Foto: historias visuales, Flickr, Creative Commons. MiFID II y los bancos: “La mano que mece la cuna”
New research from global analytics firm Cerulli Associates finds that using technology to uncover what U.S. investors want is helpful, but personal interaction is needed to close the sale.
“There has been an explosive increase in the attention devoted to the evolving role of technology within the realm of retail investor relationships,” states Scott Smith, director at Cerulli. “Virtually all stakeholders, from advisory practices to asset managers to custodians and other service providers, feel the threat of disruption through disintermediation.”
Many assume that ongoing advances in technology will empower investors to handle their financial affairs without the assistance of traditional financial advisors. Cerulli believes that while technology innovations will transform how services are delivered, there will be an ongoing, and potentially increasing, demand for personalized advice delivered by humans.
“Since 2010, there has been a continuous stream of developments in the technology available for investors to monitor and manage their portfolios. However, during this period the self-directed investor segment declined from 45% to 33% across all households,” Smith explains. “At the same time, those households Cerulli terms ‘Advisor-Reliant’, who regularly consult with a financial advisor, increased from 34% to 43%.”
“We believe that unique elements of financial advice relationships will prove resistant to being cast aside in favor of purely self-service electronic relationships,” Smith continues.
“Data can help marketers understand what investors think and want relative to their finances, but wealth managers need to complement this insight with human interaction, predictive analytics, and communication,” Smith adds.
The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) has published its latest quarterly statistical release which describes the trends in the European investment fund industry during the second quarter of 2015. UCITS net sales fell to EUR 114 billion, down from EUR 283 billion in the first quarter.
Long-term UCITS, i.e. UCITS excluding money market funds, attracted net inflows of EUR 144 billion, down from EUR 236 billion in the first quarter. The three main types of long-term UCITS recorded lower net sales during the quarter.
Equity funds recorded net sales of EUR 22 billion, down from EUR 43 billion. Bond funds recorded net sales of EUR 32 billion, down from EUR 79 billion. Multi-asset funds recorded net sales of EUR 72 billion, down from EUR 101 billion.
UCITS net sales totaled EUR 397 billion during the first half of 2015, up from the EUR 274 billion in January-June 2014. Long-term UCITS have also increased during the first half of this year to EUR 380 billion from the EUR 282 billion during this period last year.
Money market funds registered a turnaround in net sales to post net outflows of EUR 30 billion in the second quarter, against net inflows of EUR 47 billion recorded in the first quarter.
AIF net sales increased to EUR 48 billion in the second quarter, up from EUR 18 billion in the first quarter. This increase in net sales was mainly due to a turnaround in net sales of equity funds to net inflows of EUR 4 billion compared to net outflows of EUR 13 billion in the first quarter. Net sales of multi-assets also increased to EUR 32 billion, up from EUR 22 billion in the first quarter.
Institutional net sales declined to EUR 38 billion, down from EUR 54 billion in the first quarter.
European investment fund assets decreased 0.8 percent during the second quarter of 2015 to stand at EUR 12,632 billion at end June 2015. Net assets of UCITS declined by 0.9 percent to stand at EUR 8,167 billion at end June 2015, whilst total net assets of AIFs declined by 0.8 percent to stand at EUR 4,455 billion at quarter end.
Foto: Krissyho
. JP Morgan AM amplía su equipo de deuda de mercados emergentes
J.P. Morgan Asset Management has appointed Diana Kiluta Amoa and Celina Apóstolo Merrill as part of the Emerging Markets Debt Team within the Global Fixed Income, Currency & Commodities Group.
Ms Amoa joins as senior portfolio manager on the Local Currency Emerging Markets Debt team. She will be based in London and will report to Didier Lambert, Lead Portfolio Manager for Local Currency (Rates and FX). In this role, she will partner with Mr Lambert on overall Rates and FX strategy across pooled funds and segregated accounts.
Ms Amoa brings 11 years of industry experience to J.P. Morgan Asset Management; most recently, she was responsible for the CEMEEA Rates Trading business at UBS AG. Previously, she also held positions in Emerging Markets Fixed Income Trading at Societe Generale and Standard Chartered. Ms Amoa began her career at J.P. Morgan Asset Management as a Global Multi-Asset Portfolio Manager.
Ms Merrill joins as senior credit analyst within the Corporate Debt Emerging Markets team. She will be based in New York and will report to Scott McKee, Lead Portfolio Manager, EM Corporate Debt. In this role, she will be responsible for fundamental corporate research, valuation and portfolio management related to the corporate debt strategy.
Ms Merrill brings 16 years of industry experience to J.P Morgan Asset Management. Prior to joining the firm, she was the head of EM Corporate Credit at Van Eck Global. Previously, Ms Merrill was a Director of Latin American Corporate bond research at Credit Suisse, and also held positions at TPG Credit Management, Greywolf Capital and Goldman Sachs.
“We are delighted to welcome Diana and Celina. Their strong respective expertise in emerging markets debt further enhances our ongoing commitment to fundamental research as a building block of our investment process,” said Pierre-Yves Bareau, Chief Investment Officer and Head of Emerging Markets Debt, J.P. Morgan Asset Management.
. Embrace New Sources of Return: Pioneer Investment’s Miami Forum
Pioneer Investments will host an exclusive due diligence meeting at the JW Marriott Marquis in Miami on the 8th of October. The event will provide clients with the opportunity to engage with Pioneer Investments’ senior investment team members as they look beyond traditional asset classes, challenge conventional asset allocation and risk management, and identify compelling new investment solutions.
Amongst others, highlight speakers coming together from Pioneer Investments around the globe will include:
Piergaetano Iaccarino: Head of Thematic & Disciplined Equity, Portfolio Manager of Pioneer Funds – Global Equity Target Income
Thomas Swaney: Head of Alternative Fixed Income U.S., Portfolio Manager of Pioneer Funds – Long / Short Opportunistic Credit
Adam MacNulty: Client Portfolio Manager of Pioneer Funds – Absolute Return Multi-Strategy & Absolute Return Multi-Strategy Growth
Andrew Feltus: Director of High Yield Bank Loans, Portfolio Manager of Pioneer Funds – Strategic Income
As fundamental changes taking place in the investment management market continue to lead investors to look beyond their existing strategies, the theme “Embrace New Sources of Return” is a continuation from Pioneer Investments’ global annual client meeting for international investors held in Boston in April.
Key topics of conversation on October 8th will include:
How to navigate Fixed Income markets in a rising interest rate environment.
The outlook for Equities moving forward in continued volatility.
Where are the opportunities in Emerging Markets?
How to meet the need for Income in today’s economic environment.
What Alternative Investments can provide market neutral solutions?
Foto: MinWoo, Flickr, Creative Commons. El positivo escenario para la industria de fondos europea hace que relaje su consolidación en el segundo trimestre
“As mentioned in the last report, it seems European fund promoters are in a standby mode, even though the activity regarding fund closures, mergers, and launches went up in Q2 2015 compared to Q1 2015. One reason for this can be seen in the still-exceptional high net inflows witnessed by the European fund industry during Q2 2015; higher assets under management (AUM) lead to a higher income stream and therefore to lower pressure with regard to the profitability of single funds within the product ranges. In addition, we have already seen a lot of activity with regard to the cleanup of product ranges, meaning European fund promoters have done a lot to realize economies of scale within their product offerings. This might have eased pressure on profits. That said, the activity in the equity segment during Q2 2015 showed there is still a lot for promoters to do on this front”, says Lipper.
During Q2 2015, 459 funds were launched in Europe. The quantity of newly launched products was 11% behind the number of launches during second quarter 2014, but it was in line with the average of the last four measured second quarters (the number of launches for Q2 2011 needs to be considered as exceptional).
“It is remarkable that the industry has not started to launch a massive number of new products to profit from the ongoing trend toward asset allocation/multi-asset and income products as has been seen in the past. Nevertheless, the European fund industry still has a lot of room for consolidation, since the AUM in Europe is still far behind the average AUM in the United States”, according to the report.
The number of liquidations went down approximately 11%, comparing Q2 2015 with Q2 2014—to 359 from 402, for the lowest number of liquidations in the five-year observation period.
The number of fund mergers went up approximately 28%, from 257 for Q2 2014 to 329 for Q2 2015, but–similar to launches–fund mergers were in line with the average of the last four measured second quarters.
“Since there is still a lot of activity regarding mergers and acquisitions in the European asset management industry, the alignment of product ranges and the resulting mergers and closures of funds will be one driver of future consolidation in the industry. This is the easiest way to increase the potential profits from an acquisition. That said, we see no lack of innovation in the European fund industry, and therefore we still expect the European asset management industry to show net growth in terms of new funds at some point in the near future. That will depend on general market conditions staying in the favor of investors, i.e., that no negative trend hits the stock or bond markets. The growth pattern of the industry is heavily dependent on market conditions and investor confidence”.
Beamonte Investments, a private investment firm in Boston, along with its affiliate Beamonte Mexico Holdings SAPI de CV, announces the formation of Fondeadora KC, SAPI de CV (KCMX Capital) a Mexico City-based company dedicated to provide innovative financing solutions to SME’s in Mexico.
KCMX is specifically designed to serve small and middle market family-owned operating enterprises in Mexico and will provide structured financing across the capital structure and short-term financing as Factoring. KCMX will assume the operations and portfolio of Kiwii Capital.
KCMX Capital is a provider of senior secured asset-based loans to the small and middle-market across a variety of industries with additional complementary financing throughout the capital structure. KCMX will offer financing schemes, such as project finance/contract-linked, receivables financing, and inventory financing products, as well as structured loans.
Luis Felipe Treviño, who currently serves as senior Managing Director of Beamonte Investments, will serve as Chief Executive Officer of KCMX Capital.“We are excited to announce a premiere credit platform like KCMX that offers our investors a unique way to capitalize on the opportunity to finance the growth of SME’s in Mexico”, said Treviño.
Salvador Gaytan former CEO of Kiwii Capital will serve as Director of Operations.“I’m thrilled to be part again of another venture with Beamonte Investments, KCMX is a vehicle that allows us to provide a more robust product offering to serve SME’s, we work with companies with annual sales between MXN 20 million to 150 million that provide products or services to large corporations. The credit facilities goes from MXN 1.5 million up to 50 million”, said Gaytan
Art Steinmetz, de OppenheimerFunds, y Vince Lowry, de VTL Associates. Foto: PRNewsFoto/OppenheimerFunds. OppenheimerFunds compra VTL
OppenheimerFunds has announced an agreement to acquire VTL Associates, an independent institutional investment firm best known for itsRevenueShares exchange traded funds (ETFs). VTL manages $1.7 billion for investors across eight ETFs and its separate accounts.
The acquisition expands the firm´s active client offering into the growing smart-beta space, subject to customary closing conditions and consents. The deal will bring both high-quality smart-beta ETFs and an ETF platform offering cost- and tax-efficient investment solutions that financial advisors are increasingly using in their investors’ portfolios.
“Investors are looking to active managers for innovative solutions to add to their overall investment strategy, including products that are designed to deliver better-than-market returns with full transparency of their investment process,” said Art Steinmetz, Chairman, President and CEO of OppenheimerFunds.
In general, smart beta strives to identify factors that have the potential to generate positive risk-adjusted returns compared with market-cap-weighted index funds. VTL applies a proprietary methodology to screen and weight the stocks in each ETF according to various factors such as revenue or dividends, instead of by market capitalization. This practice is designed to lower exposure to overvalued companies, while maintaining diversification by investing in all of the stocks in the given index. VTL has been successfully employing this strategy in ETFs since 2008.
“Our firm has grown by serving the needs of investors seeking above-market returns delivered through a suite of custom index products and institutional advisory services,” said Vince Lowry, Founder of VTL.
Peter Mintzberg, Head of Corporate Strategy and Development at OppenheimerFunds, said, “Clients have expressed interest in OppenheimerFunds expanding its array of investment capabilities. We are expediting that process with a strategic acquisition, as we did most recently in 2012 with SteelPath, which enabled clients and their investors to participate in the income and tax advantages afforded by master limited partnerships. We continue to look for these types of opportunities to further broaden our offering in a way that is consistent with our core investment approach.”
Foto: El Coleccionista de Instantes Fotografía & Video
. S&P DJI lanza un índice de valores católicos
S&P Dow Jones Indices has launched the S&P 500 Catholic Values Index which is designed to include the companies within the S&P 500 whose business practices adhere to the Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines as outlined by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (US CCB) and exclude those that do not.
The Index has been licensed to Global X for product development.
The S&P 500 Catholic Values Index is the first Catholic index based on such a prominent benchmark as the S&P 500. Constituents are screened to exclude companies who are involved in the following activities that are perceived to be inconsistent with Catholic values as set out by the US CCB, such as:
Biological weapons, chemical weapons, cluster bombs, landmines
Nuclear weapons– any exposure to whole systems and strategic par
Conventional Military sales– companies that have their primary business activity as military products
Child labor employmentin the company’s operation or in supply chain
“Sustainable issues represent one of the most important cost and revenue drivers in the modern corporate world,” says Julia Kochetygova, Head of Sustainability Indices at S&P Dow Jones Indices.”By selecting stocks that comply with the US CCB, the S&P 500 Catholic Values Index aims to include companies with resilient business profiles by addressing the ethical challenges that can make a stronger investment case. We are excited to be working with Global X by licensing this new and innovative index to them.”
“As a client-focused ETF company, Global X consistently strives to find new paths that help support our clients’ businesses,” Jim Glowina, Regional Consultant at Global X adds. “Global X is excited to bring to market a custom ETF, which seeks to provide a solution for a client’s chosen investment strategy.”
“I welcome the creation of the S&P 500 Catholic Values Index and support its specific selection rules. It is important that investors now have a representative measure of the performance of those S&P 500 companies that adhere to the Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines as outlined by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops,” states Father Seamus Finn O.M.I., Chief of Faith Consistent Investing, Oblate International Pastoral Investment Trust.
Suramericana, Grupo SURA´s insurance and risk management subsidiary, announces that it has reached a definite agreement to acquire RSA Insurance Group’s operations in Latin America, for a total of GBP 403 million, that represents COP 1,910,750 million (US$ 614 million) for 99.6% of the equity, payable in cash.
RSA’s Latin American operations represent a leading, geographically-diversified P&C franchise within the region, with a presence spanning Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina. The aforementioned operations posted total assets of COP 6,181,628 million (US$ 1.9 billion) at year-end 2014; this in addition to net reserves worth COP 1,964,868 million (US$ 631 million), and total gross written premiums amounting to COP 3,362,834 million (US$ 1.1 billion).
With this acquisition, Suramericana will consolidate its position in the Latin American insurance market. It shall become a top player in Chile and Uruguay, and #9 in Argentina. As for Mexico and Brazil, the largest markets in Latin America, the Company shall be entering new market niches offering substantial growth potential, while in Colombia it would be strengthening its existing offering and consolidating its leading position.
“This transaction represents a unique opportunity to expand our presence across the fast-growing Latin American markets. We are certain that this new acquisition shall create value for all our clients, as well as for us in Suramericana, our parent company Grupo SURA and the Organization as a whole, through the diversification of our geographical risk, sharing of best practices and harnessing of synergies, while at the same time allowing us to develop new markets” stated Gonzalo Alberto Pérez, CEO of Suramericana S.A.
Suramericana is well-known for building long term relationships and implementing world-class standards in all countries where present. The Company will consolidate this new acquisition, with the help of RSA’s recognized human talent in the region, while capitalizing Suramericana´s70 years of experience and expertise in the insurance sector.
Now that it has acquired RSA’s Latin American operations, Suramericana shall be extending its current presence in Colombia, Panamá, Dominican Republic and El Salvador, thereby consolidating its position as one of the most important insurance companies in the region with over 15.6 million clients.
At the same time, Grupo SURA, Suramericana’s parent company, has welcomed this acquisition as part of the organization´s strategy to develop a wider range of financial services within the region. “This transaction is being carried out maintaining the highest corporate governance standards, fulfilling our expectations in terms of corporate reputation, senior management capabilities, and business practices”, stated David Bojanini, CEO of Grupo SURA.
Amidst recent market volatility, the change in China’s stock market has been quite dramatic, shifting from overvalued to possibly undervalued according to data from Thomson Reuters Fundamental Research. Following the Chinese stock market crash, the 360 day growth rate is now a more reasonable 37% compared to a lofty 150% from just a month ago, and the difference between the five year growth rates has swung into positive territory. More details follow:
“A month ago, our StarMine data warned that the Chinese markets seemed overvalued at the time,” said Sridharan Raman, senior research analyst at Thomson Reuters. “With the crash in markets over the past few weeks, the market may be discounting stocks more than necessary, out of fear or panic. Our models now show that the markets may actually be undervalued now in China.”
Countries with the smallest differential between StarMine’s Market Implied Growth Rate and the Compound Annual Growth Rate show where market expectations for growth are above, or match, analyst expectations for the next five years, representing possibly over- or fair- valued markets. After the recent stock market collapse, the difference between market expectations for growth and analysts’ expectations in China has moved from -0.2% in early June to 7.7%; more in line with possible undervalued markets.
