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08/10/2010

Government pension fund installs a strategy committee

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As a part of the 2011 budget, the Norwegian finance minister on 7 October announced that a new strategy council will be created for the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG, formerly known as the Oil Fund). The new structure, which will include four independent experts, will initially have as a task to write a report on the GPFG’s long-term investment policy by December 2010 at the latest. The board will be chaired this year by Elroy Dimson (London Business School). It will also include Antti Ilmanen (Brevan Howard), Øystein Stephansen (DnB NOR Markets) and Eva Liljeblom (Hanken School of Economics).
08/10/2010

Nomura launches a UCITS-compliant China fund

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Nomura has launched the Nomura C10 Fund, a UCITS III-compliant fund which aims to give investors directional exposure to Chinese economic growth. The algorithmic strategy, developed by fixed income research and structuring teams at Nomura, takes long positions each month on 10 liquid currencies, selected on the basis of the ratio of exports to China from each country as a percentage of GDP. The fund offers daily liquidity and is available in euros, US dollars or pounds Sterling, and is available to institutional and retail investors. It is already licensed for sale in Ireland, and will soon be registered in most major European countries.
08/10/2010

Merchant Capital launches a UCITS fund dedicated to natural resources

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Merchant Capital, a provider of UCITS hedge fund vehicles, is launching a third fund on its platform, Hedgeweek reports. The Merchant Global Resources UCITS Fund is an absolute return strategy dedicated to natural resources worldwide. It will be launched this month, and will have USD15m in assets under management, from European institutional and private investors. The strategy follows a top-down approach, with bottom-up analysis, to select 100 to 150 shares of the energy, mining, precious metals and agriculture sectors. The fund is aimed at European investors, IFAs, retail distribution chains, family offices, pension funds, funds of hedge funds, private clients and high net worth individuals (HNWI).
08/10/2010

High Dividend Selection fund from Pictet performing well

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The High Dividend Selection sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav Pictet Funds (see Newsmanagers of 14 and 21 June), launched on 14 May 2010, has already attracted EUR95m as of 6 October; the fund had EUR84m as of the end of September. The product is the UCITS-compliant version of a Japanese fund with USD11bn in assets, launched in 2005. Karen Kharmandarian, one of the managers of the product, stated on Thursday in Paris that Pictet will serve subscribers a minimum annual dividend of 4% (or 33 basis points per quarter), and that it will redistribute the remainder at the end of the fiscal year (30 September). Gross returns for the portfolio of about 70 positions currently (of which 86% are investment grade), with good visibility, are about 5 ½%, or a net 4.3-4.4%. The top 10 positions account for about 35% of the total, and the portfolio turnover rate is on a gradual increasing trend, towards 30%. The fund has the quadruple objective of offering higher returns than bonds, diversifying currencies of investments, investing worldwide, and providing good protection against inflation (due to automatic adjustment mechanisms). Pictet has chosen the infrastructure segment, and as benchmark index, the MSCI ACWI top 50% Yield EUR. Geographical diversification serves to minimise regulatory and political risks. Kharmandarian says the fund tends to underperform on strong markets, to be defensive and lose less on falling markets, and to outperform when prices oscillate at high amplitudes.
08/10/2010

Alan Hevesi pleads guilty in “Pay to Play” scandal

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The former Comptroller of the State of New York has ultimately decided to plead guilty to corruption charges related to the government pension fund, the Wall Street Journal reports. He has agreed to cooperate with the authorities investigating the “Pay to Play” scandal. On Thursday, Hevesi admitted to having negotiated access to the pension fund which he previously directed, in exchange for personal profit and political favours. Hevesi admitted that he had accepted nearly USD1m in the form of overseas travel, contribution to electoral campaigns, and other advantages for himself and those associated with him from a California asset management firm which received a USD250m mandate from the New York Common Retirement Fund. Hevesi was sole trustee of the fund.
08/10/2010

QVT sues Commerzbank

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The hedge fund management firm QVT has filed a suit in a Delaware court against Commerzbank, seeking USD68m in damages, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. Eurohypo, an affiliate of Commerzbank, in June refused to pay interest on USD226m invested by QVT in two subordinated Tier 1 issues placed in the United States, and dividend-right certificates held by QVT, on the grounds that Eurohypo ran at a loss in 2009. The European Commission forbids all banks which have received government assistance, which includes Commerzbank, from paying interest on hybrid capital if they show losses.
08/10/2010

Vanguard selects advisers for U.S. Growth

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Vanguard has selected Wellington Management Company and Delaware Investments as investment advisers for the management of its Vangurd U.S. Growth fund, which has USD3.7bn in assets. The two firms replace AllianceBernstein L.P., which had advised Vanguard on the product since 2001. Wellington Management advises a total of 19 mutual funds from Vanguard.
08/10/2010

Financial products sales: European consultation by the end of the year

The European Commission will open a consultation before the end of the year on proposed regulations which would cover all retail investment products, Sonia Cattarinussi, a member of the DG Market asset management team of the European Commission, announced on 7 October at the 9th annual asset management forum hosted by Agefi.The products are known by the acronym PRIPS (Package Retail Investment Products), which, Cattarinussi says, may lose the letter P, to become RIPS. These products would include collective management and some banking products, including stock market investment products and all or part of life insurance and retirement products.Precontractual information would be distributed in the KID format (the simplified prospectus containing key information for the investor) under UCITS IV, while for the second phase, advising at the point of sale, MiFID regulations now in course would form the basis for harmonisation.
08/10/2010

EU to limit bank bonuses

The Committee of European Banking Supervisors – made up of representatives of the 27 EU countries – plans tougher-than-expected restrictions on bankers’ pay, people familiar with the talks told the Financial Times. The group is due to issue draft regulations within days. The document calls on banks to set a maximum ratio between salary and bonuses.
08/10/2010

UBS Real Estate freezes redemptions from 3 Sector Real Estate Europe

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Die Welt reports that the Munich-based management firm UBS Real Estate KAG on 7 October announced a further freeze, for a period of one year, on redemptions from the open-ended real estate fund UBS (D) 3 Sector Real Estate Europe. Redemptions from the German-registered product (EUR364m) had already been frozen from October 2008 to October 2009. Redemption demands since the beginning of September have totalled EUR42m. The fund management firm says the outflows are due to the announcement of a new investment law which will require longer retention periods and a punitive charge on redemptions thereafter. In addition, the closure of an Allianz Global Investors real estate fund of funds to redemptions, and the announcement of the liquidation of the KanAm US grundinvest fund also triggered redemptions.
08/10/2010

Fidelity recruits a head from Invesco

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Fidelity International will soon announce the appointment of Deborah Seto, formerly of Invesco, as its new head of institutional client relationship management in Hong Kong, Asian Investor reports.
08/10/2010

Robeco adds to voting and engagement team

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Ali Ould Rouis, chairman of the managing board at the Franch Robeco Gestions, announced on 7 October at the second half-yearly SRI conference Robeco SAM Paris Forum that Robeco Rotterdam will soon increase the number of specialists in its engagement & voting team to 10, from 7 currently. Marc Olivier, a sustainability analyst at SAM, based in Zurich, says that the number of businesses responding to the questionnaire is increasing by more than 10% per year. However, for the 2010 issue of the Yearbook, 2,617 businesses were contacted, and only 698 filled the questionnaire. In total, SAM has analysed 1,393 businesses, of which 685 were reviewed solely on the basis of public information. Olivier explains that the rate of response is satisfactory, although it is relatively low due to a “fatigue effect” due to a rising number of questionnaires. Although SAM is virtually the only asset management firm to undertake such an effort, there are many specialists in other industries which contact companies, and the cost of these efforts could potentially be financially onerous for the latter.
08/10/2010

Daewoo Securities and Harcourt sign a strategic partnership

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Daewoo Securities and Harcourt Investment Consulting have signed a strategic partnership agreement. Daewoo Securities will assist the management firm to sell funds of hedge funds to South Korean investors. The two funds will also join forces to provide investment advising to a category of institutional clients.
08/10/2010

BBVA releases a fixed income guaranteed fund

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } BBVA Asset Management on 9 September launched Fon-Plazo 2014, a guaranteed fund which guaranteed 108.17% of the initial liquid value as of 15 November 2010 at maturity on 15 October 2014, which represents an effective overal rate of return of 2%. Minimal initial subscription is set at EUR600 (except for employees, pensioners, or pre-pensioners of the BBVA group). The fund, which offers daily liquidity, will invest in public debt repurchase agreements, assets on the money markets issued in euros by entities in OECD countries, among others. The average duration, from 15 November 2010, will be less than 3 months, and the average rating must be at least A- for 75% of the portfolio (the management team may allocate up to 25% of assets to papers rated BBB- to BBB+.Characteristics Name: BBVA Fon-Plazo 2014 C, FIISIN code: ES0113823001Front-end fee: 5%Penalty for exit before maturity: 1% (except at “liquidity windows”)Management commission: 0.1% (up to and including 15 November 2010) and 1.05% (from 16 November 2010).
08/10/2010

Natixis AM enters international fixed income

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Natixis Asset Management has created a department dedicated to international fixed income and currencies (see Agefi Weekly magazine of 7 October). The new team is directed by Brigitte Le Bris, who joined the firm at the beginning of October from Amundi (she was previously at SGAM). She is accompanied by Clothilde Malaussene and Sébastien Thénard.
08/10/2010

BlackRock hires a former CIO of OppenheimerFunds

Chris Leavy will join BlackRock as chief investment officer of U.S. fundamental equity – a newly created position. Most recently, he served as chief investment officer of equities at OppenheimerFunds. In his new role, Chris Leavy will be responsible for overseeing BlackRock’s USD150 billion U.S.-based fundamental equity business. He will report to Quintin Price, head of and global chief investment officer for fundamental equity.
08/10/2010

New CIO at OppneheimerFunds

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } OppenheimerFunds on 6 October announced the promotion of Art Steinmetz as chief investment officer. The New York firm has also announced the promotions of George Evans as director in charge of all equities investment teams, and Krishna Memani as director of fixed income. Steinmetz, who replaces Christopher Leavy, who has moved to BlackRock (see article elsewhere in today’s Newsmanagers), will have expanded responsibilities. He will continue to co-manage several funds (Oppenheimer International Bond Fund, Oppenheimer Global Strategic Income Fund and Oppenheimer Global Allocation Fund).
08/10/2010

Groupama AM adopts a new slogan

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Groupama Asset Management has adopted a new slogan: “Responsible management: our committment.” With this slogan the asset management firm “reaffirms its desire to be an actively responsible investor,” it explains in a press release. “This engagement goes beyond a simple publicity concept. It is part of the company’s DNA, and is carried by all teams at Groupama Asset Management,” says Francis Ailhaud, CEO of the asset management firm.
08/10/2010

Bankhaus Lampe in the running to acquire BHF

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } A spokesperson for the private bank Bankhaus Lampe (Oetker group) on 7 October confirmed that an offer to acquire BHF-Bank is under study, in cooperation with the private equity investor KKR, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Among the other three candidates to acquire the private and business bank which Deutsche Bank has put up for sale are LGT Bank and the private equity investor Apollo. BHF was previously owned by Sal. Oppenheim, which was acquired by Deutsche Bank. BHF employs 1,500 people, and manages over EUR40bn in assets. Its book value is estimated to EUR650m. Bankhaus Lampe has 600 employees and manages EUR14bn.
08/10/2010

Klaus Kaldemorgen (DWS) joins BVI board

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } A general meeting of the BVI association of management firms on 7 October elected Klaus Kaldemorgen, spokesman (president) of the executive committee at DWS, as a member of its board. He replaces Thomas Richter, a member of the executive committee at DWS, who has recently been appointed a member of the executive team at BVI, and who stepped down from the board of the association on 1 October.
08/10/2010

iShares recruits a new head of sales in Asia

According to Asian Investor, Sandra Lee will become Asia-Pacific head of sales in Hong Kong at iShares (BlackRock). She was previously regional deputy to Morgan Stanley IM’s Asia chief executive. Her predecessor was David Gardner, who relocated to Europe as head of Northern Europe and the Middle East in February.
08/10/2010

Aberdeen AM sells Scandinavian properties

Over the past few months, Aberdeen Asset Management has raised capital for several of its pooled funds in the Nordic region to a total value of EUR127 million. The funds in question are domestic funds in Finland, Norway and Denmark as well as the group’s Pan-Nordic fund, says a press release.
07/10/2010

Morningstar nomme un CEO pour ses activités en Australasie

Anthony Serhan, qui était managing director d’Ibbotson Associates Australia, une filiale de Morningstar, a été nommé CEO de Morningstar Australasia Pty Ltd, société dont il avait été auparavant le head of adviser and research. Il demeure director d’Ibbotson Associates Australia, qui sera désormais dirigée par Daniel Needham, lequel exerce depuis des années les fonctions de CIO.
07/10/2010

DBS Group pourrait céder ses activités de gestion d'actifs

La société basée à Singapour, DBS Group, pourrait selon plusieurs sources évoquées par Asian Investor, céder ses activités de gestion d’actifs logées dans DBS Asset Management ou les fusionner avec celles d’un partenaire stratégique.Parmi les candidats qui auraient déjà engagé des discussions figurent Nikko Asset Management ainsi qu’une société de gestion européenne. Les actifs sous gestion de DBS Asset Management s'élèvent actuellement à environ 20 milliards de dollars (26 milliards de dollars de Singapour).
07/10/2010
Fonds

Emeralt lance le hedge fund Opal sur la Russie et la CEI

La gamme de hedge funds centrée sur l’Europe de l’Est du suédois Emeralt Investments s’est enrichie du Opal, un produit long/short sur actions russes et de la CEI combinant sélection de valeurs et analyse macro, rapporte Hedge Week. Le fonds, qui bénéficie d’un important capital d’amorçage, sera géré par Johan Ekström, qui a réintégré Emeralt après un passage chez le russe Alfa Bank. Il sera investi dans des secteurs autres que le pétrole et le gaz. L’objectif est de générer une surperformance par rapport aux fonds long-only sur la Russie et aux fonds marchés émergents globaux.
Fonds
07/10/2010

Eaton Vance s'installe en Asie

La société de gestion basée à Boston Eaton Vance vient de recruter Rob White, précédemment chez Banquo Credit Management, en qualité de responsable de son nouveau bureau régional à Singapour.Selon Asian Investor, Eaton Vance compte bien entendu s’intéresser aux grands investisseurs institutionnels mais la société de gestion envisage aussi de développer ses activités sur une classe d’actifs moins traditionnelle, les prêts bancaires. Eaton Vance espère obtenir une licence pour exercer sur le marché des capitaux ainsi qu’un agrément de société de gestion d’ici à la fin de l’année.
07/10/2010

Une société de gestion asiatique est à vendre... une européenne sur les rangs

L’établissement asiatique DBS Group serait en négociations avancées pour vendre son activité de gestion d’actifs ou la fusionner avec un partenaire stratégique, selon plusieurs sources citées par Asian Investor.Selon le site Internet asiatique, au moins deux sociétés seraient sérieusement intéressées par DBS Asset Management, qui gère 20 milliards de dollars d’encours : le japonais Nikko Asset Management et une société de gestion européenne dont le nom n’a pas été dévoilé. Pour une société européenne, une acquisition serait intéressante car elle lui permettrait de se doter instantanément d’une plate-forme asiatique crédible.
07/10/2010

UBS renforce son équipe de gestion de fortune en Asie

UBS a renforcé son équipe dédiée au segment de la clientèle fortunée UHNW (ultra-high-net-worth) par le biais de promotions internes et de recrutements, selon Asian Investor.Amy Lo, actuellement responsable du marché de Hong Kong et du segment UHNW également à Hong Kong, a ainsi été nommée responsable du segment UHNW pour l’ensemble de la zone Asie-Pacifique. UBS a procédé à une promotion interne (Jean-Claude Humair) et à un recrutement (Francis Liu) pour assumer les fonctions d’Amy Lo à Hong Kong. Francis Liu, précédemment chez Bank of America Merrill Lynch, rejoindra UBS en décembre. Il travaillera en binôme avec Jean-Claude Humair, actuellement responsable de la gestion de fortune au Japon pour UBS.

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