Archive for Uncategorized
Good Technology Investors Sue J.P. Morgan, Claiming Conflicts
Posted by: | CommentsSilicon Valley start-ups often have to grapple with the competing interests of their founders, investors and employees. Now add one more to the list: their bankers.
The extent to which start-ups can be influenced by investment banks was highlighted on Thursday by the case of Good Technology, a mobile security software maker that was acquired last year by BlackBerry for a fire-sale price of $425 million.
In an amended suit in Delaware Chancery Court, Good’s shareholders said that J. P. Morgan, the start-up’s banker, had faced so many conflicts of interest in its dealings with the company that it led to Good selling itself for less than it was worth…
Cleveland’s Historic Standard Building Ready for Makeover
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Cleveland Standard Building
Cleveland—BGL Real Estate Advisors LLC has completed the arrangement of $81.0 million in development financing for Weston Inc.’s conversion of the historic Standard Building in downtown Cleveland into high-end apartments, BGL announced Tuesday.
The multi-faceted capital structure consists of:
- Senior construction debt;
- Subordinated bridge debt;
- Municipal city and state agency debt;
- Federal and state historic tax credit equity; and
- Weston Inc. GP equity.
Foot Locker Debuts Flagship NYC Store
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Ribbon-cutting ceremony at Foot Locker’s new store on 34th Street, New York City
New York—Specialty athletic retailer Foot Locker Inc. recently celebrated the opening of its flagship New York City location in Herald Square. The company held an official ribbon-cutting ceremony Aug. 30 at its new 34th Street store. The new location will house multiple brands under the Foot Locker brand umbrella, including Foot Locker and SIX:02.
CIM Group to Pay $240M for Chicago Tribune Tower
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Chicago Tribune Tower
Chicago—Tribune Media Co. continues to sell off its commercial real estate assets. The latest is its headquarters—the iconic Tribune Tower at 435 N. Michigan Ave. in Chicago. Tribune and CIM Group, which has been expanding its footprint in the city, have agreed to shake hands for approximately $240 million.
Colony Capital Principal Lists Stunning Montecito Estate for $18.5 Million
Posted by: | CommentsThe reflecting pool is bigger than the house.
In 1930, when the country was reeling from the stock market crash a year earlier, the society landscape architect Lockwood de Forest was putting the finishing touches to a Montecito, Calif., estate called Constantia. Designed in a South African Dutch-Colonial style (yes, that’s a thing), the 9,771-square-foot house and 3.2 acres of grounds had views of both the Montecito mountains and the Pacific Ocean…
Colony Capital Principal Lists Stunning Montecito Estate for $18.5 Million
Cush & Wake Tapped to Lease Miami Beach Office Asset
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1688 Meridian Ave., Miami
Miami—Cushman & Wakefield has been recently named the exclusive leasing agent for 1674 and 1688 Meridian Ave., two office buildings totaling nearly 120,000 square feet located in the heart of South Beach.
Gordon Messinger, managing director with C&W will oversee leasing efforts for both buildings for the Connecticut-based owner Ivy Realty. Ivy acquired the assets in July for $49 million according to The Real Deal. The company is beginning a significant capital improvement program, including renovation of the lobbies, bathrooms and corridors as well as the build-out of spec spaces…
Mozambique Faces Fight for Credibility, New Central Banker Says
Posted by: | CommentsMozambique has a lot of work ahead to restore its reputation in international markets, newly installed central bank Governor Rogerio Zandamela said.
The country’s economic crisis “requires giant effort of all of us, not only the central bank, the whole society requires hard work, enormous sacrifices in order to restore and regain our international credibility and at the same time recover the confidence in the Mozambican economy,” Zandamela told reporters late Thursday in the capital, Maputo, hours after he took office…
Mozambique Faces Fight for Credibility, New Central Banker Says
Another Sign Manhattan Real Estate Is Feeling the Pain
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Price cuts, gift cards, penthouse parties among sales tactics
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Time is the enemy in sputtering market, broker Teplitzky says
Prospective buyers at one Upper East Side condo project are quietly being offered a 5 percent discount. At an almost-completed Midtown building, five-bedroom homes will be divided into smaller units. Brokers whose clients sign deals at a downtown tower before Labor Day are getting $5,000 gift cards.
HFF Lines Up $23M Acquisition Loan for NC Shopping Center
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Heritage Crossing in Wilson, N.C.If It’s Stability You Want, Then Rent, Don’t Buy
Posted by: | CommentsNew research by the ECB shows just how bad for financial stability possessing your own home can be
Anyone who got caught in the real estate bust last decade in the U.S. or U.K. probably knows this already, but now the economic data is in: home ownership can be bad for you.
More accurately, it can be harmful to the financial stability of whole economies. That’s the evidence from a new study published this week by European Central Bank research economist Gerhard Ruenstler…
Wall Street’s Next Frontier Is Hacking Into Emotions of Traders
Posted by: | CommentsStartups wielding sensors and algorithms promise a new era of surveillance.
The trader was in deep trouble. A millennial who had only recently been allowed to set foot on a Wall Street floor, he made bad bets, and in a panic to recoup his losses, he’d blown through risk limits, losing $4.9 million in a single afternoon.
Cryan Calls for Bank Mergers After Exploring Commerzbank Deal
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Cryan, Commerzbank’s Zielke said to have weighed a merger
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Deutsche Bank CEO says situation in Europe ‘cannot go on’
Deutsche Bank AG Chief Executive Officer John Cryan urged more consolidation among European banks struggling to shore up profitability, after his own firm held talks with its biggest German rival earlier in August about a possible deal.
“We need more mergers, at a national level but also across national borders,” Cryan said at a conference hosted by Handelsblatt in Frankfurt on Wednesday. A person familiar with the matter said Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank AG held merger discussions but decided against pursuing a transaction to focus on restructuring their own businesses first…
Canada to Join China-Led Bank, Signaling Readiness to Bolster Ties
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Justin Trudeau, left, the prime minister of Canada, and Li Keqiang, the premier of China, during a ceremony in Beijing on Wednesday. CreditLintao Zhang/Getty Images
BEIJING — Canada said on Wednesday that it had applied to join China’s version of the World Bank, breaking with previous leaders who had shared United States officials’ skepticism of the new Beijing-led lender.
The move came during a five-day trip to China by the prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, who is seeking to burnish trade, business and political ties with Beijing. China’s relationship with the previous Canadian government had been lukewarm…
Midwest Office Portfolio Commands $417M
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Salesforce Tower, Indianapolis
Chicago—Hertz Investment Group has acquired a four-property office portfolio totaling 3.1 million square feet from Equity Commonwealth for $416.9 million.
“One of Hertz’ primary growth strategies has been to acquire best-of-class office buildings in the central business districts of midsize markets, and we feel very fortunate to include four such properties in one deal,” Judah Hertz, Hertz founder & chairman, said in a prepared release. “What’s critical is that we remained true to our acquisition strategy and followed our sound financial objectives.”…
Japan’s Company Profits Fall, Capital Expenditure Remains Weak
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Profits slump is the biggest in five years amid strong yen
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Sales also slide in the quarter as demand remains sluggish
Japan’s capital expenditure data for the second quarter was slightly weaker than expected while company profits slumped as businesses held tight on spending amid a strong yen and sluggish demand at home and abroad.
Key Points
- Capital expenditure rose 3.1 percent from a year earlier (forecast 5.5 percent).
- Spending excluding software increased 3.1 percent over the same period (forecast 5.5 percent).
- Company profits slid 10.0 percent during the second quarter, the biggest drop since 2011.
Deutsche Bank C.E.O. Calls for More European Bank Mergers
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John Cryan, the chief executive of Deutsche Bank, said that the E.C.B. helped stabilize Europe after the financial crisis, but that monetary policy had since weighed on bank profits. CreditKai Pfaffenbach/Reuters
LONDON — The chief executive of Deutsche Bank on Wednesday called for more consolidation in the banking industry in Germany – and across Europe – and action by central banks as the region’s lenders struggle to navigate an environment of historically low interest rates.
The chief executive, John Cryan, said that the European Central Bank helped stabilize Europe after the financial crisis, but that monetary policy had since weighed on bank profits – by cutting into net interest income – and had hurt savers and their pension investments…
Stockyards Atlanta Breaks Ground, Adds to Tenant Roster
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Stockyards Atlanta rendering
Atlanta—Three 19th Century warehouses in Atlanta will soon be reborn as Stockyards, a premier mixed-use destination, now that a joint venture between Federal Capital Partners and Westbridge Partners has kicked off construction of the 135,000-square-foot adaptive reuse project.
FCP and Westbridge are holding onto as much history as possible at Stockyards, which is located on the old rail lines in the city’s West Midtown area. By reinventing the 1800s-era warehouses—including two historic meat-packing buildings—the joint venture is preserving one of the last remaining vestiges of the city’s historic industrial core…
This Is How Leverage in the Financial System Lives On
Posted by: | CommentsInvestors look to a bevy of derivatives to increase returns.
Rumors of leverage’s death have been greatly exaggerated.
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis an abundance of leverage — borrowed money used to amplify returns — was blamed for exacerbating losses on subprime mortgages and contaminating the banking system with catastrophic results. Since then a host of new rules have been enacted to reduce financial leverage, including penalizing certain derivatives positions, such as the credit default swaps (CDS) villainized in the crisis, as well as outright curbing the amount of borrowing allowed at big banks…
Monmouth Announces $32M Acquisition in the Kansas City MSA
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FedEx Ground Hub in Kansas City, Mo.
Kansas City, Mo.—In an approximately $31.7 million deal, Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp. acquired a 313,763-square-foot industrial building at 22525 West 167thSt. in Olathe, Kan.
The property sits on 45 acres and is net-leased for 15 years to Delaware-based FedEx Ground Packaging System Inc.
NAR Forecasts Slow, Upward Path for CRE
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Lawrence Yun – NAR
New York—The creation of more jobs and continued demand for multifamily housing is helping keep commercial real estate fundamentals on a slow, upward path where vacancy rates for office, industrial and retail are expected to decline over the next year, according to the National Association of Realtors quarterly CRE forecast.
The NAR expects national office rates to fall 1.5 percent to 10.4 percent over the coming year, when rising employment should boost demand. The vacancy rate for industrial space is forecast to decline 0.7 percent to 8.7 percent, while retail vacancy should also decrease 1.0 percent to 10.5, the report projects…
Quant Fund Gives Robots 364 Days Off to Best Currency Rivals
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Systematic models make calls only once a year each January
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PGI’s Global Time Diversified Strategy returns 13.8% in 2016
Like a lot of hedge funds, Principal Global Investors’ Macro Currency Group uses computer-driven models to devise trading strategies. What sets it apart is that its machines only make calls once a year.
Each January, the computers’ longer-term economic projections establish the firm’s key trading positions for the next 12 months. The bets don’t always seem intuitive at the time. At the start of this year, the models projected the yen would appreciate against Swiss franc, even as forecasters saw the pair little changed in 2016…
FRP Development Closes $8M Deal in Baltimore County
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10820 Gilroy Road
Baltimore—FRP Development Corp. has recently acquired 10820 Gilroy Road, an 115,000-square-foot industrial building located in the Hunt Valley region of Baltimore County. NAI KLNB represented both the seller, Webb Manson Commercial LLC, and the buyer in the $8.3 million transaction.
The 50-year-old, one-story building is located at the intersection of Beaver Dan Road and Gilroy Road, in close vicinity to Interstate 83 and McCormick Road. It is currently 100 percent leased to Webb Mason and McCormick & Co. and it features 24-foot ceiling heights, 17 loading docks and 1 drive-in loading dock…
Banks Make Biggest Loan Since Turkish Coup to Back Port Project
Posted by: | CommentsSix Turkish banks lent 1.02 billion euros ($1.14 billion) to a venture run by companies owned by billionaire Ferit Sahenk and businessman Serdar Bilgili for the development of Istanbul’s Galataport, the biggest financing for a project since a failed coup in July.
The joint venture between Sahenk’s Dogus Holding AS and Bilgili’s BLG Gayrimenkul Yatirimlari AS, known as Salipazari Liman Isletmeciligi ve Yatirimlari AS, signed a 14-year facility with the lenders, Dogus Chief Executive Officer Husnu Akhan told reporters on Wednesday. There will be no repayments for the first 3 1/2 years, he said…
Banks Make Biggest Loan Since Turkish Coup to Back Port Project
New Rainbow Ryders Building Under Construction in Phoenix
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Rainbow Ryders’ new building, Phoenix
Phoenix—LGE Design Build has kicked off construction on a 12,000-square-foot office/retail building that will be used by the Rainbow Ryders Hot Air Balloon Ride Company Inc.
With more than 70 percent of the clients being tourists, Rainbow Ryders plans to launch an ‘Adventure Center’ inside the building, offering them experiences such as hiking, jeep tours and spa retreats through different partners. The company expects an increase in its Arizona flights from 500 a year to more than 900 a year, which translates into over 15,000 clients annually…
Pending Sales of U.S. Existing Homes Rise, Led by Demand in West
Posted by: | CommentsContracts to purchase previously owned U.S. homes increased more than forecast in July, indicating further strength in the housing market, according to figures released Wednesday by the National Association of Realtors in Washington.
Key Points
- Pending home sales rose 1.3 percent (median forecast was for 0.7 percent gain) after a 0.8 percent decline in June that was previously reported as a 0.2 percent advance
- Contract signings fell 2.2 percent from July 2015 on an unadjusted basis, the biggest year-over-year drop since November 2014
- Pending sales index in West jumped 7.3 percent to 108.7, the highest level since June 2013…
Amazon and Wells Fargo Terminate Student Loan Partnership
Posted by: | CommentsThe program was announced just six weeks ago.
A Wells Fargo bank branch in New York.
Amazon.com and Wells Fargo on Wednesday ended their partnership to offer college students a discount on private student loans, quickly abandoning what the bank lauded just six weeks ago as a “tremendous opportunity.”
The deal between the giant online retailer and the nation’s third-largest bank by assets represented Amazon’s first foray into the competitive market of lending to college students. For Wells Fargo, which has aggressively tried to build up its student loan business, the partnership was meant to help the bank reach millions of potential customers who shop on Amazon and might be enticed by the bank’s half-percentage point discount on its higher-education loans…
Evergrande Profit Falls 23% as Property Marketing Costs Rise
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Revenue rose 13% to 87.5 billion yuan as home sales rose
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Borrowings rise by 28% as Evergrande goes on buying spree
China Evergrande Group, one of China’s most-indebted listed property developers, said first-half profit fell 23 percent as rising sales were offset by higher costs for selling homes and servicing debt.
Core profit, or profit excluding property revaluations and foreign-exchange losses, fell to 7.8 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) from 10.2 billion yuan a year earlier, the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange Aug. 30. Revenue rose 13 percent to 87.5 billion yuan.
ICBC Halts Bad-Loan Increases With $6.3 Billion of Write-Offs
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Nonperforming-loan ratio declines for world’s biggest bank
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Chairman Yi tells of ‘race’ to dispose of bad credit
Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the world’s biggest lender by assets, reported the first decline in its bad-loan ratio since 2012 in the second quarter as the bank raced to dispose of nonperforming credit.
ICBC wrote off 42 billion yuan ($6.3 billion) of loans in the first half, 35 percent more than a year earlier, an earnings statement showed Tuesday. Nonperforming loans as a proportion of total credit declined to 1.55 percent in the second quarter from 1.66 percent in the first…
Prosecution of Financial Crisis Fraud Ends With a Whimper
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In 2011, Robert Khuzami of the Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges against top executives from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. CreditWin Mcnamee/Getty Images
One source of great frustration from the financial crisis has been the dearth of cases against individuals over subprime lending practices and the related securitization of bad loans that caused so much financial havoc. To heighten the frustration, I offer Aug. 22, 2016, as the day on which efforts to pursue cases related to subprime mortgages were put to rest with no individuals — save perhaps the unfortunate former Goldman Sachs trader Fabrice Tourre — held accountable.
U.K. Has Loaned 250 Million Pounds to Startups Over Four Years
Posted by: | CommentsThe U.K. has loaned 250 million pounds ($325 million) to startup companies since 2012, Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark said.
Every 1 pound spent on loans has generated 3 pounds for the economy, Clark’s department said in an e-mailed statement on Wednesday. The money has been allocated through the Start Up Loans Co., which was set up almost four years ago, offering fixed-interest loans of as much as 25,000 pounds, as well as business support for entrepreneurs.
Central Bankers Hear Plea: Turn Focus to Government Spending
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Janet Yellen, center, chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, with the vice chairman, Stanley Fischer, left, and William Dudley, president of the New York Fed, on Friday in Wyoming. CreditBrennan Linsley/Associated Press
GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — Central bankers who gathered here to discuss better ways of jump-starting slow economic growth received a surprising message from their lunchtime speaker on Friday: Stop. You’re making things worse.
Christopher A. Sims, a Nobel laureate in economic science, told the annual conference that increased government spending was required to lift the world’s major economies from stagnation. The pursuit of innovations in monetary policy, he said, is diverting needed attention from the inaction of fiscal policy makers…
Vancouver Homes Affordable Now, If You Buy Almost Nothing Else
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Homeownership costs reach 90.3 percent of median income
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Royal Bank index shows affordability at fresh record lows
Vancouver homeownership costs now eat up a record nine out of every 10 dollars of a typical family’s income. If you have to ask about upgrading from a condominium to a single-family home, you really can’t afford it.
The bill for costs including mortgage payments, property taxes and utilities in Canada’s third-largest metropolitan area has climbed to 90.3 percent of the city’s median household income before taxes, according to an index published Tuesday by Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s biggest lender. The figure rose 6.1 points in the second quarter and by 18.3 points from a year earlier…
Want a Hedge Fund Job? Knowing About Wavelets Improves Your Odds
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Demand for quants is surging as antidote to lackluster returns
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King Street, Balyasny, Tudor are among hedge funds hiring
Job seekers with MBAs or experience as securities analysts no longer jump to the front of the hiring line. But if you’re nimble with partial differential equations or wavelets, hedge funds want you.
Hedge funds that have relied on people to make bets are hiring quants like never before in search of answers to lackluster returns. They’re playing catch-up to firms such as Renaissance Technologies and Two Sigma Investments, among the leaders in using complex mathematical models for investing…
Economy Watch: Better Incomes Means More Spending
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Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis, Personal Income and Outlays, July 2016
More good news for retailers and the landlords who lease to them: U.S. personal income increased $71.6 billion (0.4 percent) in July, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis‘ latest estimates. Going hand-in-hand with that, personal consumption expenditures (PCE, or people spending that money that they’ve made) increased $42 billion (0.3 percent) for the month.
Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Climbed 5.1%, Led by Northwest
Posted by: | CommentsHome prices in 20 U.S. cities continued to moderate in June, according to S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller data released Tuesday.
Key Points
- 20-city property values index increased 5.1 percent from June 2015, matching the median forecast and the smallest gain since August, after a 5.3 percent year-over-year advance in May
- National home-price gauge also rose 5.1 percent from 12 months earlier
- On a monthly basis, the seasonally adjusted 20-city gauge fell 0.1 percent for a second month…
Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Climbed 5.1%, Led by Northwest
Suburban Chicago Office Portfolio Trades for $62M
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Parkway North Center Office Park
Chicago—CIT Group Inc. announced that CIT Real Estate Finance arranged a $61.8 million senior secured credit facility for TNREF III Parkway JV—a partnership between True North Management Group and Fulcrum Asset Advisors. The joint venture will use the financing for the purchase of three Class A office assets located in Deerfield, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. CIT acted as sole lead arranger and administrative agent, while CIT Bank N.A. provided the financing
Quant Hedge Fund Gives Robots 364 Days Off to Top Currency Peers
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Systematic models make calls only once a year each January
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PGI’s Global Time Diversified Strategy returns 13.8% in 2016
Like a lot of hedge funds, Principal Global Investors’ Macro Currency Group uses computer-driven models to devise trading strategies. What sets it apart is that its machines only make calls once a year.
Each January, the computers’ longer-term economic projections establish the firm’s key trading positions for the next 12 months. The bets don’t always seem intuitive at the time. At the start of this year, the models projected the yen would appreciate against Swiss franc, even as forecasters saw the pair little changed in 2016…
Visium Hedge Fund Informant Recorded 125-Plus Conversations
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Manager seeks evidence suppression, names of co-conspirators
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Lumiere is sole remaining defendant in insider-trading case
A former trader-turned-informant secretly recorded more than 125 conversations with ex-colleagues at hedge fund firm Visium Asset Management LP, according to a court filing.
The informant, previously identified by Bloomberg News as junior trader Jason Thorell, spent more than two years cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He is identified in court papers only as “CC-1,” or co-conspirator-1. Thorell didn’t return a text message to his cell phone seeking comment…
Thor Scores Big on San Francisco Office Sale
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Phelan BuildingEurope Bankers See $2.5 Billion of Bonuses Vanish in Stock Rout
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Credit Suisse staff have lost $1.2 billion on deferred shares
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Deutsche Bank’s 43% decline costs bankers $590 million in pay
Investment bankers at Europe’s biggest securities firms are watching their bonuses melt.
A rout in financial stocks this year has wiped more than $2.5 billion from the value of deferred shares that were paid as bonuses in the past few years at Barclays Plc, Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG and UBS Group AG, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Awards for staff at Credit Suisse have plunged by more than 1.2 billion Swiss francs ($1.2 billion) on a 42 percent drop in shares this year, as Brexit added to pressure European bank stocks were already facing from costly restructuring efforts…
Goldman Sachs Said to Have Lost $1.8 Billion U.S. Property Deal
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Blackstone instead won auction by Swedish pension Alecta
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Purchase includes retail, office properties across the country
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was the original winner of Alecta’s U.S. real estate sale before the transaction fell apart amid a disagreement over terms, leading Blackstone Group LP to prevail with a $1.8 billion deal, said people with knowledge of the matter.
Goldman Sachs was initially awarded the U.S. and U.K. properties being sold by the Swedish pension manager and given a short amount of time to do additional research on the assets. During that period of about a week, a dispute arose that prompted Alecta to agree to sell the U.S. buildings to Blackstone instead, said the people, who asked not to be named because the transaction is private…
Morning Agenda: Silicon Valley Heeds Warnings of Apocalypse
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Chris O’Neill, the chief executive officer of Evernote, at the company’s headquarters in Redwood City, Calif.CreditJason Henry for The New York Times
“Here we sit, a year after we were supposed to die,” — Chris O’Neill, chief executive of Evernote.
This was supposed to be the year of the great reckoning for Silicon Valley start-ups, but some are still waiting for the crash.
And while they wait, some companies, like Evernote, have gotten back on their feet. Last year Evernote was a poster child for the collapse of Silicon Valley, but after cutting back on staff and eliminating some employee perks, it has stabilized. “It was hard for employees to readjust expectations,” Mr. O’Neill said. “They had only known a world where another fund-raise was just around the corner.”…
Creative Office Project Coming to Downtown Denver
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INDUSTRY Denver, 3001 Brighton Blvd., Denver
Denver—Clarion Partners has partnered with INDUSTRY Denver to develop INDUSTRY RiNo Station, a $58 million, premier creative office building in the River North submarket of downtown Denver, on behalf of a commingled fund advised by the firm.
“When we look at investments, we look at the overall market, submarket and specific locations, and with Denver, we see a tremendous amount of growth,” Rick Schaupp, Clarion Partners director, told Commercial Property Executive. “There’s diverse employment and a lot of folks moving there, particularly young people, and that’s partly because of the quality of life and the fact the city has invested in smart infrastructure.”
U.K. Foreign Investment Sets Record, Boosted by Emerging Markets
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11% more projects backed by overseas cash, says government
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U.S. still No. 1 source, but Latin American funding up 240%
A record number of overseas investments were made in the U.K. in the 2015-16 financial year, buoyed by a surge from emerging markets, making the country Europe’s most popular for external financiers.
Total projects funded by foreign direct investment rose 11 percent to 2,213, the Department for International Trade said in a statement Tuesday. FDI created or protected 116,000 jobs including in life sciences, financial and professional services, and energy and infrastructure…
Congresswoman Presses Regulators on Volcker Rule Data
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Representative Carolyn B. Maloney is requesting a host of information related to granular trading data.CreditSeth Wenig/Associated Press
A senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee is pressing regulators to share two years of market data they have collected in connection with the Volcker Rule, a provision of the Dodd-Frank Act intended to rein in banks’ risky trading and investments.
Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York, sent a letter to regulators on Monday requesting information about certain quantitative trading metrics that the agencies had been collecting since before regulators prohibited banks from making risky bets with their own money last July…
Premier Indy Office Campus Fetches $163M
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Parkwood Crossing, Indianapolis
Indianapolis—Parkwood Crossing, a premier office campus in Indianapolis, has changed hands in a transaction valued at $163 million. Duke Realty Corp. sold the 1.2 million-square-foot property to a joint venture of Rubenstein Partners and Strategic Capital Partners, with commercial real estate services firm JLL providing a helping hand to both seller and buyer.
Duke tapped JLL to market the eight-building complex as part of its portfolio repositioning program—the REIT is getting out of the suburban office business and focusing on the industrial and medical office sectors. But Duke’s non-core asset is another investor’s core-property conquest…
Mexico’s 2017 Oil Hedges Lock in $9.5 Billion Value: Takeaways
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Average barrel strike price is 8.3% below most recent close
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Mexico oil prices hedged at lowest level since at least 2008
Mexico said it’s locked in the equivalent of $9.5 billion of oil revenue for 2017, buying hedges to sell the nation’s crude at the lowest price since at least 2008.
The purchases were completed between May 13 and last week, the Finance Ministry said. The country’s annual trade represents the largest sovereign oil hedge in the world.
Edward Lampert and His White Whale, Sears
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A sears store in Salem, N.H. Sears shares have lost nearly 90 percent of their value since 2007.CreditElise Amendola/Associated Press
A tragic figure in American literature has an analog in modern finance. Once upon a time, the billionaire investor Edward S. Lampert was hailed as the next Warren E. Buffett. These days, his decade-plus obsession with the struggling retailer Sears resembles Captain Ahab’s with Moby-Dick.
Mr. Lampert was a hedge fund star when he took the discount store Kmart out of bankruptcy in 2003 and merged it with Sears two years later. A devotee of Ayn Rand and Mr. Buffett, Mr. Lampert had parlayed $28 million of seed corn into a spot on the Forbes rich list by making savvy bets on undervalued companies…
Hong Kong Stocks Decline as Fed Bets Sink Property Developers
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Sun Hung Kai paces drop among builders with 1.8% retreat
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Currency peg to dollar makes Hong Kong vulnerable to Fed rates
Hong Kong stocks fell for the third time in four days amid concern rising borrowing costs will dent the outlook for the city’s property market.
The Hang Seng Index lost 0.4 percent at the close. A gauge of real estate companies declined, with Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. and Cheung Kong Property Holdings Ltd. sliding at least 1.2 percent. Sands China Ltd. paced a retreat by casino operators. Prada SpA jumped the most in nearly five years after the luxury-goods maker’s chairman predicted a return to growth in sales and earnings next year. The Shanghai Composite Index was little changed at the close, with a 10-day volatility gauge falling to a two-year low…
Virtually No Institutional Investors Are Happy With Activist Hedge Funds Right Now
Posted by: | CommentsBillionaires bicker as sentiment burns.
The ongoing squabble between billionaire hedge fund luminaries William Ackman and Carl Icahn over Herbalife Ltd. distracts from a large warning sign for activist managers: they’re failing to live up to the expectations of institutional investors.
The August edition of research provider Prequin’s Hedge Fund Spotlight shows that 100 percent of institutional investors surveyed indicated that returns on their activist hedge fund investments had fallen short of their expectations…
Virtually No Institutional Investors Are Happy With Activist Hedge Funds Right Now
TMG Partners Goes Back for Seconds in Oakland
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2201 BroadwaySurging Bets on Canadian Home-Price Decline Dent Confidence
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Weekly poll shows pessimism on home prices jumped 8.5 points
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Preliminary data show Vancouver real estate market is cooling
Canadians may finally be getting skittish about real estate.
The share of survey respondents who expect a decline in local housing prices jumped by 8.5 percentage points, the most since weekly polling began three years ago for the Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index. The increase to 20.5 percent from 12 percent dragged the broader sentiment index down from 2016 highs.
Japan’s First Home-Made Jet Back in Hangar After Aborted Tests
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Mitsubishi planes being checked again for airconditioner snag
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MRJ, beset by delays, seeks to challenge Embraer, Bombardier
After two aborted test flights in as many days following a faulty air-conditioning system, Japan’s first locally built passenger jet was back for checks and fixes amid delays to a program aimed at challenging the dominance of Brazil’s Embraer SA and Canada’s Bombardier Inc.
Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp., the builder of the Mitsubishi Regional Jet, will make a decision on resuming its test flight to the U.S. after the problem has been fixed, Spokesman Kenichi Takemori said by telephone from Nagoya Monday. The company has delayed delivery of the aircraft at least four times. ANA Holdings Inc. is scheduled to receive the first MRJ in the middle of 2018…
TMG Partners Bets on San Jose Tech Scene
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2480 N. First St., San Jose, Calif.
San Francisco—Bay Area developer TMG Partners has purchased a pair of office buildings in a section of San Jose, Calif., that appears to be taking off as even more of a tech hub than it already is. TMG announced its acquisition of 2460 and 2480 N. First St., which total 148,000 square feet, last Thursday.
The seller was TA Associates Realty of Boston, which had acquired the buildings in a January 2007 portfolio sale by Equity Office Properties Trust.
Aeropostale Lender Sycamore Joins Bidding for Bankrupt Retailer
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Chain borrowed $150 million from private equity firm in 2014
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Judge rejects claims Sycamore plotted to bankrupt company
Aeropostale Inc. opened a bankruptcy auction Monday with senior lender Sycamore Partners joining the bidding, days after the teen-clothing chain lost a court fight to keep the private equity firm away from the table.
The retailer borrowed about $150 million from affiliates of Sycamore in 2014 as it tried to reorganize. Two years later, the company filed for bankruptcy in Manhattan, claiming Sycamore was partly to blame for its downfall…
Aeropostale Lender Sycamore Joins Bidding for Bankrupt Retailer
Wall Street Redoubles Fight to Manage $100 Billion at Endowments
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Funds turn to outside managers to run complex portfolios
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TIAA brought company president to Connecticut college pitch
When the University of Connecticut sought help managing a slice of its small endowment, TIAA found it was competing with 26 other money managers. So the financial services giant sent its biggest gun: President Roger Ferguson, a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, to pitch in person.
Ackman and Icahn Contradict Each Other on Herbalife Stock
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William A. Ackman, left, and Carl C. Icahn — two Wall Street hedge fund giants.CreditLeft: Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times; Right: Heidi Gutman/CNBC
Call it the Bill and Carl Show.
William A. Ackman and Carl C. Icahn — two Wall Street hedge fund giants — duke it out over a nutritional supplements company called Herbalife. Arguing that the company is a pyramid scheme, Mr. Ackman stakes $1 billion on a wager that the stock will go to zero. Mr. Icahn, calling him a “crybaby in the schoolyard,” buys as many shares in Herbalife as he can.
ROC Opens Its 13th Location in LA
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The Row DTLA
Los Angeles—Real Office Centers (ROC), a community of office spaces which provides its clients with unique work environments and encourages collaboration among its entrepreneur tenants, has recently announced its 13th location in the Arts District of Los Angeles. With years of experience in the serviced office sector, ROC already has office locations throughout Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and Honolulu.
World’s Biggest Pension Fund Loses $52 Billion in Stock Rout
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Japan’s GPIF wipes out all gains since shift to shares
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Investment losses are no reason to change strategy: Sera
The world’s biggest pension fund posted a $52 billion loss last quarter as stocks tumbled and the yen surged, wiping out all investment gains since it overhauled its strategy by boosting shares and cutting bonds.
Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund lost 3.9 percent, or 5.2 trillion yen ($52 billion), in the three months ended June 30, reducing assets to 129.7 trillion yen, it said in Tokyo on Friday. That erases a 4.1 trillion yen investing return for the previous six quarters starting October 2014, the month it decided to put half its assets into equities…
Real Estate Strikes Out on Its Own in the Stock Indexes
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“Think back to 1999 or 2000,” said David Blitzer, managing director of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “No one really talked about investing in real estate. We were trying to recover from the tech boom and bust.” CreditAlex Wroblewski/The New York Times
A change is coming at the end of the month in the way stock indexes are classified. Real estate, now part of the broader financials category, will go out on its own.