- Meredith Whitney Op Ed: The Credit Crunch Continues
- Revenge of Thain
- Who Can Take Charge at Bank of America?
- BofA lines up candidates to replace chief
- BofA Directors Scramble To Lay a Succession Plan
- High-Frequency Gain: Citadel Unit’s $1 Billion
- Fed Draws Court’s Eyes in Lehman Bankruptcy
- CIT Starts Exchange Offer to Cut At Least $5.7 Billion of Debt
- CIT Says Bondholders Would Own 94 Percent of Company
- CIT Offer Pits Creditors Against Each Other
- Ex-Merrill Brokerage Head Ends Bank of America Suit
- Madoff’s gone but Ponzi schemes go on
- GE looking at partnership or IPO for NBC Universal
- Behind Comcast Chief’s Moves Are Fears About Internet Shift
- Ford sales a bright spot in month after clunkers
- Don’t look for another bid for Saturn, industry experts say
The Credit Crunch Continues – Wall Street Journal
Anyone counting on a meaningful economic recovery will be greatly disappointed. How do I know? I follow credit, and credit is contracting. Access to credit is being denied at an accelerating pace. Large, well-capitalized companies have no problem finding credit. Small businesses, on the other hand, have never had a harder time getting a loan.
Since the onset of the credit crisis over two years ago, available credit to small businesses and consumers has contracted by trillions of dollars, and that phenomenon is reflected in dismal consumer spending trends. Equally worrisome are the trends in small-business credit, which has contracted at one of the fastest paces of any lending category. Small business loans are hard to find, and credit-card lines (a critical funding source to small businesses) have been cut by 25% since last year……
Revenge of Thain – NY Post
Sources told The Post that the former Merrill Lynch boss spent yesterday quietly celebrating the resignation of Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis and hopes Lewis’ downfall might help Thain repair his damaged reputation on Wall Street.
According to people familiar with the matter, Thain has told people close to him that he feels “vindicated” now that an embattled Lewis has thrown in the towel. The BofA CEO faces scores of investigations and white-hot investor ire over what he might have known about the billions in losses at Merrill ahead of BofA’s quickie marriage to the then-struggling investment bank….
Top bankers within BofA said that Lewis’ announcement that he was going to step down came as a surprise to them because he had expressed a desire to fight his accusers. One top BofA official described Lewis as “a combative mother****** with a chip on his shoulder [who] not only looked for a fight but also relished it.”….
Who Can Take Charge at Bank of America? – NY Times
Who will lead Bank of America out of this mess?
…..No sooner did news of Mr. Lewis’s resignation break Wednesday evening than the handicapping began. Wall Street odds-makers tossed out the names of half a dozen possible successors. But Bank of America directors, many of them stunned by the turn of events, have only just begun to consider their options. The search is expected to take weeks.
For all the names being floated, few banking executives have the skill and experience to run Bank of America, a coast-to-coast giant with nearly $1 trillion in deposits — and a bunch of giant-size problems…..
BofA lines up candidates to replace chief – Financial Times
Bank of America’s board of directors will meet on Friday to begin the process of selecting a successor to Ken Lewis as chief executive, with potential candidates including several outside executives with previous experience at the lender.
Among those candidates are Al de Molina, chief executive of GMAC and former chief financial officer of BofA; Jim Hance, another former CFO at BofA who is now with the Carlyle Group; and Michael O’Neill, who had been CFO of the old San Francisco-based Bank of America in the 1990s, before its merger with NationsBank to create the current company……
BofA Directors Scramble To Lay a Succession Plan – Wall Street Journal
Bank of America Corp. directors wrestled Thursday over where to find the giant bank’s next chief executive, even considering a temporary fix to the leadership vacuum caused by the abrupt exit announcement of Kenneth D. Lewis.
As the Charlotte, N.C., company’s board meets Friday by phone to rev up a search process aimed at finding Mr. Lewis’s successor in the coming weeks, some directors are considering bringing in a chief executive who would keep the job only for about two years, according to people familiar with the situation…..
High-Frequency Gain: Citadel Unit’s $1 Billion – Wall Street Journal
Citadel Investment Group LLC, known for its hedge funds, pulled in about $1 billion last year in a unit that does high-frequency trading.
The figure, which emerged this week in a Chicago court battle involving Citadel, shows just how lucrative this often-secretive trading practice can be…
Fed Draws Court’s Eyes in Lehman Bankruptcy – Wall Street Journal
A court-appointed examiner investigating Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s bankruptcy has been exploring whether the Federal Reserve improperly cut in front of other creditors owed money in the $613 billion bankruptcy case, records show.
Billing records filed with the court show the examiner is investigating an issue that has angered many of Lehman’s creditors: how the Federal Reserve and the New York Fed — which lent Lehman $46 billion in cash and securities before its bankruptcy filing last September — were paid promptly and in full, while tens of billions of dollars in other debts were left to be sorted out in court. It remains unclear when and how much Lehman creditors will be repaid…..
CIT Starts Exchange Offer to Cut At Least $5.7 Billion of Debt – Bloomberg
CIT Group Inc. said it started a restructuring plan designed to help the 101-year-old commercial lender meet regulatory capital requirements and return to profitability.
The company is asking bondholders to swap unsecured notes for new secured debt or shares or a combination of the two, New York-based CIT said today in an e-mailed statement. The debt will have maturities ranging from four to eight years, CIT said….
CIT Says Bondholders Would Own 94 Percent of Company - Bloomberg
CIT Group Inc. announced the terms of its offer to swap bonds for new notes and preferred stock as it seeks to reduce debt by at least $5.7 billion.
Bondholders will receive between $700 and $900 of new debt plus between 0.41 and 3.26 of new preferred shares for every $1,000 of existing debt tendered, CIT said in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission today. The amount of new debt and preferred stock bondholders receive depends on when their existing debt matures, according to the filing…..
CIT Offer Pits Creditors Against Each Other – Wall Street Journal
CIT Group Inc. has offered its creditors a deal that pits different categories of bondholders against each other and would see some of the firm’s current board replaced, one person familiar with the situation said Thursday evening.
Successors for the board haven’t been identified, said this person, but calls have been put out to potential candidates…..
Ex-Merrill Brokerage Head Ends Bank of America Suit – Bloomberg
Merrill Lynch & Co. former brokerage head Robert McCann settled a lawsuit with Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. bank by assets, clearing the way for him to potentially take a new job at UBS AG.
McCann sued Aug. 24 to push the bank into releasing him from a contract provision that restricted his ability to take a job with a rival. He alleged the bank fired him without cause after rejecting an offer to resign, part of “vengeful conduct intended to both punish and humiliate” him for trying to quit, according to papers filed in New York state court in Manhattan…..
Madoff’s gone but Ponzi schemes go on – USA Today
If you want to know how rampant Ponzi schemes are, just ask Michigan attorney Andrew Kochanowski.
In the spring of 2008, he was working on a class-action lawsuit against a $250 million Ponzi scheme in the Detroit suburbs. At the same time, another Ponzi scheme was operating just down the hall from Kochanowski…..
GE looking at partnership or IPO for NBC Universal - Reuters
General Electric Co is holding discussions on partnerships or an IPO for its NBC Universal unit, Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt said, as expectations grow about a deal with cable operator Comcast Corp.
“Discussions are ongoing whether it is an IPO or another partnership,” Immelt told reporters on Friday in response to a question on whether GE was talking to Comcast to sell a stake in NBCU…..
Behind Comcast Chief’s Moves Are Fears About Internet Shift – Wall Street Journal
Brian Roberts built Comcast Corp. into the world’s largest cable company by being a visionary who has kept the company on the vanguard of phone, broadband and television technology.
But his strategies indicate he’s still worried that the Internet could one day become one of the leading forms of television distribution. That is one reason why he is determined to buy more cable channels and other content — a strategy that has moved him from his failed effort to take over Walt Disney Co. in 2004 to his current interest in buying a piece of General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal…..
Ford sales a bright spot in month after clunkers – Detroit Free Press
Ford Motor Co. — whose 5% sales decline in September outperformed the industry’s 23% plummet — picked up 3 percentage points of market share last month, the 11th straight month Ford captured more showroom customers.
“This was an extremely volatile three-month period,” said Ken Czubay, Ford’s top U.S. sales chief. “It really put Ford to the test. We believe Ford passed.”….
Don’t look for another bid for Saturn, industry experts say – Detroit Free Press
A new bid to buy General Motors Co.’s Saturn is unlikely, according to a range of industry experts and a competing automaker.
And Penske Automotive Group, which withdrew its offer after failing to find a manufacturing partner, regards its decision as final.
“The likelihood of us finding another partner is very, very remote,” said Anthony Pordon, Penske senior vice president…..
Tags: Bank of America, CIT, Citadel, Credit cruncy, Fed, GE, High Frequency Trading, John Thain, Lehman Brothers, Meredith Whitney, Merrill Lynch
