November, 2009
AV after dark
On FT Alphaville late on Monday,
- Fed (still) positive on stress-tested banks.
- People’s unwillingness to die on schedule hurting insurers, Moody’s says.
- Get rich working just 75 minutes a day!
- Probing HBOS.
Cadbury rounds on hostile Kraft bid
Kraft on Monday left open the door to increasing its hostile £9.8bn offer for Cadbury after the UK confectionery group rejected its formal bid, launched Monday, describing the US food group’s offer as “derisory” after it did not alter the terms of its initial approach in September.
Axa, AMP, may sweeten AAP bid
Axa and Australian wealth manager AMP may sweeten their joint bid for Axa Asia Pacific to about A$12.4bn ($11.6bn) after a first offer of A$11bn was rejected on Monday, say Citigroup analysts, reports Bloomberg.
Oracle rejects EU antitrust claims
Oracle on Monday mounted a strident attack on Europe’s competition authorities as it confirmed it had received an official objection from Brussels to its proposed $7.4bn acquisition of Sun Microsystems.
Buffett to sell other rail stakes
The chief executive of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp said Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is liquidating its stakes in rival railroad companies Norfolk Southern Corp and Union Pacific Corp, as Berkshire prepares to close its purchase of BNSF,
BC Partners to buy ATI for $500m
BC Partners, the UK-based buy-out group, is set to announce its entry to the fast-expanding US education market through the acquisition of ATI Enterprises, a Dallas-based operator of 24 college campuses,
Englefield Capital in buy-out move
The Brenninkmeijer family, owners of the C&A retail group, have offered to buy out other investors in Englefield Capital, the UK private equity group, including City figures such as Lord Myners, Lord Hollick and Sir John Rose.
Google buys mobile ad business
Google tightened its grip on digital advertising with a further push into the mobile world on Monday as it agreed to buy AdMob, the largest mobile advertising network, for $750m in stock. The deal will
Morgan Stanley lags Goldman on trades
Morgan Stanley’s traders lost money on five of 64 trading days last quarter, a performance that showed that the slow revival in markets had not helped the bank close the gap with its arch-rival, Goldman Sachs,
Allianz reports mixed outlook
Allianz, Europe’s largest insurer, more than doubled quarterly net income from its operations, lifted by the rally in world markets. Q3 operating profit also improved from €1.6bn ($2.4bn) a year ago to €1.9bn.
Malaysia’s Maxis to float shares
Malaysia’s leading mobile phone operator was on Monday expected to price the IPO of 30% of its shares in the upper half of its target range of M$4.80 to M$5.50 ($1.42-$1.62), amid strong demand from both institutions and retail investors.
Banks face hike in funding costs
Banks around the world face increases in funding costs that could cut profits as they look to refinance $7,000bn-plus in short-term debt expiring in the next three years with longer-dated bonds, according to Moody’s.
Sants hits at FSA break-up proposal
Hector Sants, chief executive of the UK’s FSA, said that a proposed reorganisation of the financial watchdog body would sap precious time and resources just as the City of London needed to focus on changing its culture through hands-on supervision and tough enforcement.
LSE computer glitch hits 300 stocks
A technical problem at the London Stock Exchange halted trading in nearly 300 UK stocks on Monday, including the exchange’s own shares. Trading was frozen from 3:04pm until the close due to the failure of one server,
Ex-Grant Thornton partner faces writs
A former lead partner of Grant Thornton Hong Kong, a member firm of accountancy network Grant Thornton International, is embroiled in a legal dispute after two clients filed writs demanding a combined $12.1m.
Overnight markets: Up
Asian stocks climbed on Tuesday, reports Bloomberg, lifting the MSCI Asia Pacific Index for a third day, as a rally in commodities boosted materials producers and brokerages upgraded Australian financial shares. Futures on the S&P500 Index were little changed after the gauge advanced 2.2% on Monday for its sixth straight rise as G20 nations pledged to maintain stimulus measures for now.
Fed (still) positive on stress-tested banks
The Federal Reserve released a statement regarding the “Supervisory Capital Assessment Program” on Monday. For those with short memories, SCAP is Fed-speak for “stress tests on 19 major US banks”.
The results of the SCAP,
People’s unwillingness to die on schedule hurting insurers, Moody’s says
The life settlement industry — with its focus on the acquisition and possible re-sale of certain kinds of life policies — is still in the very early stages of development, but it has been hit more than a few times by controversy and outright fraud.
Get rich working just 75 minutes a day!
Tired of a 10 hour daily slog? Boss breaking your back? Maybe you just fancy more leisure time?
Either way, The TMP DOW End-of-Day CTA fund has gotta be for you!
TRY IT FREE – RIGHT NOW – ON FT ALPHAVILLE.
Probing HBOS
It’s right there — on page 114 — in case you missed it. The full prospectus for Lloyds Banking Group’s heroic capital raising, finally confirms the following:
FSA supervisory review into historical HBOS disclosures
The FSA is conducting a supervisory review into the accuracy and completeness of financial disclosures made by HBOS in connection with its capital raisings in 2008,
Blowing emerging bubbles
Risk appetite is back, and with it, the search for yield in emerging markets.
According to the WSJ, US investors have pumped roughly $26bn into emerging-markets funds this year, $15bn of which was invested via exchange-traded funds.
David Einhorn vs the bloggers on credit default swaps
On Friday, the FT published a piece detailing David Einhorn’s objections to credit default swaps, which he first raised in a recent letter to investors.
And by objections, we mean the boy-genius founder of Greenlight Capital thinks the instruments which have served him so profitably ought to be banned outright.
The real Madoff auction
There was a bit of a brouhaha recently when various auctioneers in the US started attaching words like “Madoff” and “ponzi victim” to their sales in a bid to generate publicity.
But here’s the real thing – slated for this coming Saturday in New Y0rk:
No change in Kraft terms for Cadbury (UPDATED)
As widely expected, Kraft has launched its hostile bid for Cadbury, the UK confectioner. And there’s not even a sprinkle of extra paper:
In fact, the statement reads as though Kraft is simply going through the motions:
Did the FSA help push Citi to the brink?
Buried in the Congressional Oversight Panel’s 127-page November report, examining the ‘moral hazard’ involved in the US Government’s guarantees for financial institutions, is this tidbit:
(Footnote 193) Treasury conversations with Panel staff (Oct.
Lunch Wrap
FT Alphaville experienced an internet outage this morning which reduced our normal service. Apologies for the inconvenience.
On FT Alphaville Monday morning,
- Bargaining Tier 1.
- PPIP(ed).
- Doing God’s work in Further reading.
Markets live transcript 9 Nov 2009
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:11 on 9 Nov 2009. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT (NH) Miles Johnson, FT (MJ) NH:Hola NH:it’s 11:03am
Bargaining Tier 1
Remember how the Fed was testing reverse repos with money market funds as a potential way to drain QE liquidity out of the system further down the line?
Well, some blogosphere talk (Zero Hedge, ahem) appears to suggest the Fed may now be backing away from the idea of using non-traditional participants like money market funds altogether,