CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrGilbert Addeo, nombrado COO de Investment Placement Group - foto cedida. Gilbert Addeo, nombrado director de operaciones de Investment Placement Group
Investment Placement Group (IPG) has announced that industry veteran Gilbert “Gil” Addeo has been appointed Chief Operating Officer and Head of Business Development. Mr. Addeo, will be based in San Diego and report directly to Mr. Adolfo Gonzalez-Rubio, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IPG.
With over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, Mr. Addeo will be an integral member of IPG’s executive leadership team with direct oversight of compliance, operations, trading, private banking, finance, information technology and business development.
Mr. Addeo most recently served as a Director at Pershing LLC, a BNY Mellon Company, where he oversaw the international Relationship Management teams. Prior to that, Mr. Addeo served as the Head of Business Development and Relationship Management at Bear Stearns Clearing Corp.
Mr. Gonzalez-Rubio commented, “We are very happy to have Gil become part of the IPG team. Having known Gil for many years, I can say that he is a talented leader and brings a lot of expertise to IPG. I look forward to working with Gil and I am confident with his leadership we can achieve our goals of attracting new advisors to our platform.”
Mr. Addeo commented, “I am very excited to become part of the IPG team. IPG is a great organization with a 30 plus year history of success and clear vision of growth in both international and domestic markets. IPG has all the tools from dynamic global trading in Equites, Fixed Income options and commodities, partnerships with the top clearing and custody platforms in the industry and access to various investment products for our clients. This is the perfect environment for advisors looking to gain independence with a fully developed platform to support them. I look forward to the opportunities ahead.”
Foto: EvelynGiggles, Flickr, Creative Commons. Schroders incorpora a Chris Hsia y Mei Huang a su equipo de Multiactivos
Schroders has announced two further hires within Multi-asset Investments and Portfolio Solutions (MAPS), a business which manages £75.5 billion (as at 30 June 2015) on behalf of its clients globally.
Chris Hsia joins Schroders as Product Manager for MAPS, from Morgan Stanley where he spent the last 16 years, most recently as the Chief Investment Officer for Bank Morgan Stanley AG and as the Head of Investment Products & Solutions for International Wealth Management within Morgan Stanley &Co. As MAPS Product Manager Chris will help drive the product-led communications of a selection of MAPS strategies. Chris will work with Schroders regional Product Managers, relevant consultant and distribution teams to ensure Schroders’ clients have all of the relevant information that they require. Chris will report to Henriette Bergh, Head of UK and European Product & Manager Solutions.
Mei Huang joins Schroders as Quantitative Analyst, from the Global Equities research division of HSBC Asset Management. Prior to this Mei worked at AQR Capital Management LLC as Portfolio Manager within the Global Stock Selection (GSS) team. There Mei co-managed AQR’s global equities funds and strategies. Mei will report to Peter Weidner, Head of Advanced Beta, Multi-asset Quantitative Research and will be responsible for researching and constructing advanced beta equity strategies.
Nico Marais, Head of Multi-asset Investments and Portfolio Solutions commented: “Strengthening our ability to interact with clients around investment outcomes and building our Advanced Beta capabilities are key initiatives. We are therefore pleased to have Chris and Mei join the MAPS team in their respective roles.”
Foto: Getty Images. Aberdeen compra Arden Asset Management para fortalecer su plataforma global de alternativos
Aberdeen Asset Management Inc announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Arden Asset Management LLC, a provider of hedge fund solutions with offices in New York and London.
This acquisition is in line with Aberdeen’s strategy to strengthen and grow its global alternatives platform encompassing multi-manager research and selection across hedge funds, private equity, and property along with direct investments in infrastructure projects. This means that Aberdeen can offer its clients access and exposure to high quality alternative investments across liquid strategies, private markets and real assets.
Arden is a hedge fund specialist that creates and manages hedge fund portfolios across the liquidity spectrum using its proprietary manager selection and portfolio construction processes. Arden advises on and manages assets on behalf of a wide range of clients, including corporate and state pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, global bank platforms and retail investors. In 2012, Arden launched an innovative, daily liquidity product into the US market providing diversified, alternative investment strategies allocating to many brand name underlying hedge fund managers. The business is complementary to Aberdeen’s existing hedge fund solutions capability and the two teams will be fully integrated. This will position Aberdeen as a leading hedge fund investor with over 30 investment professionals and around US$ 11 billion of assets under management for the combined team.
The transaction provides key benefits to Aberdeen, it grows Aberdeen’s alternatives platform and enhances their position in the US and global institutional investor market. It represents immediate entry into portfolios of liquid alternative products in the US and adds US-based investment professionals, with an investment process which is highly complementary to Aberdeen’s, broadening their global platform.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval from the UK FCA and notification to the Irish Central Bank. It is also subject to obtaining the approval of the Board of Trustees and shareholders of certain mutual funds. The aim is to complete the transaction during the fourth quarter of 2015.
In May, Aberdeen announced the acquisition of FLAG Capital Management, a manager of private equity and real asset solutions. Aberdeen’s alternatives platform, overseen by Andrew McCaffery, Global Head of Alternatives, will have total assets under management of over US$ 30 billion following completion of both transactions.
Pakenham Partners and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP served as financial advisor and legal advisor to Aberdeen on this transaction. Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP served as financial advisor and legal advisor to Arden.
Commenting on the transaction, Martin Gilbert, ChiefExecutive of Aberdeen Asset Management PLC, said: “Institutional investors are looking to hedge fund solutions to offer risk-return profiles not available via mainstream strategies and traditional asset classes. The acquisition of Arden emphasizes further Aberdeen’s commitment to diversifying its overall business and to growing its alternatives platform. The deal significantly strengthens our hedge fund solutions capability and expands our global client base. Arden’s liquid alternatives platform in the US is particularly attractive as it provides investors with exposure to a portfolio of hedge fund-like strategies but importantly offers daily liquidity.”
Commenting on the transaction, Averell Mortimer, CEO & Chairman of Arden, said: “We are thrilled to be joining Aberdeen, a leader in the global asset management industry. The deal creates a combined hedge fund platform with international reach overseen by an experienced team of investment and operational professionals. Becoming part of Aberdeen will enable us to share ideas and best practice that will assist in continuing to build on our proven track record of developing customized hedge fund and liquid alternative solutions for clients worldwide.”
Foto: Sonny Abesamis
. La deuda de los mercados emergentes debería comportarse mejor en los próximos años
The Greek crisis dominated news flow over the month, culminating in the country defaulting on its IMF payment. The situation remains fluid and highly uncertain, however, aside from some short-term volatility, the InvestecAM team feels that the wider market impact for emerging market investors is negligible. There have been, in their view, much more pertinent developments for the asset class elsewhere during the month. First, there has been a palpable pick-up in US economic activity after the ‘soft patch’ earlier in the year, which has implications for US interest rates. Second, China’s fiscal and monetary policy appears to be becoming more stimulative, in an attempt to reduce the risks associated with a more severe economic slowdown, says the team in the Emerging Market Debt Outlook.
“Our base case remains that the US Federal Reserve (Fed) will start its rate hiking cycle in September.” It states. However, the firm remains of the opinion that we will see a very gradual tighteningcycle from the Fed thereafter, and even that first hike will likely be accompanied by very dovish wording. Market volatility over June saw investor inflows to EMs weaken to its slowest pace of the year, although EM debtflows remain positive (source: IIF). Volatility may persist until we see greater clarity on the path of Fed rate hikes, but they continue to believe that we will not see drastic outflows from the asset class.
Investec AM remains cautious in its global outlook for growth.The firm is encouraged by stronger data from developed markets, but data flow from emerging markets, in their view, remains disappointing. The asset management firm expects Chinese growth to moderate further. While recent easing measures should prevent a sharp deterioration, they see too little underlying domestic demand for an uptick in growth in the short-term.
“We believe that inflation remains well-contained across most EMs, and the moderate growth outlook in China means we don’t foresee upward surprises from commodity prices, while worries over any upside risks from El Nino weather effects are subsiding” the report says. “We believe that the asset class, despite short-term headwinds, should perform better over the next few years” it concludes.
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrBurkhard P. Varnholt, director de Inversiones de Julius Baer. Julius Baer: “Todo se está poniendo en su sitio para que la segunda mitad del año sea más tranquila”
Global financial markets are entering calmer water. European policymakers once again bought some time with a last-minute deal for Greece, while the Chinese authorities flexed their muscles to contain the damage on their equity market. Even the negotiations with Iran yielded a positive surprise last week. According to Burkhard P. Varnholt, Head of Investment Solutions Group and CIO, still, an escalation of the conflict in eastern Ukraine or of some of the religious tensions in the Middle East can never be ruled out. “But the bottom line remains that we expect a period of moderate growth and limited disruptions. Central bank policy will remain accommodative, which is the backbone of our long-held strategy to maintain a meaningful exposure to equities”.
And things are falling into place for a calmer second half of the year, he says.
Greece: Buying Time
The latest support programme for Greece, as painful as it may look for the Greek pensioners and consumers, is not solving all problems. “We may argue how much damage the referendum has done and how necessary a debt restructuring may be. Yet at this juncture, we note that the Greek crisis has not derailed the eurozone recovery. A strong demand for Greek goods and services –in particular tourism – is the best for Greece to emerge from the crisis”.
The outlook for European equities remains favourable. Peripheral economies will benefit from a positive feedback loop of lower yields, better conditions for lending and stronger growth. “Our exposure to European equities thus remains meaningful”.
FED’s Yellen Stays on Course
Fed Chair Janet Yellen used the opportunity to repeat her mantra before the US Congress last week. She reiterated her positive view on the US economy and her conviction that the first rate hike is due later this year. Incoming data of consumer confidence and private consumption are not weak enough to keep the Fed from starting the interest-rate hike cycle.
At the same time, they are not strong enough either to boost earnings expectations. In fact, for the full year, US companies’ sales are expected to remain unchanged from last year. About one quarter of the S&P 500 companies have published their results for the last quarter so far, with sales down by an average of 0.5% and earnings up just 2.5%.
China’s ‘Whatever It Takes’
The widely observed correction of the Chinese domestic equities must be put in perspective. It only occurred after a triple-digit advance of the market, and the Chinese benchmark indices for domestic shares are still up materially year-to-date. The volume of margin balance accounts, i.e. levered trades, had surged from CNY 1 trillion at the beginning of the year to CNY 2.3 trillion by mid-June and is down to CNY 1.4 trillion now. These figures may look massive but they are dwarfed by the volume of international reserves and other buffers the Chinese administration has at its disposal to pursue its policy targets. Given the strong commitment of the government and the central bank to support the equity market, the risk of a further implosion of the Chinese equity market is rather small. “Hence we maintain our positions in Asian equities as well as Chinese renminbi offshore bonds”.
PBOC at Odds with Gold
Over the course of the last two decades, China has grown so much in size and influence that its moves and intentions can hardly been ignored. The collapse of the gold price last Friday is the latest example of China’s impact. For the first time since April 2009, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) published its official gold holdings. They were up 604 tonnes during this six-year period, much less than the market had anticipated. Indeed, gold accounts for only 1.5% of China’s international reserves, while it can make up to 75% in Western central banks’ balance sheets. The price of gold fell immediately after the publication of the figures, as strategists had to scale down their estimates for central bank absorption as investors’ confidence in the precious metal was further eroded. “We have no exposure to gold in our asset allocation and are not intending to change this anytime soon”.
Iranian Deal Weighs on Oil
Political news flow is almost too good to be true. The US and Cuba have restored diplomatic relations, while Iran has signed an agreement to swap better control of its nuclear facilities for an end to the embargoes. The latter deal is weighing on the oil price as Iran’s production is likely to come on the market in the medium term. It is our long-held view that supply is outpacing demand on the global commodity market, arguing against taking a position in commodities for the time being.
“Among the central bank meetings scheduled for the next couple of days, it is fair to say that the Fed stands out. We expect the US central bank to confirm its positive economic view and to reiterate its pledge to raise rates later this year. Barring any negative surprises, we should have no EU summit anytime soon, leaving us some respite from the hectic of late”.
Foto cedidaDe izquierda a derecha, Cristina Caamaño, Guillermo Viñuales y Celia Galofré.. credit suisse
Credit Suisse has announced that Harald Réczek has been appointed Head of EMEA and Swiss Distribution for Asset Management. He will take on this new role effective immediately.
The hire emphasizes Credit Suisse Asset Management’s renewed commitment to investing in and building out its distribution in EMEA and Switzerland with a focus on institutional and wholesale markets. As Head of EMEA and Swiss Distribution, Harald Réczek will be responsible for managing the distribution of Core and Alternative Investments in Switzerland, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom and the Middle East.
Harald Réczek will be based in Zurich, and will report functionally to Charles Shaffer, Head of CSAM Global Distribution, and locally to Tim Blackwell.
Harald joins Credit Suisse from Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management where he most recently served as Co-CEO of Deutsche Asset Management Switzerland, as a member of the Deutsche Bank Switzerland Executive Committee, and as a member of the EMEA Distribution Management Board of the Global Client Group. Prior to this, he was Head of the Global Client Group Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Central and Eastern Europe. In these roles he successfully managed both retail and institutional distribution for the division.
Tim Blackwell, Head of Global Core Investments, said: “Harald has an impressive track record in the industry, in-depth experience, and a strong network. He will play a key role in growing our direct distribution efforts both in the Swiss and European markets.”
Photo: Mark Hillary. Bradesco to Buy HSBC Brasil’s Unit for US$ 5.2 Billion
Banco Bradesco SA, Brazil’s No. 2 private-sector bank, agreed to buy HSBC Holdings Plc’s Brazilian unit for BRL 17.6 billion (US$ 5.2 billion), narrowing the gap with larger rivals while boosting its base of affluent customers in Latin America’s largest economy, according to Reuters.
The deal between Bradesco and Europe’s largest banks includes the latter’s Brazilian retail banking and insurance units. The agreement, which still requires regulatory approval and was sealed on July 31, could close by June.
The purchase price, which could change to reflect the net asset value of both businesses, is equivalent to 1.8 times book value, way above what analysts expected and above Bradesco’s own valuation. On July 20th, it was reported that Bradesco had entered exclusive talks with HSBC after offering to pay about BRL 12 billion, or 1.2 times book value. Shares of Bradesco posted their steepest drop since July 23, shedding 4 percent.
The all-cash acquisition will allow Bradesco to close the asset gap with larger rivals Itaú Unibanco Holding SA and state-controlled banks Banco do Brasil SA and Caixa Econômica Federal.
HSBC Brasil’s focus on high-income customers fits well into Bradesco’s plan to ramp up sales of specialized financial services for the wealthy and larger corporations.
The takeover, Bradesco’s first since the 2009 purchase of Banco Ibi SA, will increase its assets by 16%, number of branches by 18% and staff by 23%. Bradesco expects the purchase to contribute to earnings starting in 2017.
Bradesco paid BRL 10.4 billion for HSBC Bank Brasil, BRL 4.7 billion for the HSBC Serviços insurance unit and BRL 2.5 billion for a measure of future additional revenues or scale gains, it said in a presentation.
Following the acquisition, Bradesco’s capital regulatory ratio, a measure of solvency strength, will decline to 9.9% from 12.8% currently. Analysts estimated that Bradesco could deduct as much as BRL 6.5 billion in goodwill from the HSBC acquisition.
On the other hand, HSBC’s sale of its Brazilian business represents a retreat from the second-largest emerging market economy after years of disappointing performance.
HSBC, which arrived in Brazil late in the 1990s, never gained enough size to pose a real threat to Itaú, Bradesco or Banco do Brasil, the nation’s top lender by assets. HSBC Brasil has 854 branches and 21,000 employees. Its assets of about BRL 170 billion represent about 2.3 percent of the total for Brazil’s banking system.
HSBC was advised on the deal by its own investment banking unit and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Bradesco was advised by its own investment banking unit Bradesco BBI, as well as JPMorgan Chase & Co and NM Rothschild & Sons Ltd.
Foto: Alberto Carrasco, Flickr, Creative Commons. Thomson Reuters lanza una estrategia que combina los modelos de búsqueda de alfa en renta variable de StarMine
Thomson Reuters has announced the release of the StarMine Combined Alpha Model (CAM), a model that combines all the available StarMine equity alpha models into one comprehensive and powerful alpha-generating signal. The weights assigned to each model vary by region. Thus, StarMine CAM recognizes the fact that some regions, such as the US and Japan, are more value focused while in Developed Europe and Asia ex-Japan momentum plays a larger role. The model intelligently handles missing data and makes use of all available StarMine alpha models for a given security.
StarMine CAM provides investment managers with a resourceful factor to help create market-beating portfolios – a factor that distils an enormous quantity of data down to a single score for 30,000 stocks globally every day.
“Clients often ask us ‘what is the best way to combine the StarMine signals?’ We now have our best answer to that question – use StarMine Combined Alpha,” said Dr. George Bonne, director of quantitative research at Thomson Reuters.
Over the last ten years, StarMine has created a number of quantitative equity alpha models to help take advantage of observed market anomalies and human behaviours. Every StarMine model is based on strong economic intuition and supported by a plethora of academic research as well as StarMine’s own rigorous research, backtests and robustness testing. The StarMine models used in StarMine CAM are Analyst Revisions, Relative Valuation, Intrinsic Valuation, Price Momentum, Earnings Quality, Smart Holdings, Insider Filings (US only), and Short Interest (US only). StarMine CAM is StarMine’s best performing alpha model to date.
“We are delighted to be able to combine our content to create a solution that simplifies our clients’ daily tasks in support of their global businesses,” said Debra Walton, chief content officer at Thomson Reuters. “This represents another step forward in our ongoing commitment to connect and enable the global financial community by harnessing our data and analytics in new ways that add greater value.”
StarMine CAM is currently available through Thomson Reuters Eikon, the premier desktop platform for financial professionals, and will be available as a datafeed through DataScope Select in the near future. Thomson Reuters DataScope Select is the strategic data delivery platform for non-streaming content globally. The platform is a full cross-asset offering with intelligently linked data for all Thomson Reuters DataScope content including reference data, corporate actions, legal entity data, end-of-day/intra-day pricing and evaluated pricing services.
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrMauricio Rivero - Foto cedida. Mauricio Rivero se incorpora como socio a Cantor & Webb
Mauricio D. Rivero is joining Cantor & Webb P.A. from private practice. With his addition the firm expands its international tax and estate planning capabilities for international private clients.
Mr. Rivero brings more than 20 years of experience in international tax, business succession planning, probate and trust litigation, U.S. tax compliance and tax controversy work. He assists many international families and businesses with developing strategies to address both inbound and outbound U.S. tax issues with techniques such as U.S. income tax treaty planning and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. He counsels U.S. individuals and companies with regard to their operations abroad as well as foreign individuals and companies with operations in the United States. Mauricio has a great deal of experience creating individualized pre-immigration plans for high net worth foreign individuals seeking to relocate to the United States.
Mauricio said, “I hope to help expand the firm’s already distinguished profile in Latin America and Europe through my experience in the areas of international tax planning, tax compliance and international private wealth services. I look forward to working with my colleagues to provide top quality legal service to our clients and further cement our status as the go-to firm for international private clients.”
After earning a Bachelor of Arts in English and History from Florida International University in 1991, Mauricio spent ten years working for the Internal Revenue Service as a Revenue Agent where he gained significant experience handling a variety of complex tax matters for the Internal Revenue Service including both domestic and international tax issues. Mauricio went on to earn his Juris Doctor from the College of Law at Florida International University in 2005 and has been in private practice ever since.
Born in New Jersey and raised in Miami, Mr. Rivero was admitted to The Florida Bar in 2006. Mauricio was ranked as a Rising Star by Super Lawyers 2015 and listed as a Legal Elite by Florida Trends 2014.
According to ETFGI’s analysis there was US$2.971 trillion invested in the 5,823 ETFs/ETPs listed globally at the end of Q2 2015, assets were down slightly from their record high of US$3.015 trillion at the end of May 2015, while assets in the global hedge fund industry, according to a new report published by Hedge Fund Research HFR, reached a new record high of US$2.969 trillion invested in 8,497 hedge funds, which is US$2 billion smaller than the assets in the global ETF/ETP industry.
This is a significant achievement for the global ETF/ETP industry, which just celebrated its 25th anniversary on March 9th while the hedge fund industry has existed for 66 years. The ETF/ETP industry have been gaining on the assets invested in the hedge fund industry, more notably since the financial crisis in 2008.
In Q1 2015 the performance of the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index was 2.3%, which is only 1.3% higher than the 1% return of the S&P 500 Index. Many investors have been disappointed with the performance of hedge funds over the past few years as the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index has delivered returns significantly below the returns of the S&P 500 Index, according to S&P Dow Jones.
With the positive performance of equity markets many investors have been happy with index returns and fees. This situation has benefited ETFs/ETPs, which offer an enormous toolbox of index exposures to various markets and asset classes, including hedge fund indices and some active and smart beta exposures.
The ETF structure offers intraday liquidity, transparency, small minimum investment sizes and at costs that are lower than many other investment products, including futures in many cases. According to our research the asset-weighted average annual cost for ETFs/ETPs is 31 basis points or less than one third of a percent, while fees charged by the majority of hedge funds are 2% of assets and 20% of profits.
Accordingly, net inflows into ETFs/ETPs have been significantly higher than net inflows into hedge funds over the past few years. In the first half of 2015, net inflows into hedge funds globally were US$39.7 billion, while net inflows into ETFs/ETPs globally were US$152.3 billion over the same period.
