Bordier Gestion Privée, filiale française de la banque suisse Bordier & Cie, a annoncé le recrutement de Rosa Riche en tant que responsable de l’Ingénierie patrimoniale. Auparavant, elle était depuis 2008 directrice juridique et fiscale du pôle expertise patrimoniale chez Cyrus Conseil.

En pleine période de rapprochement avec Lyxor Asset Management, SGAM Alternative Investments (SGAM AI) procède à une concentration de sa gamme de produits pour se focaliser sur des produits de niche affichant un fort volume de transactions, explique François Millet, responsable de la distribution.Dans cette optique, SGAM AI a décidé de faire retirer de la cote le 12 juin son ETF SGAM ETF T-Rex, ce fonds qui réplique les beta alternatifs (HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index) étant trop peu liquide, probablement en partie parce qu’il a été lancé dans une période peu propice (23 septembre 2008), juste après la faillite de Lehman Brothers. Le remboursement des parts devrait intervenir le 3 août. En revanche, le gestionnaire conserve son FCP SGAM AI T-Rex Fund ainsi que les SGAM AI Reverse T-Rex Fund et SGAM AI Leveraged T-Rex Fund.

La société de gestion SPGP vient de recevoir le feu vert de l’AMF après sa demande de modifications portant sur les caractéristiques de son fonds RP Sélection Convertibles. A compter du 9 juin, ce dernier dont l’ECI Europe est l’indicateur de référence change tout d’abord de classification. Il en passant de la catégorie « Obligations et autres titres de créances internationaux » à « Diversifié » . Simultanément, le portefeuille du fonds est composé au minimum à 70% en obligations convertibles internationales ou assimilables au lieu de 60%. L’évaluation des actifs se fait désormais au cours de clôture et non plus cours d’ouverture. Enfin, les frais sont revus à la baisse avec une commission de surperformance ramenée à 20% TTC au lieu de 23.92% TTC auparavant au-delà d’un gain de 10 %..

Selon des sources proches du dossier qui se sont confiées à Bloomberg, le pôle américain de HSBC Securities est en train de cesser les financements reposant sur des produits de fonds structurés auprès des hedge funds, rapporte L’Agefi.

La situation financière des fonds de pension américains s’est amélioré à la suite d’un troisième mois consécutif de bonnes performances sur les marchés actions, selon des statistiques mensuelles publiées par BNY Mellon Asset Management. Les actifs d’un portefeuille classique avec une exposition moyenne se sont accrus de 4,1% en mai, alors que les engagements augmentaient parallèlement de 3,3%. Sur l’année 2009, au 31 mai, le ratio de financement d’un plan classique, mesuré par le BNY Mellon Pension Liability Index, affiche une progression de 10,2 points de pourcentage.

Och-Ziff envisage d’investir ses propres fonds pour alimenter ses nouveaux portefeuilles et convaincre ainsi sa clientèle d’investir elle-même dans ses produits, indique Hedge Week. La firme new-yorkaise, l’une des rares à être cotée en bourse, met actuellement en place un fonds hypothécaire et étudie le lancement d’autres fonds, dont l’un dans l'énergie. Och-Ziff gérait quelque 30 milliards de dollars au moment de son entrée en bourse en 2007 mais en a perdu environ le tiers en raison de la crise financière. La firme a depuis redressé la barre, en raison notamment de la performance de son fonds de référence - le hedge funds Och-Ziff Master Fund - qui affiche un gain de 9,8% sur les cinq premiers mois de l’année.

Schroders a annoncé le lancement du compartiment Global Managed Currency de sa Sicav luxembourgeoise Schroder ISF. Ce fonds monétaire multi-devises sera géré par Clive Dennis de manière active et vise à générer une performance supérieure à celles des obligations d’Etat ou des instruments du marché monétaire.Concrètement, le gestionnaire britannique vise une superformance de 3 points de pourcentage par an par rapport au Global Currency Index développé spécialement par JP Morgan et qui comprend plus de 30 monnaies différentes, pondérées en fonction du PIB.Actuellement, le fonds est surpondéré en papier d’Europe de l’Est (zloty, couronne tchèque et forint). Les parts sont libellées en euros et en dollars.

Newton Investment Management, an affiliate of BNY Mellon Asset Management, has published a white paper entitled “ The expected impact of all change on the asset management industry.” The report reveals that asset managers who will be able to provide credible solutions in terms of performance and not in terms of products will meet the objectives of their clients and will be the winning players in the post-financial crisis era. Helena Morrisey, CEO of Newton Investment Management, says “this white paper analyses the profound changes which are in store for asset managers as they adapt to the new environment.” the industry has evolved towards distribution of products, in which the credibility and success of a company have been generally measured by the volume of assets under management. However, notes Morrissey, “the poor performance of some big names in the sector, and the overall weakness of absolute returns, has led to a change in this trend. Now, the reputation and culture of a business will depend more on its ability to earn regular returns in a clear and transparent manner.” The study also claims that it is necessary to win back the confidence of clients, by offering them simple products that respond to their real needs, rather than ranges of complex “black box” financial instruments. The white paper predicts that asset managers with a high quality track record, solid process and overt and transparent risk management will be in high demand, and will attract the most interest from investors. The winning asset management firms will be the ones which are in a position to provide: Strong and regular performance of investments Organisations able to attract and retain the best investment professionals Clear brand image and strong conviction on principles Close relationships with clients, based on service Wide and effective distribution, balanced with an investment orientation Ability to function successfully in a much more strict regulatory environment Simple and transparent investment approaches Ability to successfully handle structural changes brought on by the transition from defined-benefit to defined-contribution pension schemes.

DekaBank, the central management firm for the German savings banks, has reported “economic losses” in January-March of EUR22m, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. However, April has brought profits of EUR80m.

The Börsen-Zeitung reports that Deutsche Postbank, in which Deutsche Bank has owned a minority stake sufficient to vote down resolutions at shareholders’ meetings since February, is preparing to sell off its asset management affiliate Deutsche Postbank Privat Investment.

The British firm ETF Securities (ETFS) on Monday listed the German-registered ETF fund (DE000A0Q8NC8) ETFS Russell Global Gold Fund (Miners) for trading on the XTF segments of the German electronic trading platform Xetra (Deutsche Börse). The fund, which becomes the 453rd product to be listed on the XTF, charges a management commission of 0.65%. The fund replicates the Russell Global Gold index, which includes shares in 72 gold-mining companies in seven countries: Australia, China, Great Britain, Canada, Russia, South Africa, and the United States. The new ETF complies with the UCITS III directive, and comes as an addition to the ETFS gold product range, which already includes two ETC funds backed by physical gold, ETFS Physical Gold and Gold Bullion Securities, and ETCs based on gold indexes (including leveraged and inverse products).

Pierre Martin is the manager of the DWS Invest Commodity Plus fund, which invests directly in commodities via futures. He is optimistic about the mid-term outlooks for the commodities sector, L’Echo reports. “Although he thinks that reserves of some commodities are too high (such as oil, for example), a drastic reduction in supply (mines, OPEC) will stabilise the commodities markets, or send them rising again in the next few quarters,” the newspaper adds. The manager’s favourite market is currently North American natural gas.

On the basis of results from funds representing 62% of the usual sample, Credit Suisse/Tremont esimated on Monday that hedge funds earned average performance of 3.61% in May, compared with 1.68% in April. In the first five months of the year, they show average gains of 6.25%. Aside from futures funds, which saw an average loss of 0.20%, following losses of 3.24% in April (-6.22% for January-May), all strategies in the sample turned in positive results last month. The strongest gains were for emerging markets funds, with performance of 7.04% compared with 5.07% in April, while gains in the first five months of the year total 12.52%. In January-May, the best performance is 19.38% for convertibles arbitrage, which gained 6.02% in May, after gains of 4.52% the previous month.

According to Hedge Fund Research (HFR), hedge funds saw their strongest performance since February 2000 in May, with gains of 5.2%. Since the beginning of the year, gains total 9%, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. The best performers in January-May were convertibles arbitrage (24.8%), products investing in eastern Europe and Russia (23.3%), Asia (19.5%), and Latin America (18.7%). Funds specialised in energy and commodities gained 22.7%. Monthly subscriptions have increased from USD4bn in February to USD12bn in March, and USD15bn in April, according to Eurekahedge, but in April, investors withdrew USD40bn. In January-March, redemptions rose to USD104bn, while total assets at the end of March totalled USD1.3trn, USD600m less than at their peak in summer 2008. The number of hedge funds in existence worldwide fell to 8,860 at the end of March, compared with 10.096 at the end of 2007, HFR notes

Hennessee Group has announced that its hedge fund index gained 5.68% in May, its best performance since February 2000, the Wall Street Journal reports. Last month, hedge funds outperformed equities, thanks to a continued rising trend in the price of certain commodities. Gains in May were largely driven by arbitrage strategies, but long/short equity funds, which have lowered their levels of exposure, also performed well. Charles Gradante, co-founder of Hennessee, estimates that the end of a 20-year rising cycle on bonds may now be forthcoming.

As the ongoing process of merging with Lyxor Asset Management continues, SGAM Alternative Investments (SGAM AI) is concentrating its product range, to focus on niche products with high trading volumes, explains François Millet, head of distribution. With this goal in mind, SGAM AI has decided to withdraw its ETF SGAM ETF T-Rex from trading on 12 June. The product, which replicates alternative beta (HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index), has limited liquidity, probably partly due to the fact that it was launched at an unfortunate time (23 September 2008), just after the bankruptcy of Lehan Brothers. Redemptions will be paid out on 3 August. However, the management firm will retain its FCP SGAM AI T-Rex Fund, as well as the SGAM AI Reverse T-Rex Fund and SGAM AI Leveraged T-Rex Fund.

Andrew Pell, director of sales, and Julien Bernier, director of investment, have made a presentation of the range of momentum quantitative products from Chahine Capital to Spanish institutional investors, Funds People reports. The Luxembourg-registered product range will soon see the addition of a long/short equities and a market neutral fund using the model developed by Jacques Chahine. The performance objective will be 12% annually, with strict control of sectoral exposure and market capitalisation.

According to sources close to the firm, cited by Bloomberg, the US arm of HSBC Securities is in the process of ceasing its financing activities based on structured fund products serving hedge funds, L’Agefi reports.

Och-Ziff is planning to invest its own money to feed new portfolios and convince clients to invest themselves in new products, Hedge Week reports. The New York firm, one of the few investment companies to be publicly traded, is currently rolling out a mortgage fund, and is studying the launching of other products, including an energy fund. Och-Ziff managed approximately USD30bn at the time of its IPO in 2007, but has lost about one third of that total due to the financial crisis. The firm has since begun to recover, particularly thanks to good performance of its flagship Och-Ziff Master Fund, which gained 9.8% in the first five months of the year.

According to estimates by Robeco, the price/earnings ratio (PER) for the Chinese stock market is currently 13.4 times, which puts it in the middle of the range for emerging countries, while the global average is 13.9. In addition, analysts at the Netherlands-based asset management firm are predicting an increase of 5% in profits for Chinese businesses, compared with 2% for the consensus, Expansión reports, citing Funds People. In this environment, Victoria Mio, manager of the Robeco Chinese Equities fund, recommends taking advantage of the occasion to strengthen positions on communications, real estate, infrastructures and insurance. For their part, Mike Shiao and Samantha Ho, managers of the Invesco PRC Equity Fund, estimate that the top priority consumer products sector is undervalued, while cyclical consumer products are more accessible, but offer less visibility as to profits.

Standard Life Investments thinks that investors will need to revise their asset allocations in the mid-term due to the emergence of new demographic trends, such as the ageing population. Standard Life claims that investors should invest in the mid- to long term in inflation-indexed bonds, long term blue chip corporate bonds, and shares and sectors which are exposed to real assets, such as energy, water, and gold.

State Street Corporation announced on Monday that it has been selected by Rio Tinto to provide investment services from six operational centres in London and Montreal, serving USD8bn in assets. The services will include custody, fund accounting, securities lending and analysis of investments for the pension fund of the mining group in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Schroders has announced the launch of the Global Managed Currency sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav Schroder ISF. The multi-currency currencies fund will be actively managed by Clive Dennis and will aim to generate higher performance than government bonds or money market instruments. The UK asset manager is aiming for returns 3 percentage points per year higher than the Global Currency Index, which has been developed by JP Morgan and which includes more than 30 different currencies, weighted on the basis of GDP. Currently, the fund is overweight in eastern European currencies (Polish zloty, Czech crowns and Hungarian forint). Shares in the fund are denominated in Euros or US dollars.

According to the Financial Times, BlackRock is about to conclude its acquisition of Barclays Global Investors. By this Wednesday, it will become the largest asset management firm in the world. The US group will pay USD12-13bn for BGI (half of it in cash and half in equities), thus creating a group with USD3trn in assets.

Financial News reports that the investment firm owned by Lord Rothschild, RIT Capital Partners, has withdrawn its assets invested in the hedge fund Atticus, which is co-managed by his son, Nathaniel. The assets withdrawn total GBP36.5m.

Paul Spijkers, the current CIO of APG AM and APG Asset Management US, will become CIO of the entire group from 1 August, replacing Roderick Munsters until a successor can be found, IPE.com reports. Munsters has left the firm to take a job at Robeco.

Dow Jones Indexes has announced that the French firm Rodriguez Group has been removed from the Dow Jones Luxury Index, as a safety procedure to renegotiate its bank debts has been undertaken. The firm will be replaced in the index by the Italian firm Aeffe S.p.A.

L’Echo reports that four countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, signed an agreement on Sunday in Riyadh to create a monetary union. This is an initial step in the process of creating a single currency, a spokesperson for the GCC says.

The Wall Street Journal, cited by La Tribune, reports that the United States government will announce this Tuesday that nine banks which received assistance as part of its TARP program to support the financial sector will be authorised to reimburse part of the funds received. The US newspaper reports that the banks to be allowed to do so will include American Express, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan, among the big names, in addition to which BB&T, Bank of New York Mellon, CapitalOne, MetLife, State Street and US Bancorp will also pay off aid received. For the other ten firms which participated in stress tests, whose capitalisation levels were deemed insufficient, the US Federal Reserve (Fed) states that it is satisfied with recapitalisation plans submitted to it on Monday.

The French financial market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), yesterday announced that it has taken note of a statement published by the CSSF on 27 May 2009, containing information gleaned from its investigation of UBS (Luxembourg) SA, the depository bank for the Luxembourg-registered Sicav fund Luxalpha, which entered liquidation on 2 April 2009. The AMF notes that the CSSF will monitor the situation and the ongoing procedures to insure that investors in the Luxalpha Sicav will be fully recognized as shareholders. As a result, the AMF warns French institutions listed as custodians or market makers on the registers of the Luxalpha Sicav that it is their duty, in keeping with article 322-4 of the AMF general regulations, to provide their clients with all legal and technical assistance necessary to achieve recognition of their status as shareholders in the Luxalpha Sicav, and that they must be provided with access to all information that may be useful for claiming these rights. The AMF will monitor the actions taken by the institutions involved.