Archive for Finance
HTA Shells Out $2.8B for Duke Realty Portfolio
Posted by: | CommentsThe flurry of big-ticket medical office building portfolio trades over the last year continues as Healthcare Trust of America Inc., already the largest dedicated owner and operator of medical office buildings in the United States, strikes a deal that will make it even larger. The 11-year-old REIT just inked an agreement to purchase Duke Realty Corp.’s MOB assets and medical development platform for approximately $2.8 billion…
Singapore Air May Land Unusual Net-Debt Spot as Soon as 2018
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Net-debt position would be first for airline in 13 years
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Carrier plans to proactively take on more debt in future
A record plane-buying spree is poised to land Singapore Airlines Ltd. in an unfamiliar territory.
Southeast Asia’s biggest carrier is expected to turn to a net-debt position as early as 2018 — for the first time in 13 years — as the company borrows money and sells bonds to meet capital expenditure needs, analysts say…
Singapore Air May Land Unusual Net-Debt Spot as Soon as 2018
Parents Lending More to Get Their Kids Onto U.K. Housing Ladder
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Bank of Mum and Dad’s role signals broken housing market: L&G
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Buyers to receive 6.5 billion pounds of assistance this year
U.K. home buyers will receive 6.5 billion pounds ($8.4 billion) of assistance from family and friends this year, making the “Bank of Mum and Dad” equivalent in size to the country’s ninth-largest mortgage lender, according to Legal & General Group Plc.
Family financial help to get people onto the housing ladder will average 21,600 pounds this year, up from 17,500 pounds in 2016, and 42 percent of prospective homeowners will receive such assistance, L&G said in a report. Rather than reflecting parents’ generosity, the jump in family lending is a sign of Britain’s “broken” property market, the research shows…
Alitalia Starts Bankruptcy Process as Etihad Cuts Off Funds
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Gulf carrier says Alitalia requires ‘far-reaching’ fixes
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Italy said to provide bridge loan to maintain operations
Alitalia SpA started bankruptcy proceedings for the second time in a decade, throwing the survival of Italy’s flag carrier in doubt after the airline failed to fend off budget rivals.
Shareholders voted unanimously to file for insolvency administration, the airline said in a statement on Tuesday.
Top-Performing Bond Fund Thrives on Risks That Most Others Dodge
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Pioneer buys Turkey, Nigeria, sees assets outperforming peers
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Bond fund has beaten 98 percent of rivals over five years
Bring it on. That’s Yerlan Syzdykov’s response to political and financial jolts that have whipsawed markets from Russia to Turkey in recent years, and it’s paid off for the portfolio manager at Pioneer Investment Management Ltd.
Syzdykov’s $3.9 billion Emerging Markets Bond fund has beaten 98 percent of peers over the past five years by making outsized bets in countries that are being roiled by everything from political coups to debt restructurings…
Supreme Court Rules Miami Can Sue for Predatory Lending
Posted by: | CommentsWASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that Miami can sue two banks for predatory lending under the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
The case arose from the 2008 financial crisis. Miami sued Bank of America and Wells Fargo, saying that their discriminatory mortgage lending practices had led to a disproportionate number of defaults by minority home buyers and, in turn, to financial harm to the city.
Even as the majority of justices ruled that Miami was entitled to sue under the housing law, the court declined to decide whether the city had asserted a direct enough connection between the banks’ actions and the harm it claimed. The court sent the case back to the federal appeals court in Atlanta for further exploration of that question…
U.S. Money Manager Sees Buying Opportunity With Home Capital
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Philadelphia Financial bought 1 million shares in past week
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Firm sees Home Capital as buyout target for regional banks
At least one investor sees a buying opportunity in Home Capital Group Inc.’s latest woes.
Philadelphia Financial Management of San Francisco, which oversees about $700 million, spent $10 million in the past week buying more than 1 million shares of the Canadian alternative lender, according to managing partner Jordan Hymowitz. He’s betting that Home Capital will be acquired.
New JV Plans $870M Hotel Complex in Dubai
Posted by: | CommentsSchon Properties and Al Hamad Group are developing iSuites, a mixed-use development featuring a 2,550-key hotel, to support the Dubai government’s goal of attracting 20 million visitors to the city by 2020.
The Dubai Government’s Tourism Vision 2020, an initiative designed to attract 20 million annual visitors to the U.A.E. city by 2020, has inspired Schon Properties and Al Hamad Group to establish a new joint venture for the development of iSuites, an $870 million project featuring a 2,550-key hotel.
Home Capital Slide Deepens as Rival Seeks to Avoid Contagion
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Canadian mortgage lender could see investors yank GICs
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Regulator, Canada’s finance minister are monitoring situation
Home Capital Group Inc. extended declines after the Canadian mortgage lender reported additional deposit withdrawals, prompting one of its biggest rivals to seek a C$2 billion ($1.5 billion) credit line to stem any contagion across the country’s financial markets.
Home Capital fell 13 percent to C$6.96 in Toronto, bringing its two-week drop to about 69 percent, on concern that redemptions of guaranteed investment certificates by nervous investors would worsen a cash crunch. High-interest deposits have declined about C$1.6 billion, or 80 percent, over the past month to C$391 million, the companysaid Monday…
Home Capital Drop Has Former Investor Mulling Contagion Odds
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Chances of spreading through Canada small, Mawer’s Hall says
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Banking system well capitalized with lots of ‘firefighters’
The escalation of Home Capital Group Inc.’s distress last week has led one of its largest former investors to rethink — if only slightly — the prospects of troubles spreading through the rest of Canada.
After the alternative-mortgage lender set up a C$2 billion ($1.5 billion) credit line to offset a run on deposits, Mawer Investment Management Ltd.’s Jim Hall is recalculating the odds of a contagion widening across one of the world’s strongest financial systems…
Wall Street Wellness Programs Are Being Used to Drive Sales
Posted by: | CommentsMost companies want healthier employees to cut insurance costs. ING wants them to increase profit.
When Lance Hulack calls his first client on Monday morning, they spend 15 minutes talking about their fitness trackers. “I’ll say, ‘Hey, I saw you crushed it on Saturday! 25k steps,’” Hulack, the director of corporate sales at ING Group, says. “Then we talk about what we need to do workwise: ‘What are you looking to hedge? What levels are you looking at?’ It’s a really good ice-breaker rather than talking business all the time.”
Cleveland Mixed-Use Project Lands $142M Financing
Posted by: | CommentsHFF secured the financing on behalf of development partners Fairmount Properties and the DiGeronimo Cos. Scheduled for completion in spring 2018, Pinecrest will offer more than 400,000 square feet of retail, restaurants and entertainment…
Cleveland Mixed-Use Project Lands $142M Financing
UBS Pays $445 Million to Settle Mortgage Securities Probe
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Closes U.S. lawsuit accusing bank of selling faulty securities
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NCUA says sales spurred collapse of corporate credit unions
UBS Group AG has paid $445 million to settle National Credit Union Administration claims that the bank contributed to the collapse of corporate credit unions by selling them faulty mortgage-backed securities, the regulator said in a statement on Monday.
NCUA said the settlement — which Zurich-based UBS agreed to without admitting or denying wrongdoing — closes a lawsuit filed in 2012 and is the latest in a series of deals struck with banks accused of improper sales to five corporate credit unions that failed. The agency had already recovered $79.3 million from UBS last year in a related claim.
Bringing Family Wealth to Bear Against a Relentless Illness
Posted by: | CommentsAlice Anane’s father died suddenly of a brutal brain-wasting disease when he was 49. She was 15 at the time and remembers her family thinking that he had contracted mad cow disease on a trip to Britain.
Twenty years later, when she was pregnant with her third child, a routine amniocentesis revealed something different: Her father had most likely died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare illness known as C.J.D. that erases the brain as it ends life, typically within three months…
Bringing Family Wealth to Bear Against a Relentless Illness
Douglas Emmett, QIA Expand With $353M Buy
Posted by: | CommentsThe two buildings in Santa Monica were acquired from the Blackstone Group, which continues to sell off parts of its Equity Office Properties Trust portfolio.
Douglas Emmett Inc., a Santa Monica, Calif.-based Class A office and multifamily REIT, is expanding its holdings in its hometown again. The REIT, along with joint venture partner Qatar Investment Authority, has acquired two office buildings, 1299 Ocean Ave. and 429 Santa Monica Blvd., for a total of $352.8 million.
The same joint venture acquired 12100 Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica for $139.5 million and 233 Wilshire Blvd. in the Brentwood submarket of Los Angeles for $225 million in 2016…
A Whistle Was Blown, but Who Was Listening?
Posted by: | CommentsThe Securities and Exchange Commission calls itself the whistle-blower’s advocate. But one participant in the agency’s lauded whistle-blower program isn’t so sure.
He is Michael J. Lutz, an accounting specialist who raised his hand in early 2013 when he was at Radian Group, the giant mortgage insurer. At the time, Radian was still weathering the subprime crisis; it had insured loads of soured mortgages, and Mr. Lutz believed the company was lowballing the amount it might have to pay in claims on the loans…
A Whistle Was Blown, but Who Was Listening?
Flex-N-Gate Breaks Ground on $95M Detroit Plant
Posted by: | CommentsThe 350,000-square-foot facility, which is slated for completion by early next year, will become a new centerpiece to the city’s growing I-94 Industrial Park.
Flex-N-Gate has broken ground on the global auto supplier’s new $95 million manufacturing facility on the east side of Detroit.
The 350,000-square-foot facility will become a new centerpiece to the city’s growing I-94 Industrial Park and is a sign of the city and state’s success in attracting more manufacturing jobs back to Detroit…
Flex-N-Gate Breaks Ground on $95M Detroit Plant
U.K.’s May Plans Tougher Take-Over Rules to Protect Pensions
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Tories say deals could be blocked if pensions at risk
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May weighs new crime of recklessly endangering pensions
Prime Minister Theresa May is set to impose new restrictions on company take-overs in the U.K. as part of a plan to protect workers’ pensions from “unscrupulous” bosses.
If re-elected in June, May’s Conservatives will give authorities the power to block such deals and launch criminal prosecutions of company bosses who put pension schemes at risk, the party said.
Home Capital Buys Time With Pension Loan as Deposits Erode
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Canada mortgage lender gets $1.5 billion loan from HOOPP
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Company considers sale as fallout spreads to other lenders
Home Capital Group Inc.’s C$2 billion ($1.5 billion) credit line from a Canadian pension fund buys it some time as the country’s biggest alternative mortgage lender faces a run on deposits that may spark a sale of the company.
Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan agreed to provide the one-year loan to offset the withdrawals sparked by allegations from regulators that the company misled investors about mortgage applications. Customers withdrew another C$290 million from its high-interest savings accounts Thursday, adding to the C$472 million pulled out the previous day, the company said in a statement. Balances have plunged more than 70 percent in a month. The company also has C$13 billion in guaranteed investment certificates…
Pimco Liquidates Arnott-Run Smart Beta Market Neutral Fund
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Research Affiliates fund trailed 87% of peers in past 3 years
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Assets had fallen to $316 million from $4.2 billion at peak
Pacific Investment Management Co. liquidated a smart beta fund, the Pimco RAE Worldwide Fundamental Advantage Fund, effective Friday, according to the firm’s website.
The fund, which had almost $4.2 billion in assets at its peak in September 2014, had fallen to about $316 million as of March 31 as performance trailed peers.
“We constantly review our suite of strategies and may liquidate a fund from time to time if we feel it no longer serves our clients’ needs,” Pimco spokesman Michael Reid said in an emailed statement…
What Trump Has Done for (and to) Your Finances
Posted by: | CommentsFrom financial regulation to student loans to taxes, here’s what just happened to you, good and bad, and what to watch in the days to come.
The long-term impact of a new presidential administration’s early acts is almost impossible to assess. That hasn’t stopped some from making weighty pronouncements on Donald Trump’s first 100 days, including Donald Trump. And it won’t stop us.
With that, Personal Finance offers these thoughts on the Trump team’s words and deeds so far and their implications for investors and consumers, with more definitive reports to come…
What Trump Has Done for (and to) Your Finances
Continental European Investors Covet London Market
Posted by: | CommentsThe investment community across the pond is keen on United Kingdom’s number one hub, putting its money where its mouth is, Savills research shows.
The investment community in Mainland Europe is keen on London, and it’s putting its money where its mouth is, according to newly released research from global real estate services provider Savills. Year to date, investors on the Continent have doled out £1.7 billion, or approximately $2.2 billion, on commercial real estate in Central London, representing 31 percent of market activity.
Unraveling Home Capital Has Ex-Investor Mulling Contagion Odds
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Chances of spreading through Canada small, Mawer’s Hall says
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Banking system well capitalized with lots of ‘firefighters’
The escalating woes ensnaring Home Capital Group Inc. have led one of its largest former investors to rethink — if only slightly — the prospects of troubles spreading through the rest of Canada.
The unraveling of Home Capital, the alternative-mortgage lender that needed a C$2 billion ($1.5 billion) credit line to offset a run on deposits, has Mawer Investment Management Ltd.’s Jim Hall recalculating the odds of a contagion widening across one of the world’s strongest financial systems…