The European securities specialist Nicolas Walewski, founder of Alken Asset Management, on 14 January in Paris announced the launch of an absolute return fund, Alken Absolute Return Europe (AARE).The European long/short equities fund, which complies with the UCITS III directive, has daily liquidity, aims for capital growth in the mid-term, and invests largely in European equities, with the main objective of generating alpha in the case of long as well as short-term investments.The objective is to remain focused on the best ideas which generated absolute returns of 64% for the Alken Capital One fund since its launch on 21 July 2008 in European equities, through active management of the portfolio.The fund aims for gross exposure of 50% to 150%, and net exposure of -20% to 75%. For the long portion of the portfolio, which is not highly concentrated, absolute return will be the priority, and when opportunities present themselves, the fund will also make small arbitrages, For the short portion of the portfolio, the fund, which will invest in individual shares as well as indices and baskets, will act as a hedge fund and directly.An initial share class will be offered from 17 January with a commission of 0.9%, instead of 1.5%, The offering is scheduled for 31 January.As of 31 December, assets under management at Alken AM totalled over EUR2.7bn, of which EUR2.18bn were in the Alken European Opportunities fund, which has outperformed the Stoxx 600 index by 21% since its launch in January 2006, and by over 6% in 2010.

Jim O’Neill, the chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management who invented the term «Bric», plans to add Mexico, South Korea, Turkey and Indonesia into a new grouping with Brazil, Russia, India and China that he dubs “growth markets”.“It’s just pathetic to call these four emerging markets,” he told the Financial Times.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The IT specialist firm Markit on 17 January announced the launch of a series of emerging market debt indices. The Markit iBoxx USD Emerging Markets Sovereigns indices, which aim to meet growing demand on the part of investors for emerging market debt, come as additions to the GEMX index, launched in 2008, which tracks the performance of government debt from emerging markets in local currencies.

F&C has announced plans to enhance flexibility of its cost baseand annual cost savings of GBP12 million. The primary aim of this initiative is to create an operational cost base which will more readily adapt to future changes in F&C’s business profile as the UK asset manager focuses on diversifying its business and caters for new client needs. As a core part of this project the group has been in discussions with a number of potential outsourcing providers and is now close to selecting a preferred partner from a short-list of two (subject to contract, due diligence and completion of employee consultation processes). The asset management company will also reorganise its remaining business processes around the outsourced operational model. The restructuring programme will create an operational cost base that varies with assets under management and transaction levels.F&C estimates this restructuring programme will reduce annual operating costs by at least GBP9 million. Based on the expected implementation timescale, the first of these savings will commence in Q2 2011 and be substantially achieved by Q3 2012. Associated one-off net costs to achieve these reductions are expected to be no more than one full-year of the annual savings.The outsourcing arrangement will affect approximately 110 staff, which represents around 70% of the group’s existing operations staff, a significant number of whom are expected to transfer to the outsourcing provider. This initiative does not affect the staffing of investment, distribution and client service functions.The group has also identified an additional potential annual cost saving of GBP3 million arising from reduced premises requirements following the reduction in head count.In addition to the initiatives announced on Friday, F&C continues to review further opportunities for cost reduction and business simplification, including product rationalisation.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) has appointed Kevin Addison as head of wholesale sales, replacing Tony Maddock, who has joined Lazard AM. Addison, who joined SWIP in 2008, will report to John Brett, director of sales and marketing at SWIP.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Graham Kitchen will replace Bill McQuaker as head of equities at Henderson Global Investors. When the firm acquired Gartmore recently, McQuaker decided to concentrate primarily on management of his funds. He becomes assistant to his successor.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Gruppo Banca Leonardo announced on Friday, 14 January that it has acquired Sal. Oppenheim jr & Cie Corporate Finance (Suisse) SA, a consulting firm dedicated to corporate finance. Sal. Oppenheim CF Switzerland has 12 years of experience in this market, and has a client base composed of Swiss mid-sized and large businesses, multinational corporations and private investors. The Swiss firm has 14 employees, and has undertaken more than 60 missions in the past 10 years for a transaction volume of over CHF30bn, a statement says. Sal. Oppenheim CF will continue to cover mergers and acquisitions and equities markets, and will provide services in the area of debt restructuring in the entire sector, including real estate. As a part of the operation, the asset management affiliate 4IP and the real estate expertise activity will be separated. The acquisition price has not been disclosed.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } AXA Winterthur has announced the appointment of Kamila Horackova as head of Asset Management Agefi Switzerland reports. At the same time, she becomes a member of the board, where she will begin on 14 March. She succeeds Mattias Henry, who was appointed CFO on 6 December, who has been the interim director of asset management. Horackova has been director of asset management for AXA Czech and Slovakia since 2007.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Pope Benedict XVI has appointed cardinal Attilio Nicora as chairman of the new Financial Information Authority (Autorità di informazione finanziaria, or AIF) at the Vatican. The entity will also include the Vatican Bank, and the ministry of finance for the apostolic state, the Amministrazione del Patrimonio della Sede Apostolica (APS), the Börsen-Zeitung reports. The cardinal, a reputed lawyer, will retain his position as president of the APS.

L’Autorité des marchés financiers a accordé le 6 janvier la certification à l’agence japonaise Japan Credit Rating Agency (JCRA). Les notations délivrées par JCRA peuvent donc être utilisées à des fins règlementaires dans l’Union européenne, sans que l’agence ait une présence physique en Europe.

Le conseil d’administration de l’Association Française des Investisseurs en Capital (AFIC) a annoncé vendredi la nomination de Paul Perpère au poste de délégué général. Ce dernier était jusqu’alors sous-directeur en charge de la fiscalité directe des entreprises à la direction de la législation fiscale (DLF), rattachée à Bercy.

De sources concordantes, le distributeur textile américain n’a reçu durant la période de «go shop» terminée samedi 15 janvier aucune offre de rachat. TPG et Leonard Green & Partners, qui ont proposé 43,50 dollars par action le 23 novembre, soit au total 2,86 milliards de dollars, restent donc seuls en lice. Sears et Urban Outfitters auraient examiné les comptes avant de renoncer.

Avec avoir reçu l'agrément de l'AMF en 2009, la société de gestion mise également sur le développement de mandats en dehors de France

Le quotidien indique de sources anonymes que PAI Partners a entamé la cession, pour 800 millions à un milliard d’euros, de la Compagnie Européenne de Prévoyance. Nombre de sociétés de private equity étudient l’opportunité de formuler une offre, dont Apax Partners, Montagu, Cinven et Charterhouse. Rothschild est chargée de l’organisation du bal des prétendants, avec un premier tour d’enchères attendu le mois prochain. La transaction devrait ainsi se traduire par le gain de cinq fois sa mise initiale par PAI. La société de private equity française a acquis la CEP auprès de la famille Bessé en 2005. La société reste détenue à plus de 30% par ses dirigeants.

L’objectif des 3.025-3.045 points, désormais en vue, ne devrait être qu’une étape

Les ministres des Finances se réunissent aujourd'hui mais rendront leurs conclusions fin mars

Les ministres des Finances se réunissent aujourd'hui mais rendront leurs conclusions fin mars

La filiale de gestion du Crédit Mutuel Nord Europe devrait racheter d’ici à fin février la part de 33,4% détenue par le Crédit Agricole au capital de la société, a appris L’Agefi. Cholet-Dupont gère 2,4 milliards d’euros. L’UFG prendra aussi 51% de la plate-forme dédiée aux CGPI.

La société de gestion du Crédit Mutuel Nord Europe se substitue au Crédit Agricole et prend 51 % de la plate-forme dédiée aux conseillers indépendants

Barclays appelle à une baisse du coût de financement de l'aide aux périphériques de 200-300 pb, contre 250 pb dans le cas grec du côté de JPMorgan

En décembre, le volume des emprunts effectués par les banques espagnoles auprès de l'institution a rebondi de 9,6 % à 66,9 milliards d'euros

Patrick Moonen, stratégiste senior chez ING IM

Matthieu Grouès, directeur des gestions chez Lazard Frères Gestion

Anne Velot, responsable crédit d'Axa IM

Marie Giraud, gérante taux chez Groupama AM

Valérie Perez, responsable changes en France chez Deutsche Bank

L’année 2010 s’achève sur un déficit budgétaire de 148,8 milliards d’euros, soit une amélioration d’un milliard par rapport à la loi de finances rectificative votée en décembre, a annoncé François Baroin. Le ministre du Budget a ajouté que la prévision de déficit public de 7,7% du PIB en 2010, dont le montant sera connu fin mars, «se trouve ainsi confortée».

Selon le Bureau national britannique des statistiques, les prix à la production outre-manche ont progressé de 4,2% en décembre contre des estimations à +3,9%. Cette augmentation des prix à l’entrée des usines, la plus importante depuis avril 2010, est due à une forte hausse des prix du brut et de l’alimentation. Sur le mois, la hausse enregistrée a été de 0,5% contre +0,4% attendu.

Selon les chiffres définitifs publiés par Eurostat, les prix à la consommation dans la zone euro ont augmenté de 0,6% sur un mois en décembre et de 2,2% en rythme annuel. Ils ont ainsi dépassé pour la première fois en deux ans l’objectif de 2% de la BCE. En novembre, la hausse sur un an avait été de 1,9%.

L’Autorité des marchés financiers a accordé, le 6 janvier 2011, sa certification à l’agence de notation japonaise. Les notations délivrées par Japan Credit Rating Agency peuvent donc être utilisées à des fins règlementaires dans l’Union européenne, sans que l’agence ait une présence physique en Europe.