Le programme de financement de 40 milliards d'euros en 2012 pourra être réalisé jusqu'à 80% à court terme

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Le fonds immobilier allemand, actuellement fermé pour une seconde fois, négocie au moins avec deux prétendants la cession de tout ou partie d’un portefeuille d’actifs d’un milliard de livres dans l’immobilier londonien. Reuters, qui a rapporté l’information, précise qu’outre le fonds souverain de Malaisie, un investisseur du Moyen-Orient serait intéressé.

La Consob a annoncé la prolongation de six semaines de l’interdiction de ventes à découvert sur les valeurs financières, jusqu’au 24 février, dans un contexte de persistance de la crise de la dette qui complique la levée des capitaux frais pour les banques. L’interdiction devait expirer le 15 janvier.

Raymond James Financial a annoncé l’acquisition de Morgan Keegan auprès de Regions Financial pour un montant de 930 millions de dollars en titres. «Nous préférons la croissance organique, mais voilà une opportunité qui ne passe qu’une fois tous les 20 ans», s’est félicité le patron de l’acquéreur, Paul Reilly.

Dans le sillage de l’affaire MF Global, l’autorité américaine des marchés à terme a voté la finalisation d’une règle permettant d’isoler le collatéral des clients chez des parties tierces si leurs courtiers font défaut. La CFTC a en outre soumis à commentaire public pendant deux mois, après l’avoir adopté, la «règle Volcker» limitant le trading pour compte propre.

Le déficit commercial britannique de novembre a éclipsé le recul record enregistré le mois précédent, les exportations en valeur ayant reculé, tandis que les importations de pétrole et de produits chimiques ont atteint des niveaux élevés. Selon l’Office national de la statistique, le déficit commercial s’est élevé à 8,644 milliards de livres sterling (8,86 milliards d’euros) en novembre, contre 7,868 milliards en octobre.

La commision de régulation du secteur bancaire chinois (CRBC) vient d’interdire la commercialisation par les banques d'«investment trusts», selon cinq sources citées par Reuters. Ces produits de hors bilan, vendus à la clientèle privée aisée en promettant des rendements de 9% environ, investissent dans du papier commercial. Ils ont connu un succès fulgurant pour contourner la restriction du crédit bancaire et représenterait 4.000 milliards de yuans. La Chine, qui n’a pas encore officialisé la mesure, chercherait ainsi à diminuer le poids de la «finance de l’ombre» dans l'économie.

Après la banque privée cet automne, c’est le pôle de gestion d’actifs d’Oddo qui change de patron. La banque a annoncé la nomination au poste de directeur général d’Oddo AM de Nicolas Chaput, jusqu'à présent responsable des gestions taux chez BNP Paribas AM. Il remplace Guido Mundt, ancien de la Banque d’Orsay, qui a travaillé depuis deux ans à l’intégration de cette dernière au sein d’Oddo et a souhaité rentrer en Allemagne.

Le nouveau traité budgétaire de l’Union européenne va inclure une clause d’exception de la règle d'équilibre budgétaire en cas de retournement économique ou d’un autre «évènement inhabituel», selon un projet écrit obtenu par Reuters.

L’Allemagne a émis avec succès 3,153 milliards d’euros de dette à cinq ans, attirant une forte demande des investisseurs, comme en témoigne la baisse du rendement et la hausse du ratio de couverture. Le rendement est ressorti à 0,9% contre 1,1% lors d’une adjudication semblable le 7 décembre. Il reste que les Bourses européennes sont retournées à la baisse mercredi à la mi-séance, les investisseurs se montrant prudents à la veille d’adjudications très attendues de dettes espagnole et italienne. Le Trésor italien souhaite adjuger 12 milliards d’euros de titres à court terme jeudi lors de son émission habituelle de milieu de mois. De son côté, le Trésor espagnol a annoncé qu’il adjugerait entre quatre et cinq milliards d’euros d’emprunts d’Etat portant sur trois souches différentes.

La croissance allemande, qui a moins souffert en 2011 de la crise de la dette que celle de ses partenaires de la zone euro, grâce à la vigueur de ses exportations et de sa demande intérieure, a cependant montré ses premiers signes de faiblesse au cours des trois derniers mois de l’année. En 2011, son produit intérieur brut (PIB) a crû de 3%, selon les données provisoires de l’Office fédéral des statistiques publiées mercredi, en retrait par rapport à la croissance de 3,7% de 2010.

Une caractéristique des mutuelles par rapport aux autres acteurs du monde de l’assurance : la gouvernance de leur gestion d’actifs. « Grâce à la nouvelle réglementation, nous avons vu la naissance de comités financiers, de comités de placements avec une vraie réflexion des administrateurs sur l’allocation d’actifs, ce qui était moins marqué il y a quelques années », remarque Nicolas Demont, directeur général d’Egamo, société de gestion d’actifs qui gère une dizaine de mandats du monde de l'économie sociale. La MGEN a par exemple créé un Comité des placements, présidé par l'économiste Philippe Waechter. Nous avons tenu à cet ??il expert, explique Fabrice Henry, Trésorier général de la MGEN. Le comité est composé de techniciens, mais aussi de certains membres du conseil d’administration. Il semble logique que les responsables mutualistes soient très attentifs à ces aspects, qu’ils suivent les évolutions économiques et financières. Cela fait partie de notre volonté de transparence au niveau des élus, et de notre volonté d’acculturation aux problèmes économiques.

Le Fonds de pension de Bank of New York en Belgique est confronté à une diminution de sa base de cotisants en Belgique. Pour cette raison, le Fonds a décidé de mener une étude stratégique sur son allocation stratégique d’actifs avec l’aide de son consultant. L’allocation actuelle est la suivante: 62.5% d’obligations, 35% d’actions et 2.5% d’immobilier. Le Fonds a choisi la Banque Degroof comme unique gérant externe. Il n’est pas prévu d’en changer, ni de remettre en cause l’approche prudente du Fonds.

Among 880 job cuts announced by SG CIB, Agefi has learned that the bank will be gradually cutting its sales and support functions. 189 jobs will be affected in market activities, of which 38 will be at Lyxor, which according to iShares had outflows of USD8.4bn in eleven months. In general, the newspaper reports, voluntary layoffs before 1 October will receive severance packages totalling at least EUR30,000 and 30 months of salary. In addition to that, there may be a bonus of EUR20,000 to EUR60,000 for departure in the first month, plus 20% (up to EUR40,000) if they go by 2 July.

Carlyle Group on Tuesday announced that it will be listed on the Nasdaq following its initial public offering, the Financial Times reports. The firm, which has USD148bn in assets under management, hopes to debut on the market this year.

Last year will go down in history at the French asset management firm Carmignac as the year when the market proved it right, although results were somewhat frustrating, Didier Saint-Georges, a member of the investment committee, tells Funds People. The manager says the most satisfying point is that all funds in the Patrimoine range achieved their objective to preserve capital: bonds behaved as expected, while some equities even performed better than at the competition. Currently, Funds People reports, assets total EUR45bn, 18% less than one year previously.

The US firm SunGuard has announced that it has acquired the Pilot software package from Tobam (over USD2bn in assets) for an undisclosed amount which “is not expected to have a noticeable impact” on its financial results. A statement says that “the Pilot solution, developed and used by Tobam, complements the Asset Arena range from SunGruad (launched on 21 November), which includes the major functions required by the asset management industry, including management of investments, monitoring of operations, and investor services.”

Arca Sgr, the asset management firm for the Italian co-operative banks, is said to be in exclusive talks with Norvega (formerly Vegagest) to acquire its funds, according to reports in Milano Finanza. The operation would allow Arca to increase its assets from EUR15bn to EUR16bn. Arca Sgr, which is owned by Ubi, Popolare Emilia Romagna and Banco Popolare, was recently in danger of becoming an acquisition target.

Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) and Source on 10 January unveiled a new vehicle to invest in commodities, LGIM Commodity Composite Source ETF, as announced by Newsmanagers in its 9 January issue. The fund will be a UCITS-compliant ETF fund, which replicates the LGIM Commodity Composite index, and which aims to provide diversified exposure to commodities via indices of representative commodity futures contracts. The LGIM Commodity Composite index aims to be a new type of benchmark index, with a broad exposure to commodities. Based on the expertise of LGIM as an index manager, and on its highly detailed quantitative and qualitative filtering, the index offers exposure to a wide selection of commodity type indices. At its launch, the LGIM Commodity Composite index includes the following indices: Barclays Capital Commodity Index Pure Beta TR (ticker : BCC1C1PT < Index>), Citi CUBES (Total Return) (CCUBDJTR < Index>), JPMCCI Ex-Front Month Energy Light (Total Return) (JMCXXELT < Index>), UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity (CMCITR < Index>). Investors seeking to expose their portfolios to the LGIM Commodity Composite index may do so via the LGIM Commodity Composite Source ETF. The innovative ETF structure from Source combines physical investment in US Treasury bonds with a swap overlay that allows for more faithful replication of the index. In order to diversify counterparty risks and the composition of the index, the index relies on several sub-indices, and the fund will rely on several counterparties for its swaps. Source has named several swap counterparties for the product: Barclays Capital, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan and UBS. The LGIM Commodity Composite Source ETF is listed on the London Stock Exchange and traded in pounds Sterling and US dollars. It is licensed for sale in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Austria, France, Germany, Finland, Italy (only for institutional investors), Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland. Main characteristics of LGIM Commodity Composite Source ETF ISIN code: IE00B4TXPP71 Currency of reference: USD Currency of listing: GBP/USD Management fees: 0.40% per year Acronym: Bloomberg TGPLGCC Domicile: Ireland

Christian Paris has been appointed as CEO of ING IM France, and began in his new role on 2 January 2012, the asset management firm has announced. Paris replaces Thierry Rigoulet, who left the firm on 10 October 2011. Matthias Schellenberg, CEO for Europe and Latin America, has been made responsible for recruitment, after being informed of the criteria of Paris and the group’s headquarters in the Hague, as was the case with Paris’ predecessor. The group assigns great importance to the French market. ING IM France presents itself as one of the five major centres for development as defined by the “Bigger in Big Markets” development strategy defined by the firm. The fact that the new CEO had served at HSBC Global Asset Management (France) has head of business development since early 2008 naturally played in his favour. Paris, 48, began his career in 1989 as a bond market specialist, where he developed French institutional clients, first at the CIC group. IN 1998, he then moved to the asset management industry at Sinopia Asset Management, where he became director of sales for France in late 2001, and then joined HSBC Global Asset Management (France) in 2005, to become director for the first time of sales teams in France and then internationally, a statement says.

BNY Mellon Investment Management has appointed Cynthia Steer as its head of Manager Research & Investment Solutions. She replaces Phil Maisano, who has recently retired, in this position. Steer had previously been managing director at Russell Investments, in charge of investment strategy and consultants.

Olivier Ramé et Jean-Philippe Collin, previously head of alternative management and a manager, respectively, at La Française des Placements, have founded their own firm, Swell asset Management, dedicated to tactical allocation. The two men have not completely severed their ties with their previous employer, as La Française AM has bought a 25% stake in the capital of the new boutique, with the remainder divided evenly between the two partners. The asset management company will also outsource a fund to them, LFP Allocations 3, which since its inception in 2005 has been managed by Collin, and will also provide a total of EUR30m in seed money. Half of the seed money, EUR15m, will go to LFP Allocations 3, whose assets currently total EUR60m, and which is a tactical asset allocation product investing in equity indices, interest rate curves, and currencies. The other half will be invested in the fund which the new boutique is planning to create. It will have the same process as the first fund, but with a higher volatility objective of about 7-8.The two managers will remain on the premises of La Française AM, even though they are moving to another floor, and will retain the same infrastructure they had used previously. For sales, the fund from La Française AM will be sold by both structures, while the second fund, although it will probably be a sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav fund from the shareholding asset management firm, will be sold solely by Swell AM. Swell AM, which received its license without suspensive conditions on Thursday last week, will have a third member, Déborah Uzan, who also joins the firm from La Française AM. Uzan will probably soon also join the capital of the structure. Ramé explains to Newsmanagers that the experiment will allow him to undertake an entrepreneurial project, more than ten years after participating in the creation of Alteram. He also explains that the tactical management used at LFP Allocations 3 has had a hard time finding its place at La Française AM.

In May, American Funds (an affiliate of Capital Group) is planning to launch eight funds of funds, five more than it launched in the past decade. According to Mutual Fund Wire, the new products will invest in house funds, and will respond to demand on the part of independent financial advisers, who are seeking a way for their clients to invest in more funds by investing in a single product. In a notice to the SEC, American Funds states that it will aim to keep fees under control, and that the new funds of funds will have access to the institutional share classes of underlying funds. American Funds is still losing assets; it has seen net outflows of USD70bn in the first eleven months of 2011, and assets have fallen back to USD863bn.

According to reports published on Tuesday by Citywire, Marc Favard has quit his position as head of Meeschaert Asset Management, which he had chaired since 1990. The reason given by the website was “differences of opinion over investment strategy,” The asset management firm is expected to name Favard’s replacement in a few weeks, the website adds.

Quilvest Copagest Finance, Fi Select Multigestion and Quilvest Gestion S.A.S. are merging to become Quilvest Gestion SA. The agreements were signed on 15 December 2011, after the group acquired all capital in Quilvest Copagest Finance, in which Xavier Leroy and Dominique Boisseau, the founders of the firm, had retained a 15% stake. Leroy is appointed as chairman of the board at Quilvest Gestion SA, and will be assisted in his duties by Boisseau and Eric Libault, both of whom are CEOs at the new firm. Leroy had previously been chairman of the board at the two asset mamagement firms of the group, while Boisseau was CEO. Libault had been chairman of the board at Fi Select Multigestion. Assets under management at Quilvest Gestion SA total EUR2.7bn. The group also includes teams at the three firms, including more than 30 professionals in fixed income, equities, multi-management, and employee savings.

The Edmond de Rothschild group has appointed Christophe de Backer as chairman of the executive committee at the Edmond de Rothschild private bank in Geneva from February 2012. De Backer will begin in his new role following the general shareholders’ meeting to be held on 26 April 2012. He will also become a member of the supervisory board at La Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild in Paris. In this position, de Backer will succeed Claude Messulam, who will be appointed as director of the Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild and of Edmond de Rothschild Holding, a statement says. Since January 2011, de Backer, 50, had served as group general manager and as a member of the board of directors at HSBC worldwide. From early 2010, he had been CEO of HSBC France, and from 2007, had served as deputy CEO, deputy to the CEO of HSBC France. Between 2005 and 2007, de Backer was chairman of the board at HSBC Private Bank France.

Nearly one year after opening its offices in Singapore, Bordier & Cie heas nearly CHF400m in assets under management in its Asian banking centre, Agefi Switzerland reports. The structure, led by Evrard Bordier, has 10 employees, staff which may double by the end of the year, depending on the evolution of the markets. The three-year objective is to reach CHF1bn in assets under management in Asia. Groupwide, staff increased slightly last year, from 195 to 205 employees. The same trend may be observed in assets under management, which currently total CHF9.8bn, compared with CHF9.5bn at the end of 2010. Net inflows have been positive for the past year, but will remain confidential.

Following the creation of a new department dedicated to Swiss clients last spring, led by Benoît Clivio, the Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild (BPER) has now recruited the former semi-institutional management team from Wegelin & Co, Le Temps reports. Alexandre Michellod, Mathias Maradan and Céline Kuhn, three experts in the area of risk budgeting, began in their new roles on 1 January 2012.

The UCITS platform from Morgan Stanley has added an Irish-registered fund managed by Claritas Administração de Recursos Ltda, which practices a market neutral long/short equity strategy on a portfolio of 40-60 Brazilian equities. Net exposure to the market ranges from -20% to +20%.Minimal subscription is set at EUR1m.CharacteristicsName: MS Claritas Long Short Market Neutral UCITS FundISIN code: IE00B3MQJZ41Management commission: 1.50%Performance commission: 20%