Suddenly, it’s the least attractive job in the country. Bank of America has been searching for a new CEO for months, ever since battered Ken Lewis announced that he was stepping down. But no one wants the job. Why not?Because they’ll have to l
Peter Schiff’s views as an author, investor and free market idealist are no secret: Abolish the Fed, buy gold and avoid the dollar. With that in mind, Sunday night was something of a dream come true for the President of Euro Pacific Capital.Thanks To Prin
St. Louis Fed President Jim Bullard has been making headlines and moving markets lately. But as is so often the case, traders may be jumping the gun as the headlines may be misrepresenting Bullard’s stance on monetary policy. The irony here is that Bullar
From The Business Insider, Nov. 23, 2009:Microsoft (MSFT) wants to pay News Corp (NWS) and other large
publishers to de-list their Web sites from Google’s (GOOG) search
index, the Financial Times reports.
The idea is to force Google (GOOG) to pay for c
From The Business Insider, Nov. 23, 2009:The New York Times
– not usually the first publication you’d think of when it comes to
calling for fiscal prudence — sounds the alarm over the government’s
massive debt load. …
For the latest deals news from Reuters, click here. And here’s the top stories from the newspapers (some external links may require subscription):
John Tiner, former head of the Financial Services Authority, and now chief executive of Resolution – the investment vehicle established by Clive Cowdery — said his company is targeting pure asset management businesses in its quest to create an enlarged British life assurance and fund management group, the FT said.
LLoyds Banking Group is in talks with stockbroker Execution about creating a joint venture as it plans to build a sizeable presence in the UK equity broking market, the Times said.
In the blue corner – Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC), which recently hired proxy solicitation firm Georgeson to get out the shareholder vote in favour of its $1.9 billion bid to buy out the 48 percent of Dragon Oil it doesn’t already own. (Georgeson say they are the oldest and best shareholder consultancy in the business, and helped engineer a record turnout for the HBOS AGM that approved Lloyds’s takeover of the bank.)
In the red corner – retail investors keen to “Save Dragon Oil”. Armed with a website and a 3,000-page printout detailing of the Turkmenistan-focused oil explorer’s investors…
The year-long ban BHP Billiton has had on revisiting a takeover of rival miner Rio Tinto will soon end, but it seems as if the moment has passed. Liberum and Investec said earlier this week that most of the synergies were captured anyway by the duo’s iron-ore joint venture. If regulators nix that deal, analysts say a full takeover could be back on — but how that would pass muster if a JV doesn’t is not clear. On Friday, Credit Suisse joined the chorus of disapproval, saying a takeover would cut BHP’s return on equity (ROE) in half. From the CS note:
“We have re-run the numbers on an all scrip BHP Billiton takeover of Rio Tinto at a 30% premium (2.3 BHP shares for each RIO share). We see such a deal as materially EPS dilutive (by 12% even after year 3) and would significantly decrease BHP’s return on equity (from 25% to 12%).
“We do not see BHP making another takeover offer for RIO because: (i) The iron ore JV should capture many of the synergy benefits expected from the possible merger. (ii) If the iron ore JV fails on account of not passing regulatory hurdles similarly then we do not see a takeover receiving regulatory passage. (iii) We do not foresee shareholder support for the deal (and any such deal would use BHP script) with the potential EPS dilution and ROE erosion significant. (iv) Non-availability of sufficient credit facilities.
“We see a reinstatement of the buyback as a more preferable option for BHP shareholders than another tilt at RIO. A buyback of US$18bn in FY11 would be 7% EPS accretive and return gearing to a more normal level of 25% (BHP is debt free by end FY11 on our current forecasts).”
On the heels of Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankenfein’s apology for his firm’s role in the financial crisis, some of Goldman’s largest shareholders are unhappy more of Goldman’s prosperity isn’t being passed along to them, The WSJ reports. …
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner took some heavy fire on Capitol Hill Thursday. Days after Oregon Democrat Peter DeFazio called for Geithner’s resignation, Texas Republican told the Secretary: “The public has lost all confidence in your ability to do
Are we on the verge of total economic collapse?Don’t laugh. The french firm Societe Generale thinks so.The brokerage firm has put the fear of God in clients recently by predicting that developed economies and markets are going to collapse under a mo
A fight has broken out among economists about whether what ails the country is too much spending or too much debt.Debt fear-mongers, such as Niall Ferguson, believe that the country’s wild borrowing and spending spree has put us on the road to ruin.”