Banning Corzine Proves Problematic

BANNING CORZINE PROVES PROBLEMATIC  |  The National Futures Association, the self-regulatory group for the futures industry, faced an obstacle in considering a lifetime ban for Jon S. Corzine, the former Democratic senator who ran the now-defunct MF Global: Mr. Corzine isn’t a member, DealBook’s Ben Protess writes.

The group convened on Thursday with two of its board members pushing for a ban of Mr. Corzine as punishment for his role in the demise of MF Global, which improperly used customer money. Mr. Corzine’s lack of membership wasn’t the only stumbling block. The group’s chairman said in a statement that the board “does not wish to take any action that could interfere” with “ongoing investigations concerning Mr. Corzine’s activities at F Global.” Once the investigations wrap up, “N.F.A. has the authority to bring disciplinary action against Mr. Corzine for violations of any N.F.A. rules that occurred while he was a member,” said the chairman, Christopher Hehmeyer.

“A ban from the futures association would have amounted to little more than a wrist slap to someone like Mr. Corzine, who once ran Goldman Sachs and served as a senator from New Jersey,” Mr. Protess reported. “Still, the move would have complicated any future plans he might have to open a trading firm. And if Mr. Corzine decides to one day rejoin the industry, he could face an unfriendly welcome.”

CITIGROUP TOUGHENS RULES ON BONUSES  |  Citigroup, a closely watched player in the debate over Wall Street compensation, is changing how it calculates bonuses for top executives. The bank announced on Thursday that part of the $11.5 million pay package awarded to Mi! chael L. Corbat, the chief executive, would be closely tied to performance. “So far, though, the changes are only affecting a small portion of Citigroup’s executive compensation packages without reining in the big bonuses that have become one of the hallmarks of Wall Street,” The New York Times’s Nathaniel Popper and Jessica Silver-Greenberg report.

Michael O’Neill, the bank’s powerful chairman, said in a regulatory filing on Thursday that the committee on executive pay had come up with its new formula after meeting with investors representing more than 30 percent of the bank’s outstanding shares. Part of the new pay packages will be tied to the bank’s performance relative to rivals. For 2012, Mr. Corbat was awarded $3.1 million in performance share units, 27 percent of his total pay.

The change comes less than a year after shareholders opposed a pay package for te previous chief, Vikram S. Pandit. “When our shareholders spoke last year about Citi’s compensation structure, we listened,” Mr. O’Neill said in the filing. Still, Nell Minow, a shareholder advocate at GMI Ratings, said the new approach was “far from perfect, or even good, but it’s less terrible than it used to be.”

EINHORN INTRODUCES ‘IPREFS’  |  David Einhorn has a name for the preferred shares he wants Apple to give to shareholders: iPrefs. The hedge fund manager, outlining on Thursday his strategy for encouraging Apple to return some cash to shareholders, said the class of perpetual perfered shares could produce $61 a share in additional benefits for investors. Apple could issue one preferred share, with a quarterly dividend of 50 cents each, for each outstanding common share. “We know th! ey embrac! e innovation and can recognize it when they see it, even if it isn’t the kind of innovation people usually think of when they think of Apple,” said Mr. Einhorn, who runs Greenlight Capital.

Still, some investors in Apple have called on Mr. Einhorn to stop his fight, which involves a lawsuit over a vote on shareholder initiatives. “I came off the call deeply puzzled,” Anne Simpson, the director of global governance for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, told DealBook’s Michael J. de la Merced.

While discussing Apple, Mr. Einhorn also criticized Dell, which received a controversial buyout offer. “Dell’s go-private effort shows the disingenuous nature of hoarding cash,” he said.

ON THE AGENDA  |  The European Commission publishes new forecasts for the euro zone economy. Afte Hewlett-Packard reported lower revenue in the first quarter, Meg Whitman, the chief executive, appears on CNBC at 9 a.m. James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Fed, is on CNBC at 7 a.m.

TRADING TAX MAY TAKE EFFECT IN EUROPE  |  “To the dismay of the United States government â€" not to mention Wall Street â€" much of Europe seems poised to begin taxing financial trading as soon as next year,” Floyd Norris, a columnist for The New York Times, writes. Arguments against the tax, including the idea that it would drive trading to other countries, “have not proved persuasive in Europe, which thinks it has found a way to keep institutions from avoiding the tax. If Europe proves ! to be cor! rect, it could turn out to be a seminal moment in the relation of governments to large financial institutions. The tax would be tiny for investors who buy and hold, but could prove to be significant for traders who place millions of orders a day.”

Mergers & Acquisitions Â'

K.K.R. Is Said to Bid $3.7 Billion for Gardner Denver  |  Kohlberg Kravis Roberts has bid about $3.7 billion â€" or roughly $75 a share â€" for Gardner Denver, a maker of industrial equipment like blowers and compressors, a person briefed on the matter says.
DealBook Â'

The Elusive ‘Urge to Merge’  |  Though a survey by PwC found that only 28 percent of chief executives planned to make acquisitions this year, “there is anecdotal evidence that these predictions are too low, says Bob Moritz, who runs PwC in America,” The Economist writes.
ECONOMIST

CNBC to Buy ‘Nightly Business Report’  |  CNBC is buying the rights to the public television series “Nightly Business Report,” according to Media Decoder.
DealBook Â'

Russian Billionaire Sells Stake in Polyus Gold for $3.6 Billion  |  Mikhail Prokhorov, the billionaire behind ! the Brook! lyn Nets, received approval from a British regulator for a sale of his 37.8 percent stake in Polyus Gold International, Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS

Linn Energy to Buy Berry Petroleum for $2.5 Billion  |  Deal making in the oil patch continued, as Linn Energy agreed to buy Berry Petroleum for about $2.5 billion in stock, expanding its presence in oil-rich shale formations.
DealBook Â'

The Tax Advantages Behind an Oil Deal  |  Linn Energy’s acquisition of Berry Petroleum is the first time an oil-producing master limited artnership has swallowed a whole exploration company, Christopher Swann of Reuters Breakingviews writes.
DealBook Â'

INVESTMENT BANKING Â'

Rothschild Loses Fight for Control of Indonesian Mining Giant  |  Bumi shareholders voted against a major board change proposed by the British financier Nathaniel Rothschild, including his goal to replace 12 of Bumi’s 14 board members.
DealBook Â'

Navigating the Hudson River With Goldman Sachs  |!   One of Goldman Sachs’s ferry boats, which recently began service, features a “decidedly unferry-like seating arrangement,” Bloomberg Businessweek notes.
BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK

Influential Market Forecaster Has Died  |  “Martin Zweig, an influential investor and television pundit who predicted the 1987 stock market crash, published a closely followed newsletter and in 1999 made what at the time was the most expensive residential purchase in New York history, died on Monday at his home in Fisher Island, Fla. He was 70,” The New York Times writes.
NEW YORK TIMES

ING’s Australian Unit Plans Sale of Mortgage Bonds  |  The Australian unit of the Dutch financial firm ING may sell as much as $2.05 billion of mortgage bonds this year, Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS

JPMorgan Said to Tap New Head of Brazil Unit  | 
BLOOMBERG NEWS

American Express Names 2 Directors to Its Board  | 
BLOOMBERG NEWS

PRIVATE EQUITY Â'

Owner of Bausch & Lomb Said to Prepare for I.P.O.  |  Bloomberg News reports: “Warburg Pincus LLC is interviewing banks for an initial public offering of Bausch & Lomb Inc. after an effort to sell the eye-care company resulted in disappointing bids, said people with knowledge of the matter.”
BLOOMBERG NEWS

Billabong Lowers Expectation of Annual Profit  | 
FINANCIAL TIMES

HEDGE FUNDS Â'

A.I.G. a Hedge Fund Favorite  |  It was once Apple, but now the American International Group has become “the hedge fund industry’s favorite stock, according to a Goldman Sachs Group analysis of fourth-quarter regulatory filings,” Reuters reports.
REUTERS

Hedge Fund Said to Host an Apple Executive  |  Coatue Management, a longtime Apple investor that sold part of its holdings in the fourth quarter, hosted Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s chief financial officer, at its annual investor meeting in New York! this wee! k, Absolute Return reports. The hedge fund “distributed iPad minis to attendees.”
ABSOLUTE RETURN

I.P.O./OFFERINGS Â'

For Michael Kors Insiders, Cashing Out Is Very Much in Fashion  |  Since the I.P.O. of his fashion company in 2011, Michael Kors has sold roughly $650 million worth of his company’s stock. He still retains a roughly $300 million stake.
DealBook Â'

In Qatar, a New Wave of I.P.O.’s Looks a Bit Ambitiou  |  The planned I.P.O. bonanza in Qatar is intended to foster a more responsible spending culture among its citizens, but there are concerns that the markets will not be able to absorb all the new issues, Una Galani of Reuters Breakingviews writes.
DealBook Â'

VENTURE CAPITAL Â'

Stanford Sets Fund-Raising Record  |  Last year, Stanford became the first university to raise more than $1 billion in a single year, according to the Council for Aid to Education, partly “because of large donations from entrepreneurial alumni who have made their fortunes in Silicon Valley,” The New York Times reports.
NEW YORK TIMES

LEGAL/REGULATORY Â'

After a Landmark Deal, Homeowners Still Face Foreclosure  |  A year after a national settlement with five big banks over claims of foreclosure abuses promised billions of dollars in aid, homeowners are still not getting the help they need to prevent foreclosures, according to housing advocates and homeowners, The New York Times reports.
NEW YORK TIMES

Regulator Takes Aim at CME  |  The Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued the CME Group, accusing the exchange operator and two former employees of sharing details about trades with a broker, The Wall Street Journal reports.
WALL STREET JOURNAL

Identity of Trader in Heinz Options Remains Obscured  |  Goldman Sachs told a Securities and Exchange Commission official that the account involved in suspicious trading in Heinz options was held by a private wealth client, but added that the firm “does not have direct access to information about the beneficial owner or owners behind any particular transaction or position,” a filing said, according to Bloomberg News.
BLOOMBERG NEWS

Law Firm Releases Unusually Detailed Results  |  K&L Gates “has released what could be one of the most complete pictures of a U.S. legal firm’s financial performance, a step it says is a move toward greater transparency in a profession where financial results are often opaque,” The Wall Street Journal writes.
WALL STREET JOURNAL

JPMorgan Raises Questions About Government Lawyer  |  JPMorgan Chase “raised questions about the involvement of a senior lawyer from the New York Attorney General’s office in one of the few government lawsuits alleging wrongdoing by banks in the run-up to the finanial crisis,” Reuters writes.
REUTERS

Carmakers Are Hiring, a Sign of Comeback  | 
NEW YORK TIMES