “sub-advised” by Gané AG of Aschaffenburg. The German-registered product, Acatis Gané Value Event Fund UI, has EUR785m in assets, and has attracted a net EUR400m since the beginning of the year, says Uwe Rathausky, one of the two founders and directors at Acatis.The portfolio, which now includes 25 positions with a turnover rate of 30%, is invested in equities, bonds and cash. For an investment, the team requires profits of 10% for each equity and 6% for each bond, and historically, the cash allocation has varied from 5% to 40%. The fund is currently 47% invested in equities (including 31% in US large caps), 16% in bonds (rated an average of BBB-), and 37% in cash.To describe the management style, Rathausky explains that he applies a value approach to the business, the management and the valuation, and complements this with an event-driven component, while refusing to use derivatives. The portfolio must have a considerably lower volatility than that of the equity markets, and a beta correlation of 0.30 to 0.60, also with respect to the equity market.CharacteristicsName: Acatis Gané Value Event Fund UIIsin Codes : DE000A0X751: A sharesDE000AIC5D13: B sharesDE000AIT73W9: C sharesBenchmark index: 50 % MSCI World Performance EUR/50 % EoniaFront-end fee:5% maximum (A and C shares)4% maximum (B shares)Management commission: 1.75%Performance commission: 20% of performance exceeding 6% (maximum 2% for the B share class)
04/10/2013

Major operations are on the rise again in mergers and acquisitons

According to the most recent statistics from Dealogic, large operations are rising again, boosting global activity since the beginning of the year, Les Echos reports. 18 operations of over USD10bn were announced between January and September 2013, totalling nearly USD550bn. But the global M&A market remains reduced in terms of the number of operations.
04/10/2013

AuM in investment funds down 3% in second quarter

Investment fund assets worldwide decreased 3.5 percent during the second quarter to stand at EUR 22.94 trillion at end June 2013, according to statistics from the European fund and asset management association (EFAMA). Worldwide net cash inflows amounted to EUR 109 billion, compared to EUR 320 billion in the previous quarter. A sharp reduction in net inflows to equity and bond funds explains this result. Long-term funds (all funds excluding money market funds) continued to register net inflows amounting to EUR 193 billion during the second quarter, albeit down from the record net inflows of EUR 402 billion registered in the previous quarter. Worldwide equity funds attracted EUR 28 billion in net new money during the quarter, while bond funds registered net inflows amounting to EUR 31 billion, down from EUR 143 billion in the previous quarter. Balanced funds recorded reduced net inflows of EUR 57 billion, down from EUR 74 billion in the first quarter. Net outflows from money market funds remained relatively steady at EUR 84 billion during the quarter, compared to EUR 82 billion in the previous quarter. Europe, which registered net outflows of EUR 53 billion during the quarter, accounted for much of these outflows. At the end of the second quarter, assets of equity funds represented 38 percent and bond funds represented 23 percent of all investment fund assets worldwide. The asset share of money market funds was 15 percent and the asset share of balanced/mixed funds was 11 percent.
04/10/2013

Positive momentum for frontier markets

At a time when emerging markets are experiencing turbulence, inflows to funds dedicated to frontier markets are gaining momentum. The low correlation with developed and emerging markets is one of the reasons for this sustained interest in frontier markets, which, however, suffer from a deficit of liquidity which dampens the ardour of asset managers, Cerulli observes in the October issue of the “Cerulli Edge - Global Edition.” Assets under management in frontier funds remain modest: they are naturally mostly in the millions rather than the billions. But inflows are rising, and creations of funds of funds are increasing. “Global institutional investors are increasingly inclined to dedicate a small percentage of their emerging market allocation to frontier markets, probably not more than 1% to 3%, but that represents a considerable increase compared with the situation five, or even three, years ago,” says Barbara Wall, director at Cerulli Associates. “Inflows appear to be going primarily to markets which offer the best infrastructure and liquidity, and then to the ones which offer low correlation with other asset classes,” says Yoon Ng, associate director at Cerulli. Actively-managed long-only funds dominate the field, but they are now facing rising competition from ETFs, whose assets under management have risen by more than 50% since the beginning of the year.
04/10/2013

Azimut wants to grow in Asia

The Italian asset management froup Azimut Holding and the Singapore-based independent asset management firm Athenaeum have signed an agreement to launch activities in partnership on the local market, according to a statement released on 2 October. If it obtains the required athorisation, Azimut, via AZ International Holdings, will acquire 55% of capital in the asset management firm via a capital increase, which will make it possible to finance the planned partnership. The management team at Athenaeum will remain alongside Azimut to develop Asian activities in the next few years.
04/10/2013

Hedge funds grow on repo market

Hedge funds and other parallel banking operators are growing on the repurchasing market, as new rules render this activity less attractive for banks, the Financial Times reports. Among other players who are active in this area are Och-Ziff and Moore Capital, the newspaper says.
04/10/2013

More managers leave SAC Capital

According to Institutional Investors’ alpha, relaying the New York Times DealBlog, three more managers have left the hedge fund management firm SAC Capital Advisors, which is facing a lawsuit for insider trading. The three specialists, based in London, are Alidod Shirinbekov, Woei Chan and Paul Crouch.
04/10/2013

Creation of a DD platform for hedge funds

A group of seasoned asset management professionals, Ezra Zask, Ralph DiMeo, Robert Krause, Wendy Robertson and Matthias Knab, who have already done more than 1,000 due diligence reports on hedge funds, have founded the platform Hedge Fund Due Diligence Exchange (HFDDX), which offers members an online marketplace to anonymously reconcile their needs with those of other participants, at http://www.hfddx.com/. When two or more members would like due diligence on the same fund, this reduces the cost proportionately.However, HFDDX does not recommend managers, and does not assist members to find funds which suit their needs.
04/10/2013

La Française and Ofi AM merge their incubation operations

La Française and Ofi AM on Thursday, 3 October announced that they are merging their incubation activities at NExT AM and NewAlpha AM. The new merged entity will have 49 investments, EUR1.3bn in cumulative seed money commitments, 26 active partners, and a total of EUR6.2bn in assets managed by 260 employees at partner asset management firms.NewAlpha AM is now 40% contorlled by La Française via its affiliate NExT AM, 25% by Ofi AM via NewAlpha Advisers, and 35% by the founders of NewAlpha AM within the entity NewAlpha Partners. NewAlpha AM will become the manager for third parties in the new ensemble, and will take over the management of the NExT Invest fund.The new entity, whose brand name has not yet been decided, aims to become the European leader in asset management incubation, “and one of the top two or three worldwide,” says the chairman of the board of NewAlpha AM, Antoine Rolland.
04/10/2013

US institutional assets may rise by 30% from now to 2018

The U.S. institutional market is going to increase 30% to USD19 trillion in assets within the next 5 years, expects Cerulli Associates. As of year-end 2012, the institutional market held USD14.5 trillion in assets under management. «The shift from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) is continuing,» explains John Hsu, senior analyst at Cerulli. «DC markets continue to grow faster than DB markets and we anticipate that trend will continue."Cerulli highlights an opportunity for asset managers who have shifted their focus to DC to leverage existing relationships with corporate DB plan sponsors, allowing them to win DC mandates and potentially extend to custom target-date solutions.
04/10/2013

Amundi aims for EUR100bn in SRI assets in 2 years

Amundi would like to increase its assets in socially responsible investment from EUR66bn as of the end of June 2013, to EUR100bn, in two years, Yves Perrier, CEO of the asset management firm of the Crédit Agricole group, announced on Thursday at a press conference. As of 30 June, Amundi had a total of EUR750bn in assets under management. In order to develop its SRI assets, th asset management firm is planning to rely on two vectors. The first is the transformation of traditional funds into SRI funds, as have already been done in money markets (which now represent 37.76% of SRI assets). Pierre Schereck, director of corporate savings and SRI at Amundi, says, for example, that in employee savings, EUR10bn out of EUR20bn are not yet SRI and could be. The other vector is inflows, although Perrier claims that demand for SRI is “marginal,” particularly on the part of retail investors. Three quarters of SRI assets at Amundi are managed for institutional investors. At the conference, Perrier also discussed the choice to certify the firm’s SRI precedures with Afnor Certification, and to drop the Novethic labels. “There were disagreements about the procedure at Novethic, which has more exclusions than ours,” he explains. “The point of friction is the selectiveness rate,” Anne-Catherine Husson Traore, CEO of Novethic, confirms. Perrier also supports the creation of a European, rather than French, SRI label. SRI procedures at Amundi are based on environmental, social and governance analysis of 4,600 issuers. This makes it possible to construct portfolios with a universal best-in-class approach. Extra-financial research has also been made available to all managers, who are, however, not required to use it.
04/10/2013

Direxion offers two ETFs of junior gold miners

New York-based Direxion on 3 October launched two leveraged ETFs which replicate the rising or falling performance of the Junior Gold Miners index from Market Vectors with 3 times leverage.The Direxion Daily Junior Fold Miners Index Bull 3X Shares (ticker: JNUG) aims for triple the daily performance of this index, while the Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Bear 3X Shares (JDST) is the inverse.The two funds charge fees of 0.95%.
04/10/2013

Pension fund coverage rate reaches 91%

Thanks to the good performance of the US and international markets, the average coverage rate for the liabilities of US corporate pension funds in the month of September rose 2.9 percentage points to 91%, a level not seen since June 2011, according to BNY Mellon Investment Strategy & Solutions Group (ISSG).“Getting above 90% is important for very many corporate retirement savings programmes, who as a result become more disposed to put strategies in place which can reduce exposure to market volatility,” says Jeffrey B. Saef, managing director at BNY Mellon Investment Management and head of ISSG.In the month under review, assets in funds increased by 3.1%. Liabilities fell by 0.2%, while the actualisation rate rose by 3 basis points to 4.81% for businesses rated Aa.
04/10/2013

Bill Ackman backpedals on Herbalife case

The manager of the hedge fund Pershing, Bill Ackman, bet USD1.5bn, or 15% of its total asets, on Herbalife. He short-sold the shares, betting the firm would go bankrupt, as he felt that the firm is an immense “Ponzi scheme.” But the rise in its share value has already cost him nearly one third of his bet, or USD500m in latent capital losses, Les Echos reports. This has weighed on the performance of Pershing, which lost 5% in third quarter, one of its worst declines. It has thus decided to retain only 60% of its short positions, and has also acquired long options on the firm.
04/10/2013

Softbank becomes the second-largest firm on Tokyo stock exchange by market cap

The market capitalisation of the telecommunications operator SoftBank on 3 October exceeded that of the banking group Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), to become the second largest on the Tokyo stock exchange, after Toyota. The share price of SoftBank on Thursday rose 4% to JPY7530 (EUR56.96), after significant rises already during recent trading sessions, a level not seen since November 2005. The market capitalisation of SoftBank on Thursday at the end of the day was JPY9.040trn (about EUR68bn), compared with JPY8.725trn for MUFG and more than JPY21.550trn for Toyota.
04/10/2013

Credit Suisse eyes SG private banking in Asia

Finews reports that according to Reuters, Credit Suisse is said to be in the running to acquire the private banking activities of Société Générale in Asia. Ten banks submitted bids, including at least one US company, Credit Suisse, Standard Chartered, DBS and HSBC.The asset is estimated to be worth USD600m, with USD13bn in assets.
04/10/2013

Replacement of director at Tokio Marine AM

Chiow Wei Lee has resigned from his role as chief investment officer at Tokio Marine Asset Management International (TMAI), Citywire Global reports. His resonsibilities have been taken over by the current CEO, Kenji Kodama. Lee will leave his position on 13 November this year. Assets under management at TMAI total about USD3.5bn.

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