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rubriek usafinance
News on loan, for more information please visit the website: loan links
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A group of seven private equity investment firms agreed to buy financial technology company SunGard Data Systems Inc. (SDS.N: Quote , Profile , Research ) on Monday in a deal worth about $10.8 billion plus debt, making it the biggest leveraged buyout in more than 15 years. The private equity group buying SunGard is led by Silver Lake Partners and includes Bain Capital, The Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Providence Equity Partners and Texas Pacific Group. The group is buying SunGard for $36 a share in cash, a 14 percent premium to its closing share price of $31.55 on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. The investor group is also taking on $500 million of SunGard bond debt, which will remain outstanding. The investor group said the deal was valued at $11.3 billion, without giving an exact breakdown of how that figure was calculated. The deal is to be financed by equity contributions from each of the investor firms, plus loans provided by units of banks JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM.N: Quote , Profile , Research ) , Citigroup Inc. (C.N: Quote , Profile , Research ) , Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE: Quote , Profile , Research ) , Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS.N: Quote , Profile , Research ) and Morgan Stanley (MWD.N: Quote , Profile , Research ) . SunGard said its board will recommend the deal to shareholders and will not go ahead with a previous plan to spin off its Availability Services business. The parties said they expected the transaction to close in the third quarter. The deal is the biggest leveraged buyout of a public company since Kohlberg Kravis Roberts bought RJR Nabisco for $25 billion in 1989. SunGard, which earned $454 million on revenues of $3.6 billion last year, works with a majority of Wall Street's financial services companies and supports almost three out of every four Nasdaq trades for its banking, mutual fund and stock exchange clients. SunGard, based in Wayne, Pennsylvania, has also served as an incubator and acquirer of more than 100 technology companies. Credit Suisse First Boston advised SunGard in the deal, while Morgan Stanley advised the investor group.
mortgage
News on mortgage, for more information please visit the website:
google-mortgage.com By Kristin Roberts WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Freddie Mac (FRE.N: Quote , Profile , Research ) , the second-largest U.S. home financing company that is pushing to emerge from a scandal-marked era, on Thursday posted a more than 40 percent drop in 2004 net income as the value of contracts used to hedge against interest rate changes fell. Freddie earned $2.8 billion, or $3.78 per diluted share, in 2004, compared with $4.8 billion, or $6.68 per share, in 2003. The mortgage funder blamed the steep drop in net income on losses related to derivatives. But Freddie said that while its derivatives can lead to big earnings swings, the instruments remain important in managing interest rate risk. "Overall it does look good," said Ed Groshans, analyst at Fox-Pitt, Kelton in New York. "I know people aren't going to be excited about the bottom line," Groshans said. But he said that 2005 results will likely be less impacted by hedging activities. "So we'll get a cleaner number." Analysts on average pegged Freddie Mac's 2004 net earnings at $6.87 per share, according to Reuters Estimates. Most analysts use an estimate that excludes various items, ranging from $6.00 to $8.68 per share for 2004, but the company said it is trying to get back to regular financial reporting and has not yet developed such a figure. The McLean, Virginia-based company has not been current in its financial reporting since a 2003 accounting scandal led to a $5 billion restatement. Freddie is due to start posting quarterly results on a regular basis again later this year. Freddie, a shareholder-owned company chartered by Congress to boost homeownership by ensuring a liquid mortgage market, said the fair value of its net assets at the end of 2004 was $30.8 billion, up 13 percent from 2003. Credit losses rose slightly but remained low compared with historical standards, according to the company. Freddie also said it was in compliance with its regulatory capital requirements throughout the year, and ended 2004 with $3.5 billion in capital over the regulatory target. CAPITOL HILL Continued ...
insurance
News on insurance, for more information please visit the website: msn-insurance.comBy Aleksandrs Rozens and Joseph Giannone NEW YORK (Reuters) - Top U.S. life insurer MetLife Inc. (MET.N: Quote , Profile , Research ) said on Friday it had received several subpoenas from New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, in a sign that a probe into alleged rigging of bids in exchange for fat fees in the insurance industry is widening. The disclosure was among a series of developments related to the investigation, which has shaken the entire insurance world and is already triggering changes in the way business is done. Marsh & McLennan Cos. (MMC.N: Quote , Profile , Research ) , which was sued by Spitzer on Thursday for steering unsuspected clients to certain insurers and reaping huge fees as a result, announced on Friday it was replacing the chief executive of its Marsh Inc. insurance brokerage unit. It also said it would suspend a controversial practice that is at the heart of the case. Investors' fears about the extent of the investigation drove down the shares of insurers and insurance brokers for a second day. Tens of billions of dollars of market value in insurance industry stock has been wiped out since the Spitzer probe was disclosed on Thursday. Shares of Marsh, the world's biggest insurance broker, shares dropped 16 percent, or $5.65, to $29.20. They have now declined 37 percent in two days, wiping out a total of nearly $9 billion in market value. MetLife said on Friday it had received a series of four subpoenas from Spitzer's office, of which only one was previously disclosed back in June. Two of the more recent subpoenas seek information about whether MetLife has provided or is aware of fictitious or inflated bids. The MetLife announcement indicates that Spitzer's inquiry goes beyond property and casualty insurance providers. Meanwhile, an executive of Bermuda-based insurer ACE Ltd. (ACE.N: Quote , Profile , Research ) on Friday pleaded guilty to a felony charge connected to Spitzer's investigation. Patricia Abrams, an assistant vice president at ACE, pleaded guilty to a charge of "combination in restraint of competition," according to a spokeswoman at Spitzer's office. That follows guilty pleas to "scheme to defraud" charges by two executives at American International Group Inc. (AIG.N: Quote , Profile , Research ) on Thursday. AIG, the biggest U.S. insurance company to be mentioned in the suit, said on Friday its top executives were not involved in price fixing of insurance products. But Spitzer's probe triggered shareholder lawsuits against both Marsh & McLennan and AIG on Friday, and more are expected. One of the suits against Marsh alleged it breached federal securities laws by issuing false and misleading statements. AIG shed $2.15 to $57.85 after hitting a new 52-week low of $55.80 earlier in the day. Continued ...
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