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08/01/2009

Germany - Bernd Greisinger and UI among the victims of Madoff

Handelsblatt reports that in mid-December, the five Luxembourg funds of funds from LRI managed by Bernd Greisinger had total exposure of 7% and 50%, respectively, to two Madoff funds, for a total of EUR20m. LRI is planning to sue the depositary bank (HSBC).Universal Investment (UI), for its part, states that four small funds with less than EUR10m each have been affected, but that they had an average investment of only 2% in Madoff funds. Universal is also planning to claim damages and interest from the depositary bank.
08/01/2009

United Kingdom - HSBC imports Luxembourg emerging market funds

HSBC Global Asset Management has extended its product range to British retail investors, and has made the ten global emerging markets (GEM) sub-funds of its Luxembourg Sicav GIF available on the Cofunds platform, Citywire reports. All the funds, including Indian Equity, Chinese Equity and BRIC Freestyle, may be traded and ?report? in Pounds Sterling.
08/01/2009

Germany - Subscribers primarily attracted by transparency of fees and security of funds

The BVI association of management firms is distributing a new flyer, which describes ?seven good reasons investment funds are necessary in a portfolio.? On this occasion, it is also publishing the results of a survey by GfK of 869 subscribers, which found that 85.2% of investors value transparency of fees, and 75.2% place importance on the fact that funds give them protection from total loss of their capital. However, the flexibility of investment in funds is only important to 38.2% of those surveyed.
08/01/2009

Germany - Madoff did not meet criteria at Deutsche Bank

The Financial Times reports that Deutsche Bank was approached about ten times in recent years with requests for loans to investors in hedge funds who wanted to place the money with Bernard Madoff, but every time, the bank refused to lend the money, since the manager did not meet the bank’s due diligence criteria. In the same article, the FT reports that a preliminary investigation has been launched in France to determine if investors in Madoff funds are victims of a crime.
08/01/2009

World - Lessons to be learned from Madoff scandal

One of the lessons for asset managers to learn from the Madoff scandal is that, as soon as something seems too good to be true, it usually is, says Sonya Morris, director of training for the pan-European and asiatic research teams at Morningstar, cited by Ignites Europe on 7 January. Philippe Carrel, executive vice-president of Thomson Reuters, says the asset management sector should be preparing for a fundamental reform of the legal and regulatory framework for mutual funds.
08/01/2009

Italy - UniCredit creates an institutional real estate fund

UniCredit has announced that, as part of the valuation and rationalisation of its real estate portfolio, UniCredit Real Estate (UIRE) on 30 December finalised a centralisation of all its assets within a real estate fund managed by Fondi Immobiliari Italiani SGR (Fimit), of which 62% has been placed with institutional investors. The portfolio includes 72 positions on commercial real estate properties, including 70 bank branches of the group and properties on the Piazza Cordusio and Livio Cambi in Milan. The total value of the properties represents about EUR800m, of which 60% has been financed by a loan from a banking union.UniCredit states that URE will retain a 33% stake in the fund (which has a 15-year horizon), while a further 5% will be sold to institutionals by the end of February 2009.Placement of shares with institutional investors will generate capital gains, before taxes, of about EUR280m in fourth quarter 2008, which will have a positive impact on the core tier 1 owners equity ratio, to the tune of about 5 percentage points.
08/01/2009

United Kingdom - Axa IM adds to bond personnel

Theodora Zemek, head of bond management at Axa Investment Managers in London, has recruited a head of ex-US bonds, as planned (see Newsmanagers of 25 September 2008), in the person of Graham Nicol, who was previously head of the Investment Grade Credit team at JP Morgan.The appointment comes at the same time as that of Mondher Bettaieb Loriot, who will join the AXA IM teams as a bond manager in May 2009 in London. He is currently based in Zurich at Swisscanto Asset Management, where he is also serving as interim director of the bond division and as a manager.
08/01/2009

Switzerland - Madoff: UBS's defense is fragile

UBS will have a hard time avoiding any responsibility for the Madoff scandal, Ignites Europe reports on 7 January, citing lawyers. The Swiss bank was, until recently, the depositary for the LuxAlpha Sicav. Last month, UBS defended itself by pointing to the subscription terms of LuxAlpha, which stated that the firm was not the guardian of the fund’s assets. Jean Bricher, a partner at Brucher & Associés, says that clauses of this nature exonerating the firm from responsibility are not valid under Luxembourg law.
08/01/2009

United States - Marathon AM names five of its managers as partners

The alternative management firm Marathon Asset Management (USD10bn in assets) has announced the appointment of five new partners, who are also high-ranking executives at the business. They are Andrew Rabinowitz, COO, Richard Ronzetti (Global Investment Management & Head of Research), Jon Halpern (Head of Real Estate), Steve Kim (CIO of Asia) and Adam Phillips (CIO of Europe).
08/01/2009

United States - More lawsuits over Madoff

The Hadleigh Holdings company, based in Miami, on Wednesday filed a suit in bankruptcy court against J.P. Morgan Chase, the depositary, and Irving Picard, the trustee in charge of liquidating Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, the Wall Street Journal reports. Hadleigh claims that it paid Madoff USD1m on 8 December, three days before he was arrested.Meanwhile, a government prosecutor has told the courts that Madoff possesses valuables at three residences in the United States and one home in France. The prosecutor claims that the suspect may unload these goods if he is not imprisoned.
08/01/2009

United Kingdom - Hermes cancels restructuring

Hermes, which manages the assets of the BT pension fund, has suspended plans to reorganise in the wake of poor performance of its main activist fund, and after the departure of two managers (Stephan Howaldt and Wouter Rosingh), the Financial Times reports. Rupert Clarke, CEO since December 2007, had planned to transform the group into several independent investment boutiques.
08/01/2009

United States - SEC reopens investigation into Pequot CM

According to sources close to the case, the SEC has reopened its two-year investigation into possible insider trading of Microsoft shares in 2001 by the alternative manager Pequot Capital Management, which it had previously closed without any definite findings, the Wall Street Journal reports. Pequot is said to have made more than USD2m on the trades in question.
08/01/2009

United States - Several ethical ETF funds in preparation

Judging by the number of applications for sales licenses, 2009 will be a bumper year for socially responsible ETF fund launches, the Wall Street Journal notes. Pax World Funds is planning to release two new ETF funds investing in shares of North American and overseas companies which stand out for their environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies, and a third fund focused on companies which develop environmental technologies. Veritas Funds will launch five ETFs corresponding to Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist and ?Christian? criteria, to respond to demand from the various Catholic faiths.Javelin Investment Management is planning to launch the JETS Dow Jones Islamic Market International Index Fund, which respects the precepts of Sharia law.
08/01/2009

Ireland - Pension funds have lost EUR27bn in assets

Rubicon Investment Consulting estimates that Irish pension funds have seen a decline of EUR27bn in their assets in 2008, with an average loss of 34.8%. The best manager of the ten large groups studied was Setanta Asset Management, with losses of 29.6%, while the worst was Hibernian Investment, with losses of 38.8%. This is largely due to excessive exposure to Irish equities, which represented 14% of the funds’ assets at the beginning of 2008, and which lost 65% last year. This allocation alone cost the funds EUR4.6bn in assets.
08/01/2009

France - Clotilde Bouchet becomes CFO of Axa IM

Axa Investment Managers announced on Wenesday that Clitilde Bouchet, former managing director and CFO of Abn Amro France, on 3 November took over as CFO of the Axa IM group in Paris. In her new position, Bouchet will be in charge of accounting, management controlling, taxation issues, analysis of activity levels and monitoring of the profitability of the AXA IM group, allocation of internal resources, and the deployment of warning systems ?which will allow the business strategic options while retaining its ability to invest,? the management firm says.Bouchet ?suceeds Vincent Godemel, who will be continuing his career at AXA Tech.?
08/01/2009

Singapore - Temasek lost out on Merrill

According to calculations by the Financial Times, Temasek lost more than USD2bn on its investment in Merrill Lynch, the bank which was acquired by Bank of America last week. On Monday, the Singapore sovereign fund converted its 13.7% stake in Merrill into BofA shares.
08/01/2009

Germany - Shedlin Capital scales up sales staff

The management firm Shedlin Capital, based in Nuremberg, has recruited four people, including two sales directors, one sales manager and one head of the organisation, as additions to its sales personnel, which is now concentrated in a new office in Berlin, led by Selim Kuzu, who since December has been both a partner in the business and its CFO.The arrival of the Kuzu family in the capital of Shedlin at the end of 2008 sould lead to a strong increase in its activities in the areas of infrastructure, health, and real estate development in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe.
08/01/2009

United States - 401(k) funds hit hard by crisis

The Wall Street Journal reports that the disturbances on the equities markets have provoked a crisis of confidence for millions of Americans who manage their retirement savings in 401(k) plans. According to a research centre at Boston College, more than USD1trn invested in equities via 401(k) plans were wiped out in the twelve months since the peak of the markets in October 2007. There are now about 50 million 401(k) plans, with assets totalling USD2.5trn.
07/01/2009

Monde - Le private equity va annoncer des pertes

Les sociétés de private equity vont, dans les prochaines semaines, prévenir leurs clients de la dépréciation de leurs investissements, annonce le Financial Times, qui estime que les baisses pourraient tourner autour de 20-30 %.
07/01/2009

Suède - La Deutsche Borse s'intéresse à Neonet

Mardi, les milieux financiers ont confirmé les rumeurs selon lesquelles la Deutsche Börse est en négociations en vue d’acheter le suédois Neonet, agency broker et fournisseur de technologies pour le négoce boursier, rapporte la Börsen-Zeitung.
07/01/2009

France - Les épargnants préparent l'offensive contre UBS

Jeudi, quatre cabinets d’avocats français représentant des épargnants lésés rencontrent leur correspondant luxembourgeois afin de définir la stratégie judiciaire à adopter face à UBS, le dépositaire des sicav Luxalpha American Selection et Luxinvest US Equity liées au scandale Madoff, rapporte Les Echos.
07/01/2009

Monde - Le dollar en pleine forme

Selon La Tribune, l"euro a une nouvelle fois cédé ? 2% le mardi 6 janvier, pour retomber en dessous de 1,3350, jusqu'à 1,3315. Le billet vert profite notamment des spéculations autour du plan de relance Obama alors que la monnaie unique pâtit notamment du conflit autour du gaz russe, explique notamment le quotidien.
07/01/2009

Etats-Unis - Deux nouveaux dirigeants chez Fidelity

Fidelity Investments a annoncé mardi l"arrivée dans ses équipes de deux cadres. Peter Ciezko, ancien président et directeur général d"Evergreen Investments, est nommé président de Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company, entité qui gère 272 milliards de dollars d"actifs et fournit des services d"investissement par le biais de plus de 1.000 institutions financières et 44.000 conseillers. Parallèlement, Ed Orazem, ex managing director de Global Wealth Management de Citigroup, devient président de Fidelity Family Office Services, entité qui offre des produits et services de gestion de fortune à 70 clients de type family office représentant un encours de plus de 9 milliards de dollars.Peter Ciezko rejoindra Fidelity en janvier 2009 et sera placé sous la responsabilité de Michael K. Clark, président de Fidelity Institutional Products Group. Ed Orazem, de son côté, intégrera les équipes en février, sous les ordres de Charles G. Goldman, président de Institutional Platforms for Fidelity Institutional Products Group.
07/01/2009

Allemagne - Succession familiale chez M.M. Warburg

A 38 ans, Joachim Olearius va succéder à son père à la tête de la banque privée M.M. Warburg, rapporte le Handelsblatt. Auparavant mandataire général chargé de la clientèle privée et de la coordination des risques, ce juriste a recentré la banque hanséatique sur son c?ur de métier et possède déjà une expérience de direction.
07/01/2009

Canada - RBC GA et PH&N enregistrent des souscriptions nettes pour décembre

Pour décembre, RBC Gestion d’Actifs (RBC GA) et Phillips, Hager & North (PH&N), ont enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 680 millions de dollars canadiens, solde de 1,1 milliard de souscriptions nettes pour les fonds monétaires et de remboursements nets de 433 millions pour les fonds à long terme. Les encours ont augmenté de 0,7 milliard ou de 0,8 %. A fin décembre, RBC GA et PH&N affichaient 92 milliards de dollars d’actifs en fonds d’investissement plus 48 milliards sous d’autres formes pour des particuliers et des investisseurs institutionnels.
07/01/2009

Royaume-Uni - Les fonds de pension profitent de la chute de la livre

La chute de la livre sterling l"année dernière est une bénédiction pour les fonds de pension britanniques : elle a en effet permis d"amortir l"effondrement des marchés actions, rapporte le Financial Times. Ainsi, selon State Street, les fonds de pension au Royaume-Uni affichent en moyenne des pertes d"environ 13 % en 2008, ce qui est bien meilleur que les 30 % de chute des actions britanniques et 40 % aux US, au Japon et en Europe.
07/01/2009

Allemagne - Griffin recrute Jens Mueller

Le britannique Griffin Capital Management a annoncé mardi le recrutement de Jens Mueller comme head of sales chargé du suivi des investisseurs dans les pays germanophones (Allemagne, Autriche, Suisse). Il sera plus particulièrement responsable des partenaires de distribution et des investisseurs institutionnels pour la commercialisation tant de fonds OPCVM III traditionnels que de produits acheteurs-vendeurs investissant en Europe occidentale et orientale. Jens Mueller occupait des fonctions analogues depuis 2006 chez le londonien Atlas Capital après avoir été head of marketing & development wholesale Europe chez F&C Asset Management.
07/01/2009

France - Les prix des bureaux devraient baisser de 10 % à 20 % en 2009

Selon Maurice Gauchot, président pour la France de CB Richard Ellis, cabinet de conseil en immobilier, le marché des bureaux va vivre une année 2009 tendue. «En volume de transactions, on peut espérer au mieux un niveau similaire à 2008, quant aux prix, ils devraient baisser de 10 % ou 15 %, voire jusqu'à 20 %», indique-t-il dans un entretien aux Echos. Côté locatif, les loyers des bureaux devraient selon lui reculer cette année.

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