A Luxembourg judge has frozen some assets held by UBS on behalf of Luxalpha, one of the largest European funds invested in Bernard Madoff, the Financial Times reports. The move marks the first legal action in Europe related to the fraud.

A few hedge funds posted stellar returns last year despite the financial crisis, the Financial Times reports. Among them are Cedar Hill Capital Partners, which is up more than 100%, and the Vicis Gamma fund, which has gained about 90%, according to estimates by funds of hedge funds. Managed futures has been one of the most lucrative strategies of the year.

ETFs of the iShares range from Barclays Global Investors (BGI) in 2008 posted a record volume of net subscriptions of EUR17.8bn, compared with EUR5.8bn for 2007. Worldwide, net redemptions totalled USD89bn, compared with USD70bn.In Europe, four products have posted net subscriptions of over EUR1bn. They are the iShares S&P 500 fund (US equities, EUR2.76bn), FTSE 100 (UK equities, EUR1.89bn), DJ Euro Stoxx 50 (European equities, EUR1.75bn), and the DJ Euro Stoxx 50 (DE), with EUR1.15bn.

The X-Markets platform from Deutsche Bank will soon be offering Platinum funds, whose portfolio will replicate house indices, like the certificates of the same name, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. This formula will prevent the products from competing with the group’s fund management arm, DWS, which practices active fund management. Currently, the Platinum range includes about 100 funds with total assets of over EUR10bn.

Henderson Global Investors (HGI, EUR66.4bn in assets as of the end of June 2008) announced on Monday that it has recruited a team of five currency specialists for its bond division from the investment bank Fortis. Since 5 January, the five employees have been under the supervision of Mitesh Sheth, deputy director of the bond department; they will remain in London for about six months, before joining the HGI office in Amsterdam.The five specialists are Bob Arends, who was global head of currency management at Fortis bank, Dennis van den Bosch, who was director of currency management at Fortis, and Bernd Kraan, director of currencies research at Fortis bank and head of research and development of currency models and strategies. Jill Rootsaert was part of the currency management team at Fortis, where she was head of trading, legal documentation and sales for Europe.Henderson states that the recruitments come shortly after the acquisition of a minority stake in Attunga Capital Pty (on 6 November), an alternative management firm whose assets total about AUD150m. Its product range includes three funds, of which two are specialised in the electricity markets and associated derivatives (Attunga Enviro Opportunities Fund et Attunga Power & Enviro (Offshore) Fund). The third product, the Attunga Agricultural Trading Fund, invests primarily in soft commodities, derivatives, and securities related to agriculture.

Véronique Ormezzano is joining the Financial Institutions Group within the Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) unit at BNP Paribas, where she will be responsible for sovereign funds, central banks, and international organisations. She will lead the corresponding team of FIG bankers, and will be in charge of initiatives in relation to these clients involving several units, professions and geographical areas at the bank, according to a press release. Ormezzano was previously head of the investor relations and financial information (RIIF) team at BNP Paribas CIB; she will be replaced in this position by Béatrice Belorgey, who joined the Investor Relations team in 2005, and has been particularly responsible for relations with sell side analysts, ratings agencies, and financial information.

According to a Börsen-Zeitung survey, German management firms are planning to prioritise guaranteed funds and other conservative products this year. They are also tempted by corporate bond funds, but recognise that a rise in default rates is to be expected. They are also planning to be prudent in equities products. DWS (Deutsche Bank), DekaBank (savings banks) and Frankfurt Trust (Sal. Oppenheim) are hoping for net subscriptions in 2009. Union Investment (co-operative banks) and Allianz Global Investors (which will absorb Cominvest) are making no predictions on the subject.

Maktoob Business reports that Deutsche Bank is preparing to launch the Al Mi’yar platform in Luxembourg, which will aim to facilitate issues of Sharia-compliant securities. The fund manager will be Luxembourg Financial Group AG while the trust & securities division of Deutsche Bank will provide the necessary settlement resources. Al Mi’yar aims to make it possible for Islamic investors to achieve their financial objectives using various asset classes, without contradicting the principles of their religion.

The fund management firm for the German savings banks, DekaBank, on Monday announced the launch of the DekaSelect: Nachhaltigkeit fund of funds, which will invest in Deka funds as well as in products from management firms specialised in sustainable development, such as SAM, Swisscanto, Sarasin and Dexia AM. The portfolio will largely consist of shares in funds which in the sustainable development or ethical categories. As a complement, the management team will invest in thematic funds specialised in sustainable development in areas such as environmental technologies, renewable energy, water, and microfinance.The DekaSelect: Nachhaltigkeit fund will be available in two varieties: growth (up to 60% in equities funds) and chance (up to 100%). For the two categories, the front-end fee will total 3.75%. The growth variant carries a management commission of 0.80%, a distribution commission of 0.30%, and a depositary banking commission. These fees are 1%, 0.40%, and 0.10% for the ?chance? variant.

Hedge funds on the whole have shown considerably less heavy losses in the past year than equities markets. According to Barclay Hedge fund, losses for the 868 funds monitored by the firm which had disclosed results as of 11 January totalled 21.29%. In December, the average perforance was 0.69%. According to Hedge Fund Research (HFR), average losses totalled 18.3% in 2008, while according to Hennessee Group (which monitors about 1,000 funds), losses averaged 19.15%. On Monday evening, Credit Suisse/Tremont announced that, on the basis of 74% of assets monitored regularly by its services, hedge funds posted returns of 0.30% in December, which reduces average losses for the past year to 18.80%.By way of comparison, the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average showed respective losses of 38.49% and 33.84%. The CAC 40 fell by 42.6%, while the Dax is down 40.4%.

The Luxembourg investment fund association (ALFI) is linked to the defence lawyers of UBS, the bank implicated in the Madoff scandal in Europe. According to information obtained by Ignites Europe, the chairman of ALFI, Claude Kremer, is a partner at Arendt & Medernach, a law firm which is representing the Swiss bank in a case over its role in LuxAlpha, the Luxembourg Sicav for which it is the depositary, and was the manager until November 2008.

The Italian asset management firm Anima, partly owned by Banca Popolare di Milano, saw total net redemptions of EUR188.7m in December, according to a press statement published on 8 January. This includes Italian-registered funds, the Anima Sicav, and the open-ended pension fund Anima Orizzonti. As of the end of the year, assets were down to EUR6.25bn, compared with EUR10.3bn at the end of 2007.

Investors are deeply divided over plans for Steel Partners to convert its flagship hedge fund, Steel Partners II (USD1.2bn in assets), into an investment holding company, Financial Times Fund Management reports on 12 January. The entity created by the change will be listed on Nasdaq or NYSE. Steel Partners took the decision after suffering heavy redemptions. In October, it received redemption demands amounting to 38% of assets in the fund.

Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch (LODH) has extended its range of funds with a product investing in convertible bonds of Asia excluding Japan. LODH Invest ? Convertible Bond Asia, launched on 15 December and on sale only in Switzerland for the moment, is a Luxembourg Sicav which prioritises high yield bonds of the Asia-Pacific market. ?The reduction of leverage at hedge funds has led to massive sales of financial instruments, provoking a dislocation in some markets, such as convertibles. Their deep deep discount below the value of the bond portion of the asset offers investors in convertible bonds attractive prices, and also presents a particularly attractive return/risk ratio,? a statement points out. The fund carries a management commission of 0.55% per year.

In November, ETFs posted net subscriptions of USD138bn, while long-term funds saw outflows of USD185bn, according to data from Financial Research Corp, cited by the Wall Street Journal. Investors also show a preference for funds with low fees and more stability.

Invesco has announced that it has recruited Nicklas Fornander as head of sales Nordics ex-Finland. He will be in charge of relatinships with clients in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, and will be based in Stockholm. He is leaving Fidelity, where he was relationship director since 2006, in charge of sales and marketing of products aimed at institutional clients; he was also in charge of developing relationships with retail clients.

Julius Baer has recently launched the JB Global Selection Fund, an equities fund which combines the convictions of 20 managers at the Swiss management firm. To construct a common and evenly-weighted portfolio, each manager chooses a favourite share, but also has the option to remain invested in cash. Scilla Huang Sun, director of equities management, is in charge of the maintenance of the portfolio. The fund is domiciled in Luxembourg, and for the moment, is available only in Switzerland.

In 2008, the volume of mergers and acquisitions in the asset management sector represented USD1.610trn in terms of assets under management, an increase of 19% over a figure of USD1.350trn for 2007, Freeman & Co. estimates in its most recent study of mergers and acquisitions in the financial services sector. This is true even though the number of transactions has declined from 239 to 232, since the deals were larger in size. 30 of them involved companies that manage more than USD10bn, an 11% increase over 2007, and a 30% increase over 2006.The number of operations involving alternative managers fell to 60, a decline of 22%, compared with 77 operations in 2007. ?In 2009, weak performance, redemptions and rapid deleveraging of products will force a large number of alternative managers to close or concentrate,? Freeman & Co observes. At the same time, ?concentration in the banking sector may put pressure on pay scales for makers of products which depend on banking networks for their distribution.?

38 management firms that subscribe to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN-PRI), representing total assets of over USD3trn, have sent a message to the CEOs of 130 of the world’s largest publicly traded companies which have signed the United Nations Global Compact. In 25 cases, the message congratulated the executive, since the firm published a good quality annual report on the firm’s social responsibility. Companies in this group include Air France and Starbucks.More than 100 other companies, including Gap, Severn Trent and LVMH, were identified as lagging behind in publishing their reports on social responsibility, and received criticism for this fact.In 2008, 32% of companies who received these letters have since made progress in social responsibility and transparency in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues.Among the 38 managers who signed the two groups of letters are Credit Agricole Asset Management Group (France), CalPERS (US), the British investors Co-Op and Aviva Investors, and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund.

La détente sur les spreads se verra limitée par la faible liquidité sur les marchés. Les prochaines publications de résultats pèseront également

Ils atteignaient 758,36 milliards d’euros à fin décembre. La décollecte nette des actifs s’est établie à 7,68 milliards d’euros sur le dernier mois

Harbinger Capital, le hedge fund activiste dirigé par Philip Falcone, a rejoint la liste des fonds qui ont restreint les remboursements un jour avant la fin de l"année dernière, selon deux investisseurs cités par le Financial Times. Le fonds principal de cette société avait monté de 43 % sur les 6 premiers mois de l"année, mais perdu tous ses gains après et terminé 2008 sur une perte de 27,1 %. Il gère maintenant 6 milliards de dollars environ, contre près de 20 milliards l"été dernier.

C"est aujourd"hui, lundi 12 janvier, que Bernard Madoff saura s’il doit être incarcéré ou être autorisé à rester dans son appartement de Manhattan, son bracelet électronique fixé à la cheville. Le financier failli et son épouse auraient en effet violé l’interdiction qui leur était faite de se départir de leurs objets de valeur à plusieurs reprises, ce qui pourrait déboucher sur un emprisonnement.

Placée sous tutelle gouvernementale à cause de ses pertes potentielles de 2 milliards de dollars dans l’affaire Madoff, Bank Medici a de nouveau un directoire. Cet organe est composé du Britannique John Holliwell et de l’Autrichien Werner Tripolt (ce dernier avait démissionné du même poste le 2 janvier).

Selon La Tribune, citant la presse américaine, la banque aurait l’intention de vendre 51% de sa filiale de courtage et de gestion d’actifs Smith Barney à la banque d’affaires Morgan Stanley pour 3 milliards de dollars.

db x-trackers a tenu le pari de son patron, Thorsten Michalik : la structure dédiée aux ETF du groupe Deutsche Bank a atteint actuellement les 18,6 milliards d’euros au lieu des 17 millliards prévus (lire notre article du 5 mars 2008). Les souscriptions nettes de 2008 ont porté sur 12,01 milliards d’euros, dont 6,77 milliards pour les ETF actions et 5,24 milliards pour les ETF obligataires. Les souscriptions nettes de décembre ont porté sur 2,6 milliards et ont concerné surtout les ETF d’actions, précise Thorten Michalik, qui refuse de fixer des objectifs pour 2009, se bornant à indiquer que le nombre d’ETF de db x-trackers #augmentera au moins de moitié# par rapport aux plus de 100 produits déjà commercialisés (cotés 263 fois au total sur les Bourses de Francfort, Londres, Paris, Milan et Zurich)Thorsten Michalik indique aussi que les souscriptions nettes des quatre premières séances de 2009 ont drainé plus d’un milliard d’euros et il affirme qu’il ne s’agit pas d’un effet de substitution en début d’année lors du réinvestissement des monétaires. En février, db x-trackers compte introduire pour la première fois ses ETF en Asie.

Dans le cadre de la procédure d’OPRO (squeeze-out), Swiss Life a fixé vendredi à 30 euros par action l"indemnisation en numéraire des minoritaires d"AWD. Swiss Life et AWD ont de plus conclu un contrat de transfert des bénéfices. Le squeeze-out et le contrat de transfert des bénéfices requièrent l"approbation de l"assemblée générale d"AWD Holding AG, qui statuera le 24 février 2009.Swiss Life détient actuellement 96,7% des actions d"AWD. L"indemnisation totale à servir aux minoritaires s"élève à environ 38 millions d"euros. Une fois la procédure d’OPRO parachevée, Swiss Life détiendra l"intégralité des actions d"AWD Holding et procédera au retrait des actions de la cote.L’accord de transfert des bénéfices comporte une proposition d"indemnisation en espèces des minoritaires de 30 euros par action ou une compensation annuelle de 2,34 euros bruts par action.L’indépendance dont se targuait Carsten Maschmeyer, fondateur et désormais seulement co-président du directoire d’AWD, n’est plus qu’un souvenir.

Geoff Grand, co-fondateur de Peloton Partners, hedge fund qui a fait faillite, a réussi à lancer un autre fonds, rapporte le Financial Times. Appelé Grant Capital Partners, ce fonds a obtenu près de 100 millions de dollars de la part de Société Générale, selon deux personnes proche du dossier. En tout, il gèrerait 130 millions de dollars.

Jörg Heinecken gérant de portefeuille, a annoncé à Das Investment qu’avec effet immédiat son hedee fund Herald Europe a pris vendredi le nom de Sherpa Absolute Return pour bien marquer que le produit n’a rien à voir avec le fonds Herald USA de Bank Medici et l’affaire Madoff. Le Sherpa AR, qui ne sera distribué sous forme OPCVM III auprès des particuliers qu'à partir de février, a affiché pour 2008 une performance de 9,4 %.

En 2009, une dégradation des taux de couverture est probable alors que, pour la première fois depuis 20 ans, l"encours des fonds monétaires américains dépasse celui des fonds actions, estime Romain Boscher, le directeur de la gestion actions de Groupama AM. Dans ce contexte, mieux s"en tenir à une approche défensive.NM : Dans ce contexte, quelle est votre stratégie d"investissement ? RB : Nous allons continuer à bannir les produits dont on ne maîtrise pas le fonctionnement. De même, nous continuons à éviter les sociétés tributaires d"un appel au marché en 2009, qu"il s"agisse du marché actions ou obligataire. NM : Quelles sont les principales zones de risques en 2009 ? RB : Je pense notamment qu"il faudra aussi considérer le marché obligataire avec beaucoup de circonspection car les taux de recouvrement vont se dégrader. Les marchés avaient l"habitude d"espérer, en cas de faillite, un taux de recouvrement de près de 30 % du nominal de l"obligation. Même si les spreads sont à des niveaux historiques, il faut donc continuer à aborder ces marchés avec prudence. Le scénario le plus noir serait qu"une crise de confiance relative à la solidité des principaux Etats, derniers dominos, s"installe. Cela aurait un effet désastreux pour la dette souveraine. On a récemment vu qu"en Allemagne les 6 milliards d"euros émis par l"Etat allemand n"ont été que partiellement souscrits et c"est un signe inquiétant. Toutefois, ce risque de crise sur les emprunts d"Etat n"est pas notre scénario central. NM : Le marché monétaire vous inquiète-t-il ? RB : Aujourd"hui, les taux courts sont à zéro aux Etats-Unis et l"encours des fonds monétaires américains dépasse celui des fonds actions, ce qui n"était plus arrivé depuis 20 ans. Voir autant d"argent amassé là a quelque chose de périlleux et lorsque les investisseurs retrouveront le goût du risque, ce type de segment sera, nous l"espérons, un pourvoyeur de capitaux pour les classes d"actifs risquées, actions en tête. Au final, tout dépendra du comportement des épargnants qui ont le choix entre le risque 0 à taux proche de 0 et un rendement élevé au prix d"un risque qui l"est, il est vrai, tout autant à ce stade. Ce qui peut légitimer le fait de placer durablement à un taux proche de 0 serait une déflation durable et non transitoire comme escomptée en 2009. NM : Quelles sont les bonnes allocations d"actifs en 2009 ? RB : Nous restons favorables à une approche prudente. La crise financière n"est malheureusement pas terminée et la crise économique ne fait que commencer. Aussi, nous tenons nous toujours à l"écart des secteurs financiers et cycliques. Les télécoms, la santé et la consommation courante sont nos secteurs préférés. De même, nous privilégions les sociétés qui n"auront pas besoin de faire appel au marché. NM : Et en termes de zones géographiques ? RB : La crise de 2008 a démontré que les remparts s"effondrent et que la globalisation financière fait baisser presque dans les mêmes proportions les grandes places financières comme cela a été le cas en 2008 aux Etats-Unis, en Europe et au Japon. Il n"y a pas de zone géographique à l"abri d"un possible trou d"air possible en ce début d"année.