Impax Asset Management a dévoilé un fonds alimentation et agriculture, Impax Food and Agriculture, rapporte Fund Web. Lancé le 1er décembre, l’OEIC basé à Dublin sera investi dans des actions d’entreprises, voire en obligations convertibles, répondant au thème de la rareté des ressources à long terme. Le fonds est géré par Michael Landymore et Simon Higgo.

Axa Real Estate a demandé aux investisseurs 1 milliard de livres pour acquérir des biens immobiliers au Royaume-Uni ayant des baux inhabituellement longs (au moins 20 ans), rapporte le Financial Times. Le fonds sera investi dans des supermarchés et des cabinets médicaux, par exemple. Axa a déjà levé 125 millions de livres pour ce fonds et espère atteindre le milliard de livres d’ici à 2018.

Dans un contexte fiscal et réglementaire peu clair et pesant, Fabrice Imbault, au sein de l'équipe de direction de A Plus Finance, revient sur son activité de capital investisseur, sur la qualité des dossiers traités aujourd'hui, sur les atouts des véhicules financiers utilisés et sur les secteurs les plus intéressants. Cela étant, le responsable ne cache pas que l'ambition de sa maison est aussi de s'investir plus nettement encore dans une activité immobilière pour l'instant modeste mais porteuse compte tenu de l'intérêt des investisseurs institutionnels.

Le comité demande à l'IASB et au FASB, qui n'arrivent pas à s'entendre, de respecter certains critères de dépréciation des actifs financiers

L’indice dispose d’un potentiel de hausse jusqu’à la région des 3.900 points

Les gestions renouent avec un optimisme modéré. CM-CIC avait les meilleures prévisions en 2012

Les gestions renouent avec un optimisme modéré. CM-CIC avait les meilleures prévisions en 2012

Les actions pèsent désormais 55% du portefeuille, contre seulement 35% pour l’obligataire. Deux records depuis la création du Panel en 2009

Le pays a créé 155.000 emplois en décembre 2012. Mais le taux de chômage reste stable à 7,8%, bien au-dessus du seuil de 6,5% surveillé par la Fed

Le taux d'emprunt à 10 ans français est brièvement passé sous celui du Royaume-Uni. Les analystes anticipent une dégradation de la note britannique

Les panélistes, à une forte majorité, continuent de rester positifs sur les obligations d'entreprise en dépit des premiers signes de surchauffe

La devise nipponne a chuté à 88,41 contre dollar, son plus bas niveau depuis juillet 2010. Le Japon prévoit une nouvelle relance budgétaire

Le site du Quotidien du Peuple indique que le fonds souverain China Investment Corp pourrait acquérir une participation de 4 à 10% au capital du constructeur automobile allemand. Ce dernier aurait sollicité CIC sur fond de craintes liées au ralentissement de l’économie au sein du Vieux continent, assure le quotidien sans citer ses sources.

Des économistes estiment que la BCE pourrait attendre d'en savoir plus sur la situation des banques et de l'économie américaine avant d'agir

Reuters croit savoir que la société de private equity entend céder ce mois-ci la majeure partie de sa participation voisine de 50% au capital de la banque japonaise pour plus de 200 milliards de yens (1,7 milliard d’euros). Cerberus serait par ailleurs selon le Wall Street Journal proche d’un accord pour le rachat de certaines activités de Supervalu pour 500 millions de dollars.

Jean Yves Ogier, directeur financier et des engagements de la caisse régionale Crédit Agricole Normandie à la rédaction de www.institinvest.com : Nous prêtons plus que nous recevons, nous sommes déficitaires en collecte crédit. Nous ne plaçons rien sur cette activité, a contrario, nous plaçons l’excédent de nos fonds propres. Nous avons pour contrainte la sécurité de nos placements ou au minimum la réduction du risque au maximum. Pour cette partie, nous replaçons chez CASA en taux fixe principalement. CASA fixe les taux garantis en fonction des maturités, cela détermine nos placements. Pour les autres types de placements, nous utilisons les filiales du groupe dans chacun des domaines d’expertises de chacun. Afin de satisfaire à Bâle III, nous devons augmenter notre ratio de liquidité, cela immobilise une partie de nos ressources et nous devons réduire les prêts accordés. On se tire une balle dans le pieds avec cette réglementation, qui devrait rentrer en application en 2015. Nous avons pour mission de financer l'économie régionale, par le biais de prêts aux entreprises mais aussi par la prise de participations dans des fonds, car ce n’est pas notre métier. Le secteur de l’agro-alimentaire nous concerne, ainsi que les projets coopératifs. Enfin, nous avons investis dans le fonds Normandie Capital investissement, ainsi que dans le fonds d’amorçage Grand Ouest. En effet, le Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, huit caisses du Crédit Agricole et la Caisse d’Epargne Normandie ont doté la structure de plus de 30 millions d’euros pour financer des sociétés technologiques et innovantes (numérique, biotechnologies, santé, etc.). Le fonds investira 300.000 euros à 400.000 euros au maximum lors d’un premier investissement en gardant la possibilité d’investir à nouveau, en plusieurs fois, jusqu'à 2,5 millions d’euros. La gestion de Go Capital Amorçage a été confiée à la société rennaise Go Capital.

Un rapport de l'Institut Montaigne, "Redonner sens et efficacité à la dépense publique", fustige la hausse "sans précédent" de ces dépenses en France et estime des économies possibles, mais douloureuses.

Agefi reports that the collective management giant Vanguard has announced the departure of Sandip Bhagat, head of an international equity management unit with about USD1trn in assets, to pursue “other opportunities.” Vanguard is replacing its chief investment officer this month, as Gus Sauter is retiring, to be replaced by Tim Buckley.

The Liechtenstein-based wealth management firm Kaiser Partner has recruited Daniel Fasnacht as managing director market office, in charge of European, British, Russian and Eastern European markets, finews reports. Fasnacht had previously worked at Julius Baer, where he had been responsible for the development of wealth management activities in Latin America.

In fourth quarter, 28 closed real estate investment funds held their final closing, raising a total of USD22.6bn, according to the most recent statistics from Preqin. This represents a signifiant increase over third quarter, when the total raised was USD10.7bn, and the best quarter since third quarter 2008. Preqin states that the closing of BlackRock Real Estate Partners VII, which raised USD13.3bn, contributed a lot of dynamism to fourth quarter. Funds investing primarily in the United States have raised the largest amounts.

Groupama has begun the process of withdrawing from its private equity affiliate, with the sale of two funds from Acto Capital, one of the organs of Groupama Private Equity. The investment company Luxempart has announced in a statement that it has acquired 82% of the risk common investment funds (FCPR) Acto and Acto Capital II, owned by Groupama, via its Sicav Luxempart Capital Partners, and Five Arroes Secondary Opportunities III, a fund from the Rothschild group. The remaining 18% are held by French institutional investors, Luxempart says. “These funds will be managed by a new entity which is in the process of being licensed by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), which will be autonomously directed by the team which is currently in place, based in Paris, and now operating within Groupama Private Equity,” Luxempart says. Luxempart will also sponsor the new fund which the management team is planning to launch in 2013.

Pioneer Investments has strengthened its global equities team with the appointment of David Glazer as portfolio manager effective December 31, 2012. In this newly created position based in Boston, he reports to Marco Pirondini, head of equities, U.S. Glazer most recently served as co-portfolio manager at Franklin Templeton Global Advisers in New York City, specialising in international small, global small/mid, and euro small/mid-capitalization strategies. He has over twelve years of experience as an equity professional, including analysing domestic and international equities.

Jason Beaird has joined Steel Vine Investment Fund, a hedge fund specialised in commodities, as a partner in charge of marketing. In his new role, Beaird, who had previously worked at Constellation Associates, will focus on developing the firm’s activities serving high net worth clients and institutional investors.

Joel Salomon, a former proprietary trader at Citigroup, is planning to launch a long/short equity hedge fund this month, the news agency Bloomberg reports. The hedge fund, SaLaurMor Capital LP, whose name is taken from the name of Salomon’s two daughters, Lauren and Morgan, will be based in New York, and will concentrate on financial sector smidcaps such as insurers, particularly European firms, and asset management firms, the founder says. Until early 2012 he had managed a portfolio of financial sector shares worth USD700m for Citigroup.

The TCW Group has announced the completion of its acquisition of the Special Situations Funds group (SSF) from Regiment Capital Advisors L.P. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Launched in 2000, the Special Situation Funds group is a lending business that targets middle-market companies and places a strong emphasis on risk management. SSF has approximately USD2.0 billion in assets and commitments under management and is overseen by Rick Miller along with six Boston- and New York-based veteran investment professionals, all of whom have joined TCW and continue to manage the funds. The SSF group reports to Jess Ravich, TCW Group managing director and head of alternative products.

US investors are pulling out of funds managed by professional stock-pickers, and massively moving to low-cost funds, the Wall Street Journal reports. In November, they withdrew USD118.3bn from actively-managed US equity funds, the largest amount since 2008, according to the most recent statistics from Morningstar. In the same period, they invested USD30.4bn in US equity ETFs. Including bond ETFs, inflows total USD154bn.

ETFs listed in the United States have posted record inflows of USD188bn in 2012, beating the previous record of USD175bn set in 2008, according to statistics from IndexUniverse. The three largest players in ETF markets, iShares, State Street Global Advisors and Vanguard, have attracted USD151bn, 80% of total inflows. Bond ETFs also grew strongly in 2012, supported by the launch of the Pimco Total Return ETF from Bill Gross in March 2012, which finished the year with USD3.87bn in assets under management. Assets in ETFs overall finished the year at USD1.349bn up 27% compared with the previous year. Ventilation by asset class, in millions of US dollars Net inflows Assets under management % of assets under management US equities 68,960.66 607,025.77 11.36% International equities 5,116.46 332,453.77 15.68% US bonds 43,981.15 226,889.05 19.38% International bonds 11,780.12 25,882.47 45.51% Commodities 10,217.71 118,092.89 8.65% Currencies -1,476.16 2,690.28 -54.87% Leveraged -873.08 13,583.89 -6.43% Inverse -62.05 16,645.98 -0.37% Asset allocation 755.31 2,404.35 31.41% Alternative 2,962.97 3,246.85 91.26% Total: 188,363.08 1,348,915.30 13.96%

According to a recent study by the German banking association (Deutscher Bankenverband), the investment behaviour of men and women differs largely in the area of risk-taking. 42% of women select less risky products, compared with 34% of men, according to the study. The latter more willingly choose equities, which are considered more risky, than female investors. Investments in gold, however, are proportionally equal between men and women, Fondsprofessionell reports.

Sustainable development problems, including social and environmental issues, are not among the top priorities of German insurers. Only 50% of directors of German insurance companies estimate that investment in sustainable development may improve their value creation processes, according to a survey by the consulting firm Steria Mummert Consulting, undertaken with the participation of the F.A.Z.-Institut. Insurers place low in the rankings of sectors reviewed by Steria Mummert, with an overall average of 74%, led by banks, 82% of whom plan to invest in sustainable development.

Insight Investment Management Limited has completed a transaction which sees currency risk management specialist, Pareto Investment Management Limited and certain of its affiliated entities (Pareto) become part of the Insight group. The newly combined group brings together Insight’s expertise in Liability Driven Investment (LDI), active fixed income, multi-asset and absolute return solutions with Pareto’s active and passive currency risk management business to form a global investment management company with assets totalling GBP212.3bn. The combined group will be known as “Insight Investment” in the UK and Europe. In North America and Australasia, Pareto Investment Management Limited will be marketed under the brand name of “Insight Pareto”. The group will remain a fully autonomous investment manager in BNY Mellon’s boutique asset management structure.