Notz&Stucki's Madoff loss could be $750 mln-press

ZURICH, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Swiss investment manager Notz & Stucki may have lost up to $750 million in the Madoff scandal, Swiss daily Le Temps reported on Friday, citing an unnamed source.

Bernard Madoff, a former Nasdaq chairman, was arrested earlier this month for orchestrating an alleged $50 billion fraud.

Notz & Stucki, a private company, manages assets of around $15 billion, said Le Temps.

Clients were exposed to Madoff via their investments in Notz & Stucki's flagship Pendulum fund, the paper said.

Pendulum was launched in January 1999 as a low-risk alternative to fixed income products. It invested 7.6 percent of its assets in Plaza International, a fund managed by Bernard Madoff.

Executives at Notz & Stucki made one or two visits a year to Madoff's New York headquarters and were reassured by a number of investigations conducted by U.S. authorities which cleared Madoff of any wrongdoing, Le Temps said.

Notz & Stucki has appointed a New York law firm to act on its behalf, the newspaper added.

No one from the company was immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Martin de Sa'Pinto; Editing by David Holmes)