Latest news with #JefferiesFinancialGroupInc.
Bloomberg
7 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Jefferies Is Said to Tap JPMorgan's Melly as APAC Head of Financial Institutions Group
Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has hired Michael Melly from JPMorgan Chase & Co. as Asia-Pacific head of its financial institutions group investment banking franchise, according to people familiar with the matter. Melly will lead work on transactions involving banks, insurers, asset managers and other clients in the region, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. He will continue to be based in Hong Kong and is due to start his new role as soon as later this year, the people said.
Mint
2 days ago
- Business
- Mint
Lure of ‘Free Money' in Secondaries Nears a Mania
(Bloomberg) -- Demand for secondary funds focused on private markets is soaring, in part because some investors are seizing on an accounting quirk that allows them to buy assets at a discount and then revalue them at par. It's 'creating this sense that people are just picking up free money, and almost a mania,' Blue Owl Capital Co-Chief Executive Officer Marc Lipschultz said on a call with analysts recently. He said his firm avoids the practice, adding there is still a 'great business to be had being a really thoughtful buyer of secondary interest when you have more sellers today than you've ever had in the past.' The secondary market allows investors to buy or sell stakes in private-asset funds, often at a discount. It's become an increasingly popular solution to the problem that many managers faced at the end of the easy-money era, when higher interest rates made some valuations more difficult to justify — and left them unable to exit investments. Credit is expected to be the fastest-growing part of secondaries for years to come, according to Jefferies Financial Group Inc., which forecasts the number of transactions in the space to grow to more than $17 billion this year from $10 billion last year. The marketplace for fund stakes is drawing more sellers than ever before, pushing up prices, which is tempting more investors to look at disposals. Investors in private credit funds looking for liquidity are now able to shift their positions into the secondary market, clearing a bottleneck in the financing chain. The deadlock started when dealmaking stalled, forcing private company owners to hold on to assets for longer. That meant direct lenders had to extend loans for longer too and wait to cash out, crimping returns for some. One benefit for some buyers is the accounting treatment which allows them to mark up the acquisitions, bolstering the value of the assets. 'It's true that secondary transactions are often completed at a discount to NAV, and yes, that can create an initial unrealized gain for the buyer,' private capital investor Hamilton Lane wrote on its website last month. 'But this isn't artificial. It represents real value and can enhance returns for the fund.' More broadly, the wider secondaries trend has proven fruitful recently. The strategy was the best performing for Blackstone Inc. in the second quarter, the alternative asset manager said in a presentation last month. The firm is considering a standalone pool of capital to buy second-hand private credit funds through its Strategic Partners unit, Bloomberg News reported last month. London-based Coller Capital Ltd. closed a deal for a $3 billion continuation fund with direct lender TPG Twin Brook Capital Partners this past week that will transfer a portfolio of loans from the US firm's previous vintages into a new fund. It's the largest such vehicle in private credit secondaries to date. Other signs of appetite for the strategy include Pantheon, a manager of more than $70 billion, raising three times its original target of $750 million for its third credit secondaries fund. Ares Management Corp., meanwhile, has so far raised more than $3.5 billion for its debut credit secondaries fund and related vehicles, Chief Executive Officer Michael Arougheti said on an earnings call last month. The secondaries group 'remains one of our strongest growth vectors for the foreseeable future,' he said. More stories like this are available on
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Wall Street Backs Los Angeles Wildfire Lawsuits, Chasing Billions
(Bloomberg) -- The Los Angeles wildfires have generated potentially thousands of new clients for lawyers and prospects for billions in fees. Wall Street wants in on the action, too. Philadelphia Transit System Votes to Cut Service by 45%, Hike Fares Struggling Downtowns Are Looking to Lure New Crowds Squeezed by Crowds, the Roads of Central Park Are Being Reimagined Sprawl Is Still Not the Answer Sao Paulo Pushes Out Favela Residents, Drug Users to Revive Its City Center The chance at a piece of strong returns has encouraged investment banks, hedge funds and debt investors to vie for contracts to fund the litigation, according to people involved in transactions. That's in addition to firms solely dedicated to funding lawsuits, which has grown into a $16 billion industry in the US over two decades. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. and Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. are among the companies trying to broker arrangements to finance residents' lawsuits against utilities over this year's fires, which rank among the most destructive in US history, according to copies of solicitations reviewed by Bloomberg News. The suits against Edison International and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power could be worth tens of billions of dollars in claims, but they are also expensive to bring. For lawyers taking on high-stakes complex cases, especially at smaller firms that don't have deep reserves of capital, the loans help cover an array of overhead, from client marketing to expert witnesses. 'There's no question Wall Street has gotten very interested in this segment of the market over the years,' said Samir Parikh, a law professor at Wake Forest University who has studied litigation finance. 'It's grown into a multibillion-dollar business, but it's not a very transparent market.' Bankrolling lawsuits remains lightly regulated and operates largely out of public view, even as funders are pouring money into mass tort cases like the fires. Large Payouts Investors who back suits seek cases with large potential payouts and a high probability of success. Edison potentially faces damages upwards of $10 billion amid evidence that its equipment sparked the Eaton Fire, which killed 18 people and destroyed about 9,400 structures. A trial is scheduled for June 2026. LA Fire Victims Are Suing Utilities. What's at Stake?: QuickTake Separately, suits are piling up against LADWP over the Palisades Fire, which killed 12 people and destroyed almost 7,000 structures in neighborhoods near the Pacific Coast filled with multimillion-dollar homes. One insurer said that damages from only 20% of the structures burned in the Palisades Fire exceed $4 billion. In response to a question about law firms taking loans to sue utilities, Edison pointed to the wildfire insurance fund set up by state policymakers six years ago to ensure that California's main private utilities stay solvent and victims recoup their losses."The wildfire fund should support only those impacted by a wildfire," said David Eisenhauer, a spokesman for of Jefferies and Oppenheimer declined to comment. LADWP had no comment. As with other high-volume civil litigation over harm to people and property, known as mass torts, law firms generally work on a contingency basis in wildfire cases — and bill fees of 25% to 40% on what they recover for victims. While that may seem steep, the cases are costly to develop, requiring extensive investigations to identify how a fire started and analyze evidence. It may be years before the law firms see a payday. The more than 50 law firms that make up the steering committee for the Eaton Fire litigation in Los Angeles Superior Court have each agreed to contribute $50,000 for upfront costs, according to Mikal Watts, a veteran plaintiffs' lawyer who is helping to oversee the cases. Dozens of lawyers with LA fire cases either didn't respond to requests to discuss litigation funding or declined to speak about it. Third-Party Funders The third-party funders, including investment firms and asset managers, help law firms shoulder costs with loans that cover their entire caseloads. The mechanism known as litigation finance often comes with double-digit interest rates that can exceed 20% on an annualized basis. Ordinarily the loans mature in three to four years, when they have to be paid back or refinanced. Lenders routinely require non-disclosure agreements to keep their arrangements confidential. The return for the lenders doesn't come from the payouts to the high-profile personal injury cases that have drawn investor funding are ongoing court battles involving thousands of cancer patients who have blamed their illnesses on exposure to Bayer AG's Roundup pesticide or Johnson & Johnson's baby powder — allegations that those companies Billion Dollar Lawsuits — When Litigation Finance Met Mass Torts Jefferies was among a small group of funders at the forefront of wildfire litigation financing when a series of massive blazes in Northern California sent PG&E Corp., the state's largest utility, into bankruptcy in 2019. The firm's special situations group touted that experience in a Jan. 16 solicitation email to a veteran lawyer working on the LA fires. This time around, the market is crowded with funders who are willing to accept lower returns rather than the multiples that the PG&E transactions generated, according to people involved in transactions. The law-firm loans Jefferies is brokering typically provide tens of millions of dollars and are used to build up case inventories and cover legal expenses. They include constraints on how quickly the lawyers can spend the money, as well as a minimum return for the funders, according to the people, who requested anonymity to discuss confidential information. Oppenheimer Solicitation Oppenheimer, which manages $28 billion in assets, is also acting as an intermediary for funders. Ron Ryder, co-head of special assets trading at the firm, said in a March 17 solicitation email reviewed by Bloomberg News that Oppenheimer is 'representing large, institutional asset-managers' that would provide financing options for law firms representing fire victims. He added that Oppenheimer's clients would be interested in 'purchasing an attorney's contingency fee as it relates to the outcome of these wildfire cases.' Separately, Oppenheimer has been trading insurers' claims tied to the Eaton and Palisades fires, Bloomberg News reported in March. Hedge funds involved in such transactions have faced pushback from a California regulator that has called them 'opportunistic' speculation. The sale of so-called subrogation claims allows investors to obtain an insurer's right to compensation from a utility if it's found liable for fire-related damage. There was a brisk trade in subrogation claims during the PG&E bankruptcy, in which Jefferies was active both as an investor and broker. Eaton Fire The Eaton Fire litigation may be especially enticing to investors. While no investigating agency has yet determined the cause of the blaze that started during a windstorm on the evening of Jan. 7, Edison's chief executive officer has acknowledged that 'circumstantial information' points to the company's equipment. That includes video clips showing flames erupting in dry vegetation at the base of Edison transmission towers. Also working in favor of lawyers suing Edison is California's low bar for holding utilities responsible for fire damage. Under the legal doctrine of inverse condemnation, which entitles home and business owners to compensation when utilities damage private property, victims don't need to prove that a utility acted negligently, only that its equipment started the fire. And there is far less risk that Edison will go bankrupt like PG&E thanks to the California Wildfire Fund. The state-backed fund will reimburse Edison for claims if the company covers the first $1 billion through its own insurance and isn't found to have acted imprudently. The financing of litigation has grown especially sensitive around a swirl of proposals to increase transparency and impose taxes on proceeds — legislative efforts that are supported by business groups including the US Chamber of Commerce. Law firms aren't required to disclose funding in Los Angeles Superior Court, where the wildfire cases are playing out. Still, under California's legal ethics rules, lawyers in the state must generally inform their clients of litigation funding arrangements. Wildfire Lawyers Some wildfire lawyers said they were offered funding but refused to take it. Los Angeles lawyer Richard Bridgford, who has more than 500 clients seeking compensation for homes and businesses destroyed in January, said he started receiving solicitations shortly after the fires — and is still getting them — but won't take outside funding. 'I don't ever want to be in that position of having to settle my client's case short because I'm in a rush to not have to pay someone back a bunch of money,' the 65-year-old lawyer told a group of two dozen potential clients during a March meeting at a Pasadena hotel. But funding can be crucial for homeowners' attorneys who lack the financial resources to go up against power companies' legal teams. Veteran personal injury lawyer Anne Andrews said she hasn't taken funding for her fire cases, but said she's not opposed to lawyers taking advantage of it. 'Be it your rich uncle, your traditional bank on the corner, or a funder from Wall Street, as long as you maintain the integrity of that relationship and it doesn't affect your judgment with respect to your clients, I believe it's a benefit to people who want to practice law, particularly younger folks,' said Andrews. (Updates with context on litigation funding in 17th paragraph.) America's Top Consumer-Sentiment Economist Is Worried How to Steal a House Inside Gap's Last-Ditch, Tariff-Addled Turnaround Push Pistachios Are Everywhere Right Now, Not Just in Dubai Chocolate Does a Mamdani Victory and Bezos Blowback Mean Billionaires Beware? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. 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Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US Bank Stocks Head to Worst Quarter Since Fear-Fueled 2023 Rout
(Bloomberg) -- US bank stocks are on track for the worst quarterly slide since the collapse of regional lenders set off fears of a crisis two years ago, hit by the broader economic worries unleashed by President Donald Trump's trade war. Gold-Rush Fever Returns to Historic New Zealand Mining Town What Frank Lloyd Wright Learned From the Desert Bank Regulators Fight for Desks as OCC Returns to New York Tower These US Bridges Face High Risk of Catastrophic Ship Strikes Charter Schools, Colleges Push Muni Debt Distress Near Record The KBW Bank Index is down 5.1% since the start of the year, putting it on track for its worst three-month stretch since March 2023. The six largest US banks stocks were all trading lower early Monday, when futures suggested that stocks were poised for another large selloff ahead of Trump's April 2 tariff rollout. Markets have been gripped by anxiety that Trump's trade policy shift risks reigniting inflation and slowing the pace of the nation's economic growth, with surveys showing increasing worries among US consumers. Analysts have downgraded stocks and cut earnings estimates for financial companies ahead of the next slate of earnings reports. Read: Global Markets Reel in Quarter Marred by Trade War, Growth Risk Last week, Jefferies Financial Group Inc.'s shares tumbled after it reported disappointing earnings amid a decline in investment-banking and capital-markets revenue. That's a potential warning sign about other banks, given that the once-expected boom in mergers and initial public offerings never materialized as markets were focused on the rising economic uncertainty. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley will kick off the quarterly earnings for the biggest US banks on April 11. Trump's IRS Cuts Are Tempting Taxpayers to Cheat Google Is Searching for an Answer to ChatGPT Israel Aims to Be the World's Arms Dealer Business Schools Are Back How a US Maker of Rat-Proof Trash Bins Got Boxed in by Trump's Tariffs ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
Bloomberg
11-03-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
IndusInd Tumbles Most in Five Years on Derivative Trades Fallout
Shares of IndusInd Bank Ltd. tumbled by the most in five years after the Indian lender said it found discrepancies in its derivatives portfolio and warned of a one-time hit to earnings. The stock slumped by as much as 20% to the lowest since November 2020 in Mumbai, making it the biggest laggard on the benchmark NSE Nifty 50 Index. Analysts at Jefferies Financial Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. said the mismatch totals about 20 billion rupees ($230 million) of the bank's pre-tax net income, or 2.35% of its net worth.
