Bank of America

  • 16 Sep 2008 at 4:34 PM
  • AIG

BoA Securities Quits AIG

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Rather than invoking the “WTF” call, Bank of America Securities has announced that it is dropping coverage of AIG. Sayeth BoAS:

The situation at this stage is binary and dependent on more political will than analyzable facts. While we see the value of the insurance operations being well excess of the parents liabilities, solving the liquidity issues have now entered the political realm. If the company gets into liquidation or bankruptcy the value could be significantly less than estimated. We acknowledge that the government and Fed could come up with a financing and if the situation gets clarified and lends itself again to fundamental analysis we would reconsider picking up coverage at that stage.

Related: Merrill Downgrades Lehman From “Neutral” To “WTF”

Merrill Lynch Transaction Not Exactly Feeling Mr. Market’s Love

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Last I checked, Bank of America’s offer was something like .8595 shares of BAC common for each share of Merrill Lynch common. Looking at BAC’s current $28.22 price, that sounds like a $24.25 per share offer.
MER has been slipping steadily since after-hours trading just after the announcement had it in the mid-20s. Implied volatility for at the money calls 30 days out is sitting just below 200% as well. With spreads and volatility like that, someone in a risk arbitrage shop is going to clean up. And someone is going to take it on the chin.
I wonder if that long, even slide on my MER chart is just thankful equity holders bleeding out into the risk-arb crowd though.

Price of Merrill Declines As Bank Of America Share Sink

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As we predicted last night, shares of Bank of America are falling today after it announced that it was acquiring Merrill Lynch. The stock is off around 15 percent this morning. Because the acquisition of Merrill is an all stock transaction, with Merrill shareholders receiving 0.8595 shares of Bank of America for each share of Merrill, the stock movements mean that the market is now pricing the shares of Merrill significantly below the $29 per share first announced. Bank of America is now paying $24.63 for a share of Merrill.
Merrill shares continue to trade at a discount from Bank of America’s, although you have to be cautious about reading too much into merger spreads in all stock deals. This could be a bet on further declines of bank of America stock, or a pricing of risk that the deal will not actually close. Alternatively, it could simply reflect the presence of speculative arbitrage in the market.

Bank Of America Agrees to Buy Back Auction Rate Securities

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Bank of America is apparently set to become the eighth bank to agree to buy auction rate securities it sold to customers. According to Reuters, Bank of America spokeswoman Shirley Norton, said BofA is “ready and willing to enter into an agreement that follows the same basic terms of previously announced settlements.”
They may be jumping the gun by making this statement however. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo scolded Merrill Lynch for assuming it had reached an adequate settlement with his office without first going through the bother of actually reaching an agreement. In response to word of BofA’s “settlement” Cuomo’s office seems to have scoffed.
“Our investigation into Bank of America is ongoing,” a spokesman for Cuomo’s office said.
So far Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS and Wachovia Corp have settled auction rate cases, agreeing to buy back something in the order of $50 billion of the securities. Two Credit Suisse brokers face civil and criminal fraud charges for selling auction rate securities.
Bank of America: Ready to settle on auction rates [Reuters]

Bank of America Interns Offered No Say On Pay

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Bank of America interns are apparently being paid by the hour this year (as they were last), though this time it’s based on a 65 hour week, up from last summer’s 40. Not sure if this is punishment for not being able to eat a measly four egg McMuffins in under fifty minutes, but the seasonal employees were informed of the additional fifteen after their arrival, and the monumental failure took place maybe only a couple days in, so it certainly seems plausible. The 65 hour week is for investment banking interns; those in capital markets start collecting overtime after 55.

‘Join Me, Mo Rocca, As I Dump A Load Of Banking Knowledge On Your Internets’

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Bank of America is trading up 4.5 percent and I’m pre-tay sure I know why. Why? I’ll tell you why: ’cause they just wrote down $2 billion? No. ‘Cause net income for the first quarter fell 77 percent to $1.21 billion? No. ‘Cause everyone’s so damn excited about owning Countrywide? No. (And yes.) No, people, Bank of America’s stay in the motherfucking hizzeyheous hotel can only be attributed to this, the Mo Rocca-hosted (and Ken Lewis shot and directed) videos the firm just rolled out, which tout things like online banking and mobile alerts as being ‘smoking’ and ‘sexy.’ Behold, as MoRo asks, “Did you ever imagine that banking could be this hot?” and “Imagine if we were making out and you could mobile bank at the same time” and “What would you say if I told you could could transfer funds naked and check balances from bed?” Now, I know that after watching the spots, you might be thinking, “Those were, completely objectively, absolutely fucking atrocious,” and more to the point, just plain dumb. But before you go and short the shit out of BAC, let me just say, as a BoA customer, I have often noted that there is no better feeling than being slammed by their infernal overdrafting charges over and over and over again. So…they might be on to something.

Fantasy Banking #1 – Free videos are just a click away
Mo Rocca On Banking [Bank of America]

“I’m Dead Serious. From Now On, Government Issued Photo ID Required For All Applicants (Mexican Consulate Documents NOW ACCEPTED!)”

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Yesterday, Lewis spent time at the annual meeting defending the Countrywide acquisition, and telling investors that both companies would be much more prudent with underwriting future mortgages.

BofA, So Good [NYP]

Layoffs Watch ’08: BoA

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So much for the Bank of America securities players hoping to make it to the show. Their dreams ended today in the AAA club with Charlotte layoffs announced this morning. No word on severance, though employees are apparently being handed foam fingers as they’re escorted out of the building.

Bank of America’s Got Work To Do

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How much fucking up can Bank of America do? About $6.5 billion worth of fucking up, apparently, minus what they’ve already done. We’re no experts, but we can’t help thinking that number sounds high. Could they really screw things up that badly on investment banking and mortgage transactions alone? Dubious. They want to justify that 6.5, they’re going to have to start hauling ass, in and outside the office. We crunched some numbers (6.5 billion divided by 31,000) and found that it comes out to about 200,000 7-diamond dawn to dawn packages. It’s highly unlikely the relatively bland management at BoA will be able to blow through it all, but if they start working now, a sizable dent could be made. Mozilo has pledged to make up the difference.
Bank of America May Face $6.5 Billion Loss [CNBC]

“Kristen,” Ken Stiffed

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kristenashleydupre.jpg
Bank of America’s chief executive Ken Lewis received $4.25 million in cash and $4.25 million in restricted stock for his 2007 bonus, less than half of his $18.5 million target. Know who else got screwed? Eliot Spitzer’s hooker, Kristen/Ashley. The intrepid entrepreneur was supposed to receive one million dollars to appear in a “non-nude” magazine spread and a “nude-nude” video clip for Girls Gone Wild, plus the possibility of joining the GGW tour bus. Founder Joe Francis took the money off the table when staffers informed him that after watching a few of their favorite DVDs over and over and over again, it’d come to their attention that they already had K/A’s ass on tape, so there was no need to cough up the cash (“It’ll save me a million bucks,” Francis told The AP. “It’s kind of like finding a winning lottery ticket in the cushions of your couch”). Luckily, Hustler publisher Larry Flynt’s offer of a mill. to get naked still stands, and Lewis is reportedly in talks with Honcho to make up his gipped scratch.
Spitzer call girl already gone ‘Wild’ [Yahoo]
Bank of America Proxy Statement [SEC]

Bank of America: You’re Fired. We’d Also Like To Point Out That Moving Forward, You Will Qualify For Food Stamps

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bankofamericabonus.jpgA recently laid off BoA analyst received the following message from her former employer. I don’t know if this sort of thing is common practice, and it’s unclear whether or not the note was serious or just an attempt to crack a joke in the midst of a tough situation (self-deprecating humor about how crappy your bonus are is always good), but let us just say, well-played, Ken Lewis. Made us laugh.

Dear Employee of Bank of America:
Based on your annual earnings, you may be eligible to receive the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) from the federal government. The EITC is a refundable federal income tax credit for low income working individuals and families. The EITC has no effect on certain welfare benefits. In most cases, the EITC payments will not be used to determine eligibility for Medicaid, supplemental security income, food stamps, low income housing or most temporary assistance for needy families payments….
Bank of America Personnel Center