«On a trois ans, pour bâtir Allianz en France», a indiqué Jacques Richier, arrivé à la direction générale d’AGF en juillet 2008, rapporte la Tribune. Après le passage à une organisation horizontale par fonction (fabrication des produits, gestion, distribution, etc) avec le marketing comme fonction centrale, le management a dû faire sa mutation et troquer «le mode hiérarchique pour le mode collaboratif» note le quotidien. Quant au plan de compétitivité, il est toujours en cours. De 14 sites régionaux, l’assureur passera à 10 sites plus spécialisés. Après Montpellier et Reims, Nice la semaine prochaine et Grenoble en 2010 seront fermés. Les 2.000 personnes concernées par ce plan, la plupart seront formées à un nouveau métier et moins d’une centaine fera l’objet d’un licenciement. Enfin, la stratégie de développement considère les clients entreprises et les professionnels comme des marchés de conquête et de croissance. De leur coté, les clients «grand public» (30 % du chiffre d’affaires) sont vus comme un marché de fidélisation.

Selon The Wall Street Journal, la raison pour laquelle beaucoup de hedge funds maintiennent les «gates» mises en place au moment de la crise tient probablement au fait que leurs actifs sont surévalués et qu’ils ne veulent pas faire baisser leur performance. Cela fait l’affaire des fonds de hedge funds qui peuvent continuer de prélever des commissions élevées en disant que de toutes façons les capitaux placés dans les single hedge funds ne sont pas récupérables pour le moment. Il faut donc que les investisseurs se mobilisent et insistent pour obtenir des liquidations, comme l’a fait Carl Icahn pour le fonds Steel Partners II de Warren Lichtenstein. Ce sera peut-être douloureux, mais c’est le seul moyen pour le secteur des hedge funds de regagner la confiance des investisseurs.

L’un des avocats de Bernard Madoff estime qu’une peine de 12 ans deprison constituerait une sanction suffisante pour la fraude commise, rapporte le Financial Times.

Le groupe britannique a annoncé le 23 juin la nomination au poste d’actuaire en chef pour l’Europe de Matt Saker qui a travaillé précédemment chez Watson Wyatt pendant dix-huit ans où il était associé depuis 2003. Aviva avait annoncé la veille la nomination au poste de responsable corporate affairs and communications pour l’Europe de Jon Bunn, précédemment chez Prudential.

Selon la Tribune, Colony Capital veut bien investir dans Orco Property, qui fait l’objet d’une procédure de sauvegarde. Cependant, la société d’investissement américaine exige que Orco Property, groupe immobilier spécialisé sur l’Europe de l’Est, procède à la restructuration de sa dette obligataire estimé à 400 millions d’euros.

En collaboration avec Danos & Associates, BNP Paribas Real Estate étend sa couverture géographique dans les Balkans. Après la Grèce et Chypre où elles sont déjà présentes, les deux sociétés ont décidé d’étendre leur partenariat dans les Balkans. Trois nouvelles Alliances en Albanie, en Bulgarie et en Serbie sont ainsi créées dont les principales activités développées seront, dans un premier temps, la transaction et l’expertise en immobilier d’entreprise (pour plus de 90 %) et le résidentiel (pour le reste). Au total, BNP Paribas Real Estate affiche une présence dans 29 pays dans le monde (via 14 filiales et 15 Alliances)

Selon L’Agefi suisse, le private equity offre des atouts (diversification, différentiation, performance) propres à attirer des clients de la gestion privée traumatisés par les marchés boursiers de 2008. Mais à côté de ces éléments fondamentaux et intemporels, la crise financière offre un terreau favorable à l’émergence d’une nouvelle vague du private equity, ont expliqué Olivier Carcy, responsable du private equity chez Crédit Agricole (Suisse) et Jean-Mathieu Sahy, de capital Export, lors d’une conférence organisée le 23 juin par Academy & Finance à Genève. Avec la hausse du taux de défaut prévu jusqu’en 2010, nombre de sociétés devront être transformées et auront donc besoin de capital, alors que l’accès au marché bancaire est plus difficile. Autre piste: la sortie des vendeurs forcés, étranglés par la crise, et le manque de liquidités qu’elle engendre devront être compensés.

David Pastel, président de Pastel & Associés, revient sur sa gestion dans cette période tourmentée, mais aussi sur ce qu'il considère comme des effets de mode dans l'univers des sociétés de gestion ainsi que sur le comportement inacceptable de certains gérants...

When the markets were in freefall at the end of last year, hedge fund managers suspended or limited their redemptions. But now that hedge funds are posting average performance of 9.8% in January-May, after losses of 19% in 2008, according to statistics from Hedge Fund Research, the market rebound will make it easier to sell assets, and investors will receive their money back, the Wall Street Journal reports. Among the funds which are still blocking out new subscribers are Citadel Investment Group (Chicago) and Harbinger Capital Partners (New York), as well as the London-based firms GLG Partners and Polygon Investment Partners. GLG Partners is planning to lift its freeze on redemptions from its fund GLG Market Neutral (USD1bn in assets) at the end of the month.

The British management firm Jupiter Asset Management is currently seeking to recruit a salesperson, who will be in charge of sales in France of sub-funds of its Luxembourg Sicav, which is already registered for sale in France, Edward Bonham-Carter, CEO of Jupiter, has announced at the Fund Forum in Monaco. “We would like to open a small representative office in Paris,” the executive says. The management firm is indirectly present in France, via a fund from CCR, Centrale Croissance Europe, whose management is outsourced to Jupiter. The partnership dates back tot he time when Commerzbank was a shareholder in both management firms (which is no longer the case today). Now, Jupiter would like to develop further on French territory, and offer investors a wider range of products. The firm is largely known for its equities management in various regions, and especially for socially responsible investment. As of the end of April 2008, it managed GBP16.8bn in assets. Jupiter AM’s European development began in 2006, when Kevin Scott from Old Mutual was appointed to lead the project. Martina Guenzl was recruited to develop sales in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, and Simon O’Donoghue handles Scandinavia. For the moment, though, Jupiter remains very British, with a largely retail client base via independent financial advisors. In France, however, targeting retail clients would be too onerous. The firm will therefore concentrate on those who select funds, private banks. Jupiter AM, founded in 1985 by John Duffield, who later founded New Star, has since 2007 been a firm mostly owned by employees (95% of whom are shareholders), while TA Associates owns a minority stake. The firm considers this independence and its “boutique” spirit as definitive characteristics.

L’un des avocats de Bernard Madoff estime qu’une peine de 12 ans deprison constituerait une sanction suffisante pour la fraude commise, rapporte le Financial Times.

L’Agefi Switzerland reports, citing the New York Times, that the US Department of Justice may drop legal proceedings to force the Swiss bank UBS to divulge the names of 52,000 US clients suspected of tax evasion. The cases may be dropped next month, before 13 July, when a case will be heard in a federal court in Miami, according to a source close to the discussions. The largest Swiss bank agreed to pay USD780m in February to settle charges that it assisted US clients to evade taxes.

La Tribune reports that Colony Capital is interested in investing in Orco Property, which is subject to a safeguard procedure. However, the US investment firm is demanding that Orco Property, a real estate firm specialized in Eastern Europe, restructures its bond debt, estimated at EUR400m.

The British group Aviva announced on 23 June that it has appointed Matt Saker, who previously spent 28 years at Watson Wyatt, where he has been a partner since 2003, as its actuary-in-chief for Europe. The day before, Aviva announced the appointment of Jon Bunn, previously of Prudential, as head of corporate affairs and communications for Europe.

In partnership with Danos & Associates, BNP Paribas Real Estate is extending its geographical coverage to include the Balkans. Following Greece and Cyprus, where they are already present, thew two firms have decided to extend their partnership into the Balkans. Three new partership locations have been opened in Albania, Bulgaria and Serbia, which will be primarily active, initially, in business real estate trading and expertise (more than 90% of activities), and residential real estate (all other activities). In total, BNP Paribas Real Estate is present in 29 countries worldwide (via 14 affiliates and 15 alliances).

The Wall Street Journal reports that the reason that many hedge funds are maintaining “gates” set up at the onset of the crisis is probably that their assets are overvalued and they do not want to bite into performance by revising them. This is good news for funds of hedge funds, which can continue to charge high commissions, while claiming that capital invested in single hedge funds cannot be recovered for the time being anyway. Investors will need to mobilize and insist in order to obtain liquidations, as Carl Icahn did to the Steel Partners II fund from Warren Lichtenstein. This may be hard, but it is the only way for the hedge fund sector to regain the confidence of investors.

The German management firm Maintrust, an affiliate of Nomura, is releasing a fundamental indexing fund focused on Europe (MAT Fundamental Europa), a German-registered product which was launched on 21 April. The fund is benchmarked against the FTSE RAFI Europe Index Total Return, a methodology from the American firm Research Affiliates (RAFI), in which Nomura holds a “strategic participation.” The method provides a way to weight companies no longer on the basis of their capitalisation but instead on the basis of four equally-weighted fundamental factors (earnings, cash flow, dividends, and book value). According to Maintrust, this will keep TER at a low level (1.01%) and to reduce turnover rates to levels comparable to an ETF, while outperforming both growth and value strategies. At the same time, Maintrust is relaunching its MAT Fundamental Japan fund, which had only EUR20m in assets at the end of April, though it was launched on 15 January 2007. the fund is benchmarked against the FTSE RAFI Japan Total Return, and has a TER of 1.23%.

On the 50th anniversary of the launch of the first open-ended real estate fund, the German BVI association of management firms announced on Tuesday that, since 1990, assets in open-ended products (46 funds, up from 35 in 2005) have quadrupled, to a total of EUR86.42bn as of the end of April. In addition to this total, there are 124 real estate Spezialfonds aimed at institutionals, which on the same date managed about EUR24bn. However, it must be remember that a dozen open-ended real estate funds were required to freeze redemptions at the end of last October, since these products in principle provide daily liquidity but are based on assets which are difficult to trade rapidly. Since then, only three of the frozen funds have resumed normal activities: DEGI International, Focus Nordic Cities from Catella, and SEB ImmoInvest. According to sources close to the case, Axa Investment Managers and KanAm grund will soon reopen their Immoselect and grundinvest funds. In theory the CS Euroreal fund from Credit Suisse will reopen to redemptions by the end of the month.

Banque Sarasin (Robeco group) on Tuesday announced the opening of offices in Mumbai and Delhi on 1 July. The Swiss firm is setting up shop in India under the registered business name of Sarasin-Alpen (India) Private Litd, and says it has signed several agreements with Indian partners to provide distribution for their funds, and to promote wealth management services. The heads of Sarasin-Alpen in Dubai have decided not to comment for the moment as to the names of these partners. Sarasin is not yet in a position to reveal who will be the country head of the bank for India.

Dexia Asset Management has published a new report on responsible and sustainable investment, responding to the verdict of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that “the world is not on course for sustainable energy in the future.” Dexia AM has made an effort to expose the challenges related to the transition to a future of low CO² emissions in the energy sector. Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will have a considerable impact on the energy sector (gas and oil), and businesses concerned will have to integrate this new reality into their business models. From a sustainability and a financial point of view, long-term investors will need to take account of the fact that the best-positioned businesses will have a competitive advantage which will become a determining factor in the future. In its sustainability analysis of the energy sector, Dexia Asset Management finds that BP and StatoilHydro and ENI are among the best-positioned energy businesses to meet the challenges of sustainable development.

The Bank of New York Mellon has launched a platform to process derivatives trading, entitled Derivatives360. The client may select the services best adapted to its core activities on the platform.

After 14 years as head of Frontrunner, which in 2000 became Nordea Fonds Service GmbH, Wolfgang Seubert will be retiring on 30 June, half a year ahead of schedule. He will be replaced by Dan Sauer, who was appointed as a member of the board of directors on 1 July 2008, and who since then has been head of distribution for Germany at Nordea, leading a five-member team.

L’Agefi Suisse reports that the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) has claimed that the arrival of Patrick Odier as its head does not alter Switzerland’s ambition to reconquer third place as a banking centre worldwide, after New York and London.

L’Agefi Suisse reports that the manager of the Fidelity Global Financial Services fund, Tal Eloya, estimates that financial services providers in developing regions have more potential than assets in this sector in developed markets.

Foer the first time, the European Commission has published estimates on the net cost of the bailout of banks for public debt in the Union since the start of the crisis, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Il could cost 1,8 trillion euros, 14 PIB points, if all rescue programs are used in all and if a large part of the loans are not paid back. Yhe estimate is 810 billion euros.

The SRI management firm Ökoworld (EUR500m) has announced the appointment of Ralph Prudent as a member of its board and head of fund distribution. He was previosuly a member of the board of directors at the management firm Maintrust (Nomura group) for ten years.

The government of Antigua and Barbuda has removed Larry King, accused of complicity in a USD7bn fraud perpetrated by the Texan financier R. Allen Stanford, from his position as the nation’s regulator, the Financial Services Regulatory Commission, the wall Street Journal reports. King’s name has also been stricken from documents at the local market surveillance authority. Antigua and Barbuda expect the United States to demand the extradition of King, who is accused of receiving USD100,000 in bribes for giving the SEC official statements about Stanford’s activities.

The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) and the Europan System of Central Banks (ESCB) on 23 March published their recommendations for clearing and settlement and for central counterparty (CCP) in the European Union, along with comments on consultations undertaken on these subjects.

The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) has welcomed the set of principles recently published by the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) for hedge funds. However, the AIMA qualifies its satisfaction with some remarks. It will be managers of hedge funds and not hedge funds which will be required to register with regulators, the AIMA observes. The AIMA also points out that the IOSCO document makes mention of the fact that hedge funds use derivative products to speculative ends, without making it clear that derivatives traded on regulated or OTC markets are largely used by market actors who customarily have risk management frameworks in place. The AIMA is concerned that these recommendations will motivate regulators to focus on the quantitative aspect of data rather than appreciating the qualitative aspects. “It is important that regulators have the expertise and resources necessary to handle the data they will receive,” the AIMA statement says. Swiss association also approves The Swiss Funds Association (SFA) has also expressed its approval of the principles for hedge fund regulations proposed by the OICV. “From the Swiss point of view, we approve in particular of the proposal that hedge fund managers and not their financial vehicles should be able to obtain authorization from their regulatory authority, independently of the place where their funds are located. The IOSCO proposals are a judicious measure to prevent systematic risks, unlike the European Commission directive for alternative investment fund managers. The latter shows an excess of zeal, which in practical terms may only partially be realised, and which has protectionist characteristics, mixing protection of the system and the investor with fiscal policy,” explains Matthäus Den Otter, director of the SFA.

The designer of international accounting standards IASB on 23 June published an exposure-draft which proposes a non-binding framework to assist firms to prepare management commentary. Management commentary is not required in all jurisdictions, the IASB observes, but the framework aims to offer a harmonised document to investors. All parties concerned may comment on the exposure-draft until 1 March 2010.