p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The New York-based management firm Van Eck Global on 15 March announced the launch of a new ETF dedicated to Colombian equities, Market Vectors Colombia ETF, whose acronym on NYSE Arca is COLX. The objective is to replicate the performance, before commissions and fees, of the Market Vectors Colombia Index (MVCOLXTR), developed by 4AssetManagement. The index includes not only companies domiciled and listed in Colombia, but also foreign companies which earn a majority of their revenues or own a majority of their assets in Colombia. As of 10 March, 74% of businesses in the index were Colombian. Among the 27 companies of the index, 51% are large caps, 36% are midcaps, and 13% are small caps. The fund charges 0.75%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Norwegian finance minister on 15 March announced that the Norwegian public pension fund has divested from the Chinese group Shanghai Industrial Holdings, due to its decision to no longer invest in tobacco producers. The fund, which had about EUR356bn in assets as of third quarter 2010, will return the American firm L-3 Communications Holdings to the list of companies in which the fund may invest, as the group has ceased to produce components for land mines. Shanghai Industrial Holdings has been excluded from the investment universe of the fund due to its 100% control of the tobacco producer Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company, the finance minister says in a statement. In early 2010, Norway announced that its sovereign fund would be disengaging from tobacco producers, a decision which initially affected 17 major groups for whom this was their main activity. 50 multinational companies, including Boeing, Wal-Mart, EADS, Safran and BAE Systems, are on the Norwegian sovereign fund’s black list.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Financial Services Authority (FSA) on Tuesday, 15 March sentenced the currency trading firm ActivTrades Plc to pay a fine of GBP85,750, for failing to protect client assets.As client assets need to be separated from the business with “trust status,” in order to protect the capital of savings investors, the FSA found that between 14 April 2009 and 2 September 2010, ActivTrust did not ensure that the amounts in client funds, ranging from GBP3.4m to GBP23.6m, and averaging GBP12.2m, were properly isolated in case the firm were to go bankrupt.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Regulators in the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom have launched an investigation to determine whether major banks have conspired to “manipulate” the Libor, the index used to calculate the cost of billions of dollars in debt, the Financial Times reports. The investigation is focusing on a sample of 16 banks which help to British bankers’ association to determine the index. UBS revealed the existence of the investigation in its annual report, the FT states.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } From 16 March, 12 new RBS MarketAccess ETFs from the Royal Bank of Scotland will be listed on the ETFPlus market from Borsa Italiana. Ten of the funds have a monthly leverage factor of two. The other two are hedged for currency risks. The new ETFs are the following: ETFs with a monthly leverage of two:LongLeveraged FTSE MIB Monthly IndexEuro Stoxx 50 Monthly Leverage IndexLevDAX x2 Monthly IndexLeveraged FTSE 100 Monthly IndexS&P GSCI Capped Component 35/20 2X Leverage Monthly Index ShortShort FTSE MIB Monthly IndexEuro Stoxx 50 Monthly Double Short IndexShortDAX x2 Monthly Index Short FTSE 100 Monthly IndexS&P GSCI Capped Component 35/20 2X Inverse Monthly Index ETFs hedged for currency risks:S&P 500 EUR Hedged Index TOPIX EUR Hedged Index

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British-registered fund (OEIC) Global Listed Infrastructure from First State Investments, launched on 31 October 2007, has returned 21.1% per year since its launch (retail A shares, before taxes), compared with 1.7% for the benchmark index, which until 1 June 2008 was the S&P Global Infrastructure Index, and since then has been the UBS Global Infrastructure & Utilities 50-50 Index. “In 40 months of existence, we have seen net redemptions in only two months,” Andrew Greenup, co-manager of the fund with Peter Meany, tells Newsmanagers.The product, whose assets totalled GBP210m as of the end of January, invests in 40 purely infrastructure businesses worldwide (including 7 French businesses which account for 12% of the portfolio), in all cap sizes, with 60% midcaps (from USD2bn to USD10bn), and 30% large caps. Only 4% are emerging markets equities (with a limit of 20%), and the turnover rate for the portfolio is low, “between 30% and 35%.”“These are not glamorous companies. They operate installations, their stable revenues offer good visibility, and they provide good insurance against inflation. In addition, they benefit from structural growth. And we pick good companies which are unjustly underpriced,” says Greenup.The infrastructure equities team at First State, which has seven members, “picks only the companies out of the 135 that it monitors which are likely to outperform the infrastructure asset class, for which returns are 12%, with dividends reinvested,” the manager says.The shares are analysed on the basis of their current cash flows (DCF) compared with the beta for the asset class and the category of similar shares, as well as on the basis of 25 qualitative criteria, including the three variables known as environmental, social and governance (ESG), which are important from a reputational risk point of view.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The financial information specialist firm GFM on 15 March announced that it has launched a new data service to which access will be free of charge. Globalfunddata includes profiles of over 34,000 funds, hedge funds, ETFs and long-only funds which submit their results to Morningstar. Users will have several possible ways to search for funds, e.g. by name, domicile, and legal format. In the next few months, GFM is planning to improve the service, with the addition of graphs and portfolio tools.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In the wake of the recent explosion in oil prices, investors are showing some concern about the profitability of businesses and continued global growth, according to the latest survey by BofA Merrill Lynch, undertaken between 4 and 10 March, of a sample of 203 managers with slightly over USD600bn in assets under management.Only a net 32% of investors predict that corporate profits will increase, compared with 51% last month. 31% expect that the consensus on profits is too high. Though in January 10% predicted that margins would progress, now 24% of investors predict that margins will fall in the next twelve months.This low level of confidence also extends to macroeconomic outlooks. Only 31% of allocators predict that growth will accelerate in the next twelve months, compared with 51% last month. In the United States, the decline is even more marked, to 21% compared with 52% the previous month.The prospect of stagflation has risen again. In the space of two months, the proportion of managers who predict that growth will be below the trend and that inflation will be higher than the trend has doubled to 38%. Investors no longer believe that interest rates will be increased in the near future due to the rise in oil prices. Three quarters of respondents predict that rates will be raised in the next twelve months. But at the same time, the rate curve may flatten out, 35% of managers predict, compared with 14% in February. In Europe, no less than 72% of managers estimate that the ECB will raise its rates before July. In February, nobody predicted that this would be the case.However, the period of stagflation may be short if the price of oil falls back again. “There has not been a massive selloff. Investors are adopting a wait-and-see attitude,” says Bary Baker, head of European equities strategy at BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research.In this context, investors have increased their liquidity allocations: 18% say they are overweight in cash, while 3% of them were underweight the previous month. They have also reduced their allocation to equities and commodities. Only 45% are overweight in equities, compared with 67% in February. But this has not resulted in a regain of interest in bonds, as investors remain underweight in this asset class (59%).The erosion of confidence in emerging markets is also beginning to diminish. Only 15% of managers of funds which invest in this region predict that the Chinese economy will slow down, compared with 27% in February. Fears for the Chinese real estate market are also less marked than previously.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } KBC Goldstate, the Chinese management firm owned 51% by Goldstate Securities and 49% by KBC, has recruited Zhang Jiabin as general manager, replacing Yi Qiang, who left the firm on 24 February due to continued underperformance, Asian Investor reports. Last year, assets under management at the joint venture fell 60% to USD197m. Zhang, who began in his new role on 1 March, previously worked at Minsheng Royal FMC, which since March 2009 has launched six mutual funds (three equities funds, two fixed income funds and one balanced fund), with assets under management as of 11 March totalling about RMB3.7bn, or about USD563m.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Vigeo announced on 15 March that the Aspi Committee, which undertakes the quarterly revision of the Aspi Eurozone® index, decided at its most recent session to remove Deutsche Postbank from the index. Deutsche Postbank was removed from the Euro Stoxx index on 1 February. The Spanish firm Criteria Caixacorp has been added to the Aspi index.The Aspi index includes the 120 best-rated publicly-traded businesses in the euro zone on the basis of Vigeo ratings. Changes affecting the composition and weight of shares in the index will take effect from the opening of trading on Monday, 21 March, Vigeo states.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } M&G Investments has signed an agreement with Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking, by which its funds will be offered for sale by the private banking network of the Italian banking group. The M&G Investments product range includes 25 funds registered in Italy. Among these are the M&G Global Basics Fund, a global equities fund managed by Graham French on the basis of major trends that might impact businesses, and the M&G Optimal Income Fund, a flexible bond fund managed by Richard Woolnough.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 15 March, a spokesman for the Luxembourg Financial Sector Surveillance Commission (CSSF) declined to comment “concretely,” but confirmed a statement published earlier that day by the KBC group announcing that the planned sale of KBL European Private Bankers (KBL epb), active in ten European countries, for EUR1.35bn, to the Indian Hinduja group, “will not take place.”The Belgian firm states that the CSSF on 14 March confirmed “its decision not to pursue evaluation of acquisition of KBL epb by the Hinduja group,” as the regulator arrived “at the conclusion that its decision would be to oppose” the deal. KBC adds that “the CSSF drew this conclusion in light of the application of criteria set out in the financial sector law and after consultation with other competent authorities.” Assets at KBL epb (2,522 employees, 418 of whom are private bankers) as of the end of December totalled EUR47bn.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In the next few years, the investment fund industry in Luxembourg will confront “a veritable regulatory tsunami,” says Marc Saluzzi, head of asset management at PwC, in an interview at the Alfi Spring Conference, held on March 15 and 16 by the Luxembourg Investment Fund Association, in the capital city of the country.The specialist claims that the new regulations, such as the Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) directive, will have a particularly major impact on the hedge fund industry, “which has virtually no regulation,” he says. Saluzzi estimates that the new regulatory basis will offer Luxembourg, which already has a number of competitive advantages due to the UCITS standard, a chance to make a new start and to become a major global centre for hedge funds.”To make itself a point of reference for hedge fund managers, the Luxembourg market will have to make an effort to pursue a clear strategy “common to all the actors in the industry,” says Saluzzi. To get there, Saluzzi proposes putting institutional investors “at the core of the strategy to conquer” the market for Luxembourg. “These investors represent 50% of alternative assets worldwide.”The objective should be to “become the place of domicile of choice for institutional investors.” Saluzzi insists that the country needs to offer an effective “toolbox” for AIFM funds and to attract the best actors in the financial services industry to Luxembourg. It will also need to work to achieve the creation of a global brand for Luxembourg hedge funds, as it has for UCITS funds. Lastly, Luxembourg should aim to become the global distribution platform for hedge funds.Currently, only 4% of alternative assets are domiciled in Luxembourg, according to statistics from PriceWaterhouseCooper as of the end of 2009. There is thus some distance to go to make Luxembourg “the” market of reference in this area.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Financial Sector Surveillance Commission (CSSF) on Tuesday, 15 March, announced that global net assets in collective investment organisms and specialised investment funds as of 31 January 2011 totalled EUR2.184027trn, compared with EUR2.188994trn as of 31 December 2010. This reduction of 0.68% in one month represents a decline of EUR14.967bn, bringing the increase in the volume of net assets in the past twelve months to 17.38%. In detail, the decline is due to unfavourable market effects totalling EUR29.179bn (-1.33%), while net inflows totalled EUR14.212bn (+0.65%). For bond funds, the scenario was considerably different. OPC funds invested in bonds denominated in euros had market effects of +0.47%, and outflows of 1.74%, while OPCs invested in bonds denominated in US dollars posted losses of 2.03% and 0.70%, respectively.

Plus de 814 milliards de dollars de dette LBO doivent arriver à maturité dans le monde au cours des six années à venir, selon Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, se basant sur des données Dealogic. «La France, avec 71 milliards de dollars de dette LBO d’ici 2016 et 8 milliards en 2011, occupe la troisième position en Europe», relève le cabinet d’avocats.

Bridgepoint met la main sur CABB, groupe allemand spécialisé dans la chimie minérale, pour un montant non divulgué. Selon une source proche du dossier, citée par l’agence Bloomberg, l’opération valoriserait la société à plus de 340 millions d’euros. CABB, qui était détenu depuis 2007 par Axa Private Equity (PE), a vu sur cette période son chiffre d’affaires doubler pour atteindre 311 millions d’euros en 2010. «CABB remplit les critères d’investissement de Bridgepoint. La société a des positions dominantes sur ses marchés, des cash-flows solides et un potentiel de croissance future en termes de développement à l’international», a souligné Uwe Kolb, associé chez Bridgepoint. Dans le cadre du financement de ce LBO, trois banques (DZ Bank, Commerzbank et Société Générale) ont apporté la dette senior, d’un montant d’au moins 185 millions d’euros.

Le sentiment des analystes et investisseurs allemands s’est détérioré contre toute attente en mars, selon l’indice du groupe de réflexion ZEW. Cet indice du sentiment économique ressort à 14,1 ce mois-ci contre 15,7 en février, tandis que le consensus des économistes interrogés par Reuters tablait sur un chiffre stable à 15,7.

Compagnie Financière Tradition a annoncé le lancement de sa plateforme de négociation électronique et à la voix Trad-X, qui sera initialement dédiée aux swaps de taux d’intérêt en euros. BNP Paribas, Citi, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, la Société Générale, RBS et UBS sont les premiers partenaires de Trad-X.

Des fonds alternatifs américains, dont Greenlight Capital et Tiger Global, ont déposé une plainte à l’encontre de Porsche, faisant état d’un milliard de dollars de pertes du fait d’un défaut d’information de la part du constructeur automobile à l’occasion de son rachat avorté de Volkswagen en 2008. Une plainte comparable avait été jugée irrecevable fin 2010 par un juge new-yorkais au prétexte que les faits n’étaient pas basés aux Etats-Unis.

La société de private equity attend des conditions de marché plus favorables pour dévoiler les détails de son introduction en Bourse. Une annonce prévue hier et retardée au dernier moment. Apollo Global Management souhaiterait distribuer 26 millions de titres au prix unitaire de 18 à 20 dollars, récoltant ainsi jusqu’à 520 millions.

La société KKR a indiqué disposer de 11 milliards de dollars de puissance de feu, à l’occasion de sa première journée investisseurs. Cette somme inclut notamment 3,5 milliards de son fonds VI et un milliard levé dans un fonds en Chine. Le groupe américain, qui gère 61 milliards de dollars d’actifs, espère retourner cette année au moins 2 milliards à ses investisseurs (LP) compte tenu des cessions déjà réalisées en 2011.

Selon Barclays, les emprunteurs français dans l’univers européen des CMBS pourraient l'utiliser pour se protéger contre l’insolvabilité

Les incertitudes autour de la centrale nucléaire japonaise favorisent les obligations d'Etat

Le pôle spécialisé en gestion indicielle, qui gérait 49 milliards d’euros d’encours à fin 2010, mise sur son développement à l’international

Même si elle se réjouit d’une reprise plus vigoureuse, la Réserve fédérale américaine a décidé hier de maintenir ses taux et son plan de rachat d’obligations du Trésor

La réforme du Pacte de stabilité et de croissance adoptée hier donne le top départ aux négociations avec le Parlement européen

Un rapport du cabinet d’avocats de Washington Steptoe & Johnson, fruit d’une enquête de dix-sept mois, révèle de surprenantes pratiques au sein du fonds de pension du secteur public californien. Les gérants sélectionnés pour la gestion des fonds du plus important fonds de pension public américain auraient versé environ 180 millions de dollars pour s’assurer ce rôle au cours des dix dernières années. L’ancien directeur général, Frederico Buenrostro, serait intervenu régulièrement, à l’encontre des règles, pour faire pression sur les membres des comités de sélection en faveur de certaines sociétés de gestion. Le quotidien souligne qu’une enquête fédérale est en cours sur les «agents de placement».

Le média en ligne avance que le régulateur sud-coréen devrait dévoiler aujourd’hui son approbation finale de l’acquisition d’une participation de contrôle de Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) par Lone Star. Un engagement dont le fonds texan cherche à se défaire depuis des années, bloqué par la justice. La vente devrait avoir lieu au bénéfice de Hana Financial pour 4,1 milliards de dollars.

La Réserve fédérale américaine se réjouit d'une reprise plus vigoureuse. Elle fait toutefois le choix du statu quo afin de favoriser l'emploi

L’agence de notation a décidé de dégrader de 2 crans à A3 la note souveraine du pays, à l’aube d’une adjudication test lancée par le gouvernement