Les Echos reports that CalPERS and several US pension funds with a combined total of more than USD900bn in assets have teamed up to call for increased regulation of the markets. They have five demands: ?increase transparency; increase the independence of regulators; assign more importance to the voice of shareholders; identify issues that may pose risks for financial markets, and preserve the liberty of institutional investors in their investment decisions,? the newspaper says.

Laura Pendergest-Holt, CIO of Stanford Group, has asked a judge in Dallas to relieve a legal administrator of his duties, after a search of her home which she claims was illegal. She accuses lawyers sent by the administrators of having entered her home without advance notice, and of having ?gone through her underwear and personal possessions,? the Financial Times reports.

Robeco Deutschland has announced the recruitment of Doris Galle-Rostami as senior account manager providing client assistance to IFAs, brokerage networks, platforms, and banks. She will report to Kai Röhrl, head of third party distribution, and will be leaving Franklin Templeton Investment Services, where she had similar responsibilities to those she will be taking up at Robeco.

David Gagnon, director of transition management for the Lehman Brothers group, and then vice president of Nomura International, has been recruited as director of transition strategy at Barclays Global Investors (BGI) in London. He will report to Lachlan French, head of transitions, Europe & Asia (ex Japan), Professional Pensions reports.

According to a declaration to the SEC, the hedge fund manager Steven Cohen has built up a stake over the past quarter of 5.9% in Sotheby’s, via the management firm S.A.C. Capital Advisors, based in Anguilla, Handelsblatt reports.

Morgan Stanley reoprts that hedge funds may face redemption demands this year adding up to 30% of their assets, which would bring assets under management to USD950bn, their lowest level since 2004, Funds People reports. Redemptions are expected to be primarily to US clients in first half.

Allianz Global Investors (AGI) had initially planned to launch its fund Allianz RCM European Index in January. But after consultation with its shareholders, the objective and management process of the fund have been revised. The fund will now be renamed as Allianz RCM European Equity Income, and will be officially launched on 30 March. The product, a British-registered OEIC, will be managed by Neil Dwane, CIO Europe at RCM, and Joerg de Vries-Hippen, co-CIO European equities at RCM. A Luxembourg version of the fund will also be released. Unlike the Allianz RCM European Equity Income, the Allianz RCM European Equity Dividend will be invested throughout Europe, while the British-registered fund will concentrate on assets in continental Europe.

The horizon fund DWS Renten Direkt 2013, which attracted EUR700m in subscriptions in three weeks, has been closed to new investors, but DWS (Deutsche Bank) on 30 March will launch the DWS Renten Direkt 2014, for which subscriptions will be open until 27 March. In both cases, the funds will invest in 25 corporate bonds or Pfandbriefe, which will be retained until maturity.The management firm will also close the DWS Unternehmensanleihen Direkt 2014 fund to new subscriptions on 13 March. This horizon fund invests in corporate bonds and may place up to 20% of its portfolio in subordinate bonds and high yield bonds. The fund will be launched on 16 March.In both cases, DWS will charge a penalty of 1.5% which will remain in the fund in case of early withdrawal.

The roughly 7,800 defined-benefit pension plans (DB schemes) in the United Kingdom monitored on a regular basis by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) at the end of February showed a record deficit of GBP218.7bn, compared with GBP 190.6bn one month earlier, Professional Pensions reports. One year previously, shortfalls were limited to GBP67.1bn. Surpluses for funds which are not underfinanced fell to GBP9.4bn, compared with GBP13.5bn at the end of January 2009, and GBP42.6bn at the end of February last year.

Matrix group has announced the launch of a wealth management division dedicated to high net worth private clients. The division, entitled Matrix Investment Management, will be led by the team which formerly reported to Mike Hollings, CIO of Ansbacher Investment Management. The team has been recruited specially for this purpose, Money Marketing reports.

According to the 11 March edition of Ignites Europe, HSBC Global Asset Management is going to set up as an independent company in Switzerland. Currently, the firm is a division of the private bank. An office will be opened in Geneva in the next two months, says Heinz Hofmann, head of the Zurich office of HSBC GAM.

JPMorgan Asset Management has announced that last year in the United Kingdom it registered subscriptions of USD4.2bn from institutional investors, and that it signed on 23 new clients, including three local governments, bringing assets to USD15.4bn, Hedge Week reports. The strategy which attracted the largest inflows was funds of hedge funds, with 12 new clients, compared with 6 in 2007; inflows to this strategy totalled USD473m, bringing assets to USD755m.

In an interview with Ignites Europe on 11 March, Todd Ruppert, CEO of T Rowe Price, claims that Vanguard is going to have trouble conquering the UK market. The major obstacle to the firm’s growth in the country is that British IFAs, who are the primary channel of distribution in the UK, still work with a commission-based system.

According to the 23rd annual rankings by Forbes magazine, there are now only 793 billionaires in the world, compared with 1,125 last year, Les Echos reports. As of 13 February 2009, ?The net total value of members of the 2009 rankings came to only USD2.4trn, down from USD4.4trn in 2008,? the magazine says. Indian and Russian billionaires have been the hardest-hit by the crisis, severely affected by the volatility of commodity prices.

Investment Week reports that the star manager Guy de Blonay from New Star has decided to join Henderson, where he will continue to manage his mandates.

In Norwegian Kroner, assets in the Government Pension Fund - Global, formerly known as the Oil Fund, increased to NOK2.275trn (about EUR257bn) at the end of December, compared with NOK2.019trn one year earlier, thanks to increased oil revenues and the weakness of the Norwegian currency, whose positive contributions amounted to NOK384bn and NOK506bn, while capital losses on the portfolio of 23.3% wiped out NOK633bn in assets under management (EUR72bn). Losses totalled about 40% for the equities portfolio and 0.5% for the bond portfolio.Allocation to equities were increased to 50% from 40%, and will continue to be increased to 60%, as decided in 2007. In total, the fund holds shares in 7,900 foreign companies, with the largest positions being Shell (NOK15.2bn) and Nestlé (NOK14.9bn). In bonds, the largest position is on Schätze from the German federal government, which account for nearly NOK95bn.

As of Wednesday this week, the percentage of clients of the Santander private bank who lost money in the Madoff affair due to having invested in the Optimal Strategic US Equity fund who have accepted the settlement offered to them by the bank came to 90%, Cinco Días reports. However, institutional clients of Santander, who have not been offered any compensation package, are demanding EUR1bn from Santander in a lawsuit filed in Miami, according to the law firm Labaton Sucharow.

17 of the 19 hedge funds which disclose information about their results to the Inverco association of management firms saw a contraction in their assets in the first two months of the year, Funds People reports. Aside from products from BBVA and UBS which are in the process of being liquidated, the worst affected funds were the fund of hedge funds Copérnico from Banco Madrid, which lost 99% of its assets (to a total of EUR21,000 at the end of February), and the CAAM Multiestrategia Alternativa, whose assets fell 67.38% to EUR2m.Among single hedge funds, the Mosaic Iberia from Pictet and the Foncaixa Privadas Ideas lost 74% and 30% of their assets, respectively.

The firm ING Investment Management Asia-Pacific of Hong Kong has retained RBC Dexia Investor Services as its preferred provider of administrative services and as nominee to distribute ING Luxembourg funds in the Asia-Pacific region, where ING IM managed USD88.73bn at the end of December. The number of funds entrusted to RBC Dexia IS is increased with the move from 4 to 11, with more than 300 classes of shares on the Kong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysian, and Philippines markets.

VDOS Stochastics reports that Spanish investors are beginning to put risk back into their portfolios. Although until recently they had preferred money market funds and savings accounts, they are now buying long-term bonds in the form of government bonds or corporate debt, Expansión reports. In the past few months, a net total of EUR500m have flowed out of money market funds, while net allocations to bond funds have represented nearly EUR300m, which is partly due to decreased returns from savings accounts, says Joaquín González-Llamazares, head of fixed income at DWS Investments.

Société Générale Asset Management (SGAM) on Wednesday announced the launch on 16 March of the French-registreed FCP fund SGAM Invest Target Fund, a horizon fund which will include two sub-funds, ?Credit 2012,? which will mature in three years (on 25 May 2012), and ?Credit 2014,? which will mature in five years (30 May 2014). The products will aim to capture the potential currently offered by investment grade-rated corporate bonds, which are offering historic record premiums.The two sub-funds will provide sectoral diversification and offer active management of the selection of assets in the portfolio throughout the life of the fund. Initially, explains Eric Brard, director of fixed income management, the portfolio will include a sizeable dose of financial sector assets.Liquidity reporting will be on a daily basis. To limit the volatility of the assets throughout the life of the fund and to optimise prospects of returns, front-end fees (2%) and exit fees (on a decreasing scale, from a maximum of 4% between 29 May 2009 and 28 May 2010) will be put in place after the initial subscription period which will run from 16 March to 19 June 2009 for each sub-fund. Management commission for retail shares will be a maximum of 1.25%. The credit team at SGAM which manages these products includes five managers, with an average of 14 years of experience, along with ten credit analysts and 3 dedicated traders.

On Wednesday, Deutsche Börse admitted two ETFs from db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) to trading on the dedicated XTF segment of tis electronic trading platform Xetra. These include the first ETF to replicate a hedge fund index. The db Hedge Fund Index ETF, a German-registered product, reproduces the evolution of the db Hedge Fund Index via a portfolio of futures contracts. The index, in turn, is composed of the sub-indices dbX-THF Equity Hedge Index, dbX-THF Event Driven Index, dbX-THF Credit and Convertible Arbitrage Index, dbX-THF Systematic Marco Index and dbX-THF Equity Market Neutral Index. Management commission is 0.90%. The second new fund is the db x-trackers Russell 2000 ETF, which replicates the Russell 2000 index of the smallest US small caps, which make up the small end of the Russell 3000. Management commission is 0.45%. The XTF segment now lists 413 ETF funds.

Le parc encore limité de bâtiments verts rend difficile la mesure des bénéfices pour les locataires

Les taux courts Libor en dollar se sont tendus de plus de 20 pb depuis début janvier, la fin du trimestre étant déjà source de préoccupation

Les acquéreurs anglo-saxons ont fortement réduit leur activité dans les régions, au profit des acteurs français et allemands

Selon le site Boursorama, citant Reuters, BNP Paribas ne gardera «probablement pas» le nom de Fortis si elle parvient à acquérir le groupe bancaire belge, a déclaré mercredi matin le président de la banque française Michel Pébereau sur la radio BFM.

Le Handeslblatt indique que la LGT Bank de la famille princière du Liechtenstein a vendu sa filiale de fiducie LGT Treuhand, qui a été à l’origine du scandale fiscal en Allemagne, à First Advisory Group, derrière lequel on trouve l’avocat Herbert Batliner, connu comme protagoniste dans plusieurs procédures entamées par la justice de plusieurs pays.

Après avoir affiché un bénéfice net de 18,7 millions de livres pour 2007, F&C Asset Management a accusé pour l’an dernier une perte nette de 50,5 millions de livres, imputable entre autres à une dépréciation d’actifs (impairment charge) de 48,3 millions liée aux contrats de gestion résultant de la fusion de F&C avec ISIS Asset Management en 2004 et de l’acquisition de RSAI Investments en 2002. Le bénéfice sous-jacent ressort à 38,3 millions de livres contre 50,2 millions et le chiffre d’affaires net à 229,9 millions contre 264,5 millions. F&C maintient son dividende inchangé à un total de 6 pence par action ordinaire.A fin décembre, les actifs sous gestion représentaient 98,6 milliards de livres contre 103,6 milliards douze mois plus tôt. Le CEO Alain Grisay a indiqué que les entrées institutionnelles ont représenté 2,4 milliards de livres l’an dernier. Les souscriptions nettes enregistrées par les fonds de type Sicav ont opéré un bond en avant de 102 % à 225 millions de livres.

Les clients de Safra Group se sont vu proposer une compensation pour l"argent qu"ils ont perdu dans la fraude orchestrée par Bernard Madoff Investment Securities, rapporte le Financial Times. Safra Group nie avoir été proactif dans la commercialisation de fonds Madoff. Mais des investisseurs et leurs avocats ont déclaré au FT que les représentants de Safra aux Etats-Unis et en Europe avaient activement commercialisé un fonds appelé Zeus Partners Limites à des clients en Amérique latine.

Olympia Capital Management va se doter dans le courant de cette année d’une structure à directoire et conseil de surveillance. Une évolution de la gouvernance qui permettra à Marc Landeau, fondateur et directeur des investissements de la société de gestion alternative, de passer la main en douceur.La société sera dirigée par ce nouveau directoire, composé de trois personnes. Il s’agit de Laurent Dupeyron, directeur général délégué en charge du développement commercial, du marketing et de la création de nouveaux produits, appelé à devenir directeur général, de Guido Bolliger, co-directeur des investissements, qui sera nommé directeur des investissements, et d’Arnaud Beyssen, directeur financier. Marc Landeau restera présent avec un siège au conseil de surveillance.En 2006-2007, le fondateur d’Olympia avait déjà tenté d’organiser sa succession, avec à l'époque Kostas Iordanidis et Matteo Perruccio (lire article du 05/04/2007). Mais les deux hommes ont successivement quitté la société. Guido Bolliger a ainsi pris la suite de Kostas Iordanidis dès son départ mi-2008, tandis que Laurent Dupeyron a remplacé en septembre dernier Matteo Perruccio, parti début 2008. L’an dernier, alors qu’elle célébrait ses 20 ans, Olympia a vu ses encours revenir de 6 milliards de dollars à 4 milliards, principalement en raison de l’effet marché. Les rachats ont surtout porté sur la gamme offshore, précise Olivier Lazar, directeur général délégué. Dans ce contexte difficile, les embauches et les salaires ont été gelés. Pour l’avenir, Olympia continue bien sûr de croire en la gestion alternative et prépare une offre adaptée aux nouvelles exigences des investisseurs. Ainsi, différents produits seront créés en fonction des critères de liquidités. #Nous aurons d’un côté des hedge funds très liquides et remplis de produits liquides et de l’autre des fonds sur des opportunités particulières mais qui seront peu liquides#. Autre grande tendance : le sur-mesure avec la montée en puissance des mandats.