AXA Investment Managers has announced the launch of a global credit bond fund, the AXA WF SmartBeta Credit Bonds, which comes as an addition to the range of SmartBeta funds. The funds were designed especially for institutional investors seeking global credit exposure at low cost, without the inconvenciences of passive strategies. The fund is co-managed by Damien Maisonniac in Paris, and Lionel Pernias in London. Both are members of the global credit investment team, led by Nicole Montoya. The front-end fee is set at EUR5m, while management fees for institutional Z-class equities are 15 basis points.

In 2012, conversions of French money market funds to SRI (socially responsible investment) totalled EUR7.7bn, Novethic reports in its most recent study on the subject. Like last year, this phenomenon explains most of the increase in assets for open-ended UCITS-compliant funds on sale in France with an SRI approach, which increased by EUR12.491bn to a total of EUR76.736bn (+19.4%). The other contributor was a market effect totalling EUR4.1bn. However, investors are still not a part of the picture: SRI UCITS funds have seen net redemptions of EUR1.4bn. In 2011, they had posted slightly lower inflows. However, not all funds are alike: bond funds posted subscriptions of EUR1.2bn, while equity funds saw outflows of EUR2.8bn. Money markets had a virtual flatline. Novethic also notes that 34 SRI funds disappeared as product ranges were rationalised. Due to the launch of only 26 funds, the total number of products fell for the first time this year, to 304, compared with 312 in 2011. Conversions of money market funds also brought changes to the rankings of asset management firms active on the French market. The conversion of the money market fund BNP Paribas Mois tripled the firm’s assets in open-ended SRI funds to about EUR8bn, and put it in second place, ahead of Natixis AM, whose SRI unit has been renamed as Mirova. With over EUR30bn, Amundi remains the leader. The firm of the Crédit Agricole group consolidated its lead with an increase of EUR8bn to its assets, partly thanks to inflows of EUR3.5bn and the conversion of a money market funds. Mirova, however, has seen a decline in its assets of over EUR2bn, due to redemptions from its money market funds.

BNP Paribas on Tuesday, 12 February confirmed to Agefi that subscriptions to the Parvest World Agriculture fund, which is the most exposed of its product range to soft commodities, has been suspended since 11 February. The decision was taken “as a precaution,” following the publication yesterday of a report by the NGO Oxfam about the activities of French banks on soft commodity markets, the newspaper states.

Morningstar reports that US long-term mutual funds in January posted net subscriptions of USD86.54bn, bringing their assets as of the end of the month to USD9.565bn. With the addition of USD28.6bn in net inflows to ETFs, it adds up to an all-time record for the month.However, money market funds have seen net redmptions of USD3.45bn, and their assets under management as of 31 January totalled USD2.536bn.Two asset managers clearly stand out for net subscriptions to their open-ended funds, excluding money markets and funds of funds. They are Vanguard, with nearly USD17.63bn, of which USD4bn went to the Vanguard Total Bond Market fund, and Pimco, with USD9.14bn.

Currently, the Spanish asset management firm BBVA Asset Management is seeking a chief investment officer for Europe, to fill a position left vacant since the promotion of Eduardo García Hidalgo to global CIO last July, and a director of asset allocation. Funds People reports that the corresponding job announcements have been listed on the website eFinancial Careers.

BlackRock has announced that Gary S. Shedlin, a long-time strategic and financial advisor to BlackRock, will join the firm as senior managing director and chief financial officer. He will become a member of BlackRock’s global executive committee, reporting to chairman and chief executive officer Laurence D. Fink. Mr. Shedlin will succeed Ann Marie Petach, who is joining BlackRock Solutions as senior managing director in the client solutions business. Mr. Shedlin will join the Firm on March 11, 2013 and work closely with Ms. Petach through a transition period until she completes her tenure as CFO following the reporting of BlackRock’s first quarter earnings results. Mr. Shedlin joins BlackRock from Morgan Stanley, where he is vice chairman, investment banking and a managing director in the Financial Institutions Group. He has served as a trusted advisor to BlackRock on virtually all of its most significant strategic transactions.

According to a source familiar with the matter, Legg Mason Inc will this Wednesday morning (13 February) announce that Joseph Sulllivan, interim CEO, has been confirmed in the position permanently, the Wall Street Journal reports. The announcement will end five months of searching by the asset management firm (USD654bn in assets as of the end of January, compared with USD1trn as of the beginning of 2008), and by the recruitment firm Korn/Ferry International.Before serving as interim CEO, Sullivan had been head of global distribution. He took over as head of the firm following the resignation of Mark Fetting on 1 October.

At a publication of its annual results, Société Générale has announced its commitment to the next phase of its Ambition SG 2015 plan. The organisation is now centred on three pillars of excellence, and the bank will see its structures and workflows simplified. In detail, with the objective of increasing is commercial and operational effectiveness, the bank has defined a first pillar which includes retail banking in France, which includes the current perimeter (Société Générale France Network, Crédit du Nord, Boursorama). A new pillar will be defined, which will include international retail banking and financial services. This will be created by merging the International Networks, Specialised Financial Services and Insurance units. Lastly, a third pillar will include finance and investment and private banking activities, asset management and investor services. This unit “will make it possible to develop commercial and operational efficiency, particularly in flox, with improed co-ordination of execution, settlement and custody activities, provided by SG CIB, Newedge and SGSS, respectively,” a statement says. The general management team is not modified, and will continue to be composed of the chairman and CEO, Frédéric Oudéa, and three deputy CEOs, Séverin Cabannes, Jean-François Sammarcelli and Bernardo Sanchez-Incera, working collegiately. The current perimeters of supervision for professions will also be retained, with Séverin Cabannes also responsible for overseeing the transformation of the group. For the management of new pillar projet plans, Didier Hauguel and Jean-Luc Parer will jointly assume responsibility for the new retail banking and international financial services unit which will be created. Didier Valet will be responsible for the new unit resulting from the merger of finance & investment banking with private banking, asset management and investor services. The name of the CFO of the group is now known. Philippe Heim will begin on 1 March. William Kadouch-Chassaing will suceed him as deputy CFO and director of strategy for the group. For his part, James Ripoll, director of asset management and investor services, has decided to continue his career outside the group, Société Générale has announced.

Société Générale, which released its annual results this Wednesday morning, has announced that it is combining its Corporate and Investment Banking and Private Banking, Global Investment Management and Services, as part of the second stage of the Ambition SG 2015 Plan. “This second stage consists in a project to simplify and refocus the organisational structure around the core businesses in order to increase revenue and cost synergies. This organisational structure would be based on three divisions,” a press statement says.Didier Valet will be in charge of the new division that will be the result of pooling the Corporate & Investment Banking and Private Banking, Global Investment Management Service activities. Jacques Ripoll, head of Global Investment Management and Services, has decided to pursue his career outside the Group. The two others divisions are : a French Retail Banking pillar, which covers the current scope (Societe Generale’s French Network, Crédit du Nord, Boursorama) and a new International Retail Banking and Financial Services pillar created by the combination of International Networks and Specialised Financial Services and Insurance, the aim of which is to improve synergies across countries and simplify the supervision. In 2012, the private banking, asset management and investor services unit saw its net contribution as a part of the group increase significantly, +21.6% compared with 2011 (not including the cost of the acquisition of TCW from Newedge), at EUR287m. Within the asset management profession, the contribution of Amundi, in which the bank controls a stake alongside Crédit Agricole, is EUR115m in 2012, compared with EUR98m in 2011. Assets under management at Lyxor, which is owned by the finance and investment banking unit, rose last year from EUR73.6bn to EUR75.4bn. For 2012 as a whole, net banking proceeds for Société Générale totalled EUR23.11bn, down 9.9% compared with published data, and 10.3% with constant data for last year, while its net profits fell 67%, to EUR774m.

The former head of alternative asset management in the financial institutions investment banking division of Barclays, Anthony Maniscalaco, is becoming managing director of the investment team at Blackstone Alternative Asset Management (BAAM), alongside Greg Hall, senior managing director.The mission for the team is to acquire stakes in hedge fund management firms. Currently, BAAM has about USD45bn in discretionary assets under management in numerous business units.J. Tomilson Hill, vice chairman of Blackstone and chairman & CEO of BAAM, says that BAAM is planning to significantly increase its personnel this year. In 2012, the number of partners doubled, with six appointments.

On 12 February, AllianceBernstein, “the operating company,” announced a net profit for the twelve months to 31 December of USD188.9m, compared with a loss of USD174.8m, while AllianceBernstein Holding, “the publicly-traded company,” posted net profits of USD51.08m, compared with losses of USD93.27m.

AllianceBernstein, Franklin Templeton, Invesco and Legg Mason have all posted increases in assets in January 2013, totalling USD65bn overall.Franklin Templeton alone has seen an increase of USD28bn in one month, of which USD14.8bn went to equities, and USD8.8bn to bonds, for a total of USD809.8bn. Invesco, for its part, has posted an increase in its assets of USD24.9bn, to USD712.6bn, with USD14.6bn of this increase going to equity products.AUM at AllianceBernstein increased by USD7bn in January, to USD437bn, while at Legg Mason they totalled USD654.1bn as of 31 January, up 5.2bn since the end of December.

Assets under management at the Cantonal Bank of St-Gall as of the end of 2012 totalled CHF38.2bn, up 1.8% compared with the end of 2011, according to a statement released on 13 February. Positive market effects are the cause of this increase, as the bank saw a net outflow of CHF177m.

Assets under management at the Cantonal Bank of St-Gall as of the end of 2012 totalled CHF38.2bn, up 1.8% compared with the end of 2011, according to a statement released on 13 February. Positive market effects are the cause of this increase, as the bank saw a net outflow of CHF177m.

Investors in early February confirmed their confidence in the good outlooks for the global economy, while estimating that the current valuations of equities represent a supporting element following the recent rise of the market, according to the most recent survey, undertaken between 1 and 7 February by BofA Merrill Lynch, and covering 152 participants with cumulative assets under management of USD691bn. In the wake of the January figures, nearly 60% of investors are predicting the global economy to strengthen in the next 12 months. Expectations improve for profits, as 39% of respondents estimate that profits will increase in the next twelve months, compared with 29% in January. But 82% of respondents estimate that bonds are overvalued. Appetite for risk remains stable month on month, as investors overweight in cash declined from 8% in January to 2% in February, their lowest level since February 2011. “The persistence of a high level of optimism is a concern, and the markets may be vulnerable to bad news, but the support of valuations suggests that a possible correction would be brief and small in size, and our “large rotation” theme remains valid,” says Michael Hartnett, chief investment strategist at BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research. “Investors have found a balance between optimism about growth and prudence in their investment decisions. So far, investors have resisted the temptation to exuberanec,” says John Bilton, a specialist in European investment. Allocations to equities have remained at the high levels they reached in January, with 51% overweight in international equities. In the equity asset class, sectoral allocations are a sign of a slightly less desperate appetite for risk, as illustrated by a movement to defensive stocks. The percentage of investors overweight in pharmaceuticals was 27%, compared with 11% in January.

Market Vectors ETF (Van Eck Global group), which has USD27.6bn in assets under management, on 12 February announced the launch of the Market Vectors BDC Income ETF, which the issuer says is the first ETF to be exposed exclusively to business development companies (BDCs), whose primary activity consists of lending capital or providing services to private companies or companies whose shares have low trading volume in the US.The acronym for the new fund, listed on NYSE Arca, is BIZD. The objective is to replicate the Market Vectors US Business Development Companies index, which covers firms whose capitalisation is over USD150m, for which the average trading volume is over USD1m, and monthly trades exceed 250,000 shares in the past six months.The TER is expected to be 0.40%.

iShares is planning to launch an actively-managed bond ETF, which would invest on government and corporate debt denominated in US dollars, IndexUniverse reports. The iShares Liquidity Income Fund would be similar to ETFs of the same type already available from Guggenheim, WisdomTree and FlexShares.

Deutsche Bank has taken the first steps to release a bond ETF dedicated to US long term municipal bonds, IndexUniverse reports. The db X-trackers Municipal Infrastructure Revenue Fund targets bonds issued by states, local municipalities and other issuers of tax-free bonds. The ETF will be particularly focused on bonds issues to finance infrastructure projects.

The financial ratings agency Standard & Poor’s on 12 February announced that it has decided to revise its long and short-term ratings for the alternative management group Man from BBB/A-2 to BBB-/A-3. The ratings continue to carry a negative outlook. The agency estimates that the mediocre performance of Man with a number of key products, as well as persistent, significant redemption flows to investors will continue to weigh on the profitability of Man. The agency finds that Man has not posted a single eyar of net inflows since 2008, as of 31 March. Outflows accelerated in third quarter 2012, at USD2.2bn, probably followed by further outflows in fourth quarter. Standard & Poor’s remarks that assets under management at Man are less and less lucrative, with low margins for long-only and funds of hedge funds, and a continuing slide of guaranteed products as a proportion of total assets under management.

The Wealth and Investment Management unit of the Barclays group has reported pre-tax net profits for the year 2012 of GBP315m, up 62% year on year. In fourth quarter alone, pre-tax profits rose 46% compared with the previous quarter, to GBP115m. Client assets increased 13%, to GBP186bn, largely due to an increase in net inflows from the High Net Worth (HNW) segment. Barclays says in a statement that 2012 was the third year of a five-year strategic programme which aims to make wealth management a unit of excellence for the group, which has been bringing highly satisfactory results.

The former economist in chief for WestLB Asset Management, Holger Sandte, is joining the asset management firm Nordea in Copenhagen, as head of research for Europe, Das Investment reports.

Andrea Calandra has been appointed as a salesperson for Italy at UBS ETF, in the team led by Simone Rosti Advisoronline reports. Calandra joined the UBS group in 2011. He had initially been responsible for investments for UBS Global Asset Management (Italia) SGR, and then served in the wealth management team, as a client adviser.

Actuellement, le gestionnaire espagnol BBVA Asset Management recherche un directeur des investissements pour l’Europe, poste vacant depuis la promotion en juillet d’Eduardo García Hidalgo aux fonctions de CIO global, et un directeur de l’allocation d’actifs. Funds People rapporte que les offres d’emploi correspondantes ont été publiées sur le site eFinancial Careers.

Iñaki Echave, associé de Magnum Capital, a été recruté par Blackstone comme managing director dans le private equity chargé des marchés espagnol et portugais,. L’intéressé collaborera avec Claudio Boada, président de Blackstone pour la région ibérique.

Andrea Calandra a été nommé commercial Italie d’UBS ETF dans l’équipe dirigée par Simone Rosti, rapporte Advisoronline. L’intéressé est arrivé dans le groupe UBS en 2011. Il était initialement responsable des investissements pour UBS Global Asset Management (Italia) SGR puis dans l’équipe de gestion de fortune comme conseiller clientèle.

iShares envisage de lancer un ETF obligataire géré activement qui investirait dans de la dette gouvernementale et corporate libellée en dollars, rapporte IndexUniverse.Le iShares Liquidity Income Fund viendrait ainsi compléter les ETF du même type déjà proposés par Guggenheim, WisdomTree et FlexShares.

Au sein de l'équipe Taux de Carmignac Gestion, la reprise par Carlos Galvis de Carmignac Cash Plus en octobre 2010, et la nette amélioration de ses résultats, ont conduit la société de gestion à relancer le fonds. Affichant un encours de 833 millions d’euros, il change de nom et devient Carmignac Capital Plus. Parallèlement, le produit se définit comme un fonds international multiclasses d’actifs dont l’objectif est de surperformer chaque année l’Eonia + 2 % et ce, dans le cadre d’une volatilité maîtrisée. Pour ce faire, le gérant mène une analyse bottom up et top down et utilise trois stratégies d’investissement : les taux, le crédit et les devises, auxquelles s’ajoutent un moteur de performance supplémentaire – les actions – bridé à 10 % du portefeuille. L’ensemble est constitué de titres physiques (obligations d’Etat, obligations privées, etc) et de produits dérivés (swaps, CDS,…). Côté risques, la contrainte interne de volatilité ex-ante est de 2,5 %, la gestion accordant un soin particulier aux faibles corrélations entre actifs et à leur diversification au sein de l’ensemble. En termes de résultats, Carmignac Capital Plus qui s’inscrit comme un OPCVM de fond de portefeuille, sans point d’entrée, a progressé de 4,92 % en 2012 avec une volatilité inférieure à un 1 %. Caractéristiques : Carmignac Capital Plus A EUR acc / Code isin : LU0336084032 Carmignac Capital Plus A CHF acc / Code isin : LU0807689665 Carmignac Capital Plus A USD acc / Code isin : LU0807689749

Legg Mason devrait dévoiler cette semaine le choix de son nouveau CEO, cinq mois après avoir lancé une recherche pour un nouveau directeur général, selon le Wall Street Journal qui cite des personnes proches du dossier. Cela devrait intervenir mercredi. La nomination d’un nouveau membre du conseil d’administration devrait aussi être annoncée.

AllianceBernstein, Franklin Templeton, Invesco et Legg Mason ont affiché tous quatre des encours en hausse pour janvier 2013, à hauteur de 65 milliards de dollars au total.Franklin Templeton à lui seul bénéficie d’une hausse de 28 milliards de dollars en un mois, dont 14,8 milliards pour les actions et 8,8 milliards pour l’obligataire, pour un total de 809,8 milliards de dollars. Invesco, pour sa part, affiche une hausse de 24,9 milliards de ses encours, à 712,6 milliards, l’augmentation provenant pour 14,6 milliards des produits actions.De leur côté, les actifs gérés par AllianceBernstein se sont accrus de 7 milliards de dollars en janvier, à 437 milliards, tandis que ceux de Legg Mason ressortaient à 654,1 milliards au 31 janvier, en progrès de 5,2 milliards sur fin décembre.

Le 12 février, AllianceBernstein, «the operating company», a annoncé pour les douze mois au 31 décembre un bénéfice net de 188,9 millions de dollars contre une perte de 174,8 millions de dollars pendant qu’AllianceBernstein Holding, «the publicly-traded company», enregistre un bénéfice net de 51,08 millions de dollars contre une perte de 93,27 millions.