Merrill to sell stake in Bloomberg
New York: Merrill Lynch & Co may sell its 20 per cent stake in Bloomberg LP to a blind trust controlled by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, The New York Post reported on Friday. Details about the terms of a sale remain sketchy, the Post said, and sources warned that a deal could still fall apart. The sale is part of a broader plan by cash-strapped Merrill to raise about $50 billion through various asset sales. Merrill in 1981 provided seed money for Bloomberg to launch the business. Analysts have valued Merrill’s stake at between $5 billion and $10 billion.
***
SocGen fined over breaches
Paris: France’s Banking Commission on Friday fined Societe Generale 4 million euros ($6.3 million) for serious breaches in int-ernal controls revealed by the French bank’s 4.9 billion euro rogue trading loss. The banking commission also reprimanded France’s second-biggest listed bank for poor supervision that led to the unauthorised tra-des by Mr Jerome Kerviel, the former SocGen trader, blamed for the losses. The Commission said SocGen’s monitoring staff were insu-fficiently sensitive to fraud issues, and that the bank’s IT systems security presented "weaknesses."
***
Alitalia to get capital injection
Milan: Alitalia will receive a capital injection of 700 million to 800 million euros from Italian businessmen as part of a plan to save the ailing carrier, newspaper Corriere della Sera reported on Sunday. The paper, without citing sources, said some 10 businessmen would take part in the rescue plan being drawn up by the government-appointed adviser, bank Intesa Sanpaolo, but did not name them. It said the plan included around 5,000-6,000 job cuts and aimed to make Alitalia a stronger player on the domestic market, with turnover of 4 billion euros ($6.28 billion).
***
UBS to set aside funds for crisis
Geneva: Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse would have to set aside 70 billion Swiss francs ($68.3 billion) more in company capital as Switzerland’s banking wat-chdog moves to prevent a repeat of the subprime crisis, a local daily reported on Sunday. The newspaper Sonntag quoted a parliamentarian saying that the Federal Banking Commission would require additional provisions of "40 billion francs for UBS and 30 billion francs for Credit Suisse". A commission sp-okesman confirmed that a sum had been proposed and that the banks have to put forward their positions.