Russell Investments on Wednesday, 15 June announced that it has added to its Paris office, with the recruitment of Aurélie Ferrer as director of institutional development. Ferrer, 37, joins the business at a time when it is aiming to develop in the institutional segment, and to undertake strategic initiatives such as dynamic management of diversified assets, investment solutions to respond to Solvency II requirements, and transition management and implementation services activities, a statement says. Since 2007, Ferrer had been sub-director for institutional clients at Rothschild & Cie Gestion.

The Carlyle Group has announced announced that it has agreed to purchase a 55% stake in ESG, a New York-based emerging markets equities and macroeconomic strategies investment manager with assets under management of about USD1.6bn. ESG has been supported for nearly 10 years by Tiger Management, which will remain present in the firm’s capital, and which will maintain its commitments to ESG funds. The deal is Carlyle’s tenth acquisition of a hedge fund management firm in six months. Last December, Carlyle took a majority stake in Claren Road Asset Management, a long/short hedge fund focused on credit, with assets under management of USD4.5bn. Like Carlyle, many private equity firms are developing asset management and advising activities, at a time when profits from LBO operations are falling. At the Carlyle group, the Global Market Strategies division, which includes types of hedge funds such as long/short credit, distressed vehicles, mezzanine and structured credit, had assets under management as of the end of December 2010 of USD20.6bn.

New Alpha Asset Management, the incubation business of the French OFI group, has formed a partnership with Woori Absolute Partners, a company of the Korean Woori group dedicated to alternative investments. The alliance will involve the launch and the management of an incubation fund, which will invest in funds from some of the most promising young Asian asset management firms. Concretely, “New Alpha will contribute its expertise in the incubation profession (due diligence, wealth engineering, partnership structuring), while Woori Absolute Partners, based in Singapore, will contribute its local network for sourcing as well as investors for funds of funds,” says Antoine Rolland, CEO of NewAlpha, adding that governance is shared for investment decisions.Woori AP and NewAlpha AM have signed an incubation partnership with the management firm Blue Rice Investment Management (BRIM), founded and directed by Guan Ong, formerly chief investment officer at the Korean Investment Corporation, the South Korean sovereign fund. The firm, based in Singapore, is specialised in corporate credit and Asian government bonds.The future fund of funds, which will be aimed primarily at European and Asian institutional investors, will be launched in fourth quarter this year, and will be registered in Singapore. Rolland says that the target asset level is EUR200m for the fund, of which 25% will come from Europe.

Axel Wieandt, the former chairman of the managing board at Hypo Real Estate (HRE), who served from October 2008 to March 2010, will be leaving his present position as managing director of the corporate center at Deutsche Bank, in order to join Credit Suisse Germany in Frankfurt on 1 July, as managing director of the investment bank for Germany and Austria. He will also be a member of the EMEA financial institutions group, Credit Suisse states.Johannes Baratta, who was head of key clients at Deutsche Bank in London until the end of March, is also joining Credit Suisse Deutschland as head private banking.

Between the 2010 edition of a survey by the German agencies Telos and Kommalpha of 170 German institutional investors and this year’s edition of the survey, the percentage of management firms which have invested in institutional real estate funds has fallen from 29% to 13%, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. Meanwhile, the percentage of institutional investors who are not at all invested in real estate funds has increased to 45.7% in February-March this year, compared with 28% one year previously.

Funds People reports that Pictet Asset Management will officially launch its UCITS-compliant total return credit fund Kosmos on 24 June (see Newsmanagers of 25 May and 14 June). The Luxembourg-registered fund will be managed by Raymond Sagayam and Kazik Swiderski, who have recently been recruited from Swiss Re Asset Management.

The Strategic Income strategy from Goldman Sachs, launched in June 2010, includes a fund with USD1.745bn in assets. The Luxdembourg-registered fund Global Strategic Income Bond Portfolio is currently going on sale in Germany from Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM). The portfolio has no specific restrictions, and invests in all fixed income classes worldwide, as well as in currencies which the global fixed income team at GSAM (USD340bn in assets as of the end of December 2010) judges most promising.The actively-managed fund was launched in March 2011, and its benchmark index is the Libor 3-month.CharacteristicsName: Global Strategic Income Bond PortfolioISIN codes:USD base share class (acc) LU0600006117A-class distribution shares in USD LU0600005812E-class acc shares in EUR (hedged for currency risks) LU0600010143Management commission: 1.20%Distribution fee:base shares: no commissionA shares: 20.25%E shares: 0.50%Minimal subscription:Base shares: USD5,000A shares: USD1,500E shares: EUR1,500

The Paris-based asset management firm UFG-LFP, which has recently acquired a 9.9% stake in the Frankfurt-based management firm Klimek Advisors Fund Consulting (see Newsmanagers of 4 May), has received a sales license for Germany from BaFin, as expected, for its LFP Trésorerie, LFP Europe Impact Emergent, LFP Actions Rendement Croissance and LFP Obligations LT funds.Klimak will be the distributor for the products, aimed exclusively at institutional clients.

The Munich-based asset manager KanAm on 15 June announced that it has made a USD16bn payment to investors in the US dollar-denominated German real estate fund US-grundinvest, which is in the process of being liquidated. The payment corresponds to about USD180m, which comes in addition to the USD250m which was distributed to shareholders six months ago (see Newsmanagers of 16 December 2010). The payment was facilitated by the resale of the fund’s last two properties in Dallas (see Newsmanagers of 24 April), at prices that correspond to the most recent market value for the properties set by experts.The remainder of the portfolio, which is now composed exclusively of cash, will be distributed to shareholders by March 2012 at the latest.According to an internal estimate, investors held shares in the KanAm US-grundinvest fund for an average of 5.2 years. A shareholder who did so would have seen losses as of 31 March 2011 of 0.3%. However, an investor who acquired shares at the time the fund was launched (20 May 2003) and held them since then would have earned returns of 20.1% as of 31 March 2011.

The credit hedge fund specialist CQS will be closing its ABS fund to new investors once it reaches USD2bn in assets, the Financial Times reports. The fund is currently at USD1.6bn, but has received many commitments from clients. Since its launch in 2006, the CQS ABS fund has earned average annual returns of 35%.

The Advantage Plus fund from Paulson & Co, with assets of USD9bn, lost more than 13% in the first half of the month of June, putting its losses at 19.65% for the year, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Enhanced Partners fund, which had been in positive territory for the year, lost more than 7% in the first ten days of June, and is now up by less than 4% since the beginning of the year.

Avec près d’un cinquième des flottants du CAC 40 et du SBF 250, la gestion collective est le deuxième investisseur résident sur le marché français, selon le cahier «Contribution des OPCVM aux fonds propres des entreprises», premier d’une nouvelle collection dénommée « Les Cahiers de la Gestion » destinée à présenter les études des différentes commissions et services de l’AFG. Le cahier souligne aussi que le quart des actions françaises et étrangères détenues par des résidents franaçs est logé dans les OPCVM. Elles se répartissent à égalité entre titres français et étrangers.L'étude relève par ailleurs que la diversification géographique et sectorielle des portefeuilles des OPCVM actions reflète l’expertise des gérants. La répartition géographique des titres en portefeuille est en cohérence avec leur classification, mais confirme aussi au global l’existence d’un biais national et européen relativement aux indices et aux capitalisations boursières. La détention indirecte progresse avec l’élargissement de la zone d’investissement : de 6% en moyenne pour les fonds actions françaises à 17% pour les fonds actions internationales, les expertises non couvertes en interne étant déléguées à des gérants spécialisés dans le cadre de la gestion de fonds de fonds. Logiquement, les « BRICS » sont le mieux représentées dans le portefeuille des fonds actions internationales avec au global un poids de l’ordre de 11%. La diversification des portefeuilles s’étend bien au-delà de l’univers des titres et des pays représentés dans les grands indices, même si les montants investis dans des actions en dehors de ces indices restent relativement modestes. Si, avec au total 6400 émetteurs, les fonds actions sont bien diversifiés, on observe toutefois une très forte concentration autour d’un nombre réduit de titres : 1% des émetteurs concentrent ainsi la moitié de l’investissement cumulé en actions. Des différences sectorielles significatives existent : les fonds « actions internationales » surpondèrent les « technologies de l’information », alors que les fonds « actions françaises » privilégient l’« industrie » et les « biens de consommation cyclique ». Dans le cas des fonds actions françaises, on constate une surpondération relative des moyennes capitalisations par rapport à l’indice de référence.

Invesco Real Estate on 15 June reported that it has acquired the property located at 46 rue La Boétie in Paris from a fund managed by LaSalle Investment Management. The transaction was undertaken on behalf of a pan-European German real estate fund; the 2,400 square-meter property is wholly leased to 6 tenants, including Allianz Real Estate, Financial Times, Optimind.

Ecofi Investissements has launched the Ecofi Taux Variable fund, a fund composed of variable-rate bonds denominated in euros, with the objective of outperforming the Euribor 3-month, with a maximal bond sensitivity of 1, and a maximal maturity of the securities of 5 years. For institutional investors who subscribe to I-class shares, the performance objective of the fund is to earn returns over a one-year investment period higher than those of the Euribor 3-month plus 0.30%. For retail investors who subscribe to P-class shares, the fund aims to earn returns higher than the Euribor 3-month over a one-year investment period.The initial management universe includes 1,200 issues. After financial analysis of the business with a credit approach, application of quantitative filters, and a detailed analysis of issues, also with a responsibility filter, 120 eligible issues are retained. Ultimately, the portfolio includes investment-grade securities, with a total rating of BBB- to AAA, while issuers with a BBB rating may not exceed 50% of the total. The portfolio is also composed of a maximum of 25 issuers. In case the rating of a security falls below BBB-, or ratings are discontinued, the fund may retain unrated securities or those with a rating lower than BBB- as accessory investments.Characteristics:ISIN code: I-class shares: FR0011045137 / P-class shares: FR0011048511Subscription commission: P-class shares: 2.5% maximumMaximal management fees: I-class shares: 0.40% / P-class shares: 0.70%Performance commission: 20% of annual performance exceeding the Euribor capitalised rateInitial value of shares: I-class: EUR10,000 / P-class shares: EUR1,000Benchmark index: Euribor 3-month

In the United States, net inflows to long-term mutual funds (excluding money markets) in May totalled USD22.55bn, bringing total net subscriptions in the first five months of the year to USD135.7bn, according to statistics from Morningstar.US equities saw their first significant net outflow since the beginning of the year, with redemptions totalling USD4.5bn in May. Over five months, inflows to funds dedicated to US equities total USD23.86bn. Commodities funds in May saw a net outflow of USD5.76bn.Bond funds attracted a further USD20.76bn, bringing subscriptions over five months to USD80.48bn. Money market funds saw a further net outflow of USD2.46bn. Over five months, redemptions total USD76.73bn.For ETFs, May brought a net outflow of USD3.1bn, following net inflows of USD23.3bn in April. In the fist five months of the year, net inflows total USD47.51bn.US equities ETFs fell back into the red in May, with net outflows of USD2.70bn, compared with net inflows of USD10.2bn in April. Since the beginning of the year, net inflows total USD20.29bn.

La caisse de pensions PRESV (820 millions de Francs Suisses d’actifs) a modifié sa stratégie d’investissement cette année, début Mai, décidant d’augmenter son allocation en alternatifs et immobiliers tout en réduisant les obligations. L’allocation en immobilier a grimpé de 18% à 20% et les matières premières de 3% à 5% du Fonds. Les matières premières font partie du portefeuille alternatif qui est monté de 8% à 10%. Dans le même temps, les obligations en Francs Suisses sont passées de 34% à 32% et les obligations en devises étrangères de 10% à 8% des actifs. Les marchés émergents ainsi que la dette locale des marchés émergents sont aussi en augmentation. La nouvelle stratégie d’investissement depuis Mai est la suivante : 2% en liquidités, 32% en obligations en Francs Suisses, 8% en obligations en devises étrangères, 12% en actions domestiques, 11% en actions internationales, 5% en Hypothèques, 20% en immobilier direct et indirect (15% local, 5% international) 10% en alternatifs (5% en matières premières, 3% en Fonds de Hedge Funds et 2% en private equity).

En ce qui concerne la gestion alternative, nous avons décidé très récemment de revenir sur cette classe d’actifs après en être totalement sortis en 2009. A l'époque, l’opacité de certains véhicules ainsi que les performances moribondes nous ont particulièrement échaudé. Aujourd’hui, nous considérons que le marché des hedge funds a entamé une mue profonde, en instaurant plus de transparence et de bien meilleures conditions de liquidité, notamment grâce aux fonds UCITS. Nous apprécions les produits dont la performance est décorellée des marchés car ils confortent la situation des portefeuilles. Nous utilisons, par prudence, les services de sélectionneurs de fonds afin d’investir dans les fonds multi gérants et multi stratégies. L’objectif que nous nous sommes fixés est d’obtenir des résultats variant de 7 à 8 % avec une faible volatilité (4-5%). Le niveau cible en termes d’allocation est de 5% des actifs gérés affirme Pierre Richert.

Pour 2012, un autre chantier sera ouvert par la Direction des Retraites avec la révision de l’allocation du régime des débitants de tabacs. La taille des mandats sera plus faible que pour l’IRCANTEC, de l’ordre de 300 millions d’euros.

NewAlpha Asset Management et Woori Absolute Partners ont décidé de s’allier en vue de lancer prochainement un fonds d’incubation spécialisé sur la zone Asie Pacifique. Ce véhicule d’investissement sera enregistré à Singapour et investira dans les fonds offerts par les jeunes gérants asiatiques jugés les plus prometteurs.

Selon une proposition de la SEC, les courtiers dépositaires des fonds devraient bientôt subir un examen annuel par un cabinet d’audit assermenté afin de s’assurer qu’ils respectent les règles de protection du consommateur. Cette mesure vise à améliorer la supervision d’un secteur secoué par l’affaire Madoff.

La BoJ anticipe un fort rebond de la production au troisième trimestre. Le programme expansionniste du gouvernement fait peser un risque sur les taux

Compte tenu de la raréfaction de l'offre de grands centres commerciaux, les investisseurs s'intéressent davantage aux parcs d'activités

Malgré la hausse des prix du résidentiel dans Paris, le changement de destination des immeubles risque de ne pas être rentable

Le difficile accès au financement, la croissance des salaires, et la hausse des ventes à crédit pèseront sur la santé des sociétés à court terme

Sa dernière Revue de stabilité financière souligne le risque de contagion d'une crise souveraine

L'opération, de 5 milliards d'euros, a attiré 8 milliards d'euros d'ordres. Le Japon a acquis pour 1,1 milliard de titres

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Le ministre des Finances estime que les porteurs obligataires seniors d'Anglo Irish et Irish Nationwide devraient partager les pertes

Dans un revirement plutôt spectaculaire, le ministre irlandais des Finances a fait part hier de sa volonté d’imposer des pertes aux créanciers seniors d’Anglo Irish et Irish Nationwide. Michael Noonan dit bénéficier de la bienveillance du FMI, alors que la BCE rejette ce scénario.

Le fonds d’investissement basé à Londres serait sur le point de clôturer son fonds d’ABS (asset-backed securities), le «CQS ABS», à de nouveaux investisseurs, indique le quotidien qui évoque une lettre envoyée aux clients cette semaine. Le fonds, qui conserve nombre d’engagements de la part d’investisseurs, clôturerait finalement à 2 milliards de dollars.