Wikimedia Commons. CONSAR Approves the First Mandate Awarded by an Afore
Following an approval period of two years, the CONSAR has authorized AFORE Banamex, to proceed with the first operation in the SAR’s history to be carried out through investment mandates. The mandate, with Schroders, the London based global financial asset management company, is initially for $200 million.
“Through this arrangement, (where the Afore hire the services of a Global Asset Manager) savers in the SAR can access investments in international markets with the most highly specialized and experienced teams in financial risk management globally,” informed CONSAR
As the SAR experiences a rapid accumulation of resources, which is even greater than the supply of local instruments and the depth of the Mexican financial market, the regulator recognizes that it is essential to find better ways of investing in eligible instruments and countries already authorized by international markets which provide access to better yields and expertise in investment management.
In each and every case, the authorized representatives appointed must meet the criteria approved by the CONSAR’s Committee for Risk Analysis, regarding experience, operational capacity, corporate governance, transparency, integrity and competitiveness.
The CONSAR anticipates that in the near future, other AFORES will also take advantage of the flexibility of the regulations for the use of investment mandates, thus strengthening their financial diversification abroad, which is essential for providing savers with competitive returns.
Foto: Urbanrenewal. UBS Global Asset Management divide su negocio de hedge funds
UBS Global Asset Management has announced that itsAlternative and Quantitative Investments (A&Q) hedge fund platform will be reorganized into two separate business areas with immediate effect – Alternative Investment Solutions (the multi-manager and hedge fund advisory business) and O’Connor (the single manager hedge fund business.)
The Alternative Investment Solutions (AIS) business will be led by Bill Ferri. AIS is today one of the largest investors in hedge funds in the world. Under Bill’s leadership, AIS will be expanded to include additional entrepreneurial businesses in the alternatives arena. Bill continues to be a member of the UBS Global Asset Management Executive Committee.
Dawn Fitzpatrick will assume full leadership of O’Connor, in addition to her current role as CIO. Dawn will become a member of the Global Asset Management Executive Committee, reporting to John Fraser, Chairman and CEO of UBS Global Asset Management.
According to John Fraser “the move allows each business to operate as distinct entrepreneurial boutiques – something that is increasingly important for our clients.” He added, “it also provides focused leadership to drive the further growth of these successful alternatives businesses, a key strategic priority for UBS Global Asset Management.”
Foto: Averette. BBVA Compass refuerza su negocio de Private WM con la contratación de Mark Chiappara
BBVA Compass announced that Mark Chiappara has joined its U.S. private wealth management business as a senior private banker, located in Miami.
In his new role, Chiappara will focus on serving ultra-high-net-worth clients and select private institutions in the United States.
“Mark’s tremendous skill set, which includes capital markets and structured lending, have contributed to his position as one of the top private bankers in the country,” said Steve Sanak, director of Private Banking at BBVA Compass. “With a proven track record of capturing new relationships, we expect Mark to have a significant impact on our Wealth Management business.”
Prior to joining BBVA Compass, Chiappara held senior positions at Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs. Chiappara earned a bachelor’s degree from Washington and Lee University and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago, and has achieved the CPA designation.
Foto: Henrickson. RBC Wealth Management nombra co-directores para la región caribeña
RBC Wealth Management has announced the appointment of David Foster and Mike Adams as co-heads of the Caribbean business, based in Cayman and Barbados respectively.
Mr Adams, who was most recently Head of Operational Risk Management for RBC Wealth Management globally, has assumed regional leadership of the teams based in Barbados, with accountability for the corporate and institutional business and providing directional support to the Caribbean-based Operations, Technology and Functional teams. He joined RBC via the acquisition of Barclays’ US private banking operations in 2002, and has, since then, held a series of senior compliance and risk management positions within RBC’s Wealth Management operations worldwide.
Meanwhile, Mr Foster has assumed responsibility for the operation and supervision of the Investments, Trust and Private Client teams, including fiduciary, banking and relationship management solutions delivered through offices in Cayman, Barbados and the Bahamas. He joined RBC Wealth Management in 2012 from Coutts, where most recently he was Managing Director of their Cayman business. Mr Foster has over 20 years of experience in leading teams that advise international high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals and their families.
Both Mr Adams and Mr Foster will report to Stuart Rutledge, Head, RBC Wealth Management – British Isles and Caribbean.
Wikimedia Commons. BigSur Closes its Eighth Commercial Real Estate Transaction in Five Years
BigSur Partners, a multifamily office based in Miami headed by Ignacio Pakciarz and Rafael Iribarren, has completed its eighth Commercial Real Estate transaction in five years. This is the fifth acquisition in the Class A office market. The first acquisition took place in 2009, selling it a year and a half later, and earning an IRR of 30% for its investors. The other properties acquired were an industrial distribution center on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia in 2010, 100% of which was leased to General Mills, and a ‘Multifamily’ complex built in 2012 on the outskirts of Dallas-Fort Worth; its acquisition was completed in late 2012.
The latest acquisition is one of the four ‘Pods’ of the Merrill Lynch Campus in Princeton, NJ, which has a covered surface area of 1.8 million square feet. The campus was built in the year 2000 at a total cost of $ 800 million ($ 447/per square foot). Today the campus houses 6,800 employees of Bank of America Merrill Lynch and for the financial institution is an important complex within the private banking sector globally.
BigSur decided five years ago to seek income diversification for its clients and saw an opportunity to take advantage of extremely attractive valuations for what they call “core assets”. What they have been doing since 2009 is looking for investments which are rented with good tenants, in good locations and with the expectation that the yield is achieved by the rental income generated by the properties and not by the potential appreciation of the assets.
Another important decision made by BigSur Partners is to invest jointly and directly with institutional funds in projects personally selected by them, instead of investing through funds or REITS. “What we achieve by this is to offer our clients the option of investing in each property the amount of their choice and they all appreciate this flexibility”, said Rafael Iribarren, founding partner of BigSur.
Although the cost of funding has risen in recent months, BigSur still sees potential in certain sub-markets, although they admit they are seeing fewer projects which are as ‘obvious’ as what they saw two or three years ago. They are currently studying new alternatives for investors who are looking for solid investments which generate fixed incomes with low correlation to the bond market.
Wikimedia CommonsFoto: Poco a Poco. Cayman Islands Signs FATCA Agreement Increasing Pressure on Other Fund Domiciles
USA has reached a preliminary agreement with the Cayman Islands for the Caribbean nation to meet FATCA rules. This could act as pressure for other “tax havens” which for the moment have failed to adopt those rules.
The Cayman Islands have said they will comply with FATCA regulations which will come into force in July 2014, and for which the foundations for an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) have been laid, and, as recorded by Reuters, the official signature will be held soon
FATCA requires for foreign financial institutions to notify the U.S. tax authority (IRS) of the accounts held by U.S. citizens with more than $ 50,000. Financial institutions which do not comply will see their benefits in the U.S. undergo tax withholding of 30%, which in fact, in most cases, means evicting them from the country.
The Cayman Islands are a popular destination for registration of investment funds. The country has no income tax and is often referred to as a “tax haven”. According to industry sources, the thousands of hedge funds, private equity funds and mutual funds domiciled in Cayman Islands were in favor of reaching an agreement to preserve their access to the U.S. market.
The official signing of the FATCA agreement by Cayman Islands will put pressure on other low-tax countries which harbor investment instruments, such as Luxembourg, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands. Ireland and Switzerland have already signed agreements with the U.S. for FATCA regulation in January and February this year.
August 19th will see the opening of a webpage for banks to register with the IRS and to ensure their compliance with FATCA. The deadline for registration is until April 25, 2014.
Wikimedia CommonsRBC Office, Zonamerica. Royal Bank of Canada Announced the Closure of its Uruguayan Branch
According to a statement distributed by email, the Royal Bank of Canada Wealth Management will close its Uruguay branch on the 31st of October and the 41 employees at the branch will be relocated to other offices of the Canadian bank. The bank has reported that its closure in Uruguay “is part of a strategic review” of its business in Latin America.
RBC has commenced to notify its customers of this decision, offering to transfer their funds to other branches of the bank either in Europe or North America.
Two months ago, RBC facilities in Uruguay suffered a raid at the request of Argentine Judge Norberto Oyarbide amid an investigation for alleged tax offenses. It so happens that the Argentine judge is in charge of a megacause in which he is investigating the transfer of dozens of footballers in money laundering maneuvers worth millions of dollars. However, RBC sources told the El Observador newspaper in Montevideo that the closedown of its business in this country is not related to this incident.
“The criminal investigation involving the Uruguay branch is a separate issue and RBC will continue to work with the authorities to resolve it,” a bank source informed the newspaper.
This raid has caused great concern amongst the international customers of the bank in Uruguay, 70% of who are Argentineans with, on average, about $600,000 in accounts in Uruguay.
The executive director of the Uruguyan Association of Private Banks and former BCU president, Julio deBrun, told the newspaperEl País that the RBC raid caused “concern” and warned that the episode is “a bad sign” because it affects “the image of the bank and of the country.”
Wikimedia CommonsFoto: Danielparker. Calamos Adds Two Portfolio Managers to High Yield Expertise
Calamos Investments announced the addition of two co-portfolio managers to its investment team. Jeremy Hughes, CFA, and Chris Langs, CFA, have joined Calamos with more than 40 years of collective investment experience. Most recently, Messrs. Hughes and Langs worked together at Aviva Investors overseeing high yield assets.
At Calamos, the pair will contribute their expertise to managing the firm’s fixed income/high yield strategies, including the Calamos High Income Fund. Like all Calamos strategies, the firm’s fixed income/high yield portfolios are managed within a team-driven structure.
“A team approach benefits our clients by ensuring continuity of process and philosophy. Each team has specialized responsibilities—in this case, fixed income/high yield—but all teams draw upon each other’s insights and research. This balance of specialization and collaboration gives us an edge in identifying opportunities in the fixed income/high yield market”, stated John P. Calamos, Sr., CEO and Global Co-Chief Investment Officer.
The addition of Messrs. Hughes and Langs to enhance management of the firm’s fixed income/high yield strategies continues a measured and strategic expansion of the Calamos investment team, including the addition of a Value Equity Team and a Long/Short Team in 2012, as well as numerous additional hires at all levels of the investment organization.
Wikimedia CommonsFoto: Hex. Panamá: algo más que sombreros de paja
The small isthmus of Panama has a fascinating history, with the forging of the Panama canal being one of the world’s greatest engineering feats. The canal has resulted in Panama becoming a vital cog in the global supply chain, with approximately 5% of world trade passing through its locks. Growth in revenues from the canal have provided support for Panama’s economy, enabling it to be the fastest growing in the whole of the Americas last year. This should continue as a $5.25bn canal expansion project is underway that will allow larger modern container ships to fit through the canal.
But there is more to Panama than a stretch of water that links the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The economy is becoming more diversified with growth from projects related to mining and construction, as well as services industries such as tourism and banking. Panama claims to have the fourth largest undeveloped copper reserve in the world. Panama City already houses numerous regional banking headquarters and has ambitions to become the financial hub of the Central American region. The government is spending on various infrastructure projects, the need for which are obvious from a visit to the city – tall skyscrapers are interspersed with areas of extreme poverty, as well as terrible traffic and broken pavements.
The local stock market lacks liquidity so there are few ways for investors to get direct exposure to the country other than buying an apartment in Donald Trump’s new 70-storey tower. Copa Airlines and Banco Latinoamericano are based in Panama and are listed in New York. As regional players they demonstrate Panama’s ability to extend its influence beyond its borders. Panama is a fine example of how small countries can often punch above their weight.
Nicholas Cowley, Investment Manager, Global Emerging Market Equities, Henderson Global Investors
Wikimedia CommonsFoto: Daniel Schwen. AllianceBernstein adquiere W.P. Stewart, gestora especializada en growth
AllianceBernstein and W.P. Stewart have entered into a definitive agreement whereby AllianceBernstein will acquire W.P. Stewart, an equity investment manager that currently manages $2 billion in U.S., Global and EAFE concentrated growth equity strategies for institutional and retail clients, primarily in the U.S. and Europe. Upon completion of the acquisition, W.P. Stewart’s investment services will be added to AllianceBernstein’s equity offering. W.P. Stewart’s team of investment managers will remain in place and continue to manage their investment services as they do today. At the same time, they will gain access to AllianceBernstein’s global reach and research team,
“I’m excited to be adding W.P. Stewart’s complementary concentrated growth equity services and strong bench of talent to our equity platform,” said Peter S. Kraus, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AllianceBernstein. “While our equity business is well-positioned to deliver in many areas, we also understand that our clients want more options, particularly in concentrated strategies that can help improve alpha generation potential within their portfolios”
To help ensure a smooth transition, founding partner William P. Stewart, an esteemed investor with nearly 60 years of industry experience, will stay on through the earlier of the end of this year or the close of the transaction, at which point he will retire from the firm.
At the closing of the transaction, AllianceBernstein will pay W.P. Stewart shareholders $12 per share in cash and will issue to W.P. Stewart shareholders transferable contingent value rights entitling the holders to an additional cash payment of $4 per share if the assets under management in the acquired W.P. Stewart investment services reach $5 billion on or before the third anniversary of the closing. W.P. Stewart currently has approximately 5 million shares outstanding. The closing is expected to occur in approximately four to six months and is subject to customary closing conditions, including W.P. Stewart shareholder approval and requirements relating to retention of assets under management and cash.
