October, 2009
Japan’s JGB dilemmas
Japan’s bond market — the biggest in the world — could be about to get a whole lot larger if the new DPJ-led government really is changing tack on its initial pledge to cut government spending.
The Nikkei business daily reported on Thursday that the government’s ambitious spending programmes and budget requests from ministries and agencies for the 2010-11 fiscal year starting next April,
Markets live transcript 15 Oct 2009
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:29 on 15 Oct 2009. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT (NH) Miles Johnson, FT (MJ) NH:Hi there NH:good morning
Punch drunk
There’s nothing like a (former) house broker scorned, as the Toxic Pub Company have found out on Thursday morning.
Jamie Rollo of ex-house broker Morgan Stanley reckons Punch Taverns might need to raise more equity if trading does not pick up and says the argument that selling pubs and buying back debt enhances net asset value is very weak to say the least.
The return of merchant banking
Kleinwort Benson, one of the City of London’s oldest and venerable names has a new owner — a Belgian industrial holding company.
But please bear with us because this could be interesting.
The buyer is RHJ Holdings,
Fishing for QE clues
Thursday’s FT has an interview with the Bank of England’s executive director for markets, Paul Fisher, on the subjects of quantitative easing, inflation, deflation, the output gap, money supply, and the UK economy in general.
Cisco-Tandberg: bump, dump, or trump?
Cisco’s first big overseas acquisition appears to have run into a spot of bother:
TANDBERG (TAA NO) / CISCO (CSCO US) – SEB Enskilda issues statement saying that it has been in contact with several of Tandberg’s large shareholders.
Greenback down, Aussie up
The Aussie dollar — already the power currency of the season — rose further to a 14-month high on Thursday after unusually clear indications from the governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Glenn Stevens,
Spanish banking crises, then and now
Here’s an interesting series of charts from Nomura.
They show certain stats for Spanish banks in the current crisis and the previous one — the recession of 1993, when Spain experienced a rather sharp downturn in consumer credit and GDP,
How the Basel II capital cliff begets resecuritisation
Basel II banking regulations are sooooo boring.
But Basel II’s effects on securitisation are fascinating, right?
Let’s begin.
Rating agency Fitch is guiding us through the Basel II regulations,
Eurozone rising like ‘a phoenix from the ashes’
Or so think global fund managers, according to Wednesday’s Bank of America Merrill Lynch fund managers survey.
How things change. Earlier this year the eurozone was seen by many as the pits. In fact,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Thursday,
- “We’re screwed if just one central bank makes an error.”
- Highlights from the JP Morgan conference call.
- The Dow and big numbers.
- “If you really want to know why the financial system nearly collapsed in the fall of 2008,
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Friday’s FT,
John Gapper: The problem with Goldman
It will be business as usual for Goldman Sachs on Thursday. The bank will annoy a lot of people. Goldman will say how much money it made in the third quarter (a lot) and how many billions it has stored for bonuses.
AV after dark
On FT Alphaville late Wednesday,
- Bruce Wasserstein 1947-2009.
- Fed minutes reveal “considerable uncertainty” post-stimulus.
- ReuPOV? Or how Reuters hopes to avoid mashing news and views.
- Yup,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Thursday,
- Xstrata says it has no intention of making an offer for Anglo American – statement.
- Anheuser-Busch InBev agrees to sell central European operations to CVC for $2.2bn – statement.
JPMorgan profits boost Dow
US stocks surged on Wednesday after JPMorgan Chase kicked off the banks’ Q3 results season by announcing its biggest profit since 2007: $3.6bn in Q3 net income. The result easily beat analysts’ expectations and set a high bar for Goldman Sachs,
Dollar hit on Fed’s doveish tone
The dollar fell on Wednesday after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting showed that while some committee members favoured increasing Fed purchases of financial assets to speed recovery,
Golub named after Wasserstein death
Steven Golub, vice chairman of Lazard, was named interim CEO of the firm following the death of Bruce Wasserstein, the pre-eminent Wall Street dealmaker who took the bank public in 2005, reports Bloomberg. Wasserstein died on Wednesday at the age of 61, reports the FT,
Overseas-Chinese eyes ING unit
Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, the owner of Singapore’s biggest life insurer, is close to an agreement to buy ING Groep’s private banking assets in Asia for about $1.5bn, trumping HSBC for the ING unit,
Lloyds rights issue faces hurdle
The UK government will not underwrite Lloyds Banking Group’s planned rights issue, potentially complicating the bank’s push to raise enough capital to avoid the controversial asset insurance programme.
Crédit Agricole to repay state
Crédit Agricole on Wednesday joined other French banks rushing to repay government aid, saying it would use proceeds from recent bond issues to repay within this month the €3bn ($4.5bn), plus €220m in accumulated interest,
Permira pledges ‘wall of cash’
Permira, one of Europe’s biggest buy-out groups, on Wednesday promised to return “a wall of cash” to investors by floating or selling many of its portfolio companies , adding to growing optimism among buy-out bosses.
GM set to agree Opel stake sale
General Motors will announce on Thursday it has reached an agreement to sell 55% of Opel to Magna and Sberbank despite its failure to secure Spanish consent to move a production line to Germany. Binding share purchase agreements are set to be signed on Thursday between GM,
Foreign banks hit UK’s Myners
Foreign investment bankers in London on Wednesday accused the UK government of bullying them into signing up to bonus restrictions, after a heated meeting with Lord Myners, the City minister. The banks – Bank of America,
Calpers rocked by ‘pay to play’
Calpers, the largest US public pension fund, revealed that a former board member had reaped $50m in fees for arranging investments that could saddle state taxpayers with big losses, reports the WSJ. The disclosure deepens concerns that alleged conflicts of interest are undermining US state retirement funds.
BayernLB raided in probe
Prosecutors in Munich searched BayernLB’s offices on Wednesday as they probed the conduct of a former chief executive of Germany’s second-biggest Landesbank. The raids were part of “extensive investigations” into BayernLB’s former chief executive in connection with the bank’s purchase of a majority stake in Hypo Group Alpe Adria,
Redstone sells Viacom, CBS stakes
Sumner Redstone, controlling shareholder of Viacom and CBS, is raising $945m by selling off all of his non-voting stakes in the two media companies to pay off debt. The stock sale will leave Redstone with 75% control of both companies,
Geithner aides paid ‘millions’
Obama administration officials now working on fixing and regulating the financial system were beneficiaries of several million dollars in pay from Wall Street banks and buy-out firms, it has been revealed.
Overnight markets: Up
Asian stocks rose for a third day on Thursday, led by finance and materials companies, after JPMorgan’s earnings topped estimates and Korean steelmaker Posco raised its profit forecast. Futures on the S&P500 Index added 0.1% after the gauge rose 1.8% on Wednesday to its highest since October 2008 following JPMorgan’s earnings and as new figures showed unexpectedly resilient US retail sales.
Bruce Wasserstein 1947-2009
Related links:
Lazard’s dealmaker in hospital with heart problem – FT
Golub Most Likely Wasserstein Successor, Cohan Says – Bloomberg
Fed minutes reveal “considerable uncertainty” post-stimulus
The Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday released the minutes of its most two-day meeting in September, and anyone feeling particularly bullish would do well to give them a close read.
The minutes of the meeting show the attendees disagreed over the future of the Fed’s numerous asset purchase programs,