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20/03/2009

Brazil - Anti-slavery initiative

HSBC Global Asset Mangement, Banco Real Asset Management and Unibanco Asset Management are part of a group of managers who will send a letter to all companies listed on the Brazilian stock exchange, Bovespa, to make them aware of the commercial, financial and publicity risks associated with slavery and indentured labour, Responsible Investor reports. The letter encourages publicly traded companies to sign up to a Brazilian national pact to eliminate slavery, which is being promoted by the International Labour Organization (ILO), Ethos, and the NGO Reporter Brazil. Managers are also calling on businesses to require their suppliers to adhere to the pact and to set up monitoring mechanisms.
20/03/2009

World - UNCTAD declares war on speculation

Heiner Flassbeck, chief economist for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), wants to put an end to speculation. ?The war on excessive speculation will bring new rules to rein in the financial markets and their fictitious products. The UNCTAD also recommends that a monetary system be put in place that prohibits speculation on currencies,? Le Temps reports. The UNCTAD is also calling for new regulations to limit financial speculation on commodity markets, and is asking the United Nations, ?the only universal and credible institution,? to reform global governance.
20/03/2009

France - CAAM and SGAM favourites of institutional investors

In 2009, Crédit Agricole Asset Management tops the rankings of management firms by Amadeis, followed by Société Générale Asset Management, with which it will soon be merging. The eighth edition of the rankings is based on a survey conducted in January and February 2009 of 60 French institutional investors and distributors representing more than EUR500bn in assets.The two firms were also at the top of the list in 2008, although at that time SGAM was the leader.This year, the rankings puts affiliates of banking groups in all three top spots, with BNP Paribas in third place. The firm is appreciated for its money market management, while CAAM is top for Euro fixed income. Independent management firms are not absent from the rankings, with four such firms in the rankings by asset class. La Française des Placements is well-liked for its diversified management, Sycomore for Euro zone equities, Carmignac Gestion for international equities, and HDF for alternative management. UFG-Sarasin is in first place for SRI management, and Axa IM finishes first for marketing and sales.In the first months of 2009, investors have shown a strong interest in corporate bonds: three quarters of them are planning to increase their allocations to this area in 2009, Amadeis reports. 45% of respondents are planning to increase their allocation to equities. The crisis has strengthened interest in ETFs for 38% of investors in ETFs, and in responsible investment for 29%.
20/03/2009

France - Institutionals wary of Luxembourg funds

More than one out of two institutional investors (54%) say they are prepared to reconsider their investments in Luxembourg-registered funds, according to an Amadeis survey of 60 French institutional investors and distributors representing more than EUR500bn in assets. The Madoff scandal has affected funds of this type. Similarly, 50% of investors say they are now wary of alternative management.In addition to the Madoff fraud, the crisis has also affected the behaviour of institutional investors. Although the vast majority of institutional investors (81%) are happy with their relationships with management firms, 19% of investors are now unsatisfied with their providers, compared with 10% in 2008 and 3% in 2007. Poor performance is a leading cause of this dissatisfaction.However, the crisis has strengthened interest in ETFs for 38% of investors and in responsible investment for 29%.
20/03/2009

United Kingdom - Weavering Capital liquidates its fund

The hedge fund Weavering Macro Fixed, managed by Weavering Capital, went into liquidation on Thursday night, the Financial Times reports. The fund’s primary asset was a USD637m position on derivatives placed with an offshore firm controlled by the founder and CEO of the fund, Magnus Peterson.
20/03/2009

United States - UBS affair: Swiss lawyers and accountants targeted

US federal authorities are now planning to extend their investigations to include lawyers and accountants in Switzerland and the United States who are thought to have advised UBS on the best financial tricks to avoid having to expose its American clients, the New York Times reports on its website. The investigation will focus on three people.
20/03/2009

Italy - Intesa will not pay dividends

Intesa Sanpaolo has decided not to pay a dividend, Il Sole - 24 Ore has learned. The decision is reported not to be related to results, as the firm is expected to turn a profit, but rather to a decision to give more priority to strengthening the group’s financial underpinnings. In addition to this, the firm is expected to receive up to EUR4bn in funds from the Italian government, via a bond issue.
20/03/2009

France - Allocation to equities at Carmignac Patrimoine close to a net 0%

Eric Le Coz, chief strategist at Carmignac Gestion, explains in an interview with Die Welt that the Carmignac Patrimoine fund, which has earned 10% returns since the Lehman bankruptcy while the Dax has lost 40%, continues to have a highly defensive orientation. About 80% of the portfolio is invested in bonds, mostly in various government bonds. The issuers include, in large part, France, Germany, and to a lesser extent the United States. The average duration of government bonds in the portfolio has been reduced to account for risks related to rising government debts.In addition to this, the fund is invested in corporate bonds.The 20% allocation to equities is covered by contracts on indices, meaning that the final proportion of equities in the portfolio is close to 0%. This percentage will not increase until Carmignac concludes that the financial system and real estate markets in the English-speaking countries have stabilised.
20/03/2009

Austria - Bank Medici shuts down

Bank Medici announced on Thursday that one day earlier it notified the Austrian financial market surveillance authority (FMA) that its supervisory board had taken the decision to discontinue the banking license of the ?Madoffed? establishment.A statement on the firm’s website says that the Madoff fraud caused significant damage to the bank, and that in the current environment, it is not possible to develop substantial new banking activities that would be able to compensate for those which have been lost.Bank Austria (UniCredit group) has announced that its 25% stake in Medici has fallen to EUR1.5m in value, for its part, the Standard estimates that Medici’s real exposure to Madoff was not EUR2.1bn, but more than EUR3.6bn, of which EUR2.5bn belonged to the Herald USA fund, and EUR1.1bn to the Thema International fund.
20/03/2009

Germany - cominvest overhauls product range

cominvest Asset Mangement, which passed into the ownership of Allianz Global Investors (AGI) on 1 January 2009, on Thursday announced the closure of eight funds, including three Luxembourg funds (CB World Funds EURO STOXX 50 Basket A, CB World Funds EURO STOXX 50 Basket cominvest I and CB World Funds USA DJI 30 Basket A) on 31 May. Five German-registered funds will be liquidated in second half: on 30 September, the GlobalMastersFund and the cominvest Incofonds will close, and then on 31 December, cominvest will close the cominvest GreatSelection 50, the cominvest Kommunal-Corent, and a product from Main Kapital entitled MK Asia-Pazifik.The management firm has also announced that on 15 March, it will merge the six horizon funds of the cominvest-Life-Liberty range with two classes of shares in the Commerzbank allstars-anlage Chance P.
20/03/2009

United States - SEC sues former CIO of a major pension fund

Pensions & Investments reports on Thursday that the SEC has filed a lawsuit in a New York court against David Loglisci, former CIO of the pension fund New York Common Retirement Fund (USD138.4bn in assets), and Henry Morris, a political advisor, for accepting bribes totalling several million dollars from private equity firms and hedge funds between 2003 and 2006. The payments were intended to incite the pension fund to invest in the funds concerned. Morris alone is claimed to have pocketed USD15m in kickbacks.
20/03/2009

United States - Mihir Worah (Pimco): Now is the time to buy TIPS

Mihir Worah, manager of the Pimco Real Return Fund (PPRIX, USD11.28bn), says projected buybacks of US Treasury bonds by the Fed will increase the appeal of bonds which offer protection against inflation, the Wall Street Journal reports. By buying these TIPS, the Fed is seeking to avoid the threat of deflation. On Thursday, the break-even rate for 10 years, which is the spread between normal Treasury bonds and TIPS, stood at 132 basis points; it has risen by 10 bp since the announcement of the Fed’s buybacks on Wednesday, and it was negative at the end of last year, when deflationary fears were at their peak. The Pimco (Allianz group) manager predicts that the TIPS break-even rate will stabilise somewhere in the 100-150 bp range in the next months, and will top 200 bp in 12 months. The PPRIX returned 7.46% for the three months to the end of February, compared with 4.64% for the benchmark, the Barclays Capital U.S. TIPS Index.
20/03/2009

United States - WaMu drags down TPG

Handelsblatt reports that the latest fund from TPG, which raised USD19bn, has suffered losses of nearly half a billion dollars on its stake in Washington Mutual (WaMu). In total, the private equity investor invested USD1.35bn one year ago, from three funds, but the investment lost virtually all of its value when WaMu was bailed out by JP Morgan in September.
20/03/2009

United Kingdom - M&G posts EUR3.6bn in inflows in 2008

M&G Investments, an affiliate of the insurer Prudential, has posted net subscriptions of EUR3.6bn in 2008, while gross inflows totalled EUR17bn.?In open-ended fund activities, the group has experienced strong inflows to bond products (EUR1.5bn, compared with EUR200m), which have offset a slowdown in inflows to equities funds, which declined from EUR1.8bn in 2007 to EUR700m last year,? according to a statement.Due to the falling markets, M&G has nonetheless seen a decline in its assets of 15% to EUR148.5bn. Profits totalled EUR239m, an increase of 12% compared with the previous year.
20/03/2009

Une orientation défensive peu efficace…

Les tableaux ci-contre présentent les meilleures et plus mauvaises performances des fonds sur le marché des fonds actions américaines et le marché des fonds actions françaises au cours du mois de février 2009. Ces performances sont mises en perspective par le calcul de la volatilité et du ratio de Sharpe sur trois ans d’historique ainsi que du rendement depuis un an.
19/03/2009

Allemagne - Forte perte pour la HVB

La HypoVereinsbank (groupe UniCredit) a accusé pour 2008 une perte de 671 millions d’euros contre un bénéfice net de 2 milliards pour 2007, rapporte die Welt. La banque d’investissement a occasionné une perte de 2 milliards d’euros, dont 1,18 milliard au T4.
19/03/2009

Espagne - La CNMV donne son agrément à l'OPA de Gas Natural sur Fenosa

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.
19/03/2009

Royaume-Uni - Pru défend le prêt de titres

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.
19/03/2009

Suisse - Controverse sur le calcul des fonds étrangers

Selon L"Agefi suisse, le calcul des fonds de clients étrangers gérés par les banques en Suisse sème la discorde. Les statisticiens peinent en effet à tomber d"accord sur la méthodologie de calcul et, surtout, sur les sources de certains chiffres. Ainsi, ces derniers jours, le conseiller fédéral Hans-Rudolf Merz a avancé un chiffre: 14,5 milliards de francs. Ce montant correspondrait aux bénéfices générés par les fonds étrangers gérés par les banques suisses, soit une partie de la valeur ajoutée du secteur bancaire. Mais le département des finances s"interrogeait encore hier pour savoir comment cette statistique avait été établie et qui l"avait élaborée
19/03/2009

Monde - UBP pour une gestion alternative réformée

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».
19/03/2009

Italie - Assogestioni voit une lueur d?espoir pour les fonds

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.
19/03/2009

Monde - L'euro à 1,35

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.
19/03/2009

Etats-Unis - Le rally de Citi a piégé les hedge funds

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.
19/03/2009

Europe - La BCE hésite sur les moyens "non conventionnels"

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.
19/03/2009

Etats-Unis - Gestion : les parlementaires US veulent surtaxer les bonus

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.
19/03/2009

Etats-Unis - La Fed rachétera bien des bons du Trésor

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.

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