Dow Jones reports that Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain will be sitting down with South Korea's sovereign wealth fund and key government officials during the first week of September. Supposedly the hang out is "just a courtesy call" to see what's a poppin' and "not out of the ordinary," which makes sense if you believe that MER has no plans to raise new capital. Will things go as smoothly for Thain as they did for Fuld? Stay tuned.
Related: Lehman Looked To East, Got Nothing
Merrill Lynch CEO To Meet Korea Sovereign Fund Chief [Dow Jones]
John Thain, Finance Titan Who Introduced $35,000 Commodes To Wall Street, Will Retire In March
What's next? We have some theories.
John Thain Is Ready For His Next Challenge
After he was unceremoniously fired from his post at the newly formed Bank of America Merrill Lynch, for reasons that included paying out big bonuses to ML executives and decorating his office with $1,500 garbage cans, John Thain understood that he would have to recede from the limelight for a bit. Take a job at a smaller firm and keep his head down for a while. Spend more time with his honeybees. Get back to his fighting weight. Drink a raw egg for breakfast every day. Run up and down the stairs of the Met. Work in a hideously decorated space, no matter how much it hurt. Win some awards. Get his confidence back. Let people miss him. Well, Thain did all that. And now? He's ready for you to make him an offer. Thain, currently the CEO of a small lending outfit called CIT Group, has been quietly shopping the firm to a larger player with the goal of selling possibly to a big bank and emerging as a candidate to run the bigger company, according to investment bankers with direct knowledge of the matter. Bankers say Thain began putting out feelers to sell CIT after the firm failed in its bid to purchase ING Direct earlier in the year. “They've been shopping themselves off and on because they have virtually no deposit base and thus no low-cost source of funds to run their business,” said one banker at a major firm with knowledge of CIT’s activities. “Thain may also be putting out feelers, trying to get a drumbeat going. Who knows, but it's certain he's up to something.” Anyone want to give him a big boy bank (or something) to run? Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/2012/09/24/thain-shopping-cit-group-around/#ixzz27QKGqqhE Looking For A Comeback, John Thain Shops CIT [FBN]