Selon le site internet de L’Echo, JPMorgan trône désormais en tête du palmarès des banques les plus solides du monde. C’est ce qui ressort du nouveau classement du Top 1 000 World Banks établi par le magazine «The Banker». Pourtant, ce classement ne fait pas oublier que les profits des banques ont chuté de 85 % l’an dernier. Le secteur a engrangé 115 milliards de dollars contre 781 milliards en 2007. Le rendement de leurs fonds propres a plongé, tombant à 2,69 % en 2008 contre 20 % en 2007, selon l’estimation réalisée par le magazine. Royal Bank of Scotland prend la «pole position» d’un autre classement: celui des établissements ayant subi les plus lourdes pertes. Avec 59,3 milliards de dollars de pertes en 2008, RBS éclipse Citigroup, qui en a enregistré pour 53 milliards de dollars, et Wells Fargo, troisième avec 47,8 milliards.

According to the website of the newspaper L’Echo, JPMorgan is now the most solid bank in the world, according to the new Top 1,000 World Banks rankings by the magazine “The Banker.” The rankings do not fail to take into account that banking profits fell by 85% last year. The sector earned USD115bn, compared with USD781bn in 2007. Returns on owners’ equity fell to 2.69% in 2008, from 20%, in 2007, according to estimates by the magazine. Royal Bank of Scotland takes pole position in another ranking: banks which have sustained the heaviest losses. With USD59.3bn lost in 2008, RBS eclipses Citigroup, which lost USD53bn, and Wells Fargo, in third place, with losses of USD47.8bn.

Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), the manager of the government pension fund, has launched a call for bids for mandates to manage developed and emerging market equities. The initial mandates will be for assets ranging from USD50m to USD250m. The affiliate of the Bank of Norway states on its website that all the mandates will be for publicly traded equities. Currently, NBIM is seeking managers for mandates to invest in Thailand, Greater China, South Korea, India, Russia, Turkey, Greece, Japanese small caps, Brazil, South Africa, equities indexes (Americas, Europe, and the Pacific), and sectoral mandates, both global and focused on the United States. Completed applications should be addressed to eqmandates@nbim.no.

Between the end of March and the present, assets under management in funds focused on eastern Europe and Russia at East Capital have increased considerably, due both to positive market effects and to continuing net subscriptions, much of which have come from Scandinavian retail clients, says Marcus Qvedberg, chief economist at the Swedish asset management firm. Currently, says Jean-Marie Laporte, director of the Paris office, the Eastern Europe fund now has roughly EUR350m in assets, compared with EUR272m at the end of March, while the firm’s emblematic fund, the Russia fund, must have more than EUR500m. Both funds have relatively well-diversified portfolios, with about 150 positions each, as East Capital, which is present in the markets it invests in, does not confine itself to the recommendations of sell-side analysts, but also invests in local midcaps. Svedberg also estimates that with a price/earnings ratio of 6.2, following a 65% increase (and a peak a few weeks ago up more than 80%), Russia continues to be attractively priced. In general, more correction is to be expected on the markets of eastern Europe this summer, and then a subsequent rebound in the long term, albeit less strong than in the past. East Capital favours healthy banks, consumer products, retail, and some utilities. The Swedish manager will also soon launch a Special Opportunities Fund with USD100m in assets, registered in the Cayman Islands. The product, which is not compliant with UCITS III, will invest largely in “extremely inexpensive” businesses, which are most often high-quality companies repossessed by banks in their infancy from over-indebted oligarchs, and then traded as “distressed” businesses.

Les grandes fortunes privilégient les actifs moins risqués, et les trois quarts d'entre elles ont perdu confiance dans leur gestionnaire

Les taux seront maintenus à un niveau plancher pendant « une période prolongée »

Le « smile » des options sur le Bund s'est inversé, accompagné d'une baisse générale des volatilités

La population des millionnaires a chuté de 14,9 % en 2008 à 8,6 millions, leur patrimoine ayant décru de 19,5 % à 32.800 milliards de dollars

Les marchés anticipent que la Banque centrale européenne augmentera les taux dès l’année prochaine ; de 100 pb d’ici à juin 2010 à en croire la courbe des Eonia (si sa lecture conserve du sens tant que la crise perturbe les fixations de prix). De telles anticipations sont beaucoup trop hâtives et l’analyse ne laisse guère envisager les premiers resserrements monétaires avant le second semestre 2011, pour deux raisons.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the reason that many hedge funds are maintaining “gates” set up at the onset of the crisis is probably that their assets are overvalued and they do not want to bite into performance by revising them. This is good news for funds of hedge funds, which can continue to charge high commissions, while claiming that capital invested in single hedge funds cannot be recovered for the time being anyway. Investors will need to mobilize and insist in order to obtain liquidations, as Carl Icahn did to the Steel Partners II fund from Warren Lichtenstein. This may be hard, but it is the only way for the hedge fund sector to regain the confidence of investors.

Le gestionnaire ISR Ökoworld (500 millions d’euros d’encours), filiale de l’allemand versiko, a annoncé la nomination de Ralph Prudent comme membre de sa direction générale et responsable de la distribution de fonds. Il a été pendant dix ans membre du comité du direction de la société de gestion Maintrust (groupe Nomura).

La Tribune reports that Colony Capital is interested in investing in Orco Property, which is subject to a safeguard procedure. However, the US investment firm is demanding that Orco Property, a real estate firm specialized in Eastern Europe, restructures its bond debt, estimated at EUR400m.

The British group Aviva announced on 23 June that it has appointed Matt Saker, who previously spent 28 years at Watson Wyatt, where he has been a partner since 2003, as its actuary-in-chief for Europe. The day before, Aviva announced the appointment of Jon Bunn, previously of Prudential, as head of corporate affairs and communications for Europe.

In partnership with Danos & Associates, BNP Paribas Real Estate is extending its geographical coverage to include the Balkans. Following Greece and Cyprus, where they are already present, thew two firms have decided to extend their partnership into the Balkans. Three new partership locations have been opened in Albania, Bulgaria and Serbia, which will be primarily active, initially, in business real estate trading and expertise (more than 90% of activities), and residential real estate (all other activities). In total, BNP Paribas Real Estate is present in 29 countries worldwide (via 14 affiliates and 15 alliances).

The German management firm Maintrust, an affiliate of Nomura, is releasing a fundamental indexing fund focused on Europe (MAT Fundamental Europa), a German-registered product which was launched on 21 April. The fund is benchmarked against the FTSE RAFI Europe Index Total Return, a methodology from the American firm Research Affiliates (RAFI), in which Nomura holds a “strategic participation.” The method provides a way to weight companies no longer on the basis of their capitalisation but instead on the basis of four equally-weighted fundamental factors (earnings, cash flow, dividends, and book value). According to Maintrust, this will keep TER at a low level (1.01%) and to reduce turnover rates to levels comparable to an ETF, while outperforming both growth and value strategies. At the same time, Maintrust is relaunching its MAT Fundamental Japan fund, which had only EUR20m in assets at the end of April, though it was launched on 15 January 2007. the fund is benchmarked against the FTSE RAFI Japan Total Return, and has a TER of 1.23%.

On the 50th anniversary of the launch of the first open-ended real estate fund, the German BVI association of management firms announced on Tuesday that, since 1990, assets in open-ended products (46 funds, up from 35 in 2005) have quadrupled, to a total of EUR86.42bn as of the end of April. In addition to this total, there are 124 real estate Spezialfonds aimed at institutionals, which on the same date managed about EUR24bn. However, it must be remember that a dozen open-ended real estate funds were required to freeze redemptions at the end of last October, since these products in principle provide daily liquidity but are based on assets which are difficult to trade rapidly. Since then, only three of the frozen funds have resumed normal activities: DEGI International, Focus Nordic Cities from Catella, and SEB ImmoInvest. According to sources close to the case, Axa Investment Managers and KanAm grund will soon reopen their Immoselect and grundinvest funds. In theory the CS Euroreal fund from Credit Suisse will reopen to redemptions by the end of the month.

Banque Sarasin (Robeco group) on Tuesday announced the opening of offices in Mumbai and Delhi on 1 July. The Swiss firm is setting up shop in India under the registered business name of Sarasin-Alpen (India) Private Litd, and says it has signed several agreements with Indian partners to provide distribution for their funds, and to promote wealth management services. The heads of Sarasin-Alpen in Dubai have decided not to comment for the moment as to the names of these partners. Sarasin is not yet in a position to reveal who will be the country head of the bank for India.

Dexia Asset Management has published a new report on responsible and sustainable investment, responding to the verdict of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that “the world is not on course for sustainable energy in the future.” Dexia AM has made an effort to expose the challenges related to the transition to a future of low CO² emissions in the energy sector. Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will have a considerable impact on the energy sector (gas and oil), and businesses concerned will have to integrate this new reality into their business models. From a sustainability and a financial point of view, long-term investors will need to take account of the fact that the best-positioned businesses will have a competitive advantage which will become a determining factor in the future. In its sustainability analysis of the energy sector, Dexia Asset Management finds that BP and StatoilHydro and ENI are among the best-positioned energy businesses to meet the challenges of sustainable development.

The Bank of New York Mellon has launched a platform to process derivatives trading, entitled Derivatives360. The client may select the services best adapted to its core activities on the platform.

After 14 years as head of Frontrunner, which in 2000 became Nordea Fonds Service GmbH, Wolfgang Seubert will be retiring on 30 June, half a year ahead of schedule. He will be replaced by Dan Sauer, who was appointed as a member of the board of directors on 1 July 2008, and who since then has been head of distribution for Germany at Nordea, leading a five-member team.

The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) and the Europan System of Central Banks (ESCB) on 23 March published their recommendations for clearing and settlement and for central counterparty (CCP) in the European Union, along with comments on consultations undertaken on these subjects.

When the markets were in freefall at the end of last year, hedge fund managers suspended or limited their redemptions. But now that hedge funds are posting average performance of 9.8% in January-May, after losses of 19% in 2008, according to statistics from Hedge Fund Research, the market rebound will make it easier to sell assets, and investors will receive their money back, the Wall Street Journal reports. Among the funds which are still blocking out new subscribers are Citadel Investment Group (Chicago) and Harbinger Capital Partners (New York), as well as the London-based firms GLG Partners and Polygon Investment Partners. GLG Partners is planning to lift its freeze on redemptions from its fund GLG Market Neutral (USD1bn in assets) at the end of the month.

The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) has welcomed the set of principles recently published by the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) for hedge funds. However, the AIMA qualifies its satisfaction with some remarks. It will be managers of hedge funds and not hedge funds which will be required to register with regulators, the AIMA observes. The AIMA also points out that the IOSCO document makes mention of the fact that hedge funds use derivative products to speculative ends, without making it clear that derivatives traded on regulated or OTC markets are largely used by market actors who customarily have risk management frameworks in place. The AIMA is concerned that these recommendations will motivate regulators to focus on the quantitative aspect of data rather than appreciating the qualitative aspects. “It is important that regulators have the expertise and resources necessary to handle the data they will receive,” the AIMA statement says. Swiss association also approves The Swiss Funds Association (SFA) has also expressed its approval of the principles for hedge fund regulations proposed by the OICV. “From the Swiss point of view, we approve in particular of the proposal that hedge fund managers and not their financial vehicles should be able to obtain authorization from their regulatory authority, independently of the place where their funds are located. The IOSCO proposals are a judicious measure to prevent systematic risks, unlike the European Commission directive for alternative investment fund managers. The latter shows an excess of zeal, which in practical terms may only partially be realised, and which has protectionist characteristics, mixing protection of the system and the investor with fiscal policy,” explains Matthäus Den Otter, director of the SFA.

The designer of international accounting standards IASB on 23 June published an exposure-draft which proposes a non-binding framework to assist firms to prepare management commentary. Management commentary is not required in all jurisdictions, the IASB observes, but the framework aims to offer a harmonised document to investors. All parties concerned may comment on the exposure-draft until 1 March 2010.

La société de gestion allemande Maintrust, filiale de Nomura, entame la commercialisation d’un fonds dit d’indexation fondamentale sur l’Europe (MAT Fundamental Europa), un produit de droit allemand qui a été lancé le 21 avril. Elle utilise comme référence le FTSE RAFI Europe Index Total Return, la méthodologie de l’américain Research Affiliates (RAFI), dans lequel Nomura détient une «participation stratégique» permettant de pondérer les entreprises non plus en fonction de la capitalisation mais sur la base de quatre facteurs fondamentaux équipondérés (chiffre d’affaires, cash-flow, dividende et valeur comptable). D’après Maintrust, cela permet de maintenir les frais à un faible niveau (TFE, ou TER en anglais, de 1,01%) et de réduire le taux de rotation à des niveaux comparables à ceux d’un ETF tout en surperformant les stratégies growth aussi bien que value.Par la même occasion, Maintrust relance son fonds MAT Fundamental Japan qui n’affichait fin avril que 20 millions d’euros d’encours bien qu’il ait été lancé le 15 janvier 2007. Ce fonds utilise comme benchmark le FTSE RAFI Japan Total Return et il affiche un TFE de 1,23 %.Le gestionnaire souligne qu’une rétropolation sur la période 2000-2008 fait ressortir une surperformance sur 8 des 9 années par rapport au MSCI Daily Total Return Europe, avec une volatilité moindre. Pour les cinq premiers mois de 2009, la performance du fonds a été de 12,87 %, soit une surperformance de 3,10 points par rapport au MSCI.Le fonds japonais a affiché pour janvier-mai une performance de 3,51 % en euros, ce qui représente une superformance de 4,92 points par rapport au Topix.

Après 14 ans à la tête de Frontrunner ,devenue en 2000 Nordea Fonds Service GmbH, Wolfgang Seubert prend sa retraite au 30 juin, avec un semestre d’avance sur le planning. Il sera remplacé par Dan Sauer qui a été nommé membre du comité de direction le 1er juillet 2008 et qui, depuis, était responsable de la distribution de Nordea pour l’Allemagne, une équipe qui compte cinq collaborateurs.

Thomas Meier, membre du directoire du gestionnaire alternatif indépendant Loys AG, a décidé de rejoindre Deka (caisses d'épargne). Il avait été recruté par son ancien patron de chez Union Investment, Christoph Bruns, en juillet 2006 et avait été nommé directeur de la gestion actions mondiales deux ans plus tard. Das Investment rapporte que Thomas Meier était co-gérant avec Christoph Brunds du fonds d’actions Loys Global et du «single hedge fund» Loys Global MH.

A l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du lancement du premier fonds immobilier offert au public, l’association allemande BVI des sociétés de gestion indique mardi que, depuis 1990, l’encours des produits offerts au public (46 unités contre 35 en 2005) a quadruplé depuis 1990 pour se situer à 86,42 milliards fin avril. A ce total s’ajoutent les 124 Spezialfonds immobiliers destinés aux institutionnels, qui gèraient à la même date quelque 24 milliards d’euros. Cela posé, il ne faudrait pas oublier qu’une douzaine de fonds offerts au public ont dû geler leurs remboursements à la fin octobre, parce que ces produits sont en principe à liquidité journalière avec des actifs difficilement négociables. Depuis lors, seuls trois de ces fonds ont repris une activité normale, le DEGI international, le Focus Nordic Cities de Catella et le SEB ImmoInvest. Selon les proches du dossier Axa Invesment Managers et KanAm grund sont susceptibles de rouvrir assez prochainement leurs fonds Immoselect et grundinvest. En théorie, le CS Euroreal de Credit Suisse doit reprendre ses remboursements d’ici à la fin du mois.

Lorsque les marchés étaient en chute libre à la fin de l’an dernier, les gérants de hedge funds ont suspendu ou limité les remboursements. Mais maintenant que les hedge funds affichent une performance moyenne de 9,8 % pour janvier-mai après une perte de 19 % en 2008, selon les statistiques de Hedge Fund Research, le rebond du marché devrait faciliter la vente d’actifs et les investisseurs réclament leur argent, souligne The Wall Street Journal.Parmi les fonds qui continuent de bloquer l’argent de leurs souscripteurs figurent Citadel Investment Group (Chicago) et Harbinger Capital Partners (New York) ainsi que les londoniens GLG Partners et Polygon Investment Partners. GLG Partners a toutefois l’intention de lever le gel des rachats sur son fonds GLG Market Neutral (1 milliard de dollars d’encours) à la fin du mois.

Selon L’Agefi suisse, l’Association suisse des banquiers (ASB) a souligné que l’arrivée à sa tête de Patrick Odier ne remettait pas en cause l’ambition de la Suisse de reconquérir la troisième place au niveau mondial, juste derrière New York et Londres.