May, 2009
Companies share out underwriting fees
US companies are trying to protect their access to capital by hiring all their lending banks as bookrunners in order to share out underwriting fees when issuing equity or debt securities. So far this year,
US cracks down on corporate bribes
The US Justice Department is increasing its prosecutions of alleged acts of foreign bribery by US companies, forcing them to take costly steps to defend against scrutiny, reports the WSJ. The crackdown under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,
BofA expands Japan equities
Bank of America said it is hiring senior staff from global rivals including Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to expand its equity sales business in Japan, reports Bloomberg. The move, backed by BofA’s global markets head,
Overnight markets: Mostly down
Asian stocks mostly fell on Tuesday, led by technology companies and banks, as concern mounted that North Korea may step up missile tests and investors speculated that a report will show the US housing market is still contracting.
Further reading
Elsewhere on Monday,
- ‘Quantizing’ the S&P500.
- Twitter as a virtual analyst.
- Libor – free money is usually a good thing, but sometimes, not.
- What happened to SWFs?
- Credit cards – an exchange.
FT Alphaville – limited service on Monday
With a Monday holiday in the US and UK our service will be limited on FT Alphaville. Apologies to readers, but we’ll be back with you in full force on Tuesday.
Bidders pitch for Australian Aviva arm
Bankers to Aviva have received first-round bids for the UK insurance group’s A$1bn ($778m) Australian life assurance business. The auction of Aviva’s Australian assets is now down to a handful of bidders,
Lloyds eyes sale of HBOS unit stakes
Lloyds Banking Group is considering selling off stakes in about 60 companies as it integrates its controversial acquisition of HBOS. Lloyds has brought in UBS to evaluate selling the stakes built up by HBOS’s controversial integrated finance unit,
PetroChina secures 45% SPC stake
PetroChina, the state energy group, has agreed to pay $1bn for 45.5% of Singapore Petroleum Company in what will be the first major Chinese offshore purchase of a downstream energy company. PetroChina will buy the entire stake in SPC held by Singapore’s Keppel Corp the world’s largest maker of oil rigs,
China stuck in ‘dollar trap’
China is still buying record amounts of US government bonds, despite Beijing’s growing fear that US policies could lead to a collapse in the dollar and global inflation. But Chinese officials said that China is caught in a “dollar trap” and had little choice but to keep pouring most of its growing reserves into the US Treasury,
Australia lifts short-selling ban
Australia’s securities regulator lifted its eight-month ban on covered short selling of financial stocks on Monday, bringing the country in line with other markets that had already lifted their temporary bans on the practice.
Reliance plans IPO in Indian market
Reliance Capital plans to become of the first Indian companies to test the country’s bullish post-election stock market with an IPO of its life insurance unit. The offering of Reliance Life Insurance,
Fiat revises Opel takeover plan
Fiat has filed a revised takeover plan for Opel, the European unit of US carmaker General Motors, in which it forecast it would cut 2,000 of 25,000 jobs in Germany. The move was seen as a last-minute attempt to win over German politicians and unions,
Pension Corp, Paternoster talks fail
Edmund Truell’s Pension Corp has failed in its attempt to take over Paternoster, a rival pension buy-out vehicle run by Mark Wood, a former Prudential executive. Talks had been going on for several weeks,
RBS details new incentive scheme
Four senior executives at Royal Bank of Scotland, which is majority owned by the UK government, could receive shares currently worth nearly £5m under a new incentive scheme. RBS was bailed out by the government last October and reported losses of £24.1bn for 2008.
DTCC open to talks on LCH merger
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, the US securities post-trade group, is open to renewing talks with LCH.Clearnet, Europe’s largest clearing house, about reviving plans for a merger between the two clearing houses,
SEC bans staff from trading
The US Securities and Exchange Commission imposed tough new rules on trading by employees, following a probe into the dealings of two veteran enforcement lawyers, reports the WSJ. The rules will, for the first time,
Overnight markets: Up
Asian stocks gained on Monday, lifting the MSCI Asia Pacific Index for the first time in three days, as metal prices rose and shipping rates rallied for a 16th-straight day. The US and UK markets are closed on Monday for a holiday.
CDS wrap: A week of highly unusual behaviour in CDS history
This CDS report was written by Markit’s Gavan Nolan
Another week, another rally. Newspapers in the UK have been full of talk about troughs – usually preceded by the words “snouts in” – and politicians’ reputations are rivalling bankers’ for depravity.
So a Sicilian mafioso walks into HSBC…
Cracking story on Bloomberg, straight out of the annals of couldn’t make it up if you tried, and involving the Sicilian Mafia, Venezuelan bonds and a host of global banks (emphasis ours):
May 22 (Bloomberg)
Sibir, afternoon update
As Gazprom Neft attempts to increase its holding to 29.9%, Sibir has struck a deal with its biggest debtor – shareholder Chalva Tchigirinski.
Here’s Friday’s afternoon’s press release:
The Board
The curious case of the West Brom BS
On Monday, the West Bromwich Building Society moved quickly to scotch suggestions that it had been put up for sale:
The West Brom has no knowledge of the FSA holding merger discussions relating to the society .
Treasury investors take “sell in May” adage to heart
From Reuters:
30-YR TREASURY BOND FALLS OVER FULL POINT, 10-YR OVER HALF POINT, AS SELLOFF DEEPENS
BENCHMARK 10-YR TREASURY YIELDS NOW AT SIX MONTH HIGH OF 3.43 PERCENT, UP 23 BPS IN TWO DAYS
Okay,
The world’s best banks, as chosen by the Economist
The wits at the Economist have compiled a list of the world’s best banks, which they preface as follows:
Trying to work out which banks are the world’s best is a bit like awarding the prize for prettiest war-torn village.
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville on Friday morning,
- BA: Not the world’s most profitable airline.
- HM Treasury refuses FOI stress test data.
- Tick, tock goes the investment clock.
- Sibir tender offer;
Nouriel’s ‘perfect storm’
So the ubiquitous doomster, Nouriel Roubini, is at it again (the man never stops).
“Don’t believe the optimists”, he warns in his latest article in Forbes. Indeed, with news on Friday that the UK has been warned by the IMF to rein in its public spending,