Wikimedia CommonsPhoto: Ernesto. Planigrupo Management Buys 9 New Shopping Malls in Mexico for $253 Million
Planigrupo Management, through its CKD PLANICK, has made an investment of US$253 million in nine shopping malls in Mexico. The investment was made in capital and debt, and was duly approved by the Holders’ Assembly on January 16, March 19 and May 15 of 2013 respectively.
The investment represents the total purchase of eight shopping malls and a partial purchase of a ninth, all located in the Mexican Republic where the middle classes are experiencing a continued resurgence.
At the close of April, Planigrupo Management had 2.5 billion pesos (197 million US dollars) invested by Mexican pension fund managers, or AFORES. This stands as the thirteenth largest investment on structured instruments according to data from Consar, Mexico’s National Commission for Retirement Savings.
The trust’s principal goal is to invest in the development, acquisition, design, construction, maintenance, leasing, management, administration, renovation, expansion and financing of real estate in Mexico, as well as making investments to acquire the rights to collect income from the lease of Mexican shopping malls. It announced the transaction, completed on May 17, via a communication sent to the Mexican Stock Exchange.
Photo: Freefr . CaixaBank Considers Selling 10% Share of Grupo Financiero Inbursa
In a statement issued las week, CaixaBank said it was studying the possibility of placing approximately half of its participation in Grupo Financiero Inbursa (GFI), equivalent to about 10% of GFI’s common stock, in the Mexican and international markets. “A final decision has not yet been made,” was communicated by the Spanish entity to the CNMV, the Spanish Stock Market Commission.
The entity emphasized that the final decision regarding the placement will ultimately depend on the market conditions and will be communicated accordingly by CaixaBank through the appropriate channels.
In any case, the financial institution stated that CaixaBank’s intention regarding a potential and partial divestiture of its participation in the financial group controlled by the millionaire Carlos Slim, “was not to change its commitment to the GFI project or its principle shareholders”.
Grupo Financiero Inbursa’s 10% stake is currently valued close to US$1.6 billion on the stock exchange, well below the investment that was made by the Spanish bank. In May 2008, CaixaBank bought the share at 38,5 pesos per share, contrasted with the current price of 29,4 pesos per share. This announcement comes at a time when the Spanish banking sector is once again under scrutiny, due to a possible and necessary injection of capital
Photo: Averette. Miami, destino principal del medio billón de dólares offshore que generará América Latina
According to the Boston Consulting Group 2013 Global Wealth Report offshore wealth, defined as assets booked in a country where the investor has no legal residence or tax domicile, rose by 6.1% in 2012 to $8.5 trillion. Despite this increase, stronger growth in onshore wealth led to a slight decline—to 6.3% from 6.4%, compared with 2011—in offshore wealth’s share of global private wealth. While offshore wealth is projected to rise modestly over the next five years, reaching $11.2 trillion by the end of 2017, BCG concludes that wealth is increasingly moving onshore due to the intense pressure that tax authorities are exerting on offshore centers.
Sources and Destinations of New Offshore Wealth Since existing wealth in offshore centers will likely remain fairly static in the coming years, the battle for leadership in offshore centers will largely be determined by the ability to attract new offshore wealth. Over the next five years, BCG projects that offshore wealth created globally will come largely from investors in Asia-Pacific ($1.4 trillion), Latin America ($0.5 trillion), the Middle East and Africa (MEA, $0.5 trillion), and Eastern Europe ($0.2 trillion).
Asia-Pacific offshore centers such as Singapore and Hong Kong are expected to receive most of the newly created wealth in the region that finds its way offshore. Similarly, offshore centers in the Caribbean region will benefit most from new offshore wealth created in Latin America, as will Miami-based U.S. and Latin American banks. European offshore centers are expected to profit most from offshore wealth created in Eastern Europe and MEA.
Overall, Asia-Pacific offshore centers will become more prominent. They are projected to hold roughly 18% of global offshore wealth by the end of 2017, compared with 15% in 2012, with European offshore centers dropping slightly from 58% to about 55%. The share of offshore centers in the U.S. and the Caribbean region will remain steady at around 20%, since they are expected to attract a fair share of new offshore wealth as well.
Switzerland is expected to remain the largest single offshore center globally, with about 25% of total offshore wealth by the end of 2017, compared with 26% in 2012. Singapore, in second place, is expected to increase its share from 10% to around 12%.
In order to become or remain leading offshore players, BCG highlights that private banks will have to adjust to the current trends by building local presences, developing more sophisticated offerings, and adapting to regulatory requirements. They must also focus on the regions where the most new offshore wealth will be created—and they must be ultratransparent. Last but not least, according to the report, they must focus on the UHNW and HNW segments, which will be the primary sources of new offshore wealth.
. Fibra Inn follows FibraHotel into Toluca, and purchases the Holiday Inn Express
Fibra Inn, a Mexican trust formed primarily to acquire, develop and lease a diverse range of hotel properties in Mexico, has completed the acquisition of the Holiday Inn Express TolucaTollocan less than two months after FibraHotel acquired the Fiesta Inn Toluca Tolloacan, as confirmed by FibraHotel CFO to Funds Society.
According to a statement sent to the Mexican Stock Exchange, Fibra Inn paid 76 million pesos (US$5.9 million) in cash for the hotel, excluding taxes and acquisition costs. This is the third hotel property acquired with the proceeds of the initial public offering which took place on March 13, 2013 and is part of the initial acquisition portfolio which includes the Holiday Inn & Suites Guadalajara Centro Historico, Holiday Inn Express Guadalajara UAG, Holiday Inn Express Playa del Carmen, Holiday Inn Puebla -La Noria and Wyndham Casa Grande Monterrey Valle.
The Holiday Inn Express Toluca Tollocan began operating in April 1996 and has 127 rooms. Through its hotel manager, Fibra Inn will operate this hotel which in 2012 registered an occupancy rate of 31% at an average tariff of 785 pesos.
The trust also announced that it will carry out a capital expenditure plan of 5 million pesos in this hotel to:
Comply with the current standards of the brand
Refurbish some areas to improve its image and
Complement the furniture in public areas and rooms
Joel Zorrilla, Fibra Inn’s director of Operations said that the purchase “will strengthen our presence in this area to meet the demand of Toluca’s industrial zone. Under our sales structure, we expect to improve its operational performance indicators and generate significant synergies between the two hotels we have in this city. “
Fibra Inn has 11 hotels and will have a high quality and geographically diverse portfolio comprised of 14 hotels and more than 2,400 rooms located in nine states.
. Santander Sells 50% of is Asset Management unit to Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic for $1.3 Billion
Banco Santander has entered into a definitive agreement with affiliates of leading global private equity firms Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic to boost the global growth of its asset management unit, Santander Asset Management (SAM). Under the agreement, which is conditioned upon regulatory and corporate approvals, Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic will jointly hold a 50% stake in a holding company that will integrate SAM’s eleven asset management companies in the countries in which it operates. The remaining 50% will be owned by Grupo Santander.
Under the agreement, Banco Santander will distribute products managed by SAM in the countries in which the Group has a retail network. Banco Santander will benefit from the broader, enhanced range of products and services it will be able to offer its customers. In addition, SAM will expand the distribution of its products and services internationally beyond the Banco Santander branch network.
The new company will enhance the asset management unit in the global institutional market, where there is significant growth potential. Its goal is to double assets under management in five years and to participate in the consolidation process taking place in the industry. SAM currently manages EUR 152 billion, mainly in Europe and Latin America.
The agreement with Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic values Santander’s asset management business at EUR 2.047 billion. The transaction, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year, will generate a net capital gain of EUR 700 million for Grupo Santander. The press release does not comment on the cash nature of the payment.
Warburg Pincus is a leading global prívate equity firm focused on growth investing with more than $40 billion assets under management. It is Banco Santander’s partner in Santander Consumer USA, the Group’s consumer finance unit in the U.S. General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm, manages over $17 billion, with investments in more than a dozen financial services companies.
Javier Marín, CEO of Banco Santander, said: “This partnership puts Santander Asset Management at the forefront of the industry’s consolidation process. It will help Banco Santander strengthen its relationship with our banking clients with a more competitive offering to address their investment needs”.
Wikimedia CommonsFoto: H005
. RobecoSAM y S&P Dow Jones Indices lanzan la gama de índices DJSI Diversified
RobecoSAM, the investment specialist focused exclusively on Sustainability Investing, and S&P Dow Jones Indices announced the launch of the Dow Jones Sustainability Diversified Indices Family (DJSI Diversified Family). The new offering provides investors with a family of indices designed to have risk/return characteristics similar to standard global equity benchmarks, but with significantly greater representation to more sustainable companies.
The DJSI Diversified Family is designed for investors who measure their performance against a standard benchmark, but also value the integration of sustainability criteria. Sustainable companies from the S&P Global LargeMidCap Index or regional subindices are selected while seeking to ensure that the resulting index has a low tracking error by avoiding any regional, size or industry bias.
The DJSI Diversified Family follows the same construction approach used in standard benchmark index families. It covers 26 developed market and 20 emerging market countries and replicates the regional and sector allocation of the S&P Global LargeMidCap Index while taking sustainability performance into account. Companies’ sustainability profiles are evaluated using RobecoSAM’s proprietary Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) methodology.
The DJSI Diversified Family leverages the same research capabilities used to construct the existing DJSI. In addition, the DJSI Diversified Family uses specific rules to ensure country, sector and size diversification. Due to the fact that sustainability score distributions differ depending on company size, the DJSI Diversified Family makes use of a size-adjusted relative score (rather than an absolute Total Sustainability Score as is used for the DJSI).
Overview of DJSI Diversified index family (effective as per 30 May 2013):
Dow Jones Sustainability World Diversified Index
Dow Jones Sustainability World Developed Diversified Index
Dow Jones Sustainability Emerging Markets Diversified Index
Dow Jones Sustainability Europe Diversified Index
Dow Jones Sustainability North America Diversified Index
Dow Jones Sustainability Asia Pacific Diversified
Dow Jones Sustainability Emerging Markets Plus Diversified Index
Dow Jones Sustainability World Developed ex Korea Diversified Index
Wikimedia CommonsFoto: Fabián Minetti. WTP Advisors abre una oficina en Buenos Aires
WTP Advisors, a global tax and business advisory firm, has opened an office in Argentina. WTP Advisors Argentina is comprised of the Buenos Aires-based team from Elbert Vagedes Abogados (EVA) and Associates, a prestigious international legal counseling, accounting, tax and business services firm, and will be led by Matias Vagedes, partner.
“Adopting the WTP Advisors brand allows us to offer our internationally-based clients the possibility of relying on professionals and offices in over 29 countries, all with extensive experience in international operations and tax planning, with the ability to provide them advice and support for a competitive and profitable worldwide development of their businesses,” says Vagedes.
All affiliates of WTP Advisors go through an exhaustive selection process. Only top tier firms with Big Four experience are admitted to WTP’s global alliance of affiliates. “WTP Advisors is thrilled to open an office into the Argentinian market, the second largest in South America, and welcome the EVA team to the fold,” says Ian Boccaccio, co-founder and partner of WTP Advisors.
EVA offers regional and international coverage, skilled professionals with experience in the management of different business cultures and prestigious clients that require them to be updated and prepared to resolve highly complex or cutting edge issues.
J.P. Morgan Asset Management has launched a new iPad app, “providing a revolutionary tool that will equip advisors to have in-depth, knowledgeable conversations about a broad range of market topics, and to share this information with clients in a customizable, interactive format”, said the bank in a statement.
The J.P. Morgan Insights app, which can be downloaded for free from the app store, is an extension of the firm’s popular Market Insights program and Guide to the Markets, a collection of comprehensive market insights distributed in print to more than 90,000 advisors nationwide every quarter.
“Advisors rely on our Market Insights content to help clients make sense of market events. This information helps them cut through the headlines and extreme opinions of the day and make decisions based on facts, not emotions,” said Marlene DeLuca , Head of Global Insights at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. “Providing direct access to this content through the Insights app will provide a greater degree of immediacy, flexibility and customization than was previously available.”
Unique features include:
Ability to customize and share:
Select and “favorite” certain charts from the Guide to the Markets based on topics of interest and create custom presentations that they can share with clients to enhance their investment dialogue
Choose from related video, podcast and other multimedia insight pieces to insert into custom folders
Strategist commentary:
Each of more than 60 slides from the Guide is accompanied by talking points and custom audio commentary from one of our team of Global Markets strategists to fully explain the concept
Allows advisors to include commentary from David Kelly and his team in client meetings
Timely insights:
App is automatically updated when new content is released
Items saved in folders are updated as new data is available
New market recaps, podcasts and economic data added weekly
“Featured Insights” reflect our latest thinking on market developments and opportunities
With the J.P. Morgan Insights app, advisors can access helpful market data to help explain a range of market topics, including global equity markets, correlations and volatility; diversified sources of income; interest rates and inflation; Federal Reserve policies and actions; Global Monetary policy; and, a broad range of economic, investment and asset class questions.
Foto: Averette. STEP convoca al sector fiduciario y de planificación patrimonial en Miami
The 4th Annual STEP Miami Summit will be held on Friday, May 31, 2013 at the Hilton Conrad Hotel, Miami. The Summit is an excellent opportunity to review the latest issues concerncing international private client planning, presented by the leading professionals in the area. Also, the event is a great opportunity to meet and share best practices with your peers, said the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.
Topics to be covered include:
Jurisdictional Updates: Brazil, BVI, Cayman, Colombia, Mexico, Peru
FATCA-Specific Requirements for Foreign Trusts and Foreign Holding Companies
Department of Justice Panel – What’s New on the Enforcement Front?
Using a Corporate Settlor for A Foreign Trust
Trusts and Divorce
OECD Update
Common Mistakes Made in Drafting and Administering Foreign Trusts with U.S. Beneficiaries
Investing for Foreign Trusts with U.S. Beneficiaries
The 2012 Tax Act and its Impact on International Planning
Speaking at the Summit will be:
David Harvey, STEP (UK)
Ana Claudia Akie Utumi, Tozzini Freire (Brazil)
Vanessa King, O’Neal Webster (BVI)
Nigel Porteous, Maples and Calder (Cayman Islands)
Juan Guillermo Ruiz, Posse Herrera Ruiz (Colombia)
Upon completion of the acquisition, Sabadell’s International Branch in Miami will manage over 5 billion dollars of international business volume, and in total Sabadell will have over 12 billion dollars of business volume when factoring in the presence of Sabadell United Bank, the state’s sixth‐largest bank in terms of assets.
May 29, 2013. Sabadell today signed an agreement with Lloyds TSB Bank Plc to acquire the assets and liabilities that comprise Lloyds Bank’s private banking business in Miami.
The transaction encompasses approximately 1.2 billion dollars in managed assets and about 60 million dollars in loans. The initial consideration agreed upon is estimated at 6 million dollars, plus 0.5% of the transferred assets that are still managed by Sabadell one year after closure; the approximate price is 12 million dollars.
The transaction, which is contingent upon pertinent regulatory approvals, is being arranged as part of the negotiations between Banco Sabadell and Lloyds Bank in which Banco Sabadell acquired Lloyds Bank’s business in Spain and Lloyds acquired a stake in Banco Sabadell; the transaction strengthens Sabadell’s private banking business in Miami, where it has been operating for twenty years and has a full international bank license.
“This acquisition significantly builds upon our promise to expand our presence in the Americas and to service international clients from our base in Miami,” said Fernando Perez‐Hickman, Chairman of Sabadell Americas. “We are pleased to welcome the employees and clients of Lloyds’ private banking business in Miami to Sabadell.”
Through the bank’s international branch, Sabadell provides private and corporate banking services focused on individuals and companies operating in the United States and Latin America.
