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01/10/2009

Assets at Source total USD2.2bn

The ETF provider Source has announced that its assets under management now total USD2.2bn, or about EUR1.5bn, according to Hedge Week. In the space of two months, new products from Source, which have been well-received by institutional investors, particularly hedge funds, have seen nearly USD950m, or about EUR650m, in inflows.
01/10/2009

BoA sells Columbia Management to Ameriprise

Bank of America agreed to sell Columbia’s long-term asset management business to Ameriprise Financial, the parent company of the UK firm Threadneedle, for about USD1bn. The sale (equities and bond funds) covers assets under management of about USD165bn as of June 30. The transaction will be concluded in spring 2010. Bank of America also said on Wednesday that it has not yet decided what to do with Columbia’s short-term asset management business.
01/10/2009

RBC Dexia takes over depository banking activities of UBI

Unione di Banche Italiane (UBI Banca) has sold its depository banking activities, serving more than EUR19bn in assets, primarily held on behalf of UBI Pramerica, the third-largest Italian asset management firm, to RBC Dexia Investor Services (RBC Dexia). The agreement includes several commitments from the corresponding bank, including one to provide payment agency services in Italy for Luxembourg Sicavs and UCITS funds in Dublin, if clients agree to the transfer. The transaction affects EUR93m in assets, and UBI Banca will earn a net capital gain of EUR80m, and a 10 basis point increase to its core tier 1 ratio. The operation, which will be concluded in the first half of 2010, is wholly financed with internal funds from RBC Dexia.
01/10/2009

CIC plans to invest USD2bn in distressed funds

According to sources close to the investor cited by Reuters, the sovereign fund China Investment Corp (USD200bn in assets) is planning to invest USD600-700m each in three distressed funds in the United States, of which one is from Goldman Sachs, and one from Oaktree Capital.
01/10/2009

Dreyfus launches two funds of funds

Dreyfus Corporation, an affiliate of BNY Mellon Asset Management, has announced the launch of two funds of funds. The Dreyfus Satellite Alpha Fund will invest in mutual funds advised by Dreyfus, which will themselves invest in non-traditional asset classes such as commodities, currencies, and real estate. For its part, the Dreyfus Diversified Global Fund will invest in US and foreign equities mutual funds advised by Dreyfus.
01/10/2009

SAC invests in new fund from RWC Partners

SAC Capital, the USD16bn hedge fund group, has invested in a new London-based fund managed by one of its former traders, says the Financial Times. RWC Partners’ new US Absolute Alpha fund, run by Mike Corcell (ex-Threadneedle), is expected to launch on Thursday, according to people familiar with the situation. The fund has raised USD350m and should get a further USD200m.
01/10/2009

Assets fell by 12% in 2008, according to IFSL

Assets under management in the United Kingdom contracted by 12% last year, to a total of GBP3.7trn, International Financial Services London (IFSL), a body that promotes British financial services worldwide, reports. This contraction follows five consecutive years of increases, averaging 8%. Poor returns, falling subscriptions and redemptions to investors were to blame for this contraction. Initial indicators for 2009 show that the sector has begun to recover, with a 14% increase in January-July in assets in retail funds domiciled in the United Kingdom. IFSL reports that two thirds of assets in 2008 were held by institutionals, while 16% were represented by retail funds, and 9% were in hedge funds, while the remainder corresponded to private clients. Profit margins for fund managers fell to 23%, from 32% in 2007.
01/10/2009

Mutuactivos bets on financial sector bonds

The fund management firm for Mutua Madrileña, Mutuactivos, last week launched the Mutuafondo Bonos Financieros fund. The product invests in bonds from European banks and insurers, which is a more conservative way of betting on the financial sector than through investment in equities, Expansión reports. The fund, which has already attracted EUR100m, is managed by Joaquín Álvarez-Borrás; securities in the portfolio will be rated at least BBB-, one notch above junk bonds, but the manager will focus on the leaders in each country. Until 15 October, subscriptions will carry no front-end fee. After that date, Mutuactivos will charge a 3% entry fee at subscription or in case of redemption after less than three years.
01/10/2009

Axa IM, Barings and Cazenove team up for roadshow

Baring Asset Management has announced that it will participate in the ABC of Bonds roadshow in the United Kingdom along with Axa Investment Managers and Cazenove Capital Management to popularise investment in bond funds with IFAs. The shows will be held in fifteen cities in the country, including London, Cardiff and Edinburgh, from the 17th to the 27th of November. It will reach about 400 IFAs.
01/10/2009

Bond funds show strong inflows

In the first eight months of the year, US bond funds attracted a net USD209.1bn, while net subscriptions to equities funds were limited to USD15.2bn, according to statistics from Morningstar, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Nine out of the ten funds which have seen the strongest net inflows are bond products.
01/10/2009

Lyxor has nine hedge funds on its managed account platform

Lyxor Asset Management announced on 29 September that it now has nine hedge funds on its managed account platform. Since January 2009, Lyxor has regularly increased the diversification of its investment universe, adding a new hedge fund in April, one in June, one in July, and four in August. Since the beginning of the year, assets under management on the platform have increased by USD3bn. The most recent fund, launched in September, is the Apollo Distressed Fund, which deploys an event-driven and risk arbitrage strategy.
01/10/2009

New distressed fund launched by GLG Partners

GLG Partners has launched a new fund which is primarily aimed at British and European distressed firms, Hedge Week reports. The fund favours tradeable and liquid shares in firms engaged in long and difficult restructuring processes, which are generally prized by distressed activists. The fund, which has about USD300m in assets, had been managed internally since July 2008. But returns of 84% since January have motivated GLG to launch a special product for external investors.
01/10/2009

Money market funds continue to suffer

In August, according to statistics from the German association BVI, the asset management industry overall saw net redemptions of EUR1.05bn, following net inflows of EUR3.13bn in July and EUR3.61bn in the corresponding month of last year. This result is primarily imputable to open-ended money market funds, which saw net outflows of EUR3.04bn, after EUR5.86bn in outflows already in July, and, to a lesser extent, to bond funds, from which net redemptions totalled EUR765m, compared with net inflows of EUR979m the previous month. In the first eight months of the year, institutional funds have seen inflows of EUR6.3bn, compared with EUR11.63bn in January-August 2008, while open-ended securities funds saw net outflows of EUR3.64bn, compared with net subscriptions of USD17.65bn. Open-ended equities funds attracted USD8.86bn in January-August 2009 (compared with USD538m), while money market funds saw outflows of USD19.96bn (compared with net subscriptions of USD4.4bn). Bond funds have notably seen outflows of USD1.51bn (compared with USD3.11bn), while real estate funds attracted USD3.04bn, compared with USD5.78bn.
01/10/2009

Deutsche Bank group leads in ETF market

ETFs have been by far the largest area of growth in inflows for funds on sale in Germany since the beginning of the year: between them, Barclays Global Investors (with its iShares brand), Commerz Derivatives Funds (ComStage), Deutsche Bank (with db x-trackers) and Deka (with ETFlab) have attracted a total of EUR5.13bn in January-August, while open-ended securities funds as a whole saw net outflows of EUR3.64bn. db x-trackers stands out with inflows of EUR2.96bn, ahead of ETFlab, with EUR1.35bn, while ComStage and iShares products have attracted EUR573.2m and EUR248.3m, respectively. Thanks to db x-trackers, the DB/DWS group is the only one of the major actors to post net subscriptions (of EUR1.44bn), while Deka (savings banks) has seen outflows of EUR5.42bn. Allianz Global Investors has seen net redemptions of EUR2bn, while Pioneer (UniCredit) and Union Investment (co-operative banks) show outflows of EUR964.7m and EUR815m. Only two actors show assets of over EUR100bn as of 31 August: DB?DWS, with EUR132.03bn, and Deka, with EUR105.56bn.
01/10/2009

New offshore products from Thames River and Jupiter

Thames River and Jupiter are launching new offshore products on the British and European markets, according to Investment Week. Thames River will offer two long/short funds in the first half of 2010, directed by Joel Amsellem and Gaurav Bamania. The two UCITS III vehicles will be domiciled in Dublin. Jupiter, for its part, has launched a new vehicle entitled Global Opportunities, as a sub-fund of its Global fund, domiciled in Luxembourg. The fund is dedicated to institutional clients, but the minimal investment is set at GBP1,000. The fund is primarily invested in international equities, and is benchmarked against the MSCI World, and will be managed by Malcolm Millar, manager of European Income unit trusts, and Ben Surtees, manager of Asian unit trusts and Asia Pacific Sicav funds.
01/10/2009

Mary Callahan Edroes takes over asset management at JP Morgan

Mary Callahan Erdoes, previously head of private banking, will take over as director of asset management activities at JP Morgan, the bank has announced in a statement. Erdoes, who succeeds Jes Stanley, who has been appointed CEO of investment banking activities, will also join the Operating Committee at JP Morgan Chase. Erdoes joined the JP Morgan private bank in 1996, to direct the Fixed Income department for high net worth investors (HNWI) and charities. After serving in other positions of responsibility, she was appointed CEO of the private bank in 2005, and joined the Executive Committee of the group.
01/10/2009

Invesco controls over 10% of MAN

The German conglomerate MAN SE announced on Wednesday in a regulated statement that the American management firm Invesco had notified it that it had passed the 3%, 5% and 10% thresholds in its capital, and on that date controlled 10.42% of voting rights in the business.
01/10/2009

Tax regulations could throw up obstacles to cross-border fund mergers

The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) has warned the European Commission about possible tax obstacles to cross-border fund mergers once the future Ucits IV directive is implemented, says Ignites Europe. Asset management companies may be deterred from using cross-border mergers.
01/10/2009

Staff transfers: Brevan Howard warned Gordon Brown

Agefi Switzerland reports that a migration of Brevan Howard to the shores of Lake Geneva, where it has planned to move 250 of its staff, though its operational activities will remain in London, is anything but a surprise. 18 months ago, in an informal meeting with the FSA (Financial Services Authority), the directors of Brevan Howard put pressure on the British government with the announcement that they were studying a departure from the United Kingdom if their fears about a large increase in taxes were confirmed. For the moment, Brevan Howard has limited itself to a succinct and evasive statement: “The parent company of the Brevan Howard group regularly studies commercial opportunities, and is preparing to move into offices in several jurisdictions, including Switzerland.” Brevan already has offices in New York, Washington, Hong Kong, Dublin, and Tel Aviv.
01/10/2009

Deutsche Bank slashes commodity positions to comply with CFTC requirements

Following an injunction from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Deutsche Bank has announced that it will reduce the exposure to corn, wheat, crude oil, and sugar of its PowerShares DB Commodity Index Trading Fund (USD3.3bn) and PowerShares Db Agriculture Fund (USD2.2bn), and that it will instead invest in coffee, cocoa, live cattle, copper, natural gas, and gasoline, the Wall Street Journal reports. In addition, the Commodity fund will invest for the first time in a non-US energy commodity: Brent crude oil. The CFTC ordered Deutsche Bank to reduce its positions on corn and wheat futures by the end of October.
01/10/2009

Crédit Agricole to leave tax havens

Georges Pauget, CEO of Crédit Agricole, announced on Wednesday that the bank would be withdrawing from tax havens in 2010, La Tribune reports. The bank will close its units in the Bahamas and Panama.
01/10/2009

Emerging market debt: a source of security

Agefi Switzerland reports that the manager Asoka Woehrmann, head of the Retail Fixed Income division at DWS, estimates that emerging market debt represents a new area of opportunities. Countries included in this universe are on the whole net exporters with trade surpluses. South Korea, for example, which at the beginning of the year underwent a 50% fall in its industrial production, is recovering faster than the United States, Germany, Italy, or France. China’s efforts to support its economy have never been so important. “As proof, the crisis has literally wiped the Icelandic kronur off the map of global currencies, but the Brazilian real, the Chinese yuan and the Korean won are doing well. Emerging debt is no longer hot finance.”
01/10/2009

UK banks will follow G20 bonus rules

La Tribune reports that in a joint statement, the top five UK banks - HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered - have announced that they will work with the Financial Services Authority to apply the bonus restrictions agreed at last week’s G20 meeting in Pittsburgh, from 1 January next year. The banks note that all member nations have pledged to apply the rules in order to ensure a level playing field.
01/10/2009

Man Group CEO criticizes aspects of draft AIFM directive

In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Peter Clarke, CEO of Man Group, says there has been a rebound in demand on the part of investors, particularly for guaranteed products. He also says that Man Group is favourably disposed to several points in the draft alternative management directive proposed in Brussels: some security standards need to apply to all hedge funds, including the smallest ones which are not publicly traded, in order for competition to be equitable. However, Clarke considers the text too hard on non-European hedge funds. He argues that the idea of requiring banks to be responsible for hedge funds’ risks is too onerous. Lastly, the idea of limiting the amount of leverage which hedge funds are allowed to use to increase their performance goes a step too far.
01/10/2009

Jubilee raises its minimal investment levels

Jubilee is making a change to its strategy, and has raised its minimal investment to GBP15,000 for its full range of structured products and for all vehicles to be launched in the future, Investment Week reports. The firm is seeking to orient itself to more upmarket clients, and has also suspended all promotional activities serving independent financial advisors (IFAs). The firm says the size of the average investment is already far above the GBP15,000 pound mark, and is set to rise in the future.
01/10/2009

Assets up at Man Group in Q3

According to initial estimates, total assets at Man Group totalled USD43.8bn as of 30 September, compared with USD43.3bn at the end of June, and USD46.8bn as of 31 March. The alternative asset management firm puts its pre-tax profits for the first six months of its fiscal year, ending on 31 March, at USD280m, compared with USD622m for the corresponding period of last year. Gross subscriptions from retail investors in the first half of the current fiscal year totalled USD5bn, of which USD1.6bn were in July-September, while redemptions totalled USD2.7bn. As of 30 September, assets managed for retail investors totalled USD29.1bn, compared with USD27.3bn as of 30 June. Institutional investors withdrew a net total of USD1.7bn in July-September, compared with USD3.6bn in April-June. Quarterly redemptions booked for 1 October total USD0.7bn. As of the end of September, institutional assets are estimated at USD14.7bn, compared with USD16bn three months previously.
01/10/2009

Pas de sortie monétaire sans maîtrise budgétaire

De très nombreuses questions sont posées aujourd’hui sur le calendrier, l’ordre, la façon dont la BCE sortira de la politique monétaire non conventionnelle. Ira-t-elle au terme de son programme d’achats de covered bonds ? Apposera-t-elle une marge aux prochaines opérations de financement long ? Quand prendront fin les procédures d’appel d’offre à taux fixe ? Regardons les choses en face : ces questions sont prématurées.
30/09/2009

GIC to restart investments

Ng Kok Song, director of investment for the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC), has announced that the Singapore sovereign fund is planning to begin investing again. Its liquidity ratio currently stands at 8%, on USD200bn in assets, and the percentage of equities in its portfolio has fallen to 38% from 44%, largely due to sales of shares in industrialised countries, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. In the period ending on 31 March, assets fell by “more than 20%,” which reduced performance over 20 years to 2.6% in real terms. However, since the beginning of April, more than half of these losses have been offset.

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