Legal & General Investment Managers (LGIM) a lancé un tracker sur les marchés émergents, selon Investment Week.Le Global Emerging Markets Index fund, géré par Robert Dowling et qui a fait ses débuts le 29 octobre, réplique le FTSE All-World Emerging index, et offre la possibilité d’investir dans des titres qui vont intégrer l’indice.L’investissement minimum dans le fonds au format Ucits a été fixé à 500 livres. Le total des frais sur encours (TER) est estimé à 0,99%.
La société de gestion alternative Blue Crest Capital Management doit liquider son fonds au format Ucits Blue Trend hébergé par Merrill Lynch Investment Solutions (MLIS).Selon Hedge Week, Blue Crest explique que les contraintes du format Ucits ont entraîné une tracking error cumulée de 3,5% au 30 septembre contre une tracking error attendue de 1 à 2%.Merrill Lynch et Blue Crest ont indiqué qu’ils allaient travailler ensemble pour proposer d’autres options d’investissement aux parties concernées.
Selon la Tribune, le Nasdaq chinois dont objectif était de faire naître des sociétés locales dans des secteurs stratégiques a permis l'émergence de nouvelles fortunes.400 personnes dont la fortune se monte à 1 milliard de yuans (environ 150 millions de dollars), grâce à des mises sur le marché de sociétés ont été recensées cette année. Et ChiNext a joué un rôle important dans le processus. Fonds de capital-investissement ou investisseurs individuels ont en effet pu s’affranchir des conditions de cotation plus exigeantes réclamées sur les marchés traditionnels de Shanghai et de Shenzhen. A savoir un historique de trois exercices au moins avant l’introduction, contre deux ans pour ChiNext. De surcroît, les sociétés cotées sur ChiNext affichent des niveaux de valorisation en moyenne trois fois plus élevés que ceux de Shanghai. D’où l’engouement des investisseurs pour les nouvelles mises sur le marchés, avec un montant total levé de 15 milliards de dollars sur un an.
A fin septembre, l’encours des sociétés de gestion chinoises ressortait à 2.400 milliards de yuans (358,2 milliards de dollars) contre 2.100 milliards (313,4 milliards de dollars) au 30 juin, selon les calculs de Z-Ben Advisors, qui s’attend à ce que la barre des 3.000 milliards de yuans soit atteinte à la fin de l’année.Les fonds d’actions et diversifiés ont enregistré une hausse de leurs actifs sous gestion supérieure à celle de 14 % enregistrée par l’indice CSI 300, mais cela a paradoxalement généré une augmentation des remboursements, les investisseurs préférant prendre leurs bénéfices. Au total, l’accroissement de l’encours a résulté de l’effet de marché et des 33 lancements de fonds. Si l’on fait abstraction des souscriptions drainées par les nouveaux produits, les fonds d’actions et diversifiés sont ceux qui ont le plus souffert en terme de sorties. Soochow s’est distingué avec une performance moyenne de 22,33 % durant le troisième trimestre pour l’ensemble de ses produits.L’analyse de Z-Ben Advisors montre que pratiquement toutes les sociétés de gestion ont accru leur exposition aux actions, pour arriver à une moyenne de 81 % fin septembre contre 71 % fin juin. Bank of Communications Schroders affiche une allocation particulièrement élevée aux actions, mais KBC Goldstate, Citic Prudential et Morgan Stanley Huaxin ont également augmenté de manière importante leur exposition à cette classe d’actifs.
Après la prise de la majorité du capital de Gávea Investimentos par J.P.Morgan Asset Management, via le gestionnaire alternatif américain Highbridge Capital Management (voir Newsmanagers du 27/10/2010), la société de gestion brésilienne spécialiste des hedge funds, du private equity et de la gestion de fortune conservera en l'état son équipe dirigeante. Celle-ci se compose du président et CIO Armino Fraga, ancien président de la Banque centrale du Brésil, de son frère Luiz Fraga, co-fondateur et co CIO/private equity, de Gabriel Srour, co-CIO pour les hedge funds, de Chrys Meyn, co-CIO/private equity et de l’administrateur délégué Amaury Bier, ancien secrétaire d’Etat à l’Economie au ministère des Finances du Brésil. Enfin, Marcelo Stallone restera à la tête de la division grandes fortunes (Gávea Gestão de Patrimônio).
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Artio Global Investors has reported net profits for third quarter to 30 September of USD23.8m, down 3% compared with second quarter 2010. The decline is 15% compared with third quarter 2009. Assets under management as of 30 September last year totalled USD53.9bn, down 3% compared with 30 September 2009 due to net outflows of USD1.4bn, partly offset by market effects.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } For the period to 30 September, Franklin Resources (Franklin Templeton Investments) announced net profits on 29 October of USD1.4457bn, compared with USD896.8m in the twelve months to the end of September 2009. For fourth quarter alone (June-September), profits totalled USD372.9m, compared with USD360.9m the previous quarter, and USD367.4m for the corresponding period of last year. Earnings in the period totalled USD5.853bn, compared with USD4.1941bn. As of 30 September, total assets for businesses of the group came to USD644.9bn, compared with USD570.5bn three months earlier, and USD523.4bn one year previously. Allocation to equities was 43% as of the end of September, compared with 41% at the end of June, and 47% at the end of September 2009. In the quarter to 30 September, net subscriptions totalled USD19.4bn, compared with USD18.8bn in April-June and USD12.2bn in the corresponding period of last year. For the period as a whole, net subscriptions totalled USD69.9bn, compared with net outflows of USD5.5bn for the twelve months to the end of September 2009.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In third quarter, net profits at Federated Investors totalled USD43.1m, compared with USD47.65m in April-June, and USD56.9m in the corresponding period of last year, putting net profits in the first nine months of the year at USD132.71m, compared with USD145.39m in January-September 2009. As of 30 September, total assets at Federated came to USD341.28bn, compared with USD336.84bn three months earlier (+1%), and USD392.3bn one year previously (-13%). Bond assets increased to USD40.17bn, compared with USD38.01bn as of the end of June and USD32.04bn as of the end of September 2009, while net subscriptions in January-September totalled USD2.4bn. Assets in equities funds and mandates increased to USD29.13bn, compared with USD26.81bn three months earlier, and USD29.12bn as of 30 September last year. Lastly, money market assets as of the end of September totalled USD260.9bn (of which USD233.61bn were in mutual funds), compared with USD260.52bn (USD231.2bn in mutual funds) one quarter earlier, and USD318.06bn (USD278.63bn in mutual funds) twelve months previously. Money market assets as of 30 September included about USD11bn transferred from SunTrust Bank towards the end of the quarter under review. By the end of 2010, Federated predicts that another USD3.5bn will come from SunTrust.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The international steering committee of the Edhec-Risk Institute (40 members) has taken on six new members. They are: - Christopher J. Ailman, ,CIO California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS)- Tai Tee Chia, CEO, Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC)- James C. Davis, vice president, Investment Planning & Economics Asset Mix & Risk, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP)- Mark Fawcett, CIO, NEST Corporation- Chong Tee Ong, deputy CEO, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)and Bruno de Pampelonne, president, Tikehau Investment Management.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In third quarter 2010, net profits for Oppenheimer Holdings were down to USD3.42m, from USD7.91m in the corresponding period of last year, putting the total for the first nine months of the year at USD21.79m, compared with USD13.02m. As of 30 September, assets administrated or managed by Oppenheimer totalled USD71.5bn, compared with USD74bn one year earlier, while assets under management for clients in fee-based programs represented about USD17.9bn, compared with USD15.4bn.
According to Financial News, Olympia Capital Management, a funds of hedge funds company based in Paris, is for sale. Sagard Private Equity Partners wants to sell its 45% stake which carries the majority of the voting rights, according to a person familiar with the situation.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Le Figaro reports that the US insurer AIG has announced that it has sold its US life insurance affiliate Alico to its rival MetLife for USD16.2bn. The sale price is USD700m above the price announced for the deal in March. MetLife paid USD7.2bn in cash and USD9bn in AIG shares.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Fidelity Investment Management has confirmed the departure of Zhan Long, managing director for China based in Hong Kong, and announced that a replacement will soon be named, Asian Investor reports. Long is reported to have been tapped to take up the position left vacant by the departure of the general manager at Bank of Communications Schroder Fund Management in Shanghai (BoCom Schroder). Assets under management at BoCom Schroder fell 40% in the first six months of the year to USD8.3bn.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The hedge fund management firm Cantillon Capital Management, founded in 2003 by William von Mueffling, formerly of Lazard Asset Management, attained USD10bn in assets due to the success of its policy of short-selling, the Wall Street Journal reports. But in June, Cantillon closed its hedge funds and redeemed USD3.5bn to subscribers, retaining only USD1bn in long-only assets. Since then, Cantillon has managed to attract investments from US and foreign pension funds and sovereign funds through returns of 21% since the beginning of the year, and assets now total over USD5bn. Subscribers were won over by the additional fact that Cantillon charges only 1.25% maximal management commissions, and no performance commissions. But von Mueffling says that he is considering limiting assets in the Cantillon Global Equity fund to USD7.5bn.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Asian Investor reports that Shinhan BNP Paribas Asset Management has opened sales of highly concentrated funds of South Korean equities, ahead of an expected return of local, retail and high net worth investors to the South Korean equities markets in 2011. Patrick Mange, co-deputy CEO of the joint venture in Seoul, admits that 2010 was a more difficult year than expected, in light of constant redemptions to retail investors in equities. According to available statistics, net outflows from South Korean equities funds have totalled over KRW9trn, or about USD7.9bn, since the beginning of the year.
JPMorgan Chase has confirmed that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether it allowed a hedge fund to improperly choose assets for a USD1.1 billion mortgage securities deal, writes USAToday.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 1 November, the German management firm Aberdeen Immobilien KAG announced that it had sold the Hürth Park shopping centre (63,000 square metres) near Cologne to an international consortium for EUR157.3m. The property, which since 1998 had belonged to the open-ended real estate fund DEGI Europa, whose gradual liquidation by September 2013 was recently announced (see Newsmanagers of 25 October), may have been at a price slightly below the most recent expert valuation of the property. Hürth Park alone represented 8% of the venal value of the portfolio, and the proceeds of the sale, after payment of outstanding credit is deducted, will increase the liquidity level in the fund by about 3 percentage points.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to the German BVI association of management firms, there are currently 860 white label funds with assets in EUR52bn, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. This formula has developed since the introduction of the flat tax (in 2006, there were barely over 400 funds). For two thirds of these funds, the adviser is a wealth management firm. The largest actor in this segment is Universal-Investment, with EUR14.5bn, followed by DWS Investment (Deutsche Bank) and Oppenheim Asset Management Services.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } From the beginning of 2011, Guy de Blonay will become principal manager of the Financial Opportunities fund (over GBP1bn in assets) at Jupiter, for which he has been second manager since 1 June (see Newsmanagers of 5 May), Fund Strategy reports. Philip Gibbs, who was principal manager, becomes second manager for the product, which has over 13 years of track record.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 1 November, RWC Partners confirmed that Peter Allwright and Stuart Frost, recently recruited fdrom Threadneedle (see Newsmanagers of 1 July) have taken over day-to-day management of the RWS Cautious Absolute Rate and Currency (ARC) fund, formerly known as the Strategic Reserve Fund, with assets of USD60m, which continues to have a performance objective of 300 basis points above cash over a market cycle. The fund offers daily liquidity, and complies with the UCITS III directive, with sales licenses in Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. It is available in currency-hedged shares in euros, Swiss francs, pounds Sterling and US dollars.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Legal & General Investment Managers (LGIM) has launched an emerging markets tracker fund, Investment Week reports. The Global Emerging Markets Index fund, managed by Robert Dowling, which debuted on 29 October, replicates the FTSE All-World Emerging index, and offers investors a way to invest in shares to be added to the index. Minimal investment in the UCITS format fund is set at GBP500. Total expense ratio (TER) is estimated at 0.99%.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The hedge fund management firm Blue Crest Capital Management will liquidate its UCITS fund Blue Trend, hosted by Merrill Lynch Investment Solutions (MLIS). Hedge Week reports that Blue Crest explains that the constraints of the UCITS format led to a cumulative tracking error of 3.5% as of 30 September, compared with an expected tracking error of 1% to 2%. Merrill Lynch and Blue Crest have said that they will work together to offer other investment options to affected parties.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } For January-September, Banco Popular has posted net profits of EUR521m, compared with EUR651m for the corresponding period last year. The operating ratio has degraded to 33.49%, compared with 29.06%. Assets in investment funds (Popular Gestión) as of the end of September totalled EUR7.05bn, compared with EUR8.03bn one year previously. However, assets in wealth management totalled EUR913.6m, compared with EUR876m at end-December and EUR883.6m at end-September ’09, while assets in pension funds totalled EUR4.12bn, compared with EUR4.19bn nine months earlier, and EUR4.12bn as of the end of September 2009.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The pension fund for the Dutch media industries, PNO, with assets under management of about EUR3bn, has announced that it has excluded the US business Wal-Mart from its investment universe for failure to respect the rights of employees. The pension fund has admitted failure, as it only took the exclusionary step after a policy of engagement and active participation in general shareholders’ meetings did not achieve the desired results. PNO follows the example of the Norwegian government pension fund, which put Wal-Mart on its blacklist in 2006.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Citywire reports that Lazard has decided to provisionally close its emerging markets strategies to new subscribers from 1 November, including the Lazard Emerging Markets Fund, domiciled in Dublin, whose net asset value totalled USD568.62m as of 30 September, and the Lazard Emerging Markets Fund, domiciled in London, whose net asset value totalled GBP788.56m. The funds are a part of the emerging market strategy from Lazard, which represents an aggregate net asset value of about GBP20bn. Alongside the provisional closures, Lazard has decided to modify its commission structure, increasing the minimal investment for institutional investors.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Janus has announced the launch of the Irish-registered fund Perkins Global Value Fund (IE00B45RV888 for institutional and IE00B4K9P323 for retail investors), a part of its Dublin-domiciled Janus Capital Funds range.The fund will invest worldwide in undervalued equities, relying on an investment process developed by Perkins Investment Management which gives top priority to management of risk of losses.The performance objective of the Perkins Global Value Fund (70-100 positions) is to outperform the MSCI World benchmark index over a complete market cycle, while limiting losses in difficult market conditions and earning good returns when market conditions are better.The sub-fund will be managed by Gregory Kolb, who until July 2010 was manager of the Janus Global Fundamental Equity Fund using a value approach.Management fees are 1.25% for retail shares (A class) and I% for the institutional share class (I). Janus fund distributors are permitted to charge a maximum of 6.25%.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The fourth annual study by PerTrac Financial Solutions of the performance of hedge funds finds htat in 2009, funds two years old or less earned average returns of 19.81%, compared with 18.65% for funds aged 2-4 years, and 19.80% for those more than four years old. The trend to outperformance for the youngest funds continues, but the differences are shrinking, probably because the number of hedge funds launched in 2008 and early 2009 was significantly lower. Small hedge funds (with up to USD100m) and mid-sized funds (USD100-500m) posted average returns of 19.78% and 20.18%, respectively, compared with 17% for those with over USD500m. This confirms a trend observed from January 1996 to December 2007, and offsets 2008, when the large funds lost only 14.10%, compared with 17.03% for small funds. However, Meredith Jones, director, strategic consulting at Barclays Capital, who collaborated on the study with PerTrac, says that potential performance often comes with high volatility. That could explain why in 2008, a year when all categories of funds saw losses, small funds were deeper in the red than mid-sized or large funds.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As of the end of June, the number of funds relying on services provided in Ireland totalled 6,116, compared with 6,098 last year, while corresponding assets came to USD1.4603trn, or EUR1.12922trn, an increase of 7.2% compared with USD1.3617trn in 2009, according to statistics from Lipper (Ireland Fund Encyclopaedia). The number of management firms with funds domiciled in Ireland increased to 388 from 358 in 2009, an increase of 31% over five years and 63% in the last ten years. BNY Mellon (USD270.4bn), State Street International (USD228.7bn), and J.P. Morgan (USD175.2bn) are the three largest fund administrators and also the largest custodians, with respective amounts under custody of USD260.3bn, USD237.1bn, and USD184.1bn. In terms of the largest fund promoters, the acquisition of Barclays Global Investors (BGI) put BlackRock in first place, with assets of USD187.4bn, ahead of Goldman Sachs with USD70.3bn, Pimco (Allianz Global Investors group) with USD48.8bn, and HSBC (USD48.6bn).
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Turkish securities commission (SPK) has opened an investigation of Mark Mobius, star manager and chairman of Templeton Asset Management, who on 12 October in Malaysia predicted a strong correction of 15-20% for the Turkish market by the end of the year. The next day, the fall materialised, with a drop of 3.1%. the heaviest decline in a single day of trading since 25 May, the Wall Street Journal reports. The investigation came following complaints from retail investors. This type of prediction is not in itself illegal. However, if the regulator can prove that Mobius knowingly made false and misleading statements and that, in addition, he was in a position to profit from a fall in Turkish share prices, he could face a fine.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As many as 45% of hedge fund managers in the United States and about 50% of managers in Europe and Asia say that at least one of their funds has not returned to its peaks before the crisis, according to the 2010 edition of the Greenwich Associates “Global Custodian Prime Brokerage Study.” Nearly 55% of US hedge funds participating in the study, and 35% to 40% of European and Asian hedge funds report an improvement of 20% or more in their returns in first quarter 2010 compared with first quarter 2009. For the world as a whole, nearly 70% of hedge funds earned returns of 11% or more for the year to first quarter 2010, while nine out of ten have positive returns in the same period. Another significant development revealed by Greenwich Associates is that leverage used by hedge funds remains well below pre-crisis levels. Despite this, there is a tendency to increase leverage. For the sector as a whole, average leverage ratios have increased from 1.8 in first quarter 2009 to 2 in first quarter 2010. This average includes among others leverage of 2.3 for hedge funds oriented to fixed income, compared with 2.2 previouusly, while leverage has increased from 1.7 to 1.9 for US hedge funds. But these levels are still well below the averages of 2.3 for the sector as a whole in 2007, or 3.4 for fixed income funds that year.