Les prêts souscrits par l’assureur français iront jusqu'à 500 millions d’euros Les assureurs se ruent en ce moment vers le financement des projets d’infrastructures. Après CNP Assurances la semaine dernière, AXA a annoncé mardi qu’il allait investir 10 milliards d’euros dans la dette d’infrastructure au cours des cinq prochaines années. «???Cette initiative fait partie de la stratégie de diversification des investissements crédits du groupe et a pour objectif de tirer profit des avantages liés aux caractéristiques de la dette infrastructure, bien adaptées aux besoins d’un investisseur long terme comme AXA???», explique le deuxième assureur européen. Pour mémoire, CNP Assurances prévoit d’y consacrer 2 milliards d’euros en trois ans. Les raisons de cet engouement croissant pour ce type de placement ne manquent pas. La dette d’infrastructure permet aux assureurs de faire coïncider leurs actifs avec leurs engagements de long terme vis-à-vis de leurs clients. Elle présente aussi un profil rendement-risque intéressant. Le tout dans un contexte réglementaire moins favorable à l’investissement en actions et dans un environnement de taux bas qui rend les dettes d’Etat moins attractives. Financer l'économie réelle Concrètement, AXA laissera à sa filiale immobilière AXA Real Estate le soin de souscrire des prêts finançant des projets d’infrastructure «???allant jusqu'à 500 millions d’euros???». Ces projets seront situés «???dans les économies développées???». «???Ce nouvel investissement illustre également le rôle que les sociétés d’assurance peuvent jouer dans le financement de l'économie réelle???», ajoute Laurent Clamagirant, le directeur des investissements d’AXA. Il s’inscrit «???dans la continuité de l’initiative prise en 2005 sur le marché de la dette immobilière commerciale, et du lancement en 2012 de la plate-forme européenne de prêts aux entreprises de taille intermédiaire???». L’an dernier, l’assureur s’est lancé dans le prêt à des ETI non cotées en France, en partenariat avec la Société Générale et le Crédit Agricole. Une initiative qu’il va répliquer en Allemagne avec Commerzbank.

Le Gouvernement, dans le prolongement des mesures déjà annoncées en novembre 2012, réaffirme sa volonté d’apporter une solution pérenne et globale au problème des emprunts structurés les plus sensibles, contractés dans le passé par de nombreuses collectivités locales et leurs groupements. Le Gouvernement proposera la mise en place d’un nouveau fonds de soutien pluriannuel. Ce fonds se verra doté de moyens significatifs, notamment par une contribution du secteur bancaire. Les modalités du fonds seront arrêtées en étroite coopération avec les collectivités locales et viseront en particulier à faciliter la conclusion de transactions entre les banques et les collectivités locales ou leurs groupements, sur une base acceptable par l’ensemble des parties. Ce nouveau plan tient compte également de la décision récente du tribunal de grande instance de Nanterre. Afin notamment de préserver les finances publiques, le Gouvernement soumettra au Parlement une disposition législative permettant d’assurer la sécurisation juridique des contrats de prêt en cours aux collectivités locales omettant la mention formelle du taux effectif global et de mieux proportionner les conséquences d’une erreur dans le calcul de ce taux. Les caractéristiques détaillées du dispositif seront précisées lors de la prochaine réunion entre l’Etat et les collectivités consacrée au Pacte de confiance et de responsabilité qui se tiendra en juillet prochain. Les mesures législatives seront proposées au Parlement à l’automne 2013.

Dans un communiqué publié à l’issue du sommet de Lough Erne, les dirigeants du G8 ont plaide en faveur de la mise en œuvre d’un échange automatique d’informations en matière fiscale. Sur la question des sociétés écrans et des trusts, pas de démarche commune mais des plans d’actions nationaux qui viseront à disposer d’informations plus précises.

Les prix à la consommation aux Etats-Unis ont augmenté de 0,1% en mai, montrent les statistiques publiées par le département du Travail. L’indice des prix hors alimentation et énergie a progressé de 0,2%, après une hausse de 0,1% seulement en mars et en avril. En rythme annuel, le taux d’inflation hors éléments volatils ressort ainsi à 1,7%, comme en avril.

Le commissaire européen aux Affaires économiques et monétaires, Olli Rehn, s’est déclaré certain que la France adopterait une réforme ambitieuse de son système de retraites, une des conditions pour accorder à Paris un répit de deux ans pour ramener son déficit public à 3% du PIB. Le Finlandais est auditionné par la commission des Affaires étrangères et européennes de l’Assemblée nationale.

La BCE voit des signes d’amélioration de la transmission du crédit dans la zone euro et reste prête à agir pour aider l'économie si nécessaire, a affirmé mardi son président Mario Draghi. S’exprimant depuis Jérusalem, Mario Draghi a souligné que l’institut d’émission avait à sa disposition de nombreuses mesures qu’elle n’hésiterait pas à déployer.

Le gouvernement français a dévoilé un projet de fonds pour venir en aide aux collectivités locales qui ont contracté des emprunts bancaires structurés dits « toxiques ». Dans un communiqué commun, les ministres de l’Economie, de la fonction publique et de la décentralisation indiquent que ce fonds se verra doté «de moyens significatifs, notamment par une contribution du secteur bancaire».

Les mises en chantier de logements ont rebondi en mai après leur baisse d’avril mais moins qu’attendu, selon le département du Travail. Les démarrages de chantier ont augmenté de 6,8% au rythme annuel de 914.000 unités, alors que le consensus des économistes interrogés par Reuters était de 950.000. La baisse d’avril a été révisée à 14,8%, contre -16,5% en première estimation.

Bien qu’elle n’ait qu’un avis purement consultatif en matière fiscale, la Commission des affaires économiques et monétaires du Parlement européen a soutenu le projet de taxe sur les transactions financières présentée par la Commission européenne, qui prévoit de taxer à 0,1% les actions et obligations, et à 0,01% les produits dérivés dans onze pays européens.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } BlackRock, Fidelity, KBC, Amundi and Union Inestment together spent EUR700,000 on lobbying last year, Financial Times fund management reveals, citing European Commission transparency registers. Fund associations are also highly active to defend the interests of the asset management industry: in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy and Ireland, they dedicated more than EUR1bn to lobbying, while the European association EFAMA allocated nearly EUR2bn. These lobbying actions worry investor associations, who do not have the same financial resources.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The market for funds investing in wine is suffering, according to an article in Financial Times fund management. The Vintage Wine fund, a vehicle based in the Cayman islands which had assets of EUR110m in 2008, will be closed at the end of the month following poor performance and redemptions. “The wine market is dead,” says Andrew Davison, founder of the Vintage Wine Fund. The market has had other setbacks: this month the Financial Conduct Authority announced that wine funds listed in London should not be sold to retail investors. The Luxembourg regulator has also suspended subscriptions and redemptions for the Nobles Crus fund, due to a lack of liquidity.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Assets in ETFs in the United States may more than double in the course of the next five years to a total of more than USD3.5trn, compared with USD1.5trn currently, according to a study published recently by iShares. Among the reasons for this optimism are the integration of ETFs into the core portion of investment portfolios, where a few years ago, ETFs were considered rather a “satellite” type investment. ETFs are also much less costly on the whole than open-ended mutual funds and are subject to a preferential tax regime. ETFs offer ongoing liquidity, while mutual funds are traded only once per day, after the close of the markets. Despite the recent boom in ETFs in the United States, ETFs still have their best days ahead of them: “Even on the most mature market, the United States, there is still an incredibly bright future” ahead, the global head of iShres, Mark Wiedman, says in a statement.

Lyxor Asset Management announced on June 17 the launch of the Lyxor / Tiedemann Arbitrage Strategy Fund, a new UCITS-compliant vehicle, which is designed to give access to a pure merger arbitrage strategy in partnership with the hedge fund firm TIG Advisors, LLC. The fund will benefit from TIG’s merger arbitrage expertise supported by deal experience, focus on research and market convictions.The fund’s investment strategy is to play arbitrage deals from both a long and a short perspective by investing in securities that are subject to special events in North America, Europe, Australia, South America and Asia. The investment team focuses on 0-30 day events within the merger arbitrage process and looks for wide spreads and complex deal opportunities relying on TIG’s research capabilities. The current macro economic and financial landscape provides a robust environment for global merger arbitrage with: cash reserves in corporate balance sheets at an extremely high level, interest rates at historic lows, global banking stabilization and complex deals providing significantly better spread opportunities, Lyxor underlines. «We look for complex mergers where our research can add value and are anticipating an uptick in mega-cap deals driven by the increased availability of funding, both for strategic buyers and private equity,» comments Drew Figdor, portfolio manager for the strategy at TIG since 1993. The fund, now passported in 6 countries, is available on Lyxor’s Alternative UCITS Platform in EUR, USD, JPY, CHF, GBP, SEK and NOK. Investors in the fund will also benefit from the weekly liquidity and independent risk management provided by Lyxor.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British private equity investor Cinven Ltd has announced that its fifth fund has acquired the German CeramTec Group from the US firm Rockwood Holdings for EUR1.49bn. This is the fund’s fourth investment, after Pronet, Prezioso and AMCo; it is also Cinven’s sixth acquisition in Germany. CeramTec, a specialist in high performance ceramics, in 2012 earned revenues of EUR425m.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to Hedgeweek, citing reports form the Funds Society, TCW Group has announced that it is opening an office in Paris in order to support sales efforts. This office will be supervised by Heinrich Riehl. TCW has USD130.7bn in assets under management as of the end of March. Hedgeweek points out that TCW has a Luxembourg-based platform which offers UCITS funds which replicate the best-performing strategies on sale in the United States.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has launched a searchable database of more than 700 academic studies on sustainability factors that examine the impact of these factors on investment risk and return. The initiative comes as part of a sustainable development research project launched earlier this year, which also includes the organisation of dedicated conferences. The resulting database of more than 700 documents will continue to grow as more research is conducted on these issues.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Joseph Carieri, senior client executive at Western Asset Management (Wamco, an affiliate of Legg Mason), has been recruited as head of US institutional distribution & marketing at TCW Group. He will report directly to David Lippman, chairman & CEO.Carieri takes over the duties of Chris Scibelli, managing director of TCW and founding partner of MetWest, an asset management firm acquired three and a half years ago (see Newsmanagers of 7 december 2009). Scibelli is leaving TCW.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The investment services provider EFG Financial Products has changed its name. It is now known as Leonteq, and the ticker on the SIX Swiss Exchange now becomes LEON, according to a statement released on 17 June. The name change affects all essential areas of the business. The new name aims to foreground “the positioning of the firm as an independent partner for investment product providers, in line with its white labelling strategy.”

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } León Bartolomé and Pablo Gil, two of the four founding partners (in 2002) of the alternative asset management firm BBVA & Partners, are leaving BBVA AM, which in 2011 acquired the remaining 30% of the firm, Funds People reports.Juan Uguet, one of the former partners, but not a founder, of BBVA&Partners, remains at BBVA AM, and manages the sub-funds of the Luxembourg Sicav of the group, Augustus Equity and Augustos Neutral Plus.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Funds People reports that Cygnus Asset Management has chosen Spain to launch its first traditional fund. The Cygnus Value fund is a long-only fund which will invest in the same segment as the hedge fund Cygmus Utilities, Infraestructuras & Renovables, a specialist in utilities (electricity, water, gas, petrol, renewable energies and infrastructure), as well as their providers.The management of the new UCITS fund will be carried out by the same manager as the hedge fund, Juan Cruz, and his team. The product offers daily liquidity. The minimal subscription is EUR1,000.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Going into mid-June EPFR Global-tracked bond funds set a new outflow record for the second week running as fears that US monetary policy will tighten in the second half of the year prompted more investors to head for the exits. Overall, they pulled USD14.45 billion out of bond funds and another USD8.5 billion out of Equity Funds during the week ending June 12 as interest rates for 30-year US mortgages climbed to a 14 month high and key equities indexes continued to slide. The prospect of the US Federal Reserve “tapering off” its quantitative easing program kept the pressure on funds dedicated to emerging markets. Redemptions from Emerging Markets Bond and Equity Funds were the highest since 3Q11, with combined outflows exceeding USD8 billion.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Fidelity has appointed Dale Nicholls to replace Anthony Bolton as manager of the China Special Situations fund. Nicholls is currently manager of two funds, Fidelity Funds – Pacific and Fidelity Funds - Asian Smaller Companies, Citywire states. From April 2014, Bolton will step down from his fund management activities to concentrate on administrative responsibilities in various foundations. He will also remain an adviser to Fidelity. Bolton will now co-manage the fund with his successor until his departure.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } After the BNP Paribas Obliselect Nordic HY 2015 and BNP Paribas Obliselect Nordic HY 2015 Hedged funds, which were closed on 10 December with EUR320m, at a time when subscriptions were supposed to remain open until the end of December, BNP Paribas Investment Partners (BNPP IP) has since last week been offering two new similar products in France, Belgium and Italy, investing in Scandinavian high yield bonds and equities. They are the horizon FCP funds (30 June 2016) Obliselect Nordic HY 2016 and BNP Paribas Obliselect Nordic HY 2016 hedged (feeder of the former fund), also managed by the Norwegian affiliate Alfred Berg (EUR18bn, of which EUR900m are in high yield).For these two new products, subscriptions are slated to remain open until 31 July. If assets reach more than EUR200m, subscriptions will be closed early. After 30 June 2016, if market conditions allow it, and with permission from the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), the investment strategy of the FCP will be renewed for a new period.The fund aims for annual net returns of 4-6% (compared with 5-7% for the product maturing in 2015). It invests primarily in Norway (more than 60%) and Sweden (nearly 20%), and is exposed primarily to oil services/equipment (62%) and energy (10%), explains Torolv Herstad, investment specialist at Alfred Berg. The portfolio includes 45 positions, compared with 40 for the previous fund. This type of fund, in its version which is not hedged for currency risks in euros, has a lead of 150 basis points, due to forex rates and a positive differential of another 150 basis points on the spread. In addition, the correlation is low with global equity markets (0.29) and global high yield (0.32). The current duration is 2.78.CharacteristicsMaster fund: BNP Paribas Obliselect Nordic HY 2016ISIN codes: FR0011488162 (classic C shares)FR0011488212 (Classic distribution shares)FR0011488188 (O distribution shares)Management fees:1.20% maximum (Classic C or D shares)0.05% maximum (O shares)Feeder fund: BNP Paribas Obliselect Nordic HY 2016 Hedged (at least 85% invested in master FCP)ISIN codes:FR0011488220 (Classic C shares)FR0011488253 (Classic D shares)FR0011488188 (O distribution shares)Front-end fee: 2% maximum (Classic C or D shares)Management fees:1.20% maximum (Classic C or D shares)0.05% maximum (O shares)

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Intesa Sanpaolo is planning to transform about 1,000 of its own employees into financial advisers, in the wake of plans at BNP Paribas to launch their own network of financial advisers, Bluerating reports, citing a leak to La Repubblica.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Madelon van Leeuwen, head of fund selection at Rabobank, has told Fondsnieuws that 99% of products on sale by the group meet the house socially responsible investment criteria, compared with 60% two years ago.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The new financial advisers’ network for BNL, the Italian bank of the BNP Paribas group, is aiming for assets under management of EUR7bn in three years, Bluerating reports. The new network is counting on 50 full-time advisers at the bank, as well as 50 senior advisers who will be recruited by the end of the year. 25 young financial advisers will also be recruited.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } “ETPedia” is the name of the new guide which ETF Securities (UK) Ltd has unveiled to familiarise retail investors with ETPs, “liquid, inexpensive and transparent” solutions, a statement says.As of the end of April, total assets in ETPs came to USD2.1trn, but these products represent only 15% of the portfolios of European retail investors and financial advisers.However, ETF Securities notes, the recent introduction of Retail Distribution Review (RDR) regulations in the United Kingdom is inciting retail investors to take an increasing interest in ETPs, which they are tending to include in their strategic and tactical asset allocations.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The former head of EMEA retail strategic client accounts at BlackRock (see Newsmanagers of 22 April), Mark Elliott, on 17 June became head of UK advisory sales at Franklin Templeton, Fundweb reports.Meanwhile, Alex Brotherston, head of advisory sales and strategic partnership, ahs been promoted to the newly-created position of head of UK retail sales at Franklin Templeton.The asset management firm states that on 7 May it also recruited Mark Ward as marketing manager for UK and Nordic discretionary and institutional business. He previously worked at Gartmore, Fidelity International and Aviva Investors.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The investment firm LGT Capital Partners has won a “multi-alternatives” mandate from the Kingfisher Pension Scheme, for a total of GBP100m, Agefi Switzerland reports. The mandate will primarily cover investments in the areas of commodities, real estate and private equity.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In the decade of the 2000s, the market share for the four largest asset management firms in Sweden fell from 80% to 50% of assets under management, Fondbolagens Förening, the Swedish investment fund association, has revealed at the publication of a report on competition in the financial sector by the competition watchdog authority. This was due to the effect of the arrival of foreign firms on the market, as well as independent structures. However, tougher European regulations complicate the creation of new asset management firms, the association regrets. Also, several Swedish initiatives have damages competitive conditions. To improve things, Fondbolagens Förening is calling for three changes. It would like for asset management firms to be able to open investment savings accounts for savings investors, that the taxation be the same for all finance sector players, and that there should be more openness about commissions. However, it does not want these to be forbidden.