August, 2009
France shows way on bonus restraint
French banks will offer this week to reinforce rules governing the payment and disclosure of bonuses in meetings with Nicolas Sarkozy, president, and Christine Lagarde, finance minister. The concessions,
Sweden to outline takeover rules
A two-year battle to secure equal treatment for all shareholders in bid battles in Sweden is drawing to a close with the Swedish stock exchange expected to outline new takeover rules this week. The exchange,
US muni bond market revives
Borrowing costs for highly-rated US states, cities and other public entities have dropped from the crisis levels of last year to below historical norms, reflecting demand from retail investors as well as federal subsidies for the $2,700bn municipal bond market.
Merger pressure on UK building societies
Up to five UK building societies could be pushed into mergers over the next couple of years after reporting losses for 2008, according to KPMG’s Building Societies Database 2009 which is published on Monday.
TPG to choose Myer IPO advisers
TPG, the US private equity group, this week is expected to choose banking advisers to assist in the A$2bn ($1.7bn) IPO of Myer, the Australian department store chain. TPG interviewed about 10 investment banks in Melbourne last week as part of a formal “beauty parade”,
Saudi families in fraud dispute
Maan Al Sanea, the boss of Saad Group, which owns 2.9pc of HSBC and a stake in Berkeley Group, has been accused of embezzling $9.2bn from one of Saudi Arabia’s most powerful families, the Algosaibis, in an increasingly bitter legal row between the two dynasties,
Hackers linked to Citi ATM scam
The hacking ring allegedly at the centre of the world’s largest identity theft last week was also involved in cracking a network of Citibank-branded ATMs in 7-Eleven stores which are operated by a third company,
Weekend catch-up
In case you missed these stories:
- Spain’s BBVA acquires Guaranty
BBVA, the Spanish bank, on Friday succeeded in its acquisition of Guaranty Financial, a struggling Texas bank with $13.5bn in assets.
Overnight markets: Up
Asian stocks rose on Monday, led by commodities producers, as copper and oil prices increased and sales of existing homes in the US surged the most on record. US markets rallied Friday on the home sales data and remarks by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke that the global economy is “beginning to emerge” from recession.
The Weekender
On FT Alphaville this week,
- There was an invitation for our readers.
- And a prime crisis.
- A hybrid debt attack – for real, from Fitch.
- Spanish banks were hiding?
- The shape of things to come was not a ‘V’.
The (un-Economic) Party of Japan
Japan is set to go to the polling booth on August 30. It’s widely expected that the governing party Liberal Democratic Party will be voted out and replaced by the opposition, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).
Dresdner/Commerzbank blames oil speculators
Wow, the commods analysts at Dresdner/Commerzbank have taken a rather bold — if slightly self-congratulatory — stand on oil speculators.
In a note published on Thursday, analysts Eugen Weinberg, Barbara Lambrecht and Carsten Fritsch,
Lehman clients must wait a while longer…
From the FT:Return of $9bn Lehman claims delayedClients of Lehman Brothers’ European operations face further delay in recovering their assets after an English judge decided he could not approve a scheme that would help expedite the winding up of the collapsed bank’s complicated operation.
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville Friday morning,
- A prime mortgage crisis.
- Are Spanish banks hiding their losses?
-Killing the market for complex products.
- That commodity ETF effect, in grains.
- Another day,
On killing the market for complex products
Proposed changes to Basel II banking regulations have not necessarily been getting the attention they deserve.
Hence, we read with interest a fantastic Deutsche Bank note on the impact of the adjustments,
Markets live transcript 21 Aug 2009
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 11:48 on 21 Aug 2009. Participants in this chat were: Bryce Elder (BE) Miles Johnson, FT (MJ)
BE:
Welcome to Markets Live
BE:
Alphaville’s daily wander around all things tradeable
That commodity ETF effect, in grains
There’s been a spate of commotion this week in the world of commodity ETFs, or ETPs (exchange traded products) as they are fast becoming known.
It comes in the shape of a CFTC ruling that resulted in two Deutsche Bank PowerShares commodity funds,
Another day, another dollar debate
Columbia University professor and Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz is the latest commentator to weigh in on the debate about the dollar, saying Friday that the US currency’s role as a good store of value is “questionable”
How do you say “we are the Blues” in Chinese?
China’s resource-grab has made headlines here before, but now it seems to be after resources of a different sort.
Relegation-fodder football players.
Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung has made a £81.5m offer for Birmingham City FC,
Are Spanish banks hiding their losses?
Here’s a somewhat scary view on Spain that came this week from alternative economic research house Variant Perception.
The top line: that Spain is now the hole in Europe’s balance sheet, and that misunderstanding the severity of the crisis will prove costly to investors as it could have profound implications for the European banking system.
Prime crisis
We’ve written about the morphing of the subprime crisis into a prime mortgage one before, but it’s a point really driven home by the Mortgage Bankers Association’s latest US delinquency report.
Here,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Friday,
- Nouriel: A false prophet?
- The two-track economy.
- The sideways play.
- Where did all the volume go?
- Goldman: Wow, we’re a financial holding company!
- “I’m dedicating this post to a certain heavily-tattooed bank flack.”
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Friday’s FT,
Gillian Tett: Eliminate financial double-think
If you were to sketch a map of how credit has been sliced and diced in 21st century banking, for example,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Friday,
- Grandtop makes £81.5m cash offer for Birmingham City — statement.
- China plans to tighten capital requirements for banks — Bloomberg sources.
- HSBC Infrastructure issues 2.5m new shares — statement.
Bern profits on UBS stake sale
The Swiss government on Thursday turned a SFr1.2bn ($1.1bn) profit on its 10-month investment in UBS, in what bankers called a “private equity-style” return. Bern made almost SFr5.5bn on the SFr6bn in mandatory convertible notes it bought last October as part of its bailout of Switzerland’s biggest bank.
US indicts ex-UBS banker, Swiss lawyer
The US on Thursday indicted a former senior UBS banker and a Swiss lawyer for allegedly helping wealthy Americans hide assets in secret accounts, as Washington broadened its crackdown on offshore tax evasion.
US to end cash-for-clunkers scheme
The US cash-for-clunkers car scrappage scheme became a victim of its own success on Thursday, when the government announced it will end the incentive scheme from Monday night, just a month after its introduction,
Buyout groups eye Japan’s BellSystem24
KKR and Permira are vying to acquire Citigroup-owned BellSystem24, Japan’s largest telemarketer, in a deal that would be one of the largest private equity investments in Japan this year. Nikko Principal Investments,
AIG chief vows to repay loans
The newly appointed head of AIG Robert Benmosche, who halted the auction of an AIG investment advisory unit, told employees he will rebuild the US insurer’s businesses and will not be rushed into selling assets at unfavourable prices,
China’s lending boom lifts ICBC
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world’s largest bank by market value, posted a 3% rise in first-half net profit from a year earlier amid an unprecedented expansion in Chinese bank lending.