Foto cedidaGuy Wagner, director general de BLI.. Banque de Luxembourg unifica sus unidades de gestión de activos
Banque de Luxembourg Investments (BLI), Banque de Luxembourg’s asset management company, has strengthened its multi-management team by recruiting Amélie Morel and Jean-Baptiste Fargeau as fund analysts. The team has now 5 people in charge of analyzing, selecting and monitoring an external fund list, as well as the management of the funds of funds multi-asset classes.
Amélie will be in charge of the follow-up of the asset classes European, SRI, sectorial and theme equities. Jean-Baptiste takes of the responsibility of the asset classes emerging equities and bonds and of high yield and corporate bonds.
“Following new recruitments in the past few years, mainly in the equities and fund distribution teams, we have also decided to strengthen our fund selection team”, says Fanny Nosetti, Head of BLI’s multi-management. “Amélie and Jean-Baptiste have gained first professional experience in other companies before joining us and they are an excellent addition to our asset management company. We are delighted to welcome them to the team!”
Amélie Morel (29) replaces Inès Buttet who left BLI. Following nearly three years auditing investment funds atDeloitte, Amélie worked as an investment analyst with a Luxembourg wealth structurer. Amelie holds a Master’s degree in Finance from Grenoble Ecole de Management and is a level 3 CFA candidate.
Jean-Baptiste Fargeau (36) has an engineering degree from Ecole Centrale de Nantes as well as a master degree in business administration from the IAE Paris. He started his career in Luxembourg in 2005 as a quantitative analyst within the management company J.Chahine Capital, and then became portfolio manager in 2007 in the same company.
As expected, and in keeping with the minutes from its March meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided to keep rates on hold. Importantly, the Federal Reserve Board cited several aspects of the US economy and global conditions that leaves the door ajar for another June or July rate hike.
The Federal Reserve indicated that it would maintain the current level of the target Fed Funds rate at 0.25% to 0.50%, in line with the minutes of the March FOMC meeting.The statement focused on US growth, rather than global conditions.
The statement underscored factors underlying a strong consumer – improved labor market conditions, rising household real income, continued strength in the housing market, and strong consumer sentiment – while acknowledging slower GDP growth, moderating household spending, soft business fixed investment and net exports.
The FOMC took the important step of excluding their prior observation that appeared in the lead-in sentence that “global economic and financial development continued to pose risks,” implying that this risk has abated. Instead, they indicated that they will continue to monitor global conditions and moved this statement to the end of the second paragraph. The outlook for global growth has improved, in the wake of more supportive global central bank policy, increased fiscal stimulus in China, recovering commodity and energy prices and increased inflation.
The statement continued to take a guarded view of inflation; the FOMC eliminated the comment that inflation had “picked up in recent months”; they maintained inflation would “remain low in the near term.” We would cite the recent uptick in core CPI and core PCE as indications of increasing inflation. Apparently, the Fed hasn’t completely bought into this upward trend.
We believe the statement confirms the Fed’s assessment that the futures market still reflects too shallow a trajectory for rate increases. The Fed does not want be forced to implement sharp rate moves that could jolt markets and have a negative impact on still relatively low GDP growth.
We believe this assessment opens the door for a June or July rate increase. We do not think any increase will occur, however, without continued strong employment data, coupled with improved household spending and stabilization in the manufacturing sector.
Foto: Ben
. Preqin reconocido en los 2016 Queen’s Award for Enterprise
Preqin has been awarded a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the category of International Trade. The award recognizes Preqin as an outstanding UK business, citing excellence in its field and sustained growth in its overseas business. This year the awards, which are announced annually on Her Majesty the Queen’s birthday, praise 243 UK companies for leading the way in business achievement.
The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the UK’s highest official accolades for business success. Operating in various forms since 1966, they recognize UK businesses for outstanding achievement in one of three categories:International Trade, Innovation and Sustainable Development. Entrants come from all parts of the UK, from city-located centers of commerce to the remotest of locations, and include organizations involved in a wide range of industries and sectors.
CEO Mark O’Hare said of the award:
“It is a huge honor to be included in this year’s list of Queen’s Award winners, especially so on the occasion of Her Majesty’s 90th birthday. Over the past 13 years, Preqin has strived to deliver excellent products to our customers, becoming the leading source of data and intelligence for the global alternative assets industry. We are extremely proud and grateful to have this hard work recognized by the Queen’s Award panel. I would like to add my deepest gratitude to all of our directors, staff and partners for creating the culture of excellence, integrity, and dedication which characterizes Preqin, and without which this achievement would not be possible. Most of all, we are grateful to our many customers around the world for their longstanding support.”
Zurich-headquartered private bank EFG International has agreed to acquire the Luxembourg based private banking activities of UBI Banca International from Unione di Banche Italiane.
UBI Banca International (Luxembourg) has around EUR 3.6 billion in assets under management.
EFG International specified that the transaction is structured as a cash acquisition of UBI Banca International (Luxembourg) S.A. and will have no material impacts on EFG International’s regulatory capital position.
The deal is expected to close during the first half of 2017, and the company will merge into EFG Bank (Luxembourg) S.A..
UBI’s branches in Madrid and Munich are not part of the transaction, as well as its fiduciary and corporate banking activities.
It forms the second move of EFG International in the M&A activity since the start of 2016 as the company is to soon acquire the Lugano based private bank BSI, after an agreement has been signed on 21 February 2016 with BSI’s sole shareholder BTG Pactual.
The EFG International annual general meeting, scheduled on 29 April 2016, shall result in a shareholder approval for the transaction. The deal is to be closed in Q4 2016 and BSI is expected to entirely merge into EFG International at end 2017.
The Bank of Japan’s regular policy meeting ended in Tokyo on Thursday with the policy committee deciding to take no action. In the event, this was a major surprise considering that in recent weeks the consensus expectation had formed solidly behind the view that the central bank would extend its negative interest rate policy which was introduced in January, and also extend the asset purchase programme. According to Nathan Gibbs, Fund Manager at Schroder Investment Management and renowned contrarian specialized on Japanese stocks, “today’s decision seems to imply that the policy committee feels more time is needed to judge the impact of the most recent changes before extending policy further.”
Japanese inflation, which was also released today, showed a marked slowdown in progress towards the central bank’s own inflation target of 2%. Indeed, in its statement the committee implicitly extended the deadline to reach that 2% target into the latter part of 2017. “This admission that the target has become harder, without any additional policy response, led to an immediate decline of around 4% in the stockmarket from the levels seen in the morning session. At the same time there was a sharp strengthening of the yen as currency markets priced-in the effective change in expected interest rate differentials. Some of the current deflationary impact is clearly due to external forces, including the weakness in the price of oil which forms a major part of Japan’s imports. Nevertheless, financial markets had already reflected the change in expectations with the implied inflation rate in index-linked bonds declining this year from around 0.8% to 0.3%. Most surveys of individual consumers in Japan also suggest that the gradual increase in inflationary expectations which has been generated in the last three years has begun to tail-off,” says Gibbs.
In his view, inconsistency introduces uncertainty and although Governor Kuroda has successfully surprised investors with the timing of previous decisions, the direction of his policy has always been absolutely clear. As a result, most investors have been prepared to accept his assertion that he would do “whatever it takes” to raise inflationary expectations. With those inflationary expectations now in decline, “the lack of response today introduces an element of uncertainty which the financial markets may view negatively. Of course, the central bank’s policy objective is to influence the real economy, not the stockmarket, and we must wait longer to see if the current policy is indeed sufficient to maintain the positive underlying trends we have seen so far,” he concludes.
Current Managing Director of Apex’s Maltese operation, Anthony O’Driscoll, has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer for the group. O’Driscoll, a member of the Certified Public Accountants of Ireland, has been with Apex for 10 years during which time he has worked at various Apex offices around the world; including Mauritius, Hong Kong, Ireland and Malta.
O’Driscoll has been instrumental in the rapid growth of the Malta office which he helped launch in 2008. Opening with just 5 employees, Apex Malta has grown exponentially now boasting a team of 70 employees servicing over 124 funds. Paulianne Nwoko current Operations Manager for Apex Malta replaces O’Driscoll as Managing Director for the office and David Butler becomes Chairman. Butler is the founder of Green Day Advisors LLP and Kinetic Partners, bringing over 20 years of industry experience with him to the role at Apex Malta.
Peter Hughes, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer said: “Anthony has been a driving force behind operational innovation for the Apex Malta office. His dedication and commitment to the success and growth of the office are evident in its rapid expansion since establishment 8 years ago. Through implementing progressive projects, such as successfully ensuring Apex Malta becomes the first paperless Apex office, Anthony has demonstrated an aptitude for operational excellence that we want the rest of the group to benefit from. I’m delighted that he can now support me in the role as COO for the group and ensure these progressive developments are implemented quickly and effectively across the rest of the Apex group.”
Anthony O’Driscoll, Chief Operating Officer said: “I am delighted to take on the role of COO for Apex. The group as a whole delivers a really distinctive service to its clients through continually evolving and adding to its product suite and delivering solutions spanning the full value chain of a fund. Understanding the day-to-day requirements of each unique asset manager, alongside the wider impact of market change on their businesses overall, is what fosters longevity in relationships and forms real trust in our ability to service and support our clients. I look forward to further developing our operating strategy on a global basis and implementing some of the procedures already successfully in place in Malta, to benefit both the other local Apex offices and in turn their clients.”
David Butler, commenting on his role as Chairman for Apex Malta, said: “I am thrilled to be joining the Apex Malta team in the position of Chairman. At this exciting time of growth for the company I will look to supporting its local development and helping reinforce Apex’s position as the leading administrator in Malta”.
Foto: José Carlos Cortizo Pérez
. BMO Global AM lanza el Global Equity Market Neutral Sicav Fund
BMO Global Asset Management has launched BMO Global Equity Market Neutral Sicav fund, in its popular ‘True Styles’ series, a strategy that combines value, momentum, low volatility, size and GARP (Growth at a Reasonable Price) styles.
The investments are all made on the large cap global developed markets universe as represented by MSCI World. The choice of this universe as well as the strict liquidity limits that are applied in portfolio construction ensure that investors in the fund have access to a truly liquid alternative strategy.
“Excess returns of portfolios can often be attributed to exposure to certain styles,” said fund manager, Erik Rubingh, Head of Systematic Equitiesat BMO Global Asset Management. “True Styles is used to focus our portfolios, only targeting the desired styles, without interference from other factors.”
Mandy Mannix, Head of Client Management, BMO Global Asset Management (EMEA), declares: “Our clients believe the BMO Global Equity Market Neutral (SICAV) will deliver an ideal building block for their multi-asset portfolios as it is liquid, highly diversified, with proven low correlation to major asset classes and the strategy has delivered considerably better returns than a passive index with lower volatility.”
The objective of the fund, co-managed by Erik Rubingh and Chris Child, is to generate an annual gross return of 4.5% in excess of cash with a target volatility level of 6%. Euro and US$ hedged share classes are available from launch.
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrFoto: Luckycavey, Flickr, Creative Commons. BlackRock y Jyske Invest destacan entre los ganadores de los premios Lipper
The winners of the Thomson Reuters Lipper European Fund Awards 2016 have been announced. These highly-respected awards honour funds and fund management firms that have excelled in providing consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers – the merit of the winners is based on entirely objective, quantitative criteria.
BlackRock and Jyske Invest collected the top Group Award. The full list of Group Award winners follows:
“We at Lipper would like to congratulate all of the 2016 award winners for successfully navigating the exceptionally stormy waters of the 2015 capital markets. Once again we are proud to recognize the outstanding skill and expertise put forth by these managers to deliver outperformance for their shareholders,” said Robert Jenkins, global head of Research at Thomson Reuters Lipper.
“All the winners of the Lipper Fund Awards deserve to be congratulated for delivering consistently good risk-adjusted performance, relative to their peers. The influential and prestigious Lipper awards are based on regularly superior performance by investment fund managers and groups. We are proud that our measurement of such an achievement enables us to grant these awards withcredible recognition and emphasis on consistency,” said Detlef Glow, head of EMEA Research at Thomson Reuters Lipper.
Please click here to see the full list of winners. Individual classifications of three-, five-, and ten-year periods, as well as fund families with high average scores for the three-year period are also recognized. The awards are based on Lipper’s proven proprietary methodology, which can be viewed here.
Lipper data covers more than 306,000 share classes and over 128,000 funds in 63 markets. The free Lipper Leader ratings are available for mutual funds registered for sale in over 42 countries.
As it is becoming increasingly clear that the central banks’ expansive monetary policy is not leading to a sustainable recovery in economic activity, the recent rally on the equity markets is based yet again on fragile foundations. This is the view of Guy Wagner, Chief Investment Officer at Banque de Luxembourg, and his team, published in their monthly analysis, ‘Highlights.’
The global economy is continuing to grow at a modest pace. In the United States, growth is largely due to the increase in personal disposable income spurred by weak oil prices, the favourable job market and a slight increase in wages, whereas corporate investment is diminishing. In Europe, economic growth rates are weak but positive. In Japan, the expected escalation in wages has not materialised, increasing the likelihood of a fresh government stimulus programme despite the already excessive level of public debt. The extension of the quantitative easing programme in Europe and Fed Chairman Janet Yellen’s reticence on future interest-rate hikes in the United States have led investors back into risk assets again.
The US S&P 500 index even closed the first quarter in the black, although the other indices lingered in the red. “As it is becoming increasingly clear that the central banks’ expansive monetary policy is not leading to a sustainable recovery in economic activity, the recent rally on the equity markets is based yet again on fragile foundations,” says Guy Wagner, Chief Investment Officer at Banque de Luxembourg and managing director of the asset management company BLI – Banque de Luxembourg Investments.
Further quantitative easing measures in Europe Given the weakness of inflation in Europe, the President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, announced further quantitative easing measures in March: the ECB’s headline rate is being cut from 0.05% to 0%, the volume of its debt purchases has been ratcheted up from 60 to 80 billion euros per month, and the programme has been extended to include buying up investment-grade corporate bonds. The ECB also cut its deposit rate and launched a new bank-lending programme to enable banks to refinance on very favourable terms provided they then lend it on to revive economic activity.
Despite their weak yields, bond markets remain attractive Bond yields saw little change in March. Over the month, the 10-year government bond yield inched up in Germany and in the United States, but dipped in Italy and in Spain. “In Europe, the main attraction of the bond markets lies in the prospect of interest rates going, because the ECB’s negative interest policy could be expanded during 2016,” believes the Luxembourgish economist. “In the United States, the higher yields on long bond issues give them some residual potential for appreciation without having to factor in negative yields to maturity.”
No strengthening of the euro in the near future Against the dollar, the euro appreciated in March. Janet Yellen’s dovish words on future interest rate rises in the United States weighed on the dollar and nudged the euro/dollar exchange rate to the upper end of the last 12 months’ fluctuation bracket. “The expansion of the ECB’s quantitative easing programme does nothing to suggest a strengthening of the euro in the near future,” concludes Guy Wagner.
European Smart Beta ETF market flows continued to be strong in Q1 2016. Net New Assets (NNA) year to date (until 31/03/2016) amounted to EUR 2 billion. Total Assets under Management are up 4% vs. the end of 2015, reaching EUR 16.7 billion. Smart Beta assets have doubled since the end of 2014. Year to date, ETF flows were sustained especially in the Risk based & Factor allocation categories as investors looked for defensive strategies and alternative sources of return in an uncertain environment.
Smart Beta definition: Smart Beta indices are rules-based investment strategies that do not rely on market capitalization. To classify all the products that are included in this category we have used 3 sub segments. First, risk based strategies based on volatility, and other quantitative methods. Secondly, fundamental strategies based on the economic footprint of a firm – through accounting ratios- or of a state – through macroeconomic measures. Then factor strategies including homogeneous ranges of single factor products, and multifactor products designed for the purpose of factor allocation.
Q1 2016 flows were positive for Smart Beta ETFs at EUR 2 billion, with a one-year record high at EUR 907 million in February 2016, and a strong month of March at EUR 807 million. The quarterly figure is equal to the amount gathered in Q1 2015, in a context where equity ETFs globally registered significant outflows. Year to date, risk based ETFs registered the highest inflows with a record high on Minimum volatility ETFs at EUR 1.2 billion.
Due to high uncertainties on the economic and monetary environment worldwide,low volatility ETFs continued to attract significant interest especially on US and global indices. In the factor allocation space, multifactor ETFs continued to gather inflows, EUR 357 million year to date, mainly on European indices as investors are looking for diversification in a context of poor equity market performance. In the fundamental space, quality income ETFs benefited from the low yield environment due to their attractive yield/risk profile.
