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28/10/2009

Rémunérations : les femmes dirigeantes très affectées par la crise

Selon Les Echos, une enquête du centre indépendant américain de recherche en gouvernance d’entreprise, The Corporate Library, indique que la rémunération médiane des «executive women» a chuté de 18,5% entre 2007 et2 008 aux Etats-Unis. Sur le même intervalle, celle de leurs confrères masculins a décliné de 6,1%. Ce n’est pas le seul enseignement de cette étude menée sur 2.704 entreprises américaines cotées. Ainsi, en moyenne, le montant total perçu par les directrices exécutives («chief executive officer») équivaut à 58% des émoluments reçus par leurs homologues masculins l’année dernière. Parmi les 150 plus hauts revenus recensés, on ne trouve qu’une seule femme: Martine A. Rothblatt, directrice exécutive du fabricant de médicaments United Therapeutics Corporation, à 22 millions de dollars de rémunération totale.
28/10/2009

Impax AM rejoint l' Investor Network on Climate Risk

Mardi, le gestionnaire britannique Impax Asset Management Group plc a annoncé avoir accepté l’invitation à rejoindre l’Investor Network on Climate Risk (‘INCR’), un réseau d’investisseurs institutionnels américains qui se propose de traiter les risques et les chances découlant du changement climatique. L’INCR a son siège à Boston et représente environ 80 maison qui gèrent plus de 8.000 milliards notamment dans des fonds de pension des secteurs public et privé ainsi que des fondations.
28/10/2009

Empreinte carbone : les sociétés nord-américaines peuvent encore mieux faire

Même si elles ont fait des progrès ces dernières années, les sociétés américaines et canadiennes doivent consentir des efforts nettement plus important pour gérer leurs risques carbone et jouer un rôle actif dans la transition vers une économie à faible teneur en carbone, constate l'édition du 2009 Climate Change Tracker de l’agence EIRIS. Si 91 % de ces entreprises contre 93 % dans le monde ont désormais une politique en matière de changement climatique, elles demeurent en retard par rapport à celles des autres pays en matière de mesures concrètes.Par exemple, les émissions de CO2 restent nettement plus élevées qu’en 1990, année de référence, avec des hausses en 2006 de 54,8 % pour le Canada et de 15,8 % pour les Etats-Unis. Les sociétés nord-américaines ont de gros retards en matière de transparence ou de lien entre la réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre et la rémunération des administrateurs. Seules 9 % des sociétés nord-américaines se sont fixé des objectifs de réduction de l’impact indirect de leurs produits sur le changement climatique, contre 19 % à l'échelon mondial.
28/10/2009

La Commerzbank vend ses parts de Privatinvest Bank à la BCZ

Mardi soir, la Commerzbank a annoncé qu’elle cèdait pour un montant non divulgué sa participation de 74 % dans l’autrichienne Privatinvest Bank de Salzbourg à la Banque cantonale de Zurich (BCZ ou ZKB en allemand). Cette transaction s’inscrit dans le cadre d’un repli de la Commerzbank sur un nombre restreint de sites pour l’activité de gestion de fortune. D’autre part, la cession de cette participation fait partie des engagements pris par la Commerzbank pour obtenir l’agrément de la Commission européenne aux aides du Fonds allemand de stabilisation des marchés financiers (SoFFin).A fin juin, la Privatinvest Bank, qui emploie 50 personnes à Salzbourg et à Vienne, affichait un encours de 600 millions d’euros. En revanche, les activités de la succursale de Vienne de la Commerzbank ne sont pas touchées par l’opération annoncée.
28/10/2009

Impax AM joins Investor Network on Climate Risk

On Tuesday, the British asset management firm Impax Asset Management Group plc announced that it had accepted an invitation to join the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), a network of US institutional investors engaged in addressing risks and dangers related to climate change. The INCR has its headquarters in Boston, and represents about 80 asset management firms with over USD8trn in assets under management, much of it in public and private sector pension funds, as well as foundations.
28/10/2009

Ex-Chief of AMD involved in the Galleon case

A criminal case filed earlier this month alleged that an unnamed Advanced Micro Devices Inc. executive shared confidential information about the chip maker with a defendant in the Galleon case. According to a person familiar with the matter, this executive would be Hector Ruiz, chairman and former CEO of the company, The Wall Street Journal reports.
28/10/2009

State Street extends range of services for wealth managers

With State Street Wealth Connect, unveiled on Tuesday, State Street Corporation is offering its wealth management clients a tool which will allow them to “focus on management and growth rather than on bank and middle office functions,” says Steve Nazarro, senior vice president of the wealth management service activities at State Street. Currently, the group provides custody and administration for more than 500 clients in this high net worth private client segment. In practice, State Street Wealth Connect allows direct access to State Street through a customizable online platform which is completely integrated into the range of State Street investment services, including global custody, accounting and monitoring of policy at businesses, and also with the document and delivery and messaging system, which will allow wealth managers to communicate directly with their clients through this secure portal.
28/10/2009

Commerzbank sells shares in Privatinvest Bank to BCZ

On Tuesday night, Commerzbank announced that it will be selling its 74% stake in the Austrian firm Privatinvest Bank of Salzburg for an undisclosed amount to the Cantonal Bank of Zurich (ZKB in German). The transaction is part of a move at Commerzbank to concentrate on a more limited number of locations for its wealth management activities. The sale of the stake is also a realization of a pledge made by Commerzbank in order to be granted permission by the European Union to receive German government assistance as part of the financial markets stabilisation (SoFFin) program. At the end of June, the Privatinvest Bank, which has 50 employees in Salzburg and Vienna, had assets of EUR600m. The activities of the Vienna branch of Commerzbank are not affected by the announced deal.
28/10/2009

North American companies still have a long way to catch up on climate change

According to the EIRIS 2009 Climate Change Tracker, US and Canadian companies are catching up on climate change, but they must do much more if they are to manage their carbon risks and play an active part in the transition to a low-carbon economy. The vast majority of North American companies operating in sectors with a high carbon footprint now have a corporate-wide policy on climate change (91% compared to 93% at the global level).However, when it comes to implementing, concrete measures to deliver on corporate climate change policies and commitments, businesses in North American still fall behind companies in other countries, with rising CO2 emissions, poor disclosure and a lack of implementation. For instance, only 16% of North American companies have made a commitment to link board remuneration to GHG emissions reductions compared to 28% at the global level. And product impacts ignored: only 9% have set targets to reduce indirect climate change impacts arising from their products, compared to 19% at the global level.
28/10/2009

Buffalo "hardens" the soft closure of its small cap fund

The Buffalo Small Cap fund with USD2.44bn in AUM, a product whose advisor is Kroznitzer Capital Management, has got «a bit more soft-closed» on October 5th, in accepting no new investors while it still welcomes subscription fron existing savers and from retirement plans, according to Mutual Fund Wire. A first soft-close had been put in place on May 27th by closing the fund to new subscriptions through 1-800 numbers and the main fund platforms (Schwab, Fidelity, TDAmeritrade, Pershing).
28/10/2009

New head for South Korea at Fidelity

Michael Reed has joined Fidelity International as head of its activities in South Korea, according to Asian Investor. Reed previously served three years as country head for South Korea at Franklin Templeton.
28/10/2009

Good results for Franklin Resources

Franklin Resources announced net income of USD367.4m, or USD1.60 per share diluted, on revenues of USD1,238.9m for the quarter ended September 30, 2009. For the quarter ended June 30, 2009, net income was USD297.7m, or USD1.29 per share diluted, on revenues of USD1,073.6m. For the quarter ended September 30, 2008, net income was USD300.5m, or $1.28 per share diluted, on revenues of USD1,321.5m.Total assets under management by the company’s subsidiaries were USD523.4bn at September 30, 2009, as compared to USD451.2bn at June 30, 2009 and USD507.3bn at September 30, 2008. Net new flows for the quarter ended September 30, 2009 were USD12.2bn, as compared to USD6.0bn for the prior quarter and net redemptions of USD8.6bn for the same quarter a year ago.
28/10/2009

Guy de Blonay gets back to Jupiter

Guy de Blonay, the manager of the Henderson New Star Global Financials fund at Henderson New Star, is to join Jupiter, eight years after having left the company, Citywire reports. He will be co-managing the Jupiter Financial Opportunities fund with Phillip Gibbs, but in a first stage will be restricted to an advisory role.Guy de Blonay’s fund at Henderson New Star is now managed by Emily Adderson, who acted up to now as deputy manager.
28/10/2009

Hilton debt load weighs on Blackstone

Private equity firm Blackstone Group LP has begun talks with lenders to cut up to USD5bn from the USD20bn debt load carried by Hilton Worldwide, according to people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reports.Blackstone is considering contributing USD800m of new equity to buy back debt at a discount. It also is seeking to extend debt maturing in 2013 to 2016, while converting some junior slices of debt into equity. The USD800 million in additional equity would come from funds managed by Blackstone that already have invested in the deal, the biggest equity investment ever made by the firm.Initially, Blackstone funds and co-investors put up USD5.6bn in equity in the deal, while assuming USD20bn in debt.
28/10/2009

Clients predict that BlackRock and Carmignac have best prospects for growth

The most recent survey by the Berlin-based agency Metronomics of Europeanclients of asset management firms has found that BlackRock and Carmignac Gestion are the two operators whom a majority of respondents feel have the best prospects of “very strong comparative growth.” The two management firms finish ahead of JP Morgan Asset Management, Fidelity, DWS, and Schroders, whom a majority of respondents predict will experience “strong growth,” while Pictet Funds is considered likely to grow by “many” clients. For the French market taken in isolation, Carmignac Gestion is the only firm to have “very strong” outlooks for growth according to a majority of clients. It is followed by LCF Rothschild, which clients expect to see “strong” growth, and Fidelity, which will experience “good” growth.
28/10/2009

CESR launches a consultation on standardisation of financial reporting

The Committee of European securities regulators (CESR) on 27 October announced the launch of a public consultation on the use of a standardized reporting format for financial information. The consultation provides an occasion for the CESR to gather feedback from market actors on the use of XBRL markup language, already used by international and European regulatory bodies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States, the CEBS (Committee of European banking supervisors), and the French Commission Bancaire-Banque de France. The CESR states that the consultation will concentrate on the potential introduction of an IFRS reporting format in the mid- to long term. The consultation will be open until 30 November.
28/10/2009

Turquoise adds six ETCs

Turquoise, the pan-European equity trading services company, announced that it will extend its services to include six Exchange Traded Commodities (ETCs) to trade via its MTF platform. The series of six new ETCs, tracking the performance of physical gold and silver, as well as gold bullion indices, will be available to Turquoise members from 13 November, 2009.
28/10/2009

State Street investor confidence index shows net decline in October

State Street Global Markets has announced that its institutional investor confidence index in October fell to 108.4, from 118.4 in September, with the heaviest decline - 12.8 points, to 101.1 - for the North American regional index. In Europe, the index is down 9.3 points, to 101.8, while the Asian index has risen to 95.3 from 92.9. A level of 100 represents neutral confidence, the point at which institutional investors neither increase nor decrease their allocations to high-risk assets. October is the seventh consecutive month in which the index has remained below the 100 mark overall. Ken Froot, the Harvard professor who developed the index with State Street Associates, says that although quarterly results have been relatively robust thus far, “the number of pleasant surprises in employment figures, retail sales, manufacturing output and commerce were fewer and further between, and this may have had an impact on investors’ appetite” for risk.
28/10/2009

Bill Gross predicts that the rally is over

The founder of Pimco, Bill gross, estimates that the market rally observed in the past six months has reached its peak, and that the Fed will need to maintain its interest rates for another 18 months. In his most recent column, published on the Pimco website (November 2009), Gross explains that in the post-crisis environment, nearly all assets appear to be overvalued for the long term, which has the consequence that monetary and economic policy chiefs will need to maintain interest rates at artificially low levels, and rely on aid measures to sustain growth. From his point of view, the Fed may wait for up to 18 months before raising interest rates. “My feeling is that the nominal GDP will need to show tangible signs of stabilisation at about 4% for the Fed to decide to take the risk of raising interest rates,” Gross writes. Meanwhile, an investor in US Treasury bonds should not expect miracles: 0.15% on Treasury bonsd, less than 1% on two-year notes, and a meagre 3.4% on 10-year paper. And the entire US bond market, including corporate bonds, is bringing in returns of only about 3.5%. Investors should not expect much more, and risks related to high yield, distressed or equities far outstrip the positive prospects at this point in the conjunctural cycle.
28/10/2009

OECD pension funds lost USD5.4trn in 2008

Pension funds in OECD countries lost USD5.4trn last year. They also posted averaage negative performance of 21.4% in nominal terms, and 24.1% in real terms, the OECD reports in its most recent bulletin on pension funds (Pension Markets in Focus, October, Issue 6). However, in the first half of 2009, pension funds, which earned average returns of 3.5%, recuperated more than USD1.5trn. As of 30 June 2009, pension funds only needed to make up 14% in order to catch up with thelr levels as of December 2007. The rebound in the performance of pension funds continued until 30 September this year, thanks to rallying markets, but they will need more time before the sector completely offsets its losses, the OECD estimates. The best-performing pension funds in the OECD countries were in Norway and Turkey, with returns of over 10%. Meanwhile, US pension funds earned average returns of 4% in nominal terms, while Australian funds gained only 1%. Funds in these two countries had the highest exposure to equities, at 46% for the US, and 59% for Australia.
28/10/2009

Institutional investors will return to alternative assets

BlackRock estimates that institutional investors will once again take an interest in alternative assets. Some alternative asset classes seem to be very attractively priced at present. New private equity funds will also invest at very attractive valuation levels, at the bottom of the economic cycle, and they won’t need to rely on leverage to generate returns. Distressed businesses may also present opportunities. Pension funds may also turn to alternative investments as a key component of their allocation. According to a BlackRock study, a 25% allocation for an international equities portfolio in a basket of alternative assets would have reduced volatility from18% to 16% per year in the period from January 1990 to December 2008, while also increasing annual returns by 0.6%.
27/10/2009

Ahorro Corporación merges twelve funds at once

In a notice to the CNMV, Ahorro Corporación, the main management firm for the Spanish savings banks, has announced that it will absorb eleven bond funds, Ahorro Corporación Renta Fija Privada, AC Bonos Corporativos, Caja Badajoz Plazo 2, Fonvalor, AC Plazo Rentas 2, AC Rendimiento Garantizado, AC Cupón activo, AC Capital 4, AC Ibex Garantizado, Caja Supercupón and AC Eurostoxx Año I, into its AC Plazo Rentas fund. The merger of so many products in one fell swoop is unprecedented in Spain.
27/10/2009

BankInvest unites global distribution activities in Luxembourg

From early 2010, the Danish management firm BankInvest will centralise its international distribution activities in Luxembourg, which will involve the closure of its Bavarian branch office in Straßlach/Kleindingharting, covering Germany, Switzerland and Austria, fondsprofessionell reports. The sales & relationship manager for the German office, Joachim Böttcher, will continue in his duties from Luxembourg.
27/10/2009

Macquarie acquires Blackmont Capital

The Australian investment bank Macquarie is scaling up its wealth management operations in North America. It will acquire Blackmont Capital, based in Canada, for USD87.2m.
27/10/2009

Commerzbank launches 11 ComStage ETF funds based on iBoxx indexes

On Monday, Commerzbank announced that its range of ETF funds bearing the ComStage brand (51 funds) has grown by 11 products, as licences have been issued for bond ETFs replicating Markit iBoxx indexes. The ComStage product range, which now includes 62 funds, covers equities, bonds, commodities and money markets. The new ComStaeg products are available for trading on the Stuttgart and Frankfurt stock markets as well as the Xetra electronic platform from Deutsche Börse. The new products were launched on the 5, 7, and 8 October. They are: ComStage ETF iBoxx € Liquid Sovereigns Diversified 10-15 TR ComStage ETF iBoxx € Liquid Sovereigns Diversified 15+ TR ComStage ETF iBoxx € Liquid Sovereigns Diversified 25+ TR ComStage ETF iBoxx € Sovereigns Germany Capped 10+ TR ComStage ETF iBoxx € Sovereigns Germany Capped 5-10 TR ComStage ETF iBoxx € Sovereigns Germany Capped 1-5 TR ComStage ETF iBoxx € Liquid Sovereigns Diversified Overall TR ComStage ETF iBoxx € Liquid Sovereigns Diversified 1-3 TR ComStage ETF iBoxx € Liquid Sovereigns Diversified 3-5 TR ComStage ETF iBoxx € Liquid Sovereigns Diversified 5-7 TR ComStage ETF iBoxx € Liquid Sovereigns Diversified 7-10 TR
27/10/2009

Share plc acquires 5% of Way Group

As part of a commercial agreement, Share plc, the parent company of The Share Centre Ltd. and Sharefunds Ltd., will acquire a 5% stake in the capital of Way Group Ltd., the holding company that owns Way Fund Managers Ltd., Way Investment Services Ltd., and Elite Administration Services Ltd., for three payments of GBP157,500, and thus a total of GBP472,500. Way Fund Managers will outsource the administration of its approximately 40 funds to Sharefunds.
27/10/2009

db x-trackers adjusts content of ETF funds

Das Investment reports that all ETF funds from db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) are now invested in a uniform portfolio of about 1,000 equities, corresponding roughly to the MSCI World index, which covers 1,700 equities. Only two of these products, the fund based on the Dax and the one based on the MSCI World index itself, remain to be brought into line with this policy, which will be achieved in the next few weeks. The move will prevent future events similar to Morningstar’s observation in late 2007 that the portfolio of a db x-trackers ETF replicating the Dax was solely exposed to Japanese equities plus a swap.

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