Despite an environment which remains difficult and more uncertain long-term outlooks, outlooks for ratings of money market funds remain stable in the United States and elsewhere in the world, Moody’s says in its annual report on money market funds, which finds that liquidity and the quality of credit improved last year. In the United States, regulatory changes likely to come by the end of the year may bring deep changes to the money market fund sector.

Schroder Investment Management has announced the recruitment of Alexander Heidenfelder, who was previously senior sales manager for supra-regional banks in Germany at Fidelity. He joined Schroders on 1 April, as director of distribution of open-ended funds in South Germany. He will report to Joachim Nareike, director of distribution.

The Frankfurt-based sales team under Werner Kolitsch, head of Germany and Austria at Threadneedle, has now been strengthened with the recruitment of a sales executive for key accounts, a position which will be occupied by Anita Frießner, who has more than 20 years’ experience int he financial sector, and who was most recently sales manager at Principal Global Investors in Munich. The sales force of Threadneedle in Germany now includes seven people, and may be further strengthened. According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, a further recruitment is coming soon, and the finalisation of two others may follow. In Austria, the office of the British asset management firm employs two people.

The private wealth management team of Weberbank in essen, which includes six people led by André Weber, has joined BHF-Bank (EUR43bn in assets as of the end of 2009), and moved to the branch offices of BHF in Düsseldorf. By early July, the team will have new offices in Essen. The BHF network will then include 13 locations in Germany, including four int he Rhine-North Westphalia region. Weber becomes co-head of the Düsseldorf branch, alongside Hans-Joachim Höschel, and in this position will be responsible for the new location in Essen.

BlackRock said it expected more hedge fund managers to create ETFs by using their own funds as the underlying exposure. Deborah Fuhr, global head of ETF research at BlackRock, cautioned that these new products would be more challenging for investors to understand.

The largest bank in Singapore, DBS Bank, has announced the appointment of Tan Su Shan, currently head of private management at Morgan Stanley for South-East Asia, as head of private banking, including asset management, from 1 July, Asian Investor reports. She will be a member of the board of directors at the DBS group. One of her first tasks will be to recruit for the team in charge of high net worth clients.

The former head of the Santander infrastructure fund, Nicolás Merigó, has been appointed as CEO of Marguerite Admisor, the manager of the largest public fund in Europe dedicated to energy, the 2020 European Fund for Energy, Climate Change & Infrastructure. The fund, which is in the format of a Luxembourg Sicav, may have an investment firepower of EUR6.5bn, of which EUR1.5bn would be in cash.Founded in 2008 under the French EU presidency, the fund is “supported” by Spanish, Italian, German, French and Polish public lending institutions, each of which have contributed EUR100m, Cotizalia reports. Additional contributions of EUR100m each were provided by the Portuguese management firm Caixa General de Depósitos, the Bank of Valleta (Malta) and the European Commission. The partner-promoters have also created a “financing initiative” to issue EUR5bn in debt. The fund is planning to close with EUR1.5bn in capital at the end of this year.

ETF use among U.S. pension funds, endowments and foundations has grown to about 14%, according to the results of Greenwich Associates’ most recent annual study of the U.S. investment management market. Despite that relatively modest share, institutions actually represent roughly half the assets invested in ETFs in the United States according to recent industry estimates. Almost half the institutional users in the Greenwich Associates annual study say they employ ETFs for what they consider «tactical» tasks related to the management of their portfolios. Approximately 20% of institutional ETF users say they use the funds to implement «strategic or long-term» investment decisions, and an equal share report that they use ETFs for both tactical and strategic purposes.

On Monday, Henderson Group, responding to rumours that have been reported in the media, confirmed that it is in talks concerning a potential acquisition of some of the activities of the US firm RIdgeWorth Capital Management Inc (USD63.1bn in assets), an affiliate of SunTrust Banks Inc. The British management firm emphasizes that the talks are still underway and that there is no guarantee that the negotiations will result in a deal.

The board of directors at DynCorp International on Monday accepted an acquisition offer from a fund of the private equity investor Cerberus Capital Management, for about USD1.5bn, including debt. Shareholders will receive USD17.55 per share, which represents a premium of about 49% above the closing share price of USD11.75 on 9 April, and slightly over 50% higher than the average closing price over the past 90 days. The acquisition of the defence group will be partly self-financed by Cerberus, which will also contract loans from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup Global Markets, Barclays Bank and Deutsche Bank Securities. The transaction will be completed in third or fourth quarter, but DynCorp will retain the ability to entertain other acquisition offers from third parties for a period of 28 days, with a USD30m charge to cancel the Cerberus deal.

On Monday, Deutsche Bank announced the creation of Deutsche Gulf Finance, a joint venture in which the Saudi government owns 40%, and the remaining 60% are controlled by a group of Saudi investors led by Fahad Abdullah Abdulaziz Al Rahji. The firm will aim to finance the construction of housing which meets Sharia requirements. Initially, Deutsche Gulf Finance will have USD110m in capital, and will be limited to financing construction projects in Saudi Arabia. Activities will later be extended to Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait.

The Luxembourg-based management firm Alken Asset Management was Friday issued a license by the Spanish regulator, the CNMV, and will now be allowed to release the Alken European Opportunities fund, launched in January 2006 (EUR1.97bn in assets as of 26 February), in Spain. The product is managed by Nicolas Walewski.

First State Investments has added to its personnel in Asia with the goal of developing its presence in the institutional investor market, which currently represents about 40% of its activities, Asian Investor reports. Alexis Ng, who previously worked for First State in Singapore, becomes managing director for South_East Asia, succeeding Lindsay Mann, who left the firm last year. When he has begun his work in this position, Ng will be succeeded in his former position by Edmund Teo, who was previously director of retail distribution, before joining Russell Investments on 1 April. Carol Lin last week began work in her new position in Hong Kong, as director of sales for Taiwan, a newly-created position which marks the first entry of First State into sales in this market. Sabrina Leung, previously of BlackRock in Hong Kong, joins the firm on 13 April in the newly-created position of regional director of sales and communication, which will include countries of the region other than Hong Kong and Singapore. First State has also created a position for a senior product manager for Asia, which will be occupied by Eco Tang, who previously worked for the firm. First State Investments, which is seeking to increase its presence on the markets in which it is already present (Hong Kong and Singapore) and to invest in markets in which its presence is limited (China, South Korea, and Taiwan), is also planning other recruitments in the next few months.

The Carlyle Group has raised USD2.6bn for its third Asian buy-out fund, says the Financial Times. Although less than the USD4bn targeted when the firm started raising the fund in 2008, it remains the biggest Asia-focused private equity fund to be completed since the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

On Thursday evening, Van Eck Global announced the launch of the Market Vectors Latin America Small-Cap Index ETF (acronym LATM on NYSE Arca), which claims a place as the fisrt publicly-traded ETF in the United States which provides subscribers a way to invest in Latin American small caps of the Market Vectors Latin America Small-Cap Index. The index currently includes 81 shares in companies with a market capitalization of at least USD150m, and a daily trading volume of at least USD1m over the past three months. Currently, the three largest sectors are materials (26%), discretionary consumer goods (23%) and industrials (14%). Management fees for the fund total 0.63%, net. The LATM is the 25th ETF of the Market Vectors range from Van Eck, which has about USD13.5bn in assets.

Charles Schwab Corp has announced that assets in its eight ETFs have now exceeded USD1bn, while assets under management as of 3 February totaled USD570m, the Wall Street Journal reports. The first four products were launched only five months ago, while four more followed in December and January.

As announced earlier this year (see Newsmanagers of 14 January), HDF has launched HDF Marlin, a multi-strategy flexible fund of funds which complies with European UCITS standards. The product offers weekly liquidity with a 2-day advance notice. According to Christophe Jaubert, director of management, “we are looking for performance of 6% to 10% per year, over a three-year period, with reduced volatility.” HDF launched HDF Marlin at the request of certain clients in search of HDF’s expertise in a form which also offers the liquidity and flexibility of the UCITS format. Among the flexible styles and strategies which will be available in the UCITS format (flexible equities, global macro, systematic management, etc.), HDF has selected the ones which are expected to function best in the current economic environment. HDF Marlin is invested with the best expert managers for these flexible styles and strategies. HDF Marlin: Detailed characteristics Date of creation: 23 March 2010 Net assets at launch: EUR35m Classification: Diversified OPCVM Life Insurance: Eligible for unit-linked policies Valuation: weekly (liquidity every Friday) Advance notice for redemption: 2 days, before noon Settlement and transfer: open 3 days after the valuation date (following Wednesday) ISIN codes: IB shares: FR0010868448 , C shares: FR0010868455

In first quarter, the most conservative Spanish funds (money market and short-term bond funds) saw net redemptions of EUR5.5bn, according to figures from Inverco. Expansión comments that this exodus of investors coincides with promotional campaigns launched in March by Santander, Sabadell and Popular, who are offering savings accounts with 3.75%-4% interest rates. In March along, net outflows from funds totalled EUR2bn. According to the Bank of Spain, banks took in EUR7bn in deposits in January and February.

Amundi ETF announced on Monday, 12 April that it has registered 46 ETFs in the Netherlands. In addition to access to products of the Amundi ETF range through the three largest European stock markets – NYSE Euronext Paris, Deutsche Börse and Borsa Italiana – institutional investors in the Netherlands will now have access to the funds through local registrations. The 46 ETFs which were registered include: -16 Countries & Regions equities ETFs, which allow investors exposure to the major geographical sectors and emerging markets -13 Sectoral ETFs, offering exposure to the major global and European sectors -7 Equities ETFs -1 Money Market ETF, offering transparent and effective investment of liquidity for the short and mid-term. -9 Bond ETFs offering Euro zone government bonds with maturities ranging from 3 months to 15 years, with coverage against inflationary risks, or providing investment in corporates.

On Monday, Skandia announced that it will be releasing its Skandia European Best Ideas Fund (EUR240m) on the British market, via its Skandia Investment Solutions platform. The Irish-registered product, managed by Skandia Investment Group (SIG), is managed by six external star managers, each of whom invest in 10 positions, corresponding to their “best ideas” (see Newsmanagers of 31 March). The lead portfolio manager is Lee Freeman-Short, and the performance of the fund has been 5.41 points higher than the MSCI Europe index over two years.

Morningstar UK, the British affiliate of Morningstar, on 12 April announced the acquisition of the British independent research, ratings and fund advising provider OBSR (Old Broad Street Research), for a total of GBP11.95m. The British team from the provider (30 people), entitled “OBSR, a Morningstar company,” analyses and provides recommendations on about 500 funds, which may or may not be domiciled in the United Kingdom, as well as many other products, including retirement funds.

Les émissions des entreprises sont restées soutenues cette semaine. La dette senior des financières a davantage souffert

La Deutsche Börse a annoncé vendredi qu’elle a admis à la négociation sur le segment XTF de sa plate-forme électronique Xetra sept nouveaux ETF «de stratégie» de db -trackers (Deutsche Bank), tous de droit luxembourgeois. Les commissions de gestion sont échelonnées entre 0,35 % pour le Daily LevDax et 0,70 % pour le S&P 500 Daily 2x inverse.Quatre d’entre eux calquent avec double effet de levier les indices Euro Stoxx 50, LevDax, FTSE 100 et S&P 500 tandis que les trois autres répliquent, en short, également, avec un effet de levier du double, les indices Euro Stoxx 50, Dax et S&P 500. Avec ces sept fonds, la cote du segment XTF atteint à présent 651 références. Le lancement des ces nouveaux ETF «daily leveraged» vient compléter uyne gamme db x-trackers qui comprend déjà 16 ETF «short».db x-trackers souligne que ces nouveaux daily leveraged ETFs dont destinés à des investisseurs institutionnels «exigeants». De tels fonds sont destinés au négoce à court terme ou à la mise en œuvre de stratégies de couverture en temps réel pour pouvoir réagir à des fluctuations de marché intra-journalières. Les parts de ces fonds peuvent servir de succédanés pour d’autres dérivés de court terme comme les futures, les CFD ou les swaps.Les sept ETF seront cotés à Milan sur Borsa Italiana à compter du 14 avril et sur le London Stock Exchange à compter du 26 avril.db x-trackers Euro Stoxx 50 Leveraged Daily ETF Isin LU0411077828 frais de gestion 0,35% db x-trackers LevDAX Daily ETF LU0411075376 0,35% db x-trackers FTSE 100 Leveraged Daily ETF LU0412625088 0,50% db x-trackers S&P 500 2x Leveraged Daily ETF LU0411078552 0,60% db x-trackers Euro Stoxx 50 Double Short Daily ETF LU0417510616 0,50% db x-trackers ShortDAX x2 Daily ETF LU0411075020 0,60% db x-trakcers S&P 500 2x Inverse Daily ETF LU0411078636 0,70%

Si les quatre conseillers clientèle de Sal. Oppenheim qui rejoignent Credit Suissse à Berlin ne sont pas nécessairement de gros poissons, il a été confirmé par ailleurs que six personnes ont quitté le siège de la banque privée de Cologne, mais selon la rumeur il ne s’agit pas non plus de premiers couteaux, rapporte la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.Il se dit aussi qu’un gros client de Sal. Oppenheim cherche à débaucher plusieurs personnes pour créer un family office.Le journal souligne aussi qu'à Berlin on ne croit pas que le restant de l'équipe locale de Sal. Oppenheim va rejoindre Berenberg, mais la banque privée hambourgeoise attend deux conseillers bien établis de Sal. Oppenheim, l’un pour Francfort, l’autre pour Düsseldorf.

Le capital-investisseur Triton a repris la totalité des parts du sous-traitant automobile Stabilus (environ 3.000 salariés) avec le soutien du management, rapporte la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, précisant que le capital-investisseur Paine, qui avait acheté Stabilus pour 500 millions d’euros en 2008, perd la totalité de son investissement.Triton, qui va injecter 20 millions de fonds propres, a fait nommer Martin Huth président du conseil de surveillance de Stabilus en remplacement de Stephan Kessel.A noter toutefois que les fournisseurs du financement mezzanine, dont Axa Private Equity, avaient annoncé avant la transaction leur intention d’aller en justice en cas d’acquisition de la société.

Russell Investments vient de renforcer ses effectifs à Singapour et en Corée du Sud afin de répondre à une demande croissante dans la région. Selon Asian Investor, la société envisage par ailleurs de demander une licence pour démarrer ses activités à Séoul et espère ouvrir un bureau de représentation en Chine dans le courant du second semestre tout en obtenant le statut de QFII (investisseur institutionnel étranger qualifié).L'équipe coréenne, réduite à deux l’an dernier, est reconstituée avec notamment la nomination de Kim DongKi au poste de chief representative du bureau de Séoul. Kim DongKi était précédemment chez Korea Life.

Selon Bloomberg, AMP Capital Investors, qui gère environ 90 milliards de dollars, s’apprête à lancer un fonds infrastructures investissant dans des actifs tels que les satellites de communication et les aéroports afin de profiter de la demande pour les fonds de cette nature et de diversifier son portefeuille de titres.

Eaton Vance Management, filiale d’Eaton Vance Corp (161,6 milliards de dollars d’encours fin janvier), a annoncé jeudi la lancement du fonds Eaton Vance Commodity Strategy dont le benchmark est l’UBS Commodity Index Total Return. L’objectif initial est de générer une performance comparable à celle de l’indice, mais avec une volatilité inférieure, la surperformance devant venir de produits dérivés liés aux matières premières, d’obligations indexées sur l’inflation et d’obligations émises dans des pays émergents.Le sub-adviser du fonds est Armored Wolf LLC, un spécialiste du global macro focalisé sur les actifs «réels». Les deux gérants du fonds seront John B. Brynjolfsson, CIO et managing director d’Armored Wolf et Paul Dickson, managing director et gérant de portefeuille marchés obligataires émergents chez Armored Wolf.Le taux de frais se situe à 1,25 % pour les parts I, à 1,50 % pour les parts A et à 2,25 % pour les parts C.

La Deutsche Bank a annoncé que Doug Kline venait de rejoindre l’activité Global Prime Finance au sein de la division Global Markets en tant que managing director et responsable du conseil auprès des hedge funds.Doug Kline travaillait précédemment chez Viking Global Investors, où il était associé et chief information officer. Doug Kline est basé à New York où il est directement rattaché à Pam Kieman, managing director et responsable mondial du développement, et Scott Carter, managing director et responsable Global Prime Finance Sales et Capital Introduction pour l’Amérique du Nord.

L’Université de l’Ohio a délégué les services de conservation de son fonds à long terme, le Ohio State Endowment Fund, à BNY Mellon Asset Servicing.Ce fonds pèse près de 2 milliards de dollars. BNY Mellon prend la succession de State Street.