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19/01/2009

United States - Ponzi scheme epidemic

Since the Madoff scandal broke, a growing number of Ponzi schemes is being discovered, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, cited by the Financial Times. Many fraudsters are turning themselves in. This year, the number of Ponzi schemes prosecuted by the CFTC is expected to be higher than the total of 15 in 2008.
19/01/2009

Germany - MPC increases capital

Ten days after announcing plans to lay off 15% of its staff, MPC Capital announced on Friday that its three major shareholders, Corsair III Investments, MPC Holding and Oldehaver Beteiligungsgesellschaft, will underwrite a capital increase of 50%, or EUR48.5m, to EUR121m. Meanwhile, the manager of closed funds has announced that it its partners have granted it extensions on some payment deadlines and new lines of credit.
19/01/2009

Spain - Optimal folds the sails

Optimal, the alternative management firm from Santander, is facing a EUR6bn decline in its assets due to the closure of its best-performing fund, the Optimal Strategic US Equity, whose management it had outsourced to Madoff, and other funds which the firm will be obliged to close, Expansión reports. In May 2008, Optimal had a record EUR10bn under management.Along with Optimal, M&B Capital, a management firm led by a son and the son-in-law of the chairman of Santander, began the process of liquidating two of its hedge funds, Tukan and Summa, which are also infected by the Madoff fraud.
19/01/2009

Europe - Managers face losses due to ?Indian Enron?

Just as they are getting over the Madoff fraud scandal, management firms are now facing another wave of disastrous losses due to a fraud orchestrated by the Indian businessman B. Ramalinga Raju, founder and president of Satyam, Ignites Europe reports on 16 January. The firm, which is becoming known as the ?Indian Enron,? is included in the indices used by numerous managers. For example, the Pioneer Cim unit of Pioneer was exposed to Satyam for EUR1.36bn as of the end of June 2008, according to Finanz&Mercati, cited by Ignites.
19/01/2009

Austria - Bank Medici transferred its commissions into Swiss accounts

?The fate of Bank Medici is sealed. The Viennese firm will be closed in a few weeks,? repeated the members of a special task force at Himmepfortgasse 8, the headquarters of the Austrian finance ministry, Il Sole - 24 Ore reports. According to the newsmagazine Format, Sonja Kohn, chairwoman of the bank, made EUR50m per year from commissions earned on the sale of Madoff funds. But, according to the Austrian authorities, in 2007, only EUR4-5m in commissions were registered on the books. The remainder is reported to have been transferred into Swiss accounts.
19/01/2009

United Kingdom - New Star's buyer to be named today

On Monday, the name of the chosen candidate to acquire New Star Asset Management will be announced, the Financial Times reports. There are now only five suitors in the running, down from nine previously. The finalists are Schroders, Henderson, Gartmore, Neptune IM, and Aberdeen.
19/01/2009

Luxembourg - UBS begins reimbursing Madoff victims

UBS has begun to reimburse some investors in the Luxalpha fund, one of the largest European funds affected by the Bernard Madoff fraud case, the Financial Times reports. The French management firm Sofra, which obtained a legal injunction requiring a freeze of Luxalpha assets held in a managed account at UBS, will get back its EUR1m investment. Other clients who had subscribed to Luxalpha or sold shares in November have also been informed that they will be reimbursed, the FT adds.
19/01/2009

Germany - 2008 was a vintage year for XTF segment

In an article in the January 2009 issue of Finanzplatz, Frank Gerstenschläger, a board member at Deutsche Börse, announces that the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic platform posted a record transaction volume in 2008 of about EUR120bn for ETFs, which represents a 38% share of the European market. Last year, 127 more ETFs were added to the XTF segment for trading, and the average monthly transaction volume topped EUR10bn, compared with EUR0.2bn when the XTF segment opened in 2000.Gerstenschläger points out that ETF funds replicating the major large cap indexes have higher liquidity than shares of the Dax.
19/01/2009

United States - 'Little Madoff' busted in Idaho

The market regulatory authority of the state of Idaho is investigating Daren Palmer, a manager who orchestrated a Ponzi scheme that is reported to have cost investors USD100m, the Wall Street Journal reports.
19/01/2009

United States - Madoff: Funds of funds face legal challenges

Funds of funds are likely to be targeted by Irving Picard, the administrator appointed by Securities Investor Protection Corp to recuperate money from investors who made gains on Bernard Madoff funds, the Financial Times reports. Picard will study the precedent set by the Bayou fraud case. In this case, the authorities recuperated gains earned by investors over six years, on the grounds that the gains were illusory.
19/01/2009

Germany - Berenberg launches high yield credit fund with UI

With the assistance of Universal Investment (UI), which handles the back office, the Berenberg private bank on 15 December launched the German-registered fund Select Bond-Opportunity-Universal-Fonds, which invests in high yield bonds, but which may also be invested in government bonds or Pfandbriefe if the risk budget is exceeded. If necessary, the fund of funds, which is also authorised to invest in live shares, may also include in its portfolio shares in companies outside the high yield category.Management and advising commissions total 0.30% and 0.80%, respectively. In addition, a 20% commission will be charged on performance exceeding the Libor 3 month + 300 basis points, with high watermark.
19/01/2009

Germany - New head at Wolbern

The private bank Bankhaus Wölbern, which posted inflows of new money in 2008 totalling about EUR200m (+35%), has announced the appointment of Hans-Detlef Bösel as co-CEO, alongside Heinz Arno Wascheck, replacing Larissa Dan, who is leaving the firm after twelve years on the board. Until 2007, Bösel was a partner at the private bank M.M. Warburg, in charge of the investment bank.
19/01/2009

United Kingdom - PSG and Fortune sign strategic partnership agreement

Punter Southall Group Ltd (PSG), which manages GBP5bn in assets and has GBP18bn in assets under administration, has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Fortune Asset Management Ltd (about GBP4bn under advisory), by the terms of which, at the end of January, Fortune will take over the three Irish-registered Alternative Investment Strategies funds (Grenfell Defensive Equity Fund, Grenfell Low Volatility Fund and Grenfell Select Opportunities Fund) which were previously managed by Grenfell PAI Ltd, which is 78% controlled by PSG and 22% owned by Octane Holding Limited. Fortune has also signed a sub-investment management agreement with Grenfell PAI Guernsey Ltd.
19/01/2009

Germany - CS Euroreal remains closed to redemptions

Credit Suisse Asset Management KAG has become the first German manager of open-ended real estate funds to announce that it will not be in a position to reopen its fund, CS Euroreal (EUR6.5bn) to redemptions at the end of January. The freeze on redemptions has been initially extended for a nine-month period. Redemptions will probably recommence ?well before? this time, when sufficient liquidity has been recovered.Karl-Heinz Heuß, a managing board member at CSAM KAG, has stated that net subscriptions since the redemption freeze on 14 January have totalled EUR221.6m. Performance between 30 October (the day after the closure) and 9 January, excluding payment of dividends on 8 December, increased by 1%; over one year (as of 31 December), performance rose to 5%.Currently, the portfolio includes 112 properties in 11 European countries; the average occupation rate is over 94.5%, and 88.8% of leases will expire after 31 December 2010. Since its launch in 1992, the average annual performance of the fund has been 5.3%.
19/01/2009

Spain - Managers reduce commissions

To halt redemptions, management firms are cutting their management commissions. 187 funds have done so since January 2008, including 25 funds who cut commissions in December. The average reduction was 38.2%, Cinco Días reports; managers also lowered deposit, performance, and subscription commissions. The discounts extended over all types of funds (money markets, bonds, equities, real estate, and guaranteed). According to the Inverco association of management firms, average management commissions have consistently fallen over the past few years, and at the beginning of 2008 stood at 1.04%, while they are legally limited to 2.25% or less.
19/01/2009

Germany - Deka may merge with WestLB and Helaba

The victory of the CDU in regional elections in Hesse on Sunday may facilitate a merger not only between DekaBank and WestLB, but also with Helaba. According to reports in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the boards at the three establishments may be asked to study the proposal as soon as Tuesday; it would be supported not only by the savings banks, but also by the governments of Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia.
19/01/2009

Europe - CVC successful in fundraising

Steve Koltes, CEO for Germany, has announced that CVC Capital Partners now has EUR16bn to invest, since the fund CVC European Equity Partners V has concluded its fundraising with EUR10.8bn in commitments, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. The money will come from 350 institutional investors (half of whom are American), or nine tenths of the investors who subscribed to the first fund for EUR6bn in 2005, and then one year later signed up for the Tandem fund (EUR4.1bn). Those two funds are already 90% and 55% invested, respectively.
19/01/2009

United States - Justice department investigates Madoff CFO

Following the collapse of Bernard Madoff Investment Securities, the SEC and the Department of Justice are beginning their investigations of the firm’s CFO, Frank DiPascali Jr., who worked for Madoff for 33 years, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. No charges have been filed against DiPascali to date, although he appears to have played a central role at the firm.
19/01/2009

Spain - Independent managers successful

Total assets in Spaniah funds fell by 30% last year to EUR167bn, with net redemptions of nearly EUR60bn, Expansión reports. Among the winners in 2008 were independent management firms, which represent only 8% of assets. Ten of them are the only firms in Spain which have posted increases to their assets under management and registered net subscriptions. In this group are Gesiurus, Atlas Capital, Consulnor and Asesores y Gestores (A&G).
19/01/2009

Spain - BBVA pulls out of hedge funds to avoid further losses

According to Expansión, BBVA may have suffered losses of EUR200-300m, as much as it lost on funds with ties to Madoff, due to structured products based on hedge funds from Rothschild, Permal (Legg Mason) and Liongate. The bank had placed investments from institutional investors in these products totalling about EUR3bn.
19/01/2009

United States - Fonditel, marginally affected by Madoff, joins Lehman lawsuit

With the support of Telefónica, whose pension fund it manages, the Spanish asset management firm Fonditel is joining a lawsuit in the United States to recover USD80m invested at Lehman Brothers, Expansión reports.The Telefónica retirement savings plan managed by Fonditel is not affected by Madoff, but other collective and individual plans have been indirectly affected for as much as EUR0.6bn, through investment in Laredo, a hedge fund managed by the Koplowitz family. Fonditel Beta, which includes retirement savings plans for affiliates of Telefónica such as Movíles and Internacional, has seen losses of 0.023% of its portfolio. Fonditel Alfa, which manages plans for Bacardi, OCU, Hewlett Packard, Goldman Sachs, Procter & Gamble and ING, has been affected for 0.082% of its assets. The individual retirement savings plans Red Activa, Red Básica and Fonditel Individual have also been affected by the Madoff fraud case.
19/01/2009

United States - Venture capital: Investment down 30% in Q4

VentureSource reports that investments in venture capital fell to USD5.5bn in October-December 2008, down from USD7.9bn, in a total of 554 transactions, compared with 718, the Wall Street Journal reports. In 2008 as a whole, there were 2,550 deals worth USD28.8bn, compared with 2,823 deals worth USD31.4bn in 2007.
19/01/2009

France - SocGen privilégie la croissance interne

Interviewé par Il Sole ? 24 Ore, Frédéric Oudéa, directeur général de Société Générale, affirme que «ce que nous ne verrons pas en 2009, ce sont des fusions transfrontières. Après ce qui s"est passé l"année dernière, les banques, à commencer par SocGen, recommenceront à se concentrer sur la croissance organique et sur la récupération d"efficience». La priorité va donc à la croissance organique, même s"il ne faut pas exclure des acquisitions ciblées d"actifs «dans la banque de détail et les services financiers, si des occasions se présentaient». Le dirigeant indique par ailleurs que SG réduit le levier et renforce la banque de détail.
19/01/2009

Japon - Citigroup place Nikko Cordial sur la liste des actifs à céder

Citigroup, qui a fait état vendredi d’une perte trimestrielle de 8,3 milliards de dollars, a indiqué que sa filiale de courtage japonaise Nikko Cordial Securities (acquise pour 1,6 billion de yen il y a juste un an) a été placée sur la liste des actifs non stratégiques destinés à la vente, rapporte The Wall Street Journal. L’américain a récemment dû reporter l’introduction en Bourse de sa filiale Nikko Asset Management, en raison de la détérioration du marché. D’autre part, Citigroup cherche à vendre la société de centres d’appels tokyoïte BellSystem24. Cela posé, le CEO Vikram Pandit a précisé que Citigroup n’est pas pressé de revendre Nikko Cordial, parce qu’actuellement cela ne serait concevable qu’avec une forte moins-value.
19/01/2009

Monde - Les investisseurs étrangers liquident leurs actifs US

Selon l"Agefi, en novembre, les investisseurs étrangers ont vendu pour plus de 56 milliards de dollars d’actifs américains, du jamais vu. «Traditionnellement capteurs de fonds étrangers, les Treasuries ont notamment subi de lourds dégagements, avec des ventes de 22,9 milliards de dollars», précise notamment le quotidien numérique.
19/01/2009

Monde - Preqin : baisse des opérations de LBO en 2008

Selon La Tribune, citant les chiffres du cabinet Private Equity Intelligence (Preqin), le volume mondial des levées de fonds consacré au LBO est revenu de 554 milliards de dollars (418 milliards d’euros), contre 625 milliards un an plus tôt. «Si les investissements dans le LBO chutent à ce point, c’est parce que (?) les montages de LBO nécessitent en effet un recours à la dette important, condition sine qua non à la création d’un effet de levier. Si les banques ne prêtent plus cette dette, il n’y a plus d’opérations», explique notamment le quotidien. Les rendements des fonds de LBO sont en moyenne de 15,2%, complète La Tribune.
19/01/2009

Monde - UBS acquiert certaines activités d'AIG Financial Products

Moyennant 15 millions de dollars à verser lors de la clôture de la transaction, laquelle devrait intervenir d’ici au mois de mai de cette année, plus un montant pouvant atteindre 135 millions de dollars sur les dix-huit prochains mois #en fonction des bénéfices futurs des activités acquises#, la branche #actions# d’UBS Investment Bank a annoncé lundi matin #un accord contraignant en vue d’acquérir les activités basées sur les indices des matières premières de AIG Financial Products Corp, y compris les droits de AIG dans le DJ-AIG Commodity Index.# Le communiqué du groupe helvétique précise que #cet indice de matières premières se compose d’une plate-forme de produits de swaps sur indice de matières premières et de #funded notes# dont le sous-jacent est l’indice Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index (DJ-AIGCI)#.
19/01/2009

Monde - UBS cède des activités de négoce de commodities à Barclays

Pour un montant non divulgué, UBS cède à Barclays Capital ses activités de négoce sur les métaux de base, le pétrole ainsi que l'énergie et le gaz aux Etats-Unis. La transaction sera bouclée au deuxième trimestre. Elle fait suite à la décision annoncée en octobre 2008 de céder les activités non stratégiques dans le domaine des matières premières. Le 22 décembre, la banque helvétique avait ainsi cédé à JP Morgan son négoce de matières premières au Canada et son activité mondiale de trading concernant les produits agricoles.
19/01/2009

Royaume-Uni - Nouveau plan de sauvetage pour les banques britanniques

Selon Le Figaro, «Londres devrait annoncer aujourd"hui ou demain un plan de garantie des produits «toxiques» allant jusqu"à 200 milliards de livres». Le premier ministre britannique, Gordon Brown, a indiqué qu’il s’agit de faire redémarrer le crédit.Cette fois, il s"agira de garantir des milliards de livres d"actifs bancaires à risque, les banques devant «identifier leurs actifs les plus risqués et payer des honoraires à un assureur soutenu par l"État pour les protéger contre les pertes dépassant un certain montant», précise le quotidien.

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