Carlos Martinez . Carlos Martinez Joins Investment Placement Group’s Miami Office
Investment Placement Group (IPG), an Independent Broker Dealer and Registered Investment Advisor, recently announced that former Merrill Lynch advisor Carlos Martinez has joined the firm’s Miami, Florida office which is managed by Rocio Harb.
Martinez has over 20 years experience and through his 16 years at Merrill Lynch, he managed a 100 million dollar portfolio. “Making a decision to join a new firm is not to be taken lightly, taking in consideration what is best for my clients being the most important factor. After much consideration and due diligence, I determined that IPG is the best place for my clients and for me. They have highly skilled support teams and are focused on the needs of global investors” said Martinez.
“Carlos is true professional with a long track record of working with Latin American investors. He is a great addition to our team and we are happy to welcome Carlos to IPG” added Harb.
“Our goal has been to add experienced and highly qualified advisors in key locations, Carlos certainly fits the bill. We look of forward to his continued success at IPG”, said Gilbert Addeo, COO and Head of Business Development at IPG.
Joining Maurico Assael and Roberto Lizama, this is the third high profile hire of IPG in less than 10 days.
Foto: enki22
. Las firmas de real estate tienen perspectivas positivas, a pesar de la caída del volumen de ventas
The vast majority of real estate firms have an optimistic outlook for the future of the industry’s profitability and growth, according to the National Association of Realtors´ (NAR)2016 Profile of Real Estate Firms. Profitability expectations have declined from the 2015 survey, mainly due to inventory shortages and home-price growth, but real estate firms remain confident about their overall future profitability.
“For a second year in a row, a majority of real estate firms have a positive outlook on profitability, with 91 percent of all firms expecting their net income to increase or remain the same over the next year,” said NAR President Tom Salomone, broker-owner of Real Estate II, Inc. in Coral Springs, Florida. “Although there is an overwhelmingly positive outlook, low inventory and high prices have led to an overall decrease in real estate firm’s sales volume since last year’s report. High home prices are holding back first-time buyers and low inventory means fewer sales at a time of increased Realtor membership”.
In 2016, 64 percent of firms expect profitability (net income) from all real estate activities to increase in the next year, down from 68 percent in 2015. Sixty-seven percent of commercial real estate firms expect profitability to improve (down from 75 percent in 2015), as well as 70 percent of large firms with four or more offices expect profitability to improve (down from 79 percent in the previous year). Residential firms are a little less optimistic as 65 percent expect to see an increase in their net income.
Forty-three percent of real estate firms expect competition to increase in the next year from non-traditional firms, down from 45 percent in 2015. Forty-six percent of firms see competition from virtual firms increasing (up from 41 percent in 2015), while only 17 percent expect competition increasing from traditional brick-and-mortar firms.
The sense of competition has fueled more recruitment since the 2015 survey. Forty-seven percent of firms reported they are actively recruiting sales agents in 2016, up from 44 percent in 2015. This is more common with residential firms (51 percent) than commercial firms (32 percent) and more common among offices with four offices or more (88 percent) than firms with one office (39 percent).
When asked what they see as the biggest challenges in the next two years, firms cited profitability (49 percent), keeping up with technology (48 percent), maintaining sufficient inventory (48 percent) and recruiting younger agents (36 percent).
The NAR 2016 Profile of Real Estate Firms was based on an online survey sent in July 2016 to a national sample of 147,835 executives at real estate firms.
Andrew Formica, Chief Executive at Henderson. Henderson and Janus Capital will be Merging
A new giant will join the global asset management industry. The businesses of Henderson and Janus will be combined under Henderson, which will be renamed Janus Henderson Global Investors and will continue to be a Jersey incorporated company and tax resident in the UK. The combined group will be a leading global active asset manager with AUM of more than $320 billion dollars and a combined market capitalisation of approximately $6 billion dollars.
The merger will take place via a share exchange, with each share of Janus common stock exchanged for 4.7190 Henderson ordinary shares. Henderson and Janus shareholders are expected to own approximately 57% and 43% respectively of Janus Henderson Global Investors’ shares on closing, based on the current number of shares outstanding. The merger is currently expected to close in the second quarter of 2017, subject to requisite shareholder and regulatory approvals.
Henderson and Janus CEOs will lead Janus Henderson Global Investors together.
Andrew Formica, Chief Executive of Henderson, said “Henderson and Janus are well-aligned in terms of strategy, business mix and most importantly a culture of serving our clients by focusing on independent, active asset management. I look forward to working side-by-side with Dick, as we create a company with the scale to serve more clients globally, as well as the strength to meet their future needs and the growing demands of our industry.”
Dick Weil, Chief Executive Officer of Janus, said “This is a transformational combination for both organizations. Janus brings a strong platform in the US and Japanese markets, which is complemented by Henderson’s strength in the UK and European markets. The complementary nature of the two firms will facilitate a smooth integration and create an organization with an expanded client-facing team and product suite, greater financial strength, and enhanced talent, benefiting clients, shareholders and employees.”
According to a press release, the merger promises increased distribution strength and coverage in key markets, including the US, Europe, Australia, Japan and the UK, as well as a growing presence in the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East and Latin America. The company will have approximately 2,300 employees, based in 29 locations around the world.
Henderson shares currently trade on the LSE and ASX, while Janus shares currently trade on the NYSE, after the merger the new company plans to have the NYSE as its primary listing.
Janus’ subsidiaries, INTECH and Perkins will be unaffected by the merger. INTECH CEO, Adrian Banner, will continue to report to the INTECH Board of Directors and Perkins CEO, Tom Perkins, will continue to report to the Perkins Board of Directors.
Hermes Investment Management has recently published its second and final paper from its annual Responsible Capitalism survey.
The annual survey of over 100 leading UK and European institutional investors found that the number of those who believe that the gender diversity of the senior management of an investee company is vitally important or important had more than doubled in 12 months. In 2015, only a quarter of investors placed importance on gender diversity, whereas in 2016, a total of 51% of investors agreed.
Harriet Steel, Head of Business Development, Hermes Investment Management, said: “To see the number on investors who place importance of gender diversity leap up by more than double is extremely encouraging and reflective of the high profile campaigns and initiatives introduced to increase gender parity. In our research we believe that the issue for investors appears to be risk, rather than high returns. Investors are growing increasingly aware of the link between ‘group think’ and poor corporate practice. Boards with more diverse composition tend to challenge senior management, be more innovative and make better decisions. These are febrile times and investors increasingly recognise that certain sorts of risk can fundamentally undermine the performance of their portfolios over time. Worse still, they may be accused of failing in their fiduciary duty.”
The Responsible Capitalism survey also showed that despite the gains made in gender, other characteristics of diversity lag behind in investors’ importance; such as race (30%), socio-economic (19%) and educational background (30%). As stated in the ‘Commonsense Principles of Corporate Governance’, recently endorsed by Warren Buffet and others: “Directors should have complementary and diverse skill sets, backgrounds and experiences. Diversity along multiple dimensions is critical to a high-functioning board. Director candidates should be drawn from a rigorously diverse pool.”
Steel continued: “In the Responsible Capitalism survey it was particularly encouraging to see that only a tiny proportion of investors now consider diversity of board experience (2.1%) and a Chairman independent of CEO (1%) to be ‘not important at all’. Given ongoing shareholder concerns over shared CEO/Chair roles at companies such as JP Morgan, corporate diversity is no longer being considered a ‘nice to have’, but a necessary part of responsible governance.
“Significant political and economic upheaval has prompted governments to look in increasingly greater depth at corporate governance practice. New UK Prime Minister Theresa May immediately took aim at non-executive board members ‘drawn from the same narrow social and professional circles as the executive team’, accusing them of providing insufficient scrutiny. Nineteen nations in the European Union now mandate that employee representatives sit on corporate boards, while US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has promised corporate governance reform. When diversity considerations draw the attention of policymakers, companies and investors must increasingly take note.”
To download the Responsible Capitalism paper, click here
Kareen Peetz - Foto BNY Mellon. La primera mujer en presidir BNY Mellon, Kareen Peetz, anuncia su retiro
BNY Mellon announced that Karen B. Peetz, president, has decided to retire from the company at year end.
Peetz, BNY Mellon’s first female president, joined the company in 1998 and has played a pivotal role through periods of significant change in the organization, including the successful navigation of post-financial crisis challenges and the adoption of a more strategic, market- and solutions-led approach to client relationship management.
Peetz has been consistently recognized for her contributions to the financial services industry and has been named #1 on American Banker’s “25 Most Powerful Women in Banking” ranking in recognition of her management style, crisis management skills, influence and charitable endeavors.
“Karen’s leadership, industry expertise and partnership will be missed by BNY Mellon, and we are extremely thankful for her many contributions during her tenure,” said Gerald Hassell, Chairman and CEO of BNY Mellon.
Peetz oversees the company’s global client management and regional management, its treasury services business and its regulatory oversight functions. Prior to her appointment as president in January 2013, she led BNY Mellon’s former Financial Markets and Treasury Services group, comprised of the alternative investment services, broker-dealer and advisor services, corporate trust, depositary receipts and treasury services businesses.
Andrea Di Nisio, photo: LinkedIn. Andrea Di Nisio Joins Unigestion as Head of Southern Europe Intermediaries
Unigestion, the boutique asset manager with scale announces three senior hires to its newly formed intermediary team. The team will initially have five members and Unigestion plans to grow this further as the firm increases its presence in intermediary markets. Their initial focus will be making Unigestion’s institutional investment expertise available to intermediaries in the Southern Europe, UK, Nordics, Switzerland and the US.
Simone Gallo joins Unigestion as Head of Intermediary Distribution. Simone will have responsibility for building the global intermediary channels focusing on wealth managers, multi-managers and sub-advisory mandates. Simone joins from Pictet Asset Management where spent six years as Senior Vice President in the Global Clients Group. Before this he was Executive Director at Goldman Sachs Asset Management in charge of the sales relationships across global accounts in EMEA. He started his career with Schroders Investment Management in 2001.
Andrea Di Nisio joins as Head of Southern Europe Intermediaries. Andrea’s main focus will be to build Unigestion’s presence in intermediary channels in Spain, Italy and Portugal. Andrea joins Unigestion from Dalton Strategic Partnership where from 2009 to 2016 he was the Partner responsible for promoting the firm and its funds to intermediaries across Southern Europe. Andrea started his career in 1998 at Schroders Italia in Milan and in 2001 joined the international team of Schroder & Co in London. He then moved to Cazenove Capital Management as a Fund Director responsible for wealth management and fund distribution in Southern Europe.
Lloyd Reynolds joins Unigestion as Head of Nordic and UK Intermediaries. Lloyd will lead the expansion in these markets, leveraging Unigestion’s institutional presence. Lloyd brings over 20 years of experience in distribution across Europe and Asia. Most recently he was with North Hill Capital. Prior to this Lloyd has held various international leadership roles for Goldman Sachs Asset Management, JP Morgan, Schroders Private Bank and Flemings.
Tom Leavitt, Managing Director at Unigestion commented: “It is exciting to have Simone, Andrea and Lloyd on board bringing their collective knowledge of the international intermediary markets. They will help us extend access to our strategies through these markets, sharing the benefits of our institutional quality strategies to fund selectors looking to grow and protect the assets of their clients through multi assets, liquid alternative and equity solutions. We welcome them all very warmly to the team.”
There is an emerging trend among distributors of pairing multi-asset strategies, for regular income, with liquid alternatives to achieve additional returns.
For instance, banks are advising liquid alternatives to retail investors, which was once targeted at high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) by certain banks. At a small-to-mid-sized Asian private bank, the advised allocation to liquid alternatives was 20%, while another global/regional bank’s recommendation was 40% for mass affluent clients.
Wealth managers are upbeat on liquid alternative products that are based on long-short or global macro strategies as they believe these strategies can provide investors returns that are uncorrelated to traditional asset classes. Structured products with option strategies as an income-generating idea are also often advised by wealth managers to investors with higher risk appetites.
However, according to a survey conducted for The Cerulli Report – Wealth Management in Asia 2016, retail investors in Asia may not be ready for liquid alternatives just yet.
The survey reveals that the appetite for such products remains low, as investment preference lies in cash and deposits, even as investors wish for 3% to 5% higher returns than their respective country’s one-year deposit rates and cite portfolio diversification as their top priority.
While Asian investors seem to adopt a cautious approach to their investments, Cerulli notes that a lot of convincing needs to be done by asset managers and distributors.
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrSergio Álvarez-Mena, courtesy photo. Sergio Alvarez-Mena Joins the Miami Office of Jones Day
The global law firm Jones Day has announced that Sergio Alvarez-Mena has joined the Firm as a partner in its Financial Institutions Litigation & Regulation Practice. An attorney for more than 30 years, Alvarez-Mena will serve clients in Florida and Latin America primarily from Jones Day’s Miami Office.
Prior to joining Jones Day, Alvarez-Mena was a director in the Legal & Compliance Department at Credit Suisse Securities. Responsible for the company’s cross-border business, including the Latin American, European, and Asian markets, he focused on compliance matters relating to “Know Your Customer” regulations, with attention to money laundering, corruption, and similar illegal activities.
“Sergio’s extensive experience with financial institutions and his knowledge of their compliance concerns will provide our clients with a valuable perspective,” said Pedro A. Jimenez, Partner-in-Charge of Jones Day’s Miami Office. “With more than 15 years’ experience in the financial services sector, he is one of the region’s most respected compliance attorneys. We are very pleased that he is joining Jones Day.”
Prior to joining Credit Suisse Alvarez-Mena was an Executive Director of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. He was formerly lead counsel for the Private Wealth Management division, as well as lead counsel for all U.S. based cross-border business including the Latin American division, and its New York, Geneva, Miami, and Sao Paulo offices. Alvarez-Mena also served as Head of the International Private Client Group and was in management from 2010-2013. Before joining Morgan Stanley he served as lead counsel to Merrill Lynch International Latin America Private Client division and Merrill Lynch Bank & Trust (Cayman).
“As our clients continue to look to us for guidance amid the uncertainties they encounter with the constantly changing regulations impacting banking institutions, Sergio’s understanding of compliance matters will be a valuable asset,” said Jay Tambe, who co-leads Jones Day’s Financial Institutions Litigation & Regulation Practice. “He will provide great counsel and insight to our clients in Miami and throughout Latin America.”
Jones Day is a global law firm with 44 offices in major centers of business and finance throughout the world. Its unique governance system fosters an unparalleled level of integration and contributes to its perennial ranking as among the best in the world in client service. Jones Day provides significant legal representation for almost half of the Fortune 500, Fortune Global 500, and FT Global 500.
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrPhoto: Juan Antonio F. Segal
. JP Morgan Creates a New Wealth Management and Investment Solutions Unit
JP Morgan Chase has created a new unit that combines the firm’s wealth management business across Asset Management and Consumer & Community Banking. The Wealth Management & Investment Solutions unit will be lead by Barry Sommers and Brian Carlin, who will report to Asset Management CEO Mary Callahan Erdoes.
According to a memo by Erdoes, that Funds Society had access to, Sommers will become CEO of Wealth Management, responsible for JP Morgan’s client business: Chase Wealth Management, the Private Bank and J.P. Morgan Securities. While Carlin will become CEO of Investment and Banking Solutions, responsible for all wealth management products, services and platforms, including investments, lending, banking, technology and operations. In addition, he will oversee the Digital Wealth Management and Institutional Wealth Management Business.
“Barry and Brian bring a tremendous amount of experience and horsepower to our business and are ideal leaders to partner. They’ve worked together for years, and bring complementary experiences and backgrounds.” Erdoes wrote of the appointment.
Of Sommers she said: “Barry has worked in both Consumer & Community banking and Asset Management, and knows our investment business and branch network as well as any leader in the firm. As Consumer Bank CEO, Barry delivered record investments and outpaced the industry in deposit growth for four straight years.”
While for Carlin, she stated: “Brian has worked in Asset Management for 15 years, including the past three years as our Chief Financial Officer. Prior to that, he ran Products and Investments in the Private Bank, where he led the development of Private Bank and Chase Wealth Management investment solutions. He also built the Private Bank’s mortages, deposits & custody, and trusts & estates offerings.”
“Beyond their capabilities, Barry and Brian represent the best of our values and leadership. They think client first, are culture carriers and excel at running business end-to-end. We have complete confidence that they will continue our track record of success.” Erdoes concluded.
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrPhoto: Michael Gil
. Luxembourg Launches First Green Exchange in the World
The Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) becomes the first stock exchange globally to introduce a platform for green financial instruments: Branded Luxembourg Green Exchange (LGX). Access is limited to issuers who comply with stringent eligibility criteria. The platform aims to set a new benchmark for the rapidly evolving green securities market.
Commenting on the launch of LGX, Robert Scharfe, CEO of LuxSE, said: “New issuance of green securities has taken off since COP21. There is a real desire for change. The green market has enormous potential but this needs to be matched by interest from investors. By setting strict standards for green securities, LGX aims to create an environment where the market can prosper. The upcoming COP22 event will focus on preparations for the Paris Agreement to enter into force. With LGX, a dedicated platform for both issuers and investors, we are granting the solution for financing green projects.”
Only 100% green
LGX gathers issuers that dedicate 100% of the raised funding to green investments. It is home to the majority of the 114 green bonds listed on LuxSE, worth over $45 billion. LGX marks the first time that a stock exchange requires green securities to adhere to strict eligibility criteria, including:
Self-labelling as green or equivalent (e.g. climate-aligned). The issuer has to clearly state, during the application process, the intended green nature of the security.
Use of proceeds. Need of a clear disclosure that the proceeds are exclusively used for financing or refinancing projects that are 100% green, according to the GBP or CBI eligibility taxonomy.
Ex-ante review and ex-post reporting. Issuer’s commitment to provide both independent external review and ex-post reporting – a requirement unprecedented on the market.
“Ex-post reporting is far from being the market standard. The bold decision to introduce it as an entry requirement stems from our ambition to be able to guarantee that securities on LGX are genuinely green. Such reassurance is what investors seek as they increasingly expect issuers to be crystal clear about the use of proceeds,” the CEO added. Access to LGX is banned for securities on the excluded categories list comprising of, but not limited to: nuclear power production; trade in CITES; animal testing for cosmetics and other non-medical products; medical testing on endangered species; fossil fuels. The LGX concept has been developed in line with best practices set out by Climate Bonds Initiative, International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF). LGX has its own logo – a colour variation of the standard LuxSE trademark. “An issuer who does not meet LGX eligibility criteria can still list on our markets, but the ‘bar is higher’ for entry to LGX. Having said that, we encourage issuers to go further than the minimum requirements and really leverage this platform to create new standards on the quality of communication with investors,” Robert Scharfe added.
Green market is our duty
With over $42 billion in new issuances globally, 2015 was another record year for labelled green bonds. As estimated by the Climate Bonds Initiative, in 2016, the green bonds issuance will reach $100 billion. The already thriving green bonds sector received an additional boost after the COP21 conference in Paris last year during which 195 countries agreed on keeping the rise of global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius. The International Energy Agency estimates that the world needs $1 trillion a year until 2050 to finance a low-emissions transition. The market for green finance is growing fast, and yet it represents an almost invisible fraction of overall capital market funding.
