Foto: waferboard
. GAM completa la adquisición de Cantab Capital Partners y lanza dos nuevas estrategias cuantitativas bajo el nombre GAM Systematic
GAM has completed the acquisition of Cantab Capital Partners, which was first announced on 29 June 2016. Cantab, a multi-strategy systematicmanager based in Cambridge, UK, manages USD 4.1 billion in assets for institutional clients worldwide (as at 1 October 2016). It’s technology and its team of over 30 scientists, led by Dr Ewan Kirk, form the cornerstone of GAM Systematic. This new investment platform is co-headed by Adam Glinsman, CEO of Cantab, and Anthony Lawler, Head of Portfolio Management at GAM’s Alternative Investments Solutions (AIS) group.
Two new UCITS funds are to be launched, subject to regulatory approval, that will offer daily liquidity and will be available under the GAM Systematic name. Both funds will be designed to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns as well as offering diversification to equity and bond investments over the cycle. The new funds will also be structured to be cost-effective.
The systematic global equity market neutral strategy will contain Cantab’s established equity-focused models, which have delivered a successful return track record as part of Cantab’s flagship Quantitative Fund launched in 2007. It will invest in liquid equities globally using proprietary research and trading systems, without taking equity market beta. Over a three-year cycle, the strategy will aim to deliver attractive returns with annual volatility of 6-8%.
The systematic diversified macro strategy will be a multi-strategy, multi-asset product based on Cantab’s established Core Macro fund, which launched in 2013. It will seek to generate returns uncorrelated to traditional asset classes by identifying persistent and recurring sources of return across over 100 markets in currencies, fixed income, equity indices and commodities. Over the cycle, it is expected to deliver attractive returns with negligible correlation to traditional markets and annualised volatility of 10-12%.
The latest European ETF Market Review from Thomson Reuters Lipper shows that negative market impacts led—in spite of net inflows—to lower assets under management in the European ETF industry in September (€480.1 bn for September, down from €480.4 bn at the end of August).
According to Detlef Glow, Head of EMEA research at Thomson Reuters Lipper and author of the report, the decrease of €0.3 bn for September was mainly driven by negative market impacts (-€2.4 bn), while net sales contributed a positive €2.1 bn to the assets under management in the ETF segment.
Other highlights include:
Bond ETFs (+€1.3 bn) posted the highest net inflows for September.
The best selling Lipper global classification for September was Bond Emerging Markets Global in Local Currencies (+€0.8 bn), followed by Equity Emerging Markets Global (+€0.5 bn) and Equity Global (+€0.5 bn).
iShares, with net sales of €1.0 bn, maintained its position as the best selling ETF promoter in Europe, followed by Vanguard (+€0.8 bn) and UBS ETF (+€0.4 bn).
The ten best selling funds gathered total net inflows of €3.1 bn for September.
Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF USD (+ €0.7 bn), was the best selling individual ETF for September.
Photo: Pixabay. PwC Launches an Education Platform Addressing the Barriers to Financial Investing
European citizens are required, more than ever, to invest their savings on the capital markets to save for their future pension, while contributing to the financing of the European economy. At the same time, financial products and financial regulation are increasingly complex while investor education remain a challenge. In this context, PwC has just launched Buzz4Funds, an education platform dedicated to raising public understanding of financial investing, including through investment funds.
The primary goal for this programme, currently made up of a series of ten videos and a website, is to arm millennial investors with the unbiased and non-commercial information they need to make investing decisions.
“Investor education is complementary to the traditional tools of investment product information, financial reports and other required communications,” says Steven Libby, partner and Asset & Wealth Management Leader at PwC Luxembourg.
The Investor Education video series covers topics ranging from understanding the difference between saving and investing to the red flags of investment to selling.
“These funny videos aim to grab the attention of potential of future investors, triggering their curiosity to visit the dedicated website where they will discover explanations and links to additional material,” explains Nathalie Dogniez, partner at PwC Luxembourg
To watch the videos and discover the related messages, you can visit the Buzz4Funds website.
Foto: Bradley Davis. Lennar cierrra el Lennar Multifamily Venture en 2.200 millones de dólares
Lennar Corporation has announced that LMC, its wholly owned subsidiary, received an additional $250 million commitment to its Lennar Multifamily Venture (“LMV“), which completes the fund raising for this long term multifamily development investment vehicle. With commitments totaling $2.2 billion, the Miami based company LMV is well capitalized to develop and ownClass A multifamily communities in 25 target markets throughout the United States.
Lennar launched LMC in 2011, and since that time the company has been among the nation’s most active developers. LMC currently has approximately 13,300 apartment homes in 45 communities operating or under construction and including these communities, a total development pipeline that exceeds $7 billion and over 23,000 apartments. The company builds high-rise, mid-rise, and garden apartment communities.
LMV’s ownership includes six prominent institutional investors, comprised of foreign pensions, sovereign wealth funds, and insurance companies. Lennar also has a $504 million commitment to the venture.
Currently, the venture has approximately 9,100 apartment homes under development in 31 communities for a total development cost of $3.1 billion. With the combined equity commitments and 50% leverage, LMV has approximately $1.3 billion in dry powder to invest in future opportunities.
Macquarie Capital acted as a financial advisor and placement agent for LMC.
Amundi confirmed on Wednesday that it is interested in acquiring Pioneer Investments, UniCredit’s asset management arm.
Following rumours in the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, concerning the submission of a non binding offer for the purchase of Pioneer by Amundi, Amundi issued a press release to confirm its interest in Pioneer, since it is “consistently with the growth strategy presented at the time of its IPO.”
However, in the same statement, Amundi denied the close to $4.39 billion valuation attributed to Pioneer in said article and specified that “Amundi re-iterates that its acquisition policy adheres to strict financial criteria, in particular, a return on investment greater than 10% over a three-year horizon.”
However it seems that Jean-Pierre Mustier, Unicredit’s new CEO and a former Société Générale executive, is set to part ways with Pioneer, which has been placed on UniCredit’s group-wide strategic review since last July, when he stated they would even consider a potential IPO. “This is to ensure the company has the adequate resources to accelerate growth and continue to further develop best-in-class solutions and products to offer its clients and partners.”
Publicly traded since November 2015, Amundi is the largest European Asset Manager in terms of AUM, with over 1,000 billion euros worldwide.
Political risk has significant implications for economic growth and market sentiment. While such risk has traditionally been more associated with emerging markets, it has become increasingly apparent in developed markets in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.
Consequently, Standard Life Investments has established an in-house process for examining political risk. The aim is to identify how these risks contribute to policy uncertainty and the subsequent potential for reduced economic growth.
The system categorises risks as either institutional or cyclical, before identifying the precise factors that create a risk to investments. Developed markets most commonly exhibit cyclical risk in the form of elections, and we have isolated three factors that amplify the risk that these cyclical events carry.
Populism – the increased popularity of anti-establishment parties and policies
Fragmentation – the move of political systems from two party to multi-party regimes, as seen in Spain
Polarisation – a hardening of ideological divisions across parties and electorates, as seen in the US
These factors bring added policy uncertainty and the potential for aftershocks following political events in developed markets. By understanding how politics and policy measures are intertwined, we can test the likely effects of political events on investments.
Stephanie Kelly, Political Economist at Standard Life Investments commented “Our approach to political analysis is based on the view that one of the key mechanisms through which political risk is transferred to the investment outlook is through policy uncertainty. The theory suggests that policy uncertainty can reduce growth prospects for an economy because corporate investment slows and consumers delay spending on big ticket items.
“During our analysis of political risk, we assessed the impact of policy uncertainty on a number of major economic and market factors; the results indicate that such an uncertainty shock is usually associated with lower GDP growth, as well as downward pressure on national equity markets and the outlook for interest rates.
“Given that policy uncertainty has a tangible effect on economic and market indicators in developed markets, understanding the political dynamics and structures that drive this uncertainty is crucial.”
Clients across all demographic groups are increasingly interested in using digital media to interact with their asset manager. It is ever more important for managers to provide up-to-date and relevant information via digital channels, Cerulli Associates‘ European Marketing and Sales Organizations 2016: How to Thrive in an Evolving Landscape report finds. However, fewer than two-thirds of managers update their website daily and more than 7% believe that updating their site just once a month is satisfactory.
Four in five of the managers surveyed by Cerulli assign responsibility for digital and social media to their marketing departments and few managers currently have dedicated, stand-alone teams for managing these channels. In addition, 80% of the asset managers Cerulli surveyed employ just one dedicated person to manage their social media communications.
“Asset managers have traditionally been reluctant to devote significant manpower to digital and social media,” says Barbara Wall, managing director of Cerulli Europe. “However, their clients’ increasing use of these channels will put pressure on managers to devote greater resources to this aspect of their business. The vast majority still hand responsibility for digital and social media management to their marketing department rather than to distribution specialists. This needs to change if they are to provide the level of service today’s clients demand.”
Cerulli’s research shows that the typical asset manager’s social media budget is less than €100,000 (US$110,825). Given that clients increasingly wish to communicate with their asset managers digitally, it is surprising that the majority of managers’ outlay on social media is relatively modest.
The good news is that slightly more than half (54.5%) of asset managers expect to increase their overall digital and social media headcount over the next 12 months. This suggests that they are coming to realize the value of this form of dialogue. However, it remains to be seen whether managers’ current commitments to increase headcount will be sufficient.
Cerulli’s research also found that only 6.7% of European asset managers have a dedicated compliance specialist for digital and social media. “Given the sensitivity with which asset managers must handle their communication with clients, it is surprising that so few firms employ a dedicated compliance specialist for their digital and social media output,” says Laura D’Ippolito, an associate director in Cerulli’s European retail team. “If a controversy were to arise, it would inevitably lead to questions about why compliance appears to be low on most managers’ list of priorities.”
This and several other new findings make up Cerulli Associates’ European Marketing and Sales Organizations 2016 report.
Foto: yoshika azuma
. Man Group adquiere Aalto y lanza Man Global Private Markets
Man Group has announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the entire issued share capital of Aalto Invest Holding and launched Man Global Private Markets (“Man GPM”), forming the firm’s private markets offering, which provides clients with access to longer term investments with a complementary risk reward profile to its current product suite.
Aalto is a US and Europe-based real asset focused investment manager with $1.7 billion of funds under management as of 30 September 2016. Aalto will form the real assets platform of Man GPM. Founded in 2010 by Mikko Syrjänen and Petteri Barman,Aalto specialises in the management of real estate equity and debt strategies including direct investments in single family homes in the US and lending to commercial and residential real estate in Europe and the US. Aalto has a strong track record across its differentiated product range, and serves a client base of predominantly large institutional investors.
The Company, which is wholly-owned by its founders and current and former senior staff members, has demonstrated a compelling growth trajectory having grown fourfold over the last four years. Aalto has 33 employees and is headquartered in London, with offices in the US and Switzerland. The Acquisition is expected to complete in January 2017, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary conditions.
Man Group believes the acquisition provides it with a core component for the long term expansion into private markets strategies; provides the clients with access to a range of strongly performing, differentiated real assets strategies; And it further expands Man Group’s presence in the US.
The transaction is expected to be EPS accretive from 2017 onwards. The total regulatory capital usage associated with the acquisition is expected to be approximately $75 million.
Launch of Man GPM
Man GPM will over time develop strategies across private markets such as real estate, credit, and infrastructure. On completion of the acquisition, Aalto will form a central component of Man GPM, providing a core platform upon which the firm can develop this new offering for clients.
The Aalto management team will continue under the leadership of the company’s founders. In addition, Mr Barman and Mr Syrjänen will be appointed Co-Heads of Real Assets within Man GPM, taking on a broader role in the strategic development of Man GPM’s offering in real assets. No change will be made to Aalto’s investment process as a result of the Acquisition and investment independence will be maintained. Mr Barman and Mr Syrjänen will report to Jonathan Sorrell, President of Man Group, and will join Man Group’s Executive Committee.
Foto: Scott S
. La SEC nombra a Melissa Hodgman directora asociada en la división de Enforcement
The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that Melissa Hodgman has been named Associate Director in the SEC’s Enforcement Division. Hodgman succeeds Stephen L. Cohen, who left the SEC in June.
Hodgman began working in the Enforcement Division in 2008 as a staff attorney. She joined the Market Abuse Unit in 2010 and was promoted to Assistant Director in 2012.
Hodgman has investigated or supervised dozens of enforcement recommendations spanning a variety of misconduct, including: The SEC’s first case against a brokerage firm for failing to file SARs when appropriate; Fraud charges against a Wall Street CEO and his company, family members, and business associates accused of secretly obtaining control and manipulating the stock of Chinese companies they were purportedly guiding through the process of raising capital and becoming publicly-traded in the United States; And charges against Charles Schwab Investment Management, Charles Schwab & Co., and two executives for making misleading statements regarding the Schwab YieldPlus Fund and failing to establish, maintain and enforce policies and procedures to prevent the misuse of material, nonpublic information.
Hodgman has led the Enforcement Division’s Cross-Border Working Group, which provides expertise and assistance of matters with international actors and implications. Hodgman also co-founded and served as the enforcement representative on the Chair’s Attorney Honors Program, and is a member of the Enforcement Division’s hiring committee at its Washington D.C. headquarters.
“Melissa has supervised and investigated a broad range of noteworthy and first-of-their-kind cases across the spectrum of the securities industry and involving misconduct located around the world,” said Andrew J. Ceresney, Director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division. “She has distinguished herself with her excellent judgment and creativity, and I am pleased to have her join the senior ranks of the Enforcement Division.”
Hodgman said, “I am honored by this appointment and look forward to continuing our tradition of pursuing tough but fair enforcement actions in complex and cutting-edge cases, especially matters involving cross-border issues and efforts to hold gatekeepers accountable for breaches of their professional standards.”
Before joining the SEC staff, Hodgman worked as an associate at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in Washington. Hodgman earned her masters of law with distinction in securities and financial regulation in 2007 from Georgetown University Law Center, her law degree with high honors from Georgetown University Law Center in 1994, and her bachelor of science degree from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in 1990. Hodgman received the Ellen B. Ross Award as well as an SEC Chairman’s Award in 2010.
Alfred F. Kelly Jr, Foto: Iona College. Alfred Kelly Jr será CEO de Visa a partir de diciembre
Visa announced on Monday that Charlie Scharf is resigning as chief executive officer effective December 1, 2016, and the board of directors has unanimously voted to appoint Alfred F. Kelly, Jr. as CEO. Kelly, a current Visa board member, is the president and chief executive officer of Intersection and the former president of American Express.
According to a press release, Scharf informed the board of directors that he decided to resign his position as CEO and board member because he could no longer spend the time in San Francisco necessary to do the job effectively. The board of directors did a rigorous review of a diverse set of internal and external candidates and is extremely gratified that Kelly has accepted the position. Kelly will join the company on October 31, 2016 as CEO designate. As part of the transition, Scharf will serve as an advisor to Kelly beginning December 1, 2016 for several months.
“Charlie has been a visionary CEO, highly successful by any set of metrics. He has helped transform Visa, the leading global payments technology company, into a technology-driven digital commerce company and has led a strategy that will benefit this company for years to come,” said Robert W. Matschullat, the company’s independent chairman. “The board of directors is extremely grateful for Charlie’s leadership and wishes to thank him for his outstanding four-year tenure, which saw total shareholder return increase by more than 130%, outperforming both the overall stock market and our peer group.”
“We are thrilled to have found someone with Al’s expertise and knowledge to take Visa to even greater heights. Al is a veteran payments industry executive who knows Visa well, having served as a board member for the past two-and-a-half years,” said Matschullat. “The board unanimously agrees that Al is the right leader for the company, and we expect a seamless transition given Al’s deep knowledge of the industry, demonstrated leadership capabilities, and his strong relationships with the talented management team currently in place.”
In his 23 years at American Express, Kelly held a variety of leadership positions. In addition to being president of American Express, he was head of the Global Consumer and Consumer Card Services groups. He currently serves on the board of directors of MetLife. And is a different Alfred F. Kelly, Jr from the one at UBS Wealth Management.
Scharf commented: “I love working and running this great global company and I am sad to have reached the conclusion that I should step down, but running a San Francisco based company just doesn’t work for me personally right now and wouldn’t be fair to Visa. It has been an incredible privilege and honor to work with my many colleagues who have contributed so significantly to our success and transformation, and have strengthened our position as the leading global payments provider. I feel confident that the clarity of our strategic goals and our decisive actions will ensure that we continue to thrive in this quickly evolving industry.”
“Visa is lucky to have Al Kelly as the next CEO. I and our senior management team have had the opportunity to work closely with Al – and those relationships, along with his depth and breadth of payment knowledge – will enable him to step in quickly without missing a beat. I, of course, will do everything I can to help make the transition as easy as possible for everyone. Al is the right person to lead Visa to continued success.”
Under Scharf’s leadership, Visa has strengthened its position in global electronic payments and has been a leader in bringing innovation to the industry. Visa has transformed its technology platform by opening access to its network and capabilities through the Visa Developer Center, partnered with the world’s leading technology companies to drive new payment experiences, introduced new technologies to improve payment system security, and built a world class management team. In addition, the company successfully completed the acquisition of Visa Europe in June 2016, and delivered strong financial results, with operating income climbing to $9.1 billion in FY 2015. Visa’s stock was added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2013.
Kelly said: “I am extremely excited and honored to take on this role and build on Charlie’s work and that of all of the employees at Visa. Visa is incredibly well positioned for continued success, and I look forward to joining this preeminent global organization. I have had the pleasure of getting to know many of the Visa executives during my time on the board, and they are a talented group of business leaders who have been relentlessly focused on driving Visa’s global strategy. I look forward to working with them, including Ryan McInerney, Visa’s President, in serving our clients. Charlie has positioned Visa for great success, and I thank him for his leadership.”
