- Yahoo Says an Icahn Win Triggers Plan
- Banks face $10bn monolines charges
- Lehman came close to Korean tie-up
- Goldman Sachs to Buy 93,000 Apartments in Germany
- Corn Jumps to Record as U.S. Cuts Output Estimate on Heavy Rain
- BNP Paribas buying BofA equity prime brokerage
- NYSE Euronext in tech partnership
- Chrysler May Cut Output Again as Truck Sales Drop
- Investors throw Silverjet possible lifeline
- Staples to Buy Corporate Express for $2.6 Billion
Yahoo Says an Icahn Win Triggers Plan - Wall Street Journal
Yahoo Inc. asserted that a severance plan that investor Carl Icahn has called excessively expensive would be triggered if the activist investor is successful in his bid to take control of the company's board.
The Web giant also said Tuesday that the severance plan, which applies to some employees in the case of a change in control, is structured to prevent Yahoo from altering or dismantling it, as Mr. Icahn has demanded, while under a proxy challenge.
The Yahoo assertion, contained in a message to employees, came as a shareholder group moved to get a Delaware court to strike down the plan, claiming that it discriminates against replacing the board's directors and deters potential acquirers. Mr. Icahn last week called for Yahoo to rescind the plan, which Yahoo put in place in February after Microsoft Corp. made an unsolicited bid for the company.....
Banks face $10bn monolines charges - Financial Times
Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and UBS, the banks most exposed to Ambac and MBIA, could face further writedowns of up to $10bn after the bond insurers last week lost their fight to retain their triple A credit ratings.
Wall Street executives said they had been wrong-footed by the timing of the downgrades by Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, saying they had not expected the rating agencies to take action for several months after affirming the triple A ratings of Ambac and MBIA in February and March.“I think Moody’s jumped the gun,” a Wall Street executive said. “They and other credit rating agencies have been under pressure to anticipate developments, rather than lag behind the curve, and this looks like an attempt to do just that.”....
Lehman came close to Korean tie-up - Financial Times
Lehman Brothers nearly struck a deal with a group of Korean financial institutions as part of its latest $6bn capital raising and may still reach such a strategic arrangement by the end of the year, people close to the matter said.
Lehman, which has been looking at potential strategic partnerships outside the US for several years, had advanced discussions with the Korean institutions in the days leading up to Monday’s announcement that the bank would raise $6bn, mainly from big US investors, to bolsters its financial position following an embarrassing $2.8bn second-quarter loss.However, Lehman executives ran out of time to complete negotiations on terms of the transaction in which the institutions would have taken a stake in Lehman, perhaps through the purchase of convertible preferred shares.
Korean institutions viewed as potential partners for Lehman include Korea Development Bank as well as a commercial bank, likely to be either Kookmin Bank or Korea First Bank.....
Goldman Sachs to Buy 93,000 Apartments in Germany - Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. agreed to buy 93,000 apartments from the German state of North Rhine- Westphalia, two people with knowledge of the transaction said, to take advantage of rising rents.
Goldman's Whitehall real-estate funds will pay 3.5 billion euros ($5.4 billion) for LEG GmbH, the owner of the homes, the Financial Times Deutschland reported today. The newspaper cited unidentified lawmakers in Dusseldorf, where LEG is based.
The auction of apartments in cities such as Cologne, Essen and Bonn attracted 13 bidders, including British financier Guy Hands. In 2004, Goldman and the Cerberus investment fund purchased homes in Berlin for 2 billion euros including debt.....
Corn Jumps to Record as U.S. Cuts Output Estimate on Heavy Rain - Bloomberg
Corn rose for a sixth day to a record in Chicago, leading gains in soybeans, wheat and rice, after the U.S. cut its output estimate by 3.2 percent from a May forecast as cold, wet weather delayed planting and flooded fields.
Output will be 11.735 billion bushels, compared with 12.125 billion forecast on May 9, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said yesterday in a report. The estimate is 10 percent smaller than last year. Inventories in the world's biggest producer may drop to the lowest since 1996 by Aug. 31, 2009, the USDA said.
Corn prices have gained 50 percent this year, heading for a fourth straight annual gain, as demand surged for livestock feed and biofuels. Global inventories are forecast to fall to a 24- year low, the U.S. government said. The price of wheat, rice and soybeans also reached records this year after adverse weather curbed global output, reducing stockpiles amid rising demand.
``No one can stop the corn price's run-up now,'' Hiroyuki Kikukawa, general manager of research at IDO Securities Co., said today from Tokyo. ``Now we have heavy rains in the Midwest and will see a summer heat wave in July and August. We may see the USDA cut further its output estimate next month.''.....
BNP Paribas buying BofA equity prime brokerage - Reuters
French bank BNP Paribas agreed to buy Bank of America Corp's equity prime brokerage unit six months after the business was put up for sale.
BNP would pay $300 million for the business, a source close to the deal said Tuesday. In a statement, BNP Paribas said the hedge fund financing unit would help grow its equity derivatives business and enable the French bank to compete successfully with U.S. counterparts.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to be completed in the second half of this year....
NYSE Euronext in tech partnership - Financial Times
NYSE Euronext, the transatlantic exchange group, will on Tuesday step up its efforts to become a one-stop shop for US equity trading in the face of mounting competition by announcing a partnership with Progress Software, a company specialising in advanced trading technology.
The partnership will allow traders to use NYSE Euronext as a gateway to other trading venues. The move comes as exchanges realise that in order to remain competitive they must address the fragmentation that is raising concerns among traders. It is designed to attract more sophisticated investors such as hedge funds.It also comes as the trading landscape in equities and derivatives instruments shifts rapidly with consolidation among exchanges. At the same time, independent entrants and bank-backed trading platforms are adding to competition.....
Chrysler May Cut Output Again as Truck Sales Drop - Wall Street Journal
Chrysler LLC may have to cut production further in response to the deep drop in truck sales, Chief Executive Robert Nardelli said.
Speaking at a conference sponsored by The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Nardelli also said "it is hard to say" if Cerberus Capital Management LP would have bought the auto maker if it had known how tough the business would become.He added that neither Cerberus nor its backers are "second-guessing" the deal last summer that gave the private-equity firm an 80.1% stake in Chrysler. "They're not looking back," he said.
Like its cross-town rivals General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., Chrysler is suffering as high gasoline prices drive consumers away from pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles, long the bread and butter of Detroit......
Investors throw Silverjet possible lifeline - Financial Times
A rescue deal for Silverjet, the failed UK all-business- class airline, moved a step closer last night with an agreement on “principal terms” between the administrator and a group of private investors.
Nigel Atkinson and Mark Fry of Begbies Traynor, joint administrators for Silverjet since its collapse two weeks ago, said they had reached a preliminary deal with Kingplace, an Irish registered company, to “acquire and relaunch Silverjet”.
They said they expected to finalise contracts by Friday.
Mr Fry said an investment of “more than £50m ($98m)” in debt and equity would be necessary to ensure Silverjet could fly again and any deal would have to be approved by the UK Civil Aviation Authority.....
Staples to Buy Corporate Express for $2.6 Billion - Bloomberg
Staples Inc. agreed to buy Corporate Express NV for 1.68 billion euros ($2.6 billion) after lifting its offer three times, becoming the world's largest direct distributor of office supplies to companies.
Staples, which has more than 2,000 stores, will get Corporate Express operations that ship pens, paper and printer toner to companies in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. Framingham, Massachusetts-based Staples today said it would pay 9.25 euros per share for the Dutch company, which doesn't own any stores of its own. That offer was 28 percent more than Staples' initial February bid.
The takeover will bolster Staples' most profitable unit, which sells office supplies to companies, and help counter slowing revenue at its U.S. stores as consumers and small businesses rein in spending. Amsterdam-based Corporate Express makes more than half its sales in the U.S., where house prices are slumping and more people are collecting jobless benefits.
``Corporate Express managed to get a fairly good price, especially given the uncertain economic situation in the U.S.,'' said Herman Huizinga, an analyst at Keijser Securities in Amsterdam.....
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