Nasdaq will acquire eVestment for $705M: News Scan

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Nasdaq will acquire eVestment for $705M
Nasdaq plans to acquire content and analytics provider eVestment for $705 million. The platform claims it serves currently more than 2,000 clients, including 92% of the top asset managers, 76% of the top consulting firms and 80% of the top 20 pension funds.

The Nasdaq 100 dropped 1.2% on the first Friday in June, 2017, extending a 2.4% decline.
The silhouettes of analysts are seen monitoring data at the Market Intelligence Desk (MID) inside the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, U.S., on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016. U.S. stocks fluctuated as investors weighed near-record equity levels, and indications an uncertain economic outlook leaves policy makers with little reason to raise interest rates. Photographer: Eric Thayer/Bloomberg

"The strategic alignment of eVestment with Nasdaq's complementary technology and services to the global institutional investment industry, including our surveillance technology, Smarts, our recent analytics hub launch, as well as our long standing operation of the mutual fund quotation service, will further expand our buy side relationships, accelerate our growth opportunities, and advance our objectives to deliver proprietary analytics to our clients," Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman said in a statement.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

Despite industry cost cutting, Pimco raises Income Fund fees
At a time when most money managers are moving to cut the costs paid by investors, Pimco Income Fund is raising its fees by 5 cents per $100 beginning on Oct. 2 for most share classes, Bloomberg reports. This brings expenses for the institutional class shares to 50 cents per $100.

The change in fees is the result of the cost of managing dividends for the growing fund, which has more than 5,000 securities in several countries and currencies.

Investors have been pressuring money managers to stay competitive and lower costs by moving money into low fee, passively managed index funds.

Pimco Total Return snaps outflow streak
Pimco Total Return Fund, once the world's largest mutual fund, got its first monthly inflow in more than four years as strong performance attracted investor cash.

The fund saw preliminary net inflows of $348 million, not including reinvested dividends, last month, according to a person with knowledge of the fund. That brought total assets to $74.7 billion as of Aug. 31.

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The increase was the first since April 2013, when assets peaked at $293 billion. Since then, they have plunged almost 75%. Its average annual returns in the three years through Aug. 31 were 3%, better than 75% of its Bloomberg peer group.

RESEARCH
Active managers find gains in growth over value
In the first half of the year, active manager portfolios favoring growth equities over value were among the best perfoming, according to a review by Natixis Global Asset Management.

Additionally, successful strategies included higher allocations to U.S., international and emerging market equities; actively managed mid-cap, small-cap and international funds; and portfolios with lower exposure to fixed income and alternative investments.

Higher exposure to international equity resulted in the portfolio risk contribution from equities edging back up to 90% while US high yield bond risk trended down to 5%, the study noted.

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Natixis also found the average moderate-risk model portfolio returned 6.8% for the first half of the year, outpacing the 60/40 portfolio represented by the S&P 500 and the Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index by 0.30%. The top quartile of portfolios outperformed the bottom quartile by more than 300 basis points. Portfolios favoring active managers outperformed passive by 0.26%.

PRODUCTS
Franklin Templeton adds new municipal bond ETFs
Franklin Templeton Investments has added two new actively managed municipal bond ETFs to its Franklin Liberty Shares pipeline.

Franklin Liberty Intermediate Municipal Opportunities ETF (FLMI) and Franklin Liberty Municipal Bond ETF (FLMB) will expand the company's offering of fixed income ETFs. FLMI and FLMB each carry net expenses of 30 basis points.

"Leveraging Templeton's world class municipal bond platform with more than $71 billion in assets under management, these actively managed ETFs seek to generate yield exempt from federal taxes, allowing investors to keep more of what they earn," Franklin Templeton Investments head of Global ETFs Patrick O'Conner said in a statement.

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These funds have the smallest beta scores, either positive or negative, indicating the least variability from market returns.

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FLMI is managed by James Conn, senior vice president and portfolio manager, Christopher Sperry, vice president and portfolio manager, and Daniel Workman, vice president and portfolio manager. FLMB is managed by Conn, Sperry, and Nicholas Bucklin, vice president and portfolio manager.

This mutual fund wants to 'Make America Great Again'
Inspired by President Trump's campaign promise to "Make America Great Again," the Point Bridge GOP Stock Tracker ETF will list under the ticker MAGA and invest in companies that it believes support the Republican Party.

Point Bridge Capital is planning a set of what it is calling "politically responsible investing" products, Reuters reports.

Annual expenses for the fund are at 0.72% and it is expected to list on BATS.

The fund is going to invest in a group of S&P 500 companies that has employees or political action committees that donate money to back Republican candidates. The data will be based on public filings with the Federal Election Commission.

New UCITS ETF offers easy access to Europe
ETF entrepreneurs Hector McNeil and Nik Bienkowski are launching Europe's first white label UCITS ETF platform.

The platform will be known as HANetf and is designed to be a "one stop shop" for asset managers that want to enter the European UCITS ETF market without actually establishing a full service business. The aim is to disrupt the market by lowering the barriers to enter for asset managers.

Europe is the second largest ETF market in the world, behind the U.S., with just under $700 billion of assets under management.

ARRIVALS
Ex-Goldman Sachs PM named EventShares CIO
EventShares has appointed former Goldman Sachs portfolio manager Ben Phillips as its chief investment officer, overseeing research analysis and portfolio management.

Phillips will also chair the investment committee for all future fund launches.

Tara Liceaga has been with the firm's Client Service Team since May.

While with Goldman Sachs Asset Management Phillips had portfolio management responsibilities for high yield, convertible, and leveraged loan investments across a variety of multi-sector total return funds.

"I have seen what tailored investment strategies can do for Wall Street clients, and I want to be a part of the team bringing these strategies to Main Street," Phillips said in a statement.

BMO selects newest senior relationship manager
Tara Liceaga has been appointed to the position of Senior Relationship Manager at BMO Global Asset Management in August.

Liceaga, who holds an M.B.A. in finance from Loyola University Chicago, has been with the firm's Client Service Team since May. In this role she supports BMO Global Asset Management U.S.'s head of client service, Dave Majewski.

In a statement announcing Liceaga's appointment, Majewski praised her for her investment experience and her dedication to client services. Prior to joining BMO Liceaga was senior VP for Institutional Capital and before that served as assistant advisor at Oak Venture Advisors.

Winona Capital appoints new CFO
Winona Capital named a new chief financial officer, hiring 17-year industry veteran Sandeep Dhuper.

Prior to joining Winona, Dhuper was chief accounting officer and managing director of alts firm Z Capital Group. He also was controller at Chicago Trading Company and held accounting roles at KPMG and Ernst & Young.

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