It is alarming to realize the degree at which these institutions took risk. It is pervasive. Banks, manuafacturers.
What are the equity people doing these days?
Oil money behind consortium's bid for Anglo (click here)
By Joe Brennan
Saturday February 28 2009
OIL-RICH funds, owned by the Qatar and Dubai royal families, are understood to be major backers of the investment group that once chased Bank of Ireland -- but is now looking to win control of nationalised Anglo Irish Bank.
The so-called Mallabraca consortium was assembled late last year by Irish financiers Nick Corcoran and Nigel McDermott of Cardinal Asset Management and Bryan Turley of Sorrento Asset Management.
The group, also comprised of two major US private equity firms, Carlyle and JC Flowers, is looking to invest €5bn in Anglo to boost its reserves against a tide of losses on bad loans....
Carlyle raises $533 million second mezzanine fund – CMP II (click here)
...With strong support from its current LP base – including insurance companies, state pension plans, university bequests and high net-worth individuals – CMP II will pony up between $15 million and $50 million per deal. The essentially US-focused fund can also spend up to 25 percent of the fund outside the US, on an opportunistic basis.
The practically global Carlyle Group, with $91.5 billion of assets, was steadfast with 66 diverse-sector funds leveraged across six continents, in 2008. Since 1987, Carlyle has invested $52.7 billion of equity in 866 transactions for a nearly $225.8 billion total purchase price....
continued...
Rick Wagoner, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors Corporation, stands for the singing of the national anthem before announcing GM will invest more than $500 million to build the Chevy Cruze, an all-new global compact car, at its Lordstown Complex August 21, 2008 in Warren, Ohio. The Cruze will be officially unveiled at the upcoming Paris Motor Show.
(Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images North America)
GM Lordstown plant to drop to one shift in April (click here)
Posted by Robert Schoenberger/Plain Dealer Reporter
January 26, 2009 11:15AM
UPDATED at 6 p.m.
CLEVELAND — General Motors Corp. will end production of its evening shift in Lordstown in April, costing 800 workers their jobs. It's part of a larger set of cuts that will end 2,000 jobs in Ohio and Michigan.
With sales of the fuel-efficient cars built there down sharply over the past four months, union leaders and workers said they weren't surprised by the shift loss at Lordstown. After the shift loss in April, the plant will have about 2,000 workers, down from nearly 4,000 last summer....
GM CEO's 2008 compensation valued at $14.9 million (click here)
5 Mar 2009, 2214 hrs IST, AGENCIES
DETROIT: General Motors Corp. says it gave Chief Executive Rick Wagoner compensation valued at $14.9 million last year for leading a company that
lost $30.9 billion and is running on government loans. But a large part of his pay package is in stock and options that have dropped in value from $11.9 million when they were granted in March of last year to just over $682,000 currently. The troubled automaker disclosed the amounts in its annual report filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Wagoner has agreed to accept a salary of $1 this year as part of the company's restructuring plan. Many of his stock options are now worthless since the company's shares have plummeted below $2.
GM says auditors report won't affect restructuring (click here)
March 05, 2009 14:59 EST
DETROIT (AP) -- Analysts differ on whether concerns raised by General Motors' auditors show the automaker is heading toward bankruptcy.In a filing today, the company auditors reveal "substantial doubt" about GM's ability to continue operations in the face of recurring losses. They say the company may need to seek bankruptcy protection if it can't complete a huge restructuring plan.One bankruptcy expert says the GM auditors' comments suggest a company that would "very likely" be heading for bankruptcy.But another says the auditors are just saying what the world has known for months -- that GM is in serious financial trouble.
GM yet to approach UK for aid (click here)
The Associated Press
Published: March 5, 2009
...Chick said GM would not be putting a proposal until it completes negotiations with the German government on the company's proposed rescue plan, which calls on governments to put up €3.3 billion. Germany was approached first because that's the location of most of GM's European operations, Chick said....
