Dans un entretien, l’associé dirigeant de Vector Capital, Alexander Slusky, assure au sujet de sa proposition auprès de Technicolor (lire page 8) qu’«habituellement, nous investissons pour cinq à sept ans». «Ce ne sera pas différent pour Technicolor» assure le dirigeant, qui avance que Vector est déterminé à soutenir son projet jusqu’au bout. Si JPMorgan présente une nouvelle offre, «nous étudierons bien sûr toutes les alternatives».
Le quotidien cite une étude d’une association britannique de la gestion d’actifs, l’Investment Management Association, selon laquelle les investisseurs institutionnels outre-Manche sont toujours plus soucieux de participer activement au vote en assemblée générale. Plus de 17 investisseurs sur 20 ont cette année exercé leurs droits de vote pour l’ensemble des assemblées des sociétés dont ils détiennent des titres. L’étude de l’IMA entend faire le point après le lancement en juillet 2010 d’un code visant à faire la promotion d’un comportement plus actif des gestionnaires. En dépit d’un climat économique incertain, ces derniers ont également renforcé les ressources dédiées au sujet.
Le Fonds européen de stabilité financière (FESF) a placé mardi 1,5 milliard d’euros d’obligations arrivant à maturité en 2037. Le spread à l’émission ressort à 130 points de base au-dessus du taux midswap. BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank et JPMorgan ont codirigé l’opération. Les fonds levés seront utilisés pour le financement des programmes d’assistance au x Etats membres.
La directrice générale du Fonds monétaire international (FMI) a appelé dans le cadre du sommet Rio+20 les responsables européens à franchir «des étapes décisives» pour se libérer de la crise. «Il nous faut une stratégie qui soit bonne pour la stabilité et la croissance, la stabilité induisant la croissance et la croissance assurant la stabilité», a-telle martelé.
Certains pays membres de l’Opep ont exhorté l’Arabie saoudite à freiner la production pour endiguer une chute des prix qui a vu le baril de brut perdre 30 dollars depuis mars. «Lors de la réunion, nous appellerons très fermement les pays qui surproduisent à réduire», a déclaré le ministre vénézuélien du Pétrole Rafael Ramirez. Riyad a porté sa production à 10 millions de barils par jour (bpj), du jamais vu depuis des décennies.
Le soulagement initial qui a salué l’accord européen intervenu samedi s’est rapidement dissipé, les intervenants s’interrogeant sur les capacités de l’Espagne à pouvoir encore se financer sur le marché. Le rendement du 10 ans espagnol gagnait 32 points de base à 6,85%, dépassant le pic de novembre 2011 qui était de 6,8%. Fitch a abaissé ce mardi la note de 18 banques espagnoles à la suite du déclassement de la note souveraine du pays.
«Je pense que nous sommes dans une position difficile pour les trois, quatre ou cinq prochains mois», a déclaré Lloyd Blankfein, le patron de Goldman Sachs, sur l’antenne de MSNBC. «Il y a beaucoup d’incertitude», a-t-il ajouté, en particulier sur l’impact que pourrait avoir le résultat des élections américaines sur la fiscalité des dirigeants d’entreprises.
L’Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) et l’European Financial Services Round Table (EFR) ont lancé aujourd’hui un label européen pour les titrisations de bonne qualité. Baptisé PCS pour prime collateralised securities, ce projet constitue une tentative de l’industrie bancaire pour rétablir la confiance des investisseurs dans la titrisation et relancer ce compartiment. Le premier label doit être décerné à la fin de l’année.
Le gouvernement suisse a relevé mardi ses prévisions de croissance pour 2012 en expliquant que la vigueur de la demande intérieure compensait l’effet négatif du cours élevé du franc suisse sur les exportations. Le secrétariat d’Etat à l'économie (Seco) prévoit désormais une croissance de 1,4% en 2012, contre une estimation de +0,8% fournie en mars dernier. L’estimation de l'évolution des prix à la consommation est confirmée à -0,4%.
La production manufacturière britannique a chuté de façon inattendue en avril, ravivant le risque d’une récession longue de l'économie du Royaume-Uni et accentuant la pression sur les responsables politiques pour prendre des mesure de soutien à la croissance. Selon les données de l’Office national de la statistique, la production du secteur manufacturier a reculé de 0,7%. Elle avait rebondi plus fortement que prévu le mois précédent, de 0,9%.
Le yen est modérément surévalué et une intervention est une option pour atténuer la volatilité, a déclaré un haut responsable du Fonds monétaire international (FMI), dans un rare signe de compréhension envers l’action du Japon pour tenter de limiter la hausse de sa monnaie. La devise nippone, considérée comme une valeur refuge, s’est appréciée alors que les investisseurs s’inquiètent de la crise de la dette en zone euro.
L’Inde a fait état mardi d’une quasi-stagnation en avril de sa production industrielle, ce qui confirme la fragilité de son économie après un avertissement sur la notation de la dette du pays et accroît la pression en faveur d’une baisse de ses taux directeurs. Standard & Poor’s a menacé lundi de dégrader la dette de l’Inde à la catégorie spéculative, qui se retrouverait ainsi le premier pays du groupe des «BRIC» à perdre son statut de pays en catégorie d’investissement.
Les doutes qui persistent sur les détails du plan et les craintes d’un emballement de la dette publique espagnole auront été les plus forts. En fin de matinée, le rendement des obligations espagnoles à 10 ans progressait de 16 points de base, à 6,689%, tout près du record de 6,71% atteint fin mai et non loin de la barre de 7% qui a contraint l’Irlande et le Portugal à se tourner vers une aide internationale. Dans la foulée, à 6,14%, le rendement des obligations italiennes à dix ans s’installe également au-dessus de la barre de 6% . L’aide financière de 100 milliards d’euros aux banques espagnoles n’est qu’un élément de la notation du pays, a déclaré mardi le directeur général des notes souveraines chez Fitch Ratings, Ed Parker à Reuters. Il estime que le pays manquera de beaucoup ses objectifs en matière de déficit budgétaire aussi bien cette année qu’en 2013. Le prêt que la zone euro prépare, aura un taux d’intérêt de 3% et sera remboursable en 10 à 15 ans, affirme de son côté le journal ABC sans citer ses sources.
The hedge fund industry may more than double in size in the next five years, to more than USD5trn in assets, according to a recent Citigroup study cited by the Wall Street Journal. Hedge funds may attract USD2trn in new subscriptions, due to enlargements of their product ranges to make them able to compete with traditional asset management firms. Pension funds and institutional investors may invest a further USD1trn as they adjust to the various risks posed by hedge funds.
The Swiss private bankVontobel on 11 June announced the launch of a fund dedicated tocorporate bonds, the Vontobel Fund - High Yield Bond, which willallow investors to earn revenues comparable to those from equities,with lower risk and volatility.The new fund offersinvestors access to a wide range of high yield corporate bonds, withratings ranging form BB+ to CCC-. With a return objcctive of 5% to 9%per year (considered over a complete economic cycle), the fund isseeking to earn revenues comparable to those of equities, and thus ishoping to achieve protection against inflation, while presentinglower volatility and risk than shares which servei dividends.Additional returns compared with government bonds, which have highersolvency levels, are offset by credit risks.Name of fundVontobel Fund – High Yield Bond Benchmark indexCustomized Merrill Lynch High Yield, 50% EUR et50% USD hedgedCurrency of fundEURCountry of domicileLuxembourgEnd of financial yearAugustDate of launch11 June 2012Portfolio managerStefan ChappotISIN numberB: LU0571066462 I: LU0571066975(exclusively for institutional investors)Management commissions per year1.10% (B), 0.55% (I)
France has lost a decision before the European Court of Justice, and will be required to put French and foreign-registered mutual funds on an even footing. Currently, foreign mutual funds investing in French companies are subject to a 30% withholding tax on dividends earned. French-registered funds are exempt from the tax.The French government is planning to impose a withholding tax on all funds, a proposal which is not satisfactory to professionals in the sector. The French financial management association will visit Bercy (the Finance ministry) this afternoon for talks about the various options on the table.
The US firm Franklin Templeton has transformed its division dedicated to real estate into a unit dedicated to real assets, Asian Investor reports. With this prospect in mind, Franklin Templeton is currently recruiting infrastructure specialists (energy, water, transportation, agriculture) and sources close to the firm indicate that Franklin Templeton is also preparing an infrastructure fund. Franklin Templeton had no commend on the reports. Assets under management in real assets, for the moment composed largely of real estate, total nearly USD5bn.
The alternative asset management firm SAC Capital, whose assets under management total about USD14bn, has recruited Louis Villa as a portfolio manager, Reuters reports. Villa previously worked at Edoma Partners, the fund founded by a former Goldman Sachs manager, Pierre-Henri Flamand, which has not performed terribly well since its launch in 2010. Villa left his position at Edoma in April. The event-driven hedge fund from Edoma, whose assets total about USD1.8bn, lost 0.85% in first quarter 2012, which puts its losses since launch at 3.1%. On average, event-driven strategies earned 4.62% in first quarter.
Pergam, an independent asset management firm founded in 2001 by Olivier Combastet, is now adding a third element to its activity, alongside mandates and private equity: Erik Alme, director of management and private clients, and Caroline Gaudry, partner and bond manager, have told Newsmanagers that the firm is now entering collective management, with the launch of a first fund on 13 June, entitled Pergam Obligations 2017. It is a target date fund (30 June 2017), which received a sales license from the AMF on 9 May.With Obligations 2017, Pergam is offering a French-registered fund which will allocate at least 80% of its portfolio to investment grade securities (currently 84%), while the remainder is divided between an “upper segment” of high yield and unrated assets. The portfolio (40 holdings) will initially contain no financial sector or automotive sector investments, nor securities from issuers whose headquarters are in Greece. The bonds selected are from issues of EUR500m or more, and have no currency risks. For the first fund, Pergam is aiming for performance higher than those the French govie OAT maturing on 25 April 2017, for a net return of nearly 4% under current conditions. The product offers weekly liquidity, and subscriptions will close on 31 October.The declared inflow objective is EUR50m. Management is outsourced to Aviva Investors, which has a credit research team with 40 analysts. The asset management firm currently has assets of about EUR800m, about half of which is in mandates (2/3 equities from outside Europe and 40% European bonds) and private equity (agricultural land, US real estate and rolling stock, among others). The objective, including the collective management unit, is to have a total of EUR1bn in assets under management in all three professions in three years, and EUR1.2bn in five years.CharacteristicsName: Pergam Obligations 2017ISIN codes:FR0011223106 (C share class)FR0011223114 (D share class)Front-end fee: noneManagement commission: 0.80%Withdrawal penalty:1% until 31 October 20120.5% from 1 November 2012 to 30 June 2014, inclusive; none thereafter
Edmond de Rothschild Investment Managers on 11 June announced the launch of a new target date bond fund which allows investors to benefit from current opportunities on credit markets: Edmond de Rothschild (EdR) Millésima 2018. Edmond de Rothschild (EdR) Millésima 2018 – Major characteristics End of sales period: 17 December 2012 ISIN codes: C share class (retail): FR0011252360 ; I share class (institutional): FR0011255207 Liquidity: Daily AMF classification: Bonds and other securities denominated in euros Currency: euro Benchmark: OAT maturing in October 2018 Recommended investment duration: until 31 October 2018 Financial management fees: C share class: maximum 0.95%; I share class: maximum 0.45% Performance commission: None
Assets under management in the ETF sector in Europe in this year’s first quarter rose by 8.71% to EUR250.81bn, according to statistics from Lipper. For 2011 as a whole, assets under management rose 3.75%.In Q1 2012 equity ETFs saw inflows of over EUR3 billion in new assets under management, followed by EUR1.5 billion into bond funds and EUR770 million into commodity funds. Money market ETFs experienced outflows of over EUR90 million.In Q1 2012, 62 ETFs were launched - half in the equity space. 19 bond funds were launched in the first quarter, but these have gathered 63% of assets among new ETFs. Inflows to new ETFS totalled EUR490m in first quarter, of which EUR311m were for bond ETFs, and EUR102m for equity ETFs.Lipper reports that out of the 1,711 ETFs registered for sale in Europe, 241 funds may be on a so-called ETF “Death List”, in other words under review for profitability reasons by fund promoters. These funds are older than 3 years, but have less than €100 million in assets.
Since 11 June, the XTF segment of the Xetra platform (Deutsche Börse) lists 986 ETFs, with the addition to trading of five new Irish-registered products from UBS Global Asset Management, four of which are baseed on the MSCI Canada and Japan indices (two each) and one on the FTSE 100. TER ranges from 0.28% to 0.50%.
The US firm Vanguard has received a sales license from BaFin to sell five ETFs in Germany (based on the FTSE 100, S&P 500, FTSE All World, FTSE Emerging Markets and gilts), which were admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in late May. It is not yet known, however, if the issuer will apply to list these products on Deutsche Börse, Handelsblatt reportts. Tim Huver, product manager, has not yet indicated how Vanguard is planning to market the products in Germany. For the moment, the US asset management firm has no representative office in the country. Its strategy on the German market will be defined in the next four weeks.
Amundi, via the managed account platform Amundi Alternative Investments, has awarded the fixed income and currencies team at Macquarie Investment Management (MIM) a mandate for EUR80m, in order to actively trade G10 currencies (US, Canada, UK, euro region, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Japan, Australia and New Zealand).Amundi Alternative Investments has nearly EUR8bn in assets under management, according to a statement, of which EUR1.7bn are on its managed account platform. The firm employs 100 professionals worldwide (Paris, New York, London, Tokyo). Amundi Alternative Investments, designs and structures alternative multi-management product solutions within a European regulatory framework, domiciled in Ireland under the MiFID Directive.For its part, MIM has been managing fixed income and currency portfolios for over 40 years, and now has a team of over 100 professionals based in Sydney, Philadelphia and London. Its assets total over EUR120bn for fixed income and currency products.
The name of the Liontrust funds «CF Walker Crips UK Growth,” «CF Walker Crips Equity Income» and «CF Walker Crips UK Hight Alpha funds» have been changed to «CF Liontrust Macro UK Growth,» «CF Liontrust Macro Equity Income» and «CF Liontrust Macro UK Hight Alpha funds» respectively, a statement announced yesterday. The decision follows the acqusition of Walker Crips Asset Managers Limited (WCAM) by Liontrust Asset Management PLC on 12 April 2012. The funds in question will continue to be managed by Stephen Bailey and Jan Luthman.
Demand by hedge fund managers for solutions from third party marketers (TPM) is on the rise, according to Agecroft Partners, Investment Europe reports. This development is reportedly related to small and mid-sized hedge funds, which with the financial crisis, have become aware of the importance of distribution and marketing of their product ranges via TPM providers. Between third quarter 2008 and 2010, net inflows in the hedge fund sector have remained concentrated on a small group of actors whose assets under management total over USD5bn. But from 2011, mid-sized structures have managed to drive their brands and compete with major alternative management actors, Agecroft Partners observes.