Selon les informations du Handelsblatt, la banque Sal, Oppenheim et la famille propriétaire de cette dernière, qui détiennent au total 29 % du capital d’Arcandor, ont l’intention de vendre leur participation dans le groupe de distribution. Ils considèrent avec le recul que l’acquisition des parts pour 2,12 euros par action en septembre 2008 a été une erreur. Entre-temps, les titres -qui valaient encore 30 euros voici deux ans- sont tombés à 68 cents. Si la famille et la banque revendaient actuellement, ils accuseraient une moins-value de plus de 100 millions d’euros.

Bordier Gestion Privée, filiale française de Bordier & Cie, banquiers privés genevois depuis 1844, vient d’obtenir de l’Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) une extension de son agrément à la gestion collective afin d’assurer la gestion d’OPCVM, fonds communs de placement (FCP) ou Sicav.Jusqu'à présent, Bordier Gestion Privée, créée en 2006, proposait de la gestion de fortune. «Nous faisions de la gestion sous mandat pour nos clients privés», explique Christophe Burtin, directeur général de Bordier Gestion Privée. L’agrément supplémentaire pour la gestion collective va permettre à la filiale française de l'établissement suisse de répondre aux besoins de deux familles l’ayant sollicitée pour reprendre la gestion de fonds dédiés gérés par d’autres entités. Parallèlement, «nous avons aussi souhaité créer un FCP ouvert, reflet de notre gestion discrétionnaire. Sans contrainte d’allocation d’actifs, ce fonds pourra être investi en titres vifs, actions et obligations, OPCVM gérés par des tiers et dans la limite de 10 % en fonds de hedge funds"; annonce Christophe Burtin. Le produit, lancé en septembre, sera géré par Christophe Burtin lui-même et Charles Brunswick, deux anciens de Rothschild & Cie Gestion qui ont rejoint Bordier en juillet 2008. Il permettra à Bordier Gestion Privée de ratisser une clientèle plus large que la sienne, notamment des clients privés mais également des conseillers en gestion de patrimoine indépendants (CGPI). «Le fonds sera référencé sur quelques plates-formes», indique Christophe Burtin. Ce fonds ouvert a vocation à être le seul, précise Christophe Burtin. «Comme notre maison mère, nous ne voulons pas décliner une gamme de produits», indique-t-il. Aujourd’hui, Bordier Gestion Privée gère un encours de 200 millions d’euros, pour le compte de résidents aux deux tiers, et de clients internationaux pour le reste. Bordier & Cie gère plus de 8,5 milliards de francs suisses.

En mars, la Financière Arbevel a été vendue à Jean-Baptiste Delabare et Sébastien Lalevée, qui ont pris la direction de la société en remplacement de Jean Berruyer, parti à la retraite.

Bordier Gestion Privée, a French affiliate of Bordier & Cie, a Geneva private bank founded in 1844, has been granted an extension to its collective management license by the French financial market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), to allow it to manage OPCVM, FCP and Sicav type investment funds. Previously, Bordier Gestion Privée, founded in 2006, offered wealth management. “We provide mandates for our private clients,” explains Christophe Burtin, CEO of Bordier Gestion Privée. The additional license for collective management will allow the French affiliate of the Swiss establishment to respond to the needs of two families which have asked it to take over management of dedicated funds managed by other entities. At the same time, “we also wanted to create an open-ended FCP replicating our discretionary management. With no asset allocation constraints, the fund will be able to invest in equities and bonds, OPCVM funds managed by third parties, and up to 10% in funds of hedge funds,” says Burtin. The product, launched in September, will be managed by Burtin himself and Charles Brunswick, two former managers from Rothschild & Cie Gestion who joined Bordier in July 2008. This will allow Bordier Gestion Privée to serve a larger client base than its own, including private clients as well as independent financial advisors (IFAs). “The fund will be listed on several platforms,” says Burtin. The open-ended fund is expected to be the management firm’s only product, says Burtin. “Like our parent company, we do not want to construct a product range,” he says. Bordier Gestion Privée currently manages assets of EUR200m, two thirds of it on behalf of residents and one third for international clients. Bordier & Cie manages over CHF8.5bn.

HSBC Assurances has created IFA Services, an entity dedicated to networks of independent financial advisors (IFAs), and which aims to become their privileged interlocutor. Beginning in September, special life insurance and capitalisation products will be offered to them. HSBC Assurances IFA Services will also offer the entrepreneur package, created specially for IFAs. The package of services includes the 4 key components for transmission of an enterprise: legal and tax advising, coaching, business evaluation, and a mergers and acquisitions component.

Expansión reports that the US courts have approved an agreement between Optimal, a management firm of the Santander group, and Irving Picard, the legal administrator in charge of liquidating the Madoff empire. The agreement, reached at the end of May, states that Santander will pay USD235m, which corresponds to the total amount received by the firm in redemptions in the three months before the Madoff fraud was discovered. Picard says that the USD235m corresponds to 85% of what he had initially asked Santander to pay back.

On 29 June, the German-Swiss Eurex market will launch “hurricane futures,” which will allow asset managers, hedge funds and reinsurers to cover themselves against hurricane risks. The new binary contracts come as an addition to the ISDA-type hurricane swaps which are already bilaterally traded. They will offer centralised settlement through Eurex Clearing.Initially, the futures will be available only for three regions: the United States as a whole, Florida, and the coastal states of the Gulf of Mexico. All contracts are denominated in US dollars. In addition, the control thresholds will vary from USD10bn to USD50bn.The minimal tick for the assets is set at USD10, and it will be possible to trade the contracts between 10 AM and 10 PM, central European time.Calculation of damages will be undertaken on the basis of data provided by ISO PCS.

ETFlab Investment GmbH, an affiliate of DekaBank, announced on Tuesday that it listed six new ETFs on the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic platform from Deutsche Börse on 16 June. All six products replicate MSCI indexes for the United States, Europe and Japan, and their midcaps counterparts. The German-registered funds are denominated in US dollars, Euros and Japanese yen. Management commission is 0.30% each for the four United States and Europe products, while the two Japanese funds carry fees of 0.50%.The XTF segment now lists 459 products.

Crédit Agricole Asset Management (CAAM) announced on Tuesday that it is releasing in Germany the Luxembourg versions of two stock-picking funds which already existed as French products. The Select Europe and Select Euro sub-funds of the Luxembourg Sicav CAAM Funds already have respective assets of EUR23m and EUR18m as of 15 June. Their French counterparts, CAAM Select Europe and CAAM Select Euro, have assets under management of EUR209m and EUR71.9m, respectively.

Le Temps reports that a delegation from Switzerland, led by Jürg Giraudi, head of international tax agreements for the Swiss federal contributions administration, is in Washington to negotiate a new double taxation agreement between Switzerland and the United States. Switzerland needs the agreement in order to rapidly get it off the grey list of OECD countries with substandard transparency in these areas.

Laffitte Capital Management has reopened its merger arbitrage fund Laffitte Risk Arbitrage, which was suspended on 15 September, following the bankruptcy of its prime broker, Lehman Brothers. The reopening of the fund concludes a long and complicated legal process which raised questions about the responsibilities of custodians in France (see previous articles on this subject). In the end, RBC Dexia, Laffitte’s depository, was required to restore assets for which custody was outsourced to Lehman Brothers to the Aria EL fund. Now that this sentence has been carried out, Laffitte Capital is able to reopen its fund at last, ending nine months of uncertainty. David Lenfant, managing partner at Laffitte, is relieved and satisfied, he says. During the fund’s closure it gained 2.5%. The reopening comes at a good time for mergers, particularly in the United States, Laffitte’s preferred market. Laffitte is also planning to launch an event-driven equities arbitrage product in the form of an UCITS fund.

The German management firm Commerz Real (Commerzbank group) has announced that it has invested about EUR52.5m in an office building under construction (13 stories, 13,000 square metres) in Liverpool. The property, slated for completion in first quarter 2011, will be added to the portfolio of the open-ended fund hausInvest europa (EUR9bn). The property is leased for 30 years to the Merseyside Integrated Transport Authority (MITA), which operates the urban transport for Liverpool and the county of Merseyside.Hans-Joachim Kühl, a board member, says Commerz Real is planning to dedicate EUR1bn to EUR1.5bn of investment to its open-ended real estate funds this year.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday agreed agreed to allow Bernard Madoff to settle civil fraud charges without admitting to any wrong-doing, the Financial Times reports. The financier will be forbidden from having any future associations with investment or brokerage businesses.

The DB Platinum CROCI Carbon 100 Euro TR Fund (long-only) and DB Platinum CROCI Carbon Alpha TR Fund (long-short), two UCITS III-compliant funds, have been launched by Deutsche Bank. They provide investors with exposure to shares in companies whose valuation is attractive and which stand out for their low emissions of greenhouse gases. The data on emissions were developed in cooperation with Trucost Plc. The long-only fund adopts a best-of-breed approach, using the CROCI (Cash Return On Cash Invested) selection method to choose shares in 100 companies which have lower emissions rates than their respective sectors. The long/short fund uses a mixed approach that combines CROCI and emissions factors. Long and short positions are chosen to construct a portfolio which is neutral on markets, regions and sectors, while exposure is calculated to ensure that the portfolio remains within a volatility budget of 5%. Deutsche Bank says that the index for the long-only fund has posted returns of 17.3% since the beginning of the year (as of 2 June), while the alpha strategy gained 3%. The funds are licensed for sale in Germany and Luxembourg. Elsewhere in Europe, they are available according to the regulations governing private placements. Details Name : DB Platinum CROCI Carbon 100 Euro Total Return Fund ISIN code LU0427245567 (retail) LU0427246706 (institutional) Management fee 1.50% (retail) 0.75% (institutional) Trailer 0.75% (retail) TER 1.70% (retail) 0.91% (institutional) Details Name : DB Platinum CROCI Carbon Alpha Total Return Fund ISIN Code LU0427247266 (retail) LU0427248827 (institutional) Management fee 1.75% (retail) 1% (institutional) Trailer 0.75% TER 1.95% (retail) 1.16% (institutional)

At the end of 2008, according to the annual report of the ALFI association, German asset management firms had assets fo EUR328bn in Luxembourg-registered funds, putting them ahead of their US (EUR306bn) and Swiss (EUR271bn) counterparts. Total assets under management represent EUR1.56trn, which is EUR500bn or 24% less than on 31 December 2007. Net redemptions since that time have totalled EUR77bn. The Börsen-Zeitung says this first place finish for German fund management firms is due to the fact that their assets contracted by only 16%, while assets for American firms contracted by 22%. French asset management firms renked seventh, after Belgium, the UK and Italy.

In May, hedge funds soaked up net cash inflows for the first time in 10 months, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing Eurekahedge. Inflows totalled USD19.3bn, offsetting USD8bn in outflows. In May, hedge funds also delivered their best performance in several years, and the pace of fund closures slowed.

Credit Suisse/Tremont and Barclay both show significant gains for hedge funds in May. According to the former, average performance measured 4.06%, bringing the total since the beginning of the year to 6.72%. These monthly gains are the largest since February 2000. The Barclay index, for its part, is up 5.77%, putting gains since the beginning of the year at 10.75%. In both cases, emerging markets strategies showed the best results in May, with 6.96% according to Credit Suisse/Tremont and 10.72% according to Barclay.

Depuis plusieurs semaines, les originateurs se mettent à racheter une partie de leurs émissions pour profiter des niveaux de décote exubérants

La banque danoise Saxo Bank a acquis la totalité du capital de son compatriote Capital Four Management Fondsmæglerselskab A/S et 51 % de Global Evolution Fondsmæglerselskab A/S. Cela s’inscrit dans le cadre de sa stratégie commerciale visant à développer les activités de la banque dans la gestion d’actifs, l’objectif étant de devenir un acteur de poids dans le secteur nordique de l’asset management, souligne un communiqué de presse. Saxo Bank élargit renforce ainsi son savoir-faire dans les obligations d’entreprises avec Capital Four et sur les taux marchés émergents et les changes avec Global Evolution. L’opération porte les encours sous gestion de Saxo Asset Management à 14 milliards de couronnes danoises.

As of 31 March, the portfolios of German open-ended real estate funds were 70.3% composed of assets located outside Germany, compared with 68.6% one year earlier, and 61.7% two years previously. Meanwhile, the proportion of German properties fell of 29.8% from 31.4% and 38.3%, according to statistics from the BVI association of asset management firms. France remains the largest country for investment by far, with 19 % of the total, compared with 19.2% one year ago.In the twelve months to the end of March, transactions involved 214 properties, compared with 511 in the corresponding period to the end of March 2008. The volume of these transactions fell from EUR22.9bn to EUR10.3bn. Purchases totalled EUR9.5bn, of which EUR7.8bn were spent on properties abroad and EUR1.7bn on properties in Germany, while sales totalled EUR0.8bn, of which half was abroad.The portfolio as of the end of March was composed 64.6% of office properties, compared with 66.3% one year previously and 68.1% at the end of March 2007, while commercial and restaurant properties represented 19.5% of the total, compared with 18.3% and 17.7%.

As of 1 August, Allianz Global Investors (AGI) will modify the way in which fees are calculated for 29 German-registered funds. The change will be applied to nearly all open-ended funds from AGI by early 2010. In particular, the management firm will introduce a flat rate, the precise percentage of which will depend on the new fee standards for various fund segments.The retail investor will thus pay an annual fee of 0.1% for a money market funds, 0.19% for a standard bond fund, and 0.3% for a standard equities fund. The highest fee (0.5%) will be for emerging markets equities funds.The management fees for some AGI equities funds will also be modified, and will be lowered by an average of 8 basis points. 12 funds will see increases to their fees, while 11 others will be lowered. Fees for the Concentra (EUR1.2bn in assets) will be lowered to 1.50% from 1.75%, while fees for the Allianz RCM Industrie will rise from 1.35% to 1.50%. No modifications are planned for the management commissions of 23 other equities products.AGI has also announced a performance commission for 19 classes of fund shares, while the performance commission currently charged on 16 other fund classes will be discontinued.No modifications are planned for funds taken over from cominvest.

Vanguard has announced plans to merge its Vanguard Treasury Money Market Fund (USD6.7bn) with the Vanguard Admiral Treasury Money Market Fund (USD21.8bn), whose fees are lower (0.15%, compared with 0.28%). The merger will take place in early August. The management firm has also frozen subscriptions to the Vanguard Treasury Money Market Fund, which may slow the fund’s declining performance.

Citywire reveals that Credit Suisse Asset Management’s (CSAM) star emerging market debt manager Raphael Kassin has left the firm he joined in 2007. The reasons for Kassin’s departure and the identity of his replacement remain as yet unknown.

Olivier Ménard, a former wealth management advisor, and Chantal Lienard, a portfolio manager at the Banque Leonardo, have joined forces to found the asset management firm Sunny Asset Management, L’Agefi Actifs reports on 12 June 2009. The creation of the new firm is undertaken with the partnership of OTC AM, an asset manager specialised in private equity. “The director of development at Sunny AM is none other than Christophe Tapia, who was director of development at Tocqueville Finance until recently,” L’Agefi Actifs reports.

Two years nearly to the day after he joined Fortress Investment Group as managing director and deep value portfolio manager, Henry McVey is returning to Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM), Hedge Week reports. He will be responsible for portfolio management and will be director of the macroeconomic analysis team and asset allocation. From 2004 to 2007 he was chief US investment strategist at Morgan Stanley.

Frank Hirschi, manager of the Lombard Odier Macquarie Infrastructure fund from Lombard Odier, says that the first companies to benefit from major investment in infrastructure are companies active in building and public works, such as Vinci and Bouygues in France, or Hochtief in Germany. “Infrastructure operators, such as Abertis or Eiffage, and private and institutional investors in infrastructure funds managed by specialists like Macquarie or Goldman Sachs will profit considerably from synergies and opportunities which will be created by economic stimulus packages,” the manager says in Le Temps.

Despite opportunities emerging in various places on the markets, high net worth families are remaining highly reticent to seize them. According to a study by the Economist Intelligence Unit and Barclays covering high net worth Barclays clients, nearly 90% of respondents estimate that there are opportunities on the markets currently, but 68% of them add that the risk of further falls is too high to take on. The result is that a majority of respondents say thay will not be making any alterations to their asset allocations in the next twelve months.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports that Commerzbank has sold its Netherlands affiliate Dresdner VPV (EUR1.2bn in assets) “for an amount in the low tens of millions of Euros” to the management of the firm. The wealth management firm is one of the assets which the European Commission required Commerzbank to sell in order to become eligible for EUR18.2bn in government aid.The other affiliates which must be sold are the Munich-based private bank Reuschel, UK-based Kleinwort Benson Private Bank, the Austrian Privatinvest Bank, and the Belgian Dresdner Van Moers Courtens brokerage.

Since the end of 2006, assets in investment funds on sale in Spain have contracted by 36%. As of the end of May, the number of subscribers had fallen by nearly 3 million since the end of 2006, a decline of 33%, Cinco Días reports. Currently, there are 5.8 million investors in these funds, of whom 42% are invested in products with no or very low risk (money markets, short-term bonds, guaranteed bond funds), the highest number since 1997. In terms of assets, as of the end of May, 59% of total assets were in portfolios with no risk, the highest level since December 1997.Investors in equities funds or diversified funds predominantly invested in equities currently represent 5.2% of subscribers overall, the lowest level since December 1996. In terms of assets, Spanish equities funds and diversified funds invested predominantly in equities represent only 2.92% of total assets, the lowest level since 1993.

Nicola Horlick’s bid to acquire Bramdean Alternatives, via her firm Petersfield Asset Management, was rejected on Monday by the board of directors, the Financial Times reports. Petersfield nonetheless leaves its offer open.