The British Serious Fraud Office announced on Thursday that it has opened a major investigation into fraud by Bernard Madoff, after receiving a preliminary report from Grant Thornton, the Financial Times reports. The SFO will focus particularly on the activities of Madoff’s British firm.

The United States federal prosecutor’s office has announced that investigators who searched the office of Bernard Madoff after his arrest on 11 December found about 100 signed cheques representing a total of more than USD173m, the Wall Street Journal reports. The revelation comes as the court hears a motion to remove the suspect from house arrest and return him to full incarceration. The cheques were ready to be sent out.

Rab Captial, New Star Asset Management, Man Group, Marwyn Value Investors, Fortress, Citadel and Boussard & Gavaudan may be the next targets of activist hedge funds, since their share prices have fallen in the past few weeks, Il Sole- 24 Ore predicts on 9 January. These publicly traded management firms make ideal targets, since the difference between their capitalisation and their assets can easily be calculated, the Italian newspaper adds.

The Madoff fraud scandal may cost HSBC at least EUR1.6bn, and UBS as much as EUR1.4bn, as they were the depositary banks for some funds invested in the US giant, Il Sole - 24 Ore reports on 9 January. These amounts represent each bank’s exposure. HSBC and UBS make attractive targets for lawyers representing managers and investors who lost money in the Madoff fraud, who are aware that neither Madoff’s liquidators, nor the funds which fed into Madoff, now have sufficient financial solidity to pay off all the losses, the Italian newspaper remarks.

Martin Gafner, a representative on the board of directors and chief executive officer at Investas AG, will on 15 March become CEO of Valiant Banque Privée. He will replace Marco Durrer, who is leaving Valiant ?by mutual agreement,? as is board member Thomas Lötscher. As a part of the reshuffle, the independent consulting and wealth management firm Investas (350 clients, CHF400m in assets under management) will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Valiant Banque Privée, though it will retain its name.

Le Temps reports that the private bank Syz & Co had acquired shares in the Irish-registered Sicav Thema International Fund, one of the vehicles linked to the New York fraudster Bernard Madoff, on behalf of its clients. ?Syz & Co had invested several tens of millions of francs in the fund for clients of its centralised management unit,? the newspaper reports. The private bank had informed its clients, whom it is planning to reimburse, Le Temps states.

The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre Authority and Shariah Capital have launched the Dubai Shariah Hedge Fund Index, which they call the first globally recognised index to include exclusively hedge funds which comply with Shariah law, Hedge Week reports. The product replicates the performance of the evenly-weighted fund of funds DSAM Kauthar Commodity Fund, and will be calculated and published by Thomson Reuters.

The Ramius Fund of Funds group has appointed Stuart Davies as managing director and chief investment officer, effective 20 January 2009, Hedge Week reports. He will also be a member of the investment management committee at the group. He replaces Thomas W. Strauss, who will remain as CEO of the Ramius Fund of Funds Group and also a member of the board. Davies previously held a similar position at Ivy Asset Management in New York.

Managers will toughen the liquidity terms of their new products, but promoters are likely to remain flexible to keep up with competition, Ignites Europe estimates on 8 January. ?This phenomenon has already begun for funds of hedge funds, but it will increasingly affect real estate funds, credit funds, and others,? says Aymeric Poizot, an analyst at Fitch Ratings.

Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. is launching a range of trading and investment products which focus on companies receiving government support during the financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal reports. The first product in the range is the Government Relief Index (GRI), which will track shares in 24 companies which have received more than USD1bn each in aid from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) or other assistance mechanisms. The index will measure the perormance of these companies and the effectiveness of the aid plan.

FinancialNews Online reports on 8 January that Henderson Global Investors has closed the activist fund which it launched two years ago, following the departure of its manager, John Havranek, for Hermes.

Axel Schroeder, chairman of the board at MPC Capital, has announced that the wealth management and closed fund management firm will lay off 55 employees out of a total of 300, in order to achieve a configuration that will allow the firm to become profitable on net subscriptions which are limited to only EUR300m. Currently, the business is set up to handle more than EUR1bn in net inflows. MPC Capital revised its projections for net inflows in 2008 less than two months ago, down to EUR600m from EUR1.1bn (see Newsmanagers of 19 November).The cost reduction plan will also include other measures which will be announced in mid-February. The objective is to save EUR10m this year.

Germany’s Union Investment Real Estate (UIRE) has announced that it has acquired the ?green? office building Solaris in Vienna (about 9,000 square metres) from S+B Gruppe, though it has not disclosed the purchase price. The property, completed in September 2008, will be added to the portfolio of the open-ended real estate fund UniImmo: Deutschland. The property is already 90% leased, and the vendor will provide a three-year guarantee on rental of the remaining space.UIRE has recently announced the acquisition of another property for UniImmo: Deutschland (see Newsmanagers of 6 January), in Madrid.

The United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF) has launched a call for tenders to select a consultant for investments in funds of hedge funds and private equity. IPE reports that it is also seeking experienced managers in the area of alternative and bond investments. Meanwhile, the fund is also planning to enlarge its real estate portfolio to include infrastructure, agricultural land and forests.The UN pension fund, whose assets total about USD30bn, is also seeking a single master record keeper to replace the current global custodian, and who would also assume centralised control of reporting and administration, while cooperating with several regional custodians recruited within a number of separate mandates.

An internal email addressed to employees by John Thain, former CEO of Merrill Lynch, which has been obtained by Dow Jones, confirms that Dan Sontag, head of American Wealth Management, has been appointed as expected as head of the global wealth management group, replacing Robert McCann, who has resigned. Sontag thus becomes head of a brokerage division that employs 16,850.

Veritas Investment announced on Thursday that its ETF fund ETF-Dachsfonds, launched in April 2007 (see Newsmanagers of 20 March 2007) has over EUR100m in assets as of the beginning of this year, thanks to net subscriptions of EUR45m in the month of December alone. The product, which was launched at a time when Veritas was owned by Boursorama (Société Générale group), and which is still managed by Markus Kaiser, posts performance since its launch of 5.4%; in 2008, the fund earned 0.7%.

Bernard Madoff ordered his UK company to transfer about USD150m to his US firm just weeks before he confessed to running a fraud scheme, two former employees of Madoff Securities International said, according to the Financial Times. Mr Madoff explained that he was nervous about sterling.

In its 9 January issue, Il Sole - 24 Ore reports on EUR140bn in outflows from mutual funds on sale in Italy in 2008. The daily newspaper states that the leading management firm in the sector, Intesa Sanpaolo, saw net redemptions of EUR33bn in the 12-month period, while Pioneer Investments (UniCredit) saw outflows of EUR32.8bn. Other management firms which have lost assets are Banco Popolare (-EUR9.2bn), Crédit Agricole A.M. (-EUR8bn), Arca (-EUR5.8bn), Mps (-EUR5.5bn) and Ubi (-EUR5.1bn). Firms which posted positive net inflows are rare: Mediolanum (EUR891m), Generali (EUR242m), State Street Global investors (EUR280m), Banca Finnat Euroamerica (EUR273m), Agora, Pfm, and Rothschild.

In 2008, mutual funds on sale in Italy underwent net redemptions of EUR140bn, according to statistics from Assogestioni (the Italian association of management professionals). In 2007, these funds saw outflows of EUR50bn, in an atmosphere of skepticism about these products on the part of investors. The financial crisis has only aggravated the situation. Assets fell to a total of EUR409bn at the end of December.The category of funds which suffered most in 2008 was bond mutual funds, which saw outflows of EUR66bn, bringing total assets in these funds to EUR160bn. Equities mutual funds were not spared, with EUR29bn in net redemptions, bringing total assets to EUR70bn. Hedge funds saw net outflows of EUR8bn in the 12-month period, bringing assets to EUR21.5bn. In the month of December alone, this category lost slightly over EUR2bn, following a similar level of outflows in November.In December, net outflows represented slightly less than EUR9bn (nearly the same amount as in November), and aside from hedge funds, primarily affected bond funds (EUR2.8bn) and money market funds (EUR2.1bn).

Patrick Savadoux has joined Mandarine Gestion, the asset management company launched nearly a year ago by Marc Renaud, as a shareholder and equities manager. He will develop the firm’s product range in SRI (socially responsible investment), his area of expertise. Savadoux spent 15 years at Natixis Asset Management as a senior European equities portfolio manager and head of the SRI unit. In November 2007, he left the firm along with Stéphane Prévost to create La Financière Responsable, an asset management company specialised in SRI and partly owned by La Française des Placements. He left that firm one year later to pursue a project outside of finance, which was not ultimately successful.Savadoux’s first fund at Mandarine Gestion will be launched in January. It will invest in Euro zone equities following an SRI approach developed by the manager over the course of his career. The manager will rely on Vigeo, and is hoping to subsequently establish internal SRI research resources. Other products may follow, including thematic or solidaristic SRI funds.With the new addition, Mandarine increases its team of specialised managers and its product offerings, which already include value management, convertible bond management, and French equities management. The firm manages assets of EUR300m.

Après une croissance du PIB de 0,9% en 2008, Crédit Agricole anticipe une contraction de 0,6% cette année, avant une reprise de 1,2% en 2010

Un plan « considérable » s’impose malgré la crise des finances publiques

L’association BVI des sociétés de gestion diffuse sous forme d’un nouveau #flyer# les #sept bonnes raisons pour lesquelles il faut des fonds d’investissement dans un portefeuille#. A cette occasion, elle publie le résultat d’un sondage GfK auprès de 869 souscripteurs dont il ressort que les investisseurs apprécient particulièrement (à 85,2 %) la transparence des coûts et, à 75,2 %, le fait que les fonds les protègent d’une perte totale de leur capital. En revanche, la souplesse de l’investissement offerte par les fonds n’est appréciée que par 38,2 % des personnes interrogées.

Les trois douzaines de banques créancières, dont notamment RBS, LBBW et la Commerzbank, ont accepté mercredi de fournir un crédit-relais de 400 millions d’euros à VEM Vermögensverwaltung, l’une des sociétés de portefeuille d’Adolf Merckle, le milliardaire qui s’est suicidé lundi. Ce crédit est lié d’après la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung à la cession du génériqueur Ratiopharm (5.400 salariés, 1,8 milliard d’euros de CA) et à la démission de Ludwig Merckle de la présidence du comité de gestion de VEM. Les milieux financiers s’attendent que l’empire Merckle, endetté pour 5 milliards d’euros, sera vendu par appartements, notamment les 80 % de Heidelberg Cement et les 100 % de Phoenix Pharmahandel.

Le Handelsblatt rapporte qu'à la mi décembre les cinq fonds de fonds luxembourgeois de LRI gérés par Bernd Greisinger étaient investis dans des proportions comprises entre 7 et 50 % dans les deux fonds Madoff pour un total de 20 millions d’euros. LRI envisage de porter plainte contre la banque dépositaire (HSBC).Universal Investment (UI indique pour sa part que quatre petits fonds de moins de 10 millions d’euros chacun sont affectés, mais qu’ils n'étaient investis en moyenne qu'à 2 % dans les fonds Madoff. Universal aussi envisage de demander des dommages et intérêts à la banque dépositaire.

En augmentant avant Noël sa participation dans Scania à plus de 20 % contre 17,22 %, MAN s’est dispensé selon les calculs de la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung de passer une charge exceptionnelle d’environ 700 millions d’euros : en effet, à plus de 20 %, la participation devient «stratégique» et n’a plus à être comptabilisée aux cours du marché, qui ont plongé, comme cela aurait été le cas si avait été inférieure à ce seuil. En 2006 et 2007, le constructeur allemand avait acquis des titres du suédois pour un total de 1,4 milliard d’euros.

Selon Les Echos, les spécialistes des marchés craignent les baisses de profits à venir en 2009. Morgan Stanley table sur une chute de 43 % des bénéfices en Europe d’ici à fin 2009. AXA IM parle d’une baisse de 20 à 25 % en 2009. Schroders n’exclut pas une chute de l’ordre de 30 %. Groupama AM envisage un recul de 50 % par rapport au point haut de 2007 (- 35 % en 2009).

Swiss Life annonce le lancement d"un contrat collectif de retraite en euros et en unités de comptes à destination des entreprises. SwissLife Retraite Entreprises permet de choisir entre quatre fonds profilés (prudent, équilibre, dynamique et évolutif), selon la sensibilité au risque du salarié adhérent.

Malgré la crise, les analystes attendent pour 2008 et 2009 des baisses limitées des résultats des entreprises formant le CAC 40. «Le consensus anticipe en effet des bénéfices récurrents agrégés d’un peu plus de 94 milliards d’euros en 2008, soit un recul de 5,4 % par rapport aux 100 milliards environ engrangés en 2007. Pour 2009, les analystes anticipent une nouvelle baisse de quelque 4 % autour de 90 milliards d’euros», indique Les Echos. Parallèlement, le chiffre d’affaires cumulé des entreprises de l’indice parisien devrait reculer, cette année, de 1,8 %.

Le fonds Delubac Exceptions Europe a surperformé de deux points son indice. Gérard Moulin sélectionne des #valeurs d’exception#.La crise actuelle n"a pas ébranlé les convictions de Gérard Moulin, à la tête de Delubac Exceptions Europe, un FCP actions géré activement. Bien au contraire. #Notre philosophie est toujours la même. Loin de remettre en cause notre conception, la crise l"a renforcée#, souligne le gérant. Le fonds privilégie les entreprises capables d"affirmer leur #pricing power#, c"est-à-dire, #les sociétés qui, dans un monde où elles ont de plus en plus de mal à fixer leurs prix, arrivent à un rapport de force favorable face au client#, explique Gérard Moulin. D"où la préférence donnée à des sociétés comme Essilor ou le suisse SGS qui peuvent négocier en position de force avec leurs acheteurs. #Cette préférence pour ce type de société nous donne une vision structurelle, à long terme de la cote et affranchit notre gestion des aléas purement conjoncturels des marchés#, explique Gérard Moulin. Le fonds d"un peu plus de 16 millions d"euros affichait en novembre dernier un recul de 42,68% contre 43,26% pour l"indice de référence MSCI Europe. Depuis sa création à l"automne 2005, il marque une baisse de 29,17% contre 31,29% pour l"indice de référence. Pour sélectionner les sociétés du fonds européen, un concentré de 24 titres, le gérant dispose d"un réservoir d"entreprises éligibles de 70 valeurs (une centaine au niveau mondial) sur la base de sept critères dont par exemple une progression du chiffre d"affaires de 4% par an au minimum mais aussi des éléments qualitatifs comme le marketing.Les secteurs privilégiés actuellement sont les utilities, le luxe, les matières premières agricoles ou encore les énergies renouvelables. Le fonds garde une poche en cash de 10% environ. Parmi les principales lignes figurent SGS, revenu en première ligne après huit mois d"absence en raison d"un optimisme qui tranche dans l"environnement récessif actuel, K+S, Essilor, Syngenta et Alstom, toutes autour de 5% de l"actif (de 5,70% à 4,90%). Selon Gérard Moulin, le vrai danger se trouve du côté de la déflation. Cela dit, #le marché se stabilisera lorsque les prix de l"immobilier américain, par où est venue la crise, se stabiliseront#.En attendant, #nous allons mettre en ?uvre une gestion très mobile, et nous positionner plutôt après qu"avant la sortie des nouvelles#.