May, 2009
Takeover bid for mymugpunter.com!!!!!!!!!!
Is this the ultimate, mad, penny dreadful punt?
A company called All IPO on Friday afternoon revealed a bid approach from an unnamed party. The stock jumped 400 per cent in response… to 2.5p.
All IPO is part of the ADVFN retail stock punters’ group.
Green shoots: artificial flowers
Zilcho sign of recovery in the ABCP market, as spotted by Alea.
The below graph, which we’re dubbing the ABCP Matterhorn, from the Fed:
Why is this important? ABCP conduits are were, certainly in Europe,
The City of London ATM – part II
On Friday morning, FT Alphaville ruminated over which UK plcs might be next to appear at the City of London cash machine. We trotted out the usual suspects; Barratt Developments, Punch Taverns and Yell.
US payrolls fall 539k in April, less than expected
US non-farm payrolls fell by 539,000 job in April, according to figures from the US Labor Department. The number was smaller than the 595,000 job losses expected by the market in the month. The unemployment rate meanwhile rose to 8.9 per cent vs 8.5 per cent in March.
[The Stanford Series] Sir Allen’s cowboy lawyer
As if you thought the Stanford story couldn’t get any more bizarre, Bloomberg is running an article today on the alleged-Ponzi operator’s elephant-hide wearing, hard-ridin’, Cessna-flyin’, bull-scrotum-owning Texan lawyer:
Independent refiner downgrades imminent?
First there was Flying J which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December, 2008, then there was Lyondell Basell, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January, 2009.
And now, the pressure of challenging distillate margins and low demand appears ready to take a toll on some other very prominent independent refiners.
CDS report: rally presses on
European credit derivatives continued to rally on Friday amid rising confidence as the US stress test results failed to upset the markets.
Markit’s iTraxx Europe index, made up of 125 investment grade names,
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville Friday morning,
- The City of London ATM.
- Stress test tension and the question of converting capital.
- Black swans, black sheep in the world’s biggest balance sheet.
- April is the cruelest month for shorts.
Markets live transcript 8 May 2009
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:12 on 8 May 2009. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy, FT (PM) Neil Hume, FT (NH) PM:Hi there PM:Welcome
727 Cassandras of financial journalism
The Columbia Journalism Review has published a whopping 727-story-strong list of “the best articles” foreshadowing the financial crisis.
The list covers stories written between 2000 and 2007 and published by organisations including the Wall Street Journal,
The trouble with doorstep lending in emerging markets
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But was there a bigger accident waiting to happen on the UK stock market than International Personal Finance?
For readers not familiar with the FTSE 250 company it is a doorstep lender with a twist:
April is the cruelest month for shorts
Hedge Fund Research‘s latest performance stats are out and it looks like April fooled the shorts (ahem).
Related link:
Evil short-selling monsters revealed – FT Alphaville
Black swans, black sheep in the world’s biggest balance sheet
RBS on Friday reported a £857m loss for the first quarter of 2009. Not exactly anything to shout home about.
Shares in the titan responded initially with a rise to 46p, up 4.8p, 11.54 per cent.
To put things into perspective,
Stress test tension and the question of converting capital
One part of the stress test seems to be a little problematic, for some. While the results revealed a $185bn shortfall in capital amongst the 19 biggest American banks, the SCAP will only need to replenish them with $75bn.
The City of London ATM
Predictable really. PLCs are taking advantage of the huge run-up in their stock prices from their March lows to tap shareholders for more cash.
On Friday morning, housebuilder Taylor Wimpey announced plans to raise £510m via a placing and open offer that will dilute existing shareholders by 33 per cent,
Further reading, stressed edition
Views from across the blogosphere and elsewhere,
WSJ – Comparing the 19 banks that were tested
An interactive graphic.
NYT – The experts give their views
A round-up of opinions from bloggers,
Further reading, unstressed edition
Elsewhere on Friday,
- Forget the stress tests, what’s going on in the rest of the economy?
- Stephen Friedman’s welcome resignation.
- The most powerful institution you’ve never heard of.
- The new look for hedge funds this summer.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Friday’s FT,
Lex: Life after leverage
Masters of the universe? Not even close. The first big non-financial leveraged buy-out to be struck outside Japan since the collapse of Lehman Brothers shows the formerly swaggering heroes of private equity in a whole new light:
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Friday,
- RBS posts a Q1 pre-tax loss of £44m on impairment losses totalling £4.93bn — statement.
- 3i announces £700m rights issue, posts fiscal-year results – statement,
Stress tests show $75bn buffer needed
US regulators on Thursday ordered 10 of the nation’s largest banks to add a total of $74.6bn in equity following the completion of stress tests, triggering a frenzy of activity as banks lined up to announce capital-raising plans.
ECB cuts rates as UK injects £50bn
European central banks intensified their efforts to combat the recession on Thursday with bolder decisions than expected to boost lending. The Bank of England held its rate to 0.5% but said it would pump £50bn into the UK economy through increased government bond purchases,
Friedman quits New York Fed
Stephen Friedman, chairman of the New York Federal Reserve and a former chairman of Goldman Sachs, on Thursday resigned his post following his controversial purchase of Goldman shares earlier this year.
Wall Street welcomes test results
Investors welcomed the results of the US stress tests on banks on Thursday in post-market trading as 10 out of the 19 banks tested were shown not to need extra capital. Citigroup rose 9.5% to $4.17 as it said it would account for its shortfall of $5.5bn by expanding its programme to convert preference shares into common stock.
Lex: Tests present next big challenge
For the 10 banks that need to raise more capital under the US government’s stress tests, finding the capital is now the challenge, says Lex. Goldman Sachs says about $130bn of extra capital is needed.
BofA aims for $34bn in fresh capital
Bank of America plans to raise $33.9bn in new capital without converting any of the government’s preferred stock into voting shares, limiting the government’s influence over the operations of the beleaguered bank.
AIG blames ‘market disruption’
AIG on Thursday reported a $4.35bn Q1 net loss, reflecting continuing markdowns of the value of credit insurance sold by its financial products unit. The company blamed “restructuring and market disruption charges and accounting charges related to taxes” for its performance.
Macquarie said to bid for AIG unit
Macquarie Group, Australia’s biggest investment bank, is bidding for an AIG fund unit with about $100bn under management, reports Bloomberg. AIG expects to sell the unit for as much as $500m. Macquarie is among several firms pursuing AIG Investments,
Taylor Wimpey, 3i make cash calls
Taylor Wimpey, the UK housebuilder, and 3i, the UK buyout group are on Friday expected to raise £1.25bn by issuing new shares. Both companies had to wrestle with investors to win support for the capital raisings,
Bidding war kicks off for Panmure
A bidding war has developed for a large stake in Panmure Gordon, as Bertrand des Pallieres, the hedge fund millionaire, and another large investor try to trump private equity firm BlueGem’s offer for 40% of the boutique investment bank.