L’Autrichien Marius Dorfmeister exerce depuis le 1er août les fonctions de directeur des opérations internationales wholesale et institutionnelles de la banque suisse Sarasin sous l’autorité d’Aris Prepoudis, qui dirige le pôle Institutional clients & Wholesale et qui a exercé par intérim ces derniers mois les prérogatives à présent confiées à Marius Dorfmeister, lequel était auparavant chez Flacon Private Bank à Zurich et Vienne.Les marchés du Benelux, d’Italie, de Scandinavie, d’Europe centrale et orientale ainsi que les opérations en Asie et au Moyen-Orient sont regroupés au sein de l’unité Institutional et Wholesale International sous la direction de Markus Dorfmeister. A Vienne, Alexandra Lang a pris en charge les clients institutionnels et wholesale en Autriche et en Europe centrale depuis le 1 juillet 2011.Les opérations avec la clientèle institutionnelle du groupe Sarasin représentaient fin juin des actifs sous gestion de 28,2 milliards de francs, avec des rentrées nettes de 1,9 milliard de francs durant le premier semestre.

Filiale de Credit Suisse, Clariden Leu a enregistré une collecte nette de 3,3 milliards de francs au premier semestre 2011, soit une croissance annualisée de 7%. Le bénéfice net se monte à 155 millions de francs, en forte hausse par rapport aux 102 millions enregistrés à la même période que l’an dernier, selon un communiqué publié le 15 août.Malgré la forte collecte nette, les actifs sous gestion s’inscrivaient à fin fuin à 94 milliards de francs, contre 99 milliards à la fin du premier semestre 2010, en raison de l'évolution du franc et de la volatilité du marché.

Ten Cate vient de rejoindre BNY Mellon AM en qualité de managing director pour les Pays-Bas, rapporte le site IPE. Dans ses nouvelles fonctions, Ten Cate sera l’avocat des différents services proposés par le groupe américain aux fonds de pension néerlandais. BNY Mellon assure des services d’administration de fonds pour environ 30% des fonds de pension néerlandais et il traite la gestion d’actifs pour près d’une douzaine d’entre eux.Ten Cate travaillait précédemment chez le britannique Insights Investments (150 milliards d’euros d’actifs sous gestion) qui a été récemment racheté par BNY Mellon.

Polar Capital va lancer un fonds Amérique du Nord pour ses nouvelles recrues Andrew Holliman et Richard Wilson, qui ont rejoint la société en provenance de Threadneedle en début d’année, rapporte Citywire.

Lundi, Wells Fargo & Co a annoncé qu’elle recrute 25 banquiers d’investissement qui travaillent chez le gestionnaire de hedge funds Citadel, de Chicago, et qu’elle va reprendre aussi les transactions sur lesquelles ils travaillent, rapporte The Wall Street Journal. Ces embauches ne donneront lieu apparemment à aucune indemnité, mais Wells Fargo reversera une partie des commissions encaissées pour les opérations qu’elle reprend à son compte, y compris la participation au consortium pour l’introduction en Bourse de Groupon Inc.

John Paulson a réduit de moitié sa participation dans Bank of America, selon le Financial Times. Paulson & Co détenait 60,5 millions d’actions de la banque fin juin, une participation qui ne représentait plus que 780 millions de dollars à la clôture lundi. Le hedge fund a aussi réduit sa participation dans Citigroup de 19 % à 33,5 millions de titres, une participation qui vaut maintenant 1,05 milliard de dollars, mais a augmenté sa position dans Wells Fargo de deux tiers à 33,6 millions de titres ou 840 millions de dollars. La plus grosse position connue du public reste sa participation dans l’ETF SPDR Gold Trust, de 4,6 milliards de dollars.

Les fonds américains ouverts au public (mutual funds) ont subi en juillet des rachats nets de 17,1 milliards de dollars, soit la plus forte décollecte depuis décembre 2008, provoqués une nouvelle fois par les rachats massifs réalisés dans les fonds actions, selon les dernières statistiques communiquées par Morningstar. Du coup, l’ensemble des fonds de long terme, c’est-à-dire hors fonds monétaires, voient sortir un peu plus de 17 milliards en juillet mais sur les sept premiers mois de l’année, ils enregistrent une collecte nette de près de 118 milliards de dollars. Les fonds actions ont en effet soldé le mois de juillet sur une décollecte de 22,88 milliards de dollars, du jamais vu depuis octobre 2008, un mois qui, au plus fort de la crise financière, s'était terminé sur des rachats de 27,9 milliards de dollars. Depuis le début de l’année, la décollecte nette s'établit à 14,2 milliards de dollars. Les fonds obligataires ont de leur côté enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 8,87 milliards de dollars en juillet et de 102,1 milliards de dollars depuis le début de l’année, les fonds d’obligations municipales étant toujours boudés par les investisseurs pour le troisième mois consécutif. Les fonds monétaires ont encore fortement décollecté en juillet, pour un montant de 107,62 milliards de dollars si bien que depuis le début de l’année, les demandes de remboursement s’inscrivent à 222,99 milliards de dollars contre 476 milliards de dollars sur l’ensemble de 2010. Du côté des ETF, le mois de juillet s’est terminé par une collecte nette de 17,2 milliards de dollars après déjà près de 10 milliards le mois précédent. Depuis le début de l’année, les ETF ont drainé 74,49 milliards de dollars et sur douze mois glissants, les encours affichent une progression d’environ 25%. Les ETF sur les actions américaines ont enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 6,4 milliards de dollars en juillet et d’un peu plus de 30 milliards de dollars depuis le début de l’année. Les ETF dédiés aux actions internationales ont également tenu le haut du pavé avec une collecte de 3,75 milliards de dollars (15,15 milliards de collecte depuis le début de l’année). On observe également une nouvelle contribution positive des ETF obligataires, avec des souscriptions nettes de 3,28 milliards de dollars en juillet. Cette classe d’actifs n’a d’ailleurs pas subi de décollecte depuis fin 2010. Les ETF de matières premières ont retrouvé le mois dernier la faveur des investisseurs, avec une collecte nette de 3,74 milliards de dollars, après deux mois consécutifs de décollecte (3,7 milliards en mai et 892 millions en juin).

Selon le portail d’information Ifaonline, Deborah Fuhr, qui a récemment quitté BlackRock, va rejoindre Bank of America Merrill Lynch à Londres en qualité de responsable de la stratégie Global Delta One, qui inclut les ETF, son cheval de bataille.Elle sera rattachée à Piers Butler, responsable du groupe «EMEA Global Equity, Macro and Events» et pourrait prendre ses fonctions en septembre.

En juin, les fonds européens ont accusé des rachats nets pour 25,2 milliards d’euros, alors qu’ils avaient enregistré des souscriptions nettes pour 24,1 milliards d’euros en mai, selon les dernières statistiques de Lipper. Hors fonds monétaires, le secteur affiche néanmoins un solde positif, de 640 millions d’euros, dopé par la collecte des ETF (à hauteur de 2 milliards d’euros). Sur le mois, les investisseurs sont sortis des fonds actions (-3,3 milliards d’euros hors ETF), explique Lipper. Dans le même temps, les fonds obligataires ont enregistré leur plus faible niveau de collecte depuis quatre mois (3,8 milliards d’euros). Les fonds obligataires à haut rendement, l’une des catégories qui avaient eu le plus de succès en 2011, sont passés dans le rouge (-3,6 milliards d’euros). Les fonds marchés émergents, en revanche, tirent leur épingle du jeu, tant du côté des fonds actions (2,1 milliards) que de celui des fonds obligataires (3 milliards). Dans ce contexte, Franklin Templeton et Allianz/Pimco ont été les deux sociétés ayant enregistré les plus fortes souscriptions nettes en juin, avec respectivement 3,2 miliards d’euros et 1,8 milliard. BlackRock a été pour sa part la société ayant vendu le plus de fonds actions (860 millions d’euros). Sur les six premiers mois de l’année, les souscriptions aux fonds actions vendus en Europe, de 30,5 milliards d’euros, ont été quasiment similaires à celles enregistrées sur la période correspondante de l’an dernier (28,5 milliards). Le vrai changement s’est opéré du côté des fonds obligataires et diversifiés, où les souscriptions ont chuté, revenant de 72,2 milliards d’euros à 26,4 milliards pour les premiers et de 39,4 milliards à 18,5 milliards pour les seconds. La collecte des fonds à rendement absolu a aussi fondu, de 17,4 milliards d’euros à 10,8 milliards. Au total, hors fonds monétaires, les souscriptions nettes ont baissé de 49 % sur un an à 90,7 milliards d’euros.

Polar Capital will launch a North American fund for its new recruits, Andrew Holliman and Richard Wilson, who joined the firm from Threadneedle earlier this year, Citywire reports.

On Monday, Wells Fargo & Co announced that it is recruiting 25 investment bankers who had previously worked at the hedge fund management firm Citadel, based in Chicago, and that it will also be taking over the transactions that the traders worked on, the Wall Street Journal reports.The recruitments will apparently not result in any settlements to Citadel, but Wells Fargo will pay back a portion of the fees earned on the operations which it is taking over, including on a stake in the consortium responsible for the initial public offering of Groupon Inc.

US open-ended mutual funds saw net outflows in July of USD17.1bn, the heaviest outflows since December 2008, once again driven by massive redemptions from mutual funds, according to the most recent statistics from Morningstar. For long-term funds, excluding money market funds, outflows totalled slightly over USD17bn in July, but in the first seven months of the year, funds have seen net inflows of nearly USD118bn. Equities funds finished the month of July with outflows of USD22.88bn, a level not seen since October 2008, a month in which, at the height of the financial crisis, outflows totalled USD27.9bn. Since the beginning of this year, outflows have totalled USD14.2bn. Bond funds, for their part, have posted a net inflow of USD8.87bn in July, and of USD102.1bn since the beginning of the year, as municipal bond funds remained unpopular with investors for the third consecutive month. Money market funds saw heavy outflows in July, totalling USD107.62bn, so that since the beginning of the year, outflows totall USD222.99bn, compared with USD476bn for the year 2010 as a whole. For ETFs, the month of July finished with net inflows of USD17.2bn, following inflows of nearly USD10bn the previous month. Since the beginning of the year, ETFs have attracted USD74.49bn over a twelve-month period, with assets up by about 25%. US equities ETFs posted a net inflow of USD6.4bn in July, and of slightly over USD30bn since the beginning of the year. ETFs dedicated to international equities also finished the month with strong inflows, totalling USD3.75bn (USD15.15bn in inflows since the beginning of the year). Bond ETFs also made another positive contribution, with net subscriptions of USD3.28bn in July. This asset class has not seen outflows since the end of 2010. Commodities ETFs last month found favour with investors once again, with net inflows of USD3.74bn, following two consecutive months of outflows (USD3.7bn in May and USD892m in June).

Redemptions from the European funds industry totalled EUR25.2bn in June, reversing the inflows of EUR24.1bn achieved last month, according to the latest statistics of Lipper. However, with money market activity excluded, total industry sales kept in positive territory (EUR640m), although even this was propped up by ETF activity of nearly EUR2bn.Investors withdrew from equity funds (-EUR3.3bn when ETFs are excluded). Even sales in the bond arena hit a four month low (EUR3.8bn) as high yield products — one of the success stories of 2011 — fell into the red (-EUR3.6bn).Both equity (EUR2.1bn) and bond (EUR3bn) global emerging market funds enjoyed success, so that investor appetite looked rather like that seen last year.With appetite for bond funds from some providers remaining strong, Franklin Templeton (EUR3.2bn) and Allianz/Pimco (EUR1.8bn) topped the best-sellers list. BlackRock was the best-selling equity group (EUR860m).Over the first six months of 2011, equity sales (EUR30.5bn) have been pretty similar to the level achieved over the same period last year (EUR28.5bn). The real change has come on the fixed income and mixed asset sides, where inflows of EUR72.2bn and EUR39.4bn in 2010 have dropped to EUR26.4bn and EUR18.5bn this year. Absolute return fund sales also fell, from EUR17.4bn to EUR10.8bn over the same periods.Long-term fund sales (excluding money market funds) over the first six months of 2011 (EUR90.7bn) are 40% down on those achieved over the same period last year (EUR152.2bn).

On Monday, HSBC Global Asset Management (Deutschland) announced that it is releasing the Asian Currencies Bond (ISIN: LU0210635255), a sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav HSBC GIF (see Newsmanagers of 8 June) for sale in Germany. As its name indicates, the fund invests in Asian bonds denominated in local currencies, and which hopes thereby to profit from potential appreciation of these currencies. The base currency for the new product is the US dollar.The fund, whose benchmark is the Markit iBoxx ABF Pan Asian ex China and HK Index, is managed by Cecilia Chan, who is also Fixed Income CIO Asia Pacific at HSBC Global AM, and by Alfred Mui.

Allianz Global Investors has announced in a statement that it has closed the German-registered real estate fund of funds Premium Managmeent Immobilien-Anlagen, whose assets had been frozen since 23 September 2010. The closure will mean that shareholders will have access to their invested capital.By October this year, an initial batch of EUR500m will be distributed to investors, a statement says.Commerzbank, which was the exclusive distributor of the fund, will be offering its 50,000 clients who hold shares in the fund 43 euros for every 50 euros they have invested in the product, fondsprofessionell reports. The shares were trading most recently at EUR33 per share, Reuters reports.

In September 2010, Commerzbank was compelled to freeze redemptions from the Premium Management Immobilien Anlagen fund (PMIA), which invested in open-ended real estate funds whose redemptions had themselves been suspended. Now, Handelsblatt reports, the bank is offering subscribers in the PMIA fund a reimbursement of EUR43.38 for every EUR50 they had invested in the fund, for a four-week period.Commerzbank says this amount corresponds to 92% of the net asset value of the fund, even though shares in the fund are now trading on the stock exchange at 33 euros each.

According to a source familiar with the matter cited by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Credit Suisse Germany is intensifying its preparations to reopen redemptions from the real estate fund CS Euroreal (about EUR6bn in assets): the manager is reported to have sold two commercial properties located in Dresden and Leipzig to RREEF (Deutsche Bank) for EUR140m. At the beginning of this month, the fund had already announced the sale of three other properties in a move to increase its liquidity levels.

The French financial market regulator, the Autortié des marchés financiers (AMF), on 12 August issued a statement warning the public against the activities of the Victory Suisse company, whose official headquarters are in Bernex, Switzerland. The firm offers retail investors investments which promise high returns of 6% to 8% per month, with a capital guarantee. The AMF notes that the Victory Suisse company and its distribution network, Victory Invest, and the other companies of the group, Sofinex, S.F. Vectory Consulting, S.F. Vectory Investment and Vectory France, are not licensed to provide investment services or financial investment advising in France, nor are they qualified to provide banking or financial services. As a result, the AMF recommends that investors not respond to solicitations for investments from any of these companies, and not to redistribute those solicitations to third parties in any form whatsoever.

John Paulson has reduced his stake in Bank of America by half, according to the Financial Times. Paulson & Co held 60.5 million shares in the bank as of the end of June, a stake which was worth over USD780m as of the end of trading on Monday. The hedge fund has also reduced its stake in Citigroup by 19%, to 33.5 million shares, a stake which is now worth USD1.05bn; but the fund has increased its stake in Wells Fargo by two thirds, to 33.6 million shares, or USD840m. The largest publicly known position of the fund remains its investment in the ETF SPDR Gold Trust, valued at USD4.6bn.

Polar Capital va lancer un fonds Amérique du Nord pour ses nouvelles recrues Andrew Holliman et Richard Wilson, qui ont rejoint la société en provenance de Threadneedle en début d’année, rapporte Citywire.

Ten Cate has joined BNY Mellon AM as managing director for the Netherlands, IPE reports. In his new role, Cate will be the legal counsel for various services offered by the US group to Netherlands-based pension funds. BNY Mellon provides fund administration services for about 30% of Dutch pension funds, and handles asset management for roughly 12 of them.Cate previously worked at the UK firm Insight Investments (EUR150bn in assets under management), which was recently acquired by BNY Mellon.

Citi has set up a new business to service the ETF market in Asia. Citi ETF Services will cover the Asia-Pacific region and will provide a single channel for clients looking to launch ETFs within the region. It will offer integrated solutions for ETF issuers, combining market-making, seed capital, administration, custody and accounting. Citi ETF Services in Asia Pacific will be co-headed by Bob Simon and Jeff McCarthy. Simon is currently programmetrading head for Citi Global Markets, Hong Kong, and McCarthy is currently global head of ETF products for the securities and fund services business, based in New York. Both will maintain these existing roles and will jointly report to David Russell, head of securities and fund services for Citi in Asia Pacific, and Richard Heyes, head of Pan-Asia equities.

According to the website ifaonline, Deborah Fuhr, who has recently left BlackRock, will be joining Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London, as head of the Global Delta One strategy, which includes ETFs as its primary vehicle. Fuhr will report to Piers Butler, head of the EMEA Global Equity, Macro and Events group, and may begin in her new role in September.

The Government Pension Fund - Global returned 0.3 percent, or 4 billion kroner, in the second quarter of 2011 after rising bond prices outweighed a slump in large parts of the stock markets.The fund’s equity holdings returned -0.7 percent in the quarter, while fixed-income investments returned 1.8 percent, as measured in international currency. The overall return was 0.1 percentage point lower than the return on the fund’s benchmark indices. The market value of the fund rose 9 billion kroner to 3,111 billion kroner in the quarter. The fund returned 4 billion kroner in the period and had 53 billion kroner in capital inflows from the government. The krone strengthened against several of the currencies the fund invests in, reducing the market value by 48 billion kroner.The fund held 60.5 percent in equities, 39.4 percent in fixed-income securities and 0.1 percent in real estate at the end of the quarter.

In the week ending on 10 August, in a period on the markets which was particularly agitated to the loss by the United States of its AAA credit rating and a variety of rumours, disappointing macroeconomic data and continuing tension on the markets due to the European debt crisis, trading of shares in investment funds was market by an explosion in redemptions in most fund categories, according to estimates by EPFR Global.Equities funds saw outflows of USD26.1bn, a level not seen since the end of second quarter 2008. The theory that the performance of emerging markets is no longer integrally tied to developed markets was disproven by the data, as emerging markets equities funds saw net outflows of USD7bn in the week to 10 August, the largest seen since early 2008. The same trend was observed in bond funds, where net outflows totalled USD10.4bn. High yield bond funds alone represented two thirds of these outflows, despite default rates which remain relatively low, and a pledge by the US Federal Reserve to maintain interest rates at a low level for two years. International and European bond funds saw net outflows of nearly USD1bn.However, money market funds, from which outflows continued last week, attracted record net inflows of USD49.8bn in the week to 10 August. Another beneficiary of the recent turbulence was commodities funds, and particularly funds specialised in gold and precious metals, which since the beginning of July, have posted net inflows of nearly USD9bn. This development was, however, tempered by redemptions from industrial commodities funds.

The Austrian Marius Dorfmeister has been serving since 1 August as head of international wholesale and institutional operations at the Swiss bank Sarasin. In this position he reports to Aris Prepoudis, head of the Institutional Clients & Wholesale unit, who has also been serving in the interim in the role now delegated to Dorfmeister, who had previously been at Falcon Private Bank in Zurich and Vienna.Markets in Benelux, Italy, Scandinavia and central and eastern Europe, and operations in Asia and the Middle East will all be included in the International Institutional and Wholesale unit, which will be led by Dorfmeister. In Vienna, Alexandra Lang became head of institutional and wholesale clients for Austria and central Europe on 1 July 2011.Operations serving institutional clients of the Sarasin group as of the end of June had assets under management of CHF28.2bn, with net inflows of CHF1.9bn in first quarter.

Clariden Leu, an affiliate of Credit Suisse, posted net inflows of CHF3.3bn in first quarter 2011, for an annualised growth rate of 7%. Net profits totalled CHF155m, a strong increase compared with the CHF102m posted in the equivalent period last year, according to a statement released on 15 August.Despite strong net inflows, assets under management as of the end of June totalled CHF94bn, compared with CHF99bn as of the end of first quarter 2010, due to the rising value of the Swiss franc and market volatility.

Christian Pellis, a managing board member, has told the Börsen-Zeitung that LGT Capital Management will be setting up distribution in the United Kingdom and Singapore by the end of September. In Germany, where LGT AM has been present for a year, assets total EUR304m, and the business has had EUR147 in net inflows since 1 January 2011.

The French Banking Federation (FBF) has become the next body to respond to rumours that triggered an unprecedented tailspin for French banking sector shares last week. The professional association announced in a statement on 12 August that French banks may file lawsuits in reaction to the rumours, which are vigorously denied by Société Générale and BNP Paribas. “In light of the unfounded rumours that have persistently been circulating on the markets, French banks are examining all types of recourse at their disposal, including legal means,” the FBF says in a statement, which also welcomes the decision of the AMF to forbid short-selling of financial sector shares listed in France for a period of 15 days.

In a public letter published in the New York Times on Monday, the billionaire investor Warren Buffett has called on the “super committee” of the US Congress charged with finding means to reduce the national deficit, to increase taxes on households which earn over USD1m per year. “My friends and I have been pampered for a long time by a Congress which defends the cause of billionaires,” he writes. “The time has come for the government to get serious about sharing the sacrifices.”