More hedge fund problems, this time from BNP Paribas

The subprime flu continues to spread.  This morning BNP Paribas disclosed that it's halted withdrawals from three funds because it couldn't "fairly" put a value on their holdings:

The funds had about 2 billion euros ($2.76 billion) of assets on July 27, including 700 million euros in subprime loans rated AA or higher. The Paris-based bank said today that it will stop calculating the net asset value for the funds, Parvest Dynamic ABS, BNP Paribas ABS Euribor and BNP Paribas ABS Eonia.

``The complete evaporation of liquidity in certain market segments of the U.S. securitization market has made it impossible to value certain assets fairly regardless of their quality or credit rating,'' BNP Paribas said in the statement.

``For some of the securities there are just no prices,'' Alain Papiasse, head of BNP Paribas's asset management and services division, said in an interview. ``As there are no prices, we can't calculate the value of the funds.''

BNP Paribas Freezes Funds as Loan Losses Roil Markets - Bloomberg