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21/06/2010

CalPERS buys a stake in Gatwick airport

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) announced on 18 June that it has acquired a 12.7% stake in London’s Gatwick airport for GBP106m (USD155m) from the infrastructure fund Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP). GIP led the acquisition of Gatwick from BAA in December 2009 for about GBP1.5bn. The acquisition of the stake represents a first direct investment by CalPERS as part of its infrastructure program, launched in 2007, which aims to invest 1.5% of the pension fund’s total assets in infrastructure.
21/06/2010

Several hedge funds suffocated by rising natural gas prices

In January-May, the price of natural gas in the United States fell 22%, and many market trend-oriented hedge funds were then caught off-guard when the trend suddenly reversed, with gains of 15% in natural gas prices since the beginning of June, the Wall Street Journal reports. Among the funds which have lost out on the market are five funds from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, which lost more than USD120m out of USD640m it had invested. The same fate awaited the Bristol Energy Fund (which had USD500m invested) and several smaller funds from SandRidge Capital, which lost 19%, 15% of it in the first 15 days of June. Superfund USA also lost money on its bets on natural gas, which represented 1% of its assets of Usd1.25bn. However, Auspice Capital Advisors made money on natural gas, via a specialised ETF and a diversified commodities fund. The Claymore Natural Gas Commodity ETF has gained 7.4% since the end of May, and the London-based BlueCrest Capital Management has also posted returns of 2% in the first half of June, as its USd10bn BlueTrend Fund made gains on natural gas trading. The fund had lost 8% in May.
21/06/2010

Russell and RepuTex to offer environmenal indices

Russell Investments and RepuTex, a consulting firm specialised in the analysis of risks on global carbon trading markets, have announced that they have signed an agreement to launch environmental indices, dedicated to businesses which actively manage their carbon emissions-related financial risks. RepuTex will use its in-house methodologies to analyse the 2,500 shares of the Russell Global Developed Large Cap index on the basis of their carbon emissions, and to identify businesses which are engaging with clean technologies and alternative energies. The new range of indices will be launched in fourth quarter 2010.
21/06/2010

Sal. Oppenheim does not see a return to profitability in the near future

In its annual report, published on the website of the Bundesanzeiger (official gazette), Sal. Oppenheim states that it lost EUR1.27bn in 2009, compared with EUR163m the previous year. The private bank, which has been taken over by Deutsche Bank on 15 March 2010, says that it will be necessary to create new structures to generate growth and to return to profitability, which will involve a re-examination of back-office functions, in order to create synergies with Deutsche Bank. In particular, savings will be necessary in IT. The firm will now concentrate on wealth management for private clients, institutional management, and management of retail and institutional funds. Sal. Oppenheim predicts that it will return to profitability in two to three years. The 2010 accounts will be dragged down by one-time costs related to restructuring and the sale of assets owned directly by the bank. Further write-downs may be necessary for some credits, as well as investments in real estate. Operating profits, however, are expected to increase to a satisfactory level this year.
21/06/2010

Qatar sovereign fund eyes AgBank

Agefi reports, citing Bloomberg, that the Qatar sovereign fund is planning to invest USD2.8bn in the initial public offering by the Agricultural Bank of China.
21/06/2010

F&C in legal battle with two hedge fund managers

F&C is embroiled in a legal battle with two hedge fund managers - Francois Barthelemy and Anthony Culligan -, says the Financial Times. The case centres on a limited liability partnership set up in 2004 between the asset management company and the two men. The two men, who hold 20% each in the partnership, allege that after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, F&C, which has a 60% interest, «wanted to shut down the LLP» and «recognised they could not do that under the agreement without buying the individual partners out under the options». They claim that F&C «started to run the business down without even informing the individual partners» and from mid-December 2008 «they sought to impose . . . cuts that would . . . have undermined the business altogether», according to the FT.
21/06/2010

Six Gartmore chiefs buy stakes in the firm

Six managers and directors at Gartmore, including chief executive Jeff Meyer, have bought GBP557,162 worth of shares, says Financial News. But one prominent name has not joined in the buying spree - star manager and major shareholder Roger Guy.
21/06/2010

Collins Stewart and Corazon merge funds of funds

Fund Strategy reports that Collins Stewart Fund Management and Corazon Capital are planning to merge their funds of funds, in the wake of the acquisition of Corazon by Collins Stewart in March of this year. The time-frame has not been set in stone, say sources at Collins Stewart, adding that the operation will not involve any layoffs.
21/06/2010

Inflexion and F&C sell ICS to Blackstone

The private equity investor Inflexion and F&C Private Equity Trust have sold their stakes in ICS to the US management firm Blackstone, for a total of GBP110m-GBP125m. F&C says that it received GBP6.3m in cash and GBP0.5m in loan notes, which, along with subsequent payments, will bring the internal return rate to 73% after 22 months.
21/06/2010

Henderson funds buy Jupiter shares

Graham Kitchen, who manages several equities funds at Henderson, says that several fund managers at the firm bought a total of 2% of the shares in Jupiter released as part of its IPO, as they considered the issue price of 165 pence per share highly attractive, Investment Week reports. Since Thursday, the shares have been trading at about 190 pence per share. The first listing will take place this Monday. Jupiter, whose share offering was more than 2.5 times oversubscribed, has not posted a single quarter of net redemptions in the past 10 years.
21/06/2010

Foreign hedge funds short Spanish firms

Since 10 June, investors are required to disclose short positions exceeding 0.2% of capital in any Spanish corporation to the CNMV, and when these short positions exceed 0.5%, the regulator renders the information public. Cinco Días reports that several firms have declared short positions on 15 Spanish firms totalling EUR1.218bn. The most heavily shorted firms by percentage of capital are BME (3.9%), Grifols (3.4%), and Banco Popular (3.2%). Deutsche Bank has bet the most (EUR750m) against the Spanish firms BBVA, Banco Popular, Gamesa and Grifols. The US-based hedge fund management firms Amber Capital, Morton Holdigns and Eminence Capital also have large short positions; others include Mason Capital Management, John A. Griffin, and Marshall Wace.
21/06/2010

Georges Zecchin appointed director of Crédit Agricole (Switzerland) private bank for Asia

Georges Zecchin has been appointed as director of the Crédit Agricole (Switzerland) private bank in Asia, based in Hong Kong. Zecchin will be in charge of teams based in Singapore and Hong Kong, and will oversee development of their activities in the region. His experience and expertise will allow him to consolidate and develop the position of Crédit Agricole Switzerland in this part of the world in the field of private banking. Zecchin joined Crédit Agricole in Switzerland in 2001, where he served as head of compliance. He was then appointed secretary general, then a member of the executive board, and then a member of the general direction committee.
21/06/2010

JP Morgan Private Bank appoints a CEO for Asia

Asian Investor reports that Andrew Cohen has been appointed CEO for wealth management activities at JP Morgan Private Bank for the Asia-Pacific region. In his new role, he replaces Paul Scibetta, who has been promoted within the firm. Cohen, currently head of Southern Californian activities at JP Morgan Private Bank, will move to Hong Kong in the next few months.
21/06/2010

GLG registers Newcits in Spain

Funds People reports that GLG Partners has recently registered four UCITS-compliant hedge funds in Spain. The products are sub-funds of the Irish-registered Sicav GLG Investments VI PLC, and include a long/short equity, GLG Pure Alpha, which replicates a fund registered in the Cayman islands, with Usd400m in assets, and three emerging markets products: GLG Emerging Markets Equity, GLG EM Credit Opportunity, and GLG EM Fixed Income and Currency. A fifth product, GLG Emerging Markets, missed the registration deadline due to an error, but will be subsequently made available. All of the funds offer daily liquidity and a profile with limited correlation to the markets.
21/06/2010

Small light at the end of tunnel for Madoff victims

La Tribune reports that investors seeking to put an end to their involvement in the Madoff caper may sell their fund shares. Although the products are effectively worthless now, and most of them have entered liquidation, the Hedgebay Trading cross-border platform offers a way to put sellers and buyers of shares in the funds in contact. According to the newspaper, as much as USD5m in trades on the Fairfield and Plazza hedge funds are reportedy taking place. Some institutional investors have even approached the platform to buy illiquid shares “transparently.” The new owners of the shares are hoping that Irving Picard, the US liquidator of Bernard Madoff’s assets, will recover more money than expected. The unfortunate investors selling their shares will also have the relief of recovering some limited amount. The platform reports that the rebound in trading of these shares has brought their value back up to only 8% of the value of the initial investment.
21/06/2010

New hedge fund launches on the horizon

After a disastrous month of May in which legislators the world over sought to impose stricter regulations on their activities, hedge funds and the alternative management profession are continuing to grow. In the past few days, the English language press has reported on several new funds currently in development. Pierre-Henri Flamand, a veteran of Goldman Sachs, is planning to launch an event-driven hedge fund in autumn, to be entitled Edoma Capital, with about USD1bn in assets. The hedge fund will be based in Geneva, probably in order to avoid the recently announced tax hikes in the United Kingdom. A former Merrill Lynch trader, Frédéric Marino, will launch a hedge fund in summer, to be entitled FM Capital Partners, with the support of the Libyan government, which the British Independent newspaper reports will invest hundreds of millions of dollars. Marino launched a hedge fund nearly one year ago, and is planning to hire nearly 40 staff by autumn. Among the top figures at the fund will be Mohamed Taher Siala, former Libyan undersecretary for foreign affairs, and Khaled Kagigi, head of a Libyan government fund which invests in Africa. The fund’s activities will include traditional hedge fund strategies as well as research to locate investment opportunities in Africa. The Bloomberg news agency also reports that Citigroup is planning to dedicate USD750m to hedge funds this year, and Usd1bn next year.
21/06/2010

Institutional investment in hedge funds bouncing back

Hedge Week reports that estimates by Preqin show that institutional investment in hedge funds have been rising again since the end of 2009. Institutional investors are providing 72% of the capital invested in hedge funds.
21/06/2010

EasyETF product retools for S&P 500

Following Lyxor, Amundi ETF, HSBC, Crédit Suisse and db x-trackers, it is now the turn of EasyETF to launch an ETF product based on the S&P 500. In the event, the EasyETF S&P 500 is a transformation of the firm’s ETF based on the S&P 100. EasyETF S&P 500 is available in Euros and US dollars on NYSE Euronext (Paris), Deutsche Börse (Frankfurt) and Borsa Italiana (Milan). It is eligible for French PEA savings plans, and complies with the European UCITS III directive. CharacteristicsEasyETF S&P 500 EURISIN code: FR 0010616300Management firm: BNP Paribas Asset ManagementCurrency: EURAnnual management fees: 0.20%Bloomberg code: SPTR 500 NEasyETF S&P 500 USDISIN code: FR 0010218843Management firm: BNP Paribas Asset ManagementCurrency: USDAnnual management fees: 0.20%Bloomberg code: SPTR 500 N
21/06/2010

Three new Lyxor ETFs listed in Frankfurt

Since Thursday, the listings on the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic trading platform from Deutsche Börse include three new products. They are French-registered ETF funds: Lyxor ETF EURO STOXX 50 Dividends (with fees of 0.70%), Lyxor ETF Daily ShortDAX x2 (0.60%), and Lyxor ETF Daily Double Short Bund (0.20%). The new additions bring the total number of ETF products listed in Frankfurt to 674.
21/06/2010

Franklin Templeton releases three new funds

Franklin Templeton has announced that it has been granted a sales license in Germany and Austria for three new Luxembourg-registered sub-funds. They are the Gold and Precious Metals Fund* (LU0496367417), managed by Steve Land, the Templeton European Corporate Bond Fund* (LU0496369546), managed by David Zahn, and the new Franklin Real Return Fund* (LU0496367250), managed by Tony Coffey and Kent Burns. The Franklin Templeton offices in Frankfurt manage about USD16.5bn in assets (EUR12bn) for German investors.
21/06/2010

Russell picks Metzler

Lorenzo Carcano, who since 2`003 has been manager of the Metzler European Smaller Companies fund at the German management firm Metzler Asset Management, has been selected to manage an allocation to small and midcaps representing 30% of the multi-management product MSMM European Small Cap Fund from Russell Investments, Das Investment reports.
21/06/2010

Deutsche Bank launches a UCITS III-compliant version of Winton Diversified Program

On Friday, Deutsche Bank and Winton Capital Management (USD13bn in assets) announced the launch of the DB Platinum IV dbX Systematic Alpha Index Fund, a UCITS III-compliant version of the Diversified Program hedge fund from Winton, which has posted annualised performance of 17.07% after fees from its launch in October 1997 until May 2010. The fund replicates the performance of the dbX Systematic Alpha Index, whose components are selected by Winton and which reflects exposure to about 100 publicly traded products (futures, forwards and options on commodities, equities indices, bonds, short-term interest rates and currencies). It is a largely passive strategy. Liquidity will be weekly, and investors may subscribe to shares denominated in Euros, pounds Sterling, US dollars, and Japanese yen.
21/06/2010

Fisch launches an emerging markets corporate bond fund

The Swiss asset management firm Fisch Asset Management, which has previously specialised in convertible bond funds, on 31 May launched a corporate bond fund investing in liquid and investment grade emerging market bonds denominated exclusively in Euros or US dollars, entitled Fisch Bond Value Investment Grade, and managed by Philipp Good and Kurt Fisch. The objective for the product, which offers daily liquidity, is to outperform the JP Morgan Corporate Emerging Market Bond Index Broad Investment Grade index. To date, the fund has sales licenses only in Luxembourg and Germany. Characteristics Name: FISCH Bond Value Investment Grade Fund ISIN: LU0504482315 Management commission: 1.2% (retail shares), 0.6% (institutional shares) Minimal subscription: EUR100/CHF100/USD100
21/06/2010

Vigeo to rate corporate lobbying practices

From 1 July 2010, Vigeo will include the “transparency and integrity of influence practices” in the criteria it uses to rate the social responsibility of businesses. With this new criterion, Vigeo will measure what businesses publicly disclose about the engagements they take on, staff and resources they mobilize, either internally or through the use of specialised organisations (think tanks, lobbying agencies, professional associations, etc.), to affect expertise and legislative and regulatory processes likely to have an impact on their interests. In an environment in which the power of the professional lobbying industry is growing, with observable consequences in the absence of consistent international regulation, the risks of accusations of improper conduct are not negligible for businesses which are inadequately transparent in this area. On the other hand, businesses which make the effort to provide information on the positions they support, and on the organisation and budget dedicated to managing their relationships with public decision-makers, may see a benefit to their reputation, as well as increased legal security, increased investor confidence, and thus better attractiveness to investors as well as more permissive attitudes on the part of shareholders, and more generally, better social acceptability for their brand. The development of the ratings criteria was undertaken by vigeo with the support of the French section of Transparency International under a partnership agreement between the two organisations signed in July 2009.
21/06/2010

SEC extends investigation of Magnetar Capital

According to sources familiar with the matter, the SEC is extending its investigation of the activities of the hedge fund management firm Magnetar Capital, founded by Alec Litowitz, a former trader from Cidatel Investment Group, the Wall Street Journal reports. The regulator is seeking to determine the exact role of Magnetar in the CDO markets, in which the hedge fund manager bought some of the highest-risk categories of derivatives, and made considerable amounts of money on CDS used to hedge against defaults on these assets.
21/06/2010

Citigroup seeks to raise USD3.5bn for alternative investments

According to sources familiar with the matter, Citi Capital Advisors, the alternative management platform from Citigroup, will seek to raise about USD1.5bn for private equity and USD1.75bn for hedge fund investments, the Wall Street Journal reports, adding that according to Bloomberg, the asset management firm will give itself two years to raise this amount of capital. The plans come ahead of the future “Volcker rule” which will forbid commercial banks from making speculative investments with their own capital. This point is also particularly sensitive for JP Morgan Chase, which owns the hedge fund management firm Highbridge Capital Management, and for Morgan Stanley, whose affiliates include the hedge fund management firm FrontPoint Partners.
21/06/2010

First Spanish verdict against Santander over Madoff funds

In a first verdict over Madoff investments, Santander was sentenced on Thursday by a court in Madrid to reimburse an investor who subscribed in May 2006 to a structured product based on a basket of investments in the Multistrategy, Strategic US Equity and Arbutraje funds from Optimal, Cotizalia reports. The investor requested a redemption of his investment within the deadlines, before the Madoff scandal reduced the value of his investment to zero on 30 November. The judge found that the bank did not fulfil its obligations in failing to reimburse the subscriber, citing the arrest of Bernard Madoff and the suspension of his funds as the cause. However, the judge did not sentence the bank to reimburse the full initial value of the investment, but only its value just before the scandal broke.
21/06/2010

City of Moscow and Paris Europlace sign cooperation agreement

The Moscow city government and Paris Europlace on 18 June signed a protocol agreement in Saint Petersburg in the presence of the French minister of the economy, Christine Lagarde. The protocol sets out the basis for an increased cooperation between the financial markets of Paris and Moscow in the area of financial services. The cooperation agreement will result in the establishment of concrete relations to exchange information and expertise for financial practices, development of services, and new products, especially in the area of debt management, where Paris and Moscow both play a top-tier role worldwide. It also provides for the organisation and management of an Institute for Risk Management, and for regular exchanges in the area of market infrastructure, in line with the evolution of securities rights and good international practices. A joint working group will structure the exchanges, which may also lead to the organisation of specific seminars and local and reciprocal assistance provided to French and Russian financial actors in the development of their commercial, institutional and public relations.
21/06/2010

London remains the preferred destination for French finance students and young graduates

Despite the financial crisis, a large majority of French students and young graduates in finance remain open to job opportunities abroad, according to a survey undertaken by eFinancialCareers.fr of 206 students and young graduates planning to work in the finance sector. Only 21% are concentrating their job searches on the French market. Of the 79% of respondents who are prepared to move abroad, more than half would like to work in a European country, with London their preferred European city to begin a career in the finance sector (cited by 62% of them).

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