Aberdeen Allemagne a annoncé qu’il retarde à novembre le remboursement semestriel de parts du fonds immobilier offert au public DEGI International qui est en cours de liquidation. Ce report est dû au fait que la vente de plusieurs actifs est programmée d’ici à la mi-novembre, ce qui dégagera des liquidités. En revanche, la vente d’un actif en Suède effectuée en juillet a servi uniquement à rembourser des crédits. Le quotient de crédit du DEGI International est ainsi revenu de 38,7 % fin décembre à 33,9 % fin septembre.

La banque privée hambourgeoise M.M. Warburg annonce avoir ouvert une succursale à Munich, Maximilianstraße 2. Cette implantation est dirigée par Klaus Stojer, assisté de Paul Christian Recum. La clientèle visée est celle des particuliers haut de gamme, des entreprises et des fondations en Bavière.

L’Angola vient de lancer son fonds souverain, dénommé le Fundo Soberano de Angola (FSDEA), et présenté à l’occasion du sommet asiatique du SWF Institute. Le fonds souverain de l’Angola est doté au départ de 5 milliards de dollars. Le fonds souverain du Nigeria a démarré pour sa part avec 1 milliard de dollars.

A la tête de Groupama Asset Management, Francis Ailhaud revient pour Newsmanagers sur la récente réorganisation de sa société de gestion et en rappelle les points forts. Avec les investisseurs institutionnels en France et bientôt en Europe en ligne de mire...

Alors que l’ERAFP vient d’annoncer le résultat de son appel d’offres sur les obligations convertibles, le Fonds de Réserve des Retraites (FRR) ne semble pas prêt à lui emboîter le pas. D’après son directeur d’investissement ISR, Jérémy Willems, le FRR ne voit « pas d’urgence particulière à être présent sur les obligations convertibles ». La raison ? « Dans les conditions de marché actuelles et étant donné nos contraintes en terme de recherche de rendement, les obligations convertibles n’ont pas la liquidité requise et ne sont pas celles qui rapportent le plus » justifie Jérémy Willems.

Emmanuel Rapin, directeur de la trésorerie et du financement de Lagardère dans un article paru dans Option Finance numéro 1193 : Sur quels supports placez-vous votre trésorerie? A fin juin, nous affichions une trésorerie de 466 millions d’euros. Celle-ci est très majoritairement placée sur les comptes des banques partenaires ayant participé à notre crédit syndiqué en 2011, la part investie dans des OPCVM s'établissant à environ 15%. Dans un contexte de taux bas, avez-vous modifié votre allocation afin de maximiser le rendement offert? Notre direction générale nous a confié pour mandat d’assurer la liquidité du groupe, y compris à travers la gestion de la trésorerie. En effet, même si Lagardère n’est pas noté, une telle caractéristique permet au groupe de renforcer son image de solidarité financière vis-à-vis de ses contreparties - partenaires commerciaux, établissements bancaires, investisseurs, etc. Or, pour que nos ressources soient considérées comme liquides, les normes IFRS nous imposent de les placer sur des maturités inférieures à trois mois. Hormis aux Etats-Unis, où nous avons investi une partie de notre trésorerie sur des produits obligataires, l’intégralité de nos placements porte sur des périodes allant d’un jour à trois mois. Par conséquent, quelque soit le support retenu, les rendements offerts sont très faibles, s’inscrivant généralement à Eonia plus quelques dizaines de points de base. En raison de la concurrence bancaire pour attirer les dépôts, les placements bancaires sont-ils aujourd’hui plus intéressant que les OPCVM? Même si le différentiel de rémunération entre les dépôts bancaires et les OPCVM reste limité, ces derniers se révèlent, le plus souvent, plus intéressants. Toutefois, les banques proposent parfois des offres attractives. C’est le cas, par exemple, lorsque nous pouvons maintenir nos liquidités sur un compte avec l’espoir d’allonger la période de dépôt déterminée initialement. Plus nous renouvelons ce contrat, plus la rémunération offerte progresse. En laissant nos ressources sur une période continue de douze mois, ce qui traduit une reconduction du contrat à trois reprises, le taux d’intérêt proposé peut aller légèrement au-delà des 2%. Dans ce cas, il faut valider et surveiller le risque de contrepartie en privilégiant des banques partenaires. Enfin, à ce jour, nous privilégions les placements bancaires car ceux-ci sont induits par l’organisation décentralisée de la trésorerie du groupe.

The complex ETF specialist Direxion, based in New York, is planning to open an office on Hong Kong to distribute its products to institutional investors, Asian Investor reports. Assets under management at Direxion as of 30 September totalled USD6.2bn.

Two former managers of the hedge funds Level Global and Diamondback Capital Management will be facing verdicts from a jury this week. They are accused of insider trading and of making profits of USD61m through the use of information about shares in Dell obtained from a “circle of friends,” the Financial Times reports.

Mutual Fund Wire reports that, according to statistics from ETF Trends, the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF has seen inflows of about USD1.3bn since Vanguard announced earlier this month that it is changing the benchmark indices for its ETFs.

US money market funds have raised their exposure to European banks, the Financial Times reports, citing figures from Fitch Ratings. Exposure by he major money market funds to European financial sector businesses at the end of September rose 16% in US dollars. This increase follows declarations by Mario Draghi, chairman of the ECB, in July, that he would do “everything necessary” to preserve the euro. Despite the rebound in confidence in European banks, US money market funds are still avoiding banks on the European periphery. Exposure remains low overall, as funds are allocating only 11% of their portfolios to banks located in Europe.

The Hamburg-based private bank M.M. Warburg has announced that it has opened a branch office in Munich, at Maximilianstraße 2. The office will be led by Klaus Stojer, with the assistance of Paul Christian Recum. Target clients will be high net worth investors, businesses and foundations in Bavaria.

On 26 October, FTSE Group announced the creation of a new service unit dedicated to exchange traded products (ETPs), to extend the range of indices and services for promoters of ETPs and ETFs worldwide. The new structure will include dedicated research and client relationship management resources. It will work in close collaboration with clients to develop index solutions for ETPs in various asset classes and geographical regions.The new unit will be led by Jonathan Horton, president, FTSE North America, with the assistance of Sudi Raju, managing director, ETP Relationships EMEA, in London, and Marc De Luise, director of ETP Product Solutions, and Kristen Mierzwa, director of ETP Relationships, North America, both based in New York. FTSE will soon appoint a head for Asia-Pacific.

Investors do not appear to have responded to the efforts of the US Fed to lead them to higher-risk asset classes. In the week to 24 October, Us equity funds were still avoided by investors, and bond funds overall posted record inflows of USD9.4bn, according to estimates by EPFR Global. Acording to Cameron Brandt, director of research at EPFR, investors are taking more risks, but they are mostly doing it within the bond sphere, and when they take an interest in equities, they avoid the United States in preference to emerging markets. The efforts of the European Central Bank to slow outflows from the euro zone, however, appear to have echoed somewhat with investors. In the week to 24 October, bond funds posted record levels, and equities attracted inflows of USD1bn. Equity funds overall posted a net outflow of USD4.2bn, while money market funds, for their part, have posted net redemptions of nearly USD14bn.

Aberdeen Germany has announced that it is postponing half-yearly redemptions of shares in its open-ended real estate fund DEGI International, which is in the liquidation process, until November. The postponement is due to the sale of several properties which is slated for mid-November, which will bring in additional liquidity. However, the sale of a property in Sweden in July went entirely to pay off creditors. The credit quotient for DEGI International has been reduced from 38.7% as of the end of December, to 33.9% as of the end of September.

As of 30 September, Banco Popular had EUR7.495bn in assets under management in its investment funds, and EUR4.806bn in pension funds, which represents respective increases of 22.3% and 21.7% year on year, says Jacobo González-Robatto, CFO. Funds People reports that this increase is both the result of positive market effects and the integration of Banco Pastor.

The Teeside Pension Fund is retaining BNP Paribas Securities Services to provide it with custody and valuation services, with the objective of extending this to securities lending, surveillance and reporting. Assets under management by the Teeside Pension Fund total about GBP2.5bn, invested in British and international equities, bonds, and direct investment in real estate.

Eaton Vance Management, a subsidiary of Eaton Vance Corp, has announced that Kathleen C. Gaffney, CFA, is joining the firm as vice president and co-director of investment grade fixed income. In that role, she will serve alongside Thomas H. Luster, CFA, as co-leader of the investment grade fixed income team and will report to Payson F. Swaffield, CFA, chief income investment officer. Ms. Gaffney joins Eaton Vance from Loomis, Sayles & Company, where she was a vice president and portfolio manager for the fixed income group.

GAAP net income attributable to KKR & Co. L.P. was USD127.4m and USD464.1m for the quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2012, respectively, up from losses of USD243.4m and USD44.2)m in the comparable periods of 2011, the company said on Friday.Assets under management totaled USD66.3bn as of September 30, 2012, up from USD61.5bn as of June 30, 2012, mainly due to net sales for the North America Fund XI (whose AUM reached USD6.2bn), while fee paying assets under management was USD50.3bn, an increase of USD3.1bn, or 6.6%, compared to USD47.2bn three months earlier..Economic net income was USD509.9m and USD1,783.2m for the quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2012, respectively, vs a loss of USD592.1m and a profit of USD465.5m in the comparable periods of 2011. During the conference call, KKR stated that it has USD16bn of capital available for new deals.

Invesco Real Estate (IRE) has announced two new acquisitions in the month of October 2012 of prime commercial properties in France: Alpha Park 2, a 33,000 square metre retail park in Clayes-sous-Bois (Yvelines) near Paris, and 114 rue de Rivoli, a 6,750 square metre commercial and office property in central Paris, for a total of about EUR200m.Alpha Park 2 represents the first partnership with the Compagnie de Phalsbourg, a specialist in the development of high-end commercial properties. The Compagnie de Phalsbourg will retain responsibility for the physical management of the site. The property has been acquired for “a pan-European fund from Invesco Real Estate,” Invesco says, without providing further details.114 Rivoli has been acquired for an institutional real estate fund from the German pension institution Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK). IRE acquired the property directly from the promoter Vinci.

For July-September, Legg Mason Inc on Friday reported net income of USD80.8m, as compared with a net loss of USD9.5m in the previous quarter and net income of USD56.7m in the second quarter of fiscal 2012.Assets under management reached USD650.7bn at end-September (see Newsmanagers of October, 12th), up 3% as compared with USD631.8bn as of June 30, 2012 and up 6% from USD611.8bn as of September 30, 201. The increase in July-September was driven by market appreciation of USD20.7bn and net client inflows of USD0.2bn, which more than offset dispositions of USD2bn which reflect the last of the previously identified liquidity AUM to be transferred to Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.Equity and fixed income outflows were USD5.7bn and USD3.8bn respectively, while liquidity (MMfs) inflows were USD9.7bn for the quarter ended September 30th.At September 30, 2012, fixed income represented 57% of AUM, while equity represented 23% and liquidity represented 20% of AUM. By client domicile, 61% of AUM was United States and 39% of AUM was non-U.S.

Janus has announced the opening of a Securities Investment Consulting Enterprise office in Taiwan and the recent appointments of Max Chien as general manager of Taiwan and Bruce Chen as head of investment research and sales.Effective immediately, Max Chien comes to Janus Capital with over 13 years’ of sales, management and marketing experience. Prior to joining Janus Capital he was head of investment consulting of Deutsche Far Eastern Asset Management. In his new role he will be responsible for developing Janus Capital’s retail business in Taiwan. Bruce Chen has more than 14 years’ experience in the investment sector. He was head of sales of Robeco Investment before joining Janus Capital. Bruce Chen will partner with Max Chien to build solid long-term distribution relationships in Taiwan. The team will report to Gigi Chan, chief operating officer (Asia Pacific) of Janus Capital Asia Limited, the Asia Pacific regional office of Janus Capital Group Inc..

Angola has created its own sovereign fund, entitled Fundo Soberano de Angola (FSDEA), and has unveiled it at the Asian summit of the SWF Institute. The sovereign fund from Angola has initial capital of USD5bn. The Nigerian sovereign fund, for its part, started out with USD1bn.

Francis Ailhaud, head of Groupama Asset Management, discusses the recent reorganization of his asset management firm with Newsmanagers, emphasizing its strong points, with institutional investors in France, and soon in Europe, in the firing line.

According to statistics in investment flows in September established by Morningstar, investors increased their exposure to high-risk assets, and not only in the bond category. Equity funds in September saw net subscriptions of EUR1.91bn, making their first positive net inflows since February, “ending a long period of divergence between the choices of investors and the performance of the markets.”In September, long-term funds posted inflows of EUR20.87bn, bringing the total in third quarter to EUR54.14bn; money market funds have see net redemptions of EUR18.3bn.In detail, fixed income funds have seen inflows of EUR15.9bn in September, and EUR53.24bn in July-September, the largest inflows for this category of funds “since at least 2007.”Morningstar points out that euro diversified funds and funds of British government bonds (gilts) saw net redemptions of EUR689m and EUR667m in September, respectively. The agency also observes that net redmptions from the largest European bond fund, Templeton Global Bond (EUR33bn) fell to EUR63m last month.Global emerging market equity funds have seen the largest net inflows of all Morningstar equity categories in September, with EUR1.42bn in inflows in September, and EUR1.75bn in third quarter; the Global Emerging Markets fund from Aberdeen led this category, with inflows since 1 January of EUR1.61bn.In wealth management funds, the highest net inflows YTD were for the M&G Optimal Income Fund (EUR4.058trn) and Carmignac Patrimoine (EUR2.268trn). Since the beginning of this year, Pimco leads for net subscriptions with EUR23.101bn, followed by BlackRock (EUR13.516bn) and AllianceBernstein (EUR9.350bn).

UBS Asset Management on 30 November decided to liquidate its US 130/30 Equity Fund, with EUR2m in assets, and its Asian Equity Fund, with EUR3m, due to insufficient assets and performance, Investment Week reports.

According to estimates from VDOS reported by Funds People, as of 19 October, assets in Spanish funds are reported to have increased by 0.43%, or EUR545m, compared with the end of September, to a total of EUR128.429bn. Positive market effects came to EUR1.283bn, but net redemptions are estimated to have totalled EUR738m.

Networks of financial advisers in Italy in September posted net subscriptions of EUR759m, down from August (EUR1.1bn), according to the most recent statistics from Assoreti, the Italian association of financial investment products and investment services. A net total of EUR326m were invested in mutual funds. Insurance and retirement planning products saw inflows of EUR463m.

Le PIB a augmenté de 2% au troisième trimestre en rythme annuel.

Le Fonds monétaire international a réalisé du 15 au 26 octobre sa première mission d’inspection en Espagne, dans le cadre du memorandum signé par le pays avec ses partenaires européens pour la recapitalisation du secteur bancaire. Le FMI salue «les progrès importants réalisés pour la réforme du secteur bancaire», notamment la nouvelle loi sur la résolution des faillites et le partage des coûts avec les créanciers subordonnés. L’institution insiste sur le bon calibrage à trouver pour la future bad bank, et recommande d'éviter les fusions bancaires qui contraindraient l’offre globale de crédit.

Le PIB a augmenté de 2% au troisième trimestre, grâce aux dépenses des ménages, contre 1,3% durant les trois mois précédents.