September, 2009
Beijing open to foreign listings
Beijing will finally start allowing foreign companies to list in China, reflecting its ambitions to open up the financial sector and transform Shanghai into an international financial centre. Fang Xinghai,
Harvard, Yale see endowment losses
Harvard and Yale on Thursday disclosed big losses in their endowments in the last year, signalling yet more cost cuts at the prestigious US schools, reports the NYT. Harvard’s endowment tumbled 27.3% in its latest fiscal year,
LCH.Clearnet in buyout talks
LCH.Clearnet is in talks with a consortium of banks and Icap, the inter-dealer broker, as well its own shareholders, about a proposal that would see the UK-based clearer buy out many shareholders at €11 ($16) a share and hand a possible controlling stake to the consortium.
Green light for Myer IPO
Australia’s biggest IPO in more than two years got the go-ahead on Friday when Myer, the country’s largest department store group, unveiled plans for a flotation. A listing, possibly in November, could raise up to A$3bn ($2.6bn).
UK could seek board ban on ‘Phoenix Four’
Lord Mandelson, UK business secretary, is expected to start civil proceedings to disqualify members of the “Phoenix Four”, the former owners of the Birmingham carmaker MG Rover, from being company directors after Friday’s publication of a four-year inquiry into the company’s collapse.
Overnight markets: Mostly up
Asian stocks mostly advanced on Friday as lower US jobless claims, stronger than expected Chinese industrial production figures and a higher forecast for global oil demand offset slower-than estimated growth in Japan’s.
James Gorman replacing John Mack as CEO of Morgan Stanley
CNBC reports:
Morgan Stanley Chief Executive John Mack is stepping down and will be replaced by James Gorman, one of the investment bank’s co-presidents, CNBC has learned.
Mack will remain chairman of Morgan Stanley,
How to break the law, a guide by Bernard Madoff
Convicted mega-Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff’s assertions that he acted alone appear to be much like the returns he offered his investors: a complete fiction.
Consider the allegations made by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in its civil complaint against Madoff’s deputy,
CDS report: Techs lead the tightening
Gavan Nolan of Markit wrote this CDS report
European credit indices held on to gains despite flagging stock markets. The Markit iTraxx Europe index closed at 87bp, over 1bp (1.5%) tighter than yesterday.
The Fed’s enigmatic CMBS portfolio, an update
The Fed’s criteria for accepting and rejecting legacy CMBS as collateral in its Talf programme has been much scrutinised, yet its selection methodology remains a bit of a puzzle to most analysts.
For instance,
Over tanked in oil
Hat tip to Morgan Downey, author of Oil 101, for the following chart reflecting the still ongoing over-supply issues facing energy and tanker markets.
Related link:
Tanked – FT Alphaville
Foreign-currency lending is rising in Poland
S&P put out a review of the Polish banking sector on Thursday which, quite worryingly, concluded that the industry’s credit risks were rising because foreign currency lending — seen as the country’s biggest exposure to the global crisis — is actually growing.
Welcome to the world of sporting retail…
… in the UK.
If maverick businessman Mike Ashley – he’s the one the right – needed something to take his mind off the Newcastle United sale process, he’s certainly got it.
From the London stock exchange’s Regulatory News Service (RNS).
Master trusts, slavish support
A quick update on UK master trusts — the ginormous RMBS securitisation vehicles of Britain’s banks — from ratings agency Fitch on Thursday.
Contrary to some other reports, Fitch are saying a slowdown in prepayment rates doesn’t mean the trusts,
Leibovitz update: Nothing happens – yet
Following Tuesday’s post on the travails of celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz, the deadline for the repayment of her $24m loan to New York-based art finance company Art Capital Group passed at midnight on Tuesday – leaving her liable to lose control of her properties – including brownstones in New York City and a sprawling property in Rhinebeck,
[The Lehman Anniversary] The BBC’s Lehman Towers
Did the BBC mean for their dramatisation of the last days of Lehman Brothers to be utterly, cringeworthingly hilarious?
If they didn’t, they certainly did a good job making it look like they did.
In short:
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville Thursday morning,
- Bank of England holds interest rates, QE unchanged.
- The Halabi CMBS wind-up.
- Bears, keep the faith.
- HFT’s first casualty: Van der Moolen files for bankruptcy.
Bank of England holds interest rates, QE unchanged
As expected, more of the same from the BoE this Thursday.
Interest rates held at 0.5 per cent, and the quantitative easing programme kept at £175bn.
The BoE’s statement, in full, below:
News Release
Daiwa SMBC — more consolidation in Japan
Consolidation and competition among foreign and domestic brokers are two of the main themes in Japan’s financial services industry right now.
In the latest deal, Daiwa Securities Group, Japan’s second-largest brokerage,
The Halabi CMBS wind-up
On Wednesday the CMBS deal backed by real estate magnate Simon Halabi’s London office properties continued its inexorable blow-up.
On top of a demand for additional taxes, now revealed to be in the £4.8m range,
Markets live transcript 10 Sep 2009
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:12 on 10 Sep 2009. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT (NH) Miles Johnson, FT (MJ) NH:hello NH:welcome to Markets Live
Kradbury: What the CDS market thinks
Below is a chart from Bloomberg showing how the credit default swap market has reacted to Kraft’s proposed $16bn cash and stock offer for Cadburys.
The sharp jump in Kraft’s 5-year CDS spread is
Bears, keep the faith
It is not much fun being a bear at the moment with seemingly everything going up – except the US dollar. But there is still hope, according to Soc Gen’s Albert Edwards.
In his latest Strategy Weekly he draws our attention to the recent performance of the Baltic Freight index,
Don’t worry about deleveraging…
… says Goldman Sachs.
The rather dramatic drop in US consumer credit outstanding has sparked yet another recovery debate, with many claiming the global economy will be unable to get back on its feet without consumers going back to their old,
HFT’s first casualty: Van der Moolen files for bankruptcy
Van der Moolen, the Dutch market maker and broker that unsuccessfully tried to transform itself into a high frequency trading shop after being muscled out of the US market by increasingly algorithmic-focused competition,
Banker eat banker, Frankfurt edition
One can’t help wondering what they’re serving to top bankers at the Handelsblatt banking conference in Frankfurt this week, where first, Deutsche Bank’s Josef Ackermann and then, Goldman Sachs’ chief Lloyd Blankfein,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Thursday,
- Debtors’ revolt watch.
- Boring and exciting finance.
- Another (but eerier) Great Depression comparison.
- The dollar is dooooomed.
- Capitalism after the crisis.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Thursday’s FT,
FT Video: How Lehman collapsed
The FT’s Francesco Guerrera examines the fall of a Wall Street Power House.
China’s love-hate relationship with the dollar
The Chinese and US monetary authorities provide the best example of the “Stockholm syndrome”
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Thursday,
- Thomas Cook share placing priced at 240p-245p a share – Reuters.
- Peter Hambro Mining $53m bond exchange offer gets 97 per cent take up - statement.
- Banco Popular €500m share issue fully covered at €7 a share – Reuters.