D’après les statistiques de l’association BVI, les sociétés de gestion d’actifs allemandes ont enregistré au premier semestre des souscriptions nettes de 3,7 milliards d’euros, dont 2,2 milliards pour les fonds institutionnels et 1,5 milliard pour les fonds offerts au public tandis que l’encours augmentait d’environ 4 % pour ressortir au 30 juin à 1.262,7 milliards d’euros contre 1.217,5 milliards fin décembre. L’agence Kommalpha souligne que la collecte de janvier-juin a été sauvée par db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) et ETFlab (Deka), dont les ETF ont à eux seuls attiré plus de 4,8 milliards d’euros pendant que les fonds monétaires, par exemple, subissaient des remboursements nets de plus de 11 milliards d’euros. La crise financière profite surtout à l’Allemagne comme site de production, puisque les fonds de droit allemand offerts au public ont drainé environ 6,5 milliards d’euros pendant que ceux de droit luxembourgeois accusaient des sorties nettes de presque 7,4 milliards. Cela tient selon Kommalpha au fait que les fonds luxembourgeois sont souvent de structure plus complexe et orientés actions.

Le nouveau gouvernement régional de Pudong a signé un accord de principe (MOU) avec The Blackstone Group pour la création du premier fonds de private equity libellé en yuans de la région de Shanghai-Pudong. Le Blackstone Zhonghua Development Investment Fund devrait lever environ 5 milliards de yuans et investir prioritairement dans la région de Shanghai et les zones limitrophes.

Le gestionnaire immobilier Commerz Real (43 milliards d’euros d’encours) a annoncé l’acquisition pour environ 32,7 millions d’euros de l’immeuble de bureaux Espace Dumont d’Urville dans le XVIème arrondissement de Paris. Le vendeur de cet actif de 3.100 mètres carrés est Klépierre (groupe BNP Paribas). L’Espace Dumont d’Urville, loué à SEGECE, une filiale de Klépierre, est affecté au portefeuille du fonds immobilier institutionnel Euro Office 1.

Au deuxième trimestre, DWS a enregistré 31.000 nouvelles signatures de plans d'épargne retraite en unités de compte (contrats Riester). La société de gestion allemande confirme sa domination sur ce marché, ce nombre représentant 77 % des contrats de ce type en Allemagne sur la période en revue. Sur les six premiers mois, 69.000 contrats Riesters ont été souscrits chez DWS, soit 13 % de plus qu’au premier semestre 2009. Au total, la société de gestion compte 390.000 contrats Riester commercialisés, pour un peu plus d’un milliard d’encours géré.

Lundi, DWS Finanz-Service (Deutsche Bank) a annoncé le lancement d’un fonds qui devrait atteindre 120 millions d’euros, dont 60 millions de fonds propres. La souscription du DWS Access Wohnen est ouverte jusqu’au 31 octobre 2009 (délai qui peut être prorogé jusqu’au 31 mars 2010 en cas de besoin) moyennant un droit d’entrée de 5 % et un versement initial d’au minimum 10.000 euros. Le portefeuille de départ se composera de 22 immeubles dans onze villes allemandes. Le professionnel de l’immobilier choisi comme partenaire pour DWS Access wohnen est alt+kelber Immobiliengruppe GmbH, qui bénéficie de l’exclusivité pour les opérations d’achat d’actifs.Les distributions prévues sont de 6,25 % à partir de 2011 et devraient progressivement augmenter jusqu'à environ 7 % pour 2019, la durée de vie pour ce fonds se situant à 11 ans.

Le 20 août, Universal Investment a lancé le fonds de devises Berenberg Currency-Alpha-Universal Investment qui est conseillé par Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG, un produit de droit allemand pour lequel State Street Bank GmbH fait office de banque dépositaire. Le gérant pourra prendre des positions longues et courtes. Si l’univers d’investissement n’est pas limité par principe, les placements se concentreront sur les monnaies du G8.Caractéristiques Dénomination Berenberg Currency-Alpha-Universal-Fonds Code ISIN DE000A0RGXP9 Droit d’entrée 5 % Commission de gestion 1,28 % Commission de performance 15 % de la performance absolue avec high watermark et un taux butoir correspondant à l’Euribor 3 mois

La Tribune reports that two former bank directors, Erastus Akingbola and Cecilia Bru, who were dismissed on 14 August for poor management, including fraudulent use of credit facilities, insider trading, market manipulation and money-laundering, are being sought in Nigeria by the economic and financial crimes commission.

Inspired by the agreement between UBS and the United States, the Canadian government is giving a look to the bank accounts that its taxpayers hold in Switzerland, Le Temps reports.“We would like to obtain information. UBS tried to slow things down, but in early September, we will meet with our lawyers (and UBS) to obtain this information,” the Canadian minister of internal revenue, Jean-Pierre Blackburn, told the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper.

HSBC Global Asset Management will launch its first ETF, based on the FTSE 100, this Monday, Financial Times Fund Management reports. In total, the firm is planning to launch 30 to 50 ETFs in the next three years.

The Korean firm Mirae Asset Global Investments has appointed Myung Joo Park as managing director of its European activities, the British press reports. Park, who will be based in London, joined Mirae Asset in 2005. He previously worked in the international division of the firm in Korea. Recently, Mirae told Newsmanagers that it would soon register several funds for sale in France.

Assets in the private wealth management department of Saxo Bank as of the end of first half totalled EUR1.88bn. The bank specialised in online trading of investments says in a statement that wealth management activities are in a phase of “rapid growth,” and that since the end of first half, assets under management have increased to EUR2.15bn.Saxo Bank earned pre-tax profits in first half of EUR7.39m, vs EUR21.77m . Three factors contributed to this decrease, according to the bank: increased costs related to the opening of international offices; investment in products; and the bank’s contribution to the Danish state guarantee plan.

The number of mergers and acquisitions in the asset management sector has fallen by one third in the first half of the year, Financial Times Fund Management reports, citing statistics from Jeffries Putnam Lovell. Between January and June, 73 such operations took place, compared with 109 in the corresponding period of last year. Independent asset management firms have replaced banks and insurance companies as the most active buyers, FT FM observes. In the next 12 months, Jeffries estimates that mergers and acquisitions will be driven by the buyer side.

With the recovery of the markets and the dissipation of investors’ fears, merger and acquisition activities in financial services in the next twelve months will be fed by buyers seeking to increase their size rather than by vendors seeking to survive, Jefferies Putnam Lovell predicts in the study “ Winds of Change: First-Half 2009 M&A Activity in the Global Asset Management, Broker/Dealer, and Financial Technology Industries.” The authors find that the motivation of vendors in the past nine months, including the need for capital and survival, will now be replaced by more traditional catalysts for merger and acquisition activities, such as diversification of products, distribution of capital necessary to initiate new phases of growth, and needs of liquidity on the side of vendors. Jefferies Putnam Lovell estimates that financial establishments that sell off asset management units will seek to retain minority stakes in them, largely in order to profit from the economic recovery.

The Dutch management firm APG, which manages the EUR180bn assets of the eponymous pension fund, has appointed Angelien Kemma as CIO and CEO of APG Asset Management. She replaces Roderick Munsters, who has moved to Robeco. Kemna was previously professor at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, after spending several years at ING Investment Management, as CIO Global and then CEO of ING IM Europe.

Standard Life Investments has added to its fixed income unit with the appointment of Andrew Fraser as investment director specialised in banking. He previously worked at BlackRock, as a director in the European credit analysis department. In the fixed income team, Fraser will report to Craig MacDonald, director of Investment Grade - corporate bonds. He will be in charge of analysing the European and British banking sectors.

Hermes Fund Managers has appointed Neil Williams as chief economist on the fixed income team. Williams was previously head of research and strategy for government bonds at Mizuho International, in London. He will report to Penni Coe, director of government and inflation-indexed bonds.

Graham Ashby, along with his colleagues at Credit Suisse, Michael Crawford, Marcus Chandler, and Mira Bhogaita, have been hired by LV=Asset Management to take over the UK Growth and UK Equity Income funds, currently managed by Chris Price, head of the equities team, Investment Week reports. LV=AM manages about GBP1.1bn in UK equities. The funds which were managed by Ashby at Credit Suisse have been outsourced by the asset management firm to Premier Asset Management.

Investment News magazine has run reports, relayed in Das Investment, that the law firms Stanley Mandel & Iola and Wolf Handelstein Freeman & Herz in New York are considering a possible lawsuit against promoters of leveraged ETFs, including Proshares and Direxion. The lawyers accuse these fund management firms of offering these products to retail investors who will retain them for more than one day, though they should be reserved for professional investors and for an investment period of less than one day. These are the same criticisms that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has also made. The two law firms are planning a class action lawsuit. Proshares is already facing a lawsuit for providing insufficient warning to investors about the risks involved in its Ultra-Short Real Estate Fund, a double-reverse leveraged fund which has lost 77.2% since the beginning of the year.

La Tribune reports, citing information in the United States press, that Bernard Madoff is suffering from terminal cancer and is reportedly dying in prison. The reports were denied by the prison administration.

The international association of the hedge fund industry, AIMA (Alternative Investment Management Authority), has welcomes a decision this past weekend by the FSA (Financial Services Authority) to commission a study of the impact the planned hedge fund directive would have on the United Kingdom. The British financial market authority has asked the research firm CRA International to study the costs and benefits of the legislation, focusing on the impact of the project on investment portfolios, costs to companies and investors, on the functioning of the market and on systemic risk, and finally, to study the effects of the legislation on financing for small businesses and European competitiveness. The findings of the study will be presented by the end of the year. The Association favours a revision of the draft directive in its current form. Though it approves of some planned measures such as systematic reporting of appropriate data to national supervisory authorities, the Association argues that some areas of the planned legislation, such as those concerning leverage, depositories, and marketing, need to be revised and corrected to avoid counter-productive effects. The AIMA, which has already called on the European Commission to order a pan-European impact study, hopes that the FSA’s initiative will inspire the Commission to take that step. “We hope that the European Commission will follow suit on the pan-European level. It would be extraordinary if there were not an appropriate evaluation on the European level of the impact of a directive which could have very serious consequences.” Like the AIMA, the FSA, whose annual conference for asset management, to be held on 17 September in London, will be dedicated to the subject of the planned European directive, is said to be favourable to a revision of the Commission’s draft directive, which it considers too constraining for the hedge fund industry. The British government is concerned about the impact of the draft directive on the competitiveness of an industry which in European terms is largely centred in London. The United Kingdom’s efforts to produce a revised version of the text will be likely to provoke some debate in Europe. France, among others, is widely known to favour increased surveillance of the activities of hedge funds.

On 20 August, Universal Investment launched the currency fund Berenberg Currency-Alpha-Universal Investment, which is advised by Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG. It is a German-registered product, for which State Street Bank GmbH is the depository bank. The manager may take long and short positions. Though the investment universe is not limited by a specific rule, investments will concentrate on G8 currencies. Characteristics Name Berenberg Currency-Alpha-Universal-Fonds ISIN code DE000A0RGXP9 Front-end fee 5.00% Management commission 1.28% Performance commission 15% of absolute returns with high watermark and a hurdle rate corresponding to the Euribor 3-month

The real estate asset management firm Commerz Real (EUR43bn in assets) has announced the acquisition for about EUR32.7m of the office property Espace Dumont d’Urville, in the 16th district of Paris. The vendor of the 3,100 square-metre property is Klépierre (BNP Paribas group). Espace Dumont d’Urville, which is wholly leased to SEGECE, an affiliate of Klépierre, will be added to the portfolio of the institutional real estate fund Euro Office 1.

According to a study by S&P cited by the WSJ, about 60% of equities fund managers lagged behind their index over five years to June 30. With the exception of emerging market debt funds, at least 75% of bond fund managers trailed behind their index. The news is grist for the mill of supporters of passive, index-based management. But Jane Li of FundQuest (BNP Paribas) says that “the less efficient the market, the more potential there is for a manager to add value.”

Following a decision by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to toughen regulations, Barclays Global Investors has ceased sales of new shares in its iShares fund based on the S&P GSCI Commodity index, L’Agefi reports.

The New York State Common Retirement Fund (USD110bn) has been licensed the FTSE Environmental Technology 50 and HSBC Global Climate Change indices as benchmarks for a new suite of inhouse investments in cleantech and climate change solutions, according to Responsible Investor. This amount is part of a USD500m Green Strategic Investment Program (GSIP) announced in 2008, of which USD200m has been allocated in April to Generation Investment Management.

L’Agefi reports that the CFTC is investigating the influence of speculative investment on price volatility on the US energy market. Following this investigation, the sectoral regulator is planning to set limits on positions permitted on certain assets on futures markets. ETFs, publicly-traded index-based funds which trade in commodities, may be the first victims of these increased regulations, with the objective of protecting the final consumer of energy and ensuring that prices paid by the consumer are fair and not the result of price manipulation.

Hedge funds managing close to USD15bn in assets quit the United Kingdom and moved to Switzerland in the past year, following plans to increase top personal tax rates to 51%, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing lawyers. Others are expected to follow.

In the first half of 2009, 1,913 funds were merged or closed, more than the 1,206 funds which were launched in the same time period, according to statistics from Lipper FMI, reported by Financial Times Fund Management. For the first time in a long time, the number of funds has declined, to a total of 33,543.

Allianz Global Investors (AGI) is planning to release a UCITS III version of its long/short Discovery Europe fund, as a sub-fund of this fund itself, Investment Week reports. The new product, Allianz RCM Discovery Europe Strategy, will be managed by the same manager as the main fund, Harold Sporleder, with Ralf Walter as co-manager. Two thirds of the profile will be invested in “strong conviction equities,” while the remainder will be invested with a more short-term outlook.In the first five months of the year, Allianz RCM Discovery Europe has posted returns of 11.91%, compared with 6.07% for the MSCI Europe index.

Keith Sloane, senior vice president of Hartford Mutual Funds, has announced that the affiliate of The Hartford has posted net subscriptions in second quarter and that assets totalled USD40.7bn as of the end of July, compared with USD28.7bn as of the end of first quarter (they were USD50bn as of the end of third quarter 2009), the Wall Street Journal reports. Hartford Mutual Funds underwent net redemptions in fourth quarter 2008 and first quarter 2009, but subscriptions increased by 37% in second quarter 2009 compared with first quarter.The Hartford’s focus on wealth management has led to a centralisation of mutual fund, retirement and variable annuities affiliates into a new investment and retirement division. The goal is to reach USD100bn in assets under management.