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’Effectively controlling assets, MF Global edition
MF Global lost ‘effective control’ of its sovereign bond assets. This gifted the broker some rather favourable accounting treatment. The broker’s clients, meanwhile, wanted to keep effective control of their own assets,
Isda has a bone to pick with you (and so can we!)
Alright, you lot, stop it with the ridiculous CDS posts. Stop it! We mean it. And Isda means it too:
It’s hard to overstate the amount of nonsensical chatter on credit default swaps (CDS) in the past few days.
Will the last person to sue BofA please turn out the lights
Everyone’s favourite bank was again the S&P 500′s worst performer at pixel time:
AIG (and thus the taxpayer) are trying to recover $10bn, reports Reuters.
The New York Fed’s Maiden Lane pain
The New York Fed may be wishing it cashed in its Maiden Lane II chips back in March.
On Friday it released the first batch of quarterly data on counterparties to its partial sale of Mortgage-Backed Securities acquired as part of the AIG bailout.
New strategy – AIG will buy European junk instead of its own
AIG is back on Wall Street.
Fresh from failing to acquire its own portfolio of dodgy deals from the Federal Reserve — AIG’s Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) were acquired by the US central bank during
The shrinking AIG stock offering
Welcome back AIG, or um, another 15 per cent of you.
From the bailed out insurer’s public offering prospectus, released Wednesday morning:
American International Group, Inc. (“AIG”) is offering 100,000,000 shares of its common stock,
NY Fed to AIG: thanks, but no
So that’s that. Looks like $15.7bn just doesn’t go as far as it used to. Emphasis ours:
The Federal Reserve today announced that it has declined American International Group’s (AIG) offer to purchase all of the assets in Maiden Lane II LLC (MLII).
Further further reading
For the commute home, where your liquidity should never be abruptly halted,
- Why the growth rate matters.
- The Apollo IPO price to be launched today.
- Free Exchange vs Money Supply.
- Scatterplot du jour.
Hank Greenberg takes on the government, Goldman, taxpayers
Oh, Hank.
In Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, the AIG godfather inquires “why did we nationalise AIG?”
He’s puzzled, but thinks that the government and Goldman Sachs may have the answer (our emphasis):
Knight sues Queen and country over dodgy American bond
Here’s a Royal riddle for you.
(H/T the Sunday Times via CityWire):
Sir Keith Mills will this week sue Coutts, the Queen’s banker, for several million pounds, claiming it mis-sold him a savings bond issued by AIG,
Your guide to the Fed’s $3.3 trillion data dump
Cast your minds back to 2007, 2008 and 2009 — and think hard.
You’ll need to. The Federal Reserve has just released the mother-of-all data dumps — showing who received payouts from its circa $3,000bn bailout programmes,
The shrinking, shirking Tarp
As if it couldn’t get any rosier: $25bn is the new bargain basement Tarp cost, according to figures out Tuesday from the Congressional Budget Office.
This is an ostensible snip compared to recent, relatively whopping estimates from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) at $113bn in October 2010 and the CBO’s previous forecast of $66bn in August 2010.
The AIG Wars
Oh dear, it’s the battle of the government agencies. Over AIG.
And specifically, the US Treasury vs SigTarp.
The special inspector general for the US’s Troubled Asset Relief Program has just published its quarterly report to Congress,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Monday,
- EasyJet and Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou settle brand dispute and announce new licensing agreement — statement and statement.
- Alisher Usmanov’s Mail.ru announces intention to float on London Stock Exchange — statement.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Monday,
- Unilever to acquire Alberto Culver for $3.7bn — statement.
- 3i to acquire Mizuho Investment Management for £18.3m — statement.
- Artemis Alpha Trust and Gartmore Growth Opportunities agree to merge assets — statement and statement.
Breaking up Pru is hard to do
Prudential is sitting at the top of the FTSE 100 leaderboard on Monday morning:
The rise has been triggered by a Sunday Times article which claimed a group of Chinese investors are considering a break up bid for Pru.
The Great (Economist) Mortification
Will Philip Mirowski be getting an invite to the next economist shindig?
Perhaps not.
The Carl Koch Professor of Economics and the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Notre Dame has taken a flame-thrower to the post-crisis explanatory powers of his colleagues,
The AIG e-mails, or, 250,000 pages of bail-out oddity
Currently sweeping the blogosphere: 250,000 pages of AIG-related emails.
The documents were released by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in May, but have been helpfully sifted through and linked to by the New York Times.
Those Triaxx CDOs…
Collateral managers beware! The SEC is coming for you.
The SEC on Monday filed a suit against ICP Asset Management — the boutique investment bank once indirectly described by AIG execs as one of the,
Déjà vu all over again in the UK insurance sector
Does this sound familiar?
UK insurance company announces plan for transformational acquisition, funding by a large rights issue, deal maths only stack up if ambitious cost and revenue synergies are achieved.
More heat at the Pru
As the pressure mounts on Prudential CEO Tidjane Thiam, rivals and interested parties are piling in with their tuppence worth.
As Sky News commentator (and FT columnist-to-be) Mark Kleinman, wrote on his blog on Tuesday,
Post-apocalyptic Pru
Cheer up, Prudential. Tomorrow’s another day, even if your ‘transformational’ bid for AIA has blown up and your chief executive is looking ready for the chop.
So let’s look at the case for moving swiftly on.
Famous last words
From Prudential’s statement ending the AIA deal on Wednesday:
Related link:
Thiam in the line of fire as deal fails – FT
Is it all over for the Pru on AIA?
The latest on the Prudential/AIG/AIA saga came in the form of a terse statement from the US insurer and parent of the AIA Asian businesses on Tuesday (our emphasis):
American International Group, Inc.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Monday:
- AIG rejects new offer from Prudential – statement.
- BP will install ‘enhanced’ LMRG cap on Deepwater spill in four days’ time – statement and statement.
- Whitbread denies plans to raise funds via equity issue – statement.
Pru/AIA – It’s alive
Shares in Prudential are strangely becalmed following Friday’s news of talks to renegotiate the $35.5bn price tag for the Asian business of AIG:
The markets seems to have no idea whether the deal will go ahead,
Watch this space: Pru halts Friday HK trading (updated)
All eyes on Prudential and its planned $35.5bn takeover of AIA, the Asian business of US insurer AIG, on Friday.
Here’s the Pru’s Friday statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange:
Suspension of Trading
At the request of Prudential plc (the “Company”),
Pru tries to renegotiate AIA price
Prudential is trying to renegotiate the $35.5bn price tag on the Asian businesses of AIG in a last-ditch attempt to win the support of some of its biggest investors and head off a disastrous “no” vote on its planned takeover of AIA,
Is Pru/AIA off?
Prudential shares have spiked on Thursday morning:
The reason is speculation that its ‘transformational’ (buy highly risky) acquisition of AIA is off:
UK’S PRUDENTIAL SHARES RISE 7 PCT ON TALK AIA DEAL MAY BE OFF – TRADERS AND BROKERS
UK’S PRUDENTIAL SAYS HAS NO COMMENT ON MARKET RUMOUR AND SPECULATION
Due to the way this transaction has been structured (it’s a scheme of arranagement),