Dans un entretien accordé à La Tribune, Alain Leclair, président de l’Association française de la gestion financière (AFG) observe que le mouvement de consolidation de la gestion d"actifs peut favoriser les sociétés de taille moyenne. «Le rapprochement de certaines maisons de taille moyenne représente une opportunité de se présenter à de grands appels d’offres en tant que challenger», indique-t-il. Le président de l"AFG, qui ne sollicitera pas un cinquième mandat, estime aussi que l» excès de réglementation freine l’innovation et plaide pour une épargne de long terme utile aux investisseurs et à l'économie.
Directeur général adjoint de CCR Gestion, Eric Bourguignon a annoncé qu"il quittera, fin mai, la société pour occuper la fonction de directeur général délégué dans un établissement dont le nom n"a pas encore été dévoilé.
Après avoir accusé une perte de 23,17 milliards de dollars au premier trimestre (contre 2,19 milliards pour janvier-mars 2008) en raison de la vague de défauts sur les crédits hypothécaires, Fannie Mae a indiqué avoir besoin d’une injection de 19 milliards de dollars de la part du Trésor américain, rapporte The Wall Street Journal. La perte provient essentiellement des 20,3 milliards de dollars de provisions pour pertes sur crédit ultérieures. D’autre part, Fannie Mae a dû passer une charge exceptionnelle de 5,7 milliards sur des hypothèques titrisées par des firmes de Wall Street et d’autres prêteurs durant le boom de l’immobilier résidentiel.
Pour le premier trimestre, Berkshire Hathaway, contrôlée par Warren Buffett, affiche une perte de plus de 1,53 milliard de dollars ou 990 dollars par action, contre 940 millions de dollars ou 607 dollars par titre, rapporte Expansión. Le résultat a été plombé par une provision de 2,01 milliards de dollars sur des investissements considérés comme perdus.
Au premier trimestre 2009, Och-Ziff Capital Management Group a enregistré une perte nette de 81,9 millions de dollars, soit 1,07 dollar par action, contre une perte de 268,1 millions de dollars, ou 3,62 dollars par action au premier trimestre 2008. La société se propose de distribuer un dividende de 0,07 dollar au titre du premier trimestre.Au premier avril 2009, les actifs sous gestion s'élevaient à 20,3 milliards de dollars, sous l’impact de rachats pour un montant de 2,3 milliards de dollars. Au premier mai, les actifs sous gestion atteignaient 20,6 milliards de dollars, sous l’impact de rachats pour un montant de 84,8 millions de dollars, et d’une appréciation liée aux performances de 391,7 millions.
Bill Ackman, dont les hedge funds Pershing Square contrôlent 7,8 % de Target, va redoubler d’efforts afin d’améliorer la qualité du conseil d’administration du distributeur, selon le Financial Times. D’après le millionnaire, ce serait le manque d’expertise des administrateurs qui serait responsable de la perte de vitesse de Target face à Wal-Mart.
The Euro Corporate Bond, a subfund of the Luxembourg Sicav Schroder ISF, launched in 2000, at the end of March for the first time topped EUR1bn in assets, and in April the fund attracted EUR634m, for a total of over EUR1.7bn as of 30 April, compared with EUR1.1bn one month earlier. Since 1 January, net subscriptions have totalled EUR1.4bn (of which EUR216m have come from Germany), the British asset management firm states. The Corporate Bond fund is managed by Adam Cordery. Over five years, it shows returns of 7.62%, compared with 5.34% for the Merrill Lynch EMU Corporate, which it has outperformed by 4.9 percentage points on one year (with returns of 1.35%), and by 3.69 percentage points over three years.
Threadneedle has extended its range of absolute returns products with the launch of the Credit Opportunities Fund, which will be managed by Barrie Whitman, head of high yield, assisted by Roman Gaiser, high yield fund manager, and Alasdair Ross, investment grade credit fund manager.The fund, which complies with UCITS III and offers daily liquidity, is licensed for sale in the United Kingdom and will be registered for sale in other European countries in the next few months. The objective is long-term performance 350 basis points over the overnight money market rate, before commissions and taxes, relying primarily on a bottom-up approach. The manager is permitted to use short-selling and derivative products, and to invest part of the portfolio in cash. He may also make pair trades, basis trades (long physical positions against short derivative positions, or vice versa), as well as arbitrage operations on capital structure.Threadneedle says the fund should interest investors with a horizon of 18 months.
The Financial Times reports that the hedge fund industry is reacting to massive redemptions and is beginning to lower the management fees it charges investors. Three hedge funds contacted by the newspaper said they had lowered fees for new investors. Management fees have been lowered by half a percentage point to between 1% and 1.5%, while outperformance commissions have been lowered from 20% to 10%.
The Wall Street Journal reports that, according to Hedge Fund Research Inc., hedge funds have posted an average performance of 4.2% in January-April. However, so far, managers who have been betting that the equities markets will fall further have continued to suffer badly, while bullish investors have posted gains of up to 30% on the April rally alone.
The star manager of the Legg Mason Value Trust, Bill Miller, estimates that after two years of heavy declines during the crisis, US financial sector shares now show a significant upside, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. His favourites are Wells Fargo, Capital One Financial and American Express. Miller estimates that US equities could gain 20% to 30% this year.
According to a Credit Suisse/Tremont survey, hedge funds in first quarter posted average returns of 0.9%, compared with losses of 13% for the MSCI World index, and 3% for the Barclays Global Aggregate Bond Index. Assets contracted over the same time period by USD163bn, to a total of USD1.3trn as of 31 March. On that date, 17% of funds had either set up ?gates,? or suspensions of redemptions, or side pockets.
The Financial Times reports that 3i infrastructure on Thursday announced that it would like to invest in EDF’s distribution activities in the UK, which the firm has put up for sale.
The Financial Times reports that charges may be filed by the SEC against JPMorgan for violating market regulations with a sale of bonds and swaps to Jefferson County, Alabama.
Banks are recommending to clients that they invest their savings in safe products, which is also allowing these institutions to increase their owners’ equity levels at a time when falling interest rates are making savings accounts look somewhat less attractive, Expansión reports. Six of the largest guaranteed funds on the Spanish market are investing part of their assets in savings accounts, convertible notes, or bonds issued by their parent banks. In the case of the guaranteed fund Caixa Catalunya 2-B, as much as 95% of the EUR170m in assets under management are invested in bonds issued by Caixa Catalunya. In Spain, 90% of assets in investment funds are controlled by banks, compared with 34% in France, and barely 8% in the United Kingdom.
Grupo Arcano is launching the Arcano Earth Fund, a fund of private equity funds which focuses on companies involved in sustainable development, and more particularly in funds specialised in sectors such as renewable energies, energy efficiency, and conservation or improved use of natural resources, Funds People reports. The portfolio will be composed of 10-15 funds selected from a universe of 120 funds dedicated exclusively to the target niche. The new product will go on sale in the next few months, with the objective of attracting between EUR200m and EUR250m, largely from investors outside Spain. In total, the fund will be indirectly invested in about 150 companies; 70% of assets will be invested in the United States and Europe. Approximately 15% will be reserved for investments in venture capital and up to 30% will be invested in funds on the secondary market. Arcano is expecting to generate total net performance of 15% to 20%.
Putnam Investments has announced the appointment of Paul Harrison as senior vice president of its global institutional management group, where he will be responsible for distribution in the Middle East and Africa, and will report to Joseph Phoenix, head of international growth strategy in London. Harrison was previously head of Middle East and Africa at Fortis Investments.
Sarah Deaves will be leaving her position as CEO of Coutts to join its parent company, RBS, as managing director of affluent clients for the retail division (see Newsmanagers of 21 April), and the new head of private banking has now been named: it will be Michael Morley, who was previously head of wealth management at Singer & Friedlander.
Merrill Lynch International is releasing the BlueTrend UCITS Fund, a sub-fund of its Luxemborug Sicav Merrill Lynch Investment Solutions (MLIS), with a minimal subscription of USD1,000 for the retail share class, Funds People reports. The fund is managed by BlueCrest Capital Management LLP, which applies a trend-following strategy to CTA futures contracts, with assets of USD7bn. The objectives are a return of 15% to 20% per year, and a Sharpe ratio above 1.
In first quarter, Berkshire Hathaway, controlled by Warren Buffett, has posted a loss of more than USD1.53bn, or USD990 per share, compared with USD940m, or USD607 per share, Expansión reports. Results were dragged down by a USD2.01bn provision for investments considered lost.
The crisis has brought more work for multi-managers, according to Ignites Europe. Tony Lanning, head of multi-management at Gartmore, explains that he is meeting with managers much more frequently, not necessarily because he is concerned about more managers, but because he wants to gather as much information as possible about the current market environment.
According to estimates based on 55% of the usual sample, the Credit Suisse/Tremont hedge fund index is expected to post an increase in April of 1.29%. Although a number of long/short equity managers have increased their long positions in an effort to capture potential gains in market rallies, many other managers have maintained their exposures to beta at relatively low levels, and have remained relatively defensively positioned, which has led to returns below those of equity indexes.
LGT Capital Management, an asset management affiliate of the bank owned by the Prince’s family of Liechtenstein (LGT Bank) is launching the Liechtenstein-registered fund LGT Equity Fund Europe Sector Trend (EUR), its third behavioural finance product [after the LGT Equity Fund Global Sector Trends (USD) and LGT Equity Fund North America (USD)]. The equities fund is actively managed, and invests primarily in shares in companies whose headquarters are located in Europe or most of whose activities are realised on the European continent. The objective is to outperform the MSCI Europe index, with a long/only portfolio of 40 positions. Management is undertaken directly by two specialists in behavioural finance, Volker Hergert and Oliver Günter, who had previously been dedicated to stock-picking.
Jean-Pierre Mustier, chairman and CEO of Société Générale Asset Management (SGAM), on Thursday said consultations with employees on plans to merge SGAM with the asset management affiliate of Crédit Agricole (CAAM) will be concluded by the beginning of summer. Then will come the regulatory approval stage, which will last until October or November. The closing of the merger should thus come in early or mid-fourth quarter.According to sources close to the firm, SGAM will not include its roughly 12,000 mandates in the merger, which will create an entity whose working name is Newco. The fund factory with four distribution units, capable of adapting products to the needs of the four networks (SG, Crédit Agricole, Crédit du Nord and LCL), will exist as a single business entity, whose format is currently being studied jointly, and which will not bear the name of either SGAM or CAAM.In addition to the facts reported in Newsmanagers on 7 May, it may be noted that the perimeter earmarked by Société Générale for Newco had gross operating profits of EUR15m last year, while asset management as a whole showed gross operating losses of EUR41m. Meanwhile, chairman and CEO of Société Générale Frédéric Oudéa stated that the purchase of shares in money market funds from SGAM in order to ensure the liquidity of non-US products for clients had a negative impact of EUR193m on the first quarter results.
Crispin Odey is threatening to expatriate his alternative asset management firm Odey Asset Management (50 employees, GBP3bn in assets) to avoid a 50% tax to be introduced in the United Kingdom for high-income brackets, the Sunday Times reports. Kinetic Partners, a firm specialised in moving hedge funds to Switzerland, says it has been inundated with requests for information. Kinetic is currently advising 15 hedge funds which are ?actively? planning to leave the UK.
Private equity firm BC Partners is offering GBP3.5bn for iShares, which Barclays was about to sell for GBP3bn to CVC, another private equity firm, the Sunday Times reports. Barclays has a 45-day period in which to find a better offer (the famous ?go-shop? clause). CVC will now have to offer as much as BC Partners, or else bow out. If Barclays sells iShares to another buyer, CVC will be entitled to a break fee of GBP175bn.
La banque de trading en ligne et d"investissement annonce l"ouverture de son bureau à Dubaï au sein du DIFC (Dubai International Financial Centre). Ce nouveau bureau a pour vocation de renforcer la présence de Saxo Bank dans le golf persique et représente la première ouverture d"une banque danoise dans les Emirats Arabes Unis.
Selon des estimations portant sur 55 % de l"échantillon habituel, l"indice Credit Suisse/Tremont des hedge funds devrait avoir enregistré pour avril une hausse de 1,29 %. Bien qu"un certain nombre de gérants long/short equity aient renforcé leurs positions longues pour tenter de capturer le potentiel de hausse des rallies, beaucoup d"autres gérants ont conservé des expositions beta à un niveau relativement faible et sont restés positionnés défensivement, ce qui a produit des performances inférieures à celles des indices actions.
Selon Les Echos, le leader mondial de l’intermédiation financière, soutenu par des banques et des courtiers, a déposé vendredi soir une offre d’achat à la Chambre de compensation franco-britannique. Les détails financiers n’ont pas encore été dévoilés.
LGT Capital management, filiale gestion d’actifs de banque de la famille princière du Liechtenstein (LGT Bank) lance le fonds de droit local LGT Equity Fund Europe Sector Trend (EUR), son troisième produit de finance comportementale, géré de manière active [après le LGT Equity Fund Global Sector Trends (USD) et LGT Equity Fund North America (USD)]. Ce fonds d’actions investit principalement en titres d’entreprises dont le siège se trouve en Europe ou dont l’essentiel de l’activité s’effectue sur le Vieux continent. L’objectif est de surperformer le MSCI Europe avec un portefeuille long-only d’une quarantaine de lignes. La gestion est assurée en direct par deux spécialistes de la finance comportementale, Volker Hergert et Oliver Günter, qui se contentaient auparavant de façonner la sélection de valeurs.