Jeff Kaplan, the global head of mergers and acquisitions, is going to leave Bank of America Merrill Lynch to become become chief operating officer of Appaloosa Management, according to the Financial Times. Steven Baronoff will again take control of the deals business at the bank.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The board of directors at Berkshire Hathaway has named a fourth candidate on its top-secret list of potential successors to Warren Buffett, CEO, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing a securities filing. Matt Rose is head of Burlington Northern Santa Fe, in which Berkshire is a shareholder.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The French independent asset management boutique Tikehau may see the entry of the Italian group UniCredit into its capital, Les Echos reports. UniCredit would buy a stake of about 10% in the firm’s holding company, Tikehau Capital Advisors, which is controlled by the management. A joint venture would be created to set up shared teams and work on operations (valuation, distribution). UniCredit will also gradually invest in funds from Tikehau Investment Management. The partnership could be made official on Tuesday, 1 March, and then be presented to a general shareholders’ meeting on 2 March.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Marco Van Bussel at the end of January joined the 13-member global real estate securities management team at First State Investments (UK) as a portfolio manager. He was previously in charge of mandates focused on European real estate securities at Macquarie Fund Management in London. Van Bussel will continue to be based in London with First State, and will be in charge of continental European and UK real estate securities. He will report to Andrew Nicholas, head of global property securities.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Investment Week reports that Pimco has launched a high yield bond fund, whose largest allocations will be dedicated to ABS, RMBS and CMBS. The Select UK Income Bond Fund is a UCITS-compliant vehicle, which will be managed by Mike Amey, and which will aim for gross returns of 5% per year. The fund will invest as a top priority in investment grade rated British assets. About 50% of the allocation is dedicated to ABS and MBS, 30% to investment grade credit (largely from the UK), 10% to high yield, and 10% to emerging markets debt.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The equities managers Stephen Corr and James Kinghorn will join the international equities team at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP), led by Mike McNaught-Davis, on 3 March and 14 March, respectively. The team on 4 January already gained Craig Bonthron, who previously managed the Global Water Fund at Kleinwort Benson, and who will be in charge of the management of ethical and environmental products, under Johnny Russell. Corr previously worked at BlackRock, where he was director and portfolio manager. Kinghorn was senior manager for North American and Latin American equities at Scottish Investment Trust.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Assets under management at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) as of 31 December totalled GBP146.2bn, compared with GBP141.7bn as of the end of December 2009. Gross inflows totalled GBP3.1bn.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } BlackRock Advisors (UK) Ltd on 28 February announced the admission to trading on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) of two UCITS-compliant sustainable development ETFs, using the Dow Jones Sustainability Indixes (DJSI0 from the Swiss firm SAM Sustainable Asset Management (Robeco group) as underlying.These physical replication products are registered in Ireland, as sub-funds of the Sicav iShares II plc.The “global” fund, iShares Dow Jones Global Sustainability Screened (IGSC, IE00B57X3V84), replicates the Dow Jones Sustainability World Enlarged index ex alcohol, tobacco, gambling, armament & firearms and adult entertainment. It charges 0.60%.The European version of the product excluding “sensitive” sectors, the iShares Dow Jones Europe Sustainability Screened fund (IESE, IE00B52VJ196), replicates the DJSE index with the same sectoral exclusions (tobacco, alcohol, gambling, armaments & firearms, and adult entertainment). The management commission is 0.45%.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Scottish asset management firm Baillie Gifford has decided to announce a provisional closure to new investors of its emerging markets fund. The soft close will take place on 6 April, fundstrategy reports. The Emerging Markets Growth fund, which recently topped GBP1bn in assets, is managed by Richard Sneller. The manager says that liquidity has become a real problem for the fund, driving the management team to take significant stakes in increasingly small businesses.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } F&C will launch an absolute return fund focused on Europe, which will be managed by Randeep Grewal, who has recently been recruited by the British asset management firm, Investment Week reports. The Thames River European Absolute Return fund will be available from 1 March, and will be offered as a UCITS III-compliant OEIC vehicle, domiciled in Dublin. The manager will select 10 promising investment themes, and three positions per theme.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swiss federal financial market surveillance authority (Finma) on 28 February announced that it has reprimanded HSBC Private Bank (Switzerland) for a data theft which took place between 2006 and 2007. Finma holds the bank responsible “due to insufficient internal organisation and control of IT activities.” The investigation, opened in March 2010, sought to determine how a data theft of such a scale could have taken place and been carried out, Finma announced on Monday. According to figures from the bank, 15,000 of its clients were affected by the data theft, committed by Hervé Falciani, a French former IT technician. In addition to this, 9,000 closed accounts were compromised. In light of the findings of the investigation, Finma requires that “HSBC continue in the direction it has begun, and complete the process of putting in place necessary measures to establish the required IT security.” Finma will monitor these measures, and “will oversee their establishment without delay.”
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } For 2010, the Bellevue Group has posted net profits of CHF1.53m, compared with losses of CHF95.06m in 2009, though the cost/income ratio deteriorated to 91.4% from 85.2%.As of the end of the year, total assets were down to CHF4.1bn, from CHF4.85bn. Net outflows totalled CHF526m, compared with CHF520m.The group’s affiliate Bellevue Asset Management, for its part, saw losss of CHF2.3m, compared with CHF1.4m. New niche strategies, particularly entrepreneurial strategies, allowed the firm to raise CHF200m, but those inflows were insufficient to offset net redemptions from historic strategies in the area of health (capital reduction at the affiliate BB Biotech), further structural adjustments, and negative market effects.Bellevue Group will propose a dividend payment for 2010 of CHF4 per share from reserves at its general shareholders’ meeting on 21 March.
Le groupe français étudie la possibilité de céder son réseau de distribution de gaz en Italie, ont déclaré hier plusieurs sources financières citées par Reuters, dans le cadre d’une transaction pouvant représenter 750 millions d’euros. GDF Suez se serait notamment entretenu avec CVC Capital Partners, RREEF Infrastructure et un consortium composé d’Axa Infrastructure et du fonds italien F2i.
Un représentant anonyme de Carlyle a confié à Reuters que la société de private equity américaine doit dévoiler ce matin les détails de l’acquisition du groupe industriel japonais Tsubaki Nakashima auprès de Nomura Holdings. Le quotidien Nikkei avait évoqué la transaction pour un montant de quelque 70 milliards de yens (617 millions d’euros).
Bloomberg croit savoir que General Mills et Nestlé font partie des candidats tenant la corde pour la reprise des 50% du capital de Yoplait mis en vente par PAI Partners. Ils auraient présenté des offres valorisant la cible à 1,6 milliard d’euros. Le chinois Bright Dairy & Food aurait présenté la meilleure offre, de 1,7 milliard, mais pourrait ne pas obtenir l’approbation de Pékin. Axa Private Equity serait le dernier fonds en lice.
Jean Peyrelevade devient l’homme fort de Leonardo & Co en France. Déjà président de la banque d’affaires et de sa division midcaps, l’ancien dirigeant du Crédit Lyonnais prend la direction opérationnelle de la structure, remplaçant Nicolas Mérindol. Ce dernier ne siègera pas au comité exécutif, continuera à développer son portefeuille de clients et s’occupera du suivi des affaires de la banque privée en France.
ESN North America, filiale majoritairement détenue par CM-CIC Securities, a signé avec Valeurs mobilières Desjardins (VMD) un accord de partenariat pour la distribution en Europe des produits de recherche sur les sociétés cotées en Bourse au Canada, notamment dans les secteurs des ressources naturelles et de l’énergie.
Le gouvernement a réaffirmé lundi vouloir renforcer les ressources financières du Fonds stratégique d’investissement à hauteur de 1,5 milliard d’euros pour financer les petites et moyennes entreprises. Cette augmentation se fera par l’intermédiaire des fonds d'épargne de la Caisse des dépôts, actionnaire à 51% du FSI, comme l’avait annoncé fin janvier le président Nicolas Sarkozy.
L’équipe responsable du non coté au sein de SAC Capital Advisors cherche à lancer une société indépendante de private equity, Siris Capital, par le biais de la levée d’un fonds. L’actif de ce dernier pourrait être de 400 millions de dollars, essentiellement consacrés aux secteurs de la technologie, des télécommunications et de la santé.
Le fonds souverain de Singapour, Temasek, et celui de Pékin, China Investment Corp, font partie selon le quotidien des prétendants à la reprise d’une part de 39% du capital de Shanghai Jahwa United, détenu par le gouvernement local. C’est ce qu’a indiqué au quotidien le président du groupe chinois, Ge Wenyao. Le groupe discute également avec des acheteurs privés.
Le gouverneur de la Banque du Japon, Masaaki Shirakawa, a estimé dans un entretien accordé au quotidien que le niveau actuel du yen ne posait pas de problème pour l’économie du pays. «Pour le moment, le niveau du yen ne constitue pas un facteur additionnel de risque». L’impact d’une appréciation de la devise sur le niveau des exportations serait ainsi compensé, selon lui, par l’effet bénéfique sur les conséquences de la flambée du prix des matières premières. Masaaki Shirakawa estime en outre qu’un accroissement de l’incertitude internationale pourrait entrainer une hausse future du yen, du fait de son statut de «monnaie refuge».