Le géant américain du capital-investissement Blackstone est en passe de lever le fonds le plus important dédié au marché immobilier en Asie, selon le Wall Street Journal. Blackstone prévoit de réunir 4 milliards de dollars pour ce nouveau fonds qui sera consacré exclusivement à des investissements immobiliers en Chine et dans les autres pays asiatiques, indiquent des sources proches du dossier. Ce montant est deux fois plus élevé que le montant initial visé.

James Clunie, gérant actions britanniques de Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, va rejoindre Jupiter Asset Management, rapporte Investment Week. Il aidera la société à développer son offre total return et long short actions.

Institutional Investment Partners (2ip) a créé récemment à Francfort Institutional Investment Consulting Partners GmbH, une filiale qu’elle estime être la première société de conseil en Allemagne destinée aux investisseurs institutionnels spécialisés exclusivement en investissements immobiliers directs et indirects.Pour renforcer l'équipe de dix personnes de la nouvelle filiale, 2ip a recruté Christian A. Völxen, qui était head of investment consulting & real estate valuation chez Feri EuroRating Services.

Au 1er avril, Union Investment Real Estate a lancé un fonds immobilier institutionnel dédié au secteur hôtelier, le UII Hotel Nr 1 dont l’objectif de collecte est fixé à 250 millions d’euros pour une durée de 10 ans et un effet de levier maximal de 40 %.Le portefeuille se focalisera sur les actifs hôteliers «budget» et milieu de gamme («midscale») avec au moins 60 % d’actifs en Allemagne, le reliquat étant principalement investi en France, en Belgique, aux Pays-Bas, au Luxembourg, en Autriche, au Royaume-Uni et en Pologne.Actuellement, le portefeuille hôtelier d’Union Investment représente un volume de 1,7 milliard d’euros répartis sur 22 enseignes. Ces trois dernières années, le gestionnaire central des banques populaires allemandes a investi environ 400 millions d’euros dans des actifs hôteliers, dont 150 millions dans les segments «budget» et milieu de gamme.Union Investment précise que son encours immobilier pour le compte de clients institutionnels se situe actuellement à environ 3,5 milliards d’euros.

Pour environ 13 millions d’euros, Union Investment Real Estate a revendu à Aberdeen Immobilien KAG un immeuble de bureaux et de commerces de 4.981 mètres carrés situé Theoder Heuß Platz à Berlin Charlottenburg. Cet actif figurait dans le portefeuille du fonds immobilier offert au public UniImmo: Deutschland.Cette transaction s’inscrit dans une stratégie de cession des actifs de petite taille et le produit de la vente sera réinvesti en Allemagne. Union Investment Real Estate entend se concentrer sur des actifs d’au moins 30 millions d’euros.Aberdeen va loger cet immeuble dans le WertFonds S géré par Acteum Investment, l’un de ses neuf fonds immobiliers institutionnels.

Les investisseurs peuvent pousser les sociétés de gestion à d’avantage intégrer les critères ESG dans leur gestion. C’est ce que révèle une récente étude de First Investments, menée lors du Forum sur l’investissement responsable organisé par le gestionnaire d’origine australienne auprès de 100 représentants du secteur (gérants, investisseurs, fonds de pension). 65 % des personnes interrogées estiment ainsi qu’en donnant des instructions «plus fermes» et en insistant sur l’importance des critères ESG, les investisseurs contribueraient à accélérer l’intégration de ces derniers par les gérants. L’enquête révèle également que pour 17 % des sondés, une meilleure communication de la part des entreprises améliorerait l’intégration des critères ESG au processus d’investissement. Le dialogue a une place importante pour les investisseurs. 44 % des personnes interrogées estiment que la décision de publier chaque année un rapport de performance ESG aurait le plus d’impact pour encourager l’investissement à long terme. First State Investments compte à ce titre soutenir la prise en compte des critères ESG dans son processus d’investissement. En août 2012, l’ancien responsable européen de l’investissement responsable du consultant Mercer, Will Oulton, a rejoint la société de gestion au poste de responsable mondial de l’investissement responsable. First State a en outre intégré un spécialiste de l’ISR dans chacune de ses quinze équipes de gestion dans le monde, l’objectif étant d'être reconnu comme un des leaders mondiaux de l’investissement responsable à la fois par les clients, les parties prenantes et les concurrents.Le gestionnaire se dote également en 2013 d’un comité mondial de l’investissement responsable, qui se réunira pour la première fois en mai, ainsi que d’un comité des risques ESG. Il est aussi prévu de constituer un comité «d’engagement» et de promouvoir la collaboration entre les différentes équipes d’investissement du groupe.

Selon Eurekahedge, l’encours des hedge funds à fin mars de situait à 1.830 milliards de dollars après une hausse de 9,19 milliards en un mois attribuable pour 6,99 milliards à la performance et pour 2,20 milliards aux souscriptions nettes.Eurekahedge estime aussi que les hedge funds ont enregistré en mars leur cinquième résultat mensuel positif d’affilée, avec un gain de 0,69 %.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } According to Eurekahedge, assets at hedge funds as of the end of March totalled USD1.830trn, after gains of USD9.19bn in the month, of which USD6.99bn are due to performance, and USD2.20bn to net subscriptions.Eurekahedge also estimates that hedge funds in March posted their fifth positive monthly results in a row, with gains of 0.69%.

Global investors are «moderating their earlier exuberance» in the face of somewhat lower conviction over global growth, though they remain positive towards equity markets overall, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey (752 managers with USD725bn in AUM) for April. A net 49 percent of respondents now, vs 61% in March, expect the global economy to strengthen in the next 12 months. And lower confidence in eurozone growth is reflected in global investors’ move to a net 8 percent underweight. Investors’ more cautious stance is reflected in their increased cash holdings. These are now at the highest level reported by the survey in six months (4.3 percent, vs 3.8% in March).Appetite for exposure to the U.S. dollar remains at the highest level in the survey’s history while appetite for the JPY is now at its lowest since February 2002.

La société de gestion norvégienne Delphi, détenue par Storebrand, vient de lancer un fonds actions émergentes, Delphi Emerging. Géré par Espen K. Furner, le portefeuille sera composé de 35 à 45 titres. Le processus de gestion sera le même que pour les six autres fonds de la maison et associera analyse fondamentale et analyse de tendances.Delphi devrait obtenir cette semaine l’autorisation pour commercialiser le fonds en Suède et un peu plus tard dans le mois l’agrément pour la Finlande et les Pays-Bas, indique Fondbranschen.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } European creditors to Lehman Brothers are expected to recuperate the entirety of their investments, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the consulting firm responsible for liquidating the assets of the defunct bank in Europe, has announced, Les Echos reports. This victory was far from assured, and has only been won through long legal battles by investors. Overall, the bank is expected to reimburse about USD23bn to European investors. The reimbursement procedures will be complex to enact, which explains their length. So far, less than half of the total has been reimbursed: a first payment of USD11bn was made in November, to 1,500 lenders. A further payment of about USD4.5bn will take place this month. The 110,000 retail investors who held funds at the bank have also been fully reimbursed, for a total of USD92bn.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } Jamues Clunie, a British equity manager at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, will be joining Jupiter Asset Management, Investment Week reports. He will help the firm to develop its total return and long/short equity product ranges.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Norwegian asset management firm Delphi, owned by Storebrand, has launched an emerging market equity fund, Delphi Emerging, managed by Espen K. Furner. The portfolio will include 35 to 45 securities. The management process will be the same as for the other six house funds, and will combine fundamental and trend analysis. Delphi is this week expected to receive permission to sell the fund in Sweden, and will later receive licenses for Finland and the Netherlands Fondbranschen reports.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } Union Investment Real Estate has sold an office and commercial property with 4,981 square metres of area, located on Theoder Heuß Platz in Berlin Charlottenburg, to Aberdeen Immobilien KAG. The property had been in the portfolio of the open-ended real estate fund UniImmo: Deutschland.The transaction comes as part of a strategy to sell of smaller properties, and the proceeds of the sale will be reinvested in Germany. Union Investment Real Estate is planing to concentrate on properties worth at least EUR30m.Aberdeen will place the property in the portfolio of the WertFonds S, managed by Acteum Investment, one of its nine institutional real estate funds.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } On 1 April, Union Investment Real Estate launched an institutional real estate fund dedicated to the hospitality sector, the UII Hotel Nr 1, whose inflow objective is set at EUR250m, for a duration of 10 years, with maximal leverage of 40%.The portfolio will focus on budget and mid-scale hotel properties, with at least 60% of properties in Germany, and the remainder primarily invested in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria, the United Kingdom and Poland.Currently, the hotel portfolio of Union Investment represents a volume of EUR1.7bn, managed by 22 different companies. In the past three years, the central asset management firm for the German co-operative banks has invested about EUR400m in hotel properties, including EUR150m in the budget and mid-scale segments.Union Investment states that its real estate assets for institutional clients currently total about EUR3.5bn.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } UBS has appointed Dirk Klee as chief operating officer (COO) for wealth management activities. Klee joins form the wealth management arm of BlackRock, and will begin in his new role on 1 September this year, a spokesperson for the major bank states, confirming reports in the press (see Newsmanagers of 16 April). Klee, 48, had been country head for Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe at BlackRock. He replaces COO Stephan Zimmermann, who will transition by the end of the year to other responsibilities at the group.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } A former GLG Partners manager, Berger, is resurfacing with a new hedge fund firm, Financial News has learned. Berger has founded B1 Capital, based in Pfäffikon, Switzerland, which is preparing to launch a European long/short equity fund this summer, according to a source familiar with the matter.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Institutional Investment Partners (2ip) has recently founded Institutional Investment Consulting Partners GmbH, an affiliate which it claims is the first consulting firm in Germany aimed at institutional investors and specialised exclusively in direct and indirect real estate investment, in Frankfurt.As an addition to the 10-member team at the new affiliate, 2ip has recruited Christian A. Völxen, who had been head of investment consulting & real estate valuation at Feri EuroRating Services.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) Pension & Health Benefits Committee on April 16 approved new actuarial policies that are aimed at returning the System to fully-funded status within 30 years. The full CalPERS Board will vote on the policies on Wednesday. The report showed that most CalPERS plans are now between 65 and 80 percent funded. The desired goal is 100 percent funding, in which assets on hand are equal to the desired level of assets needed to pay pension benefits. Using current smoothing methods, progress toward 100 percent funded status is very slow for many plans. Despite significant gains in the investment portfolio, liabilities continue to grow faster than assets. In addition to reaching full funding in 30 years, the new method will also help avoid large increases in employer contribution rates in extreme years, while maintaining a reasonable level of change in normal years. However, employer contributions will rise by nearly 50 percent in the short-term as the plan is implemented. To mitigate the initial rate increases, the Committee voted to delay implementation for all employers including State and schools until Fiscal Year 2015-16.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } Assets under management at GAM in first quarter 2013 were up 2% compared with the end of 2012, to CHF119.0bn, according to a statement releaed on 17 April. Despite “solid” gross inflows, the wealth management firm has seen a net outflow. The closure of a mandate by a major client and redemptions from Private Labelling Partners (PLF) at Swiss & Global Asset Management led to a net outflow for the first three months of the year, GAM adds, without stating the amount. Compared with the end of March 2012, assets under management are up 8%.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } Funds People reports that at the 12th annual investor conference at Bestinver, the Spanish asset management firm announced that it has reached EUR6.5bn in assets, largely in nine funds, five of which are equity and two diversified funds.For the moment, the value asset management firm is far from its upper capacity limits, the star manager Francisco García Paramés says. However, Bestinver did not post net subscriptions in 2012, in a sign that retail investors are not being attracted back to equities.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } The French market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), is encouraging asset management firms which have already complied with all requirements of the alternative investment fund managers (AIFM) directive, to submit their license applications under the AIFM directive “as soon as possible,” so that the first licenses can be issued by 22 July 2013, when the bill comes into effect. The call comes with a guide to assist existing asset management firms, published on Tuesday. The document is intended to assist asset management firms anticipating the transposition of the AIFM directive, and gives very concrete replies to any questions they may have. The AMF is also making available a dedicated email address, at aifm@amf-france.org. Lastly, in the next few weeks, it will publish a guide to the relevant funds under the AIFM directive. The guide can be found here: http://www.amf-france.org/documents/general/10799_1.pdf

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } The board of directors at Assogestioni, the Italian association of asset management professionals, has appointed four members to its executive board: Sergio Albarelli, Marco Carreri, Pietro Guiliani, and Walter Ottolenghi. They join the chairman and vice-chairmen (Domenico Siniscalco, Giordano Lombardo, Mauro Micillo, Nikhil Srinivasan).

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } Emergence, a contractual Sicav with sub-funds created by the Paris financial centre, and dedicated to incubating young start-ups in asset management, will invet EUR30m in the Key Trends UCITS fund, managed by the French asset management firm Keyquant. It is the third investment by the vehicle, from its Emergence – Performance Absolue sub-fund, whose management is outsourced to NewAlpha Asset Management, an affiliate of OFI which is expected to merge with NExT AM, an affiliate of La Française. Keyquant, a firm founded in 2009 by Robert Baguenault de Vieville and Raphaël Gelrubin, was selected from 120 applicants. The capital received will allow it to launch a UCITS fund, and to reach total assets of EUR100m.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } Assets under management in 15 house ETF products form Schwab totalled USD10.9bn as of the end of March, up 65% year on year, the group announced at the publication of its quarterly results. This development makes Schwab the tenth-largest provider of ETFs in the United States. Assets in ETF portfolios managed by Schwab totalled USD2.6bn as of the end of first quarter, while assets from clients at Windhaven, the consulting arm of Schwab specialised in ETF investments, totalled USD15.6bn, up 15% since the end of December 2012. Net profits for the firm rose 6% in first quarter, to USD206m, on revenues up 8% to USD1.29bn.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } As of 31 March, assets under management or supervision by Goldman Sachs totalled USD968bn, compared with USD965bn as of 31 December, and USD900bn one year earlier. Growth of USD3bn in first quarter is due to a positive performance effect of USD12bn, which was bitten into by USD9bn of net outflows due to redemptions from money market funds (USD15bn) and alternative funds (USD3bn), and fed by net inflows of USD10bn to bond products, and USD4bn to equity products.Net revenues in first quarter for investment management totalled USD1.32bn, 13% less than in October-December, and 12% more than in the corresponding period of 2012.Net profits at Goldman Sachs in January-March totalled USD2.188bn, compared with USD.2833bn in the previous quarter, and USD2.074bn in the first three months of 2012.

Assets under management at BlackRock as of 31 March totalled USD3.936trn, up 4% compared with the end of December 2012, and 7% compared with the end of March 2012, according to figures released by the group on 16 April. Diluted per-share profits in first quarter totalled USD3.62, up 15% from last year, on revenues up 9% to USD2.45bn, thanks to rising markets, long-term net inflows, and growth in performance commissions. Net profits for the part of the group totalled USD632m in first quarter, up 10% compared with first quarter 2012.Net inflows in first quarter have totalled USD39.4bn. Equity, multi-asset and core alternative funds have posted inflows of USD33.7bn, USD9bn and USD1.5bn, respectively, which were partly offset by fixed income and commodity strategies totalling a net USD2.6bn and USD2.2bn, respectively.Positive market and currency effects contributed to the growth of assets under management of a net USD104.3bn.Examination by region reveals that long-term inflows of USD22.4bn come from clients in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, while USD19.7bn come from the Americas, partly offset by redemptions to clients in the Asia-Pacific region totalling USD2.7bn.As of 31 March 2013, BlackRock had 61% long-term assets under management for clients in the Americas, and 39% for international clients.iShares has maintained its positions on the international ETF market, with assets under management of USD802.8bn, including long-term net inflows of USD25.6bn, due to net subscriptions of USD26.3bn to equity funds. Fixed income has seen outflows of USD1bn, with a transfer within the asset class from long-term to more short-term durations.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } The banking group BPCE on 16 April announced that it has sold its online real estate mortgage broker Meilleurtaux.com to the investment fund Equistone Partners Europe (ex-Barclays Private Equity), in line with its plan to sell off non-strategic assets. BPCE, which entered exclusive talks with Equistone Partners on 18 February, has sold 100% of its stake in the capital of Meilleurtaux.com to the investment fund. The management team at Meilleurtaux.com is totally associated with the operation, and may continue to direct the growth of the business, as the strategy employed since 2011 has maintained a balanced net profit, with a slight increase in 2012, a statement says.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } La Financière de l’Echiquier is planning to launch two new funds on 26 April, Citywire Global reports. They will include an emerging market equity fund, Echiquier Global Emergents, and a convertible bond fund, Echiquier Global Convertibles.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }A:link { } The asset management firm TOBAM on 16 April announced the launch of the Anti-Benchmark Canadian Equity (UCITS IV) fund. The fund has received seed capital from a major institutional investor. The Anti-Benchmark Canadian Equity fund aims to maximise diversification of an investment universe represented by the S&P/TSX Composite Equity index, by applying the patented Anti-Benchmark process to eliminate geographical, sectoral and style biases which may appear in more traditional allocation methods such as weighting by cap size. The fund aims to outperform the cap-weighted S&P/TSX index by about 4-6% per year over a full market cycle, while significantly reducing volatility (about 30%). The fund reflects the Anti-Benchmark Canadian Equity strategy managed by TOBAM since April 2011 for a US institutional client. Since its creation at the end of March 2013, the Anti-Benchmark Canadian Equity strategy has posted returns of +13%, outperforming the index (-5.6%) by nearly 10% on annual terms. In the same period, the strategy has reduced volatility by 33%. Characteristics Name: TOBAM Anti-Benchmark Canadian Equity Fund Legal format: UCITS IV Benchmark index: S&P/TSX Composite Total Return Index ISIN code: FR0011452945 Management fee: 1.00%