The rules have been relaxed by the US central bank for governing investors who take minority stakes in banks. This move is to encourage larger investment. The Voting stake had been raised from 9.9 percent to 15 percent for minority investors.

This could help some equity firms, as in the past they have been concerned about the oversight by the central banks so have limited their investment, although it’s not only equity firms who will be able to take advantage of the new ruling it applies to any investor who wants a minority stake.

Firms such as Jones Day think the more relaxed rule is a good thing, saying that the move should enable greater investment in banks at a time when they most need it. The credit crunch has made it difficult for banks to gain capital from each other which in-turn makes it harder for individuals and businesses receive funding.

Source: BBC

Putnam Funds liquidates close to $12.3 billion prime money market funds on September 17, ’08 at 5pm; all money was distributed to investors. Each share of Prime fund was valued at $1 liked other Putnam’s other money market funds, and had no exposure to securities of Washington Mutual, Lehman Brothers or AIG at the parent company level.

Due to the fund experiencing a need for rescue, as the share dropped below $1 a share which is known as “breaking the buck” would have opened up the risk of loss to the investors, plus, the constraints on liquidity in the money markets created a risk that the fund will be exposed to additional losses when selling its portfolio securities when processing the redemptions.

The Trustees of Putnam Funds believed taking this action was better for the shareholders as it ensures a logical distribution of assets, determined to close the fund. Both Putnam VT Money Market Fund and Putnam Money Market Fund are not affected by the decision. $175 billion in assets were managed by Putnam as of May 2008, $103 billion is for mutual funds investors and $72 billion is for institutional accounts. Putnam has offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Copenhagen, Rome, Frankfurt, London and Boston.

Read the full article at wallstreetpit

Price of Gold rocketed Wednesday, as the financial institutions went under a shockwave of destruction the price of gold notched the biggest one-day advance ever, as troubled AIG was bailed out by the federal government and HBOS announced they were in takeover talks, investors move quickly dumping their shares and investing into gold, silver and other safe-haven commodities. As gold is known for holding its value it’s extremely attractive during a time of crisis.

In after-hours trading in the New York Mercantile Exchange, Gold for delivery in December increased as much as $90.40, or 11.6 percent, to $870.90 an ounce after jumping $70 to settle at $850.50 in the regular session. This was gold’s largest one-day advance since 1999.

Gold price surged to $1,000 an ounce in March, prior to the rally gold had fallen 25 percent. This now looks like the start of another upward move analyst predict priced to increase back to $1,000 by the end of the year.

Source: Associated Press

JPMorgan have found that there is no pullback in their investment strategies, even in the current challenging market conditions that we are in today.

The JPMorgan Asset Management has looked into the investment practices of 191 of the largest in the U.S institutional investors. In the survey conducted by Greenwich Associates, JPMorgan looked at the companies endowments, public funds as well as their corporate plans which all add up too $1.26 trillion in assets.

JPMorgan Asset Management, said: “What our survey indicates is that alternatives, used in the right way, are enabling investors to better tailor investment strategies to address their myriad of financial and investment concerns, be it controlling volatility, boosting returns, or hedging inflation.”

Source

white noise dvd

The City of London and West End markets have now seen the volume of investment transactions fall to a new low of £4.9bn in the first half of 2008, this is compared to £10.3bn in the first half of 2007 these figures come from Cushman & Wakefield.

The Commercial property market in the City of London has been hit hard, in the second quarter alone investments for commercial property dropped to just £1.1bn, this is down from £5bn for the same time in 2007.

Just to explain how tough things are getting in the City of London, half of the turnover in the second quarter was generated by the sale of just one building, this was the British Land’s Willis building, and this was sold to Middle Eastern investors for the sum of £400m.

C&W partner Bill Tyser has said “The outlook remains one of further correction, with rental levels beginning to come under pressure and the availability of finance continuing to be restricted and expensive, so yields will continue to rise and turnover will remain subdued.”

The outlook does look very bleak as many people are now very cautious with the current climate, many companies now has a lot less disposable income

Source