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23/03/2009

Spain - BlackRock registers European Absolute Return Strategies Fund

On Wednesday, BlackRock registered its absolute performance fund, European Absolute Return Strategies, a sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav BlackRock Strategic Funds (BSF), with the CNMV. The sub-fund has recently gone on sale in France, Germany and Austria (see Newsmanagers of 19 March).
23/03/2009

Germany - Heavy losses for MPC

The asset and wealth management firm MPC Capital, which is traded on the SDax, on Friday announced net losses of about EUR96m in 2008, compared with net profits of EUR38m in 2007. The deterioration is due not only to falling demand for investment products as a result of the crisis but also to a write-down of EUR80m on the firm’s stake in HCI Capital. Excluding one-time elements, operating results were positive but totalled under EUR10m.
23/03/2009

Spain - CalPERS and Hines reduce size of Spanish real estate fund

The pension fund CalPERS and the Texan real estate firm Hines have told the SEC that the HCS Interest fund, created in mid-2006 to invest in residential projects in Spain, will not receive its planned allocation of EUR183m. Cinco Días reports that, due to the financial crisis and the condition of the Spanish real estate market, the size of the fund will be limited to EUR35m.
23/03/2009

United Kingdom - Goldman Sachs puts plans to liquidate a fund of hedge funds to a vote

In April, shareholders int eh Goldman Dynamic Opportunities Fund (GBP370m) will vote at a general assembly on a proposal to liquidate the fund of hedge funds, whose net asset value has fallen in the past twelve months to less than 5% of the value of assets in the portfolio, Handelsblatt reports. Goldman Sachs has already warned that, if the product is liquidated, investors will receive only 90% of their capital by 2012, due to lock-ups of hedge funds in which the fund is invested. The remaining 10% corresponds to investments in funds which have completely ceased redemptions and for which it is not known when subscribers will be able to recuperate their investments.
23/03/2009

Europe - Santander, BBVA and Barclays overtake HSBC

In the 2008 rankings of net results at major European banks by Les Echos, Santander tops the list, with record profits (EUR8.88bn), ?despite its presence in two markets (the United Kingdom and Spain) heavily affected by the real estate crisis,? the newspaper observes. Santander has overtaken the Chinese-British HSBC group, which got a boost from its Asian activities last year, and which has fallen to fourth place. BBVA is in second place, followed by Barclays. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Fortis and UBS are the big losers in the rankings, with losses of up to EUR25.6bn.
23/03/2009

Switzerland - Private banking: directors fear the worst

L’Agefi Switzerland reports that heads of private banks fear the sector may be entering the worst crisis wealth management has seen since the 1930s. They predict that there will be a major wave of consolidation, according to a study undertaken by the strategy consulting firm Booz & Company of 20 leading decision-makers in Swiss wealth management. Thus far, the effects of the crisis have had only a limited impact on the annual reports from private banks. Several firms have even posted major inflows of capital. But the real problems are yet to come. A heavy decline in assets under management and eroding margins have already impacted results. In the 2008 fiscal year, private banks saw a decilne of as much as 20% to their revenues. According to estimates by Booz, if the financial markets do not recover significantly in 2009, heavier losses are to be expected, of about 30%.
23/03/2009

United States - Madoff investigation far from over

Investigations into the Madoff fraud are far from finished, the Financial Times reports David Friehling, Bernard Madoff’s auditor for nearly 20 years, may be the only other person implicated in the case. But questions persist about four members of the Madoff family, who worked in the eponymous firm, and about long-standing employees of the consulting firm.
23/03/2009

United Kingdom - Lack of transparency at Weavering

The 2007 accounts for the lead hedge fund from Weavering Capital, audited by Ernst & Young, do not mention British Virgin Islands, the offshore company controlled by its founder, Magnus Peterson, which it has recently emerged was the fund’s largest underwriter, the Financial Times reports. BVI’s inability to fulfil its obligations caused the collapse of Weavering and its fund.
23/03/2009

United States - B. Bernanke: ?We have no other choice?

The US authorities have no other choice but to avoid the catastrophic bankruptcy of large financial institutions in the current market environment, Ben Bernanke stated on Friday, the Financial Times reports. The chairman of the US Federal Reserve said the central bank would buy up assets, including government debt, to support the economy, and that a time will come when this support will no longer be necessary.
23/03/2009

United States - Madoff to stay in jail

Bernard Madoff will remain in prison until his sentencing in June, the Financial Times reports. A federal appeals court in New York supported the verdict of a judge to immediately incarcerate Madoff following his guilty plea last week.
23/03/2009

United States - More layoffs to come at management firms

American management firms are preparing for another wave of layoffs, the Financial Times reports. Capital Group, the parent company of American Funds, has told its employees in an internal memo that it will be laying off more staff, following a reduction of 6% already announced.
23/03/2009

United States - Pimco pays dividends suspended by closed funds

Pacific Investment Management Co (Pimco, Allianz group) has announced that its closed funds Corporate Income and Corporate Opportunity would pay dividends on Friday which had been delayed due to the depreciation of auction-rate securities (ARS) in their portfolio, the Wall Street Journal reports. The High Income Fund already paid out its dividend on Thursday. The three funds, and the Floating Rate Strategy Fund, have announced that they will honour dividend payments slated for 3 April. In all four cases, redemptions of ARS by Pimco will begin on 30 March. ARS redemptions for the fifth closed fund, which has announced the suspension of its dividend for April, will begin on 1 April. The fund has not yet stated when it will reopen.
23/03/2009

United Kingdom - Hilton Nathanson made USD123.7m from sale of Marble Bar

The Australian businessman Hilton Nathanson pocketed USD123.7m from the sale of his alternative management firm, Marble Bar Asset Management (MBAM) to the Swiss management firm EFG International (see Newsmanagers of 3 December 2007). The Sunday Times reports that this amount was invested in the fund, which made money in 2008, at a time when hedge funds lost 18.3% on average.
23/03/2009

United Kingdom - Hellman & Friedman offers USD5bn for iShares

The Sunday Times reports that the private equity investor Hellman & Friedman, in partnership with Carlyle and two other private equity firms which may be TPG and Apax, are offering Barclays USD5bn fro iShares (USD1trn in assets). Bain Capital is also reported to be leading another consortium of interested buyers.Barclays is offering to finance 80% of the transaction, a sign that it would like to close the deal before 31 March in order to avoid being nationalised as a result of being compelled to rely on the UK government’s toxic asset buyback programme.
23/03/2009

United Kingdom - Skandia to increase number of tracker funds on platforms

Skandia has announced that, at the request of IFAs, it is increasing the number of passively-managed tracker funds on its platform Selestia Investment Solutions, and in its Life and Pensions range, with 8 new funds from Pictet, bringing the total of 21 funds on offer. Ten other tracker funds will be added to Skandia’s range in the next few months.
23/03/2009

United Kingdom - Jupiter calls of plans to launch a fund dedicated to China

Jupiter Asset Management has ultimately decided not to launch the Jupiter China Sustainable Growth fund, as it has not achieved its target minimal volume of USD50m, Money Marketing reports. The project received the interest of come institutional investors, but the crisis clearly prevented the corresponding investments from materialising.
23/03/2009

World - State Street offers automated solution for management fees

State Street Corporation is launching an expense management solution which will allow providers of investment funds to reduce their operating costs and risks associated with their management fees. The expense management service offered by State Street will provide a complete solution which can replace manual or partially automated management processes used in client fund operations. The solution will be integrated with the global accounting system from State Street, and makes it possible to automate account regularisation, budgeting, and payment processing processes as part of cost management, to proide investment fund promoters with the scope, precision and flexibility necessary to manage their expenses effectively. The new service follows integrated solutions for fund administration which include legal, treasury, financial reporting, fiscal reporting, and compliance support, all of which are designed to help investment fund promoters to outsource a larger number of operations to provide increased adaptability.
23/03/2009

Luxembourg - BlackRock closes Global Capital Securities Absolute Return Fund

BlackRock Luxembourg has announced that it will be liquidating the Global Capital Securities Absolute Return Fund, which has assets of only USD37.56m, by 24 April at the latest, fondsweb.de reports. Subscriptions and redemptions of shares have already been suspended due to insufficient liquidity of assets in the fund. Liquidation costs will be charged on the administration commission.
23/03/2009

France - Oddo AM launches a diversified fund

Oddo AM is launching Oddo Opportunités, a diversified fund which aims to ?take advantage of attractive prices in all asset classes.? ?Whether it is corporate bonds or convertibles, value, thematic, or midcap equities, a wide variety of assets have been heavily punished by the markets, and are now undervalued. The mission of managers at Oddo AM is to select the shares which will be most likely to profit from a rebound on the financial markets,? a statement explains.Asset allocations will be targeted ?reactively? by the diversified management team, led by Mirela Agache. The team will also make use of forecasts determined by Group Oddo and Thierry Deheuvels, head of management.Currently, asset management privileges corporate and convertible bonds and also is invested in equities, though it highly selectively targets heavily devalued sectors. Commodities are being avoided at present. The fund has no exposure to currencies.Oddo Opportunités aims for high returns and is aimed at qualified investors willing to remain invested for the recommended period fo 5 years. In order to make it possible to direct asset allocation more coherently and to preserve outlooks for returns on investments, the fund has a limited subscription period and will be closed on 31 July 2009.
23/03/2009

Germany - Deka will have to make cutbacks

Although the chairman of the board, Franz Waas, has done much to restore stability at DekaBank since his arrival in early 2006, and he was wise enough to reduce the exposure of portfolios before the crisis began, he reinvested too soon, and worse, these investments went into derivative activities, which have suffered most heavily, the Frankurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. The central management firm for the savings banks is now being required by its shareholders to cut back its portfolio of structured products, which represented EUR44bn in assets as of the end of June 2008. The firm will also have to call off plans to enlarge market activities, and it is not certain that the board’s term will be extended after the 2008 fiscal term.
23/03/2009

United States - Fidelity recruits an executive from Goldman Sachs AM

Fidelity Investments has annoucned that it has recruited Christopher Sullivan, who was previously managing director and co-head of US fixed income at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, where he was in charge of about USD150bn in assets, as president of its bond group. Sullivan will report to Michael E. Wilens, head of asset management, and will lead a team in charge of managing more than USD170bn in assets (as of the end of February).
23/03/2009

Spain - 427 funds with less than EUR3m at risk of closure

Expansión reports that 427 investment funds currently have assets of less than EUR3m, the minimum established by the CNMV. If they cannot bring their assets above this level within one year after falling below it, they may be liquidated at the order of the regulator. The only exception to the EUR3m is a 6-month extension for newly-launched funds. Between November 2008 and February 2009, the number of funds in Spain fell from 3,060 to 2,881. In addition, there are about 300 funds with total assets of EUR3m-EUR5m, which are therefore vulnerable if the market continues its downward trajectory.Average assets under management are EUR60m in Spain, compared with EUR160m elsewhere in Europe, and more than EUR1bn in North America. And 10% of funds worldwide are Spanish, although they account for only 2% of assets.About half of all the funds with less than EUR3m in assets come from only 10 promoters, of whom Ahorro Corporación (57), La Caixa (45) and Santander (29) top the list.
23/03/2009

Germany - AGI to bury cominvest brand name

Allianz Global Investors (AGI) is planning to complete its integration of cominvest by the end of 2010; the cominvest brand will then disappear, Financial Times Deutschland reports. In 2008, open-ended funds from AGI saw net redemptions of nearly EUR10bn, while cominvest managed to bring in net subscriptions. AGI and cominvest together had assets as of the end of 2008 of more than EUR300bn in assets, which makes it the top German asset management firm. But, as AGI’s clients are largely institutional investors, the integration of cominvest will not bring it higher than fourth place in the rankings of open-ended fund providers. With EUR70bn, AGI trails behind Deka (savings banks), DWS (Deutsche Bank), and Union Investment (co-operative banks).
23/03/2009

Monde - Baisse de l'encours des ETF

En janvier 2009, l’encours mondial des ETF a diminué de 52,2 milliards de dollars sur fin décembre pour revenir à 658,8 milliards de dollars, une diminution de 7,3 % qui est inférieure à celle de 8,8 % affichée par l’indice MSCI monde en dollars, selon les calculs de Deborah Fuhr et de son équipe de iShares (Barclays Global Investors). On recensait fin janvier 1.602 ETF avec 2.683 cotations lancés par 85 émetteurs et cotés sur 42 Bourses. En janvier, 14 nouveaux ETF ont été lancés, tandis que 613 étaient en projet.En Europe, l’encours des ETF se situait à 135,73 milliards de dollars répartis sur 633 fonds (soit 1 de plus que fin 2008) de 29 émetteurs et cotés sur 20 Bourses. Les actifs sous gestion ont diminué en janvier de 5 % alors que le MSCI Europe affichait une baisse de 11,4 % en dollars.
23/03/2009

Monde - Bientôt la fin des obligations "tier two" ?

Selon l’Agefi, ce type de dette hybride ne présente plus grand intérêt pour les banques comme le prouve le rachat par UBS d’obligations dites lower tier two, les régulateurs préférant dorénavant se concentrer sur les fonds propres de base ou tier one.
23/03/2009

Monde - La déferlante de dette souveraine va encore grossir

Selon l’Agefi, après la France, l’Allemagne revoit à la hausse son programme d'émissions de 20 milliards d’euros alors que le Royaume-Uni prévoit 10 milliards de livres d'émissions de plus qu’anticipé. Logique : " La dégradation accélérée des indicateurs économiques ne laisse pas d’autre choix aux Trésors en Europe» que d’augmenter le montant de leur dette souveraine, souligne le quotidien numérique pour qui l’ampleur de ce déluge ira crescendo en 2009.
23/03/2009

Monde - Les fonds de retournement s'enlisent

Selon La Tribune, comme en témoigne les déboires de JC Flowers avec la banque Hypo Real Estate, les fonds de retournement éprouvent des difficultés à sortir des sociétés qu’ils détiennent. Ces fonds, dont l’objectif est d’acheter une entreprise démonétisée en pariant sur un redémarrage économique, ont été pris à contre-pied par la longueur de la crise. Résultat, depuis 6 mois, les opérations sont rares et " (?) même les acteurs historiques en France, comme Butler, Caravelle, Sun Capital Partners ou Vermeer Capital, restent immobiles», constate le quotidien.
23/03/2009

Monde - Les régulateurs planchent sur la supervision des hedge funds

Selon l’Agefi, l’Organisation internationale des commissions de valeurs (OICV) vient de publier un rapport préliminaire pour une meilleure supervision de l’industrie des hedge funds. Pour Verena Ross membre de la «force spéciale» de l’OICV sur les hedge funds, et haut responsable de la FSA britannique, «l’un des points essentiels est vraiment de s’assurer que les régulateurs obtiennent toute l’information nécessaire afin d'évaluer le risque systémique potentiel», rapporte notamment le quotidien numérique.
23/03/2009

Royaume-Uni - Paul Myners avait créé une société dans un paradis fiscal

Secrétaire aux services financiers auprès du Trésor britannique depuis octobre 2008, Paul Myners est le ministre chargé de réprimer l'évasion fiscale des entreprises. Or, rapporte The Sunday Times, il s’avère qu’il a contribué à la création d’Aspen Insurance Holdings (AIH), une société de réassurance basée aux Bermudes. Il a été chairman d’AIH Bermudes et Royaume-Uni pendant cinq ans jusqu'à mai 2007. Les réassureurs établis aux Bermudes ne paient ni d’IS localement, ni d’impôt sur les primes levées au Royaume-Uni. Le Trésor précise toutefois que Lord Myners n’a pas levé les stock options qu’il aurait pu exercer jusqu'à août 2008 et qu’il a satisfait à toutes ses obligations de déclaration financière vis-à-vis du règlement de la Cour des Lords.
23/03/2009

Suisse - ISR : l?intérêt subsiste malgré la crise

Selon Le Temps, la crise n"a pas entamé l"intérêt pour l"investissement socialement responsable (ISR). Selon une étude du cabinet spécialisé OnValues, ces produits ont enregistré l"an dernier des afflux de 1,6 milliard de francs en Suisse, contre des sorties de 22,9 milliards pour les fonds traditionnels comparables (actions et allocation d"actifs).Les fonds thématiques, comme les énergies propres, ont naturellement souffert. Mais l"afflux dans des produits plus diversifiés, en actions, en obligations ou en allocation d"actifs a compensé ces retraits. Il reste que les portefeuilles ISR ont subi d"énormes baisses, comme le reste du marché et que les souscriptions ont à peine amorti le choc. Leur encours a fondu de 39%, à 21 milliards, contre une chute de 40% à 214 milliards pour tous les fonds actions et diversifiés.

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