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) CDO managers facing cutbacks: report
The sudden withdrawal of liquidity, coupled with a possible sustained slowdown in new collateralized debt obligation (CDO) issuance, likely means further impairment among CDO asset managers well into next year, says Derivative Fitch in a new report.
�While the potential liquidity risk of some manager platforms appears contained in the short-term, the continuing global liquidity crises warrants close monitoring to determine if future manager impairment is possible, be it material staff reductions, cutbacks on critical resources like data and technology, financial stress or, in a worst case, outright failure of the manager,� the firm says.
Derivative Fitch believes it possible that manager impairment rates may reach 20% for all CDO asset managers across all collateral types, and as much as 40% for managers focused on ABS collateral should the CDO market downturn persist. More>> - (
) CRH May Purchase $4.5 Billion in Assets From Cemex (Update6)
Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- CRH Plc, the world's second- biggest maker of building materials, may buy Cemex SAB's U.S. concrete plants, pipe-making unit and cement division for as much as $4.5 billion in what would be its biggest acquisition.CRH, based in Dublin, said the talks with Cemex also involve units in the Pacific Northwest and Europe. Monterrey, Mexico-based Cemex, North America's largest cement producer, is selling 39 concrete and aggregate plants in Florida and Arizona to gain U.S. Justice Department approval for its $14.2 billion purchase of Rinker Group Ltd.
The Irish company is willing to take on extra debt to make the purchase, even as a credit crunch makes borrowing more costly, as the strongest growth in U.S. commercial construction for two decades offsets a slump in housing. More>>
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) Sub-Prime Lending Mess Not Technology’s Fault Experts say technology and good decision-making go together in avoiding ...
It has been front-page news for months -- the mortgage meltdown is threatening the U.S. economy. As lenders of all sizes face scrutiny over risky lending practices, questions remain about how technology could have been used to soften or prevent the sub-prime lending mess.Some experts say the crisis was inevitable. Ted Landis, a Phoenix-based senior executive in Accenture's financial services group, says the signs of a looming meltdown in the market have been evident since the introduction of sub-prime lending a decade ago. "It has been a developing story since the late '90s," he contends.
According to Landis, lenders reached a point over the past two or three years at which they needed to create demand to justify the investments they made earlier this decade to scale up loan operations. More>>
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) State advises Fed Hock to make additional cuts
A state audit released revealed last week revealed that the round of cuts made by members of the Federal Hocking school board this year will not be the last for the district.The audit recommends not only “substantial additional reductions in personnel, including classroom teachers," but also urges the district to consider merging the school buildings onto one campus. This would save Federal Hocking nearly $470,000, according to the audit.
Deep cuts have already affected Federal Hocking, which is a three-building district serving about 1,150 students in preschool through grade 12. Since February, school board members have voted to cut various teaching positions and have opted not to fill open positions.
Over the summer, the board instituted a pay-to-play athletics policy and eliminated two Spanish teaching positions, as well as several coaching and supplemental positions. More>>