Stéphane Gouny rejoint Primonial en qualité de directeur marketing groupe, en charge de définir, développer et piloter la politique et la stratégie marketing du groupe, a annoncé le 14 novembre Primonial. L’intéressé aura également pour mission de créer, animer et superviser une nouvelle entité «Business sourcing and services», dédiée aux réseaux de conseillers.Depuis 2004, au sein du groupe britannique Legal & General, il était en charge de la direction du développement et du marketing (France) et présidait parallèlement la filiale infoplacement.fr (promotion marketing et commerciale). Il était également membre du « Board France ».

Agissant pour le compte de fonds dont elle assure la gestion, Financière de l’Echiquier a franchi en baisse le seuil de 5 % du capital de Groupe Gascogne. Elle détient désormais 4,99 % du capital et 3,17 % des droits de vote.

L’AMF a précisé le 10 novembre dernier que le retrait obligatoire des actions Delachaux au prix unitaire de 82 euros (avant détachement de l’acompte sur dividende et de la distribution exceptionnelle d’un montant total de 29,15 € par action, soit 52,85 euros par action après détachement), aurait lieu vendredi 18 novembre. L’opération portera sur 122.246 actions, soit 0,94% du capital et au plus 1,16% des droits de vote de l'équipementier ferroviaire. Dans un communiqué le 23 mai 2011, le fonds CVC Capital Partners avait annoncé être entré en négociation exclusive en vue du rachat du capital mis en vente par une partie de ses actionnaires Sodelho et Sogrepar.

Natixis Asset Management a annoncé le 14 novembre le lancement de Natixis Crédit Euro 1-3. Géré par Cyrille Philippe, le fonds est investi principalement dans des obligations en eurod ’émetteurs privés notés «investment grade» de maturité 1-3 ans. Natixis Crédit Euro 1-3 vise une performance supérieure de 0,30 % à l’indice Barclays Capital Euro Aggregate Credit Corporate 1-3 sur un horizon de placement recommandé de 2 ans.Destiné à toutes les catégories d’investisseurs, le FCP met l’accent sur une gestion active et la diversification, avec un portefeuille composé de 70 à 120 émetteurs répartis sur 10 secteurs au moins et une possibilité de diversification complémentaire dans des titres High Yield (jusqu'à 15 %) et des actifs titrisés (hors CDO, jusqu'à 25 %).Le processus d’investissement associe une gestion Top Down et Bottom Up : un comité de spécialistes crédit détermine tous les deux mois le directionnel crédit et les préférences sectorielles tandis que les trois équipes crédit spécialisées (Financières, Défensives et Cycliques) de Natixis Asset Management établissent chaque semaine une sélection d’émetteurs et d’émissions.Caractéristiques :Forme juridique : FCP de droit françaisFonds coordonné : OuiClassification AMF : Obligations et autres titres de créance libellés en euroDate de création : 25 juillet 2011Devise de comptabilité : EURCode ISIN : Parts institutionnelles : FR0011068642 (Capitalisation), FR0011071273 (Distribution), Retail : FR00110771778 (Capitalisation)Frais de fonctionnement et de gestion TTC maximum : 0,50 % pour les parts I, 0,80 % pour les parts RCommission de surperformance TTC : pour les parts I : 20 % de la surperformance nette au-delà Barclays Capital Euro Aggregate Credit Corporate 1-3 + 0,30 % pour les parts R : 20 % de la surperformance nette au-delà Barclays Capital Euro Credit Aggregate Corporate 1-3

Pierre-Manuel Sroczynski, secrétaire général de La Banque Postale Asset Management, va prendre la tête de La Banque Postale Gestion Privée (LBPGP), rapporte Les Echos. Sa nomination confirme la volonté du groupe de réduire le poids d’Oddo dans LBPGP, détenue à 51% par la banque et 49% par Oddo. La nomination de Pierre-Manuel Sroczynski ne sera d’ailleurs officielle que début décembre, une fois réglés les éventuels conflits d’intérêts liés à sa double casquette de dirigeant de deux filiales de La Banque Postale.

Au terme de la période d’investissement de quatre ans de son Asia Opportunity Fund III (3 milliards de dollars), LaSalle Investement Management (45 milliards de dollars) a décidé de rembourser aux souscripteurs les 600 millions de dollars qui n’ont pu être placés, rapporte Asian Investor. Le gestionnaire avait investi 1 milliard de dollars avant la crise de 2008, et 1,4 milliard de dollars plus récemment.

The Luxembourg-based veNova SA and Axxion SA (EUR3bn) have jointly launched the sub-fund Globalyze Fund – Globalyze QuantValue (ISIN code: LU0690028625), which invests in equities in the 25 best companies identified by the fundamental analysis IT program Globalyze Top Value, and then put into effect by Norbert Lohrke.Selection is based on the potential for share prices to rise, and the sale of shares when the target share price is achieved.

The average number of on-book trades on ETFs on European markets of NYSE Euronext in October fell to 11,250, from 13,070 in September, and 14,658 in August. In the first ten months of the year, the rate of increase has slowed to 26.1%, from 26.6% in January-September.The average on-book daily trading volume came to EUR433.8m last month, compared with EUR558m in September, and EUR618.2m in August. In January-October, the annual increase came to 32%.The European listings on NYSE Euronext as of the end of October included 593 ETF funds listed a total of 691 times. Since the beginning of this year, there have been 153 fund launches, of which 125 were primary listings, and 28 were secondary listings. In October, 14 ETFs were newly added to trading, of which 6 were from SPDR (SSgA), 5 from RBS Market Access, and 3 from Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale).The average spread for all ETFs in October totalled 36.3 basis points, compared with 38.83 in September, and 28.5 in August.

Overall, open-ended funds in Germany, excluding real estate funds, have seen net outflows of EUR8.43bn in January-September, the German BVI association of asset management firms reports.Aside from Allianz Global Investors, which has taken on EUR1.49bn due to net subscriptions of EUR5.73bn at its affiliate Pimco Europe, all the major asset management firms have seen net outflows in the first three quarters of the year: redemptions have totalled EUR7.53bn for Deka (savings banks), EUR3.54bn for the DWS/DB Advisors/DB family (Deutsche Bank), and EUR1.52bn for Union Investment (co-operative banks).ETF promoters, excepting ETFlab (Deka), which has seen net outflows of EUR1.09bn, have posted net subscriptions, including BlackRock (for its iShares products), which have attracted over UER7.55bn, db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank), with EUR1.3bn, and ComStage (Commerzbank) with EUR279m.Open-ended funds overall saw net outflows of EUR2.77bn, which brings net outflows to EUR3.94bn in third quarter, and EUR7.55bn in the first nine months of the year. In the first three quarters of 2010, these funds attracted a further EUR18.91bn.German asset management overall has seen net subscriptions of EUR10.75bn in January-September, thanks to EUR20.08bn in inflows to institutional funds. These last two figures compare with EUR83.41bn and EUR42.93bn, respectively.Mandates managed outside funds, which represented EUR278.18bn as of the end of September, posted net inflows in the first nine months of the year of EUR1.79bn, despite net inflows of EUR1.85bn in September.

A l’occasion de la semaine de la finance solidaire, Sophie Bigeard, analyste et gérante multi gestion chez OFI Asset Management présentait mercredi 9 novembre la gestion du fonds avenir partage ISR, avec 13 millions d’euros d’encours, de la Fondation de l’avenir. Composé à 50 % de dons en provenance de parrainages et de collecte, à 30 % de mécénat, à 10 % de fonds de dotation et à 10 % de produits financiers de partage (livret de finance solidaire ou garantie obsèques Mutuac avenir solidaire), il s’agit d’OPCVM en multi-gestion. « Chaque année, un coupon équivalent à 2 % de l’actif net du fonds est reversé » précise Sophie Bigeard soit l'équivalent de 250 à 300 000 euros. Benchmarké sur le DJ Stoxx Sustainability, il s’agit d’un fonds actions européennes en grande majorité. « Nous avons pris très récemment un positionnement de 2 % sur les futures Euro Stoxx 50, mais les 98 % restants sont des actions » explique la gérante du fonds. Cette position permet une meilleure réactivité aux comportements du marché grâce à sa volatilité. Le fonds est géré par une approche qualitative et exclusivement ISR, ce qui permet d’adopter différents aspects d’investissement responsable au sein d’un véhicule unique.

Christian Matécat, le directeur comptable et financier de la caisse d’allocation vieillesse des agents généraux (CAVAMAC), a annoncé à la rédaction d’Instit Invest que la CAVAMAC a sélectionné deux mandataires pour l’allocation flexible de la caisse. Les encours de la CAVAMAC s'élèvent à un milliard d’euros, gérés à 90 % en fonction d’indices pur action et taux. L’allocation flexible représente aujourd’hui 100 millions d’euros » confirme son directeur comptable qui souhaitait disposer d’actifs plus aptes à faire face aux comportements du marché. Depuis plus de dix-huit mois, nous réfléchissons à passer de 10 à 20/25% d’allocation flexible. Pour avoir une vision d’ensemble, une rencontre avait été organisée avec tous les gestionnaires, à la suite de laquelle il avait été décidé de faire appel à deux gérants externes, sélectionnés par l’intermédiaire de la société de conseil Amadeis. Fortes de l’année 2009 où la CAVAMAC avait réduit ses expositions sur le corporate et le regrette désormais devant les excellents résultats réalisés, les contraintes imposées aux mandataires sont peu nombreuses. Souhaitant une flexibilité optimale des 200 millions d’euros d’encours, nous n’avons pas déterminé d’actifs en particulier explique Christian Matécat. Toutefois, des réserves ont été émises sur certaines classes d’actifs, à commencer par la dette émergente, limitée à l’OCDE, et en particulier à l’Europe au niveau obligataire. C’est également le cas pour la gestion alternative qui ne doit pas dépasser 15/20% du portefeuille, les devises 20%, ou encore les convertibles US et les obligations limités 50%. La grande latitude entre les classes d’actifs permet une répartition actions/obligations allant de 0 à 100%. Pour benchmark, la CAVAMAC a choisi Eonia + 4% sur une période de 3 à 5 ans, avec un draw-down maximum de 10% et une volatilité ne pouvant dépasser les 20%. Cette dernière indication est superflue ajoute Christian Matécat, avec les limites que nous avons fixées en amont, les mandataires assurent qu’il serait improbable d’atteindre ce seuil.

The Swiss banking group Syz & Co on 14 November announced the launch of the Global high Yield sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav Oyster, with eight share classes (in US dollars and hedged for currency risks in euros, Swiss francs and Singapore dollars).The management of the global high yield bond product, which is currently reserved for institutional clients, will be outsourced to the US management boutique Seix Investment Advisors. The fund will soon be registered for sale to retail clients in several European and Asian countries, Syz states.The Oyster Global High Yield fund reproduces the strategy and investment philosophy of the unconstratined high yield strategy from Seix, which Syz says generated about twice as much returns as its peer group over five years. Concentrating on liquid bonds and limiting risks by avoiding bankruptcies, the portfolio of the Global High Yield fund is composed of a portfolio of 80 to 100 positions.ISIN codes:OYSTER Global High Yield USD LU0688633410OYSTER Global High Yield EUR-hedged LU0688633683OYSTER Global High Yield CHF-hedged LU0688633501OYSTER Global High Yield SGD-hedged LU0688633766OYSTER Global High Yield I USD LU0688633840OYSTER Global High Yield I EUR-hedged LU0688634061OYSTER Global High Yield I CHF-hedged LU0688633923OYSTER Global High Yield I SGD-hedged LU0688634228

In a 13F filing to the SEC, Paulson & Co has declared assets of USD20.7bn as of the end of September, compared with USD29.1bn three months earlier, the Wall Street Journal reports, adding that the declaration does not necessarily include all assets at the alternative asset management firm.In third quarter, Paulson & Co reduced its stake in the SPDR Gold Trust ETF, in which it was the largest shareholder as of the end of June with 31.5 million shares, by one third. That may be a sign that John Paulson has found an exposure to gold through futures and other products which do not necessarily need to be declared.Paulson & Co has also reduced its stake in Citigroup by more than 10 million shares, to 25.1 million shares as of the end of September. The firm has also liquidated its positions in NYSE Euronext and JP Morgan Chase, but increased its stake in Bank of America by 6.5% to 64.3 million shares. It has also acquired shares in Capital One Financial and reduced its allocation to Hewlett-Packard by 35%.

A new study by the CFA Institute (“An Examination of Transparency in European Bond Markets”) recommends that post-trade transparency requirements on bond markets be more carefully defined. Investors would thus have improved access to information about prices, and competition would be strengthened, while liquidity would be protected. The report analyses the current situation in terms of transparency on European bond markets, based on the example of Italy, the largest bond market in Europe, and the United States. Italy is now one of the few countries in Europe to have made bond transaction reporting obligatory, while the United States have imposed the transparency requirement since 2002, with the introduction of the TRACE system (Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine). Analysis of these two examples reveals the costs and benefits of increased transparency for investors. At the same time, a recent survey by the CFA Institute of its European members finds that 76% of respondents estimate that profits due to increased transparency on alternative trading platforms offset the costs On the basis of these findings, the CFA Institute recommends that public reporting requirements for bond transactions be introduced throughout the European Union, as a part of the MiFID II regulations. Post-trade transparency requirements should first be calibrated to take into account the size and liquidity of the bond issue. More precisely, it should be possible to shift reporting on major transactions to allow market actors to hedge their positions. That would dissipate some fears about the unuseful exposure of the broker-dealer, which could potentially damage liquidity. The new requirements would then need to be put in place gradually. Market operators need time to adjust their procedures to a new requiremnt. A gradual approach would also reduce the risk of a temporary liquidity shock. Lastly, the authorities need to set minimal standards for the content and format of post-trade transaction data. Investors need to have access to precise and coherent information on bond transactions in order to facilitate the investment decision process. It is essential to have coherent standards for transaction reporting in order to facilitate the consolidation of post-trade data and allow investors to have a wider view of bond market transactions.

Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has announced the recruitment of Georgia Marshall as head of European research. Marshall is currently regional head of corporate governance at Aviva Investors. She will begin in her new role in January 2012, in London. Marshall will oversee the ISS research teams based in London, Brussels and Paris, covering the United Kingdom and continental Europe.

A growing number of UCITS funds are bypassing regulations that forbid investment in some assets such as commodities futures, with the use of total return swaps based on an offshore hedge fund which holds the positions, Financial Times Fund Management reports. The perfectly legal tactic opens the way to potentially high levels of leverage, the newspaper points out. That could threaten the success of the UCITS brand.

Pimco on 14 November announced the launch of the Pimco GIS Credit Absolute Return fund, aimed at investors seeking a diversified strategy focused on absolute returns with no benchmark. The fund has an “all-terrain” investment style, has considerable freedom in terms of the financial instruments to be integrated into its portfolio, and is managed by Mark Kiesel, Managing Director and Head of corporate debt portfolios. The fund combines long-term strategic investments and more short-term tactical opportunities in order to offer positive returns regardless of the market environment. It is designed to allow investors to diversify their bond portfolio without exposing themselves to risks that Pimco estimates are inherent to indices. The fund will be based on the expertise of Pimco in the area of credit, its proven investment process, research capacity and risk management techniques, in order to offer a strategy focused on absolute returns to investors seeking alternatives to long-only traditional funds. “The Pimco investment process orients our macroeconomic scenario, and allows us to identify risk factors in various bond markets,” says Kiesel. “We complement this top-down approach with a rigorous bottom-up analysis which aims to obtain the best long and short positions in each segment of the bond market: investment grade credit, high yield bonds, emerging market credit, bank loans, and municipal and convertible bonds.” The fund comes as an addition to the Global Investor Series (GIS) from Pimco, which complies with UCITS regulations. The range, registered in Dublin, now has 45 sub-funds, representing EUR57bn in asstes under management as of 30 June 2011. In addition to daily liquidity, the funds offer investors a way to expose their portfolios to a wide range of asset classes, ranging from global and regional traditional bond funds, to credit portfolios, to alternative and asset allocation solutions. The funds are available in several share classes denominated in several currencies, depending on the needs of the client. Institutional share classes in the funds will be available for sale under the ticker code PIMCIUA.

The German asset management firm Deka Immobilien has announced that it has resold the logistics property Myren 6 & 8 (15,000 square metres), located in Huddinge near Stockholm, “at a profit.” The property is wholly leased to Posten Sverige AB and was purchased for about EUR35m by the British asset management firm Rockspring Property Investment Managers.Myren 6 & 8 were acquired in 2004 for an institutional real estate fund from Deka.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc, the portfolio company for Warren Buffett, on 14 November announced that it has acquired 5.4% of International Business Machines Corp (IBM), for a total of USD10.7bn, the Wall Street Journal reports.The investment at current market prices represents USD12bn, thus Berkshire Hathaway has already made gains of 12%. After State Street, Berkshire Hathaway was the second-largest shareholder in IBM as of 30 September. The buyer had begun to amass shares since March, twice receiving confidential treatment from the SEC.Since the beginning of this year, the share price for IBM has increased by 28%, while the S&P 500 index was flat. With an investment in IBM, Buffett breaks with his longstanding aversion to the technology sector.

Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global, and Axa Real Estate Investment Managers, acting on behalf of Axa France Insurance Companies, has announced that their Paris office joint venture partnership has exchanged contracts to acquire by the end of the year a portfolio of prime Paris offices for EUR290 million (excluding transfer taxes), reflecting a passing cap rate of 6.0%. This second acquisition by the JV has been negotiated off market and comprises three office properties, with some retail units on ground floors: two in Paris and one in Boulogne-Billancourt, in the Western Business District of Paris. The details of the assets are as follows: 28 – 32 Victor Hugo – Paris 16 – A prime office asset located in the heart of the Paris central business district in the immediate vicinity of Place de l’Etoile. It has a total GLA of approximately 9,500 sqm, of which 900 sqm of retail, arranged over five basement levels, a ground floor and seven upper levels. The property is fully let. 99 Avenue de France – Paris 13 – Located in the Rive Gauche business area in the 13th district of Paris, the asset has a total GLA of approximately 14,300 sqm, of which 4,600 sqm of retail, arranged over two basement levels, a ground floor and eight upper levels. It is fully let. Le Prélude – Boulogne-Billancourt – A headquarter office building located within Boulogne-Billancourt, in the established Western Business District of Paris. It has a total GLA of approximately 8,200 sqm arranged over three basement levels, a ground floor and six upper levels. It is fully let to a single strong covenant tenant. The JV between Norges Bank and Axa Real Estate was launched in August 2011 to target co-investment opportunities in the Paris office market.

NewAlpha Asset Management, an affiliate of IFO AM specialised in the incubation of management firms in the inception phase, has signed its seventeenth incubation partnership with the Heieck Siebrecht Capital Advisors company, via an investment of USD40m in the asset manager’s flagship fund. HSCA AG, based in Zurich, is an independent company founded in 2009 by Frank Siebrecht and Stefan Heieck. Siebrecht and Heieck had a total of over 26 years of experience in German and European equities. Siebrecht was an equities analyst at Deutsche Bank for 9 years, before spending three years at Absolute Capital Management, where he was co-manager of the Absolute Capital Germany fund. Heieck was in equity sales at DG Financial Markets, and then at ManFirst Capital, before joining Absolute Capital Management to co-manage Absolute Capital Germany. Heieck Siebrecht Capital Advisors uses an absolute return strategy on European equities with a particular focus on German, Swiss and Austrian large and midcaps. HSCA also includes in its investment universe European rivals to their German counterparts.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has announced the appointment of Carol Baldwin Moody as senior portfolio manager for investment compliance and operational risk. As the head of CalPERS new Investment Compliance function, she will be responsible for developing, implementing and monitoring investment management compliance and operational risk programs and policies. Moody comes to CalPERS from Wilmington Trust, where she was senior vice president and chief risk officer.

The US investment firm Evercore Partners Inc has bought a 45% stake in Evercore Investment Management LLC (24 employtees, USD3.5bn in assets) for about USD45m in cash. The transaction will be closed by the end of the year.The founders and employees of the firm will retain the remaining 55%. Alain De Coster, Laurence Russian and Guilherme Ribeiro do Valle, the founders, will remain as heads of ABS IM, and will sign long-term employment contracts. They will invest a large part of the proceeds of the sale in products managed by ABS.

The French entrepreneurial asset management firm IT Asset Management (about EUR150m in assets) has recruited Ines Thibault as head of sales for France. She had previously been head of sales at Algofi.Pierre Nicolle, an intern sales assistant, has been recruited as a salesperson for France. He joined the asset management firm in December 2009, after being responsible for development of major accounts at a finance specialist IT services company. He will be in charge of monitoring and distribution of funds in France to institutional clients and independent financial advisers.IT Asset Management is also adding to its sales drive in Europe, with the registration of the IT Funds Info Tech fund in Spain, and a new sales partner in the United Kingdom, Gemini Investment Management.

At the end of last month, assets under management by Legg Mason totalled USD628.7bn, compared with USD611.8bn as of 30 September. This level remains well below USD662.5bn at the end of June, and USD671.8bn as of 31 December 2010.Among its long-term assets, the equity allocation increased to USD159.4bn as of the end of October, from USD144.9bn at the end of September (it totalled USD184.2bn as of the end of last year), while bond products totalled USD359bn as of 31 October, compared with USD355.5bn one month previously, and USd355.8bn as of 31 December 2010.Assets in money market funds were down to USD110bn, from USD111.4bn as of 30 September. As of the end of 2010, these asstes totalled USD131.8bn.

The Danish pension fund PFA will most likely reduce its exposure to European banks. Jesper Langmack, managing director of PFA for equity and alternative investments, has told the Financial Times that returns on equity at most European banks will fall to 5-10%, due to the Basel III regulations and slowing growth.

The Danish pension fund Lønmodtagernes Dyrtidsfond (LD, DKK50bn) has jointly selected Nykredit and BNY Mellon Asset Servicing as its global custodians, following an EU-wide request for proposals.Nykredit Portefølje Administration will supervise day-to-day administration, while BNY Mellon AS will provide the IT system, process and resources of its global network.

Asian institutional investors (outside Japan) are tending to increase the proportion of their assets which they outsource to third-party management firms. According to Cerulli, about EUR1.07trn will be available to these third-party managers by the end of 2011, which represents 11.4% of total investible assets in the region. A previous estimate by Cerulli finds only 10% of assets in this category.Investible assets are expected to increase to USD13.6trn by 2015 (from USD8.6trn at the end of 2010). Of this total, 12.7% will be outsourced in 2015. «The scale of the outsourcing varies between various types of institution. For example, the proportion of assets outsourced by Asian pension funds has increased faster than average, with an increase of 18.7% in 2010, compared with 10.8% in 2006,” says Ken Yap, head of Asia-Pacific research at Cerulli. However, businesses, commercial banks and insurers still prefer to manage most of their capital internally. The Cerulli study finds, however, that central banks and quasi-governmental organisations are now tending to replace pension funds as the main source of institutional assets. Deepening competition for pension fund mandates may be a partial explanation for this development, the study funds. In geographical terms, outsourcing opportunities will continue to be concetrated on Northern Asia, particularly China, with an increase in investible assets to USD767bn by 2015, from USD452.8bn as of the end of 2010. Hong Kong and Korea have the highest proportions, with percentages of assets outsourced of 35.6% and 15.4%, respectively. In 2015, these percentages are expected to reach 38.3% and 17.3%, respectively. In Singapore, however, the outsourcing rate is expected to fall further, as sovereign entities, such as the sovereign funds Temasek and CIC, increasingly make use of their in-house expertise to manage nearly all of their investments.

At the conclusion of a four-year investment period for its Asia Opportunity Fund III (USD3bn), LaSalle Investment Management (USD45bn) has decided to redeem the USD600m which could not be invested to clients, Asian Investor reports. The asset management firm invested USD1bn before the 2008 crisis, and USD1.4bn more recently.

The secretary general of the French financial market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) on 14 November announced that it has opened an investigation of the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, after the firm announced that it had released a message to several of its subscribers in error stating that the credit rating for France had been downgraded (see Newsmanagers of 14 November). The AMF has also contacted the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA), in its role as controller of the professional responsibilities of ratings agencies.