Au 30 juin, Wolfgang Mansfeld, qui a été entre autres président de l’association allemande BVI des sociétés de gestion, va prendre sa retraite et quitter ses fonctions de responsable du pôle immobilier d’Union Investment, le gestionnaire d’actifs central des banques populaires allemandes.Il sera remplacé le 1er juillet par Jens Wilhelm, qui a déjà été nommé le 20 juin président du conseil de surveillance d’Union Investment Real Estate (UIRE). Le pôle immobilier d’Union Investment affiche un encours de 19 milliards d’euros dont 16 milliards pour les fonds offerts au public d’UIRE et 3 milliards chez Union Investment Institutional Property.Jens Wilhelm, qui a quitté la Dresdner Bank en 2002, était jusqu'à présent responsable de la gestion de portefeuille pour l’ensemble du groupe Union Asset Management Holding (176 milliards d’euros) après avoir dirigé l’activité fonds d’actions d’Union Investment Privatfonds.

D’après une étude du Boston Consulting Group (BCG), le secteur financier espagnol a en portefeuille des actifs immobiliers «problématiques» non avoués d’une cinquantaine de milliards d’euros, rapporte Cotizalia. Ce montant s’ajouterait aux 180 milliards d’euros déclarés à la Banque d’Espagne.

Depuis le 27 juin, cinq ETF d’Ossiam Lux sont admis à la négociation sur le segment XTF de la plate-forme électronique Xetra de la Deutsche Börse. La filiale de Natixis fait ainsi coter deux produits d’actions répliquant des indices équipondérés (lire notre article du 27 juin), Ossiam ETF STOXX® EUROPE 600 equal weight NR (LU0599613147, chargé à 0,35 %) et Ossiam ETF EURO STOXX 50® equal weight NR (LU0599613063, 0,30 %)Le gestionnaire a également lancé les fonds minimum variance (lire notre article du 28 avril) Ossiam ETF Europe Minimum Variance NR (LU0599612842, 0,65 %) et Ossiam ETF US Minimum Variance NR parts en euros (LU0599612685, 0,65 %) et parts en dollars (LU0599612412, 0,65 %). Ces produits devraient pouvoir être également commercialisés en France assez rapidement, où Ossiam compte lancer, par ailleurs, des produits exclusifs. Avec ces fonds, la cote du segment XTF comprend désormais 816 ETF.

Plus de 300 millions d’euros de promesses d’investissement (commitments) ont déjà été recueillies par Union Investment pour son nouveau fonds institutionnel UII Shopping Nr. 1, un produit immobilier qui investira jusqu'à 750 millions d’euros, dont 30 à 40 % d’effet de levier, dans des centres commerciaux de plus de 25.000 mètres carrés. Chaque investissement sera d’au moins 90 millions d’euros.Pour l’essentiel, le nouveau fonds visera les marchés cœur de la zone euro : Allemagne, France, Belgique, Italie, Pays-Bas et Autriche. Pour compléter, le gestionnaire prévoit d’ajouter des actifs situés en Pologne et en République tchèque.

According to a report from Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME), the percentage of capital in Spanish companies held by foreign investors as of the end of 2010 had fallen to 39.2%, compared with 40.1% one year earlier, Cinco Días reports. The decline is significant in the financial sector. The percentage of capital in Ibex companies held by banks had fallen to 4.6% as of the end of December, compared with 9.4% as of the end of 2007. The percentage of shares in Ibex businesses held by investment funds and Sicavs has fallen to 5.6%, compared with 7.2% as of the end of 2006.

Eurizon Capital (EUR170bn in assets as of the end of first quarter) has opened 49% of its affiliate Epsilon to the investment bank Banca IMI, which like Eurizon is a directly-owned affiliate of the Intesa Sanpaolo group.The cooperation at the joint venture will result in the creation of a new range of Epsilon products, which adds to active initial quantitative asset management new forms of capital protected at maturity and volatility limitation. Nicola Doninelli, chairman at Epsilon, has hinted to the local press that the firm will restart the launch of ETF funds, a segment which Eurizon abandoned in 2009.

Funds People reports that Hannah Strasser, Anne Yobage and Thomas Kelleher, who in 2010 joined Axa Investment Managers to manage US credit funds, have decided to leave the firm.

Axa Investment Managers (Axa IM) on 27 June announced that it has appointed Irshaad Ahmad to the position of head of distribution at AXA IM for the UK and Scandinavian markets, from 28 June, Ahmad will be based in London, and will join the executive board at AXA IM. Before joining AXA IM, Ahmad had been at Russell Investments, from 2004. He then successively served as head of sales to distributors, institutionals and consultants in Canada (2004-2010), and then in the United Kingdom (2010), where he was also head of client services and marketing.

Financial News reports that Guillaume Rambourg, the former star manager from Gartmore, who was suspended last year due to suspected irregularities, and who was then cleared, has founded a charity to which he has transferred all of his 3.9% stake in Henderson, the firm which acquired Gartmore. The stake is valued at GBP13.8m.

From early July, the high yield management team (EUR3.7bn) at Threadneedle, led by Barrie Whitman, will include seven people, three of whom will be portfolio managers (Whitman, Michael Poole and David Backhouse) and four analysts, with the arrival of Gareth Simmons (ex Morgan Stanley) and Jenny Wong (ex Putnam Investments) as analysts. “Now the high yield team is complete,” says Jim Cielinski, head of fixed income.

The replacement for Henry McVey as head of the global asset allocation team at Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) will be Cyril Moullé-Berteaux, who had been a founding member of the multi-strategy alternative management firm Traxis Partners in 2003 with Barton Biggs, former CEO of MSIM. Moullé-Berteaux had served in various roles at MSIM (USD284bn in assets as of the end of March) from 1995 to 2003, including head of the asset allocation team and head of asset allocation research. Moullé-Berteaux, who will be in charge of asset allocation in the long-only universe, will report to Ruchir Sharma, head of emerging market equity. Sharma will continue to head up the emerging markets equities team, and will supervise global macro strategy. MSIM states that the recruitment of Moullé-Berteaux is the second recruitment this year of a former employee of the firm. In February, the firm re-hires Ashutish Sinha as managing director and senior portfolio manager in the global emerging markets team. He will continue to be based in Singapore, where he had been one of the founders of the alternative management firm Amoeba Capital Partners. He announced eight months ago that he was planning to take a sabbatical (see Newsmanagers of 11 October 2010).

Le Conseil d’administration de l’ONG SOS Sahel International France a annoncé le 27 juin l'élection à la présidence de son bureau de Philippe Lecomte, directeur général de Schroders France. Philippe Lecomte succède à Marc Francioli, 67 ans, qui présidait l’ONG depuis 12 ans. Créée après les grandes sècheresses de 1973, SOS Sahel International France conduit depuis 35 ans des actions de développement en milieu rural avec ses partenaires sahéliens dans une stratégie intégrant aujourd’hui la production, la distribution et la commercialisation. Philippe Lecomte est impliqué depuis plusieurs années aux côtés de SOS Sahel, à la fois à titre personnel et en tant que Directeur général de Schroders France.

Robeco Gestions, which is now the sole representative of the Dutch group in France, following the sale of Banque Robeco to Oddo et Cie in late March, on 27 June announced that it has added to its board and its sales team, “in order to pursue its ambitious objectives.”In addition to Philippe Sabbah, who will join Robeco Gestions this summer as CEO and board member to contribute to commercial development at the management firm (Newsmanagers of 27 June), François Bertrand has been appointed as secretary general and board member in charge of support functions. Since 2007, Bertrand has participated in several transverse missions and strategic or organisational projects at Robeco France, including demutualisation of common services between the bank and the management firm in 2010-2011.While continuing to offer an innovative range of products in several asset classes, Robeco Gestions has ambitions to increase its market share and to make its range of areas of expertise better known to institutional investors, retirement planning institutions, financial institutions (insurers and banks), private banks, management firms, and corporate clients.The addition to the sales team will allow the firm to address these challenges. With the recent arrival of 3 sales team members, and the forthcoming arrival of Sabbah, Robeco Gestions is structured to respond in a personalised manner to French institutional investors.Robeco Gestions has 30 employees of whom 5 are managers, and nearly EUR5bn in assets under management and/or distribution.

From 1 August, professor Frank J. Fabozzi will join the EDHEC-Risk Institute, where he will work with professor Lionel Martellini, scientific director of the institute, to develop the EDHEC-Risk Institute North America. Professor Fabozzi will supervise dissertations of candidates to the EDHEC-Risk Institute PhD in finance, an educational opportunity open to practitioners in the sector.

Neuflize OBC Investissements has recruited Vincent Rennella as manager of the NOBC Europe Long / Short fund. Rennella, who joined the absolute return management team at the firm on 10 June 2011, will take over management of the NOBC Europe Long / Short fund from 1 July. In addition to direct management of mutual funds, he will contribute his exertise in the area of financial analysis for equities markets and market risk analysis to the team, a statement says. Rennella, 38, in 2005 was a portfolio manager at the London-based hedge fund Odey Asset Management, with Michelel Ragazzi and Crispin Odey. In 2008, he joined the prop-trading division of Exane S.A. In 2009, Rennella participated in the creation of Orchidee Finance, with Daniel Larroutrou, who he met in 2004 at ING France.

Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) on 27 June announced that it is now offering production of Key Investor Information Documents (KIID) in all European languages for management firms. SGSS thus extends its range of KIID services, launched in November 2010, which allow management firms to meet the requirements of the UCITS IV directive, which requires them to replace the simplified prospectus with the KIID by 1 July 2011. The modular range from SGSS is centred around the services described below, and allows asset management business clients to select from among the services on offer, from partial responsibility to complete outsourcing of production and distribution of KIID documents. The KIID range from SGSS, which has already been adopted by major asset management business clients, includes the following services: content creation, such as presentation of the investment policy in updated language, calculation of various indicators, such as the risk indicator, presentation of past performance, and calculation of current management fees. The offer also includes management, formatting and distribution of KIID documents in all European languages: these documents are produced by experienced teams such as asset servicing, legal, graphic design, translation, quality control and distribution, via a robust technical platform, which is designed to handle large volumes.

Financial News reports that Knight Vinke, the activist investor based in Monaco, is planning to launch a hedge fund.

EFG International on 27 June announced the appointment of John Williamson, 49, previously CEO of its affilaite EFG Private Bank in the United Kingdom and the Channel Islands, as its CEO. He succeeds Lonnie Howell, co-founder of the firm, who is retiring after 16 years in the position, who will be a candidate for a seat on the board of directors.EFG International explains in a statement that in the past few months it has been reviewing its strategic options, in the light of arduous market conditions and ongoing appreciation of the Swiss franc. With this in mind, it has decided to more effectively balance its desire to continue growth by adopting a more irgorous approach to profitability, and to undertake parallel changes which it estimates are “opportune” in terms of management responsibilities.Howell was co-founder of EFG International in 1995 with Jean-Pierre Cuoni. He played an essential role in the development of the business, which has gone from a start-up to an international private banking player with assets under management of CHF85bn as of the end of 2010.Williamson joined EFG Private Bank in 2002 as CEO. Lukas Ruflin will remain as deputy CEO of EFG International. Anthony Cooke-Yarborough, previously director general of EFG Private Bank in the UK, will replace Williamson as CEO this summer. All other members of the management team will retain their current positions.Williamson is planning to completely review the activities of EFG International with a view to preserving its many strong points, and to draw strength from the best of them, while addressing questions related to the rapid growth of the organisation and changes in market conditions.On the basis of performance since the beginning of the year, EFG International is planning to earn net profits this year of CHF140m to CHF160m, compared with an objective of CHF200m defined before the recent steep rise in the value of the Swiss currency.

Mark Röder, who had previously been head of product & sales managemenet at Vontobel Asset Management, has been promoted to global head of product sales. He will report directly to Axel Schwarzer, CEO of asset management at Vontobel. In his new role, Röder will be in charge of all client relationship management, with expertise in the area of investment, and competence in products and investor services activities within a multi-boutique environment. Meanwhile, Vontobel has also announced that Hansjörg Herzog, who had been head of relationship management EMEA, “has decided to pursue other professional challenges outside” the Swiss group.

More than EUR300m in investment commitments have already been received by Union Investment for its new institutional fund UII Shopping Nr. 1, a real estate product which will invest up to EUR750m, with 30% to 40% leverage, in shopping centres measuring over 25,000 square metres. Each investment will be for at least EUR90m. The new fund will mostly focus on core Euro zone markets: Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, and Austria. The manager will complement these with assets located in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Since 27 June, five ETFs from Ossiam Lux have been added to trading on the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic platform from Deutsche Börse. The Natixis affiliate has listed two equities products replicating equally-weighted indices (see Newsmanagers of 27 June): Ossiam ETF STOXX® EUROPE 600 equal weight NR (LU0599613147, with fees of 0.35%) and Ossiam ETF EURO STOXX 50® equal weight NR (LU0599613063, 0.30%).The management firm has also launched the following minimum variance funds (see Newsmanagers of 28 April): Ossiam ETF EURope Minimum Variance NR (LU0599612842, 0.65%) and Ossiam ETF US Minimum Variance NR denominated in euros (LU0599612685, 0.65%) and in US dollars (LU0599612412, 0.65%).The products will soon also receive a sales license for France, where Ossiam is planning to launch exclusive products as well.With the addition of these funds, the XTF segment now lists 816 ETFs.

The European Equity Focus sub-fund of the Schroder ISF Sicav, launched on 3 March, which has assets as of 27 June of EUR5.17m (see Newsmanagers of 7 March) has received a sales license for Germany. The equities fund has no benchmark, and invests in 30-35 positions, specialised in European shares, including those which benefit from emerging markets, with headquarters in core EU countries, France, Europe, Scandinavia, and the Netherlands. The fund is managed by Rory Bateman, CIO for European equities (the team has EUR9bn in assets in 9 funds), who contributes his “best ideas” to the fund.CharacteristicsName: Schroder ISF European Equity FocusISIN code: LU0591897516Front-end fee: 5%Management commission: 1.50%Performance commission: 10%Minimal initial subscription: EUR1,000 or USD1,000

On 27 June, BNP Paribas Securities Services (BNPP SS) announced that its AlphaSuite range of services for asset managers is being enlarged with what it says is the first solution compliant with the UCITS IV directive on the market for master-feeder funds.The unique quality of the offering is that it includes fund administration and global custody, while depository banking and reporting functions are offered free of charge to feeder funds “in certain circumstances.”BNPP SS states that it is in a position to provide its services to nearly all European countries, regardless of the combination of master and feeder funds.According to a statement, the solution provided by BNPP SS offers asset managers a 360-degree view in the master, providing a consolidated image of each fund, while automated trading for funds reduces the number of manual interventions needed on the part of asset managers.

On Monday, the text of a modification to the 1/2009 circular from the Spanish securities commission (CNMV) concerning the various categories of funds was published in the Spanish official gazette, the Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE), Expansión reports. The new fund typology will come into force in two months’ time, and will transpose the standards of the CESR, now ESMA, into Spanish law, in order to better protect investors by providing clearer information, particularly in the area of money market funds (short-term money market funds on the one hand, and simple money market funds, which operate in a less restricted environment, on the other), and introducing several technical improvements.

Agefi relays reports by Bloomberg that Clayton Dubilier & Rice, the private equity firm, is one of the candidates to acquire the mutual fund activities of the Hartford Financial Services Group. The identity of the winning bidder will not be known for several weeks for the deal, which is expected to total about USD1.5bn, the newspaper reports.

The hedge fund management firm First Trust Advisors, based in Wheaton, Illinois, has announced that on 6 July it will launch the First Trust ISE Cloud Computing Index Fund (acronym SKYY on NASDAQ), its 60th ETF, which received notification of its registration with the SEC on 20 April. The fund, which replicates the ISE Cloud Computing Index, is managed by a committee of six managers, led by Robert Casey, vice president & CEO. Management commission is set at 0.60%.

The US group State Street on 27 June announced that it has been appointed by F&C Asset Management (F&C) to provide middle office outsourcing services, on about GBP106bn in assets. State Street will provide services for the global operations of F&C and its affiliate Thames River Capital, including services for investment operations, securities custody, fund accounting, administrative services, securities lending, and clearance services, the latter of which will be provided by IFDS, a joint venture of State Street and DST Systems. Under the agreement, 102 employees of F&C in London and Edinburgh will be transferred to State Street. State Street provides middle office services on over USD7.1trn in assets for clients worldwide.

Skandia Investment Group (SIG) on 27 June announced that, having received permission from extraordinary shareholders’ meetings on 20 June, the Skandia Strategic Bond Fund (EUR140m) will on 30 June absorb two smaller funds, the Skandia Global Fixed Interest Blend Fund and the Skandia UK Fixed Interest Blend Fund. Shareholders in the latter two products will receive a reduced commission of 0.8%, instead of 1.25%, for the fund into which they are to be absorbed. The Skandia UK Equity Blend Fund will also be absorbed into the Skandia UK Best Ideas Fund. The objectives of the two funds are very similar, and the management commissions are the same (1.5%).

One of the richest families in China will acquire funds from the alternative management firm RAB Capital, which has been obliged to abandon listing of the funds on the British AIM market in order to meet redemption demands from investors. The Sunwah group, which is owned by the Hong Kong-based Choi family, will acquire the Energy and Octane funds from RAB Capital, the Financial Times reports. The Chinese group is planning to set up a London-based hedge fund activity, which may represent assets of over USD1.5bn by the end of the year. Funds from RAB Capital, totalling about USD300m, are already set to receive additional support of USD250m from a Singapore investors in the next few weeks.

The British HSBC group is planning to make additions to its ETF product range, with products covering Russia, India, emerging European markets (including an ETF which will cover Russia, Poland and Hungary), and countries of the CIVETS group (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Turkey, and South Africa), Money Marketing reports. All of the vehicles will be launched by the end of the year.