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21/03/2011

Russell launches a new series of indices

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Russell Investments on 17 March announced the launch of a new range of indices, the Russell Global 3000 Index series, which includes 18 indices offering investors exposure to the Russell Global investible index universe, via the most liquid equities indices.
21/03/2011

London remains the world's top city for financial services

London, New York and Hong Kong have strengthen their positions as the world’s top three cities for banking and other financial services, according to the latest Global Financial Centres Index by Z/Yen group cited by the Financial Times. With 775 points, London retains its slight lead over the other two cities. Meanwhile, Paris lost eight points and fell to 20th place, and offshore centres such as Jersey and the Cayman Islands continued their slide.
21/03/2011

MLCI becomes the second counterparty for ETF Securities platform

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British asset management firm ETF Securities has announced that its ETC trading platform, ETFS Commodity Securities Limited (CSL), now has a second counterparty, in addition to UBS as its commodity contract counterparty: Merrill Lynch Commodities (MLCI), of the Bank of America Merrill Lynch group. The agreement will take effect on 13 April or later. Bank of America Corporation will guarantee all payment engagements of MLCI. The CSL platform currently lists 113 ETCs.
21/03/2011

Benjamin de Frouville joins M&G Investments France

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } M&G, the asset management affiliate of the Prudential group, on 18 March announced the arrival of Benjamin de Frouville as co-head of distribution in its Paris team. He joins the team dedicated to intermediated distribution (platforms, IFAs, etc), composed of Gilles Dreyfus and Agathe Proust. Before joining M&G Investments, Benjamin de Frouville, 31, worked in partner relationships at Keren Finance, from February 2008. M&G Investments, with assets under management in France of EUR1.5bn, would like to accelerate its development in the IFA market this year.
21/03/2011

John van Verre promoted to head of international custody at HSBC

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } John van Verre, head of HSS in Singapore from June 2010, and then managing director of HSS Ireland, has been appointed head of global custody at HSBC Securities Services (HSS). Before joining HSBC, he was chief commercial officer and member of the managing board at ABN Amro Mellon Global Securities Services.Van Verre will now be based in London, and will report to Drew Douglas, co-head of HSS.
21/03/2011

BC Partners buys Phones4U

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Investment funds from BC Partners have bought the Phones 4U company from the private equity firm Providence Equity Partners, for an undisclosed amount. Phones 4U is one of the largest independent mobile telephone retailers in the United Kingdom. In 2010, the business posted more than 20% growth to its sales, to GBP900m.
21/03/2011

Threadneedle registers a small caps fund in Spain

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The CNMV has issued a license for the UCITS-compliant long/short fund Threadneedle (Lux) European Smaller Companies Absolute Alpha fund (see Newsmanagers of 13 March) for sale in Spain. The absolute return product is focused on small caps; it is a UCITS III-compliant version of the Threadneedle European Smaller Companies Crescendo fund, managed by Philip Dicken and his team (which is being closed).
21/03/2011

Neuflize OBC Investissements releases two funds in Germany

The Paris-based firm Neuflize OBC Investissement (ABN Amro group), which has EUR22bn in assets under management, has released the NOBC Europe Convertible (FR0010281477) and NOBC Monde Convertible (FR001027315) funds, launched in 1997, which had assets as of the end of February of EUR305m and EUR228m, respectively, in Germany.The convertible bond funds have long been managed by Luc Varenne, and Basile Schlumberger, head of sales, tells Newsmanagers that the firm is planning to promote these French specialties to institutional investors and distributors in Germany.However, Neuflize OBC Investissements is not planning to offer its full range in Germany, nor is it planning to open an office in Germany, where the ABN Amro group already has an affiliate, the private bank Delbrück.
21/03/2011

CS Euroreal makes its fifth sale above book value

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The German open-ended real estate fund CS Euroreal (DE0009805002, EUR6.06bn in assets as of the end of February) has resold the property located at Pergolesi 25 in Milan (7,045 square metres), for a price higher than its most recent expert valuation (30 September 2010), at EUR21.87m. Karl-Heinz Heuß, CEO of Credit Suisse Asset Management Immobilien KAG and co-manager of the fund, says that this is the fifth sale above venal value since the freeze on redemptions nine months ago (see Newsmanagers of 21 May 2010). Between the acquisition of the property in December 1999 and its sale in March 2011, the property has risen in value by about 34.5%. CSAM is negotiating sales of other properties, with the aim of bringing in enough liquidity to be able to sustainably reopen the fund to redemptions as soon as possible. After this most recent transaction, the portfolio still includes 109 properties, most of them recent, in eleven European countries. Office and commercial properties represent 58% and 32% of the portfolio, respectively.
21/03/2011

db x-trackers launches two ETF funds aimed at charities

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 18 March, two new Irish-registered ETFs from db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank group) were admitted to trading on the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic trading platform (Deutsche Börse), bringing the total number of products listed on the platform to 803. Both of them are multi-asset class ETF funds (equities, bonds, commodities and alternative investments) which invest in ETFs from db x-trackers. They aim to satisfy the investment needs of small and mid-sized charities, says Michael Fuß, head of institutional distribution at DB Advisors, another Deutsche Bank affiliate. The basic ETF selection is undertaken by specialists from the investment solutions & analytics division of DB Advisors.The first of the two products, db x-trackers Stiftungs-ETF Stabilität (IE00B4WRDS59), is a prudent product, with 75% to 100% exposure to bonds, but which may also invest up to 20% in equities ETFs and up to 15% in commodities or currencies ETFs. It is aimed at charities which prefer capital protection and regular revenues.The second fund, db x-trackers Stiftungs-ETF Wachstum (IE00B3Y8D011), is aimed at charities seeking attractive returns with limited risk. It will invest 60% to 95% of its assets in bond ETFs, and up to 30% in equities ETFs. Allocation to commodities ETFs and alternative strategies may not exceed 10% in each case.Each of both products will have a total expense ratio of 0.75%, and distribute dividends half-yearly.
21/03/2011

UIRE plays Japanese alibi

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Union Investment Real Estate (UIRE) has frozen subscriptions and redemptions for its open-ended real estate fund UniImmo: Global, on the grounds that 14% of the properties in the portfolio of the fund are in Japan, and cannot now be valued. The move surprised and irritated the industry, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports, pointing out that the closure should be viewed in context: the net asset value of the fund was lowered in February by 4.5%, which triggered net outflows, bringing assets in the fund down to EUR2bn from EUR2.3bn at the end of January.Some managers estimate that UIRE must have been anticipating a closure due to these high levels of redemptions, in order to avoid a further deterioration in the fund’s liquidity levels.
21/03/2011

Madoff: trustee takes aim at Mets assets

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Negotiations towards an out-of-court settlement have collapsed, and Irving Picard, the legally-appointed trustee for the business interests of Bernard Madoff, on Friday released further details of accusations against Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, the largest shareholders in the New York Mets baseball team. The Wall Street Journal reports that Picard claims the men must have known for years that Madoff’s activities were fraudulent. In addition, he accuses them of subsequently carrying out a plan to put their assets out of reach of confiscation once the fraud was discovered.
21/03/2011

Galleon trial: former McKinsey head sues SEC

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Two weeks after the opening of the Galleon trial, the former director of McKinsey and former director of Goldman Sachs, Rajat Gupta, who is accused of feeding insider information to the founder of Galleon, on 18 March filed a lawsuit against the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), Les Echos reports. Gupta denies the charges filed against him by the SEC on 1 March, and accuses the regulator of seeking to deprive him of his right to defence by filing the case as a civil suit.
21/03/2011

Euro zone mutual funds: assets down by EUR10bn in January

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In January 2011, shares in non-money market mutual funds in the euro zone totalled EUR5.734trn, EUR10bn lower than their levels in December 2010, according to statistics released on 18 March by the European Central Bank (ECB). The decline is due to a fall in the value of shares, which was partly offset by net issues. Net subscriptions to non-money market mutual fund shares in the euro zone totalled EUR17bn as of January 2011, while money market mutual funds saw redemptions of EUR9bn. In terms of ventilation by investment strategy, the annual pace of growth in shares issued by bond funds totalled 7.7% in January 2011. Net subscriptions to shares issued by funds were close to zero in January 2011. For equities funds, the annual growth rate came to 2.9%, and net subscriptions totalled EUR9bn. For mixed funds, the figures are 5.5% and EUR6bn, respectively.
21/03/2011

Fortress launches an Asia macro fund

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The alternative management heavyweight Fortress Investment Group last week launched an Asian macro strategy, the Fortress Asia Macro Fund, Hedgeweek reports. The Fortress macro strategy last year gained 10.7%. According to a recent study by Deutsche Bank, international macro funds will be among the most popular products in 2011, with a marked interest in Asia and its currencies.
21/03/2011

WisdomTree launches an Asia ETF

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 17 March, the New York-based management firm WisdomTree launched an actively-managed local currencies Asian bond fund, the Wisdom Tree Asia Local Debt Fund (ALD). The product, which charges fees of 0.55%, is managed by David Kwan and Mears O’Connor, managing directors at Mellon Capital, sub-advisor for the fund. The new ETF already has assets of USD145m. It invests in Asian debt, but not in Japanese bonds. WisdomTree Investments currently manages about USD10.1bn in ETFs.
21/03/2011

Christian Bito and Vladimir Danesi soon to launch four global funds

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 1 April, CBT Gestion (EUR34m in total assets), the company launched by Christian Bito and Vladimir Danesi, will extend its product range, founded on 5 November with the launch of the French-registered FCP fund CBT Action Eurovol 20 (see Newsmanagers of 8 November 2010), with the addition of CBT vol 5, CBT vol 7.5, CBT vol 15 and CBT vol 25 funds. The corresponding licenses frm the AMF were issued on 18 March.The funds of funds will be among the first licensed in Paris for which volatility control is built into their management objectives, at respective levels of 5%, 7.5%, 15% and 25% of the AMF prospectus.For the new products, the investment universe is extended to all global markets, and limited range from 0% to 100%, maximum 60% for the most moderate management, of the CBT vol 5 fund), while the Eurovol 20 focused on Europe and had exposure to euro equities limited to 60%.
21/03/2011

CTA and convertibles arbitrage did well in February, according to Edhec

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Of the 13 hedge fund strategies monitored by Edhec-Risk, only two showed losses for February: dedicated short bias (-3.22%) and emerging markets (-0.45%). However, rises for commodities and a falling US dollar boosted CTA, where monthly returns total 1.72%, while the good performance of convertible bonds compensated for negative exposure to equities markets for funds specialised in convertibles arbitrage, which led to average gains of 1.66% in February. Since the beginning of the year, convertibles arbitrage has earned the highest returns (3.5%), followed by distressed securities, which earned 3.3%, while losses were limited to emerging markets (-1.1%) and dedicated short bias (-4%). The highest annual returns since January 2001 are for emerging markets (12.1%) and distressed securities (11.5%). The highest annual tracking errors since January 2011, by far, are for dedicated short bias (13.9%) and emerging markets (10.5%). The only strategy with a Sharpe ratio of over 1 is distressed securities, at 1.23. At the other end of the spectrum, dedicated short bias is the only strategy to produce a negative Sharpe ratio, of -0.29%.
21/03/2011

39 milliards de dollars pour T-Mobile USA

Deutsche Telekom met un terme à son aventure américaine après une décennie de difficultés, permettant à AT&T de faire un pas de géant dans la téléphonie mobile.
21/03/2011

IPO majeure d’un fonds immobilier à Hong Kong

Cheung Kong Holdings entend bien récolter 1,5 milliard de dollars à l’occasion de l’introduction en Bourse d’un fonds immobilier (REIT, real estate investment trust) libellé en yuans. Une opération prévue à Hong Kong, avance le South China Morning Post, qui cite le directeur général adjoint du groupe, Kam Hing-Lam.

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