At a hearing before a Manhattan federal court, Eric S. Lipkin, a former employee of Bernard Madoff, confessed to falsifying documents submitted to the SEC in relation to the trading positions of some Madoff clients. In addition, the Wall Street Journal reports, Lipkin admitted to fraudulently declaring people as employees of Madoff who were not employed by him, so that they would be eligible for 401(k) retirement savings plans. These included the son of Daniel Bonventre, Madoff’s former COO.However, Lipkin made no admissions as to whether he knew about the fraud perpetrated by his employer.

In the past ten days, Funds People reports, nine Spanish management firms have merged 43 funds into only 15 products. Ahorro Corporación has merged 13 products to create five; Banesto merged five into one, and Santander, four into one. BNP Paribas Investment Partners has merged two products into one; Invercaixa has merged three into one, as has Ibercaja, while A&G Fondos has merged four funds into two, and Renta 4 Gestora has transformed a Sicav into a fund, while Espiritu Santo has merged seven funds into two.

Deutsche Börse on 6 June announced that it has admitted three Irish-registered SPDR bond ETFs from State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) to trading on the XTF segment of its Xetra electronic platform.The funds are the SPDR Barclays Capital Sterling Aggregate Bond ETF (IE00B3T8LK23) and SPDR Barclays Capital US Aggregate Bond ETF (IE00B459R192), both of which charge 0.20%, while the SPDR Barclays Capital US Treasury Bond ETF (IE00B44CND37), for which the total expense ratio is 0.15%.The XTF listings now include 810 ETFs.

Skandia Investment Group (SIG), the investment management arm of Old Mutual Wealth Management, has appointed Steve Wilson and Glenn Sussman of Lapides Asset Management to run a GBP45m US mid-cap value mandate in its flagship Skandia Global Dynamic Equity Fund. Lapides’ addition to the fund sees them taking over a portion of the portfolio previously managed by Epoch Investment Partners.The Skandia Global Dynamic Equity Fund, managed by Francois Zagame, has over GBP1bn of assets and aims to provide long-term capital growth predominantly through investment in global equities.

East Capital, asset manager specialising in Eastern Europe and China, is strengthening its advisory committees by appointing three new advisors:• Al Breach, an expert on global emerging markets with a long research background as an economist at UBS and Goldman Sachs;• Torbjörn Becker, an expert on Eastern European economies and currently Director of the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) at the Stockholm School of Economics;• Christer Ljungwall, an expert on China development, specialising on growth, institutions, regional development, financial stability and China’s banking system.

From 8 June, the FCP fund Prim’Kappa Agri, managed by the French asset management firm Prim’Finance, will be compliant with the UCITS III directive. At that time, it will adopt the name Prim’Agriculture. Several changes to the product have been made. While previously, the management objective was to obtain performance via an investment in soft commodity futures contracts, the fund will now be exposed via an investment in swaps based on indices or sub-indices of soft commodities and meats futures contracts. The benchmark for the fund is also changing, from the S&P GSCO Agricultural Total Return to S&P SGCI Agriculture & Livestock Total Return (code BLOOMBERG: SPGSALTR Index). The investment strategy used after the adaptation will differ from the strategy used previously mostly in the type of financial instruments which will be eligible to be used by the fund to expose the portfolio to its investment universe, and in the diversification rules which will be applicable. Exposure to commodities markets will remain the same, and will still vary between 0% and 100%.

Bernheim, Dreyfus & Co on Monday, 6 June announced the launch of Diva Synergy, a French-registered, UCITS-compliant FCP fund, with daily liquidity, whose event-driven strategy is focused on the theme of investment in mergers and acquisitions. The fund is an onshore version of an offshore product, which has been managed for the past five years by Lionel Melka, Amit Shabi and Sébastien Dettmar, co-founders of Bernheim, Dreyfus & Co.The Paris-based asset management firm, specialised in alternative and event-driven strategies, which received its AMF license in 2006, says thelaunch is “a response to strong demand on the part of French and European clients, who would like to have access to regulated products,” explains Shabi. The Diva Synergy fund, which includes 50 positions on businesses listed in Europe and North America, is primarily aimed at European institutionals, but is also available to private banks and high net worth private clients.Bernheim, Dreyfus & Co currently manage EUR250m in management and advisory mandates and offshore funds. The UCITS-compliant version of Diva Synergy will begin its life with a commitment for a EUR10m investment. Shabi confidently predicts assets in the fund on its first birthday of USD100m The fund will soon be offered on a variety of life insurance platforms.The asset management firm, which has also recently announced the arrival of a new member for its operational team, in charge of risk management (see Newsmanagers of 10/05/2011), is planning further recruitments. It is expected to soon recruit one person to oversee commercial development in France and Europe.A new fund will soon also be added to the product range. “It will probably be another variation on the event-driven strategy,” Shabi comments.Characteristics of Diva SynergyISIN codes:Institutionals: A euro class (FR0011042514)/B US dollar class (FR0011042316)Retail: E euro class ((FR0011042472)/ M US dollar class (FR0011042498)Minimal investment: EUR100,000 or USD100,000 for institutional shares/ EUR100 or USD100 for retail sharesSubscription fees: 2% for institutional shares / 2.5% for retail sharesManagement fees: 2% for institutional shares +20% commission on performance exceeding the Eonia / 2.5% for retail shares +20% commission on performance exceeding the Eonia.

On 17 March, Natixis Global Associates created the Climate Change Emerging Markets sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav Impact Funds. As its name indicates, the product is a thematic fund dedicated to climate change, with 40 to 50 positions corresponding to the strong convictions of the managers, Suzanne Senellart (senior portfolio manager and head of the sustainable investments unit) and Clotilde Basselier (senior portfolio manager and expert in climate change equities), with the assistance of Pierre Pedrosa (global emerging markets equities and climate change analyst).The product is now available from Natixis Asset Management (NAM), and is aimed at all investors prepared to accept a certain level of risk in an equities investment, for a minimal recommended duration of 5 years.CharacteristicsName: Impact Fund Climate Change Emerging MarketsISIN codes: LU0522854537 (shares in euros)LU0522854024 (shares in US dollars)Front-end fee: maximum 4%TER: 2%

The Euronext Paris platform from NYSE-Euronext on 6 June announced that it has admitted a further ETF of the SHBC line to trading. The HSBC MSCI CANADA ETF ( IE00B51B7Z02) has a total expense ratio of 0.35%. With the addition of the new product, NYSE Euronext currently lists a total of 564 ETFs 655 times on its European platforms, of which 88 funds and 144 listings are new since the beginning of this month.

Chris Rothery and Andrew Keirle, who since 2007 have managed the Emerging Local Markets Bond Fund, a sub-fund of the Sicav T. Rowe Price Funds, for international institutional investors, have been appointed to manage the new T. Rowe Price Emerging Markets Local Currency Bond Fund, which will invest at least 80% of its assets in bonds from emerging countries denominated in local currencies.The bonds will be largely government issued from more than 15 countries of Europe, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, with an approximate duration of 4-5 years, and average returns at maturity of about 6.4%. More than 70% of the securities in the portfolio will be investment grade.The asset management firm says that minimal initial subscription is set at USD2,500 (and USD1,000 for the advisor share class), while the total expense ratio will be 1.10% (and 1.20% for the advisor class).

On 30 June, the Austrian asset management firm Erste Sparinvest will launch the ESPA Corporate Plus Basket 2016 fund, with maturity in five years. The management firm is planning to distribute at least 4% per year in dividends over the life of this corporate bond product. The fund is designed so that its commercial objective will not be compromised even if as man y as 0.5% of bond issuers have been defaulting every year.The manager, Herbert Matzinger, will invest in a portfolio of about 50 positions, of which half will be investment grade, and the other half high yield securities. Currency risks are now fully hedged.CharacteristicsName: ESPA Corporate Plus Basket 2016ISIN code: AT0000A0PK61Launch: 30 June 2011Maturity: 29 June 2016Management commission: 0.60% maximumEarly withdrawal penalty: 2% maximum

La filiale de banque privée, absorbée en 2012, doit réduire drastiquement un coefficient d'exploitation qui flirtait récemment avec les 100 %

Les nouvelles obligations à l'habitat françaises ont animé le marché le mois dernier. Les émetteurs des pays core devraient rester actifs

71 % des émissions réalisées en 2011 ont été affectées à des refinancements, alors qu'en 2007 la majorité avait des visées agressives

Lancé hier par la Wholesale Market Brokers’ Association, le taux permettra de couvrir les expositions sur un marché en croissance

L'effort de 20 à 30 milliards requis du secteur privé serait largement couvert par les banques grecques

L'effort de 20 à 30 milliards requis du secteur privé serait largement couvert par les banques grecques

Une suspicion généralisée autour de la sincérité de leurs comptes fait des sociétés chinoises des proies idéales

Selon une étude de bfinance sur les appels d'offres, des plafonds sont de plus en plus souvent fixés aux sociétés de gestion depuis 2007

Maple Group Acquisition Corp, le consortium qui livre bataille pour prendre le contrôle du Toronto Stock Exchange (TMX), serait en négociations avec au moins trois sociétés de services financiers qui pourraient lui venir en aide. Desjardins Financial Group, GMP Capital et Dundee Capital Markets figureraient parmi les prétendants à l’accès au consortium, aujourd’hui composé de neuf banques et fonds de pension canadiens.

Si Richard Fisher estime que la Fed « en a fait assez », les craintes d’une rechute de l’économie incitent Eric Rosengren à ne pas écarter un « QE3 »

Aabar Investments,le fonds souverain d’Abou Dhabi qui détient 1,4% de Glencore suite à son IPO, envisage d’investir conjointement avec le groupe minier et de négoce de matières premières. C’est ce qu’a confié au quotidien le directeur général d’Aabar, Mohamed Al-Husseiny. La coopération pourrait concerner les secteurs de l’agiculture, du pétrole ou du gaz naturel.

L’approbation d’un nouveau plan de soutien à la Grèce lors de la réunion des ministres des finances européens le 20 juin prochain pourrait échouer du fait de la résistance de la Slovaquie, selon le quotidien allemand qui cite un officiel européen. Le pays n’avait pas participé au premier plan de sauvetage de la Grèce mais a contribué au financement du fonds européen de stabilité.

FTSE Group, le fournisseur d’indices de rang mondial, annonce son partenariat avec la société de gestion Tobam, basée à Paris. Ce nouveau partenariat permettra à FTSE de compléter sa gamme d’indices non capi-pondérés, afin d’élargir le choix des investisseurs. Tobam gère à ce jour près de 2 milliards de dollars, essentiellement pour de grands fonds de pension, dont CalPers, un des plus importants du monde.

Les prix à la production ont augmenté un peu plus que prévu en avril dans la zone euro, portés surtout par les prix de l'énergie, a annoncé Eurostat. Ces prix ont augmenté de 0,9% en avril, soit de 6,7% annuellement.

Brian White, l’un des co-fondateurs de la société de gestion britannique Berkeley Fund Managers et gérant de GHC Capital Markets, est décédé. Il avait plus de 30 ans d’expérience professionnelle en tant que gérant, ayant notamment été le mentor de professionnels renommés tels que Richard Philbin, Ian Rees et Scott Spencer.

Le britannique Bestinvest a ouvert des discussions avec plusieurs firmes de conseil à propos d'éventuelles opérations d’acquisition, rapporte MoneyMarketing.Bestinvest envisage de doubler ses actifs sous gestion, actuellement 4 milliards de livres, dans les cinq prochaines années. La croissance organique peut permettre d’atteindre cet objectif mais des acquisitions pourraient contribuer à une croissance beaucoup plus significative des encours, estime le patron de Bestinvest, Peter Hall.

Selon Money Marketing, Berry Asset Management, qui s’adresse en priorité à une clientèle très haut de gamme, a fait alliance avec Novia pour lancer cinq portefeuilles de référence gérés en fonction de leur niveau de risque. La gamme proposée, qui est alignée sur les outils de profilage de risque de Novia, comprend notamment des approches défensive, prudente, équilibrée, de croissance et agressive. Les portefeuilles, qui sont «rebalancés» chaque trimestre, sont chargés à 0,30% par an. L’investissement minimal a été fixé à 1.000 livres.

Le directeur des ventes et de la distribution d’Ignis Asset Management, Jonathan Polin, quitte la société, rapporte Money Marketing.Chez Ignis depuis sept ans, Jonathan Polin devrait partir fin juillet pour donner une nouvelle orientation à sa carrière.

Au premier trimestre 2011, un total de 500 nouveaux fonds ont été proposés à la vente en Europe, contre 716 fonds au quatrième trimestre 2010 et 762 fonds au premier trimestre 2010, selon les statistiques communiquées par Lipper. Sur ce total de 500, on compte 154 fonds actions, 101 fonds obligataires, 103 fonds diversifiés et une vingtaine de fonds monétaires.Le Luxembourg a été la place la plus active, avec le lancement de 140 fonds, devant la France (83) et l’Espagne (73). Sur un univers européen de 31.493 fonds primaires commercialisés à fin mars 2011, le Luxembourg en compte 8.100 environ, contre 4.795 pour la France.Du côté des liquidations et des fusions de fonds, l’activité est demeurée stable au premier trimestre, avec 425 fonds liquidés entre janvier et mars 2011 contre 420 liquidations au premier trimestre 2010 et 230 fusions de fonds contre 172 un an plus tôt.Avec 2.872 nouveaux fonds, l’année 2010 a été la moins prolifique en termes de lancements durant la période comprise entre 2006 et 2010. Les années les plus riches ont été 2007, avec 4.327 nouveaux produits, et 2008, avec 3.702 fonds.