- Obama Indicates He’s Willing to Consider Risk Fee for Banks
- Pelosi Says She Has Votes to Pass House Health Plan
- Berkshire Hathaway reduces stake in Moody’s
- AIG Held Off Bonuses Planned for Last Week
- Goldman Relents, but Not Chase
- Credit Suisse Profit Rises 29% on Gains From Trading
- Financier Danny Pang Indicted for ‘Structuring’ Transactions
- SEC Proposes Restricting Pay-to-Play at Pensions
- SEC Orders Ex-CEO to Return Pay
- CIT Chapter 11 Filing May Follow August Swap in Plan
- Ford Loss Beats Estimates on Costs, U.S. Market Share
- Porsche CEO, CFO Resign; Supervisory Board Backs Qatar Deal
- Amazon.com to Acquire Zappos.com in Biggest Purchase
Obama Indicates He’s Willing to Consider Risk Fee for Banks – Bloomberg
President Barack Obama signaled he’s open to imposing a fee on banks and other financial institutions to ensure that firms that falter because of risky transactions won’t need taxpayer bailouts…..
Pelosi Says She Has Votes to Pass House Health Plan – Bloomberg
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she has the votes to pass legislation overhauling the U.S. health- care system as Democratic Party leaders moved closer to an agreement with rebellious members of their own party.
Leaders are “making progress” with Democrats who want more cost cuts in the legislation, Pelosi told reporters in Washington today, a day after President Barack Obama met with a group of Democrats to try to convince them to back the plan…..
Berkshire Hathaway reduces stake in Moody’s – Reuters
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) (BRKb.N) this week lowered its stake in credit ratings provider Moody’s Corp (MCO.N) to 16.98 percent from 20.4 percent, the first reported reduction since 2000.
The sale of about 8 million shares was revealed three months after Moody’s stripped Berkshire of its own “Aaa” rating, and a day after the Obama administration proposed new disclosure and conflict of interest rules for rating agencies…..
AIG Held Off Bonuses Planned for Last Week – Wall Street Journal
Beleaguered insurer American International Group Inc. held off on certain bonus payments set for last week, according to a statement from the Treasury’s general-counsel nominee in response to confirmation hearing questions.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who is ranking member of the Senate finance committee, asked the nominee, George Madison, to respond to questions on the status of AIG’s request to the Treasury’s new compensation czar, Kenneth Feinberg, to weigh in on whether it should make bonus payments scheduled for July 15…..
Goldman Relents, but Not Chase – NY Times
…..The amount paid by Goldman for the warrants was shy of a theoretical option value, but a discount for the illiquidity of the unusual 10-year instruments is legitimate. Pluris Valuation Advisors reckons Goldman paid something close to a fair market price.
The figure was also 17 percent above the most recent best estimate of the warrants’ value, produced by the Congressional Oversight Panel. Mr. Dimon, by contrast, recently refused to buy his bank’s warrants back at Treasury’s valuation, instead proposing — as was his right — that the warrants be auctioned…..
Credit Suisse Profit Rises 29% on Gains From Trading – Bloomberg
Credit Suisse Group AG, the biggest Swiss bank by market value, said second-quarter profit rose 29 percent as revenue from trading stocks and bonds doubled.
Net income increased to 1.57 billion Swiss francs ($1.47 billion), or 1.18 francs a share, from 1.22 billion francs, or 97 centimes, a year earlier, the Zurich-based company said in a statement today. Credit Suisse advanced as much as 5.2 percent in Swiss trading as investment banking earnings exceeded analysts’ estimates…..
Financier Danny Pang Indicted for ‘Structuring’ Transactions – Bloomberg
Danny Pang, the founder of Private Equity Management Group Inc. who U.S. regulators claim bilked Taiwanese investors, was indicted on charges he structured cash withdrawals to avoid having to report them.
Pang will be arraigned July 27 in Santa Ana, California, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Thomas O’Brien in Los Angeles. Pang is charged in the indictment filed yesterday with two counts of making a total of about 50 cash withdrawals in amounts of as high as $9,900 to evade a U.S. law that requires reporting cash withdrawals of $10,000 or more….
SEC Proposes Restricting Pay-to-Play at Pensions – AP
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may restrict investment advisers from giving money to so-called placement agents and campaigns of politicians overseeing retirement funds as it cracks down on abuses at public pension funds holding $2.2 trillion of assets…..
SEC Orders Ex-CEO to Return Pay – Wall Street Journal
The Securities and Exchange Commission for the first time Wednesday ordered an executive to return compensation awarded during years the company misstated financial results — even though the executive himself wasn’t accused of wrongdoing.
In a step that could have broader repercussions, the SEC told Maynard L. Jenkins, the former chief executive of CSK Auto Corp., to give the company back more than $4 million in bonuses and equity compensation he’d earned between 2002 and 2004. Those were years during which the Phoenix auto-parts retailer engaged in fraudulent accounting that boosted its pre-tax income by a total of $66 million, the SEC alleges. CSK restated its earnings for those years twice…..
CIT Chapter 11 Filing May Follow August Swap in Plan – Bloomberg
Advisers to bondholders that rescued CIT Group Inc. with a $3 billion loan said creditors should push the company into Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a debt swap next month, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The lenders should require New York-based CIT to restructure its debt through a so-called pre-packaged bankruptcy, even if the company succeeds in swapping 90 percent of the $1 billion of floating-rate notes that come due Aug. 17, Jeffrey Werbalowsky, chief executive officer of bondholder adviser Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, said on a call with creditors yesterday, according to the person…..
Ford Loss Beats Estimates on Costs, U.S. Market Share – Bloomberg
Ford Motor Co., the only U.S. automaker to decline a federal bailout, posted a second-quarter loss that beat analysts’ estimates as Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally pared expenses and added domestic market share.
The deficit excluding costs that Ford considers one-time items was $638 million, or 21 cents a share, narrower than the 50-cent average of 12 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Net income was $2.26 billion, or 69 cents a share, on accounting gains related to reducing debt, Ford said today in a statement….
Porsche CEO, CFO Resign; Supervisory Board Backs Qatar Deal – Wall Street Journal
Porsche Automobil Holding SE (PAH3.XE) said Thursday that Chief Executive Wendelin Wiedeking is leaving the German sportscar maker with immediate effect, just hours after the company’s supervisory board approved his plan for a capital increase of at least EUR5 billion and unanimously backed talks with Qatar over a capital injection.
Porsche’s Chief Financial Officer and Wiedeking confidant Holger Haerter also resigned…..
Amazon.com to Acquire Zappos.com in Biggest Purchase – Bloomberg
Amazon.com Inc. agreed to buy Zappos.com Inc., the biggest acquisition in its history, to add more than 1,000 shoe and apparel brands.
Amazon.com will exchange 10 million shares for Zappos.com’s outstanding stock and assume all options and warrants, according to a statement today. The transaction is valued at about $887.9 million, based on Amazon.com’s closing price today. The company will also give Zappos.com employees $40 million in cash and restricted stock…..
Tags: AIG, Amazon, Autos, Barack Obama, Berkshire Hathaway, CIT, Credit Suisse, Ford, Fraudsters, Goldman Sachs, Health Care, Politics, SEC, Warren Buffett
