On Friday, David Roberts, 46, announced that he will be resigning for health reasons (cardiac illness) from his position as CEO of Bawag. He will be replaced by the British Byron Haynes, who has been CFO of the Austrian bank for the past year. He also represents the majority shareholder, the private equity investor Cerberus, Die Presse reports. Before leaving his hob, Roberts negotiated a series of governmental assistance measures. The Federal government will subscribe for EUR550m shares without voting rights (which willl pay 9.3% per year) and will provide a guarantee for EUR400m. Cerberus has been required to agree that the Govenrment will be able to transform its preferential shares into ordinary Bawag shares if the firm shows losses in each of the next two years.

According to inside sources cited by the Wall Street Journal, investors have recently withdrawn USD5.5bn, or 71% of assets in hedge funds from the private equity investor Cerberus. These redemptions are reportedly due partly to discontent over the poor performance of funds, and partly to the need of liquidity on the part of subscribers.

The US regulatory authorities on Friday closed down the California-based bank Affinity, which had USD1bn in assets and USD922m in deposits, La Tribune reports. This is the 84th bank closure this year.

Janus Capital Group has announced that Dominic Martellaro, executive vice president and managing director of Janus Global Advisors, will step down from his position effective October 31, 2009. To help ensure smooth succession and continuity in service to clients, Martellaro will remain as a consultant until February 2010. Martellaro, who oversees distribution of the firm’s products sold through financial intermediaries and international sales through subsidiary Janus Capital International Limited, will transition his responsibilities to fellow distribution executives Robin Beery and Dan Charles. Robin Beery, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, will assume responsibility for Janus’ US intermediary business. Dan Charles, executive vice president and managing director of Janus’ US institutional business, will assume responsibility for Janus Capital Group International, the firm’s non-US distribution channel.

La zone de support autour des 3.400 points devrait contenir tout repli technique avant que cet objectif minimum soit atteint

Les gérants anticipent seulement une hausse de 2 à 3 % de l’EuroStoxx 50 et du CAC 40 dans six mois, et de 7 % à horizon d'un an

Au plus haut niveau depuis février, la part des portefeuilles allouée aux actions atteint 47 %. Une poussée au détriment de l’obligataire

Le « Panel Taux » prévoit une hausse de plus de 30 pb des taux à 10 ans d'ici à fin février 2010

Le « Panel Taux Agefi » prévoit une hausse de plus de 30 pb des taux à 10 ans d'ici à fin février 2010

La société d’investissement a annoncé ce matin avoir enregistré une perte nette de 120,9 millions d’euros au premier semestre 2009. Elle assure toutefois que l’ensemble des sociétés que le groupe détient en portefeuille ont respecté leurs covenants bancaires. «Les résultats du premier semestre 2009 ont été marqués par l’absence de plus-values, la perte de valeur sur le patrimoine immobilier lié à la hausse des taux de capitalisation, l’impact négatif de la conjoncture économique sur l’activité d’Europcar et la baisse des résultats de Rexel et Accor», explique le groupe d’investissement.

Le gestionnaire britannique Martin Currie, qui se développe en Asie depuis plusieurs années, avec l’ouverture d’un bureau à Shanghai dès 1997 et celle d’une antenne à Melbourne en août 2008, annonce l’inauguration pour le 1er octobre d’un bureau à Singapour. Les activités asiatiques seront pilotées à partir de Melbourne, où le bureau est dirigé par Kimon Kouryalas. Le bureau de Singapour sera confié à un senior business development officer dont la nomination devrait intervenir prochainement.

La société de gestion danoise Sparinvest vient de se doter d’un comité consultatif. Allan Timmermann, professeur de l’Université de Californie à San Diego, et Thorsten Hens, professeur du Swiss Banking Institute de l’Université de Zurich, sont les premiers nommés au sein de la nouvelle instance. Le comité consultatif aura la charge de repérer des facteurs fiables pour créer des produits qui répondent aux nouvelles exigences du marché, précise Sparinvest.

Hedge funds investing in emerging markets earned higher than average returns in second quarter. Hedge Week reports that the HFRI index of emerging markets gained 18.92% during the quarter, while the composite index shows gains of 9.17%. In the first six months of the year, hedge funds specialised in emerging markets earned returns of 20.18%, the best results in six months, since gains of 27.4% in 1999. Despite these fine returns, outflows from emerging markets have continued, totalling USD2.5bn in second quarter. This movement was compensated for by positive market effects on emerging markets totalling USD12.9bn. Assets in funds dedicated to emerging markets now total USD77bn.

Amaranth Advisors will not face any penalties from the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a letter received by the hedge fund manager, the Wall Street Journal reports. Amaranth, which once managed USD6.6bn in assets, but which imploded in 2006 following bad bets on natural gas markets, was cleared by the SEC after a three-year investigation into whether the firm misled investors.

James Davis, the CFO of Stanford Financial Group, pleaded guilty to charges that he helped Sir Allen Stanford in alleged USD7bn Ponzi scheme, the Financial Times reports. Sir Allen, had been due to appear in court, was taken to hospital with heart problems.

As Philipp Hensler has left the company, DWS Investments has appointed Michael J. Woods as US head of distribution. He will report directly to Ingo Gefeke, the new Global Head of Distribution and Product Management. Woods was most recently Head of Financial Intermediaries and Investments Group at Evergreen Investments. He was previously CEO of XTF Global Asset Management.

Groupama, which yesterday announced its half-yearly results, has posted an increase in its earnings in first half 2009 of 8.4%, to EUR8.358bn, due to “strong growth in insurance and the deployment of solid platforms for international development, says Jean Azéma, its CEO. However, due to the turbulence in Europe earlier this year, net results were down 40.5%, to EUR166m. For financial and banking activities, net banking proceeds are up 18.2%, to a total of EUR116m. On the asset management side, assets under management by Groupama Asset Management and its affiliates total EUR89.5bn as of 30 June 2009, an increase of EUR8.2bn compared with the end of December 2008. These results are closely related to the evolution of the bond market and the good performance of equities management, which outperformed the market, Groupama says. Total net inflows in first half 2009 are positive at EUR3.1bn, of which EUR2.3bn were earned outside the group.

Jeudi, la Deutsche Bank a indiqué que sa due diligence des comptes de Sal. Oppenheim s’est jusqu'à présent déroulée «positivement» ; elle devrait être achevée à la mi-septembre et une décision sur une éventuelle prise de participation (entre 30 et 50 %) pourrait être prise pour la mi-octobre, rapporte le Handelsblatt. Selon les proches du dossier, il est vraisemblable qu’ultérieurement la Deutsche prendra la majorité dans la banque privée familiale.

Jeudi, la Deutsche Bank a indiqué que sa due diligence des comptes de Sal. Oppenheim s’est jusqu'à présent déroulée positivement ; elle devrait être achevée à la mi-septembre et une décision sur une éventuelle prise de participation (entre 30 et 50 %) pourrait être prise pour la mi-octobre, rapporte le Handelsblatt. Selon les proches du dossier, il est vraisemblable qu’ultérieurement la Deutsche prendra la majorité dans la banque privée familiale.

AXA Investment Managers Deutschland GmbH has announced that as of 28 August, it is reopening the open-ended real estate Axa Immoselect to redemptions, which had been closed since October 2008, as of 28 August. Currently, the net liquidity of the fund has risen to 17%. Through external financing and sales of assets, available liquidity has been increased to EUR627m, from EUR493m as of the end of July, and EUR380m as of the end of June. Recently (see Newsmanagers of 24 July), Achim Gräfen, CEO of Axa Im Deutschland, and manager of the Immoselect fund, announced that he was expecting to face redemptions of about EUR500m. Assets in the fund now total nearly EUR3.66bn.

According to statistics compiled by Lipper FMI for Responsible Investor, European SRI funds in June attracted EUR760.7m in investments, following net subscriptions of nearly EUR1.07bn in May. Total assets come to EUR42.7bn. The highest levels of subscriptions were for Money Market Euro Sustainable Fund (Dexia Luxembourg) and Securicash SRI (AGI France). The three largest SRI funds were money market funds: Invest Monétaire (SocGen) with EUR1.98bn, Securicash (EUR1.94bn), Moné Etheis (BNPP AM) with EUR1.18bn.

The private equity investor CVC and the Asturian Cosmen family have made an offer of GBP560m (450 pence per share) in cash for the 81.4% of National Express that the Cosmen family does not already control, Cinco Días reports. The bid is higher than the GBP500m offer previosuly expected. Among the other major shareholders in National Express are Barclays (8%) and Prudential (6.58%). National Express is also reported to interest Stagecoach and Arriva.

Regulatory changes which spell the end of banking secrecy in cases of tax evasion not not only in cases of tax fraud have cost the major Liechtenstein banks. Net redemptions have totalled CHF1.6bn for LGT, and CFH304m for Landesbank (LLB), the Börsen-Zeitung reports. LGT, which is acquiring the Swiss affiliate of Dresdner Bank has seen net outflows equivalent to those in second half 2008, but its assets, which as of the end of June were CHF79bn,will increase due to the acquisition by about CHF9.4bn.

With at least one month to go until the next G20 summit, the Basel Committee on 27 August published a set of guidelines which will aim to support,and perhaps provide a framework for, the work of the IASB in relation to provisioning, evaluation and fair valuation, and related problems. The guidelines will help the architect of international accounting standards to set up a new set of basic reference points for financial instruments, which will aim to replace the highly controversial IAS 39 standard, to improve the utility and pertinence of financial reporting for all parties, including prudential regulators, the Basel Committee says in a statement. Central banks add that these principles will also facilitate the handling of larger issues related to procyclicity and systemic risks. In July of this year, the IASB published a survey and review of classification and evaluation systems for financial instruments for comment until mid-September. The guidelines, which draw lessons from the financial crisis and which respond to recommendations made at the G20 summit in April, also reflect the necessity for rapid accounting of losses on loans in order to make projections of the consequent outcomes, with an awareness that their fair value is not appropriate in a context of dislocated or illiquid markets, and authorises reclassifications of assets in very specific circumstances from the fair value category into the amortised cost category, and promotes the same regulations for all these categories. To appease partisans of fair value, the Basel Committee statement points out that the new approach to financial instruments “will not result in an expansion of accouting in fair value,” for companies involves in intermediary activities in particular. Credit instruments, particularly loans, will not be included in the fair value accounting category, the statement says. The chairman of the Basel committee, Nout Welling, also points out that one of the lessons of the crisis is that “all accounting regulations must be articulated with appropriate practices in terms of risk management,a nd should promote transparency, in order to assist supervisors, banks, investors and other participants to achieve their respective objectives.” This also means that the objectives of international accounting: transparency, readability, comparability of financial states, have not yet been achieved. The Basel Committee says in its statement that the need to produce transparent and comparable information will lead to a revision of IFRS 7 standards. The IASB has put this revision on its agenda for the beginning of the coming season. It is one of the propositions included in the survey and report cited above.

In first half, Henderson Global Investors (HGI) has posted pre-tax profits of GBP34.7m, compared with GBP60.6m, while profits at Henderson Group have fallen 47% to GBP27.1m, comparedd with GBP50.8m. Henderson Group shows a net loss of GBP0.6m, compared with profits of GBP41.2m in January-June 2008. The British asset manager blames the deterioration in its results to net outflows of GBP2.9bn, as well as to the negative impact of capital losses and currency effects, which represented a total of GBP1.7bn. As of the end of June, assets totalled GBP53bn, compared with GBP49.5bn as of the end of December, and GBP52.6bn twelve months previously. The acquisition of New Star on 9 April brought in about GBP8.1bn in assets; these totalled GBP8bn as of the end of June.

Le capital-investisseur CVC et la famille asturienne Cosmen ont présenté une offre de 560 millions de livres (450 pence par action) en numéraire pour les 81,4 % de National Express que les Cosmen ne possèdent pas encore, rapporte Cinco Días. Cette offre est plus avantageuse que celle de 500 millions de livres primitivement attendue. Parmi les autres actionnaires importants de National Express figurent Barclays (8 %) et Prudential (6,58 %).National Express intéresserait aussi Stagecoach et Arriva.

Désormais, l’avance de BBVA Asset Management sur Santander Asset Management atteint deux points de part de marché, à 20,61 %, constate Expansión en rappelant que BBVA AM n’a dépassé Santander AM de justesse que depuis la fin de 2008.Parmi les autres gestionnaires ayant gagné du terrain ces derniers mois figure La Caixa qui, selon VDOS Stochastics, a drainé plus de 2 milliards d’euros entre le début de l’année et le 21 août, essentiellement grâce à des campagnes de promotion pour ses fonds garantis. La caisse catalane a ainsi augmenté sa part de marché à 7,42 % contre 5,6 % fin décembre.

Pour le premier semestre, Deka affiche un bénéfice avant impôt de 50 millions d’euros contre 113,8 millions tandis que le bénéfice net ressort à 46,4 millions contre 53,8 millions d’euros. Le gestionnaire central des caisses d'épargne allemandes a dû passer une provision de 218,9 millions d’euros (contre 0,5 million), dont environ la moitié correspond à des crédits à des banques islandaises et 25 millions à un amortissement de survaleurs sur l’acquisition de Westinvest en 2004.Deka, qui est parvenue à un accord avec le comité d’entreprise en vue de supprimer environ 350 emplois sur 3.355, affichait fin juin des encours de 145 milliards d’euros contre 142,5 milliards six mois plus tôt. Les souscriptions nettes ont baissé à 1,3 milliard d’euros contre 1,4 milliard pour la branche immobilier (AMI) tandis que la branche valeurs mobilières (AMK) accusait des sorties nettes de 1,4 milliard, essentiellement à cause des fonds monétaires, contre des entrées nettes de 7,3 milliards. Au total, le groupe affiche des remboursements nets de 134 millions d’euros contre des souscriptions nettes de 8.654 millions.

Jeudi, la Deutsche Bank a indiqué que sa due diligence des comptes de Sal. Oppenheim s’est jusqu'à présent déroulée «positivement» ; elle devrait être achevée à la mi-septembre et une décision sur une éventuelle prise de participation (entre 30 et 50 %) pourrait être prise pour la mi-octobre, rapporte le Handelsblatt. Selon les proches du dossier, il est vraisemblable qu’ultérieurement la Deutsche prendra la majorité dans la banque privée familiale.

AXA Investment Managers Deutschland GmbH a annoncé qu’elle rouvre au 28 août le guichet des remboursements qui était fermé depuis fin octobre 2008 pour le fonds immobilier offert au public Axa Immoselect. Actuellement, la liquidité nette du fonds est remontée à 17 %. Grâce à des financements externes et à des cessions d’actifs, la liquidité disponible a pu être augmentée à 627 millions d’euros, contre 493 millions à fin juillet et 380 millions fin juin. Récemment (lire notre article du 24 juillet), Achim Gräfen, directeur général d’Axa IM Deutschland et gérant de l’Immoselect, avait indiqué qu’il s’attend à devoir faire face à des remboursements de l’ordre de 500 millions d’euros. L’encours du fonds se monte à près de 3,66 milliards d’euros.