NEWS SCAN
Broadridge Buys Bonaire
Broadridge Financial Solutions has agreed to acquire Bonaire Software Solutions, a provider of fee calculation, billing, and revenue and expense management solutions for asset managers including institutional asset managers, wealth managers, mutual funds, bank trusts, hedge funds and capital markets firms.
The deal is expected to close in July. Terms were not disclosed. Bonaire was advised by Raymond James & Associates.
CalPERS Helps Participants Avoid Confusion
The $260 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System has made a few changes to its investment fund lineup for the system's Supplemental Income Plans (SIP).
CalPERS' staff and its consultant RV Kuhns engaged in the plans' investment revisions "to avoid an overly complex fund lineup that might confuse the average participant," according to an internal memo. Specifically, the plans' new all-passive fund lineup includes target-date funds, U.S. equity, international equity and short-term bond funds to be managed by State Street Global Advisors, which replaced the plans' former managers The Boston Company, Pyramis Global Advisors and PIMCO.
BMO Goes Down Under
BMO Financial Group is branching out its institutional asset management business in Melbourne, Australia, operating as BMO Global Asset Management. The new office will focus on institutional sales.
To lead BMO Global Asset Management's efforts in Australia, the firm has appointed Ravi Sriskandarajah as managing director, BMO Global Asset Management. Sriskandarajah was most recently head of institutional distribution in Australia for BlackRock.
RiverPark Fund Hits Milestone
The RiverPark/Wedgewood Fund (RWGFX, RWGIX), a focused large cap, open-end growth reached a milestone this week in hitting the $1 billion in assets under management mark.
The fund is managed by David Rolfe, chief investment officer at St. Louis-based Wedgewood Partners, the fund's sub-advisor.
RESEARCH
ETFs Top $2 Trillion
Exchange-traded fund investors pumped in some $84 billion of assets into equity ETFs while fixed income funds brought in $30 billion through May 31, according to data from State Street Global Advisors.
Institutional Alt Fund Adoptions on the Rise
Advisors and institutions are turning to mutual funds as their choice du jour to access alternative strategies, according to new findings by Morningstar.
Alternative mutual funds saw inflows of $19.7 billion in 2012, while Morningstar estimates that among funds in its database, $7.6 billion flowed out of single-strategy hedge funds. While 61% of institutions said they accessed long-short strategies via hedge funds in 2010, only 26% indicated that they used hedge funds for that strategy this year. In contrast, more than 45% of institutions said they access long-short strategies via mutual funds versus 38 in 2010.
Outflows Continue for Bond Funds
Mutual funds gave back $5.43 billion for the week ended Wednesday, June 19, according to the Investment Company Institute. Bond funds had estimated outflows of $7.97 billion, compared to estimated outflows of $13.47 billion during the previous week.
Broad market equity funds saw the greatest flows on an absolute basis with over $25 billion coming in the door and the dividend category also added some $12.6 billion, according to SSgA. As well, low volatility ETFs saw $6.8 billion of inflows representing over 47% of 2012 assets.
PRODUCTS
Direxion's Latest Bull, Bear ETFs Target Japan
Direxion has launched two leveraged exchange-traded funds that track Japanese equity market performance.
The Direxion Daily Japan Bull 3X Shares (JPNL) is benchmarked to the MSCI Daily TR Net Japan USD Index and the Direxion Daily Japan Bear 3X Shares (JPNS) is benchmarked to the inverse of the MSCI Daily TR Net Japan USD Index.
WBI Investments Offers Two Funds
Little Silver, N.J.-based WBI Investments has added two mutual funds to its lineup: the WBI Absolute Return Balanced Plus Fund (WBPNX, WBBPX) and the WBI Absolute Return Dividend Income Fund (WBDNX, WBDIX), bringing the fund family to four funds.
The Balanced Plus Fund will bet on domestic and foreign equities of any size market capitalization while the Dividend Income Fund bets on dividend-paying equity securities of foreign and domestic companies.
Artisan Launches Small-Cap Fund
Artisan Partners has launched a new active equity fund, Artisan Global Small Cap Fund (ARTWX), which will bet on small-cap stocks without regional contraints. The fund will be managed by the global equity portfolio team of Mark Yockey, Charles-Henri Hamker, Andrew Euretig and David Geisler.
AdvisorShares Preps Rising Rates ETF
AdvisorShares is prepping another active exchange-traded fund to add to its roster.
The firm is looking to launch the Treesdale Rising Rates ETF within the next few months to bet on mortgage-related products with interest-only cash flows, according to a regulatory filing.
ARRIVALS
Hartford Funds Adds Two Sales Execs
The Hartford Funds has named Brian Garrette and Michael Tobin divisional sales managers, overseeing the mutual fund company's South and West regions, respectively. They both report to Jeff Reiss, head of retail sales.
Garrette was promoted from his previous position at Hartford Funds as advisor consultant, where he was responsible for sales in the wirehouse channel, and Tobin joined the firm from LPL Financial Services, where he served as the senior vice president, national sales manager, responsible for sales and marketing of advisory platforms.
Janus Beefs Up Southeast Sales Team
Janus Capital Group has appointed Jeff Pawliger as regional director with Janus' Advisor Solutions Group to spearhead the growth of Janus' intermediary distribution and sales in Southern Florida.
Pawliger previously held positions as a regional and divisional sales manager for Wood Logan & Associates, Citigroup Smith Barney and AXA Distributors.
Mercer Beefs Up Global Investment, Retirement Units
Mercer has made three senior-level appointments to its global investments and retirement units in Europe and in the emerging markets.
Specifically, Andrew Kirton has been appointed head of Mercer's investments business in Europe, succeeding Tom Geraghty, who has assumed the post of market leader and chief executive officer for Ireland.
Jeff Schutes has been appointed head of Mercer's investments business in the emerging markets, a newly created position, which includes Asia, Middle East and Turkey, Africa, and Latin America. And Akhil Sethi has been appointed head of Mercer's retirement business in the emerging markets, another newly created position.
