PARIS (Reuters) – The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) announced on Tuesday that its sanctions commission imposed sanctions, ranging from 3 million to 75 million euros, against the British management company H2O and two of its leaders for breaches of professional obligations for operations carried out between 2016 and 2020.
The management company H2O, in which Natixis Investment Managers (BPCE group) still holds nearly 23% of the capital, was fined 75 million euros, while its managing director and its investment director at the time facts were fined 15 million and 3 million euros respectively, the AMF said in a press release.
According to the financial market watchdog, the alleged breaches are part of investments made by H2O on behalf of seven UCITS under French law, namely Adagio, Allegro, Moderato, Multibonds, Multiequities, Multistrategies and Vivace.
“The (Sanctions) Commission considered that H2O AM LLP had invested on behalf of some of these UCITS in financial securities issued by companies of the Tennor group while these were not eligible as fund assets “, explains in particular the AMF.
According to the AMF, the Sanctions Committee also underlined the “seriousness of the breaches”, “the involvement of managers in the commission” of these breaches, as well as the “damage suffered by investors resulting in particular from the blocking of their savings “.
Asset manager H2O found itself in turmoil in 2019 following Morningstar’s decision to suspend the rating of one of H2O’s funds due to concerns over the liquidity of certain assets held in the portfolio. .
H2O was subsequently forced to suspend subscriptions and requests for redemption of units of several of its funds at the request of the AMF.
H2O did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Written by Matthieu Protard, edited by Jean Terzian)
Copyright © 2023 Thomson Reuters