Le président-fondateur d’Inditex, Amancio Ortega a retiré l’an dernier près de la moitié de l’encours de ses trois Sicav, Keblar Inversiones, Alazán Inversiones 2001 et Gramela de Inversiones, rapporte Expansión. L’encours a été ramené à 575 millions d’euros contre 1,13 milliard en l’espace de moins d’un an, le milliardaire préférant investir principalement en Letras du Trésor espagnol et en immobilier direct aux Etats-Unis.

Pour janvier, les deux indices de hedge funds de Greenwich Alternative Investments ont affiché des résultats positifs : le Greenwich Global Hedge Fund Index («GGHFI») a marqué une progression de 0,42 %, après une hausse de 0,7 % pour décembre et le Greenwich Composite Investable Index («GI2») a affiché une avance de 0,1 % contre 0,3 % le mois précédent. Sur un an, ils affichent des pertes respectives de 13,2 % et de 15,9 %.Sur un an, seules quatre stratégies enregistrent des gains au sein du GGHFI : l’arbitrage de fusion (1,1 %), l’arbitrage statistique (2 %), la vente à découvert (27,8 %) et les fuitures (17,2 %). Dans le G2I, seul le groupe de trading directionnel affiche une performance (10,8 %). Le plus mauvais résultat dans le GGHFI a été accusé par l’arbitrage de convertibles (- 32,3 %) et dans le G2I par le groupe des stratégies de spécialités avec une perte de 34,1 %.

Barclays Capital a annoncé le lancement de l’indice Barcap AUB Inspire, le premier de la nouvelle gamme Inspire dont l’objectif est de fournir aux investisseurs «grossistes» une exposition liquide à l’inflation sur des marchés où l’inflation est illiquide, comme ce peut être le cas pour l’Australie. L’ AUD Inspire vise à fournir une protection synthétique contre l’inflation australienne en utilisant une combinaison d’indices de swaps sur l’inflation liquides des Etats-Unis, du Royaume-Uni et de la zone euro, le tout avec une pondération optimisée. Selon Barcap, cet indice est efficient en termes de coût et de volume négociable.

Swiss Life a refusé de commenter les rumeurs selon lesquelles il envisagerait de se retirer cette année de MLP dont il a acquis 24 % auprès de Carsten Maschmeyer en août 2008 pour 470 millions d’euros, indique le Financial Times Deutschland. MLP rejette en effet l’idée d’une fusion avec son concurrent AWD, le prestataire de services financiers qui appartenait à Carsten Maschmeyer. La porte-parole de Credit Suisse a néanmoins indiqué qu’une décision dans un sens ou dans l’autre sera prise avant la fin de cette année.

Delta Lloyd Investment Managers GmbH a annoncé son intention de liquider au 30 juin cinq de ses fonds dont elle estime l’encours trop faible. Il s’agit du DLI-Euro Cash (10,4 millions d’euros), du DLI-Euro Renten (43,28 millions), du DLI-Euro Portfolio (25,49 millions), du DLI-Euro Aktien (6,59 millions) et du DLI-Delta Typ 0 (5,44 millions). Les porteurs auront la possibilité également jusqu’au 30 juin de transférer en une seule fois sans frais leur investissement sur d’autres fonds de la gamme Delta Lloyd IM.

Globalement, les sociétés de gestion allemandes ont accusé en 2008 des remboursements nets de 27,79 milliards d’euros, selon les statistiques du BVI. Mais la dispersion des résultats atteint en la matière presque 24 milliards d’euros, d’après les calculs de l’agence Kommalpha. Le champion toutes catégories des souscriptions nettes a été le spécialiste des ETF du groupe Deutsche Bank, db x-trackers, qui a littéralement aspiré 13,5 milliards d’euros, battant très largement le deuxième, BGI (Deutschland), qui a levé 4,16 milliards nets avec ses ETF de la marque iShares. Le troisième est Universal-Investment, avec des souscriptions nettes de 3,18 milliards d’euros, devant Deka (Luxembourg) avec 2,95 milliards et ETFlab, la filiale ETF de Deka, avec 2,53 milliards d’euros. Kommalpha fait aussi ressortir que Carmignac Gestion Paris figure en quatrième position des sociétés de gestion non-allemandes, derrière db x-trackers, Deka Luxembourg et cominvest Luxembourg (Commerzbank), avec 1,28 milliard d’euros.Des sorties nettes particulièrement fortes ont été accusées par DWS Luxembourg (10,42 milliards); DWS Allemagne (8,35 milliards), Pioneer AM (6,55 milliards), Allianz Global Investors (AGI, 6,42 milliards) et AGI Luxembourg (3,49 milliards).

Le Fonds de stabilisation des marchés financiers (SoFFin) a refusé vendredi de venir en aide à la HSH Nordbank qui n’a pas respecté son engagement d’augmenter à 7 % son ratio de fonds propres en échange de la garantie fédérale de 30 milliards sur ses obligations qui avait été accordée en novembre, rapporte la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.Mardi, les gouvernements de Hambourg et du Schleswig-Holstein devront décider d’assumer seuls, ou éventuellement avec le capital-investisseur Christopher Flowers, les aides nécessaires. Les 15 caisses d'épargne du Schleswig-Holstein qui détiennent 15 % de la HSH Nordbank, ont indiqué qu’elles souhaitent vendre leur participation et récupérer le montant du prêt de 105 millions octroyé à la banque lorsqu’il arrivera à échéance dans quelques semaines. Selon les informations du journal, Berlin favoriserait la création d’un holding de droit public auquel les Landesbanken apporteraient chacun leur bad bank, avec un volume de titres toxiques de potentiellement 600 milliards d’euros.

L’agence Kommalpha constate sur la base des statistiques de l’association allemande BVI des sociétés de gestion que sur la chute de 155,3 milliards d’euros de l’encours des fonds allemands en 2008, l’effet de marché, mais aussi les coûts de transaction et administratifs ainsi que les commissions de banque dépositaire et les frais d’audit et de publication ont rogné 127,51 milliards d’euros, puisque les remboursements nets ont porté sur 27,79 milliards d’euros. Les fonds les plus sinistrés par le marché ont été ceux d’actions, puisqu’ils ont affiché des moins values de 94,7 milliards d’euros pour des sorties nettes de 2,27 milliards d’euros sur un encours qui a plongé à 133,55 milliards, c’est-à-dire à un niveau inférieur à celui des fonds obligataires (143,4 milliards contre 148, 1 milliards) qui ont bénéficié pour leur part d’un effet de marché positif de 19,71 milliards.Quant au match Allemagne/Luxembourg, il a tourné l’an dernier à l’avantage, si l’on peut dire, de la première : en effet, les souscripteurs allemands n’ont retiré «que» 11,1 milliards d’euros des fonds de droit allemand, alors qu’ils ont demandé des remboursements nets de 15,28 milliards aux fonds de droit luxembourgeois. Finalement 2008 aura été l’année de la gestion passive, avec la marche triomphale des ETF, qui ont collecté en net quelque 24 milliards d’euros répartis sur db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank), iShares (BGI), ETFlab (Deka) et comstage (Commerzbank). Les fonds de fonds ont collecté 9,26 milliards d’euros en net, ce qui apparaît décevant compte tenu de de l’introduction au 1er janvier 2009 du prélèvement libératoire (withholding flat tax) et le «champion secret», pour Kommalpha est la catégorie des fonds garantis, qui a réussi à drainer 6,12 milliards d’euros, ce qui a presque neutraliser l’effet de marché négatif de 6,78 milliards.

Barclays Capital has announced the launch of the Barcap AUB Inspire index, the first of the new Inspire range, whose objective is to provide ?wholesale? investors with liquid exposure to inflation on markets where inflation is illiquid. This may be the case in Australia, for example. The AUD Inspire fund aims to provide synthetic protection against Australian inflation by using a combination of swap indexes of inflation in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Euro zone, with optimized weighting. Barcap says the index is cost-effective and of a tradeable volume.

According to the most recent statistics from the Bank of Spain, an increase in savings deposits at banks has totalled nearly EUR78.1bn. At the same time, net redemptions from securities funds alone, according to figures from the Inverco association of management firms, totalled EUR69.53bn.

BanSabadell Inversión has notified the CNMV that it will undertake an extraordinary audit of the portfolio of the real estate fund Sabadell BS Inmobiliario (about EUR1bn in assets, 14,400 subscribers), but that it has no intention of closing the fund. Funds People reports that the real estate fund is one of only two in Spain which posted an increase in assets in 2008 (of 35%); the other is Caixa Catalunya (+16%). According to Expansión, the Sabadell BS Inmobiliario has EUR71m in liquidities, and the next redemption window will be open from 15 March to 15 April.

According to Mercer, Belgian pension funds posted average losses of 25.2% in 2008. Asset allocation to equities fell 8.65 points, while allocation to bonsd rose 10.13%, IPE reports.Willy Santemans, Mercer’s principal in Brussels, states that average annual performance for Belgian pension funds has been 1.1% over five years, 1% on ten years, and 4% over 15 years.

In January, the two hedge fund indices from Greenwich Alternative Investments posted positive results: the Greenwich Global Hedge Fund Index (GGHFI) returned 0.42%, after a gain of 0.7% in December, and the Greenwich Composite Investable Index (GI2) posted a 0.1% gain, compared with 0.3% the previous month. Over one year, the indexes show respective losses of 13.2% and 15.9%.Over one year, only four strategies show gains within the GGHFI index: merger arbitrage (1.1%), statistical arbitrage (2%), dedicated short bias (27.8%), and futures (17.2%). In the G2I index, only the directional trading group shows positive performance (10.8%). The worst results for the GGHFI were for convertible arbitrage (-32.3%), while on the G2I, this «honour» belongs to the specialist strategies group, with losses of 34.1%.

Putnam Investments has announced the recruitment of David Glancy as managing director and portfolio manager. Glancy, founder of Andover Capital, was also a portfolio manager at his former employer, after serving as the only portfolio manager at Fidelity to manage both equities and bond funds. At Putnam (USD101bn in assets at the end of 2008, compared with USD178bn one year earlier), he will cover equities, high yield, and bank-issued bonds.Putnam also announces the recruitment of four experienced analysts: Shobha Frey (formerly of K Capital partners) for insurance, Lucas Klein (from RiverSource Investments) for consumer products, George Gianarikas (from Wellington Management), for IT and telecoms, and Vinay Shah (formerly of Morgan Stanley and Fidelity) for durable consumer goods.Putnam also announces that, to assist in its return to the pension market, it has recruited Edmund F. Murphy III (formerly of Fidelity) as managing director and head of defined contribution.

Santander Asset Management has notified the CNMV that the advisor for three hedge funds from its private banking affiliate Banif, the Banif Optimal Low Volatility Fund, Banif Fairfield Impala and Panif Allfunds Springbuck, will be Allfunds Alternative, a joint venture from Allfunds Bank and Goldman Sachs Asset Management. In fact, Allfunds Alternative already advises the Banif Allfunds Springbuck, and will now be taking over the Optimal Low Volatility from Optimal Alternative Investment, and the Banif Fairfield Impala from Fairfield Greenwich Advisors, Funds People reports.Meanwhile, Santander AM reports that redemptions in the quarter total over 20% of assets for the Banif Optimal Low Volatility and Banif Fairfield Impala, but that this will not have an impact on the investment policies at these funds, whose existence is not in danger.

John Hobson, who was a partner at TT International until the beginning of 2008, has been appointed CEO of the alternative management firm EEA Group (GBP1bn in assets), and will begin in his new job on 1 March. Hobson was previously manager of the hedge fund TT Midcap Long/Short, between 2004 and his departure from the firm; in this period, the fund posted average annual performance of 22%, before fees. Hobson’s mission will be to extend the range at EEA, by developing and directing activities in the area of hedge funds.

Delta Lloyd Investment Managers GmbH has announced plans to liquidate five of its funds on 30 June, in which it estimates that asset levels are too low. The funds are the LDI-Euro Cash (EUR10.4m), DLI-Euro Renten (EUR43.28m), DLI-Euro Portfolio (EUR25.49m), DLI-Euro Aktien (EUR6.59m), and DLI-Delta Typ (EUR5.44m). Shareholders will also have until 30 June to transfer their investment to another fund of the Delta Lloyd IM range in a single transaction free of charge.

Swiss Life has declined to comment on rumours that it is considering withdrawing from MLP this year. The insurer acquired a 24% stake in the firm from Carsten Maschmeyer in August 2008, for EUR470m, Financial Times Deutschland reports. MLP has rejected the idea of a merger with its rival AWD, the financial services provider formerly owned by Carsten Maschmeyer. A spokesperson for Credit Suisse has announced, however, that a decision one way or the other will be taken by the end of this year.

Overall, German management firms suffered net redemptions in 2008 of Eur27.79bn, according to statistics from the BVI. But the difference in results between best and worst was nearly EUR24bn, according to statistics from the Kommalpha think tank. The winner for net subscriptions in all categories was the ETF specialist from Deutsche Bank, db x-trackers, which took on EUR13.5bn, soundly beating its nearest rival, BGI (Deutschland), which raised EUR4.16bn with ETFs of its iShares brand. Third place goes to Universal-Investment, with net subscriptions of EUR3.18bn, followed by Deka (Luxembourg) with EUR2.95bn, and ETFlab, the ETF affiliate of Deka, with EUR2.53bn. Kommalpha also reports that Carmignac Gestion Paris is in fourth place for non-German management firms, behind db x-trackers, Deka Luxembourg, and cominvest Luxembourg (Commerzbank), with EUR1.28bn.Particularly heavy net outflows were observed at DWS Luxembourg (EUR10.42bn), DWS Germany (EUR8.35bn), Pioneer AM (EUR6.55bn), Allianz Global Investors (AGI, EUR6.42bn), and AGI Luxembourg (EUR3.49bn).

According to a study by the European Economic Advisory Group (EEAG), reported in Handelsblatt, failures of private equity firms are expected to remain relatively few in number, despite the high acquisition prices and levels of debt sustained by these firms in recent years. Private equity firms took advantage in the years when financing conditions were good, and the recession will not hurt them too much now. However, they may be obliged to hold onto investments which will not generate reasonable returns for years yet.

The Kommalpha agency has calculated on the basis of statistics form the German BVI association of management firms that of a total decline fo EUR155.3bn in assets in German investments funds in 2008, market effects, combined with transaction and administrative costs, as well as depository banking commissions, auditing and publication costs, wiped out EUR127.51bn in assets, as net redemptions totalled EUR27.79bn. The funds punished hardest by the markets were equities funds, which show capital losses of EUR94.7bn, for net outflows of EUR2.27bn on assets which plunged to EUR133.55bn, a lower level than assets in bond funds (EUR143.4bn, compared with EUR148.1bn), which, for their part, benefited from positive market effects of EUR19.71bn.In the ongoing rivalry between Germany and Luxembourg, however, the advantage turned in Germany’s favour, so to speak, as German subscribers withdrew ?only? EUR11.1bn from German-registered funds, while they demanded net redemptions of EUR15.28bn from Luxembourg-registered funds.Lastly, 2008 will be remembered as a vintage year for passive management, with the emergence of the ETF market, which brought in net inflows of EUR24bn for products from db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank), iShares (BGI), ETFlab (Deka) and comstage (Commerzbank). Funds of funds posted net inflows of EUR9.26bn, which appears to be a disappointing result in light of the introduction of withholding flat tax on 1 January 2009. The ?secret weapon? for Kommalpha is the category of guaranteed funds, which attracted a total of EUR6.12bn, which almost offset negative market effects of EUR6.78bn.

Sir Allen Stanford, accused of a massive fraud, had a high-flying lifestyle, as reflected in documents obtained by the Financial Times. Among his possessions and expenses were a house in Florida worth USD10m, bills for up to USD75,000 for Christmas presents and his children’s vacations, and a fleet of private jets worth USD100m.

Since the beginning of 2009, equities and bond markets have followed different paths. Investors have bought tens of billions of dollars’ worth of corporate bonds, while the Dow Jones has fallen to its lowest levels since October 2002, the Wall Street Journal notes. Mutual and bond funds, including funds specialised in high yield, have posted increases in their assets since the beginning of the year of USD15.5bn, while equities funds have taken on USD6.04bn, according to AMG Data Services. Since January 2008, equities funds have lost USD194.3bn in assets, while corporate bodn funds have registered net subscriptions of USD35.95bn. It is certain that some investors have made some bad bets. Double-digit returns on junk bonds may appear attractive, but default rates are rising: Moody’s predicts that they will nearly quadruple, to a record 16% in 2009. But recovery rates are attractive nonetheless. KDP Advisor predicts that holders of bonds from General Motors Corp will get back 33% of their money if the firm goes bankrupt, compared with a 20% average for the market currently.

The founder and president of Inditex, Amancio Ortega, last year withdrew nearly half of the assets from its three Sicav funds, Keblar Inversiones, Alazán Inversiones 2001 and Gramela de Inversiones, Expansión reports. Assets were reduced to EUR575m from EUR1.13bn in the space of less than one year, as the billionaire preferred to invest largely in Spanish Letras du Trésor and direct real estate investments in the United States.

Reports by the investment firm of Bernard Madoff, accused of a USD50bn fraud, suggest that no stock market value was gained for clients in 13 years, the Financial Times reports.

Three quarters of USD8bn in deposit certificates fraudulently sold by Sir Allen Stanford were distributed in Latin America, the Financial Times reports. Venezuelans were the largest customers.

Le Temps reports that a misunderstanding about procedure and underestimation of the power of pressure from United States authorities explains the legal turmoil in which Switzerland now finds itself. According to the newspaper, Eugen Haltiner, chairman of the Swiss financial market surveillance authority (Finma) has tacitly suggested that the finance minister, Hans-Rudolf Merz, underestimated the gravity of the situation.

The Financial Times reports that Cerberus is in advanced negotiations to close its Hong Kong office, less than two years after opening it.

La région des 2.400 points devait constituer une limite à la correction entamée à 6.170 points en 2007

Julien Daire, gérant obligataire crédit chez CPR AM