August, 2009
Turquoise hires UBS to seek a buyer
The banks that own Turquoise, the pan-European share trading facility, have hired UBS to find potential buyers for the business. Bankers suggested Turquoise could be sold for £25m to £50m, though the business’s strategic importance is larger than that price suggests.
HP dashes hopes of tech recovery
An expected recovery in technology markets has yet to take hold, according to Hewlett-Packard which on Tuesday announced a 19% annual drop in profit. After positive results and comments from other technology leaders,
Northern Rock defers payments
Northern Rock has halted payments on some of its subordinated debt to help conserve capital – its first deferred coupon payments since nationalisation. The UK bank, which recently reported first-half losses of £725m,
Merckle’s Phoenix weighs IPO, sale
Phoenix Group, the German drug wholesaler started by the late billionaire Adolf Merckle, is considering an IPO as well as a sale, reports Bloomberg. Deutsche Bank, which is overseeing the sale, is weighing a dual-track process,
Schaeffler in €12bn debt restructure
Schaeffler on Tuesday announced a €12bn refinancing that will enable its family owners to stay at the helm of the debt-ridden group and pave the way for its merger with Continental, the rival car parts maker.
Stockbridge eyes Deutsche fund
Stockbridge Real Estate Funds is considering a takeover bid for the management of a $2.6bn real-estate fund run by Deutsche Bank’s property investment unit, reports the WSJ. Such moves are rare partly because property funds often consist of scores of properties.
Headhunter sues Nomura over Lehman
The London division of Nomura is being sued for up to £90m by a City headhunting firm for allegedly failing to pay fees associated with attracting star talent from Lehman Brothers amid its collapse last year,
Macquarie, Everbright, to raise funds
Macquarie Group, Australia’s largest investment bank, and China Everbright plan to raise $1.5bn for two funds to invest in Greater China infrastructure projects, reports Bloomberg. Macquarie and Everbright,
Corporate bond issues top $1,000bn
Global corporate bond issuance has risen to $1,103bn so far this year, beating the annual record of $898bn set in 2007, according to Dealogic, the data provider. The surge has been seen in dollar, euro,
Blackstone in Broadgate stake talks
Blackstone is in exclusive talks with British Land to take a 50% stake in Broadgate, the landmark £2.5bn office development in the City of London, it emerged as British Land revealed on Tuesday it had
Freddie Mac names Witherell COO
Freddie Mac has hired Bruce Witherell, former co-head of Morgan Stanley’s residential mortgage business, as its chief operating officer. Witherell’s appointment will help fill a glaring gap in the government-run mortgage financier’s executive offices,
Overnight markets: Mixed
Asian stocks mostly rose on Wednesday, led by automakers and mining companies, as Nomura Holdings turned “bullish” on Japan’s auto industry and commodity prices rose. Futures on the S&P500 Index lost 0.3% after the gauge rose 1.1% on Tuesday,
CDS report: Markets mixed as negative sentiment lingers
Markit’s Gavan Nolan wrote this CDS report
European credit indices moved wider today, losing moderate gains made earlier in the session. The Markit iTraxx Europe index was at 100.5bp (+1.1bp, 1,1%),
“Just because the conventional economists are drinking the Kool-Aid doesn’t mean you have to”
Gluskin Sheff economist David Rosenberg woke up on a particularly bearish side of the bed on Tuesday morning, if his most recent note is any indication.
Some highlights (any emphasis or hyperlinks FT Alphaville’s):…all we see is more evidence of a revenue-less recovery.
Spanish mortgage alert?
Edward Hugh over at A Fistful Euros flagged an article that appeared in the Spanish press on Tuesday claiming up to 20 per cent of domestic mortgages were now high risk or about to become “non performing”.
The rise of synthetic ETFs
Leveraged, inverse and commodity ETFs have drawn criticism of late on account of their tendency to incorrectly track the indices and benchmarks they are at first-sight structured to follow.
While professional investors might understand and even expect this sort of mis-performance due to a better understanding of ETF methodologies,
Private equity down, but certainly not out
It wasn’t a massive shock to learn that private equity has had a tough time of late. But, going forward, it’s not all bad news.
A report published on Monday by International Financial Services London,
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville Tuesday morning,
- Confirmation: Crock is crock.
- Freddie, Fannie doing fine, thank you very much.
- Everbright: One man’s damp squib is another man’s star.
-Some Zombie maths.
Markets live transcript 18 Aug 2009
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 11:42 on 18 Aug 2009. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy (PM) Miles Johnson, FT (MJ) PM:Right PM:Welcome to Markets Live
Confirmation: Crock is crock
No one can really say they didn’t see this coming.
After news earlier this month that Northern Rock is still loss-making, the nationalised lender declared on Tuesday:
In this context,
Everbright: One man’s damp squib is another man’s star
Despite Monday’s market rout in Shanghai and dark predictions and theories about the “Shanghai correction”, China Everbright Securities on Tuesday proved that the Chinese still love a good IPO.
The
Freddie, Fannie doing just fine, thank you very much
Bronte Capital’s John Hempton has gone on a Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae modelling extravaganza. And his conclusions are somewhat refreshing. Namely, he’s certain Freddie and Fannie are not the endless black hole of losses their topline numbers suggest them to be — or in the case of Freddie,
Zombie maths
This, apparently, is the mathematical model for zombie infection.
It’s presented in a paper, entitled “When Zombies attack!”: Mathematical modelling of an outbreak of zombie infection”, by Philip Munz,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Tuesday,
- Explaining to the Queen why economics failed.
- The EMH of dating.
- Household debt to net worth ratio spiking.
- Consumer protection ‘safety-and-soundness’.
- US population distribution by age,
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Tuesday’s FT,
Comment: Disclose the fair value of complex securities
Banks and other financial institutions are lobbying against fair-value accounting for their asset holdings,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Tuesday,
- Rio Tinto receives $2bn binding offer for majority of Alcan Packaging businesses — statement.
- Corporate: British Land, Pendragon, Readymix, VP, Luminar, Schindler,
Stocks hit despite Japan growth
World stocks tumbled on Monday as doubts about the strength of economic recovery threatened to derail the five-month rally in the global markets. Equities in Asia and Europe saw some of their biggest one-day falls since the turnround in the markets in March as investors were jolted by data from Japan.
US extends Talf scheme
The Federal Reserve and the US Treasury on Monday extended a $200bn programme aimed at reviving the securitisation market, bringing relief to investors concerned that the supply of cheap government financing was set to end.
Reader’s Digest turns to Chapter 11
Reader’s Digest Association on Monday announced plans for voluntary bankruptcy amid a deepening advertising recession. Equity investors led by Ripplewood Holdings, who announced the $2.4bn acquisition in November 2006,
CIT posts loss, completes debt exchange
CIT Group, the troubled US lender, on Monday reported a Q2 loss and said it continues to pursue a turnaround plan outside of bankruptcy court, reports Reuters. CIT recorded a Q2 net loss of $1.68bn,down from $2.08bn a year earlier.