href='mailto:Headlines@abiworld.org?subject=Subscribe me to the ABI
Headlines Direct'>
src='/AM/Images/headlines/headline.gif' />
September 7,
2007
Subprime
Mortgages
name='1'>Regulators Look into Ratings Firms' Practices Amid Subprime
Troubles
In the wake of
mortgage-market turmoil, regulators plan to probe how the big
credit-rating companies are paid and whether they are independent enough
of the Wall Street firms that issue bonds, the
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Wall Street Journal
size='3'>reported today. The Securities and Exchange Commission and
state attorneys general in
size='3'>New York and
size='3'>Ohio
to examine how the ratings firms evaluated subprime-mortgage-backed
securities that grew into a trillion-dollar market. The ratings firms
include McGraw-Hill Cos.' Standard & Poor's; the Moody's Investors
Service unit of Moody's Corp., whose stock has soared in recent years;
and Fitch Ratings, a unit of Fimalac SA of
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Paris. While
ratings firms generally disclose the amount they collect to rate
different kinds of bonds, the SEC wants to see whether clients that sell
more deals -- and thus generate more revenue for ratings firms -- tend
to get better ratings. While there is no evidence so far of this kind of
preferential treatment, regulators are interested in examining the
question given the lucrative nature of the mortgage market.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118913359075520354.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='2'>Commentary: Accountability Needed for Ratings
Agencies
In terms of market
meltdowns and the degree of pain inflicted on the financial system, the
subprime mortgage crisis has the potential to rival just about anything
in recent financial history from the savings-and-loan crisis of the late
1980s to the post-Enron turndown at the beginning of this decade,
according to a commentary from former SEC Chairman Arthur Leavitt in
today’s Wall
Street Journal. The scope of this crisis is
not the only similarity to the Enron-era scandals. They also share root
causes that include conflicts of interest, a lack of accountability, and
limited transparency leavened with a healthy dose of naive greed. As
documented both in the media and by the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC), credit ratings agencies -- such as Moody's Investor
Service, S&P, and Fitch Ratings -- are playing both coach and
referee in the debt game. In the case of structured financial
instruments that make it possible to securitize all those subprime
mortgages, they help issuers construct these products to obtain the
highest possible rating. These conflicts are hard to spot because
transparency among these agencies is murky at best, and currently it is
difficult to hold these agencies accountable for any
wrongdoing.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB118912606193520154.html'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='3'>First Magnus Opposes Transferring Loans to
Countrywide
Bankrupt subprime lender
First Magnus Financial moved on Wednesday to block its creditor,
Countrywide Financial Corp., from seizing a pool of loans worth $44.5
million, Bankruptcy
Law360 reported yesterday. The loans serve as
collateral for a loan Countrywide made to First Magnus before it filed
for bankruptcy in August. Countrywide asked the court to grant relief
from the automatic stay and turn the loans over to Countrywide, saying
that their value as collateral is deteriorating in the face of the
subprime mortgage industry's collapse. First Magnus said in its
opposition brief that its pledge to sell the loans made them safe enough
as collateral, and that Countrywide itself had endorsed its plan to sell
the loans. First Magnus said that it is negotiating the sale of loans
worth approximately $114 million and that they will sell for more as a
single pool than they would in several pieces.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=34210'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
Autos
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>
name='4'>Delphi
size='3'> Reaches Settlement with GM
Automotive-parts supplier
Delphi Corp. said yesterday that it reached a definitive agreement with
former parent General Motors Corp. and filed its reorganization plan and
disclosure statement, moves aimed at exiting bankruptcy protection by
the end of the year, the
size='3'>Wall Street Journal reported today.
The deal settles issues with GM over supply, pricing, post-retirement
liabilities for workers and plant closings and sales.
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Delphi
financing of about $7 billion to pay chapter 11 claims and make pension
contributions. It hopes to close the exit financing deal early in the
fourth quarter.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118916173966420538.html'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='5'>Environmental Claims Threaten Dana’s Emergence from
Bankruptcy
Dana Corp. has asked the
court overseeing its chapter 11 proceedings to estimate the value of the
government's environmental claims against the company, arguing that a
delay in resolving the claims could undermine Dana's ability to fulfill
its goal of emerging from bankruptcy by the end of 2007,
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360
size='3'>reported yesterday. The auto parts supplier filed its motion
seeking an order laying out procedures for estimating the claims, which
the government has speculated could exceed $300 million. Dana plans
to contest the claims in an objection it anticipates filing today. The
claims come from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of the
Interior. The claims are based on remediation costs and liabilities
related to several Superfund sites associated with Dana and its
predecessors, according to Dana's motion.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=34118'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
Execs Demand Insurer Cover Their Legal Bills
Three former top
executives of fallen commodities broker Refco Inc. have asked a
bankruptcy court judge to force their insurance company to advance them
funds to cover the mounting costs of their defense in a variety of civil
and criminal actions related to Refco's collapse,
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360
size='3'>reported yesterday. According to the Tuesday filing, Axis
Reinsurance Co. has so far refused to advance the defense costs for
former Refco chief executive Phillip Bennett, former president Tone
Grant, and former chief financial officer Robert Trosten. Instead, Axis
asked the court to declare that the insurance company has no financial
obligation to any of the three officers regarding to their defense
costs. Late last week, Bankruptcy Judge Robert
Drain directed Axis to advance the funds, but
stayed his order for 10 days to allow Axis time to appeal.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=34169'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='7'>TrueStar Petroleum Files Chapter 11 for
Subsidiary
TrueStar Barnett LLC, a
subsidiary of oil-and-gas exploration and production company TrueStar
Petroleum Corp., filed for chapter 11 protection late last month,
Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Creating a question about which
bankruptcy court will handle the reorganization, creditor Optima
Services International Ltd. filed an involuntary petition, also on Aug.
31, in bankruptcy court in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Dallas
filed the involuntary petition against both TrueStar Petroleum and
TrueStar Barnett. The voluntary and involuntary petitions were filed to
prevent foreclosure by Macquarie Bank Ltd., whose disputed claim was
listed by TrueStar at $15 million.
href='http://www.denverpost.com/ci_6822013?source=rss'>Read
more.
name='8'>Greenspan Says Current Financial Turmoil Fits Past
Patterns
Former Federal Reserve Chairman
Alan Greenspan said that the current market turmoil is in many ways
'identical' to that which occurred in 1987 and 1998, when the giant
hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management nearly collapsed, the Wall
Street Journal reported today. 'The behavior in what we are
observing in the last seven weeks is identical in many respects to what
we saw in 1998, what we saw in the stock-market crash of 1987,”
Greenspan said. Bubbles can't be defused through incremental adjustments
in interest rates, Greenspan suggested. The Fed doubled interest rates
in 1994-95 and 'stopped the nascent stock-market boom,' but when it
was stopped, stocks took off again. 'We tried to do it again in
1997,' when the Fed raised rates a quarter of a percentage point, and
'the same phenomenon occurred,' he said.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118913318976220324.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
International
name='9'>Interest Rate Unchanged as Banks Tighten
Credit
The European Central Bank
left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4 percent yesterday,
shifting course from a month ago when it signaled it would raise the
rate this month by a quarter-point, the
size='3'>New York Times reported today. The
bank reduced its forecast for growth in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Europe this year and warned
that continued volatility in financial markets could dampen its
projections further. Separately, the Bank of England kept its benchmark
rate at 5.75 percent. With credit constricting throughout the banking
system, economists said the European Central Bank no longer needed to
tighten its monetary policy. Commercial banks, by charging one another
higher borrowing rates, are in effect doing the bank’s work for
it, they said. “We will not go back to the easy lending conditions
that existed before,” said Thomas Mayer, chief European economist
at Deutsche Bank. “What we are witnessing is the bursting of a
credit bubble.”
href='http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/07/business/worldbusiness/07euro.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
name='10'>Some Short-Term Canadian Debt Paper Is Snagged in Credit
Crisis
The turmoil in the credit
markets, particularly in the
w:st='on'>
size='3'>United States
size='3'>, as well as an unusual Canadian regulation have all but shut
down the market for about 34 billion Canadian dollars ($32.3 billion) in
commercial paper, the
size='3'>New York Times reported today. Until
last month, this debt paper had been regarded by many as a safe
alternative to cash. If a proposed restructuring led by the financial
industry succeeds, investors in the commercial paper who would
ordinarily have been repaid in 30 to 60 days will find their holdings
transformed into long-term notes with maturity dates measured in years.
The Canadian problem differs from the subprime mortgage crisis in one
respect: the assets underlying the paper were regarded as generally
solid. They were for the most part credit card receivables, auto loans
and good-quality mortgages.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/07/business/worldbusiness/07paper.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
name='11'>TROUBLED COMPANIES IN THE NEWS
The business news articles below are taken from the U.S. Business
Journal’s Daily Summary of Troubled & Fast Growing U.S.
Companies which is published by Bastien Financial Publications.
size='3'>ABI
size='3'>Members receive a 50% discount off of our regular subscription
rate of $500 when subscribing to the complete Daily Summary.
/>
To subscribe email steve@creditnews.com
title='mailto:steve@creditnews.com'
href='mailto:steve@creditnews.com'>
color='#0000ff'
size='3'><mailto:steve@creditnews.com>
size='3'>or call 800-407-9044—use
w:st='on'>
size='3'>ABI
37
Ace Hardware
Corp., finding an
accounting shortfall of more than $150 million, called off plans to
switch its business structure from a dealer-owner cooperative to a
corporation. That could slow down the Oak Brook, Il.
hardware-store cooperative’s efforts to better compete with giant
rivals like Home Depot Inc. and Lowe’s Cos. Inc., since Ace had
been strategizing that operating as a single corporation instead of
thousands of independently owned stores would be a better business
model. As a result of the shortfall, which goes back at least five years
and will likely prompt a “significant” financial
restatement, the stores’ owners will likely have to sacrifice
dividends.
Angelica
Corp., the
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>St. Louis
size='3'>,
size='3'>Mo.
services firm serving the healthcare industry, will close or sell its
underperforming service center in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Edison
w:st='on'>
size='3'>N.J.
size='3'>by the end of its fiscal year.
Countrywide Financial
Corp.,
Calabasas, Ca., added 900 more job cuts to its restructuring program as
it continues trying to reduce cost amid a drop in business and increased
defaults. Last month, Countrywide, a mortgage lender, announced
500 layoffs. The firm has been hurt by the credit crunch.
Hayes Lemmerz
International Inc
size='3'>., the Northville, Mi. firm which is the leading manufacturer
of aluminum and steel automobile wheels internationally, reported a
second quarter net loss of $87 million, which included charges of $22.8
million related to asset impairment, restructuring and the early
extinguishment of debt. The loss compares with a $27 million loss
for the same period one year earlier. Sales for the quarter increased
nearly 19%–to $570.3 million.
Kraft Foods
Inc. said
that it will engage in a round of job cuts, reshuffle executives and
overhaul its incentive-pay plans. Kraft, not saying how many
layoffs will be involved, also raised its forecast for profits this year
despite the “significant” challenge of increasing costs for
commodities.
Medtronic
Inc., a
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Fridley
size='3'>, Mn. medical device manufacturer, will trim its payroll by 900
jobs in its underperforming defibrillator unit. Three months ago,
Medtronic announced it would cut 550 jobs. The firm plans to complete
its restructuring process by the end of 2008.
Motive
Inc., an
Austin, Tx. provider of management software for broadband and data
services, restated financial results going back as far as 2001.
The restatements include a net loss for the year ended 12/31/04 of
$34.6 million, compared to an earlier reported profit of $427,000 for
the period. Motive also reported restated numbers for 2005, 2006
and the first six months of 2007.
Saks Inc
size='3'>.,
face='Times New Roman'
size='3'>Birmingham
settled charges filed against it by the Securities and Exchange
Commission that it improperly collected and kept payments from several
of its luxury suppliers, to the tune of $30 million, in an effort to
inflate its earnings. For years, the SEC says, Saks used improper
methods to keep money that it owed to the apparel suppliers, who
suffered from the tactics, with one of them reportedly going out of
business. Saks, which has repaid the money, did not admit to any
wrongdoing and paid no fine. Reportedly, there is still one case
outstanding in the matter.