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04/07/2011
Fonds

Swip ferme cinq fonds

Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (Swip) a décidé la fermeture de cinq fonds dans le cadre d’un examen plus large de son offre en actions internationales, rapporte Fund Web.Le Pan European Equity (10,5 millions de livres), le Pan European SRI Equity (14,7 millions de livres) et le Asian Equity (15,2 millions de livres) ferment à la suite de rachats demandés par des institutionnels ayant revu leur allocation dans ces véhicules. Ces rachats vont réduire de façon substantielle la valeur nette d’actif des fonds, de ce fait plus vraiment viable sur le plan commercial. Swip ferme également le Japanese smaller Companies (13 millions de livres) et le US Smaller Companies (25,5 millions de livres).
Fonds
04/07/2011

Sycomore AM renforce son expertise en gestion long/short

La société de gestion indépendante Sycomore Asset Management, dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à près de 2 milliards d’euros, a annoncé le 1er juillet l’arrivée d’Olivier Mollé au sein de son équipe long/short en tant que gérant du fonds Long Short Conservative, rebaptisé Sycomore Long Short Market Neutral.Olivier Mollé qui travaillait précédemment chez Neuflize OBC Investissements où il gérait depuis 2009 le fonds NOBC Europe L/S. poursuivra cette stratégie de gestion visant à générer une performance absolue en tirant profit des écarts de performance entre les actions d’un même secteur et en couvrant systématiquement son exposition résiduelle par une gestion rigoureuse du risque de marché. Il s’appuiera sur l’équipe de gestion de Sycomore AM en matière d’analyse fondamentale et sur l’outil interne d’aide à la décision SycoValo. Le fonds, à liquidité quotidienne, investira parmi un univers de 300 valeurs de la zone euro.
04/07/2011
Fonds

UBS lance huit ETF, dont six "agricoles"

L’indice à roulement optimisé à échéance constante de 3, 6 et 12 mois, deux ans et cinq ans (constant maturity) UBS Bloomberg CMCI pour l’agriculture sert de sous-jacent à six nouveaux ETF de droit irlandais en francs suisses, en euros et en dollars qu’UBS ETF plc a fait admettre à la négociation le 27 juin sur la Bourse suisse SIX.Trois de ces produits (UBS ETFs plc - CMCI Agriculture SF A acc CHF, UBS ETFs plc - CMCI Agriculture SF A acc EUR et UBS ETFs plc - CMCI Agriculture SF A acc USD) sont chargés à 0,60 % tandis que les trois autres (UBS ETFs plc - CMCI Agriculture SF I acc CHF, UBS ETFs plc - CMCI Agriculture SF I acc EUR et UBS ETFs plc - CMCI Agriculture SF I acc USD) sont assortis d’une commission de gestion de 0,45 %.Par ailleurs, UBS a lancé les fonds marchés émergents UBS ETFs plc - MSCI Emerging Markets TRN Index SF USD-A, qui est facturé 0,60 %, et UBS ETFs plc - MSCI Emerging Markets TRN Index SF USD-I, chargé à 0,45 %.
Fonds
04/07/2011

Blackstone et GLP se disputent un portefeuille japonais de LaSalle

Selon The Wall Street Journal, Global Logistics Properties, filiale du fonds souverain singapourien Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) est en concurrence avec The Blackstone Group pour l’acquisition d’un portefeuille de 20 actifs immobiliers industriels situés au Japon et mis en vente par LaSalle Investment Management. Cet ensemble pourrait valoir jusqu'à 140 milliards de yen ou 1,7 milliard de dollars.Ce pourrait donc être le plus gros investissement étranger au Japon depuis les catastrophes de mars et aussi la transaction la plus élevée depuis l’achat du Pacific Century Palace de Tokyo par le fonds immobilier Secured Capital pour 140 milliards de yen en 2009. Les rendements de l’immobilier au Japon sont attrayants pour les étrangers.
04/07/2011

Joachim Wilbois rejoint Nikolaus Rummler à la tête d'IP Concept FM

La WGZ Bank Luxembourg a fusionné le 15 juin avec DZ Privatbank SA et le patron de l’activité banque dépositaire de WGZ, Joachim Wilbois, a été nommé co-directeur général de la société de gestion IP Concept Fund Management, filiale de DZ Privatbank, où il sera l’alter ego de Nikolaus Rummler.Le nouvel arrivant remplace Matthias Schirpke, qui retourne à la DZ Privatbank comme responsable de la division fonds d’investissement.
04/07/2011
Gestion d'actifs

La Mutualité Française continue à fuire les produits complexes et les fonds de fonds

« Dans les mutuelles et notamment celles de prévoyance qui sont plus exposées, des arbitrages ont été faits vers de l’obligataire pour préserver une gestion d’actif passif correcte tout en n'étant pas trop pénalisé par les pondérations du nouveau calibrage », soutien Christophe Ollivier, conseiller du directeur général de la Mutualité Française. Ce virage vers l’obligataire s'était pourtant déjà amorcé avant Solvency 2 dans les mutuelles. Ainsi en 2008, les mutuelles de santé qui avaient en moyenne, 51% d’obligataires dans leur portefeuille d’actifs, sont passées à 54% l’année suivante. Elles sont, par nature, des organismes très conservateurs qui utilisent très peu de produits dérivés ou sophistiqués. Une tendance qui devrait encore se raffermir avec la nouvelle règlementation qui exige une transparence ligne à ligne qui aura pour conséquence d'évincer les produits complexes ou les fonds de fonds difficiles à gérer. « Classiquement les organismes de retraite étaient plus investis en actions que les organismes de santé puisqu’ils doivent avoir du rendement pour leurs placements retraite, rappelle Christophe Ollivier. Les rendements en placements actions ont donc pour partie, été déplacés vers les rendements en placements obligataires - dont entreprises - avec de bons ratings ». Malgré tout, la Mutualité Française espère que des ajustements du régulateur apporteront davantage de souplesse à la nouvelle règlementation. Ajustements qui permettront de revenir sur d’autres placements et de préserver la rentabilité.
Gestion d'actifs
04/07/2011
Gestion d'actifs

ACMN Vie est exposé aux PIGS à hauteur de 3.14% des encours gérés

Les récents soubresauts de la crise grecque, sont l’occasion pour ACMN Vie de faire un point complet sur le niveau de ses engagements libellés en dettes souveraines de la Grèce, l’Irlande, du Portugal, de l’Espagne et de l’Italie, bien que ces deux derniers pays restent, à ce jour, en marge de cette crise. Au 31 mai 2011, ACMN Vie gère un encours s'élevant à 10 608 M€ Sur un encours fonds en euros de 9 519 M€, l’encours libellé en dettes souveraines de la Grèce, du Portugal et de l’Irlande s'élève à 130 M€ soit 1,37% de l’encours géré. En incluant l’Italie et l’Espagne cet encours s'élève à 299 M€, soit 3,14% de l’encours géré. La dette grecque représentant quant à elle 0,85% de nos investissements. Vous trouverez ci-dessous l’exposition de nos fonds en euros pays par pays : Grèce : 81,0 M€ Portugal : 31,9 M€ Irlande : 17,5 M€ Italie : 152,3 M€ Espagne : 16,5 M€ De fait, ACMN Vie est l’une des sociétés d’assurance-vie les moins exposées aux risques liés aux dettes souveraines des pays de la Zone Euro.
Gestion d'actifs
04/07/2011

Joachim Wilbois joins Nikolaus Rummler as head of IP Concept FM

WGZ Bank Luxembourg on 15 June merged with DZ Privatbank SA, and the head of the depository banking activity at WGZ,Joachim Wilbois, has been appointed as co-CEO of the asset management firm IP Concept Fund Management, an affiliate of DZ Privatbank, where he will be Rummler’s counterpart.The new recruit replaces Matthias Schirpke, who will be returning to DZ Privatbank as head of the investment fund division.
04/07/2011

Madoff: Criminal suit against managers of Alpha Prime Funds

The Austrian city of Hartberg is seeking EUR457,000 in damages from Stefan Sapotocky and Peter Fischer, former CEOs of Alpha Prime Funds, Fondsprofessionell reports. The criminal case, filed in the Vienna courts, also names the Viennese lawyer Christian Hausmaniger, and accuses the defendants of failing to undertake the necessary due diligence. The plaintiff claims that Alpha Prime Funds passed nearly all of its assets to Madoff without adequate analysis.
04/07/2011

Amber acquires 3.5% of FonSai

According to Italian financial sector sources, the US asset management firm Amber Capital has recently acquired two blocks of shares in subscription rights to new shares in Fondiara Sai, Il Sole – 24 Ore reports.Following the capital increase, Amber Capital is expected to control about 3.5% of capital in the insurance company, making it the third-largest shareholder after Premafin (41%) and UniCredit (6.6%).Amber Capital already holds stakes of under 2% in Italian businesses valued at a total of EUR426.7m, including investments in Iride, Cofide and Banca Popolare di Milano.
04/07/2011

Offer"to invest in several good stewards of the square is diversifying and therefore protective"

As the amLeague championship turns one year old, Antoine Briant, themind behind it, discusses the reasons for the net differences in performance between various management firms competing for the title in the hopes of winning over institutional investors belonging to the amLeague club. Only affiliates of major French banks are still missing from the competition, even though Briant predicts that they will eventually enter it, as some other major establishments have already done.
04/07/2011

Smart-ISH fund of funds aims for returns of 10%

Cinco Días analyses the composition of the Smart-ISH d’Abante Asesores fund (see Newsmanagers of 7 and 29 June), concluding that the unstated objective is to generate annualised returns of 10%. The paper states that the selection does not aim to construct a balanced portfolio, but rather to have “a slightly aggressive slant.” The article goes on to list the various funds selected, and the qualities of each, as perceived by Ángel Olea, chief investment officer at Abante.
04/07/2011

Natixis Global AM adds to Iberian staff

With the recruitment of Sophie del Campo as CEO of Natixis Global Associates in Spain, Natixis Global Asset Management has added a big name to its European distribution personnel. Del Campo, who will now report to Hervé Guinamant, chairman and CEO of Natixis Global Associates International, will oversee commercial strategy and marketing for Spain and Portugal, and will assist with strategic development in Latin America. Del Campo has left Pioneer Investments, where she was head of Iberian operations, and previously worked in the Spanish arm of Crédit Agricole Asset Management.Christian Rouquerol, who has been head of distribution for Spain and Portugal at Amundi Iberia, will become head of sales at Natixis Global AM for the Iberian peninsula.
04/07/2011

Barclays Spain forms partnership with Allfunds

On 1 July, Jaime Echegoyen, CEO of the Barclays retail bank in Spain (Barclays Global Retail Banking España), and Juan Alcaraz, CEO of Allfunds Bank, have signed a cooperation agreement which will allow Barclays to offer a range of products and services from the Allfunds fund distribution platform as part of its new discretionary fund portfolio management service for clients of Barclays Gestión de Carteras Premier.
04/07/2011

Burton Malkiel speaks out against active management

Burton Malkiel, who has been well-known in the financial sector since the first publication of his work, “A Random Walk Down Wall Street,” in 1973, and for new sequels to that work every four years since that time, is continuing on that path. Despite the development of passive management and ETFs, Malkiel estimates that there are still too many active managers, Financial News reports. The Princeton economics professor claims that the optimal level of passive management is about three quarters of the management market, and that the “core of a portfolio should be passively managed. In the United States, only one quarter to one third of funds are passively managed,” Malkiel says.
04/07/2011

F&C Thames River registers AR fund in Spain

The CNMV has issued a sales license to the absolute return bond fund Thames River Global High Yield Bond Fund, from the British asset management firm F&C (see Newsmanagers of 28 March), Funds People reports. The UCITS-compliant product with 30 positions, launched in May, is overweight on European high yield bond issues. The performance objective is 10%, with ex ante volatility of 10-12%.Minimal subscription is GBP10,000/EUR10,000/USD10,000 for the retail share class, and GBP/EUR/USD10m for the institutional share class. Management commission is 1.5% for retail shares, and 1% for institutional shares, in addition to which there is a performance commission with a hurdle rate and high watermark.
04/07/2011

Mediolanum releases a fund of funds with a semiannual coupon

Mediolanum International Funds has registered eight classes of shares in the Irish-registered fund Mediolanum Coupon Strategy Collection, the eighth product of its Best Brands range, with the CNMV. The product will be available in Spain from Banco de Finanzas e Inversiones.The fund is a flexible product, which invests in income funds, and will will pay out a half-yearly dividend. Initially, the portfolio, composed of products from the world’s largest management firms, will invest 75% in equities funds, 15% in high yield funds, and 10% in real estate funds.In its prospectus, Banca Mediolanum names 23 partner management firms: Aberdeen AllianceBernstein, Axa IM, BlackRock, BNY Mellon AM, DWS Investments, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Goldman Sachs AM, Henderson, ING IM, Invesco, JP Morgan AM, M&G, MFS IM, Morgan Stanley, Natixis Global Associates, Pictet, Pimco, RCM, Schroders, T. Rowe Price and UBS.The fund may invest up to 100% of its assets in equities, and up to 30% in real estate, convertible bonds, high yield, government or corporate bonds, or cash.Backtesting reveals that in the years 2007-2010, the strategy would have generated average annual dividend returns of 5.68%.
04/07/2011

UBS launches an energy sector equities sub-fund

UBS Global Asset Management has received a sales license for Germany for the Energy sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav UBS (Lux) Equity, launched on 13 May. The product will be managed by portfolio manager James McLellan, who will prefer businesses in the drilling equipment and oil services segment (National Oilwell Varco, Baker Hughes, ENSCO and Drill-Quip) over integrated groups. In addition, the fund will bet on businesses such as Ultra Petroleum, QEP and Williams, which are active in the exploitation of natural gas deposits in North America. For diversification, the manager will select businesses which invest in renewable energies.The objective of the fund is to outperform the MSCI World Energy index by 250 basis points.CharacteristicsName: UBS (Lux) Equity Sicav – Energy (USD) P-accISIN code: LU0622290632Front-end fee: 6%All-in fee: 1.80%Exit fee: 2%
04/07/2011

Veritas launches two ETF funds

The Frankfurt-based asset management firm Veritas Investment Trust has announced the launch of the German-registered funds ETF-Dachfonds Emerging Markets Plus Money and ETF-Dachfonds Quant on 1 July. According to the specialist management firm, as the names of the funds indicate, they are ETF products.The first of these funds invests actively (0% to 100% equities) in the most promising emerging markets, with volatility about half the level of the MSCI Emerging Markets index.The Quant fund invests solely in equities and commodities markets, which are expected to rise sustainably through the use of a high level of portfolio diversification, with an equally-weighted portfolio of 20 positions (18 equities funds, 2 commodities funds). Markus Kaiser, CEO and CIO, says that the two new products are managed according to a trend-following model developed internally, with weekly updates to the portfolio, on the basis of data from the previous week.CharacteristicsName: ETF-Dachfonds Emerging Markets Plus MoneyISIN code: DE0009763326Front-end fee: 4%Management commission: 1.5%Performance commission: 15% on performance exceeding 7%Sales license: Germany, Austria, FranceName: ETF-Dachfonds QuantISIN code: DE0005561625Front-end fee: 5%Management commission: 1.5%Performance commission: 15% on performance exceeding 5%Sales license: Germany, Austria
04/07/2011

UCITS IV transposition: only four countries taking initiative

According to a survey by RBC Dexia Investor Services, Luxembourg, since 1 January 2011, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Ireland will be the four major European markets to have met deadlines to transpose the UCITS IV directive into law by 1 July 2012.Soon thereafter, they will be followed by Spain, which has begun an urgent process to pass a bill approved by the Council of ministers on 20 April, and Switzerland, which will follow on 15 July, even though it is not a member state of the European Union.Three other countries lag behind; France, Italy, and Belgium.
04/07/2011

Prudential Real Estate Investors scales up pension activities

Prudential Real Estate Investors on 30 June announced that it has recruited David Skinner as head of development for companies in the 401(k) type defined-contribution pension fund sector. Skinner previously worked at JP Morgan, where he was head of distribution and sales for defined-contribution products to institutionals.
04/07/2011

Sycomore AM recruits long/short expertise

The independent management firm Sycomore Asset Management on 1 July announced that Olivier Mollé has joined its long/short team as manager of the Long/Short Conservative fund, which has been renamed as Sycomore Long/Short Market Neutral. Mollé previously worked at Neuflize OBC Investissements, where he had managed the NOBC Europe L/S fund since 2009. Mollé will continue this management strategy, which aims to generate absolute returns by profiting from differences in performance between equities in a single sector, and systematically hedging its residual exposure with rigorous management of market risk. He will be assisted by the management team at Sycomore Asset Management with fundamental analysis, and the internal decision-making tool SycoValo. The fund, which offers daily liquidity, will invest in a universe of 300 Euro zone equities. The fund, which offers daily liquidity, will invest in a universe of 300 Euro zone stocks. Assets under management at Sycomore AM total over EUR2bn.
04/07/2011

Solid inflows to emerging markets group at Franklin Templeton

At a presentation in Paris on 1 July, Mark Mobius, a star manager at Franklin Templeton, announced that since the beginning of the year, Templeton Emerging Markets Group alone (excluding assets in other divisions of the group) has posted inflows of about USD20m per day.Assets now total about USD54bn, of which 60% are in Asia (11% in India), and 15% in Latin America (with 11 points for Brazil). Southern Europe and Africa each represent 2% of the portfolio, while the Middle East represents 1%.Client inflows have largely gone to China funds, while the corresponding sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav had about USD2.36bn in AUM as of the end of May, followed by the Asia fund (USD17.93bn), global emerging markets (USD1.31bn), and the frontier markets fund (USD1.13bn).Mobius also states that the turnover rates for portfolios from the group are very low, at under 20%.
04/07/2011

Global macro strategies have difficulty making sense of a confused environment

Some hedge funds which are emblematic of the sector have been losing money since the beginning of this year, particularly in the global macro strategy, which is facing an unusual and unstable conjuncture and environment, Les Echos reports. In the first five months of the year, global macro has lost an average of 1.5%, according to the Edhec-Risk Alternative indices, making it one of the three worst performers among the major alternative strategies.
04/07/2011

Synthetic ETFs; UniCredit fears massive exodus of investors

Handelsblatt reports that in an interview with Reuters Insiders TV, Chris Hofmann, global head of ETF distribution at UniCredit, says she is afraid that there will be a massive exodus of subscribers in synthetic replication ETF funds, following the recent decision of Evercore Pan-Asset Capital Management to divest from all products of this type in favour of physical replication ETFs, in a move which could spread. Hofmann claims that the providers concerned have not adequately responded to criticisms, and that they are continuing to use the same marketing forumulas as before, as if nothing had happened.Hofmann hopes that the sector will adopt common standards, particularly involving revealing the names and risks of swap counterparties, as well as the identities of counterparties in securities lending. Providers should also clearly state the nature of the collateral, as well as the use which is made of additional gains from swaps and securities lending.
04/07/2011

UBS launches eight ETFs, six of them agricultural sector funds

The UBS CMCI Bloomberg agricultural index, with rolling optimisation at constant maturity horizons of 3, 6 and 12 months, two years, and five years, will be used as the underlying for six new Irish-registered ETF funds denominated in Swiss francs, euros and US dollars, which UBS ETF plc added to trading on the SIX Swiss Exchange on 27 June.Three of the products (UBS ETFs plc - CMCI Agriculture SF A acc CHF, UBS ETFs plc - CMCI Agriculture SF A acc EUR and UBS ETFs plc - CMCI Agriculture SF A acc USD) charge fees of 0.60%, while three others (UBS ETFs plc - CMCI Agriculture SF I acc CHF, UBS ETFs plc - CMCI Agriculture SF I acc EUR et UBS ETFs plc - CMCI Agriculture SF I acc USD) charge management commissions of 0.45%.UBS has also launched the emerging markets funds UBS ETFs plc - MSCI Emerging Markets TRN Index SF USD-A, which charges 0.60%, and UBS ETFs plc - MSCI Emerging Markets TRN Index SF USD-I, with fees of 0.45%.
04/07/2011

Asset management firms of the Rothschild family compete on the German market

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports that the French asset management firms Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management (EDRAM) and Rothschild & Cie Gestion have both recently initiated assaults on the German market.EDRAM (EUR14bn in AUM) has chosen the more costly option of an office in Frankfurt, in the Opern Turm, with two CEOs (Rupert Hengstler, former CEO of Oppenheim KAG, and Stefan Zayer) and contracting a communications agency.Rothschild & Cie Gestion (EUR22.4bn), meanwhile, has opted for a lower-profile option, without a local office, and a distribution agreement with max.xs.The newspaper reports that people at both firms careful avoid to speak about competition from the family’s other entity.
04/07/2011

Sal. Oppenheim opens an office in Hanover

In August, the Sal. Oppenheim private bank (Deutsche Bank group) will open its tenth branch office in Germany, in Hanover. It will be led by Michael Jänsch, who has been recruited along with his entire team from Credit Suisse in the capital city of the Lower Saxony region, and who began work at his new employer on 1 July.
04/07/2011

SWIP closes five funds

Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) has decided to close five funds as part of a larger reexamination of its international equities range, Fund Web reports. The Pan European Equity fund (GBP10.5m), the Pan European SRI Equity (GBP14.7m), and the Asian Equity (GBP15.2m) will be closing, following redemptions requested by institutionals revising their allocations to these vehicles. The redemptions will substantially reduce the net asset value of the funds, making them no longer truly commercially viable. SWIP is also closing the Japanese Smaller Companies (GBP13m) and the US Smaller Companies (GBP25.5m).

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