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10/06/2009

Number of ETF funds up nearly 10% YTD

As of the end of May, assets in 693 European ETFs totalled USD168.3bn, as 69 products were launched since the beginning of the year, a growth rate of 9.7%. According to a monthly study by iShares (Barclays Global Investors or BGI), assets under management grew by 18.1% in January-May, an increase three times faster than the MSCI Europe index in US dollars (6%). iShares remains by far the largest provider of these products, with 158 ETFs and assets of Usd65.87bn, a market share of 39.1%. Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale) has 114 products and a market share of 21.5%, with USD36.25bn in assets under management. Db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) has 102 ETFs and assets of USD28.14bn, representing 16.7% of the market. The three largest firms thus account for 77.3% of total assets.
10/06/2009

Skandia changes management providers for two sub-funds

The analyst teams at the Skandia group have selected two new companies to provide management of two sub-funds of the Sicav Skandia Global Funds. The Skandia European Opportunities Fund will be managed by SVM Asset Management; it was previously managed by Thames River. “Founded in 1990, SVM is an entrepreneurial management firm based in Scotland. It is a genuinely independent boutique known for its expertise in European and UK equities management. SVM managed EUR530m as of the end of December 2008,” says Skandia. The Skandia Japanese Equity Fund will be moving from JP Morgan to FuNNeX Asset Management. “Founded in 2000, FuNNeX provides management by conviction, based on fundamental research. Like its director, Masaru Nishizawa, FuNNeX promotes strong values in all its investments. Assets at FuNNeX totalled USD927m at the end of December 2008.”
10/06/2009

French banks not hiding interest in Swiss market

The issue of banking confidentiality in Switzerland will present difficulties for many small Swiss banks specialised in offshore private clients, L’Agefi predicts. The country thus appears to be an attractive hunting ground for French banks, particularly due to the fragmentation of the wealth management market. According to L’Agefi, the banks interested in Switzerland include CIC, via its local affiliate, the former Banque Cial, and SG Private Banking SA.
10/06/2009

Michael Baldinger joins SAM

The head of distribution Americas at Credit Suisse Asset Management in New York, Michael Baldinger, will join the management firm SAM Sustainable Asset Management (Robeco group) on 1 July as head clients & distribution. In this position, he will be a member of the executive board. His mission, as at CSAM in New York, will be to develop the base of institutional and wholesale clients, who are increasingly interested in SRI strategies and sustainable development.
10/06/2009

Hauck & Aufhauser acquires Dr. Holler Vermogensverwaltung

On Tuesday, the German management firm Hauck & Aufhäuser Privatbankiers announced that it had acquired 100% of the Swiss wealth management firm Dr. Höller Vermögensverwaltung AG, founded in 1982, which has become a specialist in ethical and ecological investment. Portfolio management for the new affiliate will remain in Zurich. Dr Höller Vermögensverwaltung invests in equities, bonds, and investment funds worldwide. Each business or issuer is subjected to an ethical analysis in the light of positive criteria as wellas exclusionary criteria (alcohol, tobacco, gambling, weapons). Concrete investment decisions are subject to the approval of an ethical committee composed of “interdisciplinary” experts in scientific and economic fields.
10/06/2009

Emerging markets: Favourite regions of Mark Mobius (Franklin Templeton)

Since the beginning of the year, emerging markets have earned significant gains. But is the trend sustainable? Mark Mobius, manager and specialist in emerging markets at Franklin Templeton, says that investors should retain an awareness that volatility is still present on emerging markets, and that it will persist for some time to come. “We should take advantage of the next downturns in these markets to buy shares at reasonable prices in light of their valuation and their long-term outlooks for profit growth. We continue to identify potential rises on markets such as China, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, turkey and South Africa,” he continues.
10/06/2009

Emerging markets: Mark Mobius (Franklin Templeton) lays out the main principles

Mark Mobius, a specialist in emerging markets at Franklin Templeton, has recently celebrated the 40thanniversary of his career investing in these markets. To confront the current economic situation, which is characterized by volatility that continues to affect emerging financial markets, Mobius says it is very important “that investors keep several fundamental principles in mind.” Among these principles, Mobius cites diversification. The best move, he says, is to invest in diversified investment funds. In terms of geographical exposure, he says, “no country has a monopoly on good opportunities,” and for that reason, an international viewpoint must be maintained. The third virtue of a wise investor in these markets is patience. “Don’t wait for immediate gains: the best investors are the ones who adopt a long-term perspective,” the manager says. Lastly, Mobius recommends that investors place their money only in things that they genuinely understand.
10/06/2009

BNP Paribas builds new executive team for Fortis Investments

Jacques d’Estais, head of the Investment Solutions unit at BNP Paribas, the interim occupant of the position left vacant by the decease of Gilles Glicenstein (director and CEO of BNP Paribas Investment Partners) has now constructed a team which will take over the operational direction of Fortis Investments, according to sources close to the firm. There are reportedly still some legal issues which prevent the two entities from making public statements on the subject. The CEO, Richard Wohanka, has left the board (along with Stéphane Monier, head of fixed income management), and the chairmanship of the executive board for the interim ab imo pectore will be given to Guy de Froment, vice chairman, BNP Paribas Investment Partners, who will be in charge of the transition, assisted by Philippe Marchessaux and Pascal Biville as deputy CEOs of BNPP IP. The executive team will also include Vincent Camerlynck, Christian Dargnat and Charlotte Dennery (all of whom join from the BNP Paribas group), while the former Fortis Investments team will be represented by Niolas Faller (global head of distribution partners) and William De Vijlder (global CIO).
10/06/2009

SRI and Islamic finance go together nicely

Products that combine socially responsible investment and Islamic finance are beginning to appear. Novethic looks at the connections between the two approaches and their possible convergence in a paper published in May, entitled “Islamic Finance and SRI: possible convergence?” SRI and islamic finance have several points in common. With their source in religions, “they rely on extra-financial parameters and are considered by the financial centres in London and Paris to be attractive areas of development,” says Novethic. The agency analyses the two approaches in more detail and finds that “though these types of ‘finance’ are united by an overall outlook which is favourable to social well-being and respect for human rights and the environment, Islamic finance is a more normative system which includes both financial and extra-financial directives,” which, says Novethic, “converge more closely with ethical finance and wealth sharing.” Novethic concludes that the two approaches are not contradictory in their aims, and could therefore be “not only compatible, but also complementary.” The agency then calls on actors in the financial industry, research centres, ratings agencies, NGOs and regulators to favour combinations of these approaches. “This would allow for a joint development of these approaches, which would encourage more ethical, responsible and transparent practices, and to find new clients, particularly for SRI in countries where it is absent today.”
10/06/2009

Ten US banks to repay Tarp funds

Ten financial groups including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs were on Tuesday allowed to repay a combined USD68bn to the US Treasury. The companies also include Morgan Stanley and American Express, says the Financial Times. Citigroup and Bank of America have not yet been allowed to repay the combined USD90bn in Tarp money they have received.
10/06/2009

Le retour du "stock picking"

La sélection de valeurs au cas par cas regagne les faveurs des investisseurs, analyse La Tribune. Selon Olivier Baduel, responsable de la gestion stock picking chez Crédit Agricole Asset Management, «le marché semblant être entré dans une phase de normalisation, les performances boursières des sociétés, au cours des dix-huit ou vingt-quatre prochains mois, devraient être davantage liées à leurs fondamentaux qu’au cours des derniers mois».
10/06/2009

Lyxor Hedge Fund Index up in May

In May, the Lyxor Hedge Fund Index has gained 2.16%. Since the beginning of the year, the index has earned 2.13%. In the past month, the alternative strategies which earned the best returns are L/S Credit Arbitrage Index (+11.30%), L/S Equity Long Bias (+10.25%), and CTAs Short Term Index (+5.14%). Meanwhile, the worst results were for the L/S Equity Short Bias Index (-4.35%), the CTAs Long Term Index (-0.96%), and the L/S Equity Market Neutral Index (-0.75%). The thematic Lyxor Emerging Market Index, meanwhile, generated returns of 6.36% in May.
10/06/2009

Fibanc Mediolanum closes its fund of hedge funds

The fund of hedge funds Fibanc-Mediolanum Multiestrategia, launched in May 2008, will be closed by the Spanish unit of Italy based Mediolanum, according to Expansión. 80% of assets under management in the fund were invested in Optimal Global Strategy, which had invested part of its assets in Madoff.
10/06/2009

BNY to buy back TARP preference shares

The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (BNY Mellon) announced on Tuesday, on the occasion of its 225thanniversary, that it has become one of the first major US banks to receive permission to buy back the preferential shares it sold to the United States government in October as part of TARP (the Troubled Asset Relief Program). Robert P. Kelly, chairman and CEO, announced that, to pay back the USD3bn it took on through TARP, BNY Mellon has already raised USD2.9bn, of which USD1.5bn is in the form of non-guaranteed 5- and 10-year senior debt, while USD1.4bn comes from a capital increase in ordinary shares.
10/06/2009

Edmond de Rothschild Financial Services and Edmond de Rothschild MM merge

Edmond de Rothschild Financial Services et Edmond de Rothschild Multi Management announced on Wednesday morning that they will be merging their teams to form a single unit, Edmond de Rothschild Investment Managers. The merged entity will be legally operational from the beginning of July, pending authorisation and license applications still in process, most of them from the French market regulator, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF). The new unit will include nearly 110 professionals, and will have assets of over EUR9bn, managed on behalf of private and institutional clients, according to a statement. Guillaume Poli will become chairman of the executive board at Edmond de Rothschild Investment Managers, while Olivier Neau will become vice-chairman, in charge of management activities. Edmond de Rothschild Investment Managers will be the commercial brand for the merged entity including EdRIM Solutions, an investment business active in restructuring and sales of the common brand, and its asset management affiliate, EdRIM Gestion. “With this merger, La Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild strengthens its presence in asset management and focuses it on two complementary, high-performance units: Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management, a specialist in equities management with renowned expertise in share analysis and stock-picking; Edmond de Rothschild Investment Managers will combine all expertise which allows investors to diversify and limit risk in a portfolio,” says Michel Cicurel, chairman of the board at La Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild.
10/06/2009

Citadel wants to help E*Trade

According to The Wall Street Journal, E*Trade Financial Corp. is working on a deal with its largest shareholder, hedge-fund firm Citadel Investment Group, to shore up its financial position.
10/06/2009

Pimco moving into ETF market

Ignites Europe reports that Pimco will enter the European ETF market, after launching its first ETF in the United States last week. The asset manager has started negotiations with possible service providers to set up an ETF platform in Europe, probably in Dublin.
10/06/2009

Foreign banks vie for German depository banking business

Jörg Ambrosius (State Street) and Dirk Werthmann (BHF Asset Servicing) have both told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that they are expecting to see a concentration in the next three to five years on the German depository banking market, which currently includes 60 establishments serving investment funds, with assets of about EUR1.2trn. Ambrosius says only five to eight providers will survive, and the smallest firms are the most vulnerable. For the moment, State Street is the largest actor in this market, with EUR260bn, followed by BHF Asset Servicing (EUR85bn), JP Morgan (EUR72bn), Caceis (EUR68.5bn) and BNP Paribas (EUR57.4bn), while BNY Mellon has less than EUR30bn. The major foreign firms, including State Street, JP Morgan, BNY Mellon, HSBC and BNP Paribas, will continue to gain market share. The smallest actors are the Landesbanken, and professionals are predicting that BayernLB and HSH Nordbank will be the first to sell their custody activities.
10/06/2009

Baring AM adds to sales team

Baring Asset Management Germany has announced the appointment of Marion Wolf as relationship manager. She joins the sales team based in Frankfurt, which now includes 15 people.
10/06/2009

DEFO becomes Union Investment Institutional Property

On 29 May, the institutional real estate fund management firm DEFO - Deutsche Fonds für Immobilienvermögen GmbH (EUR2.5bn in assets) changed its name to Union Investment Institutional Property GmbH, denoting the firm’s membership in the Union Investment group (German co-operative banks). The board of directors, composed of Martin Eberhardt and Wolfgang Kessler, is strengthened with the arrival of Ingo Hartlief, who becomes chairman of the board of directors. He will also remain a member of the board at Union’s other real estate affiliate, Union Investment Real Estate (open-ended funds), a position he has occupied since 2002.
10/06/2009

Mobius interested in Iraq

Mark Mobius, an emerging markets specialist at Franklin Templeton, is hoping to invest in Iraq next year, after he will convince a depository bank to set up shop there, Citywire reports. Among the other new markets that interest Mobius are Nigeria, Kenya, Iran, and Syria.
10/06/2009

CalPERS plans to scale up investment in private equity

The board at CalPERS will vote at a meeting next week on a proposed allocation that would increase the target exposure to private equity from 10% to 14% of total investment. The equities allocation would be reduced from 56% to 49%, while the bond allocation would be raised from 19% to 20%. Real estate would be kept at 10%, but for the first time, cash, which has traditionally been at zero, could be set at 2%. CalPERS reviews its investment objectives every three years. The current programme expires in December 2010. CalPERS has planned a more complete evaluation of its allocation policies in fall, before setting its objectives for the next three years.
10/06/2009

GLG to hire and launch new funds

GLG is planning to recruit the two founding partners of Pendragon Capital (Kaveh Sheibani and Julian Harvey Wood) and launch several funds this year, according to an article in Hedge Funds Review. Among the planned funds to be launched are GLG Atlas Value and Recovery Fund and GLG Convertible Basis Opportunities Fund.
10/06/2009

Nicola Horlick may be the mysterious buyer of Bramdean

Investment Week reports that Bramdean Alternatives informed the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday that the mysterious potential buyer from whom it received a bid in April may in fact be Petersfield Asset Management, which is owned by Nicola Horlick, herself CEO of Bramdean and manager of an alternative portfolio. The bid is reported to have been submitted on 17 March.
10/06/2009
Fonds

Le nombre d'ETF a augmenté de presque 10 % YTD

A fin mai, l’encours des 693 européens ressortait à 168,3 milliards de dollars, ce qui signifie que 69 produits ont été lancés depuis le début de l’année, soit une augmentation de 9,7 %. Selon l’analyse mensuelle d’iShares (Barclays Global Investors ou BGI), les actifs sous gestion ont affiche un gonflement de 18,1 % pour janvier-mai, une hausse trois fois plus rapide que celle l’indice MSCI Europe en dollars (6 %).iShares demeure largement en tête parmi les émetteurs, avec 158 ETF et un encours de 65,87 milliards de dollars, soit une part de marché de 39,1 %. Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale) affiche 114 produits et une part de marché de 21,5 % avec 36,25 milliards de dollars d’actifs sous gestion. Quant à db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank), il atteint déjà 102 ETF et des encours de 28,14 milliards de dollars correspondant à 16,7 % du marché. Les trois premières maisons trustent donc à elles seules 77,3 % des actifs totaux.
Fonds
10/06/2009
Fonds

Skandia change de prestataires pour deux compartiments

Les équipes d’analystes du groupe Skandia ont sélectionné deux nouvelles sociétés pour assurer la gestion de deux compartiments de la Sicav Skandia Global Funds.Le Skandia European Opportunities Fund sera repris par SVM Asset Management, alors qu’il était précédemment géré par Thames River. «Fondée en 1990, SVM est une société de gestion entrepreneuriale basée en Ecosse. Véritable boutique indépendante, elle est reconnue pour sa compétence en gestion actions européennes et UK. SVM gère 530 millions d’euros à fin décembre 2008", précise Skandia. Quant à Skandia Japanese Equity Fund, il troque JP Morgan pour FuNNeX Asset Management. «Créé en 2000, le gérant FuNNeX propose une gestion de conviction basée sur la recherche fondamentale. A l’image de son dirigeant, Masaru Nishizawa, FuNNeX promeut des valeurs fortes à travers ses investissements. Les encours de FuNNeX s’élèvent à 927 millions de dollars à fin décembre 2008".
Fonds
10/06/2009

Pimco s'attaque au marché des ETF

Selon Ignites Europe, Pimco va s’attaquer au marché européen des ETF, après avoir lance son premier ETF aux Etats-Unis la semaine dernière. Le gestionnaire a entamé des négociations avec d'éventuels prestataires de services pour mettre en place une plate-forme ETF en Europe, probablement à Dublin.
10/06/2009

GLG se développe

GLG prévoit de recruter deux associés fondateurs de Pendragon Capital (Kaveh Sheibani et Julian Harvey Wood) et va lancer plusieurs fonds cette année, selon un article de Hedge Funds Review. Parmi les lancements prévus figurent le GLG Atlas Value and Recovery Fund et le GLG Convertible Basis Opportunities Fund.
10/06/2009

Nicola Horlick serait le repreneur mystérieux de Bramdean

Investment Week rapporte que Bramdean Alternatives a indiqué au London Stock Exchange mardi que le mystérieux candidat repreneur dont il a fait état en avril est en fait Petersfield Asset Management, qui appartient à Nicola Horlick, elle-même CEO de Bramdean et gérante du portefeuille alternatif. L’offre aurait été présentée le 17 mars.
10/06/2009

Les banques étrangères lorgnent sur les dépôts des fonds allemands

Jörg Ambrosius (State Street) et Dirk Werthmann (BHF Asset Servicing) ont indiqué tous deux à la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung qu’ils s’attendent pour les trois à cinq prochaines années à une concentration sur le marché allemand de la banque dépositaire, qui compte actuellement 60 établissements pour des fonds d’investissement d’un encours d’environ 1,2 billion d’euros. Pour Jörg Ambrosius, il n’en restera que cinq à huit, et les plus petits sont les plus vulnérables. Pour l’heure, State Street est le numéro un, avec 260 milliards d’euros, devant BHF Asset Servicing (85 milliards). Viennent ensuite JP Morgan (72 milliards), Caceis (68,5 milliards) et BNP Paribas (57,4 milliards), tandis que BNY Mellon arriverait à moins de 30 milliards. Les grandes maisons étrangères, notamment State Street, JP Morgan, BNY Mellon, HSBC et BNP Paribas, devraient continuer à gagner des parts de marché. Les plus petits acteurs sont les Landesbanken, et les professionnels comptent que BayernLB et HSH Nordbank seront les premières à vendre leur activité de conservation.

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