Interview: Morgan Stanley
>> morgan stanley’s discover credit card unit would need $7 billion of capital as a separate company. that word from david trone, an analyst with fox-pitt kelton. on tuesday, morgan stanley’s board plans to discuss the spinoff first proposed by philip purcell in april. joining us to talk about what the meeting means and what we can expect to hear is bloomberg news reporter margaret popper. margaret, what the reconsideration?
>> from what i hear from both investors, the investor at federated and analysts, such as the one at merrill lynch, there might be a consideration for the new c.e.o. they would have to choose but they would like him or her to make the decision themselves and not be saddled with something that was decided before they came in.
>> i asked if they would reconsider spinning it off, is that on the agenda?
>> that’s right. the company has said it was looking into what kind of capital it needs to allocate to a spinoff and that it hopes within three to six months from the time of the announcement, now about a month old, to have an answer for that. and what they’ve now said is that that answer should come at this tuesday’s board meeting.
>> there’s been a lot of talk, obviously, and dissatisfaction leading to phil purcell saying he would step down. much had to do with the fact that discover is part of the morgan stanley investment business. in terms of the figures you heard from david trone, how does that play into what people believe about the health of that business?
>> i think david trone is on the high end of what analysts expect discover would need in capital. he compares it to providian that has a portfolio of credit card loans that are not very healthy. he says it needs about $7 billion worth of capital. other people, like the analyst at federated believes it’s closer to $4 or $5 billion of capital because of the quality of their loans. the area where people disagree the most is that discover smoothed out earnings for morgan stanley in the downturn but right now it’s not adding new credit card loans although it’s spending a lot of money on marketing .
>> margaret, thanks so much. we’ll turn our attention, now, to more specifics having do with another part of the stock market and that has to do with multinationals that are very much affected by the u.s. dollar. you have shares of mcdonald’s and colgate palmolive that may trail the stock market as the dollar heads for its biggest quarterly gain since 2001. makers of food, beverages, household products get the majority of revenues overseas and as the dollar declines, the value of sales abroad decreases. that is the subject of “taking stock” with dune lawrence. what effect are we seeing already as the dollar has rallied?
>> you haven’t seen―you’ve seen announcements from zimmer holdings, a medical device maker, announce revenue this quarter will probably be $49 million lower than originally forecast. you could see things like that, companies announcing that the stronger dollar is hurting sales overseas.
>> a lot of investors, as the dollar was falling, rushed into the stocks of these companies, believing earnings would get a boost. is it playing out, yet, in the stock price? are investors leaving the stocks?
>> a lot of the companies, household products, food and beverage, tobacco makers, are stable growth companies that many investors have bought into with the thought that the economy is slowing and we want stable growth. so, no, those groups that outperformed the benchmarks this year, consumer staples one of only four groups in the s&p that have outperformed. you might look at mcdonald’s shares and say that’s feeding into the declines this year a little bit but it’s hard to tell. in the fourth quarter, last year, i was looking at mcdonald’s. they got a 4% boost in their sales from the currency translation. colgate palmolive with a 3% boost. now you’ll have the opposite.
>> dune, thank you very much for joining us. when we return, the latest world and national news.
在线播报
Listen World and national news --- Mark (slow)
>> i’m mark crumpton with the latest world news update. north korea says it’s willing to return to nuclear talks next month. north korean leader kim jong il told south korean communications minister, chung dong young, that the communist nation is willing to resume discussions that have been suspended for a year. mr. chung’s comments came after he and president kim met for five hours friday in pyongyang. when he arrived in seoul, chung quoted kim as saying that we believe the other side has the intention to accept and respect us, we could return to talks in july. chung said that kim said he didn’t “think ill of president bush” and that kim was willing to regard the united states as an ally. the associated press reports that the bush administration says the north’s statements are more rhetoric.
>> what we’re looking for, the real issue for us is, getting back to the talks but more than that, engaging seriously and substantively, on our proposal and on discussions to end the nuclear―north korea’s nuclear program and address the threat that faces the korean peninsula.
>> in iraq, u.s. fighter jets carried out air strikes friday as hundreds of marines battled insurgents in an assault near the syrian border to try to keep militants from using the region to sneak suicide attackers into iraq. diplomatic officials say the threat to the american consulate in lagos forced german officials to close their mission in the city as well as the u.s. consulate. officials say the closure of the
5-6-21-2.rar (224 K) 下载次数:0
