Stéphane de Saint Hilaire et Jean-François Bouilly, respectivement président et CIO de Latitude Capital Management affichent leurs ambitions. Spécialistes à l’origine des actions japonaises, ils ont lancé fin 2009 un fonds diversifié Ucits III avec un objectif de performance absolue sur un horizon de 24 mois : Euro Market Neutral (ISIN : FR0010815886). Avec une idée simple tirée justement de l’expérience japonaise : ne pas se soumettre à la dictature du marché (haussier au Japon en 1985 et 1990 mais durablement baissier entre 1990 et 2010, avec une division par quatre de la valeur des actions sur la période).Fort des bonnes performances réalisées par ce fonds investi sur les actions de la zone euro (+2,70% depuis le début de l’année pour un encours de 2,9 millions d’euros et une volatilité d’un peu plus de 2%), et pour répondre à la demande croissante en provenance des institutionnels, multigérants, gérant privés et family offices, Latitude, dont BNP Paribas détient 24% du capital, a mis en place des accords avec deux third party marketers indépendants. François Gazier, ancien responsable de l’offre chez Robeco est ainsi en charge du développement commercial auprès de la multigestion classique, des family offices de la gestion privée des banques et des CGPI. De son côté, Antoine Durieu, fondateur d’Elea Capital, se concentrera sur la commercialisation auprès des institutionnels et de la multigestion alternative.La stratégie sur les actions européennes proposée par Latitude est la réplication d’une stratégie historique Japon lancée en 2006, Latitude Alpha (ISIN : FR0010266734), dont les actifs sous gestion s'élèvent à près de 12 millions d’euros et qui, malgré la crise financière, a dégagé des performances positives (2,2% en 2007, 7,7% en 2008 et 2,6% en 2009).Selon François Gazier, «le modèle propriétaire de gestion de Latitude a prouvé sa pertinence avec trois années de performances positives consécutives. Ma conviction est d’autant plus forte qu’Euro Market Neutral rend cette stratégie accessible dans le cadre de l'éligibilité au PEA et avec une liquidité quotidienne». «Nous sommes agnostiques. Nous n’avons pas de biais value ou croissance mais nous voulons savoir ce que veut le marché», souligne Jean-François Bouilly qui indique que le modèle propriétaire de Latitude se fonde sur l’analyse systématique de près d’une cinquantaine de facteurs. Avec l’objectif de «la recherche d’un alpha pur, indépendant des aléas et perturbations que subissent les marchés». Et l'élargissement de la clientèle française pourrait aussi se décliner ultérieurement à l’international, avec la commercialisation active de Latitude Alpha en Asie, au Japon, à Hong Kong et Singapour. Un retour aux sources pour les deux créateurs de Latitude Capital Management…

La Fédération bancaire française (FBF) a indiqué le 13 juillet que François Pérol, président du directoire du groupe BPCE, allait prendre la succession de Baudoin Prot, administrateur directeur général de BNP Paribas, à la tête de l’association professionnelle pour une durée d’un an à compter du 1er septembre 2010.Dans le même temps, le président directeur général de la Société Générale devient vice-président de la FBF. Les autres membres du Comité exécutif sont Jean-Paul Chifflet, directeur général de Crédit Agricole SA, Pierre Mariani, chief executive officer and chairman of the management board of Dexia SA et Etienne Pflimlin, président de la Confédération nationale du Crédit Mutuel. Par ailleurs, Baudouin Prot reste président de l’Association française des banques (AFB), l’organisme professionnel des banques commerciales dans le domaine social.

Le groupe Aegon a annoncé le 13 juillet la nomination de Sarah Russell en qualité de CEO de son activité de gestion d’actifs Aegon AM qui représente quelque 200 milliards d’euros d’actifs sous gestion.Sarah Russell, précédemment CEO d’ABN Amro AM, prend la succession de Erik van Houvelingen, qui souhaite poursuivre d’autres intérêts. Elle prendra ses fonctions le 1er août.

L’ancien patron de la gestion privée de la région de Francfort chez Deutsche Bank a rejoint Credit Suisse Deutschland comme directeur des activités au profit des particuliers très haut de gamme (UNHWI). Il succède à Wulf Matthias (65 ans) et a été remplacé à la Deutsche Bank par Daniel Hoster qui était dans la pratique en fonctions depuis mai.

La société de gestion colonaise Monega, filiale commune de DEVK, des banques Sparda et de Sal. Oppenheim créée en 1999, a désormais atteint 5,1 milliards d’euros d’encours pour ses fonds offerts au public sur mesures pour les institutionnels (Partnerfonds) et ses fonds institutionnels (Spezialfonds). Monega gère actuellement 15 Partnerfonds, dont cinq ont été lancés ces douze derniers mois, dont un produit de développement durable lancé pour la Sparda Bank de Munich et conseillé par Sarasin.

Le fonds de droit luxembourgeois Mandarine Unique R (LU0489687243) qui affichait au 12 juillet un encours de 18 millions d’euros, a obtenu son agrément de commercialisation en Allemagne par la BaFin le 16 juin. Ce fonds lancé le 29 mars 2010 investit en petites et moyennes valeurs européennes, sélectionnant des sociétés avec des business models uniques, présentes sur des niches avec des parts de marché mondial importantes.

Le gestionnaire d’actifs du LGT Group du Liechtenstein, LGT Capital Management, a ouvert mercredi sa première succursale commerciale en Europe hors Suisse à Francfort. Elle est dirigée par Marcus Perschke, qui était jusqu'à présent directeur de la distribution de M&G International Investments pour l’Allemagne.

Jörg Knaf, managing director de Natixis Global Associates (NGA) pour l’Allemagne et directeur de la distribution pour l’Allemagne, l’Autriche ainsi que la Suisse, le Benelux et la Scandinavie, reçoit du renfort. NGA a en effet recruté comme directeur de la distribution institutionnelle pour l’Allemagne Viktor Paul Pospiech, qui était directeur de la distribution et porte-parole du gestionnaire zurichois de hedge funds FiveT Capital. Il travaillera aux côtés de Tina Reinle, directeur de la distribution «wholesale».

Janus Capital International a annoncé le recrutement de Steven Bilodeau dans son équipe de ventes aux établissements financiers pour l’Europe germanophone (Allemagne, Autriche, Suisse). L’intéressé, qui doit être basé à Munich, était jusqu'à présent sales manager chez Threadneedle pour l’Allemagne. Il travaillera aux côtés de Thomas Doring et sera subordonné à Michael Jones, head of financial institutions pour l’Europe. Il sera chargé du développement de la clientèle parmi les gérants de fonds de fonds, les compagnies d’assurances, les caisses d'épargne, les banques populaires ainsi que les banques privées.

Generali Investments Deutschland vient d’annoncer la nomination de Mike Althaus au poste nouvellement créé de responsable de la distribution au travers des réseaux du groupe Generali en Allemagne.Mike Althaus travaille chez Generali depuis plus d’une dizaine d’années.

The US management firm Pimco (Allianz Global Investors) on Tuesday unveiled the government bond indices PIMCO Global Advantage Government Bond (GLADI Government) and PIMCO Global Advantage – European Government Bond, calculated by Markit. The unique aspect of the new indices is that they are weighted by GDP and not according to market capitalisation, which would make countries with large quantities of debt the most heavily weighted. The GLADI Government index covers all international investment-grade rated government bond markets, while the PIMCO Global Advantage – European Government Bond index covers government bonds issued by Euro zone member states.

According to statistics from the CSSF published on Tuesday, total net assets in collective investment organisms and specialised investment funds (SIFs) format as of the end of May totalled EUR1.99241trn, compared with EUR2.01289trn as of 30 April, which represents a decline of EUR20.47bn, or 1.02%, in one month. However, over one year, assets under management have increased by slightly over 23%. EUR5.62bn of the decline in assets in May is due to negative market effects, and EUR14.86bn is due to net redemptions.

The Aegon group announced on 13 July that it had appointed Sarah Russell as CEO of its asset management activity Aegon AM, which represents about EUR200bn in assets under management. Sarah Russell, previously CEO of ABN Amro AM, succeeds Erik van Houvelingen, who is leaving to pursue other interests. She will begin in the position on 1 August.

According to a study by the law firm Sutherland Asbill & Brennan of disciplinary measures and fines mentioned in the monthly reports of the Financial Regulatory Authority (Finra), penalties levelled against mutual funds last year represented about USD12m, out of total funds of nearly USD50m (compared with USD28m in 2008), the Wall Street Journal reports. In addition, suitability allegations which in some cases have also affected mutual funds led to fines of USD11.9m. These results do not match up well with the publicly announced intentions of Finra to give top priority to cases related to elderly clients, hedge funds, and Ponzi schemes. However, Brian Rubin, a partner at Sutherland, says these themes were not at the top of the list of fines in 2009 since enquiries take one to three years to conclude. Finra was created in 2007, out of the former NASD and the regulation division of NYSE.

The French banking federation (FBF) on 13 July announced that François Pérol, chairman of the board at the BPCE group, will succeed Baudoin Prot, director and CEO of BNP Paribas, as head of the professional association, for a period of one year, beginning on 1 September 2010. At the same time, the chairman and CEO of Société Générale becomes vice president of the FBF. The other members of the executive committee are Jean-Paul Chifflet, CEO of Crédit Agricole SA; Pierre Mariani, chief executive officer and chairman of the management board of Dexia SA; and Etienne Pfimlin, chairman of the national confederation at Crédit Mutuel. Prot will remain as president of the French banking association (AFB), the professional organisation for commercial banks in the social domain.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) on 12 July announced the appointment of Michael Kushma as chief investment officer for the Global Fixed Income unit. In his new role, Kushma will be in charge of all bond strategies at MSIM. Kushma is currently co-head of the Global and European fixed income team, which manages about USD25bn in assets. As of 31 March this year, assets under management at MSIM (United States, Global and European fixed income) totalled about USD56bn.

Retail assets under management at Morgan Stanley acquired by Invesco on 1 June represent USD114.6bn in total. Invesco had assets as of 30 June of USD557.7bn, of which USD478.6bn were for equities, bond, balanced, money market and hedge funds, compared with USD379.1bn at the end of May, while assets in ETFs, UITs, and passive funds totalled USD79.1bn, compared with USD50.9bn. Invesco states that the fall on the financial markets has reduced assets under management, but that this impact was partially offset by positive currency effects of USD2.2bn. The management firm states that net inflows were “strongly positive.”

At a presentation of his analysis of the economic situation, Frédéric Leroux global manager and director of risk management at Carmignac Patrimoine, said the firm has responded to the crisis by adopting a prudent attitude, in particular by reducing exposure to equities in second quarter, and making use of futures on European and US indices and short positions on sectoral indices of the European banking sector. In bonds, the French asset management firm has steered clear of “second-class” government debt, in preference to German bunds and US Treasuries.

David Fisher, head of global product management at Pimco (Allianz Global Investors group), has stated that the asset management firm based in California does not expect any default in Europe, but that it has reduced its exposure to European debt, and is investing in US Treasuries, even though the returns are lower, the Wall Street Journal reports. The main worry spots for Pimco are the countries on the periphery of Europe (Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece), as well as Japan, while the bright lights are China, South Korea, Mexico and Brazil among emerging countries, and Canada and Australia among developed countries.

As of 30 June, assets under management at Legg Mason were down to USD645.4bn from USD684.5bn as of the end of March, and USD681.6bn as of the end of December. They were also down from the USD656.9bn recorded at the end of June 2009.

Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BMA) on Tuesday announced that it has admitted nine ETFs from Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale) to trading, bringing the number of funds listed on the corresponding segment of the Madrid stock exchange to 41, of which 33 are Lyxor products, and the other 8 are products from BBVA. The average management commission for the newly-listed funds is 0.35%. The new products are the following: Lyxor ETF Stoxx Europe 600 Telecommunications Lyxor ETF Stoxx Europe 600 Health Care Lyxor ETF Stoxx Europe 600 Utilities Lyxor ETF Stoxx Europe 600 Oil & Gas Lyxor ETF MSCI World Lyxor ETF MSCI Europe Lyxor ETF MSCI USA Real Estate Lyxor ETF MSCI Ac Asia Ex Japan Real Estate Lyxor ETF Euromts AAA Government Bond

On 9 June, UBS registered the Irish-domiciled UCITS-compliant Sicav fund LSAM SF 1 Plc with the CNMV, including the V10 Enhanced FX Carry Strategy Fund (IE00B613ZC61), a specialised carry-trade sub-fund which invests in currencies of G10 countries and may take long and short positions on a basket of currency futures with a volatility feature which alerts managers in extreme situations. The product replicates the evolution of the UBS V10 Fund TR index. Minimal subscription is 10 EUR100 shares for retail investors, and 1,000 shares for institutional investors. Management commission is 2.25% for retail clients and 1.25% for institutionals.

Fund Strategy reports that Epic Asset Management has launched a UCITS III-compliant international bond fund which aims to invest in corporate, international and government bonds. The vehicle, listed in Dublin, is the first open-ended fund available to bond retail and institutional investors. The two managers of the fund, Adam Tyrell and Achilles Sofroniou, will invest in debt from OECD countries in particular. The allocation to currencies other than pounds Sterling not hedged for currency risks may not exceed 15% of the value of the fund. Gross returns may come to about 4%, and returns at maturity 3.3%, on the basis of a portfolio duration of 3.7 years. Front-end fees have been set at 3%, and management commission at 0.95% per year.

According to the most recent statistics from Lipper FMI, European funds in May saw net redemptions of EUR17.7bn, due to net outflows from equities and money market funds. The agency notes in particular EUR6bn in net redemptions from French money market funds, related to cyclical withdrawals which came sooner than usual. Net outflows for equities funds were limited to EUR1.6bn, due to the good health of the sector in Germany. European equities funds were the worst affected, with outflows of EUR4.8bn, while China and Japan funds were next on the list of redemptions. Lipper FMI states that BlackRock was the fund management firm that saw the most net subscriptions, with EUR5.5bn. It also leads for net inflows to its equities products, with EUR4.7bn. In terms of bond and diversified funds, the two managers to have seen the largest net inflows were Franklin Templeton and Carmignac, respectively.

According to statistics from the European asset management federation (Efama), UCITS funds in May saw net outflows of EUR23bn. For the first time since March 2009, long-term funds (excluding money markets) finished the month with net outflows of EUR8bn. In the first five months of the year, long-term UCITS funds posted net inflows of EUR108bn. In another first since March 2009, long-term funds (excluding money markets) finished the month with net outflows of EUR8bn. In the first five months of the year, long-term UCITS funds posted net inflows of EUR108bn. Also a first since March 2009, equities and bond funds finished the month with net outflows of EUR11bn and EUR2bn, respectively. This development is related to fears about investments in European government debt and the risks of contagion for the global economy. Diversified funds and dedicated funds nonetheless continued to attract investors, with net inflows of EUR3bn and EUR4bn, respectively. Money market funds lost EUR14bn in May, after outflows of EUR7bn in April.

The New York management firm Global X Funds on 8 July launched the Global X Brazil Consumer ETF (acronym BRAQ) on the Arca platform from NYSE. The product claims to be the first ETF to provide targeted access to shares of the Brazilian consumer goods sector. It replicates the Solactive Brazil Consumer Index, whose three largest components are AmBev, JBS and Natura Cosmeticos. The Brazilian ETF range from Global X includes five other products. The new product charges a management commission of 0.77%. For its part, HSBC ETF Plc on 13 July launched the Irish UCITS-compliant fund HSBC MSCI BRAZIL ETF (IE00B5W34K94), a physical replication ETF with a TER of 0.60%. As its name indicates, the new product replicates the MSCI Brazil index. It is listed in US dollars, and is licensed for sale in the United Kingdom.

The hedge fund index calculated by Hennessee was up 0.20% in first half, as markets had their worst half since 2008. The S&P 500 was down 7.57%, the Dow Jones by 6.27%, and the Nasdaq Composite by 7.05%. Among the various strategies, the Arbitrage/Event Driven index gained 3.21% since the beginning of the year, while Long/Short Equity was down 0.14%. Fixed income gained 5.69% in first half, while the European index lost 6.46%.

Since the beginning of the year, hedge funds have posted average returns of near zero, according to the specialised consulting firm Eurekahedge. Funds specialised in distressed bonds and debt, however, did well. In first half, funds specialised in recycling distressed debt, such as debts thought to be unrecoverable, gained 6.42%. Bond funds did not disappoint, with gains of 3.73%. However, macro funds earned nearly nothing this year, and long-short funds lost 1.75%. Meanwhile, according to Eurekahedge, Asia ex Japan hedge funds lost 3.13% in first half. The worst performance for all the regional indices and the global index remains virtually unchanged at -0.02%. Hedge Fund Research reports that Latin American funds posted the worst returns, with losses of 3.67%, compared with losses of 2.41% for Asia ex Japan funds. Newedge hedge fund indices were also oriented downward in June. The CTA index lost 19% in June, but shows gains of 1.75% since the beginning of the year.

Skandia Global Funds on 13 July announced that it has awarded a management mandate to Janus Capital International Limited for USD125m from its Skandia technology Fund. Janus Capital Group manages overall assets of USD165bn, of which USD20bn are invested in the tech sector, in the broad sense of the term. The management team, led by Barney Wilson, is developing another free fundamental approach, which will work bottom-up, and will allow the manager to select the best-performing shares from a universe of technology and related shares. Janus replaces Wellington Management Company (LLP), which had managed the allocation since the creation of the fund, in April 2006.

The Luxembourg-registered fund Mandarine Unique R (LU0489687243), which as of 12 July had assets of EUR18m, was granted a sales license for Germany by BaFin on 18 June. The fund, launched on 29 March 2010, invests in European small and midcaps, by selecting companies with unique business models which are present in niche markets with large global market share.