ABN stuck in another Italian bog 27 Sep 2006 The Dutch bank s plan for a friendly E16bn takeover of Capitalia has been scuppered by a chairman who doesn t want to lose his job. The obvious thing now would be to go hostile. But after last year s bruising Antonveneta battle, the Dutch may not have the bottle.
Agricole-Intesa shouldn’t do sweetheart deal 21 Sep 2006 The French bank wants to broaden its presence in Italy before it gives the green light to the IntesaSanpaolo merger. Agricole wants Cariparma and full control of Nextra. If any sidedeal isn't transparent, other shareholders will feel shortchanged.
Lazard Europe at last gets a head 20 Sep 2006 This should allow Lazard to deal more efficiently with clients. But it's just a small step towards regaining part of its eroding influence. The bank is bringing order to its European operations. Paris chief Georges Ralli now becomes Europe boss, with London reporting into him.
Morgan Stanley finally beats Goldman 20 Sep 2006 The investment bank logged a return on equity of 23% in the third quarter, besting its rivals including the usual top dog Goldman Sachs. Morgan s stock is hitting fiveyear highs, a sign that John Mack s turnaround is starting to bite. But asset management is still a laggard.
Sir John Bond: the $25k a day banker 20 Sep 2006 The former HSBC chairman's per diem rate to advise Bill Ford may look excessive with so many other advisers crawling around Ford. But Bond could play a key role in the Sidney Weinberg tradition.
Wolfowitz should stick to his guns 18 Sep 2006 World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is getting flack for his anticorruption drive. He should press on. If the standards are set tight enough, they would provide countries with a real incentive to migrate to the private markets.
Kozlov’s murder a reminder of Russian instability 14 Sep 2006 The natural resource boom may have papered over lots of cracks in Russia. But the central banker s death shows that uncertainties persist. The pace of structural reform is painfully slow. And the hardwon political stability of the Putin years remains fragile.
Lehman steals trading limelight from Goldman 13 Sep 2006 The investment bank was more successful than its larger rival in sidestepping the summer slowdown, including trading. Given this, the fact it has more room to run and has built book value faster, why does it still trade at a discount to Goldman?
Goldman Sachs posts resilient Q3 earnings 12 Sep 2006 While the investment bank didn t come close to matching its bumper results from the first half of the year, there were no disasters either. And by one measure the summer hardly seemed slow at all almost all Goldman s businesses actually did better than this time last year.
Wall Street’s Q3 could be surprisingly good 11 Sep 2006 True, underwriting and M&A fees slid by a third or more in Q2. But they rarely account for more than a fifth of bulgebracket revenues. Trading is where the money is. And despite the summer slowdown, some desks have held up pretty well.
UBS tries to narrow gap with US broker rivals 7 Sep 2006 The Swiss bank s US wealthmanagement arm has similar costs to peers, but manages only half the assets. That s crimping its profit margin. Buying McDonald Investments, its second acquisition this year, could help rectify that. But more deals may be in the offing.
Agius appointment signals Barclays’ openness to deals 1 Sep 2006 The Lazard banker clearly has a dealmaking role. But that doesn t mean he has come in to negotiate a sale of the UK bank. One of the problems with outgoing chairman Matt Barrett was that he had little rapport with European bank bosses. Agius will solve that.
Flowers’ German deal is a mystery 1 Sep 2006 The US financier is buying a minority interest in an unlisted bank controlled by public sector investors, where the only exit is an IPO. Flowers needs to jack up profits to make a return on his investment. But it s not clear whether he has the influence to effect this.
Bondholders flex muscle over technical defaults 30 Aug 2006 True, bond investors have been slow to put up much of a fight against valuedestructive actions like leveraged buyouts. But as more companies delay regulatory filings, bondholders are crying default. It s an incremental move in the bondholder value revolution.
Sanpaolo Imi hasn’t done a bad deal 30 Aug 2006 Some shareholders, including Santander, think they have been shortchanged. The Italian bank should have got better terms from Intesa. You could argue that Sanpaolo deserved a premium. But it s not a strong case. Anyway, if Intesa has really underpaid, someone can trump it.
Mr. Bean berates Helicopter Ben 29 Aug 2006 The Bank of England s chief economist thinks the Fed is wrong to target core inflation. That has produced an excessively loose US monetary policy, making the job of controlling inflation more difficult for other central bankers.
Intesa/Sanpaolo: no side-deals with shareholders 25 Aug 2006 Credit Agricole and Santander have interests in Intesa/Sanpaolo IMI that go beyond their equity positions. In the tussle to secure veto rights and bank branches, lessconnected shareholders mustn t be shortchanged.
Unicredit key to next stage of Italian bank consolidation 25 Aug 2006 Its obvious response to the IntesaSanpaolo IMI tieup would be to snap up Capitalia. But that looks fraught with difficulty. The biggest problem is personality. And while there s a possible solution it would in turn throw up political objections.
Intesa/SanPaolo merger compelling – on paper 24 Aug 2006 With over E1bn of annual synergies, there s huge value creation as well as the chance to build a E55bn Italian banking champion. But the deal only adds up if there s streamlined decisionmaking rather than fudged compromises. If not, interlopers may break it up.
Keefe IPO may fare better than rivals 23 Aug 2006 Unlike the debuts of rivals like Cowen and Weisel, US banks specialist Keefe, Bruyette & Woods has a more defensible business. While it s no Evercore or Goldman, it probably deserves to trade at a decent premium to its book value.