Steven Freiberg, qui a quitté Citigroup l’an dernier au bout de trente ans, juste après avoir été chargé de diriger le groupe des actifs et des activités destinés à être vendus, a été nommé CEO de E*Trade Financial Corp, rapporte The Wall Street Journal.D’autre part, le courtier en ligne annonce un regroupement d’actions (reverse stock split) sur la base d’une nouvelle pour dix anciennes qui réduirait à 400 millions contre 4 milliards le nombre des titres potentiellement en circulation. Actuellement, il n’y en a que 1,9 milliard en circulation.

Guggenheim Partners LLC a annoncé l’acquisition, pour un montant non communiqué de LBBW Securities LLC, la filiale broker-dealer de l’allemand Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW). La transaction devrait être bouclée début avril, après le feu vert de la Finra. LBBW Securities, créée en 2007, est spécialiste notamment des pensions livrées et du prête de titres.La LBBW conservera sa succursale de New York pour la desserte des entreprises allemandes aux Etats-Unis et au Canada ainsi que pour les transactions dans le domaine du financement de l’immobilier commercial aux Etats-Unis.

Les fonds coordonnés (Ucits) transfrontières représentent désormais près de 15 % du marché européen des fonds, qui se monte à 3.886 milliards d’euros, montre la dernière étude de Lipper FMI* réalisée pour le compte de l’Association luxembourgeoise des fonds d’investissement (Alfi). Et cette proportion pourrait doubler d’ici à 2020, estime le rapport. Ce pourcentage masque néanmoins une situation assez contrastée. Ainsi, le pays le plus ouvert aux fonds étrangers est la Suisse, avec une part de marché de 37,5 %. Viennent ensuite les Pays-Bas, avec 31,7 %, l’Italie et l’Autriche, avec plus de 21 %. A contrario, parmi les pays les moins «accueillants» figure la France, avec seulement 7,2 % des actifs qui sont le fait de fonds étrangers. Lipper note que bien qu'étant indiscutablement le plus gros marché européen, le marché français est «l’un des plus difficiles d’accès pour les groupes étrangers». Lipper explique cela par l’importance relative des fonds monétaires français, qui représentent plus de 50 % du total des encours des fonds domestiques. Une classe d’actifs qui est inévitablement dominée par les gros fournisseurs locaux. Les ambitions des groupes étrangers sont aussi freinées par la domination des banques françaises en matière de gestion d’actifs. Cette «européanisation» du secteur de la gestion d’actifs semble sans surprise profiter au Luxembourg, puisque, à la fin 2009, les encours des fonds domiciliés au Luxembourg représentaient 32 % du total européen de 4.817 milliards d’euros (chiffre qui inclut les fonds institutionnels). Et cette part devrait passer à 38 % en 2014, prédit Lipper FMI. Ce dernier anticipe en effet une accélération de la migration des plates-formes de gestion d’actifs au Luxembourg, comme ce qui s’est déjà passé pour les Pays-Bas. Cela devrait notamment affecter la France, «où les grands acteurs bancaires ont déjà migré au Luxembourg toute leur gestion d’actifs, à l’exception de l’activité purement française». Lipper compte aussi sur l’Allemagne et le Royaume-Uni, même si une partie de cette migration devrait aussi profiter à Dublin. D’ici à 2018, l’industrie européenne des fonds devrait excéder 9.000 milliards d’euros et la part du Luxembourg devrait dépasser les 40 %.* Lipper FMI, 1998-2018: three decades of fund industry transformation http://www.alfi.lu/fileadmin/files/Statements%20%26%20Publications/Press%20Releases/2010/Lipper_FMI_report_-_Symbiosis_in_the_evolution_of_Ucits-website.pdf

Les fonds coordonnés Ucits sont considérés par les distributeurs de fonds européens et asiatiques comme étant le véhicule idéal pour regagner la confiance des investisseurs qui sont sortis des hedge funds pendant la crise. Ainsi, 90 % des 59 sociétés de distribution de fonds - banques privées, family offices, supermarchés de fonds…- interrogés par KdK Asset Management pensent que le potentiel de distribution d’une stratégie alternative logée dans un Ucits («Newcits») est supérieur à celui d’un hedge fund offshore. Les réponses atteignent même les 100 % pour des pays comme la France ou l’Allemagne. Pourtant, 85 % de ces mêmes distributeurs s’attendent à ce que les hedge funds Ucits performent moins que les fonds offshore équivalents. Le principal atout de ces produits est en revanche les conditions en matière de liquidité, selon les distributeurs. L'étude montre que les distributeurs anticipent une forte demande pour les investissements alternatifs. Seuls 3,5 % d’entre eux vont réduire leur allocation en 2010. La demande est forte à la fois pour les fonds Ucits simples et les fonds de fonds Ucits. Pour les distributeurs, environ 60 % de cette demande peut uniquement être satisfaite par le biais de l’enveloppe Ucits.

Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, Julius Baer, UBS et Amundi ont lancé 45 ETP matières premières sur les deux premiers mois de 2010, selon Deutsche Bank, contre 66 dans toute l’Europe en 2009. Et l’année dernière, les encours de ces produits en Europe ont bondi de 145 % à 21,2 milliards d’euros. Toutefois, les investisseurs dans ces produits, le plus souvent, obtiennent des rendements moins bons que ceux des prix spot des matières premières sous-jacentes, note le Financial Times Fund Management.

Skandia Investment Group a annoncé le 22 mars le lancement d’un fonds d’obligations corporate notées en catégorie d’investissement («investment grade») qui va compléter la gamme de produits single manager basés à Dublin.Skandia a confié la gestion de ce fonds, qui veut tirer parti de l'écartement des spreads sur les obligations d’entreprises, au gérant institutionnel Wellington Management. Le gérant du fonds a la possibilité de diversifier son portefeuille avec d’autres instruments de dette, entre autres les MBS, les obligations convertibles, les obligations high yield, mais pas au-delà d’un plafond de 30%. Le fonds aura pour référence le Barclays Capital Global Aggregate Corporate Index.

Olympia Capital Management vient de lancer un fonds de fonds multi-stratégie basé au Luxembourg, le Olympia Dynamic Fund, fondée sur une allocation dynamique déterminée en fonction des régimes de risque.Le fonds utilise une approche core-satellite basé sur un indicateur maison, le Olympia Risk Indicator. Les éléments core et satellite sont gérés activement. Le portefeuille core est investi dans des trackers de hedge funds alors la partie satellite est investie dans des managed accounts de single hedge funds avec une allocation stratégique mise en œuvre en fonction des risques.Le fonds vise un rendement annualisé du Libor 1 mois + 4% à moyen terme (trois ans), avec une volatilité annualisée de 6% à 8%.

Le KanAm US-grundinvest (620 millions de dollars), l’unique fonds immobilier allemand offert au public qui soit libellé en dollars, a vendu ses deux plus gros actifs, des centres commerciaux. Selon les proches du dossier, la vente aurait produit entre 260 millions et 300 millions de dollars, soit 60-100 millions de moins que la valeur de ces actifs déclarée il y a un an, souligne le Handelsblatt.Si, en revanche, le fonds réussissait à vendre pour 180 millions de dollars l’immeuble de l’Evening Standard à Washington, il réaliserait une plus-value, parce que cet actif figure dans ses livres pour 140 millions de dollars.Le KanAm US-grundinvest a gelé ses remboursements sans interruption depuis fin octobre 2008 et le gestionnaire munichois estime qu’il lui faudrait au minimum 200 millions de dollars de liquidités pour pouvoir rouvrir le guichet des remboursements.

In 2009, fees for funds on sale in Italy remained stable at 1.28% of total assets, according to a study by Plus24 in partnership with Interactive Data Kler’sInvestOnline. That is equivalent to about EUR2.5bn, half of which winds up in the pockets of distributors. Despite a decline in recent years, the cost of funds remains higher than the average for 448 ETF and ETC products listed on the Milan stock exchange (0.7%). Performance commissions made a comeback in 2009, according to Plus, the money supplement of Il Sole - 24 Ore. Few funds have fees of over 5%, however.

Of about EUR2bn in commissions, fund management firms which are present in Italy passed on more than EUR1.4bn to distribution networks, according to Plus, the money supplement of Il Sole - 24 Ore. This is equivalent to 71.44% - a decline compared with 73.15% in 2008. Among the firms which are most generous with distributors are three asset management firms controlled by banks, which generally tend to kick back higher portions of commissions than independent management firms. Amundi Sgr pays out an average of 84% of commissions charged, with peaks at 100%. It is followed by Eurizon Capital and Carige AM, at 82% and 81%.

The sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Development Co of Abu Dhabi, which holds stakes in Ferrari and Gneral Electric, among others, has announced a net profit for 2009 of AED8.6 (USD2.34bn), compared with losses of AED19.8bn in 2008, the Wall Street Journal reports. Revenue nearly doubled to AED13.1bn, and total assets increased by 75%, to AED88.5bn.

Skandia Investment Group on 22 March announced the launch of a corporate bond fund rated investment grade, which comes as an addition to the range of single manager products based in Dublin. Skandia has contracted out the management of the fund, which will aim to participate in spreads on corporate bonds, to the institutional asset management firm Wellington Management. The manager of the fund will be permitted to diversify his portfolio with other debt instruments, including MBS, convertible bonds, and high yield bonds, but only up to a maximum of 30%. The fund will be based on the Barclays Capital Global Aggregate Corporate Index as its benchmark.

Olympia Capital Management has launched a multi-strategy fund of funds based in Luxembourg, entitled Olympia Dynamic Fund, based on a dynamic allocation determined as a function of risk profiles. The fund uses a core-satellite approach based on an in-house indicator, the Olympia Rick Indicator. The core and satellite elements are actively managed. The core portfolio is invested in hedge fund trackers, while the satellite portion is invested in managed accounts at single hedge funds with a strategic allocation determined on the basis of risk. The fund aims for annualised returns equal to the Libor 1 month + 400bps in the mid-term (three years), with annualised volatility of 6% to 8%.

UCITS III-compliant funds are considered by European and Asian fund distributors as the ideal vehicles to regain the confidence of investors who got out of hedge funds during the crisis. 9)% of 59 fund distribution firms - private banks, family offices, and fund supermarkets - surveyed by KdK Asset Management feel that the potential for sales of an alternative strategy housed in a UCITS vehicle (“Newcits”) is higher than for an offshore hedge fund. The percentage of respondents who think so attains 10)% for countries such as France and Germany. 85% of the same distributors, however, expect UCITS funds to perform sell well then their offshore fund equvalents. The major advantage of these products is their liquidity conditions, according to distributors.

Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, Julius Baer, UBS and Amundi launched 45 commodity ETPs in the first two months of 2010, according to figures from Deutsche Bank, compared with 66 such launches across Europe in the whole of 2009. The launches come after assets under management in European commodity ETPs surged 145 per cent to EUR21.2bn in 2009, according to Deutsche. However, investors in these products are, more often than not, receiving substantially worse returns than those of the underlying spot commodity prices.

En l'espace d'une semaine, le volume d'émissions a flirté avec les 9 milliards d’euros au travers de neuf opérations

La monnaie unique a connu une forte volatilité hier au gré des nouvelles sur la Grèce

La monnaie unique a connu une forte volatilité hier au gré des nouvelles sur la Grèce

At one time, Société Générale was considered the front-runner to acquire the private bank of the KBC group, La Tribune reports. But, in addition to the price - candidates on the short list to acquire the business were offering about EUR1.5bn - it also appears that the French bank’s withdrawal was related to the fact that French president Nicolas Sarkozy has called on banks in France to pull out of offshore tax havens, and against this background, an investment in Luxembourg would have been viewed in a negative light. The political light on the deal was a discouragement to the French bank, the newspaper claims.

Asian Investor reports that the US-based management firm Russell Investments, which has appointed Nicole Connolly as its head of advising for alternative management in Australia, is seeking another head for alternative management in Japan, as well as analysts, consultants and strategists. The move comes at a time when Russell is in the process of revising its model portfolios. Connolly will begin in her new position on 6 April. She was previously at Telstra Super, where she managed a portfolio of alternative assets.

BBVA Asset Management is offering a one-time liquidity window until 30 April to subscribers who still hold 3.3% of the real estate fund BBVA Propriedad, Cinco Días reports. The next opportunity for redemption would otherwise have been on 30 November 2010. Since BBVA already bought back all other remaining shares in the fund, in November 2008, for EUR1.6bn, the remaining minority shareholders hold shares valued at EUR43.53m. If BBVA this time obtains 100% of capital in its fund, it may change the status of the Propriedad fund, which would greatly simplify the process of “refreshing” the portfolio.

Domenico Siniscalco was elected chairman of the Italian association of asset managers, Assogestioni, at its general meeting on 19 March. Siniscalco succeeds Marcello Messori, who did not stand for a second term. Siniscalco has previously served as Italian minister of economy and finance. He is currently vice-president of Morgan Stanley Europe and head of the business for Italy. The general meeting of Assogestioni also appointed three vice-presidents: Pietro Giuliani, president and deputy director of Azimut (who is reappointed as vice-president); Giordano Lombardo, president of Pioneer Investment Management, and Mauro Micillo, deputy director and CEO of Eurizon Capital. The president and three vice-presidents will be members of the board of directors and executive board of Assogestioni.

The United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN-PRI), whose signatories include institutional investors with USD20trn in assets, is planning to launch initiatives to influence regulation, in the direction of taking ESG criteria into account. Responsible Investor reports that a first project by the organization will be the construction of a lobbyist network, to be launched at a date to be disclosed later, to campaign to regulators and other political decision-makers. The UN-PRI has also announced that from 2011, it will require that all PRI signatories disclose a defined minimal level of information.

On Friday, BNP Paribas confirmed the recruitment of a part of the pan-Asian cash equity team from KBC Securities Japan, Agefi reports. The operation will be completed on 1 April, when BNP Paribas will take on 30 analysts, sales staff and traders based in Tokyo. The agreement “achieves the establishment of a complete equities and equity derivatives platform in Japan,” the bank says in a statement. Before the recruitment, the newspaper notes, the bank was largely active in Japan in fixed income (interest, currencies and commodities products). Though BNP Paribas Securities Japan will not directly gain assets or clients, the operation will nonetheless facilitate the French bank’s access to major Japanese institutional investors, and will also strengthen its sales capacities.

CB Richard Ellis Investors has selected BNY Mellon Trust & Depositary (UK) as its depositary for the new real estate fund CB Richard Ellis Investors, which will be a new type of Property Authorised Investment Fund (PAIF). BNY Mellon Asset Servicing will serve as custodian for the fund. The British real estate fund is the first PAIF to offer daily liquidity to investors via a master-feeder fund structure.

Robert Hengster, CEO of Oppenheim Kapitalanlagegessellschaft (OKAG), is resigning, and will leave the Sal. Oppenheim group at the end of September, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. He will initially have no replacement in his position as head of the asset management firm.

The asset management firm Avana Invest, which is specialised in active management based on ETFs and ETCs, has signed a cooperation agreement with the VDH association of advisers paid on a commission basis. As part of the partnership, Avana will create a special class of shares in all of its funds, which will be distributed exclusively by VDH members, without any front-end or distribution fees. Currently, Avana offers two strategies: one based on equities ETFs, and one based on bond ETFs. Two new products are in development, one based on commodities, and the other on emerging markets. They are expected to be released in late April.

Roberto Waack, president of the Forest Stewardship Council, made a stop on Friday in Frankfurt. He is seeking German investors for closed-end funds offered by the Hamburg-based investment firm Aquila Capital. The sustainable development funds will finance forestry projects in Brazil, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. The first concession will be near Manaus, and will total 100,000 hectares, while the second, near Jamari, near the Peruvian border, comes to 48,000 hectares. The third planned investment will be in a reforestation project near the Atlantic coast, on the estuary of the Amazon. The returns expected from reforestation are 12% to 16% per year, while for concessions of virgin forest, returns are expected to run to 20% to 40%, but with higher risk of fluctuations. Waack has invested USD5m in these projects, and is planning to raise USD120m from retail investors by the end of June.

The Flemish banking and insurance conglomerate KBC, which was already sentenced early this week by the CBFA to pay a fine of EUR250,000, is now facing criminal charges and the French prosecutor’s office in the high court in Paris due to claims by a French capital management firm. L’Echo reports that in the first phase of the hearing, set to begin next week, a Belgian executive of KBC will face the financial brigade of the French police over charges of fraud in July 2008. The reports have been confirmed by Vivianne Huybrecht, spokeswoman for KBC. In the past decade, the French fund management firm bought up nearly EUR10m in CDOs, all of them issued, structured, and sold by KBC FP.

Morningstar is acquiring Realpoint, a Nationally Recognized Statistical Ratings Organization (NRSRO) specialised in structured finance, for USD42m in cash and USD10m in restricted stock. In 2009, Realpoint’s earnings totalled about USD12m. Realpoint provides ratings of stocks, research, monitoring services and data which allows institutional investors to identify credit risks for commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS). The firm currently serves about 225 client businesses. After the conclusion of the acquisition, Realpoint will become a business unit of Morningstar, under the supervision of Catherine Odelbo, president of equity research at Morningstar. The firm will continue to be headquartered in Horsham, Pennsylvania, and Robert Dobilas will remain as CEO. Realpoint will eventually adopt the Morningstar brand name.