Breakingviews

Ping An flop could leave HSBC red-faced but richer

By Peter Thal Larsen

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

A failed Ping An sale could leave HSBC red-faced, but richer. If regulators veto the UK bank’s $9.4 billion plan to offload its near-16 percent stake in the Chinese insurer, HSBC’s reputation will take a knock. But it could still end up financially better off.

Big-shot banker class of 2012 gets back to work

By Jes Staley
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Wall Street churned out an unusually large group of big-shot bankers last year. One of them, Jes Staley, may offer a glimpse into what the market holds in store. JPMorgan’s former investment banking chief is joining hedge fund BlueMountain Capital. It’s not the top job at Barclays, a role Staley looked at, but it’s also a potentially less stressful but lucrative role. The Class of 2012 that includes Bob Diamond and Vikram Pandit may find power and glory similarly elusive.

Rights issue rethink could ease sting for Deutsche

By Dominic Elliott

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

A rights issue U-turn would be a bitter bill for Anshu Jain and Juergen Fitschen to swallow. Deutsche Bank’s co-chief executives vowed in September to strengthen the bank’s finances without tapping shareholders. But U.S. capital rules, non-core losses and a looming Libor settlement have upped the ante.

Oil barons and tech hipsters share a dark side

By Christopher Swann
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Oil barons and technology hipsters seem very different. But they share a dark side. The chief executive of U.S. explorer SandRidge Energy and some of his peers jet around at shareholders’ expense, while at Facebook and Google founder-bosses are insulated from owners by super-voting rights. Clubby boards also feature in both sectors.

Liquidity U-turn is sell signal for bank shares

By George Hay

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Global regulators’ great liquidity U-turn is a sell signal for banks. That’s not the way investors chose to look at it on Jan. 7, as the share prices of global lenders rallied. Admittedly, the watering down of rules intended to protect banks against deposit-runs will mean higher short-term profit. But the economic slowdown that has caused formerly macho regulators to roll over is a more enduring negative force.

India’s corporate governance cleanup is welcome

By Andy Mukherjee

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

India’s corporate culture is about to witness a shakeup. A new law will make it mandatory for most Indian companies to separate the role of the chief executive and the chairman of the board. The shift, already the norm in the United Kingdom but long resisted elsewhere, should help to narrow India’s governance discount.

Google won’t evade rivals as easily as feds

By Robert Cyran
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Google evaded the feds but won’t so easily do the same with rivals. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s extensive antitrust probe into the dominant search engine ended with a whimper: the company promises to behave. The government’s case always looked shaky. If it couldn’t nail Microsoft, Google was a pipe dream. Just as well. For now, it’s still a problem for the market to sort out.

Bank liquidity reform better delayed than diluted

By George Hay

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Delay is better than dilution for bank liquidity reform. Global regulators who make up the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision are set to allow lenders more time to comply with one of the cornerstones of the critically important “Basel III” reforms to stop taxpayers having to bail out the financial sector. In this case, massaging the deadline is the lesser of two evils.

SeaWorld IPO may not make second investment splash

By Antony Currie
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

SeaWorld’s next investment splash might be smaller than its last. Blackstone Group is ready to take public the amusement parks it bought in 2009 from Anheuser-Busch InBev. Dividends have helped the buyout firm recoup a big part of its original cash outlay already and it may end up trebling its money. But new buyers hoping for a similar performance after the initial public offering should beware getting soaked.

Avis gives Zipcar a faster lane to profitability

By Antony Currie
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Avis Budget is giving Zipcar a faster lane to profitability. Selling to the mainstream car rental giant for $500 million means a 32 percent loss for those who bought shares in Zipcar’s 2011 initial public offering. But it will allow the car-sharing company to boost its margins by tapping into Avis’s underused fleet.