Allianz Global Investors annonce qu’Andreas Hildebrand, recruté en mars 2011, a pris au 1er novembre les fonctions de co-gérant du fonds Concentra, l’un des plus vieux fonds d’actions allemands lance le 26 mars 1956, aux côtés de Matthias Born, le gérant principal.Ce produit de droit allemand (DE0008475005) a récemment été cloné avec un fonds de droit luxembourgeois, le Allianz German Equity Fund (lire Newsmanagers du 16 octobre).Andreas Hildebrand remplace comme co-gérant Frank Hansen, dont Citywire rapporte qu’il va désormais se concentrer sur son rôle de CIO pour les petites et moyennes capitalisations européennes.Au 1er octobre, le Concentra affichait un encours de 1.918 millions d’euros. Les remboursements nets au 31 octobre ont porté sur 237,43 millions d’euros.

De plus en plus de petits hedge funds ferment boutique, observe le Financial Times Fund Management, pour qui les maisons gérées par les anciens traders pour compte propre de banques sont particulièrement touchées par la hausse des coûts et la difficulté à drainer des actifs. Selon Preqin, 50 % des hedge funds qui ont fermé dans le monde depuis janvier 2011 avaient moins de 49 millions de dollars d’encours sous gestion.

Les family offices sont de plus en plus nombreux à renforcer leurs compétences pour être à même de mettre en œuvre leurs activités clés en interne, selon l'étude réalisée par Wharton Global Family Alliance (WGFA), qui publie quelques-unes de ses conclusions tout en réservant l’exhaustivité de ses résultats aux family offices.Les activités liées à l’investissement sont particulièrement concernées par cette tendance, ainsi que les activités liées à l’administration de fonds. C’est ainsi que, dans le sillage de la crise financière, les family offices ont considérablement développé leurs compétences en matière de gestion des risques. Cette volonté de mieux maîtriser les risques se traduit notamment par une diversification des portefeuilles ainsi que par l’introduction d’une plus grande palette d’outils de mesure des risques, y compris des outils moins conventionnels chez les family offices les plus importants.Selon WGFA, les family offices ont multiplié par cinq leurs investissements dans l’art et les métaux précieux entre 2009 et 2011, ce qui a porté leur allocation dans les portefeuilles à 5%, rapporte par ailleurs le Handelsblatt. Parallèlement, les investissements dans le private equity sont passés de 11% en 2009 à 9% en 2011. L’allocation dans les hedge funds est demeurée stable à 12% mais la part des fonds de fonds est tombée à un niveau proche de zéro.Cette désaffection vis-à-vis des fonds de fonds est à mettre sur le compte d'éventuels conflits d’intérêts chez les plus grands prestataires et -last but not least- sur les performances médiocres enregistrées ces dernières années. Sur les quatre dernières années à fin 2011, les fonds de fonds ont perdu en moyenne 3% par an, selon des statistiques de Bloomberg.

Selon une étude menée par Ivox sur les assemblées générales 2012 des 160 entreprises de l’univers Dax (Dax, MDax, SDax, TecDax) à la lumière des principes de bonne gouvernance de l’association allemande BVI des sociétés de gestion, les sociétés allemandes disposent encore d’une marge de progression.La situation s’est notamment détériorée par rapport à l'étude de 2010 en ce qui concerne les modalités de quitus au conseil de surveillance, avec des problèmes dans 56 cas contre 35 relevés lors de la précédente édition, et en matière d'élections au conseil de surveillance (37 cas contre 13).En revanche, indique le BVI, la situation s’est améliorée en ce qui concerne le quitus au directoire (cinq infractions contre 39) et d’autorisation des augmentations de capital (15 cas contre 19).Thomas Richter, directeur général du BVI, a rappelé que les gestionnaires adhérents à l’association détiennent dans leurs fonds des actions de sociétés allemandes pour un montant supérieur à 70 milliards d’euros.

Le gestionnaire central des caisses d'épargne allemandes, DekaBank, a annoncé la nomination d’Osvin Nöller, directeur du marketing et de la distribution, comme responsible de l’opération de «flexibilisation des coûts» à l'échelon du groupe. Il sera directement subordonné à Michael Rüdiger, le nouveau president du directoire.Son successeur à la tête du marketing et de la distribution sera Frank Kalter, qui est Generalbevollmächtigter de la Nassauische Sparkasse et directeur de la distribution retail à la Nassauische Sparkasse de Wiesbaden. Il rejoindra DekaBank dans le courant du premier semestre 2013.

Expansión rapporte que Bankinter vient d’entamer la commercialisation du «Bankinter Ibex 2007 Garantizado», un fonds qui garantit le capital investi au 29 novembre 2012 à l’échéance du 1er février 2017, plus une rémunération correspondant à 80 % de la hausse de l’indice boursier espagnol Ibex 35 pendant cette période de quatre ans et deux mois.Ce fonds, qui offre une fenêtre de liquidité mensuelle sans frais, est assorti d’une commission de gestion de 1,55 % et d’une commission de banque dépositaire de 0,10 %.

Investement Europe rapporte que Source vient de faire admettre son ETF de «smart beta» Man GLG Europe à la négociation sur le London Stock Exchange avec des parts en livres alors que ce fonds de 800 millions de dollars d’encours n’existait jusqu’à présent que sous la forme de parts en euros cotées à Francfort (Deutsche Börse).

HSBC Global Asset Management UK vient de nommer Andy Clark en qualité de directeur général, qui remplace Simeon Brown, rapporte Money Marketing.Andy Clark avait rejoint HSBC en tant que responsable des activités retail britanniques et a été nommé l’an dernier responsable régional du wholesale pour l’Europe, le Moyen-Orient et l’Afrique. Simeon Brown quitte la société pour relever de nouveaux défis après 16 années de collaboration dont cinq en qualité de responsable des activités britanniques.

Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), dont l’encours se situait fin septembre à 391 milliards de livres, a affiché pour janvier-septembre 4,6 milliards de livres de souscriptions nettes (+ 28 % en glissement annuel) grâce notamment à ses produits gérés sous contrainte de passif (LDI) et à ses produits obligataires à gestion active, qui ont collecté 3,3 milliards de livres, sachant que la croissance est venue de l’international, avec des rentrées nettes de 5,6 milliards de livres contre 1,9 milliard pour janvier-septembre 2011.LGIM indique que son encours international a gonflé de 25 % par rapport à fin 2011, à 39 milliards de livres.

Les actifs sous gestion d’Alliance Trust Investments s’inscrivaient à fin septembre à plus de 1,7 milliard de livres suite à l’acquisition en août dernier de l’activité ISR (investissement socialement responsable) d’Aviva Investors.Selon le bilan intérimaire publié par Alliance Trust, ce montant de 1,7 milliard de livres comprend 578 millions de livres dans les fonds d’Alliance Trust, le reliquat étant constitué de la gamme ISR d’Aviva Investors.

Le fonds de pension du Merseyside Council vient de confier à State Street Global Advisors un mandat de gestion pour un montant de 1,4 milliard de livres, ce qui porte le total des actifs gérés pour le compte de la collectivité locale à plus de 7 milliards de livres.

Francesco Fanti a été nommé responsable de la banque privée au sein de Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. Il aura pour mission de consolider et relancer les activités du pôle.

Tout en conservant ses fonctions de directeur de Reyl Private Office, Nicolas Duchêne exercera désormais celles de CEO de Reyl Singapour, filiale du groupe helvétique Reyl. L’intéressé, qui a rejoint Reyl en 2009, prend la tête d’une équipe de professionnels d’Europe et d’Asie spécialistes de la gestion de fortune ainsi que du conseil juridique et fiscal «dans un cadre multi-juridictionnel», précise un communiqué.Avec l’arrivée de Nicolas Duchêne, Reyl Singapour va également renforcer la promotion et la distribution de la gamme de fonds d’investissement gérés par Reyl Asset Management, notamment auprès d’acteurs institutionnels, de family offices et de clients très fortunés installés à Singapour et en Asie du Sud-Est.Avant d'être recruté par Reyl, Nicolas Duchêne a été responsable international du département de planification fiscale et financière de BNP Paribas Private Banking, simultanément à Singapour et à Hong-Kong.

A rising number of small hedge funds are closing their doors, Financial Times Fund Management observes, as asset management firms led by former proprietary traders from banks are particularly hard-hit by rising costs and difficulty in attracting assets. Preqin reports that 50% of hedge funds which have closed worldwide since January 2011 had less than USD49m in assets under management.

The Credit Suisse LAB Index, which aims to reflect the performance of the overall hedge fund industry, was down 0.64% in October. The event driven strategy was the sole contributor to performance, finishing up 0.94% for the month, and continues to be the highest performing strategy year-to-date, up 9.12% thus far in 2012. The managed futures strategy was the most significant detractor from performance, finishing down 2.41% for the month.

In third quarter, UK funds of funds posted net subscriptions of GBP754.5m, bringing the total for the first 12 months of 2012 to GBP2.2bn, less than 50% of the GBP4.6bn posted in the corresponding period of last year, according to statistics from the Investment Management Association (IMA).However, assets in funds of funds as of 30 September totalled GBP67.5bn, with a record 10.7% of assets managed in funds overall (compared with 10.4% twelve months earlier). Funds invested in third-party funds represented GBP33.9bn, while funds invested in internal funds total GBP33.6bn.Meanwhile, the IMA states that net subscriptions to tracker funds in July-September, at GBP263m, were the lowest since first quarter 2010, while the average in the previous four quarters was GBP471m. Assets in tracker funds as of the end of September totalled GBP47.7bn, a record 7.6% of the total for all funds, compared with 7.1% as of 30 September.Lastly, ethical funds have seen record net outflows in third quarter of GBP33m, while products had attracted an average of GBP9m in net subscriptions in the previous three quarters. As of 30 September, assets under management in these funds represent GBP7.3bn.

Investment Europe reports that Source has listed its smart beta Man GLG Europe ETF for trading on the London Stock Exchange, with share classes in pounds sterling, while the USD800m fund had previously only been available in the form of euro-denominated shares listed in Frankfurt (Deutsche Börse).

HSBC Global Asset Management UK has appointed Andy Clark as director general, replacing Simeon Brown, Money Marketing reports. Clark joined HSBC as head of British retail activities, and last year was appointed as regional head of wholesale for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Brown is leaving the firm to take on new challenges after 16 years of collaboration, including five years as head of British activities.

Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), whose assets as of the end of September totalled GBP391bn, has posted GBP4.6bn in net subscriptions (+28% year on year), largely due to its liability-driven investment (LDI) products and its actively-managed bond products, which have posted inflows of GBP3.3bn, through growth has come from abroad, with net inflows of GBP5.6bn, compared with GBP1.9bn in January-September 2011.LGIM states that its international assets have increased 25% over the end of 2011, to GBP39bn.

Lloyds Banking Group is planning to sell its 60% stake in St James’s Place, the Sunday Times reports. On the basis of a share price of 398 pence, the firm is valued at about GBP2bn. The proceeds of the sale may represent a total of over GBP1bn, which Lloyds would use to increase its capitalisation.

Assets under management at Alliance Trust Investments as of the end of September totalled over GBP1.7bn, following the acquisition of the socially responsible investment (SRI) activities of Aviva Investors in August this year.According to interim results released by Alliance Trust, this total of GBP1.7bn includes GBP578m in Alliance Trust funds, while the remainder consists of the SRI product range from Aviva Investors.

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) has been appointed by Merseyside Council to manage GBP1.4 billion in assets of its pension fund, bringing the assets SSgA manages for the Local Authority sector to more than GBP7 billion.

The wealth management firm Partners Group is seeking to increase its investments, and is currently in talks on the subject with its co-founders and primary shareholders, Marcel Erni, Alfred Gantner and Urs Wietlisbach. According to a statement released by the firm on 5 November, the investors are discussing a proposal by which the co-owners would collectively invest CHF300m alongside clients of the business, and would finance that via a placement of some of their shares. This portion is said to be about 1.6 million shares, which would represent about 6% of equity capital. The proceeds of the operation would be used to finance investments. Many shareholders and potential shareholders have on several occasions expressed interest in an increased amount of publicly-traded capital in Partners Group shares. In order to respond to these desires, the founders, each of whom contrrols 14.2% of capital, are planning to reduce their stakes, but not by any more than 4%. “Each founder would then control over 10% of capital following this operation,” a statement says. At the end of first half, assets under management by Partners Group totalled EUR27.1bn, compared with EUR24.8bn at the end of 2011.

Assets under management at the alternative management group Fortress Investment increased 8% in third quarter to a total of USD51.5bn as of 30 September, according to statistics released by Fortress. The increase is already 18% compared with third quarter 2011.Traditional asset management activities of Logan Circle finished the quarter with net inflows of USD2bn. Assets under management at Logan increased 14% compared with fourth quarter, at a total of USD20.6bn. All 15 strategies offered by Logan outperformed their respective indices in third quarter, while 14 out of 15 did to in the first nine months of the year.

Franklin Templeton Investments (a brand name of Franklin Resources) has announced that it has completed the acquisition of a majority stake in K2 Advisors (USD9bn in assets, see elsewhere in today’s Newsmanagers), a fund of hedge fund management firm founded in 1994 by William A. Douglas III and David C. Saunders, for an undisclosed amount. The proceeds of the transaction will allow K2 to acquire the entire stake previously held by TA Associates in its capital, as well as withdrawing all bonds issued buy K2 from the market.The current directors of K2 have not sold any of their stake in the business, nor received any compensation from the acquirer.Franklin Templeton is expected to acquire the remaining shares in K2 Advisors over a period of several years.

At the end of 2010, Barclays Wealth and Investment Management had EUR6bn in assets under management in France. The objective was then to double the size of these assets by 2014. But assets have fallen to EUR3.5bn currently. “We have posted redemptions from money markets, whose assets totalled EUR3.4bn four years ago, and EUR1.5bn today, and from structured products, which have seen their assets halved, from EUR1.5bn to EUR600m,” explains William Mussat, managing director wealth and investment management, at a press conference on Monday morning. The outflows are also due to the significant weight of internal networks as a part of Barclays WIM clients in France. But these are tending to shrink. The proportion was 90/10 three years ago. Now, the proportion of external clients stands at one third of assets, and the objective is to increase this proportion in order to ideally reach an even footing with group clients. In order to slow outflows and win over more external clients, Barclays Wealth and Investment Management in France has updated its product range. Since April, the firm has registered 16 sub-funds of its Global Access mandate fund range in France, which had previously been reserved for British clients. The funds, which invest in various asset classes and have EUR3.6bn in assets, have already attracted over EUR100m from French clients. Meanwhile, 17 French-registered funds, with a total of EUR1bn, have been merged with other Luxembourg-registered funds, as part of a vast reorganisation of the product range throughout Europe, benefiting from the possibilities offered by the UCITS IV directive. In total, the European product range from Barclays WIM is now composed of 40 funds, compared with 100 three years ago. These are now grouped into two product ranges, one of which includes funds dedicated to local markets, while the other is centred on profiled funds. With this framework in place, Paris remains the centre of management for European equity and convertible bond management, while multi-management is in London, euro fixed income in Madrid, and Asian equity management in Hong Kong and Singapore. While awaiting the results of this repositioning, Barclays Wealth and Investment Management have seen net redemptions in France of EUR250m since the beginning of the year.

BNP Paribas on 5 November announced the launch of BNP Paribas France Crédit, a common investment fund (FCP) which will allow it to place loans granted to mid-sized business totalling EUR250m over 3 years with its insurance affiliate, BNP Paribas Cardif.“With this deal, the BNP Paribas group fully confirms its desire to be present alongside businesses, and or orient the financial savings of the French towards financing them,” BNP Paribas says in a statement. The FCP BNP Paribas France Crédit invests primarily in mortgage debts with a maturity of under 6 years, acquired on the primary market, mostly within syndicated loans. It may also intervene in private corporate bond placements from businesses making their first issues on capital markets. The typical size of each investment by the fund is about EUR10m to EUR20m.BNP Paribas Investment Partners provides financial management of the FCP. In this role, it is responsible for analysis and selection of investment targets, in line with performance, security, and diversification objectives set by BNP Paribas Cardif.

“ America is facing an urgent crisis, barely discussed during the fall’s election campaign,” a group of asset management firms and pension funds warns in a one-page advertisement placed in several major United States newspapers on Monday, the Financial Times reports. BlackRock, which organised and financed the advertisement, says that the fiscal cliff is the largest concern for investors surveed in October, who have a collective total of USD5trn in assets under management.

Wells Fargo Asset Management is considering acquiring a fund of hedge fund operation with assets under management of up to USD12bn, Financial News reports.The head of Wells Fargo AM, Mike Niedermeyer, says he would like to provide clients with expertise in the area of allocation to and selection of hedge funds. “This is what clients ask for most often,” says Niedermeyer.Recenly, the private equity giant KKR acquired the FoF management firm Prisma Capital Partners, whose AUM total USD8bn, while Franklin Templeton has recently bought a majority stake in K2 Advisors, a FoF firm with USD9bn in AUM.

John K. Moninger will join Eaton Vance Distributors as director of retail sales on November 26, 2012, in which role he will be responsible for leading all sales and relationship management for Eaton Vance’s brokerage and independent channels. He will be based in Boston and report to Matthew J. Witkos, president of Eaton Vance Distributors. John K. Moninger comes to Eaton Vance from LPL Financial, where he was executive vice president of Advisory and Brokerage Consulting Services, responsible for the firm’s advisory and brokerage platforms and for leading a team of product consultants.