Foto: Randy Heinitz
. Cantor & Webb trabajará con Markit ǀ CTI Tax Solutions para ampliar servicios relacionados con FATCA o CRS
Cantor Webb ha firmado un acuerdo con Markit | CTI Tax Solutions que le permitirá expandir su oferta de servicios relacionados con la clasificación y cumplimiento del Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”) y el Common Reporting Standard (“CRS”). El convenio permitirá ampliar la representación de clientes –existentes y nuevos- que necesitan cumplir un nivel de iniciativas regulatorias sin precedentes, diseñadas para promover la transparencia impositiva.
Markit | CTI Tax Solutions ha participado en numerosos comités y grupos de trabajo, incluidos el comité asesor del IRS para administración de impuestos electrónica (ETAAC, por sus siglas en inglés), el comité asesor público del IRS para reporte de la información (IRPAC), el grupo de trabajo de la OECD sobre CRS o el grupo de trabajo de FATCA sobre HMRC. Su objetivo es proveer a sus clientes con las herramientas necesarias para cumplir con unos requerimientos regulatorios en continua evolución.
“Ahora, más que nunca, los clientes necesitan contar con asesores experimentados, con un enfoque práctico y global pensado para ayudarlos a superar las complejidades”, dijo Cantor & Webb, una firma legal especializada en fiscalidad internacional y planificación patrimonial de clientes privados high net worth.
Foto: Juan Cristobal Zulueta
. El aeropuerto de Miami amplía el número de vuelos directos a Europa
El aeropuerto internacional de Miami ha anunciado que el número de ciudades europeas que contará con vuelos directos desde sus instalaciones, a partir de noviembre, subirá, desde 14 que operan hoy en día, hasta 19. “Desde este invierno, la oferta de vuelos a Europa será la más completa que la ciudad haya visto hasta ahora” dijo Emilio T. González, director de aviación de Miami-Dade, en un comunicado.
La lista de novedades facilitada por el aeropuerto, incluye:
Un vuelo de Austrian Airlines entre Miami y Viena, con servicio cinco días a la semana, desde el 16 de octubre;
Una línea diaria de Turkish Airlines entre Miami y Estambul, a partir del 25 de octubre;
British Airways ofrecerá el trayecto Miami-Londres en un superjumbo A380, en lugar del Boeing 747-400 que lo cubre en la actualidad, desde el 25 de octubre;
Lufthansa expande su vuelo temporal con procedencia y destino en Munich, que volará seis veces por semana entre el 25 de octubre y el 26 de marzo;
Air France da inicio a su servicio diario temporal entre Paris y Miami a bordo del superjumbo de Airbus A380 -sustituyendo al Boeing 777 que retomará la línea después del 25 de marzo-, el 25 de octubre;
También el 25 de octubre, Swiss International Air Lines añadirá cuatro vuelos semanales a su línea diaria entre Zurich y Miami, que mantiene todo el año, con lo que la oferta subirá a 11 líneas a la semana, hasta el 30 de noviembre, en que se añadirán otras tres líneas semanales, hasta el 25 de mayo;
El 26 de octubre, Finnair da comienzo a su temporada con tres vuelos semanales a/desde Helsinki, que estarán operativos hasta el 26 de marzo;
Y el 5 de noviembre, Air Berlín arrancará con su dos vuelos semanales entre Miami y Berlín.
También el año próximo habrá nuevas conexiones, pues Scandinavian Airlines ya ha anunciado que inaugurará línea directa con Oslo y Copenhague el próximo otoño.
Foto: James Kim
. Asia amenaza la hegemonía norteamericana como región más activa en operaciones de venture capital
Las operaciones de venture capital en Asia supusieron el 38% de la cifra global y el 45% del valor total de las operaciones en el tercer trimestre de 2015, mientras las norteamericanas supusieron el 44% en ambas magnitudes.
La industria asiática de venture capital vio un fuerte crecimiento el año pasado y, en el tercer trimestre de 2015, el valor agregado de todas las operaciones cerradas en la región es comparable al valor total de las anunciados en Norteamérica. Sólo en India y China, los dos países más fuertes en este tipo de operaciones, se cerraron un total de 709 por un conjunto de 16.900 millones de dólares. Mientras tanto, en Norteamérica el número fue de 932 y su valor agregado de 17.500 millones.
Con estos datos, el número de operaciones ubicadas en Asia subió en 7 puntos porcentuales, en sólo un trimestre, y el del valor total de los acuerdos creció en 9. En ese mismo periodo, América del Norte rebajó en un 6% el número de operaciones y en un 9% el valor total de éstas.
En el trimestre reportado, en el mundo hubo 2.121 financiaciones por parte de venture capital en el mundo, que supusieron un total de 39.800 millones de dólares. Si bien esto implica una caída del 9% en el número de operaciones, con respecto al mismo periodo del ejercicio 2014, hay que destacar que su valor agregado es un 88% superior.
Por lo que respecta a Europa, el informe señala que se vive una tendencia a la baja, con un 7% menos de operaciones que el trimestre anterior, y un 25% menos si miramos a los nueve primeros meses del año.
“La industria de venture capital está evolucionado de maneras diferentes en los mercados emergentes y en los maduros. Si bien en los primeros –y esto es especialmente cierto para Asia- las economías de rápido desarrollo como China e India presentan un mayor número de oportunidades de financiación, el tamaño de las mismas sólo avanza ligeramente, mientras que en Norteamérica y Europa se presentan menos oportunidades pero su tamaño sigue creciendo”, declara Christopher Elvin, director de productos de Private Equity de Preqin.
Julius Baer, the leading Swiss private banking group, announced today that it has agreed to extend the partnership with FIA Formula E Championship until 2019. Moreover, Formula E announced that starting in 2016-17 an additional race will take place in Hong Kong – an important location in Julius Baer’s second home market Asia.
The FIA Formula E inaugural championship started in Beijing on 13 September 2014 and included 10 races in major cities around the globe including Buenos Aires, Berlin, Monte Carlo and London. The second Formula E Championship season 2015-16 will start in Beijing on 24 October 2015 with Paris as a new location on the race calendar. In 2016-17, Formula E will also arrive in Hong Kong, an important location for Julius Baer in its second home market Asia. Established by the International Automobile Federation FIA, the FIA Formula E Championship is the world’s first fully-electric racing series and represents a vision for the future of the motor industry. With its visionary approach and global reach Formula E is an ideal long-term sponsorship platform for Julius Baer.
Boris F.J. Collardi, chief executive officer of Julius Baer, commented on the extension of the partnership: “After the success of the inaugural championship, Julius Baer is very proud to extend its commitment to support the FIA Formula E Championship as the exclusive Global Partner until 2019. Since the beginning of the partnership, Julius Baer and Formula E have shared common values such as innovation, sustainability and pioneering spirit. We look forward to continuing to adhere to these values and to share a vision of a world with more sustainable means of transport.”
Kaven Leung, deputy region head Asia Pacific and CEO North Asia at Julius Baer, added: “It is wonderful to bring the Formula E Championship to Hong Kong in 2016, which really shows the attraction of this international city. Not only does the series’ pioneering spirit meet our business and brand needs in a key market like Hong Kong, it is also an effective platform for us to engage with the communities in which we operate.”
Alejandro Agag, CEO of Formula E, said: “I am delighted that Julius Baer remains the Global Partner of the FIA Formula E Championship until the end of season five in 2019. This long-term partnership highlights Julius Baer’s continuous support and commitment for the series and shows that we share common values of innovation and sustainable mobility.”
With the objective to promote innovation and sustainability, European Fund Administration (EFA)has recently upgraded its IT infrastructure to offer clients fund administration services powered by a state-of-the-art and green IT platform.
To guarantee best performance and permanent continuity of EFA’s services, the infrastructure, distributed across two IT rooms, individually sized to operate all production activities are now both hosted in certified Tier-IV data centers.
Jean-Marc Verdure, Director of IT, Organization & General Services says: “Our applications are running on mission critical computer systems hosted in award-winning Tier-IV data centers offering the highest level of availability with fully redundant subsystems, supervised and managed on a 24/7 basis. In the event of a technical incident or unavailability of a data center, a partial or overall take-over of our services and applications can be done instantaneously in a single data center”.
This upgrade has also enabled EFA to renew hardware and systems with sustainable and eco- friendly components and processes (materials, cooling systems, power consumption management, recycling…) to promote a better approach to Corporate Social Responsibility. To confirm its commitment in behaving responsibly by integrating environmental concerns into business operations, EFA was also recently awarded the EcoVadisCorporate Social Responsibility silver rating.
Multi-asset funds are set to stay at the top of European inflow tables, as the bond rout of the spring and August’s equities plunge serve as reminders of the dangers of being stuck in one asset class, according to the latest issue of The Cerulli Edge – Global Edition.
Cerulli Associates, a global analytics firm, believes there may yet be opportunities for asset managers to launch more multi-asset products, especially in the passive space. It notes that more advisors are recommending this funds, despite previous concerns that asset allocation products were usurping their role. Following the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) in the United Kingdom, many advisors are outsourcing asset allocation and find multi-asset products the best solution.
By highlighting the cost of advisors, the RDR may have also inadvertently boosted MA funds. Cerulli says that more investors, whether pension-oriented or not, are going down the direct-to-consumer route and MA funds offer cheap access to a range of asset classes, often through low-cost platforms.
«Asset management companies should not be reluctant to take risks and differentiate themselves from the crowd. For the best, the rewards can be significant, even with products that are largely fettered funds of funds,» says Brian Gorman, an analyst at Cerulli.
With investors abandoning low-yielding products in favor of better, but safe, returns, flows into multi-asset funds in the first half of 2015 alone, at €123.9 billion (US$137.5 billion), almost matched those for last year as a whole, and were about five times those of the 12 months of 2012. For established asset managers with expertise across asset classes, existing products can easily be leveraged to offer MA funds.
However, there is not universal enthusiasm. Several wealth managers have told Cerulli that they are not recommending MA funds, with some advisors preferring to retain control of the asset allocation process, despite the increased burdens of RDR. Another common complaint concerns the complexity of the product.
«Some investors, and even advisors, say MA funds are hard to understand,» says Barbara Wall, Europe research director at Cerulli. «If advisors do not know what is going on with a fund, it may conflict with the asset allocation they are trying to effect through other products they are recommending for their clients.»
There is some skepticism as to whether the U.K. pensions revolution introduced this year represents a bonanza for fund providers. Acknowledging that considerable scale may be required to realize a significant gain, Cerulli maintains that the downside is minimal, especially for firms that can set-up suitable low-cost products. It believes that the balance of probability is in favor of such funds offering sizeable opportunities for asset managers.
While the RDR driver for MA is not yet as strong in most of Continental Europe as it is in the United Kingdom, some asset managers say change is on its way. One told Cerulli it had already seen a trend of retail banks, aware the days of retrocessions are coming to an end, setting up their own MA products. They are also seeking firms to act for them as subadvisors.
Other Findings:
Increasing headcount is on the agenda in the United States as institutional sales managers at large and small asset managers respond to the changing needs and expectations of clients. Cerulli notes that increasing client-service roles is particularly important. Experts are required, as is greater collaboration between teams, says the global analytics firm.
In charting the fund-buying journey of more than 70,000 individuals in 11 jurisdictions across Asia, Cerulli has observed the importance of trust and the explosive growth of online direct-to-consumer platforms. Regular income/dividend payout is key for investors in the region. Cerulli notes that a clear and well-executed digital strategy is crucial for marketing success.
Regulatory risk is inhibiting asset managers in Europe and the United Kingdom, while potential disruptors are deterred by regulatory requirements and reputational damage, says Cerulli. It warns that asset managers slow to embrace mobile technology risk disruption from alternative distribution channels, where the emphasis is less on buying products–which the industry is comfortable with–and more on engaging and empowering customers.
Jeremy Lawson, Chief Economist, Standard Life Investments said at the publication of the Global Outlook from Standard Life Investments: “We continue to see a moderate global expansion into 2016, supporting modest corporate earnings growth outside the energy and materials sectors. Our view remains that a widespread or systemic emerging market financial crisis is unlikely, but the pressure on a number of large developing economies will not disappear quickly. Global GDP growth is expected to improve marginally but remain below trend.
“The implications for investors are considerable, as they need to consider throughout their strategic asset allocation process what the repercussions are of low returns on bond, cash and equity prices over the remaining part of this business cycle. Listed equities in particular are sensitive to developments in global activity, as they tend to have larger external exposures than do economies as a whole. Moving up the capital structure towards selected credit may have advantages in this environment.
“At the epicenter of the crisis, in China, a hard landing is not our central scenario as we expect extra fiscal stimulus, but the transition to a new growth model will remain bumpy and unfriendly for commodity producers. More deceleration in growth could lie ahead and the Chinese currency is likely to weaken moderately against the dollar.
“Our forecast assumes no further falls in commodity prices and stabilization in the recent levels of financial stress. If stress builds further then there is a large risk that growth will not rebound, through its effect on consumer and business sentiment, when monetary policy easing in the developed economies will quickly come back on to the agenda.”
Foto: Jimmy Baikovicius
. Terrapin une a banqueros privados y family offices en el Wealth Management Americas
For the past 8 years, Terrapinn has run two co-located Wealth Management events in Miami: Private Banking LatAm and Americas Family Office Forum. Since these 2 industries have converged, they have decided to rename the event Wealth Management Americas 2015.
Wealth Management Americas, to be held Nov. 17-18 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Miami, will bring together the most senior executives from US and LatAm Private Banks and Family Offices to discuss today’s latest investment opportunities across all asset classes, as well as the latest trends within family governance, wealth planning, and timely regulation topics around FATCA.
Global private equity fundraising saw a further slowdown through the third quarter of 2015. One hundred and seventy funds closed, down from 317 in Q2 2015 and 290 in the same period last year. The aggregate capital raised by funds closed in this quarter was $116.9bn, down from $129.3bn in the previous quarter. It was the third consecutive quarterly decline in fundraising, and represents a 29% decrease from the $164.9bn raised in Q4 2014, the most recent fundraising peak. In 2015 YTD, private equity funds have raised an aggregate $385.4bn, down from $388.1bn in the first three quarters of 2014.
“The global private equity fundraising market has continued to stall in the third quarter of 2015. The number of funds closed is the lowest of any quarter Preqin has on record, and aggregate fundraising totals declined for the third consecutive quarter. Despite recent turmoil in Asia, there has been an increase in fundraising for funds focused on the region, and on Rest of World. This, though, does not offset a lack of growth in the mature North American and European markets, as both the number of funds closed and aggregate capital figures continue to fall there.” Says Christopher Elvin – Head of Private Equity Products, Preqin.
Private equity funds closed so far in 2015 have taken an average of 16.3 months to reach a final close. This figure has risen slightly from Q2’s 16.2 months, but is still below the average 16.7 months that it took for funds closed in 2014 to fundraise.
Fundraising totals for venture capital, real estate, and funds of funds all decreased, while infrastructure fundraising rose from $4.4bn in Q2 to $13.1bn in Q3.
The number of private equity funds in market is currently at a record high. 2,348 funds are seeking a combined $831bn in commitments, up from 2,248 funds seeking $781bn at the end of last quarter. Dry powderlevels have not continued the rapid increase seen through H1 2015, and currently the overall figure stands at $1.35tn.
Foto: Alice Popkorn
. El número global de millonarios podría crecer un 46% en los próximos cinco años
El tamaño y la riqueza de la clase media global crecieron rápidamente antes de la crisis financiera, pero el crecimiento disminuyó después del 2007 y se ha visto en todas las regiones aumentar la desigualdad, según el sexto informe sobre riqueza global “Global Wealth Report” publicado esta semana por el Credit Suisse Research Institute, centrado en la evolución de la clase media desde la llegada del nuevo siglo.
El informe muestra que la riqueza global se redujo en 13 billones de dólares de mediados de 2014 a mediados de 2015, debido a la apreciación del dólar. Los autores aclaran que si la medición se hubiera hecho a tipos de cambio constantes, la riqueza global se habría incrementado en 13 billones de dólares desde el año pasado. De acuerdo con la compañía, la riqueza global puede llegar a los 345 billones de dólares para mediados de la próxima década, un 38% más que lo registrado a mediados de este año y el número de millonarios a nivel mundial pudiera incrementarse en 46% en los próximos cinco años, llegando a 49,3 millones para mediados de la siguiente década.
Los Estados Unidos siguen a la cabeza con un fuerte incremento en la riqueza de los hogares (4,6 billones de dólares). Por su parte, China -que presentó un aumento de 1,5 billones de dólares- tiene la clase media más grande del mundo, con 109 millones de personas, superando a los EE. UU. -que cuenta con 92 millones-.
Suiza vuelve a encabezar la media de riqueza por adulto. Esta variable –la riqueza meddia por adulto- cayó en 6.2% hasta los 52.400 dólares y se encuentra por debajo del nivel de 2013 –muestra el informe- y una persona necesita 3.210 dólares (después de pagar deudas) para estar en la mitad más rica del mundo.
El análisis por regiones muestra que Europa fue responsable de la pérdida de 10,7 billones de dólares del total de riqueza, cediendo más del doble que la región Asía Pacífico (incluyendo China e India) que bajó en 3,9 billones. En términos porcentuales, América Latina experimentó la reducción más grande entre las regiones, 17.1%. También cabe señalar que, en términos porcentuales, China está significativamente por encima de América del Norte (7.0% frente a 4.4%), en parte porque las ganancias en los EE. UU. se compensaron con pérdidas en Canadá.
La cima de la pirámide
El Credit Suisse Research Institute estima que existen 123.800 personas en el mundo cuyo patrimonio supera los 50 millones de dólares, de estos 44.900 tienen al menos 100 millones de dólares y 4.500 superan los 500 millones de dólares. En América del Norte viven 61.300 (50%) de estos individuos.
Estimaciones de la firma sugieren que el número de millonarios podría exceder los 49,3 millones de adultos en 2020, un incremento de más del 46,2%. De entre las regiones, el mayor incremento se podría ver en China, con un 74%, y posiblemente África, con un incremento de 73% en el número de personas millonarias.
