Lombard Odier Investment Managers (LOIM) has named Théodore Economou Chief Investment Officer of LOIM’s multi-asset business.
The unit, which managed $5.2bn (€4.5bn) at the end of December, also includes a fiduciary management division.
Economou most recently served as CEO and Chief Investment Officer of the CERN Pension fund, where over five years he initiated a risk-based approach that came to be known as the CERN Model. The multi-asset, factor-driven model aims to preserve capital while maximizing returns relative to risk.
Economou will be based in Geneva and build on a similar approach that LOIM began applying to its own employee pension fund in 2009 and developed for institutional clients. The risk-based approach is designed to meet the needs of Sovereign Wealth Funds and pension funds. He will report to Jan Straatman, Chief Investment Officer of LOIM.
In multi-asset investing, portfolios are built with a global mix of asset classes and styles, including investments in public and private markets. Factor-driven—also called smart beta-—portfolios allocate assets to investments with identifiable characteristics or “factors” that account for their performance.
Before joining CERN, Mr Economou was assistant treasurer of ITT Corporation in New York where he managed pension assets and liabilities worldwide as well as the firm’s capital markets activities. Prior to that, he was a consultant with Accenture’s Financial Services Group in Geneva and Zurich. He holds an M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and an MBA from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
. Ivanhoé Cambridge compra por 2.200 millones el edificio Three Bryant Park en Manhattan
Ivanhoé Cambridge, el brazo inmobiliario del fondo de pensiones del gigante canadiense Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, y su socio, la firma de private equity Callahan Capital Properties, han comprado el 100% de la propiedad de oficinas Three Bryant Park de 1,2 millones de pies cuadrados en el centro de Manhattan por 2.200 millones de dólares al grupo Blackstone, tal y como ha informado Ivanhoé Cambridge.
Ubicado en el 1095 de la Avenida de las Américas, entre las calles 41 y 42, Three Bryant Park es uno de los edificios de oficinas más prominentes de la ciudad de Nueva York. Three Bryant Park se ha convertido en una dirección comercial de clase mundial, que combina una ubicación inmejorable, vistas panorámicas, acceso a los principales centros de tránsito de la ciudad, además de unas instalaciones recientemente remodeladas.
Entre los inquilinos figuran firmas como MetLife, Verizon y Dechert, entre otros.
La oportunidad de adquirir una propiedad verdaderamente icono como Three Bryant Park es extremadamente rara”, dijo Arthur Lloyd, vicepresidente ejecutivo de Global Investments Ivanhoé Cambridge.
El 97% de la propiedad está arrendada a largo plazo a una lista de inquilinos de alta calidad crediticia. En este sentido, Lloyd subrayó que el inmueble “se adapta perfectamente a nuestra estrategia de inversión de construir una cartera diversificada de inmuebles de oficinas de alta calidad en los principales mercados de oficinas de Estados Unidos”.
The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) has published its latest Investment Funds Industry Fact Sheet, which provides net sales of UCITS and non-UCITS for November 2014. 27 associations representing more than 99.6 percent of total UCITS and non-UCITS assets at end November 2014 provided them with net sales and/or net assets data.
The main developments in November 2014 in the reporting countries can be summarized as follows:Net sales of UCITS reduced to EUR 27 billion in November from EUR 44 billion in October. This fall in net sales came despite increased net sales of long term funds during the month.
Long-term UCITS (UCITS excluding money market funds) posted increased net inflows of EUR 31 billion, up from EUR 23 billion in October. Equity fund net sales returned to positive territory in November posting inflows of EUR 2 billion, against net outflows of EUR 6 billion in October. Bernard Delbecque, Director of Economics and Research commented: “The decline in stock market uncertainty brought back net sales of equity funds to positive territory in November.”
Bond fund net sales reduced to EUR 11 billion, down from EUR 16 billion in October. Balanced funds enjoyed a pick-up in net sales to EUR 13 billion in November, up from EUR 9 billion in October.
Money market fund net sales returned to negative territory in November posting outflows of EUR 4 billion in October, compared to net inflows of EUR 22 billion in October.
Total non-UCITS net sales remained relatively steady in November at EUR 16 billion. Net sales of special funds (funds reserved to institutional investors) remained at EUR 12 billion for the second consecutive month.
Total net assets of UCITS stood at EUR 8.02 trillion at end November 2014, representing a 1.5 percent increase during the month.
Total net assets of non-UCITS increased 1.4 percent to stand at EUR 3.17 trillion at month end. Overall, total net assets of the European investment fund industry stood at EUR 11.2 trillion at end November 2014.
Foto: PrimelmageMedia, Flickr, Creative Commons. Seis tendencias en real estate a vigilar en 2015
El mundo en el que vivimos está en constante cambio y a veces resulta complicado detectar las tendencias que le darán forma en los próximos años. KPMG ha estado siguiendo esas tendencias y considerando las implicaciones potenciales para la industria del real estate, según explica en un reciente informe.
“Estas tendencias no solo son para ser vigiladas y aceptadas sino que hay desarrollos reales que pueden suponer una llamada a la acción. Si puedes anticipar esas tendencias, podrás obtener oportunidades para tu negocio”. Éstas son las tendencias que ve KPMG para 2015 en real estate:
Globalización
Debido a la necesidad de diversificar más allá de los mercados domésticos, los flujos de capitales globales continuarán fluyendo. Esto traerá un mayor conocimiento de los mercados de real estate en su conjunto. La predicción de KPMG es que, como resultado, el universo de real estate se expandirá, con los inversores buscando mayores retornos ajustados al riesgo.
Cambio hacia “activos reales”
Sin duda, la mayor volatilidad y el menor crecimiento han llevado a los inversores a asignar una mayor parte de sus carteras a activos reales. Este término comprende una variedad de inversiones tangibles que dan a los inversores opciones y que proporcionan una estable fuente de rentas en momentos de mercado más débiles, así como acceso a una apreciación del capital en los mejores momentos.
Un mayor apetito por el riesgo
La llamada vuelta a la calidad ha llevado a una competición significativa por el acceso a activos prime en lugares muy demandados. En la medida en que los inversores están aumentando sus asignaciones a real estate, se están viendo forzados (por la competencia) e impulsados (por la mejora en el sentimiento económico) a diversificar. “Esperamos ver cómo nuevas ubicaciones geográficas, clases de activos y segmentos de activos ganarán popularidad”, dice KPMG.
La clase de activo se amplía
Los tipos de propiedades que se han venido considerando como especializadas hace poco tiempo atrás están convirtiéndose ahora en una tendencia principal. En la medida en que los inversores buscan cada vez más rentas de largo plazo, la demanda por activos con elementos operativos (como hoteles, residencias de estudiantes, etc.) están siendo foco de un mayor interés, lo que está llevando a una compresión de rentabilidades. Todos los signos apuntan a la continuidad de esta tendencia.
Mayor seguridad
La profundidad y la amplitud de las compañías cotizadas o REITs es está creciendo, con más balances conservadores tras 2009. El cambio de los planes de prestación definida a contribución definida está también apoyando esta tendencia, así como el surgimiento de vehículos de private equity compatibles con la contribución definida. ¿Continuará esto en 2015?, se pregunta KPMG, y la respuesta es positiva.
Deuda
El desapalancamiento de los bancos está haciendo hueco a nuevos entrantes en los mercados de deuda. La consultora recomienda vigilar este espacio porque considera que es la señal de próximas oportunidades.
Nuveen Investments has announced it has extended its offerings to non-U.S. investors with the availability of a new UCITS fund focused on large cap core equities. The new fund is offered via Nuveen Global Investors Fund plc through a UCITS structure.
The new fund is managed by Nuveen Asset Management (NAM) LLC, a Nuveen investment affiliate recognized as a global investment manager with a broad investment platform. As a $130 billion multi-asset-class investment manager, NAM’s collaborative approach to portfolio construction is driven by integrated research and risk management processes.
The objective of the fund is to provide long-term capital appreciation through investments in large cap core equity securities. Led by respected portfolio manager and market strategist, Bob Doll, the portfolio management team will select securities using an investment process that combines quantitative, objective analysis with fundamental, research-based measures. Securities generally are added to the portfolio based both on the ranking given to a particular security by the multi-factor quantitative models used by the management team as well as the fundamental analysis of the securities.
Foto: Warko. La superintendencia financiera chilena ampliará su supervisión sobre el Banco Penta y advierte "riesgo reputacional"
El superintendente de Bancos e Instituciones Financieras de Chile (SBIF), Eric Parrado, se dirigió este miércoles a la Cámara de Diputados para ofrecer una detallada presentación respecto a la situación financiera del Banco Penta. Además de llamar a la prudencia, Parrado afirmó que el banco se encuentra en una sana situación financiera y que la SBIF mantendrá un monitoreo permanente de la entidad.
En el marco de la comisión conjunta que investiga el caso Penta y el financiamiento de las campañas electorales, Parrado destacó que la SBIF debe velar por mantener la estabilidad y solvencia del sistema financiero y, por ello, toda acción se realiza con una lógica prudencial que permita cumplir con estos objetivos, en resguardo de los depositantes y el interés público.
El caso Penta estalló inicialmente el pasado mes de agosto como un posible fraude tributario, un caso que llevó a las administradoras de fondos de pensiones (AFP) a reducir su exposición a la entidad, quitando gran liquidez a los títulos, una medida que fue seguida por otros actores del mercado, poniendo en una delicada situación al banco.
A pesar de que la defensa de los empresarios involucrados ha insistido en que la investigación no afecta a las compañías del grupo, porque solo apunta directamente a sus controladores, se han producido masivas salidas de bonos.
Asimismo, Parrado afirmó que Banco Penta mantiene una sana posición financiera caracterizada por adecuados niveles de capitalización y liquidez. Sin embargo, acotó que el proceso judicial en que están involucrados sus dueños expone al banco a un efecto reputacional. Informó que en esta situación la SBIF implementó un plan de seguimiento permanente a la entidad.
Señaló que más allá de este caso puntual, que debe seguir su debido proceso, es importante señalar que para la SBIF es de la mayor importancia la integridad y solvencia de los accionistas controladores de un banco.
Por último, Parrado dijo que la SBIF seguirá promoviendo activamente dos importantes proyectos que seguirán fortaleciendo la institucionalidad en la regulación bancaria: La Ley General de Bancos y la Ley de Conglomerados Financieros. Ambos proyectos en los que el gobierno está trabajando y que esperamos se envíen al Congreso según lo planificado.
In «Getting Closer to Home,»Henry H. McVey, Member & Head of Global Macro and Asset Allocation at KKR, outlines key global trends that he believes will impact asset allocations for the year.
«While the general backdrop for risk assets remains favorable, we are no longer advising folks to «Stay the Course» as we did in our January 2014 Outlook piece,» McVey writes. «Rather, given where we are in the cycle and the magnitude of gains in recent years, we have begun the inevitable process of «Getting Closer to Home» in terms of our asset allocation targets. In particular, we do advise folks to raise some cash and to tilt the invested part of the portfolio to become more opportunistic in 2015.»
In the piece, McVey also outlines key themes that make compelling «arbitrages» in the global macro landscape that CIOs and portfolio managers should pursue this year. These include:
China’s slowing is not an aberration. As such, its role in the global economy is materially shifting, which means that McVey expects to see sizeable restructuring and recapitalization opportunities in sectors that previously over-earned and/or overstretched their footprints.
Many corporations still have inefficient capital structures, including too much cash and too little debt, in his view. As such, investors can still benefit from corporate and/or shareholder actions to lower companies’ cost of capital and/or improve growth, including buybacks, dividends, capital expenditures and acquisitions.
Despite a slew of liquidity in the system, many companies across both emerging and developed economies still can’t get proper access to credit. Hence, McVey still sees a compelling illiquidity premium that is worth pursuing, particularly in today’s low rate environment.
McVey suggests harnessing volatility in the liquid commodity markets. He continues to favor private real asset investments with upfront yield, growth and long-term inflation hedging relative to traditional liquid commodity notes and swaps.
Government deleveraging in the developed markets is disinflationary, which drives McVey’s thinking about the direction of long-term interest rates as well as the relative value of risk assets against the risk-free rates.
La Française REM purchased the PANORAMA SEINE and DOCKSIDE buildings, located 255 and 224 quai de la Bataille de Stalingrad respectively in Issy-les-Moulineaux (92130), ZAC des Chartreux, overlooking the river Seine, near Paris. Designed by architects Patrice Novarina and Atelier de Midi, and built by Sefri-Cime, the office complex was completed in 2008.
The acquisition includes two buildings: a seven-storey building (at 255) with 7,905 m² of office floor space; a two-storey building (at 224) with 2,082 m² of office space, including restauration facilities. The complex has 116 underground parking spaces. The global headquarters of the Sodexo group have been based there since 2008, under a twelve-year lease.
La Française REM was assisted by law firm Fairway Avocats and 14 Pyramides Notaires. The financing was provided by pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, assisted by Lefèvre Pelletier & associés and Attorney Moisy-Namand. The seller was assisted by DTZ, as part of an exclusive mandate, and law firms K&L Gates and Le Breton & Associés.
. JP Morgan ficha a Cristiano Souza desde Santander Brasil para Mercados Emergentes
JP Morgan Chase & Co ha contratado a Cristiano Souza para su equipo de análisis de Investigación de Mercados Emergentes en Brasil. Souza llega a JP Morgan desde Banco Santander Brasil, de acuerdo a un memo interno de la entidad estadounidense obtenido por Bloomberg.
Souza, de 40 años, trabajará en Sao Paulo bajo las órdenes de Cassiana Fernandez, que fue nombrada economista jefe para Brasil en septiembre.
Souza ha cubierto Brasil durante 13 años en banca, incluyendo Santander Brasil, donde trabajó durante seis años.
El pasado mes de septiembre, JP Morgan designó a Fabio Akira, hasta entonces economista jefe para Brasil, para liderar la cobertura del sector público. Akira trabaja también desde Sao Paulo.
Historically, until the 19th century, the Spanish dollar, the forerunner of the Mexican peso, was used in a number of regions around the world. The «Mexican peso» was legal tender in the United States until the Coinage Act of 1857.
Today, the country once known as New-Spain is still the exception in the «emerging markets» universe. The global economic slowdown has exposed the vulnerability of economies with excessive dependence on commodity exports: Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, Colombia and Venezuela are just a few examples. These low-diversity economies have suffered the backlash of falling commodity prices as well as expectations of a hike in interest rates in the United States.
Fortunately, many countries have learned the lessons of past crises, including the need to adopt a floating exchange rate and, more generally, economic policies aimed at budget surplus and contained inflation. Mexico is one such. Like other countries in Latin America, Mexico lost a decade in the 80s with soft growth (estimated at –0.3% over ten years) and very high inflation. Average annual inflation was 69% between 1980 and 1990 with a peak in annual inflation of 175% on 31 March 1988. The country defaulted on its external debt in 1982. In 1994, just after the signing of NAFTA (the North America Free Trade Agreement), Mexico was subject to increasingly speculative movements of capital whereas the currency was anchored to the dollar, and was forced to devalue.
Mexican peso compared to the US dollar vs. American monetary policy in 1994
Despite these various destabilising episodes, Mexico remained firmly rooted in its industrial heritage. Contrary to what one might expect, and although it is one of the world’s leading oil producers at the intersection of two worlds (a rich service-based economy in North America and a South America still dependent on its below-ground wealth), Mexico’s economy is less focused on the export of primary products than its more southerly neighbours. Industry and especially services (tourism, telecoms, etc.) have played a vital role in the country for many years although there is huge disparity in terms of development between the Chiapas and the state of Sonora, or the Yucatán and the banks of the Pacific. Between the end of the 19th century and the 1930s, the development of the railway network boosted the integration of the north and north-east and greater economic proximity with the United States. Economic activity was to develop particularly with the maquiladoras, assembly plants and sub-contracting outfits for the United States which would drive the country’s modernisation.
In the 21st century, Mexico, heir to the Aztec administration, becomes increasingly dynamic. In an earlier blog, we mentioned the reforms adopted by the Mexican parliament. In particular, the reform of the energy sector will enable private players to participate thus tempering the bottlenecks that subsist at many levels. This is especially true for the petrochemicals, synthetic textiles and plastics sectors. NAFTA continues to be the driving force for the modernisation of the Mexican economy, with foreign investments no longer exclusively targeting energy but also the automotive industry, electronics, chemical and aeronautics. A number of big names in American and European industry have started to establish operations in the central industrial region: for example, Bombardier, Airbus and GE Aviation are investing in Querétaro. Since the 1980s, foreign direct investment in the aeronautical sector amounts to nigh on 33 billion dollars. According to the FT, in 2014, compared to 2009, Mexico had doubled its automobile production to 3.2 million vehicles. Honda, Mazda, Audi, Kia, Nissan and BMW have already invested or plan to invest several billion dollars to set up assembly lines in the country. All this comes against the backdrop of Mexico not only becoming increasingly competitive but also gaining in expertise versus one of its biggest rivals, China, whose currency has slowly but surely appreciated against the dollar since the summer of 2005.
Opinion column by Jean-Philippe Donge, Head of Fixed Income at BLI – Banque de Luxembourg Investments. This article is published on its blog: “From the peso oro to the maquiladoras”
