Le groupe horloger suisse Franck Muller, qui s’est séparé de plus de la moitié de ses effectifs lors du ralentissement économique en 2008, a décidé de se lancer dans une activité de gestion de fortune avec la création de Genthod Global Wealth Management (Geneva). La nouvelle entité a élu domicile au siège de Franck Muller, selon L’Agefi suisse qui reprend une information du magazine Bilan.

Atteint par la limite d'âge, Yves Burrus, à l’origine de la fondation d’Hyposwiss Private Bank Genève, va se retirer de son conseil d’administration après y avoir siégé douze ans. Declan Mc Adams, qui dirige Hyposwiss Private Bank à Genève depuis 2002 lui succédera, indique un communiqué.

Aux Etats-Unis, la collecte nette des mutual funds à long terme (hors fonds monétaires) s’est ralentie à 27 milliards de dollars en mars contre 27,9 milliards de dollars en février, selon les dernières statistiques communiquées par Morningstar. Une évolution due pour l’essentiel à la décollecte de 934 millions de dollars observée en mars sur les actions américaines qui avaient drainé un peu plus de 26 milliards de dollars au cours des deux mois précédents. Sur les trois premiers mois de l’année, les mutual funds ont ainsi enregistré une collecte nette de 85,31 milliards de dollars.A noter que l’hémorragie sur les fonds d’obligations municipales s’est poursuivie en mars, avec une décollecte nette d’un peu moins de 2,6 milliards de dollars. Au cours des cinq derniers mois, quelque 40,4 milliards de dollars ont déserté la classe d’actifs. Les fonds monétaires ont perdu 12,5 milliards de dollars en mars après avoir drainé 16,7 milliards de dollars en février. Sur trois mois, la décollecte atteint 71,07 milliards de dollars.Parallèlement, la collecte des ETF américains s’est élevée à 7,4 milliards en mars après 6,6 milliards en février, cela malgré une décollecte de 3,3 milliards de dollars sur les ETF dédiés aux actions américaines. Depuis le début de l’année, la collecte des ETF s'élève à 28 milliards de dollars.

Les actifs sous gestion de JP Morgan Chase se sont inscrits à 1.300 milliards de dollars au premier trimestre 2011, en progression de 9% par rapport aux trois premiers mois de l’année précédente. Les actifs sous supervision se sont accrus de 12% à 1.900 milliards de dollars durant la même période.Outre l’effet marché, JP Morgan Chase indique avoir enregistré une collecte nette record de 27 milliards de dollars sur les produits long terme. Compte tenu d’une décollecte nette de 9 milliards de dollars sur les produits cash, la collecte nette du trimestre s’est inscrite à 18 milliards de dollars.Le bénéfice net du groupe a fait un bond de 67% au premier trimestre à 5,56 milliards de dollars, soit un bénéfice par action de 1,28 dollar, supérieur au consensus de 1,16 dollar.

Avoca Capital Holdings, société spécialisée dans le crédit européen gérant 6 milliards d’euros, vient de reprendre l’équipe crédit de Liontrust, composée de cinq membres et dirigée par Simon Thorp, ce qui lui permet d’élargir son offre - jusqu’ici long-only - aux hedge funds.Parallèlement, la société de gestion basée à Londres et Dublin a passé un accord avec Liontrust pour lui racheter les contrats de gestion des deux hedge funds crédit de l’équipe en question, qui représentaient un encours d’environ 100 millions de dollars au 31 mars 2011. D’après la presse britannique, le montant de l’opération serait de 3,2 millions de livres. Pour la petite histoire, Simon Thorp avait lancé son premier hedge fund crédit en 2000 par le biais de sa société de gestion Ilex Asset Management. La quasi-totalité de la structure, dont le hedge fund, a ensuite été acquise par Liontrust en 2009. Après quoi, un hedge fund Ucits a été lancé par l’équipe en 2010. L’équipe de Liontrust qui va rejoindre le bureau londonien d’Avoca se compose aussi de James Sclater, gérant de portefeuilles senior, qui avait rejoint Ilex en 2002, des analystes senior Paul Owens et Quentin Peacock, ainsi que du gestionnaire des opérations Gareth Roblin.

Le gérant obligataire Stephen Snowden, qui a récemment quitté Old Mutual Asset Managers pour retourner chez Aegon Asset Management, se voit confier chez ce dernier deux fonds en co-gestion avec Euan McNeil. Il remplacera le co-head of fixed income David Roberts en tant que co-gérant des fonds Aegon Investment Grade Bond et Investment Grade Global Bond, ce dernier étant domicilié à Dublin. De son côté, David Roberts demeure gérant des fonds Aegon Strategic Bond, Aegon Strategic Global Bond et Aegon Sterling Corporate Bond, précise un communiqué.

Old Mutual Asset Managers (OMAM) vient de recruter Jenny Segal en tant que responsable de l’activité institutionnelle, selon IPE.com. Elle dirigera les équipes ventes institutionnelles et le service clientèle, couvrant les fonds actions, obligations et alternatifs de la société au Royaume-Uni et à l’international. Elle était précédemment vice-president senior en charge de l’institutionnel chez AllianceBernstein.

Schroders vient de recruter Michelle Inskip pour le poste nouvellement créé de manager en charge des relations avec les consultants. Elle sera à ce titre responsable du développement et de la gestion des relations avec les consultants au Royaume-Uni et en Irlande. L’intéressée vient d’Insight Investment, où elle était directeur dans l’équipe en charge des relations avec les consultants. Deux autres recrues viennent enrichir l’équipe dédiée aux consultants. Ainsi, Ros Keenan, qui vient de Bluecrest Capital Management, et Maria Solechnik, d’UBS Global Asset Management, arrivent chez Schroders. Ils seront chargés des fonctions support.

Société Générale souhaite se renforcer en Asie auprès des investisseurs institutionnels, rapporte Asian Investor. Pour y arriver, la banque française va mettre l’accent, à travers sa filiale Lyxor Asset Management, sur la distribution d’ETF auprès de cette clientèle. Pour soutenir son développement, Lyxor a d’ailleurs récemment recruté Herman Chen au poste de head of ETF distribution pour la zone Asie Pacifique. L’intéressé était auparavant director of sales d’iShares pour l’Asie hors Japon, précise Asian Investor.

Stoxx Limited a annoncé le lancement de l’indice Stoxx 50 Equal Weight, construit selon les mêmes principes que l’indice Eurostoxx 50 mais proposant une équipondération des titres au sein de l’indice. Ce dernier, ainsi que le Stoxx 600 Equal Weight, serviront de référence à deux ETF d’Ossiam, filiale spécialisée de Natixis Global Asset Management.

Asian hedge funds based in Hong Kong and Singapore account for an increasing percentage of the global hedge fund industry, although New York and London, at 45% and 15% of assets under management, continue to dominate the market, an article on the Asian blog of the consulting and research firm Celent says. The development is the result of increasingly strict regulation of alternative management industries in western countries, who have driven older and newer actors to the point of cancelling their plans to open offices in New York or London, and to set up instead in Asia, largely in Hong Kong and Singapore. In addition to less rigorous regulations, Hong Kong and Singapore also stand out for lower tax rates, proximity to Asian investors, whose appetite for risk will increase, and a highly favourable economic environment, with strong potential for growth in countries in the region (India and China). In the past twelve months, many hedge funds have debuted on the Hong Kong and Singapore markets. Hong Kong, which is still ahead of Singapore, is currently the largest Asian centre for hedge funds, but Singapore is catching up fairly quickly. Assets under management are now well over USD60bn in Hong Kong, and are under USD50bn in Singapore. In the two countries, the sector is concentrated on a few major actors. In Hong Kong, 20 funds represent 50% of assets under management, while in Singapore, the seven largest firms account for 20% of assets. Singapore attracts smaller funds (up to USD50m), as funds with less than USD183m in assets don’t need a license, while Hong Kong attracts larger funds (Usd100m to USD500m).

After several reclassifications of countries in 2010, Coface on 13 April announced 10 downward revisions of country ratings, including Japan and several countries of the Middle East and North Africa. Due to the series of disasters in Japan, Coface has set the country’s A1 rating under watch with negative implications. Japanese growth for 2011 has been revised downward, from 1.5% to 0.3%, following a rebound of 3.9% in 2010. Coface has also revised its outlooks for global growth down from 3.4% to 3.2% this year, largely due to the events in Japan, North Africa and the Middle East. Despite the expected slowdown in growth, the economic environment continues to be promising. “After a year of marked convalescence, we are now seeing an increase in global risk due to political events and natural disasters in first quarter. The economic slowdown will also affect emerging countries. The recovery will continue, but at a more moderate pace,” says Yves Zlotowski, chief economist at Coface. Though at this stage it is difficult to determine the impact of the Japanese disasters on the global economy, Coface is predicting repercussions for the global production chain, in which Japan is a key player, particularly in the automotive and electronic sectors. The euro zone, which is severely affected by the sovereign debt crisis, will grow by 1.3%, compared with 1.8% in 2010. Most European countries will see no change to their ratings, except Portugal (downgraded to A4) and Cyprus, which is heavily exposed to Greek debt (downgrade to A3). Portugal, which is in the midst of a political crisis and has recently called for financial assistance from the European Union, will remain in recession this year (-1.3%). Portuguese entrepreneurs, who have a low rate of self-financing, will continue to have difficulties with access to credit.

Old Mutual Asset Managers (OMAM) has recruited Jenny Segal as head of institutional activities, IPE.com reports. She will direct institutional sales and client service teams, covering equities, bond and alternative funds from the firm in the United Kingdom and other countries. She was previously senior vice president in charge of institutional assets at AllianceBernstein.

According to a survey sponsored by Axa Investment Managers (Axa IM), four fifths of Swiss citizens surveyed, and the majority of those who invest in funds, pick emerging markets when asked to name markets which are expected to grow most in the next 3 to 5 years, Agefi Switzerland repoorts. But less than one fifth of them are invested in these markets. On the other hand, more than two thirds of Swiss perple surveyed are invested in European funds, though only one fifth consider these the most promising markets in the next three to five years. Of these same investors, more than two thirds of whom (69%) are invested in equity funds, only slightly over one third consider this class of funds the most likely to perform well in the future. These paradoxes are a sign of the distance to be covered still in improving public understanding of investment funds. The Axa IM knowledge index shows no improvement, however, in the general level of knowledge among the population.

The Switch watchmaking group Franck Muller, which laid off more than half of its staff during the recession in 2008, has decided to launch a wealth management business, with the creation of Genthod Global Wealth Management (Geneva). The new entity has registered its headquarters as the offices of Franck Muller, Agefi Switzerland reports, citing information in the newsmagazine Bilan.

The global environmental stock market BlueNext on 13 April announced that it has created a protected “Safe Zone” for verified quotas, as an addition to its security apparatus. Only quotas whose chain of shares can be followed back to the source will be eligible. The system, which will aim to prevent fraud and restore market confidence, will be in effect from 3 May.

In a statement published on 13 April in response to the publication of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) on ETFs (see Newsmanagers of 13 April), iShares announces that it agrees with the point of view of the authors, who estimate that some recent developments in the ETF sector would merit particular attention. iShares welcomes the Board’s call for increased clarity, particularly for regulations relative to collateralisation and securities lending programs.

Stoxx Limited has announced the launch of the Stoxx 50 Equal Weight index, which is constructed according to the same principles as the Eurostoxx 50 index, but which weights the shares in the index equally. The index, along with the Stoxx 600 Equal Weight, will be used as benchmarks for two ETFs from Ossiam, a specialised affiliate of Natixis Global Asset Management.

In the United States, net inflows to long-term mutual funds (excluding money markets) slowed to USD27bn in March, compared with USD27.9bn in February, according to the most recent statistics from Morningstar. This development is largely due to outflows of USD934m from US equities, which had attracted slightly over USD26bn in the previous two months. In the first three months of the year, mutual funds posted a net inflows of USD85.31bn. Outflows from municipal bond funds continued in March, with net outflows of slightly under USD2.6bn. In the past five months, about USD40.4bn left the asset class. Money market funds lost USD12.5bn in March, after attracting USD16.7bn in February. Over three months, outflows total USD71.07bn. Meanwhile, inflows to US ETF funds totalled USD7.4bn in March, following USD6.6bn in February, despite outflows of USD3.3bn from ETFs dedicated to US equities. Since the beginning of the year, inflows to ETF funds total USD28bn.

The French asset management firm Schelcher Prince, which is specialised in credit and convertibles, and in which Federal Finance controls a 34% stake, on Friday is launching the Schelcher Prince Opportunité Européenne fund, an FCP based on the theme of Euro zone high risk government debt. In reality, government debt from European countries with debatable ratings will of themselves account for only a small part of the portfolio. The manager, Fabien Labrousse, will invest primarily in financial sector securities, from banks, public and semi-public businesses in these countries, which are currently at attractive valuations. The lion’s share will be invested in covered bonds, on which Schelcher Prince is positive. The management firm says that these securities will be treated like their issuing bank, despite their favourable rating and guarantee. Schelcher prince is predicting returns for the fund of over 7% per year over five years, or more if calm returns to European sovereign risk markets. This is what the management firm is predicting in the next two to three years, confident that the euro will survive and that recovery plans in Spain, Portugal and Ireland will be successful. The fund will be launched with EUR25m in assets, but may quickly grow to EUR40-50m. In total, Schelcher Prince manages about EUR2bn, after inflows of EUR200m since the beginning of the year.

Joseph F. “Chip” Skowron III, a former hedge fund manager at FrontPoint Partners, has been accused of insider trading, the Wall Street Journal reports. He is said to have instructed his team to sell shares in a biotech firm for millions of dollars three years ago, after a French doctor gave him information about a medicine from the firm. The information is said to have helped the firm to avoid losses of USD30m. The manager is said to have then thanked the doctor with a cash payment and a stay in a hotel.

The US bank Citigroup will be required to pay a record USD54.1m to a small group of investors who accuse the bank of deceiving them about the quality of toxic loans from local municipal authorities, Agefi Switzerland reports. In a verdict from its arbitrators, one of the US financial regulatory bodies, Finra, has found that Citigroup must reimburse a 52-year-old investor, Jerry Murdock, and a 69-year-old retired lawyer, Gerald Hosier, USD3.9m and USD21.7m, respectively. The bank will also be required to pay USD8.5m to an investment fund, Brush Creek Capital.

The bond manager Stephen Snowden, who recently left Old Mutual Asset Manager to return to Aegon Asset Management, has been appointed by the firm as co-manager of two funds with Euan McNeil. He will replace David Roberts, co-head of fixed income, as co-manager of the Aegon Investment Grade Bond, Aegon Strategic Global Bond and Aegon Sterling Corporate Bond funds, a statement says.

Assets under management at JP Morgan Chase totalled USD1.3trn in first quarter 2011, up 9% compared with the first three months of the previous year. Assets under supervision increased by 12% to USD1.9trn in the same period. In addition to market effects, JP Morgan Chase says that it has posted a record net inflow of USD27bn to long-term products. Due to a net outflow of Usd9bn from cash products, net inflows in the quarter totalled USD18bn. Net profits for the group rose 67% in first quarter, to USD5.56bn, for a profit per share of USD1.28, higher than the consensus of USD1.16.

Schroders has appointed Michelle Inskip in the newly created role of consultant relations manager. She will be responsible for the development and management of Schroders consultant relationships within the UK and Ireland. Michelle Inskip joins from Insight Investment, where she was a director within the consultant relations team. Also joining the team are Ros Keenan who joins from Bluecrest Capital Management and Maria Solechnik who will be joining from UBS Global Asset Management next month. Both will support ongoing relationships.

Avoca Capital Holdings, a European credit investment manager with EUR6bn assets under management, is hiring the five person credit team from Liontrust, led by fund manager Simon Thorp. It is thus broadening its capabilities beyond long-only funds to provide clients with a hedge fund offering in European credit.Avoca has also reached an agreement with Liontrust to purchase the management contracts behind the team’s two existing credit hedge funds. The two funds had assets under management of approximately USD 100m at 31 March 2011.Simon Thorp had launched his first credit hedge fund in 2000 under the management of his firm Ilex Asset Management. Substantially all of the Ilex business, including the management of the hedge fund, was acquired by Liontrust in 2009. A UCITS Hedge Fund was also launched by the team at Liontrust in 2010. The team is also made up of James Sclater, senior portfolio manager, who joined Ilex in 2002. Also joining Avoca from Liontrust are senior analysts Paul Owens, Quentin Peacock and operations manager, Gareth Roblin. All five will be based in Avoca’s London office.

Le leader de l’opposition sociale démocrate portugaise (PSD) a indiqué que son parti était prêt à apporter toute l’aide nécessaire au gouvernement intérimaire pour garantir le déblocage de l’aide de l’Union européenne et du FMI destinée au pays. Des responsables de l’Union ont plaidé pour un accord multipartite sur les modalités du plan de sauvetage, puisqu’un nouveau gouvernement sera chargé de l’appliquer après les élections anticipées du 5 juin.

Le gouvernement suédois anticipe un taux de croissance de 3,8% en 2012 et 3,6% en 2013, comparé à des estimations antérieures respectives de 3,5% et 3,2%, selon le projet de loi fiscale présenté mercredi. Stockholm s’attend par ailleurs à un élargissement de l’excédent budgétaire au cours des quatre prochaines années alors que le chômage reflue.

Après de nombreux reclassements de pays en 2010, Coface a procédé hier à 10 révisions de notes pays à la baisse dont le Japon et plusieurs pays de la zone Moyen-Orient / Afrique du Nord. L’assureur crédit revoit à la baisse sa prévision de croissance mondiale de 3,4% à 3,2% cette année, notamment en raison des événements survenus au Japon, au Maghreb et au Moyen-Orient.

L’Irlande et ses créanciers réviseront cette semaine les modalités de l’accord portant sur le prêt de 85 milliards d’euros consenti au pays, a annoncé hier le premier ministre irlandais Enda Kenny. Des responsables de l’Union européenne, du FMI et de la BCE sont à Dublin pour revoir les objectifs budgétaires et bancaires qui conditionnent l’aide financière et pour évaluer le projet de budget du nouveau gouvernement.