Trecento Asset Management rebaptise son fonds Trecento European Equities. Il devient « Trecento Entrepreneurs » et conserve les mêmes caractéristiques. Comme à l’occasion du récent changement de nom de son fonds santé, Trecento AM souhaite rendre sa gamme plus lisible."Ce changement permet également d’aligner le nom du fonds avec son processus d’investissement fondé sur le mariage entre les compétences d’analyse financière de l’équipe de gestion et le retour terrain d’un comité d’entrepreneurs», précise la société de gestion parisienne.

La société moTwin, spécialiste du développement d’applications mobiles hautement performantes pour les entreprises, a annoncé, mardi 17 septembre, avoir obtenu un financement complémentaire de 2 millions d’euros auprès de son fonds historique Seventure Partners. Par ailleurs, la société Sigma Gestion entre au capital de l’entreprise. Ce financement complémentaire doit permettre de finaliser le modèle de croissance en France et de poursuivre le développement à l’international de moTwin, indique un communiqué.Ce tour de table porte à 5,5 millions d’euros le montant total des fonds levés par moTwin depuis sa création.

Invesco PowerShares a annoncé la nomination de Dan Draper en tant que responsable mondial des ETF, rapporte IndexUniverse. Il prend la succession de Ben Fulton qui a quitté ses fonctions en avril dernier (Newsmanagers du 4 avril 2013).Dan Draper, qui a pris ses fonctions de managing director le 16 septembre, travaillait précédemment chez Credit Suisse où il dirigeait les activités européennes sur les ETF avant la cession de cette entité à BlackRock;

A l’occasion d’un nouveau tour de table de 15 millions d’euros, NextStage apporte 6,4 millions d’euros pour financer les projets de développement de Cap Cinéma, selon un communiqué publié le 17 septembre.Le groupe Cap Cinéma est devenu en 10 ans le 5e exploitant de multiplexes en France et exploitera d’ici la fin 2013 13 établissements dont 10 multiplexes. Le groupe envisage d’ouvrir 5 nouveaux multiplexes d’ici à 2018, tout en renforçant parallèlement son offre de loisir. Cap Cinéma souhaite en outre sasir les opportunités d’exporter son concept à l'étranger et de se positionner sur des opérations de croissance externe.

Funds People rapporte qu’Amundi rend désormais accessible aux investisseurs espagnols le fonds Silver Age de CPR. Ce produit, qui mise sur les sociétés susceptibles de profiter du vieillissement de la population, affiche un encours de 184,24 millions d’euros. Lancé en 2009, il a enregistré des performances à deux chiffres depuis lors, sauf en 2011.

A compter du 24 octobre, les parts ETF du Vanguard 500 Index Fund (code mnémonique : VOO) seront regroupées sur la base d’une pour deux anciennes, processus qui ne concernera par les parts conventionnelles de ce produit, annonce Vanguard. Ce «reverse split» devrait permettre de diminuer les frais de transaction à l’achat et à la vente de parts.Le VOO affiche un encours supérieur à 10 milliards de dollars et un taux de frais sur encours (TFE) de 0,05 %. Vanguard souligne que le TFE moyen de ses 67 ETF d’actions et obligataires (290 milliards de dollars d’encours) se situe à 0,15 %, alors que la moyenne du secteur se situe selon Lipper à 0,58 %.

La boutique basée à Londres Prusik Investment Management a décidé de fermer aux nouveaux investisseurs l’accès de son fonds dédié aux petites capitalisations asiatiques, rapporte Citywire.Le fonds Asian Smaller Companies domicilié au Luxembourg sera «soft-closé» à compter du 30 septembre prochain.Les actifs du fonds s'élèvent à environ 160 millions de dollars, un niveau qui nécessitait, selon le gérant du fonds, Heather Manners, une telle mesure pour préserver les intérêts des investisseurs Sur les trois ans à fin août 2013, le fonds affiche une performance de 20,45%, à comparer à un gain de 5,5% pour l’indice de référence, le MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Small Cap NR USD.

Hugh Mullan, managing director UK de Fidelity Worldwide Investment, annonce dans un entretien au Financial Times fund management que la rentabilité de sa société va chuter, tout comme celle de l’ensemble des acteurs du secteur. C’est la conséquence de la Retail Distribution Review, de la transformation du marché des retraites et du vieillissement de la clientèle traditionnelle des fonds de Fidelity. Hugh Mullan pense que les changements en cours au Royaume-Uni sont le prélude à ce qui va se produire ailleurs. Les Pays-Bas, le Danemark, l’Australie et la Suisse sont aussi sur cette voie. Fidelity Worldwide reste une activité rentable, note le FT fm. Le bénéfice avant impôts pour FIL Holdings, la holding britannique, a bondi de 69 % à 30,6 millions de livres sur l’année à juin 2012, alors que le chiffre d’affaires a baissé de 6,4 % à 677 millions de livres.

Spécialiste allemand de la gestion quantitative, Quoniam Asset Management, filiale d’Union Investment, a annoncé qu’il compte ouvrir un bureau à Londres à l'été 2014 pour mieux servir les clients anglo-saxons, les consultants internationaux et les fonds souverains.Helmut Paulus, CEO et co-CIO, a precisé que l’encours de Quoniam se situe actuellement à quelque 19 milliards d’euros, gérés pour une centaine d’investisseurs institutionnels. Sur ce total, les actions représentent 7 milliards d’euros et les obligations les 12 milliards restants.

John Wyn-Evans, consultant pour Troy Asset Management chargé du développement de la recherche thématique sur l'économie, la stratégie et l’allocation d’actifs après avoir travaillé chez Lehman Brothers puis chez Nomura comme executive director, UK & European equity sales, rejoint Investec Wealth & Investment comme head of investment strategy.Le nouvel arrivant intègre une équipe de recherche de 19 personnes et remplaces John Haynes, head of research, qui a pris en charge le conseil sur la stratégie d’investissement pour la clientèle d’IFA après le départ de Jim Wood-Smith.

Neptune Investment Management a vu son bénéfice avant impôts chuter de près de 40 % à 12,8 millions de livres l’année dernière, rapporte Financial News. Les portefeuilles de la société étaient trop exposés aux valeurs cycliques et pas assez aux financières mondiales, explique le journal.

Paul Price a rejoint Morgan Stanley Investment Management en tant que responsable commercial pour l’international. Il vient de Pioneer Global Asset Management où il était responsable mondial de l’activité institutionnelle.Chez MSIM, Paul Price supervisera les ventes à la clientèle institutionnels et d’intermédiaires, les relations avec les consultants et les équipes de développement en Europe, au Moyen-Orient, en Afrique, en Asie et en Amérique latine. Il sera basé à Londres."Paul jouera un rôle clé dans le renforcement de l’empreinte internationale de MSIM, et il travaillera étroitement avec Lisa Jones, responsable mondiale des ventes de MSIM, Jack O’Connor, notre nouveau responsable des ventes Amérique du Nord, et moi-même», a déclaré Navtek S. Nandra, responsable de MSIM International.

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (DeAWM) renforce son équipe de trading. Trois personnes ont rejoint la société. Juan Landazabal a été nommé global head of fixed income Trading. Il rejoint DeAWM de chez Fidelity International. Matt Montana a été nommé head of equity trading Americas. Il arrive de Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Enfin, Vincenzo Vedda a été nommé deputy global head of equity trading. Il vient de chez Morgan Stanley.

Le néerlandais IMQubator, spécialiste néerlandais de l’incubation soutenu par le fonds de pension APG, a investi 33 millions de dollars dans le fonds d’arbitrage de volatilité True Partner Fund de Hong Kong que dirige Ralph van Put, rapporte FondsNieuws. Cela porte l’encours de True Partner à 107 millions de dollars et confère donc une taille critique à ce fonds.APG a lui-même fourni 225 millions d’euros à IMQubator.

Global head of investment management chez UBS Global Asset Management jusqu’en décembre 2012, puis conseiller personnel des dirigeants de von Fischer et administrateur de SVA Argovie, Christoph Schenk rejoindra au 1er janvier 2014 la Banque cantonale de Zurich (BCZ ou ZJB) comme CIO en remplacement de Marco Curti.De mars 2003 à juin 2006, l’intéressé a été CIO Switezrland & global head instutional multi asset class solutions chez Credit Suisse à Zurich.

John Wyn-Evans, a consultant for Troy Asset Management, responsible for developing thematic research into the economy, strategy and asset allocation, after working at Lehman Brothers and then at Nomura as executive director, UK & European equity sales, is joining Investec Wealth & Investment as head of investment strategy.Wyn-Evans joins a research team of 19 people, and replaces John Haynes, head of research, who became adviser for investment strategy for IFA clients following the departure of Jim Wood-Smith.

Quoniam Asset Management, a German quantitative management specialist and an affiliate of Union Investment, has announced that it is planning to open an office in London in Summer 2014, to better serve British clients, international consultants and sovereign wealth funds.Helmut Paulus, CEO and co-CIO, says that assets at Quoniam now total about EUR19bn, managed for 100 institutional investors. Of this total, equities represent EUR7bn, and bonds the remaining EUR12bn.

Morgan Stanley has hired Paul Price as head of Morgan Stanley Investment Management international sales. He most recently served as global head of the institutional business at Pioneer Global Asset ManagementHe will oversee the institutional and intermediary sales, consultant relations and business development teams in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America. In this new role, Paul Price will be based in London.“Paul brings more than two decades of asset management experience and has a proven track record of building institutional distribution organizations across asset classes,” said Lisa Jones, global head of MSIM sales.Navtej S. Nandra, head of MSIM international, added, “Paul will play a key role in strengthening MSIM’s international footprint, working closely with Lisa, Jack O’Connor, our new head of North America sales, and me.”

Neptune Investment Management has seen a decline in its pre-tax profits of nearly 40%, to GBP12.8m last year, Financial News reports. The firm’s portfolios were too highly exposed to cyclical securities, and not enough to the global financial sector, the newspaper explains.

Corruption has proven to be one of the most important factors in the euro zone debt crisis, the Sovereign Fixed Income working group at the United Nations Principles For Responsible Investment (PRI) has noted.“Any attempt to outline the origins of the euro crisis almost invariably touches on the issue of corruption and the role it played in Greece’s insolvency.lesson from the European Debt Crisis,” the report says, based on a study of environmental, social and governance factors to reduce risks and increase performance in sovereign debt.The authors of the study show that corruption and the performance of sovereign debt are clearly correlated.In social terms, it would appear that a highly educated, IT-literate society paired with a repressive political system can increase the risk of political regime change, according to the study, citing Maplecroft, a provider of ESG research.However, research carried out to date has found only a limited correlation between environmental issues and the performance of bonds. One of the major problems, the study notes, is knowing what indicators should be used to measure environmental risks in a government bond context. Despite this lack of evidence on the environmental side, there is clearly a strong corellation between ESG factors and credit and performance risk.But these are still under-used, the study regrets. To move forward, the authors suggest encouraging major ratings firms to integrate these criteria more.

Investor bullishness towards European equities has reached pre-crisis highs as markets digest the emerging market sell-off, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey for September. An overall total of 236 panelists with USD689 billion of assets under management participated in the survey from 6 September to 12 September 2013.As a consequence, the great rotation from bonds to equities has progressed. The gulf between allocations towards equities and bonds is at its widest since February 2011, and the second-widest in the history of the survey. A net 68 percent of asset allocators are underweight bonds, the greatest underweight position recorded since April 2006 – to give a bond to equity allocation spread of 128 net percentage points.Allocations to eurozone equities have reached their highest level since May 2007. A net 36 percent of global asset allocators are overweight the region, more than twice the net 17 percent recorded in August. A net 12 percent of asset allocators are overweight U.K. equities, which represents an all-time high. Allocations to emerging market equities remain low with a net 18 percent of the panel underweight. Investors have signaled their intent to maintain flows into Europe. A net 27 of investors say that the eurozone is the region they would most like to overweight in the coming 12 months – also the highest reading since May 2007. The switch in sentiment towards Europe has been swift. Only a net 2 percent expressed a desire to overweight the region in July.While optimism is returning to Europe, cash levels have risen to an average of 4.6 percent of portfolios. The proportion of asset allocators overweight cash has risen. Eight out of 10 investors believe the global economy will continue to grow at below trend rate in the coming 12 months.Negative sentiment towards global emerging markets has stabilized. The number of investors saying that emerging markets is the region they most want to underweight has fallen to a net 21 percent in September from a net 29 percent a month ago. Investors are indicating that they see the best value in emerging markets in almost a decade. A net 36 percent of the panel says that global emerging market equities are the most undervalued – or cheapest – of all the regions. This is the strongest undervalued reading since January 2004.

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (DeAWM) is recruiting for its trading team. Three people have joined the firm. Juan Landazabal has been appointed as global head of fixed income Trading. He joins DeAWM From Fidelity International. Matt Montana has been appointed as head of equity trading Americas. He joins from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Lastly, Vincenzo, Vedda has been appointed as deputy global head of equity trading. He joins from Morgan Stanley.

BNP Paribas Real Estate on 17 September announced the acquisition of the iii-investments company, an affiliate of HypoVereinsBank (UniCredit Bank AG), of the UniCredit group, the second-largest fund management firm in Germany dedicated to institutional investors.With the new acquisition, the Investment Management profession at BNP Paribas Real Estate joins the Top 10 European real estate management firms, with a new total of EUR18bn in assets under management. The acquisition is subject to the agreement of the competent authorities, and may be effective by fourth quarter 2013 at the latest. The sale price is confidential. The acquisition of iii-investments comes as part of the development of BNP Paribas Real Estate, whose objectives include developing Investment Management activities throughout Europe and strengthening its positions in the three countries where more than 80% of its real estate investments in Europe are concentrated (France, Germany and the United Kingdom). More generally, the acquisition also comes as part of the BNP Paribas group’s plan to develop in Germany, reinforcing its position as a leader in real estate.iii-investments, founded in 1958, manages EUR4.2bn in assets (real estate funds and real estate debt funds) for German institutional investors (pension funds, retirement schemes and insurers), mostly located in Germany, but also in France, the United Kingdom, 10 other European countries, and Japan.

The global head of investment management at UBS Global Asset Management until December 2012, and then personal adviser to the directors of von Fischer and director of SVA Argovie, Christoph Schenk, will on 1 January 2014 join the Cantonal Bank of Zurich (ZKB) as CIO, replacing Marco Curti. From March 2003 to June 2006, Curti was CIO for Switzerland & global head institutional multi-asset class solutions at Credit Suisse in Zurich.

Millionaires of generations X and Y, meaning those aged 48 or under (with an average age of 37) are very actively engaged in the constitution of their wealth, according to the sixth annual barometer of US millionaires published by Fidelity (Fidelity Millionaire Outlook). They say that finance does not repel them, that they have knowledge of the principles of investment activity, and 72% call this activity pleasant, two times more than their baby boom counterparts. As a sign of their interest in increasing their wealth, they make 30 trades a month on the markets, use a wide range of asset classes, and do not hesitate to modify their investment strategy. 92% use financial advisers to make their wealth prosper, and are more engaged in long-term planning of their investments. The annual study by Fidelity also finds that they are more generous than their counterparts. 82%, compared with 49% for baby boomers, sit on the boards of charities. Their donations total an average of USD54,000.

Invesco PowerShares has announced the appointment of Dan Draper as global head of ETFs, IndexUniverse reports. Draper succeeds Ben Fulton, who left his position in April this year (see Newsmanagers of 4 April 2013). Draper, who began as managing director on 16 September, previously worked at Credit Suisse, where he was head of European ETF activities, before their sale to BlackRock.

Alex Ricchebuono has joined La Française to head-up Southeastern business development, NewsManagers has learnt. He has worked with Brevan Howard (UK) where he was in charge of the distribution of alternative products in Southern Europe and with Credit Suisse Investment Banking (IT) as managing director.Alex Ricchebuono is operating out of the Italian branch of La Française AM (Via Dante, 14 – Milan) and managing the local team. As head of Southeast Europe, he will continue to pursue development opportunities. His goal will be to expand business in Italy, Switzerland and Austria through third party networks, both institutional and retail. Marco Peri will maintain his role as head of Italian Sales with the goal to consolidate La Francaise AM’s presence in this key market, considered strategic by the firm. Additionally, Maria Grazia Bevilacqua, in charge of marketing support and client service, has joined the Italian team.

NYSE Euronext reports that it has admitted two new ETFs from Lyxor Asset Management to trading in Paris, bringing the total number of ETFs listed in Europe on NYSE Euronext markets to 562, and 652 counting cross listings.CharacteristicsName: Lyxor ETF S&P 500Benchmark index: S&P 500 Net Total ReturnTotal expense ratio: 0.15%Name: Lyxor ETF WIG 20Benchmark index: WIG 20 Price ReturnTotal expense ratio: 0.45%

From 24 October, shares in the Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF (code: VOO) will be grouped together, with one new share for every two old ones, in a process which will affect only conventional share classes in the products, Vanguard has announced. This “reverse split” will allow for transaction fees for the purchase and sale of shares to be reduced.The VOO has assets of over USD10bn, and a total expense ratio of 0.55%. Vanguard states that the average TER for its 67 equity and bond ETFs (USD290bn in assets) is 0.15%, while the average for the industry, according to Lipper, is 0.58%.

Creations of hedge funds in North America fell slightly in second quarter 2013 compared with the previous quarter, but they have increased noticeably year on year. In second quarter, 288 new hedge funds were launched in second quarter, compared with 297 vehicles launched in first quarter, but compared with 245 hedge funds launched one year ear, according to the most recent HFR Market Microstructure Industry Report. Creations of hedge funds over a sliding four-quarter period a of the end of June 2013 totalled 1,144, a level not seen since about 1,200 funds were created in the four quarters to the end of March 2008. Liquidations in second quarter totalled 190 funds, in line with those recorded in first quarter 2013 (196) and second quarter 2012 (192). The number of active hedge funds, including funds of hedge funds, totalled 10,009, a figure not seen for five years, and near a record of 10,233 recorded in second quarter 2008. The number of single-manager hedge funds totalled a record 8,167, while the number of funds of funds has fallen to 1,842, its lowest level since 2005. Assets in hedge funds totalled a record USD2.414bn as of the end of June 2013. The report also finds that management commisions declined in fourth quarter to 1.54%, while macro funds charge the highest commissions and arbitrage funds the lowest. Performance commissions totalled 18.31%.