Things You May Have Missed This Week...
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For a variety of reasons ranging from Easter hols to bank balance sheet black holes, this column has taken a bit of an enforced break.
So here we go again, with a few little snippets from the last few days that didn't hit the front pages, and also a thought on tomorrow's Grand National.
Starting with Bear Stearns, a great (?) quote from chief executive Alan Schwartz appeared in the New York Times. Questioned by colleagues about the knock-on effect of the JPMorgan takeover on ‘Bear' share option values, allegedly Mr Schwartz asserted: "We are a collective victim of violence".
So nothing whatsoever to do with management policy, then?
Talking of banking failures, did you see that ex-Northern Crock head honcho Adam Applegarth is set to trouser more than £63000 per month over the next year, as well as continuing to live in his Northumberland house (said to be worth more than £2.5m) on which he has a subsidised Northern Rock mortgage.
And he's also had £10,000 of legal and ‘personal security' bills paid for by the state owned bank.
Makes you wonder how much the taxpayer would be shelling out if the Crock had lost as much as UBS...
One final bank note, and I'll change tack. Mortgage lender Alliance & Leicester
(LSE: AL.)
seems to have decided that hitting its previous performance goals is now a non-runner. So the board has given up the unequal struggle and has now "updated strategic objectives in the light of current trading conditions".
In short, the targets are being cut. Still, I suppose it's nice to see some honesty creeping into the banking business.
At least the UK housing market hasn't (yet) gone as pear-shaped as the States. With home prices still tumbling, news emerged this week that apartment sales in Manhattan plunged the most in 18 years as Wall Street firms come under the cosh.
First quarter deals dropped 34% from a year earlier and the supply of unsold property climbed 5%. And while prices are some 13% higher than twelve months ago, the good times are unlikely to last.
At least 34,000 jobs have been cut by financial companies since the credit crunch started in earnest. With more headcount curbs in the pipeline, apartment values even in one of the last remaining bastions of ‘real estate' calm don't look a great bet.
But if you want a real flutter...
...there's always tomorrow's Grand National.
Though first, as ever, a caveat.
The nature of the race has changed considerably over recent years, with more better quality horses now entered. Whereas in many previous Nationals a large proportion of the field had almost no realistic chance of success, every runner this year is carrying its correct handicap ‘weight'.
In other words, many more horses have a decent chance of landing the spoils.
Cloudy Lane, currently a best priced 11/2, looks almost certain to head the market. But beware. The favourite has only triumphed on three occasions within the last thirty years.
I prefer the chances of the David Pipe-trained 9 year old bay gelding Comply or Die, still available at 11/1. He recently won a 4-mile Newcastle marathon on good to soft ground similar to that expected tomorrow.
Also the horse is fresh (having only turned out four times this season) and has just been reunited with his regular jockey.
But remember it is the Grand National, so they could fall at the first...
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