May, 2009
Hurray! While stocks last! Buy cash at a premium
Nick Leslau’s property shell, Max Property, floated on Vancouver London’s AIM market on Thursday and promptly popped to a 30 per cent premium to the 100p-a-share offer price.
Yes, the business was trading at a 30 per cent premium to its assets,
SDRs, China and UK commercial real estate
Jim O’Neil, head of global economic research at Goldman Sachs, writes on China and the yuan in Thursday’s Telegraph:
I’ve concluded that Mr Zhou is telling us that China is closer than many think to letting the yuan become part of the SDR.
Ending the Fed: the rebirth of Jacksonian bankphobia
Onetime presidential hopeful and current Republican congressman Ron Paul has an interesting piece of legislation wending its way through the US capitol. HR1206 calls for “a complete audit of the Federal Reserve and removes any significant barriers towards transparency in our monetary system”
Yell(ow) analysis?
It’s not often a house broker withdraws an investment recommendation on a corporate client. But it happened on Thursday – to Yell.
Bank of America/Merrill Lynch moved from a “neutral” recommendation on the heavily indebted directories business to “No Rating”.
In the event of a bossnapping…
(That’s employees kidnapping the boss, not the boss napping in a meeting)
In case you missed it, we wanted to highlight a piece in the FT on Thursday on the rise of bossnapping, which begins with this anecdote:
A Vix bottom?
The Vix index, a measure of volatility in the market, has been descending steadily since its late 2008 highs. Vix watchers are now particularly tuned into when it might possibly reach a bottom.
Since the index fell below 30 on Wednesday,
UK bashing, dwindling asset edition
The following chart comes courtesy of Sean Corrigan, chief investment strategist, at Diapason Securities:
Not a lot to fall back on at the moment, then.
As for those green shoots, Corrigan’s opinion appears to be of the Roubini school:
CDS report: UK credit hit by ratings alert
UK credit derivatives widened sharply on Thursday after Standard & Poor’s revised the British government’s credit ratings from stable to negative for the first time since 1978, when the agency first started assessing the country’s economic outlook.
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville on Thursday,
- United Kingdom – the first rating alarm bell rings.
- Ratings, according to HMT.
- S&P: 1 IN 3 CHANCE UK WILL LOSE TRIPLE A RATING.
- Defending the UK’s triple A.
Markets live transcript 21 May 2009
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:07 on 21 May 2009. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy, FT (PM) Neil Hume, FT (NH) PM:Welcome PM:It is 11.02 i beleive
Twitbore
To our shame, several of us here at FT Alphaville are quite keen on Twitter. Now at least, we have a credible reason to be:
BA LIBOR: the world’s most important number now tweets daily
That’s right,
Drink and financial wizardry don’t mix
Further evidence, as if any were needed.
From Thursday’s half year results statement from Mitchells & Butlers, owner of the All Bar One and Harvester chains:
Since the half year end the long term interest rate swap held against the medium term borrowings has been settled at a net cash cost of £69m post tax.
United Kingdom – the first rating alarm bell rings
Oh boy, is Gordon Brown in trouble.
The parliamentary expenses scandal in Britain may have distracted the public’s gaze from the dire state of the local economy, but rating agency Standard & Poor’s has now guaranteed its return to the front pages.
US equities: Smithers on corporate supply and demand
If financial markets were perfectly efficient, they would be far less volatile than they are, notes Andrew Smithers of Smithers & Co in a client report on US equities and corporate supply and demand. While that may sound obvious,
Fuld resigns
Filed late yesterday:
RICHARD S. FULD, JR.
May 14,2009
Mr. Bryan Marsal
Alvarez & Marsal
Co-Chief Executive Officer
1271 Sixth Avenue
35th Floor
New York, NY 10020
Dear Bryan:
As you know,
The bull case shredded
Bear market rally or start of a bull market? It is the question everyone wants answered right now. But George Magnus, senior economic adviser and green shoot weed-whacker at UBS, is in no doubt as to the answer.
Further reading
Elsewhere on Thursday,
- Prodigal intellectuals are all very well in hindsight
- So how good are Jim Cramer’s stock picks?
- A good first-quarter for banks may mean nothing
- All that’s gold doesn’t necessarily glitter
- Fed wins,
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Thursday’s FT,
Editorial: California dreamin’
The ultimate frontier state is again leading the way – but not, this time, to a Hollywood ending. Tuesday’s defeat of deficit-reducing ballot initiatives portends the difficulties awaiting countries whose finances have been ravaged by the recession.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Thursday,
- Panmure Gordon announces £23m (34p) share placing with Qinvest, which will own 44% of company – statement.
- Investec cuts dividend, sees earnings fall, but says balance sheet strong – statement.
The 6am Cut: A free news-by-email service from FT Alphaville
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BofA seeks to repay $45bn by year-end
Bank of America wants to repay $45bn in bail-out funds by the end of the year, in a faster-than-expected move driven by its accelerated programme to raise capital. BofA is on track to raise more than $35bn in capital by the end of September,
UK braced for call to shrink Lloyds
The UK government is braced for an order by the European Commission seeking the shrinking of Lloyds Banking Group as a condition for the granting of state aid. UK Treasury officials believe Brussels could insist that the bank shrink its balance sheet – possibly through asset disposals – or accept restrictions over its behaviour in the market.
Franklin Templeton eyes AIG unit
Franklin Templeton Investments has emerged as the leading bidder for AIG’s asset-management business, a deal that also has drawn interest from Australia’s Macquarie Group and Religare Enterprises of India,
Funds move to halt Chrysler restructuring
Three of Chrysler’s secured creditors are mounting a fresh attempt to thwart the carmaker’s Chapter 11 reorganisation, arguing it violates their legal rights and US government authority under the TARP scheme.
Julius Baer to spin off funds unit
Julius Baer surprised investors on Wednesday with plans to split its private banking and fund management businesses into separate listed companies. The move was seen as paving the way for the disposal of fund management,