WALL STREET JOURNAL
Anheuser-Busch (BUD) is going to turn down InBev’s unsolicited $46.35B takeover offer and that may come before week’s end, the Wall Street Journal reported. InBev is then expected to pursue a hostile takeover and Anheuser will say the offer undervalues the company. Instead, Anheuser will attempt to boost its share price by selling non-core assets such as its theme parks…The Wall Street Journal also reported that Belgian-Dutch financial firm Fortis NV (FORSY), in a move to increase its solvency, will attempt to raise $12.54B, and will also cancel its interim dividend and sell some assets…According to people familiar with the situation, the Wall Street Journal reported that JP Morgan Chase (JPM) reportedly dropped out of the bidding for General Electric’s (GE) $30B credit-card business. The sources said Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC) and Capital One (COF) are not expected to submit bids, as a result of charge-offs and rising delinquencies in their own credit card portfolios…FINANCIAL TIMES: The Financial Times reported that the London Stock Exchange, in a joint venture with Lehman Brothers (LEH), unveiled a pan-European equities trading platform to fight rivals that are hurting its market share…
JP Morgan Chase may be on the prowl for another big-bank buy-NY Post
According to people familiar with the matter, JP Morgan (JPM) is on the hunt for another big-buy bank, despite recently acquiring Bear Stearns. Sources say of particular interest to JP Morgan are SunTrust (STI) and Washington Mutual (WM). In order of appeal, JP Morgan’s wish list also includes PNC Bank, Wachovia Bank (WB) and US Bancorp (USB). It remains unclear if formal discussions are currently underway. Others considering tie-ups may include Wells Fargo (WFC), PNC Bank and US Bancorp.
Pre-Market Movers: Ahead of the Bell
The session is going to be a very busy one. As we expected, the week is going to be very back-end loaded in terms of activity. Futures are down sharply following further trouble in the financial sector with Goldman Sachs estimating that Citigroup (C) may need to take a further large write-down. The firm also took down broker estimates across the board, downgrading the sector to attractive. With that, Citigroup (C) is trading down (-4.24%) on heavy volume. Several of the large banks and brokers are following suit with Merrill Lynch (MER) down (-3.24%), Lehman (LEH) down (-3,11%), JP Morgan Chase (JPM) down (-2.4%), Bank of America (BAC) down (-2.1%) and Wachovia (WB) down (-2.07%). Goldman Sachs (GS) is also trading down (-2.04%) following a downgrade to Market Perform at Wachovia Capital Markets. Turning to post-earnings results from last night, Research in Motion (RIMM) is trading down (-8.88%) after reporting a penny miss on Q1 last night after the close combined with a lower Q2 estimate. JMP Securities downgraded the shares to Market Perform and Citigroup took down its price target to $160 from $165. Oracle (ORCL) is trading down (-3.75%) after the company reported better than expected Q1 results last night after the close. The company cautioned that growth going forward would be slower than in the past.
