L’opérateur boursier allemand anticipe une hausse du chiffre d’affaires et du bénéfice pour toutes ses divisions en 2011, a déclaré le directeur financier de l’opérateur boursier allemand, cité par le Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

Samuel Bouchet et Marina Cohen, gérants high yield chez Amundi

Alors que le marché des options se normalise, certains fonds de pension n'hésitent plus à jouer sur le terrain des hedge funds

Elisabeth Cassagnes, responsable taux directionnel courbe chez UFG-LFP

Nicolas Forest, responsable de la stratégie taux de Dexia AM

Olivier Lazar, président du directoire d’Olympia Capital Gestion

Maryannick Plomion, gérante diversifiée chez AllianzGI Investments Europe

Avec une nouvelle équipe de direction ETF, la société entend combler son retard en Allemagne et dans les pays scandinaves

L’encours des fonds de fonds alternatifs a chuté de 60 % depuis l’arrestation de l’escroc américain il y a deux ans

Suite à l'émergence des systèmes multibanques et propriétaires, plus de 50 % du trading, selon la BRI, est désormais exécuté électroniquement

Les engagements des banques étrangères ont baissé de 27 milliards de dollars en Grèce d’après la Banque des règlements internationaux

L’AMF et la CRE ont signé un accord leur permettant de partager leur expertise pour mieux identifier les facteurs de risque sur ces échanges

La hausse des prix à la consommation a atteint 5,1% en novembre. La Banque centrale a relevé de 50 points de base le taux des réserves obligatoires

Après avoir commencé par investir dans un fonds actions zone euro (en octobre 2010), Le Conservateur vient à nouveau de sélectionner un nouveau gérant minimum variance au travers d’un fonds exposé aux marchés émergents. Au total, la gestion minimum variance concerne un actif de 25 millions d’euros logé dans le portefeuille de l’assurance-vie dont la poche action représente environ 10 % des encours. « La gestion minimum-variance apporte de la diversification dans notre allocation actions à un moment où se profile l’application des contraintes de Solvabilité II. L’introduction d’une gestion plus quantitative que celle déployée dans le cadre des investissements en direct, combinée à une plus grande diversification géographique, permet de réduire le risque global de notre portefeuille et donc la consommation de fonds propres», précise Thibaut Cossenet à Bfinance.

L’Irlande commencera à puiser au début de l’année prochaine dans les 85 milliards d’euros mis à disposition par l’UE et le FMI, a annoncé le ministre des Finances Brian Lenihan. Les premiers fonds seront affectés à une partie des besoins d’emprunt du pays.

L’Allemagne veut négocier un accord sur plusieurs postes financiers à responsabilité en Europe, dont celui de président de la Banque centrale européenne (BCE) et les discussions en ce sens pourraient commencer dès janvier, rapporte vendredi l'édition allemande du Financial Times. Selon le quotidien, le président de l’Eurogroupe Jean-Claude Juncker a appelé les pays de la zone euro à désigner des candidats à la succession de l’Autrichienne Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, dont le mandat s’achève en mai 2011, d’ici la réunion de l’Eurogroupe de janvier. Ce processus pourrait entraîner des négociations sur plusieurs autres postes, dont celui du président Jean-Claude Trichet, dont le mandat expire en novembre 2011.

Une augmentation du Fonds européen de stabilité financière (FESF) serait préférable à l'émission d’emprunts pour le compte de la zone euro à court terme, estime Yves Mersch, membre du Conseil des gouverneurs de la Banque centrale européenne (BCE).

La Banque populaire de Chine a annoncé relever d’un demi-point le coefficient des réserves obligatoires pour éponger les excédents des liquidités circulant dans l'économie et freiner l’inflation. Cette troisième hausse en un mois, qui prend effet le 20 novembre, porte le coefficient au record de 18,5%. Il a été relevé à six reprises depuis le début de l’année. La BPC a également augmenté les taux directeurs en octobre. La banque centrale n’a pas fourni d’explication. Toutefois, le fait qu’elle recoure une nouvelle fois aux réserves obligatoires plutôt qu’aux taux directeurs laisse penser que les autorités chinoises estiment que les pressions inflationnistes restent pour l’instant bien maîtrisées. Le gouvernement a fait savoir il y a une semaine que la politique monétaire serait dorénavant «prudente» alors qu’elle était auparavant «accommodante de manière appropriée». Des analystes pensent que cela signale peut-être un resserrement monétaire plus énergique.

L'économie italienne a progressé de 0,3% au troisième trimestre, soit légèrement plus que l’estimation préliminaire, et de 1,1% sur un an, a annoncé l’Istat vendredi. Ce dernier avait donné +0,2% et 1,0% respectivement en première estimation. La croissance a été portée par la reconstitution des stocks mais a été limitée par un solde net des exportations négatif.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } IFAs appear much more optimistic than their clients about outlooks for capital markets, according to the most recent quarterly survey by Russell Investments, “Financial Professional Outlook” (FPO). 59% of IFAs say they are optimistic about the outlooks for capital markets in the next three years, while only 7% of them say that their clients are optimistic. The study also finds that 78% of IFAs say their clients report that economic uncertainty presents an obstacle to the realisation of their financial objectives. 61% say that the volatility of the markets worries their clients. In other words, IFAs are facing an enormous job to rebuild relationships of trust with their clients, whose confidence was in many cases profoundly shaken by the financial crisis.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Currently, the five funds from Diamant Bleu Gestion ( Diamant Bleu LFP, Diamant Bleu Monde LFP and Diamant Bleu responsable, the diversified funds, Diamant Bleu LFP Rotation Sectorielle and Diamant Bleu LFP Croissance et Résilience, the equities funds), have been on sale directly to pension funds, insurers and banks.“These products, which are also interesting for family offices and private banks, all have retail shares which so far have not been actively marketed,” Christian Jimenez, co-founder and CEO of Diamant Bleu Gestion and head of Imene Investment Partners (which controls 75% of DBG), announced on 9 December. He added that in agreement with the shareholder UFG-LFP (which controls 15% of shares), and which provides DBG with all of its middle office - as Hugues Le Maire, who controls 10% of shares, observes – the portfolios will be made available to IFAs from April 2011.Jimenez also announced that François-Xavier Chevallier joined DBG as a fund manager a few weeks ago. On 9 November he signed the first monthly economic letter from the management firm, as he has also become the director of economic studies.

Wegelin Asset Management -a division of Swiss-based private Bank Wegelin- which started on the French market in January, has spent all this time since then to set the bases for its development en France. It has started to concentrate on institutional investors who are managing their own account, just like it does in Switzerland where the company has a broad client base among pension funds and insurance companies.However, to be successful on the French market, Wegelin wished to go further. In order to contact other professional investors (FoFs, private banks and so on), the asset management company recently passed a partnership with the third party marketer (TPM) Aloha Finance."This approach is adapted to the French market which is very fragmented but where private investors may have needs that are very similar to those of institutional investors. Thus, they are also very interested in our management strategies», says Pierre-Yves Cahart. If this double approach is successful in France, which is a sort or laboratory or testing ground for this kind of model, it could possibly also be used in other European countries, especially in Italy. «Provided that we find the right partners to develop our business», the head of institutional customers in France and French-speaking countries at Wegelin AM says.In the meantime, Wegelin is selling its active indexing equity strategy, managed by Daniel Leveau, the head of the quant management team. After been awarded a sales licence in July, the company started with the active sales drive of the range, which combines active and index-based, market picking strategies and consists of three Luxembourg domiciled UCITS III funds."The response of French institutional investors to this range has been very positive», the manager says. «One must say, though, that French institutional investors were themselves expressing interest for these products, which has prompted us to propose them in France», Cahart confirms.Other strategies might be proposed to French customers in the future, especially the «global diversification» one, which has no sales license in France yet. «We actually register a strong demand for product that include a pre-defined exposure to the different sources of risk», says Cahart.

In a meeting with Newsmanagers, Jean-Louis Laurens, managing partner, and Arnaud Perrier, director of development at Rotschild & Cie Gestion, discuss the plans which the management firm has for the near future, especially on the emerging markets. “We now have a fund of funds on these markets,” says Laurens, “but it must be admitted that it does not represent the management of our own firm.” The firm, aware of its late arrival on the market, is looking for an originality to set itself apart. The idea is to form partnerships with “local” management firms in some emerging markets, in order to profit from the high savings capacities in several countries, and their successes as exporters. Local managers will identify opportunities via a selection of shares, and Paris will handle the geographical and asset allocation. The project is at an advanced stage, insofar as discussions have already taken place with several emerging countries.As additions to the fund product range, the firm is also looking at alternative multi-management – but not necessarily in France, nor on the European continent, but most likely on the US market.Laurens also discusses the recent sale of the Sélection R platform, and explains that the sale was part of a natural “refocusing” of the asset management firm on the advising and management professions. “Operating the platform costs capital and a lot of administrative energy to manage,” he says. In addition, the platform, based on completely open architecture, was not a high-performance way to sell the house funds.” The situation will develop more favourably in the future. It will allow Rotschild & Cie Gestion to increase assets from EUR22bn currently, to EUR30bn by the end of 2014, according to the objective set by the directors of the firm.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Stefan Zayer will join Rupert Hengster as co-head of the German activities of Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management (EdRAM). For the moment, the opening of the future Frankfurt offices is awaiting approval from the supervisory authorities, EdRAM announced on 9 December. Zayer will be director and vice-spokesman of the board of directors at EdRAM Germany, with responsibility for third party institutional activities. From 2005 to the present, he was head of the “new clients” activity in the institutional sales branch of Lazard Asset Management in Frankfurt. Philippe Couvrecelle, chairman of the board at EdRAM, told Newsmangers at the end of September that the Frankfurt office would eventually have five staff, and that it would initially target institutional clients (see Newsmanagers of 27 September).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } From 1 January 2011, the Hamburg private bank M. M. Warburg & Co KgaA will be taking over the remaining 49% stake which the savings bank of Bremen still held in the Bremen-based private bank Bankhaus Carl F. Plump & Co. The price of the acquisition has not been disclosed. Warburg, which has owned 515 of Plump since 1999, will maintain the CEOs of Plump, Heinz Schwind and Marko Broischinski, in their positions.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The US management firm Southeastern Asset Management, which is a shareholder both in the Spanish firm ACS and in the German firm Hochtief, in which it holds a 5.19% stake, is calling for the resignation of the managing board and the supervisory board at Hochtief, Expansión reports. It accuses the heads of the German group of having authorised a capital increase which allowed Qatar to take control of 9.1% of the business, which will require ACS to improve the terms of its takeover bid.Southeastern AM is upset by the outcome, as the Qatar sovereign fund will pay EUR57.114 per share, while shares in Hochtief were trading on the day of the announcement at EUR60.12.The German asset management firm DWS (Deutsche Bank) agrees with Southeastern’s criticisms, as the deal also dilutes its own stake.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In a Luxembourg court, about 650 German investors who lost money due to the fraud perpetrated by Bernard Madoff sued the British bank HSBC, depository for the Herald (Lux) fund, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. They are seeking EUR25m in damages and interest, as the bank handed custody of the money over to Madoff, which is clearly forbidden under Luxembourg law, Deminor International says.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The UK asset management firm Schroder Investment Management (Schroders) on 9 December released the Luxembourg-registered fund Global Demographics & Wealth Dynamics for sale in Germany. The fund is an equities sub-fund of the Sicav Schroder International Selection Fund (Schroders ISF), launched on 23 November. The portfolio will be invested in businesses which are likely to profit from demographic evolution (ageing populations) and changes to the distribution of wealth. The manager, Jürgen Lanzer, and his team will aim to outperform the MSCI All Countries World Index over a full cycle. Selection will be based on a universe of 2,400 firms, from which the manager will select only 40 to 60 positions. Characteristics Name: Schroder ISF Global Demographics & Wealth DynamicsISIN code: A shares (USD): LU0557290698A shares (EUR hedged): LU0557291076Front-end fee: 5%Management commission: 1.5%Minimal initial subscription: EUR1,000 or USD1,000

Le 17 décembre, UBS Global Asset Management lancera le UBS Asian Consumption fund géré par son équipe actions Asie hors Japon, rapporte Fund Strategy. Ce nouveau produit se focalisera sur les actions de fournisseurs de biens et de services aux consommateurs asiatiques ainsi que sur les sociétés asiatiques produisant des biens de consommation et des entreprises de prestations de services implantées à l'échelon mondial.

Ayant obtenu l’agrément de la FSA, Cazenove Capital a confirmé le 9 décembre le lancement du Diversity Income Fund qui sera géré par Marcus Brookes et Robin McDonald. L’objectif de ce produit qui doit être lancé le 15 décembre est de générer du capital en ligne avec l’inflation sur le moyen terme, avec un revenu moyen de 4 % par an.Au lancement, les gérants prévoient d’investir 45 % du portefeuille en actions, 45 % en obligations et 10 % en produits alternatifs au travers de 13 fonds dont les suivants : M&G Optimal Income, Invesco Perpetual Tactical Bond, JOHCM UK Opportunities, M&G Global Dividend et Jupiter Absolute Return.