Third Time's A Charm?

Once again, a firm that operates almost exclusively in private, opaque markets is coming into the public eye. Apollo Global Management, LLC, the fund run by Michael Milken apprentice Leon Black, has filed for a public offering on the NYSE. Until now, the Firm's stock has been trading on the GSTRuE market, a market for institutions only. The stock, which debuted around $40, now trades at $14. After the huge drops in share price for competitors Blackstone (BX) and Fortress (FIG), one wonders why Black has continued with the listing process (and why he hasn't pulled the listing from GSTRuE, as he must move from GSTRuE to the public markets within 240 days.) While it may sound far-fetched, why doesn't Apollo buy back its own stock?

Below is the prospectus filed with the SEC:

Apollo Global Management, LLC

Greenspan's Legacy

There have been numerous attacks on the former Fed chairman criticizing his loose monetary policy from 2000-2004.  Low interests rates made mortgages very affordable and people began taking on debt they couldn't realistically pay back. All of this lead to a bubble in housing prices and gave banks and other financial institutions a lot of bad debt on their books. The ongoing credit crisis is a product of many events and although some may have been triggered by monetary policy at the Fed I think it is unfair to blame Greenspan. Instead of looking back let's look forward and find a solution to the problem. Regardless of who's fault it is, the current Fed and regulators are the ones that will be responsible for correcting the crisis. 

The WSJ has a great article (click title) on the matter.  

Facebook

Ever wonder what facebook founder and CEO Marck Zuckergberg wrote on his Harvard admissions essay? Here they are. Follow the link below and you can see his essays, application and a diary he kept while witting the codes for facebook.com

LINK

If it's a credit crunch out there...

... then why is bank credit at the highest level its been since 1979? Take a look at the chart above which is taken from U of M Professor Mark Perry's Carpe Diem blog. Something about what we are hearing from CNBC and Bloomberg isn't matching up with the data.

Also, with another better than expected piece of economic data today (Macroeconomic Advisors' job data for March), CNBC economist Steve Liesman remarked, "We did 0.6% (growth in Q4) and with the data out recently its looking like we'll do 0.8-1% in Q1." If 0.8-1% is becoming the consensus number for Q1 then the recession fears will have proved to be way overdone and the market will have to continue its rally. Sometime things don't need to be perfect, they just need to be better than most in the markets thought.

MII Members - $250 Redemption

Due to MII's massive short position in Bear Stearns this quarter, we will be issuing $250 to all members who have a signed contract on record with us.

Click here to register on our website for your redemption.

Doug Kass' Grades

In January, Douggy Kass of Sea Breeze Capital Partners gave us his surprises to look for in 2008. Yesterday he graded himself for accuracy through Q1. While he deserves an A+ for some (Bear stearns getting "taken-under"), he's being pretty genenous with the grading policy for most.

Benefitting From Bear

While laboring over the 250+ page SEC filing by Citadel Investment Group, I found the following information regarding their options positions in Bear Stearns. That's right, they own $115 and $125 PUTS. Not too shabby...



via the SEC

Lehman and UBS

Today's rally is mostly fueled by the the write-downs UBS and Lehman just took.

Investors were pleased to hear that Swiss bank UBS AG said it will issue up to $15 billion in new stock and that its chairman, Marcel Ospel, had quit. Investors chose to look past the bank's announcement that it will take a fresh $19 billion write-down due to additional declines in the value of its mortgage assets and other credit instruments, following an $18 billion write-down last year.

Raising capital through stock issuance, a $19 billion write-down and this stock is up 10%??? I think this is a sign that many investors believe that with these writedowns the worse from the credit crunch is behind us. Finally.

I Hope I've Been Punk'd

Young media icon Ashton Kutcher "is joining the William Morris Agency Inc.'s blank-check firm Performance Acquisition Co., a SPAC seeking $500 million through an IPO on the American Stock Exchange."

Ashton's SPAC

That's when you know.

via TheDeal

JP Morgan Takes #1

In the last 7 months investment banks have performed poorly, however some of the banks are just better at limiting their loses. JP Morgan took over as the #1 underwriter on Wall Street according to numbers compiled by Thomson Financial. Here are the details:

According to Thomson, underwriting volume fell to $1.27 trillion from $2.3 trillion a year earlier. JPMorgan arranged $129.4 billion of offerings, winning a 10.2 percent share.
Citigroup followed with $94.7 billion of offerings and a 7.5 percent share. Deutsche Bank AG was third, with $91.8 billion of offerings and a 7.2 percent share.

JP Morgan has not released any statement on the matter, however many of you will be seeing this table when they come to recruit on campus next year. Citigroup had this to say:

Citigroup in a statement said it manages its business "for productivity and profitability rather than league table position."

Sounds like a loser's mentality to me.