Selon Les Echos, les banques nient toute difficulté majeure de remboursement des dettes LBO, qu’elles ont faiblement provisionnés. Les cinq principales banques françaises (hors Crédit Mutuel-CIC) ont provisionné moins de 2 milliards d’euros sur une exposition totale de près de 28 milliards et chacune ramène sur les doigts d’une main le nombre de dossiers français en restructuration. Mais la moitié des crédits sont à risque, selon Fitch, et les banques vont être confrontées d’ici à quatre ans à un mur de la dette.

Granitix, une équipe de capital transmission créée en 2009, sponsorisée par Natixis Private Equity et basée à Stockholm, a décidé de s’attaquer au marché du private equity en Suède. L’objectif de Granitix est d’investir dans des PME dont le chiffre d’affaires est compris entre 75 et 750 millions de couronnes suédoises. L’équipe s’impliquera plus spécifiquement dans trois secteurs : les successions d’entreprises, la dérégulation de l’Etat et les scissions de groupes. Granitix se concentrera sur des opérations principalement majoritaires avec un ticket moyen d’investissement entre 30 et 70 millions de couronnes suédoises. L’équipe cible des entreprises matures présentant une base de clientèle et de produits bien établis.

Le responsable actuel de la banque de financement et d’investissement (BFI) de Natixis, Jean-Marc Moriani, vient d'être nommé directeur général adjoint de l'établissement, accédant ainsi au statut de mandataire social. Il était jusqu’alors en charge de la BFI et seul membre du directoire avec le directeur général. Natixis a par ailleurs annoncé hier l’arrivée d’Olivier Perquel, quarante-cinq ans, ancien banquier d’affaires passé dans l’industrie de la gestion alternative, en tant que conseiller de Laurent Mignon.

Dans un environnement marqué par la crise et l’aversion au risque, les gérants français ont été moins performants en 2008 qu’en 2007. C’est l’un des enseignements du dernier classement Alpha League Table 2009, publié par l’EDHEC et EuroPerformance, qui mesure l’alpha, soit le talent des sociétés de gestion sur la gestion actions. En effet, l’alpha moyen dégagé par les sociétés de gestion françaises ressort pour 2008 à 1,78 %, en baisse par rapport à l’année précédente (2,50 %) et 2007 (2,98 %).Carmignac Gestion gagne 4 places sur un an et se hisse à la première place du classement Alpha League Table 2009 sur le marché français, avec des fonds qui surperforment leur univers dans 50,83 % des cas, pour un alpha moyen de 3,62 %. A la deuxième place (+1 place), on retrouve State Street Global Advisors (France), avec une fréquence d’alpha de 48,16 % et un alpha moyen de 3,36 %. Comgest s’attribue la troisième place du classement (+3 places) et affiche une fréquence d’alpha en hausse, à 41,97 %, pour une moyenne de 2,87 %. Ces trois lauréats sont suivis de Oddo AM, MMA Finance, Groupama AM, Fédéral Finance, HSBC Private Wealth Managers et Crédit Agricole AM.

Aux Etats-Unis, les administrateurs chargés de liquider Lehman ont l’intention de demander ce mardi à la Justice d’approuver un cadre international pour coordonner les procédures de faillite des filiales à l'échelon mondial. Mais, rapporte The Wall Street Journal, leurs homologues au Royaume-Uni sont hostiles à cette formule, à la fois parce qu’ils sont assujettis à des législations différentes et parce que les intérêts de leurs créanciers sont différents.Cette bronca est d’autant plus importante que la filiale britannique possède des données sur plusieurs autres (plus petites) sociétés du groupe en Europe. Cela posé, les administrateurs judiciaires de Hong-Kong, Singapour, Luxembourg ainsi que l’allemand et l’australien ont signé le protocole mondial.

The Swiss management firm Julius Baer Holding is buying Alpha SIM, an independent wealth management firm based in Milan, specialized in high net worth clients and led by Cosimo Bisiach and Carlo Mozzi. The financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed. Alpha SIM (EUR400m in assets under management) will merge with Julius Baer SIM, an affiliate of Julius Baer specialized in services to private clients headquartered in Milan. Stefano Canozza will remain as head of the new Julius Baer SIM. In Italy, Julius Baer also has an asset management affiliate, Julius Baer SGR, which is oriented to institutional clients.

Dangers to the stability of the financial system could be rendered less severe by levying a tax on risk, according to professor Andrew Lo of the Sloane School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He claims systemic risks should be treated in the same way as pollution, and companies that produce it should pay.

Millionaires have lost confidence in private banking, and the profession is reinventing itself to win back its clients and its reputation, Cinco Días reports. Pierre Pâris and Olivier Bertrand, who left UBS Wealth Management to found Banque Pâris Bertrand Sturdza, are an example of this trend, but they are not an isolated case. The Spanish firm A&G is doing likewise: the affiliate of the Greek-Swiss firm EFG International sees itself as a private banking platform for bankers who want to remain independent, explains Miguel Irisarri, a partner at the firm. Daniel de Fernando, a partner at MdF Achievers, says high net worth investors have had enough of the constant changes of faces and policies at private banks. Gonzalo Lardiés, director of BPA Global Funds, also deplores the fact that there has been a tendency for too long to forget the manager, though he is the one genuinely in touch with the direction of the market.

L’Agefi Suisse reports that the second edition of a report produced by the Zurich School of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) with the support of ABS Investment Management, an independent fund of hedge fund firm, finds that the Swiss fund of hedge fund industry is under pressure. The list of the ten largest operators of funds of hedge funds in Switzerland has undergone major changes in the space of two years. The brutal fall of the markets in fourth quarter 2008 and early 2009, in conjunction with the Madoff scandal, triggered an exodus of private investors, which led not only to a healthy consolidation, but also to accelerated consolidation in the sector. This could also result in higher demand for transparency. This movement is being accentuated by the increased levels of regulation being imposed on hedge funds, particularly in terms of size (with a minimal volume of assets under management of EUR100m required for hedge fund managers), with other requirements for risk management and minimal capital volumes.

In the United States, the administrators appointed to liquidate Lehman Brothers are planning to ask the courts this Tuesday to approve an international program to co-ordinate the bankruptcy proceedings for its affiliates worldwide. But, the Wall Street Journal reports, their counterparts in the United Kingdom are hostile to these arrangements, both because they are subject to different laws, and because the interests of their creditors are different. The disagreement takes on added significance due to the fact that Lehman’s UK affiliate possesses data about several other (smaller) companies controlled by the firm in Europe. However, legal administrators in Hong Kong, Singapore, Luxembourg, Germany, and Australia have signed the global protocol.

The Metzler private bank on Monday announced that as of the end of December, its quotient of tier one owners’ equity stood at 15.1%, and revenues in commissions for 2008 had increased to EUR148m from EUR141m, while the surplus on its financial account had decreased to EUR3m from EUR7m. Overhead costs fell to EUR131m from EUR135m. The asset management division posted net subscriptions and an increase in the number of mandates, but in a context of falling markets, assets fell to EUR29bn as of the end of December, compared with EUR33bn one year earlier. Assets under management on the fund platform Metzler Fund Xchange remained stable last year, and as of the end of December, these totalled EUR7.3bn. At the end of April 2009, they had increased to EUR8.1bn.

The French national pension fund (FRR) on 20 May launched a restricted RFP to select two transition managers. The assignment for these managers will be to conduct centralized trading of financial instruments on behalf of the FRR, to construct portfolios of financial assets, under the best possible conditions in terms of cost and confidentiality. In October 2006, the management firm selected Goldman Sachs as its transition broker, for a market which includes a maximal trading volume of EUR25bn. As this mandate will expire in November 2009, it is now necessary to undertake a new selection process. The current market weighs in at an indicative total volume of between EUR15bn and EUR30bn. The mandate will be assigned for a period of three years. The RFP is being undertaken according to the procedure for restricted RFPs under the Code for public markets. Applications must be submitted to the FRR by Friday, 23 June 2009 at 12:00 noon, Paris time, and must comply with the conditions specified in the consultation regulations. All documents related to this RFPare available on the dedicated platform at http://www.achatpublic.com/accueil/frr/medias/index.php, or from the FRR’s website, www.fondsdereserve.fr.

In an environment marked by the crisis and investors’ aversion to risk, French managers have performed less well in 2008 than in 2007. This is one of the most clear lessons of the most recent edition of the Alpha League Table 2009 from EDHEC and EuroPerformance, which measures alpha, or the ability of management firms to generate returns in equities management that do not stem from the equities themselves. The average alpha earned by French management firms in 2008 totalled 1.78%, a decrease from the previous year (2.50%) and from 2007 (2.98%). Carmignac Gestion has gained four placed in the rankings in a single year, and finished on top of the rankings in the Alpha League Table 2009 for the French market, as their funds outperformed their universes 50.83% of the time, and earned an average alpha of 3.82%. In second place (+1 place) is State Street Global Advisors (France), with positive alpha for 48.16% of products, and average alpha of 3.36%. Comgest takes third place in the rankings (+3 places): it has increased the frequency of positive alpha for its products, to 41.97%, and shows an average of 2.87%.

Italian households are returning to equities, but they are preferring to invest abroad rather than in Italy, Il Sole - 24 Ore reports, quoting statistics from Assogestioni and first-hand accounts from asset managers. Investors are preferring investments in China, India and emerging countries in particular. Equities funds on sale in Italy in April posted net subscriptions of EUR373m, followign redemptions of EUR741m in the first three months of the year. Emerging markets funds alone have received EUR315m in inflows in one month, while Italian equities funds have seen inflows of only EUR52m.

The German certificates market measured nearly EUR80bn at the end of March, which represents growth of EUR1.7bn in one month. EUR500m of this new volume comes from new subscriptions, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. The stabilisation observed since the beginning of the year is continuing, after a heavy decline in volumes between September and December, due to the worsening financial crisis and the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.

The Dutchman Joost Bergsma is in charge of a team of six people in London, at the Clean Energy centre at Fortis Investments, which specializes in non-publicly traded green energy investments in Europe. The corresponding fund, which is focused exclusively on operation projects and not on producers of equipment, has only EUR50m in assets invested in three projects, including the recent acquisition from (for EUR8-9m) of the EOL Team SAS in France, a 12-megawatt wind energy farm located in Vitry (Champagne-Ardenne), from Eolfi. The fund has also bought a wind farm in the United Kingdom from Coronation Power, and a solar energy farm in Spain, operated by Acciona, from the Belgian firm Enfinity. Currently, the Fortis Clean Energy Fund (a UK-registered partnership) has about EUR50m in assets, but the objective is to reach EUR400m by the end of the year. The product is clearly aimed at institutional investors, insurers and pension funds, who need to optimise their active/passive management. These investors may expect performance of 12% to 15%, or as much as 20% per year. The fund will aim to invest for 8 to 10 years, though there is visibility on cash flows for 25 years. Bergsma says investments in this sector are driven by three factors: political priorities in stable countries seeking to ensure their energy security; climate change (as many major cities are built on river deltas), and a concern to create jobs. In principle, the Fortis Clean Energy fund invests inly in proven technologies such as wind power on land, and not offshore. However, the fund is also interested in biofuels, solar energy, and to a lesser extent, hydroelectricity. In Europe, there is considerable likelihood that a European directive passed at the end of 2008 requiring that 20% of energy come from renewable sources will oblige most countries to make major financial efforts in areas of interest to the Fortis fund.

BNP Paribas Wealth Management has acquired a majority stake in the Insinger de Beaufort bank, after receiving final permission from the regulatory authorities. Nachenius Tjeenk & Co, a former affiliate of ABN Amro very recently acquired by BNP Paribas Private Bank, and the Insinger de Beaufort bank have merged, to create a new major presence in the Netherlands private banking market. The new entity born of this merger has been operating since May 2009 under the name of Insinger de Beaufort, and ranks as one of the five largest private banks in the Netherlands. The headquarters of the new group are located in the former offices of Insinger de Beaufort, in Amsterdam, and the group will serve the Netherlands market from its offices in the Hague and Eindhoven, while from Amsterdam, London, and Cape Town, it will serve international markets. After the merger of the international activities of Insinger de Beaufort and BNP Paribas Wealth Management in London, which is planned to take place in second quarter 2009, Insinger de Beaufort will manage more than EUR10bn in assets, with more than 200 employees.

The story is nearly over for Fairfield Greenwich, the management firm most severely affected by the fraud perpetrated by Bernard L. Madoff (in whom it had invested more than EUR7bn), Expansión reports. The private equity investor Sciens Capital recently invested USD2.5bn in Fairfield Greenwich funds of hedge funds, and rumour has it that the collaboration agreement will gradually change shape, culminating in a name change for Fairfield and a participation in profits for the private equity investor. According to sources close to the firm, none of the three partners at Fairfield (Walter Noel, Jeffrey Tucker and Andrés Piedrahita) was aware of the Madoff fraud, but Fairfield made hundreds of millions of dollars in commissions, on the backs of which the three men became millionaires.

Henderson Global Investors has launched an SRI blog. The Henderson team in charge of sustainable development will share its approach and its points of view on SRI issues with investors through the site. Among the topics addressed are the safety of consumer products and nuclear energy. The blog is available at the address www.henderson.com/sriblog. As of 31 December 2008, the SRI team at Henderson managed GBP570m in SRI assets for institutional and retail clients.

In Q1, institutional funds (Spezialfonds) attracted EUR5bn in net subscriptions, according to statistics from the German BVI association of asset management firms. According to a survey by the Börsen-Zeitung, this has worked largely to the advantage of passive managers. The strongest net inflows to Spezialfonds were at Universal-Investment (EUR3.6bn), Helaba (EUR3bn) and DekaBank (EUR2bn).

The asset management firm Monega KAG, based in Cologne, has announced the launch of the German-registered fund HSH Strategy Sentiment LS, in partnership with HSH Nordbank. Fondsweb.de reports that this futures product may be long or short on European equities and bond markets, following the principles of behavioural finance.

Ibercaja is launching Ibercaja Gestión Garantizado 3, a product whose returns will be tied to the evolution of shares in Telefónica, BBVA and Repsol. The fund may achieve maximum returns of 4% over three years (the maturity date for the fund is set for 1 February 2013); it is aimed at investors with a conservative profile, Cinco Días reports. Subscriptions are open until 13 July, with no front-end fee. Ibercaja Gestión has assets of EUR4.1bn, in 73 investment funds and 12 Sicavs, making it the tenth largest management firm in Spain, with a market share of 2.53%.

Bankinter has opened sales for the Bankinter Selección Bonos Corporativos fund, a high-quality corporate bond fund which will retain its assets until maturity (4 years). Subscriptions (for a minimum of EUR3,000) will be open until 1 July, Funds People reports. Bankinter will charge a 5% front-end fee, and penalties for early withdrawal will decrease over time: 5% in the first year, 4% in the second year, 3% in the third year, and 2% in the fourth.

Actors on fund markets are continuing to automate their operations. According to a joint study by the European asset management association and Swift, the percentage of automated orders processed by transfer agents in Luxembourg increased in fourth quarter by 7.6% to a total of 66%. Most of this increase, 6.3% out of the total 7.6%, is due to the adoption by actors of the ISO standard messaging system. The percentage of automated orders based on the ISO standard totalled 41% in fourth quarter, while the remaining 25% represented automated orders on the basis of bilateral agreements carried out in proprietary formats. Another finding of the study is that 65% of orders received by transfer agents in Luxembourg originate from actors in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The remaining 30% of orders come from Asia-Pacific, and 5% from the Americas. The rate of standardisation is 47% within the EMEA region, and also 47% for the Americas, but only 8% for the Asia-Pacific region. Peter de Proft, CEO of Efama, says the attraction of UCITS products in Asia could be increased further by abandoning manual order processing in favour of STP. “Efama wants to identify possible measures to achieve that objective,” he says. For his part, Jean Sonneville, head of Fund Solutions at Swift, is hoping to accelerate the adoption of the ISO standard by applying Efama’s recommendations for best practices and the deployment of the universal ISO 20022 messaging standard for the processing of orders originating from funds.

Depuis mi-février, la devise américaine s'est dépréciée de 15 % face à la monnaie unique

Le prix offert moyen pour les « loans » européens s’établissait la semaine dernière à 80,8 % du pair, contre 60 % fin décembre

Pour Standard & Poor’s, les titres des banques aidées par les Etats ou susceptibles de l’être risquent de devoir suspendre le paiement des coupons

Depuis mi-février, la devise américaine s'est dépréciée de 15 % face à la monnaie unique

Les cinq Sicav de Ram Bhavnani ont accusé des pertes comprises entre 13 % et 87 % (Kalyani, gérée par Bankinter) en 2008. Pour réduire ses charges, le milliardaire indien de Ténériffe a décidé de fusionner les deux véhicules qui sont gérés par Banco Madrid, Inversiones Kishoo (2,93 millions d’euros fin 2008, - 26,29 % en 2008) et Inversiones Valle Pallín (42,08 millions d’euros, - 13,08 % en 2008), rapporte Expansión. Sa plus grande Sicav, Laxmi (88 millions d’euros, - 20,81 %) est gérée par Banif (groupe Santander).Au total, les cinq véhicules représentaient 147,19 millions d’euros. Depuis fin 2008, l’allocation aux obligations a été augmentée à 80-85 % contre 53-66 %.

Brad Aham, managing director chez State Street Global Advisors (SSgA). Newsmanagers : Comment se comportent les marchés émergents depuis le début de l’année? Brad Aham : Au cours des dernières années, les marchés émergents ont habitué les investisseurs à une croissance à deux chiffres, née d’une mise en place de réformes structurelles importantes dans les économies des pays en voie de développement. En revanche, 2008 a été une année vraiment déprimante, au cours de laquelle les marchés émergents ont été contaminés par les problèmes des marchés développés. Aujourd’hui, nous constatons un retour au calme, d’où un bond de près de 30 % depuis le début de l’année, en moyenne. C’est la classe d’actifs qui performe le mieux depuis début 2009. NM : Quels sont aujourd’hui les meilleurs atouts des marchés émergents? BA : Les fondamentaux des marchés émergents restent globalement très solides. D’importants efforts ont été faits sur la fiscalité et les taux d’intérêt, qui sont restés historiquement bas. Mais le principal intérêt des marchés émergents réside actuellement dans leur potentiel de croissance, surtout lorsqu’on regarde les prévisions de croissance pour 2009 du PIB en zone euro ou aux Etats-Unis. Par ailleurs, la majorité des pays émergents ont la capacité de continuer à stimuler leur économie par des incitations fiscales, comme c’est le cas en Chine. Ces pays savent qu’ils doivent aujourd’hui devenir moins dépendants de la consommation des pays développés, et font un effort particulier sur la consommation intérieure pour générer des taux de croissance importants. Cette démarche va renforcer la confiance des investisseurs en la solidité de la croissance de ces pays. NM : Quels marchés émergents vous semblent les plus intéressants ? BA : Au premier plan, on retrouve bien sûr l’Inde et la Chine, où les activités non liées à l’exportation prennent une place de plus importante dans les économies. Mais il n’y a pas qu’eux ! L’Amérique latine présente également des atouts hors pair, notamment grâce au renforcement des échanges interrégionaux entre les différents pays du continent. En Russie, le calme est revenu, après des mois très difficiles. A 60 dollars le baril de pétrole, ce pays peut s’en sortir honorablement. Ce que recherchent nos investisseurs, principalement institutionnels, c’est une allocation d’actifs adaptée à leur situation. Mais nous sommes également là pour leur faire comprendre qu’il existe un nouvel ordre mondial. 10 % de la capitalisation boursière se trouvent aujourd’hui sur les bourses des marchés émergents mais l’exposition des institutionnels à ces régions est encore loin de ce pourcentage. Avec la baisse de la volatilité financière, les institutionnels doivent maintenant se décider, pour ne pas rater le train de la reprise. Il y aura forcément une réallocation vers les marchés émergents. On constate également un fort intérêt pour les marchés «frontières», composés de pays encore méconnus. Deux grandes région à fort potentiel se dégagent : les pays du Golfe comme le Qatar ou encore Abu Dhabi, poussés par le pétrole, et les pays d’Afrique, d’Amérique centrale et d’Asie de l’autre.