| Gold Reef CEO Joffe defends futures sale
GOLD Reef Resorts CEO Steven Joffe says the Securities Regulation Panel (SRP) has written to him, asking him to explain his sale of single stock futures while the company was in negotiations that might have resulted in it being sold. “We were not under cautionary at the time,” Joffe said on Friday. “I did not know that I had to get permission from the SRP.” Joffe is said to have gained R17m from the sale of the futures at R33 a share. Gold Reef’s current share price of R23 is substantially lower following the withdrawal earlier this month of an offer for the company by a private equity consortium of R34 a share. The consortium comprised Gold Reef Management, Ethos Private Equity and US bank Goldman Sachs.
Gatland factor could signal new Wales love affair with Twickenham
I HATE Twickenham. It's not a loathing based around hackneyed images of Barbour-clad "hooray Henries" glugging champagne in the West car park. Nor is it a simplistic aversion to English rugby and it's spiritual home. No, it's much simpler than that. I hate the place because we keep on losing there. I've been to every England-Wales game at Twickers since 1990 and it's been the same story each time. The day has always followed the same depressing pattern. It takes forever to get up there, it takes forever to get back and in the middle you watch Wales lose. Everyone has been talking about the 1988 game this week and the memories of Jiffy jinking and Hadley's double. But, unfortunately, I wasn't there. So for me, Twickenham is inextricably linked with Welsh failure.
Credit Crisis to Credit Crunch
You can go get several bids and average them, or base your assumption on what similar assets sold for. Level 3 values are based on "unobservable" inputs reflecting companies' "own assumptions" about the way assets would be priced. That would be market talk for best guess, or in some cases SWAG (as in Simple Wild-***ed Guess.) Financial companies have never had to break out this information. As you might expect, there is particular interest in how much and what kind of Level 3 assets a bank or brokerage firm might have. It turns out, that there may be more problems lurking in those assets than we realize. Nouriel Roubini gave us some numbers earlier this week. It seems that some companies have far more Level 3 assets than they have capital. Take a look at these six banks which have already posted their Level 3 assets ahead of the deadline: .
Australian share market falls on US recession fears
At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 62.5 points at 6290.7, while the All Ordinaries lost 61.5 points to 6372.6. At 4.15pm (AEDT) on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the March share price index contract was 20 points lower at 6312, on a volume of 18,706 contracts. Macquarie Equities client advisor David Halliday said the local bourse was starting to factor in the possibility of a recession in the US. "The higher oil price and economic data is certainly making more people think about the prospect of a recession in the US, and if that is the case, it is bad news for equity markets around the world,'' Mr Halliday said. "Our market started to factor in the prospect of a recession a little bit more today and that's why we've seen the big falls.'' On Wall Street overnight, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 220.86 points to close at 13,043.96.
Energy Focus Optics Help Achieve Record Solar Cell Efficiency
Such forward-looking statements include statements regarding the goals and business outlook for 2007 and thereafter, future pool market sales, the expected growth of and percentage of the Company to be represented by EFO, expected product development and introductions, and expected overall sales growth and profitability, and expected benefits, revenues. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted. Risk factors that could affect the Company's future include, but are not limited to, a slowing of the U.S. and world economy and its effects on Energy Focus' markets, failure to develop marketable products from new technologies, failure of EFO or other new products to meet performance expectations, unanticipated costs of integrating acquisitions into the Energy Focus operation, delays in manufacturing of products, increased competition, other adverse sales and distribution factors and greater than anticipated costs and/or warranty expenses.
Culling weak funds will strengthen ETF herd
The long-expected culling of the weak has begun in the world of exchange-traded funds. Eleven duds listed in the U.S. market are being closed and the safest bet on the stock markets right now is that more of these mutual fund alternatives will bite the dust before long. "We've always thought that the next bear market – and we're probably in one right now – would eliminate a lot of the duplicate funds and the esoteric funds," said Tyler Mordy, director of research at Hahn Investment Stewards & Co. Bring it on, baby. Closing ETFs addresses the confusing glut of products, while the impact on people who actually own doomed funds is minimal, other than a potential tax hit. ETFs are stocks that provide a clean, cheap way to buy the returns of hundreds of stock indexes and commodities.
Supreme Court says states may apply new cross-examination rule to old ...
The Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that the Constitution requires that defendants have the right to question their accusers. But the court said last year that federal courts could apply the 2004 decision to new and pending cases, but not to older ones. This case concerns whether state courts must follow that same rule or are free to consider older cases under the 2004 decision. The Minnesota Supreme Court said its hands were tied. By a 7-2 vote, however, the U.S. high court said that state courts are not bound by the same limits that apply to federal courts. A state "should be equally free to give its citizens the benefit of our rule in any fashion that does not offend federal law," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the court. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy dissented.
Wild Card/Vacation Day 11 of 12
Only two more shopping days until I return to the final days of the City Council campaigns. Then, we'll have fun taking apart the campaigns. Any dirt yet? Any mudslinging. You know, the good stuff. Or is everyone behaving? My wife is now looking over my shoulder -- literally -- so I have to pretend that I'm just checking ball scores. See ya in two days. Here's Wild Card ... .
Refco ex-VP pleads guilty
A former senior executive at Refco Inc. became the first company official to plead guilty to defrauding investors in the failed trading giant on Wednesday, one day after a Mayer Brown lawyer was indicted on criminal charges.
Santo Maggio, former executive vice president, admitted in a New York federal court that he "participated with others to hide the true financial health of Refco." He worked at Refco from the late 1990s to October 2005, when the futures and commodities broker collapsed after disclosing that an entity partially owned by former Chief Executive Phillip Bennett owed the company about $430 million.
The debt stemmed from client losses that had piled up since the mid-1990s, according to federal prosecutors. Mayer Brown partner Joseph Collins, who represented Refco for more than a decade, helped hide the debt for several years, prosecutors charge in his indictment.
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