Takeo Sumino, chief operating officer of Nomura Holding America Inc, wants to make one thing clear: neither he nor his Tokyo colleagues are into the habit of breaking into song first thing in the morning at the office.

A Wall Street Journal story in July said that one group of Nomura traders sang a company song in morning meetings.

“Japan created the video game, Japan has created the karaoke culture, but that does not necessarily mean that Nomura as a company will ask people to sing a song every day,” he said, trying to debunk reports of culture clashes between Nomura bankers and their new colleagues at the former Lehman Brothers empire in Asia and Europe.

“I worked in Nomura for 22 years. I never sang a song in the morning,” he said. “If you want to sing a song or listen to my song I can take you to karaoke, but you don’t need to come to my office because I don’t sing a song.”

Sumino acknowledges that the Lehman deal has changed things at Nomura, but insists it's been in positive ways.

Bankers who could only communicate in Japanese are now rattling off e-mails and water cooler conversations in English, he told the Reuters Global Finance Summit.

“I do think a very big transition, a transformational change took place in Nomura after we started working with Lehman,” Sumino said.

“E-mail traffic in English . . . . is tremendously larger,” he said. “The number of individuals in Tokyo who used to be able to operate only speaking in Japanese, a lot of them are now communicating and writing and speaking in English.”

Ferrero — the maker of Nutella — might be considering an offer for an alliance with Cadbury, Il Sole 24 Ore says, saving the British group from Kraft’s clutches. Cadbury shares aren’t moving much, which says something about how the market sees the story. Elsewhere, Austria’s Erste Bank closed its rights issue late on Monday, with demand less than stellar.

The Lehman estate files its long-expected lawsuit against Barclays Capital, according to court documents. And with UBS’s investor day and the Euro Finance Week conference in Frankfurt on elsewhere, all eyes are on Europe’s banks again.

For all other Reuters stories about deals, click here.

Clare Baldwin and her colleagues had a big scoop this weekend: An exclusive interview with former Lehman CEO Richard Fuld. Clare flew out to Ketchum, Idaho to interview the man nicknamed “The Gorilla,” where she got some unguarded comments about the Lehman anniversary, not to mention a hug.

It was the hug that caught the attention of New York Magazine’s Intelligencer blog. Their interview with Clare is excerpted below:

Okay, re-create the hugs for me. I want to feel like I am there.
There were two of them. The first one happened on Friday afternoon. We had been talking for about ten minutes. He had been kind of leaning against my car. He reached out to shake my hand, then he just kind of leaned in and gave me a hug.

Like was it a one-armed deal, or a full embrace?
Both arms. It was like a hug.

Was it a pervy hug? Did he press up against you in a gross way at all?
No, no. Not at all. There was no weird dynamic to it at all. I’d been asking him stuff that was personal. It felt natural, though I wasn’t expecting it, certainly.

Did he feel soft, or was he more wiry and muscular?
He’s very fit, and he has a very angular face, you know. But he was wearing soft clothes. A black fleece vest over a long-sleeved underwear top, shorts, and sandals.

Was he wearing socks with the sandals?
No, but he had a sock tan.

Was he scratchy or hairy-feeling at all?
He had a really short haircut, but he wasn’t hairy.

Did he have a scent at all?
Not that I can recall.

Really? Nothing? I suppose you were so shocked you forgot to bury your face in his collarbone and inhale deeply.
Sorry.

Read the rest of the interview here.

Witness: On Dick Fuld’s trail, no dinner but I got hugged

Exclusive: Fuld says being “dumped on” for Lehman failure

The Year Since Lehman: Times of Crisis

“Dear Timmy, we are happy to be able to pay back the $25 billion you lent us. We hope you enjoyed the experience as much as we did.”

That’s JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s biting sense of humor on display yesterday as he read a  mock letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner before the Annual NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference in New York. Dimon’s sarcastic tone shocked some participants and cheered others, according to sources who attended the meeting.

“I congratulate him not only for his candor but for his wit,” said Mark Grant, managing director of structured finance at Southwest Securities in Dallas. “The fact that Jamie Dimon had the self composure, the sense of humor and the fortitude to make such a statement in public not only made me smile but it reminded me of days seemingly long past when men stood up on their own two feet and played the Great Game with style.”

The Wall Street Examiner, a blog of financial analysis and commentary, characterized Dimon’s remarks in a different light, calling it “the new and taunting face of state capitalism in America. ”

Dimon, a combative executive who took up boxing lessons before he joined JPMorgan, has in the past referred to TARP funds as a  “scarlet letter” and also called the $25 billion that the Treasury forced JPMorgan to take as a “TARP baby.”

Dimon repeatedly has said the bank did not want to take the money. However, Wall Street banks including JPMorgan accepted the federal funds last year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers to help alleviate concerns about the health of bank balance sheets.

(Picture of Dimon at Business Council in Dallas by Reuters photographer Jessica Rinaldi; Geithner in China shown in pool photo)

Merrill Lynch’s losses shocked even Christopher Flowers, the private equity guru who advised Bank of America on its purchase of the Wall Street firm last fall.

“Yes, I was appalled. Yes, I was shocked,” Flowers said during a panel discussion in New York when asked about what he thought of Merrill’s losses. Merrill lost a record $15.31 billion in the fourth quarter.

Merrill agreed to be bought by BofA in a weekend deal in mid-September as the financial crisis peaked. Lehman Brothers went bankrupt the same weekend, and the U.S. government had subsequently to rescue AIG.

Flowers he got involved in the events beginning Thursday, Sept. 11 when Bank of America was looking at buying Lehman. By Friday he was looking into ways to save AIG, and then helping Bank of America buy Merrill.

“It certainly was an unusual weekend for me,” Flowers said at panel, which also had former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg and Blackstone’s Peter Peterson. “It was a busy weekend.”

The panel, “The Big Fix: Charting a New course for Wall Street,” was moderated by Vanity Fair columnist Michael Wolff.

(Photo: REUTERS/Toby Melville)

Yet another case of insider trading in the M&A space.

A Blackstone investment banker is alleged to have shared information on the buyout of grocery chain Albertsons with a friend, who went on to make $3.6 million from the friendly chats. (The lawsuit says the banker passed on the tips in at least 20 telephone calls and at least 18 text messages)

33-year-old Ramesh Chakrapani was a vice president working on the deal, advising Albertsons as part of a Blackstone team. Wall Street firms are teeming with vice presidents — relatively junior bankers who work their way up to the first coveted title of managing director. Chakrapani himself was subsequently promoted to managing director and sent to the firm’s London offices.

Media reports have cited senior bankers from the Albertson deal as barely remembering Chakrapani. Some told the Wall Street Journal Chakrapani played a junior role and did not have much involvement with the negotiations.

Insider trading, historically associated with traders, now seems to be spreading to M&A professionals.

In 2007, a Credit Suisse banker was convicted for leaking confidential information on several deals, including the $32 billion buyout of power giant TXU. The banker was charged with one count of conspiracy and 28 counts of insider trading for relaying information to a former boss. Authorities tagged the profits at nearly $7.5 million.

Last month, U.S. authorities said a former Lehman Brothers salesman was charged with sharing information about 13 impending mergers gleaned from his wife, a partner at public relations firm Brunswick Group. Two day traders, a lawyer and a brokerage salesman were also charged with illegal trades that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said netted $4.8 million in illegal profits. 

It’s very unlikely insider trading will become a common phenomenon in the dealmaking space. Aside from the basic ethics involved,  bankers are usually keen on keeping the information confidential for fear of jeopardizing the deal. But it is certainly becoming more visible.

(Photo:  REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco)

Some in the financial industry apparently smell opportunity in the latest round of mergers and blood-letting among top banks.

Referring to the Wells Fargo takeover of Wachovia as the WWF and placing Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis atop a bucking Merrill Lynch bull are just a couple of the attention-getting devices financial sector recruiting firm RJ & Makay uses in its latest promotional You Tube video.

Branching out from a previous video aimed at Merrill Lynch brokers, the new “Billion Dollar Video” (the company claims assets from advisers brought to them via these viral recruiting tools represent billions of dollars) targets all financial advisers but specifically appeals to those currently at Merrill Lynch and Wachovia.

Those brokers are grappling with with the question of whether to accept a retention/transition package, move to another firm or go independent. RJ & Mackay is clearly hoping they’ll opt to walk and chose the firm to advise them on where to go next.

The just over four-minute short could help at least get their attention. It’s an equal opportunity stick poker, targeting all the big hits of this financial season. JP Morgan Chase, Bear Stearns, Fannie and Freddie are all in there along with Lehman, Buffett, Goldman, AIG, Morgan Stanley, Bernanke, Paulson, the government bailout, executive greed, executive kool-aide dispensers and dealing with those pesky gnats, known as recruiters.

Watch here:

After a couple weeks of just trying to keep up with developments in the financial crisis, reporters and bloggers are taking halting steps toward describing the mythos of the investment banker.

It’s been a while since Tom Wolfe and Bret Easton Ellis popularized the bespoke-suited arrogance commonly associated with the financial world’s anointed — the easy millions, the casual disdain for the rubes and the marks in the lower classes and the single-minded pursuit of money. Depicting the carnivore in his or her habitat is beginning to come back into vogue as taxpayers who may soon be on the hook to bail out their social betters in the investment banking world wonder why they’re getting stuck with a bill they didn’t incur.

New York magazine ran a story called, “The Rage of the Previously Rich: A Lehman trader copes with the sudden onset of income shrinkage,” featuring this choice nugget:

The collapse of the world’s most powerful wealth-creating engine required everyone to take stock of their financials. One Lehman executive in Rye Brook, fretting about paying off a Hamptons summer house and a ski chalet in Vermont, panicked on Monday morning and laid off her nanny, who had been with the Westchester family for nine years. “The nanny called me crying,” says Marla Sanders, who runs Advance Nannies and staffs Lehman homes. “One of the children she had brought home from the hospital.” Sanders knows more cuts for her clients are on the way. “They’re going to have to sell homes. The question is, will the homes sell? They’re cutting some of the children’s activities out, dance class, acting class. Are they going to have flowers delivered every day to their homes? I don’t think so!”

On Wednesday, ivygateblog featured comments from the pseudonymous “George”:

One of my friends at Bank of America texted me, ‘Hey, we might be buying you guys.’

I was in denial. You see, Merrill has a much better repuation than a commercial bank like Bank of America. I was shocked I would be joining a lower-tier commercial bank. There’s a feeling, ‘I didn’t go through this whole interview process to work at a commercial bank.’

More from George:

Changing compensation will obviously change the attitude of students toward the industry. They might go to med school or law school instead. … This is a sad week. … We may be losing the competitive advantage for getting the best talent.

And finally, regarding the proposed $700 billion bailout plan, courtesy of the United States’s 300 million would-be shareholders of bad debt:

It’s a good step toward stabilizing the turmoil. If the government can take the balance sheet pressure off the companies then the companies will look better going forward.

After all, that’s the only thing that counts in this whole story.

(Photo: Workers leaving Lehman Brothers office in London. Reuters)

From the Iranian coffee cart guy to the Italian graduate student, almost everyone who walked past Lehman Brothers’ headquarters on a  windy Wednesday morning in New York seemed to stop and mull its future.

Philipp Steiner, a graduate student in entrepreneurship from Italy, walked up to Lehman’s offices at 50th St. and 7th Ave after reading news about the investment bank’s $3.93 billion quarterly loss on the famous news ticker a few blocks south in Times Square. There’s never such big news in Italy, he said. Still, he didn’t think Lehman bankers had too much to worry about, despite its troubles.

“I would see that as a good experience, and then move on to another job,” Steiner said.

Moving on seemed a serious option to the Iranian coffee cart guy as well, who mulled Tuesday’s 45 percent plunge in Lehman’s stock price in an exchange with one of the firm’s employees.

“Can you believe the shares are now around $7?” he asked, as he handed the Lehman employee his coffee.  Seven cups would buy roughly one share of stock; last November, it would have taken 68 cups.

“It sucks,” the employee shot back, shaking his head as he retreated into the building.

Lehman reported its record loss on Wednesday, but sought to quell investors’ worries with plans to sell a majority stake in its asset management unit and spin off commercial real estate holdings.

But within the bank’s working ranks, its troubles have rocked the faith of more than just its old timers. 

“This is my first day at Lehman, I literally just signed my papers,” said one worried-looking man, as he smoked a cigarette.

And for a trader who’d joined Lehman from Bear Stearns just three months ago, it could not have been worse timing.

“Who would have known everything would collapse?” he said.

Some employees were steeling themselves for even worse news to come.  Some were preparing to move on to new employers.

“It is sad for anybody,” the coffee vendor said. “They just bought houses for a couple million dollars and now they are going to lose their jobs. How are they going to manage?”

“Things are pretty bad … there’s not much left to say,” said a Lehman employee who works for its capital markets unit. He said that between his anxious family and Lehman’s battered stock, he planned to decide this week whether to keep working for the 158-year-old company.

Hany Besha, who has run another coffee cart on the block for nearly 10 years, is already getting hit by Lehman’s troubles. Business is down 50 percent, he said.

“They are here today and gone tomorrow,” he said. “One of my customers told me, ‘I don’t know if I will see you tomorrow or not. If I don’t, have a good life.’”

(Photos: Reuters)

A day after Fox-Pitt Kelton analyst David Trone suggested Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc may be better off going private, the investment bank may be ready to do just that. Lehman Chief Executive Richard Fuld is considering ways to take the Wall Street bank private, but it’s not quite clear how such a move might work, the New York Post reported, citing sources. Lehman’s shares have plunged this year on the back of rumors and questions about its solvency. Talks of privatizing Lehman have got serious as a result, the papers said. The company’s shares closed down more than 14 percent on Monday, reaching their lowest level since August 1999. Lehman’s shares have fallen about 81 percent so far this year. Trone said on Monday Lehman may be better off going private to shake off short sellers that are spreading bogus rumors about the bank.

Those nasty rumors, if that’s what they are, may come back to bite some folks on the hindquarters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has sent subpoenas to more than 50 hedge-fund advisers as it investigates whether individuals spread false rumors to manipulate shares in Lehman and Bear Stearns Cos, The Wall Street Journal said, citing a person familiar with the matter. You remember Bear Stearns, right? You know, the one that initially sold for about $2 a share? No wonder Lehman may be thinking about getting out of the stock market limelight.

And now for something completely different (different from Lehman, anyway). Hong Kong phone company PCCW Ltd says it expects to shortlist bidders for its media and telecoms unit within a month. The deal could fetch more than $2.5 billion. Private equity firms are among those bidding for the newly formed unit, known as HKT Group Holdings, group managing director Alex Arena told reporters on Tuesday. Reuters reported on Friday that the Blackstone Group and Providence Equity Partners were among those pursuing a bid for HKT.

More deals of the day:

** Private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners purchased eight News Corp television stations for about $1.1 billion.

** Bank of Nova Scotia will expand its wealth-management business by buying the Canadian operations of U.S. online brokerage E*Trade Financial Group Inc for $442 million cash, the companies said.

** Barrick Gold Corp is launching a C$354 million ($350 million) hostile bid for Cadence Energy Inc as a hedge against oil prices to get control of soaring production costs, the world’s top gold miner said.

** Lawson Inc, Japan’s second-largest convenience store, will spend at least 3.98 billion yen ($38 million) to take control of discount grocery chain Ninety-nine Plus Inc, aiming to use acquisitions to grow in a mature market.

** China’s CITIC Resources Holdings has raised its stake in Australian miner Macarthur Coal Ltd to 20.39 percent, overtaking global steelmaker ArcelorMittal as the top shareholder.

** Hungarian drug maker Richter Gedeon said its takeover of Poland’s Polpharma was not completed as scheduled on Monday because Polpharma owner Genefar did not agree to the terms of the closure of the deal.

** French seeds company Vilmorin said it was taking a 25 percent stake in Australian Grain Technologies (AGT) for an undisclosed amount.

** Banca Popolare dell’Emilia Romagna has suspended plans to buy Banca delle Marche, it said in a statement.

** Irish billionaire investors the Quinn family said they would buy a 15 percent stake in Anglo Irish Bank which they saw as a long-term investment despite difficulties facing international banking.