Allianz Global Investors has been working relentlessly to get out of the shadow of its sister company Pimco, Financial Times fund management observes. In first quarter 2013, net inflows from third party clients totalled EUR3.1bn, compared with EUR500m in first quarter 2012. Elizabeth Corley, CEO of AGI, largely attributes the rebound in inflows to a reorganisation of the group, which is expected to lead to a reduction of its legal entities from 35 to 14. In Europe, the process is nearly complate, and by March 2014, the firm will have only one entity. That has allowed AGI to invest in new capacities, such as infrastructure and emerging market debt, and to strengthen some areas, such as Asian bonds and multi-asset classes.

Rien ne change, tout change... Sans perdre son nom d’origine ni même sa structure apparente avec la présence de centres de gestion en Europe et en Asie, Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management évolue sensiblement. Dans un communiqué à paraître ce matin, le groupe annonce en effet avoir procédé à la globalisation de son métier de gestion d’actifs autour d’un modèle multi-spécialiste (voir Newsmanagers du 04/07/2013). Dans ce cadre, son offre globale s’appuie sur six centres de gestion - basés en France, en Suisse, en Allemagne, à Hong Kong, au Luxembourg et au Royaume-Uni - à partir desquels la maison distingue des segments d’expertise comme la gestion actions (européennes et américaines), les obligations, la multigestion, le currency overlay, l’allocation d’actifs ou encore la gestion quantitative. En pratique, Paris voit la gestion des obligations crédit et convertibles rapprochées. De son côté, la partie taux passe sous la coupe du département chargé de l’allocation d’actifs. Par ailleurs, la multigestion alternative est désormais basée en Suisse, même si deux personnes dédiées à la multigestion alternative devraient rester dans la capitale pour faire profiter d'éventuelles opportunités sur le marché français. A priori, le changement d’ensemble paraît mince. Sauf que cette nouvelle organisation doit permettre aux équipes de vente de prendre conscience des différents atouts en matière de gestion dont dispose la maison, ce qui, semble-t-il, n'était pas le cas auparavant. De fait, il s’agit clairement d’une rationalisation dont les forces commerciales doivent profiter en ayant accès à tous les produits de la maison, quel que soit l’endroit où ils sont gérés. Outre Laurent Tignard, Global CEO Asset Management qui dirige donc l’ensemble des activités de gestion d’actifs du groupe, la nouvelle organisation globalisée est également encadrée par Philippe Uzan qui a été nommé directeur des gestions long only, Alexandre Col qui est directeur des multigestions et Guillaume Poli, directeur du développement asset management groupe. Très logiquement, le groupe envisage également d’enrichir sa sicav luxembourgeoise en y incluant les fonds phares de la maison. Dans ce cadre, Edmond de Rothschild Tricolore Rendement (1,5 milliard d’euros) Edmond de Rothschild US Value & Yield (1,2 milliard d’euros), Edmond de Rothschild Europe Synergy (1,4 milliard d’euros) et enfin, la gamme de fonds obligations convertibles qui totalise plus de 1,5 milliard d’euros, doivent venir étoffer l’offre de l’OPCVM. Edmond de Rothschild rappelle que la clientèle en gestion d’actifs du groupe se compose de 44% d’institutionnels, de 27% de distributeurs et de 29% de clients des banques privées du Groupe. «Cet équilibre sera maintenu et orchestré par les équipes commerciales locales sous la responsabilité de Guillaume Poli», est-il indiqué.

In a statement which appeared yesterday, the Edmond de Rothschild group announced that it has initiated a globalisation of its asset management profession on a multi-specialist model (see Newsmanagers of 04/07/2013) at Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management. As a part of that move, its global range will be based in six management centres, in France, Switzerland, Germany, Hong Kong, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom, from which the firm will serve distinct areas of expertise such as equity management (European and US), bonds, multi-management, currency overlay, asset allocation, and quantitative management.In practice, Paris will see credit and bond management merged. For its part, the fixed income portion will become a part of the department responsible for asset allocation. Alernative multi-management is now based in Switzerland, although the two people dedicated to alternative multi-management will remain in the French capital to take advantage of potential opportunities on the French market.This new organisation is expected to allow sales teams to highlight the various advantages of the firm in terms of the management the firm offers, which had apparently not been the case previously. This rationalisation will help sales teams to have access to all products from the group, regardless of the place where they are managed.In addition to Laurent Tignard, Global CEO for Asset Management, who heads the asset management activities of the group, the new globalised operation is also overseen by Philippe Uzan, who has been appointed as head of long-only management, Alexandre Col, who is head of multi-management, an Guillaume Poli, head of asset management development for the group. Logically, the group is also planning to enrich its Luxembourg Sicav, to include the star funds from the firm. That will include Edmond de Rothschild Tricolore Rendement (EUR1.5bn), Edmond de Rothschild US Value & Yield (1EUR1.2bn), Edmond de Rothschild Europe Synergy (EUR1.4bn) and lastly, the range of convertible bond funds, with a total of over EUR1.5bn).

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Aberdeen Asset Managers Limited and Aberdeen Fund Management Limited (Aberdeen) GBP7,192,500 for failing to identify, and therefore properly protect, client money placed in Money Market Deposits (MMDs) with third party banks between September 2008 and August 2011. Aberdeen incorrectly determined that this money was not subject to FCA rules, which meant that they did not obtain the correct documentation from third party banks when setting up the affected accounts.Aberdeen fully cooperated with the FCA’s investigation and agreed to settle at an early stage, qualifying for a 30% discount to their fine. Without the discount the fine would have been GBP10,275,000.No clients suffered any loss as a result of the breaches and at no point were client funds mixed with the company’s own money,» Aberdeen said in a statement.

Achim Küssner, CEO of Schroder Investment Management GmbH, has announced that Bernd Klapper, director of distribution for southern Germany at Threadneedle Investments Germany for three years, has been recruited to serve in the same role at Schroders. He will be more particularly responsible for retail clients, banking partners, brokerage pools, IFAs, funds of funds and wealth managers. In his new role, Klapper will report to Joachim Nareike, head of distibution at Schroders Germany.Before joining Threadneedle, Klapper was head of distribution at the SRI asset management firm Ökoworld Lux SA.

KKR and Permira, the funds which own the German media group ProsiebenSat.1, are selling 11% of capital, or 25 million shares, valued at EUR800m, through an accelerated order book construction procedure, according to Agefi. After the sale, KKR and Permira will retain a combined stake of 33% in ProSiebenSat.1.

The wealth management firm Partners Group has announced the sale of the Austrian firm AHT Cooling to the investment group Bridgepoint for EUR585m. Partners Group had invested in AHT Cooling in January 2007, with Quadriga Capital, for its clients, a statement released on 3 September states. The transaction is still subject to approval by the supervisory authorities. It is expected to be finalised in the next few months. Partners Group is aiming for a return on its investment of about 25%.

The Japanese government pension fund (GPIF), whose assets under management total about USD1.2bn, has awarded mandates for the management of foreign equities to eight fund managers, two of which are French firms, Amundi Japan and Natixis AM Japan (via Harris Associates Investment Trust). The details of allocations awarded, including amounts, have not been disclosed. The other managers selected are MFS Investment Management (Massachusetts Financial Services), Nillo Asset Management Japan (Intech Investment Management), BNY Mellon Asset Management (Walter Scott & Partners), Muizuho Asset Management (Wells Capital), Mitsubishi UFJ Trust Bank (Aberdeen Asset Management), and Mitsubishi UFJ Trust Bank (Baillie Gifford Overseas). The pension fund is in the process of completing the award of external mandates for the management of Japanese equities. GPIF also announced before the weekend that in the first quarter of its 2013 fiscal year (April to June), it earned a net return of 1.85%.

In first half 2013, CCR Asset Management has announced assets under management up 12.28% compared with 31 December 2012, at EUR6.296bn. Assets primarily benefited from net subscriptions, and more secondarily to rising markets. Net inflows for asset management total EUR589.8m in first half 2013, largely due to strong inflows from the institutional segment, totalling EUR407.7m, and UBS private banking clients. Inflows from areas other than money market products total EUR315.4m, of which EUR189m are in diversified management, and EUR181m in fixed income. Equity funds attracted EUR49m.

Nordea, which has EUR219bn in assets under management, has attracted criticism from former employees for failing to tell investors that Peter Eichler, manager of its North American Growth fund from July 2008 to October 2012, is under investigation in the United States, Financial Times fund management reports (an article had already been published on this subject by the newspaper). But Jakob Essen, head of equities at Nordea, responds that there are no plans to inform subscribers of the fund about the accusations against Eichler and Aletheia, the asset managemetn firm which he founded, and which has gone bankrupt. Nordea explains that the legal troubles and accusations concerning Aletheia had no impact on the performance of the fund. In the period when Eichler was manager of the fund, it lost 7%, while its benchmark index, the Russell 1000 Growth, was up 24%.

JP Morgan Asset Management will modernise its trading systems, Lee Bray, head of trading for Asia since April this year, has told Asian Investor. After examining trading and order exeuction systems, the modernisation of systems should be carried out during the next year. It will allow for better processing of block trades, Bray says.

Morgan Stanley has recruited two senior professionals for its team dedicated to bonds in Asia, Citywire reports. Geoff Kentrick and Kewei Yang, who had both previously worked at Nomura, the former in London, and the latter in Singapore, have joined Morgan Stanley at its Hong Kong offices. Kendrick is appointed as head of strategy for local fixed income and Asian currencies. Yang, who will report to Kendrick, will supervise interest rate strategies in the Asia-Pacific region.

The London Stock Exchange is now offering shares denominated in US dollars in the MSCI Japan Index UCITS ETF from db x-trackers, which already offers shares in pounds sterling and euros. Assets under management in the ETF total about GBP750m. It should be noted that Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management has recently launched its first ETF on the London stock exchange, the db x-trackers DAX Ucits ETF (DR), which offers exposure to the German benchmark index, the DAX.

Fidelity Worldwide Investments announced on September 3 that effective from 1 January 2014 the OEIC Fidelity South East Asia Fund and the Fidelity Special Situations Fund will change fund managers.Teera Chanpongsang is appointed as manager of the UK-domiciled OEIC Fidelity South East Asia Fund (GB0003879185, GBP2,133m). The transfer of management to Chanpongsang will allow Allan Liu, the current manager, to focus on the management of Fidelity Funds South East Asia (USD4,689m), the Luxembourg domiciled sister fund to Fidelity South East Asia. Chanpongsang joined Fidelity as a research analyst in 1994. He will be replaced on the Fidelity India Focus Fund (USD1.6bn) by Tim Orchard, head of equities ex-Japan.Fidelity Worldwide Investment has also announced the appointment of Alex Wright as portfolio manager of the Fidelity Special Situations Fund (GB0003875100, GBP 2,846m). This follows a decision by current manager Sanjeev Shah to step down from fund management after 17 years in the industry, and over five years managing Special Situations. Alex Wright will remain portfolio manager of Fidelity Special Values PLC and comanager of Fidelity UK Smaller Companies Fund alongside Jonathan Winton.Shah, who has managed the Fidelity Special Situations Fund since 1 January 2008, will step down from fund management before taking on a new role six months later within Fidelity’s PM Academy, focused on developing new investment talent.

The data provider Morningstar on 3 September published the first issue of its Financial Services Observer, a research work which evaluates the competitive movements in the wealth management sector in the United States, responses provided to developments in the sector in the wake of the financial crisis, and the best-positioned firms to profit from the new situation. The study funds that the strongest financial services firms are those which work for ultra-high net worth (UHNW) clients, with over USD20m in investable assets, and firms which offer a range of financial products which is difficult for the competition to reproduce. These firms, such as Northern Trust and Morgan Stanley, also have strong brands and good reputations, as well as high transfer costs. The high net worth client segment, which means investors with total assets of USD1m to USD20m, is increasingly competitive. US households in this segment control over 50% of US investable assets, and the wealth controlled by this segment is expected to increase at an annual pace of 7.3% until 2015. But it is also increasingly difficult to stand out in this segment with an original product range. Morningstar estimates that Raymond James is well-positioned to do well in this segment, due to its specific business model based on advisers. In addition to major trends in this sector, the study offers specific analyses of 10 firms: Ameriprise Financial, Bank of America, Charles Schwab, Morgan Stanley, Northern Trust, PNC Financial Services Group, Raymond James Financials, TD Ameritrade, US Bancorp and Wells Fargo.

Allianz Global Investors has assigned its BRIC Stars fund, with USD568m in assets, to its emerging market affiliate based in San Diego, following the departure of Michael Konstantinov, Citywire reports. The California-based team has eight members, and is led by Kunal Ghosh. It currently has USD1.2bn in assets under management in emerging market equity funds. Allianz has also extended the universe of its BRIC fund, which may now invest up to one third of its assets in global emerging markets in countries other than the BRIC countries.

The asset management firm Zencap Asset Management, which invests in the universe of credit opportunities emerging from the crisis of 2007-2009 and banking deleveraging, on Tuesday, 4 September announced that this summer it launched a fund which aims to invest in real estate mezzanine debt in Western Europe. The contractual FCP invests in the mezzanine segment, a statement says. While many real estate operators are seeing perfectly healthy transactions blocked due to a lack of financing, the new fund aims to fill the void which exists between equity investors and senior debt provided by banks or senior real estate debt funds. In practice, the strategy of Zencap Asset Management is to focus on small or mid-cap companies, which are meeting with the most difficulties in financing new projects, and to form partnerships with them which highly align interests, to aim for mezzanine returns of about 10%. The first investment made by the fund in August is in a primarily residential real estate development in Germany, in partnership with a local specialist operator. The fund from Zencap Asset Management provided mezzanine debt, to fill the gap between the available banking debt and the contribution of owners’ equity from its partner. In addition to this fund, Zencap Asset Management, which is a division of the OFI group, has 6 funds under management specialised in investment in private debt: structured / securitised debt, regulatory captial transactions, and real estate debt.

The Swiss Bankers Association called on September 3 for the clean money strategy to be dropped. The industry wants to help to shape international standards in future, and comply with them."We bear the sole responsibility in the coming years for acting in such a way that we live up to our responsibility to clients, staff, the economy, society and the next generation of bankers,» said Patrick Odier, Chairman of the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA), at the annual media conference before the Swiss Bankers Day in Zurich.He noted that banks had adapted their strategy to the new operating environment: «Our strategy can be summed up in the words tax compliance, international standards, growth through open markets and fair competition."The SBA also clearly rejects an excessive Swiss finish to regulation.Patrick Odier expressed optimism for the future, based on the good economic starting point the banks enjoy, and the fact that developing and expanding new business areas such as asset management, trade financing and renminbi services will allow the financial centre to grow over the long term.

Real estate management operations at Bankia, which had previously been provided by its affiliate Habitat, will be sold for a total of at least EUR40m, and at most EUR90m to the US private equity firm Cerberus, according to a filing to the CNMV cited by Cinco Días. Habitat has real estate assets under management of EUR12bn, and Cerberus will also inherit EUR36.6bn in Bankia real estate assets under management, which have been transferred to the “bad bank” Sareb. Real estate properties in the strict sense will remain the property of Bankia.The transaction allows Bankia to transfer a total of 457 personnel to Cerberus, and thus to achieve a part of its plan to cut 4,500 jobs.

GSO, the credit unit of Blackstone, on Tuesday reported that it had raised USD5bn (nearly EUR3.8bn) for its second support fund to provide capital solutions outside the market to companies which are facing liquidity needs or which need to undertake significant transformations of their capital structures. According to Agefi, the new fund, GSO Capital Solutions Fund II, was oversubscribed by investors, and outclasses the first fund of its type (USD3.25bn raised in 2010).

The open-ended real estate fund DEGI Europa (DE0009807800), whose liquidation was decided in October 2010 and is expected to be completed by 30 September 2013, sold a property located in Hoofdorp, in the Netherlands, to PPF Real Estate on 30 August. The sale totalled EUR47m, although the expert valuation of the property had been at EUR53.9m.As a result, the net asset value of the DEGI Europa fund is reduced by 20 cents to EUR24.81, according to Aberdeen Asset Management Deutschland. The liquidity share of the fund has increased as a result of the most recent sales to 27%, while leverage rises to 13.3% from 12.2%.

The European Securities and Market Authority (ESMA) has published its advice to the European Commission on the equivalence of the regulatory regimes for OTC derivatives clearing, central counterparties (CCPs), and trade repositories (TR) of non-EU countries with the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR). ESMA has assessed the equivalence of the regulatory regimes of Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland and the US. It finds the regulatory regimes of Australia and Switzerland for CCPs equivalent to EU rules. Conditional equivalence is proposed to the following regimes: •Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and the US for CCPs;•the US and Japan for central clearing, requirements for non-financial counterparties and risk mitigation techniques for uncleared trades; and•the US for TRs.The European Commission is expected to use ESMA’s technical advice to prepare possible equivalence decisions. Where it adopts such a decision, certain provisions of EMIR may be disapplied in favour of equivalent third-country rules.For Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland, ESMA will be delivering its advice on areas not yet covered by 1 October 2013.

According to the Spanish Inverco association of asset management firms, assets under management by securities funds in Spain totalled EUR139.176bn as of 31 August, which represents an increase of 1.2% compared with the end of July. That allows assets to return to their levels of November 2010, due to an increase of nearly EUR17bn, or 13.8%, in the first eight months of this year.

After returns of 0.21% in April and 0.53% in May, followed by a loss of 1.37% in June, UCITS hedge funds have seen average gains in July of 0.80%, and again losses of 0.40% in August, according to the Swiss firm Alix Capital. The UCITS Alternative Global index in the first eight months of the year has posted returns of 1.34%.For funds of funds, the average loss was 0.66% in August, after returns of 1.11% in July, which follows losses of 1.85% in June and gains of 0.65% in May, and 0.22% in April. UCITS funds of hedge funds show returns of 1.68% in January-August.In August, ten out of 13 strategies show losses, with losses of 1.42% for CTAs, while the only segment in positive territory is commodities (+0.63%).In the first eight months of the year, six strategies show losses, including volatility (-2.83%) and currencies (-2.26%). The best returns were for long/short equity, at 5.27%.As of the end of August, UCITS hedge funds had a total of EUR172bn, compared with EUR162bn as of the end of June.

Mohieddine Kronfol and his team in Dubai have been made responsible by Franklin Templeton Investments for managing the new Franklin GCC Bond Fund, a sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav, which will invest primarily in government bonds, government agencies and businesses in the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Funds Europe reports.The portfolio may include bonds from Middle Eastern and North African issuers, as well as securities issued by supra-national bodies such as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).

Itaú on Monday launched the first ETF to be listed in Chile, Financial Times fund management reports. Deborah Fuhr, founding partner of ETFGI, says that the launch is an important first step for the ETF market in Chile, since the products now available are ETFs from the United States and Europe. This will be more attractive from a fiscal point of view and in terms of currency risks.

Le Fonds monétaire international (FMI) appelle les économies avancées à une action concertée pour limiter les risques associés au resserrement de la politique monétaire américaine, notamment pour les pays émergents qu’il juge particulièrement vulnérables. Dans une note préparée pour le sommet du G20 à Saint-Petersbourg et relayée par Reuters, le FMI ajoute avoir révisé à la baisse ses projections à court terme pour les principales économies émergentes. Mais compte tenu d’une accélération de la reprise dans les économies avancées, il s’attend toujours à une hausse de la croissance mondiale en 2014.

Eurostat, l’office européen des statistiques, a confirmé vendredi en deuxième estimation que le PIB de la zone euro a crû de 0,3 % au deuxième trimestre. Sur un an, la contraction du PIB est de 0,5%. Eurostat a par ailleurs révisé à -0,2%, contre -0,3%, le taux de croissance du premier trimestre 2013.

La Commission européenne a dévoilé comme prévu mercredi midi ses travaux pour maîtriser les risques du système bancaire parallèle (shadow banking). La première de ces mesures consiste en de nouvelles règles proposées pour les fonds monétaires à travers un règlement. Ceux-ci devraient notamment détenir dans leur portefeuille au moins 10% d’actifs dont l'échéance maximale est d’un jour, et 20% supplémentaires dont l'échéance maximale est d’une semaine. Cette exigence doit permettre aux fonds monétaires de rembourser les investisseurs qui souhaitent retirer des avoirs à court terme. Les fonds à valeur liquidative constante devront quant à eux établir une réserve de fonds propres de 3%.

Jean-Louis Charles, directeur des investissements d’AG2R La Mondiale à la rédaction de www.institinvest.com : Notre problématique est de savoir comment pénétrer directement les nouvelles classes d’actifs, que l’on appelle les loans. Nous sommes en train de regarder des sujets de fonds dédiés au financement des collectivités locales, des infrastructures ou de cofinancement. La problématique de désintermédiation du financement de l'économie nous pose un problème de ressources pour l’analyse des différents dossiers qui nous sont proposés. Les ressources que nous avons en termes de multigestion nous sont très utiles pour la sélection des fonds. Nous avons une démarche où nous associons les responsables de la gestion taux, puisque le sous-jacent est taux, et les responsables de la multigestion, qui apportent leur expertise de sélection, de due-diligences. En dehors des critères classiques de track-record ou de stratégie d’investissement, nous sommes sensibles à la pérennité des équipes. Beaucoup de nouvelles structures sont constituées de membres qui ont été débauchées de banques ou d’asset managers, avec un vrai risque à ce niveau-là. En 2012, nous avions décidé d’affecter 200 millions d’euros au financement alternatif, qui n’ont pas été consommés. Nous avons consommé environ 80 millions sur 200, car nous restons très sélectifs. Nous accompagnons la baisse des taux et nous nous refusons à déserrer les contraintes pour aller vers plus de risque. Nous suivons aussi avec attention les évolutions réglementaires souhaitables sur ces sujets-là. Sur la base de la réglementation, je ne sais pas encore quel pourcentage ces nouvelles classes d’actifs pourraient représenter au sein de notre allocation. Mais aujourd’hui, nous avons prévu de mettre 15 % des flux d’investissement dans tout ce qui est financement alternatif au financement bancaire. Et si demain on me disait que 20 à 25% de notre allocation d’actif est sous forme de prêt, de façon générale quels qu’ils soient, soit des fonds, des cofinancements, des financements de projets, des PPP, cela ne me choquerait pas. Mais le chemin sera très long parce qu’il faut des ressources et qu’il y aura probablement quelques mésaventures en termes d’investissement. La réflexion en termes de moyens dédiés au sourcing de ces fonds est en cours, même si nous sommes encore au stade de l’expérimentation. Plutôt que de nous reposer sur des expertises externes, nous envisageons plutôt des mutualisations avec des acteurs de taille similaire. La liquidité compte aussi pour nous énormément avec la façon dont seront traités ces actifs dans Solvabilité II. Il faut que nous sachions s’il y aura un jour un marché si nous devons vendre. Nous sommes aussi attentifs au rendement : la dette infrastructure peut nous intéresser mais tout dépend du taux proposé. A l’heure actuelle, cela reste un marché limité. Quant au private equity, cela reste pour nous une classe d’actif extrêmement marginale, représentant environ 150 millions d’euros dans notre bilan. Il était condamné par Solvabilité II, nous sommes en train de nous reposer la question d’y investir, mais cela restera marginal.