OTE: Αύριο οι ανακοινώσεις για το deal
Οι χρηματιστηριακές αρχές ειδοποιήθηκαν να είναι αύριο το πρωί σε εγρήγορση, καθώς αναμένεται να ανακοινωθεί πριν την έναρξη της συνεδρίασης η πώληση στην Deutsche Telecom των μετοχών που κατέχει η MIG στον ΟΤΕ. Πρόκειται για ένα από τα μεγαλύτερα deals των τελευταίων ετών με πολλαπλές επιδράσεις σε όλο το επιχειρηματικό και επενδυτικό φάσμα.
Οι ίδιες πληροφορίες υποστηρίζουν ότι το τίμημα θα αποτελέσει έκπληξη για την αγορά και ότι το γεγονός αυτό από μόνο του δημιουργεί προσδοκίες για την βελτίωση του χρηματιστηριακού κλίματος. Η MIG μετά από την πώληση των μετοχών της στον ΟΤΕ θα έχει κατορθώσει να παρουσιάσει μία εξαιρετικά κερδοφόρο κίνηση εν μέσω μιας εξαιρετικά αρνητικής χρηματιστηριακής συγκυρίας.
Χρηματιστηριακοί κύκλοι επισημαίνουν ότι η απόκτηση μιας ιδιαίτερα μεγάλης ρευστότητας από τη MIG σε αυτή την συγκεκριμένη χρονική περίοδο, όπου όλες οι αγορές αντιμετωπίζουν σοβαρά προβλήματα και οι αποτιμήσεις των μετοχών έχουν περάσει στην ζώνη της υποτίμησης, θα έχει ως αποτέλεσμα την περαιτέρω ισχυροποίηση του Ομίλου του κ. Βγενόπουλου.
CAPITAL.GR
Economy | Business | Social | Leaked | Opinions
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Home Starts, Factory Production May Fall: U.S. Economy Preview
Home Starts, Factory Production May Fall: U.S. Economy Preview
March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Builders in the U.S. broke ground in February on the fewest houses in 17 years and factory production fell, a sign the deepening real-estate slump is dragging the economy into a recession, government reports this week may show.
Residential home starts fell 1.7 percent to an annual rate of 995,000, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News ahead of the Commerce Department's March 18 report. Industrial output likely dropped in February for the first time in four months, Federal Reserve figures may show.
Housing, the source of the economic downturn, may weaken further as property values fall and credit shrinks. Economists predict the Fed will lower the benchmark interest rate again at its March 18 meeting after it broadened plans last week to stabilize financial markets and rescued Bear Stearns Cos. with emergency funding.
``There's certainly feed-through into the economy from the downturn in the housing and credit markets,'' said Adam York, economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte, North Carolina. ``Fed policy makers will cut rates, but they're also looking for new ways to provide liquidity and restore confidence.''
The construction report may show permits, an indicator of future building, dropped to a 1.02 million annual pace, also a 17-year low.
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index, due on March 17, may hold at 20 for a second month, according to the Bloomberg survey. Figures less than 50 mean most respondents view conditions as poor.
Factories are also cutting back as the biggest housing slump in a generation prompts Americans to spend less on furniture, appliances and automobiles.
Factory Production
Production at manufacturers, mines and utilities fell 0.1 percent in February after rising the prior month, the survey showed. The March 17 report may also show the amount of capacity in use declined.
Export gains, which have kept manufacturing growing, may no longer be enough to sustain the expansion. Economists forecast regional Fed reports will show factory activity shrank in March in both the New York and Philadelphia areas.
The central bank will lower the benchmark rate by a full percentage point to 2 percent this week, according to futures trading. Mortgage borrowing costs have failed to fall as much as the Fed's rate amid concern about defaults.
The Fed and JPMorgan Chase & Co. two days ago stepped in to rescue Bear Stearns, the fifth-largest U.S. securities firm. Earlier, the Fed said it will lend Treasuries in exchange for debt that includes private securities backed by mortgages.
Not `Prudent'
Too many home loans have been ``neither responsible nor prudent,'' Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said at a conference on March 14. He called for ``strong oversight'' of mortgage lenders, and didn't discuss interest rates or the economic outlook in the text of his speech.
Home foreclosure filings jumped 60 percent and bank seizures more than doubled in February from the same month last year as rates on adjustable mortgages rose and property owners were unable to sell or refinance, according to RealtyTrac Inc., a seller of foreclosure data.
Hovnanian Enterprises Inc., New Jersey's biggest homebuilder, last week reached an agreement with banks on new lending terms after slowing home sales made it harder to generate cash. Hovnanian also reported its sixth straight quarterly loss.
``The market's too challenging to make accurate forecasts for fiscal '08,'' Chief Executive Officer Ara Hovnanian said on a March 11 conference call with analysts.
Finally, on March 20, the New York-based Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators, a gauge of the economy's direction, may post the fifth consecutive monthly decline in February.
BLOOMBERG
March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Builders in the U.S. broke ground in February on the fewest houses in 17 years and factory production fell, a sign the deepening real-estate slump is dragging the economy into a recession, government reports this week may show.
Residential home starts fell 1.7 percent to an annual rate of 995,000, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News ahead of the Commerce Department's March 18 report. Industrial output likely dropped in February for the first time in four months, Federal Reserve figures may show.
Housing, the source of the economic downturn, may weaken further as property values fall and credit shrinks. Economists predict the Fed will lower the benchmark interest rate again at its March 18 meeting after it broadened plans last week to stabilize financial markets and rescued Bear Stearns Cos. with emergency funding.
``There's certainly feed-through into the economy from the downturn in the housing and credit markets,'' said Adam York, economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte, North Carolina. ``Fed policy makers will cut rates, but they're also looking for new ways to provide liquidity and restore confidence.''
The construction report may show permits, an indicator of future building, dropped to a 1.02 million annual pace, also a 17-year low.
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index, due on March 17, may hold at 20 for a second month, according to the Bloomberg survey. Figures less than 50 mean most respondents view conditions as poor.
Factories are also cutting back as the biggest housing slump in a generation prompts Americans to spend less on furniture, appliances and automobiles.
Factory Production
Production at manufacturers, mines and utilities fell 0.1 percent in February after rising the prior month, the survey showed. The March 17 report may also show the amount of capacity in use declined.
Export gains, which have kept manufacturing growing, may no longer be enough to sustain the expansion. Economists forecast regional Fed reports will show factory activity shrank in March in both the New York and Philadelphia areas.
The central bank will lower the benchmark rate by a full percentage point to 2 percent this week, according to futures trading. Mortgage borrowing costs have failed to fall as much as the Fed's rate amid concern about defaults.
The Fed and JPMorgan Chase & Co. two days ago stepped in to rescue Bear Stearns, the fifth-largest U.S. securities firm. Earlier, the Fed said it will lend Treasuries in exchange for debt that includes private securities backed by mortgages.
Not `Prudent'
Too many home loans have been ``neither responsible nor prudent,'' Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said at a conference on March 14. He called for ``strong oversight'' of mortgage lenders, and didn't discuss interest rates or the economic outlook in the text of his speech.
Home foreclosure filings jumped 60 percent and bank seizures more than doubled in February from the same month last year as rates on adjustable mortgages rose and property owners were unable to sell or refinance, according to RealtyTrac Inc., a seller of foreclosure data.
Hovnanian Enterprises Inc., New Jersey's biggest homebuilder, last week reached an agreement with banks on new lending terms after slowing home sales made it harder to generate cash. Hovnanian also reported its sixth straight quarterly loss.
``The market's too challenging to make accurate forecasts for fiscal '08,'' Chief Executive Officer Ara Hovnanian said on a March 11 conference call with analysts.
Finally, on March 20, the New York-based Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators, a gauge of the economy's direction, may post the fifth consecutive monthly decline in February.
BLOOMBERG
Paulson Says He'll `Do What It Takes' to Calm Markets
Paulson Says He'll `Do What It Takes' to Calm Markets
March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, defending the bailout of Bear Stearns Cos., said policy makers will do whatever is needed to prevent disruptions in financial markets from hurting the economy.
``The government is prepared to do what it takes to maintain the stability of our financial system,'' Paulson told the ``Fox News Sunday'' television program in Washington today. ``Our focus, our No. 1 priority, is the stability of our financial system.''
Paulson, 61, spoke two days after the Federal Reserve rescued Bear Stearns, the fifth-largest U.S. securities firm, with an emergency loan. The move failed to avert a crisis of confidence among Bear Stearns customers and shareholders, who drove the stock down a record 47 percent.
In three appearances today, the former chairman of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. several times said the Fed made ``the right decision'' and expressed ``great confidence'' in its chairman, Ben S. Bernanke. Paulson said that in the case of Bear Stearns, the risk to financial stability outweighed his concern about so- called moral hazard, in which investors come to expect government rescues.
``I'm as aware as anyone is of moral hazard,'' he said in a CNN interview. ``I'm also aware of the importance of keeping our economy strong, of orderly capital markets, of the stability of the financial system doing things that promote orderliness and minimize the disruption.''
Weekend Talks
Paulson said ``conversations are going on over the weekend'' about Bear Stearns. ``I'm very involved in those conversations.'' He declined to be specific about the future of the 85-year-old firm, the second-biggest underwriter of U.S. mortgage bonds, or to say whether any additional government steps are planned.
``There's always a decision to be made to say what's best for the stability of the marketplace, the orderliness of the marketplace,'' Paulson said. ``I think we made the right decision.''
The Treasury chief refused to say what a growing number of economists have concluded -- that the economy has entered a recession.
Economic Debate
``Economists are going to be debating that for months and months,'' he said. ``It's much less important what you call it than what you're doing about it.''
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index is down 12.3 percent this year, while the dollar is down 5 percent against a basket of currencies of major U.S. trading partners. Home foreclosures in January and February were up 58 percent from the first two months of 2007.
``I've got great confidence in our financial markets and our financial institutions,'' Paulson said. ``Our markets are resilient, are flexible. Our institutions -- our banks and investment banks -- are strong.''
Paulson repeated his support for a ``strong dollar,'' and said the long-term strength of the U.S. economy would be reflected in the country's currency.
President George W. Bush is scheduled to meet tomorrow with his Working Group on Financial Markets. Paulson chairs the group, which includes Bernanke and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox.
The Bush administration has resisted the use of government funds or guarantees to stem the surge in foreclosures. Paulson has brokered a series of voluntary accords among lenders to freeze interest rates on subprime loans and negotiated a one- month moratorium on foreclosures.
Plans in Congress
A credit crisis that began in August has left markets ``more fragile than we would like right now,'' Paulson said in a separate interview on ABC News's ``This Week'' program. ``My concern is to minimize the impact on the broader economy.''
Paulson said the administration doesn't support measures in Congress to help struggling homeowners.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd offered a plan last week to let the Federal Housing Administration insure refinanced mortgages after lenders reduce principal to help struggling borrowers.
The two lawmakers are leading congressional efforts to tackle the surge in foreclosures, which reached record levels in the fourth quarter of 2007. Their plan goes beyond the Bush administration's approach that relies on voluntary agreements between lenders and loan servicers to modify mortgages for borrowers who can't make their monthly payments.
Weighing Response
``I'm looking very carefully at any proposal, but all the ones I've seen call for much more government intervention, raise more problems, do more harm than do good,'' Paulson said in the ABC interview.
In an interview on CNN, Paulson said there's ``no silver bullet'' to prevent home prices from falling and foreclosures from rising.
Paulson last week proposed that U.S. regulators heighten their scrutiny of lenders, mortgage brokers and debt-rating firms to prevent a reoccurrence of the credit crisis roiling capital markets. Writedowns from subprime securities will probably rise to $285 billion, Standard & Poor's said in a report March 13.
Schumer Attacks
``This has become the Bush recession,'' Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said on the Fox News program. ``The president's hands-off attitude is reminiscent of Herbert Hoover,'' who led the country from 1929 to 1933.
Bush yesterday said he won't be stampeded into ``bad policy decisions'' that might harm the economy.
``The market now is in the process of correcting itself, and delaying that correction would only prolong the problem,'' he said in his weekly radio address. ``I believe the government can take sensible, focused action to help responsible homeowners weather this rough patch.''
BLOOMBERG
March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, defending the bailout of Bear Stearns Cos., said policy makers will do whatever is needed to prevent disruptions in financial markets from hurting the economy.
``The government is prepared to do what it takes to maintain the stability of our financial system,'' Paulson told the ``Fox News Sunday'' television program in Washington today. ``Our focus, our No. 1 priority, is the stability of our financial system.''
Paulson, 61, spoke two days after the Federal Reserve rescued Bear Stearns, the fifth-largest U.S. securities firm, with an emergency loan. The move failed to avert a crisis of confidence among Bear Stearns customers and shareholders, who drove the stock down a record 47 percent.
In three appearances today, the former chairman of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. several times said the Fed made ``the right decision'' and expressed ``great confidence'' in its chairman, Ben S. Bernanke. Paulson said that in the case of Bear Stearns, the risk to financial stability outweighed his concern about so- called moral hazard, in which investors come to expect government rescues.
``I'm as aware as anyone is of moral hazard,'' he said in a CNN interview. ``I'm also aware of the importance of keeping our economy strong, of orderly capital markets, of the stability of the financial system doing things that promote orderliness and minimize the disruption.''
Weekend Talks
Paulson said ``conversations are going on over the weekend'' about Bear Stearns. ``I'm very involved in those conversations.'' He declined to be specific about the future of the 85-year-old firm, the second-biggest underwriter of U.S. mortgage bonds, or to say whether any additional government steps are planned.
``There's always a decision to be made to say what's best for the stability of the marketplace, the orderliness of the marketplace,'' Paulson said. ``I think we made the right decision.''
The Treasury chief refused to say what a growing number of economists have concluded -- that the economy has entered a recession.
Economic Debate
``Economists are going to be debating that for months and months,'' he said. ``It's much less important what you call it than what you're doing about it.''
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index is down 12.3 percent this year, while the dollar is down 5 percent against a basket of currencies of major U.S. trading partners. Home foreclosures in January and February were up 58 percent from the first two months of 2007.
``I've got great confidence in our financial markets and our financial institutions,'' Paulson said. ``Our markets are resilient, are flexible. Our institutions -- our banks and investment banks -- are strong.''
Paulson repeated his support for a ``strong dollar,'' and said the long-term strength of the U.S. economy would be reflected in the country's currency.
President George W. Bush is scheduled to meet tomorrow with his Working Group on Financial Markets. Paulson chairs the group, which includes Bernanke and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox.
The Bush administration has resisted the use of government funds or guarantees to stem the surge in foreclosures. Paulson has brokered a series of voluntary accords among lenders to freeze interest rates on subprime loans and negotiated a one- month moratorium on foreclosures.
Plans in Congress
A credit crisis that began in August has left markets ``more fragile than we would like right now,'' Paulson said in a separate interview on ABC News's ``This Week'' program. ``My concern is to minimize the impact on the broader economy.''
Paulson said the administration doesn't support measures in Congress to help struggling homeowners.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd offered a plan last week to let the Federal Housing Administration insure refinanced mortgages after lenders reduce principal to help struggling borrowers.
The two lawmakers are leading congressional efforts to tackle the surge in foreclosures, which reached record levels in the fourth quarter of 2007. Their plan goes beyond the Bush administration's approach that relies on voluntary agreements between lenders and loan servicers to modify mortgages for borrowers who can't make their monthly payments.
Weighing Response
``I'm looking very carefully at any proposal, but all the ones I've seen call for much more government intervention, raise more problems, do more harm than do good,'' Paulson said in the ABC interview.
In an interview on CNN, Paulson said there's ``no silver bullet'' to prevent home prices from falling and foreclosures from rising.
Paulson last week proposed that U.S. regulators heighten their scrutiny of lenders, mortgage brokers and debt-rating firms to prevent a reoccurrence of the credit crisis roiling capital markets. Writedowns from subprime securities will probably rise to $285 billion, Standard & Poor's said in a report March 13.
Schumer Attacks
``This has become the Bush recession,'' Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said on the Fox News program. ``The president's hands-off attitude is reminiscent of Herbert Hoover,'' who led the country from 1929 to 1933.
Bush yesterday said he won't be stampeded into ``bad policy decisions'' that might harm the economy.
``The market now is in the process of correcting itself, and delaying that correction would only prolong the problem,'' he said in his weekly radio address. ``I believe the government can take sensible, focused action to help responsible homeowners weather this rough patch.''
BLOOMBERG
Air France Offers to Buy Alitalia for EU747 Million
Air France Offers to Buy Alitalia for EU747 Million
March 16 (Bloomberg) --Air France-KLM Group, the world's largest airline by sales, offered to buy Alitalia SpA in a bid valued at 747 million euros ($1.2 billion) as part of the Italian government's plan to save the state-owned carrier from bankruptcy.
Air France-KLM will swap one of its shares for every 160 of Alitalia's, valuing the Italian airline at 139 million euros, or about 10 cents a share, Air France said in an e-mailed statement. That's less than a fifth of Alitalia's closing price March 14. Air France will also buy convertible bonds for 608 million euros. Alitalia's board accepted the bid after meeting for more than 10 hours in Rome yesterday.
In buying Alitalia, Air France-KLM wins access to one of continental Europe's biggest passenger markets, while inheriting an airline that hasn't earned an operating profit in almost a decade and loses more than a million euros a day. Prime Minister Romano Prodi's government has been trying to sell its 49 percent stake in the carrier for more than a year and chose Air France in December to enter into exclusive talks.
``In the short term the purchase may hurt profitability, but Alitalia will bring significant leverage with the opening of new hubs in Italy,'' said Alexandre Hezez of Paris-based Roche-Brune SAS, who helps manage 110 million euros. Hezez spoke in a Bloomberg Television interview before Air France provided details of the offer.
Italian Market
Air France gains access to a market with a population of some 58 million people, comparable to France, with 61 million. It also gets airport bases, or hubs, in Rome and Milan, from which Air France-KLM can tap passenger flows for flights internationally.
``Air France-KLM's offer, conditional on a number of elements, is based on an industrial plan providing for the restructuring and re-launch of Alitalia,'' the Paris-based carrier said.
Alitalia's unions and the government must agree to the offer for the sale to go ahead, Air France said. The collapse of Prodi's administration on Jan. 24 revived opposition from unions and politicians in the country's industrial north to Air France's offer, which supports the plan to shift flights away from Milan's Malpensa airport in favor of Rome.
Italy holds elections next month and the new government will likely have a say in whether the deal can go ahead. Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose political stronghold is in the north, leads in opinion polls. He has said he prefers Alitalia to be sold to Italian investors and has pledged to save Malpensa. He also said he wouldn't rule out the sale to Air France.
Raising Cash
Alitalia can't hold on much longer. The carrier had just 367 million euros in cash and short-term credits at the end of December and its shares have declined by a third this year on concern about possible bankruptcy as the sale process drags on.
As part of an industrial plan to turn the carrier around, Air France will raise 1 billion euros in new funds for Alitalia through a share sale to fund the ``the commercial re-launch of Alitalia,'' Air France said. The Italian government has also agreed to an emergency credit line to help the airline stay in business, the Alitalia said in a statement.
The Rome-based carrier should be able to return to operating profit as early as 2009, Air France said, and will then ``rapidly move'' to operating margin levels in line with those of other big European airlines.
The carrier is already cutting unprofitable flights, including all but three of its 17 intercontinental routes from Malpensa, while increasing traffic at Rome's Fiumicino airport, ending a strategy of two longhaul bases.
Alitalia employs 11,000 people and has a fleet of 140 aircraft. It carried 25 million passengers in 2007. It had sales last year of 4.9 billion euros and has posted more than 3 billion euros in net losses since 2000, with its last operating profit coming a decade ago, in 1998. The group has net debt of about 1.2 billion euros.
Alitalia has been through nine chief executives in the last 10 years as successive chiefs have quit or been pushed out amid disagreements with labor and the government about how to restructure the airline.
BLOOMBERG
March 16 (Bloomberg) --Air France-KLM Group, the world's largest airline by sales, offered to buy Alitalia SpA in a bid valued at 747 million euros ($1.2 billion) as part of the Italian government's plan to save the state-owned carrier from bankruptcy.
Air France-KLM will swap one of its shares for every 160 of Alitalia's, valuing the Italian airline at 139 million euros, or about 10 cents a share, Air France said in an e-mailed statement. That's less than a fifth of Alitalia's closing price March 14. Air France will also buy convertible bonds for 608 million euros. Alitalia's board accepted the bid after meeting for more than 10 hours in Rome yesterday.
In buying Alitalia, Air France-KLM wins access to one of continental Europe's biggest passenger markets, while inheriting an airline that hasn't earned an operating profit in almost a decade and loses more than a million euros a day. Prime Minister Romano Prodi's government has been trying to sell its 49 percent stake in the carrier for more than a year and chose Air France in December to enter into exclusive talks.
``In the short term the purchase may hurt profitability, but Alitalia will bring significant leverage with the opening of new hubs in Italy,'' said Alexandre Hezez of Paris-based Roche-Brune SAS, who helps manage 110 million euros. Hezez spoke in a Bloomberg Television interview before Air France provided details of the offer.
Italian Market
Air France gains access to a market with a population of some 58 million people, comparable to France, with 61 million. It also gets airport bases, or hubs, in Rome and Milan, from which Air France-KLM can tap passenger flows for flights internationally.
``Air France-KLM's offer, conditional on a number of elements, is based on an industrial plan providing for the restructuring and re-launch of Alitalia,'' the Paris-based carrier said.
Alitalia's unions and the government must agree to the offer for the sale to go ahead, Air France said. The collapse of Prodi's administration on Jan. 24 revived opposition from unions and politicians in the country's industrial north to Air France's offer, which supports the plan to shift flights away from Milan's Malpensa airport in favor of Rome.
Italy holds elections next month and the new government will likely have a say in whether the deal can go ahead. Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose political stronghold is in the north, leads in opinion polls. He has said he prefers Alitalia to be sold to Italian investors and has pledged to save Malpensa. He also said he wouldn't rule out the sale to Air France.
Raising Cash
Alitalia can't hold on much longer. The carrier had just 367 million euros in cash and short-term credits at the end of December and its shares have declined by a third this year on concern about possible bankruptcy as the sale process drags on.
As part of an industrial plan to turn the carrier around, Air France will raise 1 billion euros in new funds for Alitalia through a share sale to fund the ``the commercial re-launch of Alitalia,'' Air France said. The Italian government has also agreed to an emergency credit line to help the airline stay in business, the Alitalia said in a statement.
The Rome-based carrier should be able to return to operating profit as early as 2009, Air France said, and will then ``rapidly move'' to operating margin levels in line with those of other big European airlines.
The carrier is already cutting unprofitable flights, including all but three of its 17 intercontinental routes from Malpensa, while increasing traffic at Rome's Fiumicino airport, ending a strategy of two longhaul bases.
Alitalia employs 11,000 people and has a fleet of 140 aircraft. It carried 25 million passengers in 2007. It had sales last year of 4.9 billion euros and has posted more than 3 billion euros in net losses since 2000, with its last operating profit coming a decade ago, in 1998. The group has net debt of about 1.2 billion euros.
Alitalia has been through nine chief executives in the last 10 years as successive chiefs have quit or been pushed out amid disagreements with labor and the government about how to restructure the airline.
BLOOMBERG
Bear Stearns May Lose Independence After Fed Bailout
Bear Stearns May Lose Independence After Fed Bailout
March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Bear Stearns Cos.'s 85 years as an independent Wall Street firm may be coming to an end as JPMorgan Chase & Co. considers buying the crippled company.
Teetering on the brink of collapse from a lack of cash, New York-based Bear Stearns got emergency funding yesterday from the Federal Reserve and JPMorgan in the largest government bailout of a U.S. securities firm. The move failed to avert a crisis of confidence among Bear Stearns's customers and shareholders, who drove the stock down a record 47 percent.
After denying earlier this week that access to capital was at risk, Bear Stearns Chief Executive Officer Alan Schwartz said yesterday the company's cash position had ``significantly deteriorated'' in the past 24 hours. The Fed agreed to provide financing through JPMorgan for up to 28 days, the bank said in a statement yesterday.
Now JPMorgan, led by Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, is considering buying Bear Stearns, according to three people briefed on the matter. No agreement has been reached and it's possible no deal will be completed, said the people, who declined be identified because the discussions are confidential. A person close to JPMorgan said the bank may also be interested in buying Bear Stearns's prime brokerage unit, which provides loans and processes trades for hedge funds.
`Devastating Blow'
Dimon, whose New York-based firm has suffered fewer losses than rivals during the credit-market contraction, has said he's open to making an acquisition. The bank has ``plenty of capital,'' he told the audience at a dinner hosted by the Economic Club of Washington on March 12, the day before his 52nd birthday.
The Fed acted to prevent the failure of the second-biggest underwriter of U.S. mortgage bonds and forestall a potential market panic as losses by banks and brokers reached $195 billion and stocks plunged for a third day this week. Last month the U.K. government nationalized mortgage-lender Northern Rock after the Bank of England bailed it out in September.
``I don't think they can afford to let Bear go,'' said Charles Geisst, the author of ``100 Years on Wall Street,'' referring to the New York Fed bailout. ``At this particular moment in time, it would be a devastating blow to the markets.''
Bear Stearns, founded in 1923, acted in response to ``market rumors'' of a liquidity crisis, CEO Schwartz, 57, said in a separate statement.
Shares Tumble
He said earlier this week the company's ``liquidity cushion'' was sufficient to weather the credit-market contraction. Bear Stearns's cash shortfall began March 11 after rumors spread that it lacked sufficient access to capital, and lenders and clients began withdrawing funds, the Washington- based U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement released late yesterday.
``We have tried to confront and dispel these rumors and parse fact from fiction,'' Schwartz, who was named CEO less than three months ago, said in the company's statement yesterday. ``Nevertheless, amidst this market chatter, our liquidity position in the last 24 hours had significantly deteriorated.''
The announcement caused financial shares to plunge, with Bear Stearns tumbling $27 to $30 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock has lost 66 percent of its value this year, compared with a 19 percent drop in the S&P 500 Financials Index. The sinking share price has wiped out $10.5 billion of shareholder value in the last three months.
Credit Rating
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. also led declines as all 10 industry groups in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell yesterday. Lehman, the biggest underwriter of U.S. mortgage bonds, said it obtained a $2 billion, three-year credit line from 40 banks.
Bear Stearns's long-term counterparty credit rating was reduced three levels to BBB by Standard & Poor's. The rating may be cut further, New York-based S&P said. It lowered the short- term rating to A3 from A1. Moody's Investors Service also downgraded the company's long-term rating to Baa1 from A2.
``It really requires institutions to come clean and show the markets what the quality of their assets are and what things are worth on their balance sheet,'' said Robert Eisenbeis, former head of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and chief monetary economist at Cumberland Advisors Inc. ``Until that happens, there's going to be uncertainty.''
Bear Stearns, which survived the Great Depression and first sold shares to the public in 1985, helped trigger a crash in the market for home loans to borrowers with blemished credit histories after two of its hedge funds collapsed in July. The failure of the two funds, which invested in securities linked to subprime mortgages, prompted a sell-off of the assets, which in turn led investors to shun other high-yield debt.
Cayne's Pick
Its bailout is part of the wider, spreading freeze in credit markets. The difference between what the U.S. government and companies pay for three-month loans has also climbed in the past month. The so-called TED spread increased to 1.52 percentage points yesterday from 0.78 percentage point Feb. 14.
Schwartz, an executive with more than 30 years of experience at Bear Stearns, was the hand-picked choice of his predecessor, James ``Jimmy'' Cayne, 74, who remains non- executive chairman of the firm. Cayne stepped down after reporting an $854 million fourth-quarter loss, the first in the company's history.
On a conference call with analysts and investors after yesterday's announcement, Schwartz said the company's book value was ``fundamentally'' unchanged. Clients continued to withdraw funds, he said.
For Sale
The firm has retained investment bank Lazard Ltd. to seek ``strategic alternatives,'' Schwartz said. Bear Stearns said it's also in talks with JPMorgan about long-term funding.
Steven Black, JPMorgan's co-head of investment banking, said on Feb. 27 the bank was considering acquiring a prime brokerage that was for sale then. He didn't name the seller. Bank of America, which agreed to buy mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. for $4 billion on Jan. 11, said four days later that it planned to sell its prime brokerage.
``There happens to be one for sale and we are looking at it,'' Black said at a JPMorgan investor conference in New York.
Other potential Bear Stearns buyers include private equity firms such as J.C. Flowers & Co., the Wall Street Journal reported. The New York Times said Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc may be interested, citing unidentified people briefed on the talks, and the London-based Daily Telegraph said Bear Stearns is seeking financing from sovereign wealth funds, without saying where it got the information.
Asset Writedowns
HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's largest bank by market value, also has the resources to make a purchase. The London- based lender may rise 30 percent in London trading this year, outperforming other U.K. banks because of its ``rich'' capital reserves, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Ltd. analyst James Hutson wrote in a March 13 note to investors.
Bear Stearns led Wall Street shares lower this year as the world's largest lenders and securities firms wrote down assets linked to the subprime mortgage market. Analysts in the past month have lowered expectations for earnings in the first quarter, after it reported on Dec. 20 a fourth-quarter loss of $854 million following a $1.9 billion writedown. Bear Stearns said it will report its latest results on March 17.
JPMorgan, the third-largest U.S. bank by assets, has posted $3.7 billion in writedowns, a fraction of the $22.4 billion reported by Citigroup, the biggest U.S. lender.
``JPMorgan is not loaded up with bad mortgage debt,'' said Vincent Farrell, principal at Scotsman Capital Management. ``Bear has a couple of very good pockets that any other firm would want to have if you can clear up the balance-sheet issue.''
`Forced Marriage'
About a sixth of the firm's income came from packaging and trading mortgage bonds, a market that has been almost completely frozen since July.
``The future for Bear will be found in a forced marriage,'' said Charles Peabody, an analyst at Portales Partners LLC in New York who rates the stock a ``sell.'' ``Their business model is broken. They don't have the ability to go it alone.''
Bear Stearns employs 14,000 people worldwide, according to its Web site, and has offices in cities including London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Milan and Sao Paulo.
Joseph Lewis, the second-largest shareholder in Bear Stearns Cos., wasn't planning to reduce his stake, a person close to him said March 11. Lewis, a 71-year-old billionaire, views his 9.4 percent investment as long-term, the person said.
Unanimous Vote
The Fed is taking on the credit risk from collateral supplied by Bear Stearns, which approached the central bank for emergency funds, Fed staff officials said yesterday.
The Fed, under Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, voted unanimously to lend the funds through JPMorgan because it would be operationally simpler than a direct loan to Bear Stearns, the staff said on condition of anonymity. The regulator invoked a little-used law that allows it to make loans to corporations and private partnerships, which required a Board vote, according to the staffers.
The Fed said it was ``monitoring market developments closely and will continue to provide liquidity as necessary to promote the orderly functioning of the financial system.''
The senior Fed staffers declined to describe how large the loan to Bear Stearns was, and declined to say whether a private- sector bailout was attempted before the Fed extended credit through JPMorgan.
JPMorgan's Role
``The issue now is whether Bear Stearns customers will stick around,'' said Bruce Foerster, president of South Beach Capital Markets and a former Wall Street executive. ``Some others have gotten through the same kind of troubles, some ended up being shut down or sold. I'm hoping Bear can get past it.''
JPMorgan's participation in the bailout follows a long tradition at the bank of stepping in to rescue financial markets from crisis, according to Geisst, the Wall Street historian.
The bank has also profited from others' crises. JPMorgan got at least $725 million of revenue for taking on half the energy trades from collapsed hedge fund Amaranth Advisors LLC in 2006.
``It may be a feather in JPMorgan's cap that they're considered able to do this,'' Geisst said. ``The Fed could have chosen any number of banks to do this, and they chose JPMorgan.''
`Appropriate Steps'
President George W. Bush, seeking to calm investors yesterday, said policy makers will take ``appropriate steps'' to stabilize the financial system.
``Our economy obviously is going through a tough time,'' Bush told the Economic Club of New York. ``It's going through a tough time in the housing market and it's going through a tough time in the financial markets.''
``This is more of a liquidity event than a credit-quality event,'' Paul Atkins, a commissioner on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said in a Bloomberg Television interview at a German Marshall Fund conference today in Brussels. Bear Stearns ``has strong assets on its balance sheet. I really would discount a domino effect.''
BLOOMBERG
March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Bear Stearns Cos.'s 85 years as an independent Wall Street firm may be coming to an end as JPMorgan Chase & Co. considers buying the crippled company.
Teetering on the brink of collapse from a lack of cash, New York-based Bear Stearns got emergency funding yesterday from the Federal Reserve and JPMorgan in the largest government bailout of a U.S. securities firm. The move failed to avert a crisis of confidence among Bear Stearns's customers and shareholders, who drove the stock down a record 47 percent.
After denying earlier this week that access to capital was at risk, Bear Stearns Chief Executive Officer Alan Schwartz said yesterday the company's cash position had ``significantly deteriorated'' in the past 24 hours. The Fed agreed to provide financing through JPMorgan for up to 28 days, the bank said in a statement yesterday.
Now JPMorgan, led by Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, is considering buying Bear Stearns, according to three people briefed on the matter. No agreement has been reached and it's possible no deal will be completed, said the people, who declined be identified because the discussions are confidential. A person close to JPMorgan said the bank may also be interested in buying Bear Stearns's prime brokerage unit, which provides loans and processes trades for hedge funds.
`Devastating Blow'
Dimon, whose New York-based firm has suffered fewer losses than rivals during the credit-market contraction, has said he's open to making an acquisition. The bank has ``plenty of capital,'' he told the audience at a dinner hosted by the Economic Club of Washington on March 12, the day before his 52nd birthday.
The Fed acted to prevent the failure of the second-biggest underwriter of U.S. mortgage bonds and forestall a potential market panic as losses by banks and brokers reached $195 billion and stocks plunged for a third day this week. Last month the U.K. government nationalized mortgage-lender Northern Rock after the Bank of England bailed it out in September.
``I don't think they can afford to let Bear go,'' said Charles Geisst, the author of ``100 Years on Wall Street,'' referring to the New York Fed bailout. ``At this particular moment in time, it would be a devastating blow to the markets.''
Bear Stearns, founded in 1923, acted in response to ``market rumors'' of a liquidity crisis, CEO Schwartz, 57, said in a separate statement.
Shares Tumble
He said earlier this week the company's ``liquidity cushion'' was sufficient to weather the credit-market contraction. Bear Stearns's cash shortfall began March 11 after rumors spread that it lacked sufficient access to capital, and lenders and clients began withdrawing funds, the Washington- based U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement released late yesterday.
``We have tried to confront and dispel these rumors and parse fact from fiction,'' Schwartz, who was named CEO less than three months ago, said in the company's statement yesterday. ``Nevertheless, amidst this market chatter, our liquidity position in the last 24 hours had significantly deteriorated.''
The announcement caused financial shares to plunge, with Bear Stearns tumbling $27 to $30 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock has lost 66 percent of its value this year, compared with a 19 percent drop in the S&P 500 Financials Index. The sinking share price has wiped out $10.5 billion of shareholder value in the last three months.
Credit Rating
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. also led declines as all 10 industry groups in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell yesterday. Lehman, the biggest underwriter of U.S. mortgage bonds, said it obtained a $2 billion, three-year credit line from 40 banks.
Bear Stearns's long-term counterparty credit rating was reduced three levels to BBB by Standard & Poor's. The rating may be cut further, New York-based S&P said. It lowered the short- term rating to A3 from A1. Moody's Investors Service also downgraded the company's long-term rating to Baa1 from A2.
``It really requires institutions to come clean and show the markets what the quality of their assets are and what things are worth on their balance sheet,'' said Robert Eisenbeis, former head of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and chief monetary economist at Cumberland Advisors Inc. ``Until that happens, there's going to be uncertainty.''
Bear Stearns, which survived the Great Depression and first sold shares to the public in 1985, helped trigger a crash in the market for home loans to borrowers with blemished credit histories after two of its hedge funds collapsed in July. The failure of the two funds, which invested in securities linked to subprime mortgages, prompted a sell-off of the assets, which in turn led investors to shun other high-yield debt.
Cayne's Pick
Its bailout is part of the wider, spreading freeze in credit markets. The difference between what the U.S. government and companies pay for three-month loans has also climbed in the past month. The so-called TED spread increased to 1.52 percentage points yesterday from 0.78 percentage point Feb. 14.
Schwartz, an executive with more than 30 years of experience at Bear Stearns, was the hand-picked choice of his predecessor, James ``Jimmy'' Cayne, 74, who remains non- executive chairman of the firm. Cayne stepped down after reporting an $854 million fourth-quarter loss, the first in the company's history.
On a conference call with analysts and investors after yesterday's announcement, Schwartz said the company's book value was ``fundamentally'' unchanged. Clients continued to withdraw funds, he said.
For Sale
The firm has retained investment bank Lazard Ltd. to seek ``strategic alternatives,'' Schwartz said. Bear Stearns said it's also in talks with JPMorgan about long-term funding.
Steven Black, JPMorgan's co-head of investment banking, said on Feb. 27 the bank was considering acquiring a prime brokerage that was for sale then. He didn't name the seller. Bank of America, which agreed to buy mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. for $4 billion on Jan. 11, said four days later that it planned to sell its prime brokerage.
``There happens to be one for sale and we are looking at it,'' Black said at a JPMorgan investor conference in New York.
Other potential Bear Stearns buyers include private equity firms such as J.C. Flowers & Co., the Wall Street Journal reported. The New York Times said Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc may be interested, citing unidentified people briefed on the talks, and the London-based Daily Telegraph said Bear Stearns is seeking financing from sovereign wealth funds, without saying where it got the information.
Asset Writedowns
HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's largest bank by market value, also has the resources to make a purchase. The London- based lender may rise 30 percent in London trading this year, outperforming other U.K. banks because of its ``rich'' capital reserves, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Ltd. analyst James Hutson wrote in a March 13 note to investors.
Bear Stearns led Wall Street shares lower this year as the world's largest lenders and securities firms wrote down assets linked to the subprime mortgage market. Analysts in the past month have lowered expectations for earnings in the first quarter, after it reported on Dec. 20 a fourth-quarter loss of $854 million following a $1.9 billion writedown. Bear Stearns said it will report its latest results on March 17.
JPMorgan, the third-largest U.S. bank by assets, has posted $3.7 billion in writedowns, a fraction of the $22.4 billion reported by Citigroup, the biggest U.S. lender.
``JPMorgan is not loaded up with bad mortgage debt,'' said Vincent Farrell, principal at Scotsman Capital Management. ``Bear has a couple of very good pockets that any other firm would want to have if you can clear up the balance-sheet issue.''
`Forced Marriage'
About a sixth of the firm's income came from packaging and trading mortgage bonds, a market that has been almost completely frozen since July.
``The future for Bear will be found in a forced marriage,'' said Charles Peabody, an analyst at Portales Partners LLC in New York who rates the stock a ``sell.'' ``Their business model is broken. They don't have the ability to go it alone.''
Bear Stearns employs 14,000 people worldwide, according to its Web site, and has offices in cities including London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Milan and Sao Paulo.
Joseph Lewis, the second-largest shareholder in Bear Stearns Cos., wasn't planning to reduce his stake, a person close to him said March 11. Lewis, a 71-year-old billionaire, views his 9.4 percent investment as long-term, the person said.
Unanimous Vote
The Fed is taking on the credit risk from collateral supplied by Bear Stearns, which approached the central bank for emergency funds, Fed staff officials said yesterday.
The Fed, under Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, voted unanimously to lend the funds through JPMorgan because it would be operationally simpler than a direct loan to Bear Stearns, the staff said on condition of anonymity. The regulator invoked a little-used law that allows it to make loans to corporations and private partnerships, which required a Board vote, according to the staffers.
The Fed said it was ``monitoring market developments closely and will continue to provide liquidity as necessary to promote the orderly functioning of the financial system.''
The senior Fed staffers declined to describe how large the loan to Bear Stearns was, and declined to say whether a private- sector bailout was attempted before the Fed extended credit through JPMorgan.
JPMorgan's Role
``The issue now is whether Bear Stearns customers will stick around,'' said Bruce Foerster, president of South Beach Capital Markets and a former Wall Street executive. ``Some others have gotten through the same kind of troubles, some ended up being shut down or sold. I'm hoping Bear can get past it.''
JPMorgan's participation in the bailout follows a long tradition at the bank of stepping in to rescue financial markets from crisis, according to Geisst, the Wall Street historian.
The bank has also profited from others' crises. JPMorgan got at least $725 million of revenue for taking on half the energy trades from collapsed hedge fund Amaranth Advisors LLC in 2006.
``It may be a feather in JPMorgan's cap that they're considered able to do this,'' Geisst said. ``The Fed could have chosen any number of banks to do this, and they chose JPMorgan.''
`Appropriate Steps'
President George W. Bush, seeking to calm investors yesterday, said policy makers will take ``appropriate steps'' to stabilize the financial system.
``Our economy obviously is going through a tough time,'' Bush told the Economic Club of New York. ``It's going through a tough time in the housing market and it's going through a tough time in the financial markets.''
``This is more of a liquidity event than a credit-quality event,'' Paul Atkins, a commissioner on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said in a Bloomberg Television interview at a German Marshall Fund conference today in Brussels. Bear Stearns ``has strong assets on its balance sheet. I really would discount a domino effect.''
BLOOMBERG
Goldman Sachs Poised to Write Down $3 Billion, Telegraph Says
Goldman Sachs Poised to Write Down $3 Billion, Telegraph Says
March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will announce asset writedowns of about $3 billion this week, partly based on the declining value of its stake in Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the Sunday Telegraph said, without citing anyone.
The investment bank may report a decline in first-quarter earnings of about 50 percent, the newspaper said.
Goldman will write down about $1.6 billion from its leveraged loans business and a further $1.1 billion from assets owned by the bank's private equity arm, the Sunday Telegraph said.
Shares of ICBC, which is held separately on Goldman's balance sheet, have fallen by 12 percent in Hong Kong so far this year.
BLOOMBERG
March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will announce asset writedowns of about $3 billion this week, partly based on the declining value of its stake in Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the Sunday Telegraph said, without citing anyone.
The investment bank may report a decline in first-quarter earnings of about 50 percent, the newspaper said.
Goldman will write down about $1.6 billion from its leveraged loans business and a further $1.1 billion from assets owned by the bank's private equity arm, the Sunday Telegraph said.
Shares of ICBC, which is held separately on Goldman's balance sheet, have fallen by 12 percent in Hong Kong so far this year.
BLOOMBERG
Ευρωζώνη: Στο 3,3% ο πληθωρισμός το Φεβρουάριο
Ευρωζώνη: Στο 3,3% ο πληθωρισμός το Φεβρουάριο
Στο 3,3% «εκτινάχθηκε» ο πληθωρισμός στην Ευρωζώνη το Φεβρουάριο από 3,2% τον Ιανουάριο, σύμφωνα με τα επίσημα στοιχεία της Eurostat. Πρόκειται για το υψηλότερο επίπεδο που έχει καταγραφεί ποτέ. Σημειώνεται ότι ένα χρόνο νωρίτερα είχε διαμορφωθεί στο 1,8%.Στην προηγούμενη πρόβλεψή της, η στατιστική υπηρεσία της Ε.Ε. έκανε λόγο για άνοδο των τιμών καταναλωτή κατά 3,2%. Συγκριτικά με τον Ιανουάριο, οι τιμές αυξήθηκαν κατά 0,3%.
Στην Ευρώπη των 27 ο πληθωρισμός παρέμεινε σταθερός στο 3,4%. Για το αντίστοιχο περσινό χρονικό διάστημα είχε διαμορφωθεί στο 2,1%.
Στην ένταση των πληθωριστικών πιέσεων στην Ευρωζώνη συνέβαλαν κατά κύριο λόγο οι ανατιμήσεις στα τρόφιμα, την εκπαίδευση και τις μεταφορές.
REPORTER.GR
Στο 3,3% «εκτινάχθηκε» ο πληθωρισμός στην Ευρωζώνη το Φεβρουάριο από 3,2% τον Ιανουάριο, σύμφωνα με τα επίσημα στοιχεία της Eurostat. Πρόκειται για το υψηλότερο επίπεδο που έχει καταγραφεί ποτέ. Σημειώνεται ότι ένα χρόνο νωρίτερα είχε διαμορφωθεί στο 1,8%.Στην προηγούμενη πρόβλεψή της, η στατιστική υπηρεσία της Ε.Ε. έκανε λόγο για άνοδο των τιμών καταναλωτή κατά 3,2%. Συγκριτικά με τον Ιανουάριο, οι τιμές αυξήθηκαν κατά 0,3%.
Στην Ευρώπη των 27 ο πληθωρισμός παρέμεινε σταθερός στο 3,4%. Για το αντίστοιχο περσινό χρονικό διάστημα είχε διαμορφωθεί στο 2,1%.
Στην ένταση των πληθωριστικών πιέσεων στην Ευρωζώνη συνέβαλαν κατά κύριο λόγο οι ανατιμήσεις στα τρόφιμα, την εκπαίδευση και τις μεταφορές.
REPORTER.GR
Πάνω από τα 110 δολάρια τερμάτισε το αργό-Κέρδη 5 δολ.στην εβδομάδα
Πάνω από τα 110 δολάρια τερμάτισε το αργό-Κέρδη 5 δολ.στην εβδομάδα
Υποχώρησε για πρώτη φορά σε διάστημα μιας εβδομάδας το αργό, τερματίζοντας ωστόσο πάνω από τα 110 δολάρια το βαρέλι, καθώς τα απογοητευτικά μακροοικονομικά της ημέρας οδήγησαν τους επενδυτές σε μερική κατοχύρωση κερδών.Το αργό τερμάτισε κατά 12 σεντς χαμηλότερα στα 110,21 δολάρια ανά βαρέλι, έχοντας προηγουμένως αγγίξει το νέο ιστορικό υψηλό των 112,75 δολαρίων ανά βαρέλι.
Σε επίπεδο εβδομάδας, το αργό κατέγραψε κέρδη 5,06 δολαρίων ανά βαρέλι.
REPORTER.GR
Υποχώρησε για πρώτη φορά σε διάστημα μιας εβδομάδας το αργό, τερματίζοντας ωστόσο πάνω από τα 110 δολάρια το βαρέλι, καθώς τα απογοητευτικά μακροοικονομικά της ημέρας οδήγησαν τους επενδυτές σε μερική κατοχύρωση κερδών.Το αργό τερμάτισε κατά 12 σεντς χαμηλότερα στα 110,21 δολάρια ανά βαρέλι, έχοντας προηγουμένως αγγίξει το νέο ιστορικό υψηλό των 112,75 δολαρίων ανά βαρέλι.
Σε επίπεδο εβδομάδας, το αργό κατέγραψε κέρδη 5,06 δολαρίων ανά βαρέλι.
REPORTER.GR
«Στέρεψε» η Bear Stearns- Σανίδα σωτηρίας από JPMorgan, Fed
«Στέρεψε» η Bear Stearns- Σανίδα σωτηρίας από JPMorgan, Fed
Ένεση ρευστότητας στη Bear Stearns πρόκειται να προσφέρουν η JPMorgan και η Ομοσπονδιακή Τράπεζα της Νέας Υόρκης, καθώς ο χρηματιστηριακός οίκος επεσήμανε ότι έχει έλλειψη ρευστότητας. Οι μετοχές της Bear Stearns καταγράφουν σημαντικές απώλειες της τάξεως του 4,2%, ενώ έχουν υποχωρήσει κατά 40% συνολικά τη φετινή χρονιά.
Η Bear Stearns είχε αρνηθεί κατά τη διάρκεια της εβδομάδας ότι αντιμετώπιζε πρόβλημα και είχε επισημάνει ότι η ρευστότητα της τράπεζας αρκούσε για να ανταπεξέλθει στην ύφεση των πιστωτικών αγορών. Παρόλα αυτά ο Διευθύνω Σύμβουλος, Alan Schwartz επεσήμανε σήμερα ότι η κατάσταση έχει επιδεινωθεί σημαντικά κατά τις τελευταίες 24 ώρες.
REPORTER.GR
Ένεση ρευστότητας στη Bear Stearns πρόκειται να προσφέρουν η JPMorgan και η Ομοσπονδιακή Τράπεζα της Νέας Υόρκης, καθώς ο χρηματιστηριακός οίκος επεσήμανε ότι έχει έλλειψη ρευστότητας. Οι μετοχές της Bear Stearns καταγράφουν σημαντικές απώλειες της τάξεως του 4,2%, ενώ έχουν υποχωρήσει κατά 40% συνολικά τη φετινή χρονιά.
Η Bear Stearns είχε αρνηθεί κατά τη διάρκεια της εβδομάδας ότι αντιμετώπιζε πρόβλημα και είχε επισημάνει ότι η ρευστότητα της τράπεζας αρκούσε για να ανταπεξέλθει στην ύφεση των πιστωτικών αγορών. Παρόλα αυτά ο Διευθύνω Σύμβουλος, Alan Schwartz επεσήμανε σήμερα ότι η κατάσταση έχει επιδεινωθεί σημαντικά κατά τις τελευταίες 24 ώρες.
REPORTER.GR
Κατασχέσεις στην Carlyle Capital
Κατασχέσεις στην Carlyle Capital
ΤΕΛΙΚΑ, ο καθένας κοιτάζει το ατομικό του συμφέρον στη Wall Street. H Carlyle Group, η ισχυρή εταιρεία ιδιωτικού μετοχικού κεφαλαίου με έδρα την Ουάσιγκτον, ήταν γνωστή για τις υψηλόβαθμες διασυνδέσεις της.
Πρόεδρός της είναι ο Λουί Γκέρστνερ, πρώην επικεφαλής της ΙΒΜ ενώ κάποτε είχε εργαστεί μαζί με τον πρώην Βρετανό πρωθυπουργό Τζον Μέιτζορ και τον πρώην πρόεδρο των ΗΠΑ Τζορτζ Μπους τον πρεσβύτερο.
Ομως, όλα αυτά τα ονόματα δεν σημαίνουν τίποτε στη σημερινή πιστωτική κρίση. Μόλις προχθές, η Carlyle Capital, αντισταθμιστικό κεφαλαίο και θυγατρική της Carlyle Group, σχεδόν κατέρρευσε, καθώς τράπεζες έσπευσαν να πωλήσουν ενεργητικό της εξασφαλισμένο με υποθήκη.
Σήμερα στη Wall Street, οι άλλοτε κραταιές τράπεζες που δάνειζαν αφειδώς και συμμετείχαν σε όλα τα είδη περίπλοκων συναλλαγών, έχουν αποσυρθεί και αγωνίζονται να προστατεύσουν τους ισολογισμούς τους.
Για την Carlyle, της οποίας οι εταίροι ελέγχουν το 15% του αντισταθμιστικού ταμείου, η κρίση κορυφώθηκε την προηγούμενη εβδομάδα, όταν ο αντιπρόεδρος της J.P.Morgan Chase & Co. προειδοποίησε το συνιδρυτή της Carlyle, Ντέιβιντ Ρουμπενστέιν, ότι οι πιστωτές, περιλαμβανομένης της J.P.Morgan, επρόκειτο να κατασχέσουν το ενεργητικό του αντισταθμιστικού ταμείου.
Τώρα, ο Ρουμπενστέιν δήλωσε ότι ο μητρικός όμιλος προσπαθεί να βρει τρόπους για την ανακούφιση των επενδυτών της Carlyle Capital. Ο μητρικός όμιλος δεν πρόκειται να επηρεαστεί σημαντικά από την κατάρρευση του αντισταθμιστικού ταμείου, παρ' όλα αυτά όμως αποτελεί πλήγμα για μία εταιρεία που αναδείχθηκε σε έναν από τους κορυφαίους ομίλους διαχείρισης ενεργητικού.
NAFTEMPORIKI
ΤΕΛΙΚΑ, ο καθένας κοιτάζει το ατομικό του συμφέρον στη Wall Street. H Carlyle Group, η ισχυρή εταιρεία ιδιωτικού μετοχικού κεφαλαίου με έδρα την Ουάσιγκτον, ήταν γνωστή για τις υψηλόβαθμες διασυνδέσεις της.
Πρόεδρός της είναι ο Λουί Γκέρστνερ, πρώην επικεφαλής της ΙΒΜ ενώ κάποτε είχε εργαστεί μαζί με τον πρώην Βρετανό πρωθυπουργό Τζον Μέιτζορ και τον πρώην πρόεδρο των ΗΠΑ Τζορτζ Μπους τον πρεσβύτερο.
Ομως, όλα αυτά τα ονόματα δεν σημαίνουν τίποτε στη σημερινή πιστωτική κρίση. Μόλις προχθές, η Carlyle Capital, αντισταθμιστικό κεφαλαίο και θυγατρική της Carlyle Group, σχεδόν κατέρρευσε, καθώς τράπεζες έσπευσαν να πωλήσουν ενεργητικό της εξασφαλισμένο με υποθήκη.
Σήμερα στη Wall Street, οι άλλοτε κραταιές τράπεζες που δάνειζαν αφειδώς και συμμετείχαν σε όλα τα είδη περίπλοκων συναλλαγών, έχουν αποσυρθεί και αγωνίζονται να προστατεύσουν τους ισολογισμούς τους.
Για την Carlyle, της οποίας οι εταίροι ελέγχουν το 15% του αντισταθμιστικού ταμείου, η κρίση κορυφώθηκε την προηγούμενη εβδομάδα, όταν ο αντιπρόεδρος της J.P.Morgan Chase & Co. προειδοποίησε το συνιδρυτή της Carlyle, Ντέιβιντ Ρουμπενστέιν, ότι οι πιστωτές, περιλαμβανομένης της J.P.Morgan, επρόκειτο να κατασχέσουν το ενεργητικό του αντισταθμιστικού ταμείου.
Τώρα, ο Ρουμπενστέιν δήλωσε ότι ο μητρικός όμιλος προσπαθεί να βρει τρόπους για την ανακούφιση των επενδυτών της Carlyle Capital. Ο μητρικός όμιλος δεν πρόκειται να επηρεαστεί σημαντικά από την κατάρρευση του αντισταθμιστικού ταμείου, παρ' όλα αυτά όμως αποτελεί πλήγμα για μία εταιρεία που αναδείχθηκε σε έναν από τους κορυφαίους ομίλους διαχείρισης ενεργητικού.
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Ντόμινο με προβληματικούς τραπεζικούς κολοσσούς
Ντόμινο με προβληματικούς τραπεζικούς κολοσσούς
ΤA «ΘΥΜΑΤΑ» της διεθνούς πιστωτικής κρίσης φαίνεται να αυξάνονται, με την Bear Stearns να βρίσκεται τώρα στο «μάτι του κυκλώνα», αφού η απότομη επιδείνωση της ρευστότητάς της κατέστησε αναγκαία έκτακτη χρηματοδότηση από την JPMorgan Chase & Co. και την ομοσπονδιακή κεντρική τράπεζα της Νέας Υόρκης, προκαλώντας τριγμούς στα χρηματιστήρια και στις δύο πλευρές του Ατλαντικού.
Την πρώτη θέση στις απώλειες της Wall Street έχει η Bear Stearns από τις αρχές του έτους.
Οι ρυθμιστικές αρχές έσπευσαν να αποτρέψουν την κατάρρευση της πέμπτης μεγαλύτερης επενδυτικής τράπεζας των ΗΠΑ και του δεύτερου μεγαλύτερου αναδόχου ενυπόθηκου χρέους, αλλά και να απομακρύνουν τον πανικό που έχει εξαπλωθεί στις αγορές, από τη στιγμή που οι απώλειες των τραπεζών και των χρηματιστηριακών ομίλων έφθασαν τα 195 δισ. δολάρια.
Η μετοχή της Bear Stearns υποχώρησε 53%, πρόκειται για τη μεγαλύτερη πτώση μέχρι σήμερα, από τη στιγμή που ανακοινώθηκε το σχέδιο διάσωσης, στο πλαίσιο του οποίου η ομοσπονδιακή κεντρική τράπεζα της Ν.Υόρκης θα της προσφέρει χρηματοδότηση μέσω της JPMorgan για 28 ημέρες.
Η Φέντεραλ Ριζέρβ ανακοίνωσε δε ότι σκοπεύει να συνεχίσει να διοχετεύει ρευστότητα στο χρηματοπιστωτικό σύστημα όσο χρειαστεί για να διασφαλίσει την ομαλή λειτουργία του.
«Η ρευστότητά μας επιδεινώθηκε τις τελευταίες 24 ώρες σημαντικά και γι' αυτό προχωρήσαμε σε αυτό το σημαντικό βήμα για την αποκατάσταση της εμπιστοσύνης στις χρηματαγορές, την ενίσχυση της ρευστότητάς μας και τη συνέχιση των δραστηριοτήτων μας», είπε ο διευθύνων σύμβουλος Αλαν Σγουάρτζ, ο οποίος πριν από λίγες ημέρες διαβεβαίωνε ότι η τράπεζα δεν αντιμετώπιζε πρόβλημα ρευστότητας και ότι διέθετε αποθεματικά 17 δισ. δολαρίων. Σημειώνεται όμως ότι στο τέταρτο οικονομικό της τρίμηνο, είχε ανακοινώσει ζημίες ύψους 854 δισ. δολαρίων και διαγραφές ενεργητικού της αξίας 1,9 δισ. δολαρίων, ενώ αναλυτές έχουν αναθεωρήσει πτωτικά τις προβλέψεις τους για τα κέρδη του πρώτου τριμήνου.
Επιπλέον, η Bear Stearns από τις αρχές του έτους έχει την πρώτη θέση στις απώλειες της Wall Street, συμπαρασύροντας και άλλους χρηματοοικονομικούς ομίλους. H κατάρρευση των δύο αντισταθμιστικών ταμείων της Bear Stearns που είχαν επενδύσει σε ενυπόθηκο χρέος πυροδότησε την κρίση στην αγορά ενυπόθηκου χρέους υψηλού ρίσκου τον Ιούλιο, πυροδοτώντας μαζικές ρευστοποιήσεις ενεργητικού.
Η Bear Stearns έχει πραγματοποιήσει μεγαλύτερο άνοιγμα στις αμερικανικές αγορές ομολόγων σε σύγκριση με τους ανταγωνιστές της, ενώ έχει αναπτύξει μεγαλύτερες δραστηριότητες σε χρεόγραφα εξασφαλισμένα με υποθήκη.
Αναλυτές θεωρούν ιδιαίτερα κρίσιμη τη θέση της Bear Stearns και διαβλέπουν το μέλλον της σε κάποιον «βεβιασμένο γάμο», αφού το επιχειρησιακό μοντέλο της κατέρρευσε.
NAFTEMPORIKI
ΤA «ΘΥΜΑΤΑ» της διεθνούς πιστωτικής κρίσης φαίνεται να αυξάνονται, με την Bear Stearns να βρίσκεται τώρα στο «μάτι του κυκλώνα», αφού η απότομη επιδείνωση της ρευστότητάς της κατέστησε αναγκαία έκτακτη χρηματοδότηση από την JPMorgan Chase & Co. και την ομοσπονδιακή κεντρική τράπεζα της Νέας Υόρκης, προκαλώντας τριγμούς στα χρηματιστήρια και στις δύο πλευρές του Ατλαντικού.
Την πρώτη θέση στις απώλειες της Wall Street έχει η Bear Stearns από τις αρχές του έτους.
Οι ρυθμιστικές αρχές έσπευσαν να αποτρέψουν την κατάρρευση της πέμπτης μεγαλύτερης επενδυτικής τράπεζας των ΗΠΑ και του δεύτερου μεγαλύτερου αναδόχου ενυπόθηκου χρέους, αλλά και να απομακρύνουν τον πανικό που έχει εξαπλωθεί στις αγορές, από τη στιγμή που οι απώλειες των τραπεζών και των χρηματιστηριακών ομίλων έφθασαν τα 195 δισ. δολάρια.
Η μετοχή της Bear Stearns υποχώρησε 53%, πρόκειται για τη μεγαλύτερη πτώση μέχρι σήμερα, από τη στιγμή που ανακοινώθηκε το σχέδιο διάσωσης, στο πλαίσιο του οποίου η ομοσπονδιακή κεντρική τράπεζα της Ν.Υόρκης θα της προσφέρει χρηματοδότηση μέσω της JPMorgan για 28 ημέρες.
Η Φέντεραλ Ριζέρβ ανακοίνωσε δε ότι σκοπεύει να συνεχίσει να διοχετεύει ρευστότητα στο χρηματοπιστωτικό σύστημα όσο χρειαστεί για να διασφαλίσει την ομαλή λειτουργία του.
«Η ρευστότητά μας επιδεινώθηκε τις τελευταίες 24 ώρες σημαντικά και γι' αυτό προχωρήσαμε σε αυτό το σημαντικό βήμα για την αποκατάσταση της εμπιστοσύνης στις χρηματαγορές, την ενίσχυση της ρευστότητάς μας και τη συνέχιση των δραστηριοτήτων μας», είπε ο διευθύνων σύμβουλος Αλαν Σγουάρτζ, ο οποίος πριν από λίγες ημέρες διαβεβαίωνε ότι η τράπεζα δεν αντιμετώπιζε πρόβλημα ρευστότητας και ότι διέθετε αποθεματικά 17 δισ. δολαρίων. Σημειώνεται όμως ότι στο τέταρτο οικονομικό της τρίμηνο, είχε ανακοινώσει ζημίες ύψους 854 δισ. δολαρίων και διαγραφές ενεργητικού της αξίας 1,9 δισ. δολαρίων, ενώ αναλυτές έχουν αναθεωρήσει πτωτικά τις προβλέψεις τους για τα κέρδη του πρώτου τριμήνου.
Επιπλέον, η Bear Stearns από τις αρχές του έτους έχει την πρώτη θέση στις απώλειες της Wall Street, συμπαρασύροντας και άλλους χρηματοοικονομικούς ομίλους. H κατάρρευση των δύο αντισταθμιστικών ταμείων της Bear Stearns που είχαν επενδύσει σε ενυπόθηκο χρέος πυροδότησε την κρίση στην αγορά ενυπόθηκου χρέους υψηλού ρίσκου τον Ιούλιο, πυροδοτώντας μαζικές ρευστοποιήσεις ενεργητικού.
Η Bear Stearns έχει πραγματοποιήσει μεγαλύτερο άνοιγμα στις αμερικανικές αγορές ομολόγων σε σύγκριση με τους ανταγωνιστές της, ενώ έχει αναπτύξει μεγαλύτερες δραστηριότητες σε χρεόγραφα εξασφαλισμένα με υποθήκη.
Αναλυτές θεωρούν ιδιαίτερα κρίσιμη τη θέση της Bear Stearns και διαβλέπουν το μέλλον της σε κάποιον «βεβιασμένο γάμο», αφού το επιχειρησιακό μοντέλο της κατέρρευσε.
NAFTEMPORIKI
Εξαγορές σε Ουκρανία, Αίγυπτο και Ρωσία ετοιμάζει η Εθνική
Εξαγορές σε Ουκρανία, Αίγυπτο και Ρωσία ετοιμάζει η Εθνική
ΕΠΙΛΕΚΤΙΚΕΣ εξαγορές σε Ουκρανία, Αίγυπτο και Ρωσία επιδιώκει η Εθνική Τράπεζα [NBGr.AT] και έχει ήδη ανοικτά «μέτωπα» στις δύο πρώτες, διεκδικώντας την Kreditprom και την Banque du Caire αντίστοιχα. Οσον αφορά την Κύπρο, η διοίκηση θα αναπτύξει την παρουσία της, προκειμένου να αξιοποιηθούν οι ευκαιρίες που παρουσιάζει η τοπική αγορά, εκτιμώντας ότι μέσω αυτής μπορεί παράλληλα να επεκτείνει τις εργασίες στη Ρωσία.
Με οργανική ανάπτυξη και πέραν των εξαγορών που προωθούνται, η Εθνική θα αυξήσει τα καταστήματά της σε 2.000 από 1.600 σήμερα, με ιδιαίτερη έμφαση στην ΝΑ Ευρώπη όπου συνεισφέρει ήδη το 35% της συνολικής κερδοφορίας. Η επέκταση με εξαγορές σε άλλες χώρες θα γίνεται επιλεκτικά και όπου μπορούν να εξασφαλιστούν οι επιθυμητές αποδόσεις στα επενδυμένα κεφάλαια.
Στην Ουκρανία, συνεχίζονται οι διαπραγματεύσεις για την εξαγορά της Kreditprom, ενώ στην Αίγυπτο, η Eθνική είναι στη short list των πέντε τραπεζών που έχουν προκριθεί για να κάνουν due diligence στην Banque du Caire. Η αιγυπτιακή κυβέρνηση προτίθεται να πωλήσει έως και το 67% της τρίτης σε μέγεθος τράπεζας της χώρας.
Στη Λευκωσία
Ο πρόεδρος του Ομίλου Τάκης Αράπογλου πραγματοποίησε επίσκεψη στην Κύπρο το τελευταίο διήμερο και είχε επαφές τόσο με το προσωπικό της θυγατρικής της όσο και με επιχειρηματίες, μεγάλους πελάτες της τράπεζας. Ο κ. Αράπογλου συνοδευόταν από ανώτερα στελέχη του Ομίλου, τους κ.κ. Αλ. Τουρκολιά, Αγ. Λεώπουλο, Δ. Λεφάκη. Δ.Δημόπουλο, Δ. Παλαιολόγο, Κ. Οθωναίο και είχε συνεργασία με τον διευθύνοντα σύμβουλο και τον Γενικό Διευθυντή της Εθνικής Τράπεζας Κύπρου Μ. Κόκκινο και Π.Φρονίστα.
Ο κ. Αράπογλου τόνισε, κατά τη διάρκεια συνέντευξης Τύπου που έδωσε στη Λευκωσία ότι για τη θυγατρική στην Κύπρο, συνεχίζεται η προσπάθεια εξυγίανσης, ενώ στόχος είναι η ανάπτυξη. Οι τραπεζασφάλειες, η τραπεζική επιχειρήσεων και η χρηματοδότηση μεγάλων έργων είναι τομείς ενδιαφέροντος, ενώ οι καλές οικονομικές σχέσεις της Κύπρου με τη Ρωσία, δίνουν την ευκαιρία στην Εθνική να αποκτήσει δραστηριότητα στη ρωσική αγορά. Μάλιστα, ο πρόεδρος της Εθνικής σημείωσε ότι δεν είχε δοθεί ως τώρα η απαραίτητη σημασία στην παρουσία του Ομίλου στην Κύπρο, παράλειψη που εντοπίστηκε και θα καλυφθεί.
Ο Ομιλος ενισχύει την παρουσία του εντός και εκτός Ελλάδας, ενώ και οι χορηγήσεις αυξάνονται αλλά, όπως τόνισε ο κ. Αράπογλου, σε περιβάλλον αυστηρού ελέγχου του επιχειρηματικού κινδύνου, αναβαθμίσεων λειτουργιών εσωτερικού ελέγχου και βέλτιστης πρακτικής στον τομέα της εταιρικής διακυβέρνησης.
Αβεβαιότητα
Ο πρόεδρος της Εθνικής εκτίμησε ότι η αβεβαιότητα στη διεθνή οικονομία και τις αγορές φαίνεται ότι θα ξεπεραστεί στο δεύτερο εξάμηνο του τρέχοντος έτους, ενώ η αμερικανική οικονομία έχει σοβαρά προβλήματα που δεν αποκλείεται να την οδηγήσουν σε ύφεση. Το μέγεθος των προβλημάτων αναμένεται να διαφανεί εντός του Μαΐου, όταν θα ανακοινωθούν τα νέα στοιχεία για την ανάπτυξη των ΗΠΑ και τα πρώτα οικονομικά αποτελέσματα των μεγάλων αμερικανικών τραπεζών για φέτος.
Ως το τέλος του 2008 θα έχουν βρει τη σταθερότητά τους η παγκόσμια οικονομία και τα χρηματιστήρια, εκτίμησε ο κ. Αράπογλου, σημειώνοντας ότι οι κεντρικές τράπεζες δείχνουν αποφασιστικότητα στην ενίσχυση της ρευστότητας και στη λήψη άλλων μέτρων. Οσον αφορά, πάντως, τις τράπεζες σε Ελλάδα και Κύπρο, τόνισε ότι έχουν υψηλή κεφαλαιακή επάρκεια και ρευστότητα και δεν φαίνεται να έχουν ιδιαίτερα προβλήματα λόγω της πιστωτικής κρίσης.
NAFTEMPORIKI
ΕΠΙΛΕΚΤΙΚΕΣ εξαγορές σε Ουκρανία, Αίγυπτο και Ρωσία επιδιώκει η Εθνική Τράπεζα [NBGr.AT] και έχει ήδη ανοικτά «μέτωπα» στις δύο πρώτες, διεκδικώντας την Kreditprom και την Banque du Caire αντίστοιχα. Οσον αφορά την Κύπρο, η διοίκηση θα αναπτύξει την παρουσία της, προκειμένου να αξιοποιηθούν οι ευκαιρίες που παρουσιάζει η τοπική αγορά, εκτιμώντας ότι μέσω αυτής μπορεί παράλληλα να επεκτείνει τις εργασίες στη Ρωσία.
Με οργανική ανάπτυξη και πέραν των εξαγορών που προωθούνται, η Εθνική θα αυξήσει τα καταστήματά της σε 2.000 από 1.600 σήμερα, με ιδιαίτερη έμφαση στην ΝΑ Ευρώπη όπου συνεισφέρει ήδη το 35% της συνολικής κερδοφορίας. Η επέκταση με εξαγορές σε άλλες χώρες θα γίνεται επιλεκτικά και όπου μπορούν να εξασφαλιστούν οι επιθυμητές αποδόσεις στα επενδυμένα κεφάλαια.
Στην Ουκρανία, συνεχίζονται οι διαπραγματεύσεις για την εξαγορά της Kreditprom, ενώ στην Αίγυπτο, η Eθνική είναι στη short list των πέντε τραπεζών που έχουν προκριθεί για να κάνουν due diligence στην Banque du Caire. Η αιγυπτιακή κυβέρνηση προτίθεται να πωλήσει έως και το 67% της τρίτης σε μέγεθος τράπεζας της χώρας.
Στη Λευκωσία
Ο πρόεδρος του Ομίλου Τάκης Αράπογλου πραγματοποίησε επίσκεψη στην Κύπρο το τελευταίο διήμερο και είχε επαφές τόσο με το προσωπικό της θυγατρικής της όσο και με επιχειρηματίες, μεγάλους πελάτες της τράπεζας. Ο κ. Αράπογλου συνοδευόταν από ανώτερα στελέχη του Ομίλου, τους κ.κ. Αλ. Τουρκολιά, Αγ. Λεώπουλο, Δ. Λεφάκη. Δ.Δημόπουλο, Δ. Παλαιολόγο, Κ. Οθωναίο και είχε συνεργασία με τον διευθύνοντα σύμβουλο και τον Γενικό Διευθυντή της Εθνικής Τράπεζας Κύπρου Μ. Κόκκινο και Π.Φρονίστα.
Ο κ. Αράπογλου τόνισε, κατά τη διάρκεια συνέντευξης Τύπου που έδωσε στη Λευκωσία ότι για τη θυγατρική στην Κύπρο, συνεχίζεται η προσπάθεια εξυγίανσης, ενώ στόχος είναι η ανάπτυξη. Οι τραπεζασφάλειες, η τραπεζική επιχειρήσεων και η χρηματοδότηση μεγάλων έργων είναι τομείς ενδιαφέροντος, ενώ οι καλές οικονομικές σχέσεις της Κύπρου με τη Ρωσία, δίνουν την ευκαιρία στην Εθνική να αποκτήσει δραστηριότητα στη ρωσική αγορά. Μάλιστα, ο πρόεδρος της Εθνικής σημείωσε ότι δεν είχε δοθεί ως τώρα η απαραίτητη σημασία στην παρουσία του Ομίλου στην Κύπρο, παράλειψη που εντοπίστηκε και θα καλυφθεί.
Ο Ομιλος ενισχύει την παρουσία του εντός και εκτός Ελλάδας, ενώ και οι χορηγήσεις αυξάνονται αλλά, όπως τόνισε ο κ. Αράπογλου, σε περιβάλλον αυστηρού ελέγχου του επιχειρηματικού κινδύνου, αναβαθμίσεων λειτουργιών εσωτερικού ελέγχου και βέλτιστης πρακτικής στον τομέα της εταιρικής διακυβέρνησης.
Αβεβαιότητα
Ο πρόεδρος της Εθνικής εκτίμησε ότι η αβεβαιότητα στη διεθνή οικονομία και τις αγορές φαίνεται ότι θα ξεπεραστεί στο δεύτερο εξάμηνο του τρέχοντος έτους, ενώ η αμερικανική οικονομία έχει σοβαρά προβλήματα που δεν αποκλείεται να την οδηγήσουν σε ύφεση. Το μέγεθος των προβλημάτων αναμένεται να διαφανεί εντός του Μαΐου, όταν θα ανακοινωθούν τα νέα στοιχεία για την ανάπτυξη των ΗΠΑ και τα πρώτα οικονομικά αποτελέσματα των μεγάλων αμερικανικών τραπεζών για φέτος.
Ως το τέλος του 2008 θα έχουν βρει τη σταθερότητά τους η παγκόσμια οικονομία και τα χρηματιστήρια, εκτίμησε ο κ. Αράπογλου, σημειώνοντας ότι οι κεντρικές τράπεζες δείχνουν αποφασιστικότητα στην ενίσχυση της ρευστότητας και στη λήψη άλλων μέτρων. Οσον αφορά, πάντως, τις τράπεζες σε Ελλάδα και Κύπρο, τόνισε ότι έχουν υψηλή κεφαλαιακή επάρκεια και ρευστότητα και δεν φαίνεται να έχουν ιδιαίτερα προβλήματα λόγω της πιστωτικής κρίσης.
NAFTEMPORIKI
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