Ignites Europe reports that Al.ain Leclair, chairman of the French wealth management association (AFG), on Wednesday met with Jean-Pierre Jouyet, the new chairman of the French financial regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), to ask him to convene a summit of European regulators to put pressure on UBS and HSBC to reimburse investors who have fallen victim to the Madoff fraud. Colette Neuville was also present at the meeting.

Schelcher Prince Gestion, a management firm specialised in fixed income, is joining a trend with its launch of a fund with a fixed maturity date, entitled Schelcher Prince Horizon 2012. The FCP fund will be invested in corporate or convertible bonds of the fixed income type, in the Euro zone, whose maturity may not exceed 31 march 2012. A minimum of 80% of the assets will be investment-grade or better.The attraction of the fund is to ?take advantage of current spreads, which offer very high returns with good quality signatories,? explains Bruno Promonet, deputy CEO of Schelcher Prince. Its objective is to outperform the BTAN, 3.75 January 2012 by at least 3% at maturity. ?A net asset value of more than 120% may be achieved at maturity in conditions identical to the current situation,? says Promonet.

La Tribune reports that falling markets are having an impact on the structure of commissions in alternative management. A study by Bfinance, covering 28 managers of hedge funds and funds of hedge funds in 10 countries, finds a falling trend in management fees. ?Fixed commissions for funds of hedge funds may fall by 17%, and would come out between 90 and 100 basis points,? says Muriel Nahmais, director of research at Bfinance. ?At the same time, performance commissions at hedge funds would fall 25% to a level of about 10%-15%.?

On Friday morning, KanAm Grund announced that it will be extending the redemption freeze on its two open-ended real estate funds, grundinvest and US-grundinvest, for nine months. The Munich-based management firm states that it is planning to reopen the two funds to redemptions before the end of October.DEGI (Aberdeen Property Investors) has chosen to reopen its real estate fund DEGI International to redemptions from 30 January 2009, ending a freeze which had been in place since the end of October 2008. The product has since registered net subscriptions of EUR65m from retail investors. The liquidity reserves at the fund will measure about 25% at the time of its reopening. The occupancy rate for properties in the fund’s portfolio is 98%. However, DEGI (EUR6bn in assets) is extending the freeze on redemptions for its other open-ended real estate fund, DEGI Europa, for a further nine months, as this fund has not managed to amass a sufficient level of liquidities.KanAm and DEGI initially suspended redemptions from the funds at the end of October, along with ten other management firms. In the past week, it has been announced that redemptions are also frozen for a further nine months from the CS Euroreal, TMW Pramerica Weltfonds, Mrogan Stanley P2 Value, Axa Immoselect and SEB ImmoInvest funds.Legally, the management firms would be allowed to extend these freezes on redemptions once more, for a further twelve months. At the end of this period, they would have to liquidate the fund and reimburse investors.

Although their assets last year fell to CHF248.71bn from CHF282.96bn at the end of 2007, Swiss-registered funds posted net subscriptions of CHF26.62bn, while Luxembourg-registered funds saw net redemptions of CHF46.76bn, AGEFI Switzerland reports. Otto Kober, head of research in Switzerland for Lipper, says that so far, there have been very few redemptions of shares in equities funds (CHF3.52bn in 2008).

At the end of December, assets at the alternative management firm Partners Group came out at CHF24.4bn, the same level as one year previously. In the event, net subscriptions of CHF6.2bn balanced out the negative impact of the rising Swiss Franc against the Euro and the US dollar (CHF1.1bn in the month of December alone), and negative market effects. Assets under management as of 31 December were about CHF1bn lower than the projections announced by the alternative management firm in November 2008.Of total assets as of the end of last year, assets in private equity represented CHF19.2bn, compared with CHF16.7bn twelve months earlier, while real estate totalled CHF0.5bn, compared with CHF0.3bn. Meanwhile, the private infrastructure allocation represented CHF0.3bn, while CHF1.8bn were allocated to absolute performance strategies, publicly traded alternative products, and the wealth management division.For the end of 2009, Partners Group projects assets of CHF26-29bn.

Henderson Group on Sunday confirmed that it is in negotiations with New Star Asset Management over a possible takeover, the Financial Times reports. The British management firm also announced that it would recommend a dividend of 6.1 pence for 2008, the same level as in 2007.

According to a study by Santander Asset Management, assets in SRI funds in Spain fell to EUR883.04m at the end of December, compared with EUR1.16497bn twelve months earlier, a decline of 24.3%, Cinco Días reports. The leader remains BBVA by far, with EUR717.74m, ahead of Santander (EUR90.57m) and La Caixa (EUR13.24m).

Deutsche Bank, promoter of the fund, claims that the DB Platinum Commodity Harvest Fund, which has been granted sales licenses in Luxembourg, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, and Spain, is the first market neutral commodities fund to comply with the UCITS III directive, HedgeWeek reports. The absolute performance fund replicates the evolution of the Deutsche Bank Commodity Harvest Index, launched in 2007.The strategy is applied to 21 commodities which offer good liquidity in the energy, metals, and agricultural sectors, with a long and a short position on each of the underlying commodities. The objective is to buy contracts at a low price, and to sell them at higher prices.

Confronted with falling asset levels, United States-based management firms are reducing their costs, and layoffs will primarily affect management, according to a new study from Greenwich Associates, covering entities which manage total assets of USD3.2trn. These firms are looking to trim back their budgets by an average of 22% in 2009, compared with 2008. Overall, for the management sector as a whole, cost reductions between 2008 and 2009 are projected to come out at 14%. This remains generally lower than the expected decline in revenues. After an average decrease in assets of 31% in 2008, management firms are preparing for an average decrease in revenues of 33% compared with their 2007 levels at the end of 2009. The managers expecting to be most severely affected are predicting a fall of 43% in 2009 revenues compared with 2007.Greenwich explains that most management firms, rather than reducing their costs proportionally to the decline in revenues, will seek to position themselves for the moment when the markets begin to rebound. They will thus lay off fewer employees in the areas of client and investor services, according to Goran Hagegard, a consultant at Greenwich Associates. This will result in lower profit margins in the short term: in 2009, margins will fall 37% compared with 2007.Most managers are cutting positions in all areas that do not affect management. About three quarters of firms reducing costs are targeting support services and/or investment operations, and about two third are aiming at distribution and client services and/or IT. ?More than half of firms say that executive management is in the firing line, and this category may even see some of the most significant cuts,? says the consultant Chris Nickle. ?More than 30% of firms seeking to reduce spending on executive management claim they are aiming to cut costs by 15% or more, and 17% say they will reduce them by 30% or more.? This will primarily involve cuts in bonuses of 29% on average between 2007 and 2008. In addition, about half of the management firms surveyed say they are cutting personnel. Those which have done or which are planning to do so are planning to reduce staff by an average of about 11%.

According to calculations by Pensions & Investments, assets in the 1,000 largest retirement funds in the United States contracted by USD754bn or 11.8% in fourth quarter, which brings the total decline to USD1.7trn in the fifteen months to the end of December, Pensions & Investments reports. As of 30 September, total assets had fallen by USD965bn or 13.1% over twelve months, to a total of USD6.4trn, while assets under management in the 200 largest retirement savings plans were down 15.9% to USD4.7trn.

Funds People announces that Gonzalo Lardiés star manager at the Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild, after an equally celebrated career at Metagestión, on 1 February will be joining Interdin Gestión, which is 70% owned by the Banca Privada de Andorra, and which on this date will become known as BPA AM. At that time, the fund managed by Lardiés, the BPERE Fondo Ibérico Acciones, will be renamed as the BPA Fondo Ibérico Acciones. BPERE was already involved in the management of the Interdin product under an outsourcing contract.

The German BVI association of management firms announced on Friday that savings plans in the form of shares in open-ended real estate funds in the ten years to the end of December posted an average performance of 2.8% per year, as did bond funds in Euros, while global bond funds posted gains of 0.7%, and diversified funds invested in Germany produced minimal gains of 0.1%.Due to a collapse in asset levels between 2000 and 2003 more than to the current financial crisis, German equities funds posted an aveage loss of 9.7%, compared with 8.1% for global equities funds and 8% for European equities funds. Geman equities funds only generated performance higher than that of all other categories over 30 years, with an average of 6.4%, putting them just ahead of German diversified funds, with 6.2%.

In 2008, Santander registered a decline in its assets of EUR18bn, to EUR32.95bn. Of this total, however, Expansión reports that about EUR7bn in redemptions were reinvested in deposits at the banking network, while EUR3bn were reinvested in insurance policies from the group.

La baisse à 1% de son taux de facilité a fait chuter les dépôts de 184,1 milliards à 111,4 milliards d'euros, entre le 20 et le 21 janvier

La création d'une société commune regroupant les activités de gestion classique pourrait être annoncée dès aujourd'hui

La région des 1.850 points devrait contenir tout recul en dessous de la zone de support à 2.085-2.130 points

Frédéric Dodard, directeur du pôle allocation d’actifs chez State Street Global Advisors

L’encours a progressé de 28% sur les neuf premiers mois de 2008. Le nombre de sociétés proposant le Perco augmente

Pascal Gilbert, responsable de la gestion obligataire à La Française des Placements

Philippe Weber, responsable des études et de la stratégie chez CPR AM

Philippe Percheron, multigérant au CM-CIC Asset Management

Grégoire Pesquès, responsable de la gestion crédit chez Société Générale AM

Selon des sources internes, la négociation en vue d’un rapprochement des entités de gestion d ‘actifs des groupes Société Générale et Crédit agricole SA a été bouclée. Le partage de la filiale commune se fera a raison de 30 % pour le premier, 70 % pour le second. L’accord ne concerne que la gestion traditionnelle. Alors que les équipes de Société Générale oeuvraient à leur réorganisation en groupes de travail depuis la nomination de Jean-Pierre Mustier, celui-ci a donc mené des discussions avec la Banque verte afin de créer une usine qui servira désormais trois réseaux : les caisses du Crédit Agricole, LCL et Société Générale. La Banque verte a déjà l’expérience de ce genre de processus pour l’avoir mis en œuvre après le rachat du Crédit Lyonnais. Le montage s’apparente ainsi à celui qui a présidé à la naissance de Newedge il y a un an, avec le rapprochement, cette fois à 50/50, des activités de courtage de Calyon Financial (Crédit Agricole) et Fimat (Société Générale). A l’évidence, Sgam AI (gestion alternative) devrait être intégrée à Lyxor (rattachée à la banque de financement et d’investissement).

D’après Lyxor, l’encours des ETF européens se situait fin décembre à 91 milliards d’euros, soit 6,49 % de plus qu’un an auparavant. Les trois principaux acteurs sur ce créneau étaient au 31 décembre Barclays Global Investors (BGI, marque iShares) avec 35,14 milliards d’euros, soit 8,4 % de moins qu’en début d’année, Lyxor (Société Générale), avec 23,29 milliards (+7,8 %) et db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank), avec 16,02 milliards (+ 120,4 %). A eux seuls, ces trois acteurs affichent une pert de marché de 81,5 %.Le secteur européen des trackers, qui couvre 31 sociétés de gestion, comptait 1.553 produits fin décembre. Quant à l’encours, il se répartissait à 66,47 % sur les actions, 20,80 % sur les obligations, 9,46 % sur le marché monétaire et #,27 % sur les matières premières.La croissance la plus spectaculaire d’encours a été enregistrée par les ETF monétaires, avec 326 % à 8,63 milliards d’euros. Leur part du marché total est passée aiçnsi de 2,36 % fin 2007 à 9,46 % un an plus tard. L’encours des fonds répliquant des indices de stratégie a gonflé pour sa part de 117 % à 2,23 milliards d’euros, ce qui représente 2,44 % des actifs totaux sous gestion contre 1,20 %.Le volume mensuel moyen de transactions est ressorti pour l’an dernier à 1.286 millions d’euros, soit 14 % de plus qu’en 2007.

Jeudi, le capital-investisseur Arques Industries AG a bouclé sa première transaction secondaire en vendant pour 30 millions d’euros ses participations dans les sociétés BEA Unternehmensverbund, ddp, Evotape et Rohner à BluO. Ce dernier est une société de private equity fondée par d’anciens dirigeants d’Arques. L’opération fait rentrer 20 millions d’euros dans les caisses d’Arques Industries.

Un porte-parole de la WestLB a confirmé les informations du Handelsblatt selon lesquelles il est à présent envisagé de scinder la banque en deux, avec une structure de défaisance qui prendrait en charge 80 milliards d’euros de papier toxique et d’autres actifs. Il resterait par ailleurs une banque à marier avec les secteurs activités de marché, financement des PME et banque des entreprises qui pourrait alors être fusionnée avec le gestionnaire d’actifs DekaBank et avec la Landesbank de Hesse-Thuringe (Helaba).

Les clients de la filiale allemande de Lehman Brothers peuvent tabler sur une indemnisation rapide car le Fonds de stabilisation financière (SoFFin) va accorder sa garantie pour 6,7 milliards d’euros de nouveaux emprunts au fonds de garantie des dépôts des banques du secteur privé (SdB), rapporte la Börsen-Zeitung. Le produit de ces émissions doit permettre de dédommager rapidement les sinistrés. La Commission européenne a donné son feu vert à cette garantie du SoFFin.

Baigo Capital, qui se veut le seul capital-investisseur européen dédié exclusivement au marché de la santé, a pris deux participations en Allemagne, dans Vanguard AG, «leader européen de la stérilisation et des services opérationnels pour les hôpitaux», ainsi que dans EuroEyes GmbH, un «groupe européen leader dans le domaine des cliniques de chirurgie ophtalmologique». Marcus Huascar Bracklo, directeur général, s’est refusé à préciser le montant des deux transactions ainsi que celui des participations acquises, se bornant à indiquer à NewsManagers que ces participations sont «substantielles» et permettent à Baigo Capital de siéger au conseil, de disposer d’un droit de veto et d’avoir un droit de regard sur la stratégie, bref de jouer un rôle d’investisseur actif. Sal. Oppenheim est le seul des partenaires/actionnaires de Baigo Capital à avoir accepté que son nom soit mentionné. La banque privée détient, là encore «une participation substantielle» dans le capital investisseur.

GATE Global Alternative Energy International, filiale suisse de Fortune Management Inc (FMI), indique dans un communiqué boursier qu’elle vend à Louis Dreyfus Commodities Group, pour un montant non divulgué, toutes les activités de biodiesel en Allemagne (GATE Global Alternative Energy Holding AG) ainsi que les filiales de GATE Allemagne au Luxembourg, Hongrie et Suisse.