CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrK Twin Towers (Seul). La estadounidense KKR y LIM Advisors compran las K Twin Towers de Seul
El coloso de private equity estadounidense KKR yel grupo inversor asiático LIM Advisors anunciaron esta semana la compra conjunta de las K Twinn Towers, una propiedad comercial prime en el centro financiero de Seúl. Aunque los términos económicos de la operación no fueron revelados, KKR y LIM Advisors han puesto en marcha la operación a través de la compra del 100% del capital ordinario de un fideicomiso administrado por Vestas Invesment Management.
Las K Twin Towers, que se encuentra en el área de Gwanghwamun, fueron terminadas en 2012. Ocupan más de 900.000 pies cuadrados (unos 83.800 metros cuadrados) a través de 22 pisos de oficinas premium y espacio comercial. Cuentan con estupendas vistas al Palacio Gyeongbokgung y a la presidencial Blue House. K Twin Towers son dos torres de oficinas, en las que entre sus inquilinos se encuentran numerosas multinacionales y corporaciones surcoreanas, instituciones financieras y firmas de abogados.
Bryan Southergill, director de Real Estate de KKR Asia, se mostró satisfecho por expandir su negocio de real estate en el mercado de Corea del Sur y contar con la colaboración de LIM Advisors para la compra de uno de los mejores edificios comerciales de Seúl.
Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, Shin & Kim, y Deloitte asesoraron a ambas partes en la transacción.
Foto: Jean11. Fibra Prologis acaba con una sequía de ocho meses en la bolsa mexicana
Prologis Property México debutaba este miércoles en la Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (BMV) en busca de 7.000 millones de pesos (más de 540 millones de dólares) para arrancar con la compra de su portafolio inicial de 177 inmuebles. El 38,67% de la oferta global se llevó a cabo en México a través de la BMV y el 61,33% en los mercados internacionales, siendo el precio de colocación de 27 pesos, que ascendió a 8.000 millones de pesos distribuidos entre 3.654 inversores, entre ellos dos afores.
FIBRA Prologis destinará los recursos netos de la oferta primaria global a financiar una parte del precio de compra del portafolio inicial, fondear el pago de crédito Prologis, potencialmente pagar una parte del IVA derivado de la aportación de las propiedades al fideicomiso y para financiar algunos gastos relacionados con la oferta. El día de su estreno en bolsa, Prologis acaparó el 12,66% del total operado en la sesión.
Fibra Prologis es el octavo Fideicomiso de Inversión en Bienes Raíces que debuta en el mercado, que espera también la salida de Fibra Sendero. En cuanto a su posición entre el resto de las fibras, Prologis es la cuarta fibra más grande del país por metros cuadrados en cartera, aunque es la segunda industrial.
Los intermediarios colocadores en México fueron Acciones y Valores Banamex, Casa de Bolsa, integrante del Grupo Financiero Banamex; Casa de Bolsa Banorte Ixe, Grupo Financiero Banorte; Actinver Casa de Bolsa, Grupo Financiero Actinver y Casa de Bolsa Credit Suisse (México), Grupo Financiero Credit Suisse (México).
El portafolio inicial de FIBRA Prologis está conformado por 177 inmuebles destinados a las industrias manufacturera y de logística en México, ubicados estratégicamente en seis mercados industriales del país con un Área Rentable Bruta Total de 29,8 millones de pies cuadrados.
A 31 de marzo de 2014, aproximadamente el 60,6% del portafolio inicial está ubicado en destinos globales representados en mercados logísticos de la Ciudad de México, Guadalajara y Monterrey; y aproximadamente el 39,4% en mercados regionales de los principales centros manufactureros de Reynosa, Tijuana y Ciudad Juárez. El objetivo de FIBRA Prologis es la adquisición, posesión y administración de inmuebles industriales ubicados en México.
Fibra Prologis fue constituido recientemente para adquirir y administrar inmuebles destinados a las actividades industriales en México. La administración de «FIBRAPL» la efectuará Prologis Property México, una filial de Prologis, compañía de inversión de bienes raíces constituida en Estados Unidos y que cotiza en la Bolsa de Valores de Nueva York.
Disclosure of financial information is obligatory for all companies listed on the main global stock exchanges. This information generally provides a good overview of a company’s financial performance, but it is not enough to make a decision about a company’s sustainability, which is linked to long-term operational and financial stability. Even companies with low levels of debt and high profits may be subject to potential risks from non financial areas such as environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria. For instance, companies that do not embed human rights in their day-to-day activities may face less productivity and a higher chance of strikes, which can bring additional risks to investors. Similar problems may arise when a company does not apply solid environmental or governance practices.
The growing concern among investors about ESG issues has caused many companies to report information concerning their ESG-related indicators in the form of social reports, additions to their annual reports, special sections on websites and press releases. This information helps investors better evaluate companies’ risks and find possible ways to mitigate them. Yet, disclosure of such information is mostly voluntary among companies. In a report published by S&P Dow Jones Indices in cooperation with RobecoSAM, they analyzed to what extent companies from the headline indices disclose information concerning ESG activities. Companies studied include constituents of the S&P 500, S&P Europe 350, S&P/ASX 200, S&P/TSX 60, S&P/TOPIX 150, S&P Asia 50, S&P Latin America 40, S&P Korea LargeMidCap, and a number of additional companies from China and India. The disclosure records were provided by RobecoSAM.
These are the key findings (the complete report is attached)
The average level of transparency of the 1,504 companies included in the assessment in 2013 was 45, which is below the 0-100 range’s mean. The average score for disclosures related to corporate governance was 81, while the average score for the environmental component was 40 and the average score for the social component was 33.
The companies in the S&P Europe 350 had the highest average ST&D score among all the other headline indices from S&P Dow Jones Indices (average score of 63). The S&P Europe 350 was also the only index in which the average scores for all three components of assessment (environment, social and corporate governance) exceeded the 50-point average level range.
The research demonstrates significant differences in disclosure levels across regions. Companies in the U.S. index (the S&P 500),the Canadian index (the S&P/TSX 60) and the Australian index (the S&P/ASX 200) had veryhigh scores for disclosures related to corporate governance. However, their scores for disclosures of environmental and social components were much lower than those of Europe’s largest companies. European companies led in transparency on environmental and social issues. Companies in the Korean and Japanese indices, the S&P Korea LargeMidCap and the S&P/TOPIX 150, respectively, had high scores for disclosure of the environmental component, average scores for social component and the weakest of all scores for corporate governance-related disclosure.
Scores for disclosures of environmental and social components were correlated. This implied that for most companies, it was rare that a company disclosed information about the environmental aspect of its business but did not disclose information about the social aspect (and vice versa). This correlation does not apply to disclosure scores for corporate governance. In other words, a company’s decision to disclose information about corporate governance is independent of its decision to disclose information about social or environmental aspects of its business.
A company’s total ST&D score was strongly correlated with its market size, a relationship that applied across all geographies. So bigger companies tended to disclose more information: There was a significant correlation between a company’s size and its total ST&D score, which was clear on a regional level (see Exhibit 10). This correlation is likely explained by the fact that bigger companies tended to experience higher pressure from their shareholders and governments, so they disclosed more information. The correlation between a company’s size and its corporate governance disclosure score was generally less than the correlation between its size and scores for the other two components. This happened because the variance in scores for corporate governance was small, especially in jurisdictions where disclosure of significant parts of this information is required by the government.
Companies’ ST&D scores did not change significantly over time once they reached the 70- to 90-point range. However, ST&D scores tended to increase if they were lower than 70 and decrease if they were higher than 90.
Average scores for environmental and social components, when adjusted for changes in the scope of assessment, tended to grow over time. At the same time, scores for corporate governance generally stayed the same.
Average ST&D scores of developed countries exceeded the average ST&D scores of countries with emerging economies, but not significantly (46 vs. 40, respectively). This was most likely caused by bigger assessment penetration in developed countries. Companies from developed economies were more transparent than their competitors from emerging countries; however, the gap decreased from 12% to 6% in the period from 2010 to 2013. Countries with emerging economies were worse in terms of all components, but the difference in scores for the social component was insignificant. In 2012, developing countries were also worse than developed countries from the lens of all criteria, and the difference in scores for the social component was much greater.
The highest-scoring sectors were telecommunication services and utilities. These sectors’ profiles are likely attributable to the fact that in high-tech industries, the competition for investors’ capital is the greatest. Therefore, appreciation of shareholders’ interest in nonfinancial reporting is generally the highest.
Photo: Chris Talbot. Lucent Group Announces Opening of New UK Office
Lucent Group, firma que se especializa en el desarrollo de terrenos específicos en áreas de alto crecimiento en todo Reino Unido, va a abrir una oficina en la ciudad de Winchester, Hampshire. La oficina, una subsidiaria de Lucent Advisors, con sede en la Isla de Man, actuará como asesora del Lucent Strategic Land Fund y estará plenamente operativa a finales de junio, informó la compañía.
En este sentido, desde Lucent explican que la nueva oficina está estratégicamente situada para aprovechar la buena red de transporte internacional y nacional, lo que permitirá gestionar eficazmente su creciente cartera de proyectos en todo el país, además de estar próximos al mercado de inversores institucionales de la City de Londres.
La oficina de Winchester actuará como centro de gestión de los proyectos de Lucent Advisors ofreciendo asesoría de activos y gestión, en un momento en el que la firma está atravesando una interesante etapa con numerosos proyectos en marcha.
En este sentido, la empresa recordó que a través de su joint venture con Allerdale Borough Council, están a la espera de la primera planificación de un desarrollo de 250 unidades residenciales para finales de este año. Además y bajo esta joint venture están previstos otros desarrollos en el futuro en terrenos de la cartera conjunta.
Asimismo, Lucent ha identificado una cartera de proyectos de más de 50 millones de libras esterlinas y está a la espera de anunciar nuevas adquisiciones antes de final de 2014.
Por último, desde la firma explicaron que los departamentos de administración y funciones de bróker para Lucent Strategy Land Fund se mantienen sin cambios y continúan en la Isla de Man.
Foto: Christos Tsoumplekas, Flickr, Creative Commons. Modificación de la ley de sociedades de capital para mejora del gobierno corporativo
Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners (AIP) has obtained $500 million in commitments for AIP Strategic Opportunities Fund I (SOF I), a closed-end investment fund that seeks to capitalize on medium-term opportunities in the hedge fund space. SOF I will focus primarily on hedge fund secondaries, hedge fund co-investments and other opportunistic hedge fund strategies. Mark van der Zwan and Jarrod Quigley, Managing Directors, are SOF I’s primary portfolio managers.
“We are pleased that we have achieved our fundraising goal for SOF I,” said Mustafa Jama, Chief Investment Officer of the Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners Hedge Fund group. “We believe that the fund is well positioned to capture value by investing in opportunities with a two- to five-year duration. The withdrawal of traditional capital providers, such as banks and proprietary trading desks, from this segment of the market should, in our view, enable highly selective investors with patient capital to generate attractive returns.”
“Our AIP Hedge Fund group is world-class, and this successful fundraising effort marks the latest in a long string of achievements,” said Arthur Lev, Head of AIP. “The team is among the most experienced buyers of hedge fund secondaries and has access to a strong set of top-tier hedge fund managers pursuing niche opportunities in this area of the market.”
The AIP Hedge Fund group has over $20 billion in assets under management and advisement as of March 31, 2014.1 The group’s headquarters are located in West Conshohocken, Pa., with additional offices in New York and London.
Established in 2000, AIP has approximately $35.8 billion in assets under management and advisement.2
1As of March 31, 2014, Morgan Stanley AIP’s total fund-of-hedge fund assets of approximately $20.2 billion comprises approximately $12.5 billion of assets under management and approximately $7.7 billion of assets under advisement.
2As of March 31, 2014, Morgan Stanley AIP’s total assets of approximately $35.8 billion comprises approximately $28.0 billion of assets under management (AUM) and approximately $7.8 billion of assets under advisement. Approximately $1.5 billion of assets cross-invested across AIP product lines have been subtracted from the total so as to avoid double-counting. AUM is based on (i) total net asset value of its fund-of-hedge-funds managed investment vehicles and separate accounts; (ii) value of all partners’ capital accounts and investors’ invested capital, plus their respective unfunded commitments, of private equity funds of funds and private equity separate accounts; and (iii) value of all partners’ capital accounts and investors’ invested capital, plus their respective unfunded commitments, of real estate funds of funds and real estate separate accounts. The value of private equity and real estate assets under management in separate accounts not solely dedicated to private equity or real estate investments managed by the relevant team is defined as the carrying value of all private equity or real estate assets, plus unfunded private equity or real estate commitments.
MetaQuotes Software has announced that its MetaTrader 5 trading platform has entered the Brazilian market. The largest independent Broker in Brazil XP Investimentos has officially launched MetaTrader 5. This means that more than 80,000 customers of the company can now trade in the financial markets using the platform.
Importantly, traders can trade not only currency instruments, but also stocks and futures of Brazilian companies. To connect to the São Paulo Stock Exchange BM&FBovespa, XP Investimentos specialists have developed a special gateway to provide correct execution of trades and delivery of market quotes. Finally, customers of XP Investimentos can fully appreciate the benefits of stock trading with the MetaTrader 5 platform.
XP Investimentos rigorously tested the terminal prior to announce the launch of the new service publicly. “For more than 10 months, MetaTrader 5 was available only to 100 users selected for beta testing of the product. Only after the final debugging of all processes, trading with MetaTrader 5 became available to all our clients” says Guilherme Benchimol CEO of XP Investimentos.
«Interest in the South American market has recently increased,» says Renat Fatkhullin, CEO of MetaQuotes. «We are looking to expand our presence in the region. We have entered the Brazilian market with the help of the leading local broker with a large client base to instantly win a substantial market share. Thus, we achieve a higher exposure by providing MetaTrader 5 to the broad masses of traders, while our partner XP Investimentos have satisfied the wishes of their customers. We are happy to strengthen our position in the region and will continue to actively expand into the Latin American market.»
Established in 2000, MetaQuotes Software Corp. has been developing trading platforms for financial markets under the MetaTrader trademark, a leader in the Forex software market. MetaTrader trading platforms are currently used by more than 600 brokerage companies and banks all over the world. The new platform, MetaTrader 5, was developed by the Company with a focus on stock markets and is now actively promoted to various world exchanges.
Established in 2001, XP Investimentos is the largest independent broker in Brazil, with over 120,000 clients. The company is based in Rio de Janeiro and has offices in São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte and New York, represented by XP Securities. XP is present in all of the Brazilian states through its distribution network – 500 affiliated offices and 1,800 authorized advisors.
Foto: Nicola Corboy, Flickr, Creative Commons. El encuentro de dos mundos
Stifel Financial Corp. announced last week a definitive agreement to acquire Legg Mason Investment Counsel & Trust Co., N.A. from Legg Mason, Inc. LMIC provides customized investment advisory and trust services, on a discretionary basis, to individuals, families, and institutions throughout the U.S. The Company’s portfolio managers manage over $9 billion in assets. LMIC will be part of Stifel’s Global Wealth Management segment.
“We are very pleased to welcome the experienced team of professionals from LMIC,” said Ron Kruszewski, Chairman, President, and CEO of Stifel Financial Corp. “The investment counsel business is a perfect addition to our existing wealth management platform. We think their high touch and personalized approach for each client’s unique financial situation perfectly matches Stifel’s model and culture. We look forward to partnering with the LMIC team.”
Harry O’Mealia, President and CEO of LMIC, stated, “Caring passionately for our clients and providing them outstanding service are the guiding principles of our organization. We are excited to partner with Stifel, which shares this vision, and believe our clients will be well served through the combination. My partners and I look forward to joining the team.”
Joseph A. Sullivan, President and CEO of Legg Mason, said, “We are very pleased that the LMIC team has found an ideal partner in Stifel’s wealth management platform to serve their clients. For Legg Mason, this transaction continues to evolve our investment affiliate lineup toward fewer and larger firms that can be better leveraged through our global distribution platform. Today, Legg Mason has six key affiliates with compelling investment expertise offered to clients around the world in a variety of investment vehicles.”
The Board of Directors of Stifel has approved the acquisition, the terms of which are undisclosed. The transaction is targeted to close in the fall of 2014, subject to customary regulatory approvals.
State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the asset management arm of State Street Corporation, has announced five key appointments in the firm’s intermediary business, which provides products supporting wealth management professionals, including SPDR ETFsand State Street mutual funds, for wirehouses, Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs), private banks, family offices and regional/independent broker dealers. The appointments will bolster SSgA’s competency across its intermediary business, which was created in 2001 to better access the firm’s deep institutional experience and broad investment knowledge.
“These appointments enhance our capabilities and reflect our commitment to invest in ways that support advisors so they can achieve better outcomes for their clients,” said James Ross, executive vice president, global head of SPDR ETFs, and head of US intermediary distribution at SSgA. “We look forward to the teams’ contributions in providing advisors with solutions to meet the expectations of their clients by offering differentiated products and investment views that will help support their businesses.”
The recent appointments to the US intermediary business include:
Michael Arone, chief investment strategist for the US intermediary business. Mike was head of global and EMEA portfolio strategy at SSgA before this new role.
Ken Bossen, vice president and head of US intermediary portfolio strategy and due diligence. Ken joins SSgA from Morgan Stanley, where he managed the firm’s ETF model portfolio and country ETF focus list.
Robert Forsyth, vice president and head of strategic partnerships. Prior to this role, Robert was head of exchange traded products and derivatives at UBS Wealth Management.
Mario Gallotto, vice president of business intelligence. Mario joins SSgA from John Hancock Investments, where he was managing director of business intelligence.
Brie Williams, vice president and head of practice management. Brie joins SSgA from Putnam Investments where she was responsible for marketing communications in support of Putnam’s global brand and retail mutual fund product line.
Insight Investment, one of the UK’s leading institutional asset managers, has appointed Svein Floden as Head of Business Development for Liquid Alternatives in the Americas. Based in New York, he will report to Philip Anker, Global Head of Distribution at Insight. Floden will join Insight’s Business Development team and will be responsible for developing products and implementing a distribution plan for Insight’s liquid alternatives, total return and absolute return products across the Americas.
Floden joins Insight from Deutsche Bank Asset and Wealth Management where he has spent the past 14 years, most recently as Head of Hedge Fund Sales and Marketing for Wealth Management Americas and Director of Institutional Alternatives Distribution, Latin America. Prior to Deutsche Bank, Floden was a member of the Latin America group at Citigroup’s Private Bank in New York.
Philip Anker, Global Head of Distribution, Insight Investment, says: “I am delighted to welcome Svein to Insight. We have been developing our investment offering to meet the increasingly global demands of our institutional and wholesale clients. Svein’s wide-ranging experience in building and expanding hedge fund platforms and in distributing alternative investment products in this region will enable him to play a broad and strategic role in the development of Insight in the Americas.”
Floden says: “Insight has established an impressive reputation in the UK and Europe for delivering client- focused, outcome-oriented investment solutions. Our business is at the forefront of developing new ways of investing. Joining the team in New York as the firm builds on its franchise in the region and continues its evolution as a truly global investment business is an exciting prospect. I very much look forward to working with Philip and his team and to playing a part in the next chapter of the development of Insight.”
There was little doubt that the European Central Bank (ECB) would act at its June meeting – market consensus had expected some move on interest rates. The ECB duly delivered on rates but also unveiled a raft of additional measures.
For its part, the ECB had already indicated that it was concerned by the anaemic rate of economic growth in the eurozone, something not helped by a strong euro hampering exports and a low rate of inflation raising deflationary fears.
What we got was a credible package of measures that should nudge growth in the eurozone up a gear. The cut in the refinancing (repo) rate by 10 basis points to 0.15% is likely to have negligible effect, the cut to a negative deposit rate of -0.10% however is more convincing as it should encourage banks to lend more.
More interesting is the Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operation (TLTRO), which is being targeted at the real economy, i.e. businesses rather than housing or governments. Liquidity will also be boosted by the cancellation of the weekly securities market programme drain, which should inject approximately €165 billion into the system. Other measures include an extension of the fixed rate full allotment regime and progress towards buying asset backed securities.
This was an enterprise-friendly set of measures. However, the cut in rates may not go down too well with German households, which tend to hold a lot of money on deposit and will shortly be getting next to nothing in terms of interest. The sop to Germany is that a lower euro – which has fallen recently in expectation of the ECB announcements – should support Germany’s exporters. Germans will also take some comfort from Draghi stressing the need for structural reforms to continue given that progress has been uneven and is far from complete. Monetary policy alone cannot do all the heavy lifting in growing the economy.
The real risk, in my view, is that growth will remain low due to demographics and general caution. This will lead to tax receipts recovering but not enough to start repaying significant amounts of loans outstanding. However, the cost of financing that debt is now considerably lower in all countries and the cut in rates should help anchor bond yields and financing costs at low levels.
The measures taken by the ECB are helpful but as the saying goes: “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” It remains to be seen whether this carrot and stick approach by the ECB can encourage lending and lift the pace of recovery within the eurozone. What is clear is that the president of the ECB, Mario Draghi, is more than willing to engage in further action if necessary, stating that they “are not finished here” if the eurozone economy fails to respond to this latest package.
By Tim Stevenson, manager of the Henderson Horizon Pan European Fund
