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28/08/2012

Aquantum va lancer une activité de gestion d’actifs

Aquantum, un fournisseur d’indices spécialisés et une maison de hedge funds matières premières, va lancer une activité de gestion à part entière avec la création d’un premier fonds coordonné européen au quatrième trimestre de l’année, selon le Financial Times Fund Management. Le fonds sera investi dans environ 50 marchés de futures couvrant toutes les grandes classes d’actifs, hormis les matières premières, et utilisera de multiples stratégies de trading. Aquantum a été créé en 2008 par Thomas Morrow, un ancien de Winton Capital, rappelle le FT fm. La nouvelle activité sera basée à Munich.
28/08/2012

Aquantum lance une société de gestion d’actifs

Le luxembourgeois Aquantum, fournisseur d’indices systématiques aux émetteurs de produits structurés créé par Thomas Morrow, un ancien de Winton Capital Management, lance une activité de gestion d’actifs à part entière, Aquantum AG. La nouvelle structure gérera des fonds de managed futures systématiques et des managed accounts. Son premier fonds - au format Ucits - verra le jour au quatrième trimestre."Compte tenu de la popularité de nos indices, la création d’une activité de gestion d’actifs à part entière pour exploiter directement l’expertise de trading quantitatif d’Aquantum constitue une étape naturelle», explique Thomas Morrow, dans un communiqué. La société a en effet passé un accord de licence avec Royal Bank of Scotland, qui a conduit au lancement d’une série de produits basés sur les indices d’Aquantum ayant à ce jour attiré plus de 1 milliard de dollars.Outre Thomas Morrow, l’équipe d’Aquantum comprend Moritz Seibert, ancien responsable de l’équipe de structuration actions de RBS en Amérique, ainsi que le Dr Jochen Mirth, Christian Schneider et Oliver Grimm (trois anciens associés d’Assenagon Group), et le Dr Oliver Podobrin. L’approche d’Aquantum consiste à appliquer des modèles mathématiques avancés à différentes formes de données de façons à exploiter systématiquement les inefficiences de marchés.
28/08/2012

L'agence chinoise de notation Dagong s'installe à Milan

Dagong, l’agence de notation chinoise, envisage d’installer sa première antenne européenne à Milan en janvier 2013, rapporte Investment Europe. Le bureau de Milan sera dirigé par l’ancien directeur général de Fitch ratings pour l’Italie, Mauro Alfonso, qui avait été recruté en tant que responsable de la stratégie en Europe à l’occasion de la création en avril 2012 de Dagong Europe.Le bureau de Milan prendra la forme d’une co-entreprise avec le groupe de capital investissement sino-italien Mandarin Capital Partners. Ce bureau comptera dans un premier temps une dizaine d’analystes qui couvriront la France, l’Allemagne, l’Italie et l’Espagne. Dans un délai de cinq ans, Dagong espère porter le nombre d’analystes à une trentaine, avec un objectif de chiffre d’affaires de 9 millions d’euros et une part de marché de 5% à 10%.Dagong est la plus importante agence de notation en Chine, avec un effectif de plus de 500 personnes, six centres régionaux et 34 filiales.
28/08/2012

Noble Group recruits from Brevan Howard

The commodity specialist Noble Group, based in Hong Kong, is recruiting in the base metals segment (including copper and zinc), with the recruitment of two senior traders, who would allow the firm to develop beyond its native market in Asia, the news agency Reuters reports. Mark Hansen, previously of Brevan Howard, has joined Noble Group to become head of its “global metals” unit, based in London. Paul Wilkes, previously of Macquarie Bank, will be joining the firm next month to head up the proprietary trading desk.
28/08/2012

BoA calls John Paulson in for a talk

According to sources familiar with the matter, the wealth management unit of Bank of America (Merrill Lynch and US Trust) have arranged a conference with John Paulson this Tuesday, to allow their financial advisers and clients to grill the hedge fund manager, who is currently encountering difficulties. The meeting comes at a time when Citigroup has announced plans to withdraw about USD410m from Paulson & Co hedge funds. Bank of America states that for its part, it has no plans to cut its ties with Paulson & Co or to withdraw assets.
28/08/2012

German asset managers fear recruitment problems

The crisis and scandals have tarnished the image of the financial sector. Asset management in Germany so far hasn’t seen as many layoffs as banking: instead, it is gradually reducing excess capacity, and there are still more applicants than job openings. However, Financial Times Deutschland reports, asset management firms are beginning to face difficulties in recruiting new personnel, especially in junior positions. Savings banks and co-operative banks are less affected by this phenomenon, since they have not been affected by scandals like the banks have.
28/08/2012

German savings: equities and fund shares down

As of 31 December, the financial savings of Germans increased 1.2% year on year, to EUR4.716trn, as the Bundesbank recently announced (see Newsmanagers of 25 May). However, total volume of equities was down by EUR22bn, to EUR222bn (-9.02%). The volume in shares in investment funds was down by EUR40bn (-9.2%) to a total of EUR395bn, figures from the German association of private sector banks reveal in the most recent issue of its magazine Die Bank.On average, at the end of last year, the average financial savings per person in Germany was EUR57,600, of which EUR2,700 were in equities, and EUR4,800 in shares in investment funds.
28/08/2012

Jeff Runnfeldt leaves Citadel

The co-head of the international equity unit at Citadel, Jeff Runnfeldt, will be leaving the firm on 31 August, the news agency Bloomberg reports. Runnfeldt, who joined the alternative asset management firm ten years ago, became co-director of the international equity unit in 2009, with Brandon Haley and Steve Weller, at the launch of the Citadel equity fund. The fund, whose assets under management total USD2.5bn, has earned returns of 10.3% for the year 2012 to mid-August. In the same period, the S&P 500 has gained 13%, while the HFRX Equity Hedge index shows gains of only 2.8%.
28/08/2012

Amundi records EUR13.8bn in net inflows in first half

Amundi recorded net new inflows of 13.8 billion euros in the first half of 2012, according its parent company Crédit Agricole. Net new inflows excluding branch bank networks were 20.9 billion euros in the first half of 2012 with 13.4 billion euros in the institutional and corporate segment, driven by money market inflows, and 2.2 billion euros in the third-party distributor segment, primarily in Europe. Inflows into employee savings management came to 5.3 billion euros, with a 16.6% increase in assets under management in the first half. Outflows from branch bank networks continued (-7.1 billion euros in the first half of 2012), albeit at a slower pace than in the previous semesters. Amundi (including BFT’s asset management operations, acquired on 1 July 2011) saw its assets under management raise by 5.2% to almost 693 billion euros in the first six months of the year. Revenues declined sharply in the first half, by 0.5% on a reported basis, but by 8.4% restated for the gain on disposal registered in the first quarter of 2012. Even so, performance-based commissions increased from 43 million euros in the first half of 2011 to 61 million euros in the first half of 2012. The cost/income ratio in the first half stayed at 55.4%2. Amundi’s net income rose by 3.0% year-on-year to 253 million euros in the first half of 2012 and its contribution to net income Group share was 186 million euros (up 2.8%).
28/08/2012

Investors don't go in for funds managed by women

On average, investment funds managed by women in the United States in the past seven years have attracted 15% less in assets than funds managed by men, a study by two specialists from Germany’s Mannheim University, Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi and Stefan Ruenzi, entitled “Sex Matters: Gender and Prejudice in the Mutual Fund Industry,” finds. But women stick to more reliable investment styles, and their average performance is the same as for products managed by men.A laboratory study demonstrates that, although it is not possible to rationally locate a statistical discrimination, there is a negative prejudice against women in the financial professions on the part of most respondents. Managers who generate weak subscriptions are not in demand by asset management firms, which explains the low percentage of women in the profession.This does not rule out other explanations, such as the fact that prejudices against women lead to implicit discrimination in recruitment, or the fact that women themselves share these prejudices against women in finance, which may ultimately lead women themselves to choose other professions.The two university researchers raise the provocative question of why, in these conditions, there are nonetheless women managers. On the one hand, it may be interesting for a fund management firm to recruit women to place funds with female investors. On the other, the Dodd-Frank law stipulates that US Federal agencies must maintain business relationships only with businesses “which equitably include women,” meaning that in order to hope to win mandates, they need to employ at least some women managers.
28/08/2012

Mitt Romney reported to have millions of dollars invested in offshore hedge funds

The online magazine Gawker estimates the assets of US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney invested in hedge funds and other investment vehicles, on the basis of 2012 declarations, to have been over USD10m in 2011 at the least, and probably much more, as earnings from these assets totalled over USD900,000. The investments are thought largely to be in funds, often based in the Cayman Islands, with ties to Bain Capital, the private equity firm which Romney co-founded in 1984 and left in 1999. Romney is also thought to have invested in Absolute Capital Return Partners, a firm based in Delaware which undertakes tax optimisation via an “equity swapping” technique, the British Guardian newspaper reports.
28/08/2012

CNMV grants licenses for six foreign funds

On 24 August, in addition to registering the Eurovalor Garantizado BRIC II fund from Popular Gestión (ES0133507006, see Newsmanagers of 27 August), the Spanish regulator CNMV issued a sales license for Spain to the DWS Invest II and DWS Short Duration Emerging Markets Fx fund, the LFP Rendement Emergent 2017, the Luxembourg Sicav Matthews Asia Funds, Natixis Souverains Euro, and the Wells Fargo (Lux) Worldwide Fund.
28/08/2012

ETF: Transparency improving in securities lending – some

Acording to a Morningstar survey, the practice of securities lending by European ETFs gained some transparency last year, as providers are placing more information about these activities on their websites, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung reports. However, new rules by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) should not be expected to improve the return investors receive. Funds may comply by stating that they transfer 100% of net earnings from securities lending to their clients, while keeping the present share of gross earnings .
28/08/2012

European rules won't eliminate complex UCITS products

New rules by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) do not represent “an enormous threat” to the UCITS-compliant CTA sector, with assets of GBP3.7bn, sas Georg Reutter, an analyst at Kepler Partners, in an interview with Financial Times Fund Management. The vehicles, based on complex and opaque indices, have been criticised as a potential threat to the UCITS brand.
28/08/2012

UCITS VI may extend the range of assets eligible for retail funds

European funds reserved for retail investors may be authorised to invest in hedge funds, real estate and commodities if the sector is convincing, Financial Times Fund Management suggests. The European Commission has released a consultation document on UCITS VI, asking whether “the range of assets and exposures deemed eligible for UCITS funds” should be reviewed, opening the possibility of discussions which may lead to the inclusion of new asset classes for retail funds.
28/08/2012

High yield bond funds in high demand

The search for yield remained a key driver for both retail and institutional investors going into the final week of August. High yield bond funds attracted another USD1.8 billion of inflows, according to the latest statistics of EPFR Global.Dividend equity funds took in an additional USD380 million of net inflows; as a result, year-to-date flows into these funds hit USD29.6 billion. Alternative Funds also attracted their biggest weekly inflow in over two years.Overall, net flows into all EPFR global-tracked bond funds totaled USD4.9 billion -- of which 61% flowed into US bond funds. At the same time, USD847 million was pulled from equity funds. Both France and Germany equity funds recorded their fifth consecutive weekly outflows.
28/08/2012

Former head of ETF sales at HSBC joins Stoxx

Stoxx has recruited Mark Rodino as global head of sales. He joins from HSBC, where he was head of ETF sales. At Stoxx, he will be based in London. Stoxx has also recruited Anthony Da Costa as chief operating officer, in Zurich. He had previously been director of services at FTSE.
28/08/2012

Chinese ratings agency Dagong sets up shop in Milan

Dagong, a Chinese ratings agency, is planning to open a European office in Milan in January 2013, Investment Europe reports. The Milan office will be directed by the former CEO of Fitch Ratings for Italy, Mauro Alfonso, who was recruited as head of strategy for Europe at the creation of Dagond Europe in April 2012. The Milan office will take the form of a joint venture with the Chinese-Italian private equity group Mandarin Capital Partners. The office will initially include 10 analysts, who will cover France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Within five years, Dagong is hoping to increase the number of analysts to 30, with the objective of EUR9m in earnings and a market share of 5% to 10%. Dagong is the largest ratings agency in China, with staff of over 500, six regional centres and 34 affiliates.
28/08/2012

Aquantum founds an asset management firm

Aquantum S.à r.l, the Luxembourg-based provider of systematic investment indices to issuers of structured investment products set up by Thomas Morrow, ex Winton Capital Management senior scientist, is establishing of a full-scale asset management business, Aquantum AG. The new firm will provide systematic managed futures funds and managed accounts. It plans to launch its first UCITS-compliant fund in the fourth quarter.“Given the popularity of our indices, the establishment of a full-scale asset management business to directly harness Aquantum’s unique quantitative trading expertise is a natural next step,” said Morrow. Aquantum has a licensing agreement with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) which has led to the launch of a series of Aquantum index-based products, which to date have attracted more than USD1 billion of investment notional. Other key members of the Aquantum team include Moritz Seibert, previously responsible for RBS’s equity structuring business in the Americas, as well as Dr Jochen Mirth, Mr Christian Schneider and Mr Oliver Grimm (all former partners of Assenagon Group, the Luxembourg-based fund manager with over EUR10 billion in assets under management). Together with Dr Oliver Podobrin, a former CERN scientist and leading derivatives expert, they bring significant financial engineering and operational expertise to the team. Aquantum’s approach involves applying advanced mathematical models to various forms of data in order to systematically exploit market inefficiencies, with all models tested against large number sets, thereby exposing them to a wide range of market, economic, and political changes.
28/08/2012

BNY Mellon reshuffles Investment Services in Germany

In a few weeks, Michelle Grundmann, managing director of BNY Asset Servicing for BNY Mellon in Germany, will be leaving the group to take up a new role in the industry. The direction of the investment services unit will be transferred at that time.Thomas Brand, country executive for Germany and regional executive for the German-speaking countries and Eastern Europe (Central and Southern), has been promoted to head of investment services at BNY Mellon for Germany, in charge of client relationship management and development in Germany, Switzerland and Eastern Europe (Central and Southern). In addition, he becomes a member of the management at the Frankfurt-based branch of Bank of New York Mellon SA/NV. Pending approval by BaFin, he will also join the supervisory board at BNY Mellon Service KAG.Juergen P. Frank becomes chairman of the supervisory board at BNY Mellon Services KAG, and will remain as chairman of the managing board at the Frankfurt arm of Bank of New York Mellon SA/NV and director of integration for asset servicing activities in Germany. He also becomes responsible for human resources, finance and taxation, and asset servicing activities. Before the acquisition by BNY Mellon, he had been CEO of BHF Asset Servicing.Laura Ahto, who joins from Baring Asset Management in London, will begin in October as head of asset servicing operations and service delivery at BNY Mellon in Frankfurt, where she will also be a member of the management for the local branch.Lastly, Christian Allmeyer is appointed as a member of the management of the local branch, in charge of legal affairs and regulation of internal risk and compliance auditing for the region. He becomes managing director and head of BNY Mellon Legal in Frankfurt.
28/08/2012

Aquantum va lancer une activité de gestion d’actifs

Aquantum, un fournisseur d’indices spécialisés et une maison de hedge funds matières premières, va lancer une activité de gestion à part entière avec la création d’un premier fonds coordonné européen au quatrième trimestre de l’année, selon le Financial Times Fund Management. Le fonds sera investi dans environ 50 marchés de futures couvrant toutes les grandes classes d’actifs, hormis les matières premières, et utilisera de multiples stratégies de trading. Aquantum a été créé en 2008 par Thomas Morrow, un ancien de Winton Capital, rappelle le FT fm. La nouvelle activité sera basée à Munich.
28/08/2012

Steep increase in AuA by HSBC INKA

The German asset management firm HSBC INKA, an affiliate of HSBC via the private bank HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt, has announced that the volume of assets it administers in open-ended and institutional funds in Germany has now topped EUR100bn, Fondsprofessionell reports. These assets have increased by EUR18.9bn since the beginning of the year, due to inflows from existing clients as well as the acquisition of new clients.
28/08/2012

Libor scandal: asset managers consider lawsuits

Mutual Fund Wire relays reports by Bloomberg that the largest fund management firms, including BlackRock, Fidelity and Vanguard, are currently working to determine whether their clients have been victims of the Libor manipulation scandal. They are also studying whether they should themselves be filing suit against banks guilty of fraud.
28/08/2012

Hausse de l'encours des fonds chinois au premier semestre

Les treize sociétés de gestion de fonds chinoises ayant publié au 24 août leurs résultats du premier semestre affichaient un encours total en hausse de 18,5 milliards de yuans pour leurs 184 produits, alors que les actifs gérés avaient chuté de 26,1 milliards de yuans durant la période correspondante de l’an dernier, avant de plonger encore de 88,6 milliards au second semestre.Selon Z-Ben Advisors, ce retournement rapide est attribuable d’une part à la bonne tenue du marché obligataire et de l’autre aux performances des petites et moyennes capitalisations. Néanmoins, l’indice CSI 300 est en baisse depuis juillet et le CSI Aggregate Bond Index s’est lui aussi retourné.
28/08/2012

Chinese fund assets up in first half

The 13 Chinese fund management firms which on 24 August had released their results for first half, have experienced an increase by CNY18.5bn in their 184 products, where assets under management had fallen by CNY26.1bn in the corresponding period of last year, before falling by a further CNY88.6bn in second half.Z-Ben Advisors reports that this rapid bounce back is partly due to good performance on bond markets, and partly to the performance of small and midcaps. However, the CSI 300 index shows losses since July, and the CSI Aggregate Bond Index has also turned down.
28/08/2012

Assets under management at VP Bank stable

Assets under management at VP Bank totalled CHF27.6bn as of 30 June, compared with CHF27.4bn as of the end of December 2011, according to a statement released on 28 August. Assets under administration fell 8.7% in first half, to CHF10.5bn as of the end of June, compared with CHF11.5bn as of the end of December 2011. Group profits in first half totalled CHF24.7m, compared with CHF19.4m as of first half 2011.
28/08/2012

Discretionary management and fund-picking by advisers on the rise

The percentage of independent financial advisers who use discretionary fund managers has increased by more than 10% in third quarter, to represent 16.9% of total activity by advisers, according to the consulting firm Platforum, Fund Web reports. “Fund picking,” for its part, has increased by nearly 10% to represent nearly one third of the total, according to Platforum, which also states that model portfolio strategies have lost ground, but still represent 32% of the total. Multi-management has also lost momentum, and now represents only 16.9% of the total.
28/08/2012

Fund launches continue unabated in Spain

Since the beginning of this year, 89 funds have been launched on the Spanish market, one more than in the corresponding period of last year, Funds People reports. Of this total, 47 are guaranteed products, including 39 bond proucts.The most active asset management firms have been BBVA Asset Management and InverCaixa, with nine new funds each, followed by Santander Asset Management (8 funds) and Bankia (5 funds).
28/08/2012

Stabilité des actifs sous gestion pour VP Bank

Les actifs sous gestion de VP Bank se sont inscrits à 27,6 milliards de francs suisses au 30 juin contre 27,4 milliards de francs à fin décembre 2011, selon un communiqué publié le 28 août.Les actifs sous administration ont diminué de 8,7% au premier semestre, à 10,5 milliards de francs à fin juin contre 11,5 milliards de francs à fin décembre 2011. Le bénéfice du groupe s’est élevé au premier semestre à 24,7 millions de francs contre 19,4 millions au premier semestre 2011.
28/08/2012

Douglas passerait sous le contrôle d’Advent

Le capital-investisseur américain Advent s’est mis d’accord avec deux actionnaires de référence du groupe allemand de parfumeries Douglas Holding, à savoir Erwin Müller (qui détient directement et indirectement 25,81 % du capital) et le groupe Oetker (qui en contrôle lui aussi 25,81 %), croit savoir le Financial Times Deutschland.Le prix proposé serait de 38 à 40 euros par action, ce qui valoriserait Douglas entre 1,5 milliard et 1,6 milliard d’euros. Douglas réalise avec 24.000 personnes un chiffre d’affaires de 3,4 milliards d’euros. Lundi, l’action Douglas a clôturé à 33,75 euros.

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