Le nombre de fonds de pension soumettant leurs actifs à des tests de résistance a fortement augmenté depuis 2009, selon un sondage réalisé par MSCI auprès de 85 fonds de pension, fondations et fonds souverains dont les actifs sous gestion agrégés s'élèvent à quelque 5.500 milliards de dollars.Plus des deux tiers de l'échantillon ont mis des tests de résistance à leur programme, contre seulement 27% en 2009, selon le sondage qui souligne que les fonds de pension sont de plus préoccupés par le risque de marché, le risque de contrepartie et le risque de liquidité.Le sondage montre également que les participants ont tenté de comprendre leurs risques de liquidité et de contrepartie en mettant en place des bases de données propriétaires. Ils ont aussi restructuré leurs portefeuilles afin qu’ils ne comprennent que des montants limités d’actifs illiquides.Autre évolution significative, la couverture des risques extrêmes compte désormais parmi les priorités des fonds de pension, avec 41% d’entre eux assurant la couverture de ces risques contre seulement 10% en 2009.

Axa Investment Managers has announced the launch of Axa World Fund Framlington Natural Resources, a global equity fund designed to capture the long termpositive trends in commodity prices. The fund seeks performance across every commodity type, actively investing in companies operating in the energy, industrial metals, precious metals and soft commodity markets. It invests in companies engaged in activities that span the entire value chain, such as exploration and refining within the oil sector or from fertiliser to machinery within the agricultural sector.The portfolio aims to hold between 70 and 90 stocks with market capitalisations ranging from approximately USD1 to USD350 billion. The stocks are selected based on the fund manager’s strongest convictions shaped by a combination of company analysis and a topdown commodity and macroeconomic view.The fund is managed by an investment team - Sebastien Lagarde, senior portfolio manager and Olivier Eugene, portfolio manager - which also manages the AWFFramlington Hybrid Resources and AWF Framlington Junior Energy portfolios.

An extraordinary general shareholders’ meeting for Sparinvest SICAV (14 sub-funds), held on 30 September, voted to bring the Sicav fund into compliance with the UCITS IV directive, following the issuance of a license to the asset management firm Sparinvest S.A. by the CSSF in July this year. Shareholders also approved the appointment of a new board of directors, with the aim of internationalising the fund. Sparinvest has announced the appointment of three influential people in the world of finance to the board of directors at Sparinvest SICAV. They are Torben Nielsen, chairman, who is a former governor of the Danish central bank (Danmarks Nationalbank), Benedicte Vibe Christensen, former deputy director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Peter Reedtz, director and owner of the Danish asset allocation institute.

Nous allons continuer à travailler sur le pilier 1 pour améliorer la fiabilité de nos résultats. Aujourd’hui, notre principale occupation concerne le pilier 2 consacré à la mesure et à la gestion des risques témoigne Guillaume Ville, responsable ALM et Solvabilité 2 au sein de la Carac. Des études ont été initiées pour la mise en place du pilier 3, qui couvre la diffusion d’information et le reporting relatif à la solvabilité de la mutuelle. Toutes les équipes de la Carac au sein des différents services de notre mutuelle sont impliquées dans la mise en ??uvre de Solvabilité 2.

Le Conseil régional Poitou-Charentes, Poitiers a décidé de créer et de doter un fonds de co-investissement en faveur des PME/PMI régionales innovantes en phase d’amorçage ou de développement. Ce fonds de co-investissement a vocation à intervenir en fonds propres ou quasi fonds propres (par voie de souscription d’actions, d’obligations, de comptes-courants bloqués ou d’autres prêts participatifs) avec un ou plusieurs investisseurs partenaires préalablement agréés, exclusivement en co-investissement, pari passu, au sein de PME/PMI éligibles sélectionnées par le ou les investisseurs partenaires. Il est précisé que le fonds investira dans les entreprises concernées de manière minoritaire (au plus 50 %) et conjointement, avec le partenaire financier et selon les mêmes conditions, le même niveau de risque et de subordination. Ces investisseurs partenaires sont des fonds, des sociétés de capital risque et des business angels (ci-après dénommés les «partenaires financiers décisionnels»), qui sont retenus après appel de manifestations d’intérêt. Un appel de manifestations d’intérêt est donc lancé par le fonds de co-investissement Poitou-Charentes pour sélectionner ses partenaires financiers décisionnels. Le présent appel de manifestations d’intérêt ne prévoit à ce stade qu’une seule date limite de remise de dossiers de candidature: jusqu’au 30.8.2012. Toutes les précisions relatives aux objectifs et caractéristiques des projets appelés et aux conditions de candidatures sont disponibles sur le règlement de l’appel de manifestations d’intérêt téléchargeable sur le site web de la Région Poitou-Charentes à l’adresse web suivante: http://www.poitou-charentes.fr/services-en-ligne/guide-aides/-/aides/detail/248 Il est précisé que cet appel à projet s’inscrit dans le cadre défini au niveau européen (1re mesure du régime communautaire cadre N629/2007 d’interventions publiques en capital-investissement régional) et fait l’objet d’un cofinancement européen au titre du programme opérationnel (PO) FEDER 2007-2013 et notamment de l’axe prioritaire 1 intitulé «Développer les capacités d’innovation dans une démarche de développement durable». Pour lire l’avis complet: cliquez ici

The number of pension funds undergoing stress tests has increased sharply since 2009, according to a survey by MSCI of 85 pension funds, charities and sovereign funds with total assets under management of roughly USD5.5trn. More than two thirds of the entities surveyed have made stress testing a part of their programme, compared with only 27% in 2009, according to the survey, which also finds that pension funds are most concerned about market risks, counterparty risks and liquidity risks. The survey also finds that participants have sought to understand their liquidity and counteryparty risks by setting up proprietary databases. They have also restructured their portfolios in order to ensure that they include only limited amounts of illiquid assets. Another significant development is that coverage of extreme risks is now a top priority for pension funds, with 41% ensuring coverage for these risks, compared with only 10% in 2009.

The CNMV has issued a license for the DWS Invest Top Dividend Premium LC fund for sale in Spain. The product is registered in Luxembourg (LU0616849567) and had assets of EUR8.34m as of 3 October; it was launched by DWS Investments (Deutsche Bank group) on 11 August 2011. The fund is an optimised version of the DWS Invest Top Dividend fund, a strategy for the selection of equities on the basis of the criterion of sustainably high dividends, which has about EUR6bn in assets, managed by Thomas Schüssler, with a Luxembourg-registered sub-fund representing EUR405.38m in assets. The manager of the new fund, Jens Labusch, practices a strategy of covered options, which will generate added earnings over and above the Top Dividend portfolio. The new fund aims for an annual distribution of 7%.

The Rothschild private bank in Switzerland is adding to its team of advisers for Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNW), with wealth of over CHF25m, with the arrival of Beat Näf, Agefi Switzerland reports. From 2003 to 2010, Näf was CEO of the Müller-Möhl group in Zurich. On 3 October, he began in his new position, at the same time as the new director of UHNW, Riccardo Petrachi, who joined from UBS.

The Geneva-based asset management firm Semper Gestion has announced the arrival of Tianning Ning Kernen, who will be in charge of asset management, and will analyse investment opportunities on the Chinese market, Agefi Switzerland reports. The Chinese Kernen studied in Switzerland and has worked as a fund manager at the Cantonal bank of Vaud. She has managed Chinese equity funds for 10 years, with assets of over USD200m. She will work in direct collaboration with Christine Ren, who is based at the Semper offices in Shanghai.

State Street Corporation announced on October 4 that it has acquired Complementa Investment-Controlling AG, an investment performance measurement and analytics firm based in St. Gallen, Switzerland for institutional and large private investors. The firm provides services to asset managers, banks, pension funds, family offices, insurance companies, foundations and trustees based primarily in Switzerland and Germany. The acquisition also includes wholly-owned subsidiary Allocare AG, a leading Swiss asset management software provider. Complementa will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of State Street and will retain its name and identity. Benjamin Brandenberger, founder and Chairman of Complementa, and Michael Brandenberger, CEO and President of Complementa will serve as board members (Verwaltungsrat) and be actively involved in the business. Andreas Joost, already a member of the Complementa managing board, will take over the CEO position and manage Complementa’s business.

Horst Schmidt, chairman of the managing board at the private bank Delbrück Bethman Maffei, has announced that form 4 October, this affiliate of the ABN Amro group will be changing its name to Bethmann Bank, with the aim of simplification.The Delbrück & Co private bank was acquired by the Netherlands-based group in 2002, and was then merged with BethmannMaffei in February 2004.The new Bethmann Bank in first half 2011 posted net inflows of about EUR1bn, after inflows doubled to EUR1.3bn in 2010. Currently, assets under management total about EUR17bn.Delbrück Bethman Maffei has recently announced the acquisition of LGT Bank Deutschland (see Newsmanagers of 30 September).

Deutsche Bank on 4 October announced in a statement that the Private Clients and Asset Management and Global Transaction Banking units will post record results for third quarter.The bank says, however, that results for the Corporate Banking & securities and Corporate & Investment Banking units will not measure up to expectations.. In investment banking, staff may be reduced by 500 in fourth quarter 2011 and first quarter 2012.Results for the group in third quarter, however, are expected to be satisfactory, as will results for the year as a whole. The objective of a pre-tax profit of EUR10bn for the bank’s key activities, however, is no longer a possibility due to ongoing adjustments and market turbulence, the bank says.Full results for third quarter will be released on 25 October.

The German firm Bank Sarasin AG, an affiliate of the Swiss firm Banque Sarasin & Cie (Rabobank group), on 4 October announced two recruitments for advisory activities in Germany. Dagmar Bottenbruch (former head of Germany at Rabobank) and Ulrich Hähner (former head of private banking activities at Delbrück Bethmann Maffei in Düsseldorf) will report to Frank Niehage, chairman of the board at Bank Sarasin AG. The two positions are newly created. Bottenbruch becomes director of corporate advisory, including questions of inheritance, alternative financing and enterprise networks. Hähner will take charge of advising family offices and charities. He becomes director of special solutions/foundations” and will operate throughout Germany from a base in Cologne.

According to José María Marcos, director general for businesses at the CNMV, only EUR850m of the EUR5.995bn in assets in six Spanish real estate funds as of the end of August, or 14.18% of the total, are still in the portfolios of retail investors. The remainder has been taken on by the asset management firms which launched the products, Funds People reports. They now control nearly 86% of total assets.The largest fund, Santander Banif Inmobiliario, which has been wholly taken over by Santander, along accounts for EUR2.475bn in assets under management, and had lost 4.2% of its value year on year as of the end of August. The BBVA Propriedad fund, which has been transformed into a real estate investment firm, as of the end of August still had EUR1.346bn in assets and had lost 3.8% year on year. The only real estate fund to have gained assets (0.1% of assets since the beginning of the year) is Sabadell BS Inmobiliario, which has EUR1.023bn in assets; it has earned 1.1% in the twelve months to the end of August.

A team of traders from the US hedge fund Moore Capital is preparing to launch a new hedge fund firm in the UK, Stone Milliner Asset Management, the Financial Times reports. Among the founders are Jens-Peter Stein and Kornelius Klobucar, two senior managers from Moore. They will start up with USD1bn in assets, with Moore Capital providing significant seed capital to the firm.

Jean-Luc Bianchi is joining Ecofi Investissements (Crédit Coopératif group) as director of institutional clients, the firm announced on 4 October.Before joining Ecofi Investissements, Bianchi was director of clients for French-speaking Europe at Olympia Capital Management.Bianchi’s “arrival will allow the firm to consolidate and develop a long-term partnership with institutional investors, who are at the core of our history and our expertise,” Ecofi says in a statement.

Parisian assets of the US management firm Muzinich now total over EUR1.1bn, of which more than EUR450m are in France, while the remainder comes from Geneva, Luxembourg and Belgium. At the beginning of this year, assets under management totalled about EUR650m. Since the beginning of this year, Muzinich-Paris, led by Eric Pictet, has posted net inflows of EUR520m, despite net outflows of EUR27m in July-September. In the first nine months of the year, gross inflows totalled EUR1.35bn, of which EUR500m were in third quarter.

Benjamin Melman, director of the absolute return unit at Edmond de Rothschild Investment Managers (Edrim), who is in charge of the management of the Quadrim 4 and Quadrim 8 funds, has announced that assets in the funds have fallen by about EUR100m since the beginning of the year, due to losses of 0.5% for the former and 2.86% for the latter fund, which are honourable results in light of the highly adverse evolution of the markets, and the skittish mood of some segments of clients.The only current directional bet is a 6% allocation to emerging markets, which the manager admits was made a bit early, although positions have been reduced since. However, “the discount of emerging markets, following a major correction, has returned to its levels at the beginning of the last decade, and emerging markets equities are really inexpensive.” In general, Melman says that he has adopted an «ultra-prudent» management policy: he is not limiting himself to macro strategies, but is also using quantitative IT tools such as trend monitoring and currency volatility. He adds that “the only real way to diversify is not over asset classes but over styles;” and Edrim constantly deploys ten strategies.

Eaton Vance Management on Monday, 3 October announced the launch of the Eaton Vance Bernstein All Asset Strategy Fund. The product, managed by Richard Bernstein with a macroeconomic approach, invests worldwide in a variety of asset classeds (equities, bonds, commodities, currencies, and others).

BNY Mellon Asset Management is launching BNY Mellon Liquidity Funds, a range of short-term money market funds managed by BNY Mellon Cash Investment Strategies, the division of BNY Mellon Asset Management dedicated to money market and short-term bond management, with USD536bn in assets under management. The range is composed of four funds: BNY Mellon Euro Liquidity Fund, BNY Mellon Sterling Liquidity Fund, BNY Mellon US Dollar Liquidity Fund, and BNY Mellon US Treasury Fund. The strategy of the fund, which is rated AAA by Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s, is based on a conservative money market management approach relying on high quality investments and daily liquidity.

The European fund and asset management association (EFAMA) published on October 4 a report undertaken by Strategic Insight, which aims to give investors greater transparency and understanding of cost breakdown within the total expense ratio (TER) of European mutual funds. As a part of its campaign to promote investor education and information, the professional association says that greater transparency is needed to reveal the breakdown of fees within the TER of funds so investors understand what they are paying. In Europe, investors in retail equity funds pay an average of about 175 basis points in commissions (TER), while for subscribers in bond funds, the average fee level stands at about 117 basis points. On average, UCITS fund managers retain around 42% of the TER. Distributors claim about 41% of the TER in retrocessions, with the remaining 17% is allocated to other operating services such as custody and fund administration. In insurance and banking distribution chains, equity and bond managers apply 47% and 45%, respectively, of annual charges in management fees. 53% and 55% of fees, respectively, go to distributors in retrocessions. After commissions are paid out to distributors, management fees for European FCP funds total an average of 74 basis points for actively-managed equity funds, and 49% for bond funds. The study funds that when three major US fund management firms are not taken into account (American Funds, Fidelity and Vanguard), whose assets under management may be as high as USD1trn each, average management commissions in the United States are only 3 basis points greater than in Europe. Taking these three US heavyweights into account, management fees in the US are 11 points lower than those charged in Europe. However, the US market still largely depends on independent financial advisers. More than 50% of sales of US funds are made via IFAs, who make their money through commissions on the basis of assets at a level of 1% to 1.5%, in addition to the TER for the funds. The report says in its conclusions that the development and maturing of the asset management sector in Europe will come with operational improvements which may also have an impact on costs. The UCITS IV directive will favour economies of scale, with cross-border mergers and master-feeder structures. Regulatory changes in the United Kingdom, with the Retail Distribution Review (RDR), and other regulatory evolutions worldwide (Australia, United States, and India) will also have an influence on European initiatives in the future.

Guillaume Rambourg, a former star manager from Gartmore, is preparing to launch his own hedge fund firm in Paris, according to reports in the Financial Times. The structure, to be entitled Verazzano Capital, will aim to raise USD1bn. Rambourg will be assisted by four partners: the head of the Delta One division of Goldman Sachs, Karim Moussalem; the founder of Lyxor Asset Management, Murielle Maman; a director from the hedge fund division at UBS, Tim Williams, and a former Gartmore senior manager, Tomás Pintó.

State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) has registered six fixed income ETFs on Nyse Euronext in Paris, Agefi reports. The SPDR-branded funds, which have been licensed for sale in France for a few months, and are already listed in London and/or Berlin, invest in public or corporate debt from the euro zone or the United States, and in corporate bonds from emerging markets in local currencies.In order to boost sales, two ETF sales specialists will also join the asset management firm at the end of October, the firm has announced, adding that it is also hiring for two more general positions by the end of this year.

Candidates to acquire the private equity firm Axa PE, which Axa is studying the possibility of selling, have until Tuesday to submit preliminary bids. The US funds TPG and KKR have come forward as candidates, as has the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, according to a source familiar with the matter cited by La Tribune.

Due to “structural problems” at the French-Belgian firm Dexia, selloffs and alliances are on the menu, the website of Le Point magazine reports. As a part of the plans, asset management and private management, which generated EUR1bn last year, are reported already to have found buyers, the magazine reports.

With a restructured team in the Asia-Pacific region, Morgan Stanley Investment Management (Morgan Stanley IM) is planning to increase its assets under management to at least USD100bn in the next three to five years, from USD34bn at the end of 2010, Asian Investor reports. A tripling of assets under management will be made easier by an enriched product range, including long-only and private equity funds.

East Capital Explorer announced on Tuesday, 4 October that it has recruited Mia Jurke as CEO. Jurke will join the firm on 15 October, after serving as CEO of East Capital Asset Management. Jurke replaces Tiivas Gert, who will join the private equity investment activities of East Capital for the Baltic countries, once the new CEO has begun in her new role. East Capital Explorer was created to allow shareholders to benefit from the expertise of East Capital as an investor in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and turkey, by investing in high-performance businesses in the region which are not publicly traded.

The Julius Baer private banking group, which is seeking to make Asia its second-largest market after Switzerland, has recruited for its team in the Greater China region. Victor Chao Tzu-Ping has joined the group effective immediately, Agefi Switzerland reports. In addition, Catherine Tseng will direct a new strategic initiative in the region which will aim to develop the Key Client segment. Tzu-Ping has over 25 years of experience in private banking, and was most recently head of the Private Wealth Management China division at Deutsche Bank.

The FPPM group has raised EUR2.1m in its third round of fundraising in 18 months. This time, the Alto Invest funds, which are new entrants in the capital of the group, invested a total of EUR1.6m in equities and bonds, alongside CDC Entreprises, which has increased its position by EUR1.5m in bonds. The FPPM group, founded in 1989 by René Camart and based in Paris (75), is originally a leader in advising on the use of natural resources. It now has two affiliates, Européenne de marbre (EDM Projets) et la Pierre de France (deposits and careers unit). Camart comments that “this third round of fundraising is essential to ensure the development of our group, both for its activities via EDM, and our deposits unit, for the consolidation of that profession, so as to allow it a wider internatinoal audience.” FPPM is projecting earnings in 2011 of about EUR75m, compared with EUR52m last year, of which 30% were from exports.

The US firm Morgan Stanley on 3 October announced the launch of FX Gateway, a multi-manager platform which aims to provide institutional investors with access to a selection of currency managers, and to provide managers with a more diversified client base. As a part of this process, Morgan Stanley is acting as FX prime broker and distributor for the platform.