*LENDINGCLUB OPENS AT $24.75/SHR, IPO PRICED AT $15
Coach will present its new collection in January at London Collections. Plan to expand into menswear means Coach has serious plans regarding apparel, which is followed closely by top fashion strategists. Coach has had some trouble recently, when the first quarter results came as a disappointment, when the Chinese market showed weak growth and issues remain in North America. As the underlying fashion business remains solid and Coach is looking to expand, this might seem as an attractive opportunity.
Few years ago LVMH bought Bulgari, as Hermes turned out to be too big of a bite. LVMH acquired 51% stake in Bulgari with 16.5 million LVMH shares and giving Bulgari 2 seats on the LVMH board. After that, it was speculated that Burberry might be the next target, although rival PPR had its eyes on it. Even though LVMH has expressed its interest to acquire more brands, it’s unclear whether with Coach there’s a potential acquisition looming or it’s more of a competitive interest. Given the profiling of LVMH and recent developments with Coach, former is suspected.
have a look
risk Reward has never been at this level...worth a look...
COH - Hearing early strength attributed to vague takeover chatter circulating - LVMH rumored as a potential acquirer
China Pumps $65 Billion Into Banking System
Central Bank’s Move Aimed at Boosting Chinese Lenders’ Liquidity
BEIJING—China is pumping about 400 billion yuan (nearly $65 billion) into the country’s banking system, according to people with knowledge of the matter, as it seeks to help its banks lend out money to reinvigorate slowing growth.
The injection comes as China risks missing its annual economic growth target—set at about 7.5% for 2014—for the first time since the 1998 Asia financial crisis.
About 500 billion yuan in loans made in September by China’s central bank to the country’s top five state-owned banks are coming due this month. Uncertainty over whether the central bank would renew those loans has led the banks to grow wary of lending out their funds. Meanwhile, banks in China have been squeezed in recent weeks because many investors shifted their funds out of banks and into the stock market.
By pumping in the additional 400 billion yuan of short-term credit, the central bank is hoping to signal to the market that it is ready to step in when liquidity is short, according to the people.
The fund injections so far have been seen as a short-term effort to spur growth without flooding China’s financial system with excess credit. The moves fall short of more-dramatic efforts such as cutting the amount of deposits banks have to keep in reserve. Still, by extending more credit as those past loans expire, Beijing is showing it is getting increasingly uncomfortable with the slow growth.
The People’s Bank of China is making the injection via a major policy bank, China Development Bank, the people said. It then lent the funds in the form of seven-day loans to other banks in the interbank market where banks borrow from each other, the people said.
The PBOC hasn’t publicly disclosed the fund injection—which started on Wednesday—for fears of sending the market too strong a signal that it is broadly loosening its monetary policy, according to the people.
“The central bank needs to make sure that there is adequate liquidity in the market, but at the same time, it doesn’t want people to think that it is opening the credit spigot,” said analyst Zhong Zhengsheng at Guosen Securities Co., a Chinese state-owned brokerage firm.
The latest step failed to impress the market on Thursday. The benchmark seven-day repurchase rate, which measures banks’ funding costs, rose 0.17 percentage point to 3.81%, the highest level in four months.
Chinese banks have been calling for the central bank to free up more funds to bolster their abilities to lend, as their profitability comes under increasing pressure. Specifically, the banks are pressing the PBOC to lower the share of deposits banks must set aside against financial trouble, known as the reserve-requirement ratio.
Big banks have to hold an amount equivalent to 20% of deposits at the central bank. Reducing that by half a percentage point would free up funds to lend by about 500 billion yuan, or about $81 billion.
But many Chinese bank executives said such targeted steps are inadequate to address banks’ funding problems. Overall deposits—traditionally the main source of cheap funding for Chinese banks—dropped by 950 billion yuan in the third quarter, to 112.7 trillion yuan, the first quarterly decline since the late 1990s. The total fell to 112.5 trillion yuan in October.
As deposits decline, banks face pressure to either cut lending or find other, more-costly sources of funds. Chinese banks issued 548.3 billion yuan of new loans in October, down from 857.2 billion yuan in September.
At the same time, China’s pending deposit-insurance system could prod banks to offer better terms to keep depositors from jumping ship to smaller lenders offering higher rates, potentially adding to their financing burdens. China doesn’t have deposit insurance, and although all state-owned banks are considered to have an implicit guarantee from the government, savers consider bigger banks less risky. Policy makers hope to create competition by making it clear that deposits at all banks are equally safe.
Chinese banks already face potentially thinner profit margins after the central bank cut interest rates in late November, as the PBOC cut its benchmark lending rate more than it cut the deposit rate.
The PBOC has maintained that its monetary policy remains “neutral,” saying China’s economy will keep growing at a fast pace despite the current downward pressure.
Muddy Waters points to Chinese press article suggesting Co-CEO Lin stepping down may be linked to anti-corruption probe
- Muddy Waters tweet: "Doubts about why $NQ Lin left. Article links Lin to anti-corruption target / former CCTV anchor Rui & other concerns "{http://tech.ifeng.com/a/20141211/40900855_0.shtml?&}
Ex-Fed Chairman Volcker Buys Stake in Latvian Bank
Volcker Part of Group Buying Latvia’s Citadele Bank
Paul Volcker is best known for taming inflation in the 1980s and, later in his career, a rule named after him that prevents banks from making big bets that are of no benefit to their customers.
Less well known is the 87-year-old former Fed chairman’s penchant for investing in banks around the world.
Most recently, he joined a group of western private-equity investors that is buying 75% of Latvia’s Citadele Bank for €74 million ($91 million), a deal that has generated some backlash. His earlier investments include Japan’s Shinsei Bank and Commercial International Bank in Cairo.
“Mr. Volcker doesn't comment on his personal investments,” Anthony Dowd, a spokesman for the former Fed chief, wrote in an email to The Wall Street Journal. “I can say, though, that he is only a small passive investor in the Citadele transaction.”
Mr. Volcker’s involvement in the bid for Citadele emerged last month when a paper news release was handed to journalists in the Latvian capital, Riga, bearing the names of the investors. The bid is led by Ripplewood Advisors LLC founder Tim Collins.
The lender in the former Soviet state is a successor to Parex Bank, which required a Latvian government bailout in 2009 to survive. The Latvian government also received a €7.5 billion bailout from a group led by the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission.
The bailout of Parex and the sale process of Citadele stirred controversy in Latvia, whose economy contracted significantly after the banking crisis of 2008. The government responded by slashing wages and spending. Andrejs Elksniòð, a deputy from Latvia’s opposition social democratic Harmony party has started an investigation of the sale of Citadele, alleging the deal is disadvantageous to Latvia.
Ripplewood’s Mr. Collins wants to build Citadele into a successful bank in the Baltic region between Russia and Scandinavia, in a bid to repeat his profitable investment in Japan’s Shinsei in 1999. Mr. Collins also invested in Egypt’s Commercial International Bank in 2006. Mr. Volcker participated in both.
The purchase of Citadele Bank is due to be completed in the first quarter of 2015.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will retain a 25% stake in the bank. It bought 25% of Parex in 2009 for €84.2 million more than Mr. Collins’s group is paying for the 75% of Citadele. The other Citadele investors include former World Bank president James Wolfensohn and Harvard University professor Graham Allison, who have been united by Mr. Collins. Mr. Wolfensohn and Professor Allison declined to comment.
A letter to Dutch parliamentarian Pieter Omtzigt from Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, confirmed in September that the EBRD had a “confidential” guarantee from the Latvian government on the value of its investment in Parex. In November, the European Commission said that a “one-off” payment from Latvia to the EBRD under the guarantee contract would increase Latvia’s budget deficit for 2014 by 0.4%.
Mr. Volcker was first appointed as chairman of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter and reappointed in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan. He is widely credited with ending the U.S. stagflation crisis of the 1970s.
Mr. Volcker chaired President Barack Obama ’s economic recovery advisory board until 2011. The Volcker rule, endorsed by President Obama in January 2010, specifically prohibits banks from making speculative investment bets with their own money that don't benefit their customers.
Gapping up
In reaction to strong earnings/guidance: RSH +8.9%, RH +6.8%, MEI +6.7%, CVTI +5.5%, URBN +4%, (Urban Outfitters discloses that thus far during Q4 comparable Retail segment net sales are low single-digit positive), CASY +1.9%, GEF +1.4%, OI +1.4%, ATHN +0.6%, (reaffirms FY14 guidance; sees FY15 revs of $900-925 mln vs $923.85 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate, adjusted EPS of $1.20-1.30 vs $1.25 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate)
Select financial related names showing strength: DB +1%, CS +0.9%, BCS +0.8%, C +0.5%, SAN +0.5%
Other news: ODP +11.5% (Starboard discloses increased 9.9% stake in SC13D filing; up from prior 8.6% stake), SPLS +10.6% (Starboard Value disclosed a new/increased positions), NVEE +8.3% (awarded $2 mln contract by San Diego County Regional Airport Authority to provide as-needed surveying services), ANV +6% (Gold Standard Ventures (GSV) closes deals to expand its Pinion and Dark Star land positions from ANV), RGDX +3.8% (received approval from the New York State Department of Health to offer, market and report results of the Company's ResponseDX tests to healthcare providers in the State of New York), CYRN +3.6% (cont strength), GPT +3.2% (attributed to secondary offering), CNX +3% (announced it will pursue the formation of an MLP for its thermal coal business with an IPO expected in mid-2015; co also announces it will pursue IPO spin-off for 20% of its met coal properties in 2H15; co also announced a $250 mln share repurchase program), ESLT +2.8% (co and Ogden Air Logistic Complex sign partnership agreement to better support the warfighter), WAG +1.9% (President and CEO Greg Wasson announces he will retire following completion of merger with Alliance Boots; Stefano Pessina to serve as Acting CEO, pending board search for successor ), HOV +1.9% (cont strength), HMC +1.8% (disclosed that its motorcycle production and sales JV company in Indonesia, announced plans to expand the production capacity ), TSU +1.5% (disclosed that in response to a formal inquiry questioning the reasons for share price and volume fluctuations, it confirms the information already provided to the market previously stating that it is not aware of any agreement), AGIO +1.3% (prices 1,986,455 shares of common stock at a price to the public of $110.75 per share), KBR +1.3% (announces restructuring; co will be divesting or exiting certain non-strategic businesses), ALV +1.2% (still checking), STM +1.1% (still checking), KITE +1.1% (prices follow on offering of 3.485 mln shares of its common stock at $54 per share, also positive mention on Mad Money)
Analyst comments: CVO +4.2% (upgraded to Outperform from Underperform at Macquarie; tgt raised to $4 from $2), CYTX +4.2% (target raised to $6 at Maxim Group ), RRD +3.1% ( initiated with a Outperform at Macquarie), CTSH +1.7% (resumed with a Overweight at Barclays), D +0.7% (resumed with a Buy at Citigroup), JPM +0.5% (upgraded to Outperform from Underperform at Credit Agricole)
In reaction to strong earnings/guidance: RSH +8.9%, RH +6.8%, MEI +6.7%, CVTI +5.5%, URBN +4%, (Urban Outfitters discloses that thus far during Q4 comparable Retail segment net sales are low single-digit positive), CASY +1.9%, GEF +1.4%, OI +1.4%, ATHN +0.6%, (reaffirms FY14 guidance; sees FY15 revs of $900-925 mln vs $923.85 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate, adjusted EPS of $1.20-1.30 vs $1.25 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate)
Select financial related names showing strength: DB +1%, CS +0.9%, BCS +0.8%, C +0.5%, SAN +0.5%
Other news: ODP +11.5% (Starboard discloses increased 9.9% stake in SC13D filing; up from prior 8.6% stake), SPLS +10.6% (Starboard Value disclosed a new/increased positions), NVEE +8.3% (awarded $2 mln contract by San Diego County Regional Airport Authority to provide as-needed surveying services), ANV +6% (Gold Standard Ventures (GSV) closes deals to expand its Pinion and Dark Star land positions from ANV), RGDX +3.8% (received approval from the New York State Department of Health to offer, market and report results of the Company's ResponseDX tests to healthcare providers in the State of New York), CYRN +3.6% (cont strength), GPT +3.2% (attributed to secondary offering), CNX +3% (announced it will pursue the formation of an MLP for its thermal coal business with an IPO expected in mid-2015; co also announces it will pursue IPO spin-off for 20% of its met coal properties in 2H15; co also announced a $250 mln share repurchase program), ESLT +2.8% (co and Ogden Air Logistic Complex sign partnership agreement to better support the warfighter), WAG +1.9% (President and CEO Greg Wasson announces he will retire following completion of merger with Alliance Boots; Stefano Pessina to serve as Acting CEO, pending board search for successor ), HOV +1.9% (cont strength), HMC +1.8% (disclosed that its motorcycle production and sales JV company in Indonesia, announced plans to expand the production capacity ), TSU +1.5% (disclosed that in response to a formal inquiry questioning the reasons for share price and volume fluctuations, it confirms the information already provided to the market previously stating that it is not aware of any agreement), AGIO +1.3% (prices 1,986,455 shares of common stock at a price to the public of $110.75 per share), KBR +1.3% (announces restructuring; co will be divesting or exiting certain non-strategic businesses), ALV +1.2% (still checking), STM +1.1% (still checking), KITE +1.1% (prices follow on offering of 3.485 mln shares of its common stock at $54 per share, also positive mention on Mad Money)
Analyst comments: CVO +4.2% (upgraded to Outperform from Underperform at Macquarie; tgt raised to $4 from $2), CYTX +4.2% (target raised to $6 at Maxim Group ), RRD +3.1% ( initiated with a Outperform at Macquarie), CTSH +1.7% (resumed with a Overweight at Barclays), D +0.7% (resumed with a Buy at Citigroup), JPM +0.5% (upgraded to Outperform from Underperform at Credit Agricole)
Gapping down
In reaction to disappointing earnings/guidance: WTSL -46.9%, (also discusses the need to raise additional capital in 10-Q Filing), LAKE -10.7%, OXM -6.2%, LULU -3.4%, CIEN -2.7%, SURG -2.1%, TEVA -0.5%, (business outlook
Select metals/mining stocks trading lower: RIO -1.8%, MT -1.5%, VALE -1.3%, BHP -1%, AU -0.7%
Other news: ANR -5.3% (cont weakness), NBG -3.5% (cont weakness), CFR -3.3% (negative mention on Mad Money), HDS -2.4% (announced sale of ~40.66 mln shares of common stock by stockholders, including investment funds associated with The Carlyle Group (CG) and Clayton Dubilier & Rice and THD Holdings), RDN -2.3% (Assured Guaranty (AGO) close to deal to acquire RDN's financial guaranty unit, according to reports), MFRM -2.1% (announced that it has commenced an underwritten public offering of 2,185,130 shares of its common stock by certain selling stockholders), NQ -2.1% (on going volatility), NLSN -2.1% (announced offering of 20 mln shares of common stock by selling stockholders), FCAU -1% (prices offering of common shares and offering of mandatory convertible securities), BURL -1% (Burlington Stores announced that affiliates of Bain Capital Partners and certain other stockholders intend to offer 8 mln shares of common stock in an underwritten public offering)
Analyst comments: ARIA +-3.1% (downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse), AIV +-1.5% (downgraded to Hold from Buy at KeyBanc Capital Mkts), ABBV +-1.5% (downgraded to Equal-Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley), TOL +-1% (downgraded to Underperform at RBC Capital Mkts).
In reaction to disappointing earnings/guidance: WTSL -46.9%, (also discusses the need to raise additional capital in 10-Q Filing), LAKE -10.7%, OXM -6.2%, LULU -3.4%, CIEN -2.7%, SURG -2.1%, TEVA -0.5%, (business outlook
Select metals/mining stocks trading lower: RIO -1.8%, MT -1.5%, VALE -1.3%, BHP -1%, AU -0.7%
Other news: ANR -5.3% (cont weakness), NBG -3.5% (cont weakness), CFR -3.3% (negative mention on Mad Money), HDS -2.4% (announced sale of ~40.66 mln shares of common stock by stockholders, including investment funds associated with The Carlyle Group (CG) and Clayton Dubilier & Rice and THD Holdings), RDN -2.3% (Assured Guaranty (AGO) close to deal to acquire RDN's financial guaranty unit, according to reports), MFRM -2.1% (announced that it has commenced an underwritten public offering of 2,185,130 shares of its common stock by certain selling stockholders), NQ -2.1% (on going volatility), NLSN -2.1% (announced offering of 20 mln shares of common stock by selling stockholders), FCAU -1% (prices offering of common shares and offering of mandatory convertible securities), BURL -1% (Burlington Stores announced that affiliates of Bain Capital Partners and certain other stockholders intend to offer 8 mln shares of common stock in an underwritten public offering)
Analyst comments: ARIA +-3.1% (downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse), AIV +-1.5% (downgraded to Hold from Buy at KeyBanc Capital Mkts), ABBV +-1.5% (downgraded to Equal-Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley), TOL +-1% (downgraded to Underperform at RBC Capital Mkts).
Qatari State Fund Buys Lloyds’s 50% Stake in London Savoy Hotel
2014-12-11 12:39:49.90 GMT
By Zainab Fattah
Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- The Savoy, the five-star London
hotel once frequented by Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe and
Claude Monet, is now owned by the state of Qatar and one of
Saudi Arabia’s richest men.
Qatar’s government-owned Katara Hospitality Co. bought a 50
percent stake from Lloyds Banking Group and Saudi billionaire
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding Co. owns the rest,
Kingdom said in a statement today without providing a value for
the transaction.
Katara Hospitality, owned by Qatar’s sovereign-wealth fund,
is in talks to buy “iconic” hotels in London and Rome as it
seeks to more than double its properties by 2030, Chief
Operating Officer Christopher R.J. Knable said last year. The
country’s sovereign wealth fund made a joint bid this month for
Songbird Estates Plc, which controls the Canary Wharf financial
district in London.
The Savoy, located a short walk away from the north bank of
the River Thames on The Strand, first opened in 1889. It
reopened in October 2010 after a 230 million-pound ($360
million) renovation that took about 30 months. The hotel
typically charges at least 365 pounds a night for a basic room,
according to its website.
Kingdom Holdings and the Qatar Investment Authority
together own a 35 percent stake in Fairmont Raffles Holdings
International Hotels Co., according to the statement.
For Related News and Information:
Top real estate stories: TOP REL <GO>
Top Gulf stories: TOP GULF <GO>
For Gulf real estate news TNI GULF REL <GO>
For U.A.E. property news TNI UAE REL <GO>
Middle East stock market news: NI ARABWRAP <GO>
To contact the reporter on this story:
Zainab Fattah in Dubai at +971-4-364-1027 or
zfattah@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Andrew Blackman at +49-30-70010-6223 or
ablackman@bloomberg.net
Ross Larsen
2014-12-11 12:39:49.90 GMT
By Zainab Fattah
Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- The Savoy, the five-star London
hotel once frequented by Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe and
Claude Monet, is now owned by the state of Qatar and one of
Saudi Arabia’s richest men.
Qatar’s government-owned Katara Hospitality Co. bought a 50
percent stake from Lloyds Banking Group and Saudi billionaire
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding Co. owns the rest,
Kingdom said in a statement today without providing a value for
the transaction.
Katara Hospitality, owned by Qatar’s sovereign-wealth fund,
is in talks to buy “iconic” hotels in London and Rome as it
seeks to more than double its properties by 2030, Chief
Operating Officer Christopher R.J. Knable said last year. The
country’s sovereign wealth fund made a joint bid this month for
Songbird Estates Plc, which controls the Canary Wharf financial
district in London.
The Savoy, located a short walk away from the north bank of
the River Thames on The Strand, first opened in 1889. It
reopened in October 2010 after a 230 million-pound ($360
million) renovation that took about 30 months. The hotel
typically charges at least 365 pounds a night for a basic room,
according to its website.
Kingdom Holdings and the Qatar Investment Authority
together own a 35 percent stake in Fairmont Raffles Holdings
International Hotels Co., according to the statement.
For Related News and Information:
Top real estate stories: TOP REL <GO>
Top Gulf stories: TOP GULF <GO>
For Gulf real estate news TNI GULF REL <GO>
For U.A.E. property news TNI UAE REL <GO>
Middle East stock market news: NI ARABWRAP <GO>
To contact the reporter on this story:
Zainab Fattah in Dubai at +971-4-364-1027 or
zfattah@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Andrew Blackman at +49-30-70010-6223 or
ablackman@bloomberg.net
Ross Larsen