Davydenko: We all laugh at 'special' Murray - ESPN.co.uk
Nikolay Davydenko has stoked the fire ahead of his Wimbledon opener with Andy Murray on Tuesday, revealing the majority of players on the ATP Tour "laugh" at the Brit's injury woes on court.
Murray was labelled a "drama queen" by former Wimbledon champion Virginia Wade earlier this year after the British No. 1 turned in a miraculous recovery at the French Open. Unable to serve effectively or even run in the opening stages of his match with Jarkko Nieminen, Murray recovered to win 1-6 6-4 6-1 6-2.
Tommy Haas also waded in on the world No. 4's antics, labelling him a "faker", and there is little doubting that Murray is developing a reputation in sections of the tennis community. Ahead of his bow at the 2012 iteration of Wimbledon, Murray now finds himself under fire from his first opponent, Davydenko.
"We just laugh," Davydenko said in the Sun. "Sometimes he walks on court, he looks tired, like he doesn't want to run anymore, and then he runs like an animal.
"He has done that all his career. He just walks and he's like, 'Ah, I don't want to play anymore'.
"Then he starts returning and running and you see his condition is very good. Maybe it's a special Scottish thing. I know it doesn't matter what he says, he will fight for everything, he will try to win.
"He may have a pain somewhere but if you ask any player they will all say they have pains here and there. Nobody says they are perfect. It's just not possible."
Davydenko also put the boot in to Murray's hopes of walking away with the Wimbledon title in two weeks' time. In the Russian's eyes, the home favourite is not in the same class as the world's top three.
"Murray has reached the Australian Open final but it doesn't look like he has enough to win it," he said. "When you look at Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic they look like different players. I think it's difficult for him to go to that level."
© ESPN EMEA Ltd
Bank bailout to spark firesale of corporate Spain - Reuters
MADRID |
MADRID (Reuters) - The European bailout for Spain's banks will push them to sell an empire of stakes in the nation's top companies, ending a cozy culture of corporate-banking links and prompting a wider shake-up in ownership of the company landscape.
Spain formally requested euro zone rescue loans to recapitalize debt-laden former savings banks on Monday, but those who receive funds will be subject to European Union state-aid rules that include selling equity assets.
With the price of such assets languishing as the euro zone's financial crisis drags on, that will involve the likely fire sale of big chunks of Spain's corporate titans, including telecoms leader Telefonica, oil major Repsol and power firm Iberdrola.
UBS estimates 22 billion euros ($28 billion) of Spanish stakes could be up for sale, most of which is in the hands of savings banks. This represents as much as 9 percent of the capitalization of the country's blue-chip index.
Over the years, Spain's savings banks have gained board seats on some of the country's biggest firms, exerting a powerful role in shaping corporate and industrial strategy in sectors ranging from tourism and real estate to energy and telecommunications.
Established centuries ago to help farmers in times of poor harvests, the savings banks developed strong regional and political identities in a closely intertwined corporate and banking culture of mutual backscratching.
Banks rolled over debt for cash-strapped companies to prevent loans from going bad, while bankers earned considerable salaries for sitting on company boards.
Not for much longer.
"They're going to have to sell. And with no light at the end of the tunnel as far as the macro, political dance, the chances of holding out for a better price increasingly look like wishful thinking," said Flemming Barton, analyst at CM Capital Markets.
NOT IF, BUT WHEN
Bankia, which last month asked for a lifeline of 19 billion euros ($24 billion), the largest state rescue in Spanish history, will be the first to give up once-prized corporate stakes.
It owns 20 percent of tech firm Indra, 12 percent of International Airlines Group and 5.3 percent of Iberdrola, as well as big stakes in insurer Mapfre, hotelier NH Hoteles and olive oil firm Deoleo.
"Bankia is going to have to liquidate all its stakes except for Mapfre, where it has cross stakes and strategic deals," a banking source said. "This is going to put pressure on other savings banks, including La Caixa's industrial empire."
Although Barcelona-based La Caixa is not itself in need of a bailout, the shift in Spanish banking and corporate relationships will set the tone for the Catalan bank, too.
Executives at the companies held by Bankia are already taking steps to line up buyers and keep the shares from falling into undesirable hands.
In the case of Iberdrola, Chairman Ignacio Sanchez Galan said on Friday the company did not rule out buying back Bankia's stake, worth 1 billion euros, itself.
Meanwhile, IAG Chief Executive Willie Walsh has said there are "interested investors" for Bankia's stake, valued at about 420 million euros.
Bankia and its parent BFA have already recognized a 1.6 billion euro write-down on its corporate stakes. Not so for other troubled banks that will also be under pressure to sell.
An independent audit to determine the health of Spanish banks also failed to put a number on potential losses related to banks' equity stakes, meaning the sector's ultimate funding needs could increase.
CLOCK TICKING FOR LA CAIXA
Like Spain's two largest banks Santander and BBVA, banking group La Caixa does not need external aid, but analysts and sources said it was just a matter of time before the Catalan powerhouse also unwinds stakes.
"Caixabank isn't stressed to the extent that the others are, but they obviously will have to find capital, either through business as usual or selling stakes," said one banking source. "But the days of industrial holdings is nearing its end."
Despite a strong balance sheet, La Caixa will need fresh funds to meet tough new provisioning requirements under a local and global drive for banks to raise capital.
For decades La Caixa has been kingmaker of a vast empire, stretching from 37 percent of utility Gas Natural to 28 percent of tollway firm Abertis, 12.8 percent of Repsol and 5.1 percent of Telefonica, and including stakes in banks such as Austria's Erste and Portugal's BPI.
Some of the stakes, long considered sacred, are held through its listed unit Caixabank.
"I definitely don't see Caixabank selling now or soon; they're going wait. But in the next cycle it's hard to see them increasing exposure to equity holdings in corporates other than as a result of bankruptcies," Barton of CM Capital Markets said.
A flock of "vulture" funds is already watching over the banking sector shakeout in the hope that it will finally deliver a bonanza of distressed company assets at rock bottom prices.
Fearing the fallout, Spain's ruling People's Party took steps early in June to protect strategic companies such as Repsol from opportunistic takeovers by proposing an amendment to bring back a limit on voting rights.
But as Spain's economic crisis draws out, with unemployment climbing above 24 percent and a recession seen lasting through this year, investors still feel that anything they can buy today can be had even cheaper tomorrow.
"People are aware that sales are taking place, and they are watching. But the overriding emotion on Spanish assets right now is not 'I have got to hurry or I will lose it,'" the banking source said.
($1 = 0.7977 euro)
(Additional reporting by Tomas Cobos and Julien Toyer; Editing by Will Waterman)
DBS Indonesia deal may dodge new bank ownership rules - Reuters UK
SINGAPORE/JAKARTA, June 26 |
SINGAPORE/JAKARTA, June 26 (Reuters) - The gloom surrounding DBS Group's $7.2 billion bid for Indonesia's Bank Danamon is giving way to renewed optimism, with signals from the central bank in Jakarta on Tuesday suggesting the Singapore lender's takeover may just scrape through.
Southeast Asia's biggest banking takeover bid was thrown into limbo in April, when Bank Indonesia (BI) announced it would not approve the deal to buy its sixth-biggest lender until it had published new regulations to cap ownership stakes in banks.
The central bank says it wants to prevent its lenders falling captive to single interests and ensure they have a diverse shareholder base holding management to account.
The new rules, first flagged more than a year ago, are due to be published by the end of June. Contrary to initial fears, industry watchers say they may still allow some foreign banks to buy control of Indonesian lenders.
"There are hints dropped every couple of days that it might be allowed through," said Derek Ovington, a Singapore-based banking analyst at CLSA.
In the latest sign, Deputy Governor Muliaman D. Hadad said on Tuesday majority foreign ownership might be approved by the central bank, depending on the bank's financial strength.
"Stake ownership in general will be 20, 30, 40 percent," he told reporters. "If more than 40 percent, it will be decided case-by-case and must get BI approval."
That followed other hints in recent days from Bank Indonesia officials that they may allow the current 99 percent single ownership threshold to remain in exceptional cases, where the single shareholder is a well-governed financial institution, raising hopes for DBS's Bank Danamon bid.
Previously, Bank Indonesia had suggested that it would allow individuals or families to only hold up to 30 percent of local lenders, while financial institutions' holdings would be capped at 40 percent.
Indonesia's economy has been drawing strong investor interest in recent years for its booming domestic demand and resources, but policymakers have rattled sentiment with a series of proposals on foreign asset ownership.
Recent proposals limiting foreign ownership in mining companies to 49 percent has fuelled concerns Indonesia is becoming increasingly hostile to foreign investment.
TESTING THE MARKET
Indonesia is one of the rare emerging markets in Asia where foreigners can currently hold controlling stakes in domestic banks. Many countries including, China, India, Thailand and Malaysia have capped foreign ownerships at below 51 percent.
Indeed, eight of the G20 economy's top 11 banks by market value - including Bank Danamon itself - are controlled by foreign banks, business families, private equity firms or wealth funds. The central bank has said the new rules will apply to new investments, and would not force existing shareholders to instantly sell-down their stakes to below the new thresholds.
Lawyers and analysts say the central bank has been testing market appetite for its proposed changes through comments to the media and then modifying its plans according to the reaction.
"What's been happening is that Bank Indonesia has been communicating to the market informally through the press without actually stating the formal position," said CLSA's Ovington.
Expectations that the deal may go through after all have boosted Bank Danamon's share price by 12 percent in June, after it dropped about 5 percent last month. It is still trading around 15 percent below the 7,000 rupiah per share offered by DBS to minority shareholders.
"I think it will get done but BI will ask for tons of requirements, including capital control stuff as well as how long DBS can own Danamon's shares," said Jemmy Paul, equity fund manager at Indonesia's Sucorinvest Asset Management who helps manage 2.1 trillion rupiah.
Under a long-mooted deal that was announced in April, Singapore state investor Temasek will sell its 67.4 stake in Danamon in exchange for DBS shares, boosting the sovereign investor's stake in DBS to 40 percent from about 29 percent now.
DBS shares, which fell nearly 4 percent after the deal was announced, are down about another 2 percent since that slide.
RECIPROCAL DEAL?
One hurdle DBS could face is an Indonesian demand to allow reciprocal treatment in Singapore for the country's biggest lenders such as Bank Mandiri, which has a restricted licence to operate in the city-state.
Mandiri and other Indonesian lenders are keen to expand to better serve the large Indonesian community in Singapore in areas such as remittances. But Indonesian banks have found it hard to penetrate Singapore's banking market, which is dominated by DBS and its local rivals United Overseas Bank and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.
"Indonesians get off the plane, as they often do in Singapore, and there's no Bank Mandiri ATM when they land," said a s o urce with direct knowledge of the DBS-Danamon deal. "Indonesia banks' ability to open branches and things like that in other markets and get market access is sharply limited, if at all."
DBS chief executive Piyush Gupta, who wants to expand the bank outside its main markets of Singapore and Hong Kong, had expected that the deal would go through under current rules.
DBS and its deal team, which comprised Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley, were also hoping an approval would come before next year, when risks are high that the deal would become mired in political debate ahead of the 2014 presidential election.
But the Indonesian central bank surprised the Singapore lender by saying that it would review the deal under new rules, a source told Reuters.
A DBS spokeswoman said the bank was unable to comment on the subject and was awaiting formal announcements from Bank Indonesia.
Lawyers say on paper Bank Indonesia's approach now looks to have captured the balance between a push for better corporate governance and allowing well-run foreign banks a route into their banking market.
"The key test, however, will be how Bank Indonesia implements the exemption regime and whether this is done in a transparent and consistent manner," said Jake Robson, a partner at Norton Rose law firm in Singapore.
"Some of the small banks owned by domestic groups or families may find it hard to comply with the governance requirements and may be forced to sell-out, but there's unlikely to be a huge M&A wave as a result of this new regulation." ($1 = 1.2771 Singapore dollars) ($1 = 9437.5000 Indonesian rupiah) (Additional reporting by Rieka Rahadiana and Adriana Nina Kusuma in JAKARTA and Rachel Armstrong in SINGPAORE; Editing by Denny Thomas and Alex Richardson)
Elliot Lake mall rescue efforts set to resume - CBC
Search and rescue efforts are to resume today at a partially collapsed mall in Elliot Lake, Ont., where one person has been confirmed dead, after officials drew the ire of local residents for calling the mission off and following an appeal from Premier Dalton McGuinty.
However, it remains uncertain when or how the search efforts will happen after emergency officials cautioned at a news conference Monday night that details of the operation remain uncertain.
"We're moving this forward as best we can and as fast as we can," said Elliot Lake fire Chief Paul Officer, adding that rescuers would consider "more extreme measures," including demolishing some areas of the badly damaged Algo Centre Mall.
'I believe we owe it to the families waiting for word of their loved ones to leave no stone unturned.'—Dalton McGuinty, Ontario premier
But Officer said rescue crews will be unable to reach the spot where breathing was detected underneath the rubble in the mall.
"The rules of engagement still haven't changed when it comes to allowing rescuers in there," he said. "Any plan we can come up with will have to be executed before we can hopefully get back in."
At least one person was killed — although no name has been released — after part of the building's roof caved in on Saturday afternoon, sending metal and concrete plunging two storeys to the mall floor.
The CBC's Natalie Kalata reported Tuesday morning that rescuers are trying to figure out a new way to reach anyone who may still be inside the mall, and that it's unknown whether this would be a rescue or recovery mission.
"People are on pins and needles," Kalata said.
"Last night, people were singing and holding up candlelight, and they were really hoping that somebody would be found alive inside," she said, adding that residents of the community are relieved that the search efforts will resume.
John Quinte, who owns a café in the mall, is among residents waiting to hear if friends and loved ones are safe after the roof's partial cave-in.
Quinte told CBC News on Tuesday morning that he narrowly escaped being caught in the dangerous circumstances because he went home before the roof's partial collapse. He said he has been camping out near the mall since the weekend because "everybody in this community is like family."
Quinte and other members of the community are frustrated by the slow pace of the rescue work.
"We don't want anybody to risk their life and die, but there must be some way that we can do something to help get these people out of here without risking everybody's life."
Number of missing unknown
Officials said they detected "signs of life" earlier Monday inside the mall but they did not know the status of that person when the search was called off later in the day.
Ontario Provincial Police Insp. Percy Jollymore said officers were still trying to determine how many people are missing.
A list of names submitted by concerned citizens has been fluctuating dramatically since the accident, he said, adding at least two have remained constant.
"We do have two names of people who are known to be in the mall," Jollymore said. "Their names have never disappeared on the list."
Rescue efforts were halted after the site was deemed too dangerous, with the possibility of another collapse, provoking anger among many residents who felt that officials could do more to help those trapped inside.
The news of the renewed effort — only hours after it was initially called off — came as McGuinty said he had spoken to Emergency Management Ontario and the search and rescue team. McGuinty said he asked if there was any other way to reach victims without endangering rescuers, including the use of equipment to dismantle the building from the outside.
"I believe we owe it to the families waiting for word of their loved ones to leave no stone unturned. We owe that to the people of Elliot Lake too. Ontarians expect nothing less," he said.
Residents protest at city hall
News that search efforts would resume was met with a chorus of screams and whistles Monday night from a group of residents who had gathered outside the mall in Elliot Lake, located 150 kilometres west of Sudbury.
Some people had protested in front of city hall when the search was initially called off. More than 50 people have added their names to a list of people willing to enter the building if the official operation doesn't happen, CBC's Lorenda Reddekopp reported.
In the aftermath of the collapse, many residents said the mall has had a history of problems dating back to 2005, including roof leaks, flooding and falling tiles.
Mall manager Rhonda Bear has said repairs were conducted on the building but not on the section that collapsed, adding that an engineering and structural study completed last month turned up nothing.
Elliot Lake mall collapse (CBC Infographic) With files from The Canadian Press
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