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18/06/2010

Axa s'intéresse à Ethias en belgique

Selon la Tribune, la filiale belge d’Axa étudie deux possibilités d’acquisitions en assurance-vie. Dans un entretien à l’Echo, Emmanuel de Talhouët, le patron d’Axa Belgique a confirmé l’intérêt que son entreprise porte à la clientèle de First, la filiale du groupe d’assurance Ethias.
18/06/2010

Former Threadneedle head joins MainFirst

Volker Plate, who was replaced by Werner Kollitsch at Threadneedle Germany (see Newsmanagers of 2 March) has joined MainFirst Asset Management as head of wholesale business for Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Italy. Robert Focken, who in 2009 moved from the equity sales sector to asset management sales, has joined the wholesale team as director of sales for Germany, Austria and France.
18/06/2010

Merrill Lynch recruits SocGen to recreate an SRI team

Responsible Investor reports that Merrill Lynch is planning to rebuild its research team dedicated to responsible investment, with the recruitment of two former co-heads of the sustainable development team at Société Générale. Valéry Lucas-Leclin and Sarbjit Nahal, both ESG analysts, who were co-heads of the SRI research team at Société Générale, will join Merrill Lynch in September. The two former Société Générale managers would continue to be based in Paris.
18/06/2010

Sarasin makes several appointments in Asia

Sarasin Alpen (India) Private Limited, an affiliate of the Swiss private bank Sarasin & Cie SA, has appionted Shiv Khanzanchi as director of its Indian operations. Khazanchi will be based in locations other than the Sarasin Alpen head offices in New Delhi. In addition to his responsibilities as director of Sarasin Alpen for India, he will supervise the activities of Alpen Capital India Private Limited, the investment bank associates with Sarasin Alpen. The Sarasin group is present in the Middle East and India under the Sarasin Alpen name. Its Indian activities started up in July 2009, with the opening of offices in Mumbai and New Delhi. Sarasin Alpen (India) Private Limited operates as a non-banking financial institution; the firm offers financial advising and consulting services to Indian high net worth private clients and distributes a selected range of products from premier partners, especially investment funds. The bank has also appointed Damien Ng, previously of Credit Suisse, as head of investment advising for Asia. He will be based in Singapore.
18/06/2010

Superfund closes six offices

The Austrian management firm Superfund has closed six offices worldwide (Dubai, Liechtenstein, Saõ Paolo, Singapore, Sydney, and Monaco), due to financial difficulties, the Italian website Bluerating reports, citing reports in the international press. The hedge fund firm, which manages USD1.24bn in assets, retains only three offices, in Vienna, Hong Kong and New York. The cost reductions are related to troubles at the firm, as its Superfund Q-AG lost 24% in 2009, and has lost 6.9% in the past five months, Bluerating states.
18/06/2010

Mandarine hits EUR1.2bn in AUM

At his first meeting with clients since the firm was launched nearly two years ago, Marc Renaud painted a concise and clear picture of the activities of Mandarine Gestion, which now has EUR1.2bn in assets vs EUR1,04bn on March, 19. The firm has seen inflows of over EUR420m, and is set to continue on this path this year. Mandarine Gestion, which was profitable in 2009 and continues to be so in 2010, has 17 employees, and offers 6 funds or areas of expertise. 80% of assets come from within France, while slightly under 10% come from Germany, and slightly over 10% from Switzerland. Clients are 50% composed of institutional and 50% retail investors. Multi-management represents about 20%-25% of assets, while the remainder is divided between IFAs, “a stable client base with daily inflows,” and private banking in Paris and Geneva.
18/06/2010

Large inflows to Putnam absolute return funds

Putnam Investments has announced that its four absolute return funds, launched in December 2009, have recently topped USD2bn in assets, of which USD1bn have come in the past six months. A survey of independent financial advisers has also found that most of them are expecting unprecedented inflows to their absolute return products in the next 12 months.
18/06/2010

CalPERS building up stockpile of candidates for board positions

The pension fund CalPERS (USD200bn) is in the process of recruiting a number of directors, in order to have them on hand when it needs to nominate candidates for positions on the boards of directors at companies in which the fund is invested when they are reporting poor results, the Wall Street Journal reports. The 3D (Diverse Director Database) is being created ahead of changes soon to come to the rules governing the composition of boards of directors. The new rules will give CalPERS and other investors more influence over the composition of these boards. Anne Simpson, head of corporate governance, says that to be included in the new CalPERS database, in addition to a position as a major point of reference in management, finance and sectoral expertise, candidates should also belong to groups which have been historically underrepresented on boards, such as women and minorities.
18/06/2010

Exane and BNP Paribas seek to deepen alliance

Les Echos reports that a move to closer ties between Exane and BNP Paribas in research, cash equities and derivatives is under study. Exane would recruit 50 professionals in London, while the bank would scale up its coverage of the British market from London.
18/06/2010

Fideuram IPO to be postponed

Intesa Sanpaolo is moving toward a postponement of the planned initial public offering for Banca Fideuram, Il Sole – 24 Ore reports. The bank would like to value its asset management affiliate at EUR3bn, as its stake in the business is valued on its books at EUR2.5bn. But this level appears too high, due to difficult conditions in the current market. If the IPO is postponed, Hellman & Friedman’s planned acquisition of a 15-20% stake in Fideuram would also have to be put off.
18/06/2010

Collins Stewart acquires wealth management firm Anderson Charnley

Collins Stewart Wealth Management has announced its acquisition of Andersen Charnley (ACL), an independent wealth management firm which offers discretionary management and financial advising, with offices in London and Bagshot, Surrey. The operation will bring assets under management at Collins Stewart to GBP6.8bn, the management firm says in a statement, adding that it continues to pursue an ambition to achieve GBP10bn in assets under management by 2012.
18/06/2010

Spanish asset management industry needs a serious overhaul, says AFI

Analistas Financieros Internacionales (AFI), which has been tasked by the Inverco association of management firms with studying the causes of a steep drop in assets under management, has found that Spanish funds are comparatively defensive, to the extent that the hemorrhage at the onset of the crisis was less due to the falling equities markets than it was to the “war for deposits,” as banks sought to attract savings investors to the detriment of investment funds, Cinco Días reports. From mid-2009 until February 2010 (when the study was carried out) however, net outflows were not related to this competition so much as they were to the fact that savings investors were seeking to offset both rising debts and reductions in their income. Emilio Ontiveros, president of AFI, says the asset management industry will need to restructure, since it is currently burdened with excess capacity, with 122 actors in the market, of which 39 saw losses in 2009.
18/06/2010

Credit Suisse/Tremont index down 2.76% in May

The Credit Suisse/Tremont hedge fund index lost 2.76% in the month of May, its heaviest loss since November 2009, according to final statistics. Nine sectors out of ten posted negative results in May. Only short bias showed gains of 5.84%.
18/06/2010

Exane et BNP Paribas veulent renforcer leur alliance

Selon Les Echos, un resserrement des liens entre Exane et BNP Paribas dans la recherche, le cash actions et les dérivés est à l'étude. Exane va recruter une cinquantaine de professionnels à Londres, tandis que la banque veut renforcer sa couverture du marché britannique depuis Londres.
18/06/2010

L'ancien patron de Threadneedle rejoint MainFirst

Volker Plate, qui a été remplacé par Werner Kollitsch chez Threadneele en Allemagne (lire notre Depeche du 2 mars) vient de rejoindre MainFirst Asset Management comme head of wholesale Business pour l’Allemagne, la Suisse, le Luxembourg et l’Italie.D’autre part, Robert Focken, qui est passé en 2009 du secteur equity sales aux asset management sales, rejoint l'équipe wholesale comme diretor sales pour l’Allemagne, l’Autriche et la France.
18/06/2010
Fonds

Pictet commercialise son Corto Europe en Espagne

Pictet Funds a lancé sur le marché espagnol son hedge fund long/short coordonné Corto Europe, rapporte Expansión. La commission de gestion ressort à 1,6 % pour les particuliers et à 1,1 % pour les investisseurs institutionnels, ce à quoi s’ajoute une commission de performance de 20 % (lire nos articles du 4 avril et du 1er juin).
Fonds
18/06/2010

Le secteur espagnol de la gestion a besoin d'une sérieuse restructuration, selon l'AFI

Pour Analistas Financieros Internacionales (AFI) qui a été chargée par l’association Inverco des sociétés de gestion d’une étude sur les causes de la fonte des encours, les fonds espagnols sont assez défensifs, si bien que l’hémorragie au début de la crise a été moins imputable à la baisse des actions qu'à la «guerre des dépôts», les banques cherchant à attirer des épargnants au détriment des fonds, rapporte Cinco Días.Depuis le milieu de 2009 jusqu'à février 2010 (date de l'étude), les sorties ne sont cependant plus liées à cette concurrence mais au fait que les épargnants cherchent à compenser à la fois leur endettement et les pertes de salaire.D’après, Emilio Ontiveros, président d’AFI, le secteur de la gestion d’actifs doit se restructurer parce qu’il est affligé par un excédent de capacités, avec 122 acteurs dont 39 ont subi des pertes en 2009.
18/06/2010

Renta 4 recrute une directrice du marketing

Maria Alonso Alcaide quitte le département du marketing stratégique chez Adesla pour devenir directrice du marketing de Renta 4. Elle a pour mission de développer la clientèle de particuliers et d’adapter l’offre commerciale à cette catégorie d’investisseurs.
18/06/2010
Fonds

Le Santander lance un fonds coordonné de performance absolue

Au travers d’Allfunds Alternative, filiale de conseil de fonds de hedge funds d’Allfunds Bank, Santander Asset Management lance le Santander Absolute Strategies UCITS, un fonds de performance absolue conforme à la directive OPCVM III. Ce produit sera investi dans une vingtaine de fonds alternatifs domiciliés au Luxembourg, mais il sera aussi enregistré en Espagne pour être distribué auprès des clients de la banque privée, indique Expansión.L’encours de la filiale luxembourgeoise atteint à présent 1,3 milliard d’euros contre 600 millions début 2009. En dehors de celui pour l’Absolute Strategies UCITS, le gestionnaire a sollicité l’agrément de commercialisation pour cinq autres produits.
Fonds
18/06/2010

Ratings agencies under pressure in US

Les Echos reports that a US financial regulation bill would allow investors to sue ratings agencies if their valuations of certain financial instruments are “terribly negligent.” US legislators also support the idea of creating a new supervisory authority to manage the conflicts of interest inherent in the ratings industry, which is ultimately financed by the same businesses it is meant to rate.
18/06/2010

La variété rend la sélection de fonds déterminante

Le graphique ci-contre compare les densités de probabilité des surperformances des fonds actions européennes sur deux sous-périodes récentes: août 2009 – décembre 2009 et janvier 2010 – mai 2010. Ces deux sous-périodes correspondent à des conditions de marché très différentes puisque la performance moyenne des fonds était respectivement de 9,2% et de -4,1% sur les deux périodes considérées.
18/06/2010

Des performances difficiles à protéger

Les tableaux ci-contre présentent les meilleures et plus mauvaises performances des fonds sur le marché des fonds actions américaines et celui des fonds actions françaises au cours du mois de mai 2010. Ces performances sont mises en perspective par le calcul de la volatilité et du ratio de Sharpe sur trois ans d’historique ainsi que du rendement depuis un an.
17/06/2010

Money market funds: new CESR definition favours transparency

Fitch Ratings says in a special report published on Wednesday that the Committee of European Securities Regulators’ (CESR) recently-published guidelines on pan-European money market funds (MMFs) offer greater clarity to investors and, in many respects, point to a global convergence of standards for short-term MMFs.Fitch’s report reviews the CESR guidelines for a harmonised European MMF definition in the context of other MMF standards, highlighting how these guidelines are a major step towards greater market transparency and clarity for the approximate EUR1.3trn European MMF universe. Fitch also believes that the guidelines address the two main issues raised by the current financial crisis for MMFs, namely asset maturity and liquidity, the latter being partially and indirectly tackled through restrictions on maturity. The guidelines, which crystallise a two-tier approach by creating two MMF categories, also confirm a global convergence of standards for short-term MMFs, as per the CESR’s first category."A trend towards global convergence of standards for short-term MMFs is more firmly emerging with this European framework, notably with respect to interest rate and spread risk exposure,» says Charlotte Quiniou, a Director in Fitch’s Fund and Asset Manager Rating group. «However, notable differences remain with respect to defining minimum standards for portfolio liquidity and credit risks for such funds.»
17/06/2010

Real estate funds: German government waters down its proposals

Apparently, the unanimous opposition of asset management firms to the proposed amendment to the regulations for open-ended real estate funds, which was published in early May, has been effective: the Börsen-Zeitung reports that the German federal finance ministry will soon unveil a new bill which will no longer mention the requirement that a 10% markdown be applied across the board to the expert valuations of properties in the portfolios of these funds. The publication of the bill in early May led to a freeze in redemptions from several funds, and to net outflows of EUR2bn. Meanwhile, in an interview with the newspaper, Thomas Neiße, the new president of the German BVI association of asset management firms, estimates that assets in the asset management sector in Germany may double, if investment funds are permitted as vehicles for corporate retirement savings.
17/06/2010

Burren Capital raises USD500m

Burren Capital, the hedge fund manager set up by the former BNP Paribas trader Andrew McGrath, has raised more than USD500m for its first fund, says the Financial Times. Burren will manage clients’ money from Gibraltar. He will specialise in event-driven investing.
17/06/2010

Petercam launches a pure investment grade sub-fund

The Belgian asset management firm Petercam will on 21 June launch the Petercam Bonds EUR Investment Grade, a sub-fund which will invest in Euro zone government bonds, to meet the requirements of clients and the limited prospects for exclusively investment grade investments. The new product will be an alternative to the Petercam Bond EUR, which will continue to invest in Euro zone issuers, regardless of their rating. The launch of the sub-fund comes following the degradation of the ratings of some Euro zone countries by several ratings agencies. After Greece was downgraded to junk bond status by S&P, and then by Moody’s, the management team at Petercam found itself facing a dilemma, between a desire to invest in countries with investment grade ratings, and the possibility of adopting a neutral position with relation to the benchmark index, the JPM EMU All Maturities, which has maintained Greece in the portfolio. “The rules of JPM do not stipulate and minimal rating condition, but define the investment universe in relation to liquidity criteria. Therefore, Greece has no reason to be leaving the index in the near future,” says Petercam. “Therefore, it was decided that the Petercam Bonds EUR Sicav will maintain its referent as the JPM EMU All Maturities, and will not invest in Euro zone government bonds denominated in Euros, regardless of the rating of issuing countries. The prospectus for the sub-fund has been modified to reflect this,” the Belgian management firm continues. The Petercam Bonds EUR Investment Grade will be invested in government and assimilated bonds denominated in Euros, whose issuers must be rated at least BBB- by Standard & Poor’s, Baa3 by Moody’s, and BBB- by Fitch.
17/06/2010

East Capital boucle l'acquisition d'AGI

La société de gestion suédoise East Capital, spécialisée dans les marchés d’Europe de l’Est, a bouclé l’acquisition d’Asia Growth Investors, après avoir obtenu l’autorisation de l’Autorité suédoise des marchés financiers. Elle détient désormais 100 % du capital de cette société de gestion, également basée à Stockholm, et focalisée sur la Chine.Cette acquisition permet à East Capital d'élargir son horizon d’investissement, tout en restant concentré sur les marchés émergents, et d’intégrer les 240 millions d’euros gérés par AGI à ses 4,2 milliards d’euros d’encours. Dans le cadre de cette opération, Karine Hirn, associée d’East Capital, va s’installer à Shanghai. Elle aura pour mission d'étudier le marché chinois et à terme de renforcer les équipes d’investissement d’AGI. Par ailleurs, East Capital a annoncé la nomination de Johan Björkstén en tant que conseiller et membre du conseil d’administration d’AGI. L’intéressé est le fondateur de Eastwei Relations, une des plus grandes agences de communication en Chine, laquelle compte plus de 100 employés dans quatre villes chinoises et une base de clientèle composée de multinationales telles que IKEA et Sony.
17/06/2010

Nominations dans le département obligataire de Lombard Odier

Lombard Odier a annoncé jeudi 17 juin l’arrivée au sein de son département Obligations de Gregor MacIntosh. L’impétrant est nommé au poste de responsable des taux d’intérêts et sera basé à Genève. Il rendra compte de ses activités à Stéphane Monier, responsable du département Obligations & Devises, précise le communiqué de la société.Jusque là, Gregor MacIntosh occupait le poste de responsable des taux d’intérêts chez Standard Life Investments. De son côté, Sandro Croce prend la tête de l’équipe Gestion des Portefeuilles Clients, nouvellement créé au sein du département Obligations. Membre de ce département depuis 2004 chez Lombard Odier, il occupait auparavant le poste de responsable des taux d’intérêts. Le département est spécialisé dans la gestion de portefeuilles dans le cadre de mandats institutionnels et exploite les ressources du département Obligations & Devises. Le poste est également basé à Genève.

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