Corzine Races To Save MF Global (WSJ)
MF Global was nearing a deal late Sunday night to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as soon as Monday and sell assets to Interactive Brokers Group, said a person familiar with the matter. The tentative agreement, reached after a marathon weekend of negotiations, could end the short tenure for Mr. Corzine at MF Global…Under the tentative plan, MF Global’s holding company would file for bankruptcy protection, the person familiar with the matter said. Interactive Brokers would then likely make an initial bid of about $1 billion during a court-supervised auction, the person said, though the deal was described as complicated and that number could change. The sale would need to be approved by a bankruptcy judge. While the boards of both companies approved the tentative deal on Sunday, there are still other snags that could slow it down, according to participants in the deal. None of MF Global’s regulated entities would seek bankruptcy protection, the person said. “There is a handshake, but it [isn't] done yet,” the person said. The odds are high the plan gets executed, but it is “very far from a done deal,” the person said.
MF Global Faces Pivotal Days As Firm Mulls Sale (Bloomberg)
“While the pieces are attractive, figuring out potential buyers is a lot harder,” Robert Rutschow, an analyst with CLSA Credit Agricole Securities in New York, said in an Oct. 28 note to clients. “In the current environment, banks can’t even go to the bathroom without permission from their regulator, let alone buy a brokerage firm that was looking to grow proprietary trading and expand risk-taking activities.”
Barclays Third-Quarter Profit Climbs (BW)
Barclays said third-quarter profit increased by 5 percent, beating estimates, even as the sovereign debt crisis hurt investment banking revenue. Pretax profit before debt valuation adjustments in the three months to Sept. 30 increased to 1.3 billion pounds ($2.1 billion) from 1.27 billion pounds a year earlier, the London- based company said in a statement today. That beat the 1.24 billion-pound median estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Revenue at the Barclays Capital investment banking unit fell 15 percent to 2.25 billion pounds in the period.
Japan Intervenes To Tame Yen Ahead Of G20 (Reuters)
“We started currency intervention this morning in order to take every measure against speculative and disorderly moves and to prevent risks to the Japanese economy from materializing,” Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda told parliament. The intervention came after the dollar touched a record low of 75.31 yen and pushed the world’s main reserve currency up past 79 yen.
Berlusconi Defiant as EU’s Focus Shifts to Italy (Bloomberg)
Berlusconi ruled out early elections and said the current legislature in Rome will last until 2013, according to an interview published yesterday in Corriere della Sera. He said the European Central Bank’s support will only be maintained if his administration follows through on the pledged measures. “Only I and my government can achieve this reform program for 18 months, which is why there is no way for me to stand aside,” the Italian leader told the newspaper.
Kris Humphries among victims of $1.7 million hedge fund fraud (NYP)
Andrey C. Hicks, a 27-year-old hedge fund manager who was invited to the celebrity couple’s August wedding, was charged with wire fraud following his arrest Friday in Canada, during a reported attempt to flee to Switzerland. He is accused of misleading investors, which included NBA player and Kim Kardashian husband Humphries, with a fictitious Harvard degree and investment banking job, while diverting cash to his personal bank account.
Sarkozy Criticized For Seeking China’s Help (Bloomberg)
Sarkozy reached out last week to his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao to build support for an enlarged rescue fund designed to solve the region’s sovereign-debt crisis. The leaders talked just hours after a euro-region summit on Oct. 27 ended with an agreement to boost the European Financial Stability Facility to about 1 trillion euros ($1.4 trillion), leveraging existing guarantees by as much as five times. “It’s shocking,” Martine Aubry, the general secretary of the Socialist Party, said in the Sunday newspaper, Journal du Dimanche. “The Europeans, by turning to the Chinese, are showing their weakness. How will Europe be able to ask China to stop undervaluing its currency or to accept reciprocal commercial accords?”
Economist: EU Debt Deal a ‘Construct of Madoffian Proportions’ (CNBC)
“Now they (EU Leaders) are keen to tap into resources that are not their own to fund this crazy scheme of guarantees, leveraged off guarantees to sell bonds and bank shares that no one may want to buy, (in order) to restore value in the banking system destroyed by other bonds that no one wants to own right now. This is a construct of Madoffian proportions,” said Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics.
US Weighs Waiting On AIG Sale (WSJ)
The Treasury Department is likely to put off its second sale of shares in American International Group Inc., the insurer bailed out by the U.S. government during the financial crisis, because of unfavorable market conditions, according to people familiar with the situation.
$100 Million for Nabors CEO in Rich Adieu (WSJ)
Eugene M. Isenberg, 81 years old, had been chairman and chief executive of the oil-drilling company since 1987. Late Friday afternoon, Nabors said it was promoting his longtime lieutenant, 57-year-old Anthony G. Petrello, to CEO, but that Mr. Isenberg would keep his job as chairman. The shift triggered a clause in Mr. Isenberg’s employment contract, entitling him to a payment of $100 million “as a result of this change in responsibility,” Nabors said in a regulatory filing.
Iceland Faces Final Hurdle In $11.4 Payout
The decision by Iceland’s Supreme Court to rule in favor of a crisis bill enacted three years ago “marks the endpoint” to a dispute with the U.K. and the Netherlands triggered by the island’s 2008 financial collapse, Economy Minister Arni Pall Arnason said. The ruling will help repair relations with the two countries, whose depositors risked losing their savings when Iceland’s second-biggest bank collapsed, he said. “It’s clear from these rulings that all depositors, regardless of nationality, residency, nature or amount of their deposit, will get their money back in full,” Arnason said in an interview in Reykjavik. Repayment may start within weeks, he said.
What The Costumes Reveal (NYT)
On Friday, the law firm of Steven J. Baum threw a Halloween party. The firm, which is located near Buffalo, is what is commonly referred to as a “foreclosure mill” firm, meaning it represents banks and mortgage servicers as they attempt to foreclose on homeowners and evict them from their homes. Steven J. Baum is, in fact, the largest such firm in New York; it represents virtually all the giant mortgage lenders, including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo…a former employee of Steven J. Baum recently sent me snapshots of last year’s party. In an e-mail, she said that she wanted me to see them because they showed an appalling lack of compassion toward the homeowners — invariably poor and down on their luck — that the Baum firm had brought foreclosure proceedings against. In one, two Baum employees are dressed like homeless people. One is holding a bottle of liquor. The other has a sign around her neck that reads: “3rd party squatter. I lost my home and I was never served.” My source said that “I was never served” is meant to mock “the typical excuse” of the homeowner trying to evade a foreclosure proceeding.
Slow-Paced Recovery Feels Like A Recession (WSJ)
No recession since the Great Depression was deeper or longer than the most recent. It has taken two years for the nation’s total output of goods and services to return to pre-recession levels, longer than after any recession since World War II. And on a per-capita basis, the Commerce Department said Thursday, output remains 3% lower than it was at the end of 2007. Since the recession’s end in mid-2009, the economy has been expanding but it isn’t adding jobs at a fast-enough pace—at least 150,000 a month—to absorb the growing population. The unemployment rate stands at 9.1%, and nearly half the unemployed have been out of work for six months or more. Housing, the most fragile sector, has yet to rebound. As of June, home prices were 10.1% below mid-2009 levels. One in five mortgage borrowers has a loan bigger than the value of the underlying home.
Man In Smurf Costume Shot Leaving Halloween Party (LA Times)
A man in a Smurf costume was shot in the leg while leaving a Halloween party Sunday morning. The man left a party on 6th Avenue and 30th Street at about 2:30 a.m., said Sgt. Mayberry at the LAPD Southwest station, who would not give his first name. He encountered a group of gang members and was shot once in the calf, Mayberry said. He was transported to a local hospital and was in stable condition.
I'm sorry, but this MF Global stuff is hilarious.
-Hank P
That darn Gargamel, always trying to get those Smurfs!
I was hoping UBS would trip themselves again by now and take me off the newspaper headline.
Anytime now……….
J. Corzine
Karma is a bitch. Suck it up Jonny.
James E. Cayne
Former Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Bear Stearns Companies, Inc.
Jon…J-O-N…Jon, really? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice? Ain't going to fucking happen, Jon!
-Lloyd
The first picture in the NYT article made my day, thank you Bess because I would have never approached that evil paper otherwise.
Better buckle up Jon
How bout some love for my prediction/post on 10/27 ? ( nom de plumme 3 bil on IPO )
"" my guess is the futures brokerage customer accounts will be sold to Interactive and they will try and make a go of it with the BD in ny. They will have all the debt. There are prefereds in front of that at 10.25%, issued relatively recently too so this was not a schocker.
it's essentially then a play on corzine's old connections and colleagues and whatever they can do. ""
THE BD is of course a zero, which is what I anticipated. It was never more than an idea in practice. I worked there 5 years and it was basically about 15-20 people pre corzine, with NO FLOW OR PROP whatever, you were lucky if you could locate a short for a client. Laughable, none of us in the FCM would even think of accepting client accounts in securities.
Dude nobody fucking speaks french.
Je t'aime!
Bess, why the deletion? Are there Dealbreaker rules in place forbidding Gelderman references that I am unaware of?
Was actually the second language of diplomacy and some basic knowledge at least a must for educated people until the late seventies.
ancient days obviously, though i still get turned on by chicks who took a lot of french in college.
Today is the last day of the & Wollenski campaign. If I win, I plan to dedicate it to my girlfriend, Pootang (she is from SE Asia). After all the two things I love the most in this world are steak and Pootang. I can see it now,
Pootang & Wollenski
Mr. & Mrs. Kardashian,
whats that old saying…"a vapid twat and her money are soon parted?"
Best,
GT
"Iceland Faces Final Hurdle In $11.4 Payout"
"Well, we could bail these guys out, or get two footlongs at Subway and share a soda", Angela said.
"You're an unfuckable lardarse", Silvio replied, ""but I'm in for a free meal anyday"..
We'll fondly remember MF Global's legitimate days the same way we remember Refco
Trick or treat?
He has a new construction condo about a half mile from the CBOT he bought two years ago. ( where all the mf biz is ) reasonably modest, 2 or 3 bed.
Talk about a winner in the big pic over this sort of rolling crisis of the last 4 years, I think he left GS for treasury with the shares at 200 or so, walked away from all this with 6-700 mil. serendipitous more than skiill, was forced to sell to take the job, which I gather he did with some reluctance, though I've never spoke with him.
I guess he worked hard at treasury and he's a very christian guy so it will almost certainly all go to charity in the coming years, but I wonder what others think of that big pic.
this is mf blowup is making me reflect on what I've done the last 4 years
Speaking French could also mean you suffered through the Canadian school system and maybe picked up enough words to buy gas on ski trip or ask the very old stripper to leave you alone (all Euro girls working now).
Really? I always liked the girls that took alot of Greek.
Which one's the vapid twat?
thats not fair, refco was functionally organized crime.
man was nothing like that for many many years until, ironically that refco trader blew it all up in feb 2008
Who are you talking about?
Hey, Guest: I resemble that remark!
(The kid who suffered through Canadian schools, not the old stripper bit. But hey, in these tough times I might drop my pants for food.)
H.P., scholar of Mary Baker Eddy
Either Paulzine or Corson, it seems.
ummm Paulson ?
I cannot confirm that the orgy taking place with multiple men and 1 woman with blue skin and white hats were smurfs…
-Sgt. Mayberry
Cool story, bro.
$1.2B in unsecured exposure. Failure in JPM's IB Risk Managment Group. Well done John Hogan!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfDAb3SVQ10
Here's your fucking knapsack!
He's blond, he's pissed, he'll see you in the lists,
Lichtenstein! Lichtenstein!
He's blond, he's tan, he comes from Gelderman!
Gelderman! Gelderman!
- Chaucer
Thank goodness Corzine is a high profile DEMOCRAT, who is screwing his 3,000 employees out of jobs, his investors out of their money, and his $12-15m CASH departure/severance package. How much cash did he get when he joined? All the while Democrats have latched themselves onto the Occupy Wall Street joke.. So this guy has trumped the capitalistic system on the very backs of people who subscribe to his politics! .. Now lets find out how much he has contributed to BARAK OBAMA's first presidential campaign and how much of his severance he will give/ might have already given to Obama's re-election campaign.
corzine never became THE TREASURY SECRETARY OF THE UNITED STATES ?
remember the guy with the gravely voice ?
It is a bankruptcy, everyone is severed, there will be no package, his stock is also worthless, though of course his personal fortune is estimated at 300 mil, completely distinct from this project to build a " mid sized investment bank"
amazing the way " journalists" and cnbc slurped that shit up with nary a critical question at all.
CNBC is now being listed as a creditor of MF ?
talk about a conflict
It's not looking good for HumpDash. Maybe she should have tried to steal Melo from Lala.
the fact the company entered bankruptcy does not circumvent pre-existing employment contracts that are still legally binding, so saying there will be no severance package is utterly ridiculous. Corzine demanded cash going in and is not left holding alot of shares of MF right now. If he does hold shares many can assure you they do not offer a perfect offset to the cash portion of his terms of employment. http://www.businessinsider.com/guess-how-much-jon…
Did you have to sit through "Toute la Band?" (I should sue for putting me through that.)
Strippers in Fort Mac are supposedly doing well, not sure about the level of talent. There's one up North of 60 with a colostomy bag.
- Guest who was surprised by the pregnant stripper until that trip
He will have to get in line with every other creditor now, there will be no payouts of any kind pending the court proceedings, and unlike Lehman there will be very little funds there for creditors after liquidation. There is nothing to be paid with, get it ?
THERE WAS NO SALE.
You tell me when this package gets paid. Never going to happen.
He owns 350K shares, which may open in the next several weeks.
LEH common still "trades" at .04 cents. There are companies that specialize in trading bankruptcies like that.
As has been disclosed in his public submissions during his time in office, his personal fortune is approx. 300 mil however.
I hope the SEC looks at some recent statements and offering docs he signed off on in the debt and prefered issuances during his tenure there.
Fort MacLeod rules !
Can someone sum up what happened with MF Global in one sentence?
Thanks
ya….they are the biggest creditor of the " Audrey quantatative model fund "
They have filed for bankruptcy.
( simply a list now of ASSETS, that will be sold, and CREDITORS, that will be paid a small small amount on the dollar that they can prove they are owed. All the employees, offices will be just a memory soon )
Learn what an indenture trustee does, think about what you wrote and try to take a more circumspect approach to commenting here in the future.
-Dad
Why are you posting videos about mid-office?
or to put it in more deal breaker/ Ken Lewis speak…
" EVERYTHING IS FUCKED"
But what about his legitimate semesters?
Dude fuck you this has to be the dumbest fucking video I have ever fucking seen. Fuck.
This may be TMI, but I started school in the late 70s. My parents did the hipster thing back then–they sent me to French Immersion. What a train wreck in the 80s. Two thirds of the sixth grade couldn't read either French OR English. But of course they just kept passing us through because Canada is a socialist paradise where the number one priority is giving kids self-esteem.So I'm Gethro Bodine with a slight French accent.
(The strippers with colostomy bags say they find that attractive.)
vwwDPW I am so grateful for your blog.Really thank you! Much obliged.