Lyxor a coté sur la Bourse italienne trois ETF supplémentaires sur des titres d’Etat notés AAA de la zone euro, rapporte FondiOnline. La gamme monte ainsi à 4 ETF, chacun spécialisé sur des maturités différentes (1-3 ans, 3-5 ans, 5-7 ans et toutes échéances). Les titres d’Etats auxquels les ETF sont exposés sont émis par l’Allemagne, la France, les Pays-Bas, l’Autriche et la Finlande.

Lazard Frères Gestion a annoncé le 7 mars que sa sicav actions ISR, Objectif Ethique Socialement Responsable, changeait de dénomination sociale pour devenir «Objectif Investissement Responsable» (Codes ISIN : Part C FR0000003998, Part D FR0010990606).Objectif Investissement Responsable est investie en grandes capitalisations de la zone euro et intègre de façon stricte des critères extra-financiers pour constituer un portefeuille concentré de 40 à 50 valeurs. A fin février 2012, les actifs sous gestion de la sicav s'élevaient à 81 millions d’euros.«Objectif Investissement Responsable, bénéficie d’un historique de 10 ans qui recouvre plusieurs phases du cycle, de la bulle Internet à la crise récente, en passant par des périodes de croissance boursière. Sur cette période, notre gestion a surperformé l’indice Eurostoxx de 6% avec une grande régularité et une moindre volatilité. A noter que nous sélectionnons avant tout des sociétés rentables car il n’est pas question de sacrifier la performance économique» commente Axel Laroza, gestionnaire de la Sicav depuis sa création.

La société de gestyion alternative The Gargoyle Group, spécialisée dans les stratégies d’options sur actions, vient de lancer un fonds market neutral assorti d’un mécanisme de couverture en continu par le biais d’options sur indices, rapporte FINalternatives.Le fonds utilise dans ce véhicule une bonne partie des ingrédients propriétaires qui ont contribué à la réussite du fonds phare de Gargoyle, le Gargoyle Hedged Value Fund. Le nouveau produit cherche à produire de l’alpha par le biais de la sélection de titres et l’addition de primes issues de la vente d’options d’achat surévaluées.

En France, la moyenne de femmes occupant des postes de direction dans les entreprises est en progression. Mais cette progression est faible, et malgré la loi du 27 janvier 2011 relative à la représentation équilibrée des femmes et des hommes au sein des conseils d’administration, instances de gouvernance et direction des sociétés cotées, qui vise au moins 40 % des membres de ces conseils d’ici 2017. C’est ce que révèle Grant Thornton dans sa dernière étude «International Business Report 2012".La représentation féminine dans les postes au sein de directions a augmenté de 3 %, passant de 21 % en 2011 à 24 % en 2012. La France se situe donc dans la moyenne européenne (24 %) et reste supérieure à la moyenne mondiale (21 %). La parité n’est pas le seul aspect à prendre en considération. En effet, en 2012, l’Observatoire des inégalités recensait encore 10 % d’écart de salaire entre hommes et femmes ayant les mêmes capacités et expériences, rappelle Grant Thornton.Sur le plan mondial, l'étude démontre que la moyenne des femmes dans les postes de direction a reculé par rapport à 2009 (24 % en 2009 puis 20 % en 2011 et 21 % en 2012). Sur les 40 pays concernés par l’étude, la Russie est le pays qui emploie le plus de femmes parmi les cadres supérieurs (46 %). Ce pays est suivi par le Botswana, la Thaïlande et les Philippines (tous à 39 %). L’Italie est le meilleur élève européen avec 36 % des femmes occupant des postes de direction. En bas de tableau, on retrouve le Japon, où seulement 5% des postes de direction sont occupés par des femmes, suivi de l’Allemagne (13 %), l’Inde (14 %) et le Danemark (15 %).

Mirae Asset Global Investments, filiale américaine du gestionnaire d’actifs coréen, propose désormais aux investisseurs américain son fonds Global Dynamic Bond Fund. Il s’agit du premier fonds obligataire de la société lancé aux Etats-Unis. Mirae gère plus de 50 milliards de dollars dans le monde.

La Société Générale vient d’annoncer la nomination de Jean-François Mazaud au poste de directeur de Société Générale Private Banking (SGPB) en remplacement de Daniel Truchi, «qui a décidé de poursuivre de nouvelles opportunités dans le domaine financier, en dehors du groupe Société Générale», précise un communiqué. Le nouveau promu entre à ce titre au comité exécutif du pôle Banque Privée, Gestion d’Actifs et Services aux Investisseurs et est rattaché à Jacques Ripoll, directeur du pôle. Simultanément, Jean-François Mazaud devient membre du comité de direction du groupe Société Générale.En outre, Patrick Folléa est nommé directeur adjoint de SGPB tout en conservant ses fonctions actuelles de directeur de Société Générale Private Banking France et de superviseur des activités de la banque privée en Belgique.Enfin, Yves Thieffry, actuel directeur adjoint de Société Générale Private Banking, est appelé à prendre de nouvelles fonctions au sein de la banque privée. Dans l’intervalle, Yves Thieffry et Patrick Folléa travailleront en étroite collaboration pendant la période de recouvrement.Ces nominations prendront effet le 10 mars 2012. Jean-François Mazaud était depuis 2008 directeur adjoint de la division Global Finance de Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking et membre du comité exécutif de Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking depuis 2009.Pour sa part, Patrick Folléa qui a rejoint le groupe Société Générale en 2007 est directeur de Société Générale Private Banking France depuis juillet 2009. Entré en janvier 2011 au comité exécutif de la banque privée nouvellement créé, il supervise également des activités de la banque privée en Belgique.Yves Thieffry qui a intégré l’Inspection du groupe Société Générale en 1982 est directeur adjoint de SGPB depuis 2007. Depuis 2011, il est membre du comité exécutif de la banque privée, en charge de superviser le Luxembourg, la Suisse, Monaco et le Moyen-Orient.

Par une «form S-1» déposée auprès de la SEC le 6 février, le gestionnaire américain Index IQ a demandé l’agrément pour le lancement du premier ETF gagé sur des diamants physiques (qui seraient stockés à Anvers), le IQ Physical Diamond Trust. Le sous-jacent sera constitué de diamants de catégorie industrielle d’un carat et sur des paquets de diamants de diverses sou-catégories. Index IQ envisage de n’utiliser que des diamants certifiés par le Gemological Institute of America (GIA) après le 1er janvier 2006.

Director, operations & distribution, Kathleen C. Joaquin vient d'être promue chief industry operations officer de l’Investment Company Institute (ICI) en remplacement de Donald Boteler qui a pris sa retraite début mars.Dans ses nouvelles fonctions, Kathleen Joaquin sera la directrice du personnel opérationnel de l’ICI avec des responsabilités de nombreuses tâches liées aux agents de transfert, au service aux porteurs, à la compensation et au règlement, à la conservation, à la comptabilité de fonds, au reporting et aux questions technologiques.L’impétrante sera directement subordonnée à Paul Schott Stevens, president & CEO de l’ICI.

Lazard Frères Gestion on 7 March announced that its SRI equities Sicav fund, Objectif Ethique Socialement Responsable, is changing its legal name, to become Objectif Investissement Responsable (ISIN codes: C shares: FR0000003998; D shares: FR0010990606).Objectif Investissement Responsable invests in euro zone large caps and adheres strictly to extra-financial criteria to construct a concentrated portfolio of 40 to 50 positions.“Objectif Investissement Responsable has a 10-year track record covering several phases of the economic cycle, from the Internet bubble to the recent crisis, including periods of market growth. Over this period, our management has outperformed the Eurostoxx index by 6%, with good regularity and low volatility. We select primarily profitable businesses, so as not to sacrifice economic performance,” says Axel Laroza, manager of the Sicav fund since its creation.

The US firm Oaktree Capital Management has raised a EUR3bn fund which will focus on European distressed businesses, the news agency Bloomberg reports. The vehicle, the European Principal Fund III, has raised 20% more than its initial objective of EUR2.5bn. According to Henessee Group, investment funds investing in distressed assets worldwide earned returns of 3.2% in January, compared with 2.1% one year earlier.

Mirae Asset Global Investments, the US affiliate of the Korean asset management firm, is now offering US investors its Global Dynamic Bond Fund. The product is the first bond fund from the firm to be offered in the United States. Mirae manages over USD50bn worldwide.

The alternative management firm The Gargoyle Group, specialised in equity options strategies, has launched a market neutral fund with a continuous hedging mechanism based on index options, FINalternatives reports. The fund uses a number of proprietary elements for the vehicle, which have contributed to the success of the flagship fund from Gargoyle, the Gargoyle Hedged Value Fund. The fund seeks to earn alpha from stock-picking and the addition of premiums from the sale of overvalued call options.

The US asset management firm Index IQ on 6 February submitted a form S-1 to the SEC to apply for a license to launch the first ETF investing in physical diamonds (which will be stored in Anvers), the IQ Physical Diamond Trust. The underlying assets will be industry-standard, 1-carater diamonds and diamonds parcels in various sub-categories. Index IQ is planning to use unly diamonds certified by the Geological Institute of America (GIA) after 1 January 2006.

Daniel Tubba, manager of the BGF Emerging Markets fund, whose assets under management total USD1.1bn, has left the group, Investment Week reports.Tubba has been co-head of a team dedicated to emerging markets worldwide, which also includes Diren Shah and Sam Vecht.Emerging markets funds, both offshore and onshore, will now be managed by Shah and Luiz Soares, who has joined the group from Axiom International Investors.

The British asset management firm Jupiter Asset Management has reported net inflows of about GBP750m for the 2011 fiscal year, after GBP2.3bn in 2010. The major contributors were mututal funds, which attracted a net total of GBP500m (compared with GBP1.9bn the previous year).Assets under management as of the end of the year totalled GBP22.8bn, compared with GBP24.1bn as of the end of 2010, while mutual funds had assets of GBP`17.2bn, compared with GBP18.4bn as of the end of 2010.Pre-tax profits were up to GBP70.3m, compared with GBP42.4m in 2010. The head of Jupiter, Edward Bonham Carter, says that the company is hoping to increase its distribution capacities, particularly in both French and German-speaking Switzerland. With this in mind, Jupiter has opened a representative office in Zurich. Evelyn Lederle, previously of Clariden Leu, will be in charge of development for activities in German-speaking Switzerland as senior sales manager.

BNP Paribas on March, 8th announced it will sell 28.7% or 54.43m shares of Klépierre to Simon Property Group for EUR28 per share.This deal is part of BNP Paribas’ adaptation plan to increase its common equity Tier 1 ratio by 100bp to reach 9% on a fully-loaded Basel 3 basis by 1 January 2013. The disposal of 28.7% of Klépierre’s share capital will generate a capital gain of approximately EUR1.5bn for the group and will contribute 32bp to this target.BNP Paribas will retain 22.2% of Klépierre’s share capital. and plans to remain a «significant shareholder» in the company. Therefore, BNP Paribas has committed to keeping this entire stake for at least one year.

Societe Generale has appointed Jean-François Mazaud as head of Societe Generale Private Banking. He replaces Daniel Truchi, «who has decided to pursue new opportunities in the financial sector outside Societe Generale group», according to a press release. Jean-François Mazaud joins the executive committee of the Private Banking, Asset Management & Securities Services division and reports to Jacques Ripoll, Head of the division. He also becomes a member of the General Management Committee of Societe Generale group. Meanwhile, Patrick Folléa has been appointed deputy head of Societe Generale Private Banking. He retains his existing functions as CEO of Societe Generale Private Banking France and supervisor of the private bank’s activities in Belgium. Yves Thieffry, currently deputy head of Societe Generale Private Banking, will be taking up another position within the private bank. In the meantime, he and Patrick Folléa will work closely together during the hand-over period. These appointments will take effect on 10 March 2012. Jean-Francois Mazaud became deputy head of Global Finance for Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking in 2008 and a member of Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking’s executive committee in 2009. Yves Thieffry has been Deputy CEO of Societe Generale Private Banking since 2007. In 2011, he became a member of the private bank’s executive committee, with responsibility for supervising Luxembourg, Switzerland, Monaco and the Middle East.

Kathleen C. Joaquin, director of operations and distribution, has been promoted to chief industry operations officer at the Investment Company Institute (ICI), replacing Donald Boteler, who retired at the beginning of March.In her new role, Joaquin will be the director of operational personnel at the ICI, with responsibility for numerous tasks related to transfer agencies, shareholder services, clearing and settlement, custody, fund accounting, reporting, and technological questions. Joaquin will report directly to Paul Schott Stevena, chairman and CEO of the ICI.

The European association of investors in private real estate (INREV) on 7 March announced that Patrick Kanters, managing director Global Real Estate at the Netherlands-based APG Asset Management, will succeed Michael Morgenroth as its president on 24 April.Kanters was unanimously elected by the board at INREV, and his predecessor has to leave his position because he has recently been appointed to the board at the Austrian real estate fund management firm Signa Group (see Newsmanagers of 1 December 2011).

Last month, ETPs worldwide attracted a net total of USD18.4bn, compared with USD34.1bn in January, and USD10.9bn in the corresponding month of last year, the BlackRock Institute reports.Assets as of 29 February, for their part, totalled USD1.720trn, compared with USD1.651trn one month previously. Since the beginning of the year, assets under management increased by USD195.8bn, or 12.8%. For ETFs alone, assets totalled USD1.5245trn, compared with USD1.4604trn as of the end of January, in 3,145 products, compared with 3,063.The general slowdown in inflows has affected nine out of the ten largest players in February. ProShares has seen net subscriptions of USD0.4bn, compared with net outflows of USD0.7bn the previous month.Vanguard takes the top spot, with net inflows of USD5.7bn, compared with USD6.9bn in January, putting it ahead of iShares (BlackRock) with USD4.8bn, compared with USD11bn, and PowerShares/Deutsche Bank, with USD1.5bn compared with USD3.8bn. Net subscriptions to db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) fell to USD0.1bn, from USD1.1bn.For their part, State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) and Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale) saw net outflows of USD0.2bn and USD0.4bn, respectively, in February, compared with net inflows of USD5.1bn and USD0.5bn the previous month.

Asset management firms are increasingly seeking opportunities in niche activities, which means that in 2012, merger and acquisition operations may increase in the alternative management sector, the research agency Cerulli Associates predicts.Despite an encouraging year, activities in the asset management sector have remained moderate in 2011, due to a volatile and uncertain environment. The total value of all transactions last year represented USD17.3bn, down about 5% compared with the previous year.M&A deals in the alternative management sector may rise again this year for several reasons. First of all, major banks are divesting, in order to trim back their balance sheets to comply with new prudential regulations. Secondly, there has been an increase in interest in acquisitions in alternative management due to an increase in allocations to this asset class, largely from institutional investors.Another reason to bet on alternative management is that possibilities for distribution have been multiplying in Europe an Asia via UCITS vehicles. Lastly, ETF providers, whose popularity is set to increase, may also become attractive targets. So far, few transactions have been completed despite the interest expressed by some parties for independent firms which don’t have the means to develop their activities themselves.

Loomis Sayles, an affiliate of Natixis Global Asset Management which actively sells six UCITS funds, on 7 March opened its office in London, under the name Loomis Sayles Investments. The new location will be led by Christine Kenny and Jeffrey Seaver as managing directors and co-heads. Loomis Sayles manages about USD20bn in assets for institutional investors in Europe and the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region.Kenny, who had most recently been head of investment grade trading, becomes chief compliance officer and senior fixed income strategist. She will be in charge of the development and management of relations with British and European sell-side clients.Jeff Seaver, a member of the institutional sales team in the United States, for his part, will be in charge of the development and management of relationships with institutional clients in the United Kingdom, continental Europe and the MENA region.Two bond analysts, Chris Keller and Heather Kearney, have been transferred to London, where the team will have seven full-time members, including a head of relations with the main consultants, who will be recruited locally.Loomis Sayles has also opened an office in Singapore, under the direction of Paul Ong, who had been lead portfolio manager, external fund management at the Monetary Authority of Singapore. He joined the firm in October 2011. Loomis Sayles manages about USD20bn for clients based in Asia.

The Swiss wealth management firm Semper has announced the recruitment of Jean-Evrard Dominicé as chief investment officer of the structure. He has also been appointed as a partner at the firm. Dominicé will aim to enlarge the range of investment products and services on offer to high net worth clients of Semper. Dominicé remains a managing partner at Dominicé & Co, an asset management firm founded by his cousin Michael Dominicé, which he joined in 2004. He will also continue to sit on the board of directors at Anaconda, another Geneva-based alternative management firm.

Alexander Gebauer is the new CEO of Allianz Suisse Immobilien AG. He succeeds Stefan Brendgen, who is switching to the company’s Supervisory Board. Alexander Gebauer has been COO of the Allianz Real Estate Group since 2009 and will continue to perform this role. In his new role, Gebauer will continue to expand the company’s operations while focusing on quality in terms of both investment and asset management. The real estate portfolio of Allianz Suisse Immobilien is valued at about CHF3.5bn. It currently comprises about 60% residential and 40% commercial property, chiefly in Zurich, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne and Basel.

Nikko Asset Management, the Asian asset manager, has announced that Timothy F. McCarthy, chairman and CEO of Nikko Asset Management, has decided to retire at the end of this fiscal year. Effective April 1st Charles Beazley will take over as chairman and CEO.Beazley joined the firm in London in 2006 as president of its international offices before moving to Tokyo full time in 2010 to manage the firm’s rapidly expanding Asian operations and the domestic Japanese institutional business.The switch, part of the firm’s long agreed succession plan, comes after Nikko AM in December postponed its IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. It says in the press release announcing the change of CEO that «Nikko AM remains committed to its intention for listing as the largest independent asset management company in Asia in the future, with the full endorsement of its majority share holder Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings».Established in 1959, the Nikko Asset Management Group has grown to be a large regional asset management company headquartered in Asia, with total AUM over USD153.8 billion.

The former chief investment offiver at Huatai Asset Management, Yang Yang, has teamed up with a derivatives specialist, Yiming Liang, to launch the Goldstream Absolute Return Fund, an Asian macro hedge fund, dedicated to greater China, Asian Investor reports.The fund, which aims for annualised returns of 15% to 20%, will have over USD50m in assets at its launch in April. Capital has been raised from family offices, high net worth clients, and funds of funds.

Among the six funds registered on 2 March by the CNMV was the Ahorro Corporación Garantizado Selección, a product guaranteed by Banco Mare Nostrum (BMN), whose complementary returns may vary from 0% at the worst to 5.09% at best at maturity (7 May 2015), depending on the evolution of the share prices of Telefónica, ENI, France Telecom, Inditex and TotalFina.CharacteristicsName: Ahorro Corporación Garantizado Selección, FIISIN code: ES0107438006Front-end fee: 5%Management fee: about 1.08%Withdrawal penalty: 5%

Skandia Investment Group (SIG) has announced the appointment of a new sub-advisor for its USD363m USD Skandia Greater China Equity Fund, with the fund’s management changing from First State Investments to MIR Investment Management as of March 5 2012. James Millard, chief investment officer for Skandia Investment Group said: “First State has been an excellent investment partner, but we are in agreement that further asset growth could be a future constraint in sustaining performance (...).”

Lyxor has listed 3 more ETF funds based on AAA-rated euro zone government bonds on the Italian stock exchange, FonciOnline reports. The range thus grows to 4 ETF funds, each of them specialised in different maturities (1-3 years, 5-7 years and all maturities). Government bonds to which the ETFs are exposed are issued by Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria and Finland.

On 20 March, Pictet Asset Management (PAM) will officially launch its Luxembourg-registered Pictet-Global Flexible Allocation fund, which is the first transposition to the world of open-ended UCITS funds of its asset allocation expertise, which has been operating internally or on behalf of Swiss pension funds since 1967, and which already has assets of EUR6.2bn.The fund, which was registered in France on 17 February, reflects a completely discretionary management defined by a committee on the last Wednesday of each month, based on the opinions of 23 investment professionals in the PAM Strategy Unit, with flexibility of about one quarter for tactical overlay. The management team, led by Olivier Guinguené, CIO for asset allocation and quantitative management, and including Eric Rosset, head of the balanced management team and manager of the pension fund for Pictet employees, and Steve Donzé, macroeconomist, may invest without constraint in all asst classes allowed under the UCITS directive, largely via indices, but also via derivative instruments, and as a last resort, live shares (when there are no appropriate liquid instruments). In order to avoid being classified as a fund of funds, the Flexible Allocation fund will not invest in other funds or ETFs for more than 10% of its assets.In theory, the fund is managed with an absolute return objective of at least 10% returns if the stock markets are rising by more than 20%, with a minimum of % in normal markets, with protection for assets if markets fall by a proportion of less than 10%. The anticipated average volatility is 8%.CharacteristicsName: Pictet-Global Flexible AllocationISIN codes:LU0726358681 (I shares)LU0726358764 (P shares)LU0726358921 (Pdy shares)LU0726359069 (R shares)LU0726360075 (HI USD shares)LU0726360158 (HP USD shares)Management fees:0.45% (I and HI USD shares)0.90% (P, Pdy and HP USD shares)1.80% (R shares)Estimated TER:0.75% (I shares)0.80% (HI USD shares)1.20% (P and Pdy shares)1.25% (HP USD shares)2.10% (R shares)Performance commission: 10% with high watermarkHurdle rate: Citigroup 3 month in euros