La banque suisse Wegelin, spécialiste des stratégies quantitatives, prépare une nouvelle approche d’investissement dans l’obligataire en étroite collaboration avec l’Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Zurich. L’idée est de développer une nouvelle stratégie sur la dette souveraine en se fondant sur un indice mesurant la qualité de la dette.«Dans les obligations d’Etat, l’indice traditionnel n’est pas très intelligent dans la mesure où l’on donne la priorité à la quantité de dette. Plus la dette est élevée, plus la pondération est élevée. Nous allons plutôt prendre en compte la qualité de la dette», explique Magne Y. Orgland, associé gérant de la banque suisse. Outre la qualité de la dette, Magne Y. Orgland insiste aussi sur la variable liquidité. Fort de ces deux éléments essentiels, une offre pourrait voir le jour dans les premiers mois de 2012.Les actifs sous gestion de la banque s’élèvent à quelque 25 milliards de francs suisses, dont deux tiers dans la banque privée, un tiers du côté de la clientèle institutionnelle. Depuis le début de l’année, la collecte est à peu près au point zéro, relève Magne Y. Orgland. Une évolution liée pour beaucoup à la volonté de la banque de ne plus servir la clientèle américaine en raison de la réglementation Fatca. Le processus est en cours et représente d’ores et déjà un manque à gagner de quelque 500 millions de francs suisses.En France, la banque a acquis une certaine notoriété avec une offre double: d’une part, sa stratégie phare Active Indexing distribuée en France depuis novembre 2010, d’autre part, la stratégie Global Diversification lancée à la mi-juin 2011 qui repose sur une allocation équipondérée selon le risque. Les actifs sous gestion de Global Diversification s’élèvent à un peu plus de 200 millions d’euros, l’encours de la stratégie Active Indexing s’inscrivant à environ 1,5 milliard d’euros.

Ne disposant pas de joint-venture (JV) en Chine continentale, Fidelity ne peut actuellement pas participer au marché domestique chinois de gestion collective. Pour Mark Talbot, directeur général Asie hors Japon de Fidelity, interrogé par La Tribune, il faut noter que le marché domestique « retail » ne constitue qu’un élément parmi d’autres dans la stratégie globale sur la Chine «et qu’il est actuellement bien plus petit que le marché institutionnel chinois qui investit à l'étranger et que nous pouvons cibler sans avoir de JV». Particulièrement actif sur ce marché, Fidelity travaille notamment avec les principaux fonds souverains et compagnies d’assurances, souligne Mark Talbot.

Les stratégies de hedge funds se sont redressées en octobre, selon les statistiques mensuelles communiquées par l’Edehec-Risk Institute. Les stratégies event driven et long/short equity ont ainsi enregistré des gains de respectivement 2,97% et 4,30%, affichant leurs meilleurs résultats depuis ces dernières années. Ces performances n’ont toutefois pas effacé les reculs de septembre si bien que depuis le début de l’année, l’event driven accuse une baisse de 2,8% et le long/short equity une perte de 3,8%. Malgré son exposition limitée, la stratégie equity market neutral a dégagé un gain de 1,58% qui a compensé les pertes de septembre. Depuis le début de l’année, cette stratégie marque un gain de 0,8%. A noter par ailleurs les bons résultats des stratégies marchés émergents et distressed securities avec des performances de 3,91% et 2,98%. Cela dit, depuis le début de l’année, elles reculent respectivement de 6,9 % et 1 %. Enfin, les fonds de fonds ont dégagé une performance de 1,22% en octobre, Cependant, depuis le 1er janvier, ils restent dans le rouge à hauteur de -4,2%.

Alliance Trust Asset Management a confirmé projeter le lancement en décembre du fonds Global Thematic Opportunities qui sera confié à Ilario Di Bon, head of global equities. Selon Fundweb, l’ancien head of institutional global equities de Fidelity sera assisté par Jürgen Lanzer, senior investment manager.

La branche britannique d’Axa IM a confirmé selon la presse locale son intention de confier le fonds obligataire stratégique international qui sera lancé en 2012 à Nick Hayes, un ancien de New Star et de Henderson qui gère depuis juin 2010 le fonds Axa Sterling Strategic Bond Fund. Nick Hayes sera assisté de Chris Iggo, le CIO de l’obligataire.

Le britannique JO Hambro envisage de lancer un fonds long/short mais n’a pas l’intention de s’aventurer dans le secteur du fixed income ou encore celui du rendement absolu, rapporte Money Marketing"Nous allons lancer un fonds long/short. C’est une stratégie qui entre dans notre domaine d’expertise et qui peut constituer une voie de diversification dans notre offre. Nous avons lancé quatre nouveaux fonds au cours des douze derniers mois si bien que le lancement de nouveaux produits l’an prochain est peu probable. Nous restons un gérant actions et nous ne nous engagerons pas dans le fixed income», a déclaré Gavin Rochussen, directeur général de JO Hambro.

Fidelity Worldwide Investments a lancé le 16 novembre un fonds obligataire indexé sur l’inflation dédié aux marchés émergents, rapporte Investment Week.Le nouveau fonds, géré par Andrew Weir, investira dans la dette souveraine en monnaie locale en Amérique latine, au Moyen Orient, en Europe de l’Est et en Asie afin de tirer parti des pressions inflationnistes à long terme dans les marchés émergents. L’indice de référence est le Barclays Emerging Market Tradable Inflation Linked Index. Le fonds s’adresse à une clientèle d’investisseurs qualifiés. L’investissement minimum pour les parts «Y» est de 1 million de dollars.

BlackRock a annoncé que sa division iShares a lancé sur la plate-forme NYSE Arca le premier ETF permettant aux investisseurs d’accéder aux marchés des actions préférentielles des pays développés hors Etats-Unis. Il s’agit du iShares S&P International Preferred Stock Index Fund (acronyme : IPFF), qui est le reflet de son pendant américain, le iShares S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index Fund (PFF) qui a déjà drainé 7,2 milliards de dollars d’encours.Le nouveau produit s’adresse aux investisseurs qui recherchent du rendement régulier en dehors du marché américain. Il réplique le S&P International Preferred Stock Index, un indice capi-pondéré «rebalancée» chaque trimestre. Les pondérations les plus fortes sont attribuées actuellement aux titres canadiens, britanniques et néo-zélandais. L’indice affiche un fort biais en faveur des financières.

Invesco a annoncé le 17 novembre le recrutement de Gregory McGreevey en qualité de responsable d’Invesco Fixed Income (IFI) à compter du 28 novembre. Dans ses nouvelles fonctions, Gregory McGreevey aura la responsabilité opérationnelle des activités de fixed income. Il sera basé à Atlanta et dépendra directement de Karen Dunn Kelley, senior managing director. Gregory McGreevey travaillait précédemment en qualité de president chez Hartfort Investment Management Company et executive vice president et chief investment officer de The Hartford Financial Services Group. IFI emploie plus de 150 professionnels de l’investissement dans le monde qui géraient à fin septembre plus de 200 milliards de dollars.

Lors de la prochaine assemblée générale de Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett va accueillir pour la première fois des analystes, rapporte le Wall Street Journal. Trois analystes ont été conviés le 5 mai. @font-face { font-family: «Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: «Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } Cette ouverture pourrait être le signe que Warren Buffett considère que sa société est quelque peu délaissée par les investisseurs.

BlackRock has announced that its iShares division has launched the first ETF which allows investors access to preferential equities from developed countries outside the United States on the NYSE Arca platform. The fund is the iShares S&P International Preferred Stock Index Fund (acronym: IPFF), which is the international version of its US sibling, the iShares S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index Fund (PFF), which has already attracted USD7.2bn in assets.The new product is aimed at investors seeking regular returns outside the US market. It replicates the S&P International Preferred Stock Index, a cap-weighted index, which is “rebalanced” every quarter. The heaviest exposures are currently to Canadian, British and New Zealand equities. The index has a strong bias in favour of the financial sector.

Fidelity Worldwide on 16 November launched an inflation-linked bond fund dedicated to emerging markets, Investment Week reports. The new fund, managed by Andrew Weir, will invest in government debt in local currencies in Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Asia, in order to benefit from long-term inflationary movements in emerging markets. The benchmark index is the Barclays Emerging Market Tradable Inflation Linked Index. The fund is aimed at qualified investor clients. The minimal investment for “Y” class shares is USD1m.

Although Monéterme remains the top fund from the asset management firm, with EUR600m in assets and EUR200m in net inflows since the beginning of the year, Hugau Gestion has ambitions for its Obli 1-3 fund, even though it has seen outflows of about EUR100m, to EUR200m, and for tis High Yield Recovery fund, launched on 20 May, but still not actively promoted or marketed.The new product is an UCITS-compliant, French-registered FCP fund, with 20-25 positions, in companies whose activities bring recurring cash flows to pay off debts. The fund is a prudent high yield fund, which invests in “5B” bonds, on the line between investment grade and high yield (BB-/BBB-), a universe where volatility is 3.3%, compared with 9.1% for high yield.The fund, which so far has only EUR13.1m in assets (of which 20% come from retail investors), meets the needs of investors who are seeking additional income beyond a short/mid term euro bond investment, by trying to capture outperformance from issuers who choose not to be rated (such as Lagardère), non investment-grade issuers with investment grade profiles (Pernod), default risks which have already been anticipated by the market (Lafarge), and aberrations in the euro zone (short flows on PIIGS corporates).The management team will make an effort to benefit from regulatory sales of bonds by investors who are required to unload assets when downgrades are announced. It will also buy when issuers are moved to high yield following external growth deals which are estimated to create value, but which are financed through debt, and when issuers are about to be promoted to investment grade.CharacteristicsName: Hugau High Yield RecoveryISIN code: FR0011033984Management fees: 1%

One of the real estate funds from Morgan Stanley has opted to sell Blackstone a portfolio of 16 office properties (3 million square feet), rather than pay off debts of USD820m which were set to mature next month, the Wall Street Journal reports. The properties were added to the portfolios of Morgan Stanley upon the acquisition of the Glenborough Realty Trust in 2006.Blackstone already holds about USD225m in junior debt from Glenborough, which it acquired over a year in small instalments from banks and insurers. That now allows it to take control of the properties, and not to take on the USD600m in debt.Blackstone manages USD41bn in real estate assets, and has already raised USD4.6bn for a global real estate fund, for which it is aiming for total volume of USD10bn.

Invesco on 17 November announced the recruitment of Gregory McGreevey as head of Invesco Fixed Income (IFI), effective from 28 November. In his new role, McGreevey will have operational responsibility for fixed income activities. He will be based in Atlanta, and will report directly to Karen Dunn Kelley, senior managing director. McGreevey has previously worked as chairman of Hartford Investment Management Company, and executive vice president and chief investment officer at The Hartford Financial Services Group. IFI employs more than 150 investment professionals worldwide, who as of the end of September, managed over USD200bn in assets.

Joseph “Skip” Skowron III, former hedge fund manager at FrontPoint Partners, was sentenced on 18 November to five years in prison, the Wall Street Journal reports.Skowron confessed to using insider information in 2008 about the results of clinical trials of Hepatitis C medication from Human Genome Sciences, which was supplied to him by a French doctor, Yves Benhamou. The insider information allowed the manager to avoid USD30m in trading losses.

The IBEW Local 90 Pension Fund and the Plumbers & Pipefitters’ Local #562 Pension fund have sued seven banks which the two US pension funds accuse of having misled them about MF Global’s USD6.3bn exposure to European government debt, the Telegraph reports. The defendants are RBS, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and Jefferies.

On 15 November, at a general shareholders meeting for the Luxembourg Sicav fund Luxalpha, which channelled money to the fraudster Bernard Madoff, trustees announced that it is filing a second lawsuit against UBS, Ernst & Young and Access, Les Echos reports.

Although in 2011, J.P. Morgan Asset Management is expected to succeed in retaining a level of 83% of its 2006 revenues, of which 61% currently come trom equities, it is necessary to adapt to the new market situation and to investor expectations. To this end, JP Morgan AM is planning to scale up its efforts in asset classes which are currently sustaining investor interest in Europe, particularly on the part of institutional investors. These investors are a clearly-identified target for the asset management firm, Jamie Broderick tells Newsmanagers.

The worsening euro zone debt crisis, and the approaching deadline for debt reduction in the United States are driving investors to remain on the defensive in mid-November.In the week to 16 November, investors favoured ETFs dedicated to US large caps, commodity funds specialised in precious metals, and dividend funds, EPFR Global reports.Equity funds have posted net inflows of USD1.51bn in the week under review, of which USD870m are in dividend funds. Since the beginning of the year, outflows have totalled USD92bn. This total would be much larger if there were not such hunger for dividend funds, which ave attracted over USD24bn since January 2011.Bond funds earned net inflows in the week under review of USD2.37bn.Since the beginning of the year, inflows total USD112bn, compared with USD384.3bn in the corresponding period of 2010.EPFR Global also reports, without providing exact figures, that there has been growing interest in the past few weeks in inflation-linked bond funds.

Discretionary activities by independent financial advisers are likely to grow strongly in the next few years, from 59% of assets in 2011 to 71% by 2013, according to estimates by Cerulli («The Cerulli Edge : Advisor Edition, 4Q 20011»).This likely development is a sign of a desire on the part of advisers to increase their discretionary portfolio management activities.From the point of view of the broker/dealer, use of pre-fabricated investment solutions by financial advisers allows for economies of scale and a reduction in exposure to risk. Advisers agree that outsourcing the construction of portfolios may have an impact on the effectiveness of the portfolio, but despite that, they remain hesitant to engage this appraoch. “Our research shows that advisers prefer the freedom of programmes which are open to pre-fabricated solutions,” says Patrick Newcimb, a senior analyst in the managed accounts practice at Cerulli.From another point of view, results of a partial analysis of the capacity of advisers for allocation do not argue in their favour. Pre-fabricated equity offerings have seen setbacks in 2008-2009, but their post-recession returns are encouraging. Package solutions do not yet appear to be favoured by advisers.

Despite USD500m in net outflows in ten days in September, total assets in the emerging market debt strategies from Pictet Asset Management currently total USD18bn, compared with USD17bn as of the end of September. This total includes, in addition to mandates, five UCITS-compliant, Luxembourg-registered funds with a total of EUR11.18bn, in euros and strong local currencies.The Swiss asset management firm is keeping a close eye on subscriptions. After a period of soft closing, which resulted in a temporary limitation to EUR1m per day in net inflows per client, Pictet has slightly relaxed its vigilance, due to outflows in September. Monitoring is concentrated mostly on the Pictet-Emerging Local Currency Debt fund, which already has EUR6.654bn in assets (as of 14 November).Similarly, the funds managers (14 people in Singapore and London) would like to see an increase in the proportion of institutional assets in the products, as these clients are more “sticky” (loyal), up to 50% from 35% currently, says Eugene Choi, product specialist, in Paris.Choi says the objective is to generate outperformance of 1 to 3 percentage points over a period of 5 years. Management relies on top-down and bottom-up approaches, and Pictet has teams managing currencies and rates separately. Choi also tells Newsmanagers that, despite the significant scale of assets in emerging market debt, Pictet does not yet need to invest in illiquid products such as structured notes.

The Swiss bank Wegelin, a specialist in quant strategies, is preparing a new investment approach in bonds, in close collaboration with the Ecole polytechnique fédérale in Zurich. The concept is to develop a new strategy on sovereign debt, based on an index which measures the quality of the debt. “In government bonds, the traditional index is not very intelligent, insofar as it gives priority to the quantity of debt. The higher the amount of debt, the higher its weighting. We will rather take into account the quality of the debt,” explains Magne Y. Orgland, managing partner at the Swiss bank. In addition to the quality of the debt, Orgland also insists on the importance of variable liquidity. Based on these two essential factors, a range may be created in the first month of 2012. Assets under management at the bank total about CHF25bn, olf which two thirds are in private banking, and one third from institutional clients. Since the beginning of the year, inflows have been near zero, Orgland says. This development is linked to a desire on the part of the bank no longer to sers US clients, due to the FACTA regulations. That process is underway, and means that the firm will need to replace CHF500m in assets. In France, the bank has gained some notoriety for its double product range: on the one hand, its flagship strategy Active Indexing, available in France since November 2010, and on the other the Global Diversification strategy, launched in mid-June 2011, which is based on an equally-weighted risk allocation. Assets under management in the Global Diversification fund total slightly over EUR200m, while assets in the Active Indexing strategy total about EUR1.5bn.

The Bavarian pension fund for self-employed persons Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK, EUR50bn in assets) on 16 November awarded the Munich-based UBS Real Estate Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbh an initial mandate of EUR500m for a real estate fund of funds. The fund will invest in core portfolio funds, as well as in niche products, with the objective of avoiding overlap with other real estate investments by BVK as much as possible.In order to do that, the management firm will explore new segments, such as hotels, parking facilities, properties under construction, and major shopping centres. It may also move into risk classes such as “value add” and “opportunistic.”BVK has stipulated that UBS RE much also invest in funds which themselves invest in BRIC coutnries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), where BVK does not yet have any holdings. Daniel Just, vice-chairman of the managing board and chief investment officer at BVK, says that the mandate comes as an addition to direct real estate investments (which currently total EUR3.2bn), and investments in institutional real estate funds (EUR2.7bn).

Expansión relays reports in Funds People that Bankia has appointed Isabel Bastit, one of the regional heads at Caja Madrid, to head of its asset management unit, Bankia Fondos, replacing Luis Gabarda, who becomes head of Bankia Bolsa. Bastit will report to Fernando Sobrini, head of the retail bank. Bankia Fondos was born of the merger of Gesmadrid, Bancja Fondos and Ges Laetana, and has assets under management as of the end of October of EUR6.34bn, making it the fourth-largest Spanish asset management firm, after, in order, Santander, AM, BBVA AM, and Invercaixa. The private banking unit of Bankia Banca Privada has an asset management firm of its own, Bankia Banca Privada Gestión, which has assets of EUR1.31bn in 189 Sicav funds.

Sovereign funds and other institutional investors are increasingly turning to short positions on ETFs, Asian Investor reports. This trend is likely to continue in the next few months. Short-selling ETFs is common in the United States, where USD34.9bn in ETF assets were on loan as of the end of September, compared with only USD923m in Asia, and USD15.7bn Europe, according to the financial data provider Data Explorers. ETF providers are in favour of short-selling of their products, since it provides liquidity and increases interest in ETF vehicles. However, hedge funds have not yet embraced this trend in Asia, Asian Investor notes.

The British press reports that the local arm of Axa IM has announced plans to place an international strategic bond fund which will be launched in 2012 to Nick Hayes, formerly of New Star and Henderson, who since June 2010 has been manager of the Axa Sterling Strategic Bond Fund. Hayes will be assisted by Chris Iggo, CIO for bonds.

The British asset management firm JP Hambro is planning to launch a long/short fund, but has no plans to move into the fixed income sector, or absolute returns, Money Marketing reports. “We are going to launch a long/short fund. That’s a strategy that falls within our area of expertise, and which could represent a way to diversify our offerings. We have launched four new funds in the past twelve months, and launching new products next year is unlikely. We remain an equity management firm, and we are not going to get involved in fixed income,” says Gavin Rochussen, CEO of JP Hambro.

Alliance Trust Asset Management has confirmed plans to launch the Global Thematic Opportunties fund, which will be managed by Ilario Di Bon, head of global equities, in December. Fundweb reports that the former head of institutional global equities from Fidelity will be assisted by Jürgen Lanzer, senior investment manager.

Banif Banco Privada, convinced of the advantages that investment funds offer, has launched five unit-linked profiled pension funds, which will be managed by Santander Asset Management. Each retirement savings receptacle product will invest its portfolio in 10 to 20 different funds, Funds People reports. The profiles selected are Conservador (80-100% bonds), Moderado (60-100%), Equilibrado (40-100%), Dinámico (10-50%), and Agressivo (0-60%). All of these products carry a performance commission of 9%, in addition to management commissions ranging from 1.10% for the first product to 1.35% for the last three, while the Moderado fund charges management fees of 1.20%.