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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – BlackRock, Inc. confirmed that negotiations are ongoing with U.K.’s third-largest bank, Barclays Bank plc, about the potential purchase of Barclays Global Investors (BGI), including the iShares business.
“The discussions are not yet concluded and there are a number of significant open issues which could affect the nature and terms of any transaction,” Barclays said in a statement.
BlackRock’s BGI buyout will break its own record in a hedge fund transaction, when in 2006 BlackRock took over Merrill Lynch’s asset management business for $8.5 billion. The unconfirmed selling price is $12 billion to $13 billion. Other contenders for Barclays Global Investors include the Bank of New York Mellon and some Kuwaiti sovereign wealth funds, among others.
Alex Akesson
Edtior for HedgeCo.Net Email: alex@hedgeco.net
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Caymen Net News – Insolvency lawyers in Scotland should take an interest in a bankruptcy case in the Cayman Islands involving two Bear Stearns hedge funds and an American judge with the wonderful name of Burton Lifland.
The issue is this: where did a business that has gone bust have its main commercial interests?
The two funds were involved in what is now a familiar story amid the carnage on the world financial markets. They bet heavily on sub-prime mortgages and, as defaults increased, creditors demanded their money back leaving the funds with no cash.
Newsday – A federal probe of the $1.8-billion collapse of Bear Stearns hedge funds has spread to include the activities of a number of banks and other lenders, according to court records and legal sources.
Investigators are also reviewing various private financial memorandums prepared by Bear Stearns officials for possible fraud against wealthy investors, said the sources.
One of the banks that may have been defrauded in the case was Barclays Bank PLC, the British institution that last year filed a federal lawsuit against Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. over losses from the hedge fund, said one attorney familiar with the case.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are overseeing the Bear Stearns case while other Wall Street probes are being carried out by federal officials in Manhattan, said attorney Andrew Entwistle, who is representing investors suing the parent Bear Stearns Companies Inc. and affiliates.
