Pour 2010, ABC Arbitrage a déclaré le 14 mars un bénéfice net part du groupe de 29 millions d’euros contre 30,4 millions, un résultat méritoire compte tenu de la baisse à la fois de la volatilité sur les marchés et des volumes, comme le souligne le président du conseil d’administration, Dominique Ceolin. Cette performance est attribuable en partie à l’augmentation à 37 % contre 85- 90 % traditionnellement de la part des arbitrages avec risques exogènes au total des opérations.La gestion pour le compte de tiers (GCT) a dégagé un revenu de 1,2 million d’euros l’an dernier contre moins de 0,2 million en 2009. Le fonds ABCA Opportunities (fusions-acquisitions), qui a été lancé en 2007 et qui a été mis en sommeil durant la crise, a généré une performance de 5,02 % sur un an et son encours représente 32 millions d’euros, dont 18 millions d’amorçage. Sa capacité est estimée à 150 millions d’euros. Le fonds ABCA Reversion (arbitrage statistique), lancé en mai 2010, a signé une performance de 16,54 % sur 8 mois (dans un marché en baisse de 3 %), et son encours ressort à 30 millions d’euros, dont 14 millions d’amorçage. La capacité est estimée à 300 millions d’euros.Dominique Ceolin a annoncé qu’ABC Arbitrage compte générer cette année 100 millions d’euros de recettes complémentaires et développer sa «GCT» en lançant trois nouveaux fonds. Les deux premiers seront probablement des produits de droit irlandais d’arbitrage statistique, l’un sur les actions, l’autre sur les devises. Le dernière fonds, qui pourrait être de droit français, serait un produit multistratégies qui couvrirait l’ensemble des savoir-faire de la gamme existante.La clientèle traditionnelle des produits ABC Arbitrage est plutôt constituée d’investisseurs institutionnels et de fonds de fonds. Mais, de plus en plus, indique Dominique Ceolin, on constate une demande de la part des family offices ainsi que des institutions de retraite.

Les deux fonds de fonds alternatifs Opportunity et Serenity gelés en novembre 2010 ont repris leur cotation le 10 mars, rapporte les Echos. Harewood AM, une filiale de BNP Paribas, va désormais gérer ces fonds. La reprise de cotation, ainsi que le transfert de leur gestion à Harewood AM, doit être annoncée officiellement ce matin par BNP Paribas. L’annonce sera faite à l’occasion de l’opération de rapprochement de Harewood AM avec le pôle de gestion Sigma de BNP Paribas Asset Management. Selon des documents internes que «Les Echos» se sont procurés, les fonds concernés, Serenity et Opportunity, ont repris leur cotation avec des délais de remboursement raccourcis.

LaSalle Investment Management, qui gère 40 milliards de dollars, va créer une activité de dérivés immobiliers pour ses clients fonds de pension, rapporte IPE.com. Il s’agira d’une joint venture avec la société de courtage BGC Partners.

En janvier, les investisseurs des pays nordiques – Suède, Danemark, Norvège et Finlande – ont investi un total de 4,1 milliards d’euros dans les fonds européens, selon les dernières statistiques de Lipper. La Norvège est arrivée en tête avec 1,9 milliard d’euros, devant le Danemark (1 milliard), la Suède (687,6 millions) et la Finlande (472 millions). Un dynamisme qui contraste par rapport aux autres pays européens et qui a permis de doper la collecte. Au total, les souscriptions nettes en Europe ont été de 23,1 milliards d’euros en janvier, hors fonds monétaires. En incluant les rachats nets de 2,5 milliards de ces derniers, les entrées se sont limitées à 13,5 milliards d’euros.Les souscriptions au fonds actions ont baissé à 15,2 milliards d’euros en janvier, contre 20,9 milliards en décembre, tandis que les fonds obligataires ont encore vu sortir 2,1 milliards d’euros, ce qui est moins que les 6,6 milliards de décembre.Lipper souligne le succès des fonds à rendement absolu en ce début d’année 2011. Ainsi, les fonds d’allocation d’actifs ont engrangé 2,9 milliards d’euros en net. Dans ce contexte, Lipper prédit une multiplication de ces produits cette année.En termes de sociétés, Franklin Templeton a enregistré le plus de souscriptions nettes à 2,6 milliards d’euros (hors fonds monétaires), devant BlackRock (2,4 milliards) et UBS (1,9 milliard). Alors que le succès de Franklin a été alimenté par l’appétit pour sa gamme obligataire, la collecte des deux autres s’est surtout faite sur des fonds actions. Hors ETF, c’est UBS qui a été la société de gestion qui a enregistré les plus fortes souscriptions actions en janvier.

Le groupe britannique HSBC a lancé une offre de services d’administration à l’intention des gérants de fonds islamiques afin de renforcer sa part du marché des fonds conformes à la charia, un marché de 50 à 60 milliards de dollars qui n’a enregistré qu’une croissance minimale depuis 2009.HSBC Amanah Securities Services propose des services d’administration et de comptabilité, de conservation, d’agent de transfert et de trésorerie sur 17 marchés au Moyen Orient, dans la zone asie-Pacifique, en Europe et sur le continent américain. Selon la Banque asiatique de développement, le secteur de la finance islamique s'élève à environ 1.000 milliards de dollars mais le marché des fonds islamiques ne représente que 5% environ de ce chiffre, selon le rapport 2010 d’Ernst & Young, Islamic Funds and Investments.

L’indice général BarclayHedge des hedge funds portant sur les résultats de 1.680 fonds publiés au 14 mars fait ressortir une performance moyenne de 1,17 % pour février, ce qui porte le total depuis le début de l’année à 1,63 %.Deux stratégies ont accusé des pertes le mois dernier, les marchés émergents (246 fonds), avec 0,94 % et surtout l’equity short bias (7 fonds), avec 2,91 %. En revanche l’equity long bias a gagné 2,74 % et les technologiques (24 fonds) 2,07 %.Sur le premier bimestre de l’année, les technologiques et le distressed securitites (26 fonds) affichent des gains respectifs de 4,29 % et 4,03 %. A l’autre extrémité du spectre, l’equity short bias et les marchés émergents perdent respectivement 3,61 % et 1,48 % sur janvier-février.

The movement of Nordic investors’ money into mutual funds outpaced most other European markets in January, totalling EUR4.1bn, and really caught the eye while those in most other markets were far more cautious, Lipper FMI wrote in its latest Fund Flash.European inflows hit EUR23.1bn in January (excluding money market funds), rising for the second month in a row. With money market activity included, total industry sales rose from -EUR2.5bn (a net outflow) to EUR13.5bn.Net sales for equity funds dropped to EUR15.2bn in January (EUR20.9bn last month), while redemptions from bond funds improved to -EUR2.1bn (up from -EUR6.6bn).Absolute return funds enjoyed a healthy start to 2011 with asset allocation funds seeing net sales of EUR2.9bn, Lipper underlines. There are likely to be a lot more of these products being launched this year.Franklin Templeton attracted the greatest inflows this month (EUR2.6bn excluding money market funds), ahead of BlackRock (EUR2.4bn) and UBS (EUR1.9bn) in second and third.While Templeton’s success is still dominated by appetite for its bond range, flows into the latter two came primarily into their equity products. Interestingly, when ETF activity is stripped out, UBS was the best-selling equity fund manager this month, Lipper adds.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Hedgeweek reports that Credit Suisse is planning to outsource administration of its funds of funds domiciled in Guernsey. The transfer will be completed in the next six months, but Credit Suisse did not disclose the name of the provider, or the amount of assets concerned.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The composite BarclayHedge index of hedge funds, including results for 1,680 funds which had published results as of 14 March, shows average returns of 1.17% for February, which brings the total since the beginning of the year to 1.63%.Two strategies saw losses last month: emerging markets (246 funds), at 0.94%, and equity short bias (7 funds), with 2.91%. However, equity long bias gained 2.74%, and technologies (24 funds) made 2.07%.In the first two months of the year, technologies and distressed securities (26 funds) posted respective gains of 4.29% and 4.03%. At the other end of the spectrum, equity short bias and emerging markets lost 3.61% and 1.48%, respectively, in January-February.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British HSBC group has launched a range of administration services for Islamic fund managers, in order to strengthen its market share in Sharia-compliant funds, a market worth USD50bn to USD60bn, which has grown only minimally since 2009.HSBC Amanah Services offers administration and accounting, custody, transfer agency and treasury services on 17 markets in the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the Americas.According to the Asian Development Bank, the Islamic finance sector now total about USD1trn, but the Islamic fund market represents only about 5% of this total, according to a 2010 Ernst & Young report entitled “Islamic Funds and Investments.”

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Pimco has decided to cut supervision and administration fees for 18 of its funds, including the flagship Total Return Fund. Fees will be cut by 5 to 15 basis points from 1 May.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The two funds of hedge funds Opportunity and Security, frozen in November 2010, returned to trading on 10 March, Les Echos reports. Harewood AM, an affiliate of BNP Paribas, will now manage the funds. The return to trading, as well as the transfer of the management of the funds to Harewood AM, will officially be announced by BNP Paribas this morning. The announcement will be made at the occasion of the merger of Harewood AM with the Sigma management unit of BNP Paribas Asset Management. According to internal documents obtained by Les Echos, the funds concerned, Serenity and Opportunity, have returned to trading with shorter redemption notices.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Deutsche Bank on 14 March announced that it has sold its twin office towers to a closed real estate investment fund from DWS. The German bank has reportedly been planning to sell its headquarters for several months (Newsmanagers of 6 December 2010). The sale price is expected to total about EUR600m, Deutsche Bank says in a statement.From mid-May, the DWS fund will be available exclusively to private investors at Deutsche Bank. The properties will continue to operate as the headquarters of the bank, which would like to remain the long-term tenant. The towers, which were already owned by a closed fund from 1984 to 2007, were bought back by Deutsche Bank for the purposes of renovation, including bringing the building into compliance with the most recent ecological standards, such as German DGNB certification.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } ABC Arbitrage announced net profits for the part of the group in 2010 of EUR29bn, compared with EUR30.4m, a good result in light of the decline both of volatility on markets, and volumes, the chairman of the board, Dominique Ceolin, has announced. The performance is partly due to an increase to 37%, compared with a traditional level of 85-90%, of the proportion of trades with exogenous risks as a proportion of total operations.Asset management on behalf of third parties (GCT) earned returns of EUR1.2m last year, compared with less than EUR0.2m in 2009. The ABCA Opportunities fund (mergers and acquisitions), launched in 2007, which was put in hibernation during the crisis, generated returns of 5.02% on one year, and its assets represent EUR32m, of which EUR18m are seed capital. Its capacity is estimated at EUR150m. The ABCA Reversion fund (statistical arbitrage), launched in May 2010, turned in performance of 16.54% over 8 months (in a market down 3%), and its assets total EUR30m, of which EUR14m are seed capital. Capacity is estimated at EUR300m.Ceolin has announced that ABC Arbitrage is planning to develop its third-party asset management with the launch of three new funds. The fist two will probably be Irish statistical arbitrage products, one focused on equities, and the other on currencies. The last fund, which may be a French-registered fund, would be a multi-strategies product which would cover all the expertise in the existing range.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Mark Fetting, chairman and CEO of Legg Mason, estimates that the asset management firm he heads has recovered, and is now in good shape to seek acquisitions in Europe, with the objective of eventually achieving a 50/50 distribution of assets between the United States and other countries, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. However, Fetting says, potential acquisitions should be of a smaller size, so as not to transform the group, and Legg Mason is not giving up on organic growth.Potential acquisitions are expected to concern managers focused on international equities. Legg Mason is also planning to build a presence in international real estate, commodities, and private equity.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Two members of the team at Lazard Frères Gestion have been appointed as partners at Lazard, a statement says.They are Jean-Jacques de Gournay, head of relationships with institutional investors, distributors and independent financial advisers (IFAs), who has been a managing partner at Lazard Frères Gestion since 2007, and Matthieu Grouès, head of collective and institutional asset management at Lazard Frères Gestion since 2009.They join the current partners François-Marc Durand, head of asset management activities in France, and François de Saint-Pierre, head of private management activities in France.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Californian pension fund CalPERS on 14 March announced that it has approved a new asset allocation model, which will offer three new investment portfolios for its retiree benefit trust, a fund created four years ago to provide advance financing for health spending of pensioners.The new portfolios will include inflation-linked and commodity-linked bonds, as well as international equities and real estate.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Following a report which appeared on 11 March on Citywire, announcing the departure of Frédéric Motte and Jérôme Archambeaud from the asset management firm SPGP, Xavier Roulet, chairman and CEO of the firm, has confirmed to Newsmanagers that the two managers of Focus Europa, one of the flagship funds of the range, submitted their resignations on 1 February. The news reports in the press have accelerated events, and the two managers were yesterday, 14 March, instructed to leave before the end of their notice periods. Institutional and retail clients are invested in the fund. In practice, the management of Focus Europa, composed of European large caps, will be taken over by Marie-Jeanne Missoffe, who already manages another European fund from the firm, investing in small and midcaps. The new manager of the fund is there to stay, says Roulet, who adds that no recruitment is planned to replace the two outgoing managers. According to information received by Newsmanagers, Motte and Archambeaud are planning to found their own asset management firm, and have already submitted an application to the French regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF).

Skandia Investment Group (SIG) has handed a GBP21m mandate in its Skandia UK Best Ideas Fund to Peter Lees at F&C Investments. The addition of F&C Investments to the UK Best Ideas line-up sees Peter Lees taking over the mandate from Colin Mclean of SVM Asset Management. The latter will continue to manage a mandate for the UK Strategic Best Ideas fund. The other managers of the fund are: Richard Buxton of Schroders, Richard Packett of BlackRock, Audrey Ryan of Aegon, Jacob de Tusch-Lec of Artemis, and Dan Nickols of OMAM. They all have 18% of the fund, except for Dan Nickols who manages 10%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Investment Week reports that the British asset management firm Insynergy is planning to launch an income fund dedicated to emerging markets equities.The new fund, the Insynergy New World Equity Income fund, managed by a team at Kleinwort Benson Investors (KBI) led by Gareth Maher, will include 100 positions, and will aim for returns of 4.5%.The fund will be able to invest in emerging Asia, Latin America, emerging Europe and the North Africa/Middle East region.Last year, about 61% of Asian companies paid dividends, compared with 33% of emerging markets companies. Spike Hughes, CEO of Insynergy, says this means that dividends from emerging markets firms have a much greater chance of increasing than others.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Investing in hedge funds via funds of hedge funds reduces annual returns by 3 percentage points, according to a study by the Universities Superannuation Scheme, the second-largest pension fund in the UK, cited by Financial Times Fund Management. GBP100m invested for 10 years in hedge funds would now be worth GBP270m, while the same amount invested in funds of hedge funds would now be worth only GBP197m.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } With an overall volume of CHF42bn, or about EUR32.6bn, the sustainable investment market in Switzerland gained 23% last year compared with 2009, according to the annual study “Sustainable Investments in Switzerland,” published by the research and consulting firm onValues, for the Sustainable Investment Forum (SIF).Net inflows to socially responsible investment funds rose by about 4%, while Swiss funds on average saw net outflows of about the same amount, says Sabine Döbeli, vice-chairman of SIF and chair of SIF Switzerland.Investment funds represents 58% of socially responsible investment in 2010, up 30.1% compared with the previous year. Mandates accounted for 38% of the market, up 18.6% year on year, while structured products were down 18.4%, to 4%. Equities were the dominant asset class, at 63%.Private investors consolidated their share of the market, at 57%, while institutionals lost ground, to come in at 43%.The study also finds that there has been a substantial increase in the use of voting rights, largely at general shareholders’ meetings. “This development is coherent with the fact that 44% of bankers and managers surveyed are planning to more actively exercise their voting rights in the future.”

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Agefi Switzerland reports that Erika Kessler on 1 March 2011 took over as director of Swiss Fund Data. She succeeds Herbert M. Stich as head of the joint information platform from the Swiss Funds Association (SFA) and SIX Swiss Exchange.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } BNP Paribas on 14 March announced the appointment of Hans-Jürgen Koch has CEO, in charge of Wealth Management activities, from 1 July. He becomes a member of the general board of directors and the executive board for the International Europe region at BNP Paribas Wealth Management, both of which are led by Pascal Boris, to whom he will report directly.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swiss asset management firm Partners Group has published operating profits up 16% for 2010, at CHF376m, on an EBITDA up 10% to CHF250m. Net profits by IFRS accounting standards were up strongly, by 45%, to EUR297m. Dividends will be increased by CHF5 per share for 2009.As of the end of December, assets at Partners Group totalled EUR21.4bn (see Newsmanagers of 14 January 2011).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Financial News reports that the co-CEO of Brevan Howard Asset Management, Nagi Kawkabani, is moving to Geneva this week. He will join the Swiss office of the asset management firm, created last year.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } LaSalle Investment Management, which has USD40bn in assets under management, will create a property derivatives business for its pension fund clients, IPE.com reports. It will be a joint venture with the brokerage firm BGC Partners.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Italian asset management firm Azimut has signed an agreement with the Turkish group Yatirim Holding to create a partnership for the management and distribution of investment products in Turkey. The Italian boutique will buy 5% of Global Securities (GS), the financial products distribution firm controlled by the Turkish group, at its IPO. Global Yatirim Holding will retain at least 75% of capital in the firm. Meanwhile, Azimut will, through a capital increase, acquire 60% of Global Asset Management (GAM), the asset management firm owned by the Turkish group. The cost of the two operations, which are still pending approval from the local authorities, totals about EUR6m, with put options. The two partners will invest additional capital in order to develop the two firms. By acquiring a presence in Turkey through this agreement, Azimut continues its international expansion, following the launch of a joint venture in China.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong reports that assets in hedge funds increased by nearly 15% last year, to USD63.2bn. This development is largely due to the arrival in Hong Kong of alternative management funds in the largest weight class.The number of funds fell to 538 in September 2010, compared with 542 one year previously, while the proportion of managers in charge of strategies with total assets between USD101m and USD500m rose from 25.7% in 2009 to 29.5% in 2010, compared with 60.7% the previous year. The proportions of hedge funds managing USD501m to USD1bn on the one hand, and over USD1bn on the other, remained stable, at 7.2% and 5.9%, respectively.Inflows were dominated by foreign investors, particularly from the US (36.1%) and Europe (24.3%).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Asian Investor reports that Invesco posted net inflows of about USD1.5trn in the first two months of the year 2011 from institutional and retail investors in the Asia-Pacific region, compared with USD2.3bn in the year 2010 as a whole. The head of Asia-Pacific at Invesco, Andrew Lo, claims that there will be highs and lows in 2011, but adds that clients have optimistic outlooks due to the improvement of the markets since 2009, and the gradual clarification of regulatory changes in the area of distribution. As of the end of September 2010, assets under management at Invesco in the Asia-Pacific region totalled about USD54.2bn, up 48% compared with 2009.