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19/02/2009

Spain - Santander completes first sale of Banif Inmobiliario property

Santander Real Estate on Wednesday concluded the sale of the first office property from the portfolio of its real estate fund Santander Banif Inmobiliario, Expansión reports. The sale went through at EUR23m, 17% below the estimated price, but 16% above the purchase price of the property in 1999. The buyer of the 5,500-square-metre property at Paseo de la Castellana 13 is Castellana Gestión Patrimonial.
19/02/2009

Spain - Santander in offer to help Lehman victims

Banif, the private banking affiliate of Santander, will offer some of its clients who lost money in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy the same preferential shares in the group offered to victims of the Madoff fraud case (subscribers to the Optimal fund), Cinco Días reports.
19/02/2009

France - Tocqueville merges Dividende funds

Tocqueville will merge the FCP Tocqueville Dividende Europe fund (about EUR30m in assets) into the Tocqueville Dividende (about EUR500m), in order to adjust to the realities of the current economic situation. The two products have similar management objectives, with portfolios composed largely of European equities.
19/02/2009

United States - Clients panic at Stanford banks

Panicked savers flooded into bank branches on Wednesday to withdraw their money from banks in Antigua and Venezuela with ties to Sir Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire accused of massive fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Times reports. The FBI is also investigating Stanford Financial Group, the newspaper adds.
19/02/2009

United States - Madoff scandal accelerated investigation of Stanford

There had been suspicions for years about R. Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire accused of a USD8bn fraud, the Wall Street Journal reports. But a lack of coordination between Federal agencies and the difficulty of obtaining information about his bank in Antigua prevented regulators from having a clear view of the overall situation. It appears to have been the Madoff scandal which accelerated the Securities and Exchange Commission’s investigation of Stanford.
19/02/2009

United States - Directors of management firms still well-paid

Directors in the asset management sector in the United States may have seen a reduction in their income, but they are not being subjected to the same wave of austerity that is washing over other financial professions, the Wall Street Journal reports. In 2008, US equities funds lost an average of 39%. But most pay scales for directors in asset management are tied to the profitability of the firm, and not only to the performance of funds, the WSJ remarks. In addition, the asset management sector has had only limited recourse to TARP funds.
19/02/2009

United States - Search for clues in Madoff case

Irving Picard, the representative appointed by bankruptcy courts to locate the assets of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, has subpoenaed nine companies to obtain all documents they may possess about goods or services furnished to Bernard Madoff’s structure. According to the Wall Street Journal, the companies involved include law and accountancy firms, as well as a hairdresser.
19/02/2009

Germany - Assets under management at MLP remain stable

MLP announced on Wednesday that its assets under management as of the end of December totalled EUR11.4bn, the same level as one year previously. They have increased slightly from their levels of GBP11.3bn at the end of September, thanks to net inflows of EUR280m in December, which represents the best monthly result since the firm was founded.As of 31 December, MLP posted liquidity of EUR210.1m, up from EUR155.8m, which could allow for two or three acquisitions of small competitors.
19/02/2009

Germany - MLP rules out merger with AWD

Uwe Schroeder-Wildberg, chairman of the board at MLP, declared on Wednesday that putting the company under the control of an insurer is unimaginable, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. This amounts to a categorical rejection of plans at Swiss Life to merge its German affiliate AWD with MLP. The situation is complex, since Swiss Life also owns nearly 25% of MLP, whose founder and largest shareholder (30%), Manfred Lautenschläger, is opposed to a merger between the two providers of financial services.
19/02/2009

United States - Morningstar creates two sets of asset allocation indexes

Morningstar on Wednesday announced the launch of two ranges of asset allocation indexes using a methodology developed by its affiliate Ibbotson Associates. They include 13 horizon indexes in the Lifetime Allocation series (each of which is available in three risk profiles: aggressive, moderate, and conservative), and five Target Risk indexes, covering a full range of asset allocation profiles.
19/02/2009

World - Further outflows from hedge funds in January

According to TrimTabs, net redemptions from hedge funds in January totalled USD74bn, bringing total redemptions since September to USD315bn, the Wall Street Journal reports. However, funds posted average performance of 0.3% last month. The heaviest outflows in January were from event-driven funds, at USD19.8bn, while the only funds to post net subscriptions (USD2bn) were funds specialised in mergers and acquisitions.
19/02/2009

Europe - Wall of silence surrounds Stanford Financial

As United States authorities have frozen the assets of Sir Allen Stanford, accused by the US Securities and Exchange Commission of a USD8bn fraud, clients worldwide are panicking and seeking to recuperate money deposited with the Stanford International Bank (SIB), based in the offshore tax haven of Antigua. In Venezuela, the banking regulatory authority is reported to have announced that one third, or USD2.5bn, of the amounts involved in the fraud belonged to Venezuelan clients, according to the Telegraph. And in Europe? The wealth management firm is clamping shut all lines of communication. When contacted by Newsmanagers, the European offices of Stanford Financial, based in Zurich, indicated that they were no longer responding directly to enquiries from the media, and that all questions should be addressed directly to the SEC. On the subject of the exposure of European and French clients, ?we do not yet have precise information to disclose,? said Rose Romero, regional director of the SEC. Meanwhile, the investigation is continuing, apparently accelerated by the recent Madoff scandal. A manhunt has begun in the United States to find the billionaire, but for the moment, Stanford appears to be impossible to find.
19/02/2009

World - Credit Suisse/Tremont index up 1.09%

Final statistics for the performance of the Credit Suisse/Tremont hedge fund index in January put it at 1.09%, with gains of 5.72% for convertible arbitrage strategies, and 3.69% for dedicated short bias. Initially, the January edition of the index announced gains of 0.8% (see Newsmanagers of 12 February).
19/02/2009

World - State Street confidence index up again

Global Pensions reports that the institutional investor confidence index calculated by State Street showed a level of 72.9 in February, up from 60.2 in January and 48.2 in December. The North American index gained 13 points, to 64.5, while the European index was down 3.2 points to 69.2.
19/02/2009

United Kingdom - Assets under management or administration in Guernsey up 12.5% in 2008

According to statistics from the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, assets in funds managed or administered in Guernsey fell by GBP1bn in fourth quarter 2008. However, at the end of December, these assets totalled GBP200.4bn, or 12.5% more than twelve months previously. In one year, the increase in assets under management or administration totalled 8.1% for open-ended funds, to GBP63.6bn; 19.8%, to GBP91.5bn, for closed funds; and 39%, to GBP45.3bn, for foreign funds which are partly managed or administered on the island.
19/02/2009

United States - Legg Mason recruits Kimberly Mustin

Kimberly M. Mustin, managing director of the financial institutions group at Deutsche Bank, has been recruited by Legg Mason (USD698bn in assets as of the end of 2008) as managing director, head of institutional business for the Americas. She will report to David R. Odenath, senior executive vice president and head of the Americas. Mustin’s duties will include developing sales of mutual funds and managed accounts activities serving institutional clients. She will also be responsible for account management for all relations with broker/dealers, sales via platforms, and relations with distribution networks for the Americas.
19/02/2009

United Kingdom - 46% of IFAs earn more than half of their revenues from platforms

In a survey of 230 British IFAs, Skandia has found that 46% of respondents now get at least half of their business from platforms (and 22% of respondents earn at least 75% of their revenues via platforms). The analysis reveals that 90% of IFAs already use platforms, and that 57% of them use two or three of them, while 11% use 4 or 5 platforms, and 31% use only one.This year, use of platforms is expected to increase, as 54% of respondents say they are planning to move at least half of their activities to supports of this type.
19/02/2009

World - Hope is returning to financial markets, according to latest Merrill Lynch survey

Though the gravity of the financial crisis has never been so manifest, a return of optimism about outlooks for growth in China has contributed to a significant improvement in investor sentiment, according to the most recent Merrill Lynch survey of managers (February).For the first time since the crisis began in July 2007, the number of investors predicting that the crisis will become more severe in the next twelve months has declined to a net total of 6%, compared with 24% in January and 60% in October. However, 90% of investors do admit that we are now in a global recession. Growth outlooks for the Euro zone, for their part, have reached their highest levels for twelve months, but European managers remain overweight in cash, where positions are at their highest levels since October 2001.There has also been a favourable development in investors’ predictions of corporate profits: only 43% of respondents predict that profits will deteriorate in the next twelve months, compared with 63% in December. In terms of allocation, commodities are regaining strength, with a net position 15% underweight, compared with 32% in December. Merrill Lynch emphasizes that gold is not considered overvalued. The regain of optimism does not extend to equities (34% net underweight, as in December). Investors are returning to cyclical shares to the expense of defensive shares.
19/02/2009

Spain - Santander RE planning to double redemption delay for Banif Inmobiliario

According to sources close to the management firm, subscribers to the Banif Inmobiliario fund may have eto wait four years, and not two as announced on Monday, before recuperating the entirety of their investment. Funds People reports that the manager, Santander Real Estate, would be legally allowed to take a further two years to liquidate the entirety of the portfolio if it does not succeed in selling off the properties. However, the management firm will pay out redemptions at intervals every time it manages to sell another 10% of the portfolio.
19/02/2009

Spain - Harbinger Capital shorts BBVA and Popular

According to the CNMV, the alternative management firm Harbinger Capital, led by Philip Falcone, is continuing to bet on a falling share price for BBVA and Banco Popular, Cotizalia reports. The fund has declared short positions amounting to 0.56% of capital in BBVA (compared with 0.39% in October), and 0.75% of capital in Popular.Since investors have been required to declare short positions to the regulator whenever they exceed 0.25% of capital in a firm, shares in BBVA and Popular have respectively lost 45% and 50% of their value.
19/02/2009

Germany - Sustainable development funds underperform

According to calculations by Feri covering 42 sustainable development funds on sale in Germany, products in this category last year suffered an average loss in Euros of 35.42%, while the MSCI World Standard Core index in US dollars lost 31.60%, Handelsblatt reports.The best results in the category were for the Liga-Pax-Cattolico-Union fund from Union Investment, whose selection of shares that comply with the principles of the Catholic church is undertaken by the Milan-based firm E-Capital: the fund shows losses in 2008 of 28.74%. However, funds invested in small and midcaps tend to amplify the movements of the stock markets, and products such as the Fortis Green Future and the SEB-Oekolux show respective losses of 45.84% and 41.08%.
19/02/2009

France - Axa: Asset management revenues down 14%

According to Axa, which published its annual results on Thursday this week, operating profits for its asset management unit are up 6% to EUR589m. Operating profits at AllianceBernstein have improved 9% to EUR318m, while operating profits at AXA Investment Managers have increased 3%, to EUR271m. Revenues from asset management are down 14%, to EUR3.947bn, affected by a decline in commissions (-11%), largely due to an average volume of assets under management lower than the previous year. Assets under management are down by EUR276bn (-8%), for a total of EUR816bn as of 31 December 2008. Of this decrease, EUR261n are due to ?unfavourable market conditions,? according to a statement. Net revenues are down by EUR28bn, with a negative contribution from AllianceBernstein in all client segments (-EUR30bn), while AXA Investment Managers remains in positive territory (+EUR2bn), due to inflows from institutional clients (including AXA).
18/02/2009

Allemagne - Bénéfice de 3 millions d'euros pour La Commerzbank

Mercredi matin, la Commerzbank a annoncé avoir enregistré un bénéfice net de 3 millions d’euros pour 2008 contre 1,9 milliard pour 2007. Son résultat d’exploitation a été négatif de 378 millions d’euros contre un bénéfice de 2,5 milliards.
18/02/2009

Allemagne - Recul du bénéfice de M.M. Warburg

Pour 2008, le bénéfice net de M.M. Warburg a diminué à 48 millions d’euros contre 63 millions, et la banque privée affecte 14,2 millions d’euros au renforcement de ses fonds propres, lesquels augmentent ainsi à 314 millions d’euros. Les actifs sous gestion sont ressortis fin décembre à 29,2 milliards d’euros pour le groupe, contre 30,5 milliards un an plus tôt, les apports nets des particuliers n’ayant pu compenser les retraits nets des investisseurs institutionnels.
18/02/2009

Allemagne - La Commerzbank bascule dans le rouge

Selon les informations du Handelsblatt recueillies dans les milieux financiers, la Commerzbank aurait accusé une très légère perte nette pour 2008, un remboursement d’impôts ayant compensé une perte «nettement plus forte» avant impôt.
18/02/2009

Etats-Unis - Forte baisse à Wall Street

Selon La Tribune, miné par le recul des valeurs bancaires et pétrolières, le Dow Jones a perdu 3,79% à l’issue de la séance du mardi 17 février, le Nasdaq reculant pour sa part de 4,15%. Certains investisseurs doutent de l’efficacité du plan de relance Obama de 787 milliards de dollars alors que les signes inquiétants pour l'économie US s’enchaînent, analyse La Tribune.
18/02/2009

Espagne - Les fonds immobiliers ont perdu la moitié de leur encours en un an

Les souscripteurs des fonds immobiliers espagnols ont demandé le remboursement de 4,5 milliards d’euros sur le total de 9 milliards d’encours atteint dans le courant de l’an dernier. Les rachats ont porté sur 2,6 milliards d’euros pour le seul Santander Banif Inmobiliario, ce qui a incité Santander Real Estate à geler les sorties pendant deux ans, rappelle Expansión. Deux des neuf fonds immobiliers, Habitat Patrimonio et Segurfondo Terciario (Inverseguros) ont déjà entamé leur procédure de liquidation et le BBVA a annoncé fin 2008 qu’il fermera le hedge fund immobilier BBVA Propriedad Global. D’autre part, le Segurfondo Inversón (Inverseguros) et le Madrid Patrimonio Inmobiliario (Caja Madrid) affichent moins de 2 % de liquidités et risquent des difficultés. Sabadell Inmobiliario présente 10 % de liquidités, comme le Banif Inmobiliario en septembre 2008. Les fonds d’Ahorro Corporación et de Caixa Catalunya sont mieux armés pour faire face à une avalanche de remboursements, parce que leur ratio de cash se situe respectivement à 26 et 80 %.
18/02/2009

Etats-Unis - Les investisseurs étrangers reviennent sur les actifs US

Selon l’Agefi, les étrangers ont acheté pour 22,4 milliards de dollars d’actifs américains en décembre. «Après avoir liquidé un record de 56 milliards de dollars en novembre, les étrangers se sont repositionnés sur les actifs américains allant des titres du Trésor aux dettes corporate (?)», observe le quotidien numérique, en relevant notamment 15 milliards de dollars d’achat sur les Treasuries.

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