Archive for Uncategorized
A New Fund Seeks Both Financial and Social Returns
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Bono, the musician, activist and investor, at a Senate meeting on Capitol Hill in April. He is a board member for a new social impact fund called Rise. CreditZach Gibson/The New York Times
“There is a lazy mindedness that we afford the do-gooders.”
That was Bono, the musician turned activist turned investor, lamenting the pitfalls of what has become an increasingly fashionable form of financing: social impact investing.
This Is Going to Be Worst Year for IPOs Since the Credit Crisis
Posted by: | CommentsHere lies the IPO market of 2016, the quietest year for listings since the financial crisis.
Despite the S&P’s 11 percent gain, despite the average 18 percent return for successful IPOs, despite volatility that eased from 2015, the last 12 months have seemed as silent as a graveyard for deals. Going by the number of listings and the amount raised, it hasn’t been this dead for offerings since 2009…
This Is Going to Be Worst Year for IPOs Since the Credit Crisis
A $33 Billion Manager Who Bought at Low Shifts to Cash
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David Samra says it’s hard to find cheap stocks to buy
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Artisan Partners fund manager is seeking changes at Samsung
David Samra, the award-winning stock picker, is boosting cash holdings close to their limit in a market he sees as lacking buying opportunities.
Samra, who oversees about $33 billion for Artisan Partners, says he increased cash to about 13 percent of his international fund, near the 15 percent maximum, as equities around the world extend rallies after Donald Trump’s election. While he’s been selling companies that he sees as reaching their true worth, he’s found it harder to find stocks to replace them…
Hedge Fund Winners and Losers Emerge as Year Ends on Better Note
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Strategies focused on macro trends produced the worst returns
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Distressed-debt hedge funds profited from rally in oil prices
This was the year to ridicule hedge funds. Pension funds, politicians, Warren Buffett, even hedge fund managers themselves — they all had something to say about the disappointing performance, high fees and market saturation.
Well-known managers from Ray Dalio to John Paulson saw performance on their main funds range from flat to double-digit losses, while some distressed-debt investors like Jason Mudrick benefited from the rally in commodities prices. Strategies focused on macro trends and equity hedges — which have seen returns crimped by swollen stock-market valuations and ultra-low interest rates — produced the worst returns…
Goldman Says Bonds, not Stocks, Have Properly Priced In Trumponomics
Posted by: | CommentsStock rallies could “prove self-defeating,” according to analysts.
Bond traders are the smart money goes the old markets maxim.
And when it comes to how markets have been pricing in President-elect Donald Trump, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is inclined to believe it.
The stunning run in equities “post-Trump appears to have looked past the fact that the economy is already running close to full employment,” write analysts Charles Himmelberg and James Weldon…
Goldman Says Bonds, not Stocks, Have Properly Priced In Trumponomics
Asia’s Best-Performing Hedge Funds for 2016
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Credit funds of OCP, LIM, Serica also had double-digit gains
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Greenwoods, Symphony equity hedge funds losing money so far
One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.
That’s a credo that’s helped some of Asia’s top hedge funds this year as peers stumbled, with BFAM Partners, LIM Advisors and Serica Partners Asia surging in 2016 after snapping up or adding commodity-related bonds during a first-quarter selloff. Their performance stood out as the region’s hedge funds struggled with volatile markets in Japan and China, with offerings from Greenwoods Asset Management, Symphony Financial Partners and Tantallon Capital among those with losses…
The Stock Market Looks Awfully Expensive Since the Trump Rally
Posted by: | CommentsA new president won’t take office for another month, but the financial markets’ early verdict on the Donald J. Trump era is in, and it is straightforward.
They are saying the Trump administration will be good for corporate profits, and hence the stock market is way up. (The Standard & Poor’s 500 is up 6 percent since Election Day). It will also mean higher interest rates and inflation over time. (The yield on 10-year Treasury bonds has risen to 2.6 percent from 1.85 percent in the same span.)…
The Stock Market Looks Awfully Expensive Since the Trump Rally
Trump Administration Looking to Put Some Bridgewater In The Pentagon
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In what one can only assume would be a neck-shattering case of cultural whiplash, Bridgewater President David McCormick is rumored to be at the tippy top of President-elect Trump’s list to become the Deputy Secretary of Defense:
Hedge fund manager and former Army officer David McCormick is the front-runner to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s deputy defense secretary, according to three people familiar with the presidential transition.
China Home-Price Growth Slows as Property Curbs Dent Demand
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Values gained in 55 cities in November, versus 62 in October
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Prices dropped in 11 cities, compared with seven in October
China’s overheated property market continued to cool in November as authorities rolled out renewed home-buying curbs to deflate a housing bubble.
New-home prices, excluding government-subsidized housing, gained from the previous month in 55 of the 70 cities tracked by the government, compared with 62 in October, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday. Prices dropped in 11 cities, compared with seven a month earlier. They were unchanged in four…
Bill Ackman’s Lunch Loses Whiff Of Acrimony, Recrimination
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Bill Ackman can lay down his proxy cards, and Chipotle can shelve those special burritos for its biggest fan: There is peace and harmony in our time over the carnitas-filled chafing dishes, increasingly dirty plywood tables and in the Denver boardroom, if not in its customers’ GI tracts. CMG’s aged, entrenched board will get some new blood, including the governor of Colorado’s wife and two directors hand-picked by Ackman himself: Pershing Square partner Ali Namvar, who got his feet wet at the hedge fund working its McDonald’s investment, and former McDonald’s executive Matthew Paull, tapped for a second stint on the CMG board following his run when the place was owned by McDonald’s and not hemorrhaging customers. The second night of Hannukah has come a week early for Ackman…
Credit Suisse Nearing U.S. Mortgage Settlement, Reuters Reports
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Justice Department is said to have sought more than $5 billion
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Firm is confident it’ll reach deal for less, publication says
A Credit Suisse logo sit on a wall outside Credit Suisse Group AG’s headquarters in Zurich.
Photographer: Gianluca Colla/Bloomberg
Credit Suisse Group AG may reach an agreement as soon as this week to settle a U.S. investigation into its handling of mortgage-linked securities before the 2008 financial crisis, Reuters reported.
When investors look at markets they factor in a multitude of variables. Large investors were looking at capitalization rates and also local economies when buying rental property. For the first time in US history did we have a nationwide effort by large investors to buy up single family homes. This of course has caused a big dip in overall available inventory but has also pushed many home builders to focus on what the market was demanding which turned out to be more rental housing. The Los Angeles metro area (which includes the OC) has some of the weakest value for rental investors. This for a region where the majority of households rent. For example, the entire LA metro area has 19.7k homes for sale with a population of 13 million. Compare this to the D.C. metro with 19.2k homes for sale but with a population of 5.6 million. This is why you see some zany behavior when it comes to buying. But how do things look for the largest metro areas in the rest of the US?…
China Property Market Puts Macau’s VIP Gaming Recovery at Risk
Posted by: | CommentsFor those wondering whether to raise or lower bets on Macau’s VIP gaming business, look no further than China’s real estate market.
According to Nomura Holdings Inc.’s analyst Richard Huang, the two markets are “strongly correlated” and a series of property tightening measures in the mainland will dampen the industry that has just recently begun to recover from three “brutal” years…
China Property Market Puts Macau’s VIP Gaming Recovery at Risk
When people think of gentrification, they normally think of tiny sections within a city. But what we are seeing today is global gentrification. For example, in Orange County, the most expensive county in Southern California many people have been pushed into the Inland Empire. Yet the actual employment boom is happening in LA and OC making millions of people commute ungodly hours on the jam packed soul crushing freeways. The Orange Curtain highlights a subtle massive gentrification of an entire county. You have Orange County with a median home price of $710,000 and just a few miles inward you have Riverside County with a median home price of $330,000. The fastest growing counties in SoCal are with Riverside and San Bernardino. In the end, how much is a commute worth though?…
Trump’s Treasury Pick Moves in Secretive Hedge Fund Circles
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Steven T. Mnuchin, Donald Trump’s choice for Treasury secretary, at Trump Tower on Nov. 30.CreditEvan Vucci/Associated Press
As a hedge fund manager, Goldman Sachs trader and bank chief executive, Steven T. Mnuchin has long been a member of the financial elite.
Yet even on Wall Street he was not widely known before Donald J. Trump chose him to be his campaign fund-raiser last spring.
Now, Mr. Mnuchin is on a path to become the first hedge fund manager to head the Treasury. As befitting that closed-door world of finance, Mr. Mnuchin’s record shows a willingness to take on risks and a penchant for secrecy that members of both parties expect will be a focus of his Senate confirmation hearing…
Italy Paves Way for a $21 Billion Rescue Plan for Ailing Banks
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The ‘precautionary’ measure requires lawmakers to approve it
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Government says it may issue bonds to fund any cash injection
Pedestrians pass a branch of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA bank in Rome.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
The Italian government cleared the way for the potential rescue of lenders, including Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, by seeking permission from parliament to increase the nation’s public debt by as much as 20 billion euros ($21 billion).
Valeant Investment Finally Pays Off For Bill Ackman
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No, the embattled pharmaceutical company hasn’t stopped hemorrhaging losses, figured out how to sell female orgasms, learned that there is such a thing as bad news, or begun to change investors’ rock-bottom perceptions of it. But its contribution to Pershing Square’s 2016 is not purely an intangible one, like a hard-won lesson or a promise to stop burning holes in its shareholders’ stomachs. Nope: Valeant is generating some actual value for Pershing Square investors this month, albeit probably not how Ackman drew it up…
Valeant Investment Finally Pays Off For Bill Ackman
Platinum Hedge Fund Executives Charged With $1 Billion Fraud
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Robert Capers, the United States attorney in Brooklyn, arriving at federal court on Monday to announce the indictment of Mark Nordlicht, the founder and chief investment officer of Platinum Partners, and six other individuals on securities fraud, investment adviser fraud and conspiracy. CreditAndrew Kelly/Reuters
A founder of the New York hedge fund Platinum Partners and six others were arrested on Monday morning on charges relating to a $1 billion fraud.
The men were charged with securities fraud and investment adviser fraud in a $1 billion scheme in which executives used new investor money to pay older investors, according to an unsealed indictment filed in Federal District Court in Brooklyn…
RBA Balanced Weaker Jobs, Strong Housing in Decision to Hold
Posted by: | CommentsAustralia’s central bank balanced “considerable uncertainty” in labor market momentum and resurgent property prices in Sydney and Melbourne in its decision to leave interest rates unchanged.
The minutes of this month’s policy meeting also explicitly set out the board’s ongoing debate on the impact of its five-year easing cycle on asset prices and household debt. The record-low 1.5 percent cash rate is designed to help absorb unwinding mining investment and boost prices in the economy…
RBA Balanced Weaker Jobs, Strong Housing in Decision to Hold
Storage Pros Sells Knoxville Self Storage Portfolio
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One of the Storage Pros facilities in Knoxville, Tenn.
Knoxville, Tenn.—Commercial real estate advisory firm, NGKF, recently announced the sale of the Storage Pros Knoxville, TN eight-facility portfolio. Storage Pros Management LLC was the seller, while the buyer and the price of the transaction were not disclosed.
The eight facilities are located across the Knoxville MSA and are all found within a 20-mile radius. This geographic positioning allows for favorable pricing power and online marketing presence in Knoxville metro area. The portfolio consists of eight facilities with a total of 415,616 square feet of self storage space and 23,500 square feet of outside parking space…
Lagarde Case Is ‘Weak,’ French Prosecutor Says, Raising Chances of Acquittal
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Christine Lagarde, chief of the International Monetary Fund, before the start of her trial in Paris this week.CreditMartin Bureau/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
PARIS — The prosecutor in the trial against Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, raised the chance that she would be acquitted of criminal charges linked to the misuse of public funds, after he called the case “very weak” on Thursday.
Ms. Lagarde stands accused of “negligence by a person in a position of public authority,” in a matter related to her time as French finance minister. The case stems from an arbitration hearing ordered by Ms. Lagarde that ultimately awarded a French tycoon more than 400 million euros, or $425 million…
HFF Lends a Hand to Windsor Management
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411 Theodore Fremd Ave., Rye (courtesy of Baywater Properties)
New York—HFF recently announced it has secured $58 million in separate financings on behalf of Windsor Management Corp., a New York-based real estate management firm, for four office buildings located in Shelton, Conn., and in the New York area. Steven Klein, managing director and Geoff Goldstein, director of HFF led the debt placement team.
Cheap-Liquor Billionaire Looks Abroad as Home Market Slows
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Goldring is richest U.S. liquor magnate thanks to Sazerac Co.
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New Orleans native is the man who launched a million hangovers
You may not have heard of America’s richest spirits billionaire, but odds are you’ve sipped one of his offerings. Or, more likely, chugged it.
William Goldring, 73, built his empire on a simple model: acquire cheap brands, hype them and then stack them on the bottom shelves of liquor stores across America. His closely held Sazerac Co. has become the country’s second-largest distiller by hawking discount brands like Barton, Mr. Boston and Fleischmann’s. You can buy 1.75 liters of each his seven most popular vodka labels for a total of $80, the same price of one bottle of Absolut’s premier-level Elyx…
Wall Street’s Annual Stock Forecasts: Bullish, and Often Wrong
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Minh Uong/The New York Times
Don’t expect Wall Street investment houses to predict a stock market decline in 2017. That’s just not what they usually do.
Instead, they engage in an annual ritual that is underway right now: Every December as the holidays approach, Wall Street gurus examine the stock market, and nearly all declare that stocks will rise in the forthcoming calendar year.
JLL Expands Philadelphia Team with 2 New Additions
Posted by: | CommentsU.S. Home Starts Slumped in November After Outsize Advance
Posted by: | CommentsNew-home construction in the U.S. fell more than forecast in November after surging a month earlier to a nine-year high, indicating fitful progress in residential real estate.
Residential starts slumped 18.7 percent to a 1.09 million annualized rate last month after rising to a 1.34 million pace, Commerce Department data showed Friday. The median projection in a Bloomberg survey called for a 1.23 million pace in November. Ground-breaking jumped 27.4 percent in October, the most since July 1982. Permits, a proxy for future construction, also fell last month on fewer applications to build apartments…
U.S. Home Starts Slumped in November After Outsize Advance
Investors Sharpen Focus on Social and Environmental Risks to Stocks
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Linda-Eling Lee, global research chief for MSCI’s E.S.G. ratings. These ratings are based on companies’ performance on environmental, social and corporate governance factors. CreditGuerin Blask for The New York Times
Pfizer stock was riding high in June 2015, up 128 percent in five years, making it the second-most valuable American drug maker. Nine out of 10 Wall Street research analysts recommended that investors hold it in their portfolio, if not buy more.
That same month, however, a different type of research firm downgraded Pfizer to its lowest rating, reflecting what it considered increased risks from factors that other Wall Street analysts typically ignore: environmental, social and corporate governance issues, or E.S.G…
Kilroy Realty Closes Long-Term Office Lease in Seattle
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Westlake Terry
Seattle—Kilroy Realty Corp. has announced the completion of a 12-year leasing agreement with Amazon.com at KRC’s existing 320,000-square-foot Westlake Terry office asset in the South Lake Union submarket.
“This transaction underscores our success in building strategic relationships with dynamic, world-class companies,” Rob Swartz, senior vice president, Pacific Northwest of Kilroy Realty, said in a statement. “We are proud to have Amazon join our roster of significant tenants and are very pleased with the continued strength of the South Lake Union submarket.”…
California Employee Pension Will Consider Cutting Return Assumption
Posted by: | CommentsCalpers may be getting a bit more real. The $300 billion California public employees’ pension manager is considering cutting its investment return assumption. The move would squeeze the budgets of public authorities and employees, but secure funding for retirees. If the American government pension bellwether can do it, others will follow.
Public pension funds in the United States have long relied on unrealistic investment assumptions, but the financial crisis and lackluster market performance have exposed that game. Calpers took a small step in 2012 by lowering its return assumption by 0.25 percentage point, to 7.5 percent, but the fund generated a return of just 0.61 percent in the 12 months that ended June 30. Annualized returns were 5.1 percent over the last 10 years…
Pacific Union, John Aaroe Group Merge
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Mark McLaughlin of Pacific Union & John Aaroe of John Aaroe Group
San Francisco and Los Angeles—It’s a tale of the North and the South. San Francisco’s Pacific Union International Inc. and Los Angeles-based John Aaroe Group have merged, creating a powerhouse luxury residential real estate company covering the Golden State from top to bottom—and then some.
With Gold Prices Stuck in ‘Purgatory,’ Hedge Funds Hit the Exits
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Net-long position in metal drops for fifth straight week
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$6.2 billion pulled from precious metals ETFs in month
Gold is in the doldrums.
Prices have fallen for six straight weeks, the worst streak in a year, as prospects for higher U.S. borrowing costs damped demand for gold, a non-interest-bearing asset. Investors don’t seem too optimistic about the outlook for 2017. Hedge funds cut their bets on a rally to the lowest since February, while outflows are ramping up from exchange-traded funds…
With Gold Prices Stuck in ‘Purgatory,’ Hedge Funds Hit the Exits
GM Plans $334M Upgrade of Upstate NY Plants
Posted by: | CommentsCIM Group Inks Major LA Lease
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Shaul Kuba
Los Angeles—City National Bank has signed a long-term lease for 11 floors totaling approximately 300,000 square feet at 2Cal, a 52-story Class A office building in Los Angeles.
Located at 350 S. Grand Ave. in the Bunker Hill area of downtown L.A., 2Cal consists of approximately 1.37 million rentable square feet of office space and 44,000 square feet of retail space…
It’s a good thing that Wall Street analysts didn’t finish up their year-ahead outlooks prior to the U.S. Presidential election, because in the words of Deutsche Bank AG’s Chief U.S. Economist Joe LaVorgna, Donald Trump is “a game changer.”
At the end of each year, Wall Street firms publish outlooks for the next 12 months. While it is already difficult to forecast what the S&P 500 Index, for instance, will be trading at in roughly 365 days, having a regime change in Washington makes things even more complicated. Just ask Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which was stopped out of 5 of its 6 top trade ideas last year before Valentines Day…
Citigroup Nabs Class A Tampa Office Park
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3800 Citibank Center
Tampa, Fla.—Citigroup Inc. recently announced the purchase of 3800 Citibank Center, a Class A office park located in Tampa’s Sabal Park Office Development. The property, which encompasses roughly 670,000 square feet of space, was sold by an affiliate of Zurich Alternative Asset Management and was already fully occupied by the Citibank division at the time of the transaction. According to Tampa Bay Business Journal, the seller was represented by Christian Lee, vice chairman and Dale Peterson, senior vice president of CBRE.
NYC’s 441 Ninth Ave. Lands Two New Owners, Makeover
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441 Ninth Ave., New York
New York City—Cove Property Group and Baupost Group have teamed up to buy 441 Ninth Ave., an eight-story office building on Manhattan’s Far West Side, near the Hudson Yards and 1 Manhattan West mega-developments, for $330 million. The new owners plan to renovate the asset into Class A office space.
The joint venture purchased the 423,000-square-foot building from EmblemHealth, which had owned the property since 1994. It was originally built as a warehouse in 1962 and converted to offices in 1983.
Wells Fargo to Stop Paying Brokers Bonuses for Selling Loans
Posted by: | CommentsWells Fargo & Co. will no longer offer bonuses to brokers who persuade customers to take out loans from other parts of the bank as the firm grapples with fall-out from a cross-selling scandal.
The lender’s brokerage unit will keep its basic pay grid in place for 2017, but will do away with bonuses for selling clients products such as mortgages, securities-backed loans or lines of credit, according to a personal familiar with the change, who asked not to be identified discussing compensation policies…
Wells Fargo to Stop Paying Brokers Bonuses for Selling Loans
Hudson Pacific Expands Presence at Stanford Research Park
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Stanford Research Park – Page Mill Hill
Palo Alto, Calif.—Hudson Pacific Properties Inc. has acquired a leasehold interest in Page Mill Hill, a five-building office campus totaling 182,676 square feet in Stanford Research Park and Palo Alto, for $150 million, from a joint venture owned by Lionstone Investments and CalSTRS.
Norway Combats Surging Housing Market Risks as Easing Seen Done
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Government raises countercyclical buffer for banks to 2%
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Norges Bank still leaves small bias for interest rate cut
Norway’s central bank kept its benchmark unchanged and unexpectedly held off on lowering its rate outlook amid growing concerns over imbalances building up in the nation’s red-hot housing market. The krone jumped.
The deposit rate was held at 0.50 percent, as forecast by 21 of 22 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, Norges Bank said in Oslo Thursday. It kept its outlook for rates bottoming at 0.4 percent. Analysts had expected it to lower the so-called path, in part because of the strengthening krone…
Vancouver Homes Are So Pricey That Government Will Pitch In
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British Columbia to offer loans to first-time homebuyers
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Province will match purchasers’ down payments up to C$37,500
Home prices are so expensive in Canada’s priciest property market that the government is stepping in with loans to help first-time buyers rustle together a down payment.
The province of British Columbia will start a program on Jan. 16 that will offer to match the nest egg amassed by buyers for their first house by up to C$37,500 ($28,000) or 5 percent of the purchase value, B.C. Premier Christy Clark said at a news conference. It’s estimated to cost about C$703 million ($526 million) over the next three years and help about 42,000 households enter the market…
Bixby Land Co. Acquires $33M Office Complex in Portland
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CDK Plaza
Portland—Bixby Land Co. recently announced its purchase of CDK Plaza, a 185,729-square-foot, class A office space, for $33.4 million from KBS Real Estate Investment Trust. The seller was represented by Darwin Rodriguez and Jason Flynn of Eastdil Secured while Bixby represented itself in the transaction.
The four-story, two-building campus was 96 percent leased at the time of the sale. Bixby’s plans call for the redesign of an expansive plaza and courtyard area between two buildings, in addition to new lobbies and corridors, landscaping upgrades, and aesthetic improvements to the glass curtain wall…
Confidence Among Homebuilders in U.S. Surges to an 11-Year High
Posted by: | CommentsConfidence among U.S. homebuilders surged in December to an 11-year high on prospects the election of Donald Trump will translate into a smaller regulatory burden on the industry, according to data Thursday from the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo.
Key Points
- Builder sentiment gauge rose to 70 (forecast was 63), the highest since July 2005, from 63; readings below 50 mean more respondents report poor market conditions
- Index of prospective buyer traffic rose to 53, also an 11-year high, from 47
- Measure of six-month sales outlook jumped to 78, the best reading since June 2005, from 69
Hong Kong Property Shares Turn Toxic as Mortgage Costs Spike
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Gauge of real estate stocks falls most on Hang Seng Index
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City’s key interbank rate climbs to highest since 2008
Hong Kong’s property developers are fast falling out of favor among investors as surging mortgage costs and punitive taxes threaten to choke home sales.
A gauge of real estate companies traded on the city’s stock market has tumbled 13 percent this quarter, with developers accounting for half of the biggest losers on the benchmark Hang Seng Index, which has fallen 5.3 percent. During the three-month period, a key interbank rate — known as Hibor — has doubled to an eight-year high, while the government also slapped a 15 percent levy on residential purchases…
Gemini Rosemont Grabs Suburban Seattle Office Park
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One Twelfth at Twelfth West
Bellevue, Wash.—Gemini Rosemont LLC of Santa Fe, N.M., has purchased One Twelfth @ Twelfth, a three-building, 480,400-square-foot Class A office campus in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, Wash., the buyer announced Tuesday. Gemini Rosemont bought the campus in partnership with Gemini Investments, an investment company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Gemini Rosemont disclosed neither the price nor the seller, but data gathered by Yardi Matrix indicates that Principal Global Investors of Des Moines was the previous owner. According to the data provider, Hines Interests, the park’s developer, sold the campus to Principal Global in June 2004 in a portfolio transaction for $134.1 million…
Housing Sales Drop Most Since 2012 After Canada Tightens Mortgages
Posted by: | CommentsCanadian home sales in November recorded their biggest decline since 2012, suggesting recent efforts by the federal government to cool the nation’s housing market is having an impact.
Sales fell 5.3 percent in November, the Canadian Real Estate Association said in a statement. That’s the largest monthly decline since August 2012, the Ottawa-based agency said. Prices though continued marching higher despite the lower sales.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau in October tightened qualification requirements for mortgage insurance, specifically to cool the Toronto market. The impact is being felt nation wide, the agency said today…
All Types of Loans Cost More Just One Day After Fed’s Rate Hike
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JPMorgan, Bank of America increase prime lending rate to 3.75%
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Banks don’t feel pressure to raise deposit rates, analyst says
It’s been less than 24 hours since the Federal Reserve raised interest rates and already bank customers are paying more for loans.
JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. and other big lenders raised their prime lending rate to 3.75 percent from 3.5 percent following the Fed’s decision on Wednesday. Prime rate is what banks charge their best commercial customers, but it also affects credit cards and home-equity loans….
First Pier-Top Office Building Planned for DC
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Pier 4 at The Wharf, courtesy of Hoffman-Madison Waterfront
Washington—Something never before seen in the Washington, D.C., office market is on the way. Hoffman-Madison Waterfront just announced Pier 4, the first office building to be erected on a pier in the District. The 28,000-square-foot structure will be part of The Wharf, HMW’s transformative, $2 billion mixed-use project in the city’s Southwest Waterfront area.
Poloz Sees Tighter Mortgage Rules Helping Ease Housing Risks
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Bank of Canada also flags consumer debt as oil shock fades
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Latest financial stability report reflects weaker fundamentals
Stephen Poloz
Photographer: David Kawai/Bloomberg
The Bank of Canada said elevated levels of household debt and imbalances in the housing market remain the primary risks to the country’s financial system, dangers that new government rules will mitigate over time.
“Overall, the risk of nationwide household financial stress combined with a sharp correction in house prices across the country remains ‘elevated,’” policy makers led by Governor Stephen Poloz said Thursday in their semi-annual Financial System Review. “Since the June FSR, the likelihood of this risk materializing has increased modestly as a result of weaker economic fundamentals.”…
Central Bankers Discover Their Limits After a Tough Year
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Governments are expected to increase spending throughout 2017
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Monetary stimulus may have peaked, tapering is now more likely
It was the year central bankers discovered their limits.
Instead of earning praise for shouldering the burden of sluggish global growth, monetary policy makers this year were scolded for meddling. Negative interest rates were blamed for crimping bank earnings. Massive bond buying programs were singled out for stoking market speculation rather than investment.
Now, amid surging populism and as government spending comes back into vogue, 2017 is shaping up to be the year that central bankers quietly shuffle from center stage…
Legal Financing Rivals to Combine in $160 Million Deal
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The merger of Burford Capital and Gerchen Keller Capital will join two American firms with $1.2 billion in investments and commitments in the field of outside financing for litigation. CreditAndrew Burton/Getty Images
Burford Capital Limited, which finances litigation for corporations and law firms, is acquiring its Chicago-based rival, Gerchen Keller Capital LLC, in a $160 million deal.
The combined firms have $1.2 billion in investments and commitments in the growing field of outside financing for litigation.
HFF Closes Sale, Arranges Financing for SC Bank of America Plaza
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The Bank of America Plaza in Greenville, S.C.
Greenville, S.C.—HFF recently announced that it has closed $23 million sale and assisted in arranging financing for Bank of America Plaza, a 196,152-square-foot office tower in Greenville, S.C. HFF marketed the property on behalf of the seller, Hughes Development Corp., but it also assisted RealOp Investments to purchase the asset and secure the $17 million floating-rate acquisition loan.
Fed Raises Rates, Boosts Outlook for Borrowing Costs in 2017
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Officials said inflation expectations have grown considerably
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Decision was unanimous for the first time since July
Federal Reserve officials raised interest rates for the first time this year and forecast a steeper path for borrowing costs in 2017, saying inflation expectations have increased “considerably” and suggesting the labor market is tightening.
The Federal Open Market Committee cited “realized and expected labor market conditions and inflation” in increasing its benchmark rate a quarter percentage point, according to a statement Wednesday following a two-day meeting in Washington. New projections show central bankers expect three quarter-point rate increases in 2017, up from the two seen in the previous forecasts in September, based on median estimates…
Morning Agenda: The Financial Crisis, Living Wills and Lawsuits
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A branch of Wells Fargo bank in Los Angeles. CreditFrederic J. Brown/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Wells Fargo is, once again, in a sticky spot with regulators.
For the second time this year, the bank failed a key regulatory test that was created after the 2008 financial crisis to reduce the threats posed by large banks to the economy.
It was required to submit a plan, in case it collapsed, to unwind itself in a way that would safeguard the economy. The submissions by Wells Fargo and four other banks were rejected in April.
InvenTrust Properties Welcomes New SVP
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Adam Jaworski
Oak Brook, Ill.—InvenTrust Properties Corp. recently announced the appointment of Adam Jaworski as senior vice president & chief accounting officer.
Prior to joining the company, Jaworski served as chief accounting officer of the United States platform of Global Logistic Properties, where he was instrumental in leading the predecessor company’s initial public offering readiness efforts. He also held leadership and financial-related positions with Deloitte, Waterton Associates & Ultima Hospitality, Arthur Andersen & Co. and Caesars Entertainment Corp., racking up more than 20 years of experience in financial and accounting and a deep understanding of the real estate industry…
China Credit Expands Most Since March on Robust Mortgage Lending
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Aggregate financing rose to 1.74 trillion yuan in November
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Credit supply remains robust even amid property market curbs
China’s broadest measure of new lending jumped the most since March, boosted by borrowing for home loans and a resurgence of shadow-banking activity.
The Details
- Aggregate financing rose to 1.74 trillion yuan ($252 billion) in November, compared with a median estimate of 1.1 trillion yuan in a Bloomberg survey and 896.3 billion yuan the prior month
- New yuan loans climbed to 794.6 billion yuan from 651.3 billion yuan a month earlier, boosted by home loans
Fed Raises Key Interest Rate, Citing Strengthening Economy
Posted by: | CommentsWASHINGTON — Citing the steady growth of the American economy, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday that it would increase its benchmark interest rate for just the second time since the 2008 financial crisis.
The widely expected decision moves the Fed’s benchmark rate to a range between 0.5 percent and 0.75 percent, still a very low level by historical standards.
In announcing the decision, which followed a two-day meeting of the Fed’s policy-making committee, the central bank gave little indication that the election of Donald J. Trump has altered its economic outlook. The Fed said it still expected a slow economic expansion, and it still expected to continue a slow march toward higher rates. Fed officials said they expected to raise rates three times in 2017…
Balfour Beatty to Build Blackbaud High Tech Campus
Posted by: | CommentsCanada’s Gravity-Defying Household Debt Swells to C$2 Trillion
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Obligations keep climbing on low rates and a real estate boom
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Statistics Canada reports on third-quarter national finances
Canadian household debt has cracked the two-trillion-dollar ceiling.
The appetite for bank borrowing remained unabated in the third quarter, setting fresh records for total credit and mortgage borrowing, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday. The widely-followed ratio of household debt to after-tax income rose to another record high of almost 167 percent…
Canada’s Gravity-Defying Household Debt Swells to C$2 Trillion
At Goldman, Top Departure Opens a Door for the Next Generation
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R. Martin Chavez, Goldman Sachs’s chief information officer, will become chief financial officer in April.CreditKarsten Moran for The New York Times
Goldman Sachs promoted a new generation of leaders on Wednesday, as Gary D. Cohn, its longtime No. 2 executive, leaves the Wall Street bank to join President-elect Donald J. Trump’s incoming administration.
In replacing Mr. Cohn as president and chief operating officer, Goldman turned to two senior executives, David M. Solomon and Harvey M. Schwartz. They will share both jobs as co-heads, the first time in seven years that Goldman has had that structure for its second-in-command.
Westmount Realty Capital Sells Austin Office Portfolio
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The Offices at Braker Center, Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas—Westmount Realty Capital LLC announced the sale of its 13 office-building portfolio acquired in April 2014. Eastdil Secured represented the seller in the transaction.
The Offices of Braker Center are located on Kramer Lane and Metric Avenue between I-35 and MoPac Expressway, close to The Domain in the Braker Center area of Austin, Texas. The properties were built in the mid-1980s as dock-high, light industrial buildings with low office finish-out. Over time, they have been transformed to include more than 90 percent of office finish-out, becoming a single-story, value-office campus…