Banks eye up bankruptcy bill
Wall Street's biggest investment banks are considering setting up or expanding their corporate bankruptcy departments on the back of the the bankruptcy bill going through Congress. The bill has gained notoriety for the way it would overhaul personal bankruptcies but lawyers say it would also affect businesses.
This is because it contains changes to the Chapter 11 process as well as changing how foreign debtors gain recognition in the US for foreign insolvency proceedings.
One Chapter 11 change is significant for Wall Street. The bill passed by the Senate says adebtor's pre-bankruptcy investment banker would no longer be automatically disqualified from being retained as the debtor's financial adviser in bankruptcy if it had underwritten securities for the debtor.
Advising bankrupt companies is a lucrative business for investment banks that arrange mergers but do not underwrite stock and bond sales, such as Greenhill and Lazard.
The change in language could mean that larger rivals such as Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs could more easily compete with them for restructuring work a particularly valuable source of revenue in downturns.
Representatives of investment banks including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley declined to comment.
However, one investment banker said: “It's a step forward, not a monster change. It increases the opportunities for us and levels the playing field but it won't completely change the competitive landscape.”
Another, whose bank is a large corporate lender, said: “We will have to be thoughtful about this. For us as a firm, this bill doesn't provide a lot of opportunity but for Goldman and Lehman, they have it in their DNA.”
Lehman already has 12 people who work on restructuring. If Lehman and its rivals decide to expand their restructuring businesses a talent war could be sparked.
But restructuring specialists say they are not worried about their franchises. Even if the bill was made law, it would still be difficult for a pre-bankruptcy adviser to be hired for restructuring work.
Cleary Gottlieb, a US corporate law firm, told its clients that in order to be retained, an investment bank must not still be a creditor or equity holder of the debtor and must not have any interest “materially adverse to the interest of the debtors' estate or any class of creditors or equity holders”. This is often an insurmountable set of requirements for large investment banks.
Harvey Miller, of Greenhill, said: “Very often there is another conflict.”
He added that many of his larger rivals might also pass on the work for fear of future conflicts of interest. “There are enough potential exposures to litigation. Why go look for more?”
美修订破产法 投行发现商机
华尔街最大的投资银行正考虑成立或扩充自己的公司破产部门，原因是破产法案正在美国国会接受审议。
该法案因其全面改写个人破产的方式而引人瞩目，但律师们表示，法案也将影响企业。
这是因为法案含有对第11章程序的改动，并改动外国债务人怎样在美国获得对外国破产程序的承认。
第11章的一个改动对华尔街十分重要。参议院通过的该法案规定，如果债务人破产前的投资银行曾为该债务人承销过证券，那该银行将不再被自动取消担任债务人破产财务顾问的资格。
对于Greenhill和Lazard等安排合并、但不承销证券和债券销售的投资银行来说，为破产公司提供顾问服务是一项利润颇丰的业务。
法律改变可能意味着，雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)和高盛(Goldman Sachs)等规模更大的竞争对手，可能更容易同它们在重组业务方面进行竞争。在低迷时期，重组业务是尤为有价值的收入来源。
包括高盛、摩根大通(JPMorgan Chase)、雷曼兄弟和摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)在内，各投行的代表们拒绝对此置评。
但一位投资银行家说：“这是向前迈出了一步，而不是巨大的改变。它使我们的机会增加，创造了公平竞争平台，但不会完全改变竞争格局。”
另一位大型企业信贷机构的银行家表示：“我们将不得不就此进行深思。对于我们公司而言，该法案并未提供许多机会，但对于高盛和雷曼，它们天生就有机会。”
雷曼已有12位从事重组业务的人员。如果雷曼及其竞争对手决定扩张它们的重组业务，那可能爆发一场人才争夺战。
