Natixis Executive Sees Funds Returning to H2O Asset Management

(Bloomberg) --

Natixis SA is seeing money returning to its H2O Asset Management affiliate after concern over some of the boutique’s thinly traded bonds sent investors fleeing.

“One has to say the promise of liquidity was kept, despite the massive outflows,” Jean Raby, chief executive officer of Natixis Investment Managers International SA, said in an interview in Davos. “Since then, there have been flows that have been coming back to H20 and performance has been good.”

H2O, one of the biggest buyers of debt tied to a German financier’s portfolio of companies, marked down about 350 million euros ($388 million) of bonds in its Multibonds fund from near or above par to between 25% and 50% of their face value, fund filings dated June 28 and published in August show.

“We’ve announced some measures that could enhance our risk controls both on the level of the group as a whole and within the affiliates,” Raby said. “What happened in H20 did not have any impact on the rest of our business, and since then, business has been very good.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Farah Elbahrawy in Dubai at felbahrawy@bloomberg.net;Francine Lacqua in London at flacqua@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stefania Bianchi at sbianchi10@bloomberg.net, Shaji Mathew

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