“I could talk about it for a long time: it’s a novel! » Questioned by the Senate Finance Committee in March 2021, Robert Ophèle, the president of the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), is inexhaustible on the financial scandal H2O Asset Management (AM), a French-style hedge fund, a subsidiary of Natixis (group Banque Populaire Caisse d’Epargne), put in difficulty by risky investments.
This “novel”, Agnès Pratviel, retired from the Grenoble region, former administrative secretary at the hospital, took part in it, reluctantly. Like tens of thousands of savers in France, Europe and beyond, she has placed part of her savings in H2O funds, through life insurance. His wealth management advisor recommended this investment to him. “She told us that these funds were safe, that they constantly outperformed. Ideal if we wanted to boost our savings”, underlines her husband, Jean-Pierre Pratviel. But when the couple notices an underperformance, in the summer of 2020, and wants to get rid of it, “She told us we couldn’t sell”. Of the 10,400 euros invested, some 1,800 euros remain blocked. “I still don’t understand why”, laments Mr. Pratviel.
In May 2020, Véronique Lajoinie, a retired teacher in Calvados, invested 5,700 euros in H2O funds, also through life insurance offered by a wealth management advisor. “Today, I have 1,400 euros outside, frozen in side pockets [fonds cantonnés], she is alarmed. But I don’t know how to follow that, I don’t know anything about it, I’m more of a literary person. I wanted to take a little risk, but not that much. »
Double or quits bets
Small savers were far from the only ones trapped by the H2O financial scandal. Very large estates are also paying the price. Jean-Luc Durand, a 56-year-old former lawyer, first made a lot of money thanks to H2O. “From 2012 to 2020, everything was going well, with an average of 10% capital gains per year, he acknowledges. Until I discovered a warning from the AMF in the press in 2020. My wealth management advisor, who himself had invested heavily in H2O, was not informed of anything. »
For almost ten years, the asset management company created in London in 2010 has indeed made a lot of money for those who have entrusted it with their money. The boss of H2O AM, Bruno Crastes, star manager, cowboy of the financial markets, achieves extraordinary performances by taking bets, for example on the Greek debt, at quits or double. Before the wind turns. The banker chose to call his “shop” H2O to highlight the good liquidity of his funds, ie the speed of buying and selling assets.
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