«La police espagnole a arrêté hier six personnes soupçonnées d’avoir participé à une escroquerie dépassant les 600 millions de dollars sur le marché alternatif (AIM) du London Stock Exchange (LSE)», rapporte les Echos, précisant qu"il s"agit d"une société cotée sur l’AIM dont le nom n’est pas dévoilé et qui qui aurait procédé à de nombreuses opérations financières fictives.

A fin décembre, les actifs gérés par les fonds distribués en Suisse ressortaient à 452 milliards de francs contre 554,3 milliards douze mois plus tôt, la contraction de 102,3 milliards ou de 18,5 % étant imputable pour 96,8 milliards ou 94,6 % à l’effet de marché alors que les remboursements nets se sont limités à 5,5 milliards, indique la Swiss Fund Association. En décembre, l’encours a diminué de 0,8 milliard.La plus forte chute a été accusée par les fonds d’actions, à 101,1 milliards de francs, après 5,5 milliards de sorties nettes et 59 milliards d’effet de marché négatif. Néanmoins, les fonds spécialistes des actions suisses ont enregistré des souscriptions nettes d’environ 3 milliards de francs. Les actifs des fonds monétaires ont gonflé pour leur part de 31,9 milliards de francs, soit de 47,7 %, grâce à 26,2 milliards de souscriptions nettes et 5,7 % d’effet de marché.

D’après les statistiques de l’AFG, les fonds de hedge funds de droit français ont accusé en 2008 une contraction de 39,9 % de leurs encours pour tomber à 37,8 milliards d’euros. La baisse de quelque 15 milliards d’euros s’explique pour plus des trois quarts (76,66 %) par des remboursements nets de 11,5 milliards, l’effet négatif de marché n’intervenant que pour 3,5 milliards.En revanche, les actifs des fonds ISR avec un peu plus de 20 milliards d’euro, seraient demeurés stables l’an dernier, grâce à des souscriptions nettes dirigées sur les fonds monétaires, d’après Novethic.

#Il est certain que, face à la crise financière et à la fonte des encours, les sociétés de gestion sont à présent très attentives à leurs coûts, mais il n’y a pas à ma connaissance de vaste plan de suppressions d’emplois en cette période difficile. De fait, les différents acteurs se trouvaient plutôt en phase d’expansion de leur effectif, et l’on peut imaginer qu’ils ralentiront ou reporteront des embauches#, estime Pierre Bollon, délégué général de l’Association française de la gestion financière (AFG). Selon lui, #en tout état de cause, les fonctions stratégiques comme le contrôle des risques et la gestion financière ne devraient pas être impactés par les mesures d'économie#.Cela peut signifier en d’autres termes que l’effort de maîtrise des coûts s’appliquera surtout aux fonctions support, sans exclure des opérations comme celles de SGAM/CAAM, qui aboutissent à une mutualisation des moyens de production, ou l’externalisation de certaines activités autres que la gestion.

Vincent Verheyde entrevoit des valeurs prometteuses dans un bear market. Tout en recherchant la préservation du capital, il maintient une gestion réactive.Gérant le fonds Finance Réaction depuis décembre dernier, Vincent Verheyde prévoit un marché baissier en 2009. #On pourra atteindre le niveau de 2400-2500 pour l"indice CAC 40 au cours de l"année#, sans exclure un rebond jusqu"à 3100. Il a mis en place une stratégie à la fois défensive et très réactive, pour bénéficier des mouvements sur les actions françaises qu"il sélectionne.Ancien gérant du fonds Gérer France, Vincent Verheyde a pris les rênes de Finance Réaction après le décès subit d"Olivier Machou, co-fondateur de la société de gestion indépendante Finance SA.Au 26 janvier, la performance du fonds depuis le début de l"année s"établit à - 2,5% contre - 7,7% pour l"indice SBF 120. Depuis son entrée en fonctions, la surperformance du gérant par rapport à l"indice s"élève à 7,5%.#Je suis actuellement investi à 100% en actions, mais avec une réactivité très forte #, explique Vincent Verheyde. Son portefeuille comptait ainsi 4% de financières à la fin décembre, mais 11% le 26 janvier, pour profiter d"un rebond de marché.Mais le gérant a également mis en place une stratégie visant la préservation du capital. Il s"agit notamment de faire face à une situation d"urgence, due aux retraits de certains institutionnels après le décès d"Olivier Machou. Comptant 90 millions d"encours à la fin septembre, finance Réaction a fondu à 30 millions actuellement.A cette fin, Vincent Verheyde a réorienté le portefeuille vers les grandes valeurs (57% de #big caps#). En cas de besoin, il utilise la poche de liquidités dans les phases baissières. Et il recourt à des instruments simples de couverture de portefeuille, de type ETF, sur des plages limitées d"exposition.Parmi ses valeurs préférées, on trouve Alstom : #le transport et l"énergie sont porteurs, la trésorerie du groupe est abondante, son carnet de commande bien rempli#. Il envisage un objectif de cours à 45 euros, propice aux allègements, contre un cours de 37 euros environ actuellement.Il mise aussi sur France Telecom, estimant que le coupon offrant un rendement de 7,5% #n"est pas en danger#. Son objectif est d"environ 22 euros, contre 18,50 euros actuellement. Il travaille également le titre Sanofi Aventis, avec en ligne de mire 46 euros.Vincent Verheyde ne délaisse pas pour autant les #small caps#. Parmi ses paris, figure 1000Mercis, société d"allocation d"adresses e-mail, qui a développé un modèle d"affaires avec des partenariats récurrents. Ou encore STS Group, une entreprise pouvant afficher 20 millions de trésorerie, 40 millions de chiffre d"affaires et 5 millions de résultat net.#Rien n’indique que le cycle baissier est terminé, parce que nous nous trouvons dans un marché de flux essentiellement négatif#, déclare le gérant. Mais même dans un marché d"actions baissier, il est possible de trouver des perles, estime Vincent Verheyde.

Selon Les Echos, le Fonds monétaire international (FMI) a fortement relevé son estimation des pertes liées aux produits financiers toxiques à 2.200 milliards de dollars contre 1.400 dollars en octobre. «Le redressement de l'économie ne pourra avoir lieu qu’une fois le bilan des institutions bancaires consolidés», selon Olivier Blanchard, chef économiste du FMI, lors d’une conférence de presse.

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).

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.

Since the arrival of Martin Flanagan in August 2005 as president and CEO, Invesco has been transformed from a mosaic of small management boutiques into an harmonised group, whose shares have lost only 51% in the past twelve months, which is roughly in line with the upper tier of publicly traded fund managers, such as Franklin Resources, BlackRock Inc and Eaton Vance , while shares in companies such as Janus Capital, AllianceBernstein, Calamos AM and Legg Mason have lost more than 70% in the same period, the Wall Street Journal notes. As of 15 January, the range of funds from Invesco placed in the ?top 36%? for performance over three years, and in the ?top 34%? over five years. Staff has fallen to 5,400 employees as of 30 September, from 6,500 in June 2005, and this process is likely to continue, a spokesperson says.Meanwhile, Flanagan is planning to continue to develop Invesco’s international presence, as 42% of clients are currently based outside the United States. The goal is to increase this figure to 50%.

According to statistics from the AFG, French-registered funds of hedge funds in 2008 saw a contraction of 39.9% in their assets, to a total of EUR37.8bn. More than three quarters (76.66%) of the decline of about EUR15bn is due to net redemptions of EUR11.5bn, while negative market effects account for only EUR3.5bn. However, assets in SRI funds with slightly over EUR20bn in assets appear to have held stable last year, thanks to net subscriptions to money market funds, according to Novethic.

With a total of EUR2.358trn as of the end of December, assets under management for third parties in the French market fell 11.1% compared with their levels twelve months earlier, meaning that EUR297bn, or 76.5% of the gains of EUR388bn accumulated in 2006 and 2007, have been wiped out. Statistics from the French financial management association (AFG) put the distribution of assets as of the end of December at EUR1.2448trn in French mutual funds, compared with EUR1.4696trn at the end of 2007 (-15.3%), and an estimated EUR1.115trn, compared with EUR1.185trn (-6%) in mandates, including EUR165bn in foreign-registered funds.

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.

?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.

Jean-Claude Trichet, le président de la Banque centrale européenne (BCE) évoquait récemment la nécessité d’envisager une «stratégie de sortie» à la politique monétaire, qui, rappelons-le, se caractérise depuis la faillite de Lehman par une hausse de l’offre de monnaie et des baisses de taux, plus mesurées qu’ailleurs pour éviter la «trappe à liquidité». Le moment d’un changement de politique est-il venu? Nous ne le pensons pas, à deux titres.

Le FMI a revu en baisse ses prévisions de croissance pour 2009. Pour soutenir le secteur bancaire, il évoque la création de «bad banks» publiques

Elle envisage d’acheter des bons du Trésor à long terme

Les turbulences financières ont obligé le Banco Sabadell et UniCredit à se préoccuper davantage de soi que de faire avancer leur projet d’alliance, rapporte Cinco Días. L’accord de coopération en Europe de l’Est annoncé voici un an par José Oliu, président du Sabadell, n’a finalement pas encore été signé et la collaboration s’est limitée à la gestion de quelques portefeuilles et de fonds d’investissement, a précisé un porte-parole de la banque espagnole. En revanche, le Sabadell poursuit son partenariat avec Dexia et détient toujours 40 % dans Dexia Sabadell, une société spécialiste du financement des infrastructures, équipement et services publics.