Une équipe de spécialistes de la gestion vient de lancer Galileo Capital Management, une firme de conseil, de gestion et d’investissement avec des implantations à Londres et à Hong Kong.Selon Hedge Week, les fondateurs Anders Jacobsen et Paul Thompson ont une expérience cumulée de plus de quarante ans d’expérience chez Goldman Sachs, Prudential Financial, Bankers Trust et Chase Manhattan Bank.La société se propose de privilégier des stratégies d’investissement dans des activités de niche jusqu’ici négligées par les investisseurs.
Selon les Echos, le numéro un de l’aluminium, le russe Rusal, a reçu le feu vert de l’Autorité des marchés financiers pour son prospectus d’introduction à la Bourse de Paris. La société a d’ores et déjà placé la totalité des actions promues à la cotation. Rusal sera coté dès le mercredi 27 au compartiment professionnel de Paris. Quelque 768millions de Global Depositary Shares (GDS) de l’entreprise russe seront initialement cotés.
Le compartiment BNY Mellon Euro Corporate Bond Fund de la sicav irlandaise BNY Mellon Global Funds est désormais commercialisé en France par BNY Mellon Asset Management. Lancé le 29 juillet 2009, ce fonds conforme à la directive OPCVM III affichait fin novembre un encours de 37,11 millions d’euros.L’objectif consiste à surperformer l’indice Markit iboxx Euro Corporates en investissant dans des obligations d’entreprises investment grade libellées en euros. La gestion est assurée par l’allemand WestLB Mellon Asset Management. Caractéristiques : Dénomination : BNY Mellon Euro Corporate Bond Code ISIN : IE00B4Z6FN82 Frais de gestion : 0,45 % (part C) ou 1,10 % (part A) Souscription minimale initiale : 5.000 euros
Henri Faure, deputy CEO, has told Handelsblatt that BNP Paribas Real Estate is planning to develop through both organic and external growth on the German market. The firm is not interested in retail open-ended funds, as it has no distributor. As a result, the French group is planning to buy an asset management firm active in real estate funds for institutional and high net worth private investors. The other major key market of interest for BNPP RE is the United Kingdom. Funds for retail investors will be made available only in countries where the firm has a distribution network, including France, Italy, and soon, Belgium and Luxembourg (thanks to Fortis).
US-based investor services provider Nuveen Investments announced on 21 January that it has launched two new funds, the first of which is dedicated to emerging markets. The Nuveen Tradewinds Emerging Markets Fund aims for long-term capital appreciation, with the MSCI Emerging Markets index as its benchmark. The Nuveen Tradewinds Global All-Cap Plus Fund, for its part, will invest in US and global equities with a long/short strategy. Both funds will rely on the investment process of the asset management firm Tradewinds, with a bottom-up stock-picking approach to select undervalued equities. With more than USD20bn distributed over 61 mutual funds, Nuveen Investments offers a range of fixed-income, growth, value and global portfolios, covering several investment objectives and styles.
The Morningstar 1000 Hedge Fund Index gained only 0.1% in December, but for the year as a whole, it has earned 19.5%, close to the record set in 2003 (20.3%). The strategies with the most heavily negative results in 2008 went on to earn the highest returns last year, according to Morningstar. The Morningstar Emerging Market Equity Hedge Fund Index, which lost 45.7% in 2008, bounced back with gains of 50.4% in 2009. Meanwhile, the Morningstar U.S. Small Cap Equity Hedge Fund Index finished the year 2008 with one of its worst performances ever (-32.8%), but posted gains of 36.4% in 2009. However, hedge funds specialised in emerging markets and small caps did not manage to offset all of their losses in 2008. Another big winner in 2009 was convertibles arbitrage, whose benchmark index gained 2.1% in December, and shows gains of moer than 37% in 2009, after one of its worst performances ever in 2008. However, some strategies, such as the Short Equity and Global Trend, continued their negative trajectories through the end of the year. In the first eleven months of the year, hedge funds posted net outflows of USD53.4bn, but subscriptions began to flow in once again in June. In November of last year, hedge funds saw USD4.7bn in subscriptions. In other notable developments last year, Morningstar observes that small hedge funds outperformed larger structures and the single-manager hedge funds performed better on average than funds of funds.
Last year, the German-registered real estate fund of funds CS Portfolio Real turned in returns of 12.02%, after losses of 11.13% in 2008. The product, launched in January 2007, has assets of over EUR100m, and at the end of last year, had 32% of its assets allocated to real estate equities/convertible bond funds, and 8.5% to alternative products. As the limits for these two respective allocations are 50% and 10%, the allocation is slightly higher than the long-term target allocation. The remainder of the fund’s assets is invested in open-ended real estate funds, an asset class which may represent 40% to 90% of the portfolio. Credit Suisse manages a real estate portfolio in Germany worth EUR6.5bn, of which EUR6.13bn belong to the CS Euroreal fund.
On 25 January, DWS will launch the Luxembourg-registered fund DWS Dividende Direkt 2014, a fund which will mature in 2014, and which follows the formula established in 2009 for the Renden-Direkt bond strategy: it will invest in shares in companies which pay high dividends, and will pay EUR6 per share each year. The manager, Jens Labusch, will rely on research by Thomas Schüßler, the manager of the DWS Top Dividende fund, for the selection of equities. Characteristics Name: DWS Dividende Direkt 2014 ISIN: LU0418445317 Management commission: 1.45% maximum Front-end fee: 4% maximum
Investment Week reports that Paul Harvey is expected to leave the multi-management division of GLG Partners by the end of next month. He founded the division of the group, and was director of DLD MMI. He will be replaced in this position by Neil Hobson and Jonathan Howard.
As a distributor and provider of mutual funds, Fidelity has fallen back to second place in the rankings for reputation and customer loyalty, in the third annual study by Cogent Research, entitled “2010 Investor Brandscape Report.” On the basis of responses from approximately 4,000 high net worth private clients, the Boston-based management firm was dethroned last year as the top fund provider by Vanguard, while Charles Schwab has taken the top place in the rankings as a distributor. For mutual funds, the following places in the rankings go, in order, to American Funds, T. Rowe Price, and TIAA-CREF. Among distributors, the other favourites are Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Edward Jones, and Merrill Lynch.
According to sources familiar with the matter, cited by the Wall Street Journal, RiskMetrics Group Inc, 46% controlled by General Atlantic, Spectrum Equity and Technology Crossover Ventures, has decided to put the business up for sale. The firm’s stock market value is about USD1bn. Among the potential buyers are MSCI, Bloomberg, McGraw-Hill, Thomson Reuters, KKR, and Carlyle.
MD Physician Services Inc (MDPSI) has granted a mandate to State Street Corporation for custody, fund accounting and asset valuation for a CAD15.6bn portfolio. MDPSI manages 22 mutual funds, sold under the brand name MBD Private Counsel.
Les Echos reports that a study by A. Gavazza at Leonard Stern School of Business in New York finds that asset managers who offer a higher number of fund products than other providers win out, proportionally, with a larger market share, at least in the retail segment. A firm which increases the number of funds in its product range by 10% will see an increase in total assets of 12.8%, while a 10% increase in categories of products on sale to retail clients (global equities, bonds, etc.) brings a 13.7% increase in assets. These efforts bear the most fruit for funds invested in equities. In the institutional segment, the story is different, as a firm which increases the number of funds in its product range for investors of this type by 10% sees only an 8.7% increase in assets.
Les Echos reports that the world’s top aluminium producer, the Russian firm Rusal, has received permission from the French financial market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), on its prospectus for an initial public offering in Paris. The firm has already placed virtually all of the shares to be included in the offering. Rusal will be listed from Wednesday 27 January, in the professional section of the Paris stock exchange. About 768 million Global Depository Shares (GDS) in the Russian business will be initially listed.
Expansión has surveyed star managers at Spanish management firms. Overall, they say that a bubble in bonds and rising interest rates are the primary concerns. They therefore recommend investing in equities for the long term, and avoiding government bonds. Juan Suárez de Figueroa, president of A&G Fondos and the only Spanish manager rated AAA by Citywire, says that after a strong rebound in 2009, stock markets are highly vulnerable to bad news, which will result in periods in which the danger will be due to a lack of proof of an economic recovery, and other periods when the danger will be rather one of excessive growth, which could generate inflation, and potentially interest rate increases.
According to data from Listed Private Equity (LPEQ), which tracks the performance of the 25 most liquid private equity funds in the world (excluding funds of funds), private equity funds had a better year in 2009 than equities. They earned returns of 44% for the year, compared with 26.9% for the MSCI World index.
A team of management specialists has launched Galileo Capital Management, an advising, management and investment firm, with offices in London and Hong Kong. Hedge Week reports that the founders, Anders Jacobsen and Paul Thompson, have combined experience of more than 40 years at Goldman Sachs, Prudential Financial, Bankers trust and Chase Manhattan Bank. The firm will prioritise investment strategies focusing on niche activities which investors have neglected in the past.
Morningstar reports that 2009 was the best year for hedge funds since 2003: the Morningstar 1000 hedge fund index gained 0.1% in December, and is up 18.5% for the year 2009 as a whole, slightly less than the 20.3% gains observed in 2003. The Morningstar MSCI hedge fund index hedged for currency risks gained 0.2% in December, and shows gains of 14.2% for the year. The worst-performing strategies in 2008 were the most profitable in 2009: the emerging markets index, which lost 45.7% in 2008, gained 50.4% last year, while convertibles arbitrage gained more than 37%. In other trends, results show that small hedge funds tended to outperform larger ones, and that single-manager hedge funds did better than funds of hedge funds. Morningstar also estimates that in January-November, hedge funds in its database saw net outflows of USD53.4bn, but that the sector has seen net subscriptions since June, with USD4.7bn in inflows in November alone.
Overnight between Friday and Saturday, Goldman Sachs announced the closure of its quantitative hedge fund Global Equity Opportunities (GEO), which saw heavy redemptions, and which managed only USD200m as of the end of 2009, compared with a peak of about USD7bn a few years ago, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. The Wall Street Journal adds that Goldman Sachs says it has no plans to pull out of the hedge fund sector. On Thursday, the bank stated that of USD871bn in assets, about USD146bn are in alternative investments, including hedge funds and funds of hedge funds managed by its quantitative team.
It appears that ETFs, even those that replicate broad indices, vary widely in their tracking error levels. The Wall Street Journal reports that the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index ETF (EEM) and the Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF (VWO), both of which are based on the MSCI Emerging Markets index, posted respective returns in 2009 of 72% and 76%, respectively, though the index itself gained 78.6%. In 2008, the first of these two funds lost 50%, and the second lost 53%, both beating the index (-54%). These differences are due, firstly, to a difference in commissions: 0.27% for the Vanguard product, compared with 0.72% for the iShares fund. Secondly, the two funds have different approaches, and are constructed differently. The Vanguard product replicates the index of more than 800 positions in its entirety, while the iShares product has only about 400 positions. As the iShares fund is intended to be easy to trade, it is managed in a way which is intended to preserve high levels of liquidity and transparency, avoiding less liquid shares of the index. The Vanguard fund avoids being stuck with less liquid shares due to a significant advantage: it can trade them with its twin fund, the open-ended Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund (VEIEX), which has assets of USD30.5bn.
Christophe Brulé est président d'Entheca Finance, société de gestion indépendante qu'il a lancée en 2007, dans un contexte de marché on ne peut plus difficile. Il a présenté à Newsmanagers sa société dédiée à une clientèle privée de haut niveau, dont l'objectif est de placer le client au centre de son approche patrimoniale.
Selon Asian Investor, Lee Won-Ki a rejoint l’antenne sud-coréenne de Prudential, PCA Investment Trust Management, dont il prendra les rênes à compter du 1er février. Il était précédemment chief executive de la troisième société de gestion coréenne KB Asset Management (12,5 milliards de dollars sous gestion).Il remplace Hwang Sung-Ho, qui a quitté la firme à la mi-2009. Lee Won-Ki sera directement rattaché au nouveau responsable Asie de l’activité de gestion, Graham Mason.Au 30 septembre dernier, les actifs sous gestion de PCA s'élevaient à 5,7 milliards de dollars. PCA dispose par ailleurs d’une licence d’investisseur institutionnel qualifié (QFII) et d’un quota de 300 millions de dollars.
La société de gestion Raiffeisen Capital Management vient d’annoncer que son fonds Raiffeisen-EmergingMarkets-Rent a reçu dans les derniers jours de décembre 2009 l’agrément nécessaire à sa commercialisation en France. Raiffeisen-EmergingMarkets-Rent se présente comme l’un des fleurons de la maison. Il s’agit ici d’un fonds investi dans des obligations internationales (libellées en euros et en dollars américains) émanant principalement des marchés émergents d’Amérique du Sud, d’Asie, d’Europe, d’Afrique et du Moyen-Orient. En termes de performances, le fonds affiche des gains chaque année depuis 2004, à l’exception de 2008 (-13,74 %). En 2009, sa progression a été de 28,60 %. Caractéristiques Code ISIN distribution (A) : AT0000636733Code ISIN full income-retaining (V) : AT0000636758 Commission de souscription max. : 4 % Frais de gestion annuel : 1,25 %
Kurma Biofund (Kurma), le nouveau fonds de capital risque situé à Paris et dédié au financement de l’innovation dans le secteur des sciences de la vie et de la santé vient d’annoncer un nouveau partenariat au Royaume-Uni, avec UCL Business plc (Londres) et l’Institute for Child Health (University College London).L’objectif du partenariat est double, précise le communiqué de Kurma : aider UCL Business à valoriser les actifs intellectuels d’UCL et réaliser des avancées décisives dans le traitement des maladies infantiles.Le fonds s’appuie sur des partenariats noués en France avec l’Institut Pasteur et l’Institut Curie (France), ses partenaires fondateurs. Un premier tour de table a été annoncé récemment d’un montant de 50 millions d’euros (lire notre article du 25 novembre 2009).