Le grandi banche USA ed Europee & il credit crunch - 5

[i98mark]

Nuovo volume, il vecchio è andato esaurito.

Veniamo da qui.

Merrill, Citi, UBS, Goldman, Bear Stearns & il credit crunch - 4

Giveme5, potresti per caso ripubblicare le tabelle con le trimestrali delle banche ? Qualcuno me le ha chieste, fra questi Broker 88

[i98mark]

Come anticipato dal novo CEO, Merrill procede sulla strada dei writedowns.

Nella trimestrale Q1/2008 svaluterà per un controvalore ulteriore di 6-8 mld USD

Merrill Lynch to write down further $6-8 bln: report
Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:26pm EDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Merrill Lynch (MER.N: Quote, Profile, Research) will announce a further $6 billion to $8 billion of asset writedowns in its quarterly results this week, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The Journal said in its online edition that the writedowns would take the total since October to more than $30 billion and lead to a third straight quarterly net loss at Merrill, the longest such losing streak in its 94-year history.

Investors have been bracing for more bad news from big U.S. banks reporting their first-quarter results this week as the housing market collapse and credit market turmoil has taken a big toll on their balance sheets.

Merrill is also preparing a cost-saving plan that will include job cuts of 10 percent to 15 percent in some struggling business areas, such as bond financing, the Journal reported.

Currency traders in Asia said the article on Merrill caused a slight dip in the dollar against the yen but that the reaction was muted because investors had been expecting more such writedowns.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), which took over hard-hit investment bank Bear Stearns (BSC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) last month, and Wells Fargo (WFC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) both report their quarterly results later in the day. Merrill issues its results on Thursday.

Earlier in the week Wachovia (WB.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the No. 4 U.S. bank, posted a surprising first-quarter loss as losses from its mortgage portfolio worsened. It has also cut its dividend and raised $7 billion of capital.

(Reporting by Eric Burroughs; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

[giveme5]

Pronti !!
.

[giveme5]

.......... e la giostra riparte da qua
.

[i98mark]

Pochi giorni fa era stata Wachovia, 4a banca commerciale USA, ad annunciare pesanti writedowns, tagliare il dividendo, eliminare posti di lavoro, chiudere cmq in perdita il Q1/2008 ed annunciare la propria intenzione di raccogliere 7 mld USD di capitali freschi...

Oggi stanno valutando il siluramento del CEO, secondo un epilogo non incosueto per chi sta seguendo la saga delle grandi banche alle prese con la crisi dell'immobiliare e del credito.

Dal Times Online

US bank Wachovia takes $4.4 billion hit as foreclosures surge
Tom Bawden in New York

Wachovia reported an unexpected loss yesterday as a jump in foreclosures in California and Florida contributed heavily to a $4.4 billion (£2.2 billion) writedown in the first quarter.

The fourth-biggest American bank reacted to the loss by announcing plans to raise $7 billion through a rights issue, cutting its quarterly dividend by 41 per cent and by eliminating 500 investment banking jobs.

About $2.8 billion of the writedown related to “credit losses” on its portfolio of home loans, while the remaining $1.6 billion stemmed from declining valuations of securities such as collateralised debt obligations – complex pools of mortgage-backed bonds. The writedowns left the group with an overall loss of $393 million for the period, compared with a $2.3 billion profit last time and well below the consensus analyst forecast of about $720 million in profits.

The group’s shares closed down $2.50, almost 9 per cent, at $25.31.

Wachovia’s poor results came as Bear Stearns, which is preparing to be acquired by JPMorgan, revealed that its profits also fell short of expectations in the first quarter, with its net income declining by 79 per cent to $115 million, on the back of a 40 per cent dip in revenues to $1.48 billion.

Ken Thompson, the chief executive of Wachovia, said: “I am deeply disappointed with our first-quarter results . . . The provision largely reflected more severe deterioration in the residential housing market, particularly in specific markets in California and Florida.”

Many of Wachovia’s troubles relate to its $24 billion acquisition of Golden West Financial, of California, in 2006, near the peak of the housing boom in the United States. Golden West specialised in “Pick-a-Pay” adjustable-rate mortgages, which allow borrowers to skip some of their monthly payments and add the amount to their principal.

However, this type of mortgage has been among the highest to default, accounting for $1.1 billion of Wachovia’s $2.8 billion of first-quarter credit losses. Wachovia said that it would cut its quarterly dividend from 64 cents to 37½ cents to save $2 billion a year.

Standard & Poor’s, the ratings agency, changed its outlook on Wachovia’s long-term debt from “stable” to “negative” yesterday, making a downgrade more likely. Other writedowns are expected this week, as Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan are expected to announce further sub-prime-related hits.

Separately, it emerged that Credit Suisse may need to take a writedown of between SwFr3 billion (£1.5 billion) and SwFr5 billion for its first quarter.

It is understood that Deutsche Bank is negotiating with a consortium of private equity firms to offload about $20 billion of its backlog of about $55 billion of leveraged loans. Sources said that potential buyers included Apollo, the American distressed-asset investor, and TPG, the US private equity group.

Both were part of a syndicate, with Blackstone, that agreed last week to buy about $12 billion of Citigroup’s loans backlog. To induce the private equity firms, the banks are having to lend them large amounts of money to buy the debt.

[Capirex85]

Posto un estratto di un'intervista recente a Buffet che può essere interessante per chi segue il credit crunch e la situazione odierna delle banche:

Do you find it striking that banks keep looking into their investments and not knowing what they have?

I read a few prospectuses for residential-mortgage-backed securities - mortgages, thousands of mortgages backing them, and then those all tranched into maybe 30 slices. You create a CDO by taking one of the lower tranches of that one and 50 others like it. Now if you're going to understand that CDO, you've got 50-times-300 pages to read, it's 15,000. If you take one of the lower tranches of the CDO and take 50 of those and create a CDO squared, you're now up to 750,000 pages to read to understand one security. I mean, it can't be done. When you start buying tranches of other instruments, nobody knows what the hell they're doing. It's ridiculous. And of course, you took a lower tranche of a mortgage-backed security and did 100 of those and thought you were diversifying risk. Hell, they're all subject to the same thing. I mean, it may be a little different whether they're in California or Nebraska, but the idea that this is uncorrelated risk and therefore you can take the CDO and call the top 50% of it super-senior - it isn't super-senior or anything. It's a bunch of juniors all put together. And the juniors all correlate.

[ricpast]

JPMorgan Chase Reports First-Quarter 2008 Net Income of $2.4 Billion; Earnings Per Share of $0.68

Wednesday April 16, 6:59 am ET

Tier 1 Capital Remained Strong at $89.6 billion, or 8.3% (estimated)
-- Credit reserves further strengthened by $2.5 billion firmwide, of which $1.1 billion is related to home equity portfolio
-- Investment Bank took markdowns of $2.6 billion, including markdowns on leveraged lending and prime, Alt-A and subprime mortgages
-- Sale proceeds of $1.5 billion (pretax) on the sale of Visa shares in initial public offering
-- Continuing underlying business momentum:
-- Retail Financial Services grew revenue by 15%
-- Investment Bank ranked #1 for Global Investment Banking Fees(1); and for the first time ever #1 for Global Debt, Equity and Equity-Related(2)
-- Treasury & Securities Services increased earnings 53%
-- Commercial Bank grew liability balances by 22% and loans by 18%
-- Asset Management grew assets under management by 13%
-- Announced the planned acquisition of Bear Stearns on March 16

--------------------------------------------------

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--JPMorgan Chase & Co. today reported 2008 first-quarter net income of $2.4 billion, compared with record net income of $4.8 billion in the first quarter of 2007. Earnings per share of $0.68 were down 49%, compared with record earnings per share of $1.34 in the first quarter of 2007.

Commenting on the quarter, Jamie Dimon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, “Our earnings this quarter were down significantly as market conditions and the credit environment remained challenging. The Investment Bank had markdowns related to leveraged lending and mortgages and increased loan loss reserves. Retail Financial Services again increased loan loss reserves related to home equity and subprime mortgages, as performance in these portfolios continued to deteriorate. However, the firm as a whole maintained solid business momentum and our capital position remained strong. Retail Financial Services, Card Services, Commercial Banking and Treasury & Securities Services all reported organic revenue growth and well-managed expense levels. We also added $2.5 billion to our allowance for credit losses (which now totals $12.6 billion), and maintained a strong 8.3% Tier 1 capital ratio.”

Commenting on the recent agreement to acquire Bear Stearns, Mr. Dimon remarked, “The Bear Stearns merger provides a unique opportunity to enhance our ability to serve clients by adding new capabilities in prime brokerage and clearing and by improving strength in equities, mortgage trading, commodities and asset management. We welcome the employees of Bear Stearns and look forward to working together to build increased franchise value.”

Discussing the firm’s outlook, Dimon said, “Our expectation is for the economic environment to continue to be weak and for the capital markets to remain under stress. These factors have affected, and are likely to continue to negatively impact, our firm’s credit losses, overall business volumes and earnings -- possibly through the remainder of the year, or longer. However, we are prepared to manage through this down part of the economic cycle, given the strength of our liquidity, credit reserves, capital and operating margins, and to successfully position our company well for the future.”

[ricpast]

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[trovatore]

il noto giornalista/scrittore G. Pansa, durante una trasmissione di commento alle elezioni,
ha dato per imminente il fallimento della prima banca italiana, non ho capito se prima in ordine di tempo o prima per dimensioni.
non sarà un economista ma questa affermazione con tanta sicumera mi ha inquietato un pò

salute

[i98mark]

Chiesto al CEO di Washington Mutual, la più grande delle casse di risparmio USA, di rinunciare all'incarico di Chairman dopo la sequenza di risultati disastrosi postati come effetto del coinvolgimento della banca nelle vicende del subprime USA.

L'articolo dell'International Herald Tribune mi pare interessante soprattutto in quanto fa il punto sulle vicende recenti della banca.

Washington Mutual shareholders ask chief to give up post of chairman
ReutersPublished: April 16, 2008

NEW YORK: Washington Mutual, the largest U.S. savings and loan company, has announced that its shareholders have voted to ask the chief executive, Kerry Killinger, to give up his role as chairman, after huge losses linked to the American housing market.

Washington Mutual, which is based in Seattle, made the statement on Tuesday, when it also announced the resignation of a director, Mary Pugh, the chairwoman of the company's finance committee. Pugh had been accused of failing to protect the lender from exposure to subprime and other risky mortgages.

The company also bowed to pressure from investors and governance experts in reversing a decision to ignore mortgage losses in awarding performance bonuses to top executives, including Killinger and the chief operating officer, Stephen Rotella.

On Tuesday, Washington Mutual posted a first-quarter loss of $1.14 billion, or $1.40 per share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $784 million, or 86 cents a share. The lender set aside $3.51 billion for loan losses, up from $1.53 billion in the fourth quarter.

The loss was in line with the company's forecast and matched analysts' average forecasts. It came on top of a $1.87 billion loss in the previous quarter. Killinger said the United States faced "the worst housing market downturn since the Great Depression."

With a 51 percent majority, shareholders at Washington Mutual's annual meeting approved a proposal by the SEIU Master Trust to ask the lender's board to appoint an independent director as chairman. That vote was a rebuke for Killinger and his board, which has long been considered strongly loyal to him. A Washington Mutual spokeswoman said the lender, which began operations 119 years ago, would consider the proposal at its next board meeting.

Killinger, in a conference call, called the action "simply an advisory vote" and added, "The board of directors will take that into consideration and will look at that in due course."

All directors up for re-election won seats. Shareholders rejected a proposal to require a majority vote to elect directors, taking into account "withheld" votes. The proposal received the support of 42 percent of the vote.

Pugh's resignation constituted "a historic exercise of shareholder power targeted at unaccountable and ineffective directors," said Richard Ferlauto, director of corporate governance for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in Washington.

Washington Mutual's shares have dropped 77 percent since the end of 2006. On Tuesday, they rose 31 cents, or 3 percent, to close at $10.66 on the New York Stock Exchange and rose to $10.82 in after-hours electronic trading.

Killinger became chief executive in 1990 and chairman the next year. He adopted a pleading tone in responding to criticism of angry shareholders, who said management and directors should be accountable for the thrift's troubles and not be awarded big bonuses to executives while shareholders suffered losses.

Shareholders also faulted him for raising $7 billion of new capital at a discount to market prices from investors including the private equity firm TPG. When Washington Mutual announced that investment on April 8, it also set plans to cut as many as 3,000 jobs and cut its dividend by 93 percent.

"I'm not happy," Killinger told shareholders. "This thing has hurt. I just want people to calm down."

In February, Washington Mutual's human resources committee, which sets executive pay, decided not to count mortgage-related credit losses and foreclosure costs in setting bonuses. Killinger said the committee would instead "incorporate specific credit-related targets for which we are accountable" in setting executive bonuses. He said he "strongly" supported the change