Eric Figueroa - Courtesy photo. Eric Figueroa Joins MFS as Director, Responsible for Sales in Southeastern US, Caribbean and Central America
MFS Investment Management has announced the hiring of Eric M. Figueroa, CIMA, as an associate director and wholesaler for MFS International Ltd. (MIL). Based in Miami, Florida, he will be responsible for the sale of MFS Meridian Funds, working with advisors across all channels, including family offices, independents, banks and wirehouse firms. His coverage area includes the southeastern United States, the Caribbean and Central America.
“Eric brings tremendous experience to this role, having worked previously as a private banker in the region. He understands the role the financial advisor plays in helping clients achieve their long-term goals and the value an investment manager must bring to the equation,” said L. Jose Corena, managing director – Americas for MFS. “His depth of perspective as a former client in the sales process will be invaluable as we continue to grow our presence across these key regions.”
Figueroa will report to Corena. He will work closely with members of MFS’ sales and client service teams, partnering and coordinating sales coverage and support for the southeastern United States, Caribbean and Central American regions with senior team member Paul Brito, CIMA, regional director, and Natalia Rodriguez, senior internal sales representative.
Figueroa joins MFS from Itau International Securities, where he worked as a financial advisor in private banking for three years. He previously worked for HSBC for ten years, most recently as a financial advisor. He began his career in financial services with HSBC in 2003. He earned a bachelor’s degree in international finance and marketing from the University of Miami and attended the executive education program at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Figueroa holds the Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) designation from the Investment Management Consultants Association. He also holds the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Series 6, 7, 63 and 65 and the Florida Life Health Variable Annuity licenses.
Martin Hofstadter - courtesy photo. Martin Hofstadter Has Joined Lord Abbett as Director, Offshore Business Development,The Americas
Martin Hofstadter will join Lord Abbett’s International team as Director, Offshore Business Development – The Americas. In his new role, he will be based in Miami and will work with Nicolette Iorio, Associate, International Investor Services and report to Andrew D. D’Souza, Partner, International Investor Services at Lord Abbett.
Hofstadter will be responsible for the firm’s efforts to maintain and expand its offshore business in the Americas, including the NRC market and Latin America with a focus on wirehouses, private banks and independent advisors. “Martin brings a tremendous amount of proven experience to the team,” said D’Souza. “His insights and knowledge will be invaluable as we work together to expand our presence in the international market.”
Before joining Lord Abbett, Hofstadter worked at Man Group for 14 years as Managing Director and Principal with responsibility for offshore distribution in the U.S. and LatAm. He has a BA in finance from ROU and is a CFA charterholder.
Photo: visitmonaco.com. HSBC clients in Monaco to join CFM Indosuez Wealth Management
CFM Indosuez Wealth Management, which represents the Indosuez Wealth Management network in Monaco, has announced an agreement with HSBC Private Bank to welcome clients from HSBC’s client base in the Principality of Monaco.
The firm said this agreement is in line with Indosuez Wealth Management Group’s strategy to bolster its positions with ultra-high-net-worth-individuals clients in its key markets.
The deal also strengthens CFM Indosuez Wealth Management’s leadership as the largest bank in Monaco.
“The referral process will begin immediately. CFM Indosuez Wealth Management will work closely with HSBC to ensure the smoothest possible process for the clients,” the company commented.
Indosuez Wealth Management had €110bn of assets under management at the end of 2015.
Foto: waferboard
. GAM completa la adquisición de Cantab Capital Partners y lanza dos nuevas estrategias cuantitativas bajo el nombre GAM Systematic
GAM has completed the acquisition of Cantab Capital Partners, which was first announced on 29 June 2016. Cantab, a multi-strategy systematicmanager based in Cambridge, UK, manages USD 4.1 billion in assets for institutional clients worldwide (as at 1 October 2016). It’s technology and its team of over 30 scientists, led by Dr Ewan Kirk, form the cornerstone of GAM Systematic. This new investment platform is co-headed by Adam Glinsman, CEO of Cantab, and Anthony Lawler, Head of Portfolio Management at GAM’s Alternative Investments Solutions (AIS) group.
Two new UCITS funds are to be launched, subject to regulatory approval, that will offer daily liquidity and will be available under the GAM Systematic name. Both funds will be designed to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns as well as offering diversification to equity and bond investments over the cycle. The new funds will also be structured to be cost-effective.
The systematic global equity market neutral strategy will contain Cantab’s established equity-focused models, which have delivered a successful return track record as part of Cantab’s flagship Quantitative Fund launched in 2007. It will invest in liquid equities globally using proprietary research and trading systems, without taking equity market beta. Over a three-year cycle, the strategy will aim to deliver attractive returns with annual volatility of 6-8%.
The systematic diversified macro strategy will be a multi-strategy, multi-asset product based on Cantab’s established Core Macro fund, which launched in 2013. It will seek to generate returns uncorrelated to traditional asset classes by identifying persistent and recurring sources of return across over 100 markets in currencies, fixed income, equity indices and commodities. Over the cycle, it is expected to deliver attractive returns with negligible correlation to traditional markets and annualised volatility of 10-12%.
The latest European ETF Market Review from Thomson Reuters Lipper shows that negative market impacts led—in spite of net inflows—to lower assets under management in the European ETF industry in September (€480.1 bn for September, down from €480.4 bn at the end of August).
According to Detlef Glow, Head of EMEA research at Thomson Reuters Lipper and author of the report, the decrease of €0.3 bn for September was mainly driven by negative market impacts (-€2.4 bn), while net sales contributed a positive €2.1 bn to the assets under management in the ETF segment.
Other highlights include:
Bond ETFs (+€1.3 bn) posted the highest net inflows for September.
The best selling Lipper global classification for September was Bond Emerging Markets Global in Local Currencies (+€0.8 bn), followed by Equity Emerging Markets Global (+€0.5 bn) and Equity Global (+€0.5 bn).
iShares, with net sales of €1.0 bn, maintained its position as the best selling ETF promoter in Europe, followed by Vanguard (+€0.8 bn) and UBS ETF (+€0.4 bn).
The ten best selling funds gathered total net inflows of €3.1 bn for September.
Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF USD (+ €0.7 bn), was the best selling individual ETF for September.
Photo: Pixabay. PwC Launches an Education Platform Addressing the Barriers to Financial Investing
European citizens are required, more than ever, to invest their savings on the capital markets to save for their future pension, while contributing to the financing of the European economy. At the same time, financial products and financial regulation are increasingly complex while investor education remain a challenge. In this context, PwC has just launched Buzz4Funds, an education platform dedicated to raising public understanding of financial investing, including through investment funds.
The primary goal for this programme, currently made up of a series of ten videos and a website, is to arm millennial investors with the unbiased and non-commercial information they need to make investing decisions.
“Investor education is complementary to the traditional tools of investment product information, financial reports and other required communications,” says Steven Libby, partner and Asset & Wealth Management Leader at PwC Luxembourg.
The Investor Education video series covers topics ranging from understanding the difference between saving and investing to the red flags of investment to selling.
“These funny videos aim to grab the attention of potential of future investors, triggering their curiosity to visit the dedicated website where they will discover explanations and links to additional material,” explains Nathalie Dogniez, partner at PwC Luxembourg
To watch the videos and discover the related messages, you can visit the Buzz4Funds website.
Foto: Bradley Davis. Lennar cierrra el Lennar Multifamily Venture en 2.200 millones de dólares
Lennar Corporation has announced that LMC, its wholly owned subsidiary, received an additional $250 million commitment to its Lennar Multifamily Venture (“LMV“), which completes the fund raising for this long term multifamily development investment vehicle. With commitments totaling $2.2 billion, the Miami based company LMV is well capitalized to develop and ownClass A multifamily communities in 25 target markets throughout the United States.
Lennar launched LMC in 2011, and since that time the company has been among the nation’s most active developers. LMC currently has approximately 13,300 apartment homes in 45 communities operating or under construction and including these communities, a total development pipeline that exceeds $7 billion and over 23,000 apartments. The company builds high-rise, mid-rise, and garden apartment communities.
LMV’s ownership includes six prominent institutional investors, comprised of foreign pensions, sovereign wealth funds, and insurance companies. Lennar also has a $504 million commitment to the venture.
Currently, the venture has approximately 9,100 apartment homes under development in 31 communities for a total development cost of $3.1 billion. With the combined equity commitments and 50% leverage, LMV has approximately $1.3 billion in dry powder to invest in future opportunities.
Macquarie Capital acted as a financial advisor and placement agent for LMC.
Amundi confirmed on Wednesday that it is interested in acquiring Pioneer Investments, UniCredit’s asset management arm.
Following rumours in the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, concerning the submission of a non binding offer for the purchase of Pioneer by Amundi, Amundi issued a press release to confirm its interest in Pioneer, since it is “consistently with the growth strategy presented at the time of its IPO.”
However, in the same statement, Amundi denied the close to $4.39 billion valuation attributed to Pioneer in said article and specified that “Amundi re-iterates that its acquisition policy adheres to strict financial criteria, in particular, a return on investment greater than 10% over a three-year horizon.”
However it seems that Jean-Pierre Mustier, Unicredit’s new CEO and a former Société Générale executive, is set to part ways with Pioneer, which has been placed on UniCredit’s group-wide strategic review since last July, when he stated they would even consider a potential IPO. “This is to ensure the company has the adequate resources to accelerate growth and continue to further develop best-in-class solutions and products to offer its clients and partners.”
Publicly traded since November 2015, Amundi is the largest European Asset Manager in terms of AUM, with over 1,000 billion euros worldwide.
Political risk has significant implications for economic growth and market sentiment. While such risk has traditionally been more associated with emerging markets, it has become increasingly apparent in developed markets in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.
Consequently, Standard Life Investments has established an in-house process for examining political risk. The aim is to identify how these risks contribute to policy uncertainty and the subsequent potential for reduced economic growth.
The system categorises risks as either institutional or cyclical, before identifying the precise factors that create a risk to investments. Developed markets most commonly exhibit cyclical risk in the form of elections, and we have isolated three factors that amplify the risk that these cyclical events carry.
Populism – the increased popularity of anti-establishment parties and policies
Fragmentation – the move of political systems from two party to multi-party regimes, as seen in Spain
Polarisation – a hardening of ideological divisions across parties and electorates, as seen in the US
These factors bring added policy uncertainty and the potential for aftershocks following political events in developed markets. By understanding how politics and policy measures are intertwined, we can test the likely effects of political events on investments.
Stephanie Kelly, Political Economist at Standard Life Investments commented “Our approach to political analysis is based on the view that one of the key mechanisms through which political risk is transferred to the investment outlook is through policy uncertainty. The theory suggests that policy uncertainty can reduce growth prospects for an economy because corporate investment slows and consumers delay spending on big ticket items.
“During our analysis of political risk, we assessed the impact of policy uncertainty on a number of major economic and market factors; the results indicate that such an uncertainty shock is usually associated with lower GDP growth, as well as downward pressure on national equity markets and the outlook for interest rates.
“Given that policy uncertainty has a tangible effect on economic and market indicators in developed markets, understanding the political dynamics and structures that drive this uncertainty is crucial.”
Clients across all demographic groups are increasingly interested in using digital media to interact with their asset manager. It is ever more important for managers to provide up-to-date and relevant information via digital channels, Cerulli Associates‘ European Marketing and Sales Organizations 2016: How to Thrive in an Evolving Landscape report finds. However, fewer than two-thirds of managers update their website daily and more than 7% believe that updating their site just once a month is satisfactory.
Four in five of the managers surveyed by Cerulli assign responsibility for digital and social media to their marketing departments and few managers currently have dedicated, stand-alone teams for managing these channels. In addition, 80% of the asset managers Cerulli surveyed employ just one dedicated person to manage their social media communications.
“Asset managers have traditionally been reluctant to devote significant manpower to digital and social media,” says Barbara Wall, managing director of Cerulli Europe. “However, their clients’ increasing use of these channels will put pressure on managers to devote greater resources to this aspect of their business. The vast majority still hand responsibility for digital and social media management to their marketing department rather than to distribution specialists. This needs to change if they are to provide the level of service today’s clients demand.”
Cerulli’s research shows that the typical asset manager’s social media budget is less than €100,000 (US$110,825). Given that clients increasingly wish to communicate with their asset managers digitally, it is surprising that the majority of managers’ outlay on social media is relatively modest.
The good news is that slightly more than half (54.5%) of asset managers expect to increase their overall digital and social media headcount over the next 12 months. This suggests that they are coming to realize the value of this form of dialogue. However, it remains to be seen whether managers’ current commitments to increase headcount will be sufficient.
Cerulli’s research also found that only 6.7% of European asset managers have a dedicated compliance specialist for digital and social media. “Given the sensitivity with which asset managers must handle their communication with clients, it is surprising that so few firms employ a dedicated compliance specialist for their digital and social media output,” says Laura D’Ippolito, an associate director in Cerulli’s European retail team. “If a controversy were to arise, it would inevitably lead to questions about why compliance appears to be low on most managers’ list of priorities.”
This and several other new findings make up Cerulli Associates’ European Marketing and Sales Organizations 2016 report.
