East Capital launches a new alternative fund, the East Capital Russia Domestic Growth Fund. The fund is expected to have its first closing around end of August.The aim of East Capital Russia Domestic Growth Fund is to create a concentrated portfolio of between 10 and 20 different companies which generate at least half of the revenue in Russia. They will be listed companies with a market capitalization of above USD 500 million.The fund will operate across all sectors and invest in securities that are believed to be undervalued and so have significant performance potential. East Capital Explorer AB, a Swedish listed entity investing mainly in East Capital’s alternative funds, has committed to invest EUR 15 million in the first closing of the fund, which is domiciled in Luxembourg and open to other institutional and qualified investors.

The Swedish alternative management firm Brummer & Partners will in October be launching a hedge fund which will combind equities and bonds from businesses and governments. The fund, known as CARVE, for Cross-Asset Relative Value Equity focus, will be managed by Per Joseffson, Peter Thelin and Bo Börtemark, who had previously been managers of Zenit, a fund from Brummer’s sister company. Stefan Engstrand of Zenit and Christian Frederiksson of Goldman Sachs are also involved in the project. One further person from a credit specialist firm will be recruited. CARVE will be based on a global universe, and will bring together long/short equity and capital structure arbitrage strategies. The fund will be launched once the necessary licenses are received from the Swedish authorities.

In second quarter 2012, only 417 funds were created in Europe, a 50% decline compared with the corresponding period of 2011, and 60% down on the peak in second quarter 2008, according to the most recent statistics from Lipper. In the same period, 535 funds were closed, which represents a 9% increase over one year previously, and 340 funds were merged. As of the end of June, the number of funds registered for sale in Europe totalled 31,787, compared with 32,158 as of the end of March. The universe of European funds contracted further in second quarter, following a first quarter in which the fund population had already declined. In the first three years of the year, only 506 funds were created in Europe, while 493 funds were liquidated and 205 were merged. Lipper nonetheless sees some cause for optimism in a decline in the number of funds merged in second quarter (-23%) and the fact that it is the lowest number of mergers in five years.

Inflows to investment funds in Germany in June totalled EUR12.8bn, of which EUR11bn went to dedicated funds, according to statistics from the German association of fund managers (BVI). For open-ended funds, inflows totalled EUR1.7bn. In the first six months of the year, institutional investors placed EUR30.9bn in dedicated funds, an increase of one third compared with the fist half of the record year in 2010. Most of these investments went to securities funds, with a total of EUR29.5bn, while the remaining EUR1.4bn were invested in closed real estate funds. Since the beginning of the year, inflows to open-ended funds totalled EUR5.77bn. Bond funds finished the half with inflows of EUR11.2bn, while equity funds posted outflows totalling EUR5.2bn. Real estate funds, for their part, have posted inflows of EUR2bn, and diversified funds have brought in EUR1.5bn.

The hedge fund manager John Paulson, who finished 2011 with record losses, has seen further losses of 2% in July from the Advantage Plus fund, according to the Bloomberg news agency, which has obtained a copy of the monthly report sent to investors in advance. Since the beginning of the year, the fund would then have lost 18%. The Gold Fund from Paulson, for its part, gained 0.2% in July, and now shows losses of 23% since the beginning of the year. However, merger arbitrage funds, credit and recovery, which represent more than 60% of USD21bn in assets under management by the firm, have gained value since the beginning of the year, Paulson points out in his report.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has scheduled a vote on proposed tougher regulations for the money market fund market for 29 August, the Wall Street Journal reports. The proposals have been rejected by the industry, and by three SEC commissioners. They would require money market funds to allow their net asset value to “float,” rather than remaining set at USD1 per share, or else that funds set money aside in order to protect themselves against losses, while holding back a portion of investors’ money for 30 days when they seek to redeem their investments.

The French government on 7 August published a decree in the Official Journal which establishes a mechanism to tax modifications or cancellations of market orders related to high-frequency trading from 1 August. The decree defines a maximum time period of one half-second to identify high-frequency trades on capital securities, referring to the time between the issuance of an order and its modification or cancellation. “The degree to which this threshold is exceeded increases with the latency time ordinarily separating two events affecting a given share, understood as the duration of time separating a buy or sell order on a share and an instruction either to modify, or to cancel the aforementioned buy or sell order,” the decree explains. It also defines the threshold from which the tax will be levied on cancelled or modified buy or sell orders. Starting from 80% of orders cancelled or modified in a single trading day, the operator will be required to pay the tax on all cancelled or modified orders above that threshold. The decree comes as an addition to a law creating a tax on financial transactions, which came into force on 1 August. This tax, which has been doubled by the new government to 0.2%, applies to trades on shares in companies whose market capitalisation is over EUR1bn, and whose headquarters are in France. According to statistics from the French market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), high-frequency trading now represents about 50% of orders issues, and nearly 20% of trading volumes in Europe.

Rule no. 648/2012 of the European Parliament, and the ruling of the European Council of 4 July 2012 on over0the0coutner derivative products, central clearing houses and central reference numbers (EMIR) were published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 27 July 2012, and will come into force on 16 August 2012. The French market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), adds in a statement released on 7 August that the new reguations still need to be supplemented by technical standards, which were the subject of a public consultation by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) held until 5 August, which will be submitted to the European Commission by 30 September 2012 at the latest. For the most part, publication of this consultation will permit for the regulations to come into full force. The AMF draws the attention of the parties concerned to the fact that all legislation will be applicable in France immediately. “The AMF is aware of the changes which these are likely to bring to current practices, and would like to assist actors in carrying out these reforms, which represent a key element in strengthening financial stability and security,” the AMF says. The practical terms of the assistance provided to actors will be described in a subsequent statement, the AMF states, adding that the major consequences of the EMIR regulation, applicable to counterparties, such as the requirement to compensate eligible over-the-counter derivatives, the development of risk management procedures for over-the-counter and uncompensated derivatives, and the requirement that transactions on derivative contracts be declared. The EMIR regulation may be consulted at the following address: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2012:201:000…

ETPs have posted net inflows in July of USD22.6bn, according to statistics from BlackRock. Investors preferred equities for a total of USD21bn, largely via exposure to US equities. US large caps attracted USD6.9bn, while US small caps, which are more sensitive to the economic environment, posted inflows of USD2.3bn. ETPs offering exposure to European equities attracted USD2bn. ETPs dedicated to emerging market equities posted net inflows of USD3.6bn in the month under review, also distributed between global funds (USD1.7bn) and funds exposed to one country in particular (USD1.8bn). Inflows to bond ETPs in July totalled only USD2.4bn, far beyond the levels reach last May (USD10.9bn). Investors seeking returns have preferred high yield bonds for a total of USD2bn, investment-grade corporate bonds (USD1.6bn) and emerging market bonds (USD1.2bn). However, ETPs dedicated to traditional government bonds saw outflows of USD3.7bn. However, bond ETPs overall are in high demand, representing 35% of new inflows in the first seven months of the year.

Threadneedle Investments will manage in excess of USD800m in Global and Emerging Market equity portfolios for Stanlib, a South African investment manager which has assets under management over USD44bn.This arrangement will allow investors based in Africa to access Threadneedle’s investment expertise. Stanlib has a presence in eight African countries.The South African asset manager, which has retail and institutional clients, partners with offshore asset managers. It chose Threadneedle after an 18-month review process.

Kerry Drew, in charge of consultant relations at Legal & General Investment Management, is leaving the firm to join Vanguard, where he will hold a similar position, Financial News reports.

After a year of talks with News Corp, the Church of England has decided to sell off all of its shares in the group controlled by Rupert Murdoch, in the wake of the phone hacking scandal. Church authorities have serious doubts about the will of News Corp to reform. The news comes as a hard blow to Murdoch, although the size of the stake sold, at GBP1.9m, represents only a drop in the ocean of a market capitalisation of over USD57bn, or about GBP37bn.

The firm born of the merger of Old Mutual Asset Managers UK (OMAM (UK)) and Skandia Investment Group (SIG) is reorganising its sales team, according to a letter sent to clients. In the message, Warren Tonkinson, the new global head of distribution, announces that Simon Smith becomes head of UK distribution. Previously, he had been global head of marketing. The other contact person for the United Kingdom is Steven Brown, head of UK advisory distribution. The merger of OMAM (UK) and SIG was announced in late April. The new firm, led by Julien Ide, still has no official name. The merger led to the closure of the French office.

According to local banking sector sources, two ICBC affiliates, ICBC Asia and ICBC International, are offering 3-year corporate bonds denominated in Chinese yuan (Dim Sum), Agefi reports. The size of the issues is said not to exceed CNY1bn (EUR127m), and the returns on offer are said to be 3.15%. Five banks, including HSBC and Goldman Sachs, are organising the operation.

Selon l’enquête trimestrielle publiée hier par Fitch, les investisseurs européens en produits de taux s’attendent à ce que la zone euro résiste aux pressions qu’elle subit actuellement et reste intacte. Seuls 5% des investisseurs interrogés prévoient un éclatement de grande ampleur et 9% croient à un défaut de plusieurs pays de la zone sans pour autant que cela entraîne son éclatement.

La production manufacturière britannique a baissé de 2,9% au mois de juin, après une hausse de 1,2% en mai, selon l’Office national des statistiques. Le consensus s’attendait néanmoins à une baisse plus marquée de 4,1%, mais a peiné à évaluer l’impact des jours fériés. Sur le deuxième trimestre, la production industrielle a diminué de 0,9%, pour une contraction du PIB de 0,7%.

Dans des entretiens avec le quotidien New York Times et la chaîne de télévision CNBC, le président de la Réserve fédérale de Boston, Eric Rosengren, qui ne dispose cependant pas cette année de voix au sein du FOMC, a estimé que la Fed devrait lancer un nouveau cycle de rachats d’obligations du Trésor et d’actifs adossés à des crédits immobiliers pour remettre l'économie sur les rails. «Il faut continuer à le faire jusqu'à ce qu’il soit clair que l’on ne fait plus de surplace», a-t-il même ajouté. Pourtant, les taux restent à des niveaux historiquement bas, comme l’a montré l’adjudication de 32 milliards de dollars d’obligations arrivant à maturité en août 2015 réalisée hier par le Trésor américain à un rendement de 0,37%. Le Trésor adjugera 24 milliards de titres à 10 ans demain et 16 milliards de titres à 30 ans jeudi. Le rendement des obligations d’Etat américaines à 10 ans était de 1,63% hier.

Le ministère de l’Agriculture indien a indiqué que le pays envisage de restreindre ses exportations de sucre et de blé afin d’apaiser les tensions sur les prix domestiques causées par la mousson, une des plus fortes en trois ans, qui risque d’endommager les plantations. Les exportations de blé seront limitées aux entreprises étatiques et celles de sucre à 1,5 million de tonnes. L’Inde est le deuxième producteur mondial pour ces deux denrées.

L’agence a abaissé hier soir la perspective de la note grecque de stable à négative, tout en maintenant son CCC, jugeant qu'«il est probable que la Grèce ait besoin de financements supplémentaires en 2012 dans le cadre du plan d’aide de l’Union européenne et du FMI.» Et d’ajouter que «nous projetons une contraction du PIB de 10% à 11% cumulés sur la période 2012-2013, contre les -4% à -5% sur lesquels se base le programme UE-FMI.»

Le gouvernement n’exclut pas un blocage temporaire des prix des carburants dans les prochaines semaines si ceux-ci continuent à augmenter, a annoncé hier le ministre de l’Economie et des Finances, Pierre Moscovici. Une promesse faite, pour une durée de trois mois, par le candidat François Hollande, qui y avait finalement renoncé en raison de la baisse des cours du pétrole.

L'appétit des investisseurs pour ces ABS continue de croître. Moody's pointe toutefois le risque de dépréciation

Le PIB italien a reculé de 0,7% au deuxième trimestre, menaçant les objectifs de réduction de la dette

Le PIB italien a reculé de 0,7% au deuxième trimestre, menaçant les objectifs de réduction de la dette

Le maintien de taux directeurs à 3,5% et le discours plus optimiste sur la croissance chinoise ont propulsé la devise à un plus haut de 5 mois

Russell Investments, le gérant d’actifs et créateur des indices portant son nom, a indiqué qu’il passait en revue ses activités d’ETF aux Etats-Unis et «réduisait» ses équipes dédiées à ce marché. Russell, qui détient 26 ETF pesant 309,1 millions de dollars d’actifs, souhaite se recentrer sur la multigestion. FocusShares, filiale de Scottrade détenant 15 ETF pour 100 millions d’actifs, a également annoncé qu’il liquidait sa classe d’ETF d’ici à la fin du mois.

Un décret publié hier au Journal officiel fixe les seuils de taxation des opérations de trading haute fréquence

Les réserves de la Banque nationale suisse ont progressé de 41,4 milliards de francs en juillet. Un ralentissement par rapport aux mois précédents

Le produit intérieur brut (PIB) italien a reculé de 0,7%, affichant son quatrième trimestre consécutif de récession. Six autres pays membres de la zone euro devraient connaître une contraction de l'activité cette année, selon des économistes.

As of 30 June 2012, the overall assets in collective investment organisms and specialised investment funds totalled EUR2.224479trn, compared with EUR2.212027trn as of 31 May 2012, an increase of 0.56% year on year, according to statistics from the Luxembourg financial sector surveillance commission (CSSF). Over the past twelve-month period, net asset volumes have increased 1.81%. The Luxembourg OPC industry has this posted a positive variation in the month of June measuring EUR12.452bn. This increase is equivalent to the balance of negative net issues of EUR2.081bn (-0.10%) and a favourable evolution of financial markets totalling EUR14.533bn (+0.66%).