Fineco et Allfunds vont distribuer en Italie six fonds luxembourgeois du français Comgest: Comgest Growth Europe, Comgest Growth Emerging Markets, Comgest Growth GEM Promising Companies, Comgest Growth Latin America, Comgest Growth America, Comgest Growth India, rapporte Investment Europe.Le développement du marché italien serait confié à Gabriella Berglund.

Promotion pour Eduardo García Hidalgo chez BBVA Asset Management : de CIO pour l’Europe, il passe CIO global, en remplacement de Julio Sobremazas, qui devient le patron des actions de la banque BBVA, où il avait travaillé avant de rejoindre (pour quatre ans) la société de gestion, rapporte Funds People.

Deux mois après son lancement, le fonds Allianz RCM Renminbi Fixed Income avait du être «soft-closé» en août 2011, avec un encours de 450 millions d’euros. A présent, rapporte Investment Week, l’encours est retombé à 368 millions d’euros du fait des rachats. Compte tenu de ces remboursements et d’une meilleure liquidité du marché du yuan offshore, le fonds sera de nouveau ouvert aux souscriptions à compter du 6 août.

Après avoir ouvert une filiale à Madrid en octobre 2010, Swiss & Global Asset Management étend son rayon d’action dans la péninsule ibérique, rapporte l'édition portugaise de Funds People. Cela se traduit par l’enregistrement de quatre fonds obligataire au Portugal : Julius Baer Absolute Return Bond Fund (classes de parts en euros et francs suisses), Absolute Return Bond Fund Plus (euros et francs suisses), Emerging Bond Fund (euros seulement) et Total Return Bond Fund (euros et francs suisses).Michele Porro, directeur des ventes et de la distribution, a précisé que Swiss & Global a l’intention de faire enregistrer d’autres fonds au Portugal à l’avenir.

Les fonds Carmignac Patrimoine, Emerging Patrimoine et Euro Patrimoine ainsi que le fonds obligataire Carmignac Sécurité ont fait le plus gros de la collecte nette de 2,2 milliards d’euros enregistrée au premier semestre 2012 par Carmignac Gestion, a indiqué jeudi Frédéric Leroux «gérant global». L’encours du gestionnaire français ressortait au 30 juin à 50,03 milliards d’euros contre 45,86 milliards six mois plus tôt, ce qui est dû à la fois à l’effet performance et aux souscriptions nettes. Pour relativiser, il faut aussi rappeler que les actifs gérés avaient affiché un pic de fin d’année à 55,03 milliards d’euros fin 2010. Actuellement, il n’est pas rare que les rentrées nettes atteignent les 40 millions d’euros par jour ouvrable…Eric Le Coz, directeur général adjoint de Carmignac Gestion, a indiqué à Newsmanagers que les souscriptions sont harmonieusement réparties sur tous les pays où la maison est présente, dont l’Allemagne, l’Italie ou l’Espagne et même, plus récemment, le Royaume-Uni.Frédéric Leroux a précisé que le fonds Carmignac Sécurité connaît une forte demande particulièrement en Espagne tandis qu’Eric Helderlé, directeur général délégué de Carmignac Gestion, souligne que les Espagnols se défient désormais non seulement des dépôts, qui ont un moment concurrencé les OPCVM, mais aussi des fonds de droit espagnol.Au total, l’encours de Carmignac Gestion se répartit en 49,5 % d’actions et 50,5 % d’obligations/taux. Cela posé, compte tenu de perspectives macroéconomiques négatives dans toutes les grandes régions, le portefeuille du fonds Carmignac Investissement est exposé en net aux actions «au minimum syndical» de quelque 60 %. L’OPCVM Carmignac Patrimoine l’est à seulement 2 % et les fonds de fonds de la gamme sont proches de zéro en actions, souligne Frédéric Leroux.

Le groupe OFI a annoncé la création d’une direction marketing et stratégie avec pour objectif de structurer l’offre de produits et de services à destination d’une clientèle française et internationale. Dans ce cadre, OFI AM a recruté Vincent Ribuot au poste de directeur du nouveau département et Alejandro Hiniesto, en charge du marketing Europe. Un responsable des appels d’offres est en cours de recrutement, indique un communiqué. Vincent Ribuot était précédemment directeur des investissements et membre du comité de direction de l’UMR. Il rejoindra OFI AM début septembre et sera membre du comité exécutif. Âgé de 49 ans, Vincent Ribuot était depuis 2003 à la direction des investissements de l’UMR, et membre du comité de direction. Pour sa part, âgé de 38 ans, Alejandro Hiniesto a occupé en 2007 chez JP Morgan Asset Management à Londres le poste de responsable du développement stratégique puis a occupé pendant deux ans le poste de consultant senior au sein des cabinets de conseil Genil 48 à Dublin puis Sagalink Consulting à Paris avant de rejoindre OFI AM.

Le tierce partie marketeur (TPM) Investeam et la société Flornoy & Associés Gestion ont conclu un accord de partenariat, par lequel la société de gestion a confié à Investeam son développement commercial. En pratique, Investeam assurera la distribution exclusive des fonds Flornoy Valeurs Familiales et Flornoy Allocation auprès des investisseurs institutionnels, distributeurs externes et conseillers en gestion de patrimoine.Dans le détail, le fonds Valeurs Familiales, géré par Olivier Flornoy, investit dans des sociétés européennes, majoritairement des grandes capitalisations, détenues et dirigées par des familles soucieuses de développer une stratégie claire et transparente qui s’inscrit dans la durée. Pour sa part, Flornoy Allocation est un fonds diversifié avec un objectif de performance supérieure à l’EONIA + 2% sur un horizon de 3 ans minimum.

A la mi-août, Jason Hollands rejoindra Bestinvest, une société dans laquelle il a travaillé il y a une dizaine d’années, en tant que managing director chargé du développement et de la communication, rapporte Fundweb. L’intéressé a quitté en février F&C, où il était head of corporate affairs.Chez Bestinvest, Jason Hollands sera directement subordonné au CEO, Peter Hall.

The Wall Street Journal rapporte que Bruno Iksil, «la Baleine de Londres», Achilles Macris et Javier Martin-Artajo ne font plus partie de l’effectif de J.P. Morgan Chase à Londres depuis jeudi. Ces trois salariés du Chief Investment Office, chargés de placer les liquidités excédentaires de la banque, ont commis des paris outranciers qui auront coûté 25 milliards de capitalisation à l’établissement… et plus de 5 milliards de dollars de pertes pour le deuxième trimestre. Ils avaient déjà été interdits de toute activité de négoce dès que J.P. Morgan s’est rendu compte de l’ampleur des pertes occasionnées. Malgré ces pertes, le groupe devrait annoncer ce vendredi qu’il a réalisé un bénéfice pour avril-juin.

C’est Brown Brothers Harriman qui est le conservateur des ETF que la société de gestion américaine Vanguard Funds a lancé en mai sur la Bourse de Londres (voir NewsManagers du 24/05/2012). La société espère rencontrer le même succès commercial qu’aux Etats-Unis avec ces 5 ETF, indique-t-elle dans un communiqué.

In mid-August, Jason Hollands will join Bestinvest, a firm where he worked for a decade, as managing director in charge of development and communication, Fundweb reports. Hollands left F&C in February, where he had been head of corporate affairs.At Bestinvest, Hollands will report directly to CEO Peter Hall.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Bruno Iksil, the “London Whale,” Achilles Macris and Javier Martin-Artajo are no longer part of the personnel of J.P. Morgan Chase in London, as of Thursday this week. The three employees of the Chief Investment Office, responsible for invesing the bank’s excess liquidity, made outrageous bets which cost the firm USD25bn in market value, and over USD5bn in losses in second quarter. They had already been barred from any trading activities when J.P. Morgan discovered the scale of the losses. Despite these losses, the group is expected to announce profits for the April-June quarter this Friday.

Since the ECB cut the refinancing rate to 0.75% and lowered its deposit rate to zero, half a dozen asset management firms have closed money market funds to new subscriptions, the Wall Street Journal reports. The news concerns products with total assets of USD60bn. Among the asset management firms affected are JPMorgan, BlackRock and Northern Trust.

Eduardo García Hidalgo has been promoted at BBVA Asset Management, from CIO for Europe to the position of global CIO, replacing Julio Sobrezamas, who becomes the head of equities at the BBVA bank, where he worked for four years before joining the asset management firm, Funds People reports.

Brown Brothers Harriman is the custodian for the ETFs that the US asset management firm Vanguard Funds launched in May on the London stock exchange (see Newsmanagers of 24 May 2012). the firm hopes to meet with the same commercial success as in the United States for its 5 ETFs, it says in a statement.

Fineco and Allfunds will distribute in Italy six Luxembourg-registered funds from the French firm Comgest: Comgest Growth Europe, Comgest Growth Emerging Markets, Comgest Grwoth GEM Promising Companies, Comgest Growth Latin America, Comgest Growth America, Comgest Growth India, Investment Europe reports.The development of the Italian market will be entrusted to Gabriella Berglund.

Two months after its launch, the Allianz RCM Renminbi Fixed Income had to be soft closed in August 2011, with assets of EUR450m. Now, Investment Week reports, assets have fallen back to EUR368m due to redemptions, and due to these redemptions and more liquidity in the offshore yuan market, the fund will be reopened to subscriptions from 6 August.

Net inflows to long-term UCITS funds (excluding money market funds) have totalled EUR22bn in May, according to figures from the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA). In April, inflows totalled EUR18bn. Bond funds finished the month under review with inflows of EUR20bn, compared with EUR16bn in April. Equity funds saw further net redemptions, totalling a record EUR12bn, compared with redemptions of EUR7bn in April, EFAMA notes. Diversified funds saw outflows of EUR1bn, following redemptions totalling EUR3bn the previous month. Money market funds posted inflows of EUR13bn, compared with EUR10bn in April. Non-UCITS funds posted inflows of EUR8bn, compared with EUR9bn in April.

The Carmignac Patrimoine, Emerging Patrimoine and Europe Patrimoine funds, and the Sécurité bond fund, which currently has only about 2% exposure to the financial sector, brought the majority of net inflows of EUR2.2bn in first half for Carmignac Gestion, global manager Frédéric Leroux announced on Thursday. Assets at the French asset management firm as of 30 June totalled EUR50.03bn, compared with EUR45.86bn six months earlier, due both to performance effects and to net subscriptions. To place these figures in context, assets under management peaked at the end of 2010 at EUR55.03bn. It is not uncommon these day for net inflows to reach EUR40m per working day.Eric Le Coz, deputy CEO of Carmignac Gestion, told Newsmanagers that subscriptions have come into balance over all the countries in which the firm is present, including Germany, Italy and Spain, and more recently, the United Kingdom.Frédéric Leroux says that the Carmignac Sécurité fund has been growing strongly, particularly in Spain, while Eric Helderlé, deputy CEO of Carmignac Gestion, points out that Spaniards are still wary not only of saving deposits, which at the moment are competing with mutual funds, but also of Spanish-registered funds.Overall, assets at Carmignac Gestion are 49.5% in equities and 50.5% in bonds and fixed income. However, in light of the negative macroeconomic outlooks in all major regions, the portfolio of the Carmignac Investissement fund has the “legal minimum” net exposure to equities of about 60%. the Patrimoine fund is only 2% exposed to equities, and the fund of funds of the range is at a near zero exposure to equities, says Leroux.

CCR Asset Management (AM), an affiliate of UBS, is seeking to develop distribution of its products outside the borders of France, Agefi reports. While activities at CCR AM in France showed outflows in 2011 and show more since the beginning of this year, “one of our major axes of development is international. The UBS private bank gives us access to a large global network,” Jean-François Sarlat deputy CEO of CCR AM, explains to Agefi. “The country in which we have developed our distribution so far are countries bordering France, such as Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Germany,” says Sarlat. “In the future, the emphasis will also be on emerging markets, with the creation of products denominated in foreign currencies,” the director continues.

After opening an affiliate in Madrid in October 2010, Swiss & Global Asset Management is extending its activities to the Iberian peninsula, the Portuguese language edition of Funds People reports. This will result in the registration of four bond funds in Portugal: Julius Baer Absolute Return Bond Fund (share classes in euros and Swiss francs), Absolute Return Bond Fund Plus (euros and Swiss francs), Emerging Bond Fund (only euros) and Total Return Bond Fund (euros and Swiss francs).Michele Porro, head of sales and distribution, says that Swiss & Global is planning to register other funds in Portugal in the future.

The OFI group has announced the creation of an office of the director of marketing and strategy, which will work to structure the range of products and services for French and international clients. To this end, OFI AM has recruited Vincent Ribuot as head of the new department, and Alejandro Hiniesto, in charge of marketing for Europe. A head of requests for proposals is also being recruited, a statement says.Ribuot had previously been chief investment officer and a member of the board of directors at UMR. He will join OFI AM in early September, and will be a member of the executive board. Ribuot, 49, had since 2003 been a member of the investment board at UMR, and a member of the board of directors.Hiniesto, 38, in 2007 started at JP Morgan Asset Management in London in the position of head of strategic development, and then spent two years as senior consultant at the consulting firm Genil 48 in Dublin, and then at Sagalink Consulting in Paris, before joining OFI AM.

Newsmanagers understands that Philippe Couvrecelle, head of the managing board at Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management (EdRAM), has left the company, as the H24 Finance first reported on Thursday. La Compagnie Financière (LCF) Edmond de Rothschild plans to publish a press release on this Friday afternoon.Couvrecelle’s departure materializes at a time when the market rumors that both asset management affiliates of LCF, EdRAM and Edmond de Rothschild Investement Managers (EdRIM) are in for a closer connection. This being said, we understand that Couvrecelle’s exit doesn’t necessarily mean that EdRIM would take over EdRAM in the proposed merger that would possibly take place this fall. A new head is sought for at EdRAM in the meantime and his successor, who could possibly come from outside the group, hasn’t been found as of yet.

According to a global survey by the Nielsen institute of 28,000 consumers in 56 countries, 73% of Asians have investments in equities, compared with 67% of Americans. Their tolerance to risk is also higher: 57% of Asian investors surveyed say they would accept losses of over 10%, Handelsblatt reports. Another particularity of Asian respondents to the survey is that 40% of them are under 40 years old.

Only 26% of Germans say they have shares in investment funds in their portfolios, and these types of vehicles place fifth among their preferences, far behind savings accounts (58%), life insurance (44%), home buyer’s savings plans (43%) and sight deposits (33%). The findings are the result of a survey of 2,000 people by the Forsa institute on behalf of the German BVI association of asset management firms.When asked how they would invest an additional monthly income, 35% would prefer sight deposits and 33% savings accounts. Unit-linked savings plans finish sixth, with only 11% voting for them.

A study by Christian Meinhardt, Sigrid Müller, and Stefan Schöne of the Institute of Finance at Humboldt University in Berlin, of 68 integral physical replication ETFs and 218 synthetic replication ETFs, all of them listed in Frankfurt, has demonstrated empirically that synthetic replication is not better than physical replication, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. It also carries more risk, as a result of counterparty risks.However, synthetic replication ETFs bring better results than physical replication ETFs in fixed income. But, the scholars point out, in both formats, there is significant divergence from the index.

In a letter to European commissioner Michel Barnier, a copy of which has been obtained by the Börsen-Zeitung, the CEOs of 20 asset management firms voice their objections to a proposed application of the AIFM directive in its current form, claiming that the bill represents a threat to the single European market and to investor protections.The proposed legislation would forbid simultaneous outsourcing of portfolio and risk management to countries outside the country of domicile of the product, in order to avoid the development of letterbox companies in a manner similar to that of hedge funds in the Cayman Islands. The problem is that this rule would affect EUR3trn in assets throughout Europe, of which up to EUR300bn are held in German institutional funds (Spezialfonds).

The asset management firm of the Talanx group, AmpegaGerling, on 2 July changed the name of its bond fund Kapitalfonds Prozins to Gerling Unternehmensanleihenfonds, Fondsprofessionell reports.The change comes as part of a reshuffle of the fixed income fund range, but the fund continues to invest in fixed or variable rate corporate bonds, mostly from European firms. The name change, in German, is primarily intended to improve legibility, as “Unternehmensanleihenfonds” literally means corporate bond fund.

As of the end of June, assets under management at Legg Mason, Franklin Resources, Invesco and AllianceBernstein had risen by a total of USD49.3bn month on month.The two largest increases were for Franklin Templeton Investments, whose assets totalled USD706.9bn as of 30 June, compared with USD683.5bn as of the end of May, and by Invesco, whose assets under management totalled USD646.6bn, compared with USD632.1bn. At Franklin, USD10.4bn of the increase is due to equities, while USD9.8bn is from bonds, while at Invesco, equity assets increased by USD10.1bn, and bonds increased by USD1.9bn.The increases proved more modest at AllianceBernstein, at USd407bn, compared with USD400bn, and at Legg Mason, at USD631.8bn, compared with USD627.4bn.

According to a press statement from the SIX Swiss Exhange, “UBS ETF SICAV is launching 45 new ETFs based on equity indices and various forms of debt.” Concretely, the products, for which the market maker is Commerzbank, and which have TERs ranging from 0.15% to 0.65%, correspond to share classes in various currencies in 18 ETF funds.In the range are the first European and Japanese equity ETFs in the infrastructure sector to be listed in Switzerland. Among the other innovations on the list are four ETFs based on MSCI SRI indices.All of the new products use physcial replaication. They can be traded either in their base currencies, or in Swiss francs.