Wednesday, December 23, 2009

“Enzon shareholders can vote on sale of most of its business sigma-tau ... - Minneapolis Star Tribune” plus 3 more

“Enzon shareholders can vote on sale of most of its business sigma-tau ... - Minneapolis Star Tribune” plus 3 more

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Enzon shareholders can vote on sale of most of its business sigma-tau ... - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Posted: 22 Dec 2009 02:13 PM PST

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. - Enzon Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Tuesday it will hold a shareholder meeting on Jan. 27, 2010, where its stockholders will be able to vote on the sale of most of the company's business.

The meeting is open to shareholders of record as of Dec. 7. In November, Enzon agreed to sell most of its business to sigma-tau Group, an Italian drugmaker, for as much as $327 million in addition to royalty payments. Enzon said it plans to focus on its experimental cancer drugs and technologies after the sale.

Enzon also said a mandatory federal review of the sale has ended.

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State Street to buy Intesa business for $1.87B - Rock Hill Herald

Posted: 22 Dec 2009 01:52 PM PST

The Intesa deal includes the global custody, depository banking, correspondent banking and fund administration components of the securities services operations. About 555 employees will join State Street on closing.

State Street President and Chief Operating Officer Jay Hooley said in a statement that the acquisition will also give the company new customers that it can cross-sell products and services to and provide more access to the insurance market while strengthening its fund accounting and offshore fund servicing components.

The Intesa transaction may also include about $16 billion in cash deposits if levels stay consistent with those as of June 30.

Additionally, State Street expects to support the acquired Intesa balance sheet with approximately $800 million of additional capital at the closing.

As part of the acquisition, State Street will enter into a long-term investment servicing arrangement with Intesa to service all of its investment management affiliates, including Italy's biggest fund manager, Eurizon Capital.

State Street anticipates about $120 million in acquisition-related costs over a five-year period, with most costs taking place in the first three years.

The Boston company expects to save about $90 million over five years and sees the deal modestly adding to its fiscal 2010 earnings.

State Street had $17.9 trillion in assets under custody and administration as of Sept. 30. The custody bank has about $420 billion in alternative assets under administration.

The acquisition is targeted to close in the second quarter.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

(AMM) Bucyrus set to acquire Terex mining business for $1.3B - Metalbulletin

Posted: 22 Dec 2009 05:48 PM PST

Community bankers get Obama's soft touch - GOPUSA

Posted: 23 Dec 2009 05:22 AM PST

 Community bankers get Obama's soft touch
By JIM KUHNHENN
Associated Press
December 23, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - This time, no fat cats.

President Barack Obama took his plea for more small business lending to community bankers Tuesday, but his prodding was far gentler than it was with high finance CEOs last week.

The president offered to help ease regulation that bankers say has restricted lending. He praised the small bankers as pillars of their communities. And he listened sympathetically to their pleas for easier access to capital.

"It's fair to say that most of these community banks were not engaged in some of the hugely risky activities that helped to precipitate the financial crisis," Obama said at the conclusion of the meeting with 12 regional bankers and top administration officials.

That's a different tone than last week when he famously called top bankers "fat cats" in a television interview and then told them in a White House meeting that they had a responsibility to make "an extraordinary commitment" to help rebuild the economy.

No wonder. Small bankers have not aggressively fought central elements of his sweeping financial regulation proposal, they don't make as good a populist target as Wall Street's banking chiefs and they are essential to Obama's goal of spurring small business lending.

"The administration recognizes that, truly, community banks are in a different business than the megafirms and the megabanks," said Mark Schroeder, chairman and CEO of German American Bancorp Inc., of Jasper, Ind., and a participant in the meeting.

The bankers told Obama their experiences where good loans weren't financed because regulators demanded banks hold more capital and downgrade existing loans. Privately and then later before reporters, Obama acknowledged that the regulators are independent agencies but said his administration is looking at "possibilities to cut some of the red tape."

"In some ways the pendulum may have swung too far in the direction of not lending," the president said.

The meeting came as the administration is trying to forge a program that would give community banks access to about $30 billion in low interest money from the government's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Small bankers have been loath to accept TARP money, however. They say they fear the reporting requirements that come with the money as well as any restrictions on compensation and lending that would be attached.

"Right now you couldn't make it cheap enough for them to touch it," said Camden Fine, the president and CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of America.

That poses a dilemma for the White House. Obama advisers see small business expansion as an answer to the high unemployment that has hurt the president politically and is likely to linger well into next year's congressional election season.

In pushing banks, the administration is trying to reverse a troubling trend. According to the Federal Reserve, loans by the nation's 8,000 banks fell 8 percent to $6.7 trillion in the past year, and some analysts expect them to keep falling at least through next year.

>> Continued -- Page 1 2

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