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11/09/2009

Record inflows to corporate bond funds

In July, EUR7.5bn went into corporate investment grade bond funds on sale in Europe, on total net inflows of EUR46bn, according to the most recent Fund Flash from Lipper FMI. Since the beginning of the year, net inflows to these funds have totalled EUR40bn, a record which in fact exceeds the combined flows achieved during the last 5 years. Cross-border groups have been the big winners, hoovering up over half of this year’s new money. Specialist boutique BlueBay has taken full advantage of this explosion, but M&G and Schroders have also shared the take, Lipper FMI notes. In total, fixed income funds registered net inflows in July of EUR16bn, a four year high. Equities saw inflows of EUR12bn, no longer dominated by emerging markets, Lipper FMI observes. In July, the asset management firm with the strongest net inflows was Schroders, with EUR2.8bn. In Equities, a joint venture from SocGen and Russell stands out with EUR988m in investments for a multi-style fund and a multi-management fund.
11/09/2009

SGAM launches an "absolute research" fund

Société Générale Asset Management (SGAM) has launched SGAM Invest Europe Absolute Research, a French-registered diversified FCP, which complies with UCITS III standards, and “allows investors to benefit from opportunities on equities markets in Europe in both rising and falling market phases, with absolute returns decorrelated from equities markets.” The fund is composed of a money market base which may account for up to 100% of the portfolio, managed in a traditional manner, and a a performance swap on intra-sectoral pairs of European equities, with a long position on shares considered attractive and a short position on shares that show less potential. Exposure to equities markets will account for a maximum of 100% of assets. The fund is managed by Eric Mjot, deputy director of equities management and head of equities research and strategy at SGAM Paris. He will rely on nine financial analysts at the firm who will each be responsible for several sectors.
11/09/2009

Merk launches a third currencies fund

On Wednesday, Merk Investments announced the launch of its third no-load currencies fund, the Merk Absolute Return Currency Fund, Mutual Fund Wire reports. As its name indicates, it is an absolute returns product. The TER will be 130 basis points.
11/09/2009

Recruitments continue at Barclays Wealth

Following the recruitment of Iñigo Calderón, formerly of Deutsche Bank (see Newsmanagers of 4 September), as head of the private banking and wealth management division, Barclays Wealth Managers España has recruited Pablo Martinez Alberola as director of sales, Funds People reports. This is a newly-created position, and the new recruit’s mission will be to co-ordinate commercial activities so as to place funds managed in Spain as well in the country as those registered in Ireland or Luxembourg.
11/09/2009

Dutch brokerage firm Van der Moolen is bankrupt

L’Echo reports that the Netherlands-based broker Van der Moolen was declared bankrupt on Thursday, 10 September, succumbing to the credit crisis and to poor management decisions. It lost two thirds of its value on the stock market, bringing its capitalisation to EUR4m. Van der Moolen was one of the big names on Wall Street in the 1980s and 1990s. In recent years, the management firm sought to redefine the contours of its activities, and concentrated unsuccessfully on trading of options and derivative products.
11/09/2009

"Special Sits" fund from Henderson to be launched on 1 October

Henderson New Star has announced that the new European Special Situations fund (see Newsmanagers of 28 May) will be launched on 1 October. Its assets will be limited to GBP500m, in order to allow the manager, Richard Pease (formerly of New Star) to have a small and midcaps bias. The portfolio will contain 35 to 55 positions, and the objective will be initial performance of 3-5%. Subscriptions will be open from 17 September.
11/09/2009

F&C to close Special Sits fund

F&C Asset Management will close its Special Situations fund as a part of a rationalisation of its product range, FT Adviser reports. In a letter to investors, the management firm explains that major shareholders have sold their shares, reducing assets from GBP36.5m to only GBP1m.
11/09/2009

Assets in ETF funds set a new record

As of the end of August, assets under management worldwide in ETF funds set a new all-time record, at USD890.52bn, though the previous record dates only to July, at USD858bn. Since the beginning of the year, assets increased by 25.3%, while the number of products increased by 11.4%, with 248 new funds launched and 71 products closed, bringing the total to 1,773 ETF funds listed 3,137 times on 41 stock markets, from 95 issuers, according to statistics from Barclays Global Investors. Currently, 781 new ETFs are in development. The rankings of the largest management firms remain unchanged: iShares (BGI) remains the leader, with 391 ETFs and assets of USD429.32bn, which represents a market share of 48.2%. It is followed by State Street Global Advisors (104 products and USD139.33bn), whose market share totals 15.6%, and Vanguard (40 products, USD71.71bn, and an 8.1% market share as of the end of August). The European providers Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale) and db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) are in fourth and fifth place, with 102 and 100 products, respectively, and assets of USD40.78bn and USD31.34bn. This corresponds to market shares of 4.6% and 3.5%.
11/09/2009

Barclays index confirms good health of hedge funds

In August, the Barclay Hedge Fund index of 1,023 hedge funds has posted returns of 2,155, bringing the total since the beginning of the year to 16.52%. This confirms a trend which has been revealed in the past few days in the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite (+14.1% in January-August) and Hennessee (+.17.30%) indexes. As in the Hennessee data, the best results in the first eight months of 2009 have been in convertibles arbitrage, at 40.95% (for 16 funds), followed by emerging markets strategies (+30.86% for 169 funds).
11/09/2009

Hauck & Aufhauser wants to acquire Constantia

According to Wirtschaftblatt, the German private bank Hauck & Aufhäuser (H&A) is reported to have made a firm offer of about EUR50m to acquire the Viennese private bank Constantia Privatbank from Bank Austria, RZB, Erste Bank, Volksbank and Bawag (the five banks that saved the firm in October 2008). The newspaper reports that the banks had previously sought to obtain EUR100m for the business.
11/09/2009

Natixis AM creates a scientific climate change committee

On Thursday, Natixis Asset Management announced that it has set up a scientific “Climate Change” committee, which will provide its management teams with ongoing clarification of major issues that they will need to integrate: analysis of the impact of climate change on certain sectors, countries or regions, depending on various scenarios; evaluation of government actions and regulation; identification of new technological developments which may help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and adaptation to the inevitable consequences of climate change. The committee will be chaired by Carlos July, one of the founders of UNEP-FI. It will also include Pierre Radanne, Yves Le Bars and Miklos Konkoly-Thege (former president of the environmental foundation Det Norske Veritas).
11/09/2009

Morgan Stanley Investment Management also rumoured to be up for sale

Morgan Stanley is said to be selling not only Van Kampen Investments, but the entirety of its retail activities, which also include Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Ignites reports, citing several sources. The bank would retain 20% of the unit, which represents about USD150bn in assets under management, and would sell the other 80%. Invesco is said to be a candidate to acquire the business.
11/09/2009

Record subscriptions to Swedish funds

In August, funds on sale in Sweden had net inflows of SEK7.5bn (EUR166m), according to the most recent statistics from the Swedish fund association (Fondbolagens Förening), which emphasizes that this is the highest level ever recorded for August. Since the beginning of the year, inflows total SEK58bn, which also represents a record for the January-August period. In August, equities funds drove subscriptions in the sector, with net inflows of SEK7.7bn. Bond funds and balanced funds posted net inflows fo SEK2.4bn and SEK1.3bn, respectively. However, hedge funds and money market funds saw outflows of SEK1bn and SEK2.8bn. The Swedish fund association has been campaigning for the abolition of a tax on funds registered in Sweden, ahead of the introduction of UCITS IV. Fondbolagens Förening claims that this tax favours foreign-registered funds.
11/09/2009

Madoff's real estate properties up for sale

Bernard Madoff’s two remaining federally seized properties, located in New York and Palm Beach, were listed on Thursday for USD9.9m and USD8.5m, respectively, the WSJ reports. Madoff’s beachfront house in Montauk was listed on 1 September for USD8.75m. The proceeds from the sales of the houses will go into a fund which will be used to reimburse victims of the Madoff fraud.
11/09/2009

Scotia Bank brings together asset management activities in single centre

On Wednesday, Scotia Bank announced that it has made improvements to its asset management operations “in order to support client service and internal growth at its wealth management division.” The new centre of excellence which has been created, entitled Gestion d’actifs Scotia S.E.C. (Scotia Asset Management), will bring together research, communications and product design efforts with other activities which are currently dispersed throughout several operational units. Gestion d’actifs Scotia will bring asset management expertise from Fonds Scotia, ScotiaMcLeod and Scotia Cassels together in a single entity. This will represent more than CAD20bn in assets.
11/09/2009

Pimco Europe overtakes db x-trackers

In the first seven months of the year, the Irish management firm Pimco Europe (Allianz group) has been the manager to post the strongest net subscriptions in the German market, with EUR2.8bn, of which EUR536m were in July. Pimco Europe has taken first place from db x-trackers, the Luxembourg-registered ETF affiliate of Deutsche Bank, which has EUR2.57bn in assets, following net outflows of EUR0.4bn, the Kommalpha agency reports. The best results in July were at Barclays Global Investors Deutschland (EUR747m in net subscriptions), while CSAM Immo had the worst results, with net outflows of EUR858m. The next three firms in the rankings were German-registered funds: ETFlab (the ETF provider from Deka), which posted inflows of EUR1.96bn for January-July, Union Investment Privatfonds (co-operative banks), with EUR1.81bn, and Union Investment Real Estate, with EUR1.63bn. The largest net outflows in the period under review were all at Luxembourg-registered management firms: Deka (savings banks) underwent net redemptions of EUR2.76bn, ahead of Union Investment Lux (EUR2.39bn), IFM (EUR2.38bn), Allianz Gi Lux (EUR2.1bn), and cominvest SA (EUR1.41bn). In total, German-registered management firms saw net inflows of EUR7.39bn in the first seven months of the year, while Luxembourg-registered funds saw net redemptions of EUR9.37bn.
11/09/2009

Postbank soon to be acquired by Deutsche Bank?

A wave of consolidation in the banking sector in Germany may continue, La Tribune reports, with a takeover of Postbank by Deutsche Bank. A scenario seems to be taking form in which Deutsche Bank would control less than 30% of Postbank. This would allow the largest German bank to launch a takeover bid, but would be enough to hold off rival bids. The takeover bid proper would be launched later. According to other sources, the Spanish bank Santander could team up with Deutsche Bank in the operation.
11/09/2009

National Express approves takeover bid from Cosmen family and CVC

The Spanish Cosmen family and the private equity firm CVC will soon take control of National Express, as the transportation firm has confirmed that it is in talks with the consortium over its EUR2.08bn bid to acquire the firm, Cinco Días reports. On Friday at 5 PM the deadline for new bids will expire. According to the British press, the board of National Express is reported to have voted on Wednesday in favour of accepting the Cosmen-CVC bid, at EUR5.75 per share, which values the firm at EUR875m, plus EUR1.2bn in debt.
11/09/2009

Martin Currie recruits a director for Asia from Vanguard

On 28 September, Ee Fang Chen, who was previously in charge of development of institutional activities for Vanguard in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, will join Martin Currie Investment Management as business development director, Asia. In this position he will report to Kimon Kouryialas, regional head for Pan Asia. He will be based in Singapore and will be in charge of assisting client development in Asia.
11/09/2009

Dispute between Bank of America and US authorities settled

La Tribune reports that Bank of America announced on 10 September that it has settled a dispute with US authorities and the State of Massachusetts by buying back auction-rate securities (ARS) that it sold to individual investors, whose rate is set at auction, at their nominal value, totalling EUR4.5bn.
11/09/2009

Conservative funds lead for subscriptions

According to statistics from VDOS Stochastics, the most conservative funds have attracted the largest net subscriptions in Spain since the beginning of the year, Cinco Días reports. The European long-term bond fund category has seen the strongest inflows, with more than EUR2.34bn, ahead of guaranteed bond funds (EUR1.49bn). La Caixa and Ibercaja are the leaders for net inflows, with EUR242bn and EUR455m, respectively. The most popular fund was the Santander Rendimiento FI B, a bond fund which attracted more than EUR2.75bn, followed by the Foncaixa Garantía Renta Fija (also a bond fund), with EUR994m.
11/09/2009

Bank of England may lower interest rate on reserves held at the bank

L’Agefi reports that the Bank of England (BoE) may lower the interest rate it pays on banking reserves, to incite banks to use this capital. The measure would come as a complement to the quantitative easing policy whose effects are proving slow in making themselves felt. At present, reserves earn the prime rate of 0.5%.
11/09/2009

La Banque d'Angleterre pourrait baisser la rémunération des réserves bancaires

Selon l’Agefi, la banque d’Angleterre (BoE) pourrait baisser la rémunération des réserves bancaires afin d’inciter les banques à utiliser ces liquidités. Cette mesure viendrait compléter le dispositif d’assouplissement quantitatif dont les effets tardent à se faire sentir. Pour l’heure, ces réserves sont rémunérées au taux directeur, à savoir 0,5 %.
11/09/2009

Hermes rethinks fee structure

Hermes BKP Partners is working on a new fee structure for its funds of hedge funds, which would be indexes on long-term performance, the Wall Street Journal reports. Commissions for each year of performance would be collected every three years.
11/09/2009

Hedge funds launch UCITS III products

Several London-based hedge funds are preparing to launch UCITS III-compliant products, the Financial Times reports. These firms include Cheyne Capital (USD6bn in assets) and Man Group (USD43.3bn).
10/09/2009

Scottish Widows Investment Partnership recherche des directeurs

Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (Swip) recrute, selon Ignites Europe. Christian Elsmark, directeur des ventes européennes de Swip, affirme que la société de gestion du groupe Lloyd’s cherche un directeur des investissements (CIO) pour les actions, un directeur des investissements pour les taux, et que diverses personnes passent des entretiens pour la distribution.
10/09/2009
Fonds

L'EPISO d'AEW Europe investit à Wimbledon

AEW Europe (groupe Natixis Global AM) a annoncé mercredi que son fonds European Property Investors Special Opportunities (EPISO) continue d’investir sur un marché de l’immobilier britannique qui a connu la plus forte correction de toute l’Europe depuis le début de la crise. Il vient ainsi d’acquérir auprès de Prupim un immeuble de bureaux à Wimbledon pour 40 millions de livres, ce qui porte le total de ses investissement à 600 millions d’euros alors que l’EPISO a été bouclé à 788 millions d’euros de fonds propres, ce qui correspond approximativement à un portefeuille de 2 milliards d’euros avec le recours au crédit. L’immeuble de Wimbledon, qui comprend des commerces et des parkings, assure un rendement net initial de 10 %.
Fonds
10/09/2009

Barings crée un poste de directeur des opérations et de la technologie

Baring Asset Management (Barings) a annoncé la création du poste de head of operations and technology qui est confié à Laura Ahto, directement subordonnée au COO John Misselbrook.L’intéressée, qui était senior vice president, head of operations, administration and European funds chez Pimco Europe (groupe Allianz), est basée à Londres. Elle aura la responsabilité des «investment operations», de l’informatique ainsi que du change and date Management pour l’ensemble du groupe.
10/09/2009

SEI recrute l'un des fondateurs de Maia Capital

Jason Collins, qui a été l’un des fondateurs de la boutique de multigestion Maia Capital, rejoint SEI comme head of UK and European Equities à Londres. Il est subordonné à Kevin Barr, qui dirige la Investment management unit de SEI, et sera chargé de diriger la recherche, la construction de portefeuille et la sélection de gérants pour tous les fonds de gérants de gérants de SEI pour le Royaume-Uni et l’Europe.

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