Text size [+][-] Monday February 8 2010GLOBAL EDITION
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The whipping shareholders have given Air Products over its $5.1 bln hostile bid for Airgas suggests it will wind up paying as much as $72 a share to succeed. The deal may be expensive. And Air Products will need to pay more -- but that could be a stretch.
Sarah Palin's "Tea Party" speech should worry Wall Street. Her words were as much anti-Big Money as anti-Big Government. And they reflected a Republican wave that goes beyond the party's fringes. Banks hoping an influx of GOP lawmakers will dilute reform may need to think again.
The PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) are old hat. The new acronym for dominoes if Greece should fall is STUPID (Spain, Turkey, UK, Portugal, Italy, Dubai). Given the way such acronyms can become contagious, the UK needs to distance itself from the others. Here's how.
The state-owned UK bank's tier one capital instruments are trading well below face value because of a European Commission ban on paying dividends. Buying them back at a discount would boost RBS's capital and give investors a get-out clause. It looks a no-brainer.
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Even when you don't agree, it still makes you think. Charles Sherwood, partner and member of the board, Permira
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