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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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%.

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.

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.

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.

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.

According to La Tribune, citing Moneyfund Report, assets under management at US money market funds have fallen by USD40.74bn in one week, and these funds now have total assets of USD3.339trn.

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.

DWS has announced in a financial statement that the benchmark used to calculate performance commissions for the manager of the DWS Türkei fund has changed. The new benchmark from 1 January 2010 will be the MSCI Turkey 10/40. Investments made by the fund in other UCITS funds are no longer benefiting from reduced fee levels. “These investments have had the effect of doubling costs, particularly management fees,” the financial statement says. Management of the fund has also been transferred to the firm DWS Investment GmbH Frankfurt.

Il ne pourrait s’agir que d’une consolidation avant une nouvelle vague de hausse vers les 4.315 points

Depuis début octobre, la tendance est à la hausse pour la partie courte des courbes des taux

Depuis début octobre, la tendance est à la hausse pour la partie courte des courbes des taux

Yaël Muscat, responsable de l’expertise crédit chez Groupama AM

Laurence Boone, chef économiste France chez Barclays Capital

Henri Delessy, économiste à La Banque Postale

Nathalie Benatia, stratégiste chez BNP Paribas AM

Yves Maillot, directeur Investissements et actions chez Robeco Gestions

Pour 15 millions de dollars, Standard Life Investments (SLI) a réalisé sa première acquisition dans l’immobilier sur le marché brésilien. Il s’agit de l’immeuble de bureaux Alana II, qui compte 13 étages sur 7.500 mètres carrés ; il est occupé à 88 % et situé à Sao Paulo. Le vendeur est Brazilian Capital et cet actif est affecté au fonds Select Property de SLI (600 millions de livres au 30 septembre). Avec son partenaire local Eccelera, SLI envisage de restructurer l’immeuble en 2010.

Lors de la dernière réunion, mercredi, du conseil de surveillance de Constantia Privatbank, les cinq banques qui ont sauvé l'établissement en octobre 2008 (Austria, RZB, Erste Bank, Volksbank et Bawag) ont donné leur feu vert au transfert de toutes les activités bancaires (banque privée, gestion de fonds, banque dépositaire et prévoyance logement) à une nouvelle filiale ad hoc qui entamera ses activités le 7 décembre avec l'équipe actuelle.Parallèlement, les banques propriétaires de Constantia indiquent poursuivre leurs négociations de cession avec un consortium autrichien et une banque privée allemande (qui pourrait être Hauck & Aufhäuser), qui pourraient acheter la nouvelle structure, qui sera débarrassée du passif lié au scandale Immofinanz.

Le gestionnaire asiatique PMA Capital Management vient de lancer un fonds actions long/short PMA India Fund qui se concentre sur les 250 plus grandes capitalisations indiennes, selon Hedge Week.Le fonds conjugue des approches top-down et bottom-up au travers de processus tant qualitatifs que quantitatifs. Le fonds sera géré par Anoop Villait, qui pilote la stratégie de PMA sur les marchés indiens.

Selon Asian Investor, BNP Paribas a annoncé la nomination de Peter Foo au poste de senior banker responsable des relations avec les fonds souverains et les banques centrales (SSCB). Il continuera toutefois d’assumer ses fonctions de CEO de la succursale de Fortis Bank à Singapour jusqu'à l’intégration totale de Fortis au sein du groupe bancaire français.Membre du pôle Financial Institutions Group (FIG), Peter Foo prendra ses fonctions le 1er novembre et sera directement rattaché à Véronique Omezzano, responsable mondiale de FIG SSCB.

Le pôle Asset Management de Credit Suisse a enregistré un bénéfice avant impôts de 311 millions de francs suisses au troisième trimestre 2009, contre 55 millions de francs au trimestre précédent.Cette amélioration s’explique notamment par «un gain de 207 millions de francs lié à la finalisation de la vente d’une partie des activités de stratégies d’investissement traditionnelles du Credit Suisse à Aberdeen Asset Management», explique la banque suisse. Cette dernière a aussi bénéficié de gains liés aux investissements de 97 millions de francs. «Les résultats d’Asset Management reflètent également une base d’actifs accrue, une performance améliorée ainsi que sa concentration sur ses activités de base dans les placements alternatifs et l’allocation d’actifs», indique Credit Suisse.Les commissions de gestion d’acitfs ont augmenté, notamment dans les multi-asset class solutions et dans d’autres stratégies d’investissement traditionnelles. Les produits nets ont atteint 765 millions de francs, en hausse de 76 % par rapport au 2T09.Le pôle a enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 3,9 milliards de francs, qui incluent des afflux nets de 3,9 milliards de francs dans les multi-asset class solutions, de 2 milliards de francs dans les activités de conseil (advisory) en Suisse et de 1,4 milliard de francs dans les stratégies d’investissement alternatives, en partie neutralisés par des sorties nettes de capitaux de 3,4 milliards de francs dans les actifs du marché monétaire.Côté Private Banking, qui comprend les activités de Wealth Management Clients et de Corporate & Institutional Clients, Credit Suisse a enregistré un bénéfice avant impôts de 867 millions de francs au troisième trimestre. Il est inférieur de 7 % au niveau du 2T09. Cela reflète un recul de 4 % des produits nets à 2833 millions de francs, principalement en raison d’une baisse du résultat des opérations d’intérêts, avec des coûts qui sont restés stables. Le pôle banque privée a enregistré des souscriptions nettes de 13,1 milliards de francs au troisième trimestre, 7,5 milliards de francs étant générés à l’international et 5,6 milliards de francs en Suisse. Le total des actifs gérés du Groupe provenant des activités poursuivies s’est élevé à 1.225,3 milliards de francs à la fin du 3T09, soit une hausse de 4,3 % par rapport à la fin du 2T09, reflétant principalement la performance favorable du marché et des afflux nets positifs de nouveaux capitaux dans les pôles Private Banking et Asset Management, partiellement neutralisés par des mouvements défavorables liés au change.Globalement, Credit Suisse Group a enregistré un bénéfice net distribuable aux actionnaires de 2354 millions de francs au 3T09, contre 1571 millions de francs au 2T09. Les produits nets (résultats de base) se sont élevés à 8917 millions de francs au 3T09, contre 8610 millions de francs au 2T09. Le rendement des fonds propres distribuable aux actionnaires s’est établi à 25,1% au 3T09 et le bénéfice net dilué par action à 1.81 franc. Le ratio des fonds propres de base a atteint 16,4% à la fin du 3T09.