Pour 290 millions d’euros, l’allemand Deka Immobilien a acheté l’immeuble de bureaux 5 Aldermanbury Square à Londres auprès de Scottish Widows et de ND properties (groupe TIAA-CREF), qui en détenaient chacun 50 %. Cet actif de 24.400 mètres carrés a comme locataire principal (pour 15.800 mètres carrés) Fortis Bank (groupe BNP Paribas). Il est affecté au portefeuille du fonds immobilier offert au public Deka-ImmobilienEuropa (DE0009809566).

Lyxor Asset Management a annoncé le 9 janvier un renforcement de sa présence au Royaume-Uni et une extension de ses activités aux solutions de gestion de crédit.Dans cette perspective, Pierre Gil est nommé directeur général de Lyxor UK. Basé à Londres, il travaille sous la responsabilité d’Inès de Dinechin, directeur général de Lyxor, et localement de Ian Fisher, responsable pays Royaume-Uni pour le Groupe Société Générale. Pierre Gil reste membre du Comité exécutif de Lyxor et conjugue ses nouvelles fonctions avec ses responsabilités actuelles de responsable du Développement International pour Lyxor.Interrogé par Newsmanagers, Pierre Gil estime que le marché britannique n’a pas encore pris la place qui lui revient dans le dispositif de Lyxor à l’international compte tenu de l’importance de la place financière de Londres. Egret Management LLP, l’entité de gestion de fonds de crédit du Groupe Société Générale dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à 722 millions d’euros, rejoint Lyxor et devient Lyxor Asset Management UK LLP ((«Lyxor UK»). Les fonds sous gestion restent confiés à la même équipe dirigée par Thierry de Vergnes. Cette équipe est intégrée au département Gestion de Lyxor.La société élargit ainsi sa gamme de solutions d’investissement à la gestion active de crédit. Pierre Gil indique qu’un nouveau fonds crédit est en préparation. Il s’agira d’un fonds non structuré sans levier investi dans de la dette LBO qui pourrait être lancé dans le courant du premier trimestre 2013. L’objectif de collecte de ce fonds, qui pourrait afficher une performance de l’ordre de 6% à 7%, a été fixé autour de 200 millions d’euros pour 2013. L’autre voie de développement passe par les ETF dont les actifs collectés à Londres représentent environ 3 milliards d’euros, soit 10% tout au plus de la totalité des encours de Lyxor sur les ETF. Outre le renforcement de l’offre d’ETF proposés à Londres mis en œuvre en novembre dernier, Pierre Gil évoque notamment le développement du «smart indexing».Désormais fort d’un effectif d’une vingtaine de personnes, Lyxor UK continuera de développer et de renforcer ses équipes avec le recrutement de plus de 10 professionnels de la gestion au cours des prochains mois et s’attachera à promouvoir l’ensemble de sa gamme auprès d’une clientèle institutionnelle.Les actifs sous gestion de Lyxor AM s'élevaient à quelque 75,4 milliards d’euros à fin novembre 2012, dont 29,6 milliards d’euros pour les ETF, 16,4 milliards d’euros pour la gestion alternative, 22,6 milliards d’euros pour la gestion structurée, et 4,7 milliards d’euros pour la gestion multi-asset.

Threadneedle a enregistré 32 fonds OEIC pour leur commercialisation en Finlande, rapporte Investment Europe.

Alors que ce sont les mauvaises performances des fonds phares de Paulson Partners, les «Advantages» qui ont été remarquées, le gérants de hedge funds remonte la pente en 2012. Plusieurs autres fonds de Paulson ont en effet réalisé des performances satisfaisantes. Credit Opportunity, actuellement le plus gros fonds de la société, a gagné 9,1 % en 2012. La gold share a bondi de 10,8 %. Le Recovery Fund a affiché en 2012 une performance de 4,1 % (+7,5 % pour la gold share). La meilleure performance de l’an dernier a été réalisée par le fonds Merger Arbitrage, qui a gagné 9,9 %.

Le 9 janvier, Lyxor Asset Management a annoncé le lancement d’un ETF répliquant l’indice MSCI ACWI Gold with EM DR 18% Group Entity Capped coté sur NYSE Euronext Paris. Ce produit permet de s’exposer à l’or en investissant sur des actions dont les performances sont fortement liées à celles du marché physique de l’or. Le fonds, de droit luxembourgeois, existe en deux classes de parts, l’une en euros, l’autre en dollars.CaractéristiquesDénomination : Lyxor ETF MSCI ACWI Gold C - EurCode Isin : LU0854423687Indice de référence : MSCI ACWI Gold with EM DR 18% Group Entity Capped IndexTFE : 0,50 %Dénomination : Lyxor ETF MSCI ACWI Gold C - USDCode Isin : LU0854423927TFE 0,50 %

Permal, la société de fonds de hedge funds de Legg Mason, qui vient de racheter Fauchier, prévoit d’ouvrir un bureau à Shanghai cette année, rapporte Asian Investor, qui a interrogé Isaac Souede, le directeur général, de passage à Hong Kong. Cette structure sera composée de gérants de portefeuilles et d’analystes. Des collaborateurs de Permal et Fauchier de Londres et New York seront transférés dans ce bureau, qui devrait être dirigé par Steve Zhang, responsable des marchés émergents de Permal.

Tomas Hedberg a été nommé CEO de Swedbank Robur, la société de gestion de la banque suédoise Swedbank. Il est actuellement responsable des transactions taux et devises dans la division Large Corporates & Institutions de l'établissement nordique et il prendra ses nouvelles fonctions le 28 janvier 2013.Marianne Nilsson, CEO depuis mai 2012, devient vice-CEO.

Oddo Asset Management vient de faire agréer en Italie quatre nouveaux compartiments, portant à 14 le nombre de fonds disponibles dans le pays, rapporte Bluerating. Il s’agit des produits Avenir (moyennes capitalisations françaises), European Banks (actions bancaires européennes), Valeurs Rendement (actions européennes high dividend) et Obligations Optimum (obligations court terme).

Les deux co-responsables de l’équipe marchés émergents de GLG Partners (Man Group) vont quitter la société, a confirmé un porte-parole à Citywire Global. Ainsi, Bart Turtleboom et Karim Abdel-Motaal partiront début janvier. Ils étaient arrivés en septembre 2008 pour succéder à Greg Coffey. Ces révélations interviennent après l’annonce de deux recrutements dans l’équipe obligataire (lire Newsmanagers du 9 janvier).

Le Credit Suisse a annoncé le 10 janvier la signature d’un accord concernant la vente de ses activités Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) à BlackRock. «Cette opération stratégique importante intervient dans un secteur en pleine consolidation et permet au Credit Suisse de réaliser de la valeur dans un domaine d’activités qu’il a développé avec succès pendant de nombreuses années», souligne le groupe dans un communiqué.Cette vente fait partie des plans stratégiques de désinvestissement du Credit Suisse annoncés le 18 juillet 2012. Elle concerne les activités ETF du Credit Suisse avec des actifs gérés de 16 milliards de francs suisses au 30 novembre 2012. Cette transaction est soumise aux conditions habituelles de finalisation, y compris à l’approbation des autorités de surveillance, et devrait être bouclée à la fin du deuxième trimestre de 2013. Les termes de cette transaction ne seront pas rendus publics, précise le communiqué.Selon Martin Keller, responsable Distribution pour Core Investments, «le Credit Suisse restera un important investisseur d’ETF grâce à sa division Private Banking & Wealth Management et travaillera en étroite collaboration avec BlackRock afin d’élargir son offre de produits ETF pour ses clients. Nous sommes convaincus que BlackRock est bien positionné pour réaliser la valeur à long terme de nos activités ETF.»

Les créations de sociétés de gestion indépendantes se sont poursuivies l’an dernier, compensant les départs à la retraite dans un secteur marqué par une pyramide des âges en forme de champignon, rapporte L’Agefi suisse.Les nouveaux indépendants s’équipent pour le durcissement de l’environnement réglementaire. Cette tendance s’est accentuée l’an dernier, d’après les différents OAR (organismes d’autorégulation chargés de lutter contre le blanchiment): les gérants qui se mettent actuellement à leur compte mettent l’accent sur la solidité de leur organisation. Avec le recours à des administrateurs indépendants ou la sous-traitance de la compliance, par exemple.Avec 65 nouvelles adhésions l’an dernier, l’Association suisse des gérants de fortune (ASG) conserve plus de 1000 membres, 1034 précisément. Dont 78 sont des membres passifs (banques ou avocats notamment). Cinq à six demandes d’adhésion sont en cours de traitement. L’évolution est stable par rapport aux années précédentes.

Selon les premières estimations, Bellevue Group a réalisé pour 2012 un bénéfice net compris entre 6 millions et 7 millions de francs suisses, contre une perte de 48 millions, suite à des charges exceptionnelles, au titre de 2011.Tant Bank am Bellevue que Bellevue Asset Management ont enregistré l’an dernier des bénéfices d’exploitation.

Monte Paschi Banque has sold its asset management activity Monte Paschi Invest (MPI) to Trusteam Finance. The French firm, whose assets under management totalled EUR300m before the operation, will have assets of EUR500m afterwards. In practice, the OPCVM fund management activity provided by Monte Paschi Invest until 31 December 2012 ill be transferred to Trusteam Finance from 2 January 2013. Three people from the staff of 12 people at MPI have also been recruited by Trusteam Finance. “Their product range is primarily invested in fixed income produts, and is thus perfectly complementary with our product range, which is largely invested in traditional equities,” says Jean-Sebastien Beslay, founding partner of Trusteam.A partnership between the two firms has concomitantly been signed, which will allow the firm to meet the needs of clients for wealth management, institutional management or enterprise cash management. The Italian bank, which has 15 branches in France, also intends to offer a range of financial products and services as complements to the equity and diversified funds from Trusteam Finance.In the short term, MPI funds will retain their names as Meyerbeer - Meyerbeer Trésorerie and Meyerbeer Valoblig, Beslay says. After first half, however, the full range will be made uniform, the director says, and “small” equity funds from Monte Paschi Invest will be merged with Trusteam funds.

The French valuation specialist DerivExperts on 9 January announced the opening of an office in London. The London branch represents a new step in the development of DerivExperts, and accompanies the deployment of its valuation platform for OTC products, the firm says in a statement.It will be active once European Market Infrastructure (EMIR) regulations come into force in 2013, to improve the transparency of risks on over-the-counter derivative markets, and from 22 July 2013, when the law will have been fully transposed in all countries concerned by the Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) directive, which regulates managers of non-UCITS funds.As Francis Cornut, chairman of DeriveExperts, explains: “as part of the development of our valuation platform for OTC products, London, the European centre of alternative management, is a natural place for a location necessarily to be, and this is all the more apparent as soon as EMIR and AIFM regulations come into effect. It allows us to extend our expertise, multiply the reach of our valuations, and bring our clients a vision which is both complete and thorough for their various valuation issues.”The London office will be led by Francis Cornut, and will have a team of 6 people at its opening in January, with the objective of rapidly recruiting more partners.

Lazard Frères Gestion finished the year 2012 on a very positive note. At the end of November, following a very difficult year, inflows nonetheless totalled EUR300m, the chairman of the firm, François-Marc Durand, announced on 9 January at a press conference. Durand emphasizes that equity inflows were positive for the fifth consecutive year. As of the end of November, they totalled EUR300m. The chairman of Lazard Frères Gestion also pointed to the good performance of all strategies from the firm, and particularly to gains of 30% for Objectif Alpha Euro, and 32% for Objectif Crédit FI. Laslty, the target-date fund dedicated to emerging market corporate bonds, launched in late 2012, has posted inflows of EUR100m.

The German open-ended real estate fund UniImmo: Global has sold the office and retail property at Fifth & Pine in Seattle (14,671 square metres) to Invesco Advisors for USD70.6m. The property was purchased for USD55m in 2005.Volker Noack, MD of Union Investment Real Estate (UIRE), states that the UniImmo: Global fund retains seven office and logistical properties in the US after this sale with a total value of about EUR335m.

Lyxor Asset Management on 9 January announced that it is strenghtenin its presence in the United Kingdom and is expanding tinto managed credit solutions.With this in mind, Pierre Gil is appointed CEO of Lyxor UK. Based in London, he will report to Inès de Dinechin, CEO of Lyxor, and locally to Ian Fisher, UK Chief Country Officer for Societe Generale Group.Gil will remain a member of Lyxor’s executive committee, and will combine this new role with his current position as head of international development for Lyxor.Egret Management LLP, the debt fund management entity of Société Générale group, is joining Lyxor and becomes Lyxor Asset Management UK LLP. The funds under management will continue to be managed by the same team, headed by Thierry de Vergnes. The team will be integrated into Lyxor’s investment management division. Lyxor thus extends its range of actively managed credit investments.Lyxor UK will further develop and reinforce the London based teams through the recruitment of more than 10 additional asset management professionals.Assets under management at Lyxor AM total about EUR75.4bn.

At a time which has seen the worst returns ever for flagship funds from Paulson Partners, and the “Advantages” which have been noted, hedge fund managers are setting up to make up for lost time in 2012. Several other Paulson funds have turned in satisfactory performances. Credit Opportunity, currently the largest fund at the firm, made 9.1% in 2012, Gold share gained 10.8%. The Recovery Fund in 2012 made 4.1% (+7.5% for the gold share). The best performance of last year was for the Merger Arbitrage fund, which gained 9.9%.

Credit Suisse on January 10 announced that it has signed an agreement to sell its Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) business to BlackRock. “This is an important strategic step in an industry that requires significant scale, and allows Credit Suisse to realize value in a business successfully built over many years,” the group says in a statement.The sale is part of Credit Suisse’s strategic divestment plans that were announced on July 18, 2012. It comprises Credit Suisse’s ETF business with assets under management of CHF 16.0 billion as of November 30, 2012. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals and is expected to complete by the end of the second quarter of 2013. The terms of the deal are not being disclosed.

According to initial estimates, Bellevue Group in 2012 made total net profits of CHF6m to CHF7m, compared with losses of CHF48m, following one-time write-downs for 2011.Bank am Bellevue and Bellevue Asset Management both posted operating profits last year.

In Zurich, EFG International on 9 January announced the appointment of Carlos Valle as CEO for the Caribbean. Valle, who has spent more than 20 years at Merrill Lynch, was most recently managing director, Global Wealth Management, New York International Complex at the US group.Valle replaces Ludovic Chechin-Laurans, who joined the Swiss firm last year in order to take charge of private banking in Geneva, and serving as deputy CEO of EFG Bank. In this role, Chechin-Laurans will continue to oversee activities in the Caribbean, and Valle will report to him.

finews.ch reports that Sandro Merino, who had been head of UBS Wealth Management Research Europe from 2006 to the end of 2012, at the beginning of 2013 became the head of fixed income portfolio management and deputy CIO at the independent wealth management firm Arecon (CHF2bn in assets). The CIO is Christoph Bianchet, one of the founders of the firm.

James Tanner has been appointed as global head of business development & sales at Morningstar Inc., the firm has announced, stating that Tanner is the founder of Wall Street on Demand, a financial website development firm which was acquired by UK-based Markit two years ago. Tanner was most recently vice-chairman of business development at Markit, after serving as head of global distribution.Morningstar also states that its CFO, Scott Cooley, who joined the firm 17 years ago as an equity analyst, is planning to leave the group this year, once a successor has been found.

The hedge fund by Daniel Loeb on Wednesday announced that it holds an 8.2% stake in the food supplement firm Herbalife, valued at USD350m, the Wall Street Journal reports. At the same time, the fund from William Ackman, Pershing Square Capital Management, has bet more than USD1bn against the firm, short selling its shares. For observers, this could be shaping up to be one of the bloodiest hedge fund battles of all time.

BlackRock and JPMorgan will publish daily asset values for their money-market funds, joining Goldman Sachs Asset Management, which was the first firm to announce such an initiative for its funds of US papers, the Financial Times reports. Others do not plan to provide a daily net asset value, such as Vanguard, the FT reports.

Wesley Wang, a former analyst at the hedge fund firm SAC Capital (USD14bn), who co-operated with a US government investigation into insider trading, was sentenced to two years on parole on Wednesday. Prosecutors stated that the suspect named 20 people who made trades on the basis of insider information.

The two co-heads of the emerging markets team at GLG Partners (Man Group) will be leaving the firm, a spokesperson has confirmed to Citywire Global. Bart Turtleboom and Karim Abdel-Motaal will be leaving from the start of January. They joined the firm in September 2008 to succeed Greg Coffey. The revelations come following the announcement of two recruitments for the bond team (see Newsmanagers of 9 January).

The CFO of the BNP Paribas group, Lars Machenil, has been indicted in Belgium as part of the scandal surrounding the Dutch-Belgian banking and insurance firm Fortis, the Belgian economic newspapers L’Echo and De Tijd are reporting on 9 January. Machenil, who was appointed as CFO of BNP Paribas n March 2012, served in that role at Fortis in 2008.Machenil becomes the sixth Fortis executive to face charges in the case, which has been underway for four years, and seeks to determine who was responsible for the group’s downfall. L’Echo reports that a seventh person has been indicted. The Belgian prosecutor’s office had no comment on the case.The other executives who have been named in the are the former chairman of the board of directors at Fortis, Maurice Lippens, its former CEO, Herman Verwilst, and three other heads, Jean-Paul Votron, Gilbert Mittler and Filip Dierckx. The latter is currently vice-chairman of the board of directors at BNP Paribas Fortis. They are accused of share price manipulation, fraud and false statements in writing. L’Echo does not state what crimes Machenil is accused of.

Threadneedle has registered 32 OEIC funds for sale in Finland, Investment Europe reports.

On 9 January, Lyxor Asset Management announced the launch of an ETF which replicates te MSCI ACWI Gold with EM DR 18% Group Entity Capped index on NYSE Euronext Paris. The product provides investors with exposure to gold, through investment in equities whose performance is strongly tied to that of the physical gold market. The Luxembourg-registered fund exists in two share classes, one denominated in euros, and the other in US dollars.CharacteristicsName: Lyxor ETF MSCI ACWI Gold C – EurISIN code: LU0854423687Benchmark index: MSCI ACWI Gold with EM DR 18% Group Entity Capped IndexTER: 0.50%Name: Lyxor ETF MSCI ACWI Gold C – USDISIN code: LU0854423927TER: 0.50%