Selon Citywire, Barclays Capital lance un fonds luxembourgeois coordonné qui réplique l’indice VStoxx 50 Mid Term Futures, le Barclays Euro Mid Term Volatility fund, qui est assorti de 0,89 % de frais de réplication, d’une commission de gestion de 0,2 % et de frais fixes de 0,2 %. La réplication s’effectue en «roulant» en permanence une exposition sur cinq mois à terme aux futures sur le VStoxx.
Le singapourien Aberdeen Asset Management Asia Ltd (Aberdeen Asia) a, comme prévu, annoncé le 12 juillet le lancement de son troisième fonds de fonds fermé spécialiste de l’immobilier asiatique et destiné aux investisseurs institutionnels (lire notre article du 30 mars 2011).L’objectif est de constituer un portefeuille de fonds «best-in-class» de la région axés à la fois sur des marchés matures comme le Japon, l’Australie et Singapour, et des marchés émergents comme la chine et l’Inde. Les fonds sélectionnés couvriront le spectre entier du risque depuis les investissements cœur de portefeuille jusqu’aux stratégies opportunistes. Il est prévu que le fonds fasse appel au crédit dans une proportion comprise entre 50 et 60 %. L’objectif de performance est de l’ordre de 13-17 % par an.Le nouveau produit sera géré par cinq personnes à Singapour sous la direction de Puay Ju Kang, head of property-Asia Pacific.
Pour le deuxième trimestre, SEB a déclaré le 14 juillet un bénéfice net de 3,37 milliards de couronnes contre 2,62 milliards pour janvier-mars et 2 milliards en avril-juin 2010. Sur le premier semestre, il ressort à 5,99 milliards contre 2,69 milliards.Pour la gestion de fortune, le bénéfice d’exploitation s’est établi à 309 millions de couronnes en avril-juin contre 405 millions pour le premier trimestre et 380 millions pour la période correspondante de l’an dernier. Le coefficient d’exploitation s’est ainsi détérioré à 71 % contre respectivement 65 % et 66 %.Les encours à fin juin se situaient à 1.298 milliards de couronnes, dont 42 % sous forme de fonds d’investissements, contre 1.303 milliards fin mars et 1.258 milliards un an auparavant.Les souscriptions nettes ont porté au deuxième trimestre sur 7 milliards pour la clientèle institutionnelle et 5,5 milliards pour la banque privée, contre 9,5 milliards et 5,1 milliards en janvier-mars. Pour le deuxième trimestre 2010, elles étaient ressorties à respectivement 5,8 milliards et 3 milliards.
Citywire rapporte que la boutique brésilienne Victoire Brasil Investimientos, créée en 2004 par des anciens de Citigroup, a lancé en février son premier fonds coordonné Victoire Brasil Select avec un portefeuille concentré de 15-20 valeurs, dont 38 % de grandes capitalisations. Le fonds est géré par André Caminada et Werner Roger.
Le groupe d'électricité RWE a revendu 74,9 % d’Amprion GmbH, une société qui exploite des réseaux de transport d'électricité à haute tension, à un consortium d’investisseurs institutionnels et de distributeurs d'électricité, dont MEAG, le gestionnaire d’actifs (202 milliards d’euros) de Munich Re et d’Ergo. Le montant de la transaction n’a pas été divulgué. MEAG, qui diversifie ainsi son portefeuille, a précisé le 14 juillet que le consortium a confié la gestion de cette participation à un fonds lancé et géré par Commerz Real. Pour sa part, RWE conserve les 25,1 % restant d’Amprion.
Le family office des héritiers d’Harald Quandt, qui gère les fortunes d’autres familles également, Auda International (4,5 milliards de dollars en private equity), a recruté Ferdinand von Sydow comme managing director à compter de la mi-septembre, rapporte la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. L’impétrant sera chargé de développer la clientèle institutionnelle. Il est actuellement l’un des dirigeants de la société de gestion de fonds immobiliers IVG International Funds (12,5 milliards d’euros).
Citywire reports that Barclays Capital is launching a UCITS-compliant Luxembourg fund, which replicates the Vstoxx 50 Mid Term Futures index, entitled Barclays Euro Mid Term Volatility fund, which charges a replication fee of 0.89%, a management commission of 0.2%, and set fees of 0.2%. Replication maintains a continuously rolling position in Vstoxx futures, targeting a five-month forward exposure.
Singapore-based Aberdeen Asset Management Asia Ltd (Aberdeen Asia) announced on 12 July, as expected, that it is launching its third closed fund of funds specialised in Asian real estate and aimed at institutional investors (see Newsmanagers of 30 March 2011).The objective is to create a portfolio of best-in-class funds in the region, focused both on mature markets such as Japan, Australia and Singapore, and on emerging markets such as China and India. Funds selected will run the entire risk spectrum from core portfolio investments to opportunistic strategies. The fund is expected to rely on credit for a total of 50% to 60%. The performance objective is about 13-17% per year. The new product will be managed by five people in Singapore, led by Puay Ju Kang, head of property for Asia-Pacific.
« Nous n’avons rien modifié dans notre portefeuille par rapport à Solvency 2 dans la mesure où il n’y a pratiquement plus rien à l’intérieur et nos actifs risquent encore de diminuer », explique Nicole Foriano, directrice de gestion à la Mutuelle d’Assurance Rhône-Alpes (Maralp). La Mutuelle fait face à de nombreux problèmes de frais généraux et doit continuer à vendre une partie de son portefeuille d’actifs. « Nous n’avons plus les ressources suffisantes et c’est au niveau de notre groupe que tout se passe, poursuit Nicole Foriano. Nous n’avons pratiquement plus de gestion d’actifs et nous continuons à gérer très peu de monétaire ». En fait, la Mutuelle traverse une mauvaise passe et se place en mauvaise position par rapport au groupe auquel elle appartient : l’Union Bresse Dombes. Elle ne fait, ainsi, plus de bénéfices et un nantissement sur ses titres a été effectué au niveau du réassureur de la Mutuelle - l’Union Bresse Dombes - qui gère aujourd’hui cet aspect financier.
On 13 July, Pictet Asset Management launched six Luxembourg-registered geographical index-based funds (part 1), each of which has six share classes with two anti-dilution solutions (spread or swing). Previously, the Swiss management firm had eight funds in the family: the team manages USD32bn in funds and in the form of mandates (as of the end of May). There are institutional shares (minimal subscription: USD1m), and retail shares. The new products, Pictet LatAm Index, BRIC Index, Brazil index, Russia Index, India Index and China Index, physically replicate the MSCI indices for the corresponding countries or regions as closely as possible. The TERs for the various share classes vary from 0.45% to 1.05%.
Allianz Global Investors announced on Tuesday, 13 July that it has appointed Andreas Hilka as Managing Director, Head of Retirement for Europe from 1 July. Hilka occupies a newly-created position, which will make him responsible for the development and deployment of a strategy centred on retirement plans and solutions in Europe. He will report to Elizabeth Corley, CEO of Allianz Global Investors for the European region.Hilka, 43, previously worked at the Credit Suisse group in Frankfurt as Head of Multi-Asset Solutions for Austria, Germany, Luxembourg and Poland, and as Head of retirement solutions for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Fabio Ferra and Karsten-Dirk Steffens, business development directors, will be heads of the new Aviva Investors representative office in Switzerland. Steffen had been senior sales director, while the latter was head of client service at Axa Investment Managers for Switzerland. They will report to Gabriele Miodini, head of financial institutions for Europe. Their mission will be to develop a distribution network in Switzerland.
Swiss-based asset management firm Julius Baer on 13 July announced that it has launched a service which allows investors to reduce to completely neutralise CO2 emissions from their equities portfolios, entitled “green portfolio services,” which has been developed in cooperation with the Zurich-based firm South Pole Carbon.On the basis of an individualised portfolio analysis, investors will be able to reduce carbon emissions related to their investments by taking one or several measures to this end.Pollutant emissions reduction projects by South Pole Carbon have been developed in compliance with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and are also recognised by specialist NGOs such as the Swiss-based Gold Standard. These projects focus on sources of renewable energies, reforestation, and prevention of methane emissions.
According to a study by Deutsche Bank, in the next three years, average growth of 25% is to be expected for ETF assets in Europe in the next three years. But the debt crisis has clearly slowed growth in first half 2011, when the increase slowed to 5%, the Börsen-Zeitung notes, in a phenomenon similar to the one observed in 2008 in the wake of the sub-prime debt crisis. Net subscriptions represented about EUR14bn. As of the end of June, Europe had 1,483 ETFs, with assets of EUR241bn.
Les Echos relays the most recent rankings by Scorpio Partnership, which find that Bank of America retains its position as the largest private bank in the world in terms of assets under management (USD1.944trn), followed by Morgan Stanley (USD1.628trn), and then the Swiss bank UBS (USD1.560trn), and Wells Fargo. With USD340bn in assets under management, the largest French bank, BNP Paribas, ranks ninth, having gained two places due to the consolidation of the Belgian bank Fortis.Overall, assets under management rose 11.12% in 2010. Smaller structures have done slightly better than large ones, with growth in assets under management of 12.4%, compared with 10%. The market remains highly concentrated, with the 20 largest private banks in the world accounting for 81.6% of assets entrusted to wealth management teams in 2010 (compared with 77.1% in 2009).
German power supplier RWE has sold a 74.9% stake in Amprion GmbH to a consortium of institutional investors and electricity distributors, including MEAG, the asset manager for Munich Re and Ergo (EUR202bn). The sale price has not been disclosed. MEAG, which is diversifying its portfolio, stated on 14 July that the consortium has entrusted management of the participation to a fund launched and managed by Commerz Real. For its part, RWE will retain the remaining 25.1% stake in Amprion, a firm which operates high tension electricity transport networks.
The family office for the heirs to Harald Quandt, which also manages the wealth of other families, Auda International (USD4.5bn in private equity), has recruited Ferdinand von Sydow as managing director, from mid-September, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Von Sydow will be in charge of developing the institutional client base. He is currently one of the directors of the real estate asset management firm IVG International Funds (EUR12.5bn).
The European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) on Thursday, 14 July published a consultation document (ESMA/2011/209) laying out its detailed proposals for the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD). The move comes in response to a request for assistance from the European Commission to the European authority which preceded the ESMA, the CESR, in December 2010.The ESMA will submit a final recommendation to the Commission on 16 November 2011. Participants will have two months to submit responses to the ESMA. In the light of responses received by 13 September, the ESMA will finalise its proposals and submit them to the Commission by the deadline stated above.
For second quarter, SEB on 14 July declared a net profit of SEK3.37bn, compared with SEK2.62bn in January-March, and SEK2bn in April-June 2010. In first half, profits total SEK5.99bn, compared with SEK2.69bn.For wealth management, operating profits totalled SEK309m in April-June, compared with SEK405m in first quarter, and SEK380m in the corresponding period of last year. The cost/income ratio has deteriorated to 71%, compared with 65% and 66%, respectively.Assets as of the end of June totalled SEK1.298trn, of which 42% are in the form of investment funds, compared with SEK1.303trn as of the end of March, and SEK1.258trn one year previously.Net subscriptions in second quarter totalled SEK7bn for institutional clients, and SEK5.5bn for private banking, compared with SEK9.5bn and SEK5.1bn in January-March. In second quarter 2010, subscriptions totalled SEK5.8bn and SEK3bnm, respectively.
As announced in late June (see Newsmanagers of 28/06/2011), HSBC ETFs has launched three ETFs on NYSE-Euronext in Paris: HSBC MSCI EM Latin America, HSBC MSCI Canada, and HSBC South Africa.As of the end of last month, NYSE Euronext listed 565 ETFs from 17 issuers 656 times. This year, there have been 115 new listings, of which 26 are cross listings. Activity represents an average of 8,575 daily trades, a 7.4% decline compared with June 2010, but a 7.07% increase compared with the month of May, when there were an average of 8,009 transactions (see Newsmanagers of 09/06/2011). That represents a total of EUR409.8m, up 2.5% compared with June 2010.These ETFs as a whole cover more than 360 indices, composed of a wide range of assets (equities, bonds, commodities, etc), and represent global assets of EUR142.5bn, up 22.1% since June 2010 (EUR116.7bn).
By the end of 2015, assets under management in United States ETFs are expected to double, to USD2trn, largely due to the emergence of products focused on new asset classes and new indices, with new methods for using ETFs as portfolio construction tools.These are the findings of a study by BNY Mellon Asset Servicing and Strategic Insight, entitled “ETFs 2.0: The Next Wave of Growth and Opportunity in the U.S. ETF Market,” which finds that the proportion of ETF funds replicating traditional indices will fall, while non-traditional and alternative funds will account for a larger slice of the pie. Loren Fox, senior research analyst at Strategic Insight, says the varieties of non-traditional ETFs that will be likely to increase their market share will be those based on commodities strategies, inverse funds, leveraged funds, actively-managed ETFs, and ETFs that are similar to hedge funds.
Three major US asset management firms have nearly simultaneously announced their asset volumes as of the end of June. In all three cases, assets are down compared with the end of May. At Franklin Resources, the total is USD734.2bn, compared with USD735.8bn, while at Legg Mason assets are down to USD662.5bn from USD670bn, and at Invesco they are now USD653.7bn, compared with USD661.4bn.By comparison, as of 31 December 2010, assets under management at Franklin resources totalled USD670.7bn. At Legg Mason, they were USD671.8bn, and at Invesco, they were USD616bn.
Lazard Frères Gestion on Tuesday, 13 July announced that it has added to its private banking team with the arrival of Rémi Chleq as a senior private banker. The new recruit will join the private management development team led by Sophie de Nadaillac, managing partner at Lazard Frères Gestion.Chleq, 40, had been head of a team of 5 private bankers at Credit Suisse since March 2007.
State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) announced on Wednesday, 13 July that it has added to its treasury team with the appointments of Kevin Thomson and Adam Sadiq. Both will become regional directors of sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The two will be based in London, and will report to Jennifer Hole, head of EMEA treasury activities at SSgA, and will be responsible for distribution of liquidity products throughout the EMEA region. Previously, Thompson was head of business development at ICD, a website provider, where he was in charge of developing activities outside North America. Sadiq served as head of development for treasury and short-term fixed income activities at Western Asset Management Company.
As Andrew Doman is becoming chairman of the board at Russell Investments, he will be replaced as president & CEO of Russell Investments by Len Brennan, who will retain his position as CEO for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, to which he was appointed on 11 July (see Newsmanagers of 7 July). Ed Zore, who had been chairman since 2008, will remain on the board as an administrator. Brennan is a company man, having spent most of his career at Russell since 1985. He spent a six-year stint at Rainier Investment Management, founded by three former Russell employees in 2005, and served there are president and CEO, before returning to the fold.
Bruno Zaraya, head of retail distribution at Métropole Gestion, will no longer be a part of the company after his holiday leave is completed, which confirms what the H24 website had reported.Zaraya, who spent one year at Métropole Gestion after serving as director of sales at Sal. Oppenheim since December 2008, and previous to that, head of partnerships and key accounts for France at Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management (2003-2008), is leaving the business to undertake an entrepreneurial project. The firm led by François Marie Wocjik, for its part, is currently recruiting a replacement for Zaraya.
In the past, when private equity investors needed money to make a major acquisition, they teamed up with rivals. Now, they appear to have found another source of financing: their investors, the Wall Street Journal reports. The British firm Apax Partners has signed an agreement with the affiliates of two major pension funds, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board of Canada, to acquire Kinetic Concepts Inc., a hospital wound-care and hospital bed provider, for USD6.3bn, including debt. The offer at USD68.40 per share represents a 17% premium over the shares’ last closing price before the operation was announced.
The real estate portfolio management firm Viveris REIM on Wednesday, 13 July announced that it is founding a charity for engagement in responsible investment, which will soon be followed by the creation of an environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment reference which will be included into the firm’s process of acquiring and managing properties. “Reflections on the definition of sustainable development principles for the business as a whole and the management of its real estate assets were begun in 2010 with EthiFinance, an independent extra-financial ratings agency. The charter defines the philosophy which guides Viveris REIM, and the firm’s major commitments to its partners (shareholders, employees, providers, civil society) in responsible investment and management of real estate properties,” a statement says. Viveris REIM has also signed to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).
In second quarter, JPMorgan Chase saw net profits of USD5.43bn, compared with USD5.55bn in January-March, and USD4.79bn in the corresponding period of last year.Net profits in asset management were down to USD439m, compared with USD466m for first quarter, but are up 12% compared with USD391m in April-June 2010.As of 30 June, assets totalled USD1.3trn, USD181bn higher than one year previously.JPMorgan states that net inflows in second quarter 2011 totalled USD3bn, and that they totalled USD57bn in the twelve months to the end of June. In the quarter under review, net subscriptions to long-term products totalled USD19bn, but money market products saw net outflows of USD16bn.
Louis Vuitton may not be lowering its prices, but the Wall Street version of the luxury retailer, Bain Capital, has begun putting up the sale posters for its new USD2bn capital investment fund focused on Asia, the Wall Street Journal reports.Bain had previously charged a management commission of 2% and a performance commission of 30%, while its rivals charged 1.5% and 20%. Now, Bain is offering either 2%/20%, or 1%/30%.Investors say the discounts are due to the fact that the most recent Bain funds generated returns that were ultimately comparable to those of its competitors, which makes it more difficult to charge higher fees.