Suite à un article de presse selon lequel des clients de la banque ont perdu de l’argent dans l’escroquerie Madoff, Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch (LODH) a tenu à opérer une mise eu point en indiquant qu’il n’a jamais recommandé de fonds gérés par la société de Bernard Madoff ou de fonds nourriciers qui les alimentaient. Ces véhicules n’ont pas figuré sur la liste de recommandations de hedge funds gérés par des tiers et les fonds de hedge funds de la banque #ne contiennent pas non plus de fonds liés à l’univers Madoff#.La banque précise que sa liste fonds de hedge funds externes comporte 20 produits dont trois exposés partiellement aux fonds Madoff, à hauteur, respectivement, de 15 % (Lafayette Regular Growth), 7,6 % (DGC Pendulum) et 3 % (Gems Low Volatility). #L"impact de cette exposition indirecte sur la performance des portefeuilles concernés est marginal (largement inférieur à 1%)#. Au demeurant, l’historique de performance est tel que LODH maintient sa recommandation, notamment sur le Gems Low Volatility.Enfin, certains des comptes sans mandats de gestion, ou gérés par des tiers, déposés auprès de LODH, peuvent détenir des parts de fonds exposés à l"univers Madoff. #La responsabilité de la banque n"est nullement engagée puisqu"il s"agit de comptes non gérés par le groupe#, conclut le communiqué.

Selon La Tribune, Mary Schapiro, qui va présider Securities & Exchange Commission, a déclaré qu"elle entend «revigorer la division surveillance et application des lois» et faire en sorte que les hedge funds soient enregistrés auprès de la SEC.

Selon La Tribune, CNP Assurances a finalisé son accord de partenariat avec Marfin Popular Bank pour développer des activités d’assurance en Grèce et à Chypre.

Selon La Tribune, certaines banques d’affaires spécialisées dans le conseil, comme Lazard et Rothschild, profitent de la crise pour embaucher. Ainsi, Lazard vient de recruter à Paris les deux responsables des financements des opérations LBO de Royal Bank of Scotland et d"anciens banquiers de chez Lehman Brothers. De son côté, Rothschild a embauché une dizaine de personnes, dont des anciens de Lehman Brothers ou de Citigroup.

Oddo AM a indiqué, dans un communiqué publié le jeudi 15 janvier, que la justice luxembourgeoise contraint UBS à lui payer les 30 millions d"euros liés à la vente de ses positions sur Luxalpha, en novembre dernier.Du fait de la faillite de la société du financier américain, UBS avait initialement décidé de ne pas rembourser la société de gestion française qui avait alors intenté une action en justice dans la plus grande discrétion.

Selon La Tribune, une première plainte pénale #escroquerie et abus de confiance# concernant l"affaire Madoff a été déposée jeudi en France contre UBS, a annoncé l’avocat de la plaignante, Me Jean Reinhart. Cette épargnante déclare avoir perdu 540.000 euros placés en 2006, UBS se voyant reprocher «d’avoir collecté les fonds et de les avoir placés dans la société de Bernard Madoff sans en avertir les déposants», explique le quotidien.

Selon l"Agefi, la banque américaine a dû passer 2,9 milliards de dollars de dépréciations et 3,6 milliards de provisions et si elle affiche des comptes trimestriels dans le vert, elle le doit à «des éléments exceptionnels (1,1 milliard après impôt), liés notamment l’acquisition de la caisse d'épargne Washington Mutual».

Pour le quatrième trimestre, le bénéfice net de l’activité de gestion d’actifs de JP Morgan Chase a chuté de 52 % à 272 millions de dollars, le chiffre d’affaires diminuant pour sa part de 31 % à 1,66 milliard. Le chiffre d’affaires de la banque privée a diminué de 3 % à 630 millions en raison de la baisse des marchés et de celle des commissions de performance, tandis que celui de la gestion de fortune se repliait de 4 % à 330 millions d’euros et que celui de la gestion institutionnelle plongeait de 57 % à 327 millions du fait de la contraction des recettes de commissions de performance et de la chute des marchés. Les recettes du retail se sont contractées de 59 % à 365 millions du fait de la baisse des marchés et des rachats. Enfin, Bear Stearns Brokerage a contribué pour 106 millions au chiffre d’affairesLa marge bénéficiaire avant impôt a diminué à 25 % contre 35 %. JP Morgan précise que ses actifs sous administration et gestion représentaient fin décembre 1,5 billion de dollars soit 76 milliards ou 5 % de moins que fin 2007. Quant à l’encours sous gestion, avec 1,1 billion, il a également diminué de 5 % ou de 60 milliards de dollars ; sur ce total, les produits monétaires ont marqué un gonflement de 53 % à 213 milliards de dollars et l’acquisition de Bear Stearns a apporté 15 milliards. Cela a permis de compenser en partie la baisse des actifs sous gestion due à la chute des marchés et aux remboursements nets sur les produits autres que monétaires. Cela posé, les souscriptions nettes ont porté sur 61 milliards de dollars au quatrième trimestre et sur 151 milliards pour l’ensemble de 2008.

Pimco a freiné ses achats de MBS le mois dernier, tout en augmentant sa proche d"emprunts gouvernements après 11 mois de baisse, rapporte le Wall Street Journal. Le fonds Total Return Fund de la société de gestion (132,267 milliards de dollars) a ainsi réduit sa proportion de MBS à 62 % le mois dernier contre 81 % en novembre, tandis que la dette US a été portée à 9 %.

Spécialiste des obligations convertibles, Acropole Asset Management va lancer deux fonds à échéance axés sur le crédit. La société de gestion avait pourtant fait des obligations mixtes sa spécialité. Mais après «une année 2008 épouvantable» pour les obligations convertibles, et compte tenu d"une «situation exceptionnelle sur les taux», selon les dirigeants d"Acropole, elle a décidé d"élargir son offre. Pour ce faire, elle va renforcer son partenariat avec Cheyne Capital, une société de gestion alternative basée à Londres qui se trouve être l"un des principaux actionnaires d"Acropole avec 33 %. Cette société britannique, qui gère 2 milliards de dollars dans le crédit «investment grade» sur un total de 7 milliards d"encours, aligne une équipe de 30 personnes dans le crédit.La nouvelle offre, encore en cours d"agrément, se composera d"Acropole 2012, un fonds à échéance 30 juin 2012 avec un objectif de rendement de 8-10 %. Il sera investi en obligations convertibles et en obligations d"entreprises de catégorie «investment grade», principalement sur l"Europe. De droit luxembourgeois, il sera conseillé par Cheyne. Il devrait être lancé autour du 5 février. Le second produit, Acropole Convertibles Optimum, sera un fonds à échéance au 31 janvier 2012 avec un objectif de rendement un peu plus élevé, de 12-14 %. Il sera de son côté investi 100 % en obligations convertibles européennes et internationales. Ce fonds sera de droit français, et devrait être lancé vers la fin du mois de janvier. Ces deux produits, qui devraient démarrer chacun avec une trentaine de millions d"euros, seront normalement assortis d’une période de souscription privilégiée. Ils viennent rejoindre la horde de fonds à échéance lancés actuellement par les sociétés de gestion (CCR-UBS, La Française des Placements, UFF?).

Fidelity Investments est le premier gestionnaire à lancer sur sa plate-forme de courtage un outil permettant à ses 12 millions de clients particuliers d’accéder à une analyse de la performance de dix sociétés d'études financières, rapporte The Wall Street Journal. Parmi les dix maisons ainsi notées figurent Ned Davis Research, Zacks Investment Research et Standard & Poor’s. Les dernières études de ces établissements figureront gratuitement sur le site de Fidelity, avec un historique de leurs recommandations à l’achat et à la vente.

Dans son intervention lors des entretiens 2009 de l’Association des banquiers privés suisses (ASBP) avec la presse, Grégoire Bordier, associé de Bordier & Cie et président du groupement des banquiers privés genevois, s’est déclaré ouvert à une négociation sur les aspects techniques de la directive européenne sur la fiscalité des revenus du capital, mais sans remettre en cause son système juridique. Il a estimé que # la Suisse devra être raisonnable vis-à-vis de ses partenaires européens et américains mais qu"elle devra aussi s"assurer que ces deux partenaires le soient aussi de leur côté.# En même temps, les banquiers helvètes ont à préserver des conditions-cadre et une position de force dans un marché où la concurrence est rude #et où nos principaux interlocuteurs ? à savoir l"Union Européenne et certains de ses Etats membres d"une part et les Etats-Unis d"autre part ? sont en même temps des concurrents de poids.#Grégoire Bordier a achevé son discours en soulignant que la Suisse doit obtenir de ces partenaires #qu"ils reconnaissent une fois pour toutes que la Suisse n"a pas sa place sur des listes noires de l"OCDE ou d"autres organisations intergouvernementales.#

As part of its redeployment (see Newsmanagers of 7 January), IT Asset Management is planning to launch a convertible bond fund by the end of the month in Luxembourg, for which a license has also been applied for in France. The product will be managed by Geneviève Werner, who joined IT Asset Management as deputy CEO at the end of 2008 (she was previously CEO and director of management at Financière Centuria), and by Bertrand Billé, bond manager, who also joins the firm from Financière Centuria.The product will have daily net asset value reporting, and will carry a front-end fee of a maximum of 2%, while management and administration fees will total 0.80% for the institutional asset class and 1.50% for the ?classic? share class.

Fidelity Investments has become the first management firm to launch a tool on its brokerage platform which allows its 12 million retail clients access to analysis of the performance of ten financial research providers, the Wall Street Journal reports. Among the ten firms rated are Ned Davis Research, Zacks Investment Research and Standard & Poor’s. The most recent studies from the establishments will be included for no charge on the Fidelity site, with a history of their buy and sell recommendations.

After a rise of 1.5 points in November, the monthly BSI index of client advisor morale in Germany calculated by TNA Infratest (based on responses from 350 client advisors at bank, savings banks, and co-operative banks), fell back 1 point in December, to 89.7, Robeco Deutschland reports.Only 25% of respondents estimated that their sales of open-ended fund shares would increase in the next six months, compared with 29% in November. This is the lowest level observed since the beginning of the data series in May 2003. For equities funds, the proportion of optimists about sales in the next six months fell 4 points, to 32%. For hedge funds, Robeco has observed an unusual situation: none of the client advisors responding to the survey considered the current level of sales positive. However, there was a very slight improvement in outlooks for the next six months: only one of the respondents expects sales to increase - compared with 0 in November.

At the end of December, assets in Austrian investment funds represented EUR126.04bn, which amounted to a contraction of EUR37.7bn or 23% compared with their level one year previously.According to the VÖIG association of management firms, EUR2.9bn of this decline in assets is due to dividend payments, while EUR15.3bn is due to net redemptions, and EUR19.6bn to losses on the markets. In December, however, assets increased by EUR345.4m, thanks to EUR1.4bn in net subscriptions.In total, VÖIG recorded the launch od 223 funds in 2008, of which 106 were retail funds. The 24 management firms on its roster operated 2,300 securities funds, of which 1,168 were retail funds, 433 funds aimed at ?large investors,? and 699 institutional funds.The five real estate fund management firms had assets at the end of December of EUR1,713.88m, EUR112.8m less than twelve months previously. At the end of September, assets were still up by EUR120.3m, but net redemptions of EUR250.8m in fourth quarter led to the contraction in assets observed for the year.

Fitch Ratings has lowered its CDO Asset Manager rating for Société Générale Asset Management Alternative Investments (SGAM AI) from CAM2+ to CAM2.The downgrade largely reflects the negative impact which the credit crisis has had on SGAM AI’s activities, and changes in its management personnel, the ratings agency states. It also takes into account possible instabilities which may result from the repositioning and restructuring of SGAM AI when it merges with Lyxor, Fitch Ratings adds.

In fourth quarter, net profits for asset management activities at JP Morgan Chase fell 52% to USD272m, while revenues fell 31% to USD1.66bn. Revenues for the private bank fell 3% to USD630m, due to declining markets and performance commissions, while wealth management was down 4% to USD330m, and institutional management was down 57% to USD327m due to contractions in revenues from performance commissions and to falling markets. Retail revenues contracted 59% to USD365m due to falling markets and redemptions. Bear Stearns Brokerage contributed USD106m to revenues.The pre-tax profit margin was down to 25% from 35%.JP Morgan states that its assets under administration and management at the end of December represented USD1.5trn, or USD76bn or 5% less than at the end of 2007. Assets under management, at USD1.1trn, were also down 5% or USD60bn; of this total, money market products marked an increase of 53% to USD213bn, while the Bear Stearns acquisition brought in USD15bn. This has partly compensated for a decrease in assets under management due to falling markets and net redemptions from products in categories other than money markets.Net subscriptions, however, totalled USD61bn in fourth quarter, and USD151bn for 2008 as a whole.

Andreas Hilka, who joined Credit Suisse in January 2008, was appointed to the board of directors at Credit Suisse Asset Management KAG in Frankfurt on 1 January, replacing Stefan Keitel, who has become global CIO for Multi Asset Class Solutions (MACS) in Zurich. Hilka will retain his positions as head of MACS Germany, head insurance & pensions solutions EMEA, and director of the asset allocation advisory group in the MACS CIO-office.Before being recruited by Credit Suisse, Hilka served in several financial positions at the former Hoechst group; he was also a board member for the Continental pension fund.

Acropole Asset Management, a specialist in convertible bonds, will be launching two funds with fixed maturity dates focused on credit. The management firm had previously made mixed convertible bonds its specialty. But after ?a terrible year in 2008? fo convertible bonds, and due to ?an exception situation on fixed income markets,? according to the executives of Acropole, the firm has decided to extend its product offerings. To achieve this, the firm will strengthen its partnership with Cheyne Capital, an alternative mangement firm based in London, which is one of the major shareholders in Acropole, with a 33% stake. The British firm, which manages USD2bn in investment grade credit, out of a total of USD7bn in assets, has a team of 30 staff in credit.The new product range, which is still in the licensing process, will include Acropole 2012, a fund which matures on 30 June 2012, with a performance target of 8-10%. It will invest in convertible and corporate bonds of the investment grade category, primarily in Europe. The fund will be registered in Luxembourg and advised by Cheyne, and will be launched on about 5 February.The second product, Acropole Convertibles Optimum, will mature on 31 January 2012, with slightly higher performance objectives of 12-14%. It will be 100% invested in European and international convertible bonds. The fund will be registered in France, and will be launched in late January.The two products, which will each start out with EUR30m in assets, will offer a period of preferred subscriptions, They join a large number of funds with set maturity dates now being launched by management firms such as CCR-UBS, La Française des Placements, UFF, and others.

Roberto Cavalli, CEO, has announced that the private equity investor Clessidra may very soon take up a stake in the Florentine fashion label bearing his name, of 15-20%, Börsen-Zeitung reports.

Following reports in the press that clients at Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch (LODH) lost money in the Madoff fraud, the bank has issued a statement, claiming that it never recommended funds managed by Bernard Madoff’s company, nor feeder funds that supplied it. These vehicles were not on the list of recommended hedge funds managed by third parties, and the bank’s funds of hedge funds ?do not contain funds with ties to the Madoff universe? either.The bank states that its list of external funds of hedge funds includes 20 products, of which three were partially exposed to Madoff funds, for 15% (Lafayette Regular Growth), 7.6% (DGC Pendulum) and 3% (Gems Low Volatility), respectively. ?The impact of this indirect exposure on the portfolios concerned is marginal (largely below 1%).? The performance track records of these funds of funds are such that LODH is maintaining its recommendations, particularly for the Gems Low Volatility.Lastly, some accounts without management mandates, or managed by third parties, deposited at LODH, may contain shares in funds exposed to the Madoff universe. ?The responsibility of the bank is in no way involved, since these are accounts not managed by the group,? the statement concludes.

Andrew Cuomo, attorney general of the state of New York, has issued subpoenas to three funds managed by Ezra Merkin, former chairman of GMAC, the Fiancial Times reports. The move is related to new investigations in the Madoff fraud case. The funds are Gabriel Capital, Ariel Fund, and Ascot Partners, which had invested with Madoff.

The Credit Suisse/Tremont index ultimately posted losses in December of 0.03%, compared with 4.15% in November, bringing total losses for the year as a whole to 19.07%. Futures funds and dedicated short bias posted positive performance, however, of 18.33% and 14.87%, respectively. All other strategies posted losses in 2008, including equity market neutral (40.32%) and convertible arbitrage (31.59%). The emerging markets segment posted a loss of 30.41%.The Dow Jones World Index, meanwhile, has lost 42.85%.

La Tribune reports that ?the Parisian law firm Lartigue-Tournois & Associés today served subpoenas on at least three French banks, including BNP Paribas, on behalf of twelve clients who had invested in the Luxembourg Sicav Luxalpha.?The plaintiffs are seeking to be recognised as shareholders in the Sicav, in order to be able to pursue UBS, the newspaper explains.

Sonja Kohn, president of Bank Medici in Austria, which may have lost more than USD3bn due to Bernard Madoff, has declared that she was a victim of the fraud like all the others, the Financial Times reports. In a letter obtained by Bloomberg, and later confirmed by the bank, Kohn claims she did not know that Madoff had orchestrated a vast fraud. She adds that Madoff was not a personal friend.

After a total of 0.9% in 2007 and 4% in 2008, the rate of default on speculative bonds may climb this year above its all-time peak of 12% in 1991, Moody’s Investors Service is now predicting. The current economic environment is far weaker and more perilous than in previous credit cycles in 1990-1991 and 2001-2002.The ratings agency counted 86 defaults in North America and 12 in Europe in 2008, compared with 15 and 3 in the previous year. On the leveraged loan markets, 33 issuers rated by Moody’s defaulted last year, compared with only 2 in 2007.

Volker Kurr, who in mid-August 2008 left the board of directors at cominvest (Commerzbank), at the beginning of 2009 began in a new position as head of institutional & wholesale clients for Germany at UBS Global Asset Management, Börsen-Zeitung reports.

Sal. Oppenheim Private Equity Partners, born of the recent merger of CAM Private Equity, VCM Capital Management, and the alternative investment division of the Sal. Oppenheim group, has announced that at the beginning of this year it recruited Jan, Count of Bassewitz, as client relationship manager serving pension funds and retirement planning institutions, largely in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. He will thus serve in the same functions as at CAM Private Equity, where he was a partner.Sal. Oppenheim Private Equity Partners has also recruited Sabine Rummel as sales manager. She spent six years as economic and industry analyst at the European Private Equity und Venture Capital Association (EVCA), and will serve non-German speaking clients.

The European asset management sector calmed slightly in November, Lipper FMI indicates in its most recent publication. Funds registered net subscriptions of EUR10bn, after outflows of no less than EUR278bn in the two previous months.These outflows were largely due to money market funds, Lipper FMI observes. Equities funds also registered positive inflows of EUR589m, but investors largely went for ETF funds (+EUR4bn in net). However, the fixed income category continues to be cannibalised by an urgent need on the part of banks to boost savings deposits, Lipper FMI indicates. Net redemptions may have slowed, but they remain at EUR11bn.Despite this positive month, since the beginning of the year, the European management sector has seen net redemptions totalling EUR305bn. Assets had fallen as of the end of November to slightly over EUR4trn, a level not seen since mid-2005.In November, the firm which registered the strongest net subscriptions was Barclays, with EUR2.4bn (excluding money market funds and funds of funds). In the equities category, Société Générale stands out, probably thanks to ETF funds, with EUR855m in subscriptions.