Londres fait un pas supplémentaire dans son projet de réforme financière
Le comité de politique financière – Financial Policy Committee – va devenir la clé de voûte d’un nouveau cadre de stabilité renforcé
L'Irlande utilise la dette bancaire senior comme moyen de négociation
En évoquant la mise à contribution des créanciers seniors des banques en liquidation, le gouvernement chercherait à renégocier son plan d'aide
Le risque politique grec fait trembler les marchés
Un accord sur une nouvelle tranche d'aide se dessine, mais le gouvernement vacille à Athènes
Le risque politique grec fait trembler les marchés
Un accord sur une nouvelle tranche d'aide se dessine, mais le gouvernement vacille à Athènes
Un risque d’alpha réduit
Les tableaux ci-contre présentent les meilleures et plus mauvaises performances en euros des fonds sur le marché des fonds actions américaines et le marché des fonds actions françaises au cours du mois de mai 2011. Ces performances sont mises en perspective par le calcul de la volatilité et du ratio de Sharpe sur trois ans d’historique ainsi que du rendement depuis un an.
Une réduction du bêta des portefeuilles recommandée
Le graphique ci-contre montre l’évolution du ratio des révisions de bénéfices collectées par IBES pour l’indice MSCI World.
Och-Ziff à l’offensive sur les actions américaines
Le cinquième plus important fonds alternatif au monde selon le quotidien britannique aurait acquis pour plus de 12 milliards de dollars d’options sur les actions américaines au cours du premier trimestre, afin de tirer parti d’une hausse de la volatilité des marchés. Och-Ziff gère environ 30 milliards de dollars d’actifs.
Oddo AM lance sa gestion alternative grâce à la Banque d'Orsay
Le compte propre de l'ancienne filiale de WestLB se transforme en fonds d'arbitrage M&A. Oddo y investit 100 millions d'euros
Oddo AM lance sa gestion alternative
La société crée un fonds d’arbitrage M&A à partir de l’activité pour compte propre de la Banque d’Orsay. L’objectif est de lever 300 millions à fin 2012.
Nyse Euronext et LCH.Clearnet se laissent du temps pour préparer leur avenir
Finalement, LCH.Clearnet assurera encore la compensation des activités dérivés et cash de Nyse Euronext jusqu'en juin et décembre 2013 respectivement
L'Espagne paie un prix élevé sa dernière adjudication
Le Trésor espagnol a adjugé 2,8 milliards d’obligations à maturité longue, mais a dû consentir à le faire à un prix élevé, les investisseurs ayant été difficiles à convaincre en raison des craintes d’une contagion de la crise grecque. Le Trésor a émis pour 1,3 milliard d’euros de titres de dettes à échéance 2019 et de 1,5 milliard d’euros d’obligations 2026, ce qui correspond à un niveau légèrement supérieur à la médiane de la fourchette de prévisions de 2,5-3 milliards d’euros qui s'était fixée Madrid. Le coupon moyen des obligations 2019 a été de 5,352% et celui sur les titres de dette 2026 à 6,027%. Peu avant ces émissions, le rendement de l’obligation à dix ans avait atteint un plus haut de 11 ans dans un contexte de craintes renouvelées au sujet de la Grèce.
La BNS maintient ses taux mais s'inquiète de l'immobilier
La BNS a gardé son corridor de fluctuation du taux libor en francs suisses à trois mois entre 0 et 0,75%. Parmi les risques mentionnés par la BNS, figurent les répercussions de la fermeté du franc sur l’industrie d’exportation ainsi que la menace de surchauffe dans le secteur immobilier.
Nicolas Sarkozy prône "réinvestissement" et "nouvelle gouvernance" pour l'agriculture
Nicolas Sarkozy a présenté jeudi les grandes lignes du «nouveau modèle agricole» qu’il souhaite lancer à la faveur de la présidence française du G20 en prônant un «réinvestissement» mondial dans l’agriculture et une «gouvernance mondiale modernisée» du secteur. Le président a également défendu l’idée d’un «forum de concertation» pour améliorer la sécurité alimentaire et répété sa volonté de «réguler les marchés financiers dérivés» des produits agricoles pour limiter la spéculation.
Les ventes au détail britanniques plongent au mois de mai
Les ventes au détail ont nettement reculé en mai au Royaume-Uni, plombées par le climat d’inquiétude concernant la situation économique, selon les chiffres publiés jeudi par l’Office national des statistiques. Les ventes ont reculé de 1,4% le mois dernier, alors que les économistes anticipaient une baisse de 0,6% d’un mois sur l’autre. Il s’agit du recul le plus marqué depuis janvier 2010.
L'Inde relève à nouveau son taux d'intérêt, à 7,5%
La banque centrale indienne a relevé ses taux d’intérêt, pour la dixième fois depuis mars 2010, et promis de poursuivre sa lutte contre l’inflation dans la troisième économie du continent asiatique. La Banque de réserve d’Inde a relevé son taux repo de 25 points de base à 7,5%.
RWI relève sa prévision de croissance annuelle pour l’Allemagne
L’institut économique allemand RWI a annoncé jeudi avoir relevé sa prévision de croissance économique pour l’année 2011 à 3,7%, à la faveur d’un renforcement de la demande intérieure et d’une politique monétaire accommodante, avec des taux d’intérêt bas.
Prévoyance Santé Valais (PRESV) a modifié sa stratégie d'investissement
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).
La gestion alternative retrouve ses lettres de noblesse au sein du Groupe Agrica
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.
16/06/2011
Goldman Sachs AM releases Global Strategic Income Bond Portfolio
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
16/06/2011
UFG-LFP obtains a sales license for four LFP funds
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.
16/06/2011
KanAm distributes USD180bn to US-grundinvest shareholders
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.
16/06/2011
Liontrust in the red for fiscal year to 31 March
Liontrust, which has put through a fundamental restructuring plan for its asset management activities, has reported pre-tax losses for the fiscal year to 31 March 2011 of GBP1.7m, compared with pre-tax profits of GBP800,000 in the previous fiscal year.Proceeds from performance commissions contracted to GBP1.3m from GBP3.4m previously. Assets under management as of the end of March 2011 totalled GBP1.1bn, compared with GBP1.3bn one year previously. As a result of the restructuring, however, net inflows for the period totalled GBP81m, a positive net inflow for the first time since 2004. Liontrust adds in a statement that as of 14 June 2011, assets under management were back up to GBP1.3bn.
16/06/2011
Aberdeen AM appoints a head of property development
Aberdeen Asset Management has appointed Roberto Varandas as global head of business development – property, a newly created role. He and his four strong team will work closely with the group’s generalist business development and wider distribution teams in delivery of the Aberdeen’s property capability to its worldwide client base. He will start his new role in September.Roberto Varandas joins from UBS Global Asset Management’s Global Real Estate (GRE) business where he was head of business development for Continental Europe. Separately, Aberdeen Asset Management has announced that Mrs Francoise Pfeiffer has joined the board of directors of the Aberdeen European Balanced Property Fund and the Aberdeen European Shopping property Fund as of 1 June 2011. She is partner and head of the Luxembourg branch of the British law firm Speechly Bircham Pfeiffer & Partners.
16/06/2011
CQS to close its ABS fund to new investors
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%.
16/06/2011
Azimut launches a UCITS III-compliant renminbi fund
The Italian asset manager Azimut has launched Renminbi Opportunities, a UCITS III fund in Europe to invest directly on the Chinese currency. It is a subfund of the Luxembourg company AZFUND investing in banking deposits in Renminbi (Rmb), or in government and corporate bonds in the same currency and with a short duration (slightly above 12 months). Azimut says that Renminbi Opportunities is the first fund offering a direct exposure to the Chinese currency through a UCITS III vehicle. The product is also the first since the establishment from the Italian asset manager of a direct presence in Hong Kong and Shanghai. It targets especially European businesses with industrial and commercial relationships with China. The minimum investment is EUR250,000. In a second phase the fund, or other of this kind, could be open to retail clients.
16/06/2011
Pictet to launch total return credit fund on 24 June
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.
16/06/2011
Russell Investments hires a head of institutional development in France
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.
16/06/2011
Carlyle buys 55% stake in hedge fund manager ESG
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.
16/06/2011
New Alpha AM to launch an Asian incubation fund
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.
16/06/2011
Number of millionaires now exceeds one million in German-speaking countries
According to an annual survey by the Liechtenstein asset manager Valluga, in 2010, in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, there were a record 1.054 million people with financial savings of at least EUR1m, compared with 985,000 in 2009, and 910,000 in 2008. Last year, Valluga counted 830,000 euro millionaires in Germany, 15,000 in Switzerland, and 74,000 in Austria.This 7% increase in the number of millionaires compared with 2009 corresponds to an increase of 9.3%, or EUR243bn, in total wealth, to a record EUR2.849trn, of which EUR2.191trn are for Germans, EUR428bn for Swiss, and EUR203bn for Austrians. The 10 most wealthy households, all of which are billionaire households, control 9% of the wealth of all millionaires combined, and 3% of all household financial savings. The wealth of these billionaires is increasing by about 10% per year, while the millionaires’ wealth is increasing by 2% per year.In terms of asset allocation, the Valluga study finds that in 2010, millionaires placed 18% of their savings in cash, compared with 16% in 2009. Exposure to equities remains highest, at 33% (unchanged). There is a growing trend toward investments in “real” assets: allocation to real estate is up to 15%, from 14% in 2009, and 13% in 2008. The total amounts allocated to commodities represent 7% of the total, compared with 6% in 2009, and 5% in 2005. Lastly, the proportion allocated to gold is up to 3%, compared with 2% for each of the two previous years. Allocation to hedge funds remains stable at 4% of the total, compared with 3% the previous year, and 4% in 2008.