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18/02/2011

Henderson recruits a fund manager from AMP

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Tom Gibson, director & European fund manager in the indirect real estate investment team at AMP Capital Brookfield, has joined Henderson Global Investors as head of property equities, Asia.Gibson will be based in Singapore, and will manage the Henderson Horizon Asia-Pacific Property Equities Fund with Michael Wong and Eric Khaw, as well as the Asian investments of the Hernderson Global Property Equities Fund. He will also manage mandates, which all in all represents a total of about USD1bn.Gibson will report to Patrick Summer, head of property equities.
18/02/2011

Trendy strategies tend to underperform

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Strategies which earn the highest inflows in a given quarter very often see a large decline in their returns in the following quarter, according to a study undertaken in fourth quarter 2010 by TrimTabs, in partnership with Informa Investment Solutions. In other words, following too readily along with the flock may be a highly costly mistake for institutional investors. As an example, TrimTabs points to investors’ sudden interest in US bonds, and outflows from US equities funds in third quarter 2010. Investors who followed this trend were probably negatively affected by the movements observed recently, as they would have missed the rally in US equities.
18/02/2011

BBVA and Citic create a new commodities index

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } With its Chinese partner, Citic Carbon Assets Management, BBVA has launched an index of shares in companies of the natural resources and commodities sectors, with the intention of subsequently releasing investment products based on the benchmark index, Cinco Días reports. The selection of businesses for the new Rogers Global Resources Equity Index (RGREI) will be undertaken by Jim Rogers.
18/02/2011

Inflows of nearly EUR900m for FIP and FCPI vehicles in 2010

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to a survey by the AFIC and AFG of “fundraising in 2010 by FIP and FCPI” vehicles, 124,000 savings investors subscribed to one of 48 FIP funds (Fonds d’Investissement de Proximité), and/or 42 FCPI vehicles (Fonds Commun de Placement dans l’Innovation) created in 2010.Inflows in 2010 raised EUR894m from retail clients, of which EUR835m went to funds created in 2010 alone, a statement released on 17 February states. Despite a slight increase in the average amount of subscriptions (EUR6,700, compared with EUR6,650 in 2009), these levels remain below the levels observed in 2009 (EUR898m) as well as 2008 (EUR1.13bn), the year which marked the peak for inflows to FIP and FCPI vehicles. 2010 FIPs attracted EUR389m, while 2010 FCPIs raised EUR446m.
18/02/2011

Profits and assets up at MFS

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The US management firm MFS Investment Management, an affiliate of the Canadian Sun Life Financial, in 2010 earned net income of USD202m, compared with USD136m the previous year, while pre-tax profit margin increased to 30% from 26% due to an increase in average assets to USD197bn, from USD153bn.As of the end of December, assets under management totalled USD222bn, compared with USD187bn one year previously. This increase of USD35bn is due to net subscriptions of USD14.2bn and a market appreciation of USD20.3bn.
18/02/2011

Annual results up for Morningstar

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The US group Morningstar in 2010 earned net profits of EUR86.4m, or EUR1.70 per share, compared with USD82.1m and USD1.65 per share for the previous year. In fourth quarter, net profits rose to USD27.4m, compared with USD14.8m one year previously.
18/02/2011

Janus launches five funds in Italy

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Janus Capital International Limited, the international division of Janus Capital Group, has added to its range of products on sale to retail clients in Italy. The Italian market authority, Consob, has granted a license for sale to retail investors of five funds from the Denver-based asset management firm, including three equities funds – Janus US Fund, Perkins Global Value Fund, and Emerging Market Fund – and two bond funds – Janus Global Investment Grade and Janus Global High-Yield Fund. “The launch of these five funds in Italy confirms our commercial strategy, which is increasingly oriented to the retail distribution segment, which since January has access to a wider range of funds,” says Andrea Cardone, director of sales for southern Europe at Janus Capital Group. “Though for many years we have offered products on the Italian market which were focused in the United States exclusively, the time has come to also offer our expertise on global markets,” he adds.
18/02/2011

Netherlands' APG picks up a new head of corporate governance

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } APG Asset Management, the management firm for the pension fund for public employees in the Netherlands, has appointed Claudia Kruse as head of corporate governance. Kruse, who joined APG in 2009 as a senior specialist in sustainable development and governance, succeeds to Paul Trentrop, who left the business at the end of 2010 to found his own firm.
18/02/2011

Jordi Padilla becomes CEO of Popular Gestión Privada

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Following the departure at the end of December of Guillermo Santos Aramburo, who has become director and head of strategy at Icapital, Jordi Padilla has been appointed CEO of Popular Gestión Privada, Funds People reports. Padilla, who joined the firm in 2008, was previously CIO for equities, and directly managed the PBP Gestión Flexible and PBP Cartera Fexible funds.
18/02/2011

Banco Popular sells its asset management affiliate to Allianz

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to sources familiar with the matter, Banco Popular is in the process of completing a sale of 60% of its asset management affiliate Popular Gestión to Allianz for about EUR100m. According to Expansión, the German insurer may also acquire Popular Gestión Privada, the asset management arm ou the private banking unit of the group, to replace Dexia, which would sell its 40% stake in the capital of the business.The agreement over Popular Gestión would specify that Popular will continue to distribute funds from Popular Gestión via its network; in addition, the bank would pledge to maintain a minimal level of investment in products from Popular Gestión.
18/02/2011

SEC investigates municipal bond funds

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether some funds have overestimated the value of certain high-risk municipal bonds which are rarely traded, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. The enquiry is part of an investigation into potential municipal bond market abuse.
18/02/2011

Madoff: Lawyers and consultants will pocket USD1.3bn

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The army of lawyers and consultants at work on recovering the money involved in Bernard Madoff’s USD19.6bn fraud will posket more than USD1.3bn in commissions, the Financial Times reports, citing new figures detailing the cost of liquidating the Ponzi scheme. The largest check will go to Baker Hostetler, the law firm where Irving Picard, the legally-appointed trustee, is a partner. He will receive USD603m for his work between 2011 and 2014, on top of a payment of USD128m already received.
18/02/2011

Deutsche Bank suspends subscriptions to an ETN

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports that Deutsche Bank has frozen subscriptions with immediate effect to the ETN Power Shares DB Agriculture Souble Long, which earned 65% returns on one year, and reached assets of about USD146m. No motive for the move was given, but it may be due to the fact that the increase in assets and the number of contracts held ran a risk of exceeding the permitted limit.
18/02/2011

Frankfurt exchange will soon list 800 ETFs

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } With 12 new Luxembourg-registered ETFs from RBS, which were admitted to trading on the XTF segment of the Xetra platform from Deutsche Börse on 17 February, the number of products now listed now comes to 791.In addition to the four funds already announced, based on the Stoxx and Dax indices (see Newsmanagers of 17 February), RBS has launched eight more, four of which are based on FTSE indices, three on S&P indices, and one on the Topix.Commissions range from 0.30% to 0.65%.The twelve new products are the following: RBS Market Access EuroStoxx 50 Monthly Double Short Index ETF(LU0562665777), with a TER of 0,50%RBS Market Access EuroStoxx 50 Monthly Leverage Index ETF (LU0562665694) ; 0,30%RBS Market Access LevDAX X2 Monthly Index ETF (LU0562665348) ; 0,35%RBS Market Access Leveraged FTSE 100 Monthly Index ETF (LU0562666072) ; 0,50%RBS Market Access Leveraged FTSE MIB Monthly Index ETF (LU0562666239) : 0,60%RBS Market Access S&P 500 EUR Hedged Index ETF (LU0562681899) ; 0,30%RBS Market Access S&P GSCI Capped Component 35/20 2x Inverse Monthly Index ETF (LU0562665934) ; 0,65%RBS Market Access S&P GSCI Capped Component 35/20 2x Leverage Monthly Index ETF (LU0562665850) ; 0,65%RBS Market Access Short FTSE 100 Monthly Index ETF (LU0562666155) ; 0,60%RBS Market Access Short FTSE MIB Monthly Index ETF (LU0562666312) ; 0,60%RBS Market Access ShortDAX X2 Monthly Index ETF (LU0562665421) ; 0,60%RBS Market Access TOPIX EUR Hedged Index ETF (LU0562666403) ; 0,50%
18/02/2011

iShares moves ETFs inherited from Indexchange over to physical replication

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } From 24 March, the 18 Geramn-registered sectoral ETFs from iShares based on the sectors of the Stoxx Europe 600, which were launched in 2006 by Indexchange (EUR350m in assets), are moving over from synthetic replication to physical replication, BlackRock has announced. At this time, the “swap” suffix will be replaced by the Roman numeral I.One week later, the funds will be merged into the corresponding ETFs already using physical replication (EUR1.5bn in assets).As of 31 May, the physical replication sectoral ETFs will be transferred to a German-registered Sicav (Investment AG), and converted into sub-funds of the new structure, with new ISIN codes. This will facilitate their registration and sale outside Germany.The operation follows iShares’ philosophy of using physical replication as a first priority, and not relying on synthetic replication except for asset classes which are difficult to access.These synthetic replication funds were launched before the legislative changes of mid-January 2011, which made physical replicated funds compliant with UCITS III.However, four sectoral ETFs from iShares based on the Euro Stoxx index will not be affected by the merger, while the iShares Stoxx Europe 600 Real Estate (DE), which was compliant with the European directive from the time of its launch, will be transferred to Investment AG at the end of May, with the other 18 sectoral funds.
18/02/2011

Barclays WM France launches an Asian equities fund

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Barclays Wealth Managers France has launched the Barclays Equity Asia fund, a sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav, investing in Asian equities. The new fund is advised by Philip Niem, head of discretionary management at Barclays Wealth Asia, based in Hong Kong, and his team. Niem manages USD300m in assets with the same method used for the new fund. The objective for Barclays Equity Asia is to invest in businesses expected to profit from economic growth in China, India, and other surrounding Asian countries (excluding Japan), and to outperform its benchmark index (90% MSCI AC Asia ex Japan 10% cash) by 5% per year. Allocation by country is determined on the basis of the size of the economy, the balance of payments, growth in corporate profits and price/earnings ratio for the market. Niem will then select sectors which he estimates will outperform national GDP growth. Within these sectors, the head of discretionary management will select 40 businesses. Currently, Niem favours the banking sector in India, the consumer sector in China, and commodities. The Barclays Equity Asia fund, which has recently received a sales license from the AMF, now has total assets of USD30m. It will be sold via the Barclays Wealth network, as well as to funds of funds and institutional investors.
18/02/2011

Fidelity Investments extends its product range with iShares ETFs

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The online broker Fidelity Investments has celebrated the first anniversary of its partnership with BlackRock in ETFs, and increased the number of iShares ETFs available for free trading from 25 to 30.The five ETFs available to investors for free are the iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond Fund (HYG), iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index Fund (DVY), iShares Dow Jones International Select Dividend Fund (IDV), iShares Dow Jones US Real Estate Index Fund (IYR) and iShares MSCI ACWI ex US Index Fund (ACWX).
18/02/2011

UniCreidt studying a potential Pioneer-Eurizon merger

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } For the first time, the strategy committee at UniCredit on Thursday considered the possibility of an alliance between its affiliate Pioneer and Eurizon, the asset management unit of Intesa-Sanpaolo, Il Sole – 24 Ore reports. The committee is reported to have tasked the management, led by CEO Federico Ghizzoni, to enumerate the potential advantages of a merger with the Intesa Sanpaolo affiliate. The Italian newspaper also reports that the sale process for Pioneer is entering its final phase, and that in early March, BofA-Merrill Lynch, which is advising UniCredit, is awaiting bids from the final three candidates to buy the business, Amundi, Natixis and Resolution.
18/02/2011

Nader Purschaker leaves Metzler

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Nader Purschaker, the head of alternative investments and quantitative strategies at Metzler Asset Management, has left the firm, Citywire reports. He was the architect of the model behind the strategy used to managed the Nordea 1 – Heracles Long/Short MI fund, launched in 2008 with Nordea.
18/02/2011

Record assets and pre-tax profits for Union Investment

In 2010, the central asset management firm for the German co-operative banks, Union Investment, posted pre-tax profits totalling a record EUR372m, compared with EUR204m in 2009, EUR143m in 2008, and EUR345m in 2007. In other words, the impact of the crisis was offset at last.Assets also set a new record, at EUR177.4bn as of the end of December, compared with EUR165.7bn one year previously. But net subscriptions fell of EUR8.7bn for 2010 as a whole, compared with EUR10.7bn in 2009, following net redemptions of EUR6.8bn in 2008, and net inflows of EUR12.2bn in 2007.Net inflows to institutional funds (Spezialfonds) totalled EUR6.15bn, while advising and wealth management activities totalled EUR3bn. However, mandate activities saw a net outflow sof EUR200m, and open-ended funds saw net redemptions of EUR250m, due to outflows of nearly EUR6bn from the UniOpti4 tax optimisation fund, following a change in the tax regime.Union posted the largest net inflow in its history from the institutional sector, at EUR11.32bn, compared with EUR8.3bn in 2009, and outflows of EUR3.61bn in 2008. In addition, Union retained its place as the top German asset management firm in the area of protected capital funds, with a market share of nearly 50% and net subscriptions of about EUR2.38bn.
18/02/2011

Net profits at comdirect up 5.3% in 2010

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Last year, comdirect bank posted net profits of EUR59.63bn, compared with EUR56.62bn in 2009, which corresponds to an increase of 5.32%. The number of clients increased by about 108,300, to about 1.56 million, while the number of securities accounts increased by 5.3% to a total of slightly under 740,000. In the B2C segment (comdirect), total assets increased 18.3% to EUR26.32bn, while B2B activities (ebase) grew by 21.6% to EUR16.2bn.
18/02/2011

Funds represent half the volume of retail securities accounts

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to a study by the German private sector banking association (BdB) on the basis of statistics from the Bundesbank, as of the end of 2010 there were about 27 million holders of securities accounts in Germany, with a total of EUR783bn in assets. Of this total, shares in investment funds represented EUR387bn, compared with EUR224bn for bonds, and EUR172bn for equities.German banks administer a total of about EUR2trn in securities, also including securities accounts belonging to insurers, businesses, public authorities and various institutions.
18/02/2011

Average assets in Spanish funds as of the end of 2010 down to EUR56m

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to statistics from the Inverco association of asset management firms, average assets in 2,489 funds registered in Spain totalled EUR56m, compared with EUR63m as of the end of 2009, and EUR82m as of the end of 2007.Total assets of EUR138.08bn represented 16.3% of GDP as of the end of 2010, compared with 26.6% in 2007, and 31.7% in 2000.Assets in funds and total assets as a percentage of GDP as of the end of December were at their lowest levels since 1990, when they totalled EUR28bn and 2.2%, respectively.
18/02/2011

Aegon AM launches its first multi-asset class fund aimed at retail investors

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 1 March, Aegon Asset Management will launch its first multi-asset class fund aimed specifically at retail clients, the Aegon Strategic Assets fund. It is an absolute return product, whose objective is to generate returns of 10% per year, regardless of market conditions.The fund will consist of “real” assets, and will invest primarily in equities and bonds, with a preference for long-only positions.The Strategic Asset fund will be managed jointly by William Dinning, head of investment strategy, and Sean Flanagan, who belongs to the multi-asset class management team.Minimal subscription is set at GBP500, and the front-end fee is 5.5%. Management commission will be 1.5%.
18/02/2011

London moves to create more effective financial regulatory agencies

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Mark Hoban, the minister in charge of financial matters at the office of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, on 17 February unveiled the new architecture of the UK financial regulatory authority to Parliament. The authority will include three regulators, which will replace the current FSA. They will have the power to bar financial products from the market, and to warn invetors against some intermediaries.
18/02/2011

Union Investment defends its fee policies

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Hans Joachim Reinke, chairman of the board, on 17 February announced that Union Investment is legally authorised to charge holders of shares in investment funds fees for consulting and analysis by external businesses, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. The management firm is reacting to a warning addressed to it by the consumer defence organisation for the Northern Rhineland-Westphalia region.The consumer defence organisation also singled out two other management firms. It accuses Allianz Global Investors (AGI) of passing on the cost of the acquisition of new clients to investors. The third management firm challenged by the organisation is LBBW.The association is critical of the fact that asset management firms are passing to clients the cost of producing and distributing of half-yearly and annual reports and other publications.
18/02/2011

Soros invests in MAM Funds

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } George Soros has acquired a 3.5% stake in the management boutique MAM Funds, via his firm Quantum Partners, according to an announcement by the London Stock Exchange.
18/02/2011

Quantum (Soros) invests in MAM Funds

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In a filing to the London Stock Exchange dated 16 February, MAM Funds announced that the hedge fund management firm Quantum Partners, the firm owned by George Soros, had acquired a 3.53% stake in its capital.MAM Funds is the commercial brand for Midas Capital Partners Limited and Milton Asset Management Limited.F&C, for its part, has increased its stake to 5.29%. Axa has increased its stake to 9.38%, while Lloyds Bank’s stake has fallen to 5.44%.
18/02/2011

Credit Suisse launches a USD2bn convertible bond issue

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Credit Suisse on 17 February announced the launch of a bond issue for USD2bn (CHF1.92bn), and follows a CHF6bn issue announced earlier this week.As in the case of the issue announced on 14 February, this operation comes as a result of the Swiss group’s desire to comply with stricter requirements under Basel III for owners’ equity levels at banks. “With this deal, we get a little bit closer,” the head of the group, Brady Dougen, says in a statement.The securities, contingent convertible bonds, or “coco bonds,” by the common terminology, will automatically be converted into equities if the Tier 1 ratio at the bank falls below the 7% threshold set by the Basel III legislation. The bank says Thursday’s operation allows it to satisfy 70% of the Basel III requirements with lending that may be triggered if the need arises.
18/02/2011

Hausse des prix à la consommation aux Etats-Unis

Le département du Travail a indiqué jeudi que l’indice «core» PCI avait crû de 0,2%, sa plus forte hausse depuis octobre 2009, contre 0,1% en décembre. Cette avancée est principalement due à la hausse des coûts de l’habillement, du logement et du transport aérien. Le scénario d’une inflation toujours mesurée est maintenu en raison de la hausse des inscriptions au chômage la semaine dernière, limitant la croissance des salaires.

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