February 29, 2012, 2:56 AM EST
By Elisa Martinuzzi and Zijing Wu
Feb. 29 (Bloomberg) — Investment banks including Deutsche Bank AG and Morgan Stanley are vying for as much as $2 billion in annual fees in Europe arranging customized equity derivatives — a secretive market that has defied the downturn.
The business, about as large as underwriting initial public offerings before the 2008 financial crisis, is now three times bigger and held steady last year, according to estimates from six bankers who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The contracts accounted for almost 10 percent of total investment-banking fees last year in Europe, the Middle East and Africa as revenue from dealmaking and trading sank, data compiled by research firm Freeman & Co. show.
Because the deals, whose value is tied to stocks, are customized and not traded on exchanges, banks are able to charge higher fees than for contracts in which customers seek competing bids. They’re also attractive to lenders because new rules demanding capital buffers against potential losses aren’t as punitive as for other derivatives.
“Regulatory change may drive banks back to the business, not away from it,” said Rachel Lord, Citigroup Inc.’s London- based global head of corporate equity derivatives. “This is one part of the investment-banking industry where, despite compressed margins, the business remains a high priority because it’s so important to the client base.”
Tailor-Made
Investors such as Aabar Investments PJSC, the Abu Dhabi- based sovereign-wealth fund, and Italy’s Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena, owner of the world’s oldest bank, sought derivatives to protect the value of their holdings or to borrow against equity stakes.
Banks including Deutsche Bank AG, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are competing in a region that’s the biggest in the world by fees, surpassing the U.S. and Asia. The annual notional value of tailor-made equity derivatives is typically more than $50 billion in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, according to estimates from two of the bankers.
The market is so big and lucrative that even lenders shrinking their investment-banking arms want to keep the business going. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, which is selling or closing brokerage, merger-advisory and IPO- underwriting units, will continue arranging “profitable” equity derivatives, the London-based firm said last month. Credit Agricole SA, France’s second-largest bank by assets, will do the same for corporate clients, said Bertrand Hugonet, a Paris-based spokesman.
“There’s a lot of competition because there’s been a history of profitable transactions in this space,” said Samuel Losada, London-based head of European corporate equity derivatives at Bank of America Corp. “You can achieve over the long run, if risks are managed properly, above-market returns.”
Daimler Derivative
Because the deals are private, there aren’t any publicly available rankings. Based on bankers’ own assessments and the sharing of information among them, the business is dominated by the region’s top equity brokers and better-capitalized firms. Industry leaders include Frankfurt based Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, all in New York, and Zurich-based Credit Suisse Group AG, the bankers said.
Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America arranged a derivative in May that allows Abu Dhabi’s Aabar to keep its share of the potential near-term gains of Daimler AG, even as the fund sold a 1.25 billion-euro ($1.7 billion) bond exchangeable for the German automaker’s shares. The sale could cut Aabar’s Daimler holding to 7.2 percent from 9.1 percent when the bond matures in 2016.
The deal was the region’s largest ever derivative overlay, a strategy to hold multiple contracts against the same assets, linked to an exchangeable bond, according to Losada.
Emerging Markets
“There’s a clear trend that the emerging-market business is becoming more important,” said Losada. “We saw continuous activity in this space over the last 12 months.”
Increasing demand from emerging-market clients, such as Middle Eastern sovereign-wealth funds, has helped buck a slowdown in Western European deal flows.
“The business can be divided into two parts: the growth markets, where it’s harder for some to obtain liquidity and hence is driven by financing, and developed markets, where clients seek to manage their equity positions,” said Simon Watson, a managing director at Goldman Sachs in London who heads corporate equity derivatives for the region.
While financial firms are cutting employees in other investment-banking areas, many are looking to add to their equity-derivatives businesses in the region.
‘Beefing Up’
Bank of America, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, may hire two bankers this year to join the eight it has in London today, said Losada. Citigroup this month named Sophie Lecoq to the new position of head of corporate equity derivatives for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Morgan Stanley also may increase its team’s headcount, according to Daniel Palmer, the firm’s London-based global head of corporate equity derivatives.
“We expanded our business significantly over the past three years,” said Palmer. “Our team is now almost complete, but we might add one or two heads later in the year.”
Nomura Holdings Inc., which took over Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s European business in 2008, may add one senior banker to its 12-person team in London, said Kenneth Brown, global head of equity capital markets. Lenders are “beefing up their European teams” of corporate equity derivatives because Europe is a now a bigger market than the U.S., he said.
It’s also a more resilient market, and the teams, which typically employ about a dozen people, are small compared with those that manage IPOs, said Christopher Wheeler, a banking analyst at Mediobanca SpA in London.
“It’s a business driven by the sweat of the brow,” Wheeler said.
Margin Loans
While banks can earn more arranging tailor-made equity derivatives than underwriting stock sales, increasing competition has driven down fees for financing some deals, including margin loans, or loans from securities firms backed by clients’ equity holdings used as collateral, the bankers said.
Margin loans are a way for investors who have limited access to bank funding or capital markets to raise money. At least 10 firms competed to win a margin loan from an Italian client this year, compared with three or four that would have bid for the business a couple of years ago, said one banker, who declined to be identified citing client confidentiality.
Monte dei Paschi
Fondazione Monte dei Paschi, the biggest investor in Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, last year raised about 600 million euros through loans backed by collateral on its stake in the lender.
Eleven banks participated in the deal, which helped raise funds to pay for shares sold by the bank in June, said Gianni Tiberi, a spokesman for the foundation. The firms, which included Credit Suisse and JPMorgan Chase & Co., participated equally, Tiberi said, declining to elaborate. The loan was reduced to about 525 million euros as Monte dei Paschi shares fell, he said.
In one type of equity derivative, known as an equity swap, one party agrees to receive gains in a stock or basket of stocks and in return makes interest payments to the other party on the value of the securities it bet on. Investment banks typically act as intermediaries between the two parties in the swap.
Under the so-called Basel III rules, approved by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and scheduled to be phased in through 2019, banks will face a capital charge for potential mark-to-market losses on over-the-counter derivatives.
Data Gaps
“Because credit markets tend to be less liquid and transparent than equities, banks often need proxies to measure the counterparty risk in credit derivatives, creating data gaps and higher capital charges,” said Anastasios Zavitsanakis, a financial-risk consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in London. “The actual exposure in equities is more measurable in the short term, and there might be more collateral, reducing further the capital charges.”
Still, banks’ waning risk appetite is spreading the business around more evenly, said Citigroup’s Lord.
“In the past 10 years, two to three banks would typically lead the industry, while over the last year it has been much more broad-based,” Lord said. “Before 2008, banks would have been happy to be sole books on very large deals. It’s not feasible to do that now, so there’s a lot more deal-sharing.”
Morgan Stanley has expanded its business by building up a book of margin loans, said Palmer.
“Some competitors are looking to sell their loans,” he said. “As banks de-lever, we’ve come across clients coming to us seeking to raise money on a shareholding, for example.”
‘Bespoke Solutions’
Even with the increased competition, Deutsche Bank sees demand from clients “as high as ever,” said Ian Holt, the bank’s London-based global head of equity structuring.
“It’s a good business because you are providing bespoke solutions and providing clients with what they need in and around complex situations, which makes higher margins naturally achievable,” said Holt.
Success for most firms this year depends on whether there’s a pick-up in mergers, bankers said. When companies combine, a seller left with a minority stake may seek to raise funds against the holding by buying put options on the shares and using the options to raise cash. Banks can also use derivatives to help investors who receive stock protect the value of their holdings.
“In M&A, you’re the exclusive adviser, and that’s where you can have prime access to interesting situations before they become public knowledge,” said Bank of America’s Losada. “That’s where the real alpha is.”
–With assistance from Ben Moshinsky in Brussels. Editors: Robert Friedman, Edward Evans
To contact the reporters on this story: Elisa Martinuzzi in Milan at emartinuzzi@bloomberg.net; Zijing Wu in London at zwu17@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Edward Evans at eevans3@bloomberg.net; Jacqueline Simmons at jackiem@bloomberg.net
http://tourism9.com/ http://vkins.com/
2012年2月10日星期五
Draghi Slams Bankers’ Shunning ECB Three-Year Loans
February 10, 2012, 4:47 AM EST
By Aaron Kirchfeld and Liam Vaughan
(Corrects statement on internal discussions on loans to show it was made by ING CEO, not UBS, in fourth paragraph.)
Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) — European Central Bank President Mario Draghi lashed out at bankers who said tapping the ECB’s three-year-loan program carries a stigma, after executives including Deutsche Bank AG’s Josef Ackermann said they shunned the loans.
“There is no stigma whatsoever on these facilities,” Draghi said at a press conference in Frankfurt yesterday. “Some have made some sort of statements that I would call statements of virility, namely it would be undignified for a bank, a serious bank, to access these facilities. Now let me say that the very same banks that made these statements access facilities of different kinds — but still government facilities.”
The statements by Draghi, who didn’t identify any banks by name, came a week after Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Officer Ackermann said Germany’s biggest lender didn’t tap the ECB in December because it could damage its reputation with customers. The ECB awarded 489 billion euros ($650 billion) in loans to 523 banks on Dec. 21 to keep credit flowing to the economy as Europe’s debt crisis drove up banks’ borrowing costs. The ECB will offer a second batch of the loans this month.
ING Groep NV CEO Jan Hommen told reporters on a conference call yesterday that the biggest Dutch financial-services company didn’t take the loans in December, partly because of reputational risk. It’s discussing internally whether to take loans in the second program, he said.
Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland’s second-biggest bank, didn’t access the ECB’s lending program in December and won’t in the future, CEO Brady Dougan said yesterday in a Bloomberg Television interview.
‘Careless at Best’
Sergio Ermotti, the CEO of UBS AG, told analysts and journalists on Feb. 7 that the largest Swiss bank didn’t borrow from the ECB because its funding and financial position didn’t make it necessary.
Some analysts said avoiding the loans is self-defeating.
The last offering “has removed any stigma, making managements who do not exploit the value on offer arguably careless at best,” Credit Suisse analysts led by William Porter wrote in a Jan. 16 report to clients.
Banks in peripheral European countries such as Greece, Spain and Italy have been harder hit by the sovereign-debt crisis, driving up their funding costs in lockstep with the countries’, while lenders in Germany and Switzerland have been less affected.
‘Virtuous’ Governments
The banking and funding crisis “originates from a sovereign crisis, and so the banks that happen to be located in governments that have no fiscal crisis, that have always done the right reforms, should give more credit to their governments really for having been virtuous all along,” Draghi said.
Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, Italy’s second-biggest bank, took 12 billion euros from the ECB in December and expects to participate in the February auction, CEO Enrico Tommaso Cucchiani told reporters in Milan on Feb. 7. The loans were “essential for some banks” and “useful for other banks, including Intesa,” Cucchiani said. In Spain, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, the country’s second-biggest lender, announced it borrowed 11 billion euros from the ECB in December.
In the U.K., Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc borrowed 5 billion pounds ($7.9 billion) in the December auction, a person familiar with the matter said, while HSBC Holdings Plc took an undisclosed sum, said a person at the bank. Spokesmen at the companies declined to comment.
Societe Generale SA, BNP Paribas SA and Credit Agricole SA, France’s three largest banks, also participated for an undisclosed amount, according to a Morgan Stanley note published Jan. 18 based on conversations with the lenders. Spokesmen at the banks declined to comment.
Lesson Learned
Ackermann told analysts on Feb. 2 that Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank may consider participating in the next round of ECB loans if it is “very attractive from an economic point of view.” The German lender has impressed customers by not requiring direct government aid during the financial crisis, Ackermann said.
“The fact that we have never taken any money from the government has made us from a reputational point of view so attractive to so many clients in the world that we would be very reluctant to give that up,” said Ackermann, 64.
Deutsche Bank’s decision to avoid the loans follows the disclosure of its borrowings from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s emergency-loan program during the credit crunch in 2008.
“We learned our lesson during the Fed activity, where we were encouraged to borrow money from the Fed on a confidential level and later on the list was disclosed, and we heard that we had to accept help from the government,” Ackermann said. “We just don’t want to do that, and that’s why we have not participated.”
–Editor: Frank Connelly, James Hertling
To contact the reporters on this story: Aaron Kirchfeld in Frankfurt at akirchfeld@bloomberg.net; To contact the reporters on this story: Liam Vaughan in London at lvaughan6@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/
By Aaron Kirchfeld and Liam Vaughan
(Corrects statement on internal discussions on loans to show it was made by ING CEO, not UBS, in fourth paragraph.)
Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) — European Central Bank President Mario Draghi lashed out at bankers who said tapping the ECB’s three-year-loan program carries a stigma, after executives including Deutsche Bank AG’s Josef Ackermann said they shunned the loans.
“There is no stigma whatsoever on these facilities,” Draghi said at a press conference in Frankfurt yesterday. “Some have made some sort of statements that I would call statements of virility, namely it would be undignified for a bank, a serious bank, to access these facilities. Now let me say that the very same banks that made these statements access facilities of different kinds — but still government facilities.”
The statements by Draghi, who didn’t identify any banks by name, came a week after Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Officer Ackermann said Germany’s biggest lender didn’t tap the ECB in December because it could damage its reputation with customers. The ECB awarded 489 billion euros ($650 billion) in loans to 523 banks on Dec. 21 to keep credit flowing to the economy as Europe’s debt crisis drove up banks’ borrowing costs. The ECB will offer a second batch of the loans this month.
ING Groep NV CEO Jan Hommen told reporters on a conference call yesterday that the biggest Dutch financial-services company didn’t take the loans in December, partly because of reputational risk. It’s discussing internally whether to take loans in the second program, he said.
Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland’s second-biggest bank, didn’t access the ECB’s lending program in December and won’t in the future, CEO Brady Dougan said yesterday in a Bloomberg Television interview.
‘Careless at Best’
Sergio Ermotti, the CEO of UBS AG, told analysts and journalists on Feb. 7 that the largest Swiss bank didn’t borrow from the ECB because its funding and financial position didn’t make it necessary.
Some analysts said avoiding the loans is self-defeating.
The last offering “has removed any stigma, making managements who do not exploit the value on offer arguably careless at best,” Credit Suisse analysts led by William Porter wrote in a Jan. 16 report to clients.
Banks in peripheral European countries such as Greece, Spain and Italy have been harder hit by the sovereign-debt crisis, driving up their funding costs in lockstep with the countries’, while lenders in Germany and Switzerland have been less affected.
‘Virtuous’ Governments
The banking and funding crisis “originates from a sovereign crisis, and so the banks that happen to be located in governments that have no fiscal crisis, that have always done the right reforms, should give more credit to their governments really for having been virtuous all along,” Draghi said.
Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, Italy’s second-biggest bank, took 12 billion euros from the ECB in December and expects to participate in the February auction, CEO Enrico Tommaso Cucchiani told reporters in Milan on Feb. 7. The loans were “essential for some banks” and “useful for other banks, including Intesa,” Cucchiani said. In Spain, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, the country’s second-biggest lender, announced it borrowed 11 billion euros from the ECB in December.
In the U.K., Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc borrowed 5 billion pounds ($7.9 billion) in the December auction, a person familiar with the matter said, while HSBC Holdings Plc took an undisclosed sum, said a person at the bank. Spokesmen at the companies declined to comment.
Societe Generale SA, BNP Paribas SA and Credit Agricole SA, France’s three largest banks, also participated for an undisclosed amount, according to a Morgan Stanley note published Jan. 18 based on conversations with the lenders. Spokesmen at the banks declined to comment.
Lesson Learned
Ackermann told analysts on Feb. 2 that Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank may consider participating in the next round of ECB loans if it is “very attractive from an economic point of view.” The German lender has impressed customers by not requiring direct government aid during the financial crisis, Ackermann said.
“The fact that we have never taken any money from the government has made us from a reputational point of view so attractive to so many clients in the world that we would be very reluctant to give that up,” said Ackermann, 64.
Deutsche Bank’s decision to avoid the loans follows the disclosure of its borrowings from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s emergency-loan program during the credit crunch in 2008.
“We learned our lesson during the Fed activity, where we were encouraged to borrow money from the Fed on a confidential level and later on the list was disclosed, and we heard that we had to accept help from the government,” Ackermann said. “We just don’t want to do that, and that’s why we have not participated.”
–Editor: Frank Connelly, James Hertling
To contact the reporters on this story: Aaron Kirchfeld in Frankfurt at akirchfeld@bloomberg.net; To contact the reporters on this story: Liam Vaughan in London at lvaughan6@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1月17日星期二
S&P downgrades euro zone rescue fund
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – U.S. rating agency Standard & Poor’s cut its credit rating of the euro zone’s EFSF rescue fund on Monday, and Greece was under pressure to break a deadlock in debt swap talks if it is to avoid an unruly default.
French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said there was no need to shore up the European Financial Stability Facility after S&P downgraded it by one notch to AA+ from triple-A, echoing the view of Germany, the only major euro zone member to retain a top-notch credit rating.
S&P said in a statement the decision was all but inevitable following identical cuts three days earlier to the creditworthiness of France and Austria, two of the EFSF’s guarantors.
“We consider that credit enhancements that would offset what we view as the now-reduced creditworthiness of the EFSF’s guarantors and securities backing the EFSF’s issues are currently not in place,” the agency said in a statement.
“We have therefore lowered to AA+ the issuer credit rating of the EFSF, as well as the issue ratings on its long-term debt securities.”
Financial markets, which had fallen after the mass downgrades of euro zone members on Friday, showed little reaction to the latest blow — which had been expected — and Japan, a major buyer of EFSF bonds, said they remained an “attractive” investment.
A growing number of experts, including a Standard & Poor’s official, warned that a Greek default was on the cards, after Greece’s talks with creditors broke down on Friday.
Greece was under growing pressure to secure a last-ditch agreement with its private creditors to accept voluntary losses on their holdings of Greek bonds.
Athens risks going bankrupt when 14.5 billion euros of bond redemptions fall due in late March. Without a private sector bond swap involving a voluntary writedown, a 130 billion euro second international bailout for Greece could fall apart.
The talks with creditor banks broke down because of different views on what interest rate is acceptable, the head of the group leading private sector talks said.
Charles Dallara, managing director of the Institute of International Financial, said the banks were “very surprised” at the stance taken by some officials representing both governments and multilateral institutions, without naming them.
The EFSF was set up by the 17 governments that share the European single currency in May 2010 and has so far been used to provide emergency loans to Ireland and Portugal. It is also expected to contribute to a second bailout of Greece.
The fund has an effective lending capacity of 440 billion euros, which depends on guarantees, mainly from the euro zone’s AAA countries, only four of which now remain: Germany, Luxembourg, Finland and the Netherlands.
LENDING CAPACITY UNAFFECTED
In a statement, the EFSF said the downgrade would not affect its lending capacity, and emphasized that its short-term rating remained at S&P’s top level.
“The downgrade to ‘AA+’ by only one credit agency will not reduce EFSF’s lending capacity of 440 billion euros,” said the fund’s chief executive, Klaus Regling.
“EFSF has sufficient means to fulfill its commitments under current and potential future adjustment programs until the ESM becomes operational in July 2012,” he added.
The ESM — the European Stability Mechanism — is a permanent rescue fund that is expected to have an effective capacity of 500 billion euros, based on paid-in capital of 80 billion euros and callable capital of 620 billion euros.
French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said there was no need to shore up the EFSF despite the S&P rating downgrade.
“The EFSF has kept intact its ability to lend, with enough means and guarantees to fulfill the full range of its present and future commitments,” he said in a statement. “There is therefore no need to act on the EFSF at the moment.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert told reporters: “The government has no reason to believe that the volume of guarantees that the EFSF has now should not be sufficient to fulfill its current obligations.
“We should not forget that it has been decided to significantly move forward the ESM and to have it in place in mid-2012, one year earlier than planned.”
There was also support from Japan, with Finance Minister Jun Azumi saying Tokyo’s trust in EFSF bonds, in which it has so far invested 21 billion euros, had not been shaken.
“Japan has bought them by certain amounts and our stance will not immediately change just because of the downgrade,” Azumi told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
The euro hovered just above a 17-month trough against the dollar early in Asia on Tuesday, but reaction to the S&P downgrade was muted. Trading overnight was subdued as U.S. markets were shut for the Martin Luther King holiday.
The head of Austria’s debt office told Reuters the loss of Vienna’s AAA status had also been priced into the market already, and Austria was able to sell treasury bills on Monday at rates very close to zero.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy brushed off the historic loss of Paris’ top credit rating for the first time since 1975, a blow to his campaign for re-election in May, saying France’s policy would not be dictated by rating agencies.
Contrasting S&P’s move with a statement by rival watchdog Moody’s, which still has France on an Aaa rating, he said: “My deep belief is that it changes nothing. We must reduce the deficit, we must reduce our spending and we must improve the competitiveness of our economy to return to a path of growth.”
LOSERS TO PAY?
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, whose debt-laden country was downgraded by two notches along with Spain, called last week during a visit to Berlin for the EFSF to be increased to ward off attacks on his country’s bonds.
But a senior politician in Merkel’s conservative CDU party, Michael Meister, said it was the downgraded countries that should increase their guarantees for the fund.
“Germany was not downgraded so our contribution should not be changed. Countries that were affected must contribute more to the guarantees,” Meister told Reuters.
Sources familiar with Greece’s talks with its private creditors said EU paymaster Germany was pressing for new bonds to be given to banks in the planned swap to carry a low coupon of less than four percent that would increase the banks’ effective losses to 75 percent.
The IMF was also weighing on the talks by warning that the Greek economy and the euro zone’s economic outlook have worsened since the bailout package was agreed in October, raising Athens’ funding needs to make its debt sustainable by 2020, they said.
Greece put a brave face on the standoff. “There is a little pause in these discussions,” Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos told CNBC television. “But I am confident they will continue and we will reach an agreement that is mutually acceptable in time.”
(Additional reporting by Lefteris Papadimos in Athens, Steve Slater and Richard Hubbard in London, Jan Strupczewski in Brussels and Fiona Ortiz in Madrid; Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Tim Pearce and Alex Richardson)
http://tourism9.cm/ http://vkins.com/
French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said there was no need to shore up the European Financial Stability Facility after S&P downgraded it by one notch to AA+ from triple-A, echoing the view of Germany, the only major euro zone member to retain a top-notch credit rating.
S&P said in a statement the decision was all but inevitable following identical cuts three days earlier to the creditworthiness of France and Austria, two of the EFSF’s guarantors.
“We consider that credit enhancements that would offset what we view as the now-reduced creditworthiness of the EFSF’s guarantors and securities backing the EFSF’s issues are currently not in place,” the agency said in a statement.
“We have therefore lowered to AA+ the issuer credit rating of the EFSF, as well as the issue ratings on its long-term debt securities.”
Financial markets, which had fallen after the mass downgrades of euro zone members on Friday, showed little reaction to the latest blow — which had been expected — and Japan, a major buyer of EFSF bonds, said they remained an “attractive” investment.
A growing number of experts, including a Standard & Poor’s official, warned that a Greek default was on the cards, after Greece’s talks with creditors broke down on Friday.
Greece was under growing pressure to secure a last-ditch agreement with its private creditors to accept voluntary losses on their holdings of Greek bonds.
Athens risks going bankrupt when 14.5 billion euros of bond redemptions fall due in late March. Without a private sector bond swap involving a voluntary writedown, a 130 billion euro second international bailout for Greece could fall apart.
The talks with creditor banks broke down because of different views on what interest rate is acceptable, the head of the group leading private sector talks said.
Charles Dallara, managing director of the Institute of International Financial, said the banks were “very surprised” at the stance taken by some officials representing both governments and multilateral institutions, without naming them.
The EFSF was set up by the 17 governments that share the European single currency in May 2010 and has so far been used to provide emergency loans to Ireland and Portugal. It is also expected to contribute to a second bailout of Greece.
The fund has an effective lending capacity of 440 billion euros, which depends on guarantees, mainly from the euro zone’s AAA countries, only four of which now remain: Germany, Luxembourg, Finland and the Netherlands.
LENDING CAPACITY UNAFFECTED
In a statement, the EFSF said the downgrade would not affect its lending capacity, and emphasized that its short-term rating remained at S&P’s top level.
“The downgrade to ‘AA+’ by only one credit agency will not reduce EFSF’s lending capacity of 440 billion euros,” said the fund’s chief executive, Klaus Regling.
“EFSF has sufficient means to fulfill its commitments under current and potential future adjustment programs until the ESM becomes operational in July 2012,” he added.
The ESM — the European Stability Mechanism — is a permanent rescue fund that is expected to have an effective capacity of 500 billion euros, based on paid-in capital of 80 billion euros and callable capital of 620 billion euros.
French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said there was no need to shore up the EFSF despite the S&P rating downgrade.
“The EFSF has kept intact its ability to lend, with enough means and guarantees to fulfill the full range of its present and future commitments,” he said in a statement. “There is therefore no need to act on the EFSF at the moment.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert told reporters: “The government has no reason to believe that the volume of guarantees that the EFSF has now should not be sufficient to fulfill its current obligations.
“We should not forget that it has been decided to significantly move forward the ESM and to have it in place in mid-2012, one year earlier than planned.”
There was also support from Japan, with Finance Minister Jun Azumi saying Tokyo’s trust in EFSF bonds, in which it has so far invested 21 billion euros, had not been shaken.
“Japan has bought them by certain amounts and our stance will not immediately change just because of the downgrade,” Azumi told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
The euro hovered just above a 17-month trough against the dollar early in Asia on Tuesday, but reaction to the S&P downgrade was muted. Trading overnight was subdued as U.S. markets were shut for the Martin Luther King holiday.
The head of Austria’s debt office told Reuters the loss of Vienna’s AAA status had also been priced into the market already, and Austria was able to sell treasury bills on Monday at rates very close to zero.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy brushed off the historic loss of Paris’ top credit rating for the first time since 1975, a blow to his campaign for re-election in May, saying France’s policy would not be dictated by rating agencies.
Contrasting S&P’s move with a statement by rival watchdog Moody’s, which still has France on an Aaa rating, he said: “My deep belief is that it changes nothing. We must reduce the deficit, we must reduce our spending and we must improve the competitiveness of our economy to return to a path of growth.”
LOSERS TO PAY?
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, whose debt-laden country was downgraded by two notches along with Spain, called last week during a visit to Berlin for the EFSF to be increased to ward off attacks on his country’s bonds.
But a senior politician in Merkel’s conservative CDU party, Michael Meister, said it was the downgraded countries that should increase their guarantees for the fund.
“Germany was not downgraded so our contribution should not be changed. Countries that were affected must contribute more to the guarantees,” Meister told Reuters.
Sources familiar with Greece’s talks with its private creditors said EU paymaster Germany was pressing for new bonds to be given to banks in the planned swap to carry a low coupon of less than four percent that would increase the banks’ effective losses to 75 percent.
The IMF was also weighing on the talks by warning that the Greek economy and the euro zone’s economic outlook have worsened since the bailout package was agreed in October, raising Athens’ funding needs to make its debt sustainable by 2020, they said.
Greece put a brave face on the standoff. “There is a little pause in these discussions,” Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos told CNBC television. “But I am confident they will continue and we will reach an agreement that is mutually acceptable in time.”
(Additional reporting by Lefteris Papadimos in Athens, Steve Slater and Richard Hubbard in London, Jan Strupczewski in Brussels and Fiona Ortiz in Madrid; Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Tim Pearce and Alex Richardson)
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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/
2011年12月30日星期五
The 7th Annual Los Angeles Travel & Adventure Show(TM) Packs Heat With an International Fiery Foods Challenge
LONG BEACH, CA–(Marketwire -12/28/11)- Any travel experience would be far from complete without exploring the destination’s cuisine. Accordingly, the Los Angeles Travel & Adventure Show ™, taking place at the Long Beach Convention Center on January 14-15, will feature delicious, interactive demonstrations at the Culinary Stage. The International Fiery Foods Challenge invites guests to take their taste buds to the limit, sampling mouth-watering recipes from around the world. Guests can also participate in a high-stakes cooking competition and learn travel tips for foodies.
The International Fiery Foods Challenge brings together local chefs representing destinations found at the show. From familiar cuisine to the exotic, all dishes will have a delightful kick. The demonstrated foods are Frikadelle (a sort of German meatball), Spicy Tequila Marinated Prawns, Rendang Padang (Indonesian Caramelized Beef Curry), and Medjool Dates with chorizo, mascarpone and Tunisian harissa (a chili sauce). Participating chefs are Kai Loebach of CurryWurst, Amir Thomas of Duo Dishes, SriAdriani ‘Jenny’ Martono of Indonesia Tourism, and Tracey Augustine of Cashmere Bites. After tasting, guests can vote for their favorites and take home the recipes to recreate them.
The Mark DeCarlo Interactive Cooking Class and Competition will follow the Fiery Foods Challenge. Three lucky audience members will be picked from a drawing to prove their kitchen skills right on the spot, recreating a dish of Mark’s choosing. The audience will vote for the best cook, who will win an all-inclusive Yucatan vacation.
The Culinary Stage has good eats for Sunday’s show-goers as well. The Taiwan Tourism Bureau will hold a “Taiwan Popcorn Chicken” demonstration with Chef Frances Lee of the Mighty Boba Truck. Then, Ventura based Chef Jason Collis will host “Farm to Table – Luscious Lemon and Avocado Taste Sensations from 120-year-old, Sustainable Limoneira Ranch.” And, see a top Herradura Tequila ambassador demonstrate Tequila pairing tips. Following this demo, attendees can meet the brand ambassador and taste samples at the Herradura Tequila bar next to the Los Angeles magazine booth. Also not to be missed is “Travel for Foodies – Tips, Trends, and Tools for the Culinary Traveler,” with food and travel experts Michael Cervin, Linda Kissam, Dr. Kathy Gruver, and Chef Allan Cragg.
In addition, the Los Angeles Travel & Adventure Show will feature talks by some of the world’s most beloved travel personalities, including Samantha Brown, Andrew Zimmern, Peter Greenberg, Pauline Frommer, Mark DeCarlo, and Patricia Schultz. Attendees can enjoy cultural performances and participate in a variety of activities including scuba lessons from Beadiver.com, a 25′ rock climbing wall, zip line, and children’s activities area. The five-acre show floor will be packed with more than 400 destinations, tour operators and travel professionals providing one-on-one consultations on visiting destinations as near as Catalina Island and as far as Indonesia.
The 2012 Los Angeles Travel & Adventure Show’s™ Presenting Sponsor is the Taiwan Tourism Bureau. Supporting Sponsors include Air Berlin/Visit Berlin, Guam Visitors Bureau, Indonesia Tourism, Turkish Culture and Tourism Office. Los Angeles Magazine, NBC4 LA, Los Angeles Consortium of Online Travel (LACOT), Press-Telegram, KABC-AM and KLOS-FM are the flagship Media Sponsors. The event, produced by Unicomm, LLC, will take place at the Long Beach Convention Center Saturday, January 14th and Sunday, January 15th, 2012, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; travel trade may enter the show on Saturday, January 14th at 9:30am for an advance preview or attend during regular show hours. Tickets are $12 at the door or $9 online in advance with Promo Code: LAPR; children age 16 and below admitted free with paid adult. Ticket purchase information, a current schedule of speakers and more details are available at www.latravelshow.com.
This article is from http://tourism9.com/
The International Fiery Foods Challenge brings together local chefs representing destinations found at the show. From familiar cuisine to the exotic, all dishes will have a delightful kick. The demonstrated foods are Frikadelle (a sort of German meatball), Spicy Tequila Marinated Prawns, Rendang Padang (Indonesian Caramelized Beef Curry), and Medjool Dates with chorizo, mascarpone and Tunisian harissa (a chili sauce). Participating chefs are Kai Loebach of CurryWurst, Amir Thomas of Duo Dishes, SriAdriani ‘Jenny’ Martono of Indonesia Tourism, and Tracey Augustine of Cashmere Bites. After tasting, guests can vote for their favorites and take home the recipes to recreate them.
The Mark DeCarlo Interactive Cooking Class and Competition will follow the Fiery Foods Challenge. Three lucky audience members will be picked from a drawing to prove their kitchen skills right on the spot, recreating a dish of Mark’s choosing. The audience will vote for the best cook, who will win an all-inclusive Yucatan vacation.
The Culinary Stage has good eats for Sunday’s show-goers as well. The Taiwan Tourism Bureau will hold a “Taiwan Popcorn Chicken” demonstration with Chef Frances Lee of the Mighty Boba Truck. Then, Ventura based Chef Jason Collis will host “Farm to Table – Luscious Lemon and Avocado Taste Sensations from 120-year-old, Sustainable Limoneira Ranch.” And, see a top Herradura Tequila ambassador demonstrate Tequila pairing tips. Following this demo, attendees can meet the brand ambassador and taste samples at the Herradura Tequila bar next to the Los Angeles magazine booth. Also not to be missed is “Travel for Foodies – Tips, Trends, and Tools for the Culinary Traveler,” with food and travel experts Michael Cervin, Linda Kissam, Dr. Kathy Gruver, and Chef Allan Cragg.
In addition, the Los Angeles Travel & Adventure Show will feature talks by some of the world’s most beloved travel personalities, including Samantha Brown, Andrew Zimmern, Peter Greenberg, Pauline Frommer, Mark DeCarlo, and Patricia Schultz. Attendees can enjoy cultural performances and participate in a variety of activities including scuba lessons from Beadiver.com, a 25′ rock climbing wall, zip line, and children’s activities area. The five-acre show floor will be packed with more than 400 destinations, tour operators and travel professionals providing one-on-one consultations on visiting destinations as near as Catalina Island and as far as Indonesia.
The 2012 Los Angeles Travel & Adventure Show’s™ Presenting Sponsor is the Taiwan Tourism Bureau. Supporting Sponsors include Air Berlin/Visit Berlin, Guam Visitors Bureau, Indonesia Tourism, Turkish Culture and Tourism Office. Los Angeles Magazine, NBC4 LA, Los Angeles Consortium of Online Travel (LACOT), Press-Telegram, KABC-AM and KLOS-FM are the flagship Media Sponsors. The event, produced by Unicomm, LLC, will take place at the Long Beach Convention Center Saturday, January 14th and Sunday, January 15th, 2012, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; travel trade may enter the show on Saturday, January 14th at 9:30am for an advance preview or attend during regular show hours. Tickets are $12 at the door or $9 online in advance with Promo Code: LAPR; children age 16 and below admitted free with paid adult. Ticket purchase information, a current schedule of speakers and more details are available at www.latravelshow.com.
This article is from http://tourism9.com/
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