Redemptions from funds on sale in Italy seem to be slowing, in a sign that the market is beginning to stabilise, Marcello Messori, chairman of Assogestioni (the Italian association of management professionals), has said at the association’s annual meeting. Redemptions primarily affected mid-sized and large firms, particularly those owned by banking groups, Il Sole - 24 Ore reports.

David Bloom at HSBC, cited by the Financial Times, says that ?the best refuge currency in our opinion is currently the Norwegian Kroner. It is probably the best currency in the world.? The Norwegian Kroner is one of the few currencies in the world to have outperformed the US dollar since the beginning of the year. It has climbed 3% to NOK6.694. Bloom says the currency can be expected to rise in the next 18 months.

Rolf Enders, partner at the new firm Sal. Oppenheim Private Equity Partners (Sopep), says that the private equity firm born of the merger of the private equity activities of Sal. Oppenheim with CAM Private Equity and VCM Capital Management has assets of EUR5bn. About 95% of this total is invested in 380 funds from private equity firms worldwide, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Enders expects assets under management to double through organic growth. This year, Sopep will launch an infrastructure fund and a buyout fund of funds.

The Wall Street Journal reports that it is likely that the yields of money market funds will decline as the recommendations of the Investment Company Institute (ICI) are applied. The ad hoc working group formed in the wake of the Reserve Primary Fund affair recommends increasing liquidity and shortening maturities. Paul Schott Stevens, president & CEO of the ICI, says fund management firms will probably follow the recommendations in advance of any rule-making from the SEC.

Petercam Institutional Asset Management is launching a European corporate bond fund with a set maturity date, Petercam L Bonds EUR Corporate 06/2014. The sub-fund of the firm’s UCITS III-compliant Luxembourg Sicav will invest in investment grade corporate bonds denominated in Euros, which will mature at dates close to June 2014.The subscription period for the fund will begin on 23 March.

For 2008, Frankfurt Trust posted net subscriptions of EUR1.5bn, of which EUR1.2bn went to open-ended funds. The management firm from BHF-Bank (Sal. Oppenheim group) had assets at the end of the year of EUR16bn, of which EUR9.6bn were in institutional fund management mandates, and EUR6.3bn in open-ended funds, compared with EUR17.7bn, of which EUR10.4bn were in Spezialfonds and institutional mandates, and EUR7.3bn in open-ended funds, the previous year. In net subscriptions to open-ended funds in 2008, Frankfurt Trust posted EUR0.5bn in inflows to money market funds and EUR802.3m for equities funds, while bond funds posted net redemptions of EUR133m. Net inflows to institutional funds totalled EUR381.8m.In January-February, net subscriptions totalled EUR250m for open-ended funds, of which EUR200m were for the FT Accugeld money market fund.As of 28 February, total assets at Frankfurt Trust came to EUR15.6bn, of which EUR9.5bn were in institutional funds and EUR6.1bn in retail funds.

In 2009, Groupama Asset Management is aiming for EUR5bn in net subscriptions, of which it is hoping that EUR3.7bn will come from outside the group. The firm appears to have made a good start to meeting this objective, as it has already registered inflows of EUR2.9bn since the beginning of the year.These inflows come after net inflows of EUR5.3bn in 2008, ?the strongest inflows in the history of the group,? says Francis Ailhaud, CEO of Groupama AM. Due to the falling markets, the management firm nonetheless posted a 7.5% decrease in assets under management, to EUR81.3bn. Due to falling net banking proceeds and rising costs, the firm posted net profits down 49% to EUR15.3m.EUR2.8bn in inflows in 2008 came from clients outside the Groupama group; EUR625m came from calls for offers. These include institutionals and distributors, and now represent EUR14.8bn, or 20% of total assets.This dynamic has been helped by the international growth of Groupama AM. The French management firm has posted net subscriptions of EUR443m abroad, largely in Italy, where it opened an affiliate in 2006. The firm also opened a branch in Spain last year, and signed a distribution agreement in Canada in 2007 (with Investeam).The international deployment will continue in 2009. ?We will develop in two areas,? explains Jean-Marie Catala, director of development at Groupama AM. ?On the one hand, we will assist in the international growth of the group. On the other hand, we will develop autonomously when we identify growth areas,? he says. The firm is planning to set up in Switzerland, and is studying the Middle East, where it may eventually establish operations by the end of the year.In terms of product range, Groupama AM is planning to launch new ?alpha? funds in equities, fixed income, and foreign currencies, as well as in conviction-based management.

Neuflize OBC Asset Management has recruited Karen Decque (née Terdjman) from Natixis Asset Management, where she managed the Natixis Europe Smaller Companies fund, Citywire reports. She will manage the Noam Europe Expansion fund with Guillaume Lanelier, following the departure of Franck Le Franc and Guillaume Laconi. The management firm has also recruited Olivier Mollé, from Exane, for the Noam Europe Long Short fund.

Skandia, which has been present in Spain for years, has previously focused on institutional clients in the country. Funds People reports that José Ramón Morso, CEO of Skandia Spain, has announced that the firm will now move into the ?personal banking? client advising market, serving clients with assets of EUR60,000 to EUR3m. Skandia is planning to recruit 30 advisors this year, and 100 in the next three years. The group has also opened two dedicated offices, one in Madrid, and the other in Valencia. Currently, Skandia only uses employee advisors, but it is planning to recruit independent advisers, who will operate under the new EAFI status now being created by the CNMV.

Fondsprofessionell reports that Warburg Invest KAG has announced that it has suspended subscriptions and redemptions on March 11th until further notice for its entitlement warrant note fund Warburg-Multigenuss-Fonds, in order to keep up with redemption demands and avoid having to sell assets at prices that would be disadvantageus to shareholders.

On Wednesday, BlackRock announced the release in France, Germany and Austria of the European Absolute Return Strategies sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav BlackRock Strategic Funds. The product complies with UCITS IIII, and is managed by Vincent Delvin, a senior portfolio manager based in Edinburgh. The objective is to generate performance regardless of the market configuration, by investing in equities and other shares related to equities (including derivative instruments) in companies which are domiciled or which realise a large part of their economic activities in Europe.The manager is authorised to use derivatives to hedge risks and to reduce the volatility of the portfolio, with a risk budget lower than that of long-only funds. The portfolio includes 50 to 100 shares, and used four strategies: traditional (long), synthetic-short, pair trading, and liquidity.BlackRock has been testing the fund internally since 12 June 2008. During this period, the ?fictitious? portfolio generated ?solid absolute returns? despite extremely difficult market conditions, says BlackRock.

UBS has announced that it is reopening its two open-ended real estate funds, Euroinvest (EUR3.3bn) and UBS 3 Kontinente Immobilien (EUR619m) to redemptions from April. The funds have been frozen since late October.Das Investment reports that Tilman Hickl, chairman of the board at UBS Real Estate, has announced real estate investments of EUR600m this year. Euroinvest will receive total subscriptions of EUR200m to EUR250m.

Hedge Fund Research has announced the launch of 38 new HFRX indexes, which constitute a major extension of its range of strategy, region and country sub-indexes. The new offerings bring the total number of products available from HFRX to 65. HFR says the methodology complies with the UCITS III directive. The indexes are designed to be investible, and the funds used are selected from 7,500 products in the HFR database.The new indexes are the HFRX Energy/Basic Materials Index, HFRX Fundamental Growth Index, HFRX Fundamental Value Index, HFRX Quantitative Directional Index, HFRX Short Bias Index, HFRX Technology/Healthcare Index, HFRX EH: Multi-Strategy Index, HFRX Activist Index, HFRX Credit Arbitrage Index, HFRX Private Issue/Regulation D Index, HFRX Special Situations Index, HFRX ED: Multi-Strategy Index, HFRX Active Trading Index, HFRX Commodity Index, HFRX Currency Index, HFRX Discretionary Thematic Index, HFRX Systematic Diversified Index, HFRX Macro: Multi-Strategy Index, HFRX Fixed Income-Asset Backed Index, HFRX Fixed Income-Corporate Index, HFRX Fixed Income-Sovereign Index, HFRX Yield Alternative Index, HFRX RVA: Multi-Strategy Index, HFRX BRIC Index, HFRX Brazil Index, HFRX Russia Index, HFRX India Index, HFRX China Index, HFRX MENA Index, HFRX Multi-Emerging Markets Index, HFRX Total Emerging Market Index, HFRX Latin America Index, HFRX Multi-Region Index, HFRX North America Index, HFRX Northern Europe Index, HFRX Russia/Eastern Europe Index, HFRX Western/Pan Europe Index and HFRX Aggregate Index.

Ravi Mehra, the founder of Vega Asset Management, and Jesús Saá Requejo, are working together to launch the Sapphire Global Fund, a fund that complies with European legislation, which will be closed for three years, and which will invest primarily in global macro funds whose promoters are currently distressed due to lack of liquidity, Hedge Week reports. The fund will use no leverage.

DEGI, which was taken over by Aberdeen Property Investors on 28 March 2008, has stated that last year it invested EUR1.7bn. The occupancy rate for properties in the portfolios of its five open-ended funds as of 28 February 2009 ranged from 93.3% for the DEGI Europa fund and 100% for the DEGI Europe Retail, while the one-year performance ranged from 4.4% (compared with 4.7% one year ago) for the DEGI Europa to 5% (compared with 4.5%) for the DEGI Europe Retail.Assets total roughly EUR6bn. The manager says the evolution of prices and returns have now extended the number of markets on which investments may be attractive. Among the markets which have now become affordable are the UK, France, and Germany.

Investment Week has announced that Henderson Global Investors (HGI) is recruiting Mark Skinner, managing director of New Star, as head of retail distribution. He will begin in his new role as soon as HGI completes its acquisition of New Star.

GAM has announced that Jonathan Colchester, who was in charge of a team of six bankers serving ultra high net worth clients at Barclays Private Bank, will join the management firm in London on 22 May as head of private clients, Investment Week reports.

John Clougherty, managing director UK, retail, at Aviva Investors (GBP235bn in assets) will meet French colleagues this week to prepare the launch of a European equities fund on the British market, Investment Week reports. It is not certain that the fund will replicate a Luxembourg Sicav. Clougherty says that institutional investors represent a potential market for recovery real estate funds, and that such a product could then be made available to retail investors, once the press has given a better image to real estate investments.

Harvey McGrath, le nouveau président de Prudential, défend le prêt de titres aux hedge funds par les assureurs, après qu"Aviva a annoncé qu"il envisageait de cesser cette pratique afin d"éviter les ventes à découvert, rapporte le Financial Times. Pour lui, pouvoir vendre à découvert est un élément important pour le fonctionnement des marchés.

Dans un entretien à L"Agefi suisse, Christophe Bernard, responsable de la stratégie des investissements chez UBP, estime que «l"industrie de la gestion alternative est en profonde transformation et nous y participons activement. En ce qui nous concerne, nous avons adopté une vue plus large et décidé d"alléger notre exposition aux hedge funds de deux tiers». Selon Christophe Bernard, «sélectionner des fonds de fonds revient actuellement à trouver ceux qui sont capables de se réinventer. La possibilité d"utiliser du levier n"est plus d"actualité. Avec la nationalisation de fait du système bancaire dans les pays de l"OCDE, le financement des hedge funds ne constitue de loin pas une priorité. Politiquement, il est beaucoup plus porteur de financer l"économie réelle». De son point de vue, «nous allons assister au retour de stratégies plus simples et plus volatiles, comme le long-short equity, le global macro. L"industrie va probablement se polariser entre, d"un côté, ces stratégies liquides mais volatiles et, d"un autre côté, des stratégies plus agressives, dans le distressed ou l"activisme par exemple, qui nécessitent que les clients s"engagent à rester deux ou trois ans et qui pourraient séduire en priorité les clients institutionnels».

Selon Les Echos, l’agence qui gère la dette britannique a annoncé que les émissions brutes s'élèveront à 147,9 milliards de livres sterling pour l’exercice 2009-2010.

Les retraits des fonds commercialisés en Italie semblent ralentir, signe d"un début de stabilisation, a estimé Marcello Messori, président d"Assogestioni (l"association italienne des professionnels de la gestion), lors de l"assemblée annuelle de l"association. Les rachats ont surtout touché les sociétés de taille moyenne et grande, et notamment celles appartenant à des groupes bancaires, rappelle Il Sole ? 24 Ore.

Revigorée par la politique de relance de la FED, la monnaie unique s’est envolée mercredi au dessus de 1,35 dollar contre 1,3013 mardi soir.

Les hedge funds lèchent leurs plaies : leur stratégie consistant à acheter des actions préférentielles de Citigroup tout en vendant l’action ordinaire à découvert s’est retournée contre eux, constate The Wall Street Journal. Depuis le 5 mars, en effet, le cours de l’action ordinaire Citigroup a triplé, terminant mercredi en clôture à 3,08 dollars.

Selon La Tribune, la BCE hésite à opérer comme la Fed, la Banque d’Angleterre et la Banque du Japon, c’est à dire a adopter des moyens non conventionnels consistant, par exemple, à achter directement telle ou telle catégorie de titres sur le marché, afin de peser sur les spreads de crédit ou l’ensemble de la courbe des taux. Deux raisons à cela, avance La Tribune : d’abord «les canaux de transmission de la politique monétaire traditionnelle à l’ensemble de l'économie ne sont pas aussi endommagés en zone euro qu’ailleurs, aux Etats-Unis» et, ensuite, l’intermédiation bancaire conserve un rôle important en zone euro, ce qui rend les achats de titres moins nécessaires.

Selon La Tribune, alors que le patron d’AIG a demandé à ses cadres de rendre la moitié de leurs primes, les projets de loi se multiplient pour surtaxer les primes versées dans des établissements renfloués par le gouvernement fédéral.Les projets de loi visant à récupérer les bonus ont généralement pour objectif de surtaxer (de 35 % à 100 % selon les cas) les primes versées chez AIG et à toute institution ayant bénéficié du programme de relance de la finance (Tarp), précise notamment La Tribune.

Selon Le Figaro, La Fed a confirmé mercerdi à l"issue de la réunion de son comité de politique monétaire, qu"elle était prête à racheter jusqu"à 300 milliards de dollars de bons du Trésor à long terme US, cette opération étant lancée dès la semaine prochaine. Cette annonce, qui a provoqué la chute du dollar, vise à faire baisser les taux longs afin de faciliter le financement de l'économie.

Selon les chiffres de VDOS Stochastics relayés par Expansión, quatre fonds parmi les plus conservateurs sont parvenus à drainer plus de 2 milliards d’euros depuis le début de l’année. Le fonds monétaire du BBVA Dinero Fondtesoro Corto Plazo a enregistré ainsi des souscriptions nettes de 552 millions d’euros, ce qui porte son encours à 2,71 milliards d’euros. Deux produits obligataires garantis d’Invercaixa, Garantía Renta Fija 14 et Garantía Renta Fija 7, ont capté respectivement 548 millions et 491 millions d’euros, tandis qu’un autre fonds BBVA faisait jeu égal avec le Garantía Renta Fija 7, avec lui aussi 491 millions.

Repsol a notifié à la CNMV avoir placé un emprunt d’un milliard d’euros à cinq ans avec un coupon de 6,5 % qui représente un spread de 370 points de base sur les midswaps, rapporte Cinco Días. L’opération a été montée par le Santander, le BBVA, BNP Paribas, Citigroup et Goldman Sachs.

Comme prévu, le conseil de la CNMV a donné mercredi son agrément au projet d’OPA de Gas Natural sur Unión Fenosa, rapporte Cinco Días. L’opération se fera à 18,05 euros par action sur 25 jours. Le paiement est garanti par des crédits bancaires de plus de 8,24 milliards d’euros fournis par le Santander, Barclays, BNP Paribas, ING, Scoiété Générale, RBS, Caja Madrid et La Caixa. L’acquisition sera également financée par une augmentation de capital de 3,5 milliards d’euros ainsi que par des cessions d’actifs.