Funds People rapporte que iShares vient de faire enregistrer par la CNMV 20 de ses ETF cotés en Allemagne, ce qui porte sa gamme commercialisable dans ce pays à 155 produits.Parmi les nouveaux arrivants figurent 19 ETF à réplication physique sur des sous-indices du Stoxx Europe 600, le dernier étant le iShares UBS Commodity Swap ETF.

La Börsen-Zeitung rapporte que le fonds immobilier offert au public KanAm grundinvest, en cours de liquidation, est parvenu à vendre l’ancien siège de la Deutsche Bank de Londres à un fonds souverain asiatique. La transaction s’est effectuée au-dessus du prix d’achat, mais sans précision quant à la valeur vénale de l’actif.D’autre part, le DEGI International d’Aberdeen, un fonds également en liquidation, a vendu un actif au Canada à un investisseur institutionnel local, à un prix inférieur à la dernière valeur d’expertise.

Depuis octobre, Andreas Zöllner fait partie de la direction générale du gestionnaire indépendant munichois Eyb & Wallwitz en tant qu’associé de Georg, comte von Wallwitz, et d’Ernst Konrad. Il sera de surcroît responsable de la gestion de fonds et de mandats institutionnels.Auparavant, il a géré pendant onze ans des fonds institutionnels pour des caisses de retraite et des fondations chez Hauck & Aufhäuser Asset Management.

La société de gestion italienne Banca Generali a fait état pour le troisième trimestre d’une collecte nette de 174 millions d’euros contre 65 millions d’euros au trimestre précédent, rapporte Investment EuropeLes actifs sous gestion s'élevaient à 1,36 milliard d’euros au 30 septembre. La société, qui a recruté une quarantaine de professionnels de la gestion durant les neuf premiers mois de l’année, a indiqué qu’elle envisageait de poursuivre le renforcement de ses effectifs au cours des prochains mois.

Oddo Asset Management, Alliance Bernstein et Aberdeen Asset Management ont chacun annoncé récemment le lancement d’un fonds de fonds sur la plateforme de Banca Generali, rappelle Investment Europe. Ces produits sont désormais disponibles dans la Sicav luxembourgeoise BG Selection lancée en 2008 par la société italienne. Selon Piermario Motta, le CEO de Banca Generali, la Sicav est pour une marque internationale un moyen facile d’accéder au marché italien. BG Slection a attiré plus de 5 milliards d’euros d’encours depuis son lancement. Elle inclut désormais 46 compartiments gérés par 26 maisons de gestion, un nombre qui devrait s’accroître. Piermario Motta pourrait notamment lancer un compartiment avec un spécialiste des petites capitalisations.

The German energy market EEX, and its French counterpart Powernext, which are already co-shareholders in the European electricity trading market Epex-Spot, on 6 November announced that they are joining forces to create a pan-European natural gas market, based on a joint IT platform. In detail, EEX and Powernext will remain two distinct gas markets, and will not create a joint affiliate, a joint statement says, but the two groups will both offer their products on a joint Trayport platform, using the same technology used by Powernext since 2004. According to the two groups, the project will be completed in first quarter 2013, pending the necessary regulatory approval.

BlackRock has topped rankings of the 500 largest asset management firms worldwide undertaken by Towers Watson (as of 31 December 2011). Allianz, State Street Global, Vanguard and Fidelity follow it. The top French firm is BNP Paribas, in eighth place, followed by Amundi (12th) and Natixis (15th). Investment Europe has published the full list on its website.

Since October, Andreas Zöllner has become a member of the management at the Munich-based independent asset management firm Eyb & Wallwitz, along with partners Georg, count of Wallwitz, and Ernst Konrad. He will additionally be responsible for the management of funds and institutional mandates.Previously, Zöllner had spent 11 years as manager of institutional funds for pension funds and foundations at Hauck & Aufhäuser Asset Management.

Funds People reports that iShares has registered 20 of its ETFs listed in Germany in Spain, bringing its product range on sale in the country to 155 products.Among the new arrivals are 19 physical replication ETFs based on sub-indices of the Stoxx Europe 600, and the twentieth is the UBS Commodity Swap ETF.

On 2 November the CNMV issued a sales license for the guaranteed fund BBVA Plan Rentas 2016, launched on 16 October, a bond product for which the subscriber will receive at maturity (on 27 October 2016) the capital invested in December 2012, plus fifteen quarterly payouts in the meanwhile, of a gross EUR58.20 per EUR10,000 invested, an annual rate of return of 2.302%.CharacteristicsName: BBVA Plan Rentas 2016 D, FIISIN code: ES0133767006Minimal subscription: EUR600Front-end fee: 5% from 27 December 2012 (or before, when assets total EUR20m), and until 26 October 2016Management commission: 0.02% until 26 December 2012, inclusive, then 1.7%Depository banking commission: 0.01% until 26 December 2012, inclusive, then 0.05%

It has been a delicate period for active management in October. In the euro zone, only four asset management firms out of 18 did better than the market benchmark, the Eurostoxx Net Return, while in Europe, half of portfolios were outperformed by the Stoxx 600 net Return index. And the situation has not really changed within the Global Equities mandate, as eight firms out of 15 have done better than the Stoxx 600 NR – but with negative results.In detail, the month of October favoured value management. In the euro zone, Alliance Bernstein has gained 3.40%, followed by Mandarine Getion (+2.35%) and Somangest (+2.06%). Within the Europe mandate, the situation is similar. Value management is leading the pack. In addition to Dexia AM (+1.86%), in the top places are Bestinver (+1.56%), Alliance Bernstein (+1.52%) and Mandarine gestion (+1.43%). These portfolios are comfortably outperforming the index (+0.78%). In the Global Euqities mandate, the situation is slightly different: the best-performing portfolios are struggling to remain in positive territory. Petercm (-0.07%) is head of Swiss Life AM (-0.08%) and Alliance Bernstein (-0.32%). Value management has limited the damage, while the Stoxx 180 Net Return has lost 1.30%.

Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee for the business interests of Bernard Madoff, has announced that he has recuperated or completed agreements to recuperate more than USD9.2bn of the USD17.3bn in principal lost by investors due to the fraud, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The average coverage rate for liabilities of US corporate pension funds fell in October by 1.4 percentage points, to a total of 73.6%, according to estimates by BNY Mellon. In the month under review, a rally on international equity markets did not offset a decline in the US markets. Assets in pension funds fell by 0.7% in October, while liabilities, for their part, increased by 1.1%. The discount rate fell by six basis points to 3.72%, for business with an Aa rating.

Following the recent launch of the CTA MS QTI UCITS Fund from Quest Partners (IE00B89MRY57, see Newsmanagers of 30 October), the FundLogic Alternatives platform from Morgan Stanley has accepted a global macro UCITS-compliant hedge fund from SLJ Macro Partners, the MS SLJ Macro UCITS Fund (IE00B7YD6N88), which applies the same strategy as the SLJ Macro Offshore Fund.While the MS QTI charges 1%, the SLJ Macro has a TER of 1.50%, and carries a performance commission of 20% with high watermark.

The Börsen-Zeitung reports that the open-ended real estate fund KanAm grundinvest, which is in the process of liquidation, has succeeded in selling the former headquarters of Deutsche Bank in London to an Asian sovereign wealth fund. The sale took place above the purchase price, but the market value of the asset was not disclosed.The DEGI International fund from Aberdeen, meanwhile, a fund which is also in the process of liquidation, has sold a property in Canada to a local institutional investor, at a price below its most recent expert valuation.

Last month, the flagship bond fund from Bill Gross, the Pimco Total Return Fund, attracted over USD2.4bn in net subscriptions, beating out the DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund managed by Jeff Gundlach, which attracted USD1.9bn, Mutual Fund Wire reports.US mutual bond funds have posted net inflows of USD238.27bn in the first ten months of the year, while equity mutual funds have seen net outflows of USD82.97bn, according to statistics published by Reuters.

Standard Life Investments has announced that Adam Rudd has been appointed as an investment director within the Multi Asset Investment (MAI) team. Adam Rudd, who previously worked for JP Morgan in New York, will be part of a 25 strong team providing analysis, investment recommendations, implementation strategies and management for our range of MAI funds. Adam will report directly to Guy Stern, head of Multi-Asset Fund Management, at Standard Life Investments. Between 2010 and 2012, Adam Rudd was vice-president, equity derivatives strategist, J.P. Morgan, in New York.

The British Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) on 6 November opened a consultation which opens the way for infrastructure investments to double for pension funds of local councils. Investment in infrastructure, currently limited to 15%, may increase to 30%, according to proposals by the DCLG. According to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, the modification to the limit could allow for as much as GBP22bn to be injected into job-creating infrastructure projects.

Greg Johnson, chairman and CEO of Franklin Resources, is in acquisition mode, Financial Times Fund Management reports. The goal is to strengthen the alternative management activity of the group, better known by the name Franklin Templeton Investments. Despite recent alternative acquisitions, Greg Johnson says that he would like to “have a more significant presence” at a time when he feels that institutional and retail demand for alternative management is increasing. The director would like to acquire a private equity firm in particular.

On the eve of the US presidential election, the market for invesment grade corporate issues has set records, with an amount never before seen in a single day of USD22.1bn, IFR reports. Among the issues on 5 November are AbbVie, the pharmaceuticals activity from Abbott, for a total of USD14.7bn. In the space of three trading days during the presidential elections, corporate debt issues have totalled USD47.45bn, IFR points out.

As of 30 September, GAMCO Investors had record assets of over USD36.94bn, 3.6% more than USD35.7bn as of the end of June, and 17.95% more than USD31.1bn as of the end of September 2011.In third quarter 2012, CAMCO underwent net redemptions of USD356bn, compared with net subscriptions of USD111m in April-June, and USD899m in the corresponding period of last year.Net profits in July-September 2012 totalled USD19bn, compared with USD15.1bn in second quarter, and USD7.7bn in third quarter 2011. In the first three quarters of the year, net profits totalled USD57.94m, compared with USD45.99m for January-September 2011.

Tony Williams, previously chairman and COO of Artio Global Investors, a US affiliate of Juilus Baer, has been appointed as CEO of the firm. In this position he replaces Richard Pell, who will now concentrate exclusively on investment management. Francis Ledwidge, director of the firm will serve as chairman of the board.

The hedge fund Permian Investment Partners, which has gained some notoriety since its founder, Cara Goldenberg, was invited to lunch by Warren Buffett, has earned returns of 16.2% since the beginning of the year, according to the website Valuewalk. Assets in the fund, which invests primarily in a long/short strategy, total about USD200m. Among the major long positions of Permian are Kroton, Atos SA and Merck.

Agefi reports that a Los Angeles federal judge yesterday issued a provisional ruling blocking the sale of TCW by Société Générale to Carlyle, following a lawsuit filed by the fund EIG Global Energy Partners. The fund claims that it would suffer damages for a common fund with TCW which competes with the product range from Carlyle, the newspaper explains.

In the first nine months of the year, the asset management business line at BNP Paribas posted net redemptions totalling an undisclosed amount. The bank, which is releasing its quarterly results this morning, has simply announced that “Asset Management’s asset inflows into money market and bond funds were more than offset by asset outflows in the other asset classes.” In first half, outflows from the business line already totalled EUR1.9bn, and in 2011, they totalled -EUR35.7bn for the year as a whole.Assets under management in asset management fell to EUR408bn.The other professions in the Investment Solutions unit (wealth management, insurance, and others), to which asset management belongs, have posted net subscriptions. Net asset inflows for the first nine months of the year totalled 0.9 billion euros and were penalised by a client’s (fund manager) decision in the third quarter to insource a distribution contract. Excluding this effect, net asset inflows were +12.2 billion euros for the first nine months of the year. Investment Solutions’ assets under management rose 5.2% compared to 31 December 2011 and 4.1% compared to 30 September 2011, to 886 billion euros (842 billion euros as at 31 December 2011).For the first nine months of the year, Investment Solutions’ revenues moved up 1.9% compared to the first nine months of 2011, the 6.0% drop in Wealth and Asset Management, a result of reduced managed assets in Asset Management, being offset by the 13.3% rise in revenues from Insurance (+5.8% at constant scope and exchange rates) and 5.1% revenue growth from Securities Services. Operating expenses edged up 2.0% compared to the first nine months of 2011, given business development investments in Insurance and Securities Services, but they were down 3.3% at Wealth and Asset Management due to the adjustment of costs to the new environment. The cost/income ratio was thus stable at 69.2% compared to the first nine months of 2011. Pre-tax income was 1,515 million euros, up 14.9%.

Activist investor Nelson Peltz has bought a 1 per cent stake in Danone, worth about EUR300m, according to people familiar with the situation cited by the Financial Times. He is expected today to call for the French food group to cut costs and be more disciplined with its use of cash.He is expected to call for moderate improvements, such as improving operating margins by 100 basis points to 15.1 per cent by 2015 and the return of all excess cash flow in the form of share buybacks.

Glenn Carlson will resign from his position as CEO of Brandes Investment Partners on 1 February, according to a letter sent to clients and obtained by MFWire. He will be replaced by Brent Woods, managing director of investments. Glenn Carlson will remain at Brandes as a senior partner and member of the investment supervisory board.

The former head of Asian bonds at First State Investments, Murray Collis, will join Standish Mellon Asset Management, AsianInvestor has learned. He may be responsible for establishing an Asian product range for the American bond specialist firm.

Last month, exchange-traded products (ETPs) attracted USD9.5bn in net subscriptions, of which USD4.2bn were for products listed in Europe, according to estimates by the BlackRock Investment Institute. In the first ten months of the year, net inflows totalled USD192.3bn (of which USD23.9bn were in Europe), which is higher than the total of USD173.4bn posted for all of 2011; in January-October last year, net subscriptions totalled USD157.7bn.In the first ten months of the year, the strongest net subscriptions were for the Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets and the iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond with USD11.48bn nd USD6.73bn, respectively, while the two strongest net outflows were from the iShares MSCI EAFE and Barclays 1-3 year Treasury Bond, with USD2.71bn and USD2.55bn, respectively.Total assets in global ETPs as of the end of October came to USD1.8267trn, of which USD1.2823bn were in the United States, and USD348.3bn in Europe.

The Centre for Econmics and Business Research (CEBR) has published a study which claims the London financial sector will lose 13,000 jobs in 2013. The CEBR estimates that the number of jobs will fall to 237,000 next year, and 236,000 in 2014, which corresponds to 1993 evels. The situation aggravated severely, as six months ago, the study says, projections were predicting that the financial sector would have 256,000 jobs in 2013.In detail, the decline reflects a collapse in several sectors of activity during this year. Equity market activities, for example, lost 20% in value year on year. After very strong gains last year, international orders, for their part, fell off by more than 50%, and sovereign issues have seen a decline of 33%. Merger and acquisition activities in the United Kingdom also fell by one third in 2012, the study finds, adding that internationally, the decline is even steeper. Even the once-important derivatives sector has lost nearly one fifth. The only exceptions the CEBR observes are private equity and mergers and acquisitions in the IT sector are keeping up.Lastly, the CEBR projection models indicate that the situation will stabilise in 2013-2014 at best, and that a slight increase will follow.