ACÇÕES PORTUGAL-PSI20 fecha em queda c/Europa, após declarações ministro alemão
O ministro das Finanças alemão, Wolfgang Schaeuble, referiu que no próximo Conselho Europeu
de 23 de Outubro não deverá ser apresentada uma solução final para combater a crise da dÃvida
soberana da Zona Euro, ao contrário do que era esperado pelos mercados.”Os polÃticos europeus gostam de fazer declarações grandiosas sobre apoiar o euro e conter a
crise. Mas agora dão-se conta que o detalhe é um pouco mais complicado e que a solução poderá
não satisfazer os mercados”, afirmou Daniel McCormack, estrategista da Macquarie.* Nos EUA, o Ãndice Nasdaq cai 0,96 pct e o Dow Jones perde 1,23 pct,
penalizados pelos comentários do ministro das Finanças alemão e pelos resultados do Wells Fargo
que falharam as previsões de Wall Street.* O PSI20 cai 1,38 pct para 6.002,63 pontos, com 13 quedas e sete subidas, tendo-se
negociado 41,2 milhões de acções ou 64,6 ME, na NYSE Euronext Lisbon .* Na banca, o BES caiu 4,76 pct para 1,80 euros, já o Banif ganhou 0,54 ct para
0,375 euros, o BPI subiu 0,92 pct para 0,659 euros, o Millennium bcp ganhou
0,59 pct para 0,171 euros.* A Galp Energia desvalorizou 3,09 pct para 14,45 euros, a EDP desceu
1,79 pct para 2,42 euros e a Portugal Telecom recuou 1,22 pct para 5,245 euros.* O euro cede 0,91 pct para 1,3759 dólares, a reflectir os comentários do ministro
das Finanças alemão.* O contrato do barril de brent para Dezembro LCOc1 cai 1,25 pct para 110,83 dólares e o
de crude para Novembro CLc1 desce 0,38 pct para 86,48 dólares.
(Por PatrÃcia Vicente Rua; Editado por Filipa Cunha Lima)
DEALTALK-China’s US companies mull restructuring as crackdown looms
* Companies preparing reorganisations for worst-case
scenario* Move seen as hint China wants more companies to list at
home* Telecoms and internet firms affected, shares declineBy Rachel Armstrong and Stephen AldredSINGAPORE/HONG KONG Oct 12 (Reuters) - A looming Chinese
government crackdown on a corporate structure used by almost
half of all U.S.-listed Chinese stocks coupled with growing
investor uncertainty has prompted companies to mull major
restructuring plans.New rules expected to apply to variable interest entities, a
structure used by several of China’s internet giants, are not
only forcing executives to consider various options, the rules
are rattling investors as well.Shares in China based, U.S. listed internet companies Sina
Corp and Baidu Inc have slumped around 26
percent and 12 percent since Reuters reported on Sept. 18 that
the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) had suggested
the government take action against VIEs.Any new rules from the Chinese authorities are not expected
to shut-down existing VIEs, but lawyers say that the ongoing
uncertainty is pushing several companies to investigate
contingency plans.”We’re hoping we will never have to use them, but we are
working on plans for unwinding existing VIE arrangements and
making new investments using alternative structures to prepare
for the worst case scenario,” said Marcia Ellis, a partner at
Ropes & Gray law firm in Hong Kong.VIEs, (Variable Interest Entities) get around official
restrictions on direct foreign investment into sectors deemed
important to China’s interests. Forty-two percent of China
companies listed in the U.S. use the VIE structure, according to
researchers at Peking University.They are particularly popular in the internet sector, where
foreign investors are barred from commercial activities, as VIEs
give investors the earnings flow and control of a
domestically-owned company through a series of service contracts
rather than equity ownership.But now a crackdown on VIEs is looming, after a raft of
accounting scandals involving overseas listed Chinese companies
erupted on North American stock exchanges.Alibaba Group’s acrimonious and public dispute with Yahoo
also put the structure in the spotlight when the
group’s chief executive Jack Ma allegedly transferred its
lucrative online payment platform Alipay to a separate VIE
without the approval of the group’s major shareholders.Mainland Chinese media reports say the CSRC is suggesting
that companies already using the structures will be exempt from
most of the new rules, but international lawyers say that
doesn’t mean China’s authorities will give them an easy ride.”Historically, even when the Chinese government makes
regulatory changes that grandfather existing companies, they
still make it very difficult for them to prosper in the future
unless they conform to the new regulatory environment,” said
Lester Ross, a partner at WilmerHale law firm in Beijing.Reuters reached Baidu, Sina and Alibaba, three of the most
well known companies that use the VIE structure if they had
looked at restructuring. Baidu and Sina both declined comment,
while Alibaba referred to a recent speech made by their chief
executive Jack Ma during a speech at Stanford University in the
U.S. in September.”The VIE is a great innovation,” but “we’ve got to make the
VIE really transparent,” he said, adding that he didn’t expect
the government to shut the entities down.Last week, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, a
U.S. accounting watchdog, warned auditors that companies may
assume they can consolidate the financial results of a VIE into
their own balance sheet “even though there might be significant
uncertainties regarding the economic substance of those
arrangements.”Online video company Tudou Holdings Limited showed
how VIE contracts can leave investors vulnerable when it was
looking to list on the Nasdaq late last year.The offering was delayed eight months after Tudou’s founder
Gary Wang, who had a 95 percent interest in Tudou’s VIE, was hit
with a lawsuit filed by his ex-wife. His former wife was
demanding a portion of his VIE holding and if she had been
successful, she could have, in theory, kept a significant part
of its earnings that would otherwise have gone to Tudou’s
shareholders.Wang eventually settled with his ex-wife, but the case
delayed Tudou’s IPO from December 2010 to August 2011.RESTRUCTURING OPTIONSThere is no one-size-fits-all alternative to a variable
interest entity structure, which is why the structure has been
so popular. Any restructuring would involve changing the nature
of the relationship between the foreign investors and the
Chinese owners of the onshore licensed operations.Some companies operating in sectors with no, or relatively
few restrictions on foreign ownership, could dismantle the VIE
and instead form an onshore joint venture.Other companies in sectors that have tougher laws on foreign
ownership would face a more complicated task, but lawyers are
advising that investors need to review their VIE contracts and
see if they can enact stronger corporate governance controls.”While there isn’t necessarily a ‘silver bullet’ solution
for every investment, hence the long-standing popularity of
VIEs, developing contingency plans for the next-best
alternatives is clearly preferable to getting caught completely
off-guard if the regulatory winds shift direction,” said Ropes &
Gray’s Ellis.In the long term it is expected that any changes to VIEs,
which would be likely to come from the Ministry of Commerce and
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as well as the
CSRC, would be accompanied by an effort from the authorities to
coax overseas-listed Chinese companies back to the domestic
market.”I think what the CSRC wants to do is encourage these
valuable companies to list within China so that they have a
better control over them,” said Virginia Tam, a partner at White
& Case in Hong Kong.New rules will take time though, meaning investor
uncertainty is likely to linger.”The Chinese government isn’t in the business of issuing
press releases that would be helpful to private businesses,”
said Howard Wu, a Shanghai-based partner at Baker & McKenzie.”I think it’s unlikely you’re going to get some official
government pronouncement anytime soon. It is a very complicated
issue.”
Dexia rescue riskier than it looks for Belgium
By George Hay
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Belgium’s bill for bailing out Dexia could be much higher than meets the eye. After a weekend of frantic negotiations, Brussels is to pay 4 billion euros to take the Belgian assets of the vanquished lender into public ownership. If that was it, the direct costs to the state would be only 1 percent of GDP.
On first glance, it might seem Belgium is getting a bargain, as Dexia Bank Belgium’s book value was 7.9 billion euros in June. But Belgian accounting rules allow Dexia to dodge marking so-called available for sale (AFS) assets to market. Including these losses, DBB’s book value in June was 5.7 billion euros. Given the mayhem over the past three months, the current mark-to-market value could be less than what the Belgian government is paying.
Then there’s the question of whether the Dexia rump, in which the Belgian state still holds a 5.7 percent stake, has enough capital. The plan is to sell its Turkish, Luxembourg and French municipal operations. After the disposals, it would still have 60 billion euros of risk-weighted assets. That would require at least 6 billion euros of capital to create a 10 percent core Tier 1 buffer against losses.
Part of this will depend on whether Dexia can sell assets above book value. But a lot will depend on whether Belgium is allowed to keep sweeping AFS losses under the carpet. The new Basel rules say no but there’s always the possibility of fudges. If, at the end of the process, there is a capital hole, it’s unclear how Belgium and France would plug it. But, imagine for sake of argument, Brussels faces another 3 billion euro bill.
Finally, Belgium is on the hook for guaranteeing 60.5 percent of Dexia’s funding for 10 years –- or 54 billion euros in total. Tot it all up and the total cost to the Belgian taxpayer, in a real disaster, could be 17 percent of GDP -– on top of last year’s level of 96 percent. No wonder Moody’s is examining whether to downgrade the country’s sovereign debt, and Belgian 10-year debt yields have jumped from 3.6 percent to 4.1 percent in a week.
