Wall Street Folly

There’s something oddly surreal about a firm associated with such extravagant excesses suddenly getting all ecologically correct. Kind of like Paris Hilton supporting the "Vote or Die" campaign during the last presidential election.  That being said,

"Goldman Sachs is the first global investment bank to adopt a comprehensive environmental policy acknowledging "the degradation of global ecosystems services," according to the Rainforest Action Network, an environmental group in San Francisco."

"We don’t have a lot more time to deal with climate change," Henry Paulson, Goldman Sachs’ chairman and chief executive, said in a statement released last week by the network. "We need the right balance between regulation and market-based approaches."

Goldman adopts climat change policy – InvestmentNews.com

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Tags: Goldman Sachs

What a cheapskate.  According to the NY Post, Merrill Lynch Chief Adminstrative Officer Amass Fakahany (now there’s a name one could have fun with without much imagination!), who earned in excess of $10 million or more a year for the past three years, is trying to get child support reduced for his out of wedlock love child with Australian model Alison Dawson. 

Fakahany, who has "recently" married another woman, according to a Merrill source, met Aussie stunner Alison Dawson almost three years ago. But the relationship deteriorated before Dawson gave birth to the couple’s son, Raine Dawson, on April 8, 2004.

Dawson’s lawyer, Raoul Felder, told PAGE SIX, "I don’t think [Fakahany] has ever seen his son."

Dawson immediately sued for child support and was recently awarded $3,500 a month in Manhattan Family Court. But now, Fakahany has hired an Australian barrister to try and have the case moved to the Down Under courts — so that he can get out of paying so much.

"In Australia, the limit you can pay in child support is $1,200 [Australian dollars] a month," Felder explained. "He makes $10 million a year. Trying to move the case to Australia would make sense if he made $200 a week, but this? What on earth could motivate this [cheapness]? People always complain about the morality of people in Hollywood, but I worry about the morality of people on Wall Street."

Wall St. Dad’s Cheap Way Out – NY Post

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Tags: Merrill Lynch

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the fifth year in a row, Manhattan has made the grade as the highest paying county in the country.   And with the massively obscene bonuses coming up, it’s sure to stay there for awhile.

New York is earning its title as the best place to make it big — it’s got the highest paying jobs anywhere.

Manhattan even has more jobs than it does inhabitants — 2.2 million jobs versus 1.5 million residents, says a government report on the best-paying jobs.

The average weekly paycheck for a job in Manhattan is $2,025, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. That represents a raise of 5.8 percent in the borough’s average paycheck from a year earlier.

Manhattan has led the nation for the last five years as the highest-paying county, and the next round of whopping Wall Street bonuses is likely to keep it there longer.

The nation’s second-highest paying jobs are found in Connecticut’s gold coast of Fairfield County, including rich enclaves from Greenwich to Westport, where residents earn an average $1,613 a week from their local jobs.

Money Town – NY Post

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The latest ‘must use’ buzz word floating around the halls of portfolio managers’ offices seems to be ‘alpha’.  If you don’t use it, you’d better start, or you’ll get left behind if you don’t glom on.  Alpha is in.   It’s all about alpha.

We see money managers bandying the term about all over the place Just this past weekend in its Barron’s Roundtable "Lessons of a So-So Year" article , Steve Tananbaum, chief investment officer of $7 billion NYC hedge fund Golden Tree Asset Management said:

We have several strategies. Our flagship fund, the Master Fund, is up 12.50%, year to date. Two other funds — Credit Opportunities, which uses leverage, and Capital Solutions, which is a middle-market lending fund — are both up around 11%. For me, this year was about alpha, not beta.

Today’s NY Times also focused on the alpha fixation which noted that "Money managers have been stepping up their search for Wall Street’s holy grail: an investment that consistently generates "alpha"".

"Institutions are getting really aggressive about looking for alpha," said Jane Buchan, chief executive of Pacific Alternative Asset Management, which manages funds of hedge funds. "They are investing anywhere they can find it." ….

Even as all that cash is flowing into portable alpha strategies tied to hedge funds, some consultants fear such strategies will no longer outperform the markets to the degree they once did.

"Portable alpha sounds great in theory, but I don’t believe alpha is something that is just sitting on trees, waiting to be plucked," said Peter L. Bernstein, a consultant to pension funds and other institutions. "Investors underestimate the risks in hedge funds."

Yet pension funds and other adopters of portable alpha strategies are increasingly getting their alpha from a diversified portfolio of hedge funds.

How to generate Alpha in a Predominantly Beta World – NY Times

Lessons of a So-So Year – Barrons

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What’s fresh air worth in some parts of NYC?  Apparently $430 per square foot.  The Zeckendorf Brothers, well known real estate developers, paid that price, more than twice the going rate, for air rights over Christ Church and the Grolier Club at Park Avenue and East 60th Street.  Christ Church pockets more than $30 million and Grolier, around $7 million.

Air rights allow developers to build taller by buying the space over low-scale buildings and transferring it (on paper, if not in reality) to spaces over adjacent buildings. Although such transfers occur elsewhere in the country, the prices do not run as high as they do in Manhattan, which, after all, is an island and generally provides developers with one option: up.

The rights will be transferred to a site west of the Grolier Club on East 60th Street, where the Zeckendorfs and their partners own three tenements that are to be demolished.

If it all goes as planned, the developers will be able to build a taller tower than the zoning ordinarily allows. In a separate deal with Christ Church, the tower will also have a coveted Park Avenue address, despite its location on 60th Street.

New York Times

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Have you ever wondered what happened to Ivan Boesky, the high flying, former arb who was convicted in the 1980’s of insider trading?  Well he’s resurfaced, and has morphed into a book reviewer.    He said this of the newly released book "Seema Says":

"Up front and very personal (I ought to know). Much wisdom in everyday parlance along with great humor. Second best to hearing it first hand–an informative and enjoyable read!"

The author of the new book, Seema Boesky, is his ex wife.

Business Wire

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Could the ubiquitous Blackberry, aka the "Crackberry", suddenly go dark?   In a setback for Research In Motion, makers of the ubiquitous Blackberry, a judge ruled that the $450 million patent settlement agreement that RIMM had entered into with NTP is invalid and that NTP can walk away.  That sets the stage for the injunction against RIMM to be enforced.  What does that mean?   Unless you’re on Uncle Sam’s staff, who will be protected from any shutdown, your Blackberry service could be turned off unless RIMM ponies big cash up to pay off NTP.    We suspect that RIMM will pony up.   If they don’t, expect many addicted investment bankers, traders and brokers to go into serious Blackberry withdrawal.  It won’t be pretty.

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Steve Feinberg, who heads New York hedge fund Cerberus Capital Management, is known for stalking companies and then gaining control.  Such companies include Mervyn’s, the National and Alamo car rental companies, and Formica Corp. But did you know that he also occasionally bags other types of game?  According to the Denver Post, he’s something of a hunter. 

"Cerberus controls companies that ring up at least a combined $30 billion in sales," Business Week magazine reported recently. It also noted that Feinberg last year climbed an 11,000-foot mountain in Colorado and shot a bull elk with one shot.

Denver Post – Business Briefs

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What would you think if you made a deal with someone only to find that the deal really wasn’t with them, but instead, with a group of backers who might be deemed less than savory? Well that’s sort of deception is apparently what’s needed to get some deals done these days.  Consider the case of Longreach Group, a small Hong Kong based private-equity company that bought one quarter of the company that runs publicly traded McDonald’s in Japan.   Usually private equity firms invest for the longer term, in private equity.  Duh.  But in the case where they invested in the already public stock of McDonald’s Holding Co., they apparently acted as a beard for a group of hedge funds who otherwise might have been seen as less than desirable partners.

The transaction illustrates how a global glut of capital has investors developing new ways to do deals.

In Asia, as elsewhere, investors are scouring the terrain for deals, with demand outpacing supply. According to Thomson Financial, private-equity firms have raised $10.8 billion in new funds earmarked for Asia in the past 12 months. Hedge funds, likewise, are under pressure to justify the big fees they charge investors as they look for places to put cash to work.

Private-equity firms raise money from institutions and wealthy individuals and, unlike the McDonald’s deal, usually invest in nonpublic businesses, aiming to cash out ultimately by selling shares to the public. Such firms have a reputation for being longer-term investors.

Hedge funds also raise money from institutions and wealthy individuals, but they have a reputation for being the fast-food consumers of the financial world, gorging on quick trades that can create market volatility.

People with knowledge of the McDonald’s deal say there was a concern a direct approach by the hedge funds might have prompted fears by the company’s other shareholders that future heavy selling by the funds would drive down the stock’s price, causing a selloff. The involvement of Longreach, with its private-equity reputation of longer-term commitment, mitigated that concern, though shares of McDonald’s Japan are off 11% in Tokyo since July 27, the day before the deal was announced.

To execute the arrangement, Longreach set up a special-purpose vehicle, called Lakeview Ltd., which is registered as the owner of the 24.98% stake in McDonald’s Japan, according to FactSet Research Systems Inc. Longreach hasn’t publicized the hedge funds’ participation.

Mark Chiba, Longreach’s founder and a former investment banker for UBS AG, declined to comment. McDonald’s Corp., which owns 49% of the Japanese company, didn’t respond to requests to comment.

Would you like hedge funds with that deal? – WSJ

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Boy, has Goldman been hogging the press today.  Now Reuters reports that Goldman Sachs Asset Management may be on the prowl to acquire more asset managers, "and might snap up something big under the right circumstances, some analysts say."  The firm has acquired around $7 billion in assets over the past two years.   GSAM accounts for more than 10% of Goldman’s revenues. 

Goldman builds asset mgt arm via acquisitions – Reuters

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Tags: Goldman Sachs

Hopefully this is gonna be fun to watch.  Carl Icahn and a group of dissident shareholders including Franklin Mutual Advisors, JANA Partners and S.A.C. Capital Advisors have retained Lazard Ltd. to "to further analyze various strategic alternatives to maximize the value of all Time Warner Inc." according to a press release put out by the group.  Time Warner, has plunged in value and has been in the dumps since its acquisition of AOL (which was mentioned in an earlier post).   

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It’s interesting to note that Goldman Sach’s new headquarters, which had its groundbreaking today, will cost a paltry $2.4 billion (for the most part paid for with $1.65 billion of tax exempt government bonds and $115 million in state and city incentives!), when in contrast its 2005 employee bonuses will likely exceed a staggering $11 billion.   Politicians including NY Governor George Pataki, NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NY Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer joined Goldman’s soon-to-be-much-richer king Henry Paulson at the event.  The new 2.1 million square foot, 43 story digs will be built across from the World Trade Center site.  The new HQ is expected to be ready for business in 2009.

"Goldman Sachs has called Lower Manhattan its home for 136 years and we are proud to reaffirm our commitment to this neighborhood and to the city of New York," said Henry M. Paulson, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs.

Elected Officials at Goldman Sachs Groundbreaking near Ground Zero – NY Newsday

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Tags: Goldman Sachs

CNBC just interviewed Duff McDonald, the author of the New York Magazine article on the Goldman bonus largesse.   This thing is gonna get wiiiiide play.

Everyone’s talking about the New York Magazine article on Goldman Sachs where it describes the vast sums of cash that will be disbursed from this year’s bonus pool, and  which also describes a snapshot of how it’s bound to be divvied up.  The potential amounts bestowed on this overpaid lot of pimps and hos who almost always believe they are worth even more are truly obscene.

Typically, Goldman Sachs’s announcement of its third-quarter results kicks the bonus season into high gear. Long revered for being where the serious money gets made, the firm has had a blowout year even by its own standards. Announcing a record profit in the third quarter, Goldman also noted that it had set aside $9.25 billion, almost $420,000 per employee, in compensation. When fourth-quarter results are factored in, that total could swell to an $11 billion pool, or $500,000 per employee.

Naturally, money on Wall Street is not shared equally, not even close. Most Goldman employees will receive a good deal less than half a mil, while a few will make an ungodly amount more. It’s simply a matter of how much more. Is that guy on the commodities desk who bet right every time on the price of oil worth $20 million this year—or $25 million? Maybe it’s worth taking $5 million out of the pocket of that old-school investment banker who couldn’t close that simple snack-food takeover deal. Maybe it’s time he was sent a clear signal about the weight he’s been failing to pull.

Even in the land of seven-figure incomes—in fact, especially in the land of seven-figure incomes—bonus sensitivity runs high. “Most days, I think I’m one of the most overpaid people on earth,” a former Goldman employee told me. “But other days, I feel like I’m getting shafted. Everyone at Goldman is afraid of feeling that way.” The result of extensive interviews with both current and former Goldman employees, what follows is our best guess at how, exactly, that shafting takes place. That, and the names of a few people you’ve never heard of who make more money than A-Rod.

The lengthy article goes on to describe how the bonuses are roughly calculated at the various caste levels within the firm, and the lengths at which they go to keep those bonuses secret.  You have to read the article.   It’s an eye popper.

Goldman Sachs Payday – New York Magazine

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Tags: Bonuses, Goldman Sachs

Federated Investors will pay a $72 million fine to settle government allegations of trading abuse. 

The company’s pacts with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer were the latest in more than a dozen similar agreements by mutual fund companies since late 2003 involving alleged trading abuses.

"With this agreement, virtually the entire mutual fund industry has now sworn off improper trading practices and agreed to compensate investors who were harmed," said Spitzer, a New York gubernatorial candidate, in a statement.

Three Federated affiliates agreed to give up $27 million in ill-gotten gains and pay a $45 million civil penalty under the SEC pact, said the investor protection agency.

That total payout adds to $8 million already paid by the affiliates to the Federated mutual funds harmed by allegedly wrongful conduct, the SEC said in a statement.

Under its agreement with Spitzer, Pittsburgh-based Federated said it will also cut the fees it charges certain mutual funds by $4 million per year over the next five years.

Federated Chief Executive Christopher Donahue said the dual settlements and recent internal changes show the company’s "dedication to safeguarding the investments of our clients."

Fifty-year-old Federated manages more than $207 billion in assets in 138 equity, fixed-income and money-market mutual funds, as well as separately managed accounts. Last month it reported third-quarter income from continuing operations of $65.5 million versus $47.5 million in the year-ago period.

Reuters

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Finally released from house arrest, Peter Bacanovic, infamous Martha Stewart broker, is back on the town.  He attended the New York City Ballet benefit gala last Tuesday night. 

"This is my first time out" he said.  "I’ve been under water for three and a half years.  I’m so glad to be here.  Isn’t this great?"

"Bacanovic came with socialite Fe Fendi, his good friend and a fellow balletomane. Fendi said Bacanovic would have preferred a different company—“He’s an ABT man.” But the City Ballet opening was perfectly timed. “I said, ‘Let’s celebrate. Let’s go get drunk,’ ” said Fendi. “We’ll try.” Bacanovic said he receives Stewart updates through mutual friends: “I don’t know if you’re aware of the law, but we’re not allowed to communicate.” Couldn’t he watch her TV shows? “I don’t watch TV. I never have,” he said. The next day, he left for the Caribbean. Friends say he’s considering a move to the West Coast to work in film.

NY Magazine

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Greed was apparently not good for Calvin Dardin, 30, a stockbroker who swindled NBA star Latrell Sprewell out of $300,000.   He was sentenced on Monday to four to twelve years in prison and ordered to repay almost $6 million that he stole from securities firms and investors.  Dardin swindled eight individuals and three employers, Smith Barney, AIC Ltd, and Wachovia Securities of approximately $7 million over a period of four years.  He purchased a $2.85 million Long Island home with the proceeds "complete with a 20 foot long aquarium and a movie theater". 

Stockbroker Gets 4-to-12 in swindle  NY Newsday

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Anthony Elgindy, former swashbuckling short seller extraordinaire, awaits sentencing in his insider trading case where he could get upwards of 20 years in the slammer.  He still loudly proclaims his innocence.   His wife on the other hand, wonders how to pick up the pieces with all of their funds seized and their home, now in process of foreclosure.  In a wrenching interview with the Wall Street Journal Mrs. Elgindy describes her experiences and her fears for herself and her three children. 

Now, Mrs. Elgindy, 37 years old, is grappling with another challenge: holding her family together. She has had to calm her children, who are in turns furious and frightened, while tackling problems not dealt with by parenting handbooks, such as which son to leave behind on the family’s first jailhouse visit. She has battled with the government over money and has been forced to turn to friends to pay utility bills.

All the while, she has struggled with her own terrors, which more than once have woken her up in the night. "It’s like being in a dark tunnel and wondering if you are ever going to get to the light," says Mrs. Elgindy….

Anthony Elgindy rose to prominence in the late 1990s as a frequent message poster on Internet stock chat sites, such as Silicon Investor. Mr. Elgindy subsequently started a private chat site where members paid a fee to obtain his stock insights, which mostly focused on shorting securities. In January he was convicted of racketeering conspiracy, securities fraud and extortion in a federal criminal trial that delved into the world of short selling.

Mrs. Elgindy says she doesn’t know what she will do if her husband receives a lengthy sentence. Some friends have urged her to file for divorce and get a fresh start. She admits thinking about the option, but also says that divorce would signify failure, "and I don’t want to be a failure."

Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office said it wouldn’t comment on the Elgindy case. He says there’s no set policy about dealing with the financial welfare of convicted felons’ families. "Each case is different," he says. Current and former prosecutors say they try, when possible, to leave the family enough to live on.

The long article goes on, describing Mr. Elgindy’s rise and subsequent fall, and describes how the kids are dealing with it  — not well.

Mr. Elgindy, through Silicon Investor’s Bob Zumbrunnen posted a November 2, 2005 message to his legions of fans on the Silicon Investor thread where he used to post to his legions of followers.

Felon’s Wife Picks Up Pieces of Her Luxury Life – WSJ

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They apparently haven’t softened much in the Hamptons where Blackstone Group chairman Stephen Schwarzman "accepted a bid on his mostly unimproved 15-acre property on Further Lane from Yahoo! chairman Terry Semel for close to the asking price of $42 million."

According to an article in the WSJ on October 21, Schwarzman bought property 13 years ago for about $4 million.   Schwarzman had put the property on the market as he was near closing on a seven acre piece in the town of Water Mill that he was buying for more than $32 million, about six miles away from the one for sale.

NY Post

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Merry Christmas, we’re merging!  Dresdner Bank announced on Thursday that they were merging their operations with it’s separate DrKW investment banking division, ending their independent identity.  According to an article in the FT, Dresdner sought to quickly reassure the bankers to stem defections.   Like that will work.   Dresdner is reportedly looking to cut 2,000-3,000 jobs next year.  Get those resumes updated pronto!

The new head of corporate and investment banking at Dresdner Bank has moved fast to reassure unsettled London-based bankers and stem potential defections following next spring’s bonus round.

Stefan Jentzsch spent Friday in London stressing "the growth opportunities" he saw for the bank in meetings with top executives at investment banking unit Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein
On Thursday, Dresdner confirmed it would combine DrKW with its corporate banking operations, ending the investment bank’s independent identity.

The parallel appointment of Mr Jentzsch, previously head of investment banking at Munich-based HVB and a relative unknown in the UK market, had triggered unease among the 2,000-plus DrKW contingent in London.

It also prompted the resignation of the investment bank’s chief executive, Andrew Pisker, the latest departure from DrKW after four years of uncertainty about the bank’s future. Ever since insurance group Allianz bought Dresdner for €23bn ($27bn) n 2001, there has been enduring speculation about a possible spin-off of DrKW.

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According to a story in this morning’s FT, revenues from servicing hedge funds are up a whopping 28% over last year.

According to research to be published on Monday by Morgan Stanley, investment banks’ prime brokerage operations will generate revenues of more than $5bn in 2005, an increase of 28 per cent from 2004. In spite of shrinking returns and slower fundraising by hedge funds, prime brokerage also looks set to be one of the fastest-expanding parts of the investment banking business in 2006 with revenue growth of 11 per cent.

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Morgan Stanley finally executed $34.3 million in severance agreements for 3 employees fired in the nasty coup that occurred last spring that felled CEO Philip Purcell.  Former MS president Stephan Newhouse will pocket $17.4 million plus certain medical expenses, legal fees and $100,000 in administrative costs, about even with his 2004 pay.  Vikram Pandit walks away with $9 million plus medical benefits, legal fees and $75,000 in administrative costs, half of his 2004 pay.  John Havens walks away with $7.9 million and similar medical, legal and administrative benefits, also half of his 2004 pay.  Newhouse signed a noncompete while the other two did not.

Nice pay day for a firing.  We should all be so lucky.

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They all put buyers and sellers together for incredibly outrageous fees.  Over and over again.    Heidi got jail time for servicing  her well heeled, deep pocketed clients.  Her activities were illegal.  Investment bankers fees?  They may not be illegal, but they certainly are obscene.

If you haven’t read the article in today’s Sunday NY Times, it’s enlightening.  From time to time we see pieces on the outrageous fees that investment bankers extract for seemingly little work.  It’s been going on forever. They put two companies together, sometimes with both parties not altogether willing, and get hugely fat and disproportionately large fees.   Are  they deserved?   Not when you look at the results of some of their resulting handiwork.

WHEN he announced his company’s $13.5 billion acquisition of Veritas Software last year amid an avalanche of criticism, John W. Thompson, the chairman of Symantec, insisted to analysts that the deal made "eminent sense." Gary L. Bloom, the chairman of Veritas, went on the offensive too, with a variation of the same stump speech.

Both men, of course, have been eminently wrong. Symantec’s shares are worth only 54 percent what they were before word of the deal spread. Veritas, which as the seller was supposed to receive some sort of premium, has also left its shareholders shockingly underwater; if they had kept their shares in the combined company, the value of their holdings would be down 21 percent.

But not everyone is crying in their Cheerios when they read the stock pages: Goldman Sachs, which advised Veritas to take this undeniable disaster of a deal, made off with $26.1 million, according to Dealogic, a firm that tracks industry data.  Lehman Brothers, which told Symantec’s board members that the deal was a brilliant idea, also pocketed an eight-figure fee for its handiwork.

The article, written by Andrew Ross Sorkin, also points to the Time Warner – AOL deal and how Citigroup pocketed AOL and walked away with $60 million, while Morgan Stanley, representing Time Warner, feasted on $75 million.   Shareholders? They feasted on lemons.

Ya gotta love how Google has the chutzpah to put investment bankers in their place.  In a recent article in Business Week, it describes how finance types are not at the top of the Google food chain as they like to think they are on Wall Street.

Google is creating a whole new ecosystem for entrepreneurs, says Baris Karadogan of U.S. Venture Partners, a high-tech VC firm in Silicon Valley. Karadogan says he’s closely watching a group of entrepreneurs who are designing a highly specialized online advertising tool, hoping to sell it to Google for $50 million. "Before," he laments, "you needed a VC. Now you can build a Linux-based data system for $100,000 and survive long enough to sell without ever raising a venture round."

The suits inside Google don’t fare much better than the outside pros. Several current and former insiders say there’s a caste system, in which business types are second-class citizens to Google’s valued code jockeys. They argue that it could prove to be a big challenge in the future as Google seeks to maintain its growth. They deem the corporate development team as underpowered in the company, with engineers and product managers tending to carry more clout than salesmen and dealmakers.

A banker who interviewed for a Google corporate development job came to a similar conclusion. "They just aren’t very focused," says the prospective hire, who didn’t get the job. "They’re biased against businesspeople, and their deal strategy is pretty much, ‘O.K., if we see something, then we’ll look at it."’ The candidate, a Wall Street tech M&A specialist who was looking for a change of scenery and a more relaxed lifestyle, calls the experience "chaotic, bureaucratic, and very rigid." Strung out over more than nine months and numerous coast-to-coast flights, the courtship culminated in a jarring "pop quiz." The corporate development team suddenly broke from the script and gave the banker a laptop and 40 minutes to value a business, suggest a strategic buyer, and present a case to the entire team.

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We don’t hear of them all that often:  Women running hedge funds.  They exist, but in relatively small numbers.   So it’s refreshing to see a successful woman at the helm.  After all, reports have shown that women are actually superior investors!   So why shouldn’t more of them be in charge?   The Weekend WSJ focused on Jamie Zimmerman who specializes in distressed debt and manages $475 million in assets.   Asked if being a woman has hampered her career, she quipped "It’s irrelevant.  It just wan’t a factor in anything I did in my life."

WSJ Article "A Hedge Fund Run By a Woman" – Sub Req’d

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