Italy seizes $300m from four banks Italian authorities have seized about $300m in assets of four global banks, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, UBS and Depfa, whose officials have been accused of fraud, reports the NYT. Italian police seized commercial properties, bank accounts and stock holdings on Monday to assure it could collect from the banks if their officials were found guilty. The seizures stem from the banks' handling of a $2.2bn municipal bond issue and related swaps that Milan undertook to retire other debt in June 2005. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/28/55213/italy-seizes-300m-fr
| US eyes majority GM stake US taxpayers would take a majority shareholding in GM under the carmaker's sweeping debt-for-equity restructuring plan, unveiled on Monday in a bid to avoid bankruptcy. Under the plan, GM said it would shut 13 of 47 plants by end-2010, cutting an extra 7,000 jobs to reduce its US workforce to about 40,000 from 61,000 last year, and give up its Pontiac brand. The White House has set a June 1 deadline for GM to submit a viable turnround plan in exchange for more federal aid, or else face bankruptcy. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/28/55212/us-eyes-majority-gm-
| GM warns bondholders GM has asked bondholders to respond by May 26 to its proposal for a debt-for-equity swap but warned on Monday that if the plan failed to go through by June 1 and it filed for bankruptcy, they might receive no "consideration at all". An ad hoc committee of GM bondholders called the plan, which asks bondholders to swap all their claims for 10% of equity in the reorganised company, "neither reasonable nor adequate". See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/28/55211/gm-warns-bondholders
| Fears grow of swine flu pandemic Financial markets gyrated on Monday amid escalating fears that a swine flu outbreak that began in Mexico could turn into a global pandemic, as the WHO raised its assessment of the H1N1 virus to a "significant risk" and increased its alert to an unprecedented phase four. Governments stepped up their responses as an EU health official warned against all but non-essential travel to America. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/28/55210/fears-grow-of-swine-
| Ross bids to manage PPIP assets Wilbur Ross, the billionaire investor, and his firm's parent company, Invesco, are leading a consortium bidding to manage some of the US government's $1,000bn in Public-Private Investment Programme assets. Ross will be the lead investment officer for the overall fund if the consortium is approved as a manager. His WL Ross group – an affiliate of Invesco – would put up to $1bn into the consortium's fund, Invesco said. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/28/55209/ross-bids-to-manage-
| ICBC profits beat expectations Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world's largest bank by market cap, reported a 6% annual rise in Q1 net profit on Monday, thanks mainly to rising fee income. However, while the results were stronger than that of many of ICBC's foreign peers, they also signal growing pressures on net interest margins following a series of rate cuts by China's central bank. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/28/55208/icbc-profits-beat-ex
| Allianz, Amex sell $1.9bn ICBC shares Allianz and American Express on Tuesday sold a combined $1.9bm of shares in ICBC, the world's largest lender by market cap, as a lockup on half their stakes ended, reports Bloomberg.The sales, to private investors, were made at HK$3.86 apiece, a 4% discount to Monday's closing price. US and European banks have sold $7.9bn of shares in China's lenders this year, including Tuesday's sales. ICBC shares rose as much as 8% in HK trading. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/28/55215/allianz-amex-sell-19
| KKR leads race for Oriental Brewery US buyout firm KKR has emerged the clear favourite to acquire Oriental Brewery, the South Korean brewer owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev. KKR has been named preferred bidder by AB InBev, after it raised its bid to about $1.9bn, far above that of MBK Partners, a Korean-based buyout firm. KKR also appears to have dealt a knock-out blow to Lotte Group, the South Korean retail conglomerate that was seen as frontrunner to acquire Oriental. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/28/55207/kkr-leads-race-for-o
| Allianz, Amex sell $1.9bn ICBC shares Allianz and American Express on Tuesday sold a combined $1.9bn of shares in ICBC, the world's largest lender by market cap, as a lockup on their stakes ended, reports Bloomberg. The sales were made at HK$3.86 apiece, a 4% discount to Monday's s closing price. US and European banks have sold $7.9bn of shares in China's lenders this year, including the Allianz and Amex sales. ICBC shares rose as much as 8% in HK trading. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/28/55214/allianz-amex-sell-19
| UK banks face higher capital ratios Britain's "too-big-to-fail" banking groups could be forced to hoard billions of pounds of extra capital as an insurance against future financial crises, after chancellor Alistair Darling decided against splitting them up. The chancellor is expected to announce next month that banks such as HSBC, RBS, Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays could be forced to hold more capital than the sector average. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/28/55206/uk-banks-face-higher
| Aviva jumps 5% on capital strength Aviva's shares jumped almost 5% on Monday after an unexpected boost to the UK life and general insurer's capital strength led investors to bet that any chance of a rights issue had been quashed. The company also reported better Q1 sales than expected. But the news came amid confirmation that Aviva had lost the finance director of its UK life assurance business, Nic Nicandrou, to arch-rival Prudential, which is soon to be run by Aviva alumnus, Tidjane Thiam. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/28/55205/aviva-jumps-5-on-cap
| UK broking battle heats up The dogfight for FTSE 100 brokerage mandates is heating up as rival banks take aim at the clients served by UBS and Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, two market leaders that are perceived to be vulnerable. Other bulge bracket companies and smaller houses have been actively wooing UBS and Merrill staff and clients. Some banks are also eyeing opportunities after Vodafone dropped UBS and Goldman, its long-time brokers. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/28/55204/uk-broking-battle-he
| France fears hedge fund 'Trojan horse' France has warned that Europe risks opening the door to a "Trojan Horse" of offshore hedge funds if it adopts plans circulating in Brussels to regulate the industry. Christine Lagarde, French finance minister, on Monday said proposed legislation by the European Commission did not go far enough and criticised plans to allow offshore funds from territories that have reciprocal agreements to trade in Europe. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/28/55203/france-fears-hedge-f
| High-yield bonds feel thaw In a further sign of improving sentiment in credit markets, investors have increased the amount of money invested in the market for risky corporate bonds, and yields in the high-yield or junk bond market have fallen sharply - even as default rates soars to historic highs. Among mutual fund investors, for example, more than $8bn has been invested in the high-yield market by US retail investors since last December, according to Goldman Sachs research. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/28/55202/high-yield-bonds-fee
| Deutsche's Ackermann to stay on Deutsche Bank on Monday night surprised investors and the banking world when it revealed that Josef Ackermann would stay on as chief executive for another three years. The decision to prolong Ackermann's tenure until 2013 is a sharp reversal of the bank's repeated indication that the Swiss-born banker was ready to step down when his current contract ends in May next year. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/28/55201/deutsches-ackermann-
| Bear's Schwartz for Goldman? Alan Schwartz, who took the role as chief executive of Bear Stearns just two months before the firm collapsed in January 2008, may be headed to Goldman Sachs, reports Fortune magazine, giving a "50-50" chance that Schwartz will soon be a partner-level managing director at Goldman. If he does join Goldman, Schwartz's responsibilities will include forging deals in the media, telecom and healthcare sectors, Fortune said. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/28/55216/bears-schwartz-for-g
| Overnight markets: Uneasy Asian stocks mostly rose on Tuesday, led by Asian tech and healthcare shares. Futures on the S&P500 Index lost 0.4% after the gauge dropped 1% in New York on Monday as that the swine flu outbreak will hurt travel, energy and hotel companies eclipsed gains in healthcare stocks. Asian markets (Tues)
03:00 BST
Nikkei up 38.51 (0.44%) at 8,764.85
Topix up 0.99 (0.12%) at 834.09
Hang Seng up 54.41 (0.37%) at 14,894.83 US markets (Mon)
S&P500 down 8.72 (-1.01%) at 857.51
DJIA down 51.29 (-0.64%) at 8,025.00
Nasdaq down 14.88 (-0.88%) at 1,679.41 European markets (Mon)
FTSE100 up 11.02 (0.27%) at 4,167.01
Eurofirst 300 up 3.31 (0.41%) at 813.69 Currencies
04:10 BST
€/$ 1.3013 ( 1.3194)
$/¥ 96.50 (96.99)
£/$ 1.4596 (1.4618) Commodities
04:05 BST
Brent Crude (ICE) down $0.18 at $50.14
Light Crude (Nymex) down $0.14 at $50.00
100 Oz Gold (Comex) down $0.86 at $900.40
Copper (Comex) up $0.95 at $199.60 10-year government bond yields (%)
03:50 BST
US 2.93 (2.96)
UK 3.49 ( 3.49)
Germany 3.16 ( 3.23)
Japan 1.45 (1.46) Sources: FT, Bloomberg See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/28/55192/overnight-markets-un
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