金融时报:Barclays可能买下Lehman

Enoch

Lehman倒闭的后续消息

[金融时报 英文报道 9月16日]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5c9dcc ... 0-000077b07658.html

Barclays nears Lehman deal

By Julie MacIntosh in New York and Chris Hughes in London

Published: September 16 2008 14:23 | Last updated: September 16 2008 16:09

Lehman Brothers on Tuesday reached an agreement in principle to sell certain parts of its business to Barclays, which had been in talks over the weekend to buy the entire investment bank before it filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday.

The two parties have come to an agreement that centres around Lehman’s core US broker-dealer operations, which perform securities underwriting tasks, provide merger advice to lucrative clients, and conduct trading. Lehman and Barclays are still working to hammer out key regulatory issues and other components of a deal, according to sources close to the matter.

A deal could also be accompanied by a small capital raising by the UK lender.

Whether other Lehman businesses would be included in the sale, and the price at which the assets would be sold, remained unclear.

“It is a much cleaner deal to do the US deal, so that’s what they’re focused on,” said one person with knowledge of the matter. “It’s a very good, complementary fit.”

Lehman’s European and Asian investment banking divisions have been part of the discussions between the two banks, and employees within those units were anxiously awaiting word on Tuesday as to whether they would be included in any sale, people have said.

The initial transaction, however, could exclude those businesses but allow Barclays to revisit them later. Barclays is thought to be interested in acquiring some of Lehman’s entities based in Europe, but it could also choose simply to hire former employees of the US bank.

An agreement to buy Lehman’s core business would significantly boost Barclays’ US presence. The bank has made several key hires in recent months, poaching investment bankers from rival firms. But a purchase of Lehman’s banking unit would allow it to build up its US operation far more quickly.

Now that Lehman’s parent company has filed for bankruptcy, it is likely that Barclays will purchase the operations at a low price. Lehman has been scrambling against the clock to sell operations that have not filed for bankruptcy protection – which also include its Neuberger Berman asset management business – before their value evaporates as employees leave for other firms and accounts are transferred.

Hank Paulson, US Treasury secretary, had earlier asked Barclays to register its interest in buying Lehman in its entirety, as the struggling bank laboured to find a shotgun suitor over the course of a single weekend.

Barclays, which has pledged to diversify its lines of business and geographic concentration, jumped at the opportunity to evaluate a Lehman takeover.

But the UK bank pulled out of the high-stakes talks when it became clear that US authorities would not guarantee Lehman’s trading book until Barclays could win the approvals it needed to seal a deal.

Shares in Barclays fell as much as 13 per cent on Tuesday, in line with sharp falls among other UK financial stocks, but recovered in late trading to stand 5 per cent lower at 300p.

lemonbunny

发个金融小常识吧 呵呵

次贷危机

次贷是次级按揭贷款，是给信用状况较差，没有收入证明和还款能力证明，其他负债较重的个人的住房按揭贷款。相比于给信用好的人放出的最优利率按揭贷款，次级按揭贷款的利率更高，这个可以理解吧？你还钱的可能性不太高，那我借钱给你利息就要高一些咯。风险大，收益也大嘛。放出这些贷款的机构呢，为了资金尽早回笼，于是就把这些贷款打包，发行债券，类似地，次贷的债券利率当然也肯定比优贷的债券利率要高咯。这样呢，这些债券就得到了很多投资机构，包括投资银行，对冲基金，还有其他基金的青睐，因为回报高嘛。
但是这个回报高有一个很大的前提，就是美国房价不断上涨。怎么说呢？房价不断上涨，楼市大热，虽然这些次级按揭贷款违约率是比较高的（这个也容易理解吧，因为那些人信用状况本来就差，收入证明也没有，其他负债也重，还不起房贷也是容易发生的事情），但放贷的机构即使收不回贷款，它也可以把抵押的房子收回来，再卖出去不就也赚了嘛，因为楼市大热，房价不断涨嘛。
好了，危机如何发生呢？就是06年开始，美国楼市开始掉头，房价开始跌，购房者难以将房屋出售或通过抵押获得融资。那即便放贷的机构钱收不回来，把抵押的房子收了，再卖出去（难说卖不卖得出去，因为房地产市场萎缩，有价也没市）也肯定弥补不了这个放贷出去的损失了。那么，由此发行的债券，也是不值钱了，因为和它关联着的贷款收不回来。之前买了这些债券的机构，不就跟着亏了吗？很多投资银行，对冲基金都买了这些债券或者是由这些债券组成的投资组合，所以就亏了很多。举例，一系列事件包括：
——2007年2月13日美国新世纪金融公司（New Century Finance）发出2006年第四季度盈利预警
——汇丰控股为在美次级房贷业务增加18亿美元坏账拨备
——面对来自华尔街174亿美元逼债，作为美国第二大次级抵押贷款公司——新世纪金融(New Century Financial Corp)在4月2日宣布申请破产保护、裁减54%的员工
——8月2日，德国工业银行宣布盈利预警，后来更估计出现了82亿欧元的亏损（这个数字真的是巨额），因为旗下的一个规模为127亿欧元为“莱茵兰基金”（Rhineland Funding）以及银行本身少量的参与了美国房地产次级抵押贷款市场业务而遭到巨大损失。德国央行召集全国银行同业商讨拯救德国工业银行的篮子计划。
——美国第十大抵押贷款机构——美国住房抵押贷款投资公司8月6日正式向法院申请破产保护，成为继新世纪金融公司之后美国又一家申请破产的大型抵押贷款机构。
——8月8日，美国第五大投行贝尔斯登宣布旗下两支基金倒闭，原因同样是由于次贷风暴
——8月9日，法国第一大银行巴黎银行宣布冻结旗下三支基金，同样是因为投资了美国次贷债券而蒙受巨大损失。此举导致欧洲股市重挫。
——8月13日，日本第二大银行瑞穗银行的母公司瑞穗集团宣布与美国次贷相关损失为6亿日元。日、韩银行已因美国次级房贷风暴产生损失。据瑞银证券日本公司的估计，日本九大银行持有美国次级房贷担保证券已超过一万亿日元。此外，包括Woori在内的五家韩国银行总计投资5.65亿美元的担保债权凭证(CDO)。投资者担心美国次贷问题会对全球金融市场带来强大冲击。不过日本分析师深信日本各银行投资的担保债权凭证绝大多数为最高信用评等，次贷危机影响有限。
——其后花期集团也宣布，7月份有次贷引起的损失达7亿美元，不过对于一个年盈利200亿美元的金融集团，这个也只是小数目。
但次贷风暴引起的危机，已经严重影响各国资金流动性。简单的说，在当前次贷问题前景不明的情况下，各银行自然收紧信贷，避免放贷，这就导致银行间短期同业拆解利率大涨，换句话说，大家都不想把钱放出去，因为也搞不清楚其他银行因为次贷的损失会多大，财务状况如何，所以就把同业拆解利率调高了。那反过来，同业拆借利率很高，导致资金筹集的成本大增，所以连银行自己都不愿意从其他银行借钱。所以资金的流动性就大大降低，这个是有很大风险的，对本国各行各业发展所需要的资金筹集都有很大影响。美联储，欧洲央行，日本央行等看到目前流动性突然紧缩，所以就向市场紧急注入巨额资金。各国央行在数日内向市场注入超过三千亿美元，方式就是，宣布向各大银行提供比市场上同业拆借利率要低的无限额拆借，这样就可以把同业拆借利率压下来。但这样的举措，又会进一步地向金融市场表明次贷危机的严重性。例如美联储和欧洲央行向市场注入巨资保持流动性，是自9·11恐怖袭击来的首次。
危机是否进一步扩大，就要看各国各银行到底关于次贷的损失有多大了。
总体上看，次贷对于中国的影响甚少，因为中国的资本市场几乎是对外隔绝的。中国五大银行投资美国次贷的数目甚少，目前估计他们总共的损失大概才 50亿人民币，所以理论上对中国的影响甚微。但仍然要注意的是，如果次贷在全世界范围内产生巨大影响，即便中国自身的直接损失很少，但外部环境导致美元的币值，流动性波动极大，对国内的影响也不容低估。