Denis Clough, ancien gérant star de Schroder Tokyo, qui avait quitté la société de gestion en 2004, rejoint l'équipe de Morant Wright spécialisée dans les actions japonaises, composée de six personnes. Morant Wright gère 1,86 milliard de livres.

Après une incursion de trois ans en Espagne (depuis septembre 2007), la banque privée suisse Sarasin replie bagage après une perte de 1,6 million d’euros en 2009, rapporte Expansión. Elle s'était alliée à Alén Gestión Patrimonial et était connue en Espagne comme Sarasin Alén. Etablie à Madrid et à La Corogne, elle a géré jusqu'à 200 millions d’euros et comptait 14 professionnels dans son équipe fin 2009.

Sheikh Hamid bin Zayed Al-Nahyan a été nommé mercredi managing director de l’Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, l’un des plus gros fonds souverains au monde, rapporte le Financial Times. C’est le frère du précédent dirigeant du fonds, Sheikh Ahmed, qui a disparu dans un accident de planeur au Maroc. Il occupe plusieurs postes au sein du gouvernement d’Abou Dabi.

Sheikh Hamid bin Zayed Al-Nahyan has been named as managing director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, says the Financial Times. He replaces his brother, Sheikh Ahmed, who died when his glider crashed. Sheikh Hamid holds several government positions.

In the month of February, hedge funds attracted an estimated USD16.6bn in inflows, according to Hedge Week, citing data from Trim Tabs Investment Research and BarclayHedge. Assets in hedge funds totalled USD1.5trn as of the end of February.

According to reports in the Immobilien Zeitung, relayed by Handelsblatt, iii Investments, an affiliate of HypoVereinsbank (HVB), is planning to merge its two open-ended real estate funds. The Euro Immo-Profil fund will be absorbed by the Inter Immo-Profil. The products represent a total of EUR420m in assets, making the new structure the smallest open-ended real estate fund in Germany.

Financial difficulties at the real estate fund MSREF VI International from Morgan Stanley, which faces a risk of losing USD5.4bn from a portfolio of USD8.8bn, will oblige the manager to sell the Sony Center in Berlin, a complex which is reported to have been acquired for EUR600m from Sony. The real estate management firm Corpus Sireo has acquired a 10% stake, which it intends to keep, Die Welt reports. The buyer is the National Pension Service of Korea (NPS, USD201bn in assets), which is reportedly prepared to spend EUR500m for the 132,500 square-metre property, according to a London broker. The MSREF VI fund also owns the new headquarters of the ECB in Germany.

In Germany and Austria, Schroders is launching a “Euro hedged” share class with a fixed dividend of 7% per year of the Schroder ISF Emerging Markets Debt Absolute Return fund, an absolute return product with assets as of the end of February of about USD6.55bn. The Luxembourg-registered fund (LU01777222394) invests primarily in bonds from emerging markets denominated in local currencies. Achim Küssner, head at Schroder Investment Management for Germany, Austria, Benelux and central and eastern Europe, has announced that other funds with fixed returns will be launched. With that said, it appears that sales of such products are not planned in France.

ICBC Credit Suisse will on 15 April become the first fund management firm in China to launch a second QDII fund, the Global Enhanced Equity Fund, which will charge a management commission of 1.80%. The fund will invest 60% to 95% of its assets in equities. It will have the same portfolio manager as the first QDII fund from ICBC Credit Suisse, which is focused on Asia and which is currently trading below its initial net asset value of CNY100. According to the agency Z-Ben Advisors, the fund is an ambitious project at a time when E-Fund and China Merchants managed to attract only CNY592m and CNY553m for their latest funds. However, ICBC Credit Suisse has the advantage of size, and the sales force of its parent company ICBC, which, according to Z-Ben Advisors, will allow the firm to raise between CNY800m and CNY1bn during the initial offer period.

CDC Infrastructures, an affiliate of the Caisse des Dépôts dedicated to investment in infrastructure, and its UBS International Infrastructure Fund announced on Wednesday, 14 April that they have signed a purchase agreement via their affiliate Njord Gas Infrastructure AS, to acquire a 9.4% stake in the capital of Gassled, which was previously owned by ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Norway. The agreement is pending permission from the Norwegian authorities and the financial conclusion of the operation, which would allow CDC Infrastructure and UBS International Infrastructure Fund to be partners in the firm, with 18% and 22% stakes, respectively. In practice, the company and its staff will be based in Stavanger, Norway. Gassled is a joint venture providing a gas transport and export network for the Norwegian continental shelf. About 16% of European demand (93 billion cubic metres of gas per year) are transported by the company; it delivers about one third of the gas consumed in France.

Thee South African company Mirae Asset Securities has launched the first CTA fund to be made available to qualified Korean investors, Asian Investor reports. The strategy is managed by Transtrend, a firm which is 100% controlled by Robeco Asset Management. Transtrend manages about USD8bn in assets. “One of the advantages of this CTA fund is its low correlation with other traditional asset classes, which provides a further improvement to an investor’s return/risk profile,” says Won Hwoi-ku, head of strategy and planning at Mirae Asset Securities, who would like to develop activities serving hedge funds.

The Pimco Total Return Fund, a bond product with about USD220bn in assets, has reduced its exposure to US debt to 33% as of the end of March, compared with 35% one month earlier, according to figures from the firm. The total Return Fund has also increased its exposure to emerging markets from 5% to 6%, while it has maintained its exposure to corporate bonds at 16%, and high yield at 3%. The cash allocation has been raised to 5% from 2% at the end of February.

Prosecutors are examining whether a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. director, Rajat Gupta, gave inside information about the bank to Galleon hedge-fund founder Raj Rajaratnam during the height of the financial crisis, people close to the situation told The Wall Street Journal.

For the AGM of Partners Group to be held on 6 May 2010, the fourth point on the agenda authorizes the board of directors to proceed with a public share buyback program, which will aim to buy back up to 10% of the floated capital or voting rights in the company over a period of three years. The equities will then be cancelled. The volume of repurchases will be determined on the one hand by available liquidity, and on the other by the board of directors’ estimation of market conditions. The ensuing reduction in capital will be subject to approval by vote at subsequent general shareholders’ meetings. Partners Group is also proposing to pay out a dividend for 2009, on 14 May, of CHF4.50 per share, up from CHF4.25 in 2008.

On Thursday, the Chinese National Council for Social Security Fund (NCSSF) announced the names of foreign management firms selected in 2009 to manage an offshore portfolio of more than USD5bn. The NCSSF announced 13 active equities mandates, and the names of the 12 winning managers, all of whom are multi-asset class management firms, but only two of which (Martin Currie and Bosera) were previously known to have ties to the NCSSF, which as of the end of 2009 managed about CNY776.9bn, or USD113.7bn, in assets. For Chinese equities traded abroad, the winning bidders were Schroders, Bosera and Barings. For Asia-Pacific ex Japan equities, the NCSSF retained Martin Currie, JF and principal, while for emerging markets equities, the winners were Batterymarch, Morgan Stanley and Schroders. For European equities, the management firms selected were Fidelity and Newton, while for global equities, the two management firms selected were Prudential and Wellington.

Denis Clough, a former star manager from Schroder Tokyo, who left the management firm in 2004, has joined the management team at Morant Wright specialised in Japanese equities, which is composed of six people. Morant Wright manages GBP1.86bn in assets.

Citigroup said it will sell its hedge-fund business to alternative-investment firm SkyBridge Capital, as it sheds yet another of its noncore assets. Financial terms of the deal, in which SkyBridge will buy Citi Alternative Investments’ hedge-fund, hedge-fund seeding and hedge-fund advisory businesses, weren’t disclosed. CAI’s investments under management and advisory total USD4.2 billion. SkyBridge said the deal will position it as «one of the leading global alternative asset managers» with USD5.6 billion in assets under management. Citi’s Raymond Nolte, who has led the businesses at CAI since 2005, will become chief investment officer and a managing partner at SkyBridge, bringing with him a team of 20.

La sortie de Natixis du capital-investissement pourrait être plus importante que prévu note la Tribune. La banque française est en train de vendre ses fonds émergents (Brésil, Inde et Chine). Il y a une quinzaine de jours, Natixis a sélectionné quatre candidats dont certains forment des consortium. Selon plusieurs sources proches du dossier, citées par le quotidien, les fonds de fonds Harbourvest, Coller Capital, Alpinvest et Paul Capital seraient encore en lice.

The exit of Naxitis from private equity may be a larger operation than predicted, La Tribune reports. The French bank is in the process of selling off its emerging market funds (Brazil, India and China). 15 days ago, Natixis selected four candidates, some of whom are forming consortiums. Several sources familiar with the matter, cited by the newspaper, say that the Harbourvest, Coller Capital, Alpinvest and Paul Capital funds of funds are forming consortiums.

As of the end of March, assets under management at Legg Mason totalled USD684.5bn, compared with USD681.6bn as of the end of December, and USD632.3bn twelve months earlier. However, as of the end of September 2009, total assets came to USD702.7bn. The strongest increase was for assets in equities funds, which came to USD173.8bn as of the end of March, compared with USD168.7bn as of 31 December, and USD126.9bn as of the end of March 2009.

The resignation earlier this week of Bruno Crastes, CEO and CIO of Amundi London and deputy director of the institutional and third-party distribution profession, followed by the announcement on Wednesday of the departure of Vincent Chaillet and Jean-Noël Alba, two other heads based in London (*), has led the asset management firm, an affiliate of Crédit Agricole and Société Générale, to reshuffle its UK teams. From 19 April, Pascal Blanqué, CIO of Amundi group and director of the institutional and third-party distributors profession, will also become CEO of Amundi London. However, Blanqué will exercise his functions from Paris, while Laurent Crosnier, currently deputy head of fixed income and credit management, who from next week will occupy the position of CIO of Amundi London, will be moving to the British capital. He will work alongside Hervé Leclercq, previously head of risk at Amundi Paris, who becomes deputy CEO and COO of Amundi London. In practice, the departure of Crastes will take place “gradually.” Thus, says Amundi, he will continue to be present in London for a while longer, in order to see the transition through. Some observers have doubts about the operation. “Bruno Crastes’ management style is characterized by the large degree of latitude he leaves to teams, and a management style based largely on ‘intuitu personae,'” one multi-management professional in Paris says. “It is also probable that fund selectors will express dissatisfaction with his departure,” he adds. As to what the near future holds for the outgoing managers, Amundi states that their departures were motivated by a desire to bring a new orientation to their professional careers. On Wednesday, Agefi suggested that they may team up again in the future to create an entrepreneurial project. (*) Vincent Chaillet is head of international bond and absolute performance activities, while Jean-Noël Alba is deputy CEO of CAAM London Branch.

ING Investment Management announced on Wednesday, 14 April, that its French arm has had net inflows of more than EUR300m in first quarter 2010, which brings total assets managed by ING Investment Management in France as of 31 March 2010 to EUR2.7bn. French investors largely went for High Dividend equities strategies (more than EUR120m in net inflows in the period under review), and for funds which invest in bonds from emerging markets, denominated in strong currencies and in local currencies (more than EUR50m), via the funds ING (L) Renta Fund Emerging Markets Debt Hard Currency and ING (L) Renta Fund Emerging Markets Debt Local Currency & Local Bonds, the asset management firm says in a statement. The rest of the inflows registered were largely for the money market sub-fund ING (L) LIQUID EURO, and the equities product ING (L) Invest Global Opportunities.

Net profits from asset management activities at JP Morgan Chase in first quarter totalled USD392m, USD168m or 75% higher than in first quarter of last year. This result is still below profits in fourth quarter 2009. Assets under management totalled USD1.2trn as of the end of the quarter, a 9% increase from the end of 2009. This increase is due to positive market effects, while net inflows to equities and bonds were largely offset by outflows from short-term products.

After a three-year campaign in Spain (since September 2007), the private bank Sarasin is packing its bags, on the back of losses of EUR1.6m in 2009, Expansión reports. The firm had teamed up with Alén Gestión Patrimonial, and was known in Spain as sarasin Alén. The firm, which had offices in Madrid and La Coruna, managed as much as EUR200m, and had 14 professionals on it staff at the end of 2009.

Schroders announced on 13 April that it is launching a fund dedicated to Asia, the Schroder Asian Income Maximiser, which offers retail investors a way to participate in growth in this region through exposure to equities from Asia ex Japan. The fund, which will be available to investors from June 2010, aims for gross initial returns of 7%, via active management of Asian high yield equities with an overlay (a hedged call option) on the shares in order to improve returns.

The Swiss firm SAM Sustainable Asset Management, an affiliate of Robeco, announced on Wednesday that it is launching its twelfth annual operation to evaluate the world’s major corporations in terms of economic, ecological, and social criteria. The questionnaire, which covers 100 topics, will be sent out to the 2,500 largest companies in the world on the basis of the volume of publicly traded capital. The analysis of the firms from a sustainable development standpoint will allow the firms which receive the highest scores to be included in the sectoral Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI). SAM states that, in the period from 2001 to 2008, the “sustainability leaders” in its rankings earned performance on average 148 basis points p.a. higher than those of the “sustainability laggards.”

«Il ne faut pas que les banques aient peur de mettre les fonds d’investissement socialement responsable en tête en gondole, comme ce que Monoprix a fait en son temps avec les produits bio», a déclaré Elizabeth Pastore-Reiss, directeur général d’Ethicity, agence spécialisée dans le conseil en stratégie de développement durable, à l’occasion d’un colloque consacré aux attentes des épargnants en matière de produits financiers durables. Un appel corroboré par les propos de Thierry Meric, responsable marketing valeurs mobilières de La Banque Postale, qui constate que spontanément, les clients particuliers manifestent rarement un intérêt pour l’ISR. «Mais quand on évoque le sujet, ils affirment y être sensibles». Ainsi, la banque propose systématiquement aux clients intéressés par les produits actions trois fonds, dont un ISR. Et en deux ans, le nombre de porteurs de fonds ISR a doublé, indique Thierry Meric. Un établissement comme le Crédit Coopératif, représenté lors des débats par Christophe Vernier, responsable du développement durable, a de son côté le développement durable dans ses gènes et une offre qui tourne autour des thèmes du partage, du solidaire… Mais pour Olivier Eon, responsable qualité et développement de Testé pour Vous, ces exemples vertueux ne sont pas représentatifs de la situation générale. Dressant un constat plutôt amer, il indique qu’il existe peu d’initiatives à portée du grand public, qui n’est pas incité à investir dans l’ISR. «Dans toutes les gammes, il y a des fonds ISR, mais on les trouve difficilement», renchérit-il. En plus de les mettre en avant, Elizabeth Pastore Reiss souligne la nécessité de rendre les fonds ISR plus attrayants. Pour elle, il faut que le produit apporte un bénéfice à l'épargnant. Ce bénéfice doit bien sûr avant tout être d’ordre financier. Or, selon le directeur général d’Ethicity, dans l’esprit des gens, «les fonds ISR sont considérés comme moins bons que les autres». Mais ce n’est pas tout, «l’ISR doit aussi être valorisant pour les gens. Il faut leur donner l’impression de faire quelque chose de bien, d’appartenir à une communauté», décrit Elizabeth Pastore-Reiss.Pour elle, il faut aussi former et éduquer le marketing dans les banques, favoriser les approches locales dans les agences, et donner confiance aux épargnants en les rassurant. Elle insiste par ailleurs sur l’importance d’informer, et non de communiquer, et d’apporter des preuves aux clients.Dans cette perspective, l’Association française de la gestion financière et Eurosif et le Forum pour l’investissement responsable ont remanié dernièrement leur Code de transparence, qui vise à améliorer la lisibilité et la transparence des fonds ISR pour les investisseurs. Reste néanmoins à mettre en place un système de vérification externe de l’application du code, mentionne Robin Edeme, président du FIR, pour qui cela sera opérationnel fin 2010-début 2011. Il observe que «cette vérification externe sera moins contraignante que le label Novethic», lancé l’année dernière et qui a pour objectif de faciliter la compréhension des fonds ISR auprès des particuliers. Pour Robin Edme, il pourrait donc y avoir convergence, et «Novethic pourrait être agréé par Eurosif pour valider l’adhésion au Code de transparence». Du côté de l’Observatoire de la responsabilité sociétale des entreprises (ORSE), des initiatives sont aussi en cours pour tenter d’inciter les particuliers à se tourner vers l’ISR. L’association rédige notamment un guide de vulgarisation de l’ISR qui sera mis à la disposition des réseaux pour qu’ils les distribuent à leurs clients et qui serviront aussi de base aux conseillers. Cela étant, cette plus grande transparence permettra-t-elle de promouvoir l’ISR auprès du grand public ? Le problème ne réside-t-il pas dans le produit lui-même ? Pour Olivier Eon, l’ISR présente une contradiction fondamentale : «on prétend vendre quelque chose qui fait du bien à la société en finançant des sociétés qui polluent». De son côté Elizabeth Pastore-Reiss note que les fonds «best in class» est très difficile à comprendre… Or, ils composent la majorité de l’offre en France. Pourtant, pour elle, les établissements financiers ont une opportunité formidable d’innover avec l’ISR, pourvu qu’ils veulent bien sortir du mimétisme ambiant…

CDC Infrastructures, la filiale de la Caisse des Dépôts dédiée à l’investissement dans les infrastructures et son UBS International Infrastructure Fund ont annoncé, mercredi 14 avril, avoir signé via leur filiale Njord Gas Infrastructure AS un protocole d’achat pour l’acquisition de 9,4 % du capital de Gassled, détenu jusque là par ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Norway.Le protocole dépend de l’autorisation des autorités norvégiennes et du bouclage financier de l’opération qui permettrait à CDC Infrastructure et UBS International Infrastructure Fund d'être partenaires dans la société à concurrence de 18 % et 22 % respectivement. Dans la pratique, la compagnie et son personnel seront basés à Stavanger en Norvège. Gassled est une joint venture propriétaire du réseau de transport et d’exportation du gaz du plateau continental norvégien. Environ 16 % de la demande européenne (93 milliards de m3 de gaz par an) transitent par cette compagnie qui achemine un tiers du gaz consommé en France.

Aviva France a annoncé, mercredi 14 avril, le lancement de www.questions-finance.fr/, un site internet pédagogique «pour aider le grand public à déchiffrer le langage économique et financier et à décoder les marchés boursiers à partir de conseils et d’informations objectifs», précise un communiqué de l'établissement.Dans le détail, le site se veut multifonctions et délivre de l’information via des rubriques pratiques afin de mieux comprendre les questions financières. Il répond également aux questions sur les placements, les opportunités d’investissement et la gestion d’un portefeuille.Les internautes bénéficient aussi de l’expertise de spécialistes pour définir une stratégie d’investissement, mieux comprendre les facteurs psychologiques d’influence des marchés financiers, et connaître les différentes méthodes de diversification d’un portefeuille. Enfin, le site comprend une partie interactive avec une rubrique « Question de l’internaute » et « Avis d’expert ». Un forum devrait prochainement permettre aux internautes de réagir et échanger en direct.

ING Investment Management a annoncé, mercredi 14 avril, que sa succursale française avait enregistré au premier trimestre 2010 des souscriptions nettes de plus de 300 millions d’euros. Ce qui porte au 31 mars, l’ensemble des actifs commercialisés en France par la société de gestion à 2,7 milliards d’euros.Les investisseurs français se sont portés essentiellement sur les stratégies actions High Dividend (plus de 120 millions d’euros de souscriptions nettes sur la période) et sur les fonds investis en obligations des marchés émergents en devises fortes et en devises locales (plus de 50 millions d’euros) - via les fonds ING (L) Renta Fund Emerging Markets Debt Hard Currency et ING (L) Renta Fund Emerging Markets Debt Local Currrency & Local Bonds -, précise ING IM dans un communiqué. Le reste de la collecte concerne essentiellement le compartiment monétaire (ING (L) LIQUID EURO) et celui investi en actions - Actions Globale Opportuniste (ING (L) Invest Global Opportunities).