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☆ As crypto hackers and thieves make off with billions, there's another kind of fraud lurking in the industry.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

I'm sorry to say when you dig deeper into the practices of opaque crypto exchanges, there's little to restore that faith. Timothy Cradle, director of regulatory affairs at Blockchain Intelligence, told Insider that wash trading is market manipulation. NBER researchers estimated that wash trading comprises nearly half of all transactions on Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by volume. Similarly, KuCoin, another top-five crypto exchange, was estimated to have 52.9% of its transactions consist of wash trading (which the company denied). Are you surprised that the researchers found wash trading to be so rampant a practice?

TOKYO, Dec 27 (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan (BOJ) has modified its stimulus measures to ease the transition away from an unconventional monetary policy when Governor Haruhiko Kuroda retires in April, former top currency diplomat Takehiko Nakao told Reuters in an interview. "The BOJ has not succeeded so much in raising inflation expectations and bringing down real interest rates while side-effects became larger. "The yen was too strong back then, but now the yen is clearly too weak," Nakao said, declining to specify preferred levels under current circumstances. Nakao said Japan's waning economic power and its excessively expansionist policy are weighing on the yen and making Japanese assets vulnerable to takeovers by overseas investors. "It is helpful that raising interest rates lead to some strengthening of the yen."

☆ Toshiba says aims to reach deal with potential partners soon as possible
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TOKYO, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Japan's Toshiba Corp (6502.T), which is talks about a buyout, said in a letter to shareholders on Friday that it was aiming to reach as conclusion with potential partners as soon as possible. Toshiba is "planning to receive binding and bona-fide proposal(s) and shall be making strong efforts to arrive at a conclusion as early as possible after necessary negotiations," the letter said. Sources have told Reuters that the company's preferred bidder, Japan Industrial Partners (JIP), was moving closer to securing financing from banks for a buyout. A deal is expected to value the industrial conglomerate at around 2.2 trillion yen ($16 billion). Shares in Toshiba, whose businesses span nuclear power, defence technology and which owns 40% of memory chip maker Kioxia Holdings, were up 1.7% in mid-morning trade.

Banks still have to mark the loan to its market value on their books and set aside funds for losses that are reported in quarterly results. The deliberations of how some of these banks are thinking about accounting for these losses have not been previously reported. Three banking industry sources said the remaining $3 billion, which is unsecured, could lead to steeper losses for the seven Twitter banks. Some market participants expect the losses from the debt to be significant unless market conditions improve. Some $35 billion to $40 billion of such loans are stuck on banks' books, according to two fixed income bankers.

☆ Cutting Costs, Not Jobs, Is Focus for Many CFOs Facing Slowdown
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Kristin Broughton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

At the same time, many employers are looking for workers, with job openings well above the number of job seekers. That leaves some finance chiefs scouting for savings that don’t involve job cuts, or that supplement layoffs, advisers and analysts said. Other ways to cut costs include exiting leases, reducing the number of suppliers, automating tasks, trimming software spending and finding less expensive components, advisers said. Many companies over the past year have raised prices to keep up with escalating input costs, in addition to trimming expenses. Still, the company’s restaurant-level profit margin during the quarter ended Oct. 2 fell to 16.2% from 20.1% a year earlier.

TOKYO/HONG KONG, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Japan Industrial Partners, the preferred bidder to buy out Toshiba Corp (6502.T), has moved closer to securing financing from banks, three people with knowledge of the matter said. JIP's bid has called for Toshiba management to retain their jobs - a proposal which initially made some of the banks cautious about lending, sources have said. The sources all declined to be identified as the talks are private. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, the core unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc (8316.T), and Mizuho Bank Ltd, the core unit of Mizuho Financial Group Inc (8411.T) declined to comment. ($1 = 137.0500 yen)Reporting by Kane Wu, Makiko Yamazaki and Ritsuko Shimizu; Editing by Edwina GibbsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Musk's bankers mull new Tesla margin loans to slash Twitter debt - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 7 (Reuters) - Billionaire Elon Musk's bankers are considering providing the Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Officer with new margin loans backed by the U.S. automaker's stock to replace some of the high interest debt on his Twitter deal, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday. The margin loans are one of the options that the Morgan Stanley (MS.N)-led bank group and Musk's advisers have discussed to ease the $13 billion debt Twitter took on as part of Musk's $44 billion deal, the report said, citing people with knowledge of the matter. Morgan Stanley (MS.N), Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), Barclays Plc (BARC.L) and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (8306.T) led the $13 billion financing for the bid by Musk. The banks are not expected to offload any of the Twitter debt to institutional investors until the new year, Bloomberg reported. Reuters reported in October that banks had abandoned plans to sell the debt to investors because of uncertainty around Twitter's fortunes and losses.

☆ Foot Locker Searches For a New Finance Chief
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Kristin Broughton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Foot Locker Inc. is searching for a new finance chief to succeed Andrew Page, who is stepping down from the shoe-store chain as part of a reshuffling of its senior ranks. He was previously chief accounting officer and controller at Advance Auto Parts Inc., a Raleigh, N.C.-based auto parts retailer. He will step down as chief financial officer of Foot Locker early next year. Photo: The Wall Street Journal Foot Locker is working with an executive recruiting firm to identify a successor, the company said. Also, Foot Locker promoted Rosalind Reeves, its vice president of talent, diversity and organization capability, to chief human resources officer, effective Dec. 1.

☆ Junk-Rated Companies Face Greater Downgrade Risks as Economy Slows
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Mark Maurer | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Each of these companies was downgraded by at least one ratings firm in recent weeks. At the same time, the economy has been losing steam, resulting in lower earnings and darkening the outlook for companies, especially in consumer-facing sectors. Credit downgrades can drive up financing costs for companies and cause executives to take additional action such as reducing debt loads. There were 33 S&P downgrades in September, the most in a single month since June 2020. Businesses without immediate refinancing needs, however, tend to see less of a direct impact from credit downgrades.

☆ Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ to buy two Asia units of Home Credit for $620 mln
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Makiko Yamazaki | Hadeel Al Sayegh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TOKYO, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (8306.T) said on Thursday it would buy the Philippines and Indonesian units of Dutch consumer finance company Home Credit BV (HC) for about 596 million euros ($621 million). The acquisitions will be made through main Mitsubishi UFJ banking arm MUFG Bank, Thai unit Bank of Ayudhya PCL (BAY) (BAY.BK), and Indonesian unit Adira Dinamika Multi Finance (ADMF), with the deal to be completed within 2023, the company said. PPF, which had been looking at selling or taking on partners in some markets for the HC business, said in a statement it was the right time to pass the baton. A Mitsubishi UFJ executive said in a briefing that the lender would explore further acquisition opportunities in Southeast Asia. MUFG Bank will hold 25% of HC Philippines, and ADMF will hold 10% of HC Indonesia shares.

☆ Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ to buy two Asia units of Home Credit for $596 mln
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Makiko Yamazaki | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TOKYO, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (8306.T) said on Thursday it would buy the Philippines and Indonesian units of Dutch consumer finance company Home Credit Group BV for about 596 million euros ($621 million). The acquisitions will be made through Japanese unit MUFG Bank, Thai unit Bank of Ayudhya PCL (BAY) (BAY.BK), and Indonesian unit Adira Dinamika Multi Finance (ADMF), with the deal to be completed within 2023, the company said. Home Credit (HC) is controlled by the Czech Republic's biggest investment group, PPF, which was founded by late billionaire Petr Kellner. read moreAfter the completion of the deal, Bank of Ayudhya will hold 75% of the shares of HC Philippines and 75% of the shares of HC Indonesia. MUFG Bank will hold 25% of HC Philippines, and ADMF will hold 10% of HC Indonesia shares.

☆ Japan's biggest bank Mitsubishi UFJ reports 70.5% slump in Q2 profit
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TOKYO, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (8306.T), Japan's largest lender by assets, on Monday reported a 70.5% slide in second-quarter net profit because of another one-off loss related to the sale of U.S. unit MUFG Union Bank. Mitsubishi UFJ, which owns about 22% of Morgan Stanley (MS.N), posted a net profit of 117.41 billion yen ($841.83 million) for the July-September period, against 398.4 billion yen a year earlier, according to Reuters' calculations based on six-month cumulative figures disclosed in a filing. The Japanese bank maintained its full-year profit forecast of 1 trillion yen, a 12% drop from the previous year when it posted a record profit. The outlook compared with an average forecast of 1.04 trillion yen from 12 analyst estimates compiled by Refinitiv. ($1 = 139.4700 yen)Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by David Dolan and Christian SchmollingerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Japan lender Sumitomo Mitsui reports 8% increase in Q2 net profit
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Makiko Yamazaki | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TOKYO, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc (8316.T), Japan's second-largest bank, on Monday reported an 8% increase in second-quarter net profit and raised its profit outlook as improved economic conditions have boosted lending. Sumitomo Mitsui posted a profit of 272.99 billion yen ($1.96 billion) in the July-September period versus 252.8 billion yen a year earlier, according to Reuters' calculations based on six-month cumulative figures disclosed in a stock exchange filing. For the full year through March, Sumitomo Mitsui revised its profit forecast to 770 billion yen from 730 billion yen, compared with the 753 billion yen average estimate of 13 analysts compiled by Refinitiv. Sumitomo Mitsui said demand for loans remained solid in Japan and in the United States. The lender also said it would buy back up to 4.4% of its own shares, worth up to 200 billion yen.

☆ Buffett's Berkshire discloses big Taiwan Semi stake
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Nov 14 (Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) said it bought more than $4.1 billion of stock in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330.TW), a rare significant foray into the technology sector by billionaire Warren Buffett's conglomerate. In a Monday regulatory filing describing its U.S.-listed equity investments as of Sept. 30, Berkshire said it owned about 60.1 million of Taiwan Semiconductor's American depositary shares. Berkshire also disclosed new, smaller stakes in building materials company Louisiana-Pacific Corp (LPX.N) and the financial services company Jefferies Financial Group Inc (JEF.N). Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie AdlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Corporate Cybersecurity Teams Struggle to Fill Jobs
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Catherine Stupp | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

Newsletter Sign-up WSJ Pro Cybersecurity Cybersecurity news, analysis and insights from WSJ's global team of reporters and editors. PREVIEWSeventy percent of around 11,000 cybersecurity practitioners and decision makers surveyed by (ISC)2 said their companies don’t have enough cybersecurity staff to be effective. Decathlon has become more flexible and creative in its search for cybersecurity staff and hired 26 employees last year and more than 30 so far in 2022, Mr. Illikoud said. Many corporate cybersecurity leaders hire staff from other internal teams and offer specific training if they need it. Around 43% of Principal’s cybersecurity team is now remote, up from roughly 20% before the pandemic, she said.

Typically, banks would sell the debt to investors and pocket an underwriting fee. Elon Musk vs TwitterThe debate, currently a topic of conversation among investment bankers and debt investors, provides a window into the havoc wreaked on Wall Street by Musk’s U-turn last week. Musk, however, conditioned his proposal on his ability to secure debt financing and now has until Oct. 28 to close on the transaction. VARIOUS OPTIONSThe debt financing package is comprised of leveraged loans, which are risky because of the amount of debt the company is taking on, as well as secured and unsecured bonds. In September, banks financing the Citrix buyout undertook a similar restructuring.

☆ Jefferies beats quarterly profit estimates on lift from merchant banking
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Sept 28 (Reuters) - Jefferies Financial Group Inc (JEF.N) on Wednesday beat analysts' estimates for third-quarter profit as robust performance in its merchant banking unit helped cushion the blow from sluggish dealmaking. The merchant banking division was boosted by the sale of its wood and lumber products business, Idaho Timber, the bank said. The bank said in July it would reduce the size of its merchant banking portfolio that includes investments in real estate, oil and gas, and other public companies as part of a restructuring. After a stellar run in 2021, U.S. investment banking giants have struggled for most of this year as a market sell-off crushes corporate appetite for dealmaking. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Niket Nishant in BengaluruOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Loans Are Cheaper Than Bonds for Some Highly Rated Companies
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Nina Trentmann | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Some highly rated companies are turning to term loans instead of bonds for their financing needs, taking advantage of cheaper pricing as banks have been slower to adjust to rising interest rates than the credit markets. Highly rated companies raised $998.8 billion in bonds in the U.S. this year through Monday, compared with $177.9 billion in term loans, according to Refinitiv, a data provider. For all of last year, fundraising through bonds amounted to $1.46 trillion versus $236.7 billion for term loans for investment-grade-rated companies. Term loans often have a shorter duration than bonds, with many of them ranging from three to five years. Term loans tend to be secured,” Mr. Holtz said, pointing to the mixture of bonds and term loans that make up the company’s capital structure.

☆ Cererea de produse fabricate în China a crescut atât de mult încât nu există suficiente containere pentru livrare
▼ + stars: | 2021-01-07 | by ( ) www.jurnal.md time to read: +2 min

Începând din luna iulie a anului trecut, exporturile din China au fost în creştere, stimulate de achiziţiile de produse care au legătură cu pandemia, precum măşti şi echipamente pentru munca de acasă, inclusiv computere. În schimb, importurile Chinei nu au înregistrat o creştere similară, ceea ce a avut drept rezultat o lipsă de containere maritime care să ajungă în China pentru a fi umplute şi trimise din nou spre pieţele externe, informează Agerpres. Aceasta avertizează că criza de containere maritime ar putea să se agraveze pe măsură ce exportatorii vor căuta să îşi prioritizeze livrările înaintea Anului nou lunar chinezesc, care începe în februarie. La rândul său, cea mai mare companie sud-coreeană de shipping, HMM Co., a estimat joi că lipsa de containere şi spaţii pe nave ar putea continua în prima jumătate a lui 2021. HMM Co. a fost nevoită să introducă un număr suplimentar de nave pe rutele spre SUA, pentru a ajuta companiile sud-coreene să îşi livreze bunurile şi va introduce o navă suplimentară spre Europa la finele acestei luni.

Persons: Serena Zhou, Serena Zhou . Organizations: Agerpres, Financial Group Inc, HMM Locations: China, Chinei, Hong Kong, Europa, Japonia, Asia de Sud - Est, India, SUA

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