Partygaming founders slash stake sale by 40% 7 Jun 2006 The online poker giant may be cheap on fundamentals. But the reaction to its 8% share placing shows investors still have misgivings. To rebuild trust, Partygaming's founders have cut the sale to 5% and locked in their remaining stakes for the rest of the year.
Partygaming’s 8% stake sale all in the timing 7 Jun 2006 The online poker giant s owners must sell now or wait until September when they'd risk going up against the IPO of rival Pokerstars. The timing looks smart for advisor DrKW. As Pokerstars bookrunner too, it will hope to get a clear runup for its newest client.
Goldman’s new sign raises another conflict issue 7 Jun 2006 It s hiring top lawyer James Sprayregen to expand its restructuring advisory business. That could create tensions with its traders. But given its many tentacles in the leveragedfinance business, poaching Sprayregen could be a welltimed bet on the credit cycle.
Morgan Stanley pulls Anda back from Perella 7 Jun 2006 Because he bled Morgan blue, Anda s departure last year was a major blow. This is a big victory in John Mack s tug of war for talent. It s not great for Perella. But starting up a new business requires various skills. So this doesn t have to mean his boutique is in trouble.
Google goes after spreadsheet junkies 6 Jun 2006 But Google s release today of a new, webbased spreadsheet product doesn t threaten Microsoft s dominant Excel just yet. While the hype focuses on that threat, this is really just another clever brand extension and hypegenerator from Google.
GM’s stock rise masks its problems 6 Jun 2006 The carmaker s shares are up 40% this year, largely thanks to selling the GMAC stake and getting workers to accept redundancy packages. But GM is still losing market share and burning cash. The money from selling GMAC won t mean it can avoid bankruptcy, it ll just delay it.
Bernanke must slay inflation demon 6 Jun 2006 Core inflation has climbed to over 3% in recent months. The market is expecting a futher 25 basis point hike in late June. Now it threatens a bloodbath in the capital markets. A rate hike to 6.66 per cent should do the trick.
Ferrovial locks out Goldman in BAA battle 6 Jun 2006 The Spanish construction company s consortium has secured BAA s recommendation for its 950p offer and bought 14% of the UK airport operator. That makes life very difficult, but not impossible, for rival bidder Goldman.
Arcelor battle ensnared in complex timetable clash 5 Jun 2006 The Luxembourg group has to decide how to reconcile shareholder demands for a fair vote on its Severstal merger with its own sham vote. Whatever it decides is fraught with legal complexity. It is like a multidimensional chess game played against the clock.
Sarin needs to impress Bond 5 Jun 2006 Vodafone's CEO will ride out investor protest at July's AGM. Last week's payouts bought him time but he still needs get the share price up. If it doesn't budge, he'll be back on the ropes and have to rely on Sir John Bond, Vodafone s incoming chairman, to give him a final life.
Dollar’s fall has a long way to go 5 Jun 2006 The greenback is still well above its 2005 low against the euro, and the renminbi has only risen by 4% in a year. Much bigger adjustments will be needed to shrink the huge US trade deficit to a manageable size. Those could come soon.
Pensions shouldn’t bankrupt governments 5 Jun 2006 S&P points out that ageing populations could junk all big government debt in a few decades. But so could tax cuts or populist programmes. All that governments need is the political courage to increase retirement ages. Of course, some of them might not manage that.
Tchenguiz looks a sure winner with M&B stake 4 Jun 2006 The key is the UK pub group s property portfolio, which is so valuable that at the current share price, the operating company comes free. If M&B can deliver that value, Tchenguiz s 8.5% stake looks smart. And if it fails, the property tycoon can bid again in five months.
Vinci management clean-up isn’t over yet 2 Jun 2006 The chairman has resigned, ending an unseemly squabble with the CEO and boosting the French construction firm s quoted value by E1bn. That s a good day s work. But Vinci needs to go further still. It s cronypacked board is also begging for change.
Goldman names Blankfein the boss 2 Jun 2006 By making the trader's trader CEO and chairman, Goldman passed up a chance to do something radical for Wall Street split the roles. This would not just have pleased corporate governance geeks, it would actually have been better for business.
NYSE first among equals in $20bn Euronext merger 2 Jun 2006 The Big Board comes out on top in its deal with the European bourse. It will control the board, and CEO John Thain will run the show. But you don't make shareholders money simply by signing a merger agreement. Thain needs to integrate the business if the deal is to pay off.
Softbank boss Son’s premium fizzles 2 Jun 2006 Despite losing much of its value already this year, the $24bn Japanese internettelecoms conglomerate still looks overvalued. Strip out its stakes in companies like Yahoo! and there's some $7bn in unaccounted value attached to the group.
New Look backers set for extra-large returns 2 Jun 2006 Private equity firms Apax and Permira look to have trebled their original money in the UK clothing retailer, since buying it in March 2004. How have they done it? By growing New Look at a rate of knots and trying on some topofthemarket financing techniques.
Minorities fleeced in Brazilian corporate reform 2 Jun 2006 Several Brazilian companies are junking holding companies and dualclass share structures. That should be good news. But at telecoms firm TNE a proposed reform treats nonvoting shareholders unfairly.
Glaxo purchase of OTC unit for $15bn would be an error 2 Jun 2006 The UK pharma group is reportedly preparing to bid a whopping 21 times operating profit for Pfizer s nonprescription drugs business. Doing so would be a strategic and financial mistake. The company would be better off concentrating on discovering new drugs.
Class-action law firm may get first $1bn fee 2 Jun 2006 Lerach's fee from forcing investment firms to contribute to a huge settlement in the Enron case is part earned, part windfall. A large part of the Enron settlement simply came with the territory. The judge should consider this before approving such a fee.
Ferrovial’s dawn raid on BAA looks to have failed 2 Jun 2006 Nice try. If Ferrovial had managed to buy 14% of the British airports operator, it would have locked out rival bidders. But trading volumes suggests it managed to get less than 5%. As a result, the battle for BAA remains wide open.
Draghi takes aim at Italy’s bank merger logjam 1 Jun 2006 By ditching some powers over deals, the Bank of Italy s governor has made the country s banks easier to acquire. That will encourage predators from abroad. Domestic banks may need to consolidate to avoid falling into foreign hands.
Goldman Sachs drawn into power conflict 1 Jun 2006 Hank Paulson hasn t departed for Washington quickly enough to avoid yet another accusation the investment bank abused its market power. This one revolves around NRG s rejection of Mirant s $8bn hostile bid on the basis its former adviser, Goldman, betrayed its confidence.
Arcelor should foreswear any more mischief 1 Jun 2006 It should hold a fair vote on its Severstal merger as demanded by 30% of shareholders and not engage in more dubious tactics. If the Severstal deal is better than a takeover by Mittal, Arcelor shouldn t fear a vote. But it will need to make a stronger case.
GUS right to defy testy bondholders over demerger 1 Jun 2006 The retailtobusinessinformation company plans to cram all its debt onto one side of the company even though bondholders want a buyback. But this isn't a case of highhanded management railroading bondholders. GUS is actually behaving perfectly reasonably.