Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) vient de lancer une nouvelle activité d’investissement dans l’immobilier «core». Elle portera sur l’investissement et la gestion d’actifs immobiliers de qualité, principalement aux Etats-Unis, pour le compte des clients de GSAM. Pour diriger cette activité, la société de gestion a recruté Jeffrey A. Barclay, lequel était précédemment chez ING Clarion Partners en tant que managing director. Il rejoindra GSAM en novembre 2010 et sera basé à New York.

Au troisième trimestre 2010, la division Asset Management de JPMorgan a enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 38 milliards de dollars, dont 27 milliards ont concerné des produits monétaires et 11 milliards des produits de long terme. Néanmoins, sur la période de 12 mois à fin septembre, la société accuse des rachats nets de 42 milliards de dollars. Les encours sous gestion sont ressortis à 1.300 milliards de dollars à fin septembre, soit un niveau stable par rapport à l’année précédente, en raison de sorties nettes sur les produits monétaires, qui ont été compensés par des souscriptions nettes sur les produits long terme et la hausse des marchés. Les actifs sous supervision sont de 1.800 milliards de dollars.L’activité gestion d’actifs de JPMorgan a dégagé au troisième trimestre un bénéfice net de 420 millions de dollars, en léger repli de 2 % par rapport à l’année précédente. Le revenu net est ressorti à 2,2 milliards de dollars, soit 4 % de plus que l’an passé. Cela se répartit entre 1,2 milliard pour la banque privée (+9 %), 506 millions pour l’institutionnel (-5 %) et 485 millions pour le retail (+3 %). A noter que la banque dans son ensemble a dégagé un bénéfice net en hausse de 23 % à 4,4 milliards de dollars au troisième trimestre.

Eaton Vance Management a annoncé le 12 octobre le lancement du Eaton Vance Richard Bernstein Multi-Market Equity Strategy Fund, un mutal fund de performance absolue qui est confié à Richard Bernstein, CEO et CIO de Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC (RBA), en tant que subadvisor. La stratégie de gestion combine les approches macro-économique (top-down) et une construction de portefeuille sur mesure fondée sur l'évaluation par RBA de toute une gamme d’indicateurs exclusifs ou non ainsi que sur l’analyse et le sentiment macro-économique du gestionnaire. Le portefeuille pourra être investi dans toutes les classes de capitalisation, en actions américaines ou étrangères, de pays développés ou émergents.La sélection de valeurs s’appuiera sur un filtrage quantitatif et une étape d’optimisation pour obtenir l’exposition désirée aux marchés tout en gérant le risque spécifique à chaque titre.

Lloyds, HSBC, Barclays, RBS, Standard Chartered et le Santander ont créé un fonds de 1,5 milliard de livres destiné au financement des petites et moyennes entreprises britanniques sous le parrainage de la British Bankers Association, rapporte Cinco Días. Cette initiative fait suite à la menace du gouvernement de restreindre les bonus si les crédits ne se fluidifient pas.

Allan Conway, head of global emerging market equities de Schroders, a déclaré à Paris le 13 octobre que même si les actions émergentes ont déjà gagné 15 % depuis le début de l’année, il croit que ces titres parviendront à réaliser une performance de 20-25 % pour l’ensemble de 2010, et la même à nouveau en 2011. Il souligne aussi que le ratio cours/bénéfice moyen de cette classe d’actifs, à douze mois, est de 11,2, alors que la moyenne de long terme se situe à 13,5, mais n’exclut pas que les multiples deviennent trop chers (17 à 18 fois) à l’horizon de 18 mois.Pour l’instant, en tous cas, Schroders -qui gère en direct à Londres 26 milliards de dollars en actions émergentes- a enregistré de très fortes souscriptions pour son fonds ISF Global Emerging Markets (GEM). Et Allan Conway a observé une évolution symptomatique : désormais les flux ne sont plus dominés par le retail mais par les investisseurs institutionnels. Les actions émergentes sont passées pour ces derniers du pari tactique à l’investissement stratégique, avec une couverture tactique.Le fonds BRIC a déjà fait l’objet d’un «soft-closing"(fermeture momentanée) à 9 milliards d’euros. Le même sort attend, sous quelques semaines, le Schroder ISF Global Emerging Markets Opportunities (GEMO), qui est le concentré (long-only) des meilleures idées du GEM, mais sans contrainte de benchmark et avec un objectif de performance de 15 % par an ainsi que la possibilité de monter à 30 % en cash et 30 % en obligations de pays développés sur un portefeuille concentré de 60 valeurs de 12 pays seulement (contre 120-130 valeurs et 20-25 pays pour le GEM).Depuis le début de cette année, le GEMO a en effet attiré environ 300 millions de dollars de souscriptions nettes, ce qui -avec l’effet de marché- a fait gonfler son encours de 500 millions, pour atteindre 1,2 milliard. Comme un gros investisseur a l’intention de «prendre un ticket» très important, les actifs sous gestion vont très vite atteindre le plafond de 1,5 milliard de dollars qui amènera Schroders à édicter un soft-closing (gel des souscriptions pour les nouveaux clients) pour ce fonds également.Interrogé sur ses projets d'élargissement de la gamme, Allan Conway a indiqué qu’il étudie la possibilité de lancer un fonds «frontière» qui reprendra pour 55-60 % les idées d’investissement du fonds Moyen-Orient (250 millions de dollars) lancé il y a trois ans. Ce sera vraisemblablement pour commencer un investment trust de droit britannique, qui pourrait voir le jour pour Noël ou au début de 2011. Il est aussi envisagé une version luxembourgeoise de ce produit, mais il faut préparer le terrain et réunir les premiers investisseurs potentiels avant de lancer l’opération.

Standard Life Investments (SLI) a annoncé le 13 octobre avoir emporté l’appel d’offres pour gérer une poche de 25 % du fonds UBS PACE Alternative Strategies Investments, ce qui correspond à 116,5 millions de dollars. La méthodologie de gestion utilisée pour ce mandat par SLI sera celle dite «Global Absolute Return Strategies» (GARS). L’objectif consiste à générer une performance absolue similaire à celle attendue des actions sur le long terme, mais avec un budget de risque significativement inférieur, avec une approche multi classes d’actifs et multi marchés combinant des sources de performance traditionnelles et non traditionnelles.Actuellement, les portefeuilles GARS affichent plus de 8 milliards de dollars d’encours (30 août) pour le compte de 260 clients institutionnels. La stratégie a produit des performances annualisées brutes de 10,75 % sur les trois dernières années, avec une volatilité de 6,4 %. Pendant le même temps, l’indice MSCI world TR GBP a perdu 1,26 % par an avec une volatilité de 20,33 %.

Le 16 août 2010, Bank of America Merrill Lynch a obtenu du régulateur irlandais l’agrément de commercialisation de la sicav de droit local BofAML Invest Funds Plc, avec les compartiments de matières premières MCLX Agriculture Optimal Crop Fund et MLCX Commodity Alpha Fund. Désormais, cette sicav coordonnée est aussi enregistrée pour la vente en Espagne, avec le visa de la CNMV.

Le régulateur boursier espagnol, CNMV, a enregistré au 8 octobre trois fonds de droit français d’Aviva Investors, à savoir Aviva Investors Crédit Europe, Aviva Investors Monétaire et Aviva Investors Valeurs Europe. Ces produits seront commercialisés en Espagne par Aviva Investors Global Services Ltd, succursale espagnole.

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) annonce ce mercredi la nomination de Marco Fusco au poste de directeur général des activités de SSgA en France. Il remplace Carl Bangs, qui va poursuivre de nouveaux projets professionnels au Canada. L’intéressé rapportera à Greg Ehret, directeur des activités de SSgA pour la région EMEA (Europe, Moyen-Orient et Afrique). Marco Fusco a rejoint SSgA en 2007. Il assumait dernièrement les fonctions de directeur général de SSgA en Italie, responsable de l’Intermediary Business Group pour l’Europe du sud. Avant de rejoindre SSgA, il a été responsable des activités de conseil et de distribution pour le marché institutionnel au sein d’AXA Investment Managers et a occupé différents postes de direction chez ING Investment Managers et Paribas.

Allan Conway, head of global emerging market equities at Schroders (USD26bn in assets under direct management), announced in Paris on 13 October that the British management firm has posted very strong subscriptions to its ISF Global Emerging Markets (GEM) fund. In this case he observes a development which he considers symptomatic: flows are no longer dominated by retail, but instead by institutional investors. Emerging market equities have become a strategic rather than a tactical investment for these clients, with a tactical overlay.The BRIC fund has already had a soft closing at EUR9bn. In a few weeks, the same fate attends the ISF Global Emerging Markets Opportunities (GEMO), which is a concentrated, long-only collection of the best ideas from GEM, without the constraints of a benchmark and with a performance objective of 15% per year, and the ability to increase exposure to 30% cash and 30% developed market bonds, in a concentrated portfolio of 60 positions from only 12 countries (compared with 120-130 shares and 20-25 countries for the GEM).Since the beginning of this year, the GEMO fund has attracted about USD300m in net subscriptions, which, with market appreciation, has increased its assets by USD500m, to USD1.2bn. Because a major investor is planning to make a large investment in the fund, assets under management are expected to rapidly reach USD1.5bn, which will lead Schroders to announce a soft closing for this fund as well.When asked about plans to extend the product range, Conway says that the firm is studying the possibility of launching a frontier fund, which will carry over 55-60% of the investment ideas of the Middle East fund (USD250m), launched three years ago. The product will likely initially be a British-registered investment trust, which may open at Christmas time or in early 2011. There are also plans for a Luxembourg-registered version of the product, but the terrain must be prepared, bringing together the first potential investors before the operation begins.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } M&G Investments has launched an inflation-linked bond fund, co-managed by Jim Leaviss and Ben Lord, Money Marketing reports. Among the 150 names in the portfolio are direct participations in over 30 issuers, including Tesco, Thames Water and Toyota.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 16 August 2010, Bank of America Merrill Lynch obtained a sales license from the Irish regulator for its locally domiciled Sicav BofAML Invest Funds Plc, including the commodities sub-funds MCLX Agriculture Optimal Crop Fund and MLCX Commodity Alpha Fund. The UCITS-compliant Sicav is now also registered for sale in Spain, with a license from the CNMV.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Standard Life Investments (SLI) announced on 13 October that it has won a RFP to sub-advise a 25% allocation from the UBS PACE Alternative Strategies Investments fund, which comes out to USD116.5m. The management methodology used for the SLI mandate will be the technique known as Global Absolute Return Strategies (GARS). The objective is to generate absolute returns similar to those expected from equities over the long term, but with a significantly lower risk budget, with a multi-asset class, multi-market approach that combines traditional and non-traditional sources of performance. Currently, GARS Portfolios have over USD8bn in assets (30 August), on behalf of 260 institutional clients. The strategy has produced gross annualised returns of 10.75% over the past three years, with volatility of 6.4%. Over the same period, the MSCI World TR GBP index lost 1.26% per year, with volatility of 20.33%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Convertible bonds are apparently so complex that German management firms are not investing in them, the Frankfurer Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Aside from DWS (Deutsche Bank), only Union Investment (co-operative banks) has a fund of respectable size. This is all the more surprising since convertibles appear to be designed specially for German investors, who are averse to risk. The DWS Convertibles, with assets of nearly EUR1bn, is highly invested in the United States (Gilead Sciences, Intel, Symantec), where there is a richer vein on offer. In Germany, its largest position is on Qiagen. Among the few management firms to invest exclusively in European convertibles are Flossbach von Storch, but with only EUR27.5m, it is necessarily more agile.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On Wednesday, 13 October, EU member states failed to reach agreement on the hedge fund directive (see previous editions of Newsmanagers), and it will now devolve on the finance ministers of the 27 member states to debate the bill next Tuesday, Agefi reports. At the monthly meeting of the Ecofin council in Luxembourg, they will be required to reach a consensus in order for Europe to present its legislation at the G20 summit in Seoul on 12 November.

Despite the slowdown in economic growth, sustainable and responsible investment (SRI) has grown considerably in the past two years. According to the most recent edition of the Eurosif annual study, “European SRI Study 2010,” assets under SRI management have increased from EUR2.7trn as of the end of 2007 to EUR5trn as of the end of 2009, an increase of about 87% in the space of two years. The financial crisis probably contributed to this evolution, as it revealed to investors the importance of taking ESG criteria into account, and accentuated demand for transparent products.The study, undertaken with the cooperation of Ideam Amundi Group, BNP Paribas Investment Partners, Crédit Agricole Cheuvreux and Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management, finds that the “core SRI” segment, which includes normative exclusions based on value or other types of positive selection, totals EUR1.2trn, while “broad SRI” (simple exclusion, engagement and integration approaches) weigh in at EUR3.8trn.The study confirms that the market continues to be dominated by institutional investors, who represent 66% of total assets under management, but the proportion from retail investors has increased in virtually all the countries covered by the study.The preferred asset class for SRI investors is now bonds, which account for 53%, compared with 33% for equities.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to IPE.com, Rudolf Apenbrink has been appointed CEO of the European division of HSBC Asset Management, following the promotion of Joanna Munro to the position of CEO for Asia-Pacific, a position which he had previously occupied.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swiss private bank Vontobel has opened its new Italian offices on Piazza Affari, the square on which the Milan stock exchange is located. It is also strengthening its private banking team, led by Stefano Calvi, with the addition of 5 new members, 3 of them are private bankers. Massimo Verduci and Ganluca Landi, who join from Banca Passatore, will develop relations with private clients. Alessandro degli Alessandri will focus on ultra high net worth clients in central Italy.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Eaton Vance Management on 12 October announced the launch of the Eaton Vance Richard Bernstein Multi-Market Equity Strategy Fund, an absolute return mutual fund which will be managed by Richard Bernstein, CEO and CIO of Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC (RBA) as sub-advisor. The management strategy combines top-down and customized portfolio construction approaches based on evaluation of a full range of exclusive and non-exclusive indicators by RBA, as well as analysis and the macroeconomic sentiment of the manager. The portfolio may invest in all cap sizes, in US or international equities, from emerging or developed markets. Stock-picking will be based on quantitative filtering and an optimisation stage to achieve the desired market exposure while managing risks specific to each position.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Citywire reports that Michael Clements on 1 October took over management of the Franklin European Growth fund, previously managed by Edwin Lugo. Lugo will continue to advise the fund.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to a report by Plus24, the money supplement of Il Sole – 24 Ore, and Interactive Data Kler, of Italian-registered funds, in 2009, asset management firms paid their distribution channels commissions of over EUR1.4bn out of EUR2bn in management fees. This amounts to an average of 71.44%. The fund management companies who are most generous with their distributors are banking affiliates. At the top of the rankings is Amundi Sgr, which pays out an average of 84% in commissions to its networks.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to sources familiar with the matter, Steven Rattner, a donor to the Democratic party and supervisor of the automotive industry restructuring program rolled out by the Obama administration, is said to be close to an agreement with the SEC in the corruption controversy known as the “pay to play” scandal, involving the New York state pension fund, the Wall Street Journal reports. He would agree to pay about USD6m and be ruled out of all professional ties with securities trading for two years.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management is launching a new core real estate investment business and it has hired Jeffrey A. Barclay to lead the effort. This new business will focus on investing in and managing core and core plus real estate assets primarily in the US on behalf of GSAM’s clients. Jeffrey Barclay will join GSAM from ING Clarion Partners, where he most recently served as managing director. He is expected to join GSAM in November 2010 and will be based in New York.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Marina Lewin, who joined BNY Mellon in 2000, and Steve Farlese, who has 15 years of seniority in the company, were promoted on 13 October to the newly-created global management positions at BNY Mellon Alternative Investment Services (AIS, USD350bn in assets under administration), as head of global sales and head of global service delivery, respectively. Lewin will be in charge of development teams worldwide for the full range of AIS activities, including hedge funds, private equity, and fund of fund administration and custody. Farlese will be in charge of all aspects of global AIS activities, including production of net asset value, investment services, portfolio accounting, and other operational communications to clients for single manager products, funds of funds and private equity funds.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } L’Agefi Hedbo reports that Natixis Global Asset Mangaement (NGAM) is going to buy a 51% stake in Ossiam, a French boutique dedicated to exchange-traded funds, for EUR2.8m. The chairman of the company, Bruno Poulin, was deputy chief investment officer and head of quantitative research at Systeia Capital Management, a former unit of Crédit Agricole Asset Management. Ossiam will offer 50 ETFs in three years, for which NGAM is aiming for EUR5bn in inflows over that time, the Agefi weekly newspaper reports.

Currently, Amundi Asset Management employs two managers and three analysts in London to manage its emerging market debt portfolio. Direct assets total EUR600m, of which EUR150m are net subscriptions since the beginning of the year, while EUR300m are in indirect allocations such as global funds, Thomas Delabre, co-manager of the Amundi Global Emergents fund announced on Wednesday.The three funds, Amundi Global Emergents and Amundi Oblig Emergents funds, registered in France, and the Amundi Funds Emerging Market Debt (a Luxembourg-registered UCITS-compliant product), have posted returns of about 20% since the beginning of this year. They are authorised to short currencies, but are long-only on bonds.The three highly actively managed products, one of which is a hybrid fund of local/external debt, while two are specialised in external debt, are about 30% invested in corporate bonds (including state-owned companies, such as the Venezuelan PVDSA), as for example in bond issues from Indonesian mining companies, Kazakh banks, and Mexican home-builders.The range is expected to grow, and the London-based team is planning to launch a pure local debt fund.

F&C will vote against the re-election of News Corp’s audit committee chairman at its annual meeting on Friday to oppose the group’s million-dollar political donations to the Republican Governors Association and the US Chamber of Commerce, writes the Financial Times. The UK asset manager holds a stake worth about USD1.1m in News Corp, which has a USD36.5bn market capitalisation.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) on Wednesday announced the appointment of Marco Fusco as CEO of the French activities of SSgA. He replaces Carl Bang, who is leaving to pursue new professional projects in Canada. Fusco joined SSgA in 2007. He most recently serves as CEO of SSgA in Italy, and head of the Intermediary Business Group for Southern Europe.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Schroders has announced the recruitment of Martha Metcalf to the position of high yield manager in its fixed income team in the United States. She was previously director of the US High Yield department at Credit Suisse in New York. Metcalf has 22 years of experience in high yield and emerging markets management, a statement says.

At an auction held by the liquidator, AmpegaGerling Asset Management GmbH (EUR84bn) won a 32.59% stake in the German-Austrian management firm C-Quadrat Investment AG which had previously belonged to the AvW AG group, and which had been held by Capital Bank since AvW encountered financial difficulties, at a price of EUR12.60 per share (reserve price: EUR12.50).As the stake in question represented slightly over 1.42 million shares, the price paid by AmpegaGerling comes to EUR17.92m. Compared with the EUR4.9bn in total assets at C-Quadrat (EUR4.9bn, of which EUR3bn are in asset management), this represents a price equivalent to 1.1% of assets.The transaction is still on hold pending approval from the Austrian financial market supervisory authority (FMA). However, the board of C-Quadrat has welcomed AmpegaGerling’s engagement, calling the firm a “strategic partner for the long term,” with which the business has worked for several years.