M&G Investments a annoncé le 2 décembre la nomination de James Tomlins en qualité de gérant pour son fonds obligataire de haut rendement, le European High Yield Bond Fund (77 millions de livres d’encours), assisté de Stefan Isaacs.James Tomlins, qui a rejoint M&G en juin dernier, a également été nommé co-gérant du fonds High Yield Corporate Bond Fund (1,1 milliard de livres) aux côtés de Stefan Isaacs qui garde la responsabilité de ce fonds. Ces changements sont effectifs depuis le 1er décembre.

La société de gestion alternative Castle Creek Arbitrage, basée à Chicago, vient d’ouvrir un bureau à Londres, rapporte Financial News.Le document d’enregistrement auprès de l’autorité des marchés outre-Manche (FSA) indique que l’entité britannique, CC Arb Global, emploie trois personnes à Londres. La firme estime que le marché européen offre actuellement des opportunités, notamment du côté de l’obligataire. Les actifs sous gestion de Castle Creek s'élèvent à environ 800 millions de dollars.

Avec le Harris Associates Concentrated US Value Fund, Natixis Global Associates, filiale de distribution de fonds de Natixis Global Asset Management (NGAM), vient de lancer un compartiment de sa sicav luxembourgeoise Natixis International Funds (Lux) I qui se distinguera par un portefeuille concentré d’une vingtaine de lignes, des actions américaines de grandes et moyennes capitalisations, rapporte Hedge Week. Ce produit, disponible au Royaume-Uni, est géré chez l’américain Harris Associates (filiale de NGAM) par Robert Levy, CIO, et les gérants de portefeuille Mike Mangan et Edward Loeb. Ils utiliseront une approche du type private equity pour identifier les valeurs qui cotent en-dessous de leur valeur intrinsèque.

Bank of India a indiqué elle allait acheter 51% de Bharti Axa Investment Managers Pvt, une société de gestion d’actifs détenue par Bharti Enterprises et par le groupe français Axa, rapporte L’Agefi.Bharti Enterprises cède la totalité de ses 25% dans la coentreprise à la banque publique tandis qu’Axa vend 26%, tout en conservant le solde de 49% dans Bharti Axa Investment Managers Pvt.

Le pourcentage de FCPE facturant des commissions de souscription indirectes a baissé, passant de 28% en 2009 à 18% en 2011, selon la quatrième édition de l’Argus des FCPE publié par Debory Eres (1). Les frais de gestion directs ont baissé, s’inscrivant à 0,64% en moyenne en 2011 contre 0,81% en moyenne en 2009. Les frais de gestion indirects présents dans 95% des FCPE ont baissé de 1,41% en moyenne en 2009 à 1,18% en 2011.La précédente étude de 2009 avait montré que frais et performance n’étaient pas liés. En 2011, cette conclusion est confirmée : les frais de gestion n’ont pas d’impact sur la performance (absence de corrélation statistique), quel que soit le type de fonds (monétaire, obligataire, diversifié et actions) et quelle que soit la période (1 an et 3 ans). Les fonds actions les plus performants sur 3 ans ont même des frais plus élevés que les fonds moins performants.Les benchmarks n’ont d’intérêt que pour les fonds monétaires qui utilisent tous le même benchmark (EONIA capitalisé) et sont toujours aussi peu pertinents sur les fonds obligataires, diversifiés et actions. En effet, en moyenne un même benchmark (qu’il soit composite c’est-à-dire composé de plusieurs indices ou non) est utilisé en moyenne par seulement 1,6 fonds diversifié et 2,5 fonds actions ou obligations. Il est donc préférable de comparer les FCPE entre eux plutôt qu’à leur indice de référence pour valider la qualité de la gestion.Sur le front de la transparence et de la qualité de l’information, la mise à disposition des documents sur internet (site public) progresse : 72% des sociétés de gestion présentent leurs fonds, soit 543 fonds au total et 86 FCPE de plus qu’en 2009 lors de la dernière édition de l’Argus des FCPE. Le nombre de FCPE pour lesquels tous les documents (notice, règlement, fiche et rapport annuel) sont consultables augmente aussi : 205 en 2011 contre 154 en 2009.A noter enfin une concentration des acteurs de la gestion et une rationalisation des gammes de FCPE commercialisés. Depuis le début des années 2000, le nombre de sociétés de gestion d’épargne salariale est en baisse constante (36 en 2011 contre 54 en 2003) ainsi que le nombre de fonds (1570 début 2011 contre 2022 en 2003). La répartition des encours est stable et le poids des fonds monétaires reste très important (49%) dans les encours des FCPE multi entreprises.(1) L’édition 2011 analyse plus de 550 FCPE multi-entreprises, c’est-à-dire accessibles à toutes les entreprises, gérés par 26 sociétés de gestion. Les FCPE analysés représentent 81% des FCPE multi-entreprises commercialisés et 79% des encours du marché

Singapour, qui a jusqu’ici attiré quelques centaines de hedge funds, est en train de mettre en place une nouvelle réglementation qui pourrait diminuer l’attrait de la place pour les gérants alternatifs, rapporte l’agence Reuters.Avec la nouvelle réglementation en gestation, Singapour sera en phase avec les autres grands centres financiers mais cette mise à niveau aura aussi un coût qui pourrait mettre en péril les petites structures dont beaucoup seront forcées de mettre la clef sous la porte ou de fusionner. L’autorité des marchés de Singapour (MAS, Monetary Authority of Singapore) veut notamment que toutes les sociétés de gestion dont les actifs dépassent la barre des 250 millions de dollars de Singapour (un peu moins de 200 millions de dollars) obtiennent une licence, les entités les plus petites devant de toute façon s’enregistrer auprès du régulateur avant de démarrer leurs opérations. La MAS souhaite également que les sociétés disposent toutes d’un système de gestion des risques et soient soumises à un audit indépendant. Le régulateur a déjà consulté les sociétés et les nouvelles règles, censées assurer la pérennité du secteur, devraient entrer en vigueur début 2012. Le secteur compte quelque 400 hedge funds à la tête d’un encours sous gestion de 53 milliards de dollars de Singapour.

Eurazeo PME, an affiliate of Eurazeo dedicated to investments in majority stakes in small and mid-sized businesses (SMB), on 2 December announced the recruitment of Emmanuel Laillier as a board member, alongside Elisabeth Auclair, CFO, and Olivier Millet, chairman of the board. Laillier, a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique, began his career in corporate finance at Nomura, and then became an investor on the Fonds Partenaire Gestion (Lazard) team in 1999. He then spent nine years at EPF Partners as a managing partner. Eurazeo PME has an investment team composed of seven members: Miller, chairman of the board, Laillier, board member, Pierre Miegnen, managing partner, Erwann Le Ligné, managing partner, Mathieu Betrancourt, chief investment officer, Cédric Boxberger, chief investment officer, Rodolphe de Tilly, account manager. The Corporate team is led by Auclair, while Laurence Château de Chazeaux is director of sustainable development.

Laurent Dupeyron, former chairman of Olympia Capital Management, has been appointed as global head of wholesale and institutional equity derivatives distribution at UniCredit, effective immediately. He will report to TJ Lim, global head of markets at the Italian bank.Dupeyron left Olympia following its acquisition by Richmond Park Capital in April 2011. He joined the hedge fund firm in September 2008.

According to an internal memo, Edward C. Frost, who has 16 years of seniority at Goldman Sachs, has decided to resign from his position as co-head of investment management, in order to take on educational, artistic and philanthropic projects, the Wall Street Journal reports, adding that he will be replaced by Eric S. Lane, COO of the investment management division.

Alberto Martínez, a portfolio manager at Banco Popular, has been recruited for the team at Natixis Global Asasociates in Spain, Funds People reports. He will report to Christian Rouquerol, director of sales to the Iberian peninsula. The team is led by Sophie del Campo.

The Swedish asset management firm East Capital has registered two sub-funds of its Luxembourg Sicav for sale in Spain, the Russian and Eastern European Funds, Funds People reports. The firm’s representative in Spain will be MCH Investment Strategies, led by Tasio del Castaño and Alejandro Sárrate.

Ahorro Corporación has announced that November was the worst month of the year for the Spanish fund management sector, with net outflows of EUR1.25bn, while the Inverco association of asset management firms estimates the net redemptions at EUR850m (see Newsmanagers of 2 December). These are the heaviest outflows since the EUR5.5bn outflow observed in November 2010.Funds People reports that Ahorro Corporación estimates total assets at EUR130.33bn as of the end of November, 3.2% less than at the end of October, and 10.3% less than as of 31 December 2010. In eleven months, assets in Spanish funds contracted by EUR15bn.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision on 2 December announced a consultation on the function of internal audits at banks. The objective for the Committee’s recommendations is to help supervisors to evaluate the effectiveness of the internal audit function at banks. The consultation will remain open until 2 March 2012.

BBVA Asset Management is now offering the BBVA Plan Rentas 2014 N, a guaranteed bond fund which will pay eight quarterly coupons out to subscribers during the guarantee period (maturing on 3 March 2014), Funds People reports.The asset management firm guarantees 10)% of initial capital at maturity, in addition to the payment of the eight quarterly coupons of a gross EUR75.90 for every EUR10,000 invested. The quarterly payments will proceed via obligatory redemption of shares.The annual returns for the fund are 2.592%. Minimal subscription is set at EUR600, and the management commission is 0.40% until 2 February 2012, and 1.65% from 3 February 2012.

The Netherlands civil servants’ pension fund ABP (about EUR240bn in assets) on 1 December announced that it will not be indexing 2012 benefits against the consumer price index.If the financial situation at the fund does not improve by 31 December, several further measures are also under consideration, such as tripling the temporary additional contribution of 1 percentage point (tijdelijke herstelopslag) in order to balance the books, or a reduction in benefits which would not come into force until 2013.ABP is aiming for a coverage rage of 104.5% by the beginning of 2014, compared with 94% as of the end of October 2011.

The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) has published new recommendations for information to be published about transactions in the high yield sector. Following consultations with buy-side and sell-side participants, the professional association has revised its 2008 recommendations for high yield debt issuers. The AFME has also responded to concerns on the part of investors, by creating a permanent discussion forum, the “High Yield Investor Issues Committee.”

Inflows at Rothschild & Cie Gestion owe much to its conviction-based management, growing expertise and developments in Europe. Jean-Louis Laurens discusses these developments at the firm, in the broad sense of the term, with Newsmanagers. He also takes the occasion to offer his opinion about the current economic situation, and to blast the inadequate progress that is being made on the markets and at the banks.

The Sanctions Commission of the French financial market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), confirmed on its website on Friday, 2 December that on 28 October this year the Tocqueville Finance company, and its CEO, Marc Tournier, were fined. In addition to a reprimand for both parties, the firm will pay a fine of EUR150,000, while Tournier will pay EUR250,000. “The Sanctions Commission has found that the parties were guilty of price manipulation in the acquisition of 9,637 shares in X [the price manipulation the regulator is referring to relates to shares in the car rental firm ADA] on 26 June 2009, even though, since the beginning of the year, the average daily trading volume was 85 shares, and following the action, representing 99.99% of all trades on the share, the share price for the firm had risen 41.25%,” a statement from the AMF says. The Sanctions Committee adds in its statement that the severity of the professional and pecuniary sanctions also reflects “the seriousness of the offence of price manipulation for a company and an individual who practice as providers of investment services, and who have already been sanctioned in these capacities on two previous occasions, in 2003 and 2004.” During the AMF investigation, Tocqueville Finance and Tournier denied accusations of price manipulations and pointed to the limited size of the publicly-traded capitalisation of the firm at the time the trades were undertaken. The verdict may be appealed under article R. 621-44 of the monetary and financial code.

Irving Picard, the trustee appointed by the courts to recover funds for victims of Bernard Madoff, has been granted clearance to appeal the verdict in a legal action against J.P. Morgan Chase, with nearly USD20bn at stake, the Wall Street Journal reports. In November, US Federal judge Colleen McMahon found that Picard did not have a standing against J.P. Morgan Chase.

A study by the consulting firm Fonds Consult, obtained by Handelsblatt, finds that wealth management products based on investment funds offered by banks generate disappointing returns: with the fees taken into account, all actors offer solutions which are less remunerative than their benchmarks, and often with higher volatility.Fonds Consult surveyed the eight unit-linked wealth management providers on the German market: Dekabank, Commerzbank, HypoVereinsbank, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Union Investment, DZ Privatbank and Fürst Fugger Privatbank, all of which offer profile-based solutions.The most conservative products lag furthest behind their benchmarks. For example, over three years, an index composed of 80% euro bonds and 20% equities earned 14.5%, but the best product, from Commerzbank, made only 12.3%, while the worst, from HypoVereinsbank, lost 3.4%. And in addition to that, there are fees averaging 1%!

Now that they have all the most obvious areas covered, ETF providers are venturing into increasingly narrow and surprising segments, such as Peru and smart phones, the Wall Street Journal reports. One of the reasons that ETF providers aren’t hesitating to experiment with new products is that it is relatively easy to liquidate ETFs. And there is always the potential that one of them should surprise the world by becoming a success, like the iShares MSCI Indonesia Investable Market Index, which has attracted USD270m.

As of the end of November, investors were keeping their distance from a potential recovery on equity markets, and had not increased their exposure to euro zone debt, according to weekly statistics from EPFR Global. Equity funds continued to see significant redemptions. Since the beginning of the year, equity funds have seen an outflow of USD186.6bn, their worst results since 2008. At the same time, ETFs have posted inflows of USD79.8bn. However, outflows from European equity funds have totalled only USD9.1bn in eleven months, compared with USD22.8bn in the same period last year. International and European bond funds, for their part, have posted their worst week in three years, except for US bond funds.

The AXA IM FIIS Europe Short Duration High Yield Fund, managed by Andrew Wilmont, head of European high yield (see Newsmanagers of 23 November), has been registered for sale in Germany, the asset management firm announced on 2 December. The Luxembourg-registered, UCITS-compliant product, which was launched on 2 August, combines short duration and high yield strategies from the asset manager.As of the end of July, Axa IM had about EUR10bn in assets under short duration management (Euro Short Duration Credit, Sterling Short Duration Credit and US Short Duration).The asset manager is planning to register the fund in other European countries.

Since 1 December, the SPDR ETF range from State Street Global Advisors (USD245bn in assets under management as of the end of September) includes 26 products, with the launch of the SPDR Barclays Capital Short Term Treasury ETF (acronym: SST) and the SPDR Barclays Capital Investment Frade Floating Rate ETF (FLRN), which have been admitted to trading on the NYSE Arca platform. The first fund replicates the Barclays Capital 1-5 Year Treasury index (114 positions, with an average duration of 2.8 years as of 18 November). The fund charges 0.12%. The SPDR Barclays Capital Investment Grade Floating Rate ETF aims to replicate the performance of the Barclays Capital US Dollar Floating Rate Note 5 Years index, which as of 18 November included a total of 320 positions, with an average duration of 1.71 years. The total expense ratio for the product is set at 0.15%.

Since 2 December, the Amundi ETF SP500 H fund has been available for trading on the NYSE Euronext Paris platform. The French-registered product (FR0011133644) replicates the S&P 500 EUR Daily Hedged index. It charges fees of 0.28%.The ETF becomes the 128th product to be launched for primary listing on the European platforms of NYSE Euronext since the beginning of this year.

The Portuguese government and the four largest banks in the country have reached an agreement, by which the government will be able to charge EUR5.6bn in taxes from the pension funds of the banking establishments, the Portuguese secretary of state for central administration, Helder Rosalino, announced on 2 December. Reuters reports that the transfer will allow Portugal to meet its budgetary requirements this year, as set out in the agreement it signed with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union in order for the country to receive aid. Under the agreement, the government must reduce its budgetary deficit to 5.9% of GDP in 2011 and 4.5% in 2012, from about 10% in 2010.

The European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) held a seminar in Paris on 1 and 2 December, uniting national and international accounting authorities to debate the coherent and effective application of international IFRS accounting standards. The seminar organised by ESMA is a sign of its strong engagement to strengthen dialogue between accounting authorities in third-party countries “with the objective of improving cooperation and the consistent application of IFRS accounting standards worldwide,” ESMA says in a statement. Noting the necessity in Europe for close collaboration between accounting authorities in various countries to achieve a coherent application of the standards, Steven Maijoor pointed to the need to “extend cooperation to the global level,” adding that “ESMA is actively contributing to that end.”

Bank of India has announced that it will be acquiring a 51% stake in Bharti Axa Investment Managers Pvt, an asset management firm owned by Bharti Enterprises and the French Axa group, Agefi reports. Bharti Enterprises is selling all of its 25% stake in the joint venture to the bank, while Axa is selling 26%, and retaining the remaining 49% of Barti Axa Investment Managers Pvt.

With the Harris Associates Concentrated US Value Fund, Natixis Global Associates, a fund distribution affiliate of Natixis Global Asset Management (NGAM), has launched a sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav Natixis International Funds (Lux) I, which will have a concentrated portfolio of 20 positions, on US large and midcap equities, Hedge Week reports.The product, available in the United Kingdom, is managed at the US firm Harris Associates (an affiliate of NGAM), by Robert Levy, CIO, and the portfolio managers Mike Mangan and Edward Loeb. They use a private equity-inspired approach to identify shares which are trading below their intrinsic value.

The alternative asset management firm Castle Creek Arbitrage, based in Chicago, has opened an office in London, Financial News reports. The registration document submitted to the British Financial Services Authority (FSA) has announced that the British entity, CC Arb Global, has three employees in London. The firm claims that the European market currently offers opportunities, particularly in bonds. Assets under management at Castle Creek total about USD800m.