The Wall Street Journal rapporte qu’un des dirigeants du Private Equity Management Group de Danny Pang (société dont les avoirs ont été gelés par la SEC) a acheté pour 20 millions de dollars un terrain non développé sur la côte Pacifique du Costa Rica au travers d’une société du Nevada dont il était l’unique dirigeant. Et il a fourni à cette occasion son adresse personnelle dans l’Illinois?

Selon Le Temps, une nouvelle banque privée vient d"être créée à Genève par des anciens professionnels d"UBS : la Banque Pâris Bertrand Sturdza vise les grandes fortunes privées internationales, personnes physiques ou family offices, principalement d"Europe, mais aussi du Moyen-Orient et de l"Inde. Les fondateurs ont imaginé un modèle en vue d"éviter les erreurs qui ont provoquées la crise financière et s"interdisent #toutes activités financières comportant des risques bilantaires potentiels#.

Selon L"Agefi suisse, Eric Sturdza, propriétaire de la Banque Baring Brothers Sturdza, participe à la création d"une nouvelle banque privée, Pâris Bertrand Sturdza SA ou PBS. La structure, qui va profiter de l"expérience et de la caution morale d"Eric Sturdza, sera dirigée par deux anciens d"UBS, Pierre Pâris et Olivier Bretrand qui soulignent que les grandes fortunes internationales ont compris ce que pouvaient leur apporter les banques privées en termes d"indépendance, de flexibilité et de transparence. Par ailleurs, la taille ne protège plus forcément contre une éventuelle défaillance. Conséquence : le développement des boutiques, déjà en cours depuis plusieurs années dans la banque d"affaires, touche dorénavant la gestion de fortune.

LGT Capital management, filiale gestion d’actifs de banque de la famille princière du Liechtenstein (LGT Bank) lance le fonds de droit local LGT Equity Fund Europe Sector Trend (EUR), son troisième produit de finance comportementale, géré de manière active [après le LGT Equity Fund Global Sector Trends (USD) et LGT Equity Fund North America (USD)]. Ce fonds d’actions investit principalement en titres d’entreprises dont le siège se trouve en Europe ou dont l’essentiel de l’activité s’effectue sur le Vieux continent. L’objectif est de surperformer le MSCI Europe avec un portefeuille long-only d’une quarantaine de lignes. La gestion est assurée en direct par deux spécialistes de la finance comportementale, Volker Hergert et Oliver Günter, qui se contentaient auparavant de façonner la sélection de valeurs.

Carmignac Gestion a indiqué que le nouveau compartiment Market Neutral de sa Sicav luxembourgeoise Carmignac Portfolio (lire notre article du 30 avril), géré par Keith Ney et Maxime Carmignac, a reçu l’agrément de la CNMV espagnole voici deux semaines. D’autre part, le gestionnaire a annoncé mercredi qu’il entame la commercialisation de ce fonds en Allemagne.

L’université d’ Oxford et Man Group ont annoncé la création de l’Institut Oxford-Man de finance quantitative. La vocation de l’institut est de s’imposer comme l’institut universitaire interdisciplinaire de référence pour la recherche en finance quantitative, avec un intérêt particulier pour la gestion alternative. Basé à Oxford, l’institut comptera dans un premier temps une vingtaine de mebres, dont une dizaine de chercheurs à plein temps. Man financera l’institut avec une enveloppe de 13,75 millions de livres sur cinq ans. Outre son concours financier, Man installera son propre laboratoire de recherche dans les locaux de l’institut, ce qui devrait lui assureur un droit de regard privilégié sur les travaux de recherche de l’institut.

Avec le Emerging Markets Equity Fund, BNY Mellon Asset Management ajoute un compartiment à son fonds irlandais BNY Mellon Global Funds. Ce produit actions marchés émergents sera géré par Tony Hann, head of emerging market equities de la filiale Blackfriars Asset Management Ltd (2,4 milliards de dollars), assisté de Bill Rudman et Richard Fairgrieve, deux global portfolio managers. Le processus de gestion sera celui de Blackfriars : sélection de valeurs sur des critères fondamentaux (bottom-up) combinée avec une analyse quantitative top-down. Jusqu'à 75 % du portefeuille seront investis dans un portefeuille d’actions et de valeurs similaires de sociétés de pays émergents.

Threadneedle vient d'élargir sa gamme performance absolue avec le lancement du Credit Opportunities Fund, qui sera géré par Barrie Whitman, head of high yield, assisté de Roman Gaiser, gérant de fonds high yield, et d’Alasdair Ross, gérant de fonds crédit investment grade. Le fonds, conforme à la directive OPCVM III et à liquidité quotidienne, bénéficie d’un agrément de distribution au Royaume-Uni et sera enregistré dans d’autres pays européens au cours des prochains mois. L’objectif est une performance sur le moyen terme supérieure de 350 points de bas, brute de commission et de taxes, en utilisant principalement une approche bottom-up. Le gérant est habilité à effectuer des ventes à découvert en utilisant des produits dérivés et à placer une partie du portefeuille en cash. Il peut également effectuer des pair trades, des basis trades (long physique contre court dérivé ou vice-versa) ainsi que des opérations d’arbitrage sur la structure du capital. Le fonds devrait intéresser selon Threadneedle des investisseurs avec un horizon de 18 mois.

D"après la Tribune, la société d’investissement Eurazeo projetterait de racheter la société de gestion Candover Partners, en grande difficulté depuis la crise financière, la valeur nette de ses actifs ayant été divisée par deux. Actuellement détenue à 100 % par le holding coté britannique Candover Investments, l"opération de rachat se ferait principalement par échange de titres.

Selon Investment Week, Kam Tugnait va prochainement rejoindre Gartmore en tant que responsable du High Yield. Kam Tugnait travaillait précédemment chez Standard Chartered et se consacre au high yield depuis plus de vingt ans.

UBS réorganise les activités de sa filiale italienne, rapporte Il Sole ? 24 Ore. UBS Italia continuera à se spécialiser sur la gestion de patrimoine, mais s"intéressera plus à la clientèle haut de gamme (plus d"un million d"euros). A fin 2008, UBS gérait en Italie des encours de 15,1 milliards d"euros.

La banque de trading en ligne et d"investissement annonce l"ouverture de son bureau à Dubaï au sein du DIFC (Dubai International Financial Centre). Ce nouveau bureau a pour vocation de renforcer la présence de Saxo Bank dans le golf persique et représente la première ouverture d"une banque danoise dans les Emirats Arabes Unis.

Rajesh Gill, an independent day trader, has won GBP20m in damages and interest in a lawsuit against MF Global, the Financial Times reports. One of the brokers at the firm lied to the trader about its performance. Damages related to lost gains are rarely awarded in the United Kingdom, the FT comments.

La Tribune reports that the investment firm Eurazeo may be planning to acquire a large part of the management firm Candover Partners, which has been in severe difficulty since the onset of the financial crisis, as the net value of its assets has been halved. The firm, currently 10)% owned by the British holding company Candover partners, would largely be carried out via an exchange of shares.

La Tribune reports that the US regulator has brought its first case of insider trading on credit derivative markets to court. The facts date back to 2006. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accuses a manager at Millennium Partners, an arbitrage fund, and a vendor at Deutsche Bank Securities, of profiting from insider information about a bond issue from VNU holding, which influenced an increase in the price of CDS contracts to protect against the risk of defaults by VNU.

The California State Teacher’s Retirement System (CalSTRS, USD111.6bn in assets) has called on the 300 largest companies in which it is invested to put in place responsible policies on management compensation, and to allow shareholders to hold advisory votes on these policies. The goal is to reward long-term thinking and improve pay-for-performance practices while deterring excessive risk taking.

For first quarter 2009, the Blackstone Group announced ?economic? losses on Wednesday of USD93m, compared with USD827m in October-December, and USD94m in the corresponding period of last year. By US GAAP accounting standards, the private equity investor posted a loss of USD232m, of which USD192m are related to transactions, compared with USD251m in January-March 2008, which included transaction-related charges of USD226m. The quarterly dividend will be 30 cents per ordinary share.Revenues from management and advising totalled USD344.6m, compared with USD389.2m for fourth quarter 2008, and USD320.8m in the corresponding period of last year, on assets of USD92.2bn as of 31 March, compared with USD91bn at the end of December, and USD92.9bn twelve months previously.

In first quarter 2009, the asset management unit at Société Générale, Société Générale Asset Management, posted net redemptions of EUR2.2bn, compared with -EUR7.3bn in Q1 2008.The outflows are particularly heavy from alternative management at SGAM AI, says a statement, which has seen outflows of EUR3.1bn. TCW, the US affiliate of the firm, has posted net redemptions of EUR2.1bn, and SGAM UK (which has been sold to GLG Partners) saw outflows of EUR0.6bn. SGAM (which is in the process of merging with Crédit Agricole Asset Management) has posted net subscriptions of EUR3.5bn.Société Générale states that ?regular money market funds drew in subscriptions of EUR3.2bn, while equities and diversified funds on the one hand, and alternative management on the other hand, have shown outflows, of EUR2.0m and EUR3.6m, respectively.? Due to negative market effects of EUR6.6bn, which were partially compensated for by positive currency effects of EUR3.8bn, assets under management at SGAM totalled EUR264.2bn as of the end of March 2009. These include EUR164.6bn for SGAM of which EUR112.4bn (68.3% were in fixed income products, and EUR47.4bn (28.8%) in equities and diversified funds. This amount represents the perimeter which will be applied in the merger with CAAM. In addition to this are EUR73.1bn contributed by TCW; the EUR20.1 from SGAM AI, and EUR4.7bn from SGAM UK.Net banking proceeds for asset management total EUR137m in Q1 ’09, while the balance was negative at -EUR13m for Q1 ’08, and -EUR15m in Q4 ’08.In first quarter 2009, the impact of the crisis represents EUR29.6m, of which EUR7.5m are due to reduction in leverage at hedge funds, EUR19.3m due to supporting liquidity in dynamic money market funds (residual assets of EUR0.8bn), and EUR2.8m due to complementary write-downs on share investments. Complementary write-downs of EUR20.6m were registered for ?seed money.?Management fees are down 16.4% (-11.4% in ongoing data) compared with Q1 ’08, ?revealing the first effects of the reorganisations underway,? says Société Générale.As a result, SGAM is posting a gross operating result of -EUR41m, compared with -EUR214m in Q1 ’08, and a net result for the part of the group of -EUR26m, compared with -EUR135m one year previously.

The asset management unit at Axa has posted net outflows in first quarter of EUR17bn, of which EUR15bn came from AllianceBernstein, and EUR2bn from Axa Investment Managers.In total, assets under management fell by EUR29bn in first quarter, to EUR787bn, which were divided between EUR310bn for AllianceBernstein, and EUR477bn for Axa IM.Revenues for asset management are down 34%, to EUR762m, in line with the trend observed in Q4 2008 (-32%), ?due to lower revenues from commissions (-37%), largely due to a lower volume of assets under management (-27%), and an unfavourable evolution of the product mix (-10%), and to a lower contribution from distribution commissions,? says a statement.

Long-term bonds from the US Treasury are one of the asset classes showing the worst performance this year, but several renowned bond managers think this stretch of poor performance is nearing its end, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Barclays Capital Long-Term Treasury index shows losses of 10.2% since the beginning of the year as the ?fear factor? dominates the markets. In the same period, returns on 10-year Treasury bonds passed the psychologically significant 3% mark last week (it was 3.152% on Wednesday night). But many specialists estimate that the rate will stabilise between 2.75% and 3.25% until the end of the year: each time it passes above 3%, alarm bells go off for Tim Geithner, jokes Warren Pierson, senior portfolio manager at Baird Advisors.

The board of directors at Société Générale in a meeting yesterday selected Frédéric Oudéa to succeed Daniel Bouton as head of the bank. His appointment will take effect on 24 May. Oudéa, 45, is currently CEO of the firm, and will now assume the responsibilities of both chairman and CEO. A graduate of the ENA (Ecole Nationale d"Administration) and the polytechnic, the new chairman and CEO of Société Générale joined the bank in 1995, after several high-level government positions, including a position in the Sarkozy cabinet as Budget minister. The favourite for the position as of yesterday, Anthony Wyand, former head of Aviva, director and chairman of the accounting committee, has been appointed vice-chairman of the board of directors at Société Générale. The board of directors of Société Générale also paid homage to Bouton’s service to the firm as its head since November 1997, and awarded him an honorary chairmanship.

Fortress Investment Group, a publicly-traded hedge fund and private equity firm, has published a net loss of USD67m, or 67 cents per share, for Q1, compared with losses of USD68.9m in the corresponding period of 2008, the Financial Times reports. Assets under management at the firm declined by 10% to USD26.5bn, largely due to redemptions.

Juan Carlos Ureta, chairman of Renta 4, on Wednesday announced that he is in contact with ten competitors, and that he is planning to conclude an acquisition of two of them by the end of the year, Cinco Días reports. The asset management firms that Renta 4 is considering have total assets of EUR150m to EUR200m, according to a statement submitted to the CNMV. The chairman of Renta 4 had not ruled out acquisitions abroad, but the problem is valuations, since the market has continued to be based on prices at the time when La Caixa bought the asset management arm of Morgan Stanley.

Le Temps reports that a new private bank has been created in Geneva by veterans of UBS. The Banque Pâris Bertrand Sturdza will target international high net worth families, individuals and family offices, largely in Europe, but also in the Middle East and India. The founders envision a model which avoids the errors that provoked the financial crisis, and disallow ?all financial activities which carry potential risks to the bottom line.?

In first quarter, net profits at Munich Ré fell to EUR420m from EUR777m, due to amortisations of overvalued assets, capital losses on investments due to falling operating revenues , and losses on a transfer of assets to safer investments, Die Welt reports. Now, half of the portfolio is invested in government bonds, and allocation to equities has been reduced to 1.4%.

The board of advisors at JPMorgan Investment Funds has decided to abosorb the Europe Select Mega Cap Fund, a sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav (EUR9.8m in assets as of the end of February) into the Europe Select Equity Fund, due to the considerable similarities between the processes and management objectives of the two products, and the low level of assets in the Mega Cap. The merger will be undertaken via an exchange of shares on 12 June.

UBS is reorganising the activities of its Italian affiliate, Il Sole - 24 Ore reports. UBS Italia will continue to specialise in wealth management, but will focus more on high net worth clients (over EUR1m in assets). As of the end of 2008, UBS managed assets of EUR15.1bn in Italy.

The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) has published a ?guide to good practices for managers of funds of hedge funds.? The work, composed by a steering committee of leaders in the alternative multi-management sector, is aimed at managers of funds of hedge funds, and is intended to document and improve practices in the sector. The guide consists of five chapters covering key areas: creation and management of a fund of hedge fund management firm; the investment and risk management process; analysis of operational risks; sales and relations with investors; and governance.

Carmignac Gestion has announced that the new Market Neutral sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav Carmignac Portfolio (see Newsmanagers of 30 April), managed by Keith Ney and Maxime Carmignac, received a license from the Spanish CNMV two weeks ago. The management firm also announced on Wednesday that it will be releasing the fund for sale in Germany.

Asset management companies are anticipating a growing appetite for currency funds from investors, Ignites Europe observes. Schorders is planning to launch its first currency fund in June, after recruiting Clive Dennis of Morgan Stanley. SEB Asset Management, Fidelity, and Investec Asset Management already offer products of this type.