P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The US firm State Street Corporation has announced that with Standard Bank South Africa (in which the Chinese firm ICBC controls a 20.1% stake), it has signed an agreement to jointly provide transition management services in sub-Saharan Africa. Clients of Standard Bank will have access to all transition management and portfolio solutions services of State Street. Currently, Standard Bank provides custody services in 15 sub-Saharan countries, representing administered assets of over USD450bn.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to the most recent statement from the Bank of the Netherlands (De Nederlandsche Bank), Dutch pension funds in 2012 invested only EUR1.4bn in ETPs, compared with EUR1.9bn the previous year, while retail investments increased to EUR2.7bn from EUR2.1bn. Dutch investors prefer foreign ETPs, in which they invested EUR4.1bn last year, compared with EUR3.9bn the previous year, with an overall preference for physical replication products.As of the end of December, Euronext Amsterdam listed 150 ETPs, but the Dutch ETP market as of the end of the year represented only EUR137m, compared with EUR70m one year earlier.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to sources familiar with the matter, Cinco Días, reports, the Qatari Diar fund will soon acquire the W hotel in Barcelona, known as Hotel Vela, which is owned 25% each by FCC, OHL, Comsa Emte and Grupo Godia, for EUR200m.The property, with 473 rooms and suites, is operated by the US chain Starwood, and opened in 2009. Its construction by Ricardo Bofill cost EUR260m.In Spain, Qatari Diar already owns Marina Tarraco, a leisure and luxury yacht complex located in Tarragon. It also owns several other hotels operated by Starwood.

Il y a un peu plus d'un an, Nuno Teixeira devenait directeur général de Schroders France, en remplacement de Philippe Lecomte. Il dresse pour Newsmanagers le bilan de cette première année et annonce les grandes lignes de la stratégie de Schroders pour son développement sur le marché français. Avec un accent particulier sur la clientèle des CGPI. Schroders compte bien se donner les moyens pour s'imposer sur le marché des conseillers en gestion de patrimoine, très disputé en France.

La société de gestion basée à Jersey Ashburton a lancé son deuxième fonds luxembourgeois, Ashburton Global New Energy fund, rapporte Citywire Global. Géré par Richard Robison, le fonds sera investi dans des sociétés du secteur du pétrole, du gaz, du charbon, des énergies renouvelables et des autres énergies, sans contraintes géographiques.

Pour un montant non divulgué, l’allemand IVG Immobilien, qui administre des actifs de 21,1 milliards d’euros, a acheté dans le cadre d’un «club deal» avec des investisseurs institutionnels sud-coréens la tour de bureaux Galileo de Francfort (136 mètres, 40.000 mètres carrés), datant de 2004.Cet actif, à l’origine second siège francfortois de la Dresdner Bank, avait été repris par la Commerzbank en 2008. La banque allemande continuera de l’occuper sur la base d’un bail de long terme.

La société d’investissement danoise Sydbank a recruté Jens Erik Boesen pour renforcer son équipe dette émergente et sa filiale EM Quest Capital après le départ de Holger Friedrich pour rejoindre Lombard Odier Investment Managers, rapporte Citywire Global. La nouvelle recrue travaillait précédemment à la Banque centrale du Danemark.

L’ancien patron de la gestion sous contrainte de passif (LDI) d’Axa Investment Managers, Shalin Bhagwan, a été recruté par Ashburton Investments, la nouvelle société de gestion du groupe sud africain de services financiers FirstRand, rapporte Financial News. Il est nommé responsable des solutions pour les institutions.

Les actifs sous gestion du britannique Polar Capital ont progressé de 41% au cours de l’exercice à fin mars 2013 pour s'établir à 7,2 milliards de dollars contre 5,1 milliards de dollars un an plus tôt.La collecte nette s’est élevée à 1,61 milliard de dollars, les effets positifs marchés et devises représentant de leur côté un peu plus de 500 millions de dollars. Le bénéfice imposable a fait un bond à 15,3 millions de livres contre 9,6 millions de livres précédemment, soit une hausse de près de 60%.

Après y avoir passé plus de 10 ans, le gérant Chris Rice va quitter en juillet 2013 Cazenove Capital Management, la société de gestion britannique qui fait l’objet d’une offre de rachat par Schroders, annonce un communiqué. Suite à ce départ, Steve Cordell, gérant du Cazenove Pan Europe Fund, va reprendre dès à présent la gestion des fonds Cazenove European Fund et Cazenove European Equity (ex UK) fund. Le Cazenove European Income Fund continuera à être piloté par James Sym, actuel co-gérant.Julie Dean, directeur et gérant de fonds chez Cazenove Capital, va quant à elle diriger l’équipe « business cycle ».Après son départ, Chris Rice a l’intention de faire une pause : « après 22 ans dans le secteur, je sens que j’ai besoin de faire une pause et la transaction [avec Schroders ndlr] a cristallisé ces réflexions (…) », explique-t-il. « Je suis très favorable à la transaction et j’ai beaucoup de respect pour Schroders : je les vois comme une maison naturelle pour l’équipe (…) », ajoute-t-il.

Pour l’exercice au 31 mars, Walker Crips Group (WCG) affiche un bénéfice avant impôt de 9,1 millions de livres contre 0,6 million grâce notamment à la plus-value exceptionnelle de 11,7 millions de livres réalisée sur la vente de Walker Crips Asset Management (WCAM) à Liontrust Asset Management.Au 31 mars, l’encours total sous gestion ou administration affichait un gonflement de 43 % à environ 2 milliards de livres.

Justin Onuekwusi, gérant principal des fonds multi-classes d’actifs d’ Aviva Investors, rejoint Legal & General, rapporte Investment Week Ses nouvelles fonctions n’ont pas encore été précisées, mais LGIM dispose déjà de capacités dans le domaine de l’investissement multi-classes d’actifs.

Mirabaud Asset Management vient de recruter Anu Narula à Londres pour diriger une équipe en charge des actions monde que deux autres personnes devraient rejoindre prochainement.Anu Narula vient d’Axa Framlington où il occupait le poste de co-gérant du fonds Global Opportunities et gérant du fonds Global High Income.Au sein de Mirabaud AM où il travaillera à partir du 24 juin, il reprendra la gestion des produits et mandats existants et développera de nouvelles solutions d’investissement, notamment dans le domaine des hauts dividendes.Les deux membres supplémentaires de l’équipe arriveront dans le courant de l’été.Ces recrutements s’inscrivent dans le cadre du développement de l’équipe de gestion d’actifs de Mirabaud AM à Londres. Plusieurs professionnels ont d’ores et déjà rejoint la maison suisse, notamment Dan Tubbs, ancien de BlackRock, nommé responsable des actions Global Emerging Markets, Andrew Lake, ex-Aviva, devenu responsable des obligations high yield, et Pierre Pinel, de BNP Paribas.

Les fonds au format Ucits ont enregistré au mois d’avril une collecte record de 44 milliards d’euros, contre 38 milliards d’euros en mars, selon les statistiques communiquées par l’association européenne des gestionnaires d’actifs (Efama).Les seuls fonds de long terme, c’est-à-dire sans tenir compte des fonds monétaires, ont collecté 50 milliards d’euros en avril, contre 41 milliards en mars.Les fonds obligataires ont doublé la mise en avril, avec des souscriptions nettes pour un montant de 30 milliards d’euros, contre 15 milliards d’euros le mois précédent. En revanche, la collecte des fonds actions est tombée à 1 milliard d’euros contre 9 milliards un mois plus tôt. Les fonds diversifiés ont drainé une collecte stable à 13 milliards d’euros.Les fonds monétaires ont encore décollecté en avril, à hauteur de 7 milliards d’euros contre 2 milliards d’euros en mars.La collecte des fonds non coordonnés a légèrement progressé à 20 milliards d’euros contre 18 milliards d’euros. Les fonds dédiés ont capté 18 milliards d’euros contre 15 milliards d’euros en mars.Les actifs des fonds coordonnés s'établissaient fin avril à 6.781 milliards d’euros, en hausse de 1,2% d’un mois sur l’autre, les actifs des fonds non coordonnés s’inscrivant de leur côté à 2.692 milliards d’euros (+1,8%).

Depuis le 3 mai le français Syquant Capital commercialise sous forme coordonnée le fonds de droit luxembourgeois Helium Performance* qui combine une approche de suivi de tendance avec des stratégies d’arbitrage de fusions, événementielle, d’arbitrage de dividendes et de retour à la moyenne. Helium Performance suit une approche plus agressive qu’Helium Opportunités, avec en particulier davantage de levier sur les stratégies d’arbitrage avec une exposition brute élargie à 300 %, avec une exposition moyenne nette de 25 %.Ce fonds d’actions n’est pas commercialisable en France auprès d’investisseurs non qualifiés pour le moment. Il est chargé à 1,50 % avec 15 % sur la performance par rapport à un taux butoir correspondant à l’Eonia et un high watermark.* code Isin : LU0912262358

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Justin Onuekwusi, lead manager for multi-asset class funds from Aviva Investors, has joined Legal & General, Investment Week reports. His new responsibilities have not been disclosed, but LGIM already has capacities in the area of multi-asset class investment.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } For an undisclosed amount, the German firm IVG Immobilien, which administers assets of EUR21.1bn, has acquired the Galileo office tower in Frankfurt (136 metres, 40,000 square metres), constructed in 2004, as part of a club deal with South Korean institutional investors.The property, originally the second Frankfurt headquarters of Dresdner Bank, was acquired by Commerzbank in 2008. The German bank will continue to occupy the property on a long-term lease.

On June, 14th, JPMorgan Chase announced that the partners of One Equity Partners (OEP), the firm’s private equity unit, will begin to raise their next fund from an external group of limited partners and become independent from JPMorgan Chase.One Equity Partners currently manages approximately USD4.5bn of investments for JPMorgan Chase in direct private equity transactions.OEP will continue to make direct investments for JPMorgan Chase for an interim period and will still manage the existing group of portfolio companies for JPMorgan Chase.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Bradley T. Galko, vice president and senior equity analyst for the investment products sector at Pioneer Investment Management, on 17 June will join Eaton Vance Corp as a senior research analyst, in which role he will report to Charles Gaffney, director of equity research. Galko will have the title of vice president at Eaton Vance Management. He will belong to the global research team for industrials.As of 30 April, assets at Eaton Vance totalled USD260.3bn.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Among the top four firms which publish total assets under management for the previous month in the middle of the following month, Franklin Templeton stands out with a monthly gain of USD23.8bn to its assets, to USD847.5bn as of the end of May, which is due partly to the bond funds, whose AUM has increased to USD383.7bn from USD369.2bn as of the end of April .The equity portfolio, for its part, has gained USD6bn, to USD325.9bn.As of end May, Invesco had assets of USD751.8bn, USD3.3bn more than one month previously, while the equity portfolio is reported to have posted stronger gains, of USD4.4bn (to USD331.1bn).For their part, Legg Mason and AllianceBerstein have seen declines in their AUM, to USD654.3bn from USD655.4bn, and USD452bn from USD453bn.

Amundi, which has made it part of its strategic development plan to strengthen its relationships with external distributors globally, on 14 June announced that it is creating a dedicated global business line. As of the end of March 2013, Amundi manages EUR160bn on behalf of banking networks, third-party distributors, private banks, platforms and fund selectors, out of approximately EUR750bn of assets under management.“Amundi’s key strategic objectives are twofold: to reinforce its leading position as a provider of savings solutions to partner networks, and to pursue its business development initiatives with both institutional clients worldwide and third party distributors globally,” explains Pascal Blanqué, head of institutional investment and third party distributors of Amundi.Appointed last January to strengthen Amundi’s distribution business, Christian Pellis, head of global external distribution, has organised the business line geographically in order to best serve clients. He comments: «The business line manages and oversees the efforts of sales forces dedicated to providing solutions to our customers. With 55 professionals around the world (36 in Europe, 14 in Asia, and 5 elsewhere), it benefits from having an established and experienced sales force, which will be further strengthened with new recruits. Our goal is to provide local support for the specific needs of our customers and major external distributors.» To support the development strategy of its new business line, Amundi has introduced dedicated marketing tools and developed a range of flagship products providing solutions for individual investors seeking to build their wealth with moderate risk. In addition, it has created a new share class to accommodate the European regulatory changes on costs associated with rebates. Finally, Amundi is offering its clients local customer services and training programs led by fund managers, analysts and other investment experts.

Intervalor, a third party marketer of international asset management products in the Nordic region, is strengthening its board of directors with two members; Lars Nyberg and Benny Karlsson. At the same time Lars Spongberg will be leaving the board after 12 years.Lars Nyberg brings experience from his 13 years as deputy governor of the Swedish Central Bank (Riksbanken), as CFO at Swedbank and as head of Handelsbankens investment bank.Benny Karlsson joins from Vattenfall Pension Foundation where he has been the CEO since its creation.Intervalor AB was founded in 1992 to bring international asset managers’ products and services to the Nordic market place and to complement them by local service. At present, Intervalor represents the following asset management companies, each of which has been chosen for their specific expertise in one or several asset classes: Banque de Luxembourg Investments, BPT, Brown Advisory, Craton Capital, Ermitage, Global Evolution, IS Asset Management, LVD Investment Advisors et SG Alpha.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } For the fiscal year ending on 31 March, Walker Crips Group (WCG) has posted pre-tax profits of GBP9.1m, compared with GBP0.6m, largely due to a one-time capital gain of GBP11.7m, from the sale of Walker Crips Asset Management (WCAM) to Liontrust Asset Management (see Newsmanagers of 14 March 2012).As of 31 March, total assets under management or administration were up by 43% to about GBP2bn.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Mirabaud Asset Management has recruited Anu Narula to lead a team responsible for global equities, which two others will soon join. Narula joins from Axa Framlington, where he had served as co-manager of the Global Opportunities fund and manager of the Global High Income fund. At Mirabaud AM, where he will work from 24 June, he will take over management of existing products and mandates, and will develop new investment solutions in the area of high dividends.The two additional members of the team will arrive during the year. The recruitments come as part of the development of the asset management team at Mirabaud AM in London. Several professionals have already joined the Swiss firm, including Dan Tubbs, formerly of BlackRock, who is appointed as head of equities for Global Emerging Markets, Andrew Lake, formerly of Aviva, who becomes head of high yield bonds, and Pierre Pinel, from BNP Paribas.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Schroders, Legal & General Investment Management, and charities and pension funds have formed a working group which is studying the creation of an Investor Forum, which would bring together the 15 largest shareholders in the United Kingdom, and would seek to limit excesses by boards of directors, the Financial Times reports The initiative is one of 17 recommendations made by professor Kay in his report on equities. The forum would meet once per month.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Assets under management at the British firm Polar Capital have risen by 41% in the period to the end of March 2013, to a total of USD7.2bn, compared with USD5.1bn one year previously. Net inflows totalled USD1.61bn, while positive market and currency effects for their part represented slightly over USD500m. Pre-tax profits have risen to GBP15.3m, compared with GBP9.6m previously, an increase of nearly 60%.

After more than ten years with Cazenove Capital, Chris Rice confirms he will depart Cazenove Capital Management, which is being bought by Schroders. «He will work closely with the team to ensure a thorough handover of portfolios and clients before his departure in July 2013,» according to a press statement. He has no immediate plans, but it is his intention to take a break. Steve Cordell, manager of the Cazenove Pan Europe Fund, will assume responsibility for the Cazenove European Fund and the Cazenove European Equity (ex UK) Fund. The Cazenove European Income Fund will continue to be managed by James Sym, current co-manager. Management responsibilities of the European funds will take effect immediately. Julie Dean, director and fund manager at Cazenove Capital will head up the business cycle team. Chris Rice comments «After 22 years in the industry, I feel that I need a break and the transaction has crystallised those thoughts. It would be unfair on all concerned not to be open about this. I am very supportive of the transaction and have a great amount of respect for Schroders: I see it as a natural home for the team. Steve Cordell will make an excellent manager for the funds, we have worked together for 15 years, both at Cazenove Capital and HSBC, and I will retain a significant investment in them».

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The former head of liability-driven investment (LDI) at Axa Investment Managers, Shalin Bagwan, has been recruited by Ashburton Investments, the new asset management firm of the South African financial services group FirstRand, Financial News reports. He is appointed head of solutions for institutions.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Labour unions at BNL (BNP Paribas group) have expressed their opposition to an “external” network of IFAs in Italy, Bluerating reports. The creation aims to recruit advisers with a single-provider agency contract and not a banking contract.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Danish investment firm Sydbank has recruited Jens Erik Boesen as an addition to its emerging market debt team, and its affiliate EM Quest Capital, following the departure of Holger Friedrich to join Lombard Odier Investment Managers, Citywire Global reports. The new recruit previously worked at the central bank of Denmark.