Financial Muse
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What's in the new government's in-tray
The UK financial services industry this morning woke up to the first peacetime coalition since 1931 with the news that the Conservative and the Liberal Democrat parties had agreed to form a government. Here Financial News provides a "things to do list" that the incoming coalition will need to deal with.
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Tory-Lib Dem policy wrangle: digested
The suspense of the hung parliament may be over but there are still plenty of cliffhangers left to come as the Tories and Lib Dems wrangle over policy in the next couple of months. Financial News brings you a digested summary of what the two parties have agreed to so far.
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Lingerie entrepreneur seduces female angels
A recently launched women-only angel investment club has announced its first investment venture, backing a lingerie start-up.
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Morning Call: our look at the day ahead
How will the City react to the Lib-Con power-sharing pact; Europe's single currency comes under pressure as stocks dip; the lowdown on Brazilian infrastructure investment; Moore Capital's Louis Bacon decries the demonisation of hedge funds; and female angels pick lingerie for maiden venture.
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Closing bell: a roundup of the days blogs
Goldman Sachs' invisible headquarters; the bank's traders are matched by those at JP Morgan; theories abound on last week’s flash crash including one from comedian Jon Stewart; why bond markets are so mean and Stephen Schwarzman’s affection for the Bee Gees
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Another one bites the dust at EMI
Guys Hands will have been feeling like a champion today, having secured investor backing that will keep Citigroup’s wolves from the door of EMI for another year, but news that rock legends Queen have broken free from the record label after 40 years will no doubt put Hands and Terra Firma back under pressure (did we miss any?).
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Wall Street raises record amount for charity
Sting sings for charity, Jamie Dimon pledges to go home with a cougar and a record amount is raised by Wall Street's rich and famous to help those living on the streets. Hedgies can have big hearts...
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The annual waste of annual reports
Paragraph after paragraph of dense text and financials, a stunningly illustrated business review and a corporate citizenship report - including examples of social value, such as time staff dedicated to voluntary work, number of apprenticeships, and average number of kilowatt hours used in the course of a year. A total of 492 pages. Welcome to Credit Suisse's annual report.
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Skyscraper Watch: A return of the institutions
UK institutions were badly burnt by the collapse in the property market, after values collapsed by about a half from their market peak in mid-2007. So this graph from Legal & General would suggest that they now feel that the worst has passed. It shows that after nine consecutive quarters of UK institutions selling real estate, they finally returned as net buyers in the final three months of last year.
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Morning Call: our look at the day ahead
Lower derivatives volumes hit Deutsche Börse profits; Mercer seeks new investment consulting chief in Europe's second-biggest pensions market; US markets get a circuit-breaker boost after flash crash on the Dow; hospital group helps private equity IPO market back to life; and green shoots in the UK commercial property sector, with a bit of help from Greece.
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Closing bell: a roundup of the day's blogs
The European bailout and the markets; corruption and bond yields; accredited investors and VC; a trader goes through last Thursday on video; Hollywood futures; VC-backed IPOs
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Anti-Pru deal website goes live
Robin Geffen, the managing director of London funds boutique Neptune Investment Management, has reaffirmed his opposition to the Pru deal – and is asking you to join him, on a web site that went live this afternoon.
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Watch mogul's château contents up for sale
The contents of the Southern French château of late luxury watch entrepreneur Severin Wunderman are going under the hammer next month for an estimated price tag of up to £180,000 (€209,524).
The 225-lot sale of weird and wonderful items from the 12-bedroom Château Montfort, will take place at London auction house Bonhams in Knightsbridge at the end of June.
The auction is expected to raise between £122,000 and £180,000 with all proceeds going to the Severin Wunderman Family Foundation, a charity that supports research into incurable diseases.
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How will Goldman’s clients feel?
Lloyd Blankfein expressed his disappointment at Goldman’s AGM last week that questions had been raised over the way the bank treats its clients – specifically in relation to where it sits on the same trades that involve its customers. So, it would be interesting to know how Goldman’s patrons are digesting the news of the bank’s knockout trading performance in the first quarter, when it earned at least $25m (€19m) on every one of the 63 trading days.
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Chart of the day: euro bailout (delaying tactics?)
The €750bn ($957bn) eurozone financing facility has really put the cat among the pigeons, with EU policymakers shaking up their habit of lacklustre announcements with a very interventionist surprise.
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European bailout glossary: Know your ESMs from your LTROs
Another bailout, another blizzard of financial jargon hitting the markets. If you need help disentangling the different elements of the European market-rescue package unveiled at the weekend, make use of Financial Muse's handy print-out-and-keep guide to the key terms and players in the "European Stabilisation Mechanism".
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Watery sojourn in the Wharf
London finance folk looking to sample the luxury life may fancy popping out of their Canary Wharf offices and signing up for UK charity Breast Cancer Haven’s birthday event next month.
What promises to be a unique evening of dinner and dancing will be held on June 5 aboard Seabourn Sojourn, the latest ultra-luxury cruising yacht that is due to be launched the previous day.
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Morning Call: our look at the day ahead
EU crafts giant €750bn bailout fund; investors are still sweet on private equity, but at a price; Europe shapes up as the battleground for Bank of America Merrill Lynch; the unenviable life of a rating agency; and why a jump in hostile M&A is on the cards.
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Closing bell: a roundup of the day's blogs
Blankfein gets a compliment, well sort of; hanging the New York Stock Exchange; Nasdaq's bad idea; bank-busting amendment is defeated; and 50 munchkins in 40 minutes.
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City comforted by Cameron/Clegg coalition
David Cameron's speech this afternoon, in which he offered a deal to the Liberal Democrats, has gone down well with the City. Since his speech just after 14:30 GMT, UK Government bond prices and sterling have both rallied, hinting that traders, many of whom have been in the office since the early hours, are betting on an agreement between the two parties.
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Hanging tough
UK politicians struggling to find common ground in a hung parliament should cut out and keep this graph of future sovereign debt interest payments pulled together by Guy Monson, chief investment officer at Sarasin & Partners.
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A prime piece of...real estate
Working long hours on Wall Street can be tough, not to mention lonely. So who can blame Keith, a 27-year-old financial services employee, for wanting to share his 2,000 square ft, two-bedroom apartment in New York with one lucky lucky lady (aged 18-27, “attractive, slim and easy going”)? And all for the bargain price of $300 a month.
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History rhymes
Author Mark Twain once argued history never repeats itself - but it often rhymes.
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Quotes of the week
Obama the stand-up comic turns on Goldman; but Blankfein has made it easy for him; an obnoxious email from the Street; a dog named Bill Ackman; and Paulson on the true state of Bear's solvency.
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And you thought the UK election was important...
Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid summed up the mood surrounding the UK election pretty perfectly this morning. In a note, he said: "It seems that the Conservatives will end up 10-20 seats short of an overall majority. We would write a whole piece on the implications of this but the reality is that there are far more important stories at the moment influencing markets."
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Beware Greeks bearing cheese
Quite apart from devouring bank loans, Financial Muse can confirm Greece happens to be a world-beater in cheese consumption at a time when dairy producers are eagerly awaiting the launch of a cheese futures market to protect their incomes.
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Black swans on speed
Sal Arnuk and Joe Saluzzi of US brokerage firm Themis Trading have issued a grim warning about the systemic risks created by high-frequency trading following yesterday's drama on Wall Street.
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Morning call: General Election Special
Reactions to a UK hung parliament; the US market gets "torpedoed"; RBS reports its first quarter results; JP Morgan in pole position to advise on the biggest buyout since 2007; and staff at Greenhill raised $250m through a share sale ahead of yesterday's turbulence.
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Closing bell: a roundup of the day's blogs
The case against Goldman Sachs, again; reflections on private equity; Greece and the eurozone; survey of leading economics bloggers; Lloyd Blankfein and running for president.
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Target emerges for first post-crisis mega loan
The identity of the mystery target for which a $10bn (€7.5bn) buyout loan was being prepared over the past weeks - first revealed by Financial News - appears to have emerged, with news today that The Blackstone Group and others are in talks to acquire financial data-processing company Fidelity National Information Services, whose market cap tops $10bn.
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