I briefly mentioned subsidized gasoline in Saudi Arabia on November 11. Here’s a report on subsidized electricity in India:
The villagers of Dharnai in northern India had been living without electricity for more than 30 years when Greenpeace installed a microgrid to supply reliable, low-cost solar power.
Then, within weeks of the lights flickering on in Dharnai’s mud huts, the government utility hooked up the grid — flooding the community with cheap power that undercut the fledgling solar network. While Greenpeace had come to Dharnai at Bihar’s invitation, the unannounced arrival of the state’s utility threatened to put it out of business.
…
It’s a scenario playing out at dozens of ventures across India’s hinterlands. Competition from state utilities, with their erratic yet unbeatably cheap subsidized power, is scuppering efforts to supply clean, modern energy in a country where more people die from inhaling soot produced by indoor fires than from smoking.
I mentioned a new round of bank-bashing yesterday, in connection with their commodities businesses. Could it be that this is related?:
Congressional scrutiny of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS)’s commodities businesses is another strain for units that already saw revenue drop by two-thirds from peak years.
Goldman Sachs produced $1 billion of revenue from its commodities unit and investments in commodity businesses in 2012, down from $3.4 billion in 2009, according to a Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report released today on banks’ involvement in those markets. Morgan Stanley’s commodity revenue fell for four straight years, from $3 billion in 2008 to $912 million in 2012, according to the report.
It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good:
Six years after Bernard Madoff’s fraud collapsed, the cost of liquidating his defunct investment advisory firm to repay thousands of victims has topped $1 billion, though the con man’s former customers aren’t footing the bill.
The fees, paid by the industry-backed Securities Investor Protection Corp., which is managing the case, have financed a team of lawyers who this week surpassed $10 billion in recoveries for victims, or almost 60 percent of the principal that vanished after Madoff’s arrest in December 2008.
Irving Picard, the bankruptcy lawyer who’s leading the effort as trustee for Madoff’s company, included the new fee total in an interim report posted today on his website. A bankruptcy judge in Manhattan regularly approves the fees, sometimes over the objections of victims’ groups.
…
“It’s obscene,” Helen Davis Chaitman, a lawyer representing some victims in the case, said in an e-mail about the fees. Chaitman, who has frequently challenged Picard in courts, said federal prosecutors recovered most of the cash for victims and Picard should pay out more than just principal.
It was a good day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts winning 29bp, FixedResets up 16bp and DeemedRetractibles gaining 15bp. Volatility was low. Volume was average.
| 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 | 0.4819 % | 2,544.3 |
| FixedFloater | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.4819 % | 4,028.2 |
| Floater | 2.96 % | 3.07 % | 59,347 | 19.51 | 4 | 0.4819 % | 2,704.8 |
| OpRet | 4.02 % | -0.05 % | 96,991 | 0.08 | 1 | 0.0392 % | 2,749.7 |
| SplitShare | 4.28 % | 4.15 % | 50,639 | 3.78 | 5 | -0.1977 % | 3,184.4 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.0392 % | 2,514.3 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.43 % | -9.57 % | 66,989 | 0.09 | 19 | -0.0349 % | 2,487.3 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.11 % | 5.00 % | 106,883 | 15.41 | 16 | 0.2931 % | 2,681.2 |
| FixedReset | 4.16 % | 3.52 % | 177,016 | 4.48 | 74 | 0.1614 % | 2,596.4 |
| Deemed-Retractible | 4.94 % | -0.99 % | 97,129 | 0.11 | 40 | 0.1479 % | 2,613.6 |
| FloatingReset | 2.56 % | -7.47 % | 58,385 | 0.08 | 6 | 0.0652 % | 2,558.0 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| TD.PR.R | Deemed-Retractible | 1.06 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-12-20 Maturity Price : 25.75 Evaluated at bid price : 26.63 Bid-YTW : -29.47 % |
| ENB.PR.H | FixedReset | 1.27 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2044-11-20 Maturity Price : 22.44 Evaluated at bid price : 23.14 Bid-YTW : 3.98 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| FTS.PR.H | FixedReset | 182,489 | Nesbitt crossed 168,200 at 20.45. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2044-11-20 Maturity Price : 20.25 Evaluated at bid price : 20.25 Bid-YTW : 3.72 % |
| ENB.PF.G | FixedReset | 126,281 | RBC crossed blocks of 74,000 and 38,500 at 25.29. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2044-11-20 Maturity Price : 23.19 Evaluated at bid price : 25.21 Bid-YTW : 4.11 % |
| TRP.PR.A | FixedReset | 94,425 | Scotia crossed 20,000 at 21.77. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2044-11-20 Maturity Price : 21.50 Evaluated at bid price : 21.82 Bid-YTW : 4.00 % |
| CU.PR.G | Perpetual-Discount | 78,606 | Desjardins bought blocks of 36,500 and 12,100 from anonymous at 22.53. TD crossed 23,900 at the same price. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2044-11-20 Maturity Price : 22.19 Evaluated at bid price : 22.50 Bid-YTW : 5.00 % |
| FTS.PR.M | FixedReset | 61,260 | Nesbitt crossed 50,000 at 25.45. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2019-12-01 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.43 Bid-YTW : 3.71 % |
| NA.PR.S | FixedReset | 56,425 | TD bought blocks of 10,000 and 15,000 from National, both at 25.65. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2019-05-15 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.65 Bid-YTW : 3.50 % |
| There were 34 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| CGI.PR.D | SplitShare | Quote: 25.68 – 26.25 Spot Rate : 0.5700 Average : 0.4380 YTW SCENARIO |
| SLF.PR.H | FixedReset | Quote: 25.64 – 25.95 Spot Rate : 0.3100 Average : 0.1896 YTW SCENARIO |
| TD.PR.S | FixedReset | Quote: 25.68 – 26.08 Spot Rate : 0.4000 Average : 0.2919 YTW SCENARIO |
| W.PR.J | Perpetual-Premium | Quote: 25.20 – 25.50 Spot Rate : 0.3000 Average : 0.2119 YTW SCENARIO |
| PWF.PR.H | Perpetual-Premium | Quote: 25.46 – 25.69 Spot Rate : 0.2300 Average : 0.1422 YTW SCENARIO |
| W.PR.H | Perpetual-Premium | Quote: 25.11 – 25.36 Spot Rate : 0.2500 Average : 0.1653 YTW SCENARIO |