Pimco lance quatorze fonds de la famille «Global Investment Series» (GIS) sur le marché retail belge, rapporte Investment Europe.Dans le cadre de cette initiative, Pimco, qui espère profiter de sa présence sur le marché institutionnel belge, inclut une stratégie de partenariat avec des intermédiaires pour faciliter la distribution et la croissance des ventes. Les fonds proposés, enregistrés à Dublin et conformes au format Ucits, comprennent notamment le Total Return Bond piloté par Bill Gross (22,5 milliards d’euros d’actifs sous gestion), le Global Multi-Asset Bond géré par Mohamed El-Erian (2,8 milliards d’euros) et le Diversified Income Fund d’Eve Tournier (5,6 milliards d’euros).

Pimco is launching fourteen funds of the “Global Investment Series” (GIS) family on the Belgian retail market, Investment Europe reports. As a part of the initiative, Pimco, which is hoping to take advantage of its presence on the Belgian institutional market, is including a strategy of partnership with intermediaries to ease distribution and growth in sales. The funds on offer, registered in Dublin and compliant with UCITS, include the Total Return Bond fund, managed by Bill Gross (EUR22.5bn in assets under management), the Global Multi-Asset Bond fund, managed by Mohamed El-Erian (EUR2.8bn), and the Diversified Income Fund from Eve Tournier (EUR5.6bn).

Invesco has now fully implemented Eagle Investment Systems’ performance measurement solution to manage its retail and institutional business in Continental Europe, leveraging the existing production instance of the Eagle platform in North America, BNY Mellon said in a press release. Eagle is a subsidiary of BNY Mellon. As a result of this deployment, Invesco now has a consolidated view of its business across North America and Continental Europe.The investment manager is also utilizing Eagle’s data mart for enhanced reporting across performance, holdings, transactions, fund rankings/ratings, and risk metrics. Additionally, the Eagle platform helps support Invesco’s client reporting, P&L reporting and fact sheet development for their Paris and Frankfurt businesses.

Generali Investments France last week announced in a note to investors that it is reorganising its asset management activities in Europe, in an operation which has been approved by the relevant regulatory authorities. Generali Investments Frence will merge its activities eligible for the European passport with Generali Investments Italy S.p.A. Società di gestione del risparmio, an Italian-registered asset management firm domiciled in Trieste. From 1 October, the asset management firm will become known as Generali Investments Europe SpA Società di gestione del risparmio, and will have a French affiliate, which will substitute for Generali Investments France in all relationships existing prior to that date. The UCITS-compliant security investment organisms will be transferred to Generali Europe Investments, while non-UCITS-compliant funds will on 19 September 2012 be transferred to Generali Investments Opera, a new French-registered asset management firm which received a license from the AMF on 13 September.

UK-based fund manager Jupiter announced it will launch the Jupiter Merlin Conservative Portfolio on 28th September 2012 to meet demand for a more cautious Jupiter Merlin range of multi-manager portfolios. The new fund, which has FSA approval, will sit within the IMA «Mixed Investment 0-35% shares» category.The Conservatice Portfolio will be managed by the Jupiter Independent Funds team comprising John Chatfeild-Roberts, Peter Lawery, Algy Smith-Maxwell, Amanda Sillars and David Lewis. The team currently manage GBP7.5bn of assets in four funds: Jupiter Merlin Income, Jupiter Merlin Balanced, Jupiter Merlin Growth and Jupiter Merlin Worldwide.

Australian hedge funds and asset management boutiques, supported by allocations from pension funds, have over AUD200bn in assets under management – to be more precise, AUD208.4bn, or nearly USD220bn, Asian Investor reports. This total represents about 17% of the AUD1,190trn in total in the Australian asset management sector. Of this total, assets at 62 hedge funds total AUD42.8bn, according to statistics from the Triple A Partners/Basis Point Consulting Australian Hedge and Boutique Fund Directory. The top five hedge funds based in Australia are Platinum Asset Management, with AUD14bn in assets under management, BlackRock Investment Management Australia (AUD5.8bn), GMO Australia’s Systematic Global Macro Trust (AUD1.9bn), Macquarie Group’s MQ Specialist Investment Management (AUD1.6bn), and PM Capital (AUD1.6bn). In the asset management boutique sector, there are 102 independent asset management firms, with AUD165.6bn in assets, mostly invested in long-only strategies.

Dedicated short bias and CTA Global were the only strategies to show losses last month, out of the 13 strategies monitored by the Edhec Risk Institute, with losses of 3.24% and 0.90%, respectively. The best returns were for event-driven, with gains of 1.38%, and distressed securities (+1.21%), followed by long/short equity (+1.02%).The best strategy since the beginning of the year is convertibles arbitrage, with gains of 6.7%, followed by distressed securities (+6.3%). Only dedicated short bias shows losses in the first eight months of the year, with losses of 10.9%.

The ETF asset management firm Source, launched in April 2009, has GBP11.5bn in assets, and claims second place among asset management firms in Europe for net inflows in the first eight months of this year, with EUR2.4bn, the firm’s CEO, Ted Hood, has said at a breakfast in Paris.Among the products that Michael John Lytle, managing director and head of sales, highlights are a product based on a hedge fund from Man-GLG, which has already seen inflows of EUR620m, the physical gold ETC, with over USD3bn in assets, the volatility fund (USD620m), the Russian market RDX (USD500m) and the Short Term High Yield fund launched with Pimco, which has attracted USD200m in assets.The product range now includes about 90 products, including equity, bond and volatility ETFs. 40% of these rely on physical replication, while the other 60% use synthetic replication. All of the major market segments are now covered. Source is highly circumspect about its plans for new products. It claims that discretion is the best policy in this area, due to the rapidity with which good ideas can be copied.Although Hood has little to say about new projects, he does suggest that there may be an evolution in the direction of purely actively-managed ETF funds, similar to the bond product with Pimco which is already available. There may also be a product specialised in European volatility in the works.

Faute d’une taille suffisante de ce pôle, le gestionnaire britannique Aviva Investors a indiqué dans une note aux clients qu’il envisage de liquider son activité global real estate securities, y compris le Global REIT fund géré par Paul van de Vaart, rapporte Investment Week. Cela pourrait se traduire par la fermeture des bureaux de New York et de Londres. En revanche, Aviva Investors se focalise sur l’Asie et l’équipe immobilière asiatique sera maintenue.

Sarasin & Partners has recruited three people from GAM Asset Management: Charles Smyth-Osbourne, Duncan Gordon and Hames Hutton, FundWeb reports. They join the team dedicated to private clients.

Aviva Investors is proposing to close its Global Listed Real Estate Securities activity, which manages publicly-traded real estate, Investment Week reports. The group has placed all of the entity’s funds under review, and has announced that the New York and London offices will be closed.

Further to the announcement on 27 April 2012, Schroders has announced that following receipt of regulatory approvals its wholly owned subsidiary, Schroder Singapore Holdings Private Limited, has completed the acquisition of 25 per cent. of the share capital of Axis Asset Management Company (Axis AMC), the Indian asset management business of Axis Bank Limited.Axis AMC has assets under management of USD2.3bn.

Jupiter Asset Management has appointed Andrew Clark as head of private clients and charities.Andrew Clark, who has 17 years’ experience in the wealth management sector, will join Jupiter in early December 2012 from Schroders where he has worked as head of business development for the private banking division since April 2010.

After merging with Calkin Pattinson & Company in August in order to prepare for the rollout of the Retail Distribution Review, James Hambro & Partner has announced the recruitment of James Horniman as a partner, Investment Europe reports. Horniman had been in charge of more than GBP500m in assets as team leader and portfolio manager for the British market at UBS Wealth Management, where he had worked since 2007.

Liontrust has announced the recruitment of Samantha Gleave as manager in the Cashflow Solution team. The team manages the Liontrust European Growth, European Absolute Return, Income and European Absolute Alpha funds, among others.

Lombard Odier has unveiled two new bond funds for the Italian market in Milan, the Italian website Bluerating reports. They are the LO Funds Global Government Fundamental and LO Funds Global BBB-BB Fundamental funds.

EFG Asset Management will soon be launching a bond fund dedicated to Asia-Pacific, Citywire reports. The new offering, the New Capital Asia Pacific Bond fund, follows a series of recruitments and the launch of a fund dedicated to Chinese equities, the New Capital China Equity fund.

Pioneer Investments has announced the launch of the Pioneer Funds – Emerging Markets Corporate Bond High Yield fund. The sub-fund invests primarily in debt securities and instruments backed by debt securities denominated in US dollars or currencies of OECD member countries, issued by companies rated below investment grade, with their headquarters or primary activities in emerging markets, or in instruments of this type whose credit risk is related to emerging markets. Greg Saichin, director of high yield and emerging market bonds at Pioneer Investments, is lead manager of the fund.CharacteristicsA share class: LU0765561054Front-end fee: 2.50%Ongoing fees: 2.00%C share class: LU0765561997Front-end fee: 0.00%Ongoing fees: 1.21%

In a statement released first in Germany, and then in France, Comgest (EUR13.5bn in assets as of the end of December) on 19 September announced the launch in mid-July of the Comgest Growth Emerging Markets Flex (CGEM Flex) fund, a sub-fund of its UCITS IV-compliant Irish Sicav, Comgest Growth Plc.The new product provides investors with a way to expose themselves to potential growth in emerging markets, while reducing the risk of losses. The objective of the CGEM Flex fund (which already has EUR75m in assets) is to further reduce extreme losses and volatility compared with traditional Comgest strategies.As the asset management firm states, the Comgest Growth Emerging Markets Flex fund is constructed around a portfolio of equities from emerging markets, very similar to those of the Magellan or Comgest Growth Emerging Markets funds.In addition to this equity portfolio, depending on market stress, the fund also invests in a hedging basket, composed exclusively of equity futures. Exposure to equity markets may ultimately vary from 20% to 100%. Adjustment of the hedging level is undertaken daily, and is based on a simple and transparent automated strategy, depending on the level of the VIX index.The fund (I share class ISIN code IE00B8J4DR61, R share class ISIN code IE00B8J4DS78) has already been registered for sale in France, Luxembourg, Germany, and Austria. Registration is underway in Belgium, Italy, the UK, the Netherlands and Sweden.

Yvonne Silden Langlo has left Storebrand, where she had served in external fund selection, to join Norges Bank Investment Management, the asset management firm for the Norwegian fund, the Swedish website Fondbranschen reports.

The French regulator, AMF, is preparing to publish an «administrative agreement» on its website by the end of this week, which it has reached with the asset management firm Carmignac Gestion. The asset management firm, based in place Vendôme in Paris, will pay a total of EUR500,000, following an audit by the regulatory authority undertaken between summer 2008 and summer 2010.All infractions by the asset management firm have been addressed; these mostly concerned flaws in information/reporting and internal controls at the firm. The first complaint concerned the Carmignac Patrimoine and Carmignac Investissement funds, for which the regulator found insufficient information concerning strategies based on derivative products. This is despite the fact that the latest were significant drivers of performance during the period under consideration.The AMF’s second compliant concerned human resources dedicated to risk controlling, with only one person at that time dedicated to the investigation undertaken by the regulator, and not two as originally planned. The Authority also found that for some funds which rely on derivative products, calculation of risk using a probabilistic “value at risk” method would have been necessary.In another area, the AMF also expressed regrets that controls on the development of bond liquidity levels was not in place.When asked about these developments by Newsmanagers, Eric Le Coz, deputy CEO of the asset management firm, first of all admitted that the AMF was acting within its capacities, and that Carmignac Gestion entends to fulfil its responsibilities. “Between the end of 2010 and early 2011, all the points raised by the AMF have been corrected,” Le Coz says. To respond to the first complaint, he says, “we have since been releasing information about the risk exposure of our portfolios and on the constitution of their performance. In relation to the second point raised by the AMF, the options which were used as part of what are considered complex operations on derivative products were bought up by the asset management firm in such a way that the risk clients were subject to was limited to only the premium.”In response to the third complaint, “personnel dedicated to internal controls includes six people, of whom three are dedicated to risk control,” Le Coz says, “and we have our own internal control system, which allows us to undertake our own stress tests, and all of this has been further reinforced since last year.”Lastly, the director of management points out that no clients were subjected to any losses during this period. “To the contrary,” he exclaims. The EUR500,000 fine may appear to be high, and this is the outcome of negotiations. On this point, Le Coz states that “the amount should be viewed in the context of owners’ equity at Carmignac Gestion of EUR1.2bn, and assets under management of EUR52bn.”

The Omaha, Nebraska-based third-party money manager CLS Investments (USD6.5bn in AUM as of-end July) has promoted Todd Clarke from president to CEO.The firm also hired Ryan Beach to take his place; he most recently oversaw legal matters as associate general counsel of CLS’ parent company, NorthStar Financial Services Group.John Russel «Rusty» Vanneman has been hired as new CIO. He previously worked as a CIO and PM at Kobren Insight Management.

US financial institutions now hold more than two thirds of shares in businesses in the United States, which gives them total control over votes, John C. Bogle, founder of Vanguard, observes in a column in the Financial Times. This capital is concentrated at a few major asset management firms: of USD9trn in shares held by the 300 largest US asset management firms, USD6trn are held by the 25 largest companies. The top 5 (Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street Global, Fidelity and American Funds) control about USD3trn. But so far, these companies have stood out for the lack of influence they exercise on the businesses in which they collectively invest. Bogle claims it is time for asset managers to assume their responsbilities in governance, and to break their silence.

For an undisclosed amount, Franklin Resources (Franklin Templeton Investments) on September 19th announced that it has agreed to acquire a majority stake in K2 Advisors Holdings («K2»), an independent fund of hedge funds manager with USD9.3bn in AUM as of end-August).The proceeds of this acquisition by Franklin Templeton will be used by K2 to purchase all of the equity currently held by TA Associates and to retire all of K2’s debt obligations. The current management of K2 will not sell any of its interests at this time. Beginning in 2016, Franklin Templeton will acquire the remainder of K2 over a multi-year period.

Ali Ould Rouis has left Robeco Gestions, the French affiliate of the Netherlands group, where he had been chairman, a statement released on 19 September states. His departure comes in the wake of the closure of the firm’s asset management activities in Paris, while resulted in the loss of 20 jobs, equivalent to two thirds of Paris staff. The remaining structure will concentrate exclusively on distribution, and will now become known as Robeco France. It will be led by Philippe Sabbah. Sabbah joined the Robeco group in August 2011 as CEO and board member in charge of commercial and marketing activities at Robeco Gestions, after previously working at Threadneedle. “Philippe Sabbah will work to ensure the growth of Robeco on the French market, and to extend the product range on offer to French institutionals,” a statement says.

FundQuest will become an advising structure, according to reports in Citywire Global. The firm, which has about EUR33bn in assets under management, will cease to be an asset management firm. The new entity will be renamed as FundQuest Advisors. Asset management will be transferred to BNP Paribas Asset Management. The reorganization will be announced in early October.

AllianceBernstein on 19 September announced the recruitment of George Yepes and Jeff Saltzman to assist with development of the firm’s alternative asset management activities (multi-management strategies, proprietary hedge funds and closed funds). Yepes previously worked at Financial Risk Management, where he had been in charge of client management and distribution for North America. Saltzman joins from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he had worked in the Cross Asset Solutions and Strategies unit.

According to reports in Die Welt, Deutsche Bank is planning to sell BHF-Bank to the private equity investor RHJ International (RHJI), owned by Leonhard Fischer, in partnership with BlackRock, the Chinese conglomerate Fosun,, and Aqton, the investment firm of Stefan Quandt.A year ago, RHJI already nearly acquired BHF-Bank, but the transaction was disallowed by BaFin, which was concerned that RHJI did not have the means to ensure that BHF would have adequate owners’ equity.

Assets under management in Swiss investment funds, according to statistics from Swiss Fund Data SA and Lipper, totalled CHF699bn as of August 2012, CHF4.8bn more than the previous month, according to a statement released on 19 September by the Swiss Fund Association (SFA). Of this total, CHF273.3bn are allocated to funds dedicated to institutional investors. Net inflows totalled CHF2.2bn. Subscriptions were mostly invested in bond funds (+CHF2.3bn), followed by money market funds (+CHF498m) and commodity funds (CHF366m). However, strategic investment funds have seen redemptions totalling CHF179m, while equity funds have seen outflows of CHF755m, particularly from UK, USA, Global and Emerging Markets Global equity funds.

The India Fixed Income fund, a sub-fund of the HSBC GIF Sicav (ISIN Code: LU0780248950), has received a sales license for Germany. The product invests in emerging market bonds (see Newsmanagers of 20 August), HSBC Global Asset Management (Deutschland) GmbH states.