ZCZC
BCN-16
FRANCE-BRITAIN-MARKET-BANKING
Natixis pushes up audit of troubled fund
PARIS, June 24, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – French investment bank Natixis said
Monday it had pushed forward a regular audit of an asset management unit that
has been hit by concerns over the liquidity of certain of its assets.
“In the context of restoring confidence in H2O Asset Management, Natixis
has also decided to bring forward the periodic audit performed on this
affiliate, by implementing it as of 21 June 2019,” it said in a statement.
Shares in Natixis plunged nearly 12 percent on Thursday after a story in
the Financial Times raised questions of a possible conflict of interest for
the chief executive of H2O Asset Management, and investment research firm
Morningstar suspended its rating one of H2O Asset Management’s funds,
expressing concerns about the illiquidity and appropriateness of some of its
assets.
Natixis sought to reassure investors Monday about the liquidity of H2O
Asset Management’s assets.
“The liquidity of the securities is ensured and will allow to face
potential additional withdrawals, if some clients decide to partially sell
their funds due to a concern about the media coverage associated with these
securities,” the bank said in a statement.
In a separate statement H2O Asset Management indicated it had sold some of
its assets and had reevaluated the worth of others.
“H2O AM teams have decided to record these securities at their
transactional value in case of an immediate total sale rather than recording
them at their standard market value,” said Natixis, indicating international
banks had helped the determination of their current market value.
It added that these securities represent less than 2 percent of
outstanding amounts in these funds.
H2O Asset Management accounts for less than 4 percent of the funds managed
by Natixis.
Natixis shares were up 2.4 percent in morning trading, while Paris’ main
index was down 0.2 percent.
BSS/AFP/HR/1440