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Risk taking, lax oversight cited for financial crisis

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission has concluded that the 2008 financial crisis in the U.S. was caused by a combination of corporate errors, regulatory failure and excessive risk-taking by Wall Street firms, the New York Times reported online Tuesday. Get the full story »

Suit charges Countrywide with ‘massive fraud’

Countrywide Financial, a unit of Bank of America Inc., conducted a “massive fraud” over its mortgage-backed securities, according to a lawsuit brought by investors, including TIAA-CREF Life Insurance Co., New York Life Insurance Co. and Dexia Holdings Inc., Bloomberg News reported Tuesday on its Web site. Get the full story »

SEC seeks status reports from fund managers

The Securities and Exchange Commission issued draft proposals Tuesday to require hedge fund and other private fund advisers to file periodic reports with regulators seeking to assess threats to the financial system. Get the full story »

Fitch: Illinois credit outlook brightens to stable

Fitch Ratings raised its credit outlook for Illinois to stable from negative Friday, citing the recent increase in corporate and personal income taxes. Get the full story »

William Blair to buy parts of Guidance Capital

Chicago-based investment firm William Blair & Co. said it plans to acquire certain assets of Guidance Capital LLC, a hedge fund management firm, in a deal expected to be completed this quarter.

Terms weren’t disclosed. Get the full story »

Asset-backed securities investing rules take effect

U.S. regulators adopted new rules Thursday that seek to give investors better information before they choose asset-backed securities, a market that’s still struggling to recover from the financial crisis. Get the full story »

Hedge fund industry assets swell to $1.92T

Hedge fund assets grew a record $149 billion during the last three months of 2010, according to new data released Wednesday. According to Hedge Fund Research, which tracks industry performance and asset flows, hedge funds around the world now invest $1.917 trillion. Get the full story »

Goldman to sell Facebook shares abroad only

Goldman Sachs has decided to limit its private placement of Facebook shares to investors outside the United States, citing “intense media coverage,” according to the investment bank. Get the full story »

Goldman’s Blankfein pitches for Groupon’s IPO

Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein went to Chicago to pitch Groupon executives on hiring his bank to underwrite the online coupon company’s initial public offering, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

The report was attributed to a single unnamed source. Get the full story »

S&P bucks trend, affirms rating on O’Hare project

Breaking with its rating agency peers, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said Friday that the city of Chicago’s ambitious plan to expand O’Hare International Airport is “sound.”

Standard & Poor’s affirmed its current ratings, ranging from “AA” to “A-,”  on about $6 billion of current O’Hare debt and assigned an “A-” rating to about $1.1 billion in bonds the city plans to issue in early February. Get the full story »

Sara Lee buyout could pave way for JBS deal

A leveraged buyout of Sara Lee could pave the way for Brazilian beef processor JBS SA to buy the U.S. company’s meat division, analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a report Thursday. Get the full story »

Bankers line up to handle AIG share sale

Some of the United States’ top bankers descended on a law firm in Manhattan on Thursday to make a pitch for managing what could be one of the largest share sales in history — a secondary offering for bailed-out insurer American International Group Inc.

JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon was among the executives attending the meeting. Dimon entered the building of law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP just after 9:30 a.m. EST in New York. Asked how the meeting went as he left, Dimon laughed and said: “How’d what go?” Get the full story »

KKR potentially interested in Sara Lee: Sources

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. is potentially interested in Sara Lee and could possibly partner with an interested party as bidders emerge for the food group, two sources familiar with the situation said on Wednesday. Get the full story »

Fitch downgrades O’Hare bonds

By Jon Hilkevitch and Julie Johnsson | The Daley administration is flying into dangerous financial territory by increasing borrowings for the expansion of O’Hare International Airport to unprecedented levels in order to keep the runway construction project going, a top bond credit rating agency cautioned Wednesday.

Fitch Ratings downgraded O’Hare revenue bonds as well as bonds backed by passenger ticket taxes to “A-” status, while assigning a “stable” rating outlook.

The action came two days after Moody’s Investors Service downgraded to a “negative” outlook from “stable” some of the revenue bonds that Chicago has issued to help pay for the $15 billion O’Hare Modernization Program and related capital improvements deemed necessary for the success of the massive airfield project. Get the full story »

Icahn takes 11.4% stake in Motorola Mobility

Carl Icahn in 2007. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

Activist investor Carl Icahn owns 11.4 percent of the newly formed Motorola Mobility, according to regulatory documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Icahn had been steadily building his stake in the old Motorola Inc. prior to the company’s separation into two independent, publicly traded companies on Jan. 4. Motorola Mobility, which makes mobile phones and TV set-top boxes, was spun off from Motorola. The remaining company, which makes communications equipment for government and business customers, was renamed Motorola Solutions.

According to regulatory filings, Icahn has 33.5 million shares in Motorola Mobility. His stake in the new company is roughly on par with his stake in the old Motorola. Get the full story »