Northern Trust announced that it has been selected to provide OCIO (Outsourced Chief Investment Officer) services for Feeding America, the nation’s leading hunger relief organization.
“We feel privileged and proud to serve Feeding America,” said Darius A. Gill, Managing Director – Central Region, Northern Trust Foundation and Institutional Advisors. “We look forward to helping manage the assets of, and being a resource to, the Foundation for years to come.”
Foundation & Institutional Advisors is a dedicated practice within Northern Trust that serves nonprofit organizations through sophisticated investment management solutions, strategic insights and world-class resources.
Feeding America’s mission is to feed America’s hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks and to engage the country in the fight to end hunger. This is done by collective partnerships between Feeding America’s national office and local food banks with the goal of increasing efficiencies and maximizing impact.
As an OCIO, Northern Trust provides investment advice, asset servicing and other related services to help nonprofit organizations achieve their financial and philanthropic goals cost-effectively. Northern Trust collaborates with board and investment committee members to assist them with their investment oversight.
PrudentialKenosha. PREI Hires Lee Menifee to Lead Americas Investment Research
Prudential Real Estate Investors has named Lee Menifee a managing director and head of Americas investment research, the company announced last week. PREI®, among the world’s largest real estate investment management and advisory businesses, is a business of Prudential Financial, Inc.
Menifee, whose appointment is effective immediately, will lead PREI’s research efforts in the U.S. and Latin America and will join the U.S. and Latin American investment committees. He is based in PREI’s global headquarters in Madison and reports to Peter Hayes, global head of investment research.
“Lee brings tremendous depth of knowledge and insight into trends driving the real estate landscape in the Americas as we continue to build a global research capability that delivers innovative, market-leading intelligence to our investment teams and clients,” Hayes said.
Before joining Prudential, Menifee led research for American Realty Advisors, where he supported portfolio, asset management, acquisitions and marketing. Earlier, he was the managing editor of global real estate strategy for BCA Research, where he was responsible for product development. He also spent 14 years in various research roles within CBRE Investors, including senior director of global strategy.
Menifee earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and planning from the University of California Santa Barbara and a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Southern California.
AllianceBernstein has announced that Robert Hostetter has joined the firm as Global Head of Product Strategy.
In this role, Hostetter will work closely with the firm’s regional product teams to assess market demand for new services, optimize new product development, and prioritize local and global product innovation opportunities throughout the firm. He will also partner with client and investment groups globally to enhance the firm’s new and existing product capabilities across asset classes and channels. He will report to Robert Keith, Head of the Global Client Group at AllianceBernstein.
“Over the past several years, we have been committed to bringing better balance to our product set and providing clients with services that can perform well across market cycles. We have brought Robert on to ensure we remain focused on providing our clients with the right solutions,” said Keith. “With his deep industry experience and impressive track record, we are confident Robert will further elevate our strategy and ability to innovate.”
Hostetter joins AllianceBernstein from William Blair Investment Management, where he led all aspects of product development and distribution strategy for the institutional, retail and private wealth markets. He was responsible for redesigning the firm’s retail distribution strategy, building the alternatives and multi-asset platforms, and extending the firm’s equity and fixed income investment service offerings.
Prior to that, Hostetter worked as a consultant with McKinsey & Company where he advised asset management clients on a variety of investment, distribution and operational initiatives. Hostetter holds a bachelor’s degree from Duke University and a Master’s of Business Administration in Finance from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He is a CFA Charterholder.
AllianceBernstein is a global investment management firm that offers high-quality research and diversified investment services to institutional investors, individuals and private clients in major world markets. At March 31, 2014, AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. owned approximately 35.8% of the issued and outstanding AllianceBernstein Units and AXA, one of the largest global financial services organizations, owned an approximate 63.6% economic interest in AllianceBernstein.
Photo: Mattbuck. Generali Enters into Negotiations with BTG Pactual for the Sale of BSI
The Italian group Generali has granted exclusivity to Banco BTG Pactual, a leading LatAm investment bank, global asset and wealth manager with a USD13 bn market capitalisation and over CHF100 bn Assets under Management, to conduct negotiations relating to the potential acquisition of the entire share capital of BSI.
BSI is a leading Swiss private bank with a global presence and CHF90 bn (€73.6 billion) of Assets under Management. The Sao Paolo-based group Banco BTG Pactual is a leading Latin American global asset and wealth manager, with $85 billion (€62 billion) in assets under management.
The Italian group is selling its Swiss private banking unit as part of a plan to focus its efforts on the company’s asset management arm, Generali Investments Europe.
Generali will update the market on the outcome of these negotiations when required upon further developments.
Barcelona Port. Photo: Flickr, Creative Commons. Hispania Acquires 213 Apartments in Barcelona from Santander’s Real Estate Fund
Hispania Activos Inmobiliarios, through its subsidiary Hispania Real Socimi, has acquired -in a deal out of the market- from Santander Banif Inmobiliario F.I.I., 213 apartments located in the residential complex Isla del Cielo, in Parque Diagonal Mar in Barcelona. The deal has amounted to 63.8 million euros, fully paid with Hispania’s own funds. The acquisition also includes 237 underground parking slots within the same residential complex.
Isla del Cielo residential complex comprises 2 apartment towers – Tower A, with 17 floors and 104 flats and Tower B with 21 floors and 150 flats- as well as an underground car park. The complex also has communal garden areas and outdoor swimming pool. The built surface of the complex amounts to approximately 38,000 square meters, including the underground floors. The acquisition includes all 150 apartments located in Tower B, 63 apartments emplaced in Tower A and 237 underground parking slots.
The acquired apartments currently enjoy an occupation rate of 90% by means of rental contracts.
Diagonal Mar is located in Barcelona’s seafront, at the beginning of the emblematic Avenida Diagonal, and represents the most relevant real estate development in the city. The area includes a commercial area of more than 88,000 sqm, one of the biggest shopping malls in Catalonia, 68,000sqm of office Surface, a number hotels and the second biggest park in Barcelona, with a 14 hectares surface, designed by Enric Miralles, where Isla del Cielo is located.
Hispania business plan’s main focus is to invest in the asset and to increase benefits and services in order to transform it into an emblematic complex of apartments for rent in Barcelona, intended for professional and international customers.
“With this second acquisition in Hispania, we remain loyal to our strategy of investing in quality assets with a clear potential for value creation by means of and investment and management plan. Isla del Cielo, as a flat for rent complex, stands as one of the main competence and focus areas of Hispania. We are very excited with the opportunity of creating value with these assets, which are located in an area of great projection in Barcelona”, said Concha Osácar, Board Member of Hispania and co-founder of Azora, Hispania’s investment manager.
Azora, investment manager of Hispania, has extensive experience in the investment, repositioning and management of residential assets for rent, by means of its team, made up by more than 96 professionals, expert in residential buildings, who manage around 100 buildings comprising more than 10,200 apartments on a leasehold basis.
Finally, Hispania has informed that last 1st of April, 2014 it established, through deed of incorporation, the subsidiary Hispania Real -100% of the latter-which has agreed to fall under the special tax regime envisaged for real estate investment listed companies (SOCIMIs). This has been communicated to the tax authorities to all appropriate effects. It is therefore expected that Hispania Real acts as “Subsidiary Socimi”, as conveyed in the informative prospectus prepared by Hispania on the occasion of the initial public offering of its shares in the Spanish Stock Exchange Market.
Fotos: Funds Society. MFS Hosts its Global Analyst & Portfolio Manager Forum in London With the Assistance of 50 Delegates from Around the World
MFS Investments hosted their 2014 Global Analyst & Portfolio Manager Forumat Syon Park in London last week. The event was attended by approximately 50 delegates representing European, US, and LatAm markets. In attendance were delegates from Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, France, the UK, the US, and Uruguay, Columbia, Chile, Peru, and Brazil.
MFS had portfolio managers present on nine of their Meridian Funds, and also provided a Global Market Outlook as well as their investment philosophies on Lengthening Your Time Horizon and Active Risk Management.
From the delegates perspective, a highlight of the forum was the ‘meet the managers’ breakout sessions where attendees could attend smaller, more intimate sessions with the portfolio managers. Concurrent sessions were conducted focusing on emerging markets equities, emerging markets debt, and developed equity markets.
Please click on the video to see pictures of the event.
Foto: FullbridgeProgram, Flickr, Creative Commons.. El Fondo de Víctimas de Madoff (MVF) recibe al cierre más de 50.000 reclamaciones
Richard C. Breeden, the Special Master on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice administering the Madoff Victim Fund (“MVF”), has announced preliminary results for the first stage of the MVF claim process. As of the close of the claim period on April 30, MVF received more than 51,700 claims from investor victims of the fraud at Madoff Securities. Claimants from 119 countries reported aggregate unrecovered net investment losses of more than $40 billion. MVF is the official vehicle for distributing slightly over $4 billion in forfeited assets recovered by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from actions against persons involved in the fraud at Madoff Securities.
The claims received have not yet been reviewed to eliminate ineligible, duplicate or overstated claims, which MVF expects to be substantial. In particular, MVF received numerous filings on behalf of banks and other managers of pooled investment vehicles that are not generally eligible to participate. As a result, the final totals are expected to shrink considerably before payments commence. However, the flood of claims submitted to the MVF gives a new indication of the size and global reach of the Madoff fraud.
Special Master Richard Breeden said: “The MVF claims showed a strikingly larger group of victims — with much larger losses — than anyone previously knew to exist. Other than the Gobi desert and the polar icecaps, few places on earth seem to have escaped the scourge of this fraud. This fraud was of epic, and truly global, proportions.”
To date:
MVF has received more than 51,700 claims.
Claims came from victims in 119 countries.
Projected total claims of more than $40 billion in net investment loss.
Aggregate net losses are split almost evenly between U.S. and non-U.S. victims.
Victims submitted more than 3 million pages of backup documentation
MVF received more than 43,500 claims from individuals who did NOT file a claim in the Madoff Securities bankruptcy proceedings. Overall, MVF has received more than three timesas many claims as were filed in the Madoff bankruptcy proceedings (and roughly 20 times more claims as were allowed in the bankruptcy proceedings).
Based on preliminary review, approximately 77.5% of claims were submitted by individuals reporting losses of up to $500,000, while approximately 9.5% of claimants reported losing from $500,000 to $1 million. Approximately 13% of victims reported losses in excess of $1 million.
Mr. Breeden noted: “We have to eliminate ineligible or overstated claims before we can have an accurate picture of the losses. Nonetheless, it appears that at least twice as many investors as previously thought lost money in the Madoff fraud, with losses running many billions larger than previously documented. By far the greatest number of victims report that they have not recovered anything since the fraud. For many of those individuals, the forfeiture program can be a true lifeline.”
The wide dispersion of claims from around the world indicates that the Madoff fraud may be the most global fraud in history.
MVF received claims from victims in 119 countries or autonomous jurisdictions.
In 50 jurisdictions investors reported an average loss of more than $500,000 per claim.
In 28 jurisdictions investors reported an average net loss of more than $1 million per claim.
The largest number of claims from any one country came from residents of the United States, with roughly 58% of claimed losses. However, almost 62% of the persons filing claims reside outside the United States.
Victims in 24 countries reported a higher average loss per person than occurred in the United States.
The ten countries with the largest number of claimants were (in descending order):
United States
Germany
Italy
France
Switzerland
Austria
Spain
The Netherlands
United Kingdom
Taiwan.
Claims came from countries on every continent other than Antarctica. There were 26 countries or jurisdictions in which there were at least 100 claimants. In addition to the United States, Canada and Mexico in North America, MVF received claims in the Americas from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Belize. MVF also received claims from numerous Caribbean states.
Eight of the ten countries with the largest number of claims were in Europe. However, there were claims from virtually every member state of the European Union. Claims also came from Russia, Kazakhstan and Georgia.
In the Asia/Pacific region, claims came from victims in China, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and both Australia and New Zealand. Claims also came from victims in India and Pakistan.
In the Middle East and Africa, claims came from victims in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Lebanon, Turkey, South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Angola, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Mauritius, Morocco, Algeria and Madagascar.
Locations that are often thought of as particularly low tax jurisdictions were also well represented. Claims came from such locations as Monaco, Gibraltar, Andorra, Lichtenstein, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, Cyprus, Malta, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Curacao and the Cayman Islands. Since many of these claims relate to persons who actually reside in other countries, our initial claims data per country may understate the number of victims in certain countries.
Many victims have not yet recovered anything
Mr. Breeden noted that more than 36,000 claimants reported to MVF that they have not received even $1.00 in recoveries from any source. “Tens of thousands of victims have not had any prior recovery for their losses, and for many of them, MVF is the only potential source of a recovery. We hope to make a meaningful difference for all victims, and especially for those who have not previously recovered any of their losses.”
Future Process
After all claims are reviewed, Mr. Breeden and MVF will recommend specific action on each claim to the Department of Justice, which makes all final decisions. The DOJ retains the discretion to amend its requirements or standards at any time, or to deny any claim that does not meet its criteria. The timing of distributions from MVF will be determined after claims are reviewed.
“When, as a firm, you embrace transparency, clients appreciate that and it deepens those relationships.”
Founding partners Maria Elena Lagomasino, Santiago Ulloa and Michael Zeuner have dedicated their professional careers to advocating on behalf of wealthy families and helping them avoid harmful conflicts of interest. “We’ve realized that transparency and independent advice can often be difficult to find in the wealth management industry. We believe that families deserve to know who they can trust, and know that the advice they get is their best interests,” Lagomasino says. “When, as a firm, you embrace transparency, clients appreciate that and it deepens those relationships.”
“WE is hired by families to help them understand their whole picture, create their plan, and execute around that plan, day-to-day. WE ensures that a family has the right set of providers, at the right fee structure, working together to serve the family’s best interests,” Lagomasino continues.
WE stands for Wealth Enterprise. The company’s core beliefs and business practices are designed around the principle that great wealth should be managed like a business.
With offices in New York and Miami, WE Family Offices is a family-focused wealth management firm, catering to ultra-high net worth families. WE is not affiliated with any financial services company and is compensated only with client fees. As a result, WE’s advisors are free to offer their clients independent advice and serve as their advocate. WE’s services include: family advisory; investment strategy and oversight; and back office support. In 2013, WE Family Offices was ranked by Investment News as the number one RIA in Florida, by assets under advisement and, in 2014, was ranked among the Top 50 Wealth Managers in the U.S. by Forbes magazine.
PwC UShas announced that the firm has made a major commitment to the region by signing a 13-year lease with MetLife, Inc. for 43,277 square feet at the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Miami. Approximately 300 PwC partners and professionals will make their move into the Gold LEED-certified building located at 333 SE 2nd Avenue in February 2015.
In addition to signaling its faith in an exciting and thriving part of downtown Miami, PwC sought out the building to accommodate its future growth plans. The professional services firm is optimistic about its long-term growth prospects in the market and intends to increase its employment in order to continue its strong growth trajectory in South Florida.
“PwC has a longstanding history of serving companies in the greater Miami area, and we’re looking forward to continuing that legacy,” said Mario de Armas, managing partner for PwC’s Florida market. “We continue to see an increased demand for our assurance, tax and consulting services, and we’re optimistic about our future employment and the growth of our business here. We also plan to continue our work in the community, with a focus on helping local schools and organizations improve education and financial literacy.”
The office will be equipped with state-of-the-art technology, including the latest media sharing and collaboration tools. De Armas noted that the layout of the new space will enhance team collaboration and knowledge sharing, cater to the mobile worker and aid in client service delivery.
“As our business and the businesses of our clients continue to evolve, we recognize that technology and the workforce of the future will change the way we work,” added de Armas. “The new office design reflects this, emphasizing teaming, personal flexibility and efficiency.”
The firm is committed to reducing its carbon footprint and will have the new space built with energy efficiency in mind. Sustainable materials and furnishings will be utilized throughout the space and PwC will strive for LEED certification when the build-out is complete.
“MetLife is excited to welcome such a high caliber firm as PwC to Wells Fargo Center. As one of MetLife’s premier developments and long-term investments, the Wells Fargo Center continues to attract many of the country’s most prominent companies,” stated Chuck Davis, Director and Head of the MetLife Southeast Regional Office.
The 47-story Wells Fargo Center features scenic views of Biscayne Bay and Miami‘s skyline and offers PwC a number of significant benefits, including a fitness center and restaurants. The center is also adjacent to a four-star hotel, which includes an entertainment complex, salon and spa, and shopping.
Foto: Kirainet, Flick, Creative Commons. Renta fija a corto a plazo, una solución para refugiarse de los tipos cero
Natural-resource equities could provide a better hedge against inflation than commodities themselves, according to a white paper from The Boston Company Asset Management, LLC (TBCAM), the Boston-based equity investment boutique of BNY Mellon.
This could be a particularly appropriate time to consider strategies that hedge against a rise in inflation as interest rates appear to have bottomed, the report said. It notes that an increase in the federal funds rate could come as early as the spring of 2015, which could spark a rise in inflation.
TBCAM warns that investors may wish to prepare for inflation despite concerns from the International Monetary Fund and U.S. Federal Reserve that inflation is too low. Such concerns may prompt central banks to add even more stimulus through quantitative easing and negative real rates, said Robin Wehbe, author of the report and portfolio manager for TBCAM.
“Preparing for the eventual transformation of stimulus into excess liquidity is paramount,” Wehbe said. The report, Inflation Investment Guide: The Advantage of Natural-Resource Equities Allocation, posits that natural-resource equities may provide inflation-hedging benefits without significantly reducing the performance of an investment portfolio in pre-inflationary time periods. Equities, natural resource equities and commodities perform differently across different inflation regimes, the report said.
“In times of low to moderate inflation, equities typically are the clear outperformer,” said Wehbe. “However, natural-resource equities have historically caught up and eventually overtaken the broader stock market to turn in the best returns as inflation begins to rise. Commodities tend to lag all equities in almost every inflationary environment, only outperforming the broad market in times of very high inflation.”
Rising U.S. interest rates contribute to a strengthening U.S. dollar and could drive inflationary pressures around the world, the report said. Countries with current account deficits will feel these pressures the most, according to TBCAM. The report notes that concerns about inflation have been blamed for the sell-off in emerging markets over the last year.
“It’s important to remember that commodities have an expected return of zero,” said Wehbe. “If you look at the historical return of commodities against other asset classes, such as equities, you’ll see that they have significantly underperformed.”
