D’après les calculs de Cinco Días, l'émission pour 1,38 milliard d’euros d’actions préférentielles à 2 % sur 10 ans destinées aux investisseurs victimes de Madoff permet au Santander de renforcer ses fonds propres de premier rang (tier one) en un moment délicat. En revanche, celles des victimes de Madoff qui voudraient récupérer leur indemnisation tout de suite en numéraire sur le marché secondaire n’en récupéreraient que 50 %, aux cours actuels du marché. S’ils attendent l'échéance, il leur faudra se contenter d’un rendement annuel de 2 %, le plus bas du marché en ce moment pour ce type d'émission, commente un opérateur.

Depuis l’arrivée de Martin Flanagan en août 2005 comme president & CEO, Invesco s’est transformé d’une mosaïque de boutiques en un groupe harmonisé dont l’action n’a perdu que 51 % sur les douze derniers mois, ce qui le place dans le peloton de tête des gestionnaires cotés avec Franklin Resources, BlackRock et Eaton Vance, alors que les titres de Janus Capital, AllianceBernstain, Calamos AM et Legg Mason ont perdu plus de 70 % dans le même temps, note the Wall Street Journal. Au 15 janvier, la gamme de fonds d’Invesco figurait dans le #top 36 %# pour la performance sur trois ans et le #top 34 %# sur cinq ans. L’effectif a fondu à 5.400 personnes au 30 septembre contre environ 6.500 en juin 2005 et ce processus va se poursuivre, indique un porte-parole.D’autre part, Martin Flanagan a l’intention de continuer à développer Invesco à l’international. 42 % des clients sont actuellement basés hors des Etats-Unis, mais l’objectif est de monter à 50 %.

Selon L"Agefi suisse, La direction de l"Union bancaire privée (UBP) a officialisé hier la mise en place imminente d"une «réduction d"effectifs» en parallèle avec un programme de réduction des coûts, via une note interne dont le quotidien a eu connaissance. Contactée hier, la banque genevoise n"a pas souhaité commenter les rumeurs selon lesquelles de 130 à 170 emplois seraient éliminés, sur un effectif total dépassant les 1300 salariés au 31 décembre dernier.

Il appartient désormais au régulateur luxembourgeois de prouver sur l’affaire Madoff qu’il applique avec toute la ténacité voulue la directive européenne transposée en droit local, a estimé Alain Leclair, président de l’Association française de la gestion financière (AFG), lors de la présentation de l'évolution du marché français en 2008. La législation luxembourgeoise est en effet a priori aussi bonne que la française, même si le texte n’a pas forcément été retranscrit de manière identique dans les lois en vigueur dans les deux pays. Le régulateur français et l’AFG n’ont d’ailleurs pas l’intention de diminuer la pression dans cette affaire qui pourrait le cas échéant comporter un risque réputationnel pour le Grand-Duché. Cela posé, Pierre Bollon, délégué général de l’AFG, a rappelé que le scandale Madoff pourrait avoir en fin de compte un effet positif dans la mesure où il livre des arguments à ceux qui, comme l’association française, réclament d’ores et déjà une directive OPCVM V (lire notre article du 14 janvier), notamment en ce qui concerne une harmonisation réelle des fonctions et des responsabilités des dépositaires, un passeport européen. Ce serait aussi l’occasion d’obtenir un statut européen cohérent pour les #alter-UCITS#, les fonds d’investissements non-conformes à la directive actuelle, et de leurs gestionnaires. Cela vaut pour la gestion alternative, et donc entre autres pour le #private equity# et les infrastructures.Concernant le projet de dédommagement par le Santander des investisseurs victimes de l’affaire Madoff, Alain Leclair a estimé qu’il s’agit sous réserve d’informations complémentaires d’une opération commerciale sur le plan réputationnel, et que cela constitue néanmoins un #précédent très intéressant#. Il est d’une manière générale tout à fait normal que #les établissements en primaire# sur les produits soient tenus pour responsables si la due diligence n’a pas été effectuée.

Selon Les Echos, une ordonnance signée hier reprend plusieurs recommandations de l’Autorité des marchés financiers sur les franchissements de seuil en Bourse. Ainsi les dérivés d’actions seront-ils désormais inclus dans les déclarations obligatoires de franchissement de seuil, d’après l’une des cinq ordonnances signées hier en Conseil des ministres. Ce changement faisait partie des premières propositions de l’Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), dans un rapport d’octobre.

The Wall Street Journal rapporte que seule une petite équipe a joué un rôle-clé dans le conseil en investissement chez Madoff. Certaines des personnes concernées ont déjà reçu des citations à comparaître. Toutes travaillaient au 17ème étage de l’immeuble Lipstick, alors que l’activité de courtage en actions était située deux étages plus haut. Parmi les personnes ayant eu accès aux dossiers sensibles, le journal cite le nom de six personnes, dont plusieurs ont travaillé des décennies avec Bernard Madoff. Il s’agit de Frank DiPascali Jr, de Robert Cardile, d’Eric Lipkin, de JoAnn #Jodi# Crupi, d’Erin Reardon et d’Annette Bongiorno.

Selon La Tribune, la création d’une structure de défaisance aux États-Unis et dont la FDIC, l’agence fédérale de garantie des dépôts, devrait prendre le contrôle ne fait plus de doute. «Les analystes estiment que la création d’une «mauvaise banque» porterait à 1.000 milliards de dollars le coût du Tarp, qui reste doté de 350 milliards, relève notamment le quotidien financier.

Selon l"Agefi, le marché américain des papiers commerciaux s"améliore avec une hausse des encours de + 16,5% à 1.688 milliards de dollars au 21 janvier dernier.« Ce segment du marché monétaire doit cette embellie à la Fed qui, depuis le 27 octobre, rachète les CP d'émetteurs victimes de la fermeture totale du marché », explique notamment le quotidien numérique.

Mercredi, les Représentants ont voté à 244 voix contre 188 le plan de réductions d’impôts et de dépenses publiques de 819 milliards de dollars, rapporte The Wall Street Journal. Le Sénat devrait adopter un texte parallèle en début de semaine prochaine, pour un montant voisin de 900 milliards de dollars. Que l’un ou l’autre de ces projets soit adopté, l’endettement fédéral remontera à son niveau le plus élevé depuis la seconde guerre mondiale et cela coûtera davantage que toute la guerre en Irak. Il est prévu que 526 milliards de dollars soient dépensés en 2009 et 2010, le reliquat devant l'être après la récession actuelle. Le président Obama, qui s'était déplacé la veille pour faire sa cour aux Représentants, n’a gagné aucune voix chez les Républicains et 11 Démocrates ont fait défection.

Selon La Tribune, la Fed, a indiqué, mercredi main, que son taux directeur sera maintenu dans une fourchette allant de 0% à 0,25% afin de stimuler l"économie.

Selon le Contrôleur de l’Etat de New York, Thomas DiNapoli, les bonus versés par les firmes de Wall Street ont baiss2 l’an dernier de 44 % à 18,4 milliards de dollars, ce qui va se traduire par un moins-perçu fiscal de l’ordre de 1 milliard de dollars pour l’Etat et de 275 millions pour la municipalité de New York, rapporte The Wall Street Journal.

Alors que ses résultats complets sont toujours attendus pour le 5 février, le Santander a tenu à annoncer dès mercredi qu’il a réalisé pour 2008 un bénéfice net de 8.876 millions d’euros, ce qui est supérieur de 8,9 % au montant de 2007. Et ce, malgré les 500 millions d’euros en brut provisionnés pour faire face au remboursement des sinistrés de Madoff.Le dividende final se situe à 25,73 cents, ce qui porte le total au titre de 2008 à 65,07 cents par action, soit un montant inchangé par rapport à celui servi au titre de l’exercice précédente, mais sur un nombre d’action d’environ 18 % supérieur. Le ratio de distribution (pay-out ratio) ressort à 54,3 %.

Après 395 millions d’euros d’exceptionnels négatifs en net, dont 302 millions provisionnés pour l’affaire Madoff, le BBVA affiche pour 2008 un bénéfice net en baisse de 18,1 % à 5,02 milliards d’euros ; avant exceptionnels, le bénéfice progresse de 0,2 % à plus de 5,41 milliards.La banque compte servir un dividende final qui réduit la distribution pour l’ensemble de l’exercice à 61,4 cents par action contre 73 cents. Les plus-values latentes au 31 décembre dépassaient 1,52 milliard d’euros.

Fitch Ratings has revised its Asset Manager rating of Robeco from M2 to M2+ (M2 plus), for its traditional management activities based in Rotterdam and money market management activities based in Paris.?The rating reflects the support and financial solidity of the Rabobank group (AA+/F1+/Stable Outlook), the parent company of Robeco, as well as the long experience of the management firm in management for third parties,? the ratings agency comments. ?in general, the addition of a plus (+) sign points to the strength of the operational organisation at Robeco and its control framework,? it adds.The major challenges in the mid-term for Robeco will include ?completing a modernisation of its IT platform, while maintaining a good level of risk control and avoiding operational disturbance, as well as preserving its financial situation in the current context of deteriorating markets, which is weighing on assets and the profitability of the company,? Fitch notes.At the end of December 2008, Robeco had assets of EUR110.7bn, managed in Rotterdam, Paris, Hong Kong, Zurich, and the United States. The investment activities included in this rating total EUR58.6bn, including international, European, emerging markets and quantitative equities management, allocation strategies, and international and European bond management, including credit and money markets, the ratings agency adds.In France, Robeco Gestions, the management firm licensed by the French financial regulator, l"Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), managed EUR6.2bn (excluding money market funds in US dollars managed in France on behalf of the group from 2006 to 2008). Despite a difficult market environment, assets were down only slightly compared with 2007, when they totalled EUR6.7bn, according to Robeco Gestions. This is due to net subscriptions of EUR880m for the year (which includes only retail products and only French investors).

Dexia has announced that Naïm Abou-Jaoudé has been appointed chairman of the executive board at Dexia Asset Management, replacing Hugo Lasat, who is leaving the group on 27 January 2009.Abou-Jaoudé already served as chairman of Dexia AM from January 2007 to November 2008. Since that time, he has been vice-chairman of the executive board at Dexia AM, while Lasat become chairman for a short period. When contacted by Newsmanagers, management at Dexia did not wish to comment on the decision; Lasat also had no comment.

Polly Smith, head of sales at PSolve Alternative Investments, has been appointed head of sales and marketing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Tokio Marine Asset Management London, which on 8 October was granted a license by the British financial regulator, the FSA, to operate as a financial intermediary.Smith will report to Yuichi ?Alex? Takayama, and will be responsible for promoting the range of hedge funds and long-only equities funds.

Revere Capital Advisors, a specialist in the selection of new hedge fund managers, founded by several former employees of Man Group, has announced the recruitment of Giles McClelland as head of hedge fund development in London, HedgeWeek reports. McClelland is leaving Man Group after 14 years, where he was global head of hedge fund development for Man Global Strategies.Meanwhile, Revere has hired Andrew Godfrey, who was head of the emerging manager program at Focus Investment Group, as head of management selection and distribution for North America, in New York.

In mid-2008, losses for hedge funds in the Netherlands totalled EUR5bn. ?Many of them are no longer in a position to continue their activities, and particularly, to deliver the promised returns to investors,? Les Echos reports. Among the funds already liquidated are Kempen Propety Hedge Fund, GO Capital, and the Vermeer funds, managed by Optimix. The list of hedge funds currently suspended includes Faxtor Credit Value Fund (Faxtor), Spirit Aim (Eureffect), Prisma Plus Fonds (Wesa Effecten), Attica Funds, and several funds from FacInvest.

According to statistics from Swiss Fund Data released on Wednesday, UBS remained the largest manager of funds on sale in Switzerland at the end of December, with CHF105.8bn, compared with CHF162bn twelve months earlier, ahead of Credit Suisse Asset Management (CHF63bn compared with CHF80.2bn). Compared with the end of 2007, the rankings of management firms have been reversed, between Pictet, with CHF48.5bn, up from CHF37.4bn, and Swisscanto, with CHF43.5bn, down from CHF44.2bn. Swiss Life Funds remains in fifth place, with CHF25.1bn, compared with CHF28.9bn, while the Cantonal Bank of Zurich climbs to sixth place with CHF14.4bn, from ninth place at the end of 2007, with CHF15.3bn. Clariden Leu holds onto seventh place with CHF10.6bn, compared with CHF20bn. Raiffeisen, Banque Sarasin and Reichmuth round out the rankings with CHF6.9bn, CHF6.1bn, and CHF5.3bn, respectively. The 2008 list does not mention actors such as Julius Bär Asset Management (which had CHF25.8bn in assets at the end of 2007), nor LODH (CHF16.4bn) or BlackRock (CHF10.8bn).

?It is certain that, confronted with the financial crisis and a drop in assets, management firms are now highly attentive to their costs, but to my knowledge there are no major plans to lay off staff in this difficult time. In fact, the various actors seem to be rather in a phase of expanding their personnel, and one could suppose that they will slow or cease these recruitments,? says Pierre Bollon, deputy director of the French financial management association (AFG). According to Bollon, ?at any rate, strategic functions such as risk control and financial management will not be impacted by cost reductions.?This may mean, in other words, that efforts to control costs will apply primarily to support functions, while operations like the SGAM/CAAM merger cannot be ruled out, which will result in a pooling of production resources, or the outsourcing of some activities other than management.

BlueBay Asset Management has announced that its assets at the end of December totalled USD16.7bn, compared with USD20.5bn at the end of September, and USD21bn one year earlier. The 18.4% decrease in the second quarter of its fiscal year, which began on 30 June, which comes out to CHF3.8bn, is due to net redemptions of USD800m, negative market effects of USD2.8bn, and currency effects of USD200m.Of total assets under management, long/short funds as of 31 December represented USD3.7bn, compared with USD5.4bn three months earlier, while long-only funds came in at USD13bn, compared with USD15.1bn.Revenues from performance commissions totalled GBP3.2m in October-December, compared with GBP4.9m in July-September.

?The Spanish police yesterday arrested six people suspected of participating in a fraud totalling over USD600m on the alternative investment market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange (LSE),? Les Echos reports. The newspaper adds that the fraud involved a firm listed on the AIM, whose name has not been disclosed, which is reported to have made a number of fictive financial operations.

L’Echo reports that the holding company that controls Fortis and the Belgian government are in a battle against the clock to reach a new agreement with BNP Paribas. To avoid entering bankruptcy proceedings, shareholders in Fortis will have to declare a decision on 11 February, for or against the dismantling of the banking and insurance firm, and its acquisition by the French bank, currently being urgently orchestrated by the Belgian government. But a vote by shareholders will have to be postponed until the general assembly on 4 February, which leaves little time. On the day that a preliminary report by experts appointed by the court of appeals was released this Tuesday, negotiations had already begun between Fortis Holding, the Belgian government and BNP Paribas, the newspaper reports.

According to calculations by Cinco Días, an issue of EUR1.38bn in preferential shares at 2% for 10 years, to benefit investor victims of the Madoff fraud, will allow Santander to raise its tier one owners’ equity levels at a difficult time. However, Madoff victims who prefer to receive their reimbursement immediately in cash on the secondary market will receive only 50%, at current market prices. If they wait for the shares to mature, they will have to settle for annual dividends of only 2%, the lowest on the market at this time for this type of share, one operator comments.

Legg Mason on Wednesday announced losses of USD1.5bn in the three months to the end of December (the worst results in 25 years), compared with profits of USD155m in the corresponding period of 2007. The management firm suffered redemptions of USD77bn to investors in the quarter. Assets now total less than USD700bn, 30% less than one year previously.

The Financial Times reports that Lloyds Banking Group is preparing to study offers for a part of its life insurance activities. The bank is seeking to strengthen its balance sheet as it begins to integrate HBOS. The activities which it is seeking to sell are said to be those which sell insurance policies via independent financial advisers (IFAs), according to sources close to the firm.

Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) announced on Wednesday that its consolidated net profits totalled CHF341m for 2008, which represents a 15.6% decline from 2007, while gross profits are down 9.2% to CHF591.3m. Assets as of the end of December, for their part, contracted by 26.2%, to CHF100.7bn, due to market effects and to currency effects, as the manager posted net subscriptions of CHF700m. The bank states that it has decided to increase its allocation to liquidity, and to reduce exposure to financial markets. Net assets invested in hedge funds total CHF35bn, compared with CHF60bn twelve months earlier.

It is now incumbent on the Luxembourg regulator to prove itself, in the wake of the Madoff scandal, by applying its utmost efforts to the transposition of European directives into local law, says Alain Leclair, chairman of the French financial management association (AFG), at a presentation of statistics covering the evolution of the French market in 2008. Luxembourg legislation is, a priori, as good as French legislation, even though the European laws have not necessarily been transposed identically into the national laws in force in each country. The French regulator and the AFG are nonetheless not planning to ease the pressure on Luxembourg in this case, which may have consequences for the reputation of the Grand Duchy.With that said, Pierre Bollon, deputy director of the AFG, points out that the Madoff scandal may ultimately have a positive effect insofar as it brings arguments to the table in addition to those which the French association has already been making in relation to the UCITS V directive (see Newsmanagers of 14 January), particularly in relation to the genuine harmonisation of the functions and responsibilities of depositories, with a European passport for these actors. It will also provide an occasion to achieve a coherent European status for ?alter-UCITS? funds, which do not comply with the current regulations, and for their managers. This also applies to alternative management, and thus, among others, to private equity and infrastructure investment.In relation to plans at Santander to reimburse victims of the Madoff fraud, Alain Leclair considers that, pending supplementary information, it is largely a publicity gesture intended to affect the bank’s reputation, but that it nonetheless sets a ?highly interesting precedent.? In general, it is entirely normal that ?primary establishments? in the market for investment products are now held responsible if due diligence was not carried out.

As part of a strategic partnership agreement announced on Wednesday by BHF-Bank (Sal. Oppenheim group) and the Abu Dhabi Investment Company (ADIC), the asset management unit of the latter entity will serve as advisor to the FT Emerging Arabia and FT Emerging Arabia (USD) funds from Frankfurt Trust, the management firm of BHF-Bank. ADIC will, in addition, be able to distribute these funds within the regional market.Frankfurt Trust had assets as of the end of 2008 of EUR15.9bn, in 216 funds and mandates. ADIC does not publish statistics about its assets under management and the number of its funds, but it is an affiliate of the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, a sister company of the largest sovereign fund in the world, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (USD875bn).

At the end of December, assets under management in funds on sale in Switzerland totalled CHF452bn, compared with CHF554.3bn twelve months earlier. CHF96.8bn, or 94.6%, of the contraction of CHF102.3bn, or 18.5%, was due to market effects, while net redemptions were limited to CHF5.5bn, according to the Swiss Fund Association. In December, assets fell by CHF0.8bn.The heaviest losses were from equities funds, to CHF101.1bn, after net outflows of CHF5.5bn and CHF59bn in negative market effects. Nonetheless, funds specialised in Swiss equities have posted net subscriptions of about CHF3bn. Assets in money market funds, for their part, have increased by CHF31.9bn, or 47.7%, thanks to CHF26.2bn in net subscriptions and 5.7% in market effects.