En 2008, GLG Partners a vu ses encours nets chuter de 39 % à 15 milliards de dollars. En brut, les encours sont descendus de 43 % à 16,5 milliards. Sur l’année, la société de gestion a accusé des rachats nets de 1,2 milliard de dollars. A noter que les chiffres de collecte du dernier trimestre (+0,8 milliard) intègrent un mandat de 3 milliards de dollars de Société Générale Asset Management UK, accord qui s’inscrit dans le cadre de l’acquisition de la société qui gère un total de 8,5 milliards de dollars par GLG.En 2008, GLG a accusé une perte nette de 629,7 millions de dollars, sur un revenu net de 495 millions de dollars sur l’année, en retrait de 52 % par rapport à 2007.

GLG Partners a évité la rupture des covenants sur sa dette de 570 millions de dollars grâce au rachat de la division britannique de SocGen Asset Management, selon le Financial Times. Cela lui a permis de maintenir ses encours au dessus du niveau minimum fixé dans le contrat avec ses banques.

Pour 2008, le bénéfice net de Clariden Leu a plongé de 66 % à 212 millions de francs pendant que le c?fficient d’exploitation se détériorait à 56 %, contre 49 %. Les encours à fin décembre s’inscrivaient en baisse de 27,1 % à 94 milliards de francs et la filiale du Credit Suisse a accusé une sortie nette de 1,1 milliard, contre des rentrées nettes de 2,9 milliards pour 2007, la décollecte de 3,2 milliards dans la gestion d’actifs (3,2 milliards) et du fait du #deleveraging# n’ayant pas pu être compensée totalement par les entrées nettes de l’activité de banque privée.

Pour 2008, le bénéfice net de Schroders s’est situé à 76,7 millions de livres contre 299,7 millions au titre de 2007. Pour sa part, le bénéfice avant impôt et exceptionnels des divisions gestion d’actifs et banque privée s’est situé à 289,5 millions de livres contre 307,8 millions, cependant que le bénéfice avant impôt du groupe après 167,4 millions de livres d’exceptionnels ressort à 123,1 millions contre 392,5 millions. L’encours au 31 décembre se montait à 110,2 millions de livres contre 139,1 millions.Schroders précise avoir subi des sorties nettes de 3,8 milliards de livres contre 10,6 milliards en 2007 dans la branche institutionnelle tandis que celles de la branche «retail» se situaient à 6,2 milliards contre des souscriptions nettes de 8,8 milliards.

La France remet ce vendredi ses propositions pour mieux encadrer l’activité des fonds alternatifs. Christine Lagarde propose de les obliger à se déclarer dans les pays dans lesquels ils sont vendus via un enregistrement auprès des autorités de marché locale. «Il serait possible de mettre en place un enregistrement unique au niveau européen conjugué avec un partage des informations entre les autorités de contrôle nationales», rapporte Les Echos.

La mise en place du dispositif de certification professionnelle des connaissances réglementaires des professionnels des activités de marché vient d'être homologuée au règlement général de l’AMF par un arrêté publié au Journal officiel du 6 février 2009. Son entrée en vigueur a été fixée au 1er juillet 2010.L’AMF rappelle dans un communiqué que le régime de certification professionnelle repose notamment sur «la mise en place d’un dispositif conduisant les prestataires de services d’investissement à vérifier que leurs collaborateurs exerçant certaines fonctions clés disposent d’un niveau adéquat de connaissances de la réglementation au regard d’un contenu déterminé». Ce dispositif prévoit l’instauration d’un «Haut conseil certificateur de place» qui sera chargé de rendre des avis à l’AMF «afin qu’elle détermine le contenu des connaissances règlementaires minimales à acquérir par les collaborateurs exerçant les fonctions clés ainsi que les conditions pratiques de la certification des examens». La composition de ce Haut conseil, dont les membres seront désignés par l’AMF après consultation des associations professionnelles, devrait être prochainement annoncée.

La commission des sanctions de l’Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) a prononcé une sanction pécuniaire de 800.000 euros à l’encontre de la société Vinci pour avoir utilisé une information privilégiée dans le cadre d’un programme de rachat d’actions, en substance «d"avoir manqué à l"obligation d"abstention qui pesait sur elle en procédant entre le 20 janvier et le 3 février 2005, à des rachats de ses propres titres alors qu"elle avait connaissance d"une information privilégiée relative au fait que le chiffre d"affaires réalisé au titre de l"exercice 2004 était supérieur aux attentes du marché».

In 2008, net profits at Clariden Leu fell 66% to CHF212m, while the cost-income ratio deteriorated to 56%, down from 49%. Assets at the end of December were down 27.1% to CHF94bn, and the Credit Suisse affiliate posted net outflows of CHF1.1bn, compared with net inflows of CHF2.9bn in 2007, as outflows of CHF3.2bn in assets management and deleveraging were not wholly compensated for by net inflows from private banking activities.

BNP Paribas Securities Services has been selected by OFI Asset Management (OFI AM) as a provider of custodial, depository, fund administration and compensation services for publicly traded derivatives related to its asset management activities, the bank has announced in a statement.The mandate represents EUR8bn in assets, including 18 FCP funds and 50 mandates.

In January, funds on sale in Sweden posted net subscriptions of SEK3.9bn, according to the most recent statistics from Fondbolagens, the Swedish investment funds association. Equities funds posted a net inflow of SEK2.6bn, while money market funds brought in SEK1.7bn. Diversified funds have also posted positive inflows of SEK0.2bn. However, hedge funds and bond funds have posted outflows of SEK0.4bn and SEK0.2bn, respectively.

After profits of EUR345m in 2007, pre-tax profits at Union Investment contracted by EUR143m in 2008 (a 58.5% decrease), while assets at the end of December were down 17.7% to EUR144bn. EUR6.8bn of the EUR31bn decline in assets under management is due to net redemptions (of which EUR3.6bn were from institutional and EUR3.3bn from retail funds), where the previous year showed net subscriptions of EUR12.2bn.The asset management arm of the German co-operative banks estimates its share of the German open-ended fund market at 15.7% in 2008, compared with 15.1% the previous year.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the SEC is carrying out an investigation to determine whether the alternative management firms SAC Capital Advisors, Third Point and Kynikos Associates conspired to pay the analyst John Gwynn, and his employer, Morgan Keegan, to spread false and defamatory information about the Canadian insurance firm Fairfax Financial Holdings between 2002 and 2007.

Investigators from the SEC, Finra and the Florida Office of Financial Regulation last month launched investigations of six offices of the Stanford Financial Group (USD51bn in assets under management), the Wall Street Journal reports. The group offers several types of financial services, including wealth management, and it issues deposit certificates via its offshore bank, Stanford International Bank, of Antigua. In a message to employees on Thursday, R. Allen Stanford says the SEC is carrying out routine checks which were probably provoked by complaints from two employees.

Three people have joined Swiss Life as directors of development and IFA partnerships, in an activity led by Christophe de Vaublanc.Christina Bonvecchio, former head of Privalto within the BNP Paribas group, becomes head of development for IFA groups.Alexandra Duchesne becomes head of development for banking partnerships. She previously held the position of head of major accounts at Generali, then at Axa France Vie. Lastly, Laurent Mercier is appointed head of development for major accounts. He arrived at Swiss Life in April 2007, and previously served as IFA Inspector for the Paris region.

In 2008, GLG partners saw a decrease of 39% in its net assets to USD15bn. Gross assets fell 43% to USD16.5bn. For the year, the management firm saw net redemptions of USD1.2bn. Figures which show an inflow in fourth quarter (+USD0.8bn) include a USD3bn mandate from Société Générale Asset Management UK, an agreement related to GLG’s acquisition of the firm, which manages a total of USD8.5bn.In 2008, GLG suffered net losses of USD629.7m, on net revenues of USD495m for the year, 52% less than in 2007.

BlackRock has appointed Armando Senra as director for Spain and Portugal, with the mission of developing the institutional client base in these countries, Funds People reports. Currently, 88% of activities in Spain are retail. Senra replaces Delfina Pérez, who has held the position in the interim since the resignation of Gonzalo Azcoitia. He will divide his time between Madrid and New York.The move is a part of a larger strategic reorganisation for the US-based management firm, with the creation of a unit which groups together the Iberian peninsula and Latin America, so that Spain no longer depends on the Southern European region. Senra and his seven partners in Spain will work with the team in New York in charge of Latin America. For Chile, Peru, Mexico and Brazil, BlackRock will now concentrate its efforts on retail clients, where it was previously focused on institutional investors.

In 2008, John Locke Investments, a French management firm founded in 2000 by François Bonnin, posted net subscriptions of USD400m. This is a small feat in the world of alternative management. But it must be added that the firm is specialised in CTA (commodity trading advisory, or trading on financial markets, fixed income, equities indexes, currencies and commodities), one of the few alternative strategies to have performed well in the current conditions.John Locke now manages a total of USD700m in assets, for mainly institutional and foreign clients. ?Common funds for intervention on futures markets (fonds commun d’intervention sur les marchés à terme, or FCIMT) are more difficult to sell in France than in other countries, as Swiss and American investors have a big appetite for this type of product,? explains Bonnin, president and CEO of the alternative management firm. The company has opened a representative office in Chicago, the world’s largest centre for futures trading, operated by its US affiliate John Locke Investments Inc.This year, John Locke is hoping to shift into high gear, and to double its assets under management to USD1.3bn by the end of 2009. ?To strengthen our presence in the French institutional market is one of our priorities,? says Bonnin. The firm has three funds on sale in France: Cyril Systematic, Cyril Haute Fréquence and John Locke Commodity Long-Flat. After the conversion of the Cyril Haute Fréquence fund into a diversified FCP fund, ?the proportion of inflows coming from French investors will increase rapidly,? he predicts.

Of the 81 management firms which provide data to the Inverco association, 28 (or 34.6%) posted net subscriptions in January, while the profession as a whole showed outflows of EUR1.81bn from securities funds. The firms which posted a net inflow are small to mid-sized: only seven of them have assets of over EUR1bn, while two have more than EUR2bn, namely Caixa Catalunya Gestión (EUR2.76bn in assets) and EUR46.9m in net subscriptions in January, and BBK Gestión with EUR2.45bn and EUR23.2m in net inflows. However, the two heavyweights in the sector, BBVA Gestión (EUR33.02bn) and Santander Asset Management (EUR32.31bn) have posted net outflows of EUR1.36bn and EUR966m, respectively.

The current crisis will strengthen the interest of institutional investors in socially responsible investment in the years to come. 86% of these investors share this opinion, according to a survey undertaken in January by Seeds Finance for Sparinvest for 39 directors of investment or heads of investment at French institutionals representing more than EUR300bn in assets. When words come to deeds, the candidates are more numerous, but all the same, 71% of respondents estimate that the crisis will strengthen interest in SRI, particularly in their own portfolios. Commenting on the results of this study in Paris on Thursday, Ulrika Hasselgren, founder and CEO of Ethix, an SRI advising firm based in Stockholm, estimates that this more marked interest can generally be explained by the fact that the crisis has thrown harsh light on poor business practices. She says ?the crisis represents an occasion for investors to found a new, more sustainable form of investment.? Currently, 56% of institutions or firms surveyed have an SRI attitude in general. Within financial management specifically, 45% of respondents said they have integrated SRI into their investment and manager selection process. But not all of them are involved in the same way. On one side, there are the ?timid? ones, says Benoît Schouler, CEO of Sparinvest in France, for whom SRI represents less than 1% of overall allocation (this category represents 35% of the population). On the other hand, there are the ?involved? ones, who have more than 10% of their portfolios in SRI (24%).Ways of investing also differ, according to investors. 32% use a ?sustainable development, new themes? approach, while the ?best in class? and ESG approaches are preferred by 22% of respondents. The last lesson of the study is that 95% of investors are sensitive to the quality of reporting on extrafinancial variables when they select an SRI fund.

After a dip of 0.06% in December, the Hennessee hedge fund index has posted an average performance of 1.10% in January, while the strategy offering the best results was convertible arbitrage, which has gained 5.79%.

Le coût des sauvetages bancaires pour les finances publiques suscite une inquiétude grandissante

Dans un contexte de contraction des placements financiers, l'arbitrage se fera au détriment des livrets, selon l'Observatoire Caisse d'Epargne

Le coût des sauvetages bancaires pour les finances publiques suscite une inquiétude grandissante

?The fact of being multidispliplinary has made us able to hold out fairly well,? said Xavier Lépine, chairman of UFG, on Wednesday. The management firm may have seen net redemptions of EUR1.86bn from alternative management in 2008, bringing total assets in this area down from EUR3.54bn at the end of 2007 to EUR1.49bn at the end of 2008, but these outflows were partly compensated for by net subscriptions in all other professions: real estate (+EUR402m), securities (+EUR664m), private equity (+EUR28m), and insurance (+EUR163m). In total, UFG had net redemptions for the year of only EUR612m, and has seen a decline in its assets to EUR19.5bn, from EUR21bn at the end of 2007.In January of this year, although outflows have continued for alternative management (-EUR84bn), UFG has posted net subscriptions of EUR812m, largely in securities, which have brought assets back above the EUR20bn threshold.In 2009, UFG will enrich its product range with a new theme: socially responsible investment. The firm has acquired a majority stake in Sarasin AM, the French affiliate of the Swiss firm Sarasin, from which it will create a management firm, UFG Sarasin, which will start out with EUR500m in assets.As a part of this project, all equities management at UFG will be ?SRIzed,? in the words of Bertrand Fournier, chairman of the board at Sarasin AM. But SRI is also applicable to other asset classes managed by UFG. In real estate, the firm has recently launched an SRI OPCI fund (see article dedicated to the subject). SRI projects are also under consideration in private equity and alternative management.

Deutsche Bank Fund Solutions has raised USD24m since its launch on 19 January, and is now releasing its new DB Platinum CROCI Asia Pacific Fund, aimed at institutionals, in Luxembourg and Singapore. The product is available in other European and Asian countries in the form of a private investment.The fund replicates the Deutsche Bank CROCI Asia Pacific Fund (CROCI is an abbreviation for Cash Return on Capital Invested), which aims to identify equities for which the valuations are the most attractive in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan. The portfolio includes 30 positions, from a universe of 150 shares with the largest floats.Deutsche Bank states that management commission for the institutional portion of the fund is 0.75%, and that the fund, in keeping with the UCITS III directive, offers daily net asset value reporting.

According to experts in the world of philanthropy, the Madoff scandal will affect millions of people, since it will cost charities and endowments at medical and scientific research institutions in nearly all areas from diabetes to palliative care, the Wall Street Journal reports. The victims of the fraud include big names in philanthropy such as Mortimer Zuckerman, Leonard Feinstein and Carl Shapiro, and also... the Bernard L. And Ruth Madoff Foundation.

The Irish leveraged product broker Delta Index on Wednesday opened its German-language X-Deal platform for contracts for difference (CFD), on which it is possible to trade about 500 CFDs initially. Transaction costs for orders on X-Deal are 0.1% of the volume traded.Delta Index states that it has about 3,000 clients in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Hungary.

The Luxembourg financial sector surveillance commission (CSSF) on 10 February decided to withdraw the Sicav Herald (Lux) from trading and to require its liquidation. The US Absolute Return Fund, a sub-fund of the Sicav, was exposed to Bernard Madoff.The verdict comes as a part of an effort ?to establish the responsibilities of various parties in relation to the Herald (Lux) and its depository bank, HSBC Securities Services (Luxembourg) S.A., and to better safeguard the rights of investors,? the regulator explains.

The German private equity firm Arques Industries has announced that it has acquired the British School of Motoring Ltd for an undisclosed amount from RAC plc, an affiliate of Aviva. The driving instruction network employs about 2,700 monitors and operates 100 service centres. It is the leader on the British market, with a market share of about 10%, and revenues of GBP34m in 2008. Arques states that, in keeping with its business model, it has acquired BSM without debt. For Aviva, the sale is a part of a move to concentrate on its core activities.

The public pension fund Första AP-fonden (AP1) has announced losses for 2008 of SEK48bn (less than EUR4.6bn), or 21.9%, on its investments, bringing assets as of the end of December to less than SEK172bn, from SEK219bn.The fund is planning to reduce staff dedicated to active management, to focus on its core profession, strategic asset allocation. This will result in the loss of 20 jobs and a 25% reduction in annual operating costs after the reduction.