Morningstar France Holding, a annoncé, lundi 17 mai, l’acquisition de la société Seeds Group et de ses filiales Seeds Finance et Multiratings, deux sociétés de conseil en investissements financiers et de recherche sur les OPCVM en France. Le montant de la transaction n’a pas été divulgué - confirmant ainsi, selon la réglementation américaine, que le prix de l’opération est inférieur à 2 % du chiffre d’affaires de Morningstar. Selon Joe Mansueto, le président directeur général de la maison mère, l’acquisition de Seeds Group, qui compte une trentaine de clients va permettre à sa société d’étendre ses services de conseil en investissements financiers en France. Cette opération va également donner la possibilité à l’entreprise d’approcher plus précisément une clientèle d’investisseurs institutionnels. Cette nouvelle confirme également la politique d’acquisition soutenue du groupe. Après avoir débuté dans l’activité des fonds d’investissement et leur étude, ce dernier s’est diversifié dans d’autres secteurs comme la recherche actions ou la notation. Apparue en 2000 aux Etats-Unis, la recherche actions de l'établissement américain a élargi son univers en incluant aujourd’hui 300 titres européens. Morningstar offre ce type de services depuis huit mois en France et, selon Frédéric Lorenzini, son directeur de la recherche, s’apprête à passer un accord avec un établissement français qui, pour sa part, compte externaliser sa recherche «actions Amérique du Nord». Outre l’ouverture sur une nouvelle clientèle dont compte profiter Morningstar via Seeds Group, l’entreprise entend bénéficier de l’expertise de l'établissement dans le domaine de la gestion alternative et accroitre ses capacités de conseil en fonds de fonds. Quant à Multiratings.com, le site délivrant des analyses sur les OPCVM et de la formation financière à destination des conseillers en gestion de patrimoine et des investisseurs institutionnels, il devrait dans un premier temps fonctionner de façon indépendante. A noter enfin qu’une fois l’acquisition de Seeds sera finalisée, Jean-François Bay et Vianney Dubois, co-fondateur et directeur général, continueront de diriger l’activité de la nouvelle filiale de Morningstar.

L’indice mondial des hedge funds investissables établi par Lyxor Asset Management, qui est dans le rouge de 1,02 % pour la période du 1er au 11 mai, a affiché pour avril un gain de 0,92 %, contre 2,12 % pour mars (lire notre dépêche du 12 avril), portant ainsi la performance des quatre premiers mois de l’année à 2,96 %.Trois stratégies ont été dans le rouge pour avril, notamment le long/short equity short bias (- 1,64 %) et le LS/ equity statistical arbitrage (- 1,04 %). Sur janvier-avril, le long/short equity short bias est la seule catégorie en perte (- 11,06 %). Toutefois, cette stratégie a regagné 2,56 % entre le 1er et le 11 mai, de sorte que sa perte depuis le début de l’année s’est réduite à 8,78 %.

State Street Corporation a annoncé la finalisation de l’acquisition d’Intesa Sanpaolo Securities Services (ISPSS), pour 1,28 milliard d’euros. State Street acquiert les activités de global custody, d’administration de fonds, de banque dépositaire et de correspondant bancaire d’Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP). L’acquisition comprend un accord à long terme pour la fourniture de services d’investissement à Eurizon Capital, le premier gestionnaire d’actifs en Italie, précise un communiqué.

Les hedge funds ont enregistré un gain de 1,35% au mois d’avril, ce qui porte la performance des quatre premiers mois de l’année à 4,63%, selon l’indice Barclay Hedge Fund calculé par BarclayHedge.Trois stratégies ont terminé dans le rouge en avril : les actions européennes (-0,05%), la santé et les biotechnologies (-0,02%) et l’Equity short bias (-5,46%).

The Dreyfus Corporation, qui fait partie de BNY Mellon Asset Management, vient d’annoncer le lancement du Dreyfus Global Return fund, un fonds de performance absolue piloté par Newton Capital Management, une boutique de BNY Mellon AM, spécialisée dans les obligations et actions régionales et internationales, ainsi que dans les fonds de performance absolue multi-classe d’actifs.Le fonds concentre ses investissements sur les actions internationales, les obligations et le cash, ainsi que dans une moindre proportion l’immobilier, les matières premières, les devises et l’alternatif ou le non-traditionnel.

En rachetant GLG, le gérant britannique atteint près de 63 milliards de dollars d’actifs

En rachetant GLG, le gérant britannique atteint près de 63 milliards de dollars d’actifs

Le taux interbancaire a été publié hier à 0,46 %, contre 0,445 % vendredi. L'écart Libor - taux au jour le jour atteint 24,5 pb, un record depuis août

Chaque mardi, Schroders commentera désormais pour les lecteurs de « L'Agefi » son « graphique de la semaine ». Le métal jaune inaugure cette collaboration

2010 avait bien commencé, les mois suivants ont été décevants. Les émissions avec options de remboursements anticipés restent les favorites

As of the end of April, the global ETF sector included 2,189 products listed 4,354 times, with assets up 7.4% since the beginning of the year, to USD1.1131trn, compared with gains of 2.6% for the MSCI World index in US dollars, according to statistics from BlackRock. The number of ETF funds has increased by 12.4% since the beginning of the year, with the launch of 253 new ETF products. The number of ETF funds listed in Europe totalled 932, compared with 839 in the United States. There are 872 more ETF launches planned for the next few months. Of 2,189 ETF funds available on the market, the top 100 funds represent 64.2% of assets under management, while 423 ETF funds have total assets of under USD10m. The top ETF provider worldwide is iShares, both in terms of the number of products (438) and in terms of assets (USD516bn), for a market share of 46.4%, ahead of State Street Global Advisors, with 108 products and USD159.9bn, for a market share of 14.4%, and Vanguard, with 47 products and assets of USD110.2bn, and a market share of 9.9%. In Europe, the ETF sector included 932 products as of the end of April, listed 2,748 times, with assets of USD234.3bn, available from 36 providers, on 18 stock markets. Assets were up 3.3%, while the MSCI Europe index was down 5.4%. In the United States, where the number of ETF products is now second to Europe, assets were up 8.3% as of the end of April, at USD764bn, compared with an increase of 6.5% fort the MSCI US index.

Open-ended real estate fund professionals belonging to the German asset management association BVI have laid out a series of joint proposals to improve and strengthen the regulatory framework governing their products. A statement released by the professional association suggests that a minimal 12-month retention period be imposed for new investors in open-ended real estate funds. This measure would increase the long-term character of this type of investment, BVI states; the association also proposes that a 12-month advance notice period be required for withdrawal of institutional investors. The BVI also emphasizes the need to maintain daily liquidity for fund shares, which the German government’s proposed legislation would put in jeopardy. To increase investor confidence, professionals recommend a valuation of real estate properties not merely once per year, as is presently the general practice, but twice per year. The professional association also claims that the planned reforms now being developed should bring greater flexibility for management firms to meet a need for greater differentiation of products to target various groups of investors.

UBS Investment Bank has appointed Robert Barnes as head of its new multilateral trading platform UBS MTF, dedicated to European equities. Barnes has been working at UBS for over 16 years. After Nomura, UBS is the second investment bank to launch its own MTF platform.

As of 31 March this year, a revision undertaken by Standard & Poor’s since May 2009 of all its ratings of European RMBS (commercial mortgage-backed securities), with assets of about EUR120bn involved in 188 transactions, resulted in downward revisions for a total of 452 tranches out of 876, in 103 transactions out of 169, which were revised down by an average of 4.15 crans. 64.5% of these downward revisions affected ratings below A grade. Ratings confirmations were granted for 420 tranches in 122 transactions. Transactions in 2006 and 2007 represented 83.4% of all downward revisions.

Jean-Paul Gauzès, the French MEP, insists that most hedge funds and private equity groups have little to fear from the AIFM directive. He insists that the aim of the law on alternative investment fund managers is to eradicate the excesses of these industries, not to drive them out of Europe. “We want to avoid activities that are purely speculative and have no economic or social benefit, such as naked short selling,” he said to the Financial Times.

La Tribune reports that, barring any last-minute surprises, the planned European alternative management directive known as AIFM is expected to be passed by the Econ commission in Strasbourg this Monday, and the subject is also expected to be discussed by the Ecofin commission on 18 May. A statement from the office of the new UK prime minister David Cameron is expected to better prepare participants for that meeting, the newspaper reports.

According to the US-based consultant Monitor Group and the Fondazione Eni Enrio Mattei, based in Venice, investments by sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) in 2009 fell 37% compared with 2008, to a total of USD69bn, the Wall Street Journal reports. The biggest spender among these funds was the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), which alone invested more than USD32bn, including USD10bn in Porsche, and USD4.7bn at Volkswagen. According to the report, total assets in sovereign wealth funds is estimated at USD2.4trn.

The Spanish asset management firm Auriga Securities has founded Auriga Investors UCITS III, a Luxembourg Sicav with three sub-funds, all of which are absolute return funds, Expansión reports. The funds are the M2T Multiestrategia, a fund which invests in highly liquid publicly-traded futures, Global Bond, which invests in European government bonds, and Breogán Global Financials, which focuses on financial sector issuers on the credit markets. The Global Bond Fund aims for returns equivalent to the Eonia + 400 basis points, while the other two funds aim for returns of 15% per year. For this new step, Auriga hab been recruiting a management team composed of Pedro Marazuela, Alfonso Torres, Diego Torres, José Mosquera and Rupesh Tailor, who join the firm from Société Générale, Dresdner Bank, Barclays, UBS and Goldman Sachs.

The Spanish national securities commission (CNMV) has announced the registration of a new management firm in the country: Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch (Espana), SGIIC, S.A., which officially commenced its activities on Friday, 14 May. The group is already present in Madrid as an investment firm.

A fin avril, les actifs gérés dans 2.189 ETF de 122 émetteurs cotés 4.354 fois sur 42 Bourses dans le monde entier se montaient à 1.113,1 milliards de dollars contre 1.036,1 milliards fin décembre, selon les statistiques de BlackRock. L’encours a augmenté de 7,4 % durant les quatre premiers mois de l’année tandis que le nombre d’ETF s’est accru de 12,4 % avec le lancement de 253 nouveaux ETF. Actuellement, il existe des projets de lancement pour 872 ETF. Les 100 plus gros ETF représentent 64,2 % de l’encours global, alors que 423 de ces fonds affichent des actifs inférieurs à 10 millions de dollars l’unité. Les trois premiers promoteurs, iShares, State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), et Vanguard, ont une part de 70,6 % du marché. iShares (BlackRock) se classe toujours premier avec 438 ETF et des actifs de 516 milliards de dollars. SSgA, avec 108 produits et 159,9 milliards de dollars, est deuxième devant Vanguard, avec 47 ETF et 110,2 milliards de dollars.

Losses in the first week of May alone erased all gains made so far this year for some hedge funds managers, according to investors who spoke to the Financial Times. BlueTrend, the USD10bn fund run by BlueCrest Capital, dropped 7.57 per cent during the first week of May. Rival AHL, the USD20bn fund run by Man Group, fell 3.3 per cent.

In January-April 2010, assets in European ETFs were up 3.3% to a total of USD234.3bn as of the end of March, compared with USD226.9bn as of the end of December. BlackRock counted a total of 932 funds, listed 2,748 times on 18 stock markets, from 36 asset management firms, while 103 funds were launched in the first four months of the year. The top 100 ETF funds in terms of assets under management as of the end of April accounted for 67.75 of total assets, while 166 ETFs had assets of less than USD10m, according to BlackRock. Net subscriptions to ETFs and ETPs domiciled in Europe totalled USD14.3bn since the beginning of the year, of which EUR3.3bn were for emerging markets equities products, USD3.1bn for bonds, and USD2.5bn for commodities. iShares (BlackRock), Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale) and db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) remain the three largest providers of ETF funds; the largest of these has 173 ETF funds, with assets of USD83.6bn, for a market share of 35.7%, while the second has 130 products and USD46.2bn, for a market share of 19.7%, and the third comes in with 127 ETFs and USD39.1bn, for a market share of 16.7%. Net subscriptions to ETF funds domiciled in Europe totalled USD13.4bn. Lyxor received the largest volume of inflows, at USD2.9bn, followed by db x-trackers with USD2.1bn, and Credit Suisse Asset Management with USD1.6bn.

According to sources in Frankfurt financial circles, Deutsche Bank will be announcing in the next few days that it is putting the Sal. Oppenheim affiliate BHF-Bank up for sale, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. This may interest foreign banks from Switzerland, Liechtenstein, France and Russia. But Deutsche Bank has already stated that it is not prepared to sell the business at a cut price.

Money market funds, which were once considered safe investments, are no longer what they used to be, Il Sole – 24 ore reports. Between 13 April and 12 May, the Fideuram index for the Italian money market fund category lost 0.35%. The three funds with the heaviest losses in the period were Nextam Partners-Liquidità (-1.37%), Norfondo Liquidità (0.60%) and Sai Am-Liquidità (-0.57%). They suffered due to uncertainty on the government bond markets.

For first quarter, Nuveen Investments has reported pre-tax profits by GAAP accounting standards of USD43.37bn, compared with USD20.21m in the equivalent period of last year. Assets as of 31 March totalled USD150.1bn, compared with USD144.8bn as of the end of December and USD115.3bn twelve months previously. First quarter saw total net subscriptions of USD1.34bn, and positive market effects of USD3.97bn, compared with USD2.91bn and USD910m in October-December. In January-March 2009, Nuveen saw net redemptions of USD1.81bn, and capital losses of USD2.08bn from its portfolio.

Les Echos reports that the management firm Waddell & Reed (USD74bn in assets under management) on 6 May made a large futures transaction, selling 75,000 “e-minis” in a 20-minute period during which Wall Street lost nearly Usd1trn in market capitalisation. E-minis are the world’s most liquid futures, designed to allow investors to manage their exposure to the Standard & Poor’s 500 index. The transaction may have been a cause of the Wall Street mini-crash, but it does not explain everything. Safeguards designed to shut down the markets to prevent rapid falls for indices were not fully successful and will need to be revised.

Bloomberg reports that the New York management firm Claren Road Asset Management LLC has recruited John Aylward, head of high yield trading at Deutsche Bank, to reopen the firm’s City office, closed last year. A spokesperson for Deutsche Bank in London confirms the departure of Aylward. Aylward will be based in London, and will oversee the debt investments of Claren Road, which manages about USD3.7bn. Claren Road’s return to London comes as a surprising move at a time when the European Union is putting the finishing touches to its AIFM directive, which is leading some City hedge fund management firms to consider moving to Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Between 1 January and 30 April 2010, Gartmore has suffered net redemptions of GBP708m, of which GBP634m were in the month of April alone. Net outflows in the period from 31 March to 4 May were largely a result of the temporary suspension of the fund manager Guillaume Rambourg, due to an internal investigation by the UK asset management firm. As of the end of March, assets at Gartmore totalled GBP23.5bn, a 6% increase compared with the end of 2009. But as of the end of April, assets had fallen back to GBP22.4bn, in the wake of redemption demands in the month of April. The asset manager had seen outflows of GBP380m from its hedge funds as of 4 May.

F&C head of marketing and global wholesale Scott Stevens has resigned from the firm, says Money Marketing. He joined F&C in November 2005 from Deutsche Asset Management. It is understood he will be taking on a sales role at a hedge fund firm.

BNY Mellon and the custom risk measurement specialist Investors Analytics have been selected by ING Funds to model the impact of shocks related to interest rates, credit risk and liquidity risks on its six money market funds.