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Kenyan rivals to meet for first time
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga have agreed to meet for the first time since the disputed Dec. 27 presidential elections, which sparked weeks of ethnic violence, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday. . More>>
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More BLS BS
If you went to the market with your credit rating, it would be a low rating and the cost of the money would be high. But if you get one of the seven monoline insurers to guarantee your bond, then you get whatever their credit rating is. The fees for such insurance are lower than the savings you get on the bond, so everyone wins. But over the years, most of the monocline insurers went from boring municipal bonds and jumped into the mortgage-backed security markets, selling credit default swaps that significantly juiced up their earnings. But it also added a lot of risk that they clearly, in hindsight, did not understand.
ACA has already seen its rating go from A to CCC, which is basically junk. This puts it out of business, as no one will pay to be rated as junk. More>>
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NAB has links with Allco
NATIONAL Australia Bank says it is not a direct lender to Allco Finance Group, but has lending relationships with entities associated with the finance house. NAB said it had provided a margin loan facility of about $110 million to Allco Principle Investment, which is one of Allco's major shareholders. "No shares have been sold under this facility and at this stage no material loss is anticipated,'' NAB said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange. NAB said it also had a $95 million fully secured facility with property investor Rubicon Holdings, which was recently acquired by Allco. NAB said $65 million of the $95 million was drawn. The bank said it had other lending relationships to entities in which API or Rubicon-held equity interests. "These loans are secured, all are performing and are on normal commercial terms,'' NAB said. More>>
