November, 2009
PPIP(ed)
Congratulations to Western Asset Management.
The US fixed income specialist has just raised enough money to participate in the US government’s Public-Private Investment Program, the PPIP.
From the Associated Press:
Further reading
Elsewhere on Monday,
- Are ETFs causing an emerging markets bubble?
- Doing ‘God’s work’: Meet Mr Goldman Sachs.
- The BoE’s secret $165bn Lloyds loan.
- Is the UUP dollar ETF the new UNG?
- Is our whole banking system catastrophically insolvent?
- House prices in gold.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Monday’s FT,
Gordon Brown: How we can restore trust in financial institutions
There has always been an implicit economic and social contract between our financial institutions and the society they serve,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Monday,
- Sonova announces $489m cash acquisition of Advanced Bionics Corporation – statement.
- Partygaming acquires WPT Enterprises, owner of the World Poker Tour brand,
Axa Asia Pacific rejects $10bn bid
Axa Asia Pacific, the Australian-listed asset manager, on Monday rejected an A$11bn ($10.2bn) takeover bid from Australia’s AMP, saying on Monday the cash and shares proposal undervalued its business.
Cadbury braces for hostile bid
The board of Cadbury, the UK food group, is preparing to meet on Monday amid expectations that Kraft will go hostile with its takeover offer. The US group is expected to stick close to the terms of its original £10.2bn ($16.9bn) offer and will either formalise its original cash-and-shares proposal,
UK shifts on bank tax plan at G20
Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, backed away from his proposal for a financial transactions tax on Sunday after widespread criticism of his plan, set out in a weekend speech to G20 finance ministers in Scotland.
UK brokers call banks ‘bullies’
Three leading London City stockbrokers have written to Lord Myners, the City Minister, accusing Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group of “corporate bullying” by forcing companies that owe money to the banks to use their investment banking services,
Minsheng plans $4.7bn IPO
China Minsheng Bank, the country’s first privately-owned lender, aims to raise up to $4.68bn through Hong Kong’s largest IPO this year. Minsheng will on Monday launch a long-delayed roadshow in preparation for what will be the world’s fourth-largest IPO of 2009,
Northrop agrees TASC sale
Northrop Grumman has agreed to sell TASC, its advisory services division, for $1.65bn to buy-out firms General Atlantic and KKR. The deal was viewed as a benchmark to gauge the health of the private equity industry and comes after this year’s biggest LBO – a $5.2bn deal for TPG Capital and Canada Pension Plan to buy IMS Health,
Comcast closes in on NBC stake
Comcast may seal a deal to buy a controlling stake in NBC Universal from General Electric by next Monday, creating one of America’s largest media companies. The deal, which values NBC Universal at about $30bn,
Reynolds in talks for Niconovum
US tobacco giant Reynolds American is in advanced talks to buy Niconovum, a Swedish maker of smoking-cessation products, a move that could signal a profound shift in the global tobacco industry, reports the WSJ.
Sands China aims for $3.8bn IPO
Sands China, the Macau unit of Las Vegas Sands, intends to raise up to US $3.83bn in its planned Hong Kong IPO, to repay borrowings and resume construction on hotels and gaming facilities at Macau’s Cotai Strip,
China pledges $10bn to Africa
Wen Jiabao, China’s premier, has pledged $10bn in new low-cost loans to Africa over the next three years and defended China’s engagement against accusations it is “plundering” the continent’s resources.
Long-dated oil soars
Long-dated oil prices have risen to nearly $100 a barrel, in a sign that investors are expecting high prices to return after the recession. The furthest forward oil contract traded on exchanges – the December 2017 futures – rose last week to $99.97 a barrel for the Brent benchmark and to $99.43 for the WTI,
Overnight markets: Up
Asian stocks rose on Monday, reports Bloomberg, after G20 governments agreed to maintain stimulus efforts and Axa and AMP made the region’s biggest takeover offer this year. Treasuries and the dollar fell.
The Weekender
This week on FT Alphaville,
- The $100bn FX hustle.
- The S&P is heading for 800.
- Commercial real estate – work it out!
- World Cups good for tourism, bad for industrial production, BofAML says.
Wall St’s unlikely saviours – community banks
It’s being billed as an outrageous piece of behind the scenes lobbying by Big Finance. Moves are afoot to overlay the Financial Accounting Standards Board, which sits inside the SEC, with a new “oversight board” – a regulator’s regulator,
US consumers failing to spend, data show
Proponents of the theory that there has been a secular shift in the American psyche — away for a culture of consumerism and toward a new-found frugality — will be heartened by the latest consumer credit data from the Federal Reserve.
CDS report: Standing on the shoulders of the Fed
Markit’s Gavan Nolan wrote this CDS report
The monthly US non-farm payrolls report always has the potential to move markets. No matter that it is a lagging indicator; the state of the US labour market is an important gauge of the world’s largest economy and has knock-on effects on consumer confidence.
[Galleon] SEC casts its hedge fund net ever wider
The following snaps flashed up on Reuters on Friday:
RTRS-U.S. SEC ENFORCEMENT CHIEF KHUZAMI SAYS SEEING SIGNIFICANT EXPANSION AS TO WHERE GALLEON/HEDGE FUND PROBE IS LEADING
16:48 06Nov09 RTRS-KHUZAMI SAYS SOME HEDGE FUND BUSINESS MODELS,
Simply, yen-tastic job numbers
Just look at that yen go:
It seems bad US jobs numbers have reassured investors that the “mother of all carry trades” is completely tenable and that because liquidity won’t be removed from the US or the UK any time soon,
Yar! Interdealer piracy
Buccaneers hassling your fleet around the seven seas? Time to hire some muscle.
Interdealer broker ICAP are said to be amassing ducats introducing worried ship owners to pirate slaying mercenaries.
And for a small fee you too can be “briefed in anti-piracy preparation and drills”,
Wells Fargo Pick-A-Pay, Pick-A-Pray
Extend and pretend. Kicking the can. Fake it till you make it. Band-aided.
Any one of those expressions could be used to describe the latest loan modification technique from Wells Fargo.
Dow Jones,
Grevious bodily injury at RBS
The epic third quarter Interim Management Statement from the new, transparent RBS is proving to be something of a treasure trove.
Here’s the bank explaining the dismal performance of its to-be-divested insurance business,
Reforming risky banks the old-fashioned way
In the early days of banking, liability was not just unlimited; it was often as much personal as financial. In 1360, a Barcelona banker was executed in front of his failed bank, presumably as a way of discouraging generations of future bankers from excessive risk-taking…
US unemployment hits 10.2 per cent
US non-farm payrolls fell by 190,000 jobs in October, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday. That compared to a general consensus figure for a loss of 175,000 jobs, according to Reuters.
Figures for September,
Lehman Zombie trade losers
For those wondering what happened to the adventurous idiotic folk who dabbled in pink sheet-traded Lehman shares in the run up to the anniversary:
Related link:
[The Lehman Anniversary] Day of the dead – It lives! – FT Alphaville
The quest for yield, redux
European insurers are having trouble adjusting to life in the land of Zirp.
While 2008 insurance results were all about impairments, the latest round of Euro insurer figures show a growing preoccupation with yield.
The riskless FDIC guarantee
Q: What’s not a government bond or cash but has a zero-per cent risk capital weighting?
A: A bond sold as part of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program.
(A big hat tip to Reuters columnist Rolfe Winkler for spotting the below).