Pershing Square Will List Permanent Capital Vehicle This Year

Posted on August 14, 2014 by admin

BrokerDealer.com blog post courtesy of extract from FinAlternatives.com

Pershing Square Capital Management plans to move forward with a listed permanent capital vehicle later this year, the $15 billion hedge fund told investors.

The New York-based firm said it will raise an undisclosed amount in an initial public offering later this year. The money would serve to protect Pershing Square’s investments against redemptions.

“Because we are an active, control and influence-oriented investor, we have avoided being fully invested because of the risk of investor redemptions,” firm founder William Ackman wrote. “We will hopefully begin to address this issue with the initial public offering of Pershing Square Holdings Ltd., targeted for later this year, which will increase the amount of our capital that is permanent.” Continue reading →

Schorsch gobbles up another midsize IBD

Posted on August 14, 2014 by admin

BrokerDealer.com blog update courtesy of extracts from InvestmentNews.com and Bruce Kelly

Nicholas Schorsch continues to add midsized independent broker-dealers to the Cetera Financial Group Network, and on Wednesday night Cetera parent RCS Capital Corp. said it intends to buy Girard Securities Inc.

The San Diego-based firm has more than $10 billion of assets under administration and 250 producing financial advisers with an average annual production of approximately $210,000 per adviser.

It is the second such announced deal in as many weeks for RCS Capital Corp., which is known by its ticker symbol, RCAP. Last week, RCAP said it had agreed to purchase VSR Financial, with 264 registered reps and advisers. Continue reading →

Study Says: BrokerDealers Still In Need of Brand Burnishing

Posted on August 11, 2014 by admin

BrokerDealer.com blog update courtesy of extract from 10 July NY Post, reporter Gregory Bresiger.

Wall Street’s reputation, despite a 5-year bull market, still stinks.

Indeed, the bankers’ “chronic risk image” remains a huge problem, say many of the mid-level pros who work for its largest firms.

The Street’s regulatory and image problems continue to spook many traders and bankers, who say the risks and dangers of the industry are about the same as before the stock market meltdown of 2008, according to the results of the Makovsky Wall Street Reputation Study.

“The 2014 study findings question how far financial services brands have advanced since the financial crisis,” according to Scott Tangney, executive vice president at Makovsky.

“The industry,” he adds, “is walking on a tightrope, with the combination of negative perception, regulator actions and greater risk sapping reputation and financial performance.”

Financial services continue to be “pummeled by negative perception and regulatory overhaul and action,” according to poll respondents.

The biggest perception problems for the industry, the poll found, were “negative public perception” (64 percent) and “regulatory actions” (55 percent). The latter includes investigations, lawsuits and fines.

Other highlights of the Makovsky study include: (to continue reading, please click here to the NY Post article)

BrokerDealer.com: JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon Diagnosed With Cancer

Posted on July 2, 2014July 2, 2014 by admin

BrokerDealer.com blog update: JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, indisputably one of the global banking industry’s most recognized leaders announced via internal memo to the investment bank/broker-dealer’s employees that he was recently diagnosed with throat cancer and is scheduled to undergo treatment beginning immediately.

JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon

According to Dimon’s e-mail, the cancer is curable and “the prognosis from doctors is excellent” after multiple tests confirmed the cancer is confined in the lymph nodes on the right side of his neck. The memo said Dimon will undergo eight weeks of chemotherapy and radiation at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital and curtail his travel, but he does not plan to take time off from his day-to-day leadership of the firm.

Dimon’s announcement came on the very day he celebrates his 10th anniversary at the helm of the bank, which makes him the longest-tenured CEO among the major U.S. banks. That tenure, which began when JPMorgan acquired Dimon-led Bank One a decade ago, has had plenty of highs and lows.

Xinhua Unit Is On Track for IPO; China News Agency Goes Public

Posted on July 1, 2014 by admin

BrokerDealer.com blog extends thanks to the Wall Street Journal’s Shen Hong for providing coverage regarding the Xinhua News Agency initial public offering. See below link for full story. in Wall Street Journal today’s article.

SHANGHAI—China’s official news service is on track for an initial public offering of its digital arm, as Beijing seeks to transform its staid propaganda organs into modernized entities.

If the plan proceeds, China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency would become the second of the Communist Party’s state-run media outlets to sell stock to the public, following the IPO two years ago of People.cn Co. 603000.SH -3.31%, the website of the authorities’ flagship newspaper, the People’s Daily.

In recent years, Beijing has encouraged its state-run media to tap the capital markets for funds and to use modern tools to boost the influence of the propaganda machines that it has used for decades to deliver its message to the Chinese people. Analysts say the government also hopes its propaganda arms can help it to promote “soft power”—cultural heft around the world through media such as movies and television shows—as well as to develop a thriving domestic media industry.

Xinhuanet Co., which operates the 83-year-old news agency’s main website Xinhuanet.com, released the preliminary IPO prospectus for a listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on the Chinese securities regulator’s website late Friday. Continue reading →