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24/07/2009

Immoselect fund from Axa IM will remain closed for a longer period

Axa Investment Managers has announced that the fiscal year for the open-ended real estate fund Axa Immoselect concluded on 30 April, and a dividend of EUR1.85 per share will be paid to subscribers on 24 July. Returns were 3.8%, and distribution, which continues despite the closure of the fund to redemptions since late October, will be 3.1%. The amount necessary to pay out a dividend has already been taken into account in the calculation of the fund’s net liquidity, which as of 30 June totalled about EUR380m, thanks to subscriptions as well as sales of properties, with a profit, in Mannheim, Cologne, and Milan.Achim Gräfe, CEO of Axa Investment Managers Deutschland and manager of the fund, states that the management firm is planning to reopen the Immoselect fund to redemptions as soon as possible. He is expecting redemptions of EUR500m, and this amount of liquidity will have to have been accumulated before the fund can reopen. For this reason, Axa is working to increase liquidity in the fund, and Gräfen points out that external financing rates for the Immoselect fund are relatively low, at 13.8% as of the end of June, which in principle provides an opportunity to rely on external financial resources.Also, on 21 July, the portfolio gained a 90% participation in a firm which manages a shopping centre in Antegnate in Italy. This corresponds to an investment of about EUR145m, a commitment that dates back to January 2007.Currently, the fund has 47 properties in 10 European countries. In addition, it has stakes in 22 realty firms.
24/07/2009

Brutal audit for portfolio of Morgan Stanley P2 Value fund

On Thursday, the German asset management firm Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investment announced that an independent audit of the portfolio of the P2 Value fund found a total depreciation of EUR231m, or 10.4%, in the market value of its assets. This corresponds to about 13.9% of assets in the fund, and the liquid value of one share in the fund was lowered on 23 July by about EUR7.50, to EUR53.74.The fund is reopening to subscriptions from this Friday, 24 July, but redemptions will continue to be frozen, as they have been since late October. The board of directors of Morgan Stanley REI will meet in September/October to determine whether liquidity levels are sufficient to allow redemptions to be reopened. Assets as stated on the firm’s website on Thursday totalled EUR1.66bn. After the correction, they will thus total EUR1.43bn.
24/07/2009

Audit wipes out a large part of performance for P2 Value fund

A downward correction of 13.9% to the value of the portfolio of the open-ended real estate fund Morgan Stanley P2 Value has wiped out a large part of the fund’s 18.3% gains between November 2005 and June 2009, according to the estimates of experts, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. Walter Klug, CEO of Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investment, states that the fund is subscribed to largely be retail investors and not by institutional investors. The P2 Value fund’s 60% stake in the Tiranon tower in Frankfurt, which is home to the headquarters of the asset management firm DekaBank, has lost 12.7% of its value, which represents a loss of EUR45m, or one fifth of all total capital losses. In 2007, Deka sold the Trianon building to two Morgan Stanley funds, the P2 Value and Eurozone Office Fund, for EUR620m, earning capital gains on the operation of EUR150m.
24/07/2009

Strong subscriptions to Lyxor commodities ETFs

In June, ETF funds from Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale group) replicating commodities indexes registered subscriptions of USD176m, of 57% more than in May, Investment Week reports. Total assets in Lyxor funds stand at about USD1bn.
24/07/2009

Roland Lescure appointed as CIO at Caisse dépôt et placement du Québec

Canada Newswire reports that the Caisse dépôt et placement du Québec has appointed Roland Lescure as its first vice-president and chief investment officer. “Mr. Lescure will be responsible for investment strategy for the Caisse, distribution of the overall portfolio, and research supporting investment activities. He will also supervise investments in liquid markets (equities, fixed income securities, currencies, and basic commodities), and will assume an advisory role in private investments and real estate. Mr. Lescure will begin in his duties this autumn,” the article states. Lescure is currently serving as CIO at Groupama Asset Management, Canada Newswire reports.
24/07/2009

Criminal investigation of Corey Ribotsky

Sources close to the case say a criminal investigation has been opened in Brooklyn by the New York state authorities and the FBI into the activities of the hedge fund manager Cory Robotsky, the Wall Street Journal reports. Ribotsky, who claimed to have USD770m in assets under management, lied to investors both about the performance of the funds and about the participations these various funds held. The SEC is also investigating the case. For the moment, Ribotsky is not accused of fraud. He is thought to have invested partly in PIPEs (private investments in public equities).
24/07/2009

Queen's son-in-law to manage government's real estate portfolio

Vice-Admiral Tim Lawrence, husband of Princess Anne, was appointed on 10 July as chief manager of the British government’s real estate portfolio, which includes a total of 122 million square metres, and is valued at GBP3.5bn, PropertyWeek.com reports.
24/07/2009

HSBC going into prime brokerage business

According to an internal memo obtained by the Financial Times, HSBC is planning to open its own prime brokerage unit, to profit from US investment banks’ traditional dominance in the market.
24/07/2009

Banks reduce exposure to hedge funds

The BIS reports that German banks cut back their loans to offshore centres by 13% in the first three months of the year, to a total of USD207bn, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. These offshore centres include the Channel Islands and the Carribean, favourites places of domicile for hedge funds, as regulations are less restrictive there.
24/07/2009

Activist investors taking aim at smaller firms

According to a RiskMetrics study cited by the Financial Times, the number of battles engaged in by activist investors increased by 27% this year. But the size of target companies became smaller. In the United States, the average cap size of businesses targeted by these investors fell by USD275m to only USD75m in 2009.
24/07/2009

CESR to hold hearings on UCITS IV in early September

The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) announced on Thursday, 23 July that on 1 September, it will hold an open public hearing on the UCITS IV directive. Among the major topics that will be covered during the day-long hearing are the template Key Information Document, conflicts of interest, risk management, and the question of depositories. The Council of the European Union on 22 July granted its approval to the UCITS IV directive. This is a mere formality, since the bill, which was passed in January this year by the European Parliament, is the result of a compromise between the two European institutions. It will, however, be interesting to see how the directive will be articulated in the context of other European regulations, such as the MiFID and Prospectus regulations, or the draft directive on alternative management (known as AIFM, for Alternative Investment Fund Managers). This latter bill in particular, which was drafted in the course of a few weeks by the European Commission without a consultation with market participants, has been the subject of considerable criticism, due to a lack of coherence in its correspondences with the UCITS IV directive in particular.
24/07/2009

Reporter for hedge fund directive will be French

European Parliament member Jean-Paul Gauzès, from France (European Popular Party) is expected to the the reporter for the directive on alternative investment funds, L’Agefi daily reports.
24/07/2009

Investors call on SEC to enforce ESG management criteria

More than 50 professionals and businesses specialised in investment have called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to require publicly-traded firms to provide information to their shareholders on an annual basis on a variety of environmental, social and governance (ESG) questions. The signatories of the initiative, all of whom belong to the social investment forum (SIF), a United States association which aimed to promote the practice and development of socially responsible investment, would like to see businesses publish coherent indicators of their sustainable development activities, following the most recent recommendations of the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative). The signatories claim that the SEC should produce recommendations which would clearly reveal the necessity for businesses to inform the public about short- and long-term risks in the area of sustainable development. The 24-page document, addressed to the US market regulator, argues that there are a growing number of reasons that disclosure of ESG information should be obligatory. Investors are increasingly demanding this information, as revealed by the number of investors backing such resolutions at general shareholders’ meetings - an average of 25% in the past five years, compared with less than 10% in the 1990s, according to statistics from RiskMetrics. Outside the United States, governments and regulators - in Sweden, the United Kingdom, and France - are requiring businesses to provide information on various aspects of their sustainable development practices; and last but not least, several studies reveal the close ties between respect for ESG criteria and financial performance.
24/07/2009

Strong growth in assets under administration at comdirect

comdirect bank has announced pre-tax profits for first half of EUR41.5m, compared with EUR40.2m, excluding ebase, in the corresponding period of 2008. The number of clients has increased over six months by 59%, to more than 2.14 million, while the number of share custody accounts has more than doubled, to 1.42 million. Assets under custody have risen sharply by 57%, to a total of EUR31.86bn.Net profits totalled EUR30.96m, compared with EUR30.03m.
24/07/2009

DWS outsources management of some Asian funds to Harvest Global

Deutsche Asset Management (Asia), or DeAM, has announced that it has signed an agreement with Harvest Fund Management, by which Harvest Global Investments (HGI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Harvest FM, will be contracted beginning 1 September 2009 as manager of DWS Asian equities funds and one DWS Greater China fund. The partnership also will involve the transfer of several senior managers and sales staff to HGI. DWS will remain the promoter and distributor of the funds worldwide. Michele Bang, who was previously CEO of DeAM for Asia ex Japan, will become CEO of HGI. Harvest FM is a joint venture, in which DeAM controls 30%, and assets as of the end of June totalled USD29bn.
24/07/2009

Credit Suisse: private banking performed well in second quarter

The Credit Suisse group, which on 23 July reported net profits for second quarter 2009 up 29% on one year to CHF1.6bn, has declared in a statement that results are good for private banking and that asset management is returning to a more positive state. The private banking unit, which includes wealth management and corporate & retail banking activities, earned pre-tax results of CHF935m, a decline of 23% compared with the same period in 2008, but of only 6% compared with the previous quarter. The wealth management unit reported pre-tax results of CFH662m, a decline of 20% compared with second quarter 2008, but an increase of 2% compared with first quarter 2009. Net inflows to the private bank totalled CHF10.7bn, of which CHF8.5bn went to wealth management. Asset management activities, for their part, finished the quarter with positive results of CHF55m, compared with profits of CHF124m one year earlier, but losses of CHF490m in first quarter 2009. Assets under management totalled CHF410.7bn, down CHF102.9bn, or 20%, from their levels in second quarter 2008. But compared with first quarter, assets are up by CHF5bn, as positive market effects offset capital outflows and currency movements. Net outflows in the quarter totalled CHF4.1bn, of which CHF1.7bn were for multi-asset class strategies, and CHF1.4bn for alternative strategies.
24/07/2009

SRI assets at CAAM total over EUR10bn

Crédit Agricole Asset Management Group (CAAM Group) on 23 July announced that its SRI assets now total over EUR10bn, of which more than EUR7bn are in open-ended funds. This makes the firm the leading provider of SRI management on the French market. “With total SRI assets that now exceed EUR10bn, CAAM Group confirms its determination to be a socialyl engaged financial actor, helping to orient savings to assist in sustainable development,” says Yves Perrier, president and CEO of CAAM Group, in a statement.
24/07/2009

Results down at BNY Mellon in Q2

Net profits for second quarter at the Bank of New York Mellon totalled USD176m (15 cents per share), compared with USD322m in January-March (28 cents per share), for a total of USD498m in first half, compared with USD1.05bn in January-June 2008. As of 30 June, assets totalled USD926bn, compared with USD881bn three months earlier, and USD1.113trn at the end of June 2008, which represents growth of 5%, and a contraction of 17%, respectively. Net redemptions in second quarter represented USD19bn (though assets under management increased by USD45bn), due to the cancellation of a USD14bn contract, which, at any rate earned a minimal profit margin of less than one basis point. In addition, the management firm has undergone net outflows from money market funds.
24/07/2009

Fortress plans acquisitions

The Financial Times reports that Daniel Mudd, who this week was appointed CEO of Fortress Investment group, is planning to spearhead an acquisition strategy, by which the hedge fund firm may acquire other financial sector businesses such as banks, insurers, traditional management firm, and other hedge fund management firms.
24/07/2009

Aberdeen AM France hopes to double in size

“France now represents about 3% of Aberdeen’s total assets under management,” Philippe Troesch, CEO of Aberdeen Asset Management France, tells L’Agefi Weekly. “It will become a major part of the group. The objective is to double this percentage, and the size of our structure, in the next 3 to 5 years,” he continues. Aberdeen AM France was created on 1 July, when Aberdeen took over the management activities of Credit Suisse AM France, the newsmagazine reports. The entity has EUR3.7bn in assets under management.
24/07/2009

Revere Capital relaunches Bayswater Asset Management

The investment group Revere Capital Advisors, a specialist in emerging hedge fund managers, has relaunched the business entitled Bayswater Asset Management, co-founded in 2004 by Eva Xu and Daniel Schuessler, both formerly of Mellon Capital Management. Bayswater, Hedge Week reports, was obliged to close in August 2008. The business started up in 2004 with USD25m from Man Global Strategies; in August 2007, it found itself in control of assets under management of more than USD1bn, on behalf of institutional investors, funds of funds, and family offices. Since its closure, Bayswater has improved management risk controlling, but has remained faithful to its systematic global macro strategy.
24/07/2009

L’industrie de la conservation bien ancrée à Paris

Selon Les Echos, le métier de la conservation des titres reste une spécialité bien ancrée à Paris. «Il serait dommage de laisser cette industrie -banque dépositaire, administration de fonds, conservation- partir à son tour, alors que c’est un secteur où les banques françaises font partie des leaders mondiaux, déclare au quotidien François Marion, directeur général de Caceis. «Soit on laisse jouer les rapports de forces et il y aura des perdants, avec la possibilité, par exemple, qu’un des acteurs soit racheté par un géant américain, soit ces métiers deviennent une priorité stratégique importante de développement des places financières de la zone euro et, bien entendu, de Paris».
24/07/2009

Le FIR évolue

Selon «L’essentiel de l’ISR» du 21 juillet, lettre publiée par Novethic, le Forum pour l’Investissement Responsable (FIR) «a fait un grand ménage de printemps : nouvelle gouvernance, nouvelles instances, nouvelles résolutions!». «Le programme de travail de l’association est chargé et un nouveau permanent, Grégoire Cousté, a été recruté pour le coordonner. Le FIR est désormais organisé en cinq groupes projets : Transparence et labellisation, Reporting Emetteurs, Dialogue Emetteurs, Réseaux et grand public et Site Internet», précise la lettre.
24/07/2009

Aberdeen AM France veut doubler de taille

«Aujourd’hui, la France représente environ 3 % des actifs gérés totaux d’Aberdeen», a déclaré Philippe Troesch, directeur général d’Aberdeen Asset Management France, à l’Agefi Hebdo. «Elle doit devenir une part importante du groupe. L’objectif est de doubler cette part et la taille de notre structure dans les 3 à 5 ans à venir», poursuit-il. Aberdeen AM France est née le 1er juillet avec la reprise des activités de gestion de Credit Suisse AM France, rappelle l’hebdomadaire. L’entité affiche 3,7 milliards d’euros d’actifs sous gestion.
24/07/2009

ISR : les encours de CAAM à plus de 10 milliards d'euros

Crédit Agricole Asset Management Group (CAAM Group) a indiqué le 23 juillet que ses encours ISR dépassent désormais le seuil des 10 milliards d’euros, dont plus de 7 milliards au travers de fonds ouverts. La société devient, ainsi, le leader sur le marché français de l’ISR. «Avec un montant d’encours ISR qui dépasse dorénavant le seuil des 10 milliards d’euros, CAAM Group confirme sa détermination d’être un acteur financier engagé contribuant à orienter l’épargne au service d’un développement durable», déclare dans un communiqué Yves Perrier, PDG de CAAM Group.
24/07/2009

SSgA France et CFA France lancent un prix de la finance quantitative

State Street Global Advisors France (SSgA), et l’association CFA France, affiliée au CFA Institute, viennent d’annoncer l’organisation cette année de la première édition du «Prix de la Finance Quantitative». Ce prix s’adresse à tous les étudiants en dernière année de cycle universitaire, école de commerce ou d’ingénieurs. Chaque candidat doit rédiger un article, en français ou en anglais, portant sur un thème d’investissement lié à la finance quantitative. Fin novembre 2009, une cérémonie distinguera l’auteur du meilleur mémoire, qui se verra attribuer la somme de 5.000 euros et aura l’opportunité de présenter ses travaux.Le jury, qui sera composé de 6 à 10 personnes : un membre de CFA France et un représentant de SSgA ainsi que des personnalités indépendantes, toutes expertes en finance quantitative, notera les mémoires en tenant compte de l’intérêt du sujet traité mais aussi de son applicabilité.
24/07/2009

Inquiétudes face à la migration de la plate-forme de Nyse-Euronext

Selon Les Echos, la migration d’Aubervillers à Basildon, dans la banlieue de Londres, de la plate-forme des marchés «cash» européens de Nyse Euronext nourrit les débats et les inquiétudes. Le président de l’AMF, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, a appelé à se saisir des destinées de la place financière hexagonale. En revanche, jusqu’ici, Bercy n’a pas réagi officiellement. Du côté des professionnels, les réactions sont nombreuses et généralement préoccupées. Les opérateurs regrettent vivement la décision de Nyse Euronext, même si beaucoup ne s'étonnent pas de ce scénario et comprennent les exigences et les contraintes d’une entreprise commerciale cotée.
24/07/2009

BMG achète avec KKR les droits musicaux de Crosstown

BMG Rights Management, la nouvelle coentreprise de Bertelsmann et du capital-investisseur KKR, a annoncé jeudi sa première acquisition, celle des activités d'édition musicale de Crosstwon Songs America, auprès de CarVal Investors. Crosstown, basée à Los Angeles, possède les droits sur 8.000 titres, dont certains de Britney Spears et Madonna. Le montant de la transaction n’a pas été communiqué, mais il serait selon les professionnels de l’ordre de 50 millions d’euros.
24/07/2009

Baisse du résultat de BNY Mellon au T2

Le bénéfice net du deuxième trimestre de Bank of New York Mellon est ressorti à 176 millions de dollars (15 cents par action) contre 322 millions pour janvier-mars (28 cents par action, soit 498 millions pour le premier semestre contre 1,05 milliard en janvier-juin 2008.Au 30 juin, l’encours ressortait à 926 milliards de dollars contre 881 milliards trois mois plus tôt et 1.113 milliards fin juin 2008, ce qui représente respectivement une progression de 5 % et une contraction de 17 %. Les remboursements nets du deuxième trimestre ont représenté 19 milliards de dollars (alors que les actifs sous gestion augmentaient de 45 milliards) du fait qu’il a été mis fin à un contrat de 14 milliards de dollars qui était assorti d’une marge infime de moins d’un point de base. De plus, le gestionnaire a subi des sorties nettes sur ses fonds monétaires.

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