Le bavarois BayernInvest a lancé le 6 juillet un fonds de dette émergente pour les investisseurs institutionnels. Il s’agit juridiquement d’un fonds coordonné offert au public «semi-passif» dont l’indice de référence est le J.P. Morgan EMBI Global Diversified Index en utilisant la méthode du «stratified sampling» . De fait, les émissions «représentatives"constituant l’indice ne représentent que 50 % du portefeuille. L'équipe de gestion se focalise sur les «poids lourds» de l’indice et optimisent le processus au moyen d’une allocation par pays. L’exposition devises correspond à des obligations libellées en dollars, mais il existe également une classe couverte du risque dollars en euros et une classe en euros non couverte.Caractéristiques Dénomination: : BayernInvest emerging Markets Select Bond FondsCodes Isin : DE000A1C78A0 (USD)/DE000A1C778CE (EUR-hedged)/DE000A1C78D4Droit d’entrée : 5 % maximum (actuellement 3 %Commission de rachat : 5 % maximum (actuellement 3 %Commission de gestionUSD : 0,40 %EUR-hedged : 0,43 %Eur6unhedged : 0,40 %Commission de banque dépositaire : 0,05 %Souscription minimale : 25.000 eurosLiquidité journalière

Le britannique ETF Securities (ETFS) a fait admettre à la négociation sur la plate-forme Xetra de la Deutsche Börse un ETC en euros de droit allemand sur le cuivre (DE000A1K3AZ2) chargé à 0,69 %. Il s’agit du ETFS Physical Copper (acronym PHCU), avec nantissement en métal physique stocké au London Metal Exchange (LME). La cotisation annuelle d’assurance est de 0,12 %. La référence est le prix du cuivre sur le LME (cash settlement).

Le conseil d’administration d’UniCredit a désigné le 12 juillet le Viennois Helmut Bernkopf comme patron de la division banque privée. Il prendra son nouveau poste le 1er août à Milan et sera subordonné au directeur général Roberto Nicastro. Il sera membre du business executive management committee, a annoncé lundi le groupe italien.Entré chez Bank Austria en 2004, Helmut Bernkopf a fait toute sa carrière dans le groupe. Depuis septembre 2008, il faisait partie du directoire de Bank Austria Creditanstalt en tant que head of corporate and investment banking Austria.La banque privée d’UniCredit dessert environ 235.000 clients et gère quelque 167 milliards d’euros.

Filiale de Natixis Global Asset Management, Ossiam est devenu le 20ème promoteur à faire admettre ses ETF coordonnés à la négociation sur le London Stock Exchange (LSE). Le gestionnaire français propose en effet désormais à Londres (après 4 produits à Francfort et 6 à Paris) quatre ETF d’actions, de droit luxembourgeois : Ossiam iSTOXX Europe Minimum Variance, US Minimum Variance, EURO STOXX 50 Equal Weight et STOXX 600 Equal Weight (lire nos articles des 28 juin et 5 juillet).

Au Royaume-Uni, Fidelity UK vient de lancer une version «onshore» de son fonds Emerging Asia lancé en avril 2008 (687 millions de dollars). Ce produit de 80-120 actions de pays émergents asiatiques utilise comme référence le SCI Emerging Asia Composite Index et il est géré par Teera Chanpongsang.Le droit d’entrée et la commission de gestion ressortent à respectivement 3,5 % et 1,5 % et la souscription minimale est fixée à 2.500 livres.

Andrew Fleming, CEO d’Aegon Asset Management UK plc (55 milliards d’euros d’encours) a annoncé le 12 juillet qu'à compter du 1er septembre 2011 la société prendra le nom Kames Capital, et qu’il continuera de la diriger. Sarah Russell, qui dirige la gestion d’actifs du groupe Aegon (200 milliards d’euros) a précisé que l’activité de gestion d’actifs au Royaume-Uni continuera de servir la compagnie d’assurances, mais que le changement de nom marque la volonté de se concentrer sur sa spécialité au profit également de clients externes, indépendamment de l’activité vie et retraite. Il s’agit de mettre en avant les gammes performantes de fonds obligataires et d’actions britanniques, les produits multi-classes d’actifs et les fonds immobilier.L’activité de gestion d’actifs d’Aegon aux Etats-Unis et aux Pays-Bas se concentre sur la gestion des comptes d’Aegon pour développer les produits en unité de compte et les solutions d’investissement. Au Royaume-Uni, l’activité s’est focalisée sur les investissements en unités de compte, sur le service à Aegon UK et sur les mandats pour le compte de tiers.

L’an dernier, les fonds tiers intermédiés par le réseau Bankinter ont atteint 1,2 milliard d’euros contre 600 millions fin 2009, rapporte Funds People. L'équipe de sélection de fonds tiers dirigée par Raúl Moreno a été détachée de Bankinter Gestión de Activos pour être rattachée au département d’analyse mondiale. Un accord de partenariat a récemment été signé avec Allfunds Bank.Bankinter Gestión affichait fin juin 2011 un encours de 3,8 milliards d’euros répartis sur 95 fonds et fonds de fonds, ces derniers pouvant également investir dans des fonds externes.

Directeur du service d’analyse financière de la Banque Cantonale de Lucerne et responsable de la politique de placement ainsi que de l’analyse buy-side, Peter Casanova a repris au 1er juillet la direction du service d’analyse actions de la Banque Sarasin. Il succède ainsi à Rainer Männle, qui dirige désormais l’équipe actions de l’unité gestion d’actifs. L’impétrant est subordonné à Jan Amrit Poser, directeur du service d’analyse et économiste en chef.

Le britannique Aviva Investors a recruté à Singapour Lim Ben-Eu comme directeur du développement de la clientèle institutionnelle, un poste nouvellement créé. Il aura pour mission de placer des produits alternatifs en Asie sous la double autorité d’Erich Gerth, CEO global business development à Londres, et de Tahnoon Pasha, CEO d’Aviva Investors Singapour.

Le portefeuille global des actions affiche un quota stratégique de 30% et est composé des compartiments actions monde et actions marchés émergents. En raison de la nécessité d’une expertise approfondie et d’une connaissance particulière au niveau des marchés émergents, une catégorie distincte à hauteur de 5% a été introduite. Au niveau des obligations, l’allocation stratégique présente une catégorie obligations monde de 25% couverte contre le risque relatif aux devises. Un même quota de 25% a été assigné aux obligations EUR. Etant donné que les obligations monde représentent une alternative aux obligations EUR, ce pourcentage identique permet une meilleure diversification au niveau du portefeuille obligataire global, se chiffrant donc à un total de 50%. Remarquons que les actifs relatifs aux prêts, cédés au FDC début 2009 par les anciennes caisses de pension, ont été incorporés dans la catégorie des obligations EUR étant donné que ceux-ci ressemblent fortement en termes de risque et de rendement à des titres à rendement fixe. Les liquidités représentent 5% du total des avoirs sous gestion. Le parc immobilier, jadis géré par les anciennes caisses de pension et transféré comme les prêts au FDC début 2009, représente environ 3% du patrimoine total et se situe entièrement au Grand-duché de Luxembourg. Pour intégrer au mieux ces actifs, la catégorie biens immobiliers Luxembourg a été implémentée et dotée d’un quota de 5%. Le compartiment biens immobiliers monde avec un quota identique de 5% permet de ne pas limiter le volet immobilier aux seuls aléas du marché luxembourgeois. Ainsi, le portefeuille global immobilier atteint 10%. Finalement, la catégorie investissements de diversification permettra d’améliorer la diversification au sein du portefeuille global sans pour autant changer fondamentalement le profil de risque et le rendement escompté de ce dernier. Elle pourra par exemple regrouper des actifs non traditionnels comme la microfinance ou encore les matières premières. L’implémentation de cette stratégie d’investissement est prévue pour décembre 2011. Pour consulter la liste des partenaires sociétés de gestion actuelles du FDC: cliquez ici

According to statistics from BarclayHedge and TrimTabs Investment Research, hedge funds in May posted net subscriptions of USD8.1bn, or 0.5% of their assets, of which USD4.5bn were for commodity trading advisors (CTAs), equivalent to 1.4% of assets, while USD2.6bn (1.2%) were for multi-strategy products.May was the fifth consecutive month of net inflows, while inflows have been positive in seven out of the last eight months. However, total assets remain virtually unchanged, as USD1.79trn.In the first five months of the year, net subscriptions totalled USD75bn, their highest level since 2007, although performance was modest (2.1% for the BarclayHedge index).

According to the Hennessee index, hedge funds have lost 1.20% in June, following losses of 0.64% in May. They still show gains of 1.45% for first half as a whole.In the major categories, long/short equity and event-driven/arbitrage lost 1.08% last month, while global macro strategy lost 1.58%. The top two in January-June showed respective gains of 2.63% and 1.79%, while global macro lost 1.63%.For first half as a whole, the distressed strategy shows returns of 4.41%, while emerging markets funds have lost an average of 0.20%.

Li Keping, vice-president of the National Council for Social Security Fund (NCSSF), has been appointed as CIO of the sovereign fund China Investment Corp (CIC), replacing Gao Xiqing, who remains as president and vice chairman, the Wall Street Journal reports.The appointment of Li, who becomes executive director and vice president, comes at a time when the CIC is expecting a decision by the Beijing government which would allocate a further wave of money to the fund, following USD200bn in currency reserves allocated to the fund in 2007. In late 2009, the time of the most recent statistics available, assets totalled USD332bn, largely due to stakes in Chinese government banks.

Peter Casanova, head of the financial analysis at the Banque Cantonale de Lucerne and head of investment policy and buy-side analysis, Peter Casanova, on 1 July took over as head of the equities analysis service at Banque Sarasin. He succeeds Rainer Männle, who now heads the equities team in the asset management unit. Casanova will report to Jan Amrit Poser, director of the analysis services and chief economist.

The sustainable development website ecostamp.de on the morning of 12 July concluded a survey of internet users and savings investors about sustainable investment criteria which they feel equities funds and products worthy of a sustainable investment label should have. It will take at least a few days to process the results.The idea was to gather responses not only from promoters of products about their conception of SRI and sustainable development, but also to ask “real people” who would be buying shares in the funds, since the market lacks both transparency and standards.The website ecostamp.de is seeking to create a dialogue between investors/consumers and producers of these products.

The head of distribution of closed funds for the eFonds 24 network, Tim Helm, in early July joined the German SRI management firm Ökorenta. He will be director of distribution for closed funds to institutional investors and key accounts. He will also participate in the development of new fund concepts.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Cerberus Capital Management has obtained a restructuring from its lenders of debt on its USD1.3bn portfolio of six luxury hotel complexes. Among the properties in the “Kyo-ya” portfolio are the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel in Honolulu, the Palance Hotel in San Francisco, and the Royal Hawaiian hotel in Honolulu. Cerberus has obtained a two-year extension on repayment of USD77m in principal.The deal is a sign that investors are regaining confidence in the hospitality sector, and that valuation of properties in May actually valued the Kyo-ya portfolio at USD1.8bn.

Eric Le Maire, CEO of Hugau Gestion, has announced that the final version of its key investor information document (KIID) will be presented on the evening of 12 July to the French financial watchdog, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF). If it is approved by the regulator, the fund will become one of the first products on the French market to comply with this point in the UCITS I directive, with auditing by Deloitte.In addition, the EUR490m product, which expects to generate returns of 2% this year, already complies with the new standards which will apply from next year to money market funds, as its portfolio includes no securities rated A3.Hugau Gestion has stable assets of about EUR900m, in seven funds, of which EUR320m are for the Obli 1/3 fund, and EUR62m for the Obli 3/5 fund. However, the manager has attracted about EUR50m in net subscriptions since the beginning of the year (following outflows in late 2010), and it has already collected EUR12m for the Hugau High Yield Recovery fund, launched a month and a half ago (see Newsmanagers of 16 May).That latter product has raised hopes at Hugau Gestion, which has been making efforts with its «parking» strategy, for that fund and for other funds which aim to diversify the asset management firm’s client base in the direction of corporate treasurers who are not overly dependent on their banks.The asset manager will also be launching a website in English in September, and the fund prospectus documents are already available in English.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports that a New York district court dismissed the German bank Bayern LB in its case against Aladdin Capital, in which it was seeking USD60m. The Munich-based Landesbank accuses the US management firm of misleading it in the sale of a CDO as a safe investment. The grounds for the verdict have not yet been published.

The Bavarian firm BayernInvest on 6 July launched an emerging markets debt fund for institutional investors. It is legally a “semi-passive” open-ended, UCITS-compliant fund, whose benchmark index is the J.P. Morgan EMBI Global Diversified Index, using the stratified sampling method, so that representative issues of the index represent only 50% of the portfolio. The management team will focus on heavyweights of the index, and will optimise the process with a per-country allocation. Currencies exposure corresponds to bonds denominated in US dollars, but there are also share classes hedged for currency risks in US dollars and euros, and a non-hedged class in euros.CharacteristicsName: BayernInvest Emerging Markets Select Bond FondsISIN codes: DE000A1C78A0 (USD)DE000A1C778CE (EUR-hedged)DE000A1C78D4Front-end fee: 5% maximum (currently 3%)Redemption commission: 5% maximum (currently 3%)Management commission:USD: 0.40%EUR-hedged: 0.43%EUR-unhedged: 0.40%Depository banking commission: 0.05%Minimal subscription: EUR25,000Daily liquidity

The British management firm ETF Securities (ETFS) has listed a German-registered ETC denominated in euros and trading in copper (DE000A1K3AZ2), which charges fees of 0.69%, on the Xetra platform of the Deutsche Börse.The fund is the ETFS Physical Copper (acronym PHCU), which invests in physical metal stored at the London Metal Exchange (LME). Annual insurance contribution is 0.12%. The benchmark is the price of copper on the LME (cash settlement).

Bill Gross, manager of the Pimco Total Return Fund (USD244bn), in June increased its exposure to US government bonds for the second consecutive month, as investors sought safety in Treasuries, the Financial Times reports. Allocation to these securities has become neutral, and the duration of the portfolio has been adjusted since the end of May to more closely resemble the Barclays Aggregate Bond index.

Crédit Agricole S.A. on Thursday, 11 July announced the arrival of Julien Fontaine as director of strategy. He will report to Michel Mathieu, deputy CEO of Crédit Agricole S.A., in charge of central funds of the group, insurance, and asset management. Fontaine will begin in his new position on 1 September 2011.Fontaine, 39, was previously at McKinsey & Company, where since 2009 he had been associate director in charge of financial services.

Agefi reports that Eric Le Coz, a member of the investment committee and supervisor of the risk, reporting and product engineering departments at Carmignac Gestion since 2007, has been appointed as deputy CEO.Le Coz will coordinate the management team, alongside Edouard Carmignac, founder and president of the firm, and will work to define performance objectives and improve risk analysis methodology for products, but will not influence the strategies and convictions of the managers, the firm says.The promotion of Le Coz may also reassure observers who were concerned that the management firm had become too dependent on its president, the newspaper notes. At 63, Carmignac is co-manager of Carmignac Patrimoine, and the sole manager of Carmignac Investissement, the firm’s two largest funds. The management firm has suffered from a fall in returns for its flagship funds, and in first half 2011 saw outflows of EUR4.67bn from French-registered funds.

As the first fund from Zencap AM, an affiliate of the OFI group (see Newsmanagers of 12 July) which primarily invests in over-the-counter structured products from banks which aim to meet regulatory capital requirements, has been closed to subscriptions, the OFI AM affiliate is now planning to create at least one new vehicle in 2012, Agefi reports.The new product could involve long/short strategies. “When we are more sure of slightly higher prices on the market and a slightly more advanced stage in the credit cycle, it will be time to seek coverage with short positions on other types of assets,” Richard Jacquet, president of Zencap AM, explains to the newspaper.

iShares on Tuesday, 12 July, announced that it has registered the iShares physical replication fund Barclays Capital Emerging Market Local Govt Bond, which has already been listed on the London Stock Exchange since June 2011, in France.Taking advantage of the fact that many emerging countries issue bonds in two forms, one denominated in US dollars and one in local currency, with different risk and return profiles, the new iShares fund offers exposure to government debts at fixed interest rates and local currencies from emerging markets. The iShares Barclays Capital Emerging Market Local Govt Bond fund offers investors diversified exposure to debt from eight emerging countries.The iShares Barclays Capital Emerging Market Local Govt Bond fund comes as an addition to the product range from iShares, which already offers the iShares JPMorgan $ Emerging Market Bond.

Pimco has launched the Pimco GIS Siversified Income Duration Hedged Fund, whose objective is to provide investors with a support that will allow them to better manage increases in interest rates while offering diversified exposure to international credit markets.The fund adopts a flexible approach, which allows it to invest in several segments of the bond market, including investment grade and high yield corporate bonds, emerging markets debt, bank loans, convertible bonds, municipal bonds, and securitisations. It seeks to minimise interest rate risks by preferring securities with a floating and variable interest rate, short durations, and a combination of fixed-rate securities and derivative instruments.The fund is managed by Eve Tournier, executive vice-president and specialist manager of corporate bonds and bank loans.CharacteristicsName: PIMCO GIS Diversified Income Duration Hedged FundISIN codes: IE00B529XP53 (Part I)/ IE00B5MZQB05) (Part P)

In a SEC filing dated 1 July, Credit Suisse Capital Funds announced that the boards of directors and trustees for the equities funds Credit Suisse Large Cap Blend I and II on 30 June approved a “reorganisation” of the funds, which will become the Aberdeen US Equity I and II. The decisions still need to be approved by an extraordinary general shareholders’ meeting.Credit Suisse Asset Management states that the funds sold to Aberdeen no longer fit in with its overall strategy.

The private equity investment firm BlackFin Capital Partners on Tueday, 12 July announced that it has raised EUR220m for its fund dedicated to financial services.On 30 June, BlackFin Capital Partners finalised its closing of the BlackFin Financial Services Fund, with commitments on the past of its investors – European institutionals and family offices – of EUR220m. The closing followed an initial closing in December 2009 at EUR60m, a statement says.The investment strategy for the fund is to take up influential stakes in SMBs in the financial sector (intermediation, asset management, electronic finances, distribution of financial products and insurance, service providers, etc), in France and continental Europe. Three investments have already been undertaken, at Owliance, a leader in services to insurance companies; Moneo, a leader in electronic wallets and multi-services; and Applicam, a provider of pre-paid card services.A fourth investment is underway, pending approval from regulatory authorities. BlackFin, with other investors, has announced that it is taking up a minority stake in Kepler Capital Markets, in order to finance its development.

La Banque Postale announced on Tuesday, 12 July that it is adding to its range of funds with the release of two new equities mutual funds: LPBAM Multi Actions Emergents, and LBPAM Actions Euro Flex.The former is a multi-management equities fund which invests in emerging markets via funds which are invested mostly in third-party mutual funds, in order to profit optimally from growth potential on emerging markets, and investment in local busineses, a statement says.The second fund, LBPAM Actions Euro Flex, is a flexible fund, whose objective is to capture rising trends on euro zone equities markets, while seeking to amortise falls on the markets when they occur.CharacteristicsName: LBPAM Multi Actions Emergents RISIN code: FR0010547117Subscription commission: maximum 2.5% TTC per yearManagement fee: maximum 3% TTCExit fee: noneinitial net asset value per share: EUR1,000Minimal subscription: EUR1,000 from CIF; none from life insurance policiesBenchmark: MSCI Emerging MarketsType of subscribers: AllName: LBPAM Actions Euro FlexISIN code: FR0011051689Subscription commission: maximum 2.5% TTC per yearManagement fee: maximum 2% TTC Initial net asset value: EUR1,000Minimal subscription: EUR1,000