«La police espagnole a arrêté hier six personnes soupçonnées d’avoir participé à une escroquerie dépassant les 600 millions de dollars sur le marché alternatif (AIM) du London Stock Exchange (LSE)», rapporte les Echos, précisant qu"il s"agit d"une société cotée sur l’AIM dont le nom n’est pas dévoilé et qui qui aurait procédé à de nombreuses opérations financières fictives.

A fin décembre, les actifs gérés par les fonds distribués en Suisse ressortaient à 452 milliards de francs contre 554,3 milliards douze mois plus tôt, la contraction de 102,3 milliards ou de 18,5 % étant imputable pour 96,8 milliards ou 94,6 % à l’effet de marché alors que les remboursements nets se sont limités à 5,5 milliards, indique la Swiss Fund Association. En décembre, l’encours a diminué de 0,8 milliard.La plus forte chute a été accusée par les fonds d’actions, à 101,1 milliards de francs, après 5,5 milliards de sorties nettes et 59 milliards d’effet de marché négatif. Néanmoins, les fonds spécialistes des actions suisses ont enregistré des souscriptions nettes d’environ 3 milliards de francs. Les actifs des fonds monétaires ont gonflé pour leur part de 31,9 milliards de francs, soit de 47,7 %, grâce à 26,2 milliards de souscriptions nettes et 5,7 % d’effet de marché.

D’après les statistiques de l’AFG, les fonds de hedge funds de droit français ont accusé en 2008 une contraction de 39,9 % de leurs encours pour tomber à 37,8 milliards d’euros. La baisse de quelque 15 milliards d’euros s’explique pour plus des trois quarts (76,66 %) par des remboursements nets de 11,5 milliards, l’effet négatif de marché n’intervenant que pour 3,5 milliards.En revanche, les actifs des fonds ISR avec un peu plus de 20 milliards d’euro, seraient demeurés stables l’an dernier, grâce à des souscriptions nettes dirigées sur les fonds monétaires, d’après Novethic.

#Il est certain que, face à la crise financière et à la fonte des encours, les sociétés de gestion sont à présent très attentives à leurs coûts, mais il n’y a pas à ma connaissance de vaste plan de suppressions d’emplois en cette période difficile. De fait, les différents acteurs se trouvaient plutôt en phase d’expansion de leur effectif, et l’on peut imaginer qu’ils ralentiront ou reporteront des embauches#, estime Pierre Bollon, délégué général de l’Association française de la gestion financière (AFG). Selon lui, #en tout état de cause, les fonctions stratégiques comme le contrôle des risques et la gestion financière ne devraient pas être impactés par les mesures d'économie#.Cela peut signifier en d’autres termes que l’effort de maîtrise des coûts s’appliquera surtout aux fonctions support, sans exclure des opérations comme celles de SGAM/CAAM, qui aboutissent à une mutualisation des moyens de production, ou l’externalisation de certaines activités autres que la gestion.

Vincent Verheyde entrevoit des valeurs prometteuses dans un bear market. Tout en recherchant la préservation du capital, il maintient une gestion réactive.Gérant le fonds Finance Réaction depuis décembre dernier, Vincent Verheyde prévoit un marché baissier en 2009. #On pourra atteindre le niveau de 2400-2500 pour l"indice CAC 40 au cours de l"année#, sans exclure un rebond jusqu"à 3100. Il a mis en place une stratégie à la fois défensive et très réactive, pour bénéficier des mouvements sur les actions françaises qu"il sélectionne.Ancien gérant du fonds Gérer France, Vincent Verheyde a pris les rênes de Finance Réaction après le décès subit d"Olivier Machou, co-fondateur de la société de gestion indépendante Finance SA.Au 26 janvier, la performance du fonds depuis le début de l"année s"établit à - 2,5% contre - 7,7% pour l"indice SBF 120. Depuis son entrée en fonctions, la surperformance du gérant par rapport à l"indice s"élève à 7,5%.#Je suis actuellement investi à 100% en actions, mais avec une réactivité très forte #, explique Vincent Verheyde. Son portefeuille comptait ainsi 4% de financières à la fin décembre, mais 11% le 26 janvier, pour profiter d"un rebond de marché.Mais le gérant a également mis en place une stratégie visant la préservation du capital. Il s"agit notamment de faire face à une situation d"urgence, due aux retraits de certains institutionnels après le décès d"Olivier Machou. Comptant 90 millions d"encours à la fin septembre, finance Réaction a fondu à 30 millions actuellement.A cette fin, Vincent Verheyde a réorienté le portefeuille vers les grandes valeurs (57% de #big caps#). En cas de besoin, il utilise la poche de liquidités dans les phases baissières. Et il recourt à des instruments simples de couverture de portefeuille, de type ETF, sur des plages limitées d"exposition.Parmi ses valeurs préférées, on trouve Alstom : #le transport et l"énergie sont porteurs, la trésorerie du groupe est abondante, son carnet de commande bien rempli#. Il envisage un objectif de cours à 45 euros, propice aux allègements, contre un cours de 37 euros environ actuellement.Il mise aussi sur France Telecom, estimant que le coupon offrant un rendement de 7,5% #n"est pas en danger#. Son objectif est d"environ 22 euros, contre 18,50 euros actuellement. Il travaille également le titre Sanofi Aventis, avec en ligne de mire 46 euros.Vincent Verheyde ne délaisse pas pour autant les #small caps#. Parmi ses paris, figure 1000Mercis, société d"allocation d"adresses e-mail, qui a développé un modèle d"affaires avec des partenariats récurrents. Ou encore STS Group, une entreprise pouvant afficher 20 millions de trésorerie, 40 millions de chiffre d"affaires et 5 millions de résultat net.#Rien n’indique que le cycle baissier est terminé, parce que nous nous trouvons dans un marché de flux essentiellement négatif#, déclare le gérant. Mais même dans un marché d"actions baissier, il est possible de trouver des perles, estime Vincent Verheyde.

Selon Les Echos, le Fonds monétaire international (FMI) a fortement relevé son estimation des pertes liées aux produits financiers toxiques à 2.200 milliards de dollars contre 1.400 dollars en octobre. «Le redressement de l'économie ne pourra avoir lieu qu’une fois le bilan des institutions bancaires consolidés», selon Olivier Blanchard, chef économiste du FMI, lors d’une conférence de presse.

Jean-Claude Trichet, le président de la Banque centrale européenne (BCE) évoquait récemment la nécessité d’envisager une «stratégie de sortie» à la politique monétaire, qui, rappelons-le, se caractérise depuis la faillite de Lehman par une hausse de l’offre de monnaie et des baisses de taux, plus mesurées qu’ailleurs pour éviter la «trappe à liquidité». Le moment d’un changement de politique est-il venu? Nous ne le pensons pas, à deux titres.

Le FMI a revu en baisse ses prévisions de croissance pour 2009. Pour soutenir le secteur bancaire, il évoque la création de «bad banks» publiques

Elle envisage d’acheter des bons du Trésor à long terme

An issue of preferential shares to clients of its private bank who were victims of the Madoff fraud via the Optimal Strategic US Equity fund will have an impact on Santander of only EUR500m, wholly taken into account in the 2008 fiscal year, Cinco Días reports.

Catella Real Estate AG KAG announced on Tuesday that it is reopening its real estate fund Fokus Nordic City to redemptions starting 28 January at 11:01 AM. The manager states that, after redemptions are brought up to date to reflect requests since 29 October 2008, the net asset value of the fund will total EUR10.66; as of 27 January 2009, it is EUR10.40, after the payment of a dividend of 36 cents per share on 1 December 2008.The Fokus Nordic Cities fund is, according to DEGI International, the second of the real estate funds which were closed to redemptions at the end of October to reopen its doors. The other management firms in this position have so far largely chosen to extend their redemption freezes (including DEGI, for the DEGI Europa fund).

The Cantonal Bank of Zurich (BCZ in French, or ZKB in German), on 16 January launched shares in Euros and US dollars in its physical gold ETF fund ZKB Gold ETF, which was launched in Swiss Francs on 15 March 2006. The product is still licensed for sale only in Switzerland. Investors in the fund can sell shares at any time, or order payment in the form of physical gold.

Trevor Matthews, CEO of Friends Provident, has announced that there are no ?substantial? negotiations over the sale of Friends’ majority stake in F&C, and that Friends will continue the process of selling the stake.

Fitch Ratings will publish proposals for new criteria to rate money market funds. The criteria will aim to bring evaluations of the liquidity of the portfolio into better alignment with potential for redemptions to investors in periods of difficulty.

On Tuesday, a Parliamentary commission heard testimony from the heads of several alternative management firms, to determine the extent to which they were responsible for the recent banking crisis in the United Kingdom, the Wall Street Journal reports. Among the executives who spoke to the panel were Chris Hohn (TCI), Paul Marshall (Marshall Wace) and Douglas Shaw (BlackRock). The managers defended themselves in the usual way, claiming that they were only seeking to profit from turbulence in the markets, but that they cannot be held responsible for it. Hohn and Marshall also stated that assets at their firms have fallen to USD9.5bn and USD6.6bn, respectively, from about USD15bn each one year ago.

Hansainvest on 2 January 2009 launched the German-registered fund Hansagold, which has been issued a sales license in Germany. The fund may invest up to 30% in physical gold. The manager is also authorised to invest in certificates which replicate the evolution of the price of gold. To ensure diversification, Hansagold may also invest in certificates backed by silver, government bonds, or potentially in inflation-indexed government bonds. Front-end fee for the fund is 4%, and management commission is 0.65%.

In the last three months of 2008, F&C Asset Management saw an increase of 6% in its assets to GBP98.6bn. The firm benefited from the strength of the Euro in particular.

Les Echos reports that activities at Standard & Poor’s (an affiliate of the US conglomerate McGraw-Hill) in 2008 are down by nearly 13%. ?From USD736.7m in 2007, revenues for the last three months of 2008 fell to USD623m,? says the newspaper. S&P is suffering from the drought in credit markets and debt issues from private businesses, which represent the core of its financial ratings activities, which are down heavily.

Michael Stammler, one of the directors of Feri Finance (MLP group), announced on Tuesday that Feri Wealth Management GmbH adopted a new name at the beginning of the year, and is now known as Feri Family Trust, to show that it includes traditional wealth management and family office services. Feri Family Trust will focus on ultra high net worth individuals (UHNWI).Personnel at Feri Family Trust has also been strengthened with the arrival of three new members, who join Michael Stammler and Frank Straatman. The new members are Thomas Hafner (who will also be in charge of the Swiss market), Marcel Renné, and Riklef von Schüssler.

In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Franz Waas, chairman of the board at DekaBank, announces that the management firm for the German savings banks earned profits in fourth quarter, and that it has posted a net profit of EUR90m for the year 2008 as a whole. Deka is planning to pay out an unchanged dividend of the same amount it paid in 2007. It also states that liquidity currently totals EUR40bn.Meanwhile, Waas states that Deka has ambitions to become the second-largest actor in Germany in derivatives trading, after Deutsche Bank. The manager also emphasizes that three of the largest Deka funds and six of the best-selling Deka funds in 2008 use derivatives. As derivatives are produced in-house, this further reduces costs by eliminating commisions to third parties. Derivatives contributed EUR130m to results in 2008, says Waas.

At a presentation in Paris on Tuesday evening, Jon Little, vice president of BNY Mellon Asset Management, said he expects the process of concentration in asset management to continue throughout the world. In his opinion, prices have not yet fallen enough for the United States-based firm to be completely interested in some potential takeover targets. The problem, says Little, is that European banks, and others, are afraid that valuations have stayed too close to their 2007 levels. Often, asset management firms which have been sold so far, particularly in cross-border deals, have been firms which were punished for not getting through the worst of their troubles by the end of the year. Since these firms were still sold at too high a price, BNY Mellon AM will wait a little longer.

BNY Mellon has applied to the AMF and other French authorities for the necessary licenses to open an office in Paris, and is awaiting approval from the regulator. The American firm is hoping to obtain a complete banking license eventually. When the time comes, explains Paul Feeney, director of international distribution at BNY Mellon Asset Management, the group may set up a team of nine people, with four members dedicated to asset management activities, three of whom would be based in Paris, and one of whom would travel back and forth between Paris and London.

Arthur G. Nadel, a fund manager who was missing, was arrested by FBI agents in Florida on Tuesday, the WSJ reports. He is facing criminal charges of securities fraud and misleading investors.

T. Rowe Price Global Investment Services Limited has opened its fifth European office since 2001, in Zurich. The office is a branch of the London affiliate, and will be directed by Josef Bossi, senior business development executive. Bossi left State Street Global Advisors in December 2008.

Fortis Investments on Monday 26 January launched a Euro zone investment grade bond fund that matures in 2013, which is limited to 20 institutional investors in France. The fund, which already has more than EUR20m under management, is invested in 60 positions, and excludes asset-backed securities (ABS), subordinated debt, and leverage, according to a statement.

In December, collective investment organisms and Luxembourg-based specialised investment funds once again posted losses, of EUR44.584bn, of which EUR34.347bn were due to declining financial markets, and EUR10.237bn due to redemptions, according to the most recent statistics from the Financial Sector Surveillance Commission (CSSF). At the end of the year, total assets in funds came out at EUR1.559653trn, compared with EUR1.604237trn as of 30 November 2008 (-2.78%).

CID Consulting has announced that its STAR© (System for Tracking of Analysis and Reporting) software package for ongoing control of operational and non-compliance risks at financial establishments is now in use at Tocqueville Finance, after six months of testing.CID Consulting is planning to extend the functionality of the software package in April, with the addition of a module that provides automatic control of regulatory and statutory ratios for mutual funds. The versions of STAR currently available are aimed at management firms and brokers. The brokerage firm is also planning to offer an adapted version to banks and custodians and account maintenance providers in the near future.

Nicholas Cosmo, head of the management firm Agape World, has turned himself in to authorities in New York, who say he is suspected of setting up a Ponzi pyramid scheme similar to the one created by Bernard Madoff, but worth only USD380m, Die Welt reports, citing United States media. Agape World, which promised investors returns of 14%. in two and a half months, was founded by Cosmo in 2000, shortly after his release from prison at the conclusion of a sentence for fraud.

The US authorities are finding a growing number of financial frauds which echo the Madoff scheme, the Wall Street Journal reports. At least six more cases worth several millions of dollars have emerged this month, most of which are Ponzi-type pyramid schemes.

Threadneedle announced on Tuesday that it has recruited Andrew Bristow (ex Goldman Sachs) as executive director in charge of investment in asset-backed securities (ABS) in the fixed income division in London. In addition, the British management firm has recruited a team of five people from Babcock and Brown in Australia, along with whom it will also take on the management of a portfolio worth AUD1.8bn under an advisory contract. The team, which includes professionals with an average of ten years of experience, will be jointly directed by Steven Fleming and Ashley Burtenshaw.