L’indice Finles des 28 hedge funds néerlandais est ressorti au 1er octobre à 112,74, affichant ainsi un gain de 2,18 %, sa troisième hausse mensuelle consécutive après des progressions de 0,31 % en août et de 0,2 % en juillet lire nos dépêches des 29 et 8 septembre). Les cinq meilleures performances depuis le début de l’année ont été enregistrées par Trade Wind Equity Fund (27 %), QTR fund (20 %), HIQ Invest Market Neutral Fund (17 %), Flonds Bloemendaal (12 %) et Antaurus Europe Fund (12 %). A compter du 1er octobre, l’indices Finles couvre un 29ème fonds, le Frog Fund.

Ancienne directrice du bureau parisien de BlackRock jusqu’en octobre 2009, Sandrine Toulouse vient de créer avec Gilbert Nguyen, sales manager pour les clients distributeurs de BlackRock de septembre 2007 à octobre 2010, la société de tierce partie marketing (TPM) Aloha Finance.Cette nouvelle entité propose ses services notamment aux sociétés de gestion souhaitant s’implanter ou se renforcer sur le marché français, pour autant qu’ils disposent d’un agrément AMF. Aloha Finance élabore la stratégie commerciale des sociétés de gestion qu’elle représente, conçoit leurs outils de vente et de communication, et distribue leurs produits de placement financiers auprès d’une clientèle d’investisseurs professionnels français.En attendant trois autres partenariats qui devraient être signés dans les semaines et les mois qui viennent, indique Sandrine Toulouse à Newsmanagers, le nouveau TPM démarre après avoir conclu des accords avec Wegelin (Lux) Funds SICAV, plateforme européenne de fonds de la banque suisse Wegelin & Co. Banquiers Privés, et avec le gestionnaire alternatif français Orchidée Finance.

Depuis le début de cette année, Aberdeen Asset Management a levé en France environ 1 milliard d’euros, mandats compris, si bien que l’encours géré pour le compte de la France chez le gestionnaire britannique se situe actuellement aux alentours de 6 milliards d’euros, dont quelque 4 milliards provenant des produits Credit Suisse et 1 milliard pour les produits et mandats immobiliers, le complément provenant des rentrées nettes, comme l’explique Frédéric Lejeune, head of business development France et Monaco.Le gestionnaire écossais n’est manifestement pas le seul à pouvoir se targuer d’une collecte fort honorable cette année, puisque Brice Anger, directeur du développement de M&G Investments pour la France se targuait récemment d’avoir déjà drainé 500 millions d’euros de collecte nette en France (lire notre article du 5 novembre), l’encours se situant à présent au-dessus de 1,2 milliard d’euros.Pour leur part, les souscriptions nettes «year-to-date» de Schroders en France se situeraient, selon nos informations, à mi-chemin entre celles de ses deux homologues britanniques.

Comme indiqué à Newsmanagers le 23/04/2010 (voir entretien avec Pierre-Yves Cahart), Wegelin Asset Management, l’unité dédiée aux clients institutionnels de Wegelin & Co. Banquiers Privés, annonce le 8 novembre le lancement en France de sa stratégie actions internationales. Baptisée Active Indexing, la stratégie combine gestion active et gestion indicielle et se décline en trois fonds UCITS III de droit luxembourgeois distincts, agréés par l’Autorité des Marchés Financiers le 27 juillet 2010 : Active Indexing Europe, Active Indexing World et Active Indexing All Country World. La gamme est gérée par Daniel Leveau, directeur de l’équipe de gestion quantitative de Wegelin Asset Management. La stratégie consiste à faire du «market picking». L'équipe de gestion investit dans les secteurs et les pays les plus attrayants sur un univers donné, en fonction de leur position dans leur cycle de valorisation.

Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) vient d’annoncer deux nominations. Guillaume Héraud occupe désormais le poste de directeur des services de compensation. Il doit poursuivre le développement de l’offre de compensation de SGSS, d’une part pour les transactions sur actions exécutées sur les marchés traditionnels ou les plates-formes multilatérales de négociation (MTF), et d’autre part, pour tous les autres types d’actifs admis aux processus de clearing, précise un communiqué.Guillaume Héraud reporte à Alain Closier, directeur du Métiers Titres de Société Générale, et intègre le comité de direction International de SGSS.En outre, Jeanne Duvoux est nommée directeur général délégué de SGSS S.p.A et représentante légale de SGSS en Italie, rattachée à Massimo Cotella, administrateur délégué de SGSS S.p.A.L’une des principales missions de Jeanne Duvoux sera de soutenir les projets mis en oeuvre pour optimiser l’offre de service, y compris dans le cadre des nouvelles exigences du marché, et notamment pour favoriser l’intégration des nouveaux clients.

Mercredi 10 novembre, la société amLeague réunit une partie des asset managers participant à son championnat (voir Newsmanagers du 06/10/2010) afin d'étudier l’intérêt et le cas échéant, les modalités techniques à prévoir pour mettre en place un nouveau mandat dit d’allocation d’actifs, avec un objectif de performance absolue. Dans la pratique, les asset managers auraient recours à des contrats futures, contrats à terme et ETF pour pallier l’absence d’actions et d’obligations en direct. Sur les dix-neuf sociétés de gestion, la réunion prévue devrait compter sept ou huit d’entre-elles qui se sont dites intéressées pour concourir.

Société Générale Private Banking a annoncé le 8 novembre la nomination de Laurent Joly en qualité de directeur mondial de l’ingénierie patrimoniale, des services fiduciaires et de l’assurance-vie. Il est basé au siège de la banque privée à Paris. Laurent Joly, à la Société depuis 1989, remplace Olivier Gougeon, précédemment directeur international de l’ingénierie patrimoniale et services fiduciaires, nommé récemment, directeur général de Société Générale Private Banking pour la région sud-asiatique.Claudio Bacceli est nommé directeur des activités de banque privée au sein de Société Générale Bank & Trust Luxembourg, en remplacement de Laurent Joly. Claudio Bacceli a rejoint Société Générale Bank & Trust Luxembourg en 2005 en tant que directeur de l’ingénierie patrimoniale pour la banque privée puis devient directeur adjoint de la banque privée en 2008 et directeur commercial en juillet 2009.

La transparence est la préoccupation principale des investisseurs institutionnels vis-à-vis du secteur mondial des hedge funds, devant les frais et la rémunération des gérants, montre une étude de Ernst & Young qui doit être publiée mardi et qui est citée dans le Financial Times.

Selon TrimTabs Investment Research et BarclayHedge citées par la Tribune, l’industrie des hedge funds a enregistré une collecte de 3,8 milliards de dollars en septembre. Soit sur les trois derniers mois, des souscriptions s'élevant à 16,1 milliards de dollars.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Securities & Exschange Commission (SEC) on 8 November announced its decision to severely limit the use of stub quotes, a practice which involves issuing orders at irrational prices in relation to the market consensus. The decision is the result of investigations in the wake of the one-day crash of 6 May this year. Stub quotes contributed to a loss of more than 9% for the Doe Jones in the space of a few minutes. The US market regulator says in a statement that the limitation on stub quotes is essentially a pure and simple prohibition: “By prohibiting stub quotes, we are reducing the danger that market transactions may take place at irrational prices,” says Mary Schapiro, chairwoman of the SEC, cited in a statement. The new rules will come into force on 6 December.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Asian Investor reports that Michael McManus is joining Kima Capital to serve as chief financial officer, after previously working for Kima Capital as an accountant. He will report to Michael Gallagher, CEO of the hedge fund management firm.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Dominic Rossi, who has left his job as chief investment officer (CIO) at Gartmore, has joined Fidelity Investment Managers as global CIO for equities. He will report to Robert Higginbotham, Investment Week reports. In his new position, Rossi will be responsible for the equities unit, including portfolio management, research, derivatives, trading and corporate finance.

Gartmore has entered a phase of strategic reflection with the assistance of Goldman Sachs, the asset management firm has announced, at a presentation of its interim results. Meanwhile, Gartmore will take measures to strengthen its firepower and improve its financial situation, with the deployment of a GBP10m per year cost reduction program.The Gartmore star manager Roger Guy is leaving the firm. As a result, Gertmore will be merging its teams dedicated to European equities (large cap and all-cap) into a single team, which will be led by John Bennett. Guy will continue to serve at the firm for the next few months in order to ensure a smooth transition. Guy’s large cap team managed GBP3.5bn as of 30 September, of which GBP1.3bn were in hedge funds, GBP0.5bn in mutual funds and GBP1.7bn in discretionary mandates.Gartmore has also announced the departure of Dominic Rossi, chief investment officer, who will take a new position at Fidelity. Until a successor can be appointed, Jeffrey Meyer, CEO, will serve in this role in the interim. Brian Mitchell, currently head of trading, has been appointed chief operating officer for the investment unit.Assets under management at Gartmore increased 4% in third quarter, from GBP19.9bn as of 30 June to GBP20.7bn as of 30 September. Positive market and performance effects were partially offset by net outflows of GBP700m. As of 31 October, assets under management totalled GBP20.9bn, despite net outflows of GBP300m in October. The group has also received GBP500m in redemption demands, of which GBP200m are for European large caps, and will be honoured by the end of the year.

According to Financial News, Fidelity Investment Managers has decided to cut its UK staff by 500 to 1,500 over the next five years, due to a less welcoming approach by UK regulatory authorities, higher income tax, and deteriorating prospects for new business. It will not be making anyone redundant, adds the website.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Michael Keiner, who has been in preventive detention for more than a year (see Newsmanagers of 29 and 30 October 2009), will be indicted this week or next for serious fraud, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports, citing the Wurzburg public gazette. The founder of the hedge fund management firm K1 group causes losses of hundreds of millions of euros for Barclays, J.P. Morgan and BNP Paribas.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In October 2010, funds and Sicavs on sale in Italy saw net redemptions of EUR1.3bn, according to the most recent statistics from Assogestioni, the Italian association of asset managers. These outflows were driven by redemptions of EUR2.5bn from Italian-registered funds. However, foreign-registered funds, managed either by Italian or other groups, saw inflows of EUR1.2bn. This category now represents 55.55% of assets in the sector. In terms of asset class, money market funds alone saw outflows of slightly over EUR2bn. Hedge funds have also seen outflows of EUR225m, as have flexible funds, of EUR100m. Equities funds, balanced funds and bond funds, on the other hand, have seen net inflows of EUR704m, EUR250m and EUR146m, respectively. Since the beginning of the year, Italian mutual funds have posted net subscriptions of EUR3.3bn. As of the end of the month, assets in the industry represented EUR450bn, a slight increase compared with the previous month. 49.5% of the industry is in the hands of four Italian groups: Intesa Sanpaolo, Pioneer Investments, UBI Banca and Mediolanum. The top two players posted some of the heaviest net outflows of the month, at EUR310.5m and EUR196.7m. However, Mediolanum saw the largest inflows of the month, with EUR217m.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Michael Clark in London will be the manager of the new Luxembourg-registered product Fidelity European Dividend Fund, launched on 2 November, whose portfolio will invest in equities in European firms which already pay attractive dividends, or which are likely to increase their dividends significantly in the future. So far, the investment team is preferring businesses in the consumer goods, utilities, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications sectors, with stable business models and strong competitive positions. The benchmark index is the MSCI Europe. In addition to this new fund, Clark has also been the manager of the Fidelity Income Plus Fund since 2008, and of the Fidelity Enhanced Income Fund since 2009. CharacteristicsName: Fidelity European Dividend FundISIN codes: LU0353647737 A-Acc Euro capitalisationLU0353647653: A-Euro distribution LU0353648032: Y-Acc-Euro capitalisationManagement commission: 1.5%

A Russell Reynolds’ annual survey suggests compensation for asset managers in Europe could go up by 20 per cent, compared with a 10 to 15 per cent rise in the US, according to the Financial Times Fund Management. “European based asset managers tend to have more asset classes that are doing well, so levels of optimism about bonus pools are higher,” said Amanda Foster, managing director of Russell Reynolds’ practice in London.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The monthly Lipper survey of major Spanish asset management firms reveals that they have increased their average allocation to equities to 42% in October, compared with 40.7% in September, Cinco Días reports. Meanwhile, they have not lost their confidence in bonds, which have increased to an exposure to 42.3% from 40.7%. This move was largely made to the detriment of cash, which fell to 12.25% from 14.15%, and alternative investments, down to 3.42% from 3.62%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Source on 8 November announced the listing of 15 ETC (exchange traded commodities) products on the Swiss stock exchange SIX. Source will initially list 14 T-ETC (Treasury Bill Secured ETC, ETCs which are secured by US Treasury bonds), replicating the performance of the S&P GSCITM Total Return commodities indices (dividends reinvested), and one P-ETC based on physical gold. The P-ETC Source Physical Gold replicates the evolution of the price of gold. Its assets are guaranteed by gold ingots held in the coffers of J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, in London. The Source T-ETCs are collateralised by US Treasury Bills, and liquidity is held by an administrator in a separate account. Exposure to commodities indices is provided via performance swaps with diversification over several counterparties. All Source ETCs are available in US dollars on SIX. Annual management fees for the T-ETCs are 0.49%. Management fees for the P-ETC Source Physical Gold are significantly lower than for competing products, at 0.29% per year. In response to growing demand from investors for more efficient exposure to commodities, Source is also offering the T-ETC Source Crude Oil Enhanced (SEWTI). In the past few years, the performance of futures indexed on ETPs replicating the price of oil has been significantly hier than the evolution of the price of oil, due to the impact of the contango (report) situation on oil futures markets. The T-ETC Source Crude Oil Enhanced (SEWTI) aims to replicate the performance of the S&P GSCI Crude Oil Enhanced Total Return index. It is an optimised index, whose level of exposure to the futures curve on oil is adjusted on a monthly basis, which varies dynamically between NYMEX WTI contracts with maturities of up to six months, depending on the curve. The T-ETC Source Crude Oil Enhanced (SEWTI) has seen significant inflows in 2010, as investors have become more interested in the way in which ETCs replicate the performance of oil futures. In partnership with BofA Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Nomura, Nyenburgh and 17 other market-makers, Source has collected more than USD7.5bn since its creation, in April 2009, of which USD850m have gone to its platform dedicated to ETCs. Growth in this segment is largely due to the success of the P-ETC Physical Gold (SGLD), which alone has collected over Usd600m in assets, due to the growing interest of investors in gold.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On Wednesday, 10 November, the amLeague company will get together some of the asset managers participating in its championship (see Newsmangers of 6/10/2010) to study the potential interest and technical details of a possible new asset allocation mandate with an absolute return objective. In practice, asset managers would be allowed to use futures and ETFs to compensate for the lack of direct investment in equities or bonds. Of 19 asset management firms, the meeting is expected to be attended by seven or eight, who have expressed an interest in competing.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Société Générale Private Banking on 8 November announced the appointment of Laurent Joly as global director of wealth engineering, fiduciary services and life insurance. He will be based at the headquarters of the private bank in Paris. Joly, who has been employed at Société Générale since 1989, replaces Olivier Gougeon, previously international director of wealth engineering and fiduciary services, who has recently been appointed CEO of Société Générale Private Banking for the South Asian region. Claudio Bacceli is appointed as director of private banking activities at Société Générale Bank & Trust Luxembourg, replacing Joly. Bacceli joined Société Générale Bank & Trust Luxembourg in 2005 as director of wealth engineering for private banking, and later became deputy director of private banking in 2008, and head of sales in July 2009.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } James Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley, has told the Wall Street Journal that the investment bank he leads is planning to move ahead with its acquisition of the remainder of its joint venture with Smith Barney. It plans to «move forward on the first trigger,» referring to the May 2012 option the investment bank has to buy the next 14% of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Morgan Stanley has also announced that it expects pre-tax losses of USD70m due to restructuring of its hedge fund affiliate FrontPoint Partners.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The British management firm Aviva Investors has been granted a sales license in France, Germany and the United Kingdom for the UCITS-compliant absolute return fund Index Opportunities, managed by Iyad Farah and Ned Kelly, assisted by a team of seven managers and analysts, which follows up to 25 indices of Europe, North America, the Asia-Pacific region and emerging markets. The objective is to profit from inefficiencies and distortions related to the rebalancing of indices and therefore of passively-managed funds. This involves long positions on equities entering the indices and short positions on outgoing businesses. The fund, which was launched on 23 April, aims for returns 500 basis points higher than the Euribor 1 month, with ex ante volatility of less than 7.5%. Characteristics Name: Aviva Investors - Index Opportunities Fund AISIN code: LU0469930712front-end fee: 5%Management commission: 0.90%Minimal subscription: EUR2,000

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The global UCITS fund index calculated by Ucits Alternative Index gained 0.71% in the month of October, its fourth consecutive month of gains. Since the beginning of the year, the Global Index has gained 0.99%. The best returns of the month were for the Commodities Index (2.20%), CTA (1.45%) and the Emerging Markets index (1.34%). Since the beginning of the year, the Commodities Index and CTA Index have seen losses of 4.71% and 0.59%, respectively, while the Emerging Markets index has gained 2.56%. Event-driven strategies have gained only 0.13%, but are still among the best-performing strategies since the beginning of the year, with gains of 3.60%. Fixed income has continued to perform well, with gains of 0.44% for the month and 4.21% since the beginning of the year.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } European ethical and green retail funds have pulled out of their slump in a thus far disappointing year, with net inflows of EUR212.9m in August, according to the most recent statistics from Lipper FMI, collected on behalf of Responsible Investor. This category of fund, known as “RI extended,” includes exclusionary and normative funds, funds related to climate change and microfinance funds. “RI extended” assets totalled slightly over EUR22bn as of the end of August. Sales of funds which use filters for ESG criteria (“RI screened”), for their part, lost EUR192.3m in August. Only bond funds and money market funds remained highly positive. Assets in RI screened funds as of the end of August totalled EUR64.1bn.

Janus Capital International Limited, the international arm of Janus Capital Group Inc., has launched the Janus Global Investment Grade Bond Fund and the Janus Global High-Yield Fund, part of its Dublin-domiciled Janus Capital Funds plc range.The Global Investment Grade Bond Fund will invest primarily in fixed or floating rate Investment Grade bonds of issuers anywhere in the world and the Global High-Yield Fund will invest primarily in Debt Securities or preferred stock of issuers anywhere in the world which are rated either below investment grade or if unrated are of a similar quality to below investment grade. Both funds will be co-managed by Gibson Smith, who is the co-CIO of Janus Capital Management, and Darrell Watters. Both are co-PMs on all of Janus’ fixed income strategies. They will be supported by the fixed income research team based in Denver and London.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 8 November, State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) and Deutsche Börse announced that the asset management firm from State Street Corp has listed 12 French-registered SPDR ETF funds on the Xetra platform, including 10 based on super-sectors of the MSCI Europe, one product based on the MSCI Europe, and one on the MSCI Europe Small Cap index. The admissions bring the total number of ETFs listed in Frankfurt to 751. In detail, the newly-created funds are the following: – SPDR MSCI Europe (FR0000001885) – SPDR MSCI Europe Small Cap (FR0010149880) management commission: 0.30%– SPDR MSCI Consumer Discretionary (FR0000001752) management commission: 0.40%– SPDR MSCI Consumer Staples (FR0000001745) management commission: 0.30%– SPDR MSCI Europe Energy (FR0000001810) management commission: 0.30%– SPDR MSCI Europe Financials (FR0000001703) management commission: 0.30%– SPDR MSCI Europe Health Care (FR0000001737) management commission: 0.30%– SPDR MSCI Europe Industrials (FR0000001778) management commission: 0.30%– SPDR MSCI Europe Information Technology (FR0000001695) management commission: 0.30%– SPDR MSCI Europe Materials (FR0000001794) management commission: 0.30%– SPDR MSCI Europe Telecommunication Services (FR0000001687) management commission: 0.30%– SPDR MSCI Europe Utilities (FR0000001646) management commission: 0.30%

Transparency is the leading concern institutonal investors share about the global hedge fund industry, followed by fees and managers’ pay, a report due to be released by Ernst & Young on Tuesday and cited by the Financial Times shows.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As Pierre-Yves Cahart told Newsmanagers on 23 April 2010 (see interview on that date), Wegelin Asset Management, the unit dedicated to institutional clients at Wegelin & Co. Private Bankers, on 8 November announced the launch of its international equities strategy in France. The strategy, known as Active Indexing, combines active and index-based management and is available in three different UCITS III-compliant funds, which received licenses from the French financial market authority (AMF) on 27 July 2010: Active Indexing Europe, Active Indexing World and Active Indexing All Country World. The range is managed by Daniel Leveau, director of the quantitative management team at Wegelin Asset Management. The strategy involves market picking: the management team invests in the most attractive sectors and countries out of a given universe, as a function of their position in the valuation cycle.