Irish/German government bond yield spread widens

July 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

July 19 (Reuters) – The premium investors demand to hold 10-year Irish government bonds rather than euro zone benchmark Bunds rose on Monday after ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the sovereign’s debt.

Moody’s downgraded Irish debt by one notch to Aa2 from Aa1, but raised the outlook to stable from negative, capping the risk of further downgrades. [ID:nWLA8628]

Analysts also said that ahead of Irish bond supply on Tuesday, the country’s bonds were cheapening off, driving yields higher agains Bunds. [EURODEBT/O]

The 10-year Irish/German government bond yield spread IE10YT=TWEBDE10YT=TWEB widened by nine basis points since the Friday settlement close to 300 bps, its highest since July 2. (Reporting by George Matlock)

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EURO GOVT-Bunds up on weak Chinese data, Spain eyed

July 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

July 1 (Reuters) – German Bund futures opened higher on Thursday with weak Chinese data adding to global growth fears and euro zone sovereign debt worries in focus after rating agency Moody’s placed Spain’s Aaa rating on review for a cut. Signs that economic growth in China was slowing saw U.S. government debt rally and equities fall sharply in Asian trading as investors sought out safe-haven assets.

“The weak Chinese PMIs have weighed on Asian stocks… risk assets are going to be under pressure early on,” said a trader in London.

At 0610 GMT, the Bund future FGBLc1 was 19 ticks higher at 129.57. The 10-year German bond yield DE10YT=TWEB was at 2.557 percent, down 2.5 basis points while the two-year Schatz yield DE2YT=TWEB was flat at 0.607 percent.

Moody’s Investors Service said late on Wednesday that it may cut Spain’s triple-A local and foreign currency government bond ratings after a three-month review. Ratings agency Fitch cut Spain’s triple-A credit rating to AA-plus in late May.

Spain will issue up to 3.5 billion euros of bonds later in the session.

“Today’s auction of the SPGB 3 percent April 15 may well turn out as a very important yardstick regarding how comfortable the investor community is with the outlook for Spain,” said Commerzbank analysts in a note.

The 10-year Spanish bond yield spread over German bunds had narrowed in the previous session after a lower-than-expected take up of European Central bank funds had soothed some worries over banks’ reliance on ECB funding.

Emergency 12-month loans worth 442 billion euros will be repaid to the ECB, while the central bank will offer banks a further opportunity to borrow funds at a six-day tender later in the session.

The result of the six-day tender will give a clearer picture of the excess liquidity within the euro system after money market rates rose in anticipation of a liquidity squeeze after Wednesday’s low borrowing.

The EONIA overnight unsecured lending rate EONIA= jumped to 0.542 percent at its daily fixing, up from 0.325 percent on Tuesday. (Reporting by William James)

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UPDATE 1-Emirates NBD CFO to step down – sources

April 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

* CFO Uppal joined Emirates Bank in 2005

* Emirates NBD member of Dubai World creditor panel (Adds background, analyst comment)

DUBAI, April 11 (Reuters) – The chief financial officer of Emirates NBD ENBD.DU, the United Arab Emirate’s third-biggest bank by market value and one of Dubai World’s major creditors, will step down, three sources told Reuters on Sunday.

Sanjay Uppal joined Emirates Bank International — which merged in 2007 with National Bank of Dubai to form Emirates NBD — in 2005 as chief financial officer. He previously worked at Standard Chartered (STAN.L).

“In the last two years, their disclosure, financials and conference calls – the level of detail is more than any other bank I cover,” said analyst Deepak Tolani at Al Mal Capital.

Emirates NBD declined to comment on the story.

Uppal’s successor could be named from within the bank, Tolani said.

“As a result of the merger there are a lot of competent people there, there must be someone who can step up…to ensure continuation,” he said.

Emirates NBD is one of two local banks that are part of a seven-member creditors panel leading negotiations with debt-laden conglomerate Dubai World [DBWLD.UL].

The Dubai government unveiled a $9.5 billion support plan for its flagship investment vehicle Dubai World in March. Most of the major creditors to the group, including Emirates NBD, expressed their support for the restructuring, though final details are still being negotiated.

The impact of Dubai World’s debt restructuring is manageable for UAE banks, ratings agency Moody’s recently said. It also warned, however, that the adverse economic conditions continue to put pressure on the country’s banking system. [ID:nLDE63726V]

The Dubai-based bank posted a higher fourth-quarter net profit in February but missed forecasts as credit impairments rose. [ID:nLDE61A0E1]

UAE lenders have taken hefty provisions as a result of the global economic downturn and the end of a regional real estate boom to which local banks are heavily exposed.

Shares of Emirates NBD were trading up 4.5 percent in Dubai trading. (Reporting by Nicolas Parasie and Stanley Carvalho; Editing by Amran Abocar, Dinesh Nair)

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US ratings agency Moody’s to quit Taiwan

April 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Taipei – Taiwan confirmed Friday that US ratings agency Moody’s plans to quit the country in order to focus on larger Asian markets, a move seen by some as a warning sign for the island. According to the Central News Agency (CNA), Moody’s – which has operated in Taipei for six years – has notified Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) of its plan to leave Taiwan by the end of June as part of its re-structuring in Asia.

FSC will approve Moody’s withdrawal after making sure that the interests of Moody’s local clients have been protected, CNA said.

The FSC told CNA that since Moody’s operation in Taiwan is small, its departure will have little impact on Taiwan’s credit ratings, but some experts said this should be a warning for Taiwan.

Liang Kuo-yuan, director of the Polaris Research Institute, warned that Moody’s withdrawal may dampen foreign investors’ interest in Taiwan.

“Taiwan should try to improve the transparency of its government and enterprises, amend outdated rules, promote its internationalization, so as to lure foreign funds,” CNA quoted him as saying.

“Taiwan needs to make a big effort. … if it wants to become an Asia-Pacific operations centre of financial centre,” he added.

Moody’s has about 160 employees working in its offices across Asia – China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, India, South Korea and Australia.

Moody’s provides ratings on over 170,000 corporates government and structured finance securities.

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