The Bad Broker-Dealers Just Banned From Brokerage Industry for Swindling Customers

vcxvxFINRA is rounding up the crooks in the bank channel. The regulatory watchdog recently barred three more bank advisors from the industry, adding to the two it banished in April.

Two of the three brokers recently banned were registered with JP Morgan Securities. Kirk Eric Archibald allegedly created unauthorized bank ATM cards while employed as a personal banker and then used them to make unauthorized transactions that resulted in a loss of $19,150, according to BrokerCheck and a settlement letter that he signed with FINRA.

Michael Linfeng Zheng, the other disgraced advisor from JP Morgan Securities, allegedly took an unattended bank customer’s debit card and programmed the card’s PIN on a coworker’s computer. He then used the debit card at a nearby ATM to steal $404 from the customer’s account.

Ann Maria Ferrao was with HSBC Securities. FINRA permanently barred her from the industry for allegedly misappropriating funds from clients’ bank accounts for the benefit of other clients and for her own personal benefit, according to the settlement letter she signed.

JP Morgan, which dismissed both Archibald and Zheng, did not return a call seeking comment. And HSBC, which fired Ferrao, declined to comment. Archibald, Zheng and Ferrao could not be reached.

The regulator also suspended an advisor registered with Wayne Hummer Investments, the investments and insurance arm of Wintrust Financial Corp.’s wealth management division. Arnold Steven Janickas was suspended for two years for allegedly borrowing a total of $805,000 from a customer to buy and renovate a house. Contrary to FINRA rules and Wayne Hummer’s written policies and procedures, Janickas accepted four unsecured loans in the amounts of $550,000, $75,000, $100,000, and $80,000, without notifying or obtaining approval from the firm. He repaid $444,882, leaving a loan balance of $360,118, FINRA alleges in its settlement letter with the advisor.

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Ecuador, Kenya Government Bonds Entice Yield Hunters; Bankers & BrokerDealers Note the Deal Attracted $8 Billion in Bids

Ecuador, banished from international capital markets since bailing on obligations in 2008 and 2009, sold $2 billion of bonds today after rebuilding its credibility with investors.

The nation issued the 10-year dollar-denominated securities to yield 7.95 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Credit Suisse Group AG and Citigroup Inc. managed the offering.

A month ago, hedge fund Greylock Capital Management LLC said Ecuador agreed to buy back about 80 percent of remaining defaulted debt from 2008 and 2009 to help pave the way for its bond sale. Retiring the securities would help protect a new bond sale from any possible legal wrangling stemming from the default, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

The Ecuadro deal came on the heels of Kenya’s first-ever international-bond sale, which attracted $8 billion worth of orders for two chunks of bonds totaling $2 billion. The Kenya deal was the largest-ever debt sale by an African country.

Noted the WSJ, “Frontier stocks and bonds have logged better performance than their emerging-market counterparts in recent months, and have attracted increasing amounts of cash from investors. As well, Cyprus is gearing up for its first public bond sale since receiving a bailout a year ago.”

 

Bankers Open Vault for Hotel Deals:BrokerDealer.com Blog

wsj logoBrokerDealer.com provides news extract below courtesy of the Wall St. Journal

Banks are checking back into the hotel business.

J.P. Morgan Chase JPM +0.63% & Co., Deutsche Bank AG and other firms are ramping up lending for lodging acquisitions and debt refinancing to levels not seen since before the financial crisis. Lenders made $31 billion in hotel loans last year, nearly double the 2012 level, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, while all commercial-property lending rose 47%.

wsj loansCredit is flowing against a backdrop of rising room rates, limited new construction and a spike in leisure and business travel in big cities such as New York and Los Angeles. Net operating income increased by 10% for the average U.S. hotel in 2013, according to PKF Consulting USA, which predicts “double digit annual gains” through 2015.

The easy money means hotel companies and investors can use less of their own cash to make deals, potentially amplifying returns. Debt now accounts for more than 67% of a hotel purchase price, up from about 56% in 2010, says PKF. That level is just below the high of around 70% in 2005.

Some of the largest hotel transactions have relied even more heavily on debt. NorthStar Realty Finance and a partner this month borrowed about $840 million from J.P. Morgan to acquire a 47-hotel portfolio for about $1 billion.

“There’s been a sea-change during the past two months,” says Monty Bennett, chief executive officer of Ashford Hospitality Trust, AHT +0.47% a Dallas-based hotel investor. “It’s pretty close to the 2007 lending environment again.”

The full WSJ article can be accessed by clicking here.

Amid the Crazy Enterprise Valuations, Google Finds a Steal of a Deal: Entrepreneurs and Bankers Take Heed; A BrokerDealer.com Blog

BrokerDealer.com thanks Connecticut’s JLC Group for below extract.

How to differentiate your disruptive and innovative company from the rest? Have your chief cheerleader (presumably your CEO) make an epic statement in which your entire company and your constituents can continuously hang their hats on..  The following is a classic example:

“We think we are going to fundamentally change humanity’s understanding of the economic landscape on a daily basis.” Skybox co-founder Dan Berkenstock

The above words from an entrepreneur whose offering is seemingly perceived to be something simple: satellite technology.

If you are an aspiring tech czar in the capital raising mode, a brand enhancement specialist, a brokerdealer or venture capitalist doing due diligence, or a mere investment banker who is working with an advanced-stage company whose execs are also looking to you to help ‘craft the value proposition” to investors, your target audience will always be more inspired when you perspire passion to the point where its dripping from your pores.

The context of the above quote is in connection with a very compelling piece written by WSJ reporter Christopher Mims in his aptly-titled column “KEYWORDS”

Hyperlink above will bring you to the June 16 WSJ article: The story itself is not merely about enterprise valuation techniques and not only about the next great technology innovation, the story transcends borders for those who can read in between the lines..

IPO of the Day: Playing Chicken in Stockholm via Scandi Standard

BrokerDealer.com/blog news courtesy of Reuters -

Scandinavian food company Scandi Standard said on Monday it would launch an initial public offering in Stockholm that would give it a market capitalisation of up to 2.4 billion Swedish crowns ($361 million).

The company, which makes food products based on chicken and had adjusted EBITDA earnings of 479 million crowns on pro forma sales of 5.2 billion last year, said its shares would be sold at 33 to 40 crowns each.

If the owners decide to increase the offering in full and if the over-allotment option is fully exercised, it will comprise 39.6 million shares, representing 65 per cent of the total number of shares in the company.

Scandi Standard is owned by London-based private equity firm CapVest and Swedish farming association Lantmannen.

Link to full statement: r.reuters.com/hyh22w

($1 = 6.6448 Swedish Crowns) (Reporting by Sven Nordenstam)