'Financial Services' Archive
British bank Barclays wants to put its name on a New York City subway station. The city’s Metropolitan Transporation Authority announced this week that it is selling the rights to rename a busy downtown Brooklyn station for about $4 million. It’s the first time MTA has successfully entered such a deal (something it has been trying to do for years as a way of bringing in more revenue).
Banks put their names on all types of things — sports stadiums, music festival stages, and race cars, so why not a subway station? But while it may be good for MTA’s coffers, subway riders and some critics of the plan wonder if commercialization of public places or services is crossing the line.
Sponsorships and naming rights have traditionally been a big boon for both sides for years now. It usually is great advertising for companies and it is big source of revenue for colleges, non-profit organizations, or other people in need of some extra cash flow.
But the current economic mess we are in has created a shake up of corporate sponsorships. And some people are angry about bailed-out banks that are spending cash on naming rights and other advertisements. In response to some of that hub bub Bank of America has yanked its naming rights and sponsorship deals with the New York Yankees and USA Olympic Team this year. But other corporations and banks (namely Citigroup, AIG, and PNC Bank) continue to honor deals and make new ones.
Sponsorships are too valuable to go the way of Lehman Brothers, but both sides should weigh the benefits and the potential backlash before sealing the deal. Because who really wants to hop aboard Taco Bell Transit or fly a kite at Pepsi Park.
The fate of a storied German carmaker lies in the balance. No, we’re not talking about Adam Opel and the ongoing drama of GM Europe. The carmaker in question is Volkswagen.
For all the attention Fiat and GM Europe received in recent months, it should be noted that VW is Europe’s largest carmaker. With some 364,000 employees and annual sales of $160 billion, VW easily outpaces General Motors and Ford, and it is setting its sights on Toyota Motor in the quest for global automotive industry domination.
Porsche Automobil Holding emerged as VW’s controlling shareholder in this decade, and therein lies a tale of more family intrigue than Jon & Kate Plus 8. The families that control the two carmakers are descendants of Ferdinand Porsche, the creator of the original Volkswagen (”people’s car”) Beetle in the 1930s. The two clans have long disliked and distrusted each other. Until recently, the Porsche family appeared to have the upper hand over their Piëch family cousins, as Porsche Automobil took majority ownership in the much larger VW AG. Headlines on the theme of “David Defeats Goliath” abounded.
Since 2005 Porsche piled up VW shares and options for VW shares, and went to court to challenge Germany’s “Volkswagen Law,” which limited private ownership of the giant carmaker, a company that the German government regarded as a strategic industrial enterprise. Once the European Court of Justice struck down the law in 2007, Porsche really went to town on acquiring VW’s shares.
Last fall, Porsche executed some financial maneuvers that squeezed short sellers in VW’s stock, driving up the price of VW’s shares so high that VW briefly became the most valuable public company in the world. The Wall Street Journal proclaimed in a front-page headline: “As Giant Rivals Stall, Porsche Engineers a Financial Windfall.”
The downside of buying those VW options and shares was that Porsche basically tripled its corporate debt, from €3 billion to €9 billion (about $12.5 billion), just as the worldwide credit markets were collapsing. The result was that Porsche this spring had to go, hat in hand, to VW for an emergency loan of €700 million, then apply to the German government for a loan of €1.75 billion. Porsche currently is negotiating a capital infusion with the Qatar Investment Authority.
The way things are going at the debt-ridden Porsche, it looks like Goliath will best David in this match.
The reputation of banks as stoic and sturdy institutions charged with the safe keeping of our money has been tarnished during the past couple of years. So why not embrace that tarnish and throw in some rusty hubcaps, gun racks, and mullets?
Enter The Redneck Bank. At first glance at the bank’s Website you assume it has to be some sort of joke. The bank’s motto, “Where bankin’s funner” lets you know right away that this place is just a little different. You log in to your account by clicking on an outhouse icon and the bank’s mascot, a neighing horse complete with big buck teeth, declares, “yessiree…member FDIC!”
Redneck Bank is in fact the Internet banking division of Bank of the Wichitas — a small institution with a hand full of branches in (wait for it) Oklahoma.
The company launched Redneck Bank in 2007 and just figured, “let’s inject a little fun into the seriousness of the banking business.” But the bank has received new attention in light of all of the drama within the banking biz. Redneck Bank is just an example of several financial institutions that are trying to reinvent themselves in order to draw in customers who are looking for a little something different these days.
Many of these “new” banks boast their small size, customer service, or unconventional name or policies (yep, there is even Tightwad Bank). Redneck Bank touts “good old-fashioned service” and offers run-of-the-mill services like online bill pay, checks and even a special Redneck VISA check card, which I’m sure can be used to impress your friends out at the NASCAR track.
When I decided to give Redneck Bank a holler the other day a very friendly “non-redneck” sounding fellow named Scott answered my call on the second ring. He informed me that it would only take a deposit of $1 to start an account. And when I asked him if they had been receiving a lot of phone calls about starting new accounts he said, “we always get lots of calls.”
Maybe in order to run a successful bank these days you don’t need fancy commercials, a gazillion branches and ATMs on every corner. You just need a solid, simple idea … maybe a little too simple.
There’s LOTS going on in the automotive industry, with almost hourly news developments on various fronts. Some quick highlights:
• General Motors announced a deal with some of its bondholders that would see the creditors get up to 25% of the equity in the “New GM” after the automotive giant goes through bankruptcy reorganization. This could result in the company filing for Chapter 11 next week, with hopes that the reorganization may take 60 to 90 days.
• The sale of Adam Opel and Vauxhall Motors is turning into an international incident, with German government officials blaming GM and officials of the Obama administration for throwing wrenches into the machinery at the last minute. No deal emerged overnight in Berlin; the German foreign minister is talking to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about what’s going on. Chancellor Merkel and President Obama will have a lot to talk about when they meet in Dresden next week.
• Two big Michigan-based suppliers of auto parts, Visteon and Metaldyne, filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors, beating GM to the courthouse. Visteon was spun off from Ford Motor nine years ago, and Ford still is the company’s biggest customer.
• Chrysler still is bogged down in a Manhattan courtroom, trying to get permission from the US Bankruptcy Court to sell its assets and to emerge from Chapter 11. A decision may come tomorrow.
• Saab Automobile still is talking to its three suitors. That may be the quietest, calmest corner of the automotive industry this week.
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During financial report filing season, we editors at Hoover’s spend our days pouring over all those often dull, tedious, and downright depressing documents so you don’t have to.
It’s rare to find a bright spot among all the doom and gloom these days. And humor among those 10-Ks, 8-Ks, and annual reports is even more rare. But some business leaders are taking their yearly opportunities to address shareholders as a chance to poke fun at this whole mess. Although economic calamity is far from a laughing matter, at least these folks can manage to evoke a few chuckles. Because if you can’t laugh, then really, what can you do?
Been-there-done-that mega billionaire Warren Buffett is known for his dry wit and easy-to-read chairman’s letters that accompany his Berkshire Hathaway annual reports. This year Warren didn’t disappoint.
“The period was devastating as well for corporate and municipal bonds, real estate, and commodities,” he wrote in Berkshire Hathaway’s 2008 annual report. “By year end investors of all stripes were bloodied and confused, much as if they were small birds that had strayed into a badminton game.”
Thanks for the visual. Warren goes on to also admit that he did some “dumb things in investments” during 2008. How refreshing.
Over at Vornado Realty Trust chairman and CEO Steven Roth declared “2009 is about the Great Recession” in the REIT’s annual report. He even jokingly suggested ditching the real estate business to start a new bank.
“Think about it,” he wrote. “No legacy problems or bad loans. Demand deposits are the lowest cost liabilities around and spreads are the highest they’ve been in history.”
And after tallying a long list of retail failures — and one-time Vornado tenants — such as Linens ‘n Things, Mervyn’s, and Circuit City, Roth (with a strong dose of sarcasm) wrote, “I don’t worry at all about Vornado’s Retail assets.”
At Bank Leumi USA executive vice president Bob Giordano bid a firm “good riddance” to 2008 in the company’s yearly economic review.
“2008 was not merely an annoyance, it was alarming, shocking, and frightening,” he wrote.
Investors at Leucadia National Corporation also were unimpressed with 2008 after reporting a more than $2.5 billion after-tax loss. Chairman Ian Cumming and president Joseph Steinberg drew comparisons to the economic problems of 2008 with the rocky drama of British royalty.
“In 1992, following a fire in Windsor Castle and marital problems for most of her children, the Queen of England in a speech marking the 40th anniversary of her accession referred to the past year as ‘annus horribilis.’ 2008 was such a year,” the leaders of Leucadia wrote. “Everything came tumbling down.”