morning call... 05 25 2007

GS raised money for the new system. The sytem monitor private euity placement to ensure they comply with 144a market rules. The sale illustrates a growing willingness of investors tosacrifice the regulatory oversight and liquidity provided bypublic markets in their search for higher returns, said JamesCox, a professor of corporate and securities law at DukeUniversity in Durham, North Carolina. May 25 (Bloomberg) -- Nasdaq Stock Market Inc., trailingNYSE Euronext in the race to expand into Europe, may say as earlyas today that it's buying Sweden's OMX AB for more than $3billion, two people familiar with the talks said. -NASDAQ abandoned the attempt to buy LSE -both Nasd and OMX are eltronic and technogy driven Nasdaq shares rose 79 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $33.98 incomposite trading in New York yesterday. OMX rose 5.5 kronor to180 kronor, bringing its market value to about $3.2 billion.

morning call ... 05 21 2007

Unicredit and Capitalia -both Italy, last target taht can charge premium fees, checking account annual cost is 3 times the cost in U.K -$21.8 bil, 5th largest , 2nd aftrer HSBC in Europea -Finance: stock swap 1.12 for each Capitalia share -take out: cross border is tough, union with France SG is tough because of Nationalism -5.5% preimum, 7% including potential gain -strategy: back to home. 2005 $21 bil takeover of Germany HVB Group China State Investment -buy $3 bil stake in Blackstone. nonvoting share -less than 10% ownership to avoid U.S. government approval. no voting rights. -purpose - clear the reserve and diversify its portfolio, foreign exchange reserve, $1.2 tril, from debt investment -shift strategy: avoid criticism by investing in PE firms How exactly to adjust the investment strategy for the reserves is still being debated in Chinese official and academic circles. Some have advocated a freewheeling approach that would pursue political as well as financial ends -- for instance, by buying stockpiles of minerals that China needs to import. Others have pushed for a conservative style more akin to a pension fund, which could involve buying blue-chip stocks to supplement the current heavy reliance on bonds.

morning call ... 05 18 2007

Fed Chairman, Bernake, -saying the housing market will continue to struggle and the Fedsees ``significant risks'' in the leveraged-buyout boom. -curbs in subprime lending might be a restraint on home purchases -housing market slump won't have a broader effect on economy Blackstone acquire Alliance Data Systems Inc. for $6.76 bil -30% premium, fend off rival offer -third M&A in payment-processing systems -EBITDA grow at 30% compound rate since 2000, 17% cash flow growth, KKR took First Data out $25.6 bil, 8.43% annual growth, 10.23% cash flow growth Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe Inc., Transfirst $683

morning call... 05 15 2007

Bear Sterns -slash the value of a NYSE specialist unit as electronic trading reduces the need for specialists. -take a charge of $225 million, for its partial ownership of Bear Wagner. non cash charge. %550 -At the same time, it bought the rest of ownership, 40%, from Hunters Partners LLC. to better manage the business in the changing environment. Does not make sense unless it get a really cheap deal. -Shares declined 1.6% to 153.8

morning call ... 05 14 2007

In the coming months, accounting rule makers are planning to unveil a daft plan to rework financial statements. One possible result: the bottom-lione figure will be gone. the elimination of what today is known as net income or net profit, the bottom-line figure showing what is left after expenses have been met and taxes paid. Another possible radical change in the works: assets and liabilities may no longer be separate categories on the balance sheet, or fall to the left and right side in the classic format taught in introductory accounting classes. the project is aimed at providing investors with a common and global set of accounting standards. The project is being managed jointly by the FASB in the U.S. and the London-based International Accounting Standards Board, and involves accounting bodies in Japan, other parts of Asia and individual European nations. challenge "The cost of this change could be monumental," - textbooks, applies proactively The entire process of adopting the revised approach could take a few years to play out, so much could yet change. new proposed FI statements 1.high granularity 2.seperate segmetns for op, fin, invest - interest expense There is also a "total comprehensive income" category that is wider ranging than net profit as it is known today, and so wouldn't be directly comparable. That is because this total would likely include gains and losses now kept in other parts of the financial statements. These include some currency fluctuations and changes in the value of financial instruments used to hedge against other items. As for the balance sheet, the new version would group assets and liabilities together according to similar categories of operating, investing and financing activities, although it does provide a section for shareholders equity. Currently, a balance sheet is broken down between assets and liabilities, rather than by operating categories.

morning call ... 05 11 2007

AIG, 1Q 2007 -topped the earning estimate, net profit 29% ($4.33 bil, $1.58 per share, vs $1.22 per share last year), op profit $1.68 vs 1.55 -driver: growth in oversea life business - same theme, single digit 4% in past three years. double digits overseas, only a small share of international mkt. more room to grow. -especialy property casualty, increased 33% to $2.98 bil - same theme, mother nature's mercy -weakness: earning from mortgage guarenty unit dropped 94% to $7 million share fell 1% MKT cap $187 bil, company will buy back $9 bil of shares 5y Senior CDS - 11 bps 30y bond, AA, 100 bps over Trea

morning update ... 05 04 2007

-Dutch court order ABN to stop selling LaSalle Bank until shareholders to vote on it. -BOA said to defend its contact because the sale won't be subject to shareholders' approval. -Also sue RBS for interfering the contract. -profit growth outpace revenue growth, -shift from titantic contract to smaller size conctract -improve cost strcuture, moving to less costly overseas -its guidance for next quarter is much lower than estimate, 22 vs 33 cents

GMAC

For the first quarter, GMAC posted a loss of $305 million compared with a year-earlier profit of $495 million. Excluding its Residential Capital LLC unit, GMAC had first-quarter earnings of $605 million, up from $311 million a year ago. GMAC's revenue dropped 27% to $3.38 billion from $4.62 billion. GMAC's home-lending unit, also known as ResCap, posted a loss of $910 million compared with a year-earlier profit of $201 million, due to continued pressures of the U.S. mortgage market NEW YORK (Standard & Poor's) May 2, 2007--Standard & Poor's Ratings Servicessaid today that it affirmed its 'BB+/B-1' counterparty credit rating on GMACLLC (GMAC). The outlook was revised to negative from developing. At the sametime, we lowered our counterparty credit rating on GMAC's 100%-ownedsubsidiary, Residential Cap LLC (ResCap), to 'BBB-/A-3' from 'BBB/A-3'. Theoutlook on ResCap is stable. -ResCap will continue to be a drag on its earnings. worse than anticipated, pooer performance persist for at leats the next year. -Auto Finance and Insurance segments remain dependant on GM for its volume. GM deterioration will impact GMAC "The revision of GMAC's outlook and the downgrade of ResCap reflectassive additional losses at ResCap's subprime mortgage business, totaling910 million after-tax in first-quarter 2007," said Standard & Poor's creditnalyst Scott Sprinzen. These losses caused GMAC overall to be unprofitable https://www.creditsights.com/corp/_hpc/_69/051810.htm?view=Articles_XmlArtList&referringChannelPath=/finsec/