Each business day HedgeCo.Net keeps you informed with the top hedge fund industry news, opinion and insight from around the globe. From the latest hedge fund launches, to the impact of regulation, competition, and investor activism - we track the topics and people that make a difference to you.
New York Times Blogs – E*Trade Financial is in talks with Citadel Investment Group, the hedge fund that is its largest shareholder, about a deal to shore up the struggling brokerage firm’s balance sheet, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The two companies have been in negotiations for weeks to find a solution to E*Trade’s financial problems, The Journal said, adding that terms of the deal were unknown.
On Tuesday, E*Trade announced that Citadel Chief Executive Kenneth C. Griffin would be joining the firm’s finance and risk-oversight committee.
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.
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Reuters – Talks between The Boston Globe and its unions to prevent the U.S. newspaper from shutting down stopped early Monday morning after a midnight deadline passed, and it was unclear when they would resume.
An hour after the midnight deadline passed, negotiations had broken down, but likely will resume sometime during the night, a source familiar with the matter, but not authorized to discuss it, told Reuters.
That source and another source familiar with the matter indicated that the bargaining process likely will continue throughout the night, and that word on a decision about what will happen to the Globe will wait until after daybreak in the United States.
Daily Times – Banks and hedge funds that hold $6.9 billion in Chrysler LLC debt have proposed forgiving $2.5 billion of it in exchange for about a 40 percent stake a Chrysler-Fiat alliance, according to two people briefed on the proposal.
One of the people said the lenders delivered their counterproposal to Chrysler and the U.S. Treasury Department late Monday night. Neither person wanted to be identified because the negotiations are private.
AFP – The United States and Switzerland will begin negotiations to amend their bilateral income tax treaty to provide for improved transparency, the US Treasury Department said Monday.
The announcement came following Group of 20 pledges last week to clean up tax havens and fight tax fraud and as bilateral relations have been strained by a massive tax fraud case involving Swiss banking giant UBS.
The negotiations to amend the 1996 treaty are expected to begin April 28 in Berne, Switzerland, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
Globe and Mail – HudBay Minerals Inc. chief executive officer Allen Palmiere tried to amend the terms of a controversial merger agreement with Lundin Mining Corp. after shareholders slammed the proposed transaction, according to court documents released by a hedge fund trying to oust Mr. Palmiere and the HudBay board.
Monaco-based SRM Global Master Fund LP, which owns 11 per cent of HudBay’s stock, said HudBay’s board of directors is “incapable of creating value and serving the best interest of shareholders,” in a filing with securities regulators Wednesday. The SRM circular calls HudBay’s ill-fated attempt to merge with Lundin a “slip-shod process” that included management-dominated negotiations and “neglect” by the HudBay board. It also includes an excerpt from a text message sent by Mr. Palmiere to Lundin’s CEO, Phil Wright, on Nov. 26, just five days after the deal to combine HudBay’s Manitoba zinc and copper operations with Lundin’s mines in Europe and Africa was announced.
