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26/10/2009

Galleon insider trading investigation widens

Federal investigators in charge of an insider trading enquiry at Galleon Group have asked to see the trading book of Richard Grodin, a hedge fund manager who worked previously at SAC Capital Advisors under Steven A. Cohen, and who employed witnesses who are “cooperating” with investigators, the Wall Street Journal reports. The subpoena is the first sign that the range of transactions under investigation is widening.
26/10/2009

UBS revises bonus policies

L’Agefi Suisse reports that UBS, like Credit Suisse, has revised its bonus policies. But it has done so much more discreetly, without informing the media. Partners at the bank were informed in a letter published on the establishment’s web page. Like Credit Suisse, UBS will strongly increase the fixed portion of salaries for its top directors, and will reduce variable pay. Among the other measures which will be taken, bonuses will be tied to the performance of the bank, as measured by profits earned, and this will apply for each division of the firm. Shares received from the bank will be embargoed for three years. Meanwhile, the weekly newsmagazine Sonntag reports that UBS will massively increase the bonuses it pays its employees.
26/10/2009

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney targets private clients with "more than USD20m"

The wealth management arm of Morgan Stanley, in partnership with the family office arm of Citi, have now created Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. The entity is now creating Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management, to serve the class of very high net worth private clients with USD20m in assets or more. The new operation, led by Michael Armstrong, managing director, will have 25 offices worldwide, and will eventually have 500 highly specialised advisors.
26/10/2009

Victor MacFarlane no longer to advise CalPERS

The real-estate deal maker Victor MacFarlane has resigned from his position as advisor to the pension fund CalPERS, the Wall Street Journal reports. His firm, MacFarlane Partners, was largely responsible for CalPERS’ investment of USD970m in LandSource, a firm which had billions of acres of undeveloped land on the outskirts of Los Angeles, which filed for bankruptcy barely 18 months later. CalPERS is also in the process of reexamining its longstanding partnership with the private equity investor Apollo Global Management, as its investments in Apollo funds saw heavy losses early in the year, although the situation has since improved.
26/10/2009

Federated plans foreign expansion

Federated Investors on Friday declared net profit of USD56.9m for the third quarter, compared with USD56.2m for July-September 2008, while commission revenues fell due to the fact that money market funds were unable to charge fees, the Wall Street Journal reports. After having digested the acquisition of Clover Capital Management and assets in two Prudent Bear funds in 2008, Federated is seeking to develop its distribution activities, and to make further acquisitions, of which one will be in the money market fund sector, and others abroad, says president & CEO J. Christopher Donohue.
26/10/2009

Trian Fund Management enters Legg Mason board

Via its “constructivist” hedge fund Trian Fund Management, activist shareholder Nelson Peltz has acquired a 4.3% stake in Legg Mason (USD700bn in assets), and has obtained a seat on the board, the Wall Street Journal reports. It has been agreed that Trian will increase its stake to 9.9% in two years, and that in the meanwhile it will vote in favour of a list of candidates for directorial positions presented by the firm’s executives. Trian bought most of its 6.94 million shares early in the summer, when they cost about USD20 each. On Friday, Legg Mason shares closed at USD31.90. The share price has tripled since its low point in March.
26/10/2009

ING to sell insurance and asset management activities

ING announced on Monday that it has earned net profits in third quarter of EUR500m, excluding sales of assets and one-time elements. This represents profits of EUR0.24 per share, compared with 3 cents in second quarter, and losses of 22 cents per share in the corresponding period of 2008. The group, which will undertake a capital increase totalling EUR7.5bn to pay back the EUR5bn in aid which it received from the Netherlands government in December, has also announced that it will gradually sell off all its activities in insurance and asset management via initial public offerings, sales, or combinations of the two.
26/10/2009

iShares and db x-trackers to launch in December

With changes to legislation in Spain which will probably allow ETF promoters to create Sicav funds from December, BlackRock, with its iShares brand, and Deutsche Bank with db x-trackers, will arrive directly on the Spanish market, where hitherto only BBVA and Lyxor (Société Générale) have been present, Expansión reports. For the moment, BlackRock and Deutsche Bank are selling their products in Spain via foreign platforms. Expansión also reports that ETF Securities, the world’s leading provider of ETC funds, is preparing to register its products in Spain.
26/10/2009

Deutsche Bank to acquire more than 75% of Sal. Oppenheim

According to sources familiar with the matter, Deutsche Bank may announce on Wednesday or Thursday that it will finally acquire more than 75% of Sal. Oppenheim, with 4,000 employees and EUR132bn in assets, for less than EUR1bn, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. The owning families will be interested in results at the firm, in order to motivate them to try and keep clients. Of the current directors, only Christian, Baron von Oppenheim, will remain, for the sake of his name. Meanwhile, Sal. Oppenheim is also reported to be about to sell its investment bank, with 300 employees, to Australian-based Macquarie, for a maximum of EUR300m. Sal. Oppenheim’s stake in the real estate funds Oppenheim-Esch (EUR4bn), which represent EUR200-300m, will be placed in a trust fund, and, if better times return, the family shareholders in Sal. Oppenheim will share into the profits.
26/10/2009

CAAM-SGAM to adopt the name Amundi AM

Crédit Agricole and Société Générale on Friday revealed the name of their joint asset management venture: Amundi Asset Management. The announcement of the name is a part of the merger process for the asset management activities of Crédit Agricole (CAAM) and Société Générale (SGAM), “which is proceeding on schedule,” says a statement. The plans were approved in September by the regulatory authorities (Autorité des marchés financiers and CECEI). Pending permission from the European antitrust authorities, Amundi will be created on 1 January 2010, with assets of nearly EUR650bn under management (as of the end of September 2009).
26/10/2009

Invesco hoping for 30% return from Morgan Stanley asset management operations

The acquisition of the retail asset management activities of Morgan Stanley will allow Invesco to increase its assets from USD119bn to USD535.6bn, Funds People reports. The acquisition price is equivalent to only 1.26% of the assets acquired (of which 49% are bonds), and the newly-acquired activities are 90% concentrated in the United States, meaning that the proportion of US assets in the overall total rises to 67% from 61%. Loren Starr, CFO of Invesco, estimates that the operation will bring an IRR of about 30%.
26/10/2009

Frédéric Lejeune becomes head of business development at Aberdeen AM France

Frederic Lejeune has been appointed Head of Business Development in Paris, covering France and Monaco. Previously, he was a Director of Credit Suisse’s Asset Management business (2001-2009), based in Paris. He was Head of Retail Distribution for France and Monaco.Gilles Texier remains Head of Institutional Business Development within the combined team.
26/10/2009

Janus plans to have selected its new head by January

At a press conference to announce results for third quarter on Thursday, Tim Armour, interim CEO of Janus Capital Group, announced that he expects to be able to announce the name of the future permanent CEO of the firm at the announcement of its results for the October-December quarter, in January 2010, Mutual Fund Wire reports.
26/10/2009

Profits down at T. Rowe Price

In third quarter, T. Rowe Price has posted net profits of USD132.9m, compared with USD152.8m in July-September 2008, which brings the total for the first nine months of the year 2009 to USD281.1m, compared with USD466.5m in the corresponding period of last year. As of 30 September, total assets came to USD366.2bn, compared with USD276.3bn as of the end of December 2008. Net subscriptions in third quarter for mutual funds totalled USD2.6bn, despite net redemptions of USD9bn from money market funds, while market appreciation generated an increase in assets in mutual funds of USD26.8bn.
26/10/2009

Securitisation market making a gradual recovery

Les Echos reports that the British bank Nationwide is this week launching a securitisation operation for at least GBP3.5bn in real estate securitisations backed by residential mortgages (RMBS). The move follows securitisation issues from Lloyds Banking Group and Volkswagen. These deals do not mark a return to normal, as the Nationwide offer includes maximal guarantees to reinsure investors who continue to be cautious. The preliminary rating from Fitch gives the maximal rating (AAA) to the first two rounds of issues, while the selection of loans to be included in the securitisations means that Nationwide will retain 5% of the structured debts on its books, which is a gauge of the quality of the underlying assets.
26/10/2009

CESR consultation on inducements

The purpose of this consultation is to highlight some of the observed industry practices (based on a questionnaire CESR members distributed to investment firms) on the MiFID inducements rules and to provide investment firms with an understanding of how CESR views such practices. CESR invites responses to this consultation paper by 22 December 2009.
26/10/2009

Blackstons plans IPO for Merlin

The private equity investor Blackstone is planning an initial public offering for Merlin Entertainments, Handelsblatt reports. The banking consortium for the deal reportedly includes Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, UBS and Nomura. The operation values Merlin at EUR2.2bn. The sovereign wealth fund Dubai International Capital (DIC) owns 20% of the British group.
26/10/2009

DEGI extends freeze on redemptions from Europa fund

On Friday, the German firm DEGI, an affiliate of Aberdeen Property Investors since 28 March, announced that its suspension of redemptions from the DEGI Europa fund, established on 30 October 2008, has been extended for a period of up to 12 months, but that the manager will make an effort to bring an end to the closure by the new deadline. For the moment, liquidity levels in the fund, which have increased, are still insufficient to authorise a reopening of redemptions. DEGI states that the occupancy rate for properties in the fund is about 93%, and that its performance over 12 months to 31 August comes out to 3.4%.
26/10/2009

SAFE begins issuing QDII quotas again

On Friday, the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) assigned its first QDII quotas in 17 months, for USD1bn to E-Fund and USD500m to China Merchants, who will be allowed to launch an Asia ex Japan fund and a “global resources” fund, respectively, consulting firm Z-Ben Advisors reports. According to the consultant, four other new quotas may be issued by SAFE by the end of the year to Changsheng, Bosera, UBS SDIC and China Universal. Z-Ben Advisors also reports that a new fund may be expected to be launched every three weeks until the end of the year, while SAFE is also likely to issue new quotas worth USD4bn, of which USD3bn will be for foreign markets.
26/10/2009

Santander had detected risk of Madoff fraud as early as 2002

According to the final version of the class action lawsuit filed in the United States against Santander in Miami in the continuing Madoff scandal, the Spanish bank is accused of having been alerted in two reports by its hedge fund affiliate Optimal as early as September 2002 of risks related to investments with Madoff, Cotrizalia reports, citing El Confidencial. In addition, in November 2008, a high-ranking head at Santander, Rodrigo Echenique, who is close to president Emilio Botín, was sent to meet Bernard Madoff, and it appears that despite even stronger suspicions at the bank, the institution neither warned its clients, nor took measures to protect itself by withdrawing the EUR2.3bn in assets Optimal had invested with Madoff.
26/10/2009

Cooperation between CNMV and CSRC

The Spanish securities commission (CNMV) and the Chinese securities regulatory authority (CSRC) on Wednesday signed a bilateral cooperation agreement to provide mutual assistance and to share information between the two market watchdogs. The agreement also allows Spanish financial establishments to obtain QFII status, to operate on Chinese markets, and to establish ties with Chinese entities. The agreement also allows Chinese financial firms with QDII status to invest on the Spanish markets.
26/10/2009

Friend of Madoff found dead in swimming pool

Jeffry Picower, an old friend of Bernard Madoff, was found dead in his swimming pool on Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to investigation documents, Picower made USD7.2bn from investments with Madoff since the 1970s, but he always denied having been aware that the profits came from a Ponzi scheme being operated by his friend.

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