BGF US Flexible Equity Fund est géré par Bob Doll chez BlackRock. Le compartiment de la SICAV luxembourgeoise BGF, investi majoritairement en grandes capitalisations américaines, réalise depuis le début de l’année une performance de 5,23 %. Alors que les mauvaises nouvelles s’accumulent sur les marchés boursiers du monde entier, Bob Doll manifeste #un optimisme prudent# pour cette année, pourtant caractérisée par une #méchante récession# («nasty recession»). #2009 verra les actifs risqués surperformer les Treasuries et le cash#, affirme le directeur de la gestion actions de BlackRock. Il estime que le point bas sur le marché américain a été atteint en novembre 2008, et anticipe une croissance de 10 à 12 % des actions américaines cette année. Plusieurs éléments plaident en faveur des actions US, #comme l’injection massive d’aides publiques, les incitations fiscales et la baisse du pétrole, sans oublier la faible valorisation des actions qui sont devenues très peu chères#, explique Bob Doll. D’un point de vue sectoriel, le gérant du BGF US Flexible Equity Fund favorise actuellement le secteur de l'énergie. #Les valeurs de ce secteur sont peu chères et bénéficieront de la problématique offre/demande sur le long terme#, estime Bob Doll. Le gérant maintient également une supondération défensive sur les valeurs de santé, #caractérisées par une bonne visibilité et des valorisations attrayantes#. Enfin, les technologies de l’information plaisent au gérant pour leur management prudent, #qui a su tirer les leçons de la bulle technologique du début de la décennie#, souligne Bob Doll, qui reste à l'écart des secteurs comme la consommation, les financières et les industrielles. Parmi les valeurs présentes dans le portefeuille du BGF US Flexible Equity Fund, on retrouve Amgen, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Pfizer et Wellpoint pour la poche #valeurs de santé#; Accenture, Broadcom, Hewlett Packard, Symantec et Xerox chez les valeurs de technologie d’information; et Chevron, Anadarko Petroleum, Conoco Philips ou encore Valero Energy issues du secteur de l'énergie.

Selon La Tribune, le fonds d’investissement américain TPG essuie toutes les calamités qui frappent l’industrie du capital-investissement. Le géant du marché du LBO, avec quelque 30 milliards de dollars d’actifs sous gestion, a réduit la taille de son dernier fonds, en proposant à ses investisseurs de leur restituer une parie de leur mise.Par ailleurs TPC Capital pâtit toujours de ses pertes financières, dont celles enregistrées à l"automne 2008 avec la banque américaine Washington Mutual, indique La Tribune.

Pour 2008, Morningstar a réalisé un bénéfice d’exploitation consolidé en hausse de 18,6 % à 139,1 millions de dollars pour un chiffre d’affaires en augmentation de 15,5 % à 502,5 millions. Son bénéfice net est ressroti à 92,5 millions de dollars ou 1,88 dollar par action, contre 73,9 millions et 1,53 dollar pour 2007.Joe Mansueto, chairman et CEO, a estimé que l’exercice écoulé a été globalement bon, mais que la hausse du chiffre d’affaires a significativement ralenti au quatrième trimestre. Il a souligné aussi que 13 % du chiffre d’affaires sont liés à des commissions assises sur des actifs, de sorte que la forte baisse des marchés a eu un impact négatif sur les rentrées.

Investment news rapporte que, selon une note interne de Citigroup, John Longley quitte son poste de CEO de Citi Private Bank pour les Etats-Unis et le Canada, pour se consacrer à d’autres défis#. Il est remplacé provisoirement par Mark connolly et Richard Ditzio en tant que co-CEOs sous la responsabilié de Ned Kelly, global banking head. Mark Connolly était jusqu'à présent responsable des activités de gestion de fortune de la banque aux Etats-Unis (ce qui couvre également Citi Fiduciary Services) tandis que Richard Ditzio était responsable de la clientèle privée haut de gamme.

Le cabinet d’avocats Cremades & Calvo Sotelo, qui a déjà coordonné les procédures à l’encontre de la banque dans l’affaire Madoff, a indiqué jeudi que des souscripteurs du fonds immobilier Santander Banif Inmobiliario ont l’intention de porter plainte contre le Santander, rapporte le Handelsblatt. Ils reprochent à la banque d’avoir organisé et aggravé la pénurie de liquidités du fonds.

Le Santander a annoncé jeudi que 70 % de ses clients particuliers affectés par l’affaire Madoff, ceux qui avaient investi dans le fonds Optimal Strategy US Equity, ont accepté l’offre de dédommagement que leur a faite la banque espagnole tandis qu’entre 7 et 9 % l’ont refusée et ont préféré poursuivre leur action en justice commune contre l'établissement, rapporte Cinco Días.

Selon Le Figaro, si les autorités suisses refusaient de transmettre les noms des clients américains les plus fraudeurs aux autorités du pays, la banque pourrait perdre son droit d"exercice aux États-Unis. La justice US exige maintenant que la banque lui révèle l"identité de 52000 titulaires de comptes secrets illégaux sur lesquels seraient déposés 14,8 milliards de dollars, après avoir déjà obtenu l’identité de 300 clients, dont certains ont d’ailleurs décidé de porter plainte contre l’enseigne suisse pour violation du secret bancaire.

Renta 4 a notifié à la CNMV qu’au 31 décembre son fonds de hedge funds Pictet, le Mosaic Iberia, a accusé en une seule journée des demandes de rachat portant sur plus de 20 % de son encours, indique Funds People. A fin novembre, l’encours était de 1,75 million d’euros.

VDOS Stochastics reports that 291 Spanish guaranteed funds with total assets of EUR22.09bn (+17%) will mature in 2009, Funds People reports.Of this total, 176 are equities funds, while 115 are bond funds, with respective assets under management of EUR9.6bn and EUR12.49bn.VDOS states that only two of the guaranteed funds maturing this year have over EUR1bn in assets, the BBVA Extra Tesoreria (EUR3.5bn) and the BBVA Extra 5 Garantizado (EUR1.9bn).

Investment News reports that, according to an internal memo at Citigroup, John Longley is leaving his job as CEO of Citi Private Bank for the US and Canada to pursue other interests. He will be replaced in the interim by Mark Connolly and Richard Ditzio as co-CEOs; they will report to Ned Kelly, global banking head. Connolly was head of wealth management activities for the US bank (which also includes Citi Fiduciary Services), while Ditzio was head of high net worth private clients.

Funds People has noted that the Valórica Global, the best Spanish hedge fund, with performance of 11.78% in 2008, was also one of the funds which suffered the heaviest redemptions. Its assets were reduced to EUR70m at the end of December, compared with EUR90m at the end of July. Also hard-hit was the BBVA & Partners Retorno Absoluto, which has fallen to EUR30m from EUR50m at the end of July, while it showed gains of 4.9% for last year as a whole.In total, assets in Spanish hedge funds and funds of hedge funds as of 31 December totalled about EUR1bn, compared with EUR1.6bn at the end of July.

Renta 4 has notified the CNMV that as of 31 December, its Pictet fund of hedge funds, the Mosaic Iberia, received redemption demands in a single day amounting to more than 20% of its assets, Funds People reports. At the end of November, assets totalled EUR1.75m.

John Longley, who was previously head of private banking for the United States and Canada at Citigroup in New York, will join iShares (Barclays Global Investors) in San Francisco this spring, as head of national accounts, the Wall Street Journal reports. He will be director of strategy, and will lead a team in charge of developing distribution of ETFs via partnerships with national and regional banks and broker-dealers. At Citi, which is dissolving its wealth management division, private banking activities will now become part of the investment bank.

The FBI has found the billionaire Allen Stanford in Fredericksburg, Virginia, according to a spokesman for the FBI, Richard Kolko, in a statement relayed by several press agencies. Stanford is accused of a USD8bn fraud by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Stanford, who has been missing since the accusations of fraud were made public, has still not been arrested.

According to sources with knowledge of the case, civil proceedings filed by the SEC against R. Allen Stanford will now be joined by criminal charges made by the FBI in Fredericksburg, Virginia, the Wall Street Journal reports. The objective is to establish whether Stanford set up a massive Ponzi-type pyramid scheme similar to that of Bernard Madoff.

In 2008, Morningstar earned consolidated operating profits up 18.6% to USD139.1m, on revenues up 15.5% to USD502.5m. Net profits totalled USD92.5m, or USD1.88 per share, compared with USD73.9m and USD1.53 per share in 2007.Joe Mansueto, chairman and CEO, estimates that the past year was good overall, but that the increase in revenues slowed significantly in fourth quarter. He also emphasizes that 13% of revenues were from commissions based on assets, while the strong downturn on the markets had a negative impact on inflows.

The law firm Cremades & Calvo Sotelo, which has already coordinated proceedings against Santander by several parties over the Madoff affair, on Thursday announced that subscribers to the real estate fund Santander Banif Inmobiliario are planning to file a suit against Santander, Handelsblatt reports. They accuse the bank of orchestrating and aggravating a liquidity shortage in the fund.

La Tribune reports that a government plan to support the banks is under preparation in Dubai, and the prospect of the program was enough to breathe new life into the stock markets (which gained 5.38% on Thursday and are up 8% for the week). ?If we want banks to continue lending to the real estate sector, the government will need to come to their aid,? said sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, in charge of economic evaluation, La Tribune reports.

On Wall Street, bankers will have to go without bonuses and agree to work for one dollar per year, but this wave of austerity had not affected the heads of the major mutual fund management firms, the Wall Street Journal reports. Their pay has been cut, but by much less. On average, equities funds in the United States lost 39% last year, but the pay scales of directors of management firms are tied to profits for the business, not the performance of funds. In addition, management firms have generally not received financial assistance from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which comes with an obligation to limit management pay scales. At State Street, which has claimed aid from TARP, however, the CEO, Ronald E. Logue, will be paid only USD1m in 2008, down from USD20.7m in 2007. But non-cash benefits (car, bodyguard, etc), which were worth USD35,000 in 2007, will certainly be increased.

The Financial Times reports that, in the wake of an investigation by the tax authorities of UBS, which is accused of abetting tax evasion by its US clients, UBS has agreed to a settlement. It will pay the US authorities a fine of USD780m. Banking confidentiality will no longer apply to some clients.

Santander announced on Thursday that 70% of its retail clients affected by the Madoff scandal, those who had invested in the Optimal Strategy US Equity fund, have accepted a settlement offered to them by the Spanish bank, while 7% to 9% have refused the offer and preferred to continue with their class action lawsuit against the bank, Cinco Días reports.

The Financial Times reports that the London Stock Exchange (LSE) has joined the consortium led by the British broker ICAP, alongside ten investment banks including Société Générale and Morgan Stanley. The consortium will launch a bid to acquire the London-based clearing-house LCH.Clearnet.

Les Echos reports that the major actors on the credit derivatives market yesterday agreed to ?use a centralised chamber of compensation, based in the European Union, for eligible European credit default swaps (CDS) by the end of July.? The EU government in Brussels has been demanding since October 2008 that the profession organise such a centralised organisation itself for these financial instruments, which are supposed to provide coverage against the risk of default by debt issuers.

Citigroup is replacing Nick Roe, who has been European and global head of prime finance since March 2008, and who becomes global head of prime finance, with Mark Harrison, COO of Cheyne Capital, as European head of prime finance. Hedge Week reports that Harrison, who founded Carlyle Blue Wave after leaving Deutsche Bank, where he was international head of prime brokerage and securities lending, will be in charge of securities lending and prime brokerage for Europe at Citi, and will be based in London, like Roe.

Asoka Wöhrmann, who will become head of FI management at DWS, replacing Heinz Fesser, has told the Financial Times Deutschland that the Deutsche Bank management firm is planning to reduce the number of bond funds on offer from 70 to 30, and to ?drastically? reduce the number of money market funds on offer. The bond range will be composed of funds with more clearly readable risk profiles. For money market funds, there will be two sub-groups with different risk levels, which will invest in assets with different maturities.

DWS has announced that in 2008, approximately 77% of its assets came from Germany, compared with 71% the previous year, while the proportion of assets in Europe ex-Germany is down by corresponding proportions, to 23%. The Deutsche Bank group’s fund manager also states that the proportion of assets intermediated by the bank’s own network has increased by one percentage point to 49%, while assets intermediated by IFAs (and brokerage networks or major distributors) increased 4% in one year, to 21% of assets under management.

Sal. Oppenheim announced on Thursday that it will be transferring possession of its stakes in publicly traded companies to an independent holding company, whose financing will be entirely provided by about 40 family shareholders, who have all recently subscribed to a EUR200m capital increase at the bank.The holding company will control a 28.6% stake in Arcandor, a 20% stake in IVG Immobilien, and a 20% stake in Continental, held on behalf of the Schaeffler family and the new affiliate Sal. Oppenheim Private Equity Partners. The operation will allow the private bank to concentrate on its wealth management and investment banking professions.

The private bank Reichmuth & Co on Thursday expressed regrets that the Swiss financial markets surveillance authority (Finma) refused its application to create a side pocket containing about one quarter of assets in the Matterhorn fund of hedge funds, which has undergone losses of about 8.5% of its assets due to its Madoff investments (see Newsmanagers of 15 December 2008). The fund will now be liquidated, and about 50% of assets will be redeemed to investors in April. The remainder will be paid on a quarterly basis, and Reichmuth predicts that redemptions will be completed by the end of 2010 at the latest. Until then, as the fund generated performance of 7.4% per year from its launch in 1997 until the end of 2008, compared with 4.2% for the HFRI fund of funds index, Reichmuth has decided to launch another product in the near future using the same strategy.

The Scope agency on Thursday published its 2008 annual report on 31 open-ended real estate funds in Germany. 15 of these funds had their ratings improved, while twelve received a downgrade, three remained unchanged, and one, the Degi German Business, received a rating (of AA+), while it had no rating in 2007. Only the WestInvest ImmoValue received a AAA rating, but it is a product reserved to institutional investor clients of the savings banks. Scope awarded only one D rating, to the Euro ImmoProfil fund from iii-investments, which received a B rating in 2007.

The private equity fund Sator will acquire a majority stake in Banca Profilo by subscribing to a EUR110m capital increase at 20 cents per share. The deal marks the return of Matteo Arpe, CEO and largest shareholder in Sator, to the foreground, the Wall Street Journal notes. Arpe was CEO of Capitalia before its acquisition by UniCredit in 2007, the newspaper notes.