Time for another politically inspired shake-down of a bank? Oh, why not?
Public pension funds from Arkansas, Ohio, Oregon and Sweden will be lead plaintiffs in a group lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) over trades made by Bruno Iksil, known as the “London Whale.”
U.S. District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan ruled today that lawsuits against the New York-based bank should be consolidated into a class action. The pension funds allege they lost as much as $52 million because of fraudulent activities by JPMorgan’s London chief investment office.
The lead plaintiffs named by Daniels are the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, Ohio Public Employee Retirement System, School Employees Retirement System of Ohio, State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, Oregon Public Employee Retirement Fund and the Swedish pension fund Sjunde AP-Fonden.
The best thing about public pension funds, you understand, is that they allow you to keep the wage increases out of the headline number. But the second best thing is that they give you another avenue for grandstanding shakedown attempts.
The Muddy Waters business model is gaining popularity:
A series of scathing reports by a small Toronto investment research house targeting some of India’s corporate heavyweights is riveting the country’s business community, and sparking intense scrutiny of the state of corporate governance in one of the world’s hottest economies.
Veritas Investment Research Corp. has alleged “manipulative accounting,” poor disclosure practices and other gaping flaws in transparency at major Indian real estate, communications, and infrastructure firms. In the process, the company has shone a rare light on the fragility of oversight in the Asian giant – and made some powerful enemies.
…
Arun Jain, an expert on corporate governance who teaches at the elite Indian Institute of Management in Lucknow, said the hard-hitting Veritas reports raise the question of why no Indian firm is doing similar work. “Sometime the gap between who is being analyzed and who is doing the analysis is not big,” he said.India’s business world can be a cozy one. “You know that someone you write about this week could be a potential client next week, so if you don’t have something nice to say, you just don’t do a report,” said an analyst who has worked for the Indian branches of several international firms, and who did not want to be quoted by name.
Right? Wrong? I don’t know. Indian equities are not exactly my area of specialization. But I do like to see a little mudslinging in the analytical community (provided, of course, that it’s relevant and informed mudslinging) and it’s easier when it’s a foreigner carrying the bucket.
Which is why, of course, the abortive LSE / TMX merger would have been so much better for Canadians than the Maple / TMX deal. But not for every Canadian.
It was a mildly positive day for the Canadian preferred share index, with PerpetualPremiums and DeemedRetractibles both gaining 2bp and FixedResets winning 7bp. Volume continued its recent pattern of ‘Very low, with high spots’.
| HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices Values are provisional and are finalized monthly |
|||||||
| Index | Mean Current Yield (at bid) |
Median YTW |
Median Average Trading Value |
Median Mod Dur (YTW) |
Issues | Day’s Perf. | Index Value |
| Ratchet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.6196 % | 2,325.7 |
| FixedFloater | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.6196 % | 3,479.0 |
| Floater | 3.13 % | 3.17 % | 60,601 | 19.26 | 3 | 0.6196 % | 2,511.2 |
| OpRet | 4.77 % | 2.93 % | 31,322 | 0.83 | 5 | 0.1307 % | 2,547.3 |
| SplitShare | 5.48 % | 4.92 % | 73,005 | 4.66 | 3 | 0.3476 % | 2,800.3 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.1307 % | 2,329.2 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.30 % | 2.85 % | 96,114 | 0.40 | 28 | 0.0160 % | 2,275.4 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 4.93 % | 4.92 % | 100,393 | 15.53 | 3 | -0.2070 % | 2,538.1 |
| FixedReset | 4.99 % | 3.09 % | 176,330 | 3.95 | 71 | 0.0663 % | 2,427.5 |
| Deemed-Retractible | 4.94 % | 3.13 % | 129,568 | 1.15 | 46 | 0.0187 % | 2,360.1 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| BAM.PR.B | Floater | 1.19 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2042-08-21 Maturity Price : 16.95 Evaluated at bid price : 16.95 Bid-YTW : 3.12 % |
| MFC.PR.F | FixedReset | 1.55 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.28 Bid-YTW : 3.77 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| SLF.PR.B | Deemed-Retractible | 304,768 | Nesbitt crossed 200,000 at 24.45; TD and RBC both crossed 50,000 at the same price. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.40 Bid-YTW : 5.25 % |
| MFC.PR.A | OpRet | 106,951 | Desjardins crossed 100,000 at 25.36. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Soft Maturity Maturity Date : 2015-12-18 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.30 Bid-YTW : 3.63 % |
| BNS.PR.M | Deemed-Retractible | 104,876 | Nesbitt crossed 100,000 at 25.95. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2015-07-27 Maturity Price : 25.25 Evaluated at bid price : 25.92 Bid-YTW : 3.62 % |
| RY.PR.I | FixedReset | 87,966 | Desjardins crossed 74,900 at 25.70. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-02-24 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.70 Bid-YTW : 3.08 % |
| BMO.PR.Q | FixedReset | 82,645 | Nesbitt crossed blocks of 50,000 and 27,400, both at 25.65. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.65 Bid-YTW : 2.87 % |
| TD.PR.G | FixedReset | 55,292 | Nesbitt crossed 50,000 at 26.65. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-04-30 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.69 Bid-YTW : 2.36 % |
| There were 19 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| IAG.PR.A | Deemed-Retractible | Quote: 24.19 – 24.60 Spot Rate : 0.4100 Average : 0.2706 YTW SCENARIO |
| PWF.PR.F | Perpetual-Premium | Quote: 25.21 – 25.59 Spot Rate : 0.3800 Average : 0.2625 YTW SCENARIO |
| PWF.PR.O | Perpetual-Premium | Quote: 26.41 – 26.85 Spot Rate : 0.4400 Average : 0.3578 YTW SCENARIO |
| GWO.PR.H | Deemed-Retractible | Quote: 24.90 – 25.10 Spot Rate : 0.2000 Average : 0.1303 YTW SCENARIO |
| ENB.PR.A | Perpetual-Premium | Quote: 25.55 – 25.87 Spot Rate : 0.3200 Average : 0.2575 YTW SCENARIO |
| TD.PR.C | FixedReset | Quote: 25.99 – 26.16 Spot Rate : 0.1700 Average : 0.1112 YTW SCENARIO |