In 2009, “a fiscal year crowned with success,” according to Rüdiger Ginsberg, chairman of the board, Union Investment, the central asset management firm for the German co-operative banks, earned net profits of EUR204m, compared with EUR143m in 2008, and EUR345m in 2007. Assets were up 15% to a total of EUR166bn as of the end of December, compared with EUR144.4bn twelve months previously, when they were down 17.7%. Net subscriptions last year totalled EUR10.7bn, compared with net outflows of EUR6.8bn in 2008, but net inflows in 2007 totalled EUR12.2bn. In detail, Union states that EUR1.9bn of net subscriptions went to open-ended funds (compared with net redemptions of EUR3.3bn in 2008), and a record EUR8.3bn went to institutional management (compared with outflows of EUR3.6bn). The manager also states that net inflows to open-ended real estate funds represented EUR2.6bn, the best results for the entire management sector in Germany. Union also attracted more than 135,000 clients for Riester retirement savings plans, where the UniProfiRente product has about 1.8 million subscribers. Guaranteed funds attracted about EUR2.5bn in net subscriptions, of which EUR1.9bn went to newly-launched products.
Frank Stefes, who was previously head of fund sales at Henderson Global Investors in Germany, on 1 January joined Lombard Odier, where he takes charge of sales of open-ended funds to wealth management clients, funds of funds, family offices, private banks, insurers, and IFA fund platforms.
st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } Citywire reports that Amr Saif, the manager of the Africa and Middle East fund from Investec, has quit the firm. Roelof Horne will replace him.
st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } Source announced on 18 February that it has launched an ETF based on the DAX index, entitled DAX Source ETF. The new fund, which complies with the UCITS III directive and is registered in Germany, aims to replicate the DAX total return index through investment directly in the shares that make up the index, without the use of derivatives. Primary characteristics of the fund Name of product DAX Source ETF Bloomberg Ticker DAX30S GR Currency of fund EUR Management fee 0.15% per year Listing Deutsche Börse (XETRA) Name of index DAX Total Return Index Dividends Gross dividends reinvested End of fiscal year 30 November
Pre-tax profits at comdirect bank (Commerzbank group) last year were down 2.3% compared with 2008, at EUR76m, on the back of a restructuring charge of EUR9m related to the closure of comdirect private finance and the effects of a support plan for ebase. Net profits were down 1.9% at EUR56.6m. Michel Mandel, chairman of the managing board, announced on Thursday that this year he is aiming for pre-tax profits of EUR100m. By 2013, he is aiming for EUR150m-EUR170m in profits, through an increase in the number of clients to 3 million, from 2.1 million presently, and an increase in assets under management or custody to EUR50bn. For B2C (direct banking) activities, assets under management or administration as of the end of December totalled EUR22.2bn, 9% more than one year previously, while B2B activities (ebase) gained 26.6% to EUR13.3bn.
On Thursday, shares in BT lost 1.2%, to 115¾p per share, as the GBP9bn deficit of the firm’s pension fund led Standard & Poor’s to downgrade its rating of the group to one notch above junk. The move was unexpected, the Financial Times reports, as Moody’s and Fitch had decided to maintain their ratings of BT unchanged following the publication of the most recent figures for the pension fund. S&P estimates that BT’s decision to pay in up to GBP533m per year until 2029 will not be enough to reabsorb the deficit, but that it will penalise shareholders and limit the strategic options for the telecoms operator in a highly competitive sector.
According to Citywire, Brevan Howard is restructuring the Brevan Howard Absolute Return Bond Plus Fund, a UCITS III fund. In the latest newsletter for the fund, the London-based firm says: «Despite positive performance, there has been relatively little investor interest for the product in its current form». It adds: «We are therefore evaluating an investment strategy which is more closely aligned with the core investment exposures of Brevan Howard Master Fund Limited (…)».
Michel Haski has been appointed chief executive officer at Allianz Global Investors France. In a statement released on 17 February, Allianz GI states that Haski will also retain his responsibilities as chief executive officer of Allianz Global Investors Europe GmbH. At the same time, three deputy CEOs have also been appointed. They are: Franck Dixmier, in charge of investments; Johann Gaulier, in charge of human resources, compliance, internal controls and legal affairs, finance, and risk control; Christophe Mallet, in charge of development for networks. Lastly, Sylvie Bernard and Jean-Marc Voisin have been appointed as deputy CEOs. Bernard will be in charge of operations, reporting and organization, while Voisin will be in charge of IT systems. From May 2006, Haski was in charge of commercial development for Allianz Global Investors Europe GmbH, before becoming chief executive officer of Allianz Global Investors Europe GmbH in July 2008.
Richard Goldman, CEO of Security Global Advisors (SGI) and Rydex SGI, has told Mutual Fund Wire that Guggenheim Partners, which has recently acquired the two firms for USD400m, is planning to retain the two brands. He is confident that the acquirer will help to finance planned development in 2010, and that recruitments are planned for sales, marketing and management teams. Currently, SGI and Rydex SGI (USD22bn) employ 275 people and offer three product lines: Rydex inverse and leveraged index-linked mutual funds and ETFs; fundamental alpha equities funds, and hedge fund products.
For the year 2009, Morningstar has posted a 4.7% decline in its earnings to USD479m, while operating profits are down 9.8% to USD125.3m. Net profits, meanwhile, contracted by 10.9% to USD82.45m. John Mansueto, chairman and CEO, says that 2009 was a challenging year for the firm. The decline in earnings is due to the loss of two key clients in investment management, the loss of revenues from Global Analyst Research Settlement (GARS), and a fall in earnings from Internet advertising.
Les Echos reports that a study by OpinionWay and KPMG for the Paris Ile-de-France Capitale economic association has found that the Paris region still have a very good image among major international businesses, as 35% of these firms consider the city the most attractive, putting it in third place after New York (41%) and London (42%). In fourth place in the rankings, Shanghai receives only 14% of the vote. The association points out, however, that this is the first time that an Asian metropolis has appeared so high in the rankings. When realised investments, excluding mergers and acquisitions, are taken into account, London takes the top place with 270 deals, followed yb Shanghai (242), Hong Kong (231), Paris (191) and Beijing (149).
st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } The wealth management firm SEI is hoping that its four Sharia-compliant funds will be able to top USD1bn in assets in the next two to three years, a top head of the firm, Jahangir Aka, said yesterday at the Islamic finance and banking conference held by Reuters in Dubai.
Michel Escalera, who was previously head of CAAM in Spain, will take over as head of Amundi for Spain and Portugal, Expansión reports. The new management firm born of the merger of CAAM and SGAM will be the second-largest foreign asset management firm in Spain, after JPMorgan AM, with EUR3.2bn in assets as of the end of September. Christina Regozzino will be head of sales for Amundi Spain, while Alfonso O’Donell, deputy director of SGAM Spain, will be leaving the firm to join Société Générale.
Deutsche Bank has announced that it has founded a dedicated sales team to develop global distribution of its managed accounts platform, to take advantage of growth in demand for alternative means of accessing hedge funds. The team is led by Daniel Caplan, who remains head of prime finance sales and capital introduction for Europe. The bank has also recruited Guillaume Mathais, who will be dedicated to sales of managed accounts. Mathais was head of distribution of managed accounts at Lyxor Asset management for the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Scandinavia.
Like Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, Legal & General is beginning to offer pension funds insurance against longevity risks, the Financial Times reports. Prudential is soon expected to follow suit. British pension funds will this year insure themselves against about GBP15bn in liabilities to reduce the cost and volatility of defined-benefit savings plans, and two thirds of this insurance will be in the form of longevity swaps, the consulting agency Hymans Robertson estimates.
Skagen, an independent Norwegian management company, will be opening an office in the West End of London early in the second quarter of 2010. The London office will be SKAGEN’s tenth office – in addition to the six in Norway, two in Sweden and one in Denmark.Stephen Millar has also been appointed Managing Director Skagen UK with responsibility for activities in the UK. He assumes his position on 15th February 2010. Stephen comes to Skagen from T. Rowe Price where he was Head of UK Institutional Business and Pan-European Investment Consultant Relations. The UK is «an important and growing market» for Skagen. It has almost GBP700 million under management, predominantly from institutional clients.
In 2009, the London-based alternative management firm GLG Partners lost USD319m, roughly half the losses it turned in for 2008, which totalled USD631m. Assets at the firm increased over the year by 47% to USD22.2bn, largely due to net subscriptions of USD3.2bn, of which USD2.6bn came through the acquisition of SGAM UK. Net revenues, however, declined by 39.2% to USD300.9m, as a large proportion of assets are now in long-only funds and managed accounts, which have lower management fees than alternative strategies.
Les tableaux ci-contre présentent les meilleures et plus mauvaises performances des fonds sur les marchés des fonds actions américaines et françaises au cours du mois de janvier 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.
Le graphique ci-contre montre l’évolution de l’indicateur de gain à la diversification calculé à partir de la corrélation moyenne entre des indices sectoriels globaux d’une part, et des indices régionaux d’autre part. Nous avons considéré une classification en dix secteurs (santé, industrie, télécoms, etc.) et huit zones géographiques (Etats-Unis, UEM, Asie, etc.). Cet indicateur permet de comparer les gains potentiels de diversification qui résultent d’une stratégie de diversification sectorielle et d’une stratégie de diversification régionale dans un portefeuille d’actions internationales.
Gregor Pottmeyer, directeur financier, a indiqué mercredi que la Deutsche Börse a l’intention de se séparer à l’amiable de 80 cadres supérieurs sur 400, rapporte la Börsen-Zeitung. Cela vise les strates immédiatement sous le directoire, donc les managing directors, heads of department et senior experts.Selon le concept élaboré par McKinsey, cela doit permettre d’accélérer la prise de décisions et donc de mettre plus rapidement sur le marché de nouveaux produits et services.Les dégraissages ne s’arrêteront pas en si bon chemin puisque Gregor Pottmeyer a chiffré le coût des autres mesures d'économies pour 2010 à 50 millions d’euros, dont 30 % pour des départs dans les échelons inférieurs à celui des cadres supérieurs.
Axa Investment Managers Deutschland a annoncé qu’elle proroge de neuf mois le gel de trois mois sur les remboursements de son fonds immobilier offert au public Axa Immoselect (2,84 milliards d’euros). Ils étaient suspendus pour trois mois jusqu’au 17 février 2010 (lire notre article du 20 novembre 2009).Achim Gräfen, gérant du fonds et directeur général d’Axa Investments Managers Deutschland, a précisé que cette décision est imputable à l’insuffisance de liquidités pour faire face aux demandes de remboursement escomptées.L’Immoselect avait déjà été fermé aux remboursements du 28 octobre 2008 au 28 août 2009 (lire nos articles du 30 décembre 2008 et du 28 août 2009).
Les principaux fournisseurs d’indices des hedge funds affichent pour janvier des tendances divergentes, ce qui s’explique par des compositions différentes. Si l’on en croit Credit Suisse/Tremont, les hedge funds ont ainsi affiché pour janvier une performance moyenne de 0,17 %, avec des pointes à 2,02 % pour l’arbitrage obligataire (FI arb) et l'événementiel (1,42 %), mais les marchés émergents et le long/short equity auraient perdu respectivement 0,76 % et 1,50 %.BarclayHedge estime en revanche que les hedge funds ont dans l’ensemble accusé une perte de 0,29 %, les champions étant l’equity short bias avec un gain de 3,18 %, devant les distressed securities (+ 2,64 %) et, comme chez Credit Suisse/Tremont, le FI arb, qui s’adjuge 1,89 %. Le sous-indice marchés émergents perd 1,19 % tandis que l’equity long bias recule de 1,68 % et que les technologiques perdent 2,74 %.
Le fonds du milliardaire George Soros a plus que doublé ses avoirs dans l’ETF sur l’or, le SPDR Gold Trust, au quatrième trimestre 2009. Selon Bloomberg, Soros Fund Management a acquis 3,728 millions de titres pour un montant de 421 millions de dollars. Au 31 décembre, cet investissement, le plus important du fonds, était valorisé 663 millions de dollars. Le fonds chinois China Investment Corp a de son côté acquis 1,45 million de titres pour un montant de 155,6 millions. Les actifs du SPDR Gold Trust ont augmenté de 2,2% depuis le début de l’année après une progression de 24% en 2009. Ils totalisaient hier 1.109,42 tonnes métriques. C’est l’investisseur institutionnel Paulson & Co qui détenait la première participation au 31 décembre dernier, avec 31 millions de titres représentant une part de 8,65%.
Le gestionnaire alternatif espagnol Intelectia Capital va lancer Intelectia Blue, un compartiment de la sicav luxembourgeoise Newcits d’Adepa AM qui sera spécialisé dans les emprunts-catastrophe (cat-bonds) et visera une performance de 15-20 % avec une volatilité de 5-8 %, rapporte Citywire. Ce fonds conforme à la directive OPCVM III pourra aussi «shorter».
Nommée directeur des relations avec les investisseurs et les actionnaires du Banco Popular, Carmen Ortiz quitte le poste de directeur général de Popular Gestión (6,7 milliards d’euros, 64 fonds). Elle est remplacée par Miguel Colombás, qui était jusqu’ici directeur général adjoint et CIO de la société de gestion.
Les deux fonds de pension néerlandais Stichting Bedrijfstakpensioenfonds voor de Suikerverwerkende Industrie et Stichting Bedrijfspensioenfonds voor de Suikerwerk- & Chocoladeverwerkende Industrie (Bpf Koek & Snoep) ont annoncé qu’ils avaient confié à BNY Mellon Asset Servicing un mandat de conservation pour un encours de 1 milliard d’euros.BNY Mellon fournira également d’autres services comme la comptabilité, la mesure de la performance ou encore le reporting.
Le fonds souverain coréen, Korea Investment Corporation (KIC), qui gère quelque 30 milliards de dollars, envisage d’accroître ses investissements dans la gestion alternative, selon Asian Investor.Le ministère des finances et de la stratégie, qui a déjà contribué au fonds pour un montant de 13 milliards de dollars, pourrait ajouter cette année 5 milliards de dollars. Une proportion croissante de ces nouveaux fonds pourrait être investie dans l’alternatif, y compris le private equity, l’immobilier, les hedge funds et les commodities. Les allocations les plus significatives devraient aller au private equity.A terme, l’exposition à la gestion alternative pourrait se situer dans une fourchette de 15% à 20%.
Chris Kinder, qui a géré des produits long-only et long/short chez RWC Partners durant les sept dernières années, rejoint l'équipe UK Equity High Alpha de Threadneedle en tant que gérant de fonds. Il travaillera en étroite coopération avec Mark Westwood sur le fonds UK Crescendo ainsi que sur la gamme high alpha long-only.
ETF Securities (ETFS) a annoncé mercredi que, le 11 février, son encours mondial de palladium gagé sur le métal physique (celui de l’ETC dont l’acronyme est PHPT) a atteint le record historique de 1,1 million d’onces. Cela représente un quadruplement par rapport à l'époque du précédent boom des matières premières en juillet 2008.
BNP Paribas a décidé d’ouvrir son fonds Vol Edge aux investisseurs britanniques. Le fonds lancé en 2007 est géré par la filiale de BNP Paribas, Harewood Asset Management, précise Investment Week.Le FCP offre une couverture contre la volatilité des actions et une protection contre les problèmes de corrélation entre classes d’actifs dans des marchés en baisse.Harewood vise une clientèle de multi-gérants et d’investisseurs haut de gamme.