EXCHANGE NEWSWIRE, 16 July 2009
LCH.Clearnet rejected a sweetened offer from a consortium of banks and brokers (including ICAP, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan). The group gave LCH.Clearnet three different options, including a €12 per share bid (EUR3 in cash and the rest from a dividend from LCH.Clearnet’s cash) which valued the agency at EUR887 mn ($1.25 bn). The consortium also gave shareholders the option of an all-cash offer of EUR10 per share, as well as a third possibility for cash of less than EUR10 per share that included a stake in the new business.
LSE will announce in September a plan to expand its European corporate bond market trading.
BATS Europe Dark Pool will be launched on August7th. BATS Europe Dark Pool is a separate midpoint dark order book with a maker-taker pricing model. Following the conclusion of discussions with the FSA, BATS Europe's dark pool will be available for participant testing on Monday, 20th of July.
CME CEO Craig Donohue said proposals to tighten oversight of the energy markets through increased position limits on trading could drive more trading off-exchange. "You very much run the risk of siphoning trading activity away from well-regulated, transparent markets where you have reporting of transactions and large positions, and effectively a front-line regulator in the form of the exchange”, Donohue said.
Markit: US Department of Justice confirmed a probe into the derivatives industry. “The antitrust division is investigating the possibility of anticompetitive practices in the credit derivatives clearing, trading and information services industries”, commented Laura Sweeney, a DoJ spokeswoman.
Stock Exchange of Mauritius plans to launch futures on the SEM-7 Index within six months.
RTS FORTS: open interest in EUR/USD futures hit a record yesterday of 237,644 contracts (USD335 mn).
SecondMarket is expected to begin trading California’s IOUs in the coming days.
Charles Schwab reported 2Q09 EPS of $0.18, in line with consensus estimates. Revenues fell 17% y/y to $1.08 bn (in line). Net new assets were $17 bn vs. $25.3 bn last quarter and new brokerage accounts were 197,000 vs. 207.000 last quarter. Client assets increased 11.3% Q/Q to $1,224.3 bn. DARTs fell 15% M/M to 272,100 in June, and ended the quarter 0.5% lower Q/Q.
ICAP appointed John Sievwright as non-executive director. Mr. Sievwright was Merrill Lynch’s COO where he helped develop Merrill’s equity derivatives business.
Knight Libertas appointed Les B. Levi as Managing Director, Head of Corporate Finance. Mr. Levi has more than 25 years experience in the global capital markets as a portfolio manager, research analyst and investment banker.
DB1 target price was cut 1.2% to €74.10 at Morgan Stanley. MS maintained an “overweight” rating on the stock.
Legg Mason offered to exchange up to 21.85 mn of its Equity Units for 0.8881 shares of common stock and $6.25 cash each. The offer expires on August 12 at noon.
Janus priced its public offering of approximately $200 mn ($150 mn were previously offered) of its common stock at a price to the public of $11.00 per share and has granted the underwriters a 30 day 15% over-allotment option. Janus also priced $150 of aggregate principal of its convertible 3.25% semiannual pay senior notes and has granted the underwriters a 30 day $20 mn over-allotment option. The conversion price will be approximately $14.03 per share (a 27.5% premium on the $11 of the stocks offered).
Janus received takeover bids from Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance for $14 a share and from Franklin Resources for $13.50 a share.
Ashmore AUM increased 6% q/q to $24.9 bn with a net outflow of $500 mn.“The results for the full year ended 30 June 2009 are in line with management expectations in the current operating environment”, according to the company.
The EU Commission published a study on the prices, costs and volumes for trading and post-trading of securities in the EUsin ce the implementation o MiFID. The study’s main findings were that volume determines prices and that costs are decreasing (CCP clearing cost per transaction has decreased significantly since 2006; CSD’s costs showed a more erratic behavior).
The EU Commission is finalizing tougher regulations that would force private equity and hedge funds (EU based or targeting European investors) to register with EU authorities (for funds with over EUR100 mn in AUM). The proposed legislation could become law by early 2011.
SEC voted unanimously to propose rule amendments to improve the quality and timeliness of municipal securities disclosure.
US Treasury delivered to Capitol Hill a proposed legislation aimed at protecting investors and the financial system. The proposal would require advisers to private investment funds to register with the SEC (for all funds with over $30 mn in AUM) and subject them to regulatory (assets, leverage and off-balance sheet exposure of funds), compliance and disclosure requirements. The legislation would also monitor hedge funds for potential systemic risk, including confidential reporting of AUM, borrowings, trading activity, counterparty credit risk exposure and other relevant information.
The US Federal Reserve approved new rules that require a 45 day notice before increases in credit-card interest rate and for account term changes. Creditors have to allow customers to cancel their balances at the existing rate. This rules will take effect on August 20 and partially implement the new credit card legislation.
US Congress named the 10 members of the commission that will investigate the financial crisis and that must release a report by December 15, 2010. Democrats named former California State Treasurer Phil Angelides to serve as chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, while Republicans named former Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas as vice chairman.
Provided By: Equity Research Desk, www.erdesk.com