BNP Paribas Investment Partners announces the appointment of Matt Joyce as a Portfolio Manager within its Multi Asset Solutions group, headed by Charles Janssen. Based in London, Matt will join the Active Asset Allocation team led by CIO Colin Graham.
The Active Asset Allocation team consists of more than 20 dedicated professionals responsible for establishing active asset allocation strategies for a broad range of multi asset mutual funds and investment solutions offered to retail and institutional clients.
Matt has over 12 years’ investment experience, covering long-only and long/short strategies. Prior to joining BNP Paribas Investment Partners, Matt worked at Schroders Investment Management as a multi asset analyst and fund manager, focusing on equity and cross asset volatility research, and managing balanced products and volatility strategies.
His previous experience includes roles at Occam Asset Management, where he was an analyst and fund manager covering European equities, and at Polar Capital, where he was an analyst on UK and global equity long/short strategies. Matt has a BSc in Financial Economics from Birkbeck College, University of London, and an MSc in Applicable Mathematics from the London School of Economics & Political Science. He is a CFA Charterholder.
Charles Janssen, Head of Multi Asset Solutions at BNP Paribas Investment Partners, comments: “The addition of Matt Joyce to the Multi Asset Solutions group further demonstrates our commitment to expanding our multi asset offering as part of the strategic development of our business. Demand for multi asset products continues to grow in line with the increasing need for retirement solutions among retail and institutional investors and this is a key part of BNP Paribas Investment Partners’ investment offering. Given the ongoing environment of market uncertainty and low yields, we expect continued growing demand as investors look to outsource their asset allocation to meet their growth or income requirements.”
Family Office Exchange (FOX), a global membership organization of enterprise families and their key advisors, announced the introduction of FOX Networks, a new way for members to problem solve and gain expertise in six key family office disciplines. The six disciplines areTechnology Operations & Data Security, Human Capital, Private Family Trust Companies (PFTC), and three types of investing—Direct Investing, Strategic CIO, and Endowment Model Investing.
There are three aspects to these networks: leadership from a seasoned, subject matter expert, peer discussion to gain the experience of other members, and high quality research and educational content. These elements are delivered through an online community, in person meetings, and a series of scheduled webinars. Recorded webinars, research, and top industry white papers will be available for each network through the association online Knowledge Center.
“FOX has provided special interest work groups to solve specific problems for decades and now we are formalizing Networks to deepen this problem solving,” said Alexandre Monnier, President of Family Office Exchange. “FOX Networks provide a clear, easy way to reach the ideas and get answers to important topical challenges in family offices.”
The association has recruited a number of distinguished practitioners to run the Networks. Technology Operations and Data Security is headed by Steven Draper, who has served as a technology consultant in the wealth management industry for 25 years. The Human Capital Network is led by Kelley Ahuja, Director of Human Capital, who joined earlier this year from the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The PFTC Network is run by Ruth Easterling, a Managing Director for 16 years. The Direct Investing Network is run by Linda Shepro, Managing Director, who joined from FDX Capital earlier this year. The Strategic CIO Network is headed by David Toth, Director of Advisor Research, who joined from PNC, and the Endowment Model Network is led by Karen Clark, Managing Director, who recently joined FOX from Sandaire, a leading multi-family office in London.
Access to the Networks is included in core membership for current members. Non-members are able to access membership in one Network on an a la carte basis.
Photo: José Francisco del Valle Mojica. AXA IM Boosts EM Portfolio Management Team
AXA Investment Manager (AXA IM) has announced the appointment of Alex Khosla as equities analyst and the promotion of Ian Smith and Paul Birchenough as co-managers of the AXA Framlington Emerging Markets fund.
Both will work with Julian Thompson, head of the Emerging Markets Team, as part of a core emerging markets portfolio management team.
Mark Beveridge, global head of AXA Framlington, comments: “We believe in recognising and rewarding talent coming through the ranks. We already adopt a team approach to portfolio management and Paul and Ian have been part of our EM team since 2011 and 2012 respectively. They both have extensive experience in emerging markets and we are confident that they will continue to successfully manage the fund.”
Alex Khosla joins the team as an Emerging Markets equities analyst from UBS Investment Bank. He will be responsible for covering the energy, beverages and tobacco sectors as well as monitoring macroeconomic issues in India, Chile, Peru and Colombia.
Commenting on the hire of Alex Khosla, Julian Thompson, head of Emerging Market Equities at AXA Framlington, said: “Alex is a strong addition to our growing emerging markets team and we are very pleased that he has chosen to join us. Alex knows the team well from his previous role in Latin American equity sales at UBS and brings with him considerable experience in Latin American equity markets.”
. Lazard Asset Management Hires Léopold Arminjon as European Long/Short Equity Portfolio Manager
Lazard Asset Management announced that Léopold Arminjon has joined the Firm as a portfolio manager/analyst. Based in London, Mr Arminjon will be responsible for running a new European long/short equity strategy to be launched later this year.
“Léopold brings with him over 18 years of investment experience in European equities, which will benefit both our clients and our investment platform,” said Bill Smith, CEO of Lazard Asset Management London. “This new strategy will complement our strong European equity capabilities and will broaden our already robust expertise in long/short equities, a core focus of our investment offerings for clients.”
As of 31 March 2015, LAM has $180 billion of assets under management, including $7.6 billion globally across a number of alternative investment strategies, investing in global long/short equity, emerging market debt and hedged credit strategies.
Prior to joining LAM, Mr Arminjon was a lead portfolio manager at Henderson Global Investors for both the Henderson Horizon Pan-European Alpha Fund and the Alphagen Tucana Fund. Previously, he was a senior analyst at Gartmore as well as being one of the five members of the Continental Europe equities team running both long-only and long/short funds.
LAM offers a range of equity, fixed-income, and alternative investment products worldwide. As of 31 March 2015, LAM and affiliated asset management companies in the Lazard Group manage $199 billion of client assets.
Photo: José Maria Silveira Neto. U.S. Asset Managers are Devoting more Resources to Develop their Global Equities Capabilities
A recent study by Cerulli Associates about asset managers’ retail and institutional product strategy and innovation across different asset classes (e.g., fixed income, alternatives) concludes that the industry is turning into the development of products centered on Global Equities.
“Aside from focusing on offering income-producing products and alternative investments, asset managers have been busy building out their international and global capabilities. U.S. investors have typically turned to international and global investment products for further diversification,” Pamela DeBolt, associate director at Cerulli, explains. “Retail managers are allocating more of their product development resources over the next year to international/global equity.”
“These funds are now attracting U.S. investors because they are considered cheaper than domestic equities,” DeBolt adds.
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrPhoto: Dennis Jarvis. UK Treasury Planning for ‘Grexit’ Turbulence
Downing Street and the Treasury have been drawing up measures to control the “serious economic risks” to Britain should Greece default on its debts, or exit the eurozone – or both.
The Prime Minister’s official spokeswoman told reporters at Westminster that the Government was taking “all steps to prepare” for such eventualities.
Treasury officials declined to give details of the plans, but confirmed that Chancellor George Osborne regards a “Grexit” as “a very serious risk” to the economy of both Britain and the wider world.
Central bank warning
The comments came as Greece’s central bank warned for the first time that the country could be on a “painful course” to a debt default and an exit from both the eurozone and the European Union.
According to the most recent figures from the Bank of England, British banks are exposed to Greece to the tune of $12.2 billion (£7.7 billion) on an “ultimate risk basis”. In other words, this is the sum they would lose were the country to go bust completely.
The figure is not large by comparison with UK banks’ exposures to other eurozone countries that have experienced recent difficulties such as Italy, at $40 billion (£25.2 billion) or Spain at $50 billion (£31.5 billion).
But the knock-on effects from a Greek collapse could hammer confidence across the eurozone and beyond.
The British Chambers of Commerce warned that market upheavals caused by “a messy Grexit” could hit many UK businesses and called on central banks and governments to take action to limit disruption “through all means possible”.
Bailout talks continue
Talks continue between the Athens government and its international creditors over an economic reform deal which has held up more than £5 billion in bailout payments needed to allow Greece to continue servicing its debts.
Eurozone finance ministers are meeting in Luxembourg today to try to find a way forward, and the crisis is expected to dominate a European Council summit of EU leaders – including David Cameron – in Brussels next week.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the Republic of Ireland is making its own plans in the event that the UK votes in an in/out referendum to leave the EU.
Irish foreign minister Dara Murphy told BBC Radio 4’s World At One: “It would be remiss of us [not to], given the possibility that our largest trading partner may be exiting the European Union. That is something we, of course, are looking at.”
Rotterdam-headquartered asset manager Robeco has announced the launch of a multi-factor credit fund, aimed at offering investors access to a factor-based investment strategy.
The fund will be managed by Robeco’s Credit Team, with Patrick Houweling as portfolio manager. Houweling joined Robeco in 2003 and has also been managing Robeco’s conservative credits strategy since 2012, which exploits the low-risk anomaly in credit markets.
The fund will have 150 to 200 names in its portfolio. Although it mainly consists of investment grade credits, it can hold a maximum of 10 percent in BB in order to benefit from the attractive characteristics of fallen angels and rising stars.
Patrick Houweling comments on the launch: “At Robeco, we have been closely studying the possibilities of bringing our factor investing offering beyond the traditional equity markets. I am delighted that we have put theory into practice by introducing this factor investing fund to credit investors. This fund is driven by our proprietary quantitative multi-factor model, which offers balanced exposure to the low-risk, value and momentum factors.”
Foto cedidaAndreas Wosol, gestor del Amundi Funds European Equity Value. Andreas Wosol: "Es el mejor momento para participar en una inversión value en años"
Crédit Agricole and Société Générale are announcing their decision to launch a project for the initial public offering of their joint subsidiary Amundi, created in 2010, with a view to obtaining a listing before the end of the year, subject to market conditions.
With EUR 954bn of assets under management as of the end of March 2015, Amundi is the leading asset manager in Europe and ranks among the ten largest players in the world.
Amundi is 80% owned by Crédit Agricole Group and 20% by Société Générale.
The purpose of the flotation is to underpin the continuing development of Amundi and provide liquidity to Société Générale, which could sell up to its entire stake, as set out in the shareholder pact that was agreed at the creation of Amundi1.
Amundi and Société Générale will continue their industrial partnership following the initial public offering. Amundi will remain the provider of reference for savings and investment solutions for Société Générale’s retail and insurance networks for a period of five years, renewable.
Crédit Agricole S.A. intends to retain a majority stake in Amundi, which plays a key role in its development strategy. This project will be submitted to the employee representative bodies.
As an indication, Société Générale specifies that the sale of its entire stake would have a positive impact of around 20bps on the CET1 ratio of Société Générale group at the end of 2015.
This project will be submitted to the employee representative bodies.
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrPhoto: Dennis Jarvis. Are Dividends from Emerging Markets Worth The Risk?
Lyxor has been recently awarded by S&P Dow Jones Indices a license on the S&P China Sovereign Bond 1-10 Year Spread Adjusted Index, that will allow the manager to launch and list a China government bond ETF in Europe.
The S&P index includes Chinese government bonds with a maturity of one to ten years traded on the Shanghai or Shenzen stock exchanges as well as on the Chinese Interbank Market.
It currently represents a yield to maturity of 3.2% in renminbi for an average duration of 4.2 years, according to Bloomberg figures as of 29 May 2015.
Heather McArdle, Director of Fixed Income Indices at S&P Dow Jones Indices, commented : “The progressive liberalisation of China’s financial market has offered greater accessibility and flexibility to international investors looking to invest in the world’s second largest economy.
“As European investors increasingly look for China exposure beyond equities, we are excited to license the S&P China Sovereign Bond 1-10 Year Spread Adjusted Index to Lyxor to help bring China government bonds into their toolkit and facilitate portfolio diversification for investors.”
Lyxor’s ETF will be sub-managed by the Hong-Kong arm of the firm’s Chinese joint-venture Fortune SG.
Lyxor has €113.7bn in assets under management and advisory as of 30 April 2015.
