Lors de son premier discours sur l’état de la nation depuis sa prise de fonction en décembre 2011, le Premier ministre espagnol s’est engagé à sortir l’Espagne de la récession sans relâcher les efforts de réduction du déficit. Il a annoncé de nouvelles incitations à destination des employeurs pour embaucher des jeunes, ainsi que des baisses d’impôt pour les petites et moyennes entreprises.

Le gérant de hedge fund et président du réassureur Greenlight Capital Re estime que les poursuites du gouvernement américain à l’encontre de Standard & Poor’s ont rendu les agences de notation vulnérables. Il précise que ces démêlés judiciaires renforcent les positions courtes dans McGraw-Hill, la maison mère de S&P, et Moody’s.

Michael Noonan, ministre irlandais des Finances, a exprimé mercredi sa confiance quant au fait que Dublin dépasserait son objectif de déficit budgétaire pour 2013, fixé à 7,5% de son produit intérieur brut. En 2012, l’Irlande a abaissé son déficit budgétaire sous la barre des 8%.

Les fonds commercialisés en Norvège ont enregistré en janvier des souscriptions nettes pour 21,1 milliards de couronnes norvégiennes (2,8 milliards d’euros), soit le montant mensuel le plus élevé depuis décembre 2005, selon l’association locale des fonds Verdipapirfondenes forening.Sur ce total, 3,5 milliards de couronnes ont été investis dans des fonds actions et des fonds diversifiés. Les fonds obligataires ont engrangé 17,5 milliards de couronnes.La collecte nette s’est répartie à hauteur de 16 milliards de couronnes pour les investisseurs institutionnels et 3,4 milliards pour les particuliers. Les clients étrangers ont investi 1,7 milliard de couronnes.

Lorsqu’un fonds sous-performe durablement, les investisseurs n’hésitent pas à sortir dudit fonds. Telle est la conclusion d’une étude réalisée par Chelsea Financial Services qui a identifié les dix fonds les moins performants au cours des trois dernières années, rapporte Investment Week.La liste rouge comprend notamment le UK Smaller Companies fund d’UBS dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à seulement 12 millions de livres. Le rendement moyen de ce fonds est plus de 44% en dessous de son secteur de référence. UBS envisage d’ailleurs de revoir l’avenir de ce fonds. Les niveaux de surperformance des dix fonds retenus par Chelsea, entre autres Allianz Global Eco Trends, Invesco Perp Japanese Smaller Companies ou encore Aviva Inv Property Investment, s'échelonnent entre un peu moins de 24% (le fonds d’Aviva et le F&C High Income) et 44,13% pour le fonds d’UBS. Mais les investisseurs n’ont manifestement pas attendu l’alerte de Chelsea. Les encours cumulés de ces fonds s'élèvent à seulement 376,6 millions de livres.

Mikael Fellbom a rejoint Carmignac Gestion en tant que Head of Countries pour la région nordique. Il sera chargé de renforcer la présence de la société de gestion française auprès des clients professionnels et de fournir le meilleur service aux clients par le biais d’une approche régionale personnalisée, selon un communiqué.Actuellement basé au Luxembourg, il est rattaché à Davide Fregonese, global head of sales. Mischa Cornet, qui était responsable de ces pays, se concentrera désormais sur les Pays-Bas et le Luxembourg. Ce recrutement ainsi que la récente ouverture de bureaux à Francfort et à Londres en 2012 et celle prévue à Zurich en 2013 permettent à Carmignac Gestion de confirmer sa stratégie de croissance en Europe du Nord. Au cours des trois dernières années, Mikael Fellbom a travaillé dans la gestion de fonds immobiliers (chez UFFI Ream et Corum AM à Paris) et a occupé le poste de Head of Business Development.

Le fonds souverain Qater Holding a l’intention d’introduire en Bourse une nouvelle filiale chargée d’investir en actions, en immobilier et en private equity dans le monde entier, rapporte le Handelsblatt. La filiale sera dotée de 3 milliards de dollars placés dans des fonds et l’émission d’actions devrait permettre de lever un montant similaire. Dans un premier temps, la souscription des actions sera réservée aux Emiratis avant d’être élargie aux étrangers.

The European Securities Markets Authority 9ESMA) on 19 February published its final report on consulting firms serving shareholders specialised in proxy voting (“The Proxy Advisor Industry.”) ESMA did not find any major problems with the activities of consulting firms with investors and issuers within the European Union. However, it identified a number of concerns about the independence of these firms, as well as the accuracy and reliability of the advice provided. In this environment, ESMA recommends that consulting firms set up a code of conduct, which would identify, reveal and manage conflicts of interest, and which would promote transparency while ensuring the accuracy and reliability of advice. ESMA has had very positive initial feedback from companies concerned, such as Glass Lewis, Institutional Shareholder Service (ISS), Manifest and Proxinvest, and the work to develop the code will begin in the next few weeks.

Of 13 strategies monitored by the Edhec-Risk Institute, only two showed losses in January, with losses of 0.30% for merger arbitrage, and of 4.92% for dedicated short bias. However, long/short equity made 3.40%, and emerging markets made 3.06%.Since January 2001, the best average annual returns have been for emerging markets, at 10.3%, and distressed securities, with 10.5%. The latter strategy is the only one with a Sharpe ratio over 1, at 1.06.

According to the «Office Space Across the World» survey by Cushman & Wakefield, relayed by Das Investment, rent per square metre in the west end of London last year rose to EUR178 per month, meaning that the British capital is anew more expensive than Hong Kong (EUR125) for the first time since 2008. Rio de Janeiro takes third place, at EUR112.New Delhi is the city where rents rose most rapidly last year, up 25% compared with 2011, to EUR110.

Daniel Vasella is not claiming a non-competition indemnity of CHF72m, negotiated with Novartis. The decision has been welcomed universally, although some regret that it was taken late. The Basel-based pharmaceuticals firm on 19 February announced that it has reached an agreement with its outgoing head to cancel an agreement rendered public on 15 February, which triggered a wave of anger in Switzerland. Vasella will, however, receive a maximum of CHF12m per year from Novartis over six years as a settlement. The cancelled contract had stated that Vasella would only receive the entire amount if he agreed not to transfer to the competition. Vasella agreed that he will not retain the money, but will donate all or part of it. “We will continue to believe in a non-competition clause, but we think that the decision to cancel the agreement is in the interest of shareholders and participants at the business,” says the vice president of Novartis, Ulrich Lehner, in a statement released by the group.

The Swiss federal financial market supervisory authority (Finma) on 19 February announced that the law on the bankruptcy of collective investments will come into effect on 1 March. The regulation will improve the transparency of bankruptcy proceedings. “The new law clarifies the terms of the law on collective investments about bankruptcy law, and determines the way in which bankruptcy suits should be conducted,” Finma says in a statement.

A survey by TNS Infratest for Axa Investment Managers Germany has found that 81% of Germans are unable to spontaneously name a single asset management firm. A majority of survey respondents also say that they primarily rely on rankings or awards as decision-making criteria for investing in a fund.

Mikael Fellbom has joined Carmignac Gestion as head of countries for Scandinavia. He will be responsible for strengthening the presence of Carmignac Gestion serving professional clients, and to provide better service to clients via a personalised regional approach, according to a statement from Carmignac Gestion.Fellbom is currently based in Luxembourg, and will report to Davide Fragonese, global head of sales. Mascha Cornet, who had been head for the country, will now concentrate on the Netherlands and Luxemboug.The recruitment, as well as the recent opening of offices in Frankfurt and London in 2012, and the planned opening of an office in Zurich in 2013, will allow Carmignac Gestion to continue its growth strategy in northern Europe.In the past three years, Fellbom has worked in the management of real estate funds (at UFFI Ream and Corum AM in Paris) and served as Head of Business Development.

In 2012, Amundi, the asset management unit of Crédit Agricole and Société Générale, registered net new inflows of EUR15.2 billion driven by institutional customers, employee savings and third-party distributors, according to a Financial statement released on Wednesday morning. In 2011, the asset manager had recorded net outflows of EUR35bn.New inflows excluding branch networks were 26 billion euros in 2012, with 18.8 billion euros in the institutional and corporate segment, and 2 billion euros in the third-party distributor segment, primarily in Europe outside France. Inflows into employee savings schemes came to 5.2 billion euros. Outflows from branch networks (-10.8 billion euros over the year) slowed sharply in the fourth quarter, confirming the reversal in the trend that began in the summer. After a market and currency impact of +53.6 billion euros, assets under management amounted to 727.4 billion euros at 31 December 2012, a rise of 10.4% by comparison with end-December 2011.Amundi’s results remained high in 2012. Over the year, its net income rose by 16.2% to 480 million euros. High performance-based commissions (166 million euros compared with 72 million euros in 2011) offset the contraction in margins. Expenses remained tightly controlled: they fell by 1.4% over the year, and by 2.3% excluding the effect of the latest tax measures. Gross operating income rose by 12.2% to 689 million euros, or by 2.4% excluding the disposal of Hamilton Lane at the beginning of the year. The cost/income ratio improved, contracting by 0.9 percentage point to 55.0%.

Mutual Fund Wire relays reports in Bloomberg that profit before interest and taxes at Fidelity fell last year to USD2.3bn, from USD3.3bn in 2011, on revenues down 1.2% to USD12.6bn.The asset management unit underwent further net outflows of USD5.3bn, compared with USD36.3bn in 2011, largely due to net redemptions of USD35.3bn from equity funds. Fixed income and asset allocation products had inflows of USD17.3bn and USD23bn, respectively.

Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild on 19 February announced that Hervé de Montlivault has been appointed as head of the private banking division, effective from April. He will have the rank of vice CEO. He joins from Credit Suisse, where he had worked since 2005. He worked previously at JPMorgan and Citibank. He takes over the position of Michel Lusa, who had been interim director of the department since June last year, the private bank says in a statement.

Vontobel bank on 19 February announced the appointment from this summer of Lionel Pilloud as director of the Geneva office. Pilloud replaces Jean-Pierre de Glutz, who is retiring. The Geneva office will also maintain relationships with clients of the private bank in the Middle East. Pilloud directed advising activities in the financial products sector in French-speaking Switzerland for the past 12 years, and “perfectly [knew] … the high expectations of our clients,” Vontobel says in a statement. “He will develop the group’s activities in the domestic Swiss market, and will deploy the ‘Crossborder’ initiative in French-speaking Switzerland, in the Private Banking sector of activity,” the head of private banking, Georg Shubiger, says in a statement. The bank has also announced that it is withdrawing its onshore business from Dubai. “We would like the Private Banking segment to return to growth, and we are taking steps to that end,” the CEO of Vontobel, Zeno Staub, says, adding that he is convinced that the bank is “going the right way” to achieve this goal.

The California pension fund CalPERS on 19 February announced a decision no longer to invest in assault weapon manufacturers. These weapons have not been permitted for sale in California since a shooting in December 2012 at a primary school in Connecticut. An examination of all asset classes has identified an amount of USD5m invested in two weapons makers. This represents a de minimus divestment for the fund, with about USD255bn in assets under management, and it will have no impact on costs, a statement says.

The French financial management association (AFG) has reacted vividly to a planned tax on financial transactions which the European Commission has recently plassed. The French asset management industry “solemnly” draws attention to the “devastating consequences” of the planned legislation. = Firstly, the planned law “targets savings and not speculation,” though the initial objective for the FTT was to fight speculative financial activities. French mutual funds would be very severely affected and in some cases would disappear: they would be subject to a “double” taxation, since their clients would be required to pay a tax when they sell shares in the fund, even though purchases and sales of shares by mutual funds were already taxed. Money market and bond mutual funds would have negative returns just due to the tax, or in the best case, would have extremely low returns. Many categories of fund would disappear from the French market. Furthermore, the planned laws “do not meet their budgetary objectives and destroy jobs,” as “transactions would move outside the ‘increased cooperation’ zone, and outside the Union.” Budgetary resources and jobs in countries concerned would be penalised. Lastly, the AFG claims, the law “restricts movement.” Unlike what the Commission’s document says, the law would create highly significant distortions in competition, and significant concerns for savings clients in the European Union, including businesses and governmennts which issuer debt in the Union, and the asset management industries in the Union, whether or not they are domiciled in the country which is establishing the tax. In order to conserve international clients, French asset management will have no choice but to domicile its funds and mandates, and to undertake its financial management, in countries which are not subject to the tax. “The French asset management industry would like talks to take place immediately at the Council, in consultation with the European Parliament, to develop plans that are not subject to these criticisms, the statement concludes.

Asset managers are proving to be much more optimistic about profit outlooks for equities, but remain negative about global growth and government bonds in the mid-term, according to a global survey undertaken by Towers Watson, with a sample of 169 asset managers, with over USD6bn in assets under management.The profitability of equities is expected to improve in most markets compared with 2012, except in the United States and Australia. Equities are expected to earn returns of 7% in the US in 2013, compared with 8% in 2012, 6% in Japan compared with 5%, and 10% in China compared with 7.8%. The volatility of equities is expected to range fro 15% to 20% for most major economies, down slightly compared with previous years, but at levels that remain high compared with long-term averages.Asset managers also estimate that institutional investors will make slight increases to their exposure to risk, or maintain the exposure levels of their portfolios in 2013. Many of them are expecting sovereign defaults in the euro one, and difficult budgetary situations in the United States, the UK and Japan.

Directeur commercial d’UFFI Ream, puis directeur du développement de Corum AM, Mikael Fellbom rejoint à présent Carmignac Gestion comme directeur pays pour la région nordique, rapporte Investment Europe. Il sera basé à Luxembourg et subordonné à David Fregonese, directuer mondial des ventes.Mischa Cornet, qui couvrait les marchés nordiques, va désormais se focaliser sur les Pays-Bas et le Luxembourg.

Kim Woodrow, who for 31 years was global chief operating officer (COO) at LaSalle Investment Management, and who will be retiring at the end of this year, will on 1 April step aside for Elisabeth Shteeman, who had most recently been COO investment banking specialised in commodities and real estate at Morgan Stanley, Fonds Professionell reports.

Sal. Oppenheim has confirmed reports in Reuters that the Deutsche Bank affiliate is planning to merge the wealth management firms Oppenheim Vermögenstreuhand (OVT) and Wilhelm von Finck Deutsche Family Office to create a leader in the German high net worth segment, Handelsblatt reports. OVT is the illiquid wealth management and financial accounting specialist, while Wilhelm von Finck Deutsche Family Office is a more traditional wealth management firm. Each firm has about 50 employees, and there are no plans to reduce staff following a potential merger.

Since 19 February, NYSE Euronext has been listing 584 ETFs 674 times on European markets, with four new Luxembourg-registered volatility funds from Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale group), admitted to trading on the Amsterdam market. They include the Lyxor ETF DLVIXEUR (LU0871960976), which replicates the DLVO Dynamaic Long Vix Futures, as does the DLVIXUSD (LU0871961438). Both charge fees of 0.75%. The other two funds are the Lyxor ETF DSVIXEUR (LU0871961511) and Lyxor ETF DSVIXUSD (LU0871961602), which replicate the DSVO Dynamic Short VIX Futures IDX, with a TER of 0.40%.

The Hamburg-based asset management firm Aquila Capital will launch a bond strategy based on a risk-parity quantitative approach, a “global first,” Citywire Global reports. The fund will invest in government bonds, corporate bonds, carry positions on emerging markets, and inflation-linked bonds. Allocation is made on the basis of risk.

The Munich-based wealth management firm Novethos Financial Partners has launched an absolute return fund of funds with Universal-Investment, the Optimal Risk Return Strategy UI, a German-registered diversified product. Since its launch in January 2010, the strategy, which is defensive in the selection of funds and portfolio construction, has generated average annual returns of over 8%, says Andreas Meißner, CEO of Novethos. In the future, the management team is aiming for total annual returns of 5% to 7%.Currently, the fund is positioned primarily on alternative asset classes, option strategies, long/short products and funds which bet in a discretionary manner on positive market cycles. The portfolio will at its outset be invested in Tungsten Paragon UI, Bayerninvest Bond Global Select, Invesco Balanced Risk, and Secquaero Next Generation, a specialist in catastrophe bonds.CharacteristicsName: Optimal Risk Return Strategy UIISIN code: DE000A1J31X6Front-end fee: maximum 5%Management commission: currently 2.05%Performance commission: 15% of performance exceeding a hurdle rate of 6%, with high watermark

When a fund sustainably underperforms, investors don’t hesitate to get out of the fund. These are the findings of a study by Chelsea Financial Services, which identified ten of the worst-performing funds of the past three years, Investment Week reports. The list of losers includes the UK Smaller Companies Fund from UBS, whose assets under management total only GBP12m. Average returns for the fund are more than 44% below the sector of reference. UBS is planning to reconsider the future of the fund. The levels of outperformance for the ten funds selected by Chelsea, including the Allianz Global Eco Trends, Invesco Perp Japanese Smaller Companies and Aviva Inv Property Investment, range from slightly less than 24% (the Aviva and F&C High Income fund) to 44.13% for the UBS fund. But investors have clearly not heard the alarm from Chelsea. Cumulative assets in these funds total only GBP376.6m.

BNY Mellon has recruited Stefano Emanuele Manzonetto as its new client executive and managing director in Milan, Bluerating reports. He will be responsible for managing and deepening relationships with major clients of the firm in Italy. Manzonetto spent seven years at McKinsey & Company.

The British Financial Services Authority (FSA) on 19 February announced that it has sentenced Lloyds bank to pay GBP4.3m, or nearly EUR5m, in fines, for delays in reimbursing clients who lost money due to forced sales of credit insurance. Three affiliates of Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) were sanctioned for paying reparations too late to 140,000 people, nearly one quarter of those who were entitled to reimbursements. Banks long sold credit insurance, known as PPI, improperly. The insurance would have allowed the insurer to arrange loan repayments despite a loss of income due to illness, death, or job loss. But the practice was condemned by the courts, and Bitish firms have had to pay billions of pounds in provisions to cover the costs of reimbursing clients over the case. The FSA finds that payments should normally have been made quickly, within 28 days following a letter being sent to clients. The significant number of complaints is the result of an error on the part of LBG, and means clients cannot hope that their reimbursements will be paid promptly when due, says Tracey McDermott, one of the directors of the FSA, in a statement. “The PPI issue remains a priority for the FSA, and we will continue to monitor the way that companies concerned treat claims and pay reimbursements,” he added.