La boutique d’investissement Rainier Investments, basée à Seattle, vient de recruter l’ex-gérant actions d’UBS, Sam Console, qui va renforcer le pôle en charge des grandes capitalisations, rapporte Citywire.Sam Console, qui a quitté le pôle de gestion d’actifs d’UBS en avril dernier, a rejoint Rainier début mai en qualité de manager au sein de l'équipe dédiée aux actions américaines avec une fonction de gestion de portefeuille senior. Les actifs sous gestion de Rainier Investments s'élèvent à environ 12,5 milliards de dollars.

L’ancien patron de la communication de Hauck & Aufhäuser, Felix Höpfner, assure depuis début juin les fonctions de directeur du marketing de la BHF-Bank (groupe Deutsche Bank). Il s’agit d’un poste nouvellement créé, souligne Das Investment.

Ancien patron jusqu’en octobre 2012 de la distribution retail de BlackRock pour l’Allemagne, l’Autriche et l’Europe de l’Est, Andrej Brodnik a été recruté par Jupiter Asset Management comme directeur de la distribution pour l’Allemagne, l’Autriche et la Suisse, rapporte Das Investment.

Après les départs récents en février de Chrisitan Wrede, le managing director, puis en juin de Klaus Mühlbauer, le directeur de la distribution, Fidelity Allemagne a confirmé à fondsprofessionell que Marion Dreßler quitte le poste de head of corporate & marketing communications Germany & Austria.En attendant qu’un successeur permanent lui soit trouvé, Marion Dreßler sera remplacée par Ellen Posch, head of Continental Europe Marketing à Luxembourg depuis le 1er juillet 2012 (lire Newsmanagers des 9 juillet et 16 octobre 2012).Pour l’instant, Fidelity Allemagne ne paraît pas avoir trouvé de successeur pour les postes de directeur général et de directeur de la distribution.Das Investment a rapporté pour sa part dans l’après-midi de mercredi que Stephan Volkmann, directeur private wealth et private banking, quitte également l’entreprise, avec effet immédiat.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } The European asset and fund management association (EFAMA) has sent a letter to the members of the Economic Commission of the European Parliament to express concerns about the most recent developments concerning the planned PRIPS investment product regulations. It is true that the project, which is fundamental for the protection of investors and the creation of a more consistent space for the sales of retail products, has been on the negotiating table since 2007. EFAMA regrets that recent talks about PRIPS in the European Parliament have been increasingly distanced from the initial regulatory approach, which was that of the Commission, threatening the feasibility of the project overall. Among other things, says EFAMA, an extension of the perimeter to non-packaged products and the introduction of rules concerning eligible assets could render the bill inapplicable. It is also unlikely that a compromise will be found on reasonable time-frames, due to the divergences surrounding the parliamentary debate on a corpus of over 700 amendments. The new areas for discussion, which are not based on impact analysis, have not been subject to consultation either, which may be expected to considerably delay passage of the PRIPS regulations, the professional organisation predicts. EFAMA reiterates its commitment to the initiative and estimates that the Commission’s proposals represent a balanced basis, which could nonetheless be improved on some points, but which should not be completely thrown into question with an entirely new regulatory approach. EFAMA therefore invites members of European parliament to put the priority objectives of the project at the centre of their concerns, namely the publication of high-quality, standardised product information. The text of the letter published on the EFAMA website is attached: http://www.efama.org/Publications/Public/PRIPS/EFAMA_Letter_Industry_vo…

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } With the new Global Allocation Fund, the Blatimore0based asset management firm T. Rowe Price has launched an asset allocation fund with the wider spectrum in a range whose assets as of the end of March totalled USD138bn.It is a mutual fund, whose portfolio may be invested in 20 asset segments, generally with 60% in equities, 30% in bonds and cash and 10% in alternative assets. About 40% of assets will be placed in international equities and bonds from developed and emerging countries.The management of the fund is provided by Charles Shriver with the assistance of Stefan Hubrich.CharateristicsName: Global Allocation FundTickers:RPGAX (investor class)PFGAX (advisor class)Total expense ratio:1.05% (investor class)1.15% (advisor class)Minimal subscription:USD2,500 or USD1,000 for pension plans

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } For its open-ended real estate fund Deka-Immobilien Europa (ISIN code: DE0009809566; assets of EUR12.19bn as of 31 March), Deka has acquired the La Fayette office building in Paris from the Canadian firm Ivanhoé Cambridge.The total sale price for the property, with 28,700 square metres, of which 27,400 square metres are offices rented to Arevaet, and 1,300 square metres of housing, has not been disclosed.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The New York-based hedge fund management firm Direxion (USD6.5bn as of 31 Mrch) has announced the launch on NYSE Arca of the ETF Direxion Daily Japan Bull 3x Shares (acronym: JPNL), and the direxion Daily Japan Bear 3x Shares (JPNS).They are triple and inverse leveraged products, replicating the MSCI Japan Index, which covers equities in Japanese companies listed in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, as well as on the Jasdaq.The total expense ratio for both funds is 1.08%.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Van Eck Global on 26 June announced the admission to trading on the NYSE Arca platform of the Israel ETF, under the ticker ISRA. It is the most recent product of the Market Vectors range which includes 53 products.The fund will aim to replicate the BlueStar Israel Global index (BLST), which is primarily composed of businesses listed on the Tel Aviv stock exchange. The three major sectors as of 24 June were IT (29.9%), healthcare (26.3%) and finance (19.1%).The total expense ratio (TER) of a gross 0.73% is limited to 0.59% until 1 May 2015, which is slightly below the TER of the iShares MSCI Israel Capped Investable Market Index Fund (ticker EIS), which charges 0.60%.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } The French pension fund, Fonds de réserve pour les retraites (FRR), has launched a request for proposals to select one to three providers of financial management for active management mandates invested in Japanese equities. For this bidding process, the public market procedure selected is that of a restricted request for proposals. The request for proposals concerns the active management of one to three mandates, which will implement exposure to Japanese equities of all cap sizes. For purely indicative purposes, the FRR estimates that the total amount of funds placed for management may be set at EUR400m. Each mandate in the present round of bidding is signed for a period of four years from notification, with a possible one-year extension. Interested asset management firms have until 24 July 2013, at 12:00 Paris time, to respond to the FRR within the conditions specified by the consultation rules.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } The Californian pension fund CalPERS on 26 June announced that it has engaged USD50m in Clearlake Cpaital, a California-based private equity investor. The investment is one of ten made by CalPERS last year as part of its private equity investment programme. Clearlake has already been a part of a CalPERS investment programme dedicated to new managers with exposure through a fund of funds. The new engagement is invested directly in the Clearlake Capital Partners III fund, which focuses primarily on distressed SMEs. CalPERS invested USD36.7bn in private equity firms betweeen 2006 and 2008, approving more than 130 funds. Since then, the pension fund has invested USD5.2bn in 23 funds.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The investment boutique Rainier Investments, located in Seattle, has recruited the former UBS equity manager Sam Console, as an addition to the large caps unit, Citywire reports. Console, who left the asset management unit of UBS in April this year, joined Rainier in early May as a manager in the team dedicated to US equities, with a senior portfolio management function. Assets under management at Rainier Investments total about USD12.5bn.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Paul Hawtin, the founder of the Twitter hedge fund, which uses algorithms to detect investor moods on social networks and to invest as a result, is launching a new investment company which appears to be aiming to exploit the same vein, COOConnect reports. The Twitter hedge fund, entitled Derwen Absolute Return Fund, launched in 2011, was closed in February 2013 due to a lack of interest on the part of investors. The new strategy, Cayman Atlantic, launched last year, aims to detect investment opportunities on the basis of data collected from social networks in real time. It has gained 13.76% since its launch in July 2012.

L’association britannique des gestionnaires d’actifs (IMA) envisage de mettre en place une déclaration de principes qui gouvernera les activités de ses membres tout en servant de référence pour le développement du secteur.Le directeur général de l’association professionnelle, Daniel Godfrey, a publié sur son blog une série de propositions qui s’inscrivent dans la volonté de l’association de restaurer la confiance des investisseurs, «sérieusement écornée» au cours des cinq dernières années.Outre la déclaration de principes, l’IMA souhaite publier un document de recommandations sur internet qui identifie «les dossiers critiques que doivent traiter les gestionnaires d’actifs là où la nécessité de gérer les conflits d’intérêts est la plus forte».L’IMA souhaite donc recueillir l’avis de ses membres sur ses problématiques tout en travaillant parallèlement à la rédaction du document avec le CFA Institute et le Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } More than 60% of actively-managed funds in the Swedish defined-contribution pension system are “more expensive than hedge funds,” with commissions that exceed returns over a three-year period, according to a study by an analyst for the Swedish pension fund AP7, the website IPE reports. The AP7 analyst, Hakan Tobiasson, compared the costs anre turns of about 500 actively-managed funds with the costs of an average hedge fund with equivalent performance, on the basis of a management fee of 1% and a performance commission of 15%. One third of funds reviewed showed an alpha higher than the management fees for the period, but were nonetheless more expensive than a hedge fund. For all funds analysed, only 5% could be categorised as “good performance with reasonable commission” with all the characteristics of positive alpha over the past 36 months.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } Six experts in the ETF sector are seeking to popularise the investment vehicle on the Swiss market through an organisation of “ETF Ambassadors” who seek to familiarise investors with the ETF universe and improve their knowledge of the subject with a website (etfambassadors.ch) and monthly seminars. Among the experts behind the initiative are Christian Gast, head of iShares for Switzerland, Frank Mohr, head of ETF-Sales Trading at Commerzbank, Alain Picard, head of Product Management at SIX Swiss Exchange, and Marcel Wagner, head of Index Selection at Credit Suisse. Only 3.7% of assets in European funds are invested in passive investment products.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The former head of communication at Hauck & Aufhäuser, Felix Höpfner, has since early June been serving as director of marketing at BHF-Bank (Deutsche Bank group). It is a newly-created position, Das Investment reports.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } The former head of retail distribution at BlackRock for Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe until October 2012, Andrej Brodnik, has been recruited by Jupiter Asset Management as director of distribution for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Das Investment reports.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Following the recent departures in February of Christian Wrede, managing director, and then of Klaus Mühlbauer, director of distribution, in June, Fidelity Germany has confirmed to fondsprofessionell that Marion Dreßler is leaving the position of head of corporate & marketing communications Germany & Austria.Until a permanent successor can be found, Dreßler will be replaced by Ellen Posch, head of Continental Europe Marketing in Luxembourg since 1 July 2012 (see Newsmanagers of 9 July and 16 October 2012).So far, Fidelity Germany does not appear to have found a successor for the positions of CEO and director of distribution.On Wednesday afternoon, Das Investment has reported for its part that Stephan Volkmann, director of private wealth and private banking, also left the business, effective immediately.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Spanish Arcano group has appointed José Luis der Río as deputy director of its asset management unit. He will be responsible for developing the launch and management of investment products aimed at Spanish and foreign institutional investors, Funds People reports. He will co-operate closely with the four partners at Arcano who are specialised in asset management, Ignacio Sarría, Manuel Mendivil, Pedro Hamparzoumian and Yuliya Kaspler.Luis del Río was a founder of N+1. He is leaving the positions of chairman of N+1 gestión and N+1 Patrimónios.Arcano Asset Management has EUR2.5bn in assets under advisory and management in private equity.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } The annual general meeting of the Spanish Inverco association of asset management firms on Wednesday elected Javier Palomar (Ibercaja Gestión) as chairman of the group of investment funds, replacing Lázaro de Lázaro (Santander AM), Funds People reports. It has also elected Miguel Colombás (Allianz Popular Pensiones) as president of the group of pension funds. He succeeds Rocio Eguiran (Bankia Pensiones).

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } After the acquisition of Salvepar a few months ago, the young private equity and asset management specialist firm Tikehau is expected to announce this morning that it hs acquiring a 35% stake in the British firm Duke Street, Les Echos reports. The price of the acquisition, through a capital increase, has not been revealed. An option on a majority stake in capital in the long term is being offered.Duke Street has been active in France for 10 years, and has seen investments from Marie Bizard (from 2000 to 2006) and B&B hotels (from 2003 to 2005). With about EUR3bn in assets under management, Duke Street still plans to grow, the newspaper adds.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Barclays Capital is planning to close the Barclays Capital Radar fund, launched four years ago, due to the limited interest shown by investors in the strategy, Fundweb reports. Assets under management in the fund total barely USD9.8bn, and its performance has manifestly not been up to the level of investor expectations.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The fund of hedge fund unit of Man Group, FRM, has announced that it has signed a strategic partnership with CommEq Asset Mangement. FRM will provide seed capital to CommEq, to help the latter firm to launch an institutional asset management business.CommEq, which was founded by Christofer Solheim, a Norwegian entrepreneur in the IT sector, is seeking sources and flows of underexploited and inadquately structured data which could significantly influence the perception on the market of the businesses concerned, and thus the formation of prices of their securities. CommEq has to this end developed an artificial intelligence prediction engine whose objective is to generate outperformance on the basis of these sources through a systematic and scalable investment strategy.As part of the strategic partnership, FRM will provide CommEq with infrastructure and operational support as well as risk management via its managed accounts platform.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Funds Europe reports that M&G Investments will open its British real estate investment strategy to foreign investors. The strategy has GBP580m in assets managed since 1971 for British institutional investors, currently under the responsibility of Dermot Kieman.According to Kieman, British commercial real estate has become much more attractive for foreign investors with the depreciation of the pound against several currencies since 2007. In addition, real estate prices in the United Kingdom are now 30% below their peaks.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Legal & General Assurance Society has acquired the British annuities specialist firm Lucida from LCM Holdings, for a total of GBP151m, Investment Week reports. The transaction, which is expected to be completed in third quarter, comes as part of a desire on the part of the British group to accelerate its growth.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Intermediaries remain confident in the British economy. Intermediaries in the United Kingdom are less concerned about the dangers of inflation and more confident in the outlooks for the British economy in the next few months, according to the most recent quarterly survey as part of the Baring Asset Management Investment Barometer.They are showing renewed optimism about British equities, with 87% of opinions favourable or highly favourable to the asset class, compared with 86% one quarter previously.According to intermediaries, the greatest macroeconomic risk in the next six months is a slowdown in Chinese growth, cited by 47%, compared with 21% one quarter previously. A corollary of these growing concerns is that favourable opinions of Asian equities have fallen to 84% from 97% previously.

Le groupe espagnol Arcano a nommé José Luis der Río administrateur délégué de son pôle gestion d’actifs. Il sera chargé de développer le lancement et la gestion de produits d’investissement destinés aux investisseurs institutionnels espagnols et étrangers, rapporte Funds People. Il coopérera étroitement avec les quatre associés d’Arcano qui se sont spécialisés sur la gestion d’actifs, Ignacio Sarría, Manuel Mendivil, Pedro Hamparzoumian et Yuliya Kaspler.José Luis del Río a été fondateur de N+1. Il quitte les postes président de N+1 gestión et de N+1 Patrimónios.Arcano Asset Management affiche 2,5 milliards d’euros d’encours conseils et gérés en capital-investissement.

Filiale nouvellement créée par la Bourse de Luxembourg, la société Fundsquare S.A. démarre ses activités le 1er juillet 2013, selon un communiqué publié le 26 juin.Fundsquare est une plate-forme dédiée à la distribution des fonds d’investissement. Elle poursuit un double objectif. D’une part, Fundsquare entend contribuer à la rationalisation des processus liés à la distribution des fonds et ce faisant, faciliter les relations entre les différents acteurs de cette industrie ; d’autre part, elle répond à la pression croissante sur les coûts imposés par une réglementation de plus en plus forte et une situation économique peu favorable.A partir du 1er juillet 2013, Fundsquare fournira non seulement des services de routage et de gestion des ordres mais également des services d'échanges d’informations et de reporting quel que soit le domicile des fonds et des distributeurs.La gamme des informations traitées par Fundsquare est large. Elle comprend aussi bien des données statiques que des données dynamiques telles que les VNI, des données chiffrées sur la fiscalité ou la distribution , des documents tels les KIID, les prospectus et les rapports financiers. Les services de gestion d’ordres prendront en compte toutes les étapes d'évolution d’un ordre sur le marché en temps réel depuis sa transmission jusqu'à sa confirmation en passant par son accusé de réception.D’un point de vue technique, Fundsquare a fait appel au savoir-faire technologique des sociétés SWIFT et Altus dans le cadre d’un partenariat.Les bases de données de Finesti ainsi que ses activités commerciales feront partie intégrante de Fundsquare à partir du 1er juillet 2013.

Quelle place les investisseurs accordent-ils aux fonds investis en actions offrant des dividendes élevés ? Le sujet principal de la 21ème table ronde amLeague-Newsmanagers où étaient présents, côté institutionnels, Arnaud Laforge et Jean-Pierre Cave, respectivement directeur financier de Prépar-Vie et trésorier général du groupe Pasteur Mutualité, et, côté gérants, Eric Bleines, responsable des équipes Actions chez CCR AM et Nicolas Simar, responsable de la gestion value chez ING IM, a trouvé sa justification dans les résultats d’une étude de bfinance sur le poids des dividendes dans les performances des indices. Centrée sur le marché américain et portant sur 200 ans - de 1801 à 2002 –l’enquête a effectivement établi que la performance globale des actions américaines annualisée sur la période atteint 7,9 % dont 5 % proviennent des dividendes, 1,4 % de l’érosion monétaire, 0,6 % de la hausse des valorisations et 0,8 % de la hausse des dividendes... En dépit de ces résultats sans appel, les avis sur le sujet «dividendes» sont loin d'être homogènes. Tant pour les investisseurs que, dans une moindre mesure, pour les gérants. Pour Arnaud Laforge notamment, le rendement est un élément important dans la mesure où il joue incontestablement un rôle parachute appréciable. Dans ce cadre, sa maison a investi dans des OPCVM composés d’actions de rendement dans une optique «buy and hold». «Il s’agit de sociétés qui offrent des rendements soit parce que le marché est un petit peu en retard sur leur capacité à générer du bénéfice et à faire du dividende, soit parce qu’elles sont bien implantées sur les marchés émergents», indique Arnaud Laforge, qui note que les OPCVM en question font mieux que l’indice depuis le début de l’année. A l’inverse, Jean-Pierre Cave a indiqué que son groupe ne recherche pas exagérément ce type de valeurs. «J’aime bien les « small caps »", a-t-il précisé, soulignant qu’il recherche de la performance plutôt que des rendements. Quoi qu’il en soit, le trésorier s’intéresse aussi à ce type de produits, mais plutôt à travers de fonds de «minimum variance» et pour une part n’excédant pas 2-3 % au sein d’une poche actions de 17 %.Les «nuances» se sont répétées côté gérants et ce, bien que les deux responsables présents lors de la réunion soient des adeptes de la gestion «value» propice à offrir plus facilement du rendement. Chez ING IM, la stratégie «dividendes» a treize ans déjà, et ses résultats corroborent les chiffres de l'étude de bfinance. «Non seulement nous disposons d’un coussin protecteur mais aussi d’un aspect de réduction de volatilité à travers le temps», a déclaré Nicolas Simar, tout en insistant sur le fait que le rendement brut ne dit rien si l’on ne regarde pas la couverture par les «free cash flows». «Il faut que la société puisse avant tout réinvestir dans son business et qu’après elle génère suffisamment de « cash flow » pour couvrir ses dividendes», a-t-il ajouté. Par ailleurs, le gérant a tenu à rappeler qu’un rendement élevé ne signifie rien non plus. «Souvent», a remarqué Nicolas Simar, «ce peut être un signe de mauvaise santé financière !» Par ailleurs, en période de très forte hausse, cette stratégie sera sans doute en deçà de la performance d’un fonds plus agressif… De là à y voir un fonds défensif par excellence, il y a un pas à ne pas franchir. Car du fait de l’aspect sous-valorisation en Europe,et surtout du potentiel de retour de croissance dividende, ING IM s’intéresse de près au secteur bancaire dont Nicolas Simar a souligné l’intérêt sur les deux-trois prochaines années...De son côté, Eric Bleines voit l’ensemble un peu différemment. «Dans notre gestion, la notion de rendement et de dividende n’est pas notre critère principal. Ce n’est pas pour autant que nous ne le regardons pas, mais ce n’est pas un critère prédominant», a-t-il expliqué. Le critère prédominant pour CCR AM consiste à identifier les sous-valorisations, ensuite à les comprendre et à voir s’il existe des catalyseurs d’appréciation boursiers pour une performance boursière. Cela étant, Eric Bleines privilégiera les titres qui vont apporter la sécurité d’un dividende car, si le critère n’est pas déterminant d’une philosophie d’investissement, il est à prendre en compte». Sur cinq ans, treize points de pourcentage séparent l’indice de la zone euro dividendes réinvestis du même indice, hors dividendes....