September, 2009
AV after dark
On FT Alphaville late Tuesday,
- China cools on the commodity front.
- A new, old chairman for Wells Fargo.
- Does idiocy amount to a financial crime?
- Money market datapoint(s) du mois.
Dollar touches 1-year low as Fed meets
The dollar touched a one-year low against the euro and weakened against the yen on speculation that Federal Reserve policy makers will decide on Wednesday to keep interest rates low, reports Bloomberg.
Suntory seals Orangina deal
Blackstone and Lion Capital have sealed one of the biggest private equity exits of the year by agreeing a binding €2.6bn ($3.84bn) deal to sell Orangina Schweppes, the French soft drink maker, to its Japanese rival Suntory.
Goldman to invest $334m in Geely
Geely Automobile Holdings, China’s largest private automaker, will raise HK$2.59bn ($334m) selling convertible bonds and warrants to a fund managed by Goldman Sachs, reports Bloomberg. GS Capital Partners VI Fund will own 15.1% of the carmaker should it convert the bonds to shares and exercise the warrants,
GIC makes $1.6bn from Citi stake sale
Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund has pocketed a $1.6bn profit after selling half of the 9% stake in Citigroup it acquired during this year’s US-government led refinancing of the troubled bank. In an unexpected announcement on Tuesday,
Fed increases scrutiny of bank bonuses
US regulators have intensified efforts to gather details on banks’ trading positions in a move that could signal a drive to ensure traders’ bonuses are based on real profits rather than unrealised gains.
BofA to turn over more documents
Bank of America has agreed to turn over more documents to a congressional probe of its purchase of Merrill Lynch, a lawmaker said on Tuesday, reports Reuters. After a meeting between a bank executive and the chairman of the House oversight committee,
BNP to start repaying state funds
BNP Paribas, France’s biggest bank, is set to launch an early repayment of government bail-out money within months. Baudouin Prot, chief executive, told the FT he wants to begin paying off €5.1bn of hybrid capital placed with the government over the past 12 months before its terms become more punitive next summer.
CCB rolls over $36bn of bonds
The Chinese government has extended the maturity of bonds used to bail out one of the country’s largest banks in an accounting move that further delays resolution of China’s decade-long banking crisis.
UK’s MCapital delays launch
One of the largest hedge fund launches this year has been delayed amid continuing difficulties in raising start-up funding. MCapital, a UK distressed debt specialist fund set up by Mark Devonshire, former head of Merrill Lynch’s principal credit trading division,
Minerva’s creditors agree new terms
Minerva, UK the property group, has secured a deal with creditors to give it breathing space under its £1bn debt burden until after June 2011. The restructuring agreed with Deutsche Postbank, HSH Nordbank,
Exchanges warn of ‘dark pool’ dangers
The world’s stock and derivatives exchanges on Tuesday warned G20 leaders that the proliferation of alternative trading venues such as “dark pools” could harm the “proper functioning” of their markets.
King for pan-Europe watchdog
Bank of England Governor, Mervyn King, has emerged as the leading candidate to become deputy of a Europe-wide board tracking the stability of financial institutions and co-ordinating risk supervision by national bank regulators.
Turner back on attack
A defiant Lord Turner made a robust defence on Tuesday night of his allegations that the “swollen” financial services sector creates “socially useless” products, telling a London City audience that banks may become “boring”
Financier accused in Madoff case
California’s attorney-general Jerry Brown on Tuesday accused a Beverly Hills investment manager of channelling funds to Bernard Madoff for more than four decades and hiding his ties to the mastermind of a $65bn Ponzi scheme.
Wells Fargo’s Kovacevich to exit
Dick Kovacevich will step down as chairman of Wells Fargo at the end of this year, handing over to his successor as chief executive, John Stumpf. Kovacevich’s departure, announced on Tuesday, signals that the Wells Fargo board is satisfied with progress on the integration of Wachovia,
Boardroom shake-up at Lloyds
A clean sweep of the boardroom is under way at Lloyds Banking Group, just a week after chairman Sir Win Bischoff took up his position, reports FT People. Resignations from GMG boss Carolyn McCall, CEO of Guardian Media Group, and Philip Green,
Overnight markets: Mostly up
Asian stocks rose on Wednesday, led by commodity producers, as oil and metals prices rallied after a weaker dollar boosted demand for alternative investments and on expectations that G20 leaders will agree to continue to stimulate growth. Japan remained closed for its “Silver Week”
China cools on the commodity front
You know how China has bolstered hopes for global growth, with its command-stimulus programme sucking in raw materials, supporting commodity prices and generally making the world feel better?
Well, it’s over.
A new, old chairman for Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo’s chairman Richard Kovacevich intends to retire at the end of the year, and will be replaced by John Stumpf, current chief executive, the bank said on Tuesday.
Stumpf succeeded Kovacevich as chief executive in 2007.
Money market datapoint(s) du mois
Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Hans Mikkelsen has drilled down into recent outflows from money market funds (a topic which had attracted its fair share of conspiratorial theorising).
According to Mikkelsen’s,
Does idiocy amount to a financial crime?
The SEC has pounced on New York lawyer Melissa Mahler for alleged insider dealing on a small takeover five years ago, when she worked for the big US law firm Nixon Peabody.
Why the regulator has taken so long to press its case was not immediately clear,
Tiscali wipe out
We’re not sure whether this can be right, but shall share in any case:
Tiscali, the hopelessly ambitious Italian alternative telco, was trading at €3.70 earlier in Milan, having fallen from €4 at the open on Monday.
CDS report: Telecoms underperform, but market moves tighter
Markit’s Gavan Nolan wrote this CDS report
On the second day of trading European CDS indices moved tighter, holding on to gains while stocks lost ground later in the day. The Markit iTraxx Europe Series 12 index was at 81.5bp,
Prepare for a wild ride – the WWW-shaped economic recovery
A big hat tip to FT insurance correspondent, Paul Davies, for adding the below to our collection of recovery-shapes.
That is the WWW-shaped economic recovery, also known, in FT Alphaville parlance,
Double secret QE, reviewed
Remember double secret QE?
That was the Bank of England/UK Debt Management Office’s joint-attempt to on-lend certain gilts, purchased in the Bank of England’s Asset Purchase Facility (i.e. quantitative easing),
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville on Tuesday morning,
- Bob’s back.
- SWFs and the Noble chase for commodities.
- A golden hold’em.
- Da, Goldman, da.
- Palm reading.
- Boiling oil into backwardation.