Selon le «German Capital Market Update Report» du consultant Rauser Towers Perrin, la crise financière et la chute des cours des actions ont fait perdre en théorie plus de 20 milliards d’euros aux caisses de retraite d’entreprise des sociétés du Dax et du MDax l’an dernier. D’un autre côté, le taux d’actualisation a augmenté au courant de 2008 à son niveau le plus élevé depuis 2005 (il a néanmoins rebaissé au T4, avec la réduction du taux refi de la BCE), ce qui a réduit les engagements d’environ 10 %. Après quatre ans de hausse ininterrompue, le taux de couverture a néanmoins très nettement diminué, revenant à 64 % contre 71 % pour les entreprises du Dax et à 48 % contre 56 % pour celles du MDax.Thomas Jasper, «principal» de Rauser Towers Perrin, précise cependant que l'évaluation des encours et des engagements des caisses de retraite ne tient pas compte des mécanismes de gestion du risque et des dotations spéciales. L’effet de ces dispositions ne sera mesurable que lorsque les bilans 2008 seront publiés.

Les caisses d'épargne espagnoles de petite et moyenne taille qui sont les actionnaires de la société de services financiers Ahorro Corporación ont accepté avec enthousiasme la proposition de cette dernière de créer une structure centrale pour prendre en charge leurs actifs immobiliers, rapporte Cinco Días. La forme juridique de la nouvelle entité n’a pas encore été choisie, mais il semble que le statut de Socimi (sociedad cotizada de inversión inmobiliaria), ou société cotée d’investissement immobilier, ait actuellement la préférence des intéressés.

La Tribune rappelle que le taux du livret A va baisser de 4 % à 2,50 %, tout comme ceux des livrets réglementés au 1er février. Celui du plan d'épargne logement, le PEL, a été préservé. Sa rémunération sera maintenue à 2,50 % (hors prime d'État), a dévoilé samedi Le Parisien.

Selon les calculs de Pensions & Investments, l’encours des 1.000 plus grands plans d'épargne-retraite (retirement funds) des Etats-Unis s’est contracté de 754 milliards de dollars ou de 11,8 % au quatrième trimestre, ce qui porte le plongeon à un total de 1,7 billion de dollars sur les quinze mois à fin décembre, rapporte Pensions & Investments. Au 30 septembre, l’encours total avait chuté de 965 milliards de dollars ou de 13,1 % sur douze mois, pour revenir à 6,4 billions, les actifs sous gestion des 200 plus grands plans d'épargne retraite reculant de 15,9 % à 4,7 billions.

Face à la chute des encours, les sociétés de gestion américaines réduisent leurs coûts, et elles vont toucher principalement le management, selon une nouvelle étude de Greenwich Associates qui a porté sur des entités gérant un encours total de 3.200 milliards de dollars. Et celles qui le font tablent sur une diminution des budgets 2009 de 22 % en moyenne par rapport à 2008. Au total, dans l"ensemble du secteur de la gestion, les baisses de coûts entre 2008 et 2009 devraient ressortir à 14 %. Cela reste inférieur d"une manière générale à la diminution des revenus. En effet, après une décrue moyenne des encours de 31 % en 2008, les sociétés de gestion prévoient un tassement moyen des revenus d"environ 33 % par rapport aux niveaux de 2007 d"ici à la fin de 2009. Les gestionnaires les plus touchés anticipent même une chute des revenus en 2009 de plus de 43 % par rapport à 2007. Greenwich explique que la plupart des sociétés de gestion, au lieu de réduire les coûts de manière proportionnelle à la baisse des revenus, la cherchent à se positionner en vue d"un rebond des marchés. Elles suppriment donc moins de postes dans les domaines du service clients et de l"investissement, selon Goran Hagegard, consultant chez Greenwich Associates. Cela va se traduire par des marges plus faibles à court terme : en 2009, elles devraient chuter de 37 % par rapport à 2007. La plupart des gestionnaires coupent dans tout ce qui ne relève pas de la gestion. Environ les trois quarts des entreprises réduisant les coûts ciblent les services support et ou les opérations d"investissement, et environ les deux tiers visent la distribution et les services clients et/ou les technologies de l"information. «Plus de la moitié des sociétés affirment qu"elles ont en ligne de mire le management exécutif, et cette catégorie de dépense pourrait subir l"une des plus fortes baisses», affirme le consultant Chris McNickle. «Plus de 30 % des sociétés voulant réduire les dépenses de management exécutif affirment vouloir diminuer ces coûts de 15 % ou plus, et 17 % déclarent qu"ils vont les baisser de 30 % ou plus». Et cela passera principalement par une réduction des bonus, de 29 % en moyenne entre 2007 et 2008. En outre, environ la moitié des sociétés interrogées affirment réduire les effectifs. Celles qui l"ont fait ou vont le faire prévoient d"éliminer environ 11 % des salariés en moyenne.

Lundi, BNP Paribas a annoncé qu’il prévoit une perte nette part du groupe d’environ 1,4 milliard d’euros pour le quatrième trimestre, avec un résultat avant impôt trimestriel négatif d’environ 2 milliards d’euros pour le pôle corporate & investment banking et des dépréciations du portefeuille de participations d’environ 400 millions d’euros après impôt. Néanmoins, pour l’ensemble de 2008, le bénéfice net part du groupe devrait se situer aux alentours de 3 milliards d’euros, grâce à la bonne performance des activités de banque de détail et d"asset management and services, avec une «collecte significative d"actifs sous gestion"(+ 10 milliards d"euros). Compte tenu de ces estimations de résultat, le ratio #tier one# de BNP Paribas devrait se situer à 7,5 % environ au 31 décembre 2008.Par ailleurs, dans le cadre de la deuxième tranche du plan français, BNP Paribas a décidé de convoquer une Assemblée Générale Extraordinaire pour lui proposer d"émettre des actions de préférence sans droit de vote, constitutives de #core tier one# pour 5,1 milliards d"euros et de rembourser simultanément les 2,55 milliards d"euros de titres super-subordonnés émis en décembre. Il en résultera un renforcement net du capital #tier one# de 2,55 milliards d"euros, soit environ 50 points de base de ratio, ce qui devrait porter celui-ci aux environs de 8 % pro-forma.

Depuis l’aggravation de la crise, les opérations de restructurations et les fusions-acquisitions se multiplient dans la gestion d’actifs, dont la baisse significative, et peut-être prolongée, de leurs revenus les conduit à augmenter leur taille critique pour rechercher des économies d'échelle et diminuer leurs coûts. Le rapprochement éventuel entre SGAM et CAAM pourrait entraîner d’autres restructurations dans l’Hexagone.

Cholet Dupont AM has announced the recruitment, at the end of 2008, of Philippe Lesueur, equities manager, a graduate of EDHEC and CFAF. He was previously at PIM Gestion. At Cholet Dupont AM, Lesueur currently manages the French equities fund CD France Expertise and the European equities fund CD Europe Expertise.

Fitch Ratings on Friday affirmed KBC Asset Management’s M2 asset manager rating for its investment management activities in Brussels and Luxembourg. The agency points out mainly the stability of its investment management staff following a CEO change in July 2008. The rating also recognises the controlled evolution of the company into the institutional business and its overseas growth, particularly in Asia.

La Tribune reports that in Europe, ?the LBO (leveraged buyout) market is in free-fall,? particularly in Great Britain (-93% between third and fourth quarters of 2008), according to statistics from Candover Capital. However, in China, ?LBO funds’ activities leapt by nearly 50% last year,? the newspaper reports.

Walter Berchtold, head of private banking activities, has told the NZZ am Sonntag that Credit Suisse has bought up nearly CHF100m worth of financial products from Lehman Brothers from approximately 2,000 clients. Only 11 clients declined the buyback offer, which was limited to guaranteed-capital Lehman products sold by Credit Suisse to clients who had invested more than half of their capital and less than CHF500,000 in the funds.

After a week of flying rumours, Crédit Agricole S.A. and Société Générale confirmed on Monday morning that they have signed a preliminary agreement to merge their asset management activities.The merger will affect 100% of activities of the Crédit Agricole Asset Management group, including CPR AM and Casam, and the Europan and Asian asset manaagement activities of Société Générale, as well as 20% of TCW, the asset management affiliate in the United States (which is aiming for an IPO in five years). SGAM AI< which will be merged with Lyxor, is excluded from the perimeter of the agreement.The new French actor in asset management will be 70% owned by Crédit Agricole S.A and 30% by Société Générale, and as of 30 September 2008, represents EUR638bn in assets under management, of which EUR460bn come from CAAM and EUR178bn from Société Générale Asset Management. The entity will claim ?fourth place in Europe and ninth place worldwide? by asset volume, a statement adds. It generates more than EUR1.8bn in banking proceeds, and EUR0.9bn in gross operating results.In terms of governance, the new group will be led by Yves Perrier as CEO; Perrier is currently president and CEO of CAAM. Société Générale will have one third of the seats on the board of directors of the new ensemble. Crédit Agricole will appoint the chairman of the board of directors, while Société Générale will appoint the vice-chairman. A press conference will be held in Paris on Monday morning to announce the agreement.

Van Eck Global (USD8.2bn in assets at the end of December, of which USD4.5bn are in ETFs of the Markets Vector range) has announced the launch on the NYSE Arca platform of what it claims is the first US ETF to be based on the Indonesian market as its underlying. The Market Vectors Indonesia Index ETF (acronym: IDX) will be based on the Market Vectors Indonesia Index (acronym: MVINDO), from Germany’s 4asset-management, calculated by S&P. Fees for the fund total 0.71%.As of 31 December, the benchmark index included shares in 25 companies, of which 30.1% were financials, 15.7%, energy sector, and 12.7% telecommunications. The three largest positions as of this date were Bank Central Asia (8.8%), Telekommunikasi Indonesia (7.5%), and Bank Rakyat Indonesia (7.0%).

Ignites Europe reports that Al.ain Leclair, chairman of the French wealth management association (AFG), on Wednesday met with Jean-Pierre Jouyet, the new chairman of the French financial regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), to ask him to convene a summit of European regulators to put pressure on UBS and HSBC to reimburse investors who have fallen victim to the Madoff fraud. Colette Neuville was also present at the meeting.

Schelcher Prince Gestion, a management firm specialised in fixed income, is joining a trend with its launch of a fund with a fixed maturity date, entitled Schelcher Prince Horizon 2012. The FCP fund will be invested in corporate or convertible bonds of the fixed income type, in the Euro zone, whose maturity may not exceed 31 march 2012. A minimum of 80% of the assets will be investment-grade or better.The attraction of the fund is to ?take advantage of current spreads, which offer very high returns with good quality signatories,? explains Bruno Promonet, deputy CEO of Schelcher Prince. Its objective is to outperform the BTAN, 3.75 January 2012 by at least 3% at maturity. ?A net asset value of more than 120% may be achieved at maturity in conditions identical to the current situation,? says Promonet.

La Tribune reports that falling markets are having an impact on the structure of commissions in alternative management. A study by Bfinance, covering 28 managers of hedge funds and funds of hedge funds in 10 countries, finds a falling trend in management fees. ?Fixed commissions for funds of hedge funds may fall by 17%, and would come out between 90 and 100 basis points,? says Muriel Nahmais, director of research at Bfinance. ?At the same time, performance commissions at hedge funds would fall 25% to a level of about 10%-15%.?

On Friday morning, KanAm Grund announced that it will be extending the redemption freeze on its two open-ended real estate funds, grundinvest and US-grundinvest, for nine months. The Munich-based management firm states that it is planning to reopen the two funds to redemptions before the end of October.DEGI (Aberdeen Property Investors) has chosen to reopen its real estate fund DEGI International to redemptions from 30 January 2009, ending a freeze which had been in place since the end of October 2008. The product has since registered net subscriptions of EUR65m from retail investors. The liquidity reserves at the fund will measure about 25% at the time of its reopening. The occupancy rate for properties in the fund’s portfolio is 98%. However, DEGI (EUR6bn in assets) is extending the freeze on redemptions for its other open-ended real estate fund, DEGI Europa, for a further nine months, as this fund has not managed to amass a sufficient level of liquidities.KanAm and DEGI initially suspended redemptions from the funds at the end of October, along with ten other management firms. In the past week, it has been announced that redemptions are also frozen for a further nine months from the CS Euroreal, TMW Pramerica Weltfonds, Mrogan Stanley P2 Value, Axa Immoselect and SEB ImmoInvest funds.Legally, the management firms would be allowed to extend these freezes on redemptions once more, for a further twelve months. At the end of this period, they would have to liquidate the fund and reimburse investors.

Although their assets last year fell to CHF248.71bn from CHF282.96bn at the end of 2007, Swiss-registered funds posted net subscriptions of CHF26.62bn, while Luxembourg-registered funds saw net redemptions of CHF46.76bn, AGEFI Switzerland reports. Otto Kober, head of research in Switzerland for Lipper, says that so far, there have been very few redemptions of shares in equities funds (CHF3.52bn in 2008).

At the end of December, assets at the alternative management firm Partners Group came out at CHF24.4bn, the same level as one year previously. In the event, net subscriptions of CHF6.2bn balanced out the negative impact of the rising Swiss Franc against the Euro and the US dollar (CHF1.1bn in the month of December alone), and negative market effects. Assets under management as of 31 December were about CHF1bn lower than the projections announced by the alternative management firm in November 2008.Of total assets as of the end of last year, assets in private equity represented CHF19.2bn, compared with CHF16.7bn twelve months earlier, while real estate totalled CHF0.5bn, compared with CHF0.3bn. Meanwhile, the private infrastructure allocation represented CHF0.3bn, while CHF1.8bn were allocated to absolute performance strategies, publicly traded alternative products, and the wealth management division.For the end of 2009, Partners Group projects assets of CHF26-29bn.

Henderson Group on Sunday confirmed that it is in negotiations with New Star Asset Management over a possible takeover, the Financial Times reports. The British management firm also announced that it would recommend a dividend of 6.1 pence for 2008, the same level as in 2007.

According to a study by Santander Asset Management, assets in SRI funds in Spain fell to EUR883.04m at the end of December, compared with EUR1.16497bn twelve months earlier, a decline of 24.3%, Cinco Días reports. The leader remains BBVA by far, with EUR717.74m, ahead of Santander (EUR90.57m) and La Caixa (EUR13.24m).

Deutsche Bank, promoter of the fund, claims that the DB Platinum Commodity Harvest Fund, which has been granted sales licenses in Luxembourg, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, and Spain, is the first market neutral commodities fund to comply with the UCITS III directive, HedgeWeek reports. The absolute performance fund replicates the evolution of the Deutsche Bank Commodity Harvest Index, launched in 2007.The strategy is applied to 21 commodities which offer good liquidity in the energy, metals, and agricultural sectors, with a long and a short position on each of the underlying commodities. The objective is to buy contracts at a low price, and to sell them at higher prices.

Confronted with falling asset levels, United States-based management firms are reducing their costs, and layoffs will primarily affect management, according to a new study from Greenwich Associates, covering entities which manage total assets of USD3.2trn. These firms are looking to trim back their budgets by an average of 22% in 2009, compared with 2008. Overall, for the management sector as a whole, cost reductions between 2008 and 2009 are projected to come out at 14%. This remains generally lower than the expected decline in revenues. After an average decrease in assets of 31% in 2008, management firms are preparing for an average decrease in revenues of 33% compared with their 2007 levels at the end of 2009. The managers expecting to be most severely affected are predicting a fall of 43% in 2009 revenues compared with 2007.Greenwich explains that most management firms, rather than reducing their costs proportionally to the decline in revenues, will seek to position themselves for the moment when the markets begin to rebound. They will thus lay off fewer employees in the areas of client and investor services, according to Goran Hagegard, a consultant at Greenwich Associates. This will result in lower profit margins in the short term: in 2009, margins will fall 37% compared with 2007.Most managers are cutting positions in all areas that do not affect management. About three quarters of firms reducing costs are targeting support services and/or investment operations, and about two third are aiming at distribution and client services and/or IT. ?More than half of firms say that executive management is in the firing line, and this category may even see some of the most significant cuts,? says the consultant Chris Nickle. ?More than 30% of firms seeking to reduce spending on executive management claim they are aiming to cut costs by 15% or more, and 17% say they will reduce them by 30% or more.? This will primarily involve cuts in bonuses of 29% on average between 2007 and 2008. In addition, about half of the management firms surveyed say they are cutting personnel. Those which have done or which are planning to do so are planning to reduce staff by an average of about 11%.

According to calculations by Pensions & Investments, assets in the 1,000 largest retirement funds in the United States contracted by USD754bn or 11.8% in fourth quarter, which brings the total decline to USD1.7trn in the fifteen months to the end of December, Pensions & Investments reports. As of 30 September, total assets had fallen by USD965bn or 13.1% over twelve months, to a total of USD6.4trn, while assets under management in the 200 largest retirement savings plans were down 15.9% to USD4.7trn.

Funds People announces that Gonzalo Lardiés star manager at the Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild, after an equally celebrated career at Metagestión, on 1 February will be joining Interdin Gestión, which is 70% owned by the Banca Privada de Andorra, and which on this date will become known as BPA AM. At that time, the fund managed by Lardiés, the BPERE Fondo Ibérico Acciones, will be renamed as the BPA Fondo Ibérico Acciones. BPERE was already involved in the management of the Interdin product under an outsourcing contract.

The German BVI association of management firms announced on Friday that savings plans in the form of shares in open-ended real estate funds in the ten years to the end of December posted an average performance of 2.8% per year, as did bond funds in Euros, while global bond funds posted gains of 0.7%, and diversified funds invested in Germany produced minimal gains of 0.1%.Due to a collapse in asset levels between 2000 and 2003 more than to the current financial crisis, German equities funds posted an aveage loss of 9.7%, compared with 8.1% for global equities funds and 8% for European equities funds. Geman equities funds only generated performance higher than that of all other categories over 30 years, with an average of 6.4%, putting them just ahead of German diversified funds, with 6.2%.

In 2008, Santander registered a decline in its assets of EUR18bn, to EUR32.95bn. Of this total, however, Expansión reports that about EUR7bn in redemptions were reinvested in deposits at the banking network, while EUR3bn were reinvested in insurance policies from the group.

On Friday, the Swiss federal financial market surveillance authority (FINMA) announced, with many precautions, that side pockets may be approved, under certain circumstances, for Swiss funds of hedge funds (FoHF). The creation of side pockets may not be undertaken without the prior approval of FINMA, and must be in the interests of all investors. The rights of investors must also be preserved at the creation of the side pockets, the regulator emphasizes.

In a statement dated 23 January, the Luxembourg financial sector surveillance commission (Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier, or CSSF) provided a list of 17 collective investment organisms (OPC) registered in Luxembourg (and for each one of these funds, where applicable, the sub-funds affected), which have been directly or indirectly affected by the fraud case related to Bernard L. Madoff. The funds on the list have decided to suspend either calculations of their net asset value, redemptions, subscriptions, or conversions of their shares/equities. The OPCs have a total exposure of EUR1.7bn to the fraud. They include the Herald (Lux), for the US Absolute Return Fund sub-fund; the Luxembourg Investment Fund, for the US Equity Plus sub-fund; the Luxalpha Sicav, for the Balanced Sub-fund, Growth Sub-fund and X-tra Alternative Investments Sub-fund; the Carat (Lux) Sicav, for the Global One sub-fund; the LRI Invest Alpha Stable Euro; the BG Umbrella Fund for the BG Global Classic, BG Global Dynamic, BG Global Challenge, BG Global Balance, BG Global Discovery and BG Stable Value sub-funds; the MARS Fund for the One © sub-fund; and Pareturn for the Best Selection sub-fund.

The Austrian alternative management firm Salus Alpha on Friday received authorisation to release its Directional Markets hedge fund to retail investors in Germany. The fund was previously available only in the form of a managed account, with a minimal subscription of EUR10m. The fund replicates the DMX index, which posted performance as of the end of 2008 of 59.27%, which, according to Fondsprofessionell, represents a 99.64% outperformance of the Dax, and 97.76% outperformance of the S&P 500.