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Pioneer Investments: “We Must Open up The Range of Opportunities and Ideas in order to Generate Alpha”

“Hay que abrir el abanico de oportunidades e ideas con el fin de generar alfa" — CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrAdam Mac Nulty, Client Portfolio Manager for Multi-Asset Solutions at Pioneer Investments. Pioneer Investments: “We Must Open up The Range of Opportunities and Ideas in order to Generate Alpha”

Volatility has returned to the markets and investors are realizing that, in this environment of uncertainty, there is a possibility of losing money in assets traditionally regarded as safe, such as fixed income. In fact, some debt and equity markets seem to be overvalued and doubts about their behavior are becoming more pressing. “Investors want more stable returns but do not want to experience losses or take risk, and in this regard, absolute return solutions are a good choice. These strategies really do have a place in portfolios,” says Adam Mac Nulty, Client Portfolio Manager for Multi-Asset Solutions at Pioneer Investments, during an interview with Funds Society.

The expert, who recently participated in the Pioneer Forum in Miami, reveals the virtues of a range of the management company’s multi-asset solutions, encompassing multi-asset products with direct investment, even in income mode, funds of funds, tailored solutions, and absolute return multi-asset strategies. The latter, which they have been managing since 2004, have aroused great appetite amongst investors, especially during the last 18 months, due to market conditions.

But not just any absolute return strategy will do. Mac Nulty explains that diversification is the key: being aware of what is in the portfolio; giving beta an increasingly less important role; and placing greater emphasis on alpha generation. “We should not depend on beta because perceptions often do not correspond to reality,” he says.

Alpha generation can be arrived at, for example, by investing in long-short, or relative value strategies: “In traditional strategies alpha is usually only generated on the long side, but it’s different with portfolios that are less restrictive. It’s important to increase the range of investment opportunities and ideas; adopt relative value positions; invest in multiple uncorrelated strategies thus ensuring robust diversification,” he says. All with the intention of reducing the volatility of fixed income and equity markets.

And he admits that the fact of having an absolute return perspective is easier with a multi-asset portfolio than with a single asset: “The fact of not being limited to an asset offers more opportunities.”

In their strategies, they invest in liquid assets, including fixed income, equities, real estate, convertible bonds, derivative strategies, commodities…

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Managing Absolute Return Portfolios since 2004

Since they started managing absolute return portfolios in 2004, the markets have changed greatly. “Many extreme events have happened, such as the 2008 crisis and periods of volatility, from which we have learned and which have helped us to improve the management of our portfolios,” explains Mac Nulty.

For example, in recent years they have introduced more diversification in portfolios (previously they had around 45 strategies, and now there’s around one hundred); more relative value strategies; they are constantly seeking to combine multiple, low correlated strategies into the portfolio; and they have introduced several layers of risk management to help protect the portfolio from the permanent impairment of capital including hedges against possible extreme events in the form of put options, or positions in Gold as a hedge to their macro base case. “We learned a lot from past experiences. It’s also very important to stress test the portfolios regularly to discover how they would behave under different scenarios. Because the next crisis will be different, and we want to be prepared,” he says.

Proof of this is the behavior of the portfolio during last August. After the rally in the first quarter of the year, the managers decided to adopt a more cautious stance. “We believed that the market was too complacent and that valuations were not attractive.” Therefore, they reduced risk, by cutting their equity and FX exposures, and reducing duration from 4 years to 2 years. Their positioning paid off during the summer−especially in the slumps in August− as the team benefited from the low risk of their portfolio.

“We’re not market timers but we’re very good at managing risk. In summer we had very little market exposure, and moderate levels of duration when the sell-off occurred; we were well positioned and the portfolio lost only a small bit of ground,” he explains. After the falls, they assumed a bit more risk in portfolios, although they are still at low levels, and believe that, as yet, there are still no good market entry points. “We believe that volatility is making its way back, which will increase the correlation between asset classes,” advises the expert. “But we are always on the lookout for interesting opportunities and would look to add risk exposure should we experience any further sell offs”.

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The Strategies

Among the company’s multi-asset absolute return strategies, the most noteworthy are two funds which are both managed flexibly and domiciled in Luxembourg: the first, “Multi-Strategy”, is a multi-strategy, absolute return fund launched in 2008, flexible and of long-biased duration, it targets a return above liquidity of between 3.5% and 4.5%; and the second, “Multi-Strategy Growth”, is a somewhat more aggressive version which aims to beat the cash at between 5% and 6%. “We intend to provide stable returns by focusing on risk, without relying on the beta, and with relative value strategies playing a key role,” he explains.

In general, Pioneer’s multi-asset strategies (both funds of funds and direct investment or absolute return focused multi-assets) are based on four pillars of management. The first is the macro, in which managers obtain a main scenario which leads them to favor some assets over others and some regions over others (for example, it can lead them to be positive with Europe or the US dollar but avoid investing in emerging markets, except for in some of them, such as India). The second pillar is macro hedging: a group of hedging specialists, critical of the risk taken in macro strategy, is dedicated to analyzing those risks, their probability, and their potential impact on the portfolios. For example, now they consider that there are risks of a hard landing in China, a bubble in their markets, the possibility that the rate hikes in the US occur too quickly, or too slowly, that there is deflation in Europe … and they analyze the impact on the portfolios. “If they believe that the odds are high, they use hedges,” explains the expert, and such hedgingcan be easily implemented, with gold, for example, or more complex, with derivatives and swaps.

The third pillar is based on relative value satellite strategies, favoring an asset, country, sector, or currency over others … For example, in emerging markets they favor countries that have made reforms, such as India, over those which are debt ridden, and are committed to long positions in this Asian country as opposed to short positions in currencies of countries like Hungary or Brazil. The idea is that these strategies are not correlated with each other or with the macro vision. And the fourth pillar is that of selection, which tries not to replicate the macro vision, and which is a key aspect in funds of funds strategies, but not as much for those of absolute return. In fact, these pillars have different weights depending on whether the multi-asset portfolios are funds of funds, direct investments, or absolute return.

Currently, the management company has 2 billion Euros in multi-asset absolute return strategies, but feels very comfortable, however, and believes they can grow further. “We could manage 20 billion,” says the expert.

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Frédéric Janbon Appointed Head of the Asset Management Business of BNP Paribas

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BNP Paribas announced the appointment of Frédéric Janbon as Head of BNP Paribas Investment Partners (IP), the Group’s asset management specialist. He succeeds Philippe Marchessaux, who will support and advise him during a transition period before taking on, at his request, another project within the BNP Paribas Group.

After successfully steering the integration of various asset management teams from ABN Amro AM, Fortis IM and BNP Paribas Investment Partners to build a global-scale asset management business, Philippe Marchessaux worked further to simplify its structure, consolidate its client base and prepare the business for tomorrow’s challenges.

Frédéric Janbon is to take up his new responsibilities on 20 October 2015. His main task will be to further accelerate the development of BNP Paribas Investment Partners as a benchmark player in institutional asset management and client service. Having started his career in 1988, Frédéric has over 25 years’ experience in financial markets. With the BNP Paribas Group he served in various management positions in the interest rate, derivatives and options markets, before being appointed global head of Fixed Income in 2005, an activity which he successfully steered until the end of 2014. Frédéric Janbon will therefore bring to BNP Paribas Investment Partners his long experience in managing relationships with international institutional investors and in the development of client solutions.

BNP Paribas CEO Jean-Laurent Bonnafé said: “BNP Paribas Investment Partners is a key business for the BNP Paribas Group, both in terms of serving our institutional clientele and providing savings & investment solutions to individual retail customers. This business is very much a part of our growth strategy, which focuses on developing businesses where we are able to achieve high performance in order to offer our clients the best products and services.”

Jacques d’Estais, BNP Paribas Group Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Head of International Financial Services, said: “I would like to express my sincere thanks to Philippe for his contribution to the growth of BNP Paribas Investment Partners over these past six years, particularly the international institutional business line. I have every confidence in Frédéric’s ability to reinforce our range of investment solutions for institutional clients, distributors and individual customers in what is a highly strategic business for the BNP Paribas Group.”

Matthews Asia Launches Credit Opportunities Fund, Adding to its Offshore Line-Up

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Matthews Asia lanza un fondo de crédito en Asia con enfoque total return que se suma a su oferta offshore — Satya Patel and Teresa Kong, portfolio managers of the Credit Opportunities Fund. Matthews Asia Launches Credit Opportunities Fund, Adding to its Offshore Line-Up

Matthews Asia has launched the Credit Opportunities Fund, the newest fund to its offshore line-up, which invests in all countries and markets in Asia, including developed, emerging, and frontier countries and markets in the Asian region.

The Matthews Asia Credit Opportunities Fund intends to distribute its dividends quarterly for the Distribution share classes. Teresa Kong, portfolio manager at Matthews Asia leads the team with Satya Patel. Most bonds in the portfolio will be sub-investment grade, or so-called ‘high yield’ bonds.

The aim of the Matthews Asia Credit Opportunities Fund is to provide investors with a compelling fixed income investment solution that offers yield enhancement and diversification. Asia high yield credit has historically generated attractive returns compared to assets of similar risk: about 10% annualized returns with 10% annualized volatility. By identifying compelling opportunities in the growing Asia credit universe, the asset manager hopes to generate an attractive risk-adjusted return profile over the long run.

The firm points out that Asia has a large and liquid corporate bond market and, as a relatively under-researched asset class, it provides opportunities to potentially benefit not only from attractive levels of yield, but also capital appreciation. The fund intends to leverage Matthews Asia’s 24 years of experience in Asia equity and fixed income security selection to effectively manage this strategy.

Asia’s contribution to global growth continues to grow and the region generally has high levels of foreign currency reserves, high personal savings rates, and low levels of inflation, particularly when compared to Latin America, Russia, and Central and Eastern Europe. Currency regimes across the region have become more flexible over the past 15 years, which generally facilitates more flexible monetary policy by countries in the region. Currencies in the region can be volatile, which is one reason why the Matthews Asia Credit Opportunities Fund focuses primarily on U.S. dollar-denominated investments.

Brazil: The End of the Carnival?

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Brasil: ¿se acabó el carnaval? — Photo: Prefeitura de Olinda . Brazil: The End of the Carnival?

For months positive headlines about the Brazilian economy have been scarce. Real gross domestic product (GDP) is contracting, inflation has soared, and the Real has now lost over 50% of its value since 2014. The country is also facing one of the most pervasive political scandals in recent memory. At present, Brazil is a far cry from being the paragon of Latin American growth.

The economic malaise facing the country is the culmination of long-term structural issues accentuated by short-term cyclical and political factors. A series of policy mistakes has resulted in an imbalanced economy, formerly disguised by the positive effects of booming commodity prices. Brazil’s aggressive taxation regime has discouraged business investment and quelled productivity, while a sprawling social security system has redirected funds away from infrastructure.

The end of the commodity super-cycle has exposed Brazil’s deteriorating fiscal position and dependence on cheap borrowing. It has also undermined confidence in a political system still digesting the fallout from the Petrobras scandal. In a recent poll, President Rousseff’s approval rating had fallen to just 8%.

A tough nut to crack

From a monetary perspective, the central bank is unable to loosen policy for fear of stoking inflation that is already running at over 9%. Fiscal measures are also unlikely as the government embarks on a period of reform to repair past excesses. The current political dislocation, atop an already fragile coalition government, is proving an impediment to substantive economic policy action. In short: a solution remains elusive.

From a market perspective, some commentators argue that the rapidly depreciating exchange rate will provide economic stimulus via exports. We don’t think this sufficient to significantly increase growth. Brazil’s export markets are relatively price inelastic and are largely dependent on a revival in commodity demand. We feel that only a recovery in China can really help the Brazilian economy right now. China is Brazil’s largest trading partner and its thirst for raw materials has been a key driver of Brazilian growth in the past.

Feeling hot, hot, hot

Such stresses are already evident in bond markets. The yield on Brazil’s 10-year local currency debt is over 16% and corporate bond spreads have widened. This pressurises financing requirements for the government, companies and households alike. Households are particularly vulnerable given the recent rise in private sector debt. Equity markets are also struggling as falling company revenues and rising interest rates erode net profit margins.

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The speed of the deterioration may catch market participants off guard; Brazilian government yields have already increased by a third over the past two months (see chart) and the potential spillovers may not be fully reflected in markets. One area we are monitoring is the Spanish banking sector, which has a significant exposure to Latin America.

Brazil has fallen a long way since its ‘momento magico’. It must now embark on the long path to fiscal and political reform if it wishes to restore investor confidence and the belief of ordinary Brazilians in the political system. We remain cautious on Latin America and emerging markets in general, particularly of the potential for a systematic event. We await an improvement in cyclical headwinds and political stability in the short-term, as well as a commitment to structural reform over a longer horizon.

Pioneer Investments’ Miami Forum “Embrace New Sources of Return” Gathers Attendance of 50 Investors from Across Latin America and the U.S.

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Pioneer Investments acoge a 50 inversores de Latinoamérica y Estados Unidos en la conferencia “Embrace New Sources of Return” — Conference "Embrace New Sources of Return" hosted by Pioneer Investments in Miami. Pioneer Investments’ Miami Forum “Embrace New Sources of Return” Gathers Attendance of 50 Investors from Across Latin America and the U.S.

Last week, Pioneer Investments had the pleasure to host an event in Miami under the theme “Embrace New Sources of Return”. Over 50 attendees from Latin America and the U.S. Offshore wealth management industry had the opportunity to listen to Pioneer Investment’s top portfolio managers talking about several topics of interest.

Jimmy Ly, SVP, U.S. Offshore Senior Sales Manager welcomed the delegates and conducted the agenda for the day. During the morning, Piergaetano Iaccarino, Head of Thematic and Disciplined Equity shared Pioneer Investments’ Macroeconomic view for the following months. He was followed by Andrew Feltus, Director of High Yield Bank Loans, who shared his ideas about ‘How to Navigate the Fixed Income Markets, Now and Into the Future.’

Thomas Swaney, Head of Alternative Fixed Income U.S., talked about the role of alternative solutions within credit investing. The morning session ended with a presentation about opportunities in Emerging Markets by Giles Bedford, Client Portfolio Manager of Pioneer Funds – Emerging Markets Corporate High Yield Bond.

After a networking lunch, the program continued with a session about opportunities in U.S. Equities, conducted by Alec Murray, Client Portfolio Manager of Pioneer Funds – U.S. Fundamental Growth. Then came the turn for Income Solutions in today’s economic environment; a topic discussed through a panel in which Piergaetano Iaccarino was joined by Adam MacNulty, Client Portfolio Manager of Pioneer Funds – Global Multi-Asset Target Income. He also shared his thoughts about portfolio construction using non-traditional solutions, such as the Absolute Return Multi-Strategy portfolios.

To wrap up the program, Florian Schneider, Head of Product Research and Development, shared his thoughts about Industry Trends in product and asset management.

Pioneer Investments’Jose Castellano, MD, Head of U.S. Offshore, Latin America, and Iberia, along with Florencia Bunge, SVP, Director of Pioneer Investments’ office in Argentina, joined Jimmy Ly as additional hosts for the event.

You may follow the photos of the event through this link.

The Evolution of China’s Capital Markets

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La entrada de China en los mercados de capital no será fácil — CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrPhoto: Aaron Goodman. The Evolution of China’s Capital Markets

There is little doubt China is going to play a major role in determining the trajectory of global markets. So with the world’s second-largest economy going through a period of profound change, says Investec, it is crucial for investors to gain an understanding of the challenges and opportunities inherent in this transformation.

For the past five years or more China has been rebalancing to make consumption a bigger part of the domestic economy than investment, and services a more important driver of growth than manufacturing. The People’s Republic is also seeking to become better integrated into the global financial system by allowing greater foreign participation in its domestic capital markets and encouraging its companies to invest abroad.

“The recent turmoil in China’s onshore markets was further evidence that this rebalancing process was not going as smoothly as planned, while the global reaction highlighted the fact that many investors have not understood it or the challenges it represents”, points out the firm.

But Investec believe such gyrations should be expected as structural adjustments play out. “As the rebalancing process continues, we anticipate a wealth of opportunities may be uncovered for investors who are prepared to take a disciplined, bottom-up approach with a long-term time horizon”.

According to the Investec´s experts, while many investors may not yet be ready to invest in China’s onshore markets today, there is growing recognition of the importance of developing a more nuanced understanding of the changes taking place in China and the country’s role in the evolution of the global financial system. “We believe that the sharp global reactions to China’s stock market volatility and devaluation of the renminbi over the summer of 2015 make clear that we are embarking on a new era in global markets, one that has China’s increasing integration into the global financial system at its core”.

“This process is only just beginning and the road is likely to be bumpy. Beijing’s policy response to steering the country through its major economic and financial transitions, is not going to be familiar. China is taking an alternative path to financial regulation than that traced by the West by choosing to experiment to find an appropriate position. Beijing will likely make small, regular adjustments to various policy levers to find out what works”, state Investec.

Since the firm established our Hong Kong office in 1997, Investec Asset Management has invested in both onshore and offshore Chinese securities. “Over the past two decades we have learned to navigate the country’s complex and evolving regulatory processes, and understand its unusual market dynamics. We hope to share this insight with our clients and use our knowledge and expertise to help them understand the impact of events in Beijing on their portfolios, wherever they are invested”, conclude.

Josep Oliu, Chairman of Banco Sabadell, Opens Representative Offices in Bogota and Lima

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El presidente de Banco Sabadell, Josep Oliu, inaugura las oficinas de representación de Bogotá y Lima — From left to the right: Jaime Gilinski, main shareholder of Banc Sabadell; Juan Manuel Santos, President of Colombia, and Josep Oliu, Chairman of Banco Sabadell. Courtesy photo. Josep Oliu, Chairman of Banco Sabadell, Opens Representative Offices in Bogota and Lima

Last week, Josep Oliu, Chairman of Banco Sabadell, opened the entity’s new representative offices in Bogota and Lima. Both Colombia and Peru represent key markets in the consolidation process of the entity’s international project in Latin America.

The representative office in Bogota was opened last Wednesday. Some 150 guests in total attended this event, including the President of the Republic, Juan Manuel Santos, and representatives of the business, economic, political and social sectors in Colombia. Among these guests was Jaime Gilinski, with whom Banco Sabadell has recently formalised the acquisition of 4.99% of the local bank BGN Sudameris and signed a strategic cooperation agreement.

Colombia, with an average growth of over 4% since the beginning of the last decade, has become the fourth largest economy in Latin America. Its per capita income has more than doubled, and is now close to the average levels of the region.

The representative office in Lima was opened on Thursday, and over a hundred people attended the event. Peru has experienced an average growth rate of over 5% since 2000, and is now one of the most dynamic economies in Latin America. There has also been a marked improvement in the country’s rank in global competitiveness indices.

The office in Bogota is located in the Stock Exchange building and is managed by Victor Leaño, a Colombian specialist in corporate banking who has worked at Banco Sabadell for over 16 years. His latest role has been as Head of International Development for the Entity in Mexico, Colombia and Peru.

The office in Lima is located in the Umayuq building, on Avenida Victor Andrés Belaunde, in the San Isidro district. The office manager is Juan Ignacio de la Vega, who also has extensive experience in Latin America, having worked in countries like Guatemala and Ecuador. For the last seven years, he has been further developing his professional career in Peru.

The network of Grupo Banco Sabadell’s representative offices and international branches, including Global Corporate Banking activities, are coordinated by the Directorate-General for the Americas & Global Corporate Banking, led by Fernando Pérez-Hickman. At present, Banco Sabadell’s turnover in America is already in excess of 16 billion dollars.

Navigating The Storm: In Risk Budgeting and Alpha We Trust

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Confiar en el alpha, el secreto para navegar en este contexto de mercado — Photo: Arek Olek. Navigating The Storm: In Risk Budgeting and Alpha We Trust

Sailors and mountaineers know it: weather can vary all of a sudden and change a nice family journey into a dangerous endeavour. 2015 started like a beautiful year, blessed by as many as fourteen central banks’ simultaneous efforts to support the economy, with the BoJ and ECB at the forefront. The family picture on 31 March was great: equities and bonds were up during the first quarter; European equities were finally catching up with US equities (up 22%), while Asian stocks were also posting double digit gains, led by China and Japan.

Then, storm clouds gathered. Having bottomed out at 7 bps on 20 April, the 10-year bund yield soared unexpectedly to 98 bps in just a month and a half, generating an unprecedented loss in value of 8.3%. As soon as bond markets stabilised, the Grexit drama came back to haunt investors and policymakers. These clouds dissipated eventually after another marathon all-night summit. But this was a short term relief. Concerns over China’s foreign exchange regime and uncertainties over the Fed’s stance caused unprecedented movements in equity markets in August.

There are fundamental weaknesses that justify market jitters. The economic recovery in Europe and in Japan is weak, large emerging markets ranging from Brazil to China and Russia are experiencing a severe growth deceleration and deflation risks remain significant across the board. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve will sooner or later have to reverse an unprecedented accommodative stance. The valuation of US equities signals that they are now historically expensive, whether measured by the price-to- book ratio or by the cyclically adjusted price-earnings ratio.

That said, it seems to us that in the medium term, the positive developments on the US recovery front will outweigh the negative implications of the above. Overall, the world economy is likely to be supported by buoyant growth conditions in the United States. However, the sharp growth deceleration in emerging markets implies that aggregate demand will likely remain depressed. In this environment we continue to prefer European and Japanese equities. Their valuation remains attractive in relative terms and earnings momentum has recently been supportive. For the reasons listed above we maintain a neutral stance on fixed income: a low growth environment and deflation fears are supportive but valuations are expensive.

It is precisely because there are bad times that there is a long-term premium in investing into markets. If our scenario is correct, markets will keep on conveying the value generated by the growth of the global economy, possibly in a perturbed manner.

More than ever we believe that combining risk-budgeting and alpha strategies delivers returns in the long run. Risk- budgeting generates sound risk-adjusted returns. Aside from this Market Premia harvesting, diversified Hedge Fund portfolios contribute to smoothing the ride. Let us review why.

Alpha strategies

Hedge Fund strategies have proven very resilient this year. Event Driven/ Risk arbitrage have suffered but most Equity L/S or Global Macro managers have managed to smoothen the global turmoil. As of end-September, the Lyxor L/S Equity Broad index is up 1% year to date, while global equity indices are down almost 10%. The HFR Fund of Fund was still positive end of August even if September moves will likely bring it in negative territories. At that date, some Funds of Hedge Funds were displaying positive performances, some of them above 2%, which is quite remarkable in this environment.

Alpha strategies have been under pressure over the 6-year market rally. But over the course of 2015, investors have increasingly allocated to such funds due to traditional long- only funds being less attractive in relative terms. Interestingly, inflows into liquid alternatives in 2015 are reaching record levels in Europe, at EUR 50bn between January-August 2015. This confirms, if any proof was needed, the long-term hedging properties of Hedge Funds as long as investors put enough emphasis on due diligence matters.

Risk budgeting strategies

The short term case for risk budgeting strategies is more involved. They have been roasted by some commentators recently for two reasons:

they have contributed to downward market movements
they have posted disappointing performances. Not only risk budgeting has been wrongly charged of exacerbating market movements but we point out the remarkable long-term properties of these strategies.

Certainly risk budgeting strategies can lead the manager to sell despite having a positive outlook on the market. But this is like reducing the sail surface of a boat when the wind picks up. It might prove costly if the wind falls back but might also avoid a very difficult situation if the wind picks up again.

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As the VIX soared brutally from 13% on 17 August to 41% on 24 August, some people judged that risk budgeting strategies would have immediately cut their position in the same proportion (by 3) hence worsening the sell-off. In our view, this is very much exaggerated.

As far as their performance are concerned, risk- budgeting strategies cannot escape the global market sell-off, particularly when they are long-only. This said, most of them deliver returns above traditional balanced funds since they have reduced gradually their exposure as long as market risk was increasing.

On top of that, the remarkable long-term properties of risk budgeting should be kept in mind. AQR Asness, Frazzini and Pedersen (2012) published a very long-term simulation of a typical risk parity strategy in a article in the Financial Analyst Journal.

Interestingly, these simulations show that not only risk parity strategies do extremely well since 1980 but they would have also been quite resilient between 1930 and 1980. Similar results can be found in many textbooks such as the authority on the matter published by T. Roncalli in 2013.

Even if not doing it in a systematic manner, we definitely recommend thinking in terms of risk allocation more than in terms of dollar allocation since this has proven to be and will likely remain much more efficient.

Nicolas Gaussel is Chief Investment Officer for Lyxor Asset Management.

Amundi Registers Its Document de Base for IPO With The French Autorité des Marchés Financiers

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Amundi inicia los trámites para su salida a bolsa, mientras los analistas valoran la compañía en 8.000 millones de euros — . Amundi Registers Its Document de Base for IPO With The French Autorité des Marchés Financiers

Amundi announces last week the registration of its document de base with the French Autorité des marchés financiers under number I.15-073 dated October 6, 2015.

The registration of the document de base is the first step towards Amundi’s initial public offering on the regulated market of Euronext Paris. The completion of the IPO remains subject to receiving the AMF’s visa on the IPO prospectus and to market conditions.

Amundi’s document de base is available on the websites of the company (www.amundi.com) and of the AMF (www.amf-france.org). A printed copy is available free of charge upon request to Amundi at 90 boulevard Pasteur, 75015 Paris. Amundi draws your attention to Chapter 4 « Risk Factors » of the document de base registered with the AMF.

Yves Perrier, Chief Executive Officer of Amundi, commented: “Since its creation in 2010, Amundi has transformed into a European leader. Thanks to its diversified business model, Amundi has enjoyed a strong growth momentum of its activities and earnings. The planned IPO signals the next phase of Amundi’s growth.”

Ugo Sansone Appointed as Allfunds Consolidates its Luxembourg Operations

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Allfunds Bank ficha a Ugo Sansone para liderar su negocio en Luxemburgo — Courtesy photo. Ugo Sansone Appointed as Allfunds Consolidates its Luxembourg Operations

Allfunds Bank has appointed former Eurizon Capital Ugo Sansone to head its business in Luxembourg to help drive the firm’s international expansion.

Ugo is a highly respected and well-known industry figure in the Luxembourg where he has been an active stakeholder across the Investment Fund sector. Ugo has spent his entire career at Intesa Sanpaolo Group, leading the international commercial activities of its Asset Management affiliate, Eurizon Capital for the past ten years. At Eurizon Capital, Ugo led the international commercial and client service activities, with a relevant role at the Company’s SICAV Management Board. Prior to joining Eurizon he held several roles at Sanpaolo Group both in UK and in Luxembourg.

Under Ugo’s leadership, Allfunds’ Luxembourg operations are fully prepared for the new challenges ahead: to support the international growth of the platform across the world and incorporate more institutional clients across France and the Benelux region.

Allfunds Bank’s Deputy General Manager, Gianluca Renzini, said: “We know Ugo very well as both a client and provider. He knows our company inside out and he can really extract the best from it. We consider Luxembourg strategic for our corporate development, as it is one of the most important financial centres at the heart of Europe, is a natural and logical evolution as Allfunds becomes ever more successful in following and supporting our clients and providers in their international expansion”.

Ugo said: “I am really excited to have this opportunity to build upon my long career in European investment funds and apply that experience in a major fund distribution business. Regulatory change and increasing operational efficiency are key to promoting our services and to be considered as the best fund servicing outsourcer in this market. Allfunds is very well positioned in this market and I look forward to bring it to the next level, increasing our regional client book while supporting the international strategic development of the platform”.