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27/02/2009

United Kingdom - RBS receives GBP25.5bn from government

Royal Bank of Scotland will receive an injection of up to GBP25.5bn from the British government, to guarantee GBP325bn in assets, the Financial Times reports. The agreement comes as the bank has announced the heaviest losses in British history.
27/02/2009

United States - Stanford: SEC was alerted in 2003

The Financial Times reports that Leyla Basagoitia, a former Stanford employee, alerted the Securities and Exchange Commission about her employer, who she suspected of operating a Ponzi scheme, as early as 2003. Basagoitia sounded the alarm the same year at a meeting of the National Association of Securities Dealers, at a time when she was in conflict with her company.
27/02/2009

World - Hedge funds return to their roots

Fabrice Cuchet, director of hedge fund activities for Dexia Asset Management, says hedge funds which have survived the crisis most successfully are those which practice all-time strategies, such as long/short equity or global macro funds, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. He also argues that the most regulated and transparent funds will do best in the future, particularly funds which use arbitrage strategies: the sector is returning to its roots. The Dexia specialist estimates that the deleveraging process at hedge fund is nearing its end.
27/02/2009

Spain - BBVA shuts down alternative management activities

BBVA, whose total assets in Spain and Latin America totalled EUR130bn, on Thursday announced plans to make an ?orderly withdrawal? from alternative management, which represents less than 1% of its assets, though funds, mostly available to institutional investors, are in positive territory ?on average.? The Spanish bank has already programmed the redemption of all investments in the various hedge funds available from its management firm Altitude (EUR125m).BBVA is planning to do the same for Próxima Alfa Investments, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the group, with assets of USD930m in several funds with high liquidity levels.
27/02/2009

Germany - ETC funds popular with investors

The World Gold Counil reports that investors in the second half of 2008 bought about USD21bn worth of gold, 150% more than in July-December 2007. In Germany, subscribers msot often chose the ETC Xetra-Gold, which replicates the price of one gram of gold in Euros, and the Gold Bullion Securities, which reflects the price of a tenth of an ounce, Die Welt reports. Martina Gruber of Deutsche Börse Commodities says that 420 investors have claimed redemptions in physical gold totalling 480 kilos of the precious metal, while in the first half of 2008, only two subscribers opted for this form of redemption. Delivery in physical gold takes about 10 days and costs EUR170 for a single one-kilo gold ingot. For the Xetra-Gold, deposits are stored in the vaults at the Neue Börse in Frankfurt-Hausen, where 24 tonnes of gold, with a value of about EUR600m, are located. For the Gold Bullion Securities fund from ETFS, the deposits are at HSBC in London.
27/02/2009

United States - Losses for Forester Value fund

The Forester Value fund managed by Thomas H. Forester stood out as the only one of 8,200 US diversified equities funds to post a positive result last year (of 0.4%), while average losses were 39%. The Wall Street Journal reports that this performance attracted USD20m in subscriptions. The fund now has USD70m, less than one tenth the average size for a fund in its category. The manager is hoping to prove that his 2008 results were a stroke of genius rather than luck. But a good part of his success came not from clever stock-picking but from a significant cash reserve. Since the beginning of the year, however, the fund has lost 13%.
27/02/2009

United States - Taxes on hedge funds to increase

La Tribune reports, citing the New York Times, that President Obama will propose an increase in taxes on the income of partners in hedge funds and other investment funds. ?For the moment, the tax rate is only 15% at most. ? Initially, income from the investments in question could be considered the equivalent of normal income, and taxed at 35% or more. Then, in a second stage, they would be taxed at 39.6%.?
27/02/2009

United Kingdom - IFAs concentrate on management and advising commissions

43% of 900 British independent financial advisors (IFAs) consider it a more promising prospect to concentrate on commissions for management and for client relationship management in order to add value to their activities, rather than to rely on income from front-end fees, according to the Trailblazer survey undertaken by Skandia. The results suggest that IFAs are in the process of rethinking their fee structures, with the added impetus of adapting to Retail Distribution Implementation Programme (RDIP) regulations.Skandia states that 25% of respondents are planning to concentrate on fewer, but more upmarket clients, while 13% are planning to create value by positioning themselves on a fund platform.
27/02/2009

United Kingdom - Vanguard UK to recruit 30 new staff

Vanguard Investments UK will hire up to 30 people for its new London office, Ignites Europe reports in its 26 February edition. The new personnel will handle relationships with British IFAs. The management firm will also launch 10 funds by June, the daily newspaper adds.
27/02/2009

Europe - Fund fees will fall, EFAMA predicts

The European passport for management firms will allow management firms to make savings, which will result in a reduction in fees charged to investors, Mathias Bauer, chairman of EFAMA, the European fund and asset management association, predicted at a conference held on Monday by the committee of European securities regulators (CESR).However, Bauer points out, 70% of fees paid by investors in funds go to pay for distribution. At this time, he says, it is difficult to quantify the savings that the measures will make possible, nor how many management firms would pass them on, particularly in the current economic environment. If markets continue to decline, Bauer thinks managers will concentrate primarily on regaining investors’ confidence, rather than on questions of competitiveness.
27/02/2009

Germany - Allianz: Deterioration in cost/income ratio for asset management

As of the end of 2008, assets under management for third parties at Allianz were down 8% to EUR703bn, with a contraction of EUR70bn, to EUR102bn, for the equities portion of the portfolio, and an increase of EUR14bn, to EUR600bn, for bonds. Institutional assets increased to ERU518bn, from EUR485bn, while assets under management for retail investors fell to EUR185bn from EUR280bn. Meanwhile, of all assets under management, EUR415bn came from the United States at the end of 2008, compared with EUR430bn one year earlier (USD578bn compared with USD633bn). The German market represents only EUR85bn, compared with EUR115bn, while Europe accounts for EUR120bn compared with EUR116bn.Commission margins fell to 36.5 basis points in 2008, from 37.1 points in 2007, and operating profits fell 32% to EUR926m; net profits for asset management totalled EUR379m (-23.9%). The cost/income ratio for the division deteriorated to 67.9% from 58.3%.
27/02/2009

Germany - Canada Life and Fidelity extend partnership

Canada Life, which already offers unit-linked solutions on the German market using funds from Fidelity International, is extending its collaboration with the management firm, Fondsprofessionell reports. The firms will now establish a single retirement insurance product, for which Canada Life will bring to bear its expertise as an insurer to cover risk, while Fidelity will be responsible for the investment portion.
27/02/2009

Spain - Funds have lost an estimated EUR1.2bn in February

According to estimates by VDOS Stochastics, Spanish funds experienced a decline in their assets of 0.69% in February, following net redemptions of EUR765m and negative market effects of EUR435m, Cotizalia reports. BBVA Gestión and Santander Asset Management remain the top two actors by far, with EUR35.17bn and EUR34.98bn, which corresponds to market share of 20.42% and 20.30%, respectively.
27/02/2009

United States - Quantitative team at Deutsche Bank goes independent

Bloomberg reports that Equitech Group, the New York owners’ equity trading affiliate of Deutsche Bank, is becoming independent, and will be known as Roc Capital Management. The firm will begin its activities in second quarter, with 20 specialists and 40 function support staff based in India. Roc CM, which will offer hedge funds which Deutsche Bank can no longer support due to budgetary constraints, will be led by Arvind Raghunathan, who was head of global arbitrage for the German bank. The COO will be Robert Wolfson, chief operating officer of equity proprietary trading at Deutsche Bank, while the chief strategy officer will be Annupam Ghose, currently in the prime services group at Credit Suisse.
27/02/2009

United States - Fundamental strategy questions for institutionals

On average, institutional investors in the United States have experienced a decline in the value of their portfolios of 31% in 2008, according to a new Greenwich study. The size of the decline raises questions about asset allocation decisions, risk management practices, manager selection, and investment policies in general.?One of the important lessons of the current crisis may well be the value of liquidity, or the dangers of undervaluing it,? Greenwich comments.
27/02/2009

United States - Profits down at Eaton Vance

In the first quarter of its fiscal year, ending on 30 November, Eaton Vance has posted net profits of USD24.7m, compared with USD34.95m in August-October 2008, and USD57.93m in the corresponding period of last year. In the period under review, the manager has posted net subscriptions of USD3.3bn for long-term funds and mandates, while gross subscriptions totalled USD12.3bn, and redemptions totalled USD7.7bn, and reductions in leverage represented USD1.3bn. In total, assets declined overall by USD1.2bn, or 1%, compared with the end of October, to a total of USD121.93bn as of 31 January. Eaton Vance states that the total at the end of January includes USD6.9bn in the form of Tax Advantaged Bond Strategies (TABS), an activity acquired on 31 December from M.D. Sass Investors Services. Equities funds represented USD46.59bn, and bond funds weighed USD18.85bn, which corresponds to declines of 10% and 31% since the end of October and the end of January 2008 in the first case, and of 3% and 18% in the second. For equities, subscriptions of USD4.79bn were compensated for largely by USD3.53bn in redemptions and negative market effects of USD6.59bn.
27/02/2009

United Kingdom - Gartmore to launch another absolute performance fund

After a similar vehicle focused on Europe which it launched in January, Gartmore (GBP18bn as of the end of 2008) is planning to launch an absolute performance fund dedicated to the United Kingdom in April, Investment Week reports. The product will pursue the same strategy as the Octanis hedge fund, and will also be managed by Ben Wallace. Minimal subscription will be set at GBP1,000.
27/02/2009

Germany - Go-ahead for Swiss Life squeeze-out at AWD

An extraordinary general assembly at AWD approved all the motions on its agenda with a majority of over 99.8%, including motions to transfer all capital in the firm to Swiss Life Beteiligungs GmbH, and to undertake a squeeze-out of minority stakeholders at EUR30 per share. Shareholders also approved the appointment of Ivo Furrer as director.
27/02/2009

France - Cat bonds team at Axa IM begins operations

Since the end of 2007, Axa Investment Managers has been constructing an insurance linked securities (ILS) team within its structured products division, which will be led by Christophe Fritsch, an actuary and financial engineer specialised in structuring. The team includes a portfolio manager, a quantitative manager, and a management assistant.The team is now sufficiently prepared, and with the Lehman collapse in the past, the market has returned to a sufficient pace of new issues, that the French management firm is planning to launch its first catastrophe (cat) bonds fund, aimed ast institutional investors, this year. Without ruling out the possibility of mandates, Fritsch says that he is aiming to launch a Luxembourg-registered fund in the next three to six months, which will have assets of up to EUR200-300m.
27/02/2009

Spain - Invercaixa cuts fees for a fund of hedge funds

So far, hedge fund managers in Spain have reacted to the crisis either by liquidating their funds, or by freezing redemptions. Invercaixa (La Caixa) has chosen a third way with its fund of hedge funds Invercaixa Privada Estrategia: from Thursday, 26 February, it is lowering management commissions to 0.25% from 0.75%, and cancelling a 10% performance commission, Funds People reports. It is true that the product has posted a 50% loss for January-november 2008. Specialists say such financial conditions are not sustainable for the manager, since funds of hedge funds are costly products.
27/02/2009

Spain - BBVA Gestión launches two prudent funds

BBVA Gestión is launching two products to respond to demand from investors with more conservative profiles, funds People reports. The BBVA Bonos Cash is the retail version of a money market fund aimed at businesses, which invests in government bonds and corporate bonds denominated in Euros from companies rated at least P2 or A-2 for short-term debt. The BBVA Doble Garantia (for which subscriptions will open in March) will be a bond fund with a duration of 3 ½ years (maturing on 31/10/2012), which, if conditions are met, will deliver 50% of the average performance of the DJ Eurostoxx 50. A 2.22% coupon will be paid on 16 October 2009.
27/02/2009

United States - Stanford CIO arrested

The FBI has arrested and charged Laura Pendergest-Holt, chief investment officer for Stanford Financial Group, in Houston, the Justice Department has announced. The Wall Street Journal reports that this first criminal case in the Stanford affair is related to the fact that the CIO made misleading statements to the SEC in testimony over accusations of fraud at Stanford International Bank.The SEC has already brought a civil suit against R. Allen Stanford, Pendergast-Holt, and James M. Davis, the chief financial officer at the bank. The regulator claims Stanford International Bank defrauded investors and account-holders of about USD8bn.
27/02/2009

Allemagne - Dresdner Bank : la Commerzbank tient à rassurer

Après la publication des comptes provisoires de la Dresdner Bank, qui aura coûté 6,4 milliards d’euros supplémentaires à Allianz au titre de 2008, la Commerzbank s’est empressée de publier un avis boursier dans lequel elle précise que les pertes de la banque verte ont été totalement prises en compte et que les fonds propres de premier rang (tier 1) représentaient 10 % au 1er janvier 2009. Hors l’apport du Fonds de stabilisation des marchés financiers (SoFFin) et la reprise de CDO de la Dresdner Bank par Allianz (pour 400 millions d’euros), le ratio de Tier 1 se serait situé aux alentours de 7 %.D’autre part, Martin Blessing, président du directoire de la Commerzbank, a tenu à souligner dans un communiqué que la perte de plusieurs milliards supportée par la Dresdner Bank occulte le fait que les activités de banque du particulier, de banque des entreprises et de pans importants de la banque d’investissement de cet établissement acheté par la Commerzbank sont saines. Les problèmes ont été provoqués par certains secteurs de la banque d’investissement Dresdner Kleinwort qui vont être sévèrement élagués.
27/02/2009

Allemagne - Le moral des investisseurs au plus bas depuis début 2003

Selon le sondage trimestriel Forsa pour le compte d’Union Investment auprès des décideurs financiers de 500 ménages, 37 % des investisseurs allemands pensent que les marchés d’actions baisseront dans les six prochains mois (contre 34 % au T4-08) et 31 % (contre 43 %) estiment qu’ils seront en légère hausse. Il n’y a eu moins d’optimistes que par trois fois depuis le début de la série en 2001 ; la dernière fois, c'était au premier trimestre 2003 (19 %).En ce qui concerne les préférences en matière de placements financiers, l’aspect «sécurité» arrive très largement en tête, avec 58 %, devant la disponibilité (26 %), la rentabilité (10 %) et les avantages fiscaux (5 %).
27/02/2009

Allemagne - L'Etat fédéral se constitue une cagnotte pour ses indexés

L’Etat fédéral a l’intention de constituer grâce à une loi ad hoc (Schlusszahlungsfinanzierungsgesetz) une réserve cantonnée de 1,5 milliard d’euros sur les années 2010 à 2012, rapporte la Börsen-Zeitung. Cela évitera au ministre des Finances d’avoir à faire porter sur un seul budget annuel la liquidation de la prime d’inflation qu’il devra payer sur ses emprunts indexés.
27/02/2009

Etats-Unis - Le NYSE suspend la radiation à 1 dollar

The Wall Street Journal rapporte que le New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) suspend jusqu’au 30 juin la règle imposant la radiation de la cote lorsque l’action d’une société tombe au-dessous d’un dollar. L’entreprise de marché demande aussi au régulateur d’approuver l’extension jusqu’au 30 juin du régime allégé concernant l’obligation de capitalisation boursière minimale : sinon, le 22 avril, ce plancher serait remonté à 25 millions de dollars contre 15 millions.
27/02/2009

Etats-Unis - Fannie Mae dans le rouge sombre

Jeudi soir, Fannie Mae a déclaré une perte de 25,2 milliards de dollars pour le T4 et de 58,7 milliards pour 2008 contre 2,1 milliards pour 2007. La perte de 2008 est supérieure aux bénéfices de 17 années précédentes, souligne The Wall Street Journal, qui s’attend aussi à une très forte perte au T4 pour Freddie Mac. La mise sous tutelle des deux établissements n’a pas donné les résultats escomptés par le gouvernement puisque seule une infime partie des 31 millions d’hypothèques garanties ou détenues a été reconduite.
27/02/2009

Etats-Unis - Les institutionnels se remettent en question

En moyenne, les investisseurs institutionnels aux Etats-Unis ont accusé une baisse de la valeur de leurs portefeuilles de 31 % en 2008, selon une nouvelle étude de Greenwich. L’ampleur du déclin soulève des questions sur les décisions en matière d’allocation d’actifs, les pratiques de gestion des risques, la sélection de gérants et les politiques d’investissement en général."L’une des leçons importantes de la crise actuelle pourrait bien être la valeur de la liquidité, ou plutôt les dangers de la sous-évaluer», commente Greenwich.

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