Thursday, November 22, 2007

France Bails Out Monoline Insurer.......

Here we go..... After Germany balied out IKB & Landesbank Sachsen, UK Northern Rock now France is joining the parade..... To be continued.......... Too bad that ACA isn´t a French company...... ;-)

Der nächste bitte.....Nachdem Deutschland die IKB & Landesbank Sachsen, UK Northern Rock rausgehauen hat beglückt uns nun Frankreich mit einem Bailout erster Klasse...... Eines ist sicher.....Frankreich wird nicht das letzte Land sein das in das Marktgeschehen eingreifen wird.... Zu dumm das ACA keine französischen Wurzeln hat..... ;-)




Natixis's Bond Insurer to Get $1.5 Billion in Capital
Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Natixis SA's bond-insurance unit, CIFG Guaranty, will be taken over by the French bank's controlling shareholders in a $1.5 billion rescue to preserve its top credit rating.

> It will be interesting what the private owners will do with FGIC.....

> Es wird spannend zu sehen sein was die privaten Eigner bei FBIC machen werden....

Marketwatch

Privately held FGIC has been in discussions to raise new capitals from its existing investors, which include Blackstone Group , Cypress Group, PMI Group , General Electric and CIVC Partners, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter


Naked Capitalism / WSJ

Private-equity firms Blackstone Group and Cypress Group each bought 23% stakes in FGIC in 2003, while mortgage insurer PMI Group Inc. owns a 42% stake. General Electric, FGIC's former owner, retained a 5% stake while CIVC Partners, a Chicago private-equity firm, owned 7%.

Natixis rose as much as 19 percent in Paris trading after Groupe Banque Populaire and Groupe Caisse d'Epargne, French mutual banks that jointly control Natixis, said today they will provide the capital and assume full ownership of CIFG. They said the purchase will be completed ``as quickly as possible.''

CIFG was named by Fitch Ratings and Moody's Investors Service as among the likeliest bond insurers to face ratings downgrades after turmoil in the fixed-income market hurt the value of the debt they insure. Bond insurance allows municipalities and companies to gain top credit ratings on their debt, and to pay lower interest rates. Fitch affirmed its AAA rating on CIFG after the announcement today.

Under Review
Fitch on Nov. 5 said it would start a six-week review of bond insurers to ensure they had enough capital to warrant their top ratings. CIFG was insuring $85 billion of bonds as of June 30, according to figures on its Web site. The entire bond insurance industry has guaranteed more than $1 trillion of debt, allowing borrowers to use the insurers' AAA ratings.

``Natixis has been hurt by subprime,'' Franck Hennin, a fund manager who helps oversee about $5 billion in assets with Richelieu Finance in Paris, said yesterday. ``Its CIFG subsidiary in the U.S. is suffering enormously as a result of credit defaults.''

Moody's and Fitch are also examining AAA-rated insurers including MBIA Inc., Ambac Financial Group Inc. and FGIC Corp. to see if they have enough capital.

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6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The criminals always take over the banking system first. They have woven a tangled web of money and power. I find myself hoping for a collapse, I need the amusement.

7:42 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hello jmf,

Is it the gubbermint that regulates the banks, or the other way around? I guess it really doesn't matter, because the end result is the same. Nothing ever changes.

8:30 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Don't worry... everything is well-contained... to planet Earth.

I thought the Asian markets were going to keep on chugging for at least another year. How wrong I was.

Are there any safe countries for equities now? Seems like the termites keep showing up in the woodwork in every wing of the house. Of course the queen termites already left the building with all the eggs under their six arms.

3:16 PM  
Blogger jmf said...

Moin Edgar,

it is indeed very frustrating to see all this happening.

Moin Anon,

what happened to all the decoupling talk..... :-)

I think that some economies still will do fine.

But i doubt that their stock markets are good bets either.

10:52 PM  
Blogger jmf said...


French banks eye superfund


French superfund to aid financial companies hit by the global liquidity crunch could be launched within days, reports the FT’s French partner paper, Les Echos. Five leading French banks are working on creating a fund to buy asset-backed securities held by banks, insurers and others, ensuring liquidity for asset management funds if holders seek to sell. The project, developed by BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Calyon (the investment banking arm of Crédit Agricole SA), Natixis and HSBC France, comes after several managers were obliged to temporarily freeze such funds in late summer as pressure by investors to withdraw funds mounted.

11:02 PM  
Blogger jmf said...


AMBAC: This is not going to work


Nice insights from Accrued Interest

4:14 AM  

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