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23/11/2009

Aviva Investors se sépare de son patron ibérique au bout de neuf mois

Alfonso del Moral, qui avait rejoint Aviva Investors comme directeur général du bureau de Madrid et responsable des marchés espagnol et portugais,a été licencié parce que le groupe change de modèle opérationnel à l’intertational, rapporte Funds People. Cela fait suite au recrutement en juillet du nouveau directeur mondial du développement, Erich Gerth, qui a décidé de supprimer la fonction de directeur pays (country manager). Dès lors, Alfonso del Moral ne sera pas remplacé. On n’exclut pas d’autres départs du réseau européen d’Aviva Investors.
23/11/2009
Fonds

Plus de 300 nouveaux fonds depuis le début de l'année

Selon VDOS Stochastics, 312 fonds ont été lancés ou relancés (dans le cas d’OPCVM à capital garanti) en Espagne depuis le début de l’année, dont 88 axés sur le marché espagnol et 212 sur l’international, rapporte Funds People.BBVA Asset Management a été le gestionnaire le plus actif avec 11 nouveaux produits sur l’Espagne, devant Santander Asset Management (7 fonds) puis Invercaixu Gestión et Caixa Manresa Inversió (6 chacun). A l’international JPMorgan se classe en tête avec 41 nouveaux produits, devant MFS International (23).
Fonds
23/11/2009

La crise impose une guerre sur les transferts de plans d'épargne retraite

Les banques espagnoles centrent en cette fin d’année leurs efforts de promotion pour les plans d'épargne sur les produits garantis et elles se focalisent bien davantage sur le recrutement de clients d'établissements concurrents que sur de la collecte nouvelle, comme le souligne Rodrigo Galán, directeur d’Ibercaja Pensiones, rapporte Cinco Días.Pour récompenser les transfuges, les primes en numéraire gagnent progressivement du terrain sur les cadeaux en nature ou la bonification des plans. Axa offre une bonification de 1 % à condition que le client investisse aussi dans d’autres produits financiers de la maison, le BBVA promet une prime de 2 %, mais qui doit être investi dans le plan et le Popular offre 8 % de prime, mais contre une promesse de rester 8 ans.Certains établissements offrent plutôt en parallèle des conditions préférentielles sur les comptes de dépôt, avec des taux plus élevés que ceux du marché, voire, comme dans le cas de La Caixa, un versement des intérêts à l’avance.
23/11/2009
Fonds

Bisbille de famille dans les fonds immobiliers

Dans les milieux de la gestion d’actifs, la fermeture aux remboursements du fonds immobilier DEGI International est principalement imputée à la Commerzbank, rapporte Die Welt. La Dresdner Bank est avec Allianz le principal partenaire de distribution des fonds DEGI. Depuis que la Dresdner Bank a été achetée par la Commerzbank, il aurait été conseillé avec insistance aux investisseurs de sortir des fonds DEGI pour se porter sur les fonds immobiliers de Commerz Real. Accusations que la porte-parole de cette dernière juge être une pure spéculation.
Fonds
23/11/2009
Fonds

La situation financière des fonds de pension se dégrade fortement

En raison principalement d’une forte baisse du taux d’actualisation à 5,29 % contre 6,40 % au deuxième trimestre et d’un net relèvement de 12 points de base à 2,43 % des perspectives d’inflation à long terme en juillet-septembre, les engagements des fonds de pension allemands se sont accrus de 18,9 % au troisième trimestre alors que la performance se limitait à 6,6 %, estime le cabinet de consultant Rauser Towers Perrin (RTP) dans la dernière livraison de son étude «German capital market update».Le taux de couverture des fonds de pension pour les sociétés du Dax a diminué à 58,2 % (contre 65,7 % au deuxième trimestre) tandis que celui pour les entreprises du MDax s’est contracté de 5,2 points à 43,3 %.RTP estime que, depuis le début de l’année, la performance des actions européennes dans le portefeuille des fonds de pension a été de 22,8 %, contre 17,8 % pour les actions internationales, 6,5 % pour les obligations, 1,7 % pour l’immobilier et 1,4 % pour le monétaire.
Fonds
23/11/2009

Douglas: Sarasin refutes accusations on "Focus"

On Monday morning, Banque Sarasin issued a statement refuting allegations in the German magazine Focus that the Swiss firm surreptitiously bought shares in Douglas Holding on behalf of the billionaire Erwin Müller. The bank points out that on 22 July 2009, it notified BaFin and Douglas that it had acquired 10.80% of capital in the retail group on its own behalf.
23/11/2009

AIG asset management adopts a new name

American International Group (AIG) is giving a new name to its asset management activities, which it is in the process of spinning off. The asset management arm, which manages over USD88bn in assets (as of 30 June), is now known as PineBridge Investments. It specialises in equities, fixed income, hedge funds and private equity, and employs about 900 professionals in 32 countries. Its headquarters are in New York.
23/11/2009

Bank of America to keep Columbia money market fund management

Columbia Management has announced that Bank of America (BofA) has decided not to sell its global wealth & investment management division along with the rest of its asset management activities to Ameriprise, the parent company of Threadneedle (see Newsmanagers of 1 October). Money market funds from Columbia will thus continue to be managed by Paul Quistberg, who will report directly to Colin Moore, CIO of Columbia, though at the closing of the sale, in Spring 2010, they will undergo a name change.
23/11/2009

M&G to offer its funds through Fundstore.it

M&G Investments has signed a distribution agreement with the Italian firm Banca Ifigest, according to which 24 funds from the British asset management firm will be available on the Fundstore.it platform, the Italian website Bluerating reports. The platform is the largest online fund distributor in Italy, offering more than 2,000 mutual funds from more than 60 management firms through current accounts, the online news site reports.
23/11/2009

Van Eck to launches Egypt and Kuwait ETFs

Van Eck Associates is planning to launch two ETFs covering Egypt and Kuwait, the Wall Street Journal reports. Market Vectors Egypt Index and Market Vectors Kuwait Index will track Egypt and Kuwait market indexes which include 25 shares each.
23/11/2009

More than 300 funds have been launched since the beginning of the year

VDOS Stochastics reports that 312 funds have been launched or relaucnhed (in the case of guaranteed funds) in Spain since the beginning of the year, Funds People reports. BBVA Asset Management was the most active management firm, with 11 new products focused on Spain, ahead of Santander Asset Management (7 funds), Invercaixa Gestión, and Caixa Manresa Inversió (6 funds each). For international funds, JPMorgan tops the list with 41 new products, ahead of MFS International.
23/11/2009

Serious degradation in financial situation for pension funds

Largely due to a heavy fall in the discount rate to 5.29%, compared with 6.40% in second quarter, and a net increase of 12 basis points in long-term inflation outlooks to 2.43% in July-September, German pension funds’ liabilities increased by 18.9% in third quarter, while performance was limited to 6.6%, the consulting firm Rauser Towers Perrin (RTP) estimates in the most recent edition of its “German capital market update.” The funding ratio for pension funds of Dax companies has fallen to 58.2% (compared with 65.7% in second quarter), while the ratio for MDax companies has contracted by 5.2 points to 43.3%. RTP estimates that, since the beginning of the year, the performance of European equities in the portfolios of pension funds has totalled 22.8%, compared with 17.8% for international equities, 6.5% for bonds, 1.7% for real estate, and 1.4% for money market funds.
23/11/2009

Real estate funds squabble over blame for closures

In asset management circles, the freeze of the DEGI International fund to redemptions has been widely blamed on Commerzbank, Die Welt reports. Dresdner Bank and Allianz are the main distribution partners for DEGI funds. Since Dresdner Bank has been acquired by Commerzbank, it has been insistent in advising that its investors get out of DEGI funds in favour of real estate funds from Commerz Real. A spokesperson for the latter firm calls these claims mere speculation.
23/11/2009

Investors have confidence in equities, according to iShares

According to a survey of more than 300 professional investors by iShares in Germany and Austria, three quarters of respondents are convinced that equities will perform as well or better than bonds in 2010, and 74% feel that emerging markets will be in a better position than developed markets at the end of the recession. More than two thirds of those surveyed feel that 2010 will be a year of inflation, compared with only one third who predict deflation. Nearly 60% of managers surveyed predict that the Fed will be the first to raise its prime rates, followed by the ECB and the Bank of England. Dirk Klee, CEO of iShares for Germany, says these results corroborate the popularity on the markets of ETFs covering certain asset classes. 64% of the EUR41bn which have gone into ETFs in the past twelve months went to equities products. ETFs focused on certain emerging markets attracted EUR2.2bn, while funds focused on developed markets attracted a net total of EUR1.8bn. In the past six months, meanwhile, ETFs specialised in inflation-linked bonds saw net subscriptions of EUR1.1bn.
23/11/2009

Terms of hedge fund directive rendered less strict

La Tribune reports that European MP Jean-Paul Gauzès, reporter for the planned AIFM alternative management directive, will release his report on Wednesday, with some alterations. The newspaper notes that the directive will apply to all asset management firms, with less strict requirements for smaller firms. The European passport for asset managers will be issued only to firms registered in the European Union (EU). For fund managers outside the EU, member states will remain free to authorise or disallow sales of offshore products. The proportion of investments for funds of funds aimed at retail investors in unregulated funds will be limited to 30%. Leverage will not be limited, but ex ante limits on leverage for each fund managed may be set out.
23/11/2009

Spanish government signs agreements with offshore tax havens

Spain has already signed tax information-sharing agreements with six of the 45 countries on the blacklist of tax havens established in 1991, including Luxembourg last week and now Andorra, Cinco Días reports. The other four are Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba, Barbados, and the Dutch Antilles. Spanish investors are urging the government to sign agreements with Hong Kong and Singapore in the near future, while industrials are eager to see an agreement signed with Panama.
23/11/2009

Aviva Investors parts with Iberian chief after nine months

Alfonso del Moral, who joined Aviva Investors as CEO of its Madrid office and head of Spanish and Portuguese markets, has been dismissed from this position as the group is changing its international operational models, Funds People reports. This follows the recruitment in July of a new global head of development. Erich Gerth, who made the decision to eliminate the position of the country managers. Del Moral will not be replaced, and other departures from the European network at Aviva Investors cannot be ruled out.
23/11/2009

Bill Gross recommends buying utilities and telecom sector equities

As we are in a low-growth market environment, investors would be well-advised to take advantage of the high dividend yield offered by shares in the utilities and telecom sectors, Bill Gross, head of Pimco, says in a recent statement. He estimates that these yields may range from 5% to 6%, which is far more attractive than the returns on bonds. In addition, their share prices are currently midway between their 2007 highs and their low point in 2008.
23/11/2009

John Hirst had previously served 30 months in prison

The financier John Hirst, who has closed his fund, Gilher Inc, and who is suspected of defrauding about 150 British expats in Majorca of GBP20m, had previously been imprisoned for two and a half years in the 1990s for a similar fraud, the Sunday Times reports. In 1992, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison for selling fake Allied Dunbar investment policies for personal gain. Hirst’s lawyer says that his client has recently been released from several weeks of psychiatric treatment at a hospital, and that he is completely willing to assist authorities.
23/11/2009

Gartmore announces IPO

The UK asset management firm Gartmore on Friday morning announced plans for an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in mid-December. According to the British press, the fund manager is expecting to raise up to GBP300m from an offering of 30% to 50% of its capital on the market, which would value the firm at about GBP1bn. The firm had planned a an offering two years ago for GBP1.5bn, but the deal was cancelled due to the crisis. Gartmore, which managed about GBP22bn in assets as of the end of September, is 52% owned by the US private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, the Guardian notes.
23/11/2009

Appointments at Merrill Lynch GWM

Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management has promoted Stephen Corry to the position of CIO for Asia, based in Hong Kong. He was previously a strategist, and in his new position replaces Tony Stanton, who has left the firm, AsianInvestor reports. Meanwhile, Wilson So has been appointed as chairman of the wealth management board for North Asia, succeeding Oh Eng Lock.
23/11/2009

Government Pension Fund - Global liquidates its shares in Norilsk

On the recommendation of the Council on Ethics of the Government Pension Fund - Global, the Norwegian finance ministry has decided to remove Norilsk Nickel from the portfolio of the pension fund, and in the two months to the end of October has sold off its shares, representing a value of EUR37m. The Russian group is the 31st company to be excluded from the pension fund on ethical grounds. The Ethical Council found that Norilsk’s pollution of the Taymyr peninsula in Siberia was extremely severe, particularly in the form of SO2, nickel and heavy metals, which endanger 200,000 residents near production sites. The Council has not yet evaluated Norilsk’s installations on the Kola peninsula.
23/11/2009

La BPCE veut pousser le développement durable

Déjà très impliquée dans ce domaine, le groupe BPCE veut continuer à œuvrer en faveur du développement durable. «Nous avons l’intention de développer ces activités, a déclaré le 20 novembre à Lille, François Pérol, le président du directoire du groupe constitué il y a quelques mois par la Caisse d’Epargne et la Banque Populaire, à l’occasion du World Forum Lille.Premier gestionnaire d’épargne solidaire, premier partenaire de l’ADIE, la BPCE entend aussi explorer d’autres voies. «Nous avons engagé une réflexion sur le développement durable au sens environnemental. Il y a des attentes et des besoins. Nous voulons y répondre avec une gamme de produits adaptés», a-t-il indiqué.François Pérol a par ailleurs déploré que toutes les leçons n’aient pas encore été tirées du côté de la règlementation comptable. «Le champ des règles comptables n’a pas été suffisamment défriché», a-t-il lancé. Outre la trop grande importance donnée à la juste valeur et à la valeur de marché, alors que «le métier de banquier, c’est de travailler avec le temps», la normalisation comptable est encore trop une affaire de spécialistes. Et paraphrasant Clemenceau, il estime donc que «la comptabilité est un sujet trop sérieux pour être laissé aux seuls experts-comptables. Il faut donner plus de place à l’intérêt général».Interrogé sur l’obligation de publication de résultats tous les trimestres, François Pérol a expliqué que comme Natixis publiait des résultats trimestriels, le groupe publiait aussi des trimestriels. «Mais c’est une périodicité trop rapprochée. Un rythme semestriel serait plus adapté», a-t-il précisé.
23/11/2009
Fonds

Van Eck lance des ETF sur l’Egypte et le Koweit

Van Eck Associates prévoit de lancer deux ETF couvrant l’Egypte et le Koweit, rapporte le Wall Street Journal. Market Vectors Egypt Index et Market Vectors Kuwait Index suivront les indices d’Egypte et du Koweit qui comprennent chacun environ 25 valeurs.
Fonds
23/11/2009

Bank of America conserve la gestion monétaire de Columbia

Columbia Management a annoncé que Bank of America (BofA) a finalement décidé de ne pas vendre sa division «global wealth & investment management» avec le restant de sa gestion d’actifs à Ameriprise, la maison-mère de Threadneedle (lire notre dépêche du 1er octobre). Les fonds monétaires de Columbia restent donc sous la direction de Paul Quistberg, qui est directement subordonné à à Colin Moore, le CIO de Columbia, mais ils changeront de nom lors du bouclage de la cession, au printemps 2010.
23/11/2009

La gestion d'actifs d'AIG adopte un nouveau nom

American International Group (AIG) donne un nouveau nom à son activité de gestion d’actifs, dont il est en train de se séparer. L’ensemble, qui gère plus de 88 milliards de dollars d’actifs (au 30 juin), s’appelle désormais PineBridge Investments. Spécialisé dans les actions, les taux, les hedge funds et le private equity, il emploie environ 900 professionnels dans 32 pays. Son siège est à New York.
23/11/2009

Blackstone acquiert Birds Eye

Par l’intermédiaire de sa filiale Pinnacle Foods Group, le capital-investisseur Blackstone achète le fabricant de produits alimentaires Birds Eye Foods à Vestar Capital Partners, Pro-Fac Cooperative et au management de Birds Eye pour un montant de 1,3 milliard de dollars. La transaction sera financée en partie par Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse, BofA Merrill Lynch, HSBC et Macquarie Capital.

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