Franck Dussoge is joining the OFI group, where he will serve as chairman of the board at OFI Mandates, an affiliate dedicated to the management of mandated institutional assets, replacing Maxime de Chayla, who will be appointed as deputy CEO of OFI Asset Management. Dussoge joins from the Matmut group, a shareholder in OFI Asset Management with a 34% stake, where he spent 5 years on the board in charge of accounting and finances. His arrival follows the recent departure of Thierry Callault, who had been deputy CEO of OFI AM, and who will be replaced by de Chayla and Jean-Marie Mercadal. At Matmut, Dussoge will be succeeded by Nicolas Gomart, who is leaving OFI Asset Management, where he had been deputy CEO. The appointments will take effect on 1 June 2012. OFI AM, owned by Matmut and Macif, had EUR49.6bn in assets under management as of the end of February.
The sale of the Korean asset management firm SEI Asset Korea may be completed in the next few days, according to Asian Investor. Among the potential candidates are local actors and international heavyweights such as BNY Mellon. Assets under management at SEI Asste Korea totalled about USd7bn as of the end of February 2012.
La Française AM on Tuesday confirmed the arrival of Philippe Lecomte as a member of its teams. Newsmanagers anticipated this news following the announcement of his departure from Schroders Investment Management, where he had been CEO. He joins the firm as CEO of La Française AM Finance Services and La Française AM International, in charge of institutional clients and international development. Lecomte will be based in Paris, and will join the firm in April 2012, and will be a member of the executive board at La Française AM. The arrival coincides with a development in the organisation of the French asset management firm. “We have decided to put the direction of institutional activities in France and international development under the same managerial responsibility. Philippe’s experience serving French and international institutional clients fully meets our objectives,” says Patrick Rivière, CEO of La Française AM. Meanwhile, La Française AM has also confirmed that it will be appointing Nicolas Duban, who had previously handled development of institutional activities in France at La Française AM, as president of NexT AM, New Expertise and Talent, its affiliate specialised in acquiring stakes in small businesses, in an announcement which Newsmanagers had also anticipated.
The private equity group KKR has appointed John Mack, former head of Morgan Stanley, as a senior adviser, Bloomberg reports. Mack left his position as chairman of Morgan Stanley in late 2011, after serving as CEO of the bank from 2005 to 2010.
La Française Asset Management has acquired a 20% stake in the capital of the entrepreneurial asset management firm Trecento Asset Management. La Française AM is investing EUR15m in the young firm. The stake has been acquired via the La Française affiliate “Nouvelles Expertises et Talents (NEXT),” which is specialised in incubation and seed capital, and is led by Nicolas Duban.The range of funds from Trecento AM currently includes two funds: Trecento Market Neutral, an equities arbitrage fund, and Trecento European Equities, a European equities fund. The asset management firm was founded in late 2011.The firm is led by Alice Lhabouz, former equity manager at Turgot Asset Management, who previously spend several years as private manager at Meeschaert. Julien Jérémie, former deputy CEO of the business bank Croissance Partenaires, is its CEO.
Agefi reports that Blackstone and Bain Capital are preparing an initial public offering for Michaels Stores, six years after buying the business for USD6bn, relaying reports in several sources. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Barclays Capital and Deutsche bank are already reported to have been mandated to handle the operation, and the IPO documents may be submitted to authorities as soon as next week. The IPO may reawaken the appetites of investors, and also of funds, form whom the stock markets are again becoming a means of exit from private equity investments, Agefi adds.
The British investment management association (IMA) claims that a consultation by the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) on the classification of alternative investment funds has needlessly been too constrictive in some areas. The recommendations do not offer enough flexibility to integrate the very wide variety of vehicles covered by the directive. The association points out that the current plans stipulate that an alternative investment fund is not allowed to outsource both its portfolio management and its risk management, even though these practices are commonly undertaken together and cannot easily be separated. Another subject of concern which needs clarification is the ambiguity surrounding the status of alternative investment fund managers: are they allowed to hold a MiFID license, or do they need to abandon their MiFID licenses as soon as they become alternative investment fund managers?
The Children’s Investment Fund has started a legal action against the Indian government, which it accuses of breaching international treaties in connection with the fund’s investment in Coal India, the Financial Times reports. This is a further volley in a battle by the activist investor with the board of directors at Coal India, in which it holds a stake of over 2%. The government controls 90% of the firm. The asset management firm accuses the Indian government of ordering Coal India to sell its assets below the market value, and to stand in the way of its development.
Bond funds on sale in Italy in February posted net subscriptions of EUR1.468bn, where they had seen net redemptions of EUR736m in January and EUR8.8bn in the year 2011 overall, according to the most recent statistics from Assogestioni, the Italian association of asset managers. This is the only category of funds to have posted inflows in January, as equity funds saw net outflows of EUR679m, and money market funds had outflows of EUR1.583bn. Overall, open-ended funds on sale in Italy posted net redemptions in February of EUR1.671bn. With the addition of dedicated funds, Italian collective management has seen net outflows of EUR1.703bn. With mandated management, the total is even lower, with outflows of EUR2.729bn. In terms of asset management firms, Poste Italiane has seen the largest inflows, with EUR7.350bn, while at the same time, Credit Suisse has seen outflows totalling EUR7.277bn, This is actually due to the fact that Poste Italiane has brought the management of investments related to its Poste Vita insurance offerings in-house, according to reports in Il Sole – 24 Ore. Excluding this transfer, Generali stands out with inflows of EUR389m, At the other end of the spectrum, Intesa Sanpaolo has seen outflows of EUR1.0544bn, and Ubi Banca has seen outflows of EUR918.7m.
The British Man group on 27 March announced that it has created an online tool for investors in managed accounts. The new system, Clarus, offers investors more transparency for underlying investments. It allows clients to view their exposure to underlying risk factors for their managed accounts, and more generally the overall exposure of their managed accounts within their portfolios. Among the information offered through Clarus are performance, performance breakdown, sources of performance, risk value, with analysis of sensitivity to exchange rates, commodities, equities and interest rates. Assets under management at Man in management accounts currently total USD8bn.
Money Marketing reports that the head of Aviva Investors, John Clougherty, is about to leave the firm. The group announced in January that it is cutting back its staff by 12%, largely in London. Aviva Investors will remain active in the fixed income sector, real estate and multi-asset classes.
Gary Shaughnessy, the head of retail activities at Fidelity, is leaving the firm, Investment Week reports. He becomes CEO of the British life insurance activities of Zurich. He will report to David Sims, CEO of Zurich Global Life for Europe.
En janvier, la mutuelle Unéo, organisme de protection sociale de référence pour les militaires, a annoncé son rapprochement avec La France Mutualiste, la mutuelle historique des anciens combattants. Proches en raison des ayant-droits qu'elles regroupent, les deux structures instaureront entre elles un partenariat privilégié d'ici la fin de l'année. A cette occasion, Pascal Pigot, son directeur général adjoint, est revenu sur les stratégies d'investissement de la mutuelle et ses grands projets pour 2012.
La Chambre des représentants a voté hier en faveur d’une exemption pour les utilisateurs non financiers de swaps des exigences de collatéral contenues dans le Dodd-Frank Act. MillerCoors et Constellation, qui utilisent des dérivés pour se couvrir face à la volatilité des prix des matières premières, avaient plaidé pour une telle mesure. Approuvée lors d’un vote bipartisan, elle doit désormais recueillir l’aval du Sénat.
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co a nommé l’ancien patron de Morgan Stanley John Mack au poste de conseiller senior. Surnommé «Mack the Knife», il avait abandonné en 2010 le rôle de directeur général à James Gorman mais continuait d’assister la banque pour des opérations majeures. Rev Worldwide, une société de services de paiement, l’a également recruté en tant qu’administrateur.
La société de gestion, qui a recruté Philippe Lecomte, rend aussi plus visible son activité de prise de participation dans des gérants en la filialisant
N’écoutant que ses principes, la France s’est dotée cet hiver d’une taxe sur les transactions financières. A l’origine, il s’agissait au niveau du G20 de s’inspirer de la taxe Tobin, censée toucher les transactions de changes dans le monde entier, dans le but de financer le développement et lutter contre le réchauffement climatique. Le G20 l’a rejetée. Les thuriféraires de la taxe ont donc voulu l’appliquer en Europe seulement. Les Européens n’en ont pas voulu non plus. Paris et Berlin sont restés ses seuls partisans. Par une auto-intoxication très française, Paris a cru fin de créer seule la sienne, étroitement assise sur les transactions sur actions des grosses capitalisations et destinée non pas à financer les causes de développement durable mais prosaïquement à boucher les trous du budget. Berlin était censé suivre. Mais le ministre des Finances Wolfgang Schäuble vient de déclarer ce que chacun savait déjà, sauf au sommet de l’Etat français : sa mise en œuvre était vouée à l'échec dans une Europe hostile à l’idée. Une foule de problèmes techniques, assiette, taux, traitement des produits dérivés, n’était pas tranchée ni sans doute même soluble. La France sera donc le seul pays à avoir créé une telle taxe suite à la crise financière et porté atteinte au développement de son propre marché financier. De bons esprits «avancés» s’en réjouissent sans doute. Les zélateurs de la City peuvent les féliciter. Ils n’ont pas de meilleurs alliés.
Le quotidien croit savoir de sources anonymes que Starwood Capital s’apprête à mettre la main sur une participation de contrôle portant sur sept centres commerciaux aujourd’hui détenus par Westfield Group. Le montant de la transaction serait voisin d’un milliard de dollars. Le quotidien ne précise pas la localisation de ces actifs.
Il s’agit de restaurer une totale confiance envers le taux interbancaire, a indiqué au quotidien la patronne de l’association britannique des banques (BBA), Angela Knight. Sous le coup d’enquêtes des autorités à travers le monde sur des soupçons de manipulation des taux, la BBA met en œuvre un comité composé de banques (dont Credit Suisse, Barclays ou HSBC) et de l’opérateur CME afin de proposer d’ici le milieu de l’été des mesures, concernant par exemple le renforcement des codes d’éthique ou de nouveaux contrôles statistiques. Le comité rencontrera notamment des représentants de la FSA, de la Banque d’Angleterre et du Trésor.
A l’occasion d’une réunion ce matin, le gouvernement irlandais a fixé au jeudi 31 mai la date du référendum sur le nouveau pacte budgétaire européen. L’Irlande est actuellement dans la seconde année de son programme d’austérité lié à une aide de 67,5 milliards d’euros octroyée par l’Union européenne et le FMI. Le Royaume-Uni et la République tchèque ont déjà décidé de ne pas participer à ce «fiscal compact».
«J’ai bon espoir que l’Europe puisse relever efficacement ses défis budgétaires actuels», a déclaré le président de la Fed de New-York lors d’une audition devant la Commission des services financiers de la Chambre des représentants. «A ce stade, bien que je n’anticipe pas d’efforts supplémentaires de la Fed pour traiter les effets éventuels d’une contagion de la situation européenne aux Etats-Unis, nous continuerons à surveiller cette situation étroitement».
La confiance du consommateur américain a fléchi en mars et ses anticipations d’inflation n’ont jamais été aussi élevées depuis 10 mois, selon l’indice du Conference Board publié mardi. Cet indice est ressorti à 70,2 contre 71,6 en février (70,8 en première estimation) et 70,3 selon le consensus Reuters. Les anticipations d’inflation sur les 12 mois à venir sont passées de 5,5% en février à 6,3% en mars, au plus haut depuis mai 2011.