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| Monday, November 14, 2011 TODAY'S TOP HEADLINES | |||
M & A Bank of America to Sell Most of Its Stake in Chinese LenderINVESTMENT BANKING Banks Quietly Introduce FeesPRIVATE EQUITY After a Romney Deal, Profits and Then LayoffsHEDGE FUNDS Asian Funds Get Some ReliefOFFERINGS Hong Kong Jeweller Prepares for I.P.O.VENTURE CAPITAL Secret Lab at Google Develops Future BusinessLEGAL/REGULATORY Trustee Cuts 1,066 Jobs at MF Global; CME Pledges Backing for CustomersTop Story Berkshire Amasses 5.5% Stake in I.B.M. Warren E. Buffett, the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, revealed on CNBC that his conglomerate has amassed 64 million shares of IBM, a roughly 5.5 percent stake. | |||
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DEAL NOTES Nuns Who Won't Stop Nudging Long before Occupy Wall Street, the Sisters of St. Francis were quietly staging an occupation of their own, and have become one of the most surprising groups of corporate activists, The New York Times reports. Students Occupy Campuses The Occupy Wall Street protests are spreading to college campuses, but some university officials are concerned about the prospect of tent cities, The New York Times reports. Russian Oil Boss Takes Inspiration From Fictional Mobsters German Khan, a founding shareholder of the Alfa Group who is said to run the oil joint venture TNK-BP, makes no bones about his aggressive style: rumored to carry a chrome-plated pistol under his coat, he says "The Godfather" is a "very instructive film," The Wall Street Journal reports. Jay-Z Ditches 'Occupy' Shirts Rocawear has yanked its new line of "Occupy All Streets" T-shirts, amid criticism that the company was not sending any proceeds to the Occupy Wall Street movement, The New York Times Arts Beat blog reports. MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS »Bank of America to Sell Most of Its Stake in Chinese Lender Bank of America announced on Monday that it would sell most of its remaining holdings in China Construction Bank to a group of unidentified investors, in a deal projected to raise $1.8 billion. G.E. Eyes European Acquisitions G.E. Capital is on the hunt for business opportunities in Europe, which could include buying assets as banks contend with the continent's debt crisis, The Financial Times reports. Uniqlo Plans U.S. Expansion Japan's Fast Retailing, which operates three Uniqlo clothing stores in New York, is looking to expand and may be eyeing American Eagle and Aeropostale as takeover targets, Bloomberg News reports. Sinopec Closes on Brazil Deal The Chinese oil refiner finalized a deal to invest $5.2 billion for a 30 percent stake in the Brazilian unit of the Portuguese company Galp Energia, Bloomberg News reports. A Surprising Suitor for EMI EMI and Warner Music, smaller players in the music industry, seemed an obvious match, but Universal Music had other plans, Reuters BreakingViews writes. Payments Company Seals European Acquisition The electronic payments company VeriFone Systems is paying $815 million for Point International, a Stockholm-based company that serves merchants in 11 countries, The Wall Street Journal reports. Abu Dhabi Airline Is Said to Eye Aircraft Purchase Etihad Airways, of Abu Dhabi, may buy 12 airplanes from Boeing for about $2.5 billion, Reuters reports. INVESTMENT BANKING » Banks Quietly Introduce Fees As they try to recoup about $12 billion in annual revenue lost to new regulation, banks have begun to charge fees for everything from wire transfers to A.T.M. withdrawals, from mobile phone deposits to paper statements, The New York Times reports. Banks Facing Skepticism Over European Exposure Even as American banks make a point of revealing their exposure to troubled European countries, investors just aren't satisfied and have punished financial stocks, The Wall Street Journal reports. American Banks Boost Lending in Europe While European banks pull back from making new loans, American firms like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup are stepping up their lending on the continent, Bloomberg News reports. Data Firms Prepare for Slowdown Bloomberg LP and Thomson Reuters, suppliers of financial data, are feeling the impact of cutbacks on Wall Street, as the worldwide market for financial data is expected to grow 2 percent this year, The Wall Street Journal reports. Italian Bank Looks to Bolster Capital The board of UniCredit, the largest Italian bank, is considering a plan to sell $10.3 billion of stock, Bloomberg News reports. Goldman Executive Decamps to Commodities Firm Yusuf A. Alireza is leaving his post as a Goldman Sachs co-president in Asia to become chief executive of the Noble Group, a commodities trader based in Hong Kong that reported a rare loss in the third quarter, The Wall Street Journal reports. | |||
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PRIVATE EQUITY »After a Romney Deal, Profits and Then Layoffs Mitt Romney's business career is a cornerstone of his campaign, reports Michael Barbaro of The New York Times. But his brand of capitalism had human costs and some messy financial consequences. Morgan Stanley Eyes Chinese Packaging Company Morgan Stanley's private equity unit in Asia is negotiating a purchase of about 80 percent of HCP Holdings, a Chinese packaging firm that would be valued at about $500 million, Reuters reports. Buyout Firm Retreats From Europe The American private equity shop TPG Capital is set to announce a management change as the company pares its European business amid the continent's debt crisis, The Financial Times reports. Second-Hand Private Equity Investing in Vogue As banks sell private equity portfolios, investors are buying into the assets using borrowed funds, a practice that stacks leverage on leverage, The Financial Times reports. Dodgers Want Early Sale of Media Rights The Los Angeles Dodgers have asked Major League Baseball for permission to sell the bankrupt team's $3 billion media rights earlier than planned, Reuters reports. HEDGE FUNDS »Asian Funds Get Some Relief Even with the Asian hedge fund industry on track for its first negative year since 2008, the continent's funds won a bit of relief in October, with the best start to a quarter since the summer of 2009, Reuters reports. Evercore to Buy Stake in Fund-of-Funds The investment bank Evercore Partners is paying $45 million for a 45 percent stake in ABS Investment Management, a fund that invests in hedge funds, Dow Jones Newswires reports. Nordic Hedge Funds on Top Nordic hedge funds have returned an average of 6.1 percent since 2001, compared to a global industry gain of 2.9 percent, according to a Dow Jones Credit Suisse index, Financial News reports. Hedge Fund's London Branch to Focus on Europe Saba Capital, the $4.7 billion hedge fund run by the former Deutsche Bank trader Boaz Weinstein, is opening a London office to focus on European markets, The Financial Times reports. Student Loan Expert Balks at New Risk Daniel Ades, managing director of Kawa Capital Management, who has had success trading student loans, said he "can't quantify the risk" of loans made to students who graduated in 2010 and 2011, as default rates are expected to be around 40 percent, The Wall Street Journal reports. I.P.O./OFFERINGS »Hong Kong Jeweller Prepares for I.P.O. With many Chinese craving gold and diamonds, the retailer Chow Tai Fook Jewellery is planning a $3.5 billion initial offering, potentially the world's largest since July, The Wall Street Journal reports. Full Slate of I.P.O.'s to Hit Jittery Market The nine initial offerings scheduled for this week, including Angie's List and Delphi Automotive, number the most since December 2010, but the climate isn't exactly hospitable, with the stock market prone to large dives, The Wall Street Journal reports. Genworth Gets Higher Rating on I.P.O. Plan A Citigroup analyst upgraded the life insurer Genworth Financial after it announced plans to sell up to 40 percent of its Australian mortgage insurance unit in an initial offering next year, Bloomberg News reports. Giant Coal Deal Strained Before Listing A deal between Nathaniel Philip Rothschild and the Bakrie brothers of Indonesia, to create an international coal mining company that would be listed on the London exchange next year, seems on the verge of falling apart, Reuters writes. VENTURE CAPITAL » Secret Lab at Google Develops Future Business In a top-secret lab at Google that many employees do not know exists, inventors are chasing ideas like elevators that go into outer space, The New York Times reports. One innovation, driverless cars, could become a new business. Mobile Payments Company Raises Angel Funds SalesVu, which competes with Square in offering a device that processes card payments on mobile phones, raised $600,000 in angel funding, TechCrunch reports. Russian Official Predicts Russian Technology Prowess Russia, which after all was the first country to send a human into outer space, is poised to become a rival for Silicon Valley, said Russian presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich, Forbes reports. LEGAL/REGULATORY »Trustee Cuts 1,066 Jobs at MF Global; CME Pledges Backing for Customers The CME Group, the exchange where MF Global did most of its business, has taken the unusual step of pledging $300 million to the bankruptcy trustee to help the firm's beleaguered customers. New Leader for Bankrupt MF Global Bradley I. Abelow, MF Global's president and chief operating officer, oversaw the failed brokerage's risk management, and has been left to steer its bankruptcy process, The Wall Street Journal reports. Moody's Calls Pipeline Delay a 'Positive' for TransCanada The decision to delay the approval process for the Keystone XL pipeline will provide the company with "a greater financial cushion," the rating agency says. Spotlight Fixed on Geithner, a Man Obama Fought to Keep For President Obama, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has been the indispensable economic adviser, The New York Times reports. Bank of America Derivatives Transfer May Be Stymied Regulators may prevent Bank of America from shifting derivatives into the bank's retail deposit division, as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has raised concerns, Bloomberg News reports. Euro on a Path to Break-Up Unless countries that share the euro become more tightly integrated, deflation will force the currency union to break apart, writes Nouriel Roubini in a column in Slate. Lawmakers and Trading Members of Congress, including Speaker John A. Boehner and Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader, have purchased stock in industries while legislation that might influence their investments was being debated on Capitol Hill, reports Steve Kroft, a correspondent for "60 Minutes." |
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