Guy Hands, head of UK buy-out group Terra Firma, has warned that unless governments push banks to restructure $7,000bn of leveraged loans due to mature by 2014, the US and Europe could face the “Japanese problem” of zero growth.
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:19 on 18 Nov 2009. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT (NH) Bryce Elder (BE) NH:good morning NH:it’s 11.03am
On Tuesday, Bloomberg scooped its rivals with a story that Goldman “cuddly squid” Sachs would be teaming up with Warren Buffett to provide assistance — ranging from counseling to help in obtaining funding — to 10,000 small US businesses.
At the start of this decade the amount of listed equity in Europe weighted against total market capitalisation began to drop off.
The explanation for this was three-fold. Firstly, debt was cheaper than equity,
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:23 on 17 Nov 2009. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT (NH) Miles Johnson, FT (MJ) NH:Good morning NH:It’s 11.03am
You’ve heard of mortgage loan modifications, now witness the effects of credit card loan modifications on banks.
On Monday, a number of US banks released credit card master trust data for October. Credit
Alvaro de Molina was ousted on Monday as chief executive of GMAC Financial Services, the lending arm of General Motors, after little more than 18 months in the job as the troubled lender continued talks with the US Treasury over a third government bail-out.
First the good news: the following numbers are not as bad as they might have been.
Now the numbers, courtesy of Jason Goldberg at Barcap:
C is expected to have the most assets coming back on balance sheet ($154B),
Citigroup on Sunday said it had agreed to sell its 93.5% stake in Bellsystem24, a Japanese telemarketing company specialising in call centre operations, to Bain Capital for Y93.5bn ($1bn). Once complete,
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.
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.
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
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.
It is almost a year since BHP Billiton abandoned its $62bn pursuit of Rio Tinto and…
people are starting to speculate.
Earlier this week, the Australian Financial Review asked whether BHP might bid again if the proposed iron ore joint venture (IOJV) between the two companies collapses.
Citigroup is poised to relaunch a unit containing its troubled hedge fund operations after nearly two years of poor performance and internal strife. Citi executives wanted to change the name of the unit ? which has $14bn under management and includes private equity operations ? from Citi Alternative Investments to Citi Capital Advisors,
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:12 on 5 Nov 2009. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT (NH) Miles Johnson, FT (MJ) NH:Hey there NH:It’s 11.03am
Does anyone remember Deferred Tax Assets?
Banks like Citi used to be (and in fact, still are) stuffed with them. In fact the assets have become a point of contention over the past year and a half, as regulators,
Barclays handed more power to Bob Diamond, head of its investment banking arm, in a surprise shake-up on Tuesday that will see Frits Seegers ousted after three years running the global retail and commercial banking business.
The UK government on Tuesday doubled its bet on bailing out Britain’s two part-nationalised banks - RBS and Lloyds - adding up to £37bn of new money to the same sum it injected a year ago. The latest bail-out makes RBS by far the world’s biggest government rescue,
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:08 on 3 Nov 2009. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT (NH) Miles Johnson, FT (MJ) NH:Hey there NH:it’s 11:03am
Just days after agreeing to buy Standard Life Bank, Frits Seegers, the hard-driving boss of Barclays’ global retail and commercial banking and architect of that deal, has “resigned” as part of a “broadening”
On FT Alphaville Wednesday morning,
- Will Citigroup rise again from its near death experience?
- China’s amazing, shrinking, output gap.
- Europe’s covered commercial real estate.
- Is soppy cotton a buy?
- A synthetic ETF attack.
So asked the New York Times this weekend in a 3,000 word article this weekend, that eventually came to the conclusion that a debt-for-equity swap was probably, sort of, the only answer to the bank’s problems.
Elsewhere on Monday, and on the weekend,
- More Goldman - how it secretly bet on the US housing crash.
- Roubini on dollar carry reversal - “he’s only halfway there”.
- Can Citigroup Carry Its Own Weight?
- It’s Japan we should be worrying about.
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:09 on 30 Oct 2009. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT (NH) Miles Johnson, FT (MJ) NH:hello NH:Good morning
An interesting sideshow to Lloyds Banking Group’s ongoing wrestling match with the UK Treasury has been the debate over what slice of the proceeds investment bankers should get.
The Guardian on Wednesday,
This is a rather arresting chart:
That’s from Moody’s, showing how the pace of charge-offs (write-offs on bad debt) for rated US banks now exceeds the early years of the Great Depression.
The banks incurred $45bn of loan charge-offs in the third quarter,
Elsewhere on Monday,
- “The business of capital is bust.”
- Why do bankers make so much money?
- “The payroll hidden in plain sight is stock compensation.”
- How was Hong Kong corruption killed?
- The smartest boys in the alley,
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:17 on 22 Oct 2009. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT (NH) Miles Johnson, FT (MJ) NH:it’s 11.03am NH:Good morning
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:12 on 21 Oct 2009. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT (NH) Miles Johnson, FT (MJ) NH:it’s 11.03am NH:or thereabouts
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