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Friday 28 September 2007

Houli who?

According to Her Majesty’s Daily Telegraph US investment bank Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin (no, I’ve never heard of them either) and law firm Bingham McCutchen (likewise) have been "asked by holders of a significant principal amount of Northern Rock subordinated notes to call a conference with other noteholders to discuss recent events and form an ad-hoc committee with other tier two investors".

HMDT goes on to say that the bank's "tier two" debt investors are anticipating a sale that will see both equity and preference shareholders wiped out, and their own bonds put at risk. Well no, there will only be a sale if the equity holders and bond holders agree to sell for nothing. A default on bonds is possible, but the bond holders may do better to hold on to their paper and collect the default interest.

According to their website, in 2006, Houlihan Lokey ranked as the No. 1 M&A advisor for U.S. transactions under $1 billion. So that’s less than 500 mill. Looks like the current shareholders are going to be low-balled.

Err.. this is not investment advice etc etc.

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