On 29 June, the Chinese securities commission (CSRC) issued a sales license for two ETFs launched by companies with status as Qualified Domestic Institutional Investors (QDII). They are the Hang Seng Index ETC from China AMC and the Hang Seng China Enterprise fund from E-Fund. The license also covers feeder funds for these two products. Subscriptions are expected to begin in early July, with official launch in early August.

UFF, the top wealth advising bank in France, is planning to take advantage of the times of crisis. By recruiting more and better advisers, launching opportunistic funds with partner asset management firms, and lastly, as Thierry Guérillot explains, by taking advantage of exaggerated downsides on equity markets, and the current potential which private equity and real assets have in terms of diversification and profitability. The UFF product range will be moving in this direction from this autumn.

In June, the Chinese State Office of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) issued Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) quotas totalling USD1.35bn, Z-Ben Advisors reports. Among the beneficiaries who did not have quotas previously are BlackRock Trust, Northern Trust, Mercuries Life Insurance, American International Insurance, Capital Research and Management, City of London Investment and Okasan Asset Management.

Facing a debt crisis in the euro zone, slowing growth in China, a potential new round of quantitative easing in the United States and a continuation of the Arab Spring, investors have recently had a limited appetite for risk, and have reduced their exposure to Europe and to Asian emerging markets. In the last week of June, equity funds saw redemptions totalling EUR7.7bn, while bond funds posted net inflows of USD4.7bn, according to estimates from EPFR Global. Over the past quarter overall, only US and global bond funds have managed to attract more tan USD10bn in assets. Japanese equity funds finished the quarter with inflows of USD5.6bn, and USd5.49bn in first quarter, compared with inflows of less than USD2bn in the first six months of 2011. However, European equity funds have seen their heaviest quarterly outflows since third quarter 2008. After a very good start, emerging market equity funds have seen redemptions totalling USD10.5bn for second quarter as a whole, with over USD8bn to contribute to Asia ex Japan equity funds. Inflows to high yield bond funds slowed in mid-May, and dividend equity funds underwent redemptions in June for the first time in over two years. Money market funds finished the quarter with outflows of USD19.67bn, which is due to redemptions from US money market funds of USD28.39bn. In Europe, money market funds posted inflows of USD6.5bn in second quarter. In the past six months, inflows to money markets total USD115.35bn, compared with slightly over USD49bn in first half 2011.

Since the end of last week, the listings of the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) include 1,006 products in the area of ETPs. The 1,000 product threshold was passed with the addition of 64 ETPs from UBS Global Asset Management, which is the largest number of products added in a single day since the launch of the segment in 2000. These ETFs in one fell swoop bring the number of ETFs from UBS Global AM listed in London from 2 to 66. They replicate numerous indices and providers, such as FTSE, MSCI, S&P, Markit iBoxx and Euro Stoxx, for European, American, Asian and emerging markets, as well as bonds and commodities.Since the beginning of 2012, the LSE has added 74 ETFs and 14 ETCs.

Sean Chang, who has recently been recruited from HSBC Global Asset Management (see Newsmanagers of 3 May), has announced as head of Asian debt that Baring Asset Management in Hong Kong that the British asset management firm is planning to launch new Asian bond funds, and to more widely promote existing funds in new distribution channels, Asian Investor reports. The Asian Debt Fund, a UCITS fund domiciled in Ireland, for which Chang is the lead manager, has recently received a sales license from the Hong Kong authorities. Chang has also announced that Barings is studying the possibility of also launching bond/country funds.

As of the end of June, Roman G. Trageiser, formerly of Allianz Global Investors (AGI), left the operational management of the fund administration platform Dealis Fund Operations, founded in late 2008 by Deka and AGI (see Newsmanagers of 19 December 2008), and of the Luxembourg affiliate of Dealis. Since the beginning of May, he has been replaced as CEO of the German firm by Bernd Franke.

Following the resignation of Anja Mikus, who will be leaving the asset management firm on 31 July, Union Investment has recruited Björn Jeach, director of global investment solutions for Germany and a member of the board of directors in the private wealth management unit at Deutsche Bank, as director of portfoio management. He will be responsible for a fund management team of 240 people, and assets of about EUR140bn.

Simon Borrows, the new CEO of 3i, is seeking to bring a fresh start to the veteran British private equity firm, closing six offices and cutting staff at six more, Les Echos reports. One third of all jobs at the firm will be affected. Fundraising has been extended for one year to the end of 2013. The share price of 3i has fallen by more than 80% in five years.

According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, Eric Boutchnei has quit his job. The co-founder of Métropole Gestion with François-Marie Wojcik and Isabel Levy, deputy CEO oand director of strategy at the firm, is said to have quit on Friday last week. Divergences in point of view at the asset management firm specialised in value style management is reportedly the cause of the departure of Boutchnei, who two years ago gave up his role as head of development to François Carlotti. The co-founder of Métropole Gestion then took over responsibility for the firm’s strategy, and became involved in issues at the asset management firm related to new regulatory constraints on institutional investors (Solvency, etc.). The departure of Carlotti from the asset management firm one year after his recruitment, with more mixed results in terms of development, will not have an effect. Boutchnei leaves a firm which he created with his partners following their departure from CCR in 2002, and which now has EUR2bn in assets. Boutchnei, a member of the SFAF, a graduate of the Centre d’Etudes Supérieures de Banque (1985),and of the Institut Technique Bancaire (1981), Boutchnei began his career as a financial analyst at BNP. Between 1985 and 2000, he was also deputy CEO of BNP Paribas Equities, and then CEO of Julius Baer France, before participating in the creation of Métropole Gestion and serving as a director there

The TCW Group has recruited David Loevinger, a former senior coordinator for Chinese affairs at the Treasury. He will join the emerging markets division of the firm as management director and analyst for sovereign debt. TCW has more than USD9bn in assets under management in emerging markets, a statement says.

Convictions Asset Management has awarded an execution mandate for fixed income transactions to BNP Paribas Securities Services. Convictions AM, whose assets under management currently total about EUR630m, would like its portfolio managers to concentrate on analysis, research and allocation of investments, in order to adapt to difficult market conditions. The asset management firm has chosen BNP Paribas SS, which already held a five-year outsourcing mandate for middle and back office functions. The outsourcing of front office functions is a new trend in the asset management sector, with Convictions AM one of the first exemplars.

The School of Management at the University of Strasbourg (EM Strasbourg) and CCR Asset Management have announced that they are teaming up to create a chair in behavioural finance. The chair will be funded for three years, and will be led by three researcher-teachers in the LaRGE finance speicalist research laboratory: Marie-Hélène Broihanne, Patrick Roger, and Maxime Merli, who will direct the effort. Research in behavioural finance questions the rationality of investors, behavioural biases in financial decision-making and the impact of these biases on financial markets. “This financing will allow us to develop relationships with colleagues in North America working in these areas, to have access to original databases, which are currently indispensable for the analysis of investor behaviour,” explains Merli in a statement. CCR Asset Management feels that supporting academic research is “a necessary complement to traditional analysis (micro, macro, fundamental, technical, etc), in order to allow us to better understand our clients and better comprehend the markets,” says Lorenzo Ballester, chairman and CEO of CCR AM. The collaboration between researchers at EM Strasbourg and CCR Asset Mangaement has already resulted in two studies. The first, undertaken in partnership with Morningstar in June 2011, found that finance professionals have too much confidence, a bias which influences their financial risk-taking. The second study focuses on investor sentiment and its impact on financial markets. It was presented at the annual conference held by CCR Asset Management in Paris on 28 June 2012, which was attended by nearly 250 professionals.

Sébastien Le Louarn, who most recently had been a senior private banker in the major private investor team at the Indosuez Banque Privée, has joined the management team at Reyl & Cie France “recently,” as director and senior portfolio manager.In his new role. Le Louarn will be in charge of developing and leading the investment advising range for private companies and advising to entrepreneurs. Le Louan, an equestrian jumping competitor, will also be hoping to develop a range more specifically aimed at the equestrian community at Reyl & Cie (France). The arrival of Le Louarn comes soon after that of Virginie Robert (see Newsmanagers of 11 June), who joined from Raymond James Asset Management.

The future of CA Cheuvreux will soon be a story written outside Crédit Agricole, Agefi reports. The bank has initiated a sales process for its equity broker, which it hopes to complete by mid-July, or failing that, to relaunch the process this autumn. Among the two or three potential buyers are the French firm Kepler Capital Markets. Last year, Cheuvreux lost its parent company EUR70m, according to the CA CIB annual report, on net banking proceeds of EUR164m. The cost of a social plan, and the form it will take, as buyer or acquirer, represents a key element in negotiations, the newspaper adds.

The Wall Street Journal reports that at a time when many US money market funds are pulling out of Europe, others, seeking higher returns, are going in deeper.Eight of 20 US money market funds with the highest exposure to Europe in terms of assets as of the end of May have increased their allocation to the euro zone between 31 Augsut 2011 and 31 May this year, among them BlackRock and Goldman Sachs.As an example, the exposure of the Goldman Sachs Financial Square Government Fud has increased to USD12.7bn from USD7.7bn. For the BlackRock Cash Fund Institutional and Prime funds, allocations have been increased to USD13.1bn from USD9.1bn and USD4.9bn from USD3.4bn, respectively.

The financial services provider State Street Corporation on 29 June announced that it is extending its partnership with Mitsui Fudosan, a Japanese real estate firm, to offer administration and trustee services for two new real estate funds, Moorgate Property Unit Trust and Mark Lane Property Unit Trust. State Street had originally been retained by Mitsui Fudosan, one of the largest Japanese real estate asset management firms, in 2008, to assist it in its development on the real estate market in the United Kingdom, providing administration services for the 5 Hanover Square Unit Trust. The decision by Mitsui Fudosan to extend its range of Jersey Property Unit Trusts (JPUTS) reflects a rising interest on the part of investors in the real estate market in the United Kingdom.

The board of directors at the private management bank Notenstein, an affiliate of Raiffeisen Switzerland, will be taking on four new members, according to a statement published on 29 June. The candidates in the mid-August election will include Günter Haag, a member of the board at KPMG Switzerland, Heinz Karrer, CEO of Axpo Holding SA< Maya Salzmann, vice president of Bright Entertainment and former managing director of Private Banking at Credit Suisse, and Thomas C. Weissmann, chairman of the board of directors at ALSO-Actebis Holding. In addition to chairman Pierin Vincenz, CEO of the Raiffeisen Switzerland group, and Patrik Gisel, his replacement at Raiffeisen, are already members of the board at the former Wegelin bank. Notenstein has 700 employees, and its assets under management total about CHF21bn.

Barclays has today (Monday, July 2nd) announced the resignation of its chairman, Marcus Agius. The search for a new successor both from within the existing board members and from outside will be led by Sir John Sunderland and will commence today. Mr Agius will remain in post until an orderlu succession is assured and Sir Michael Rake has been appointed deputy chairman Commenting, Marcus Agius said, “It has been my privilege to serve as Barclays Chairman for the past six years. This has been a period of unprecedented stress and turmoil for the banking industry in particular and for the wider world economy in general. Barclays has been well served by an excellent executive team - led, first by John Varley, and now by Bob Diamond – which has worked constructively with a strong and supportive Board of directors. Barclays has remained resilient throughout the crisis, and has worked hard to ensure that today it is a strong, well capitalised and profitable business. But last week’s events – evidencing as they do unacceptable standards of behaviour within the bank – have dealt a devastating blow to Barclays reputation. As Chairman, I am the ultimate guardian of the bank’s reputation. Accordingly, the buck stops with me and I must acknowledge responsibility by standing aside».The Board has also agreed to launch an audit of its business practices.

Kneip, a provider of services to the fund industry, has appointed Mario Mantrisi, an executive member of the board of director and former head of product management and innovation, to the position of chief strategist and research officer, Investment Europe reports.

Suite à la démisssion d’Anja Mikus, qui va quitter la société au 31 juillet, Union Investment a recruté Björn Jesch, le directeur de global investment solutions Allemagne (et membre de la direction générale du pôle private wealth management) de la Deutsche Bank comme directeur de la gestion des portefeuilles. Il sera ainsi responsable d’une équipe de gestion de fonds de 240 personnes et d’un encours de l’ordre de 140 milliards d’euros.

Swiss & Global Asset Management a fait admettre le 29 juin quatre ETF à gestion active à la négociation sur le segment Active ETF de la plate-forme électronique Xetra de la Deutsche Börse. Il s’agit de la cotation principale de ces fonds de droit luxembourgeois qui appartiennent à la gamme des produits Julius Bär Smart Equity et qui répliquent des indices MSCI. Les taux de frais sur encours s'échelonnent entre 0,60 % et 0,70 %.

La BaFin et la FMA ont accordé leur agrément de commercialisation pour respectivement l’Allemagne et l’Autriche à deux classes de parts du GLG Financials Alternative Fund, produit de droit irlandais qui met en œuvre la stratégie long/short sur les financières que GLG a lancée en mai 2002. Le portefeuille de ce produit coordonné est composé de 30 à 60 lignes ; il est géré par David Sanders et Stephen Holliday.La souscription minimale est fixée à 1.000 euros pour la part retail (IE00B73DP106) et à 100.000 euros pour la part institutionnelle (IE00B771GJ57).

Depuis la fin de la semaine dernière, la cote du Main Market du London Stock Exchange (LSE) comporte 1.006 références dans le domaine des ETP. Le franchissement de la barre des 1.000 unités a été occasionné par l’admission à la négociation de 64 ETF d’UBS Global Asset Management, ce qui est la plus grosse introduction en une seule journée par le nombre de produits depuis le lancement du segment en 2000. Ces ETF portent en une seule fois de 2 à 66 unités le nombre des ETF d’UBS Global AM cotés à Londres. Ils répliquent de nombreux indices de fournisseurs comme FTSE, MSCI, S&P, Markit iBox et Euro Stoxx sur des marchés d’actions européens, américain, asiatiques et émergents ainsi que des obligations et des matières premières.Depuis le début de 2012, le LSE a accueilli 74 ETF et 14 ETC.

Confrontés à la crise de la dette dans la zone euro, au ralentissement de la croissance en Chine, à l'éventualité d’un nouvel assouplissement quantitatif aux Etats-Unis et aux retombées des printemps arabes, les investisseurs ont limité ces derniers temps leur appétit pour le risque et réduit leur exposition à l’Europe et aux marchés émergents asiatiques.Durant la dernière semaine de juin, les fonds d’actions ont ainsi subi des rachats pour un montant de 7,7 milliards de dollars alors que les fonds obligataires enregistraient une collecte nette de 4,7 milliards de dollars, selon des estimations communiquées par EPFR Global.Sur l’ensemble du trimestre écoulé, seuls les fonds obligataires américains et globaux ont réussi à drainer plus de 10 milliards de dollars. Les fonds d’actions japonaises ont terminé le trimestre sur une collecte de 5,6 milliards de dollars et de 5,49 milliards sur le premier semestre, à comparer à une collecte de moins de 2 milliards de dollars pour les six premiers mois de 2011.En revanche, les fonds d’actions européennes ont subi leur plus forte décollecte trimestrielle depuis le troisième trimestre 2008. Après un très bon départ, les fonds d’actions émergentes ont subi des rachats pour un montant de 10,5 milliards de dollars sur l’ensemble du deuxième trimestre, avec plus de 8 milliards de dollars à mettre sur le compte des fonds d’actions asiatiques hors Japon. La collecte des fonds obligataires high yield s’est tarie à la mi-mai et les fonds d’actions de dividende ont subi des rachats en juin pour la première fois depuis plus de deux ans.Les fonds monétaires ont terminé le trimestre sur une décollecte de 19,67 milliards de dollars, qui s’explique par des rachats sur les fonds monétaires américains de 28,39 milliards de dollars. En Europe, les fonds monétaires ont enregistré une collecte de 6,5 milliards de dollars au deuxième trimestre.Sur six mois, la décollecte des fonds monétaires atteint 115,35 milliards de dollars contre un peu plus de 49 milliards de dollars au premier semestre 2011.

L’avenir de CA Cheuvreux s'écrira bientôt en dehors du Crédit Agricole, annonce L’Agefi. La banque verte a engagé un processus de vente de son courtier actions, qu’elle espère conclure d’ici à mi-juillet ou, à défaut, relancer à la rentrée. Parmi les deux ou trois acquéreurs potentiels, figure le français Kepler Capital Markets. L’an dernier, Cheuvreux a fait perdre 70 millions d’euros à sa maison mère, selon le rapport annuel de CA CIB, pour un produit net bancaire de 164 millions d’euros. Le coût d’un plan social, et l’identité de celui qui l’assumera - vendeur ou repreneur - constitue un élément-clé des négociations, note le quotidien.

L’Agefi rapporte que la solvabilité ajustée des risques constitue la principale faiblesse des notations des assureurs français, selon Standard & Poor’s (S&P). Un constat lié à la structure des actifs investis, la France ayant une forte exposition aux actions En dépit de la volonté des assureurs de réduire leur exposition à cette classe d’actifs dans la perspective de Solvabilité 2, leur part est restée stable à 11% en 2011. Par ailleurs, la part de l’immobilier crû à 6% en 2011, alors que S&P anticipe une baisse de 15% des prix immobiliers sur les deux prochaines années. L’agence perçoit en outre une augmentation du risque de crédit suite aux abaissements de notes souveraines, telles que celles de l’Espagne et l’Italie.

Kneip, groupe luxembourgeois prestataire de services dans l’industrie des fonds, a nommé Mario Mantrisi, membre exécutif du conseil d’administration et ancien head of product management and innovation au poste de chief strategist et research officer, indique Investment Europe.

Selon nos informations, Eric Boutchnei a jeté l'éponge. Co-fondateur de Métropole Gestion avec François-Marie Wojcik et Isabel Levy, le directeur général délégué et directeur de la Stratégie aurait quitté l’entreprise vendredi dernier. Des divergences de vues dans la gestion de la société spécialisée dans la gestion «value» seraient à l’origine du départ d’Eric Boutchnei qui, il y a deux ans, avait cédé ses fonctions de responsable du développement à François Carlotti. Le co-fondateur de Métropole Gestion avait alors pris la responsabilité de la stratégie de la maison, et s'était impliqué entre autres, dans les problématiques de la société de gestion liées aux nouvelles contraintes réglementaires des investisseurs institutionnels (Solvency, etc). Le départ de François Carlotti de la société de gestion, un an après son recrutement avec un bilan plutôt mitigé en termes de développement n’y aura rien fait. Eric Boutchnei quitte une société qu’il avait mis sur pied avec ses associés après leur départ de CCR Actions en 2002, et qui affiche aujourd’hui deux milliards d’euros d’encours. Membre de la SFAF, diplômé du Centre d’Etudes Supérieures de Banque (1985), et de l’Institut Technique Bancaire (1981), Eric Boutchnei a débuté sa carrière comme analyste financier à la BNP. Entre 1985 et 2000, il a également été directeur général adjoint de BNP Paribas Equities puis directeur général de Julius Baer France, avant de participer à la création de Métropole Gestion et d’y exercer ses fonctions dirigeantes.

Le prestataire de services financiers State Street Corporation a annoncé le 29 juin l’extension de son partenariat avec Mitsui Fudosan, une société immobilière japonaise, afin d’offrir des services d’administration et de fiducie (Trustee) pour deux nouveaux fonds immobiliers « Moorgate Property Unit Trust » et « Mark Lane Property Unit Trust ».À l’origine, State Street avait été mandaté en 2008 par Mitsui Fudosan, l’une des plus importantes sociétés immobilières japonaises, afin de l’accompagner dans son développement sur le marché de l’immobilier au Royaume-Uni, en fournissant des services d’administration pour le fonds « 5 Hanover Square Unit Trust ».La décision prise par Mitsui Fudosan d’élargir sa gamme de fonds (JPUTS : Jersey Property Unit Trusts) reflète l’intérêt croissant des investisseurs pour le marché de l’immobilier au Royaume-Uni.