Skandia has signed an agreement with eight asset management firms for its low-cost fund range, which will initially be launched under the Select brand name, Fund Web reports. The firms are: Aberdeen, BlackRock, BNY Mellon, Fidelity, Henderson, JP Morgan, Schroders and Threadneedle. Skandia has declined to disclose details about the price terms. Eventually, the range is expected to include 12 asset management firms.

Petercam is preparing to launch an SRI fund of emerging market bonds denominated in local currencies, Yves Huo, head of sales for France and Italy, has announced. The new UCITS-compliant fund, which could be launched in first quarter 2013, would follow a rather strict SRI approach, which would determine the size of stakes in the portfolio. The Belgian asset management firm is responding to growing interest on the part of investors in emerging markets, and once again markets its desire to grant a larger presence to socially responsible management.

The Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) published on November 27 the Final Report on Principles for Ongoing Disclosure for Asset Backed Securities (ABS Ongoing Disclosure Principles), which contains principles designed to provide guidance to securities regulators who are developing or reviewing their regulatory regimes for ongoing disclosure for asset-backed securities (ABS).The objective of the ABS Ongoing Disclosure Principles is to enhance investor protection by facilitating a better understanding of the issues that should be considered by regulators in relation to ongoing disclosure regimes for ABS.

The head of the China Investment Corporation (CIC), Jin Liquin, is not mincing his words. The new regulations imposed by the United States and Europe are the largest threat to global growth, according to claims reported by Asian Investor. “Over-regulation and inappropriate interventions are the largest risks to the global recovery, which threaten the effective functioning of the financial system,” he said at an international conference held in Mumbai. “In the United States and Europe, over-regulation is widespread. In every sector, excessive regulation is an obstacle to economic development, in the same way that excessive taxation is destructive.” This increase in regulation will discourage investment, the CIC head says. The fund has assets under management of about USD410bn.

BlackRock has recruited the team consisting of Philippe Benaroya, Chris Wrenn and Gilles Lengaigne to launch an affiliate in London to invest in European infrastructure debt, Agefi reports. The team will focus initially on the needs of financial sector investors such as insurance groups.

Swiss Life would like to «significantly» expand its asset management business and will manage it from now on under the brand «Swiss Life Asset Managers», according to a statement released on 28 November by Swiss Life at its investor day, which lays out the new “Swiss Life 2015” orientations for the Swiss Group. Swiss Life will use its expert knowledge and experience in the field of real estate investment and fixed-interest and asset-allocation-based products to expand the business with the goal of increasing its contribution to earnings by more than 20% by 2015. As part of “Swiss Life 2015,” Swiss Life is strengthening its presence in Germany and Switzerland. From now all production and distribution organisations in each market will be managed under one roof to optimise market development and exploit synergies. In Switzerland, Swiss Life would like to position itself as a provider of complete global retirement and financing solutions. In Germany, its goal is to evolve towards the status of a financial advising and insurance business.

A 97.3% stake in Mexican-based Afore Bancomer, the pension fund administrator owned by the Spanish firm BBVA, has been sold to Afore XXI from Banorte for USD1.6bn, and even as much as USD1.73bn counting the cash at the business at the completion of the transaction, Funds People and Cinco Días report. Afore Bancomer has EUR13.13bn in assets under management for 4.4 million clients.For BBVA, the deal will bring net capital gains of EUR800m. The Spanish group is also planning to sell its pension fund management affiliates in Chile, Colombia and Peru.

SAC Capital will hold a telephone meeting with investors on Wednesday in order to respond to concerns in relation to ties of the hedge fund’s which the US authorities are calling the largest insider trading scandal ever, the Financial Times reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. The US authorities claim that SAC avoided USD194 in losses and made gains of USD83m on bets against the prices of the pharmaceutical companies Wyatt and Elan ahead of the results of tests of Alzheimer medications. The meeting will be held before the US markets open.

Currently (as of 31 October), Acropole Asset Management has assets of about EUR750m, of which about EUR150m are in mandates. Assets under management have increased by about 20% since the beginning of the year, half of this due to market appreciation, and half to net subscriptions, Emmanuel Martin, CIO, said on Tuesday.The FCP Acropole Global High Yield (150 positions), launched on 13 July 2010, which is currently 57% invested in convertible high yield bonds, has assets of EUR51bn, and has posted inflows of about EUR10bn since the beginning of 2012.

Teresa Watkins has left Comgest, where she spent nearly ten years, Citywire Global reports. She had been manager of the Comgest Growth Mid Caps Europe, a fund with EUR22.6m.

In these difficult times, a growing number of investors are insisting on meeting the heads of businesses before buying a stake – which leaves the directors less time to run their businesses, the Wall Street Journal explains. This trend is not likely to stop. In a study which has not yet been published, Eugene Soltes, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School, shows that investors who met the CEO of a mid-sized US business between 2004 and 2010 more frequently tended to make better investments.

In slightly over six months, UniCredit has taken in over EUR500m for its “Green” wealth management product, which uses iShares ETFs (BlackRock group), Plus, the weekly supplement of Il Sole – 24 Ore reports.

The Swiss group Vontobel would like to strengthen its presence in Asia-Pacific, with the development of target activities. The Zurich-based group has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect with Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ), including growth markets in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore, according to a statement released on 27 November. As a part of the co-operation strategy, Vontobel will offer ANZ its expertise, particularly in global investments and structured products, a statement says. The partnership will probably begin in the first half of 2013. The bank is pleased to be able to support ANZ in the development of its activities with private clients due to its expertise in placement and products, Vontobel’s CEO, Zeno Staub, says in the statement.

The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) on 27 November placed a EUR7 billion one-year benchmark bond maturing on 3 December 2013, at an average rate of 0.22%. Earlier in the day, the EFSF expressed an intention to issue one-year bonds “in the near future” to resolve its temporary inability to make use of mid- and long-term issues since the credit rating of France was downgraded by Moody’s. “This inaugural one-year bond from EFSF was met with exceptionally strong demand with close to EUR9 billion in orders received from investors around the world,” the fund says in a statement. The EFSF had been planning to issue three-year bonds last week, but was obliged to call off the plans at the last minute due to the ratings downgrade for France the evening before by the ratings agency Moody’s, from Aaa to Aa1. The FESF rating depends on the ratings of the euro zone member states which guarantee its lending. The rating for these guarantor states has to be equal to or higher than its own long-term rating, from each ratings agency, and hence the temporary inability caused by Moody’s ratings downgrade of France. Christophe Frankel, CFO and Deputy CEO of EFSF stated “Today’s one-year bond has allowed us not only to complete the remaining EUR3.6 billion from this year’s funding programme but also to gain a head start for 2013”.

Corporate governance is not yet a priority at the major family-owned businesses in Hong Kong, where notable progress is still being made at publicly-traded businesses, Finance Asia reports. According to a study published a few days ago by PwC, more than three quarters of family-owned businesses in Hong Kong will continue to grow in the next three to five years, and more than half have increased their earnings in the past twelve months. These good results are, however, not driving businesses to improve in the area of corporate governance, particularly in the area of management structures or succession plans. A good way for a family business to solve this problem is to consider a listing on a regulated market, which requires better distribution of duties between shareholders and operational management. A recent study by the Hong Kong Institute of Directors and the Baptist University of Hong Kong finds that governance at businesses listed in Hong Kong has noticeably improved since 2009.

Russ Koesterich has barely been appointed as chief investment strategist at BlackRock, and Nuveen Investments (USD220bn in assets as of 30 September) has announced that its affiliate Nuveen Asset Management (USD117bn) has recruited Koesterich’s predecessor, Bob Doll, as chief equity strategist and senior portfolio manager, effective from 26 November.Doll, who announced his departure from BlackRock in June, reports to David Chalupnik, head of equities at Nuveen Asset Management. He will reinforce the capacities of Nuveen AM in the area of multi-asset.

The Swedish investment fund association Fondbolagens Förening has published a book on responsible investment, at a time when climate talks are beginning in Doha. A survey by TNS Sifo Prospera of 1,600 Swedes aged between 18 and 79 finds that they place a high importance on the “responsible” product ranges from asset management firms. On a scale of 1 (not important) to 5 (very important), this aspect receives an average of 4. SRI is more popular with women (4.3) than men (3.7).

Deutsche Bank has added a second fund from the Swedish firm Coeli to its dbSelect platform, which provides access to liquid hedge fund strategies, Investment Europe reports. The new fund is the Coeli Spektrum, which has USD110m in assets under management, and has earned 13.6% annualised performance over the past three years.

The British firm Schroders on 27 November announced the launch on 7 November of the RMB Fixed Income sub-fund of its SISF Sicav (Schroder International Selection Fund), which allows foreign investors access to the bond market denominated in Chinese offshore currency (Hong Kong).The fund is actively-managed, and uses the RMB Investment Grade Bond Total Return Index as its benchmark. Management is provided by the Asian fixed income team led by Rajeev De Mello and Angus Hui.The objective is to construct a diversified portfolio of Chinese government bonds and Chinese and foreign investment grade corporate bonds denominated in yuan.CharacteristicsSchroder ISF RMB Fixed Income EUR Parts A Capitalisation (acc) in euros ISIN code: LU0845699254Management fee: 0.75%Schroder ISF RMB Fixed Income Parts A capitalisation (acc) in CNYISIN code: LU0845698876Management fee: 0.75%

Following a 45.5% decline year on year to EUR340.7m in January-September 2011, economic profits (profits according to IFRS accounting standards before taxes, plus the results of valuation of financial instruments) at Deka in the first nine months of 2012 were up 30.6%, to EUR444.9m.The central asset management firm for the German savings banks is predicting a “noticeable’ increase in its profits for the year 2012 overall, following a 58.6% decline to EUR383.1m last year.Due to market appreciation, assets increased to EUR154.3bn as of 30 September, compared with EUR151bn as of the end of December, and EUR142.63bn as of the end of September 2011.Deka has seen net outflows in the first nine months of 2012 of EUR2.188bn, compared with EUR5.338bn in the corresponding period of last year. However, net inflows to real estate funds totalled EUR1.5bn, compared with EUR0.7bn. Securities funds have seen net outflows of EUR3.6bn, compared with EUR6bn, but the wealth-management platform Deka-Vermögenskonzept has seen net inflows of EUR1.2bn, and the Deka-Basisanlage formula, launched this year, attracted EUR200m as of the end of September.

Going into the Thanksgiving holiday weekend investors continued bailing out of US equity and high yield bond funds as US lawmakers addressed themselves to the so-called fiscal cliff that looms in early 2013, according to EPFR. Although China’s improving story attracted some interest -- and cash -- the week’s biggest inflows were recorded by money market funds, with the cash equivalent vehicles absorbing over USD21 billion.Overall, EPFR global-tracked equity funds posted collective outflows of USD7.74 billion during the week ending Nov. 21 while bond funds took in a net USD4.97 billion. Emerging markets bond and equity funds both took in over USD1 billion.

The Global State Street Investor Confidence Index was 81.2 in November, unchanged from the revised October reading. «Underlying the flat reading was a divergence in confidence across the Atlantic,» according to the press release. European institutional investor confidence recouped about half of last month’s loss, rising 5.0 points to 99.9 from October’s revised reading of 94.9. By contrast, confidence among North American institutional investors fell to 6.3 points to a record low of 72.3. Among Asian investors, risk appetite was relatively stable, ticking up 1.4 points from October’s reading of 84.5 to settle at 85.9.“Globally, institutional investor confidence remains quite weak as institutions continue to reallocate away from equities and into fixed income securities,” commented Kenneth Froot, one of the developers of the index. “We did note some signs of stabilization in flows in the latter part of this month’s sample, especially with regard to Europe ex-UK markets, but overall the tone remains quite subdued.”

The Irish investment fund association (IFIA) on 27 November announced that it is opening a representative office in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The new location brings the number of IFIA offices worldwide to 12. The professional association has four offices in the United States (New York, Atlanta, Boston and Chicago), five offices in the Asia-Pacific region (Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney), two offices in Europe (Frankfurt and London) and one in Latin America (Sao Paulo). The development of offices abroad appears to be bearing fruit, as in first half, Ireland attracted nearly half of all inflows to UCITS funds. According to statistics from the European fund and asset management association (EFAMA), Ireland attracted 45% of all inflows to the European market in the first six months of the year, with gains in all asset classes. In 2012, the Irish fund industry reached EUR1trn in assets domiciled locally, and EUR2trn in assets under administration, the statement adds.

La politique d’investissement du RRUQ (2,5 milliards de dollars canadiens) se distingue par un recours systématique à la gestion active et par la place importante accordée aux thématiques d’investissement alternatives. Les placements privés/infrastructures (9 %), l’immobilier (7,5 %), les autres placements alternatifs (4 %) et les matières premières (3 %) représentent près d’un quart de l’allocation stratégique, contre 32 % pour les titres à revenus fixes, 19,5 % pour les actions canadiennes et 25 % pour les actions étrangères. Le portefeuille de titres à revenu fixe est presque intégralement exposé au marché domestique. La diversification internationale est laissée à la discrétion des gérants et ne fait pas l’objet de mandats spécifiques à l’exception d’un mandat en dette émergente, dont l’objectif est d’apporter un rendement absolu additionnel par rapport à la courbe des taux canadienne. En revanche, le poids des marchés étrangers dans les investissements en actions augmente de façon tendancielle au détriment des actions domestiques. « Depuis 2008, l’ensemble des investissements sur les marchés actions étrangers ont été regroupés en une seule ligne d’actions mondiales avec comme indice de référence le MSCI ACWI ex-Canada. L'équipe de placement, avec l’accord du comité de placement, détermine ensuite l’exposition aux différents marchés sous-jacents », explique Normand Belley, conseiller senior en placement au RRUQ. Le portefeuille d’actions étrangères se compose de mandats exposés aux grandes et petites capitalisations américaines et internationales, de deux mandats investis sur les marchés émergents, et d’un mandat d’actions mondiales. La prochaine révision de la politique de placement pourrait faire la part belle aux mandats d’actions mondiales, au dépend de l’exposition régionale aux marchés américain et européens (EAFE). Plutôt que d’opérer une gestion des investissements en interne, les équipes du RRUQ se concentrent sur la définition de la politique de placement ainsi que sur la sélection de gérants, celle-ci résultant d’un croisement entre une recherche multicritère et les informations accumulées au fil du temps. Le régime n’hésite pas à solliciter des expertises en dehors de son marché domestique.

L’enquête mensuelle du Conference Board a fait état d’une nouvelle hausse plus forte que prévu de la confiance du consommateur américain en novembre. L’indice est ressorti à 73,7 contre 73,1 en octobre (révisé de 72,2), alors que le consensus des économistes interrogés par Reuters le donnait à 73,0. Il n’avait pas atteint un tel niveau depuis février 2008, au début de la crise financière.

Lors d’une visite à Paris, le Premier ministre russe Dmitry Medvedev a assuré que la Russie n’avait pas le projet d’échanger ses réserves de changes libellées en euro contre d’autres devises. «Nous n’avons pas l’intention de les réallouer. Malgré les problèmes (de la zone euro), nous pensons que cela va s’arranger», a-t-il déclaré à l’occasion d’une conférence de presse.

Le département du Commerce a fait état de commandes globales inchangées le mois dernier. Il a révisé en légère baisse le chiffre de septembre, qui ressort désormais en hausse de 9,2%, au lieu d’une hausse initiale de 9,8%. Hors transports, les commandes sont en progression de 1,5%, alors que le marché tablait sur une baisse de 0,5%, après une hausse de 1,7% le mois précédent.

Les parlementaires portugais ont définitivement adopté le projet de budget 2013 qui prévoit des hausses d’impôts sans précédent depuis quatre décennies. Fondé sur hypothèse de contraction de 1% du PIB portugais l’année prochaine, le budget vise à ramener le déficit budgétaire de 5% du PIB cette année à 4,5% l’année prochaine pour respecter les conditions du plan de sauvetage financier.

Les prix des maisons individuelles ont augmenté conformément aux attentes en septembre, confirmant l’amélioration progressive du marché immobilier, selon l’indice S&P/Case-Shiller. Cet indice composite, basé sur les prix dans 20 zones métropolitaines des Etats-Unis, a progressé de 0,4% en septembre par rapport à août, en données ajustées des variations saisonnières (CVS).

La Facilité européenne de stabilité financière (FESF) a annoncé mardi l'émission d’une obligation à un an dans un futur proche. Le fonds européen réagit ainsi à la perte du Aaa de la France chez Moody’s, qui l’avait obligé à annuler un placement de titres à 3 ans. Les statuts du FESF prévoient en effet que ses nouvelles émissions soient garanties à 100% par des Etats ayant une note au moins égale à la sienne chez chaque agence. Ce n’est plus le cas de la France chez Moody’s, où le FESF a gardé son Aaa.