Paddy Bingham is joining Invesco Real Estate as director of pan-European management for direct real estate. In this role, he will be in charge of two non-public pan-European real estate funds, including the OPCI OPC1 (Opportunité Placement Ciloger 1), which invests in the Euro zone.Bingham will be based in London and will work with all transaction and asset management specialists at Invesco Real Estate based in Paris, Madrid, Munich, Prague. Before joining Invesco Real Estate, he served as director of real estate at Henderson Global Investors.

Royal Bank of Scotland will offer debt denominated in Australian dollars underwritten by the British government, the WSJ reports. The bank is hoping to raise at least AUD500m, or USD330m.

Les Echos reports that the agency which manages British debt has announced that gross issues will total GBP147.9bn in the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

An association entitled Anticor (short for anti-corruption) is challenging the appointment of François Pérol as head of the new firm born of the merger of the French co-operative banks and savings banks, due to ?illegal conflicts of interest,? as Pérol participated in the government’s project to merge the entities to create the new banking entity.CGT has already filed a similar suit against Pérol.

The Financial Times reports that KKR and Permira have recruited advisors to restructure about EUR1.8bn in debt at the firm the jointly control, Lavena, which owns a 88% stake in ProSiebenSat.1. In March, the German group announced that it would be reducing dividends.

Hedge funds are licking their wounds after their strategy of buying preference shares in Citigroup and selling ordinary shares turned against them, the Wall Street Journal reports. Since 5 March, the price of ordinary shares in Citigroup has tripled, to finish Wednesday at EUR3.08.

Although managers are increasingly optimistic about the macroeconomic environment, they are still not moving their assets from cash to equities, according to the most recent survey from Merrill Lynch-Bank of America. Pessimism about this asset class has increased in the past month, as 41% of respondents say they are expecting to be underweight in equities, compared with 34% in February. Managers are preferring bonds, in which 26% of respondents are overweight. In February, only 7% of respondents favoured bond investments.

Redemptions from funds on sale in Italy seem to be slowing, in a sign that the market is beginning to stabilise, Marcello Messori, chairman of Assogestioni (the Italian association of management professionals), has said at the association’s annual meeting. Redemptions primarily affected mid-sized and large firms, particularly those owned by banking groups, Il Sole - 24 Ore reports.

David Bloom at HSBC, cited by the Financial Times, says that ?the best refuge currency in our opinion is currently the Norwegian Kroner. It is probably the best currency in the world.? The Norwegian Kroner is one of the few currencies in the world to have outperformed the US dollar since the beginning of the year. It has climbed 3% to NOK6.694. Bloom says the currency can be expected to rise in the next 18 months.

Rolf Enders, partner at the new firm Sal. Oppenheim Private Equity Partners (Sopep), says that the private equity firm born of the merger of the private equity activities of Sal. Oppenheim with CAM Private Equity and VCM Capital Management has assets of EUR5bn. About 95% of this total is invested in 380 funds from private equity firms worldwide, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Enders expects assets under management to double through organic growth. This year, Sopep will launch an infrastructure fund and a buyout fund of funds.

The Wall Street Journal reports that it is likely that the yields of money market funds will decline as the recommendations of the Investment Company Institute (ICI) are applied. The ad hoc working group formed in the wake of the Reserve Primary Fund affair recommends increasing liquidity and shortening maturities. Paul Schott Stevens, president & CEO of the ICI, says fund management firms will probably follow the recommendations in advance of any rule-making from the SEC.

DEGI, which was taken over by Aberdeen Property Investors on 28 March 2008, has stated that last year it invested EUR1.7bn. The occupancy rate for properties in the portfolios of its five open-ended funds as of 28 February 2009 ranged from 93.3% for the DEGI Europa fund and 100% for the DEGI Europe Retail, while the one-year performance ranged from 4.4% (compared with 4.7% one year ago) for the DEGI Europa to 5% (compared with 4.5%) for the DEGI Europe Retail.Assets total roughly EUR6bn. The manager says the evolution of prices and returns have now extended the number of markets on which investments may be attractive. Among the markets which have now become affordable are the UK, France, and Germany.

Petercam Institutional Asset Management is launching a European corporate bond fund with a set maturity date, Petercam L Bonds EUR Corporate 06/2014. The sub-fund of the firm’s UCITS III-compliant Luxembourg Sicav will invest in investment grade corporate bonds denominated in Euros, which will mature at dates close to June 2014.The subscription period for the fund will begin on 23 March.

For 2008, Frankfurt Trust posted net subscriptions of EUR1.5bn, of which EUR1.2bn went to open-ended funds. The management firm from BHF-Bank (Sal. Oppenheim group) had assets at the end of the year of EUR16bn, of which EUR9.6bn were in institutional fund management mandates, and EUR6.3bn in open-ended funds, compared with EUR17.7bn, of which EUR10.4bn were in Spezialfonds and institutional mandates, and EUR7.3bn in open-ended funds, the previous year. In net subscriptions to open-ended funds in 2008, Frankfurt Trust posted EUR0.5bn in inflows to money market funds and EUR802.3m for equities funds, while bond funds posted net redemptions of EUR133m. Net inflows to institutional funds totalled EUR381.8m.In January-February, net subscriptions totalled EUR250m for open-ended funds, of which EUR200m were for the FT Accugeld money market fund.As of 28 February, total assets at Frankfurt Trust came to EUR15.6bn, of which EUR9.5bn were in institutional funds and EUR6.1bn in retail funds.

In 2009, Groupama Asset Management is aiming for EUR5bn in net subscriptions, of which it is hoping that EUR3.7bn will come from outside the group. The firm appears to have made a good start to meeting this objective, as it has already registered inflows of EUR2.9bn since the beginning of the year.These inflows come after net inflows of EUR5.3bn in 2008, ?the strongest inflows in the history of the group,? says Francis Ailhaud, CEO of Groupama AM. Due to the falling markets, the management firm nonetheless posted a 7.5% decrease in assets under management, to EUR81.3bn. Due to falling net banking proceeds and rising costs, the firm posted net profits down 49% to EUR15.3m.EUR2.8bn in inflows in 2008 came from clients outside the Groupama group; EUR625m came from calls for offers. These include institutionals and distributors, and now represent EUR14.8bn, or 20% of total assets.This dynamic has been helped by the international growth of Groupama AM. The French management firm has posted net subscriptions of EUR443m abroad, largely in Italy, where it opened an affiliate in 2006. The firm also opened a branch in Spain last year, and signed a distribution agreement in Canada in 2007 (with Investeam).The international deployment will continue in 2009. ?We will develop in two areas,? explains Jean-Marie Catala, director of development at Groupama AM. ?On the one hand, we will assist in the international growth of the group. On the other hand, we will develop autonomously when we identify growth areas,? he says. The firm is planning to set up in Switzerland, and is studying the Middle East, where it may eventually establish operations by the end of the year.In terms of product range, Groupama AM is planning to launch new ?alpha? funds in equities, fixed income, and foreign currencies, as well as in conviction-based management.

Neuflize OBC Asset Management has recruited Karen Decque (née Terdjman) from Natixis Asset Management, where she managed the Natixis Europe Smaller Companies fund, Citywire reports. She will manage the Noam Europe Expansion fund with Guillaume Lanelier, following the departure of Franck Le Franc and Guillaume Laconi. The management firm has also recruited Olivier Mollé, from Exane, for the Noam Europe Long Short fund.

Investment Week has announced that Henderson Global Investors (HGI) is recruiting Mark Skinner, managing director of New Star, as head of retail distribution. He will begin in his new role as soon as HGI completes its acquisition of New Star.

Skandia, which has been present in Spain for years, has previously focused on institutional clients in the country. Funds People reports that José Ramón Morso, CEO of Skandia Spain, has announced that the firm will now move into the ?personal banking? client advising market, serving clients with assets of EUR60,000 to EUR3m. Skandia is planning to recruit 30 advisors this year, and 100 in the next three years. The group has also opened two dedicated offices, one in Madrid, and the other in Valencia. Currently, Skandia only uses employee advisors, but it is planning to recruit independent advisers, who will operate under the new EAFI status now being created by the CNMV.

Fondsprofessionell reports that Warburg Invest KAG has announced that it has suspended subscriptions and redemptions on March 11th until further notice for its entitlement warrant note fund Warburg-Multigenuss-Fonds, in order to keep up with redemption demands and avoid having to sell assets at prices that would be disadvantageus to shareholders.

On Wednesday, BlackRock announced the release in France, Germany and Austria of the European Absolute Return Strategies sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav BlackRock Strategic Funds. The product complies with UCITS IIII, and is managed by Vincent Delvin, a senior portfolio manager based in Edinburgh. The objective is to generate performance regardless of the market configuration, by investing in equities and other shares related to equities (including derivative instruments) in companies which are domiciled or which realise a large part of their economic activities in Europe.The manager is authorised to use derivatives to hedge risks and to reduce the volatility of the portfolio, with a risk budget lower than that of long-only funds. The portfolio includes 50 to 100 shares, and used four strategies: traditional (long), synthetic-short, pair trading, and liquidity.BlackRock has been testing the fund internally since 12 June 2008. During this period, the ?fictitious? portfolio generated ?solid absolute returns? despite extremely difficult market conditions, says BlackRock.

UBS has announced that it is reopening its two open-ended real estate funds, Euroinvest (EUR3.3bn) and UBS 3 Kontinente Immobilien (EUR619m) to redemptions from April. The funds have been frozen since late October.Das Investment reports that Tilman Hickl, chairman of the board at UBS Real Estate, has announced real estate investments of EUR600m this year. Euroinvest will receive total subscriptions of EUR200m to EUR250m.

GAM has announced that Jonathan Colchester, who was in charge of a team of six bankers serving ultra high net worth clients at Barclays Private Bank, will join the management firm in London on 22 May as head of private clients, Investment Week reports.

John Clougherty, managing director UK, retail, at Aviva Investors (GBP235bn in assets) will meet French colleagues this week to prepare the launch of a European equities fund on the British market, Investment Week reports. It is not certain that the fund will replicate a Luxembourg Sicav. Clougherty says that institutional investors represent a potential market for recovery real estate funds, and that such a product could then be made available to retail investors, once the press has given a better image to real estate investments.

Hedge Fund Research has announced the launch of 38 new HFRX indexes, which constitute a major extension of its range of strategy, region and country sub-indexes. The new offerings bring the total number of products available from HFRX to 65. HFR says the methodology complies with the UCITS III directive. The indexes are designed to be investible, and the funds used are selected from 7,500 products in the HFR database.The new indexes are the HFRX Energy/Basic Materials Index, HFRX Fundamental Growth Index, HFRX Fundamental Value Index, HFRX Quantitative Directional Index, HFRX Short Bias Index, HFRX Technology/Healthcare Index, HFRX EH: Multi-Strategy Index, HFRX Activist Index, HFRX Credit Arbitrage Index, HFRX Private Issue/Regulation D Index, HFRX Special Situations Index, HFRX ED: Multi-Strategy Index, HFRX Active Trading Index, HFRX Commodity Index, HFRX Currency Index, HFRX Discretionary Thematic Index, HFRX Systematic Diversified Index, HFRX Macro: Multi-Strategy Index, HFRX Fixed Income-Asset Backed Index, HFRX Fixed Income-Corporate Index, HFRX Fixed Income-Sovereign Index, HFRX Yield Alternative Index, HFRX RVA: Multi-Strategy Index, HFRX BRIC Index, HFRX Brazil Index, HFRX Russia Index, HFRX India Index, HFRX China Index, HFRX MENA Index, HFRX Multi-Emerging Markets Index, HFRX Total Emerging Market Index, HFRX Latin America Index, HFRX Multi-Region Index, HFRX North America Index, HFRX Northern Europe Index, HFRX Russia/Eastern Europe Index, HFRX Western/Pan Europe Index and HFRX Aggregate Index.

Ravi Mehra, the founder of Vega Asset Management, and Jesús Saá Requejo, are working together to launch the Sapphire Global Fund, a fund that complies with European legislation, which will be closed for three years, and which will invest primarily in global macro funds whose promoters are currently distressed due to lack of liquidity, Hedge Week reports. The fund will use no leverage.

La FSA revoit sa stratégie et durcit toutes les règles. Elle veut renforcer la supervision des banques

Friends Provident a déclaré mardi qu"il a mis de côté 217 millions de livres supplémentaires en 2008 pour couvrir des défauts potentiels sur son portefeuille d"obligations d"entreprises, rapporte le Financial Times. L"assureur a accusé une perte avant impôts de 871 millions de livres en 2008, contre une perte de 113 millions en 2007.

Royal Dutch Shell devra payer jusqu"à 6 milliards de dollars pour combler le déficit de son fonds de pension, alors même que ses revenus sont sous pression, rapporte le Financial Times. Dans un document remis à la SEC, le groupe pétrolier révèle que le déficit de son fonds de pension se monte à 8,3 milliards de dollars, soit 5 % de sa capitalisation.

Selon La Tribune, certains investisseurs estiment qu’il est temps de réinvestir sur les marchés émergents, dont la Chine, ainsi que sur les matières premières car ces classes d’actifs sont désormais bradées, comme en atteste le tracé de l’indice Reuters/Jefferies CRB qui perd 44 % depuis l’an 2008.William Vijlder, stratège chez Fortis Investments, considère ainsi que « la Chine et les marchés émergents pourraient connaître dès la mi-2009 un rebond de l’ordre de 25 % », indique La Tribune.

Les autorités britanniques se penchent sur certaines transactions financières offshores de Barclays pour voir si cela l"a aidé ainsi que d"autres établissements américains et européens à réduire les taxes, rapporte le WSJ.