Global sales of corporate bonds fell 18 percent to $3.19 trillion in 2010, according to Bloomberg.
However, companies whose credit ratings are below investment grade went on a borrowing binge. Junk bond issuance surged by 74 percent, to $367 billion in 2010, according to Bloomberg.
And with interest rates starting to creep up, we may see a mini-boom in the first quarter of 2011 as companies rush to lock in the current low yields, which may not reappear for years.
B [...]
Further consolidation in the mid-tier banking markets is inevitable, particularly as new regulatory requirements under Basel III, published recently by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision-forces more small players out of the payments services business. This will have far-reaching effects on US banking and will likely mean less liquidity available for corporates in the US.
The new rules are likely to increase the cost to institutions of providing low-value, high-volume payments--t [...]
In a follow-on from my blog yesterday on small business confidence and economic recovery, today I will take a look at the impact on retirement planning of continued tough conditions and a lack of external funding for businesses.
Retirement planning has taken a back burner for many small business owners since the crisis started. With small business confidence dropping in December for the first time in three months and many still reporting a dearth of outside funding sources, many owners [...]
Private equity firms are the prowl for larger companies.
Armed with near-record dry powder, buyout specialists this year alone have completed 68 deals of at least $500 million, according to PitchBook. This is more than double the 26 deals exceeding $500 million in 2009, bringing the two-year total to 94.
PE firms plunked down nearly $78 billion of capital on the 68 deals.
"The bigger deals this year have been made possible by an increased availability of debt [...]
The employment picture is expected to brighten in 2011, but in a rather unconvincing manner.
The big question is whether the long-term unemployed lose their patience, or worse, their marketable skills, before they find a job.
According to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive and published by CareerBuilder more jobs will be added in 2011 than 2010, but job creation will remain gradual. The survey of more than 2,400 hiring managers and human resource professionals acr [...]
As spending soared above even optimistic predictions this holiday season, small business owners are still far from optimistic about economic recovery as a whole, according to a survey by Discover Small Business Watch.
Discover's monthly index of small business confidence fell for the first time in three months in December, even as consumer spending soared. The index fell to 81.6 from 87.2 in November, a drop of 5.6 points.
Meantime, spending increased 5.5 percent in the 50 da [...]
As companies come to terms with new 1099 reporting requirements, software firms are starting to build new solutions-or update their existing ones--to help make finance executives' lives a little easier.
The new 1099 reporting requirement that all vendors who supply more than $600 worth of goods or services within the tax year be sent a form 1099, which takes effect in 2012, could cause untold headaches for small, medium, and even large companies, given the vastly-increased reportin [...]
With the New Year looming there doesn’t seem to be any sense of renewal in UK employment and pay. A recent report released by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) highlights the wage pressures British businesses are facing--and confirms the need for reduced reliance on government spend before real growth can begin.
Of the 345 companies surveyed, 49 percent said that they would be freezing pay this year. 6 percent say they will be cutting pay [...]
CFOs who cook the books are often bullied into it by overbearing CEOs that are looking out for their own equity stakes, according to a new piece of research by a group of global academics.
The research looked at why and when CFOs become involved in material accounting manipulations, and what factors increased the likelihood that CFOs would knowingly become involved in accounting fraud.
Academics Mei Feng, at the University of Pittsburgh, Weili Ge at the University of Washington, S [...]
The recently signed tax compromise bill-also unofficially known as Stimulus II-not only contains a two-year extension of the Bush tax cuts for everyone, including those who don't want it except for the politicians who obsessively pushed for it. It also included about 50 or so tax breaks for businesses.
I already detailed the bonus depreciation and R&D tax credit.
However, as usual there are many more targeted ones for the industries whose lobbying did the best j [...]
Contrary to what a number of politicians have asserted in recent days, the current jobless rate is not due to a pervasive desire to cash unemployment checks and lounge around or a desire to become "hobos," as Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) asserted earlier this year.
A new Deloitte study soberly concluded what many employers have suspected for years: The potential employment pool is becoming less and less qualified for the jobs that are available.
It reports the quest f [...]
Looks like new regulatory requirements for RIAs mandated by Dodd-Frank are causing a lot of agita, as well as confusion, among advisors.
According to a TD Ameritrade study of 500 RIAs, nearly 60 percent say their greatest concern with the regulation is the increase in time and money they'll have to spend to meet the new compliance requirements. A smaller number, 15 percent, worry that regulators won't understand their business. And an even smaller percent, 6, suspect the fid [...]
Credit Suisse Securities has sent clients a neat concise report detailing the "hot button" accounting issues for 2011that were discussed at the recent annual AICPA Conference on Current SEC & PCAOB Developments.
The report highlights four major topics: International Convergence, Liquidity, Contingencies and Restoring the Public Trust.
International Convergence: Credit Suisse points out that sometime next year-probably in the second half--the SEC will deci [...]
New research from the UK shows how the rapid swings in currency valuations are having a negative effect on exports.
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) recently released a report on the prospects for export growth in the SME sector. It surveyed nearly 2000 small businesses in the UK and found that almost half - some 48 percent - were put off exporting by fluctuating exchange rates.
The report also found that a third of respondents were [...]
Here are more encouraging signs that the economic recovery continues to gain strength.
Credit quality continues to improve and some indicators stand at two-year highs.
According to Standard & Poor's, the US speculative-grade default rate fell to 3.35 percent in mid-December, down from a peak of 11.4 percent hit in November 2009. In the US, 53 issuers defaulted through November, compared with 185 at the same time in 2009.
There are other good signs. The s [...]
Although corporate social responsibility and sustainability are big buzzwords right now, and have been for some time, actual efforts to implement sustainable practices within the supply chain have not been a priority for many companies over the past few years.
This is, of course, hardly surprising. Given the vast array of changing regulations, increased compliance requirements, and the need to simply focus on basics as markets floundered through some of the toughest economic conditions [...]
Looks like executives need to start paying more attention to the nuances of employee social media activity. And that should go for finance executives, as much as any other top manager in a company.
How come? The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently filed a complaint against an ambulance company, American Medical Response of Connecticut, saying the firm illegally fired an employee for comments she made on Facebook. Seems the woman's supervisor had asked her to pr [...]
Many companies have considered, and rejected, the use of data analytics tools in their efforts to improve efficiency and reduce process costs. Often, CFOS and their CIOs may feel that the need for better data quality is too big of a hurdle to overcome. As the saying goes: garbage in, garbage out.
But John Lucker, Principal at Deloitte Consulting, says that CFOs should stop getting hung up on data quality. "All too often, CFOs and their CIO colleagues think that the quality of their [...]
Small to medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are cautiously optimistic heading into the new year.
Nearly one-third (30 percent) expect the economy to improve in 2011, according to a new survey. This is just slightly more than the 28 percent who expect it to get worse.
However, the biggest group-42 percent-believe the economy will remain the same. The survey, however, does not indicate whether those who expect the economy to remain the same is a good sign or a belief that the econ [...]
The last Saturday before Christmas is usually one of the biggest shopping days of the calendar in the UK. This year, companies were hit with two problems one of which was entirely new and one which is as old as shopping itself.
The cold weather caused chaos in Britain and deterred many shoppers. But less predictably, a new source of concern is a wave of protests targeting some of the UK's biggest firms. The protests focus on those companies which are thought to use tax-avoidan [...]