Forbes – French bank Societe Generale (SocGen) plans to reduce its holdings in its China fund joint venture due to regulatory concerns after a global reorganisation, two people familiar with the situation said.

SocGen already owns a fund venture with a unit of Shanghai Baosteel Group, and will become an indirect stakeholder in Credit Agricole’s Chinese venture after the two banks complete a planned merger of their global asset management businesses.

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Reuters – One of London’s top analysts, James Montier, has resigned from French bank Societe Generale to join a hedge fund, a source with knowledge of the situation said on Thursday.

The source did not say which hedge fund has employed Montier, recently voted best strategist in the Thomson Extel survey, alongside colleague Albert Edwards.

The pair joined Societe Generale from Dresdner Kleinwort in December 2007 as co-heads of global strategy.

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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Moscow’s The Statesman reports that a Russian rogue trader lost his investment bank up to $50 million in risky trades that went wrong in the financial crisis, the Vedomosti business daily reported today. Quoting unnamed sources at Renaissance Capital, one of Russia’s biggest investment banks, Vedomosti reported that the rogue trader had disappeared.

A source close to the bank’s top management put the loss at about $50 million, although chief executive Mr Ruben Aganbegyan said it was only around $10 million. “He opened positions on blue-chip companies that were above the limits and outside of the controls. The market fell and we quickly found the problem,” he was quoted as saying.

The incident is eerily reminiscent of Nick Leeson ~ the rogue trader whose unchecked risk-taking caused the biggest financial scandals of the 20th century.
The collapse of Barings Bank (personal bank to Queen Elizabeth II) in 1995 and Leeson’s role in it is one of the most spectacular debacles in modern financial history, according to the Leeson website.

Editing by Alex Akesson

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