Francis Weber, directeur financier de Réunica lors d’une table ronde organisée par amLeague et Newsmanagers: Dans notre cas, notre période d’observation d’un fonds ouvert est en gros d’un an et demi. Si le gérant ne surperforme pas ou ne fait pas une bonne performance au moins en indice pendant un an et demi, on aurait tendance, sauf cas particulier, à le sortir assez rapidement. Nous avons une période d’observation relativement courte, nous sommes moins patients que dans le cadre d’un mandat. On ne peut pas accepter un gérant qui serait sous-performant pendant trois ans. C’est vrai que les conseils d’administration nous donnent davantage cette pression aujourd’hui. Nous regardons les portefeuilles au mois le mois. Évidemment, on ne peut pas surperformer tous les mois, mais on est dans des délais relativement courts. Vous avez dans les conseils souvent des non-spécialistes, ils considèrent que les spécialistes doivent savoir. Ils doivent savoir sélectionner les bonnes valeurs, ils doivent connaître le timing des marchés et donc surperformer tout le temps. Mais nous savons bien, nous, que malheureusement ce n’est pas possible. On n’a pas un temps infini devant nous, on ne peut pas attendre cinq ans pour avoir de la performance. Nous avons des actifs de 8 milliards d’euros. Nous travaillons avec 10-12 gérants de fonds dédiés et avec une bonne soixantaine de gérants sur des fonds ouverts. Nous avons aussi des fonds de fonds qui sont délégués. Si on regarde par transparence, nous avons beaucoup plus de gérants, peut-être 150 gérants. Mais, en direct, nous travaillons avec 60-70 gérants. Les fonds ouverts représentent 20% des encours. Nous n’avons pas de ligne directe en interne.
Stefan Lindermann, who has been the director of distribution and marketing at BZ Fonds, the asset management affiliate of BZ Bank (based in Wilen, in the Swiss canton of Schwyz) since April 2011, has been recruited as director of private label funds for LGT Bank in Liechtenstein from the beginning of June.Lindermann will report directly to Norbert Biedermann, CEO of LGT Bank in Liechtenstein.
Schroders is in talks to enter the real estate lending market, the Financial Times reports. The asset management firm is studying the possibility of launching a division which would provide financing through lending to real estate property owners and developers. Talks are at an early stage, and according to sources familiar with the matter, Schroders has not yet taken a decision about the size of the lending platform.
On 1 June 2012, a new procedure came into force, by which asset management firms are required to comply with disclosure requirements imposed by the Italian regulatory agency Consob, Bluerating reports. Asset management firms and Sicavs which would like to submit documentation for offerings of OPCVM investment products are now required to use exclusively the online procedure, which requires an account to log in.
Maintaining a high degree of liquidity costs about 20bp to 30bp of yield to a money market fund, says Fitch Ratings in a newly-published report on the liquidity of European money market funds. European money market funds have substantially improved their liquidity profile since 2008, which is proving an efficient buffer to the more opportunistic volatility of investors’ flows, but comes at a cost, according the rating agency.'Liquidity cushions in Fitch-rated European MMFs have been continuously maintained at high levels following the 2008 crisis, with exposure to securities maturing within a week typically exceeding 25% of a fund’s total assets’ says Charlotte Quiniou, Director in Fitch’s Fund and Asset Manager Rating Group. In response to the eurozone crisis, portfolio liquidity has been rising even further, with overnight and highly liquid assets reaching 33% on average.
Investors continued their search for safer places to park their money going into June as Spain struggled to avoid becoming the latest Eurozone market to require bailing out and economic data in the US continues to disappoint. Flows into EPFR Global-tracked US Money Market Funds during the week ending May 30 jumped to a 25 week high while US Bond Funds took in over USD1.5 billion for the 24th week in a row and Gold Funds recorded their biggest inflow since late January while Europe and Emerging Market Equity Funds extended their current outflow streaks.Despite the souring mood in global financial markets, Equity Funds managed to post net inflows of USD6.2 billion. But this was all due to flows into US Equity Funds and half of the total inflows were into a single S&P 500 index fund. While Monday inflows were strong, flows into the equity funds were dissipating at midweek. Bond Fund inflows amounted to USD1.5 billion while Money Market Funds took in a net USD2.2 billion as the flows into US funds were largely offset by redemptions from Europe Money Market Funds that hit an eight week high of USD7.6 billion.Nonetheless, «redemptions still haven’t hit the levels seen last August,» noted EPFR Global Research Director Cameron Brandt. «That may be due in part to the fact that flows are currently dominated by institutional investors. The retail investors who fled during 3Q11 have stayed away.»
Invesco has appointed Peter Gallagher as head of US retail sales. In this position he replaces John Cooper. The departure follows a reshuffle of sales teams. Retail activities in the United States, marketing, product management and ETFs will be reunited in a single US commercial division, which will be led by Andrew Schlossberg.
In France, the life insurance sector has continued to post negative flows in the first four months of 2012, Moody’s Investors Service reports in a study published on 4 June. Though these outflows, due to both structural and conjunctural factors, pose mid-term profitability issues, they do not presently pose liquidity risks. “The level of net outflows in France from life insurance companies does not presently endanger the liquidity of the sector,” says Benjamin Serra, an analyst at Moody’s and author of the study. “There is, however, a mid-term profitability issue, and opportunities to develop new activities to compensate for falling profits from savings activities in the future remain limited in the present context. Strong involvemnt in the phenomenon of outflows in the next few quarters, while not representing the base scenario projected by Moody’s, would accentuate pressure on life insurance companies,” he says.
BlackRock has unveiled a new version of its “connect” service, which helps US IFAs to get in touch with ETF investment strategists (EIS), Financial Times Fund Management reports. BlackRock predicts that the EIS sector will total USD120bn by 2015.
The fund manager of the European fund at Comgest, where she began 13 years ago, Claire Rodrigue will be leaving the firm at the end of June. In a move which has been long-planned with complete cooperation of the management at Comgest, Rodrigue will be joining a small firm which may subsequently collaborate with Comgest.Due to the departure and growth at the firm, two recruitments have recently been finalised for marketing to the French-speaking countries. The two new recruits will join Comgest in the next few weeks, the first on 25 June, and the second slightly later in the year.
The National South Korean pension fund NPS is seeking to triple its exposure to international equities between 2013 and 2017, according to the five-year asset allocation plan for the fund, Asian Investor reports. Meanwhile, the NPS will reduce its exposure to South Korean bonds. The international equities allocation may increase from 5.7% to more than 10% by 2017.By the end of 2017, the equity allocation is expected to represent at least 30% of total assets, compared with 23.2% currently, an increase of 6.8 percentage points. The allocation to South Korean bonds will then not exceed 60% of total assets, compared with 64.5% currently. The international bond allocation may be increased to more than 10%, from 4.2%. The fund is also planning to increase its exposure to alternative investments, to more than 10%, from 7.8% currently.The performance objective is raised to 6.6% from 6.5% previously, on the basis of a growth outlook of 3.5% to 4% per year, and annual inflation of 3%.If the plan proceeds as projected, assets under management may total USD531bn by the end of 2017, compared with USD303bn at the end of 2011.
The German private bank Hauck & Aufhäuser has reported an increase in its profits in 2011 to EUR12.9m, compared with EUR9.1m the previous year. Assets under management increased by about EUR3m to over EUR27bn, compared with EUR24bn as of the end of December 2011. The firm has also announced the recruitment of Stephan Rupprechts, from UBS, as the new partner who will be in charge of private and corporate clients. He will begin in his new role on 1 July next year. Hauck & Aufhäuser has also decided to recruit in the real estate sector, to provide clients with the opportunity to invest in residential real estate portfolios from the bank or to participate in club deals. The bank has been present in the financing of real estate projects for two years already.
Georg Fahrenschon, former finance minister of Bavaria, was on Monday elected as chairman of the supervisory board at Landesbank Berlin (LBB), three weeks before also succeeding Heinrich Haasis as chairman of the German savings banks association (DSGV). According to Handelsblatt, sources familiar with the matter say that Fahrenschon will soon merge LBB with the central asset management firm for the savings banks, DekaBank, as the two firms are now both controlled by the savings banks, and their activities overlap in several areas.
Allan Bedwick, a former trader from Lehman Brothers, has decided to close his global macro hedge fund, after attempting for more than two years to increase assets in the fund, according to documents obtained by Reuters. Bedwick’s fund, whose assets under management totalled about USD120m, is based in Hong Kong. Facing ongoing uncertainties in the euro zone and concerns about a slowdown in growth, investors have been tending to steer clear of smaller alternative management actors in favour of heavyweights in the sector.
According to a survey by Z-Ben Advisors, a decline of 7.35% in revenues and rising costs last year resulted in losses for 25% of asset management firms with Chinese funds. This particularly affected small and mid-sized actors, who did not have sufficient capital to adapt to changing investor demand, rising costs and market trends. Some, however, were able to increase their profit margins by developing non-core product lines.
Following a general shareholders’ meeting held on 25 April, the board of directors at the wealth management firm Compagnie Privée de Conseils et d’Investissements (CPCI) has held the second round of its capital increase share offering, increasing the number of shares from 6 to 7 million, enacting a decision by the shareholders’ meeting of 9 July 2010, Agefi Switzerland reports. The capital increase comes as part of a continuing development strategy at CPCI, which includes the integration or acqusition of third-party asset management firms. In addition to third-party asset management firms, CPCI continues to be interested in all types of acquisitions in Switzerland which are compatible with its current structure and its development plans.
Stephen Kamp has been appointed as deputy head for Latin America, Spain and Israel, Julius Bär announced in a statement on 4 June. He will be based in Geneva. Kemp will assist Gustavo Raitzin, member of the executive board at the private bank. He will also participate in several projects, according to a statement released on Monday. Kamp will serve Israeli clients, whether or not they are resident in Israel. Julius Bär opened an office in Tel Aviv in March this year. The bank also acquired a minority stake of 30% in GPS, the largest Brazilian private wealth management firm, in 2011. Kamp previously worked at HSBC, where he served as chief administrative officer for the private bank in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East, Africa).
As of the end of March, assets in the private banking/wealth banking division of Banca March were up 15.7% to USD5.775bn. Assets managed by March Gestión, for their part, were up 11%. About 70% of funds beat their benchmarks.Banca March reports that in first quarter it launched the Family Businesses fund, which invests exclusively in publicly-traded family businesses, and which comes as an addition to the product range in the Luxembourg Sicav from March Gestión, alongside the Vini Catena (wine) and Terranova (defensive) funds.Net profits at Banca March in first quarter fell to EUR21.3m, comapred with EUR59m (-63.9%), and pre-tax profits are down to EUR58.7m from EUR244.4m (-76%). Profits in the corresponding period of 2011 were boosted by a one-time capital gain of EUR179.6m, which was generated by a sale of a 5% stake in ACS.Lastly, the bank reports that its tier 1 owners’ equity ratio as of the end of March stood at 24.1%, compared with 26.5% one year earlier.
In a very long article relayed by Handelsblatt, the weekly newsmagazine Wirtschaftwoche claims that subscribers to open-ended real estate funds currently in the process of being liquidated cannot be sure that they will soon see a redemption of their shares, since the banks which provided credit to the funds will have first dibs on the proceeds of sales of properties. Eurohypo (Commerzbank) and WestImmo (WestLB), two institutions which will soon be liquidated, prove to be the toughest at getting their money back. Open-ended real estate funds in Germany still have assets of EUR85bn, distributed over 19 products.The problem of asset sales for vendors is that the banks are hesitant to finance real estate, and that fund managers are not able to get the amounts for the properties that they had figured them at on their books.
Western Asset Management has decided to drop the name of its parent company, Legg Mason, from the names of its products, Bloomberg reports. The decision will take effect from 1 August, and aims to boost sales of funds, particularly to retail investors, who are highly sensitive to brand reputation.
The investment fund Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), which is already a majority shareholder in the Paris SG football team, on Monday officially acquired a 100% stake in Paris Handball, which is becoming a first-division team. QSI would like to make a long-term engagement to Paris Handball, and over the long term hopes to construct a top-calibre national and European team, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, president of the PSG football club, who will also direct the handball team, says.
The financial assets of retail clients has increased by 1.9% worldwide in 2011, to EUR122.800trn, but that figure conceals highly varied realities: assets were down 0.9% in North America, 0.4% in Western Europe, and 2% in Japan, but up by 18.5% in BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) reports in the most recent edition of its Global Wealth 2012 report.The fastest increase by client segment was for the ultra-high net worth (UHNW) client category, with wealth of over USD100m, where the increase was 3.7%, compared with an average of 1.7% in all other segments.While there has been a decline of 182,000 in the number of these clients in the United States and Japan, the number of US dollar millionaire households last year increased by 175,000 in developing countries, including China and India.As of the end of 2011, the number of US dollar millionaire households totalled 12.6 million, 0.9% of the BCG sample. The highest number of millionaires (5.1 million) continues to be in the United States, followed by Japan (1.6 million) and China (1.4 million). The highest density of millionaires was in Singapore, with over 17% of households, followed by Qatar (14.3%), Kuwait (11.8%) and Switzerland (9.5%). But the United States is the country with the largest absolute number of millionaire households (2,928) and billionaire households (363).Compared with the size of the population, Switzerland has the largest number of ultra-high net worth households, while Hong Kong is the country with the largest number of billionaires, in both cases due to immigration.
As of 1 June, Ampega Gerling Investment has absorbed the small fund Aktiv Trend Global (DE000A0NGJ51 / DE000A0Q8HK3), with EUR3.3m in assets in shares in equity funds, into the Gerling Portfolio Multi ETF Strategie (DE000A0NGJ69/DE0009847327), a fund of ETFs with EUR11.37m in assets, which may invest in equity and bond ETFs.
The open-ended real estate fund UniImmo: Europa, from the German asset management firm Union Investment, has resold the Fremont Lake Union Center office building in Seattle (27,616 square metres) to Killroy Realty Corp for USD106m, USD40m higher than the acquisition price in 2005, and USD15m above the last expert valuation.The UniImmo: Europa has five other properties in its portfolio with a value of USD900m, in New York, Washington, Chicago, San Diego and Seattle.
The Austrian firm FTC Capital has announced the launch of a UCITS-compliant managed futures fund, FTC Global Diversified. The German-registered product will invest in equities, bonds, currencies, commodities and volatility, using several strategies. The volatility objective is 15% over a rolling 12-month period.CharacteristicsName: FTC Global DiversifiedISIN code: DE000A1JDWE7Management commission: 2%Performance commission: 20%, with high watermarkHurdle rate: 3%
La part destinée à l’Asie au sein des investissements mondiaux du capital-investissement a doublé au cours des quatre dernières années pour s’élever l’an passé à 21%. Cette part devrait poursuivre sa progression, selon Bruno Roy de McKinsey, auteur d’un rapport sur le sujet. La région représente en effet 28% du PIB mondial. Le rapport souligne que la Chine a accaparé 45% des investissements sur la zone en 2011.
Le gérant vedette de BlackRock a annoncé son départ à la retraite dans une note interne destinée aux salariés de BlackRock et dont Reuters a obtenu copie. Il assurera la transition de la gestion jusqu’au 30 juin tout en restant disponible jusqu’à la fin de l’année.
Les commandes à l’industrie aux Etats-Unis ont reculé en avril pour la troisième fois en quatre mois, la demande baissant pour quasiment tous les produits. Selon les chiffres publiés par le département du Commerce, ces commandes ont baissé de 0,6% après un recul, plus marqué qu’initialement estimé, de 2,1% en mars.
La jeune pousse californienne Meebo, active dans le domaine des sites de réseaux sociaux, a fait part d’un accord de rachat par Google. Le blog All Things Digital avait évoqué cette transaction le mois dernier en évoquant un montant voisin de 100 millions de dollars.
La Banque centrale européenne n’a procédé à aucun rachat d’obligations souveraines la semaine dernière, confirmant ainsi sa volonté de résister aux pressions en faveur d’une intervention pour faire baisser les rendements de la dette espagnole. Ces rachats dans le cadre du SMP sont donc restés en sommeil pour la douzième semaine consécutive.