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BN 01/16 16:17 *AMERICA MOVIL ADDED 3.14% TO TELEKOM AUSTRIA STAKE BN 01/16 16:14 *TELEKOM AUSTRIA SAYS AMERICA MOVIL MAY RAISE STAKE TO 26.812% BN 01/16 16:13 *TELEKOM AUSTRIA SAYS AMERICA MOVIL MAY CROSS 25% THRESHOLD BN 01/16 16:11 *TELEKOM AUSTRIA SAYS AMERICAL MOVIL HOLDS 23.674% OF COMPANY
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*TELEKOM AUSTRIA SAYS AMERICAL MOVIL HOLDS 23.674% OF COMPANY 2014-01-16 16:20:38.967 GMT
--GAURAV PANCHAL
-0- Jan/16/2014 16:20 GMT
Time Warner Cable Cox Communications said to be uninterested in formulating a competing offer for the company - financial press
**NOTE Jan 14th: TWC: Charter Communications CEO: "All options are open" in standing offer for Time Warner Cable - CNBC
***Reminder: On Jan 13th, Time Warner Cable's board unanimously rejected the 3rd proposal from Charter, which reportedly offered a bid of cash and stock valued around $132.50/shr ($83 in cash and $49.50 in stock), up from $127/shr in October and $114/shr in June. Time Warner's board informed Charter on Dec 27th that it would be open to deal at $160/shr consisting of $100 cash and $60 of Charter stock.
- Follow up: next day CNBC's Faber noted his sources have seen nothing to indicate Comcast would team up with Charter to bid for TWC.
Google Translation : {http://bit.ly/19wT6Ko}
Europe1 in french :{http://bit.ly/1aa99yl}
No merger between telecom operators
The executive is excluded for now. SFR, Bouygues Telecom, Free or Numericable should therefore remain independent in 2014.
INFO - On the occasion of his vows to the press, the Minister for the Digital Economy Fleur Pellerin said Thursday that a merger between two telephone operators were not "on the agenda". While various scenarios involving a combination of SFR, Bouygues Telecom, Free Mobile or Numéricâble is discussed for several months, the government does not seem favorable.
"Who says duplicate says social destruction." The market for mobile operators as is now appears to satisfy the Minister attached to Arnaud Montebourg. "We now have a contract to four players, we want to work with these four actors under conditions that are conducive to investment and employment," said Fleur Pellerin during these vows. "A consolidation between two actors would necessarily mean a number of duplicates. Duplicate says Who says social destruction and it is not a prospect that would delight the government," she added.
SFR, Bouygues Telecom, an alliance pending. Last July, SFR and Bouygues Telecom have announced they are in discussions for a reconciliation at their facilities . Specifically, the two operators would use their antennas for better coverage of the territory. But Free entered the dance in November: citing unfair competition if the agreement was implemented, the fourth operator did not hesitate to describe this combination of "legally questionable". Since none of the three operators have indicated agreement.
Last November, on the occasion of the IPO Numericable, a marriage between cable operator and SFR had been mentioned by analysts and investors.
'True' euro zone stress test could show $1 trillion hole in banks - study {http://reut.rs/1mbc8cD}
BY LAURA NOONAN
(Reuters) - An objective stress test of the euro zone's biggestbanks could reveal a capital shortfall of more than 770 billion euros ($1 trillion) and trigger further public bailouts, a study by an advisor to the EU's financial risk watchdog and a Berlin academic has found.
The study and others published ahead of the EU stress tests, whose results are due in November, are important because they set the expectations against which markets will judge the credibility of the European Central Bank's attempt to prove itsbanks can withstand another crisis without taxpayer help.
If official figures are far below independent estimates, authorities will struggle to convince markets the tests are robust enough, particularly given two previous rounds of EU tests that failed to reassure markets of banks' health.
Banks have already raised over 500 billion euros from investors and taxpayers since the onset of the financial crisis, to bolster their balance sheets and help ward off a repeat of the 2008-09 financial crisis. But the sector is again on edge ahead of the stress tests, because of the risk that regulators will call for even greater buffers against another credit crunch.
The new study, by Viral Acharya, a New York University Professor and advisor to the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), and Sascha Steffen, of Berlin's European School of Management and Technology
, was circulated to banks, think tanks and the ESRB in recent weeks.
, was circulated to banks, think tanks and the ESRB in recent weeks.In their paper, Acharya and Steffen said euro zone banks would need up to 767 billion euros to bring their capital to the level seen by the Bank of England's head of financial stability, Andrew Haldane, as needed for the banks to have withstood the last crisis.
The reference is to a 2012 speech where Haldane said the world's largest banks would have needed equity equal to 7 percent of their total assets to guard against failure in the financial crisis.
EVEN HIGHER
But the 767 billion euros figure only covers the 109 euro zone banks in the ECB's exercise who disclose detailed data about their finances, so the figure across the 128 banks being tested would be even higher.
Banks across the globe will have to meet a 3 percent ratio under the new Basel III regulation, but some national authorities are pushing for a higher threshold.
The European Central Bank (ECB) will complete its Comprehensive Assessment of the euro zone's 128 biggest banks by November 2014, in a bid to finally banish doubts about their balance sheets before Frankfurt becomes supervisor of banks including Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) and Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI).
The ECB's work will then feed into EU-wide stress tests on whether banks have enough set aside to weather future crises.
The authors' methodology is different from the EU and ECB tests, which interrogate the current financial positions of the banks and look at how much they would need to withstand specific future stresses, such as a fall in economic activity, a stock market crash or a global credit crunch.
"Balance sheets are not transparent enough for us to do what the ECB will do," Steffen told Reuters. But their independence could be an advantage.
"Objective capital shortfall estimates such as ours can provide a valuable defense mechanism against any ... political efforts to blunt the effectiveness of the proposed AQR (Asset Quality Review) and the intended recapitalisation of the euro area banking system," the paper said.
Acharya and Steffen, who singled out Belgium, Cyprus and France as countries whose banks could have significant shortfalls, along with Germany, also looked at how banks would be affected by a 40 percent fall in global stock markets over a six month period.
ADJUSTED FOR RISK
This analysis found the banks could need another 579 billion euros in a crisis to meet a 5.5 percent prudential capital ratio, a measure which adjusts for the riskiness of a bank's balance sheet and is marginally higher than the 5 percent used in the last EU tests in 2011.
A separate analysis assuming only that banks would have to write down non-performing loan portfolios suggested a capital shortfall of 232 billion euros, based on a "common equity Tier One" ratio of 8 percent, a benchmark of financial solvency.
The EU has not yet said what benchmark will be used, but reports this week said the ECB favoured a threshold of 6 percent.
That figure that would imply a lower capital requirement than the one assumed in the researchers' loan-loss forecasts.
The EU has agreed a 55 billion euros backstop to resolve failing banks, which will not be fully funded for another decade. The study said this would be insufficient to deal with fallout from the stress tests, as would other measures designed to ensure taxpayers aren't in the firing line once more.
"Our results suggest that with common equity issuance (e.g., through deep-discount rights issues) and haircuts on subordinated creditors (e.g, through bail-ins), it should be possible to deal with many banks' capital needs," they said.
"Some will, however, require public backstops, especially if bail-ins are difficult to implement without imposing losses on bondholders, who may themselves be other banks and systemically important financial institutions."
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HSBC May Have Overstated Assets by $92.3b, Forensic Asia Says 2014-01-16 15:14:58.97 GMT
By Howard Mustoe Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) -- HSBC may have overstated assets by $63.6b to $92.3b, according to a research note by analysts at Forensic Asia with a sell rating on the bank. * HSBC may need to raise between $58b and $111b of capital * “Questionable” balance sheet items include loan loss reserves, deferred tax assets, defined benefit pensions, level 3 assets: Forensic Asia * Dividend cut or suspension “quite plausible”: note * HSBC may face $10b of additional legal and regulatory penalties: Forensic Asia * A spokeswoman for HSBC in London declined to comment * The Telegraph reported the story earlier today
For Related News and Information: First Word scrolling panel: FIRST<GO> First Word newswire: NH BFW<GO>
To contact the reporter on this story: Jon Menon in London at +44-20-3525-3602 or jmenon1@bloomberg.net
LUXURY/China: Survey by Hurun report out today shows overall spending by wealthy Chinese fell 15% y/y in 2013. It is set to deteriorate further. The survey shows 25% fewer people plan to give a luxury gift at Chinese New Year in two weeks time
FT Article : Austerity drive crimps gift-giving by China’s rich
China’s richest people have sharply cut gift-giving in the past year, as Beijing seeks to quash government officials’ lavish lifestyles underwritten by Chinese businessmen.
The Hurun Report, chronicle of all things wealthy in China, said in its 2014 Luxury Consumers Survey that 25 per cent fewer people plan to give a gift over Rmb5,000 ($826) at Chinese New Year – in two weeks’ time – than last year. Overall, their average luxury spending fell by 15 per cent, from Rmb1.77m last year to Rmb1.5m this year, “possibly due to the impact of anti-corruption initiatives and a slowdown in the economy”, Hurun said.
The Hurun Report surveyed 393 mainland Chinese with personal wealth of Rmb10m or more.
President Xi Jinping has made it a top priority to crack down on government ostentation and corruption, and that has created an atmosphere where many businesspeople do not dare give flashy gifts to curry favour with government officials – and the officials do not dare accept them.
“Chinese officials are looking for more discreet gifts, something that can be consumed in the home, like medicine or a massage chair,” says Shaun Rein, of China Market Research in Shanghai. “People are telling us, they used to give an expensive gift because they expected something in return, but now the officials are in lockdown so they give something less valuable just to maintain the relationship.”
In the first 11 months of last year, for example, Chinese imports of Swiss watches fell 15 per cent year on year, largely because of the crackdown on gifting.
Hurun found that the rich are also not such fans of collecting watches for their own use any more either: this has been overtaken, for the first time in five years, by collecting traditional Chinese ink paintings.
The report said Chinese millionaires’ confidence in the local economy has risen for the first time in five years, with 3 out of 10 now feeling “extremely confident” in its prospects – but that apparently is not stopping them from wanting to leave China altogether.
“The number of wealthy individuals who have emigrated, or are planning to do so, rose from 60 to 64 per cent”, but only 15 per cent want to give up Chinese nationality to move. Most seem to want to have it both ways, by acquiring permanent residency overseas – the US is the most popular destination – while maintaining ties to China, Hurun says.
Those who want to send their children overseas for pre-university education prefer the UK, Hurun notes, while the US is still preferred for undergraduate study.
And China’s rich are healthier now, too – or at least they say they are: 61 per cent say they do not smoke and 40 per cent say they are teetotal (up 12 percentage points from last year).
LUXURY/China: Survey by Hurun report out today shows overall spending by wealthy Chinese fell 15% y/y in 2013. It is set to deteriorate further. The survey shows 25% fewer people plan to give a luxury gift at Chinese New Year in two weeks time
BlackRock Q4 Conference Call Summary
Management made the following comments on the call:
- Larry Fink said generating out sized returns will be more challenging; says 'constructive' on equities for 2014; said central banks will have to get policy right.
- Larry Fink said Europe recovering 'slowly'.
- Larry Fink said expects to see substantial money in motion in fixed income in 2014; says co positioned to capture flows.
- Larry Fink said BLK saw $7 bln in outflows from fixed income this year.
- Larry Fink said BLK continues to expect that low double digit growth in iShares; expects low double digit growth in institutional.
- Also in a related CNBC interview, Larry Fink said 'great rotation' will not between stocks and bonds, but will be within the bond market.
This morning, CEC Entertainment Inc. (NYSE-CEC) announced a definitive agreement to be acquired by an affiliate of Apollo Global Management, LLC (NYSE-APO) for $54.00/share cash; CEC may solicit superior proposals until 1/29/14. The offer is conditioned on a minimum of more than 50% S/O tendered, HSR clearance and other customary closing conditions. On 1/7/14, it was reported that CEC was exploring a sale; the share price rose 14% that day at closed at $49.58. The company announced disappointing 3Q13 earnings, primarily due to weak comparable store sales; the CEC CEO/President noted sales had turned positive for the first four weeks of 4Q14. The share price declined only 2% to $45.53 following the earnings announcement, supported in part by a concurrent 13% increase in the quarterly dividend to $0.27. The company reiterated its commitment to its capital expenditure plan of opening 12-15 new company-owned stores in 2014 and expanding both “domestically and internally”.
The CEC deal price is inline with our mid-$50s expectations from a private equity buyer with minimal to no strategic synergies. The valuation multiples ($1.3B EV) using consensus 2014E are 1.5x EV/Revs ($857M, up 3.7% YoY), 7.3x EV/EBITDA ($178M, up 3.1% YoY, 20.7% margin) and 16.9x P/E ($3.19 EPS, up 8.1% YoY). We sense the company was well-shopped given the short two week “go shop” period; the press release noted that the deal concludes an “extensive review of strategic alternatives. Nonetheless, we expect CEC to trade at a small premium to the deal price given the company’s ability to solicit superior proposals, which suggests there were other interested parties and APO may have been the first to be in a position to sign a definitive agreement. A buyer that has some meaningful synergies could pay in the high $50s, which equates to unadjusted multiples of 8x EV/EBITDA and 18x EPS.
CEC has a unique “entertainment” restaurant concept that would not seem to mesh well with corporations that operate a diversified brand of restaurant concepts. The brand is more akin to a juvenile version of Dave and Buster’s Inc. (“DAB”), another Dallas, TX-based company that operates dining and entertainment venues (with a much larger footprint compared to a CEC restaurant) taken private in 2006. DAB was reported in December 2013 to be considering a sale or IPO which would value it at more than $1B; it was sold to Oak Hill Capital in 2010 for $570M. While there could be some interesting synergies between the two brands, the current owner appears to be focused on monetizing its investment rather than expanding its exposure to the restaurant entertainment business.
There have been numerous criticisms of CEC, primarily that the Chuck E. Cheese concept has gotten stale over the years and that the company is overly reliant on children’s birthday parties (~15% of total revenues). However, recognizable brands are hard to create from scratch and there are international franchising opportunities that can possibly reinvigorate growth. The company has tweaked its food costs and game token policy, but making fundamental changes (and taking the associated risks) is probably best done as a private company.