The Fund Selection Blog

Alfred Berg Appoints New CEO

Alfred Berg, the Nordic asset manager announced the appointment of Vincent Trouillard-Perrot as Nordic Chief Executive Officer (CEO). As of Aril 1, 2011, Vincent Trouillard-Perrot, will be replacing François Hullo who will be focusing on BNP Paribas Investment Partners’ institutional sales activities in Southern Europe.

Previous CEO of Alfred Berg, François Hullo commented on Vincent Trouillard-Perrot appointment, in the company press release: “Vincent and I have been colleagues at BNP Paribas for more than 15 years and I know that in his Asian career he has successfully achieved exactly what we have set out to do here at Alfred Berg, namely strengthening the company’s position in the top tier of the market.”

François Hullo will take a seat on the board of Alfred Berg Asset Management AB to secure management continuity.

Hullo continued by adding,“I am extremely pleased to have this opportunity to maintain a strategic role in the further development of Alfred Berg,” says François Hullo.

Vincent Trouillard-Perrot was employed at BNP Paribas since 1991. For the past 12 years he has also served in various roles and positions, in Asia for BNP Paribas Asset Management and BNP Paribas Investment Partners, including several CEO positions. Most recently, he was as CEO for the Hong Kong office and Head of the Asia Pacific regional hub.

Vincent Trouillard-Perrot, commented on his recent appointment: “I’m very much looking forward to this challenge. With almost 150 years of Nordic history Alfred Berg has a solid market position. The company has a strong client base, well-performing products and an extremely competent team.”

Didner & Gerge Fonder AB Appoints Henrik Andersson as Fund Manager

Didner & Gerge Fonder AB has appointed Henrik Andersson as the fund manager for Didner & Gerge Global Fund, which the company intends to launch in autumn. Andersson will begin his appointment this summer, and will work alongside Jens Barnevik.

Henrik Andersson holds a degree in finance from the University of Nebraska, and has a history of fund management from Handelsbanken. Andersson has also been a manager at Arbor European Equity Market Neutral and Arbor.

Morningstar European Funds Award Winners

Morningstar announced their European Fund Awards for 2011. The winners are selected by analysts that recognize fund managers throughout Europe who have demonstrated excellence within the past year, and have also proven to be great managers for shareholders’ capital. Morningstar presents the awards in two categories: Fund Manager of the Year: European Equity and Fund Manager of the Year: Global Equity.

The winner for 2011, include:

Morningstar Fund Manager of the Year: European Equity manager, Cédric de Fonclare for Jupiter European Special Situations

Christopher Traulsen, CFA, director of fund research for Europe and Asia at Morningstar, commented on the award stating, “Cédric de Fonclare is highly experienced and has a flair for bottom-up stock selection informed by a strong awareness of the macro environment. De Fonclare consistently applies a distinctive style, and has delivered for investors across different market environments during his tenure.”

He continued by adding, In 2010, he guided Jupiter European Special Situations to a return of16.03% (EUR), a top-quintile showing in the Morningstar Europe ex UK Large-Cap Equity category, while in 2008’s tumultuous market, he kept the fund’s losses less than 85% of its peers’. Over the course of his tenure, he has delivered strong performance for investors whilst limiting downside risk. He’s an excellent fund manager who fully deserves this award.”

Morningstar Fund Manager of the Year: Global Equity manager, Graham French for M and G Global Basics

Traulsen also commented on on Gragam French’s award, by adding “Graham French is a truly skilled manager who is clearly passionate about delivering excellent long-term returns to his investors. With more than 20 years at MandG, he has a level of experience that’s all too rare in the fund world, and is backed by a strong and stable team. His investment approach is long term and focused on selecting companies that allocate capital sensibly and are respectful of shareholders, which is consistent with his focus on creating value for fund shareholders as well as protecting their capital.

He continued, ‘’ In the MandG Global Basics fund, he seeks truly long-term opportunities in the building blocks of the global economy. As a result, the fund has a higher risk proposition as his themes can be out of favour at times, but French has the patience to ride out short-term underperformance, secure in his assessment of a stock’s ultimate potential. In 2010, French delivered a top-decile return of 32.39% (EUR) relative to his Morningstar Global Small/Mid-Cap Equity peers, and over the past decade, has handily outperformed that group, delivering a return that ranks in the category’s top 5.0%.”

SKAGEN Fund Appointed Ole Søeberg as their New Portfolio Manager

Norwegian, Skagen Funds has hired a new portfolio manager. Ole Søeberg was appointed new portfolio manager for the equity fund SKAGEN Vekst. Together with Beate Bredesen and Ross Porter, they will work on the analysis of existing and potential portfolio companies.

For the past four years, Ole Søeberg, has been the director of SKAGEN Funds (SKAGEN AS), but will leave the board when he starts his post. Søeberg has extensive experience in the global and Danish markets. He has worked with the analysis of global equities at Alfred Berg and Carnegie in Denmark. Most recently he worked at the insurance company Tryg, where he was director in charge of investor relations since 2006.

"With his long experience in capital markets Ole Søeberg will be a good addition to the existing managers in SKAGEN Vekst team. We are very pleased that he chose to start working with us in SKAGEN, "says Kristian Falnes, investment director in SKAGEN, in the company press release.

 Søeberg will begin his new post in the second half of 2011.

Swedish Fund Investors Chose U.S. Fund

Swedish Investors are looking to invest in the U.S, and many have sold last year’s emerging markets, particularly Russia and Latin America.

Claes Hemberg, a savings economist at Avanza bank commented on the recent investments, "Swedish fund investors hope that the turmoil in the world should be returning dollars to strengthen U.S. funds. Moreover, now many positive growth figures from the country, Swedish fund investors have not bought into the US since the 1990s, particularly to the extent we have seen the last few weeks. "

Even still, mutual fund and corporate bonds are still purchased at a higher rate than U.S. funds.

"Few, by contrast, have sold oil and North Africa funds. The reason is that they hardly exist in the Swedes' mutual funds. Instead there was a little optimism and small purchases in 13 out of 16 regional funds in North Africa, "said Hemberg.

Sweden Pension Fund AP7’s New Management Organization

Swedish Pension fund AP7, announced there new management organization. The new corporate organization is comprised of Svante Linder, as new Head of Administration, Charlote Jacbson as the new HR manager, and Christain Ragnartz who will be responsible for external management ethics and corporate governance issues.

The fund aslo appointed Richard Gröttheim as President, back in December 2010 .

The new orgnization also consist of a new Senior Chief Strategist. AP7  announced the open position, along with the other new management structure. 

Fund Manger at Jupiter Invests in the Developed Markets.

Unlike many others who are investing in the emerging markets, Investment Week reports, that Guy de Blonay, has turned over approximately 20% of the £900m Jupiter Financial Opportunities fund, to the developed markets. De Blonary sold major investments in Chinese banks and bought into the US, as well as increasing the exposure throughout continental Europe, including Sweden and Norway. Currently, the fund is now comprised of Europe, at 35% of the fund, and 6% in Asia, compared to November 2010, when the fund was comprised of almost 40% in the Asian markets, and the US made up 4%.

De Blonay, is in lead management of the £897m fund from Philip Gibbs. From November 2010 until now, he has sold holdings in Chinese banks, including Bank of China, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, and China Construction Bank, and bought into US stocks including high street bank Wells Fargo, and investment banks Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase.

De Blonay told Investment Week, "We have reduced the Far East, particularly China, and replaced them with the HSBCs and J.P. Morgans of this world," de Blonay says. "We wanted to reduce the emerging market presence because we wanted to reallocate to developed markets in low inflation environments, and the US was very much one recovering, with low inflation. Chinese banks were about 20% of the fund and that has gone directly into Americans stocks like JPM, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Goldmans."

He continued by adding, "There is a struggle to contain growth in emerging markets, and Standard Chartered has 90% of its revenues from these markets, and we realised costs were going up," he says.

Morevoer, De Blonay also menetioned to Investment Week, that he believes financials could rerate as much as 20% over the next 12 months, and will drive the next leg of the bull market.

Skandia Awards a £67m Equity Mandate to Mandarine Gestion

Skandia Investment Group (SIG), has moved a £67m equity mandate in their leading £1bn Global Dynamic Equity Fund, from Alliance Bernstein’s European value team, and  given it to Mandarine Gestion’s European equity manager, Marc Renaud.

Marc Renaud founded Mandarine Gestion in february 2008, and is best known for his work at CCR asset management.

Skandia's Global Dynamic Equity Fund has been returning 65.9 percent since it launched March 2009,  instead of 53.43 percent from its benchmark MSCI AC World GDP index. The decision to move a £67m mandate, was made in order to enhance their alpha potential within the European equity allocation.

 “Marc has an excellent track record and his high conviction and active approach to stock picking is ideally suited to the Global Dynamic Equity Fund. He runs focused portfolios of 30-40 high conviction stocks and takes a more active approach than many of his peers, who tend to be long-term stock holders. This approach coupled with the types of stocks he targets - which include recovery stories, cyclical shares benefiting from economic upturns, and shares that have fallen out of favour - enables Marc to maximise his chance of success and therefore potentially deliver strong returns for investors.” Stated,  John Ventre, SIG portfolio manager in the company press release.

Swedish Fund Managers Believe in 2011 Stock Market

December 2010: Nordnet, the nordic pension and investment company, consulted 30 fund managers throughout Sweden to find out their perspective on the 2011 stock market.

Out of the 30 managers interviewed, only 2 believed there would be negative outcomes in the stock market in 2011, whereas the other 28 respondents only believed there would be positive outcomes.

Johan Tidestad, Sweden Head of Nordnet, stated in the company press release:  "Despite the storm clouds in the form of many over-indebted countries as the stock market has shown strength in 2010. I believe that the trustees are of the view that we have not seen the end of the stock market for now, and that this positive trend will continue in 2011. The general mood state of the world economy has been on a couple of years has gone from pitch black to doubt. But yet it is far from the general optimism and economic boom, promising that we have a positive period ahead of us in the stock market."

Nordnet provided the fund manager’s with a list of the 30 largest companies in Sweden, and out of those companies, the fund manager’s then selected what they thought the three best and the three worst performers would be in 2011.

The results are as followed :

The three stocks, voted as the best of 2011 were:  

• 1st Volvo 25%
• 2nd Electrolux 25%
• 3rd ABB 21%

John Tidestad, Head of Nordnet in Sweden, commented about the votes:  "Volvo, Electrolux and ABB are three Scandinavian tigers. A large portion of their sales are outside Europe, in emerging regions such as South America and Asia. These companies are not dependent on the Southern European countries solve their problems with public finances over the next year or not, but instead draws from a stronger business in emerging markets. As these companies have their costs in dollars and revenues in other currencies, they will also benefit from a weakening of the krona. It is a development that many managers expect in 2011."

The three stocks, voted as the worst of 2011 were: 

• 1st TeliaSonera 46%
• 2nd Assa Abloy 25%
• 3rd AstraZeneca 21%

"TeliaSonera and AstraZeneca are two so-called defensive stocks, which mean they do not take that much advantage of a boom. There is nothing wrong with the companies themselves - they are well run and make a lot of money. But managers cannot see that there will be no greater appreciation of the shares within the next year and they singled out because at least merchantability in 2011. For Assa Abloy perception seems simply be that the company is highly valued today, "said Johan Tidestad, Sweden Head of Nordnet.

 

 

One of The Best Equity Values Found in Norway

Top fund managers, look to companies in Norway, Italy, and Mexico. Find the full story on Investment News.