Natixis shares take a pounding over fund

PARIS: Shares in French investment bank Natixis slid Friday as it struggled to reassure investors worried about the management of an asset management firm that it backs.

After already plunging nearly 12 percent on Thursday, shares in Natixis shed another 2.1 percent on Friday.

The trouble started on Tuesday with a story in the Financial Times raising questions of a possible conflict of interest for the chief executive of H2O Asset Management, a Natixis unit.

The following day, investment research firm Moningstar suspended its rating for H2O's Allegro fund, expressing concerns about the illiquidity and appropriateness of some of its assets.

The fund saw a record fall of 113 million euros in the value of its assets, according to Bloomberg, and other data suggested investors had withdrawn a considerable amount of their funds.

Analysts at Jeffries equity research said of the sharp drop in Natixis shares on Thursday that "the market appears to be pricing in the closure of H2O already".