February 23, 2012, 5:14 AM EST
By Fabio Benedetti-Valentini
(Updates with CEO comment from third paragraph.)
Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) — Credit Agricole SA, France’s third- largest bank, reported a greater-than-estimated loss in the fourth quarter after setting aside money at its Greek consumer- banking network and writing down investments.
The shares dropped after the net loss widened to 3.07 billion euros ($4.07 billion) from a deficit of 328 million euros a year earlier. That missed analysts’ estimates for a 2.7 billion-euro loss.
In 2012, “the main worry is the need for economic growth to get restarted,” Chief Executive Officer Jean-Paul Chifflet said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. The company, which holds the largest lending book in France, plans “to keep financing” the economy, he said.
Credit Agricole scrapped its 2011 dividend in December and said it can’t confirm 2014 targets because of “the lack of visibility on the economic and financial climate.” The bank, along with BNP Paribas SA and Societe Generale SA, is cutting investment-banking jobs to reduce costs after Europe’s debt crisis curbed trading revenue, U.S. money-market funds reduced short-term lending to French lenders and regulators imposed stricter capital rules.
Credit Agricole fell as much as 21 cents, or 4.2 percent, to 4.80 euros and was at 4.88 euros at 9:02 a.m. in Paris trading. That pares the gain this year to 12 percent. BNP Paribas, France’s biggest bank, has risen 18 percent this year, while Societe Generale, the No. 2 lender, has advanced 32 percent.
Greek Writedowns
European financial stocks rebounded in the first seven weeks of the year after the European Central Bank provided 489 billion euros to lenders through a three-year refinancing operation in December.
BNP Paribas and Societe Generale both said last week that they wrote down their Greek sovereign-debt holdings by 75 percent. BNP Paribas reported a 51 percent drop in fourth- quarter earnings on Feb. 15, while Societe Generale said the next day that profit in the period declined 89 percent.
Credit Agricole said in a statement that it booked about 2.6 billion euros in writedowns on investments including its stake in Spain’s Bankinter SA and Banco Espirito Santo SA of Portugal in the quarter. The company also had 220 million euros in fourth-quarter markdowns on its Greek sovereign-debt holdings, bringing its average writedown level to 74 percent.
Emporiki Losses
While Credit Agricole’s sovereign-debt provisions for Greece are smaller than those of BNP Paribas, it had a 5.5 billion-euro net refinancing exposure to the country at the end of December through its consumer-banking network Emporiki Bank of Greece SA. The Athens-based unit had a 352 million-euro fourth-quarter loss as provisions for risky loans increased. The French lender spent about 2.2 billion euros in 2006 to amass a controlling stake in the division.
Credit Agricole can’t commit to any target for Emporiki to stop the losses, Chifflet said.
“It would be quite audacious to say that it is in 2013, 2014,” he said. “We’ll try to do it as fast as possible, but without saying when because it depends a lot on the return to growth in Greece.”
Chifflet, 62, plans to reduce “by a maximum” Credit Agricole’s exposure to refinancing Emporiki and expects Portugal to escape the contagion after Greece received a second rescue this week.
Investment-Banking Deficit
Greece sealed a 130 billion-euro bailout package by agreeing on Feb. 21 to austerity measures while reducing its bond principal by 53.5 percent as investors swap into new securities with longer maturities and lower coupons.
Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos repeated yesterday that a formal invitation for the bond exchange will be made by Feb. 24. Real losses from the swap may be more than 70 percent, analysts have said.
Credit Agricole’s corporate- and investment-banking unit had a fourth-quarter loss of 1.2 billion euros compared with a 263 million-euro profit a year earlier, hurt by a one-time 1.05 billion-euro capital-markets goodwill writedown and higher losses from subprime-era assets the lender is winding down, according to Bloomberg calculations from bank data.
The corporate- and investment-banking division also booked 336 million euros in one-time costs as it closes businesses and cuts jobs.
Credit Agricole’s corporate and investment bank will close operations in 21 countries, remaining active in 32, while ending its equity-derivatives business, the firm said Dec. 14.
The bank is shedding about 1,750 positions at the corporate and investment bank, including 550 in France, it said in December. The company is also eliminating 600 consumer-finance jobs.
Asset Reductions
Credit Agricole is cutting fewer assets than its two larger French rivals as the lender is also less vulnerable to the dearth of U.S. short-term dollar funding that hit European banks last summer, analysts have said. The asset-reduction plans don’t include the lender’s so-called run-off portfolio, Chief Financial Officer Bernard Delpit said in November.
Credit Agricole is cutting its debt by 50 billion euros between mid-2011 and the end of 2012, “especially” by refocusing on its corporate and investment bank, the company repeated today.
“Corporate and investment banking will reduce its balance sheet, adjust its cost base and adapt its business model to generate income in a restrictive environment, notably by increasing the share of commissions and fee income in its revenue mix,” the lender said.
The investment bank started off “well” in 2012, Chifflet said in the interview. The bonus pool for traders and other “risk takers” was cut by about 20 percent to an average of 105,000 euros, he said.
Profit from the regional banks’ French retail network rose 2.8 percent to 216 million euros while asset-management profit fell 8.8 percent, hurt by outflows in France, the lender said.
–With assistance from Caroline Connan in London. Editors: Stephen Taylor, Dylan Griffiths
To contact the reporter on this story: Fabio Benedetti-Valentini in Paris at fabiobv@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Frank Connelly at fconnelly@bloomberg.net; Edward Evans at eevans3@bloomberg.net
http://tourism9.com/ http://vkins.com/
2012年2月20日星期一
Icelandic Anger Brings Debt Forgiveness in Best Recovery Story
February 20, 2012, 2:31 AM EST
By Omar R. Valdimarsson
Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) — Icelanders who pelted parliament with rocks in 2009 demanding their leaders and bankers answer for the country’s economic and financial collapse are reaping the benefits of their anger.
Since the end of 2008, the island’s banks have forgiven loans equivalent to 13 percent of gross domestic product, easing the debt burdens of more than a quarter of the population, according to a report published this month by the Icelandic Financial Services Association.
“You could safely say that Iceland holds the world record in household debt relief,” said Lars Christensen, chief emerging markets economist at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. “Iceland followed the textbook example of what is required in a crisis. Any economist would agree with that.”
The island’s steps to resurrect itself since 2008, when its banks defaulted on $85 billion, are proving effective. Iceland’s economy will this year outgrow the euro area and the developed world on average, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates. It costs about the same to insure against an Icelandic default as it does to guard against a credit event in Belgium. Most polls now show Icelanders don’t want to join the European Union, where the debt crisis is in its third year.
The island’s households were helped by an agreement between the government and the banks, which are still partly controlled by the state, to forgive debt exceeding 110 percent of home values. On top of that, a Supreme Court ruling in June 2010 found loans indexed to foreign currencies were illegal, meaning households no longer need to cover krona losses.
Crisis Lessons
“The lesson to be learned from Iceland’s crisis is that if other countries think it’s necessary to write down debts, they should look at how successful the 110 percent agreement was here,” said Thorolfur Matthiasson, an economics professor at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik, in an interview. “It’s the broadest agreement that’s been undertaken.”
Without the relief, homeowners would have buckled under the weight of their loans after the ratio of debt to incomes surged to 240 percent in 2008, Matthiasson said.
Iceland’s $13 billion economy, which shrank 6.7 percent in 2009, grew 2.9 percent last year and will expand 2.4 percent this year and next, the Paris-based OECD estimates. The euro area will grow 0.2 percent this year and the OECD area will expand 1.6 percent, according to November estimates.
Housing, measured as a subcomponent in the consumer price index, is now only about 3 percent below values in September 2008, just before the collapse. Fitch Ratings last week raised Iceland to investment grade, with a stable outlook, and said the island’s “unorthodox crisis policy response has succeeded.”
People Vs Markets
Iceland’s approach to dealing with the meltdown has put the needs of its population ahead of the markets at every turn.
Once it became clear back in October 2008 that the island’s banks were beyond saving, the government stepped in, ring-fenced the domestic accounts, and left international creditors in the lurch. The central bank imposed capital controls to halt the ensuing sell-off of the krona and new state-controlled banks were created from the remnants of the lenders that failed.
Activists say the banks should go even further in their debt relief. Andrea J. Olafsdottir, chairman of the Icelandic Homes Coalition, said she doubts the numbers provided by the banks are reliable.
“There are indications that some of the financial institutions in question haven’t lost a penny with the measures that they’ve undertaken,” she said.
Fresh Demands
According to Kristjan Kristjansson, a spokesman for Landsbankinn hf, the amount written off by the banks is probably larger than the 196.4 billion kronur ($1.6 billion) that the Financial Services Association estimates, since that figure only includes debt relief required by the courts or the government.
“There are still a lot of people facing difficulties; at the same time there are a lot of people doing fine,” Kristjansson said. “It’s nearly impossible to say when enough is enough; alongside every measure that is taken, there are fresh demands for further action.”
As a precursor to the global Occupy Wall Street movement and austerity protests across Europe, Icelanders took to the streets after the economic collapse in 2008. Protests escalated in early 2009, forcing police to use teargas to disperse crowds throwing rocks at parliament and the offices of then Prime Minister Geir Haarde. Parliament is still deciding whether to press ahead with an indictment that was brought against him in September 2009 for his role in the crisis.
A new coalition, led by Social Democrat Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, was voted into office in early 2009. The authorities are now investigating most of the main protagonists of the banking meltdown.
Legal Aftermath
Iceland’s special prosecutor has said it may indict as many as 90 people, while more than 200, including the former chief executives at the three biggest banks, face criminal charges.
Larus Welding, the former CEO of Glitnir Bank hf, once Iceland’s second biggest, was indicted in December for granting illegal loans and is now waiting to stand trial. The former CEO of Landsbanki Islands hf, Sigurjon Arnason, has endured stints of solitary confinement as his criminal investigation continues.
That compares with the U.S., where no top bank executives have faced criminal prosecution for their roles in the subprime mortgage meltdown. The Securities and Exchange Commission said last year it had sanctioned 39 senior officers for conduct related to the housing market meltdown.
The U.S. subprime crisis sent home prices plunging 33 percent from a 2006 peak. While households there don’t face the same degree of debt relief as that pushed through in Iceland, President Barack Obama this month proposed plans to expand loan modifications, including some principal reductions.
According to Christensen at Danske Bank, “the bottom line is that if households are insolvent, then the banks just have to go along with it, regardless of the interests of the banks.”
–Editors: Jonas Bergman, Tasneem Brogger.
To contact the reporter on this story: Omar R. Valdimarsson in Reykjavik valdimarsson@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonas Bergman at jbergman@bloomberg.nethttp://tourism9.com/ http://vkins.com/
By Omar R. Valdimarsson
Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) — Icelanders who pelted parliament with rocks in 2009 demanding their leaders and bankers answer for the country’s economic and financial collapse are reaping the benefits of their anger.
Since the end of 2008, the island’s banks have forgiven loans equivalent to 13 percent of gross domestic product, easing the debt burdens of more than a quarter of the population, according to a report published this month by the Icelandic Financial Services Association.
“You could safely say that Iceland holds the world record in household debt relief,” said Lars Christensen, chief emerging markets economist at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. “Iceland followed the textbook example of what is required in a crisis. Any economist would agree with that.”
The island’s steps to resurrect itself since 2008, when its banks defaulted on $85 billion, are proving effective. Iceland’s economy will this year outgrow the euro area and the developed world on average, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates. It costs about the same to insure against an Icelandic default as it does to guard against a credit event in Belgium. Most polls now show Icelanders don’t want to join the European Union, where the debt crisis is in its third year.
The island’s households were helped by an agreement between the government and the banks, which are still partly controlled by the state, to forgive debt exceeding 110 percent of home values. On top of that, a Supreme Court ruling in June 2010 found loans indexed to foreign currencies were illegal, meaning households no longer need to cover krona losses.
Crisis Lessons
“The lesson to be learned from Iceland’s crisis is that if other countries think it’s necessary to write down debts, they should look at how successful the 110 percent agreement was here,” said Thorolfur Matthiasson, an economics professor at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik, in an interview. “It’s the broadest agreement that’s been undertaken.”
Without the relief, homeowners would have buckled under the weight of their loans after the ratio of debt to incomes surged to 240 percent in 2008, Matthiasson said.
Iceland’s $13 billion economy, which shrank 6.7 percent in 2009, grew 2.9 percent last year and will expand 2.4 percent this year and next, the Paris-based OECD estimates. The euro area will grow 0.2 percent this year and the OECD area will expand 1.6 percent, according to November estimates.
Housing, measured as a subcomponent in the consumer price index, is now only about 3 percent below values in September 2008, just before the collapse. Fitch Ratings last week raised Iceland to investment grade, with a stable outlook, and said the island’s “unorthodox crisis policy response has succeeded.”
People Vs Markets
Iceland’s approach to dealing with the meltdown has put the needs of its population ahead of the markets at every turn.
Once it became clear back in October 2008 that the island’s banks were beyond saving, the government stepped in, ring-fenced the domestic accounts, and left international creditors in the lurch. The central bank imposed capital controls to halt the ensuing sell-off of the krona and new state-controlled banks were created from the remnants of the lenders that failed.
Activists say the banks should go even further in their debt relief. Andrea J. Olafsdottir, chairman of the Icelandic Homes Coalition, said she doubts the numbers provided by the banks are reliable.
“There are indications that some of the financial institutions in question haven’t lost a penny with the measures that they’ve undertaken,” she said.
Fresh Demands
According to Kristjan Kristjansson, a spokesman for Landsbankinn hf, the amount written off by the banks is probably larger than the 196.4 billion kronur ($1.6 billion) that the Financial Services Association estimates, since that figure only includes debt relief required by the courts or the government.
“There are still a lot of people facing difficulties; at the same time there are a lot of people doing fine,” Kristjansson said. “It’s nearly impossible to say when enough is enough; alongside every measure that is taken, there are fresh demands for further action.”
As a precursor to the global Occupy Wall Street movement and austerity protests across Europe, Icelanders took to the streets after the economic collapse in 2008. Protests escalated in early 2009, forcing police to use teargas to disperse crowds throwing rocks at parliament and the offices of then Prime Minister Geir Haarde. Parliament is still deciding whether to press ahead with an indictment that was brought against him in September 2009 for his role in the crisis.
A new coalition, led by Social Democrat Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, was voted into office in early 2009. The authorities are now investigating most of the main protagonists of the banking meltdown.
Legal Aftermath
Iceland’s special prosecutor has said it may indict as many as 90 people, while more than 200, including the former chief executives at the three biggest banks, face criminal charges.
Larus Welding, the former CEO of Glitnir Bank hf, once Iceland’s second biggest, was indicted in December for granting illegal loans and is now waiting to stand trial. The former CEO of Landsbanki Islands hf, Sigurjon Arnason, has endured stints of solitary confinement as his criminal investigation continues.
That compares with the U.S., where no top bank executives have faced criminal prosecution for their roles in the subprime mortgage meltdown. The Securities and Exchange Commission said last year it had sanctioned 39 senior officers for conduct related to the housing market meltdown.
The U.S. subprime crisis sent home prices plunging 33 percent from a 2006 peak. While households there don’t face the same degree of debt relief as that pushed through in Iceland, President Barack Obama this month proposed plans to expand loan modifications, including some principal reductions.
According to Christensen at Danske Bank, “the bottom line is that if households are insolvent, then the banks just have to go along with it, regardless of the interests of the banks.”
–Editors: Jonas Bergman, Tasneem Brogger.
To contact the reporter on this story: Omar R. Valdimarsson in Reykjavik valdimarsson@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonas Bergman at jbergman@bloomberg.nethttp://tourism9.com/ http://vkins.com/
Decision day for second Greek bailout despite financing gaps
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone finance ministers are expected to approve a second bailout for Greece on Monday to try to draw a line under months of uncertainty that has shaken the currency bloc, although there is work to be done to make the figures add up.
Diplomats and economists say they do not expect the package to resolve Greece’s economic problems. That could take a decade or more, a bleak prospect that brought thousands of Greeks onto the streets to protest austerity measures again on Sunday.
The ministers need to agree new measures to square the numbers, given the ever-worsening state of the Greek economy. But they say an agreement on Monday will help restructure the country’s vast debts, put it on a more stable financial footing and keep it inside the 17-country single currency zone.
Senior officials from euro zone finance ministries and the European Central Bank held a conference call on Sunday to go over the final details of the 130-billion-euro ($171-billion)program, including a debt sustainability analysis critical to the International Monetary Fund.
While there is skepticism in Germany and other countries that Greece will be able to live up to its commitments – including implementing 3.3 billion euros of spending cuts and tax increases – officials said momentum was building for approval of the deal.
French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said all the elements were in place to reach an agreement.
“It cannot wait any longer … Greece has debt payments in March and could find itself in bankruptcy, something which France has been trying to avoid for the last 18 months,” he told Europe 1 radio on Monday.
Finnish Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen said Greece had done all that had been asked of it.
“There are many open details … A big issue is that we have to get Greece’s debt on a level that is sustainable and enables Greece to survive,” she told reporters in Helsinki.
A euro zone official in contact with junior ministers involved in the Sunday conference call said the financing gaps were not so large that they risked derailing the whole process.
“I don’t see anybody wanting to be responsible for pulling the plug on the deal at this late stage,” he said.
“The gut feeling is that this is going to go through – everyone feels the pressure this time to deliver,” he said, indicating that the Netherlands, Finland and Germany, which have been the most critical of Athens’ ability to commit, looked likely to come on board if the financing gaps could be closed.
GREEK ANGER UNABATED
Several thousand Greeks demonstrated on Sunday against the austerity measures to reduce the country’s debt, although the numbers were much lower than earlier protests.
Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos flew to Brussels for last-minute preparations as about 3,000 demonstrators massed on the capital’s central Syntagma square.
Riot police shielded the national assembly to prevent a repeat of riots a week ago when masked youths torched buildings and looted shops across Athens.
Under one crucial element of the deal, Greece will have around 100 billion euros of debt written off via a restructuring involving private-sector holders of Greek government bonds.
Banks and insurers will swap bonds they hold for longer-dated securities that pay a lower coupon, resulting in a real 70 percent reduction in the value of the assets.
The bond exchange is expected to launch on March 8 and complete three days later, Athens said on Saturday. That means a 14.5-billion-euro bond repayment due on March 20 would be restructured, allowing Greece to avoid default.
The vast majority of the funds in the 130-billion-euro program will be used to finance the bond swap and to ensure that Greece’s banking system remains stable: 30 billion euros will go to “sweeteners” to get the private sector to sign up to the swap, 23 billion will go to recapitalize Greek banks.
A further 35 billion will allow Greece to finance the buying back of the bonds, and 5.7 billion will go to paying off the interest accrued on the bonds being traded in.
The overall objective is to reduce Greece’s debts from 160 percent of GDP to around 120 percent by 2020 – the figure and timeframe that the IMF, ECB and the European Commission, together known as the troika, have established as sustainable.
MEETING THE TARGET
The focus of Monday’s finance ministers’ meeting will be what “around 120 percent” means in practice.
A debt sustainability report delivered to euro zone finance ministers last week showed that under the main scenario, Greek debt will only fall to 129 percent by 2020.
The IMF has said if the ratio cannot be cut to around 120 percent, it may not be able to help finance the Greek program.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner urged the International Monetary Fund to support the program.
“This is a very strong and very difficult package of reforms, deserving of support of the international community and the IMF,” Geithner said in a statement on Sunday.
As well as working to get the number down, there are moves to convince members of the troika that a debt level of 123-125 percent in 2020 would be sustainable.
“If we can get it down to 123 or 124 percent, I think everyone’s going to be okay with that,” the euro zone official said after the Sunday conference call. “Everyone will find a way to tweak the numbers.”
A number of measures, including restructuring the accrued interest portion or reducing the “sweeteners,” are being considered to move the figure closer to 120, a euro zone official familiar with the negotiations said.
There are also discussions about marginally lowering the interest rate on 110 billion euros of bilateral loans already made to Greece in May 2010 – the first package of support – to lighten the financing burden on Athens.
Central banks could help too.
The ECB is weighing up whether to allow Greek bonds held in euro zone central banks’ investment portfolios to be subject to the same writedowns private investors are set to take, central bank sources told Reuters on Friday.
The central banks hold around 20 billion euros of Greek bonds in their traditional investment portfolios and the ECB holds about double that amount from its emergency bond-buying program. It has also signaled it could forego the profits made on the latter at some point.
If the finance ministers do succeed in reaching an agreement, it will provide immediate relief to Athens and financial markets, which have been kept guessing since the bailout package was announced last October.
But no one is pretending it will end Greece’s problems. Figures last week showed its economy shrank 7 percent year-on-year in the last quarter of 2011, much more than expected, with further cuts likely to make matters worse.
The troika, responsible for monitoring Greece’s reform progress, carries out quarterly reviews, while the European Commission will soon have dozens more monitors on the ground.
Already there is concern that at any one of those reviews of the new program – if it is approved on Monday – Greece will be found to be behind, especially if GDP continues to slump.
That will again raise the threat the country will have to default if it cannot meet its obligations, and invite questions about its ability to remain in the euro zone.
($1 = 0.7597 euros)
(Additional reporting by Daniel Flynn in Paris, Terri Kinnunen in Helsinki and George Georgiopoulos in Athens; writing by Mike Peacock; editing by Elizabeth Piper)http://tourism9.com/ http://vkins.com/
Diplomats and economists say they do not expect the package to resolve Greece’s economic problems. That could take a decade or more, a bleak prospect that brought thousands of Greeks onto the streets to protest austerity measures again on Sunday.
The ministers need to agree new measures to square the numbers, given the ever-worsening state of the Greek economy. But they say an agreement on Monday will help restructure the country’s vast debts, put it on a more stable financial footing and keep it inside the 17-country single currency zone.
Senior officials from euro zone finance ministries and the European Central Bank held a conference call on Sunday to go over the final details of the 130-billion-euro ($171-billion)program, including a debt sustainability analysis critical to the International Monetary Fund.
While there is skepticism in Germany and other countries that Greece will be able to live up to its commitments – including implementing 3.3 billion euros of spending cuts and tax increases – officials said momentum was building for approval of the deal.
French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said all the elements were in place to reach an agreement.
“It cannot wait any longer … Greece has debt payments in March and could find itself in bankruptcy, something which France has been trying to avoid for the last 18 months,” he told Europe 1 radio on Monday.
Finnish Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen said Greece had done all that had been asked of it.
“There are many open details … A big issue is that we have to get Greece’s debt on a level that is sustainable and enables Greece to survive,” she told reporters in Helsinki.
A euro zone official in contact with junior ministers involved in the Sunday conference call said the financing gaps were not so large that they risked derailing the whole process.
“I don’t see anybody wanting to be responsible for pulling the plug on the deal at this late stage,” he said.
“The gut feeling is that this is going to go through – everyone feels the pressure this time to deliver,” he said, indicating that the Netherlands, Finland and Germany, which have been the most critical of Athens’ ability to commit, looked likely to come on board if the financing gaps could be closed.
GREEK ANGER UNABATED
Several thousand Greeks demonstrated on Sunday against the austerity measures to reduce the country’s debt, although the numbers were much lower than earlier protests.
Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos flew to Brussels for last-minute preparations as about 3,000 demonstrators massed on the capital’s central Syntagma square.
Riot police shielded the national assembly to prevent a repeat of riots a week ago when masked youths torched buildings and looted shops across Athens.
Under one crucial element of the deal, Greece will have around 100 billion euros of debt written off via a restructuring involving private-sector holders of Greek government bonds.
Banks and insurers will swap bonds they hold for longer-dated securities that pay a lower coupon, resulting in a real 70 percent reduction in the value of the assets.
The bond exchange is expected to launch on March 8 and complete three days later, Athens said on Saturday. That means a 14.5-billion-euro bond repayment due on March 20 would be restructured, allowing Greece to avoid default.
The vast majority of the funds in the 130-billion-euro program will be used to finance the bond swap and to ensure that Greece’s banking system remains stable: 30 billion euros will go to “sweeteners” to get the private sector to sign up to the swap, 23 billion will go to recapitalize Greek banks.
A further 35 billion will allow Greece to finance the buying back of the bonds, and 5.7 billion will go to paying off the interest accrued on the bonds being traded in.
The overall objective is to reduce Greece’s debts from 160 percent of GDP to around 120 percent by 2020 – the figure and timeframe that the IMF, ECB and the European Commission, together known as the troika, have established as sustainable.
MEETING THE TARGET
The focus of Monday’s finance ministers’ meeting will be what “around 120 percent” means in practice.
A debt sustainability report delivered to euro zone finance ministers last week showed that under the main scenario, Greek debt will only fall to 129 percent by 2020.
The IMF has said if the ratio cannot be cut to around 120 percent, it may not be able to help finance the Greek program.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner urged the International Monetary Fund to support the program.
“This is a very strong and very difficult package of reforms, deserving of support of the international community and the IMF,” Geithner said in a statement on Sunday.
As well as working to get the number down, there are moves to convince members of the troika that a debt level of 123-125 percent in 2020 would be sustainable.
“If we can get it down to 123 or 124 percent, I think everyone’s going to be okay with that,” the euro zone official said after the Sunday conference call. “Everyone will find a way to tweak the numbers.”
A number of measures, including restructuring the accrued interest portion or reducing the “sweeteners,” are being considered to move the figure closer to 120, a euro zone official familiar with the negotiations said.
There are also discussions about marginally lowering the interest rate on 110 billion euros of bilateral loans already made to Greece in May 2010 – the first package of support – to lighten the financing burden on Athens.
Central banks could help too.
The ECB is weighing up whether to allow Greek bonds held in euro zone central banks’ investment portfolios to be subject to the same writedowns private investors are set to take, central bank sources told Reuters on Friday.
The central banks hold around 20 billion euros of Greek bonds in their traditional investment portfolios and the ECB holds about double that amount from its emergency bond-buying program. It has also signaled it could forego the profits made on the latter at some point.
If the finance ministers do succeed in reaching an agreement, it will provide immediate relief to Athens and financial markets, which have been kept guessing since the bailout package was announced last October.
But no one is pretending it will end Greece’s problems. Figures last week showed its economy shrank 7 percent year-on-year in the last quarter of 2011, much more than expected, with further cuts likely to make matters worse.
The troika, responsible for monitoring Greece’s reform progress, carries out quarterly reviews, while the European Commission will soon have dozens more monitors on the ground.
Already there is concern that at any one of those reviews of the new program – if it is approved on Monday – Greece will be found to be behind, especially if GDP continues to slump.
That will again raise the threat the country will have to default if it cannot meet its obligations, and invite questions about its ability to remain in the euro zone.
($1 = 0.7597 euros)
(Additional reporting by Daniel Flynn in Paris, Terri Kinnunen in Helsinki and George Georgiopoulos in Athens; writing by Mike Peacock; editing by Elizabeth Piper)http://tourism9.com/ http://vkins.com/
Decision day for 2nd Greek bailout despite financing gaps
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone finance ministers are expected to approve a second bailout for Greece on Monday to try to draw a line under months of uncertainty that has shaken the currency bloc, although there is work to be done to make the figures add up.
Diplomats and economists say they do not expect the package to resolve Greece’s economic problems. That could take a decade or more, a bleak prospect that brought thousands of Greeks onto the streets to protest austerity measures again on Sunday.
The ministers need to agree new measures to square the numbers, given the ever-worsening state of the Greek economy. But they say an agreement on Monday will help restructure the country’s vast debts, put it on a more stable financial footing and keep it inside the 17-country single currency zone.
Senior officials from euro zone finance ministries and the European Central Bank held a conference call on Sunday to go over the final details of the 130-billion-euro programme, including a debt sustainability analysis critical to the International Monetary Fund.
While there is scepticism in Germany and other countries that Greece will be able to live up to its commitments – including implementing 3.3 billion euros of spending cuts and tax increases – officials said momentum was building for approval of the deal.
French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said all the elements were in place to reach an agreement.
“It cannot wait any longer … Greece has debt payments in March and could find itself in bankruptcy, something which France has been trying to avoid for the last 18 months,” he told Europe 1 radio on Monday.
Finnish Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen said Greece had done all that had been asked of it.
“There are many open details … A big issue is that we have to get Greece’s debt on a level that is sustainable and enables Greece to survive,” she told reporters in Helsinki.
A euro zone official in contact with junior ministers involved in the Sunday conference call said the financing gaps were not so large that they risked derailing the whole process.
“I don’t see anybody wanting to be responsible for pulling the plug on the deal at this late stage,” he said.
“The gut feeling is that this is going to go through – everyone feels the pressure this time to deliver,” he said, indicating that the Netherlands, Finland and Germany, which have been the most critical of Athens‘ ability to commit, looked likely to come on board if the financing gaps could be closed.
GREEK ANGER UNABATED
Several thousand Greeks demonstrated on Sunday against the austerity measures to reduce the country’s debt, although the numbers were much lower than earlier protests.
Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos flew to Brussels for last-minute preparations as about 3,000 demonstrators massed on the capital’s central Syntagma square.
Riot police shielded the national assembly to prevent a repeat of riots a week ago when masked youths torched buildings and looted shops across Athens.
Under one crucial element of the deal, Greece will have around 100 billion euros of debt written off via a restructuring involving private-sector holders of Greek government bonds.
Banks and insurers will swap bonds they hold for longer-dated securities that pay a lower coupon, resulting in a real 70 percent reduction in the value of the assets.
The bond exchange is expected to launch on March 8 and complete three days later, Athens said on Saturday. That means a 14.5-billion-euro bond repayment due on March 20 would be restructured, allowing Greece to avoid default.
The vast majority of the funds in the 130-billion-euro programme will be used to finance the bond swap and to ensure that Greece’s banking system remains stable: 30 billion euros will go to “sweeteners” to get the private sector to sign up to the swap, 23 billion will go to recapitalise Greek banks.
A further 35 billion will allow Greece to finance the buying back of the bonds, and 5.7 billion will go to paying off the interest accrued on the bonds being traded in.
The overall objective is to reduce Greece’s debts from 160 percent of GDP to around 120 percent by 2020 – the figure and timeframe that the IMF, ECB and the European Commission, together known as the troika, have established as sustainable.
MEETING THE TARGET
The focus of Monday’s finance ministers‘ meeting will be what “around 120 percent” means in practice.
A debt sustainability report delivered to euro zone finance ministers last week showed that under the main scenario, Greek debt will only fall to 129 percent by 2020.
The IMF has said if the ratio cannot be cut to around 120 percent, it may not be able to help finance the Greek programme.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner urged the International Monetary Fund to support the programme.
“This is a very strong and very difficult package of reforms, deserving of support of the international community and the IMF,” Geithner said in a statement on Sunday.
As well as working to get the number down, there are moves to convince members of the troika that a debt level of 123-125 percent in 2020 would be sustainable.
“If we can get it down to 123 or 124 percent, I think everyone’s going to be okay with that,” the euro zone official said after the Sunday conference call. “Everyone will find a way to tweak the numbers.”
A number of measures, including restructuring the accrued interest portion or reducing the “sweeteners,” are being considered to move the figure closer to 120, a euro zone official familiar with the negotiations said.
There are also discussions about marginally lowering the interest rate on 110 billion euros of bilateral loans already made to Greece in May 2010 – the first package of support – to lighten the financing burden on Athens.
Central banks could help too.
The ECB is weighing up whether to allow Greek bonds held in euro zone central banks’ investment portfolios to be subject to the same writedowns private investors are set to take, central bank sources told Reuters on Friday.
The central banks hold around 20 billion euros of Greek bonds in their traditional investment portfolios and the ECB holds about double that amount from its emergency bond-buying programme. It has also signalled it could forego the profits made on the latter at some point.
If the finance ministers do succeed in reaching an agreement, it will provide immediate relief to Athens and financial markets, which have been kept guessing since the bailout package was announced last October.
But no one is pretending it will end Greece’s problems. Figures last week showed its economy shrank 7 percent year-on-year in the last quarter of 2011, much more than expected, with further cuts likely to make matters worse.
The troika, responsible for monitoring Greece’s reform progress, carries out quarterly reviews, while the European Commission will soon have dozens more monitors on the ground.
Already there is concern that at any one of those reviews of the new programme – if it is approved on Monday – Greece will be found to be behind, especially if GDP continues to slump.
That will again raise the threat the country will have to default if it cannot meet its obligations, and invite questions about its ability to remain in the euro zone.
(Additional reporting by Daniel Flynn in Paris, Terri Kinnunen in Helsinki and George Georgiopoulos in Athens; writing by Mike Peacock; editing by Elizabeth Piper)http://tourism9.com/ http://vkins.com/
Diplomats and economists say they do not expect the package to resolve Greece’s economic problems. That could take a decade or more, a bleak prospect that brought thousands of Greeks onto the streets to protest austerity measures again on Sunday.
The ministers need to agree new measures to square the numbers, given the ever-worsening state of the Greek economy. But they say an agreement on Monday will help restructure the country’s vast debts, put it on a more stable financial footing and keep it inside the 17-country single currency zone.
Senior officials from euro zone finance ministries and the European Central Bank held a conference call on Sunday to go over the final details of the 130-billion-euro programme, including a debt sustainability analysis critical to the International Monetary Fund.
While there is scepticism in Germany and other countries that Greece will be able to live up to its commitments – including implementing 3.3 billion euros of spending cuts and tax increases – officials said momentum was building for approval of the deal.
French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said all the elements were in place to reach an agreement.
“It cannot wait any longer … Greece has debt payments in March and could find itself in bankruptcy, something which France has been trying to avoid for the last 18 months,” he told Europe 1 radio on Monday.
Finnish Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen said Greece had done all that had been asked of it.
“There are many open details … A big issue is that we have to get Greece’s debt on a level that is sustainable and enables Greece to survive,” she told reporters in Helsinki.
A euro zone official in contact with junior ministers involved in the Sunday conference call said the financing gaps were not so large that they risked derailing the whole process.
“I don’t see anybody wanting to be responsible for pulling the plug on the deal at this late stage,” he said.
“The gut feeling is that this is going to go through – everyone feels the pressure this time to deliver,” he said, indicating that the Netherlands, Finland and Germany, which have been the most critical of Athens‘ ability to commit, looked likely to come on board if the financing gaps could be closed.
GREEK ANGER UNABATED
Several thousand Greeks demonstrated on Sunday against the austerity measures to reduce the country’s debt, although the numbers were much lower than earlier protests.
Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos flew to Brussels for last-minute preparations as about 3,000 demonstrators massed on the capital’s central Syntagma square.
Riot police shielded the national assembly to prevent a repeat of riots a week ago when masked youths torched buildings and looted shops across Athens.
Under one crucial element of the deal, Greece will have around 100 billion euros of debt written off via a restructuring involving private-sector holders of Greek government bonds.
Banks and insurers will swap bonds they hold for longer-dated securities that pay a lower coupon, resulting in a real 70 percent reduction in the value of the assets.
The bond exchange is expected to launch on March 8 and complete three days later, Athens said on Saturday. That means a 14.5-billion-euro bond repayment due on March 20 would be restructured, allowing Greece to avoid default.
The vast majority of the funds in the 130-billion-euro programme will be used to finance the bond swap and to ensure that Greece’s banking system remains stable: 30 billion euros will go to “sweeteners” to get the private sector to sign up to the swap, 23 billion will go to recapitalise Greek banks.
A further 35 billion will allow Greece to finance the buying back of the bonds, and 5.7 billion will go to paying off the interest accrued on the bonds being traded in.
The overall objective is to reduce Greece’s debts from 160 percent of GDP to around 120 percent by 2020 – the figure and timeframe that the IMF, ECB and the European Commission, together known as the troika, have established as sustainable.
MEETING THE TARGET
The focus of Monday’s finance ministers‘ meeting will be what “around 120 percent” means in practice.
A debt sustainability report delivered to euro zone finance ministers last week showed that under the main scenario, Greek debt will only fall to 129 percent by 2020.
The IMF has said if the ratio cannot be cut to around 120 percent, it may not be able to help finance the Greek programme.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner urged the International Monetary Fund to support the programme.
“This is a very strong and very difficult package of reforms, deserving of support of the international community and the IMF,” Geithner said in a statement on Sunday.
As well as working to get the number down, there are moves to convince members of the troika that a debt level of 123-125 percent in 2020 would be sustainable.
“If we can get it down to 123 or 124 percent, I think everyone’s going to be okay with that,” the euro zone official said after the Sunday conference call. “Everyone will find a way to tweak the numbers.”
A number of measures, including restructuring the accrued interest portion or reducing the “sweeteners,” are being considered to move the figure closer to 120, a euro zone official familiar with the negotiations said.
There are also discussions about marginally lowering the interest rate on 110 billion euros of bilateral loans already made to Greece in May 2010 – the first package of support – to lighten the financing burden on Athens.
Central banks could help too.
The ECB is weighing up whether to allow Greek bonds held in euro zone central banks’ investment portfolios to be subject to the same writedowns private investors are set to take, central bank sources told Reuters on Friday.
The central banks hold around 20 billion euros of Greek bonds in their traditional investment portfolios and the ECB holds about double that amount from its emergency bond-buying programme. It has also signalled it could forego the profits made on the latter at some point.
If the finance ministers do succeed in reaching an agreement, it will provide immediate relief to Athens and financial markets, which have been kept guessing since the bailout package was announced last October.
But no one is pretending it will end Greece’s problems. Figures last week showed its economy shrank 7 percent year-on-year in the last quarter of 2011, much more than expected, with further cuts likely to make matters worse.
The troika, responsible for monitoring Greece’s reform progress, carries out quarterly reviews, while the European Commission will soon have dozens more monitors on the ground.
Already there is concern that at any one of those reviews of the new programme – if it is approved on Monday – Greece will be found to be behind, especially if GDP continues to slump.
That will again raise the threat the country will have to default if it cannot meet its obligations, and invite questions about its ability to remain in the euro zone.
(Additional reporting by Daniel Flynn in Paris, Terri Kinnunen in Helsinki and George Georgiopoulos in Athens; writing by Mike Peacock; editing by Elizabeth Piper)http://tourism9.com/ http://vkins.com/
2012年2月13日星期一
Money-Market Fund Flight From French Banks Reverses in January
http://tourism9.cm/ http://vkins.com/
February 13, 2012, 7:29 AM EST
By Radi Khasawneh and Alberto Fuertes
Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) — U.S. money-market funds more than doubled their short-term loans to French banks in January, ending six months during which they reduced funding.
The funds owned $8.6 billion of French bank certificates of deposit, time deposits, commercial paper and repurchase agreements on Jan. 31, up from $3.2 billion in December, according to reports from the eight largest prime U.S. funds compiled and published in today’s Bloomberg Risk newsletter. At the end of 2010, the equivalent figure was $78 billion.
French banks have had to increase their deposit base to secure funding after the sovereign-debt crisis spread last year, spurring concern about the solvency of European financial institutions. The revival of U.S. money fund investing followed the European Central Bank’s decision to provide three-year funding for banks in December, allaying some of those concerns.
“There definitely was a shift in sentiment around the second week in January,” said Deborah Cunningham, head of money market funds for Pittsburgh-based Federated Investors Inc. The ECB’s loans and a reversal of “year-end window dressing” in December played the biggest role, she said.
Federated manages $245 billion in U.S.-registered money funds, according to research firm Crane Data LLC.
Societe Generale
The largest beneficiary among the French banks was Societe Generale SA, which increased funding more than 10-fold to $3.4 billion in January. BNP Paribas SA and Credit Agricole SA attracted 50 percent and 43 percent more funding from the U.S. money markets, according to a Bloomberg survey.
Officials for all three banks declined to comment.
The funds cut investments in Swedish and Japanese banks, each of which suffered a $9.7 billion reduction over the month. Swiss banks had 5 percent less funding, though banks from all three countries have retained their haven appeal, with money- market funding surpassing 2010 levels.
The ECB provided 489 billion euros ($651 billion) to European banks through a three-year refinancing operation in December and plans to offer a further series of loans at the end of February.
The survey included the eight largest prime money-market funds: Fidelity Cash Reserves, JPMorgan Prime Money Market Fund, Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund, Fidelity Institutional Prime Money Market Portfolio, BlackRock TempFund, Wells Fargo Advantage Heritage Money Markets Fund and Federated Prime Obligations Fund. Together, they manage $597 billion.
‘More Confidence’
“There are thousands of banks across Europe and we only invest in a small number that we believe to be among the strongest institutions representing minimal risk,” Adam Banker, a spokesman for Fidelity Investments, said in an e-mail.
John Woerth, a spokesman for Vanguard Group Inc., said the firm’s money funds don’t own any French bank debt. Officials for JPMorgan and BlackRock declined to comment. A spokesmen for Wells Fargo didn’t respond to a request for comment.
ECB lending “gave market participants a lot more confidence that liquidity was in that marketplace,” said Cunningham at Federated.
Cunningham said higher short-term interest rates and slightly better economic data also helped encourage money funds to lend more to banks in France and other European countries where they had previously pulled back. Annualized rates for overnight lending to European banks were about 0.18 percent to 0.23 percent in mid-January after dropping to as low as 0.01 just before the end of 2011, Cunningham said.
The lending figures include repurchase agreements, which are backed by collateral such as government debt. Collateral- based repo investments make up a larger part of European overall funding, showing that counterparty risk remains a concern for the funds.
European repo deals amounted to $42.8 billion in January, making up 28 percent of European bank securities held at the funds, up from 21 percent in 2010. French bank repo funding was also 28 percent of the total in January, compared with 6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010.
–With assistance from Fabio Benedetti-Valentini in Paris and Christian Baumgaertel in Boston. Editors: Keith Campbell, Christian Baumgaertel
To contact the reporters on this story: Radi Khasawneh in London at rkhasawneh1@bloomberg.net; Alberto Fuertes in London at afuertes@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christian Baumgaertel at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net; Edward Evans at eevans3@bloomberg.net; Nicholas Dunbar at ndunbar1@bloomberg.net
February 13, 2012, 7:29 AM EST
By Radi Khasawneh and Alberto Fuertes
Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) — U.S. money-market funds more than doubled their short-term loans to French banks in January, ending six months during which they reduced funding.
The funds owned $8.6 billion of French bank certificates of deposit, time deposits, commercial paper and repurchase agreements on Jan. 31, up from $3.2 billion in December, according to reports from the eight largest prime U.S. funds compiled and published in today’s Bloomberg Risk newsletter. At the end of 2010, the equivalent figure was $78 billion.
French banks have had to increase their deposit base to secure funding after the sovereign-debt crisis spread last year, spurring concern about the solvency of European financial institutions. The revival of U.S. money fund investing followed the European Central Bank’s decision to provide three-year funding for banks in December, allaying some of those concerns.
“There definitely was a shift in sentiment around the second week in January,” said Deborah Cunningham, head of money market funds for Pittsburgh-based Federated Investors Inc. The ECB’s loans and a reversal of “year-end window dressing” in December played the biggest role, she said.
Federated manages $245 billion in U.S.-registered money funds, according to research firm Crane Data LLC.
Societe Generale
The largest beneficiary among the French banks was Societe Generale SA, which increased funding more than 10-fold to $3.4 billion in January. BNP Paribas SA and Credit Agricole SA attracted 50 percent and 43 percent more funding from the U.S. money markets, according to a Bloomberg survey.
Officials for all three banks declined to comment.
The funds cut investments in Swedish and Japanese banks, each of which suffered a $9.7 billion reduction over the month. Swiss banks had 5 percent less funding, though banks from all three countries have retained their haven appeal, with money- market funding surpassing 2010 levels.
The ECB provided 489 billion euros ($651 billion) to European banks through a three-year refinancing operation in December and plans to offer a further series of loans at the end of February.
The survey included the eight largest prime money-market funds: Fidelity Cash Reserves, JPMorgan Prime Money Market Fund, Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund, Fidelity Institutional Prime Money Market Portfolio, BlackRock TempFund, Wells Fargo Advantage Heritage Money Markets Fund and Federated Prime Obligations Fund. Together, they manage $597 billion.
‘More Confidence’
“There are thousands of banks across Europe and we only invest in a small number that we believe to be among the strongest institutions representing minimal risk,” Adam Banker, a spokesman for Fidelity Investments, said in an e-mail.
John Woerth, a spokesman for Vanguard Group Inc., said the firm’s money funds don’t own any French bank debt. Officials for JPMorgan and BlackRock declined to comment. A spokesmen for Wells Fargo didn’t respond to a request for comment.
ECB lending “gave market participants a lot more confidence that liquidity was in that marketplace,” said Cunningham at Federated.
Cunningham said higher short-term interest rates and slightly better economic data also helped encourage money funds to lend more to banks in France and other European countries where they had previously pulled back. Annualized rates for overnight lending to European banks were about 0.18 percent to 0.23 percent in mid-January after dropping to as low as 0.01 just before the end of 2011, Cunningham said.
The lending figures include repurchase agreements, which are backed by collateral such as government debt. Collateral- based repo investments make up a larger part of European overall funding, showing that counterparty risk remains a concern for the funds.
European repo deals amounted to $42.8 billion in January, making up 28 percent of European bank securities held at the funds, up from 21 percent in 2010. French bank repo funding was also 28 percent of the total in January, compared with 6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010.
–With assistance from Fabio Benedetti-Valentini in Paris and Christian Baumgaertel in Boston. Editors: Keith Campbell, Christian Baumgaertel
To contact the reporters on this story: Radi Khasawneh in London at rkhasawneh1@bloomberg.net; Alberto Fuertes in London at afuertes@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christian Baumgaertel at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net; Edward Evans at eevans3@bloomberg.net; Nicholas Dunbar at ndunbar1@bloomberg.net
2012年1月3日星期二
Travel smarter this year
Electronic communication, such as disposable mobile phones, cheap and easy Wi-Fi, and social networking, is revolutionizing the way we communicate when we travel. But the digital development I am most enthused about is the smartphone. My iPhone has quickly become my favourite travel companion, whether it’s keeping me on top of my work, keeping me in touch with my kids, or simply keeping me entertained.
I’m not alone. It was predicted that by the end of 2011, 40% of all Canadian mobile phone users will have a smartphone –iPhone, Android, Windows or BlackBerry — compared to just 10% in 2008. And as smartphones get more capable, they are becoming essential tools for travellers.
For instance, if I’m in a cafe in Paris that has free Wi-Fi, I can pop onto the Internet and check sports scores back home. If an impromptu soccer game breaks out on a piazza in Naples, I can record a video of it, then use the Dropbox application to send it to my assistant, who can post it to my Facebook page. Using Skype on my phone, I can connect to Wi-Fi and call my daughter in the U.S. for free.
About the only thing I don’t do with my smartphone when travelling is use it as an actual cellphone. When roaming in Europe with a North American phone, calls are expensive (often $1.50 per minute or higher). To save money, I use a phone I bought years ago in Europe and buy a new SIM card in each country I visit (a SIM card is a removable chip that stores your information).
A phone must be “unlocked” to swap out SIM cards (but be aware smartphones can be complicated to unlock). I make a lot of calls when I’m in Europe, but if you don’t, you might find it easier to roam with your own phone.
With smartphones, it’s important to watch dataroaming charges. A three-minute video from YouTube can cost about $40. While casual browsing and e-mailing costs less (around 20¢ to send or receive a basic message), charges can pile up quickly.
To avoid these costs, it’s easiest to cut off this feature by calling your carrier to disable it and turning off data roaming using your phone’s menu (before you get on your transatlantic flight). You can still use the Internet, but you’ll have to wait until you reach a Wi-Fi hotspot. Otherwise, for better rates, talk to your carrier about international dataroaming plans.
Even if you don’t use your smartphone for calls or data roaming, it can still come in handy thanks to the many travel-oriented applications that are available. Although I still prefer flipping through a paper guidebook, many publishers also offer travel guides in e-book format.
Apps for TripAdvisor and Yelp give you access to millions of user reviews of restaurants, hotels, and sights. And my Rick Steves Audio Europe app has radio interviews and audio walking tours of Europe’s top sights, such as the Acropolis and Versailles.
If you need to search for flights, hotels or rental cars, try Orbitz, Priceline, Booking.com,Expedia’s TripAssist and Travelocity. Skyscanner searches a variety of European budget airlines to find the cheapest connection.
TripIt is a clever app that stores all of your trip details in one place. Note that many apps (such as e-books) work on their own once you download them, but others (such as flight-search apps) need to access content online. You’ll either have to find a Wi-Fi hotspot or spring for data roaming to make them work.
To figure out train schedules, DB Navigator, German Rail’s comprehensive train timetables, includes connections for all of continental Europe. For the U.K., try thetrainline. Big cities, such as London and Paris, offer subway apps that save you from having to unfold an unwieldy map on a crowded platform.
If you don’t parlez-vous the local language, download Google Translate, which lets you type or speak foreign words for a translation. You can also say or type a sentence in English to hear a translation or see it written out. With Lonely Planet’s audio phrase-books, simply press a button to hear the phrase you’re struggling to pronounce.
Other useful travel apps include Measures, which converts various European units (such as clothing sizes and currency) to North American ones; the Weather Channel and AccuWeather, which help you figure out how to dress for the day; and mPassport, city-specific apps that direct you to English-speaking doctors and hospitals, as well as local names for prescription medications.
As more people travel with smartphones, I expect that more creative apps will become available. I am something of a tech holdout but if technology can make travel smoother and smarter, I’m all for it.
Rick Steves (ricksteves.com) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at rick@ricksteves.com, or write to him c/o P.O. Box 2009, Edmonds, WA 98020.
http://tourism9.com/
I’m not alone. It was predicted that by the end of 2011, 40% of all Canadian mobile phone users will have a smartphone –iPhone, Android, Windows or BlackBerry — compared to just 10% in 2008. And as smartphones get more capable, they are becoming essential tools for travellers.
For instance, if I’m in a cafe in Paris that has free Wi-Fi, I can pop onto the Internet and check sports scores back home. If an impromptu soccer game breaks out on a piazza in Naples, I can record a video of it, then use the Dropbox application to send it to my assistant, who can post it to my Facebook page. Using Skype on my phone, I can connect to Wi-Fi and call my daughter in the U.S. for free.
About the only thing I don’t do with my smartphone when travelling is use it as an actual cellphone. When roaming in Europe with a North American phone, calls are expensive (often $1.50 per minute or higher). To save money, I use a phone I bought years ago in Europe and buy a new SIM card in each country I visit (a SIM card is a removable chip that stores your information).
A phone must be “unlocked” to swap out SIM cards (but be aware smartphones can be complicated to unlock). I make a lot of calls when I’m in Europe, but if you don’t, you might find it easier to roam with your own phone.
With smartphones, it’s important to watch dataroaming charges. A three-minute video from YouTube can cost about $40. While casual browsing and e-mailing costs less (around 20¢ to send or receive a basic message), charges can pile up quickly.
To avoid these costs, it’s easiest to cut off this feature by calling your carrier to disable it and turning off data roaming using your phone’s menu (before you get on your transatlantic flight). You can still use the Internet, but you’ll have to wait until you reach a Wi-Fi hotspot. Otherwise, for better rates, talk to your carrier about international dataroaming plans.
Even if you don’t use your smartphone for calls or data roaming, it can still come in handy thanks to the many travel-oriented applications that are available. Although I still prefer flipping through a paper guidebook, many publishers also offer travel guides in e-book format.
Apps for TripAdvisor and Yelp give you access to millions of user reviews of restaurants, hotels, and sights. And my Rick Steves Audio Europe app has radio interviews and audio walking tours of Europe’s top sights, such as the Acropolis and Versailles.
If you need to search for flights, hotels or rental cars, try Orbitz, Priceline, Booking.com,Expedia’s TripAssist and Travelocity. Skyscanner searches a variety of European budget airlines to find the cheapest connection.
TripIt is a clever app that stores all of your trip details in one place. Note that many apps (such as e-books) work on their own once you download them, but others (such as flight-search apps) need to access content online. You’ll either have to find a Wi-Fi hotspot or spring for data roaming to make them work.
To figure out train schedules, DB Navigator, German Rail’s comprehensive train timetables, includes connections for all of continental Europe. For the U.K., try thetrainline. Big cities, such as London and Paris, offer subway apps that save you from having to unfold an unwieldy map on a crowded platform.
If you don’t parlez-vous the local language, download Google Translate, which lets you type or speak foreign words for a translation. You can also say or type a sentence in English to hear a translation or see it written out. With Lonely Planet’s audio phrase-books, simply press a button to hear the phrase you’re struggling to pronounce.
Other useful travel apps include Measures, which converts various European units (such as clothing sizes and currency) to North American ones; the Weather Channel and AccuWeather, which help you figure out how to dress for the day; and mPassport, city-specific apps that direct you to English-speaking doctors and hospitals, as well as local names for prescription medications.
As more people travel with smartphones, I expect that more creative apps will become available. I am something of a tech holdout but if technology can make travel smoother and smarter, I’m all for it.
Rick Steves (ricksteves.com) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at rick@ricksteves.com, or write to him c/o P.O. Box 2009, Edmonds, WA 98020.
http://tourism9.com/
2012年1月2日星期一
Credit Agricole to cut jobs as loss looms
PARIS (Reuters) – Credit Agricole will make a 2011 loss, write off 2.5 billion euros ($3.2 billion) worth of assets and cut 2,350 jobs in a cull of its investment banking operations, the French bank said on Wednesday in its second profit warning of the year.
The warning reflects mounting pressure on lenders to curtail risky activities to meet tougher capital standards even as they wrestle worsening economies and slumping markets. The deepening euro zone debt crisis has slammed French banks in particular as traditional sources of dollar funding have evaporated.
“These are all things we would have expected to happen at some point, but putting it all in one quarter, in this kind of market, is unhelpful,” said a London based analyst who did not want to be named. “The stock is at bombed-out levels already … What will be key in how bad this gets is what they tell us about the ongoing business.”
The bank is following in the footsteps of larger domestic rivals BNP Paribasand Societe Generale , which have also announced job cuts primarily in investment banking as they seek to cut debt and wean themselves off funding markets frozen by the economic slump.
The pressure on the French banks’ capital and liquidity has led to recurring speculation that they could eventually seek a government bailout, but Credit Agricole Chief Executive Jean-Paul Chifflet denied that it would need any help in reaching stringent Basel III regulations.
“We will meet Basel III with our own resources,” he told a conference call.
That will call for some bitter medicine.
Credit Agricole, which in recent years abandoned its humble agricultural origins in favor of international growth, will exit 21 of the 55 countries where it operates and shutter entire businesses like equity derivatives and commodities.
MARKET TURMOIL
The writedown includes 1.3 billion euros to reflect the shrinkage of its investment banking division and 1.23 billion euros as writedowns of minority stakes, such as those in Spain’s Bankinterand Portugal’s Banco Espirito Santo .
Chifflet said in an interview with Les Echos newspaper that the bank was mulling the sale of stakes in both lenders, although he ruled out the sale of its holding in its Newedge joint venture with Societe Generale.
The bank also shelved its 2014 financial goals and eliminated its dividend for this year to preserve capital.
Analysts had expected France’s No. 3 lender to post a full-year profit of 2.4 billion euros after it was profitable in all previous quarters.
In July, Credit Agricole warned that deepening problems at its Emporiki Bank unit in Greece would wipe nearly 1 billion euros off its first-half results.
The job losses include 1,750 at Credit Agricole’s corporate and investment bank, which employs 13,000 people, and 600 at its factoring and consumer finance arms.
The bulk of the job losses will take place internationally, although 550 investment banking and 300 consumer finance jobs will be cut in France.
Credit Agricole shares slumped 6.7 percent to close at 4.23 euros, part of a wider rout in French banking shares which saw Societe Generaleslide 8 percent and BNP Paribas lose 7.4 percent.
More than six months of intense market turmoil sparked by the euro zone debt crisis is pummeling investment banks globally, denting their bond and stock trading income and sparking a wave of layoffs in Asia, the U.S. and Europe.
JOB LOSS TALLY GROWS
Citigroup was last week among the latest to press ahead with job cuts, while banks in some of the crisis hotspots — such as Italy’s UniCreditand Intesa Sanpaolo — are also laying off thousands of people.
More than 120,000 job losses have been announced this year, and many in the industry fear the tally will be greater than at the height of the financial crisis in 2008, as redundancies continue into 2012.
Like its French rivals, Credit Agricole is primarily pulling back in certain financing businesses, such as those in dollars, which have become harder for it to access, and will cut staff accordingly.
It also has a European equity broker, Chevreux, and a majority stake in Asian brokerage CLSA. But the bulk of cuts are likely to fall in fixed-income, which houses its rates and credit divisions, analysts said.
Credit trading in particular has come under pressure at all banks this year as wary investors shy away from the market and new regulation bites.
The recently appointed Chifflet has espoused a back-to-basics focus on retail banking in France and Europe after moves like the purchase of Emporiki backfired, rendering it deeply sensitive to turmoil in the eurozone economy.
Chifflet’s team is mulling various ways of bolstering the bank’s balance sheet, banking sources say, even though Credit Agricole’s robust parent network of regional banks has provided a cushion that has made raising additional capital unnecessary.
This may include more deal-making. The bank is close to announcing the sale of its private-equity activities, while it has also struck a $374 million deal to sell minority stakes in its CLSA and Cheuvreux brokerage brands to Chinese brokerage Citic Securities .
While Credit Agricole would be open to letting Citic increase its stake in the ventures — now at 19.9 percent — it aims to at least keep majority control, according to a person familiar with the bank’s thinking.
(Editing by David Holmes)
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The warning reflects mounting pressure on lenders to curtail risky activities to meet tougher capital standards even as they wrestle worsening economies and slumping markets. The deepening euro zone debt crisis has slammed French banks in particular as traditional sources of dollar funding have evaporated.
“These are all things we would have expected to happen at some point, but putting it all in one quarter, in this kind of market, is unhelpful,” said a London based analyst who did not want to be named. “The stock is at bombed-out levels already … What will be key in how bad this gets is what they tell us about the ongoing business.”
The bank is following in the footsteps of larger domestic rivals BNP Paribas
The pressure on the French banks’ capital and liquidity has led to recurring speculation that they could eventually seek a government bailout, but Credit Agricole Chief Executive Jean-Paul Chifflet denied that it would need any help in reaching stringent Basel III regulations.
“We will meet Basel III with our own resources,” he told a conference call.
That will call for some bitter medicine.
Credit Agricole, which in recent years abandoned its humble agricultural origins in favor of international growth, will exit 21 of the 55 countries where it operates and shutter entire businesses like equity derivatives and commodities.
MARKET TURMOIL
The writedown includes 1.3 billion euros to reflect the shrinkage of its investment banking division and 1.23 billion euros as writedowns of minority stakes, such as those in Spain’s Bankinter
Chifflet said in an interview with Les Echos newspaper that the bank was mulling the sale of stakes in both lenders, although he ruled out the sale of its holding in its Newedge joint venture with Societe Generale.
The bank also shelved its 2014 financial goals and eliminated its dividend for this year to preserve capital.
Analysts had expected France’s No. 3 lender to post a full-year profit of 2.4 billion euros after it was profitable in all previous quarters.
In July, Credit Agricole warned that deepening problems at its Emporiki Bank unit in Greece would wipe nearly 1 billion euros off its first-half results.
The job losses include 1,750 at Credit Agricole’s corporate and investment bank, which employs 13,000 people, and 600 at its factoring and consumer finance arms.
The bulk of the job losses will take place internationally, although 550 investment banking and 300 consumer finance jobs will be cut in France.
Credit Agricole shares slumped 6.7 percent to close at 4.23 euros, part of a wider rout in French banking shares which saw Societe Generale
More than six months of intense market turmoil sparked by the euro zone debt crisis is pummeling investment banks globally, denting their bond and stock trading income and sparking a wave of layoffs in Asia, the U.S. and Europe.
JOB LOSS TALLY GROWS
Citigroup was last week among the latest to press ahead with job cuts, while banks in some of the crisis hotspots — such as Italy’s UniCredit
More than 120,000 job losses have been announced this year, and many in the industry fear the tally will be greater than at the height of the financial crisis in 2008, as redundancies continue into 2012.
Like its French rivals, Credit Agricole is primarily pulling back in certain financing businesses, such as those in dollars, which have become harder for it to access, and will cut staff accordingly.
It also has a European equity broker, Chevreux, and a majority stake in Asian brokerage CLSA. But the bulk of cuts are likely to fall in fixed-income, which houses its rates and credit divisions, analysts said.
Credit trading in particular has come under pressure at all banks this year as wary investors shy away from the market and new regulation bites.
The recently appointed Chifflet has espoused a back-to-basics focus on retail banking in France and Europe after moves like the purchase of Emporiki backfired, rendering it deeply sensitive to turmoil in the eurozone economy.
Chifflet’s team is mulling various ways of bolstering the bank’s balance sheet, banking sources say, even though Credit Agricole’s robust parent network of regional banks has provided a cushion that has made raising additional capital unnecessary.
This may include more deal-making. The bank is close to announcing the sale of its private-equity activities, while it has also struck a $374 million deal to sell minority stakes in its CLSA and Cheuvreux brokerage brands to Chinese brokerage Citic Securities .
While Credit Agricole would be open to letting Citic increase its stake in the ventures — now at 19.9 percent — it aims to at least keep majority control, according to a person familiar with the bank’s thinking.
(Editing by David Holmes)
http://tourism9.com/
Credit Agricole to cut 2,350 jobs: union source
PARIS (Reuters) – Credit Agricole is to cut 2,350 jobs, primarily in investment banking, a union source told Reuters Wednesday, as the French bank slashes costs and ploughs ahead with a back-to-basics strategy sped up by the eurozone debt crisis.
The job losses include 1,750 at Credit Agricole‘s corporate and investment bank, which employs 13,000 people, the source said, and 600 job at its factoring and consumer finance arms.
The source added 500 of the corporate and investment banking jobs would be shed in France.
A second trade union source confirmed the 1,750 figure.
A Credit Agricole spokeswoman declined to comment.
Banking sources have said the bank may exit up to 20 of the 50 countries where its corporate and investment bank is present.
The bank is following in the footsteps of larger domestic rivals BNP Paribasand Societe Generale , which have announced job cuts primarily in investment banking as they seek to cut debt and wean themselves off funding markets frozen by the economic slump.
Shares of Credit Agricole were down 1.7 percent, at 4.45 euros, at 1126 GMT, underperforming a 0.94 percent drop in the STOXX Europe bank index <.sx7p>. Its stock price has fallen 52.4 percent year to date, against a 34.2 percent drop in the sector.
More than six months of intense market turmoil sparked by the euro zone debt crisis is pummeling investment banks globally, denting their bond and stock trading income and sparking a wave of layoffs in Asia, the U.S. and Europe.
Citigroup was last week among the latest to press ahead with job cuts, while banks in some of the crisis hotspots — such as Italy’s UniCreditand Intesa Sanpaolo — are also laying off thousands of people.
More than 120,000 job losses have been announced this year, and many in the industry fear the tally will be greater than at the height of the financial crisis in 2008, as redundancies continue into 2012.
Like its French rivals, Credit Agricole is primarily pulling back in certain financing businesses, such as those in dollars, which have become harder for it to access, and will cut staff accordingly.
It also has a European equity broker, Chevreux, and a majority stake in Asian brokerage CLSA. But the bulk of cuts are likely to fall in fixed-income, which houses its rates and credit divisions, analysts said.
Credit trading in particular has come under pressure at all banks this year as wary investors shy away from the market and new regulation bites.
Credit Agricole’s strategy under new Chief Executive Jean-Paul Chifflet, who has espoused a back-to-basics focus on retail banking in France and Europe, is a retreat from previous management ambitions of being a global player in financial markets.
The bank is deeply sensitive to ongoing turmoil in the eurozone economy, not just because it holds a substantial amount of Italian government debt but also because it owns local bank subsidiaries in crisis-wracked Greece and Italy.
Chifflet’s team is mulling various ways of bolstering the bank’s balance sheet, banking sources say, even though Credit Agricole’s robust parent network of regional banks has provided a cushion that has made raising additional capital unnecessary.
This may include more deal-making. The bank is close to announcing the sale of its private-equity activities, while it has also struck a $374 million deal to sell minority stakes in its CLSA and Cheuvreux brokerage brands to Chinese brokerage Citic Securities .
While Credit Agricole would be open to letting Citic increase its stake in the ventures — now at 19.9 percent — it aims to at least keep majority control, according to a person familiar with the bank’s thinking.
(Additional reporting by Sarah White in London; Editing by Jodie Ginsberg and David Hulmes)
http://tourism9.com/
The job losses include 1,750 at Credit Agricole‘s corporate and investment bank, which employs 13,000 people, the source said, and 600 job at its factoring and consumer finance arms.
The source added 500 of the corporate and investment banking jobs would be shed in France.
A second trade union source confirmed the 1,750 figure.
A Credit Agricole spokeswoman declined to comment.
Banking sources have said the bank may exit up to 20 of the 50 countries where its corporate and investment bank is present.
The bank is following in the footsteps of larger domestic rivals BNP Paribas
Shares of Credit Agricole were down 1.7 percent, at 4.45 euros, at 1126 GMT, underperforming a 0.94 percent drop in the STOXX Europe bank index <.sx7p>. Its stock price has fallen 52.4 percent year to date, against a 34.2 percent drop in the sector.
More than six months of intense market turmoil sparked by the euro zone debt crisis is pummeling investment banks globally, denting their bond and stock trading income and sparking a wave of layoffs in Asia, the U.S. and Europe.
Citigroup was last week among the latest to press ahead with job cuts, while banks in some of the crisis hotspots — such as Italy’s UniCredit
More than 120,000 job losses have been announced this year, and many in the industry fear the tally will be greater than at the height of the financial crisis in 2008, as redundancies continue into 2012.
Like its French rivals, Credit Agricole is primarily pulling back in certain financing businesses, such as those in dollars, which have become harder for it to access, and will cut staff accordingly.
It also has a European equity broker, Chevreux, and a majority stake in Asian brokerage CLSA. But the bulk of cuts are likely to fall in fixed-income, which houses its rates and credit divisions, analysts said.
Credit trading in particular has come under pressure at all banks this year as wary investors shy away from the market and new regulation bites.
Credit Agricole’s strategy under new Chief Executive Jean-Paul Chifflet, who has espoused a back-to-basics focus on retail banking in France and Europe, is a retreat from previous management ambitions of being a global player in financial markets.
The bank is deeply sensitive to ongoing turmoil in the eurozone economy, not just because it holds a substantial amount of Italian government debt but also because it owns local bank subsidiaries in crisis-wracked Greece and Italy.
Chifflet’s team is mulling various ways of bolstering the bank’s balance sheet, banking sources say, even though Credit Agricole’s robust parent network of regional banks has provided a cushion that has made raising additional capital unnecessary.
This may include more deal-making. The bank is close to announcing the sale of its private-equity activities, while it has also struck a $374 million deal to sell minority stakes in its CLSA and Cheuvreux brokerage brands to Chinese brokerage Citic Securities .
While Credit Agricole would be open to letting Citic increase its stake in the ventures — now at 19.9 percent — it aims to at least keep majority control, according to a person familiar with the bank’s thinking.
(Additional reporting by Sarah White in London; Editing by Jodie Ginsberg and David Hulmes)
http://tourism9.com/
Analysis: Wanted: Private equity high-flyers in growth areas
NEW YORK/LONDON/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Private equity firms, facing shrinking asset values and tough financing conditions, are trimming staff in mature markets, but are also looking to hire in growth areas so that they deliver the returns investors seek.
Shrinking fund sizes, crisis in the euro zone and hopes for emerging markets growth are all redrawing the global private equity map, determining the locations and sectors in which buyout firms hire and fire staff.
The industry boomed last decade as investor appetite created ever larger pools of capital, allowing firms to expand and cast their nets further and wider for deals. But in the financial turmoil, many buyout groups are now retrenching.
“This is still an active jobs market, the industry is focusing on niche businesses and smaller transactions and looking for senior advisors to succeed where the deals are,” said Todd Monti, who manages the global private equity and venture capital practice of headhunting firm Heidrick & Struggles.
The total capital garnered by private equity funds globally that have reached final close so far this year is about $240 billion, compared with $275 billion raised last year, according to market research firm Preqin.
The crunch has been most obvious in Europe, where a brief renaissance in private equity deals in the first half has stalled and the gloomy outlook is forcing some to reassess their approach.
Among the highest profile changes, TPG reshuffled its senior team in Europe, with co-head Philippe Costeletos taking a step back from daily duties and partner Matthias Calice leaving the firm by the end of the year.
But it is likely to be the satellite offices in European cities that come under the greatest pressure to close down.
“I think people are going to rein in on that if fund sizes shrink,” said one private equity managing partner.
Vestar Capital recently closed offices in Munich and Paris as part of a plan to focus back on the United States. And struggling mid-market group Cognetas has shut its office in Frankfurt and will close its London office later this year.
MOVING EAST
In line with the wider finance sector, the private equity jobs market has been more robust in Asia, where firms are actively hiring even as they shed tens of thousands of jobs in other regions, thanks to the continent’s economic resilience.
Buyouts in Asia-Pacific, excluding Japan and Central Asia, total $33 billion so far this year, up 54 percent from a year ago, compared with 9 percent growth in Europe and 36 percent in the Americas, Thomson Reuters data shows.
But there is a caveat. Language and cultural skills are key to new hires in Asia, as global and local private equity funds build teams to invest the capital flowing into the region.
“Limited partners are allocating a larger percentage of funds to Asia, and with that (private equity firms)are opening offices in the region,” said Julian Buckeridge, managing director for Strategic Executive Search based in China.
In contrast with Europe, where satellite offices are coming under pressure, the capital flowing to Asia is allowing firms to create new bases in places such as Singapore to provide a springboard into Southeast Asia.
In October, KKR appointed former Singapore government minister Lim Hwee Hua as a senior adviser and the firm is expected to locate a deal team of three in the region early in 2012 – KKR previously covered Southeast Asia from Hong Kong.
With firms such as TPG Capital and CVC Capital Partners already well established in the region, Blackstone Group LPis also mulling an expansion.
“We are seriously thinking of expanding our presence in the Southeast Asia region in terms of people on the ground and investment focus,” Michael Chae, Blackstone’s regional head, told the Reuters 2012 Investment Summit this week.
DIVERSIFICATION IS KING
The global shakeout will also create winners in the west. Buyout houses that have grown into private asset managers, such as Blackstone, KKR and Carlyle Group, are actively recruiting in areas such as credit investment and real estate.
This diversification, combined with the fee-based remuneration structure of private equity funds, has helped shield the pay of dealmakers from the economic headwinds battering the financial industry.
Incentive compensation in the U.S. private equity industry excluding carried interest is expected to fall between 0 and 5 percent in 2011, compared with plunges of up to 30 percent in investment banking and 45 percent in fixed income, according to compensation consulting firm Johnson Associates.
With competition for capital from institutional investors intensifying, major private equity firms are also ramping up their fundraising, increasingly bringing operations in-house instead of relying on others for their marketing.
“Private equity firms used to raise money every five years, now they fundraise everyday. Good capital raising professionals are in strong demand,” said Joseph Healy, who co-heads the private equity recruiting operations of Korn/Ferry International Inc.
For those unfortunate enough to find themselves out of work, or just looking for more job security, there are options.
Sovereign wealth funds and pension funds, with aspirations to do more deals directly and cut out the private equity middlemen, could gain as firms shed experienced staff.
“Some of those people may well be happy to be employed by a sovereign wealth fund and have a more conventional salary, knowing that there is oodles of money to invest into deals,” said David Currie, chief executive of Standard Life Capital Partners. (Editing by Andre Grenon)
http://tourism9.com/
Shrinking fund sizes, crisis in the euro zone and hopes for emerging markets growth are all redrawing the global private equity map, determining the locations and sectors in which buyout firms hire and fire staff.
The industry boomed last decade as investor appetite created ever larger pools of capital, allowing firms to expand and cast their nets further and wider for deals. But in the financial turmoil, many buyout groups are now retrenching.
“This is still an active jobs market, the industry is focusing on niche businesses and smaller transactions and looking for senior advisors to succeed where the deals are,” said Todd Monti, who manages the global private equity and venture capital practice of headhunting firm Heidrick & Struggles.
The total capital garnered by private equity funds globally that have reached final close so far this year is about $240 billion, compared with $275 billion raised last year, according to market research firm Preqin.
The crunch has been most obvious in Europe, where a brief renaissance in private equity deals in the first half has stalled and the gloomy outlook is forcing some to reassess their approach.
Among the highest profile changes, TPG reshuffled its senior team in Europe, with co-head Philippe Costeletos taking a step back from daily duties and partner Matthias Calice leaving the firm by the end of the year.
But it is likely to be the satellite offices in European cities that come under the greatest pressure to close down.
“I think people are going to rein in on that if fund sizes shrink,” said one private equity managing partner.
Vestar Capital recently closed offices in Munich and Paris as part of a plan to focus back on the United States. And struggling mid-market group Cognetas has shut its office in Frankfurt and will close its London office later this year.
MOVING EAST
In line with the wider finance sector, the private equity jobs market has been more robust in Asia, where firms are actively hiring even as they shed tens of thousands of jobs in other regions, thanks to the continent’s economic resilience.
Buyouts in Asia-Pacific, excluding Japan and Central Asia, total $33 billion so far this year, up 54 percent from a year ago, compared with 9 percent growth in Europe and 36 percent in the Americas, Thomson Reuters data shows.
But there is a caveat. Language and cultural skills are key to new hires in Asia, as global and local private equity funds build teams to invest the capital flowing into the region.
“Limited partners are allocating a larger percentage of funds to Asia, and with that (private equity firms)are opening offices in the region,” said Julian Buckeridge, managing director for Strategic Executive Search based in China.
In contrast with Europe, where satellite offices are coming under pressure, the capital flowing to Asia is allowing firms to create new bases in places such as Singapore to provide a springboard into Southeast Asia.
In October, KKR appointed former Singapore government minister Lim Hwee Hua as a senior adviser and the firm is expected to locate a deal team of three in the region early in 2012 – KKR previously covered Southeast Asia from Hong Kong.
With firms such as TPG Capital and CVC Capital Partners already well established in the region, Blackstone Group LP
“We are seriously thinking of expanding our presence in the Southeast Asia region in terms of people on the ground and investment focus,” Michael Chae, Blackstone’s regional head, told the Reuters 2012 Investment Summit this week.
DIVERSIFICATION IS KING
The global shakeout will also create winners in the west. Buyout houses that have grown into private asset managers, such as Blackstone, KKR and Carlyle Group, are actively recruiting in areas such as credit investment and real estate.
This diversification, combined with the fee-based remuneration structure of private equity funds, has helped shield the pay of dealmakers from the economic headwinds battering the financial industry.
Incentive compensation in the U.S. private equity industry excluding carried interest is expected to fall between 0 and 5 percent in 2011, compared with plunges of up to 30 percent in investment banking and 45 percent in fixed income, according to compensation consulting firm Johnson Associates.
With competition for capital from institutional investors intensifying, major private equity firms are also ramping up their fundraising, increasingly bringing operations in-house instead of relying on others for their marketing.
“Private equity firms used to raise money every five years, now they fundraise everyday. Good capital raising professionals are in strong demand,” said Joseph Healy, who co-heads the private equity recruiting operations of Korn/Ferry International Inc.
For those unfortunate enough to find themselves out of work, or just looking for more job security, there are options.
Sovereign wealth funds and pension funds, with aspirations to do more deals directly and cut out the private equity middlemen, could gain as firms shed experienced staff.
“Some of those people may well be happy to be employed by a sovereign wealth fund and have a more conventional salary, knowing that there is oodles of money to invest into deals,” said David Currie, chief executive of Standard Life Capital Partners. (Editing by Andre Grenon)
http://tourism9.com/
2011年12月30日星期五
Travel mag targets the ‘young, sexy and broke’
A popular DUMBO-based travel website for young globe-trotters on a tight budget is veering offline and onto the magazine rack.
Offtrackplanet.com – an online travel magazine geared toward the “young, sexy and broke,” – will sell copies of their magazine for the first time in more than 300 stores nationwide – including Barnes and Noble.
It’s an unususal step at a time when print publications are slashing budgets and even folding to go digital.
“Print still establishes some credibility. Anyone can slap together a website,” said company CEO and cofounder Freddie Pikovsky, 28.
The quarterly magazine – which will retail for $4.95 and hit newsstands on January 4th – is just as edgy as the site. The latest issue features stories on Paris’ finest sex shops; how to haggle with street vendors abroad and the best places to get tanked with locals in Madrid.
Pikovsky – who was born to Russian immigrants in Bensonhurst – said his life changed on a European backpacking trip in 2008 and hopes the website and magazine’s party atmosphere will inspire people to travel.
“I had all these misconceptions that traveling was reserved for people who were wealthy and that it was a waste of time,” said Pikovsky. “I want to inspire other people to experience something that could change their world.”
The site first launched in 2009 from Pikovsky’s Sunset Park apartment after he met his partner Anna Starostinetskaya, 28, in a Bedford-Stuyvesant hostel. Starostinetskaya – an immigrant from the Ukraine who grew up in Los Angeles – said studying abroad in Spain for six months in 2004 changed her life.
“We talk a lot about the partying and the sex culture but it’s not our job to give people a motive,” said Starostinetskaya. “It’s our job to inspire them.”
Officials for book giant Barnes and Noble said 200 of their stores will sell Off Track Planet magazine and will feature it in their top travel markets.
“We believe it’s a great quality magazine that meets our standards for sale in our store,” said newsstand vice president, Theresa Thompson. “We think it’s edgy and will appeal to a young traveler.”
Despite the foray into print, the tech-first company is working on a sophisticated mobile app that will allow backpackers to connect with experienced travelers and access content from the website. Pikovsky said the company is short about $800,000 to make the app work and is looking for donations from investors.
“We want to reinvent travel guides” said Pikovsky. “We like to say we’re creating movement around the world.”
for more information, visit www.offtrackplanet.com
mmorales@nydailynews.com
Twitter.com/NYDNMarkMorales
This article is from http://tourism9.com/
Offtrackplanet.com – an online travel magazine geared toward the “young, sexy and broke,” – will sell copies of their magazine for the first time in more than 300 stores nationwide – including Barnes and Noble.
It’s an unususal step at a time when print publications are slashing budgets and even folding to go digital.
“Print still establishes some credibility. Anyone can slap together a website,” said company CEO and cofounder Freddie Pikovsky, 28.
The quarterly magazine – which will retail for $4.95 and hit newsstands on January 4th – is just as edgy as the site. The latest issue features stories on Paris’ finest sex shops; how to haggle with street vendors abroad and the best places to get tanked with locals in Madrid.
Pikovsky – who was born to Russian immigrants in Bensonhurst – said his life changed on a European backpacking trip in 2008 and hopes the website and magazine’s party atmosphere will inspire people to travel.
“I had all these misconceptions that traveling was reserved for people who were wealthy and that it was a waste of time,” said Pikovsky. “I want to inspire other people to experience something that could change their world.”
The site first launched in 2009 from Pikovsky’s Sunset Park apartment after he met his partner Anna Starostinetskaya, 28, in a Bedford-Stuyvesant hostel. Starostinetskaya – an immigrant from the Ukraine who grew up in Los Angeles – said studying abroad in Spain for six months in 2004 changed her life.
“We talk a lot about the partying and the sex culture but it’s not our job to give people a motive,” said Starostinetskaya. “It’s our job to inspire them.”
Officials for book giant Barnes and Noble said 200 of their stores will sell Off Track Planet magazine and will feature it in their top travel markets.
“We believe it’s a great quality magazine that meets our standards for sale in our store,” said newsstand vice president, Theresa Thompson. “We think it’s edgy and will appeal to a young traveler.”
Despite the foray into print, the tech-first company is working on a sophisticated mobile app that will allow backpackers to connect with experienced travelers and access content from the website. Pikovsky said the company is short about $800,000 to make the app work and is looking for donations from investors.
“We want to reinvent travel guides” said Pikovsky. “We like to say we’re creating movement around the world.”
for more information, visit www.offtrackplanet.com
mmorales@nydailynews.com
Twitter.com/NYDNMarkMorales
This article is from http://tourism9.com/
Weekly Travel Deals on VEGAS.com
LAS VEGAS, NV–(Marketwire -12/27/11)- The travel experts at VEGAS.com, the world’s number one city travel website with the top Las Vegas Hotels and Las Vegas Shows, have outlined some of this week’s exclusive and limited-time only travel deals.
Rio All Suites: Las Vegas Hotel and Casino — 20% Off Your Stay plus Two-for-One DealsBook a room marked with the 20% Off Your Stay plus Two-for-One Deals offer at Rio All Suites: Las Vegas Hotel and Casino for a minimum of two nights between now and Feb. 28, 2012, for stay dates between now and Feb. 28, 2012, and receive 20% off your stay. As an added bonus, guests will receive two-for-one deals to enjoy during their visit.
Details at VEGAS.com.
Trump International Hotel and Tower — Up to 25% Off Your StayBook a room marked with the Up to 25% Off Your Stay offer at the Trump International Hotel and Tower between now and March 30, 2012, for stay dates between now and March 30, 2012, and receive up to 25% off your stay. This is a nonrefundable rate.
Details at VEGAS.com.
David Copperfield — Save $22 Per TicketFor a limited time only, save $22 per ticket when you book select David Copperfield tickets on VEGAS.com.
Details at VEGAS.com.
About VEGAS.comVEGAS.com is the largest city destination travel website in the world with extensive, constantly updated information and a full range of travel products including Las Vegas hotels, Las Vegas Air & Hotel Packages, Las Vegas shows, tours and golf. A state-of-the-art contact center provides customer support, expert information and sales 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year to complement the information on www.VEGAS.com. VEGAS.com, through its Casino Travel & Tours unit, operates retail and concierge desks at more than 50 locations including the Palms, Paris, Harrah’s, Bally’s, Excalibur, New York-New York, Luxor and more. The company also offers a variety of excursions including city tours, the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. VEGAS.com is a member of the Greenspun Family of Companies, privately owned and operating in Southern Nevada for more than 60 years.
This article is from http://tourism9.com/
Rio All Suites: Las Vegas Hotel and Casino — 20% Off Your Stay plus Two-for-One DealsBook a room marked with the 20% Off Your Stay plus Two-for-One Deals offer at Rio All Suites: Las Vegas Hotel and Casino for a minimum of two nights between now and Feb. 28, 2012, for stay dates between now and Feb. 28, 2012, and receive 20% off your stay. As an added bonus, guests will receive two-for-one deals to enjoy during their visit.
Details at VEGAS.com.
Trump International Hotel and Tower — Up to 25% Off Your StayBook a room marked with the Up to 25% Off Your Stay offer at the Trump International Hotel and Tower between now and March 30, 2012, for stay dates between now and March 30, 2012, and receive up to 25% off your stay. This is a nonrefundable rate.
Details at VEGAS.com.
David Copperfield — Save $22 Per TicketFor a limited time only, save $22 per ticket when you book select David Copperfield tickets on VEGAS.com.
Details at VEGAS.com.
About VEGAS.comVEGAS.com is the largest city destination travel website in the world with extensive, constantly updated information and a full range of travel products including Las Vegas hotels, Las Vegas Air & Hotel Packages, Las Vegas shows, tours and golf. A state-of-the-art contact center provides customer support, expert information and sales 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year to complement the information on www.VEGAS.com. VEGAS.com, through its Casino Travel & Tours unit, operates retail and concierge desks at more than 50 locations including the Palms, Paris, Harrah’s, Bally’s, Excalibur, New York-New York, Luxor and more. The company also offers a variety of excursions including city tours, the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. VEGAS.com is a member of the Greenspun Family of Companies, privately owned and operating in Southern Nevada for more than 60 years.
This article is from http://tourism9.com/
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