BlackRock is expected this week to announce the recruitment of Wang Hsueh-ming, a former partner at Goldman Sachs, as chairman of its operations in China, the Financial Times predicts. “ If we are asked, we plan to help the Chinese think about turning Chinese savers into investors by making the financial markets more robust ,” Larry Fink, the founder and CEO of BlackRock, tells the FT.
The China Investment Coporation (CIC), the Chinese sovereign fund, whose assets under management total about USD482bn, last year earned returns of over 10%, according to statements from the head of the fund, Lou Jiwei, the website Opalesque reports. “We don’t have final figures … but we are confident that our returns will be higher than 10%,” the head has stated.
finews.ch reports that J. P. Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM) has appointed Philipp Pfenninger, who had previously served as head of distribution to banks, as country head for Switzerland, replacing Roland Vogel, who has left the business.JPMAM has also recruited an investment consultant from Bank Vontobel, Marc Schumacher, who will join the team to assist clients at the cantonal and regional banks.The news website also reports that Claudia Nägeli (formerly of RBS) joined JPMAM in October 2012 as senior sales executive, global liquidity. She will be particularly responsible for assisting corporate and institutional clients.
Switzeland’s asset manager GAM will acquire a minority stake of approximately 30% in QFS Asset Management, a US-based alternative asset management boutique that specialises in currency, global macro and fixed income strategies.The partnership will also see GAM and QFS work very closely together, with GAM being responsible for the global distribution and marketing of existing and new strategies managed by QFS.Moreover, following the formal closure of the agreement, GAM plans to introduce a UCITS product based on QFS’s flagship currency strategy in the coming months. Launched in March 1993 and trading in highly liquid instruments, the strategy has delivered net returns to clients of 10.75% per annum (as at 31 December 2012). GAM has USD48 billion in assets under management, while QFS has over USD1 bn of assets under management.
Pioneer Investments has appointed Jon Bailie as head of Western Europe and Latin America. He will join the firm in April and will report to Sandro Pierri, chief executive officer. He will also be a member of Pioneer Investments’ Management Committee and will be based in London.Jon Bailie takes the role from Sandro Pierri, who continued to hold this position ad interim following his appointment as chief executive in July 2012.Jon Bailie joins from AXA Investment Managers, where he was global head of distribution and member of AXA IM ‘s executive committee. Previously he spent 16 years at Russell Investments, where he held several senior roles.
Robeco Group has annouced the rebranding of its subsidiary SAM, the investment specialist focused exclusively on sustainability investing in RobecoSAM. As well as the rebranding, Robeco’s engagement and voting services will become part of RobecoSAM’s range of investment solutions and services. This step will enable Robeco to align its group wide efforts in the field of sustainability investment more closely.
As of 31 December, assets at the German bond management firm Bantleon were up 50.3% year on year, to EUR7.94bn; not counting market appreciation, the increase was still 45.8%.Net subscriptions doubled to EUR2.42bn in 2012, compared with EUR1.2bn the previous year, of which EUR410m were from retail clients. Net inflows totalled EUR846m in 2010, and EUR1.2bn in 2009.Of the total AUM, assets in open-ended funds totalled EUR3.88bn at the end of last year, while assets in institutional funds totalled EUR4.06bn; net subscriptions totalled EUR1.48bn for open-ended funds, and EUR940m for “Spezialfonds.”Jörg Bantleon, chairman of the board of directors, has stated that the wealth management strategy of Bantleon Opportunities singlehandedly brought in inflows of EUR2.18bn last year, of which EUR1.16bn were for the two open-ended funds Bantleon Opportunities S and L (whose assets as of the end of December totalled USD1.9bn), while EUR940m went to institutional funds using the same approach.
Jonas Granholm, who left the Swedish pension fund Skanska on 11 January, and Gustav Lundeborg, who will be leaving his job on 18 January, are teaming up with the former CFO of the pension fund, Hans Biörck, to launch a hedge fund, the website IPE reports. Granholm will be CEO of the new firm, while Biörck will be its chairman. The hedge fund may be launched in October.
On 27 November, Global X applied to the SEC for a license for the Global X Junior MLP ETF, whose acronym on NYSE Arca will be MLPJ, and whose management commission and thus TER will be 0.75%. The product, which focuses on master limited partnerships (MLP) with USD200m-USD2.5bn, will replicate the Solactive Junior MLP Index from the Frankfurt-based Structured Solutions AG.According to Index Universe, the fund will be admitted to trading on 15 January.
Following the example set by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, BlackRock and JPMorgan Asset Management, Fidelity Investments on Sunday announced that it will publish net asset values on a daily basis with a one-day delay, from 16 January, for shares in money market funds which it manages (USD430bn in assets). This will have no impact on the principle of the constant net asset value of USD1 which will continue to apply to all transactions by investors on fund shares, says Nancy Prior, president of money markets.
On 11 January, Gottex Fund Management sent a letter to shareholders in the Gottex Absolute Return fund, stating that a lack of sufficient assets has required it to close the absolute return fund, Funds Europe reports. Assets under management had fallen to EUR4.11m as of 2 January, from EUR12.6m as of the end of June. The last net asset value from the single sub-fund of the Gottex Luxembourg-registered Sicav will be calculated on 15 February.
UCITS registered net inflows of EUR 36 billion in November compared to EUR 41 billion recorded in October, according to the latest European Fund and Asset Management Association’s investment sales and asset data. Long-term UCITS (excluding money market funds) net sales rose in November to EUR 36 billion, from EUR 34 billion in October. Net sales of equity funds amounted to EUR 13 billion, up from EUR 3 billion the previous month, while net inflows into bond funds amounted to EUR 19 billion, compared to EUR 25 billion in October. Balanced funds registered a reduction in net sales month on month of EUR 3 billion versus EUR 5 billion.“Net inflows into bond funds remained the largest contributor to total net sales of UCITS in November. The substantial volume of net sales of equity funds was largely due to the transfer of some insurance company assets into UCITS,” said Bernard Delbecque, director of Economics and Research at EFAMA.Net sales of money market funds broke even in November after recording net inflows of EUR 6 billion in October.Net sales of non-UCITS totalled EUR 8 billion, down from EUR 13 billion in October. Special funds (funds reserved to institutional investors) reduced sharply in November to EUR 3 billion, compared to EUR 10 billion in the previous month.Finally, total net assets of UCITS increased 1.1% in November to EUR 6,316 billion, whilst non-UCITS net assets increased 0.9% to stand at EUR 2,502 billion.
Funds on sale in Sweden in 2012 recorded net inflows of SEK74.5bn (EUR8.6bn), according to statistics from the Swedish investment fund association Fondbolagens förening. That is far higher than the SEK16bn (about EUR1.8bn) posted in 2011. Inflows were driven by balanced funds (SEK34.6bn) and equity funds (SEK30.8bn), while bond funds also did well (SEK20.8bn). However, money market funds saw outflows of SEK5.3bn, while hedge funds had net redemptions of SEK6.2bn. At the end of 2012, assets in Swedish funds totalled SEK2.049trn, or about EUR237bn, of which about 53% were in equity funds. That represents an increase of SEK230bn year on year.
In Hong Kong, Citi on 8 January announced that Franklin Templeton Investments (Asia) Limited has selected it to provide trustee, custody and transfer agency services to the Templeton China Opportunities Fund, the first unit trust of Chinese A-class QFII equities from Franklin Templeton.The contract extends the service mandates which links Citi to the MPF funds from Franklin Temlpeton, says David Russell, regional head, Asia Pacific, securities & fund services at Citi.
David Palmer from Generali has joined Ashcourt Rowan as director of the asset management arm of the wealth management firm, Investment Week reports. He will report to CEO Jonathan Polin (formerly of Ignis AM). Palmer had previously worked at Generali, where he founded the portfolio management division of the firm.
Sally Mcdonald has joined the British asset management firm Marlborough Fund Managers, in the newly-created position of head of Asian equities, Investment Week reports. Mcdonald, who will begin in her new role on 1 February, previously worked at City of London Investment Management. With this recruitment, Marlborough hopes to increase its range of Asian equities in the region. Currently, the firm has only one product available, the Far East Growth Fund, whose assets under management total GBP24m.
Paul O’Connor will join Henderson at the end of this month as director of the multi-asset team at the firm, Investment Week reports. O’Connor previously worked at Mercer as a partner and head of asset allocation for the Investment Management unit at Mercer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). In his new role, he will be responsible for the management of a “Diversified Growth” institutional strategy.
The Singapore sovereign fund Temasek has recruited Jonathan Popper, managing director, in charge of merger/acquisition activities at Morgan Stanley for South-East Asia, Finance Asia reports. Popper will join Temasek in the next few months. Morgan Stanley has confirmed the departure of Popper, without stating his destination. Assets under management at Temased at the end of March 2012 totalled SGD198bn, or about USD160bn.
Aberdeen Asset Management has recruited Dimme Lucassen, a manager specialised in real estate, who for ten years had worked in the real estate unit at Schroders, where he had been manager of a real estate fund of funds, Citywire reports. In his new role, Lucassen will concentrate on a euro zone fund of funds, previously managed by Karin Koks, who has recently been appointed as head of international markets at Aberdeen AM.
Consultinvest Asset Management, the asset management firm created as a joint venture between the Consultinvest and Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna groups, has launched three flexible funds of funds, Bluerating reports. They are Consultinvest and Multimanager Low Volatility, Consultinvest Multimanager Medium Volatility, and Consultinvest Multimanager Opportunities.
UBS Global Asset Management has announced the launch of 61 ETFs on the Milan stock exchange, replicating 41 equity, bond and alternative indices, Bluerating reports. This is the largest single simultaneous listing of ETFs in the history of the Italian stock exchange.
La Caisse d’amortissement de la dette sociale (Cades) émettra 30 milliards d’euros de dette en 2013, soit 10 milliards d’euros de moins qu’en 2012, a annoncé mardi son président Patrice Ract Madoux. Il a précisé que sur les 30 milliards d’euros que la Caisse prévoit d'émettre, 20 milliards d’euros porteront sur des obligations de moyen et long terme. En 2012, la Cades a émis 30,2 milliards d’euros de dette à moyen et long terme sur un total de 40 milliards.
En 2012, l’activité allemande a nettement ralenti, la croissance annuelle du PIB était de seulement 0,9%, après 3,1% en 2011. Le PIB s’est donc contracté de 0,3% au quatrième trimestre, chiffres corrigés des variations saisonnières. Ces premières estimations officielles publiées mardi, montrent que la crise de la dette de la zone euro a rattrapé le pays. L’activité devrait se stabiliser en début d’année pour redémarrer progressivement à partir du printemps, estime toutefois les analystes de BNP Paribas. «L'économie allemande n’est peut-être plus le paradis qu’elle a été dernièrement mais elle reste néanmoins un îlot de croissance dans l’océan de récession qui a submergé la zone euro», rapporte de son côté, Carsten Brzeski, économiste chez ING, cité par Reuters. L’année qui vient de commencer pourrait se solder par une croissance modeste. Un responsable du ministère de l’Economie a dit à Reuters que Berlin tablait sur une croissance de 0,4% cette année puis sur un PIB en hausse de 1,6% en 2014.
Le Trésor espagnol a placé mardi pour 5,75 milliards d’euros de bons à 12 et à 18 mois, un montant supérieur à ses prévisions. Pour le papier à 12 mois, Madrid a émis 3,25 milliards d’euros, le ratio de couverture ressortant à 2,2 contre 2,5 lors d’une précédente adjudication et le rendement passant de 2,556% à 1,472%. Le Trésor espagnol a également émis pour 2,51 milliards d’euros de bons à 18 mois, avec un ratio de couverture de 2,7, inchangé par rapport à la précédente adjudication et un rendement de 1,687% contre 2,778%.
Le taux de rémunération du livret A et du livret de développement durable passera de 2,25% à 1,75% le 1er février, a annoncé mardi le ministre de l’Economie, Pierre Moscovici, soulignant qu’il restait très supérieur à celui de l’inflation. Le gouverneur de la Banque de France, Christian Noyer, a proposé cette baisse de 0,5 point lundi, mais il souhaitait à l’origine un taux à 1,50%, a confirmé Pierre Moscovici sur RTL. «J’en ai discuté avec lui et nous sommes tombés d’accord sur le fait qu’il y avait quand même un souci des Français par rapport à leur pouvoir d’achat (...) donc nous avons ajouté un coup de pouce de 0,25», a poursuivi le ministre de l’Economie.
L’Italie commence à recueillir des marques d’intérêt pour sa nouvelle obligation à 15 ans, à un rendement moyen semblant s'établir à 35 points points de base au-dessus de celui attaché à du papier à échéance mars 2026, rapporte Reuters. Le Trésor italien va placer du papier de cette maturité pour la première fois depuis plus de deux ans.
Le constructeur allemand n’est pas informé d’un projet de China Investment Corp d’entrer à son capital et n’a pas de discussions en cours avec le fonds souverain chinois, selon son président du directoire Dieter Zetsche. La semaine dernière, la presse chinoise rapportait que CIC souhaitait prendre une participation comprise entre 4 et 10% dans le groupe industriel allemand.
Le distributeur britannique de biens culturels (239 magasins au Royaume-Uni et en Irlande) a confirmé qu’il déposait le bilan faute d’accord avec ses banques afin d’assurer son financement. Deloitte sera nommé administrateur judiciaire, la société poursuivant son activité dans l’attente d’un repreneur. Bloomberg avançait hier qu’Apollo restera un investisseur passif dans HMV après avoir racheté une part de 6% de la dette bancaire.
Le fonds de pension du secteur public californien, dont les actifs sont de 252 milliards de dollars fin 2012, a selon son responsable des investissements Joseph Dear engrangé l’an passé une performance de gestion de 13,26%. Un chiffre pourtant inférieur à un indice de référence qui signe un gain de 14,43%, en grande partie selon le dirigeant du fait de déceptions sur le front du private equity.
Le courtier interbancaire a vendu une part de 12% de sa filiale de technologie Traiana à sept banques d’investissement (Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, Nomura et Royal Bank of Scotland). Montant de l’opération: 35 millions de dollars. Traiana est spécialisée dans l’automatisation des systèmes de post-exécution.