Goldman Sachs’ target price for  TECHNICOLOR(NYSE : TCH ),

Goldman Sachs raised its price target on Technicolor from 1.30 to 2.20 Euros. The announcement was somewhat unnoticed in the stock market as the markets were worried about the developments in Greece.

At the same time, according to the statement sent to the AMF, the hedge fund COATUE OFFSHORE MASTER FUND LTD ( Coat Cayman Fund) has continued to reduce its short position in Technicolor. (more…)

The most discounted 15 largest European banks (Latribune)
According to data provided by Capital IQ, French banks display the lowest “price to book” in Europe. That is the fact. Despite the upturn in the banking sector since early October, the banking shares have never been so undervalued. In absolute terms, the value of the shares of Societe General like Credit Agricole, quoted last week below its level of March 9, 2009, corresponding to the low point reached by the European markets, six months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Since the beginning of the year, the Euro Stoxx Banks has made more than 35%, bringing to nearly 80% compared to the summer of 2007, when the European indices evolved to historical highs. (more…)

The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index gained 1.88% in October as optimism returned to the global economy and markets posted strong rallies. The MSCI World Index gained 8.65% amid moves to resolve the European debt crisis, as well as better than expected economic data from the US. The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index had its largest gain of 2011, rising 1.88% during October. The Mizuho-Eurekahedge Top 100 Index remained in positive territory for the year with a 1.17% return (October YTD). Long/short equity funds made their best gain since May 2009, gaining 4.1%.Hedge funds have attracted net asset flows in october. Japanese hedge funds have attracted the largest asset flows (in percentage terms), increasing 7.5% for the year, allowing Asian hedge fund assets to remain at US$130 billion. The activity in the industry remained intense in the third quarter of 2011, more than 150 hedge funds launched during this time.
Global markets are down 7.60% (October YTD), while the Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index is down 3.05%. The asset weighted Mizuho-Eurekahedge Top 100 Index continues its strong run for the year and is now up an impressive 1.17% in 2011.
KKR-Wendel Sells Legrand Stake -zonebourse-
Wendel and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (with its affiliates, “KKR”) announced that They had completed successfully the joint sale of 24.3 million shares of Legrand, representing 9.2% of Legrand’s share capital, at a price of 24 euros per share. Wendel sold nearly 13 million shares, in other terms, 4.9% of Legrand’s share capital for a global amount of 13 million euros and a capital gain of around € 191 million. Wendel holds approximately 5.8% of the share capital of Legrand and approximately 10.1% of its voting rights. KKR founded in 1976 and led by Henry Kravis and George Roberts, KKR is a leading global investment firm with $58.7 billion in assets under management as of September 30, 2011. KKR is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: KKR).Wendel is one of Europe’s leading listed investment firms. The Group invests in France and abroad, in companies that are leaders in their businesses: Bureau Veritas, Legrand, Saint-Gobain, Materis, Deutsch and Stahl. Wendel plays an active role as industry shareholder in these companies.Wendel was put on negative outlook by S&P in October 2011 because of its increased debt.

HSBC profit soars after accounting gain
In fact, underlying profits were down 1.6 billion dollars compared to the period in 2010 at 3 billion, but the controversial accounting rules enabled HSBC to double its third quarter profits to 7.2 bn dollars. There was a fall in revenues in investment banking in its North American business. HSBC said that 5,000 full-time staff has been laid-off so far this year and 30,000 job losses are expect by 2013, or one-in-ten jobs globally.

Exane suffers from its ties with BNP Paribas
The investment company Exane, last year, renewed its partnership agreement, signed in 2004, by which BNP Paribas took half of the capital and conferred to Exane the exclusive intermediary role for European equities. The managers and employees still holding the other half of the capital might regret this deal as Standard & Poor’s has decided to lower the long term rating of BNP Paribas(by one notch to double A minus from double A) because of disturbances on refinancing and the negative sentiments in the markets. S&P also expects that BNP Paribas and other French banks to report lower earnings. While BNP Paribas group still remains among the top rated , difficult funding conditions in markets weakened its financial profile, and that cause Exane to suffer as well. Moody’s has lowered the rating of the brokerage firm, Exane, from a3 to Baa1 to reflect its dependence on the group for the majority of its working capital needs.

Julius Baer in expansion
Julius Baer is in interested in acquiring the controlling stake in private bank Sarasin whose majority shareholder is the Dutch Bank Rabobank. It is reported that Julius Baer Group already made a bid for the Swiss private bank Sarasin.

Meanwhile, Julius Baer is accelerating its expansion in Asia in alliance with Macquarie. The Swiss bank will rely on banking business of the Australian group. In return, the private banking unit, Macquarie Private Wealth Asia, will be bought by Julius Baer. The establishment Zurich employs about 500 people in Asia,

Edmond de Rothschild sells Private equity Select
According to Agefi and FT, Edmond de Rothschild sold its private equity fund of funds business to management, specialized in the funds of SME (small medium sized enterprises) as it tries to meet to tighter capital requirements as a result of changes in the regulatory and market environment.

David Seligman, based in London, a former SG Warburg banker, have bough Rothschild’s 75 per cent stake in Private Equity Select held by La Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild Banque SA, an investor in small European buy-out funds with $277m in assets under management. The fund will be renamed Seligman Private Equity Select.

Edifice Capital Launches 3 PPP(partnership of public-private) Pan-African Fund
Edifice capital, Management Company dedicated to infrastructure funds, active in euro zone area but also in Morocco, Mediterranean countries, Central and West Africa.
In the North African market infrastructure, Edifice Infra Morocco has just completed its first investment in mining silica sand. In addition, Edifice Capital will launch two pan-African funds by the end of the year: an agricultural fund and an infrastructure fund with sponsor as a sovereign fund. An initial investment in the agricultural sector in Africa, a plantation and processing plant of Stevia (natural sweetener with 0 calories), with the Stevia Growers Group International was recently made

The MSCI Emerging Markets declined over 20% since July (LaTribune).

The HSBC EMI(emerging market index) dropped to 51.9 in the third quarter compared to 54.2 in the second quarter.
While the western financial markets suffered from the debt crisis and euro governments’  inability to find lasting solutions and the concerns about the future of U.S growth, The emerging markets suffered as well, but from other reasons such as, the exacerbation of market sentiments and the sudden resurgence of risk aversion among investors.
Since July 1, MCSI Emerging Markets Index lost more than 20%, where the MSCI World Index and the pan-European Stoxx 600 has just lost over 13%. (more…)

It was guessed that the Euro member countries would have difficulty in agreeing and that was the case. The negotiations to save Greece lasted ten hours. That was not the states but the creditor banks to Greece were nearly causing the deal to collapse, but finally, the banks holding the Greek debt accepted a 50% loss. The banks negotiated fiercely with the dual leaders, Merkel-Sarkozy. Also, according to the deal, The Eurozone rescue fund will be boosted and banks will have to raise more capital.

The details of the agreement: (more…)

French hedge fund industry rising:

According to InvestmentEurope, The French hedge fund industry is doing well; There is a rumour that ex-Gartmore manager will be launching a 1 billion dollars Paris based hedge fund, BNP Paribas  is increasing its alternatives range and Axa IM is bringing a hedge fund specialist from a Swiss company EIM.

The hedge fund, to be named as Verrazzano will be launched by a former Gartmore fund manager, Gullaume Rambourg, who underwent a nine month investigation in the UK by FSA into his trading activities while he was at Gartmore. He was cleared of wrongdoing but his career at London ended also. (more…)

According to a recent study published by PerTrac, small hedge funds outperform mid-size and large funds, and young funds outperform older funds. The small hedge funds with less than $100 million in assets under management had an average return of 13.04% compared to 11.14% posted by mid-size funds ($100 million to $500 million in assets under management) and 10.99% returns for funds with more than $500 million. This trend also continued for the first six months of 2011. Their research also discovered that younger hedge funds (less than two years old) gained 13.25% last year, against 12.65% for funds two to four years old and 11.77% for funds older than 4 years old. In addition, the young funds appear to achieve these performances with less risk than their older counterparts. (more…)

The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index dropped 2.13% in August, with waning confidence of investors in the market and concerns over European debt crisis, but it still outperformed the global equity markets by 5.57% as managers focused on capital preservation strategies, according to the Eurokahedge’s report. The MSCI World Index was down by 7.70% with a downgrade of US Treasuries, which also caused the S&P Goldman Sachs Commodity Index to go down by 1.85% for the month. The losses rose in August to $ 3.2 billion but, at the same time, hedge funds have continued to attract capital with a net inflow of $ 1.51 billion in the industry (120.8 billion of net entries since the beginning of the year). (more…)

Goldman Sachs removed SAFRAN (Safran is the third biggest player in the European industry of the aerospace/defence (behind EADS and BAE) off its list of high conviction stocks. However, Goldman Sachs kept Safran’s price target at 33 euros. GS thinks that Safran is one of the most attractive investments among the stock market but also its performance in the short term might be penalized because of speculations about a possible acquisition. It refers to a possible acquisition of Italian engine maker Avio by Safran. (more…)

Dominique Strauss-Kahn thinks Greece will default. Dominique Strauss-Kahn acknowledged having committed a mistake for what he called a “moral failing” with a New York hotel maid on Sunday on French television TF1, but he said that he had not tried to rape her. He said he let down his wife and French people and admitted that he won’t be a candidate for the next year’s presidency election but he hinted for a future political comeback. (more…)