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18/06/2009
Fonds

Les fonds continuent de collecter

Les mutual funds ont enregistré des souscriptions nettes pour la treizième semaine consécutive, selon les chiffres de l’Investment Company Institute cités par le Wall Street Journal. Sur la période, la collecte nette totalise environ 140 milliards de dollars. L’investissement dans des fonds actions progresse.
Fonds
18/06/2009

Hedge fund mortality rate remains high

According to Hedge Fund Research (HFR), the number of hedge funds which closed down fell in second quarter to 376 (including 200 funds of hedge funds), an attrition rate of 4.05%, compared with 778, or 7.77%, in October-December, Hedge Week reports. Since 1 July 2008, the number of hedge funds in the world has fallen by nearly 1,200 to slightly over 9,050. Meanwhile, HFR counted 150 launches of hedge funds in January-March, which is the highest level since second quarter 2008. Management commissions average 1.57% for hedge funds and 1.25% for funds of hedge funds. Performance commission has fallen to 19.22% for the former and 6.5% for the latter type of fund.
18/06/2009

La Deutsche Bank lance une campagne contre l'effet de serre

Le pôle Asset Management de la Deutsche Bank lance ce jeudi à New York une campagne contre le réchauffement climatique et pour la nécessité d’une réduction des émissions de CO2 par le biais de l’inauguration d’un compteur géant ( «carbon counter»), thermomètre des émissions de CO2 qui a été installé au cœur de Manhattan (Madison Square Garden). Kevin Parker, responsable du pôle Asset Management, expliquera à cette occasion les objectifs de cette campagne.
18/06/2009

Tour de passe-passe dans le private equity

Selon l’Agefi quotidien, le pôle capital-investissement de la Société Générale passe au Crédit Agricole. SGAM AI Private Equity sera transféré dans un premier temps au sein de CAAM, pour être ensuite rebasculé chez CAPE (Crédit Agricole Private Equity). Selon une source proche du dossier cité par le journal, « CAAM ne sait pas quoi faire de SGAM AI PE, qui dispose de beaucoup d’hommes et génère peu d’argent ».
18/06/2009

Tour de passe-passe dans le private equity

Selon l’Agefi quotidien, le pôle capital-investissement de la Société Générale passe au Crédit Agricole. SGAM AI Private Equity sera transféré dans un premier temps au sein de CAAM, pour être ensuite rebasculé chez CAPE (Crédit Agricole Private Equity). Selon une source proche du dossier cité par le journal, « CAAM ne sait pas quoi faire de SGAM AI PE, qui dispose de beaucoup d’hommes et génère peu d’argent ».
18/06/2009

A game of hot potato in private equity

The L’Agefi daily edition reports that the private equity unit of Société Générale is being transferred to Crédit Agricole. SGAM AI Private Equity will initially move to CAAM, and will then subsequently become a part of CAPE (Crédit Agricole Private Equity). According to one source close to the firm, cited by the newspaper, “CAAM doesn’t know what to do with SGAM AI PE, which has a lot of people and doesn’t generate much money.”
18/06/2009

Muted atmosphere at annual hedge fund meeting

The number of attendees at the annual GAIM conference in Monaco (the largest and most popular gathering for the alternative management industry) is far smaller than in previous years, the Financial Times reports, and the effervescence of previous years has disappeared. " It is becoming an institutionalised market», says Simon Luhr of SWI Capital, which means that managers have less freedom and less entrepreneurial spirit. It will be large institutional investors that kick-start any regeneration of the industry, according to many at the conference. High net worth private investors who massively fled hedge funds are not about to come back.
18/06/2009

Investors return to equities

Returning investor optimism has withstood the recent wave of sales on the bond markets, according to the latest Merrill Lynch survey of fund managers (June). Investors continue to expect a scenario of global economic recovery, and they are returning to equities. According to Merrill Lynch, 62% of respondents estimate that the world economy will recover in the next twelve months, a gain of five points compared with May. For the first time since December 2007, a majority of managers surveyed are overweight in equities. Only 7% of managers surveyed predict a recession in the next twelve months, compared with 38% in May and 70% in April. “Investors are now ruling out the possibility that the recession will continue, and they are not allowing this outlook to be affected by the weakness of the bond market,” says Michael Hartnett, an international strategist at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, However, Merrill Lynch observes that the tendency to overweight positions on equities is concentrated in two sectors: energy and IT. Rather than abandoning defensive shares in favour of cyclical ones, as is generally the case in the initial phase of a new cycle, investors are basing their strategy on good outlooks for growth in China and the performance of emerging markets. This leads them to a marked interest in commodities, where a total of 19% of investors are overweight, compared with 7% in May. However, this optimism has not yet reached the shores of Europe. Investors in the region do not see an end to the recession soon, and 70% of respondents in the region predict that the slowdown will continue for the next twelve months. Globally, Europe is least in demand as an investment destination, as 23% of respondents say the Euro zone is where they would be underweight first.
18/06/2009

MTM predicts record number of manager reassignments in second half

Mark Keleher, CEO of Mellon Transition Management (MTM, BNY Mellon Asset Management group), announced on Wednesday that on the basis of requests for information (which increased by 405 in January-May), a record number of management contracts may be expected to be reassigned by financial establishments such as pension funds and charities in third and fourth quarter. In the past six months, investors have tended to increase their allocations to index-based products and longer-term bond strategies. They are seeking to reduce their risk, which is leading to a reduction in exposure to asset managers, and are relying on transition managers to reduce costs and risks as they change managers. These changes are most frequently motivated by either disappointing returns from the current manager, or by a change in asset allocation strategy. MTM points out that the number of redemption demands is increasing steadily, while transactions initiated are up sharply in second quarter compared with first quarter. Since the beginning of the year, MTM has recruited seven new specialists for its team in London, which brings total staff for transition management activities to 50.
18/06/2009

Stichting Philips Pensioenfonds to invest according to ESG criteria

The Philips pension fund, Stichting Philips Pensioenfonds (EUR13bn), has announced its intention to invest a part of its assets in companies which are leading innovators in environmental, social and governance (ESG) domains, and it will have a policy of “engagement” with companies which show deficiencies in sustainable practices. Stichting Philips Pensioenfonds, which this week signed the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN-PRI), had three quarters of its assets invested in fixed income as of the end of 2008. The fund previously used exclusionary criteria to rule out companies which produce anti-personnel mines, biological or chemical weapons, cluster bombs, or nuclear weapons. Now, the portfolio will be filtered for ESG criteria using data from specialised agencies.
18/06/2009

Santander loses five private bankers

Credit Suisse is enlarging its private banking activities in Spain with the recruitment of Fernando Lafuente, José Luis Palacio, Moisés Israel and Marta Sonlleva, who join the team led by Miguel Matosián; they will be joined by César Martin, who joins the firm from the key clients unit at UBS. Cotizalia says the first four of these new recruits join from Santander Patrimonios, which is also losing José Saborit, who will be joining the Valencia office of Banca March.
18/06/2009

Sal. Oppenheim pulls out of Arcandor

Dieter Pfundt, a managing partner at the private bank, says Sal. Oppenheim has sold its 3.7% stake in the retail group Arcandor. However, the holding company for the von Oppenheim family continues to hold a 24.9% stake in Arcandor, and has not yet announced a decision about the investment.
18/06/2009

Julius Baer in the mood for acquisitions

Now it is independent of the group’s investment banking activities, Julius Baer Asset Management is on the acquisition hunt for small and mid-sized asset managers, Ignites Europe reports. Michele Porro, head of sales and distribution at Julius Baer AM, says “there are dozens of opportunities to acquire small to mid-sized asset managers.”
18/06/2009

Vanguard UK launches a range of index funds

Vanguard Investments UK is launching 11 funds based in the United Kingdom and Ireland aimed at British investors. The products will be made available on a few platforms, and will be open to subscriptions beginning on 23 June. They include index funds of equities and bonds, covering various geographical regions. Tom Rampulla, managing director of Vanguard Investments U.K., highlights the low cost of the funds. Annual fees vary between 0.15% for the UK equities product and 0.55% for the emerging markets product. With this new range, Vanguard is seeking to target independent financial advisors, “who are moving away from a model of remuneration based on commissions,” says Rampulla. “We will also work with wealth managers, family offices, providers of defined contribution pension funds, and institutions,” he says.
18/06/2009

Consultation on independence of asset managers

Bluerating reports that the Bank of Italy has published a consultation document on the subject of the autonomy of asset management firms. Several measures are proposed to favour the independence of asset managers from banking groups that own them, to ensure that they act solely in the interest of investors.
18/06/2009

Hedge funds should prepare now for new directive

In its seventh annual white paper, entitled «Changing Rules - The regulation, taxation and distribution of hedge funds around the globe» (http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/investment-management/pdf/changing-rules-0609…), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) observes that in the past nine months, market effects and net redemptions have wiped out about 30% of hedge fund assets. This dislocation has thrown light on measures that need to be taken to ensure the survival of this category of fund. However, at the end of April, the European Commission published a draft directive which is intended to apply to all managers of hedge funds active in EU member states. Graham P.N. Philips, a partner at PwC UK and European Hedge Fund Practice Leader, says a considerable proportion of the propositions contained in the draft may be expected to be retained. And the changes they will lead to in the non-retail asset management sector will have very significant and partly undesired consequences. PwC suggests that hedge fund, private equity, real estate and infrastructure fund managers, as well as some long-only managers, will need to monitor the new legislation very closely as it emerges. It is certain that the new laws will result in added costs, which will have to be supported by managers and will partly be passed on to investors.
18/06/2009

KanAm grundinvest may reopen in early July

According to announcements made at a road show in Wiesbaden, KanAm Grund may reopen the open-ended real estate fund KanAm grundinvest (EUR4.9bn) to redemptions just after the end of the period ending on 30 June, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Thanks to lines of credit from banks, the cancellation of a planned acquisition, and lower-than-expected costs for a property under construction, the cash ratio for the fund, closed at the end of October, now stands at 20%. Of the twelve funds frozen at the end of October, only Degi International, Catella Focuas Nordic Cities and SEB Immoinvest have reopened to redemptions so far.
18/06/2009

In Monaco, hedge funds critical of European reforms

Hedge funds have used the occasion of their largest annual meeting - the GAIM conference in Monaco - to express dissatisfaction with “disastrous” plans for legal reforms in the European Union, the Financial Times reports. Attendess in the alternative management forum were also critical of a lack of apparent action on the part of the British government in this area.
18/06/2009

No new regulations for US ratings agencies

According to Les Echos, financial ratings agencies, which have sustained a considerable part of the blame since the first days of the crisis, have been left out of proposed legislation by the US government, which will not require them to change their private status or their mode of financing their activities all but exclusively on revenues from issuers of shares, such as companies and financial institutions. The United States would like to see a harmonisation of global regulations in this industry.
18/06/2009

Asset volumes at FRR are insufficient

In an interview with Les Echos, Philippe Tibi, chairman of the French financial markets association (AMAFI), which holds its annual meeting today, claims that household savings are still too much focused on the short-term. “Countries which have long-term structural savings, like the English-speaking and Scandinavian countries, have tools created by strong political initiative (pension funds, etc). The reality, however, is that the debate is not political in France. However, we have an excellent tool in the Fonds de réserve pour les retraites (FRR), which is a collective organism built by the public administration, which could be developed to serve as an anchor for long-term savings in our country to improve the retirement of all French people. For this objective, assets managed by the FRR are not enough. This is largely due to a level of annual contributions which is far too low compared with what was originally intended,” Tibi explains.
18/06/2009

Inflows continue for mutual funds

Mutual funds saw net inflows for the thirteenth consecutive week, according to statistics from the Investment Company Institute, cited by the Wall Street Journal. In the period, total net inflows were about USD140bn. Investment into equities funds is rising.
18/06/2009

Cantillon shuts down hedge funds

Cantillon Capital Management, the hedge fund management firm run by William von Mueffling, announced to its clients on Wednesday that it is closing down its hedge funds, the Wall Street Journal reports. The firm’s hedge funds lost less than other funds last year, falling about 10% compareds with about 19% for the industry as a whole. But the business model of hedge funds, based on performance fees, is unforgiving.
18/06/2009

Renta 4 takes over BBVA flagship hedge fund

According to reports in Expansión, Renta4 is becoming the new manager of the Accurate Global Assets fund, one of the front-line hedge funds from BBVA, replacing Próxima Alfa. But the fund will continue to be advised by its current managers, Marciso Vega, Igor Alonso and Juan Pablo Calle, who have set up shop as third-party advisors and founded the firm Accurate Advisors. Since the beginning of the year, the Accurate Global Assets funds has been one of the best Spanish hedge funds, with returns of 8.1%. It has EUR6m in assets, and 5 subscribers, but at its peak, it had as much as EUR100m in assets under management. The fall in assets is due to the divestment of BBVA.
17/06/2009
Fonds

Les gestionnaires allemands dépassent les américains

A fin 2008, selon le rapport annuel de l’association Alfi, les sociétés de gestion allemandes affichaient un encours de 328 milliards d’euros dans des fonds de droit luxembourgeois, devançant ainsi leurs homologues américains (306 milliards) et suisses (271 milliards), les actifs totaux sous gestion représentant 1,56 billion d’euros, soit 500 milliards ou 24 % de moins qu’au 31 décembre 2007, les remboursements nets ayant porté sur 77 milliards d’euros.La Börsen-Zeitung souligne que la première place des gestionnaires allemands s’explique par le fait que leur encours n’a diminué que de 16 % alors que celui des américains se contractait de 22 %. Les sociétés de gestion françaises se sont classées en septième position derrière les belges, les britanniques et les italiennes.
Fonds
17/06/2009
Fonds

CAAM commercialise deux fonds de stock picking

Crédit Agricole Asset Management (CAAM) a annoncé mardi qu’il commercialise désormais en Allemagne la version luxembourgeoise de deux fonds de stock picking existant déjà sous forme de produits de droit français. Les compartiments Select Europe et Select Euro de la Sicav CAAM Funds affichaient déjà au 15 juin des encours respectifs de 23 millions et 18 millions d’euros. Leurs homologues de droit français, CAAM Select Europe et CAAM Select Euro, affichent des actifs sous gestion de 209 millions et 71,9 millions d’euros.
Fonds
17/06/2009
Fonds

ETFlab commercialise six nouveaux produits

ETFlab Investment GmbH, filiale de DekaBank, a indiqué mardi qu’elle a fait admettre à la négociation le 16 juin six nouveaux ETF sur le segment XTF de la plate-forme Xetra de la Deutsche Börse. Tous les six reproduisent des indices MSCI, Etats-Unis, Europe et Japon, avec à chaque fois l’indice des moyennes capitalisations. Ces fonds de droit allemand sont libellés respectivement en dollars, en euros et en yen. La comission de gestion se situe à 0,30 % pour chacun des quatre produits Etats-Unis et Europe, les deux fonds japonais comportant des frais de 0,50 %.La cote du segment XTF comporte donc désormais 459 références.
Fonds
17/06/2009

UBS remplace son patron pour l'Allemagne

Le Suisse Stephan Zimmermann, membre du conseil de surveillance d’UBS Deutschland, démissionnera de ce poste fin juin pour devenir président du directoire en remplacement de Jan-Christian Dreesen, rapporte la Börsen-Zeitung. La banque ne n’a pas fourni d’explication sur le départ de ce dernier, si ce n’est que la séparation s’est faite en bonne intelligence.

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