Andreas Lessmann, who had been director of distribution for Austria, Benelux and German-speaking Switzerland at Tiberius Asset Management, after serving as institutional executive director asset management and head of mutual funds Austria at Sal. Oppenheim, which became Deutsche Bank Austria, is joining Fidelity Worldwide Investment in Vienna. He will be sales director, responsible for relationship management for institutional and banking clients in Austria, and will report to Adam Lessing, head of Austria & Eastern Europe.

In third quarter 2012, Affiliated Managers Group (AMG) has posted net subscriptions of USD10.9bn, bringing the total in the first nine months of the year to over USD25bn. As of the end of September, assets totalled USD416bn. Net profits in July-September totalled USD54.9m, compared with USD40.1m in third quarter 2011, while in January-September, they were down to USD98.9m from USD124.6m.

Gottex Fund Management has appointed Marc Fisher to the position of director of Marketing for the Asia/Paicific regon. The appointment comes after the acquisition of Penjin Asset Management, an alternative wealth management firm which is already well-established on these markets, earlier this year, Gottex says in a statement on 1 November. Fisher will be based in Hong Kong, and will work closely with CEO for Asia Max Gottschalk and CIO Ronnie Wu. Fisher previously worked at FRM as head for Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan and Korea) and a member of the board of directors.

The Swiss alternative asset management firm Altin, which is listed on the London and Swiss stock exchanges, on 31 October announced the appointment of José Galeano as Head Investor Relations Manager. Marc T. Clapasson will assist him in this role. The responsibilities previously held by Galeano at his asset management firm as an alternative management expert will be assumed by Michaël Malquarti. The two appointments are effective from 1 November 2012.

Pierre-Henri Flamand, former head of Goldman Sachs’ European proprietary trading desk, has had to announce the liquidation of Edoma Partners, the London-based hedge fund he launched only two years ago. According to Agefi, the process may take three to four months. The event-driven hedge fund was no longer popular with investors, who multiple sources say withdrew as much as USD1bn in assets this year. Its assets under management are now estimated at USD850m.

Investors who select an active fund manager because he has a good track record will be more likely to pick a loser than a winner, a Vanguard study cited by Financial Times Fund Management has found. Vanguard ranked 384 actively-managed British equity funds into five quintiles according to their risk-adjusted returns over five years to the end of 2006, and then monitored their performance over the following five years. Only 15.6% remained in the top quintile over both five-year periods, ending in 2006 and in 2011. But 23.4% fell from the first to the last. And 23.4% were either liquidated or merged due to poor performance.

St James’s Place hs reported a 15% increase in its assets under management in nine months, to GBP32.8bn as of the end of September, according to an interim report published on 31 October. Net inflows in the first nine months of the year totalled GBP2.26bn.

The London-based group TT International has signed a partnership with Deutsche Bank to launch a global macro fund on its German banking alternative platform, Citywire reports. The UCITS-compliant fund, DB Platinum TT International, will be managed by the founder of the British group, Tim Tacchi. The fund includes an allocation largely invested in European equities, with an allocation to bond and currency global macro. Assets under management at TT International total over USD9bn in macro, long/short equity and long-only equity strategies.

The Geneva-based firm Alix Capital, the provider of the UCITS Alternatives range of indices, on 31 October announced the launched of the UAIX Fixed Income Global Index, an investable UCITS-compliant bond fund index whose portfolios are invested both in developed and emerging markets. It is composed of 10 to 15 UCITS-compliant bond hedge funds, with an allocation limited to 40% to emerging market funds.

The German BVI association of asset management firms on 31 October declared itself satisfied that the German federal government is planning to put foreign shareholders on an even footing with regard to taxation of dividends paid to shareholders who hold a stake in the capital. The German government has largely followed the recommendations of the BVI, to refund the withholding tax on capital gains which is paid by foreign companies in Germany even in cases where the tax would not be payable outside Germany. The German government has actually transposed a verdict of the European Court of Justice, without penalising German companies. One year ago, the Court found that foreign companies were disadvantaged against their German competitors when they held less than 10% in a German publicly-traded company. Foreign companies with a stake in a German company were subject to a 15% tax on their capital gains as German dividends, which German companies were not. German companies remained exempt to company tax on dividends. That prevented multiple taxation, since the company paying the dividend had already paid company tax. This also works to the advantage of equity funds which hold stakes in capital. They remain attractive for these businesses, which also does not work to the disadvantage of corporate retirement savings.

The British bank Barclays on 31 October announced that it is being investigated as part of two more regulatory enquiries in the United States, which may complicate restoring its reputation after a series of scandals, including the Libor scandal this summer in particular, which have tarnished its reputation. The bank has stated that it is co-operationg with the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) and the securities and exchange commission (SEC) in an investigation into a potential infraction of the corruption of foreign heads law, as part of a case which is already under investigation in the United Kingdom. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the British Serious Fraud Office (SFO) are investigating the financial conditions of fundraising at Barclays from Middle Eastern investors, who allowed the bank to avoid seeking government aid in 2008, at the height of the financial crisis. Barclays on Wednesday announced another investigation, this time into its energy brokerage activity in the Western United States between late 2006 and 2008. The group says that it plans to “vigorously” defend itself in this case. “We have a lot to do to restore trust,” CEO Antony Jenkins, who was appointed in late August to succeed Bob Diamond following the Libor manipulation scandal, admits. The scandal broke in late June, when Barclays revealed that it would pay GBP290m to settle an investigation by British and American regulators into manipulations of the British Libor and European Euribor inter-bank lending rates between 2005 and 2009.

The German asset management firm Union Investment has invested EUR390m in the leisure and shopping centre Manufaktura in Lodz, Poland (112,500 square metres), for its open-ended real estate fund UniImmo: Deutschland. The complex, located in a former textile factory, is wholly leased. The vendors are the French Foncière Euris et Rallye and the developed Apsys, which retains responsibility for the management of the centre.

The French asset management firm Natixis Global Asset Management opened an office in Hong Kong on 31 October, under the leadership of Michael Chang, managing director of NGAM Hong Kong Limited, who will report to John Hailer, Asia CEO, based in Boston. Chang had been based in Taipei, where he had been country head for Taiwan. He will be replaced in that position. The implantation includes a network in Beijing, Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo, with over 50 people. Asia-Pacific assets at the group total USD22.7bn (as of the end of March, +66% in two years), out of a total of USD711bn, or EUR560bn, as of 30 June. The Hong Kong office will be responsible for operations and sales, but management will continue to be undertaken by specialist affiliates of Natixis AM and GAM, including Absolute Asia, AEW (USD45.5bn), Harris Associates, Loomis Sayles, Hansberger Global Investors (USD7.4bn) and Ossiam.

The CNMV has granted Banco Madrid (an affiliate of the Andorran BPA) permission to acquire Nordkapp from Banco Valencia, as announced in early August, Funds People reports (see Newsmanagers of 3 August). This will bring an increase in assets of EUR2bn for Banco Madrid. Nordkapp controls a brokerage firm and an asset management firm, and operate a network of branches in Valencia, Pamplona and Madrid, with about 40 employees. Banco Madrid is planning to merge its affiliate Banco Madrid Gestión de Activos with Nordkapp Gestión.

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) on 1 November published an updated list of banks which are of “systemic” importance, meaning that by their size, they represent a danger to the entire economy in case of bankruptcy. These banks will be subject to stricter regulatory measures to support them. The FSB, which has been mandated by the countries of the G20 to strengthen legislation in the banking sector, on Thursday unveiled the list, which now includes 28 banks, down from 29 last year. The FSB then said that the list was not final, but that it would be updated each year and published in the month of November. Of the 29 banks initially listed, the French-Belgian firm dexia, the German Commerzbank and the British Lloyds Banking Group were removed from the list, while two new establishments join the group: the Spanish BBVA and the British Standard Chartered.

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has called on regulators worldwide to accelerate their efforts to co-ordinate reforms of over-the-counter (OTC) derivative markets. In a progress report published on 1 November, the FSB states that efforts are progressing, particularly in the major markets concerned, but that it would be advisable to intensify efforts on all fronts toward a complete implementation of the reforms called for by the G20.

Assets under management at the activity dedicated to clients from outside the Standard Life Investments group as of the end of September totalled GBP78.8bn, compared with GBP71.8bn at the beginning of the year, according to an interim report published on 31 October. Net inflows totalled GBP3.2bn in the first nine months of the year, while market effects totalled GBP3.8bn. In the United Kingdom, risk-based funds of the My Folio series had GBP1.9bn in assets as of the end of September, with net inflows of GBP0.8bn. Assets under management in British open-ended funds totalled GBP13bn, due to net inflows of GBP1.5bn. Also, assets under management in absolute return funds notably topped GBP19bn. Assets under administration as of the end of September totalled GBP211.9bn, compared with GBP198.4bn as of the end of December 2011.

Francis Ghiloni, director of distritbution & client management at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP), has announced the recruitment of Martyn Gilbey, who will report to him as head of wholesale. Gilbey will begin on 12 November. Gilbey had been managing director at Mirae Asset Management in London, after serving as chief marketing officer in Hong Kong.

Richard Saunders will be leaving the Investment Management Association (IMA) at the end of this year, but he will be replaced from 1 December as CEO by Daniel Godfrey. Godfrey has spent three years at Phoenix Group, and for eleven years was director general of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC). The IMA board has thanked Saunders for the excellent work he has done in the past decade.

The British asset management firm Henderson has reported net outflows in third quarter of GBP1.1bn, of which GBP585m were from institutional investors. However, assets under management were up GBP1.2bn in the quarter, to GBP64.bn, due to positive market and currency effects totalling GBP2.3bn. Henderson reports that its real estate unit, has performed well, with GBP50m in outflows more than offset by subscriptions of nearly GBP200m.

En dehors des actions cotées, l’allocation en titres de croissance comprend le capital investissement, dont le poids dans le portefeuille global pourrait être porté à 5 % contre 3 % actuellement. « La décision de renforcer le capital investissement est guidée par notre objectif de surperformance de 3 % par rapport aux marchés action traditionnels et une réduction de la volatilité », prévient Raymond Laurin, premier vice-président et conseiller stratégique à la Direction du Mouvement Desjardins. Le régime avait multiplié les prises de participation, en particulier dans le segment du capital risque, affichant jusqu'à une trentaine de partenariats avant de céder une grande partie de ses participations à des fonds secondaires pour concentrer aujourd’hui son exposition sur sept à huit partenaires. Le régime privilégie des partenaires stratégiques et de confiance dont les performances les placent dans le premier quartile. Par ailleurs, Raymond Laurin attache une grande importance à la transparence, la stabilité de l'équipe de management et à l’atteinte du rendement espéré. S’il ne s’est pas interdit par le passé de négocier des termes plus favorables pour son investissement dans le cadre de side letters, le responsable des investissements de Desjardins cherche avant tout à promouvoir les standards édictés par l’association ILPA, regroupant les intérêts des Limited Partners. Source : bfinance.fr

Andreas Lessmann, qui était directeur de la distribution pour l’Autriche, le Benelux et la Suisse alémanique chez Tiberius Asset Management après avoir été de 2002 à 2010 executive director institutional asset management et head of mutual funds Austria chez Sal.Oppenheim, devenue Deutsche Bank Autriche, rejoint Fidelity Worldwide Investment à Vienne. Il sera sales director, chargé du suivi de la clientèle institutionnelle et des banques en Autriche, sous la direction d’Adam Lessing, head of Austria & Eastern Europe.

Pour le troisième trimestre 2012, Affiliated Managers Group (AMG) a enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 10,9 milliards de dollars, ce qui porte le total des neuf premiers mois à plus de 25 milliards de dollars. A fin septembre, l’encours se situait à 416 milliards de dollarsLe bénéfice net de juillet-septembre est ressorti à 54,9 millions de dollars contre 40,1 millions pour le troisième trimestre de 2011, tandis que pour janvier-septembre il a diminué à 98,9 millions de dollars contre 124,6 millions.

Le gestionnaire français Natixis Global Asset Management a ouvert un bureau à Hong-Kong le 31 octobre, sous la direction de Michael Chang, managing director de NGAM Hong Kong Limited, subordonné à John Hailer, Asia CEO, basé à Boston. Michael Chang était basé à Taipei, où il était responsable-pays pour Taiwan et sera remplacé à ce poste.Cette implantation complète le réseau implanté à Pékin, Singapour, Taipei et Tokyo, avec plus de 50 personnes, sachant que les encours Asie-Pacifique du groupe représentent au total 22,7 milliards de dollars (fin mars, + 66 % en deux ans) sur un total de 711 milliards de dollars ou 560 milliards d’euros au 30 juin.Le bureau de Hong-Kong sera chargé des opérations et des ventes, mais la gestion continuera d'être effectuée par des filiales spécialisées de Natixis AM et GAM, avec notamment Absolute Asia, AEW (45,5 milliards de dollars), Harris Associates, Loomis Sayles, Hansberger Global Investors, (7,4 milliards de dollars), et Ossiam).

La CNMV a donné à Banco Madrid (filiale de l’andorran BPA) l’autorisation d’acquérir Nordkapp auprès de Banco Valencia, comme annoncé début août, rapporte Funds People (lire Newsmanagers du 3 août). Cela permet d’augmenter à 2 milliards d’euros les encours de Banco Madrid.Nordkapp contrôle une société de courtage et une société de gestion et entretient un réseau d’agences à Valence, Pampelune et Marid, avec quelque 40 professionnels. Banco Madrid a l’intention de fusionner sa filiale Banco Madrid Gestión de Activos avec Nordkapp Gestión.

Le britannique Henderson a fait état pour le troisième trimestre d’une décollecte nette de 1,1 milliard de livres, dont 585 millions de livres du côté institutionnel.Toutefois, les actifs sous gestion ont progressé de 1,2 milliard de livres durant le trimestre à 64,8 milliards de livres grâce à des effets marchés et devises positifs pour un montant de 2,3 milliards de livres. Henderson relève la bonne tenue de son pôle immobilier dont la décollecte de 50 millions de livres a été largement compensée par des souscriptions de près de 200 millions de livres.

Le groupe basé à Londres TT International a conclu un partenariat avec la Deutsche Bank pour le lancement d’un fonds global macro sur la plate-forme alternative de la banque allemande, rapporte Citywire.Ce fonds au format Ucits, DB Platinum TT International, sera géré par le fondateur du groupe britannique, Tim Tacchi. Le fonds comprend une poche investie pour l’essentiel dans des actions européennes, avec une allocation global macro d’obligations et de devises. Les actifs sous gestion de TT International s'élèvent à plus de 9 milliards de dollars dans des stratégies macro, long/short equity et long-only equity.

Les investisseurs qui sélectionnent un gérant de fonds actif parce qu’il a un bon historique ont plus de chances de choisir un perdant qu’un gagnant, montre une étude de Vanguard citée par le Financial Times Fund Management. Vanguard a classé 384 fonds actions britanniques de gestion active en cinq quintiles en fonction de leurs rendements ajustés au risque sur cinq ans à fin décembre 2006 et a ensuite suivi leurs performances sur les cinq années suivantes. Seulement 15,6 % sont restés dans le premier quintile sur les deux périodes de cinq ans se terminant en 2006 et 2011. Mais 23,4 % ont chuté du premier au dernier. Et 23,4 % ont été soit liquidés soit fusionnés en raison de faibles performances.

Lyxor Asset Management a abandonné le MSCI pour deux de ses fonds au profit du FTSE : le Lyxor ETF MSCI World Real Estate – D EUR et le Lyxor ETF MSCI World Real Estate – D USD, qui deviennent respectivement Lyxor ETF FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Global Developed et Lyxor ETF FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Global Developed. Ces informations, publiées dans Financial News, ont été confirmées par un porte-parole de Lyxor.Deux autres ETF de cette gamme immobilière ont déjà changé d’indice pour passer au FTSE, plus représentatif du marché de l’immobilier, selon le porte-parole. Il ne s’agit pas, d’après lui, d’un basculement vers des indices « low cost » comme cela vient de se produire pour Vanguard. Le porte-parole ajoute qu’il s’agit d’un « non-événement », la gamme des quatre fonds ne pesant pas plus de 50 millions d’euros.

Pour son fonds immobilier offert au public UniImmo: Deutschland, l’allemand Union Investment a investi 390 millions d’euros dans le centre commercial et de loisirs Manufaktura de Lodz (112.500 mètres carrés) en Pologne. Ce complexe implanté dans une ancienne usine de textile est entièrement loué.Les vendeurs sont les français Foncière Euris et Rallye ainsi que le développeur Apsys, qui demeure chargé de la gestion du centre.