Elsewhere on Friday,
- So much for those ‘green shoots’.
- How to read US employment figures.
- Smells like deflation.
- How AIG FP brought down the world.
- Statistics and basketball for beginners.
Private equity that want to buy troubled banks would have to maintain significant capital levels and promise not to “flip’’ investments for at least three years, under proposals by US regulators.
Greg Hutchings was, they still say, the “epitome” of the 80s entrepreneur.
He joined engineering co Tomkins in 1984 to lead the firm — in classic-corporate raider style — to a 350 per cent outperformance of its sector over the next seven years.
Shinsei and Aozora, two lossmaking Japanese banks backed by US buyout groups JC Flowers and Cerberus, are on Wednesday of their merger. The deal will create Japan’s sixth-largest banking group and help consolidate the Japanese government’s holdings.
JPMorgan Chase is winding down Brysam Global Partners, a $600m-plus private equity fund launched in 2007 with its funds by former Citigroup executives Robert Willumstad and Marjorie Magner. The likely closure is a sign the crisis is forcing banks to be more conservative with their capital.
Carlyle Group announced on Tuesday that its latest growth fund targeting smaller Asian companies had raised $1bn, reflecting continuing investor demand for exposure to China and India. The US buyout group said its fourth Asian growth capital fund was nearly 50% larger than its previous $600m fund.
Private equity firms are continuing their evolution into “alternative asset managers” by returning to their roots while simultaneously branching out into other areas such as mezzanine loans, property and infrastructure.
Elsewhere on Tuesday,
- The paradox of strategic defaults.
- Madoff: 150 years is not enough.
-Western pension funds love stocks too much.
- Inflation and you: partners in freedom.
- “Australia - I like it.
Breaking pre-market news on Tuesday,
- Nationwide says house prices rose by 0.9 per cent in June — statement.
- Yell Group starts refinancing, Q1 revenue to be 20 per cent lower — statement.
- Aminex announces placing to raise $11.5m and open offer to raise $3m — statement.
Carlyle, Primus and MBK Partners may seek to buy Nan Shan Life Insurance, the Taiwanese unit of US insurer AIG, reports Bloomberg. KKR, Affinity Equity Partners, Cathay and Chinatrust have also asked AIG for information about the sale and may take part in a first round of bids scheduled for July 3.
Shares in Candover rose on Monday after the ailing UK buyout group said it was still considering splitting itself up after ending takeover talks with potential buyers. Candover received proposals for an outright takeover or minority stake sale from rival groups including Blackstone,
A fraud that was off the charts in the event yielded a sentence to match.
Just how many billions are really at stake, however, made little difference to this outcome. The top bracket for losses under federal sentencing guidelines is “more than $400m”
Elsewhere on Monday,
- Debating the CRA, ad infinitum.
- Regulation and distrust.
- On moving averages and the end of the recession.
- Lunching with the Oracle of Omaha.
- “Economists suffer from a deep psychological disorder that I call ‘physics envy’.”
US buyout group Blackstone is to return to the traditional commercial property market in Europe for the first time since 2004 after the closing on Monday of a larger-than-expected €3.1bn (£2.6bn) real estate fund.
Private equity’s costliest excursion into haute couture risks turning into a flop as Permira, the UK buy-out house, nears completion of talks with lenders to Valentino, the Italian fashion house, about renegotiating its €2.5bn (£2.1bn) debt.
Daewoo Engineering and Construction, South Korea’s largest builder, was put up for sale on Sunday, three years after it was sold to Kumho Asiana Group for $5bn. The move follows pressure on Kumho to find fresh investors in Daewoo to ease a liquidity crunch.
Elsewhere on Friday,
- The shorts are coming back.
- History lesson: The dubious birth of MBS.
- Regulating derivatives.
- The worst CEOs - ever.
- Bursting the bubble of bearishness.
- Behind the demand for US Treasuries.
Japan’s Shinsei and Aozora banks – which are part-owned by US buyout groups – confirmed on Thursday they are in merger talks to create the country’s sixth-biggest banking group, with assets of about Y18,000bn ($187bn).
Elsewhere on Thursday,
- Citi’s pay-rises - good or bad?
- At the ECB, forget the helicopter drops.
- Conclusive evidence that the US stock market is highly inefficient.
- Hedge-fund guy points to ‘Z’-shaped recovery.
Shares in Aozora Bank, the Japanese lender controlled by Cerberus Capital Management, and Shinsei Bank, backed by billionaire Christopher Flowers, rose in Tokyo trading after the banks confirmed they are in merger talks,
KKR announced on Wednesday that it will give itself an Amsterdam public listing by merging its operations with those of its Euronext Amsterdam-listed fund, KKR Private Equity Investors (KPE), which could lead to a listing of its entire operation on the NYSE.
Hedge fund lenders to Delphi, the car parts maker with close links to General Motors, are seeking to disrupt the two bankrupt companies’ restructuring plans by objecting to an allegedly secretive deal under which Delphi plans to sell its assets to GM and California-based Platinum Equity.
Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse have agreed to pay $632m in cash and provide $1.1bn of financing to Huntsman to settle the US chemicals group’s lawsuit against the banks for scuppering its private equity-backed takeover last year.
The share price of Gome Electrical Appliances nearly doubled on Tuesday as it resumed trading after US buyout group Bain Capital confirmed its investment in the Chinese retailer. The stock jumped 95% to HK$2.18 after a seven-month suspension.
Pamplona Capital Management, a UK -based private equity group financed by Russia’s Alfa Bank, has acquired a stake in Chaucer and announced its intention to purchase a third of the outstanding shares in the Lloyd’s of London insurer.
Anglo’s response has been typically grumpy - and it’s not clear that Xstrata can pay enough to win it over.
If overlapping businesses were combined, logistics shared and Anglo’s bloated head office subsumed into Xstrata’s mergers and acquisitions boutique,
Elsewhere on Monday,
- Don’t believe that hyperinflation hype.
- Musings on FIASCO - and the customer as chump.
- On the uselessness of LIBOR.
- Michael Milken says “do no harm” — and he ought to know.
Shares in Candover Investments jumped 12 per cent on Friday morning to 300p after the troubled UK private equity group gained some badly-needed breathing space on Friday with a deal to sell Wood Mackenzie,
Elsewhere on Friday,
So much for not letting a crisis go to waste.
The Green Lantern theory of financial deregulation.
Hedge fund wives on hard times.
So who trades the Vix and VXX?
More financial innovation.
China Investment Corp, the country’s biggest sovereign wealth fund, is poised to invest $500m in a Blackstone Group hedge-fund unit, reports the WSJ. A hefty injection from China would signal that some big money is stepping off the sidelines as global markets stabilise.
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