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’Euro banks are not very popular…
Major fallers across the continent (NOT just the banking sector):
UniCredit, of course, has already unveiled a €7.5bn cash call. It would seem that the guessing now is who is next.
A snap observation from Chintan Joshi at Nomura:
There are many ways to impair a Greek bond
Many ways to fudge them too.
Compare and contrast…
1) Marking Greek bond impairments to market:
Examples du jour: RBS and Allianz.
RBS has written down £733m of its £1.4bn holdings of Greek bond holdings.
Eurocrashing [updated]
Europe’s biggest fallers at pixel time (via Reuters). Notice a trend?
The Italian 10-year bond yield is above 5.5 per cent. Its Spanish peer is closing in on 6 per cent…
Updated — Spanish 10-year through 6 per cent.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Wednesday,
- Schneider Electric to acquire Spain’s Telvent for $2bn or $40 per share — statement.
- Lenovo buys controlling stake in Germany’s Medion; to launch offer for rest of company — report and statement.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Thursday,
- BNP Paribas reports Q4 results; takes €534m hit on value of stake in Axa — statement.
- Nestle says emerging markets demand helped offset rising raw material prices — statement.
NAB gets Axa-ed, and AMP-ed, Down Under
At long last. The interminable — and fiendishly complicated — saga of the battle for Axa Asia Pacific Holdings (Axa APH) is approaching a finale. Or so it seems.
As Reuters reports on Monday:
Australian wealth manager AMP and French insurer AXA SA launched a new $13.1bn-plus bid for AXA Asia Pacific,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Monday,
- AXA and AMP join forces to make $13.1bn offer for AXA Asia Pacific Holdings — statement.
- BHP Billiton to complete $13bn buyback programme — statement.
- Persimmon says did not experience normal autumn increase in visitor levels — statement.
Structured, structured finance
October may be over, but it will go down in covered bond history (ahem) as the month which saw the debut of not one, but two covered bonds backed by RMBS.
That’s a debt security backed by Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Thursday,
- Resolution agrees to buy Axa’s UK life business for up to £2.25bn; to launch £2bn rights issue – statement.
- BP says cap containment system successfully reinstalled on failed blow-out preventer in Gulf of Mexico – statement.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Monday,
- BP captures 15,000 barrels of oil from Gulf of Mexico spill – statement.
- Resolution in talks to acquire majority of Axa UK’s life business; shares suspended – statement and statement.
More of Taikang up for sale
Potential foreign buyers of a key stake in Taikang Life, a leading Chinese life assurer, are being offered a larger shareholding than previously indicated. Axa, the French insurer, last month put its 15.6% stake in Taikang up for sale,
Thirty financial groups on systemic risk list
Thirty global financial institutions make up a list that regulators are earmarking for cross-border supervision exercises, the Financial Times has learnt. The list, drawn up by regulators under the auspices of the Financial Stability Board,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Thursday,
- Axa says has not withdrawn or changed its proposal with partner AMP for Axa Asia Pacific – Reuters.
- Clariant to cut 570 jobs, close plants – statement.
- Demand for gold falls 34 per cent,
Axa and AMP: High-stakes takeover game Down Under
It’s not in the league of Chinalco’s $19.5bn bid for a stake in Rio Tinto, but Asia’s largest unsolicited takeover offer of the year could be about to get larger, if analysts and investors are proved correct.
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.
Investors eye Axa’s Taikang stake
Foreign private equity funds are this week expected to submit bids for Axa’s minority stake in Taikang Life, China’s fourth-largest insurer, which has been valued at up to $1bn. First-round bids are due by Friday and various overseas investors have signalled interest in the French insurer’s 15.6% stake,
Bidders pitch for Australian Aviva arm
Bankers to Aviva have received first-round bids for the UK insurance group’s A$1bn ($778m) Australian life assurance business. The auction of Aviva’s Australian assets is now down to a handful of bidders,
Axa eyes share issue after loss
Axa, Europe’s second-largest insurance group, reported its first interim loss for seven years on Thursday, slashed its 2008 dividend and prepared for a possible increase in capital. The French insurer is to ask shareholders to approve the issue of up to €2bn ($2.5bn) in preference shares,
Generali, Manulife, Axa eye AIG unit
AIG has started talks on the sale of its Philippine unit, part of a plan to divest assets throughout Asia as it tries to repay a $60bn US government loan, reports Bloomberg. Assicurazioni Generali, Europe’s third-biggest insurer,
Existential Libor
McFear in action.
From Bloomberg News (HT FJ):
Late on Oct. 7, as U.S. stock indexes tumbled to their biggest annual declines since 1937, AXA Investment Managers, a unit of Paris-based Axa SA, sent out an updated list of acceptable counterparties to about 50 of the firm’s most senior investors and traders.
Axa UK to launch investment platform
Axa, the French insurer, is set to launch a fresh assault on the market for investment funds with a new company, Architas Multi-Manager. The stand-alone investment business, which will initially target the UK,
How to deal with the ‘what is it worth?’ problem
The upheavals in debt markets because of the subprime-mortgage shakeout have left some investment funds wondering how to value their holdings, notes the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column.
Axa, Commerzbank, AIG, reassure investors
Among various financial groups that sought to reassure investors on Thursday, Henri de Castries, chief executive of Axa, said that market turbulence was not a reason to panic, adding that it offered bold investors an opportunity to snap up bargains.
UK’s Resolution eyes Friends merger
Friends Provident and Resolution are poised to confirm merger talks to create an £8bn life assurer amid speculation that Friends could be the subject of a rival bid. Clive Cowdery, the flamboyant chairman and founder of Resolution,
Friends Provident shares rise on speculation
Axa, the French insurer, and JC Flowers, the private equity group, are eyeing Friends Provident, the UK life assurer. Speculation about an approach from Axa, possibly in a joint venture with JC Flowers of the US,
People: Axa/Winterthur, HSBC, ANZ, Credit Suisse
Swiss insurance company Winterthur’s head of alternative investments, Christoph Manser, is moving across to Axa Investment Managers, the French group which bought Winterthur from Credit Suisse last summer,
Exit for female fund manager – No2
Within moments of the news that Katherine Garrett-Cox had resigned from Morley, another well-known female fund manger was on the move.
Less than two years after joining Axa Investment Managers to set up a centralised hedge fund business division,
QBE buys Winterthur US for $1.16bn
QBE, Australia’s biggest international general insurer and reinsurer, has agreed to buy Winterthur US for $1.16bn, realising its goal of building a significant business in North America. The Sydney-based group,
Permira tries to reassure Britvic of friendly aims
Permira, the private equity group, tried yesterday to reassure Britvic its sudden arrival as the soft drink group’s equal largest shareholder was a friendly move and that it had no immediate plans to launch a takeover.